SECURITY SUITE SHOOTOUT TAKING PROTECTION TO THE NEXT LEVEL Top 200 Web Sites Undiscovered and Classic Destinations for Fun, Work, and Good Living 25 YEARS OF TECHNOLOGY PC LABS TESTS YOUR NEXT PC S P EC I A L DOUBLE I S S U E! 41 Hot New Systems Put to the Test NOVEMBER 6, 2007 WWW.PCMAG.
HV20 HR10 HG10 ©2007 Canon U.S.A., Inc. All rights reserved. “HDV” and the “HDV” logo are trademarks of Sony Corporation and Victor Company of Japan, LCD screen image is simulated.
Meet the family. Three HD camcorders. perfect for HD. Our camcorders also share Three HD recording formats. another genetic trait: stability. SuperRange Our latest line of High Definition camcorders Optical Image Stabilization addresses a covers the spectrum of HD formats. wide range of vibration — from normal The HG10 AVCHD HDD camcorder offers the longest hand - held jitters to the shake of a moving recording time of all three — up to 15 hours of HD vehicle.
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Toshiba recommends Windows Vista® Ultimate Get the ultimate in HD and a revolutionary recordable HD DVD drive 1 with the Qosmio® G45 notebook PC. Enjoy a quiet evening with an indie film, your Qosmio G45 and millions of beautiful pixels. With HD DVD providing up to 6x the resolution of DVDs, 2 you’ll discover a supreme home-theater experience.
PContents VOL. 26 NO. 21/22 NOVEMBER 6, 2007 FIRST LOOKS 27 Software Norton Internet Security 2008 Panda Internet Security 2008 Adobe Acrobat 8 Standard BullZip PDF Printer deskPDF Professional PDF Converter Professional 4 Pownce.com Totalidea TweakVI COVE R S TO RY The Ultimate PC Buying Guide With the holidays just around the corner, PC manufacturers are rolling out their best systems.
PCONTENTS GRAPHICS CARD SUPERGUIDE Better Graphics On a Budget S P E C I A L R E P O R T: I N T E R N E T Best of the Web 2007 Try as we might, we can’t fit all the best Web sites in the universe in a mere list of 100. That’s why we’ve scoured the Net to to bring you the choicest morsels, including the Top 100 Undiscovered sites as well as our annual Top 100 Classic sites.
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Fujitsu recommends Windows Vista® Business. Small wonder. Family of Notebooks U800 800 Ultra-Mobile PC P1600 Portable PC All the functionality. Half the size. The new 1.5-pound Fujitsu U800 Ultra-Mobile PC is massively versatile and wonderfully small. With its Intel® Pentium® M processor, you can easily launch Microsoft Vista® applications and YouTube™ videos and view them on a vivid 5.6-inch monitor/touch-screen. Share data and peripherals effortlessly with built-in Bluetooth® technology.
FIRST WORD LANCE ULANOFF Fair Use Is a Failure Blame the Apple iPhone for my new love affair with mobile video. I’ve always taken a skeptical view of video on tiny screens— until recently. A few weeks ago I took the iPhone on a business trip. I watched the Scott Baio Is 45 . . . And Single realityshow premiere, along with other brainless video treats. Most screens on devices of this genre are too small for my enjoyment.
® W W W. P C M A G C O N N E C T. C O M Visit PC Magazine Connect for special offers from PC Magazine and select partners. It’s your resource for sweepstakes, downloads, announcements and updates that keep you connected. www.pcmag.com EDITOR-IN-CHIEF EDITOR Lance Ulanoff Stephanie Chang EXECUTIVE PRODUCT DIRECTOR Robyn Peterson DIRECTOR OF ONLINE CONTENT, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER EXECUTIVE EDITORS ART DIRECTOR Vicki B. Jacobson Dan Costa (reviews), Carol L. Gonsher, Jeremy A. Kaplan Richard J.
ADVERTISEMENT The Crucial Flaw in Server Performance Today’s server technology is designed to withstand critical workloads. But there is still one major flaw, and a secret edge for solving it. scheduled defragmentation leaves fragmented files behind after running, or in best cases only provides a very short respite from performance loss. Only Diskeeper 2007 consistently eliminates fragmentation to continuously provide maximum performance and reliability — automatically2.
® e-file under e-fficient. www.pcmag.com EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER BUSINESS DIRECTOR Christopher Urciuoli VICE PRESIDENT, AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT Steve Sutton VICE PRESIDENT, FINANCE AND OPERATIONS MARKETING DIRECTOR RESEARCH DIRECTOR Jim McCabe Neil Glass Ashley Kinley Kamil Fred Doscher ADVERTISING/PRODUCTION MANAGER Monet Whitaker SALES OPERATIONS MANAGER Anne King 312-836-0771 ASSISTANT TO THE PUBLISHER Tisha Greene-Johnson ADVERTISING OFFICE 28 E. 28th St.
FeedBack Three Views on Net Neutrality I read Lance Ulanoff ’s column on Net neutrality (“A Nitwit’s Guide to Net Neutrality,” page 7) in the September 18 issue. Although we are on the same side, I think his analogy is off. Here is my view of Net neutrality: I pay my ISP n dollars per month for x bandwidth. I should be able to use that bandwidth however I choose. Ulanoff says: “To be fair, ISPs charge that bandwidth hogs like Google and YouTube pay no more than joesblog.
/ 2D 3 @ B 7 A 3 ; 3 < B nician at your door if you need one. If you have a falling-out with your service company, you can call another dealer for that brand (with the hardware warranties for most brands intact). If you have a falling-out with GotVMail, you’re stuck.—Jonathan Vine Cut Apple Some Slack, Louderback I read the Apple section of Jim Louderback’s column in the September 18 issue (“That VuDu That U Du,” page 50) and felt compelled to respond.
