www.pcmag.com March 21, 2006

TRAVEL GEAR BLOWOUT!71 HOT PHONES, PDAs, MP3 PLAYERS, CAMERAS, & MORE

The Ultimate Guide to Staying Connected

59 Ways to Keep in Touch with Your

Offi ce, Family, and Friends

The $159 PCDoes It Compute?

Internet Explorer 7What’s New

Hummer LaptopBrawny & Beefy

Build a Killer Game RoomWe Show You How

www.pcmag.com MARCH 21, 2006 PC MAGAZINE 7

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Technology has changed the way we live, work, and communicate. But not all gear is suitable to the road warrior, so we gathered together the best travel-ready equipment. Also, the tips and information we provide will help you stay connected, productive, entertained, and safe—no matter where your journey takes you.

68 C O V E R S T O R Y

M A RCH 21 , 2006 • VOL . 25 NO. 5

CONTENTS www.pcmag.com

The Well-ConnectedTraveler

First Looks 26 High-Speed Cellular Data Networks

• Cingular BroadbandConnect (HSDPA)

• Sierra AirCard 860

• Sprint PCS Wireless High-Speed Data

(EV-DO)

• Merlin Wireless S620

• Sprint Power Vision MM-A940

by Samsung

• Sprint PPC-6700

• Verizon Wireless BroadbandAccess (EV-

DO)

• Kyocera KPC650

• Motorola RAZR V3c

• BlackBerry 7130e

30 MP3 Players

• Creative Zen Vision:M K

• Cowon iAudio F1

• Samsung Yepp YP-TJ7

32 Digital Cameras

• Kodak EasyShare P880

• Olympus Stylus 600

34 GPS

• DeLorme Earthmate GPS LT-20

with Street Atlas USA 2006

• Microsoft Streets & Trips 2006

with GPS Locator

36 Laptops

• Itronix Hummer Laptop IX600 K

• Alienware Area-51 m5500

• Gateway M465-E

40 Desktops

• Dell Dimension E310M • eMachines T6420

41 Media Center PCs

• Polywell MiniBox2 939NP-MCE

• Shuttle XPC M1000

42 Graphics Tools

• CorelDraw X3 Graphics Suite

• ACDSee Pro Photo Manager

44 Web Video

• Google Video (beta)

• iTunes 6

46 Internet Tools

• Podzinger

• SNARF

48 Media Sharing

• Grouper 2.0 Beta

• Streamload MediaMax

49 Security

• iShield 1.0.9.2

• Spyware Doctor 3.5

52 SMB: Printers

• Brother MFC-9420cn

• Lexmark C552n

• Ricoh Afi cio G7500

• HP Offi cejet Pro K550L

• Corel WordPerfect Offi ce X3 SE

53 John Dickinson on Small Business

56 SMB: Software and Hardware

• eBay ProStores 6.0

• Firebox X8000

57 What to Buy • The best products in one place.

�

ON THE COVERTravel Gear Blowout!

page 71Build a Killer Game

Room page 88

The $159 PC page 98

Internet Explorer 7

page 110

Hummer Laptop page 36

The Ultimate Guide

to Staying Connected

page 68

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com 8

Opinions 11 Jim Louderback 15 Michael J. Miller: Forward Thinking 61 John C. Dvorak 63 John C. Dvorak’s Inside Track 65 Bill Machrone

Solutions 101 The Connected Traveler in

Boston: Star Wars at the Science Museum; MIT; tech-friendly hotels—and Fenway Park.

104 Security Watch: Is this the year of the Mac attack? Will its OS fi nally attract the attention of hackers?

108 SMB Boot Camp: Hack thyself! Find and fi x the holes in your SMB’s network before hackers get there.

105 Ask Loyd: How to update an optical drive; correct hard-drive boot problems.

106 Ask Neil: How to restore banner ads; confi gure Word to double-space by default.

110 Vista Revealed: Internet Explor-er turns (almost) 7. The new IE has been a long time coming.

112 Software Solutions: You can use Excel to get all sorts of stock info automatically.

R E A L-WO R L D T E S T I N G

98 Your Next PC Will Cost $159For a pittance, Fry’s Electronics sells a box that, with modest upgrades plus the addition of a monitor, makes a good, fast, offi ce system.

Gaming + Culture 124 Gamesploitation: Cheating

in multiplayer games; top 10 Xbox 360 games.

127 Gearlog: Optimus puts dis-plays on your keyboard’s keys.

Also in This Issue 58 Feedback

128 Backspace

Pipeline 19 eBooks, round 2; Wi-Fi for

camping; uncensoring the Web for China; jargon watch.

Online www.pcmag.com

Optimize Multitasking with

AltTabIt!: Our latest premium utility

makes switching and launching

Windows programs easier than ever.

(go.pcmag.com/alttabit)

UTILITY DOWNLOAD

FIRST LOOKS

Discussions: Log on and participate!

(discuss.pcmag.com/pcmag)

Downloads: Check out our indexed

list of utilities from A to Z.

(go.pcmag.com/utilities)

TOOLS YOU CAN USE

DVORAK ONLINEK Each Monday,

John C. Dvorak gives

you his take on

what’s happening in

high tech today. Visit

go.pcmag.com/dvorak.

EXCLUSIVE COLUMNS

ULANOFF ONLINEK And, each Wednes-

day, Lance Ulanoff puts

his own unique spin

on technology. Visit

go.pcmag.com/ulanoff.

Coming up:

• 3DMark06—inside the new

benchmark tests

• A dual-core processor for gamers:

AMD Athlon 64 FX-60

• Ten tips for easy motherboard

upgrades

(www.extremetech.com)

Future Watch 20 Horizontal computing with

Nethrone; a CANVAS for 3D art.

New reviews every week!

Coming soon:

• Altec Lansing

AHP712i

headphones

• Fujitsu LifeBook

P7120 K

• Nokia 6236i

phone

• Primary

Response

SafeConnect

(beta) antispyware

(go.pcmag.com/fi rstlooks)

B U I L D I T

88 The Ultimate Game RoomYour ultimate game room wouldn’t be complete without custom-painted PCs, a huge plasma TV, an Xbox 360, and a four-LCD scoreboard.

Cars 22 Toyota Prius

Fine Digital FineDrive 400 Motorola’s Mesh Network

23 Bill Howard

�

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J I M L O U D E R B A C K

I REMEMBER MY FIRST EXTENDED business trip, consulting for National Semiconductor in Silicon Valley while living in New York City. Notebooks were big and bulky in 1989, but I still hauled one with me everywhere. Along with pro-gramming on the plane, I used it to stave off loneliness via the PCMagNet and PC Week CompuServe forums.

Today I carry a revolving group of de-vices to stay in touch with friends and family—see page 74 for a snapshot of my travel tech. Although my Nintendo Game Boy and my MP3 players offer blessed isolation from annoying seatmates, today’s tech is more about staying in touch. I’d be lost without e-mailing my son, IMing my wife, and calling friends and family from the road. That’s what it means to be a connected traveler today: You can take a bit of home with you, wherever you go.

Video Around the World. Tech also helps pass the time— video gets me through those long delays. Here’s a plug for two of my favorite techniques. The fi rst, the awesome Slingbox, lets me watch my TiVo from anywhere in the world. I’ve used it to catch Patriots games in Germany and local news from across ten time zones. My friend Rob Cheng, who runs PC Pitstop, uses it to watch all of his U.S. TV at home in Brazil. Video quality isn’t perfect, especially with fast-moving sports, but it’s amazing what it can do. And Slingbox now has a smartphone client, so you can watch TV on the go.

You can even have some impish fun with Slingbox. On my last trip to Europe, I hooked up—only to fi nd my wife watch-ing Oprah. I’d neglected to explain Slingbox, so when I started pausing, rewinding, and slo-mo-ing, she became understand-ably vexed. After randomly selecting TiVo menu options for a few seconds, she gave up in disgust and turned the TV off. After enjoying some remote television, I called her up.

“You’ve been watching Oprah, haven’t you?” I asked. “How’d you know?” she demanded, “and what did you do

to the TiVo?” “You’ve been punk’d!” I laughed, and told her how.Sure, I had to sleep in the guest room when I got back, but

it was worth it!Video Sneakernet. My other video tip: Use your notebook.

Forgo those external video digitizers—the many I’ve tried, including ATI and ADS models, haven’t been great. Nope, the best way to get TV into my ThinkPad today is a return to the sneakernet. I burn a DVD using my Philips DVD recorder hooked up to the HD TiVo, and then pop it into the notebook’s external DVD drive. Then I use a decryption utility to extract the video to the internal hard drive. InterVideo WinDVD ren-ders the fi les on screen. It’s the best way I’ve found to load video from my TiVo to my notebook. Try it and see.

MORE ON THE WEB: You can contact Jim Louderback at Jim_Louderback@ziffdavis.com. For more of his columns, go to

go.pcmag.com/louderback.

The Joys of Connected Traveling

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Jim Louderback

EDITOR, REVIEWS Lance Ulanoff

EDITOR, TECHNOLOGY Ben Z. Gottesman

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER (ONLINE) Robyn Peterson

EXECUTIVE EDITORS Stephanie Chang, Carol L. Gonsher,

Vicki B. Jacobson (Online), Jeremy A. Kaplan

ART DIRECTOR Richard J. Demler

MANAGING EDITOR Paul B. Ross

REVIEWS

SENIOR EDITORS Dan Costa (Consumer Electronics), Jennifer DeFeo (Hardware),

Carol Mangis (Cars), Sebastian Rupley (West Coast, Pipeline), Sharon Terdeman

(Software/Web/Security)

LEAD ANALYSTS Cisco Cheng, Robert Heron, Davis D. Janowski, Oliver Kaven, Mike Kobrin,

Neil J. Rubenking, Joel Santo Domingo, Sascha Segan, M. David Stone, Terry Sullivan

REVIEWS EDITORS Kyle Monson (Software/Web/Security), Laarni Almendrala Ragaza

(Consumer Electronics), Eric Rhey (Hardware)

WEB PRODUCERS Rachel B. Florman, Molly K. McLaughlin

PRODUCT DATABASE MANAGER Gina Suk COMMERCE PRODUCER Arielle Rochette

INVENTORY CONTROL COORDINATOR Nicole Graham

FEATURES

FEATURES EDITORS Sean Carroll, Dan Evans, Sarah Pike

SENIOR WRITER Cade Metz STAFF EDITOR Tony Hoffman

ART

SENIOR ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Michael St. George ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Liana Zamora

ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR Aaron Able GRAPHICS DIRECTOR David Foster

STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Scott Schedivy

PRODUCTION

ASSOCIATE MANAGING EDITOR Michal Dluginski PRODUCTION MANAGER Jennifer Murray

COPY CHIEF Elizabeth A. Parry COPY EDITORS Gary Berline, Ann Ovodow, Steven Wishnia

ONLINE

SENIOR PRODUCER Yun-San Tsai PRODUCER Mark Lamorgese

ASSISTANT PRODUCER Whitney A. Reynolds PRODUCTION ARTIST Erin Simon

NEWS EDITOR Mark Hachman NEWS REPORTER Bary Alyssa Johnson

ASSISTANT EDITOR Jennifer L. DeLeo

UTILITY PROGRAM MANAGER Tim Smith COMMUNITY MANAGER Jim Lynch

EDITORIAL COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER Anita Anthony

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Helen Bradley, John Clyman, Richard V. Dragan, Craig Ellison,

John R. Delaney, John C. Dvorak, Galen Fott, Bill Howard, Don Labriola, Bill Machrone,

Ed Mendelson, Jan Ozer, Larry Seltzer, Don Willmott

INTERNS Veronica DeLeon, Nathan Edwards

CORPORATE PRODUCTION

ASSISTANT PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Ivis Fundichely

PRODUCTION MANAGER Michelle Chizmadia TRAFFIC MANAGER Amanda Allensworth

CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER Michael J. Miller

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www.pcmag.com MARCH 21, 2006 PC MAGAZINE 15

K

Governments are doing their best to censor and control the Internet. Sometimes their goals sound lofty; sometimes they seem really sinister. But any way you look at it, the push for very open, free, and anonymous information on the Web is meeting a lot of resistance.

Just look at the U.S., where, compared with most of the world, the controls are minimal. We have laws restricting what minors are allowed to do on-line. There are growing but ineffective attempts to block pornography through legislation. And the government is trying to intercept more messages as part of the war against terrorism. All of these have led to controversy in recent days.

The Bush administration asked the major search engines for information on the most popular Web searches, as part of an effort to reinstate the Child Online Protection Act (COPA). Yahoo! and MSN complied, while Google decided to fi ght the order.

I’m not convinced that COPA is the right way to protect our kids online. Content filtering has gotten better over the past few years, and the big search engines block out the worst content by default. But more important, I’m concerned that the government tried to keep its requests for this search information a secret. If Google hadn’t com-plained, we wouldn’t know about it.

Despite the outcry against what Yahoo! and MSN did and what Google is fighting, it isn’t re-ally a privacy issue. The information they’ve been asked for isn’t personally identifi able. But the rea-son people are getting upset is that it points out

what many people don’t realize—that these search engines often do keep information about individ-ual searches.

Of course Google—or whichever major search engine you use—knows a lot about you. That’s how search engines serve relevant ads. But users are rightly concerned that these engines can fi gure out who is searching for what—either through log-ins or IP addresses. And users often don’t understand what information the search engines are collecting and how those companies are using the data.

If you want to be pri-vate, it helps to under-stand how companies can track you online. The easiest way is via cookies, which are simple enough to delete. IP tracking is harder to stop, but there are ways around it, through various anony-mizing programs such as Anonymizer, Tenebril’s GhostSurf, Tor, and the Java Anonymous Proxy. These programs do help people in repressive environments, but using them is too much trouble for the average computer user, as they add a level of complexity and delays.

For most of us, the best solution would simply be for the companies we deal with to tell us exactly what information they are collecting, what they are saving, and how they are aggregating or supple-menting that data. Do companies share informa-tion among their different properties? For instance, does AOL know what shows you are watching on Time Warner video or whether you subscribe to Sports Illustrated? Does MSN know what versions of Windows you have registered for?

We need more transparent privacy policies, ones that make it much more clear what information sites collect and use. I don’t mind Yahoo! keeping a cookie on my machine for its My Yahoo! page, but I may not want it to keep a log of my searches.

Giving users more control over their personal information is a goal that in the long run would serve the Web services, the government, and con-sumers best.

I worry that even

well-intentioned U.S.

actions that place

minor restrictions

on the Internet are

sending the wrong

message.

When the Government Knows Where You Search

Forward Thinking

M I C H A E L J . M I L L E R

16 PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com

MORE ON THE WEB: Join us online and make your voice heard. Talk back to Michael J. Miller in our opinions section, go.pcmag.com/miller.

If the problem of keeping the Internet free, avail-able, and anonymous is diffi cult in open and demo-cratic societies, it’s even harder in more closed societies such as China.

All the major search engines now fi lter their re-sults at the behest of the Chinese government. They do so because that’s “the price of doing business in China,” and they typically say that in the long run having the Internet and all that information out there will facilitate a more open exchange of ideas. And China is a big market: The U.S., with 203 mil-lion users, is now the biggest market, but it’s pretty much saturated. China is second, with 103 million users—less than 8 percent of its population.

Google is the latest to give in. Until recently, it didn’t have a Chinese site. The Chinese government blocks a number of political sites, but users could at

least fi nd out they existed using Google and then try to circumvent the restrictions. But now Google has a Chinese site that eliminates the sites the govern-ment doesn’t want its citizens to see.

There are no great answers here. A Chinese journalist was jailed after Yahoo! turned over his e-mails. Microsoft has blocked antigovernment blogs all over the world, and it’s still doing so in China.

It’s not just search engines that are a concern. All sorts of tech companies make products that can be used for repression: databases that can keep track of what people are doing, fi rewalls that can block cer-tain sites, and routers that can monitor what people are doing online. It’s fruitless to say that U.S. tech companies shouldn’t participate in the Chinese market, but what they could do is at least fi ght for more transparency there—and it would be good to see them come together to suggest proper rules.

China isn’t the only country restricting the Inter-net. The U.S. has rules aimed at protecting minors. A number of European countries have restrictions against Nazi or racist content. But these are noth-ing compared with closed societies. One of the fi rst things the new hard-line Iranian government did was crack down on the Web.

Even the U.S. government’s asking Yahoo! and Google for large amounts of data makes people more careful with their searches. I worry that even well- intentioned actions to place minor con-straints on the Internet are sending a message that restricting information is acceptable. In one sense, the countries that make finding dissident sites close to impossible are pushing that message to an extreme. And that’s a bad sign for all of us.

Government vs. the Free Internet

I’m a little late to the party, but I’ve recently started a new Forward Thinking blog. I’ve been writing stories for the Web for a long time, and technically have had another blog that mostly repurposed my Miller’s Choice newsletter, a collection of links to

my favorite Ziff Davis stories of the week. But our software has got-ten better, and I have a little more time these days, so I thought I’d try my hand at writing a real blog that cov-ers my opinions of the conferences I attend and the new products I see.

I’ve tried this out first at eg2006—Richard Saul Wurman’s eclectic and fascinating “en-tertainment gathering”—and at DEMO ’06, the annual launch pad for a whole range of new products. It’s been an interesting experience. I do fi nd myself scrambling to write about all the things I see, and I fi nd that sometimes I don’t do as much research as I normally would. But I’m writing more freely about more topics and I can post much more quickly. No copy editors and no Web producers; just me, the blog, and an In-ternet connection. Check it out at blog.pcmag.com/miller and let me know what you think.

Becoming a Blogger

U.S.Number of search

results:

2,110,000

CHINANumber of search

results:

14,000

Forward ThinkingM I C H A E L J . M I L L E R

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ALTHOUGH E-BOOKS HAVE drawn a ho-hum reaction in the U.S., Sony has been suc-cessful overseas with them. This spring, the company is launching one of the most far-reaching U.S. e-book initiatives yet, led by its

svelte new Sony Reader (left). Mean-while, Philips Electronics’ new

Readius reader has an eye-popping fl exible roll-up

display that’s already turned heads as a prototype.

T h e S o n y R e a d e r , t o b e priced between

$300 and $400, is the result of many studies

of why users haven’t adopted e-books. “Our research has shown that people are looking for a device designed exclusively for immersive reading,” says Ron Hawkins, senior vice presi-dent of personal reader systems at Sony.

The Reader is only half an inch thick and about the length and width of a paperback novel. It also plays music and can display PDF files. Most notably, it has a crisp, high- contrast electronic-paper display from E Ink that Hawkins claims will allow the user to turn 7,500 pages—enough for dozens of books—before a battery charge is needed.

Beyond its design, though, the Reader may benefit from deals Sony has struck with top-tier publishers. Random House, Harper Collins, Penguin Putnam, Simon & Schuster, and Time Warner are making thousands of titles avail-able at the Sony Connect online store.

The Readius appears to have the slickest design of any e-book reader yet—straight out of Minority Report. As shown, the fl exible dis-play folds up like a scroll; when you’re not read-ing, it’s as pocket-friendly as a pack of gum.

Sony will have the jump on Philips, though, as the two gadgets square off. Third-party de-signs of the Readius won’t ship until the sum-mer. If these two products don’t herald the age of e-books, nothing will.—Sebastian Rupley

A Wireless Network—Now

NEED TO SET UP a wireless network

while camping? Hey, it could happen, and

Kyocera’s KR1 Mobile Router is the easiest

way yet to do it. Unlike your average router,

it doesn’t require a tethered modem.

If you have EV-DO service and an EV-DO

PC Card, just pop the card in and you’ve got 802.11b or “g” net-

working. The idea is a logical extension of what people are already

doing with EV-DO PC Cards, says Jim Kelly, Kyocera’s executive VP.

The KR1 does cost more than most Wi-Fi routers, though. It’s

$299.99, but you get a $50 rebate if you buy it online. Oh, and it’s

svelte enough to slip into a fanny pack.—SR

Catch me if you can. Fol-

lowing controversy over

agreements by Google,

Yahoo!, and MSN to comply

with Chinese censorship

policies, Anonymizer is seek-

ing to free electronic speech

in China. Later this quarter,

the company will release

no-cost tools that will let

surfers post information and

access the Internet free of

fi lters—all anonymously.

Anonymizer already

provides similar services in

Iran. “Information bounces

off a proxy that we operate,”

says company president

Lance Cottrell. “It encrypts

all the traffi c and scrambles

the URLs, so there’s no trace

left on the user’s PC.”

Details on the new

services will appear at

anonymizer.com. If you’re

in China or headed there,

start forming your opinions

now.—SR

Who, Me?

E-Books, Round Two Can innovative new designs convince people to chuck their paperbacks?

Would you tote these

in lieu of books?

PIPELINE T E C H N O L O G Y T R E N D S & N E W S A N A L Y S I S

THE HOLOGRAPHIC VIRTUAL DISC Alliance (HVD), founded by Japan’s Optware, has rallied Fuji Photo and others behind plans to develop optical discs that store a terabyte of data. If the discs material-ize, holographic technology could succeed Blu-ray and HD DVD.

go.pcmag.com/pipeline

www.pcmag.com MARCH 21, 2006 PC MAGAZINE 19

You May

Approach

My Throne

WHY PLAY A GAME OR SURF the Web in

a chair when you could sit in a vibrating

throne? EMA Innovations (www.nethrone

.com) is wheeling out a line of radical new

seating concepts for game jockeys and PC

users. The fi rst one, seen here, is called Nethrone,

and will ship at the end of March. At $2,495 list, it’s

hardly an impulse buy, but who wants to settle for

a cheap throne?

Nethrone’s adjustable seat reclines fully, so you can

be nearly horizontal if you want, with your display hover-

ing over you. It also vibrates, which can add pizzazz

to your next Quake session. The armrests, headrest,

keyboard, joystick, and LCD panel support are all fully

adjustable too. You can put a PS2 console on board as

well, and the next generation of Nethrones will have

frame support for the Xbox 360.

Vertical computing? That’s so 20th-century.

—Sebastian Rupley

F U T U R E WATC HF U T U R E WATC H

221-hp V6* • Up to 32 hwy mpg** • Class-exclusive 6-speed automatic transmission† • More innovation from Ford*Optional on SE and SEL. **EPA estimated 24 city/32 hwy mpg (I4/automatic transmission). †Class is midsize sedans excluding Mazda 6.

SurroundSound? Try SurroundArt WHAT HAPPENS WHEN fi ne art runs into virtual real-

ity? You get CANVAS, which stands for Collaborative

Advanced Navigation Virtual Art Studio. It’s a three-

screened, back-projected, portable virtual-reality

environment designed for artists. In it, viewers typically

wear stereo glasses to gaze upon a 3D artistic world.

Artists use computers and software called Syzygy to

create the 3D images, such as the eye of a tornado. Here,

CANVAS director Rose Marshack is calling for changes

in her abstract dreamscape.—SR

go.pcmag.com/futurewatch

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com 22

The roomy, fi rst-rate Toyota Prius offers fuel effi ciency, a sleek fi t and fi nish, and

comfort. The hybrid engine is a marvel of technology, with the electric motor and gas

engine operating independently. The center-dash LCD shows a colorful but initially

confusing chart; you can see whether the engine and/or batteries are powering the car

and whether the engine or regenerated braking power is recharging the batteries. The

Denso navigation module is surprisingly disappointing. The premium sound system,

on the other hand, does a fi ne job of overcoming road noise. Bluetooth synchronized

quickly with a couple of test phones.

Motorola’s Mesh Network

A new Wi-Fi mesh-networking system from

Motorola could improve communications among

police, fi re, and ambulance crews. The Motomesh

access points are called mesh wireless routers

(MWRs). Typically there are several per square

mile, atop lampposts. Each contains four radios,

two at the 4.9-GHz frequency and two at 2.4 GHz,

the frequency of 802.11b and 802.11g. In theory,

data rates can go as high as 6 Mbps, although

they more commonly top out at 2 Mbps.

CARS

www.pcmag.com MARCH 21, 2006 PC MAGAZINE 23

Bill HowardCar Controllers Evolve

TOYOTA PRIUS$22,305 TO $29,381 BOTTOM LINE: The Prius offers great fuel

economy, especially in the city. The hybrid

engine is a technical marvel, but the Denso

nav system is poor. Bluetooth is available

in some options packages. TOYOTA MOTOR CORP., WWW.TOYOTA.COM. llllh

Fine Digital FineDrive 400

This portable navigation device has both 2D

and 3D displays and plug-in installation, and

it uses Navteq map data, the gold standard

for GPS devices. It held its own when tested

alongside a TomTom Go and an in-car GPS

system. The FineDrive 400 has a 4-inch

display and operates via a combination of

touch screen and button.

$500 list. Fine Digital USA Inc.,

www.fi nedigitalusa.com. lllmm

www.technoride.com

A shiny aluminum knob less than 2 inches

high is an unlikely lightning rod—unless

you’re talking about the BMW iDrive cock-

pit controller. After its debut in 2001, the

iDrive became a metaphor for all that’s

unworkable in technology-centric cars.

But competitors are coming to market,

improving the genre and even forcing the

iDrive to evolve.

The concept behind the cockpit con-

troller is simple: One control wheel and

an LCD take the place of the several dozen

knobs and dials that clutter dashboards.

Since the early 1990s, most

commercial airplanes have

adopted this type of “glass

cockpit,” reducing the num-

ber of switches and the com-

plexity faced by pilots. And

automakers often think of

their cabins as grounded air-

craft cockpits—BMW’s blue-

and-white logo, for example,

is patterned on a spinning

airplane propeller. So BMW

introduced the fi rst car con-

troller, the flawed iDrive,

and is now hard at work on a

follow-up.

Audi, Infiniti, and Mer-

cedes have created better

cockpit controllers, in part

because they learned from the iDrive’s

shortcomings. The problem with the ini-

tial iDrive, beyond the cool-looking but

slippery controller knob, was that it went

too far in removing dashboard switches

and relied too much on the controller. You

had to slide the controller in one of eight

compass directions, turn, and then click.

That made for a confusing number of

choices and took too long to learn.

The newer iDrive has just four direc-

tions: Communication, Navigation, Enter-

tainment, Climate. On the new 3 series,

the iDrive is optional. And recently, BMW

has been running focus groups to test

concepts that sound more like Audi and

Infi niti’s approach of adding task or pre-

fetch buttons.

Audi’s MMI (multimedia interface) was

a big step forward. The Audi control knob

isn’t quite as showy as the iDrive's, but

it’s easier to grip and has eight task but-

tons around the controller: Radio, CD, Net

(communications but not Web browsing,

sorry), Tel, Nav, Info, Car, and Setup. You

just press one of the eight buttons and

then fi ne-tune with the control knob.

Infi niti’s wonderful M45 has the same

kinds of task buttons, except that the

control knob and buttons are mounted on

a slope on the dash, giving you a place to

rest your palm—an excellent addition.

I find Audi’s MMI setup preferable to

Infiniti’s busy layout. The Audi gear has

some brilliant touches. Slap

your palm anywhere to the

left of the MMI controller

to mute the sound quickly.

A nifty roller control on the

steering wheel provides fast

access to more precise vol-

ume control.

Buttons aside, though, the

cockpit controller is your pri-

mary path into the cockpit

LCD. Most cars move just a

few functions to the LCD, but

the Infiniti moves virtually

everything. Better still, the

most common screen you’ll

use while driving neatly in-

tegrates navigation, audio,

climate control, and phone

information. Sheer brilliance.

What else is needed? Sun-blocking

hoods above those LCD screens. More

LCD screens to replace the discrete

gauges on the dashboard. And how about

online help? Embed a short form of the

owner’s manual, along with any quick-

start guides, such as how to start and

stop a hybrid car, into the online systems,

maybe with a tutorial that teaches you

how to use the controller. With a little

more help for drivers, BMW’s fi rst iDrive

might not have been such a disaster.

>MORE ON THE WEB To check out the full reviews for

these products, navigate over to

www.technoride.com, the car site for tech fans.

The top picture shows

the Audi MMI; below is

the Infi niti M45.

H A N D S - O N T E S T I N G O F N E W P R O D U C T S • go.pcmag.com/first looks

Cingular BroadbandConnect (HSDPA)Cingular’s new high-speed data network, HSDPA, has great potential for interna-tional travelers and content producers. But it’s not living up to that promise yet. We found it had slower speeds and less coverage than the competing networks from Verizon and Sprint. HSDPA (high-speed downlink packet access) is the next evolution of UMTS, the high-speed net-work AT&T Wireless built in six cities, but it is still not widely deployed in the U.S.

For now, you connect to HSDPA using one of two lap-top PC Cards in one of the 16 metro areas Cingular has hooked up. More cities will come starting in April, and by the end of the year, according to Cingular, dozens of cities will be covered.

Cingular matches Sprint’s and Verizon’s prices, with a $79.99 a month unlimited-data plan that drops to $59.99 a month if it’s paired with an existing voice plan that costs at least $39.99 a month.

