PC Magazine - October 2010 (True PDF)

OCTOber 2010

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first looks: apple iMac 27-inch (core i5)

why we love the New amazon kindle >>

the secret to creating Powerful Passwords

the Most trusted braNds iN techdesktops laptops isPsPrinters Phones hdtVscell service Providerscameras routers & More

the essential home it toolkit

october 2010 vol. 29 no. 10

30 cover StorY rEADErs ChOICE: ThE TECh brANDs yOu TrusT MOsT Your votes are in! our annual reader survey reveals which companies are

making the grade when it comes to product quality, reliability and cus-

tomer service. Some of the winners may surprise you.

PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION october 2010

october 2010 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 1

PC Magazine Digital Edition, ISSn 0888-8507, is published monthly at $12 for one year. Ziff Davis Media Inc., 28 east 28th Street, new York nY 10016-7940.

8 CONsuMEr ELECTrONICs

Amazon Kindle 2

Samsung epic 4G (Sprint)

Motorola Droid 2 (verizon Wireless)

Archos 3cam vision

Sony PlayStation Move

14 hArDwArE

eMachines Mini-e er1402-05

Apple iMac 27-inch (core i5)

HP envy 14

18 busINEss

Dell latitude e5510

epson brightlink 450Wi

8x8 virtual office Pro

22 sOFTwArE

cloudmark Desktopone-Pro Mode

Kaspersky Internet Security 2011

blackberry 6 oS

54 ThE bEsT sTuFF

FIrSt looKS tecH neWS 5 FrONT sIDE

A consumer group takes Googles

privacy policies to task; a storage

breakthrough for toshiba; tiny flash

drives; a new social crM tool.

oPInIonS 2 FIrsT wOrD:

LANCE uLANOFF

26 JOhN C. DvOrAk

28 sAsChA sEGAN

SolUtIonS46 yOur hOME IT TOOLkIT

Are you that person everyone calls

when his or her computer crashes?

Make sure you have these tools

with you at all times.

50 sECurITy: sTrONG PAsswOrDs

running out of password ideas?

read our tutorial on how to create

passwords that are tough to crack

but easy to remember.

10 18

storemags & fantamag - magazines for all

2 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION OCTOBER 2010

FIRST WORD LANCE ULANOFF

There was a time when I dis-

agreed with the idea that

the core of Microsofts next

major operating system, Win-

dows 8, would be a hyper-

visor, or virtualized machine monitor. Now,

however, I see the beauty of this approach,

especially for consumers.

An operating system that runs every-

thing as a virtualized machine could be one

of the most significant and beneficial steps

Microsoft has ever taken in the continuing

development of the Windows platform. And

there is evidence that this is the exact direc-

tion Microsoft has been headed in all along.

When I met with Windows executives

at the Microsoft Professional Developers

Conference in October 2008, they told us

about the newly componentized nature of

the operating system. For Windows 7, this

meant a peeling away of many things that

had been intrinsic to the OS. So, all of the

apps that used to come with itthe movie

and DVD-creation tools, messaging, and

even e-mailwould now be optional. Even

before Microsoft took a hatchet to Win-

dows 7, the company had to figure out how

to disentangle Internet Explorer from the

operating systems core. Now, at least in the

European Union, you can choose to have

other browsers pre-installed on your desk-

top.

Paving the Way

Although these are mostly minor changes

that do not get to the true core of the OS,

they do, in their small way, help clear the

path for Windows 8 to become the first fully

virtualized Windows. I also have a theory

that Microsoft has been working to reduce

the size of the core OS dramatically (though

the company has gone on record, saying

it hates to talk about the kernel) and, even

as features and functionality are added to

the interface. If you look at whats possible

on 1MB Web pages, you can see that every-

thing Microsoft is doing on Windows 7 is lit-

tle more than calls to the core OS with some

lightweight graphics work on the front end.

Even flashier features, like see-through

panes, are really off-loaded to powerful

graphics CPUs.

My point is that Windows 8 could, essen-

tially, be a lightweight core (or kernel) and

even a lighter-weight interface. Everything

else could be a virtual machine.

Virtualize Windows 8

OCTOBER 2010 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 3

FolloW me on TWiTTer! Catch the chiefs comments on the latest tech developments at twitter.com/LanceUlanoff.

Windows 8 could be a lightweight core and

interface. everything else could be virtual.

allowed to store only local XML files that tell

them something about the base hardware

and where to find locally stored files. Device

drivers already get their Device Stage infor-

mation from just such an XML-like file. I see

no reason why this couldnt work for every-

thing else.

Competing with Chrome?

I know some people will say that theres lit-

tle reason to wait for Microsoft to build this

mythical virtualized OSnot when Google

Chrome for the desktop is right around

the corner. Chrome will be very light and

rely heavily on cloud-based apps to get

stuff done. From a security standpoint, itll

already have a leg up on Windows 7. How-

ever, huge questions remain regarding

power, usability, and always-on access to

critical documents and files. Most consum-

ers will, Id venture, still look to Microsoft for

their next OS. However, if Microsoft doesnt

do something radical, such as what Ive pro-

posed, there will be fewer people who will

walk that well-worn path.

Virtualization is already a great tool for

businesses, but the smart money is on mak-

ing an operating system that sees the world

in tightly controlled sandboxes. This is how

Microsoft will pave a new road for Windows

users in this still-young 21st century.

The Benefits of VM

If everything running on top of the operat-

ing system is a virtual machine, then appli-

cations, drivers, files, Web browsers, and

the pages you view can all run in sandboxes,

protected from each other and incapable of

harming the OS. Its easy to shut down vir-

tual machines, and in Windows 8, I could

imagine that technical functions, such as

start-up and shutdown and even accessing

system hard drives and peripherals outside

the virtual machines, could be user-friendly.

In other words, consumers would have no

idea that theyre running a series of virtual

machines. Theyd see a Whats running

window, with a bunch of buttons next to

each item that lets them pause, stop, or

turn off the app, browser, and so on. They

could still do it the old-fashioned way by

selecting Close or Exit from a drop-

down menu.

Another obvious benefit of an all-virtu-

alized OS is security. If youre browsing the

Web and malware tries to attack or overtly

suggest you install it to protect yourself,

that nastyware simply wont get further

than the browser sandbox. This new kind of

OS could kill the security software industry.

The biggest and, perhaps, most signifi-

cant benefit, though, is that the Registry

dies. Windows would no longer keep track

of every app, device, call, and DLL file. The

OS will be done carrying the applications

water. Virtualized apps and hardware will be


Editor-in-ChiEf, pC magazinE nEtwork Lance Ulanoff

Editor Stephanie Chang

dirECtor of onLinE ContEnt, EXECUtiVE prodUCEr Vicki B. JacobsonEXECUtiVE Editor Dan Costamanaging Editors Sean Carroll (software, security, Internet, business), Wendy Sheehan Donnell (consumer electronics) Laarni Almendrala Ragaza (hardware) fEatUrEs Editor Eric GriffithsEnior Editor Brian HeaterpC Labs LEad anaLysts Cisco Cheng (laptops), Tim Gideon (consumer electronics), Samara Lynn (business, networking), Michael Muchmore (software), Neil J. Rubenking (security), Joel Santo Domingo (desktops), Sascha Segan (mobile), M. David Stone (printers, scanners) anaLysts Tony Hoffman (printers, scanners), PJ Jacobowitz (consumer electronics),Matthew Murray (DIY, components) jUnior anaLysts David Pierce (consumer electronics), Natalie Shoemaker (hardware),Jeffrey Wilson (software, security, Internet) inVEntory ControL Coordinator Nicole Grahamstaff photographEr Scott SchedivypCmag.Com managEr, onLinE prodUCtion Yun-San Tsai prodUCErs Mark Lamorgese, Whitney A. ReynoldswEst Coast nEws Editor Mark Hachman East Coast nEws Editor Chloe Albanesiusstaff Editor Jennifer Bergen (blogs)CommErCE prodUCEr Arielle RochetteUtiLity program managEr Tim Smith CrEatiVE dirECtor Chris Phillips assistant dEsignEr Jackie SmithContribUting Editors Helen Bradley, John R. Delaney, Richard V. Dragan, John C. Dvorak, Craig Ellison, Galen Fott, Bill Howard, Don Labriola, Jamie Lendino, Jim Louderback, Bill Machrone, Edward Mendelson, Jan Ozer, Neil Randall, Matthew D. Sarrel, Larry SeltzerintErns Daniel Levine, Brian Westover

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FrontWhats New from the World of Tech

If you happened to be in New York over

Labor Day weekend, strolling through Times

Square, you may have seen it: a 15-second,

animated video that attacked Google chief

executive Eric Schmidt and his companys

privacy policies.