The Internet can’t hide from the AT&T LaptopConnect Card. Tired of playing hide and seek with the Internet? Get the AT&T LaptopConnect Card and easily access the Internet at mobile broadband speeds when you’re out of the office, on the road, away from hotspots. > Delivers mobile broadband speeds in more than 165 major U.S. markets and more cities worldwide than any other U.S. carrier. > Send and receive email, download large attachments, and access corporate systems at mobile broadband speeds.
FrontSide What’s New from the World of Tech Computing a Cure Scientists are building digital libraries of drug data to fight potential outbreaks. You’ve seen the killer virus used a hundred times as a doomsday scenario in movies. But outbreaks can happen in real life, and if they do, scientists need to come up with a cure fast. Twenty-first century computing is helping them in that quest. Cheminformatics is the process of creating molecular models and archiving research on drugs.
FRONTSIDE Computer Labs on a Budget Desktop virtualization promises dramatic cost and energy savings for businesses and schools. Imagine the money you’d save if you could run a whole office or computer lab from one PC. In this scheme, each workstation would have nothing more than a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and small box that clones the host computer. A few companies are making that vision possible with desktop virtualization.
The Solid State of Storage BEST of the Internet The likely successor to the hard drive is solid state. But there’s still a price barrier. Are hard disk drives destined to go the way of floppy drives? If the nascent trend in laptops is any indication, solid-state drives (SSDs) may eventually supplant hard drives.
FRONTSIDE Pinching Wi-Fi Poachers Police are arresting those who connect to unsecured wireless networks. But is it really a crime to surf for free? Piggybacking on your neighbors Wi-Fi connection may seem like a victimless crime unworthy of punishment, but some officials beg to differ. In late August, the BBC reported that London police arrested a 39-year-old man for connecting to an unsecured Wi-Fi network while standing outside the network owner’s home. In the U.K.
FRONTSIDE The Price of Piracy A new report says music thievery costs our economy billions. Are such numbers reliable? Calculating a business’s losses from theft typically involves some sleight of hand. Estimates are often based on the assumption that most items stolen would have been sold. But can such a formula be applied to music? A new study by the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) finds that global music piracy costs the U.S. economy $12.5 billion in losses and 71,060 jobs annually.
CO N N EC TE D TR AV E LE R Social Networking on the Go Using Web 2.0 in your travel plans can help you save money and meet new people. In the dim, dark past (in other words, a few years ago), travel could be a lonely experience. Now, thanks to a slew of Web 2.0 social networking sites, even solo travelers can be surrounded by new friends practically at every stop of their journey. If you’re flying alone, AirTroductions (www.airtroductions .
Panasonic recommends Windows Vista® Business. LEGALLY, WE CANNOT SAY YOU CAN CONNECT ANYWHERE. A laptop this thin and rugged is good for business in the places you’d least expect. No specially designated area or coffee shop needed. The business-rugged Panasonic Toughbook® Y5 has broadband wireless access built-in so you can email and work online 24/7 from virtually anywhere your cell phone does.
imagine color as mother nature intended 226CW 906CW Desktop Monitors with exclusive MagicSpectrum technology
©2007 Samsung Electronics America, Inc. All rights reserved. Samsung is a registered trademark of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. All product and brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Screen image simulated. with MagicSpectrum without MagicSpectrum Whether you’re into gaming, watching movies or viewing photos, Samsung’s SyncMaster monitors with exclusive MagicSpectrum technology will change the way you experience color.
©2007 Trend Micro Incorporated. All rights reserved. Go ahead. Let your employees email, IM, and share their creative vision online, with confidence. Trend Micro Internet security solutions automatically monitor, respond, and protect your business from online threats. So while we’re busy keeping your infrastructure out of harm’s way, you can keep your eye on the prize. Learn more at trendmicro.com. GO AHEAD. WEB IT UP.
USEFUL KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS for navigating digital magazines PAGE DOWN ................................. flip to next page PAGE UP....................................... flip to prior page ENTER ................................... zoom in on left page SHIFT + ENTER ..................... zoom in on right page ENTER .................. zoom back out to full-page view C ....................................... flip to Table of Contents HOME ......................................... flip to front cover END...
USEFUL KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS for navigating digital magazines PAGE DOWN ................................. flip to next page PAGE UP....................................... flip to prior page ENTER ................................... zoom in on left page SHIFT + ENTER ..................... zoom in on right page ENTER .................. zoom back out to full-page view C ....................................... flip to Table of Contents HOME ......................................... flip to front cover END...
FirstLooks OUR RATINGS KEY: lllll EXCELLENT l llllm VERY GOOD l lllmm GOOD l llmmm FAIR l lmmmm POOR Remotely monitor NIS 2008 on other network systems New One-Click help even shows wait times! Norton Internet Security 2008 $69.99 for 3 licenses llllh NORTON INTERNET SECURITY 2008 The Best Defense Gets Better Norton Internet Security crushed the competition in 2007, and since then the leading suite has only gotten better.
FIRST LOOKS SOFTWARE If a security setting needs attention, you’ll know it The backup facility comes preconfigured to copy important files Panda Internet Security 2008 PANDA INTERNET SECURITY 2008 $69.95 yearly for three licenses Security Suite Stomps Spies l l l h m PROS Stellar antispyware. Backs up important files. No confusing firewall pop-ups. CONS Poor antispam. Useless anti-phishing. Limited parental control. Tune-up feature is nothing special. For more: go.pcmag.com/ pandais08 Don’t be fooled.
