www.pcmag.com T H E I N D E P E N D E N T G U I D E T O T E C H N O L O G Y A U G U S T 2 3 , 2 0 0 5

The PC’s Top10 ProblemsHow to SolveAll of Them Software That

Doesn’t Crash

Wireless Anywhere

Spam-Free, Virus-Free E-Mail

Long-Lasting Batteries & More

FUTURE TECH SPECIAL THE COOLEST NEW TECHNOLOGIES

FIRST LOOKS: Notebook and Desktop PCs for Back to SchoolJOHN C. DVORAK: Why Fat Cats Are Killing Free Wi-Fi

Every year around this time we do a story on futuretechnology, and this year we focus on the very prac-tical subject of how new technology can solve thebiggest problems in computing. From stamping outviruses and spam to getting more reliable wirelessconnections everywhere we want, the story, startingon page 82, explores dozens of promising projects toimprove our computing experiences.

You’ll see that some dramatic changes in softwareare on the drawing board. Software evolves moregradually than hardware does, so we can see the out-lines of where software is going in a number of ap-plications that are available today. Here are some ofthe trends:

Rich Web applications: An increasing number ofWeb applications take advantage of JavaScript, stylesheets, and Dynamic HTML to make them much morerobust. The buzzword for this is AJAX (which standsfor Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), and the kindsof things developers are doing with it are amazing.Consider the alternative interface that Yahoo! hasbeen showing for Yahoo! Mail. Based on technologyacquired when Yahoo! purchased Oddpost, it runs en-tirely in a browser, but feels like a desktop mail pro-gram. This is the most powerful Web mail interface

we’ve seen so far,but Google’s Gmail,which many peoplealready use, is an-other great AJAXapplication.

I’m also a hugefan of Google Earth(formerly Keyhole),which uses satellitedata to let you findjust about anythingon Earth via the

Web. Its integration with Google Local is nothingshort of spectacular. And now that it’s free, there’s noreason not to try it out.

Everyone is an author: The blogging trend has beenbuilding for some time, but it’s getting more attentionnow than ever. Simple blogging packages such asBlogger and TypePad that let anyone post content onthe Web have been around for a while. And now pod-casting for posting audio content on the Web and

moblogging for posting text, images, and video fromcell phones are gaining ground as well. Tools forposting digital photos and digital video online arealso emerging, and we’re seeing new services thatindex this influx of content. It’s also amazing to mewhat an invaluable resource the open-source com-munity has produced in Wikipedia.

RSS everywhere: RSS (an acronym for Really SimpleSyndication as well as a variety of other similar tech-nologies) is spreading like wildfire. We’ve already seenlots of tools for integrating RSS feeds into mail (News-Gator), onto Web pages (My Yahoo!), and withinbrowsers (Onfolio and Pluck). Next up:Microsoft plans to integrate RSS intoWindows so that any application cantake advantage of it.

Everyone is an editor: Many new ap-plications are designed so that groups ofpeople can mark up, organize, and shareinformation. Word processors have longhad markup features, but now collabo-ration is becoming commonplace. Usercomments are becoming a bigger part ofjust about every Web site, from Amazonand eBay to the product reviews on oursite. And tools for sharing are becomingintegrated into more and more applica-tions. Just look at how many people onGoogle Earth suggest interesting dataoverlays atop the satellite views, or thenumber of people who pass aroundplaylists in music applications such asRhapsody and Musicmatch.

Software as a service: NetSuite andsalesforce.com are becoming more inte-grated with other applications throughXML interfaces and other communica-tions methods. The current buzzword is“service-oriented architecture,” whichrefers to applications as collections of services that in-teract. Service-oriented architecture is mostly aimedat large companies, but I had expected to see more ro-bust applications for smaller businesses by now. I stillhave hopes for the future.

Free trial versions of most of the applications men-tioned here are available. Check them out, and youcan see software as it evolves.

Forward Thinking

M I C H A E L J . M I L L E R

The percentage of

freshman computer-

science students

is lower than it has

been at any time

since 1976.

Future Tech Software Is Here Today

www.pcmag.com AUGUST 23, 2005 P C M A G A Z I N E 5

K

CUSTOM RSS Onfolio delivers RSS

feeds to your browser. EARTH TO GOOGLE: Visitors con-

tribute to the community boards.

This issue highlights lots of new technology createdby smart people doing exciting work to move the in-dustry forward. They work at big companies, smallcompanies, and universities. Funding from venturecapital firms and the government provides the incen-tive to pursue their ideas, but one thing is certain:Most new technology comes from individuals who setout to learn about science and technology. The qualityof U.S. educational institutions is still unparalleled.But the decline in the number of students majoring inscience and engineering, and the even bigger declineof students in computer science, is alarming.

The percentage of science and engineering stu-dents has been dropping for years. According to theNational Science Foundation, science and engineer-ing degrees granted in the U.S. have decreasedsteadily from about 35 percent in the 1960s to justunder 32 percent by 2001, the last date for which theNSF has published data.

The downward trend is even more pronounced incomputer science. Survey results from the Higher Ed-ucation Research Institute at the University of Cali-fornia at Los Angeles (HERI/UCLA) show a dramaticdrop in computer science (CS) as a major among in-coming freshmen. The percentage of incoming under-graduates indicating that they would major in CSdeclined by over 60 percent between the fall of 2000and 2004. In 2000, CS majors accounted for 3.7 percentof incoming freshman; in 2004, that number was downto 1.4 percent, a drop of almost two-thirds.

Among women, the numbers are even worse. In2000, 1.4 percent of women cited CS as their probablemajor; by 2004, that number was down to 0.3 percent,the lowest percentage since the study started in 1971.

I’ve talked to a number of people in computer sci-ence departments around the country, and I hear sev-eral explanations for these trends. One is that thenumber of CS majors dropped dramatically following9/11, as foreign students had a much more difficult

time getting education visas. While I understand theneed to be careful about visas for security reasons,making the process long and bureaucratic—or sim-ply reducing the number of students allowed into theU.S.—seems short-sighted. I can’t count how manyforeign nationals attended U.S. universities and thenwent on to start, run, or make major contributions tobig tech companies here. Now, foreign nationals willstudy elsewhere, and when the time comes to buildcompanies, they won’t be doing it in the U.S.

Another trend is economic and cyclical. Duringthe dot-com boom, CS students flourished, but dur-ing the bust, interest dried up. The HERI data showsa similar trend during the PC boom of the early 1980s.That too faded, but not nearly as much as it has now.In fact, the percentage of freshman CS students islower than it has been at any time since 1976, when Iwas a computer science sophomore at Rensselaer.

I’m particularly concerned that recent graduatesaren’t choosing computer science because they thinkthat jobs will be outsourced to foreign countries. U.S.companies are indeed outsourcing some lower-levelIT jobs. But the hype is larger than the reality. Mostof the faculty members I’ve talked with say that theirCS and IT graduates are having no trouble getting joboffers. In fact, I know many big tech firms that arelooking for new people and are having trouble find-ing the right candidates.

Over the long term, if tech companies can’t findU.S. graduates, then they’ll hire more overseas. Thistrend would exacerbate the outsourcing issue andturn out to be a big problem for the U.S. A recentstudy from the President’s Information TechnologyAdvisory Committee states: “The global informationtechnology–powered revolution is accelerating, butthis nation has not yet fully awakened to the implica-tions.” It argues for a bigger government role, espe-cially in providing an infrastructure for connectingR&D centers and for redirected federal R&D priori-ties. But that’s only one answer.

Another answer comes from all of us who love tech-nology. We need to pass that love on to our children,talk to them about the excitement of making new dis-coveries, and encourage them to pursue careers intechnology. Computer science is not about playingvideo games or removing junk from our computers. Itis about creating the next great technological ad-vances. Not every child will go into science or engi-neering, but we need to make sure that they know theopportunities. That’s the best thing for our country,our children, and for all of us who use technology.

Where Are All the Computer Scientists?

P C M A G A Z I N E AUGUST 23, 2005 www.pcmag.com6

MORE ON THEWEB: Join us online and make your voiceheard. Talk back to Michael J. Miller in our opinionssection, go.pcmag.com/miller.

Forward ThinkingM I C H A E L J . M I L L E R

Computer Science Majors Down

0

1

2

3

4

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www.pcmag.com AUGUST 23, 2005 P C M A G A Z I N E 11

www.pcmag.com

O N T H E C OV E R Future Tech Special

page 82

Notebook and Desktop PCs

for Back to School page 28

Why Fat Cats Are Killing

Free Wi-Fi page 55

The PC’s Top 10

Problems: How to

Solve All of Them

page 82

CONTENTS�

AUGUST 23, 2005 • VOL. 24 NO. 14

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e know what it’s like when gadgets andsoftware stop working the way they’resupposed to. Malfunctions can result in

lost productivity—not to mention the urge to hurlyour PC out the window. For this special issue, weidentified the top ten problems in computingtoday and set out to find some answers.

First Looks

82F U T U R E T E C H

the tenbiggest problemsin computing and how we’llsolve them

W

Top Products

34 Notebook PCs

35 Desktop PCs

45 PDAs & Phones

28 Back-to-School PCs

• Averatec AV4265-EH1• Dell Inspiron 700m• Gateway M250XLK

• HP Compaq Presario V2000• Toshiba Satellite M45-S165• Apple eMac (1.42GHz

SuperDrive)• Dell Dimension 5100• eMachines T6520• Gateway 5310S• HP Compaq Presario

SR1550NX• HP Pavilion a1120n

38 Security Software

• Ad-Aware SE Plus 1.06• Spybot Search & Destroy 1.4• Trend Micro Anti-Spyware 3.0

40 Web Utilities

• Google Earth • Feeder 1.1• FeedForAll 1.0• NewzAlertComposer 1.70• CyberPatrol 7• BeAnywhere 1.0.1

44 Mobile Devices

• Nokia 6682 L

• Samsung i730

46 Personal Finance

• Microsoft Money 2006 Premium

• Quicken Medical Expense Manager

47 Digital Camcorders

• Canon ZR200• Sony DCR-DVD403 DVD

Handycam Camcorder L

48 Entertainment

Technology

• Slingbox K

P C M A G A Z I N E AUGUST 23, 2005 www.pcmag.com12

Onlinewww.pcmag.com

DVORAK ONLINEK Each Monday,

John C. Dvorak

gives you his take on

what’s happening in

high tech today. Visit

go.pcmag.com/dvorak.

Coming up:

• New Tek Tricaster: TV Studio in a Box

• Motherboard Review Roundup

• ExtremeTech Approved Products

(www.extremetech.com)

N E W M E D I A

F I N D BY TO P I C

E XC LU S I V E CO LU M N S

Top Categories: We redesigned,

reorganized, and enriched our Find by

Topic area at PCMag.com. Be sure to

visit the home page and scroll down to

find a wealth of new categories and RSS

subscription options.

(go.pcmag.com)

F I R ST LO O KS

TO O L S YO U CA N U S E

Discussions: Log on and participate!

(http://discuss.pcmag.com/pcmag)

Downloads: Check out our indexed list

of utilities from A to Z.

(go.pcmag.com/utilities)

Video Reviews: Now you have three

ways to enjoy our online reviews: text,

slide shows, and our newest addition,

video. Here’s a sample:

(go.pcmag.com/slingbox)

Solutions64 Packaging your DVD masterpiece:

Once you’ve created your DVD, it’sworth the effort to make the disc, case,and menu look as good as the video.

66 Hardware: If you can’t access thephoto files on your memory card,don’t despair. They’re probably justwaiting for the right tool to free them.

68 DIY: Internet: Effective onlinecollaboration no longer requiresexpensive tools. Try a wiki instead.

72 Security Watch: Identity theft is aphrightful phenomenon; antiphishingtoolbars may be able to help.

74 Business: The Arizona Cardinals’ newstadium delivers advanced networkingand other tech touchdowns.

77 User to User: How to enable anaudible Caps Lock alert, find hiddencolumns in Excel, get rid of corruptedWindows Updates, and more.

Opinions5 Michael J. Miller:

Forward Thinking55 John C. Dvorak 56 John C. Dvorak’s Inside Track59 Jim Louderback61 Bill Howard

After Hours124 Remote Possibilities: Simplify

your home entertainment: Wereview PC-programmableremotes (plus a few adjuncts).

126 Gear + Games: Guild Wars;wireless game-console adapters;CD and DVD repair kits.

Also in This Issue53 Feedback

128 Backspace

ULANOFF ONLINEK And each Wednesday,

Lance Ulanoff puts his

own unique spin on

technology. Visit

go.pcmag.com/ulanoff.

Pipeline

23 Photographs at 1,000-megapixel resolution?23 P2P services poised to respond to the Supreme Court.23 Fears of ID theft limit Web shopping.24 Get a load of the cyborg astrobiologist.24 Physics chips are set to transform game graphics.24 Content piracy: It’s rampant overseas.25 Smart fabric for wearable computing.25 eBay branches out to electronic stores.26 COMING ATTRACTIONS: nVidia GeForce 7800 GTX, Olympus Stylus 800, Optoma

MovieTime, Outpost Firewall Pro 2.7, Timeline Maker, Voodoo ARIA.

F U T U R E T E C H

102 The Net’s Next

Ten Years

Just ten years afterNetscape wentpublic, the Internethas woven its wayinto the socialfabric. And there’smuch more tocome: faster speeds, fantastic apps, and abillion connected gadgets. But how safewill it be from black hats?

F U T U R E T E C H

105 Beyond the PC

Computer-driveninnovations helpsolve today’schallenges in nearlyevery aspect ofhuman endeavor.We tell you howcomputingtechnology maychange our lives in space, at war, in thehospital, and at home.

New reviews every week!

Coming soon:

•Podcasting with the

Apple iPod and iTunes 4.9

•Hitachi DZMV780A

miniDVD camcorder

•Sprint VI-125 by LG K

(go.pcmag.com/firstlooks)

www.pcmag.com AUGUST 23, 2005 P C M A G A Z I N E 23

T E C H N O L O G Y T R E N D S & N E W S A N A L Y S I S

PIPELINEgo.pcmag.com/pipeline

GRAHAM FLINT ANDCatherine Aves are not youraverage photographers. Thetwo are currently travelingacross the country creating a photographic record oflandscapes using camerasthat Flint invented, whichtake pictures at 1,000-megapixel resolution—manytimes what a digital cameracan snap. The husband-and-wife team has dubbed theireffort the Gigapxl Project.