The video, which was displayed on a

540-square-foot jumbotron, was part of

Consumer Watchdogs Dont Track Me

campaign, which is pushing Congress to

pass legislation that would create a list

of consumers who do not want Internet

companies tracking their online activities

much like the do not call list bans unsolic-

ited telemarketing calls.

Were satirizing Schmidt in the most

highly trafficked public square in the nation

to make the public aware of how out of

touch Schmidt and Google are when it

comes to our privacy rights, said Jamie

Court, president of Consumer Watchdog, in

a statement.

The organization pointed toGoogles

unauthorized collectionof unencrypted

data traveling over Wi-Fi networks,

itsBuzz social-networking service, and its

Consumer group attacks the behemoths privacy policies

Taking Google to Task



frONTsIDE

GEArLOGOne Tiny DriveUnlike the buzzing blood-suckers that ruin a perfect summer evening, the Lacie MosKeyto flash drive makes life simpler and portable.

Thankfully, the MosKeyto wont make you bleed or scratch. Because the ultra-small USB key is tiny, I bet I will lose it within the hour, or step on it by mistake. Measuring 0.8 inches wide, it extends a mere

0.2 inches when plugged into the USB port. At 0.4 ounces, its light, too, weighing not even half an ounce.

Plug the drive into a USB port and just leave it there. You no longer have to worry about accidentally dislodging it when you put the laptop in your case, or knocking against it when walking by your desk. Lacie sells the 4GB drive for $17.99 and the 8GB for $27.99. Both are available and ship immediately. The 16GB model is not yet available. Fahmida Y. Rashid

AT WOrKsocial CrM ToolThe Web is a filled with an ever-growing amount of chat-

ter from customers, critics, colleagues, and competitors, thus making filtering data a challenge. Enter Work-streamer, an innovative app in public beta that acts as a social CRM tool; it can help you keep track of all of the talk.

Workstreamer gets its real-time information from an array of sources ranging from blogs and published news articles to Twitter, LinkedIn, Salesforce.com, and more. The results (fea-tured on your account page, or sent to your inbox) are processed and filtered in an attempt to deliver highly relevant business data. Jeffrey L. Wilson

recentpolicy proposal with Verizon regard-

ing net neutrality as evidence that Google

has lost its way.

The Times Square ad featured Schmidt

as a sinister ice cream man. Hes collect-

ing YOUR personal information, a message

flashes on the screen. It then urges viewers

to tell Google to stop tracking your every

move by texting EVIL to 69866, though

its unclear what that text will accomplish (or

whether your cell phone information will be

collected when doing so).

We like ice cream as much as anyone,

but we like privacy even more, a Google

spokesman said in a statement. Thats why

we provide tools for users to control their

Best of our Blogs

privacy online, like Google Dashboard, Ads

Preference Manager,Chrome incognito

modeand off the record Gmail chat.

Alonger, 1:34 minute versionof the video

shows Schmidt offering children free ice

cream. I already know your favorite fla-

vors, cartoon Schmidt says ominously. The

video closes by asking viewers to ask Con-

gress for a do not track me list.

We think there should be another way

to protect the publics online privacy: a Do

Not Track Me list that prevents Google or

any other Internet company from tracking

your every move online, said John M. Simp-

son, director of the groups Inside Google

Project.Chloe Albanesius


A New Approach To Storage Bit-patterned storage could make drives smaller and faster.

ExtremeTech

A closeup of the rows of magnetic grain dots

of bit-patterned media.

If you thought recent advances in PC

hard drives were something, its possible

you havent seen anything yet. Toshiba

announced it has made a breakthrough in

bit-patterned media, which could make

even the spacious 2TB and 3TB at the top of

todays storage food chain look minuscule.

Todays drives storedatacontiguously

on hundreds of magnetic grains (or bits)

spread across the surface of a disk. Because

theres little break between the north pole

of one bit and the south pole of another,

this leads to unreliability and the possibil-

ity that bits will flip when the head passes

over them.

Bit-patterned media, on the other hand,

divides the recording surface (the magnetic

layer) into many uniform sections (or servo

patterns), each of which contains only a

few of those magnetic grains. Each grain

(17-nanometer dots manufactured using

an etching mask made of a self-assembled

polymer), can hold one bit of data, which

theoretically allows for astonishingly higher

areal densities than we see today. Assem-

bling the data into patterns of rows mim-

ics markers to make it easy and quicker to

locate the stored data again later.

Toshibas media is still in the prototype

stage, but the company is claiming that

using a practical server pattern allows about

2.5 terabits (TB) of data per square inch

about 300GB stored in an area approxi-

mately the size of a postage stamp, and

nearly five times what is available on even

the highest-capacity drives today (541 Gb

per square inch). This could mean about

25TB ofstorageon one 3.5-inch drive.

The company expects the first drives

based on bit-patterned media to be avail-

able in 2013, but will they be mass-produc-

ible? Toshiba says the technology has not

yet reached fundamental HDD operation:

writing and reading data to and from individ-

ual dots. But if Toshiba irons out the kinks,

it may give hard drives another weapon in

the battle against SSDsassuming it isnt

insanely priced.Matthew Murray


8 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION OctOber 2010

and Noble nook and trading in the stubby,

square, track-point for a more intuitive four-

way toggle button.

Probably the notable addition to this

Kindle is the integrated Wi-Fi in addition to

the free, always-on 3G modem. Download-

ing books is quicker, although 3G download

speeds are so fast it almost doesnt make a

difference. Still, its nice to have the choice.

Amazon unfortunately has chosen to

stick with its proprietary AZW format, leav-

ing out ePub support yet again. but it does

support tXt, Audible, MP3, Unprotected

MObI, and Prc natively, as well as DOc,

JPeG GIF, PNG, and bMP via conversion.

With its retail support, custom content,

wider file support, and color display, the

nook remains a tough contender. but over-

all, a lower price, a slimmer design, higher-

contrast screen, and other improvements

keep the Kindle as our editors choice

e-book reader.Dan Costa

>> CLICK HERE FOR MORE

In the gadget business, theres

a tendency to add new fea-

tures, functionality, and options

with each new version, but you

shouldnt expect a drastic revamp

from Amazon with its latest Kindle e-book

reader. Although the new Kindle adds

Wi-Fi, more capacity, a leaner form factor,

and a sharper screen, the functionality is

largely the same. but that isnt necessarily

a bad thing. In fact, given its new low price

along with its massive library of e-books

and dead-simple book buying, the Kindle is

best dedicated e-book reader you can buy.

Perhaps the most dramatic change in the

8.7-ounce Kindle is the size: its a lot smaller,

at 7.5 by 4.8 by 0.3 inches (HWD), but main-

tains its 6-inch e-ink screen. You also get the

color choice of white or gray-black graph-

ite. the Kindle has never been known for its

great controls, but this iteration improves

that by replicating the symmetrical Page

Forward/Page back buttons on the barnes

First INSIDE 8 CONsuMER ELECTRONICs 14 HARDWARE 18 BusINEss 22 sOFTWAREAmazon Kindle (3G + Wi-Fi)

KindleKeepsitsCrown

OctOber 2010 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 9

ourratINgSKEy:

l l l l l EXCELLENT

l l l l m VERY GOOD

l l l m m GOOD

l l m m m FAIR

l m m m m POOR

amazonKindle(3g+Wi-Fi)$189 directL l l l m

PROs Compact design. Higher-contrast screen than its predecessor. Smarter but-ton layout. Integrated Wi-Fi. 4GB ca-pacity (enough space for 3,500 books). Wide selection of books, magazines, and blogs.

CONs No support for ePub format.