Think GAIA For Life and for Earth 1000x MORE CLICKS. Wirelessly surf, click, and surf some more with the battery that’s equal to 1000 regular alkalines*. • 4x more shots than with alkaline • Long storage life • Recharges in most modern chargers† • Recharge up to 1000 times • Ready right out of the pack • No memory effect www.eneloopusa.com Sanyo North America Corporation. All rights reserved. eneloop is a registered trademark of Sanyo Energy USA Corp. All rights reserved.
FIRST LOOKS SOFTWARE A PDQ Guide to PDFs If you need a guarantee that others will be able to read your digital docs, you need a PDF creator. One of these four should fill the bill—and your budget. Adobe Acrobat 8 Standard $299 direct; upgrade, $99 llllm PROS Flexible, featurepacked PDF creation, editing, commenting, import/export. Converts Web sites to single, multipage PDFs. Can embed index in PDF files for fast searching. CONS Some tools are hard to find. Costly. Can’t create fillable PDF forms.
DeskPDF Professional For a tenth the price of Adobe Acrobat 8 Standard, deskPDF Professional provides what most personal and small-business users require and even throws in clever conveniences. You can create PDFs by printing from the standard Windows print dialog, by dragging documents onto a desktop icon, or from within Microsoft Office apps. My favorite feature puts all your PDF-making options in a single dialog box that gives the usual choices for specifying a filename and folder.
FIRST LOOKS SOFTWARE POWNCE Share More than Twitters Pownce Basic version, free; with 100MB file-size limit, $20 yearly l l l l m PROS Good interface. Options for lightweight desktop with notification, private sharing. CONS No mobile posting or notification. No public page of posts. For more: go.pcmag.com/pownce Entry boxes below Message, Link, File, and Event buttons change to suit each task Twitter and its clones may be okay for quickly sharing thoughts with a large audience.
FIRST LOOKS SOFTWARE Shouldn’t have made that change? No problem Shut down Windows with one click—finally! Basic, free; Premium, $30 direct; Ultimate, $40 lllhm TOTALIDEA TWEAKVI Whip Vista into Shape Why waste time waiting for Microsoft to come out with a Vista release of the TweakUI Windows configuration utility? Just grab Totalidea Software’s TweakVI. Even the Basic version covered here goes considerably beyond its forefather’s capabilities.
FIRST LOOKS CONSUMER ELECTRONICS Same display as the iPhone’s Apple iPod touch 8GB, $299 direct; 16GB, $399 l l l l l PROS Beautiful multitouch display. Wi-Fi access. Buy music via Wi-Fi. Excellent user interface. Browser is a delight. Access to YouTube content. Thinner than the iPhone. Double-click for music in any screen. CONS Can’t turn off Starbucks feature. Can’t get podcasts or purchase video via Wi-Fi. Earbuds suck. For more: go.pcmag.
Whether you’re a real estate developer or a toy manufacturer, Qwest’s tailored solutions allow you to get the most out of your network. Because every company is unique, Qwest offers a consultative approach with a full portfolio of business solutions. When your communications are optimized, business thrives. That’s why 95% of Fortune 500® companies choose Qwest. Get Qwest. Get Nimble. Call 1 877-816-8544 or visit qwest.com/business. Services not available in all areas.
FIRST LOOKS CONSUMER ELECTRONICS New split-screen interface Highest pixel-per-inch count in any iPod Apple iPod nano (3rd generation) APPLE IPOD NANO (3RD GENERATION) 4GB, $149 list; 8GB, $199 Pocket-Size Yet Plenty Powerful l l l l h PROS Widescreen video. New, excellent user interface. Superb new graphics. Extremely thin. Strong battery life. CONS Cover Flow loses something without the touch screen. Crappy earbuds. No video out (yet). For more: go.pcmag.
I thought a virus was slowing my PC. Then I realized it was my security software. 40 million users and thousands of businesses have already discovered that protection against viruses, spyware, spam and other threats doesn’t have to slow your PC. They’ve made the move to AVG Internet Security—smarter, faster, easy-to-use security software. Tough on threats. Easy on you. Download your free trial today at www.grisoft .
FIRST LOOKS CONSUMER ELECTRONICS MOTOROLA Q9M (VERIZON) Sophisticated, but Sluggish This latest smartphone for Verizon pairs excellent call quality with a top-notch keyboard, making it a strong Windows Mobile choice. I just wish it felt a little quicker. The Q9m’s keyboard is the biggest change from the old Motorola Q. The larger, rectangular keys are easier to settle your fingers on (which helps prevent mistyping), and they depress with satisfying clicks.
FIRST LOOKS CONSUMER ELECTRONICS ttons Elevated pad andntbu provide better co rol Screen looks amazing Quicker load times Less complicated slot opens more easily Sony PSP (model 2000) SONY PSP (MODEL 2000) $169.99 direct Slimmer, Faster Mobile Gaming l l l l m PROS Sleeker and lighter than the original. AV output. Additional RAM makes load times faster. Displays photos. Plays video and music files. Built-in Wi-Fi and Webbrowsing capabilities. Stunning widescreen display.
FIRST LOOKS CONSUMER ELECTRONICS 47-inch widescreen display Westinghouse TX-47F430S $1,799.99 list lllhm PROS: Excellent 1080i video processing. Four HDMI ports. Attractive price. CONS: Poor contrast ratio. No video noise reduction control. Oversaturated greens in skin tones. For more: go.pcmag.
Get all your functions in one place. Better yet, CDW can help you get them all in one machine. HP LaserJet® 3055 All-in-One • Monochrome laser printer, copier, scanner and fax • Print and copy speed: up to 19 ppm • Print resolution: 1200 x 1200 dpi • Scan resolution: 1200 x 1200 optical dpi • Duty cycle: 7000 pages per month • USB 2.