Flint’s cameras-on-steroidstook shape after years ofwork in the imaging busi-ness, when he decided hewanted to venture into un-charted photographic territory. He settled onthe idea of producing panoramic landscapepictures that contain prodigious amounts ofinformation, and set a goal of taking pictureswith 1,000MP resolution. The cameras he in-vented are based on his experience buildingparts of the Hubble telescope and spy cam-eras. They are not digital but film-based, al-though the pictures are subsequentlydigitized with high-resolution scanners. One

camera weighs 100 poundsand uses supersize Kodakfilm designed for NASA.

Many of the photographsthe pair takes are as large asmurals. The pictures captureso much detail that lookingat them conjures up digitalphotography’s future.

In the photo of the Dis-covery shuttle shown here,taken from a distance ofabout a football field, thereis a small white plaque onthe launchpad with signa-tures and handwriting on it.The photo’s resolution is sogood that you can viewclose-ups on the Web and

read the tiny handwriting.You can view more of the couple’s futuristic

photographs at www.gigapxl.org. Their nextgoal is to achieve 4,000MP resolution. They arealso preparing for their ultimate project nextyear. “We’re going to archive gigapixel photocollections of worldwide endangered sites topreserve them for future generations,” saysFlint—right down to those blades of grass twomiles up the road.—Sebastian Rupley

Gigapixel ResolutionTake a gander at photography’s future—1,000-megapixel resolution and more.

In a recent survey, 20 percent of respondents said they had been victims of identity theft—one of the fastest growing forms of online fraud. Fear of ID theft also causes many people to avoid shopping online.

Source: Deloitte & Touche LLP and Privacy and American Business, June 2005.

Percentage of U.S. adults who...

...decided not to buy online at least once because of concerns over personal information

The Perils of Online Shopping

Based on a survey of 2,322 adults.

...decided not to register at a Web site or shop because the privacy policy was unclear

64%67%

IN A MOVE THAT could head off attempts

by other countries to exert more influence

over the Internet’s Domain Name System

(DNS), the Bush administration has an-

nounced that the United States will

“maintain its historic role in authorizing

changes or modifications to the authoritative root zone file.” While

the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)

oversees many technical aspects of the Net, the government made

clear that it will “continue to provide oversight” of ICANN. Many

countries have called for more decentralized management of the

Internet. For now, that’s not going to happen.—SR

Who’s in Charge?

Following the Supreme

Court’s landmark ruling in

MGM v. Grokster that Inter-

net file-sharing services can

be held liable if it is their

intent that users will swap

copyrighted songs and

movies, there are already

rumblings about shifts in the

business models that P2P

services like Grokster, Kazaa,

and Morpheus use.

“Although the court ruling

by and large outlaws Grok-

ster’s current advertising-

driven business model, P2P

networks will experiment

with new models not solely

based on advertising rev-

enues,” says Harry Wang,

research analyst at Parks

Associates. “Adding digital

rights management (DRM)

control to P2P networks

should be the end goal.”—SR

P2P Shifts

GGOOIINNGG HHOOLLLLYYWWOOOODD Film studio Revelations Entertainment and

Intel have formed a company that plans to offer downloadable films

on the Internet. ClickStar will let consumers pay for and download

pre-DVD-release films and artist-created entertainment channels.

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P C M A G A Z I N E AUGUST 23, 2005 www.pcmag.com24

Physics Chips LONDON CALLINGThe communications

infrastructure in the

U.K. was heavily

taxed in the wake

of the July 7 terrorist

attacks in London.

Vodafone, Britain’s

largest mobile

provider, reported

massive calling con-

gestion, and posted

a notice advising

against unnecessary

calls. Several e-mail

tracking services

also reported that

European message

traffic more than

doubled in the hours

after the bombings.

In the U.S. just after

the 9/11 attacks

Internet and phone

services were frozen

in many areas, and

instant messaging

was for many the

only reliable

communications

medium.

PHYSICS ISN’T ONLY a toughcourse for students, it’s also a chal-lenge for computers—especially whenmaking calculations within realistic-looking games. Computing how a carshould crash through a wall or how a wave should break can stymie anyCPU. To help, Ageia Technologies isreadying what it claims is the firstever physics processing unit.

Ageia claims its chip, dubbed PhysX,will allow a game to run up to 32,000rigid bodies—separate objects that mayor may not be at rest—for realistic crashes, and up to 50,000 par-ticles to generate lifelike fluid motion. Current PC games manageabout 400 rigid bodies.“It’s not just about pretty graphics butabout creating interactive elements within the games,” explainsAndy Keane, Ageia’s VP of marketing. He says PhysX will let gamedevelopers add moving textures, authentic hair, and more. Thechip is due out late this year; licensees include Ritual Entertain-ment, Ubisoft, and Epic Games, which makes the Unreal series.

“PhysX brings the PC platform closer to what’s possible onSony’s Cell architecture and the multicore Xbox 360,” says EpicGames founder Tim Sweeney. “So we’ll be making heavy use ofparticle physics and fluid physics in Unreal Engine 3.”

Intel has also been pushing its dual-core designs as a way tooffload physics calculations and improve gaming. Ageia and EpicGames say dual-core and multicore systems will work in con-cert with the PhysX chip. So you may not get better at playingUnreal, but getting squashed by someone else’s manta hover-craft will look as humiliating as it feels.—John R. Quain

SAY THE WORDS music piracy

in the U.S., and everyone

thinks of online file sharing.

But overseas CD-burning

factories, street sales of

pirated CDs, and many other

avenues for pirates also

constitute a big problem,

according to a June report

from the International Federa-

tion of the Phonographic

Industry (IFPI).

The top ten countries where

piracy is “at unacceptable

levels” are Brazil, China, India,

Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan,

Paraguay, Russia, Spain, and

Ukraine. The report cites China,

where 85 percent of music sold

is pirated, as the world’s largest

pirated-music market, followed

by Indonesia, where the rate is

80 percent. The report also

claims that Indonesia has 15

optical-disc plants and exports

content to other countries.

Mexico, Russia, and Ukraine are

all cited as having piracy rates

of 60 percent or higher. Thirty-

one countries have larger

pirated-music markets than

commercial ones.

“Over the next few years

governments are going to have

to learn to take piracy more

seriously—piracy not just of

music, but in all its forms,”

says IFPI chairman John

Kennedy. “It is no longer ac-

ceptable for governments to

turn a blind eye or to regard

piracy as merely a small irrita-

tion to society.”

The IFPI is calling for in-

creased use of forensics in

tracking pirated discs and more

cooperation with agencies like

Interpol in decommissioning CD

plants where pirated discs are

produced.—SR

Global Piracy Factories

UNTETHERED Sprint is gearing up to join Verizon in providing high-speed EV-DO wireless

technology in many parts of the U.S. The rollout began in July in airports and business

districts. Sprint says downstream speeds reach 400 to 700 Kbps.

The Cyborg

Astrobiologist

When astronauts someday

explore Mars, they may wear

artificial-intelligence devices

to help them spot unusual

geological features and

maybe even signs of life. The

Cyborg Astrobiologist, devel-

oped by Patrick McGuire and

colleagues at Madrid’s Center

for Astrobiology, combines

a Tek Gear SV-6 headset with a

monocular display, a wearable

ViA computer, and a tripod-

mounted camera.

When an astronaut pho-

tographs a scene, the sys-

tem’s software uses image

segmentation to create maps

of hue, saturation, and inten-

sity in which similar pixels

(bright ones, say) are grouped

together. It then flags “un-

common” pixels (the smallest

groups), combines the maps,

and singles out the three most

unusual areas. The astronaut

can view the results on the

display. The team is also

working on the ability to

analyze color and texture

simultaneously. Says McGuire,

“We’re adding a neural net-

work to look for novel seg-

ments which have not been

observed in previous images.”

This technology could soon

help make planetary rovers

scientifically autonomous,

able to inspect, sample, and

test areas of interest on their

own. Today’s Mars rovers can

avoid obstacles by them-

selves, but otherwise follow

instructions.—Tony Hoffman

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FROM OUR SPONSOR RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is heading

toward an advertising model. Google, Pheedo, Yahoo!, Search Market-

ing, and others are pioneering ways for RSS, which lets users receive

feeds of information culled from the Internet, to incorporate ads.

BUSTED If there’s

one thing a virus

writer covets, it’s

anonymity. But 19-

year-old Sven

Jaschan got the

spotlight instead

when he was ar-

rested sitting at a

computer in his

mother’s house in

Germany. Jaschan

confessed to author-

ing the Sasser worm,

which was virulent

enough to shut down

many computers and

even some busi-

nesses starting in

May of last year. Two

people who informed

authorities about

Jaschan’s deed will

share a $250,000

reward from Micro-

soft. Jaschan got a

juvenile suspended

sentence and no jail

time, but he does

have to perform

community service.

www.pcmag.com AUGUST 23, 2005 P C M A G A Z I N E 25

go.pcmag.com/pipeline • P I P E L I N E

ONLINE AUCTION giant eBay

has 147 million registered users

buying and selling just about

everything imaginable. Though

$32 billion in goods was traded

in 2004, fee increases initiated

earlier this year to eBay store

owners prompted some to

leave and set up their own

online shops.

On the heels of that, eBay

has launched two new ser-

vices, ProStores and Reseller

Marketplace. ProStores is

a separate service offering

shopping carts, customized

Web pages, and more. Month-

ly subscriptions range from

$6.95 to $249.95.

“We have recognized that

some sellers have expressed

interest in exploring other

channels off the eBay market-

place,” says eBay spokes-

person Hani Durzy. He denies

that there is any mass mer-

chant exodus, adding that “the

marketplace has never been

healthier,” with $10.6 billion

traded in Q1 of 2005.

eBay considers ProStores

a complement to its existing

services, not competition,

says Durzy. “Our job is to help

the seller be successful. This

is a solution for them, and it

will benefit the eBay market-

place.” ProStores owners can

still sell goods on eBay, linking

both services.

The Reseller Marketplace is

a private online service for

business buyers who need to

acquire inventory for resale. Its

objective is to connect the

buyers with manufacturers

selling in bulk. Time will tell

how eBayers react to the new

services.—Karen Jones

eBay Branches Out

Satellite Success Story

COMMUNICATION SATELLITES might soon find a newfriend in the sky, if upcoming technology by QinetiQ managesto take wing. As a supplier for the Belgian-based Mercator pro-ject, QinetiQ is building a high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE)unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) whose observational capabili-ties will rival thoseof small satellites.

In developmentsince 2002, it willfly approximately60,000 feet in theair for months at a time, thanks to aseries of onboardsolar electric pan-els. The ultra-lightweight components of the HALE UAV—to-taling a mere 60 pounds—make it unsuitable for consumercommunications such as broadband Internet service. But fly-ing at low altitude will allow the HALE UAV to take photos ofthe Earth at high resolution.

“The real advantage is cost. Typically a UAV of this typewould be an order of magnitude less expensive than a satelliteof the same imaging capability,” says Ben White, media rela-tions manager for QinetiQ.

QinetiQ hopes that the HALE UAV’s cheaper cost and buildtime will allow less-developed countries to start achievingsatellite-style capabilities. A country could use the device toobserve and predict natural disasters and to monitor agricul-ture. But a satellite shopping trip will require at least a year’swait, as the first trial flight of the HALE UAV isn’t expected tosoar until next summer.—DM

Textile

Technology

You can wear your heart on

your sleeve, and you can wear

your digital music player

there too. Now, courtesy of

engineers at Eleksen, you can

use your sleeve—or any other

piece of specialized fabric on

your body—to control your

portable electronic gadgets.

The company’s ElekTex

technology, originally created

to improve interactive con-

trols in puppetry, transforms

fabric into an electrically

conductive material. While

clothing-turned-remote-

control and rolled-up PDA

keyboards are some of the

more mainstream ElekTex

offerings, the technology can

be applied to a variety of

functions, including moisture

sensors for hospital beds and

wheelchair pressure sensors.

“We are also looking at

industrial applications, where

keypads can be embedded in

the sleeve of a jacket or

a glove to create wearable

computer and communication

controls—for use in distribu-

tion centers to military appli-

cations and emergency

services,” says Eleksen’s John

Collins, VP of marketing and

business development.

Eleksen expects the market

for smart fabric interfaces to

reach $500 million by 2008,

and not all applications will

come cheaply. While the

company’s MP3 Volume Bag

retails for around $25, higher-

end products like backpacks

or jackets can sell for any-

where from $200 to $3,000,

lending a whole new meaning

to the term sharp dresser.—

David Murphy

COMING ATTRACTIONS

P C M A G A Z I N E AUGUST 23, 2005 www.pcmag.com26

P I P E L I N E • go.pcmag.com/pipeline

Quality Photos in Any Light

The compact 8MP Olympus Stylus 800 is built to withstand the elements, and

incorporates new Bright Capture Technology to assist when there isn’t enough

light. A high-contrast HyperCrystal LCD, manual exposure and aperture settings,

and in-camera editing features will be appreciated by photographers of all levels. The

TruePic Turbo image processor enhances image quality and makes for rapid start-up,

shutter release, and playback. The camera also has a speaker and microphone, a movie

mode, and guide functions, and it connects directly to your PC or to any PictBridge-

enabled printer.—Molly K. McLaughlin

$449.99 list. Olympus America Inc., www.olympusamerica.com.

Faster and

Faster

The nVidia GeForce

7800 GTX may be the

fastest GPU ever built. The updated

Shader Model 3 GPU architecture will help

it deliver up to 60 percent better high

dynamic range rendering than its prede-

cessor, the GeForce 6800 Ultra, for more

realism. The 7800 GTX will have 24 pixel

pipelines as opposed to 16 on the 6800

Ultra. It will also offer Transparency Anti-

Aliasing to improve image quality in

scenes with transparent textures.

—Laarni Almendrala Ragaza

Pricing set by card makers. nVidia Corp.,

www.nvidia.com.

