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america’s fastest isps
MaRCh 2009
wiNdows 7
PC Labs Tests and
Reviews Beta One
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September, 2008
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PC
4 feedback
front side
5 How the stimulus package will
affect tech; dealing with the
“digital cliff”; the best of our blogs;
handy Web sites; finding the right
GPS.
vol. 28 no. 3
c ov e r s to r y
The Best Free Software
28 In
3
oPinions
first Word: Lance Ulanoff
24 John c. dvorak
25 inside track: John c. dvorak
26 sascha segan
27 dan costa
45
soLUtions
new Uses for old digicams
What can you do with your old
camera? Turn here to find out.
48 at Work
50 office
52 security
53 tech tips
55 the best stUff
march 2009
times like these, the word “free” becomes particularly enticing. But you
can’t just go downloading free apps and utilities willy-nilly—that’s a surefire
way to put malware and other nasty stuff on your system. We’ve scoured
the Internet for only the best free utilities and apps for networking, backup,
entertainment, and more. Here you’ll find 173 ways to save a buck.
The Fastest ISPs
in America
39 We
enlisted thousands of PC
Mag readers nationwide to
test which ISPs are the fastest
and friendliest. After months
of crunching data, here’s what
we found.
first Looks
9 software
Windows 7 Beta 1
Tax Software Roundup
Plus Quick Looks at Spore Origins,
eReader 1.3, and more.
13 hardware
Sony VAIO VGC-JS130J/P
Canon Pixma MP980 Wireless
Photo All-In-One Printer
ViewSonic N2201w HDTV/monitor
Gateway FX6800-01e
Plus Quick Looks at the Dell Studio
XPS 16, the Samsung P400, the Sony
Lifestyle PC, and more
17 business
Lenovo ThinkPad W700
ViewSonic PJ513DB
Apple iWork ’09
20 consumer electronics
RIM BlackBerry Curve 8900
(T-Mobile)
HTC Touch Pro (Sprint)
Creative Vado Pocket
Video Cam HD
Sony Reader Digital Book
(PRS-700)
Vizio VP505XVT
Plus Quick Looks at the LG Incite,
the Cowon O2, the Nikon Coolpix
S60, and more
PC Magazine Digital Edition, ISSN 0888-8507, is published monthly at $24.97 for one year. Ziff Davis media Inc., 28 East 28th Street, New York NY 00 6-7940.
march 2009 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION

Editor-in-ChiEf, pC magazinE nEtwork Lance Ulanoff
Editor Stephanie Chang
dirECtor of onLinE ContEnt, EXECUtiVE prodUCEr Vicki B. Jacobson
EXECUtiVE EditorS Dan Costa (reviews), Jeremy A. Kaplan (features)
art dirECtor Richard J. Demler
EditoriaL prodUCtion dirECtor Nicholas Cosmo
pC LabS dirECtor, SEnior Editor (hardwarE) Laarni Almendrala Ragaza
SEnior EditorS Sean Carroll (software, Internet, networking), Wendy Sheehan Donnell (consumer electronics), Carol Mangis (blogs),
Kyle Monson, Sarah Pike (Solutions), Erik Rhey (Digital Edition)
SEnior writEr Eric Griffith
rEViEwS EditorS Gary Berline (software, Internet, networking), Tony Hoffman (hardware), Matthew Murray (consumer electronics)
Copy ChiEf Elizabeth A. Parry Copy EditorS Margaret McVeigh, Ann Ovodow
pC LabS LEad anaLyStS Cisco Cheng (laptops), Tim Gideon (audio and video), Robert Heron (HDTV and home theater),
Mario Morejon (networking and small business), Michael Muchmore (software), Neil J. Rubenking (security), Joel Santo Domingo (desktops),
Sascha Segan (mobile devices), M. David Stone (printers and scanners) anaLySt Dan Evans (DIY, gaming)
jUnior anaLySt PJ Jacobowitz (digital cameras and camcorders)
prodUCt rEViEwS Coordinator Zachary Honig inVEntory ControL Coordinator Nicole Graham
Staff photographEr Scott Schedivy
pCmag.Com managEr, onLinE prodUCtion Yun-San Tsai
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During the many times I’m called upon
to provide tech support, there’s often
a moment when my eyes are squeezed
shut, my hands are pressed hard against
my skull, and I’m muttering under my
breath. It’s at such times that I’m this close
to giving up. I had one of these moments
recently, dealing with a system issue I had
probably helped create.
Let me rewind.
Roughly four years ago, I bought my
mother-in-law a new Dell PC. While this
may seem like an extravagant gift, I must
admit that the whole thing cost less than
$500, including the display. These days,
that’s not much of a bargain, but back then,
netbooks and sub-$300 Eee PCs were
pretty much nonexistent. Even so, I made
some mistakes with that purchase—ones
I would not make again. Take a look at the
system’s specs and you can see where I
went wrong: Dell Dimension 2400, 2.4-
GHz Celeron CPU, 128MB of RAM, Intel
Extreme Graphics Controller Integrated
(82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV/) 32MB VRAM,
Microsoft Windows XP. Got it? Right.
Even running Windows XP, this
machine did not have enough memory
or graphics power. In my defense, my
mother-in-law did little more than use
Microsoft Word and Excel, browse the
Web, and access her America Online
account. Within a month, I got a call from
“Mom.” “The PC seems slow,” she complained.
Sometime later, I was out for a
visit, checked the system, and agreed: This
thing was a dog. I spent some time clearing
her Internet cache and defragging the
hard drive. That seemed to help, somewhat.
However, with those specs, this PC
was never going to be even respectably
fast. A couple of years later, I convinced
my mother-in-law to buy additional RAM.
Since she lives hours away, someone else
installed the RAM.
But it was still a dog. My in-laws
explained that the PC had gotten to the
point where it could take a minute or more
FIRST WORD lance ulanOFF
Diary of a Slow PC
between actions. This was unacceptable.
And so, on a recent visit, I began my 4hour-plus
troubleshooting odyssey.
Windows’ Automatic Updates recommended
an upgrade to IE7 and Service
Pack 3. I ran these updates and retested
the browser. With one tab open, things
were okay. When I opened the second, the
system started to slow down a bit. When
I tried a third, I was back where I started.
Soon I had a system message that virtual
memory was running low and I needed to
close some processes. Man, this thing was
in bad shape. Since resources and processes
seemed to be the issue, I began to look at
things that always ran and were resident at
start-up. I uninstalled a bunch of unused
AOL utilities and with those eradicated, I
did another reboot. The results were the
same. Looking for other possible causes, I
noticed in the Task Manager that McAfee
security software was eating up copious
amounts of resources. So I uninstalled
McAfee and went with Norton Internet
Security 2009 instead. NIS 2009 installed
on my home PCs like a dream, but things
went a little less smoothly with Mom’s.
Initially, the installation killed the Internet
connection. I performed an uninstall and
then a reinstall and the Internet miraculously
returned. I wish I could tell you why.
My first reboot after the successful NIS
2009 install took forever, but eventually, I
was back online. With a few browser tabs
open, however, the system was no better
than it had been before. I even got the
“virtual resources low” message. I think it
was at this point that the head pressing and
muttering began. I decided to check the
system specs. The CPU seemed right, but
the RAM made me question my sometimes
faulty memory. It said 128MB of RAM. I
asked my mother-in-law about the memory
upgrade she purchased. She said it was
in there, but she couldn’t recall how much
was added. At the time, neither could I. It
was time to take radical action.
I powered the system down and
unplugged every single cable from it. After
vacuuming out unbelievable amounts
of dust and dog hair from the back vents
and an intake chamber on the front, I took
a look at the motherboard and the two
memory SIMM chips. It looked as if nei-
My failure to buy the right PC, a bad memory install,
and looking for problems in all the wrong places had
cost all of us countless wasted hours.
ther one of them was fully seated. I used
my thumbs to press one in—snap!—and
then the other—snap! I put the PC back
together, rebooted, and immediately the
system found 384MB of memory. After this
browsing was fast, easy, effortless. This
was a zippy PC.
In the end, my failure to buy the right
PC in the first place, a bad memory install,
and looking for problems in all the wrong
places had cost all of us countless wasted
hours. The lessons here are to buy the
right PC with the right specs; don’t always
assume your PC’s problem is with Windows,
malware, or apps; and always seat
memory properly (then make sure the system
recognizes it).
Now, whenever I call my mother-inlaw,
I ask how the PC’s doing. Her reply:
“It’s wonderful.”
Follow me on TwiTTer! Catch the
chief’s comments on the latest tech developments
at twitter.com/LanceUlanoff.
MARCH 2009 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION

Feed
Kudos to the Digital Edition
I’m really enjoying the digital form of the
magazine. I can pick the story I’m interested
in and enlarge it, making it much
easier to read.—Lorraine Hall
Security Thumbs Up
I just finished reading your security cover
story (“Reclaim Your Online Privacy,” February,
page 28). It is by far the most comprehensive
and informative security suite
review I have read. There are more features
to evaluate and report on than ever, and
you covered them in a well-organized and
easy-to-read way. It takes skill, judgment
and most importantly resolve to make any
technical article readable without reliance
on acronyms and terms unfamiliar to users
that are not fluent in the particular geek
speak dialect.
I have relied on reviews of this type ever
since I decided to no longer send money to
an arrogant company that thought its customer
should pay for tech support when
its product upgrades did not install properly.
I look at security suites almost every
year, since a new retail version is normally
a better deal than a service contract extension.—Don
Malchow
Where Art Thou, USB 3?
I am going to be purchasing a laptop in
the next few months. I have recently been
reading about USB 3.0 technology being
developed. When are laptops going to be
able to support USB 3.0? If I buy a laptop
soon, I don’t think I can upgrade it to USB
3.0 from 2.0 without replacing the motherboard.—Steven
Feldman
At the CES 2009, we saw a few demos of
USB 3.0 in action, meaning manufacturers
are finally testing interoperability. But getting
working ports into laptops takes longer.
Look for manufacturers to finalize the
PHYs—that’s industry slang for the physical
layer device, or the port itself—late this
summer. This means we’ll almost definitely
see discrete add-in cards at some point this
year. But it won’t be until early 2010 that
manufacturers will build the technology
into chipsets, and therefore into laptops.
Besides, by all accounts, Windows 7 won’t
support USB 3.0 at first anyway—we’ll see
what happens once it’s out of beta. So in
light of that, I wouldn’t hold off your purchase
based on this one factor.
—Jeremy Kaplan
CORRECTIONS AND AMPLIFICATIONS
In our Front Side piece “40 Years of the Mouse,” we
mistakenly identified the codeveloper of the Logitech
gyroscopic mouse. The correct company is Hillcrest
Labs.
In our December cover story, “The Best and Worst
of 2008,” we mistakenly cited the price of the HP
Photosmart Pro B8850. The correct price is $549.99
direct.
HOW TO CONTACT US We welcome your comments
and suggestions. When sending e-mail
to Feedback, please state in the subject line
which article or column prompted your response.
E-mail pcmag@pcmag.com. All letters become
the property of PC Magazine and are subject to
editing. We regret that we cannot answer letters
individually.

Front
What’s New from the World of Tech
seNdiNg a message After much debate, President Obama finally signed a stimulus bill that
ensures, among other things, money for technology so he can continue to use his BlackBerry.
Tech Gets a Cash Boot-Up
The economic stimulus act dedicates billions to technology development.
The economic stimulus package has dominated
nightly newscasts and newspaper
headlines for months. Democrats and
Republicans disagree over whether the bill
will actually boost the economy or simply
give handouts to companies that help cause
this mess. Despite the political pugilism,
the American Recovery and Reinvestment
Act of 2009 has passed, and the final version
includes some serious cash for techrelated
projects. The money invested could
have some significant long-term effects on
Photograph: Getty Images/Saul Loeb
the tech landscape—in both the public and
private sectors. So what are your tax dollars
buying tech-wise? Basically everything
from broadband grants and a $650 million
boost to the DTV program to an upgraded
electric grid and millions of dollars worth
of explosive-detection devices at airports.
Here is a more in-depth breakdown of
some of the technology projects and initiatives
that will get funding.
Access to broadband is increasingly
considered essential to competing in our
21st-century economy. The package allocates
$7.2 billion for broadband grants
and loans, split between the Department
of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service
and the National Telecommunications
and Information Administration (NTIA)
within the Commerce Department.
Agriculture must allocate at least 75
percent of its $2.5 billion to rural areas
without sufficient access to broadband,
and these grants must be open-access. The
NTIA will also get $350 million to track
MARCH 2009 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION

oadband availability and develop a Webbased
broadband inventory map.
Although the DTV transition has been
delayed until June (see the story below),
the stimulus act allocates an additional
$650 million for the converter box coupon
program. About $90 million of that total
can be used for education and outreach
efforts.
Also, research funding for technology
and other fields will get a nice boost (in
an effort to keep math and science Ph.D
graduates in the country), including $1 billion
for NASA, $3 billion for the National
Science Foundation, $2 billion for science
research within the Department of Energy,
and $220 million for research and grants
at the National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST) within Commerce.
As for security technology, if you enjoy
those machines at the airport that puff
air at you to detect explosives, there are
more on the way. The Homeland Security
Department gets more than a billion
PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION MARCH 2009
frontside
for border and airport security technologies,
as well as for nonintrusive detection
technology at seaports. There is also more
money to repair and construct inspection
facilities at land borders and to purchase
explosive-detection systems.
We at PCMag are always reminding
readers of the importance of backing up
your data. Well, Uncle Sam is also getting
the message. At the State Department,
the bill allocates $290 million for imme-
Falling Off the Digital Cliff
diate information technology security
and upgrades to support mission-critical
operations. Of that, about $38 million will
go toward the creation of backup information-management
facilities to protect the
systems from mission failures, enhance
cybersecurity, and secure immediate hardware
and software upgrades
Don’t forget about $4.5 billion to give
our electrical grid a makeover.
Digitizing health records is also a hotbutton
issue these days. Well, the stimulus
package will help make that a reality with
about $2 billion for health information
technology (HIT), including establishing
a national HIT coordinator.
And in case you think the government
forgot about the children, the stimulus
package also sets aside $650 million for the
Enhancing Education through Technology
program. In addition, $50 million has been
divested to state-level Internet Crimes
Against Children (ICAC) initiatives.
—Chloe Albanesius
Even with a converter box, some will be left out in the cold after the DTV switchover.
As we know, the transition from analog
to digital TV has been delayed from
February 17 to June 12. The delay is
meant to allow extra time for consumers
to get their converter boxes and for
the government to implement its transition
programs, including the coupons
for those boxes and the recycling of the
thousands (and maybe even millions)
of TVs that will be thrown away.
One issue that is still unresolved
is that of the “digital cliff.” In a nutshell,
a digital cliff means no TV signal
(regardless of whether you have a converter
box) for those in rural areas or
who live a great distance from a digital
broadcast station. With analog, a weak
signal means low quality, but a weak
digital signal means a blank screen.
The digital cliff has not been widely reported, and it’s an issue
the FCC has not, according to many, addressed effectively. At DTV
.gov, for example, you can find information about antenna adapters,
but there are no diagrams or maps that explain how a DTV
signal works or how far the signal travels.
“At this point, our estimates are that 5.1 percent of U.S. TV households
are unprepared, which is about 5.8 million households,” says
Anne Elliot, a vice president at The Nielsen Company. Elliot says
that a DTV signal travels in a different kind of contour from analog
In addition to security
and infrastructure, the
stimulus act includes
some serious cash for
tech-related projects.
and either finds a receiver or doesn’t.
Nielsen defines as “unprepared”
a household that does not have any
TVs capable of receiving a digital signal
after the transition. Nielsen uses
a representative sampling of 35,000
households to derive its estimates. The
company issued a readiness alert in January
stating that the elderly with more
disposable income are more ready for
DTV than those under 55
Nielsen also found that the top six
least-prepared cities were Albuquerque,
Houston, Tulsa, Dallas-Ft. Worth,
Austin, and Memphis. The most prepared
market is the Hartford-New
Haven area of Connecticut, because
of the proliferation of cable TV access
in that region. Of course, Nielsen does
not track small communities such as Ames, Iowa, or remote locations
in Montana or Minnesota. Households in rural areas will
likely not get digital reception after the transition even if they own
a converter box, which could cause a problem for retailers trying
to sell DTV antennas.
“Our advice for people in rural areas is to buy an upgraded
antenna and to test digital reception now, before the transition,”
says Mary Diamond, an FCC spokesperson. She declined to
elaborate.—John Brandon
Illustration by Alex Eben Meyer

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geArlog
Csi stick: a Jealous Lover’s Best Friend
The Paraben CSI Stick ($199) plugs into a cell phone
and lets the user pull off all the phone’s “forensic
data,” including the phone book, text messages,
camera-phone images, call logs—everything.
The Stick can even retrieve text messages
that have been deleted by the phone’s
owner. Terrifying! The CSI Stick comes
with replaceable heads that can be
used with a number of cell-phone
models; it is available at
Paraben’s site.—Brian Heater
seCurity WAtCh
security Vendors Offer Windows 7 Protection
Just because you’re running a beta operating system doesn’t mean you can
go without security protection. In fact, Windows 7 will nag you to install
security and point specifically to security providers AVG, Kaspersky, and
Symantec. Kaspersky has announced a prototype of its antivirus app for
Windows 7, and Symantec also offers a free beta of Norton 3 0 Version 3
to those running Windows 7 beta.—Larry Seltzer
goodCleAnteCh
Recompute makes a Computer Out of Cardboard
While most “green” computers focus on reduced
energy consumption or using bioplastic, this one
goes off the usual course and uses something
else as a material for the desktop’s build. Recompute,
as you can clearly see, utilizes layers of
recyclable and renewable corrugated cardboard.
According to its designer, there are four low-
impact steps in making this computer—die cutting,
gluing parts with nontoxic glue, printing,
and assembling the electronic parts. There’s no
plastic or metal anywhere in the chassis besides
what’s in the electronic components. And yes, it’s
a real working computer.—Mariella Moon
@Work
Polycom Launches High-Res Videoconferencing
Polycom recently introduced the QDX 000 ($3,999) widescreen videoconferencing system
for enterprise-level businesses. The QDX 000 features DVD-quality video that can maintain
high resolutions even when operating over low bandwidths. Its video signal operates at 30
frames per second, uses Polycom’s Lost Packet Recovery (LPR), and can take input from up to
five video sources.—Mario Morejon
www.r-tt.com/pcmag001.
www.r-tt.com/pcmag001.

Best
of the Internet
myFOLiO
MyFolio is an online
community of artists
in which you can easily
upload and share media,
create your own blog,
and create galleries to
showcase your talent.
The free account offers
1GB of storage space
and imposes a limit of
100MB per file uploaded.—Alan
Henry
LasT FReeWaRe
VeRsiON
With Last Freeware Version,
you can find older
versions of some of your
favorite applications
when they were free and
roll back to when the
app didn’t cost money
to use. In addition to
some popular programs,
Last Freeware
Version keeps a number
of smaller, lesser-known
applications.—AH
CLeRkdOgs
Clerkdogs is a Web
service that contains
hundreds of thousands
of movie recommendations
from video-store
clerks. Enter the name
of a movie you like and
the service will return a
list of other movies you
might also enjoy.—AH
For more cool Web sites
and handy utilities and
apps, visit PC Magazine’s
blog AppScout (www
.appscout.com).
PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION MARCH 2009
frontside
ConneCted tr Aveler
Find the Right GPS for Your Travels
Here’s the quickest route to the best GPS device.
geT THeRe iN sTyLe GPS models like the
Navigon 2200T and Garmin nüvi 755T have big
screens and millions of maps.
Now that gas prices have come back down to
earth, it’s a lot easier to get behind the wheel again.
So, whether that means you’re commuting to
work again or you’re finally taking that road trip,
a GPS device can help keep you on track. Today’s
navigators, though, can do a lot more than just get
you from point A to point B. There are units on
the market that will help you sidestep traffic, find
a great new restaurant, or even make hands-free
cell-phone calls.
The nuts and bolts of picking the right GPS
are fairly straightforward. Start by selecting your
screen size and onboard maps, and tack on the
additional features that you need (or want) from
there. As far as screens go, you can find ones with
big displays (like the 5-inch magellan maestro
5310, $599 street, l l l h m ) or small (like the 3.5inch
Navigon 2200T, $229 list, l l l l m ), but most
devices these days feature 4.3-inch displays (like
CHeaP TRiP The
V7 NAV740 is our
Editors’ Choice
for budget GPSs.
the inexpensive, entry-level Nextar Q4 ($249.99
list, l l l h m ), which are perfect for most people.
Every GPS will also have a points-of-interest
(POI) database to help locate landmarks, hotels,
restaurants, and other attractions along your
route, in a particular city, or at your destination.
On average, you can expect a GPS to pack a few
million POIs. The magellan maestro 4350 ($500
street, l l l l m ) has six million, for example. On
top of that, several systems tack on extra goodies:
Navigon’s high-end 7200T includes onboard Zagat
guides and 3D landmark views, and Magellan’s
Maestro devices include AAA Tourbook listings.
A vital part of getting where you’re going is
avoiding obstacles, like traffic jams and tickets,
along the way. Some systems have speed-limit
alerts and traffic-camera detectors in addition to
live traffic updates, which can help you sidestep
congestion. The garmin nüvi 755T($499.99 list,
l l l l h ) for example, includes subscription-free
live traffic updates provided by Navteq. Many
models, like the sony NV-U94T nav-u ($299.99
list, l l h m m ) include built-in traffic receivers and
come with trial subscriptions that let you test the
service for free.
Aside from navigation tools and other extras,
you can find a host of multimedia features in many
GPS units. Our budget Editors’ Choice model, the
V7 NaV740 ($299.99 list, l l l l m ) has a media
player that supports most common music, photo,
and video formats. A few other, typically higherend
devices, including the Magellan 4350 and the
Navigon 8100T ($599.99 list, l l l h m ), can also
connect to your Bluetooth-enabled cell phone so
that you can make hands-free calls through the
GPS.—Corinne Iozzio

