Tech World, Product and Software Reviews

Keyboard Learns, Self-Adjusts to Your Typing Style

2009-01-12T11:43:00.000-08:00

We all know about the need to take breaks stave off muscle fatigue, but let's face it: Hours can pass while we stay in the same keyboard, pounding on our keyboards. Smartfish Technologies is bringing a new, smarter keyboard to market in March. The wired keyboard, expected to sell for $150, automatically adjusts itself over the course of a day.

For every hour of work, the keyboard makes some movement; it adjusts side to side within a space of about 1.5 inches. It also flexes and extends up and down to help promote blood flow. After about 20,000 keystrokes, the keyboard will move more frequently to help further mix things up. The keys vary in size, because of the curve in the keyboard, and to promote variation among your typing movements.

As a touch typist, I found the protoype keyboard felt comfortable, and the key positions convenient. I look forward to trying the real thing when its ready to ship later this year. The company also expects to offer a mouse, too, based on similar design principles.

Blu-ray: Strong Start for 2009

2009-01-12T11:42:00.000-08:00

Blu-ray has had a tumultuous past, but after its showing at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show that ended yesterday, the technology shows great promise.
Disc sales have tripled in the past year, according to The Digital Entertainment Group, an organization made up of movie studios and electronics manufacturers who track the industry. Blu-ray sold 28.6 million discs in the fourth quarter of 2008, and there are 10.7 million Blu-ray players currently in the United States.
The biggest seller was The Dark Knight, the number two highest grossing motion picture of all time. The Dark Knight is the first Blu-ray disc to sell over one million copies.
These strong sales were also reported by the British Video Association in a post-Christmas report.
With the bounty of new Blu-ray devices splashing into the market, 2009 looks to be a great year for the format, and may catapult it out of relative obscurity and into the mass market.
LG announced the LG BD370 and LG BD390 Network Blu-ray Disc Players, which feature on-demand streaming content from Netflix, CinemaNow, and YouTube. Samsung released a sexy new model, The Samsung BD-P3600, also featuring streaming content and 1GB of internal flash memory, and a hyper-connected Blu-ray home theater set-up. Panasonic produced the portable Blu-ray player, and Sharp built Blu-ray into its new LCD TVs.
Meanwhile, prices on connected Blu-ray players have dropped, which should pique consumer's interest in the format.
After a dubious year of sales and recognition, Blu-ray seems to have finally hit its stride. You can expect 2009 to be a stellar year for disc releases, sales, and new products supporting the winner of the high-def war. And remember: the more popular a product becomes, the more likely prices will drop even further.

CBS Plans to Expand TV.com

2009-01-12T11:34:00.000-08:00

Today, CBS is expected to announce content deals with MGM, PBS, Showtime, Sony, and Endemol USA (producers of shows such as "Deal or No Deal" and "Fear Factor") to add popular shows to its online video streaming site TV.com.

Several weeks ago, CBS started featuring its own content on the site, and has had a content deal to access the Hulu library for several months. This is all part of an ongoing revamp for TV.com since CBS acquired the domain as part of its purchase of CNET last year. For several years, CBS has tried to stay relevant with online video streaming through content deals with third-party providers such as AOL and Beebo. However, the success of Hulu--a joint venture NBC and Fox--seems to have prompted CBS to step up its game.

What CBS hopes will really catch on at TV.com are the social media features that other sites, including Hulu and Joost, have also tried to implement to varying degrees. On TV.com, users can participate in forums, comment, rate, and review episodes; tag preferred programming; create a favorites list; contribute to episode guides and other content on the site; and start a blog. Hulu, by comparison contains fewer than half of these features.
CBS chief Les Moonves calls TV.com "extremely exciting" and believes it will become "one of the leading destinations" for video streaming, according to The New York Times. But why he thinks social media, and a lineup that you can find almost anywhere else--save, of course, for CBS's own shows--is such a winning combination is anybody's guess.
How many people are really interested in getting yet another social media profile just to comment on a TV show and create episode guides? As I've said before, the world is awash in an endless array of social media sites. The problem is this forces users to have too many separate identities across a wide range of sites with nothing to bring it all together.

Some services, such as Facebook Connect and OpenID, are working to consolidate things; however, the concept has yet to catch on. It seems to me that what people really want out of online video streaming is a fast, easily navigable site with a rich library to choose from. Social media features might be nice, but just because you can add them doesn't necessarily mean you should.

Adobe Systems Premiere Elements 7

2008-10-09T12:55:00.000-07:00

The newest version of Elements is Webbier than ever--with online backup and syncing, Internet-refreshed tutorials, and downloadable content--but to get a usable amount of storage space, you'll have to pay $50 a year.

Who needs a big hard drive when everyone's videos will eventually live online? Neat new Web services, such as the ones offered by Adobe and linked to from its new Premiere Elements 7 video editor, may incline folks to load everything they have onto the Web. But Adobe will have to offer more space for less money--and greatly improve the editor's integration with online services--to attract heavy video users.

You don't have to buy the $100 Premiere Elements desktop application to get a free Photoshop.com account, which includes 2GB of capacity and a personal URL such as yourname.photoshop.com. (The site isn't identified as "Premiere.com," because it also works with Adobe's Photoshop Elements image editor.) The 2GB of storage can accommodate a large number of still photos, but it equals less than half an hour of mini-DV video, for example. An upgrade to 20GB costs $50 per year; and additional storage packs are available in sizes up to 500GB, though Adobe hasn't finalized their pricing. By comparison, a subscription fee of $50 per year at IDrive.com will get you 150GB of storage space.

Unlike IDrive.com, however, Photoshop.com offers more than just a place to park data. You can set up Premiere Elements 7 to back up files automatically; you can set preference parameters (for example, you can instruct the site not to back up any file larger than X MB); and once files are uploaded, you can access them from any computer that has an Internet connection, of course. But you can view only pictures online--to watch videos, you must download the entire clip to your desktop and use the PC's video playback software. The interface at Photoshop.com is attractive and operates slickly; and it has conduits to Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket, and Picasa, so you can view images hosted on those services in the same Photoshop.com window (it's pretty slow when accessing outside images, though).

I found that specifying files for backup within Elements itself required more steps than I'd like; you have to open a "Tagging" dialog box and drag a tag onto the files. It would have been more convenient if the program had allowed me to right-clicking on files in the organizer and then choose an 'upload' option.

And that's just one of the frustrations I had with Elements' interface. Many commands are arranged in a seemingly haphazard way. For example, you can use a system-tray icon to set backup options such as instructing the application to upload only while idle; but to see which files have been backed up or have a backup pending, you click on a tiny icon in the lower left corner of the application window--and this action prompts them to appear in the Organize window in the upper right corner of the application. To set additional backup options, you must pull up the Preferences dialog box from beneath the Edit menu.

Another drawback: Elements 7 has no link in the main application window to take you to your uploaded files (unless you count the splash screen when it starts up; but if you want to get back to that, you have to close your project). The program's text and icons were very small on the high-resolution, 17-inch laptop monitor I was using, and you can't adjust their size. Last year in my review of Elements 4 (the immediate predecessor of Elements 7, oddly enough), I complained about too-small text size; the problem seems worse in Elements 7, probably because the latest program requires you to do more hunting for important commands.

Your Video Stinks!

The Premiere Elements application does have several new features that don't depend on online interaction. One is the Smart Tag feature, which analyzes your clips to identify ones that may be too dark, blurry, shaky, or out-of-focus--and that includes faces. I agreed with its evaluations (even when it called one of my videos "low quality"), and it works quickly. By default, Premiere Elements' and Photoshop Elements' organizers share the same catalog file, and tags (other than Smart Tags)created in one application show up in both.

Another new feature, Instant Movie, lets you quickly create a movie by selecting clips, choosing a theme, and letting the application implement transitions and effects based on that theme. (Other video-editing applications, such as Pinnacle Studio and Corel VideoStudio, have such automated tools.) With my clips, Elements' tool worked about as well as its competitors--which is to say, not very well. I had trouble finding a theme suitable for my clips; the cuts from one shot to another seemed strange, and the transitions were often inappropriate.

You can edit your movie after applying an Instant Movie theme, but be warned: It broke my 5-minute movie into hundreds of tiny pieces of video, audio, transitions, and effects, making editing the movie extremely difficult. Elements 7 ships with 22 Instant Movie themes; you'll be able to download new themes too.

Elements 7 has a new feature called VideoMerge, which is supposed to simplify the process of taking video that was shot with a single-color background and superimposing it on another video (for that supercool TV weatherperson look). When you drop a clip on top of another clip in the timeline, and Elements detects a solid background, it will ask whether you want to use VideoMerge; alternatively, you can initiate the process manually. The feature worked quite well with footage supplied by Adobe, but far worse with my own blue-screen-background footage: Despite its supplying a tolerance slider, the background video showed through my foreground video. Elements 7 won't let you apply effects to specific areas of the video frame, so it's difficult (though not impossible) to mask areas where background video that shows through.

Inspirational Editing

I was more impressed with Premiere Elements 7's Inspiration Browser, which provides Web-based tutorial videos in a floating window. When I first looked at the beta version of Elements, most of the tutorials available had been produced by Adobe and other professional outfits such as Lynda.com, but Adobe says that it will add more content over time; the company also offers a mechanism for users to submit their own tutorials (which must be approved by Adobe).

Elements now recognizes AVCHD content from high-definition camcorders, though it will burn Blu-ray Discs only in H.264 or MPEG-2 format (not in AVCHD) and with a maximum resolution of 1920 by 1080 interlaced (not progressive). Nevertheless, those are pretty good options for a consumer video-editing application.

You can still upload videos to YouTube, of course, and Elements 7 has a new higher-quality setting for uploading content to that site. But you can't, for example, see which videos you've uploaded to Photoshop.com from within Elements, so it's strictly a one-way link. And despite Adobe's claim last year that it would add other video-sharing services, it remains limited to YouTube.

The upgrades to Premiere Elements 7 didn't strike me as very compelling. I like the addition of downloadable walkthroughs and templates, the Smart Tags, and the ability to sync files without thinking about it. But the interface needs some housecleaning, Elements' integration with Photoshop.com is pretty thin, and its integration with third-party services even thinner. More Webbiness is fine, but what I really want is more YouTubiness.

Corel Videostudio Pro X2

2008-10-09T12:52:00.000-07:00

This video editor is a great choice for those with underpowered PCs, and a pretty good choice for those with fast systems, too.

Video is moving to high definition faster than a dog to a doughnut. So which do you buy first: a new HD camcorder, or a powerful new computer on which to edit its footage? If you choose the camcorder, Corel's $100 VideoStudio Pro X2 video editing application may be able to help you stave off the PC purchase for a while.

VideoStudio's new trick? Its updated Smart Proxy editing feature lets you create a lower-resolution version of a project that you can use to make edits, apply effects, and create menus, and when you're satisfied with how it looks, you tell the application to pull in the high-resolution source files to create the finished movie. Of course, when you do that with an underpowered PC, you'll have to take a walk while the PC struggles to process the huge files, but it's still a nice compromise.

While the image quality isn't great in Smart Proxy mode, you can see well enough to apply effects; in addition, you can scrub back and forth in the timeline with no lag, and files play quickly and smoothly. In other words, you can use the program just as easily as you could with standard-definition video (and perhaps even more easily, because the proxy-mode footage is at a lower resolution than most standard-resolution footage). Even in the middle of a project, you can easily enable and disable the Smart Proxy mode by clicking a button on the timeline.

Corel says that it increased the Smart Proxy feature's speed by 300 percent over the preceding VideoStudio 11.5. Furthermore, VideoStudio X2 is supposed to be optimized for quad-core CPUs and to take advantage of newer Intel CPUs that recognize SSE4 instructions, thereby providing a big performance boost on systems using them.

However, on my test system--a Dell XPS M1730 laptop with a 2.8-GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme X9000 CPU with 2GB of RAM and a 400GB RAID array--high-resolution AVCHD clips played back very slowly, at perhaps just one or two frames per second, and they looked jaggy even with Smart Proxy disabled. On a more powerful system, a workstation with dual quad-core Intel Xeon processors, the performance improved markedly in both Smart Proxy and default modes. Corel says that it is working to ensure smooth high-definition playback in future updates to the application.

In spite of these playback issues, finished projects looked fine. VideoStudio Pro X2 imports HDV, AVCHD, BDMV (files from Blu-ray camcorders, but such devices haven't yet arrived in this country), and it exports to BDAV, BDMV, and AVCHD formats. For comparison, Adobe's Premiere Elements 7 outputs only to BDAV and BDMV. (Corel says that 25 percent of its customers already import and output to AVCHD.)

It's also now easier to upload directly to YouTube; the feature was in VideoStudio 11.5, but X2 requires fewer steps. You can create iPod- and cell phone-friendly files too, though you have to take care of getting them onto those devices yourself.

Create With Paint

A new tool called Painting Creator lets you create and record amusing, moving overlays for your movies. Within a window, you choose from 11 types of paint brushes (you can customize their size and orientation), 38 different textures, and a full color palette, and then click a button to start recording.

You then paint on the canvas (which is either blank or one of your clips) while the tool records. Once you drop the result into the timeline, the recording will play back as an overlay. It's a fun, easy-to-use tool, but it's not terribly sophisticated. You can, for example, stop drawing, change the color and size of the brush, and resume drawing, but the transitions are abrupt, because in this tool, you can't use keyframes, the selection of a specific video frame where an effect begins to work and another frame where it stops.

VideoStudio Pro X2 also includes some fun Flash animations that you can drop in over the top of your video. The application has an import function, but you can't download new animations from within the program, and Corel doesn't offer any on its site, either.

Dialog boxes and filter and effects controls have been enlarged, making them more accessible and easier to see than the controls in Premiere Elements; you can adjust the size of some thumbnails, too. But some controls still seem a bit small. The interface also lets you resize some windows--about the same level of customization afforded by Elements, but nothing too exciting. For the most part, the interface is pretty functional; however, you won't see many options in the timeline. I prefer seeing, for example, a representation of the transparency level for video tracks and the volume level in audio tracks, and keyframes in each so that I can see exactly where those levels change, as Elements provides; VideoStudio makes you open a dialog box. This is one area where I consider Elements easier to use.

But I did find one timeline feature in VideoStudio that I really like: When you drag one clip into the timeline on top of another, VideoStudio will automatically insert your default transition, and you can set the length of the transition by adjusting the clips' overlapping points. It's a neat new time saver.

VideoStudio X2 has a slightly better range of features than Elements, and VideoStudio's tools are easier to see than Elements'. Elements still has a few unique features that I like--for example, better timeline features. I'd say VideoStudio X2 is the better choice if you have an underpowered PC, and Elements gets the nod for those with fast PCs.

Firefox Extension Blocks Dangerous Web Attack

2008-10-09T12:51:00.000-07:00

A popular free security tool for the Firefox browser has been upgraded to block one of the most dangerous and troubling security problems facing the Web today.

NoScript is a small application that integrates into Firefox. It blocks scripts in programming languages such as JavaScript and Java from executing on untrusted Web pages. The scripts could be used to launch an attack on a PC.

The latest release of NoScript, version 1.8.2.1, will stop so-called "clickjacking," where a person browsing the Web clicks on a malicious, invisible link without realizing it, said Giorgio Maone, an Italian security researcher who wrote and maintains the program.

Clickjacking has been known for several years but is drawing attention again after two security researchers, Robert Hansen and Jeremiah Grossman, warned last month of new scenarios that could compromise a person's privacy or even worse, steal money from a bank account.

Unfortunately, clickjacking is possible due to a fundamental design feature in HTML that allows Web sites to embed content from other Web pages, Maone said. Nearly all Web browsers are vulnerable to a clickjacking attack.

"It's a very hard thing to fix because it's part of the very fabric of the Web and the browser," Maone said.

The embedded content can be invisible but a person can still unknowingly interact with it. A clickjacking attack takes advantage of that by tricking a user into clicking on a button that appears to do some function but actually does something entirely different.

Clickjacking can also be accomplished by manipulating the plug-ins of other applications, such as Adobe's Flash program and Microsoft's Silverlight. For example, researchers in recent days have shown it's possible for a clickjacking attack to turn on a person's Web camera and microphone without their knowledge.

In an advisory on Tuesday, Adobe said it will issue a patch for Flash by the end of the month.

The new improvement to NoScript, called ClearClick, can detect if there is a hidden, embedded element within the Web page. It then displays a warning message asking the user if they still want to click on it.

Maone said ClearClick will likely stop all clickjacking attempts. NoScript is only for the Firefox browser, so users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer -- the most-used browser in the world -- are vulnerable.

Web site owners, however, can take one step to prevent their users from falling victim, Maone said. Programmers can use a script on their Web sites that checks to see if a Web page is embedded in another page. If so, the script forces the good Web page in front, preventing clickjacking, Maone said.

The technique is called "framebusting." Ebay's online payments service, PayPal, which is frequently targeted by cybercriminals, has already implemented framebusting, Maone said. NoScript will allow a framebusting script to run, Maone said.

"The best thing that can happen is that Web site owners start to think more carefully about security," Maone said. "It is important that Web site owners spread the word that they should implement framebusting."

Clickjacking is a serious, potentially long-term problem for browser developers. Since the attack is enabled by a feature within HTML, it demands changes to the HTML specification.

Web standards groups are currently working on HTML 5, a specification that will incorporate new features into the programming language to accommodate future Web design. But the standards process moves slowly, and changes to HTML could break existing Web pages, Maone said.

"For the user, I'm afraid there's no fix but NoScript for the time being," he said.

Netbooks Will Boost Adoption of Linux, Says Novell CTO

2008-10-09T12:50:00.001-07:00

A surge in demand for netbooks is helping drive business for Linux, as the devices are designed to be low-cost with smaller storage, according to Novell's chief technology and strategy officer for Linux.

" People typically don't care what operating system is on the netbooks, because they don't buy them to run a suite of applications like Microsoft Office, but to be on the Web using a Web browser," Nat Friedman said in an interview with IDG News Service. Novell's SUSE Linux is already being pre-loaded with laptops from vendors including Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo. The company is now in negotiations with Lenovo and HP to start offering its Linux distribution on their netbooks as well, he added.

Netbooks are a new category of computing devices that are low-cost and designed for continuous Internet connectivity.

In June, Novell announced that Micro-Star International of Taiwan would pre-install SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 on its Wind netbook.

Most of the low-cost netbooks will run Linux, to avoid the higher cost of the Windows operating system, and also because most of them have about 2G bytes of flash storage, for which Linux is more suitable, Friedman said.

The benefit of pre-loaded SUSE Linux for the user is that Novell works with the computer vendor to ensure that all the Linux device drivers are there, and the user has a far better experience than if he were to try to install the operating system on a variety of hardware, Friedman said.

Making software installation easier is also a key element of Novell's software appliances strategy for servers. Installing the operating system and applications on a computer can be labor-intensive, and sometimes requires expertise, Friedman said. "This slows down the sales cycle, because if I want to sell some software, and the first step is for the user to install it and it is a difficult and long process, it makes it difficult for me to make my sale," he added.

Novell announced in April a SUSE Appliance Program to enable ISVs (independent software vendors) to create appliances combining their applications with the SUSE Linux Enterprise platform in an integrated package for end-customer deployment. Novell also announced the beta release of SUSE Linux Enterprise JeOS, a minimized version of the SUSE Linux Enterprise platform that ISVs can embed in appliances.

Competitor Red Hat has also announced a strategy around software appliances.

The operating system will become an embedded component, rather than something that the customer chooses, said Friedman. " When you buy a car you don't typically choose the engine, or what type of transmission it has," he added.

Using virtualization technology, the software bundle can work on a variety of platforms running a virtual machine, and also share hardware with other appliances, Friedman said.

The software appliances model will enable the ISV to for example create a virtual machine image which contains the application and the operating system pre-installed, and the user can take the file and run it in a one-step process on the virtual machine he has installed, Friedman said. Post-sales support issues will also get reduced, as most of them arise because the original installation was not proper, he added.

Novell has developed SUSE Studio, an online Web-based tool that enables ISVs to quickly build, configure and test software appliances, even if they don't have operating system expertise.

Mozilla Readies Firefox 3.1 Features

2008-10-09T12:49:00.000-07:00

Mozilla Corp. will use a several-week delay it recently added to the Firefox 3.1 schedule to build a private browsing mode and beef up the browser's address bar, the company said today. Three weeks ago, the company said it would insert four to five more weeks into the timetable, part of a reaction to changes in the browser market, including the introduction by Google Inc. of its Chrome browser. Then, Mozilla said it would probably use the time to add a privacy mode and to punch up its TraceMonkey JavaScript engine performance.

A private browsing mode and fast JavaScript execution were touted by Google last month when it launched Chrome.

In meeting notes published on its Web site today, Mozilla said it planned to add the privacy feature in Beta 2 , which would likely be released in November according to Mozilla's current schedule.

Dubbed "porn mode" by some, privacy tools limit or entirely eliminate what the browser records as it travels the Internet. Typically, URLs are not recorded in the history, cookies are not saved and other evidence is purged from the computer at the end of the session. Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer 8, Chrome, and Apple Inc.'s Safari all have private browsing built in.

Also set for debut in Firefox 3.1 Beta 2: changes to the already-available "Clear Private Data" tool that would let users select time and data ranges for retroactively erasing their browsing tracks, changes to the address bar to add privacy-related tagging and tab search, and a restoration of the plug-in installation process used in Firefox 2.0.

Already slated to appear in Beta 1, Mozilla said today, were support for the video HTML tag, tab bar tweaks, and the ability to drag a tab to the desktop to open a new browsing window.

Mozilla is also mulling over several other additions to Firefox 3.1, but has not committed to working them into the release. The most prominent would be an Opera-esque "Speed Dial" feature that would show user-selected or most-recent sites as thumbnails when the user opened a new tab. Google's Chrome sports a similar tool.

The developer who has taken charge of the proposed Firefox feature cited a pair of existing add-ons, Speed Dial and Fast Dial , as examples of what he was considering.

Mozilla made it clear, however, that those last-wave changes would not have priority. "We're also considering reviewed, solid, tested patches for some other small improvements but we will not hold Beta 2 for these," the meeting notes said.

Beta 1 is on track for release next week, while Beta 2 will be locked down Nov. 4 and released several weeks after that, Mozilla said. It has not committed to a ship date for Firefox 3.1, but has said it will shoot for a late-2008 or early-2009 release.

When Windows Update Won't Update

2008-10-09T12:47:00.000-07:00

Wants to know why Windows is telling him that it can't install its own updates?

Windows Update occasionally gets a bee in its bonnet and refuses to work. Should that surprise anyone?

Unfortunately, unlike some other Windows problems, this one seldom goes away on its own. And the exact cause isn't always easy to diagnose and fix.

I'll start with some solutions to a very common, XP-specific Windows Update problem. Then I'll tell you where to go for additional advice.

If you're running Windows XP, and Windows Update tells you that one or more updates failed to install successfully, try my handy-dandy repair batch file. Actually, I've written two batch files--one for the 32-bit version of XP, and another for the 64-bit version. Simply download and run the appropriate one.

Unfortunately, when you try to download a batch file in Firefox, it merely displays the contents of the file (in plain, ASCII text) instead of downloading the file. The easiest workaround, other than using Internet Explorer, is to copy the text to Notepad and save it as a batch (.bat) file rather than as a default text (.txt) file.

When you run the batch file and it displays a message box, click OK.

If the batch file doesn't work, try using the Windows Update Agent. You can download versions for the 32-bit version of XP, the 64-bit version, and the Itanium. Once you've downloaded the file, perform the following steps:

1. Click Start, Run, Browse.

2. Locate and double-click the file you just downloaded. Doing so will insert the path and the file name into the run box.

3. Enter the text /wuforce (be sure to enter a space before the slash) after the file name. Press ENTER and follow the wizard.

If you aren't using XP, or if neither of the preceding fixes work, you might try downloading the problematic update manually and then installing it from your hard drive. That approach probably won't work, but it's worth a try. In Internet Explorer (not Firefox), go to the Microsoft Update Catalog to find and download the problem updates.

Finally, at the Windows Update Troubleshooter you stand a good chance of finding the cause of and solution to your particular problem. Once again, this Web page doesn't like any browser except Internet Explorer.

There's also a separate Vista Troubleshooter. And amazingly, this one works just fine in Firefox.

AMD Sells Digital TV Business to Broadcom

2008-09-23T15:23:00.001-07:00

Advanced Micro Devices has agreed to sell its digital television business to Broadcom for US $192.8 million, as the chip maker fights to return to profitability, the companies announced Monday.

AMD's digital TV business, which includes processors, receivers and software for digital sets, will help round out Broadcom's DTV business, said Daniel Marotta, senior vice president and general manager of Broadcom's Broadband Communications Group. Broadcom makes DTV receivers, processors and other products, including products for high-definition television.

"We believe that this deal will position Broadcom to be a leader in this market by significantly expanding our customer base, giving us the product breath needed to lead the market, and enabling us to achieve the scale needed to broadly compete," Marotta said during a press conference.

While Broadcom has focused on the middle to high-end of the DTV market, the acquisition will bring more budget-friendly products to the company, Marotta added. The combined DTV business will offer turn-key products that allow its customers to "rapidly configure and deploy productive televisions," he added.

AMD acquired its DTV business in 2006, as part of its $5.4 billion purchase of graphics chip vendor ATI. But AMD in July said it took a charge of $880 million in its second quarter related to the falling value of ATI's former digital TV and handheld business units. AMD reported a net loss of $1.19 billion in the second quarter of 2008, the seventh consecutive quarter the company lost money.

AMD is working to "transform the company, becoming leaner and more focused," Dirk Meyer, AMD's new president and CEO, said in a statement. The sale is a key step, "helping to strengthen our balance sheet, lower our break-even point, and hone our focus," he added.

Broadcom, however, said it was bullish about the future of AMD's DTV business. Broadcom expects the business unit's revenue in the second half of 2008 to be 50 percent higher than in the first half of the year, Marotta said. Digital televisions are expected to be the top selling consumer electronics device during the next five years, he added.

"The market is large and expected deliver strong growth into the future," Marotta added.

Broadcom will add about 530 employees -- 90 percent of them engineers -- in the transaction, Marotta said. As part of the deal, Broadcom will buy AMD's patents and patent applications related to DTV, he said.

The companies, both based in California, expect the deal to close in the fourth quarter of this year, pending government approvals.

Android Is About Advertising, Not the Enterprise

2008-09-23T15:19:00.000-07:00

Even though three companies hosted the launch event and the software is backed by a consortium, the introduction of the first Android phone made it very clear that Android is about one company: Google.

Android is Google's attempt to dominate the mobile advertising market, just as it has dominated the online PC advertising market, said Craig Wigginton, industry leader for Deloitte's telecommunications practice. "Their number-one driver for pushing this is the advertising model," he said.

But in order to grab a major share of the mobile advertising market, Google will have to convince a large number of people -- including business users -- to buy Android phones. That's a significant challenge in the increasingly crowded mobile phone market.

The G1, the first Android phone introduced by T-Mobile, Google and HTC on Tuesday, comes loaded with Google applications, including Gmail, Gtalk, Maps and YouTube. The home screen includes just one item: a Google search bar. Each of those applications is an opportunity for Google to deliver advertisements to users.

"Google is moving into the mobile devices market not to become yet another mobile phone manufacturer, but to enable a large addressable market for its services and applications," agreed Carolina Milanesi, an analyst at Gartner.

Around the world, there are 3.5 billion mobile-phone users. Just a fraction as many have computers. "Google has been very successful in the PC marketplace from an advertising perspective, so I think this can be a phenomenal source of revenue for them," Wigginton said.

Mobile advertising so far is a small market, but some analysts have high hopes for growth in the future. M:Metrics found that mobile display advertising was an approximately US$200 million industry last year, a figure analysts there expect to at least double this year. Analysts at Heavy Reading predict that the mobile advertising industry will exceed $10 billion in annual revenue in 2013.

But Google faces a major challenge in trying to get the phones into hands of users, since it is up against some strong competitors, including the iPhone. Researchers at Strategy Analytics predict that 400,000 people will buy the G1 by the end of the year. That compares to 1 million people who recently bought the 3G iPhone on its opening weekend.

Google and T-Mobile appear to be mainly hoping that mass-market consumers will buy the phone, even though smartphones have traditionally appealed most to business users. The G1 lacks some features that business users might want. For example, it doesn't support Exchange mail, although it could if a developer builds the application.

J. Gold Associates recently conducted a study of large and small businesses regarding their expectations for which mobile platform they expect to use within the next three years. The study of North American companies found that Android comes in last place, with 4.8 percent of businesses in the study saying that the platform will be important to them within the next three years.

Microsoft doesn't see Android as a competitor to Windows Mobile. "It's not even supporting Exchange, so I really doubt this is going to be going after the market that we do," said Scott Rockfeld, group product manager at Microsoft's Windows Mobile group. Microsoft has recently tweaked its marketing message from pitching Windows Mobile as exclusively a business tool to portraying the device as a single phone that appeals to people while they're working and playing.