Do you need the click of a physical

keyboards button to feel like

youre actually writing something

on your phone? Dont be ashamed

if you do. the Samsung epic 4G

for Sprint is the carriers second 4G phone,

and its the first with a physical QWertY

keyboard. Its a powerful, high-end Android

smartphone that is a great choice for Sprint

customers.

the epic 4G is a surprisingly thin slider

phone at 4.9 by 3.5 by 0.5 inches (HWD)

and 5.4 ounces. Yes, its a lot thicker than

the Htc eVO 4G, but the screen slides to

the side to reveal a rather large and com-

fortable QWertY keyboard. If you dont

want to use the physical keyboard, there are

six input options, including the Swype text-

entry method. the epics 4-inch screen uses

Samsungs new Super AMOLeD technol-

ogy. And the epic is better for multimedia

than the eVO.

On our tests, the epic connected one

more call out of ten than the eVO in our

weak-signal test. the phones earpiece and

speakerphone are both loud enough for any

usethough the speakerphone sounded a

bit tinny. When I tested its 4G performance

in Philadelphia, the WiMAX connection

seemed to have trouble penetrating build-

ings and dropped signal indoors. that said,

when WiMAX worked, I got down speeds

of up to 6.6 megabitsabout six times the

average of Sprints 3G network. but 4G use

drains the battery quickly.

While multimedia types will both find

things to like about the epic and the eVO,

the keyboard is what sets the epic apart. If

you want to type your messages, surf the

Web, and play your games with little but-

tons that go click, the epic is your phone

and our editors choice.Sascha Segan

CLICK HERE FOR MORE>>

FIRsT LOOKs CONsuMER ELECTRONICs

samsung Epic 4G (sprint)

High-Speed Typing Machine

Samsung Epic 4G (Sprint)$349.99 list L l l l m

PROs Gorgeous screen. Big, comfortable key-board. Fast. Great video support. WiMAX 4G.

CONs No voice dialing over Bluetooth. A few buttons can be unresponsive. You have to pay for 4G even if you cant use it.


Hate the Motorola Droids key-

board? thats okay. everyone

hated the Motorola Droids key-

board. but the Motorola Droid 2

has come to the rescue. essen-

tially, its our editors choicewinning

Droid X crammed into a slightly gussied-

up original Droid body with a much better

keyboard. theres a lot to like here, and the

Droid 2 is clearly the best smartphone with

a keyboard on Verizon.

At 4.6 by 2.4 by 0.5 inches (HWD) and

5.9 ounces, the Droid 2 has slightly more

rounded edges and a less pronounced

chin than the original Droid, but the 3.7-

inch screen and 5-megapixel camera are

nearly identical. the Droid 2s keyboard

ditches the little-used cursor pad on the

right for some arrow keys, makes all the

other keys bigger, and makes them domed

and clicky. this phone works on Verizons

cDMA eVDo rev. A network, as well as

802.11n Wi-Fi networks. You can use it as a

wireless hotspot, sharing your connection

to up to five devices for an additional fee.

on our tests, the Droid 2 is a good voice

phone. At maximum volume, voices were

a bit muddy, but free of gain buzz. trans-

mission quality through the microphone

isnt quite as good as the Droid Xs, but the

speakerphone was loud. We got more than

8 hours of talk time, which is excellent for a

Verizon phone.

So although the Droid X still narrowly

holds the title as the best overall smart-

phone on Verizon and is our editors choice

for non-keyboard smartphones, the Droid 2

is our new editors choice for Verizon key-

board smartphones.Sascha Segan


Motorola Droid 2

A Superior Sequel to The Droid

Motorola Droid 2 (Verizon Wireless)$199.99-549.99 directL l l l m

PROs Much better keyboard than previous Droid. Latest version of Android. Wi-Fi hotspot mode.

CONs No voice-dialing over Bluetooth. No HD video-recording.




The sub-$100 MP3 player mar-

ket is littered with subpar

options, but once in a while,

we see a standout. With a

sleek design and an intui-

tive, touch-screenbased user interface, the

Archos 3cam vision exceeds expectations.

the integrated camera can record video

or take photos and store them along with

your loaded media; it isnt of the highest

quality, but most devices in this price range

dont even have this feature, much less 8Gb

of storage. the same-capacity Apple iPod

nano costs $50 more. the 3cam vision may

not be a masterpiece, but it raises the bar for

budget players.

A good-looking device measuring 3.9 by

2.1 by 0.4 inches (HWD) and weighing 2.3

ounces, the 3cam vision has rounded edges

and no physical controls except for a Power/

Lock slider on the bottom panel. the 3cam

vision features a larger and slightly higher-

resolution screen (3 inches, 400-by-240

pixels) than the iPod nanos (376-by-240).

Youll find a mini-USb port and earphone

jack along the bottom panel. As you might

imagine for a $100 player, the included

earbuds arent great, so you may want to

upgrade. the device also comes with a mini

USb to USb cable for computer syncing. the

user interface looks better than past Archos-

player UIs, but navigation is a bit cumber-

some and the screen is not sensitive enough.

Listening to music on the 3cam vision is a

pleasant experience (provided you upgrade

those earbuds) and video playback is not a

disappointment, but the resolution could

be a bit higher for this screen size. Overall,

the 3cam vision cant touch the iPod nano

or iPod touch in terms of grace, ease of use,

and overall quality. but this players extra

features and 8Gb of storage make it a great

low-cost option.Tim Gideon


Archos 3cam vision

A Budget Player with Video


Archos 3cam vision$99.99 directL l l h m

PROs Thin, compact frame. Touch screen. Lots of storage for the price. Shoots photos and video. FM radio and recording. Voice recorder. Strong file support.

CONs Touch screen isnt terribly sensitive. Navigation of user interface can be jittery. Slow to power up.


accuracy. And the PlayStation eye camera

did an excellent job of staying connected

to the Move controllers. overall, the Play-

Station Move does exactly what it set out

to accomplish: bring very accurate motion

controls to the PS3.Jeffrey L. Wilson


Sony PlayStation Move

Sony Gets in Motion

Sony PlayStation Move$49.99 direct and upL l l l m

PROS Accurate motion sensing. Bundled with fun titles that demonstrate advanced motion sensing and control.

CONS Launch titles will likely appeal only to casual gamers.

Motion controlbased

gaming entered the

mainstream with the

introduction of the Nin-

tendo Wii back in 2006.

Sony, naturally, wants to snag some Wii

users with the PlayStation Move, an add-on

for PlayStation 3 that brings motion con-

trols to Sony gamers. Microsofts compet-

ing Xbox Kinect wont be available until

early November .

the PlayStation Move consists of two

parts: Sonys PlayStation eye camera, and

a wireless, bluetooth-enabled wand that

looks a little like the Nintendo Wiimote,

except it has an illuminated orb attached

to its top. Sony also offers the Navigation

controller, a supplementary device used

in select games to give you more standard

game controls. You can use the Move con-

troller to navigate menus much more

effectively than the Wii.

As far as gameplay, Sports champion

Move games were remarkably smooth in

their execution. My favorite Sports cham-

pion game is Gladiator Duel, a weapon-

based fighting game that offers much more

depth. occasionally, the PlayStation Move

would miss an input (mostly in table ten-

nis), but overall I was impressed with its

FIRST LOOKS CONSuMER ELECTRONICS



This is one of the least expensive

desktop PCs on the market. As a

standalone nettop, its defined

by its nettop/netbook-class AMD

processor. The system comes

with an HDMI port and an SPDIF port. At

$300, it has a high bang-for-the-buck ratio,

and even though it only has a single-core

processor, it can compete with and surpass

systems with dual-core Atom processors.

The ER1402-05 is compact and slim, at

11 by 4 by 10 inches (HWD, with the stand).

The extra width is a result of extra space at

the base, which keeps the system from tip-

ping over, and eMachines sells an optional

bracket for mounting this system behind

your HDTV. Along with the HD-friendly

ports, the system has 802.11n Wi-Fi, 4 USB

ports, VGA, and wireless keyboard and

mouse. This systems 160GB hard drive is

a bit small for a consumer desktop these

days, and the ER1402-05 comes bundled

with bloatware, unfortunately.