First
our ratIngs kEy: l l l l l eXceLLent l l l l l m VerY Good l l l l m m Good l l l m m m fair l l m m m m Poor
Microsoft Windows 7 Beta 1
free
not rated
Pros smaller disk and memory
footprint. faster startup/shutdown.
stable. Less intrusive. taskbar
icons more flexible. Working
with external hardware is easier.
Multitouch support. nice-looking
new eye candy.
Cons Maintains registry and
some other Windows baggage.
start-up times not faster than
Vista’s in this beta.
Click here for more.
Microsoft WindoWs 7 Beta 1
The Beta Debut of Windows 7
Let’s get something straight: The just-released
Microsoft Windows 7 Beta 1 retains much of Vista’s
kernel architecture, as will the final version. But the
new OS is more compact than Vista, has an updated
interface, and builds in better networking capability.
It also includes some cool advances, such as
multitouch support and a redesigned taskbar with
movable buttons. You can put the beta on as many
machines as you like, but you can’t use it for real
business purposes, and it expires in August 2009.
Though the interface has its own new look, Vista
users won’t have much to learn. Even upgrading XP
users will have little trouble, but neither will they be
able to cling to the past. There’s no XP emulation
theme in Windows 7, as there is in Vista. The taskbar
has the most noticeable changes, with taller buttons
and the choice to combine multiple docs/windows
in one app or keep separate. The buttons glow
when you hover the mouse over them and show a
preview thumbnail of open docs. Also, the Libraries
folder-arrangement system let you group related
files—regardless of their location. Windows 7 is also
optimized for touch-screen systems.
Some other noteworthy features in Windows 7
relate to hardware and networking. Device Stage is
a feature that, when you plug in a cell phone or other
device, pops up a screen specific to that device with
options, including syncing. (However, this feature
relies heavily on the device manufacturers providing
Microsoft with the necessary data.) When you join
a wireless network with Windows 7, you can choose
to set it as home, work, or public. When you choose
the first, you can create a HomeGroup. That way, you
can specify libraries and devices to share, as well as
migrate settings to your home environment.
Although the licensing agreement for Windows
7 beta prevents me from publishing benchmark
test results, I can say informally that in a couple of
months of running the pre-beta and a short period
of heavy-duty testing on beta 1, I have yet to see anything
remotely resembling a crash. I have, however,
encountered occasional error dialogs. As far as recommending
Windows 7, we’ll have to wait to see how
the pricing and final code bears out. But for those
who like to tinker, I definitely recommend taking a
look at the future of Windows.—Michael Muchmore
InsIDE
9 Software
13 Hardware
17 Business
20 Consumer
Electronics
MarcH 2009 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 9

10 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION MARCH 2009
first looks softWArE
The Best Tax Tools of 2009
This year, more than any other, you want to save every penny you can on taxes.
One of these top-notch tax packages can help. By Kathy Yakal
TaxACT 2008 Deluxe
Edition
Deluxe Federal, $12.95
direct; State, $13.95;
Ultimate Bundle (Federal
and State), $19.95
l l l h m
PROS Very affordable.
Simple, understandable
interface. Screen toggles
for help options. Free
support. Good up-front
preparation.
CONS Help language
could be simplified and
more context-sensitive.
Could use FAQs and less
white space.
Click here for more.
Although doing your taxes is never an enjoyable
experience, the good news is that the 2008 tax code
includes changes that may save you money. Some
new perks include a new first-time homebuyer
credit, an increase in the standard mileage rate, and
lowered taxes for many investors, to name a few.
The better news is that the new editions of the top
tax-preparation packages include these changes. To
save you even more money, it turns out that choosing
one of these suites may not cost you a dime. A
partnership between the IRS and the Free File Alliance
LLC (an organization of several private-sector
tax software companies) provides free access to
online versions—minus some of the more advanced
capabilities—of the companies’ tax software. If you
meet the criteria outlined at IRS.gov, you’ll be able
to prepare and file your taxes online at no charge
through the IRS Free File program.
If you don’t qualify, or want the extra features, you
have a lot of options. Overall, the three tax packages
we review have not changed drastically. Those new
to tax-prep programs will find what veterans already
know: These programs are easier to navigate than
most software. All the products reviewed here use a
question-and-answer interview approach to collect
the necessary personal and financial information
TAkE yOuR PiCk
As you enter information
in TaxACT’s
main working
screen, you can
select from guidance
options on the
horizontal tab.
from you. They also break the 1040 down into manageable
bits and take you through them in a pretty
natural order. They have you provide personal information,
and then launch into sections where you
enter your income and deductions. And though you
can often file federal taxes for free, you usually have
to pay for a state filing (typically less than $20). In the
long run, the money is well spent to get the highest
refund (or lowest payout) and avoid an audit.
TaxACT 2008 Deluxe Edition
For years, TaxACT has been the tax program of
choice for the budget-conscious. It lacks some of
the bells and whistles of the premium services but
is significantly cheaper than TurboTax and TaxCut.
In the areas it covers, it’s a strong competitor. The
biggest change this year is the addition of a tool to
help you determine the fair market value of noncash
charitable contributions. There’s also a new
customer import report, and overview screens for
income, deductions, and credits. The average filer
will probably want more help, but if you can handle
1040s and other forms without the additional support,
this is the app for you.
On pages that require data entry, TaxACT uses
a split screen. The question-and-answer fields are

iNvESTmENTS iNCluDED TaxCut also asks you
questions about stock market–related transactions
and calculates your tax obligation.
positioned above, with several help options in a
tabbed window that can be toggled below. Neither
TurboTax nor TaxCut employs a split screen; they
position help tools elsewhere.
With TaxACT, the tax interview questions are
thorough and clear, but the program lacks some of
the navigational guides that make TurboTax and
TaxCut superior. Nonetheless, TaxACT’s interface
is simple, fast, attractive—and works in much the
same way as those of its competitors. For the cashstrapped,
TaxACT is certainly an acceptable option.
H&R Block TaxCut Premium
Year after year, H&R Block continues to publish an
exceptional personal tax-preparation program with
excellent help tools and audit support. This year,
the big news is a $20 price drop from last year (with
the package I reviewed, Premium Federal + State +
E-File). With TaxCut you get one help session with
an H&R Block tax professional covering one topic,
audit support, and the additional programs WILL-
Power and Deduction Pro. Not even TurboTax can
match H&R Block in terms of sheer bang for the
buck this year. But is the core TaxCut program the
best personal tax-preparation program for 2008?
Not quite. Given that the old paper and snail-mail
system still works just fine, the most important thing
a software and e-filing approach can offer (besides a
faster refund) is ease of use, and that means a better
UI and better help. TaxCut trails TurboTax a bit on
both counts. For example, TaxCut’s interface has
too much white space, which means extra pages and
tedious extra mouse clicks to go from page to page.
Also, TurboTax puts more help resources within
reach during the process. However, TaxCut oversees
the review of your return just as well as the competition.
Though TaxCut is an excellent bargain and a
solid package, TurboTax is still the best choice if you
want the most thorough, well-guided, elegant taxpreparation
experience available for the desktop.
BEST Of BOTH wORlDS TurboTax lets you see
your answers as a split screen with the Step-by-
Step questions above.
TurboTax Premier 2008
TurboTax and H&R Block’s TaxCut wage a mighty
battle in the premium personal tax-preparation software
market every year, with TaxACT mopping up
the more budget-conscious and knowledgeable
filers. This year, the outcome is the same as in recent
years: TurboTax is our Editors’ Choice. Though
TaxCut wins points for its more reasonable pricing
and remains a formidable foe in terms of functionality,
it hasn’t evolved as skillfully as TurboTax has.
Both premium apps continue to do a commendable
job of exploding the 1040 into palatable chunks
that can be more easily digested and processed, but
TurboTax—the more versatile of the two, especially
in the Premier version—takes apart complex topics
and eases you through them with a greater variety of
at-the-ready guidance.
TurboTax’s designers have put together an application
that’s—arguably—as elegant and deft as any
in the universe of desktop productivity applications,
though it runs a bit more slowly than the competition.
Granted, a program’s interface is just window
dressing if it isn’t backed up with solid innards, but
TurboTax has that in spades, too. TaxCut’s look is
old in comparison, and that detracts from what is a
very capable program. TurboTax does a better job
of using screen space, whereas TaxCut displays too
much empty real estate, which leads to more clicking.
TaxACT’s UI falls somewhere in the middle—
better overall than TaxCut’s, but not in the same
league as TurboTax’s. This package saves time by
letting you import W-2 info directly from employers
who use ADP, Paychex, and ProBusiness, as well
as import tax-related income and expenses directly
from Quicken 2007–2009 and major financial institutions.
In a nutshell, TurboTax Premier 2008 provides
the most cohesive, intuitive, well-designed
tax-preparation experience out there, with more
understandable and accessible help than the competition
offers.
H&R Block TaxCut
Premium
$49.95 direct
l l l l m
PROS Deep search tool.
Excellent walk-through
of 1040. Expanded
explanations within
questions. Good help
and audit support.
CONS Too many screens
displaying too little
information. Help is not
always context-sensitive.
Dull interface.
Click here for more.
TurboTax Premier
2008
Premier, $89.95 direct;
Deluxe, $59.95
l l l l h
PROS Direct
import from
Quicken. Elegant
interface. Good
breakdown of
complex topics. Best
combination of help
tools, some contentsensitive.
Thorough
coverage of tax topics.
CONS Price of state
e-file ($34.95). Slow.
Click here for more.
MARCH 2009 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 11

first looks software
Quick looks
Visit pcmag.com for the full reviews of these and scores of other software products.
RED indicates Editors’ Choice. PROS CONS BOTTOM LINE
MOBILE APPS (iPHONE)
Spore Origins
$6.99 direct
l l l m m
MobileFiles Pro
$9.99 direct
l l l m m
eReader 1.3
Free
l l l h m
Stanza
Free
L l l l m
Photogene
$2.99 direct
L l l l h
CameraBag 1.4
$2.99 direct
L l l l m
SECURITY
DigitalPersona Personal 4.0
With U.are.U fingerprint reader,
$69.95 direct; without, $29.95;
fingerprint-based file encryption,
$14.95 additional
l l l l m
a-squared
Anti-Malware 4.0
$39.95 direct
l l m m m
Lavasoft Anti-Virus Helix
$23.95 direct
L l l h m
CA Internet Security
Suite Plus 2009
$79.99 direct
l l m m m
MUSIC
Slacker for BlackBerry
Basic, free; Slacker Premium
Radio, $7.50 monthly
L l l l h
• Easy for casual gamers to pick up
• Fun creature editor
• Full editing of Excel 2003 docs
• Transfers files to and from desktops via Wi-Fi
• Allows access to MobileMe files
• Free
• Flexible text formatting
• Good interface defaults
• Easy bookmarking
• Free
• Flexible text formatting
• Large free library available
• All major e-book file formats accepted
• Converts text, Web, and PDF documents
• Good range of editing tools
• Pleasant interface
• Responsive controls
• Many features
• Scales to the iPhone’s full resolution
• Converts images to any of nine classic or
creative photo styles
• Easy to preview images and save them in
multiple styles
• Four image resolutions
• Effective touch-style fingerprint reader
• Fingerprint log-in to Windows
• Manages username/password credentials for
Web sites and programs
• Checks for strong passwords
• Blocked every malware sample from launching
• Warns of malware-like behaviors
• Community-based alert reduction limits pop-up
queries
• Antivirus engine is highly praised by independent
labs
• Very effective at preventing installation of
non-virus malware
• Successfully removed many non-virus malware
infestations
• Advanced program control blocks “leak tests”
• Browser-independent parental control
• Firewall stealths all ports
• Prevents accidental transmission of user-
defined private data
• Includes system migration tool
• Streaming Internet Radio
• Station caching
• All the functionality of Slacker.com
• Free
12 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION MARCH 2009
• Game play is repetitive on most levels
• Evolutionary stages are limited to undersea
adaptation
• No Word document editing
• No cut-and-paste
Spore Origins gives you a taste of the PC version of
this evolution game, including the ability to add new
elements to your creatures. Unfortunately, the repetitive
levels of play that this iPhone title offers could
stand a little more diversity.
Business iPhone users will welcome the ability to
edit Excel spreadsheets and easily transfer them
over Wi-Fi to and from desktop systems. But if you’re
a serious spreadsheet jockey, you should stick with
Mobile Excel.
• Getting new books is harder than it should be The eReader does a decent job of presenting books
on your iPhone, and the dictionary option is handy,
but acquiring reading matter needs to be easier, and
the software should support more file formats.
• No undo
• Highlighting text for cutting and copying is a
bit awkward
• Can’t edit Office docs
• Can’t shoot photos from within app
• Tiny, crowded mode buttons
• Effects are strictly photographic
• Can’t tweak images beyond setting the basic
style
• Somewhat crash-prone
• Must save account credentials manually
• No user-defined names for accounts
• No automatic generation of strong passwords
• Lacks sharing and true reporting features
• Identified several perfectly valid programs as
malware
• Did a poor job of cleaning up malware
• Disabled two test systems by quarantining
Windows Explorer
• Rootkit protection is turned off by default
• Needs to work alongside an antispyware
product for comprehensive protection
• Full scan is interrupted by pop-up queries by
default
• Advanced program control damages valid
programs
• Big performance drag
• Antivirus not highly rated by independent labs
• Poor malware removal and blocking
• Backup very rudimentary
• Slow to load streaming stations
• Requires BlackBerry OS 4.3 or later
With support for a broad range of content, Stanza is
the most versatile e-book application for the iPhone.
The scope of Photogene’s editing tools—which
include many that other iPhone photo-editing apps
lack—makes this a very appealing app.
Whether you’re a nostalgia buff, a photography
student, or just someone who wants to spruce up your
iPhone photos, the easy-to-use CameraBag lets you
remake your images in various photographic styles.
DigitalPersona Personal 4.0 stores, applies, and rates
your passwords. Both the password manager and its
associated fingerprint reader are attractive and easy
to use. DigitalPersona offers fingerprint-based Windows
log-in and an extra-cost file encryption module.
a-squared’s near-perfect malware blocking performance
is tainted by its erroneous identification of
valid programs as malware. In testing, it did a poor
job of cleaning up infested systems. You can get
better protection for the same price with Webroot or
Spyware Doctor.
The Avira engine that powers Lavasoft’s stand-alone
antivirus is surprisingly effective against non-virus
malware types, but it still needs to work alongside an
antispyware solution for comprehensive protection.
There’s little to love in this Frankenstein’s monster
of a suite. Patched together from many separate
mediocre tools, it put the biggest drag on system
performance of any suite tested. Save ten bucks and
get Norton’s suite (or Trend Micro’s) instead.
With easy, free, customizable Internet radio, this app
delivers on the multimedia promises that so often are
made in BlackBerry’s television commercials.

Sony VAIO VGC-JS130J/P
$1,099.99 list
l l l l m
PROS Compact all-in-one
PC. Vista Premium. Cheaper
and better equipped
than the base iMac and
other all-in-one PCs. Range
of colors to choose from. 4GB of
memory. 500GB hard drive.
CONS Wired keyboard and mouse
spoil sleek lines. Some crapware.
no back button on the mouse.
Weak integrated graphics.
Short (91-day) trial Internet
security subscription.
Click here for more.
Sony VAIo VGC-JS130J/P
An iMac Killer—At Last
As netbooks are doing to the laptop markets, all-inone
PCs are causing rapid evolution among desktops.
This new VAIO all-in-one is a prime example
of that progression. It’s better equipped for the real
world than the bare-bones iMac—and costs $99 less.
The JS130J/P (like its JS190J/B sibling) has a cutting-edge
design that would look right at home on
the set of a science-fiction film. The screen is bright
and clear, suitable for both browsing photos and
watching online and DVD videos. The keyboard is
comfortable to use, but the mouse feels a bit flimsy
and lacks a back button. Also, a wireless keyboard
and mouse would have been nice here. This VAIO
is $400 cheaper than (the JS190J/B) because it lacks
a Blu-ray drive and has a slightly slower processor.
That said, the JS130J/P’s dual-core Pentium E5200 is
still plenty for day-to-day tasks, and its 4GB of RAM
and 500GB hard drive is the same as the JS190J/B’s.
The JS130J/P’s performance is akin to that of
its more expensive brother: It’s very good at multimedia
tasks like photo editing and video encoding,
but abysmal at 3D. The JS130J/P finished the Windows
Media Encoder test in a decent 1 minute 13
first looks hardware
seconds (slower than the JS190J/B, which took 52
seconds) and a speedy 32 seconds on the Photoshop
CS3 test (only 6 seconds slower than the JS190J/B).
While the JS190J is faster, it’s not a lot faster. Apart
from being loaded down with crapware, the JS130J/
P tops its competition by a slim margin, achieving
our Editors’ Choice award.—Joel Santo Domingo
Spec data: 2.5-GHz Intel Pentium E5200 processor; 4GB,
800-MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 500GB, 7,200-rpm SATA hard
drive; integrated Mobile Intel GMAX4500HD graphics;
dual-layer DVD±RW drive; integrated 20.1-inch widescreen
LCD monitor; five USB 2.0 ports; one FireWire/
i.Link port; integrated stereo speakers; Windows Vista
Home Premium 64-bit.
PERFORMANCE TESTS
L High scores are best.
M Low scores are best.
Bold type denotes first place.
3D TESTS MULTIMEDIA TESTS
3DMArk06 L
1,920 x 1,200*
CInEBEnCH
r10 L
WInDoWS
MEDIA
EnCoDEr M
min:sec
Sony VAIO VGC-JS130J/P n/A 4,974 1:13 0:32
Sony VAIO VGC-JS190J/B n/A 6,221 0:52 0:26
Apple iMac (24-inch Penryn) 1,859 5,842 1:03 0:30
PHoToSHoP
CS3 ACTIon
SET M
min:sec
RED denotes Editors’ Choice. n/A—not applicable: The product could not complete this test. *Anti-aliasing/anisotropic filtering was set to 4X.
MARCH 2009 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 13

Canon Pixma MP980 Wireless Photo
All-In-One Printer
$299.99 direct
l l l l m
Pros High-quality photos. scans and prints
from 35mm film. network and Wi-Fi support.
Built-in duplexer.
Cons no fax support. Clumsy network
installation. Can’t set network support to
accept both wired and wireless connections.
Click here for more.
ViewSonic N2201w
$430 street
l l l h m
Pros Built-in DVD player and tV tuner. solid light
grayscale reproduction. Good audio output.
Cons Very weak dark-gray performance. stiff stand
with limited adjustability. some backlight bleed.
Click here for more.
14 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION MARCH 2009
first looks HArDWArE
CAnon PixMA MP980 WiReless PHoto All-in-one PRinteR
Wireless Home Photo Lab
Supreme
As Canon’s replacement for the Editors’ Choice Pixma MP970, the
Pixma MP980 has a lot to live up to. The MP970 had the distinction
of printing great-looking photos while being far less expensive
than any of its competition. The MP980 carries on in that tradition,
earning an Editors’ Choice of its own.
In some ways, the MP980 is a straightforward update to the
MP970, sharing most of the same features. It can print, scan, copy,
and e-mail. It can both scan and print directly from 35mm slides
and strips of film, and print directly from PictBridge cameras and
memory cards (but not USB keys). The two models even share the
same lack of office-centric features, with no automatic document
feeder (ADF) or fax support.
Despite all these similarities, however, the MP980 also differs
from the MP970 in important ways, most notably in its ink system.
The MP970 used seven inks, and the MP980 uses six. The result
is slightly slower speeds for the MP980 and impressively betterlooking
monochrome photos. For example, the MP980 scored 16
minutes 25 seconds on our business application suite, compared
with the MP970’s 15:58. But photos printed on the MP980 are near
professional photo labs output, with pictures that are suitable for
framing. So, like its predecessor, the MP980 has some room for
improvement, but its flaws are forgivable.— M. David Stone
VieWsoniC n2201W
A Versatile 22-Inch
HDTV/Monitor
Designed for use in tight spaces, the N2201w is ideal for a dorm
room, studio apartment, or home office. This versatile 22-inch
HDTV/monitor hybrid sports a variety of entertainment features,
including a built-in DVD player and a digital TV tuner, but its dark
grayscale performance is lacking.
The 1,680-by-1,050-resolution panel is perched atop a sturdy
oval base. The 3-watt speakers embedded in the lower bezel are
a cut above the usual underpowered speakers found on displays.
A slot-loading DVD player with five control buttons is integrated
into the left-hand side of the cabinet.
While in PC mode, you can adjust contrast, brightness, and
sharpness, as well as toggle among four Picture modes (though I
recommend sticking with the Standard setting). In general, I was
impressed with the N2201w’s performance as a PC monitor. It did a
very good job of reproducing the lightest shades of gray on the DisplayMate
64-Step Grayscale test. Colors were bold and uniform at
the high end of the scale. The panel had a difficult time displaying
the darkest shades of gray, however, making the deepest reds and
blues darker than they should be. For video, the L2201w showed a
sharp picture, with no apparent jaggies or artifacts.
Despite a couple of flaws, this LCD is a good deal for a display
that pulls double duty as a PC monitor and an HDTV/DVD player
combo.—John R. Delaney

