12 PC World June 07

JUNE
VOLUME W W W. P 12 C ◆ W
2007
NUMBER O R L D. I 12 N
F E AT U R E S
CAMERA PHONES
52 Best Camphones
With ve megapixel sensors and DVD quality video recording, camphones have becom
e objects of desire, we compare the latest camphones in the market to clear the
cloud on which one should be on your shopping list.
FREE STUFF
68 51 Fantastic Freebies
In our collection of the nest free offerings available, you will discover fullf
eatured tools that can help you do just about anything.
NETWORKING
74 Easy Fixes for Network Problems
From disappearing Internet connections to poky downloads to incompatible hardwar
e, we diagnose ailments and prescribe cures.
BUYERS GUIDE
58
xx
82 Easy on the Eyes
Practical advice for evaluating the alternatives before you shop, and selecting
the right LCD monitor for your needs.
O N TH E COVE R
32
C OV E R S T O RY
58 Virus Stoppers
The nefarious business of creating computer viruses has grown increasingly sophi
sticated and lucrative, requiring antivirus software of equal sophistication. We
tested eight packages to see which ones are up to the job.
74 52
58
xxx
6
W W W. P C W O R L D . I N JUNE 2007
52
CONTENT PAGE
R E V I E WS & R A N K I N G S
32 Processors 11 14
D E PA R T M E N T S
Letters
Six latest processors priced below 10K put to the grind.
36 Video Card
Reactions to our Indian Web Awards.
Up Front
Budget DX 10 video cards from Asus and MSI compared
38 40 42 48 49 Camera
Cellphones are morphing into devices that function as the best reflection of our
wired identity.
24 Lateral View
Kodak V1003
All-In-One
32
25 26
Complement your knowledge search on the web with user generated content.
The Other Side
Canon MP450
Music Phone
We can see our future through video games.
Tech Tonic
Sony W200i
Imaging Software
Cutting edge technology does not necessarily call for copious amounts of money.
28 30 Bugs and Fixes
Adobe Dreamwaever CS3
UMPC
A Microsoft security component proves awed.
Hassle Free-PC
Asus R2H See page 32 for a complete list of products reviewed.
W H AT ’ S O N D V D
Fight back against spyware hidden in your PC.
49
116
Full Disclosure
Drowning in updates from chatterbox software.
Essentials
PC World Super Suite 1.7GB of software including Windows patches, codes, multi-m
edia players and editing tools etc
Full Products
N E WS & T R E N D S
16 19 Vista Security
New operating system may be safer— but take care.
Hard Drives’ Failing Grade
Failure rates are higher than thought.
20 Cool Gadgets
Ubuntu 7.04 ( for 32 bit and 64 bit systems ) Kubuntu 7.04 ( for 32 bit and 64 b
it systems )
Latest products and gadgets in the global market.
22 Plugged In
16
Tech Videos 10 Exclusive Tech Videos Catch a sneak peek at products and technolo
gy of today and tomorrow with tech videos, complete with a video review of Sony’
s T100 8.1MP camera. Movies The Scene : Season 2 Game Demo and Vids Stonghold 2
CC3 - Behind the scenes
iPhone , therefore I am; nicer Linux interface and second-gen UMPCs.
H E R E ’ S H OW
88 91 92 Network Storage Tips
Share les on a LAN via a NAS box.
Windows Tips
Find les and folders in the easiest ways.
Hardware Tips
Ease the transition to Windows Vista.
88
93
Answer Line
See page 102 for a complete list of software on DVD.
Set your PC to lter cookies wisely.
CONTENT PAGE
JUNE 2007
W W W. P C W O R L D . I N
7
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REVIEWS | NEWS | FEATURES
10
JUNE 2007
CONTENT PAGE
LETTERS
LETTERS@PCWORLD.IN
APPRECIATION
SOLUTIONS
ONLINE
biles were considered as a sector for the evaluation, but as mentioned by you to
o, it may be very exciting in the coming few months. We felt that the sector has
not matured as much, so as to be covered in the rankings at the present moment.
As for the future, it is for anybody to predict. We would de nitely consider it
, if the sector is popular enough at the time of our next ranking.
Editor’s Reply: We’re so glad that you both saw value in our rating of Indian we
bsites. We’ll de nitely keep your suggestions in mind, when we assess sites the
next year around.
QUERIES
OVERWHELMING RESPONSE
i recently made up my mind to buy a 32-inch LCD TV. Can you please help me choos
e between Sony and Samsung? I am really confused about which is better.
Kush Shah, By E-mail Editors Reply: Sony and Samsung are the top 2 brands in LCD
TV market in India. Samsung has more range in the 32-inch LCD TV segment as com
pared to Sony. If you do not have any budget constraint you can opt for the top
end Sony model that supports 1080P and offers HDMI connectivity. If you have a b
udget constraint, the Samsung LA32R81B priced at Rs 65,000 is a good option.
i would like to appreciate your article on the Best Indian Websites of 2007. Our
group runs IndiaProperty.com, BharatMatrimony.com and Clickjobs, which have bee
n extensively covered in your article. Such kind of benchmarking was very much n
eeded as the DotCom industry is on the upswing. However, I would like to add on
that an important category i.e Automobile has been seriously overlooked upon whe
reas there are almost half a dozen websites in this category . These include the
likes of Indiaautomobile.com,carwale.com, driveinside.com, carsalesindia.com an
d autoindia. com. This category is fast catching up and would see lots of excite
ment in the coming months. Hope to see this category covered in your next editio
n.
Gurjot Singh, Marketing Manager for IndiaAutomobile.com, By E-mail Editor’s Repl
y: We appreciate your feedback. We would like to share that Automo-
I really liked your cover story on the Best Indian Websites, I know some of the
websites featured in the article but completely unaware of some like Tech2. The
article is quite informative and I would like to see more Indian websites covere
d in your magazine. Also, as user and volunteer; I would like to suggest a websi
te name CGIndia (http://www. cgindia.org/), which is about 3d Computer Graphics
and CGToolbar, which they have created for connecting people in CG Community. Ke
ep up the good work.
Tushar Chakraborty, By E-mail
This is with regards to the latest issue of P C World, in which you have produce
d a list of the Best Indian Websites. I would request you to consider adding a c
ouple of new categories - Equity Research & Financial Planning. I hope you will
consider this suggestion.
Rahul Goel, By e-mail
Recently I bought a Samsung 160GB hard disk [SP1644N] and installed it on my Com
paq Presario PC SR1530IL. Due to my carelessness I didn’t notice the capacity wh
ile the technician partitioned. Next day it showed up as 128GB. What could be th
e problem of the capacity barrier and please help me out of this situation as I
have less knowledge of hardware.
Eddie, By E-mail Editors Reply: The best option in your case is to repartition t
he hard drive but if you want to have only one partition, you can resize the exi
sting partition and claim the lost space by using partition magic software from
(http://www.softpedia.com/get/ System/Hard-Disk-Utils/Partition-Magic. shtml). W
e suggest you reformat and repartition the hard drive with at least two equal pa
rtitions, this will help you manage your storage better.
ONLINE
LOG ONTO OUR WEBSITE
I would like to know if I can read any previous month’s issue from your website
www.pcworld.in. Please let me know if it is possible.
Meenakshi, By e-mail Editor’s Reply: There is no section as such where you can r
ead the stories sorted by our print issues. But all the stories that appear in o
ur magazine are posted online, in different sections. You can search for them ea
sily on the website using the search box or browse through the sections of the s
ite for relevant articles.
CONTENT PAGE
JUNE 2007
11
V I J AY E K C AA C H A NY R R AN N RAM RCcM DRA H
The New Swiss Army Knife
Mobiles are morphing into devices that function as a re ection of our wired iden
tity.
Some months ago, MIRS Communications, an Israeli mobile provider launched a new
cellphone. So what’s the big deal? Cellphones are launched every other day. The
interesting thing about MIRS’ handset was that it did voice. Nothing else. No SM
S. No ringtones. No games. Zip.
A bit like using my dad’s 1967 Standard Herald to take on the Suzuki SX4, you mi
ght think. While the Israeli ‘kosher phone’ was a response to orthodox religious
requirements, it seems anachronistic in a world where an increasing number of f
eatures are being squeezed into cellphones from longer lasting batteries to good
camera optics to music players and radios to GPS locators . The cellphone’s fut
ure seems to be more about lots more. It’s also about changing mobiles into the
Swiss Army Knife of personal technology — devices that function as the best re e
ction of our wired identity. Accessing e-mail seems passé; the cellphone is gett
ing transformed into a device that also delivers not only mobile video, but also
TV programs with a slight delay in transmission. While the service is a tad nas
cent in the US, it’s already gained momentum in countries like South Korea. Acco
rding to forecasts the Asian mobile video market will top $3 billion over the ne
xt three years! But, if you think that craning your neck trying to take in a cri
cket match on a cell phone is stretching it, how would you react to using it in
place of your wallet? Hold it close to a reader and voila, those With WiMax tout
ed to be the next big thing coming our way (and which might see us leap frog int
o highthroughput broadband), this might just fuel a cellphone revolution. There
could even be a day when mobile warriors give their aching backs a rest and pack
just a cell when on the move. Of course, I don’t see an executive trying to mak
e sense of a spreadsheet on a mobile – to do that he’d have to be a wizard. As c
ell phone penetration increases in India a lot more things are going to change.
This isn’t just wishful thinking. A recent McKinsey study found that raising wir
eless penetration by 10 percentage points can lead to an increase in a country’s
gross domestic product of about 0.5 percent. That translates to over Rs 8,000 c
rore for the Indian economy. If you want to see the impact cellphones can have o
n a micro level take the fisherfolk of Kerala, who were among the early adopters
a decade ago. In just three years since that point in time, their ability to fi
gure out the best markets to land their catch, allowed them to cut waste to zero
while increasing profits by 8 percent. Oh, and did I mention that consumer pric
es for fish dropped by about 4 percent during the same period? Cellphones with c
ameras is what one of the shootouts in this issue is all about (Page 52) . Let m
e know what you think about it.
Vijay Ramachandran is the Editor-in-Chief of PC World. Send him your comments at
vijay_ramachandran@idgindia.com
multiplex tickets are yours (Nokia, At&T, Citigroup and MasterCard are already i
n a pilot to do just this). In a country like ours, with 60 lakh connections bei
ng added every month, this may mean a lot more than just new sleeker and fancy h
andsets. It might mean that cellphones and not PCs may become the favorite way t
hat our nation logs on to the Internet — we already have 20 times more cell phon
es than PCs with Net access. Understandably, cell phones and PCs / laptops do ve
ry different things and that too at very different price points. However, given
their proliferation, as cell bandwidth begins to approach those that we’re used
to on PCs, things may start to change.
14
JUNE 2007
CONTENT PAGE
ILLUSTRATION: UNNIKRISHNAN A.V.
NEWS & T REN DS
INSIDE
19 20 22
HARD-DRIVE FAILURES SUR PRISINGLY FREQUENT COOL GADGET PLUGGED IN
W H AT ’ S N E W A N D W H AT ’ S N E X T I N T E C H N O L O G Y
Vista Security
THOUGH WINDOWS VISTA MAY BE SAFER THAN XP, MICROSOFT’S FAR-FROM-IMPREGNABLE NEW
OPERATING SYSTEM IS ALREADY PROVING TO BE VULNERABLE. BY RYAN NARAINE
in late march, when security researchers stumbled upon drive-by download at tack
s exploiting yet another serious Windows hole, they had an eye-opening surprise:
The vulnerability—caused by the way Windows handled animated cursor (.ani) file
s—didn’t affect just Windows XP. It also hit Vista, Microsoft’s new security-cen
tric OS. Security experts still proclaim Vista a major im provement over previou
s Windows versions, and readily say that its important new safety features—inclu
ding an improved rewall, a “Protected Mode” for Internet Explorer, and User Acc
ount Co n t r o l — m a k e i t m u c h more resistant to the most common forms
of spyware and malware. But this latest
16
safer, but its users must still be on their guard.
NAGGING DEFENSE
flaw (now fixed) is a major black eye for Microsoft; along with two other critic
al security patches issued for Vista in its rst three months
on shelves, the problem has tarnished Vista’s security sheen (see “Vista’s Vulne
rabilities” on page 17 for details). The new OS may be
user account control (UAC) has the best of intentions behind it. According to Mi
crosoft’s own estimates, a whopping 95 percent of all pre-Vista Windows users pe
rform everyday tasks logged in with Administrator credentials that let them make
any kind of system changes—but that also allow malicious hackers to hijack a PC
easily. By default, UAC requires a password for such tasks, keeping users—or ma
lware—from haphazardly changing sensitive parts of the OS. But UAC is its own wo
rst enemy. Its frequent pop-up prompts seriously annoy many users, particularly
dur-
JUNE 2007
CONTENT PAGE
ILLUSTRATION: PC ANOOP
N EWS & T R ENDS
VISTA’S BUILT-IN ANTISPYWARE app, Windows Defender, offers daily scans but misse
d a third of spyware and adware samples in tests.
ing setup of a new machine. The prompts appear less often after about ten days o
f heavy use, but some early adopters have never made it that far. “These alerts
just kept popping up constantly and unnecessarily,” says Sergio E. Yáñez, a Vist
a user who works as a vice president at a New York bank. “I would try to move a
le between folders and have to deal with these prompts. Very, very annoying.” L
ike many other people, Yáñez responded by turning off UAC completely. In his cas
e, he had to turn it back on to run
RISKS
some older games that required additional user rights, but the fear within secur
ity circles is that many irritated users will disable UAC and leave it off, or e
lse get into the habit of clicking ‘Allow’ at every prompt, defeating the purpos
e entirely. “The average user will be programmed to click ‘Allow’ for everything
,” says Roger Thompson, chief technical officer for security vendor Exploit Prev
ention Labs. Also, security researcher Joanna Rutkowska says that UAC has a desi
gn weakness in that it requires giving all
program installations full system access whether they need it or not. (Rutkowska
’s report is at http://theinvisiblethings. blogspot.com/2007/02/ running-vista-e
very-day. html .) Microsoft says that it included the potential weakness to ensu
re a smooth user experience, and it has not announced any plans to change UAC’s
design. A second major addition to Vista’s security arsenal is Windows Defender,
an antispyware tool that is available at no cost for XP and is baked into Vista
’s guts. Though not meant to be a full antivirus utility, it can easily scan for
spyware applications that suck up system resources and bombard you with pop-up
advertising. Defender also offers additional protection when you download files
via Internet Explorer 7. A great idea. But in independent tests performed by the
AV-Test security lab (AVTest.org), Defender detected only 65 percent of 14,517
adware and spyware samples in
IN BRIEF
Product Pipeline
AD-AWARE UPGRADE: Lavasoft says that a new version of its popular AdAware antisp
yware program due in June will feature improved detection of adware and hidden m
alware, a scanning engine that goes easy on PC system resources, and an updated
interface. A personal-use version will remain free, while the Rs. 1,800 Ad-Aware
2007 Pro will include advanced features such as Ad-Watch TrackSweep, a tool tha
t clears the cache, cookies, and history in Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Oper
a. END OF XP: In early 2008 Microsoft will end shipment of Windows XP to compute
r makers and stop selling XP retail licenses. According to Dell, however, Window
s XP sales to small and mediumsize businesses are still strong. The PC maker say
s that it plans to offer “Customized with XP” Dimension desktops and Inspiron no
tebooks this summer for small businesses that may want extra time to contemplate
a possible switch to the Mac OS or Linux.
VISTA’S VULNERABILITIES
• Animated cursors: A aw in animated cursor code used by Windows 2000 SP4 throu
gh Vista. With a poisoned .ani, .cur, or .ico le, remote attackers can create a
buffer over ow, overwhelming a program with more data than it can handle and al
lowing takeover of a victim’s PC. Fixed with Microsoft’s critical MS07-017 patch
(www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS07-017.mspx). • Malware Protecti
on Engine: A vulnerability in all versions of Windows using the Microsoft Malwar
e Protection Engine, built into Vista’s baked-in Windows Defender anti-spyware a
nd the Microsoft OneCare antivirus program. The aw can force the engine to exec
ute attack code when it scans a hacked PDF le. Fixed in Microsoft’s critical MS
07-010 patch (www.microsoft.com/ technet/security/Bulletin/MS07-010.mspx). • CSR
SS privilege escalation: A aw in the Windows Client/Server Runtime Server Subsy
stem’s (CSRSS) error handling could allow an attacker to make an end run around
Vista’s UAC (User Account Control) protections. Fixed in Microsoft’s critical MS
07-021 patch (www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS07-021.mspx
CONTENT PAGE
JUNE 2007
17
NEWS & T REN DS
an on-demand scan. By comparison, detection rates for eight antivirus programs w
ith built-in antispyware ran between 73 and 99 percent for the same test sample.
“Windows Defender is not very good in my eyes. Most, if not all, stand-alone an
d integrated antispyware solutions are performing a lot better,” says Andreas Ma
rx, CEO of AV-Test in Germany.
A BETTER FIREWALL
vista’s improved firewall is another story. It offers the ability to block both
inbound and outbound connections (XP’s rewall blocks only incoming traffic). Ou
tbound ltering provides a second layer of defense in blocking so phisticated fo
rms of malware that make invisible connections from your system to remote hacker
-controlled servers—but as with many forms of secondary protection, deciding whi
ch apps should and shouldn’t be blocked takes some technical know-how. For that
reason, Microsoft turned it off by default. But even without outbound ltering,
the firewall “is better than good enough,” says Ed Bott, coauthor of Windows Vis
ta Inside Out. “It blocks all unsolicited incoming connections and is almost inv
isible in operation,” he says. And advanced users can con gure outbound ltering
for additional protection, while nontechnical users— who would be just as likel
y to break something as to prevent an attack, Bott says—are not forced to set up
any rules for outbound ltering. The Vista firewall passed most tests in AV-Tes
t’s analy18
“People will still execute that le to see Paris Hilton’s next video,” says Thom
pson of Exploit Prevention Labs. Social-engineering techniques that send malware
in the guise of a game or a sexy video exploit people’s curiosity or ignorance
to get them to click a tainted link or attachment. If someone clicks, the malwar
e has already evaded half of their computer’s automated defenses, including the
firewall. “Vista is an improvement,” says Thompson, “but it’s not the end of the
malware industry. Not by a long shot.” Another potential end run around Vista’s
defenses is to attack programs rather than the operating system. Media players
such as the Adobe Flash player and Apple’s QuickTime have suffered recent attack
s as hackers discover and exploit serious software vulnerabilities—with poisoned
online movie les, for example. To keep your machine safe, patching your progra
ms has become just as important as xing the operating system they run on. VISTA
’S UPGRADED FIREWALL can block an unknown program’s attempts “The applications a
re sitto connect to the Internet, but that functionality is turned off by defaul
t. ting on every desktop, Ra n d o m i z a t i o n m a k e s i t The Vista rewa
ll, along with and they all have known vulharder for malware to find many others
, may do a good nerabilities,” says Andrew and infect running processes. job at
blocking outside Jaquith, a security analyst in Finally, several changes to the
attempts to infiltrate your The Yankee Group’s Enakernel, the heart of any operc
omputer. But Internet probling Technologies Enterating system, increase its regr
ams must go through the prise division. sistance to hacker attacks. rewall to b
rowse a Web page, For PC users, the message access your e-mail, or carry on is c
lear: Though Vista may HUMAN (IN)SECURITY an IM chat—and this itself make things
more difficult creates an avenue for attack. for crooks, it is far from but whi
le vista is safer than Because Internet Explorer impregnable. You will still XP,
experts expect online opens up the door to your PC need to apply patches to thu
gs to quickly look for ways and has such a huge user close the inevitable holes.
to circumvent Vista’s protecbase, the browser is conAnd you must still use the
tions. One increasingly comstantly under attack. To same type of antivirus mon m
ethod is to use socialimprove IE 7’s defenses, the protection that you needed en
gineering tactics to target Windows Vista version of the with XP. the person, no
t the PC.
sis. However, it was not able to lter incoming mail attachments, as some rewal
ls do. Also, it failed a large percentage of so-called leaktests, which use a sp
ecially crafted program to see whether a rewall will block outbound connection
attempts. Still, many security companies and researchers, including AV-Test’s Ma
rx, argue that since these programs are artificial (as op posed to the real malw
are thrown at antivirus products), they may not provide accurate assessments of
a rewall’s abilities.
browser by default runs in Protected Mode, preventing IE—or any successful Inter
net attack that hijacks it— from changing sensitive parts of the operating syste
m. This defense tactic has already been successful against current attacks that
target holes such as the animated cursor aw. Besides these up-front defenses, V
ista also includes a number of back-end protections. PatchGuard attempts to bloc
k rootkits, which can hide virus infections. A technique called Address Space La
yout
JUNE 2007
CONTENT PAGE
N EWS & T R ENDS
STO R AG E
Hard-Drive Failures Surprisingly Frequent
TWO RECENT STUDIES OBSERVE MORE DEVICE FAILURES THAN VENDOR ESTIMATES SUGGEST.
your hard drive may not be as reliable as manufacturers would like you to think.
Recent studies by researchers at Carnegie Mellon and Google suggest that vendor
Mean Time To Failure (MTTF) ratings for hard drives are a bit misleading. The C
arnegie Mellon study, conducted at several locations, found typical failure rate
s of 2 to 4 percent and a high of 13 percent, in contrast to the less than 1 per
cent you’d expect based on vendor MTTF ratings (see chart). Google’s study pegge
d the annual failure rate at about 3 percent. Both studies were based on observa
tions of approximately 100,000 drives, with Google looking at its own farm of co
nsumer-grade disks and Carnegie Mellon examining both consumer-grade drives and
the ostensibly more reliable enterprise variety; the latter have beefed-up actua
tor magnets, more-robust spindle motors, and advanced features such as rotationa
l vibration safeguards.
DEFINING FAILURE
the test bench. Vendors say that, by that criterion, nearly 40 percent of return
ed drives have not actually failed. The two new studies, however, consider failu
re to be any
symptom that causes a user— presumably, in both cases, experienced IT types—to r
eplace the drive. Such symptoms include software problems, driver con icts, and
the like, as well as drive failure as de ned by vendors. Also, vendors base MTTF
numbers on the past performance of similar drives; no one
FA I L U R E R AT E S
tries running a new model for years to prove it will last. Surprisingly, Google’
s study found no correlation between drive failure and elevated heat and activit
y levels. The largest percentage of failures occurred on drives operating within
a mild 77-to-88-degree range. However, desktop PCs typically operate at tempera
tures well over the maximum of 125 degrees reported in the Google study, so the
ndings do not support running hard drives without adequate airflow to cool them
. Google found that failure rates varied significantly according to make and mod
el, but the company declined to identify failureprone models. Carnegie Mellon po
ints out that bad manufacturing runs occur and that improvements over the past f
ew years may be yielding more-reliable drives.
Google’s study relied in part on SMART (Self-Monitoring And Reporting Technology
) data from drives that have this feature. But so many drives failed without any
SMART warnings that Google concluded the feature was not helpful in predicting
realworld failure patterns. Google’s findings do support one tip: If you encount
er a scan error during a routine error check (by running Scandisk, for example),
your drive is 39 times more likely to fail within 60 days than drives that don’
t show such errors. IT pros recommend replacing a drive with scan errors.
FEWER FIGURES
Studies Challenge Claims
BASED ON THE hard-disk industry’s Mean Time To Failure estimates, you’d expect l
ess than 1 percent of hard drives to fail each year. But studies of facilities w
ith many hard drives found significantly higher failure rates.
Annual failure rate
vendors attribute part of the discrepancy between their ratings and the ndings
in these reports to differing definitions of disk failure. For vendors, it’s whe
n a drive fails on one read or write attempt within a set period— typically abou
t 24 hours—on
Carnegie Mellon report (typical sites) Carnegie Mellon report (maximum observed)
Google report
2–4 percent 13 percent 3 percent
CHART NOTE: By definition, MTTF is the average lifetime of a hard drive. A year
has 8760 hours, so the probability of a hard drive failing in a given year, or t
he estimated annual failure rate, is 8760/MTTF.
CONTENT PAGE
JUNE 2007
19
ILLUSTRATION: TAVIS COBURN
Industry claims (based on MTTF of 1 million hours)
0.88 percent
the most likely immediate fallout from these reports is that vendors will stop t
outing MTTF gures. In my online research, MTTF figures for consumer drives were
already few and far between. Corporate buyers might rethink purchasing plans in
light of Carnegie Mellon’s nding that fiber-channel and SCSI drives appear no
more reliable than the cheaper SATA variety. But IDC analyst David Reinsel says
ber-channel and SCSI drives are still worthwhile when performance matters. For
most of us, these reports simply reemphasize the need for smart practices. Keep
your drives cool and, most important, backed up so that if failure occurs, it’s
merely an inconvenience and not a nancial or emotional disaster. —Jon L. Jacobi
NEWS & T REN DS
TEC H N O LO GY TR E N DS
COOL GADGETS
LATEST PRODUCTS IN THE GLOBAL MARKET.
It’s that time of the year when people get a chance to get out of the city for t
heir rst big holiday with family. On the other hand, for many companies the hol
idays also mark the start of the build-up to the summer sales season. —Martyn Wi
lliams
TOSHIBA EXPANDABLE HDD RECORDER TV SET
Toshiba ‘s latest series of at-screen LCD televisions goes one better than othe
r hard-disk video recorders by offering the user room to expand the storage spac
e. Typically you’re stuck with the drive that ships with the TV (or recorder) bu
t the H3000 series sets sport an eSATA (external serial ATA) connector on the ba
ck for plugging in an external disk drive. The sets ship with an internal 300G-b
yte drive and the expansion socket should work with any eSATA drive. They are av
ailable now in sizes from 32-inches to 52-inches.
SONY MEMORY STICK CAMCORDER
Meet the HDR-CX7, Sony’s smallest high-de nition camcorder to date. The camera r
ecords 1080i high-de nition video directly to a
NTT DOCOMO MOTION SENSITIVE CELL PHONE
Mix the Nintendo Wii and a cell phone and what do you get? Something like NTT Do
CoMo’s new line of motion-sensitive cell phones. In a boxing game users can thro
w punches or duck, and their movements are picked up by the phone’s camera. In a
nother game, the phone can be tilted in different directions to guide an on-scre
en ball through a maze. To be sure, the cell phones aren’t nearly as reactive as
the Wii console. You need to make a motion, such as a punch, then wait a second
for the punch to get registered on the phone screen, but it’s a start! The hand
sets come from Mitsubishi Electric, Panasonic and Sharp.
MemoryStick Pro Duo card. Until now its camcorders have relied on MiniDV tape, D
VD discs or hard-disk drives to store video, but the memory card slot and associ
ated electronic take up less space and mean a smaller, lighter camera. However,
memory cards are quite expensive, and users will be able to store only about 30
minutes of video on a 4G-byte card in the camera’s highest quality mode. Behind
the lens is a 3-megapixel image sensor, and the camera can also capture 6-megapi
xel still images. Other features include a 10x optical zoom lens and a 2.7-inch
wide-screen, touch-sensitive LCD (liquid crystal display) monitor. The CX7 weigh
s 450 grams and measures 69 millimeters by 67mm by 129mm.
20
JUNE 2007
CONTENT PAGE
N EWS & T R ENDS
SAMSUNG’S Q1 ULTRA ULTRAMOBILE
Ultramobile PCs have often been criticized as falling into a gap between laptops
and smartphones, but Samsung Electronics hopes to change that perception with a
reduced price and upgraded performance for its Q1 Ultra. The Q1 Ultra has the s
ame size 7-inch display as its predecessor, the Q1, but adds a new split QWERTY
keypad for thumb-texting. It also has 802.11 wireless networking and optional HS
DPA (high speed downlink packet access) cellular connectivity. It uses Intel’s n
ew McCaslin A100 and A110 ultramobile processors instead of the power-hungry Cel
eron and Pentium chips used in the first-generation. Combined with an improved t
ype of lithium ion battery, the design extends battery life from a minimum of 1.
5 hours to at least 4.5 hours. The company will sell four models of the Q1 Ultra
for a range of US$799 to U$1,499 (Rs. 35,955 to Rs. 67,455 approximately).
SAMSUNG SYMBIAN SMARTPHONE
The latest Symbian OS-based smartphone from Samsung Electronics has an unclutter
ed face so it doesn’t look like a traditional all-buttons-and-switches smartphon
e but its Symbianbase means it can be loaded up with applications to make it jus
t as powerful. A full Web browser comes pre-installed and there’s Bluetooth, a 2
-megapixel camera and stereo speakers. The GSM (Global System for Mobile Communi
cations) tri-band phone has a 2.3-inch display.
SHARP HDTV RECORDER
As consumers continue to snap-up high-de nition TVs, Sharp continues to push out
HD capable hard-disk recorders. The latest, the DV-AVC52, combines a DVD drive
and VHS deck with a 250Gbyte hard-disk recorder. The machine will copy your old
VHS tapes onto DVD so you can nally dump another relic of the 20th century and
you’ll also be able to get up to 31 hours of HDTV on the disks. But like almost
all hard-disk recorders it remains stuck there. Pretty much the only way to stor
e HD content is on Blu-ray Disc or HD DVD but since this doesn’t have either you
’ll have to keep it on the disk — and thus lose some recording space — or transf
er it to DVD at standard de nition and lose the high-de nition picture.
CONTENT PAGE
JUNE 2007
21
ERIC DAHL
ERIC DAHL
iPhone, Therefore I Am
PLUS: A (MUCH) NICER LINUX INTERFACE AND SECOND-GEN UMPCs.
THE IPHONE COMETH
The Buzz: As the iPhone
HERE\NOW
1
LINUX GRAPHICS
The Buzz: If you’ve ever
TWITTER: Megatrendy social network
built around text-message updates. twitter.com
2 XBOX 360 ELITE: Updated model priced at
$479 adds HDMI, 1080p, and a 120GB hard drive.
countdown continues, I thought I’d chime in with my reflections on Apple’s uberd
evice and its rivals. I spent some quality time with an iPhone at Macworld Expo
in January, and it truly is impressive. Its mobile Web browser alone is worth th
e price of admission—the touch-based pinch and stretch zoom controls are beautif
ul. The music, photo, and messaging features are cool as well. But the touchbase
d keyboard isn’t great for thumb typing, and Apple’s decision to ban third-party
apps is a big disappointment. Unfortunately, competition may not arrive for a w
hile: LG’s Prada phone won’t be sold in the States; and Samsung’s neat F700, a t
ouch-screen phone
FUTURE TECH
with a slide-out keyboard, may not reach our shores either. Bottom Line: Unless
the iPhone can magically get an AT&T signal to my house, I’ll skip it. Too bad A
pple locked out third-party solutions—I was all set to take Skype calls over the
iPhone’s Wi-Fi.
MIND CONTROLLERS
SAY GOODBYE TO controller thumb and Nintendinitis—the latest innovation in game
controllers takes its orders directly from your mind. Emotiv Systems and NeuroSk
y each use electrodes positioned in a helmet or headset (Emotiv’s prototype look
s a bit like a deconstructed bike helmet—see below) to detect emotions or brain
patterns and translate that data into actions in games or software apps. By conc
entrating on a word or emotion, your mind can actually interact with a game. Bot
h companies hope that games tailored to their technology will arrive in 2008.
considered switching to Linux, the user interface was probably pretty far down y
our list of reasons. But that could change this year, thanks to the Beryl Projec
t, a hardware-accelerated window manager to rival the visual ash of Vista and O
S X. As of this writing, Beryl has barely reached its 0.2 release, but already i
t boasts some very cool features (see http://berylproject.org/features.php). It
has transparent windows and title bars, a Mac OS Exposé–like task switcher that
scales windows to thumbnails, and a 3D cube interface for switching between virt
ual desktops. Bottom Line: Beryl could drive up Linux adoptions once it’s stable
enough to be included in default Ubuntu installations. Combine that with Dell’s
expanded lineup of Linux PCs (check out www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx
/ideastorm/ideasinaction?c=us&l=e n&s=gen), and this should be a good year for p
enguins.
REFOLDING ORIGAMI
The Buzz: Microsoft isn’t
3
BOOTCAMP 2.0: B e t a o f t h e p re -
Leopard dual-boot utility for Macs now supports Vista. www.apple.com/ macosx/boo
tcamp/
4 OCZ TRIFECTA: The enthusiast memory
maker produces 1GB and 2GB MicroSD flash media that also fits SD and USB. www.oc
ztechnology.com/products/flash_ d r i v e s /o c z _ t r i f e c t a _ secure_di
gital-memory_cards
done with Origami yet. The first generation of Ultra Mobile PCs were marred by h
igh prices and limited hardware, but the latest ones aim to change that. Samsung
’s nicely designed Q1 Ultra packs a split-
style thumb keyboard and a 7inch, 1024-by-600-pixel display. Asus and Gigabyte h
ave keyboard-equipped models coming, too. The Asus T83 swivels tablet-style to r
eveal a QWERTY keyboard under its LCD. Samsung’s and Gigabyte’s UMPCs should hav
e arrived in May; Asus’s, later this year. Bottom Line: This is a step in the ri
ght direction, but between powerful smart phones and smaller subnotebooks, I sti
ll can’t see where UMPCs are going to t in.
22
JUNE 2007
CONTENT PAGE
IPHONE PHOTOGRAPH: COURTESY OF APPLE
LATERAL VIEW
G E E TA J C H A N N A N A
The New UGC
Using published content and user generated content for knowledge search.
okay I am not talking about the Universities Grants Commission here; that had ex
ceedingly boring programs on Doordarshan in the afternoons. This on the other ha
nd is User Generated Content. It is the latest phenomenon sweeping across the In
ternet, which is giving most media companies the creeps and has got Google and M
urdoch interested enough to invest their precious billions. But, we have to reme
mber that they are just enablers as Google recently said, it does not want to ow
n any content (apparently they just want to store your personal information so t
hat they can show you the ad for the right sized blazer). They are providing a p
latform for users of the Internet to make their views public. Which, for most pa
rts, is interesting, especially if you are the person who is penning, or rather
keyboarding, your views. Give this a thought; when do you really feel like expre
ssing your views the most? It generally happens when, either you are totally exh
ilarated with your experience or you are totally disappointed. This makes blogs
and wikies, which make the most of user generated content, a bit too opinionated
and biased. Its best to take whatever is said on both with a pinch of salt. All
the controversy around Wikipedia further exempli es the point. True, non-in uen
ced information is a bit dif cult to nd. So how do we get the right mix of info
rmation and user opinion? I have been looking to buy a new car, and have been se
arching the internet
24
for any kind of reviews, scoops or information that I may get on my dream machin
e. Once the car was launched I was able to get to some reviews on personals blog
s, which were not only highly biased but at times factually incorrect. If I had
not cross checked this point with other sources, I may have been mislead. And, I
would have lost on a good car.
My guide at this time were my regular visits to a car forum website (www. team-b
hp.com) and from my subscription to a google alerts. The similarity between foru
ms and blogs ends at both of them being written by users who are not necessarily
experts. But, forums have the edge for authentic information since they are mod
erated and attract counter views. Wrong information is most often than not spott
ed and countered well.
For instance, in my case a wrongly reported feature in the car was flogged by co
unter views and was corrected promptly by the person who had posted it. This bal
anced view to the information is at times better than what you may get from sing
le person reviews, which may not be factually correct. But, you still need to fi
lter the forum posts manually to dig out the information. Thus, like a talk show
on television, the forum is as good as its moderators. Also, as you differentia
te between a newscast and a talk show, blogs and articles are passive. You can c
omment on blogs, but it is simply not as interactive and intuitive as forums. Go
ogle news alerts were also a saviour here, since they provided me with the lates
t news on what was happening with the car, thus balancing out the user views bei
ng thrown at me from all directions. You can easily set a Google alert for a ter
m to be searched in most news reports led. An email is sent with a link to thos
e news reports to your e-mail ID. I feel that as consumers we are kings in this
situation. Using a bouquet of complementing magazine websites, blogs and forums,
we can bene t no end. We should not get in uenced by just one of these but make
sure that they complement each other for our bene t.