Still, since Android is an open platform, developers can build applications that might interest enterprise users. "With the open sourcing, we should see as many enterprise apps as we would see consumer apps," said Wigginton.

Google's success in the market could benefit all mobile users, be they consumers or business users, in the form of lower prices. Onlookers have speculated that Google could help subsidize Android phones using revenue earned from advertising to the devices. "I don't know if Google is subsidizing it or not, but it's not out of the realm of possibilities," said Wigginton. The G1 will cost $179 when it becomes available in late October in the U.S.

Some analysts say they don't expect Android to be an overnight success, but given time it could challenge its competitors. "The G1 represents a promising start, and Google has pockets deep enough to outspend and compete with its competitors," said Geoff Blaber, an analyst at CCS Insight.

Once other Android phones start appearing, the platform could gain momentum. "There will be more to come in 2009 when manufacturers such as Samsung and LG will deliver their devices. Android has the potential to become the de facto operating system for Linux, and we expect sales to reach around 10 percent of the smartphone market in 2011," said Gartner analyst Roberta Cozza.

It's unclear yet which operator will launch the next Android phone. T-Mobile appears to have gotten a head start on its competitors. During the launch event on Tuesday, Cole Brodman, chief technology and innovation officer for T-Mobile USA, mentioned that the operator had been working with Google and HTC as far back as three years ago. Their partnership then predates the introduction of Android and the alliance of companies that back it in November 2007. Sprint, NTT DoCoMo, Telefonica and other operators around the globe are also members of the consortium.

Microsoft Sends Up Trial Balloons for Windows 7

2008-09-23T15:17:00.000-07:00

Windows Vista hasn't fared so well since its debut. Its generally low reputation among customers has led one Forrester analyst to dub Microsoft's latest OS "the New Coke of tech," while some studies have suggested that nearly a third of customers who buy a PC with Vista pre-installed may actually be downgrading those machines to XP.

Still other customers seem to wish the whole thing will just go away. They don't want to hear about Vista at all -- they'd rather hear about Windows 7, the upcoming OS from Microsoft that will be Vista's successor. And given the dismal consumer reaction to its latest attempts to market Vista, Microsoft seems willing to oblige. The sketchy early reports of Windows 7 have lately grown into a steady trickle of hints and rumors. The catch is, not all of it sounds particularly encouraging.

Perhaps because of the beatings it so often receives from the press, Microsoft seems to want you to get your Windows 7 news from the horse's mouth as much as possible. To that end, the Windows team has launched a new blog to chronicle the Windows 7 engineering efforts in detail. Senior Windows 7 product managers Jon DeVaan and Steven Sinofsky promise to "post, comment, and participate" regularly.

Among the factoids revealed in the blog so far: The workforce tasked with assembling the forthcoming OS is immense, and it's dense with middle managers. As many as 2,000 developers may be involved, according to reports. That sounds like a truly Herculean project-management undertaking -- and indeed, if the figures quoted in the Windows 7 blog are to be believed, Microsoft has staffed up with one manager for every four developers. It's enough to make one wonder how Windows 7 will avoid the implementation failures and missed deadlines that plagued Vista's launch.

The engineering blog isn't the only evidence of Microsoft's recent lip-loosening, either. Elsewhere this week we learned even more interesting information. We've known for a while now that Windows 7 is expected to build on the Vista code base, rather than reinventing any substantial portion of the Windows kernel. As it turns out, however, the next version of Windows may be even closer to the current one than we expect.

According to Microsoft spokespeople, the server version of Windows 7 will be considered a minor update, rather than a high-profile new product. In fact, it's expected to ship under the name Windows Server 2008 R2 -- a designation that suggests it will offer few features that aren't already available in the current shipping version of Microsoft's server OS.

As tantalizing as these tidbits of information may be, however, hard facts about Windows 7 remain scarce. At this stage, any talk about the forthcoming product counts as little more than free marketing. As long as we all keep talking about Windows in some form or another, the less likely we are to jump ship to Mac OS X or (heaven forbid) Linux.

According to Microsoft, however, developers can expect to get their first in-depth look at the new OS at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) conference in October, and further information will be revealed at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) the following week. Until then, expect the rumor mill to remain in full force.

Click to Save

2008-09-23T15:14:00.000-07:00

What happens if a U.S. customs agent wants to know what's on a laptop belonging to one of your globe-trotting users? Right now, he can demand to see it. Or copy it. Or confiscate the laptop -- or phone, iPod, USB flash drive, handheld or any other electronic device that a traveler brings into the U.S.

This month, Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) proposed a law to limit that. Her bill won't go anywhere. But it's a nice try.

The reason why H.R. 6869, the Border Search Accountability Act of 2008, will die in the House Committee on Homeland Security is that the congressional session is almost over. There just isn't time for it to wend its way through the normal lawmaking process. And because it's not emergency legislation with dozens of powerful co-sponsors, it won't get any special treatment.

But for a road warrior whose laptop is seized, the situation is certainly an emergency. Leave aside the privacy issues for the moment. In practical terms, everything on a confiscated laptop is gone -- meeting notes, contract negotiations, customer and price databases, one-of-a-kind files. By the time a laptop is returned, any deal that depends on that electronic information may be toast.

If we want that data protected, we're not going to get help from a law anytime soon. It's up to us.

Of course, an overzealous customs agent isn't the only problem for road warriors and their electronic devices. Laptops are lost and stolen at airports all the time. Smart phones are left in taxis. Briefcases full of gadgets disappear in hotels and restaurants.

Chances are, the data on those devices isn't at risk. They'll wind up in a lost and found, or in the hands of a thief who's just interested in selling the hardware, not sifting through what's inside. Encryption can keep that data safe -- but if it isn't backed up, it's effectively lost for business use.

That's a problem. Why haven't we solved it?

We have the technology. We have VPNs for connecting with the corporate office, and the software to synchronize files. Backing up what's on a traveling user's laptop isn't rocket science.

It just isn't easy enough -- or important enough -- in the eyes of users. And it doesn't solve the problem of backing up smart phones, iPods and all the rest.

That means we have some explaining to do -- and some hard work.

We have to explain to users what can happen: customs confiscations, thefts, losses. And remind them that whatever isn't backed up is gone forever, and that could cost them time, or a deal, or a customer's trust.

We also have to explain these things to their managers, who have an interest in getting business done. And to the company's lawyers, who have their own reasons for wanting company information backed up and protected.

And then we have to stitch together a one-click backup application that will be so easy to run, no user will find an excuse not to. One click, and everything in the "save" folder is backed up and encrypted before the trip to the airport, along with flash drive, iPod and other data. Another click, and the user can work on the plane. Click once more, and if the flight offers broadband service, it can be backed up again before that trip through customs.

It's a problem IT can solve -- not just with technology, but with education and motivation for the users who will have to make sure those backups happen.

And no one else is going to solve this problem for us.

Isn't it about time we tried?

The Best Ultraportable Laptops

2008-09-23T15:09:00.000-07:00

How powerful and full-featured can a superlight laptop be? These 10 models pack a lot of performance in a thin package.

Lenovo Thinkpad X200 Laptop

Because it bears a lower model number, you might imagine that this a less-powerful version of the ThinkPad X300, but the X200 actually has a more recent processor. The X300 has a 13.3-inch display, however, while the X200 has a 12.1-inch screen. Ah, but what you'll see when you fire this baby up!

At just under 3 pounds with its lightest battery installed, the X200 weighs a few ounces less than the ThinkPad X61, despite offering the same 12.1-inch-wide screen and a bigger keyboard. The bright little display has an easy-to-read, 1280-by-800-pixel resolution, making it quite comfortable for work on the go. And the built-in Webcam keeps you in visual touch with your colleagues. The redesigned keyboard is as big as the ones that members of Lenovo's ThinkPad T series carry.

Equipped with the new Centrino 2 processor, Lenovo's ThinkPad X200 looks like a mild-mannered ultraportable, and yet it can leap tall workloads in a single bound. Its battery life is phenomenal, and the keyboard is huge. In short, this is a much better laptop than the ThinkPad X61, which it replaces, and a surefire winner for on-the-run execs.

The Lenovo X61 laptop is the same light, sophisticated ultraportable as the earlier X60 model. Like the X60, the X61 lacks an integrated optical drive, but everything else about this business laptop is top-notch, especially the dazzling battery life.

This 3.6-pound X61 laptop, with a 2-GHz Core 2 Duo T7300 processor and 2GB of DDR2-667 SDRAM, earned a WorldBench 6 score of 75, which is fast among currently tested ultraportables. The extended-life four-cell battery lasted an amazing 6 hours and 14 minutes.

The UltraBase docking station adds four more USB ports (for a total of seven) as well as legacy parallel and serial ports. In addition, the modular optical drive has a side release, so you can swap with one hand between an optical drive, a second battery, or a second hard drive (those are optional accessories). Including the base, which is easy to snap on and off, the unit's total weight is a little over 6 pounds.

The Lenovo 3000 V200 isn't as light or as sleek-looking as some models, but it is very nicely equipped for a reasonable price--so long as you don't need built-in mobile broadband. The design is low-key but attractive, featuring a sloped front, a silver lid, and a dark keyboard. Except for very small arrow keys, typing is easy.

Features include a built-in Webcam, a fingerprint reader, and an instant-on multimedia button that will play media without your having to boot Windows. Including an integrated dual-layer DVD burner, our test unit's minimum weight came in at 4.3 pounds--that's on the heavy side for ultraportables, many of which don't have an integrated optical drive.

Performance was very impressive--more like a full-size laptop's, in fact. Its battery life of 4 hours and 4 minutes was 11 minutes short of average for this class of laptop. Still, 4 hours will let you get a good chunk of work done in transit.

If you've been looking for a nice travel laptop that won't drain your bank account, the light, comfortable, and capable V200 fills the bill.

EBay's Search Engine Malfunctions, Omits Products

2008-09-23T15:05:00.000-07:00

A technical problem that kept an unknown number of products out of eBay's search engine index has been fixed, and the e-commerce giant plans to issue credits to affected merchants.

The problem started on Wednesday morning of last week but eBay didn't acknowledge it until late Friday evening.

The company declared the problem solved at around 3 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time on Monday, and advised merchants to not relist affected items, but to instead start a new listing from scratch.

"This week, we will be issuing credits for all items impacted. Please be assured it is not necessary to contact us; we will be issuing these credits automatically," eBay announced Monday in its official Systems Announcements Web page.

It's not clear how many products and merchants were affected. EBay didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

EBay has been testing what it calls a "new search experience" in recent months and about two weeks ago the company announced it would directing more traffic to this new engine.

Simultaneously, some merchants have been primarily complaining about the revamped search experience, primarily in an official eBay discussion forum devoted to search in the online marketplace.

Wiki Aims to Stop Voter Suppression

2008-09-23T15:02:00.000-07:00

While there have been myriad Web 2.0 projects set up to sway voters toward one presidential candidate or another, a new wiki is honing in on voter suppression, or what its developers call systematic attempts to block certain voters from casting their ballot.

The new Voter Suppression Wiki was launched late last week by blogger Baratunde (who blogs under the name Jack Turner), a supporter of Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), to provide a central location for reports on efforts to keep certain voters from the polls in the 2008 election.

"Voting is controlled by the states, and many states have had a history of trying to limit the votes of certain groups, especially blacks and poor whites," he contended in a blog post about the launch of the wiki. "We want the wiki to offer an explanation of what these [voter suppression] tactics are, places to learn more about them and the laws involved."

He went on to note that many forms of voter suppression revolve around voter registration, such as purging legitimate voters from databases, or discouraging or preventing people from registering. Other tactics include not providing enough ballots for registered voters in a precinct, he added.

This morning, the wiki's incident tracker noted various reports of what its users characterized as voter suppression tactics, including reports that Michigan's Republican Party plans to use foreclosure lists to challenge votes and that Wisconsin's Attorney General is suing to force a database check of voter registration.

Organizers hope the wiki can highlight suppression tactics and mobilize action to combat them and prevent further efforts, Thurston added. Registered users can edit pages, update entries and report incidents while unregistered users can participate in discussion forums.

"Knowledge is powerful, but only to the extent that you use it to inform decisions. We don't just want to create a group of pissed off people. We want to create a group of pissed off people who are going to write letters, make phone calls and file lawsuits to protect citizens' votes."

Jon Pincus, an organizer of an online protest launched by Obama supporters against the candidate's stance on the so-called warrantless wiretapping program, advised Thurston on the creation of the new wiki.

Pincus noted in a blog post that the line between voter suppression and unintentional mistakes related to voting software and databases is often blurry. Pincus added that almost all voter suppression relies on what he calls "information asymmetry," which the wiki aims to surface. And, he added, whether intentional or unintentional, voter suppression can hurt both political parties.

"If voters know that they may have been purged from the database and it's still before the registration deadline, they can check and if necessary re-register," Pincus said. "If college students know that they actually won't put their student loans at risk by registering, then they'll ignore the misleading information from the county. And once tens of thousands of people realized that their votes might not be counted in LA County, there was an outcry - which meant that officials had to react rather than sweeping problems under the table."

Picture2Life Online Photo Editor

2008-09-23T15:00:00.000-07:00

Lots of special effects and a few interesting features can't compensate for a hopelessly annoying user experience.

Buried in the Picture2Life beta I tried are occasional, tantalizing hints of a pleasing app. But they're overwhelmed by an annoying, baffling user interface.

The good news: Picture2Life is full of stuff, including one of the longest special effects lists among the editors in our chart. A unique collage creator lets you insert several photos into a canned or custom-built template. Like Photoshop Express, it has built-in tools for storing, organizing, and sharing photos. I loved the ability to save a sequence of effects you've applied to one photo--say, cropping it, giving it a sepia look, and adding a border--and then transfer it to others with one click.

But Picture2Life's Flickr-import interface is so confusing that I thought I'd failed to do the job when I'd actually succeeded. This is also the only service in the roundup that doesn't show what an effect will look like on your photo until after you've applied it (at least undoing is easy). A prominent button lets you see pictures at full size, but you get no on-screen controls for shrinking or magnifying them. The link to online help vanished when I was in editing mode, and the useful-looking Learn More buttons didn't do anything when I clicked them. (Picture2Life's makers tell me they're working on a version that fixes these issues and improves the interface.)

Like FotoFlexer, Picture2Life automatically downsamples your high-res photographs, a step that speeds up image processing; you can override it, but only up to 1600 by 1200 pixels. I wouldn't bother, though, since other services match most of Picture2Life's capabilities without the hassles.

Microsoft Zune 16GB MP3 Player

2008-09-22T11:46:00.000-07:00

The latest Zune firmware lets you identify and download songs heard on the radio, but other than a capacity boost, little else has changed.

When PC World reviewed Microsoft's previous Zune flash player last fall, we questioned whether support for wireless and for video was overkill on a device that holds only 8GB of content. This fall, Microsoft addressed the storage limitations by adding a new 16GB model to its flash family.

But other than expanded storage and a glossy black case, the main changes involve the Zune 3.0 firmware--which is not preinstalled on the new Zunes (you must visit Zune.net to obtain it). What's more, the player's new features, though interesting, serve mostly as incentives to get you to buy from the Zune Marketplace.

The 16GB Zune retails for $200--the same price that the 8GB Zune carried when it debuted. Size (including the 1.8-inch screen), weight, and the device's battery life (according to the company's spec) remain the same for the $200 Zune 16GB. At 0.3 inch thick, the 16GB Zune is noticeably bulkier than the 0.24-inch third-generation iPod Nano; it also weighs a bit more, at 1.7 ounces versus 1.3 ounces for the Nano.

The Zune supports AAC, MP3, WMA, WMA lossless, and its own DRM format for Zune Pass subscriptions. In case you'd sometimes rather listen to radio, the Zune includes a built-in FM tuner.

In our lab tests, audio quality was good, but the player's 20-step digital volume control doesn't permit much fine-tuning. On certain tracks, sound would be too low at one step and too high at the next. The player's signal-to-noise ratio of 80dB is consistent with its predecessor's and comparable to that of some of our highest-ranked players.

The Zune can play back video and display photos on its 1.8-inch, 320-by-240-pixel screen, too; with support for H.264, MPEG-4, and WMV encoding.

Video looked okay when played back on the device, but I wish that the screen had been expanded in the new models. Still, it's fine for watching TV shows or short clips, which is all that the Zune Marketplace offers anyway. Zune owners can preview and download shows from NBC, Fox, and cable networks such as MTV, Bravo, and Comedy Central from the Zune Marketplace.

The 16GB Zune retains the 8GB version's touch-sensitive control, which doubles as a clickable D-pad controller so you can scroll in four directions. When you select an artist and an album, scrolling up or down takes you through songs on that album Scrolling left or right switches to other albums by the same artist. Overall, the Zune has a very intuitive interface.

The most significant new features in the Zune 3.0 firmware are 'Buy from FM' and built-in wireless. Unlike Apple's 'Genius' feature, which applies only to newer iPods, Microsoft's free firmware upgrade is available for all generations of Zunes.

'Buy from FM' is a nice feature if you listen to music on the radio often. When you come across a song you like, you can tag it by clicking the center button--and if you're in a Wi-Fi hotspot, you can download it immediately. If Wi-Fi isn't available, your device will form a queue of songs for download.

Since I rarely listen to the radio, I can't see myself using this feature. But Microsoft claims that 50 percent of Zune owners use their built-in radio regularly, and 'Buy from FM' is certainly a useful feature for them. The tagging capability comes in handy for identifying songs that you like but don't know the name of.

The wireless feature also allows you to find, buy (at $0.99 per song), and download content from Zune's Marketplace while on the go. If you have a Zune Pass ($15 per month), you can download or stream an unlimited number of songs directly to both your player and your computer.

Microsoft announced that it is partnering with McDonald's to provide free wireless for Zune customers at about 10,000 restaurants. We weren't able to test how well the players respond to ketchup spills.

As with the 8GB Zune, you can share playlists, songs, albums and podcasts with your Zune-owning friends within a wireless range. It's a great feature, but you can listen only three times to any song that you receive in this way; then you have to buy it from the Zune Marketplace if you want to keep listening to it.

Other updates include Audible.com audiobook support, a couple of free games (Texas Hold 'Em and a puzzle game), and a home-screen clock.

Overall, the Zune 16GB offers some nice features, but despite its new firmware and doubled capacity, there are better flash players on the market. If you're looking for maximum storage space, the SanDisk Sansa View offers a 32GB player; and the 16GB Creative Zen X-Fi, our top-ranked MP3 player, lets you expand your storage via SD Card. If you prefer something extremely lightweight that integrates with a lot of third-party speakers and accessories, the fourth-generation 16GB iPod Nanos may be a better choice. All of these devices are available for about the same price as the Zune, so unless you're a big fan of Zune's software and the Zune Marketplace, you can probably find a better value elsewhere.

5pm: Easy, Customizable Project Management

2008-09-22T11:34:00.000-07:00

Managing and prioritizing tasks is key to meeting business obligations. Almost every business professional has a method of managing small projects and effectively collaborating with others to get the job done. But can yours be improved?

I recall one client who proudly showed me his task management system: He neatly printed each to-do item on a sticky note and slapped it on the bezel of his computer monitor. When a task became high priority, he moved the paper higher on the side of his monitor and shifted the other notes lower. When he was very busy, the notes overflowed to his desk, marching in two regimented lines down each side of his monitor to his keyboard.

Sadly, his home-grown project management system crashed one night. A new office cleaner came in and diligently cleaned his monitor and desk. The next morning he found all his precisely arranged stickies stacked in one neat pile by the phone. He spent half an hour resorting his task priorities.

There's no excuse for sticking to a paper-based project management system when several simple Web services can now do the job so much better. These services also help ensure that all project team members are quickly updated about changing deadlines and new developments.

I like QG|Software's 5pm, a relatively inexpensive ($18 per month and up), easy-to-use project management service that can help you prioritize your tasks and manage smaller projects. It sports a good-looking user interface that is more customizable than most other Web-based services.

5pm is no Microsoft Project: It can't easily manage large or long-term projects. However, it lets you create and update tasks and projects either on the Web or via e-mail. Visually appealing timeline charts let you quickly check your progress. 5pm can also integrate project deadlines with some calendar services.

Overall, 5pm offers a well-rounded array of project management services that should suit the needs of most light-duty users.

No Credit Card Required for Trial

Signing up for an account is simple. You don't even need to provide credit card info for the free trial. 5pm supports most popular Web browsers, including recent versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Opera.

You will need to select your own subdomain (something along the lines of "mycompany.5pmweb.com") in order to log on to the service and to enable e-mail integration. Several short video tutorials provide basic instructions on how to use the service.

After you log on, you'll see four tabs down the left side of the display: Projects, Timeline, Reports, and Profiles. You'll probably spend most of your time working in the Projects tab. Clicking on it shows a list of projects in the left pane. When you click on a project, a list of project details, such as tasks and progress indicators, appear in the right pane. Simply hovering over a project for a couple of seconds will provide more details in a pop-up info window, a nice touch.

I also like the way you can customize the look of 5pm, simply dragging columns to change widths or resort data. 5pm can even integrate with calendars that support iCalendar feeds, such as Apple iCal and Mozilla Sunbird, so you can check on your project deadlines in the calendar app. Such data synchronization works with Google Calendar, too, but for some reason (the company blames Google), the process is much slower than it is with the Apple and Mozilla apps.

E-Mail Integration

You can enter projects and tasks directly using the Web interface; alternatively, you can create them by sending e-mail to your custom 5pm address. You can also use e-mail to add up to 20MB of document files and update the percentage completion of a task. Parameters in your e-mail subject line let you specify more details such as start dates and deadlines.

5pm's e-mail integration makes it particularly easy to update project information using a mobile device. Even if your small mobile display is inadequate to show 5pm's Web interface, you can still tap out an e-mail to update a project's status.

5pm supports four types of users so you can fine-tune service access. Administrators can do everything; users can edit projects and tasks for teams to which you assign them; external users can view projects and tasks for their teams; clients can view and edit their own projects.

How 5pm Stacks Up

5pm handles more than the popular Basecamp, but still manages to be easy for a project management neophyte to understand. It doesn't, however, offer all the current capabilities of the higher-end Wrike, which recently added Wiki-like knowledge collaboration.

Five paid plans for 5pm are available, with costs ranging from $18 to $175 per month. The basic plan supports five users, ten active projects, and 250MB of data storage, while the high-end plan allows unlimited users and projects, and caps storage at 5GB. A 14-day free trial is available.

Basecamp still rules the roost when it comes to entry-level project management services. But if you'd like something a little slicker, then consider 5pm.

Trojan Masquerades as iPhone Game

2008-09-22T11:33:00.000-07:00

Apple iPhone users are the latest target of hackers trying to infect Windows PCs, according to security firm Sophos.

The company says cybercriminals are sending spam emails with subject lines such as 'Virtual iPhone games!', 'Apple: The most popular game!' and 'Virtual iPhone toys!' in an effort to encourage iPhone owners to download a malicious file.

The emails are sent with an attachment called Penguin.Panic.zip, which poses as a version of the platform game for the iPhone. But Sophos' senior technology consultant Graham Cluley said the file actually contains a Trojan Horse which infects Windows PCs.

"Games, of course, are hugely popular with people young and old these days - and there is a real buzz about games on the new Apple iPhone, especially because of the new App Store and the device's use of an accelerometer to introduce some Nintendo-like innovative gameplay," said Cluley in a blog posting.

"Hackers, it seems, are jumping on the bandwagon of the iPhone phenomenon and using it as a springboard to infect innocent users. As always, you should exercise extreme caution if you receive an email like this - and never run unsolicited attachments."

McAfee to Buy Secure Computing

2008-09-22T10:28:00.000-07:00

Security software vendor McAfee has agreed to buy network security specialist Secure Computing in a deal worth around US$465 million, it said Monday.

Secure Computing's products include Webwasher, a tool for filtering corporate Web traffic; Ironmail encrypted mail servers; Sidewinder firewall appliances and SnapGear VPN (virtual private network) devices.

With the acquisition, McAfee hopes to expand its security-as-a-service offer, and to sell more products and services to Secure Computing's 22,000 customers worldwide. With its existing network security services, the company expects total network security sales of around $500 million a year. In 2007, McAfee's revenue from all product lines totalled $1.3 billion.

McAfee intends to make Secure Computing part of its network security business unit, reporting to Dan Ryan. The companies expect to close the deal around the end of the fourth quarter, subject to approval from stockholders and regulators.

Like other companies in the sector, McAfee has been busily acquiring other products for its portfolio. In August it announced the purchase of Reconnex, a provider of risk management tools, for $46 million. Late last year it acquired Israeli data protection company Onigma for $20 million, and encryption and access control vendor SafeBoot for $350 million.

QuickTime Vulnerability Exposed

2008-09-22T10:26:00.000-07:00

A hacker has released attack code that exploits an unpatched vulnerability in Apple Inc.'s QuickTime, just a week after the company updated the media player to plug nine other serious vulnerabilities, a security researcher said Wednesday.

The exploit, which was published on the milw0rm.com site Tuesday, takes advantage of a flaw in the "" parameter in QuickTime, which is not prepared to handle excessively-long strings, said Aaron Adams, a researcher with Symantec Corp.'s DeepSight threat notification network.

"Symantec is currently investigating this flaw further to determine the underlying technical details," said Adams in a research note Wednesday.

In its present form, the exploit triggers a QuickTime crash, but it may be more serious. "The exploit suggests that code execution may be possible," Adams added, "[and] if this flaw were to allow arbitrary code to run, it may pose a significant risk, because attackers may be able to exploit the issue by embedding a malicious file into a site."

The anonymous hacker who posted the attack code was just as uncertain as Symantec of the exploit's power. "Code execution may be possible," the milw0rm.com entry read.

Adams had little advice for users beyond urging them to be wary while browsing and to consider disabling the QuickTime plug-in, which is commonly found on Windows machines and installed by default on all Macs.

Last week, Apple updated QuickTime to 7.5.5 to patch nine other vulnerabilities, eight of which were tagged with the "arbitrary code execution" phrase that Apple uses to describe the most serious threats.

Apple has updated the player five times since the beginning of this year, and fixed more than 30 flaws in the process.

Is Web 2.0 Already on Its Way Out?

2008-09-21T05:01:00.002-07:00

At a conference that devoted much of its attention to celebrating the rise of collaborative platforms, media, and technologies, you had to wonder if the "Web 2.0" collaborative future would die before it really began. That was my takeaway from the Demo Fall 2008 conference in San Diego, which gave 72 startups six minutes each to show their stuff, usually in beta form.

Most of the startups focused on collaborative technologies, from the still-popular but overcrowded photo sharing and contacts sharing services to the more intriguing ones such as Qtask's eponymous online project collaboration suite in the business space and MixMatchMusic's self-named service for musical collaboration, which is meant to let artists work together and then share in revenues from their works.

I was struck by how obvious and redundant many of the startups' ideas were. For many, the goal was to own a social channel -- such as document sharing, photo sharing, contacts sharing, music sharing, or video sharing -- and somehow ride the social networking/Web 2.0 buzz to profits, usually based on ads. Never mind that Web 2.0 stalwarts such as Facebook haven't been able to do so. Or that such sites are a dime a dozen today, all vying to be your only hub for whatever information they store on your behalf. Or that they all seem to assume that people really do want to watch every video ever made or see every photo ever taken. Many of this ilk seemed like last-gasp attempts to get on the Web 2.0 bandwagon before the VC community moved on.

In separate presentations, Demo executive producer Chris Shipley and AllThingsD.com co-executive editor Kara Swisher noted this gap, and both suggested that the "hanging out" type of Web 2.0 environments like Facebook and MySpace wouldn't stay relevant much longer. In their place, Shipley predicted the rise of "collaboration for a purpose" sites and services that would come with lucrative business cases. Sites like Facebook certainly were critical for showing that the Web was about more than informational pages and transactions, but they wouldn't have the same financial effects as either of the previous Web generations, she said. The purposeful sites she saw emerging would have that impact, Shipley proposed.

Swisher noted that two underpinnings of many of the Web 2.0 startups were in doubt: advertising and ubiquitous connectivity. She noted that the poor economy, which is likely to remain that way for some time, made advertising a risky basis for business success. And she said that poor wired and wireless broadband speeds and coverage, coupled with its very high price compared to the rest of the world and the moves by carriers to limit user bandwidth usage, made it risky to base a business on ubiquitous, fast, cheap broadband coverage to carry all that data, video, and audio.

Still, there were some indications of a change toward purposeful collaboration, Shipley predicted. Compared to two other project-collaboration services at the Demo Fall show, Qtask's project service seemed to be viable, covering not just shared documents and messaging but actual project management tools to track schedules, approvals, and assignments. Given how much time people spend in e-mail anyhow, it's unclear whether they can be convinced to use such a service and not fall back to sending out mass e-mails to project participants instead.