Gateway FX6800-01e
$1,249.99 list
L l l l m
PROS Good expandability.
external hard drive bays
work with off-the-shelf SAtA
drives. Plays Crysis yet costs
less than $1,300. CrossFirecapable
motherboard.
CONS expansion limited by the
included 500w power supply.
Crapware. Plastics could be better.
64-bit OS doesn’t make sense with
only 3GB. Only a 60-day trial of
Norton 360.
Click here for more.
GAtewAy FX6800-01e
Power-Packed
Budget Gaming Rig
The Gateway FX6800-01e is clearly going after the
gamer on a budget. It’s a bit more expensive than
sub-$800 gaming boxes like the Cyberpower Gamer
Ultra SLI Basic, but this Gateway system can play
today’s games a whole lot better.
The FX6800-01e is equipped with the quad-core
Intel i7-920, a Hyper-Threading chip that is capable
of processing up to eight streams simultaneously.
This system is also equipped with a single 512MB
ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics card. The FX6800-
01e’s chassis includes a pair of externally accessible
hard-drive sleds, so you can easily add up to two
SATA hard drives without opening the side door. If
you do open the case, you can also fit another hard
drive, optical drive, a PCIe x4 card, another PCIe
x16 graphics card, and three more RAM sticks. You
can also configure this system for RAID 0, 1, 5, and
1+0 with multiple hard drives. One complaint: Why
install 64-bit Vista when the system comes with only
3GB of memory?
Like other Gateway computers, the FX6800-01e
has some crapware on it. There’s the usual 60-day
trial of Microsoft Office and the 60-day trial of Norton
360. There’s other stuff, too, like ads for eBay,
Napster, and ISPs. All this junk can make a system
unstable, so for optimum results, you may want to
reinstall the OS fresh.
first looks HArDWArE
In terms of performance, this system turned in a
respectable 58 frames per second (fps) on Crysis at
1,280-by-1,024, and a very smooth 70 fps on World
in Conflict (WiC) at the same resolution. These
numbers are similar to those of gaming rigs that
cost over $700 more. The FX6800-01e is also very
speedy on multimedia tasks: 37 seconds for Windows
Media Encoder and 26 seconds for Photoshop
are impressive even for a quad-core system. All this
makes FX6800-01e a performance bargain—and an
Editors’ Choice.—Joel Santo Domingo
Spec data: 2.66-GHz Intel Core i7-920 processor, 3GB
1066-MHz DDR3 SDRAM, 750GB 7,200-rpm SATA hard
drive, 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics card, duallayer
DVD±RW drive, eight USB 2.0 ports, two FireWire
ports, two eSATA ports, Gateway stereo speakers,
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit.
PERFORMANCE TESTS
L High scores are best.
M Low scores are best.
Bold type denotes first place.
3DMark06 L
1,280 x 1,024*
MULTIMEDIa TESTS GaMING TESTS
WINDoWS
MEDIa
ENcoDEr M
min:sec
PHoToSHoP
cS3 M
min:sec
crySIS L
1,280 x 1,024*
Gateway FX6800-01e 12,521 0:37 0:26 58 70
Acer Aspire Predator G7700 13,497 0:41 0:25 57 67
Cyberpower Gamer Ultra SLI Basic 4,260 1:07 0:46 9 10
rED denotes Editors’ choice. * anti-aliasing/anisotropic filtering was set to 0X.
WorLD IN
coNfLIcT L
1,280 x 1,024*
MARCH 2009 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 15

first looks hardware
Quick looks
Visit pcmag.com for the full reviews of these and scores of other hardware products.
RED indicates Editors’ Choice. PROS CONS BOTTOM LINE SPECS
DESKTOPS
LAPTOPS
DISPLAYS
STORAGE
PROJECTORS
DATA TRANSFER
Velocity Micro
Edge Z55
$3,834 direct,
$4,133 with
22-inch widescreen
LCD monitor
l l l h m
Acer Aspire
6930G-6723
$1,020 street
l l l l h
ASUS EeePC
1002HA
$499 list
l l l l m
Dell Studio
XPS 16
$1,804 direct
l l l l h
Sony
Lifestyle PC
(VGN-588EQ)
$1,199 direct
l l l h m
ASUS LS221H
$349 list
l l l m m
OWC Mercury
On-The-Go
(320GB)
$179.99 direct
l l l h m
Samsung P400
$550 street
l l l l m
Clickfree
Transformer
Cable
$60 list
l l l l m
16 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION MARCH 2009
• Speedy gaming and multimedia
performance
• Expandability
• Attractive styling and neat
interior
• No crapware
• Blu-ray reader
• Blu-ray reader included
• Unbeatable price
• Good performance scores
• Good graphics card
• Terrific typing experience
• Generous feature set
• Gunmetal casing
• Included overclocking software
• 92 percent keyboard
• Excellent battery life
• Bright 10-inch widescreen
• Under $500
• Strikingly gorgeous design
• Blu-ray reader included
• Vibrant 16-inch widescreen
• Illuminated keyboard
• HDMI and DisplayPort
• High-capacity battery is
available
• Incredibly light
• 8-inch widescreen LED is first
of its kind
3G wireless is standard
• Two memory card slots
• Pre-boot Linux environment is a
nice addition
• Slim cabinet
• Good motion performance
• Good text readability
• Bus-powered
• Speedy FireWire 800 interface
• Comes HFS+ formatted (good
for Macs)
• Comes with all cables and a
carrying case
• Highly portable
• Unexpectedly bright
• Surprisingly high audio volume
• LED light source with 20,000hour
lifetime
• No configuration necessary
• No installation needed
• One of the most user-friendly
backup methods we’ve tested
• Works with any USB hard drive
or USB key
• Can support multiple computers
• At lower resolutions, it performs
not much better than a $1,200
gaming system
• A little loud
• Nearly $4,000 is a lot of money
The Z55 brings Intel’s Core i7
to a high-performance gaming
system. Though not quite as
expensive as the systems in the
$5K club, its performance is
certainly competitive with those
in the upper strata.
• A bit bulky Equipped with a Blu-ray drive
and generous performance parts
for under $1,000, the 6930G has
regained the Editors’ Choice accolade
for best value media center
laptop that its predecessor lost.
• Lacks a six-cell battery
• Could use more features
Its metallic finish makes the
1002HA the most attractive netbook
to date, and its performance
doesn’t disappoint. However,
it could use some help in the
features department.
• Could be lighter The XPS 16 delivers a lavish
media center experience with
a unique design, home-theater
features, and a vibrant RGB LED
widescreen.
• Mouse buttons are adjacent to
the touchpad
• Poor dark grayscale performance
• Lacks multimedia features
• Tilt-only stand
• Comes HFS+ formatted (bad
for PCs)
• Backup software on CD
• Physically a bit larger than the
competition
• Pricey per GB
• Doesn’t handle video well—loses
details in dark areas
• Relatively noticeable rainbow
effect
• No Mac compatibility
• You need to buy storage
separately
• File backups only
• May not work with some USB
hubs
The Sony Lifestyle PC is a magnificently
designed device with a
solid set of features, but performance
can be limiting if you’re
using it as a primary laptop.
The LS221H is an attractive
22-inch display with a slim profile
and a fast pixel response. But
its flaws include the inability to
reproduce dark shades of gray.
The Mercury is a speedy (7,200rpm)
SATA notebook-class hard
drive that works with USB or
FireWire power (for a Mac or a
PC) and doesn’t require a power
adapter.
The P400 isn’t the lightest projector,
or the smallest, but it delivers
a surprisingly bright image and
high-volume audio in a highly
portable package.
With the Clickfree cable, making
Windows-based document backups
is finally as easy as plugging
in a power cord.
2.93-GHz Intel Core i7-940; 6GB
1,333-MHz DDR3 SDRAM; two
150GB, 10,000-rpm SATA hard
drives (RAID 0); two 1GB ATI
Radeon graphics cards; duallayer
DVD±RW drive; Vista Home
Premium.
2.0-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5800;
4GB DDR2 SDRAM; 320GB, 5,400rpm
hard drive; 256MB nVidia
GeForce 9600M GS graphics;
16-inch display; 7.2 pounds (8.3
pounds travel); 71-Wh battery;
Vista Home Premium.
1.6-GHz Intel Atom N270; 1GB
DDR2 SDRAM; 160GB, 5,400-rpm
hard drive; 128MB Intel Graphics
Media Accelerator 950; 10.2-inch
display; 2.7 pounds (3.2 pounds
travel); 31-Wh battery; XP Home
Edition.
2.4-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8600;
4GB DDR3 SDRAM; 320GB,
7,200-rpm hard drive; 512MB ATI
Mobility Radeon HD 3670; 16-inch
widescreen; 6.9 pounds (7.8
pounds travel); 85-Wh battery;
Vista Home Premium.
1.33-GHz Intel Atom Z520; 2GB
DDR2 SDRAM; 64GB SSD; 128MB
Intel graphics; 8-inch, 1,600-by-
768 widescreen LED display; 1.4
pounds (1.7 pounds travel); two
USB ports; 16-Wh lithium ion battery;
Windows Vista Home Basic.
22-inch LCD; 1,680-by-1,050
native resolution; HDMI and
analog VGA inputs; 16:10
aspect ratio.
External hard drive; 350GB
capacity; 7,200 rpm.
DLP engine; 4:3 aspect ratio;
rated brightness, 150 ANSI
lumens; analog VGA and composite
inputs, 2.5 by 5.8 by 5.7
inches (HWD); 2 pounds.
10 inches.

first looks BUsiNEss
Lenovo THinkPAd W700
The Photography
Pro’s Mobile Workstation
The ThinkPad W700 is monstrous, and its looks may
not strike a chord with fashion photographers, but
some unheard-of built-in features will instantly make
style moot. The Pantone color sensor, for instance,
eliminates the need to carry a separate color calibration
device; a Wacom digitizer that’s traditionally
part of the screen is cleverly positioned on the palm
rest; and an option for a 10-inch secondary display
that slides out from the back of the primary one is
an industry first. These features, along with the builtin
Intel quad-core technology, earn the W700 an
Editors’ Choice in the workstation category.
With the W700, you also get a CompactFlash
and SD slot and connections for DisplayPort,
DVI-D, five USB slots, one FireWire port, a webcam,
and a fingerprint reader. Although the dual-layer
DVD burner sounds ordinary at this juncture, you
can upgrade to a Blu-ray burner. The dual 160GB,
7,200-rpm hard drives (320GB total) not only spin
fast but are arranged in RAID 0, which comes in
handy for performance testing.
The W700 runs a 2.53-GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme
QX9300 processor—fitting for a machine of this
caliber. Add to the quad-core the 4GB of DDR3
memory and we have performance scores that are
beyond anything I’ve seen on a laptop. The W700’s
video-encoding and CineBench 10 scores completely
dominated the competition’s. Its 44-second
score on Windows Media Encoder 9 is 15 seconds
less (roughly 35 percent faster) than the Lenovo
Thinkpad T400’s. And its CineBench score was
nearly double that of other machines in its class.
Obviously, at this price, the W700 isn’t for everyone.
But if time is money in your field, the W700 will
save you tons of it.—Cisco Cheng
Spec data: 2.53-GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9300;
4GB DDR3 SDRAM; 320GB (two 160GB, 7,200-rpm
hard drives); 1GB Nvidia Quadro FX 3700M graphics;
17-inch, 1,920-by-1,200 widescreen; 9.4 pounds (12.3
pounds travel); five USB ports; one FireWire port;
96-Wh, 6.45-Ah lithium ion battery; Windows Vista
Home Premium 64-bit.
PERFORMANCE TESTS
L High scores are best.
M Low scores are best.
Bold type denotes first place.
MoBiLe-
Mark
2007 L
hr:min
3D-
Mark06*
L
1,024 x 768
MULTiMeDia
WinDoWs
MeDia
encoDer M
min:sec
cineBencH
r10 L
Lenovo ThinkPad W700 2:31 12,678 0:44 10,809 0:30
Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch
(Dual Graphics) - Boot Camp
n/a 6,453 1:09 5,187 0:32
Lenovo ThinkPad T400 4:12 2,904 0:59 5,838 0:26
reD denotes editors’ choice. n/a—not applicable: The product could not complete the test, or the test was not compatible.
* The test was configured at the default setting.
Lenovo ThinkPad
W700
$4,240 direct
L l l l h
PROS internal
Pantone color
calibrator. Palmrest
digitizer.
option for a
cool secondary display.
Quad-core processor
delivered amazing
results. dual hard drives.
iSv certified graphics.
outstanding graphics for
gamers and professionals.
WUXGA widescreen.
Adobe RGB–compatible
screen.
CONS Butt-ugly and
bulky.
Click here for more.
PHoTosHoP
cs3 M
min:sec
MARCH 2009 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 17

ViewSoniC PJ513DB
A No-Frills, High-Quality
SVGA Projector
The ViewSonic PJ513DB is the kind of projector
that anyone on a tight budget should love—and not
just because of its low price. What makes this unit
appealing is that it gets the basics right, starting with
a suitably high-quality image and surprisingly good
audio.
Designed for typical business presentations, the
PJ513DB is a basic, no-frills projector built around an
SVGA (800-by-600) DLP engine. Although it’s not
the lightest or smallest projector available by any
means, it’s fairly portable, at 5.7 pounds and 4.3 by 10.4
by 8.6 inches (HWD). It doesn’t come with a carrying
case, however, so if you need one, you’ll have to buy it
separately. The same goes for most cables you might
want; you get only a power cord and VGA cable for
plugging into a computer. Moreover, there’s no USB
port or zoom control.
The PJ513DB has a respectable contrast ratio of
330:1 and a brightness of 1,717 lumens, about 78 percent
of its 2,200 lumen rating. It is also bright enough
LexMARk T650n
Workhorse Monochrome
Laser Printer
For small offices and workgroups with heavy-duty
printing needs, workhorse monochrome lasers like
the Lexmark T650n are indispensable. As a rule,
Lexmark printers are among the best in the category,
and the T650n is no exception. Its fast speed
and plentiful paper-handling options are enough to
make it a new Editors’ Choice.
At 13.7 by 16.7 by 19.4 inches (HWD), this printer is
small enough for your desk, but you’ll probably need
help moving this 40.6-pound unit into place. The
T650n’s paper-handling options include a duplexer
($275), a 250-sheet drawer ($199), a 550-sheet drawer
($249), a 2,000-sheet drawer ($499), and an output
expander with additional 550-sheet bin ($149).
This printer’s 45-ppm engine helped it score
5 minutes 7 seconds on our business applications
suite, which is fast, but not as fast as the 4:57
achieved by the T640n, the printer it is replacing.
18 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION MARCH 2009
first looks BUsiNEss
to throw a reasonably large image with typical office
lighting. In testing, the projector showed some minor
DLP rainbow effects but handled images from a computer
and DVDs (played over S-Video) pretty well.
However, it was less effective for TV input. Despite
oversights like the lack of a remote mouse control
and the nearly pointless zoom, the ViewSonic
PJ513DB is a good choice for the cash-strapped, and
certainly one of the best projectors in its category.
—M. David Stone
Output quality was typical for a monochrome laser
on graphics and photos, but text quality was a bit
below par—though still more than good enough for
most business use.
One last issue is running cost, a critical factor for
a printer designed to print lots of pages. Lexmark
claims a reasonably low 1.6 cents per page. That,
along with fast speed, capable paper handling, and
reasonably high-quality output makes the T650n an
impressive package indeed, altogether worthy of the
Editors’ Choice.—MDS
ViewSonic PJ513DB
$450 street
l l l h m
Pros Low cost. Reasonably
light. easy setup,
with well-designed,
easy-to-use menus.
Cons no remote mouse
control. optical zoom is
too meager to be useful.
Click here for more.
Lexmark T650n
$699 direct
L l l l m
Pros Fast.
Full set of
paper-handling
options, with up
to 4,000-sheet
input capacity. Low cost
per page.
Cons Slightly subpar
text for a mono laser.
Click here for more.

PiCK a PaGe in pages, you can pick and choose which
page layouts you want to use from any template.
Apple iWork '09
$79 direct; five-license
family pack, $99
l l l l m
Pros innovative,
graphically dazzling
suite. Highly compatible
with Microsoft office
documents. Canvas-style
page holds multiple
tables. presentation
software outclasses
competitors. Great bang
for the buck.
Cons Not as featurerich
as Microsoft office.
Sample templates too
elaborate for most users.
No view that hides top,
bottom page margins.
Click here for more.
first looks business
Apple iWoRk ’09
Apple Gets to Work
Apple has a lot to boast about in iWork ’09, the latest
version of its productivity application suite and
still the only one written from the ground up for OS
X. The result is a suite that gives home users and
students a huge bang for a small number of bucks—
and it feels far more at home on the Mac platform
than Microsoft’s pricier, professional-oriented
Office for the Mac.
Pages is both a word processor and what used
to be called a desktop publishing app (for creating
graphics-rich leaflets, posters, and greeting cards).
You choose between two editing modes when creating
a document: Word Processing or Page Layout.
The first creates a conventional document, and Page
Layout treats each page as a canvas on which to create
text and graphics boxes. Pages’ documents look
terrific, but the program is clearly designed for the
more casual user. Those working on a college thesis
or lengthy report may end up gnashing their teeth.
Numbers, iWork’s spreadsheet program, on the
other hand, continues to one-up Microsoft Excel in
many ways. It is the only app out there to support
multiple tables on a single page. And a Numbers
worksheet is a canvas that can include multiple
charts, each with its own layout, plus graphics and
text boxes. Also, Numbers finally has a feature akin
to a pivot table.
Presentation Pizzazz in keynote, a neat little
pop-up menu lets you resize images.
iWork’s PowerPoint rival is Keynote, still the
most dazzling presentation program on any platform.
The app now offers spectacular, animated
slide transitions. PowerPoint still has one advantage
over Keynote: PowerPoint has the ability to create
good-looking diagrams based on text-based data
like lists and outlines. But otherwise, Keynote outclasses
it everywhere else. Unless you need the tight
integration with Excel and Word that you get with
Presentations, Keynote is the presentation program
for Mac users.
Apple has also put a toe into the online document
world by launching iWork.com, a sparsely
featured sharing and viewing service that lets iWork
users share documents with users on any platform,
including Windows and Linux. Unfortunately, you
need a $99-per-year MobileMe account before you
can upload anything to the site, although coworkers
can view, download, and comment on files without
an account.
For home, school, and very-small-business
users, iWork is the best office suite on the market.
For advanced users, however, Microsoft Word and
Microsoft Excel remain indispensable; furthermore,
the Windows version of Microsoft’s Office suite
remains far more powerful than the Mac version.
—Edward Mendelson
MARCH 2009 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 19

RIM BlackBerry
Curve 8900
(T-Mobile)
$349 direct; $199 and
up with a two-year
contract
l l l l m
Pros Gorgeous,
ultra-high-res
screen. Sublime
keyboard.
Smooth and
elegant operation. Terrific
messaging, solid
music and video players.
Makes free calls over
Wi-Fi.
Cons no 3G. Subpar
Web browser.
Click here for more.
HTC TouCH PRo (SPRinT)
This Mobile Office Needs
a Battery Boost
Hot on the heels of AT&T’s HTC Fuze, Sprint has busted out its
own version, the Touch Pro, a virtual clone of the Fuze but with
a few new pluses. These include improvements to the software
bundle, form factor, and QWERTY keyboard arrangement, and
the addition of CDMA and EV-DO radios for compatibility with
Sprint’s network. But there are also some minuses, including dismal
battery life. Depending on your viewpoint, the Touch Pro is
either a loaded business smartphone for Windows power users or
an iPhone competitor with an identity crisis.
On Sprint, the Touch Pro is a dual-mode CDMA phone, featuring
both EV-DO and Wi-Fi radios. Reception was a little weak: In a
rural area, the Touch Pro vacillated between 1X and EV-DO modes.
Calls also came through a bit choppy, with static. The handset’s
speakerphone was too quiet and distorted for anything but close,
indoor use. Even worse, battery life was miserable—just 3 hours 8
minutes on our talk-time run-down test.
Overall, the Touch Pro is a bit more pleasant on Sprint than the
Fuze is on AT&T, thanks to its lighter weight, improved software
bundle, and better keyboard. However, its battery life and voice
quality are lacking. Sprint smartphone buyers should also consider
the Touch Diamond, which is less expensive but lacks a QWERTY
keyboard. The BlackBerry Curve 8330 remains our Editors’
Choice–winning Sprint smartphone, for its excellent keyboard,
stellar e-mail management, and long battery life.—Jamie Lendino
20 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION MARCH 2009
first looks CoNsUMEr ElECtroNiCs
RiM BlACkBERRY CuRvE 8900 (T-MoBilE)
T-Mobile’s Best BlackBerry Yet
After its last release, the buggy BlackBerry Storm 9530, RIM’s got
its groove back. The new BlackBerry Curve 8900 juices up the
already-excellent Curve form factor with a sharper screen, faster
processor, and better camera, letting it jump through new multimedia
hoops while still helping you get your work done. If you
need to stay connected, this Curve is the simplest and most stylish
way to do it for T-Mobile customers.
The Curve 8900 is mostly black with an insanely high-res
screen: 360 by 480 pixels on a 2.4-inch panel (even higher res than
the iPhone’s). Like the original Curve, the 8900 features a full
QWERTY keyboard of slightly separated keys that are a breeze to
use. Despite its just-average signal strength, the 8900 is an excellent
voice phone, with calls sounding especially loud and clear on
T-Mobile’s 2G EDGE network.
The beefy 528-MHz processor lets the phone multitask comfortably
and perform well on audio and video. But since the 8900
doesn’t hit T-Mobile’s 3G network, you can’t stream video without
Wi-Fi coverage. Within Wi-Fi range, streaming worked well.
The 3.2-megapixel camera takes sharp photos, even in low light. I
experienced delays of up to 2 seconds while the camera focused,
however, and I couldn’t find any way to disable autofocus. The only
big problem with this phone is the Web browser, which choked on
pages with JavaScript. But this wasn’t enough to outweigh its many
benefits, which earn it an Editors’ Choice.—Sascha Segan
HTC Touch Pro (Sprint)
$299 with two-year Sprint contract
l l l m m
Pros Powerful feature set. Slick interface graphics.
Five-row QWERTY keyboard. Better software
bundle than AT&T’s version (the HTC Fuze).
Cons Expensive. Poor battery life. Confusing
“dual-oS” interface. Slow. no headphone jack.
Click here for more.

Creative Vado
Pocket Video
Cam HD
$229.99 direct
L l l l m
Pros Records
high-quality
Hd video. Big,
bright screen.
Removable, rechargeable
battery. 8GB
of memory. HdMi-out.
HdMi cable bundled.
Cons only 2X digital
zoom. Memory isn’t
expandable.
Click here for more.
Sony Reader Digital Book (PRS-700)
$399.99 direct
l l l l m
Pros touch-sensitive screen. Streamlined
interface. Attractive design.
Cons Pricey. doesn’t provide wireless download
of titles (unlike Amazon’s Kindle). led
sidelights aren’t very strong.
Click here for more.
first looks CoNsUMEr ElECtroNiCs
CReAtive vAdo PoCKet video CAM Hd
Vado HD One-Ups the HD Flip
With the Vado HD, Creative decided against a complete overhaul of
its original mini camcorder—and with good reason. The Vado has
a sleeker body, a larger screen, and a lower price tag than Pure Digital’s
Flip, plus a removable, rechargeable battery. In fact, the Vado
was our favorite mini videocam until we gave an Editors’ Choice to
the Kodak Zi6. But a few key changes in the Vado HD are enough to
make it supplant the Zi6 as our new EC winner.
On the outside, this Vado looks a lot like its predecessor. The
USB arm is still located on the bottom of the camera on a flexible
cord. Directly above the arm is a button that offers quick access to
the camera’s removable lithium ion battery, which gives you about
2 hours and charges when the Vado is connected via USB. On the
left-hand side of the camera is a mini HDMI port, making the Vado
HD the only pocket camcorder with high-quality HD output.
The camcorder’s bright 2-inch LCD remains, but the new
aspect ratio means that HD shooting will bring up black bars
on the top and bottom of the display. Even with a touch less real
estate, the display is a vast improvement over the competition’s.
Images are far clearer and smoother than the original Vado’s. Also,
this device has 8GB of storage—double that of the same-price Flip
Mino HD—letting you store about 2 hours of footage recorded at
the highest quality. Though the Zi6 gets points for its expandable
memory and still-image ability, the Vado HD has pulled ahead.
—Brian Heater
Sony ReAdeR diGitAl BooK (PRS-700)
The Kindle Alternative
The Amazon Kindle may be one of Oprah’s favorite things, but
Sony has been making e-book readers longer, and the sophisticated
design of its latest, the Reader Digital Book (PRS-700), clearly displays
this experience. With a touch-sensitive screen, a faster processor,
and a streamlined interface, the new Sony Reader is a great
way to get your literary fix. Sure it’s expensive, but unlike the hardto-get
Kindle, it’s available without your going on a waiting list.
The 10-ounce device measures approximately 6.9 by 5.1 by 0.5
inches (HWD), about the same size as a trade paperback (albeit
a very short one). The top of the unit houses a power switch, as
well as SD and Memory Stick Pro card slots. The bottom features
volume controls, a headphone jack, and mini USB and AC-in jacks.
Sony has also added side lighting, although these are a bit too dim.
Although the PRS-700 has the same look and feel as the previous
PRS-550 and the PRS-500, Sony has made a number of welcome
enhancements, most notably a 6-inch (diagonal), 800-by-600pixel,
touch-sensitive screen that lets you turn pages by drawing
your finger across the screen.
In testing, I downloaded a novel from the Sony store in 12 seconds,
and I was able to sync it with my Reader in less than a minute.
That’s pretty smooth, but it does require using the included
USB cable. The Amazon Kindle lets you purchase books wirelessly,
thanks to its built-in EV-DO modem—a convenience that the
Sony Reader simply can’t match. Although this device is expensive
and lacks a wireless download feature, it’s a good way to get in the
e-book game—at least until Kindles are back in stock.—Dan Costa
MARCH 2009 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 21

