27NO.8 JULY 2008 Seven Technologies That Will Touch Your Life ‘The future willbe afeast for the senses.. Ilustration bottom by David Plunkert 30 Business Dell Vostro1310 HP Officeje
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Trang 7VOL 27NO.8 JULY 2008
Seven Technologies
That Will Touch
Your Life
‘The future willbe afeast for the senses
5 8 We visited leading research labs to
investigate new technologies poised
toenhance ourability to touch, see,
hear, and even smell Come along fora
Jook at the material that may someday
revolutionize microprocessors—and
at what yourlaptop, phone, and digital
‘camera could look like in 2020
Cover: Type by Joe Zeff Design, ine letrations by Mondolithie Studios, Wristphone illustration
courtesy of Nokia Ilustration (bottom) by David Plunkert
30 Business Dell Vostro1310
HP Officejet H470 Mobile Printer Canon PixmaMX850
‘Toshiba Portégé R500 (SSD)
‘Windows Server 2008 Enterprise
37 Consumer Electronics Westinghouse TX-52F480S Canon PowerShot SD790 1S Olympus E-3 Garmin niivi 880 Mio Moov 200 Razer Mako Sony Walkman NWZ-S718E
44 Software Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 Betal Firefox3 Betas
Opera 9.5 Betal Adobe Photoshop Express (Beta) Aperture 21
Cloudmark Desktop 533 avast! antivirus 4,8 Home Edition
52 The Best Stuff JULY 2008 PE MAGAZINE 5
Trang 814 FEEDBACK
Letters from our readers
FRONT SIDE
19 News
‘The promise (and reality) of cloud
computing; the fourth circuit
element becomes a reality
21 Ata Glance
Disney brings a movie robot to
life; adding realism to avatars
‘Why boxed software still beats 84
apps in the cloud
55 Inside Track: John C Dvorak 87
Project Shoot and edit better video Ask Neil
Ask Loyd Business Security Linux Tech Tips
This Month on PCMag.com
The ifrogz
Find the perfect gadgets for all your sumimer aetivi-
ties, whether you're hanging out on the beach, embark-
ing on a road trip, or just grilling in the back yard We've
got the right tech accessories in our Top ‘Ten Summer
‘Tech Toys story at go.pemag.com/summertech and, as
always, in our complete Product Guides at go.pemag
.com/productguides
ne S54 0968 8807 etlaned ay 3467 acon yur 2H Davis Hai I 3 at 28 Seat New Yor NY TOE 7940 Pareto
ng ee Bost tens ngon Mi E28 thờ ead co mgt) Tecan st anon tr
© PEMAGAZINE JULY 2008
Editor-in-Chief Lance Ulanoff offers his unique
‘What's New Now newsletter
And check out our What's New Now video show at www.whatsnewnow.com
Get tips on the hottest soft- ware, utilities, and Web sites inour AppScout.com blog Join
us as we scour the Web looking for any tools that can boost your productivity—or quirky sites to kill some downtime
Want to save the world while you're geeking out?
‘Then GoodClean'Tech is the blog for you GCT has energy- saving tips, eco-friendly tech products, and news updates at www.goodcleantech.com
RECENT BUZZ
Most Popular Stories + Dvorak: Vista's Il Pillars
of Failure gopemag.com/vistafaiture +12 Tech Tools to Clear Your Clutter
gopemagcon/techelutter + Hands-On with Windows
XP SP3 gopcmagcom/ windowsxsp3 Most E-Mailed Stories
⁄2
* The 10 Coolest Futuristic Vehicles
gopomag.com/futurecars + Home Networking 101 gopomagcom/ networkingÏ0T +11 Critical Security Apps gopemag.com/ topsecuritytoois
Trang 9ALTERNATIVE THINKING ABOUT ASSURANCE
Nobody ever got fired for buying a dependable server
There is a certain amount of confidence that comes with the HP ProLiant DL385 G5 Server, featuring efficient Quad-Core AMD Opteron’ processors Not just because it is the best-selling server of its kind.” But with time-tested features like Pre-Failure Notification and Remote
‘Access Management, it unfailingly delivers on the promise of never letting LT down
Technology for better business outcomes
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2 If a Picture is Worth
2 a Thousand worde cee
Whot Would HIGH DEFINITION
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FIRST WORD LANCE ULANOFF
Are You Stealing Vista?
“An upgrade is an upgrade Apparently
some people areeasily confused.”
Great line, huh? It's not mine, though
‘This is actually the start ofa slightly over-
soft’s main liaison between Microsoft
small business set) and Microsoft at lange
trying to convince Microsoft customers
as good as installing the full version of it
usually targeted to customers who, pre-
sumably, already have purchased a license
for the full-blown product The confusio
Most upgrades are, inefiect, replicas of the
standard version of the software
Here's a direct quote from the post, so
you get the full flavor ofhis attitude:
“So if you see anyone stating, or writ-
ing, that buying an upgrade by itself (Win-
dows Vista Upgrade, for instance) without
to run the software, just realize that what
the person is actually stating is, Tclearly
have no clue what Tam talking about and
proves this, hoping people will think Thave
aclue, even though Iobviously don't.”