Since, the ER1402-05 is a video-oriented

system, I ran some multimedia tests and

YouTube viewing sessions. This system got

a decent score on Windows Media Encoder

(3 minutes 16 seconds). The ER1402-05 was

also decent at the PCMark Vantage test

with a score of 1,908. When I played 720p

YouTube videos, the ER1402-05 had a few

noticeable skipped frames, and the system

was unwatchable at 1080p. However, I was

able to update the Adobe Flash player to

rectify the problem. This system couldnt

run our 3D tests, but simple 3D games like

Spore and Sims 3 should run smoothlybut

dont even think about playing high-end 3D

games like StarCraft II. The ER1402-05 is not

blazing fast, but it is fast enough for day-to-

day Web browsing and Internet videos. It is

versatile and affordable, earning it a spot as

an Editors Choice.Joel Santo Domingo


eMachines Mini-e ER1402-05

Great Price, Good Performance

FIRsT LOOKs HARDWARE

eMachines Mini-e ER1402-05$299.99 listL l l l m

PROs Compact. Quiet. HDMI port. Quicker than dual-core Atom processors in certain tests. Inexpensive.

CONs Needs download from Internet for Flash 10.1. Bloatware. No remote included.

IsPECs 1.7-GHz AMD Athlon II Neo K125 processor; 2GB SDRAM; 160GB SATA hard drive; Nvidia GeForce 9200 integrated graphics; Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bi


PERFORMANCE TEsTs

L High scores are best. M Low scores are best. Bold type denotes first place.

WindoWs Media encoder (Min:sec) M

cineBencH r10 (XcPU) L

PHotosHoP cs4 (Min:sec) M

eMachines Mini-e ER1402-05 3:16 n/a 6:58

Acer Aspire Revo R3610-U9012 3:10 1,880 8:03

Lenovo IdeaCentre Q110 4:59 828 9:56

Viewsonic VOT120 n/a 849 n/a

Product name in red indicates editors choice. n/anot applicable: the product could not complete the test, or the test was not compatible.


16 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION october 2010

If you like the minimal lines of an

all-in-one desktop, but need true

quad-core power for multime-

dia and 3D tasks, then the Apple

iMac 27-inch (core i5) should be

at the top of your list. It gives you speedy

performance scores, better 3D graphics,

and the same large screen as the previous

27-inch (core i7)all for a couple hundred

bucks less.

Like its most recent predecessor, the

Apple iMac 27-inch (core i7), the core i5

iMac looks like a metal and glass monitor

suspended above your desk surface by a

graceful arm. the system has four USb 2.0

ports and a FireWire 800 port, along with

audio jacks and a Mini DisplayPort. You still

cant get a blu-ray drive in this system, but

you can hook up an external USb drive for

data or a regular blu-ray player for mov-

ies, using HDMI. this system also can be

equipped with a 256Gb SSD and a 1tb or

2tb spinning hard drive simultaneously.

the iMacs processor, speedy DDr3

memory, and AtI radeon HD 5750 graph-

ics led it to score higher almost across the

board against the core i7 iMac. For example,

it scored 1 minute 40 seconds on our Pho-

toshop cS4 test versus the core i7s 1:47. In

fact, this iMac was faster than all the all-in-

ones weve recently tested. In a nutshell, this

iMac is faster, better at 3D games and tasks,

can be equipped with more options (like

an SSD), and has a cheaper base price than

the core i7 iMac, making it our new editors

choice and the all-in-one to beat.Joel

Santo Domingo


Apple iMac 27-inch (Core i5)

An iMac With Power

Apple iMac 27-inch (Core i5)$1,999 listL l l l h

PROs True quad-core power. Wireless key-board/mouse/Wi-Fi. Mini DisplayPort in/out. Screen has 2,560-by-1,440 resolution. Large display. Green certifications. 802.11a/n 5GHz support.

CONs Still no Blu-ray drive. No eSATA. Card reader is SD/SDHC/SDXC only. Requires third-party adapter for HDMI or DVI.

FIRsT LOOKs HARDWARE

IsPECs 2.8-GHz Intel core i5-760 processor; 4Gb SDrAM; 1tb SAtA hard drive; 1Gb AtI radeon HD 5750 graphics; dual-layer DVD +/- rW drive; integrated 27-inch widescreen monitor; integrated stereo speakers; Mac oS X 10.6.


Despite mixed reviews of the HP

envy 15, HP charged forward

and launched new additions to

its envy line. this is the 14-inch

version, lavished with a high-

end audio system, a backlit keyboard, and a

high-resolution glass screenfeatures you

wont find in an HP Pavilion laptop. Perfor-

mance can be tuned beyond any other lap-

top in its class. there are some issues with

the gesture-enabled touchpad, and the sys-

tem is heavy, but otherwise, the envy 14 lives

up to its name.

the envy 14 is covered in anodized alu-

minum, creating a thin and extravagant-

looking laptop. Decorative etchings spruce

up the lid, which are both eye-catching and

resistant to fingerprints. At 5.2 pounds, the

envy 14 is heavier than a number of its com-

petitors, but its 14.5-inch widescreen is also

higher resolution than most of those of the

other systems, at 1,600-by-900 resolution.

Photos, movies, and HD content look abso-

lutely stunning. Unfortunately, you dont get

a backlit keyboard, but you do get a slot-

loading DVD burner, HDMI and mini-Dis-

playPort connections, beefy components,

and the Monster beats Audio system.

With the as-configured dual-core

processor, the envy 14 finished tops in

video- encoding tests (46 seconds), and

cinebench r10 scores (7,684) were admi-

rable. the envy 14 lets you switch between

graphics environmentsintegrated (Intel)

and discrete (AtI Mobility radeon 5650)

so hardcore gamers wont be disappointed.

battery life, however, leaves much to be

desired at 4 hours 15 minutes. Although

this system is pricey and has a couple draw-

backs, for its power and size, it has few

equals, thus earning an editors choice in

this category.Cisco Cheng


FIRsT LOOKs HARDwARE

IsPECs 2.4-GHz Intel core i5-450M processor; 4Gb SDrAM; 500Gb hard drive; Intel GMA and AtI Mobility radeon 5650 graphics; 14.5-inch widescreen; 5.2 pounds; 56-Wh battery; Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit).

HP Envy 14$1,286 directl l l l m

PROs Scales to a quad-core processor. Graph-ics card can pump out those frame rates. Exquisite design. Sharpest and brightest screen available. Superior speaker system. Very good, backlit keyboard. Tandem batteries available.

CONs Hefty for a 14-inch laptop. Touchpad could use some more tuning.

HP Envy 14

Enviable Performance



The Dell Latitude E5510 is for IT

managers who want the trim-

mings of the Latitude line of busi-

ness laptops but dont want to

pay the usual Latitude premium.

You get a high-resolution screen and rug-

gedized frame plus great performance and

battery life, all for a relatively modest price.

Durability is one of the fundamental

design differences between a Latitude and

a typical business laptop. Despite its mod-

est price, the E5510 uses magnesium alloy

in its frame and hinges. That said, the gun-

metal gray hue is as bland as the black of

the ThinkPad series. And at 6.1 pounds

(with the 9-cell battery), the E5510 is more

a desktop-replacement than a commuter-

friendly system. On the other hand, its

15.6-inch widescreen is large enough to

accommodate spreadsheet users, photog-

raphers, and anyone who works with mul-

tiple windows open at the same time. You

also get a terrific keyboard and dual point-

ing devices. Another business-friendly fea-

ture is the ability to share docking stations,

port replicators, and power adapters with

any Latitude in the E-family.

On our tests, the E5510 mostly did well,

finishing the video encoding test in 46 sec-

onds, falling slightly behind the Lenovo

T410 (45 seconds). But because the E5510

lacks a discrete graphics chip, its PCMark

Vantage scores ranked near the bottom.

However, its 9-cell battery gave it a real

boost on MobileMark 2007, lasting 7 hours

5 minutesa class leader. Though the E5510

could use one or two more features, it has

the processing power and battery perfor-

mance often associated with pricier enter-

prise laptops, making it our Editors Choice

and a good fit for moderate road warriors.

Cisco Cheng


FIRsT LOOKs busINEss

IsPECs: 2.4GHz Intel Core i5-520M processor; 4GB SDRAM; 500GB hard drive; 15.6-inch display; Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200 Wi-Fi; 6.1 pounds; 84-Wh battery; Windows 7 Professional (32-bit) .

Dell Latitude E5510

A Cost-Efficient Work Laptop

Dell Latitude E5510$884 Direct L l l l m

PROs Inexpensive, for the Latitude line. Du-rable chassis. Excellent keyboard. Soft mouse buttons. 1,600-by-900 resolution. Good pro-cessor for the money. Huge battery delivered 7 hours.

CONs No HDMI or DisplayPort. Heavy.