For more new products see www.pcmag.com/productbulletin

It Knows All Your Tricks

Agnitum’s Outpost Firewall Pro 2.7 beefs

up protection against tricky malware,

analyzing program components to make

sure they’re not being misused. And it

continues to block hack attacks from

outside, as well as to limit Internet and

network access to approved applica-

tions, automatically approving known

good programs. Also included are content filtering, banner,

pop-up blocking, and e-mail protection.—Neil J. Rubenking

$39.95 direct. Agnitum Ltd., www.agnitum.com.

Time of Your Life

Timeline Maker lets you create

and customize timelines for

planning events, cataloging

collections, building family

trees, and more. Add pictures

and clip art, set background and

font styles, compress or expand the timescale, and resize and

print the chart. You can publish your chart as an HTML docu-

ment or as an image and insert it into another document, send

it as an e-mail attachment, or post it on the Web.—MKM

$29.95 direct. Progeny Software Inc., www.timelinemaker.com.

Cool, Fast,

and Silent

The Voodoo ARIA is one of

those strong and silent

types. With AMD Athlon 64

dual-core processors, the latest video

cards from ATI, and a pair of high-end ATI

Theater 550 TV tuners, the ARIA operates in virtual

silence with extremely quiet fans that automatically

shut off when unneeded. Customizable down to its case color, the system also features

a built-in LCD, making it easy to navigate and control via the smart screen or the Logitech

Harmony remote.—MKM

$3,550 direct and up. Voodoo Computers Inc., www.voodoopc.com.

DVD Player/Projector

Thinking of a getting a big-screen

TV for the family room? Maybe

you should consider a projector

instead. The Optoma MovieTime com-

bines a 16:9 DLP projector (with inte-

grated speakers) and a progressive-scan

DVD player in one 8-pound device. You

can watch DVDs or hook up a VCR, game

console, or TV tuner for a wealth of

entertainment options. And the unit’s

90-inch image (when placed 8 feet from

the screen) dwarfs any direct-view or

rear-projection TV you’ll find in this

price range.—Jamie M. Bsales

$1,500 street. Optoma Technology

Inc., www.optoma.com.

make the AV4265-EH1 a finenotebook for college-boundstudents—or anyone on a bud-get who puts a premium onportability but doesn’t want tosacrifice features.

The AV4265-EH1 is sleek, andcovered in a white enamel-likecoating. Averatec will also offera variety of cover options including Caribbean Green,Blazing Orange, Alpine White,Venus Red, and Tickle Me Pink.The AveraBrite widescreen isindeed bright, making it com-fortable for both schoolwork orDVD movie watching. The full-size keyboard won’t cramp yourfingers. The touchpad andmouse buttons are responsive,reminding us of those found onApple notebooks. The speakersare weak, so don’t expect torock out with this system; head-phones are the way to go. ThreeUSB ports lie along the sides;one FireWire and one S-Videoport are available. The unit alsocomes with a DVD±RW driveand a spacious 80GB harddrive—impressive for the price.

Face it: If you’ve got a high-school or college student in the

house, that six-year-old Cyrix-based PC you passed along to

them just doesn’t cut it anymore. It’s time for a machine dedi-

cated to schoolwork (and whatever else teens do these days).

So just in time for back to school, we gathered ten machines

from the leading consumer PC makers, with an eye toward balancing features,

performance, and (of course) price.

PCs for Back to School

P C M A G A Z I N E AUGUST 23, 2005 www.pcmag.com28

College-bound students arebest off with a notebook com-puter. A portable lets them shut-tle the machine from their dormroom to the lecture hall, library,study group (where no MP3s are exchanged, we trust), andhome for the holidays. For thespecs we recommend, ex-pect to spend $1,100 to$1,200 (though we werepleasantly surprisedby the good-enoughHP Compaq PresarioV2000, which starts at $599 di-rect). In this group, the GatewayM250XL hits the sweet spot andmerits Editors’ Choice honors,but be sure to consider also ourother current Editors’ Choicevalue portable, the Dell Inspiron6000 ($1,024 direct and up).

If finances really won’t allowa notebook purchase, or ifyou’ve got a high-schooler whowill be doing his or her school-work at home, you can savehundreds of dollars by goingwith a desktop PC. The six mod-els we tested range from $824 to$999 (all with monitor).

NOTEBOOKS

Averatec AV4265-EH1Averatec continues to impresswith the latest addition to itssuccessful line of affordablenotebooks. The AveratecAV4265-EH1 has good looks togo along with its attractive$1,200 price. The vivid 13.3-inch widescreen, very totable4.6-pound chassis, 80GB harddrive, and decent performance

The AV4265-EH1 features thenew Centrino platform, with a Pentium M 730 (1.6 GHz),512MB DDR RAM, and Intel’sGraphics Media Accelerator900 GM (with 128MB of videoRAM). SYSmark performance isdecent given that the PentiumM 730 is on the lower end of theperformance spectrum. TheAV4265-EH1 is still more than ca-pable of letting you shift gearsamong Web browsing, instantmessaging your buddies, anddoing your homework, butdon’t expect an intensive 3Dgaming experience. Battery life(3:40) is fine, though not stellar.

The Averatec AV4265-EH1gives you a wealth of featuresin a lightweight form factor forthe right price.

Averatec AV4265-EH1

With Intel Pentium M 730 (1.73 GHz),

512MB DDR SDRAM, 80GB hard drive,

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900

GM, 13.3-inch widescreen LCD (1,280-by-

800), Intel Pro Wireless 2200BG wire-

less, DVD±RW drive, Microsoft Windows

XP Home Edition, $1,200 street. Averatec

Inc., www.averatec.com. OVERALL:

lllhm Music: 69 (out of 100);

Photos: 75; Video: 43; Gaming: 40.

Dell Inspiron 700mThe Dell Inspiron 700m is tai-lor-made for mobile students(and busy professionals, for thatmatter). You can go with thestandard four-cell battery andhave a 4-pound unit that’s easyto toss in a bag, or opt for theeight-cell battery (as we did) togo five and a half hours betweencharges. The larger batterybrings the unit up to 4.5 pounds,but the extra runtime is worththe weight penalty. Either way,the 700m’s compact designmakes it easy to carry, whetheryou’re going from class to class,rushing from your dorm room

BY CISCO CHENG AND JOEL SANTO DOMINGO

THE SLEEKAVERATEC entry stands out.

THE MAGAZINE

WORLD’S LARGEST

COMPUTER-TESTING

FACILITY

F I R S T38 Ad-Aware SE Plus 1.0638 Spybot Search & Destroy 1.439 Trend Micro Anti-Spyware 3.040 Google Earth 3.042 Feeder 1.1

42 FeedForAll 1.042 NewzAlertComposer 1.7043 CyberPatrol 743 BeAnywhere 1.0.144 Nokia 6682

H A N D S - O N T E S T I N G O F N E W P R O D U C T S • www.pcmag.com/first looks

PH

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to the library, or travelinghome for the holidays.

One trade-off for thecompact size, of course, isthat the 700m housesa widescreen LCD of only 12.1inches. It’s good enough towork on documents, but notnearly as comfortable for longsessions as a larger screenwould be. And although thescreen’s high-gloss coating isgood for watching movies indim light, we noticed a signifi-cant amount of glare in roomslit by overhead fluorescents.

The other trade-off for goingwith a near-ultraportable is thekeyboard: It’s only 92 percentof full size. The IBM ThinkPadX41 has a full-size keyboard,and even the smaller Dell Lati-tude X1 has a bigger keyboard.As we’ve found on previousDell models, the mouse buttonscan seem a bit noisy if you’re ina quiet setting, but the touch-pad is very responsive. We likethat the notebook doesn’t gethot in the base, so it can rest inyour lap comfortably for ex-tended periods.

Our unit came configuredwith a Pentium M 725 (1.6 GHz)and 512MB of DDR memory. ThePentium M 725 managed to dovery well on our SYSmark 2004tests. The 700m surpassed theAveratec AV4265-EH1, which has

the newer Centrino compo-nents. And as we mentioned,battery life (with the eight-cellextended battery) was very im-pressive, at 5 hours 32 minuteson our BatteryMark tests. Itbested the ThinkPad X41 (5:05),which uses a similar extendedbattery. The 700m’s integratedgraphics are a step down fromthe newer Centrino graphics;none of our 3D gaming testswould run.

The 700m comes with twoUSB ports, which is adequate,but more would be better. A FireWire port sits in thefront panel of the unit, alongwith the headphone and mi-crophone jacks. The computeralso has an SD slot and an

S-Video port. Our unit cameconfigured with a DVD±RWdrive. The 40GB hard drive isfine for schoolwork but mightprove a little too small if youwant to load up your MP3 col-lection (and your roommate’s).

The 700m nicely balancesprice and portability. If you

plan on carrying your laptopto classes to take notes,

the small size and goodbattery life will be wel-

come. If not, consider a bigger machine with a largerscreen and keyboard, such asDell’s Inspiron 6000 or theGateway model below.

Dell Inspiron 700m

With Intel Pentium M 730 (1.6 GHz),

512MB DDR SDRAM, 40GB hard drive,

Intel 82855 GME graphics, 12.1-inch

widescreen LCD (1,280-by-800), Intel

Pro Wireless 2200 802.11g wireless,

DVD±RW drive, Microsoft Windows XP

Home Edition, $1,199 direct (with E-

Value code 1111-i700mpc). Dell Inc.,

www.dell.com. lllhm Music:

55; Photos: 60; Video: 30;

Gaming: 23.

Gateway M250XLThe thin-and-lightGateway M250XL hasan attractive price($1,170 direct) whilepacking in some nice

components for tougher work-loads. It’s ideal for students.

The handsome silver exteri-or is nothing flashy, which

should be fine for students whocare more about work thanlooks. The 5.1-pound unit isn’tthe lightest around, but it’s stillvery portable. And the extraweight gains you a large, brightwidescreen (14.1 inches, versus12.1 on the Inspiron 700m) that’sgreat for both work and play.

The M250XL has some goodpower under its hood for a ma-chine in its price class. It comeswith the Pentium M 750 (1.86GHz), 512MB of DDR2 SDRAM,and an integrated Intel Graph-

ics Media Accelerator 900 GM,all of which are new Centrinocomponents. The M250XL’sSYSmark 2004 performancesurpassed both the 700m’s andthe Toshiba Satellite M45-S165’s.

www.pcmag.com AUGUST 23, 2005 P C M A G A Z I N E 29

L O O K S44 Samsung i73046 Microsoft Money 2006 Premium 46 Quicken Medical Expense Manager47 Sony DCR-DVD403 DVD Handycam

Camcorder

47 Canon ZR20047 CVS One-Time-Use Video Camcorder47 JVC GR-DF550 47 Sony DCR-DVD7 DVD Handycam

Camcorder

48 Slingbox48 Cowon iAudio X548 Ultimate Ears super.fi 5Pro48 WinBook LC32RED denotes Editors’ Choice.

WHAT THE RATINGS MEAN: lllll EXCELLENT l llllm VERY GOOD l lllmm GOOD l llmmm FAIR l lmmmm POOR

High scores are best.Bold type denotes first place. Processor

Weight (lbs.)

Business Winstone 2004BatteryMark(hr:min)

OfficeProductivity

Dell Inspiron 700m Pentium M 725 (1.6 GHz) 4.5 5:30 106

Averatec AV4265-EH1 Pentium M 730 (1.6 GHz) 4.3 3:40 101

Gateway M250XL Pentium M 750 (1.86 GHz) 5.1 3:16 125

HP Compaq Presario V2000 Mobile AMD Sempron 2800+ (1.6 GHz) 5.4 2:10 92

Toshiba Satellite M45-S165 Celeron M 370 (1.5 GHz) 5.8 1:04 95

Internet ContentCreation

141

127

161

123

123

OVERALL

122

113

142

106

110RED denotes Editors’ Choice.

BACK-TO-SCHOOL NOTEBOOKSSYSMARK 2004

THE DELL 700m: Small is in.

POWER ANDVALUE set the M250XL apart.

P C M A G A Z I N E AUGUST 23, 2005 www.pcmag.com30

The BatteryMark score of 3hours 16 minutes is good,though not great. Consider opt-ing for the 12-cell battery (anadditional $40) to get morethan 5 hours of runtime.

The M250XL has three USBports, a FireWire port, and a 3-in-1 memory-card reader. Itdoesn’t have anS-Video portlike the Dell700m and the To-shiba Satellite M45, but itdoes have a VGA port, as allnotebooks should. It comeswith a 60GB hard drive, andthe DVD±RW is standard.

All told, the GatewayM250XL is a solid, no-nonsensenotebook that delivers a lot of performance and featuresfor the price. It’s got a big-enough screen in a portable-enough package.

Gateway M250XL

With Intel Pentium M 750 (1.86 GHz),

512MB DDR2 SDRAM, 60GB hard drive,

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900

GM graphics, 14.1-inch widescreen

(1,280-by-768), Intel Pro Wireless 2200

802.11g, DVD±RW drive, Microsoft

Windows XP Home Edition, $1,170 direct.

Gateway Inc., www.gateway.com.

llllm Music: 58; Photos: 57; Video:

35; Gaming: 30.

HP Compaq Presario V2000 With prices staring at $599, theHP Compaq Presario V2000 is a value notebook in the truestsense of the word. It’s void ofall the bells and whistles foundon more expensive systems,but it performs well enoughand comes with the basic necessities—namely a 40GBhard drive, a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive, and an AMDSempron processor—that willget you through the dailygrind at home or school.

The design is conservative: a silver case with a black interi-or. The V2000 is one of the sec-ond-heaviest models here, butat 5.4 pounds it’s still plentyportable. The unit has two USBports (we’d prefer a third), aswell as an S-Video and a VGAport. It doesn’t have a FireWireport, nor a multimedia card slot

like more expensive models.The built-in speakers are ade-quate for movies and audioCDs, and the system’s 14-inchBrightView widescreen makeswatching DVDs very enjoyable.

The Sempron 2800+ (1.6GHz) processor is part of AMD’svalue line and helps keep costsdown. The $599 configurationcomes with just 384MB of RAM;passable, but we’d upgrade to512MB on the build sheet. TheATI Mobility Radeon integratedgraphics are not adequate for3D gaming but will prove finefor e-mail, word processing,and Web browsing. In gen-eral, the V2000 delivered decent performance on ourSYSmark tests. Runtimefrom the standard batterywas a somewhat disappoint-ing 2:10. We say spend theextra $25 and go for the op-tional 9-cell battery, good formore than 3 hours of life.

