Table of contents for Jul-14 in PCWorld

IN LATE MAY, Microsoft announced the Surface Pro 3. Representing more than a mere spec boost over the Surface Pro 2, this tablet is a new entry in the lineup, and one designed to “replace your laptop.” To that end, the Surface Pro 3 blends tablet sleekness with Core i7 power. At the launch event, Surface head Panos Panay called the tablet, which the company designed in conjunction with Intel, “the thinnest Core product ever created.” The Surface Pro 3 measures a mere 0.35 inch thick without a keyboard cover, a hair thicker than the 0.29-inch iPad Air and far thinner than the MacBook Air, which measures 0.68 inch at its thickest point. This device isn’t fanless: The new Haswell Core processors are much more energy efficient than their predecessors,…

Almost a PC In moving from the 10.6-inch display of the Surface Pro 2 to the 12-inch screen of the Surface Pro 3, Microsoft’s tablet line is becoming more PC-like than ever. Really, the only things differentiating the Surface Pro 3 from a traditional laptop are the strength of the hinge and the weight distribution. Otherwise, the Surface more closely resembles a notebook with each iteration. Bigger, brighter By itself, the tablet looks ungainly to use. But the larger screen size and excellent new hinge options make this a viable device to kick back with and watch a movie on. You will see letterboxing with the new 4:3 screen ratio, but it isn’t too bad. At 0.35 inch thick, the new Surface reminds me a lot of the Samsung Galaxy…

OPENSSL IS GETTING funding to hire two full-time developers and to conduct a security audit in an attempt to prevent another devastating bug like Heartbleed (go.pcworld.com/heartbleed). The money is coming from the Core Infrastructure Initiative (CII), a group of tech companies that joined forces in April in response to Heartbleed. At the time, CII said that each company would contribute at least $100,000 per year to crucial open-source projects over at least a three-year span, but it didn’t say how it would distribute the funds. The group announced that OpenSSL will receive enough money to hire two full-time developers. The Open Crypto Audit Project will receive funds for a security audit of OpenSSL. Many sites and apps rely on OpenSSL to keep communications secure over the Internet. Variety of open-source…

WITH AVADIRECT’ Quiet Gaming PC (go.pcworld.com/avaquietgaming), nobody has to put up with the racket that far too many gaming PCs impose on everyone nearby. This very capable tower is affordably priced (at $2542) and nearly silent. A solid build Besides outgaming systems costing thousands of dollars more, the Quiet Gaming PC has plenty of oomph for home-office use. The configuration includes an unlocked Intel Core i7-4770K processor, 16GB of DDR3/1600 memory, a Gigabyte GV-N780OC-3D video card containing an Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 GPU and 3GB of GDDR5 memory, a solid-state boot drive (a pair of 120GB Kingston HyperX SSDs operating in RAID 0), and a 2TB hard-disk drive (a Western Digital Caviar Black). The system pads along so stealthily that only the clicking and clacking of the mouse and keyboard…

Whether you need to recover files from a failing computer, diagnose hardware problems, scan for viruses from outside Windows, or reset a forgotten Windows password, Ubuntu can help. You can’t boot a full Windows system from a USB stick to troubleshoot your PC—unless you have an Enterprise version of Windows and Windows To Go (go.pcworld.com/windowstogo)— but you can use Ubuntu for troubleshooting. We’ll be digging into some Linux terminal commands. Don’t worry— they won’t bite. Create Ubuntu Live media You’ll need a Linux live USB drive, CD, or DVD. You can use any distribution, but we’re focusing on Ubuntu. Download Ubuntu Desktop (go.pcworld.com/ubuntu). Then download the Universal USB Installer tool (go.pcworld.com/universalusb) and select your USB drive. The ISO file and tool will create a bootable USB drive. You can also…

WITH SO MANY advertisers, social networks, and other companies interested in your data, it’s pretty hard to maintain any privacy online these days. But some useful tools can help you shake those trackers off your tail. These three extensions encrypt your connections to websites, prevent companies from tracking you, and erase data cached in your browser. HTTPS Everywhere (Chrome, Firefox, Opera) Many popular sites and services—including Facebook, Google, and Twitter—automatically encrypt browsing sessions with HTTPS (indicated by a lock icon next to the URL). But a lot of sites that support HTTPS don’t enable it by default. That’s where HTTPS Everywhere comes in (go.pcworld.com/httpseverywhere). Created by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a digital advocacy group, HTTPS Everywhere forces your browser to use HTTPS encryption if the website makes it…

