Table of contents for Apr-13 in PCWorld

PRODOT The $10 ProDot is designed to steady photos by absorbing finger tremors. The package consists of two rubbery, padded dots that adhere to your camera’s shutter release and are easy to remove. The soft dots dampen shutter jitters at the crucial moment of snapping a photo. TRIGGERTRAP This gadget tethers your digital SLR to an iPhone or Android phone, dramatically expanding your camera’s capabilities for time-lapse photos, shutter control via face recognition or sound activation, and more. The mobile app is free, but you’ll also need a $25 cable for your camera. POSTALPIX Countless sites let you create custom prints from your digital photos, but PostalPix, a free app for iOS and Android, offers to etch prints into aluminum. You can order prints in sizes from 4 by 4…

THE RASPBERRY PI computer is about the size of a deck of playing cards. Originally conceived for use in schools, it has become a hit with tinkerers. We recently spoke with Raspberry Pi Foundation cofounder Eben Upton about the Foundation’s work and the success of the Pi. Promoting an Interest in Computer Science Q: How did the Raspberry Pi project begin, and what is its aim? A: We wanted to reverse the decline in the numbers and the skill level of applicants studying computer science at Cambridge [University]. We believe very strongly that reaching people when they are young is the key to helping them develop a deep understanding of how computers work. Q: Did you ever build your own projects? A: Absolutely. Before Raspberry Pi ate my life, I…

I PURCHASED a computer from Sony and installed my copy of Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010. This left me with one of the three authorized licenses. A week later, I had to return the laptop to Sony. When the replacement came, I installed Office on it. Realizing Microsoft might consider this as my having used up all my licenses, I called its customer service line, hoping they would reinstate the third license. After talking to two technicians, I was told there is nothing they can do. I was livid. Can you help? —Bob McElwain, Victorville, California OYS responds: We contacted Microsoft and learned that an Office Pro purchase includes only two licenses, so McElwain isn’t entitled to another copy. But a Microsoft support staffer said that if a customer calls…

IF YOU HAVE a smartphone and want to record your phone calls, you’re in luck: There are apps for that. However, state laws governing phone-conversation recording differ. The safest course of action is to inform all parties in advance that you are recording the call, and to get their consent as part of the recording. Both Google Voice and Call Recorder Pro tell the person you’re calling that the call is being recorded. Android and iPhone Apps One of the better apps I’ve found is IntCall’s Call Recorder (go.pcworld.com/intcall). Available for both Android and iOS, it works strictly with outbound calls, and charges 10 cents per minute for calls in the United States. In my tests on an iPhone 4S, it worked very well. After recording a call, you can…

IN ADDITION TO releasing its latest browser, Mozilla tackled a clickjacking bug. Meanwhile, Ruby on Rails identified flaws that left websites open to attack, and Adobe patched a vulnerability that bypasses authentication mechanisms. Mozilla: Accompanying the debut of Firefox 18 was the release of 21 Mozilla security advisories, 12 rated critical, and 7 rated high. One patched vulnerability—rated high—could allow an attacker to steal information from you (or do even worse) via clickjacking, a technique whereby the attacker gets you to click something on a webpage that performs a function other than what you think it does. Mozilla also fixed memory security issues and other flaws that could cause an application crash or allow an attacker to run malicious code on your PC. Make sure you are running the following…

FROM THE ANDROID-BASED Arc to the LED-lit Glo to the pocket-size Mini, Kobo has e-readers to suit different needs. We reviewed all three to see how they stacked up. Kobo Arc Offers Rich Android Experience The 7-inch Kobo Arc is hardly revolutionary. None of its physical specs, except for its built-in 64GB of memory, help the Arc stand out against its competition. But where it does impress is its software: It runs a skinned—but not totally transformed—version of Android 4.0. This gives you full access to the Google Play store, unlike the Kindle Fire HD and the Nook HD, but with a few unique Kobo touches. Only the Google Nexus 7 can compete with that. This e-reader also features Google apps such as Gmail, Chrome, Play Books, Play Music, and…

WHEN I LEARNED that NuVo Technologies was finally shipping the multiroom audio system it demoed in 2011, I couldn’t wait to hear it. I must report, however, that NuVo’s products deliver only incremental improvements over the much-less-expensive Sonos ecosystem. For NuVo’s system to work wirelessly, you must buy the $199 Gateway GW100 and link it to your router with an ethernet cable. The GW100 creates one network on the 2.4GHz band and another on the 5GHz band. Each NuVo player can use either network and play media from your library or one of the music services that the system supports. You control the system via the NuVo Android or iOS app on your smartphone or tablet. Each player can play an independent track, or you can stream the same music…