The HP Compaq PresarioV2000 is a solid system forbasic day-to-day computing,and the base model costs halfwhat others here do. If price isyour utmost concern, theV2000 won’t disappoint.

HP Compaq Presario V2000

With AMD Sempron 2800+ (1.6 GHz),

384MB DDR SDRAM, 40GB hard drive,

ATI Mobility Radeon Xpress 200M, 14-

inch widescreen LCD (1,280-by-768),

Broadcom 802.11g wireless, DVD-

ROM/CD-RW drive, Microsoft Windows

XP Home Edition, $599 direct. Hewlett-

Packard Development Co., www.hp.com.

lllmm Music: 51; Photos: 45; Video:

15; Gaming: 13.

Toshiba Satellite M45-S165 For those students who aremultimedia-savvy and aren’tobsessed with getting scream-ing performance, the ToshibaSatellite M45-S165 is a good fit.The M45 is a general-purposenotebook that doesn’t burrowtoo deep into your pockets($1,049 direct), yet still offersfeatures like a 15.4-inch Tru-Brite screen and an 80GB harddrive. But the Celeron M pro-cessor and poor battery lifemight have performance seek-ers looking elsewhere.

Though still fairly portable(5.8-pound system weight), theM45 is the type of notebookyou leave in your dorm room:The 15.4-inch widescreenmakes it too big for many bags.The screen boasts Toshiba’sTruBrite screen technology,ideal for movie watching anddigital photography chores.The speakers are more thanadequate for listening to musicwhile you work.

The M45 does not have a FireWire port or a multime-dia card reader (surprising on

a multimedia-centric model),but it does have an S-Videoport. The other impressive fea-ture is a fast (5,400-rpm) harddrive for storing all yourmedia. A DVD±RW is standard.

Performance, sadly, does notmeasure up to that of some ofthe other contenders here. The

M45 houses a Celeron M 370(1.5 GHz) CPU, and its SYSmarktest scores were on the lowside. But the system is still finefor typical student workloads,like Microsoft Excel spread-sheets, DVD burning, and Webbrowsing. Its battery life wasdisappointing (1 hour 4 min-utes), which also makes thecase for not taking the M45 outof your room.

Still, the value price and thebig screen and hard drive willbe the alluring factors for thosechoosing this model as theyhead back to school.

Toshiba Satellite M45-S165

With Intel Celeron M 370 (1.5 GHz),

512MB DDR SDRAM, 80GB hard drive,

ATI Radeon Xpress 200M graphics, 15.4-

inch widescreen (1,280-by-800), Atheros

802.11g wireless, DVD±RW drive,

Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition,

$1,049 direct. Toshiba Corp., www

.toshiba.com. lllmm Music: 58;

Photo: 56; Video: 25; Gaming: 23.

DESKTOPS

Apple eMac (1.42-GHz SuperDrive)The latest iteration of the AppleeMac is reasonably priced ($999direct) and delivers some no-table improvements over theprevious model. Consider theeMac as a base station for youriPod, digital camera, and cam-corder, and as an all-in-onecomputing solution. It’s greatfor a student, a beginning com-puter user, or the old hand who

doesn’t need or want to spendmore than $1,000 on a PC.

There are two flavorsof eMac, the $799Combo drive model

and the $999 SuperDrivemodel. While the 17-inch flat-front CRT monitor, expansionports, ATI Radeon 9600 graph-ics, and 1.42-GHz G4 processorare shared by both models, theSuperDrive eMac is the one toget. The extra memory (512MBversus 256MB), larger harddrive (160GB versus 80GB) andSuperDrive (DVD DL burnerversus DVD-ROM/CD-RW) arewell worth the extra $200. Thenew dual-layer, dual-format Su-

F I R S T L O O K SBack-To-School PCs

THE M45’S BIGscreen is easy on the eyes.

THE$599

V2000 is

a bargain.

perDrive allows users to usethe newer 8.5GB DL DVD+Rdiscs, which can hold morevideo, MP3s, or other files.You can still burn single-layer DVD-R and DVD+Rdiscs on the SuperDrive, aswell as CDs. The eMac’s160GB hard drive holds plen-ty of videos, MP3s, photos, andapplications—enough for theperson dipping his or her toeinto the world of digital videoediting and DVD burning.

The included ATI Radeon9600 graphics solution is animprovement over the previ-ous model’s ATI Radeon 9200,also found in the Mac mini,but neither are really 3Dgame–worthy. We were able toget only a disappointing 14frames per second on ourDoom 3 test (40 fps and aboveis playable).

The eMac’s all-in-one de-sign means you can’t upgradethe graphics, and all expansion(save for more memory andadding wireless networking)must be done via external USB

and FireWire peripherals.We believe the main reason

Apple upgraded to 9600graphics is to allow it to sup-port the Core Image feature ofMac OS X, which improves themidrange to high-end graphicsperformance in image pro-cessing and video. You don’tneed high-end graphics, how-ever, to surf the Web, listen tomusic, and view photos andvideo—all activities well suit-ed to the Apple eMac. Unfor-

tunately, Apple still didn’tadd built-in media card slotsto the design.

With Apple’s iLife ’05 dig-ital media suite included,you can import the videofrom a DV camcorder, burnit straight to a DVD, and thenplay it in your family room.And we love the new fea-tures found in Mac OS X 10.4,

such as Spotlight (a lightning-fast search engine) and Dash-board (a collection of assorteduseful tools that skitter acrossyour desk, serve a quick pur-pose, then disappear as quick-ly as they came).

Users on a budget shouldlook hard at the Apple eMac.It’s equally adept at work andplay, it’s a joy to use, and itwon’t break the bank.

Apple eMac (1.42GHz SuperDrive)

With PowerPC G4 processor (1.42 GHz),

512MB DDR SDRAM, 160GB hard drive,

ATI Radeon 9600 graphics, 17-inch CRT

monitor, DVD±RW drive, Mac OS X 10.4,

$999 direct. Apple Computer Inc.,

www.apple.com. OVERALL llllm

Music: 81 (out of 100); Photos: 74;

Video: 65; Gaming: 55.

Dell Dimension 5100With its $999 price, theDell Dimension 5100fits squarely in thehome- and student-PCspace, replacing the

popular Dimension 4700. The5100 is built on the forward-looking BTX platform and isquieter, to boot. It’s ideal forbudding multimedia mavens,students, and budget-mindedcomputer users who want morethan a bare-bones machine.

The silver exterior is signifi-cantly different from the oldDell cases. The chassis is easyto get into, with a top-mountedlatch popping the side doorcleanly off. Once inside, you’llsee that there are only twoslowly turning fans: one largecase fan cooling the processor,and another in the power sup-ply. You’ll also notice thatthere’s space for only one morehard drive, but in this age of500GB drives, one more may beall you (eventually) need.

Dell now finally offers anintegrated media card reader,

F I R S T L O O K SBack-To-School PCs

www.pcmag.com AUGUST 23, 2005 P C M A G A Z I N E 31

found. Some colleges have made arrange-

ments with specific computer manufac-

turers that can save you money; others

sell systems already discounted (usually

about 5 to 10 percent) right on campus.

Even if your school doesn’t offer any of the

above, check manufacturers’ Web sites for

special student discounts.

4What specific operating system and

software is required or recommend-

ed? Many college IT departments support

both Windows and Mac OS (few, if any,

support Linux). Many schools also recom-

mend that you have Microsoft Office.

5Are there broadband connections on

campus; and if so, where? The major-

ity of colleges have broadband Ethernet

connections in their dorms and libraries,

as well as in some classrooms and public

places, like cafeterias.

6Is there wireless access on campus?

For the most part, colleges are using

wireless in common areas like classrooms,

cafeterias, libraries, and even outdoor

areas. Ask how much of the campus is

currently covered and what plans the

school has for additional coverage in the

near future. Also find out what type of

wireless it is (most likely it’s 802.11b or

802.11g), so you’ll be in sync.

7Do I need a printer in my dorm? If you

live on campus and work on a com-

puter, you will inevitably need to print your

work. Having your own printer is ideal, and

they’re cheap (as little as $70 for a capa-

ble ink jet, and Dell now offers a $99

monochrome laser printer). Check with

the college to see if you can use printers in

the computer lab or if the dorm provides

a printer. Note that you may need to

supply your own paper.

8Does the college offer Internet filter-

ing? Face it, college kids are still not

adults. The Internet can be dangerous,

and being away from home means that

parents don’t know what their children

are doing. Check with the college to see

if they filter porn Web sites and sites that

let you illegally download digitally pro-

tected content, such as music and

videos. Colleges and students have been

sued for such activities.

BY RICHARD FISCO

As if going off to college weren’t compli-

cated enough, you now have to contend

with technologies that will follow you until

graduation. Here are eight questions to

ask before you arrive.

1Is a computer required? Sound like

a dumb question? Ask anyway. Many

colleges do, in fact, require one, and you

don’t want to be the odd man out on the

first day of class, frantically scribbling

notes while your classmates are calmly

typing away.

2Can I bring my PC from home? Many

colleges give minimum requirements

for the machines they expect students to

use, concentrating on memory, processor,

and hard drive size; some schools even

recommend specific systems. So before

you truck that 50-pound dinosaur from

your basement, check the standards; it

might already be on the extinction list.

3Does the college offer any discounts

on desktops or notebooks? You’d be

surprised at some of the deals to be

Questions to Ask Your College I.T. Department

APPLE’SSOFTWARE

makes the eMac a contender.

P C M A G A Z I N E AUGUST 23, 2005 www.pcmag.com32

handy for today’s multicamerahouseholds. The seven USBports should more than suffice.The 5100 we tested came withDell’s USB multimedia key-board and mouse. We like thatyou can plug the mouse intoone of the two ports on the USBkeyboard. PCI Express (PCIe), a dual-layer DVD writer, and thelatest Intel 945G Express chipsetround out the forward-lookingtechnology. Alas, FireWire is anextra-cost option.

The 3.0-GHz Pentium 4 531CPU helped deliver competi-tive scores on our SYSmarktests. The 128MB ATI RadeonX300 SE graphics card is no 3D-gaming powerhouse, but the5100 delivered respectablegaming scores for a sub-$1,000PC. Halo and Doom 3 areplayable at lower resolutions,though you’ll need to turn offmost of the bells and whistles.

The included 15-inch LCDmonitor is a little small (com-petitors have 17-inch displays),but the multimedia soft-ware bundle (including theWindows Media Centerlike Dell Media Experienceand WordPerfect Office)make the 5100 a goodvalue out of the box.

Dell Dimension 5100

With Intel Pentium 4 531

processor (3.0 GHz), 512MB

DDR2 SDRAM, 160GB hard drive,

ATI Radeon X300 SE graphics,

15-inch LCD monitor, dual-layer

DVD±RW drive, Microsoft Windows

XP Home, $999 direct. Dell Inc.,

www.dell.com. OVERALL llllm

Music: 91; Photos: 79; Video: 57;

Gaming: 64.

eMachines T6520Students and other budget-conscious buyers lookingfor a multimedia-centric PCmight want to consider a low-cost Media Center

Edition model. The eMa-chines T6520 is that com-pany’s take on the valueMedia Center entry,though with a few com-promises to reach the

$900 price. These compromis-es include the lack of a TVtuner, which means that youwon’t be able to record TV pro-grams with the T6520. Whatyou can do with the T6520 isstill notable: view pictures andDVDs, manage and play music,and of course do all the thingsa regular PC does.

One thing that fills up faston a PC used by students isdisk space, and theT6520’s 200GB drive isfairly impressive at thisprice (where 120GB or160GB hard drives aretypical). There is a mediacard slot on the front panel ofthe system, with a good crosssection of the popular mediacards found in digital cameras.

Once you have your multi-media data on the T6520, thereis a lot of software you can useto view, listen to, and burnyour data (if you opt to use theWindows desktop interface,not the Media Center’s). TheT6520 has Microsoft Workswith PictureIt for digital pho-tos and Nero 6 for burn-ing CDs and DVDs.

The T6520 has a PCIe x16graphics expansion slot, so upgrading the 3D graphics isno problem, and there is spacefor a few more hard drives inthe case. The primary harddrive is an ATA/IDE, so all fourSATA ports on the motherboard are free. The 15-inchLCD monitor that eMachinessuggests with this system isokay, but other value systemsnow offer 17-inch LCDs.

Thanks to its Athlon 643400+ processor, the T6520 is a good performer, particularlyat the multimedia

content creation tasks it is suit-ed to. The 128MB ATI Radeon200 Xpress graphics are capa-ble of displaying complex 3Dgraphics, but a gaming enthu-siast will likely want to use thePCIe x16 slot to upgrade thegraphics in a year or two.

With its mix of multimediabrawn and capabilities, theeMachines T6520 makes a good

starting point for the cre-atively minded student ornovice computer user. Ithas the power and spacethat should last a year ortwo before it needs upgrad-ing, and overall should easi-ly last you four to five years.

eMachines T6520

With AMD Athlon 64 3400+ (2.4

GHz), 1GB DDR SDRAM, 200GB

hard drive, ATI Radeon Xpress 200

graphics, 15-inch LCD monitor,

dual-layer DVD±RW drive, CD-ROM

drive, Microsoft Windows XP Media

Center Edition 2005, $900 direct.

Gateway Inc., www.emachines.com.

OVERALL lllhm Music: 91; Photos:

80; Video: 60; Gaming: 57.

Gateway 5310SAt just $824, the Gateway 5310sis a respectable system for stu-dents and other users with un-complicated needs. It willcertainly complete many of thetasks you need a computer for:Web browsing, e-mail, docu-ment writing, and digital music.It also has enough power forlight photo editing, thoughcamcorder buffs will want to upgrade to a DVD writer (a$50 premium for a dual layer).The 5310s is easily recommend-

able as a good back-to-schoolsystem.

F I R S T L O O K SBack-To-School PCs

THE 5100sheds the charcoal hue for silver.

THE T6520 isa good choice for work or play.