HSDPA has three theoreti-cal advantages over Sprint’s and Verizon’s competing EV-DO (Evolution Data Opti-mized) technology. It’s GSM compatible, so HSDPA de-vices should be able to roam to Europe and the rest of the world. Cingular says that UMTS and HSDPA roaming agreements will appear later this year.

HSDPA a lso suppor ts simultaneous voice and data transfers, which Cingular will use in a mobile webcam application. (With EV-DO, you can’t talk and surf at the same time.) And it can poten-tially handle upload speeds of 384 Kbps, more than double the 153 Kbps of EV-DO.

Our HSDPA test results were disappointing. We tested

Cingular’s network over three days in December and Janu-ary in Baltimore, Washington, and Boston. We test download speeds using two “bandwidth tester” Web sites and down-loading three files from an SDSL connection in our labs; we test upload speeds by up-loading a 1MB fi le to our labs.

On our 16 successful test runs, we got average down-

link speeds of 584 Kbps, with an average latency of 321 milli-seconds in hitting a basket of four Web sites. On our vari-ous tests of EV-DO networks, we’ve seen average speeds from 608 Kbps up to 821 Kbps, with average latency in the 230- to 275-ms range. We’ve also seen many individual EV-DO file transfers come down at well over a megabit per second; our HSDPA trans-fers peaked at 955 Kbps.

Uplink speeds were also lower than expected, because right now Cingular has them capped at 1 28 Kbps. We got an average of 125 Kbps. That’s similar to EV-DO up-load speeds. Cingular told us it will lift the cap later this year to boost speeds.

After further analysis, we decided that Cingular’s main problem is coverage, not tech-nology. We got an average signal strength of -88 dBm; a strong signal should ideally be in the -60s, and most phones and cards lose signal

Forget bouncing between $10-per-day hotel Wi-Fi charges

and unreliable “community” hotspots in search of a Wi-Fi

signal. High-speed networks from Cingular, Sprint, and

Verizon bring a thick blanket of broadband to nearly every

major city in America with one monthly bill. With laptop

Internet everywhere and mobile music and TV on phones, they won’t help

your Internet addiction, but they’ll make sure it’s always fed.

THE MAGAZINE WORLD’S LARGEST

COMPUTER-TESTING FACILITY

G’Bye Wi-Fi, Hello 3G

30 Creative Zen Vision:M31 Cowon iAudio F131 Samsung Yepp YP-TJ732 Kodak EasyShare P88032 Olympus Stylus 600

34 DeLorme Earthmate GPS LT-20 with Street Atlas USA 2006

34 Microsoft Streets & Trips 2006 with GPS Locator

36 Itronix Hummer Laptop IX600

38 Alienware Area-51 m550038 Gateway M465-E 40 Dell Dimension E310 40 eMachines T6420 41 Polywell MiniBox2 939NP-MCE

BY SASCHA SEGAN

F I R S T

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com 26

Cingular Tools

BEST PC CARD: Sierra AirCard 860

This is currently our preferred option

for Cingular’s HSDPA network because

it will attempt to lock on to any HSDPA

signal, even in areas where the signal is

weak. As a quad-band card, it lets you

roam across the U.S. and more than

95 countries by connecting to GPRS or

EDGE networks.

$199.99 direct. lllhm

BEST PHONE:

Phones due in March.

BEST PDA: Currently none available.MORE ON THE WEB For news and product reviews, visit

go.pcmag.com/forgetwifi

WHAT THE RATINGS MEAN: LLLLL EXCELLENT l LLLLM VERY GOOD l LLLMM GOOD l LLMMM FAIR l LMMMM POOR

a 40MB bucket plan for $40 per month that scales up to a maximum of $79.99 per month as you use more data.

EV-DO promises seam-less mobility wherever you are. It’s not as fast as 802.11b, but it’s a lot more fl exible. At press time, Sprint claimed to have coverage in 185 markets. We looked at its 63 online coverage maps, and we were impressed. Sprint now covers not only major cities like New York and Atlanta but also smaller burgs such as Brownsvil le, Texas, and Lincoln, Ne-braska, as well as some major travel corridors.

That said, you should pay close attention to Sprint’s and Verizon’s maps . For i nsta nce , Sprint covers Tucson, A r i zon a (Ver i zon doesn’t), but Verizon’s EV-DO network hits some northern New York City suburbs that Sprint doesn’t yet reach. You’l l be happier with Sprint in southeast Tex-as, but folks in Portland, Oregon, will want Verizon service. Coverage also varies within cities.

In recent tests in Wash-ington, Baltimore, and New York using the Novatel S620 PC Card, Sprint’s network blazed. We got average down-link speeds of 821 Kbps over 26 fi le transfers, with one test peaking at 1.14 Mbps. Upload speeds averaged 136 Kbps. That’s in line with our earlier August results in Hartford, Connecticut, and Newark, New Jersey, where we got an

between -106 and -110 dBm. Even worse, several of our test locations showed UMTS or EDGE speeds rather than the faster HSDPA system. (We marked those tests as unsuccessful and did not fac-tor in those results.) As sig-nal strength directly affects transfer speed, we expect Cingular’s network to appear faster once it improves its coverage.

For now, both Sprint and Verizon have the upper hand when it comes to high-speed data. We’ll check back later this year to see if Cingular has picked up the pace.

Cingular BroadbandConnect (HSDPA)

From $59.99 per month. Cingular

Wireless, www.cingular.com. lllmm

Sprint PCS Wireless High-Speed Data (EV-DO)

Sprint’s EV-DO wire-less data service has come a long way. When we first looked

at Sprint’s EV-DO network in August 2005, we were disap-pointed in its limited cover-age and lack of phone-based services. But the network now covers more than 70 cit-ies and carries the nation’s best phone-based multi-media service, Sprint PCS Power Vision. That ties with Verizon’s network for Edi-tors’ Choice on high-speed wireless connectivity.

Sprint’s prices have come down, too. The company charges existing voice sub-scribers a maximum of $59.99 a month; data-only custom-ers pay up to $79.99 for un-limited use. Sprint also sells

average of 772 Kbps down-link and 134 Kbps up.

I n bot h sets of tests , Sprint ’s speeds came out superior to Verizon’s. That may ref lect congestion on Verizon’s network; as more people use an EV-DO net-work, it slows down. But Verizon’s network had lower latency, averaging 236 mil-liseconds to hit a collection of popular Web sites, against

Sprint’s 274 ms. That a l so ag reed w it h ou r August results.

Sprint has come a long way in a few months, and we’re ready to declare its EV-DO network open for business. If

41 Shuttle XPC M100042 CorelDraw X3 Graphics Suite42 ACDSee Pro Photo Manager44 Google Video (beta)44 iTunes 6

46 Podzinger46 SNARF48 Grouper 2.0 Beta 48 Streamload MediaMax 49 iShield 1.0.9.2

49 Spyware Doctor 3.552 Brother MFC-9420CN 52 Lexmark C552n 53 Ricoh Afi cio G7500 53 HP Offi cejet Pro K550

54 Corel WordPerfect Offi ce X3 Standard Edition

56 eBay ProStores 6.0 56 Firebox X8000RED denotes Editors’ Choice.

L O O K S

www.pcmag.com MARCH 21, 2006 PC MAGAZINE 27

BEST PC CARD: Merlin Wireless S620

Novatel’s S620 PC Card for Sprint’s

EV-DO network is a fast, compact way

to get broadband speeds where Sprint

offers them. Like its Verizon cousin, the

Novatel V620, the S620 has a built-in

antenna, making it less likely to catch on

things than a card with a fl ip-up antenna.

$219.99 direct. lllmm

Sprint Tools

BEST PDA: Sprint PPC-6700

This Windows Mobile handheld combines

high-speed networking and an excellent

keyboard in a form that will actually fi t into

your pocket. And it’s all packaged attrac-

tively, with good

battery life.

$479 list.

llllm

BEST PHONE: Sprint Power

Vision MM-A940 by Samsung

Part phone, part entertainment center,

the Sprint Power Vision MM-A940 by

Samsung is the best platform for Sprint’s

3G network. It offers a 2-megapixel camera with

optical zoom, full-motion streaming TV, satellite

radio, over-the-air music downloads, speech-to-

text dictation, Bluetooth, a business-card scan-

ner, and a shake sensor.

$249.99 direct. llllm

F I R S T L O O K S Consumer Electronics: High Speed Cellular Data Networks

you’re happy with Sprint cov-erage where you live, work, and travel, this super-speedy system will keep you well connected.

Sprint PCS Wireless High-Speed Data (EV-DO)

From $59.99 per month. Sprint PCS,

www.sprint.com. llllm

Verizon Wireless BroadbandAccess EV-DO

Verizon’s Broadband-Access EV-DO net-work lives up to its promise of high-speed

Internet anywhere, any time. A year after its launch, it has evolved into a mature network that you will soon find indispensable. Though Sprint offers lower prices and more f lexibility, Verizon’s relentlessly excellent cov-erage earns it a share of our Editors’ Choice.

BroadbandAccess now covers more than 60 major metropolitan areas across the U.S. Unlimited data plans are $79.99 a month, or $59.99 for existing voice customers. That’s about on a par with Sprint and Cingular.

Handheld plans cost $44.99 a month. Verizon has a wider range of EV-DO handhelds than Sprint, but its plans are more expensive; Sprint charges a mere $15 a month for handheld EV-DO use.

Download speeds averaged 741 Kbps on our most recent tests around New York City, with peaks up to 1.2 Mbps. That was faster than we got during our December 2005 tests in the Baltimore/Wash-ington area, where the average was 609 Kbps. Uploads on our most recent tests averaged 132 Kbps. That’s faster all around than with Cingular’s network.

Sprint was fastest in Balti-more/Washington, and Veri-zon and Sprint fared about the same in New York. Verizon also consistently showed the lowest latency of the three networks, which means that Web pages appear faster.

On our trials, we consis-tently got the strongest signals with Verizon, showing that its results in Baltimore/Wash-ington were probably caused by network congestion.

Network maps show that Sprint and Verizon take very different approaches to their build-out. Sprint tends to turn on service in individual towns and cities. Verizon has more homogenous coverage across broad metropolitan areas but hasn’t turned on many less-populated regions.

All this means you’re more l i kely to hold Verizon coverage within about a 60-mile radius of a major city or in metro areas that blend together (such as San Francisco/Sacramento or the North-east Corridor.) But Sprint has coverage in smaller places—such as Browns-ville, Texas, and Boise, Ida-ho—that aren’t anywhere near Verizon’s metro areas.

Verizon and Sprint also compete vigorously in con-sumer services. Verizon’s $15-per-month V Cast video clip service still lacks live TV, streaming radio, or an information service as ro-bust as Sprint’s Handmark On Demand. We still aren’t compelled by the V Cast se-lection, especially compared with Sprint’s Power Vision service. But the V Cast Music Store leads in the cell-phone industry, offering the best

prices and the best in-

tegration with Win-dows Media Player.

Verizon recently started letting you use several popu-lar phones as laptop modems: the LG VX9800, the Motor-ola RAZR V3c, the Motorola E815, the LG VX8100, and the BlackBerry 7130e. It costs the same $59.99 a month that PC Card users pay. Sprint offers a $25-per-month plan that limits you to only 40MB of data transfer.

Verizon Wireless Broad-bandAccess continues to be the Cadillac of wireless ser-vices, thanks to the company’s focus on high-quality cover-age in broad metro areas. But Sprint is coming up fast with its small-city and rural cover-age. Verizon needs to gun the engines on its national build-out if it wants to stay ahead.

Verizon Wireless Broadband-Access EV-DO

From $59.99 per month. Verizon

Wireless, www.verizonwireless.com.

llllm

ANALYST’S TIPSasha Segan , Lead Analyst

Supercharge your high-speed wireless connection with an external antenna or a signal amplifi er. A $70-

to-$100 portable booster antenna plugs into most PC Cards and can improve your connection by a bar or

two. A $400 amplifi er like Spotwave’s Zen isn’t portable, but it can take you from one bar to four. That can

double or triple your connection speeds, so you can get the download quality you’re paying for.

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com 28

Verizon Tools

BEST PC CARD: Kyocera KPC650

By using the new Qual-

comm MSM6500 chipset,

the KPC650 squeezes the

maximum possible band-

width out of Verizon’s EV-DO

data network.

$149.99 direct. llllh

BEST PHONE:

Motorola RAZR V3c

With its sleek façade,

the Motorola RAZR

has redefi ned cool

phone design. This

version improves on some

of the original’s features

while keeping the excel-

lent design, reception,

and sound quality.

$419 direct. llllm

BEST PDA:

BlackBerry 7130e

A bright and speedy

way to check e-mail,

surf the Web, and, best

of all, hook up your laptop to

Verizon’s EV-DO network.

$299.99 direct. llllm

F I R S T L O O K S Consumer Electronics: MP3 Players

Creative Takes a Bite Out of AppleVideo format support is

impressively broad. You get MPEG-2, MPEG-4 Simple Prof ile (which includes DivX and XviD AVI files), Motion JPEG, and WMV, as well as TivoToGo content.

The videos looked very sharp, and files running at 30 frames per second were perfectly smooth with well-synced audio.

BATTERY LIFE/EXTRAS

Despite its excellent video capabilities, the Zen Vi-sion:M appears to us to be primarily an audio player, given its size. With that in mind, we were hoping for significantly more bat-tery life for continuous audio playback than the 12 hours 45 minutes we got.

(Creative’s claim is 14 hours using only 128-Kbps MP3s, but our test uses a more real-istic mix of fi les at 128 Kbps to 320 Kbps.) The player lasted 4 hours 20 minutes for video playback, which is substan-tially better than the iPod’s 2 hours 30 minutes.

Creative really missed the boat on a removable battery, however. We thought it was a great idea with the Zen Vision, but the company didn’t carry it over to this version.

The Zen Vision:M has nearly everything you’d want in a non-Apple player and is definitely our new favorite iPod alternative, but we have a feeling it’s still not going to sway the iPod-loving masses.

Creative Zen Vision:M

$329.99 direct. Creative Technology

Ltd., www.creative.com. llllh

BY MIKE KOBRIN

Portable media players (PMPs) are still com-ing of age, and it isn’t

yet clear where the sweet spot is in terms of size and video quality. But Creative is defi-nitely covering its bases, with its Zen Vision and now its new Zen Vision:M ($329 direct), an iPod-size (yeah, we said it, so what?) 30GB player that plays music, photos, and video.

Apple still wins out hands down for hardware/software integration. But, in terms of just the hardware, the Zen Vision:M comes closer to taking a bite out of Apple than anything else out there. Creative is making some in-roads on the software side as well, with its new ZenCast.com site and ZenCast Orga-nizer, which make a wealth of podcasts (audio and video) available to Zen Vision and Zen Vision:M users.

Measuring 4.1 by 2.4 by 0.7 inches and weighing 5.7 ounc-es, it has quite a few more fea-tures than Apple’s offerings, though at $329.99 (compared with $299 for the 30GB iPod) it commands a premium. The 2.5-inch LCD screen’s resolu-tion is 320 by 240 pixels.

The controls are a depar-ture from those of the Zen Micro. The layout consists of four large tactile buttons, plus two more that surround the touch strip. The custom-izable My Shortcut button is a brilliant addition. Under the Player Settings in the System menu, you can choose a func-tion or menu item for that but-ton to jump to, no matter what mode or menu you’re in.

gentle roll-off taking it down about 4.5 decibels at 40 Hz—a better-than-passing grade. What surprised us was the remarkably clean, powerful signal the device puts out at maximum volume. We cranked the volume to the max and measured the out-put using our rock test track (“More Than a Feeling” by Boston). The Zen Vision:M drove the included earbuds to a sustained 107 dB, with peaks of 111 dB—loud enough to damage your hearing.

We loaded our test JPEG images on the player and were impressed with the vivid col-ors. You can view slide shows while listening to music.

ANALYST'S TIP Mike Kobrin, Lead Analyst

The MP3 digital audio format is universally compatible; by contrast, no single video format is supported by all

portable players. When choosing a video-capable MP3 player, think about what formats the player can han-

dle. If you plan to get most of your video from a single source, a device with limited format support is fi ne. If

you have plenty of videos already, get a player with broad format support to avoid doing a lot of transcoding.

The Zen Vision:M’s interface is identical to that of its bigger brother, with every bit as much polish and logic as that of the iPod. We have lots of love for Creative’s contextual menus.

PLAYTIME

Using our Microsoft Windows XP test system and Windows Media Player 10, we were able to load the player with media fi les without hav-ing to install any propri-etary software.

T h i s p l a y e r c a n handle MP3, WMA, and protected WMA, as well as WAV fi les—but does not support the OGG or lossless codecs. Accord-ing to Creative, support for Audible.com content will come in Q2 of this year.

The Zen Vision:M’s audio capabilities are impressive. On our subjective listening tests, we heard nicely ex-tended highs and fairly deep bass, with a neutral-sound-ing midrange. On our formal lab tests, the player did very well, turning in a f lat fre-quency response, with only a

THE VISION:M comes in black,

white, blue, green, and pink.

THE ZEN VISION:M is slightly

thicker and heavier than the

30GB iPod.

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com 30

F I R S T L O O K S Consumer Electronics: MP3 Players

BY MIKE KOBRIN

No longer a dark horse in the digital audio player space, Cowon

continues to pump out solid MP3 players, and the Cowon

iAudio F1 ($159.99 direct) is no exception. Considering the interesting design and ample feature set, the price tag isn’t too unreasonable for a 1GB fl ash-based player. Still, it needs some improvements before it tops our list.

The 2.9- by 1.4- by 0.8-inch (HWD), 1.4-ounce F1 resem-bles a shiny black MatchBox Ferrari-style car. Its analog controls are on top of the trunk and include a four-way rocker with a joystick in the center. The two-color 128-by-64 OLED screen is oriented sideways in the windshield. A little silver license plate on the front says iAudio. Cute. The kicker comes when you turn the player on: The informa-

tion displays in analog gauges that look like the dashboard of a racing car. A little gas pump indicates battery life.

The F1 is both USB mass-storage-class–compliant and compatible with Windows Media Player. File format sup-port extends to MP3, WMA, ASF, WAV, and OGG, as well as lyric (LDB), though there’s no support for lossless codecs, protected WMA, or Audible.

We were satisf ied with sound quality on our infor-mal listening tests using the included earbuds. The over-all audio was not muffl ed or murky, though we noted the lack of strong, well-defined bass as well as some softness around the edges of sounds in the middle and high ranges.

You can record FM, line-in, and voice in MP3 format at up to 128 Kbps; voice-activated

recording is built in; and an auto-sync feature lets you break up recorded tracks.

Unfortunately, battery life was a big disappointment. The internal nonremovable rechargeable—rated at 22 hours—lasted only about 13.5 hours in our testing. We checked all of the settings and reran the test, but we got the same results.

Overall, we’re pretty hap-py with this player’s fl exibil-ity and options, but the lack of compatibility with online subscription and download services hurts it somewhat. And the subpar battery life is disturbing. Nonetheless, this is a nice gift for younger music fans—even we had a tough time resisting the urge to drive it around on our desk going “vroom, vroom.”

Cowon iAudio F1

$159.99 direct. Cowon America Inc.,

www.cowon.com. llhmm

Cowon’s New MatchBox Car-Size MP3 Player

Samsung Says Yepp Again BY MIKE KOBRIN

The Samsung Yepp YP-T7X was a big hit with us for its audio

quality, feature set, and cute look. The latest iteration, the Yepp YP-T7J, ($179.99 list) has revamped analog con-trols and support for music subscription and download services via Plays ForSure. Though we like this model’s new Microsoft esque quali-ties, we’re disappointed that it’s no longer a USB mass-storage-class device. Still, the wide array of features, snazzy design, and sound quality keep this 1GB flash player on our short list.

The main physical differ-ence between the YP-T7J and its predecessor is the new four-way rocker and center select/menu button, which

replaces the older model’s pushable joystick.

On the 1.2-inch screen, viewing photos is still an eye-squinting affair. The body itself measures a wee 1.5 by 0.5 by 2.4 inches and weighs just 1.4 ounces.

Audio format support now includes protected WMA, along with WMA and MP3, although you still can’t play OGG, loss-less, or Audible.com fi les.

Frequency response is very good, with a gentle roll-off in the bass down to about 25 Hz. Response drops off sharply in the low-est octave, but that’s below what most consumer-grade

headphones can handle. Th is model ha s more

power than the previous ver-sion. The player puts out an

admirably clean signal up to one click below top volume on its 40-step scale.

Samsung swapped out the SRS WOW features of the T7X and added a Digital Natural Sound Engine menu, which gives you access to seven EQ presets, a custom seven-band graphic equal-izer, three different 3D sound presets, and a customizable 3D setting.

Sadly, the life of the T7J’s nonremovable battery is still stuck at a bit under 13 hours, according to our rundown test. We’re on the fence about which model we prefer. A few more changes are necessary—such as contextual menus and longer battery life—before this player can claim the Edi-tors’ Choice throne.

Samsung Yepp YP-T7J

$179.99 list. Samsung Electronics

America Inc., www.samsung.com.

llllm

NAVIGATION ON THE F1 can take bit of getting used to.

THE T7J’S SCREEN FONTS have

been resized to fi t better.

www.pcmag.com MARCH 21, 2006 PC MAGAZINE 31

F I R S T L O O K S Consumer Electronics: Digital Cameras

BY TERRY SULLIVAN

The Kodak EasyShare

P880 ($599.95 list) is an enthusiast camera

with some fancy features and good video capabilities, but it falls short on the basics. There’s noticeable shutter lag, the quality of its flash shots is uninspiring, and pictures aren’t as sharp as those from other cameras in its class.

The P880 has an 8-mega-pixel sensor, a Schneider-Kreuznach Variogon lens with a 5.8X optical zoom (a 35mm equivalent of 24mm to 140mm) and maximum f-stops of f/2.8 to f/4.1.

With D-SLR prices falling to well under $1,000, enthu-siast cameras must be nearly fl awless to compete.

What does the P880 offer? We love the 24mm view on its zoom, and it has some neat burst modes, as well as a RAW shooting mode. A manual set-

ting mode and a hot shoe for an external fl ash let you do a lot with this shooter.

We were disappointed in some of the test results, though. Our daylight shots revealed some noise, though not as noticeable as in the fl ash shot. Color sat-uration and fidelity were very good, but with some strong purple fringing.

Flash coverage was a bit uneven. Images were also somewhat grainy, even at 100 ISO, a setting that should produce very little noise.

The P880 took less than 3 seconds to boot up, which is respectable. The 2.1-second recycle time was very quick. There was, however, notice-able shutter lag. There was no pincushion distortion

visible at the telephoto end of the zoom, but the barrel distortion at the wide end of the zoom was pretty evi-dent. The camera’s score on our resolution test was 1,625 lines—well below the range for 8MP cameras of this type.

Video clips are saved as 640-by-480 (VGA) MOV

fi les at 30 frames per sec-ond. Overall quality is pretty good, although a tad grainy, but the

zoom range can give you a view as

wide as 24mm. S a d l y , t h e

P 8 8 0 ’ s v i d e o f u nct ions a nd zoom ring aren’t enough to satisfy us. For better pic-ture quality, you could go with one of two superzooms: t h e P a n a s o n i c

DMC-FZ30 or the Fuji S9000. If you don’t

care about video features, you might consider a D-SLR such as the Nikon D50 or the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT.

Kodak EasyShare P880

$599.95 list. Eastman Kodak Co.,

www.kodak.com. llhmm

Fun Features, Short on Photo Basics

Stylus StumblesBY TERRY SULLIVAN

Back in the days before “talkies,” the Olympus

Stylus 600 ($299.95 list) might have found an audience. Today, when the majority of consumers ex-pect sound with their video, this ultracompact performer won’t f i l l theaters. True, people will buy it for its still- image capabilities—but when there’s nothing outstanding there either, can anything else recommend it? Maybe.

The Stylus 600 is a 6-mega-pixel camera with a 3X optical zoom that has a 5.8mm-to-17.4mm range (equivalent to a 35mm lens with a 35mm to 105mm zoom) and corre-sponding maximum f-stops of f/3.1 to f/5.2.

Our daylight test shots re-vealed little noise in the image

and good color saturation and accuracy. The picture was pretty good overall but slight-ly overexposed, resulting in some blown-out highlights.

Coverage on our fl ash test shot was middling. The im-age was underexposed by about one stop, but color

saturation and accuracy were pretty good. There was a bit of fringing, with more noise than the daylight image.

In our real-world tests, im-ages demonstrated just ad-equate quality. Shots of tree branches against a bright blue sky showed purple fringing.

The Stylus 600’s score on our resolution test was 1,525

lines—above par for a 6MP camera. There was no pin-cushion distortion and just the normal amount of barrel distortion. Boot-up took just 2.4 seconds and the recycle time a respectable 3.4 sec-onds. We did notice some shutter lag, however.

Video capabilities were disappointing. You can shoot 640-by-480 motion JPEG clips until the memory card fills, but only at a choppy 15 frames per second. The big-ger disappointment was that the Stylus 600 shoots movies only without sound.

In the end, we can’t endorse this ultracompact. There are many other alternatives, such as the Casio Exilim EX-Z750 or EX-S500, that will give you much better movie quality—with sound.

Olympus Stylus 600

$299.95 list. Olympus America Inc.,

www.olympusamerica.com. llmmm

THE P880 has a 24mm

zoom lens.

THE STYLUS 600 has a

big , clear, fairly bright LCD.

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com 32

F I R S T L O O K S Consumer Electronics: GPS

BY CRAIG ELLISON

The hardware end of the DeLorme Earth-

mate GPS LT-20 with

Street Atlas USA 2006 ($99.95 list) is a small, roughly rect-angular receiver that sits on the dashboard. Users of pre-vious Street Atlas USA ver-sions will notice some user interface improvements, in-cluding the EZ-Nav toolbar. This lets you set the starting and end points for your trip, enable or disable the GPS re-ceiver, open the options dia-log menus, and share maps on the Web.

According to DeLorme, Street Atlas 2006 has been upgraded with 268,000 new roads, and its POI (points of interest) database updated with data from lodging, gaso-line, restaurant, and retail chains. The software found signifi cantly more restaurants and had more updated infor-

mation than did Microsoft Streets and Trips 2006.

Like S&T 2006, Street Atlas 2006 provides voice-prompted t u r n-by- t u r n direc tions. It trumps S&T 2006, though, by announcing upcoming turns and using text-to-speech conversion to pronounce the street names. Without any speech training,

Street Atlas 2006 recognized all of the voice commands we tested from its vocabulary of 60. Yet though its user inter-face has been updated, navi-gation was cumbersome.

The true test of perfor-mance for a GPS-based prod-uct is a road trip, of course. W hen we ra n t he sa me routing test as we did with

S&T 2006, the route recom-mended seemed less direct, and the map database didn’t know about a recently com-pleted ramp that was part of the S&T 2006 route. On the other hand, we liked that Street Atlas 2006 automati-cally recalculated our route after we made an error.

Our biggest disappoint-ment was with the GPS errors we encountered. In several of our tests, Street Atlas 2006 reported that we were off route when we were actually on well-established roads that were part of our course. But, in all cases, Street Atlas 2006 reported a 3D fi x.

Street Atlas 2006 is much more fully featured than Microsoft’s Streets and Trips 2006 but harder to use.

DeLorme Earthmate GPS LT-20 with Street Atlas USA 2006

$99.95 list. DeLorme,

www.delorme.com. llhmm

The DeLorme Earthmate GPS Gets a Little Lost

Heading in the Right DirectionBY CRAIG ELLISON

M icrosoft Streets &

Trips 2006 with GPS

Locator ($130 street) includes a number of new features that are significant improvements over its pre-decessor, Microsoft Streets & Trips 2005. The bundled GPS receiver connects via USB 2.0. But the most signif-icant new feature is voice-prompted directions. The vo-cabulary, however, is somewhat lim-ited compared with that of DeLorme’s Street Atlas 2006. For instance, S&T 2006 announces an upcoming turn with a prompt, “In zero point two miles, exit right.” Street

Atlas 2006 will also give the street name using its text-to-speech technology.

To create a route and gen-erate directions, you merely type in the starting and end-ing locations and click on “Get Directions.” Trips can include multiple segments; if you have more than four, you

can instruct Streets and Trips 2006 to optimize the route.

Finding points of interest (POIs) is fairly simple. You can select from 15 restaurant and 35 POI types to display on the map. When you click on a POI, a balloon box pops up with detailed information. Right-click on the POI icon,

and you can add it to your route list. We were disap-pointed to f ind a number of outdated or missing listings.

On our routing test, the program provided accurate directions to the in-terim destination, and the GPS receiv-er remained locked onto the route. The map database ap-

peared to have been updated recently, as the generated route took us onto a recently completed interstate ramp.

On our return trip, we made an intent iona l er-ror to see how S&T 2006 would handle it. Unfortu-nately, unlike Street Atlas 2006—which automatically recalculates after a missed turn—S&T 2006 only re-ported “off route!” There is a “recalculate route from here” button, but having to click on a button while you’re driving can be dangerous.