W R I T E B AC K
What do you think about user generated content? Write to me and let me know at f
eedback@pcworld.in.
ILLUSTRATION: MM SHANITH
CONTENT PAGE
THE OTHER SIDE
SACHIN KALBAG
The Future in a Video Game
Who would have thought that lmmaker George Lucas could double up as the Nostrad
amus for the 21st century? A raconteur with tales of mythological overtones? De
nitely. A whiz at creating ctional alternative worlds across the universe? Of c
ourse. But a crystal ball gazer whose
ideas in a video game are so realistic and plausible that they almost frighten y
ou? Perhaps not. That’s exactly what happened when I saw Lucas’ video game compa
ny LucasArts unveil a preview of Fracture (to be released in 2008 for PS3 and Xb
ox 360). Admittedly, the realism of the game was as much an experience of shock
and fear of what the future holds for us as the excitement of watching a great g
ame unfold in front of you. To be sure, the game’s scenarios may just not come t
rue. Yet, you just cannot stop thinking about them. Combine the game with former
US Vice-President Al Gore’s brilliant documentary An Inconvenient Truth, the de
bate over stem cell research and cloning, and the current crises around the worl
d, especially in the Middle East, and you’d know what I mean. Fracture is set in
2161 – just about 150 years from now – and is a chilling reminder (or a forebea
r) of humanity’s ugly side. It seems like fantasy, but it could well be real. Ev
en though it is essentially a story set in the United States, but like several m
ythologies you hear around the world, you could easily extrapolate its themes to
any other region, and into our lives. The game’s fundamental premise is the sam
e as any other – con ict. But herein lies the rub: the con ict happens as a dire
ct consequence of our actions today. Pollution causes global warming which in tu
rn results in natural catastrophes including earthquakes, hurricanes, oods and
tornadoes. Also, as a direct result of our research today, the future is divided
between those who believe in genetic engineering and those who don’t. It seems
to be the perfect recipe for disaster, and an inevitable war between those on ei
ther side of such beliefs — the American East (the conservative lot that has ban
ned genetic engineering) and the West (a more liberal area that welcomes disgrac
ed scientists from East with open arms). As Lucas himself says, “Technology with
out a story can be pretty boring.” But, with this story, Lucas has put a mirror
in front of us – to re ect on the notion that what we do today has a direct impa
ct on what we (or our children) face tomorrow. You could, theoretically, escape
into your online alter egos via Second Life or any of the MMORPGs that dot the W
eb today. Yet, when we get out of our chairs and move away from our LCD monitors
, what’s happening is as real as the unrealism that we tend to take solace in. A
nd so it is with Fracture. It is unreal realism, if you would want to put a oxym
oronic explanation to it. In Lucas’ masterpiece series Star Wars, the stories te
nded to be outlandish; however, the themes were real, and the characters were ju
st like us. There were good people, and there were terrible villains who wouldn’
t think twice to kill their own children. There were families that were separate
d, and there were friends who were united. There were great teachers and greater
students who could get lured into the dark side. To cut a long story short, Sta
r Wars was about us, but in a more mythological sort of way. Fracture is also ab
out us, but in a real way. I would have never imagined the day when a video game
would actually interest players in making sense of the world we live in, nor ha
d I thought that we would, one day, step into the real world to escape the reali
sm of a video game. But then, Lucas’ Fracture could do just that to all of us. F
orget the groundbreaking technology, forget the new weaponry in the game and for
get the custom software that was built to create this game... Fracture could wel
l have us thinking. A video game that does that – not a bad idea, huh?
Sachin Kalbag is the Washington, DC, correspondent of Daily News and Analysis, a
Mumbai-based newspaper.
I would never have imagined a day when a video game would have made sense
ILLUSTRATION: PC ANOOP
CONTENT PAGE
JUNE 2007
25
TECH TONIC
SOHAM RANINGA
Ultraportables under 20K, Quite Possible!
Intel’s Classmate PC has the right ingredients for a mainstream solution.
a notebook weighing 1.3 kg with a bright 7-inch display, 4 hour battery life, wi
reless connectivity, rugged construction running on Windows XP. Isn’t this what
you wished for when you were on that business trip or vacationing in Goa and nee
ded a light, compact computer just to check your mails and be in touch with your
world? The problem is that you will have to spend close to a lakh to own one an
d not everybody has that kind of money at their disposal. What if it was offered
to you for Rs. 20,000? Chances are you would jump to it! Intel is offering the
same, packaged as the “Classmate PC” for school students and is meant for the em
erging markets worldwide. Its approximate pricing is about 300$ and would end up
roughly with a price tag of Rs 15,000 in India. Some cosmetic changes along wit
h minor component upgrades can actually transform the Classmate PC into a valuab
le ultraportable notebook that will bring mobility to the masses. Intel’s Classm
ate PC is not a powerhouse by any stretch of imagination, but it’s got just the
right amount of power under its hood to run your of ce applications, let you bro
wse the web and stay connected with your friends and family through instant mess
aging. Most of the ultraportables in the market are meant for these applications
and hence I dared to compare the Classmate PC to the ultraportables at the appl
ication level and not core performance capabilities. What works for the Classmat
e PC is the fact that it already incorporates some of the latest technologies wh
ich haven’t made
26
their way into the notebook segment yet. Armed with a solid state ash memory ba
sed hard drive (gives faster boot times and more rigidity when compared to regul
ar notebook hard drives) and an OLED backlight (saves power and has better brigh
tness levels over the conventional CFL based backlighting) based 7-inch screen,
the Classmate PC is relatively more rugged and battery ef cient than any of your
regular ultraportable notebooks in the market. Its modest weight (1.3Kg) and a
4-hour battery life come as a bonus. The drawbacks of limited graphics capabilit
ies, limited storage and cramped keyboard might bother you initially but when yo
u compare the fact that it is still a better solution compared to any PDAs that
are twice as expensive and almost competes head-on with the UMPC (Ultramobile PC
) that costs close to a lakh , the Classmate PC is truly perfect for its price.
The missing optical drive option does not
W R I T E B AC K
Share your views on the Intel Classmate PC, Write to me at feedback@ pcworld.in.
CONTENT PAGE
ILLUSTRATION: UNNIKRISHNAN A.V
bother me much when I compare it to the Lenovo X60, a top rated ultraportable no
tebook that offers a USB based IDE drive option; the same is possible with the C
lassmate PC. Intel plans to roll out two more versions of the Classmate PC by 20
08 and these will be even more capable, sporting Intel’s latest mobile platforms
. If the pricing for these offerings follows a linear curve, one can expect even
better versions of Classmate PC to retail under the Rs 25,000 range. A perfect
case of bringing mobility to the masses in the true sense, just what reliance di
d a few years back by crashing the cell phone market and introducing handsets pr
iced 5 times lower than the existing ones in the market. Satyajit Singh who lead
s the Classmate PC project in India said they are currently focused on the schoo
l children as their primary consumers for the Classmate PC but also acknowledged
the potential that the Classmate PC had for other mature markets. From the busi
ness point of view, Intel obviously is not too encouraged to get into the sub 20
K ultraportable category for obvious reasons. It will not go down well with the
likes of HP, Dell and almost all major laptop vendors who are Intel’s key custom
ers and are selling ultraportables for a lot more.
BUGS & FIXES
STUART J. JOHNSTON
Critical Attack Slams IE 6 and 7, Outlook
Plus: An IE 7 phishing risk, QuickTime holes, and Vista compatibility updates.
just as microsoft’s security mavens celebrated a rare month of no patches, cyber
thugs took the wind out of their sails by hitting a serious Windows hole in Vist
a and XP. Attackers could hijack your PC if you simply viewed a Web site or read
an HTML e-mail laced with a poisoned animated-cursor le (.ani). The flaw can b
e targeted through browsers, including Internet Explorer (6 and 7) and Firefox,
as well as via Outlook versions 2002 SP3 and later, on Windows XP SP2 and Vista
systems. Microsoft says that the risk with IE 7 under Vista is mitigated because
of IE’s protected mode, and that Outlook 2007 is safe because it uses Word to d
isplay HTML e-mail. What galls me is that Microsoft knew about the hole three mo
nths before the attacks began. You can get the patch over Microsoft Automatic Up
dates
or at www.microsoft.com/ technet/security/bulletin/ ms07-017.mspx. destination.
The impostor site would show the real site’s URL in the address bar, potentially
tricking even careful surfers. As always your best bet is never to click an e-m
ail link to access your bank or other financial ac count, even if you’re sure th
at the e-mail is legit. Instead, type in the address yourself or use a bookmark.
For more, including a vulnerability test, see http://secunia.com/Internet_Explo
rer_7_navcancl. htm_Cross-Site_Scripting_ Vulnerability/#.
CARING TOO MUCH
IN BRIEF
Apple OS X Bugs
APPLE PATCHED 45 bugs in OS X, including several critical security flaws. The ne
w, corrected version is Mac OS X 10.4.9 with Security Update 2007-003. Get the u
pdate at http://docs. i n fo. a p p l e.co m /a r t i c l e. html?artnum=305214.
An animatedcursor attack allows PC hijackings.
IE 7’s troubles continue with a proof-of-concept phishing exploit published by s
ecurity researcher Aviv Raff. Using it, an attacker could fool you and IE with a
n e-mail or Web link to a doctored error page that, when refreshed as directed,
would send you to a phishing site disguised as a legitimate
So Long, Firefox 1.5
TWO RECENT PATCHES correct critical security holes in Firefox 2.0 and 1.5 (the
xed versions are 2.0.0.3 and 1.5.0.11). But Mozilla stopped supporting (and xin
g) version 1.5 as of April 24, so if you haven’t yet upgraded to version 2, do i
t now. Find the upgrade at getfirefox.com.
MORE SERIOUS QUICKTIME FLAWS
APPLE RELEASED YET another update to x multiple dangerous holes in its QuickTim
e media player software for both Mac and Windows (affecting XP, 2000, and Vista)
. The patch closes eight critical vulnerabilities in how the player handles a va
riety of media les—and annoyingly it will put QuickTime on your desktop and in
your system tray whether you want it there or not. An attacker exploiting any of
the aws could hit you with a drive-by download if you visit a rigged site or c
lick on an e-mail link to a poisoned movie, so make sure that you have version 7
.1.5 or later (grab it from www.apple.com/ quicktime/download/win.html). Learn m
ore at http://docs.info. apple.com/article.html?artnum=305149
microsoft has patched a problem with the way its OneCare antivirus application w
as handling Outlook (.pst) and Outlook Express (.dbx) e-mail files. Instead of p
ulling out one suspect e-mail, OneCare quarantined the entire message le, makin
g all the user’s e-mail seem to vanish. Versions 1.1.2306.0 and later have the
x, sent through an automatic OneCare update. To get further details, scroll down
at http://windowsonecare. spaces.live.com/?_c11_blogpart_blogpart=blogview&_c=
blogpart&partqs=amonth%3d 3%26ayear%3d2007. On a more positive note, Microsoft i
s shipping another patch batch that improves Vista compatibility for a range of
programs, includ-
ing Trend Micro Internet Security 2007 and Microsoft Money 2006. For the patch a
nd a list of af-fected apps, see http://support.micros o ft . c o m / ? k b i d
= 9 3 2 2 4 6 . Expect such fixes to be a regular thing.
Stuart J. Johnston is a contributing editor to PC World.
ILLUSTRATION: P.C. ANOOP
BUGGED?
FOUND A HARDWARE or software bug? Tell us about it by sending an e-mail message
to feedback@pcworld.in.
28
JUNE 2007
CONTENT PAGE
HASSLE-FR EE PC
HASSLE FREE PC
STEVE BASS
-
Top Tricks for Safe, Smart Downloads
Plus: Download and play videos, and unclutter your machine’s system tray.
are you ready to download a le? Don’t—until you’ve read this column. I’ll tell
you how to download les ef ciently and safely, and share a trick for transferri
ng downloadresistant videos onto your PC. The Hassle: I download lots of free so
ftware, but I’m worried about picking up adware. What do you suggest? The Fix: F
ire up your standard defensive shields ( rewall, antivirus, and antispyware); th
en add an extra coat of armor. I recommend giving Cyberhawk Basic ( www. pcworld
.com/downloads/file/ fid,64144-order,1-page,1/description.html) a try. Unlike an
tivirus software that checks for virus signatures, Cyberhawk watches for and blo
cks suspicious behavior as it occurs. But Cyberhawk doesn’t play well with all c
omputers, so I have two alternatives that thwart malware by running your browser
, e-mail, and instant messaging apps in a protected sandbox. That way, you can e
nd a session and easily reverse potential damage to your system. GreenBorder Pro
with SafeFiles (http://
TOOL OF THE MONTH
pcworld.in/downloads/index.jsp/ dsecId=1468/dsubSecId=1474) throws a border arou
nd your browser and puts downloaded les into a special folder, so that you can
run them in a protected session. At Rs, 1,350 per year, it’s not dirt cheap, but
you do get a 15-day free trial. Or try Sandboxie (http://pcworld.in/ downloads/
index.jsp/dsecId=1468/ dsubSecId=1474), a free but complicated tool that quarant
ines downloads and their
Clear Away Clutter With WinPatrol
WINPATROL IS A must-have tool: It helps keep your system tray free of clutter an
d warns you when a program insists on loading at system boot-up. The latest vers
ion—WinPatrol 2007— has Delayed Start, a smart feature that lets you delay launc
h of nonessential programs for up to an hour after the system boots, so Windows
loads faster. That’s ideal timing for applications such as backup programs. Also
new is a right-click function that opens the startup program’s folder in Window
s Explorer. WinPatrol costs Rs. 1,350 (and I promise you, it’s worth the money),
but there’s a free version as well. Compare the two versions at http://www.winp
atrol.com/whyplus. html?index, and then download either one of them according to
your liking.
— Steve Bass
30
JUNE 2007
CONTENT PAGE
ILLUSTRATION: OTTO STEININGER
installation routines in a sandbox until you decide they’re not harmful. Warning
: Be sure to try each program separately. The Hassle: I’m an avid downloader, bu
t I hate downloading les one at a time. The Fix: You need a download manager. F
lashGet ( http:// pcworld.in/downloads/index.jsp/ dsecId=1468/dsubSecId=1474) is
a remarkable free tool. Click a link to download a le, or just copy the link i
nto the clipboard, and FlashGet pops up to perform the download. Even handier: D
rag and drop multiple links onto the program’s floating dropzone. The default se
tting can download ten files simultaneously and resumes the transfer if it’s dis
rupted midstream by, say, a browser or unlikely (ha!) PC crash. If you have a ma
nager but it won’t work with Firefox, use FlashGot (http://pcworld.in/downloads/
index.jsp/ dsecId=1468/dsubSecId=1474). The Hassle: Is there a good way to downl
oad YouTube or Google video les? The Fix: Many sites contain Flashbased streami
ng videos that are yours for the taking. Just use the Web-based t o o l s a t Ke
e p Vi d . c o m o r Vi d e o Download.com. Both sites have links you can add t
o your browser’s toolbar to handle drag-and-drop video downloading. For multiple
YouTube videos, download TubeMe. To watch the les, use VLC or FLV Player—or c
onvert the videos into AVI les at the Online FLV Converter site. All of these t
ools are at http://pcworld.in/downloads/index. jsp/dsecId=1477/dsubSecId=1491.
R EVIEWS & RAN KIN GS
REVIEWS
36 GEFORCE 8500GT VIDEO CARDS FROM ASUS AND MSI 38 SONY DCR-HC96 CAMCORDER 38 KO
DAK V1003 10MP DIGITAL CAMERA 39 OPEN OFFICE 2.2 40 CANON MP460 ALL-IN-ONE 41 LH
20A1S LITE-ON 20X SATA OPTICAL DRIVE 41 MICROSOFT NOTEBOOK PRESENTER MOUSE 8000
42 SONY ERICSSON W200I MUSIC PHONE
REVI WS & VIEWS RANKINGS ANKINGS
L A B -T E S T E D A N D H A N D S - O N T E D LU AT I A N P A N A H E T E NE S
TNP & O DA M OS D U M O U R E D I E VA B Y K O L S O F T E T L AT S O R R UCT N
Dual Cores Get Cheaper And Better
AGGRESSIVE PRICING BRINGS MAKES PERFORMANCE DUAL CORE CPUS AFFORDABLE
CPUS
‘which is better? AMD or Intel?” is something we folks at the test labs keep get
ting asked by pretty much everyone. There are several CPUs out there by both Int
el and AMD, but there is no single best CPU. The answer to the ‘better CPU’ ques
tion depends on your budget and needs. We tested six CPUs, three each from Intel
and AMD to figure out who offered
32
the best buy under Rs. 8,000. This covers the best CPU if you are on a budget (R
s. 3,500), or seek better performance for a slightly higher price (Rs. 5,000) an
d of course, the best CPU that Rs. 8,000 can fetch you. It’s old news that AMD l
ost the performance ground to Intel when the latter launched the Core 2 Duo CPUs
last year at about the same time. AMD was forced to lower prices of its CPUs
to retain market share, and in turn Intel came out with lower priced models base
d on the Core 2 architecture. All of this translates into good news for buyers a
s faster CPUs are available at lesser cost.
HOW WE TESTED
we used CPU intensive tests from PCWorld’s WorldBench 5.0 and also ran PCMark05’
s system suite and CPU test. These tests give an
indication of the CPU’s ability to handle various jobs such as multimedia and mu
lti-tasking. Gaming tests were conducted with DOOM 3 and F.E.A.R. to note the fr
ames delivered by each CPU for the same resolution and quality setting. The resu
lts of these tests can be seen on the graphs and you can compare the performance
of the different CPUs yourself. The tests were conducted using a 10,000 rpm WD
Rap-
CONTENT PAGE
REV IEWS & RA N K I NGS
44 44 45 46 47 47 MICROSOFT WIRELESS LASER DESKTOP 6000 DRAGON VOICE RECOGNITION
SOFTWARE CANON POWERSHOT A570 IS DIGITAL CAMERA RIM BLACKBERRY 8800 SMART PHONE
D-LINK DWL 142 USB WIRELESS ADAPTER KINGSTON DATA TRAVELER 2GB PEN DRIVE 48 ADO
BE SYSTEMS DREAMWEAVER CS3 GRAPHIC SOFTWARE 49 ASUS R2H UMPC 49 STYLETAP PLATFOR
M FOR WINDOWS SMARTPHONE MOBILE COMPUTING 50 SOCIAL NETWORKING SOFTWARE
40
47
tor 150GB hard disk; Kingston HyperX DDR2 1150 1GB x 2 modules with latencies se
t default (5 5 5 15, 2T); Asus 7900GT graphic card and the motherboards used wer
e the Asus M2N32 SLI for AMD processors and the Intel D975XBX beta motherboard f
or the Intel CPUs.
When Budget Calls the Shots:
WIRELESS ACCESS POINT
PCW Rating
Performance • WorldBench 5.0 Multi-tasking: Very Good • PCMark05 CPU Test: Excel
lent • Gaming Performance: Excellent
Features • Operating Frequency: 2.7GHz • Total L2 Cache: 1MB • Manufacturing Pro
cess: 65nm
1
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Best Price: Rs. 8,200 BUY
88
Very Good
3 Bottom line: If Rs 8000 is all that you want to spend, this is the best CPU ou
t there currently.
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300
2
Price: Rs. 8,000
85
Very Good
• WorldBench 5.0 Multi-tasking: Very Good • Operating Frequency: 1.86GHz • Total
L2 Cache: 2MB • PCMark05 CPU Test: Very Good • Manufacturing Process: 65nm • Ga
ming Performance: Very Good
3 Bottom line: AMD’s price cut has relegated this competitive CPU to second plac
e. A good choice if you prefer the Intel platform.
Intel Core 2 Duo E4300
We feel Rs. 3,500 ought to be a fair amount to spend on a CPU if you wish to use
your PC for anything more than MS Office, Internet and music playback. At this
price point we have the AMD’s entry level dual core, the Athlon 64 X2 3600+ and
its counterpart from Intel the D820. The X2 3600+ costs about Rs. 3,400 while th
e D820 is costlier by Rs. 100 or so. The D820, though an older architecture, is
made attractive by its pricing. However when you take into account similarly pri
ced X2 3600+, the D820 pales in comparison. In all tests, the X2 3600+, clocked
at 1.9GHz and a 1 MB cache was clearly ahead of the Intel dual core. In gaming t
ests for example, we saw up to 33 percent bet-
3
Price: Rs. 5,000
83
Very Good
• WorldBench 5.0 Multi-tasking: Good • PCMark05 CPU Test: Good • Gaming Performa
nce: Good
• Operating Frequency: 1.8GHz • Total L2 Cache: 2MB • Manufacturing Process: 65n
m
3 Bottom line: This toned down Core 2 Duo with more cache than the X2 4000+ make
s for a good choice at the Rs 5,000 mark.
4
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+
Price: Rs. 5,000
82
Very Good
nce: Very Good
m
3 Bottom line: Has a slight edge over the E4300 in some games, but otherwise equ
al. Lesser cache makes it the second choice in this budget.
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+
5
Price: Rs. 3,400
78
Good
nce: Good
m
3 Bottom line: Great pricing and performance makes the 3200+ the best budget CPU
for cash strapped gamers.
Intel Pentium D820
6
Price: Rs. 3,500
65
Fair
• WorldBench 5.0 Multi-tasking: Fair • PCMark05 CPU Test: Good • Gaming Performa
nce: Fair
m
3 Bottom line: Intel’s entry level dual core fails to impress - not recommended,
especially for gamers. CHART NOTE: The prices mentioned are street prices as on
17/05/2007 and are subject to change.
ter frame rates on the X2, though the Intel boasts of a higher clock and L2 cach
e. Another significant factor in favor of the X2 in the budget category is the a
vailability of motherboards that have onboard GeForce 6150 or 6200
video chipsets. These deliver better performance than the current Intel GMA solu
tions which will aid gaming in case you don’t wish to spend on a separate video
card. We also tested the single core Athlon 64 3200+ which
is available for Rs. 2,800. Even this single core CPU delivered better performan
ce than the D820 except in multimedia applications, in which the latter’s dual c
ore advantage showed. If you are cash strapped, the Athlon 64
JUNE 2007 W W W. P C W O R L D . I N
CONTENT PAGE
33
PERFORMANCE
WorldBench 5.0
800 600
Time in Seconds
400
200
0 Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Core 2 E6300 Core 2 E4300 Athlon 64 X2 4000+ Athlon 64 X2 3
600+ Pentium D820
Adobe Premier Discreet 3ds max 5.1 (DirectX)
Discreet 3ds max 5.1 (OpenGL) Microsoft Windows Media Encoder 9.0
Multitasking: Mozilla and Windows Media Encoder
3200+ or even its younger sibling, the 3000+ (cheaper by Rs 500) will make a for
good choice.
The Price-Power Balance:
We scouted for the best offerings at Rs 5,000 from both manufacturers and finall
y picked the Athlon 64 X2 4000+ and the new Intel Core 2 Duo E4300. The E4300 is
a cheaper and mellowed Core 2 running at 1.8GHz and having an FSB of 800MHz (th
e E6300 runs at 1.86GHz and has a 1066MHz FSB). The X2 4000+ exists in two flavo
rs
– a 90nm 2.0GHz, 2MB L2 cache and a newer 65nm 2.1GHz, 1MB L2 cache which we rec
eived. The Intel E4300 and the AMD X2 4000+ are matched evenly overall in the pe
rformance charts. And, they are priced identically as well. This leaves us looki
ng up the features table to see which of these will be more future proof. With a
total of 2MB cache, the E4300 is the winner here, but with only the slightest o
f margins. The X2 4000+ , with a cache handicap made up by only 300MHz lags one
point behind in the nal score.
Another point going against the X2 is that it cannot make full use of the memory
bandwidth. This 65nm 4000+ can only do DDR2 700 speeds instead of the full DDR2
800 speed that the 90nm version could manage.
Best CPU at Rs 8000: AMD’s recent price cuts have placed their higher end CPUs a
t what was once the mid-range price point. An example of this is the winner, the
Athlon 64 X2 5200+, that retails currently at just a little over Rs. 8000. When
set against the Intel E6300, the Athlon
is a clear winner, with about 20 percent higher scores in almost every benchmark
and game. This X2 is made using 65nm process similar to the E6300 and both of t
hem are ef cient processors running cool and have a power dissipation of 65W.
THE MODEL NUMBER PUZZLE
like many other AMD CPUs, the 5200+ exists in different versions. Initially ther
e was a 5200+ rated CPU with 2MB L2 cache and 2.6GHz clock manufactured on the 9
0nm platform. With
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CONTENT PAGE
AMD’s move to 65nm, the CPUs lost half their cache and gained some clock speed -
the 5200+ that we received for review has only 1MB cache but a 2.7GHz clock. It
is rather puzzling that AMD decided to increase the frequency by a meager 100MH
z to compensate for half the cache that is missing (the X2 4000’s is also a simi
lar case to note). An advantage of this approach is that the reduced production
costs with less cache can be passed on to the consumer.
GAMING PERFORMANCE
it is common to hear someone say ‘the game does not work properly! But I have a
3GHz CPU…’ and not realize that it is the onboard video that is the culprit! The
X2 5200 delivered the highest frame rates. In DOOM3 it was 15 percent higher th
an the E6300 but with F.E.A.R., the advantage dropped to about 3 percent. It was
a similar case between the X2 4000+ and the E4300. In gaming performance, the l
ess said about the Pentium D, the better. Even the single core Athlon 64 3200+ o
utperformed it despite a lower clock speed and cache.
It needs no saying that our budget segment winner, the X2 3600+ has impressive p
erformance in gaming as well, with a 15-20 percent advantage over the Pentium D.
We also conducted a test with F.E.A.R. set at high graphic details and 1280 x 1
024 resolution. The budget 3200+ delivered an average of 68 fps while the X2 520
0+ was only slightly better at 70 fps. Gaming tests indicate what a CPU can do p
rovided the graphic card is up to the task. If you look for gaming performance,
you are better off with a faster video card than a high end CPU. For example, if
you are thinking of a Rs. E6300 CPU and a 7600GS graphic card, it would be wise
r to get a E4300 and a Rs 7600GT or a 7900GT graphic card.
SAVE PRECIOUS POWER
PERFORMANCE
PCMARK 2005
7000 6000 5000 Scores 4000 3000 2000 1000 0 Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Core 2 Duo E6300
Core 2 Duo E4300 Athlon 64 X2 4000+ Athlon 64 X2 3600+ Pentium D820 6478 5505 56
45 4689 5858 4523 5508 4290 3890 5226 4300 3624
PCMark Total Score
PCMark CPU Score
PCMARK 2005 Video Encoding
500 400 Encoding kBps
402 343 320 320
300
288
200
188
100
0
Athlon 64 X2 5200+
Core 2 Duo E6300
Core 2 Duo E4300
Athlon 64 X2 4000+
Athlon 64 X2 3600+
Pentium D820
for most users, the full processing power of a CPU remains unutilized most of th
e time. For the usual browsing or documentation work you don’t need your CPU to
be running at 2 GHz. Intel and AMD both have auto under-clocking mechanisms whic
h kick in
when the processor load is minimal. The CPU speed is reduced in conjunction with
a lower Vcore and a lower CPU fan speed (if Q-fan control is enabled). The bene
t is that you save on your power bill, reduce fan noise and increase the life o
f the CPU. Intel calls its technique EIST (Enhanced Intel Speedstep Technology)
while AMD terms it Cool’n’Quiet. For
these features to work, you need a motherboard that supports the respective feat
ure. You can enable them as follows: Open Power Options in Control Panel and sel
ect the Minimal Power Management scheme. Now, your CPU will under-clock when it
is idling. All CPUs that we have tested here except the Pentium D820 support pow
er management. — Kailas Shastry
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35
Value DirectX 10 Offerings from Asus and MSI
CPU to run smoothly. With the 8500GT, a PC with an entry level processor be it a
Celeron or Sempron, will manage HD content fine. The reference 8500GT comes wit
h 256MB DDR2 memory running at 800MHz. The core houses 16 stream processors with
450MHz core THE MSI NX 8500GT T2D256E uses a standard copper based cooler while
the clock and 900MHz Asus offers a silent card that uses passive cooling. shade
r clock speed. is very little to choose Both the cards that we while being absol
utely silent between the two; both the tested stuck to reference with its passiv
e cooling is a cards dish out identical perspecifications and offered real scorc
her with the heatformance across all the same 256MB DDR2 memory. sink reaching a
larming tembenchmarks. At the chipset While sporting reference peratures in no t
ime. Ironilevel, the Geforce 8500GT is speci cations, the cards did cally while
Asus markets the strictly an entry level solution vary in their cooling card as
an ideal HTPC soluwhich can just about manage approach. The MSI comes tion, with
the kind of heat 30-40 FPS (frames per secwith a standard cooper cooler generat
ed, the card will ond) at medium details levels while the Asus card belongs caus
e ambient temperatures and a max of 1280x1024 resoto the “silent” category, t o
r i s e d r a s t i c a l l y. T h e lution. Given the fact that the employing p
assive cooling. default package by both the 8500GT is a DX 10 card, Targeted at
HTPC applicavendors is basic and hence these cards might further fall tions, the
card is cooled by a the cooling solution along short in pure muscle power slab
of heatsink that covers with pricing is the two decidin delivering playable expe
riboth the core as well as the ing factors amongst the two ence in the DX 10 tit
les which memory chips. We ran our cards. The MSI card has s will obviously be m
ore standard set of benchmarks slight edge over the Asus demanding. Thus, we can
comprising of3DMark 2006 card with its more efficient safely conclude that the
and games like Doom3, F. cooling and lower price tag. 8500GT isn’t anywhere clos
e E.A.R. and Half Life 2 Lost —Soham Raninga to being a gamer’s card, it’s Coast
. The graphs to the botjust a step above the integrattom clearly indicate that t
here EN8500GT Silent ed graphics solutions and a COMPARISON Asus value propositi
on for users PCW Rating 70 Good wanting a bare minimum While being a silent solu
tion, the DirectX 10 solution. Asus isn’t thermally efficient As far as the two
cards are Video Card 3DMark 2006 Game Test Game Test Price: Rs 6,200 concerned,
the MSI card DOOM 3 * F.E.A.R * Faster impressed with a fairly NX 8500GT-T2D256E
47 40 2121 Asus 8500GT Silent silent cooler and good clean MSI design with a la
rge cooper PCW Rating 71 Good 40 46 based cooler that keeps the A good option to
jump to DirectX MSI 8500GT T2D256E 2119 card cool even under 100 10 without spe
nding a fortune. * DOOM 3 1280 x 1024 No AA - High Detail * F.E.A.R 1024 x 768 N
o AA - High Detail percent load. The Asus card Price: Rs 5,800
VIDEO CARD
directX 10 cards have been in the market since almost six months now and Nvidia
clearly leads the race with its 8800 series of GPUs catering to the high-end vid
eo card s e g m e n t . Bu t i t i s t h e mainstream and the entry level cards
that bring numbers, especially in the Indian market. We finally have the entry a
nd mainstream range launched by Nvidia in the form of the Geforce 8500GT, Geforc
e 8600GT and the Geforce 8600GTS. We got our hands on the most economical of the
lot; the Geforce 8500GT launched by Asus and MSI, two video card veterans. The
8500GT is typically placed in the Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 6,000 price bracket, bringing
DX 10 to the masses. While the Geforce 8500GT chipset is very much a value offe
ring in terms of pure muscle power, it has a lot many features crammed in for a
sub Rs. 5,000 card. With native support for rendering HD content using Nvidia’s
PureVideo technology, these cards off load the pressure from the CPU to render t
hose high definition movies and clips which otherwise require a beast of a
Performance Comparison Table
36
JUNE 2007
CONTENT PAGE
Sony Upgrades its MiniDV Line-up
CAMCORDER
the Sony DCR-HC96 is without doubt a classy DV camcorder, but the DCR-HC96 isn’t
the cheapest camcorder around. The Sony DCR-HC96 is Sony’s high-end MiniDV Hand
ycam camcorder, and this is reflected in its price tag. It offers step-up featur
es such as a higher-capacity battery, a charging dock and the ability to capture
video at higher resolutions than other HC family members. Sony
Sony DCR-HC96 PCW Rating 76 Good While sporting an upgraded feature set and givi
ng good still-image quality, the Sony DCR-HC96 could improve on its low-light pe
rformance. Price: Rs. 29,990
Although the Sony DCR-HC96 scored points for its still-image performance, its lo
w-light video quality and battery life proved to be only average. The Sony DCR-H
C96 features a 2.7in widescreen LCD with touchscreen controls. Play, record and
stop buttons are located below the screen, allowing you to keep your eye on the
action while controlling the camera. Other Sony DCRHC96 design niceties include
a built-in lens cap and top-loading cassette mechanism. The colour accuracy and
sharpness of the Sony DCR-HC96’s stills was impressive, as was its video quality
. Assessed in both standard and low-light scenes, we were very pleased by the re
sults. Add to this the Sony’s
ability to capture pleasingly clear audio and this counts as a top performer. Th
e Sony DCR-HC96 has a night-vision feature that makes it possible to record vide
o in low-light conditions that would otherwise THE SONY DCR-HC96 has a 2.7-inch
be impossible. How- widescreen LCD with touch screen controls. ever, the results
have video before shutting down. a strange, otherworldly look That’s about aver
age. The Sony to them – It’s probably best DCR-HC96 performs well and to use thi
s only when absoluteprovides impressive still-image ly necessary. quality. Nice
features such as a The Sony DCR-HC96 also touchscreen LCD and an acceshas an ele
ctronic image stabisory shoe make it more attraclisation feature, which worked t
ive, but we expected better lowwell, with no noticeable drop in light video qual
ity at the given quality. Our battery tests showed price point. that the Sony DC
R-HC96 was —James Galbraith able to capture 85 minutes of
Kodak’s New 10MP Needs Work
D I G ITA L CA M E R A
the EasyShare V1003 will overwhelm you with its 10MP label and a petite frame; i
t boasts of features like digital anti-blur and offers a “perfect touch” mode th
at enhances images on the fly. Aimed at the compact lifestyle digital
camera segment, the V1003 surely has the looks and style that will please most.
Offering a bright 2.5-inch LCD screen the V1003 comes with 32MB internal memory
and uses SD/MMC cards for storing images. Being a point and shoot camera, it off
ers tons of
THE KODAK V1003 is quite a looker, but those looks are deceptive.
preset modes to ensure you get the best results in varied shooting conditions. I
n our image quality tests, Kodak was just about average in overall image quality
. The images at 10MP were fairly noisy and the low-light performance wasn’t impr
essive as well. With an evident shutter lag, the camera needs ideal conditions t
o perform at its best. The rather awkward controls make it almost impossible for
the user to operate the camera with a single hand. The digital anti-blur is har
dly effective and is no comparison to the optical image stabilization offered in
the latest Canon and Panasonic cameras. On the positive side, the abundant pres
et modes come in handy for beginners
and casual users, the perfect touch feature enhances brightness and contrast to
make the picture vibrant. While it might not be the most natural way of correcti
ng pictures but it works for users wanting enhanced contrast levels without gett
ing their hand dirty with photo editing applications. Overall, it’s hard to reco
mmend the V1003, it’s below average low-light performance combined with noisy im
ages and hefty price tag translates into very little value. —Soham Raninga
V1003
Kodak PCW Rating 64 Fair Don’t get carried away with the 10MP label, the V1003 d
oesn’t quite cut it for its price tag and positioning. Price: Rs. 17,990
38
JUNE 2007
CONTENT PAGE
Free Alternative to MS Office Rocks
SOFTWARE
while Microsoft’s Office continues to dominate the general market, in recent yea
rs corporate desktops have begun to adopt either Star Of ce 8.0 or OpenOffice. T
he latter alone accounts for more than 60 million downloads. It’s not hard to se
e the appeal of such alternatives. OpenOffice is, after all, free and has a comp
rehensive feature set. OpenOf ce is available only via download. However, it’s n
ow up to version 2.2, which offers a bunch of cosmetic changes to the interface.
