Innholdsfortegnelse for Apr-10 i PCWorld

Go ahead: Embrace your indecision. All the data in the world may not give you much confidence when it comes to choosing a phone. CAN INNOVATION EVER be a bad thing? My knee-jerk reaction is to say no: As editorial director of PCWorld, I know that innovation, particularly as it plays out in the technology marketplace, yields greater product choice for consumers. And choice is good. Except maybe when it isn’t. Take smartphones, for instance. Picking a new one has become so confusing that many prospective buyers are simply waiting on the sidelines. Here’s the problem. First, before you can even think about which smartphone you want, you need to decide on the carrier, generally AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, or Verizon. This choice is critical, since a smartphone is only as…

AT&T clocked the fastest average upload and download speeds in both our laptop- and smartphone-based tests, along with strong reliability scores. 3G NETWORK LAPTOPS AT&T Average download speed 1410 Average upload speed 773 Average reliability 94% SPRINT Average download speed 795 Average upload speed 396 Average reliability 94% T-MOBILE Average download speed 868 Average upload speed 311 Average reliability 92% VERIZON Average download speed 877 Average upload speed 434 Average reliability 92% SMARTPHONES AT&T Average download speed 1259 Average upload speed 215 Average reliability 91% SPRINT Average download speed 851 Average upload speed 145 Average reliability 92% T-MOBILE Average download speed 719 Average upload speed 134 Average reliability 93% VERIZONE Average download speed 1075 Average upload speed 116 Average reliability 76%…

THE FUTURE OF the $9.99 e-book is in danger. A major publisher, Hachette, is opting for Apple’s agency model to sell e-books for up to $14.99 apiece, a company memo to agents revealed. Following Amazon’s public dispute with Macmillan in early February over e-book prices, Hachette wants to shift to the agency model—where publishers set prices for e-books, and retailers keep 30 percent of the sales. HarperCollins made a similar move earlier. Its owner, Rupert Murdoch, says, “We don’t like the Amazon model of $9.99… We think it really devalues books and hurts all the retailers of hardcover books… And now Amazon is willing to sit down with us again and renegotiate.” In the memo to agents, Hachette says that it will make less money on each e-book sale under…

AN ANALYSIS of real-world online behavior indicates that far too many people reuse the same log-ins for more than one site. Using statistics gathered from bank log-in protection software that currently runs on 4 million PCs, security vendor Trusteer found that 73 percent of users had employed the password for their online bank sites to access at least one other Website; 65 percent had used the same ID, and nearly half had reused both. Recently, a note posted on the Twitter Website alerted users to an attack on its accounts that involved log-ins harvested from a network of scam Torrent file-sharing sites and reused on Twitter. According to Trusteer—which markets a password enforcement system—the inability to create and remember multiple passwords and log-ins leads people to reuse the same ones.…

WHEN MY DELL XPS 730 desktop system kept crashing, Dell offered to replace it. The replacement also had problems, so Dell offered to send another. When I realized that the PC would arrive while I was away, I called Dell to delay the delivery, since they’d charge me for a new PC if I didn’t send the old one back within five business days. Unfortunately, the computer arrived just before I was to leave for the airport. I told the FedEx driver to take it back, and I called Dell. We arranged for FedEx to hold the PC and deliver it after I returned, but it was sent back to Dell during my vacation. Dell is convinced I still have it. Can you help me? Mark Miller, New Fairfield, Connecticut…

How an Up-to-Date Virtualized Server Saved One Small Business EVEN TECH COMPANIES need an IT overhaul from time to time. Case in point: Last year, a Canadian software developer called my team at Microtek to upgrade its server room. The tech company was a six-person operation responsible for developing an application suite that enables various small businesses to locate and acquire specialty parts; the company needed a new server to host a home-built CRM system it uses to manage 100 client accounts. The people responsible for the company’s internal IT infrastructure had departed, leaving scant documentation to guide current staff. The server used aging hardware and was rapidly running out of disk space. The developer needed to upgrade the CRM server, add disk space, establish a backup option for Internet…

Digital Thieves Dominate Data Breaches FOR THE FIRST time, hackers have become the biggest cause behind publicly reported data breaches, according to a recent report. The Identity Theft Resource Center began tracking the cause of reported breaches three years ago. For the first two years, the top cause was what the ITRC calls “data on the move”—typically a lost laptop with unencrypted data, or even a lost briefcase. That changed in 2009, when about one out of every five data breaches had a hacker behind it. A thief who walks away with a laptop is likely more interested in wiping its hard drive and selling it than in selling its data. But a hacker who invades a company’s network and swipes a trove of credit card numbers is sure to…

MODEL Rating Features and specifications Performance 1 Motorola Droid $200 (with 2-year contract) find.pcworld.com/64263 4.5/5.0 SUPERIOR • Carrier: Verizon • Form factor: Slide • Weight: 6.0 ounces • Camera resolution: 5.0 megapixels • Solid construction • Keyboard is a bit shallow • Superb suite of video and audio features The first Android 2.0 phone has a strong suite of Web features and a great 3.7-inch display; the shallow keyboard may irk some users, however. 2 Google Nexus One $180 (with 2-year contract) find.pcworld.com/64373 4.5/5.0 SUPERIOR • Carrier: T-Mobile • Form factor: Candy bar • Weight: 4.5 ounces • Camera resolution: 5.0 megapixels ¨Dazzling OLED display • Comfortable keyboard • Middling audio and video quality The Nexus One has an AMOLED display, delivers speedy performance, and offers cool tweaks to Android…

The ThinkPad Edge adds a touch of style to Lenovo’s venerable but staid line of ThinkPads. MODEL 1 Sony VGN-Z598U/B $4450 find.pcworld.com/62161 Rating 4.0/5.0 Performance ¨WorldBench 6 score: 107 Superior ¨Overall design: Very Good ¨Tested battery life: 4:46 Features and specifications ¨ 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo SP9500 ¨ 13.1-inch widescreen ¨ 4.2 pounds ¨ BD-RE/BD-R Sony’s high-powered business multimedia machine is compelling; but with all of the extras in place, its price is stratospheric. MODEL 2 HP ProBook 5310m $899 NEW find.pcworld.com/69436 Rating 3.5/50 VERY GOOD Performance ¨ WorldBench 6 score: 99 Very Good ¨ Overall design: Very Good ¨ Tested battery life: 4:56 Features and specifications ¨2.26GHz Core 2 Duo SP9300 ¨ 14.0-inch widescreen ¨ 3.8 pounds ¨ DVD+R DL/DVD±RW The ProBook 5310m’s slim, stylish case impresses, as do…