Vizio VP505XVT
$1,499.99 list
l l l l m
Pros Standarddefinition
video
quality is excellent.
Very good
picture contrast.
Good value.
Cons Calibration
required for accurate
HD color.
Click here for more.
22 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION MARCH 2009
first looks CoNsUMEr ElECtroNiCs
VIzIO VP505XVT
Big Plasma, Small Price
As LCDs dominate the HDTV market, plasmas are becoming better values every
day—great news, since no LCD can match a plasma’s wide viewing angles. Case
in point: The affordable 50-inch Vizio VP505XVT plasma features full 1080p
screen resolution and superb standard-definition video processing, all wrapped
in a stylishly modern design. The set’s default color setup isn’t optimized for
accurate HD viewing, but its picture controls can remedy that.
Vizio is best known for affordability; its latest sets, however, don’t sacrifice
style or features for their low sticker prices. For example, you get four HDMI
ports; additional HD-compatible video ports include one component video
input, a VGA, and an RF input. This Vizio plasma also has excellent overscan
controls for every input type and video format, and accurate color reproduction
(though slightly oversaturated primary and secondary colors). It also has a solid
contrast ratio of 1,245:1. And thanks to HQV technology, this plasma upconverts
standard-definition video to the TV’s native 1080p resolution with better clarity
and fewer distracting artifacts than any other plasma we’ve tested.
The VP505XVT’s estimated operating cost is $7.08 per month (356 watts average),
which is in line with other 50-inch plasma screens. If you use the TV’s lessintense
movie picture preset, the cost drops to $5.82 (292W) based on 5 hours of
daily use at 13 cents per kilowatt hour (a San Francisco average).
Despite the set’s being slightly too colorful in output and its not offering
the energy efficiency of an LCD HDTV, its value factor offsets those relatively
minor problems and makes it our newest Editors’ Choice in this category.
—Robert Heron
PORTS INCLUDED
CableCARD 0
Component 1
Composite 1
DVI 0
Ethernet 0
FireWire 0
HDMI 4
RF 1
RS-232C 0
S-Video 1
USB 0
VGA 1

first looks Consumer eleCtroniCs
Quick looks
Visit pcmag.com for the full reviews of these and other consumer electronics products.
RED indicates Editors’ Choice. PROS CONS BOTTOM LINE SPECS
SMARTPHONES
DIGITAL CAMERAS
DIGITAL PHOTO FRAMES
Sony Ericsson
Xperia X1
$799.99 list
l l h m m
LG Incite (AT&T)
$199 (with
two-year service
agreement)
l l l m m
Nikon Coolpix
S60
$349.95 list
l l l m m
Sony VAIO
VGF-CP1
$299 list
l l l l h
PORTABLE MEDIA PLAYERS
HEADPHONES
BLUETOOTH HEADSETS
GPS
MEDIA EXTENDERS
Cowon O2
8GB, $199.99 list;
16GB, $239.99;
32GB, $299.99
l l h m m
Apple In-Ear
Headphones
$79 direct
l l l m m
Altec Lansing
BackBeat
Model 903, $99.99
list; 906, $129.99
L l l h m
Magellan
Maestro 4350
$499.99 list
l l l l m
Western Digital
WD TV HD
Media Player
$129.99 list
l l l m m
• Powerful processor
• New Panel interface is the best
Windows Mobile home-screen
hack so far
• Opera browser
• Sleek design
• Good voice quality
• Solid battery life
• 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth
radios
• Sleek and good-looking
• Big, responsive touch screen
• Simple touch gestures make
photo playback a snap
• Elegant design and interface
• Wi-Fi
• Strong Web-connected features
• Opera Web browser
• Excellent file support
• Large display
• Voice recorder
• Comparatively affordable
• Secure fit
• Built-in mic and remote control
• Works with latest-generation
iPod’s Voice Memos feature
• Comfortable fit
• Long battery life
• Music doesn’t sound muddy
• User interface is improved from
the Maestro 4250
• New OneTouch feature
• Six-million-entry POI database
• Can calculate up to three route
profiles simultaneously
• Affordable
• Excellent file support
• Simple, intuitive user interface
• Includes file-conversion
software
• Insanely expensive
• Buggy
• Not a great voice phone
• Sluggish
• Stubborn, dim touch screen
• Poor camera
• Buggy music playback
• No place to stow the stylus—and
you’ll need it
• No hardware zoom control
• Captures fewer resolution lines
than competitors
• No HD video recording
• Flash shots are underexposed
• Poor battery life
• Expensive
• Browser freezes occasionally
• Despite its large size, the player
has no hard drive, only flash
memory
• No Internet access
• Few extra features
• Audio output is decent—but
could be stronger for the price
• Short on bass response
• Music sounds overly bright
• Voice call quality isn’t great,
especially outdoors
• Voice recognition found in previous
models has been removed
• Current speed not displayed in
map view
• No wireless streaming
• Doesn’t include a USB drive
• Unremarkable physical design
The super-luxe Sony Ericsson
Xperia X1 would be a decent
Windows Mobile smartphone
choice if it were half the price.
LG’s first smartphone, the Incite,
is attractive and powerful, but it’s
let down by its obstinate touch
screen, sluggish performance,
and sloppy software design.
Viewing your pictures on this
camera is a blast, thanks to its
iPhone-esque touch screen.
Image quality, however, is lacking,
so the fun of its flashy touch
interface will likely fade quickly.
The VGF-CP1 digital picture
frame is pricey, but its high performance
and extensive feature
set justify the investment.
The O2’s file support is fantastic,
and it is cheaper than its two
main competitors, the iPod touch
and the Archos 5—but it packs far
fewer features into its inexplicably
large frame.
Apple’s In-Ear Headphones
feature extras like a built-in
remote and mic, but they’re a bit
overpriced given the audio quality
you get.
The most comfortable stereo
Bluetooth headset we’ve seen
has a lot going for it, but sound
quality still doesn’t match that of
wired or mono headsets.
The Maestro 4350 includes
features that make it a worthy
upgrade. But bargain hunters
may prefer the older yet still
solid 4250, which you can pick up
online for $200 less.
What the WD TV HD Media Player
does it does well, but that doesn’t
necessarily mean that this is a
useful or desirable device.
Windows Mobile Professional;
GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA data
networks; 3.1-inch, 800-by-480
TFT LCD; 3.2MP camera; 4.4
by 2.1 by 0.7 inches (HWD), 5.1
ounces.
Windows Mobile Pocket PC;
GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA data
networks; 3-inch, 240-by-400 TFT
LCD; 3MP camera; 4.2 by 2.2 by
0.6 inches (HWD), 4.2 ounces.
10MP resolution; 3.5-inch touchscreen
LCD; accepts SDHC flash
memory; 2.4 by 2.8 by 0.9 inches
(HWD); 5.1 ounces.
7-inch screen; 800-by-400
maximum resolution; accepts
CompactFlash, Memory Stick,
and Secure Digital flash memory;
internal speakers; 6.9 by 5.2 by
1.4 inches (HWD).
16GB flash memory; 4.3-inch
screen; 480-by-272 max resolution;
supports AAC, FLAC, MP3,
OGG, WMA audio formats; photo
and video capability; 2.9 by 4.7 by
0.7 inches (HWD); 7.2 ounces.
In-canal; Bluetooth; passive noise
canceling; 109-dB SPL per 1 mW
sensitivity; 23-ohm impedance;
0.4 ounce.
Play/Pause, Volume, Fast Forward,
Rewind, and Call Answer
buttons.
6-million-entry POI database;
real-time traffic; 3D view; supports
MP3 playback; supports SD
and MMC flash memory; 4.3-inch
touch-screen display; 3.3 by 4.9
by 0.7 inches (HWD); 7.2 ounces.
Remote control; RCA stereo
audio, composite video, HDMI,
and USB inputs; supports AVI,
H.264, MKV, MOV, MPEG-1/2/4,
and WMV 9 formats; 1.6 by 4.9 by
3.9 inches (HWD); 10.72 ounces.
MARCH 2009 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 23

So now we hear that The New York Times
is contemplating the notion of becoming
a subscription-based Web site, where you
only get to read it if you pay real money.
What a quaint idea.
Let me put it bluntly: This won’t work.
It will completely sink the publication
faster than it’s already sinking.
The problem with the subscription
model for today’s big newspapers is the
fact that there is very little exclusive information
of any real value. The New York
Times syndicates much of its content
to other papers, so there are alternative
sources—not subscription-based—with
the same information. Why buy a cow
when milk is free?
Starting back in the early seventies,
most of the big newspapers around the
country were lulled into a sense of security
and easy money by eschewing in-house
reporting in exchange for syndicated news
from the likes of the Associated Press, The
New York Times, The Washington Post, the
Los Angeles Times, and Reuters.
Over time syndicated stories began to
dominate the newspapers in major cities
all over the country. This got so bad that
you’d find a local story, for example, in a
San Francisco paper covered by The New
York Times. It was just cheaper to do that,
so they did.
This began to undermine the local
papers; readers kept seeing all these New
York Times stories and soon traded their
local paper subscription for their regional
edition of the Times. This marked a decline
of interest in the local products. Then
came the Internet.
john c. dvorak
Newspapers Still Befuddled
For too long newspapers have taken on the role of
cultural arbiter and distribution channel for popular
culture ideas. That is all over and can never return.
24 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION MARCH 2009
The Internet added comparison shopping
to the mix. Want a story about the
baby stuck down in the well? How about
3,000 stories about the baby in the well?
Pretty soon the public began to notice
that 2,975 of those 3,000 stories about the
baby in the well were the exact same story,
with the other 25 being rewrites of the
exact same story. Then came the revelation.
“Hey, these newspapers are all doing
the exact same thing! Why do we need so
many of them?”
In hindsight, USA Today had the right
idea. National newspapers do seem like the
best idea, but that trend and the Internet
cannot seem to line up correctly, and the
Internet is becoming the national paper.
Like most writers who have worked at
newspapers, I have mixed feelings regarding
their future as instruments of communication
for something vaguely referred to
as “news.” I’d advise people to take a good
look at newspapers before 1850 and compare
them with what we have today.
Early newspapers consisted of local
stories, summaries of events, and listings
of items such as ship departures and other
notices. There were no recipes, feature
stories about dogs, or full-page advertisements
for movies.
Then somewhere along the way, newspapers
became more entertaining than
informative. The writing was often flowery
and dramatic. Columns written by personalities
joked around about the events of the
day. There were cartoons and horoscopes.
If I wanted to know what ships were coming
in and out of port carrying a shipment
of Honda cars, where would I find it? Some
papers carry notices like this in the financial
pages, but most do not.
And, as an aside, what is dumber than
the stock quote listings in the newspaper?
You can type a ticker symbol into Google
and get a real-time quote with all sorts of
other information. How do you compete
with that? Individual sites and technologies
simply do certain things better than
old-fashioned newspapers can.
So should the newspaper go the way of
the buggy whip? No, it just needs to return
to its roots, and focus on providing densely
edited and directed information of importance
as decided by a trustworthy source.
And it should leave the fluff to the Internet.
For too long newspapers have taken on
the role of cultural arbiter and distribution
channel for popular culture ideas. That is
all over and can never return.
That said, nobody has nailed the new
model for the old newspaper. These publishers
are out-and-out idiots. They see
something online and immediately try to
do the same thing in print. “We want color
ink and more stories about celebrities!”
I was doing research at the University of
California Newspaper Library, which has a
tremendous collection of microfilmed old
newspapers from every era. If you want to
see the heyday of the newspaper business
and quickly see what would work today,
look at a 1954 edition of The San Francisco
Examiner. It’s so dense with news stories
that today’s papers look as if there’s nothing
in them. It is extremely compelling.
The point is that there are good ideas
already out there, and they just need to
be rediscovered. But for now the panicstricken
bosses seem to be heading down
the same abyss in the same direction. It’s
the direction that created the abyss in the
first place.
Dvorak Live on the Web John’s
Internet TV show airs every Wednesday
at 3:30 ET on CrankyGeeks.com. You can
download back episodes whenever you like.

Inside
This should be the last year of the economic downturn,
which has resulted in nothing good for the computer user
except for machines that are cheaper than ever, lots of free
programs, and the blossoming of a new platform: the smartphone
computer.
So I got my G-phone, G1, Android, whatever you want to
call it. And I have to say that it has a few flaws here and there,
but nothing that is a deal killer. And one of the cooler features
is that it can actually read bar codes and call up a central location,
and, bingo, you now can look up prices or details for an
item on the fly. A friend of mine used this feature at a wedding;
he determined the prices of all the gifts. Pretty funny.
These phones are still a little weak for word processing
and full docking capability. By that I mean
the phone should be dockable, but not into
another computer—into a simple dock that
attaches a keyboard and screen. The smartphone
should have enough power to run
the software it has as full-blown application
software. Combined with some nifty cloud
applications and remote storage, these
phones should give people enough to get by.
In fact, the newer processor chips coming
out for the smartphone will deliver a lot of
computing power.
The smartphone computer also needs
a good PowerPoint-type program and the
ability to drive a digital projector. While
there is some chatter about pico projectors being built into
smartphones, this is just a cute gimmick. What you want is an
XGA or better I/O to drive a projector, even if you have to plug
the phone into a wall to keep the batteries from draining.
The Android phone and the iPhone should be the two final
winners in the game. While I’ve never been a strong believer
in the notion that most of the Internet action is going to be
done on mobile devices like this, it is obvious that a lot of
Internet activity will be done on these things.
More and more people pull out these devices in normally
circumspect places like restaurants and surf the Net together
in search of some factoid about something or other.
Genuinely Interesting Hardware Dept.: CES was a bit disappointing
for many showgoers this year, mainly because there
was a downbeat note to the event. And a lot of excellent products
were completely overlooked, as usual. The most impressive
idea I saw at the show (and what should have won Best
of Show) are some children’s earbuds and headphones from a
company called iHearSafe. Details are found at iHearSafe.com.
These are devices that will not allow a child, or an adult for that
matter, to generate more than 85 dB from the headphones.
Anything above that and you risk long-term hearing damage.
Someday the earbud and the iPod are going to be recognized
for creating a generation of deaf people. The class-
action suits will be flying. Do not let this happen to your
children—or you. These headsets cost only $19.95! And they
come in cool colors and iPod white, so there is none of the teen
humiliation you’d get from, heaven forbid, black earbuds.
Whither the OLPC? The fabled $100 laptop that never
was $100 from the OLPC team has got be to be hit hard by the
announcement by Tata of India of a $20 laptop. First of all,
the $100 laptop never got below $150 from what I can tell. And
it had to compete with an Intel design that was adopted all
over the world.
I was in Portugal recently, where I played with a statesponsored
version of the Intel machine sold to students there.
I found it to be quite usable and very rugged.
On top of all this are the netbooks coming
out with a lot of power for prices around
$250. Now this $20 clunker. I’m told the displays
are now costing a buck or two. Memory
is dirt cheap, and small hard drives are being
sold as surplus. So I suppose $20 is possible.
I’m now waiting for the $1.99 laptop.
Everything Is a Fractal Dept.: Do we
have to endure yet another Microsoft Windows
campaign? Personally, I’m tired of it.
It follows the exact same pattern time after
time. Let’s deconstruct the entire process:
Microsoft preannounces a new version
of Windows and gives it some weird name
that initiates discussion as people try to decipher
its deeper meaning or what it references. Chicago, Longhorn,
Blackcomb, 7. The specification is revealed, with the goal
being to “fix the problems with . . . the previous version.”
Beta code always leaks out, and people get a good look.
A buzz ensues. Microsoft decides to ship the beta and let the
public chime in, so the company opens the servers and lets
everyone play with it. The product has no legacy hooks or real
security, so it just rocks on a computer and people comment
on how much better it is. The word is that it’s a winner.
Naysayers and critics are shouted down.
There are then a series of mixed messages regarding the
ship date. The company claims it will be early, but it’s late.
The release comes, and people are shown on the local
news lined up at some store camping out overnight to buy
the thing. The final product, it turns out, gets crammed with
security fixes, stability code and built-in drivers, and soon
becomes as slow as the products that came before. Critical
reviews appear, and the complaining begins. The company
then reports it’s working on the next “better than ever, made
from scratch” OS, which will go through the same process.
WanT mOrE DvOrak? John writes a weekly column for our Web
site, too. Log on to go.pcmag.com/dvorak. You can also e-mail
him at john_dvorak@pcmag.com.
MARCH 2009 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 25

Sometimes you’ve just got to give people
a hard deadline—it’s the only way to get
things done. The Senate-approved delay
in the transition from analog to digital television
(DTV), from February 17 to June 12,
won’t help the few people who still haven’t
gotten the DTV transition memo, and it’ll
hurt the much larger population of people
who could benefit from new wireless technologies.
Obama ran on the change platform.
That change should start now.
Let’s start with some numbers: The
DTV transition has been publicized for
two years now. Only 5.7 percent of Americans
aren’t ready, according to Nielsen, and
almost every one of them could become
DTV-compliant in about 45 minutes with a
trip to Radio Shack or Best Buy. Yes, 5.1 percent
of the country is holding up the other
94.3 percent. The DTV-unready customer
isn’t a frail, helpless elderly person, the
Nielsen survey says. Under-35s are much
more likely than over-55s to lack converter
boxes or new TVs.
The problem and solution are both
pretty simple. The problem: Your TV is
more than two years old, and you don’t
have cable or satellite. The solution: A
$45 converter box available online or at
your local electronics store. There, done.
Nobody needs to buy a new TV, though we
got reviews of some under-$500 choices
for you if you want one. As for the whole
hysteria about needing new antennas,
wait a little while. Some channels now
broadcasting weakly will ramp up their
signals after the transition, and some channels
broadcasting on UHF will switch to
VHF, which covers long distances better.
26 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION MARCH 2009
SASCHA SEGAN
Don’t Delay the DTV Transition
According to an April 2008 government
report, 32 percent of digital channels are
waiting until the transition to deliver full
broadcast strength.
Many grumpy people are outraged that
they may have to buy a converter box. But
this is the first major TV transition we’ve
had in 50 years. That’s a long time for a
technology to remain static. For the common
good, TV stations should clear off
some of the radio spectrum so other people
can do more stuff with it. Five percent of
the population shouldn’t hold that up.
Switching to over-the-air digital TV is
actually pretty awesome. I got rid of my
cable TV and went to over-the-air digital
TV stations should clear off some of the radio spectrum
so other people can do more stuff with it. Five
percent of the population shouldn’t hold that up.
recently, supplemented by an AppleTV
with Boxee for cable-TV content. I get
many more channels than I did before digital,
including five PBS channels instead of
one. Some of them are even in high definition,
for free. I think over-the-air digital
TV is terrific.
Complainers also don’t seem to understand
why we’re doing this in the first place.
For a while now, TV stations have been
allowed to squat on two channels instead
of one. When the transition occurs, they’ll
have to give up one of their two channels,
and most of that spectrum will go to new
wireless networks. Some of it will go to TV
for cell phones. Some of it will go to Internet
connections. Some of it will go to public
safety uses. Even if you’re not going to
use that stuff, you have to agree that it’s a
better use of the space than broadcasting
the same thing twice to the same people.
And it will serve much more than 5.7 percent
of the population.
Of course, some of those 5.7 percent
just don’t understand what’s going on.
The government has botched the education
campaign around DTV and screwed
up the associated converter-box coupon
program. The coupons were confusing to
order, expired too soon, and the program
ran out of money. This is irritating, and the
government should allocate more money
for coupons immediately. I’ve also heard
insanities like “DTV requires a special
antenna” (wrong), “DTV will require you
to get digital cable” (wrong), and “DTV is
HDTV” (wrong). But three months more
will not give us any magical explanations
we didn’t have for the past two years.
Implementing a much better idea, the
FCC is taking a positive step by ordering
stations to turn on “analog nightlights”
throughout the country. This order
requires some analog stations to stay on,
broadcasting a fixed message about how
to get a converter box. The FCC should
extend the order by demanding at least one
nightlight in each TV market. Broadcasters
are complaining about the cost of keeping
those nightlights on, but delaying the transition
will cost even more.
More delays will not help this problem.
More bureaucracy, more confusing
coupons, and more misleading ads from
cable companies will not help this problem.
Only one thing will help this problem:
America must convert. A small percentage
of people can’t get a TV signal. They
go to their local electronics store. They get
boxes. Problem solved.
As long as there are deadlines, there
will be procrastinators. My college roommate
usually wrote his papers in marathon
stretches leading up to the very last minute
they were due. (He also always got A’s.) If
you extend the deadline, procrastinators
will just procrastinate further.
STAY PHONE-SMART Keep up with the
latest on smartphones by reading Sascha’s
column at go.pcmag.com/segan.