The 5310s has all the hard-ware an entry-level user shouldneed: a 3.06-GHz Pentium 4processor, 512MB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, a 15-inchLCD monitor, and integratedEthernet. And we like the in-cluded media card slots andFireWire. The machine deliversjust enough performance to lasta few years, which is importantwhen you want to use a PC allthrough high school or college.

The fans on the 5310s arequiet, though the hard drive is asporadic reminder that the sys-tem is on. Even when the systemis idle, you can hear the harddrive clicking occasionally in aquiet room. Your kid with theheadphones on won’t notice it,but if you’re doing your check-book in the den after the kidshave fallen asleep, you might.

All told, the Gateway 5310s isa fine machine for the price and

THE GATEWAY 5310S delivers the basics for $824.

should suit a student or otherhome user nicely. If you thinkyou’ll need 3D graphics horse-power eventually, opt for theDell or eMachines models here.Otherwise, you can save somemoney and stick with the 5310s.

Gateway 5310s

With Intel Pentium 4 519 processor (3.06

GHz), 512MB DDR SDRAM, 160GB hard

drive, integrated Intel GMA 900 graph-

ics, 15-inch LCD monitor, DVD-ROM/CD-

RW drive, Microsoft Windows XP Home,

$824 direct. Gateway Inc., www

.gateway.com. OVERALL lllmm

Music: 73 (out of 100); Photos: 44;

Video: 42; Gaming: 37.

HP Compaq PresarioSR1550NX Reading the stickers on the HPCompaq Presario SR1550NX($830 direct) will pique yourinterest, with good reason: TheSR1550NX has a high-poweredAthlon 64 3400+ processor anda 200GB hard drive, both ofwhich are attractive in thisprice range. With a large 17-inch monitor, the SR1550NX willserve well for students or oth-ers who need a solid computerfor years of typical PC chores.

The 200GB drive isthe high point of thisPC, with plenty of spacefor programs, pictures,music, and video. Out-side, you’ll find a handy9-in-1 media card reader.There is plenty of roomin the SR1550NX’s casefor additional hard drivesand PCI cards, in case thesystem needs upgrades.

The SR1550NX comeswith an 8X AGP slot (notPCIe, as on other models),which will let you upgradethe system’s 3D graphics ca-pabilities. As with the other

machines in this class,3D graphics perfor-mance is anemic bytoday’s standards. On theplus side, the SR1550NX’sAthlon 64 3400+ helped itspeed through our SYS-mark tests.

Since even a 200GB harddrive is likely to fill upwhen in the hands of a broadband-equippedstudent, there’s a dual-layer DVD writer in the SR1550NX. The drive’sLightScribe technology lets theuser burn a monochrome label(with text and graphics) on thetop of the DVD or CD blank.

The SR1550NX is a good, in-expensive 2D performer thatcovers most of the things thatpeople use a computer for.

HP Compaq Presario SR1550NX

With AMD Athlon 64 3400+ processor

(2.4 GHz), 512MB DDR SDRAM, 200GB

hard drive, integrated SiS Mirage2

graphics, 17-inch LCD monitor, dual-layer

DVD±RW drive, CD-ROM drive, Microsoft

Windows XP Home, $830 direct.

Hewlett-Packard Development Co.,

www.hp.com. OVERALL lllmm

Music: 83; Photos: 67; Video: 54;

Gaming: 52.

HP Pavilion a1120nHP has a knack for puttingMedia Center Edition on PCs.The latest HP Pavilion a1120n($980 direct) is no exception.Like the eMachines model here,the a1120n uses Windows XPMedia Center Edition 2005 on a value desktop, also sans TVtuner. For the student or multi-media hobbyist on a budget, thea1120n might be a good fit.

If you are a Windows-basedApple iPod or “iPod + HP” user, then the decision is a no-

brainer: The a1120n is afine choice if your bud-get runs under $1,000. HPTunes, the conduit be-tween iTunes and theMedia Center Edition, letsyou play AAC-encoded files(like the ones bought fromApple’s iTunes store) andplaylists in the Media Centerinterface (which usually only

plays back WMA and MP3files). HP Tunes also opens up

your iTunes library to MediaCenter Extender devices. With160GB of hard drive space, the

a1120n makes an inex-pensive music server.

In addition to HPTunes, other programs,such as muvee Auto-Producer (which makessimple DVD video pro-jects) and HP’s Image

Zone software, render thea1120n a tempting choice for

multimedia hounds. Althoughit’s not as well integrated fromprogram to program as theiLife suite on the eMac here,the a1120n gives you a lot ofmultimedia for the money. Andwe like the dual-layer DVDwriter with LightScribe.

In performance, the a1120nis neither a leader nor a lag-gard. Its SYSmark 2004 scoresfall into the expected range.Note, however, that the a1120nlacks a PCIe or even AGPgraphics expansion slot, sothere’s no way to turn this intoa 3D gaming platform.

If you aren’t one of the iPodfaithful, the eMachines T6520 isa better performer with a largerhard drive and lower price (al-beit with a smaller screen). Andthe similarly priced Dell Di-mension 5100 has Dell’s Win-dows Media Center–like MediaExperience and is a better all-around value. Still, the HP Pavil-ion a1120n is a perfectly likablemultimedia PC for students andothers on a budget.

HP Pavilion a1120n

With Intel Pentium 4 519 processor

(3.06 GHz), 512MB DDR2 SDRAM, 160GB

hard drive, Intel GMA 900 graphics, 17-

inch LCD monitor, dual-layer DVD±RW

drive, CD-ROM drive, Microsoft Windows

XP Media Center Edition 2005, $980

direct. Hewlett-Packard Development

Co., www.hp.com. OVERALL lllhm

Music: 96; Photos: 82; Video: 64;

Gaming: 59.

F I R S T L O O K SBack-to-School PCs

www.pcmag.com AUGUST 23, 2005 P C M A G A Z I N E 33

High scores are best.Bold type denotes first place. Processor Graphics chipset

OfficeProductivity

Internet ContentCreation

Dell Dimension 5100 Pentium 4 531 (3.0 GHz) 128MB ATI Radeon X300 SE 149 188

Anti-aliasing/Anisotropic filtering K

eMachines T6520 Athlon 64 3400+ (2.4 GHz) 128MB ATI Radeon Xpress 200 151 195

Gateway 5310S Pentium 4 519 (3.06 GHz) 128MB Intel GMA 900 148 169

HP Compaq Presario SR1550NX Athlon 64 3400+ (2.4 GHz) 128MB SiS Mirage 2 146 194

HP Pavilion a1120n Pentium 4 519 (3.06 GHz) 128MB Intel GMA 900 142 169

Overall

167

172

158

168

155

3DMark051,024 x 768

808

Default

583

232

N/A

263RED denotes Editors’ Choice. N/A—Not applicable: This computer could not complete the test.

BACK-TO-SCHOOL DESKTOPSSYSMARK 2004

THE a1120n is an

attractive low-cost MCE PC.

A FAST CPU and a big LCD

make the SR1550NX appealing.

F I R S T L O O K STop Products

$399 list

llllh Excellent daylight images and very good flash shots. Good menus Tiny and tough. Mediocre recycle times. Smallish LCD,Optical viewfinder placement could be better. The Canon PowerShot SD300 Digtal Elph takes great pictures, despite its tiny size. It’s stylish,built like a very smal tank,and fun to use. 4MP, 16MB built-in memory; Secure Digital slot; 35mm equivalent: 35mm-105mm; 2,272 x 1,704 max res. 15fps video capture (640 x 480)

BUSINESS PROS CONS BOTTOM LINE SPECS AND SCORES

HP Compaq nc8200$2,699 direct

llllm

Durable design. Light, despite a15.4-inch widescreen display. Goodbattery life.

Client software is not as rich asthat of IBM’s ThinkVantage.

Even with a 15.4-inch screen, thenc8200 is well suited for the road.It’s lighter and less bulky than youmight expect.

Our Top Notebook PCsVisit go.pcmag.com/notebooks for the full reviews of these and scores of other portable PCs.

ULTRAPORTABLE

Sony VAIO VGN-T350P $2,299 direct

llllm

Built-in EDGE modem delivers high-speed wireless within Cingular’sEDGE coverage area. Great littlescreen.

Smallish keyboard. The VGN-T350P is a mobile dream.It’s ultralight and can connect wire-lessly via the EDGE network, aswell as in 802.11 hot spots.

Intel Pentium M 753 (1.2 GHz),512MB RAM, 60GB hard drive, 10.7-inch screen. 3.0 pounds. SYSmark: 95. BatteryMark: 6:20.

Lenovo/IBM ThinkPad T43$2,199 direct

llllh

Next-generation Centrino. Terrifictyping experience and securityoptions. Top-of-the-line manage-ment utilities.

Only two USB ports. No memorycard slots.

Next-generation Centrino compo-nents and the robust security suitemake the T43 the perfect businesstool.

Pentium M (1.86 GHz), 512MBRAM, 60GB hard drive, 14.1-inchscreen. 5.5 pounds. SYSmark: 134. BatteryMark: 4:49.

Lenovo/IBM Thinkpad X41$1,899 direct

llllm

Good performance. Full-size key-board.

External optical drive. Hard driveonly 40GB.

The ThinkPad X41 is a very goodultraportable, with improved secu-rity and performance—plus greatbattery life for this class.

Intel Pentium M 758 (1.5 GHz),512MB RAM, 40GB hard drive, 12.1-inch screen. 3.2 pounds.SYSmark: 105. BatteryMark: 5:05.

Intel Pentium M 760 (2.0 GHz),512MB RAM, 60GB hard drive, 15.4-inch widescreen. 6.2 pounds.SYSmark: 140. BatteryMark: 4:53.

Dell Inspiron XPS Gen 2$3,318

llllh

Top-of-the-line graphics.Programmable lights.

Pointing stick is gone. Mouse but-tons are a bit loud.

The XPS Gen 2’s cool look andsuper set of cutting-edge mobilecomponents make it the ultimategaming machine.

Intel Pentium M 770 (2.13 GHz),1GB RAM, 80GB hard drive, 17-inch widescreen. 8.5 pounds. SYSmark: 172. BatteryMark: 2:13.

HP Pavilion dv4000$1,429 direct

llllh

Big screen. Four USB ports.QuickPlay. Affordable.

Average performance. The dv4000 is a multimedia dreammachine at a reasonable price.

Pentium M 750 (1.86 GHz), 512MBRAM, 80GB hard drive, 15.4-inchwidescreen. 6.4 pounds. SYSmark: 131. BatteryMark: 3:17.

Gateway M250XL$1,170 direct

llllm

NEW Good performance and features forthe price. Good portability.

Battery life could be better. Notbuilt for gaming.

The M250XL rides the line betweenultraportable and thin-and-lightnotebook. It’s not flashy, but deliv-ers solid value for the money.

Intel Pentium M 750 (1.8 GHz),512MB RAM, 60GB hard drive, 14.1-inch widescreen. 5.1 pounds.SYSmark: 142. BatteryMark: 3:16.

Toshiba Qosmio G25-AV513 $2,999 list

llllh

Multitude of AV features. Designedfor AV rack. Terrific screen. Largehard drives.

Heavy. Shiny chassis prone tofingerprints and dust. Below-average battery life. TV-in dongle.

The G25-AV513 is the best multi-media laptop we’ve seen, espe-cially when it comes to integratingAV features.

Intel Pentium M 760 (2.0 GHz), 1GB RAM, two 60GB hard drives,17-inch widescreen, 9.4 pounds.SYSmark: 145. BatteryMark: 1:59.

VALUE

Lenovo/IBM ThinkPad X41 $1,900 street

llllh

Lightest convertible tablet. Greatpen-on-paper feel. Fingerprintreader. ThinkVantage security system.

No built-in optical drive. Only1,024-by-768 maximum resolution.

Lenovo/IBM’s first tablet is thelightest convertible around, and thescreen has a perfect paper-like feelfor writing.

Intel Pentium M 758 (1.5 GHz),512MB RAM, 40GB hard drive, 12.1-inch screen, 3.2 pounds.

Dell Inspiron 6000 $1,024 direct.

llllh

Great battery life. DVD±RW drive.Latest-generation Centrino technology.

Price varies according to Dell’s specials at a given time.

The 6000 is a feature-rich desktopreplacement model. It delivers top-end components for an aggressiveprice.

Intel Pentium M 730 (1.6 GHz),512MB RAM, 60GB hard drive, 15.4-inch widescreen. 7.0 pounds.SYSmark: 130. BatteryMark: 5:52.

TABLET PCs

Toshiba Portégé R200$2,099 direct

llllm

Supersleek and light design.Improved battery life. New securitysuite. Fingerprint reader.

External optical drive. The R200 lightens your load whileletting you stay productive on theroad.

Intel Pentium M 753 (1.2 GHz),512MB RAM, 60GB hard drive,12.1-inch screen. 2.7 pounds. SYSmark: 100. BatteryMark: 3:32.

Motion ComputingLE1600 $2,199 direct

llllm

Superior screen. TPM securitysuite. Improved components.

Needs an optical drive in the dock.No FireWire port.

The Motion Computing LE1600offers improved components, asuperior screen, and an airtightsecurity suite.

Intel Pentium M LV 758 (1.5 GHz),512MB RAM, 30GB hard drive, 12.0-inch screen. 3.3 pounds.

Toshiba Libretto$1,999 list

llllm

Fingerprint reader. Excellent bat-tery life and 60GB hard drive. Greatlittle widescreen display.

Poor placement of the pointingstick. Small keyboard.

It looks like a clamshell PDA, butinside the Libretto you’ll find a fullWindows XP PC.

Intel Pentium M 753 ULV (1.2 GHz),512MB RAM, 60GB hard drive, 7.2-inch widescreen. 2.8 pounds.SYSmark: 96. BatteryMark: 3:57.

MULTIMEDIA AND GAMING

P C M A G A Z I N E AUGUST 23, 2005 www.pcmag.com34

www.pcmag.com AUGUST 23, 2005 P C M A G A Z I N E 35

F I R S T L O O K STop Products

$399 list

llllh Excellent daylight images and very good flash shots. Good menus Tiny and tough. Mediocre recycle times. Smallish LCD,Optical viewfinder placement could be better. The Canon PowerShot SD300 Digtal Elph takes great pictures, despite its tiny size. It’s stylish,built like a very smal tank,and fun to use. 4MP, 16MB built-in memory; Secure Digital slot; 35mm equivalent: 35mm-105mm; 2,272 x 1,704 max res. 15fps video capture (640 x 480)

PROS CONS BOTTOM LINE SPECS AND SCORES

Dell Dimension 8400 $2,999 direct

llllh

Complete multimedia softwarebundle. ATI Radeon X800 XT forhigh-end 3D gaming.