Ouch He even added agraphic to illus
trate his point Ididn’t know art could be
so sarcastic Not surprisingly, some of
Ligman’s own readers took exception to
his tone and began arguing about how he
should stop “whining” about licenses and
piracy and figure out how to “fix Vista’
Ligman has gone onto defend his note
and to insist that his intention was not to
be condescending to his readers or Micro-
soft’s customers He was targeting some
other, unnamed third party who is leading
them touse the upgrade “loophole.”
‘The obvious attraction here is the cost
savings Windows Vista upgrade packs
are roughly half the price of full-blown
‘This is obvious, right? So what's every- one so steamed about? Why did Ligman Here's another tidbit of Ligman’s venom:
“ try calling 888-NO-PIRACY and letting them know that you are running pirated software throughout your com- pany Explain to them that you feel it is
‘onea free pass, a Microsoft's spokesperson ofuse.” That's scary and quite clear Buthere’s abetter question: What's set- ting off Microsoft partners? What sort of feedback are their customers giving them activity? Could it be that customers think nomic times, shelling out $209 each for 50 licenses is daunting
"The responses to Ligman's blog posts make it clear that Mierosoft’s partners are dealing witha wave of rejection Its not all
Could it be that customers think Vista is
xpens
$209 each for 50 licenses
ive? In tough economic times, s
daunting
still too helling out
Ligman’s post is dripping with sarcasm
Clearly, something set him off, though he never points to one specific incident, blog atech publication that he believes is still giving out erroneous upgrade informa- number of tech sites or blogs Or he could pret “upgrade” as “new and improved.”
Barly last year a number of sites and blogs reported that Microsoft at first tried let it go Little information was available on loophole, though I'm guessing integrators have no trouble showing their custom- ers the way And the only comments from sounding as ifthe company was giving any-
about price, either They can't seem to get current customers to upgrade to Micro- have much faith in Vista, any way Here’s one of the blog comment
“think the real issue is why bother installing Vista at all? What does it give
me over XP? You stripped most of the fea- before RTM, so this isn't much more thana Windows 7, Hopefully Microsoft gets that posed to be out in the field representing Microsoft's products
TỦS often said that stress makes us do bad things: eat too much, lose sleep, and sometimes take out our anger and frustra- tiononthose closest to us
Do you think Mr Ligman needs ahug?
TALK TO THE CHIEF You can contact Lance at Lance_Ulanoff@ziffdavis.com For more of his columns, go to go.pemag com/ulanof
JULY 2008 PEMAGAZINE 9
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Cchigr executive oFFicer Jason Young PRESIDENT Patar Weectfald Cchigr nestauctunins oFFicer Mark D Moyer CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Neil Glass CcHige TechNoLosy oFFicen Robyn Peterson EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT Steve Sutton (General Manager, Interactive) SENIOR VICE PRESIDENTS Nel Glass, Robyn Peterson, Marci Yamaguchi (Game Group) vice presioents Norris Boothe (Product Marketing, Game Group), Simon Cox (Content, Game Group), Rey Leda Game Group), Shirin Malkani (General Counse)), Paul O'Reilly
nt Marketing Group), Beth Repeta (Human Resources), James Selden (Marketing and Sales Development, Consumer/Smali-Business Group), Lance Ulanoff (Content, PC Maga Zine Network), Monica Vila (Event Marketing Group)
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Trang 16Feed
Vista Could Learn from Amiga
Why does PC Magazine think Windows
is so great? I feel other operating systems
Bill Gates didn't have a monopoly on the
entire world just about fell over when I
read the system requirements for install-
needed a DVD drive to install the operat
ingsystem
Inmy opinion, the greatest operating
system ever created was AmigaOS The
sity 3.5-inch floppy disks! Boot times are
so compact It takes about 4 minutes to
hate that Windows has so many directo-
has anumber of file types that can go only
incertain places Just think how fast a
Core Duo PC would go if it ranan OS like
Amiga’s!