The new top performer, from Crucial, is the first SSD to use a 6-GBps SATA connection. MODEL 1 Crucial RealSSD C300 $800 NEW find.pcworld.com/69523 Rating 4.5 SUPERIOR Performance ¨ Overall performance: Superior ¨ Copy 3.7GB of files: 19 seconds ¨ Write 3.7GB of files: 25 seconds Features and specifications ¨ 256GB ¨ SATA-600 ¨ Cost per gigabyte: $3.13 The first drive with SATA-600 support, the RealSSD C300 screams past the competition in both read and write performance. MODEL 2 Samsung MLC SSD $800 find.pcworld.com/63499 Rating 4.0/5.0 VERY GOOD Performance ¨Overall performance: Superior ¨Copy 3.7GB of files: 27 seconds ¨Write 3.7GB of files: 24 seconds Performance ¨256GB ¨SATA-300 ¨Cost per gigabyte: $3.13 This drive came close to matching the top-performing Crucial RealSSD C300; note that Samsung doesn’t sell it directly to…

THINK ABOUT ALL the images squirreled away on your hard drive—or on multiple drives. Finding them can be a challenge, which is where ACDSee Pro 3.0 ($170, upgrade $90) comes in. The tabbed interface is divided into four areas similar to the steps in a photographer’s workflow: Manage, View, Process, and Online. Manage mode is where you import, organize, keywordtag, batch-process, search for, rate, and compare images. All of the functions work smoothly. Unfortunately, Compare is a separate window, which can hamper efficiency. Likewise, the division of View and Manage seems counterintuitive. Having Manage, Compare, and View functions on a single tab would be more useful. The Process mode now has two edit methods: Develop, which doesn’t aff ect the integrity of images, and Edit for pixel-level adjustments. All image…

THE $300 CANON Power-Shot SD940 IS resembles the PowerShot SD780 IS (find.pcworld.com/63445) in many ways. Both cameras off er 12-megapixel resolution, eff ective optical stabilization, 720p high-def video capture, about 20 scene modes, HDMI-out, and very good image quality. In PCWorld Labs tests, the SD940 IS earned a higher score than its sibling for overall image quality, with very high ratings for color accuracy, exposure, and flash exposure. Though it lagged behind the older model in sharpness and distortion, it still had an imagequality score of Very Good. The SD940 IS took 290 test shots on one charge of its rechargeable lithium ion battery, about 30 shots more per charge than the SD780 IS. Whereas the older SD780 IS’s 3X-optical-zoom lens extends to 33mm on the wide-angle end, the SD940…

SWAPPING CDs and DVDs out of your optical drive is a pain—not to mention slow. It can take your drive and Windows up to half a minute to mount a disc. Daemon Tools Lite (find.pcworld.com/69535) is a great freebie for mounting ISO and other disc images as virtual CD/DVD drives, but the paid Pro versions off er considerably more functionality. For example, both of them have a straightforward, easyto- use graphical interface— no command-line visits for accessing advanced features, as there are with Lite. The only real negative to Daemon Tools is that neither Advanced nor Standard (nor the free Lite, of course) handles copy-protected discs. If you don’t need to virtually mount commercial games or DVD movies, however, one of the two Pro versions of Daemon Tools should provide…

With these 11 programs and services, you can share large files, save ink, keep tabs on action items, and improve your efficiency. (Go to find.pcworld.com/69463 for the downloads in this section.) DoPDF Free PDF Converter: Want to turn a Word document, Excel spreadsheet, or Web page on your PC into a PDF? Install this download and then choose the Print command in the app you’re using. Select the DoPDF “printer” and tweak the settings, and you’re done. Drop.io for Outlook: If there’s an easier way to share big files than the Drop.io Web service, we haven’t found it. And now you can grab the beta plug-in for Outlook (or add-ons for Chrome and Firefox). It lets you select up to 100MB of files and then choose your own custom download…

The following five tools and services allow you to recover information you typed into forms, add narrations to presentations, turn PDFs into editable documents, and more. CeeVee: Register to assemble a polishedlooking résumé with this Web service, and then share it online via Facebook, Twitter, or a custom Web address. It’s fast, easy to use, and proof positive that you’re a Websavvy applicant. ceevee.com Lazarus: This convenient Firefox add-on records every keystroke you enter into blog tools, comment boxes, e-mail forms, and the like. To magically restore the items you typed, just right-click and choose Recover Text or Recover Form from the context menu. find.pcworld.com/69465 MailBrowser: Manage your contacts, attachments, and other details in Gmail. Available for Firefox and Internet Explorer, this beta add-on reveals information about each contact, integrates…

Find and organize media with these eight tools. (Go to find.pcworld.com/69475 for the downloads in this section.) Boxee Beta: This open-source application plays back desktop and Web-based media seamlessly on your HDTV. Classic Cinema Online: At this Website you can find and view hundreds of freely available classic films, neatly organized by genre. find.pcworld.com/69508 Clicker: This site aggregates Internet video, giving you a central source for your favorite TV shows. www.clicker.com DoubleTwist: If you’re using a non- Apple cell phone or MP3 player, this download is a great iTunes alternative. Hulu Desktop: Download this remotefriendly desktop app to liberate Hulu’s streaming video from your browser. Jinni: This beta recommendation service helps you select videos to watch by their components, such as mood or plot. www.jinni.com Libox: Sign up for this…

Your computer should be a safe place to work. Secure your machine in a snap with one or more of the following four tools and services, including a password manager and spyware fighters. (Go to find.pcworld.com/69470 for access to the downloads in this section.) Passwords play a prominent role not just in computing but also in everyday life. Download KeePass to organize and protect all manner of important data, from ATM codes to Social Security numbers to Web passwords. You need remember only a single password—this download remembers the rest. OpenDNS promises to protect your children from online violence, pornography, phishing, and other undesirable elements of the Internet. Guess what? It works. Even better, you have nothing to install. Simply sign up for the service and point your PCs or…

