Table of contents for Feb-10 in PCWorld

Windows Tips: Something Old, Something New AH, THE VENERABLE Windows tips story! If you’ve been reading PCWorld for any length of time, you know that when a new version of Microsoft ’s operating system comes out (in this case, the well-received Windows 7), a fresh batch of shortcuts and timesavers for the OS can’t be far behind. These megatip extravaganzas, though, always present a problem—namely, which items should we include? Because each new version of Windows builds on previous incarnations of the OS, loads of the most useful Windows 7 tips are also the most useful tricks for Windows Vista, not to mention the still-popular Windows XP. If we were to include a sampling of classic time-savers in a brand-new tips collection, we would risk alienating readers who want just…

IN LATE 2009, Google unveiled what it hopes will be the new standard in netbook operating systems: Chrome OS. Based on Linux, the lightweight Chrome OS boots directly into a Web browser. Here’s a peek at what you can expect to see when preinstalled systems debut sometime in 2010. Because Chrome OS runs on solid-state drives, it boots extremely quickly. Our early test build took merely 7 seconds to reach a login screen, and then it almost instantly launched the browser. Chrome OS offers few controls that you can’t already find in the Chrome Web browser. The biggest difference is the Chrome icon in the upper-leftcorner, which reveals bookmarks for Web apps. It’s as close as Chrome OS gets to installing software. Though the inability to install apps can be…

Flash Player 10.1 Speeds Up Netbook Video IF YOU’RE THINKING of buying a netbook but you’re not sure how well the little machine will handle full-screen high-definition Flash video, consider Adobe’s latest software offering. Adobe Flash Player 10.1 with GPU acceleration—now in beta, and available for download at find.pcworld.com/64170—promises to dramatically improve the streaming HD video experience on computers that lack top-notch processors. If your system has a supported nVidia or ATI graphics card (see the company’s release-notes PDF at find.pcworld.com/64171 for details on which cards the software supports), Flash Player 10.1 will use that board alongside your machine’s CPU to upgrade its decoding of streaming video from sites such as Hulu and YouTube. Modern graphics cards have tons of computing power, while the Atom chip that drives most netbooks…

Money-Saver Sites You Haven’t Heard Of RECESSION OR NOT, everyone looks for ways to save money without too much compromise. Thankfully, the Web has many deal-hunting tools to help you fulfill your shopping urges without breaking the bank. Beyond the old standbys like Craigslist or FatWallet.com, a few new sites have sprouted up with truly unique ways to help you stretch your budget. One caveat: These sites require some quality hunting time as well as daily visits, so don’t expect to find the perfect deal on your first look. Voyij Voyij (www.voyij.com) aggregates deals from all the other travel Websites (Hotwire, Kayak, Priceline) and makes them searchable. You simply input your departing city, general travel dates, destination, and budget, and Voyij goes to work. It’s ideal for flexible travelers, as…

Looking to outfit your small business or home office on a tight budget? Check the Craigslist classified-ad site for bargains. CRAIGSLIST ISN’T JUST for job postings, used couches, and romantic pursuits; the classified-ads site is also exceptionally good for finding office furniture (cubicles, desks, chairs, and so on) at unusually low prices. Craigslisting is an art in itself, however, so we have some tips that will help you obtain the equipment your office needs. A no-frills office chair and desk at OfficeMax are at least $170, a phone/fax costs another $60, and new cubicle units can be $500 to $3000 apiece, depending on configuration, height, and filing options. Spend a few minutes on Craigslist, though, and you’ll find plenty of office furniture that sellers need to get rid of for…

Chalk up one for the defenders. Here’s how a trio of security researchers used a three-step attack to defeat a 250,000-pronged botnet. FOR TWO YEARS as a researcher with security company FireEye, Atif Mushtaq worked to keep Mega-D bot malware from infecting clients’ networks. In the process, he learned how its controllers operated it. Last June, he began publishing his findings online (find.pcworld.com/64162). In November, he suddenly switched from defense to offense. And Mega-D, a powerful, resilient botnet that had forced 250,000 PCs to do its bidding, went down. Targeting Controllers Mushtaq and two FireEye colleagues went after Mega-D’s command infrastructure. A botnet’s first wave of attack uses e-mail attachments, Webbased offensives, and other distribution methods to infect huge numbers of PCs with malicious bot programs. The bots receive marching…