‘Two months ago, I purchased anew
hard drive for my Sony VAIO and installed
puter The software assigned 6GB of hard
drive space to the C: directory Inow get
of virtual memory But Istill have SOOMB
ofhard drive space! This would be plenty
for the AmigaOS, which takes up about
10MB—yes, megabytes—of hard drive
space You can compare this to MP3 play-
need to play and store those music and
data files Frederick Altland
‘Some Observations on PC Mag’s
Revamp
Lance Ulanoffhas done a number of good
things since becoming editor of PC Maga~
zine (not the least of which is rescuing it
from becoming Just-about-anything-that-
has-a-microprocessor-in-it Magazine)
sage, he has cleaned out the worst graph-
ies excesses, restored John Dvorak to his
the back-of-the-book sections Lalso agree
HOW To CONTACT US We welcome your com
‘ments and suggestions When sending e-mall to
Feedback, please state in the subject line of your
response, E-mail pemag@zifidavis.com
LAI leters become the property of PC Magazine
land are subject to editing, We regret that we ‘Cannot answer letters Individually
much as the negatives
with the decision to go monthly; besides the reality of the industry
‘That said, Inotice that despite reducing
‘output from 22 to 12 issues, the subscrip- tion has remained the same (an effective price increase of around 80 percent) I's still adecent deal, Iguess, but you are sav~
ing a bundle on production and mailing reflected in the sub
Otherwise, best of good fortune from here on The “green” issue was a good example of engaging current concerns, but you might include a harder look at what agiven product actually does in that the Boston Globe rana piece that made a useful distinction between what seems green and what is actually green For tle for designer water versus just getting your water from the tap Seems to me
IM Graetz
‘Thanks for writing We'reglad youlike the changes we've made to the magazine, and we're constantly looking for readers to
As for your comment on scrutinizing the electronics industry, we have our “anti- spin” glasses on at all times Our testing is put in place to ensure companies deliver the products and performance they prom- other tool we use to evaluate whether a product is truly green Among other fac- tors, it evaluates energy usage, materials used, and a company’s takeback and/or mitment to responsible stewardship Also,
‘opments, news, and innovations in green technology at our blog GoodCleanTech
com.—Erik Rhey, Senior Editor
Give Microsoft Its Due Asa frequent reader of PC Magazine, I've noticed that some of your columnists have abias against Microsoft John Dvorak isone
of them, and I’ve noticed this tendency in others Ithink this is really not fair; Micro Service Pack has beena big success, and doesn't work.” We're still reading that many issues continue to plague the OS Have none of you checked out SPI?T've used it to patch both my machines, which run Win- dows Vista Ultimate Edition and have been running it since July 2007
If you look at recent events, Microsoft has been holding up well under scrutiny Granted, not everything in SP1 is flawless But the overall picture has been very posi- ence, a MacBook Air was successfully hacked by a zero-day exploit in Safari had to spend (with help) to compromise only through tricks in VMware and Java, head-on Ireally wish you would find some est view of Microsoft Of course, there are times when Redmond deserves criticism You guys were dead-on about the EULA agreement needing a major overhaul But when it comes to Windows, Apple OS X, and Linux, youare biased Ithink you need
to look more closely and sing the positives
as muchas the negatives.—Jose Gomez Good Timing, Sascha Twas looking for a good T-Mobile phone issue and read Sascha Segan’s great review
of the Motorola RAZR2 V8 (First Looks, age 30) Iwas trying to find the right one, and the V8 ills the bill—Benjamin Winn
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Living in the Cloud
Everyone's talking about cloud computing But what is it, who’s competing for it,
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Cloud computing is set to take over the
‘world, or at least possibly replace Micro-
It’s a way to access your data and apps
from anywhere, via the Internet (or “the
cloud”), Yet everyone from Gartner Group
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cloud computing: It can be anything from
Does to running your entire company
ustration by GuickHoney
operations using a remote, third-party datacenter Some envision it as a way to pesky local client programs, and with ent machine)
“The most important single character- istic of a cloud is abstraction of the hard- noted cloud-computing expert and blog-
to the data “However you define it, [think cloud technology will have a footprint in every business that does IT within the next five years.”