The core applications of OpenOf ce 2.2 are just as you would expect, comprising
a word processor, spreadsheet, database, drawing application and a presentation
package.
TECH TREND
Writer, the OpenOffice 2.2 word processor, isn’t as snazzy as Microsoft Word 200
7, but includes a few elements Microsoft has only just caught up with – such as
the ability to save to PDF. More important to most users is the fact that compat
ibility and performance have been greatly improved, with OpenOffice Writer capab
le of opening multiple le formats. OpenOf ce can merge documents as e-mails, bu
t the support for macros in StarOffice doesn’t extend to OpenOf ce 2.2.
BEYOND THE BASICS
BEHIND THE SIMPLE and effective interface lies a host of features and tools that
will satisfy the most demanding of users.
the OpenOffice spreadsheet application, Calc, compares well to Excel, providing
a range of functions and formu-
Brighter Laptop Screens
LAPTOP SCREENS TRADITIONALLY have been lit by uorescent lamp technology, but se
veral new notebook models are offering a superior display technology: light-emit
tingdiode (LED) backlighting. Compared with standard uorescent displays, LED-ba
cklit alternatives tout up to 30 percent greater brightness (better for use outd
oors), lower power consumption, and greater uniformity of the image throughout t
he screen. Equally important, the technology lets manufacturers build thinner la
ptop lids. Three ultraportables (Toshiba’s Portégé R400, Asus’s U1F, and Fujitsu
’s LifeBook P7230) use LED-backlit displays—we found them noticeably brighter an
d easier to read. Sony also has LED-backlit models, and Apple and HP are expecte
d to follow suit soon. —Danny Allen
lae that’ll enable you to perform calculations quickly. Users can create multipl
e worksheets and analyze data using a DataPilot (the equivalent of Excel’s Pivot
Tables). The only area in which Calc suffers is in the range of charts and grap
hs that can be created, but these are more than suf cient for most users. Impres
s is a perfectly adequate presentation package. If this is important to you, how
ever, it’s best to opt for the StarOffice rather than OpenOf ce as more template
s are included. These are inferior to those included with PowerPoint, but if you
’re willing to put in a little extra work then you can still create decent prese
ntation. M o r e i m p o r t a n t l y, OpenOf ce Impress provides you with plen
ty of help in terms of structuring your ideas. It can export presentations as Fl
ash les, too. The database tool, Base, is a complex relational database, which
will be fairly forbidding to the casual user but offers sophisticated tools for
creating forms and reports that can work with several database engines. The draw
ing component,
Draw, is a charting component (akin to Visio). OpenOffice also includes Math, wi
th which you can create complex equations for your documents.
SPOT THE DIFFERENCE
in terms of features, there’s little difference between the two applications, bu
t StarOffice includes the Sun Java Runtime Environment. Java is required for bot
h suites, although OpenOf ce will run with free Java software and the Sun implem
entation isn’t essential. More important will be support, which is where StarOf
ce may have the edge.
VERDICT
openOffice 2.2 provides a superb, very stable of ce suite, that offers a challen
ge to Microsoft Of ce. Free doesn’t mean sub-standard. —Jason Whittaker Open Off
ice 2.2
Open Office PCW Rating 86 Very Good Open Office is truely an excellent free alte
rnative to MS Office. Free
CONTENT PAGE
JUNE 2007
39
Canon’s New MFD is a Potent All-rounder
ALL-IN-ONE
the PIXMA MP460 from Canon is the successor to the MP450 and has much of the lat
ter’s impressive performance and features. The MP460, at the Rs 10,000 mark is s
lightly faster and bigger than the MP450 but otherwise maintains the same print
and scanning quality traits. A printer targeted at a users looking for more than
just basic printing has to fulfill two duties – print in above average quality
and do that fast enough. The max print resolution of 4,800 x 1,200 is hardly sta
rtling, while the optical scanner resolution is easily matched by the HP Photosm
art C3188. The Canon can hold up to 100 sheets of paper, but while the output tr
ay works fairly effectively, it lacks the polished looks of the rest of the MP46
0. As a text printer, the Canon works very effectively. Basic speed is good, and
although
the print is rather faint at the lowest quality settings, it’s always legible. O
n the middle setting it can generate very pleasing text prints while the slowest
setting offers sharp character de nition. We noted somewhat longer spool times
which delayed the rst page. The best time we saw for rst page print at normal
quality text was 17 seconds, which went as high as 28 seconds on few occasions.
There after, full A4 page text printing in normal quality took 12 seconds, a goo
d figure for a MFD in this category. Colour printing is good for a MFD in this c
ategory but the printed photos appeared somewhat over saturated, especially skin
tones – something can be easily set right by reducing saturation levels in your
image viewing software. Faint horizontal lines were seen but hardly and pixelat
ion was observed. Ink consumption is rated at
THE MP460 DOES A4 borderless printing and boasts of a 1.9 inch LCD, Pictbridge,
IrDA connectivity and media card slots.
THE PANEL OF the MP460 has a 1.9 inch LCD that allows you to preview photos befo
re printing.
120 prints of 4 x 6 borderless photo printing. We found that the ink and printin
g on the MP 460 seems optimised for thick gauge papers – when we took test print
s on ordinary copier paper, text showed some smudginess. Using the much thicker
Executive Bond paper this issue was solved almost completely. Printing a full A4
colour in best quality took over two minutes – not quite the fastest we have se
en. Scanning is impressive in both speed and quality. Preview takes a blazing 6
seconds and at 600dpi scanning the MP460 takes 20 seconds. Quality is more than
suf cient to convert your paintings or old photographs into digital form. Copyin
g works up to expectations, and like most Canons, resizing can be done from 25 p
ercent to 400 percent of the original, set up to 99 copies and also do auto expo
sure. But beware
that the ink consumption is the same as that of regular printing. For bulk copyi
ng, your neighborhood photo-copy shop is the best bet! The Pixma is also bang up
to date in terms of features. Digital camera enthusiasts are well catered for w
ith a PictBridge port and a full complement of memory slots. It has a 1.9 inch d
isplay with which you can preview photos before you print them. You can also mak
e the MP460 bluetooth capable by purchasing an optional Bluetooth adapter. Fully
featured and sleek, the Canon certainly looks the part, and its text printing a
nd scanning facilities are very competent. However, it lags behind the cheaper H
P Photosmart C3180 when it comes to colour graphics reproduction. — Kailas Shast
ry
MP460
Canon PCW Rating 76 Good Good overall performance and features – a recommended b
uy. Price: Rs 10,000
40
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CONTENT PAGE
Lite-On’s SATA Drive Throws Tantrums
OPTICAL DRIVE
we generally are all praise for Lite-On products – they burn discs fast and are
competitively priced. But this time around with Lite-On’s 20x SATA drive, when w
e put the drive to DVD RW burning test, we were surprised by its inability to bu
rn common media (the primary reason for a low PC World score). The drive refused
to write to the Moser Baer and HP DVD + RW media. It is rather surprising that
a drive launched in LH 20A1S
Lite-On PCW Rating 68 Fair SATA interface is handy for those who use motherboard
s that don’t have IDE ports. Price: Rs 2,350
India does not support one of the most commonly available media here. Finally, w
e got a Sony DVD+RW with which the drive was happy. Now, moving on to things tha
t this drive can do, it is as fast as its IDE companion (that we reviewed in the
April 2007 issue) in most tests, taking a little over 5 minutes to burn 4.1 GB
of data at 20x on 16x rated Moser Baer media. Burning a dual layer disk (Verbati
m media) took 27 minutes – the only area in which we have seen Lite-On drive get
slower than others. CD Writing was brisk at 160 seconds for burning a 700MB ISO
file and is one of the fastest times we have seen. When we nally did manage to
get a DVD+RW written, it was
LITE-ON’S BRINGS A 20x SATA based DVD RW drive with the 20A1S.
again on par with the 20x IDE version, at 7 minutes for a 4.1 GB burn. The SATA
version of the fast 20x writer makes great sense if you are buying an Intel moth
erboard that does not have IDE ports, or if you have a slim cabinet in which cab
le clutter is an issue. Or, for someone whose board has only one IDE chan-
nel which is already occupied, a SATA optical drive is a good buy (provided the
incompatibility issue is resolved or if you can stock Sony’s RWs!). For anybody
else, the extra money you pay for it is not justi able as performance wise there
is little to tell between the 20x IDE and SATA versions. —Kailas Shastry
Versatile Notebook Mouse from Microsoft
INPUT DEVICE
offering excellent versatility in a portable package, the Microsoft Wireless Not
ebook Presenter Mouse 8000 gives users of notebooks a variety of functionality p
rimarily for the purpose of giving presentations. Comprised of the mouse itself
and a USB dongle that acts as a Bluetooth 2.0 receiv-
er, the Presenter Mouse 8000 works as both a mouse and a remote control of sorts
. In Mouse Mode the left and right mouse buttons work like normal and a third bu
tton on the left of the mouse works like a Back button. A further two buttons ma
ke things a little more interesting. The button on the far right brings up a mag
nifier and holding this button down allows you to increase the magnification and
also the size of the viewing glass. This is an excellent feature if you wish to
highlight
A GOOD OPTION for presentation purposes comes at a price.
something on a shared screen for many people in a large room - all in a pinch. T
he button in the centre, behind the mouse wheel, switches the device into Presen
ter/Media Mode. Once in this mode you can pick up the mouse and ip it over. The
re, on the bottom, are a whole collection of new controls including play/pause,
skip track and volume controls. The obvious use for this is during playback of a
movie or audio track, but when in programs such as Microsoft PowerPoint it can
also be used to skip between slides with ease. Also found amongst the media cont
rols is a laser pointer button, which activates a laser pointer that
comes from the tip of the mouse. On the down side, the mouse is a tad on the hea
vier side and the smooth surface doesn’t provide the most secure grip. The bigge
st drawback is of course the price, at Rs 5,250; it is more than twice the price
of a regular wireless notebook mouse available in the market. —Jesse Sutton
Microsoft Wireless Notebook Presenter Mouse 8000
Microsoft PCW Rating 76 Good If money is not a constraint, this notebook present
er offers very unique functionality in a tiny package. Price: Rs 5,250
CONTENT PAGE
JUNE 2007
41
Thump is Here ?
MUSIC PHONES
e v e n a s m ob ile phones converge take on the functionality of an increasing
manifest of devices, there is still a need for the basics and Sony Ericsson has
come to the party with the release of their W200i. The W200i is a standard GSM h
andset, without the bells and whistles. Though it still offers the popular Walkm
an function, an FM radio and digital camera, the lack of Bluetooth is a real neg
ative.
FEATURES
the best feature of the W200i is the Walkman function, although it isn’t the new
er 2.0 version of this software. A press of the orange ‘W’ button on the left si
de of the phone takes you straight into the music application, which is both sim
ple and effective in its design. The
THE WALKMAN BUTTON launches the music player and the volume can be controlled wi
th the dedicated keys on the right.
W200i includes menus for Now Playing, Artists, Tracks, Playlists and Videos. Any
tracks loaded onto the device are automatically sorted into these folders, whic
h makes searching for a specific file simple and easy. You can create playlists
by searching through your les and marking which tracks you want to add to that
particular list. Unfortunately the W200i doesn’t allow users to rename music fil
es from within the device. This has to be done using the PC Suite software (whic
h doesn’t support Mac). You can also send les to another phone or computer dire
ctly from the Walkman application via e-mail, infrared or as a picture message.
The omission of Bluetooth is disappointing, despite this handset’s low-end place
ment in the market so infrared and USB are the only connectivity options. The W2
00i also includes an FM radio with 10 presets and features RDS (Radio Data Syste
m) which displays station broadcast information. Sony Ericsson hasn’t installed
a 3.5mm headphone jack on the W200i, but they have boxed a headphone adapter wit
h the unit that allows connection of any standard 3.5mm headphones. Like most Wa
lkman phones, the sound quality of the W200i is pretty impressive and the includ
ed headphones are of a surprisingly good standard. Also included in the Walkman
application is a ve-channel equalizer that you can adjust
THE 3.5MM ADAPTER and excellent ear phones compliment the Walkman phone.
manually, as well as four presets including Sony’s proprietary Mega Bass. The W2
00i includes a digital VGA camera with 4x digital zoom, but naturally, the quali
ty of VGA cameras means it’s barely good enough for a few happy snaps. A more no
table feature is push e-mail, which is a welcome surprise on a handset with such
a low RRP. In addition to push e-mail, the W200i supports standard SMS and MMS
messaging with T9 predictive text input. Other features include a loud and clear
hands-free speakerphone, sound recorder and a host of personal information mana
ger (PIM) features including an alarm clock, calculator, calendar, notes, stopwa
tch and a timer.
DESIGN
design is solid, if unspectacular and the unit is nished in a matte black plast
ic with orange trim, thanks to the Walkman branded design. The biggest let down
in design is the display, which has outdated specifications and lacks clarity an
d crispness. The smaller-sized 120 x 160 pixel resolution means the screen can’t
emit as bight an image as we would have liked. Thankfully, the keypad is comfor
table and the raised keys are well spaced, so typing long messages or e-mails is
a breeze. Controls are fairly standard, consisting of a veway navigational joy
stick, two selection buttons, and dedicated keys for back and clear. The navigat
ion stick is a hit and miss affair as it is too short and small and will cause d
iscomfort for anyone with large fingers. A power button on the top of the handse
t and a volume control on the right side of the unit round out the controls. Son
y Ericsson rates the W200i battery life at up to seven hours of talk time and 30
0 hours standby time. We averaged two days of moderate use before we had to char
ge the phone, which is done via either the included USB cable or the AC adapter.
—Ross Catanzariti
Sony Ericsson W200i
Sony Ericsson PCW Rating 76 Good The W200i is a solid budget mobile phone, but t
he lack of Bluetooth may be enough for some to give it a miss. Price: Rs. 7,300
t h e W 2 0 0 i m e a sur e s 101mm x 44mm x 18mm and weighs a very light 85g. T
he
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CONTENT PAGE
Comfort Comes at a Price
INPUT DEVICES
i t is not just Windows and Office that Microsoft makes. The company is also reg
arded as a maker of some ne input devices. While the world seems to be going wi
reless, keyboards and mice are also trying to shrug off their cords, giving you
a desktop with less clutter. The Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop 6000 is a wire
less keyboard and mouse set that comes with a host of features. The Desktop 6000
is Wireless Laser Desktop 6000
Microsoft PCW Rating 70 Good A bunch of extra keys and good layout come at a ste
ep price. Price: Rs. 5,750
THIS KEYBOARD HAS more keys than an average user would require, the sideways scr
olling of the mouse is a handy addition.
ergonomically designed, but it may be hard to say if this is the ‘best’ design o
ut there. However, the Desktop 6000 is a lot more comfortable than the sub Rs 50
0 models from unknown brands. The mouse is bigger than the average one and ‘fill
’s your hand. The recesses for the thumb and the ring nger enable you to grip t
he mouse
more naturally, and causes far lesser stress after a long day’s work. The keyboa
rd on its part lets you place your wrist at slight angles that are more comforta
ble and there is also a padded support for the wrists. The keys are very soft to
press and make minimal noise. If you prefer tactile feedback over a soft press,
you will not take to this keyboard.
The mouse uses a laser tracker but one cannot immediately tell the difference be
tween this and an ordinary optical mouse. The advantage becomes noticeable only
for very minute movements. The mouse wheel can also move sideways giving you a 4
-way navigation – something that is of great use when working with spreadsheets.
It includes customizable keys and a magni er. Extra keys on the keyboard includ
e a Gadgets button for Vista, a Windows Live call button, magni er and more. The
standard multimedia keys are present as well. This Desktop 6000 must help in re
ducing the aches associated with keyboard and mouse use. But at Rs 5,750 it is a
tad bit too pricy, which is the reason for its relatively low score. —Kailas Sh
astry
Talk to Your Computer with Dragon
VOICE RECOGNITION
speech to text has been a huge gray area when it comes to computing. The right a
ccents, noise, slurring, everything has an impact on the way the software interp
rets your version of slang. Dragon Naturally Speaking has been improving itself
THE LATEST VERSION IMPROVISES ON SOME key areas but isnt perfect.
with each version that it has come out. Though, it may still be quite a while be
fore the computers understand what you say, right away. With these efforts you a
re deemed to think that the day is not too far. For instance, this version has a
n option for Indian English, that attempts at understanding the Indian accent wh
ich is substantially different from the American or British way of speaking. Wit
h a simple 15-20 minute tutorial, the software was easily able to learn my style
of speaking and we were ready to go. Though with this version, Nuance (the publ
ishers of DNS 9) have made it quite easy to use the software, negating the use o
f the keyboard wherever possible, you would still have to work
towards getting used to the software itself. As you have commands on the keyboar
d, that you may need to remember while using a software, you would need to use s
imilar commands here. Though, easily understood, they still present a learning c
urve. Thankfully, this curve is not too dif cult to master. It understood most o
f the words that I said. The ones that are not in the vocabulary can be easily a
dded, all with caps in the beginning, with a simple voice command. And it is qui
te easy to correct your mistake using a series of easy to master commands. And w
hen you compare the kind of errors you make while touch typing with dictation; i
t clearly shows that it’s faster to dictate than to type.
The software also learns with time and it is advisable to run the acoustic optim
izer one in a while to make that learning even better. But, speech recognition i
tself has its pitfalls too. For instance you may not want to use it in of ce as
it may present privacy issues and there is bound to be too much noise in the off
ice that will impact the performance of the software. But, if you have a quiet w
orkplace, without any close neighbors, the latest update can prove to be a relei
f for your wrists. —Geetaj Channana
Nuance
Dragon Naturally Speaking 9 PCW Rating 76 Good This improvised version works wel
l but requires patience Price:9,000
44
JUNE 2007
CONTENT PAGE
Canon’s 7MP Cam Offers Face Detection
D I G I TA L C A M E R A
canon’s PowerShot line of cameras usually impresses, and the A570IS is no differ
ent. A nice return to form for the camera giant, after the rather lackluster , t
he A570IS is one of the best mid-range, advanced cameras on the market. It combi
nes the usual Canon functionality with superb image quality and Canon’s relative
ly new face detect focus mode, making a brilliant all-purpose consumer camera. T
raditionally, Canon cameras have been renowned for their image quality and in th
is regard the A570IS certainly impressed. When we opened up our preliminary test
shots we were greeted by clean, smooth edges and great detail. The pictures wer
e consistently sharp and crisp, showing that not only is the sensor excellent, b
ut the image stabilisation technology works very well. Normally our outdoors tes
ts return several blurry shots in amongst the clearer pictures, but we encounter
ed none when using the A570IS. For those w h o fi n d h a n d s h a k e a
IN-LINE WITH THE PowerShot series, the A570IS sports the same classic looks but
adds a little bulk to its frame.
problem, the image stabilisation (IS) on this model is an ideal solution. In our
image noise tests, the A570IS performed slightly worse than in the other areas,
but it was still about average and was roughly on par with most other units we’
ve looked at lately. There was some minor, extremely fine speckling across our s
hots, but it wasn’t large enough to really detract from their overall look and w
on’t have an impact at smaller magni cations. As this is an advanced model, you’
d expect it to have a bevy of features and as usual Canon has packed in a fairly
strong array of them. As mentioned, ISO sensitivities extend up to 1600. Shutte
r speeds from 15 seconds to 1/2000th of a second are on offer, along with apertu
res of f/2.6 to f/8. The burst THE BACKSIDE HOLDS the 2.5-inch LCD mode snaps al
ong with controls and a built-in speaker.
shots are a little over 2.5 frames a second and all the standard white balance p
resets are included, along with a custom mode. The real gem in the features list
is the new facedetect technology, which Canon has just begun to pack into their
new compact and advanced models. At the touch of a button you can tell the came
ra to detect any faces in the picture and make them the focus point. It is extre
mely effective. In our testing, it successfully differentiated between a tiger’s
face and a person’s face, and furthermore, as you move the camera around, the l
ittle focus crosshair actually moves with you, following the face. This is a bri
lliant inclusion. The majority of photos taken by the average consumer involve p
eople, and by not only making sure they are always the focus of the shots but al
so allowing users to see the tracking in action, Canon has created a brilliant,
consumer friendly technology.
In our speed tests, the A570IS performed fairly well. Its shutter speed of .08 o
f a second was about average, but its 1.9 second power up time was quite impress
ive. With a delay of just 1.1 seconds between shots, the A570IS will be more tha
n speedy enough for most people’s needs. The A570IS follows the standard PowerSh
ot design, with a slightly chunky, jutting hand grip and a silver plastic body.
It isn’t the sturdiest unit we’ve seen, as there is little metal in the construc
tion, but it should survive some rough treatment. The controls and interface wil
l be familiar for regular Canon users, with a ve-way directional pad used to na
vigate the two separate menus; one for picture options (ISO, white balance etc)
and one for everything else (format, reset etc). The controls are a little cramp
ed for our liking, but they shouldn’t pose too many problems. Measuring 89.5mm x
64.3mm x 42.8mm and weighing 175g, the A570IS is a little smaller than some pre
vious PowerShot models. At Rs 16995, the A570 is a good option for someone who w
ants a well balanced package. — Andrew Kliem
Powershot A570 IS
Canon PCW Rating 83 Very Good The A570 IS from Canon scores with good image qual
ity, ample resolution and image stabilization. Price: Rs. 16,995
CONTENT PAGE
JUNE 2007
45
A Smart Workhorse
nately, e-mails are still date stamped with the time they are downloaded to your
handset, rather than the time they were actually sent. For personal e-mail, suc
h as POP3 accounts, setup is a simple process of entering your e-mail address an
d password and letting the 8800 do the rest. The 8800 also supports instant mess
aging clients such as AOL, ICQ, MSN, Google Talk and Yahoo!. As a mobile phone,
the FEATURES 8800 is a well equipped device, offering voice activatdespite the d
esign overed dialling, conference callhaul and addition of a ing, speed dialling
and call number of entertainment forwarding. For voice calls, functions, the 88
00 is forethe 8800 was clear, though most an e-mail device, and not as crisp or
loud as some it supports the standard regular mobile phones. The RIM push e-mail
technolohands free speakerphone gy that BlackBerry handsets function also worke
d quite are well known for. It allows well in our tests, but backaccess of up to
ten e-mail ground noise was an issue, accounts simultaneously and again, volume
could and supports many popular have been louder. ISP e-mail accounts as well R
IM has also included as Microsoft Exchange and some PDA-like functions; a IBM Lo
tus Domino. calendar, address book, alarm The e-mail application of clock and to
-do list are all the 8800 is similar to previincluded as standard applicaous uni
ts, and each mailbox tions. The lack of a stylus and is automatically synchrotou
ch screen may limit the nized whenever you read, 8800’s use as an organizer, sen
d or delete e-mails on but the QWERTY keyboard the handset itself. Unfortuand in
tuitive trackball should be fine for most users. Like most smart phones, 8800 us
ers can synchronize their calendar, address book, e-mail and task lists between
a desktop PC and the phone THE INNOVATIVE TRACKBALL can be too using the bundled
BlackBerry desktop sensitive for some users.
SMART PHONE
blackBerry has long been synonymous with business and substance, but with the re
lease of the 8800, its clear RIM has decided that business and substance can als
o be achieved in style. At just 14mm the 8800 is the thinnest BlackBerry ever re
leased and offers all the functionality of previous units, but adds built-in GPS
to an already impressive array of features.
WITH A FULL Qwerty keypad the phone still manages to stay slim and compact.
software. The 8800 also has Bluetooth 2.0. The 8800 includes a media player that
supports most common file formats including MP3 and AAC audio and MPEG4 and H.2
63 video. Unfortunately, the headphone jack is 2.5mm rather than the standard 3.
5mm. Video isn’t anything to write home about, as the small screen makes it less
than ideal. Photos on the other hand looked quite sharp and vibrant. Oddly enou
gh, the 8800 doesn’t include a digital camera like the BlackBerry Pearl 8100. Co
ntent is stored on either the 64MB of flash memory, or a microSD card (not inclu
ded). The latter is easily accessible underneath the rear cover and conveniently
users don’t have to remove the battery to swap the microSD card.
DESIGN
tures with its baby brother, the BlackBerry Pearl 8100. It has the same attracti
ve, shiny black and silver finish, as well as the incandescent pearl-white track
ball for navigation. Once again, we’re not sure how the trackball will hold up a
fter a few months of use. It doesn’t feel strong or sturdy and accuracy is an is
sue. The phone measures 114mm x 66mm x 14mm and weighs a comfortable 134g. The i
mprovement in design does have one compromise; the 8800’s QWERTY keyboard is muc
h smaller than previous models, so typing does take some time to grasp. We weren
’t able to achieve speeds as fast as we did on the BlackBerry Pearl 8100, or the
, both of which have more space between the keys. The 8800 includes a 1400mAhr
Lithium-Ion battery and it provides up to 528 hours of standby time and five hou
rs of talk time, according to RIM figures. With medium usage, we managed to sque
eze about three days out of the 8800, which is a fairly good result. The 8800 is
charged via a standard mini-USB cable, or the included AC adapter. —Ross Catanz
ariti BlackBerry 8800
RIM PCW Rating 82 Very Good The 8800 adds built-in GPS to a device already packe
d with features. Combined with the design overhaul, this sleek and stylish Black
Berry is a class act. Price: Rs. 31,990
the candy bar style 8800 shares many design fea-
46
JUNE 2007
CONTENT PAGE
Draft N for Your Desktop
WIRELESS
Wi r e l e s s ne t wor k i ng adds the last touch to portable computing – somet
hing that laptop users on Wi-Fi will vouch for. While this can work pretty much
‘out of the box’ between laptops, a desktop will need a Wi-Fi adaptor, much like
a LAN card that you
would install before onboard LAN became common. The D-Link DWL 142 USB based ada
pter includes Draft N capability which can speed up your Wi-Fi when connected to
other Draft N devices. This is going to be one costly investment for making you
r desktop Wi-Fi capable, but then, with Draft N you will be reasonably future pr
oof. Installation was smooth and required no restart before the adapter showed u
p as a net-
THIS SLEEK USB based Wi-Fi adapter offers good performance in b/g mode.
work connection. D-Link has included a Connection Wizard and a Connection Manage
r to take care of setup and maintenance. We tested connectivity with a D-Link DW
L 2100AP wireless access point. Draft N devices are designed to be backward comp
atible with a/ b/g devices and the DWL 142 had no problems in talking to the acc
ess point. Being powered by USB alone does not mean that signal strength is heav
ily compromised. At close range (about 25 feet) there were no losses during ping
ing and at about 50 feet we saw some lost packets. When we took it outside our o
ffice and tried connecting to the access point placed in the lab, we saw signal
strength drop well below 50 percent and at times vanish altogether. This
however will not be a problem for most users at homes where connection is mostly
required between two rooms. PCI based b/g adapters are available at around Rs.
3,000, but the extra money you pay for the D-Link gives you easy USB connectivit
y (meaning, you can shift it from one PC to another) and makes your investment s
omewhat future proof. If you are merely trying to connect your desktop to a non
Draft N laptop wirelessly, an ordinary adapter will do. —Kailas Shastry
DWL 142
D-Link PCW Rating 70 Good
Easy to install and configure, but expensive. Price: Rs 8,000 (approx)
Affordable But Slow Storage
S T O R AG E
a pen drive is turning out to be a PC accessory that everyone wants – thanks to
its obvious usability and, of course, lower prices and higher capacities that we
have seen in the last 6-12 months. We did a 4GB flash drive comparison in Febru
ary this year – but if a smaller capacity is enough for you and you don’t want t
o spend any more money than necessary, a 2GB drive such as this Kingston Data Tr
aveler will be a nice choice. Priced at about Rs 1,100 this is a no frills drive
that simply does its job of storing data. In Everest 2006 Ultimate’s disk bench
mark test, the Data Traveler scored a measly 2.3 MBps in random write test – 1 M
Bps less
THIS DATA TRAVELER from Kingston is an affordable pen drive provided transfer sp
eeds are not very important for you.
than the second slowest drive in our earlier 4GB round up. Linear Write was than
kfully more acceptable at 5.4 MBps, in line with the Transcend JetFlash V10 (the
winner of the earlier comparison). Read speeds are again just about average at
13MBps for linear read and 14MBps for random read. In a real world scenario, thi
s drive will be slow to write assorted les when it has data
already scattered across (say, up to 1GB). But, if you are transferring large l
es (like videos) when the drive is mostly empty, the transfer speed will be high
er and hence you will notice a lesser delay. Reading data from the drive is agai
n going to present only average delays. There is no syncing or password protecti
on available with this drive. You may also need to note that this drive is not V
ista
Ready Boost certi ed, so, get a faster drive if you want to use it with Vista fo
r improving system performance. If you desire higher speeds (for office environm
ents or Vista Ready Boost for example), you can try the Data Traveler II series
from Kingston, but be ready to shell out more money for them. At the same price
point (Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,200 for 2GB) you can also look at the Transcend V10 whic
h is not only faster, but also offers syncing facility through its software. —Ka
ilas Shastry
Data Traveler 2GB
Kingston PCW Rating 71 Very Good Good build quality and modest performance does
not cost too much. Price: Rs 1,100
CONTENT PAGE
JUNE 2007
47
Dreamweaver Now Integrates With Photoshop
G R A P H I C S S O F T WA R E
f or w e b - de si g n professionals, Dreamweaver CS3’s integration into Adobe’s
Creative Suite bundle of programs is the ideal marriage of graphics application
s. Fundamental to the revamped Dreamweaver is its tight integration with Photosh
op. Former Macromedia Studio users might take a while to adjust to seeing Photos
hop open when they double-click an image on a Dreamweaver page (in the past, Mac
romedia’s Fireworks application would have handled such tasks). But Dreamweaver
and Photoshop go together so well that we are betting it won’t be long before th
ose same people are saying, “Firewha?”
Q U I C K TA K E
DREAMWEAVER CS3 BOASTS not only integration with Photoshop CS3, but also enhance
d Cascading Style Sheets management tools.
We tested a shipping version of Dreamweaver CS3. Alone, it costs Rs. 17,955; alt
ernatively, you can buy it as part of Creative Suite 3 Design Premium (Rs. 80,95
5 or Rs. 26,955 as an
Flash Joins Adobe’s CS3
ANOTHER FORMER MACROMEDIA product now in Adobe’s Creative Suite design and publi
shing tool set is Flash CS3 Professional (Rs. 31,455), the de facto standard vec
tor-graphics program for Web animation and navigation. Just as you can now move
images between Dreamweaver and Photoshop, Flash’s CS3 label means that you can a
lso copy and paste Photoshop (.psd) a n d I l l u st ra to r (.ai) files into Fl
ash projects. When you import a .psd or .ai graphic, a dialog box appears so tha
t you can choose settings, including the layers to import. We noticed minor chan
ges to the interface, made to modify Flash so that it looks more like the other
Adobe applications in the suite. Longtime Flash users may need a slight adjustme
nt period. —Dennis O’Reilly
upgrade from CS2) or Creative Suite 3 Web Premium (Rs. 71,955, or Rs. 22,455 as
an upgrade from CS2 or Macromedia Studio 8, Studio MX, or Studio MX 2004). The b
idirectional integration between Dreamweaver and Photoshop works well: You can c
opy all or part of a Photoshop image and paste it directly into Dreamweaver; a d
ialog box lets you choose options for optimizing the image for the Web. Doublecl
ick the image in Dreamweaver, and it opens in Photoshop with all of its original
layers, masks, and other Photoshop le format attributes.
INTERACTIVITY
The Spry JavaScript library includes XML-based tables, tabs, and form- eld valid
ation, the appearance of which you can customize via CSS. Spry effects let you m
ake elements fade in or out, grow smaller or larger, or move across the screen,
all without scripting, and without requiring any server components. Adobe says t
hat the Spry code is 99 percent HTML, so it should be easy to customize to suit
your needs. The program also adds a Browser Compatibility Check that lists the p
roblems your site may have in various versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Ne
tscape, and any other browsers that you want to add; meanwhile, Dreamweaver’s co
de view highlights potential CSS-related problems in green. Current Dreamweaver
users can upgrade to the new standalone version for Rs. 8,955 and continue to us
e it with Fireworks and the other former Macromedia apps, but they will be missi
ng out on the new version’s biggest productivity booster: that is, its direct li
nks to other tools in CS3. The tandem of Dreamweaver and Photoshop is greater th
an the sum of its parts. —Dennis O’Reilly
t h e p ro g r a m h a s two other noteworthy additions. Its Spry framework of A
jaxlike interactive widgets lets you drag and drop links to XML data onto your p
ages. Enhanced Cascading Style Sheets management tools include the new CSS Advis
or online resource for troubleshooting browsercompatibility issues.
Dreamweaver CS3
Adobe Systems PCW Rating 82 Very Good Integration with Adobe Photoshop and other
Creative Suite apps will help save sitedesign and publishing time. Price: Rs. 1
7,955; Rs. 8,955 upgrade from Dreamweaver 8 and Studio MX; also part of the vari
ous Creative Suite 3 bundles
48
JUNE 2007
CONTENT PAGE
Feature Packed Ultra Mobile from Asus
UMPC
UMPCs are starting to mature by offering features you can’t get in a notebook or
desktop PC. In fact Asus R2H packs more features in its 9.25by-5.25-by-1.25-inc
h box than you’ll find in many PCs. The jam-packed Asus device’s connectivity an
d security are hard to beat. The R2H has 802.11g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless bu
ilt in, and USB 2.0 ports are located on either side and on the top of the devic
e. A ngerprint scanner built into the front-left side of the R2H offers an extr
a level of security (the included software captures two nger scans in case the
rst one can’t be recognized). The few times that we logged on with this scanner
, it
recognized the user without hesitation. The 2-pound R2H also includes an SD Card
slot, an ethernet port, an AV-out connector, an earphone port, a built-in micro
phone, and a combination expansion port and VGA analog monitor connector. Just a
bove the screen is a built-in 1.3-megapixel video camera. To top it off, the mac
hine has a SiRF III GPS transceiver to use along with the bundled copy of Micros
oft Streets & Trips 2006; we found this combination a workable GPS solution, tho
ugh it can’t match the accuracy of a dedicated GPS device. We were pleasantly su
rprised to nd a real-live Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 DVD provided with t
he
THE R2H FROM Asus looks more like a portable media player but it offers an exhau
stive set of connectivity options for the road warriors.
package. As with other UMPCs, you have to furnish your own USB 2.0-connected ext
ernal DVD drive to run the disc. The R2H’s one drawback is its short battery lif
e, the unit ran out of juice after only 2 hours, 10 minutes of use. The sheer fu
nctionality and exibility of the Asus handheld, and its plethora of built-in fe
atures,
make the R2H a potent option in the UMPC category. —Thomas Jungbluth
R2H
Asus PCW Rating 83 Very Good The R2H from Asus is a well priced UMPC offering an
attractive feature set. Price: Rs 77990
Run Palm Apps on Windows Smart Phones
MOBILE COMPUTING
you’ve invested in a fair number of Palm applications over the years, but now yo
u nd yourself coveting a skinny Windows Mobile–based handset. StyleTap’s eponym
ous software may ease your
STYLETAP’S NEW VERSION puts Palm apps to work on the Windows Mobile OS.
transition to Microsoft: StyleTap runs Palm apps on a Windows Mobile device— eve
n if the device doesn’t have a touch screen. We tried a preview version of Style
Tap Platform for Windows Smartphone on a Samsung BlackJack. Unlike previous vers
ions of StyleTap, which could support only Pocket PCs with touch screens, the la
test version works with newer display formats (for instance, the BlackJack’s sma
ll, wide-aspect-ratio screen) and doesn’t require the device to have a touch scr
een. Getting started with StyleTap is easy: We installed the associated desktop
software—a 1.2MB download. (Windows Vista users must have the latest version of
Windows Mobile
Device Center) StyleTap’s icon appeared on the BlackJack after our next desktop
synchronization. On subsequent sync sessions, StyleTap installed the Palm progra
ms and les we chose. Whenever we ran a Palm app, StyleTap created a cursor that
functioned like a stylus: To move it, you use the smart phone’s directional con
trol (a four-way wheel on the BlackJack), pressing either the ‘select’ or ‘OK’ b
utton in lieu of tapping. By default, the cursor moves one pixel at a time when
you press the wheel; a cursor setting lets you increase the number of pixels the
cursor moves on each wheel press. Differences in screen resolution make program
s look a little
funky. For example, we had trouble telling spades from clubs in a Palm card game
on the BlackJack. And some pieces of software won’t run at all: Another applica
tion caused the BlackJack’s screen to go white until we rebooted the phone. Styl
eTap may not be perfect, but it could help you make the move to one of the incre
asingly popular Microsoft Windows Mobile–based handsets. —Yardena Arar
StyleTap Platform for Windows Smartphone
StyleTap PCW Rating 80 Very Good Useful software lets you run many Palm apps (aw
kwardly) on Windows Mobile devices. Price : Rs. 2,250
CONTENT PAGE
JUNE 2007
49
Ning and Nexo: Do-It-Yourself Social Networks
SOCIAL NETWORKING
sites like myspace and Facebook have popularized social networking via the Web.