You’ll need to add a media cardreader.

The 8400 is an ideal PC for the userwho wants to get into digital videoand 3D gaming but doesn’t want aflashy (or too pricey) gaming box.

H00XX.TW VERSION 3/4/05 0 COLUMNS WIDE X 00 LINES DEEP NAME

Our Top Desktop PCsVisit go.pcmag.com/desktops for the full reviews of these and scores of other systems.

MEDIA CENTER

HP Digital EntertainmentCenter z545 $2,000 street

llllh

Excellent execution of a living-room Media Center PC. Quiet.Connects to legacy audio and videodevices. Dual tuners.

Requires separate amplifier (orpowered speakers). No HDTV tuner(yet).

The z545 is everything you’d want in a Media Center PC for the livingroom. It replaces the DVD player, CD changer, FM tuner, and DVR.

Intel Pentium 4 530 (3.0 GHz),512MB RAM, 200GB hard drive,160GB removable drive, ATI RadeonX300 SE graphics, MCE 2005.

Dell XPS Gen 5 $3,999 direct

lllll

Too many to list, but here are afew: dual-core processor, dual TVtuners, good gaming performancefor a single-card solution.

When the case is upright, it’sannoying to open because the kick-stand can get in the way.

If you’re ready for high-end com-puting, the XPS Gen 5 should beabsolutely at the top of your list.

Intel Pentium EE 840 (3.2 GHz),1GB RAM, two 250GB hard drives,ATI Radeon X850 XT PE graphics.Doom 3 (10x7): 87 fps.

Intel Pentium 4 560 (3.6 GHz), 1GB RAM, two 160GB hard drives,ATI Radeon X800 XT graphics.Doom 3 (10x7): 83 fps.

Sony VAIO VGC-RB38G $1,349.99 direct

llllm

Clean front, with doors to coverdrives and media card slots. Goodprice. Plenty of drive bay expan-sion space.

Tower chassis suits home officemore than home theater. Wirelesskeyboard and mouse cost extra.

As an introduction into the world ofMedia Centers with TV/DVR record-ing, the VGC-RB38G is a very good,moderately priced starter machine.

Intel Pentium 4 550 (3.4 GHz), 1GB RAM, 250GB hard drive, ATIRadeon X300 graphics. Doom 3(10x7): 19 fps.

Sony VAIO VGC-RA830G $1,799 direct

llllh

Liquid cooling means a quiet towerPC. Large storage capacity forvideos. Better 3D performancethan with other Media Center PCs.

Tower chassis is less livingroom–friendly than modelsdesigned like AV gear. No HDTVtuner.

The VGC-RA830G is a near-silentdesktop that can serve as both aPC and the central repository ofyour digitally connected home.

Intel Pentium 4 550J (3.4 GHz), 1GB RAM, two 160GB hard drives,nVidia GeForce 6600 graphics, MCE 2005. Doom 3 (10x7): 50 fps.

Sony VAIO VGC-V520G $2,699.99 direct

llllh

Bright widescreen display. GreatTV tuner. Wireless keyboard withbuilt-in touch pad. Wireless mouse.Lots of included software.

A little pricey. No HDTV support.Needs TV/volume controls on thePC/TV case bezel.

In the spirit of the Apple iMac, thePC components reside behind theVGC-V520G’s 20-inch LCD. ButSony adds a TV tuner and a DVR.

Intel Pentium 4 (3.2 GHz), 1GBRAM, 250GB hard drive, nVidiaGeForce FX Go5700 graphics, 20-inch LCD. SYSmark: 174.

Apple iMac G5 $2,103 direct

lllll

Simple, stunning design. Quiet. Justone cord (for power), thanks tooptional Bluetooth keyboard andmouse. Gorgeous 20-inch screen.

Can’t upgrade graphics. Built-inspeakers don’t deliver much bass.

Apple has another design coup on its hands with the iMac G5. It’s about time someone designed a computer like this.

PowerPC G5 (1.8 GHz), 512MBRAM, 160GB hard drive, nVidiaGeForce FX 5200 Ultra graphics, 20-inch widescreen LCD, DVD-R drive.

Polywell Poly 2800NF2-MX $699 direct

llllm

Dual-layer DVD±RW drive. Large-capacity hard drive. Plenty of roomfor upgrading.

No built-in modem, FireWire port,or memory card reader. Mediocreprocessor.

A solid value machine with somegreat features, the 2800NF2-MX isupgradable for taking multimediato the next level.

AMD Sempron 2800+ (2.25 GHz),512MB RAM, 120GB hard drive,nVidia GeForce4 MX440 graphics.SYSmark: 133.

Dell Dimension5100 $999 direct

llllm

Quiet design. Dell MediaExperience is like Media CenterEdition. Memory card slots (finally!).

No FireWire ports. We would prefera 17-inch LCD at this price point.

The forward-looking technology,quiet design, and low price shouldplease the general user, buddingmultimedia mavens, and students.

Intel Pentium 4 531 (3.0 GHz),512MB RAM, 160GB hard drive, ATI Radeon X300 SE graphics, 15-inch LCD. SYSMark: 167.

VALUE AND MIDRANGE

ALL-IN-ONE

BUSINESS

Velocity Micro Vector SX-V $999 direct

llllh

Better-than-average graphics card.Motherboard supports the latesttechnologies. Loaded with multi-media features.

Only one optical drive. The Vector SX-V offers the latesttechnologies, a wide upgrade path,and enough horsepower to satisfygamers and multimedia enthusiasts.

Intel Pentium 4 540 (3.2 GHz),512MB RAM, 120GB hard drive,nVidia GeForce 6600 graphics.SYSmark: 188.

IBM ThinkCentre S50 $1,200 street

lllll

Comprehensive management tools.IBM guarantees that its systemswill support the same softwareimage for a full two years.

None significant. Unsurpassed management tools, a stable platform, a serviceablechassis—we can’t think of a thingnot to like about the S50.

Intel Pentium 4 (2.8 GHz), 512MBRAM, 80GB hard drive, IntelExtreme Graphics 2. BusinessWinstone 2004: 19.0.

GAMING/MULTIMEDIA

Falcon NorthwestFragBox 2$3,225 direct

llllm

Compact gaming case. More gam-ing performance for much lessmoney than our previous FragBox2. Good hardware mix.

Still a lot of money for a systemwithout a monitor.

The FragBox 2 gives gamers exact-ly what they want: hot gaming per-formance for a price that doesn’trequire a trust fund.

AMD Athlon 64 4000+ (2.4 GHz),1GB RAM, 600GB hard drive, nVidiaGeForce 6800 Ultra graphics. Doom3 (10x7): 103 fps.

Overdrive PC Torque.SLI $6,499

llllh

Blistering performance, with noneof the water-cooled maintenanceanxiety. Removable 300GB harddrive. Overclocked with care.

Pricey. Air-cooled overclocking stillmeans lots of fans, even if they arepretty. And at this price, an LCDmonitor would be welcome.

If you want a system that willtrump all of your friends’ gamingPCs, then the Torque.SLI is worth a long, hard look.

AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 (2.8 GHz), 1GBRAM, three hard drives (448GB),dual nVidia GeForce 6800 Ultragraphics. Doom 3 (10x7): 132 fps.

NEW

P C M A G A Z I N E AUGUST 23, 2005 www.pcmag.com38

F I R S T L O O K SSecurity Software

Spyware Stoppers Try to Keep UpBY NEIL J. RUBENKING

Fortunately, the only typesof programs proliferatingfaster than spyware are

the tools to combat them. Lastissue, we tested seven productsdesigned to root out spywareand adware from your PC (seego.pcmag.com/spyware). Sureenough, before the ink waseven dry, the three malwarestoppers reviewed here werereleased. All told, none are aseffective as our current Editors’Choice, Spyware Doctor 3.2,but each has its strengths.

Ad-Aware SE Plus 1.06Despite just the few hun-dredths of a change in versionnumber, Ad-Aware SE Plus 1.06is a significant update. It scansfaster, offers more detailed scanresults and statistics, and in-cludes protection against directattack by spyware. Its Code Se-quence Identification featureattempts to identify new spy-ware variants before full defin-itions are available. It nowscans all modules of runningprocesses and can unloadoffending modules on the fly.And it sports an updated skin-nable user interface.

The big difference betweenthe Plus edition that we evalu-ated and the free Ad-Aware Per-sonal edition is the Ad-Watchreal-time protection module.Ad-Watch blocks browser hi-jacks, tracking cookies andchanges to the Windows start-up, among other things. Mostimportant, it blocks suspiciousprocesses in memory.

Or at least, that’s what it’ssupposed to do. In our testing,it didn’t actually prevent anyspyware installations. It didfrequently display an alarmwarning of, for example, achange to the start-up config-uration, but it didn’t identifythese changes as related to a specific spyware threat. Andeven though we chose to blockall such events, the spyware

installed anyway. We tookmultiple warnings in quicksuccession as a cue to run a full scan, and in a few casesthe scan successfully removedthe just-installed spyware.

The program was better atremoving spyware than atblocking its initial installation.Ad-Aware at least detected allbut one of our sample threatsand removed two thirds ofthose it detected.

Ad-Aware has other, less vis-ible, features, like the ability toscan Registry branches for allusers and to ferret out spywarehiding in NTFS Alternate DataStreams. Surprisingly, it lackssome features found in most of

its competitors. You can set itto perform a full, or “smart,”scan at start-up, but there’s noother scheduling option. Re-storing an individual item fromquarantine is not possible; youhave to undo the entire scanand then rescan, marking thespecific item to be ignored.

Ad-Aware’s strengths liemore in spyware removal and information, less in spy-ware blocking. Since the freePersonal edition includeseverything but the Ad-Watchblocking module, you may

want to use that instead; run itas an additional cleanup stepwhen your main antispywareprogram reports trouble.

Ad-Aware SE Plus 1.06

$24.95 direct. Lavasoft Inc., www

.lavasoftusa.com. OVERALL lllmm

Spyware removal llllm Spyware

blocking lmmmm Ease of use

lllmm Information llllm

Spybot Search & Destroy 1.4Spybot Search & Destroy is stillfree, though the author requestsan “absolutely voluntary” dona-tion to support further develop-ment. Apparently the supporthas been sufficient, as this ver-sion offers some interesting up-dates. One unusual feature is its

ability to run from a WindowsPE (Preinstallation Environ-ment) boot CD and clean theRegistry in one or more non-active Windows installations.

More apparent to the averageuser, it offers faster scanningand more thorough removal ofthreats. If the scan still seems todrag, try clicking the icon at thetop left of the main panel (justbelow the Help menu) for an“Easter egg” diversion.

Spybot attempts a numberof real-time protectionsagainst spyware. Its Immunize

feature forbids the installationof known bad ActiveX con-trols, and its SDHelper canblock access to sites known toinstall spyware.

The TeaTimer moduleblocks malicious processesfrom loading in memory andalso blocks browser hijacks,hosts file changes, and start-upchanges. Unfortunately, wefound this protection more an-noying than effective. To start,the window that asks whetherto allow or block a change is de-fective, with only the top edgeof the action buttons visible; wehad to experiment to learn thatthe right-hand button means“Block.” The source of thechange is not identified. Andeach attempted change bringsanother pop-up. Worse, the pro-gram detects its own reversal ofprevious changes as a newchange requiring confirmation.

You can check a box to haveSpybot automatically block a particular change in the future.But while confronting one per-sistent spyware application,Spybot stacked up over twodozen notifications of repeatedautomatic blocking, taking upnearly a third of the screen.Even though we opted to blockevery change reported, Spybot’sreal-time protection preventedthe installation of only twothreats. We took the massivemultiple warnings about threeothers as a signal to run a fullscan, which did remove one.

On the other hand, the scan-ning module’s ability to re-move spyware threats issignificantly better in this ver-sion than in its predecessor. Itdetected all but one of our spy-ware threats in testing and re-moved almost half of those itdetected. When a reboot wasrequired for full removal, itloaded before the Windowsshell to complete the cleanup.

Spybot offers a large numberof more technical settings thatare available only when you

AD-AWARE TRACKS AND DISPLAYS some interesting stats on the

spyware it finds, such as its Threat Assessment Chart rating.

www.pcmag.com AUGUST 23, 2005 P C M A G A Z I N E 39

F I R S T L O O K SSecurity Software

switch to Advanced Mode. Inthis mode you can select thethreat types to be removed (typ-ically, to stop checking for“tracking cookies”) or set Spy-bot to ignore specific individualthreats. You can also tune theprogram’s behavior, specifyingwhat it should do at start-up,whether it should create a re-store point when fixing spy-ware, what information shouldgo into bug reports, and more.You can schedule a full scanusing Windows Task Scheduler.

Also present in AdvancedMode are some seriously ad-vanced tools, including a securefile deleter, categorized lists ofinstalled ActiveX controls andBrowser Helper Objects, and a full-blown start-up programmanager. The built-in processmanager lists all active process-es, along with the modulesloaded by each, and any opennetwork connections; it in-cludes the ability to kill anyprocess or export the list foryour records.

This release brings Spybot’sremoval abilities back up to par.We can’t recommend its real-time protection, but the “Search& Destroy” scan can serve as a useful backup to your mainantispyware program.

Spybot Search & Destroy 1.4

Free. Patrick M. Kolla,

http://security.kolla.de.

OVERALL llhmm

Spyware removal lllhm Spyware

blocking lhmmm Ease of use

llmmm Information llmmm

Trend Micro Anti-Spyware 3.0Trend Micro’s PC-Cillin Inter-net Security suite with built-inspyware protection fared poor-ly against spyware in our mostrecent evaluation of securitysuites. Fortunately, in May2005, Trend Micro acquired In-terMute and quickly rereleasedInterMute’s well-known Spy-Subtract utility as Trend MicroAnti-Spyware 3.0 (TMAS). Thisnew release also integratesInterMute’s CWShredder, a util-ity specifically designed tocombat the fast-changing Cool-WebSearch spyware. Eventu-ally the new antispywaretechnology will be incorporat-ed into the suite; for now it’s aneffective standalone solution(as long as you’re running Win-dows 2000 or XP).

