PC Magazine - 2009 11.pdf - Libertad Zero

frontsideBEST of our blogsGOODCLEANTECHR Martin Delivers Pedal Power for Only a PennyLeave your car at home and pedal to the office withR Martin’s new line of electric bikes. R Martin hasjust introduced the R10, R11, R12, and R13 models,all of which use crank-style motors rather thanthe previous hub motors. Crank motors are 50percent more efficient, and are better at climbinghills. Using a small electric motor and lithium batterypack, these bikes can travel over 30 miles ona charge and deliver you to your destination withlittle or no pedaling. Riders can pedal or use thevariable speed twist throttle to cruise at up to 20mph. All three models start at $1,199.—Troy DreierSMART DEVICE CENTRALHack Your Palm PreBetween Palm and Sprint, thetwo companies got almosteverything right on the PalmPre, except for one thing:third-party apps. Nonetheless,plenty of enterprising developershave figured out waysaround the problem. If you’relooking to get the most out ofyour Palm Pre, and don’t mindgetting your hands a little dirtyin the process, there are somecool hacks to improve yourPre experience. For example,you can use your Pre as a USBstorage drive because your PCreads it simply as a mass storagedevice. For more hacks,click here.—Jamie LendinoGEARLOGWork in Your Jammies withthe Log PillowFor fans of high design whodon’t want to put their laptopson any old piece of plastic,there’s the Intelligent FormsLog Pillow. Perfect for Webloafing in bed or on the couch,the Log Pillow consists of sixfabric tubes criss-crossed logcabinstyle and attached withsnaps. The “logs” are madefrom a mix of hemp canvas,cotton, and Lycra and filledwith buckwheat hulls. The LogPillow is available for $69 eachat the iF Web site.—Erik Rhey@WORKSymantec: SMBs Not Readyfor OutagesSymantec recently releasedthe results of its 2009 SMBDisaster Preparedness Survey,which basically shows a bigdiscrepancy between howSMBs perceive their disasterpreparedness and their actualreadiness. The company saidthat despite 82 percent ofSMBs feeling ready for disasterto strike (like an outage orhacker attack), it turns out thatthe average SMB has had threeoutages in the past 12 months.Viruses, hacker attacks, andother natural disasters ledthe outage causes, despitethe fact that more than halfof SMBs said they weren’tprepared for exactly thosethings.—JL10 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION NOVEMBER 2009