‘The particular type of cloud comput- ing that the business world could take cluster farms and superfast network
JULY 2008 PE MAGAZINE 19
Trang 22bandwidth It also requires that compa-
third party A few small companies, among
them Zoho.com (which offers business
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Security is one critical issue that both
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their datato an outside entity, whichis a big
FRONTSIDE
Security is one critical i providers must addre
issue that cloud-computing because end users will be entrusting their data to an outside entity
eral manager at Google, says that the com- pany is working to allay the fears that make trust difficult to achieve
joogle is investing enormous amounts
of capital and sweat equity to ensure that
we can protect your data better than you can do yourself,” he says “Cloud comput- ing will be additive Usage patterns will cloud for most of the things they turn to their PCs for today”
Yet others aren't as optimistic about cloud computing, Forrester Research quite ready for prime time He says that the
framework is in an early phase of develop- than a reliable and trusted computing paradigm
Ironically, even though Google is bat- Uing to dominate the cloud, some of its
a tremendous amount of data locally to vacy, network bandwidth, and political hurdles yet to address, and it looks as if cloud computing will have to dropdown to earth abit more before it can enjoy wide- spread adoption by both consumers and businesses.—John Brandon
Computing’s Fourth Dimension
HP researchers find the missing link of processor technology
Ithas taken 40 years, but research-
mystery in processor technology
HP Labs found a fourth fundamen-
existed only in theory This circuit
bookmark, remembering your set-
tings and exact place even when you
power off
The technology breakthrough
is based on a concept developed in
at the University of California at
Berkeley Chua reasoned that along
with the three existing circuit ele-
ments—resistor, capacitor, and
type called a “memory resisto:
Chua's theory was published in an
50 nm wide, or about 150 atoms in total with,
has acquired—an exciting prospect, hesays
“To find something new and yet
so fundamental in the mature field ofelectrical engineering is a big sur- prise, and one that has significant implications for the future of com- statement released by HP Currently, computers use DRAM (dynamic random access memory) boot up A processor with memris- tor technology could have a hand
in jump-starting the trend of “cloud computing” (see “Living in computerscience engineers
Until now HP Labs’ Information and Quantum Systems Lab
team published an article in the journal Nature that presented
a mathematical model and physical example of its version of a
memory resistor, which the team dubbed a“memristor.” Accord-
will be able to retain a complete history of the informatio
20 PEMAGAZINE JULY 2008
the Cloud,” page 19) To make cloud computing a reality requires storage capacity to retain, deliver, and protect user data A mem- perform cloud-computing functions because they would require puting session Erik Rhey
image Courtesy of HP Labs
Trang 23Q&
OHN SOSOKO
Making the Pleo Dinosaur
John Sosoko, CTO of Ugobe, talks about the creation and
future of the high-tech reptile
How did you get involved
th creating the Pleo robot
dinosaur?
My friend and Ugobe
cofounder, Caleb Chung, was
tive motion very quickly and
exploring human-machine
become more complicated,
and I was helping him more and more I
‘upall my time anyway! This job is sort of
academiccrack!
@: What wasit ike in the early days devel-
oping the robot?
A: It’satypical start-up thing—working
facture, yet creating enough of astory to
in The Pleo had tobe autonomous and be
able to do all these wonderful things, but
say “Where is the remote control?” We
alittle pet that could wander around on
itsown
@: How have people who have purchased
the Pleocustomized it sofar?
‘One thing that is interesting to me is how
things in the physical world
‘They will set up Pleo ina mar- riage ceremony using tools
to script things out, Another thing is Pleo as a watchdog, really fun seeing people write for people coming in the door
Have they done anything thatisreally unusual with Pleo?
A; One area we're seeing people develop alittle application where one Pleo would ute and through IR sends it off to another
‘would all how! in unison Irs the simplest little app, but they are organizing like the raptors in Jurassic Park
@: What are some of the new projects you areworkingon?
‘A: We are working to add capabilities to they need to develop new programs We ing what we have learned and making the
of fulfilling the dream we have of these companion.—John Brandon
Disney's New Robot
For a while, people have been speculat- ing about when and how robots would, answer may be “as toys.” Disney Con- sumer Products is rolling out a new line
of robotic toys in partnership with Pixar Animation Studios, Thinkway Toys, and WowWee The first to appear is WALLE, star of Disney-Pixar's upcoming movie of lots of movement possibilities; a remote ments and behaviors; and sensors that'll allow him to respond to his environment
in numerous ways, The Ultimate WALL-E robot ($189.99 list) will hit store shelves this summer.—Carol Mangis
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Trang 24Learn more about Norton’s
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Here you will be able to:
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Your iPod Tour Guide
Podcasts and videocasts can ma:
fun on your next vacation
Perusing the travel section at your local bookstore can be daunting Guide books are hit or miss, with some being out-of- date, and others failing to address your online resources can save you time and are an easy way to learn about your des- you're there, And listening to a podcast walking around Paris with your nose ina Frommer's
You can find a good combination of videos from professional travel firms (like istic (www.travelistic.com) Travelistic has
a simple You'Tube-like interface with over 5,800 user videos from around the world
.turnhere.com) has an easily searchable city index
variety of podcasts and videocasts that you can organize by interest and des- Travel Stories section (www.lonelyplanet intrepid traveler, there’s the indie Travel
FUTURE WATCH
Your Game Face
Video-game characters used to be cartoons with pixelated bodies who were devoid of personality Today's high-tech games, however, are attempting to tap into a player's emotional responses using his avatar Advanced motion-capture processes and better, faster graphics engines—though obviously essential to creating a realistic-looking face—cannot
by themselves create a lifelike avatar
Enter Lionhead Studios, maker of the games Black & White and Fable
Lionhead’s team is using motion-cap- ture techniaues on live actors, similar to
of placing sensors only on the actors’
bodies, the team is also applying them
to actors’ faces to map their expressions onto game characters; thus, they can express not just fear, joy, and anger, out
ximize your knowledge and
Podcast (www.indietravelpodcast.com), which features thetravelsofaNew Zealand couple and includes subjects like Accom- modations, Reviews, and Equipment Amateur Traveler (amateurtraveler sodes featuring travel tories, news, tips, and interviews
Unseasoned travelers will enjoy the comprehensive travel advice of Gary Bembridge on his Tips for Trav- -blogspot.com) And before loading the Road Trip USA (www.roadtripusa.com) Fight podcasts are built around themes and take the listener across the country on virtual road trips
Besides a sturdy backpack, a beret, and your Eurail Pass, don’t go to Europe without first visiting Rick Steves’ ricksteves.com), which features podcasts
as well as video clips and Rick's Pub- lic Radio show, Travel with Rick Steves
—Brittany Petersen
also more subtle emotions—like smug- ness, unease, and wistfulness The team has also discovered other qualities that appeal to human players, such as slight facial asymmetries and having an avatar whose “direct gaze" is slightly off-center, instead of a dead-on stare Armed with these techniques, Lionhead Studios is humans—empathy.—Frank Washburn
Trang 25A GRIZZLY BEAR CAN
Trang 26Is your old notebook nothing more than an obstacle?