The next step: social networks that you start yourself, away from the spam and a
dolescent silliness that can accompany the big sites. Ning and Nexo’s eponymous,
competing services let anyone create, at no cost, a site for their bowling club
, theater company, or other group. In many ways, Ning and Nexo aren’t that diffe
rent from services like Homestead, which for years have helped people create per
s o n a l We b p a g e s . B o t h services offer a variety of design templates
and let you point and click to add elements to the page (no need to download an
application, as site creation is entirely Web-based). Both will provide you with
a URL within their domain. And both let you put blogs, discussion forums, and
ASK OUR EXPERTS
video modules on your site so that visitors can interact with you—and with one a
nother.
MAKE YOUR SITE YOUR WAY
we found both Ning and Nexo easy to use: If you have all the materials you need
(photos, logos, and such), you could have your site up in half an hour. Of the t
wo, we prefer the look of Ning’s templates and the basic organization of the Web
sites it creates. And if you know what you’re doing, Ning—which was cofounded b
y Net scape pioneer Marc Andreessen—is a tweaker’s paradise. You can easily adju
st everything, from the font used for body text to the background color of the t
itle bar. If you know Cascading Style Sheets, the editing possibilities are endl
ess. Ning has opened the site’s source code, so programmers can build small apps
to perform whatever function they need
NING LETS YOU customize a Web page for any interest, but the highly visible ads
from Google mar the otherwise attractive looks.
Laptop Battery Life
SHOULD I ALWAYS leave the lithium ion battery in my notebook or should I take it
out until I need it? Even if you use your laptop primarily when it is plugged i
n, removing the battery is not a very good idea. Your battery will function bett
er and last longer if you keep it in the machine. However, if the battery is unu
sed for a long time, it can lose its ability to hold a full charge. To use your
battery optimally, make sure you charge it up all the way when you rst buy your
notebook. You should then discharge it all the way down, and then charge it up
again. This procedure calibrates the battery and enables it to run for more cycl
es.
and embed them on sites. Largely spoiling the look of free Ning sites, however,
are the Google text ads that take up most of one of the four columns on the page
. (For Rs. 900 a month, you can remove the ads.) Nexo, which was in a public bet
a when we tested it, doesn’t allow as much flexibility as Ning. But for now Nexo
has one great advantage: No ads appear on your site. Nexo CEO Craig Jorasch say
s the company plans to include ads on most pages, probably in the last quarter o
f this year. You’ll be able to pay a nominal monthly fee (price to be determined
) to prevent advertisements. Nexo does offer more preprogrammed modules, however
, so you can show product
information pulled from Amazon.com, say, or post a one-question poll. We didn’t
like the default organization of Nexo sites, though: The rst page of a site sho
ws just a boring list of the site’s pages. Ning has another advantage over Nexo:
Its blog and forum creation tools are a bit more sophisticated than those of th
e other service. Ning lets you thread forum posts, and blog entries have formatt
ing that makes them look more substantial than Nexo’s. If you want a Web site th
at can be heavily customized, and you have the skills to make changes, Ning is a
great choice. But if all you want is a simple site, go with Nexo, especially wh
ile it’s ad-free. —Edward N. Albro
Nexo
Nexo Systems Beta site; not rated Service lets you easily set up a Web page with
lots of module options and no ads—for now. Free
Ning
Ning PCW Rating 79 Good Ads mar the looks of this service for creating Web commu
nities. Free (Rs. 900 per month without advertisements)
50
JUNE 2007
CONTENT PAGE
52
JUNE 2007
CONTENT PAGE
CA M ERA P H O NES
Around the world, more cameras are sold in phones than as stand alone products,
making Nokia and not Canon or Nikon the largest camera maker and seller. We put
eight of the best imaging phones in the market to the test.
B Y G E E TA J C H A N N A N A
P H O T O G R A P H Y: S R I VA S TA S H A N D I LYA I M A G I N G BY P C A N O
O P
CONTENT PAGE
53
CA M ERA PH O N ES
Yes, most cameras in phones are not even a spec on even an entry level camera’s
quality. To compare an oft used but mis-interpreted spec, entry level cameras ar
e 4-6 mega-pixels (MP) as compared to the top end camera phones that are 5 MP.
But, phone makers have plucked the chord of instant grati cation in human beings
at the right note. They provide the thrill of capturing a moment anywhere, anyt
ime without carrying an additional device. But sometimes, it comes at the cost o
f the battery life, or size. In this comparison, we keep the cost factor low, th
e thrill factor high, see which camera phone gives the best experience of the lo
t. Where it compromises on features and where on performance.
STILL PHOTOGRAPHY
t h is is t h e nerve centre of every camera phone, all devices in this category
strive to outdo the other in this criteria. What the consumer has
THE N73 TAKES good stills but the sluggish response is a dampner.
play here is the time taken between shots. It includes the number of button phon
e that money can buy today. clicks required as well as the time the phone takes
in saving the file on the memory. Most of the time it is a multiple of the load
on the phone at particular time, the capacity of the card, free available memory
and the basic processing speed of the phone. The Samsung D900 and the Nokia N73
were the slowest in this regard, taking forever to save pictures. Whatever the
shortcomings, these phones offer a lot of digital camera features. The Cybershot
and N series phones exemplify this point with the kind of features that are on
offer. You can have exposure compensation, choose from automatic scene modes lik
e landscape, portrait, beach and snow, shoot in burst mode or even set a timer s
o that you can feature in to understand is that the megapixel the shot with your
friends and family. value is not the end of the world here. One of the features
that we really It’s like cubic capacity in engines, or liked though was the pan
orama mode PMPO in music. Often hyped up but in the S/E phones. Using this mode
you mostly useless. can click three photographs in a row In this set of phones,
the Samsung and stitch them together to form an D900 has a 3 MP camera that is n
ot even extremely wide angle panorama shot. as good as the 2 MP camera sported b
y This is helpful when you are taking a Sony Ericsson (S/E) K750i in quality. No
t picture of a huge bunch of people or a only that, another important feature gr
eat looking landscape here is the autofocus that cannot be captured in in all th
ese cameras. one frame. If shot properSome are faster than ly using the small im
age the others in focusing, guide, which appears resulting in faster capbefore t
aking every phototure of images and graph, the photos can turn preventing the “l
oss of out to be really great. moment”. The S/E Coming down to actual K790i and
the Nokia N95/ N93i were par- WITH CYBERSHOT BRANDING the picture quality, we fo
und ticularly good in this. Sony Ericsson K790i takes great stills that the S/E
K790i performed the best, despite But the N95 was not its lesser MP rating as co
mpared to the able to auto focus objects at a distance. Nokia N95 in outdoors, w
ith bright light On the other hand, the S/E K550i was conditions. The photograph
s were phejust a bit slower than the other S/E nomenally clear, devoid of any no
ise as phones. Where it excelled was in the compared to the Nokia N95 which was
camera startup time. As advertised the just a bit noisy. Comparing it to the S/E
K550i was one of the fastest to get other 3 MP phones, the Nokia N93i does the
camera going. not even stand a chance. The photos How often do you take only one
shot? produced are a bit too noisy for comfort Typically, it’s about 2-3 shots
at a time. and not as good as the S/E K790i. The important aspect that comes int
o
the N95 from nokia is the best imaging
WITH A 5 MP sensor and Carl Zeiss optics,
54
JUNE 2007
CONTENT PAGE
CA M ERA P H O NES
In low light conditions though the results of the Nokia N95 and the S/E K790i we
re quite comparable, both with and without ash. The Nokia N73 performed quite w
ell, but the N93i was a huge disappointment again. The blueish ash distorted th
e colors in the photos in low light conditions, beyond repair. And, the flash th
row was not good enough. As a matter of fact, we found that the flash of the K79
0i was the best of the lot.
F E AT U R E S C O M PA R I S O N
SHOOTING VIDEOS
THE SONY ERICSSON K750I offers fast focussing and good overall image quality.
though the phones may be comparable when it comes down to shooting still photogr
aphs, they are miles apart when it comes down to shooting videos. The Nokia N9x
series soars above the others here. These phones are the most accomplished of th
e lot when it comes to moving pictures. The N93i form factor, though bulky and o
dd, it is absolutely apt for shooting video.
IMAGING PHONES
THE N95 FROM Nokia is the king of video while the Sony Erisson K790i captures cr
isp stills with its 3.2 MP sensor.
MULTIMEDIA PHONE
PCW Score Features and Specifications • Camera Resolution: 5 megapixel • Style:
Slider (both side) • Memory card type: Micro SD • Auto Focus: Yes • Camera Resol
ution: 3.2 megapixel • Style: Candybar • Memory card type: Memory Stick Duo • Au
to Focus: Yes • Camera Resolution: 3.2 megapixel • Style: Candybar • Memory card
type: Micro SD • Auto Focus: Yes • Camera Resolution: 2 megapixel • Style: Cand
ybar • Memory card type: Memory Stick Duo • Auto Focus: Yes • Camera Resolution:
3.2 megapixel • Style: Clamshell - Swivel • Memory card type: Micro SD • Auto F
ocus: Yes • Camera Resolution: 2 megapixel • Style: Candybar • Memory card type:
Memory Stick Duo • Auto Focus: Yes • Camera Resolution: 3 megapixel • Style: Sl
ider • Memory card type: Micro SD • Auto Focus: Yes • Camera Resolution: 2 megap
ixel • Style: Slider • Memory card type: Micro SD • Auto Focus: Yes Performance
• Still Camera performance(out of 10): 6 • Features (out of 100): 92 • Design an
d usability score (out of 100): 81 Bottom line A truck load of features, the hig
hest camera resolution, great video capture quality, dedicated music playback bu
ttons, an intuitive new interface are some of the things that make this one a wi
nner. But for the speed of the phone, Nokia has got it right this time. The best
performer when it comes to still photography, there is no other phone to look a
t if you want just a camera in a phone. Not as feature rich as the N95, it does
the job of a camera phone wihout any frills. A potential killer phone by Nokia,
that comes bundled with a 2GB memory card. But it is a bit of a let down to use.
The phone is too slow, but the camera is quite usable, and so are the music fea
tures.
1
Nokia N95
Best Price: Rs. 34,872 BUY
74
Good
2
Sony Ericsson K790i
Price: Rs. 17314
71
Good
d usability score (out of 100): 74
3
Nokia N73 - Music Edition
Price: Rs. 22870
71
Good
4
Sony Ericsson K750i
Price: Rs. 9307
71
Good
If you are on a budget for a camera phone, then there is nothing better than the
K750i. A good 2 MP camera, with music features, EDGE and a radio at less than 1
0K is a killer deal.
5
Nokia N93i
Price: Rs. 32699
70
Good
A bit of a dissapointment in the performance, the phone lost out mainly because
of its size and the sub standard still photographs. The video though was somethi
ng to marvel at.
6
Sony Ericsson K550i
Price: Rs. 11339
67
Fair
The latest from the Sony Ericsson stable, it replaces the joy stick with a D-pad
, making it more durable. Had good camera startup time, but takes a bit of time
to focus in low light conditions.
7
Samsung SGH-D900
Price: Rs. 23499
61
Fair
The blonde in all the phones here, it looks the best of the lot, with exceptiona
lly good industrial design and a slim form factor. Compared to the others, the c
amera is best used sparingly.
8
Motorola RIZR Z3
Price: Rs. 9899
57
Poor
The RIZR is a disspointment compared to the others here. The picture quality is
not too happening, and nor the styling. It’s high time that the RIZR, rises up t
o the competition.
CHART NOTE: * Prices mentioned above are indicative market prices as on 10-05-20
07
CONTENT PAGE
JUNE 2007
55
CA M ERA PH O N ES
The ip-and-swivel action that it has is quite similar to a lot of digital camco
rders. It has a really good grip and prevents the photograph from shaking while
taking the video. The large record button is extremely easy to use, along with t
he zoom options. Along with all these options you can shoot videos in TV resolut
ion (640x480) at 30 frames-per-second. Which is similar to any good digital came
ra’s feature sets. But, do not look for absolute clarity here as the images are
still a bit pixilated, but easily useful to satisfy that urge for instant grati
cation. Some adventurous documentary makers have even made documentaries using t
heir N series phones. As mentioned all the others phones record measly 320x240 (
max) .3gp videos good enough to be watched on the bonsai mobile phone screen. Ye
s they may give you an option of a TV out, but don’t even think of taking all ex
cept Nokia to the television, since you will be highly disappointed.
AUDIO/ VIDEO PLAYBACK
this is one big grey area when it comes to camera phones. Different vendors have
varied takes on this. While the Nokia view is to cram it all in the N series de
vices, the
C O M PA R I S O N
Sony Ericsson uses both its camera and digital music player brands in phones, WI
TH HANDYCAM-LIKE styling, the N93i from Nokia does a good job namely the Cyber w
ith video capture but the still images were average at best. Shot for camera pho
nes and builds in a more than handy music player Walkman for Music phones. Nokia
does with an even better camera. All the Nokia manage to provide decent perform
ance phones here also sport visual radio, which in its do-it-all phones, but the
phones is still at an experimental stage with most perilously come close to hal
ting. They radio channels. are so slow at times, that you feel that all they lac
k is the Windows blue screen. USABILITY On the other hand, the Sony Ericsson pho
nes, do one job and do it well, while w h at w e ne e d t o still providing the
functionality for the r e m e m b e r, w i t h o u t other. The Walkman phones h
ave usable getting too carried cameras and the Cybershot phones have away, is th
at these devices are predoma handy music player built in. inantly phones and not
cameras or But, the N95 here defies convention, music players. when it comes to
Nokia phones. This Ones that look most phone like here are phone is not too bad
when it comes to the the Motorola and the Samsung D900. usual Series 60 culprit
s like the N73 and Both are sliders, but unlike the Motorola,
STACKING THEM UP
WHILE CAMERA PHONES aren’t exactly slim and sleek, the Nokia N95 is surprisingly
small for its feature set.
i i 00 750 550 R NK NK -D9 RIZ i SSO SSO SGH G RIC RIC OLA N93 SUN YE YE TOR KIA
SON SON NO MO SAM 0i K79 NO KIA N73
KIA NO
N95
N SSO RIC YE SON
56
JUNE 2007
CONTENT PAGE
CA M ERA P H O NES
The Samsung D900 de nes slim and style. NOTABLE Its an extremely good looking ph
one, and FEATURES de nitely one to own if you are looking for style with somethi
ng better than the usual the most notable camera functionality. But the Motorola
feature for me here was RIZR is a total disappointment. It comes the GPS in N95
. It is the rst phone in across as a product that is too late for its this cate
gory to have GPS functionality, time and too dated. and works pretty well. And s
o does the The next devices are the Sony Ericsson new interface. One of the most
important phones, that take the shape you want. and commendable feature of this
phone When you want to use them as a phone is the use of standard ports. Finall
y, Nokia they are the absolute phone like, but as has risen to the challenge and
given a soon as you want to use them like a camera standard USB mini and 3.5mm
audio just tilt them on the top and open the cover port. No dif cult at cables
to manage. at the back. The phone instantly changes And you can use your favorit
e headinto a proper camera with well placed camphones too. era shutter and zoom
buttons. All of them The Nokia N93i’s swivel and shoot are in the absolutely rig
ht places. An absomodel is also good, but not implemented lutely neat design job
by the engineers at properly, and leaves a lot to desire. If it S/E. The device
looks and works like a were just for camera phones the S/E phone when you need
to and a camera K790i has the best size, and implementawhen you want to be the s
hutter bug. tion. The easy to use phone’s only probAll the Nokia phones on the o
ther hand lem is the joystick, which gives away after follow individual approach
es to design. a while in S/E phones. They have started The N73 is similar to the
Sony Ericsson, the change with the K550i, using a D-pad. but is extremely slow
to use. You may be We hope it continues in the future. able to take a power nap
while shuttling CONCLUSION between modes, especially when you are using the big
2 GB card lled to the brim all the phones have one USP or the other, with music
. but one of them, the Nokia N95 shines far The N93i on the other hand, though a
s and above the rest when it comes to design, slow as the N73, gives a lot bette
r feel while and performance and the sheer number of using the camera, especiall
y as the camcorder. The grip is steady, but the THE D900 FROM SAMSUNG is a styli
sh slider but its buttons on the phone disappoint no imaging capabilities are of
f the mark by a long way. end. They are big but sticky and rubbery. They Simply
do not deserve to be on the phone of this class. But the N95, deserves a special
mention here for the phenomenal design. Though the phone is a bit slow again, i
f you can get past that, a whole barrage of goodies open up using a new intuitiv
e series 60 interface. The phone has everything and the kitchen sink thrown in a
s goodies. GPS, Wi-Fi, a 5 MP camera, 640x480 30 FPS video recording, a media pl
ayer, visual radio, Did I mention it’s a pretty capable phone too? Yes, it comes
at a price, but compare that to the number of devices that it replaces, and it’
s really something.
PERFORMING SIMILARLY tO K750i the Sony Ericsson K550i is slimmer and gives EDGE
connectivity.
features on offer. It is the first phone to score above 90 in our features chart
. A job well done to say the least. But Nokia does need to get over its nagging
speed issues that can sometimes leave a bad after-taste. The N93i is a bit stuck
in no-mans land after the launch of N95 and the N73i – Music Edition and needs
to spruce up its sluggish software to get back in the race. On the other hand, t
he Sony Ericsson K790i needs to be commended for its excellent still camera. Not
even the 5MP N95 camera comes close to being as good as the K790i when it comes
to still shots. Yes the video recording is a bit sub-par and needs to improve.
If you just want a still camera and phone, this is the one to buy. The K750i and
K550i are good budget options in camera phones, but both have some tradeoffs be
cause of the price. Samsung and Motorola need to catch up fast here. Though the
Samsung retains the premium positioning because of its looks, it acts more like
a blonde. If you want a Paris Hilton of phones, you have it in the Samsung. The
Motorola on the other hand is stuck with its four-letter pseudonyms that seize t
o have an effect after the RAZR. The RIZR simply does not rise up to the challen
ge.
CONTENT PAGE
JUNE 2007
57
a ntivirus
58
w w w. P C w O R L D . C O m
june 2007
CONTENT PAGE
a n t i vi ru s
Twenty years after the first one appeared, PC viruses are more diabolical than e
ver. How do you keep them off your system? Read on for the results of our rigoro
us lab tests of the top antivirus progra ms.
B Y r Ya n n a r a i n e
i L L U S T R AT i O n S B Y U n n i K R i S HnAn
STOPPERS
trojan horses. rootkits. botnets. keyloggers. These terms might not mean much to
the average computer user, but to the average computer they’re the equivalent o
f the bird flu and Ebola viruses. With money serving as the main motive, tech cr
ooks have turned these one-time playthings of maladjusted geeks into a serious b
usiness.
CONTENT PAGE
a ntivirus
To see which programs offer today’s best protection, we tested eight stand-alone
antivirus apps: Alwil’s Avast 4 Antivirus Professional Edition, BitDefender’s A
ntivirus 10, Eset’s NOD32, Grisoft’s AVG 7.5 Anti-Virus Professional Edition, Ka
spersky’s Anti-Virus 6, Panda’s Antivirus 2007, Symantec’s Norton AntiVirus 2007
, and Trend Micro’s AntiVirus plus AntiSpyware 2007. These apps allow users to p
ick and choose their other security software (such as firewalls), and they cost
less than security suites. All include antispyware protection, and many have ant
irootkit components to defend against devious attempts to hide malware deep with
in a system. To protect against unknown viruses, all of the apps we tested come
with some form of proactive protection to supplement more-traditional signature-
based approaches, which must match incoming threats against a database of known
threats in order to block them. After rigorous analysis, we awarded Kaspersky’s
well-designed Anti-Virus 6 the Best Buy. It ended up in a virtual dead heat with
the entries from Symantec and BitDefender for best malware detection honors, an
d it also did the best job of cleaning malware infections. At Rs. 2,250, however
, it’s relatively expensive. In partnership with security research company AV-Te
st.org, we tested the programs under Microsoft Vista Ultimate; all eight have a
Windows XP version as well. By far the most important tests that AV-Test conduct
ed pitted each app against a “zoo”—a collection of nearly 900,000 viruses, Troja
n horses, bots, and other forms of malware. After this, each app had to try to d
etect current threats using one- and two-month-old signature files to simulate h
ow well it could block unknown malware. Our three best-rated apps were, not surp
risingly, those that performed best in these critical tests. We also rated each
program on its design and ease of use, including whether the application install
ed with an appropriate default configuration. We then factored in performance, s
upport policies, and whether the app had features such as Web-traffic scanning.
Finally we rated cost. To
60
w w w. P C w O R L D . i n june 2007
BEST BUY KASPERSKY Excellent virus detection and speedy signature delivery make
it the tops.
choose our contenders, we selected from Vistaready popular sellers and best-of-b
reed programs. Alwil and Grisoft offer feature-limited free versions of their pr
ograms—but to compare apples to apples, we selected their paid versions. Wonderi
ng why McAfee isn’t on the list? The company no longer sells a stand-alone antiv
irus app (its VirusScan Plus programs include a firewall). Another noshow is F-S
ecure, whose popular app wasn’t Vista-ready in time for inclusion in our testing
.
Best BUY
nORTOn The Protection Center affords a useful at-a-glance summary of system secu
rity status.
our best buy antivirus program, Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6 delivered top-notch succe
ss rates for malware detection (96 percent) and disinfection performance (86 per
cent of all items). It was fastest at producing new signatures, too, with a resp
onse time of 0 to 2 hours. You’ll pay for this stellar performance, however. At
Rs. 2,250 for the downloaded product, AntiVirus 6 is the most expensive program
we tested, though the renewal cost drops to Rs. 1,575 per year. In addition, its
proactive protection was only middling, catching approximately half of the 200
new malware samples it was exposed to when tested using a one-month-old signatur
e database. Anti-Virus 6’s polished interface makes it easy for users to schedul
e scans. And clearly labeled, one-click drill-down options make finding and sett
ing up various advanced features a breeze. In dealing with e-mail and news traff
ic, the program scans incoming and outgoing data over the POP3, SMTP, IMAP, and
NNTP protocols. It monitors HTTP traffic for Web-borne threats, too. It doesn’t
set up a default scheduled scan, however—you’ll need to set one up yourself. Bui
lt-in antiphishing protection can block scam e-mail, and Kaspersky’s “proactive
defense” module looks for the hidden processes and Registry changes that can sig
nal malware hidden with a rootkit. If you buy this program, do so online— the do
wnload costs Rs. 450 less than the retail box. If you want to get the Vista-
1
Kaspersky
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a n t i vi ru s
compatible flavor, you’ll have to download the program anyway. Just be sure to d
ownload the right version; it’s easy to click the wrong link among the many offe
red on the downloads page.
2
Symantec
symantec norton antivirus 2007 is a solid performer, with an overall virus detec
tion rate of 96 percent, placing it firmly in the upper echelon of the test grou
p. Like the other top-rated products, it has an attractive and easy-to-use inter
-
Norton Antivirus is a solid performer, but support calls come at a price.
face. It was the slowest to respond to virus outbreaks, however, taking 10 to 12
hours on average to deliver new signatures. And like Kaspersky’s, its proactive
protection was only middling, catching about half of the unknown threats in our
test. At Rs.1,800, Norton Antivirus 2007 costs less than Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6
, but Symantec offers only a paltry Rs. 45 discount for yearly renewals, making
it one of the more expensive antivirus options in the long term. Tech support is
similarly costly:
f e at u r e s c o m pa r i s o n
Top Antivirus Performers
KASPeRSKY’S fiRSt-RAte but pricey program offers a smooth, easy-to-use design an
d excellent protection against malware.
AntiViRuS SoftwARe
PCW Rating Design and ease of use Malwaredetection rate 1 Proactive detection of
unknown threats 2 Falsepositive detections 3 System slowdown 4 Outbreakresponse
time (hours) 5 Bottom line
Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Rs. 2,250 (Rs. 1,575 renewal)
85
Very Good
Superior
96%
51%
6
10%
0 to 2
This effective but expensive program has solid malware detection and the fastest
outbreak-response time among currently tested competitors. Symantec’s solid pro
gram wins top marks for antivirus detection and cleanup, but its renewal and sup
port costs are high. BitDefender has excellent malware detection and a good pric
e, but it causes a noticeable (though not show-stopping) system slowdown. NOD32
provides the best proactive protection by far, but its overall malware detection
is second-tier, and it has an overly technical interface. This competitively pr
iced option offers good proactive protection, average overall malware detection,
and a poor disinfection rate. This program has decent overall malware detection
, but poor proactive protection, and an awkward design. The least-expensive prog
ram we tested, AVG has average overall malware detection, the worst proactive pr
otection, and a clunky interface. Trend Micro’s poor performance at detecting ma
licious software (overall and proactive) put it at the bottom of the barrel in o
ur ranking.
Symantec Norton AntiVirus 2007
Rs. 1,800 (Rs. 1,755 renewal)
84
Very Good
Superior
96%
49%
3
10%
10 to 12
BitDefender Antivirus 10
Rs. 1,350 (Rs. 990 renewal)
84
Very Good
Superior
96%
61%
14
124%
4 to 6
Eset NOD32
Rs. 1,755 (Rs. 1,215 renewal)
84
Very Good
Very Good
90%
79%
6
5%
4 to 6
Panda Antivirus 2007
Rs. 1,350 (Rs. 1,350 renewal)
79
Good
Very Good
90%
56%
3
4%
6 to 8
Alwil Avast 4 Antivirus Professional Edition
Rs. 1,800 (Rs. 1,260 renewal)
78
Good
Good
92%
37%
5
4%
6 to 8
Grisoft AVG 7.5 Anti-Virus Professional Edition
Rs. 1,350 (Rs. 675 renewal)
77
Good
Good
91%
34%
1
2%
6 to 8
Trend Micro AntiVirus plus AntiSpyware 2007
Rs. 1,800 (Rs. 1,800 renewal)
71
Good
Very Good
82%
43%
0
9%
6 to 8
FOOTNOTES: 1 Tests conducted using AV-Test.org’s collection of 884,164 malware s
amples. 2 Tested using one-month-old signature files. 3 The number of harmless f
iles incorrectly identified as suspect, out of 20,000. 4 The amount of slowdown
seen on a computer running Microsoft Office with the antivirus software installe
d, compared to the same computer without the software. 5 The number of hours, on
average, that the company took to deliver signatures for new malware during the
first part of 2007. CHART NOTES: Street prices are as of 3/31/07. The PCW Ratin
g is based on the program’s malware detection rate (overall and proactive), perf
ormance (including scan speed and system slowdown tests), price, specs, and prod
uct design.
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w w w. P C w O R L D . i n
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a ntivirus
62
june 2007
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63
a ntivirus
Norton performed well in our disinfection tests, finishing second only to Kasper
sky. It cleaned up 18 of 22 possible items, missing just one of the two changes
to the Hosts network settings file and three less-important Registry items. Syma
ntec has incorporated the new SONAR behavioral analysis technology for proactive
protection. The program scans e-mail and Web traffic, covering the POP3, SMTP,
and HTTP protocols. In addition, it ties into the MSN, Yahoo, and AOL instant me
ssaging programs (though it protects only MSN by default). During our tests of N
orton AntiVirus’s de sign and ease of use under Windows Vista Ultimate, the prog
ram turned off the built-in Windows Defender antispyware utility without notice.
This is not because the two utilities conflict, according to the company, but b
ecause Symantec feels that “Windows Defender offers no value beyond what Norton
offers.” BitDefender was the only other program that disabled Defender when it i
nstalled. Symantec Norton AntiVirus 2007 was also the only program that triggere
d multiple UAC (User Account Control) alerts when we changed settings; that beha
vior could easily annoy power users who might want to customize the app.
BiTDEFEnDER Glitches with the Vista version’s performance sabotaged the product’
s ranking.
ESET nOD32 The company plans to revamp its difficult-to-decipher program interfa
ce.
3
BitDefender
bitdefender antivirus 10 nearly took top honors overall. It did a fine job of de
tecting malware, with a 96 percent catch rate. And it ranked second in our proac
tivedetection tests (behind Eset’s NOD32) when relying on one-month-old signatur
e files, nabbing 61 percent of new malware samples. And at Rs. 1,350, with a Rs.
990 renewal fee, it’s one of the least-expensive apps we tested. The program was
badly hamstrung by serious slowdowns in our application performance tests, howe
ver. One Firefox test, for example, which loads a large number of different Web
pages, took three times longer with BitDefender than with any other program we t
ested. The company attributes the slowdown to a known bug in the Vista version a
nd says that a future BitDefender update will fix it.
june 2007
Though it excelled at detection, BitDefender was less adept at disinfection. It
successfully cleaned just 13 of 22 items, missing one malware file and both of t
he changes to the Hosts file. BitDefender also turned in the highest false-posit
ive rate, mislabeling 14 harmless files (out of a total of 20,000 in the test) a
s malware. On the plus side, BitDefender has a well-designed interface, with a s
lider bar in the main window that lets you easily modify protection levels, and
clearly marked icons for launching full scans or setting up custom scans. It was
also the only product to offer free 24/7 phone support, with easyto-locate phon
e numbers and support e-mail addresses listed in the app’s Help section. By defa
ult, the program runs a fullsystem scan daily. It monitors e-mail traffic on the
POP3 and SMTP protocols, and integrates nicely with Microsoft Outlook, Outlook
Express, and Windows Mail (on Vista) for antispam filtering. BitDefender provide
s a basic level of instant messaging protection, but unfortunately it doesn’t sc
an HTTP traffic by default to identify Web-borne threats— you’ll have to turn th
at capability on yourself. A unique “privacy guard” feature detects when persona
l information—such as a credit card number or Social Security number—is being st
olen from a computer, without your first having to tell the program what those n
umbers are. On the other hand, BitDefender was one of only two programs we teste
d that automatically disabled Vista’s built-in Windows Defender antispyware util
ity, however.
4
Eset
when it comes to proactive protection, Eset’s NOD32 clearly wins. In our tests i
t caught 79 percent of unknown malware samples when using one-month-old signatur
e files. The next-closest app, BitDefender, was a distant second at 61 percent.
NOD32’s overall malware detection rate wasn’t stellar, however. Pitted against t
he huge AV-Test. org zoo of Trojan horses, viruses, and other malware, NOD32 spo
tted only 90 percent of the baddies, compared to the top performers’ 96 percent
rate. It fared surprisingly poorly with 32-bit Windows viruses (which account fo
r approximately 1 of every 11 samples in the zoo), catching only about 75 percen
t of these. In disinCONTENT PAGE
64
a n t i vi ru s
fection tests, NOD32 cleaned up all malware files but missed any resulting chang
es to the Hosts network settings file and most Registry changes, for a disappoin
ting 55 percent success rate. The program installed without a hitch, and the def
ault settings were almost ideal for the average customer. One annoyance: NOD32 d
oesn’t enable the full-system scan by default; you have to schedule it yourself.
And when you try to set that up or want to change other settings, you may be tu
rned off by an overly technical interface. For instance, you’ll need to open up
the ‘DMON’ interface module to figure out that it’s responsible for scanning Mic
rosoft Office documents. Also, if you do need help, the program offers no guidep
osts for finding support; you must go to the company’s Web site. The program tie
s into Outlook and Outlook Ex press for e-mail scanning, though it doesn’t direc
tly integrate with any IM applications for scanning sent links or files. In addi
tion, it offers integrated virus, spyware, and adware scanning, where other prog
rams require two separate scans, one for antivirus and one for antispyware. The
multithreat engine can also detect malware-hiding rootkits.
p r oac t i v e D e f e n s e
At Rs. 1,755 for a single-user license and Rs. 1,215 for yearly renewals, Eset N
OD32’s pricing is about average for the group. E-mail and phone support is free.
PAnDA So-so malware detection translated into a middle-of-thepack ranking for Pa
nda Antivirus 2007.
panda antivirus 2007’s middle-of-theroad detection re sults, inadequate default
settings, and uninspired disinfection performance offset its strong features to
produce an unimpressive fifth-place ranking in our tests. The application discov
ered 90 percent of AV-Test.org’s malware samples, a detection rate that was drag
ged down by a relatively poor showing at catching Trojan horses (87 percent) and
back-door programs (86 percent), two increasingly common types of malware. It t
urned in the third-best showing for proactive detection, however, catching 56 pe
rcent of new samples with onemonth-old signatures. Unfortunately, several import
ant protective features of Panda Antivirus 2007 are turned off by default. You’l
l need to enable e-mail scanning yourself in a complicated process that sends yo
u to the Windows Control Panel. Protection against “potentially dangerous files”
—a euphemism for adware and other annoying junk
5
Panda
When a Signature Isn’t Enough
one PRoACtiVe APPRoACH uses a method called heuristics to examine a virus’s prog
ramming for suspect commands or segments of code. often this method can catch a
new variant of some existing malware—one of the many Storm worms, for example—by
recognizing commonalities with previously analyzed variants. the heuristics app
roach looks inside a potential piece of malware, but behavioral analysis, anothe
r proactiveprotection technique, looks at it from the outside to see how it runs
. if a le behaves suspiciously, such as by executing from a temp directory, ant
ivirus programs may ag it as potential malware. Some newer, advanced types of b
ehavioral methods create what’s called a sandbox, in which part or all of a susp
ect program can be analyzed in a protected virtual environment. the top two perf
ormers in our proactive tests, which subject PCs protected by month-old signatur
es to new malware to simulate future unknown threats, rely on the sandbox approa
ch. eset’s noD32 program intercepted 79 percent of malware, and BitDefender Anti
virus 10 stopped 61 percent. on the other hand, Grisoft AVG nished last, at 34
percent, despite using a sandbox. these numbers demonstrate that though proactiv
e protections are important supplements, they are not yet ready to replace tradi
tional signatures altogether. to see how effectively our tested programs handled
proactive scanning, consult the “Proactive detection of unknown threats” column
in the chart on page 105.