Though it ’s not as fully featured as DeLorme’s Street Atlas 2006, Microsoft Streets and Trips 2006 is far easier to use and offers better GPS lo-cating capabilities.

Microsoft Streets & Trips 2006 with GPS Locator

$130 street; without GPS receiver,

$40. Microsoft Corp.,

www.microsoft.com. lllmm

STREET ATLAS USA 2006 has a new EZ-Nav toolbar that runs

across the top of the screen.

S&T 2006 has a GPS pane that shows current lati-

tude and longitude, as well as GPS signal strength.

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com 34

F I R S T L O O K S Hardware: Laptops

Itronix Hummer Laptop IX600 built-in card for high-speed cellular data networks (EDGE and EV-DO) from Cingu-lar, Sprint, or Verizon.

Like the Hummer laptop’s battery, the 80GB hard drive is easily removable by releasing a latch. We should note that the multimedia and con-nectivity features on this notebook are a bit lacking. Though most notebooks these days include a DVD-burning drive, this laptop comes with only a DVD/CD-RW combo drive. And

it also has only two USB ports and no FireWire or

S-Video ports. But you do get a VGA port, a serial port, and both a PC Card slot and an ExpressCard 34 slot.

Our SYSmark 2004 SE tests indicate that the Hum-mer laptop’s score was about 6 percent better than that of the Ferrari 4000. But the Fer-rari is a better notebook by far for gaming, as it integrates the ATI Mobility Radeon X700 graphics. The Hum-mer laptop managed to last 3 hours 10 minutes on our bat-tery-life test, which is not as long as the Acer notebook’s 3:43 and not even close to the Panasonic Toughbook’s 6:17.

If you need a tough note-book for the field—and you or your employers have deep pockets—the Itronix Hum-mer Laptop IX600 belongs on the passenger seat of your Hummer H3. But if you just want a cool car-theme note-book, look to the Acer Fer-rari 4000.

Itronix Hummer Laptop IX600

With 1.86-GHz Intel Pentium M 750,

512MB DDR2 SDRAM, 80GB hard

drive, 128MB Intel Graphics Media

Accelerator 900 GM, 12.1-inch display,

DVD/CD-RW drive, Microsoft Windows

XP Professional, $3,368 direct. Itronix

Corp., www.itronix.com. lllmm

BY CISCO CHENG

For those looking to maximize their off-road capabilities, the

Itronix Hummer Laptop IX600

($3,368 direct) plans to de-liver—if you’re willing to fork over the extra cash. The Hummer laptop is ideal if you’re out in the fi eld all day (think construction workers, architects, park rangers, fi eld scientists, and so on), but for the average Joe who wants a cool car-theme laptop, the $2,000 Acer Ferrari 4000 is a much better deal.

The metal cover is de-signed to look like a Hum-mer’s hood and comes in three colors: red, bright yel-low, and pewter tin. But we prefer the subtle red lines and carbon-fi ber outfi t on the Acer Ferrari’s chassis to the chunky, in-your-face style of the Hummer. (Though, in all fairness, the Hummer SUV is seemingly all about being in your face.)

Itronix is known for mak-ing notebooks for the mili-tary, so you can be sure that this one is made to withstand some abuse. The chassis is made entirely of magnesium alloy and feels much thicker than that of the Panasonic Toughbook W4. The note-book has a handle at the back so you can carry it like a briefcase. According to Itronix, the Hummer laptop can withstand drops from 30 inches, strong vibrations, and extreme temperatures. It also has a spill-proof keyboard. We wouldn’t recommend subjecting a $3,368 laptop to any of these hazards, but having that peace of mind is always a plus.

For a system with a 12.1-inch screen, the Hummer isn’t easy on the arms, weighing in at 6.7 pounds. Other systems with 12-inch screens, such as

the 3.2-pound Lenovo ThinkPad X41, typi-cally weigh half as much. The Hummer’s screen is designed for outdoor viewing, and we noticed that im-ages looked washed out when you take it indoors. The full-size keyboard is comfort-able to type on, but the touchpad isn’t as wide as that of the Ferrari 4000. A key-board task light

pops open above the screen for dark conditions.

The Hummer laptop has several wireless antennas to keep you connected to the rest of the world. In addition to Bluetooth and 802.11a/g Wi-Fi, it has a built-in Leadtek GPS receiver and comes with Microsoft Streets & Trips 2005 preinstalled. There is a significant learning curve to activating and navigating

the GPS features (we suggest reading the Leadtek manual fi rst). But once we got going, the device was able to recog-nize our position in midtown Manhattan and followed us all the way uptown. The system also includes Leadtek’s Win-Fast Navigator tool, which gives a tracking view of all satellites within range. For an astronomical $1,180 more, you can add a touch screen and a

THE HUMMER LAPTOP’s case is made of tough magnesium

alloy, comes in three colors, and includes a handle.

THE HUMMER LAPTOP’s 12.1-inch screen is

optimized for outdoor viewing.

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com 36

F I R S T L O O K S Hardware: Laptops

BY CISCO CHENG

The Alienware Area-51

m5500 is the com-pany’s latest Media

Center notebook to offer two built-in graphics options. In-tegrated Intel graphics get you the best battery life. But when you need the best gaming ex-perience, fl ip a switch on the case and kick in the nVidia GeForce Go 6600 MXM. You’ll have to reboot, though, which is irksome.

Overall, the m5500 is a better-than-average note-book—and it has a very cool extraterrestrial design. It straddles the fence be-tween a gaming and a multi-media notebook, but given its features and components, gamers will be happier than media enthusiasts.

The blue LEDs f lashing behind the alien eyes and logo are the most distinc-

tive feature of an Alienware notebook. The lights are es-pecially noticeable against the dark-gray exterior. The thin profile—1.2 by 14 by 10.6 inches (HWD)—is very sleek, yet deceptive, because the unit weighs a hefty 7.2 pounds. The 15.4-inch matte screen isn’t ideal for a Media Center notebook. Bright-er, higher-contrast screens are bet-ter for view-i n g m ov i e s and photos.

The m5500 carries some fast components, in-cluding a 2.0-GHz Pentium M 760, 1GB of memory, and a fast (7,200-rpm) 80GB hard drive. There are three USB ports and one FireWire port, as well as S-Video and VGA hook-ups, a line-in jack, and a 4-in-1 memory card reader. You can also get a dual-layer

DVD±RW drive. Unfortu-nately, there’s no TV tuner, so you’ll have to look for a third-party tuner card (Alienware doesn’t offer one) if you want to watch and record live TV.

The m5500’s perfor-mance was average on our Windows Media Encode tests, fi nishing in 14:11. We ran some gam-ing tests with the nVidia graphics, and though the scores weren’t the fastest we’ve seen, the system will play a lot of your fa-vorites. However, switch-ing to the nVidia graphics will reduce the already sub-

par battery life.The Alienware Area-51

m5500 wil l undoubtedly draw crowds for its space-age design and the ability to switch between graphics systems. But its battery life needs to be improved, and it’s a couple of features short of being a true Media Center notebook.

Alienware Area-51 m5500

$1,900 direct, Alienware Corp.,

www.alienware.com. lllmm

Alienware Doubles Your Graphics Fun

Gateway’s Plain yet Powerful NotebookBY CISCO CHENG

The Gateway M465-E is not just a conven tional business notebook, al-

though its design might say otherwise. With Intel’s lat-est Core Duo components, a solid security platform, and long battery life, it packs a wallop. If raising the perfor-mance bar is your company’s motto or if you’re a tireless workaholic, then the M465-E is worth considering.

On the outside, the M465-E retains the same bland design as the M460 (and every other laptop Gateway m a k e s) . N e w e r components trim the weight to 6.3 pounds (from the M460’s 6.8 pounds), but there are still lighter business-class notebooks to be found.

The system’s 1.83-GHz In-tel Core Duo T2400 is a notch below the Core Duo proces-sors found in some recent Acer and Dell notebooks, but the results are still impres-

sive. We simultaneously ren-dered a high-resolution image using Adobe Photoshop CS2 and transcoded a video file with Windows Media Encod-er 9. Both tasks ran smoothly,

with Norton AntiVirus scanning in the back-ground.

The M465-E’s SYS-mark 2004 SE scores were just below those of some other dual-core notebooks we tested. But it still outperformed the single-core M460 on these tests by 25 percent.

Battery life was a bright spot for the M465-E: It out-

lasted the competition on our MobileMark 2005 tests,

running 4:04. Gateway also offers a 12-cell battery ($120) that lasts an astonishing 7:09.

The M465-E has a modular dual-layer DVD±R drive and

a 5-in-1 memory card reader. The standard 60GB hard drive is adequate for business use, but you can also upgrade to a 100GB drive for $135.

The machine doesn’t have a fingerprint reader, but it does include a TPM (Trusted Platform Module) chip, the first Gateway notebook to have one. The M465-E inte-grates its own user-friendly recovery suite, but it still lacks a comprehensive man-agement tool such as Lenovo offers on its ThinkPads. The Gateway M465-E is signifi-cantly more powerful than its predecessor, the M460. The new security features and excellent battery life will have corporate buyers think-ing “upgrade.”

Gateway M465-E

$1,649 direct. Gateway Inc.,

www.gateway.com. lllhm

THE M5500 has

a sleek, space-age design.

DULL LOOK,high performance.

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com 38

F I R S T L O O K S Hardware: Desktops

BY JOEL SANTO DOMINGO

The Dell Dimension

E310 ($929 direct, $746 without moni-tor) is an entry-level entertainment

PC. Although it ’s a little more expensive than most entry-level PCs, it offers the best bang for the buck of any system available at present. Our test unit came with Dell’s Data-Safe option, which combines passive (RAID 1) and active (Norton Ghost) backup.

The E310’s BTX minitower is bland, but it runs quietly and has space for additional PCI and PCIe x1 cards. The 2.8-GHz Pentium 4 521 processor supplies adequate muscle for light multimedia use. There’s no TV tuner in the base con-fi guration, but a $100 upgrade gets you one with a remote. A dual-layer DVD writer, a 13-

in-1 card reader, and Dell 2.1 speakers round out the multi-media hardware.

Our confi guration includ-ed a second 160GB hard drive (a $90 option with the base

package)—part of Dell’s Data-Safe backup strategy. The drives are set up in a RAID 1 (mirroring) array. Since each drive contains an exact dupli-cate of the data on the other,

you have only 160GB of total storage, not 320GB. If one

fails, the other takes over. The other half of the

DataSafe strategy is Nor-ton Ghost 10, which backs

up your C: drive to a D: par-tition. With a Ghost backup

on the D: drive, you can re-cover lost fi les or return your system to a previous working state. But since RAID 1 copies changes to both drives, if you accidentally delete or lose fi les, you’re out of luck.

On our multimedia tests, the E310 was not lightning-fast, but it’ll perform fi ne for occasional video-encoding or photo-editing jobs.

The E310 provides a seam-less backup solution sorely needed by most multimedia users to keep music, photos, and videos. Dell Dimension E310

$929 direct. Dell Inc., www.dell.com.

llllh

The Best PC Value Out There

An Entry-Level eMachines Media Center PCBY JOEL SANTO DOMINGO

The eMachines T6420

($870 direct , $600 without monitor) is a

competent entry-level Media Center PC, and given its pres-ence in major big-box stores, readily available. Because it has room for upgrades, it’s a good system for those who want to start at the lower end and gradually build up to a high-end system.

The box looks like every eMachines desktop of the past few years, with silver and dark gray dominating the design. But on the inside this system is thoroughly contemporary. Its motherboard is based on the nVidia nForce 410 chipset with built-in GeForce 6100 graphics, and it comes with the midrange AMD Athlon 64 3400+ processor, which

is reasonably fast and 64-bit compatible. There’s a large (200GB) hard drive, a dual-layer DVD±RW drive, and a 17-inch LCD monitor.

You won’t find a built-in TV tuner—not unusual in this price class—but since eMachines doesn’t offer one, you’ll have to buy a third-party card to watch and re-cord live TV. You can also add a P CIe

x1 card or a PCIe x16 graph-ics card. Two spare memory slots, an empty drive bay, and a couple of free SATA ports on the motherboard add to the expansion capabilities.

The processor and graphics are average for this category. On our 3DMark05 multimedia

tests, the T6420’s scores were on a par with other systems, but on our Windows Media Encode test it produced a lower score than competing models. The T6420 is built for Web surfi ng and viewing multimedia content.

Compared with the Dell E310, the T6420 is a lot more expandable, making it more of a tinkerer’s PC. But the E310 blows the T6420 away with its DataSafe backup strategy and 15 months of AV protection, as opposed to the eMachines’ less generous 90 days. Overall, though, the eMachines T6420 is a good entry-level Media Center PC, and the upgradability is an added benefi t. eMachines T6420

$870 direct. eMachines Inc.,

www.emachines.com. lllmm

THE DELL E310 gives multi-

media users a safe backup strategy.

THE T6420 is an entry-level Media Center with upgradability.

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com 40

F I R S T L O O K S Hardware: Media Center PCs

Media Center PCs: The Next Generationtheater PC. But there are bet-ter choices out there for about the same money.

The M1000 is certainly an attractive Media Center PC, with a clean front panel that looks the part. Swing-down doors hide the 8-in-1 media card reader and USB ports. In the middle of the front panel, a comprehensive blue infor-mation display shows music, photo, and TV info.

Viewing standard TV on the M1000 is a pleasant expe-rience. The PureVideo tech-nology built into the nVidia GeForce 6600 LE graphics card helped the M1000 dis-

play a sharp and well-balanced picture from the included SDTV and HDTV tuners.

Since the M1000’s Pen-tium M 740 (a notebook processor) runs cooler than

a desktop-class Pentium 4, the M1000 has a quieter fan—a big plus for a PC that sits in your living room. The M1000’s 250GB hard drive is a standard size for this class, and a handy “Storage-2-Go” removable hard drive bay is located in the front.

The M1000 was slow on our Windows Media Encode test, taking over 16 minutes to complete, but it turned in a decent time on our Pho-toshop CS2 Action set (2:52). In short, the M1000 is best suited to viewing photos and video content rather than hard-core photo/video editing.

The Shuttle XPC M1000 is an attractive Media Center PC, though there isn’t any-thing in particular about its price or features that makes it more attractive than our current favorite—the HP Digital Entertainment Cen-ter z555/z556.

Shuttle XPC M1000

$1,899 direct. Shuttle Computer Inc.,

www.shuttle.com. lllmm

BY JOEL SANTO DOMINGO

The latest generation of Media Center PCs are rol l ing off the

production lines loaded with new components, such as dual-core processors, higher-capacity hard drives, and up-dated horizontal form factors. But is this enough to usurp the old champs? That’s what we set out to determine.

Polywell MiniBox2939NP-MCEThe Polywell Mini-B ox 2 9 3 9 N P - M C E ($1,888 direct, $1,520 without monitor) is a compact, relatively qui-et Media Center PC that can fi t in either a home offi ce or a living room. With a dual-core Athlon 64 X2 processor, twin TV tuners, and a good amount of hard drive space, the MiniBox2 is a Media Cen-ter PC worth a look.

The MiniBox2 has a small footprint, but it’s rather tall—twice as tall, in fact, as most horizontal Media Center PCs. There is a pop-out handle on the front of the case, but you probably won’t be toting this system around, since it weighs more than 20 pounds. Room to upgrade consists of space for one PCIe x1 card and an additional PCIe x16 graphics card.

Thanks to its dual-core Athlon 64 X2 3800+ proces-sor, the MiniBox2 has the power to continue working while TV shows are record-ing in the background. With

the twin TV tuners, you can record two shows at once. Because the graphics card doesn’t need cooling, system noise is greatly reduced.

We are impressed with the MiniBox2’s two 250GB hard drives in a R AID 0 array, which give you a total of 500GB of space—plenty of

CS2 Action set in 1:21, which is faster than the average. But, predictably, the inte-grated nVidia GeForce 6150 graphics kept the system’s 3D scores relatively low (just 9 frames per second).

It ’s not the prettiest or smallest Media Center PC out there, but the MiniBox2

room to record your favorite shows, rip your entire music collection, and store your photo collection to show on the TV when relatives visit.

The MiniBox2 performed well on our multimedia tests, taking 7 minutes 43 seconds to encode our test video fi le on the Windows Media En-code test. The system com-pleted our Adobe Photoshop

may serve as the middle ground for those who want to convert to a digital home and want an expandable system that can still fi t equally well in the living room or offi ce.

Polywell MiniBox2 939NP-MCE

$1,888 direct; without monitor,

$1,520. Polywell Computers Inc.,

www.polywell.com. lllhm

Shuttle XPC M1000The Shuttle XPC M1000 ($1,899 direct) is a horizon-tal AV-style Media Center

PC that fi ts well in a home theater rack. It’s black with

chrome accents, so it looks good next to black or silver AV equipment. With an inno-vative wireless keyboard and decent component choices, it makes a somewhat compel-ling case for itself as a home

The HP Digital Entertainment Center

(Z555, Z556, or Z558) continues to serve

as a template for what all AV-style Media Center

Edition PCs should strive to be in the living room. Three years

after the Z555’s introduction, we have yet to fi nd a better

living room PC.

THE REIGNING CHAMP:HP Digital Entertainment Center

THE NEW POLY-WELL AND SHUTTLE Media

Center PCs fi t nicely in a home theater.

www.pcmag.com MARCH 21, 2006 PC MAGAZINE 41

F I R S T L O O K S Software

BY GALEN FOTT

L ongtime users of Corel-Draw Graphics Suite have a secret: You can

produce high-quality graph-ics without spending a mint.

CorelDraw X3 Graphics

Suite (for X3, read “thirteen”) adds strong new tools to an already excellent package. The $399 suite consists pri-marily of the vector drawing program CorelDraw and the image editor Photo-Paint.

Version 12 users will no-tice some changes in the included apps. Corel R.A.V.E. is gone. But CorelTrace has been incorporated into the CorelDraw program and to-tally redesigned. This tool, now called PowerTrace, lets you turn pixel-based images into resolution-free vector art, and it’s the strongest new feature in the suite.

Text handling has also gotten an upgrade. There are

new dockers (the program’s terminology for palettes) for formatting, a WYSIWYG font menu, automatic hy-phenation, and interactive type-on-a-path handling.

CorelDraw and Photo-Paint share a couple of new features. A Hints docker gives information and advice about the currently selected tool, and both include the

excellent new Image Adjust-ment Lab, which collects many commands used for correcting digital photos. Best of all, you can take snap-shots of the image as you work. These are collected in a strip at the bottom of the window, and clicking on one returns the image to the state it was in when the snapshot was taken.

You also get over 1,000 fonts, 10,000 clip-art and dig-ital images, and 100 templates for projects such as business cards and brochures. This is an excellent choice for users who need powerful graphics tools at an affordable price.

CorelDraw X3 Graphics Suite

$399 direct; upgrade, $179; student

and teacher edition, $99. Corel Corp.,

www.corel.com. llllm

CorelDraw X3 Graphics Suite—Lucky 13

ACDSee’s Photo Manager Goes ProBY GALEN FOTT

The new ACDSee Pro

Ph oto M a n a g e r i s a strong choice for

professional photographers who are seeking a complete workflow solution—that is, a way to manage the entire photo-editing process from cataloging to publishing and archiving.

In addition to a healthy roster of proprietary RAW fi le formats, ACDSee Pro also recognizes Adobe’s public DNG format, bolstering the program’s compatibility. And ACDSee Pro lets you process RAW fi les nondestructively.

ACDSee Pro’s excellent tools include Levels and Curves controls for expo-sure, white-balance presets with adjustable temperature and tint, and precise Unsharp

Mask and noise-reduction controls. These RAW adjust-ment settings can then be ap-plied to other photos through batch processing. In fact, ACDSee Pro is notable for

its robust and diverse batch- processing tools.

There are numerous other enhancements throughout the program. Professionals will embrace ACDSee Pro’s

support for ICC and ICM color profi les. The program’s interface is adaptable, with savable workspace layouts and customizable shortcut keys . HTML Web photo galleries created from the program’s templates are also nicely customizable. A new Tag check box appears on every thumbnail in the browser window, making it easier to weed through large batches of photos quickly and isolate the best shots.

Though the toolset i s strong, when ACDSee Pro is compared with Apple’s sleek (and much more expensive) Aperture program—and, more relevantly, Adobe’s new Lightroom—its interface seems unattractive and is bound to be less appealing to professional photographers.

ACDSee Pro Photo Manager

$129.99 direct. ACD Systems Intl. Inc.,

www.acdsystems.com. llllm

CORELDRAW COMES WITH upgraded text handling, offering many new formatting options.

ACDSEE PRO PHOTO MANAGER gives you excellent tools for

processing RAW format photos.

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com 42

F I R S T L O O K S Software

BY KYLE MONSON

Although the era of video downloading is just beg inning,

that’s not stopping content owners from rushing to form alliances. First we had Dis-ney/ABC joining forces with Apple to sell TV shows via the iTunes Music Store. And now CBS, the NBA, and Sony BMG have announced part-nerships with Google, giv-ing the newly launched beta version of the Google Video

Store exclusive rights to CBS TV shows, NBA basketball games, and music videos from Sony BMG artists.

The Google Video Store catalog also contains sub-missions by users, so prepare yourself for lots of amateur videos, bootlegged concert footage, and Kanye West ranting against George Bush. For example, a search for “golf” returned 612 results,

including footage of the Volkswagen Golf, personal videos of golf swings, a Robin Wil-liams standup routine, and clips of models posing for Golf Punk magazine. And that’s just the fi rst page.

The paid content is much more predict-able. CBS is offering both new shows, such as Survivor, and clas-sics like The Brady Bunch and I Love Lucy for $1.99, and CSI is available as a sort of 24 -hour renta l for the same price. The NBA is offering download-able versions of basketball games the day after they’re played , as wel l as clas-sic games, for $3.95, which seems a bit steep to us. And though Google Video in-cludes a search for movies,

don’t expect to fi nd the latest (or any) blockbusters here.

The first time you down-load a video cl ip, you’re prompted to download and install the Google Video Player, a streamlined app that plays the GVI video fi les

that the Google Video Store dispenses (we couldn’t get GVI files to play in Windows Media Player 10 or QuickTime).

Submit t ing your masterpiece is pain-less: just download the Google Video Up-loader, and drag and drop the fi les you want to upload. Once the Google Video review team signs off on it, your footage will be added to the catalog.

Google Video cer-tainly still has bugs, but overall it’s got a

clean look and feel to it, and we’re quite sure the catalog of available content is balloon-ing even as you read this.

Google Video Store (beta)

Video player, free; download prices

vary, depending on content. Google,

www.video.google.com. lllmm

Searching for Films at the Googleplex

iTunes: More than MusicBY RICK BROIDA

Version 6 of Apple’s music manager-cum-store presents the

usual hodgepodge of interface tweaks and feature upgrades. But iTunes 6 also does video, and does it reasonably well.

Indeed, Apple’s grand ex-periment—TV shows, mu-sic videos, and Pixar shorts for $1.99 a pop—has enjoyed grand success, as evidenced by the snowballing number of current titles available for download. In addition to the ABC hits Desperate House-wives and Lost, iTunes now carries content from NBC and several Viacom channels like Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, and MTV.

Meanwhile, iTunes’ pod-cast section has expanded to include video podcasts,

though most have the same amateur origins as regular podcasts. You can also use iTunes to convert movie fi les stored on your PC, but only if they’re already in MPEG-4 or MOV format.

But not all that’s new in iTunes 6 centers on video.

The software now devotes roughly a quarter of the Library view to the Mini-Store, which provides quick access to various store fea-tures from within your music collection. Click on one of your Brendan Benson tracks, for instance, and moments

later the MiniStore displays some of his other albums; gift, review, and tell-a-friend options; and related artists.

Respond i ng to users ’ concerns over privacy (the MiniStore necessarily com-municates with Apple ’s servers to fetch relevant in-formation), Apple recently patched iTunes so that the fi rst time the MiniStore opens it states its purpose and gives you the option to disable it.

Despite the major advances in the world of video, iTunes still offers no music subscrip-tion option to match Napster To Go and the growing list of other fl at-rate services. Most users buy portable players with music in mind, and in that regard iTunes is starting to fall behind the curve.

iTunes 6

Player, free; download prices vary,

depending on content. Apple Com-

puter Inc., www.apple.com. lllhm

THE GOOGLE VIDEO STORE lets you download

or upload your video content of choice.

ITUNES USHERED in the era of video to go, but it may be fall-

ing behind the curve by not offering a subscription plan.

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com 44

F I R S T L O O K S Software

BY BILL DYSZEL

A newly launched ser-vice called Podzinger

offers a set of sophis-ticated tools for searching out text in the ever-expand-ing supply of podcasts. Pod-zinger automatically ingests thousands of podcasts and applies speech-to-text con-version and indexing to yield a list of relevant results com-parable to Google’s searches of Web-based text.

Each Podzinger result in-cludes an embedded player, so you can play any program right from the results screen. A list of transcribed excerpts accompanies the results, showing the time and context of every occurrence of your search term. Conveniently, you can click on the time code to jump directly to that excerpt. You can limit your search to a specifi c series of podcasts, and you can create

a custom RSS feed around a term you search for frequent-ly and add that feed to your browser or RSS aggregator.

As with many speech-to-text conversions, Podzinger’s interpretation of some sen-tences can be comical, partic-ularly when diction is unclear or the speaker has a heavy accent. Sometimes music can confuse the speech recogni-tion program—which makes spoken text over background

music particularly suscep-tible to error—and singing is not interpreted at all.

At this point, the service plays only on selected com-binations of Web browsers and audio players, but it gives you the most popular brows-ers, such as Microsoft Inter-net Explorer (RealPlayer and Windows Media Player, both Version 9 and later), Firefox, and Safari (both QuickTime 6.0 and later).

Several other services offer podcast searching—among them Podscope and blinkx.tv—but none offer such sophisticated text con-version along with equally convenient playback options. As the universe of podcast content grows, services like Podzinger will become in-creasingly valuable.

Podzinger

Free. BBN Technologies Corp.,

www.podzinger.com. llllm

Searching the Spoken Word

E-Mail TriageBY RICK BROIDA

Within your moun-tain of legitimate e-mail , how can

you quickly zero in on the really crucial stuff, like in-structions from your boss or questions from your clients?

Microsoft has proposed an answer: SNARF, or Social Network and Relationship Finder. Designed for Micro-soft Outlook 2002 and 2003, this free add-on gives you an at-a-glance overview of your Inbox. But instead of sorting the messages, SNARF sorts the senders, pulling “impor-tant” ones to the top of the list. The idea is that your most frequent correspon-dents are the most impor-tant. It’s a nifty idea, but the tool is confusing at fi rst—and downright fugly.

Getting started is easy: Download and install the 2MB program, then wait sev-eral minutes while it scans your Outlook messages and builds its index. The result-ing window divides mail into three categories, creating a kind of messaging triage.

By default, all three panes display a week’s worth of messages. SNARF lets you add, remove, and customize panes, as well as tweak the metrics used to sort the mes-sages. The top pane lists only those senders who put your name in the To or CC field. The second pane shows the senders who didn’t specify your name (meaning they’re probably distribution lists).

The bottom pane is the catch-all, listing every corre-spondent from the past week.

Next to each name, SNARF displays the number of mes-sages received and sent in the last 30 days. A blue highlight reflects this number, effec-tively turning each pane into a graph of message volume. Clicking on any name brings up a list of all correspondence with that person for the speci-fied period, no matter which folder it’s in. This can be very useful for managing e-mail.

On our tests, SNARF pro-duced odd results. For in-stance, instead of limiting themselves to week-old mail, all three panes listed a hand-ful of senders we hadn’t cor-responded with in years.

SNARF is a research proj-ect and doesn’t solve the problem of e-mail overload, but does provide some relief.

SNARF

Free. Microsoft Corp.,

research.microsoft.com/community/

snarf. llmmm

PODZINGER offers sophisticated tools for searching out text in podcasts.

GET A PRIORITIZED view

of your Outlook e-mail with

Microsoft SNARF.

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com 46

F I R S T L O O K S Software

BY CADE METZ

When Grouper de-buted in late 2004, it led a new wave of

“private” peer-to-peer apps, tools that let you share files, songs, photos, and videos with friends and family. Bare-ly more than a year later, the 2.0 release has fallen in step with all-the-rage online apps such as Flickr, del.icio.us, and TagWorld, encouraging you to tag your media and share it with the Web at large.

Moreover, the new ver-sion gives special attention to video sharing. Grouper has always handled video, but now you can import video clips straight from your cam-era, edit them together, and share them from a single in-terface. And it’s all free. With Grouper’s (partial) peer-to-peer model, much of your shared data is stored on your PC, not on distant servers.

Yes , you ca n still share all sorts of fi les among pri-vate groups, but, clearly, Grouper is now focusing on tagging videos and sharing them with the public.

When you first d o w n l o a d a n d launch Grouper, a home page gives you a choice of actions, and at the top of the list is “Share my videos and photos with the Grouper Community.” Clicking on this link lets you select media fi les from your hard drive and add them to the app’s public directory. Conveniently, you can also import photos and videos straight from certain digital cameras.