PCs are supposed to make life easier. That may actually happen if you use these six resources to avoid repetitive typing, to reboot a PC efficiently, and to gain time in other ways. (Go to find.pcworld.com/69476 for access to the downloads in this section.) You have enough to worry about without taking time to prune cluttered folders. The system-tray app Belvedere, an automated file manager, moves, copies, renames, and deletes files based on rules you define. Disclosure: This app was written by article coauthor Adam Pash. Rebooting your PC while you’re working is a huge time sink. Startup utility Cache My Work takes note of the applications running at the restart, and then automatically reloads them when the machine reboots. Installing a new OS? Don’t hunt for, download, and install…

Remember when buying a desktop computer was simple? You’d stroll into your local electronics boutique, pick out the homely beige box with a logical moniker that perfectly complemented your needs (and a copy of Windows XP), and then head home, eager to begin what was sure to be an eff ortless setup and installation process. No? We don’t either. The PC market has always been inundated with more options than the average shopper could hope to puzzle through, and the march of time has only complicated matters. Even the act of buying a desktop has been muddled, as towers of varying sizes have been joined by computers of entirely new designs. Fortunately, the most important choice you can make is also the easiest: Whatever shape, size, and price range you…

If you’ve ever opened your credit card bill to find that you’ve inadvertently joined a club you’ve never heard of, at a cost of $10 or more a month, you’re not alone. Millions of Web consumers have been snared by similar tactics. Our tips will help you fight back. Q. How can companies make over a billion dollars selling a service few people want? A. By signing up millions of members who don’t know that they’re becoming members. A survey by credit card company Visa estimates that nearly three in ten Americans have been stung by a subscription trap. Here’s how it works: You buy airline tickets or flowers, say, at a site like Orbitz or FTD—and just when you think you’ve completed your transaction, you get an offer for…

HUNDREDS OF bigname Websites offer shoppers discounts or free shipping if they’ll join a discount club that charges a monthly membership fee. Joining is so easy that many people don’t know they’ve done it. Getting out of the club—and getting your money back—is the hard part. Here are the best steps to take to obtain a refund from posttransaction marketers. 1 Call the billing company. First contact the company directly billing you—not the Website that hosted the original offer. Be polite, ask to cancel your membership, and demand your money back. If the rep refuses to refund your money, ask to talk with a manager. Note the date and time of your call, and the names of all the service reps you speak with. Getting nowhere? Inform the biller that…

What can I do about Vista’s annoying User Account Control messages? —Alex Diluzio, PCWorld.com forums USER ACCOUNT CONTROL pops up a “Do you want to allow...” message, and does this so frequently that users soon learn to click Yes and go on about their business without thinking. Microsoft kept UAC in Windows 7 but improved it somewhat. I’ll give separate instructions for Vista and Windows 7, and one for both. UAC in Vista To turn UAC off, click Start, type user, and select User Accounts. Click Turn User Account Control on or off and follow the prompts. If you want to leave it on for regular users, but not for administrators, download TweakUAC (find.pcworld.com/61960). This free utility offers three UAC states. The middle one, ‘Switch UAC to the quiet mode’,…

Is Windows 7’s built-in backup worth using?—Robert, PCWorld.com forums I WASN’T PREPARED to like Windows 7’s Backup and Restore, but to my amazement, I kind of do. It performs image backups for system protection and .le backups for regular data protection—in the Home Premium as well as the Business and Ultimate editions. For .le backups, it backs up libraries, app data, and a few other im - portant folders, and it lets you specify any other folders you want. Backup and Restore can back up .les incrementally, saving only those created and changed since the last backup. And if several versions of a .le have been backed up, you can pick which one you want to restore. (It defaults to restoring the most recent backup.) The program also lets you…

Micro-Who? According to a recent survey, 3 percent of Brits think Bill Gates is a comedian. Clearly, they haven’t been reading his tweets. Blah, Blah, Blog Teens are no longer blogging, a Pew study says. They’ve realized sexting is a much better way to horrify their parents. A Side of Spam Notorious e-mail rule-breaker Tagged.com wins $250,000 in a lawsuit against a spammer. The social network announced the victory in a series of unsolicited e-mails. Cellular Censorship Google admits that its Nexus One voice recognition software censors “offensive” words. So that’s why we had so much trouble discussing the phone’s initial $550 early-termination fee. Photoshop Turns 20 Adobe’s image-editing app celebrated with a birthday bash that included Ben Bernanke, Britney Spears, and Andy Warhol. Well, at least they were in…

Apple’s announcement of the iPad tablet in January unleashed a barrage of scrutiny and analysis. To read any article discussed in the letters below, browse to the appropriate Find-It number; and for more articles on the iPad, visit our Apple Product Center at www.pcworld.com/topics/apple.html. iPad Views, Pro and Con The content will definitely make or break this device [“The iPad’s Five Best Surprises,” find.pcworld.com/69502]. If we could get all of our hard-copy magazines on it at a much lower subscription cost, we would switch in a second. RainyDayInterns, PCWorld.com forums Despite Dan Moren’s enthusiasm [“The iPad Isn’t a Third Device, but a Third Revolution,” find.pcworld.com/69503], I believe the iPad’s sole purpose is to give Apple a device on which customers can view books and magazines—and thus provide an additional revenue…

CITY AT&T Download speed Upload speed Reliability SPRINT Download speed Upload speed Reliability T-MOBILE Download speed Upload speed Reliability VERIZON Download speed Upload speed Reliability Baltimore 2036 1071 95% 857 407 100% 703 285 90% 818 402 75% AT&T Download speed Upload speed Reliability SPRINT Download speed Upload speed Reliability T-MOBILE Download speed Upload speed Reliability VERIZON Download speed Upload speed Reliability Boston 1756 888 95% 942 448 95% 728 301 95% 888 396 90% AT&T Download speed Upload speed Reliability SPRINT Download speed Upload speed Reliability T-MOBILE Download speed Upload speed Reliability VERIZON Download speed Upload speed Reliability Chicago 1568 831 95% 747 384 95% 1047 270 90% 886 425 95% AT&T Download speed Upload speed Reliability SPRINT Download speed Upload speed Reliability T-MOBILE Download speed Upload speed Reliability…