HP Color LaserJet® 2840mfp Multifunction Printer • Color laser printer, copier, fax and scanner • Print and copy speed: up to 20 ppm black, 4 ppm color • Print resolution: 600 x 600 dpi with HP ImageREt 2400 • Scan resolution: 1200 x 1200 optical dpi • Duty cycle: 30,000 pages per month • USB and Ethernet ports 74999 89999 $ CDW 762969 Xerox® Phaser® 6110MFPX $ • Network-ready, color laser printer, copier, scanner, fax and scan to e-mail • Print and copy speed: up to 17 ppm black, 4 ppm color • Print
FIRST LOOKS CONSUMER ELECTRONICS One-touch activation of a face-detection mode FUJI FINEPIX Z5FD Ultracompact With Awesome Auto Controls A sturdy build, quick performance, and useful advanced automatic features give this Fuji 6.3-megapixel ultracompact a big competitive edge. Stylish and available in four colors, the Z5fd has a sliding front cover that acts as the power switch and also protects the lens and built-in flash.
FIRST LOOKS CONSUMER ELECTRONICS NOKIA E65 Business-Class Cellular Helio Fin $375 direct, $175 with contract lllmm PROS Slim. Three-megapixel camera. Full Web browser. Excellent e-mail client. CONS Very short battery life. Annoyingly flat keypad. Feels sluggish in advanced applications. For more: go.pcmag.com/fin Keys are large but too flat HELIO FIN Thin but Short-Lived Take a look at this sweet, svelte little cell.
FIRST LOOKS HARDWARE PictBridge/ USB port Front-loading paper path for large-format printing Canon Pixma Pro9000 $499.99 list L L L L M PROS Topquality color photos and graphics. Maximum 13-by-19-inch paper size. Choice of fine-art papers available. CONS Relatively poor text quality. For more: go.pcmag.com/pro9000 CANON PIXMA PRO9000 Photo Prints Fit for Framing Almost any ink jet printer can churn out decent photos, particularly at small sizes.
FIRST LOOKS HARDWARE IOMEGA EGO Iomega eGo $160 street lllhm PROS Large capacity. Drop resistance. Compact. Good dollarper-gigabyte value. CONS Dual-headed cable’s “Y-section” is a bit short. You have to download backup software. Backup software is Windows-only. Chrome attracts fingerprints. For more: go.pcmag.com/ego Pocket-size drive (5.3 by 3.5 by 0.8 inches) Storage to Go Pocket USB hard drives are all the rage. One of the more attractive and reasonably priced offerings is the Iomega eGo.
FIRST LOOKS HARDWARE Cooling fan (loud) CyberPower Gamer Ultra 8500 SE $849 direct; $999 with 19-inch widescreen LCD monitor lllhm PROS Gaming performance on a sub-$1,000 system. Good performance on our multimedia benchmark tests. Nice mix of components for the money. Three-year warranty. CONS Loud cooling fans. Ball mouse. No included security software. For more: go.pcmag.
You’ve never settled for less. Why do it with your color laser all-in-one? Choose Plan b. Up to 21ppm DCP-9040CN Color Laser Digital Copier/Printer $ 599* MFC-9440CN Color Laser All-in-One $ 699* MFC-9840CDW Wireless Color Laser All-in-One $ 849* When choosing a color laser all-in-one, Plan A is settling for the ordinary. Plan B from Brother is all about making the smarter choice. So you get more of the features you need. The 21ppm1 maximum color printing speeds you want.
FIRST LOOKS BUSINESS LED screen Sony VAIO VGN-TZ150N $2,299 direct l l l h m PROS Carbon fiber case. Improved, raised keyboard. LED-backlit screen. Integrated optical drive. 2.7-pound featherweight. Excellent battery life. CONS Too much bloatware. Slow ULV processor. 1GB of RAM is not enough for Vista. Slow-spinning hard drive. For more: go.pcmag.
FIRST LOOKS BUSINESS LED-backlit screen ASUS U1F $2,100 street l l l h m PROS LED backlight offers terrific contrast. Good battery life. Leather palm rests. Featherweight. Innovative design. CONS Lacks an integrated optical drive. Low-powered components. For more: go.pcmag.com/asusu1f ASUS U1F An LED-Lit Ultraportable The ASUS U1F is a sweet ultraportable with awesome picture quality and an innovative design.
FIRST LOOKS BUSINESS HP Officejet Pro K5400dtn Color Printer Ink jet with laser-class speed $249.99 direct llllm PROS Laser-class speed for business applications. Network connector. Built-in duplexer. Two paper trays. CONS Photo quality is far less than ideal. Photos aren’t even slightly water-resistant. For more: go.pcmag.
TheBestStuff Editors’ Choices in Key Categories For the complete reviews of these products, go to go.pcmag.
Where’s Your Point N? From Your Linksys N Router. Into the breeze. 3 feet from the pool. To Point N. Point N is the place you never thought a wireless router could reach. It’s sharing photos beside the pool. Watching videos on the veranda. Sending emails from the second floor bedroom. There are thousands of places you can connect from, but only one way to get there… Linksys Wireless-N Ultra Range routers. Find out where N will take you. www.linksys.
25 YEARS OF PC MAGAZINE 2002 INNOVATORS Colin Angle Our future robot overlords owe their evolution to Rosie on The Jetsons. Colin Angle knows she set a stellar example. From the day iRobot began, the cofounder and CEO was constantly asked, “When are you going to clean my floors?” For years, Angle and his team—including cofounder and CTO Rodney Brooks, Panasonic Professor of Robotics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology—learned a lot about cleaning. But their bots never made it to market.
Advertisement Discover a Mathematical World of Startling Beauty and Insight when you experience The Joy of Thinking: The Beauty and Power of Classical Mathematical Ideas—in 24 fascinating and provocative lectures on DVD L No Special Knowledge Required! The Joy of Thinking requires no specialized or advanced knowledge of math, and is as appropriate for high school students as for adults.