WHEN MICROSOFT’S PANOS PANAY announced on May 20 that customers would be able to preorder the Surface Pro 3 the next day, the implication was that the tablets would be shipping soon. But that isn’t the case for all configurations of the newest Surface. Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 preorder page (go.pcworld.com/surface3order) reveals five configurations, from a $799 model with a Core i3 processor and 4GB of RAM to a $1949 version with a Core i7 processor and 8GB of RAM. As of this writing, the two Core i5 models will ship by the time you read this, on June 20, while the Core i3 version of the tablet and both Core i7 models will ship on August 31. Our first impressions of the Surface Pro 3 are positive (for more,…

POOR LENOVO: HP introduced a Yoga copycat in February with the Pavilion x360, and now Toshiba is co-opting Lenovo’s contortionist-laptop design. The Satellite Radius is a 15.6-inch convertible with a 360-degree hinge that you can use in five modes: laptop, tablet, presentation, audience, and tabletop. In a late-May briefing, Carrie Cowan, senior product marketing manager for Toshiba, pointed out that Lenovo doesn’t offer a Yoga model with a display this large. “We’re targeting the mobile worker who needs to make presentations on the road,” said Cowan. “This is a high-end laptop that’s convertible.” The Satellite Radius will be available with either an Intel Core i5 processor and a 750GB hard drive for $926, or a Core i7 CPU and a 1TB drive for $1049. Both models will have 8GB of…

LET’S BE CLEAR: There is no such thing as an invulnerable application. Some have more critical vulnerabilities than others, as we discovered recently with the Heartbleed bug (go.pcworld.com/heartbug). A dedicated hacker can exploit any application. According to the HP 2013 Cyber Risk Report (go.pcworld.com/hp2013report), though, the application itself is not to blame for most vulnerabilities—users are, whether they’re IT admins or end-users. After compiling data from 2200 applications scanned by HP Fortify on Demand, HP reports that 80 percent of the vulnerabilities discovered were not the fault of the application code itself. “Many vulnerabilities were related to server misconfiguration, improper file settings, sample content, outdated software versions, and other items related to insecure deployment,” the report states. HP also used Fortify on Demand to examine 180 iOS and Android apps,…

IF YOU NEED Internet access while you’re away from home or the office, carry a travel router in your bag. Use a travel router to connect to a Wi-Fi hotspot or to a facility’s broadband service, and it will create a private, secure, wireless network with a robust firewall. You’ll be able to use that service with your laptop, smartphone, or tablet, and you’ll be able to share it with your travel companions but pay just one fee. Many such routers have USB ports that support portable hard drives, so you can share files or stream media over your network, too. I tested six routers in my 2800-square-foot, single-story home, with the client in my bedroom (9 feet from the router, in the same room), kitchen (20 feet, separated by…

I’M NOT SOLD ON two-in-one hybrids. A laptop that becomes a tablet when detached from its keyboard? Who needs that? But if you’re smitten by the idea, the Toshiba Portege Z10t (go.pcworld.com/toshibaz10t) is the best execution of it that I’ve seen. It’s not too big, it’s not too heavy, and it packs some serious computational horsepower. Impressive specs The test unit Toshiba sent us for review (the top-shelf Portege Z10t-A2111) carries a dual-core Intel Core i7-4610Y processor (with vPro support), 8GB of DDR3/1600 memory, and a 256GB solid-state drive. It came with Windows 8.1 Pro, which adds management features that IT departments will appreciate. The system weighs a bit more than three pounds, with two-thirds of its mass residing in its somewhat thick display. Most of the Z10t’s ports--one USB…

Q: IS IT SAFE to use free software? What do the software authors get out of it?—Jeanne Light A: It’s good to be skeptical—and careful. Free products often come with strings attached. But if you pay attention and listen for the right recommendations, you can get some excellent software for free. There are some perfectly good reasons why an individual programmer, a programming collective, or even a for-profit company would let you use the fruit of its labor without getting paid. The free version of a program is often a marketing tool for the paid version. The company gives away a stripped-down version of its product, which can build word of mouth that helps sell the paid “Pro” version. Some people actually do create free software for altruistic reasons.…