As with similar directories on services like Flickr and

del.icio.us, Grouper’s public directory can be searched via tags—keywords that describe uploaded media files. When you share with the communi-ty at large, you have no choice but to attach at least two tags to each file. You might tag a birthday video with the word party or a humorous video with the word funny.

You can’t post individual music files to the public d i re c tor y— t h e major record labels wouldn’t stand for it—but you can create and share customized multi-media f i les that Grouper likes to call Groovies, in which photos and videos are edited together and over-laid with music. After clicking the

Create Groovie button, you can stitch together a surpris-ingly slick mini-movie.

It’s still in beta and it can be somewhat slow and buggy at times, but if you’re into apps like Flickr and TagWorld, you’ll love the new Grouper.

Grouper 2.0 Beta

Free. Grouper Networks Inc.,

www.grouper.com. llllm

Video-Sharing with Strangers

Streamload Your Media FilesBY CADE METZ

Streamload MediaMax provides a personal site where you can store and

share all sorts of digital fi les, including photos, videos, and songs. MediaMax most re-sembles the ultra-slick Glide Effortless, in that it ’s practically a second operating system—a place where you can or-ganize and enjoy your multimedia, not just swap files with others. Swap-ping doesn’t reach beyond people you know and doesn’t include the general public.

The interface is certainly an im-provement over the

previous version. The ser-vice now offers an ActiveX control for uploading files en masse, for example. Once installed, it lets you upload simply by dragging groups and dropping them into your browser window.

You can upload photos, videos, MP3s, Microsoft Word fi les, spreadsheets, and Power Point presentations. The application moves each fi le into a primary “File Man-ager,” which is a simple nest-ed directory, and then sorts

recognized mul-timedia files into other directories.

At the very least, the site serves as an online reposi-tory. It gives you a place to put backup copies of your im-portant content. Wherever you are, whatever machine you’re using, it’s al-ways in reach. And since the service automatically rec-ognizes popular

multimedia types, you can launch fi les straight from the site—without downloading.

You share files using the same interface. You can send them as e-mail attachments or provide URLs invitees can download from.

With a free account, you can store up 25GB of data and download or share up to 500MB each month (though you can’t upload files larger than 25MB). Unfortunately, a fl aw in the service lingers: After you upload files, they don’t immediately appear, and there’s no way of check-ing their status. Sometimes, you can wait for 10 to 15 min-utes. Still, there’s a lot to like in the new Streamload.

Streamload MediaMax

For 25GB storage, 500MB sharing,

25MB sending, and 25MB hosting,

free; other service levels, $14.95 to

$39.95 monthly or $119.40 to $359.40

per year. Streamload Inc.,

www.streamload.com. lllmm

GROUPER 2.0 is convenient for sharing your personal

media with your friends and the Web at large.

STREAMLOAD MEDIAMAX gives you an easy (and

free) way to store and share multimedia fi les.

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com 48

F I R S T L O O K S Software

BY NEIL J. RUBENKING

Your 6-year-old may mistype his favorite cartoon’s URL and

wind up at a porn site; a 16-year-old may reach the same site deliberately. Guardware’s iShield offers a solution for both situations: It detects porn images in the browser and offers a variety of options for dealing with them.

Each time the browser (In-ternet Explorer, Netscape, Firefox, or Mozilla) loads a Web page, iShield analyzes the images found on that page. It looks for skin tones, textures, faces, limb shapes, and a variety of other cues to decide which images may be porn. A Safe | Safer | Saf-est setting controls just what proportion of bad images will trigger page blocking.

With some trepidation, we put the product through its paces. It didn’t block depart-

ment-store lingerie ads but covered up a few scantily clad models at the Victoria’s Secret site. A Google Images search on “breast self-examination” was correctly allowed. When we ventured into more dan-gerous terrain, iShield blocked almost every image.

The product’s recognition of porn images is not perfect. It never fl ags black-and-white images or images in which the color balance is suffi-ciently “off” to change skin tones. It also seems more at-tuned to recognizing female nudes than male. And we

found that some oddly inno-cent images—“head shots” of pumpkins from last Hallow-een—were blocked.

iShield can also go into silent-running mode, simply recording Web pages that seem to contain inappropri-ate images. It lists the time of each access, though not the username, and the par-ent/administrator can click a recorded URL to view it without iShield’s fi ltering. Of course, your tech-savvy teen-ager may attempt to evade this monitoring by terminat-ing iShield. We tried a num-ber of different techniques and found iShield remarkably resilient.

On the whole, iShield does a good job of shielding your kids from images you’d rather they didn’t see.

iShield 1.0.9.2

$24.95 direct. Guardware LLC,

www.guardwareinc.com. lllhm

Block Those Baddies

The Best Spyware Doctor YetBY NEIL J. RUBENKING

With Version 3.5, PC Tools has cranked up Spyware Doc-

tor’s power in several areas.The just-introduced Kernel Delete technology gives the antispyware new ways to re-move rootkits and deal with other complex, self-defending malware. And hidden-process detection shines a spotlight on the pro-cesses—including rootkits—that stop simpler tools.

We subjected the new version to our usual torture tests. As with the previous version, it detected all six commercial keyloggers we used for test i ng , suc-

ceeded in removing all but one, and blocked installation of four.

We did see improvement in the handling of our 15 sample spyware-type threats. One that had slipped past the pre-vious version was blocked, and two that had resisted the

old release’s attempt at re-moval got canned.

Overa l l , the sof t wa re missed removing only one and failed to block just one—an impressive performance. In most cases, its ProcessGuard module knocked out malware installation instantly. A few

miscreants man-aged to install one or more fi les, but those fi les weren’t allowed to run. After each removal scan, Spy-ware Doctor insist-ed on rebooting the system and running a cleanup scan.

One notable plus is better integration of malware infor-mation in the scan results window. In addition to show-

ing a threat level and listing the associated fi le and Regis-try traces, the window now displays a description of the highlighted item.

Spyware Doctor ’s On-Guard Protection monitors the system, looking for pro-grams performing activi-ties typical of malware. And unlike many antispyware products, it blocks only ac-tivity associated with pro-grams that it can identify as malware, so you won’t suffer a warning every time an in-nocuous program sets itself to launch at start-up.

Spyware Doctor 3.5 is an evolutionary step toward that great day when we’ll hold anti spyware products to the same standard as anti viruses: removal of every known in-the-wild threat.

Spyware Doctor 3.5

$29.95 direct. PC Tools,

www.pctools.com. llllm

ISHIELD CAN PREVENT children from accessing porn sites ac-

cidentally (or on purpose), and it’s very easy to install and use.

PC TOOLS HAS ratcheted up its antispyware’s

power in several areas, but you won’t even see

the most important enhancements.

www.pcmag.com MARCH 21, 2006 PC MAGAZINE 49

F I R S T L O O K S Small Business: Printers

Choosing the Best Printer for Your Offi ceing a fi rmware upgrade to fix it, which will be offered on Brother’s Web site.

The MFC-9420CN’s text quality is typi-cal for a color laser AIO, but just a touch lower than the best

color lasers. More than half of our test fonts were easily readable at 5 points.

Graphics and photo quality are also typi-cal for color laser AIOs, with graphics showing dithering pat-terns on some output

and a tendency to lose thin lines. Photos suf-fered from obvious dith-

ering and a noticeable tint, but the quality is good enough for use in client newsletters and Web pages.

If having the convenience of an all-in-one matters more to your offi ce than somewhat better overall quality and speed (and Brother fi xes the monochrome printing bug), the MFC-9420CN may well be your preferred choice.

Brother MFC-9420CN

$800 street. Brother International Co.,

www.brother.com. llllm

COLOR LASER

Lexmark C522nThe Lexmark C522n ($499 direct) is an in-expensive color laser printer with great per-

formance, excellent text out-put, and good graphics and photo quality. And it’s priced right for a personal color laser. The optional 500-sheet paper tray ($299) boosts ca-

BY M. DAVID STONE

Whether your goal is to impress your clients and cus-

tomers with sharp, colorful brochures or just print inter-nal documents, choosing the right printer is not only smart, it can win you new customers (or retain existing custom-ers) and save you money. But which one is right for your needs? Here’s an overview of the different types.

An all-in-one color laser offers the convenience and space savings of copying, scanning, and often faxing capability from one machine combined with high-speed printing and expanded paper handling. Color lasers are a speedy, reliable choice for businesses that have medium to heavy print duties. You should opt for a model that lets you expand paper capac-ity (or duplexing) and share across your network.

While most small offi ces are perfectly happy with printers that handle letter- and legal-size paper, some need to print tab-loid and super-tabloid output. Fortunately, you don’t have to spend a bundle for a large- format printer or go with a slow ink jet any-more. And if your print-ing needs are light but you need high quality for photos, a business-class ink jet is the way to go.

Here we review fi ve print-ers that run the gamut of business needs to give you the know-how to pick the right one for your company.

ALL-IN-ONE

COLOR LASER

Brother MFC-9420CN There aren’t many color laser all-in-ones (AIOs) that are aimed squarely at the small office, bearing price tags of $1,000 or less. However, the Brother MFC-9420CN ($800 street) is a printer that we can recommend for very small businesses. It offers the right com-bination of speed, output quality, and features—a lt houg h i t ex h ibited a pro ble m t h a t u n ex-pectedly slowed it down during our monochrome printing tests.

The MFC-9420CN prints, scans, faxes, copies, and scans to e-mail . And the built-in 35-page automatic document feeder (A DF) makes scanning, faxing, and copying multipage docu-

ments a breeze. Built around an engine

rated at 31 pages per minute (ppm) for monochrome and 8 ppm for color, the MFC-9420CN theoretically should be the fastest color AIO in its

price class. On our tests (timed with QualityLog-ic’s hardware and soft-ware www.qualitylogic.com), it handed in a total

time of 20 minutes 19 sec-onds, making it the second-

fastest AIO in its class. It turns out that the Broth-

er AIO printed even our monochrome-only files in color mode, slowing its print times significantly. Brother says it is aware of this issue and is in the process of test-

ANALYST’S TIPM.David Stone , Lead Analyst

Any of the printers included here could be the ideal choice for your small offi ce. An AIO saves both money and

precious space over having separate devices for printing, scanning, copying, and faxing. If you print many

documents on both sides of a page, look for duplexing as a standard feature or optional upgrade. For the best

possible text quality, focus on laser printers. But if you need graphics and photos, look to a standard ink jet.

LEXMARK’S color laser is a

budget-friendly choice.

BROTHER’S LASER AIO is a

great space-saving option.

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com 52

F I R S T L O O K S Small Business: Printers

pacity to an ample 750 sheets, letting this printer function as the offi ce workhorse.

Performance is one of the best arguments for choosing this printer, which handed in a total time of 11 minutes 19 seconds on our business ap-plications suite.

Output quality is impressive for text and good for graphics and photos. Most tests fonts were easily readable at 4 points. This printer’s graphics output had eye-catching color and crisp, sharp edges, though we did see some posterization and minor registration prob-lems. Photo quality is good enough for items like news-letters, which is the most you can expect from a color laser printer.

With good output quality, fast speed, and a high maxi-mum paper capacity, the

C522n earns a spot as our new Editors’ Choice and would make a fine addition to your offi ce.

Lexmark C522n

$499 direct. Lexmark Inter-

national Inc., www.lexmark

.com. llllm

TABLOID PRINTER

Ricoh Afi cio G7500 T he R icoh A f ic io G7500 ($675 street) offers laser-class speed and quality at a low

price for offi ces on a budget.The G7500 uses the Gel-

Sprinter technology, which sprays ink from a nozzle, so the G7500 is technically an ink jet. But the highly viscous gel dries almost immediately, letting the printer put lots of ink on the paper quickly without blurring edges.

If you judge according to performance, the G7500 is a laser-class printer and best compared with such devices. Even the ink cartridges have yields comparable to those of laser toner cartridges, with a claimed 3,200 pages for black and 2,500 pages each for cyan, yellow, and magenta.

The G7500 offers excellent paper han-dling for the price,

with duplexing stan-dard, a 250-sheet tray for stock up to tabloid

size, and a single-sheet manual tray that handles banner-size paper (12 by 51 inches). An optional

500-sheet tray ($160) holds up to legal-size paper.On our business applica-

tions suite, the G7500 com-pleted the test in 12 minutes 54 seconds. That’s slow com-pared with the speed of cur-rent tabloid-size color lasers, but again, the G7500 costs much less.

The G7500’s text quality was very good, with several of our test fonts easily readable at 4 points. Graphics come out good enough to hand to an im-portant client or customer, as

THE RICOH G7500 is a low-

cost, large-format laser.

www.pcmag.com MARCH 21, 2006 PC MAGAZINE 53

As a writer and editor, I live most of my desktop life staring at

a word processor; the rest of my time is spent running data

through a spreadsheet or preparing presentations in a slide-

oriented package. Like most PC users, I've spent the last sev-

eral years using Microsoft's ubiquitous Offi ce Suite to do those

chores, and while I have my complaints, mostly I've been happy.

But it's tempting to look around once in a while to fi nd out what

the rest of the world is up to. Frankly, what it’s up to makes up just

a small part of the computer-using world. Microsoft estimates

that over 600 million computers have its Offi ce Suite installed,

and that number is hard for any competitor to cope with.

But cope they do, and lately I've taken a look at two suites —

Corel's new X3 edition of WordPerfect Office and Sun's Star-

Offi ce 8—to see just how well other products would enable me

to do my work. What I’ve found is that if you can live with a couple

of limitations and quirks, you can spend a lot less money on the

non-Microsoft products and do all the work

you want to do.

These suites—very fine products that

have been developed by skilled software

designers and engineers—are made even

better by offering a seemingly unbreakable

level of compatibility with the Microsoft

products. As a result, you can share files

with colleagues or business partners who are using these prod-

ucts and not fear losing information.

They do operate a bit differently here and there, but that doesn't

really matter, because within a few hours or days you'll get used

to those differences and forget all about them. After all, there’s no

such thing as a nonquirky software product, so why should Micro-

soft have exclusive rights to oddly designed interfaces?

Some limitations, however, may be important. StarOffi ce, for

example, doesn’t provide an e-mail client. Unless you do all your

e-mail using Web-based services or can live with Outlook Express

or the equivalent, that’s a component you really must have. The

new X3 edition of WordPerfect Offi ce has a very fi ne e-mail client,

but it doesn't support Microsoft Exchange, and that may be a prob-

lem. Neither suite has a database manager like Microsoft Access,

but I can't think of a reason to consider that a defi cit.

Many if not most of you are very used to the Microsoft Offi ce

products, and you may feel uncomfort-

able with learning the idiosyncrasies

of another product. Let me assure you,

there are not very many of them, and

you may save enough money to upgrade

that old PC. For our reviews of the dif-

ferent alternatives, visit go.pcmag.com/

offi cealternatives. >MORE ON THE WEB For reviews, tips, and advice,

all with a focus on small and

medium businesses, visit

www.smartcompany.com

Microsoft Offi ce Alternatives

John Dickinson

F I R S T L O O K S Small Business: Printers

Corel WordPerfect X3: A Worthy AlternativeBY EDWARD MENDELSON

Think of an annoyance in Microsoft Office, a nd you probably

won’t find it in Corel Word-

Perfect Office X3, the latest version of this venerable office suite, now enhanced with its own mail program. Office can’t export files in PDF format (although the next version, due by the end of the year, will), but Word-Perfect outputs PDF fi les and also imports PDF fi les so you can edit them.

Outlook won’t index your messages for instant re-trieval, but WordPerfect’s WordPerfect Mail module indexes everything. Where Word automatically refor-mats documents without ask-ing permission, WordPerfect waits for your command—including a command that reformats your work to fit a specifi ed number of pages. Worried about comments and undo/redo informa-

tion hidden in your Word files? WordPerfect includes a “Save without metadata” command that clears out everything you can’t see on the page. Tired of reformat-ting information pasted into Word from a Web page? Use WordPerfect’s Ctrl-Alt-V to paste text from the Web and give it the format of the doc-ument you’re editing.

WordPerfect Offi ce X3—so named to avoid calling it Ver-sion 13—still uses the same basic file format that Word-Perfect has used since Ver-sion 6, enhanced to support all European languages as smoothly as Word does. Also included is the Quattro Pro X3 spreadsheet. It’s less pow-erful than recent versions of Microsoft Excel but is ca-

pable of building Excel-style pivot tables and provides live links to SQL databases. The Presentations X3 pack-age gets the job done and di-rectly outputs PDF fi les, but it lacks PowerPoint’s razzle-dazzle graphics and effects. Presentations Graphics X3 provides a direct route to the suite’s solid but unspectacu-lar graphics-editing features, without the slide-organizing capabilities. The WordPer-fect Mail program doesn’t look much like the rest of the suite, but its built-in indexing, RSS reading, and trainable spam filter leave Microsoft playing catch-up.

If you’re a longtime user of WordPerfect Offi ce, you’ll appreciate the new features. And if you’re searching for an alternative to Microsoft, this is defi nitely one to consider.

Corel WordPerfect Offi ce X3 Standard Edition

$299 list; upgrade, $159. Corel Corp.,

www.corel.com. llllm

long as you use high-quality mode. Photo output is good enough for newsletters and other internal uses.

For tabloid-size printing with laser-class quality and speed at bargain prices, the G7500 is not just a good choice and our Editors’ Choice—it’s the only game in town.

Ricoh Afi cio G7500

$675 street. Ricoh Corp.,

www.ricoh-usa.com. llllm

HEAVY-DUTY INK JET

The HP Offi cejet Pro K550 HP’s Web site claims that the Officejet Pro K550 Color Printer ($199 direct) is the

world’s fastest desktop color printer. In reality, it’s not. But it’s certainly the fastest by far in this price class, at least for business applications. Even better, it doesn’t sacrifice

quality for speed—text and graphics qual-ity are among the best you’ll fi nd in an ink jet printer.

T h e K 5 5 0 ’ s 250-sheet capac-ity input tray and a USB connection ma ke th is model a good choice for a home or small offi ce. For t hose who need two-sided output, there’s a duplexer option ($79.99). Keep in mind, however, that the K550 has no network connection.

HP’s claim that the K550 is the fastest desktop color printer stretches the truth only a little. On our business applications suite, it fi nished in 9:08—a record for the K550’s price class.

Our photo suite provided a more signifi cant challenge to HP’s speed claim: The print-er averaged a leisurely 2:43 for each 4-by-6 and 5:42 for 8-by-10 images. That’s an-other reason why the K550 is most appropriate in an offi ce,

where pr i nt i ng photos is gener-ally not an issue or a necessity.

Overall output quality was better than that of most ink jets, particularly

for text and graphics. All but two of our test

fonts were easily read-able at 4 points.

Graphics quality is as good as that from any ink

jet we’ve seen. Although photo printing is the K550’s weak point, that’s not criti-cal with a printer intended primarily for offi ce use. More to the point, the K550 does enough things well to make recommending it easy.

HP Offi cejet Pro K550 Color Printer

$199 direct. Hewlett-Packard Develop-

ment Co., www.hp.com. llllm

GET THE OFFICE APPS YOU NEED, minus the aggravation,

with Corel WordPerfect Offi ce X3.

THE HP K550 prints high-

quality photos at top speeds.

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com 54

F I R S T L O O K S Software

BY KATHY YAKAL

eBay ProStores 6.0 is a complete solu-tion for merchants, offering automated store creation for be-

ginners and advanced design tools for the experienced.

Four subscription levels, from $6.95 monthly for a very basic ten-product site to a whopping $249.95 per month for enterprise-level service, offer a range of capabilities. It’s a terrific blend of mer-chant muscle, conceived and executed exceptionally well.

We reviewed ProStores Business, for which the base cost is $29.95 per month and an addition 0.5 percent fee for successful transac-tions. (Current eBay Store sellers receive a 30 percent discount). This level is quite adequate for eBay sellers and other small companies. It includes a personalized do-

main, 5GB of storage space, up to 50GB per month for data transfer, up to 50 unique mailboxes, great documenta-tion, and 24/7 tech support.

Your product catalog can contain an unlimited num-ber of items, which can be listed and cross-sold on eBay.

Shipping integration with the U.S. Postal Service, UPS, FedEx, and Canada Post is built in, as is the ability to print labels.

Getting up and running is easy whether you’re starting from scratch or integrating an existing Web site. You’ll

find 180 wizard-driven tem-plates and numerous custom-ization options. The Design Studio lets you add and alter templates and link to other sites. You can add dazzle using tools such as Dream-weaver, Flash, and MP3s.

The Store Administra-tion page stores preferences for billing options, sales-tax computation, accounting synchronization with Quick-Books, and the like. It also lists product details, custom-er lists, orders, and customiz-able reports.

T h is mercha nt-ma ker combines the undisputed power of eBay with a unique storefront builder and man-ager. ProStores 6.0 stands with the best of the storefront creation applications.

eBay ProStores 6.0

Business edition, $29.95 monthly plus

0.5 percent transaction fee. ProStores

Inc., www.prostores.com. llllh

eBay-ing for Pros

Firebox Is on GuardBY OLIVER KAVEN

The WatchGuard Fire-

box X8000 i s t he f lagship firewall in

WatchGuard’s Firebox X Peak line of UTM (Unifi ed Threat Management) appliances. It’s a robust, albeit expensive, product notable for perfor-mance; high availability that includes failover; traffi c pri-oritization and management; remote connectivity; and centralized management.

To satisfy businesses in need of a blazingly fast se-curity solution, the X8000 provides seven 10/100 Mbps Ethernet interfac-es and three Gig E ports, for supporting complex deployment scenarios that require individually controlled network segments and security zones.

Firewalls in today’s net-works are the first point of impact for incoming data and the gateway to the out-side world, so most now fi lter out malware and spam. The X8000 provides security by integrating a stateful packet inspection f irewall, VPN concentrator, application proxy, AV engine, intrusion prevention, spam blocking, and URL fi ltering.

With Fireware Pro version 8.2, WatchGuard introduced a new spam-blocking service in

partnership with Commtouch (w w w. c o m m to u c h . c o m) , which doesn’t require signa-tures to detect junk e-mail. WatchGuard has expanded the WebBlocker service to include 40 filtering catego-ries and has redesigned the update engine to perform incremental upgrades rather than full downloads. And Fireware Pro now includes enhanced protection to block spyware at the gateway.

The X8000 also provides enterprise-level features that will appeal to those manag-ing complex networks. Multi-WA N fa i lover, dyna mic

routing (BGP, OSPF, RIP), QoS (Quality of Service), and authentication against Active Directory and LDAP directo-ries are only a few examples.

The management interface remains easy to use despite the increasing complexity of the fi rmware. Oldies but good-ies such as the HostWatch utility and the live-traffic monitor are still useful.

Unfortunately, few small and medium-size businesses will be able to afford the Peak line of fi rewalls. But those on limited budgets can check out WatchGuard’s Core line of appliances. They don’t provide the tremendous throughput, but they include the same fi rmware and many of the useful features you’ll fi nd in the Firebox X8000.

Firebox X8000

$9,900 direct. WatchGuard Tech-

nologies Inc., www.watchguard.com.

llllm

THE NEW PROSTORES 6.0 offers a complete solution for build-

ing an online store, for both beginners and the more advanced.

THE FIREBOX X8000 is a multi-

talented fi rewall that offers remote connectiv-

ity and centralized management of distributed networks.

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com 56

brushes simplify complicated editing tasks.

go.pcmag.com/photoshopcs2

FINANCIAL SOFTWARE

Microsoft Money Premium 2006Microsoft Corp.; $75 street

Thorough setup assistant, excellent

bill-paying tools.

go.pcmag.com/msmoney

HOME NETWORKING

Linksys Wireless-G WRT54GLinksys; $60 street

Good performance and a solid feature set,

extremely easy to set up.

go.pcmag.com/linksyswrt54g

CONSUMER ELECTRONICSPORTABLE MEDIA PLAYER (HARD DRIVE)

Archos AV 500Archos; $499.95 list (30GB)

Great video quality, compact, lightweight,

bright LCD, easy to use.

go.pcmag.com/AV500

DIGITAL CAMERA (COMPACT)

Canon PowerShot S80Canon U.S.A. Inc.; $549.95 list

Great picture quality, good performance,

wide-angle lens.

go.pcmag.com/S80

MOBILE PHONE (SPRINT)

Sprint’s Power Vision MM-A940Samsung Electronics America Inc.; $399.99 direct

Vast feature set, optical zoom lens,

Bluetooth, good game performance.

go.pcmag.com/MMA940

MEDIA HUB

Buffalo LinkTheaterBuffalo Technology (USA) Inc.; $299 direct

Broad fi le support, moderate price,

relatively easy installation.

go.pcmag.com/LinkTheater

DESKTOP

Dell Dimension E310Dell Inc.; $746 direct, with 17-inch LCD, $929

Windows XP Media

Center Edition, DataSafe

option for added storage

protection, great bang

for the buck.

go.pcmag.com/dellE310

ALL-IN-ONE PRINTER

Canon Pixma MP500Canon U.S.A. Inc.; $199.99 direct

Prints, scans, and copies; fast perfor-

mance; excellent paper handling.

go.pcmag.com/CanonPixmaMP500

DEDICATED PHOTO PRINTER

Canon Selphy CP510 Compact Photo PrinterCanon U.S.A. Inc.; $99.99 direct

Fast performance, low running cost, very

good photo quality for the price, battery

option.

go.pcmag.com/canoncp510

LCD MONITOR (21-INCH)

Gateway FPD2185WGateway Inc.; $599.99 direct

Excellent image quality, lots of video

connections, highly adjustable.

go.pcmag.com/GatewayFPD2185W

HARD DRIVE

Maxtor OneTouch II Small Business Edition

(SBE)Maxtor Corp.; $599.95 direct

Works with Windows 2000/2003

Server and Small Business Server;

unattended backups.

go.pcmag.com/

MaxtorOneTouch IISBE

SOFTWAREANTISPYWARE

Spy Sweeper 4.5Webroot Software Inc.; $25–$30 street

Powerful spyware protection; offers

detailed info about found threats.

go.pcmag.com/spysweeper

PHOTO EDITING (PROFESSIONAL)

Adobe Photoshop CS2Adobe Systems Inc.; $649 direct

The industry standard; new Vanishing

Point, Smart Objects, and Spot Healing Gateway FPD2185W

Canon

PowerShot S80

PDA

Dell Axim X51vDell Inc.; $324 direct

Uses Microsoft Windows 5.0 Mobile; good

value, Wi-Fi networking, good security.

go.pcmag.com/AximX51v

HARDWARELAPTOP

Dell Inspiron 6000 (Media Center)Dell Inc.; $968.80 direct (E-Value Code 1111-i6004pc)

Media Center OS, 15.4-inch widescreen

display, very good performance.

go.pcmag.com/inspiron6000mce

Dell Dimension E310

WHAT TO BUY

57

go.pcmag.com/whattobuy • F I R S T L O O K S

www.pcmag.com MARCH 21, 2006 PC MAGAZINE

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com58

OUR WAKE-UP CALL

I just read “The Sorry State of Security” (February 21 cover story) and I have just three words to say about it: gripping, riv-eting, outstanding.

Thank you for hitting the nail on the head, fi nally. We all need a wake-up call, and we need it now.

Scott Haggard

MY CREDIT CARD INFO—WHY?

In your First Looks review of Glide Effortless (February 7, page 59), Cade Metz describes a new Web portal.

When I began to register for a free subscription, I was re-quired to fi ll in credit card details. I became suspicious. Is this a customary routine in the U.S.? Is it a way to get credit card info for an ID theft? Anyway, I stopped the registra-tion process.

Can you check and report in the next possible issue if you unknow-ingly promoted a scam?

Henk Eggens

Yes, Glide is legitimate. But, no, it isn’t customary for American companies to ask for credit card numbers when pro-viding a free service. This is a dumb move in any country. You weren’t the only one to balk at that credit card screen, and after countless complaints, the company is reconsid-ering its approach. They’d better. Otherwise, this promising ser-vice (see the letter below) won’t see the light of day.—Cade Metz

IN PRAISE OF GLIDE

I read your fi rst article on Glide a few months ago and signed up for an account. After using it over a period of several weeks, I agree with your assessment that it is truly a paradigm shift. I work on many different computers and need access to fi les and the ability to provide access to these fi les to others. The fl exibil-ity that Glide provides to share fi les (once you get used to the in-terface) is amazing. Glide consistently goes a few steps further

than the other online fi le management and sharing systems that I have tried. Glide provides enhanced features, including some that don’t exist anywhere else that I’m aware of. It’s refreshing to see a product that provides new possibilities and real value.

Jason Saunders

YAHOO! FOR A CHOICE

I agree with Lance Ulanoff about Yahoo! (go.pcmag.com/yahoolefthook). I have never particularly liked Yahoo!, but I am very glad that there is an alternative to Google. Google is getting so popular that it has the potential to become dangerous. Al-ready it controls which Web pages appear fi rst in search results, and it is not just about the merits of that page. Any company

with as much control as Google has over the material the public reads also has the potential to misuse that control. I suppose sooner or later, news broadcasts will commonly be streamed over the Web. That would be similar to the situation that would exist if one person controlled all the nation’s newspapers. So three cheers for Yahoo!—or should I just say “Yahoo!”?