CONTENT PAGE
june 2007
65
a ntivirus
that normally gets caught by antispyware in the course of its standard operation
s—is also turned off, and you’ll need to schedule your own full-system scan. Onc
e you switch these features on, however, Panda Antivirus scans will cover a good
range of e-mail and news protocols—POP3, SMTP, IMAP4, N N T P — a l o n g w i t
h We b t r a f f i c . I t flags suspected phishing e-mail sent over POP3 and S
MTP, and integrates with Yahoo, MSN, and AOL IM applications. Panda Antivirus 20
07 scored poorly in our disinfection tests. It missed one existing infection ent
irely, and failed to clean up another’s changes to the Hosts and Registry files.
Including Registry changes, it scrubbed up just 41 percent of all in fections.
And after we uninstalled it, Panda left behind a stray .dll file that some other
antivirus programs then flagged as potentially dangerous. At Rs. 1,350 for two
PCs (there is no single-license rate), Panda Antivirus 2007 is among the most af
fordable programs we tested, but unlike with most apps, you receive no renewal d
iscount.
AVAST The basic layout option is easy to use but hides advanced configuration se
ttings.
6
Alwil
the paid version of Alwil’s software, Avast 4 Professional Edition, finished a d
isappointing sixth, despite a decent, 92 percent success rate at detecting
malware. It spotted only 37 percent of the malware in our proactive tests, the s
econd-worst showing. In our disinfection tests Avast was about average, cleaning
all infected files but missing changes to the Hosts network settings file and s
ome Registry entries. Its catch rate was 78 percent. The program installed smoot
hly, with appropriate default settings for the average person. It offers two int
erface options: a distinct, media player–type control panel that makes it easy t
o figure out how to launch a scan or set a manual boot-time scan; and an “enhanc
ed interface” that permits you to access and fine-tune more settings, but that s
eems far less user-friendly than the first option. After installation, Avast run
s one full-system startup scan. But in the awkward advanced interface, we could
not find a place to set up a regularly scheduled scan. One option enables scans
whenever the screen saver is running, but again, this program setting was diffic
ult to locate. The program scans a good range of e-mail and news protocols, incl
uding POP3, SMTP, IMAP, and NNTP. It also scans all Web traffic. And Avast 4’s c
omprehensive instant messaging protection fully supports a number of the most po
pular IM clients—AIM, ICQ, MSN, Skype, Trillian, and Yahoo Messenger—and even se
veral lesser-
p r oac t i v e D e f e n s e
Security Suites by Indian Players
we ALReADY MentioneD the reason for leaving McAfee and f-Secure out of the list.
there are a couple of indian programs that we could not include in the compariso
n. unlike the current participants in the comparison, they offer standalone anti
virus protection, eScan from Microworld and Quick Heal both offer security suite
s that escan internet security suite the eScan internet Security Suite from Micr
oworld offers Antivirus, Anti Spam, Parental Control and Privacy Protection for
your computer. we will be evaluating eScan when we conduct a Quick Heal antiviru
s 2007 Quick Heal offers Antivirus, Antispyware and fireoffer overall protection
. Here is a brief preview of what the two of them offer. security suite comparis
on. Microworld also offers a free antivirus toolkit utility. Download it from ht
tp:// www.mwti.net/products/ mwav/mwav.asp the toolkit offers basic scanning and
does not come with mail protection or virus shields. wall as a total solution.
Priced at Rs 1,350 it is one of the cheapest security suites that is available t
oday. the latest version offers some additional features like “emergency CD” tha
t lets you create your own bootable recovery CD to clean and revive badly infect
ed PCs, which cannot be fixed at the operating system level.
66
june 2007
CONTENT PAGE
a n t i vi ru s
known chat tools, such as Gaim, Miranda, and Pal Talk Messenger. At installation
, Avast 4 places on your PC a useful, built-in Virus Recovery Database, which yo
u can theoretically use to repair infected program (. exe) files (we didn’t test
this functionality). The paid Professional version of Avast 4 costs Rs. 1,800,
with a Rs. 1,260 yearly renewal fee. A free Home version lacks some features suc
h as the ability to run scheduled scans and view previous scan results.
paid Professional version is Rs. 1,350, and renewal costs only a scant Rs. 675 p
er year thereafter.
AVG This low-cost but clunky app performed poorly in our proactiveprotection tes
ts.
7
Grisoft
grisoft avg 7.5 Anti-Virus Professional Edition was the leastexpensive option of
the eight programs we tested, and its 91 percent malware detection rate put it
in the middle of the pack in that critical category. Unfortunately, the software
’s last-place proactive protection performance and clunky interface dropped it t
o seventh place in our rankings. AVG did a fine job in the disinfection tests, r
eversing more than 80 percent of all changes made by malware. It was the only pr
ogram that removed every malware file and reversed both changes to the Hosts net
work settings file, though like every other app it missed some Registry changes.
But in proactive protection, AVG ranked last, failing to detect two out of ever
y three new malware samples. Also, the program puts the user in charge of too ma
ny decisions that require advanced know-how. To schedule a scan, for example, yo
u have to wade through a “test manager” and figure out what the differences are
between a complete test, a detailed test, a detailed user test, and a simple use
r test. Grisoft intends to revamp the interface, but we found this one hard to m
anage. Grisoft’s AVG integrates nicely with Eudora and Microsoft Outlook to quar
antine suspect e-mail messages, and it scans all programs’ e-mail traffic over P
OP3 and SMTP protocols. However, it was only one of two programs (Trend Micro be
ing the other) that don’t scan Web traffic, and it doesn’t directly support any
specific IM clients either. The
TREnD miCRO The worst overall malware detection rate all but guaranteed this pac
kage last place.
the last-place ranking of Trend Micro Antivirus plus AntiSpyware 2007 was primar
ily determined by its lackluster performance at detecting malware samples. The p
rogram missed almost one in every five samples, for an entirely disappointing ca
tch rate of 82 percent. Trend Micro did somewhat better at proactively detecting
unknown malware, but even here it had the third-worst showing. It caught 43 per
cent of threats when tested with a one-month-old scanner. Weighed down by a rela
tively expensive Rs. 1,800 price tag and the lack of a renewal discount, Trend M
icro’s antivirus product left much to be desired. On the plus side, the program
installed smoothly, was easy to use, and includes good default settings—such as
an automatically scheduled full-system scan—for the average person. It provides
a user-configurable scheduled scan, and it checks for definition updates every 3
hours. These defaults are a snap to change via an intuitive and smooth interfac
e that will appeal to even the most nontechnical user. One particularly useful f
eature scans for known Microsoft product vulnerabilities. If a machine is missin
g an important security patch, for example, the application guides the user to M
icrosoft’s Windows Update site to download and apply the appropriate updates and
patches. Trend Micro’s AntiVirus scans e-mail traffic over the POP3 and SMTP pr
otocols, but unlike practically every other program we tested (except for Grisof
t’s AVG), it does not scan HTML traffic. Also, it stands alone in being unable t
o launch a manual file scan when you right-click within Windows Explorer, a weak
ness in the Vista version that the company says it will remedy in future updates
. And finally, the application’s antispyware protection has an annoying habit of
labeling tracking cookies as dangerous spyware.
june 2007 w w w. P C w O R L D . i n
8
TrendMicro
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67
F REE ST UFF
50
PLUS
68
CONTENT PAGE
FREEBIES
Want to make your PC more productive, secure, informative, and entertaining? The
se software do the trick—and they don’t cost a rupee
Once upon a time you actually had to pay for great software or use illegal crack
ed versions. Luckily, we no longer live in that world. Want to tune up your PC,
keep it safe, create graphics, or back up your system with gobs of free storage
space? You can nd free software to do all that, and plenty more. We revved up o
ur cable modem and searched for the most intriguing free offerings out there. He
re are our hand picked goodies for all your tasks.
BY P R ESTO N G RA L L A
ILLUSTRATIONS BY ANIL T
FANTASTIC
CONTENT PAGE
F REE ST UFF
TWEAKING WINDOWS VISTA
TweakVI Basic: If you want to do some
SECURITY TOOLS
Ad-Aware SE Personal: Lavasoft’s free Adserious Windows Vista tweaking, you Awar
e Personal 1.06 does a good job of need this utility. Microsoft seems to have pr
otecting you against adware and spygone out of its way to make Vista ware that h
ave already made the trip to unfriendly to power users. But this great your PC,
but it lacks the preventative profreebie gives you hundreds of ways to tection f
eatures that are available only in adjust the operating system, tasks that Lavas
oft’s paid products. otherwise would be extremely dif cult to Avast: In a world
lled with high-priced do. Whether you want to, say, hack the subscription-based
antivirus programs Start menu, put an image on Internet that bog down your PC w
hile protecting Explorer’s toolbar, or optimize your it, Avast stands out. This
program is one CPU’s cache, this program has someof the few free antivirus appli
cations thing for you. that do as good a job as any of the big TWEAKING WINDOWS
XP boys. Avast includes more than seven VistaBootPRO: Want to change how differe
nt varieties of shields, safe-surfWindows Vista boots? Ordinarily you’d Fresh UI
: Fresh UI is a tweaker’s heaven: have to learn the ins With it you can change s
cores of settings and outs of the incomin XP, many of which you probably never p
rehensible BCDEdit knew existed. Want to alter any aspect of command-line tool.
But the Windows interface? Go ahead. Custhis simple, graphical tomize the Start
menu? No problem. program lets you masChange global menu settings and dozens ter
Vista’s boot-up and of network and Internet settings? You can startup without e
ver do them all, and a whole lot more. touching the dreaded Microsoft Power Toys
for Windows XP: BCDEdit. Who says Microsoft can’t write great software? These e
asy-to-use tweaking EasyBCD: Another BCD tools allow you to customize XP in edit
or, this one is great AVAST CAN STOP viruses threatening your inbox and chat cli
ent. countless ways. for setting up a machine ing tools, and real-time virus pro
tection with Vista and other operating systems, Tweak and Tune: This freebie doe
sn’t have for your OS, as well as for Outlook. The such as Linux or XP. Setting
up and con gas many options and tools as Fresh UI program downloads and installs
updates uring Windows boot entries is simple, and does, but it’s simple to use
and well laidautomatically, and Avast works with there is no easier way to quick
ly boot right out. It is extremely simple to use for anyboth Windows Vista and X
P. Given all into Linux, Mac OS X, or BSD straight from one who wants a straight
forward this, why pay? the Windows Vista bootloader - on the y. approach to twe
aking. ZoneAlarm: This free firewall still beats anything Microsoft puts into Wi
ndows, including the features in Windows Vista. To further limit your exposure t
o attack, specify which applications can access the Internet. The program lets y
ou stop e-mailborne Visual Basic Script worms, too. AVG Anti-Virus Free: Protect
ing against viruses and hackers, this application works with both Windows Vista
and earlier versions. For home users AVG allows unlimited use and unlimited upda
tes. SMAC: This utility lets you change the MAC address (the unique ID) of a wir
eless adapter. Use it to perform vulnerability testing, or to keep your identity
private. FRESH UI GIVES you the tools to mold Windows XP to look and act just a
s you want it.
SYSTEM UTILITIES
70
JUNE 2007
CONTENT PAGE
FREE STUF F
Microsoft Windows Defender: Though not
SpeedFan: This must-have for serious over-
FILE SHARING
AllPeers: Need to share les? AllPeers, which works from within Firefox (an Inte
rnet Explorer version is planned, but not yet available), lets you set up folder
s for le sharing. You can specify who has access to those files, and you can se
nd messages to those people to alert them when les are ready. In addition, you
can share Web pages or images from Web pages, and you can view any media les yo
u receive from other people right inside Firefox. It’s the easiest way to share
les of any kind with anyone. Pando: This peer-to-peer software lets you easily
send and receive large les through e-mail or instant messaging clients. The uti
lity is particularly helpful because most ISPs have size limitations for sending
or receiving e-mail le attachments. uTorrent: uTorrent is a standalone app and
is extremely small in size. But that does not compromise on features. Skype: Ph
one other Skype members for free, enjoy video calls, and make cheap internationa
l calls. Yahoo Messenger: One of the earlier IM services, this software has gott
en more
everyone is a fan of Microsoft’s antispyware program, we love some of its tools.
We’re particularly fond of the Software Explorer feature, which lets you disabl
e programs that launch on Windows startup. Spybot Search and Destroy: We still a
dore this perennial favorite. But remember — since no single antispyware program
can detect and kill all spyware, Spybot should be just one piece of your securi
ty arsenal.
REGISTRY CLEANERS
TweakNow RegCleaner Standard: The reg-
clockers touts itself as a monitor for your system’s temperature and fan speed.
The real reason it’s worthwhile is that it lets you easily overclock your PC and
adjust the fan speed so it doesn’t overheat. M2 Information: This program perfo
rms a quick scan of your computer and lists details such as the processor type a
nd speed, the amount of RAM, and disk information.
istry is a scary place and TweakNow RegCleaner Standard is your virtual Virgil,
a guide into the depths of the registry. It automatically scans your registry an
d reveals problems. After you examine the changes and tell the software to do it
s magic, it cleans the registry for you. Clean My Registry:This Registry cleaner
will not show you quite as much information as TweakNow does, but it is fast an
d it does a good job of sweeping away the junk.
SYSTEM INFORMATION
INTERNET UTILITIES
E-MAIL CLIENTS
Thunderbird: This e-mail client has a
nice, simple interface, spam filtering, antiphishing features, RSS news-feed fun
ctions, quick search, and a spelling exquisitely detailed audit of your hardchec
ker. It’s from the folks who brought ware, this is the download you need. The yo
u the Firefox Web browser. program starts with the basics, such as the computer
manufacturer, installed Eudora: Sure, this freebie e-mail favorite RAM, hard-dis
k size, and processor type has been around for quite some time. But and speed. B
ut it also shows you the there’s a good reason for that: Eudora motherboard make
r, hard-disk manufacincludes features like Mood Watch (which turer, chassis seri
al number, PC service rates messages on a mood meter) that no tag, bus type and
speed, multimedia other tool has. People who suffer from edevices...the list goe
s on. mail overload (and that’s everyone, isn’t it?) will treasure the program’s
unique folders-based approach to message organization. Spamato: Tired of wading
through the spam clogging your inbox? This add-on for Outlook, Thunderbird, and
Mozilla Mail does everything it can to WITH BELARC YOU can quickly take an inve
ntory of your PC’s eradicate the junk. installed hardware and software.
Belarc Advisor: If you’re looking for an
ALLPEERS LETS YOU share pictures, music, and videos within Firefox.
attractive with group videoconferencing, emoticons, and sounds. Trillian: Like M
eebo, Trillian lets you log into multiple instant messaging systems simultaneous
ly. The difference is that it’s a download, not a Web site. Windows GAIM:This Wi
ndows version of the open-source client lets you log into and
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71
F REE ST UFF
communicate on multiple IM networks, including AIM, ICQ, IRC, Jabber, MSN Messen
ger, Yahoo, and more. Google Talk: Though Google Talk doesn’t have the big insta
lled base of other instant messaging systems, its clean, simple interface and vo
ice features make it a good choice.
Microsoft Windows Live Messenger:
Windows Live Messenger’s easy le and video sharing is a big plus.
GOOGLE’S DESKTOP SEARCH brings the familiar interface of Google Web search to it
ems on your PC, including files and browsers.
PRODUCTIVITY AND OFFICE APPS
DESKTOP SEARCH
Google Desktop: Google has done more than just conquer the Internet — with Googl
e Desktop, it has conquered your PC as well. The program brings the same kind of
fast, accurate searching to your desktop that Google does to the Web. It search
es as you type, and displays the results in your browser. One nice touch: When t
he program is installed and you search via the Google Web site, the results will
also include those from your computer. Copernic Desktop Search: With an interfa
ce designed for your PC rather than for the Web, this search tool may be the eas
iest to use. Windows Desktop Search: One big bene t of Microsoft’s desktop searc
h program is its integration with both Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express e-m
ail.
OFFICE SUITES AND WORD PROCESSORS
OpenOffice.org: OpenOffice.org, the
complete suite, it provides a word processor, a spreadsheet, a presentation prog
ram, a database — and, for übergeeks, a “mathematical function calculator” (but
if you have to ask what it is, you don’t need it). Backpack: Juggling multiple p
rojects has never been so easy. For every project you create a separate page, ea
ch of which can include to-do lists, freeform text, notes, links, les, images,
and reminders. Backpack also has a calendar, and if you use Apple iCal, Mozilla
Calendar, or any program that supports the iCalendar format, your reminders will
be automatically added to your Backpack calendar. You can even have reminders s
ent to you via e-mail or to your cell phone. Sticky Notes: This program does exa
ctly what its name says: It allows you to create virtual sticky reminder notes t
hat you place right on your computer’s desktop. Easy To-Do: With this small, sim
ple download, you can quickly create and track to-do lists. NoteTab Light: This
utility improves on Windows’ Notepad in so many ways, it’s hard to count them. S
tart with the basics: You can open multiple les, not just one, as you must in N
otepad. Each file runs in its own tab, so switching between them is easy. The pr
ogram comes with all kinds of nifty built-in tools, too, such as a feature that
strips HTML out of a document, a Paste Board that saves text clips automatically
, macros, and plenty more.
Crimson Editor
programmers includes syntax highlighting for HTML, C/C++, Perl, and Java. EditPa
d Lite: This text editor opens multiple les (each in its own tab), opens les o
f any size, and allows you unlimited undo and redo — in other words, it has ever
ything that Notepad doesn’t.
BACKUP AND FILE SYNCHRONIZATION
Microsoft SyncToy: This great Microsoft
freebie permits you to keep folders on different machines automatically synchron
ized — so it’s perfect for synchronizing folders on a laptop and a desktop.
NOTETAB LIGHT CAN open many documents at once and strip the HTML; it has lots of
editing utilities, too.
free competitor to Microsoft Of ce is a
72
Do you need a geeked-out Notepad replacement? Look no further. This text editor
for
Everyday Auto Backup: If you’re looking for a simple, no-frills download that wi
ll back up your data, this is the tool to try. Microsoft Foldershare: Use this t
ool to synchronize files with multiple desktops — including Apple machines — ove
r the Internet.
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FREE STUF F
MULTIMEDIA APPLICATIONS
VIDEO
VLC Media Player: If you play a lot of video and use Windows Media Player, you’v
e probably come across a number of les that you can’t play — you’re told you ne
ed to have a codec to handle them. Good luck nding that codec. Instead, try the
VLC media player. This software plays pretty much every media type you can thin
k of — and likely a few you haven’t imagined. Not only will it play audio and vi
deo formats, but it will also play DVDs, VCDs, and many streaming protocols. iTu
nes Foobar2000: This straightforward audio player won’t take up much RAM or syst
em resources, and plays a wide variety of audio formats.
Irfanview: Yes, we know this one has been around a while. But it’s still one of
the best free image viewers for just about any file type, showing detailed infor
mation about images, helping you create slide shows, and performing tasks like e
liminating red-eye. StudioLine Photo Basic: Here’s a great program for archiving
photos and for organizing your collection. Microsoft Photo Info: This useful fr
eebie, which integrates directly into Windows Explorer, lets you preview an imag
e and embed metadata into it by right-clicking it. FastStone MaxView: This petit
e (1.3MB) image editor is small enough to store on an old floppy disk! Don’t let
its size fool you, though: FastStone MaxView sports lots of photo manipulation
tools, such as those for rotating, flipping, resizing, and blurring. GIMP — GNU
Image Manipulation Program: This program
cial skins and dozens of color schemes keep it looking good. iTunes: Amonst othe
r things, iTunes offers MP3 and pristine-quality AAC-encoding from audio CDs, sm
art playlists, burning custom playlists to CDs and MP3 CDs and of couse, transfe
r music to your iPod. Audacity: If you want to create media, not just consume it
, try this program, which includes audio recording tools and sophisticated editi
ng functions. You can even create audio soundscapes from scratch. You can add an
y of several dozen effects, use a sound mixer...in short, the app has everything
you
IMAGE
Google Picasa Snapfire: Snap re juggles
all your image editing, management, and sharing tasks with ease.
is a favorite of openvarious audio files. source software fans everywhere. No, i
t isn’t the easiest to use, but it’s nearly as powerful as Photoshop. Paint.Net:
This surprisingly powerful image editing and manipulation program includes unli
mited undos and special effects, and even provides the ability to work in layers
.
AUDIO
AOL Nullsoft
AUDACITY AUDIO EDITOR lets you record, play, convert, and edit
Winamp: There are
GOOGLE PICASA MAKES organizing and editing photos easier.
lots of MP3 players available, but this popular program is one of the best belov
ed. Winamp saves playlits and equalizer settings, and the spe-
need. While you don’t have to be well-versed in sound editing to use it, people
with some experience will particularly enjoy its power. Free iPod Video Converte
r: This tool does precisely what its name says: It converts videos from a variet
y of formats so that you can watch them on your iPod’s screen. PSP Video 9: Sony
’s PlayStation Portable handheld makes a terrific video player. The PSP Video 9
program converts PC video les (.avi, .mpg, DivX, etc.) into the PSP video forma
t for playback. DVD Shrink: If you have ever attempted to make a backup copy of
a DVD movie to a DVD-R, you’ve probably discovered that you can’t do it because
DVD movie discs are dual-layer and have more data than can t on a recordable di
sc. DVD Shrink solves the problem by compressing the DVD data, letting you make
the copy t on a DVD.
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N ET WO R K I NG
EASY
FIXES
FOR YOUR
BY BECKY WARING
ILLUSTRATIONS BY MM SHANITH
Network Problems
Here’s help for real-world hassles, from dead spots to security threats to strea
ming-media hiccups.
Networks are dandy when they hum along behind the scenes, but all too often they
fail. When your printer goes AWOL or your Skype calls break up every time your
spouse starts watching YouTube, it’s time to get your geek on and learn what mak
es your network tick. Here are some tried-and-true strategies — and some new tri
cks — to help you make your network behave.
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NETWO RKI NG
D-LINK’S USB RANGEBOOSTER G
Domain-name Multifunction Print Server supports system (DNS) scanning as well as
printing over a Wi-Fi services are anothor ethernet network. hands down, the mo
st common neter possible factor work problems are disappearing Internet that can
contribute connections, printers, and PCs. to lost connecLost connections: Usua
lly these can be tions. DNS servers solved by rebooting your broadband are the P
Cs on modem, network router, and/or computer. which your ISP But if you have to
do this repeatedly, your stores the databasrouter and PC settings are likely cul
prits. es that it uses to Start by extending your router’s DHCP translate indivi
dulease time (the amount of time the router al URLs (like www. reserves an IP ad
dress for a device on the pcworld.in) into their corresponding network) to a per
iod of at least a week. DISAPPEARING PRINTERS numerical IP addresses on the Inte
rnet. You can access this setting through your If you receive messages informing
you router’s browser-based rmware. if your shared USB printer seems to If disc
onnects are affecting a laptop, come and go with a mind of its own, that Web pag
es can’t be found or that echeck the power management setting for make sure the
computer it is attached to mail can’t be retrieved, try using the DNS its networ
k adapter. In Windows XP, go to isn’t hibernating. If possible, connect servers
at OpenDNS.com in place of the Device Manager’s Network Adapters your printer to
a desktop PC (as opposed those at your ISP. Start by accessing the area, nd yo
ur adapter, and select Properto a notebook), and leave it on. (To cut wide-area
network (WAN) settings in ties. Under the Power Management tab, back power consu
mption, allow the disyour router’s browser-based firmware; uncheck the box that
turns off the adapter play —rather than the PC —to go into then change the IP ad
dresses for DNS to when power saving kicks in. Your battery sleep mode.) 208.67.
222.222 and 208.67.222.220. may run down a little quicker, but you’ll In Windows
XP, also verify that ‘File OpenDNS is free, and it blocks known have a stable n
etwork connection. and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Netphishing sites. works’ i
s installed for all network adapters so that switching between wired and IP PRIN
TING wireless networks doesn’t kill printer sharing. In XP, go to Control Panel,
Network Connections, and (for each network YOU BROUGHT YOUR corporate notebook
home, but now you nd that you can’t adapter) right-click the device and select
print on your home network—or over a VPN connection to a printer in your of ce.
Properties. If you don’t see File and PrintWhat to do? IP printing, which most n
ewer networkable printers support, is your er Sharing for Microsoft Networks in
the best bet. You’ll need the printer’s IP address (get it from your IT staff, o
r check with window that appears, click the Install butyour printer vendor on ho
w to nd it—by printing a test page, for example). Then ton to add it. run the A
dd Printer wizard in XP’s ‘Printers and Faxes’ window. Check Local Printer, Bett
er yet, set up a print server so that and under ‘Select a Printer Port’, choose
Create a New Port and Standard TCP/IP you don’t have to worry about working Port
in the dropthrough a host PC. Some routers have down menus. Enter built-in USB
printer ports; stand-alone the printer’s IP adprint servers plug into your route
r. If you dress, click Next, use a multifunction device for printing, and you wi
ll initiate look for a print server that also supports the usual printer inscann
ing, such as D-Link’s USB Rangestallation routine, Booster G Multifunction Print
Server.
Nail the Basics
Print Across Networks and the Net
where you can pick a driver (either Windows’ default driver or the vendor’s driv
er, if you have it).
INVISIBLE PCS
in many cases, network file-sharing problems stem from improper workgroup and PC
naming. Make sure that each computer has a unique name; multiple PCs identi ed
as
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N ET WO R K I NG
(network address transla‘Desktop’ or ‘Dell’ can cause tion) alone rather than us
ing mixups. Don’t use spaces in SPI (stateful packet inspecnames (Windows ME and
tion) technology — a supeearlier Windows OSs don’t rior approach designed to su
pport it), and don’t create ensure that your computers names of more than 15 rec
eive only data they have characters. Also, confirm specifically requested. Be th
at all PCs use the same sure, however, to change workgroup name. The your router
’s default passdefault name in Windows word when you set it up, XP Home is ‘MSHo
me’; in and periodically thereafter. older versions of Windows Establish a secon
d line of and in Windows Vista, it’s defense at each computer by ‘Workgroup’. To
change THE VIEW FROM VISTA: Windows Vista’s Network and Sharing Center turning
on automatic Wineither the workgroup or the shows you what’s connected and simpl
ifies configuration. dows Updates, and installing computer name in XP, click ant
ivirus, antispyware, and personal reStart, Control Panel, System, and choose wa
ll software. Either buy a security suite the Computer Name tab. or use individua
l best-of-breed utilities like the only way to guarantee the security THE VISTA
DIFFERENCE Webroot Spy Sweeper, BitDefender antiviof your network is to barricad
e it from rus, and ZoneAlarm firewall software the outside world —no Web, no e-m
ail, still having major unresolved sharfrom Check Point (in its basic form, nada
. But you need not adopt NSAing issues? It’s time to consider upgradZoneAlarm is
free). appropriate tactics to keep your data reaing to Windows Vista. The new o
perating Whichever approach you take, don’t sonably safe. system’s Networking an
d Sharing Center rely on Windows XP’s Windows Firewall lets you know which shari
ng features are PUT UP WALLS for your protection, because it can lter enabled a
nd makes configuring them incoming data only. ZoneAlarm and easy. Vista’s Link L
ayer Topology Discovthe road to a secure home network other third-party firewall
s are bidirecery automatically detects network devices begins with a hardware fi
rewall. Most tional, protecting both incoming and and allows you to see their lo
cations on a routers have one, but those built into outgoing information. Window
s Vista’s Network Map. some inexpensive routers rely on NAT
Beef up security
BREAKTHROUGH FIREWALLS
vista’s firewall is smart enough to permit sharing within a workgroup. But if th
at’s a problem with XP’s rewall, try a free third-party utility. ZoneAlarm’s Tr
usted Zone feature lets workgroup computers communicate. Or sidestep XP’s le an
d printer sharing complexities altogether by adopting a program such as Network
Magic . Like Windows Vista, Network Magic puts all sharing and networking functi
ons in one place, and it simplifies sharing folders and printers. A special mode
even protects shared folders when your laptop is connected at a Wi-Fi hotspot,
a major security concern. A free version of Network Magic provides Internet conn
ection repair and wireless network protection, but only the paid version support
s printer and le sharing as well.
SECURITY
Add a Second Network for Safety
IF YOUR KIDS open lots of ports on your router for games and video chats, or if
you want to run a home Web server or public Wi-Fi network, consider setting up a
second router to isolate these risky activities from the rest of your network.
In a nutshell, you plug one router into the other, and assign each a different s
tarting IP address (such as 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.2.1). Then you attach your s
ervers—or the at-risk PCs—to the router that’s directly connected to your broadb
and modem, and all your other computers to the second router. Internet traf c to
and from the unsafe area will not reach your secure subnetwork at all.
Router directly connected to Internet Internet (WAN) Router indirectly connected
to Internet Protected networked devices
Devices with open ports
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NETWO RKI NG
rewall is bidirectional, too, but you have to con gure outgoing ltering yourse
lf in a screen that you reach by typing wf.msc at a command prompt. Vista also c
omes with Windows Defender antispyware, but not antivirus software. Keep things
simple by using the same utilities on all your PCs (look for economical “family
packs”). Then install them while signed in on an administrator account, or — if
appropriate — work with the parental controls found in many packages (and in Win
dows Vista). Keep your password secret: Remember, your network is only as secure
as its weakest link.
panies often run their own VPN servers for employees; or you can sign up for a V
PN service such as WiTopia PersonalVPN or JiWire Hotspot Helper. Next, in your W
iFi settings, turn off ad hoc (computerto-computer) networking and prevent autom
atic connections to non-preferred networks. In XP, you can change both of these
settings by clicking the Wi-Fi icon in the system tray and selecting Change adva
nced settings. Under the Wireless Networks tab, click Advanced, followed YOUR OD
DS OF picking up malware decrease if you COVER THE AIRWAVES by Access point (inf
rastructure) netdeny automatic connections to unknown networks. works only. Also
, uncheck Automatifirewalls and security suites are (Media Access Control, a uni
que hardcally Connect to Non-Preferred Networks. futile against packet sniffers
that capture ware identifier) address filtering nor In Windows Vista, turn off t
he Vista wireless traf c on a given frequency. Use turning off SSID (service set
identifier Network Discovery feature (which allows the strongest encryption sta
ndard your — basically your Wi-Fi network’s name) other computers to see you on
a network) Wi-Fi equipment supports: From stronbroadcasting is an effective secu
rity when you’re at hotspots. Vista will switch gest to weakest, the options are
WPA2, measure. Both are easier to bypass than it off automatically if you desig
nate a conWPA, and WEP. WEP, and they can create connection and nection as ‘Publ
ic’, but alternatively you Intruders armed with readily available administration
hassles. can disable it manually in the ‘View Netsoftware can break into WEP in
minutes, MAC address ltering, for example, work Status and Tasks’ control pane
l. rendering it virtually worthless except as requires you to enter a device’s M
AC a method to prevent bandwidth hogging address into your router’s rmware to b
y your neighbors. We recommend that authorize it to connect to your network. you
invest in new adapters if necessary to But anyone listening in can spoof your e
nsure that you can make the switch to if your Wi-Fi downloads take forever, auth
orized MAC addresses on their WPA. To provide both your old and your network bac
kups bog you down, or your own equipment. Similarly, sniffers can new adapters w
ith maximum security, Slingbox won’t sling, give these tips a try. detect even n
onbroadcast SSIDs, so choose a router that offers a simultaneturning off broadca
sting only makes it ous WPA+WPA2 mode. USE WIRES WHENEVER harder for legitimate
users to connect Regardless of anything you may have POSSIBLE to your network. h
eard to the contrary, neither using MAC a wired network (ideally one based on SA
FE TRAVELS wired ethernet) is inherently more reliable and usually much faster t
han the open airop e n hot sp ot s THE D-LINK DWA 142 USB waves. There’s general
ly no reason for you are notorious sourcrouter gives an easy to locate a network
storage drive at a dises of infection. For solution to creat wireless tance fro
m your router, so instead plug it in true security on pubnetwork at home. to an
available ethernet port. The same goes lic networks, use a for a network printer
. virtual private network to encrypt all GET GIGABIT I n t e r n e t t r a f fi
c between your commost recent PCs have built-in gigabit puter and an interethern
et, which means that they can mediate server. Comtransfer data at a whopping 100
0 Mbps
Speed up transfers
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N ET WO R K I NG
— but only if your router also possesses a gigabit switch. For network backups,
the extra throughput can mean the difference between an all-night operation, and
one that completes itself in a fairly short amount of time.
BUY MATCHING WI-FI GEAR
to achieve the top speeds promised by the latest Wi-Fi standard, draft-802.11n,
every wireless device on your network must have a draft-n adapter. Be sure to up
date the rmware on any draft-802.11n devices regularly, as vendors are now brin
ging the first products into compliance with the second draft of the standard, a
nd this should help with interoperability.
CHANGE THE CHANNEL
the biggest obstacle to good Wi-Fi reception is no longer distance (since most M
IMO and draft-n routers provide whole-house coverage), but interference resultin
g from nearby networks: In any urban area, you’ll probably see a long list of av
ailable networks. And because the
B AC K U P
Multiplatform Network Backups
IF YOU HAVE several PCs running different operating systems that you plan to bac
k up on one network drive, you may run into a problem with file names that work
ne on one system but are illegal on another. If you truncate or change the name
s when you back up the les, the backups won’t be useful. So instead of using US
Battached storage devices, which usually can be formatted only as Windows drives
, purchase a NAS drive that offers speci c support for each platform you use; af
terward you can designate shares as appropriate (for instance, Windows or Mac).
2.4-GHz band that LINKSYS’S 802.11b, g, and WIRELESS-N Gigabit most new n gear G
aming Router operates within prioritizes timehas only three sensitive multimedia
nonoverlapping and VoIP data. channels, networks neighboring yours are likely t
o degrade your throughput. In fact, the latest 802.11n draft effectively mandate
s a 50 percent reduction in performance when your network is in the video, HomeP
lug AV was the least presence of other active Wi-Fi networks. susceptible to int
erference from other To minimize interference, install and electrical devices. r
un a utility such as the free NetStumbler Products such as Linksys’s Powerto det
ermine the signal strength and Line AV Ethernet Kit, move data over channel of e
ach available network; then your home’s electrical wiring. Adapters set your rou
ter to the channel that is farplug into standard wall outlets; to set thest from
those of the strongest nearby up the network, begin by connecting networks. (A
router’s automatic channel one adapter to an available ethernet selection featur
e does this for you). port on your router. Then add other In addition, you might
consider getdevices by running cables from their ting a dual-band draft-n route
r, such as ethernet ports to other plugged-in the Buffalo Nfiniti Dual Band Rout
er, adapters. You will not have to worry which supports draft-n traffic on both
about overloading your wireless net2.4-GHz and 5-GHz bands. This lets you w o r
k w i t h h i g h - d e fi n i t i o n v i d e o keep older 802.11b/g devices on
the relastreams, and performance will be far tively crowded 2.4-GHz band, while
more reliable than on a wireless netusing the uncluttered 5-GHz band work, espe
cially in a large home. (consisting of some 20 non-overUPGRADE YOUR WI-FI lappin
g channels) for your highbandwidth apps such as video if you still want to use w
ireless for streaming, as new 5-GHz draft-n streaming media, make sure that you
get products arrive. draft-802.11n gear: Not only is it fast, but it has so-call
ed quality-of-service (QoS) technology that prioritizes media streams, VoIP phon
e calls, online game play, and other particularly time-sensitive applications. w
hen it comes to smooth video playAnd don’t forget to upgrade your rmware back a
nd voice-over-IP phone calls, speed to Draft 2.0 of the standard; practically al
l of alone isn’t always enough. the biggest Wi-Fi vendors are expected to be TRY
POWERLINE posting free rmware upgrades to Draft 2.0 by the time you see this.
if you can’t install ethernet, consider adopting powerline (rather than Wi-Fi) I
NVEST IN A GAMING ROUTER gear. Several powerline technologies support near-ether
net speeds; in our does World of Warcraft rule your tests with streaming high-de
finition house? For advanced gaming, a spe-
Get media-ready
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JUNE 2007
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NETWO RKI NG
cialized router helps deliver maximum performance for both Internet and local mu
ltiplayer game play; this is especially important if several users access the ne
twork in your household simultaneously. Gaming routers have QoS prioritization,
are tuned to reduce network latency, and usually have faster processors, all of
which increase the responsiveness of PCs on the network. Linksys’s Wireless-N Gi
gabit Gaming Router supports draft-802.11n Wi-Fi, gigabit ethernet, and game tun
ing.