MICROSOFT’S “TABLET THAT CAN REPLACE YOUR LAPTOP” looks mighty impressive on paper, from the machine’s pixel-packed 12-inch screen to its almost impossibly slim 0.35-inch chassis to its full-blown Intel Core processor. And that’s only on the, er, surface: The thoughtful design tweaks that Microsoft is integrating into the Surface Pro 3 seem sure to make the new slate far more comfortable to use than its smaller predecessors were. Multiple configurations During the launch announcement, Surface head Panos Panay touted the Surface Pro 3’s Core i7 processor, but Microsoft is actually offering a wide, almost PC-like range of Surface Pro 3 configurations. Whereas the Surface Pro 2’s smaller dimensions limited that device’s built-in storage options, the Surface Pro 3 will be available in a multitude of flavors. Following is a list…

LAPTOPS THAT FLIP around to become tablets. Thinner, lighter everything. To see the next big (or small) things in PCs, you have to go to the manufacturing source: Asia. Every summer in Taipei, Taiwan, the Computex trade show draws major PC vendors and legions of component makers. Their goods are hardly as priceless as the Imperial Chinese treasures at the National Palace Museum less than 5 miles away, but this is the stuff tech is made of, and Computex always provides an enticing peek at the near future. Here are some highlights. Dell unveils 360-degree laptops and thin all-in-ones Dell’s upcoming two-in-one Inspiron laptops have 360-degree hinges, just as Lenovo’s Yoga notebooks do. The entry-level Inspiron 11 3000 series, due out by the time you read this, starts at $450…

SONY IS GETTING out of the PC business soon, but there’s still time for one last product glitch. If you are one of the 500 or so people in the U.S. using the Sony Vaio Fit 11A, you’ll want to stop using that PC immediately. The Japan-based electronics maker’s announcement said the Vaio convertible laptop was at risk of overheating and catching fire due to a faulty battery: Please immediately discontinue use, shut down and unplug the PC. We are currently identifying affected PCs by serial numbers and developing a program to repair or replace the affected PCs at no charge, or to refund the purchase price for the affected PCs. The Fit 11A is one of Sony’s newest laptops—it went on sale just last February. Sony sold around 26,000…

TODAY, MOST OFF-THE-SHELF desktop rigs–and nearly all laptop PCs–rely entirely on the CPU for video and graphics processing. And yet the market for discrete graphics continues to thrive. If you aren’t interested in playing AAA PC games, is a video card a worthwhile upgrade? Let’s compare the performance of integrated and discrete graphics processors to find out. AMD and Intel have significantly improved the graphics technologies integrated into their CPUs. AMD’s Kaveri-class Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) incorporate the same powerful Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture that its best discrete Radeon-series graphic processors use. Intel has likewise updated the features and capabilities of its HD-series graphics engines, which are integrated into its fourth-generation Core processors (code-named Haswell). They now deliver broader support of Microsoft’s DirectX 11.1 API (an application program interface…

THE ANDROID MOBILE operating system powers hundreds of millions of smartphones, tablets, and other computing devices with small screens. And now it has entered the PC market, appearing on three very different all-in-one desktop computers from Acer, HP, and Lenovo. Of course, Android-powered desktops could end up being a dead end, especially if Google’s other Linux-based operating system, Chrome, takes off. For one thing, Android apps were designed with mobile devices in mind, while the Chrome OS was designed for laptops—which are essentially portable desktops. Still, Android has been around a lot longer than Chrome, with thousands more apps available for it. Browser-based apps like Google Docs and Microsoft’s Office 365 run just fine on both platforms. All three Android all-in-ones are powered by Nvidia Tegra 4 processors and run…

YOUR WORK IN Word—whether it’s a presentation or a poem—may be great, but it won’t stand out if you stick with a dull gray sea of Calibri 11 text, Word’s default style. Check out Word’s style sets under the Design menu. Styles allow you to format text with one click, navigate a long document, create a table of contents or a PowerPoint slideshow, or wrangle an unruly outline. Set up your own styles for a unique look—and watch your ideas shine. Character styles Character styles combine text-formatting options such as font face and size, color, bold, italics, underline, shading, and borders into preset designs. For example, the Emphasis style applies italics to your chosen font, while Intense Emphasis formats text in italics with a blue accent color. To apply a…

The UBR-1: A people-friendly robot Unbounded Robotics’ four-foot-tall robot (unboundedrobotics.com) has a motor-assisted, programmable arm that allows it to interact safely with people. The UBR-1, which runs a version of Ubuntu Linux and the Robot Operating System, will be able to assist with tasks in a partially automated manufacturing environment, such as a warehouse or factory. The company expects to start shipping the robot to customers in August.…