Brian Palmer

Glad you agree, Brian. Still, let’s not go overboard and equate popularity with evil machinations of oligarchic control. Google is big business because we, the consumers, made it so. And while its algorithms help popular content bubble up toward the top of search results, the popularity is driven, again, by us the consum-ers. In the end, the key to keeping one popular company from having too much power is creating healthy competition. That’s something I think Yahoo! is fi nally doing.—Lance Ulanoff

SONY’S HDTV/PVR: A DREAM COME TRUE

I read Jim Louderback’s article about cable DVRs and TiVo boxes (December 27, page 67). He indicated that the only way

How to Contact UsWe welcome your comments and suggestions.

When sending e-mail to Feedback, please state in the subject line of your

message which article or column prompted your response.

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All letters become the property of PC Magazine and are subject to editing. We

regret that we cannot answer letters individually.

After using Glide for several weeks, I agree with your assessment that it’s truly a paradigm shift.‘‘ ’’

FEEDBACK

GLIDE REQUIRES that you fi ll in credit card information to receive a free subscription.

go.pcmag.com/feedbackgo.pcmag.com/feedback

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com 60

When looking for music, I’d like the full version, not the cut-down version they play on the radio.

Corrections and Amplifi cations

In our review of the BitTorrent Client 4.2 (February 7, page 116), we incorrectly stated

that BitTorrent requires JRE (Java Runtime Environment) 1.5. The BitTorrent client does

not require any additional software, Java-related or otherwise.

to record HD programs was by using a TiVo set-top box or a cable company set-top box. Then I read the letter by Daniel Riek (Feedback, February 7, page 63). Daniel states “Right now I don’t think you can record any HD programming with a DVR that hasn’t been issued by the provider (Cable, DirecTV, Dish) except for over-the-air signals.”

Well, that’s not true. I’ve owned a Sony HDTV receiver/DVR set-top box (model DHG-HDD500) since June 2005, and this baby can indeed do HD recording from over-the-air. It also can record HD from cable, as long as your cable company supports CableCard technology. This DVR can receive and re-cord analog and digital (HD) over-the-air broadcasts. It also receives and records cable analog and digital (HD) broadcasts. The cable digital channels (both SD and HD) are enabled using a CableCard installed by your local cable company. Therefore you aren’t stuck renting or buying a particular cable company’s box. If you move to another area serviced by a different cable company, just install their CableCard in the Sony and you are all set! The programming is accomplished using the “TV Guide on Screen” system that is included in many newer TV sets.

The Sony HDTV/PVR is a dream come true for people like me who get their HD programming from over-the-air and ca-ble and are not interested in using DirecTV and Dish services. The Sony HDTV/PVR I own has a 500GB hard drive, but it’s also available in a 250GB model for about $200 less.

Don Davis

If I hadn’t spent all my money on that HD TiVo, I’d rush to buy one of those Sony boxes. Sounds like a nice setup.—Jim Louderback

MUSICMATCH MEETS YAHOO!

I enjoyed Michael Miller’s “More Choices for Digital Music Fans” (February 7, page 8) and wanted to point out that no discussion of digital music is complete without a mention of Musicmatch’s On Demand service, which is now powered by Yahoo! Music.

I just upgraded to Musicmatch Plus and now subscribe to its Musicmatch On Demand To Go. With this service, I can not only add as many tracks or albums as I want from the Yahoo! collection, but also download unlimited tracks and albums to my MP3 player! (I use the Dell DJ 20.) The service costs $12 per month ($120 when billed annually)—but there is no limit to how many downloads you can take and carry around!

The drawback is that the fi les are locked, so you can’t burn them to CDs—but I’m starting to wonder why I even need CDs anymore. With my Dell DJ 20, I can carry 1,000 albums in a cigarette-sized box. I guess we could use our audio CDs for backups, but then again, we could always re-download them.

In short, this old-school music lover really loves the conve-nience and economy of getting unlimited albums to download and carry around. The Musicmatch software is awful, but the downloaded fi les play fi ne on Windows Media Player.

One last thing—the On Demand To Go service can be used only with Musicmatch 10.1 or later. This version is diffi cult to find—most Google searches will get you only to Version 10 (and that includes going directly to the Musicmatch Web site).

Scott M. Harwood, Jr.

I agree about digital music, but what do you do in your car? Until a mini-jack comes standard on every car, without CDs you’ll still be fi ghting with old technology that delivers subpar results—like FM transmitters and cassette adapters.—JL

BRING BACK OUT-OF-PRINT SONGS

Your article “Stop the Music” (February 7, page 8) failed to bring up a very important point. Some of us look for songs that the recording companies refuse to put out anymore, saying there is no “real” demand for these songs and that they would lose money having them in their catalog of music. When look-ing for music, such as Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight,” I’d like the full version, not the cut-down version they play on the radio. Pay-per sites have small versions of a few vintage songs, but some of us would like the full-length versions. Their idea is that if you want the song(s), you’ll pay for what they give you. So where are we to go but to the peer-to-peer sites?

Will the recording companies or online music stores lose money by listing songs in different lengths on their sites? No. Could they make money adding them to their listing? Yes. It seems the music business has forgotten the old saying con-sumers live by, “If you don’t have what I want, I’ll go get it elsewhere.” Once the recording companies change their way of thinking, realize that consumers will indeed go someplace else to get what they want, and adjust accordingly, peer-to-peer might be a thing of the past.

Susan Connors

You are absolutely right. The recording companies seem to be getting it—albeit slowly. Universal Music, for example, just an-nounced that it would bring back more than 100,000 songs from its out-of-print catalog. Others, I’m sure, will follow suit. —JL

‘‘ ’’FEEDBACK

go.pcmag.com/feedback

61 www.pcmag.com MARCH 21, 2006 PC MAGAZINE

Web 2.0 is the latest moniker in an endless effort to reignite the dot-com mania of the late 1990s. This one seems to be succeeding. The problem is that little has changed.

Bad ideas of the past have been renamed and spiffed up. We’re watching a classic example of “old wine in new bottles”: Changing the label doesn’t make the wine any better, but it does get us to buy more wine.

Here’s what’s really happening. Some trends that were knocked for a loop by the dot-com bust, such as online retailing, rebounded without anyone resort-ing to smoke and mirrors. Their growth is steady, and their future seems rosy. But the fallout from the dot-com bust sidetracked many other trends. The assertions of Web 2.0’s promoters, a welter of catchy, impressive-sounding phrases, seem nothing more than a rehash of those failed digital panaceas.

Self-service. Perhaps the inventors of Web 2.0 don’t realize what the real trends are, because lost amid the buzzwords and highfalutin conferences is the reality that what people are actually doing on-line is built around the concept of using the Web to do things yourself. That has been the main thrust of the Internet since its inception. Since simplicity (the core idea underlying self-service) is not a mon-eymaker, this idea is lost in a fog of terms such as “participation architecture,” “play-enabling,” “rich experience,” “user-contributed folksonomy,” “hack-ability,” and “user remixability.” But it’s all evolu-tion, not the revolution the cheerleaders promote.

This lingo makes no sense to anyone not caught up in the dream. The real dream, by the way, is to get rich quick without doing any real work—except maybe writing some code once. For programmers, this dream dates back to 1981, the start of an era in which coders could be prima donnas, get away with it, and walk away wealthy.

Greed factor. During the late 1990s, the golden ring slipped just past the grip of a lot of wannabes, who are convinced that they can do it right this time around—if only there is another dot-com surge. Web 2.0 is a rallying point. Maybe cheerleading will make it happen! But what they are cheerleading for, a slew of vague and meaningless concepts, shows that they have no clue about what they are doing.

These newest initiatives indeed stem from 1999 concepts, just as if there had never been a dot-com bust. I’ll let you in on a Silicon Valley secret. Ac-

cording to local lore, the dot-com bust had nothing to do with the stupidity or greed of Web mavens and MBAs. It was the fault of Enron, MCI, and bone-headed venture capitalists. The push to pursue the same notions is based on the misguided belief that there was no failure in the fi rst place. Wild, eh?

The growth of Web-related enterprise is chug-ging along, though without the fi nancial craziness of the late 1990s. Perhaps things are better without all that money (ducking thrown cabbage). Except for those losing out on that get-rich-quick scheme.

Effi ciency. As I see it, the impetus behind Web 2.0 is the drive to make the do-it-yourself Internet more efficient. And this is what is mostly over-looked by the folks who hope to create a new dot-com boom by promoting excitement about Web 2.0. Take Wikipedia (please!)—which is made pos-sible by the do-it-yourself nature of the Web. The self-service that was supposed to change the way people do business has extended into everything online, from the Wiki encyclopedia that “writes itself” to blogging and podcasting, where people make their own newspapers and broadcasts, to so-cial networking systems, where people fi nd dates. Yet remember that podcasting is an evolution of the streaming media and webcasting of the late 1990s.

Critics of self-service ideas such as blogging will tell you that they can’t replace operations such as The New York Times for news gathering, but so what? A combined million blogs sure can. Not only is blogging do-it-yourself in nature, but so is fi nd-ing and following your favorite blogs. Both blogs and old media have their rightful place on the Net.

As I read the Web 2.0 blather, I rarely fi nd anyone who understands that self-service is the real focus of the profound changes in how the Web has been used in the past few years. Instead, some see these changes in utopian terms. Web 2.0 conferences fi ll up with high and mighty speakers pontificating about a Brave New World where everything is cool and you can share photos and download music!

They don’t get it. The latest buzzwords just cap-ture an idea that has been passed along for decades: “If you want something done right, do it yourself.” Welcome to Web 2.0. You’re on your own!

John C. Dvorak Web 2.0 Baloney

The push to pursue

the same notions as

before the dot-com

bust is based on the

misguided belief that

there was no failure

in the fi rst place.

MORE ON THE WEB: Read John C. Dvorak’s column every Monday at go.pcmag.com/dvorak. You can reach him directly at pcmag@dvorak.org.

www.pcmag.com MARCH 21, 2006 PC MAGAZINE 63

J O H N C . D V O R A K

Inside Track H

ere Comes the Era of the CMS Dept.: One of the most popular emerging applications is the CMS or content management system. These are programs that first emerged as

expensive and elaborate high-end systems to manage the content of large organizations, especially infor-mational Web sites such as PCMag.com or the Wall

Street Journal’s site, WSJ.com.A basic CMS system typically consists of a back

end, into which content is loaded, and a front end, which displays the content to the end user. Both ends can vary greatly in complexity. Many people don’t realize that the reason for blogging’s success stems from the development of popular CMS sys-

tems that anyone can use. Back in the late 1990s, only a few CMS systems were commercially avail-able, and most content management was done on a custom basis.

Then along came blogging, which started by using a scaled-down CMS system (the simple Blogger.com hosted application). As blogging evolved and added new features, more advanced CMS systems were developed. Recent systems are extremely powerful and can be used for all sorts of

purposes besides blogging. Some of these systems, such as WordPress, still promote themselves pri-marily as blogging applications, and others, such as Drupal, are promoted as CMSs. In fact, blogging software is CMS software that simply targets a market. WordPress can be used for many different kinds of projects.

Once you learn a CMS system, it will become your fastest way to deploy a complex, professional-

looking Web site. I’d advise people interested in using CMS software to use their search engines to see what’s out there. A quick look at the CMS world reveals over 150 systems available for ex-perimentation, most of them free systems evolving from open-source development. It’s amazing what you can get for nothing.

My current favorite CMS systems are Word-Press, Mambo, and Joomla (a Mambo spinoff cre-ated by Mambo’s former development team, which became disgruntled and split off). My Dvorak Uncensored blog uses WordPress. Two other sys-tems that have good reputations are Drupal and e107. Just know that there are plenty for you to choose from.

Typically, the open-source systems are server-side Linux applications and require recent ver-sions of the PHP script compiler as well as MySQL. It’s quite interesting how the majority of CMS apps have gravitated to the so-called LAMP platform

(Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP).

If you have never used even the most basic CMS, I’d advise starting a simple blog on any of the free hosted services. Blogger.com, now owned by Google, is as good as any. There you’ll experience one of the fundamental systems and a generalized model for CMS data entry. Once you learn how to use that, you can graduate to the more complicated systems such as Mambo or Joomla.

Many small ISPs and hosting services already have many of these CMS systems on their servers. Often all it takes is a request to load a copy into your site’s directories, and then you’re on your way.

Say It Isn’t So Dept.: Here’s a real head-slapper. Microsoft is making noise about doing an iPod de-vice—an MP3 player. Why? The only thing I can fi gure is that Microsoft, like most big companies, is a creature of habit. It knows that when it com-petes against Apple, it not only wins, but wins big. I’m guessing that some executive took a look at the iPod’s 80 percent market share and the massive revenues from the device and just assumed that by copying the idea, Microsoft will get all that money in no time. Crazy.

If the company goes ahead with this plan, I as-sume the player will be done by the competent team doing the Xbox 360 and will become a periph-

eral to that device. The Xbox 360 already has a hookup so that an iPod can play music in the back-ground through the Xbox sound system.

Obituaries Dept.: Apparently Sony has killed off the cute and moderately popular AIBO robot dog. When the company lost $10 billion last year, some-one had to look for scapegoats, and apparently the dog was it. Though the cybercanine was hardly a massive profi t center, it did give the company some sorely needed cachet. Sony will still manufacture the AIBO for a while, but development has ceased.

With even less fanfare, the Western Union Company announced that it will no longer do tele-

grams. STOP. When I first heard this I realized that it was the end of an era. STOP. But that era was over so long ago that I’m certain nobody read-ing this gets the “STOP” gag. Telegrams probably reached their zenith as a form of communication in the 1930s and 1940s. Once long-distance phone calling went worldwide, there was no reason to use a telegram.

That said, if Western Union had a real clue, it would have publicized the demise of the telegram in advance and let people send themselves a mes-sage for old times’ sake before shutting down the service. I would have sent a few, just to have a sou-

venir of a dead but once crucially important indus-

try. Too late now. Dummies.

Once you

learn a CMS

system, it

will become

your fastest

way to deploy

a complex,

professional-

looking Web

site.

www.pcmag.com MARCH 21, 2006 P C M AG A Z I N E 65

You’re too smart to be sucked in by those eBay scammers with zero feedback or too-good-to-be-true offerings. You know your way around PayPal; you know your rights as a buyer, and you know how to be

a good seller. So do I. You see an opportunity, you bid aggressively, do a little last-minute sniping, win your prize. So did I—or so I thought.

DAMAGED IN TRANSIT

I saw a really nice Fender Blues Junior guitar amplifi er on eBay, an early one with a tweed fab-ric covering instead of the usual black vinyl. The tweed amps fetch a premium, and I got this one for a little less than the going rate. I love these amps, and modifying them is a hobby. I had dreams of making this one into a smooth, warm, jazz amp.

UPS delivered the amp, but when it arrived my heart sank. Before I even opened the box, I could see the large gash in the corner—it looked as if someone had taken a swing at it with an ax. The cut went through the cardboard, through the bub-ble wrap, into the corner of the amp, through the tweed, and into the wood. The amp was insured, however, and it could be repaired. I checked the UPS site, which stated that UPS preferred that the damage claim be fi led by the shipper. I contacted the seller, who fi led the claim. UPS wanted to in-spect the amp; a driver picked it up from me and gave me a receipt.

IT’S ALL SETTLED . . . OR IS IT?

That was the last I saw of the amp. After a couple of weeks, I contacted UPS via e-mail, and the cus-tomer service rep sent back a terse note saying that the matter had been settled with the shipper, and that I should take it up with the shipper if I wanted more information. I e-mailed the seller, who claimed that he hadn’t heard a thing. Uh-oh, was I being scammed?

I went back to the UPS rep, who reiterated—in a stop-bugging-me tone—that the matter had been settled with the shipper. Then the light bulb went on. The seller had sent the amp from a local store that did UPS shipping. I contacted the UPS rep one more time, and he fi nally made it clear that as far as UPS was concerned, the store, not the seller, was the shipper. Never mind that I’d paid for the shipping and insurance, and that I’d paid for the

amp and it was my property. What had the UPS people done with the amp? They’d sent it back . . . to the shipper.

I got in touch with the seller, who tried to reach the shipper, but the shipper had, rather inconveniently, gone out of business a day or two after my amp arrived. So there the amp sat, in a closed store. Over the next couple of days, I tracked down and talked to both the seller and the store owner, and they promised to do their best to get the amp back to me. And that’s where it still sits, seven weeks later, half a country away.

If I had had any idea that UPS was going to hijack my amp and send it back to the shipper, without ever clarifying who they considered the shipper to be, I would never have released it to them. Not that I could have imagined the store would go out of business, but since I had pur-chased the amp—and had paid the shipping and insurance fees—it was and still is my property, and to send it back to him was to burden him and cheat me. All I can do is hope that the shipper is a decent guy, business setback notwithstanding, and that he resends it to me. Heck, I’d even pay the shipping again at this point. But I’m both baffl ed and annoyed by UPS’s position—never mind the snarky attitude—that its resolution of the claim was none of my business.

LIVE AND LEARN

Although I thought I was wise in the ways of on-line auctions, I’ve learned an important lesson: The buyer and seller can consummate a mutually satisfactory transaction, all the eBay and PayPal stuff can go smoothly, and you can still fi nd your-self screwed over by as seemingly benign an en-tity as UPS.

I’ve subsequently heard stories of UPS paying insurance claims, taking possession of the mer-chandise, and disposing of it through a broker. It then often winds up on eBay again. Meanwhile, I don’t seem to be the payee of the insurance in UPS’s eyes, and I’d hate to wind up buying the darn thing again. What can Brown do for you? Don’t ask.

What Brown Did for Me

MORE ON THE WEB: You can contact Bill Machrone at Bill_Machrone@ziffdavis.com. For more of his col-umns, go to go.pcmag.com/machrone.

I’m both baffl ed and

annoyed by UPS’s

position—never mind

the snarky attitude—

that its resolution of

the claim was none

of my business.

Bill Machrone

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Seasoned travelers tra

vel prepared. You know the drill:

You need the

right fl ight and hotel re

servations, passport, visa, shots, shoes, and

clothes. And now you need the rig

ht tech gear to

keep you connected.

The Well

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com68

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Which gear is right for the well-c

onnected traveler? It

’s no use having

the best cell phone in the U.S. if it can’t pick up the signal when you get

to Zagreb. And it’s no use lugging a laptop abroad without an adapter

for the local plugs. W

ill your brand-new EV-DO–equipped machine be

able to pick up a signal in your hotel’s lobby, or will you need to bring

along cables for your room’s broadband ports?

Does your hotel even have broadband? Should you pack a wireless

sniffer in

case you’re left to your own devices? Gear th

at makes perfect

sense in your den may be too heavy, too fragile, or just plain ineffective

in the wider world.

In this story, we give you a rundown of the gear we’d pack in our

ideal travel bag: everything fro

m MP3 players to wireless gear. We’ve

also included minireviews of the products best suited for tra

vel. And,

to illustrate best packing practices, we’ve delved into the bags of th

ree

accomplished travelers and photographed their gear (don’t worry,

we shot only techie stuff—no socks or underwear). T

o help you stay

connected, we’ve also rounded up some of the best-connected hotels,

airports, and airlines. Finally, we caught up with PC Magazine columnist

and world traveler John C. Dvorak, who shares his travel secrets and

prefl ight checklist for international tra

velers.

The airlines may be in trouble and the Plaza is going condo, but

travel is booming. So look for our new Connected Traveler depart-

ment, which will f

eature connected hotels, airport information, the

hottest hot spots, and much more in every issue. You can fi nd the inau-

gural Connected Traveler on page 101, with the lowdown on Beantown.

—By Sean Carroll and Sarah Pike

Connected

Traveler

Make a list of all the tech tasks you’ll want to do on

your trip, starting with: checking e-mail, editing

documents, making phone calls, watching DVDs. Then

gather the equipment needed. Check that your hardware

has all the software you’ll need.

If you’re taking a digital camera, round up your

memory cards (and offl oad old photos).

Take the fi les you’ve put on your fl ash drive and

e-mail them to an account you’ve created on a

Web-based service such as Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo! Mail.

Now, even if you lose your laptop and your fl ash drive, your

content is safe on an easily accessible server.

Connect all your devices before you pack. This will

ensure that you haven’t forgotten any necessary

cables—which can be expensive, inconvenient, or down-

right impossible to replace on the road.

Before your trip, cycle—charge, use, and charge

again—all your batteries in the gear you’ll be tak-

ing. Battery life dwindles over time, so avoid surprises: It’s

always easier to buy a new battery before you leave town.

Set an auto-respond message for your e-mail, so

people don’t think you’re ignoring them.

Sync your PDA with a computer you’re leaving

behind. If your PDA goes AWOL, your data won’t.

Make a list of everything you’ve packed and store it

on your PDA, your computer, and in your desk drawer.

It’ll save you time when you pack for your next trip.

1 Lenovo ThinkPad Z60t (page 78) 2 Phone line Y-connector 3 Ethernet cable4 SanDisk Cruzer Profi le (USB thumb drive) 5 palmOne Treo 650 (Cingular/GSM) (with Treo

TripKit) (page 71) 6Epson P-4000 Photo Viewer (page 71) 7Garmin nüvi 350 (page 72) 8Extra SD cards 9ZipLinq phone extension cable – Dell Axim X51v (page 74) !Ulti-

mate Ears super.fi 5Pro (page 71) @DVDs for fl ight #Nikon D50 (page 72) $ ZyAIR AG-225H Wi-Fi fi nder & USB adapter (page 76) %Apple iPod 30GB (with video) (page 72) ̂

APC Universal Plug Adapter &Extra laptop battery * IOGear USB 2.0 Hub & Card Reader (page 78) (APC TravelCase Roller (page 72) )Power strip with 6-foot cable

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com70

Predeparture ChecklistAvoid that sinking feeling of arriving at your destination only to realize that

you left your notebook’s power supply on the kitchen table.—ALAN COHEN

The Ideal Travel BagThe Ideal Travel Bag

What you should pack

depends on where you’re

going, what you’re doing

there, and how long you

plan to stay. Still, there’s

some gear we’d take any-

where—a laptop, a camera,

an MP3 player. Here’s a

visual guide to the stuff we

wouldn’t leave home with-

out. For some of them, page

numbers indicate where

you’ll fi nd the minireviews

later in this story.—SC

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%

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(

)

!

EssentialGear Some of our favorite products—

road-tested, PC Magazine Labs approved.

Canon PowerShot SD550 Digital ElphLooking for something a bit smaller

than a D-SLR? The 7.1-megapixel

Canon PowerShot SD550 Digi-

tal Elph measures 3.5 by 2.2 by

1.0 inches and weighs only 8

ounces. At $449.95 list, it’s a bit

pricey, but it includes a 2.5-inch

LCD display, and it takes good

photos in almost any situation.

www.pcmag.com MARCH 21, 2006 PC MAGAZINE 71

Creative TravelDock 900Ever get tired of headphones?

On your next road trip, pack the

Creative Travel Dock 900 ($79.99

direct), a wonderfully adept portable

speaker set for your portable music

player. It weighs little more than 9

ounces, folds up into a package the

size of a sunglasses case, and gives

you 32 hours of playback time.

(The player is not included.)

Epson P-4000The one-pound Epson

P-4000 multimedia

photo viewer is an

excellent photo and

video viewer with

camera offl oading

abilities and 80GB

of storage space.

The image quality is

breathtaking, and the

viewer is very easy to

use. You can display

slide shows on-screen

and with A/V output that

produces a clear, stable

picture. The P-4000

is a pricey addition to

your suitcase, though,

at $699.99 (direct).

Ultimate Ears super.fi 5Pro Prefer earbud-style earphones to traditional headphones? You can

still cancel out a fair amount of ambient noise. We recommend the

Ultimate Ears super.fi 5Pro, “in-canal” phones that use silicon and

foam tips to seal out unwanted sound. They don’t work quite as well as

true noise-canceling headphones, but they certainly make for a more

enjoyable listening experience. The rub? A $249.99 (list) price tag.

palmOne Treo 650 (Cingular/GSM)Why carry a cell phone and a PDA when you can hit the road

with the palmOne Treo 650? Combining the two devices

in a single, svelte package, the Treo includes a gorgeous

320-by-320 screen, a backlit keyboard, and a speedy

312-MHz processor. Palm offers four versions of the

device (from $299, depending on the provider and deal).

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PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com72

Archos AV 500Equipped with a

4-inch widescreen

LCD, the Archos AV 500

($499.95 direct for the

30GB model, $699.95

for 100GB) is perfect

for watching video on

the plane; and when

you hit your hotel room,

you can plug into the TV

and watch from there.

Much like the iPod,

the Archos AV plays

digital songs and stores

other types of fi les.

Nikon D50Whatever your destination, you can’t leave home without a

digital camera. Our favorite consumer digital SLR is the Nikon

D50 ($849.95 list). It’s surprisingly light (1 pound, 3 ounces),

yet it has a 6.1MP sensor and a built-in fl ash. If you opt for the

two-lens kit—18–55mm and 55–200mm Zoom Nikkor lenses

—you expand your total optical zoom range to more than 10X.

APC TravelCase RollerNot only will the APC

Travel Case Roller ($89.99

list) keep your computer

safe, it’ll also keep it juiced

up. The Travel Case has plenty

of space for gadgets, which

you can charge three at a

time via airplane, auto, or

AC power outlets. The

large, well-padded bag has

abundant pockets and

compartments and a

removable slim case and

sleeve. It comes in black

and fi ts notebooks with

15.4-inch or smaller screens. RIM BlackBerry 8700cIt’s a cell phone with Web access,

PDA apps, and, most important,

e-mail. With its beautiful high-res

color screen, Cingular’s RIM

BlackBerry 8700c ($349.99)

makes it easier than ever to

read messages. You can open

attachments and even zoom

in on JPEGs. And thanks to its

effective keyboard, sending

messages is nearly as easy.

Garmin nüvi 350The 5-ounce Garmin nüvi 350

($900 street) is the fi rst GPS

unit powered by the SIRFstar III

GPS. The 350 fi xes its location

extremely quickly, and can do

so even among the skyscrapers

of Manhattan, and even under

construction scaffolding.

Apple iPodWhen you hit the road, there’s no better entertainment device than

the Apple iPod. The latest version ($299 direct for the 30GB size,

$399 for 60GB) handles video as well as digital songs. What you

may not realize is that it’s also a great way to carry all sorts of other

fi les. After all, an iPod is little more than a souped-up hard drive.

Mobile Edge Green Faux-Croc TechStyle PortfolioLooking for something sleeker? This little

number ($49.99 direct) is a favorite. It’s

nicely padded and lightweight, and you’re

unlikely to accidentally grab someone

else’s similar-looking case. It’s avail-

able in black, pink, or yellow as well.

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com 74

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The editor-in-chief

of PC Magazine, as well as the

editorial direc-

tor for Ziff Davis’s Consumer/Small

Business Group, Jim lives in Cali-

fornia. Many of the people he man-

ages work in New York, so he

spends a lot of time on the road.

Age: 43Residence: Pacifi ca, CaliforniaOccupation: Editor-in-chief, PC Magazine Days on the road last year: 100 Essential gadgets: Creative MP3 Player and noise-canceling headphonesNext gadget: Cellular Internet cardLast city visited: Los AngelesNext trip: New YorkFavorite airline: Virgin, Upper Class; Song for coach

JIM LOUDERBACK, EDITOR

Option Wireless GT MaxOption’s new PC Card for Cingular’s high-speed HSDPA network

lets you roam at top speed around the world. In 16 U.S. cities (more

coming), it blazes at around 600 Kbps. In more than a dozen other

countries, you get speeds up to 384 Kbps, and elsewhere in the U.S.

and the world, it runs up to 150 Kbps. Pricing wasn’t set at press time.

Bag Search

Dell Axim X51vSo you need a PDA on

the road, and you might

play a few games, too.

Look no further than

the Dell Axim X51v

($399 direct), a Win-

dows Mobile handheld

with hardware-based

graphics accelera-

tion. Intel’s 2700G 3D

graphics accelerator

and a VGA screen

brings desktop-level

graphics to games and

videos. Dell bundles

several games, includ-

ing a 3D minigolf title.

Altec Lansing AHP712iThe Altec Lansing AHP712i noise-canceling headphones

($149.95 list) may not produce sound accurate

enough for the most discerning audiophile, but these

lightweight headphones do provide pleasing sound

and feel great to wear even for extended periods

—a must for serious travelers. They cancel about

17 db of noise—whether it’s planes, trains, or

automobiles—while introducing only minimal hiss.

PlusTek OpticSlimIf you need a portable scanner,

pick one that emphasizes

portability: the PlusTek

OpticSlim ($129 direct). It

doesn’t come with great OCR

software, but you can still

scan in all sorts of documents

and ditch all the paper you

might accumulate at, say,

a trade show.