As their prices fall, Blu-ray Disc players add streaming media capabilities to their already state-of-the-art high-definition image quality TODAY’S BLU-RAY Disc players do a lot more than play Blu-ray movies. Even so, they cost much less than they did a year ago. Every model on our Top 10 Blu-ray Disc Players chart (see page 49) has an ethernet port for accessing Internet-based supplemental disc content via BD-Live. Seven of the ten support Web-based streaming media delivery. Widgets and Web services are now a major feature of Blu-ray players. Rather than buy a dedicated box to handle streaming, you can buy a Blu-ray player that combines the pristine high-definition images of Blu-ray and the instant gratification of Netflix On Demand, YouTube, and other Web content. Through Netflix On Demand, Netflix subscribers…

IF YOU LONG for the peace of mind of having a complete, up-to-date copy of your operating system and soft ware, CMS’s BounceBack Essential 9.1 will calm your soul—with little user intervention. BounceBack Essential—the soft ware also goes by the names BounceBack CDP and Instant PC Recovery, depending on where you look—is a $29 subset of the company’s $69 BounceBack Ultimate package. Essential keeps only the current version of any fi le in one location—in eff ect, mirroring your main system, much as a RAID setup does. Essential requires a dedicated drive with enough room for all your data. Installation requires only a few clicks along with correct entry of a serial number. Aft er you have selected a drive to back up to, the software partitions it, renders it…

I’VE REVIEWED LOTS of products from Sonos, makers of multiroom network music-streaming components. I’ve called their gear elegant, reliable, and greatsounding, but never inexpensive. At $399, however, the new ZonePlayer S5 is quite aff ordable, though it won’t appeal to everyone. The S5 looks a bit like an iPod dock, and its price is in line with high-end docks from companies like Bose. But most people won’t connect their S5 directly to an iPod. Instead, they’ll wire it (via ethernet cable) to a router so that they can access music from their PC’s hard drive, or from Internet radio and Web music sites. Though the S5 has no control interface other than volume buttons, you can operate it via free soft ware that you’ve loaded to your PC or Mac,…

PALM’S PIXI ($100 with a two-year Sprint contract) is a slimmer version of the Palm Pre, in both specs and design. The 2.2-by-4.4-by-0.4-inch, 3.3-ounce WebOS phone supports gestures for scrolling, paging, going back, and pinch and zoom. The 2.6-inch, 320-by-400-pixel display is large enough for composing e-mail and text messages. Colors look accurate, and details are sharp. Unfortunately, I had to use my nails to type on the unit’s small, gummy keys. I wish that Palm had revised the keyboard for a phone that’s meant for heavy messaging. Call quality over Sprint’s 3G network was very good. Parties on the other end said that my voice was sufficiently loud and clear. I heard no static, and no calls dropped. In multitasking tests, the Pixi handled 11 apps without crashing, but…

WITH A LAPTOP-LIKE design, meager specs (the 1.6GHz Intel Z530 Atom CPU, 1GB of RAM, and a 4200-rpm 120GB hard drive), and a 10.1-inch display, the tiny Booklet 3G is a fairly well-constructed portable with a focus on 3G wireless. But are you willing to pay $599, sans contract, for Nokia’s maiden effort in the netbook market (or $299 with an AT&T data plan)? In WorldBench 6 tests, the Booklet slogged along to a mark of 27—that’s what happens when you have an underpowered machine running Windows 7. From a cold start, it takes 45 seconds to boot into the Windows 7 Starter Edition desktop. Try opening more than two applications at a time, and brace for the lag. The battery life is a somewhat better story—in our tests the…

YOUR PC IS your private place, where everything suits you perfectly—right? Well, these downloads can help. A free utility hides your Internet forays from a wide list of nosey parkers, and a Firefox add-on protects your privacy by telling you what the sites you visit may do with your information. Once you’re safe in your own space, a desktop utility lets you settle in by customizing your windows. PeerBlock They’re lurking out there: sleazy spyware companies, unscrupulous advertisers, and people you just don’t want looking at what your computer is doing. PeerBlock offers low-level blocking of packets coming from, or going to, a long list of hosts. While any decent firewall will let you block hosts one by one, PeerBlock does a lot of the work for you, providing several…

Watch Netflix From the Couch Works in: VISTA, 7 If you’re a Netflix subscriber, the Netflix Windows Media Center plug-in isn’t just optional, it’s practically essential. Just click Movies¨Netflix in Media Center to install the plug-in and sign in to your account. Then get ready for a shock: The Netflix plug-in offers way more functionality than you get from, say, a stand-alone Roku box or an Xbox 360. Although those devices also provide Netflix access, they limit you to viewing your queues and streaming movies from your Instant Queue. The WMC plug-in, on the other hand, lets you browse and search the entire Netflix catalog, adding movies to your standard queue or Instant Queue as you go. Netflix memberships start at $9 per month.…