CompareMyDocs.com: Group Editing It’s the curse of collaborative writing: You send your document to colleagues for feedback. Soon, you have e-mail responses from Tom, Dick, and Harry, each with its own comments and amendments, which you now have to reconcile. Or you can upload each of the versions to CompareMyDocs.com. This free service displays your original document with colored blocks that show your collaborators’ suggestions. You can accept or reject their ideas, or hide or move comments. Once you’re done, you can download the completed document. The site doesn’t handle special formatting, like hyperlinks or images, but it works well for simple word files. comparemydocs.com Babbel: Lingua Web If you’re lucky enough to be traveling to Rome, but you don’t have the time for formal language lessons, try Babbel. The…

Printer Makers Clash Over Advertising Claims FOR NEARLY TWO years, Kodak has promised consumers that they can save big bucks by switching to Kodak all-in-one inkjet printers. Unsurprisingly, the company has encountered some opposition. HP is the most recent competitor to challenge Kodak’s claim that consumers can “save on average $110 per year on ink” by buying a Kodak printer. According to both HP and an independent consulting firm, consumers would have to print four pages per day to save that much money with a Kodak printer—far more than most home users actually do. Last year HP lodged a grievance against the Kodak ads. In December, the Federal Trade Commission ruled that Kodak could continue the advertising campaign if it slightly changed the wording. As a result, Kodak’s revised ad…

Should You Move Your Business to the Cloud? THE TERM cloud computing refers to free or subscription-based services delivered in real time over the Internet. It may involve software as a service, such as Salesforce.com; file storage, synchronization, backup, or other utility computing, such as Dropbox; or infrastructure as a service, such as Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud. We queried dozens of small businesses about the cloud services they regularly use, and received multiple recommendations for Basecamp, Box. net, Google Apps, Google Docs, Highrise, QuickBooks Online, and Skype (see find.pcworld.com/69423). Cloud Pros and Cons Cloud-based services can dramatically reduce a small business’s computing costs. For example, Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Business will cost $199 for a downloadable version and $279 for a boxed version; but Google Docs, which offers office…

On-the-Go Drive Encryption Can Protect Data IN JANUARY, THE health organization Kaiser Permanente acknowledged the theft of an external hard drive from an employee’s car. The hard drive contained data on about 15,500 Northern California patients, including their full names, medical record numbers, and, in some cases, care records. The 2009 HITECH Act, among other things, requires reporting healthcare-related data breaches to the Department of Health and Human Services. Kaiser informed local, state, and federal authorities on December 8, but the employee who lost the drive had waited one week to tell her employer. About the same time as the Kaiser breach, researchers from the German penetrationtesting firm SySS GmBH discovered a weakness in how the passwords for several encrypted USB drives are stored on the host system. When a…

IF YOU’RE INTERESTED in Apple’s recently announced iPad—and who isn’t?—beware: Search results for articles on the iPad may contain poisoned links that lead to rogue antivirus software, as fraudsters unleash a favorite malware-pushing tactic. Antivirus makers Trend Micro and Panda Security, along with the threattracking Internet Storm Center, have posted warnings about malicious results for iPad-related search terms such as “apple tablet announcement.” Crooks have for years used such SEO poisoning to snare unwary surfers. According to Trend Micro, clicking one of the malicious links could lead to rogue antivirus soft ware, an online scam that uses fake but professionallooking applications to warn of nonexistent infections. The fake app then ex horts victims to purchase a license for the soft ware so as to clean up the supposedly discovered malware.…

THE SONY READER Daily Edition ($400) has content that I’d love to download if doing so weren’t such a hassle. This model is the first Sony e-reader to off er wireless access to content (via AT&T’s 3G wireless network) including e-books and newspapers, by subscription or as single copies, at Sony’s Reader Store, which you can access from the device. But 3G wireless service was spotty at best in downtown San Francisco. I managed to subscribe to the digital New York Ti mes through the Sony store, but at first I couldn’t download it: A message reported that the download had been interrupted and would have to be restarted from my account page. You can transfer content to the Reader aft er attaching the device to your PC via the…

LENOVO’S NEW ThinkPad Edge marks the first significant change to the look and feel of the ThinkPad line in years, yet it retains most of the line’s great features. The ultraportable Edge’s design remains conservative, but with cleaner lines, a glossy lid, and silver accents along the edges. Our chief quibble about the design: The ethernet jack is quite far toward the front edge of the left side. Open the lid, and you’ll find the same basic, utilitarian look of other ThinkPads with a large keyboard and touchpad. But… Still Great to Work On Users may be may be shocked to see a Chiclet-style keyboard inside the Edge. Such keys are notoriously tough to type on, especially compared with the standard keys that other ThinkPad models use. However, this is…

THE PICTUREMATE Show from Epson is both a snapshot printer and a digital picture frame. Getting two products in one makes the device’s relatively high $300 price more palatable. The included 7-inch color LCD can display photos uploaded to the unit’s 270MB memory or pulled from a flash drive or memory card. The PictureMate Show does a great job of printing, too. In our tests it output color photos swift ly at 1.4 pages per minute, with natural flesh tones and vivid landscapes; black-and-white pictures had smooth grayscales. The printer is designed to work independently of a computer, but it has a few quirks. The cropping tool, for instance, requires a lot of tedious zooming and shifting. For greater flexibility, you must install the printer on your PC or Mac…

I TRIED TWO hands-free headsets that off er attractive looks and clear audio. And despite their diff erences, I ended up liking them equally. Aliph Jawbone Icon Measuring 1.8 by 0.72 by 0.95 inches, the 0.28-ounce, $99 Jawbone Icon comes in six iridescent and pearly colors; the diff erent versions have snappy names like “The Bombshell” and “The Hero.” According to Aliph, the Icon’s battery provides 4.5 hours of talk time and 10 days of standby time. Like older Jawbones, the Icon uses “Noise Assassin” noise cancellation. A small nub, the Voice Activity Sensor, rests on your face while the unit sits in your ear. In practice the feature worked well. When the nub slipped off my face for a bit, however, the other party heard a distinct drop in…