Another example was Cinergix's Creately, an online business process modeling tool that, in Microsoft Visio fashion, lets you diagram processes such as network design or mortgage approval workflows, with embedded rules that let you validate the process as you diagram it. Such tools have long existed, but not in a collaborative Web environment in which users can propose their own business logic.

Microsoft Tells Plan for BizTalk

2008-09-21T05:01:00.001-07:00

Microsoft Friday renamed the next major release of BizTalk server and committed to releasing major updates to the business process management server line every two years or less.

Burley Kawasaki, director of product management in Microsoft's connected systems division, said the company changed the name of the name of the next version from BizTalk Server 2006 R3 to BizTalk Server 2009 to indicate that its a major release. The new version is slated to ship during the first half of next year, he added.

BizTalk Server 2006 R2 was made generally available last September.

"[Users] want more transparency," Kawasaki said. "As they're doing more and more with our technology, they want to be able to plan for future releases. We're trying to provide much more transparency about where we're going with BizTalk."

Kawasaki went on to outline the major new features planned for the 2009 release and for the follow-on major release, now referred to as BizTalk Server 7.

The 2009 release, he said, will add support for Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 SP1, SQL Server 2008 and the .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 as well as bolstered connectivity and better developer productivity tools.

On the connectivity front, the server will include a new Web services registry, new business adapters, better host systems integration and enhanced business activity monitoring, Microsoft said. It will also include improved support for EDI and AS2 protocols for business-to-business connectivity, Kawasaki added.

For developers, BizTalk 2009 adds support for Microsoft's Team Foundation Server and provides development teams with integrated source control, bug tracking, Project Server integration and support for team development.

Microsoft plans to focus on developer productivity and visibility in BizTalk Server 7, Kawasaki added. For example, Microsoft hopes to provide an easier way to do automated mapping between systems and protocols to speed connectivity. Release 7 will also focus on asset management to support remote devices beyond RFID readers, he added.

Macs Produced Part of Microsoft's 'I'm a PC' Ads

2008-09-21T05:00:00.001-07:00

Several digital images that Microsoft Corp. has posted on its Web site to trumpet its new "I'm a PC" ad campaign were actually created on Macs, according to the files' originating-software stamp.

Four of the images that Microsoft made available on its PressPass site Thursday display the designation "Adobe Photoshop C3 Macintosh" when their file properties are examined. The images appear to be frames from the television ads that Microsoft will launch later Thursday.

One of the images is of a real Microsoft engineer, identified only as "Sean," who resembles John Hodgman, the actor who plays the PC character in Apple Inc.'s iconic ads. Reportedly, Microsoft will play off Apple's own campaign -- during which Hodgman introduces himself with the line, "Hello, I'm a PC" -- with its engineer saying "Hello, I'm a PC, and I've been made into a stereotype."

Other images posted by Microsoft Thursday include shots of author Deepak Chopra; Canadian adventurer and educator Geoff Green, founder of Students on Ice Expeditions; and a shark-surround diver named "Meaghan."

Not all of the images on the PressPass site were generated on Macs. The sample print ads, which highlight the campaign's "Life Without Walls" slogan, were produced using the Windows version of Adobe Photoshop, according to their files.

The originating software and platform can be found in downloaded versions of the files using built-in tools on either a Mac running Mac OS X or on a PC running Windows.

In Windows XP, for instance, users can view the tag by right-clicking the downloaded file, selecting Properties from the drop-down menu, then clicking the Summary tab. "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh" appears beside "Creation Software."

On a Mac, after opening the downloaded file in Preview, users can see the tag by choosing Inspector from the Tools menu, clicking on the middle More Info tab, then clicking on the tab marked TIFF. "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh" appears beside "Software."

Microsoft's campaign is the creation of the Crispin Porter + Bogusky agency, part of a US$300 million effort to revamp Windows Vista's reputation.

Google Conference Focuses on Africa's Tech Needs

2008-09-21T04:59:00.001-07:00

Google is sponsoring a conference in Silicon Valley, dubbed BarCamp Africa, aimed at familiarizing participants with the continent's technological developments.

The Oct. 10 meeting follows an earlier panel organized at Stanford University that explored the benefits and challenges of accelerated development, foreign investment and "grassroots" changes catalyzed by new technologies, said Ellen Leanse, the event organizer.

BarCamp Africa is expected to open up a conversation on Africa and give people in the U.S. a way of gaining a greater understanding of the continent, Leanse said.

"We hope that two or three key real opportunities for creating change in some lasting, meaningful way will emerge from the day," she said. "Given the response we are getting from the Silicon community and the passions of the people who are coming, we are sure that something of value will gain traction at BarCamp Africa."

A debate, however, did arise on whether the event should be held in the U.S. or Africa and on whether African techies would be involved.

"I have talked to the organizing team to create some way for people from around the African continent to take part," said Erik Hersman, who was involved in June's BarCamp Nairobi. "It would require a certain amount of bandwidth, of course."

The event will be broadcast to those who cannot attend, making virtual participation easy, said Shara Karasic -- who is working with Jay Bhalla, CEO of SpeechNet -- to facilitate conversation between people from Silicon Valley and Africa.

There will be live tweeting, blogging, streaming, photos posted on Flickr, video and audio recording, as well as a conference wiki, Karasic explained. There will also be some form of a question-and-answer session between Silicon Valley and Africa participants.

Next: Virtualized IPhones

2008-09-21T04:56:00.000-07:00

VMware Inc.'s vClient initiative may be compelling but one industry analyst wonders how many users will require their desktop environment on portable devices.

The vClient initiative, announced this week at the 10th annual VMWorld conference, is designed to give users one view of all their data and applications on different devices, and is endorsed by major hardware vendors like Fujitsu-Siemens, HP and NEC.

Though CEO Paul Maritz did not elaborate on the implementation for smart phones and handheld devices, he did say the firm plans to include vClient versions for mobile hardware in the future.

vClient includes VMware View, designed to make user profiles and applications available on different devices, including Windows and Macintosh.
Dump the Desktop?

"People who have BlackBerrys, they have desktops, there's clearly a group of people who will pay a significant amount of money for that," said David Floyer, co-founder of the Wikibon project, a Mountain View, Calif.-based firm that publishes research online. "But I'm not sure of the fundamental value proposition."

Using the iPhone as an example, Floyer said some users may dispense with the desktop and use portable devices as their primary client.

"It's a very powerful operating system, a very powerful device," Floyer said of the iPhone. "Maybe it's just simpler that that becomes the PC of the future, that you obviate the need for so many devices. You pick one that's the best fit for your lifestyle and you'll make do with what it can do and if necessary you'll pick another one.

Along with vClient, VMware also announced Virtual Datacenter Operating System (VDC-OS), which includes services for infrastructure, cloud computing and storage.

One product under the VDC-OS umbrella is the Fault Tolerenace service, designed to move applications over to different hardware in the event of failure, with no down time.

"If a machine goes down we let another physical resource in the resource pool pick it up," said Stephen Herrod, VMware's chief technology officer. "The idea is you run a virtual machine, you have a shadow copy kept on another site kept in perfect synchronization. You can't have a fault tolerance that 'kind of works.'"

Floyer said managing storage is a major issue today in managing virtual environments.

"If you do not manage things properly, you can actually make things and your storage far worse, because instead of having ten real machines, you have 50 virtual machines running on the same infrastructure and you are not careful you have five times the storage," Floyer said. "So you have to manage the storage carefully, you have to manage the backup environment."

Windows-on-Mac Option
As part of its desktop virtualization portfolio, VMware announced version 2.0 of Fusion, which lets users run Windows applications on their Macintoshes without having to buy the Mac versions of Office software.

"A lot of businesses have a site licence for office for windows and don't want to purchase licenses of office for Mac," said Pat Lee, VMware's group manager for consumer products.

Lee added Fusion 2.0 would appeal to business users running computer-aided design (CAD) software and those that employ Mac users working on their own Apple hardware.

VMware officials said about 14,000 users attended the conference, which included an exhibition of partners and education sessions.

One Canadian user who presented was Kris Jmaeff, senior server analyst and information systems security specialist with the Interior Health Authority.

Based in Kelowna, B.C., IHA operates 28 acute care facilities and a total of 183 health facilities. More than three years ago, the organization decided to use VMware Infrastructure to consolidate servers when it was formed after an amalgamation of several regional health organizations.

In 2006, the organization had a total of 66 virtual and physical servers, and now it has 250 virtual servers, Jmaeff said. When they rolled out VMware in 2006, the organization found it had 40 percent more capacity due to server virtualization.

Now, more than 50 percent of servers in their data center are virtual, he said.

Virtualization Evolves
Virtualization has come a long way since IBM introduced CP 67 in 1967, Floyer noted.

"I grew up with IBM's original virtual machine, which was CP 67," he said. "I always had a great love for that. You could virtualize your devices, your machines and disks -- everything."

But he noted there were drawbacks.

"The first versions of this had huge overhead," he said. "You lost so much at the processor. The combination of what Intel has done to speed things up plus the work that VMware did to make the overhead reasonable and just recognizing that it's more than just providing a hypervisor."

Mozilla Admits Firefox License Mistake

2008-09-21T04:44:00.000-07:00

Bending to criticism from Linux users angry that it added a license agreement to Firefox, open-source developer Mozilla Corp. has admitted making a mistake and said it will strip the legalese from the browser's next update.

In a pair of blog posts, former Mozilla CEO Mitchell Baker -- currently the chairman of the umbrella Mozilla Foundation -- first acknowledged the error of packing an end-user licensing agreement (EULA) with the Linux version of Firefox and then announced that the EULA would be dropped.

"The most important thing here is to acknowledge that yes, the content of the license agreement is wrong," said Baker last week. "The correct content is clear that the code is governed by FLOSS [free/libre open-source software] licenses, not the typical end user license agreement language that is in the current version. We created a license that points to the FLOSS licenses, but we've made a giant error in not getting this to Ubuntu, other distributors, and posted publicly for review."

Later, Baker went a step farther. "We've come to understand that anything EULA-like is disturbing, even if the content is FLOSS based. So we're eliminating that."

The brouhaha began when Ubuntu users began complaining last week that the newest build of Firefox, version 3.0.1, came with a license agreement. Mark Shuttleworth, CEO of Canonical Ltd., the commercial entity that sponsors Ubuntu, quickly weighed in on a mailing list. "I would not consider an EULA as a best practice," said Shuttleworth on Saturday, describing how Mozilla had demanded the EULA as a trademark protection move. "It's unfortunate that Mozilla feels this is absolutely necessary, but they do."

In the same message, Shuttleworth told users to calm down. "It's not constructive to say 'WTF?', nor is it constructive to rant and rave in allcaps," he continued. "Your software freedoms are built on legal grounds, as are Mozilla's rights in the Firefox trademark. To act as though your rights are being infringed misses the point of free software by a mile."

Although EULAs are commonplace in the Windows and Mac OS X ecosystems, they are not only rare but largely irrelevant in Linux and other open-source environments.

Mozilla's lawyer said as much in a Monday blog entry of his own, spelling out two problems caused by the company's EULA decision. "One, it put a EULA in front of a set of end-users who are not accustomed to seeing such agreements," said Harvey Anderson, a Mozilla vice president and the company's chief counsel. "Second, the license grant itself was inconsistent with the values of many of the users in the Linux communities and our own."

Anderson included a draft version of revised licensing language in his post.

In the meantime, a pair of just-spotted bugs in the development builds of Firefox 3.0.2 have delayed that next update by about a week, and will give Mozilla the opportunity to roll in revised licensing language before that version ships.

Mike Beltzner, director of Firefox, dubbed the licensing change one of several "opportunistic ride-along patches" that will be tucked into Firefox 3.0.2, courtesy of the delay.

Firefox 3.0.2 is still tentatively scheduled to ship next week, Beltzner said.

Google Chrome Web Browser

2008-09-21T04:39:00.000-07:00

Despite some beta issues, Google's streamlined and speedy browser offers strong integrated search and an intriguing alternative to Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Google takes aim squarely at Microsoft with the release of its new Web browser, Chrome. And Microsoft should be very afraid: Chrome lives up to its hype by rethinking the Web browser in clever and convenient ways that make using the Web a more organic experience than you'd get with either Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 or Mozilla's Firefox 3.

Initially available for download for Windows Vista and XP, Google plans to expand its Chrome offerings to the Mac and Linux platforms as well. The company doesn't offer any timeline for these versions, though. (For additional PCWorld.com coverage of Google's new browser, see "Chrome vs. the World" and "Google's Chrome: 7 Reasons for It and 7 Reasons Against It.")

Chrome automatically detects the Web browser you're using and prompts you through the process of installation (right down to telling you how to access downloaded files within Firefox, for example). When you first run the application, Chrome imports your bookmarks, passwords, and settings from Firefox or Internet Explorer. It even can grab username and password data, and it automatically populates those fields for you when you use Chrome for the first time to visit a particular site.

After running through a quick import checklist, Chrome opens on your desktop--and right away you begin to experience the Web in a new way. Chrome's layout is very simple: You'll see a row of tabs running along the top, a Web address bar, and a bookmarks bar that runs beneath the address bar. A separate recent bookmarks box appears at the right of the screen, as does a history search field.

Like its Google stablemates, Chrome has a remarkably minimalist interface. There is no full-scale menu bar and no title bar--and few distractions. All controls are buried beneath two icons to the right of the Omnibar (as Google refers to its address bar): a page icon for managing tabs and using Google Gears to create application-like shortcuts from your desktop to a Web site; and a wrench for history, downloads, and other browser options.

You can set your own home page, or you can use the 'most visited' sites page as your starting point. This page provides thumbnail images of your most frequently visited sites, shows recent bookmarks, and supplies a search field for searching your page history. You can change your default search engine, too: This option is located beneath the wrench icon, under Options .

Chrome's design bridges the gap between desktop and so-called "cloud computing." At the touch of a button, Chrome lets you make a desktop, Start menu, or QuickLaunch shortcut to any Web page or Web application, blurring the line between what's online and what's inside your PC. For example, I created a desktop shortcut for Google Maps. When you create a shortcut for a Web application, Chrome strips away all of the toolbars and tabs from the window, leaving you with something that feels much more like a desktop application than like a Web application or page. The lack of forward and back buttons means that if you browse between pages in a saved Web application you may find yourself a little confused if you want to go back a page. Chrome does let you right-click to navigate backward, however.

This being Google, search is an integral part of Chrome; and Google has added some clever features to make searching easier. Chrome goes beyond its Microsoft and Mozilla competition by searching your browser history's page titles as well page content. The history results show the title of the page, as well as a thumbnail representation of the page (for some sites but not all; it was unclear why some sites were visually represented while others were not), but it doesn't show the actual Web page address. The lack of URL information can make it difficult to identify the specific Web page you're going to, especially if the site's title bar description is not specific (because, say, different sections of the same site have identical title bar descriptors).

For example, earlier today I read an article on Macworld about an upcoming Apple launch event. To find the article in my browser history, I simply typed 'apple event' in the Omnibar. The resulting list showed every page I had visited that contained the phrase 'apple event'. Conveniently, the Omnibar lets you search not just your history, but Google and other sites as well.

The default search engine is Google, as you might expect. However, you can choose from a list of nine other search engines, or you can manually add your own search engine. Type 'google fish sticks' to search for fish sticks on Google. The same syntax works for Yahoo, Amazon, Live Search, and other sites that are already recognized by Google or that you add. This feature, though nifty and promising, proved inconsistent in the early going: It worked for me most of the time on a Windows Vista PC, but two of my colleagues who were testing Chrome on Windows XP machines had trouble getting the feature to work. Google provides keywords to activate this search feature, but some of us had to edit the search engine keywords manually before the feature would function properly.

Chrome includes a number of features that appear in other browsers, such as a private browsing mode dubbed Incognito, tools for Web developers to use in viewing and troubleshooting source code, and the ability to restore all tabs from a previous session. Chrome also features tab isolation: If a Web page causes a problem with Chrome and leads to a crash, the crash will affect only the tab displaying the page and not the whole program. Internet Explorer 8 will offer a similar feature, but Chrome takes the idea a step further by adding a task manager that gives the user an idea of how much memory and CPU use a page is eating up, and by allowing you to kill anything that is causing a problem. Unfortunately, you have to configure this tool manually.

In my early testing, I ran into some problems. Chrome can be a little unstable, which is not surprising considering that it is a beta. Also, I have found that Flash does not work with Chrome on my Vista-based system, though my two colleagues running XP had no issues with Flash compatibility. They did, however, experience software crashes when searching in the history section. And when Chrome crashes, it takes everything with it unless you manually configure the browser to act otherwise (the configuration options are buried under the wrench icon, in the Options/Basics menu). In contrast, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 automatically restore your previous session in the event of a crash.

The sites I visited that rely on JavaScript and Ajax seemed to work fine, but Microsoft's Silverlight wouldn't work with Chrome. Google's browser uses WebKit, the same engine that powers Apple's Safari Web browser--and Silverlight works with Safari for Mac only.

Google has produced an excellent browser that is friendly enough to handle average browsing activities without complicating the tasks, but at the same time is powerful enough to meet the needs of more-advanced users. The search functionality of the Omnibar is one of many innovations that caught my attention. PC World has chosen to rate this beta version of Chrome because of Google's history of leaving products and services in long-term beta and in an ongoing state of evolution. In the past there has been some speculation that Google would develop its own operating system, but I think that Chrome's launch makes one thing is clear: The Web browser is Google's operating system.

Slacker Portable

2008-09-21T04:31:00.000-07:00

Slacker's portable music player and Web service let you take your favorite music with you and discover similar artists, too.

After a few delays and a lot of grassroots hype, the Slacker Portable Internet radio is finally available. Starting at $200 for the 2GB model, this ambitious music-only device features a 4-inch wide screen, built-in Wi-Fi, and an excellent Web service. The Slacker deserves credit for approaching issues of form and function in its own way--it borrows almost nothing from the iPod--but it's also blocky, buggy, slow, and more than a bit frustrating.

Besides reading this review, you can watch our video of the Slacker Portable Internet radio player in action.

The strongest aspect of the Slacker Portable is the associated Slacker Web music service, which you can listen to for free without the player. I suggest that you do so right away, even if you don't plan on buying the player. As with the Pandora online music service, users can enter an artist's name on the Slacker site, click Enter, and create a custom "station" consisting of free music from that artist and others similar in sound or genre. The Slacker site does a great job of matching your demonstrated tastes to other music that you might enjoy, though Slacker's artist roster and music-matching abilities don't seem quite as deep as what I've experienced with Pandora's service.

Here's where the Slacker Portable is unique: After entering an artist's name and creating a custom station at the site, you can sync your stations to the player, for free. As a result, you'll always have a pocket full of music that you like, plus the element of surprise as to what's coming next on your station's playlist.

The free Slacker Web service is supported by targeted ads that the Slacker Portable will run, beginning with tips on how to get more out of the Slacker experience. Slacker says that a user's station will never begin with an advertisement and that there will be, at most, about 3 minutes of ads per hour. In accordance with Digital Millennium Copyright Act guidelines, users of the free service may skip only six songs per hour on the player. A paid version of the Slacker service avoids such restrictions, for a price.

With the paid version of the service ($9.99 per month for three months, $8.33 per month for six months, or $7.50 per month for a year's subscription), the ads are gone, and the Slacker player lets you save songs for playback later and lets you skip as many songs as you want. However, the paid version still lacks a way to skip backward to hear a previous track again unless you've saved it. Also, any songs that you saved while a paid user will disappear when your subscription ends.

Windows XP and Windows Vista users can transfer their own MP3 and WMA digital music files to their Slacker Portable, with some limitations. On the $200 (15-station-limit) 2GB model, only 500MB of storage space is accessible; that maximum grows to 1.5GB on the $250 (25-station-limit) 4GB model, and to 4GB on the $300 (40-station-limit) 8GB model. The Mac OS doesn't support personal content transfer.

Once you're listening to music, the Slacker Portable shines. It's like having several iPod Shuffles at your disposal, each focused on a different genre of music. Budget-minded music fans who are also looking to discover new bands will especially appreciate the chance to hear songs by musicians who are similar to artists they already know and love. While playing to the music, the device displays extensive biographical information about the artist on its 4-inch, 480 by 272-pixel wide screen.

The Slacker Portable player is fairly large (2.76 by 0.67 by 4.2 inches) and light (4.6 ounces)--about the size of a cassette tape. The device takes about 3 hours to charge its replaceable battery completely; the battery is rated to last about 10 hours on a charge.

Navigating the on-screen menus is done entirely by buttons and analog scroll wheels. Slacker gives you the option of switching controls to the player's touch strip, which extends down the left side of the player's screen, but I couldn't get the strip to work reliably. Consequently, I recommend sticking with the analog-style buttons and scroll wheel.

Though navigation is easy and intuitive, the scroll wheel is sometimes unresponsive to clicking or takes a few seconds to register clicks. Moreover, because it's located slightly too close to the skip-forward and pause buttons, you may simultaneously select a station and skip or pause the first track. Five buttons run along the device's sides and top: pause, skip forward, 'home', 'heart' (for adding songs to your hard drive if you subscribe to the paid Slacker Premium service), and 'ban' (to remove songs from your stations). A volume rocker appears on the top of the device.

The power button on the right side of the player doubles as a lock switch, which you'll definitely want to use. Though the controls are intuitive and easy to use, you'll inevitably press them unintentionally at times. Accidentally skipping forward on a track is especially frustrating if you don't have the paid service--you'll want to hoard your half-dozen skip-forwards as if they were free steaks.

On the connectivity front, Slacker's Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) capability is a major drawing point. Having a player that can refresh a station's songs wirelessly while you're on the go is wonderful. Alternatively, you can use the bundled USB cable to refresh your station's song lists. In my tests, updating 19 stations over USB 2.0 on the player took about 30 minutes.

You'll also definitely need better earbuds than the awkwardly big pair that come with the player. I doubt that the included earbuds would fit in most peoples' ears, and the sound they produced was neither deep nor rich. Sound quality improved markedly through a pair of Sony MDR-EX71SL Fontopia earbuds, however.

Even with all the bugs, it's hard not to love the Slacker independent approach to things. It doesn't do video at all, but this is an ambitious player. Slacker's Web-based music service is great and accurately matches your musical tastes to tunes you'll like but may not be familiar with. I recommend trying Slacker's music service immediately, but waiting to buy the hardware until some of the kinks are worked out.

Picture2Life Online Photo Editor

2008-09-02T19:03:00.000-07:00

McAfee Internet Security Suite

2008-09-02T19:02:00.000-07:00

This easy-to-use security suite installs poorly and markets heavily, but is highly effective at stopping malware.

McAfee Internet Security Suite combines solid performance--especially adware protection--with an easy-to-navigate interface. However, a cumbersome installation routine includes some questionable marketing, and phone support is not free.

The painful installation process required five restarts and the creation of a user name and password for registering the product. I was extremely displeased to see a subsequent dialog box that required me to opt out of receiving newsletters about virus threats, McAfee promotions, and McAfee partner promotions. (Why not at least make it have opt-in check boxes instead?) I was also initially unable to retrieve software updates through Firefox, my browser of choice; I had to use Internet Explorer and temporarily unblock pop-up windows to enable download of a plug-in that manages software updates.

Once installed, the suite is easy to use. It includes complete antivirus, antispyware, and firewall protection with comprehensive--though not completely advanced--configuration options. (Among the other nine suites we looked at, for example, Trend Micro's lets you choose how deeply to scan compressed files, and Panda's allows you to specify dangerous file extensions.) McAfee's suite also comes with the SpamKiller antispam tool, a decent set of parental controls called PrivacyService, and McAfee Shredder for deleting files.

The McAfee Security Center, which nicely integrates the suite's components, is loaded with educational but nonessential features such as a world virus map and "10 Tips for Online Chatting." Among the more useful features is instant messaging security, which has support for AOL Instant Messenger, Microsoft Windows Messenger, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger.

A couple of gripes: While McAfee Internet Security's malware alerts are easy to read and offer actionable advice, the software uses the vague cop-out term PUP (potentially unwanted program) to describe both adware and spyware. And phone support costs $3 per minute, a rate that could quickly add up to surpass the suite's $70 purchase price (as of 4/15/06).

In malware tests conducted by AV-Test.org, McAfee Internet Security was the best and most consistent performer among the ten products tested. It detected 98 percent of back doors, 99 percent of bots, and 96 percent of Trojan horses in AV-Test's collection of malware. It was able to disinfect most of the malware AV-Test threw at it, too, with the exception of a Mytob variant that specifically targeted the McAfee Internet Security Suite itself and disabled virus scanning even from the suite's emergency boot disc. McAfee's package also scored the highest in our adware and spyware tests. In our firewall tests, the suite's Personal Firewall Plus provided complete protection from both inside and outside attacks.

Despite its irksome installation routine, McAfee Internet Security Suite is a good choice for beginning users who want to learn more about security threats. Advanced users, however, may find this product a tad bloated.

Windows Live OneCare

2008-09-02T19:00:00.001-07:00

Microsoft's easy-to-use PC maintenance service offers solid, but not stellar, security protection.

Windows Live OneCare, Microsoft's new PC maintenance service, wraps a polished interface around a set of security tools that have few configuration options and some performance weaknesses.

We tested only the antivirus, firewall, and antispyware portions of a beta version of Windows Live OneCare. The service, which will launch commercially in June, also comes with PC backup and tune-up tools for a well-priced $50 annual subscription fee for up to three PCs. OneCare does not include antispam features or parental controls.

OneCare offers few configuration options, as it is for people who want Microsoft to manage their security software for them. You can turn antivirus and antispyware protection on and off, and you can set a basic security level (Off, Auto, or Prompt) for the inbound and outbound firewall. While you can initiate a manual malware scan whenever you like, the scheduled scan is tied in with OneCare's other PC utilities; if you want to arrange, say, a weekly malware scan, you'll be setting up a weekly disk tune-up as well.

As of press time, Windows Defender, which provides Windows Live OneCare's antispyware protection, is not yet fully integrated into OneCare. It is a separate software install, and it delivers automatic software updates only twice a week. (OneCare's virus signatures are updated daily.) Microsoft says that Windows Defender will be more fully integrated when OneCare comes out of beta.

In performance tests conducted by AV-Test.org, OneCare displayed some weaknesses. First, it failed to detect 14 out of 1690 file viruses on the WildList, a published list of common malware; since these viruses are publicly known, you should expect your security software to score 100 percent here. Also, among the ten security suites we looked at, OneCare received the worst score in our heuristics tests, which suggests that the program has a hard time detecting malware that it can't recognize through signature files. That said, Windows Defender is meant to be able to block an unknown piece of malware solely based on the way the file interacts with the PC. We did not test this capability, and AV-Test has no data on it.

Windows OneCare scores points for its ease of use. It's a no-hassle way to combine hard-disk maintenance, file backups, and security, but it doesn't offer the best malware protection available right now.

F-Secure Internet Security 2006

2008-09-02T18:59:00.001-07:00

This starkly designed security suite is better at detecting malware than at cleaning it up.

F-Secure's Internet Security 2006 performed with flying colors in most of our malware detection tests, but it had problems removing many of those same troublesome files.

The suite has antivirus, antispyware, and firewall protection, as well as antispam capabilities, parental controls, and rootkit detection. It gives you lots of configuration options but doesn't always explain what they are. Additionally, I was initially confused by the fact that many options were grayed out, inaccessible until I chose the Custom Virus & Spy Protection setting.

The $60 (as of 4/15/06) application, which uses the powerful Kaspersky antivirus engine, is excellent at recognizing malware. It detected 98 percent of AV-Test.org's collection of less common malware, which includes Trojan horses, back doors, bots, and malicious spyware. It also received top marks in heuristics tests, and could detect malware within file archives and runtime compressed program files; of the ten security suites we looked at, F-Secure's was the only one to alert the user if it couldn't scan a particular password-protected archive. The product's malware warnings are easy to read, too. While they don't provide tons of information, what's offered is clearly written and actionable.

Some weaknesses: F-Secure Internet Security flagged the most false positives among the ten suites we tested, and it detected only 50 percent of the adware we threw at it, ranking second to last. In our speed tests at default settings, this package had the slowest on-demand scan, although it did not significantly impact applications running in our WorldBench 5 benchmark suite--a result that suggests F-Secure Internet Security won't slow you down during day-to-day computing activities. F-Secure says its real-time protection and five scan engines--two for viruses and one each for spyware, rootkits, and heuristics--account for the overall slow scan speed.

F-Secure Internet Security's firewall proved solid with easy-to-understand network activity warnings. In our tests it blocked both inside threats (already on the PC) and outside threats. When inside threats attempted to deactivate the firewall in memory or delete it from the hard drive, the firewall blocked the attack but also stopped all Internet (though not intranet) traffic--an inconvenience.