JOHN C. DVORAK My Top Ten Bright Ideas When you follow the computer scene the way I do, you begin to develop a list of complaints and ideas for fixing them. Here’s my latest Top Ten list. 1. Sun-Apple Merger This has been under discussion since 1985 or so, with no action taken. I have personally never seen two companies that suit each other to a T as these two do. It would tribalism—but they are no longer valid. Linus Torvalds could make this happen overnight. 4.
Dvorak’s InsideTrack Another Bad Idea Bites the Dust Dept.: Palm wised up and killed that Foleo micro laptop project. No one wants this form factor. It began with the Gateway Handbook, deteriorated into the Toshiba Libretto, then mutated into the OQO after a few other exercises in futility. The Palm decision supposedly happened because Apple’s iPhone has challenged the smartphone category, and Palm now wants to concentrate on smartphones. Everyone wants to, despite the rather small market.
JIM LOUDERBACK My Tech-Support Rant Those T-Mobile support people are some of the nicest folks around. Too bad they’re so useless. Here’s my problem. I returned from Europe with a snazzy new Windows mobile phone available only on the Continent. No problem, as it works on AT&T or T-Mobile’s GSM network here in the States. I wanted to avoid AT&T’s iPhonesaturated network, which made T-Mobile the obvious choice. My wife’s already on T-Mobile with a Sidekick II, so the family plan saves me a few bucks.
DAN COSTA My Space Is Not Your Space On campuses everywhere, Facebook is bigger than binge drinking. That is a good thing, but the company’s recent decision to extend beyond colleges presents graduates with a problem potentially even more destructive than underage drinking: overage Facebooking. Facebook’s beauty was the community of like-minded users to which it catered. Now, the company has decided to expand its focus and invite users of all ages to join the fray. Bad idea.
SASCHA SEGAN Less Anonymity, More Privacy We need less anonymity on the Internet. And we need more privacy. And the two should go together. The vast, lazy culture of message-board anonymity is a perfect example of “slacktivism”—an easy but false solution to the problem of our eroding right to true privacy, which will take real grit and courage to solve. Face it, all “anonymity” saves you from is accountability before your peers.
THE ULTIMATE PC BUYING GUIDE It’s that time of the year again, when PC manufacturers roll out their best and brightest systems for the holidays. If you’re planning on buying a new system to start the next year right, or want to surprise a loved one with a system of his or her dreams, you’ll find out what you need to know right here. We have sifted through the coolest, the fastest, and even the cheapest systems out there to bring you our picks for the best PCs to buy.
Desktop Performance 73 | LAPTOPS Desktop-Replacement Laptops 75 | Tablet PCs 75 | Laptop Performance 76 NOVEMBER 6, 2007 PC MAGAZINE 65
Mainstream Desktops By Joel Santo Domingo • Dell Inspiron 531 (Blu-ray) Mainstream is a broad category. The newest mainstream systems we’ve seen cost as little as $1,200 or as much as $3,000. If you’re looking at a $500 PC, you’re trying to get the most bang for your buck while holding your purse strings tight. With a top-end PC, you’re looking for something more specific, such as gaming performance. A mainstream system falls somewhere in between.
Business Desktops Buying desktop PCs for your small business can be more efficient than getting laptops for all your workers. They are usually less expensive, and they’re built on technologies that won’t go obsolete as quickly as mobile tech.—JSD • Apple iMac (20-inch, Aluminum) • Gateway DX440X camcorder, and the iLife suite with which to glom the resulting pictures, music, and videos together mean that you have an instant YouTube/Facebook/MySpace machine that takes just minutes to set up.
• Sony VAIO VGC-LT19U Specs: 2.4-GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor; 2GB DDR2 SDRAM; 250GB, 7,200-rpm hard drive, 512MB nVidia GeForce 8500GT graphics card; Windows Vista Home Premium. Sony VAIO VGC-LT19U $2,900 direct l l l l m The VAIO VGC-LT19U is the PC to get if you want to hide it in plain sight, in your bedroom or front room perhaps. It can be mounted on a wall or positioned in a cabinet, and it looks just like an HDTV set if you hide the (wireless) mouse and keyboard.
Small-FormFactor Desktops Like cell phones and the cars on the road, desktop PCs are shrinking in size as never before. The combination of laptop processors, integrated components, and decent-size hard drives means that these little wonders can do most, if not all, of the tasks that your old tower PC could do—and more.
• Systemax Venture E21 Gaming Desktops • Acer Aspire T180 By Joel Santo Domingo Dell Inspiron 531s $499 direct (E-value code: DDPMGX1) l l l l m The slim, stylish Inspiron 531s uses a small-form-factor chassis to save desk space. The 531s’s pluses include good-to-great performance numbers for a value PC, thanks to its ATI Radeon HD 2400 discrete graphics card. The 531s also has 2GB of memory, one of only two value PCs that we feature here to do so.
Media Centers Not long ago, a Media Center was any system running Windows Media Center Edition. When Microsoft built MCE into the Vista Premium and Ultimate versions, the stakes got higher. Digital Cable Tuner and copious storage rule the day now.—JSD • Dell XPS 720 H2C • HP TouchSmart IQ770 PC HP Pavilion a6130n $750 direct llllm The a6130n has expandable disk storage through the innovative HP Pocket Media Bay drive.
• ABS Ultimate X Magnum • Falcon Northwest Mach V (8800 Ultra SLI) Falcon Northwest Mach V (8800 Ultra SLI) $10,995 direct l l l l m Falcon’s latest Mach V, now with two nVidia GeForce 800 Ultra graphics cards in an SLI configuration, is as much of a speed demon as the car that inspired its optional ($710) “BMW Montego Blue” paint job. It comes with an Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme QX6850 CPU overclocked to 3.9 GHz.