One of the product’s greateststrengths is its real-time moni-tor, called Venus Spy Trap. VSTwatches for over 150 distinctsigns that spyware might beloading. If a program tries tochange the browser home pageor search page, configure itselfto launch at start-up, or modifythe hosts file, VST catches it. Italso watches for the installationof browser plug-ins and ActiveXcontrols, for changes to browsersecurity or Windows securitypolicy, and for the installation ofnew Windows Services.

If a known threat is detectedlaunching or is found already inmemory, VST issues a warning.We especially liked the fact thatit collects all of its warnings

into a single display window,letting you block any number ofsneak attacks at once. It doesn’tname the spyware behind thechanges, but simply by choos-ing Deny, anytime VST reporteda flurry of changes, we wereable to block the installation ofjust over half the spyware onour blocking test. The remain-ing items had at least onechange blocked by VST butmanaged to install anyway.

TMAS did a fair job of re-moving spyware, but not asgood as we expected. In manycases its initial memory scanidentified active spyware with-in seconds of being launched,but on one infested system, itcrashed repeatedly during theremoval stage. And although itdetected two CoolWebSearchvariants, it failed to removethem; scanning again with orwithout a reboot revealed the

same CWS traces still in place.It did at least detect all but twoof our sample spyware threatsbut successfully removed onlya third of them.

The built-in History Cleaningmodule can be configured torun automatically at start-up.You can set it to erase IE Histo-ry and cache, empty the RecycleBin, and erase Windows tempo-rary files. It can also erase MRUlists for Office programs, mediaplayers, IM utilities, and more.You can configure it to delete allcookies, delete specific cookies,

or delete all except specificcookies. And you can add anyother files or folders to a list forautomatic secure deletion.

Despite all that, TMAS lackssome features we’ve come toexpect. You can’t schedule a full scan; you can set TMASonly to run a quick scan atstart-up. It has no ability to re-store an individual item fromquarantine; to recover an item,you must undo the entire re-moval process, rescan, and addthat item to your whitelist.

Want to know whom toblame for your spyware woes?The unusual Spy Sleuth mod-ule will attempt to discoverjust how a particular spywareelement got onto your systemin the first place, using clueslike other programs installedat the same time, URLs visited,or files with the same date/time stamp. But built-in local

information about particularthreats is limited.

Trend Micro Anti-Spywareis a worthy successor to Spy-Subtract, but we expected it tofare better in testing. Althoughit’s unusually good at blockingspyware installation, it didn’tmanage to remove most of thespyware it detected.

Trend Micro Anti-Spyware 3.0

$29.95 direct. Trend Micro Inc.,

www.trendmicro.com. OVERALL

lllmm Spyware removal lllmm

Spyware blocking lllhm Ease of use

lllhm Information llmmm

IN SPYBOT SEARCH & DESTROY, you can see a list of all spyware

found, plus detailed information about some (but not all) threats.

TREND MICRO ANTI-SPYWARE attempts to uncover how a threat

got onto your PC, but information about particular threats is limited.

P C M A G A Z I N E AUGUST 23, 2005 www.pcmag.com40

F I R S T L O O K SWeb Utilities

Satellite’s-Eye View Meets Google SearchBY RICHARD V. DRAGAN

When the Keyholesatellite-imagery Webservice debuted lastyear, we were im-pressed with the tech-

nology—so much so that wegave it our annual Award forTechnical Excellence.

The folks at Google saw thepotential, too, and used some ofthe company’s IPO booty tosnatch up Keyhole. The resultis Google Earth 3.0: the samewide-ranging, detailed aerialimages provided by Keyhole,combined with Google’s excel-lent local search capabilities.And since the formerly $299service is now free, we’re evenbigger fans. Whether you’retraveling, doing research, orjust geographically curious,this new service presents mapinformation using an intuitive,interactive virtual globe.

To get started, you downloadand install the 10MB GoogleEarth client, which provides ac-cess to the company’s digitalimagery servers. Just be pre-pared to be patient: Google’sservers have been inundated,and at press time access to thedownload was blocked inter-mittently. Once you’ve loadedthe app, simply type in an ad-dress and the on-screen viewzooms in to it with a satellite’sperspective in real time. (A 128-Kbps network connection isrequired.) You can use the con-venient buttons to navigate inany direction, zoom in and out,and even tilt the terrain for a true 3D effect.

In this version, Google hasbeefed up its collection of satel-lite imagery for worldwide cov-erage and has added 3D viewsof about 40 American cities.Buildings are rendered in grayblocks only, but that’s enoughto give a perspective of eachcity’s skyline.

As you scroll around andzoom in and out, the animationis seamless and a joy to experi-

ence. Services like TerraFly pre-sent satellite imagery, but theydon’t offer such smooth move-ment. (It remains to be seenwhether Microsoft’s announcedMSN Virtual Earth will offer thesame sort of animation when itdebuts this summer.)

The easy-to-use client appfeatures panels for displayingmaps, as well as for searchingand cataloging your favoriteplaces. You can annotate anylocation using a placemark(akin to a bookmark) and even

add a live URL link. You cansave and share annotations asXML files and also e-mail orprint any image on the site.And as with the original Key-hole service, you can mark twolocations on the map and havethe service calculate the dis-

tance between them. Beyond marking individual

points of interest, Google Earthgives you over 100 availablegeographical and businessoverlays to choose from, rang-ing from restaurants and other

businesses to weather, crimestatistics, and geology. In a bigcity like New York, these anno-tations can quickly becomeovercrowded, but the servicehad no trouble pointing out Ital-ian restaurants in Manhattan,for example.

For any point of interest orbusiness, Google Earth lets youlink to the Google Local searchfeature as well as to GoogleMaps. By default, linked pagesare displayed in the embeddedbrowser showing detailed in-formation about a restaurant orbusiness. One nit here is thatcross-referencing satellite im-agery (in Google Earth) and a standard road map (in GoogleMaps) was a bit awkward.Putting additional detail intopop-up windows on the actualsatellite map (an approach thatis apparently in the works forMSN Virtual Earth) seems like a better idea to us.

For getting driving directions,we actually preferred the dri-ving locations in Google Mapsfor clarity. The animated flyoveroption inside Google Earthgives you a bird’s-eye view ofyour route, but the animationcan be disorienting, especiallyfor city driving. Luckily, text-based directions are available inboth Google Earth and Maps.

A Plus version of GoogleEarth ($20 per year) adds theability to draw shapes on mapsand to import data from com-mon GPS devices. The business-oriented Pro version ($400 peryear) increases resolution forprinting and lets you save yourfly-by tours as video files for an-imations. But the vast majorityof users will be well served bythe free version. Its ability toprovide smooth virtual flyoversis the best we’ve seen to date,and the integration of Google’ssearch technology makes it evenmore useful.

Google Earth 3.0

Free. Plus version, $20 per year. Google

Inc., http://earth.google.com. llllh

GOOGLE EARTH presents satellite data covering the entire globe,

with excellent control over searching and navigation and impres-

sively smooth flyover animation.

THE NEW VERSION of Google Earth adds 3D rendering of major

American cities, integrated support for driving directions, and links

to local search information for any point of interest.

P C M A G A Z I N E AUGUST 23, 2005 www.pcmag.com42

F I R S T L O O K SWeb Utilities

Syndicate Yourself with RSS Feed CreatorsBY EDWARD MENDELSON

Anyone who has triedusing RSS in Firefox or in a dedicated reader

knows that the technology is themost efficient way of keepingup with headlines and beingalerted to changes in Web sitesor blogs that support RSS. Welooked at three programs thathelp you build RSS feeds andeven let you create your ownpodcasts (distributed audio filesthat can be played back on iPodsor other portable players). So ifyou’re a blogger who wants tobroadcast your missives or seeyourself as a budding DJ, there’sa solution for you.

Feeder 1.1 Compared with Windows, theMac platform has a minusculeslice of the market, but it oftengets the best software. One ex-ample is Feeder—an elegant,Mac-only RSS feed creator withconveniences that can’t befound in Windows-based rivals.

Feeder lets you create pod-casts simply by dragging audiofiles from your hard disk into itsediting window. The programautomatically creates a Web-friendly name for the audio file,fills in details about the file thatother programs make you fill inby hand, and, when you’reready to publish your feed, up-loads the audio file togetherwith the file that contains thelinks and other information dis-played by the feed.

Existing feeds can be im-ported from the Web, or youcan create your own using cus-tomizable templates suited forpodcasts, news bulletins, orgeneric feeds. The two-pane interface lists your feeds on theleft and displays previews of in-dividual items on the right.Basic settings (such as serveraddresses) that you normallyspecify when creating a feedare entered in a panel that canbe hidden away when notneeded. Individual feed items

are edited in a pop-up windowthat lets you drag URLs fromyour browser directly into linkfields. Unlike Windows-basedRSS creators, Feeder supportsSecure FTP transfers in addi-tion to traditional FTP. HTMLexport isn’t included but willbe in a future upgrade.

Feeder 1.1

$29.95 direct. Reinvented Software,

www.reinventedsoftware.com/feeder.

llllm

FeedForAll 1.0The most full-featured RSScreator for Windows, Feed-ForAll has an active supportforum where users exchangetips. A wizard walks youthrough the steps of creating a feed and one item in the feed,or you can download any feedfrom the Web and use it as thebasis for your own.After you close the wiz-ard, further changes aremade in a sparse-look-ing three-tab interface—one tab for editing theoverall settings for afeed, another for editingindividual items, and a third for selecting a feed’s optional icon.

When creating linksto remote URLs, you candrag the link directlyfrom the Location bar ofyour browser into the

appropriate field. Unlike Feed-er, FeedForAll can’t automati-cally import and upload anaudio file into a podcast, soyou have to upload the audiofile to a server using your FTPprogram, then create a link toit in FeedForAll.

Unique advanced featuresexport to HTML, JavaScript,plain text, or comma-delimitedformat. Expert users can editthe HTML export template to

jazz up the no-frills style or cre-ate templates with styles thatmatch your Web site.

FeedForAll supports rarelyused RSS features such as“cloud” servers that can auto-matically report updates tofeeds, but the program can’tupload to Secure FTP (SFTP)servers. If your server requires

SFTP, you’ll need to save yourfeed to disk and upload it witha separate SFTP client.

FeedForAll 1.0

$39.95 direct. NotePage Inc.,

www.feedforall.com. lllhm

NewzAlertComposer 1.70NewzAlertComposer offersbasic RSS features in a no-frillsinterface. And since RSS is a low-frills medium, this may beall you need. A wizard takesyou through the steps of creat-ing a feed and the first item in it,as well as specifying settings touse when uploading to a server.

The interface displays a tree-structured list of feeds in theleft panel and a four-tab inter-face in the right. The four tabslet you specify general infor-mation about a feed on one tab,details of an individual item onanother, and server-upload set-tings on a third. The fourth tabis an inactive Information tabthat has the focus when theprogram opens. You’ll probablywaste time clicking on theother tabs until you rememberthat you need to click on a feedin the list on the left before theother tabs will open.

The program can’t downloadfeeds from the Web, so you’llhave to save a remote feed toyour hard drive before you canopen it in NewzAlertComposer.You also can’t drag addressesfrom your browser’s locationbar into the program’s URL

fields, so you must eithercopy and paste URLs ortype them. The programsupports the Enclosurefield used for linkingaudio files for podcast-ing but doesn’t offer anyhelp in creating pod-casts—and you can’t up-load multimedia filesinto the program fromyour hard drive.

NewzAlertComposer 1.70

$29.95 direct. Castle Software

Ltd., www.castlesoftware.biz.

llhmm

FEEDER 1.1’s item-editing window (front) and settings panel (right)

can be hidden to show the clean preview pane.

FEEDFORALL’s spartan interface is efficient,

except for the space-wasting graphics.

www.pcmag.com AUGUST 23, 2005 P C M A G A Z I N E 43

F I R S T L O O K SWeb Utilities

CyberPatrol Expands Online MonitoringBY JOHN CLYMAN

Parents who want to con-trol or monitor their chil-dren’s PC use may wish to

block Web sites they deem un-desirable, but they often haveother concerns as well. Canthey prevent their kids fromsharing personal informationwith strangers, or keep themfrom gaming when they shouldbe studying? With CyberPatrol 7,

Surf Control makes an effort toaddress all these issues.

CyberPatrol’s layered ap-proach to blocking objection-able content proved relativelyeffective in our testing. Cyber-Patrol checks URLs for telltalepatterns and matches themagainst a regularly updated listof blacklisted sites, then goes a step further by checking apage’s HTML source code andeven evaluating the target oflinks on the page to help detectpages that might otherwise slipthrough the filter. Only with

a concerted effort werewe able to locate pagescontaining pornograph-ic images that Cyber-Patrol didn’t block.

Sexually explicitcontent isn’t the onlymaterial that Cyber-Patrol can screen out;the program includes 13categories, such as vio-lence and drugs, alco-hol, and tobacco. As theadministrator, you canselect which of thesecategories should beblocked on a user-by-user basis, with policies tied toWindows XP log-ins. For evenmore restrictive access, youcan set up a “yes list” that al-lows access only to sites in theenumerated domains or thosewhose URLs contain specificterms. The program can filternewsgroups as well as Websites. CyberPatrol also includesIM-filtering capabilities that will

squelch text strings you define. For each user profile, Cyber-

Patrol lets you define time re-strictions for Internet accessand for any programs youchoose, based on specifictimes of day or subject to a daily or weekly time limit. Apassword-protected overridefeature makes it easy to liftthese or any other filtering re-

strictions temporarily,or to block access entirely. If you so de-sire, CyberPatrol canrun in a stealth mode.In our previous reviewof the program welamented the lack ofmonitoring abilities.Version 7 remedies thisshortcoming by retain-ing 14 days of logs ofvisited Web sites,which you can then fil-ter to simplify review.