Make better backups
too often, people plan to use a network drive for regular hard disk backups, but
never actually do so. Maybe the network share isn’t mounted (visible to your ba
ckup program) when backup time rolls around (add it to My Network Places to avoi
d this situation). Or the system to be backed up is turned off, asleep, or on th
e road. Or the backup is interrupted. Here’s how to increase your odds of succes
s.
CHOOSE NETWORK DRIVES CAREFULLY
shared network stor age drives come in two basic types: regular external
USB drives designed to attach either directly to the USB storage port included o
n some routers or via an ethernet adapter such as D-Link’s Express EtherNetwork
DNS-120 Network Storage Adapter ; and network-attached storage (NAS) drives that
have built-in ethernet. If you go with a USB drive, you can usually detach it f
rom your router and plug it into a PC (say, at another location) if you like. US
B drives tend to be easier to set up, and you may use an old USB hard drive you
already have as your storage device. True network drives, in contrast, have thei
r own processor and OS, and can be attached only to your network. They generally
have many more features, and they normally allow setup of private user accounts
(“shares”) as well as public areas of universal access. The models topping our
Network-Attached Storage Devices chart are the Infrant ReadyNAS NV and the Maxto
r Shared Storage II . For best security and performance, use a NAS drive that ha
s gigabit ethernet (buy a gigabit router if you don’t have one) and RAID 1 or 5
redundancy. Don’t risk losing a 500GB music collection stored on a NAS drive wit
hout any backup; the best way to maintain a copy of your NAS drive is to mirror
it using a RAID array. Whichever type of drive you choose, make sure that it’s l
arge enough to accommodate future growth. Backups often fail because the backup
drive is full. We recommend setting aside 1.5 to 2 times the storage capacity of
your current network for your backup drive; double that if you intend to mirror
your network drive.
PERFORM NCREMENTAL BACKUPS
THE MAC OPERATING system carries all the software it needs to join a Windows net
work and use a network-connected printer.
Cobian Backup (free) can perform full or incremental backups with or without com
pression, and can encrypt your data for better security on shared network drives
.
KEEP YOUR PC AWAKE
the need to ensure that your PC is up and running at backup time may seem obviou
s, but of ine computers are the most common cause of failed backups. Don’t turn
off your computer at night — just let it hibernate. And make sure that your back
up software can wake up your computer. If it can’t, use XP’s Scheduled Tasks wiz
ard (under Programs, Accessories, System Tools) to wake it up at backup time; fo
r more on how to set this up, see “ Schedule Your System to Start Automatically
.”
Add a Mac
okay, you’ve networked your Windows PCs. But now a new Mac is in the family. How
will it fit in? Will it work with your printer? Will you be able to share les
with it the way you can with your PCs? In most cases the Mac OS X operating syst
em provides everything you need to connect your Mac to your Windows network and
share files and printers. You can plug your new Mac into your wired network or a
ccess your wireless router,
THE BUFFALO LINKSTATION PRO LS 250GL isn’t scary to set up, and is much cheaper
and reliable network storage option.
by copying only files that have changed since the most recent previous backup, y
ou’ll vastly reduce the load on your network, and the length of time it takes to
do a backup. CONTENT PAGE
80
JUNE 2007
N ET WO R K I NG
just as you would with a new PC, by selecting your SSID from a list of available
Wi-Fi nets and then entering your wireless encryption key. All recent Macs supp
ort WEP, WPA, and WPA2. In order to share files and printers, the Mac cleverly a
ssumes the guise of a PC. It does so by implementing the SMB/CIFS Windows file-s
haring s t a n d a r d a n d u s i n g Wi n d o w s workgroup naming. The defaul
t workgroup name for any Mac is Workgroup; however, you can change this name to
MSHOME, for example, by running the Mac’s Directory Access utility, which also s
upports the Windows Active Directory (used by corporate servers). Next, turn on
‘Windows Sharing’ in the Mac’s Sharing Preference Pane and enable each of the us
er accounts that you’d like to be able to share. The new Mac should appear as a
member of your workgroup when you browse your network. After selecting it and en
tering your user name and password, you’ll be able to navigate the Mac drive and
copy or upload files by dragging and dropping. This works in both XP and Vista.
Similarly, you can print from your Mac to shared Windows printers via SMB, thou
gh the setup process is not obvious. In the Mac’s Printer Setup Utility, click A
dd. If your Windows printer does not show up in the resulting list of available
printers, choose the More Printers button, which brings up the Printer Browser.
Now select Windows Printing and Network Neighborhood from the dropdown menus. Yo
ur local workgroup will appear in the window; when you select it, you’ll see a l
ist of shared printers to choose from. Thereafter, the Windows printer will appe
ar in the Mac’s Print dialog box. If all of this sounds like too much of a hassl
e, consider buying Pure Networks’ Network Magic for Mac. A preview version is av
ailable for download. It promises to do for the Macs on your network what its Wi
ndows counterpart does for PCs.
SECURITY
SECURITY CHECKLIST
USE A HARDWARE router, even if you have only one computer. Change your router’s
default password to ensure that intruders can’t ddle with your settings. Use a
bidirectional personal rewall, such as ZoneAlarm. Turn on automatic updates to
keep your Windows OS secure. Use both antivirus and antispyware utilities, and m
ake sure that you keep them up-to-date. Con gure le sharing carefully if you’re
sure you need it — and if you don’t need it, turn it off. Use the strongest Wi-
Fi encryption scheme that all of your wireless equipment supports. Turn off ad-h
oc Wi-Fi networking and automatic connections to networks you’re unfamiliar with
. Install a second router to isolate at-risk PCs on your network (for details, s
ee “Add a Second Network for Safety”). Use a VPN when traveling, to avoid pickin
g up a virus that could otherwise spread to other PCs on your network when you g
et home.
Online resources
are you looking for help with a networking problem? Chances are you’ll nd the a
dvice or instructions you need at one of these sites.
PRACTICALLY NETWORKED
It’s required reading for the network administrator in your home.
SECURITYNOW
the leading home and small-business networking site, with tips and tutorials on
everything from setting up file sharing to using dynamic DNS services. The troub
leshooting guides are invaluable, and an active peer-help forum is another great
resource.
WI-FI PLANET
great network security resource, with transcripts of Steve Gibson’s and Leo Lapo
rte’s weekly SecurityNow podcasts, which translate complex security issues into
plain language for a broad spectrum of visitors.
SHIELDS UP
the place to go for truly deep wireless tutorials and testing. Don’t miss the si
te’s articles discussing SSID spoo ng and the use of VPNs at public hotspots . H
as an active discussion area, too.
CERT HOME NETWORK SECURITY
also from Steve Gibson, a very popular free Internet security test site. Go here
to find out about holes (such as open ports) in your network that potential hac
kers could exploit, as well as useful tips on how to close them.
PORT FORWARD
a c om p r e h e nsi v e a nd unbiased guide to home network security, maintaine
d by the Carnegie Mellon-based Computer Emergency Response Team, a federally fun
ded Internet security research and development center. The guide also serves as
a fantastic primer on networking terms and technology. CONTENT PAGE
ne ed h e l p r e m ov ing roadblocks obstructing desirable traf c to and from y
our network? At this site you can examine a comprehensive list of ports used by
Internet games, streaming video, and other applications, with port-forwarding se
tup guides for most popular routers.
MACWINDOWS
your best resource for cross-platform problem solving, including details on how
to connect Macs to Windows servers and vice versa.
81
SMART BUYER
P R AC T I CA L A DV I C E B E FO R E YO U S H O P
BIG PICTURE
SPECS EXPLAINED
SHOPPING TIPS
Easy On The Eyes
OUR GUIDE WILL HELP YOU PICK THE RIGHT LCD MONITOR FOR YOUR NEEDS.
everyone needs a good monitor to get the most out of a PC. But which monitor you
need depends on several factors— what applications you use, how much room you h
ave on your desk, how much space you need on a virtual desktop, and of course ho
w much you want to spend. From standardissue 19-inchers to 24-inch monsters, her
e’s how to sort out what you need.
THE BIG PICTURE
if you’ve replaced an old PC in the last few years, you may have kept your old m
onitor to use with the new machine. That’s okay if it’s in good shape—most monit
ors have a life span of about ve years—but if it’s a worn-out 15-inch CRT that
produces barely legible text at 800 by
82
600 pixels, you’re hobbling your productivity. Most monitor manufacturers offer
entry-level LCD models that combine very low prices with pared-down features. Th
ese monitors work well enough for Web sur ng, e-mail, and other office tasks—as
long as they provide adequate resolution and screen adjustment controls for brig
htness, color, and other settings. Midrange and professional lines often provide
better image quality and extensive features, such as superior image-adjusting c
ontrols, USB ports (make sure you get a monitor with USB 2.0 ports—some models w
ith USB 1.1 hubs are still on the market), a larger set of ergonomic options (su
ch as height adjustment), and higher reso-
lutions. Some professionallevel monitors include asset control—to help IS manage
rs keep track of their company’s property via a LAN—and hardware calibration, wh
ich adjusts the monitor and/or graphics card to ensure precise hues. (Third-part
y calibration packages are also available.)
CRT vs. LCD
historically, graphics professionals have preferred CRT monitors because they su
pport a greater range of resolutions (including very high resolutions) and show
truer colors and greater nuance in color. However, manufacturers ceased making t
he aperture-grille models—generally agreed to be the top-performing type of CRT
for photos and general graphics work—in 2005. Many pros now use
high-end LCDs, which approach the color quality of CRTs yet consume half as much
power or less. The development of color-calibrating hardware and software speci
cally designed for LCDs has helped persuade many professionals to make the swit
ch to at panels. Promises of improvements in black level (perfect black—which i
s traditionally somewhat soft or grayed in LCDs) and a wider color gamut should
make this transition still easier in the near future. Another bonus: The greater
brightness of LCDs also frees graphics pros from the confines of their darkened
studios. People who work mostly with text have always gravitated toward LCDs be
cause pixels on an LCD have well-de ned
JUNE 2007
CONTENT PAGE
PHOTOGRAPH: SHRIVATSA SHANDILYA
S M A RT BUY E R
display will use only a portion of the pixels it contains and will scale up the
resulting image to ll the screen. Keep in mind that you can never exceed the na
tive resolution of an Key Features LCD monitor. So, for Native resolution: Becau
se an LCD uses a THE OSD (on screen display) for LCD monitors example, you will
not be matrix of pixels to dis- is similar to CRT monitors, allowing you to able
to display 1600-by1200 resolution on an play its image, it has a adjust image q
uality. LCD with a native resolu xed (or native) resolution of 1280 by 1024. 120
0, and 30-inch widetion at which the display looks Though scaling technoloscreen
s have a resolution of best. A 15-inch LCD has a gies have improved in recent 25
60 by 1600. If you are using native resolution of 1024 by years, you’re still li
kely to be Windows XP or earlier and set 768, while most 17-, 18-, or 19disappoi
nted with their the monitor to a lower-thaninch models use a 1280 by results. On
Windows XP and native resolution—to upsize 1024 native resolution. Wideearlier,
text most readily shows very small text, for instance— screen 23- and 24-inch w
idepronounced jaggedness at the image will almost certainly screen models usuall
y have a nonnative resolutions. Winbe less defined, because the native resolutio
n of 1920 by dows Vista may reduce this effect with its vector graphics, S P E C
TA B L E but it’s still advisable to use a AS WITH MOST PC peripherals, monitor
s introduce you to a ton of unfamiliar specs. While price monitor at its native
resoluor speci cations alone shouldn’t determine what you buy—what you’ll use it
for is important as tion. So a particular LCD is a well, and image quality is t
he most important thing to most users—here are some things to look good choice i
f its native resofor to narrow your search lution is one you are comfortable usi
ng for all applications. Low end Recommended High End FEATURE In the PC World Te
st Center, 1280 by 1024 1280 by 1024 to 1680 by 1050 1680 by 1050 to 1920 by 120
0 all monitors are tested at An important consideration. Images look best when d
isplayed at an LCD’s native resolution. You can go native resolution. Native res
olution lower (and in some cases higher), but the image will appear blurry. Some
models are better than others at Aspect ratio: Most LCDs have a handling non-na
tive resolutions. If you need to change your monitor resolution frequently, you’
re probably better off with a CRT monitor. screen aspect ratio of about 3:4, muc
h like a regular-format TV. 17 inches 17 to 20 inches 20 to 24 inches However, w
ide-screen moniPanel size An important consideration. Unlike CRT tube size, LCD
panel size indicates viewable size as well. As with CRTs, the tors have an aspec
t ratio closer measurement is made diagonally from one corner of the screen to t
he opposite corner. to the 16:9 aspect ratio of 300:1 to 400:1 400:1 to 500:1 50
0:1 to 1000:1 HDTVs. The wide-screen forContrast ratio Somewhat important. Contr
ast ratio can help you determine how rich the color will be in on-screen images.
A mat becomes useful for workhigher ratio is better, but vendor specifications
are not always accurate. ing in large spreadsheets or in 120/100 to 140/120 degr
ees 140/120 to 170/170 degrees 160/160 to 170/170 degrees programs that contain
many Somewhat important. Indicates how far you can move to the side of (or above
and below) the center of the screen Viewing angle (horizonand still see what’s
displayed. This is important when you use the LCD to make presentations, or when
you work toolbars or palettes. It’s great tal/vertical) with another person. Ve
ndors use different methods to measure viewing angles, so make the final judgmen
t for watching DVDs as well, yourself by visual comparison. although the image q
uality 12ms rise-and-fall 12ms to 8ms rise-and-fall 6ms or lower rise-and-fall m
ay not be as good as on a TV. A minor consideration. Indicates the time required
for a pixel to change from black to white (rise) and back to Many users see a w
ide-screen Response time black (fall). A low figure in milliseconds should indic
ate a screen that will not display motion artifacts in moving monitor as an upgr
ade from images during games or video. Gray-to-gray response time does not have
a standard definition, and is a less reliable indicator. smaller dual monitors.
A dualmonitor setup is usually the 250 to 300 cd/m 2 300 to 350 cd/m 2 350 to 50
0 cd/m 2 Brightness less expensive proposition. Somewhat important. All LCDs gen
erally provide more than enough brightness. edges, resulting in sharply focused
letters. Some gamers still prefer CRTs because LCDs redraw their screens more sl
owly, which can produce blurring and motion artifacts in moving images. However,
response time—the spec that governs image motion in LCDs—continues to drop, min
imizing the ill effects. Modern LCDs can refresh quickly enough to make them gam
e-worthy for most users. Budget restrictions may still drive some buyers to CRTs
, which usually cost less than LCDs that have a comparably sized viewable screen
area. As LCD prices fall, though, more users and companies are going for the sl
im form and low power usage of the LCD. So from this point on, this guide will d
iscuss LCDs only.
Tilt only Tilt and height Tilt, height, pivot, swivel
One important thing to keep in mind: The screen size is measured diagonally, and
the area
Physical adjustments
An important consideration. Height adjustment lets you adjust your monitor to a
comfortable physical level. Swivel is useful for sharing your work, and pivot is
handy for viewing applications that are taller than they are wide.
84
JUNE 2007
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S M A RT B UY E R
of a wide-screen monitor’s display is smaller than that of a regular-format disp
lay of the same size. In other words, a 21-inch wide-screen monitor shows about
as many pixels as you’d expect from a regular-format 19-inch monitor. In the day
s of CRT monitors, vendors would state a tube size, say 21-inch, but the diagona
l of the viewable screen would be from one to two inches less. With LCDs, the st
ated diagonal is always the true measurement from the viewable screen. Viewing a
ngle: Measured in degrees, an LCD’s viewing angle indicates how far you can move
to the side (or above, or below) from the center of the display before the imag
e quality deteriorates to unacceptable levels. No matter what size monitor you u
se, a wide viewing angle becomes increasingly important the more you care about
getting accurate, consistent colors for design work or for tweaking digital phot
os. Each vendor determines its own criteria for this, as no industry-standard me
thod has been established for measuring
viewing angle. As a result, the numbers may not be comparable from one vendor to
another, but they can indicate relative performance among models from the same
company. The best way to judge viewing angle is to see the monitor for yourself,
but you can eliminate some models from consideration if their vendorreported vi
ewing angles are below a certain value. The larger the monitor, the more importa
nt a wide viewing angle is. On monitors measuring 17 inches or more, the edge of
the screen is at a greater angle to someone sitting directly in front of its ce
nter, and people are more likely to be able to share the monitor when working or
giving a group presentation. A viewing angle of at least 150 degrees is advisab
le for these monitors. The choice of panel technology affects the viewable angle
. Some LCDs use twisted nematic panels, which have small viewing angles. On a TN
screen, brightness drops and colors change as you move to the side or up and do
wn. This can mean that your work will
SOME MONITORS LET you tuck away cables out of sight.
look different if you adjust your chair or your posture. It also makes it dif cu
lt to share your work with someone who sits next to you (although a physical swi
vel adjustment can help with this). A few years ago, TN panels appeared to be on
their way out, but recent interest in TN’s fast pixelresponse times has brought
more new models to the market. Other panel types, such as in-plane switching, m
ultidomain vertical alignment, and patterned vertical alignment, have wider angl
es of view than TN panels can offer. Contrast ratio: This term refers to the dif
ference in light intensity between the brightest white and the darkest black tha
t an LCD can produce. Look for a contrast ratio of 400:1 or better—with anything
lower, colors may wash out when you turn up the brightness and may disappear wh
en you turn it down. However, higher is only better up to a point. Contrast rati
os over 600:1 are unlikely to provide any advantage, and monitor vendors are lik
ely using “fuzzy math” to calculate those values, anyway. Brightness: Expressed
as candelas per square meter (cd/ m2) or nits, this speci cation measures the gr
eatest amount of light that comes from a screen displaying pure white. Nearly al
l LCDs have a brightness level of 250cd/m2 or greater, which should be more than
sufficient. (In comparison, CRT monitors typically average about 100 cd/m2— tho
ugh you might see some high-brightness CRTs.) Vendors usually set the brightness
level to maximum on new monitors to impress custom-
WHILE BUILT-IN SPEAKERS save space, the sound quality may suffer.
ers. High brightness can be eye-catching for video and graphics, but it can be u
ncomfortable over time, particularly for text viewing—and it may cause certain p
hotographic nuances to wash out. After using the monitor for a while, you will l
ikely want to turn the brightness down a bit to spare your eyes. Many monitors o
ffer screen modes that change the brightness (and sometimes color and other char
acteristics) to make certain types of content look best. Digital versus analog:
If you have a graphics card with digital video-out—and if your computer is less
than two years old, you probably do— choose an LCD that has DVI digital input. T
he image won’t have to convert from analog to digital and back again, so it will
be clearer. Even if you don’t have a DVI port on your system, choosing a digita
l LCD makes sense, because your next desktop PC probably will have a DVI port—an
d most digital-capable monitors also have a VGA (analog) con-
CONTENT PAGE
JUNE 2007
85
SM ART B UYER
nection. Digital inputs tend to be found on more-expensive LCDs. Very few notebo
ok PCs come with digital outputs for external monitors. However, some notebooks
can gain a DVI connection when they attach to a docking station or port replicat
or. (Note that there are two types of DVI connections found on typical LCD monit
ors: DVI-D and DVI-I. DVI-D is a digital-only port; DVD-I can accept either an a
nalog or a digital input. You’ll need a special connector to hook up to your PC’
s VGA analog port, however.) DVI-I obviously provides greater exibility. Specia
l inputs: As users do more video and photo editing at their PCs—and as more watc
h DVDs on them—more monitors offer inputs we used to see only on TVs or peripher
als. Photographers and videographers may be interested in SVideo ports and memor
y card
MODELS WITH TILT and swivel capabilities allow you to adjust the monitor to suit
your needs.
slots; DVD aficionados may want to keep their eyes peeled for monitors with comp
onent and/or composite inputs. Response time: Pixel response time governs the ti
me (measured in milliseconds) required for a pixel to change. In theory, a low r
esponse time signifies an LCD with minimal motion artifacts in moving images. Th
is spec is especially important to video watchers and gamers. There are two main
types of LCD response time. Rise-andfall response time measures the time it tak
es a pixel to turn from black to white (rise) and back to black (fall). Gray-to-
gray response time measures the time it takes for a pixel to change from one sha
de of gray to another. Each type has its uses. Rise-and-fall response time has b
een clearly defined and has been the industry standard for years. As of yet, no
such definition for gray-to-gray response time exists. In theory, gray-to-gray r
esponse time could be a useful spec, since it can measure the time required to s
witch between shades (as opposed to black and white). This should make it useful
for indicating how an LCD will look showing the subtle shades of movies and gam
es. However, the lack of an agreed-upon de nition means vendors may use differen
t ways of determining the spec. In short, response time specs are not always com
parable from vendor to vendor. Size: Though it may seem obvious, bear in mind th
e size of your workspace when deciding on the type of monitor to buy. A huge mon
itor may look appealing, but you want to make sure your desk is deep enough to l
et you view
it from a comfortable distance. Just as you would with a television, you want to
sit at a distance of about two times the diagonal measurement from the screen.
Physical adjustments: Almost all monitors come with tilt adjustment. If you spen
d a great deal of time in front of your monitor, you may want to nd one that le
ts you adjust the height of the screen as well. You may find that it’s worth a f
ew extra money to get a monitor that will keep the screen at a comfortable heigh
t instead of making your neck do all the work. A monitor with side-to-side swive
l adjustment makes it easier to show your screen to a nearby customer or coworke
r. Finally, if you need to see view anything that’s longer than it is tall—a ful
l-page document, a long Web page, or a screen full of e-mail— you could get a lo
t of use out of a screen pivot function. Just bear in mind that not every monito
r with a pivoting screen includes image pivoting software; you’ll need that to m
ake your screen adjust to portrait mode.
THE SPECS EXPLAINED
IN BRIEF
4 CHECK POINTS
SIZE A 17-inch monitor is adequate for most users. Look for a widescreen. INPUTS
While analog inputs are common, DVI is better. ADJUSTMENT Check if the monitor
has tilt, swivel and height adjustments. Some can also be pivoted. RESPONSE TIME
Models with a response time of more than 12ms will exhibit ghosting with motion
video. Lower is better.
as with most PC peripherals, monitors introduce you to a ton of unfamiliar specs
. While price or specifications alone shouldn’t determine what you buy—what you’
ll use it for is important as well, and image quality is the most important thin
g to most users—here are some things to look for to narrow your search.
Flat-Panel LCD Displays: Features and Specifications Guide Important: Native res
olution.
Images look best when dis-
played at an LCD’s native resolution. You can go lower (and in some cases higher
), but the image may appear blurry. The vector graphics of Windows Vista may les
sen this, but native resolution will always look sharpest. Some models are bette
r than others at handling non-native resolutions. (Remember that with LCDs the n
ative resolution is the maximum resolution you can display.) Important: Panel si
ze. Unlike CRT (which indicates both tube-size and viewable-screen diagonals, LC
D panel size indicates viewable size as well. As with CRTs, the measurement is m
ade diagonally from one corner of the screen to the opposite corner. Too small a
panel, and you’ll have trouble cramming everything you need to see on your scre
en; too large, and may have to crane your neck.
86
JUNE 2007
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S M A RT B UY E R
Important: Physical adjustments. Height adjustment lets
you adjust your monitor to a comfortable physical level. Swivel is useful for sh
aring your work, and pivot is handy for viewing applications that are taller tha
n they are wide.
Somewhat important: Contrast ratio. Contrast ratio can help you determine how ri
ch the color will be in on-screen images. A higher ratio is better, but vendor s
peci cations are not always accurate. Somewhat important: Viewing angle. Indicat
es how far you
THE DELL E228WEP, reviwed in the April 2007 issue of PC World, is a good option
for a value large screen display.
can move to the side of (or above and below) the center of the screen and still
see what’s displayed. This is important when you use the LCD to make presentatio
ns, or when you work with another person. Vendors use different methods to measu
re viewing angles, so make the final judgment yourself by visual comparison.
Somewhat important: Brightness. All LCDs generally pro-
vide more than enough brightness. In fact, most users find they have to turn the
monitor’s brightness down after purchasing. Minor: Response time. Riseand-fall
response time Iindicates the time required for a pixel to change from black to w
hite (rise) and back to black (fall). A low gure in milliseconds should indicat
e a screen that will not display only minimal motion artifacts in moving images
during games or video. Gray-to-gray response time does not have a standard defin
ition, and is a less reliable indicator.
General Monitor Buying Tips
■ Try before you buy. When it comes to choosing the moni-
tor you will be staring at for the next few years, only your eyes can tell you i
f a monitor’s image quality, resolution, and size are right for you. Checking ou
t models in a store can be helpful, but keep in mind that they are often hooked
up to low-quality video signals and placed under different lighting from what yo
u have in your of ce or home. If possible, try to find a vendor with a liberal r
eturn policy, so you can try the monitor in your own setting before committing t
o the purchase.
■
switching from an LCD with a regular aspect ratio to a wide-screen one, the wide
screen will have less real estate at the same diagonal measurement. A 19-inch wi
de-screen is comparable to a 17-inch regular-format LCD. The current sweet spots
for display size are the 19-inch regular-format LCD and the 20-to-22-inch wide-
screen LCD, both of which provide plenty of desktop space for most users.
■
■ Consider USB ports. Universal Serial Bus connections are designed for quick an
d easy attachment of numerous peripherals. When USB debuted, the physical access
ibility of a monitor made it a natural choice for housing a number of the new, s
mart, hot-pluggable ports (although the inclusion of USB adds to a monitor’s cos
t). The number of ports provided varies with different models, as does the numbe
r of ports that are up front versus on the back. Current monitors are likely to
include USB 2.0 hubs. USB 1.1 is fast enough for hooking up lower-performance de
vices, such as keyboards, mice, and even broadband modems. USB 2.0 devices, such
as CD-RW drives and hard drives, will work with USB 1.1 ports, but at lower spe
eds than with USB 2.0 ports. ■
Decide whether you want
speakers. The inclusion of
Gain more screen space by
using two monitors. Consider
Check screen real estate.
Make sure you have enough screen for what you need to do. Remember that the view
able area of a wide-screen monitor is generally comparable to the viewable area
of a regular-format monitor that’s 2 inches smaller. Similarly, the viewable siz
e of a CRT is an inch or two smaller than the advertised tube size—so if you’re
switching from a CRT to an LCD, you may not need as big a monitor as you think.
Also bear in mind that if you’re
using multiple smaller monitors instead of one big one. With the right video car
d, you can run both simultaneously off the same PC. A pair of 17-inch LCDs will
let you do video or image editing in one window, and word processing or Web brow
sing in the other. This can be a great way to get more use out of old monitors.
If the double footprint gives you pause, consider mounting two small LCDs on a s
tand. Look for monitors with good screen quality and the VESA Flat Panel Mountin
g Interface and an FPMI-compatible stand.
speakers in a monitor can be a nice way to save space on your desktop. But despi
te recent advances, their sound will rarely satisfy the discerning ear. If you’r
e picky about sound quality, save the money for a nice set of speakers with a su
bwoofer.
Donate or Recycle Your Old Monitor: Never, ever send
your old monitor to the dump. Recycling is very good for the environment. CRTs c
ontain lead plus other toxic materials that could leach into the soil and water
in minute quantities if not properly disposed of. At this point, most LCDs conta
in lead and nearly all contain mercury. —PC World Team
CONTENT PAGE
JUNE 2007
87
HERE’S HOW
E X P E R T A DV I C E O N H A R D WA R E , S O F T WA R E , A N D T H E W E B
Easy, Low-Cost Network Storage for Everyday Use
STORAGE TIPS
if you’re tired of leaving your PC on continuously so that other machines in you
r house can access the les you store on it, you’re ready to step up to networka
ttached storage. As you might guess from the name, NAS devices connect via ether
net directly to your router. Your network storage device can be a stand-alone un
it designed specifically for centralized storage, or you can convert an old PC i
nto a le-sharing device. Either way, you’ll have a 24/7 data repository for bac
kups and for sharing documents, images, videos, and other les. A NAS device sho
uld be isolated in a safe, cool, dry, out-of-the-way place to make it less vulne
rable to bumps, spills, and other physical dangers. (Plus, hiding your storage d
evice keeps
88
it safer from theft.) Though off site is the safest destination for your backups
, NAS can be the next best thing—barring tornadoes, tsunamis, and other acts of
nature. NAS boxes are isolated from most of the software dangers that networked
PCs fall prey to, as well: Even if the les stored on a NAS device get infected,
the box’s operating system resides in its firmware (unless you’re using a retas
ked PC), and is therefore very dif cult to attack.
DEDICATED TO STORAGE
the easiest way to add NAS to your network is to buy a box designed for that tas
k. I kicked the tires on two units: the Rs. 31,455 Maxtor Shared Storage II 1TB,
and the Iomega StorCenter 500 CONTENT PAGE
(see FIGURE 1). The quoted prices average about 70 and 78 cents, respectively, p
er gigabyte, versus 50 to 60 cents per gigabyte for general-purpose external har
d drives. Nearly every PC under four years old supports gigabit-per-second ether
net. If yours doesn’t, spending Rs. 900 or so for a gigabit ethernet adapter is
a good idea. With gigabit ethernet, a movie streamed from a PC or NAS box looks
as smooth as silk, large files transfer at blazing speed, and backups are far fa
ster than with older 10/100 ethernet cards, which are limited to 100 megabits pe
r second (note that these are theoretical speed limits; real-world speeds are sl
ower). That said, my old reliable 10/100 500GB Maxtor Shared Storage Drive still
manages the small-scale backups for my office network. Gigabit ethernet is not
a perfect solution, however. Router vendors have been focusing on boosting the s
peed and reliability of their wireless networking gear. Only a few pricier wirel
ess routers— such as the Rs. 6,750 D-Link DGL-4300, D-Link’s Rs. 8,100 DIR-655,
Netgear’s WNR854T, and Buffalo’s WZRAG300NH—include a gigabit-capable ethernet s
witch. Some NAS boxes can connect wirelessly, but they transfer data at a consid
erably slower pace than a cabled connection does. Linksys’s WRT350N pre-N wirele
ss router has a quartet of gigabit-ethernet ports, as well as other features tha
t make it an alternative to a dedicated NAS box. The WRT350N sports a USB 2.0 po
rt to which you can attach a normal USB hard drive, effectively turning the rout
er itself into a NAS controller
ILLUSTRATION: MICK WIGGINS
91
WINDOWS TIPS Save time by placing a shortcuts to your most used files and folder
s to keep them close at hand. INTERNET TIPS Protect your site’s domain name from
would-be interlopers; Whois tools tell you who owns that site.
93
92
ANSWER LINE Keep the helpful Web cookies around, but give the syping ones the bo
ot; disable your Windows key; back up your Registry.
93
Another option: Buy a NAS enclosure that lets you plug in your own hard drive to
build a NAS box with as little or as much storage as you can get on a drive (or
two, for enclosures that support multiple drives). Tritton’s TRI-NSS001 NAS Enc
losure works with any 3.5-inch ATA drive and supports up to 400GB.
FIGURE 1: IOMEGA’S STORCENTER 500 (left) and Maxtor’s Shared Storage II offer 50
0GB and 1TB, respectively, of storage for your network’s PCs to share.
REPURPOSE AN OLD PC
(see FIGURE 2 ). USB 2.0’s real-world transfer rate of about 200 megabits per se
cond can’t match gigabit-ethernet speeds, but it’s faster than standard ethernet
and most wireless connections. The WRT350N, like the Iomega StorCenter and Maxt
or Shared Storage II, also functions as a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) server
to stream photos, MP3 les, and movies to your PC, TV, stereo, portable player,
or other playback device equipped with a UPnP media adapter. Like gigabit ethern
et, UPnP is an important feature to have if you’re planning a home multimedia ne
twork. For even more flexibility, get a NAS box with USB ports for attaching a p
rinter that you can share across the network or for expanding the network’s stor
age capacity via standard USB hard drives. With a high-end NAS box, you can back
up your network storage by attaching a backup device directly to the box, rathe
r than having to go through your PC. Most people, however, will store the backup
of their NAS box on DVDs, or on a hard drive or tape drive attached to their co
mputer.
instead of donating your old system when you upgrade to a new model, retask it a
s a NAS box. Its ethernet connection makes converting it into a storage device e
asy. Don’t worry about its slow processor or lack of RAM: CPU speed and memory a
re less important when you’re just sending les. The network’s limited bandwidth
is more of an inhibiting factor than even a ten-yearold PC’s processor speed. T
urn the old machine off, unplug its power cord, open its case (ground yourself b
y touching a piece of metal rst), and remove all extraneous hardware (such as a
sound card or a TV tuner card, but not the network adapter, if the ethernet por
t isn’t on the system board). Next, close the case, turn the system on, and ente
r its PC Setup program (look on the screen for the appropriate key to press befo
re Windows starts loading). Once you’re in the BIOS, disable any unnecessary fea
tures: If you won’t be attaching a parallel printer, for instance, disable the p
arallel port. Other candidates for deactivation are audio devices, serial ports,
secondary ATA CONTENT PAGE
channels, and unused USB controllers. You can expand your NAS PC’s storage or ba
ck it up easily via USB, FireWire, and eSATA ports, so you might want to keep th
ose. But less hardware means fewer potential driver conflicts and better reliabi
lity. I don’t recommend this, but you could add wireless to your pseudo-NAS box
via an add-in card or a USB adapter. Data transfer won’t be nearly as fast as ac
ross a wired connection, and this s e t u p w o n’ t w o r k v e r y w e l l f o
r streaming multimedia. But it’s a viable alternative in places where cable is
difficult to run. With your hardware pared down, it’s time to clean out your unn
ecessary software. First, create one last backup in case you need to recover a v
ital bit of data. Then reformat the PC’s hard
PHOTOGRAPHS: MARC SIMON
FIGURE 2: USE YOUR WIRELESS router as a network storage device via its USB port,
such as the one on the Linksys WRT350N.