OCOTBER 2010 PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION 19

PERFORMANCE TEsTs

L High scores are best. M Low scores are best.Bold type denotes first place.

pcMark vantage* L

3dMark 06* L

WindoWs Media encoder (min:sec) M

cineBnecH r10 (XcpU) L

pHotosHop cs4 min:sec) M

Dell Latitude E5510 6,159 1,864 0:46 6,930 0:33

Dell Vostro 3300 6,714 4,198 0:47 6,790 0:31

Lenova Thinkpad T410 7,315 4,178 0:45 7,809 0:26

red denotes editors choice. n/anot applicable: the product could not complete the test, or the test was not compatible. * this test was run at 1,024 by 768 resolution. ** test was run at 1,024 by 768 resolution. test was run at 1,280 by 1,024 resolution.



Ultra-short throw projectors

which can project, or throw, a large

image at just a few inches from the

screenare still rare beasts, but

there are significant differences

from one model to the next. the brightLink

450Wi represents the latest evolution of

the breed. It combines its ultra-short throw

with an interactive feature that turns any

surface into what amounts to a whiteboard.

the combination is a lot cheaper than buy-

ing a projector and whiteboard separately,

and a lot less limiting in the size of the image

you can project.

the projector itself is fairly hefty, at 6.1 by

14.5 by 19 inches (HWD) and 14.1 pounds.

thats not really an issue, however, since

its meant for permanent installation. built

around an LcD-based engine with a WXGA

(1,280-by-800) resolution, and rated at

2,500 lumens, its a good potential fit for a

small- to medium-size conference room or

classroom. the connection choices include

two VGA ports that can also double as

component video ports, an S-Video port,

and a phono plug for composite video.

the two VGA ports are each paired with a

miniplug stereo input, and the S-Video and

composite video ports share a set of two

phono plugs for stereo input. the connec-

tion panel also offers two USb connectors

and a microphone input. Finally an rS-232

port lets you turn the projector on and off

through a third-party controller, and an eth-

ernet port lets you manage the projector

from a computer on your network.

on our tests, I measured the 450Wi at

2,452 lumens, or about 98 percent of its

2,500-lumen rating. this projector also

scored well on image quality for data

images, running through our standard

DisplayMate tests with only minor problems.

Image quality for video was far less impres-

sive, with motion artifacts, posterization,

and a low contrast ratio. Nonetheless this is

still an impressive offering for short-throw

projectors, and it is our current editors

choice in this category.M. David Stone


Epson BrightLink 450Wi

An Interactive Projector

FIRsT LOOKs BusINEss

Epson BrightLink 450Wi$2,200 streetL l l l h

PROs Ultra-short throw, with 98-inch-diagonal image at 13 inches from the screen. Turns any surface into an interactive screen.

CONs Doesnt handle video as well as it han-dles data images. Low volume for a 10-watt speaker.


slightly muffled, more so than with Skype.

However, I could still clearly hear those I

called. And I found only one glitch with Vir-

tual office Pros otherwise strong Web-con-

ferencing feature: there was some latency

issues with content sharing, such as when

I tried to share excel and PowerPoint files.

but if youre ready to put some of your oper-

ations in the cloud and like the flexibility of

a unified communications platform you

can access from any oS, major browser, or

iPhone and iPad, Virtual office Pro is ideal

and our editors choice.Samara Lynn

>>CLICK HERE FOR MORE

FIRsT LOOKs busINEss

8x8 Virtual Office Pro$49.99 direct monthly per userL l l l h

PROs Near-perfect, cloud-based Unified Com-munications for SMBs. Integration of VoIP, fax, Web conferencing, and chat into one solution. Unlimited local and long-distance calling. Some international calling. Easy-to-use Web inter-face.

CONs Program windows sharing in Web con-ferencing doesnt work as well as desktop shar-ing. Slightly muffled call quality.

8x8s Virtual office Pro has all the

ingredients of an excellent cloud

communications business tool:

Its incredibly easy to use, requires

little to no VoIP technical knowl-

edge, and delivers hosted PbX, chat, online

meetings, Internet faxing, and more. the

price may sound high, but if you calculate

the costs for deploying and maintaining an

on-site phone systemnot to mention addi-

tional fax and Web-conferencing services

the 8x8 sounds much more reasonable.

the main component of Virtual office Pro

is the enterprise-class VoIP service. Here

you get auto-attendant, hold music, ring

groups, unlimited and international call-

ing, call forwarding, extension dialing, and

more, which can all lend your SMb a pol-

ished, professional appearance. on top of

those business-class phone features, you

have a friendly Web dashboard for making

and managing calls. Internet faxing, chat,

Web audio and video conferencing, and

call recording round out the offering. And

you can even port your companys exist-

ing number to Virtual office Pro, an option

not available with Google Voice. I found the

setup to be straightforward and easy, and if

youre stuck, 8x8 offers live chat support.

on our test, I found call quality to be

8x8 Virtual Office Pro

Your Cloud Receptionist



What could be better than a spam

filter that accurately cleans up

any one e-mail account of any

type using any e-mail client? How

about one that does the same for

as many e-mail accounts as you happen to

have, and throws in some bonus features.

Its not free, but cloudmark Desktopone-

Pro Mode is still quite a bargain. the base

price lets you install it on two separate sys-

temsyours and your partners, perhaps.

the basic antispam functionality is identi-

cal to that of the free cloudmark Desktop-

one, handling all kinds of e-mail accounts:

PoP3, IMAP, exchange, HttP-based mail

(MSN) and Web-based mail. It integrates

directly with many popular e-mail clients,

specifically outlook, outlook express, Win-

dows Mail, and thunderbird. You can con-

figure cloudmark to filter out spam in the

background automatically, and the Pro edi-

tion lets you enable spam aging, automat-

ically deleting the oldest spam messages.

In testing, I linked cloudmark to every

e-mail account I could scrape up, with

almost universal success. the one clinker

was my free Yahoo Mail account. only paid

accounts are allowed PoP3 access, so that

one was out of reach. but cloudmarks sig-

nature community-based spam filtering

blocks virtually no valid mail while correctly

blocking almost all spam. Just 2.4 percent

of undeniable spam got past the filteran

excellent score. Paying extra for antispam,

already included in most security suites,

may be a tough sell, but cloudmark is just

that good. cloudmarks service is excellent,

and the cloudmark Desktopone Pro edition

is well worth the modest price if you need

a bit more protection than the free edition

offers. cloudmark Desktopone Pro is our

editors choice product for premium antis-

pam software.Neil J. Rubenking


Cloudmark DesktopOne-Pro Mode

Antispam At its Best

FIRsT LOOKs sOFTWARE


Cloudmark DesktopOne-Pro Mode$19.95 direct per yearL l l l l

PROs Accurately filters spam from any type of e-mail ac-count in any e-mail client. Can handle multiple accounts. Automatically whitelists those in local address books. Can permanently delete old spam messages. Handy online li-cense management.

CONs Community-based fil-tering necessarily lets through a very small percentage of spam. Paying for antispam can be a tough sell.



According to one indepen-

dent market-watching group,

Kaspersky Lab is the hottest-

selling software brand in

U.S. retail stores, with over-

all sales more than tripling for the first half

of 2010. Kaspersky Internet Security 2011,

gives good reason to believe those num-

bers. Kasperskys security powerhouse

does its job without pestering you. the

firewall makes decisions rather than asking

you what to do. basically, you should have

no worries about attacks from outside with

Kasperskys firewall on the job.

the best firewall feature is its application-

control system, which assigns programs

categories: trusted, low-restricted, high-

restricted, and untrusted. Known good pro-

grams and those digitally signed by trusted

vendors are free to access the Internet and

sensitive system areas. Untrusted programs

cant even launch. restricted programs have

limited access. And the firewall pops up

messages only for significant threats.

In testing, it blocked all port-scan tests

and other Web-based tests I threw at it.