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1 IBM ThinkPad X40 2MagicaLink retractable USB cable 3 Creative Zen MicroPhoto 4 Handspring Treo 650 5Mini Maglite fl ashlight 6 Apple iPod

shuffl e 7 SD card 8 Extra battery for Zen Micros 9 Sennheiser PXC 250 noise-canceling headphones – Nintendo DS ! Memorex M-Flyer 1GB USB

key @Creative Zen Micro # Extra battery for ThinkPad

OUR CONTRIBUTORS: Cade Metz is PC Magazine’s senior writer, and Ben Z. Gottesman is editor, technology. John C. Dvorak and Bill

Howard are contributing editors, and Sascha Segan is a PC Magazine Labs lead analyst. Nathan Edwards is an editorial intern. Alan Cohen

is a frequent contributor. Features editors Sean Carroll and Sarah Pike and executive editor Carol L. Gonsher were in charge of this story.

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com 76

Wi-Fi FindersThe Linksys WUSFBF54G

Wireless-G USB Network Adapter

with Wi-Fi Finder, Trendnet

TEW-429UB 54Mbps 802.11g

Wireless USB 2.0 Adapter with

HotSpot Detector, and ZyAIR

AG-225H Wi-Fi Finder & USB

Adapter fi nd Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g)

hot spots—even with your laptop

turned off! These devices tell

you the name, strength, and

encryption levels of all found

networks, and—if you don’t

already have a wireless card—

can be used to connect to them

via your USB port. All three

performed well, but they all have

quirks: The Linksys ($89.99 list)

performed fastest but doesn’t

distinguish between WPA and

WEP encryption. The Trendnet

($67.99 direct) doesn’t detect

802.11a networks. And the

ZyAIR ($80 street) is slow but

offers Mac OS X drivers.

Sprint PPC-6700The Palm Treo 650 is our favorite

PDA-cell phone combo, but the

Sprint PPC-6700 isn’t far behind.

Though it weighs but 6.1 ounces,

this Windows Mobile device (from

$449.99, depending on deals)

includes EV-DO high-speed

wireless access and local area

Wi-Fi, and its keyboard compares

with any we’ve ever used.

Palm TXPrefer the Palm OS to Win-

dows Mobile? Better act

fast. Now that Palm’s in bed

with Microsoft, the TX

may be the last of the

Palm OS handhelds, and

it’s a beauty. Equipped

with a 320-by-480 screen,

it’s perfect for surfi ng

the Web and reading

documents. And at $299,

it may be the cheapest

PDA that offers

built-in Wi-Fi.

Mobility Electronics iGo everywhere130

The Mobility Electronics

iGo everywhere130 ($149.99

direct) is about the size of your

laptop’s power brick, but it

will charge your laptop from

a standard AC, airplane, or

auto power source. And with

the included iGo dualpower

accessory, it’ll charge a

second device at the

same time. You will need

a compatible power tip

(about $10) for each

gadget. The unit comes

with several notebook tips.

Think Outside Stowaway Travel MouseHit the road with the $79.99

(list) Think Outside Stowaway

Travel Mouse, and even your

PDA will feel a lot like a desktop.

The Think Outside connects

to your PDA wirelessly via

Bluetooth, letting you navigate

your display without picking up

a stylus. Don’t carry a PDA? You

can also use it with a laptop.

HE

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www.pcmag.com MARCH 21, 2006 PC MAGAZINE 77

This DJ and

producer runs

SAW.Recordings

and plays clubs

around the world. His latest album,

Renaissance Presents 3D, a 3-CD set,

was released in February. Check him

out at www.satoshitomiie.com.

Age: 39Residence: New York CityOccupation: DJ/producer/record label ownerDays on the road last year: 200+ Essential gadgets: 17-inch Apple Power Book, Shure E3 in-ear earphonesNext gadget: Music controllerLast city visited: Naples, ItalyNext trip: London, then on tour throughout Europe, Asia, Australia. Favorite airline: ANA; Virgin

1 17-inch Apple PowerBook 2LaCie Mobile Hard Drive, design by F.A. Porsche; 100GB 5,400-rpm 3Panasonic PS06iC phone (Japanese) 4 Sony Ericsson

Akono Headset HBH-662 5 Sony Ericsson W800i Walkman phone 6 Mini Maglite fl ashlight 7 PhilipsGoGear HDD120 20GB MP3 player/recorder

8 Shure E3 sound-isolating earphones with custom earpiece 9 Elecom travel mouse (Japanese) – Carabiner fl ashlight ! 4GB iPod nano @ Audio

interface: Digidesign Mbox #AirPort Express Base Station

SATOSHI TOMIIE, DISC JOCKEY

Bag Search

HP Photosmart 475 GoGo Photo PrinterBringing a digital camera?

Why wait till you get home

to print out pics? If you don’t

mind carrying 3.3 pounds

more, the HP Photosmart

475 GoGo Photo Printer

($279 direct) ink jet is an

impressive take-along. It

prints great 5-by-7 pictures

reasonably fast (don’t get

them wet, however; they

aren’t waterproof), and has a

1.5GB internal drive and

a direct connection for

watching slide shows on TV.

Pentax OptioWP & Optio WPiImagine you’re in a swimming pool, taking

video clips of your kids, when one of them

dives under, and you follow, fi lming all the

way. The ultracool ability to shoot underwater

photos and video clips is available on the

new Pentax 5MP OptioWP and 6MP OptioWPi

digital cameras. Despite some limitations, these

amphibians make shooting underwater easy

and fun. Street price is around $350—and no

expensive underwater housing is needed.

D-Link AirPlus G DWL-G730AP Wireless Pocket RouterYes, they even make

wireless routers for

the road. The D-Link

AirPlus ($59.99

direct) measures 3.3

by 2.5 by 0.7 inches,

and it works just like

any other wireless

router. And with a

fl ip of the switch,

you can turn it into

a wireless access

point (for serving up

a wireless network)

or a wireless client

(for connecting to an

existing network).

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Lenovo ThinkPad Z60t

There’s no laptop we’d rather take on the road than

the Lenovo ThinkPad Z60t ($1,099 to $2,149 direct,

depending on confi guration). A brilliant 14- or 15-inch

widescreen, EV-DO broadband for connectivity

anywhere, an optional titanium case ($25 extra),

a battery that lasts about 4.5 hours, and a sturdy

keyboard make this 5.1-pound package a great

choice for the traveler.

Kyocera KPC650The fastest high-speed cellular card

we’ve tested, the Kyocera KPC650

(Verizon Wireless; $99.99 with two-

year contract; $79.99 per month) will

keep your laptop connected on the

road. We surfed at average speeds of

700 Kbps on Verizon’s network, which

already covers over 170 major cities.

This electrical

engineer turned

patent attorney

specializes in

semiconductor patents for one

of the largest IP law fi rms in the

country. His current focus is

business method patents. He

travels back East about once a week.

Age: 48Residence: Rancho Santa Fe, CaliforniaOccupation: Patent Attorney, Fish & Richardson PCDays on the road last year: 80+Essential gadgets: laptop, BlackBerry

Next gadget: supermicro laptopLast city visited: WashingtonNext trip: Dallas Favorite airline: United

SCOTT HARRIS, ATTORNEY

IOGear USB 2.0 Hub & Card Reader

You can carry around yards of cables to con-

nect all your equipment, or you can buy a USB

hub and card reader to connect everything

together. We suggest the lightweight, elegant

IOGear USB 2.0 Hub & Card Reader ($59.95

list), which has six USB hubs and reader

slots for all six major media-card formats.

ABSmini Automatic Backup System 40GBCall for backup: At 40GB, the

stylish ABSmini ($259 direct)

has enough room to back up your

essential fi les, yet slips easily into

a pocket or laptop bag. Included

BounceBack Express and Copy2Go

backup software help ensure your

data won’t be lost if your

laptop goes south.

Bag Search

1Sony VAIO VGN-T250 2Arcos ArcDisk20GB hard drive Sony USM-2550 256MB USB 2.0 memory key 4Magellan RoadMate 760 5Sony ICD-BMI voice

recorder 6 Apple iPod mini 4GB 7 iPod mini travel charger 8 Sony Digital Data Viewer DD-IC50 Japanese to English translator 9 Extra battery for DSC-T33

–Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T33 !Sony VCT-MTK Portable Tripod Travel Kit @Extra batteries #Motorola V265 cell phone (Verizon) $RIM BlackBerry 6230 %

Maglite Solitaire ̂ Sony VAIO VGP-BPS3 rechargeable battery pack &Atkins Advantage Chocolate Delight shake *Sony VAIO 11-Mbps Wireless LAN PC Card

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

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The BestConnected Airlines

Air travel has long been a screwy business: Where else does the same ticket cost $300 on Monday and $1,100 on Thursday? Today, while airlines save money by taking olives out of salads, they’re spending big to bring high-tech entertain-ment—and even broadband—to the main cabin. So far it’s been non-U.S. airlines offering on-board (and expensive) Wi-Fi, but domestic carriers Continental and JetBlue now provide free Wi-Fi on the ground. Whichever airline you fl y, fi nd out what kind of plane you’ll be on, and check SeatGuru.com to fi nd the best seats for comfort, entertainment, and power.—Alan Cohen

www.pcmag.com MARCH 21, 2006 PC MAGAZINE 79

AIRLINE TECH AMENITIES IN-FLIGHT ENTERTAINMENT

Continental Airlines

www.continental.comn EmPower outlets (adapter required) at all business-class seats and

several rows at the front of the coach cabin on 767 and 777 aircraft

n Free Wi-Fi in all 27 airport clubrooms.

n No on-board Wi-Fi.

n Personal video monitors on all 767 and 777 aircraft: 16 video channels (movies and TV) in business class; 8 in coach; 10 video games. Some aircraft offer no video programming.

n Up to 20 audio channels available, depending on aircraft.

Delta Airlines

www.delta.comn EmPower outlets (adapter required) at all business-class and most

economy seats on 777, 767-400, and 737-800 aircraft. Adapters sold on fl ights to/from Brazil, Chile, Europe, India, and Japan.

n Most airport clubrooms offer fee-based Wi-Fi.

n No on-board Wi-Fi.

n Some aircraft have in-seat video monitors; others (generally short-haul routes) offer no programming at all.

n On long-range fl ights, coach passengers may have up to 12 movies and TV programs to choose from and 10 audio channels.

n Business-class passengers may get 7–8 video titles, 10 audio channels.

Japan Airlines

www.jal.comn AC outlets (no adapter required) at all fi rst- and business-class seats.

n On some aircraft, fi rst- and business-class passengers can borrow laptop batteries for use during the fl ight.

n On-board Wi-Fi being rolled out: $29.95 for 6-hour+ fl ights; $19.95 for shorter fl ights; $9.95 for 30 minutes’ access, $0.25 per minute thereafter. Free onboard Wi-Fi access to airline’s Web portal, which provides fl ight information, some games, and JAL-specifi c content.

n MAGIC entertainment system (not available on every aircraft) offers each passenger a personal video monitor with 21 video channels, 17 audio channels (with content including rakugo—traditional Japanese comic monologues), and video games (selection varies by aircraft).

JetBlue Airways

www.jetblue.comn Free Wi-Fi throughout JetBlue departure gates at New York’s JFK

airport and Long Beach, California airport.

n No onboard Wi-Fi

n 36 channels of DirecTV programming at every seat. On 2 hour+ fl ights, fi rst-run and classic movies from Fox InFlight Premium Entertainment available for $5 (free on some Caribbean routes) .

n Aircraft upgraded in late 2005 to offer 100-plus channels of XM Satellite Radio at every seat.

Lufthansa

www.lufthansa.comn AC outlets (no adapter required) at all fi rst- and business-class seats.

n On-board Wi-Fi being rolled out: $29.95 for 6-hour+ fl ights; $19.95 for shorter fl ights; $9.95 for 30 minutes’ access, then $0.25 per minute. Free on-board Wi-Fi access to airline’s Web portal, with news, travel information, and some shopping features.

n Fee-based Wi-Fi being rolled out in airport clubrooms.

n On long-haul fl eet, now rolling out Lufthansa Media World in fi rst and business class: Personal monitors with 21 video channels (movies and TV), 23 audio channels, 9 video games, and language-study courses. Coach passengers get 1–3 movies, depending on the route, and 23 audio channels.

Northwest Airlines

www.nwa.comn AC outlets (no adapter required) at all business-class seats on select

aircraft. New A330 aircraft offer AC outlets for the front half of coach.

n Web site for wireless PDAs and BlackBerry devices (wireless.nwa.com); users can book fl ights, check fl ight status, and rebook canceled trips.

n No onboard Wi-Fi.

n Varies. Older jets may offer no video programming, while newer ones boast multiple video and audio channels. Personal video monitors with 10 channels and games in business class on 747-400 aircraft. On the A330 jet, all seats have these amenities.

n Noise-canceling headphones in business class; standard ones in coach.

Singapore Airlines

www.singaporeair.comn AC outlets (no adapter required) at all fi rst- and business-class seats

on select 747 and 777 aircraft (plus “executive economy” seats on all A340 aircraft). Other aircraft may use DC outlets, which require adapters.

n Onboard Wi-Fi being rolled out: $29.95 for 6-hour+ fl ights; $19.95 for shorter fl ights; $9.95 for 30 minutes’ access, then $0.25 per minute. Four channels of live TV via laptop included with Wi-Fi fee.

n Varies depending on aircraft, though all seats on all jets have personal video monitors. The most advanced system has on-demand entertainment, with up to 60 movies, 100 TV programs, 225 music CDs, 91 video games, 12 audio channels, interactive instruction in 22 languages, and live text news.

Virgin Atlantic

www.virginatlantic.comn EmPower outlets (adapter required) at all business-class seats and at

premium-economy (full fare) seats on some aircraft.

n Fee-based Wi-Fi available in airport clubrooms; Gatwick (London) lounge has PlayStation and Xbox game consoles.

n No onboard Wi-Fi.

n Personal video monitors in all classes on all aircraft; programming differs depending jet’s entertainment system. Best bet: Virgin’s v:port system, with over 300 hours of on-demand video, 14 audio channels, a jukebox with over 50 CDs, audio books, children’s programming, a search tool, and SMS messaging to devices back on the ground. Other aircraft offer 14–20 video channels, 9–14 audio channels, and 10–15 Nintendo games.

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The Best Connected Airports

at airline members’ clubrooms. Increasingly, you can fi nd it at the gates, and sometimes it’s even in the food court. Though free Wi-Fi may not yet be quite as common as a delay in Chi-cago’s O’Hare Airport, it’s not nearly as rare as a delicious vegetarian meal in coach. And even when you do have to pay, the price is often fairly reasonable: You can typically get on-line for less than $10 per day.

At the best-connected airports, it’s not just about Internet access, either: Other tech amenities, such as battery-charging stations for laptops and kiosks for DVD rentals and returns, are starting to arrive at the gate, too.—AC

Airports may be demanding more and more of our time as we wade through more checkpoints, but at least they’re letting us put those hours—and hours—to good use. No longer is wireless Internet access a perk found exclusively

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com 80

AIRPORT TECH AMENITIES

Hartsfi eld-Jackson Atlanta

International Airport

Atlantawww.atlanta-airport.com

n Fee-based Wi-Fi throughout. Passengers given a choice of three providers (Boingo Wireless, Concourse Communications, and Sprint Nextel); charges range from $7.95 to $10.95 per day.

n Laptop Lane in Concourses A, B, and T offers fee-based private offi ces with PC workstations and broadband.

n InMotion Pictures location for DVD player and disc rentals and returns.

Logan International Airport

Bostonwww.massport.com/logan

n Fee-based Wi-Fi in all fi ve terminals, at $7.95 per day. n Fee-based Internet kiosks located in four terminals (B, C, D, E).

Long Beach Airport

Long Beach, Californiawww.longbeach.gov/airport

n Free Wi-Fi at gates, in restaurant, and on outside patio on north side of airport.

n When passengers log on to Wi-Fi, start page provides arrival and departure information, and links to Long Beach events and Web sites.

McCarran International

Airport

Las Vegaswww.mccarran.com

n Free Wi-Fi throughout airport.

n Telephone technical support hotline to help confi gure Wi-Fi adapters.

n Fee-based Internet kiosks (no PC required) in C and D concourses.

n Check-in kiosks let passengers print boarding passes for 14 differ-ent airlines.

n InMotion Pictures location for DVD player and disc rentals and returns.

Mineta San Jose

International Airport

San Jose, Californiawww.sjc.org

n Fee-based Wi-Fi in all three terminals ($6.95 per day).

n Downloadable fl ight schedules available (for PCs and PDAs) at airport’s Web site.

n Fee-based Internet kiosks throughout airport.

n InMotion Pictures location for DVD player and disc rentals and returns.

Minneapolis-St. Paul

International Airport

Minneapolis-St. Paulwww.mspairport.com

n Fee-based Wi-Fi at all gates and in concession area ($6.95 per day).

n Free Wi-Fi access to real-time fl ight arrival and departure status, news headlines, and airport information.

n PowerPort station in Lindbergh Terminal, Concourse C, offers fee-based PC use, Internet access for passengers without PCs, and battery-charging bays.

n Fee-based Internet kiosks located in Lindbergh Terminal, Con-courses C, D, E, F, and G.

n InMotion Pictures location for DVD player and disc rentals and returns.

Orlando International

Airport

Orlando, Floridawww.orlandoairports.net

n Free Wi-Fi throughout airport.

n Online Lost & Found (via airport’s Web site) lets you fi le lost-item reports and inquire about found items at the airport’s Lost & Found department.

n Voice-activated travel information line (dial 511) lets passengers check fl ight status and airport roadway conditions from any telephone.

n InMotion Pictures location for DVD player and disc rentals and returns.

San Francisco International

Airport

San Franciscowww.fl ysfo.com

n Fee-based Wi-Fi throughout Terminals 1, 3, and the International Terminal; in the airline clubs in Terminal 2; at the gates at the United Express Terminal; at the bus station at the International Terminal; and at the airport rental-car facility ($9.99 for a day pass; $6 for an hour).

n PowerPort station in Terminal 3 (near Gate 83) provides fee-based battery-charging bays and Internet access stations. PowerPort Business Center in International Terminal provides fee-based workstations with broadband Internet access and printer.

n Fee-based Internet kiosks located in Terminal 3.

n InMotion Pictures location for DVD player and disc rentals and returns.

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If a hotel can charge $6 for a soda, imagine its rates for Internet access. Yet some of the toniest hotels have fi rst-rate technology at surprisingly reasonable rates. Indeed, Wi-Fi is of-ten on the house, at least in lobbies and lounges (which makes

The Best Connected Hotels

low-fl oor rooms great for poaching signals, if not for the views). Other hotels make you pay to check e-mail but provide tech-friendly touches, such as safes that can fi t—and charge—lap-tops, and even emergency BlackBerry batteries.

Budget-oriented chains often have surprisingly good con-nectivity. Many offer free broadband in rooms or public areas. Hilton’s Hampton Inn and Hampton Inn Suites boast com-plimentary high-speed Internet access in all rooms (mostly wired—newer properties have Wi-Fi) and free wireless in lob-bies and other areas. Most AmeriSuites provide free in-room wired or wireless broadband with Wi-Fi in the lobby. Many Mar-riott Courtyard and Residence Inns offer free in-room broad-band. Best Western offers free wired or Wi-Fi broadband in 15 percent of each hotel’s rooms (and some public areas).—AC

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com 82

HOTEL / LOCATION TECH AMENITIES

Hotel Valencia

San Jose, Californian Free Wi-Fi and wired broadband in guest rooms.

n Free Wi-Fi in all public spaces.

n Complimentary PC and printer use in 24/7 business center.

n Hotel’s Web site offers live chat for prospective guests

The Beverly Hilton

Beverly Hills, Californian Wi-Fi and wired broadband in guest rooms ($9.95 per day).

n Free Wi-Fi in public spaces: lobby, lounge, outdoor patio, and ter-race—even poolside.

n Complimentary Ethernet cables.

n Wi-Fi adapters can be borrowed free of charge.

n Laptop-size safe with two outlets.

n 42-inch plasma HDTV (with fi ve channels of HDTV programming, upgrading to ten channels early this year).

n Cell-phone chargers loaned free.

Hyatt Regency Denver at

Colorado Convention Center

Denver

n Wi-Fi and wired broadband in guest rooms ($9.95 per day).

n Free Wi-Fi in most public spaces.

n Ethernet cables may be purchased for $10.

n Wi-Fi adapters can be borrowed for $9.95/day (includes Internet access).

n Full-service Kinko’s business center in lobby.

Four Seasons

Washington D.C.

Washington

n Wi-Fi and wired broadband in guest rooms ($9.99 per day; includes both wireless and wired).

n Wi-Fi in public spaces (including health club), but guests must pay for in-room broadband to use it.

n Wi-Fi adapters loaned free.

n 32-inch fl at-panel HDTV (fi ve HDTV channels; HDTV on-demand movies this spring).

n In-room XM Satellite Radio expected in 2006.

n Disposable 60-minute BlackBerry battery packs available at no charge.

n Laptop and cell-phone chargers loaned free.

Marriott Baltimore

Waterfront Hotel

Baltimore

n Wired broadband in guest rooms ($9.95 per day)

n Wi-Fi in lobby, lounges, restaurants, and meeting rooms. $2.95 for fi rst 15 minutes, then $0.25 for each additional minute (in-room access charge doesn’t include Wi-Fi).

n 27 “Technology Rooms” include unlimited wired broadband and telephone calls; $30 premium.

n Technology Rooms have 32-inch LCD HDTV (with six channels of HD programming). TV has connectivity for MP3 players, digital cameras, and more. These rooms have laptop-size safes with two outlets.

n Ethernet cables provided in guest rooms.

n Wireless adapters available for rent (charge varies).

Wall Street District Hotel

New York Cityn Acer desktop PCs with fl at-panel displays in half the rooms; all

rooms to be equipped by May (no charge for use).

n All PCs print to a central printer (no charge).

n Rooms have wired broadband; complimentary in Deluxe rooms, $9.95 per day in less-expensive Superior rooms.

n Free Wi-Fi in fi rst-fl oor lobby, restaurant, and bar; also in second-fl oor conference center and health club.

n Business center offers free Internet access and PC/fax use.

n Calls to guest rooms can be forwarded to guest’s cell phone.

n Guests can borrow Wi-Fi adapters at no charge.

n Hotel has three Toshiba Satellite laptops (with cases) guests can borrow (no charge for guests in Deluxe rooms; $9.95 per day for guests in Superior rooms).

Fairmont Le Chateau

Montebello

Quebec, Canada

n Wi-Fi in guest rooms (no wired broadband). Complimentary for rewards-program members; otherwise, $13.95 (Canadian) for 24 hours of use.

n Wi-Fi in public spaces, including lobby, lounge, outdoor patio, and by the fi replace (users must purchase daily Wi-Fi plan or be rewards-program members).

n Wi-Fi adapters loaned free.

Langham Place Hotel

Hong Kongn Wi-Fi and wired broadband in guest rooms (HK $120—about U.S.

$15—per day).

n All areas of hotel (even elevators) Wi-Fi enabled; 500 wireless access points.

n Cisco 7970 color IP phones in guest rooms, providing weather, news, stock quotes, streaming Web-based radio, and free SMS messaging.

n Mobile IP phone in each room, usable anywhere in hotel.

n 42-inch plasma TV in each room.

n Laptop-size safe with power outlet.

n Rooms with PC available upon request.

n Team of guest-support technologists on call 24/7.

peat a recent trip, go home, or go to a location in the internal address book. You don’t have to key in entire city and street names; many services auto-fill—finding Sycamore Street, for instance, once you’ve en-tered S-Y-C. The device finds your initial position by trian-gulating from nearby cell tow-ers. Hit OK to confirm your destination. About 25KB of map data is downloaded, your phone disconnects from the cellular service (and from your monthly allotment of minutes) and looks for GPS satellites, and you’re under way.

The display typically indi-cates the road you’re on, the distance to the next turn, the name of the next turn or exit, t ime and distance to your destination, and an arrow showing the direction of your next turn. You’ll be surprised how much can be crammed on a phone display and still be leg-ible. Voice instructions rein-

force what’s on the display; hit the OK button and they repeat.

We recommend getting a phone with a large color screen: some of the Nextel ViaMoto mono-chrome phones are hard on the eyes. The VZ Navi-gator service has the most comprehensive display. TeleNav falls in the middle. Options for occasional

use may include $3 for 24 hours or $1 per trip (trips are often sold in ten-packs). Even with portable navigation gadgets now as low as $500, dashtop GPS will still cost you more than four years’ worth of $10-a-month cell-phone GPS.

If you have a Symbian- or Windows-based smartphone, you can buy the software once and load maps for one region at a time. The phones may require external Bluetooth GPS mod-ules and their transformers. Check out ALK Technologies’ proven CoPilot Live 6 ($200) and Destinator Technologies’ Destinator ($150), just released in the U.S.

If you decide to take the GPS-via-cell-phone route, we highly recommend investing $25 in a dash or window mount; it’s dan-gerous to hold the phone in your hand while driving.

This vacation, you promised to pack light: A cam-era that fits in a shirt pocket. No single-function gadgets with their transformers and car adapters. But you also don’t want to get lost (or get yelled at for it nanoseconds later). The solution: Navigation and mapping integrated into your cell phone.

Your cell phone probably has a GPS label on its case , but that just gives 911 a fix on your loca-t i o n w h e n yo u call. An emerging generation of cell phones, however, is enabled for turn-by-turn routing, moving maps, and l o c a t i o n - b a s e d services (“Where’s the nearest Thai r e s t a u r a n t ? ” ) . T hese ser v ices work, they’re cool, and they’re yours for around ten bucks a month per phone (de-pending on the carrier) with no equipment costs—other than buying a new cell phone and signing up for another two-year service contract, of course.

Motorola’s ViaMoto, Networks In Motion’s AtlasBook (re-branded as VZ Navigator by Verizon Wireless), and TeleNav’s TeleNav are the three leading suppliers of turn-by-turn navi-gation to cellular carriers. They all work passably well and, yes, they can be used on a small cell-phone screen, as long as it’s in color.

To get going in these services, arrow over to your phone’s Options or Extras menu and choose Navigation. Decide if you want to navigate to a point of interest or street address, re-

Cell Phones Learn to NavigateFor $10 a month, get

GPS delivered to your

cell phone—wherever,

whenever you need it.

BY BILL HOWARD

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com 84

Show me the way:

Motorola’s ViaMoto

GPS software (left)

and TeleNav (top)

de liver easy-to-

follow directions

to your cell phone.

Create a Windows password.

Sure, entering a password means

an extra step at start-up. But with-

out it, anyone with access to your

PC can get in and see everything

you have. Use a USB key–based

password manager, such as

Pass2Go (www.pass2go.com).

When you type usernames and

passwords, a keylogger on a public

PC or even your notebook can steal

them as you’re typing. With a pass-

word manager, the hacker would

need to steal the key and learn

the master password. Privacy

fi lter: LCDs are readable from any

angle—not so good when you’re

working in an airplane or Internet

café. Slip on a 3M Notebook Privacy

Filter and only you will be able to

see what’s on your screen. Try

a secure remote-control program

such as GoToMyPC or LogMeIn

instead of storing fi les and running

e-mail programs like Microsoft

Outlook or Thunderbird on your

notebook. Check on your room:

If your security concerns border

on paranoia, many webcams, such

as the Creative WebCam Live! Ultra

for Notebooks, include surveillance

software that tracks motion and

even lets you log on and watch

remotely (if the notebook is online).

Lock It Down

A laptop in a

public place is

a very tempting

target. Thieves

may be after the

computer itself,

or they may be

more interested

in its data and

Internet traffi c.

Try these prod-

ucts and tips to

keep it all safe

and secure.

BY BEN Z.

GOTTESMAN

Security Tips

www.pcmag.com MARCH 21, 2006 PC MAGAZINE 85

NOTEBOOK PC with

fi ngerprint authentica-

tion: Portable comput-

ers such as the Lenovo

ThinkPad X41T tablet

PC have built-in fi nger-

print readers. Without

the proper print, you

simply can’t log in.

USB FLASH DRIVE: Also

known as USB keys or thumb

drives, these portable stor-

age devices may be the best

place to store critical data. The

SanDisk Cruzer Profi le has a

built-in fi ngerprint reader that

lets you encrypt your fi les,

so even if the key is stolen, its

contents are inaccessible.

NOTEBOOK LOCK:

If you need to leave

your notebook behind

in your hotel room,

tie it down with

a cable lock such

as the Kensington

MicroSaver Portable

Notebook Combina-

tion Lock. Make sure

that whatever you

tie it to is immov-

able as well. If all

else fails, consider

using the hanger

bar in the closet.

CARRY A PORTABLE wire-

less router, such as the

D-Link High-Speed Pocket

Router/AP, to keep your

notebook off the same

subnet as all the other

computers in your broad-

band- connected hotel—

and, of course, to make

that connection wireless.