F-Secure's suite provides thorough security protection in a clean interface with deep configuration options. It doesn't always explain its offerings, though, and is therefore more appropriate for the user who doesn't need such help.

Panda Platinum Internet Security 2006

2008-09-02T18:57:00.000-07:00

Security suite offers top-notch heuristics, speedy scans, and consistent overall protection.

Panda Platinum Internet Security 2005 won a Best Buy honor in last November's "Best Defenders" antispyware software roundup. This time around, Panda Platinum Internet Security 2006 ranked third among the ten security suites we tested. The Platinum suite we looked at is more expensive than others ($80 as of 4/15/06), but it offers excellent heuristics with solid firewall and adware protection--a combination that more than makes up for some interface quirks.

Panda's suite comes with antivirus, antispyware, and firewall protection, as well as parental controls and privacy tools. When you're away from your PC, Panda can send you an e-mail when a scheduled malware scan detects a problem. The program will also warn you about interlopers on your Wi-Fi network. Panda's TruPrevent technology, which we didn't formally test, can spot and block suspicious behavior from a piece of malware even if Panda can't recognize the malware itself.

In malware detection and cleanup tests conducted by AV-Test.org, Panda Platinum Internet Security posted solid scores. It detected all WildList (published) malware and more than 90 percent of AV-Test's collection of back doors, bots, and Trojan horses. Among the ten security suites we evaluated, Panda's ranked first in heuristics, the ability to detect unknown threats based on similarities to previously identified threats. During system disinfection tests, however, Panda missed some worms, specifically Lovegate.AI and Sober. Also, the suite caught only 77 percent of the adware we threw at it; while that adware score still put Panda's suite among the top half of the products we tried, we expected a better result given Panda software's past performance in our antispyware tests.

Panda Platinum Internet Security was the fastest of the group at performing an on-demand scan, taking only 6 minutes, 39 seconds to scan 14.7GB of files. On the other hand, when we tested its drag on applications running in our WorldBench 5 benchmark, results were mixed: This suite had no discernable impact on our Musicmatch Jukebox test, but caused our Microsoft Windows Media Encoder test to take 14 percent longer to run.

A few words on usability: The Panda suite crashed twice in AV-Test's labs; Panda says that this experience results from a bug that should be removed during the next software update. When I tried the program, I found the suite's malware warnings generally clear. Adware and spyware warnings were for the most part straightforward, declaring 'Adware neutralized!' or 'Spyware program detected!' An exception was one confusing dialog box that read, 'A virus has not been disinfected as the option "Block access to the file" is enabled in the automatic virus protection.' This message left me unsure as to whether my test PC was safe (it was). Plus, I was unable to find the 'Block access to the file' command to turn it off. (It was a virus setting nested several levels deep in Known Threats, Scan files on disk, Actions.)

Overall, Panda Platinum Internet Security is a good, full-featured choice for desktop PC security protection, despite a few interface glitches and a steep price.

Aluria Security Center

2008-09-02T18:56:00.001-07:00

This low-cost security suite runs slowly and has holes in its malware protection.

The inexpensive Aluria Security Center offers solid adware protection, but that doesn't make up for its missing features and low malware-detection rates.

This $40 (as of 4/15/06) package includes antivirus, antispyware, and firewall protection, as well as antispam capabilities and the Active Defense Shield. The Shield is meant to identify and block software exhibiting suspicious behavior on your system, in the critical hours before Aluria can deploy a new virus definition to the suite. Unfortunately, the suite can't scan a custom-defined set of files and folders (standard on all nine of the other security packages we tested in our latest roundup), and it doesn't have parental controls (standard on most of the other suites).

In tests conducted by AV-Test.org, Aluria Security Center ranked second among the ten tested suites in adware detection, a result that isn't surprising given Aluria Software's background in antispyware protection. That's where the good news ends, however. Aluria's suite failed to recognize six boot-virus components and one worm on the WildList, a published list of commonly occurring malware that most other suites detect with near 100 percent accuracy. Aluria's suite also found less than 1 percent of malware hidden within runtime-compressed Windows program files (whereas some of the other tested suites detected more than 75 percent of the files). Since many new malware threats are repacked versions of older ones, a security suite that can't look inside a compressed program is at a serious disadvantage.

The Aluria package is quite slow, as it ranked seventh in conducting an on-demand virus scan. The first scan, in which the Aluria suite indexes your drive, runs the slowest; subsequent scans go faster. (We did not include the first, slower scan in the averaged test results that appear in this product's Test Report.) When we assessed the effects of real-time protection on system performance, Aluria's software ranked last in nearly every test. It caused our WorldBench 5 test application scripts to take anywhere from about 35 percent to 110 percent more time to run than they did without the package installed.

In my experience with the suite, I found the adware and spyware warnings easy to read, but the virus and firewall dialog boxes cryptic. For example, the software alerted me to a file called is-H22PK.tmp, but it could neither categorize the file nor confirm removal. Its firewall dialog boxes couldn't provide a path to the questionable program, either, and they gave me the same generic advice: 'If you are trying to access the Internet, it is recommended that you allow this connection.' Gee, thanks.

Aluria Security Center's solid antispyware component is bundled into EarthLink's Protection Control Center, which the ISP offers to both its broadband and dial-up customers. The rest of the security suite, however, needs work. Aluria says that the package's inability to scan packed files and custom-defined files and folders will be resolved in software updates deployed over the course of 2006. Until then, I can't recommend this suite.

CA eTrust Internet Security Suite

2008-09-02T18:55:00.001-07:00

This unwieldy security suite bundles subpar malware detection with a superior firewall.

eTrust Internet Security Suite by CA (formerly Computer Associates) combines average antivirus and antispyware protection with Zone Labs' outstanding firewall, all behind an interface that isn't as well integrated as those of most other security suites we've tested.

CA's $70 (as of 4/15/06) package detected only 37 percent of back doors, 72 percent of bots, and 39 percent of Trojan horses in AV-Test.org's collection of malware. Among the ten suites we tested, the only product that performed worse than CA's in this regard was Zone Labs' Zone Alarm Internet Security Suite, which uses an even older version of the CA antivirus scanner (see our full review). The CA software was also not able to detect much malware packed within runtime-compressed program files; since many recent malware outbreaks are caused by repacked versions of older threats, a product that has a hard time looking within a packed program is at a disadvantage.

On the bright side: eTrust Internet Security has an excellent firewall (provided by Zone Labs) and solid adware detection. It also ranked first in our system disinfection tests, cleaning up the files, Registry changes, and Hosts-file modifications made by nine out of ten worms. (The one worm it could not clean was Lovegate.AI.) Its scan speed nearly matched the median speed of the ten products we tested, and its drag on system resources was insignificant.

eTrust Internet Security has a good feature set with privacy settings and parental controls, as well as antifraud tools. However, the components aren't as seamlessly integrated as their counterparts in other suites are. For one thing, you install the parental controls, offered through Blue Coat's K9 Web Protection, from a separate CD, which does nothing but provide you access to Blue Coat's Web site. And to configure undesirable Web-surfing categories (such as sex or drugs) on Blue Coat's site, you have to turn off the CA firewall's third-party cookie controls.

On top of everything, CA charges $30 per incident for tech support--two calls nearly equal the price of the software.

CA's suite is a mixed bag of decent features, a good firewall, and an adequate malware scanner all wrapped up in an interface that could use some polish. I can't quite recommend this suite now, but with some work it could be a contender.

Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security

2008-09-02T18:54:00.001-07:00

This comprehensive security suite is one of the easiest to use, but there are better performers.

Trend Micro's PC-cillin Internet Security 2006 is a full-featured suite that runs light on your system. Its security protection is good, although not as stellar as that of some of its competitors.

Trend Micro's $50 (as of 4/15/06) suite is one of the most full-featured packages around. It offers solid antivirus, antispyware, and firewall protection, plus antispam capabilities, Wi-Fi-network protection, privacy settings, and parental controls (under the name Web Site Filter) that many users will find useful. PC-cillin Internet Security also has network-security features that can scan remote computers (assuming you buy one of the multilicense packs), as well as an antifraud toolbar for safer Web surfing.

I found PC-cillin Internet Security one of the easiest security suites to use. Its personal firewall configures quickly for a home network. Its antivirus settings pack a lot of options, such as how deep within compressed files you want to scan. The suite also explains some intermediate-level options--for example, while most programs let you choose whether to scan within compressed files, PC-cillin Internet Security takes the extra step to explain that a .zip file is an example of a compressed file. The malware warning dialog boxes that I encountered were clear, and each provided a file name, file path, and action taken. However, though the software does attempt to describe the malware, I wish it used layperson's terms in case the detection name--such as "ADW STATBLAST.A"--didn't mean anything to me.

In performance tests conducted by AV-Test.org, Trend Micro's suite ranked eighth out of the ten security suites we looked at. It failed to detect two file viruses on the WildList, a published list of malware that any security product should be able to detect completely. Other than that, PC-cillin Internet Security didn't tank on any specific test; it just didn't shine in any particular respect. The lone exception is speed, as PC-cillin Internet Security offered the second-fastest scan speed among the suites we tested (Panda's software was the fastest).

Overall, Trend Micro's suite is solid and easy to use, but some of its competitors are better at detecting today's malware.

Uniblue WinBackup 2.0 Standard

2008-09-02T18:52:00.000-07:00

Backup app is easy to use but lacks disaster-recovery features; backing up open files costs extra.

Uniblue WinBackup 2.0 Standard's interface does a fine job of balancing power and ease of use. The step-by-step buttons atop the main window let you easily access each part of the backup process, but they don't constrain you to a linear workflow once you're up to speed. Handy shortcuts quickly back up the settings and data for common applications such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Outlook Express. Regrettably, the bitmaps that give the interface its friendly look are improperly spaced and overlap if you use Windows' 120-dpi/large-font mode.

The $50 (as of 5/25/06) program includes a nice flash tutorial embedded in the help file that aids new users in getting comfortable, but Uniblue should eliminate minor interface drudgeries such as having to type in common file extensions for filtering files and file-split sizes.

The 2.1.2 version of WinBackup that I tested operated and performed solidly for the most part. It stalled once during a backup to a rewritable DVD that already contained another backup, and it performed slowly when copying our Windows installation to a network-attached storage unit. The most likely cause: Without the company's $40 Open File Manager add-on, the program had to spend extra time dealing with the open files in our tests. With OFM, the app's performance was up to par.

Both Uniblue's online support and the WinBackup documentation are excellent--a good thing since the company is located in Malta and there's no free telephone support (although a number is listed).

Alas, WinBackup's lack of disaster recovery and its inability to back up open files without a $40 add-on forces its score downward a bit, and the program omits support for tape drives and differential backup, as well. Uniblue also offers a $70 (as of 5/25/06) Professional version with heavier-duty 256-bit AES encryption (versus the Standard edition's 128-bit) and the ability to shut down after a backup.

NOVABACKUP PROFESSIONAL EDITION FOR TAPE DISK & CD / DVD

2008-09-02T18:50:00.000-07:00

Program balances ease of use, price, features, and media support; the next update looks promising, too.

A new low price, superior ease of use, and an excellent feature set make NovaStor's NovaBackup 7.3 our top pick among the applications we looked at for our recent backup software chart.

NovaBackup's interface is the perfect blend of old-school sophistication and wizard-based simplicity: You can use the program's hand-holding features to get familiar with backup concepts, and then, once you know what you're doing, you can employ the logical layout and workflow of the main interface to quickly create backups.

The $50 (as of 5/25/06) program supports backing up and restoring from hard drives, all common optical media, Iomega's Rev, and a vast number of tape drives. The upcoming version 7.5, a $30 upgrade due in July, will introduce support for Blu-ray Disc and for Quantum's GoVault removable hard-drive system. It will also add native file copy, a most welcome feature for people who like to use Windows Explorer to browse backups and restore files. If you can live with the backup app you currently own for a while longer, you might want to wait for 7.5 and save the upgrade fee.

In addition to the ability to create bootable optical media for disaster recovery, NovaBackup 7.3 now integrates virus scanning and backs up open files. With the more expensive Genie Backup Pro Edition and WinBackup 2.0 Standard, two other programs we looked at, the latter feature is available only in a pricey add-on.

NovaBackup earned good marks in our tests, backing up everything we threw at it. Our one caveat is that prospective users should first remove any preinstalled licensed versions of NovaBackup, such as Stompsoft's PC Backup 2006, to avoid conflicts.

Genie-Soft Genie Backup Manager Professional 7.0

2008-09-02T18:48:00.002-07:00

Easy-to-use package offers good media support and some great features, but its lack of disaster-recovery tools is limiting.

Genie-Soft's new Genie Backup Manager Pro 7.0 is a solid product. With the addition of disaster recovery and a little more attention to visual detail, it might very well have landed one spot higher on our recent backup software chart.

I liked the program's nice blend of power and ease of use, as well as the Swift Restore feature that creates a self-executing restore file--a great way to transfer files to other computers.

The $70 (as of 5/25/06) GBM Pro offers two interface modes: normal, featuring standard restore and backup panes in a step-by-step format and providing access to advanced features; and simple, which has the same wizard-based workflow but a cleaner look, with no tools or advanced options. GBM Pro also includes a variety of Agents that let you back up common settings and data for popular programs such as Outlook and Outlook Express, as well as Microsoft's Exchange and SQL servers.

In lieu of the proprietary compression schemes that other programs on our chart employ, Genie saves backups as standard .zip files. The .zip format is nearly universal and facilitates the Swift Restore functionality. When GBM Pro isn't using compression, it creates native file backups that you can access without the program. Though native backups are less secure, they're useful because you can restore them using Windows Explorer. GBM Pro uniquely lets you encrypt native backups--however, they then lose their advantage, as you'll need the program to restore them.

GBM Pro will back up open files only if you buy and install the optional File Access Manager ($40 purchased separately, $25 bought with the main app). The add-on works well, but competitors NovaBackup 7.3 and BackUp MyPC Deluxe 2006 both include this functionality for free.

Genie Backup Manager Pro performed without a hitch in my tests, and it supports a multitude of media formats: a number of tape drives, CD/DVD, and even Blu-ray Disc. The sole defect I spotted was a minor cosmetic glitch (wrong-colored folders in the selection tree).

PC Tools Spyware Doctor 3.8

2008-09-02T18:48:00.001-07:00

Antispyware program combines solid performance, features, and ease of use.

PC Tools' Spyware Doctor 3.8 offers solid protection against adware, spyware, and rootkits in an easy-to-use and feature-rich interface. The company releases frequent product upgrades, which come with the $30 annual subscription fee. As a result, we performance-tested version 3.8 of the product and then user-tested version 4.0.

In tests performed by AV-Test.org, Spyware Doctor ranked second overall among the five antispyware products tested for the "Spyware Specialists" story. Version 3.8 detected 90 percent of adware and spyware samples and disinfected 50 percent of adware-infected files and Registry entries (a first-place ranking).

As with all antispyware products, its adware disinfection results are partly a reflection of policy decisions on what is adware and what isn't. For example, PC Tools no longer classifies as adware the free version of HotBar, an ad-supported Internet Explorer toolbar, and won't disinfect it, as our tests confirmed. On the flip side, PC Tools has reclassified WebSearch as adware; although Spyware Doctor 3.8 didn't detect it, the company says version 4.0 will. Spyware Doctor disinfected 65 percent of spyware-infected files and Registry entries (a first-place ranking shared with the beta version of Webroot Spy Sweeper 5.0) and was the only tested product to detect 100 percent of active rootkits.

Spyware Doctor 4.0 was easy to install and use. I liked its scan results interface, which cleanly categorizes possible infections with brightly colored bars and detailed levels of threat classification. But the results themselves were a bit alarmist. In my informal user tests on a PC, Spyware Doctor counted 287 "infections" (going with its doctor theme) but categorized the vast majority as low-level advertising and tracking cookies. While it took only a few seconds to realize that most infections weren't dangerous, the growing triple digit count during the scan did quicken my pulse. Spyware Doctor also identified as present a high-risk keylogger and an IM worm that three other antispyware programs did not. While I removed those files without consequence, I couldn't be certain whether they were false positives or real threats that the other programs could not detect. I asked PC Tools to comment on these particular files, but didn't receive a response in time for publication.

Spyware Doctor offers some useful additional features. It lets you set a system restore point, in case of accidental deletion of important files; it protects against your visiting known phishing sites (sites that fraudulently solicit financial and personal data); and it supports scanning of instant-messaging clients. Currently, PC Tools supports MSN Messenger and Live Messenger but plans to add support soon for AIM, Skype (file and text transfers only), Trillian, and Yahoo.

Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE Personal 1.06

2008-09-02T18:46:00.000-07:00

This free antispyware program with a solid scanning engine lacks real-time protection.

Lavasoft's free Ad-Aware Personal 1.06 does a good job of protecting you against adware and spyware that have already made the trip to your PC, but it lacks the preventative protection features that are available only in Lavasoft's paid products.

In performance tests conducted by AV-Test.org, Ad-Aware ranked fourth among the five products tested for our "Spyware Specialists" roundup despite solid detection and disinfection scores. This free app detected 85 percent of active adware and spyware samples thrown at it. It also disinfected 45 percent of adware and 60 percent of spyware samples. Ad-Aware did the best job of detecting inactive adware and spyware samples--a testament to Lavasoft's malware signature database.

However, Ad-Aware Personal lacks both rootkit protection and, more important, the Ad-Watch real-time protection that is available in Lavasoft's $27 Ad-Aware SE Plus. (Real-time protection helps prevent threats from landing on your system in the first place.)

Several other options available only in Ad-Aware SE Plus are marked with grayed Xs in the free version's otherwise nicely designed interface. These features include a startup scan, scheduling of scans, and automatic software updates. Without having tested SE Plus, we can't judge how effective these enhancements are.

Ad-Aware SE Personal, which lacks even e-mail tech support, is by definition a crippled program since Lavasoft wants you to upgrade to the paid product. As a result, we recommend it as good second layer of defense against adware and spyware--but your primary application should have real-time protection.

Safer Networking Spybot-Search & Destroy 1.4

2008-09-02T18:45:00.000-07:00

This free antispyware program has lots of settings, but it doesn't perform that well.

Safer Networking's Spybot-Search & Destroy was saving the world from spyware before most people even knew what spyware was. Built in the proverbial basement, Spybot version 1.4 has on-demand scanning, real-time prevention, and detailed settings--all for free (donations accepted). The problem is that, these days, Spybot doesn't perform as well as other programs.

In tests performed by AV-Test.org for the "Spyware Specialists" story, Spybot performed worst of the five products tested. While detecting a solid 80 percent actively running adware and spyware, it detected only 2 percent of inactive threats. It disinfected a median 45 percent of adware but a far-below-average 20 percent of spyware. It also offers no protection against actively running rootkits. On the other hand, Spybot's Tea Timer real-time protection performed well in behavior-based detection tests. Spybot also successfully detected additions to HKCU and HKLM Run keys (Registry keys targeted by many malware threats) and changes to Internet Explorer Search and Home pages; however, it did not detect changes to the global startup folder.

Spybot's interface is deep with options, but its settings window buries within it a dizzying number of check-box options for file recovery, scan speed optimization, and startup tasks. Techie types who want minute control over individual line items might like these options. And avid readers with tech savvy may enjoy Spybot's scan results: They are full of honest, tongue-in-cheek, but somewhat technical commentary about potential threats. ("I won't call a saved IP in combination with a log of visited Web pages anonymous!" says the developer.) The dialog boxes also give you information about recent changes in adware policies. Unfortunately for those that need it, however, Spybot stops short of the bonehead-simple "Get rid of this" type of advice the paid applications give you.

Spybot also falls short where all free security programs do, and that's in free telephone tech support. Spybot does provide e-mail tech support--that's better than the free version of Ad-Aware, which doesn't offer any support. I also experienced an irritating interface glitch that obscured the buttons on a dialog box asking me (presumably) to allow or deny a change to a Registry file.

Despite the bugs, some PC users will continue to use Spybot out of thrift or sheer loyalty; but other programs provide better protection against current threats.

N1 Wireless Router

2008-09-02T18:44:00.000-07:00

This router is far and away the best of our test group in design and ease of use, and it has excellent features. But it stumbled badly in long- and midrange performance tests.

In almost every measure besides performance, where it unfortunately hung around the rear of the bunch in our October issue's roundup review, the Belkin N1 is a star. It is head and shoulders above the rest of the products we saw in design and usability, with Apple-like attention to detail in the packaging, manuals, interface, and help files. It also has top-notch features, a lifetime warranty, and excellent support.

On opening the Belkin box, the first thing you see is a large card completely illustrating all the possible physical connection possibilities and detailing the order in which they should be made. Cables are numbered to match the card. The setup CD worked flawlessly, detecting our DSL modem settings correctly and automatically connecting us to the Internet. It then directed us to the Web utility to set up wireless encryption.

The N1's 103-page PDF manual was the longest and most comprehensive in the group. Every setting option was clearly explained, along with its implications.

As for features, the N1 is one of only two routers in the batch to support WPA/WPA2 Enterprise encryption and Radius server authentication for use in office and educational environments. It also has a full complement of router capabilities, including QoS support.

But while the N1's speed at close range is several times that of an 802.11g router, its overall performance simply wasn't as good as that of the other products in this group (especially the Airgo-based lines). Performance in our long-range tests was particularly erratic, even compared with that of the Broadcom-based draft-n lines.

Sunbelt Software CounterSpy 2.0 Beta

2008-09-02T18:42:00.000-07:00

Well-designed antispyware program detects threats better than it disinfects them.

The beta version of Sunbelt Software's CounterSpy 2.0 didn't fare as well as we had expected in our October 2006 issue's roundup. This perennial top contender performed weakly in disinfection tests, but it offers solid real-time protection, a well-designed interface, and useful privacy utilities.

In performance tests conducted by AV-Test.org, CounterSpy ranked third among the five products tested for our "Spyware Specialists" story. CounterSpy's behavior-based detection capabilities proved strong, flagging all additions to HKCU and HKLM Run keys (Registry keys targeted by many malware threats) and Windows Startup. CounterSpy detected all changes to the Hosts file and Internet Explorer Home and Search pages as well.

But in disinfection tests, CounterSpy cleaned up only 35 percent of adware and spyware samples. Sunbelt Software says that CounterSpy's low score is due to the beta status of the product and to AV-Test's sample set, which Sunbelt does not consider representative of today's most important threats. In response, AV-Test says that it downloaded all tested spyware and adware in May or June 2006 from live sites on the Internet.

While CounterSpy lacks a startup scan and antiphishing tools, it offers system restore features and four privacy-centric utilities (which we did not test for our antispyware roundup): MyPC Explorer lets you view and modify Windows and browser system settings; My PC Checkup performs a check of your overall system security; History Cleaner purges Internet Explorer surfing trails; and Secure File Eraser makes sure that nobody can resurrect your deleted documents.

Buffalo AirStation Nfiniti Wireless-N Router/Access Point

2008-09-02T18:21:00.000-07:00

The Buffalo matched the mediocre test performance of other draft-n routers we tested. It also lacks some key features, and has a confusing interface.

The Buffalo AirStation Nfiniti has some unique features, such as an external switch that toggles between router and access-point modes; Buffalo's AOSS one-touch encryption setup for easy Buffalo client-card connections; and an upright-oriented antenna cluster. But it also lacks important specs we've come to expect in a high-end router, such as WPA2 encryption support (though Buffalo said it planned to make this available via a firmware update that it expected to post by the time you read this).

In addition, the AirStation is the only router of the group we tested for our October issue's roundup that is missing Dynamic DNS support, which allows cable and DSL customers who don't have fixed IP addresses--the vast majority--to host Web sites or mail servers. Also absent are WPA Enterprise or Radius support, putting the AirStation at the bottom of the features heap in this group. Designwise, the antenna cluster means you can use the Nfiniti only in an upright position, and you get no wall-mount option. With this model we had the same problem as with the Netgear RangeMax Next, as our many ethernet cables toppled the router (although this happened less frequently with the Buffalo product since it weighs more than the Netgear).

In performance, the Buffalo was in the closely bunched bottom group of draft-n models, which all suffered on our long-range tests. But our biggest issue with the Buffalo was with its Web configuration tool, which was decidedly subpar. Explanations in the pop-up help on each page weren't very helpful, and the poor graphics and confusing division of functions into Basic and Advanced pages just made things difficult to find, even when we knew what we were looking for. Another annoyance is the wireless-card utility, which cannot distinguish between encryption types, so you have to know what type of encryption the network is using and select it from the menu before entering your key (unless you use the AOSS system, of course).

Linksys Wireless-N Broadband Router

2008-09-02T18:19:00.001-07:00

This draft-n router has the best features of the group we tested, plus excellent documentation and setup. But its test performance did not live up to its billing.

The Linksys Wireless-N is a very good all-rounder in design and features; like the Belkin N1, it seriously stumbles only in performance, although not as badly. It has QoS, WPA/WPA2 Enterprise encryption, Radius server support, and truly comprehensive routing capabilities, making it our features champ among the routers we tested for our October issue roundup.

The installation experience was very good. A CD setup utility led us through the physical connections and then took us to the router's Web-based Smart Wizard for Internet setup. The 90-page PDF manual was nearly as good as Belkin's, but the context-sensitive help within the Web configuration tool was not. It offered no information on the 802.11n features of the router and looked like it was simply copied from another Linksys model. Even a firmware update did not address this shortcoming in the router setup software.

The Linksys has a flat antenna situated in between two pole antennas, a departure from the usual three-pole design. It has no wall-mount bracket, but you can stand the router horizontally or vertically. The case sticks to Linksys's trademark purple and black color scheme, which we wish the company would ditch in favor of more decor-friendly choices like the white, black, and silver of the other routers we saw. On top of the device is a big button that doesn't do anything, but is "reserved" for future use. Maybe one-touch encryption setup? Linksys isn't saying.

What about speed and range? As we did for the tested Belkin and Buffalo draft-n products, we gave the overall performance of the Linksys Wireless-N line a Fair rating due to its poor throughput at long range (60 feet through house walls) and multiple failures to complete file transfers, a symptom of its lesser range. Even at close and midrange distances, the two tested non-draft-n routers did better.

Netgear RangeMax 240 Wireless Router

2008-09-02T18:14:00.000-07:00

The RangeMax 240 is a great router, with excellent performance and very good features, usability, and design. But its Airgo technology will never be upgradable to the 802.11n standard.

In our October issue roundup of wireless routers, Netgear's Airgo-based RangeMax 240 topped our medium-range performance tests and came a close second in the long-range shootout. The RangeMax 240 also sports excellent router features and has the best Web-based configuration tool of the products we tested, thanks in no small part to the ever-present and very thorough context-sensitive help. Installation using the included CD and the Web-based SmartWizard was straightforward and without incident. The process leads you through the cable connections that vendors generally recommend for setup, basic configuration, and then security. We had an equally good experience with the adapter card, as the setup wizard offered to help configure the first connection after installing the drivers and Wireless Assistant connection utility. While the utility could confuse a first-time user, it provides lots of practical information about your connection, such as traffic graphs and statistics. Designwise, we really like the unit's mod white plastic case with glowing iconic indicator lights that let you check the router status from afar. The RangeMax 240 also has a label on the bottom detailing the functions of all the ports and lights, as well as the default IP address and log-in information you need for browser-based configuration after a router reset--data we wish all vendors would make so handy. The one design flaw is the model's lack of wall-mount holes, although you can orient the router horizontally or vertically on a desk or other flat surface. Other nitpicks concern the product's lack of QoS support (Netgear says it will come soon in a firmware update) and the failure of the router firmware's "check for updates" feature to find a firmware update that was available on Netgear's Web site. (To be fair, no router in our October issue roundup successfully located and installed firmware updates--we had to get all updates manually from support sites.) Overall, however, the RangeMax 240 has the best combination of performance, features, design, and usability of the products we tested. Its only major drawback is that it will never be upgradable to the 802.11n standard.

Sony PlayStation 3 (2nd Post)

2008-09-02T18:11:00.000-07:00

Xross Media Bar and Web Browsing

The Xross Media Bar interface itself is surprisingly responsive, and navigating around it feels snappier than using the Xbox 360 dashboard. Though the XMB lacks the 360's colored tabs (which serve as quick identifiers of the area of settings you're in), the PS3 interface has a better, less-cluttered layout overall. That said, the XMB also has quite a few unexplained menu options that aren't exactly intuitive. Even a rocket scientist might have trouble deciphering what Key Repeat Interval (a keyboard setting) or UPnP - Enable/Disable? (Universal Plug and Play) mean without a few moments of head scratching.

Small gripes aside, Sony has made the most important features and settings extremely easy to use. The parental controls (to block access to certain games, movies, or online store content) are clear, and configuring a network connection (wireless or wired) is a breeze.