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Trang 27
It didn't take long for PC makers to realize the gold
Eee PC 4G, The HP 2133 Mini-Note PC has come
notebook comes in a variety of configurations and
toschoolchildren,
With its anodized aluminum exterior and glossy
89-inch screen, the Mini-Note looks like a much
is surprisingly comfortable to use Alas, the design’s
‘The left and right clicks are separated, making it
nearly impossible to navigate with one hand
Features are fairly generous for a system of
this size Though the Mini-Note has only two USB
a built-in 1.3-megapixel webcam A Wi-Fi on/off
802.11a/b/g There’s no optical drive, but given the
‘The system did runthe Windows Media Encoder test, but its scores lagged those of similar machines with Intel processors It finished the Adobe Photo- shop CS3 test inanunflattering 4 minutes 6 seconds
‘Though the Mini-Note is not quite the ASUS Eee PCkiller it's certainlya force to be reckoned with the ultra-mobile space —Cisco Cheng
CONS Runs uncomfortably warm with the 7200-rpm hard drive, Mouse but- tons are awkwardly positioned
44 Software
52 The Best Stuff
2005 PCMAGAZINE 25
Trang 28Lenovo IdeaPad Y510
$899 list,
e00
PROS Good-looking,
textured design Frameless
widescreen is sleek Key
board isn't like a ThinkPad's,
but its nice Five speakers
and Dolby surround sound,
Budget price
CONS Available through
online ratailars and Office
A Good Idea for Consumers
How does an icon of sensible business comput-
ing transition to the world of consumer laptops?
an intriguing design, amazing sound quality, and
cool bundled software With the Y510, Lenovo gives
its IdeaPad line an auspicious debut
“The Y5I0’s exterior is designed to look like fabric, but it’s actually atextured plastic layer over aplas-
tic frame The real treat, however, is the frameless
154-inch widescreen within The glossy coating over
the screen extends to the edge of the laptop, creat-
though it doesn't measure up to the ThinkPad’, and
But Lenovo has made other tweaks to liven up the
‘¥510, including touch-sensitive multimedia keys
fe, configurations are limited to what you can find more powerful performance parts, the system will work just fine for the average user Its also envi- ronmentally friendly, meeting Energy Star 4.0 and idle mod
‘Average users who aren't interested in pushing performance to the brink will love the look and fea- tures of the Y510.—Cisco Cheng
Trang 29isloaded with an outstanding 8000:4
contrast ratio, coupled with a fast 2ms (Go G) response time But looks
count too, so we wrapped all that technology up in an immaculate glossy finish and a minimalist bezel design to complement any home or
‘SyncMaster 53-Series
office, It'sall the style that substance could ever ask for And vice-versa For more information from the #1 selling monitor brand in the world; call 1-800-SAMSUNG or visit www.samsung.com/monitor
«a
Trang 30$1,895 direct,
° T2YEE PROS Compact
£813 blown Dx10 graphics Can play Crysis Offers even more performance for less, CONS Still alittle heavy at
20 pounds No SLI support, For more:
gapemagconvtrea!