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The less expensive but newer bou-tique hotels often have the best connec-tivity, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the excellent connectivity in some remote locales. The Grand Hotel Union, the nicest luxury hotel in Ljubljana, Slo-venia, has a free megabit line into the

room (and perhaps the biggest down-fi lled pillows I have ever seen anywhere—another bonus).

If you do your homework, you can even get connected in places where connectivity is hard to fi nd, such as Vietnam. In fact, the owners of the stylish Caravelle hotel in the Saigon sec-tion of Ho Chi Minh City made special government arrange-ments to get an Internet connection for the hotel’s guests.

When booking a hotel, look for one that brags incessantly about its Internet connections. Most of the chains, on the other hand, have outsourced their connectivity needs to off-site providers. These hotels mention Internet connectivity as an afterthought, and the services are often down. Worse, they

Europe, Asia, South America, the Middle East—I’ve traveled the world over in the past few decades and have man-aged to get online in all sorts of unnerving circumstances. The key to success is being prepared for the worst. Even with near-universal Internet connectivity—wired and wireless—in some places, staying connected with your offi ce network or just reading your e-mail can be diffi cult.

Hotel connectivity outside the U.S. is generally subpar. It is often unreliable even in hotels that cater to business travelers. I can’t tell you how often I’ve checked into a brand-name hotel to be told that the network connections were down and would remain down for the next few days.

The Connected World Insider tips and secrets for staying connected during your

travels abroad. BY JOHN C. DVORAK

Illustration by Nigel Owens

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com 86

may charge from $10 to $20 a day for a connection, on top of an already expensive room fee.

In countries such as Croatia, the infrastructure is still be-ing built out, and connectivity is hard to come by. The last time I was in Zagreb, the hotel had only one wireless link, inside a small business center in the lobby. If you’re traveling to a city that isn’t a tourist destination, stay at a hotel with a business center. Many will have connected computers, and you should be able to surf the Internet and access any Web mail you have waiting.

Have fun on your travels around the world! Send me an e-mail at connectedtraveler@pcmag.com with your horror stories. I’d love to hear about them.

Traveler

International Travel ChecklistDon’t leave home without making sure

all your tech gear is in order.

Do your research. If hotel personnel casually tell you they have

Internet access, don’t believe them. Always fi nd out the cost and the

speed. Use e-mail to investigate. If a hotel is unresponsive, look elsewhere.

Bring an RJ-45 cable. You can’t imagine how many hotels don’t have

an extra one. Test the cable before you take it. Many are defective.

Go online and look up hot spots in the town you’re visiting. These

may be anything from coffeeshops to hotel lobbies.

Make sure your laptop has good wireless connectivity. If not,

buy an add-in card.

Bring an RJ-11 cable. This is just in case you have to dial up over the

phone for a connection. You may have to use a special wall jack that

is specifi c to the country you’re in. Many online sites sell the adapters.

Bring an AC plug adapter. Especially in the less touristy areas, hotels

may not have one to lend. Be careful with 220-volt power; it’s lethal.

Check your power supplies to make sure they’re 110/220. Some are

not. Also look for those that require manual switching. You’ll be

sorry if you plug a 110-volt device into a 220-volt socket.

Get international dial-up capability. AOL is the easiest service, but

there are others. Don’t assume that they all work as advertised.

Buy an airline laptop-power adapter kit. These let you plug into

in-fl ight systems or car lighters. Keep your laptop fully charged in case

you fi nd yourself without power. Bring an extra battery and keep it charged.

Set up an IMAP connection. If you use an e-mail client such as Micro-

soft Outlook Express, ask your network admin to set up an IMAP con-

nection that can be accessed via the Web. This is handy at Internet cafes.

Load up your USB key. Back up important fi les on a USB key in case

you lose use of your laptop.

Set up and test your VPN. Have a backup plan in case you can’t get

on the VPN while traveling.

AMERICAN MOBILE PHONES, even GSM phones, don’t

necessarily work in Europe. For assurance, look for a new

device called a phase 2+ compatible phone. American

mobile-phone companies have lousy relationships with

overseas mobile-phone companies. (Check out www.

gsmworld.com for more information.) Request that your

service provider turn on the international service.

Smart travelers buy local SIM cards in the area they’re

visiting and use them for local calls. Most American wireless

carriers sell “locked” phones rigged so you can’t swap out

the SIM card unless you get the code that unlocks the phone.

I buy my own phone rather than use a subsidized

locked phone sold with a service agreement. If your phone

is unlocked, you can buy and use local SIM cards wherever

you go. Or before you leave, you can buy local cards—or the

Global Riiing SIM card—from Telestial (www.telestial.com).

To call the U.S., consider Internet VoIP solutions. Denmark,

Finland, Norway, and Sweden all have solid connections that

make Gizmo, Google Talk, and Skype VoIP systems work

perfectly. South of Munich this’ll be iffy. Bring a microphone

and headset for your laptop. If you have a Vonage or another

VoIP system, you’ll need the network adapter provided by the

company, a mini hub, and a telephone handset.—JCD E

Using your cell phone abroad

For complete reviews of the products mentioned in this story,

visit us on the Web at go.pcmag.com/travel.

More on the Web

www.pcmag.com MARCH 21, 2006 PC MAGAZINE 87

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THE ULTIMATE GAME ROOM

STUN YOUR FRIENDS WITH THE BEST PLACE ON EARTH

TO PLAY GAMES, INCLUDING AN AMAZING

(AND AMAZINGLY EXPENSIVE) LAN PARTY SCOREBOARD.

WE SHOW YOU HOW.

BUILD IT

BY DAN EVANS AND NATHAN EDWARDS

>TURN THE PAGEPC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com88

...and open the gatefold for detailed parts and plans.

1,000 top techno

BUILD, DESIGN,MAKE YOUR GAME ROOM A VIP ROOM, WITH CUSTOM-PAINTED PCs, A GIANT-SCREEN PLASMA TV, AN XBOX 360, AND THE WORLD’S FIRST LAN SCOREBOARD.

There’s nothing worse than watching someone else play a video

game. It’s not like watching professional sports, where the players

clearly outclass your pedestrian skills. They make it look easy. But

let’s face it: You could never jump that high or run that far.

But behind a controller? Hey, that’s different. You’re Michael

Jordan mixed with Tom Brady, and you know precisely how to execute

the moves that other guy can barely attempt. Its just “A-B-A-B-A-B,”

for crying out loud. And so you sit and stew, biding your time, waiting

to grab the controls and rack up a serious body count.

In the Ultimate Game Room, that was just one of the problems we

tried to solve. Our cardinal rule: “No one shall be without games.”

If you can’t get onto the Unreal server, saddle up one of the gaming

chairs, set your sights on the 42-inch plasma, and play the Xbox 360

while you wait your turn. You may ask, “If I’m busy shattering every

current Tony Hawk record, enjoying the full-bodied cacophony of a

gaming chair with built-in subwoofers, how will I know when it’s my

turn?” That’s the other problem we solved.

If pro-sports stadiums can have gigantic scoreboards, why not

game rooms? Now they do, with PC Magazine’s killer LAN scoreboard.

It takes advantage of the game server’s unused graphics power to

display current game data. With two dual-head video cards and four

screens, we can display four different stats (one per screen): the

players, the map, the frag leader, and basic server info. Just like at

Wrigley or Fenway, one glance and you’ll know what’s happening in

the current round of Unreal Tournament—or many other popular LAN

games, with a little tweaking. The best part: You can actually make a

LAN scoreboard yourself. We’ll show you how.

1 The scoreboard is at heart a

shallow pine box, so get your

toolbox out! We’ll eventu-

ally screw monitors on it using their

standard VESA mounts, route the

cables through holes in the back,

and hang the whole thing on the

wall. First stop: Home Depot.

2Next, the project’s actual

nuts and bolts. Right-angle

brackets hold the score-

board’s frame, four 1”-by-6” pine

boards, together. The lumber and

LCDs are heavy, so we’ll want

strong joints. Drill starter holes be-

fore screwing…pine is solid wood.

BUILD A LAN SCOREBOARD

1

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B U I L D I T !

logy brands. (In other

UPGRADE

3 After building a rectangular

frame, fi nd the halfway

point and add a cross brace

for support. Don’t forget to cut a

notch in the lower-right corner of

the frame to route the video and

power cables. Do it before you

attach the scoreboard’s face.

Philips 42PF9630A 42-inch HDThe better to frag you with, my dear. A

high-def 16:9 display, ambient lighting via

Philips’s cool Ambilight technology, and

a CableCard slot seem so integral, you

almost won’t miss your 2.5 grand. Almost.

$2,400 street, www.philips.com

Microsoft Xbox 360What makes the 360 a tough act

to follow? Try wireless controllers,

HDTV support, and blazing graph-

ics. Spring for the more expensive

version for HD, Ethernet, and a

20GB drive. $400 street, www.xbox.com

Dell XPS 600 Extreme Gaming PCThe dual nVidia GeForce 7800 GTX cards

easily ran our scoreboard. And with a

24-inch LCD widescreen, 1GB of RAM, a

660GB RAID array, and a 3.6-GHz Extreme

Edition CPU, you know it’s a gaming power-

house. $4,700 and up, www.dell.com

4Now screw the face of the

scoreboard into the frame.

Voila! Time to clean up your

workspace and break out the 5/8”

screws for the LCD’s VESA mounts,

which form a simple square.

We’ll be hanging four 17-inch

screens, so space them evenly.

E

A B C

H

D

B

words, everything you need

>> MORE ON THE WEB

Logitech z5500 Digital 5.1 SpeakersWith ridiculous bass and a mind-boggling array of

features (like the beautiful wired controller and a

wireless remote), these premium media speakers

will easily handle outputs from your console, PC, or

any other media device. Mids and highs tend to get

overpowered by the subwoofer, but for gaming and

movies, the z5500 is right on. $400, www.logitech.com

Logitech G15 keyboard, G7 mouseThe G15 has 18 programmable macro keys (perfect

for FPSs and MMOGs), glowing blue backlights, and a

programmable LCD screen. The G7 is wireless, uses

a laser, has hot-swappable batteries, and introduces

adjustable resolution. Keyboard, $80; mouse, $99,

www.logitech.com

nVidia GeForce 7800 GTX video cardThese top-of-the-line cards have dual DVI-out ports,

and they boast the fastest speeds and the best

anti-aliasing and anisotropic fi ltering. Using SLI, you

can bridge the two and power one monitor, though

we ran all four scoreboard LCDs instead and skipped

the SLI ability. The downside? They sure don’t come

cheap. $600 apiece, www.nvidia.com

Most players bring their own rigs to LAN parties. Even the battlefi eld by provid-

ing matching PCs of your own—just make ’em good enough for gaming. We opted

for Dell systems, Logitech keyboards and mice, and big, bright 19-inch Sam-

sung LCDs. Then take the concept to the next level with a custom paint job.

1 Painting a PC is no different from

other household painting projects.

We used the same Krylon you’d use

to spray a doghouse to paint four Dell

Dimension XPS R400s. But be careful with

your paint; make sure to block off fans and

ports that would let paint into the case.

2 After a solid base coat transformed the bor-

ing exterior, we added the logo of our Unreal

team: the Brooklyn Skulls. Find an image,

print it, and trim it for a stencil with an X-Acto

knife. Use heavyweight paper, vellum, or Mylar.

3We painted two case designs, one

red and one black—Home versus

Away. Make wide, even sweeps with

the can and let the base coat dry thor-

oughly before breaking out the stencil.

For extra credit, tape off the screens of

your LCDs and spray matching bezels.

DESIGN A CUSTOMPAINT JOB

6The only way to export game data to our

scoreboard was a custom app that reads,

sorts, and displays stats in real time. We’ll

share the code with you for free. Download away!

5Measure the VESA mounts

twice before drilling holes.

Otherwise you’ll have a lop-

sided display. Samsung LCDs are a

good choice, by the way; the com-

pany’s Magic Tune software lets

you adjust the screens remotely.

What’s left? Paint, of course!

2.95”(75 mm)

2.95”(75 mm)

GO.PCMAG.COM/DIY

Pyramat PM220 Sound Rocker Connect your TV’s audio-out port to the

Pyramat Sound Rocker for 80 watts of bum-

rumbling power. A subwoofer in the seat and

two speakers atop the backrest let you feel

every Halo 2 gun battle or Tony Hawk wipeout

without standing up. $99 direct, www.target.com

G

D

E

F

TIP: The right way to paint involves

sanding, primer, clear coat, and

dust masks. Use a drop cloth, too, or

you’ll Jackson Pollock the place.

G

d.)

You could plug an Xbox 360 into a 19-inch CRT. You could also

run a marathon in your fl ip-fl ops. We chose to plug ours into this

42-inch plasma screen and send the audio out through this 500-

watt speaker system. Want to take it even further? Read on.< < Xbox 360 faceplatesXbox looking just a little too...plain?

Grab a new look for it with detach-

able faceplates. Microsoft’s include

Flame, Woody, and Silver, and there

are tons of third-party options avail-

able on eBay. Or make your own at

Facetags.com. $20 direct, www.xbox.com

Wireless network adapterIf you’ve got a wireless network at

home, you can eliminate one more

wire from behind the TV with this

accessory from Microsoft. It plugs

into one of the 360’s USB ports and

features dual-band a/b/g wireless

connectivity. $99 direct, www.xbox.com

12-year-old kid brotherHe’ll geek out. Seriously. And then he’ll invite all of

his friends over and they’ll play Halo 2 until their

eyeballs fall out and then all of his friends will think

you’re, like, the coolest person ever. Price: unavailable

UPGRADE YOUR XBOX 360

Gaming T-shirtsAn essential item whenever

two or more serious gamers

are gathered. Declare your

allegiance to obscure OSs,

make insider references to your

favorite games, or just show the

world that you’re a gamer.

$10 direct and up, www.thinkgeek.com

Mini-fridge The original gamer’s cooling

system. Keep your Mountain Dew,

Red Bull, and Bawls soda (the Holy

Trinity of gamer drinks) nice and

cold, your refl exes sharp, and your

nerves shot until dawn.

$125 direct, www.bachelorfurniture.com

EXTRA CREDITSunshineSure, it’s bright and can cause nasty burns. But

you should go outside once in a while. Sunshine

helps your skin produce vitamin D, and can take

the edge off your pallor. Free, weather permitting.

Don’t forget to feed your real-life avatar, or

its fl esh-and-blood body will weaken and

dry out. We’ve found a full collection of food,

drink, and clothes to fl esh out your meat-

space. Keep your friends happy...with pizza.

The glass is as essential to lemonade as the lemons, sugar, and water. Are you a working with a pint glass or a jigger? So before buying your lumber and investing in LCDs, size up your space. The best technique is to create a floor plan, as we’ve done at left. Figure on at least 4 feet for each desk, or your friends will feel cramped. Don’t skimp on the ventilation, either. The ideal LAN room needs a cross breeze, or else the heat of your PCs (and the four LCDs we’ve built into the LAN scoreboard) will slowly cook you all. Finally, take a minute to add up your room’s total power consumption, and make sure your circuit can support it. High-performance PCs consume about 5 to 7 amps each; don’t put five on a 10A circuit. Consider all these factors and your lemonade is certain not to spoil. E

n Face: 38” by 48” $17 streetThis piece is going to be the center of the whole project, so be careful to get it right. Measure twice and cut once, and do all of your painting and detailing before attaching the monitors.

n Monitors: Samsung

SyncMaster 730B 4 at $300 streetWe recommend Samsung LCD monitors, which can be adjusted and fine-tuned from the PC. If you substitute CRTs, build this board much closer to the ground or as a free-standing structure.

n Cordage: Power-

Squid outlet multiplier $12.99 direct With four power cords running from our LAN scoreboard, the PowerSquid was key to consolidating them all and not using up all our wall outlets. Thank god for ThinkGeek.

n Sandpaper:

Norton Valu-Pack$9.75 per pack Sand the metal surfaces of your case to ready them for the primer. Note that you don't need to blast your way to bare metal; what you're looking to do is smooth the surface for a terrific, lust-inspiring paint job. Get a multipack of papers, one with a coarse grit of, say, 300, one a fine grit around 600.

n Stencil: Oxford

Vellum $16 for 50 sheets Choose an opaque heavyweight piece of vellum or Mylar, thicker than a file folder (which will also work, though the paint will soak through and wet it).

n Spray Paint:

Krylon 3 cans at $5.50 each Since you are going to apply two or three coats of paint, start with primer; it will prevent bleeding and dripping. Nearly any brand will do—just make sure the can states that it works on metal.

n Console: Xbox 360 $400 street Microsoft has taken us to the next level of console gaming. The Xbox 360 deserves to be treated like the royalty that it is: Bow to it, and spend hours playing before it.

n HDTV: Philips

42PF9630A 42" HD $2,400 listThe Xbox 360 is no Commodore 64. You can’t just hook one up to an ordinary TV—you might risk insulting it. Instead, go HD…and go big. Philips’s Ambilight technology expands the action right off the screen.

n Speakers:

Logitech Z-5500

Digital 5.1 $400 directIf you’re spending the money to have a big screen, you might as well go all out on the big sound to go with it. These speakers will have you thinking that the bad guys are actually shooting back.

n Top and bottom: Two 48” pine boards,

1” by 6” ($17)

n Sides: Two 36.5” pine boards, 1” by 6”

($11.50)

n Cross brace: One 46.5” pine board, 1”

by 6” ($11)

n Six right-angle brackets ($8.64)

n 5/8” No. 8 wood screws ($5)

n Fire-engine-red paint ($15)

Project total: $1,298.13

n Primer ($6)

n Dust masks ($11.94 for a

50-pack)

n Clear-gloss enamel ($5)

Project total: $65.19

n Pyramat PM220 Sound Rocker

($99 direct)

n Xbox 360 Wireless Networking Adapter

($99.99)

n Second Xbox wireless controller ($49.99)

Project total: $3,448.98

PROPER PLANNING

ULTIMATE GAME ROOM: PARTS LISTTHE BOARD THE PAINT JOB THE XBOX 360

<Want to build the projects shown

above? Flip back a page for plans. TURN THE PAGE

B U I L D I T !

speed already, a fast, cheap box like this would make an excellent offi ce system or home server. Plus we’re willing to guess Grandma doesn’t have half that power at her place.

YOU’RE KIDDING, RIGHT?

We’re not kidding. But that said, can a PC that sells for $159 really be viable? We took the plunge and bought one, just to fi nd out. We didn’t expect a colorful, jacked-up gaming rig for under $200...and we didn’t get one. Unpacking the GQ 3131 from its box revealed a compact minitower case. But it was black, at least, not beige. We popped the screws off the side panel and peeked inside.

The GQ’s purple motherboard (wouldn’t the fashion mag be proud?) is an ECS 741GX-M—a socket-462 board suitable for AMD’s Athlon and Sempron

Were GQ magazine to de-sign a computer, it would sport a Gucci leather jacket and stroll in slick Prada loafers. It would

also cost eight, maybe nine thousand dollars. But when Fry’s Electronics de-signed the GQ system, it wasn’t thinking of luxury linens and leather. It wanted something cheap. The surprising thing is that the GQ (short for “Great Quality,” by the way, not Gentleman’s Quarterly) turns out to be a powerful PC. It’s low-cost, in other words, not high crap.

Why should you care about a cut-rate Californian computer? After all, you’ve probably got a PC or two at home already. But consider: This one is probably faster than yours. It contains an AMD Sem-pron 2400+ chip, which runs at 1.67 GHz; unless you’ve bought a computer in the past year or two, that’s a faster chip than yours. And if you’re up to your eyeballs in

pro cessors. It’s got four USB 2.0 ports, built-in six-channel audio, and 10/100 Ethernet. The board isn’t exactly bleeding-edge, although it does offer an empty AGP graphics slot in case you want to add a card. It also comes with a generic modem, for people who still dial in, and a single 128MB memory module in one of the two DIMM sockets.

As you might guess, this PC for tightwads doesn’t run any fl avor of the Gatesian operating system. Instead, the computer ships with Linspire, the OS

Holy tightwads, Batman! A better PC than what you’re running costs less than a pair of designer jeans? What’s happened to the computer industry?

By Loyd Case

BBelieveelieve IItt

oror NNotot!!

Your Next PC Will Cost$159

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com 98

formerly known as “Lindows.” Even though the GQ runs a Linux variant, 128MB of RAM still seems a

bit thin. But what do you want for $159?Well, you’d want a keyboard and

mouse. And the GQ3131 gives you one of each. You also get a pair of (terrible!) stereo speakers. The keyboard is surpris-ingly good, with decent tactile feedback. The mouse seems generic—not particu-larly responsive in an era of 2,000-dpi gaming mice. But who cares?

Rounding out the system are a fast 40GB hard drive and a 52X CD-ROM

ing it to a $1,200 or $1,400 system seemed like cruel and unusual punishment—and besides, some glaring performance limi-tations were apparent right out of the box. For example, the system was fairly unresponsive. It took several seconds to paint windows (the desktop objects, not the OS), and applications took as much as a minute to load.

The problem lies neither in the CPU nor in the integrated graphics, but in the sparse 128MB of RAM. We replaced the single stick with a pair of 256MB mod-ules (a simple, cheap upgrade), and the system became quite snappy—relatively speaking. You won’t mistake it for an Athlon 64 or Intel P4, but we created documents and browsed the Web with-out noticing any slowdowns.

Considering that you can buy 512MB of RAM for less than $40, we’d strongly recommend adding memory. Once that’s done, you’ll have a surprisingly capa-ble little office system. It may not play F.E.A.R., but it should handle light Web browsing and offi ce apps just fi ne. We’re also very impressed with how easy it was to set up. The Linspire OS was easy to confi gure and a snap to use. Windows users should fi nd it quite comfortable.

Does this system presage the $129 PC? And someday, if we cross our fi ngers and pray, the $99 PC? Doubtful. As Attila the Hun once said, the gouging has to end somewhere. But discounts this deep will become less eyebrow-raising as time goes on. We suggest buying one now...before everyone else becomes as much of a cheapskate as you. E

• NEW TECH You’ve heard of PCI

Express, SATA, and dual-core, but

you won’t get them here.

• LCD MONITOR Nope. Not a

chance. In fact, there’s no screen

included, period.

• DVD BURNER There’s no DVD

recorder, not even a CD burner. But

there is a fast CD-ROM drive.

• SOFTWARE Nothing from Micro-

soft here, but to be fair, the Linspire

OS is pretty decent.

drive. No, you don’t get a burner for $159. Nor a monitor, though Fry’s offers a 17-inch compan-ion CRT for $119. We eschewed that, and plugged it into a 19-inch LCD in the lab just to see what would happen. When we pressed the power button, our cynical sides expected sparks and smoke. Instead, we were welcomed by Linspire.

LET’S HEAR IT FOR $159!

After a fairly lengthy boot-up, we were greeted by the Linspire start-up screens, which walked us through a typical first-start process. It was painless and straightforward. Since we’d connected to a network prior to starting the PC, Linspire pulled

an IP address from our router and we were surfi ng the Internet in short order.

Linspire runs and operates, for the most part, a lot like Microsoft Windows. In fact, Linspire’s relative familiar-ity and ease of use are two of its biggest selling points. So you’ll fi nd a system of ordinary-looking windows and icons, a menu bar at the base of the screen, and a desktop where you can store shortcuts to common applications. Conveniently enough, Linspire includes OpenOffice 1.1.3—the Microsoft Offi ce–compatible open-source suite originally designed by Sun Microsystems. Like Linspire itself, OpenOffi ce is familiar and easy to use.

We didn’t bother to run any perfor-mance tests on this cheap PC—compar-

www.pcmag.com MARCH 21, 2006 PC MAGAZINE 99

• COMPUTER In addition to the 1.67-

GHz AMD Sempron chip, you’ll get four

USB ports, Ethernet, and an AGP slot.

• MEMORY Only 128MB of RAM,

which is barely adequate, really. Re-

place it with 512MB for around $40.

• SPEAKERS They’re included, but

they sound awful. Really, these speak-

ers are just terrible.

• KEYBOARD AND MOUSE A sur-

prisingly responsive keyboard and

generic ball mouse round it all out.

WHAT $159 BUYS YOU... ...& WHAT IT DOESN’T

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NINE ZERO 90 Tremont St.

www.ninezero.com

Great boutique hotel, with

complimentary printer and in-

room Internet (broadband, of

course). Rooms have sizable

desks with speakerphones

and ergonomic Freedom

chairs from HumanScale.

24/7 tech support.

HOTEL@MIT 20 Sidney St., Cambridge

www.hotelatmit.comAn inn drenched in technol-

ogy, a geek’s Graceland,

catering specifi cally to the

connected traveler. Lobby is

decorated with historically

signifi cant robots from MIT’s

grads. Each room is equipped

with a complimentary T1 line

and a laptop-size safe. We

especially like each room’s

PlayStation.

HOTEL COMMONWEALTH 500 Commonwealth Ave.

www.hotelcommonwealth.comThe Hotel Commonwealth

always receives high marks

for its in-room high-speed

wired and Wi-Fi Internet con-

nections. What sets it apart

are the in-room cordless VoIP

phones. Take one throughout

the hotel and never miss an

important call.

HOTEL MARLOWE 25 Edwin H. Land Blvd.

www.hotelmarlowe.comFunky, luxury boutique hotel.

Fun place to stay when in

town for business by day and

good times at night.

BEST WIRED HOTELS

CELL PHONE: According

to user surveys, Verizon

provides the best cell-phone

coverage in the greater

Boston area, followed closely

by T-Mobile and Sprint.

WICKED SMART: Cambridge

is located right across the

river from Boston and is home

to two of the top universities

in the world, Harvard and MIT.

THE BIG DIG: Boston’s

$14.6-billion highway-

construction project is almost

done, including the Zakim

bridge (above). It’s the most

expensive public-works project

in history. www.bigdig.com

FAST FACTS

FUN & TASTY HOT SPOTSB.GOOD CAFE 131 Dartmouth St. Healthy fast food plus free Wi-Fi

equals delicious!

TOSCANINI’S 899 Main St., Cambridge The best ice cream in Boston

and all the Net you can eat.

TECH SUPER-POWERS CAFE 252 Newbury St.Shop and see the traffi c on

Newbury Street, then drop $5

per hour to rent a PC .

MIRACLE OF SCIENCE BAR 321 Mass. Ave., Cambridge

Dorks and drinks, free wireless!

HELD OVER AT LOGAN AIRPORT: Most airports promise full Wi-Fi support, but signals drop in and out far too easily and coverage is spotty. Not Logan. The airport’s wireless network, LoganWiFi.com, provided great service with no dropouts. It charges $7.95 for a full day of connectivity, plus free news, air-port info, and a guide to the city. Also on LoganWiFi: a Java ap-plet that tracks air traffi c, so you can verify that there is in fact a delay due to high traffi c. Comcast subscribers cheer; there’s free access to Comcast.net. Check your mail for nothing! Un-like many cities’ systems, Boston’s subway runs directly to the airport; $1.25 and the Silver Line quickly take you downtown .

TOP TECH ATTRACTIONS: Got a few hours to kill in Boston? Don’t miss the small but nifty Star Wars exhibit at Boston’s Museum of Science. Mixing original models, costumes, and science, it’s a treat for even casual fans of Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, and the rest. You can even fl oat around on a working hovercraft while ogling an actual pod racer from the fi rst episode. It’s not cheap, however, at $20 for an adult ticket and another $5 to sit in a mock-up of the Millennium Falcon for a short movie. You’d better hurry too —the exhibit closes on April 30. But even if you arrive after it’s gone, the Museum of Science is always well worth a visit.

THE CONNECTED TRAVELER

Boston

WHILE YOU’RE IN TOWN Make a pilgrimage to one of the last remaining shrines of old-time baseball, FENWAY PARK. The Red Sox are always in contention for the World Series, and the park is so small that there’s nary a bad seat in the house. For tickets go to www.redsox.com, but you’d better go early: Tickets sell out quickly. Go Sox!

www.pcmag.com MARCH 21, 2006 PC MAGAZINE 101

go.pcmag.com/connectedtraveler • S O L U T I O N S

Apple customers should start taking

security more seriously. Here are the

basics.

Choose a good password. The best

passwords are longer than eight

characters, are not composed of a

single word found in the dictionary, and

have at least one non-alphanumeric

character.

Use fi rewalls. A hardware fi rewall is a

good fi rst line of defense. The software

fi rewall in OS X can alert you to rogue

programs.

Patch regularly. A fully patched Mac

is more secure than one that is not.

Back up your fi les. Your data is more

valuable than your computer.

Use antivirus software. The Mac’s

increasing popularity means that

signifi cant virus attacks are not far

behind.

FIVE WAYS TO

STAY SAFE

KEEP YOURSELF SAFE! Subscribe to our

Security Watch newsletter and get

up-to-date info on the latest threats

delivered to your inbox automatically:

go.pcmag.com/securitywatchletter.