Desktop Performance: What the Numbers Mean Whether they’re PCs under $500, mainstream systems, or obscenely monstrous gaming machines that cost as much as a car, the newest desktops share some common themes: dual- and quad-core processors, discrete dual graphics cards, and beefedup memory. Although the performance of the budget and mainstream systems was pretty much what we expected, things were a little more complicated with the gaming rigs.
GAMING TESTS into class-leading performance, and it allowed the ABS and Polywell systems to outperform PCs with higher-clocked processors. The gap isn’t huge—only a couple of seconds on a test that these machines finish in less than 30 seconds—but it is still significant, since DDR3 is forward-looking technology. Mainstream systems and budget systems will take from 1 minute to as many as 5 minutes on the same Photoshop test. So we see that quad-core rules the game grid, along with dual-card graphics.
Get eWEEK— SPECIAL OFFER FOR PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL READERS FREE! Only eWEEK provides news, analysis and real world reviews to help senior IT decision-makers reach the right decisions in building their enterprise infrastructure.
Get eWEEK— SPECIAL OFFER FOR PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL READERS FREE! Only eWEEK provides news, analysis and real world reviews to help senior IT decision-makers reach the right decisions in building their enterprise infrastructure.
Tablet PCs The concept behind a convertible tablet PC is simple. Flip it open and it looks and functions like a regular laptop. Rotate the laptop screen 180 degrees, however, and suddenly you can apply the digital pen to the screen as you would pen to paper. The trick is to find the best combination of power and features. And we, as always, are here to help.
Laptop Performance: What the Numbers Mean LAPTOP TESTS as graphics-heavy software. Thanks to SLI graphics and a super processor, the Dell M1730 reigns supreme in the gaming arena. The Gateway M-150X, the only laptop to use an ATI graphics chipset, didn’t fare as well as its counterparts with nVidia cards. The nVidia GeForce 8600M GT was the graphics card of choice among three of our desktop replacements, the Acer Aspire 5920G, the MacBook Pro 17-inch, and the Sony VAIO VGNAR590E.
MORE ON THE WEB For the full reviews of all the systems here, point your browser to go.pcmag .com/ultimatepc • Dell XPS M1730 • Gateway M-150X HP Pavilion dv9500t Toshiba Satellite P205-S6237 $1,949 direct $999 direct l l l l h lllhm grated graphics. It may not run the fastest components, but it’ll handle basic and moderate workloads. The dv9500t is a tough act to follow when you factor in both features and price.
T H E B E S T INSIDE 80 Info, Reference, & Search 83 News, Politics, & Government 85 Hardware News & Blogs 80 Health & Food 83 Reading 86 Software & Internet Blogs 81 84 Shopping, Classified, & Travel 86 Video 82 Money & Career 84 Download & DIY 87 Web Apps 82 Music 85 Gaming 88 Top 100 Classic Web Sites Lifestyle & Entertainment 78 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007 Illustration by Christoph Neiman
of T H E W E B We put our heads together to come up with the ultimate list of undiscovered and classic sites to satisfy your appetite for the Web. By Kyle Monson Every year, we at PC Magazine excavate our browser bookmarks, poll coworkers and friends, dig deep into the World Wide Web, and put our heads together to come up with PC Magazine’s list of the Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites that have grabbed our attention.
Top 100 Undiscovered Sites Our picks for the top new or under-the-radar sites of 2007. You may not know many of these sites, but you should. Info, Reference, and Search AfterVote www.aftervote.com AfterVote is a search aggregator that combines results from Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. Each search results page shows you a particular page’s ranking on each search site, lets you vote for and rank each result, and offers quick bookmarking.
Lumosity www.lumosity.com It’s not the first “brain-training” site we’ve ever encountered, but it may be the most scientific. On this site you can play games that have been lab-tested and shown to improve memory, attention, processing speed, and even cognitive control. If you decide you want the complete brain-training treatment, you’ll have to spend $9.95 a month or $79.95 a year.—Carol Mangis Menupages www.menupages.
depth interviews with both stars and upand-comers are must-reads.—Dan Evans BULLPOO An investors’ online community for swapping tips and making trades. interface makes creating your invitation fun, walking you through styles and images, offering suggestions, and even helping locate supplies. A message board is automatically created to let invited guests chat before the main event.—Jeremy A. Kaplan Skeptic www.skeptic.com Skeptic is a playground for those who face life with an incredulously raised eyebrow.
run through the regular corporate filters and media machines? Take things into your own hands with Topix. It has local sections for thousands of towns and communities and includes news links, stories, and blog posts gathered and overseen by local editors. If your hometown doesn’t have its own section, start one yourself.—BH SLACKER Internet radio done right. worth the wait.
are a source of nerdy glee, from limericks about Slashdot to musings on the romance of the Fibonacci sequence.—WR Shopping, Classifieds, and Travel The Bargainist www.bargainist.com Everyone loves a bargain; that’s what makes The Bargainist so great. Updated several times a day, it scours the Web for the best bargains, coupons, and free offers, from garden supplies and beauty products to movies and computers. The Stores section reveals bargain links to over 50 retailers and online stores.
Infected or Not www.infectedornot.com Panda’s Infected or Not service offers the excellent (and free) NanoScan tool to ascertain quickly whether there’s malware on your machine. It also tracks PC infections around the world. Get the data on both active and latent threats, and find out what percentage of scanned PCs have gunk on them.—KM InviteShare www.inviteshare.