JUNE 2007
89
HERE’S H OW
STORAGE TI PS
drive, or the drive partition that holds the operating system. Repartition the d
rive to create a partition solely for the operating system; set the size at the
minimum amount the OS requires, plus 1GB or so for a safety margin. Since you wo
n’t be installing many apps, this partition won’t need much extra storage. Rule
of thumb: 10GB is fine for Windows XP or Linux; 20GB will work for Windows Vista
. Partition the rest of your drive as you see fit for storing the actual shared
data. After you’ve finished repartitioning the drive, reinstall the operating sy
stem, enabling as few options as possible. Then remove the unnecessary apps and
services running in the background that you couldn’t opt out of during the insta
llation, such as Windows Messenger. This will save you some CPU cycles. If you u
ninstall the wrong app, you can
reinstall it via your Windows disc, but it’s a good idea to be cautious about re
moving Windows utilities. Adventurous and/or techn i c a l l y p r o fi c i e n
t u s e r s should consider a minimal Linux in stallation. Using Linux to serve
files to a Windows network ensures that your do-it-yourself NAS box won’t fall p
rey to a Windows-specific malware attack. I like Xubuntu for its small footprint
and friendly installation. FIGURE 3: ENTER YOUR ROUTER’S configuration program
After you connect your to set up your network storage device. NAS box to your ro
uter with an ethernet cable, you’ll want to con gprovide software utilities that
walk you ure the unit via the HTML setup applithrough the setup process—or you
can cation in its rmware, which opens in administer the unit directly. To do so
, your PC’s browser. Most NAS boxes open your browser, type 192.168.0.1 into the
address bar ( 192.168.1.1 for some Linksys routers, and 192.168.2.1 GET YOUR PC
-BASED NAS BOX READY TO SHARE for others), and press <Enter>. If you’re Windows
95 through 2000 as well; go to not sure of the IP address to use, open IF YOU PL
AN to convert a PC for your http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/ your router’s se
tup page and look in its NAS device, you must recon gure it and details.aspx?Fam
ilyID=80111f21-d48dquick-start guide for the correct de ne an area to store les
in. It will need address. Log in, locate your router’s a keyboard, a mouse, and
a display, which 426e-96c2-08aa2bd23a49&DisplayLan DHCP table, and note the add
ress of may not be practical to attach and use in g=en for the free download. yo
ur NAS box (it may be similar to a closet or other out-of-the-way location. If y
ou installed your OS on a small par‘192.168.0.120’; see FIGURE 3 ). The Windows
XP’s Remote Desktop Connectition and created one or more other entry name will l
ikely give you a clue as tion lets you configure and administer partitions for d
ata, XP lets you share to which device you’re looking for. the machine remotely,
so you can skip les by simply right-clicking a drive icon, (Hint: It’s the new
device on the netthe peripherals—though the BIOS in some choosing Properties•Sh
aring, and checkwork!) When in doubt, turn the device PCs requires that a keyboa
rd be attached ing Share this folder (see FIGURE 4; the off, look at the table,
turn it back on, unless you change this setting manually. option on some systems
is Share this and look for the new address in Remote Desktop Connection works w
ith folder on the network). (The context the table. menu’s ‘Sharing and SecuNext
, type the address of your NAS rity’ option invokes an unbox into your browser’s
address field related Windows utility.) and press <Enter>. You may be greeted M
ost routers use the deby a log-in screen demanding your user fa u l t W i n d ow
s g ro u p , name and password, which you’ll find named ‘MSHome’ or ‘Workin your
manual. More likely, you’ll have group’. If you have renamed to create a passwo
rd. Use the configuyours, you must reset it: In ration utility to handle such op
tions as XP right-click My Computer formatting and partitioning the device’s and
se lect Properties ; in drives, adding or deleting users who Vista right-click
Computer can access the drive, making folders and click Remote settings. public
or private to individuals or In both versions, se lect groups of users, joining
a workgroup, Computer Name• Change and setting RAID levels. and enter the workgr
oup FIGURE 4: SET YOUR NAS DEVICE to share its files by
enabling this option in its Properties dialog box.
and computer names.
—Jon L. Jacobi
90
JUNE 2007
CONTENT PAGE
H ERE’S HOW
the new shortcut. For a bigger view, click the down arrow next to Folders to col
lapse the pane. Drag and drop to rearrange items. To eliminate or rename a link,
right-click it and choose Remove (applications not designed for Vista Link or R
ename Link (or simply Rename). WINDOWS TIPS being a notable exception). To custo
mize Some links (including Desktop and there you are, rummaging in an this list,
locate the folder you want in the Computer) aren’t removable, but you ‘Open’ or
‘Save As’ dialog box, navigatFolders pane (below Favorite Links) on can customi
ze links in the file list by ing furiously through a maze of les and the left,
or select a folder or le in the clicking Links in the Folders tree that folders
in search of the one you need. appears below Favorite Links. Isn’t there a bett
er way? Glad you asked. These tips will get you where My Recent Documents: Most
le diayou’re going faster. log boxes have a History (Windows 2000), My Recent P
laces Bar: Array the two or three foldDocuments (XP), or Recent ers that you acc
ess most often on the Places (Vista) shortcut in Places Bar on the left side of
the dialog the Places Bar. Click it to box. (Windows’ Places Bar is separate see
a list of recently from the Places Bar in Of ce apps, so accessed les and fold
ers. changes to one won’t affect the other.) In Windows 2000 and XP, Another opt
ion: Put shortcuts to the you can lter the types of les in this folders and do
cuments you frequently list via the ‘Files of type’ drop-down use in a separate
folder, and then add menu at the bottom. In Vista, you a shortcut to this folder
o’ shortcuts FIGURE 1: CUSTOMIZE your favorite links in Vista can remove the cu
rrent batch of on the Places Bar. You’ll have to click dialog boxes instantly wi
th a simple drag and drop. shortcuts in Recent Places by rightat least once more
to select the one main file window in the center of the clicking the icon and c
hoosing Clear you want, but it’s still faster than digging dialog box; then drag
the item into Recent Items List. through layers of folders. Favorite Links unti
l a line appears In Vista, the Places Bar is called ‘File name’ drop-down: A sho
rter list of between two existing items (see FIGURE Favorite Links and is locate
d both in recently used les lies in the ‘File name’ 1 ). Release the mouse butt
on to create Explorer and in most le dialog boxes drop-down menu near the botto
m of the dialog box. Click the arrow to the right WI N D OWS TO O LB OX to see t
he path of recently accessed les. To lter this list by le type, select the ty
pe from the ‘Files of type’ drop-down http://pcworld.in/downloads/index.jsp/ lis
t (2000 and XP) or from the pop-up VISTA LETS YOU press the <Windows> dsecId=149
4/dsubSecId=1499. There is menu located to the right of the ‘File key, type a fe
w letters until a match to name’ box (Vista). your application of choice appears
, and also other helpful downloads like AcroTo open a recently used folder rathe
r then press <Enter> for a quick launch. If bat Reader 8.0. Surprisingly, consid
erthan a file, in Windows 2000 and XP, you aren’t yet ready to move to Vista ing
every manual and many marketing use the ‘File name’ drop-down menu to (or if yo
u use Vista’s Classic Start brochures are distributed this way, select a file lo
cated in the folder you menu), try Launchy, a free, open-source there’s no PDF r
eader built-in to Vista. need, press the right arrow key once to tool from Josh
Karlin. Press <Alt>Thankfully, Adobe has already made its deselect the text in t
he ‘File name’ box, Vista version of the free Acrobat Reader <Space> (or another
hot-key combinaand press <Backspace> as many times 8.0 available for download.
One of those tion of your choice) to pop open a comas necessary to delete the fi
le name, invaluable applications you’re bound to mand-line window; type a few le
tters, leaving only the path. Finally, press need. www.adobe.com and Launchy ant
icipates your target <Enter>. The file list above switches to On the other hand,
One of the main file, displaying it (and other alternathe desired folder. In Vi
sta, the dropways Microsoft will be pushing Vista is tives). When the file that
you want down list at the top of Explorer and appears in the window, press <Ente
r>. with its strengthened security setup. At most file dialog boxes displays the
full the core of its Security Center is Windows Launchy enables you to customiz
e the path to recently used folders and Web Defender, a two-way rewall that pro
vides directories it searches and the le types addresses. To return to one of t
hose antivirus protection and squishes both it shows, so you can use it to open
piclocations, just select the desired path spam and spyware. Download a free cop
y ture or music files as well as to run and away you go. for Windows XP at tinyu
rl.com/dyvaw. applications. Download Launchy at —Scott Dunn
The Fast Track to Your Favorite Files and Folders
Open Your Favorite Apps and Files Faster With Launchy
CONTENT PAGE
JUNE 2007
91
HERE’S HOW
Minimize Your VistaRelated Hardware Hassles
HARDWARE TIPS
when windows xp launched, some PCs and peripherals wouldn’t work with the new OS
because device drivers had not yet been written. The same is true for Vista. Wh
ether you plan to install Vista on your current PC, or to buy a Vista-equipped s
ystem to use with your existing peripherals, these tips will help smooth the tra
nsition. Study up beforehand: To run the barebones Vista Home Basic, Microsoft r
ecommends a CPU running at 1 GHz or faster, plus 512MB of RAM and 15GB of hard-d
rive space. Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate editions with the new Aero envi
ronment require at least 1GB of RAM, and for systems without integrated graphics
, a DirectX 9–capable graphics processor with 128MB of its own RAM, DirectX 9, a
nd a few other features. Go to www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/e
ditions/systemrequirements. mspx to read Microsoft’s Vista System Requirements.
Microsoft’s Vista Upgrade Advisor ( www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvi
sta/buyorupgrade/ upgradeadvisor.mspx) scans your PC to determine which editions
of Vista will run on it, and which of its hardware components are incompatible
with Vista. When I ran Upgrade Advisor on my year-old machine, the program found
no compatibility problems—but it did list ten components for which it had no da
ta, including the PC’s USB port.
You can also check Microsoft’s Hardware Compatibility List (http://winqual. micr
osoft.com/hcl/), or the Vista hardware list on IeXwiki (www.iexbeta.com/ wiki/in
dex.php/Windows_Vista_Hardware_Compatibility_List). Need to identify what compon
ents are in your system? The free Belarc Advisor utility ( http://pcworld.in/dow
nloads/index. jsp/dsecId=1494/dsubSecId=1497/ type=M) will quickly scan your PC
and identify all its hardware.
FIGURE 1: CHECK VISTA’S DEVICE Manager for peripherals or devices the OS conside
rs problematic—they’ll be flagged as shown.
If Vista doesn’t support one of your PC’s components, look for updated Vista dri
vers on the vendor’s Web site. If you can’t find them, the drivers may still be
in
HELP YOUR COMPUTER BEAT THE SUMMER’S HEAT
DOES THE SUMMER sun leave your system a little hot under the collar? Antec’s Rs.
900 SpotCool (http://www.antec. com/us/productDetails. php?ProdID=75018) may be
just what your machine needs to keep cool and quiet. SpotCool’s three-speed fan
is less than 3 inches in diameter; it attaches to any motherboard mounting hole
and draws power from an open three-pin connector on your board. The fan’s exib
le arm lets you focus its cooling air current on your CPU, graphics card, or oth
er internal component.
development—so ask the company about it. RadarSync, a device driver update servi
ce, has created a list of links to Vista drivers at http://www.radarsync. com/vi
sta/. After you have identified which drivers lack Vista equivalents, copy the X
P versions to a CD or anyplace you can easily access them once you’ve installed
Vista. Make sure you have your network drivers handy so you can go online and do
wnload other device drivers and updates. Be prepared for trouble: Back up your o
ld XP installation to a second hard drive or to a different partition on your ma
in drive so you can revert to XP if something goes wrong with Vista. (What can g
o wrong? One possibility: A PC World editor found that, after installing Vista o
n his home PC, he could no longer log in to the of ce network because no Vista v
ersion of the Cisco VPN client existed.) As an alternative to doing a complete b
ackup on a separate hard drive, use a drive-image program such as the Rs. 1,800
Acronis True Image 10 ( http://www.pcworld. com/product/pricing/prtprdid,3372481
7-sortby,retailer/pricing. html ) to burn an image of your XP installation onto
recordable DVDs. Browse to http://lifehacker.com/software/top/windows-vista-beta
-how-todual-boot-windows-xp-and-windowsvista-179906.php for instructions on inst
alling both versions of Windows on a PC set to dual-boot. Once you’ve installed
Vista, open Device Manager to check for problems: Right-click the Computer icon
and choose Manage•Device Manager. Nonfunctioning devices are agged with an excl
amation point in a yellow triangle (see FIGURE 1). If Windows can’t find a drive
r, it may list the device as ‘Unknown Device’ under ‘Other devices’. HunterSoft’
s free Unknown Device Identifier utility helps you find the name of the mystery
hardware (http://www.zhangduo.com/ udi.html). — Kirk Steers
92
JUNE 2007
CONTENT PAGE
H ERE’S HOW
Block Spying Cookies, But Keep the Helpful Ones
ANSWER LINE
IS THERE A way to tell which of the cookies on my PC are helping, and which ones
are spying?
a cookie is merely a small le that a Web site puts on your PC to identify you,
or to store information about you or your computer, such as your IP address. The
good ones save you the trouble of logging on to the site on return visits, a bi
g help if you use subscription news services such as that of the New York Times
(nytimes.com). The bad cookies are placed by ad companies that pay for the right
to place advertising on the sites’ pages (some sites also leave their own ad co
okies). These les track your visits to pages that display their clients’ ads (o
r their own), and they may tailor FIGURE 1: SET INTERNET EXPLORER to allow first
the ads you see to your browsing hisparty cookies but block all third-party cook
ies. tory. Over time, cookies can reveal In the Advanced Privacy Settings dialog
your browsing habits, though standard box, check Override automatic cookie hana
d cookies, like those that DoubleClick dling (see FIGURE 1 ). Under ‘First-party
uses, can’t attach a name to a specific Cookies’, select Accept; under ‘Thirdsu
r ng trail. party Cookies’, choose Block. Ignore the That means, if you wipe out
your cooksession cookies option. Click OK twice. ies as soon as you close your
browser, the
MYTH BUSTER
ad networks never get a chance to track your sur ng from session to session. Int
ernet Explorer 6 and 7 and Firefox 1.x and 2 have good cookie-handling procedure
s. IE lets you keep rst-party cookies (left by the site you’re visiting) but bl
ock those from third parties: Select Tools•Internet Options•Privacy•Advanced.
Firefox 2 can accept, and regularly wipe away, any cookie you haven’t explicitly
told it to keep: Click Tools•Options•Privacy, check Accept cookies from sites,
and in the ‘Keep until’ drop-down box, select I close Firefox. To keep cookies f
rom a few trusted sites, click Exceptions, and in the dialog box, enter the URLs
of the sites whose rst-party cookies you wish to keep in the ‘Address of web s
ite’ eld. Click Allow for each, and when you’re done, click Close and OK. If yo
u’re using Firefox 1.5, click Tools•Options•Privacy•Cookies , check Allow sites
to set cookies , and choose for the originating site only. Many security program
s, including Norton Internet Security, PCCillin, and Ad-Aware, also identify and
destroy known spying cookies.
DISABLE THE WINDOWS KEY
I’M A COMPUTER gamer. Accidentally hitting the Windows key in the middle of a ga
me is a disaster. Can I disable it?
Dual core CPUs are twice as fast as single core CPUs
REALITY: DUAL CORE CPU does not necessarily mean double the performance over a s
ingle-core. Bene ts from a dual core can be seen only with applications that sup
port it. Today you can expect multimedia creation software to be faster by up to
50 percent compared to similarly clocked single cores. Note that the bene t is
restricted to audio/video encoding and decoding and certain games. However, offi
ce suites, browsers, media-players (for non HD playback) will hardly make use of
the second processor. Hence for most general use as of today, a single core CPU
should suffice. With multi-core support in the latest operating systems like Wi
ndows Vista, dual cores will yield smoother multitasking as the OS itself will s
plit tasks to the two cores. If you are upgrading from an old platform or buildi
ng a new system altogether, dual core is the way to go. However, if you already
have a single core CPU that is only about a year old or so, an upgrade to a simi
lar clocked dual core will not double your performance overnight. —Soham Raninga
you c a n w i t h a little Registry tweaking. But back up the Registry rst; see
the boxed item at lower left for details. Once the Registry is backed up, selec
t Start•Run (just Start in Vista), type regedit, and press <Enter>. In the left
pane, navigate to and select HKEY_ LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro
l\Keyboard Layout (this is not to be confused with the ‘Keyboard Layouts’ option
just beneath it). Click Edit•New•Binary Value, name the new value Scancode Map,
and then doubleclick it. Enter the code below, which will wrap automatically as
shown here: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 00 00 5B E0 00 00 5C E0 00 00 0
0 00 Click OK , close the Registry Editor, and reboot Windows. Your Windows key
will be no more. If you want to disable the Windows key only for specific applic
ations, try the free WinKey Killer utility ( http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3
04.html).
Answer Line is anchored by contributing editor Lincoln Spector. Send in your que
ries to answeline@pcworld.in.
CONTENT PAGE
JUNE 2007
93
INSIDE
SOFTWARE REVIEWS
D U M M Y E D IH A N D P I C K EL P A N A D IT T EF R O M T HR AD V D T E D BY K
A D G O O E E S N S O N & E M O N
99
PREVIEW ■ Tech Videos ■ Ubuntu and Kubuntu Linux
102 WHAT’S ON DVD 8GB of fun, freebies and power tools
For a Healthy PC...
USE THESE FREE SOFTWARE BUNDLED IN THE DVD FOR SYSTEM MAINTENANCE.
just like your body, or for that matter your car, your PC also requires care to
ensure that it works reliably and springs no unpleasant surprises when your work
is dependent on it. On every PC World DVD we include software in the PC World S
uper Suite that can be used for tasks collectively called system maintenance – s
ecurity software, registry cleaners, defragmenting tools, patches, etc. This mon
th, our Fantastic Freebies collection also has many system software. Here is a p
review of just some of those utilities.
Ad-Aware and Spybot-S&D:
These are the two most famous spyware removal tools that we include in our PC Wo
rld Super Suite. The Internet is getting increasingly plagued by spyware and tro
jans which can harm your computer by merely tracking your surfing habits
and popping up annoying ads, to slowing down your PC and even crashing it. The f
act that damages from spyware are incidental rather than intentional unlike viru
ses does not make them any bit more desirable! We recommend using both these too
ls to scan
your PC and keep it clean, as one of them might catch a malicious file that the
other missed out on. Although we try and include updates on a regular basis, we
suggest you upgrade them on a weekly basis or enable autoupdate on them. Also, n
ote
that using anti-spyware must be in conjunction with an anti-virus tool. Cobian B
ackup: It is a multithreaded program that can be used to schedule and backup you
r les and directories from their original location to other directories or driv
es in the same computer or another in your network. If you are wondering why a b
ackup utility is discussed here, let us tell you that any system is prone to fai
lure and taking adequate precautions with security and other tools can only redu
ce chances of failure and not eliminate it. Thus it is a smart idea to backup im
portant data to a secondary hard disk, another PC on the network, a pen drive or
even the Internet (a FTP site can be very handy) Cobian supports FTP backup in
both directions (download and upload). The program uses
98
JUNE 2007
CONTENT PAGE
ILLUSTRATION: ANIL T
SOFTWARE
FREE STUF F
very few resources and can be running on the background on your system, checking
your backup schedule and executing your backups when necessary. Cobian Backup s
upports several methods of compression and strong encryption. KillProcess: You w
ould have come across an application that simply refuses to close, forcing you t
o use the Ctrl+Alt+Del option. Sometimes you see names of running processes that
you dont recognize and wonder if it belongs to a legitimate application or if i
t is a malware. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could google it up in one straight st
ep? KillProcess is an application which can do that, and a lot more. You can eve
n create lists of processes that you want to keep or delete. If you understand
Windows better and are ing software that are willing to risk an abrupt included
on the DVD. restart, you can even shut Most applications use down system service
s. the registry to store configuration and TweakVI: Microsoft’s other important
data. TweakUI for Windows XP When you install an was and is still a hit with app
lication, new regisusers who wanted to ne try entries will be cretune the opera
ting system ated and not all of them including some performget removed when you
ance related settings. And uninstall the applicanow a similar tool exists tion.
In due course, for Vista users in the name your registry will be left of, well,
TweakVI, the V presumably standing for SPYBOT S&D SCANS your system for malware
with a lot of unnecessary data which increasVista. This time however and removes
them after your confirmation. es the registry size and the software is made not
for free while extra plugins can results in a slower PC. Use by Microsoft, but
a company be purchased. This is a recomthese free registry cleaners called Total
idea. Amongst sevmended software for serious to remove invalid registry eral oth
er things, you can creVista tweakers. entries. With either of the ate a RAM driv
e, clean up the applications, make sure you registry and optimise RAM, TweakNow
RegCleaner Standback up your registry before etc. The main application and ard a
nd Clean My Registry: doing anything else. a set of 13 plugins are available The
se are two registry clean-
PC World Exclusive Tech Videos
TECH REVIEWS
every month, PC World brings exclusive videos produced by the IDG network, inclu
ding PC World teams from across the globe. These videos include reviews, product
launches, technology previews, coverage of international meets like CeBIT and e
ven how-to’s. This month, we treat you to 10 tech videos that let you have a gli
mpse of today and tomorrow’s technology. Video Review of Sony’s T100 camera: The
8.1MP compact digital camera has a 3 inch display which when coupled with the b
rush aluminum exterior lends the camera a nice look.
You don’t need to spend too much time wiping data off, and here is a tutorial th
at tells you exactly how to do it.
Games for Windows Live:
FIND THE VIDEO review of the Sony T100 in PCW World’s Tech Videos.
Microsoft Forefront line of software is designed to integrate into existing IT i
nfrastructure and increase security in businesses and enable secure access to re
sources on a network. The product has been under testing for a year now and is e
xpected to be available by end of June. Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft talks
about the entry of the company into the Security business. Tutorial : Safely wip
e data off your hard drive: Most people do not bother to permanently remove sens
itive les from hard disks and other storage devices before disposing or giving
them away. It is possible that this data could fall into wrong hands.
Microsoft plans to create a gaming platform to bring together the Xbox and the P
C. Also glimpse game play from Shadowrun from Microsoft’s game studios. Optimus
Keyboard: The much awaited Optimus keyboard that can be user customized and has
OLED display to show functions of each key. The creator, Artemy Lebedev speaks o
n his creation. UMPCs still need to come of age: Battery life, graphic capabilit
ies and connectivity all have to improve for Ultra Mobile PCs to be a bigger hit
. Acer president speaks about the future for UMPCs.
CONTENT PAGE
JUNE 2007
99
F REE ST UFF
SOFTWARE
Ubuntu
LINUX
ubuntu needs no introduction unless you are a complete Linux newbie. Ubuntu is o
ne of the most easy to install and use Linux distributions around. If you are co
nsidering moving to or dual booting with Linux, Ubuntu is a great way to start.
The June PC World DVD is bootable with Ubuntu for 32 bit systems. The DVD also c
ontains ISO (CD image) les of the 64bit version as well as Kubuntu for 32 bit a
nd 64 bit versions. These ISO les can be found in the \Data\Full Products folde
r on the DVD.
ABOUT UBUNTU
and for KDE fans, there is a avor called Kubuntu. There is also the Xubuntu tha
t uses the Ubuntu base and the Xfce deskop environment which is typically a ligh
tweight desktop environment suitable for lower-end systems.
LIVE CD AND INSTALLATION
Similarly, the GIMP for image editing can be found under Applications > Graphics
.
SOME APPLICATIONS IN UBUNTU
ubuntu is an African word meaning ‘Humanity to others’. Its makers, Canonical cl
aim they want to bring the spirit of Ubuntu to the software world and will conti
nue to offer Ubuntu for free. A desktop and server release is scheduled every si
x months with the latest being the 7.04 version. Ubuntu integrates the GNOME des
ktop environment
to install Ubuntu (32 bit) just place the DVD in your drive and boot the PC with
the first boot device set as DVD drive. From then on it is pretty much intuitiv
e – the live CD allows you to sample the operating system and then installer gui
des you through the installation process. Like all other Linux distros, this one
too does not kill your existing Windows (unless you ask it to or accidentally d
elete the Windows partition yourself!) and will enable you to have a multiboot s
ystem. For greatest ease of installation, move clear an an existing partition by
moving data elsewhere. Then, you can simply ask Ubuntu installer to format and
use this free space for
FEATURE PACKED AND easy to install, Ubuntu is a must try if you want a Windows a
lternative.
itself. You also need to set aside a smaller (about 1.5GB) partition for a swap
partition. With this preparation, the installation will be pretty much straightf
orward.
MIGRATING FROM WINDOWS
a handy tool in this release is the inclusion of a Migration Tool on the Live CD
that can import your Windows XP’s Documents and Settings (documents, email, des
ktop, settings) for use in Ubuntu. This means, you can more or less ‘continue’ w
orking with Ubuntu after switching from Windows, rather than spend time setting
up your account from scratch.
WORKING WITH UBUNTU
WALLPAPER CONTEST
Bring out the shutter bug in you! Every month we carry on the DVD wallpapers con
tributed by readers as well as some inhouse creations. If you think your photogr
aphy or illustration can adorn others’ desktop, do send us a sample of your work
to contests@pcworld.in. Photographs can have any subject except persons or chil
dren (silhouette shots are OK). You may send us the photo as shot by you or crop
it to 1024 x 768 resolution. Adjusting levels or applying lters is also permit
ted, but do let us know of the post-processing done. WINNERS CAN EXPECT GOODIES
INCLUDING FREE SUBSCRIPTIONS!
ubuntu’s navigation will not leave the first timer user lost. At the top left of
the screen you will find the menus for Application, Places and System. Under th
ese, you have sub-menus or items leading to various tasks. For example, if you w
ant to use OpenOffice that is bundled with Ubuntu, you will nd it under Applica
tions > Of ce.
just like Windows XP can run only those applications that are written for it, so
also is the case with Linux- you need applications that are written to work und
er Linux. Thankfully, this is hardly a problem as there are literally 1000s of s
oftware available for download. By default, the OpenOf ce suite is installed (Ku
buntu installs Koffice) and you can choose to install other applications like Ab
iword, Scribus (a page layout software) GnuCash (personal money management softw
are), etc. For multimedia playback U b u n t u i n s t a l l s To t e m , the of
ficial movie player of GNOME, Sound Juicer (a CD ripping tool), and Serpentine (
a CD burning tool). On Kubuntu, you get AmarocK for music playback and Kaffeine
for video; K3b for CD and DVD authoring – these apart you can manually choose to
install other software like VLC Media Player as well. This is a only brief intr
oduction to a worthy Windows alternative. Of cial as well as community documenta
tion can be found at help.ubuntu.com
Installation Details
System Requirements:
■
Live CD requires at least 25 6 M B R A M , I n s t a l l requires 2GB disk space
.
100
JUNE 2007
CONTENT PAGE
J
U
N
E
2
0
0
7
LINUX
Ubuntu ( for 32 bit and 64 bit systems ) Kubuntu ( for 32 bit and 64 bit systems
)
Ubuntu is a great way to start off a tryst with Linux. The PC World June 2007 DV
D is bootable with Ubuntu 32 bit edition while ISO (image) les for Ubuntu 64 bi
t and the KDE avor – Kubuntu (32 and 64 bit) are found in the DVD.
F R E E WA R E
50+ Fantastic Freebies
This is a collection of some of the most loved free software out there today. Fr
om anti-virus to browsers to of ce suites, there is everything that you need for
fun and utility.
E SS E N TI A L S
PC World Super Suite
1.7GB of software including Windows patches, codes, multi-media players and edit
ing tools etc...
TECH VIDOES
10 Exclusive Tech Videos
Catch a sneak peek at products and technology of today and tomorrow with tech vi
deos, complete with a video review of Sony’s T100 8.1MP camera.
E N T E R TA I N M E N T
The Scene : Season 2
All 19 episodes of The Scene, a show that is distributed on the Internet. The st
ory is about a group of ‘sceaners’ whose interest lies in acquiring movies and m
usic before their release and then distributing them freely on the net.
LEISURE
PC World Wallpapers
Images contributed by readers as well as in-house creations. Let creative ow on
your desktop
Game Demo and Vids
The Secrets of Da Vinci: The Forbidden Manuscript Uncover the secrets hidden in
the Master’s last residence.
Stonghold 2
A RTS game set in the medieval age.
FULL PRODUCT
CC3 - Behind the scenes MacWorld
The current and complete edition of MacWorld in PDF. For all you Apple fan Some
behind the scene footage of Command + Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars (you can nd the g
ame demo on the April 2007 DVD).
102
JUNE 2007
CONTENT PAGE
CONTENT PAGE
MARCH 2007
103
Incorporating Mac User
CONTENTS June 2007
ON THE
OPINION
DVD
From the Editor’s Desk
I’ve been waiting for a device like the Apple TV for years. Now that it’s here,
here’s what I think.
Feedback
Readers respond.
ON THE
MAC BEAT
DVD
Inside the Apple Stores
What’s behind six years of retail success?
EMI Offers DRM-Free Music on iTunes
Higher-quality tracks come with a higher price tag.
Wilkes University Moves to Macs
Pennsylvania school dumps PCs in favor of Intel Macs.
Hot Stuff
Check out the cool products we’re into right now.
ON THE
REVIEWS
DVD
Spam Fighters
What can you do about the junk e-mail that clogs your inbox? We go out on a ques
t for software that helps you fight the good fight.
macworld.com/reviews
We’re constantly reviewing the latest Mac hardware and software on Macworld.com.
Here are quick summaries of this month’s online exclusives.
Top Products
Looking for a new printer, monitor, digital camera, or other hardware? Check out
our current favorites, as well as a complete listing of all current Macs and iP
ods.
ADD MORE STORAGE TO ANY MAC p. 60
www.macworld.com | May 2007
The Mac Experts
Mac Gems
Put some serious style in your text, easily follow up on sent e-mail messages, c
onnect almost any drive via USB, and silence your Mac’s startup sounds.
The Ultimate PC
It’s a Mac!
Run OS X and Windows Together Build the Perfect Home Office Why Mac Users Should
n’t Fear Microsoft
On the Cover
Photograph by Peter Belanger
PLUS:
$6.99 U.S./$7.99 CANADA
Adobe CS3 | AirPort Extreme
104
JUNE 2007
CONTENT PAGE
CONTENTS
June 2007
106
COVER STORY
Apple TV: Ready for Prime Time?
With its new entertainment hub, Apple is hoping to change the way you watchTV. W
e’ll show you how to set it up and tell you if it’s worth the effort.
ON THE
FEATURES
DVD
State of the Mac
How reliable are Macs? How happy are their owners? We surveyed Macworld readers
about what they like—and don’t like—about their Macs.
ON THE
SECRETS
DVD
Working Mac
Being energy efficient isn’t just good for the environment—it’s good for your wa
llet. Here’s how to go green with your Mac.
Apple TV: Ready for Prime Time?
Playlist
Get in shape with Apple’s iPod and some great fitness accessories.
! ear iG
Term
ina l C1 6
Digital Photo
Even if you’re not a high-end photographer, these strategies can help you benefi
t from the slick features in Apple’s Aperture.
MAC CLASS
Ter min
al C1 6
Mobile Mac
Get rid of—and prevent—screen smudges, chipped paint, and other unsightly blemis
hes on your portable Mac.
State of the Mac
Geek Factor
Put your Mac Pro’s four hard-drive slots to use by setting up a RAID array and b
oosting performance.
ON THE
MACWORLD.COM’S TOP 5
The top 5 stories on Macworld.com are: France Bans Citizen Journalists from Repo
rting Violence The French Constitutional Council makes it a crime for people oth
er than professional journalists to film acts of violence (macworld.com/2677). A
pple to Hold Special Event at NAB Apple announces plans to hold a special event
at the National Association of Broadcasters trade show (macworld.com/2678). Appl
e Releases Mac OS X 10.4.9 Apple rolls out its latest OS update for PowerPC and
Intel-based Macs (macworld.com/2679). Adobe to Release Two Versions of Photoshop
CS3 Latest Photoshop update will come in two flavors: standard and extended (ma
cworld.com/2684). PC World: Apple TV Just Plain Works Our colleagues at PC World
take a look at the Apple TV and find it easy to use (macworld.com/2680).
HELP DESK
DVD
Mac OS X Hints
Set Office zoom levels quickly, insert line breaks into iTunes Comments field, p
rivatize your PDFs, and customize OS X’s alert sounds.
1
Mac 911
Clear out iPhoto’s trash, make Microsoft Word multilingual, remove Spotlight fro
m the menu bar, and more.
ON THE
BACK PAGE
DVD
Spotlight
Between Apple’s recent triumphs (the iPod, the Intel transition, and the iPhone)
and Microsoft’s stumbles (hello, Vista), Christopher Breen feels that there’s b
een a big shift in the way folks think about the Mac.
2 3 4 5
(Ranking valid as of April 4, 2007.)
CONTENT PAGE
JUNE 2007
105
Ready for Prime Time
What you need to know about Apple’s new entertainment hub. Plus: the Macworld re
view.
I
106
W W W. P C W O R L D . I N M AY 2 0 0 7
n October 2005, Apple demonstrated its interest in selling video content alongsi
de its digital music offerings by adding TV shows to the iTunes Store. Great as
it might have been to watch these programs on a computer or—in very small form—o
n an iPod, most people prefer viewing digital diversions from the comfort of a c
ouch. When the company augmented
the store’s catalog in September 2006 with full-length movies, it became clear t
hat Apple’s interest in the video business was no mere irtation. That same day,
Apple committed to digital content with the unveiling of what’s now called the
Apple TV, a simple piece of hardware that gives your iTunes content— movies, TV
shows, music, photos, and podcasts—new life on your TV. Now that it’s nally her
e, we’ve put the Apple TV through its paces to learn how you can make the most o
f this intriguing digital device. Our hands-on guide walks you through setting u
p and working with the Apple TV (and don’t miss the review on page XX).
By Christopher Breen
PHOTOGRAPHY BY
PETER BELANGER
CONTENT PAGE
SAMPLE ARTICLE
Also on
Resize Partitions On-the-Fly
CONTENT PAGE
JUNE 2007
107
FEATURE Apple TV
Out of the Box
The Apple TV box is a neat and tidy package that includes the device itself, a p
ower cord (the power supply is built into the device rather than part of an exte
rnal power brick), a 47-page user’s guide, some ne-print documentation you prob
ably won’t read, the customary white Apple stickers, and the same Apple Remote t
hat ships with most current Macs. Not included with the Apple TV are cables for
connecting the device to your TV, so you’ll have to provide your own (see “What
You Need” for more information on out tting your Apple TV with the necessary acc
outrements). Given that Apple would have to bundle ve cables to satisfy the mos
t common connections— HDMI to HDMI, DVI to HDMI, component video, analog audio,
and Toslink digital audio—this omission doesn’t surprise me. At about 7.75-inche
s square and just over an inch tall, the Apple TV’s footprint is a bit larger th
an the Mac mini’s. Arrayed across the back are power, USB 2.0, Ethernet, HDMI, c
omponent video, analog audio, and optical digital audio ports (for help decipher
ing these and other terms common in the world of high de nition video, see our g
lossary in “Picking an HDTV”). The front of the device bears a single light that
can shine or ash white or amber. The purpose of all of these ports is pretty c
lear, barring the USB 2.0 port. Apple tells us that the USB port is not for user
s; rather, Apple will employ the port to conduct repairs on your Apple TV in the
event it needs them. You can’t connect an iPod or a hard drive to the USB port.
That’s the story—at least for now. But I wouldn’t be surprised if a future upda
te to the Apple TV brings other capabilities to that port.
iTunes Interface You decide which content you want to sync to the Apple TV via s
ix tabs in iTunes.
Getting Started
Setting up the Apple TV is almost child’s play. I plugged the power cord into th
e back of the Apple TV and into an outlet. I strung an HDMI cable between the ap
propriate port on the Apple TV and one of the HDMI ports on my Panasonic TH-42PX
60U 42inch plasma TV. (The Apple TV will output video to enhanced de nition [ED]
or high de nition [HD] TVs at 1,080i 60/50Hz, 720p 60/50Hz, 576p 50Hz [PAL form
at], and 480p 60Hz. And while it isn’t listed among Apple’s speci cations, the A
pple TV also supports 480i—so it will work with standard de nition [SD] TVs that
sport component connectors.) Using the TV’s remote, I selected the proper input
and, in short order, there appeared the white Apple logo on a black background.
HDMI connections just work. But if you use component video, you’ll be prompted
to select the video output format for your TV (depending on your speci c setup,
you may have a few more steps to take than I did).
Streaming PIN Connecting to the Apple TV requires you to enter a fivedigit code
into iTunes.