Fragadelic Desktop Gaming Bargain
Screaming fast yet affordable gaming machines
are almost unheard of—you usually pay through
the nose for performance The Falcon Northwest
grand, yet it can kick the butts of some much pric-
ier systems It has the distinction of being the first
forplaying Crysis at 1,280-by-1,024 resolution
‘To keep its price within reason, the FragBox
8500 loads a Wolfdale-based Intel Core 2 Duro E8500
8800 GTS graphics card clocked at 670 MHz, up
generation components, and neither choice seems
arespectable showing against its increasingly quad
core and dual-card competition Its performance
syvswarx | MULTIMEDIA Y GAMING ces
2007 WWNDOMS - PHOOSHOP grass NORDIN
PREVIEW: MÙA SỜ WEB su C0MET
OVERALL eober —Kenonser °2 Tư le
a4 ost 024 n 6
“rim ansegraiatopestrng as satod
was helped by 4GB of RAM and a750GB, 7,200-rpm SATA hard drive And although you'd buy it for its gaming, it can zip through multimedia tasks as well Our DX10-based Crysis and World in Conflict, gaming tests are the reefs on which many a promis other machine I've tested, the FragBox couldn't handle Crysis at 1,920-by-1,200 resolution—flicker- ing alongat a mere 5 frames persecond (fps)—but it ofasmoothly playable 71 fps It nearly matched that rate on World in Conflict, scoring 66 fps at the same
“I2-by-10” resolution
Falcon hand-builds its rigs, and the FragBox chas- sis design has remained nearly unchanged through out the line’s history The FragBox 8500 is compact, abuilt-inhandle makes it easier to carry
‘The Falcon Northwest FragBox 8500 is one of those rare bargains that are worth their salt in the Choice.—Joel Santo Domingo
‘Specs: 3.16-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E8500; 4GB 800-MH= DDR2 SDRAM; 70GB, 7,200-rpm SATA hard drive;
‘SI2MB EVGA nVidia GeForce 8800 GTS graphies card: Windows Vista Home Premium
Trang 32
PROS Affordable
a smalbiz start-up, Lightweight
New industria! design, Inexpen-
Diserete graphics option, Multiple
battery options,
option
CONS Single sper
tinny, Lacks options for a cellular modem
For more: go,pcmag.com/deltIS10
AChic PC for Small Biz
Dell’s Vostro line, launched in 2007, includes very
capable yet bland and rather bulky laptops tailored
Dell adds design sense and improved portability
adecent feature set, and a “no trialware” option
Design-wise, the 1310 balances business and consumer sensibilities Its glossy black lid sparkles
a ThinkPad’s, it lacks the flashy colors of the latest
1,280-by-800 or 1440-by-900 resolution and works
well for photo viewing The 1310 is travel friendly at
4.8 pounds; its standard (six-cell) battery tested at
battery The one big feature Dell omitted was provi-
sion foran internal cellular modem
MUTMEONTESTS Moone SYS ee ys = BE ==
a canneh aus | Geta, | Beer | gunees | Sey,
The 1310's keyboard, touchpad, and mouse but- tonsall worked well The LED-backlit mediabuttons slot-loaded DVD drive The single, tinny-sounding speaker will not
‘The Vostro 1310 spruces up Dell's small-biz laptop line with ahip and highly portable machine the business and consumer arenas, but at heart the
1310 is still a business laptop—Cisco Cheng
‘Spees:2.0-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7250;2GB DDR2
‘SDRAM; 160GB, 5,400-rpm hard drive; 128MB nVidia GeForce 840M GS graphics; 133-inch, 1280-by-800 dis play; 48-pound system weight, S6-pound travel weight; Windows Vista Business,
Trang 34HP OFFICEJET H470 MOBILE PRINTER
This Printer Is
Going Places
When you need to print out presentations, contracts,
the local copy shop can waste precious time—par-
quality, good paper capacity and cartridge yield, and Meus TT
adapter) and measures 3.3 by 13-4 by 6.5 inches
yields of 330 pages for its color cartridge and 440
pages for black are better than those of rivals like
the Canon Pixma iP90 Its speed on our business
applications suite (19 minutes 2 seconds), though
no better than so-so for an ink jet, was much faster
‘The H470 is designed toprint overa USB connec tion, from memory cards, and from PictBridge cam- eras; it offers Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and battery options
as well Print quality isa tad subpar for an ink jet, but isgood enough unless you need really small fonts
If you're looking for a mobile printer, the HP Officejet 1470 definitely belongs on your short list
than the iP90’s
CONS Unusual network
make plain paper curl
CANON PIXMA MX85O
An All-in-One for All
Canon has taken more Editors’ Choice awards for
Pixma MX850, which the company considers its
cap The MX850 would be good as apersonal AIO in
orsmall office In addition, the caliber of its photo
printing makes it agood choice fora home printer
oradual home/home-office AIO
ge automatic document feeder (ADF), which also luplexes”—that is, prints two-sided copy It comes with two 150-sheet paper trays
Network setup is distinctly unusual Most net- work installation programs can find the printer on the network and set everything up automatically With the MX850, you have to connect the printer toaPC by both USB cable and network cable Only USB cable and use the AIO over the network