It was also unusually effective at block-

ing attempts to exploit vulnerabilities in

the browser and OS. I hit it with two dozen

attacks using the core Impact penetra-

tion tool; none compromised the test sys-

tems security. better still, Kaspersky clearly

reported that it blocked specific exploits.

the full suite performed significantly bet-

ter in my malware-blocking tests than the

stand-alone antivirus, detecting 89 percent

of malware threats. Finally, it will put very

little drag on system resources. though its

performance on spam filtering and phishing

protection was lackluster, keeping from an

editors choice, this suite is nonetheless an

excellent choice.Neil J. Rubenking


FIRsT LOOKs sOFTwARE

Kaspersky Internet security 2011

Strong PC Protection

Kaspersky Internet Security 2011three licenses, $79.95 direct L l l l m

PROs Tough, intelligent, automated firewall actively blocks exploits. Praised by indepen-dent antivirus labs. Sandbox protects system files and sensitive surfing. Comprehensive pa-rental control system. Minimal system performance.

CONs Didnt reach expectations in my malware-removal tests. Antispam allowed many spam messages into Inbox. Performed poorly in antiphishing tests.


The latest upgrade to rIMs

blackberry OS is the biggest

ever. No, this isnt a Windows

Phone 7type reimagining.

blackberry is still blackberry,

with the things you love (such as the laser-

like focus on messaging) and the things

you hate (such as pedestrian design and a

lame third-party app catalog.) but rIM has

finally cracked the touch-screen code here,

delivering a new OS with new search, Web,

and media features that work well on touch-

screen devices.

blackberry 6 is a true hybrid system,

where you can do almost anything through

touch, on the keypad, or using the track-

pad in between them. the main blackberry

6 home screen has an alert bar at the top

that can become stacked with icons for new

messages, IMs, tweets, and calendar events.

Lower on the screen, there are icons for your

four most frequently used apps. Setting

up blackberry 6 is much easier than previ-

ous blackberrys; the old, text-based setup

and options screens have been replaced

by clearer dialog boxes with good-looking

icons. e-mail support for Microsoft exchange

Server is still somewhat weak, but new social

networking and IM features give you various

options to integrate your favorite sites. the

new OS comes with a new, faster, and more

streamlined version of blackberrys desktop

software that feels like one app rather than a

cobbled-together mess of plug-ins.

blackberry 6 isnt a complete overhaul,

but neither is it skin-deep. It keeps rIM in the

game, but doesnt push them to the fore.

clearly, were going to see a lot of black-

berrys with touch screens and keyboards

over the next year or so, and theyre going

to have a lot of focus on messaging and

media. blackberry 6 is an obvious upgrade

for existing blackberry users, but we dont

see this new OS drawing the momen-

tum away from iOS and Android just yet.

Sascha Segan


BlackBerry 6 OSFreeL l l l m

PROs Touch-screen BlackBerrys are finally viable. Great device and Web video search functions. Brand-new, world-class Web browser. Puts IM and social networking at the forefront.

CONs Still pretty pedestrian design. Lousy Ex-change integration for consumers. Third-party app catalog still thin.

BlackBerry 6 Os

Sending the Right Message

FIRsT LOOKs sOFTwARE



jOhN C. DvOrAk

How Apple Stores Got It Right

A few weeks ago, I walked into

the San Francisco Apple

store at around 7:30 at night,

and it was packed with peo-

ple. I was hoping to see the

latest new products, but they were not in

the store yet. that didnt deter the hundreds

of people poking around the place. the line

at the registersoddly placed in the back of

the storewere 20-people deep. the place

was jumping. It was actually a scene. A hap-

pening. It was weird.

thats when it hit me: Apple stores around

the country have proven once and for all

that a targeted retail outlet designed to

sell a line of products with a concise mes-

sage is the key to success in the computer

business. this was long since proven by the

automobile industry, and it stuns me that

only Apple has figured this out in the com-

puter business.

The Failed Attempts of Others

the retail-store front has been tried by a

few computer companies before Apple and

have all failed for obvious reasons. com-

puAdd, once a serious competitor with Dell

and IbM, rolled out a number of stores which

bankrupted the company. the stores were

huge and were more like compUSA than the

Apple store. too much stuff, no buzz.

IbM had a few stores prior to the compu-

Add experiment, and its stores did seem to

have some buzz and activity. but they were

more aimed at the professional market, and

the company decided it didnt like the way

the numbers looked, so it shuttered them all

at once. these stores pre-dated the roll-out

of oS/2 and the line of IbM thinkpad com-

puters. I think they would have set the world

on fire if theyd been kept open during the

laptop era. but no.

Gateway had a series of stores some

years back called the country Stores, which

seemed to be doing well in rural areas not

served by any other computer-selling out-

lets. but the stores themselves were boring

and ominous. You didnt feel comfortable

and you could not just breeze in and out

without being harassed like you can with


DvoRAk LIve on tHe Web Johns Internet TV show airs every Wednesday at 3:30 ET on Cranky-Geeks.com. You can download back episodes whenever you like.

ously doubt that this would be true if it were

not for the stores. the company would be

doing well, but the stores are obviously

adding a lot.

So should Dell, HP and perhaps Sam-

sung or Acer roll out retail stores? Yes, they

should. Samsung has so many product lines

that youd think it would have had stores

by now. I think the company makes about

everything from computers to phones

to washing machines and refrigerators.

It would be like a Sears store without the

clothing.

Dell has been trying to get into the same

product lines as Apple from the outset but

cannot find a way to do stores. I think the

company was scared off by the failures of

IbM, compuAdd, and Gateway. the com-

pany must know that there are retail experts

who can figure out what went wrong with

those and avoid the pitfalls. After all, thats

what Apple did. the Apple stores are not

just ad-libbed by Steve Jobs.

the tech scene in general could use some

more of the buzz and energy you can find

any night in an Apple store. Now that every-

one knows exactly how to do it right, what

are they waiting for?

the Apple stores. For all practical purposes,

the Gateway stores did to Gateway what

the compuAdd stores did to compuAdd.

Sunk them.

the latest iteration of all this, of course, is

the Microsoft store. Its first try, back in San

Francisco in 1999, reminded me of the lay-

out of the toy department at Macys in New

York. Slick and professional. too bad there

was no buzz or energy in the place ever. I

probably went into there three times, and

there was never more than one other cus-

tomer in the place. I have not visited the

new flagship Microsoft store in Flagstaff,

Arizona, but the photos Ive seen show it

as quite lively. Microsoft could easily use

such a facility to promote its Phone 7 oS,

the Xbox 360 and even the Zune, as well as

other products that need a salesperson to

promote.

key to Success: A Good Sales Team

thats what is great about a storefront like

this, salespeople. A good sales team can do

more than move products; it actually helps

the customer in the decision-making pro-

cess. And unless they are screwed over by a

salesperson, customers end up with a good

feeling about the company.

During this harsh economic downturn,

Apple has had little trouble surviving the

rocky times. In fact, it has flourished. I seri-

It stuns me that of all the manufacturers of

tech products, only Apple has figured out the

secret to retail stores.



SASCHA SEGAN

Video for Phones: Lets Get Serious

I would absolutely love to watch

more movies and TV shows on my

phone. And mobile phone mak-

ers seem to be on board, equip-

ping phones like the HTC EVO 4G

and Nokia N8 with high-res screens and

HDMI ports. But unless the content makers

and the hardware industry get together to

provide common encoding and DRM stan-

dards, most high-def phones will be forever

starved of high-def content.

If I want digital music, its easy to find. Just

pop over to iTunes or Amazon, either on my

phone or my PC, buy an unprotected MP3

or AAC file, and play it on whatever. Things

werent this easy a few years ago, but weve

largely gotten past the shock-horror phase

of the digital-music revolution. Most music

companies acknowledge that DRM is unac-

ceptable (except for subscription services,

in which case DRM is necessary), and most

portable devices support the major music

formats. While theres still a bit of trouble

with syncing to some devices, thats more a

speed bump than a road block.

Get With The Times

When it comes to video, however, were still

in 2004. Finding legal, downloadable video

for most phones is simply impossible; the

content owners refuse to provide it. There

are scattered exceptions to this rule. Apples

iPhone and iPad can get lots of stuff, even in

HD. T-Mobiles HTC HD2 phone has a Block-

buster app. PrimeTime2Go offers a limited

selection of low-res TV shows for download

on BlackBerry phones. Ive heard that Sam-

sungs Galaxy S phones may offer down-

loadable content, too, but we still have an

incomplete patchwork of incompatible solu-

tions, with too little content available in HD.

That makes piracy start to sound attrac-

tive, but downloaded or self-ripped video

comes in a multicolored riot of formats,

none of which is guaranteed to play on your

device. Every device supports different

codecs, bit rates, and resolutions.