I was pleasantly surprised that you can plug in a USB keyboard (including wireless models equipped with a USB dongle) and thereby avoid the horrid pre-emptive text-entry interface altogether. Bluetooth keyboard/mouse support is supposedly slated for a future system update. I can't overstate how much easier it is to deal with network settings or to browse the Web when you use a dedicated keyboard.

Launched from the XMB, the PS3's Web browser isn't the speediest thing on the planet, but it did load pages (including Flash videos) reasonably promptly. You can set bookmarks, browse through your history, and make text bigger or smaller. I didn't like being asked whether I wanted to load a script on a Web page (seemingly) each time I visited, but I did appreciate how the PS3's controller aided my browsing experience.

For instance, you can use the D-pad to jump the cursor between page links, and one of the analog sticks functions as a mouse. You may open a maximum of six browser windows simultaneously, and the console lets you switch between them in two different ways: Pushing down on a stick enables you to preview and switch between all open windows--it's like a cross between Internet Explorer 7's Quick Tab feature and Mac OS X's Expose functionality--whereas pressing the controller's R2 and L2 buttons lets you switch between browser windows while sliding them across the screen.

The Blu-ray Experience

From the outset, Sony intended the PlayStation 3 to serve as an all-purpose entertainment console, with tendrils that extend well beyond the realm of game play. But can the PlayStation 3 hope to compete with stand-alone Blu-ray players from consumer electronics makers?

The short answer is yes. (For a more detailed analysis of the PlayStation 3 as a movie player, see "Burning Questions: PS3--The Blu-ray Movie Experience.") The PS3's movie playback experience is best if you start from scratch, inserting a disc into the front-loading slot just as you power up the unit. The unit took just 3 seconds to load the movie Underworld Evolution, followed almost immediately by the opening sounds of the PlayStation 3 start-up orchestra. The screen then blacked out and loaded the movie disc; total disc load time, from insertion of disc to start of playback, was nearly 24 seconds.

Matched side-by-side with the Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-ray player (using its original, factory-installed firmware from when it shipped last summer), the game console delivered noticeably sharper and crisper image quality, with more depth and more detail than were visible on the Samsung.

Sony's decision to omit the remote from its package seems chintzy and inconsistent with its positioning of the premium PS3 as an all-encompassing entertainment device; it's worth noting that Microsoft includes a remote in the competing Xbox 360 box. But even if you pay for the remote to make the PS3 the entertainment-centric package it's designed to be, you'll be spending a total of just $525 or $625, depending upon which version of the player you get. That's far less than you'd pay if you bought a dedicated Blu-ray Disc player today; they range in price from $899 for the Philips BDP9000 to $1500 for the forthcoming Pioneer Elite BDP-HD1.

Multimedia File Playback

Dedicated areas in the PlayStation 3's XMB handle music, videos, and photos. Two things caught my eye: Videos played in thumbnail previews as I quickly flicked through them; and one photo-viewing mode (called Portrait Slideshow) uses real-time-generated graphics to foster the feeling that you are placing photos on a surface for friends and family to thumb through.

The PS3 supports common file formats such as AAC, JPEG, MP3, and MPEG-4 video, but I had no luck with any of the numerous WMV (Windows Media Movie) and WMA (Windows Media Audio) files I tried to play. I'm currently trying to find out from Sony whether these are supported or not. It's an important consideration if you have a massive collection of music files that you've purchased on a service that uses the WMA format.

In all probability, users will be able to play back more multimedia formats than the PS3 supports out of the box if they install Linux. Already, Linux distributor Terra Soft has announced that the PlayStation 3 supports its Yellow Dog distribution.

The PS3 can play music CDs, access song information from AMG (the All Music Guide) and copy/rip songs to its hard disk. By default, it does so in AAC format at 128 kbps, but you can create MP3 and ATRAC files if you prefer.

PlayStation Online Store and Network

Sony has said that--unlike Xbox Live--the PlayStation Network will be a free service. You'll be able to see when friends are online in order to chat with them by video, voice, or text, or to join multiplayer games. We'd like to confirm this for ourselves, but early feedback following the Japanese launch of the PlayStation 3 is that currently users can leave only text messages for other gamers. Reports further indicate that you can't read messages while in a game; you simply get a pop-up notification. Again, we'll look into this and let you know what we find out.

Regarding the PlayStation Store, Sony has stated that it intends to offer downloadable game demos and movie trailers, and to sell retro games, episodic content, and perhaps eventually even full-length movies. Methods to pay your "electronic wallet" bill will include credit card and special PlayStation cards sold in shops. Downloadable games that Sony has developed will cost less than $15 apiece at launch, and you can expect new titles from a range of developers to appear regularly.

Parting Thoughts

So there you have it: the PlayStation 3 in a rather large nutshell. It truly is technologically superior to both the Xbox 360 and the Wii (which isn't really a direct competitor). But to succeed, Sony and its third-party partners must tap into their traditional strength of delivering compelling games for the console. The PS3 looks like an expensive box at first, but seems less so when you compare its cost to the cost of a stand-alone Blu-ray player, a high-end PC graphics card, the Xbox 360 with its HD-DVD add-on, or even a Media Center PC.

Sony PlayStation 3 (1st Post)

2008-09-02T18:01:00.000-07:00

Expensive for a game console, but a great bargain for a console plus a Blu-ray Disc player, the PS3 is worth the wait.

Weighing about 11 pounds and measuring 12.8 inches wide by 3.86 inches high by 10.89 inches long, the PlayStation 3 is larger than the PlayStation 2, the diminutive Nintendo Wii, or the Microsoft Xbox 360. Like those consoles, it can be oriented vertically or horizontally. Either way, the PS3's striking design looks right at home in the living room (admittedly, however, its polished top surface is prone to finger marks). The PS3 runs more quietly than the Xbox 360 but is a bit louder than the almost silent Wii. Though the unit itself doesn't get too toasty, the air around it tends to feel warm after a few hours of continuous play.

The PlayStation 3 comes in two versions. The $599 model (which I tested) has a 60GB hard disk; built-in 802.11b/g wireless networking; and MemoryStick, SD, and CompactFlash slots. The $499 unit omits Wi-Fi capability and the media card slots, and has a 20GB drive. You can replace the hard drive on either version, and the supplied manual explains how to swap in your own 2.5-inch, serial ATA drive. Our sibling publication GamePro has posted scans of these instructions.

The differences between the two PlayStation versions end there; both provide a Blu-ray slot drive, HDMI-output, gigabit networking, four USB 2.0 ports, and built-in Bluetooth 2.0 support.

At the heart of the PlayStation 3 lies a CPU that'll impress even the most hard-core PC gamer. This powerful, multicore Cell processor, jointly developed by Sony, Toshiba, and IBM, runs at 3.2 GHz. An RSX Reality Synthesizer graphics engine, based on NVidia's G70 architecture, delivers the graphics. Working alongside these chips are 256MB of high-performance XDR main memory (based on Rambus RDRAM) and 256MB of GDDR3 video memory.

Getting Started

First, make sure that you come home with all of the cables you'll need. To fully experience the console's graphics capabilities--that is, to play supported games or to watch Blu-ray movies in 1080p high-definition--you'll have to purchase your own HDMI cable (and own an HDCP-compliant 1080p television). Two extras that you might consider buying are Sony's proprietary component video output cable and the optical digital audio cable required for 7.1-channel audio. For optimum Blu-ray or DVD movie playback, you could also spring for the optional $25 remote control.

The standard package includes basic cords: a USB mini cable for the bundled Bluetooth wireless controller, an ethernet cable, a multi audio/video cable with composite connections, and an AC power cord (the PS3 uses a standard cord, unlike the external power brick used by the Wii and the Xbox 360).

Most new PS3 owners will fire up the console without looking at the manual--and they probably won't run into any trouble. It's just that easy to hook up. In case you feel like doing some tech reading before you go shopping, GamePro has scanned the PS3 manual to make it available for the geeky perusal of all.

Once turned on, the PS3 will ask you to choose a language and a time zone, and set the time/date. You then create a user account, sign in, and are presented with a navigation interface that Sony calls the Xross Media Bar (XMB), which closely resembles the interface employed by Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) handheld.

My first priority was to properly configure the high-definition output. I accomplished this by navigating to the video settings and changing the unit's output to 1080p over HDMI. The difference was as if I had switched my computer monitor from 640 by 480 (480p) to 1920 by 1080 (1080p high definition).

I produce music when I'm not working at PC World, and I couldn't wait to hear what the PlayStation 3 audio sounded like through my pair of high-quality music production monitors. I attached the audio connections on the supplied composite multi audio/video cable to my speakers, and set the PS3 to send audio over that route (while still transmitting video via HDMI). The result: Easy setup and great sound.

In the PS3's system settings, I noticed that my new unit's hard disk had 52GB of its 60GB total available, and that the operating system was version 1.00. Not for long, though. The first game I loaded--NBA 07--included the 1.02 system update and installed it before I could begin playing. Though the installation took only a few minutes, having to wait at all was still a little frustrating. The PS3 manual says that some games have their required updates built-in to help you avoid having to patch via the Internet.

Let the Games Begin

Internet connectivity and high-definition movie playback aside, consoles are all about the games. And massive exclusive franchises such as Halo (Xbox), Metal Gear Solid (PlayStation), and Zelda (Nintendo) promote gamers' allegiance to a single console. Whether a PlayStation 3 launch title such as Resistance: Fall of Man becomes such a classic remains to be seen. But the PS3 games I've played so far have been ridiculously fun.

The PlayStation 3 is backward-compatible with most PlayStation 1 and 2 games, but to hedge your bets you might want to buy the optional $15 Memory Card Adaptor, which allows you to transfer saved game information from PS1/PS2 memory cards to the PS3's hard disk. Even then, early reports indicate that various problems have plagued a bunch of games. Tekken 5, for instance, is said to lose background music on the PS3.

The PlayStation 3 Controller

The new wireless, motion-sensitive SixAxis controller lacks force feedback, but it's lighter than the PlayStation 2's controller and has larger L2 and R2 triggers. And because the PS3's controller can sense motion along six axes, you can turn and tilt in three-dimensional space to steer in driving or flying games. I've had limited opportunity to test the controller's motion aspects so far. Earlier this year, I played the upcoming game War Hawk at the E3 conference, where the PS3 was shown. But a few of the launch games, such as Ridge Racer 7, should invite extensive use of the motion-sensing capability.

The controller connects to the PlayStation 3 wirelessly via Bluetooth (within a 65-foot range) and can recharge its batteries (which Sony says will last for 30 hours) when plugged in via the supplied USB cable. To check the controller's remaining battery life, you hold the "PS" button (located between the analog sticks) for 2 seconds. You'll then see a battery meter for that controller on screen, plus an option to turn the console off. You also have to press the PS button when you turn the unit on; otherwise, annoyingly enough, the console won't recognize the controller.

A second PlayStation 3 controller costs $50, and the console supports up to seven players at a time. Each controller has four little LEDs on the top; these indicate the number that the console has assigned to that controller. For controllers 5 through 7, two LEDs light up, and you simply add those numbers together.

Funtastic Photos Lets You Edit Photos Non-destructively

2008-08-27T09:42:00.000-07:00

Ohanaware has announced the release of Funtastic Photos, a photo editing utility for Mac OS X. It costs $34.99, and a demo version is available for download.

Funtastic Photos features "no worries photo editing" that lets you "rewind to original" if you make mistakes or changes to your photos you'd like to undo. It also sports the ability to add comic book style captions, artistic effects, more than 40 effects for fixing, enhancing and finishing photos, collage creation, multiple layer support, 1-click styles, and much more.

System requirements call for Mac OS X 10.4 or later.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 Photo Editing Software

2008-08-27T09:39:00.000-07:00

With its attractive new image-editing features and its expansion into online photo sharing, Photoshop Elements 7 is a worthy upgrade.

Adobe obviously pays attention to what's hot these days. And online photo sharing is more popular than ever, with sites like Flickr and Facebook and programs like Apple iPhoto keeping people connected through photos, blogs, and blurbs. With Photoshop Elements 7 ($100, or $150 when bundled with Photoshop Premiere Elements 7 video-editing software; in private beta, due in October), Adobe provides ties to its forthcoming online service, Photoshop.com, and adds enough new features to the desktop app itself to make version 7 a worthy upgrade.

The big news here involves the Photoshop.com service, which due to launch in October as well. Adobe says that the service will supplement its existing Photoshop Express. However, it wasn't accessible at the time I tested this beta version of Elements 7; we'll update this review with more info on the service when it launches.

According to Adobe, Photoshop.com will have two levels of membership: a free, basic membership; and a $50 per year Plus membership. The free membership provides 5GB of storage and automatic backup of your images to Photoshop.com's servers. You can also access your account and online galleries from any Web browser. When you edit your pictures, the changes you make will be synced up with your home PC-and similarly, changes you make on local photo files will be uploaded and synced to your Photoshop.com storage. Adobe is also working on a mobile uploader that will let you post photos from your cell phone. With the Plus membership, you get 20GB of storage, as well as the option to have Adobe send you design advice, new tutorials, tips, seasonal artwork, and templates as these are developed throughout the year.

Even though the Photoshop Elements 7 software that I tested was still in beta form, I found much to like. New to version 7 of Adobe Photoshop Elements is a Smart Brush tool borrowed from Photoshop, as well as a handy Scene Cleaner that has been added to the Photomerge tool. Disgruntled users of Photoshop Elements past will be pleased to learn that this version lets users adjust the background tint from charcoal all the way to stark white. More good news: Photoshop Elements 7 has FTP settings, so you can upload galleries directly to your own Web site.

Unfortunately, Elements 7 still lacks the Fade slider tool available in Photoshop that lets you adjust the intensity of a filter immediately after applying it, so you can get exactly the look you want. Considering its many impressive creative filter options, Elements 7 would benefit from such a tool.

The application continues to straddle the line between novices and more seasoned users, offering three levels of editing: Full Edit, Quick Fix, and Guided Editing. You can switch between the levels by clicking on tabs, and after a while I became familiar with which options are available at each level. Still, the three-level structure feels a bit clunky at times, especially when you're forced to blunder through a combination of menu options and tabbed screens to find more-advanced options such as editing color curves.

Full Edit provides essential controls similar to those in the full-fledged Photoshop, with advanced editing tools, filters, and layers. Quick Fix offers sliders for common tasks such as brightness, saturation, sharpening, color balance, and red-eye reduction. A "touch-up" panel makes Smart Brushes available, including a toothbrush for whitening teeth, a brush for saturating dull skies, and a high-contrast black-and-white tool for applying effects to selected areas in your photo. As in Photoshop, you can customize the brush's size, hardness, and spacing. The program's selections were impressively accurate at whitening teeth; and you can also use the "add" or "subtract" tool or adjust feathering to refine your selection.

If you're new to image editing and not up for all of this complicated stuff, Elements 7's Guided Editing is for you. In this panel you'll find text-based guidelines that you can select from a list. Guided Editing shows you how to adjust specific image properties such as contrast; or it can walk you through the process of antiquing a photo, showing you various effects. Guided Editing can be a useful educational tool for people new to image editing and for more-seasoned photographers who are learning to use the program. It's also fun to play with.

Photoshop Elements' Photomerge capabilities are a boon to anyone who's ever taken a snapshot. With its new Scene Cleaner, the program does an excellent job of removing unwanted interlopers in a photo of your brother in front of the "Rocky" statue. As it could in Elements 6, Photomerge can fuse subjects from several photos into one, creating a scene where everyone is looking at the camera, eyes open. Such compositing used to take hours, but now you can do it in just a few seconds.

For anyone seeking a combination image editor and organizer that doesn't break the bank, Photoshop Elements 7 is a powerful contender. The program's new online components permit you to do more from within a familiar interface, and its new tools alone make it worth the upgrade.

BitDefender 9 Internet Security

2008-08-27T09:36:00.000-07:00

The first full security suite from BitDefender combines best-of-breed antivirus protection with less-than-perfect adware and firewall protection.

Considering BitDefender's proven record in antivirus, I looked forward to testing the company's first full-blown security suite: BitDefender 9 Internet Security. Unfortunately, while this cleanly designed product is full featured and offers strong antivirus capabilities, its adware scanner and firewall could use improvement.

Installation of the $65 (as of 4/15/06) application went smoothly, despite the appearance of a dialog box warning me that the suite's firewall would flag one of its own components. The interface, though not pretty, is solidly organized with toolbars at the top and left of the main window. You get a lot of antivirus options (you can choose whether to scan within archives and packed files, for example) and antispyware shields (such as script, cookie, and Registry controls). BitDefender also includes antispam settings and parental controls.

However, the interface lacks explanation of specific options and is best suited for a user who is comfortable managing security software. (For example, what's the difference between the check box for scanning inside archives and the one for scanning packed files?) Plus, the firewall alerts don't always give enough information for you to know whether to allow a program network access. When I was installing the media app LimeWire, for instance, initially I received a cryptic warning--'jrestub is trying to connect through protocol TCP'--that I had to approve before getting a clearer message about permitting LimeWire to connect to the Internet.

Performance was solid in tests performed by AV-Test.org. BitDefender's suite detected at least 95 percent of the malware in AV-Test's collection of back doors, bots, and Trojan horses. Its heuristics, the ability to detect unknown malware based upon its similarity to previously identified malware, tied with that of McAfee's suite for third place among the ten security packages we looked at.

There's plenty of room for improvement, though. BitDefender 9 Internet Security's adware scores ranked second from the bottom; its firewall, meanwhile, failed to block threats that were already installed on our test system, in particular malware that stole rights from a trusted application.

BitDefender has plans to improve the firewall, adware, and spyware protection in the next version of the suite, due out in September. I'd wait until then before buying this program.

Zone Labs ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite

2008-08-27T09:34:00.000-07:00

Zone Labs combines an excellent firewall with a lackluster virus scanning engine.

Zone Labs' easy-to-use ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite comes with an excellent software firewall that deserves to be accompanied by a better antivirus and antispyware engine.

Zone Labs has its roots in firewalls, a history that explains why its suite's firewall was among the best we tested for our latest security suite roundup. It passed all of our tests involving network threats both inside and outside the PC. It was also the only firewall to pass 17 out of 17 leak tests, which determine whether a piece of malware can sneak information out of a PC without tripping the firewall.

The $70 (as of 4/15/06) Zone Labs package includes a version of CA's antivirus and antispyware scanner that is older than what CA uses in its own suite. (Zone Labs says the scanner should be updated in June.) This engine did not perform well in our virus and spyware tests. Detecting only 30 percent of back doors, 49 percent of bots, and 31 percent of Trojan horses in AV-Test.org's collection of malware, it came in last among the ten suites we tried. It ranked second to last (above Microsoft's suite) in heuristics, the ability to detect unknown malware based on similarities to previously detected threats. It also ranked last in adware detection, and found less malware than CA's suite did in runtime compressed program files, ranking second to last (ahead of Aluria's suite). On the other hand, this suite did well in malware clean-up tests, disinfecting all worms except for Sober.I and cleaning up most resulting Registry and Hosts-file changes.

ZoneAlarm Internet Security has a behavior-based malware detection feature called the OSFirewall, which we were not able to test. It monitors activity on your PC and blocks files that behave suspiciously. This type of protection might serve you well in the critical hours between the time a malware writer unleashes a new virus outbreak and the time a security software company can deploy an update to stop it.

Additional features include antispam and antifraud capabilities, Wi-Fi security protection, privacy settings, and parental controls. Its interface is easy to use, although the malware alert dialog boxes I encountered would have benefited from providing more context about potential threats--for example, an alert announcing 'the file is-4DGAE.tmp is trying to launch C:\WINDOWS\explorer.exe' isn't clear.

ZoneAlarm Internet Security's features and firewall are top-notch, but they need antivirus and antispyware protection to match.

McAfee VirusScan 2006

2008-08-27T09:32:00.000-07:00

This solid product has a friendly interface but expensive phone support.

McAfee VirusScan 2006 provides solid performance at a reasonable price, but getting help by phone will cost you plenty.

In tests for "The New Virus Fighters," McAfee VirusScan 2006 ranked second overall among the ten products in the group because it performed consistently well without bombing in any particular category. It ranked fourth in overall performance, doing particularly well in our heuristics tests. Here, it ranked second, behind Best Buy winner BitDefender. It ranked third in our scan-speed testing and sixth in detecting the malware in our zoo collection of backdoor programs, bots, and Trojan horses.

The program is simple to navigate, although the main console heavily promotes other McAfee security products--irritating for users who have only (and want only) the VirusScan product. This package's major flaw is that McAfee charges $3 per minute for telephone technical support. (McAfee does offer free around-the-clock Internet chat sessions though.)

Upshot: McAfee VirusScan performance and features are consistently strong, but one 15-minute call to tech support will run you the price of the software itself.

Qnext

2008-08-27T09:29:00.000-07:00

Give Qnext a whirl if you're a fan of peer-to-peer operations and you'd like to streamline communications with your buddies across different networks.

Unique to our recent crop of instant messaging programs is Qnext--a free (and secure) personal communication and sharing suite that also serves as a universal instant messenger. It handles AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and (of course) Qnext accounts. The program also supports Internet Relay Chat (IRC).

Initially, my editor and I ran into connection problems. Both of us were logged on to Qnext, but each saw the other as offline. In this situation, one of the users must either open the ports on the firewall or router or use a proxy (our tactic). Thereafter, we were good to go.

Qnext handled conversations on AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger networks with ease. The messaging window displays prominent icons for actions such as setting time stamps, changing the display's background color, and a CC-ing (that is, sending a message to multiple Qnext contacts simultaneously). It also maintains unobtrusive buttons for changing text formats and for adding emoticons. Qnext's spelling checker came in handy in our tests, underlining possible misspellings as we typed. Unlike Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger, Qnext has no ads, toolbars, or other commercial junk.

Compared to Trillian Basic, Qnext does a so-so job of identifying contacts as belonging to AIM, ICQ, and so on. In my long list, each contact entry displayed a tiny symbol--the logo representing the IM program in question--beside the person's name. I had trouble distinguishing one small, gray symbol from another.

When the time came to make a phone call, I hit the phone icon in the messaging window. To my surprise (and my editor's), the image on my Webcam flashed up. Eek! How embarrassing to be caught on video unawares. Qnext permits you to turn off the video feed if you want to send audio only.

I was generally pleased with the quality of our PC-to-PC calls. We did encounter some stuttering sounds, however, and several sentences dropped off the radar completely. Video quality was good overall. Whenever the image turned into a mosaic-like picture, it quickly smoothed out again.

Qnext's file-sharing capabilities are its shining star. You create Zones to share content with your Qnext contacts: Microsoft Office files, photos, even MP3s. Then you can allow your pals to scope out your music collection and listen to individual tracks without downloading any files. Setting up (and managing) your Zones is a breeze.

The program's photo-sharing Zone feature is terrific, too. While viewing your buddy's collection of snaps, you can resize and rotate the images on the fly, run a slide show, or download the originals. Qnext also supports file transfer, so you can drag and drop files or folders onto your buddy's name.

On the security side, Qnext uses an embedded 192-bit encryption key on all of its Peer-to-Peer communications; all items sent over Qnext alone (as opposed to over a public network such as AOL's, MSN's, or Yahoo's) go directly from your PC to your contact's PC and won't be archived on an IM network's servers. When you use Qnext to access one of your IM networks, the program transfers any existing privacy/security settings you have with AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger, or Yahoo Messenger (as does Trillian Basic).

Qnext pledges that its next release, version 2.2, will solve the issues we encountered with voice chat and with connecting through firewalls. Qnext 2.2 may be available by the time you read this.

Upshot: Unlike any other IM application, this universal messenger offers music streaming along with file-sharing. Qnext might just be the ticket for your family- and work-oriented collaborations.

MSN Messenger 7.5

2008-08-27T09:28:00.000-07:00

Microsoft's program is jam-packed with features, including first-rate voice and video chats, file transfers, games, and a multitude of ways to personalize your IM experience.

Microsoft's free MSN Messenger hits the sweet spot. This colorful instant messaging application is simple to use and easy on the eyes, and its many features generally work as advertised. If you already have a Hotmail account, you can use your e-mail address and regular password instead of creating a new ID, once you've installed MSN Messenger.

After I got rid of the unnecessary MSN Today welcome screen, the IM app worked very efficiently. MSN uses clearly labeled icons for voice chats, video conferencing, file transfers, and so on. As I traded instant messages with my editor, I enjoyed the soothing white space in the IM window and the ease with which I could move from one task (sending a file) to another (checking my e-mail). Out of the corner of my eye, however, I saw the ever-present ad squatting at the bottom of the contacts window.

If you get tired of keyboard text, you can click the pen icon and use your mouse or stylus to write a few words or create a sketch. If you like emoticons or mini-animations (called Winks), you can insert them via the pull-down menus conveniently located in the IM window. And for added personality, you can dress up your messaging identity by appending a greeting and/or displaying a picture: something from Microsoft's small (and free) collection--rubber ducky, anyone?--or an image of your own.

Donning headsets, my editor and I yakked away using MSN Messenger's voice chat. Call quality was superb--the best experience of any IM application we've recently tested. Our voices sounded crystal clear, without any detectable echo or choppiness. In fact, we completely forgot that we were talking over the Internet.

Our video conferencing tests were equally impressive, with MSN Messenger again earning top marks. Though the images looked a little pallid at times, overall quality was excellent. The video was smooth and our lip movements matched up with our voices surprisingly well.

At first blush, with its fun aspect and long list of games, MSN Messenger might seem better suited to interactions with family and friends than to communication with your coworkers, boss, or apps. But MSN Messenger includes a few business-oriented applications. The file transfer feature, for instance, works very well. But when we tried to tap into the program's whiteboarding and application sharing--features offered for XP systems only--we had less luck. Despite repeated tweaking, we couldn't get either one to work. Microsoft says that the whiteboarding and application-sharing features don't use the MSN Messenger protocol; the company suspects that our troubles were due to our working behind Network Address Translation (NAT) routers/firewalls.

One last quibble: To the left of the main contacts Window, MSN displays a vertical column of ten icons. Some of them I could understand immediately--links showing "eBay" and "Xbox," for example--but others had me scratching my head. A winking smiley face turned out to be a link to communicate with MSN, while a screen with a wiggly red line linked to CNBC on MSN Money. Beats me.

Upshot: If you're looking for an IM application that can handle both recreational and work needs, MSN Messenger gives you slick tools to do the job.

Google Talk

2008-08-27T09:26:00.000-07:00

Gloriously clutter-free, Google Talk's beta gives you text and voice messaging, smooth integration with Gmail, rudimentary customization options...and that's about it.

You need a Gmail account to try Google Talk--yet another Google service in beta form. If you have that prerequisite, you can get rolling by inviting the Gmail contacts you choose to download the free Google Talk app (these contacts are automatically moved into Google Talk). Installing the Google Talk instant messaging application is quick and painless, and it starts up in just a few seconds.

The first thing that struck me about Google Talk was its simplicity--a rare thing in IM Land. If you're used to working with instant messaging applications that are laden with features and customization options, you'll see find Google Talk startlingly austere: It's truly bare-boned, with limited customization settings. Though it lacks video, Google Talk handles text and voice messaging features very nicely.

Once I got Google Talk up and running, I appreciated the squeaky-clean environment: It's ad-free and pop-up-free, includes lots of white space, and contains no clusters of icons to distract you from your messaging business. In fact, going from the likes of Yahoo Messenger to Google Talk is a bit like going from a noisy consumer electronics superstore to a quiet boutique up a side street.

I also liked being able to detach the messaging window from the contacts list window and then move both around. If you reattach them by placing the messaging window below the contacts window, the former automatically resizes itself to fit the latter's vertical profile.

If you leave Google Talk's Notifications settings at their default values, you'll receive an alert every time a new e-mail message arrives at your Gmail account. A small window pops up briefly, identifying the sender's name and the subject line. That's handy if you want to keep an eye out for a particular missive. But if you get dozens of e-mail messages every hour, you may want to turn off those peppy signals.

In our voice chat tests, call quality sounded impressive--initially. Despite a faint hum in the background, my editor's voice and mine sounded crisp, and our sentences stayed intact. But further into our conversation, things went downhill. It sounded as though we were both talking on cell phones in a car wash. The slushing sound became so distracting that we simply hung up. (Not all is lost on the video side, however. Google Talkers yearning for this feature can try a plug-in called Festoon by Santa Cruz Networks.)

You might consider Google Talk somewhat exclusive, since you need to be part of the Gmail club to get it. But it's not a closed circuit: The Google Talk network is compatible with the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP), which lets you send IMs to other XMPP-compliant programs, such as Gaim, Jabber, and iChat. Your buddies will need to have Gmail and must configure their IM program to work accordingly.

Upshot: If you rely on Gmail--and have built up a large address book--Google Talk lets you integrate text and voice messaging very easily. But if you want much more than that, look elsewhere.