For the tech sector, just like the rest of the
economy, 2009 is simply going to suck.
Nonetheless, there are still pioneers to
be found. The interesting thing is that it
seems as though the old-school firms—
often thought to be past their prime, or
even headed toward demise—are the ones
doing the innovating.
• Palm’s CEs slEight of hand
Undoubtedly the hottest product at CES
was Palm’s Pre, an innovative and elegant
smartphone that takes the best features of
the iPhone and then adds a full, hardware
QWERTY keyboard and a radical new
operating system. “Hmmm,” you might
say, “Didn’t you previously write a column
saying that no matter what the company
announced, Palm was just a few screen
taps away from death?” Yeah, well, turns
out I was dead wrong. Sorry about that.
The Palm Pre and the sophistication of
the Nova OS surprised just about everyone.
I played with the Pre at the show, and the
form factor and interface are fantastic. Of
course, we need to put the handset through
its paces at PCMag Labs to see just how
wonderful this brand-new, Linux-based
operating system really is. Palm has a long
history of building relationships with thirdparty
developers. Look for Palm to be a
serious player in the mobile space again.
• dEll’s grand dEsigns Now 25
years old, Dell, in many ways, is the quintessential
PC company. Its initial successes
were founded on its unique, direct, buildto-order
model that earned the company
profits by simply being more efficient than
the competition. Over time, though, those
returns diminished, and cost-cutting even-
DAN COSTA
Five Tech Companies to Watch
tually led to sacrifices in customer service
and build quality. Today, the company has
solid footholds in the consumer, business,
and gaming PC space but also has a reputation
for being a bit dull. That will change
in 2009 as the company shifts its focus
toward design and personalization.
Dell has partnered with hundreds of
artists and is allowing its customers to
customize the look of many of its laptop
and netbook lines. Dell is also letting
users make a statement on the high end
with Adamo, a slick, ultrathin, 4-pound,
brushed-aluminum laptop that any wellheeled
CEO would want to carry into a
board meeting.
Through innovation—and more than a little opportunism—these
old-school companies are doing well
despite the economic crisis.
• miCrosoft’s luCky 7 Whatever the
strengths and weaknesses of Vista may be,
it’s pretty clear that Microsoft has lost this
round of the OS wars. Microsoft has made
the beta of Windows 7 available online, and
the company seems intent on shipping the
final version by the end of the year.
Windows 7 isn’t going to blow anyone
away with stunning innovation, but so far,
it has a few cool new features and that “just
works” appeal. One of the more interesting
additions is Digital Living Network Alliance
(DLNA) compliance, which essentially
allows you to play a media file on any
device in your house (including gaming
consoles, HDTVs, and more) with the click
of a button. While consumer electronics
companies are scrambling to figure out
seamless digital living solutions, Microsoft
has one that’s already working.
• amazon’s hEad is in thE Cloud
Most people know Amazon as the most
successful online retailer around. But it
has a secondary gig as a high-end business
services company, leasing out server time
through its Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)
for more than a year. Now its Web services
business includes everything from
technical support, on-demand workforce
management, and payroll services.
Amazon is striving to provide the
universal back end for just about any
e-commerce business, whether it involves
shipping books via postal mail or streaming
Internet videos. This is the kind of diversification
that will help Amazon weather 2009,
and possibly even thrive in it.
• ComPusa livEs! If you want to see
the future of electronics retailing, take a
drive down to CompUSA’s Dadeland, Florida,
location. Yes, the company declared
bankruptcy at the end of 2007, but in early
2008 it was snapped up by Systemax, the
parent company of TigerDirect. This has
given the venerable retailer not only a new
lease on life but an entirely new way to sell
electronics, dubbed “Retail 2.0,” by Gilbert
J. Fiorentino, chief executive of the technology
products group at Systemax and
CompUSA stores.
“Walk into any retail store and you’ll see
a bunch of displays with the same movie
playing or the Windows start-up screen—
it’s a waste,” Fiorentino says. “Those
screens can be used to sell.” You still have
a retail space with a commission-based
salesperson there to guide you through the
process. But instead of a tiny paper card
on the shelf with little product information,
the system’s display shows the product
page on the CompUSA Web site, with
every spec. Bringing Internet connections
to the retail shelf will also help with support.
CompUSA’s renewal is indicative of
the others discussed here. Through innovation—and
more than a little opportunism—these
old-school companies are
doing well despite the economic crisis.
talk baCk to dan E-mail your thoughts
to dan_costa@ziffdavis.com.
MARCH 2009 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 27

App LAunCHeRs • 28 l Audio/MusiC • 28 l BACkup • 29 l BLogging • 29 l BRowseRs • 30
CALendAR/piMs • 30 l CoMMuniCAtion/e-MAiL • 31 l ConfeRenCing • 31 l fiLe tRAnsfeR/downLoAd • 32
fiLe VieweRs/ConVeRteRs • 32 l finAnCe • 32 l fun/HoMe • 32 l gRApHiCs • 33 l iMs • 34
inteRfACe enHAnCeRs • 34 l LoCAL seARCH • 35 l offiCe • 35 l opeRAting systeMs • 36
netwoRking • 36 l Rss ReAdeRs • 37 l synCHRonizAtion • 37 l Video • 37
The
BestFree
software
The best things in life often are free. Here, a list of 173 of them—free software for
launching apps, networking, backup, entertainment, and more. By Eric Griffith
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Why
pay? You’ve already shelled out money
for a computer, so there’s no reason that
what’s running on that pricey PC should
cost a darn thing. Not in this day and age
of amazing freebie software and Web apps.
That’s why every year PCMag presents a
look at the best programs you can download
or access online at no cost. All are
worthy replacements for your ancient and
sometimes forgotten desktop applications,
and they’ll save you thousands of dollars to
boot.
We’ve organized our list of 173 favorites
by categories for easy searching, and
also note the best of the best as our Hall of
Fame winners—just look for the icon next
to names like Audacity and Thunderbird.
Of course, it’s impossible for us to find
all of the free apps, much less try them all
out. Did we miss one that you can’t live
without? Share your favorites at a special
posting site on our AppScout blog, Your
Favorite Free Software.
28 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION MARCH 2009
App LAunchers
circle Dock circledock.wikidot.com
Windows Who says a dock has to actually
dock? To the side of the screen, that is.
Circle Dock brings up a spiraling launcher
interface with all the icons you want to click.
Rotate it with the wheel on your mouse and
change the skin to suit your desktop.
ObjectDock www.stardock.com
Windows Replace the Windows Taskbar
and Quick Launch toolbar with this Maclike
animated toolbar of icons for all your
programs. It comes with a few “docklets”
for displaying info like the time, weather,
and a Web search form.
Launchy www.launchy.net
Windows | Linux “Keystroke launcher” is a
fancy way of saying “command line,” but
if you like to type rather than click for control—a
practice that goes well beyond app
launching—Launchy is the best choice
available.
Quicksilver www.blacktree.com
Mac Os Quicksilver does more from the keyboard
than just launch programs. It can act
on any item you can find or drag on your
Mac. Plug-ins add even more functions.
AuDiO/Music
★ HALL OF FAME ★
Audacity audacity.sourceforge.net FAME
Windows | Mac Os | Linux On a par with any
commercial audio editor, Audacity is the
free sound editor of choice. The latest beta
(1.3.6) even supports MPEG-4, Dolby Digital,
and Windows Media.
Banshee banshee-project.org
Linux iTunes is riffed upon again, this time
in a Linux-only option that supports audio
and video, Android phones, and older iPods
(but not iPhones or iPod touch . . . for now).

ephpod www.ephpod.com
Windows It does whatever iTunes does in
Windows—syncing, playlists, iPod firmware
updates, and more, including moving
music from an iPod to your new PC.
foobar2000 www.foobar2000.org
Windows Basic playback of just about any
audio you can imagine is foobar2000’s
calling card, complete with an iTunes-like
interface.
imeem (formerly Anywhere.FM)
www.imeem.com
Web If iTunes were entirely in the cloud, it
would be pretty close to imeem (formerly
Anywhere.FM). Upload your music collection
and videos to stream from any device.
Digital photos, too. You can share them
with friends you make on the service.
★ HALL OF FAME ★
iTunes www.apple.com/itunes
Windows | Mac Os Do we have to explain
iTunes as the (so far) ultimate media player
coupled with online store, and the primary
way to get media on an iPod or iPhone? Or
say that it plays most files—from music to
video to games to podcasts—save (unsurprisingly)
Windows Media formats? Probably
not.
Mojo www.deusty.com
Windows | Mac Os When you and some
friends install Mojo, you’re ready for a
unique sharing experience. Browsing
and downloading MP3s from each other’s
iTunes music libraries is suddenly a very
easy proposition. If it’s a DRM file from
the iTunes store, Mojo highlights it in red
so you won’t be bothered trying.
screamer radio www.screamer-radio.com
Windows You can download an app or run
it from the Web, but either way, Screamer
Radio accesses and lets you record Internet
radio in a number of streaming audio
formats (Shoutcast, Icecast, Ogg Vorbis,
WMA, and AAC).
Wavepad sound editor
www.nch.com.au/wavepad
Windows | Mac Os | Linux WavePad puts all the
usual bells and whistles of audio editing
and effects at your fingertips.
★ HALL OF FAME ★
Winamp www.winamp.com
Windows Still a primo MP3 player, Winamp
AuDiO/Music
songbird www.getsongbird.com
Windows | Mac Os | Linux Mozilla’s knockoff of iTunes is free, is open-source, and supports
just about every kind of music file you can imagine. You can even download
MP3s that are embedded on Web sites to your permanent collection. Extensions
add support for iPods and Web services.
is customizable (it heralded the age of
“skins” on software) and also comes in
multiple versions, including one that
works with CDs.
BAckup
Driveimage XML www.runtime.org
Windows Make a replica—an image—of
your entire hard drive for easy backup and
restore later.
MozBackup mozbackup.jasnapaka.com
Windows If you’re a big user of Mozilla
products—including Firefox, Thunderbird,
and SeaMonkey, as well as Flock and
Netscape—use MozBackup to store your
hard-earned settings and data like bookmarks
and e-mail messages.
Mozyhome Free www.mozy.com
Windows | Mac Os Don’t even think about
backing up: MozyHome will do it for you, in
the background, for up to 2GB of data (you
can pay to get unlimited space). Perfect for
office docs, but you’ll want to pay for more
storage to back up pictures, music, or videos.
Soon it will sync between PCs, too.
spiderOak www.spideroak.com
Windows | Mac Os | Linux It’s another 2GB of
free online storage that backs up in the
background, but SpiderOak goes Mozy
one better by supporting Linux.
syncToy v2.0
www.microsoft.com/downloads
Windows This so-called PowerToy from
Microsoft has the power to make sure that
the folders across your multiple drives or
even your home network stay fully synchronized.
syncBack Freeware
www.2brightsparks.com/freeware
Windows Set all the parameters and Sync-
Back will handle synchronization or
backup between folders, FTP sites, or ZIP
archives.
BLOgging
scribeFire www.scribefire.com
Windows | Mac Os | Linux This add-on for
Firefox is a perfect tool for posting entries
to just about any blogging software or service
in existence.
TweetDeck www.tweetdeck.com
Windows | Mac Os | Linux Don’t restrict Twitter
to just a column when this Adobe Air–
based software can spread itself across
your desktop with multiple columns. Each
column can contain replies, direct mes-
MARCH 2009 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 29

sages, or whatever you specify. As with
any tweet tool, the columns auto-update
as new tweets arrive. And TweetDeck
stores all tweets that arrive while the app
is running so you don’t miss anything
overnight.
Twitteriffic
www.iconfactory.com/software/twitterrific
Mac Os| Mobile A small desktop footprint is
the hallmark of this reverse-type Twitter
app, which is great for reading and posting
to the popular microblogging service.
All the features you expect, and more, are
there—even in the free version, which
includes advertisements.
Zoundry raven www.zoundryraven.com
Windows Finally, standalone software that
gives Windows Live Writer some serious
competition for the pro bloggers. It handles
full WYSIWYG editing on multiple
blogs and can run portably from a USB
flash drive to use with any Windows PC.
twhirl www.twhirl.org
Windows | Mac Os A desktop interface for
Twitter, twhirl requires Adobe AIR to run
but makes it infinitely easier to keep up
with tweets and/or twits.
ustream.tv www.ustream.tv
Web Still the best way to broadcast yourself,
live, across the Web. All you need is
the webcam.
Wordpress.com www.wordpress.com
Web You could install WordPress on your
servers, or go right to this commercial,
hosted site and set up a professional-looking
blog in no time.
For our full review, click here.
Windows Live Writer
get.live.com/writer/overview
Windows This desktop software for blog
posting is a favorite with the pros who
want a WYSIWYG editor that also posts
photos, maps, and other content.
BrOWsers
camino caminobrowser.org
Mac Os We know; you love Firefox but just
wish it was a little more . . . Mac-ish. Camino
solves that issue, offering “Mozilla power,
Mac style.” It has full support of Mac OS’s
Keychain, AppleScript, and all the typical
Firefox goodies.
30 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION MARCH 2009
Flock 2 www.flock.com
Windows | Mac Os | Linux Flock 2 stresses the
social along with surfing, integrating features
like RSS reading and Twitter and
media access right into the browser. Since
it’s based on Firefox, it can also use many
of the same extensions.
For our full review, click here.
★ HALL OF FAME ★
Firefox www.mozilla.com
Windows | Mac Os | Linux | Mobile Can’t wait for
the free update to IE 8, which promises
an enhanced address bar and upgraded
privacy protections? In the meantime use
our favorite browser. Firefox is beholden
to no one and extensible to the nth degree.
Upcoming versions will offer far more
security and superfast JavaScript to make
the browsing experience even better.
For our full review, click here.
Foxreplace
code.google.com/p/foxreplace
Windows | Mac Os | Linux If you work in a lot
of Web forms or Web apps like Google
Docs, this Firefox add-on is a must-have. It
can search and replace text in Web pages
quickly and easily.
google chrome
www.google.com/chrome
Windows Everyone pays attention to what
Google does, so when the company made
a Web browser, the world noticed. And
for good reason: This streamlined, fast,
secure software has true potential in the
browser wars.
For our full review, click here.
★ HALL OF FAME ★
internet explorer 8 Beta www.microsoft
.com/windows/internet-explorer
Windows This is a freebie you’re probably
already using in some form, as IE is the
most-used Web browser in the world. The
latest beta adds fantastic (if overdue) features
such as a stealth mode, better performance,
and the ability to subscribe to “Web
slices” that are just parts of a full Web page.
Opera www.opera.com
Windows | Mac Os | Linux | Mobile Opera can
claim many “firsts”—tabs, speed dial, and
more—and some say it’s the best. At the
least, it’s a fast browser with a presence
available on just about any device in your
digital arsenal.
For our full review, click here.
OperaTor
archetwist.com/en/opera/operator
Windows Combine the portable version of
Opera with the anonymizing service Tor
(The Onion Router) and you get OperaTor,
a bundle (including Polipo as a proxy) that
keeps your surfing secret.
safari www.apple.com/safari
Windows | Mac Os Fast page load times are a
hallmark of this browser, the default for
Mac installations and also available for
Windows. Safari offered private browsing
before it was cool.
For our full review, click here.
cALenDAr/piMs
30 Boxes www.30boxes.com
Web An online calendar that actually looks
like a calendar. The buddies feature makes
sharing schedules and to-dos a breeze.
calgoo calendar
www.calgoo.com/calendar
Windows | Mac Os | Linux Think of Calgoo as
one calendar app to rule them all: The software
provides desktop access to Google
Calendar and 30 Boxes, and syncs data
with Outlook and Apple iCal.
Doomi doominow.com
Windows This simple to-do list app requires
Adobe Air to run, and floats on your screen
or rests in the system tray—the very model
of an unobtrusive application. Future plans
include syncing with an online to-do list.
google calendar
www.google.com/calendar
Web | Mobile With multiple views, simple
sharing, and seamless integration with
other Google products, Google’s calendar,
like most of its Web apps, stands a notch
above the rest.
For our full review, click here.
Lightning
www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/lightning
Windows | Mac Os | Linux | solaris | Os2 Mozilla’s
calendar add-on for Thunderbird gives the
e-mail client all it needs to take on all the
features of Microsoft Outlook.
chandler chandlerproject.org
Windows | Mac Os | Linux An open-source, sharable
desktop to-do master, Chandler looks
vaguely Outlook-esque, but it doesn’t
worry about communications—just tasks

for those embracing the “getting things
done” lifestyle.
remember The Milk
www.rememberthemilk.com
Web | Mobile This power to-do list site gives
you many ways to get reminders (e-mail,
SMS, IM) and even more ways to create
them, from Google widgets to phone calls
to IM bots.
remember The Task
www.jashsayani.com/my-softwares
Windows | Mac Os | Linux This Adobe Air–based
app puts a small window on your desktop
with one fantastic purpose: full-time access
to your Remember The Milk task list.
TaskFive www.taskfive.com
Web Just five tasks a day? Take it as a challenge,
not a limitation. TaskFive sports an
elegant calendar interface, and you can
enter tasks via Web, e-mail, or text message.
Team to-dos will cost you, however.
Yahoo calendar calendar.yahoo.com
Web An old-timer compared with many,
Yahoo Calendar doesn’t innovate a lot but
provides solid features, shareable calendars,
and synchronization with Outlook.
cOMMunicATiOn/e-MAiL
Affixa www.affixa.com
Windows Usually, with webmail, you have
to put attachments on a message after the
fact. Affixa does it automatically when you
select a file, or from within other apps like
MS Word. Building on its predecessors,
gAttach and yAttach, Affixa works with
both Gmail and Yahoo Mail.
eM client www.emclient.com
Windows Anyone familiar with Outlook
or Thunderbird can master the basics of
using eM Client freeware in no time. It
already syncs with Google Calendar, and
future developments will integrate social
networks and IMs with your e-mail.
gmail www.gmail.com
Web | Mobile The current bellwether in Webbased
e-mail is still in beta, but Google continues
to innovate with additions via the
Gmail Labs. The searchable and increasing
storage (up to 7GB now, from 5.5GB
last year) doesn’t hurt. New themes make
it pretty. And you can use it to IM or send
SMS text messages to friends’ phones.
cOMMunicATiOn/e-MAiL
Zenbe www.zenbe.com
Web Zenbe is a multi-account, Internet-based interface to check Yahoo Mail,
Gmail, AOL, Windows Live, and POP3 messages. It throws in a shareable calendar,
an address book, and other tools to make it extra-useful.
google contacts
hogi.a.orn.jp/en/gmcont.html
Windows This extension for Thunderbird
does one thing you need: It synchronizes
contacts between Thunderbird and
Google’s Gmail.
icontact www.dataload.com/icontact
Windows Accessing your Gmail contacts is
all the easier with iContact. This app displays
the normally browser-accessibleonly
list on your desktop and integrates
those contacts into other communications
software, like Skype.
simple Mail
www.userlogos.org/extensions/simplemail
Windows | Mac Os | Linux If you already have
Firefox open all the time, why not have one
of those tabs just for mail? The Simple Mail
add-on puts a POP3/IMAP client right
inside the browser.
★ HALL OF FAME ★
Thunderbird
www.mozilla.com/thunderbird
Windows | Mac Os | Linux The Internet’s top
e-mail client from Mozilla is (of course)
extensible, but even without add-ons
Thunderbird is simple-to-master software
for anyone with a POP3 or IMAP e-mail
account.
For our full review, click here.
Windows Live Mail get.live.com
Windows Outlook Express has been transformed
into the modern-day Live Mail,
ready to check POP3, IMAP, and webmail
accounts when you’re not using it to read
RSS feeds or plan your calendar.
For our full review, click here.
Yahoo Mail mail.yahoo.com
Web Our webmail Editors’ Choice embeds
the Yahoo Messenger IM and RSS reader,
works on the Web with any browser or
operating system, and has more features
than anyone could hope to master.
For our full review, click here.
cOnFerencing
Dabbleboard www.dabbleboard.com
Web As simple as any whiteboard in a conference
room, Dabbleboard’s online app
brings drawing and some real-time collaboration
to your group.
sightspeed www.sightspeed.com
Windows | Mac Os Now owned by Logitech,
SightSpeed provides one-on-one video
chat with unparalleled video quality, but
more than two users at a time will cost you.
For our full review, click here.
skype www.skype.com
Windows | Mac Os | Linux Easy to use for phone
calls (free between Skype users, with a
minimal charge to call other phones),
Skype truly shines when paired with a
high-end webcam so that you can see your
friends and family.
For our full review, click here.
Tokbox www.tokbox.com
Web The Tokbox service turns your AIM
buddy list into a videoconferencing buddy
list directly in your browser. Separate apps
MARCH 2009 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 31

make it work through Facebook or on your
desktop. You provide the camera.
For our full review, click here.
FiLe TrAnsFer/DOWnLOAD
crossFTp www.crossftp.com
Windows | Mac Os | Linux Built on Java, Cross-
FTP works and looks the same, no matter
which OS you run. It features tabs for
each connection, support for archives, and
drag-and-drop transfer, and it comes in a
free server version, too.
DownThemAll www.downthemall.net
Windows | Mac Os | Linux Don’t download just
one item at a time from a Web page. As the
name implies, this download manager for
Firefox handles them all.
Filezilla www.filezilla-project.org
Windows | Mac Os | Linux Slick and simple FTP
that does the job, complete with drag-anddrop
from local to remote or vice versa.
FireFTp fireftp.mozdev.org
Windows | Mac Os | Linux Because it’s a plug-in
for Firefox, FireFTP behaves like any other
tab in the browser, so you don’t have to
launch another app to transfer files.
halite www.binarynotions.com/
halite-bittorrent-client
Windows Instead of downloading an entire
file, apps using the super-popular BitTorrent
protocol break files into chunks and
distribute them among several users. Free,
open-source application Halite is a BitTorrent
client focused on using the smallest
memory footprint as possible.
net2ftp www.net2ftp.com
Web If you sit at a computer with no FTP
software but need to upload a file, stat, this
Web app comes to your rescue quickly as
long as you have the server, username, and
password information.
rightload www.rightload.org
Windows Send a file to preconfigured FTP
servers anytime you want with a simple
right click. Rightload adds just a single line
to the context menu, with fly-out menus
for each FTP server you want.
uTorrent www.utorrent.com
Windows Still the best—and smallest—Bit-
Torrent client in existence, uTorrent will
have you downloading big files in no time.
32 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION MARCH 2009
FiLe VieWers/cOnVerTers
★ HALL OF FAME ★
Adobe reader www.adobe.com/reader
Windows | Mac Os | Linux | Mobile Adobe’s PDF
reader is far from basic, with a number of
extra features including online collaboration
tools.
Foxit reader www.foxitsoftware.com
Windows | Linux | Mobile Frequently preferred
over Adobe’s own reader for PDFs, Foxit
has a reputation for speed. What’s more, it
can annotate files.
peaZip peazip.sourceforge.net
Windows | Linux It’ll create ZIPs, 7Zs, TARs,
ARCs, and more; it’ll open those and many
other archives too, including RAR. PeaZip
can do so with AES encryption of your files
and can even split or join extra-large files
to make them easier to transport.
sumatra pDF
blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf
Windows The perfect PDF reader for the
minimalist, with a super-simple interface
and fast start-up time. Sumatra is perfect to
carry on a USB thumb drive.
Quick Media converter (QMc)
www.cocoonsoftware.com
Windows If you frequently find yourself
converting audio or video files to different
formats, keep this tool handy for (as the
name suggests) quick media conversion
to an impressive range of potential formats
and codecs.
WinrAr www.rarlab.com
Windows We all know about compressing
files with ZIP, but RAR is also quite popular;
WinRAR will compress or decompress
files in both.
YemuZip www.yellowmug.com/yemuzip
Mac Os Sometimes unzipping a compressed
file on the Mac makes a mess. YemuZip
makes archiving and decompressing a
simple drag-and-drop procedure.
Zamzar www.zamzar.com
Web Upload just about any file (under
100MB) and you can convert it to just
about any format that makes sense. This
very cool tool even grabs online videos
from YouTube and turns them into files
you can use.
FinAnce
Billeo www.billeo.com
Windows Install the Billeo toolbar on your
Web browser and add your accounts and
you’ll get fast access to assistance with
online shopping, online bill payment, and
reports on your spending.
For our full review, click here.
Buxfer www.buxfer.com
Web | Mobile Sign up (or use an existing
AOL, Facebook, Google, OpenID, or Yahoo
account) to get started with tracking
shared expenses, so divvying up the bills at
the end of the month becomes a breeze.
Mint www.mint.com
Web Mint manages your money by sucking
in data from all your bank, credit card, and
other accounts, providing you with regular
reports on what you’re spending and how
to save.
For our full review, click here.
Wesabe www.wesabe.com
Windows | Mac Os | Web “Part money management
tool, part community,” where
info—your comments about your spending—is
shared (anonymously) with the
group so everyone can find value. Of
course, Wesabe also helps track your
spending and income.
Fun/hOMe
eBay Desktop desktop.ebay.com
Windows | Mac Os This app, which requires
Adobe Air, looks like eBay replicated on
your desktop. But for power buyers it
adds special functions, like not needing to
refresh the page and a clock synchronized
with eBay’s own.
geni.com www.geni.com
Web There’s no easier place to plug in your
family tree, and since it’s a Web app it’s
easy to share such info with the rest of the
family so that they can fill in the gaps.
google earth earth.google.com
Windows | Mac Os | Linux If you like Google
Maps online, welcome to that same kind
of action on steroids. You can traverse the
globe on its interlocking satellite images,
or reverse it and look skyward, even travel
to the past. Third-party add-ons continue
to extend Google Earth’s capabilities