We Americans pay a hefty slice of our monthly budget—$80, on average—for the convenience (and fun) of owning a smartphone. In total, U.S. consumers will spend $4.8 billion on smartphones and wireless services (voice and data messaging) in 2010, according to market research firm In-Stat. With all that money being spent on mobile technology, you would expect an abundance of critical research and analysis indicating which products and services work well for the money, and which ones don’t. But little information exists. That’s why PCWorld initiated this survey, asking owners of all kinds of smartphones to relate their real-world experiences with buying, using, and troubleshooting the devices. Perhaps the central finding of our survey is that smartphone owners have plenty of complaints, yet seem willing to tolerate many of the…

Sprint customers are the most satisfied with network performance. WIRELESS SERVICE PROVIDER: Sprint3 Percentage of respondents who were highly satisfied with speed of data service1: 71.6 Percentage of respondents who were highly satisfied with reliability of data service1: 79.6 Percentage of respondents who were highly satisfied with voice call reliability1: 84.5 Overall network performance score2: 78.6 WIRELESS SERVICE PROVIDER: Verizon Wireless4 Percentage of respondents who were highly satisfied with speed of data service1: 66.9 Percentage of respondents who were highly satisfied with reliability of data service1: 78 Percentage of respondents who were highly satisfied with voice call reliability1: 86.1 Overall network performance score2: 77 WIRELESS SERVICE PROVIDER: T-Mobile5 Percentage of respondents who were highly satisfied with speed of data service1: 58.6 Percentage of respondents who were highly satisfied with reliability…

MODEL: 1. BEST BUY Iomega eGo Mac Edition 500GB $100 find.pcworld.com/64244 Rating: 4.0/5.0 VERY GOOD Performance: • Overall performance: Superior • Copy fi les (3.7GB): 95 seconds • Malware scan: 403 seconds • Software: Very Good Features and specifications: • 500GB • 5400 rpm • FireWire 800/400, USB 2.0 • Cost per gigabyte: 20 cents Bottom line: This speedy, colorful drive has FireWire 800 and 400 ports, and useful software (Retrospect Express and Iomega QuikProtect). MODEL: 2. Western Digital My Passport Essential 1TB $200 find.pcworld.com/64246 Rating: 4.0/5.0 VERY GOOD Performance: • Overall performance: Very Good • Copy fi les (3.7GB): 141 seconds • Malware scan: 523 seconds • Software: Very Good Features and specifications: • 1TB • 5400 rpm • USB 2.0 • Cost per gigabyte: 20 cents Bottom line:…

THIS PROBLEM is why I prefer simpler, more space-efficient backup programs like Rebit (www.rebit.com) and MozyHome (find.pcworld.com/61957), which automatically remove older versions of files and keep only the most recent versions. If your backup system doesn’t work this way, you’ll be better offeither backing up to an external drive large enough to fit two complete backup sets (defining a set as one full and several incremental backups), or using two separate external drives. That way, you can delete the more out-of-date backup to make room for a new one. Alternatively, you can make the backup set smaller by removing large files that you seldom change, (such as photos and music) and backing them up separately, perhaps even burning them to DVD. When your external backup is full, you have two…

Regarding Google’s free Public DNS service and possible privacy threats [find.pcworld.com/64159]: Google’s servers collect so much information, [its] caring about what I do on the Internet would be like caring about what one ant does in the Australian outback. boden, PCWorld.com forums Top 100: Dissenting Opinions I was surprised to see the Asus Eee PC 1101 netbook among the “Best Products of the Year” and not the Acer Aspire One, which runs circles around the Asus. I did buy an Asus, but its lack of convenient features (no pilot lamp for Caps Lock, impossible to disable the touchpad, and so on) made me give it away and get an Acer instead. Patrick Georges, Carlsbad, California You have got to be kidding—the Zune is how many spots ahead of the iPhone?…

Faviki: Consistent Bookmark Tagging Tagging your bookmarks is a great way to track and share them. But making sense of other people’s tags (and sometimes your own) can be a challenge. Does the tag “Bulls” refer to bovines, Michael Jordan’s former team, or optimistic investors? The free Faviki service solves the problem by restricting tags to those corresponding to Wikipedia entries. The strategy forces people who bookmark something about the basketball team to use “Chicago Bulls” as a tag—and it helps people seeking information on the Windy City hoopsters get exactly what they’re looking for. faviki.com Infodome: A Database in Your Browser Setting up a database and allowing coworkers or clients to easily enter information can be a great boon to any business. Many small-business owners, though, would rather have…