‘At 12 minutes 34 seconds on our business appli- cations suite, the MX850 effectively tied for first MP6I0 took 12:8) Photo print speed (0:54 for 4-by-
65, 1:45 for 8-by-10s) was among the fastest yet for an inkjet AIO Although graphics tended to make paper curl, text quality was better than with most ink jets, and features like these, what's not to like?—MDS
Trang 35
7
ee oan ren This self-described hacker groupiegot her lulz Seer liale identities and
shopping online Then like a child actor ina
#ailed sitcom - it all came crashing down
Threats Easy on You
Trang 36Toshiba Portégé R500 (SSD)
$2,699 direct,
@00
PROS 17-pound laptop Full-size
keyboard, Options for a builtin
‘optical drive and extended
batteries, GreenTech approved
CONS Must handle with care
Screen flexes too much and
needs brightening 3G wireless
needs to come to the United
States S50 drives are expensive,
and ROHS cer~
tifications, low power
consumption, and the
use of a solid state drive,
An Astoundingly Light Laptop
‘While Apple’s MacBook Airhas set the bar for lap-
top thinness, Toshiba has broken the lightness bar-
yet packs a12-inch screen and a full-size keyboard
‘The hollow magnesium frame (1.2 by 8.5 by 0.8
inches) and superthin screen (prone to flexing) feel
delicate.’To slim the R500 down from last year’s 2
pound version, Toshiba ditched the DVD burner,
swapped the 2.5-inch hard drive for an SSD (solid-
witha three-cell unit Even so, the R500 scored ov
3 hours on MobileMark 2007 battery tests The R500
(SSD) lacks a webcam and a3G modem, however
‘MULTIMEDIA TESTS Y SYSMARK
MosttewarK 2007 WWMIOWS MEDIA pHOTeSHORESD
207A REVIEW: eon XNStT
‘The Lenovo ThinkPad X300 beat the R500 (SSD)'s 25percent
Green cred includes Energy Star 4.0, EPEAT Gold and RoHS certification, plus our GreenTech the Lenovo X300, the Air, and the Fujitsu P8010 Itconsumed 21 watts at full load,
‘The Portégé RS00 (SSD) weighs barely half as muuch as the MacBook Air or the Lenovo X00 Its extreme portability is a design coup for’Toshiba, and
it should keep road warriors happy, even in close quarters.—Cisco Cheng
Spees:1.2-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U7600; 1GB DDR2
‘SDRAM; 64GB SSD; 224MB Intel Graphics Media Accel 12,L inch, ,024-by-800 widescreen; 1.7 pound system weight, 24-pound travel weight; 3-Wh, 29-Ah lithium ion battery; Windows XP Professional
Trang 37A Faster, Safer Network OS
From the CPU layer on up, the latest release of
Microsoft’s server OS improves on its predecessor
strengthens the OS's defenses, Microsoft Windows
boosting overall performance and letting clients see
servers more easily Getting comfortable with the
ease management Itried the 64-bit Enterprise ver-
soft says it will produce no further 32-bit releases
In Server 2008, Active Directory Domain Ser-
vices, or ADDS (formerly Active Directory), has
Read Only Domain Controllers (RODC), making
Iwish, though, that remote Exchange servers could
object data ina multidomain forest Since they can't,
a remote site still requires the site’s Exchange server
toaccess the home DC for catalog information
Akey new feature, Server Core, lets you run many
‘Windows Server 2008 functions on less powerful
line-only interface, but GUI addicts can still access
and manage the machine from a box running the full
Server Manager or System Center GUIs Anupgrade
‘Terminal Services Gateway directly, then choose the server or remote desktop to access—no VPN hassles, no firewall worries And with Remote appli-
‘TS server, admins can drop an application icon on desktops, giving users what seems like local access
Still, there's room for improvement Server Man- ager is a fact of life for IT staffers and consultants three items: intelligence, wizards for configuring advanced features, and diagnostic tools That's a relatively small complaint, though Hyper-V, when betas I've tried, 'm concerned that it may come up alittle short on features and cross-platformcompat- ibility relative to VMware's ESX Server
Overall, however, Windows Server 2008 is a marked improvement over Windows Server 2003
centric networks, but Microsoft’s 64-bit push makes the upgrade decision harder for shops dependent on 32-bit server software Additionally, Small Business Server 2008 and Essentials Business Server 2008, won't be available until much later this year Many small and midsize businesses may want to wait
to decide about a server OS upgrade until these products are revealed more fully.—Oliver Rist
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Enterprise Ecition, 33,999 direct, Standard, $999, Datacentar, Itanium ecitions, $2,999 per CPU, Web server, $469, seeoo
PROS Faster parfor- mance Strioped-down Server Core role for headless operation, Improved Terminal Ser- vices Read-Only Domain Controllers for better remote site security CONS No Hyper-V until after summer 08 Pricey For more: gopcmagcom/ Winserver08
JULY 2008 PE MAGAZINE 35
Trang 38The Sleek Audio SA6 is the first fully customizable earphone that allows the
bass and treble to be adjusted independently We call this innovative feature the