Much like when you install OS X, you’ll then see a Language screen where you pic
k from among 15 languages, using the Apple Remote. When you make selections and
press the play/pause button, you hear the same cute “clunk” sound that Apple’s F
ront Row uses. Connecting the Apple TV to your TV is only part of the setup—the
device also needs to communicate with iTunes 7.1 or later on your Mac (or on a W
indows PC). If you’ve plugged a cable into the 10/100Base-T Ethernet port on the
back, the Apple TV will check there rst for a viable network connection. If it
nds one, it’ll attach itself to the network and attempt to use DHCP. (If you m
anually assign IP addresses to your gear, you can do this as well.) Otherwise, t
he Apple TV then searches for wireless networks, using its built-in 802.11b, 802
.11g, and 802.11n wireless capabilities. The Apple TV lists every wireless acces
s point it can nd. Just use the Apple Remote to select the one you want and the
n press the play/ pause button—you’re nearly ready to go. (You’ll also see an Ot
her entry in the list of wireless access points. Select this, and you can con gu
re wireless devices that are hidden from public discovery by using the on-screen
keyboard to enter the name of the access point.) Most wireless routers automati
cally assign IP addresses to your networked devices via DHCP. Choose Using DHCP
in the Network Setup screen, and then press the play/
108
JUNE 2007
CONTENT PAGE
SAMPLE ARTICLE
pause button. The router will establish a connection. If you need to enter an IP
and subnet address manually, choose that option and a screen for doing so appea
rs. You’ll see 12 blanks for the IP numbers: use the Apple Remote’s plus (+) and
minus (–) buttons to change the selected number, and then use the forward butto
n to select other blanks. Likewise, for secure networks, you’ll be asked to ente
r your password via an onscreen keyboard. In my case, I have a wireless 802.11n
network setup, using the latest AirPort Extreme Base Station. It found the base
station in just seconds. The Apple TV displayed its name and the name of my olde
r 802.11g AirPort Extreme Base Station. I selected the 802.11n network, and I wa
s in business.
What You Need
Also on
Resize Partitions For $299, you can buy Apple’s cool new digital On-the-Fly devi
ce, but you won’t nd many accessories in the box. Besides the Apple TV itself,
you get a power cable, the Apple Remote, and a user’s manual. So what else do yo
u need to start using—and getting the most out of—it? Here’s a quick checklist.
Talking to iTunes
Once you’ve made the connection to your network, it’s time for the Apple TV to s
peak with its partner, iTunes. The Apple TV initiates this process by displaying
a screen with a 5-digit PIN. Your job is to go to the computer that you plan to
use to sync content with the Apple TV, select the Apple TV entry in iTunes’ Sou
rce list, and enter the Apple TV’s PIN in the space allotted. Syncing You’re all
owed to sync an Apple TV’s internal 40GB hard drive (33GB of which is available
to you) with one computer, so the computer isn’t necessary for playback. Apple s
ays that the Apple TV’s hard drive will hold as many as 50 hours of video (based
on 1.5-Mbps H.264-encoded video at a resolution of 640 by 480, with 128Kbps ste
reo audio), as many as 9,000 audio tracks (with an average of four minutes per s
ong and AAC encoded at 128 Kbps), or as many as 25,000 pictures (JPEG, BMP, GIF,
TIFF, and PNG images are supported, but
CABLE PHOTOGRAPHS BY PETER BELANGER
TIP power button on the Apple TV,
but if you want to give it a rest, you don’t need to pull the plug. Instead, pre
ss and hold the Apple Remote’s play/pause button to put the Apple TV into a powe
r-saving standby mode.
Power Down There’s no
Wide-Screen TV The Apple TV is meant to work with certain types of TVs— speci ca
lly, widescreen EDTVs or HDTVs capable of at least 480p resolution with HDMI, DV
I, or component video connections. So if you don’t have such a set, you may need
a new TV (see “Picking an HDTV” for advice and recommendations). Although Apple
doesn’t really say so, you can use the Apple TV with an SDTV (480i), as long as
it has component video inputs. These TVs aren’t very common, but several Macwor
ld readers have reported that they own them. Audio and Video Cables You’ll need
either one or two cables, depending on your particular setup. If your TV has a f
ree HDMI port, an HDMI-to-HDMI cable will carry both digital video and digital a
udio signals from the Apple TV to your TV. Otherwise, you can use an HDMI-toDVI
cable if your TV has a DVI port, or component video cables (highquality analog c
ables that split into three parts, colored green, blue, and Analog audio red). T
he latter two options don’t carry audio, so you’ll need separate audio connectio
ns. If your multimedia stereo system has an optical digital audio port, use a To
slink cable. Otherwise, standard RCA-style red and white Toslink digital audio a
nalog audio cables will do the trick. Even people using HDMI may want to use a T
oslink audio cable to hear sound through a stereo (especially if they don’t have
an easy way to route sound from their TV to the stereo). Apple has partnered wi
th XtremeMac to sell each of these types of cables at very HDMI reasonable price
s ($20 for each cable except analog audio, which costs $15). The cables are avai
lable from Apple’s brick-and-mortar and online stores (see mac world.com/2690 fo
r more on the XtremeMac cables). HDMI Switchers Speaking of cables, many TVs tha
t have the allDVI digital HDMI connection usually have one or maybe two such por
ts. If you’re already using your TV’s HDMI ports for other devices (a Series3 Ti
Vo or Playstation 3, for example), you’re not out of luck. Products such as Xtre
meMac’s $100 HDMI Switcher will let you connect several HDMI devices to your TV
and pick which one you want displayed at a given time. Component video Computer
and Network You’ll also need a computer and a way of connecting the Apple TV to
your network in order to transfer and stream content. That means a Mac running O
S X 10.3.9 or later, or a PC running Windows XP Home or Professional with Servic
e Pack 2 (currently, Vista is not of cially supported) and running iTunes 7.1 or
later. Then you can directly connect an Ethernet cable from a router or hub to
the Apple TV’s 10/100Base-T Ethernet port, or use its built-in wireless abilitie
s (the Apple TV supports 802.11b, g, and n) to connect to a wireless router such
as an AirPort Extreme Base Station. For music streaming, 802.11b might be OK, b
ut 802.11g or 802.11n are better for video streaming. And of course, the speeds
of transferring data to the Apple TV will depend greatly on your connection spee
d. Compatible Content Finally, you’ll need content. Once you pair the Apple TV w
ith your computer, you should be able to play most things in your iTunes library
. That includes music, movies, TV shows, and podcasts downloaded from the iTunes
Store. It will also work with AAC, MP3, Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV les that
you’ve imported yourself, as well as with MPEG-4 and H.264 video that you’ve en
coded in QuickTime or similar programs, and that fall within the supported param
eters (see the Apple TV tech speci cations at macworld.com/2685for complete deta
ils). —JONATHAN SEFF
The XtremeMac HDMI Switcher
CONTENT PAGE
JUNE 2007
109
FEATURE Apple TV
Gain Control Once you add an Apple TV to your home entertainment system, the App
le Remote will probably join half a dozen other remotes on your coffee table. To
cut the clutter, consider a programmable remote such as those in Logitech’s Har
mony line (www.logitech.com). With a little effort, you can program them to use
your Mac to control every device in your TV cabinet—including the Apple TV.
TIP
Movies Menu The Apple TV’s main interface starts with movies but gives you acces
s to all your content.
For more Apple TV coverage, visit macworld.com/
2687
Ports Galore The Apple TV has all the ports you’d expect from a modern digital d
evice: from left to right, you’ll find power, USB 2.0, Ethernet, HDMI, component
video, analog audio, and optical digital audio connections.
110
JUNE 2007
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APPLE TV PHOTOGRAPH BY PETER BELANGER
not Raw). The Apple TV can play video encoded as MPEG-4 and H.264, and it suppor
ts the same audio formats that iTunes does (AIFF, WAV, MP3, AAC, and Apple Lossl
ess). Unlike with an iPod, you can’t manually drag items from your iTunes librar
y to your Apple TV. You must con gure everything via the Movies, TV Shows, Music
, Podcasts, and Photos tabs in the Apple TV preferences within iTunes to determi
ne how content makes its way to your Apple TV. (The Apple TV prioritizes your me
dia, rst syncing movies, then TV shows, music, podcasts, and, nally, photos.)
You can ask the Apple TV to sync all your content or selected playlists, or to o
mit certain types (no movies, for example). For photos on a Mac, you can sync JP
EG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, and PNG les from iPhoto, your Pictures folder, or a folder
of your choice. On a Win-
dows PC, you can sync photos from a supported photo application such as Photosho
p Elements, your My Pictures folder, or a folder of your choice. Note that when
you connect to iTunes the rst time, the Apple TV will need to connect to the In
ternet to become authorized to play that account’s protected content (the Apple
TV doesn’t count as one of the ve computers that can play such content, however
). To help manage your media les, iTunes provides shortcuts for choosing subset
s of them. For example, you can choose to sync just TV shows, or request that on
ly the most recent one, three, ve, or ten unwatched movies or TV shows sync wit
h the device. In such a scenario, once the movie or show has played through, it’
s bumped off the list and deleted from the Apple TV, and then iTunes adds the ne
xt unwatched video. Because the Apple TV and iTunes are in constant communicatio
n, there’s no need to press a sync button to make this happen. Syncing is fastes
t via Ethernet but will also work wirelessly (for more on syncing speeds, see “S
taying in Sync”). You can monitor syncing from the Apple TV’s Sources screen and
select Apple TV. On the left of the screen, you’ll
see a picture of the Apple TV and a progress bar beneath. It will tell you what
it’s copying and how much it has copied—Copying 251 of 589, for example. If you
move to the Apple TV’s main screen, you’ll see a turning gear icon next to the c
ategory of media it’s syncing— Movies or TV Shows, for example. You’ll see this
same information when you choose Syncing from the Sources screen. iTunes will sh
ow you what it’s doing in the information pane at the top of the window. Streami
ng As anyone with even a moderately sized iTunes library knows, 33GB isn’t a lot
of space—especially when it comes to movies and TV shows (for information on up
grading your Apple TV’s hard drive, go to macworld. com/2686). Luckily, the Appl
e TV can also stream content from up to ve computers. You can always stream con
tent from the Mac to which the Apple TV is already synced. But to set up streami
ng for a new Mac, navigate to the Sources menu on the Apple TV and select Connec
t To New iTunes. A new PIN appears on your TV. Enter this PIN into the
FIND IT ONLINE
SAMPLE ARTICLE
Picking an HDTV
HDTVs use many different technologies to produce images. Tube HDTVs use CRTs (ca
thode-ray tubes), as do traditional TVs and computer monitors. Flatscreen TVs us
e either LCD (liquid-crystal display) technology (pixels in front of a light sou
rce) or plasma technology (cells lled with gases between two panels of glass).
Rear-projection TVs use CRT, LCD, digital light processing (DLP, which uses thou
sands of tiny mirrors), or liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS, which uses liquid cr
ystals instead of mirrors) technology. HDTVs also come in many shapes, sizes, an
d prices, and each type has its pros and cons. Tube HDTVs have excellent picture
quality and wide viewing angles, and they’re relatively inexpensive. But they’r
e bulkier and have smaller screens (34 inches or less) than other types of TVs.
LCDs are thin and light; they come in large sizes (up to 46 inches or so), and t
heir prices have fallen. On the downside, they don’t offer viewing angles as wid
e as those of tube TVs. Plasma TVs are also thin and light, come in large sizes
(up to 60-plus inches), and have good picture quality and wide viewing angles, b
ut they’re more expensive than other types of HDTVs at the entry level and don’t
natively support the highest HD resolutions. Projection TVs (CRT, DLP, and the
like) have very large screens (starting at around 42 inches and going up to 65 i
nches), are relatively inexpensive, and offer high resolutions; they can also be
bulky, and some technologies have viewing angle, color, brightness, or uniformi
ty problems. To view HD content, a TV needs hardware to convert the signal to so
mething your television can display. Some TVs have HD tuners built in, which is
useful for displaying digital content received over an antenna. But cable and sa
tellite companies provide their own hardware for decoding their respective signa
ls. As far as content from your Mac goes, the Apple TV is all you need to connec
t to an HDTV to watch TV shows or movies downloaded from iTunes. But note that A
pple currently doesn’t sell HD content in the iTunes Store. However, the Apple T
V will let you play HD broadcasts that you’ve captured on your Mac using compati
ble hardware, although you may need to re-encode the show rst. And most (if not
all) of the pictures in your iPhoto library are high de nition and should look
great on an HDTV. With so many HDTVs out there, how do you decide which is right
for you? Once you have an idea of what you’re willing to spend and how big you
want your viewing experience to be, you’ll only be looking at a subset of the va
rious technologies. Then decide which features are most important to you, and tr
y to see a bunch of TVs in action at a few different stores. (We’ve got some rec
ommendations listed in “TV Picks”.) And if you don’t have a surroundsound stereo
system, it might be a good time to check those out too.—JONATHAN SEFF
FIND IT ONLINE
Also on
Glossary
Read PC World’s latest HDTV reviews at macworld.com/
2689
TV Picks
Here are a few top-rated TVs from the lab of our sister publication PC World. Th
e suggested retail prices listed can often be higher than real-world prices.
LG Electronics 42PC1DA $2,500
This 42-inch plasma TV has HDMI and component inputs, a 10,000:1 contrast ratio,
an HD tuner, and a CableCard slot. It supports 720p and 1,080i video and has a
1,024-by- 768pixel resolution.
ViewSonic N3760w
$1,199 This 37-inch LCD TV has excellent color and image quality, a 1,000:1 cont
rast ratio, a 1,366-by-768-pixel resolution, an HDMI input, and an HD tuner. It
supports 720p and 1,080i video.
RCA Scenium M50WH185 $2,099
This 50-inch DLP TV is attractive and easy to use, and it has good speakers. It
also sports two component inputs and a 1,280-by-720-pixel resolution. It support
s 720p and 1,080i video.
4:3: The squarish aspect ratio of SDTV broadcasts. 16:9: The wide aspect ratio o
f HDTV broadcasts. 480i: An interlaced-scan video mode with 480 lines of vertica
l resolution and; this is the traditional format used for SDTV broadcasts. 480p:
A progressive video mode with 480 lines of vertical resolution and 704 or 720 p
ixels of horizontal resolution; this format is used on standard de nition DVDs a
nd for EDTV. 720p: A progressive-scan video mode with 720 lines of vertical reso
lution and 1,280 pixels of horizontal resolution; networks such as ABC and Fox u
se this mode. 1,080i: An interlaced video mode with 1,080 lines of vertical reso
lution and 1,920 pixels of horizontal resolution; networks such as CBS and NBC u
se this mode. 1,080p: A progressive video mode with 1,080 lines of vertical reso
lution and 1,920 pixels of horizontal resolution; this mode is currently used on
ly on Bluray and HD DVD movies. Component Video: A high-quality analog connector
that uses three separate plugs for a video signal. EDTV: Enhanced de nition tel
evision; sometimes wide screen, EDTV can display at a higher quality than SDTV,
but not as high as HDTV. EDTV is often used as a term to describe TVs that are c
apable of 480p resolution. HDMI: A digital connector that carries a high de niti
on video signal and a multichannel audio signal over the same cable. HDTV: High
de nition television; HDTV is wide screen and capable of displaying at least 720
p. Interlaced Scan: Used on most SDTVs and some HDTVs, an interlaced scan refres
hes all odd lines of each frame and then starts over from the top with even line
s; this can produce icker. Progressive Scan: This method displays the lines of
each frame sequentially, making for smoother motion. SDTV: Standard de nition te
levision; SDTV has a classic 4:3 aspect ratio set at 480i resolution. Toslink au
dio: A digital connector that carries a multichannel audio signal.
CONTENT PAGE
111
FEATURE Apple TV
Apple TV’s preferences in iTunes on the new computer, and you can now stream con
tent from that computer’s iTunes library to the Apple TV. How quickly it streams
depends on the speed of your network connection and the kind of content you’re
streaming. If you have an 802.11g or 802.11n network, video should stream fairly
well. And although Apple supports only music streaming over 802.11b, I’ve gotte
n video to stream from a Mac with an 802.11b wireless card inside. (Note that yo
u can’t stream photos with the Apple TV.)
Albums Abound Scroll through your music, complete with album-art previews.
Apple TV Alternatives
What if instead of watching your Mac’s video on your TV, you’d rather watch TV o
n your Mac? Or what if you’ve already got a Mac connected to your TV and you wan
t to use it as a DVR or to view your media les?
Elgato’s $200 EyeTV 250 ( ; macworld .com/2411) acts like a computerbased TiVo;
using its built-in TV tuner (or by connecting the 250 to your cable box), you ca
n record TV shows for later viewing on your Mac or iPod. The EyeTV software and
recording features aren’t quite as elegant as TiVo’s, but the EyeTV works well a
nd doesn’t require that you pay a monthly fee. If you can pick up over-the-air H
DTV in your area, the $150 EyeTV Hybrid ; macworld .com/2317) lets you pull thos
e ( stations in and record them. Pinnacle’s TV for Mac HD Stick ($130; www.pinna
clesys.com) is similar to the EyeTV Hybrid; it lets you watch over-the-air HDTV
channels, as well as analog TV, and uses Elgato’s EyeTV Lite software. If you’re
looking to watch content from your TV on your computer, Sling Media’s Slingbox
(pictured right: Tuner, $180; AV, $180; Pro, $250; www.slingbox.com) is a unique
system that connects to your TV, cable box, satellite receiver, or TiVo and the
n streams video and audio over your broadband Internet connection to wherever yo
u happen to be in the world (presumably with a broadband connection, as well). U
sing the SlingPlayer software, you can watch whatever is currently showing on yo
ur home entertainment center on a Mac, Windows PC, PDA, or other compatible devi
ce. For a combination of TiVo and Slingbox, there’s SageTV Media Center ($80; ww
w .sagetv.com) and SageTV Placeshifter ($30). The Media Center connects your com
puter to your cable line or box and lets you record your favorite TV shows, in S
D or HD, to your computer. You can even record multiple shows simultaneously, an
d then use Placeshifter to watch Media Center–saved programs from any networkor
Internet-connected computer. Unfortunately, although Placeshifter is available f
or the Mac, you currently need a Windows PC with a TV tuner card to use the main
Media Center software. Another technology, known as UPnP (Universal Plug and Pl
ay), lets computers and other networked devices easily communicate with one anot
her. When it comes to home entertainment, UPnP is being used to allow media-cent
er computers to stream content to other devices around the home. Unfortunately,
there aren’t too many Mac products that support UPnP. However, if you’ve got a m
edia receiver that supports UPnP, Elgato’s EyeConnect($50; www .elgato.com) can
stream many types of media les—iTunes music and video, iPhoto images, videos in
your Movies folder, and even EyeTV-recorded TV shows—from your Mac to your UPnP
-compatible system. And nally, there’s always Apple’s Front Row (www.apple.com)
, an attractive, easytouse interface for your photos, movies, music, and DVDs. I
f you’ve got your Mac hooked up to your TV, you can browse your media les— incl
uding anything purchased from the iTunes Store and even content shared by other
Macs on your local network— using the Apple Remote. In fact, Front Row on a Mac
looks a lot like the interface of the Apple TV. It doesn’t let you sync your med
ia with another Mac, but a Front Row–compatible Mac can double as a DVD player a
nd, of course, a computer. (For feature stories on using the Mac mini and iMac a
s media centers, see macworld . com/2284 and macworld .com/2285, respectively).
—DAN FRAKES
112
JUNE 2007
CONTENT PAGE
SAMPLE ARTICLE
Also on
Finding Your Way Around
If you’ve used Apple’s Front Row or navigated an iPod’s screen, you’ll feel righ
t at home with the Apple TV (for a video walkthrough of the Apple TV interface,
go to macworld.com/2688). Once you’ve con gured the device, you’ll see the Apple
TV’s main screen. In that screen, you’ll see entries for Movies, TV Shows, Musi
c, Podcasts, Photos, Settings, and Sources. You glide around the interface by se
lecting entries, pressing the Apple Remote’s play/pause button, and choosing opt
ions in the resulting screen. As with Front Row, you move back through the comma
nd hierarchy by pressing the remote’s menu button. You’ll also nd an iTunes Top
Movies and Theatrical Trailers entry in the Movies screen. Just as in Front Row
, you can watch movie trailers streamed from the Internet. And yes, just as in F
ront Row, they look wonderful and load quickly over a typical DSL or cable conne
ction. Choose iTunes Top Movies, and you’ll see a list of the ten top-selling ti
tles available from the iTunes Store. Select one, and a short description of the
movie and a picture of its poster appear, and then you can play its preview. Wi
thin TV Shows, you’ll nd an entry for iTunes Top TV Episodes with 30-second sni
ppets of the programs. And the Music entry contains iTunes Top Songs and iTunes
Top Music Videos entries, and it displays album covers when you select one. Agai
n, you get a 30-second preview (there are no podcast previews or recommendations
available through the Apple TV). The Settings screen is where you control how t
he Apple TV behaves: here, you can control its screen saver (useful for preventi
ng burn-in on some types of atpanel TVs), software update function, and setting
s for repeating music, Sound Check, sound effects, and HDMI brightness.
Staying in Sync
To get an idea of how well the Apple TV would handle syncing content, especially
over a wireless connection, I connected a Mac running iTunes via Ethernet to an
Ethernet hub, a new 802.11n AirPort Extreme Base Station, and an older 802.11g
AirPort Extreme Base Station. I then tested how long it took to transfer a movie
, an episode of a TV series, and a single album, all of which were purchased fro
m the iTunes Store—a total of 1.57GB. In my tests, having the Apple TV connected
via Ethernet resulted in the fastest transfers, while transferring wirelessly v
ia the 802.11n base station was also quite fast. A switch to the 802.11g AirPort
Extreme router, however, led to a serious
802.11n Ethernet
Wi-Fi Transfer Speeds
802.11g
7:45 3:40 2:37
Times are in minutes:seconds. Shorter is faster.
slowdown; it took more than twice as long as transferring via the 802.11n router
. Since every network is different, it’s hard to extrapolate hard advice from th
is data. But here’s my take: If you’ve got an Ethernet jack by your TV set, you’
re living the good life. If you have an existing 802.11g network, there’s a good
chance that it will serve you well. Does a shiny new 802.11n base station speed
things up? If your 802.11g network suffers from speed or interference problems,
a new router might help you out. At the same time, I had no problem playing bac
k videos streamed over the network from my iTunes server, using the 802.11g base
station. Only when I tested an extremely high-bitrate, high-resolution video di
d I see any stuttering, and that particular le had some pretty outrageous speci
cations. My point is, if you’ve got an 802.11g wireless network, you may be abl
e to stream video from another room without a lot of trouble. And since you can
sync overnight, the speed of your wireless network may not be a big issue anyway
. —JASON SNELL
Watching It All
Viewing (or in the case of music, listening to) content is what the Apple TV is
all about, and it works well. As you might expect, if you hold down the Apple
Remote’s back or forward button while watching a movie or TV show, the Apple TV
will move backward or forward, respectively, through the video at increased spee
d. During this fast playback, you can press the same button (back or forward) ag
ain to double the speed, and once more to further speed playback; to return to s
tandard playback, press the play/pause button. Alternatively, brie y pressing th
e back or forward button will jump back or ahead, respectively, by chapter (for
iTunes-purchased movies) or by a speci c amount of time. For the latter, the exa
ct length of this time jump varies depending on the length of the video you’re w
atching. For example, for a video clip that’s only a few minutes long, each skip
is ten seconds; for a feature-length movie, each click of the button jumps ve
minutes. Apple TV is also clever about picking up where you left off. If you hal
t a movie midstream and later return to it after playing, say, a song, you’ll be
asked if you’d like to play from the beginning of the
AIRPORT EXTREME PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF APPLE
movie or take up where you last stopped (if only my DVD player kept track so wel
l), whether the le is on the hard drive or streaming over your network. And bec
ause the Apple TV is in contact with iTunes, you can begin watching a movie on y
our TV, stop it, and then resume viewing it from your computer later, for exampl
e. It’s just as smart about video played on an iPod. Play part of a video on you
r iPod, sync it with iTunes, and your Apple TV will offer to play it from the po
int where you stopped watching it on the iPod.
The Last Word
Just as Apple broke ground in the consumer electronics market with the iPod, it
has entered the video market in elegant fashion with the Apple TV. This product
gives iTunes and your TV the language they need to converse amiably, and the res
ult is the liberation of your digital content from within the con nes of your co
mputer’s and iPod’s smaller screens.
CONTENT PAGE
113
FEATURE Apple TV
REVIEW
Apple TV
Digital device provides solid link between computer and iTunes By Christopher Br
een
As Apple’s missing link between the media les in your iTunes library and today’
s modern televisions, the Apple TV simpli es the daunting process of viewing com
puterbased content on a television. While limited in several ways, the device is
a solid rst step in what I hope is a long line of increasingly capable Applebr
anded AV peripherals.
Setup and Sync
Con guring an Apple TV is a relatively simple process. Audio and video cables (n
ot included) connect it to your TV, and Ethernet or wireless networking links it
to iTunes. Then iTunes serves as the gateway for syncing or streaming media le
s. Once you’ve established this relationship between your computer and the Apple
TV, you’ll encounter an interface within iTunes that’s very much like the APPLE
TV
PROS: Streaming works remarkably well over moderate-to-fast networks; easy to se
t up and use; solid picture quality; beautiful interface. CONS: No support for 5
.1-channel surround sound in videos; supports a limited variety of video formats
. OS X COMPATIBILITY: 10.3 (Panther), 10.4 (Tiger) PRICE: $299 COMPANY: Apple Co
mputer, www.apple.com
one you see when you attach a fthgeneration (5G) iPod to your computer. You can
sync content from only one computer at a time, and you can’t add content manual
ly—for example, by dragging it from your iTunes library to the Apple TV icon on
iTunes’ Source list, as you might do with an iPod. If you choose to sync with a
different computer, all the data on the Apple TV will be replaced. Ethernet sync
ing is fast and reliable— your best option if you have a network cable running t
o your TV area. Wireless syncing can be slow, particularly over an 802.11b or 80
2.11g network, but also on an 802.11n network. If you have a lot of content that
you want to sync to the Apple TV, it makes sense to start the sync before you g
o to bed. Make the rst connection a wired one, then let iTunes update just the
changes wirelessly.
Gently Down the Stream
If you have a moderate to large iTunes library, you’ll nd the Apple TV’s hard d
rive too cramped to hold much of your content. This would be a serious drawback
if the device’s streaming capabilities weren’t as good as they are. It can strea
m video and audio from up to ve computers— from both Macs and Windows PCs. With
content purchased from the iTunes Store, video streaming is quite good over 802
.11g and 802.11n wireless networks, and over Ethernet networks. You can’t stream
photos. Instead, on the computer synced with the Apple TV, iTunes formats the p
ic-
tures you select (from iPhoto albums or a folder of your choosing) and copies th
em to the Apple TV’s hard drive. Once they’re on the Apple TV, you can view a se
lected album or your entire photo library as a slide show. As with iPhoto, you c
an choose from a variety of transitions, as well as determine the display time f
or each picture. Playback of video les begins in a matter of seconds. When you
press the Apple Remote’s forward button to fastforward or skip to the next chapt
er, there’s a delay of a few seconds while the Apple TV buffers the incoming con
tent— a progress bar shows you how far along in the process it is. If you’ve rip
ped your own video at high bit rates, streaming can be dicier. I ripped House of
Flying Daggers at a resolution of 720 by 304, at 24 frames per second, encoded
in H.264 format, and with an average data rate of 2,608 Kbps. Over my 802.11n ne
twork, with a strong signal streaming from the Mac Pro, the movie brie y froze a
fter playing for about 15 minutes. It did so again a couple of minutes later. If
802.11b wireless is part of your network, glitches with high-bit-rate videos wi
ll become apparent even more readily. Apple says that the Apple TV requires an 8
02.11g or 802.11n wireless network or a wired Ethernet connection to stream vide
o. I was pleased to nd that I could successfully stream Pirates of the Caribbea
n: The Curse of the Black Pearl (purchased from the iTunes Store) from an iMac t
hat contains an 802.11b AirPort wireless card over my 802.11n network. The Apple
TV
114
JUNE 2007
CONTENT PAGE
PHOTOGRAPH BY PETER BELANGER
SAMPLE ARTICLE
Also on
fared much worse on the iMac with a ripped version of It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad
World encoded as an MPEG-4 movie, at a resolution of 720 by 288, and with a tota
l bit rate of 2,391 Kbps. Just eight minutes into the movie, the Apple TV paused
and stopped to ll its buffer. It then continued playing, but a minute and a ha
lf later, it paused and re lled again.
Around and About
Navigation via the Apple TV is easy. It’s responsive to the remote, and the scre
ens look sharp on an HDTV. In typical Apple fashion, there are some lovely motio
n effects—icons smoothly rotate into place when you choose a new main-menu comma
nd, and the screen ips every so often when you play audio les. This screen ip
ping is more than cosmetic. Because screen burn-in is still a problem with some
varieties of TVs, the Apple TV takes care not to leave static images on the scre
en for too long. The screen saver serves a similar purpose and is very attractiv
e, displaying a swooping Apple logo, pictures from your photo library (or from t
he device’s internal bank of oral images, if there are no images synced to the
device), or album covers from your iTunes library.
Watching TV
While watching Neil Young: Heart of Gold, I particularly missed the kind of 5.1-
channel surround sound you get from today’s DVDs. The Apple TV doesn’t currently
support videos with 5.1-channel audio—only stereo Dolby Pro Logic II audio—but
some people have been successful at getting DTS-encoded surround sound content t
o play through it. Apple clari ed that some formats encoded at certain bit rates
may work as 5.1 les, but slip outside those specs and you and 5.1 part ways. A
pple has chosen to say that generally, 5.1 audio is not supported.
What’s Missing
And nally, I’d Resize Partitions dearly love to use the On-the-Fly Apple TV’s U
SB 2.0 port. Speci cally, I’d like to plug my 5G iPod into it so that not only c
ould the Apple TV play content from the iPod but it could automatically sync pur
chased and rented media to my iPod. And if I feel cramped by the Apple TV’s 40GB
drive, why not allow me to connect a 500GB hard drive to the USB port for addit
ional storage?
Macworld’s Buying Advice
Movies purchased from the iTunes Store look quite good when played through the A
pple TV—almost as good as most DVDs you’d play on your TV. True, Apple sells mov
ies at a resolution no higher than 640 by 480—which is well below the HD mark. B
ut withhold judgment until you see for yourself how the movies and TV shows look
on screen. I viewed Cars and both Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and while I
saw some subtle artifacts in dark-to-gray passages, the movies looked remarkably
good. I ripped several movies, and they looked nearly as good as watching them
from the original discs. On the other hand, if you have video at low resolutions
—for example, the 320-by240 TV shows once sold through the iTunes Store—it’s goi
ng to look blocky on your TV.
Although the Apple TV packs a punch at a desirable price, there are several thin
gs missing that could make it an even better product. First, I’d like to be able
to buy and rent content through the Apple TV. In the case of purchases, the dev
ice would need to be a two-way street so you could transfer that material to you
r computer and an iPod for playback and archiving. Second, even though the iTune
s Store’s H.264-encoded content looks good on my big-screen TV, I know it could
look better if it was offered in true HD quality. Third, MPEG-4 is a very popula
r video standard and H.264 looks great, but there is a lot of digital video yin
g around that uses neither. It would be lovely if Apple built a Convert For Appl
e TV command into iTunes’ Advanced menu, or, dare I say it, allowed the Apple TV
to play additional formats such as DivX, AVI, Flash, and Windows Media.
With its simple setup, superb streaming, ease of use, and quality output, the Ap
ple TV is a great piece of gear, but it will have more-limited appeal than the i
Pod, largely because of the nature of digital rights management and video (in ot
her words, you can’t rip your own DVDs the way you do CDs). Add to this the fact
that DVDs offer advantages the Apple TV doesn’t— 5.1-channel audio, higher reso
lution, and the kinds of extras that a movie purchase through the iTunes Store d
oesn’t provide—and it’s clear that the Apple TV isn’t for everyone. However, if
you prefer to enjoy nearly all your media les through your TV and AV gear rathe
r than splitting time between the living room and the home of ce, or if you have
more media les in your iTunes library than you do DVDs on your bookshelf, movi
ng to the Apple TV makes sense. You’ll certainly enjoy the quality of the experi
ence.
Christopher Breen is a Macworld senior editor. He writes often about using Macs
as media centers.
Top TV Apple TV can stream previews of top shows directly from Apple.
CONTENT PAGE
JUNE 2007
115
STEPHEN MANES
The Next Step for Search: Beyond Words
i love search. It’s one of the things computers can do so much better than we me
re mortals can. I rst witnessed its magic back in 1989 when desktop search util
ities gave me a cutting-edge look at the contents of my hard drive. And when sea
rch hit the Internet, it made all the difference between frustration and freedom
. Today’s best search engines have text-based information pretty much nailed. If
the material is publicly available on the Net and not buried in some database,
you generally nd it. There’s little left for search to do, except maybe simplif
y things for people who refuse to learn how to make more-relevant requests. But
lots of innovating remains to be done. Phones are one promising platform. For br
inging up phone numbers, Google Mobile already works better than dedicated onlin
e directories and the phone companies’ pricey directory assistance, but it’s not
much good if you’re trying to keep your eyes on the road. Next up (and no doubt
one reason that Microsoft just bought voice pioneer Tellme Networks): phone-bas
ed search you control by speaking, rather than with keypresses. I remain dubious
, however. Ad-supported services are likely to waste your time with commercials
before delivering help. And even with a screen, how can you scan quickly through
the multiple results you’ll receive when the system doesn’t quite understand yo
u? Whether you talk or type, text search works with what’s there: Nobody has to
categorize something before you can nd it. The next great search frontier invol
ves things that aren’t text, like picit on Microsoft’s Live Search (www.live. co
m), and 18 of the rst 20 images relate to the Black Dahlia murder case. Hey, if
I want ‘black dahlia’, I’ll say so—and when I do, Google comes back with the gr
uesome images and movie posters I expect. This difference in accuracy is one rea
son why, in real life, I use Google constantly and Live never. It also helps exp
lain why Microsoft reportedly has offered businesses a bounty if their employees
use its third-rate offering. Even Google often veers wildly off base with image
s. Again and again when I look for a photo of some nonfamous person, I get image
s of their book covers or some PowerPoint they presented somewhere. Sorry, but t
hat’s not what I had in mind. For now the fallback for nontext search is usually
tagging—as seen on sites such as Flickr—whereby humans assign keywords to photo
s and the like. It mostly works, but if the categorization is wrong or missing,
you won’t get good results. Still, companies are trying out plenty of clever ide
as. Podzinger (www.podzinger.com), for instance, converts podcasts into text, th
en indexes their full content. And some services analyze TV clips by indexing th
eir built-in closed captions. But un til someone develops algorithms to spot “Do
rky guy dancing around to Strauss’s Blue Danube” from the video and audio alone,
searching text will likely continue to provide the richest rewards.
Stephen Manes is cohost of a popular US television series and a columnist for Fo
rbes. E-mail him at feedback@pcworld.in.
ILLUSTRATION: JOHN CUNEO
Search is superb at nding text. How about everything else?
tures, audio, and video. When search engines assume that the text near an image
describes the picture, they’re sometimes right—but by no means always. Type ‘dah
lia’ into Google Image Search, for instance, and you’ll see pretty pictures of
owers and a couple of odd non oral illustrations from Japanese Web sites. Try
LOG ONTO OUR WEBSITE WWW.PCWORLD.IN FOR THE LATEST NEWS AND INDEPTH REVIEWS AND
ANALYSIS ON TECHNOLOGY.
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