Powermat: Wireless Device Charger The Powermat uses magnetic induction to juice up electronic gadgets. The technology allows you to skip messing around with bulky plug-in adapters—instead, when you want to charge your phone, you just put it on the Powermat. Dell Latitude Z600: Laptop With Wireless Charger For charging a laptop sans wires, Dell offers a specialized solution. Its new Latitude Z600 laptop works with an optional docking station that uses inductive charging to power the battery. LG Electronics Solar Car Kit HFB-500 LG’s HFB-500 is a $100 Bluetooth car speakerphone that charges via sunlight—a boon for people who live in sunny locales. And wireless charging is perfect for a car’s dashboard, where a rat’s nest of cords can be dangerous. LG’s Wireless HDTVs The new LHX and LH85 HDTVs…

I BOUGHT A refurbished TomTom One 130 S GPS device from Amazon. Unfortunately, its maps were outdated. Upgrading to current maps would be costly since TomTom charges by the age of the map data. TomTom support told me that its current map guarantee—which says that if the map loaded on your device isn’t the latest version, you can get it for free—does not apply to refurbished devices. But Amazon’s product description says TomTom “brings the Navigator back to like-new conditions,” which I thought meant that it included current map data. Am I stuck with either using an out-of-date GPS unit or paying a high upgrade fee? Charles Pollman, Dawsonville, Georgia OYS responds: After we contacted Tom-Tom about Pollman’s issue, a representative stated that, though Pollman’s GPS unit doesn’t qualify for…

With this Web-based add-in, you can access your documents on any PC. IF YOU USE Microsoft Office and you frequently work on different computers, check out the Office Live add-in for Office Live Workspace (currently in public beta; find.pcworld.com/64141). This free online service lets you store and share up to 5GB of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents, and the add-in allows you to work with documents in Office Live Workspace without leaving the comfort of your Microsoft Office app. Without your having to change the way you work, your documents will follow you whenever you’re on an Internet-connected computer running Office; if you’re away from your own PC, you can access your content from any other system. Office Live Workspace makes sharing documents across the Internet a breeze, too. Setting…

A critical bug in IE; plus patches for Office, Java, Shockwave, and Mac OS X. A DANGEROUS vulnerability in Internet Explorer 6 and 7 became publicly known before a fix was available, raising the specter of a high-risk zero-day attack. The bug involves the way IE handles Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) objects, and could let an attacker run any command on a targeted Windows XP, Vista, Server 2003, or Server 2008 PC. Bad guys have already posted sample attack code online. IE 8 is not affected. For more information, see the advisory at find.pcworld.com/64180. Meanwhile, a bug in the way Windows handles Embedded OpenType could allow a baddie to take over vulnerable Windows XP, 2000, or Server 2003 computers via malicious Websites or poisoned Office documents. The bug can’t harm…

MODEL: 1. Best Buy 1. Brother MFC-9450CDN $650 find.pcworld.com/62437 Rating: 4.0/5.0 VERY GOOD Performance: • Text quality: Superior • Graphics quality: Fair • Tested speed: 10.8 ppm text/4.9 ppm graphics Features and specifications: • 21 ppm text • 21 ppm graphics • 2400-by-600-dpi maximum true color resolution Good speed and cheap toner make the MFC-9450CDN a small-office bargain—as long as your color needs are simple. MODEL: 2. Dell Multifunction Color Laser Printer 3115cn $899 find.pcworld.com/59860 Rating: 3.5/5.0 VERY GOOD Performance: • Text quality: Superior • Graphics quality: Fair • Tested speed: 16.1 ppm text/5.4 ppm graphics Features and specifications: • 31 ppm text • 17 ppm graphics • 600-by-600-dpi maximum true color resolution Speed and expandability are this Dell MFP’s forte, making up for its subpar photos and quirks such…

BIG-SCREEN ALL-IN-ONES (OVER 20 INCHES): 1. Sony VAIO L117FX/B $2000 NEW find.pcworld.com/64213 Rating: 4.0/5.0 VERY GOOD Performance: • WorldBench 6 score: 105 Very Good • Overall design: Good • Gaming: Fair Features and specifications: • 24-inch multitouch widescreen • 2.66GHz Core 2 Quad Q8400S • 6GB DDR2-800 RAM; 1TB storage • Blu-ray writer/reader, TV tuner Sony’s all-in-one has multitouch for Windows 7, strong performance, a Blu-ray writer/reader, and lots of ports. But it’s not cheap. BIG-SCREEN ALL-IN-ONES (OVER 20 INCHES): 2. Lenovo IdeaCentre A600 $1150 find.pcworld.com/64214 Rating: 3.5/5.0 VERY GOOD Performance: • WorldBench 6 score: 87 Fair • Overall design: Very Good • Gaming: Fair Features and specifications: • 21.5-inch widescreen • 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo P7450 • 4GB DDR3-1066 RAM; 1TB storage • Blu-ray reader, TV tuner A lush…