eyond what our puny terrestrial minds
can imagine.
For our full review, click here.
home inventory www.knowyourstuff.org
Windows | Mac Os Insurance companies ask
you to inventory your possessions prior to
signing up for a homeowner’s or renter’s
policy. Create a home inventory of everything
you own on this site, a service of
the Insurance Information Institute, and
throw in digital pictures or even scanned
purchase receipts to make sure what’s
yours is yours.
penzu www.penzu.com
Web Hard to believe that in the age of blogging,
some people still want journals and
diaries they keep to themselves. Penzu is
all about making that happen, online, with
privacy as the first priority.
springpad www.springpadit.com
Web Manage your life tasks with online
notebooks filled with lists, photos, notes,
and maps/directions you can share with
the whole family. Perfect for tracking
receipts, planning meals or trips, and getting
your house organized.
Timetoast www.timetoast.com
Web Ever wanted to create a timeline for
your site or a presentation, but couldn’t
decide what tool would best display the
data? Wonder no more, as Timetoast adds
this useful data with an attractive flair.
grAphics
Artweaver www.artweaver.de
Windows If you want the freedom to paint,
without the mess and without paying $359
for Corel Painter X, Artweaver is a good
starter tool for artists.
DestroyFlickr www.destroytoday.com/
?p=project&id=DestroyFlickr
Windows This Adobe Air app puts Flickr
on your desktop, but with a completely
different interface. Why “destroy”? In the
words of app creator Jonnie Hallman, “To
destroy today is to make the most of the
day—destruction as a form of creation.”
flauntr www.flauntr.com
Web This online photo editor integrates
with just about any picture service you can
imagine, including Facebook and Flickr,
and offers a suite of tools to manipulate
grAphics
paint.neT www.getpaint.net
Windows This student project turned freeware masterpiece puts the power of
higher-end graphics editors in anyone’s hands.
images in ways specific to social networks
and mobile handsets.
Faststone image Viewer
www.faststone.org
Windows Another image browser and converter
that handles almost any file type,
FastStone also has companion programs,
like the handy Photo Resizer, complete
with a fast batch processor.
★ HALL OF FAME ★
giMp www.gimp.org
Windows | Mac Os | Linux
GNU Image Manipulation Program
(GIMP) has provided Photoshop-like tools
at no charge for over a decade.
For our full review, click here.
google sketchup sketchup.google.com
Windows | Mac Os If you’re new to 3D but
want to build worlds anyway, a free tool
like SketchUp is a great place to start; the
latest version includes “self-aware” 3D
models so the app knows, for example, to
resize a virtual staircase by adding more
stairs and extend a virtual fence by adding
more slats.
For our full review, click here.
irfanView www.irfanview.com
Windows Perhaps the ultimate image viewer
(with some editing tools thrown in), the
latest IrfanView (version 4.20) received
a nice cosmetic update. It also supports
instant video and audio playback.
For our full review, click here.
pencil www.les-stooges.org/pascal/pencil
Windows | Mac Os | Linux For the budding
Chuck Jones at home, Pencil is a free way
to get started in the world of traditional 2D
animation—that is, draw each frame anew.
picasa picasa.google.com
Windows | Linux Few free programs come
close to handling photos with the skill
of Picasa. Organize them, do quick edits
(including red-eye reduction), and share
pics online or e-mail them to friends.
For our full review, click here.
Mobaphoto mobaphoto-en.mobatek.net
Windows Portability is the key here. This
lightweight photo editor (only 1.6MB) puts
photographs into great-looking photo galleries.
Naturally, it has all the usual tools
you need to fix red-eye, crop, and resize. It
will even batch-process images.
photoshop express
www.photoshop.com/express
Web It lacks the full power of Photoshop
on the Web, but it does offer rudimentary
editing, basic photo sharing, and 2GB of
storage for your photos. Partnerships with
MARCH 2009 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 33

sites like Picasa and Facebook make Photoshop
Express fun as well as useful.
For our full review, click here.
photosynth www.photosynth.com
Web Photosynth does so many unique
things with photos that we gave it a Technical
Excellence award. It takes multiple
photos, finds where they overlap, and creates
an almost 3D image; it can even make
a 3D replica of an object from shots at multiple
angles.
picnik www.picnik.com
Web Picnik is the gold standard in online
image editing these days: It fixes photos
without confusing users and works with a
number of photo-sharing sites. And best of
all, you don’t have to register to get started
using it—unless you want to save images
online.
For our full review, click here.
pictomio www.pictomio.com
Windows Handling all your photos with
a simple but powerful interface, Pictomio
browses in many styles—including
a carousel mode similar to iTunes’ Cover
Flow, which benefits from a good 3D video
card. Pictomio organizes shots and creates
instant slideshows. It will even handle
audio and video.
splashup www.splashup.com
Web You don’t even need to sign up to get
instant access to this Flash-based image
editor with all the features (and more) that
you’d find in a downloadable app.
suMO paint www.sumo.fi/web
Web Not every Web-based image editor
can claim to be high-end, but SUMO can,
by carefully mimicking the look and feel of
Photoshop—maybe a little too well. Try it
before this free Flash app gets sued out of
existence by Adobe.
★ HALL OF FAME ★
AiM www.aim.com
iMs
Windows | Mac Os | Linux | Web | Mobile AOL’s
Instant Messenger is the most-used network
in the U.S., and the software—only
the Windows version gets regular updates
these days—packs in as much as possible.
You can access the AIM network with just
about any multi-protocol IM software.
For our full review, click here.
34 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION MARCH 2009
Dexrex www.dexrex.com
Windows | Mac Os | Mobile This add-on records
your IM conversation transcripts and
stores them online for later reading and
analysis. It works with AIM, Digsby, Yahoo
Messenger, and many others.
Meebo www.meebo.com
Web | Mobile When you want to avoid installing
software but still want to chat on all
the major IM networks, Meebo is your site
of choice. Sign up for a Meebo account to
access multiple IM networks all at once
and log all conversations.
For our full review, click here.
inTerFAce enhAncers
AccelMan File Manager
www.flexigensoft.com/accelman
Windows As much a file viewer as a file
manager, AccelMan has multiple windows
that offer info galore on each file and
its contents. The app can even play back
media files when you don’t want to launch
another player.
Desktops technet.microsoft.com/en-us/
sysinternals/cc817881.aspx
Windows Desktops is a virtual desktop manager
in a small package; the app is only a
62K download. Personalize hotkeys for
quick switches between desktops.
Dexpose2
devrexster.googlepages.com/dexpose2
Windows This app is a Windows clone of the
Mac interface treat Exposé, which makes
opening and closing apps and getting to
the desktop a fast process. Windows XP
and Vista users can also set up DExposE2
to work on multiple monitors.
emerge Desktop emergedesktop.org
Windows So you think the Windows desktop
looks too busy with that system tray,
taskbar, and Start button? You’re not alone.
EmergeDesktop does away with them all,
replacing the Windows shell (the interface,
that is) with its minuscule emerge-
Tray. Launch apps with a right click, or
couple Emerge Desktop with a launcher
like ObjectDock.
greenprint www.printgreener.com
Windows | Mac Os Stop printing that extra
blank page when you need a hard copy of a
Web page, or for any printout for that matter.
GreenPrint saves the paper, even let-
ting you output a PDF without the blank
sheets. A tree somewhere out there will
thank you.
For our full review, click here.
mucommander
www.mucommander.com
Windows | Mac Os | Linux | Mobile muCommander
is unique: It’s a file manager that
looks the same on all operating systems. A
standard dual-pane, it also has support for
archived files, FTPs, and previews files.
placesBar Tweaker
www.ioisland.com/placesbar
Windows Every time you open or save a file
in Windows XP, the dialog box gives you
a few select options, like Desktop or My
Documents, to choose from in the Places
bar. You can personalize that list with this
tweaker, putting your most used folders in
the lineup.
rBTray moitah.net
Windows RBTray does one thing and does it
well: It enables you to minimize any application
you like to the system tray as an icon
rather than as a taskbar button, without
even doing a full install (RBTray can run
from a thumb drive).
standalonestack
www.chrisnsoft.com/standalonestack
Windows Mac OS X Leopard introduced
cool towers of icons to the interface, with
shortcuts to frequently accessed folders,
called stacks. Now you can put those
stacks in Windows as well. There’s even
an add-on to help you put stacks on the
RocketDock launcher.
start++ www.brandontools.com/content/
startplusplus.aspx
Windows A nice addition in Vista to the
Windows environment was the Start
Menu’s search box. Start++ turbocharges it
with extras like online searches that post
results in the menu, and its own set of widgets
and plug-ins (one option, for example,
is displaying the weather).
Trayeverything www.winapizone.net/
software/trayeverything
Windows You’ve got a lot of applications
open, but only so much space in your Taskbar
. . . so why not minimize them directly
to the system tray on the lower right-hand
side of your screen? TrayEverything will
do it for you.

ultraexplorer
www.mustangpeak.net/ultraexplorer.html
Windows Another replacement for Windows
Explorer, UltraExplorer stands out
by sporting a command-line interface to
go with the dual-pane view of files. And
it offers a preview window, so you can
quickly check the contents of a file before
opening it.
Yahoo Widgets widgets.yahoo.com
Windows | Mac Os The world’s biggest collection
of widgets—more than 5,000 of
the things—is yours through Yahoo. Some
widgets, obviously, are more useful than
others, but with the right combination,
your desktop can be an information powerhouse.
LOcAL seArch
google Desktop desktop.google.com
Windows | Mac Os | Linux Put the power of
Google’s search engine to work on finding
your own files. The software indexes in the
background, while in the foreground you
get to put all the Google Gadgets (widgets)
you like on your desktop.
For our full review, click here.
everything www.voidtools.com
Windows Don’t need the extras? Everything
really does just one thing in its small package:
It indexes your PC in real time for
lightning-fast search.
Locate32 www.locate32.net
Windows The Locate32 project is all about
indexing the contents of your hard drives
and other storage to run fast finds on local
data.
OFFice
Adobe Buzzword www.buzzword.com
Web This online-only word processor has
one of the best-looking minimalist interfaces
going, since it was built entirely with
Adobe Flash, and each page looks as good
as any formatted in Word.
For our full review, click here.
blist www.blist.com
Web Web lists (aka “blists”) are little databases
for all your data needs. The Flash
interface makes this fast for newbies and
powerful enough for everyone else. You
can even put your blists on your blog or
social-network pages.
iMs
Digsby www.digsby.com
Windows Brand new this year, Digsby may be the ultimate way to stay in realtime
touch with friends. It incorporates multiple IM networks, social networks
(including Twitter), and e-mail and webmail notifications. You can even send
mail through Digsby. Mac OS and Linux versions are promised soon.
etherpad etherpad.com
Web You don’t even have to sign up to create
a new pad, a shareable text document
stored online for you by EtherPad. Don’t
expect fancy formatting, but do expect
real-time, color-coded editing between all
collaborators.
evernote www.evernote.com
Windows | Mac Os | Mobile | Web Take a clipping
of anything you see—online or off—for
later reference. Built-in OCR makes text
inside images searchable.
gMDesk
www.robertnyman.com/gmdesk/
Windows Bring Google’s Web apps to the
desktop with this site-specific browser
interface that requires Adobe Air. You’ll
have access to Gmail, Google Reader,
and Google Docs just as you would in a
browser, but GMDesk stays alive when
your browser crashes.
google Docs docs.google.com
Web | Mobile If you’re ready to move your
work life to the cloud, Google’s word processor,
spreadsheet, and presentation suite
is ready for you, and comes complete with
storage for all of your docs. It also comes
with forms you can fill out to gather data
from outside.
For our full review, click here.
incollector
www.incollector.devnull.pl
Windows | Linux Note-taking doesn’t have to
hog the whole desktop, or even the whole
browser window. Incollector runs in the
background, letting you call up a new note
page from the system tray when you want,
tag it, and easily find it later.
Jarte www.jarte.com
Windows No one loves the Notepad
included in Windows, and there are many
replacements out there. Jarte does most of
them one better, because it is completely
self-contained and also portable—the best
part of Jarte is that you can run it from a
thumb drive!
kompoZer www.kompozer.net
Windows | Mac Os | Linux This free WYSIWYG
Web page authoring package builds on the
abandoned Nvu project. It supports CSS,
file management (including FTP), and tabs
for multiple pages.
Lotus symphony symphony.lotus.com
Windows | Mac Os | Linux IBM’s entry into the
world of office suites is based on Open-
Office and is currently in beta for Mac
and Linux. It covers the three big suite
tools: word processing, presentations, and
spreadsheets.
For our full review, click here.
MARCH 2009 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 35

Lucidchart www.lucidchart.com
Web Why make flowcharts complicated?
This Web app goes back to basics with
simple, black-and-white charts that anyone
can make—and better yet, anyone else
can easily understand.
neoOffice www.neooffice.com
Mac Os NeoOffice comes with most of the
same tools as the Mac version of Open-
Office but carries a more Apple-friendly
look and feel.
★ HALL OF FAME ★
notepad++
notepad-plus.sourceforge.net
Windows Notepad++ is the standard by
which all replacements for Notepad—that
weak little app that comes with Windows—are
measured. It sports full text
styles, tabs, drag-and-drop, and superspeed
and is suitable for any coding or
writing you can throw at it.
★ HALL OF FAME ★
OpenOffice www.openoffice.org
Windows | Mac Os | Linux | solaris Version 3 of
the freebie office suite ups the ante against
Microsoft’s hegemony, becoming fast and
polished enough to warrant serious consideration
by all, especially small businesses.
It looks like MS Office 2003 (for
those not in love with the Ribbon interface
in Office 2007) and has all the tools—
except e-mail—you’ll ever need.
For our full review, click here.
sliderocket www.sliderocket.com
Web Promising more than PowerPoint and
Keynote is bold, but this Web-only presentation
tool seems to deliver, with amazing
animations, support for embedded video,
and 3D transitions between slides.
softMaker Office 2006
www.softmakeroffice.com
Windows This free version is meant to
entice you to upgrade to the 2008 version,
but if all you need is basic text editing and a
spreadsheet, you’re set.
springnote www.springnote.com
Web | Mobile Whether you want a personal
notebook or a shareable group notebook,
this wiki-based note-taking site could give
Microsoft’s OneNote a run for its money.
Widgenie www.widgenie.com
Web Sick of making meh-looking graphs
36 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION MARCH 2009
in Excel? Visualize the same data through
Widgenie and create a beautiful graph
widget, even one with animation, that you
can share online. Text clouds, artful presentations
of the most popular words on
a page, are always a favorite with bloggers.
Zoho www.zoho.com
Web | Mobile If there’s a tool in the arsenal
of office suites that Zoho doesn’t include,
we can’t think of it. Not all the Web apps are
free, but those that are—word processor,
spreadsheet tool, presentation app, mail,
wiki, and many more—all bring the goods.
For our full review, click here.
OperATing sYsTeMs
gOs 3.0 gadgets www.thinkgos.com
Linux With its emphasis on easy access
to tools from Google, it’s easy to see why
some think of this lightweight Linux—
renowned for powering cheap PCs from
Wal-Mart—as the Google OS.
pure:dyne
code.goto10.org/projects/puredyne
Linux Consider this the creative Linux distro:
Boot just about any Intel PC (even
MacBooks) from a Live CD with pure:
dyne, and you’ll get instant access to free
tools for editing audio, video, and images
(many already in this story).
★ HALL OF FAME ★
ubuntu www.ubuntu.com
Linux The easiest Linux to install, now in
version 8.10 (aka “Intrepid Ibex”), not only
is suitable for (somewhat knowledgeable)
consumers but also comes with all the software
you need to be productive.
For our full review, click here.
neTWOrking
Airsnare
home.comcast.net/~jay.deboer/airsnare
Windows Turn your Wi-Fi–equipped laptop
into an info sniffer. AirSnare pulls down
info on computers and game consoles and
just about any device on the network, even
delivering devices’ MAC addresses.
Airradar
www.koingosw.com/products/airradar.php
Mac Os AirRadar goes beyond what the Wi-
Fi utility in Mac OS X can do by showing
extras like signal strength and the 802.11
network’s channel.
Axence netTools
www.axencesoftware.com
Windows Want a quick look at everything
that’s happening on your home network?
NetTools scans the network and reports
back on what ports are in use, and the
inbound and outbound connections. You
can use it to test your networking connections
over TCP or UDP protocols.
gBridge www.gbridge.com
Windows GBridge allows you to set up a relatively
painless VPN between computers
for sharing and syncing files and folders,
using your Google account as the connection
point (though Gbridge is not affiliated
with Google).
inssiDer
www.metageek.net/products/inssider
Windows Taking up where the venerable
NetStumbler left off, InSSIDer is a Wi-Fi
network scanner that runs under Vista and
XP—even the 64-bit versions. You can use
it to find out what’s wrong with local 802.11
networks.
LogMein hamachi secure.logmein.com
Windows | Mac Os | Linux Set up a secure tunnel
between two PCs using a virtual private
network (VPN), just like the ones the pros
use to access the server at work. Only this
one is free.
For our full review, click here.
netsetMan www.netsetman.com
Windows Stop using Vista’s convoluted
interface to change network settings. Net-
SetMan takes over and creates profiles for
different networks you might connect with,
changing your need for static or dynamic
IPs, or hostnames or workgroups, on the
fly. If you’ve got multiple network cards,
NetSetMan is a huge help.
network notepad
www.networknotepad.com
Windows It’s more than a notepad: This software
is specific to creating flowcharts of
your network layout. Put in the IP address
for each device and you can use the interface
to quickly ping devices to confirm
they’re online.
printerAnywhere
www.printeranywhere.com
Windows | Mac Os | Linux Why print just
to your printer? PrinterAnywhere lets
you print to any printer on the Internet

(through another PC with PrinterAnywhere
installed), or you can open your
printer to others.
rss reADers
google reader reader.google.com
Web | Mobile After three years, Google’s RSS
feed reader is tops, not only mimicking the
best of what desktop readers can do but
also mashing up nicely with other Google
services, like the iGoogle home page.
For our full review, click here.
netvibes www.netvibes.com
Web A personalized start page with an
emphasis on widgets and feed readers,
Netvibes also aggregates podcasts for you.
For our full review, click here.
FeedDemon www.newsgator.com/
individuals/FeedDemon
Windows The preeminent desktop newsreader
for Windows was recently overhauled
to be faster and easier, while
remaining extremely customizable to suit
how you read feeds.
For our full review, click here.
netnewsWire www.newsgator.com/
individuals/netnewswire
Mac Os | Mobile FeedDemon’s sibling on the
Macintosh platform has updated its interface
and more. It now integrates with several
other Mac apps like iCal and iPhoto to
help you share as well as read.
rss Bandit rssbandit.org
Windows Directly sync this reader with your
online feeds at Google Reader or News-
Gator Online. You’ll get fast browsing on
the desktop but still have access to your
feeds over the Web using other PCs.
snarfer www.snarfware.com
Windows It won’t win awards for visual
innovation, but Snarfer does provide simplicity.
It’s arguably the best way to handle
straight-up RSS info gathering and reading,
and it’s available in over 20 languages.
sYnchrOniZATiOn
Dropbox www.getdropbox.com
Windows | Mac Os | Linux | Web One of the
few sync/backup tools to support Linux
(Fedora and Ubuntu), Dropbox always
gets kudos for its design and simple setup.
Online backup space is free for up to 2GB.
ViDeO
VLc media player www.videolan.org/vlc
Windows | Mac Os | Linux VideoLAN’s open-source software plays back—well, just
about everything. It can also serve up streaming video and music to other PCs on
your network.
Windows Live sync sync.live.com
Windows | Mac Os | Web The replacement for
FolderShare continues to do one thing and
do it well: sync folders (up to 20) across
multiple PCs over the Internet.
Windows Live Mesh www.mesh.com
Windows | Mac Os | Mobile | Web Microsoft’s
latest method for syncing folders on different
PCs goes FolderShare one better
by including 5GB of online storage accessible
from any PC, plus the ability to mesh
special collaborative applications (like a
group crossword puzzle!).
syncplicity www.syncplicity.com
Windows | Mobile | Web Synchronize up to
10,000 files (or 2GB, whichever comes
first) on up to two computers free. Sign up
friends and you can add another 1GB per
new user recruited.
Mozilla Weave services.mozilla.com
Windows | Mac Os | Linux A product of Mozilla
Labs, Weave is meant to synchronize anything
and everything related to Firefox
among all the computers you use, plus
extend some features to others for sharing.
Registration is closed as of this writing but
should be back soon.
ViDeO
camstudio www.camstudio.org
Windows This open-source program for
capturing videos of your screen turns
what you do on your desktop, as well as the
audio to go with it, into a movie, suitable
for future demonstrations.
handBrake www.handbrake.fr
Windows | Mac Os | Linux Want to back up all
those DVDs you own before they get
scratched? This open-source tool does full
DVD-to-MPEG-4 conversion, which you
can play back later on media centers, even
the Apple TV.
Miro www.getmiro.com
Windows | Mac Os | Linux Miro’s a video player
that promises to play back just about any
video media file, organize files in playlists,
and incorporate BitTorrent downloading
to become a de facto PC-based TiVo.
Tipcam www.utipu.com/app
Windows Another cool tool for capturing
videos of your desktop, TipCam lets
you take big, beautiful videos (up to 800
by 600 pixels). You can even zoom in on
specifics and upload the videos directly
to YouTube. Frequent users can get an
account to store and display up to 250MB
of video.
Want More?
The festival of free software doesn’t have
to end! Skim through last year’s compilation
of free software, or take a look at these
other app collections for various other
platforms.
• The Best Free software ’08
• Free iphone apps
• 16th Annual utility guide
MARCH 2009 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 37

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LCD PC Risk Free, call us at 888.834.4577.
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© 2008 Cybernet Manufacturing, Inc. All rights reserved. The Cybernet logo is a trademark of Cybernet Manufacturing, Inc. Intel and Intel Core 2 Quad are trademarks of Intel Corporation,
or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Windows Vista is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. All other registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.