MakeUseOf.com www.makeuseof.com If you’re searching for in-depth, handson reviews of the latest Web apps, keep looking. MakeUseOf.com’s real strength lies in its quick but surprisingly comprehensive roundups of apps and sites in a given space. If you’re looking to discover the best iPhone apps, Firefox extensions, or accounting sites, MakeUseOf can point you in the right direction.—BH USTREAM.TV Stream your footage live as you record it, or watch video clips from others.
to YouTube clips of the candidates’ TV appearances, stump speeches, gaffes, and rallies.—KM ScienceHack www.sciencehack.com ScienceHack is a video-search engine dedicated to the world of science, including physics, green energy, and space. What sets it apart from the rest is that every indexed video is screened and approved by real scientists. You can search for a video by keyword or by selecting a tag.—JLD uLinkx www.ulinkx.
Top 100 Classic Sites You’ll see a lot of familiar URLs on this list, and we hope there are also quite a few that you haven’t heard of before. These sites are best-of-breed in their respective categories. Info and Reference About.com www.about.com Thirty-four million monthly visitors head to About.com for guidance on subjects from careers to child-raising to technology.—JLD How Stuff Works www.howstuffworks.com Find out how everything really works when experts share their knowledge on any and all subjects.
Internal Revenue Service www.irs.gov The tax code doesn’t make things easy, but the Web site does, with all the forms you need, plus loads of tips on how to save on your taxes.—KM The Motley Fool www.fool.com The Motley Fool’s credo is “To Educate, Amuse, and Enrich”—and it means “enrich” literally.—KM Music, Movies, and TV allmusic www.allmusic.com An exhaustive resource for music chronologies, history, biographical information, and criticism, compiled by more than 900 writers.
Shopping, Classifieds, and Travel WEBMD Internet doc for your ailments. PODCAST ALLEY The ’cast lover’s portal. USA.gov It’s the home page for the Land of the Free, offering governmental information and services.—JLD NASA www.nasa.gov The neatest stuff at NASA.gov is for kids and educators. There is great material about the earth, ocean, and space for all levels of students.—AI Reading and Listening Arts & Letters Daily www.artsandlettersdaily.
Social Networking Facebook www.facebook.com This social network shares its premise with MySpace, but with less design flexibility (thank goodness!) and more updates on your friends’ activities.—Chloe Albanesius LinkedIn www.linkedin.com LinkedIn is social networking for professionals. That means more résumés but no drunken party pics.—KM MySpace www.myspace.com The site that launched a million bathroommirror self-portraits continues to broaden its reach with features such as the video site MySpaceTV.
stories that U.S. news outlets and blogs can’t.—KM Ars Technica www.arstechnica.com Propeller-heads, check out the thorough how-tos, commentary, and deep collection of helpful tech knowledge.—EG Engadget www.engadget.com The crown jewel of AOL’s Weblogs Inc., Engadget posts briefs (always with pretty pictures) on everything a true-blue or budding early adopter cares about.—EG Slashdot www.slashdot.org Before there was Digg, there was Slashdot, still the leading gathering place for hardcore nerds.
Better Graphics On a Budget These six graphics cards feature low prices and decent performance. How do they compare with their higher-priced, enthusiast-level counterparts? And is it time for an upgrade? By Joel Durham Jr.
XFX nVidia GeForce 8500 GT $85 street 256MB DDR2 memory, 128-bit interface lllmm PROS Great price. Outpaces ATI part at similar price point. Very quiet. Good Aero performance. CONS Weak performance, unless you’re willing to make your games ugly so they run faster. AMD ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT $130 street 512MB GDDR3 memory, 128-bit interface lllmm PROS Low wattage. Does a decent job on Aero. Excellent video quality. Terrific for DirectX 9. CONS Insufficient for DirectX 10 3D apps or games.
ASUS nVidia GeForce 8600 GT $150 street 256MB DDR2 memory, 128-bit interface lllmm PROS Generally decent benchmark test scores. Quiet. Excellent Aero acceleration. CONS Slow and weak in 3D apps and gaming. Insufficient for DirectX 10 3D apps or games. Compares poorly with last year’s high-end cards, which now sell for a similar price. AMD ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro $100 street 256MB DDR2 memory, 128-bit interface lllmm PROS Low wattage. Very quiet. Does a decent job on Aero. Excellent video quality.
the Radeon HD 2400 Pro, the HD 2600 Pro, and the HD 2600 XT. The other three are nVidia cards based on the GeForce 8500 GT, the 8600 GT, and the 8600 GTS chipsets. We tested two high-end cards for comparison: the Radeon HD 2900 XT and the GeForce 8800 GTX. These cards cost significantly more than the other cards in our roundup, and, as the test results show, you get what you pay for.
How to Upgrade a Graphics Card Save a bundle on your graphics card upgrade by doing it yourself. It’s not difficult, and our handy guide does away with all the guesswork. Windows Vista is the most graphically intensive operating system ever, and DirectX 10, its multimedia and gaming component, has computer users all over the world considering upgrading their PCs. With its 3D-driven Aero graphical user interface (GUI), Vista requires more graphics-card muscle than XP does.
1 LET’S GET STARTED Uninstall the graphics card driver in Windows Vista. After unplugging your PC, open the case and remove the old card. 3 NEW CARDS NEED POWER 5 PRESS FIRMLY TO SEAT THE CARD Plug in the power-supply lead before you install the card. It’s a six-wire cable and should be keyed to fit securely. This graphics card is fully seated and flush against the slot. Note that the tab has secured the card in place.
READ THIS FIRST ESD and Safe Electronics Handling Bare electronic components on a circuit board are susceptible to all kinds of accidental damage. Handling your graphics card safely and being very careful regarding static electricity are of paramount importance. Handle the card only by its edges, and by the metal bracket on the rear. Be sure not to touch the gold contacts that slide into the slot on the motherboard.