FLIP POCKET camcorders make video capture (and YouTube posting) easy. Now, a companion set-top box seeks to make viewing such videos on your HDTV equally effortless. But while the $149 FlipShare TV capably streams high-def video from a PC hard drive, the quality of online videos can vary. After you attach the bundled USB dongle to your PC, you connect the box to your TV set via its composite-video or HDMI ports. A user interface appears on the TV and states when the box is communicating with the Flip-Share software on your PC. The remote’s menu button brings up your options: clips on your hard drive, videos that users have put on their FlipChannels, and your favorites. To create a FlipChannel or to view other people’s videos, you must set…

SAMSUNG’S Behold II ($230 with a two-year T-Mobile contract) has a brilliant display and a superior camera, but its high price may turn off potential buyers. Measuring 4.6 by 2.2 by 0.5 inches and weighing 4.2 ounces, the phone is pocketable and light. On the 3.2-inch, 320-by-480-pixel, capacitive-touch AMOLED display, colors are vivid and accurate, and interface animations look smooth. The phone has 200MB of internal memory and is expandable up to 16GB. Samsung says it offers 6 hours of talk-time battery life, which would be pretty good. In my tests, call quality over T-Mobile’s 3G network was fine for the most part. Voices sounded clear and natural, with ample volume. Though the touch keyboard is small, the autocorrect is reliable. I saw a slight lag between my typing and…

AMAZON’S FREE KINDLE for PC e-reader app handles the basics well. It installs in a jiffy. After you log in, you can look at archived items or shop at the Kindle Web store. Books appear as color thumbnails, sortable by author or title. You click a book to bring up the reading interface. To turn pages, you can use your arrow keys or the scroll wheel of your mouse. Pages look good and crisp. You have ten font sizes to choose from, and you can set the page width. You can also view annotations and bookmarks, set bookmarks, and navigate. The ‘Sync to Furthest Page Read’ command lets you pick up where you left off if you’ve been reading a book on another Kindle device (or on the Kindle for…

The Verdict is in: Windows 7 is Microsoft’s best operating system ever. The new version is stocked with genuinely handy interface upgrades (hello, Aero Snap), long-overdue networking improvements (we love you, homegroups), touchscreen support (long live tablet PCs), and the best Windows Media Center experience yet (ClearQAM support at last—find more on page 73). Like every OS, though, Windows 7 can benefit from a few tweaks here and some add-ons there. We’ve rounded up 25 tips that can help you make Windows 7 faster, easier, safer, or more fun. And since many people still run XP or Vista, we’ve identified the tips that work with those Windows versions as well. Make it Faster Is Windows 7 really speedier than Windows Vista or XP? Different tests have yielded varying results, but…

Enjoy Hulu in Your Living Room Works in: VISTA, 7 Hulu Desktop (find.pcworld.com/64243) is an experimental, Hulu Labs–devised application that gives you a 10-foot, remote-controllable interface for the TV-streaming service. Just one problem, however: You have no way to reach that interface from within Windows Media Center. The free but unimaginatively named Hulu Desktop Integration download (find.pcworld.com/64201) adds a Hulu Desktop icon to WMC. One click closes the latter and opens the former in maximized, full-screen view. When you’re done streaming, click Close to exit Hulu Desktop and return to WMC. It doesn’t get much easier than that.…

Average phone hold time: Based on the average time smartphone owners waited on hold to speak to a phone support representative. Phone service rating: Based on a cumulative score derived from smartphone owners’ ratings of several aspects of their experience in phoning the company’s technical support service. Among the factors considered were whether the information was easy to understand, and whether the support representative spoke clearly and knowledgeably. Problem was never resolved: Based on the percentage of survey respondents who said the problem remained after they contacted technical support. In-person service rating: Based on a cumulative score derived from phone owners’ ratings of several aspects of technical support received at a service provider’s retail location. Among the factors considered were the ease of getting a representative’s attention in the store,…