VQ System™ and it’s designed to find your personal audio fingerprint
'We all hear differently and have unique tastes in music; finding your personal
settings will help you to enjoy your audio experience
© VO System” Interchangeable bass and treble ports for fine tuning
N1 cố
=_ Removable cable that also sivivels 360 degrees Cable can be worn up and over
the ear or hanging down as a traditional earphone
Trang 39WESTINGHOUSE TX-52F480S A Huge HDTV Value
Westinghouse has a reputation for makingaffordable
1080p LCD TY, the $2,000 52-inch TX-52F480S, is
aprime example Equipped with agenerous selec-
tion of 1080p-compatible video inputs, it has picture
controls that help its more than two million pixels,
deliver crisp and detailed images Held back by only
afew relatively minor usability quirks, this massive
1080p HDTV
Featuring anative 1080p60 (60-Hz) display, the
‘TV has a handy picture-scaling option that elimi-
displayed Scaling can be achieved over component
definition (SD) images were overscanned by an
acceptable 6 percent
Selecting the movie preset produced picture
quality closest to the spec used in cinema and tele~
tation was tinged with abit of green that was most
prominent in the mid-to-low levels The calibration
and Iwas able to tame the TV's greens
‘The adjustable backlight (providing ten levels
of intensity) is useful for quickly and easily opti
mizing the picture’s overall brightness according
In this scenario, dark video black levels coupled with a correctly calibrated picture produced an average contrast ratio of 1,186: a new record for LCDs viewed ina dark room
Unfortunately, jagged-edge artifacts appeared
on SD video tests Performance with fast-moving imagery was just average For instance, Inoticed that Indy’s hat left asubtle trail across the screen in the
‘Well of Souls” scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark
Despite some stumbles on the HD HQV Benchmark
‘As with the SD version, the HD benchmark test hịgh- Still, the TV properly deinterlaced 1080i video and film-sourced material into asolid 1080p image
With its wide selection of HD-compatible video ports and useful picture controls, the Westing- house TX-52F 4805 is an admirable set, especially And this TV's ability to deliver an exceptionally
—Robert Heron
Westinghouse TX-52F480S
$2,000 street
O ITPTy PROS Inexpen- Wve for a 52-inch 1080p set No
SE with HD sources High contrast ratio CONS Default picture settings yield slightly
‘green images No pic- turerin-picture (PIP),
ov FireWire
RF S-video VGA CableCARD use Ethernet JULY 2008 PE MAGAZINE
Trang 40Body only, $1700 street;
with Zuiko Digital ED
‘The Greatest Elph of All
‘This high-end pocket shooter takes its place among
tal Elphs The 10-megapixel SD790 IS incorporates
wheel, and a wealth of features—and it also pumps
out outstanding images,
Sporting the simple, silvery, box-like design that
we love on other Elphs, the $D790 IS’s brushed
also abig3-inch LCD and a new, improved control
you to zip through menus quickly
One very minor gripe: I would have liked a wider-
angle lens: The $D790's lens has a 6,2mm-to-186mm
range (35mm film equivalent: 35mm to 10Smm) with
maximum stops of /2.8 to
The $D790 IS features motion-detection tech- nology; it automatically detects motion and adjusts
feature worked well on my tests Canon has also
model Rather than reading the background or the
entire scene, the camera focuses on the subject's
Articulating LCD OLYMPUS E-3
Oversize D-SLR
Doesn't Disappoint
‘The 10.1-megapixel Olympus E-3 is one big, bad
with girth comes stellar image quality and ahearty
best the Editors’ Choice-winning Nikon D300, it’s
aworthy competitor
New contvel wheel physically turns
face and thus produces higher-quality images, avoiding a washed-out look
Although flash shots were abit dark, overall the SD790 IS produced superb images Daylight shots were outstanding, with near-perfect contrast and vivid color, and evenat an ISO as highas 800, images showed very little noise
‘At about $350, the SD790 IS is priced on the high side for a pocket point-and-shooter, but consider- ing its features and top-notch image quality, it’s well worth the money—David Gussman
For such a large camera (3.3 pounds with lens), the 2.5-inch LCD seems quite small The display is
as well as swung out from the body of the camera, whichis useful when shooting in live mode, Olympus offers a feature in the E-3 that Nikon and Canon don’t: in-camera mechanical image stabilization, Both IS modes—continuous and pan- ning—worked well for me Panning is used to follow and focus on an object or person in motion, while intentionally creating ablurred background Contin- uous, of course, isalways on, compensating forshaky hands when you are shooting without a tripod
‘The E-3 shot outstanding images and was par- ticularly impressive in low-light environments, with simulated daylight shots were exceptional, with accurate color and nice consistency Outdoors, color was again accurate and vivid
‘The high-end camera market has been domi- nated by Canon and Nikon for a long time, but space as well This camerais a terrific alternative to pricier D-SLRs.—DG