If you could only see the future… you’d never get caught with your pants down—and your antivirus software out of date. Today, new Internet threats appear faster than most security products can react—putting you and your PC at risk. Unless you’re running BitDefender. With its patent pending B-HAVE proactive protection, it actually protects you from threats even before they’re discovered. And unlike some, BitDefender won’t slow your PC to a crawl.
Solutions PROBLEMS SOLVED THIS ISSUE 106 Outlook Express spell-checker not working 106 Unremovable shadows in Excel 110 Building a better Web site 108 How can I use multiple monitors? 112 Where do customers “drop out”? 106 Annoying USB 2.0 warning 108 Why is my computer so slow? 114 Making longer documents better Create No-Code Mashups with Yahoo! Pipes Even if you don’t wear a hat with a propeller or write code, you can “mash up” a brand-new Web service right now.
SOLUTIONS SOFTWARE coction to suit your taste. It requires no coding—just drag and drop data sources and operators onto the Yahoo! Pipes workspace and tie them together. The most immediately valuable application of a Yahoo! Pipes project is to manipulate the contents of one or more RSS feeds to produce a new RSS feed tailored to a specific purpose. As a primitive 1 example, we’ll remix an RSS feed from PC Magazine and another from Yahoo! to generate a uniquely useful result.
3 4 ADD SOURCES Now we’ll bring in multiple filters and sources to enhance the value of this mashup. In this case we’ve combined RSS feeds from two sources, one from PC Magazine and another from Yahoo!. We’ve plugged each into the Union module, which is the filter that enables multiple sources. Then we’ve run the results through a multilevel filter seeking several prominent brands: Nokia, BlackBerry, Sony, and Nintendo.
SOLUTIONS SOFTWARE AskNeil Office 2007 Whacks OE Spell-Checker I have a Windows XP Media Center Edition PC, which includes Internet Explorer and Outlook Express as well as Office 2007. I am English, but I can get only French in the OE6 spell-checker. How can I get an English (U.K.) spell-checker? My old computer with OE6 checked in English! —Christine Henderson Q A Outlook Express doesn’t actually have a spell-check feature of its own, but it will exploit Microsoft Office’s spell-checker if it’s installed.
the Drawing toolbar. Now the No Shadow option is enabled; click it. Finally, press the Delete key to delete the object handles. You’re back from the shadows again! Find the Cookies Folder in Vista Where can I find the Cookies folder in Windows Vista? When I ran Windows XP, I put a shortcut to the Cookies folder on my desktop. When I went to a Web site, I could quickly see how many cookies a site was putting on my computer and delete them if I wanted to.
SOLUTIONS HARDWARE AskLoyd Multiple Monitors, Multiple Questions Q Please inform me whether I can connect two or more monitors to the same PC. If so, what additional settings are needed?—Shyam S How do I go about getting dual monitors set up at my home computer? I do a lot of CAD work, and having the extra space would be great!—Timothy Hold A You should consider several important factors before connecting multiple displays: the graphics card, the operating system, and the physical connectors.
SOLUTIONS BUSINESS INTERNET DEVELOPMENT Build a Better Web Site Getting site visitors is only half the battle. By Vicki B. Jacobson Back in 1985, legendary music producer Quincy Jones invited the day’s most popular singers to record “We Are the World,” a single for charity. In his invitation, he asked the musicians to “check your egos at the door.
SOLUTIONS BUSINESS SMB BOOT CAMP Keep Your Customers in View Analyzing how you deal with customers is almost always worthwhile. By Matthew D. Sarrel Is your business as efficient as it should be? Or do customers slip through the cracks? Many small businesses struggle just to get routine things done, but a careful analysis of the steps you take in dealing with customers is almost always worth the time you invest. Examine the way your business functions and the daily tasks employees perform.
SOLUTIONS OFFICE New Features for Long Documents Although most of us use Microsoft Word most of the time, when it’s time to write a long or complex document, such as a book, we switch to higher-end page-layout software—or at least Microsoft Publisher—to get the features we need. With Word 2007, Microsoft has added a number of capabilities that make it much easier to author long documents. Most exciting for students and researchers are the greatly improved tools for providing a bibliography and citations.
O U T LO O K T I P Better Searching There are so many buttons, flags, pull-downs, and assorted gewgaws in the new Microsoft Outlook that it took me months of using the much-improved Search to notice the pull-down arrow—not the one in the box, but the doublearrow to the right of the box. And wouldn’t you know it, that arrow leads to a real, advanced search, with actual multiple fields and everything.
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BackSpace EDITED BY DAN EVANS DOWN THE TUBES You’ve been to YouTube, but have you seen these “Tubes”? JEWTUBE.COM EWETUBE.COM MOOTUBE.COM NEWTUBE.COM TUTUTUBE.COM KUNGFUTUBE.COM TRUETUBE.COM & UTUBE.COM The preeminent site for Jewish home video. A blog for sheep lovers (no, not that way, sicko). Recently retired site where PBS showed clips of longhorn cattle. Yeah, um, retired. Didn’t know people still used tubes in amps? If you need a new one, shop here.
Sidestep the obstacles of remote connectivity with BroadbandAccess Built-In from Verizon Wireless. In the world of IT, obstacles are unavoidable—except for the avoidable ones. Take remote connectivity, for instance. With Verizon Wireless BroadbandAccess Built-In, you can give your company secure, high-speed wireless access to the Internet, corporate files, company networks, and VPNs anywhere on America’s most reliable wireless broadband network without the need for PC Cards or hotspots.
The new iMac. A complete high-performance computer, inside a stunning all-in-one aluminum design. From $1199.z ©2007 Apple Inc. *MSRP 2.0GHz. 24" model shown. Prices subject to change, don’t include taxes/shipping. 1-800-MY-APPLE or visit www.apple.com/mac.