Problem on arrival: Based on the percentage of survey respondents who reported finding one or more problems with the device out of the box. Any significant problem: Based on the percentage of survey respondents who reported having any hardware or software problem at all within the past two years of phone use. Severe problem: Based on the percentage of survey respondents who reported a problem that rendered their device impossible to use. Overall satisfaction with reliability: Based on the owner’s overall satisfaction with the reliability of the device.…

VENDORS SUCH AS Seagate and Western Digital provide docking stations that obviate the need to fiddle around with a cable each time you connect the drive to your PC. A docking station may save you only a few seconds each time you attach the drive, but those seconds add up in the long run. Docking stations are also incredibly handy when you use multiple drives for rotating backups or archiving (storing individual projects on their own drives, as audio recording and photography studios often do). Both Western Digital’s My Passport Elite and Seagate’s FreeAgent Go Special Edition ship with a dock. The Seagate dock’s design seemed a bit better balanced than the WD dock’s; but if you do a lot of swapping, a bit of double-sided tape wouldn’t be out…

Two Annoyance Busters and One Extremely Cool Laptop Trick LIKE EVERY OTHER technology upgrade, Windows 7 suffers from its share of mismatches with existing apps and devices. I’ll show you how to make all your old stuff work with your new OS. I’ll also describe how to retrieve your media whenever it gets jammed in an optical drive. And in the interest of conservation, I’ll point you to a tool for using any old laptop as a second display for your PC. Overcome Windows 7 Compatibility Issues Windows 7 has the same core code as Windows Vista, so application compatibility should be a nonissue, right? Wrong. Recently I tried to apply a firmware update to a Blu-ray drive, but the installer was designed for Vista and produced an error in…

WINDOWS 7 IS only a few months old. Most people who will eventually use the new OS haven’t tried it yet; those who have are still settling in. And things will change rapidly as bugs are squashed, missing drivers arrive, and compatibility wrinkles are ironed out. Even so, it isn’t too early to start gauging what people think of Vista’s replacement. To do a reality check on the mostly favorable initial reviews for the new operating system (find.pcworld.com/64223), we at Technologizer (technologizer.com) decided to ask for opinions from our community, a group of tech enthusiasts with a high propensity to acquire new OSs quickly and to push them to their limits. Starting on November 16, 2009, we surveyed the site’s readers (and Twitter followers) about their Windows 7 experiences. Positive…

IN SPITE OF rumors that the first USB 3.0 products wouldn’t surface until the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show, Buffalo Technology announced in late November that it was shipping its new DriveStation HD-HXU3 SuperSpeed USB 3.0 drive. We’ve been hearing about USB 3.0 all year long. Delays on the chipsets that use the new controller led to delays on the first motherboards. This is a wise move on Buffalo’s part, if only because USB 3.0 will remain a rarity for a while. However, at the time of the announcement, the drive was on Buffalo’s Website, but Buy Now links were absent. Perhaps Buffalo meant that the drive had shipped from the factory, but not yet to stores. USB 3.0 promises performance improvements worth waiting for—namely, a top data rate of 4.8…

The True Cost of Wireless Carriers’ Netbooks YOU CAN BUY a deeply discounted netbook from either AT&T or Verizon if you’re willing to sign up for a twoyear data plan—but with either provider’s netbook deals, the ultimate price will be about the same. We discovered this similarity after examining the two-year costs of ownership of various netbooks sold by AT&T and Verizon (at the time of writing, Sprint and T-Mobile weren’t offering such deals). The two wireless broadband carriers have adopted a pricing model comparable to the one they use for selling cell phones. Verizon offers three different netbooks: the Gateway LT2016u ($100), the HP Mini 10 ($150), and the HP Mini 311 ($200). Bought elsewhere without the data plan, the Gateway would cost around $300; the HP Mini 10,…

NOKIA RECENTLY SAID that it would replace for free millions of faulty cell phone chargers that pose a shock hazard to users. The plastic casing surrounding the chargers in question could separate, exposing the unit’s internal components—hence the shock hazard. The fault was discovered during a routine quality inspection, and Nokia says that it knows of no incidents where a user has been injured by the flaw. Three separate chargers are affected: model numbers AC-3E and AC-3U manufactured between June 15, 2009, and August 9, 2009, as well as model number AC-4U manufactured between April 13, 2009, and October 25, 2009. To see if your unit is affected, check the label where your charger’s voltage and manufacturing information is printed. From the label, you should be able to determine your…