The Fastest ISPs in America
We polled tens of thousands of PC Mag readers across the country to find out which ISPs
and connection types yield the blazingest speeds. By Jeremy A. Kaplan and Erik Rhey
Price is typically one of the biggest considerations
in choosing an Internet service
provider (ISP). And obviously you
can choose only what’s available in your
area. For some, especially those living in
the boonies, there is the painful reality of
having only one option. But in order to be
an informed consumer, shouldn’t you at
least know whether the choices available
Illustration by Maria Rendon
in your area are as fast, affordable, and as
customer-friendly as ISPs in other parts
of your state and the rest of the country?
If you have only advertising to go on, then
you should believe that your provider is
super fast, super cheap, super friendly, and
generally much better than the competition.
Of course, we know that in the real
world, that’s not always the case.
How We Tested
In this story, our goal was to compile an
accurate, three-dimensional picture of the
country’s ISPs, using two key metrics: customer
feedback and speed numbers from
user testing. To achieve this goal, we relied
on an app we created called SurfSpeed, a
utility that grabs pages (and page elements)
from several popular Web sites to measure
MARCH 2009 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 39

your actual Internet surfing speed—not the
bandwidth allocation your ISP quotes you.
Most of the line tests the ISPs use measure
speed by sending you large files and
seeing how long it takes you to download
them. Your ISP then cites numbers based
on abstract mathematics—the number of
users divided by the theoretical line speed.
Our approach is different, and our results
will differ, in some cases dramatically, from
the number quoted by your ISP. Just like a
real browser, SurfSpeed initiates multiple
connections to get all of the elements of a
40 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION MARCH 2009
page. Each connection takes time, and that
becomes a part of the SurfSpeed equation.
This gives a unique measurement that
more accurately reflects how you spend 90
percent of your time on the Web: surfing or
waiting for a page to load. By default, the
utility runs once per hour, “browsing” to
top sites like AOL, eBay, Google, MySpace,
Yahoo, and more. Note that the data came
from PC Mag readers, not the population
as a whole. Over a period of two months,
we pored over data collected from more
than 17,000 profiles (that is, unique IP
addresses)—over 200,000 individual tests.
We also crunched the numbers for each
state, because fast overall service doesn’t
translate into fast local service. In all, we
had over 2 million data points. The results
from each user are compared with those of
others in the same ZIP code, state, country,
and the world. You can also see how your
ISP compares with other ISPs around the
country. And to complement our data, we
took population figures from the U.S. government’s
2007 census estimates (the most
recent data available).

No matter how fast your connection,
occasionally sites won’t be available, pages
won’t load properly, or downloads will take
an inordinately long time to arrive. For that
reason, our research department helped us
to identify “outliers” and clean the data so
we could proceed with our analysis. When
analyzing within a state, we considered
only those ISPs and connection types for
which we had at least five users.
The other part of the evaluation—customer
satisfaction—is based on userreported
information in the SurfSpeed
application, which includes a five-item
satisfaction index. We aggregated people
who rated themselves as “Extremely
Satisfied” or “Very Satisfied” under the
category of “satisfied” users. Dissatisfied
users include those who rated themselves
as either “Somewhat Satisfied” or “Not
Satisfied.”
To determine the penetration of broadband
connections into households, and
the average cost of those connections, we
turned to Centris, which collects such data
as part of its typical research.
Comparing Connection Speeds
Our conclusion regarding speed is probably
not surprising to many. We found
that fiber-optic service is by far the fastest
type available, with an average speed of
921 Kbps. This was 152 percent faster than
satellite and over 20 percent faster than
cable. Clearly, if you can switch up, you
should. The fiber market will only grow,
too, as companies install more and more
lines. According to the Telecommunications
Industry Association’s 2008 Market
Review and Forecast, “During the next four
MARCH 2009 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 41

years, more fiber will be deployed than
during the so-called overbuilding years
of the late 1990s and early 2000s.” Some of
the major fiber-optic carriers include the
well-publicized Verizon FiOS and lesserknown
regional carriers like Utah’s Mstar
and New Mexico’s CityLink Fiber.
At the other end of the spectrum is satellite.
Although satellite providers such as
the industry leader HughesNet and competitors
like WildBlue have been a godsend
for those in the farthest-flung regions
42 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION MARCH 2009
of the country (making service available
where there previously was none), its
customers nonetheless suffer the slowest
speeds. With an average speed of 145
Kbps, satellite is still faster than dial-up
but doesn’t come close to even the nextslowest,
DSL.
As for the connection types most of us
use—cable and DSL—there is no longer
any debate. Cable is clearly faster, with an
average speed of 735 Kbps, compared with
DSL’s 476. Among cable providers, our tests
found Optimum Online (Cablevision) and
Cox to be the fastest, at 839 and 774 Kbps,
respectively. For DSL, Connecticut-based
FrontierNet (724 Kbps) and Louisiana’s
CenturyTel (520 Kbps) topped the list.
Who Puts Customers First?
Just because a certain ISP is fast, doesn’t
mean all of its customers are happy. Surf-
Speed asked users to rate their feelings
about their ISPs on a scale from “Extremely
satisfied” to “Not satisfied.” ISPs could be

doing better in the eyes of customers. In
only three states did more than 50 percent
of users say they were satisfied with their
Internet provider. Interestingly, the results
closely coincided with those of our annual
Reader Satisfaction Survey.
Still, surfing speed is a major part of
the user experience, so it makes sense that
users gave some of the fastest ISPs the
highest customer satisfaction ratings. For
example, Verizon FiOS had the highest
rating of all, with 71 percent of its custom-
ers rating themselves as satisfied with the
service. The satellite provider HughesNet
was at the bottom, with a lowly 6 percent
of users saying they are satisfied. Among
the cable providers, Optimum Online and
WOW (Wide Open West) Internet topped
the list. Cable customers tended to be
satisfied with their service, more or less;
most approval ratings hovered around 50
percent. It’s a different story with DSL. In
that market, AT&T was the winner, with
only 38 percent satisfied.
The Regional Picture
Analyzing gigantic geographic regions is
a difficult way to identify the fastest ISPs
with any degree of scientific certainty.
For example, states in the West get online
faster than anywhere else in the country, at
565 Kbps, and the South proved the slowest
part of the country, at 551 Kbps. But the
difference between those numbers, just 14
Kbps, isn’t very meaningful.
Analyzing results at the state level
proves more interesting. As a rule, met-
MARCH 2009 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 43

RANkINg THE ISPs
To rate an ISP’s performance accurately, we based our results on two criteria: speed and customer satisfaction. As you can see,
Verizon’s fiber service is the big winner on speed and customer satisfaction, with satellite ISP HughesNet the big loser on both.
Internet Internet Service Provider
CABLE
SurfSpeed
(Kbps)
100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
Percentage of
satisfied users
Optimum Online (Cablevision) 839 62%
Cox 774 48%
Comcast 750 33%
Bright House 736 45%
Road Runner (Time Warner) 733 45%
Insight Broadband 717 51%
RCN 698 41%
Charter 641 29%
WOW Internet (Wide Open West) 638 57%
Mediacom Online 631 38%
Other cable 618 43%
Cable ONE 602 52%
EarthLink 565 46%
Average cable
DSL
688 45%
FrontierNet 724 20%
CenturyTel 520 16%
AT&T (including SBC Yahoo!) 502 38%
Verizon 469 29%
Other DSL 442 31%
Qwest 423 32%
BellSouth 413 36%
EarthLink 369 12%
Alltel 357 24%
Average DSL
FIBER OPTIC
469 27%
Verizon 931 71%
Other fiber optic 582 61%
Average fiber optic
SATELLITE
582 61%
HughesNet 121 6%
Other satellite 145 13%
Average satellite 121 6%
ropolitan areas are better cared for by
Internet service providers. More densely
populated areas across the country
reported better and faster service on our
test. So determining the overall speed of a
state means balancing data on how quickly
city residents get online and how effectively
more rural areas are served.
Speed is only half the picture, however.
If half a state’s residents can’t even get
broadband access, how well served is the
state as a whole? Availability of broadband
services is a gigantic factor in how fast
you get online, and the cost of that service
also determines what percentage of area
residents can afford it. If it’s too expensive
and available in only half a state, the state’s
overall speed rating will drop. To get the
full picture of Internet access across the
country, we turned to Centris, a research
firm that collects information on the use of
voice, video, data, and electronic products
and services.
44 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION MARCH 2009
According to Centris, New Jersey has
the highest percentage of broadband penetration,
with a whopping 80.2 percent,
and speedy Nevada comes in second with
75.3 percent. In fact, broadband penetration
was over 50 percent in more than half
the country. But cost tells a different story:
Folks from New Jersey pay a very low $33
on average for monthly broadband access,
but Nevadans pay nearly $40.
Does a price bump represent more
options, or is it simply a regional thing?
According to David Klein, executive vice
president at Centris, “These findings are
consistent with our view that competition
and market dynamics are driven by
the ability to deploy the fastest technologies
at the local level. We will likely see
even higher penetration rates and more
market-share changes as service providers
locally deploy new faster technologies
such as DOCSIS 3.0 and universal wireless
broadband.”
Overall Results
The top five states for speed are Nevada,
Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and
Connecticut. At the bottom are New
Mexico, Hawaii, Wyoming, Vermont, and
Iowa. The West proved to be the fastest
region, followed by the Midwest, Northeast,
and South. Some 24 states were above
the national average for speed, with the
Northeast having the most states in the
top 10. Although a Western state won, the
West had the most states in the bottom
10. Despite a significant rural population,
Virginia was the fastest state below the
Mason-Dixon. And in the Midwest, the
Cornhusker state of Nebraska topped that
region’s list, thanks to users reporting tremendous
speeds with Cox cable service—
909 Kbps.
If you want to test your Internet connection
using SurfSpeed, you can download
the utility at www.pcmag.com/utilities.
Registration is required.

Solutions
problems solved this issue
48 At Work
• Explore the benefits of accounting
software
50 office
• Create a TOC in Word 2007
52 security
• Make console gaming safe
You’ve probably upgraded your digital camera once or twice over the past few years.
But what have you done with your old ones? By David Cardinal
Older cameras are often not worth selling
on eBay, and if you give one to a friend
you’re likely to be answering questions
about it for the next year. Your kids may
well already have their own camera or a
camera phone. And you can’t bring yourself
to just toss your old cameras in the
trash. So if your household is anything like
my household, you have a couple of them
in a closet, or in a box in the basement, or
53 tips
• Create meetings in Outlook easily
• Clear print jobs without rebooting
• Make earphones last longer
• Get the right antenna for DTV
• Get the right processor to play back
HD programs
• Keep camera lenses clean
• Learn Blackberry, iPhone typing
tricks
• Eliminate inkjet printout smears
• Find devices on your network easily
• Dress up your GPS icons
Make Something New with
Your Old Digital Camera
Photograph: Thom O’Connor
somewhere in the garage. No more! In this
article we’ve put together some fun and
useful ideas for what you can do with your
old digital camera.
inexpensive Fish-eye lens
I’ve always thought fish-eye photos were
neat, but I was never willing to spend the
$200 on a fish-eye adapter for my digital
camera. Then I found a cool way to build
a fish-eye solution for less than $20. All
it requires is a standard “peephole” door
viewer from a home supply store and a
way to attach it to your camera. For best
results, you want to use as wide a peephole
as possible. An ultrawide door viewer
from a home supply store will cost you
about $15, although if you want to scrimp
further you can get narrower ones for
even less.
MARCH 2009 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 45

To attach the peephole you need some
type of permanent mount on the camera.
This is where having an older camera can
be better. If your camera doesn’t have a
screw thread you’ll need to tape a piece of
PVC tubing or a bottle cap of some kind
onto your camera and then tape the peephole
onto it. My Nikon Coolpix 880 has a
screw thread, and for $5 I was able to buy a
threaded adapter that worked nicely with
my $15 ultrawide door viewer.
Once the “fish-eye” is added, the camera
will have a huge field of view—much
wider than you can normally get with the
camera itself—and it gains that unmistakable
fish-eye effect. I found I needed to
crop images a bit after taking them, as the
door viewer didn’t cover the entirety of
the 880’s lens.
The key to getting reasonable fish-eye
images is to buy as wide a door viewer as
you can find. The $15 version I bought covered
most of the field of view of the lens on
my Coolpix 880. You need to keep the door
viewer out of the way of the lens when it
extends, either by using a screw-in tube
like the Nikon extender I purchased for
$5 or a short piece of PVC tubing attached
with tape. (Now you can probably see why
you’d want to use an older camera for this
project.)
You get a very wide field of view with
your home-built fish-eye, but you’ll need
to tinker with your camera’s settings to get
46 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION MARCH 2009
solutions hardWarE
your subjects in focus. Experiment with
zooming in and with the macro mode, if
your camera has one. Remember to turn
off your built-in flash, as it will be blocked
by the door viewer.
do-it-yourself Webcam
Are you jealous of your friends’ new laptops
with built-in webcams but reluctant
to invest the extra money in yours to add
one? The good news is that you can use
Fish-eye vieW Attach a $15 door peephole from a home supply
store to an old camera, and presto, you have a fish-eye lens.
an old point-and-shoot digital camera as
a webcam. All you need is a camera with
video output and a way to get the video
into your computer. Your old point-andshoot
probably has an A/V-out port and a
cable that lets you output to a TV. If your
computer already has a video input—many
do, particularly ones marketed as media
PCs—then you’re all set: You can just plug
the camera into your computer and turn
on the camera.
A WebCAm in minutes An old Canon PowerShot serves as a more than able webcam.

If your computer doesn’t have a video
input, you can buy an inexpensive USB
capture device for $5 to $10 on eBay, or
a brand-new EasyCap Video Capture
Adapter for $15.
The same device can let you watch TV
on your computer, too, since the encoding
hardware is the same—look for a TVtuner-plus-video-capture
USB adapter for
$30 to $50 instead. You’ll need to install
the driver that comes with the device, but
not the video-editing software. Simply
run your favorite IM client; with the capture
device’s driver installed the IM client
should find your camera and let you use it
as your webcam for videoconferences.
I hooked up my old Canon PowerShot
to a desktop PC using a $15 video-capture
dongle and ran Microsoft Live Messenger,
selecting the video device as my input. I
was videoconferencing within minutes.
With some cameras the audio will be
sent along with the video. If that’s not the
case with yours, set your computer’s audio
input to its microphone. For convenience
I also used a GorillaPod screwed into
the base of my old PowerShot to let the
camera perch nicely on my LCD for conferencing
use. You’ll want to disable the
auto-shutoff so that your camera will stay
on during longer calls. The one I tested ran
for several hours on its battery, but if you
use it a lot, consider plugging your camera
in to its power adapter.
daredevil bicycle Camera
Do you wish you could better impress your
friends with death-defying tales of careening
down your favorite hill on your mountain
bike or around those S-curves on your
motorcycle? Sure, we all do. What if you
could illustrate your story with a video?
Creating a bike camera is a perfect use
for that old digital camera you have lying
bonus l TiMe-LAPSe “SPy” CAM
One of the cool things about setting
your digicam to operate as a
webcam is the free software available
online, which can turn it into
a remotely operated or time-lapse
camera to monitor any location
where you can put a computer. i
used yawcam and found it fully
featured and simple to install. The
software even includes a motiondetector
capability that can trigger
recording whenever the camera’s
sensor detects motion.
instAnt thrill CAm you can easily capture video and stills of bike rides by attaching an
old camera (in this case, a Nikon Coolpix 880) to the handlebars.
around. It can probably capture video, and
you won’t be as concerned about smashing
it as you were before it was relegated
to your closet. All you need is a simple
handlebar mount, which you can make
with about $3 worth of parts from any
home supply store.
The mount is built from a simple
T-shaped piece of 3/4-inch PVC pipe, cut in
half and attached to your handlebars with
a pair of hose clamps. I also used some
inexpensive compression fittings to help
cushion the mount and absorb shock. (All
can be found in the garden section of your
home supply store.) The other piece of the
mount is a PVC end cap with a hole drilled
through it and a lengthy quarter-inch bolt
fastened pointing up through the hole.
You’ll want to make sure the bolt has 20
threads per inch to match the standard for
tripod sockets.
Once you have the T piece clamped
to your handlebars, simply screw in the
end cap (with the bolt inserted) and then
screw the camera to the mount using its
tripod socket. I used two nuts so that one
would hold the bolt to the bicycle while I
could use the other to tighten the camera
facing forward. And if you have large tube
handlebars, use 1-inch PVC pipe instead of
3/4-inch.
I mounted an old Nikon Coolpix 880
to my daughter’s bicycle, and it handily
captures video and stills of her rides.
Make sure not to crimp your gear or brake
cables when you mount the camera on
your handlebars. We had to trim our PVC
T piece so that it would fit cleanly on the
exposed area of the handlebar.
The simplest way to use the camera
is to shoot video, so you can simply start
recording and riding. If you want to take
still photos, you’ll need either to chance
a quick press with your finger or to use a
remote release, which you can wire to your
hand grip.
MARCH 2009 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 47

Do you track purchase orders and client
lists using Excel spreadsheets and Word
documents? Produce invoices using a
calculator, label printer, paper checkbook
and envelopes? Use sticky notes on
your monitor to remind you that, say, an
employee needs to change her income tax
withholding?
If so, you’re not alone. Many small businesses
begin this way and, before they
know it, realize that the sticky notes and
spreadsheets just aren’t cutting it anymore.
Setting up and using small-business
accounting software may be just what you
need, and believe it or not, it’s much easier
than it seems.
A Place for Everything
There are three major areas of benefit
in using accounting software if you have
a small business, and lots of little ones.
Taken together, they mean you’re sure
to save time and even money—and gain
time to concentrate on growing your
business.
CustomErs. That list of customers
you’re trying to maintain as a Word document
or in Outlook or a Rolodex or—say it
ain’t so—on paper? That list needs to be in
a database designed for finances. Accounting
software contains record formats that
let you type in—or sometimes import—
relevant details, things like contact information,
credit terms and limits, credit card
numbers, and price levels. You can usually
set up custom fields to track any additional
information you’d like to. And sometimes
customer records can also contain descriptions
of jobs you’re working on for that
company; they may even display a history
of your transactions with them.
Try doing that on an index card. Now
try keeping it updated. And add all your
vendor records to that to-do list. Accounting
software keeps you in the know about
solutions at work
Does Your Business Need
Accounting Software?
If your bookkeeper spends Saturdays in the office trying to keep up with paychecks and taxes
and tax code updates and outstanding invoices, specialized software can come to the rescue.
By Kathy Yakal
48 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION MARCH 2009
whom you’re buying from, and to whom
you owe money.
EmPloyEEs. Does your bookkeeper
spend his or her Saturdays in the office,
trying to keep up with tax tables, paychecks,
and taxes? Take the time to enter
information about your employees and
assorted taxes and deductions (and it will
take some time up front, like any other
setup task). Then payroll processing will
involve little more than entering the hours
everyone worked and printing paychecks
(or authorizing direct deposit). When it’s
time to make good on your government
payroll tax obligations, the software will
make those calculations, too.
InvEntory. What do you do when a
customer orders something? Does someone
have to go into the back room to see
if you have any to sell? By keeping inventory
records, you’ll have detailed descriptions
of everything you sell. When you sell
something, your software will decrease the
level you have on hand. Sell enough and it
will remind you that you’re running low, so
you won’t be caught short.
Working together
Financial transactions are the lifeblood of
a business—they help you pay the people
you owe and get paid yourself. Accounting
software uses all of those nicely organized
records you’ve created and makes transaction
processing a snap. Built-in integration
means that, unless you need to enter a new
vendor or item, or update other information
(and you can do this easily, on the fly,
anytime), all the data you need is right
there in one program.
How are you creating invoices now?
Typing them up in Word, or, worse, using
a typewriter on preprinted stock? That
probably means you have to look up things
like addresses, item numbers, and so on—a
major time waster.
Accounting software contains prebuilt
forms for documents like invoices, purchase
orders, and sales receipts. The forms
can usually be customized—you can add
your logo or other graphics and add or
delete fields. When you need to fill one out,
drop-down lists let you select data for fields
such as Customer and Item, data from the
records you’ve already created. The software
is designed so that everything works
together.
When you’ve completed invoices or
purchase orders, you don’t need to waste
time printing, labeling, stamping, and
mailing; you can simply e-mail the document.
Saves time, and it may help you get
paid faster. Some software will let you
accept credit card payments or electronic
checks, a function that may also improve
your bottom line.
This integration saves not only time
but also embarrassment when a customer
or vendor calls to check on something.
Instead of rifling through paper files or
promising to call back after you check with
someone else, you can use your software’s
search capabilities to pull up the appropriate
documents or transaction.
Instant Information
All of the work you do in your accounting
software culminates in a benefit that you
would have to struggle to replicate in any
other way, if you could manage it at all:
reports.
Yes, an Excel spreadsheet can track
your income and expenses. But Excel
doesn’t provide a view from which you can
select from among dozens of customizable
reports that can tell you, for example:
• Your gross profit from each customer
• How your net worth has changed over
a specific period of time
• Your company’s value, with the total
balance for each type of account

four solId ACCountIng PACkAgEs
Convinced that your small business needs accounting software? Here are four packages to consider.—Gary Berline
Microsoft Office
Accounting
Professional 2008
From $199.95 direct
l l l l m
An Outlook-like interface,
robust integration with
other Microsoft Office
apps, and a good help
system make this one of the
easiest-to-use accounting
products you’ll find. The
package is a good choice
for small businesses that
need integrated online-sales
capabilities, want a familiar,
Microsoft Office look and
feel, and have simple inventory-tracking
needs.
Click here for more.
• Your company’s total expenses, per
transaction, for each vendor
• What wage and withholding information
you need for state taxes
• Which transactions have affected the
value of your inventory
Of course, you can set up Excel spreadsheets
to tell you just about anything, but
that’s the point: You have to set them up—
and update them constantly. Accounting
software simply builds on the work
you’ve already done, the transactions
you’ve already entered, to give you a realtime,
bird’s-eye view of your company’s
finances.
That’s a time-saver, but it can be more:
a business-saver, if you stay on top of your
reports and catch problems early.
Auditing, Banking Benefits
There are still other reasons why most
businesses need accounting software:
• Audit trail. If you have multiple
employees working on a paper system,
you may have a hard time knowing who’s
done what to your records, and when.
Most accounting software offers an audit
trail, a lengthy list chronicling any addi-
MYOB Premier
Accounting 2008
From $299 direct
l l l h m
If you don’t need extensive
online services, MYOB Premier
Accounting 2008 will
suit you well. It has a clean,
exceptionally navigable
interface and a solid set of
accounting tools, including
a very capable inventorytracking
system.
Click here for more.
Peachtree by Sage
Complete Accounting
2009
From $269.99 direct
l l l l m
This software offers exceptionally
thorough modules,
good overview tools, and
three payroll levels. The
application deals with
accounting issues capably,
excelling especially at
inventory. With an interface
overhaul and enhanced
usability, Peachtree by Sage
Complete Accounting 2008
could become a star.
Click here for more.
tions and changes made to the system, and
who made them. This is a critical security
feature.
• Multiuser access. Most accounting
software can be set up on a network, which
means you’re not constantly running back
and forth to other offices to get the information
you should all have.
• Roles and permissions. If you’re on a
network, you probably don’t want everyone
to have access to everything. Accounting
software lets you assign roles to users
and define exactly where they can go and
what they can do on the system.
• Online banking. Most accounting
software gives you easy access to your
bank accounts online (if your financial
institution allows it). This capability can
save a lot of time, provide real-time banking
information, and eliminate some duplicate
data entry.
• Dashboards. With so much going on
in your financial system, how do you get
a handle on what needs to be done each
day? Accounting software can remind you
when, for example, invoices are due or
past due, payroll or other taxes must be
paid, inventory is running low, and more.
QuickBooks Accounting
Pro Edition 2009
From $199.95 direct
l l l l h
Small businesses will
find an excellent stable
of features here.
You get good management
overviews,
expansive payroll options,
marketing tools, and more.
QuickBooks Accounting
Pro Edition 2009 may not
be the strongest package
in every area, but of all the
small-business accounting
programs available today, it
offers the best combination
of usability and accounting
features.
Click here for more.
• Accountant access. If you’re working
with an accountant who blesses your books
periodically, you can give him or her access
to your system—and keep working ahead
while your past work is being checked.
yes, you Can
There are probably as many objections to
accounting software as there are reasons
to use it. It’s expensive (it’s not). I’ll need to
have an accounting professional on my staff
(nope; these programs are built for nonpros).
I can track my finances just as well on
my own (you can’t). I’ll lose all of my data
(this is 2009, and there are many reliable
backup options). My business is too small
(do you spend money? make money?).
If you need to know how much money
you’re spending and taking in, where it’s
going and coming from, what’s in stock
and on time and what’s not, and you want
to treat your employees, customers, and
vendors as professionally as possible, you
need accounting software.
full rEvIEWs At PCmAg.Com For a full
roundup of accounting software programs,
check out go.pcmag.com/accounting
MARCH 2009 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 49