Kaspersky Lab Kaspersky Anti-Virus Personal 5

2008-08-27T09:24:00.000-07:00

This product beats all others when responding to new malware outbreaks.

The interface of Kaspersky Anti-Virus Personal 5.0 is not warm and fuzzy, but when it comes to performance, this product excels.

In "The New Virus Fighters", Kaspersky was the only product among the ten we tested to detect our zoo collection's backdoor programs, bots, and Trojan horses better than 99 percent of the time. And it was the quickest company at responding to new security threats. For the period of eight months in 2005 that we tested, Kaspersky Labs released new signature updates less than 2 hours after it detected a major security threat, on average. Kaspersky ranked fourth in our heuristics tests.

The Kaspersky interface, while clean, isn't especially friendly, offering little explanation of the options and settings. There is a Help link at the bottom of the screen, but the assistance was sparse compared with the other products we reviewed.

Upshot: Strong heuristics and virus detection, and quick outbreak-response times, more than make up for weaknesses in interface design.

LaCie Ethernet Disk

2008-08-27T09:18:00.000-07:00

This expandable rack-size network drive performed well in our tests.

LaCie's Ethernet Disk is a heavy, rack-mounted NAS device designed for small to medium-size offices. Though it's available in capacities of up to 800GB (our test model had 160GB), and its design is suited more to a server room than a home office, this device was not difficult to use.

As befits an office-oriented drive, the LaCie exhibited very good performance in our speed tests, ranking at the top in its ability to write large files. It scored fourth overall among the ten drives we tested.

The Ethernet Disk is expandable, with one FireWire and two USB 1.1 ports. USB 1.1 isn't a fast enough bus to keep up with large volumes of data, and is therefore less efficient than FireWire for most data-transfer purposes. As a result, FireWire is the better option for connecting another drive for backup or extra storage.

For setup, LaCie's Network Configurator tool was easy to use; however, the PDF documentation--while clear and well written--was outdated, failing to cover about a year's worth of major revisions to the configuration software and listing features incorrectly. For example, the manual referenced a print server that is no longer a feature of the Ethernet Disk.

Another area where the manual proved out-of-date was the section on permission configuration for the four types of shared folders: Windows, AppleShare, HTTP, and FTP. The documentation stated that you can set permissions only for Windows folders, and that other types of folders would be unprotected, when in fact you can now set permissions for all four folder types.

The HTTP and FTP folder types allow you to share data over the Web with remote users. You can upload and download files to both folder types, although HTTP is more suitable for read-only data.

An easy-to-use wizard walks you through creating public shared folders, but you'll need to enter the browser-based utility's Advanced mode to create password-protected shared folders.

One missing weapon in the LaCie's arsenal is client backup software. Since you can map shared folders to a drive letter, however, the Ethernet Disk is compatible with your choice of standard backup software.

Upshot: This large-capacity, easy-to-use drive is expandable and fairly fast. We had only small quibbles with it.

Iomega Network Hard Drive 160GB

2008-08-27T09:17:00.001-07:00

This simple, easy-to-use networked drive is perfect for home setups.

Designed for personal use, the compact Iomega Network Hard Drive offers simple setup, backup utilities, and the ability to connect directly to PCs via their ethernet ports. Because of this direct-to-PC capability, you can take this drive along when you travel, in addition to using it as part of your network back at home base.

The Network Hard Drive lacks folder security features: As it is, anyone with access to the drive can read anything on it. However, the unit is a snap to install and use--it showed up in My Network Places even before we ran the included Discovery utility.

Also bundled is an excellent selection of consumer software: Adobe Photoshop Album, Musicmatch, and Iomega Automatic Backup. These three applications neatly epitomize the reasons most home users will be interested in this device.

Iomega Automatic Backup in particular is easy to use. You simply select the files you want to back up, choose a schedule and destination drive (the Network Hard Drive), and you're done. Restoring data is equally quick: You just drag and drop the desired files back to your hard disk.

The main weakness of the Network Hard Drive was its performance, where it ranked ninth out of the ten drives in our overall speed tests. If you are only copying a file or two here and there and backing up at night, performance shouldn't be an issue. If you regularly copy large amounts of data, however, you'd be better off with a faster drive.

Upshot: Though it's slim on security features and none too quick, this portable drive can connect to your network or directly to your PC.

Snap Appliance Snap Server 1100

2008-08-27T09:12:00.000-07:00

Our Best Buy for business users has sophisticated security and file-sharing features.

For small to medium-size offices, the Snap Server 1100 is a popular choice. Of the NAS units we tested, this device has the most capable software, including advanced features such as support for NetWare, AppleShare, and NFS servers (for cross-platform setups and older devices). The Snap Server 1100 also supports HTTP (Web browser) and FTP access; flexible user-security and group-security settings; and the ability to sync one Snap Server with another over a network.

Don't let this extensive set of features scare you off. Basic setup is quite easy: Just plug in the Snap Server 1100 and type http://SNAP plus the server number shown on the bottom of the unit (for example, http://SNAP30123), and the Web Administration tool will open in your Web browser.

The Snap Server's default settings allow anyone on the network to access the drive and any directories/folders on it. To create a more secure situation, you can configure user, group, and file- and folder-level permissions in the administration utility. User guides in Snap Appliance's online support area explain how to set up permissions, a great benefit for non-IT types.

For backing up local PCs to the NAS, the Snap Server 1100 comes with Symantec V2i Protector, a feature-filled utility that can back up any selection of files and folders, or even a full system, and restore them from a specified point in time.

We were hoping that the Snap Server 1100's performance would be as impressive as the advanced features, but it wasn't. The unit scored seventh overall out of the ten NAS products we tested, and it took more than twice as long to copy and write files as the best unit did. Such slow write and copy times will affect business users more than home users, who will be more accustomed to slow speeds when connecting to the network.

Upshot: The Snap Server is a top-notch network-attached storage device that will appeal to both IT professionals and power users. Its security features were noteworthy, but its performance was not.

Ximeta NetDisk Office

2008-08-27T09:08:00.000-07:00

This NAS has eight ethernet ports but lacks workgroup security features.

Like the Ximeta NetDisk, the NetDisk Office is a dual-use drive that can connect to your network via ethernet or directly to your computer via USB 2.0. Unlike the Ximeta NetDisk, the NetDisk Office comes with an eight-port ethernet hub for attaching client computers. However, its lack of security features and limitations in mixed-platform environments make it a better choice for homes than for offices.

A clear setup guide and simple software utility made installation of the NetDisk Office straightforward. Unlike the other drives we tested, the NetDisk Office does not use standard IP protocols to send and receive data; all client computers must install a Ximeta driver to connect to the drive. The NetDisk Office also does not allow password protection for individual shared folders, which is pretty much a deal-breaker for office LANs.

The NetDisk Office has two modes of operation: Multi-OS and Multi-Write. Multi-Write allows Windows XP and 2000 clients to have write access to the NetDisk simultaneously. In Multi-OS mode, Mac, Linux, and other flavors of Windows can connect, but only one user at a time can have write access to the drive. This inconvenience forces you to keep switching from read-only to read-write access in the NetDiskAdmin utility whenever you need to save a file.

If you are in Multi-OS mode and are backing up your PC to the NetDisk Office with the included Symantec V2i Protector software, you'll have to make sure that you have write access turned on at the time of the scheduled backup. This limitation makes unattended backups problematic.

In our tests the NetDisk Office's performance was excellent. It ranked third overall among the drives we tested, and it uses a special network transport protocol, which Ximeta calls NDAS (network direct attached storage).

Switching between the USB and ethernet connectivity is relatively painless, thanks to the NetDisk's autosensing feature. However, if you connect both USB and ethernet cables at once, the device can't decide which to use, so you'll have to physically disconnect and reconnect one cable or the other each time you want to switch ports. We'd prefer a software switch.

One interesting feature for offices is that NetDisks can be aggregated and mirrored across a network. Mirroring means you can continuously back up one NetDisk to another, and aggregation allows up to 16 NetDisks to appear as one, making for easy expansion as your needs grow.

Upshot: While the NetDisk Office was speedy and easy to install, its proprietary driver makes it inconvenient to use in multiple-OS environments. And it lacks critical file security for workgroups.

Linksys WKPC54G Network Kit

2008-08-27T09:06:00.000-07:00

This wireless kit from Linksys is very moderately priced, but it lacks some of the high-end features of others.

The Linksys kit takes a different approach from the others in our roundup: It bundles the router and the PC Card into one package, so we needed to add only the WUSB54G USB adapter to complete our kit. This approach keeps the cost down--at $170, it is one of the cheapest kits we looked at. It also has thorough and simple-to-follow browser-based setup and documentation, and all the usual firewall and routing features. However, it lacks both WDS bridging support (used to extend the coverage of a network by adding more access points) and interchangeable antennas, which means you can't extend the range easily (Linksys' own $90 WRT54GS router offers both of these features). It's also a plain 802.11g model and was the slowest in our lab speed tests at 13.5 mbps. Still, this is easily fast enough for general use (such as Web browsing); it is only with seriously bandwidth-intensive tasks such as streaming video that you might notice a difference between the Linksys and other, faster kits. The WUSB54G USB adapter does not support WPA encryption; we used 128-bit WEP in our testing.

Upshot: The Linksys kit is very good all round and an excellent value, but those who need top performance or extended range should look elsewhere.

IOGear wireless kit with GWA502 router

2008-08-27T09:04:00.000-07:00

The cheapest kit we tested, but the setup process was awkward and there's no weekend or evening tech support.

The design of the IOGear router and adapters bears more than a passing resemblance to the Apple iPod, thanks to a stylish white plastic case. Unfortunately, its beauty is only skin-deep; the setup utility is much more awkward than those of the other products we looked at. For instance, we had to dig into the advanced setup for the controls for setting up WPA encryption, and the labeling was not clear. This 802.11g router has what IOGear calls "super-fi" antenna technology; it has both a normal omnidirectional antenna on the outside of the case and a semi-directional patch antenna inside. IOGear claims that this combination allows the user to position the router for optimal coverage, but in our informal tests, coverage was no better than with the other kits. IOGear was also the only company not to offer 24/7 telephone technical support--its 10 hours of weekday and no weekend support was somewhat disappointing.

On the upside, the kit, at $150, was the cheapest of those we tested, and its performance was at the higher end of the speed scale: In our lab tests, it achieved an average throughput of 18.3 mbps, proving that you don't necessarily have to use an enhanced 802.11g mode to get speedy performance.

Upshot: While the IOGear is cheap and worked well once installed, setup and support were lacking. There are better, easier-to-use choices.

Kit consist:

IOGear GWA502 router
IOGear GWU513 USB adapter
IOGear GWP512 PC Card adapter

D-Link wireless kit with DI-624 router

2008-08-27T09:03:00.000-07:00

The D-Link Wireless kit has good performance and is moderately priced, but the setup process lacked polish.

This Super-G wireless kit has excellent range, very good performance, and thorough and easy-to-follow setup utilities. There are even little help buttons in many places to bring up context-sensitive help information. However, while this works well for general setup tasks, we found it somewhat lacking when it came to getting the kit running in the enhanced Super G mode, which involves many confusing parameters, and they are not all that well documented. We also found during our lab testing that we had to reboot the router occasionally after it appeared to crash or stop responding.

But setup quibbles aside, the D-Link is a top Wi-Fi router with all the bells and whistles. It performed well in our lab speed tests, achieving an average throughput of 16.3 mbps. And it is the second cheapest of the kits that we tested, at the very reasonable price of $170 for the router, PCI adapter, and PC Card.

Upshot: The D-Link wireless kit is a well-performing, moderately priced solution for going wireless, although the setup process could be a little confusing for new users.

BELKIN F5D7231-4 High-Speed Mode 802.11g Router

2008-08-27T08:57:00.000-07:00

Stylish looks and first-rate setup software make this wireless kit an excellent choice.
We were impressed by the Belkin kit from the moment we opened the box--the router has a stylish, sophisticated look that is echoed by the adapters. The same sophistication carries over to the setup wizard, which is the best we've seen in a Wi-Fi router; it takes you all the way from plugging in your cables and decoding what the indicator lights mean to setting up your Internet connection and wireless parameters. Performance was good--the kit managed an average throughput of 15.4 mbps. This is a little slower than some others, but one reason is that the F5D7050 USB adapter does not support the 125-mbps High-Speed Mode that the router and PC Card use; we tested this adapter in standard 802.11g mode. The signal range of the product in our informal tests was excellent.

However, the biggest selling point for households with children will probably be the six-month subscription to the Cerberian parental control package for Internet access that comes with the router (after the first six months, the service costs $20 a year). This package was very easy to set up and use, allowing concerned parents to control what their kids can access, while setting different levels of access for themselves.

Upshot:The combination of super setup utilities and documentation, performance, and parental control features make the Belkin kit a great choice for home use.

Kit contist:
Belkin F5D7231-4 router
Belkin F5D7050 USB adapter
Belkin F5D7011 PC Card adapter

Actiontec wireless kit with GT704WR router

2008-08-27T08:55:00.000-07:00

The Actiontec kit started off on the right foot: A clear, well-written quick-start guide that comes with the G704WR router outlines the setup process. But it stumbled as we went in deeper, with the guide saying to run a confusing and badly put together Web-based setup utility. For example, if your broadband connection does not fit one of two basic types (cryptically labeled Option 1 and Option 2), then you are out of luck and will need to go to the advanced setup screens. The Installation Buddy software on the CD-ROM is much more complete and helpful and much easier to use, but this isn't covered in the start guide. What's more, the unit ships with Wi-Fi networking turned off by default, an odd decision that creates more confusion for the user who has to turn it on during setup.

Once you finally get it up and running, though, the Actiontec works well, with excellent range in our informal tests. The kit is reasonably priced at $205. We did find performance to be on the slow side in our lab tests, with an average throughput of 15.7 mbps. This is more than enough for Web browsing, but it may be an issue for tasks that involve transferring large amounts of data, such as printing or copying files over the network.

Upshot: The setup process for the Actiontec kit is confusing and may put off novice users. But the kit is reliable once it's running, and it is moderately priced.

Kit contist:

Actiontec GT704WR router

Actiontec HWU05470 USB adapter

Actiontec HWC05430 PC Card adapter

OpenClip Brings Copy and Paste to IPhone

2008-08-24T14:02:00.000-07:00

Lo, Jobs gave us the iPhone and it was good…well, it was pretty good. As soon as people got their sticky fingers on an iPhone it was clear one thing was missing: copy-and-paste functionality.

Third-party app MagicPad snagged headlines not long ago by coming up with their own method for copying and pasting and, while that was all well and good, how much use can you really get out of copying and pasting in a single program? In the end, it was little more than a novelty. Copy-and-paste truly shines when you can take a piece of info from one app to another. Apple's Greg Joswiak said that the company is aware of demand for the feature, but .

That's where OpenClip.org comes in. OpenClip is an open source framework that enables copy-and-paste between supported applications (that is, applications that have the OpenClip framework baked into them). It works by using a small part of the iPhone's storage as a central repository for clipboard information. Any application that uses the OpenClip framework, a list of which can be found here, will be able to copy and paste information back and forth.

The video demo on their site is compelling, but it is unclear how the developers behind OpenClip will be able to share this code without violating the iPhone NDA (I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play one on the Internet). The other shortcoming of OpenClip is the fact that it isn't a part of the iPhone OS itself. It requires developers to use a third-party framework, which means eventual re-coding when Apple finally caves to the pressure and adds systemwide copy-and-paste themselves.

Microsoft admits posting flawed update

2008-08-24T13:57:00.000-07:00

Microsoft Corp. rereleased one of its Aug. 11 security updates yesterday, explaining that it had posted an incomplete version to its own download center last week.

The admission was the third time in the past two months that Microsoft has had to reissue a security-related update.

Users who manually downloaded MS08-051 since Aug. 12 to patch Microsoft Corp. should obtain the second version as soon as possible, Microsoft said. People who obtained the update via Windows Update or through their company's Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) server, or who updated other versions of Office, do not need to reinstall MS08-051.

That update patched three vulnerabilities in PowerPoint, the presentation maker included with Microsoft Office, including one that Microsoft labeled "critical," its highest ranking. MS08-051 was one of 11 security bulletins released last week that patched 26 bugs, the most Microsoft has tackled in a single month for the past year and a half.

According to the revised bulletin published Thursday, the PowerPoint 2003 patches originally posted to Microsoft's Download Center were the wrong versions. "While these versions did protect against the vulnerabilities discussed in the bulletin, they lacked other important security and reliability updates," Microsoft said in the revamped MS08-051.

The company said it had posted the correct versions to Windows Update and Office Update from the start. "This only affected the packages on the Microsoft Download Center; Microsoft Update and Office Update contained and were distributing the correct versions of the binaries and did not need to be updated."

Anyone who updated PowerPoint in Office 2003 Service Pack 2 or Office 2003 SP3 by grabbing the update from elsewhere -- in other words, directly from Microsoft's download site -- must reinstall the second edition of the patches, either by downloading the revised bits from Download Center or through Windows Update/Office Update.

Microsoft gave a third option to users unable to immediately replace the flawed patches. "If you choose to not reinstall the update, you must manually set the registry key in order to block PowerPoint file types as a workaround," Microsoft advised.

Second tries of security updates have become commonplace of late for the software maker. In June, Microsoft, citing unspecified "human issues," was forced to rerelease a fix for a flaw in Windows' implementation of Bluetooth, the short-range wireless protocol. And just last week, it reissued a July patch for a bug that had prevented some network administrators from using the WSUS patch management tool to deploy security updates.

Microsoft was unavailable for comment.

Few features that must die in Windows 7

2008-08-24T13:56:00.000-07:00

As it builds Windows 7, Microsoft has a chance to kill some of Windows' worst features. Here are my suggestions for the five features that must die.

1. Windows Genuine Advantage
This Vista feature is designed to combat piracy, but instead it wages war against common sense. If WGA believes that you aren't running a legitimate copy of Windows, it takes a variety of actions against you. In earlier iterations, it could in essence shut off your access to the operating system. Today, WGA isn't quite so draconian. Still, the real pirates know how to get around WGA, so it serves no purpose other than to annoy. Microsoft should get rid of it in Windows 7.

2. The Registry
The Registry is a giant, incomprehensible database of Windows settings, preferences, behaviours, and more. When you use a dialog box to make a change to how Windows works, generally it's making a change to the Registry --- often dialog boxes are mere front ends to the Registry. But to make many changes, you need to edit the Registry, and it's a tough, dangerous thing to do. Other operating systems, including Mac OS X and Linux, don't have Registries, and they work fine. It's time for Microsoft to finally kill the Registry.

3. ActiveX Controls
ActiveX controls are essentially applets delivered via Internet Explorer. They don't, however, run in other browsers. And they have the potential to be malicious. Once upon a time they served some use, but no longer. Given the growth of AJAX and Web 2.0 sites, it's clear that sophisticated applications can be delivered via the browser without ActiveX. Microsoft should finally pull the plug on this technology.

4. User Account Control
This is clearly the unanimous choice for a feature that needs to bite the dust. Sure, it offers security...but at far too high an annoyance cost, with pointless pop-ups and ridiculous intrusions. Microsoft needs to kill UAC and start from scratch.

5. Windows Meeting Center
Have you ever heard of this Vista feature? Likely not. And even if you have, you haven't used it. It's supposed to let you set up meetings over a network or the Internet either on an ad hoc or planned basis. But with no whiteboard, a worthless chat module, and no VoIP, who would ever use it? No one, of course.

Vista's networking features are still broken in SP1

2008-08-24T13:52:00.000-07:00

I, too, enjoy Vista's eye candy and overall experience with the OS... but anyone who claims that they have never had any problems with Vista have never used Vista in a corporate environment with a large number of employees and contractors attempting to VPN into their networks.

Vista's VPN functionality is virtually unuseable when remoting into networks with more than one DNS server, or into networks using subnets in the 10.x.x.x range where any other subnet mask other than a Class A mask are in use (and only companies with literally MILLIONS of PC's in the SAME building or campus would EVER have a need for a Class A subnet mask), etc.

Plain and simple... XP's networking components work... period. Vista's networking components are either unreliable or completely useless, and SP1 barely fixed any of these issues.

It would appear that Microsoft has no intention of fixing these serious flaws, which makes it look like they are about to release a "premium" networking product that we all have to pay for if we want these features to work properly.

If Microsoft EVER pulls a stunt like that, I can tell you the names of over 250 companies, accounting for over 2,100,000 copies of Windows that will switch to Linux. Linux's networking also works... period.

Windows 7 will be warmed over Vista

2008-08-24T13:46:00.000-07:00

Vista has been, to be kind, a flop. For several months now, Microsoft has been hinting that the next version of Windows, Windows 7, will be the answer. I'm beginning to wonder, though, if Windows 7 will be little more than Vista rehashed.

Microsoft is no longer being coy about the fact that they're working on a replacement for the wretched Vista. It used to be that the Ballmer would just say things like "Vista is a work in progress." Now, Microsoft has admitted to having over 2,000 people working on Windows 7. Sounds to me like they're serious about it.

In addition, Microsoft has launched its Windows 7 blog and has started telling people about what's what with Seven. What's even more interesting is that WSUS (Windows Software Update Services) users found a Windows 7 Client option on their patching servers on August 20.

I know a lot of CIOs are wrestling with what to do with Windows. Should they 'upgrade' to Vista? Stick with XP SP3? Or, go with the Mac or desktop Linux instead. Let me just point out that Microsoft itself is already pushing Windows 7. They know that business users aren't moving to Vista. So, if you're determined to stick with Windows, your smart choice looks to be waiting for Seven.

But is it really? The closer I look at Seven the less I see. Paul Thurrott, a well-known Windows expert, concludes in his Windows 7 FAQ that "Microsoft is positioning Windows 7 as a major release as well. However, the language Microsoft uses to describe the technical underpinnings of the Windows 7 suggests that this product will in fact be a minor release."

How minor? Thurrott wrote, "Microsoft has publicly committed to only one feature for Windows 7--pervasive multi-touch." I'm not sure what they mean by 'pervasive multi-touch,' but it sounds like something you might get at a massage parlor. Seriously, I think I already have that on my Apple Touch iPod. It's great... on my iPod. I still can't see myself smudging up my desktop display with my fingers.

While Thurrott also notes that it's still early and that more features will be added. I'm sure they will. But, I'm growing more certain by the day as more and more news leaks out about Windows 7, that it indeed won't be a true major update. Instead, it will just be Vista SP2.

Who wants warmed over Vista? Not me! Of course, Microsoft could just dump Windows for its radical operating system Midori, but I doubt that Ballmer has the guts to strike out in a new direction.

So, what are you going to do? I recommend giving desktop Linux or the Mac a serious look. Vista, whether you call it Vista SP2 or Windows 7, is a dead-end operating system.

Source: Computerworld

Opera Patches 7 Bugs

2008-08-24T13:42:00.000-07:00

Opera Software last week patched seven vulnerabilities in its flagship Opera browser, but declined to provide information about one of the bugs.

The Norwegian browser developer hinted that other programs, not yet unpatched, were also affected by the flaw.

The latest update to Opera 9.52 fixes multiple bugs -- seven in the Windows version, five in the Mac edition and six in the Linux browser -- that range from "extremely severe" to "not severe" in the company's five-step threat ranking system.

What was unusual, however, was that Opera omitted an explanation for one of the fixed flaws. Instead, the company simply stated in the change log: "Fixed an issue that could allow cross-site scripting, as reported by Chris Weber of Casaba Security: details will be disclosed at a later date."

When asked for more information on the cross-site scripting vulnerability, Opera spokesman Thomas Ford hinted that other software might be involved. "Opera thinks it is acceptable under specific circumstances to release a security update without publishing an advisory for the specific bug," said Ford in an e-mail response to questions. "If we publish without an advisory, it is often because other vendors have not issued patches."

Other vendors have occasionally refused to provide details on what they've patched, even though they customarily publish that information simultaneously with a fix. Last February, for example, when Adobe Systems Inc. updated its popular Reader PDF utility to quash "a number of ... security vulnerabilities," it did not provide any information on the bugs it found and fixed. At the time, the behavior puzzled security researchers, who noted that Adobe was usually more forthcoming.

Adobe waited three months to publish advisories that outlined eight different vulnerabilities, prompting some experts to speculate that the company believed the severity of the bugs justified the secrecy .

Opera's Ford, however, said that his company's secrecy had different motives. "Publishing a full advisory only because we've patched something could leave users of other products unprotected while giving malicious hackers the information needed to cause damage," he said.

The cross-site scripting vulnerability was patched for the Windows, Mac and Linux versions of Opera.

Chris Weber, the researcher with Redmond, Wash.-based Casaba Security who was credited by Opera with reporting the bug, did not respond to a call for comment.

Opera also fixed a protocol handler flaw rated "extremely severe" in Windows, spoofing bugs, and a vulnerability in the browser's custom shortcuts feature that could let attackers inject malicious code into the Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris versions.

The 9.52 update also addressed numerous non-security bugs in the user interface, the Opera e-mail and chat clients, and other components. It also included stability and reliability improvements that fixed problems using the browser to reach Google Inc.'s Gmail online e-mail service and a memory leak in Opera's BitTorrent code.

Opera 9.52 can be downloaded from the Opera site.

Vista users rush for SP1; XP owners dawdle on SP3

2008-08-24T13:39:00.000-07:00

Windows Vista users jumped at Microsoft Corp.'s troubled operating system's first service pack, but people running Windows XP haven't been in much of a hurry to install its newest service pack update, a Windows performance and metrics researcher said today.

According to , by the end of July, 86% of the machines in its community-based Exo.performance.network (Xpnet) running Vista had been upgraded to Service Pack 1 (SP1).

That was a 17-point increase over the 69% who reported running Vista SP1 at the end of April, six weeks after Microsoft released the major update.

"There was pent-up demand for Vista SP1," said Craig Barth, chief technology officer at Devil Mountain. "If users are frustrated with a platform, they're going to be more likely to go out and snag any update that purports to fix the problems."

Meanwhile, Windows XP users have apparently felt less pressure to download and install that aged operating system's Service Pack 3 (SP3), which was released in early May.

The service-pack uptake difference between Vista and XP has been dramatic. Where more than two-thirds of the network's Vista users had grabbed SP1 within six weeks, fewer than half -- just 47% -- of XP users had updated to SP3 by the end of July, more than 12 weeks after Microsoft first posted it for download.

"Windows XP users were generally happy with Service Pack 2," Barth said. "There was not a huge clamor for [Windows XP] SP3 like there was for Vista SP1, and that shows in the results. It's pretty clear that a lot of XP users are very content with SP2."

The well-publicized troubles that some users had with XP SP3 -- including released in early May after installing the service pack on PCs equipped with processors made by Advanced Micro Devices Inc. -- may have had some impact on its uptake, Barth acknowledged.

But Microsoft's own emphasis may also have played a part. "Microsoft didn't promote XP SP3," he said. "They heavily promoted Vista SP1, and went out of their way to put a good foot forward for it. But they barely mentioned XP SP3."

Devil Mountain's Xpnet collects data from more than 3,000 PCs, 70% of which run Windows XP, Barth said. Users can join the network by downloading and installing a small utility, DMS Clarity Tracker Agent, from Devil Mountain's site.

Top Five Free iPhone Productivity Apps

2008-08-22T16:46:00.001-07:00

Our favorite iPhone apps let you aggregate various online accounts, back up notes and photos, create to-do lists, look up local businesses, and surf the Web offline--all without spending a dime.

Armed with the App Store and a whopping zero dollars to spend, I took a crack at finding the best free iPhone productivity applications available right now. I came away with five solid--if flawed--apps for productivity-minded cheapskates.

Four of the five tools on this list had their share of limitations and bugs to work out, which made me shy away from testing paid productivity apps. That said, of the twelve free productivity utilities I looked at, the five here were the clear-cut leaders.

If you've got a better alternative to any of these productivity tools, please give us your recommendations in the Comments section below. And if you're more of a slacker, see our list of 17 free iPhone Apps that let you do fun stuff--such as interact with music in cool ways and pick a good place to eat.

All of the following apps were tested on a first-generation iPhone with the 2.0.1 firmware. It should be noted that during testing, several EDGE network issues came up with both my iPhone and those of coworkers with the 3G iPhone; they reported slower-than-usual 3G connectivity and had to rely mostly on EDGE speeds, as well.

1. PageOnce Personal Assistant

In the realm of free applications, no "killer productivity app" for the iPhone exists, but PageOnce Personal Assistant is as close as it gets. Rather than providing its own set of services, PageOnce Personal Assistant aggregates your online accounts and feeds them to your iPhone in one handy, streamlined interface. However, those feeds are limited to read-only status. It's still a handy app for seeing your bank balance (no payments or transfers, though); looking at what's coming up on your Netflix queue; reading your MySpace, Digg, and Twitter feeds; seeing how many minutes you've used up on your monthly cellular account; viewing your cable bill; and scanning your Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and other Web-based e-mail inboxes (no sending messages, though).
I did see a few notable omissions to PageOnce's otherwise impressive lineup of online partners. For example, PageOnce has no Facebook integration, which is especially surprising given the numerous references on the PageOnce site to getting your Facebook feed through the app.