Learn how Georgia-based IT pros streamlined document processing for first responders. WHEN THE FIRST responders at Georgia-based National EMS (nationalems.com) go to work, they save lives. They also produce a mountain of paperwork, all of which must be accurately managed and securely stored for a minimum of seven years. The storage of these documents was a monumental task, and the labor required to handle them was overwhelming the 12-person office staff. Every few months, the office filing cabinets filled up, at which point the files had to move to a warehouse. Also, since the company works with Medicare and Medicaid, staffers had to make copies of documents for use in multiple files. A few dozen times a day, employees had to take time to pull files from storage. To get…

Dashboard gathers privacy controls and settings for most Google services onto one page—but only for Google accounts IF YOU USE Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, or any of the ever-growing array of Google services, you may have cringed at the trove of personal data the company has gathered. To allay concerns, Google launched Dashboard, a single page housing privacy controls and settings for most of its services. The Dashboard page, accessible at google.com/dashboard, gives you an overview of calendars or documents you share, your chat history, and sites you’ve authorized to access your Picasa pictures or Gmail contacts (such as a social networking site that can use your contact list to help you find other users, à la Facebook). You’ll also find a list of search queries you’ve performed while…

LG’s N4B1 NAS box isn’t a comprehensive media server, nor is it a particularly fast performer, but as a networkattached storage device, it’s quick enough for home/small-business file serving. This $700 unit is the sturdiest such box I’ve seen. And you can’t beat its HTML configuration interface for looks or ease of learning and use. An integrated Bluray burner, however, is its most outstanding feature. The Blu-ray writer lets you back the box’s contents up to Blu-ray recordable or re writable discs. In addition, you can use the drive to back up your CDs to disc images. My other favorite N4B1 feature is its front-panel LCD, which lets you back up the box to both USB and Blu-ray as well as set the IP address without resorting to the HTML…

THE XL 340S Live is Tom-Tom’s second wirelessly connected GPS device (after the Go 740 Live). Its GPRS radio module serves live traffic updates, weather reports, Google Local searches, and fuel-price data. At $300, the XL 340S Live is a bargain for a connected GPS device. Initially, you get a three-month subscription to the Live services; after conthat, they’re $10 a month. The unit has a 4.3-inch screen, comes bundled with TomTom’s unique EasyPort mounting bracket, and includes maps for all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Canada, and Mexico. The built-in 7 million points-of-interest database, supplemented by Google Local Search, lets you find relevant POIs quickly. The XL 340S Live uses TomTom’s IQ Routes technology to provide the best route and to estimate your time of arrival based on historical speed…

MODEL: 1. Kodak Zi8 HD Camcorder $180 find.pcworld.com/64120 Rating: 4.5/5.0 SUPERIOR Performance: • Video quality: Superior • Low-light video: Very Good • Audio: Good Features and specifications: • Storage: SDHC card • USB connector: Flip-out • HDMI: Yes • Still images: 5 megapixels The full-featured Zi8 captures the best HD pocket-camcorder footage we’ve seen, but its interface and digital zoom often get in the way. MODEL: 2. Flip Video MinoHD (Second Generation) $230 find.pcworld.com/64121 Rating: 4.5/5.0 SUPERIOR Performance: • Video quality: Very Good • Low-light video: Superior • Audio: Good Features and specifications: • Storage: 8GB drive • USB connector: Flip-out • HDMI: Yes • Still images: No The second-generation MinoHD is the sexiest and most solidly built pocket camcorder we’ve tried, and it offers very good video quality. MODEL:…

SOME HIGH-DEF TVs today are more than just televisions—they are multimedia machines. We looked at Samsung’s $1200, 50-inch PN50B650 plasma and Sony’s $2000, 52-inch Bravia KDL-52XBR9 LCD, both of which offer plenty of media features and options for viewing video and information from the Internet. Image, Sound Quality The PN50B650 did nicely in PCWorld Labs image-quality tests, generally scoring well for brightness, contrast, and color, with natural-looking and pleasing skin tones. Regrettably, it had difficulty with motion, particularly on our demanding diagonalpanning test, where it violently vibrated in what ought to have been a smooth pan over a still photo. You’re not likely to see anything so problematic in normal TV viewing, but it’s a sign that other issues may crop up. Sony’s KDL-52XBR9 scored particularly high for brightness and…

T-MOBILE’S WebConnect Jet is more stylish than its predecessor, the WebConnect USB Laptop Stick. Its shiny front has a blinking status light, and an adjustable hinge makes it unobtrusive. You get easy access to the SIM card, and an SDHC Card slot (supports up to 8GB). The Jet can manage Wi-Fi and mobile-broadband connections, and it works internationally via 3G. The service ($60 for 5GB a month) also gives you access to T-Mobile hotspots. The latest software interface is much cleaner and more responsive than T-Mobile’s earlier version. A similar Verizon modem lacks the hinge, and its global version costs more. The Jet is a great deal if T-Mobile’s 3G service is widespread enough for your needs. —Melissa J. Perenson 3.5/5.0 VERY GOOD WebConnect Jet | T-Mobile T-Mobile’s second USB…