Streaming services are not the answer.

Netflix is a great option and will, hopefully,

come to more phones soon. But streaming

over 3G is never top quality, and it kills bat-


STAY PHONE-SMART Keep up with the latest on smartphones by reading Saschas column at go.pcmag.com/segan.

If I want digital music, its easy to find. When it

comes to video, however, were still in 2004.

get manufacturers can smooth the path by

agreeing on an HD-encoding standard and

communicating it to third parties, such as

the Handbrakes, doubleTwists, and Apples

of the world so convert for HD phone and

convert for SD phone become simple,

standard commands.

A uniform DRM scheme would have to

come with this, at least for now. Part of the

problem is that usage models for music and

video are very different. Youll listen to your

favorite album a hundred times; most TV

shows you want to watch only once. Like it

or not, studios need a way to enable a low-

cost, single-viewing option for video con-

tent, and that means DRM. Id love to have

a DRM-free world, but there needs to be a

way to offer low-cost, downloadable single

viewings of movies and TV shows, so com-

panies can afford to make more shows and

we can afford to watch them.

The DRM they come up with must be an

open standard, though, operated by an

industry body and available for free. DRM

isnt just a hideous brainsuck because it pre-

vents you from owning content. Most DRM

schemes are encumbered with expensive IP

and proprietary code that prefer one com-

petitor in a busy industry. The Prisoners

Dilemma applies here: Everyone needs to

work together to win.

teries fast. Were also potentially coming

into an era of network scarcity, as shown by

AT&Ts new data caps: You can bust AT&Ts

new 2GB data plan with less than 4 hours of

watching streaming video.

To some extent, we just have to wait for

the digital divisions of TV and movie stu-

dios to realize that people want to watch

video on mobile devices. But even if studios

decided to make their content available for

mobile, it would still be either low quality or

unplayable on many phones.

We Need Standards

The content and tech industries need to

come to a consensus on standard, semi-uni-

versal video formats, the way they did with

nearly universal support for MP3 and AAC.

If you have video content, its almost

impossible to figure out how to encode it

properly for many phones. Programs like

doubleTwist and Missing Sync can often

copy video onto phones, but they fre-

quently scale it down to sub-high-def reso-

lutions that look lousy when you hook up an

HDMI cable. When I tried to encode my own

HD video via Handbrake for the Sprint EVO,

I just couldnt get anything I created to play:

no WMV, no H.264 MP4, and not even HD,

simple-profile MP4.

The problem is there are just too many

codecs, with too many twiddly options.

This is so far from consumer-friendly that

it borders on consumer-impossible. Gad-



You know something we dont know.

PcMag.coms analysts do a terrific job reviewing thousands of products

each year. our in-depth analysis helps us understand and report which

are fastest, have the best features, or produce the best output. but there

are limitations to every product review process. We often test a single

unit, which makes it difficult to get a feel for which companys products will stand the test

of time and how well the manufacturers will support customers when they have a problem

or need help.

this is why every year we ask our readers about the products and services they use. tens

of thousands respond, rating items on dozens of criteria from overall reliability to satisfaction

with technical support and likelihood of recommending. combined with our analysts reviews,

this gives you a complete picture of a product, so you can make informed buying decisions.

The Tech Brands You Trust Most


this year (our 23rd year of our survey), nearly 20,000 readers rated over 105,000 prod-

ucts in 13 different categories from Pcs to ISPs to HDtVs. We use these ratings to provide a

collective view of a companys products, not one particular model or service offering (with

exceptions like game consoles). We present a lot of data for you to review, but dont worry

about getting overwhelmed. We break down the results for you, with picks for our readers

choice winners and, in some cases, honorable mentions. this will show you whom your fel-

low readers trustand whom they dont. If youre considering a tech purchase, look at what

your fellow PcMag readers have to say. Do they recommend a companys products, and if

not, why not? Is a companys service up to snuff or are too many units breaking down? on

the pages that follow, we offer a close look at the results for laptops, desktops, printers, cell

service providers, and cell phones, as well as snapshots of the results for eight other product

categories. For a look at the full results of our entire survey, click here.

The Tech Brands You Trust Most

Our annual survey reveals

which manufacturers are

making the grade in the

world of tech products.

By Ben Z. Gottesman



Laptops and Notebooks

READERS CHOICE

Apple Inc. No other company comes

anywhere close to Apples ratings. to its

customers, the company can do no wrong.

And Apple laptops make pretty good Win-

dows machines, too.

Asus once again, Asus receives the highest

overall rating among Windows laptop mak-

ers. Some of its ratings are down slightly

from last year, but Asuss users still highly

recommend its computers.

If youre working for one of Apples

competitors, you probably view Mr. Jobs

company with the same disdain that you

had for the kid in class who always blew

the curve on exams. Apple has a way of

making other companies decent scores

look pretty mediocre. Its 9.2-overall rating

and 9.3 likelihood to recommend scores

are among the highest of any company in

any category of this survey. (Pioneer also

received a 9.2-overall rating in HDtVs and

Apple got a 9.3 likelihood to recommend

in desktop Pcs.) Apple earns yet another

readers choice Award for laptops and

notebooks. the next closest competitor

is Asus, another repeat readers choice

winner on the Windows side, with a very

respectable overall rating of 8.5, though its

nowhere in Apples league.

For the most part, Apples results

remained consistent with last year. Inter-

estingly, readers rated the company a 9.3

for reliability despite the fact that 15 per-

cent of Apple respondents reported that

their laptops needed repair. the repair rate

is the main chink among Apples otherwise

stellar ratings. only Dell and Fujitsu had

more laptops needing repairs (18 percent

each); Apple was on par with Lenovo and

HP, with 15 percent needing repair.

As can be expected, Apple scored a

whopping 81 percent in our Net Promoter

rating, a new addition to our survey this

year. the Net Promoter Score, a term coined by fellow Fred reichheld of the

consulting firm bain & company, measures

readers loyalties to the various brands that

they rated. calculating NPS is very straight-

forward. We ask the question, How likely is

it that you would recommend this comany

to a friend or colleague? based on the

answer, each respondent is categorized

as either a promoter, a passive or a detrac-

tor. the higher number of promoters (and

fewer detractors), a brand has, the higher

its Net Promoter score. (For more on NPS,

click here.)

Asus, which makes everything from

highly mobile netbooks to high-end gam-

ing systems, posted an excellent reliabil-

ity satisfaction rating of 8.9 and had the

second fewest laptops needing repairs

(6 percent). only MSI had fewer laptops

requiring repair. MSI also posted a similar

reliability score of 8.8.


* At least 2 confidence intervals from the average.** 1 confidence interval from the average. Overall score is based on answers to the question Overall, how would you rate this notebook PC? It is not the average of the other scores in the table.

Except for numbers indicated by a percentage, scores are based on a scale of 0 to 10, where 10 is best. For Percentage Needing Repair, a lower percentage is best.

A blank field indicates that we do not have enough survey data to give the company a score.

Net Promoter, Net Promoter Score, and NPS are trademarks of Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Bain & Company, Inc., and Fred Reichheld. What is the Net Promoter Score? This new addition to our survey measures brand loyalty. Survey respondents are categorized as either promoters, passives or detractors. The more promoters a brand has, the higher its Net Promoter score. For more on NPS, click here.