In addition to the read-only limitations, I noticed a bit of a lag time between signing up for feeds online and having them work on my iPhone. Also, I really hope PageOnce has airtight security (the PageOnce site claims it does), due to the amount of personal information submitted to get the full range of offerings. Also, as our Ed Albro points out, it's much easier to just check your e-mail inbox than to use the limited read-only feed on PageOnce.

2. Evernote

With Evernote, gone are the days of e-mailing things to yourself just to get them off your phone and onto your computer. One of the first apps I loaded onto my iPhone, Evernote lets you send written notes, photos (taken from both within the application and stored in your iPhone's photo album), and voice memos to an online repository that you can access anywhere with a Web connection.

It's free version limits your uploads to 40MB per month, while Evernote Premium increases your upload limit to 500 MB per month for a $5 monthly or $45 yearly fee. For the casual user, though, the free version should offer plenty of storage. I had some problems and delays uploading images during my testing over an EDGE network; text uploads, on the other hand, worked without a hitch. I was able to access sent notes on my Web-connected desktop almost immediately.

3. ReQall

To-do list applications abound in the iTunes App Store, but ReQall for the iPhone is a veritable list-making and reminder-creating suite. It combines to-do lists, shopping lists, and voice memos, and it syncs them to your online ReQall account so that you can access them from outside your iPhone. The service will even convert your voice notes to written ones, a handy spin for impatient touch-screen typists.

ReQall is also useful for groups or work situations, provided your friends or coworkers sign up for the free service as well; a People tab lets you share your entries with selected contacts. ReQall also alerts you to items on your to-do lists in several ways, thanks to integrated functionality with instant-messaging clients (AIM and Yahoo Messenger), Firefox, text messaging, and e-mail. You can get reminder blasts through each of those media, as well as pop-up reminders on your iPhone screen.

I experienced a few lag-time issues when testing the app, but no real deal-breakers. For instance, the text-to-voice feature was accurate in my testing, but conversion from text to voice took about 10 minutes over EDGE. Also, there's inexplicably no way to edit a to-do or shopping entry from your iPhone once you've saved it, even to add the day and time the task is due. You can, however, edit and manage your saved entries on ReQall's nicely designed Web site. The current iteration of ReQall is free, but according to its Web site, the company will start charging for it soon.

4. YPMobile

YPMobile puts searchable Yellow Pages listings right on your iPhone free of charge, saving you from having to lug the Yellow Pages around with you. In addition to searching for specific business names, YPMobile can also search by category: restaurant types, dry cleaners, barber shops, and the like.

Provided you allow YPMobile to use your current location data, your search results display in order of the businesses nearest to your current location, which is a great touch. Each listing offers the business's address and phone number (you tap the number to call them), as well as a user rating based on a five-star scale. You can add listings to your "Plan" for the day by hitting a plus button at the bottom of the screen, and you can bookmark and share business listings by adding them as a favorite. YPMobile's usefulness doesn't stop there, thanks to an events tab that lists upcoming concerts and happenings. Of the batch reviewed here, it's the most bug-free.

5. Instapaper

Instapaper is a way to create offline versions of your favorite Web articles, allowing you to read them on your iPhone while you're on an airplane, in the subway tunnel, or otherwise out of signal range. However, in order to save a list of pages to read, you'll need to plan ahead and visit Instapaper.com beforehand using mobile Safari, choose your content, and then launch the Instapaper app to read it offline. I only wish it had integrated functionality with the iPhone's mobile Safari browser; namely, the ability to save offline versions of articles by simply tapping a button within Safari.

After performing that rather irritating ritual (it's much less frustrating to use your laptop or desktop to save your content with the Instapaper site), the Instapaper app displays a list of all the pages you've saved. However, clicking on my entries brought up another buggy usability issue: an error message that read, "Sorry, this page is not available offline." That's not entirely accurate, because tapping the "Text" button at the top of the screen brought up an offline version of each saved page. Once you get around the bugginess and the hoop-jumping, Instapaper is a nice way to read long articles offline, but the development team has a few kinks and usability issues to work out.

Got a better free iPhone productivity app to recommend? Let us know about it by posting a comment below.

Apple MobileMe Syncing Service

2008-08-22T16:34:00.000-07:00

To coincide with the release of the company's iPhone 3G, Apple overhauled its Mac-centric .Mac service and renamed it--seemingly without irony--MobileMe. In addition to the new name and the vaguely Windows ME-esque logo, the new service introduces one notable new feature: the ability to sync with iPhones, iPods, and PCs.

The new MobileMe service also arrived with about 70 new bugs, many of which PC World had occasion to experience during the service's first few weeks of life, and many of which remain unresolved as of this writing. Apple is aware of the problems, however; Steve Jobs himself admitted that the application was "not up to Apple's standards" and said that it would have benefited from more time and testing.

The good news: If you're a long-time Mac user with an existing .Mac account, switching to MobileMe won't be much of an adjustment. MobileMe's existing support for syncing iCal calendars, bookmarks, and connecting two Macs via the Back-To-My-Mac feature still work as they always have. In our tests with the iPhone and the iPod Touch, the service reliably synced calendars and bookmarks with our Macs.

With our PCs, it has been a different story. MobileMe's support for Windows focuses almost entirely on Microsoft Outlook. If you aren't a fan of Outlook and would just like to sync calendar events to Vista's built-in Windows Calendar, forget it. That omission wouldn't be so bad if Outlook syncing worked smoothly, but it doesn't. Instead, we continue to get daily error messages informing us that the MobileMe Sync Server is configured incorrectly, along with a vague message directing us to the MobileMe control panel, which offers no further help.
Even with the service's problems, however, our calendar events do consistently migrate from Outlook to iPhone and iPod and Mac, and back again. And MobileMe's Web interface is one of the finest we've seen, living up to Apple's reputation for slick software design. Snappy menus and intuitive drag-and-drop controls guide you through calendar entries and the iDisk online-storage service.

Nevertheless, it's difficult to justify the $99 yearly subscription fee for such a half-baked syncing tool. In an all-Mac world, MobileMe might be a worthwhile expense, due to the undeniably handy Back-To-My-Mac remote control feature. But with limited support for Windows calendar apps--and a barrel of configuration problems--MobileMe is no bargain for Windows users.

Consumers Not Buying Blu-Ray Format Despite Format Win

2008-08-20T15:50:00.001-07:00

A Blu-ray win over HD-DVD in the bloody format war hasn't translated into a sales victory for the next generation DVD technology.

A recent study by the NPD Group has shown that Blu-ray sales only increased by 2 percent from February to March and that Blu-ray sales dropped 40 percent from January to February.

That's a big disappointment for supporters of Blu-ray. After all Toshiba announced in February that it would cease production of HD DVD players, essentially killing off the next-generation media format and leaving Blu-ray as the lone next-generation format.

One conclusion that could be reached is that despite the format war being over and a winner being crowned, people still aren't ready to ditch the traditional DVD in favor of the next-generation Blu-ray. Any hopes Blu-ray had of a giant sales increase due to the end of the format war proved otherwise.

At least now the focus in terms of promotion and advertising can be placed upon one format, which might resonate better with the general public and slowly begin to sway that public into the next-generation world.

Toshiba Upscaling DVD Player

2008-08-20T15:48:00.000-07:00

Toshiba is going on the offensive in the DVD wars with a new player that promises near HD quality from standard DVDs. The XD-E500 uses Toshiba's new eXtended Detail Enhancement (XDE) technology to deliver a 1080p picture on HDTVs.

The player also offers three modes to further enhance the quality of the picture. Sharp mode scans the entire picture that is being displayed and then adds detail enhancement to make images crisper. Color mode primarily enhances blues and greens and is recommended for outdoor scenes, while contrast mode helps bring more detail to scenes with less light. The new player will go for $149.99 and can also play DivX, MP3s, WMA and display JPEGs, a capability that is now standard in most DVD players.

The new DVD player will only improve the picture for an HDTV, but the XD-E500 is priced significantly lower than Blu-ray players and you don't have to trade in your old DVDs to get a better viewing experience. However, most Blu-ray players are also capable of upscaling your current DVD collection to 1080p.

Toshiba recently lost the High Definition DVD wars to Sony's Blu-ray technology, and this is their biggest foray into DVD upscaling since then. The company is planning a massive ad campaign to tout its new technology and will be launching a new website soon to show off the XD-E500.

The company told the Associated Press that the XD-E500 is not meant to compete with Blu-ray. Yet with consumers reluctant to switch over to the format war victor, Toshiba is definitely looking to tap into a market that Blu-ray cannot seem to conquer.

Pinnacle Studio Ultimate 12 Video-Editing Software

2008-08-20T15:45:00.000-07:00

Standard-definition video is going the way of the HD DVD player--or is it? TVs have gone high-def in a big way, but YouTube and other online venues continue to serve standard definition. Pinnacle's Studio Ultimate 12 video-editing software tries to maximize its appeal by adding Blu-ray Disc, Flash video, and direct-to-YouTube support.

The previous version of Studio Ultimate let users import footage in the Advanced Video Codec High Definition (AVCHD) and High Definition Video (HDV) formats, and create HD DVD discs. Studio Ultimate 12 adds Blu-ray Disc authoring, with tools that include animated menus. The basic, $50 version of Studio does not support AVCHD or HDV importation; the $100 Plus and $130 Ultimate versions do. Studio performed sluggishly with AVCHD files on both systems that I used with it.

The first Blu-ray discs I created wouldn't play in an older Blu-ray player, but they worked fine in a newer model, the Panasonic DMP-30K. The reason: The newer player recognized discs burned in AVCHD format, whereas the older one didn't; you can, however, change Studio Ultimate's settings to create discs for older models of Blu-ray players.

Studio Ultimate 12 lets you export videos directly to YouTube. Studio 11 supported Yahoo Video or Pinnacle's own video-sharing site; though you can upload to Yahoo with Studio 12, uploading to Pinnacle's site is no longer an option. The YouTube uploads have just one quality setting--which is understandable, since YouTube has a single upload setting.

Once they're uploaded to YouTube, however, you can view clips in "high quality" or "standard quality." I've found that, the higher the quality before I upload videos, the better the YouTube-compressed versions turn out to be. My best results came when I uploaded a high-quality Flash video to YouTube.

A new feature, Pinnacle Montage, provides 11 themes and 80 templates that you can use to add effects such as menus of moving frames with video, animated text, and graphics. Some of the Montage options are snazzy, but few of them allow any customization. For example, you can specify multiple moving frames, but you can't alter the frames' dimensions, and you can't adjust how quickly they appear and disappear.

Three new plug-in packages included with Studio Ultimate 12 confer varying benefits. The proDAD VitaScene plug-in contains a ton of neat transitions--blurs, spins, and so on--along with at least as many effects as the main Studio application has.

The Magic Bullet LooksBuilder SE plug-in has many powerful settings for customizing the way clips look; but it doesn't let you set key frames, so you can't set points in the video to use in timing the intensity of an effect. And since you can't set an effect to strengthen gradually (for example), the effects sometimes produce rather amateurish results. (The plug-in requires a powerful graphics card to work: You can't install LooksBuilder SE on a system that relies on integrated graphics.)

Boris Graffiti, the third new plug-in, is designed for adding moving titles; its preset titles worked fine, and it has an extremely complex advanced mode for setting key frames. Unfortunately, you must use whatever interface the plug-ins require, rather than Studio's standard interface--so that's three different tools you have to learn. I would have much preferred that the tools be built into Studio itself.

A small but welcome new feature: If your designated drive runs out of space while you're outputting content to it, you can pause the operation. Regrettably, you can't pause output for such purposes as to check your e-mail without screwing things up--unlike with . Though I experienced a few crashes with Studio 12, the application seemed more stable for me than past versions.

Studio Ultimate 12 has more features than any other consumer-level video editor, but I still prefer Adobe Premiere Elements 4 because of its more elegant interface and superior stability. (That product doesn't yet support AVCHD editing, however.)

eBay Switches Fee Model

2008-08-20T15:41:00.000-07:00

Online retailer eBay wants to stock its virtual shelves with more fixed-price items and reduce its dependency on auction sales.

The company announced today some drastic changes to its listings fees and commissions that are intended to encourage buyers to list more, and duplicate, items at fixed prices to sell via eBay's "Buy It Now" program. Starting in mid-September, sellers will be charged just 35 cents to place an item on eBay for 30 days, which is a drastic reduction from its current fee of $4 to list an item for seven days. In return for the reduced fees, eBay will take a larger commission for completed sales but has so far declined to say what that commission will be. The company will also limit methods of payment to credit cards and PayPal, cutting cash, check, and money orders out of its business entirely.

The new approach is designed to counter eBay's slowing sales growth. The New York Times says auction sales account for only 57 percent of eBay's revenue, with the rest coming from advertising, PayPal and global classifieds. The new business model is eBay's attempt to boost retail sales by favoring bulk sellers who make their living selling items on eBay. However, collectors and others who are trying to sell rarer items that could fetch a respectable price at auction may find it tougher to do business in the new eBay. Members of the Professional eBay Sellers Alliance told the Associated Press that they are seeing fewer of their listed items on eBay sell and those that do move are being sold at lower prices.

eBay has been doing a lot of tinkering with its business platform recently. The auction company had already cut its commissions and listing fees for fixed price sales earlier in the year, and today's announcement drops them even further. It has partnered with Buy.com and is apparently allowing Buy to list items on eBay at no cost. EBay also adjusted its popular feedback program so that sellers can no longer rate buyers, but buyers can still rate sellers. But the feedback changes may not really matter, since a switch to electronic methods of payment is only likely to cut down on buying scams on the site. If you are one of the millions who love the auction platform, don't despair. As eBay's Lorrie Norrington told the New York Times, "We love the auction model. It's still a great model for certain types of sales."

Apple Releases IPhone Software 2.0.2

2008-08-20T15:35:00.000-07:00

Two weeks after releasing iPhone OS 2.0.1, Apple Monday updated the iPhone software to version 2.0.2.

As with the 2.0.1 update, Apple says little about what exactly 2.0.2 does, other than a terse description that reads only "bug fixes." The update, which iPhone users will be prompted to download through iTunes when they plug in their devices, weighs in at 249MB when upgrading an iPhone 3G from 2.0.1 (updates for other models or from different software versions may have different sizes).

There have been numerous accounts of bugs and problems with the iPhone 2.0 software, and while the iPhone 2.0.1 update seemed to improve performance on some counts, many of the issues have persisted.

sorce-Macworld

Sony VAIO VGN-FW198U / H

2008-08-20T15:29:00.000-07:00

Unusually wide, bright screen makes it a good choice for working on side-by-side documents (and for watching movies).

As one of the first notebooks with Intel's new Centrino 2 processor (code-named Montevina), the Sony VAIO VGN-FW198U/H might be expected to hog the performance spotlight. This new entertainment notebook certainly felt plenty speedy moving among applications in casual use, and it did fine in our formal performance tests. But the laptop's screen will probably turn more heads than its horsepower--or its speakers--will.

Sony's premium entertainment model, the $1750 VGN-FW198U/H is also built for business. Thanks to a 2.53-GHz Core 2 Duo T9400 processor (which is fairly middle-of-the-road among Intel's seven new Montevina chips) and a hefty 4GB of RAM, the notebook posts solid numbers. A score of 94 in Worldbench 6 doesn't make for the fastest lap around the track, but the unit keeps pace with Sony's more compact VGN-SZ791N. Then again, it falls a little behind the new Micro Express JFL9226 (which uses the same Montevina CPU).

Of course, with great power comes an even greater battery drain. This machine lasted only 2 hours, 32 minutes in our tests. That's about 30 minutes less than we're accustomed to seeing in all-purpose notebooks--or in power-sucking desktop replacements, for that matter.

This VAIO also turned in solid gaming scores; its dedicated video card, the 256MB Radeon HD 3470, topped out at 83 frames per second in Far Cry (with antialiasing turned off). Just resist the temptation to use every bit of the beautiful 16-inch display. Most gaming on this notebook probably shouldn't go much higher than a 1024-by-768-pixel resolution.

The screen itself is a real attention grabber. The latest "tweener"--a screen that falls between two established notebook display sizes--it's almost freakishly skinny. At an atypical 16.4 inches wide, it's no taller than a 15.4-inch screen but over an inch wider, the better to watch wide-screen high-def movies in the recordable Blu-ray drive, or to view two Web sites or documents side by side. (Even so, when we ran our test disc--a Blu-ray version of Phantom of the Opera--we still saw annoying black letterbox bars.)

The screen is also extremely bright without being too reflective. The 1600-by-900-pixel resolution is easy on the eyes when tackling mainstream work. All in all, the screen is a big winner. You certainly won't find a notebook with a similar-size screen--such as a slightly larger 17 inches--that's as easy to lug as this 6.4-pound (not counting the power adapter) unit.

Although this notebook is billed as an entertainment machine with a great display, its audio falls short. Not very loud or rich-sounding, the built-in stereo speakers were extremely disappointing. This is largely because the speakers are mounted just north of the keyboard. No separate subwoofer means weaker sound. The volume tops out too quickly for audiophiles, and seemed flat as well. Which is a shame, because the notebook comes with some nice media buttons, including ones for Dolby audio tweaking and the usual pile of Sony entertainment applications. But that's why they invented headphones, I suppose.

With its hard, dark titanium-gray lid and black lower casing, the VGN-FW198U/H is sleek-looking overall and would glam up any office or make seat neighbors jealous on your next flight. Dropped hinges with no connections on the back add to the modern effect. And you're fixed for storage with a 320GB hard drive. With its dedicated card slots, you can have a Memory Stick, an SD card, and an Express Card/34 card all plugged in at the same time--very convenient. An HDMI port is available to hook the notebook up to an HDMI-equipped TV for an even better Blu-ray movie experience. ?

The notebook is seamlessly manufactured--maybe a bit too much so. The battery is hard to lift out because the fingerhold is so small. The memory chips and the hard drive, though, are easy to access with a screwdriver, if you ever need to replace or upgrade a part.

Whether you like the keyboard will boil down to personal preferences. Sony has crafted a couple of generations of cutout-key notebooks, much like what Apple's MacBook Air now does as well. With each black key rising separately out of the silver-finished deck, the look is very distinctive, but the keys' action seems a tad wobbly compared with, say, the buttery feel and silent operation of a ThinkPad keyboard. The mouse buttons could be bigger and a little less stiff, too. Overall, though, the keyboard has a great layout and a dedicated number pad.

In short, if you're looking for a fast notebook with the latest in beautiful, functional screens, this Windows Vista Ultimate-equipped unit delivers the goods. And Sony will have 12 fixed configurations--starting at around $1000--from which to choose in retail outlets and online. And while the built-in speakers are anything but entertaining, you'll have no worries if you're happy with headphones.

Alternatively, you could step up to a desktop-replacement-class notebook such as something in Toshiba's Qosmio line (those units have decidedly better speakers with dedicated subwoofers). Or, in the all-purpose laptop pack, consider checking out the Lenovo IdeaPad Y510. While that model may have some flaws of its own, it sounds and looks good for its class.

Apple MobileMe Syncing Service

2008-08-19T19:02:00.000-07:00

The new MobileMe service also arrived with about 70 new bugs, many of which PC World had occasion to experience during the service's first few weeks of life, and many of which remain unresolved as of this writing. Apple is aware of the problems, however; Steve Jobs himself admitted that the application was "not up to Apple's standards" and said that it would have benefited from more time and testing.

The good news: If you're a long-time Mac user with an existing .Mac account, switching to MobileMe won't be much of an adjustment. MobileMe's existing support for syncing iCal calendars, bookmarks, and connecting two Macs via the Back-To-My-Mac feature still work as they always have. In our tests with the iPhone and the iPod Touch, the service reliably synced calendars and bookmarks with our Macs.

With our PCs, it has been a different story. MobileMe's support for Windows focuses almost entirely on Microsoft Outlook. If you aren't a fan of Outlook and would just like to sync calendar events to Vista's built-in Windows Calendar, forget it. That omission wouldn't be so bad if Outlook syncing worked smoothly, but it doesn't. Instead, we continue to get daily error messages informing us that the MobileMe Sync Server is configured incorrectly, along with a vague message directing us to the MobileMe control panel, which offers no further help.

Even with the service's problems, however, our calendar events do consistently migrate from Outlook to iPhone and iPod and Mac, and back again. And MobileMe's Web interface is one of the finest we've seen, living up to Apple's reputation for slick software design. Snappy menus and intuitive drag-and-drop controls guide you through calendar entries and the iDisk online-storage service.

Nevertheless, it's difficult to justify the $99 yearly subscription fee for such a half-baked syncing tool. In an all-Mac world, MobileMe might be a worthwhile expense, due to the undeniably handy Back-To-My-Mac remote control feature. But with limited support for Windows calendar apps--and a barrel of configuration problems--MobileMe is no bargain for Windows users.

Photoshop Lightroom 2

2008-08-19T19:01:00.000-07:00

A great update offers several must-have features without cluttering up an already clean interface.

A photo organizer and an impressive photo editor in one, Adobe's $299 Photoshop Lightroom 2 ($99 as an upgrade) adds new editing tools that extend the scope of Lightroom's familiar environment while keeping things simple, further reducing the need to jump over to Photoshop (now required only for truly nitty-gritty edits). Though the interface looks much the same as before, Adobe has made numerous workflow improvements that should delight professionals and enthusiasts alike; for example, searching is now quicker and more customizable.

Lightroom's strength lies as much in its ability to process images as in its ability to help users organize and keep track of their ever-growing collection of photos. The Library Filter gets a makeover in Lightroom 2, moving to the top of the screen and allowing searches not just by keyword, but also by metadata such as captions, date shot, location, and lens or camera used.

Adobe throws in a handy keyword suggester that offers keywords based on when you imported a batch of photos and their subject matter. You can add any of these suggested words to your keyword field by clicking them. Another convenience: You can now rate and sort images regardless of whether you're in Library, Print, or Slideshow mode; this speeds up the sorting process as you view and share images.

If you have dual displays, Lightroom 2 will support them, enabling you to divide your work across monitors as you would in Photoshop. And in Lightroom 2, you can also choose to show or hide on the second screen what you're doing on your primary screen-a feature that is especially handy for reviewing shots with clients.

Printing, the Slideshow, and Web output are all improved in Lightroom 2. In the Print module, you can drag and drop images onto a grid, tell Lightroom whether and by how much you want it to sharpen them, and print your customized sheets. Web output offers similar sharpening choices. Meanwhile, the Slideshow has added color chips that you can use to create a custom-tinted background.

The nondestructive editing feature from version 1 returns, as does Lightroom's easy relationship with Adobe Photoshop. When using Photoshop CS3, however, you don't have to export your images as TIFFs or PSDs anymore; Photoshop will open them regardless of their format, so you can edit shots or create a panorama, and then send your photo back to Lightroom without altering the original file.

Lightroom's new editing features permit photographers to make quick touch-ups and exposure adjustments and apply them to a single image or across multiple pictures. As a result, you can now make certain fixes that you want to apply prior to presentation-such as cropping, graduated filtration, and adjustments to selected parts of an image-part of your initial workflow before doing the final retouching in Photoshop.

Here's an especially cool example: Because so many photographers enjoyed using the lens correction feature to create vignettes, Lightroom now includes a setting designed specifically for that purpose. The program's new Post-Crop lens correction will work on a picture that you've already cropped, using its new dimensions and ignoring the edges of the original image. This way, you get an authentic, symmetrical vignetting effect. Lens correction settings can be manipulated to lighten or darken the edges of your photo, fading to white or black at its most dramatic extremes, to produce interesting effects.

An excellent graduated filter tool lets you compensate for an overexposed sky or a dim foreground in landscape photos. All you have to do is select the horizon line and manipulate sliders for exposure--even saturation if you like. Lightroom 2 adds masking to its array of editing tools as well. In much the same way as in Photoshop, you can change the size, flow, and feathering of your brush to apply a mask, and then edit only the parts of the photo that need targeting.

With its subtle and overt tweaks to version 2, Lightroom remains the program to beat for image processing and organization. The new creative editing tools included with Lightroom 2 would alone make it a must-have upgrade.

Nintendo Wii Fit

2008-08-19T18:47:00.000-07:00

Intuitive and downright cute in its presentation, the Wii Fit makes working out in front of your TV a genuinely interactive and fun experience.

Nintendo's $90 Wii Fit--a home workout program disguised as a video game--hit retailers across the country two days after its May 19 soft launch at the New York City Nintendo World Store, where a limited supply reportedly sold out in just a few hours. After (literally) bending to the will of my new virtual trainer overlords, I can understand why Wii Fit is already a hit in Japan, Europe, and Australia.

Wii Fit lets users choose from 48 activities spread across four main categories: yoga poses, strength training, aerobic exercise, and balance games. To perform such calisthenics, you stand--or in some cases lie--on the special wireless Wii Balance Board peripheral that comes with the game. The sturdy Balance Board, which resembles a double-width bathroom scale, supports weights of up to 330 pounds or so. Powered by four AA batteries, it's rated for around 60 hours of use. Four pressure sensors inside the board determine where your feet are, monitor your center of gravity, and check your weight. It will also function as an optional controller for upcoming Wii games such as Skate It (from Electronic Arts/Black Box) and All-Star Cheer Squad (from THQ).

Warming Up
Sweatbands snapped tight and short shorts riding high, I found that I had to do a few data crunches first, building my Wii Fit profile by entering my height, weight, gender, and birthday. A basic body test then measured my balance before the software presented me with a pretty accurate Body Mass Index (BMI) score, my weight in pounds, my "Wii Fit Age" (more a measurement of my game skills than of my actual fitness level), and the option to password-protect my profile (self-conscious teenagers take note).

You can weigh in again anytime you want, set goals to lower or increase your BMI, and arrange for the game's calendar to chart your progress toward fitness. Note that BMI is not a measure of body fat and that BMI measurements for children often are inaccurate. The official word from Nintendo: "Wii Fit is still capable of measuring the BMI for people aged between 2 and 20, but the resulting figures may not be entirely accurate for younger age groups due to varying levels of development." Essentially, you should use a good measure of common sense in interpreting Wii Fit's statistics, and you should not treat the device's conclusions as a substitute for the advice of health care professionals.

Young and old alike may find themselves mimicking the adorable Wii Fit helium voice-over, at least until the novelty wears off… "Measuring!" Too cute! But it's a pity that you can't pump yourself up by playing a favorite MP3 file in the Wii's SD Card slot, as the game's music soon gets a little elevatory. Visually, the game looks just like Nintendo's cartoonish Wii Fit and Wii Play titles, complete with in-game use of Mii characters (avatars you create in your own image).

Roughly 10 minutes after stepping onto the Wii Balance Board, I had completed a profile, received motivational advice on posture and daily exercise, and was ready to tackle my first Wii Push Up or Downward-Facing Dog yoga pose.

The Good and the Bad

Wii Fit includes 15 activities each for yoga and strength training--from a single-leg extension to a parallel stretch. The aerobics and balance drills are much more fun, however, and there are 9 activities of each of those two types to choose from. Among my favorites were quickly shifting balance for Soccer Heading, Ski Slalom, and Table Tilt; and working on my cardio with aerobic challenges like virtual Hula Hooping (you'll be gyrating like Elvis in no time), Rhythm Boxing, and Jogging (the latter two use the Wii remote to sense movement). Many activities include on-screen feedback regarding how shaky you are or where your center of gravity should be. Virtual trainers (whom you can stand behind or in front of, as you prefer) talk you through the movements and explain how you can improve your performance.

As you spend time exercising, you earn Fit Credits that unlock the game's activities one by one. Each workout takes roughly 1 to 5 minutes and you tend to unlock tougher drills or higher repetition counts every 5 to 10 minutes. Unfortunately, each Wii Fit player must unlock each workout solo. I was surprised and frustrated at the lack of a two-player vs. mode (two-player jogging aside) and at not being able to create a custom workout (which means that there's no avoiding menu hopping and completing activities back-to-back).

Clearly Wii Fit isn't perfect as either a game or as a replacement for a gym membership. But if you're looking to ease back into exercise, seeking ways to break up your current routine--or want a fun, family-friendly option for days when it's too hot or cold outside--Wii Fit is definitely worth your while. Just remember to give yourself lots of leg room and to have realistic expectations.

PC Tools ThreatFire 3.5 Antivirus Software

2008-08-19T18:44:00.000-07:00

Your current antivirus program may offer plenty of protection, but new, unknown threats still could slip through. That's where PC Tools' ThreatFire comes in. Now in version 3.5, this free utility adds an extra layer of protection to the security software you already have. It blocks an impressive number of threats through behavior-based analysis. As can sometimes happen with security tools, however, it caused some system lockups in our testing.