We evaluated the SSDs with a series of real-world data-transfer tests. By real world, we mean a commonplace selection of data. Each drive was required to read and write both a 10GB mix of folders containing small files and a single large file containing 10GB of data. To measure each drive’s maximum performance, we copied these files to (the read test) and from (the write test) a 16GB RAM disk. Using this methodology avoided any bottlenecks or interaction issues that we might have encountered had we used a mechanical hard drive or a second SSD for the tests. Our test bed was an Asus P8Z77-V Pro/Thunderbolt motherboard, which is based on Intel’s Z77 chipset. The board contained a 3.4GHz Intel Core i7-2600K CPU and 32GB of Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz DDR3…

BUILDING A FAST gaming PC is easier than ever. Building a fast gaming PC on a tight budget is a little harder. Usually, I’d hunt around for the lowest-cost set of components. But given the rapid pace of change in the PC industry, this version of a $1000 gaming rig needed fewer sacrifices. I wanted a PC that could be gracefully upgraded to keep pace with technical advancements. To achieve this, I had to spec out relatively modern core components—particularly the motherboard. I spent a lot of time number juggling to get a faster CPU, but I also wanted a graphics card that could deliver good performance at 1080p. In the end, I barely squeak-ed under the $1000 mark. An important note: Some of the prices were the result of…

THE INTERNET USES two common email protocols, the Post Office Protocol (POP) and the Internet Messaging Access Protocol (IMAP). POP simply downloads new mail to your local mail client software, and—unless you’ve told it otherwise—deletes it from the server. IMAP syncs your mail client with the server. IMAP is the superior technology, and it’s probably why Windows 8’s mail program does not support POP. But having Windows 8 does not mean you must use its mail client. Just install a client that supports POP. I tried Windows Mail from the Essentials collection, with a POP-only account, and it worked fine. But Essentials requires .NET Framework 3.5, and Windows 8 comes with version 4.5. To make them compatible, do this before installing Essentials: In the Win 8 interface, type control and…

Microsoft vs. Apple The February Editor’s Letter, “Why PC Users Hate Microsoft,” posed an excellent question but, in my opinion, provided an answer that ignored reality. One merely needs to look at the iPhone’s complete dominance over every other smartphone model on the market to realize that hardware is not the defining difference. Some gorgeous phones are out there, but they aren’t selling well because of their nonpreferred OS. A superior user experience has created a world full of iZealots while Windows 8 makes it crystal clear that Microsoft still doesn’t get it after all these years. Microsoft keeps offering us what it thinks we should want instead of what we actually want—a completely transparent OS that allows us to enjoy programs and features without feeling that the operating system…

Android App Will Snap a Phone Thief’s Image A new feature in Lookout Security & Antivirus for Android, called Lock Cam, automatically snaps a photo from a phone’s front-facing camera after three unsuccessful unlock attempts. It then sends the owner an email message about the attempted intrusion, along with a photo of the culprit. Users can then log on to Lookout.com to see the location of the phone, as well as its location history. Intel Exits the Desktop Motherboard Business The Santa Clara, California, chip giant will begin its retreat from making desktop motherboards once its next-generation Haswell CPU ships, and plans to dissolve its Desktop Motherboard Business unit over the next three years. Intel’s move comes in response to reduced demand for desktop motherboards and to strong competition from…

ARE YOU STILL using currency with pictures of presidents on it? Despite plenty of hype about “virtual cash” and predictions of the demise of traditional currency, most of us still reach for our physical wallet when it’s time to pay the bill. That said, the notion of using a smartphone to access digital cash is very much alive, and some mobile apps are starting to gain traction. Here are a few worth looking at. Apple Passbook (iOS): Instead of focusing on e-payments, Passbook—included in iOS 6—serves as a digital repository for traditionally paper-based documents such as boarding passes, movie tickets, gift cards, and coupons. The app collects information from participating partners and displays that to you, based on your location. For example, it will notify you of a gate change…