Sometimes the ideas for my Solutions
pieces come from readers; other times
they’re the result of problems I’ve encountered
and managed to solve on my own.
Then there are those occasions when
I decide a solution is needed simply
because people around me keep asking
for help on a certain point. I figure if a
bunch of people I know are uncertain, it’s
a good bet others some readers are as well.
This solution, creating a table of contents
(TOC) in Word, is a request that never
seems to go away.
As with many things in Microsoft Word
2007, such as indexing, the Table of Contents
feature comes almost unchanged out
of earlier versions of the software. One
thing, though, that makes Word 2007’s
50 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION MARCH 2009
solutions office
Create a Word 2007
Table of Contents
When your Word documents approach novel—or even novella—length, it may be time
to give readers a table of contents. By Neil Randall
automated options
The TOC drop-down
menu offers two automated
TOCs along with
other options.
TOC feature more usable than earlier
versions is the inclusion of the Styles gallery—that
big thing that takes up the right
half of the Home ribbon.
The trick with Word TOCs is recognizing
that they rely (for the most part) on
styles. A basic TOC is essentially nothing
more than Word grabbing text that has
been assigned a specific style and placing
it in a hierarchically arranged list. You
tell Word which style you want to make
up each step on the hierarchy, and Word
formats it for you as a TOC. As you might
expect, you can modify this arrangement
(and we’ll get to that), but a quick-anddirty
TOC is pretty easy to create.
First, have a look at the following organization—it’s
the standard one for TOCs.
pick a style The
Styles gallery gives
easy access to the
styles you can use or
modify for your TOC.
TOC Level One
TOC Level Two
TOC Level Three
TOC Level One
TOC Level Two
TOC Level Three
And so on. The hierarchy here is, obviously,
that Level One reflects the main
TOC headings, Level Two reflects secondary
TOC headings, and Level Three
reflects tertiary TOC headings. Many
TOCs stop at only two levels, of course,
but more are possible.
To create a TOC in Word, first determine
which textual elements (we’ll call
them “TOC headings” here) you want to
appear in it. Often these are the same as
the titles and subtitles in your document.
Then assign a unique style to all instances
of each TOC level. For example, assign one
particular style to all the main TOC headings
and another to all the secondary TOC
headings. Make sure these styles aren’t
used for anything else in the document (or
else Word will think it’s part of the TOC).
To assign a style to a text element, simply
highlight the text and, in the Style gallery,
click on the style you want it to have.
By default, Word assumes you want
to use the “Heading” styles for your TOC
entries: Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3,
and so forth. (The first two are visible on
the Styles gallery, as long as you haven’t
modified it.)
You may use whatever styles you want,
however, including any you create yourself.
But you might want to stick with the
defaults, at least while you experiment
with TOC creation: Word’s automatic TOC
generator uses these by default.

choose the number of levels Among other things, the
TOC dialog box lets you choose how many levels of headings
you want to show in the table of contents.
Once you’ve assigned styles to the
headings that will be listed on your TOC,
place the cursor where you want the TOC
to appear in your document (typically at
the very top, or right after a title page), and
click References on the menu bar. Next,
click the Table of Contents button at the
far left of the References ribbon. The top
two options in the resulting drop-down
menu give you nearly identical automatic
TOC options (the only difference being
the title). A third option, the manual TOC,
simply generates a set of placeholder text;
you then change the headings and the
page numbers yourself. It’s useful only in
helping a bit with formatting.
The important point to note here is
that the automatic TOC options use standard
Styles as the basis for TOC headings:
Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, and so
on. To assign other styles as TOC headings,
first create those styles, and then
choose Insert Table of Contents from the
Table of Contents drop-down menu. After
adjusting any items on this dialog that you
want to change (Formats gives some basic
layout themes, for example), click the
Options button.
Most of the Table of Contents Options
dialog consists of the Styles section. Here
you choose which styles represent which
elements of the TOC. By default (and
not shown in the graphic here), Heading
1 is given TOC level 1, Heading 2 is given
TOC level 2, and so on. In the graphic,
TOC level 1 has been assigned to the style
called Title, and level 2 to the style called
Subtitle. To delete the level number from
existing styles, highlight the number in
the field and press the Delete key. When
you’ve made your choices, click OK and
Word will generate the TOC at the current
cursor location.
Note that there’s an option in the dialog
box to use hyperlinks instead of page
numbers. It’s selected by default, and it
will, as you might guess, link the text in
the TOC to the places in the document
where the headings indicated appear. So
anyone reading your document in Word
rather than on a printout can simply Ctrl-
style each level The TOC level fields dictate which Word
style occupies which TOC heading level in the generated TOC.
Headings 1, 2, and 3 are the defaults.
click on a hyperlink to be taken to the relevant
page.
While the TOC’s generation depends
on your document’s styles, the formatting
of the TOC itself (that is, how it looks in
your document) does not. Adjusting the
TOC format is easy: Just click the Modify
button from the main TOC dialog. In the
resulting Style dialog, select the TOC
level you want to change (TOC 1 is heading
level 1, and so on) and click Modify.
This reveals Word’s standard Modify Style
dialog, where you can specify precisely
what you want each TOC level heading to
look like.
preview styles The
specifics for the style of
each TOC heading level
are displayed below the
small Preview area.
MARCH 2009 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 51

Now that you’ve unwrapped your kid’s
brand new Wii, Xbox, or PlayStation, there
are several things you should know about
keeping the tyke safe. The best advice is
that you should participate in their gaming
activities. There’s no substitute for
the watchful eye of a parent, someone
who knows the different safety and content
issues of gaming and can explain how
to handle them as they come up. Just like
physical games (you know, sports), video
games can be fun and rewarding—as long
as children play them in a safe arena.
The right content makes for a positive
gaming experience. Many parents allow
solutions security watch
Making Console Gaming Safer for Kids
Many of us are aware of the trouble a child can get into while using a PC. But have you considered
how to make the console gaming experience safer? By Matthew D. Sarrel
Microsoft Xbox 360
To control the type of games—by ESRB rating—your
child will play, go to the System
tab in the Xbox dashboard, then choose
Family Settings, then Console Controls.
Select Game Ratings. Select the maximum
ESRB rating appropriate for your
children.
Go to Set Pass Code and enter a fourbutton
pass code and a question and
answer in case you forget your code or
want to reset it.
Select Done on both the Set Pass Code
and the Console Controls screens to save
your settings.
Select Yes, Save Changes to enable the
settings.
You can also use Console Controls to:
• Activate the Family Timer to limit
the total amount of time the console can
be used
• Restrict use of Microsoft's Xbox Live
online service
• Restrict access to movies by MPAA
rating
• Prevent the display of restricted content
(for example, downloadable games,
trailers, and demos) in the Xbox Live
Marketplace and Inside Xbox.
52 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION MARCH 2009
their children to have only games with a
certain rating, such as “E” or lower, but it’s
also sensible to understand why a game
carries a particular rating. Study these ratings
so you’ll know whether a game is ageappropriate.
In addition to the ratings, 30 content
descriptors—such as alcohol references,
violence, sexual themes, and even simulated
gambling—provide further context
for your decisions. Some content may be
fine with you, even if it causes a game’s rating
to bump up a level.
The ESRB provides a full explanation
of its ratings and descriptors.
Nintendo Wii
The Wii is the safest platform
for children; that’s because Nintendo
designed features that let
parents totally lock down the
console.
1. From the Wii Menu, select
Wii Options followed by Wii
Settings. Click on the blue arrow
to the right until you reach the Wii System
Settings 2 menu options.
2. Select Parental Controls, then select
Yes.
3. Create a four-digit PIN and select OK.
Then select a secret question to be used
Sony PlayStation 3 and
PlayStation Portable (PSP)
You can restrict games using the
Parental Control menu. In the
main menu, navigate to Settings,
then Security Settings. In the
Parental Control menu, a number
indicates the level of restriction: The
lower the number, the tighter the restrictions.
In Security Settings, select Internet
Browser Start Control and choose On to
block access to the Internet.
Like those on the other consoles, the
PlayStation 3’s and PSP’s parental controls
are enforced by a four-digit password. During
installation, you can reset the default
password, which is 0000, by navigating to
• Early Childhood (“EC”): Ages 3 and
older
•Everyone (“E”): Ages 6 and older
• Everyone 10 Plus (“E10+”): Ages 10 and
older
•Teen (“T”): Ages 13 and older
•Mature (“M”): Ages 17 and older
• Adults Only (Adults Only): Ages 18 and
older only
The Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Sony Play-
Station 3 and PlayStation Portable (PSP)
all offer parental controls you can use to
set restrictions on factors such as game
type or interactions with other players.
Below are some settings to consider.
if you forget the PIN number.
Once done, select OK.
4. Select Game Settings and
PIN, then Highest Game Rating
Allowed. Once selected, press
OK, Confirm, and Settings Complete.
You can also use the Other
Settings menu under Parental
Controls to:
• Prevent the use of Wii Points in the
Wii Shop Channel
• Restrict online communication
• Prevent use of the Internet Channel
and the News Channel.
the Security Settings menu, then
selecting Change Password.
Enter the default password, and
then enter a new one.
From this menu, you can
also block access to movies by
MPAA rating.
Here are also some tips about using the
PlayStation Network.
• The default settings block content
and restrict chat with other players based
on the age of the registered user.
• Create accounts for each child such
that each account can be administered
separately.
are you gaMe? For full reviews of game
boxes visit gopcmag.com/gamingconsoles.

soLUTIons
Tips
Useful tidbits from PCMag editorial staff, Labs analysts, and readers
MICRosoFT oFFICE
Create Meetings in Outlook the
Easy Way
Most times when you need to set up a
meeting in Outlook, the process starts
with an e-mail you receive. I used to switch
to the Calendar and add a new entry, with
the date and time, and then paste the
e-mail into the new appointment. But
there’s an easier way: Simply right-click
on the original e-mail and choose Move to
Folder, select Calendar, and hit OK. This
actually creates a new appointment entry,
complete with the e-mail inserted in the
main window. You still have to enter the
date, time, and participants, but you get to
that point faster.—Michael Muchmore
WInDoWs
Clear a Print Job Without
Rebooting
If you’ve ever had a print job hang, you’re
probably familiar with the Windows
Print Spooler window. You get to this
window simply by selecting the relevant
printer from the Control Panel’s Printers
and Faxes applet (simply Printers in
Vista). In the somewhat unusual event of a
printer queue jam, you can go to the Print
Spooler and simply delete the job. Sometimes,
though, the system won’t let you
cut off print jobs that way: It marks the job
“Deleting…” but never quite gets there,
and you end up rebooting. Here’s a better
way to do it.
Open a command prompt (go to Start |
Run, then type cmd) and enter the following:
net stop spooler
del c:\windows\system32\spool\printers\*.shd
del c:\windows\system32\spool\printers\*.spl
net start spooler
In Vista you’ll need to open an elevated
command prompt by right-clicking on cmd
.exe and selecting Run as Administrator.
For those of you who remember batch
COMPOsE APPOinTMEnTs ViA E-MAiL You can create appointments in Outlook directly
from an e-mail. The appointment will even include the e-mail text in the main window.
files, use Notepad to save the four commands
above as a batch file. I’ve named
mine Killqueue.bat.—Craig Ellison
MULTIMEDIA
Make Your Earphones Last
Are your earphones always breaking? If
you wad them up and throw them in your
bag every morning—or worse, play with
them while you’re listening to music—
stop! The best way to store earphone or
earbuds is to wrap the cable—gently—
around your fingers, then withdraw your
hand, keeping the loop intact. Put the
coiled-up earphones inside a small carrying
case (not around your iPod), where
the lack of tension on the earpieces and the
protective outer layer will keep them in
tip-top shape.—Tim Gideon
The Right Antenna for DTV
Our government implies that plain old
rabbit-ear antennas should work with
your DTV converter box, but usually this
will not be the case. Your rabbit ears are
designed primarily to home in on VHF
channels (2 to 13), while virtually every
digital broadcast now resides on UHF
channels (14 to 69). The solution is buying
an indoor/outdoor HDTV antenna. They
start at around ten bucks, and since they’re
designed to focus on digital UHF broadcasts,
they should improve your digital
reception dramatically. After the transition,
“high VHF” channels (7 to 13) will go
digital, too—and this kind of antenna will
receive them as well.—TG
High-Def Video Capture
I’ve fielded a couple of questions about
what kind of processor power is required
for capturing HD programs. Actually, the
issue isn’t capturing shows as much as it is
playing them back. Most TV tuner cards
have integrated MPEG encoders that
can offload that job from the CPU. But in
playback, the MPEG decryption is usually
performed by software, and that requires a
fairly serious processor—a minimum of a
2.2-GHz P4 or so.—Jeremy A. Kaplan
MARCH 2009 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 53

TYPE URLs in A FLAsH No need to type
“.com” when entering a URL on your
iPhone; Safari will fill that in for you.
CAMERAs
Clean Your Lens!
This may seem obvious, but many people
forget to keep their camera lenses clean.
A fat smudge on your lens will make all of
your pictures come out blurry. Depending
on how dirty the lens is, there are many
different options out there for cleaning it
(brushes, fluid, and tissues being the most
popular). At the very least, get something
that’s quick and easy—say, a pack of lens
tissue that can fit in your camera case—so
you’ll always have something on hand.
—PJ Jacobowitz
MoBILITY
BlackBerry Typing Tricks
Here are a few of my favorite tips for using
a BlackBerry keyboard:
1. To capitalize letters, don’t bother
with the Shift key; instead, hold down the
key for the letter you want to capitalize for
one second.
2. While Web browsing, press K to
bring up your bookmarks list at any time;
press A to add a new one.
3. Scroll down a message or Web page
quickly by pressing the spacebar. Scroll
back up by pressing Shift-Spacebar.
4. Dial a phone number that contains
letters (1-800-PICK-UPS) by pressing Alt
and then typing the correct letter using the
QWERTY keyboard.—Jamie Lendino
54 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION MARCH 2009
soLUTIons
simplify Typing URLs on the iPhone
When you’re keying in Web addresses,
the iPhone gives you a very useful .com
button that lets you add the four characters
in one press. But as with the desktop
version of Safari, you can even leave
that out: Safari will automatically add it
for you. Bonus tip: hold down the .com
button; you’ll be presented with a list of
alternate domain endings, such as .net,
.edu, and .org.
Keep safari’s Address Bar Handy on
the iPhone
Ever scroll pretty far down a Web page,
only to find that the address bar has disappeared?
No need to scroll back up—
instead, tap the top part of the screen. The
address bar will reappear, regardless of
where you are on the actual Web page.
PRInTERs
Eliminate smeared Printouts
If you use an inkjet printer and see smearing
on a page, that’s typically because
something is sticking to the printhead.
If you have a printer that includes the
nozzles in the cartridges—as do most HP
printers—and you see smearing immediately
after changing a cartridge, remove
the cartridge and check to make sure that
the protective tape over the nozzles is
completely removed. If some of the tape is
still attached, remove it, but be careful not
to touch the nozzle plate.—M. David Stone
nETWoRKInG
Find a Device on Your network
There are a few reasons to know your connected
devices’ IP addresses. For one, it’s
invaluable in troubleshooting. After making
sure your unresponsive device is actually
plugged in, the next step will nearly
always be to point your PC’s browser at
its IP address and make sure that something
having to do with the device appears,
such as a configuration page, or at least the
device name. This leads to another reason:
Often, a device’s “home page”—what you
see in your browser when you type in the
device’s IP address—will give you easier
access to device options, and in some
cases, more settings and extras.
How can you find the IP addresses
of your devices? Through your router’s
configuration screens. In your browser,
type in your router’s IP address, then find
the DHCP client table among the config
screens (which vary by router brand). This
GET THE BAR BACK Tap the top of your
iPhone screen to access your address bar.
table shows all devices connected (physically
or wirelessly) through the router. If a
device doesn’t appear, make sure it’s powered
on. Not sure about your router’s IP
address? At the command prompt (Start |
Run | cmd) type ipconfig and hit Enter. Note
the router’s address on the line that reads
Default Gateway.—Mario Morejon
GPs
Dress Up Your Garmin icons
Most GPS automotive devices use some
variation of a triangle to represent the
current position of your vehicle. With the
introduction of the nüvis, Garmin started
providing additional vehicle icons that
you can use instead of the triangle. But did
you know that you can expand your library
of vehicle icons, free? Garmin provides a
library of vehicle bundles on its site . Once
you’ve downloaded and unzipped the files,
simply copy them into the Garmin vehicle
folder on your device (you’ll need to connect
your nüvi to your computer with a
USB cable). You can also customize vehicle
icons on Garmin’s zumo motorcycle GPSs
as well as the StreetPilot c500 series of
devices.—CE
GREAT iDEA! Got a tip to share? Find a cool
new trick in your favorite gadget or app?
Send it to tips@pcmag.com. We’ll run it
through the PCMag Labs wringer and print
our favorites on this page.

Shop wisely. Print this page and bring it with you.
Desktops
mainstream
Hp pavilion elite m9400t
$843 list
BuDget/Value
lenovo ideaCentre k210
$449 direct
gaming/ multimeDia
Velocity micro raptor
signature edition $6,999 direct
nNEW gateway
FX6800-01e $1,249.99 list
all-in-one
nNEW sony Vaio
VgC-Js130J/p $1,099.99 list
Business
Dell optiplex 755 $1,183 direct
laptops & noteBooks
mainstream
apple macBook pro 15-inch
(penryn) $2,899 direct
gaming
alienware m17 $2,059 direct
multimeDia
Hp HDX16t $1,790 direct
meDia Center/Desktop replaCement
lenovo thinkpad W700
$4,240 direct
nNEW acer aspire
6930g-6723 $1,020 street
nNEW Dell studio Xps 16
$1,804 direct
netBook
msi Wind $480 street
Business
lenovo thinkpad t400
$1,580 direct
BuDget
Hp pavilion dv2800t
$1,049 direct
storage
portaBle
maxtor onetouch 4 mini
$129.99 direct
Desktop
nNEW Western Digital my
Book studio edition ii
$430 list
netWork-attaCHeD storage
Hp storageWorks aio400t
$3,799 list
lCD monitors
lenovo thinkVision l200x
$499.99 list
Dell ultrasharp 2408WFp
$689 direct
proJeCtors
editors’ Choices
in key Categories
For the complete
reviews of these
products and more
Editors’ Choices check
out go.pcmag.com/
editorschoice
HigH-enD Xga
Canon realis X700 $2,500 list
Consumer/Business Xga
neC Vt800 $1,000 street
portaBle
Dell m109s $499 direct
Best
printers
monoCHrome laser
samsung ml-2851nD
$150 street
Color laser
lexmark C544dn $499 direct
stanDarD inkJet
Canon pixma ip4300
$99.99 direct
all-in-one inkJet
nNEW Canon pixma mp980
Wireless $299.99 direct
pHoto printer
Hp photosmart a636
Compact photo printer
$149.99 direct
netWorking
netgear powerline aV ethernet
adapter kit (XaVB101)
$130 street
smC smCgs8p $300 street
HDtVs
plasma
nNEW Vizio Vp505XVt
$1,499.99 list
lCD
samsung ln52a750
$3,999.99 list
oleD
sony Xel-1 oleD Digital tV
$2,499.99 list
Digital Cameras
CompaCt
Canon powershot a1000 is
$349.99 list
HigH-enD D-slr
nikon D300 $1,800 street
(body only)
entry-leVel D-slr
Canon eos rebel Xsi $699 list
(body only)
superzoom
panasonic lumix DmC-Fz18
$399.95 list
Digital ViDeo Cameras
CompaCt
Creative Vado pocket
Video Cam HD
$299.99 direct
stanDarD HD
nNEW sony HDr-sr11
$1,099.99 direct
Blasting
on a BuDget The
Gateway FX6800-01e
offers big gaming performance
for a small price.
Digital pHoto & ViDeo
multimeDia suite
adobe Creative suite 3
$999 direct
ViDeo-eDiting soFtWare
Cyberlink powerDirector 7
ultra $119.95 direct
pHoto eDiting
adobe photoshop Cs4
$1,150 list
picasa 3 (beta) Free
Digital pHoto Frame
nNEW sony Vaio VgF-Cp1
$299 list
mp3 players
HarD Disk
microsoft zune 120gB
$249.99 list
FlasH
apple ipod touch
(2nd generation)
8GB, $229 direct
apple ipod nano
16GB, $199 direct
samsung yp-u3 (2gB) $90 list
speakers/DoCks
Chestnut Hill sound george
$549 direct
Hercules Xps 2.1
lounge speakers $60 street
logitech pure-Fi Dream
$200 direct
meDia eXtenDers
sonos Bundle 150 $999 direct
slingbox pro-HD $299 list
gaming Consoles
sony playstation 3
(Fall 2008) $399 direct
gps DeViCes
nNEW garmin nüvi 885t
$799.99 list
garmin oregon 400t $599 list
Cell pHones
alltel
rim BlackBerry Curve 8330
From $229.99 with contract
at&t
apple iphone 3g
From $199.99 with contract
sprint
rim BlackBerry Curve 8330
$179.99 with contract
t-moBile
nNEW rim BlackBerry
Curve 8900 $349 direct
Verizon Wireless
samsung knack sCH-u310
$39.99 with contract
unloCkeD
nokia n82 $629 direct
HeaDsets
BluetootH
aliph new Jawbone $129.99 list
HeaDpHones
ultimate ears ue 11 pro
$1,150 list
oFFiCe & proDuCtiVity
Windows live messenger
(Wave 3) beta Free
adobe acrobat 9 pro
$449 direct
speeCH reCognition
Dragon naturally speaking 10
$99.99 direct
Desktop puBlisHing
adobe illustrator Cs4
$599 direct
ipHone apps
air sharing $6.99 direct
nNEW stanza Free
nNEW photogene $2.99 direct
entertainment
pandora (for iphone) Free
rhapsody From $12.99/month
nNEW slacker for BlackBerry
Free
seCurity
antiVirus
Webroot antiVirus with
antispyware 6.0 $39.95 direct
suite
norton internet security
2009 $69.99 yearly
parental Control
net nanny 6.0 $39.99 yearly
BaCkup
sos online Backup (beta)
$19.95 direct
FinanCial
QuickBooks accounting
pro edition 2009 $199.95 list
nNEW turbotax premier
2008 Premier, $89.95 direct;
Deluxe, $59.95
MARCH 2009 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 55