The new edition of this popular free security program, released in May, adds an on-demand signature-based scanner, a mostly just-for-fun world map that shows detected threats, and a useful system-activity monitor that provides a good deal of information on the programs and services running on your PC.

To identify a malware threat based on a positive signature match--which is still the primary method that most antivirus programs use--a lab must first obtain a sample of the malware and create a full signature for it. It that window of time, before a signature is available, your machine could be infected with the virus. By contrast, proactive detection such as behavioral analysis can detect and block brand-new threats without signatures, thereby providing immediate protection. Most antivirus programs supplement signature scanners with some type of proactive detection, but not all are as effective as ThreatFire.

In independent tests conducted for PC World by AV-Test.org, a German security-program testing operation, ThreatFire's performance was outstanding. It correctly identified 18 of 20 new, relatively unknown malware samples by looking purely at factors such as where the program came from, what changes it made to files or the system Registry, and whether the program attempted to send information to the Internet. It successfully blocked 17 of those 18 (one sample stopped ThreatFire before the block could occur), and it successfully cleaned 16 of those blocked (it left part of one infection behind).

What's more, ThreatFire didn't register any false alarms in AV-Test.org's run-throughs; this is a definite plus, since proactive, nonsignature protection is often prone to false alarms.

Version 3.5 adds PC Tools' signature-based scanner, formerly available only in the $30-per-year Pro version. Since it isn't real-time protection, it won't scan every new saved file, so you will need to schedule it or activate the scan manually. The free version also requires that you keep its community features (which send anonymous detection info to PC Tools) enabled in order to continue receiving no-cost updates; doing so improves threat detection for all users, and there's no good reason to disable it. The Pro 3.5 version allows you to disable the feature, but unless you're running a business, you have no need to shell out for Pro. The free version of ThreatFire 3.5 is for home use.

The anonymous detection data also provides info for the utility's new Threat Detection display. Red dots on a global map show infection points for selected malware and adware threats.

Though the map is interesting, the new system-activity monitor is more useful. For the programs and services that are currently running, the monitor displays in-depth background info, such as the author, the command line, a list of open windows and modules, and other details for all processes. You can stop a process, or kick off a Google search for more information on it, with a right-click on the process name.

Other changes in 3.5 include better default options for handling alerts. For one thing, you can now instruct the tool to automatically quarantine, allow, or prompt whenever it encounters a suspected threat or potentially unwanted program (known threats are always quarantined). This version of ThreatFire also has improved master boot record scanning.

While you don't have to pay for ThreatFire, installing it entails another kind of cost. The lightweight ThreatFire service and system tray process didn't noticeably impact our test system while we surfed the Web and performed common tasks, and together they used less than 10MB of system memory. But security programs by nature have to reach far into your PC, and as a result they can often conflict with other software and cause trouble. In our tests on one heavily used PC with a wide range of installed programs and utilities, the computer locked up each time we attempted to run an on-demand scan using ThreatFire's signature scanner. You don't need to run the signature scanner to get ThreatFire's worthwhile behavioral protection, but such lockups are a good example of why you should be careful about installing too many security extras.

ThreatFire's thorough behavioral protection provides a worthwhile additional layer of security, particularly for shared or other at-risk PCs. It's all the more impressive for being free. As always, however, be careful about loading your computer down with security programs

XM Radio Mobile on BlackBerry

2008-08-19T18:42:00.000-07:00

XM Radio isn't new to smart phones--AT&T and Alltel offer it on selected handsets--but until recently customers of other carriers were out of luck. Now, however, owners of any recent BlackBerry (with version 4.2 or later of the OS) can get a pared-down version of XM's satellite radio service, regardless of carrier.

You can download QuickPlay Media's XM Radio Mobile on your BlackBerry over the air, either by texting 47201 with the message XMBB (this brings back a link that initiates the download) or by navigating your browser to xmradio.com/bb. Either way, you must provide an e-mail address (but no credit card info is required to initiate a free one-day trial). In my tests with a BlackBerry Pearl on T-Mobile's network and a Curve on AT&T Wireless, the entire download/installation process via each carrier's EDGE network took only a couple of minutes.

The app gives you access to an $8-a-month service with 20 XM channels--mostly rock and pop (including the popular '60s, '70s, '80s, and '90s channels), but also two country, two comedy, one jazz, and one classical stream. Once you choose a channel, the split-screen interface shows what's currently playing on top, while affording easy access to the other channels on the bottom via a flip-through menu; on that menu you can see what the other channels are playing at any given moment, too. You can keep the music playing even when you're running another application.

I experienced a few glitches: Switching stations always took at least a few seconds, and sometimes the service simply couldn't tune in a channel immediately (it would tell me to try again later). When a new song started to play, the display often lagged behind, showing the just-completed tune's info for quite a few additional seconds. While I did encounter some infrequent dropouts, the sound quality of the audio streams over the EDGE and Wi-Fi networks that my test handsets supported was generally acceptable--but I found it no match for a moderate-bitrate audio file played directly from the same devices.

Still, for BlackBerry owners who don't want to bother with ripping or downloading tunes and creating playlists, QuickPlay's service delivers on its promise of easy access to some of XM's most popular content without requiring that you carry an extra device (or go outdoors for satellite access).

Microsoft to alpha-test Office 14 before end of year

2008-08-19T18:39:00.000-07:00

August 19, 2008 (IDG News Service) Microsoft Corp. will begin alpha-testing the next version of Office in November or December, according to a blog posting by a Microsoft employee that was later pulled from the Web.

Microsoft is calling for people to be part of a technology adoption program, or TAP, that will give them an early opportunity to test the monitoring and analytics components of Office PerformancePoint Server, wrote Hayley Rixon, who works on the Microsoft business intelligence team.

The TAP for this product will be a part of the TAP for Office 14, which will be alpha-tested beginning in the "November/December time frame this year," according to the blog posting. Office PerformancePoint Server is business performance analysis software that will be a part of the Office 14 release.

While the blog posting was live on Microsoft's Technet site on Monday afternoon Eastern time, by afternoon on the West Coast the Web site was no longer working. The post also no longer appears on Rixon's blog.

Microsoft could not be reached for comment today about the blog post no longer being active. However, on Monday, Microsoft said that while the Office team is working on the next version, "it is too early to discuss specific features, capabilities or timing" for the product.

The deadline for submissions to be a part of the Office PerformancePoint Server TAP is Aug. 28, according to the post.

Office is the most widely used productivity software in the world, though competitors such as Google and IBM are competing with Microsoft by offering free office productivity applications.

With the latest version, Office 2007, Microsoft has begun to expand business versions of Office to include collaboration and business-intelligence capabilities, as well as links to Microsoft's enterprise applications and database. Though Microsoft has divulged few details about Office 14, the company probably will expand these features and links in the next release.

RangeMax Next Wireless-N Gigabit Router WNR3500

2008-08-19T18:31:00.000-07:00

This Netgear router performed well, is easy to set up, and supports wireless range extension--but it's somewhat awkwardly designed and lacks enterprise encryption support.

The Netgear RangeMax Next Wireless-N Gigabit Router WRT3500's design is unusual and somewhat annoying. You can't wall-mount the tall, upright case, and fitting it on a desk is diffcult, too, because you can't stack it and you need a reasonably clear area around it. It's cool-looking though, especially when the ring of blue lights around the top flash to show network activity.

The router's performance was mediocre at close range--about the same as that of the much-cheaper Belkin N Wireless Router F5D8233-4 v3--but it improved greatly at long range. The unit also has a useful repeater function so you can extend your wireless range by adding Netgear access points.

The setup software and the intelligence of the router in recognizing our network conditions impressed us. The WNR3500 recognized that our DSL modem had the same LAN IP address--a network no-no--and promptly changed itself to a different range, telling us exactly what it was doing and why.

Excellent, context-sensitive help appears alongside the router configuration pages. It's always on, so you don't have to click a button to see it, unlike with most other routers.

The Netgear's routing features were very good, though not quite as deep as those of the competing Linksys Wireless-N Gigabit Router WRT310N. It has UPnP, WMM, DDNS, and DHCP reservation, but lacks WPA/WP2-Enterprise encryption support, which many businesses need. This should not be a big issue for people interested in a home network router, however.

If you want a good gigabit router with wireless range extension to cover larger office areas or a big house, the Netgear WNR3500 is a safe choice.

AirPort Extreme Base Station With Gigabit Ethernet

2008-08-19T18:26:00.000-07:00

Apple's Airport Extreme router boasts some nice features, including support for wireless range extension and USB drive/printer sharing. But you must decide whether to operate it in 2.4-GHz or 5-GHz mode.

Apple has always "thought different" in its approach to Wi-Fi router design. The latest incarnation of the AirPort Extreme (earlier 802.11g and nongigabit 802.11n versions have similar names, so be careful when shopping) has dual-band support, but can run only in one band at a time: You must choose either 2.4-GHz or 5-GHz mode.

Why would anyone pick the Apple unit over the Linksys Dual-Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router With Storage Link WRT600N, a model that can handle both frequencies simultaneously? Well, the AirPort Extreme has two key features that the Linksys Dual-Band does not: wireless range extension, which enables users to cover large areas by using multiple AirPort Extremes or Airport Expresses as access points; and USB drive and printer sharing. It's also slightly less expensive than the Linksys.

With the AirPort Extreme, you might keep an older g router for b/g clients, and use the Apple router as a 5-GHz access point for video and other high-bandwidth tasks with 5-GHz 802.11n clients. When operating as a 2.4-GHz router, its performance compares favorably with midrange gigabit models such as the Linksys Wireless-N Gigabit Router WRT310N and the Netgear RangeMax Next Wireless-N Gigabit Router WNR3500.

Though it has just one USB 2.0 port for both drive and printer sharing, you can hook up a hub to attach several different printers and drives. On multifunction printers, however, we could only print (not scan or fax). The AirPort Extreme has three LAN ethernet ports; most other routers have four.

You can format drives in Windows FAT32 or in Mac file systems, and you can back up Macs with OS 10.5's Time Machine. Updates are available through Apple Software Update.

As a 5-GHz router, the Apple beats the Linksys Dual-Band in long-range performance, but it lacks several of the Linksys's significant features--notably UPnP, DDNS, and URL/keyword content filtering. Apple views its own Bonjour network service discovery protocol (formerly called Rendezvous) as a substitute for UPnP, but fewer network peripherals support Bonjour than support UPnP.

The AirPort Extreme does support IPv6, the next-generation routing system intended to deal with the anticipated scarcity of discrete IPv4 addresses and to simplify the de sign of large networks. This feature is unlikely to benefit most home users, however, since IPv4 legacy support will continue for the foreseeable future.

Setup requires Windows or Mac software (there's no Web interface). But Apple's software simplifies the task of turning the AirPort into an access point.

Symantec Norton 360 Version 2.0

2008-08-19T18:24:00.001-07:00

Norton 360, Symantec's all-around security, backup, and PC-tuning suite, takes a small step forward with this year's version 2. The easy-to-use collection of applications costs $79 for three PCs and covers all the bases; but in our tests, its core security protection wasn't especially good. The upgraded backup feature permits more control than previous versions of the tool offered, and it lets you send files to your iPod, online storage, and traditional backup destinations, but it ran into problems restoring files from online storage in our testing.

The security suite's well-designed control menu displays four big-button health indicators for PC Security, Identity Protection, Backup, and PC Tuneup. Task menus drop down from each button when you mouse over it.

PC Security covers virus scans and firewall protection; Symantec says the core of its malware detection hasn't changed, but version 2 adds useful Internet Explorer vulnerability blocking. In detection tests from Germany's AV-Test, Norton 360 blocked 96.36 percent of AV-Test's huge zoo of Trojan horses, bots, and other malware--adequate but not stellar performance.

Tests gauging the app's ability to detect unknown threats came back mixed: The suite detected just 27.81 percent of the thousands of new, nonrunning malware samples thrown at it in scans using one-month-old signatures. But it stopped 80 percent of malware threats in AV-Test's extensive behavior trials, which measure an antivirus program's ability to recognize malware based on how the suspect code acts.

Identity Protection adds a toolbar to IE and Firefox to block phishing sites and browser-based identity-theft attacks. The app also manages Web log-ins and can automatically fill Web forms.

Under PC Tuneup, you get options for tasks such as defragmenting your hard drive, removing temp files from Windows and IE, and (new to version 2) cleaning up the Registry.

Norton 360's improved Backup function permits you to use Symantec's online storage (2GB for free, and more for a price). But in our tests using a Vista laptop, the program failed three times in a row when we tried to restore files from online; Symantec says that this problem affected only a few users and has since been resolved.

In our extensive performance tests using WorldBench 6 with Firefox, Microsoft Office, WinZip, and other apps, Norton 360 slowed the pace by an average of 8.3 percent on a fairly beefy desktop PC, and by an average of 7 percent on a less-powerful laptop. Results varied greatly from task to task: Disk-intensive tests slowed performance by up to 30 percent; other tasks weren't hindered at all.

Norton 360 is an easy-to-use program that protects against most Web threats and helps maintain your computer, but you can obtain better protection with security products that may offer fewer features.

Photoshop Express (beta)

2008-08-19T18:23:00.000-07:00

You can get image editing and free, Web-based photo storage under Adobe's Photoshop moniker. Photoshop Express--now in public beta--offers more than the imprimatur of its heritage, though: It makes image editing available wherever you have a Web connection. But this early version has some annoyances and omissions.

Adobe assumes that you'll use the free Photoshop Express service to upload, edit, organize, store, share, and showcase your images. At launch, the company offers 2GB of free storage per user. Adobe says the service will always have a free component, but the plan is to offer more storage, offline editing, and additional editing options. Adobe hasn't yet said when these extra-cost features will be available.

Upload times vary, but it was a bit slow at uploading 8-megapixel pictures. Adobe notes that high demand on the system and on the two data centers dedicated to Photoshop Express may affect upload times. The service, designed using Flash, currently limits the maximum image size to 4000 by 4000 pixels, or 10MB.

Still, Flash adds some of the best features to Photoshop Express: Select an action (crop and rotate, auto correct, exposure, red-eye removal, touch-up, saturation, white balance, highlight, fill light, sharpen, soft focus, or an image effect), and see a preview of the results in a thumbnail image. This approach simplifies editing, without resort to histograms and imaging complexities. The program uses your PC's processing power to render thumbnails in real time, and it works quickly.

The app currently lacks a feature for saving your edited image as a local file that you can use outside Photoshop Express, but Adobe says a fix is in the works. It also lacks a layered undo feature, but you can undo edits if you remember what you did; edits that you make in Photoshop Express don't alter the original image.

The application has drag-and-drop image organizing among folders, image captions, and image ratings. Albums and slide shows can be shared via the Web. A community component lets you browse other people's galleries and integrates with Facebook, Photobucket, and Picasa (you can log in to any of those accounts from within Photoshop Express).

The free Photoshop Express provides great value and easy usability, despite its current limitations. Adobe says that it expects to fix most of the flaws I found; and when it does, I will rate the service. It will undoubtedly be a formidable competitor to sites like Picnik. Nevertheless, advanced users who don't need the visual hand-holding that Photoshop Express provides may prefer free imaging applications like Paint.net.

WordPerfect Office X4 Standard Edition

2008-08-19T18:17:00.000-07:00

WordPerfect keeps its traditional look, but beefs up support for PDFs and Office 2007.

When Microsoft Office 2007 hit the streets, its new user interface--topped by a super-sized toolbar called the ribbon--delighted some and frustrated many. Long-standing WordPerfect users will be relieved: The latest release of Corel's WordPerfect Office doesn't have similarly drastic user interface changes.

There's something to be said for WordPerfect's clean, no-nonsense blank page. While the suite keeps its traditional looks in the new X4 version, it does beef up support for both PDFs and Office 2007 file formats. Existing WordPerfect users will find the new version worth the upgrade, but Microsoft Office users will find few compelling reasons to switch suites.

WordPerfect Office is cheaper than Microsoft Office, but not by much. Although the Standard ($299) and Professional ($399) versions of WordPerfect Office are about $100 off the list price of Microsoft Office, retailers like Amazon currently offer discounted Microsoft Office prices that bring it within a few dollars of WordPerfect Office, effectively erasing the price advantage.

I looked at WordPerfect Office X4 Standard Edition, which includes the WordPerfect word processor; the Quattro Pro spreadsheet application; Presentations; the Visual Intelligence data analysis software; WordPerfect Lightning, a Web-connected note-taking app; and WordPerfect Mail for managing e-mail. While WordPerfect's comfortable interface hasn't changed much in nearly a decade, the office software market has. WordPerfect is now a very distant second to Microsoft Office. In this position, WordPerfect's most important feature is offering compatibility for file formats from other programs. So how well does it play the compatibility game?

The core WordPerfect Office applications support an impressive range of file formats, including Open Document Format (ODF), the very oldest WordPerfect versions, and a few ancient Microsoft Office formats (Word for DOS, anyone?) that even Microsoft doesn't support anymore. Most important, WordPerfect Office can open the latest XML file formats from Office 2007 (those with the -x extensions, like .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx).

In fact, WordPerfect seems to have an easier time dealing with the new Microsoft Office file formats than with the traditional ones, and often imports them with fewer glitches. WordPerfect's compatibility is extremely good--but not perfect. Most of the Word documents I tested imported without a hitch, although I had problems with richly formatted documents, such as missing or mangled pictures. Overall, WordPerfect's support for Office file formats is good enough that most workers won't face a headache when exchanging documents with their colleagues.

One of the most hyped new features in WordPerfect Office is its PDF support, which goes several steps beyond what Microsoft Office provides, including a host of additional options for configuring PDF creation, allowing an author to control details like font subsetting, picture compression, PDF compatibility level, and even password-protecting a document.

Still, WordPerfect's ability to edit PDFs is overstated. Yes, WordPerfect does provide the useful ability to open PDF files and convert them to WordPerfect documents. But in some cases, this process fails (ending with hopelessly scrambled text), and in other cases it works but still leaves you with an altered layout. So the open-PDF feature is a great way to rescue text out of a document in a pinch, but it's never as good as working with the original files.

Impressively, however, this WordPerfect Office introduces an ability to use optical character recognition when attempting to read PDFs that contain scanned-in images instead of text. Once again, it's not perfect, but no other office suite offers anything close.

Most of WordPerfect's best features have been in place for years--for example, legal professionals, government workers, and technical writers love features like Master Documents, which let you build long documents out of separate files. WordPerfect is also legendary for its Reveal Codes feature, which lets you edit and rearrange your document's low-level formatting instructions, giving you fine-grained control over what's taking place. Another longstanding favorite is the Preview option, which lets you browse the full content of a document in the Open dialog box before opening it.

But in other areas, the level of polish in WordPerfect Office falls short of Microsoft Office. For example, WordPerfect still forces users to click the status menu to get an updated word count. (Word keeps the word count perpetually updated.) And who can explain why WordPerfect still limits users to nine open files at a time, and why the status bar shows the number of the page you're working on but not the total number of pages in the document?

Hard-core Excel and PowerPoint users are also likely to be a bit disappointed. Although Quattro Pro's charts have compared well with Excel's clumsy graphics for years, they can't compete with the jaw-dropping eye candy introduced in Excel 2007, such as the latter's new chart-rendering engine and data-visualization tools. WordPerfect Office makes a half-hearted attempt to compete in this area with its new Visual Intelligence program, which helps create chart data in complex spreadsheets and databases. This tool, though, would be better off as an integrated feature in Quattro Pro.

Price-conscious buyers are more likely to look at completely free competitors such as OpenOffice.org and IBM Symphony. Nevertheless, WordPerfect keeps its best features and adds enough new ones to keep current users satisfied--and its increased compatibility with Microsoft Office is worth the $160 upgrade fee.

Apple Releases IPhone Software 2.0.2

2008-08-19T18:09:00.000-07:00

Two weeks after releasing iPhone OS 2.0.1, Apple Monday updated the iPhone software to version 2.0.2.

There have been numerous accounts of bugs and problems with the iPhone 2.0 software, and while the iPhone 2.0.1 update seemed to improve performance on some counts, many of the issues have persisted.

Source- Macworld

Microsoft Live Mesh File Sync Service

2008-08-18T18:57:00.000-07:00

Using Microsoft's Live Mesh service is like learning to drive a car: Once you have the hang of it, it seems pretty straightforward--but if you've never sat in front of a dashboard before, it can be a little confusing at first. The current preview version serves mainly to provide you with remote access to other computers, a method to synchronize data on those computers, and a way to share data with colleagues.

Unlike the hand-holding interface of BeInSync, the Mesh Web site starts you off with a screen showing existing devices (including the online file manager, Live Desktop) and a big '+' button for adding one. With a new device, you log in to the Mesh site and click the '+' button to download and install the Mesh software. Once you've set up all your computers, you can connect to any one of them and even control that system remotely via Windows Remote Desktop, a Windows XP and Vista feature that Live Mesh enhances. (You might also need to install an ActiveX control on the system you're using to access another of your devices.) Unlike BeInSync, which provides access just to the data residing on other machines, the remote-desktop feature in Mesh lets you take complete control of a distant computer, although a slow Internet hookup will make the experience painful if not impossible.

If you don't require remote access, you can head over to the Live Desktop to do your syncing and sharing chores. You can easily synchronize any folder on a computer by right-clicking it and choosing Add folder to your Live Mesh. If you expand the dialog box, you can also identify which computers Mesh should copy the data to for syncing. In most cases you'll want at least one copy on the Live Desktop Internet "cloud" (Microsoft's connected servers) so that you can access it even when your other computers are shut off. If you indicate that you want the data synced to other computers, Mesh will make a copy of the folder on the desktops of those machines (rather than asking you to decide where to put it, as BeInSync and Syncplicity do).

Mesh assigns a blue icon to folders it manages, but (unlike Dropbox and Syncplicity) it provides no direct indication as to whether they are up-to-date. Mesh does give you other kinds of information via the "Mesh bar," a sidebar that it attaches to every open Mesh folder window. The sidebar lists who is using a shared folder and how many people it's shared with, as well as a report of recent activity, including alerts about version conflicts. For information on multiple folders, you can open a pop-up Notifier window by clicking the Mesh icon in Windows' taskbar tray.

Live Mesh's online file manager is the most sophisticated and Explorer-like among the five sync services I tried, but it doesn't yet support drag-and-drop from your own desktop, or even thumbnail views of files (available in most of the other products). You can see slide shows of media files if you install Microsoft's Silverlight browser plug-in, but that doesn't help you in selecting and working with just the photos you want.

Mesh doesn't have any specific backup features, but you can convert any server folder into a static backup by telling the program to stop keeping it in sync.

Though Mesh provides many ways to do its various tasks, few were intuitive in the beta I tested. It cries out for a good quick-start guide, but the closest you get for now is a video tour. I was frustrated by features that were hard to discover, and glitz that seemed to slow down the work. The most distinctive feature, the remote-desktop capability, is already built into Windows, and unless Microsoft can come up with very attractive pricing (which at this writing hasn't been determined), I would opt for one of the other services I tested.

Xobni Outlook Add-On

2008-08-18T18:51:00.000-07:00

Xobni (inbox spelled backward) is a free add-on, currently in public beta, for Microsoft Outlook. The reason behind the name: This useful tool allows you to look at your e-mail inbox from a whole new perspective. The add-on improves management of messages and contacts, one of Outlook's biggest shortcomings. It provides functionality that Outlook should deliver natively, and does so without affecting the e-mail client's performance.

Xobni requires Outlook 2003 or 2007, and runs on Windows XP or Vista. It adds a pane to the right side of the Outlook interface that slides open when you need it and back when you don't. When you install Xobni, it indexes your mail, so you can search for contacts and text. The add-on uses the indexed information to create contact profiles, as well. If you're reading a message from John Smith, for example, it shows the number of e-mail messages John has sent you, broken down by the time of day they were sent. From this information, you can tell if John tends not to respond until a certain time of day, so you can anticipate when he might reply to future e-mail.

Your contact profiles show (with a photo, if you have one) in the top of the Xobni pane; the application also displays each contact's phone number, which it extracts (with what proved to be amazing accuracy, in my tests) from e-mail messages. Below each contact profile, you see a thread of conversations you've had and files you've exchanged. You can quickly find and view threads by specific topics; a slider control reveals more or fewer lines of the conversation.

Xobni also creates a kind of social network by keeping track of any additional recipients on e-mail messages sent to you. You can add your friends' contacts to your address book or quickly draft e-mail to them from within Xobni. If you have Skype's VoIP service on your PC, Xobni integrates with it nicely; a quick tap of a phone number within a Xobni profile generates a SkypeOut call. Two template options also appear in this pane: One creates a blank e-mail, and the other creates a meeting request. For the latter, Xobni saves you time by autofilling the request with open time slots pulled from your Outlook Calendar.

You can use Xobni for simple searches within Outlook, too, and it often returns results much more quickly than Outlook's search does. Xobni also goes far beyond speedy searching, providing logical social information and extended functionality that Outlook simply doesn't. Instead of treating mail conversations, contacts, and calendars as separate entities, Xobni weaves them together in a responsive, intuitive interface.

D-Link Wireless N Router DIR-615 vB2

2008-08-18T18:36:00.000-07:00

Though it has strong features and an attractive price, this entry-level draft-2 802.11n router was rather slow and failed to complete some of our long-distance tests.

The D-Link Wireless N Router DIR-615 is among the least-expensive draft-n routers on the market and has a great feature set. Un?fortunately it performed poorly on our speed and range tests.

At close range, it pumped out only 36 mbps on average, compared with 48 mbps for the competing Belkin N Wireless Router F5D8233-4 v3. And in our long-range tests (about 60 feet, with multiple walls and appliances in between), the D-Link's throughput dropped to just 3 mbps, versus 13 mbps for the Belkin. Even worse, 15 percent of our long-range tests failed completely due to disconnections, whereas the Belkin had no connection failures.

The model that turned in those results was actually the second DIR-615 router we tried. We were unable to test the first, a revision A1 model provided by D-Link, because it provided no way to turn off 40-MHz channel-bonding (making that unit ineligible for Wi-Fi Alliance certification); as a result, we bought a revision B2 (the latest model, which is Wi-Fi Alliance-certified) for our testing.

The DIR-615's performance may improve with firmware revisions, and the router has a very good feature set drawn from D-Link's higher-end models. You get WPA/WPA2-Enterprise and Radius server security support for corporate use, as well as a laundry list of features such as UPnP, WMM, WPS, DDNS, and DHCP reservation.

The unit's setup, though uneventful, wasn't as well thought out as that of other models we reviewed at the same time. The Web configuration interface is a confusing mix of wizards and manual tools; after initial setup, we prefer to skip the wizards. We also struggled to convert the router to access-point mode, though we finally located the necessary directions in the manual.

Linksys Wireless-N Gigabit Router WRT310N

2008-08-18T18:34:00.000-07:00

The Linksys Wireless-N Gigabit Router's strong feature set provides almost everything you'd want for a small business seeking to support legacy 802.11b/g hardware as well as faster 802.11n clients.

The Linksys Wireless-N Gigabit Router WRT310N outclassed the Netgear RangeMax Next Wireless-N Gigabit Router WNR3500 in close-range tests, averaging 61 mbps in the same room as the client, versus the Netgear's 48 mbps. It also performed well at long range (about 60 feet, through several walls and appliances), though it wasn't quite as fast as the Netgear.

In both short- and long-range performance, the Linksys single-band router did much better than such budget routers as the Belkin N Wireless Router F5D8233-4 v3 and the D-Link Wireless N Router DIR-615 vB2. Its superiority over the low-end routers is probably due to its having an extra antenna, which provides more spatial diversity. We experienced good performance throughout our 1400-square-foot house, obviating the need to run a second access point to cover dead spots. This is fortunate, since, unlike the Netgear, the Linksys doesn't support wireless range extension.

The WRT310N's design is sleek (the antennas are internal), and its performance proves that you don't need rabbit-ear antennas to achieve good range.

A desktop application called Linksys EasyLink Advisor steps beginners through every phase of setup from cable hookups to password creation, though you'll need to use the Web configuration tool for special settings like port forwarding and DHCP reservation.

The Web utility offers many deep routing features. For example, while most routers offer WMM/QoS (for prioritizing video or VoIP traffic), the Linksys WRT310N allows you to customize application priorities: You can set gaming or streaming media to trump all else, or you can ensure that BitTorrent doesn't mess up your VoIP phone calls.

Web filtering is another area where the Linksys excels. You can stop proxies, Java, ActiveX, and cookies at the router, which should ward off most Trojan horses and spyware.

We wish, though, that we could limit the filtering to certain computers: Lack of Java and cookie support will cripple the viewing of many Web sites. On the other hand, you can limit access to specific applications, URLs, and keywords on a PC-by-PC basis--a handy feature for parents.