IF YOU’RE IN the market for new PCs or even an operating system upgrade, your business might benefit from adopting Windows 8. Here are six ways that the new OS may improve your business’s processes. 1. Touchscreen interface: With a tablet or a touchscreen desktop monitor, Windows 8 supports options such as handwritten note-taking in OneNote or commenting on Word documents using digital ink. Once you get acclimated to Windows 8’s touch and swipe conventions, you can use the touch controls to navigate the OS effectively. The touchscreen interface opens new business possibilities for Windows 8 tablets or PCs with touchscreen monitors. You might use Windows 8 at interactive kiosks, or give it to staffers working in the field. 2. Networking: Improvements in Windows 8 make connecting to a network…

SKYPE OWNER Microsoft should release information about how much user data it gives to third parties, including government agencies, several organizations and individuals said in a letter to company officials in late January. The groups, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Reporters Without Borders, and GreatFire.org, also called on Microsoft and Skype to disclose whether third parties can intercept Skype calls and to explain their position on complying with U.S. wiretap laws. Forty-five groups and about 60 people signed the letter. With about 600 million users, Skype is effectively one of the largest telecommunications providers worldwide, the letter noted. “Many of its users rely on Skype for secure communications—whether they are activists operating in countries governed by authoritarian regimes, journalists communicating with sensitive sources, or users who wish to talk privately…

LATE LAST YEAR, we reviewed Dell’s non-touchscreen version of the XPS One 27. Now the attractive all-in-one is back, with updated specs, Windows 8 Professional, and a touchscreen. But now that Windows 8 is out, most new computers sport a touchscreen—so how does the revamped One hold up? Our $2600 review model had a Core i7-3770S CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 2TB hard drive (alongside a 32GB solid-state boot drive), and a discrete graphics card. In our WorldBench 8 benchmark tests, the XPS One scored a very good 91 out of 100 and held its own in graphics tests, though it didn’t perform quite as well as our reference system in the productivity test. The One is as good-looking as ever, but the prettiness comes at a cost. The screen…

THE IOMEGA px2-300d is a two-bay NAS (network-attached storage) box that delivers very good performance, excellent backup and surveillance features, and a helpful LCD screen that reports the unit’s status. Its EMC LifeLine operating system is also one of the more feature-rich ones in the industry. But buy this box bare: Iomega populates it with enterprise-class hard drives that jack up the price. The px2-300d’s Web-based administration interface is attractive and easy to use. The box itself sports a metal shell with hot-swappable drive bays hidden behind a door. Two gigabit ethernet ports support load balancing, link aggregation, and failover. And a VGA port lets you view security cameras controlled by the included SecureMind software. The px2-300d supports JBOD and RAID 0 (striping) configurations, but our test unit arrived set…

IF YOUR PC lacks a SATA 6-gpbs interface, you can’t get top performance out of any of the latest consumer-grade SSDs. Such drives bump up against the 6-gbps limit of that bus, while the older, second-generation SATA interface maxes out at just 3 gbps. Apricorn’s Velocity x2 should remove that roadblock for you. Upgrade Path My main system sports a circa-2009 Intel DX58SO motherboard. It has a great feature set, but it predates third-generation, 6-gbps SATA. The only way to upgrade such a beast is via a PCIe adapter card with a SATA 6-gbps interface. I tried installing one of those a couple of years ago, but it gave me blue screens. SSDs at that time weren’t nearly as fast as they are today, so I saw no real reason…

Google Chrome extension Print Friendly and PDF lets you print smarter. Specifically, it strips out the ads and other clutter from webpages, formats them for printing, and gives you the option of removing individual elements you might not want. And true to its name, it lets you print those pages as nicely formatted PDFs. When you click the Print Friendly icon in the Chrome toolbar, you’ll get a preview like the one shown here. It’s in color. It lets you mouse over and delete any paragraph of text you don’t want. Text spans the full width of the page, but it can be adjusted in size. You can also remove images from the pages as well as e-mail them. In short, it’s webpage printing the way it should be. Print…

DELL has unveiled Project Ophelia, a prototype pocket-size HDMI stick that can turn any compatible display into a virtual PC that can run Android apps or access Windows apps on a cloud service or a distant PC. The HDMI interface works with displays such as HDTVs, enabling Project Ophelia to create a computer anywhere the stick can tie in to a network via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Linked to a display that’s MHL (Mobile High-Definition Link) compatible, the stick requires no additional power. However, MHL is a relatively new technology and HDTVs that have it are just now starting to appear on the market. Without MHL, users must charge Project Ophelia via a USB connection. A more serious-potential obstacle to the low-cost (likely less than $100) Project Ophelia is the fact…