IF YOUR HARD drive is clogged with photos and Microsoft Office documents, or if you need a way to share those large files, look to File-Minimizer Suite 6.0. This soft ware reduces the file sizes of photos and Office docs, with no significant diminution in quality. If you want to shrink only a handful of files, however, its $80 price is probably too much. The files that it creates retain their format and are usable just as the originals are. It handles Excel, Power-Point, and Word files, plus various image file formats. You choose the files and the compression strength (low, standard, or strong). By default it keeps your original and creates a new file, appending ‘(FILEminimizer)’ to the name. You can, however, tell the app to overwrite your original…

Windows is a great operating system, but that doesn’t mean it always does what you need or want it to. These eight utilities will help you find a missing Recycle Bin, make your mouse more useful, fix Windows annoyances, and more. (Go to find.pcworld.com/69446 for access to the downloads in this section.) Ever copy and paste text from one document to another only to discover that unwanted text formatting came along for the ride? It can be downright maddening. Keep your sanity with Better Paste, a tiny utility written for Lifehacker (employer of Adam Pash, coauthor of this story) that automatically strips formatting from text when you press @@@#60;Ctrl@@@#62;-V to paste. Pressing @@@#60;Ctrl@@@#62;-@@@#60;Shift @@@#62;-V retains the formatting. Recycle Bin inexplicably missing from your desktop? Thumbnails not working? The easy-to-use utility…

SERVICE LogMeIn Express find.pcworld.com/69488 What it does Enables secure screen sharing; perfect for troubleshooting a relative's or friend's PC from afar Why we like it Nothing to install. The sharer downloads and runs a tiny app and then gives a 12-digit code to the person taking control remotely. SERVICE MiNeeds www.mineeds.com What it does Connects you with local service pros—from attorneys to house cleaners to wedding planners Why we like it Just post your "need" and then wait for bids. Compare offers, view each professional's credentials, and read reviews left by other customers. SERVICE Tinychat tinychat.com What it does Creates "disposable" chatrooms for on-the-fly meetings with coworkers or weekend planning sessions with friends. Why we like it Easy to use. Simply create a name for your chatroom, and invite people…

These eight freebies will streamline interfaces, help you share photos, and use social networks more eff ectively. (Go to find. pcworld.com/69466 for the downloads in this section.) Tired of Facebook’s cluttered interface and Twitter’s boring one? Sign up with Brizzly to give both services a simple, classy makeover. You can still tweet and retweet, write on walls, and do all the other core Facebook/Twitter stuff. brizzly.com Everyone loves sharing photos on Facebook, but downloading shots from a friend’s album is a hassle. Facebook Photo Album Downloader, aka FacePAD, is a Firefox add-on that lets you grab entire albums (including event and group albums). Want to make shopping online a group sport? Add a bookmarklet for the beta service FriendShopper to your browser. When you see something on the Web that…

In our 15 years of choosing the best free stuff, we’ve spotlighted the superstars: Adobe Reader, Craigslist, Flickr, Gmail, Google, Mozilla Firefox, and Wikipedia. Here are ten more classics. (Go to find.pcworld.com/69511 for the downloads listed.) Ad-Aware Free: Excellent at stopping spyware. Audacity: This surprisingly powerful opensource tool can record sound as well as edit it. BitTorrent: Easy-to-use file-sharing tool lets you pause, resume, and otherwise control downloads. Dropbox: Download offers 2GB of file syncing among multiple PCs and the Web. Evite.com: Website lets you create and e-mail party invites and track RSVPs online. FreeConference.com: Schedule and make unlimited conference calls with this service. IMDB.com: How did we ever settle bar bets without the Internet Movie Database? OpenOffice.org: This downloadable Microsoft Office competitor gives you a word processor, a spreadsheet,…

Let these seven music-centric freebies help you find, edit, and manage tunes. The next time you get an earworm from the catchy background music in a You- Tube video or some other file and you can’t identify it, head over to the beta service AudioTag and allow it to identify the song for you. audiotag.info Tune out the world at Buddha Machine Wall, a stripped-down Website whose custom ambient noise will help keep you focused. www.zendesk.com/external/wall When you need to turn to the Web for music, look to Grooveshark. This service can play almost any song you request, and it sports a beautiful interface for seeking out music and building playlists. www.grooveshark.com You say that you’ve been ripping, burning, and sharing music for years? Chances are, the audio files on…

These six helpers assist you in reshaping your life with the power of the Internet. APPOR SERVICE BudgetSketch www.budgetsketch.com Focus Budgeting What we like Helps you track where your hard-earned money will go—before you spend it. APPOR SERVICE DailyBurn dailyburn.com Focus Diet, exercise, and weight What we like Offers motivating charts and graphs for tracking your fitness regimen’s progress. APPOR SERVICE Habitforge www.habitforge.com Focus Changing habits What we like Provides three weeks of daily reminders and progress tracking to help you achieve your goals APPOR SERVICE Learn10 www.learn10.com Focus Language skills What we like Presents ten new foreign-language vocabulary words a day. Currently covers about 20 languages. APPOR SERVICE RunKeeper Free find.pcworld.com/69490 Focus Jogging What we like Uses your iPhone's GPS feature to track your runs on a map, and…

Compact PC PRO: If you’re on a shoestring budget and you just want to send a few e-mail messages, a compact PC can get you on your way for as little as $200 (sans monitor). If highdef video strikes your fancy, you’ll want a machine equipped with an nVidia Ion processor, for improved Flash and video de-coding, and an HDMI output, for HDTVs. Such PCs start at just over $300. CON: Sometimes, bigger is better. Gaming, or even heavy multitasking, on a low-power, compact PC can be an exercise in futility. The price-to-performance ratio works against you, too: For $400, you could ac quire a budget desktop that offers stronger performance, albeit in a larger package. You may also need to supplement your mini-PC with external peripherals, such as a…

RESTAURANT.COM’S SLOGAN is “eat, drink, save money,” but Kari Glennon of Bellingham, Washington, thinks it should be “eat, drink, and watch out for surprise charges on your credit card bill.” In October 2008, Glennon bought several Restaurant.com gift certificates for her coworkers. The next month she no ticed a mysterious $14.95 charge on her Visa credit card statement for “Shopping Essentials.” Glennon shares the account with her husband, and assumed that the charge was his. Three months later, she realized that the $14.95 was a recurring fee, so she decided to investigate. Glennon called a toll-free phone number for Shopping Essentials and discovered that it was a shopping club owned by Norwalk, Connecticut–based Vertrue. “I told the woman on the phone I had no recollection of joining the service,” Glennon…