Works in: 7 Say that you have a broadband card in your laptop, but no way to share its whiz-bang wireless connection with your iPod Touch or another PC. Or maybe you’ve paid for a hotel’s Wi-Fi service but you don’t want to pay again just to connect other devices. You need Connectify (find.pcworld.com/64156), a clever utility that turns your Internet-connected PC into the equivalent of a Wi-Fi hotspot. Though at press time it was an early-stage beta, it worked quite well on our test systems. After installing the program, just click the Connectify icon in the system tray, choose the connection you want to share, and then enter a name and password for your wireless network. Now fire up your other devices and look for the new connection. Join…

Toggle between apps: Use <Alt>-<Tab> to switch open programs without touching your mouse. The oldest—and still the best—Windows timesaver. Navigate app windows: Press <Ctrl>-<Tab> to cycle through an application’s windows (or through a Web browser's tabs). First cousin of the tip above, and probably the most underrated tip ever. When in doubt, type it out: If you don’t want to hunt through nested menus and the like, you can access most functions, applets, or files the old-fashioned way—by entering them into the Search box. Type Calculator, Control Panel, or even the name of a piece of music on your hard drive, and press <Enter>. Unobtrusive updates: Keep your OS current by opening Windows Update (Automatic Update in XP) and setting it to Download updates but let me choose whether to…

Mobile users are satisfied, not thrilled, with service providers’ tech support. WIRELESS SERVICE PROVIDER: AT&T Average phone hold time: 6.5 minutes Phone service rating (on a scale of 1 to 7)1: 5.7 Problem was never resolved (percentage of cases): 17.60% In-person service rating (on a scale of 1 to 7)1: 5.7 Overall service rating (on a scale of 1 to 71: 5.2 WIRELESS SERVICE PROVIDER: Sprint Average phone hold time: 4.4 minutes Phone service rating (on a scale of 1 to 7)1: 5.6 Problem was never resolved (percentage of cases): 18.90% In-person service rating (on a scale of 1 to 7)1: n/a2 Overall service rating (on a scale of 1 to 71: 5.2 WIRELESS SERVICE PROVIDER: T-Mobile Average phone hold time: 6.6 minutes Phone service rating (on a scale of…

Good things come in small packages—and when it comes to storage, the saying couldn’t be more true. No matter what size your data set is, you can find a stylish, pocketable wonder of modern miniaturization to store it and transport it. All portable storage units do basically the same thing, but these days they come in more flavors than you’ll find at Baskin-Robbins. PC World Labs tested 22 models, from Samsung’s credit-card-size 120GB S1 Mini to the latest capacious yet svelte 1TB Seagate FreeAgent Go and Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1TB drives. We tested dockable models, ruggedized units, and multipleinterface units that can connect to almost any PC. Many of them came with surprisingly capable customized software packages that pop up the minute you attach the drive. There’s…

WHETHER YOU’RE an IT pro or the go-to geek in your social circle, often the biggest hassle you face in fixing a computer problem is simply getting to the PC that needs help. Fortunately, Microsoft offers a few good Internet-based options that simplify the task of connecting to a troubled system. With Microsoft’s Remote Assistance, Remote Desktop Connection, and Problem Steps Recorder, you can control a remote PC as if you were sitting at the keyboard in front of it. Not only do these tools save you a trek, but they also help you avoid scenarios where you try to assist a friend who can’t seem to use menus properly or identify settings and dialog-box messages accurately. Instead of guiding a clueless soul to Control Panel and beyond, you can…

OMG, I’m Married A groom in Maryland updates his Facebook status while he’s standing at the altar. Just be grateful that you weren’t around when he started tweeting from the honeymoon suite. Punctuation Envy AOL adds a period into its logo to help reinvent its brand. Good thinking—after all, the whole cutesy-punctuation thing worked so well for Yahoo! Apple Surplus Apple’s App Store is projected to offer 300,000 apps by the end of 2010. Approximately 220,000 will be related to bodily functions. Twitter Squared One of Twitter’s cofounders launches Square, a new service that lets you store credit cards on your cell phone. I’m wondering if purchases over $140 will be supported. Death by Black Screen The Windows “black screen of death” sends the Internet into a short-lived frenzy. Oh…