ENCRYPTING YOUR DATA makes it completely unreadable to anyone but you or its intended recipient. Best of all, much of the software used in offices and on personal computers already comes with encryption functionality built in. You just need to know where to find it and how to set it up. Encrypt your entire hard drive: A login password won’t stop a thief from plugging your drive into another PC and accessing the data directly. But full-disk encryption protects all of your data, even if someone steals your hardware. Microsoft’s BitLocker software makes setting up full-disk encryption in Windows easy—if you have the Ultimate or Enterprise version of Windows 7 or Vista, or the Pro or Enterprise version of Windows 8, and if your system has a TPM (Trusted Platform…

ZOMBIES ARE a pervasive cultural theme these days. But some don’t get the attention they deserve: namely, the zombie accounts you have lingering around the Net. Consider how many sites and services you’ve joined over the years. Think of all of the software, apps, and plug-ins you’ve installed. How many do you use? How many link to your Facebook or Twitter profiles? How many do you actively manage to ensure that they’re protected? The Undead: A Major Headache for the Living It had probably been at least five years since I’d even logged in to MySpace. But once I successfully recalled (or guessed, really) my login email and password, I discovered that my still-active account held information about where I lived and worked, plus connections to friends and their personal…

FACEBOOK’S GRAPH SEARCH tool lets users search for people based on their Facebook activity. When it rolls out in the near future, you’ll be able to use it to find, for example, restaurants your friends have liked, old photos with specific relatives, and alumni from your alma mater who live near your next vacation spot. It promises to be a powerful tool for analyzing the personal data posted on Facebook—and that means you need to know how it works and how to keep it from accessing data that you’d prefer remain private. Review Your Facebook Privacy Settings Graph Search is a work in progress, but it represents a good opportunity to revisit your privacy settings. Log in to Facebook, click the blue cog icon at the top right, and select…

HP’S ENVY 23 TouchSmart all-in-one desktop computer may be a bit pricey, but it’s a relatively good-looking, nicely sturdy all-purpose machine. Our $1741 review model, which runs Windows 8, came with a Core i7-3770S processor, 12GB of RAM, and a roomy 3TB hard drive. It also has a 23-inch touchscreen, and Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n. The TouchSmart turned in a respectable performance in our WorldBench 8 tests, scoring a 72 out of 100. And thanks to its Nvidia GT 630M discrete graphics card, the all-in-one produced decent graphics performance. However, it scored a bit lower than other desktop systems in the productivity test. The TouchSmart looks and feels the way an all-in-one should: It’s sleek and easy to use, with a durable, easily adjustable stand and well-positioned ports. While I am not…

WHAT SETS THE QNAP TS-269 Pro apart are its software features and superior connectivity. The NAS (network-attached storage) device features a 2.13GHz, dual-core Intel Atom D2700 CPU and 1GB of memory (which you can expand up to 3GB, using the single free SODIMM slot). One of my few complaints is that removing the case cover to access this memory slot was a bit of a chore, as the enclosure is very smooth and hard to grip. Though the TS-269 usually ships without drives, our test unit came with two 1TB Western Digital WD10EFRX hard drives set up in a mirrored (RAID 1) setup. It has dual gigabit ethernet ports with failover and binding, an eSATA port, and two USB 2.0 ports. QNAP outshines every competitor but Synology in the breadth…

Computers may have become a lot more user-friendly over the past decade, but they’re still far from perfect—PCs require a certain amount of configuration and maintenance to operate at their full potential. Unfortunately, because we humans are also far from perfect, we frequently don’t put in the work we should, and we end up with a slower, sloppier, less secure machine as a result. No more excuses! Whipping your PC into the best shape it can be requires but a dozen simple tasks. None are complicated, most take a matter of minutes, and all will have a major effect on how well your computer works for you. Even better, by the time you’re done you’ll never have to worry about doing many of these tasks again. Clean the Case, Keys,…

WHAT MAKES A “TECH-SAVVY” or “tech-friendly” city? It may be a combination of public and private amenities that are available to people who spend a significant amount of their time online, whether they’re at home or out and about. It could also involve the availability of such services at prices that don’t make living a digital lifestyle unduly difficult. A tech-savvy city might be one where a significant part of the local economy is driven by information technology or by the production of machines and software that allow people to create or access information. PCWorld developed a set of ten measures to gauge the extent to which a number of the country’s largest cities possess such tech-friendly traits—or put a different way, to show which cities are the most and…