YOUR PC, INTERNET connection, and cell phone normally save you tremendous amounts of time, but that’s easy to forget when you’re spending hours on the line with tech support. Here’s how you can streamline the process and make sure you get the fixes you need. Your PC Crashes Suddenly, your computer is having issues. Maybe it’s crashing randomly, or it’s devouring data. Maybe it won’t start. Depending on your level of expertise, calling tech support could be either a really good way to solve the problem or a really good way to waste an afternoon. Research and test: If you can, start by figuring out for yourself exactly what isn’t working. The more details you can put together, the better—especially if you have a smartphone or an extra computer that…

HERE’S HOW TO do the ultimate hassle-prevention steps for a PC: imaging your hard drive and introducing a backup routine. Create a Drive Image This precaution lets you re - store your PC to a like-new but custom-configured state if disaster strikes. In theory, you’ll need to image your hard drive only once. You may never need the image file—but if you do, you’ll be awfully glad you have it. Countless programs can clone (and restore) your hard drive, but it’s hard to beat Macrium Reflect Free (find.pcworld.com/63521). So where you should store your cloned files? Macrium lets you choose from among DVDs, external drives, and even network drives. I recommend using an inexpensive external hard drive. Gear Up for Backups First, read “How to Prevent a Data Disaster” (find.pcworld.com/61670).…

Make Your New PC Hassle-Proof, in Three Key Steps SO YOU HAVE a brand-new system? I’m sure you’re eager to start using it, but take a little time to “hassle-proof” it first. Note: I’m going to assume here that the PC came with Windows 7 preinstalled. Create a System-Repair Disc You never know when a catastrophe will strike your PC, rendering it unable to boot. But few vendors bundle operating-system discs, so you’ll have to build your own bootable emergency CD or DVD. Windows 7 makes this quite easy. Just click Start, type repair, and then click Create a System Repair Disc. Pop a blank CD or DVD into your drive (netbook users will need to connect an external drive), and click Create disc; Windows will do the rest. When…

AT&T SAYS IT has upgraded its 3G network in the past eight months, erecting hundreds of new cell towers, improving its wireless spectrum, and souping up its cell sites nationwide. Results of recent 13-city performance tests suggest that the network has gotten significantly better. In 3G performance tests we conducted in 13 U.S. cities last spring, AT&T’s 3G network ranked next to last in average download speed at 812 kilobits per second. In tests we conducted in December 2009 and January 2010, AT&T’s download speed averaged 1410 kbps—74 percent faster than before, For a full account of our previous round of 3G service tests, see “A Day in the Life of 3G” (find.pcworld.com/69549). For more on smartphones, visit our Phones Product Center (find.pcworld.com/69550). AT&T Roars Back in Round 2 of…

CITY Best download speed Best upload speed Baltimore AT&T/iPhone: 1686 AT&T/iPhone: 262 CITY Best download speed Best upload speed Boston AT&T/iPhone: 1356 AT&T/iPhone: 242 CITY Best download speed Best upload speed Chicago AT&T/iPhone: 1550 AT&T/iPhone: 229 CITY Best download speed Best upload speed Denver Verizon/Droid: 1078 AT&T/iPhone: 193 CITY Best download speed Best upload speed New Orleans Verizon/Droid: 1380 AT&T/iPhone: 216 CITY Best download speed Best upload speed New York AT&T/iPhone: 1233 AT&T/iPhone: 220 CITY Best download speed Best upload speed Orlando Verizon/Droid: 1257 AT&T/iPhone: 233 CITY Best download speed Best upload speed Phoenix Sprint/Hero: 909 AT&T/iPhone: 211 CITY Best download speed Best upload speed Portland AT&T/iPhone: 1327 AT&T/iPhone: 221 CITY Best download speed Best upload speed San Diego AT&T/iPhone: 1075 AT&T/iPhone: 196 CITY Best download speed Best upload speed…

nVidia Optimus: Switchable GPUs Done Right? DOES YOUR LAPTOP have switchable graphics? You know—both an integrated graphics chip that sips energy and supports long battery life and a discrete GPU (graphics processing unit) that offers better 3D graphics and video performance? Laptops with switchable graphics have been shipping for years, but they haven’t lived up to user expectations. nVidia hopes to change that with its new Optimus technology. The first notebooks with switchable graphics included a physical switch for toggling between the integrated and discrete GPUs; and to switch from one to the other, users had to reboot the system. More recently, you could change between the integrated and discrete GPU with software, using a small tool-tray icon or changing the power profile in Windows. The screen would then blank…

Bargain hunting can be a wearying experience, but these six mobile apps will save you time and money. SMARTPHONES ARE costly investments, but they can save you money, too. Did you know that you can use your phone as a bar-code scanner while you are out shopping? Or that you can find instore coupons through your phone? Dozens of free applications that can help you save cash are available across the major smartphone platforms. Here are the best of these no-cost, must-have apps. ShopSavvy (Android, iPhone, Symbian): Let’s say that you see a gadget you want, but you’re fairly sure you spotted it at another store for a lower price. Shop-Savvy allows you to scan the bar code of any product, using your phone’s built-in camera. The program then searches…

Analyze Network Problems With Wireshark ETHERNET NETWORKS can run problem-free for a long time. But a disaster can occur without warning, debilitating an underequipped network. One danger is a broadcast storm, in which a defective or misconfigured network device forces your network to shut down by flooding it with traffic. Another common threat is a malware-infected computer, which may send a barrage of e-mail or try to replicate to computers on your LAN or across the Internet. Such a computer can slow down Internet traffic and put you on bad terms with your ISP. And finally a single user may consume so much bandwidth—for streaming audio or video, say—that it adversely affects other network users. Jump to Wireshark Fortunately, a general IT person can track down these problems with Wireshark…