aSignificantly better than average**

bBetter than average

- - Within the average range

cWorse than average*

dSignificantly worse than average**

RED denotes Readers Choice BLUE denotes Honorable Mention O

VER

ALL SCORE

RELIABILITY

TECHNICAL

SUPPPORT

REPAIRS

PER

CEN

TAGE

NEE

DING REPAIR

LIKELIHOOD OF BEING

REC

OMMEN

DED

NET

PROMOTE

R

SC

ORE

ALL NOTEBOOKS

Apple (803 responses) 9.2 a 9.3 a 8.6 a 8.1 a 15% c 9.3 a 81%

Asus (330) 8.5 a 8.9 a 6% a 8.7 a 61%

MSI (64) 8.1 -- 8.8 b 5% b 8.4 -- 52%

Toshiba (858) 8.1 -- 8.4 -- 6.9 -- 6.7 -- 10% -- 8.4 b 49%

Fujitsu (74) 8.0 -- 8.5 -- 18% -- 8.2 -- 38%

Gateway (276) 8.0 -- 8.3 -- 11% -- 7.7 c 21%

Lenovo (930) 7.9 c 8.2 c 7.3 -- 7.2 -- 15% c 8.1 -- 38%

Acer (551) 7.9 -- 8.2 c 6.4 -- 7.1 -- 10% -- 8.0 -- 36%

Sony (330) 7.9 -- 8.2 -- 6.6 -- 12% -- 7.9 -- 36%

Dell (2829) 7.7 d 7.9 d 6.9 -- 7.0 -- 18% d 7.9 d 31%

HP (2027) 7.7 d 8.0 d 6.4 d 5.8 d 15% c 7.8 d 27%

Compaq (203) 7.3 d 7.7 d 12% -- 7.2 d 7%

AVERAGE 8.0 8.4 7.0 7.0 12% 8.1 40%

LAPTOPS

Still, Asus needs to keep an eye on some

downward trends. overall, satisfaction

dipped from 8.8 in 2009 to 8.5. Similarly,

while its likelihod-to-recommend rating of

8.7 is the highest aside from Apple, Asus

rated a 9.0 last year. Among customers who

bought their laptops within the last year,

their likelihood to recommend dropped

from 9.2 in 2009 to 8.8. the reason could be

the higher incidence of repairs: Five percent

needed repairs (the best among all new sys-

tems) compared to only 2 percent last year.



Asuss likelihood-to-recommend rating

among first year laptop owners is actually

behind toshiba (8.9 percent). reliability

improvements may be the key. toshiba saw

the percentage of new computers need-

ing repairs drop from 14 percent last year to

only 7 percent this year.

Some other vendors also saw repair rates

improve. Dell went from 23 percent need-

ing repair to 18 percent; its nothing to brag

about, but it is a positive trend. Lenovo cut

its repair rate to 15 percent from 22 percent

* At least 2 confidence intervals from the average.** 1 confidence interval from the average. Overall score is based on answers to the question Overall, how would you rate this desktop PC? It is not the average of the other scores in the table.



Net Promoter, Net Promoter Score, and NPS are trademarks of Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Bain & Company, Inc., and Fred Reichheld

aSignificantly better than average**






VER

ALL SCORE

RELIABILITY

TECHNICAL

SUPPPORT

REPAIRS

PER

CEN

TAGE

NEE

DING REPAIR

LIKELIHOOD OF BEING

REC

OMMEN

DED

NET

PROMOTE

R

SC

ORE

ALL DESKTOPS

Apple (638 responses) 9.1 a 9.3 a 8.9 a 8.3 a 9% b 9.3 a 79%

Self-built (1941) 8.6 a 9.0 a 7.2 -- 8.2 a 18% d 7.8 -- 27%

Locally built/Clone (620) 8.4 a 8.7 a 8.0 a 8.2 a 21% d 7.9 -- 33%

CyberPower (71) 8.1 -- 8.3 -- 13% -- 7.8 -- 31%

Sony (50) 8.1 -- 8.3 -- 18% -- 7.6 -- 18%

Systemax (52) 8.0 -- 8.3 -- 15% -- 8.3 -- 48%

HP (2314) 7.7 c 7.9 d 6.4 d 6.4 c 15% -- 7.8 -- 26%

Gateway (430) 7.7 -- 7.9 c 5.6 c 5.8 c 13% -- 7.1 d 6%

Dell (4042) 7.6 d 8.0 c 6.8 -- 6.9 -- 13% -- 7.8 -- 29%

Lenovo (202) 7.4 c 8.0 -- 9% -- 7.6 -- 17%

eMachines (171) 7.4 c 7.7 c 14% -- 7.5 c 10%

Acer (155) 7.2 c 7.7 c 12% -- 7.4 c 10%

Compaq 7.1 d 7.6 c 16% -- 7.1 d -1%

AVERAGE 7.8 8.1 6.9 6.8 13% 7.9 29%

DESKTOPS


last year. on the other hand, Lenovo has the

highest non-Apple satisfaction with repairs

at 7.2, but thats below last years 7.6. Simi-

larly, among computers less than a year

old, Dells satisfaction with tech support

dropped from 7.1 to a mediocre 6.5, and sat-

isfaction with repairs went from 6.9 to 6.4.

Among new laptops, Dell had the lowest

likelihood to be recommended (8.0).

Desktops

READERS CHOICE

Apple Inc. Apple sweeps the category, with

the highest ratings in everything from the

reliability of the computers to the techni-

cal support and repair service the company

provides.

HONORAbLE MENTION

Systemax Inc. even though it s not

reflected in its overall rating, Systemax is

the most highly-recommended company

among those that focus on the Windows

market, and it leads by a healthy margin.

these days, most of the excitement

around Pcs is in laptops, tablets, and other

mobile devices. that said, desktop com-

puters remain more popular than laptops

among the PcMag.com readers Survey

respondents. once again, Apple receives

our readers choice Award for desktops.

Unlike last year, though, when Sony also

received the award, this year the cupertino-

based company stands alone.

In past years, we did not factor Apples

ratings into the industry averages because

its Macs werent a viable Pc alternative for

many people. However, now that Macs can

run Windows (or even Linux), theres good

cross-platform compatibility between

many oS X and Windows applications. And

since much of our computing is done in a

browser, we feel its time Apple was placed

on equal footing. of course, this drives up

the industry averages and makes other

desktop manufacturers look less impres-

sive. Perhaps this will serve as a wake-up

call to those companies.

Apples 9.3 likelihood-to-recommend

rating is a full point higher than its closest

competitor, Systemax (8.3). Apples over-

all satisfaction and reliability ratings were

also over 9.0. Interestingly, both Apple and

Lenovo had the lowest incidences of units

needing repairs (9 percent), but Apples 9.3

reliability satisfaction rating is much higher

than Lenovos 8.0. theres not always a cor-

relation between reliability and repair rates:

Sonys 8.3 reliability rating is better than

Lenovos even though its repair rate was

twice as high.

Dell and HPs results remain very similar

to 2009, except that Dell was also able to

reduce the percentage of systems need-

ing repairs from 19 to 13 percent, and for HP,

satisfaction with repairs dropped from a

respectable 7.0 in 2009 to 6.4. the overall

rating for HPs compaq brand (7.1) is lowest

among desktop manufacturers.



PRINTERSaSignificantly better than average**






VER

ALL SCORE

RELIABILITY

TECHNICAL

SUPPPORT

REPAIRS

PER

CEN

TAGE

NEE

DING REPAIR

LIKELIHOOD OF BEING

REC

OMMEN

DED

NET

PROMOTE

R

SC

ORE

ALL PRINTERS

Brother (1405 responses) 8.1 a 8.5 a 6.4 -- 3% a 8.4 a 46%

Canon (2095) 8.1 a 8.5 a 7.5 b 6.2 -- 2% a 8.4 a 46%

Samsung (380) 8.1 b 8.5 a 2% a 8.2 a 42%

HP (9210) 7.8 -- 8.1 b 5.9 d 6.3 -- 4% a 8.0 a 34%

Epson (1293) 7.8 -- 8.2 -- 5.7 c 3% a 8.0 b 32%

Konica Minolta (107) 7.8 -- 8.2 -- 7% -- 7.7 -- 19%

Xerox (218) 7.8 -- 8.1 -- 7.2 -- 18% d 7.6 -- 16%

Oki /Oki Data (69) 7.7 -- 8.2 -- 3% -- 7.5 -- 13%

Kodak (168) 7.5 -- 7.5 c 20% d 7.5 -- 27%

Dell (566) 7.3 d 7.8 c 3% a 7.3 d 6%

Lexmark (734) 7.2 d 7.6 d 6.5 -- 4% b 7.3 d 9%

AVERAGE 7.7 8.1 6.6 6.2 6% 7.8 26%

* At least 2 confidence intervals from the average.** 1 confidence interval from the average. Overall score is based on answers to the question Overall, how would you rate this printer? It is not the average of the other scores in the table.



Net Promoter, Net Promoter Score, and NPS are trademarks of Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Bain & Company, Inc., and Fred Reichheld

Printers

READERS CHOICE

brother International Corp. Whether

mono or color, standalone or all-in-one,

brother has emerged as the top dog in all of

the laser-related printer categories.

Canon U.S.A. Inc. A perennial readers

choice winner, canon dominates in the ink-

jet categories, and its technical sup

Documents

PC Magazine - October 2010 (True PDF)