Mac Attack!In 2006, Apple’s operating system will likely see major

attacks. BY ROBERT LEMOS

share for Apple, but unfortunately it also means that more online attackers are

likely to target Mac users. While Mac OS X is more secure than Windows, dozens of critical fl aws

augur that attackers will have more than ample opportunity to compro-

mise systems. Apple users should make certain

that their Mac OS X firewall and au-tomatic patching are turned on. They

should run ant iv i rus sof tware as well and be sure to update

the virus def initions daily. Finally, users should back up

important f i les often. Ask yourself what would happen

i f you lost a l l your data today—a nd prepa re for

the worst by scheduling regular backups as often as necessary.

There’s only one certainty in com-puter security: An attack will even-tually get through your defenses. Be ready for it.

X gives them a slick interface when they want cool, and a Unix-like operating system when they want to go deep.

In 2005, more software f laws were found in the Apple Mac OS X than in Microsoft Windows (see chart). But only 29 of the Mac problems were of high severity, while 38 of the Windows problems were of high severity.

Malicious hackers will be able to code exploits more quickly for the latest crop of Macs because of Apple’s move to the x86 architecture—a platform better un-derstood by hackers than the PowerPC platform.

Finally, while Apple hasn’t had tremendous success in increas-

ing its share of the personal computer market, analysts predict that this situa-tion will change in 2006. The estimates are based on surveys that have shown that almost 20 percent of PC users who have bought an iPod will buy a Mac rath-er than a PC as their next computer. Such momentum could mean decent market

Start talking about security con-cerns with a hard-core Mac user and the conversation frequently

turns into an argument based on his-tory: “There has never been a virus on Mac OS X, and the Mac OS has much better protections than Windows. So I don’t have to worry about security.”

Yet history is a poor indicator of future performance. The first two assertions are, for the most part, true. There has never been a major Mac OS X virus. And the Mac OS X has many of the advan-tages of its open-source and Unix-like underpinnings, including least-privilege access for users.

But Apple users who believe they don’t have to worry about security are likely to have a rude awaken-ing this year. Three trends are converging to make Apple’s popular personal computers the new prov-ing ground for hackers and online attackers. First, the platform has become more popular among people who search for f laws. Second, the move to an x86 ar-chitecture means that the ma-jority of hackers will be able to write exploits using assembly code for Macs. And third, in-creasing market share makes the platform a more tempting target.

Apple PowerBooks and Mac minis are cool, yet there’s a deeper reason for their popularity among people who search for fl aws. The OS’s core underpinnings are based on a vari-ant of Unix known as the Berkeley Soft-ware Distribution (BSD). The younger generation of researchers cut their teeth on some distribution of Linux, the open-source descendant of Unix. The Mac OS

Robert Lemos is a freelance technology journalist and the editor-at large for SecurityFocus.

Windows XPflaws

Mac OS Xflaws

200520042003200220010

20

40

60

80

100

Source: National Vulnerability Database, NIST.

S O L U T I O N S • go.pcmag.com/security watch

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com 104

SECURITY WATCH

105

ExtremeTech.com’s editor Loyd Case

tackles your toughest hardware problems

each issue. Send him yours at

askloyd@ziffdavis.com.

An Optical Drive UpgradeI would like to know how to remove my

CD-RW and install a CD-DVD unit. I have

heard you must be sure not to introduce

any static electricity into the CPU.

LORNE TOMPKINS

While static electricity can be a concern,

particularly in dry weather, swapping out

an optical drive is one of the safer things

you can do, provided that you ground

yourself. Keep the PC plugged into the

wall outlet, and touch any metal part on

the case fairly frequently. The drive itself

makes contact with the motherboard only

through the data cable; if you never touch

any of the pins at the end of the data cable,

you’re unlikely to transmit static electricity

to the CPU itself. Note, though, that some

optical drives have parts of the circuit

board exposed, and you should take care

not to discharge a static spark onto any of

those components.

Removing the actual optical drive is

usually easy, but varies depending on

the case design. First, disconnect all the

cables. Most optical drives have only a

power cable connection and the data

cable, which is usually a fl at, 40-pin cable.

Keep the motherboard side of the cable

attached. Note that a few older systems

may also have a CD audio wire attached to

either the motherboard or a sound card, so

look out for that, too.

Optical drives are typically attached in

one of three ways: latched into the case

via “tool-free” latches; screwed directly

into the case; or mounted on rails, which

then allow the drive to slide into the bay.

Remove the drive in the way that is appro-

priate for the case. If necessary, detach

any rails from the old drive and attach

them to the new drive.

Assuming this is an ATAPI optical drive,

check the old drive for the master/slave

jumper setting, and set the jumper on the

new drive to the same setting (although

if the drive is on the end of the cable, and

doesn’t share the IDE bus with anything

else, it can be the master device).

Now you can reinstall the new opti-

cal drive into the case and reattach the

data and power cables. You won’t have to

install drivers, but you may need to update

your CD/DVD burning software for proper

operation.

A Stealth Hard DriveWhen I start my PC, I get this message:

“Primary Hard Disk 1 not found. Push F1 to

continue, F2 for setup utility.”

When I push F1, the system boots nor-

mally and runs properly. How do I fi x this?

TAMMY KNIGHT

There are several potential causes for this.

Your system BIOS is set to boot off

another hard drive fi rst. Many BIOSs have

settings to rearrange the boot order of

devices. Note that some of these BIOS

settings are a bit buggy, and may not

auto matically search for the next bootable

device, which is why you see the error.

Some hard drives take a little time to

spin up. When that happens, a system that

boots quickly sometimes doesn’t “see” the

drive. You can actually change this in your

system BIOS. Usually, there’s a setting

known as “Hard Drive Pre Delay” or “Hard

Drive Pre-Boot Delay.” Set this for some

fi nite time, like 10 seconds.

How’s This Monitor for HDTV?I read your review on the Dell 3007WFP

30-inch monitor. Sounds like a great

monitor. What are you thoughts on it as an

HDTV monitor? Can it handle fast action

such as sports or action movies? Also,

what type of HDTV receiver would I need?

B. J. TAGLIANETTIA

If you mean to use it purely as an HDTV

monitor, it would be overkill—and might

not work well. Here’s why: The 3007WFP

has two “built-in” modes: 1,280-by-800

and 2,560-by-1,600.

No current set-top box, upscaling DVD

player, or upcoming high-defi nition disc

player supports 2,560-by-1,600. So you’d

be stuck with 1,280-by-800. You’d do

better with a 30-inch HDTV display, since

those have sophisticated video proces-

sors. The 3007WFP relies on the host

device (PC) to handle the scaling.

Playing back HD content from a PC, if

you have a good video card (the recent

ATI X1000 series cards have great built-in

scaling capability) might be a good option.

go.pcmag.com/askloyd • S O L U T I O N S

A S K LOY D

www.pcmag.com MARCH 21, 2006 PC MAGAZINE

TWO EXAMPLES

of drive rails. You may

need to detach the rails

from your old drive and

fasten them to the new.

MOST OPTICAL DRIVES have only a pow-

er cable and a data cable, both of which

should be easy enough to disconnect and

then attach to the new drive.

CHECK THE OLD drive for its master/slave

jumper setting, and use the same setting

for the jumper on the drive you will replace

it with.

Upgrading Your Optical

Drive: A Simple

Procedure

S O L U T I O N S • go.pcmag.com/solutions

Default Double-Spacing in WordAs a college student, I need to write

lots of essays, and double- spacing

is required for them. I prefer to

write using Microsoft Word 2003.

Is there any way I can confi gure it

to double-space automatically?

XINXIN DAI

You can do that quite easily. Open a new

document and choose Styles and Format-

ting from the Format menu. Find and

select Normal in the Styles and Format-

ting panel at right. Click the down arrow

next to Normal and choose Modify. Click

the Format button at the bottom left of

the Modify Style dialog box and choose

Paragraph. Find the Line Spacing setting

and change it from Single to Double. Click

OK. Back in the Modify Style dialog, check

the Add to Template box and click OK.

That’s it—from now on, new documents

will be automatically double-spaced.

“Action Canceled” Replaces Online AdsOn some Web pages, I get the phrase

“Action Canceled” where there has

been an advertisement. I use Webroot

Spy Sweeper and Norton Corporate

AntiVirus. Can you direct me to a solu-

tion to my problem?

C. R. MEYER

Many security products include an option

to block banner advertisements. You can

accomplish the same thing using a simple

text fi le called HOSTS (see the article

“Block Web Ads”; go.pcmag.com/

blockwebads). The normal purpose of the

HOSTS fi le is to match a domain name

with the corresponding IP address without

having to access a DNS server. To block

banner ads, you can simply match them

with an invalid IP address in the HOSTS

fi le. That’s what Spy Sweeper does when

you enable its Com-

mon Ad Sites Shield.

When this sort of ad

blocking is in place,

ads typically show

“Action canceled” or

“The page cannot be

displayed.”

If you really want to

see those banner ads,

you can go into Spy

Sweeper and disable

the Common Ad Sites

Shield. If you fi nd that

Spy Sweeper was not

actually the source

of the HOSTS fi le

change, you can navi-

gate to C:\Windows\

System32\Drivers\

Etc and rename the

HOSTS fi le to something else, say, HOSTS.

NOT. Then create a new text fi le named

HOSTS containing just the line “127.0.0.1

localhost” (no quotes).

Problems When Scheduling a TaskWhen I schedule a new task in Task

Manager, I get an error saying that the

new task has been created but may not

run because the account information

could not be set. It reports the error

0x80070005, “Access is denied.” It

says I should try the Browse button to

locate the application. What can I do?

ARUN PRASATH

When you schedule a task, you must give

it the account name and password under

which it will run. That way the task can

run even if a different user (or no user) is

logged on. You must use an account for

which a password is defi ned. If you try to

use an account that has no password, or

if you omit the password, you’ll get the

error described here.

So, fi rst check to be sure that the ac-

count you’re using has a defi ned password

and that you’ve entered the password cor-

rectly. If the account and password seem

okay, the problem may be with Windows

itself: Microsoft acknowledges a problem

in Windows XP SP2 that can produce

precisely the same symptom. After more

testing, the company will release a hotfi x

to solve the problem. You can also obtain

a patch from Microsoft by linking from

the Knowledge Base article at support.microsoft.com/kb/884573.

Windows XP Home users will have to

rely on the hotfi x or patch, but those with

XP Pro can correct the problem manu-

ally using the Group Policy Editor. Launch

gpedit.msc from the Start menu’s Run

dialog. Navigate to Local Computer Policy

| Computer Confi guration | Windows Set-tings | Security Settings | Local Policies |

User Rights Assignment. In the right-hand

pane, double-click Access this computer from the network. Click the Add User or Group button, enter the name of the ac-

count you’re using for the scheduled task,

and click the Check Names button. Then

click OK, OK again, and close the Group

Policy Editor.

A S K N E I L

WHEN YOU SCHEDULE a task in Task Manager, you must give

it the account name and password under which it will run, or

problems may ensue.

Each issue, PC Magazine’s software

expert Neil J. Rubenking answers your

toughest software and Internet questions.

Send yours to askneil@ziffdavis.com.

SPY SWEEPER and many security prod-

ucts block banner ads—but you can get

those ads back if you really want to see

them.

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com 106

S O L U T I O N S • go.pcmag.com/askneil

Hack ThyselfDiscovering security fl aws is the fi rst step toward

getting your small business’s computers in shape .

BY MATTHEW D. SARREL

Theft of proprietary information. Denial-of-service attacks. Spyware. Viruses. These are the foes you bat-

tle daily in the war to keep your business’s network secure. To win you have to know your weak points.

The best defense in your arsenal is a vulnerability assessment scanner, which automatically discovers security fl aws on a network and can often correct them. These tools have been around for years, but only recently have they begun to offer such fea-tures as customized reporting, distributed

threat assessment, and automatic correc-tion of software bugs, viruses, and weak access-control policies. Commonly found workstation vulnerabilities include open NetBIOS ports for fi le and printer sharing, as well as users who run rogue Web servers or peer-to-peer fi le-sharing clients.

These scanners can also find improper confi gurations of applications, which can leave networks unprotected. For example, Microsoft Exchange’s default confi guration used to leave the server as an open SMTP relay, which spammers could exploit, send-ing millions of e-mails that appeared to originate from the victims’ networks. You don’t want your company’s e-mail server listed as a spammer haven.

Many vulnerability assessment scan-ners also take on patch management—the deployment of code updates to repair bugs. Web servers and e-mail servers require frequent patching, as do the underlying OSs. This is especially true of Microsoft products, because they’re frequent hack-ing targets. A scanner identifies the OS and common applications and tells you whether or not they’re up to date.

GFI LANguard Network Security Scan-ner 7 ($495 for up to 32 IPs; GFI Software Ltd., www.gfi .com) is a good place to start.

It’s relatively inexpensive and easy to use, and GFI offers a 30-day trial. It scans your entire network, moving from IP address to IP address, and provides information such as which Microsoft Windows Service Pack is in use, as well as reporting on miss-ing security patches, open shares, open ports, services/applications active on the computer, key Registry entries, and weak passwords. GFI LANguard NSS also de-tects rogue wireless access points and USB devices that could be used to smuggle infor-mation out of your company.

Scan results can be analyzed using fi lters and reports, so that each bit of information can help you shut down the vulnerability before it can be exploited. It can shut down

unnecessarily open ports, close shares, and install service packs and hotfi xes.

GFI LANguard NSS performs security audits on computers based on either Win-dows or Linux. The scanning engine col-lects hardware and software information. It also checks for the presence of security software such as antivirus and antispyware applications and ensures they’re running properly and have the most recent malware defi nition fi les.

GFI LANguard NSS conducts its scans and generates a report that can be sorted by IP address or by the vulnerability uncov-ered. Highlighting a specifi c vulnerability on a specifi c computer brings up either an option to correct the issue automatically or instructions to correct it manually. You should rescan every one to three months.

If you aren’t comfortable assessing and closing vulnerabilities on your own, hire a network security consultant. Many con-duct initial vulnerability assessments free,

hoping you’ll hire them to fi x the problems they uncover. A good consultant will pro-vide a prioritized list of recommendations for securing your network and computers, along with a breakdown of vulnerabilities and their severity, computer by computer. You can then have the consultant fix the problems, or do it yourself.

Whether you conduct a vulnerability assessment or a consultant does, it’s a criti-cal fi rst step in securing your business’s IT infrastructure. After all, your network is only as secure as its weakest point.

Matthew D. Sarrel is a consultant and former PC Magazine Labs technical director.

Back Orifi ce Blaster Lovsan Sasser SubSeven

Network ports used UDP ports 31337 and 31338 TCP Port 125 "DCOM RPC"; UDP Port 69 "TFTP"

TCP ports 135, 4444 TCP ports 445, 5554, 9996 TCP ports 1243, 1999, 2772, 2773, 2774, 6667, 6711, 6712, 6713, 6776, 7000, 7215, 16959, 27374, 27573, 54283

Description Trojan horse allowing remote access

Using DCOM RPC vulnerabil-ity, Blaster spreads itself by downloading and executing "msblast.exe"

Buffer overfl ow leads to DDOS attack on windowsupdate.microsoft.com

Frequent crashes caused by a buffer overrun in the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service

Trojan horse allowing remote access

Unwelcome

Guests

A vulnerability assess-

ment tool can close

the door on a variety of

miscreants.

ILLU

ST

RA

TIO

NS

BY

DY

NA

MIC

DU

O S

TU

DIO

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com 108

S O L U T I O N S • go.pcmag.com/smbbootcamp

SMB BOOT CAMP

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com 110

Explorer Turns Seven (Almost)It’s been fi ve years since IE6. What’s new? BY JOHN CLYMAN

Many of IE’s new features focus on addressing the all-important security issues. (For more details, see “Security in IE7,” go.pcmag.com/IE7security.) Oth-ers, such as improved support for CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and partial transparency in PNG (Portable Network Graphics) images, are designed to meet the needs of Web developers. Many are welcome conveniences: IE’s print en-gine can now shrink Web pages to fi t on printed pages—no more right margins being cut off. And the browser also gives you easier ways to clear your browsing history and set parental controls, support for which is built into Vista itself.

One highly desired feature that IE7 will not include, at least initially, is in-cremental, “wordwheel” searching within an individual Web page—a strik-ing omission, given Microsoft’s stated intention to make search pervasive throughout Vista. You’ll fi nd our ongoing coverage of IE7 at go.pcmag.com/IE7 .

One of the prominent new com-ponents of Micro-soft Windows Vista is Internet Explorer 7.

And it’s about time. After IE6 shipped in August 2001, it seemed as if Micro-soft all but halted development of its browser. But the Web didn’t stop evolv-ing just because IE did. Browsers such as Firefox brought tabbed browsing into the main-stream, RSS emerged as a stan-dard way to stay abreast of the explosion of blogs and other information sources, and spyware threats and phishing scams became ever more brazen.

Yes, Windows XP Service Pack 2 in-cluded some security enhancements in IE, but the ab-sence of wholesale im-provements in the browser has squan-dered the leadership that Microsoft expended so much effort to win. (It may seem like ancient history, but IE was once a second-rate alternative to Netscape Navigator.) So we’re glad to see Microsoft start moving ahead with Inter- net Explorer 7, which will be an integral part of Windows Vista and will also be available—minus a few Vista-dependent capabilities—for Windows XP.

L IN VERSION 7, Internet Explorer fi nally supports tabbed

browsing natively, so you can keep multiple Web pages

open without spawning a whole stack of new application

windows.

VISTA REVEALED

L IE7’S NOVEL “quick tabs” feature shows thumbnails of all

your open tabs. It’s visually appealing and may be helpful if you

have lots of tabs open, but when it comes to working with the

tabs, you get the same functions in this view as by right-clicking

on tabs, nothing extra.

IE7 INTEGRATES K with Microsoft’s

phishing detection.

In Vista, the entire

address bar turns

yellow when you visit

a suspected phishing

Web site (red for

a confi rmed phishing

site). Clicking the

“Suspicious website”

notice brings up this

dialog box for more

information.

J IE7 AUTO-DISCOVERS RSS

and Atom feeds and lets you

view their contents, subscribe

to feeds, and share subscrip-

tion lists with other RSS-aware

apps, like feed aggregators—

but it’s designed for casual use,

not as a replacement for a full

RSS reader.

S O L U T I O N S • go.pcmag.com/vista

Excel Comes Alive You can add live stock data to an Excel spreadsheet.

BY MARK J. BRICKLEY

Well, “live” might be a bit of an exaggeration—but a 15-minute delay for ac-tual stock data isn’t bad! You could use this data to determine the current value of your stock holdings, fi gure out your gains or losses, and do many

other calculations. There are two approaches to gaining access to stock data. The easier way takes advantage of

the Smart Tag feature that arrived with Microsoft Offi ce XP. And for those who need to keep track of more than just a few stocks, there’s the extremely handy MSN MoneyCentral Stock Quotes add-in. Along with the ability to download stock data, the add-in also features the MSNStockQuote function . With this function, you can incorporate referenc-es to stock data as part of any formula.

Getting Stock Data with Smart Tags

IF YOU HAVE SMART TAGS ACTIVATED

(select Tools | AutoCorrect, then the

Smart Tags tab, and check Label data with

Smart Tags), any stock abbreviation on

your spread sheet will be marked. Simply

click the Smart Tag icon in the lower right

of the cell and select Insert Refreshable

Stock Price. The downside: Smart Tags

drag in a huge area of data—about 12

rows by 16 columns for each stock.

SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS

1 INSTALL THE ADD-IN. You’ll fi nd the

MSN Money Stock Quotes add-in at

www.microsoft.com/downloads (search

the site for “MSN Stock Quotes” and se-

lect the one for Excel). Once it’s installed,

you will have a new toolbar and a new

function. The data from the add-in is far

more compact than the data returned by

Smart Tags, but you may fi nd you don’t

need to display any stock data.

2 GET STOCK QUOTES. Once the toolbar is up and running, highlight the stocks you’re

interested in. Click on Insert Stock Quotes, then the Add button to move the relevant

data fi elds to the “selected” list. Click OK and the data will arrive on your worksheet.

3 WANT MORE INFORMATION? The MSNStockQuote function requires the abbrevia-

tion for the stock and a description of the data you need. For example, to get the most

recent price of Microsoft, you’d use =MSNStockQuote(“MSFT”, “Last”).

Have more than a few stocks? It’s more effi cient to use cell addresses to fi ll in the

stock names. For the function’s second argument, any fi eld listed in the Insert Stock

Quotes dialog box will work. Many of these codes have numeric alternatives—rather

than say “52 week high,” you can use “year high” or the code 15. For a list of codes,

go to offi ce.microsoft.com and search for “stock quotes.” The help page at the

top of the list that appears contains an MSNStockQuote function reference.

Getting Data by Using the MSN MoneyCentral Stock Quotes Add-In

Tracking more than a few stocks and

want to avoid the clutter? Try the MSN

MoneyCentral Stock Quotes add-in.

S O L U T I O N S • go.pcmag.com/solutions

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com 112

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com124

DUPING

The oldest and often easiest of game exploits is duplicat-ing items. It can be as simple as quickly dropping and pick-ing up an item over and over until it doubles. Even the rumor of easy loot is enough to send players off on strange, pointless errands. In World of Warcraft, for instance, most duping tricks involve trading gold or items to another player and then getting your charac-ter rolled back to the state it was at before the trade, some-times by making a character with an inappropriate name and delib-erately having it reported, for example. Any gamemaster (GM) who catches you duping is going to kick your butt.

PATHFINDING

MMOGs are all about hitting monsters until they die from it. Many players

discover, however, that exploits are available when you’re run-

In any massively multiplayer online game, it’s a long, hard fight from newbiedom to level awesome. But

some players think that’s a game for chumps. They know what they want, are clever about taking it, and work hard not to get caught. Cheating is as old as gam-ing, video or otherwise. And an online game universe is a big, tricky thing to make. When you have millions of people romping through your creation, they’re going to do all kinds of crazy, unan-ticipated things—which can let them become tiny gods if left unchecked.

ning around instead of going toe-to-toe with a critter. Monsters like either to make a beeline for a threat or to follow invisible trails laid down by the design-ers. One classic example of pathfi nding is players leading EverQuest’s dragons out onto bridges, then slipping away to blast them with spells from below. The problem with this and other variants is

that not only is it sometimes unclear to players that pathfinding is wrong, but GMs with hair-trigger tempers love to ban people for it.

POWERLEVELING

The most prevalent example of path-fi nding right now is taking advantage of the mentoring system in games such as EverQuest 2 and City of Heroes. Men-toring and sidekicking artifi cially adjust a character’s level to one closer to that of the rest of a group, letting friends of disparate levels venture out together. Powerleveling is great stuff, but it’s not without its faults. In EQ2 it’s possible to lower your average level when zoning into a particular area, then unmentor inside to create a spot whose mobs are scaled to an improper group average.

MACROS

MMOGs can be pretty tedious. Click-ing the same thing over and over again can be done just as well by a script as by hand—so naturally, people make scripts. Some actually go so far as to implement scripts for killing monsters,

MORE TOYS! In World of Warcraft, there are several

ways to duplicate an item, known as duping.

Gamesploitation

Lying, cheating, and stealing . . . for fun and profi t.

BY SCOTT SHARKEY, 1UP.COM

GAMING + CULTURE

go.pcmag.com/gaming-culture

www.pcmag.com MARCH 21, 2006 PC MAGAZINE 125

collecting loot, and even schlepping it back to vendors. Whether or not this is an officially butt-kickable offense depends on the game. Some games, such as Star Wars Galaxies and the original Asheron’s Call, actually condone it, but others place it above all other evils.

HACKING

Hacks are an entirely different class of nastiness. Rather than taking advantage of something broken in the game, hacks break things themselves. Whether they’re available depends mostly on how much is handled in the game’s client rather than on its servers, which are infi nitely harder to monkey with.

On one end of the spectrum are games like the original Diablo, which stored all of its character data on the client side. Diablo was so easy to mess with that it ended up becoming the most hacked game in history. On the other end, most modern games are comparatively ironclad. World of War-craft is an exception, however. Charac-ter position is determined on the client, making it possible for players to fi ddle with positional data and be instantly transported within the zone.

There are many reasons players cheat, most of them not very nice. There’s the thrill of putting one over on someone, be it game designers or other players. There’s the lure of free items, levels, and status. For the really unscrupulous, there’s easy money to be made selling ill-gotten items, cash, and characters.

If you’re on that side of the gaming fence, we hope you get caught. Jerk.

POWERLEVELING In City of Heroes, you

can artifi cially adjust a character’s level.

1 BATTLEFIELD 2: MODERN COMBAT Vehicles and weapons abound as you fi ght.

2 SPLINTER CELL 4 The ongoing adventures of a double agent.

3 THE ELDER SCROLLS IV Unravel a sinister plot threatening the Empire.

4 FULL AUTO Lethal street races? Where do I sign up?

5 eNCHANT arM Look out for Golem. He’s a devil.

6 GHOST RECON 3 Become the warrior of the future.

7 HALO 3 The buzz is on for this shooter game—due in the fall.

8 FINAL FANTASY XI: TREASURE OF THE AHT URHGAN The third expansion pack takes you on exotic treasure hunts.

9 KAMEO Elves take on trolls. Blood ties are betrayed.

10 MLB 2K6 Start breaking in your mitt. It’s due in the spring.

TOP 10 l Xbox 360 Games

ON THE AUCTIONBLOCKYou never know what

kind of booty you’ll

fi nd on the block.

ITEM: Remember this 1970s-era Mattel electronic football game? EBAY PRICE: $9.99

ITEM: Hoops fans might yearn for this Michael Jordan PSP skin.EBAY PRICE: $10.99

ITEM: That’s an offi cial blue Zelda sword and scabbard—made of steel.EBAY PRICE: $165

Source: 1up.com. Ranked by highest online buzz.

WHO WOULD build a

computer case and a

hot rod–modded PC out

of what looks like brass

water piping? Blake

Betz, a reader at PC

Magazine’s sister site

ExtremeTech.com, did

just that. His creation,

Coppertop, actually

uses copper plumbing

pipes for its archi-

tecture. The system

houses an AMD Palo-

mino Athlon XP 1700+

processor, a Matrox

Millennium G400 32MB

Dual Head graphics

card, a Hauppauge PVR

250, a 120GB Maxtor

DiamondMax hard drive,

and more. Perhaps the

fi nishing touch should

be liquid cooling?

MOD WORLD

Full-size

keyboards will arrive

later this year. Picture the keys

displaying Russian characters at the

click of a button, or showing icons for applications.

What if every key on your keyboard had its own customizable

display? That’s the thought behind Optimus’s line of fl exible-

function keyboards. The three-key Optimus mini, which sits

next to your current keyboard, will ship this spring for $120.

Each key is topped by an OLED display with 96- by 96-pixel

resolution. Here, the keys are set to retrieve mail, show an

animated clock, and display Web images. Each can show fi ve

frames per second, and as the images change, you can use the

Shift or Ctrl keys on your normal keyboard to execute actions.

QWERTY may soon feel outdated.—Sebastian Rupley

MORE ON THE WEB For more products like the new Swiss

Army knife/MP3 player, head to

www.gearlog.com

The initial keyboard contains only

three buttons, but the Shift and

Ctrl keys triple their functions.

A F T E R H O U R S • go.pcmag.com/afterhours gearlog.com • G E A R L O G

www.pcmag.com MARCH 21, 2006 PC MAGAZINE 127

GEARLOG

KEYBOARD METAMORPHOSIS

PC MAGAZINE MARCH 21, 2006 www.pcmag.com 128

PLASMA OR LCD: WHICH ONE ARE YOU?Edited by Don Willmott

PC Magazine, ISSN 0888-8507, is published semi-monthly except monthly in January and July at $44.97 for one year. Ziff Davis Media Inc, 28 E. 28th St., New York, NY 10016-7940. Periodicals postage paid at New York,

NY 10016-7940 and at additional mailing offi ces. POSTMASTER: Address changes to PC Magazine, P.O. Box 54070, Boulder, CO 80328-4070. The Canadian GST registration number is 865286033. Publications Mail Agree-

ment No. 40009221. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to P.O. Box 503, R.P.O. West Beaver Creek, Richmond Hill, ON L4B 4R6, Canada. Printed in the U.S.A.

If your entry is used, we’ll send you a PC Magazine T-shirt. Submit your entries via e-mail to backspace@ziffdavis.com

(attachments are welcome) or to Backspace, PC Magazine, 28 E. 28th St., New York, NY 10016-7940.

Ziff Davis Media Inc. shall own all property rights in the entries.

Winners this issue: Ji Ho Choi, Andy Dvorak, Alex Hu, Bill Lewis, Brian Sullivan, and Bryan Weber.

<< The licked

ones are

available

for a few

bucks less.

(eBay)

<< You may need a few of those trailers

to get the whole job done.

<< Like the bug that’s responsible for this

Web page. (Wired News)

>> So far, the

shameful

hackers

appear to

have the

upper hand.

(NukeSentinel) >> Backspace

on the

Road:

Nassau,

Bahamas.

>> Awwww, how romantic! (ad spotted on eBay)

BACKSPACE