Google Attack Based on Unpatched IE Flaw GOOGLE ANNOUNCED IN January that it and numerous other companies had been hit by successful hacker attacks (find.pcworld.com/69481). The hackers’ means of access: a critical unpatched hole in Internet Explorer. The invasion originated in China, and according to the company, the hackers tried to break into Gmail accounts and steal information about human-rights activists. The IE flaw was exploited to install a Trojan horse that would allow full remote control over a PC. Though the hole affects IE 6, 7, and 8, the only known attacks were on IE 6. According to Microsoft, security measures (Protected Mode for IE 7 and 8, and Data Execution Protection for IE 8) stopped attackers from using this zero-day flaw in the later IE versions. In response…

NO MATTER WHAT your area of interest, the Android Market (android.com/market) probably has an app that matches your needs. And if it doesn’t now, just wait: One is likely on the way. We’ve combed the shelves of the Android Market and culled the ten choicest items that were available as of this writing. The result is a list of must-have Android apps, arranged in alphabetical order. And the best part? All but one of these apps are free. Tell us your favorites at find.pcworld.com/69536. AppManager Category: Tools/Utilities Price: Free Developer: zx128 Compatibility: Android 1.5 or later Rating: 4.0/5.0 AppManager puts several key file-management features at your fingertips: It serves as an app backup tool, and it can either selectively copy individual apps or copy every app that’s on your phone…

OFFERED IN AN array of colors, and measuring 6.0 by 4.2 by 0.4 inches, Bookeen’s 5.3-ounce Cybook Opus wins the e-reader portability prize. The $199 Opus’s built-in accelerometer shift s the text’s orientation whenever you turn the device 90 degrees. A four-button navigational wheel guides you through context-sensitive menus that pop up when you press a button to the right of the wheel. You can set the menus (and your e-books) to any of 12 font sizes. And since the Opus supports the securable ePub e-book format, you can read a vast array of commercial content as well as the huge Google e-book library. The Opus’s 1GB of internal memory can hold hundreds of books; a microSD Card slot lets you add space. The Opus’s 5-inch screen uses E-Ink technology;…

WHEN YOU TRAVEL, you want your gear bag to be as light as possible, which is the appeal of Innergie’s line of laptop power adapters. The company sells several packages, including the compact $70 mCube Mini adapter (myinnergie.com). This 2.4-ounce adapter measures 2.4 inches by 1 inch—smaller than the DC adapter it has running out one side— and its weight is distributed so that the adapter doesn’t pull on your laptop while hanging between a tray table and a plane’s power port. The USB port (for charging another mobile device such as a cell phone) comes directly out of the DC adapter. The unit comes with ten tips, to support laptops of up to 75 watts of peak power. The tips lock into place on the cable, so a tip…

MODEL 1 Dell 5130cdn $1549 NEW find.pcworld.com/64136 Rating 4.5/50 SUPERIOR Performance ¨ Text quality: Superior ¨ Graphics/photo quality: Very Good/Very Good ¨ Tested speed (ppm): 25.2 text/8.3 graphics Performance ¨ 47 ppm text ¨ 47 ppm graphics ¨ 1200-by-1200-dpi maximum resolution The 5130cdn has everything a busy office needs: speed, great print quality, and features galore—plus supercheap toner MODEL 2 Dell 3130cn Color Laser $549 find.pcworld.com/61971 Rating 4.0/5.0 VERY GOOD Performance ¨Text quality: Superior ¨Graphics/photo quality: Very Good/Superior ¨Tested speed (ppm): 16.3 text/5.7 graphics Performance ¨31 ppm text ¨26 ppm graphics ¨600-by-600-dpi maximum resolution uSpoil your small workgroup with this printer’s good speed, terrific output quality, and inexpensive toner MODEL 3 HP Color LaserJet CP4025dn $1300 NEW find.pcworld.com/64138 Rating 4.0/5.0 VERY GOOD Performance ¨Text quality: Superior ¨Graphics/photo quality: Very Good/Very…

THE PALM PRE Plus ($150 with a two-year Verizon contract) is mostly an update of the original Pre on Sprint— but subtle hardware tweaks, combined with Verizon’s speedy network, make it an overall improvement. The Pre’s single button is absent here. Like Palm’s Pixi and Pixi Plus, the Pre Plus includes a capacitive-touch area (with a light-up bar) below the screen. To shrink an app down to card size, you simply tap this area. Palm says it enhanced the Pre Plus’s keyboard, and I did notice that the keyboard was a bit more responsive than the original Pre’s. The slider mechanism feels much more secure, as well. Some of the problems I experienced with the original Pre remain on the Plus, however: For instance, I had to use my nails…

Files That Give You a New View of Windows A SIMPLE BROWSER extension for Firefox and Chrome lets you mouse less, keeping your hands on the keyboard and your eyes on the screen. A special screen saver shows you the current weather as an attractive, animated scene. A Firefox-only add-on tracks the progress of your downloads, right in your browser window. And any way you look at these programs, they’re free. GleeBox Do your mousing muscles ache after you browse the Web? With the no-cost GleeBox experimental Firefox add-on and Chrome extension, you can perform many Web surfing tasks by using your keyboard rather than the mouse—including some tasks that require multistep actions. Install the GleeBox add-on into Firefox and type g, and you’ll see a big, transparent gray box…

Even if you’re happy with your current Microsoft OS, you still might want to snag a few of Windows 7’s innovations, such as transparent windows or eyecandy icons. These five apps will help. (Go to find.pcworld.com/69455 for the downloads in this section.) AeroSnap: Maximizing a window on today’s large monitors is often a waste of real estate. In Windows 7, a feature called Aero Snap lets you resize a window to fill half of the display by dragging the window to the screen’s edge. Kick a space out of the name, and you have AeroSnap, an app that gives XP and Vista the same feature. Seven Remix XP: Windows 7’s visual appeal definitely sets it apart from the aging Windows XP. But this transformation pack makes XP’s boxes, icons, buttons,…

Use these eight downloads and services to build 3D desktops, creatively launch or minimize programs, and keep your workspace tidy in other ways. (Go to find.pcworld.com/69462 for access to the downloads in this section.) Are you fond of pinning notes and photos to the walls and arranging your documents into stacks? That’s the idea behind BumpTop, a 3D desktop designed to bring a real-world organizational approach to your computing life. Don’t have room on your desk—or money in your wallet— for a second monitor? No problem: DeskHedron supplies you with “virtual” 3D desktops (up to nine of them, in fact) that you can flip through by using either hotkeys or your mouse’s scrollwheel. Fences organizes your icons into translucent, windowlike areas. And with a double-click of the desktop, you can…

Among these seven offerings are tools that enhance backups, make drive images, provide free storage, and more. (Go to find.pcworld.com/69469 for the downloads in this section.) Sure, you regularly back up local data. But what about Facebook contacts, Twitter feeds, and Flickr photos? If you don’t trust the cloud, sign up for Backupify to get 1GB of storage, weekly backups of your online accounts, and the ability to download backups to your PC. www.backupify.com Similar to Windows’ own System Restore, Comodo Time Machine can roll back your PC to an earlier state. However, this download does more than just protect the Registry and your system files: It backs up files, folders, and programs, as well. Windows won’t load? Press @@@#60;Home@@@#62; while booting to access all of CTM’s roll-back features. Macrium…

Embrace the mobile lifestyle with the help of these five programs and online services. They’ll let you recover a lost smartphone, strip Web content down for easy downloads, turn a PC into a Wi-Fi hotspot, and more. BlueRetriever: Misplacing a must-have mobile gadget makes you frantic. For a little peace of mind, sign up with this Web service, which provides a simple way for someone who finds your lost device to return it. You can even offer the finder a reward, from good karma to money. www.blueretriever.com Connectify: Ever find yourself stuck in a room with just one wired ethernet connection and a whole lot of computers begging to browse the Web? Simply run this download on your Windows 7 laptop, and turn your portable into a Wi-Fi hotspot that…

In PCWorld’s tests, these four free antivirus programs were among the best. DOWNLOAD Alwil Avast Home Edition Pro/Con Capable malware detection/Confusing interface Bottom line 4.5/5.0 Solid antimalware protection DOWNLOAD Avira AntiVir Personal Pro/Con Excellent detection and disinfection/Interface not novice-friendly Bottom line 4.5/5.0 Top-notch protection, scan speed DOWNLOAD AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition v8.5 Pro/Con Good PC disinfection/Slow on-demand scans Bottom line 4.0/5.0 Useful blocking of Web-based attacks DOWNLOAD Microsoft Security Essentials (beta) Pro/Con Nearly perfect in disabling infections/Somewhat slow Bottom line 4.0/5.0 An effective utility CHART NOTE: All four downloads are available at find.pcworld.com/69470.…

These six helpers assist you in reshaping your life with the power of the Internet. APP OR SERVICE BudgetSketch www.budgetsketch.com Focus Budgeting What we like Helps you track where your hard-earned money will go—before you spend it. APP OR SERVICE DailyBurn dailyburn.com Focus Diet, exercise, and weight What we like Offers motivating charts and graphs for tracking your fitness regimen’s progress. APP OR SERVICE Habitforge www.habitforge.com Focus Changing habits What we like Provides three weeks of daily reminders and progress tracking to help you achieve your goals. APP OR SERVICE Learn10 www.learn10.com Focus Language skills What we like Presents ten new foreign-language vocabulary words a day. Currently covers about 20 languages. APP OR SERVICE RunKeeper Free find.pcworld.com/69490 Focus Jogging What we like Uses your iPhone's GPS feature to track your…

Acer AspireRevo R3610 An HDMI port and nVidia Ion graphics make this Acer media-capable. With a petite 1.2-inch shell and a $330 price, it’ll disappear in your living room but leave your wallet intact. find.pcworld.com/69515 Viewsonic VOT530 The VOT530 packs a Core 2 Duo laptop processor into a chassis that’s just 2 inches tall. You also get whisper-quiet operation and a roomy 320GB hard drive, while a plethora of ports and 802.11n Wi-Fi keep you connected. find.pcworld.com/69516…

YOU’D THINK THAT not joining a club would be easy. But at many sites, consumers regularly get sucked in to signing up for discount shopping clubs that they have no interest in joining. Here’s what to look out for. 1 When you see words such as “free,” “cash back,” and “rebate” on a Website, alarm bells should ring in your head. Before clicking to take advantage of any such deal, take a deep breath and read all of the terms and conditions carefully. Too often, accepting a “cash back” offer turns into a costly mistake. 2 If the terms and conditions are confusing, the company may have buried something in them that it doesn’t want you to .nd. Skip it! 3 When completing a purchase online, look for prechecked boxes…

A PROPER TECH prank is mischievous, not malicious. In time for April Fools’ Day, we’ve identified a few quick tricks you can pull off with just a few minutes of access to your victim’s gadgets. Prank 1: Mess With the Desktop No prank guide would be complete without the classic desktop-picture switcheroo: Take a screenshot of your victim’s desktop (in Windows 7 or Vista, type Snipping Tool in the search box; in XP, just press the $$$#60;Print Screen$$$#62; key); then right-click on the desktop and choose the Personalize menu to bring up the Personalization control panel. Now change the user’s normal desktop picture to the screenshot you took, right-click on the desktop again, go to the View menu, and uncheck Show Desktop Icons. Nothing will look different, but the “icons”…

WINDOWS 7’S LIBRARIES feature is an easy yet powerful tool for streamlining the management of all your files, whether they’re stored locally or across a network. Libraries are a way of organizing folders that simplifies finding, sorting, and manipulating files with a common type of content, even when stored in different locations. Among the uses of libraries: ¨ They can aggregate files of a particular type. If you have photographs in different folders, you can add them all to the Photos library. ¨ They can combine folders of a common project. Say a project consists of multiple groups with data stored in different folders. By creating a library for the project, you can access all its files in one place. ¨ They can integrate dispersed media libraries. Often, people have…

Commodore 64 Meets Windows AH, THE EIGHTIES—when hair was big, clothing was bright, and 64 kilobytes was a whole lot of memory. Although you may not want to return to the simpler times of the old command line, you can turn your Windows desktop into a Commodore look-alike with PCWorld’s Commodore 64 desktop theme. Download it from find.pcworld.com/69514. Pac-Man not included. Fanboys: A Field Guide We’ve identi. ed five species of “fanboys”—devotees who revere one tech platform above all others. Here’s what makes them tick.…