While no filteringproduct provides invin-

cible protection against objec-tionable content and onlinepredators, CyberPatrol 7 offersa set of features that shouldplease many parents who wantto make the online experiencea bit safer for their children.

CyberPatrol 7

One-year subscription, $39.95 direct.

SurfControl plc, www.cyberpatrol.com.

llllm

fortable with such tasks, thistakes only a few seconds. If not,it could be frustrating.

Once everything is set up,the app works reasonably well,but it’s nowhere near as slickas GoToMyPC. The remotedesktop isn’t rendered asclearly, and the resolution isn’tautomatically resized to fit thelocal desktop. Also, responsetimes can be slow, and youmiss out on the nifty chat andscreen drawing tools that Go-ToMyPC offers.

The saving grace is thatBeAnywhere is available foronly $7.95 a month (or $79.50 a year). You have to pay $19.95a month to use GoToMyPC.Considering that price differ-ence, BeAnywhere may be justthe remote-control app you’relooking for.

BeAnywhere 1.0.1

$7.95 per month, or $79.50 a year.

Multiplicar Negócios Lda,

www.beanywhere.com. lllmm

BY CADE METZ

Looking for a way to accessand control a remote PC?BeAnywhere 1.0.1 lets you

navigate a distant PC as if youwere sitting right in front of it,opening files and even runningapplications. Unlike Web-basedcompetitors (such as GoTo-MyPC), BeAnywhere uses a peer-to-peer architecture.Rather than connectingto a remote PC via theWeb and sending all re-quests through an inter-mediary server, it tapsinto your remote PCdirectly, all on its own.

The downside isthat BeAnywhere re-quires a client at bothends. Each time youaccess your PC fromafar, you have to installand configure a special

viewer. Ordinarily, this is littlemore than a hassle, but theremay be times when you wantto use the tool from a systemwhere you can’t install newapps or don’t feel comfortabledoing so. GoToMyPC (andcompetitors such as LogMeInand Laplink Everywhere) runon common Web browsers.Once you install a small client

on your PC, you can access itfrom almost any machine onthe net, simply by firing up Internet Explorer or Firefox.

The bigger problem isinitially installing the app onyour host PC (the system youwant remote access to). Usingstandard Web calls, an app like GoToMyPC rarely—if ever—has a problem getting through

routers or firewalls.With BeAnywhere, thatcan be a bit problem-atic. During installation,the app can automati-cally open a port onWindows XP’s firewallor Universal Plug andPlay (UPnP) hardwarefirewalls and routers,but in many cases, you’llbe forced to reconfigureyour firewall or routermanually. If you’re com-

Peer-to-Peer Remote Access

CYBERPATROL lets parents allow restricted Web

access or block access altogether by time of day.

YOU CAN ACCESS and control a remote PC from

your local system with BeAnywhere.

P C M A G A Z I N E AUGUST 23, 2005 www.pcmag.com44

F I R S T L O O K SMobile Devices

Nokia Improves Its Do-it-All Phone BY SASCHA SEGAN

A smartphone withthe accent on “phone,”the Nokia 6682 is apowerful, flexible de-vice for people who

want a phone that does morethan just make calls. The 6682runs on the Symbian Series 60operating system, which (likeWindows Mobile and PalmOS) has plenty of third-partysoftware support. Symbianphones, however, typicallyfocus more on phone functionsthan on messaging.

The 6682 is a serious-looking bar phone in off-white,with a standard keypad. Thekeys are small, but rectangularand easy to use. A big slidingcover on the back exposes the1.3-megapixel camera lens andflash. Under the hood, Nokiahas bumped up the processorto 220 MHz. The 6682 runs a new version (8.0) of the Sym-bian OS, and it uses the new

MMC Mobile memory cards (a64MB card comes with thephone, supplementing its 10MBof built-in memory).

As a phone, the 6682 is ex-cellent. Sound quality is loudand clear both on the earpieceand speakerphone, and weeasily connected it with Nokiaand Sony Ericsson Bluetoothheadsets. You can initiatevoice dialing (though Voice-Signal’s far superior voice-dialing application costs $15extra) and even play MP3sthrough a Bluetooth headset.We created and assigned ourown MP3 ringtones easily. The2.2-inch, 176- by 220-pixelscreen is very viewable, evenin sunlight.

The 1.3MP camera takes verygood photos for a phone, thoughwith a slight bluish tinge and a little bit of color noise. Weprinted via USB directly to a PictBridge-compatible Canonink jet printer, and the 3-by-

5-inch result was goodenough to frame.(You can also printvia Bluetooth.) Theflash is unusuallybright for a phonecamera.

There are hun-dreds of applica-tions available forSymbian phones.The 6682 comeswith Lifeblog,Nokia’s moblog-ging (mobile

blogging) application; a mobileversion of the muvee automaticvideo-making program; anMP3/AAC player; MicrosoftOffice document and PDF read-ers; and a mediocre Web brows-er, which we quickly replacedwith the excellent free Operabrowser. The built-in e-mail

client supportsPOP3/IMAP ac-counts withattachments.You can getMicrosoft Out-look and LotusNotes e-mailthrough the third-party SmartnerDuality program(now changing itsname to SevenAlways-On), avail-able from Handan-go, and the freeAgile Messenger IM

program is the best forany mobile platform. The Class10 EDGE data modem, runningat 108 to 120 Kbps on our tests, isfine for Web browsing, e-mail,and streaming music throughapplications like Virgin Radio’sfree application.

Nokia 6682

$350 street. Nokia, Cingular Wireless,

www.cingular.com. llllm

seen goal—it gives you fast In-ternet connections via Wi-Fi inhot spots and Verizon’s broad-band-speed EV-DO networkoutside those hot spots—but thenetwork software is a mess. Incities without EV-DO, the deviceconnects to Verizon’s 1X net-work, running at speeds a littlefaster than dial-up. Unfortu-nately, Wi-Fi and the phone net-works (CDMA 1X or EV-DO andvoice) can’t coexist; you have toturn one off to use the other. Soif you’re surfing with Wi-Fi, youcan’t receive phone calls. Andseveral PCs were unable to detect the i730 using Bluetooth,although we did get it to see ourPC and Mac.

The i730 is a very good PDAphone that could be a killer de-vice. Samsung just needs towork out the kinks.

Samsung i730

$719.99 ($599.99 with 2-year contract).

Samsung, Verizon Wireless,

www.verizonwireless.com. llllm

BY SASCHA SEGAN

The new crown for theworld’s fastest wirelessPDA belongs to the

Samsung i730, a sleek butsometimes frustrating gadgetthat’s the first to mix Wi-Fi andhigh-speed, long-range EV-DOnetworking. We like the devicea lot, but would love it if not forsome odd annoyances.

The i730 is the best-lookingPocket PC phone yet. At 5.2 by2.8 by 0.6 inches and 6.7 ounces,it’s bigger than the palmOneTreo 650 but smaller than behe-moth Pocket PCs like the Au-diovox XV-6600. Sliding downthe bottom half of the device re-veals a keyboard that containslong, oval-shaped keys. It’s farsuperior to the membrane key-boards on some other PocketPCs, and is at least as usable as the Treo’s. The 320-by-240

screen is gorgeous—rich, sharp,and viewable in sunlight.

As a phone, the i730 is just ac-ceptable. The earpiece is loudand clear, but at theother end of the line,the reception wasmuch quieter thanwe’d have liked. Thespeakerphone isloud, but distortssound at high vol-umes. There’s somegreat software onthis gadget, backedby a 520-MHz IntelPXA272 processor,the fastest onany PDA/phone.VoiceSignal’s no-training voicedialing is the bestin the business.

The Picsel FileViewer lets you read

Microsoft Office documentsand PDFs with full formatting; itoccasionally complained aboutlow memory, but we viewed

files of up to about1.5MB. A ringtonemanager lets yousort, test, and pickringtones (yes, youcan use your ownMP3s). You can usethe device as a TVremote control. AndWindows MediaPlayer 10 syncsmusic, video, and TVshows with a PC. Youcan store media in the86MB of flash ROM, oron an SD card.

The i730 accom-plishes a never-before-

The World’s Fastest Wireless PDA

NOKIA’S 6682 is a

phone first, a PDA second.

SAMSUNG’S i730 fea-

tures a good keyboard.

www.pcmag.com AUGUST 23, 2005 P C M A G A Z I N E 45

F I R S T L O O K STop Products

$399 list

llllh Excellent daylight images and very good flash shots. Good menus Tiny and tough. Mediocre recycle times. Smallish LCD,Optical viewfinder placement could be better. The Canon PowerShot SD300 Digtal Elph takes great pictures, despite its tiny size. It’s stylish,built like a very smal tank,and fun to use. 4MP, 16MB built-in memory; Secure Digital slot; 35mm equivalent: 35mm-105mm; 2,272 x 1,704 max res. 15fps video capture (640 x 480)

PDAs PROS CONS BOTTOM LINE SPECS

Dell Axim X50v $499 list

llllm

Media Player 10 performance isamazing. New accelerated graphicsarchitecture promises high-resgaming and video. Excellent value.

Few programs support new graphicsarchitecture. Our tests show slowerperformance than with other 624-MHz Pocket PCs. So-so battery life.

The X50v is an attractively pricedVGA Pocket PC that has excellentmultimedia features and promisesa great gaming experience.

Our Top PDAs and PhonesVisit go.pcmag.com/handheld for the full reviews of these and scores of other PDAs and phones.

palmOne LifeDrive$499 direct

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Vast storage. Big screen. Excellentdesktop and handheld softwaresuite.

So-so battery life. Occasionalcrashes. No support for DRMmedia.

Nearly endless storage makes thisa great device for toting and view-ing lots of files.

Palm OS 5.4, 416-MHz CPU, 64MBRAM, 3.8-inch 320-by-480 display,Bluetooth, SD/MMC slot, 6.8 oz.Battery life: 4:06.

palmOne Zire 72 $300 street

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First PDA with 1.2-megapixel cam-era. Video recording. Nice display.

No 802.11b wireless. A little slow inaccessing and exiting the cameramenu.

The Zire 72 delivers great PDAfunctionality and audio playbackcapability. It’s a strong choice forpeople who want more.

Palm OS 5.2, 312-MHz CPU, 32MBRAM, 3.0-inch 320-by-320 display,1.2MP camera, Bluetooth, 4.8 oz.

Pocket PC OS, 624-MHz CPU, 64MBRAM, 3.7-inch 640-by-480 display,802.11b, Bluetooth, SD and CFslots, 6.2 oz. Battery life: 3:10.

RIM BlackBerry 7100t $199.99 direct

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Looks and feels like a cell phone.First BlackBerry to include IM and full Web browser standard.Excellent push e-mail.

Small keys. Small type on screen.Few games or downloadable appli-cations.

A new approach for RIM, the 7100tis the first BlackBerry device towork equally well for e-mail, IM,Web browsing, and as a phone.

RIM BlackBerry OS, 32MB RAM,2.1-inch 240-by-260 display,Bluetooth, GSM, 4.2 oz. Est. talktime: 4:00.

Nokia 6682$350 est. street

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Excellent voice quality. Good cam-era with bright flash. Symbianthird-party software available.

Small keys. Battery life could belonger.

The 6682 is a powerful, flexiblesmartphone that never forgets it’sfirst and foremost a phone.

Symbian OS, 220-MHz CPU, 10MBRAM, 2.2-inch 176-by-220 display,1.3MP camera, MMC Mobile slot,GSM/EGDE, 4.6 oz. Talk time: 7:28.

LG VX8000 $269.99 list

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Excellent camera, screen, and key-pad. Good battery life. Lots ofmemory for photos and games.

V Cast video service isn’t com-pelling. No e-mail, Web browser, or Bluetooth.

Verizon’s best camera phone is itsfirst EV-DO phone. Buy the phonebut skip the V Cast EV-DO servicefor now.

CDMA, EV-DO, 2.1-inch 176-by-220display, 1.2MB camera, 128MBRAM, 3.9 oz. Talk time: 4:25.

Audiovox SMT 5600$199.99 with one-year contract

llllm

Smallest Windows smartphone.Excellent music and video support.Excellent battery life. Great design.

Can’t play music or video overBluetooth headset. Poor camera.

The SMT 5600 phone is your bestoption for taking Outlook PIM dataand many kinds of music and videoon the go.

GSM, GPRS, Windows SmartphoneOS, 200-MHz CPU, 2.2-inch display,0.3MP camera, Bluetooth, miniSDslot, 4.2 oz. Talk time: 8:23.

Kyocera KPC650 from Verizon $99.99 with contract

llllh

Fastest EV-DO card on the market.Swiveling antenna.

At $79.99 per month, the service isexpensive. Works only in metroareas that have Verizon’s EV-DOcoverage.

Especially where signals are weak, this card delivers reasonableperformance.

CDMA 1xRTT EV-DO, 850/1900MHz.

Sprint MM-5600 by Sanyo $429.99

llllm

Spectacular screen. Loud speakerand speakerphone. Excellent PCconnectivity. Good voice recogni-tion.

Big. No e-mail. PC syncing requiresthird-party software. Photos showcompression artifacts.

A big phone with big sound and abig feature set, this is Sprint’s mostpowerful phone outside of itssmartphone line.

CDMA, AMPS, push-to-talk, 2.1-inch 320-by-240 display, 1.3MPcamera, 3MB RAM, miniSD slot, 4.5 oz. Talk time: 4:09.

PHONES

Motorola V551 $209.99 direct

llllm

Bright, sharp screen. Good camera.Built-in IM client.

No external photo caller ID orspeaker-independent voice dialing.

For making calls, sending pictures,and occasional laptop Internetaccess on the Cingular network,the V551 is your best choice.

GSM, GPRS, 2-inch 176-by-220 display, 0.3MP camera, 6MB RAM,Bluetooth, 4.3 oz. Talk time: 8:27.

Motorola Moto Razr V3 $299.99 with contract

llllm

Absolutely gorgeous. Thin as itsname.

Screen attracts grease. Not a greatcamera.

The Razr V3 is the ultimate see-and-be-seen phone for stylemavens.

GSM, GPRS, 2.2-inch 176-by-220display, 0.3MP camera, 5MB RAM,Bluetooth, 3.3 oz. Est. talk time:7:06.

PHONE/E-MAIL DEVICES AND SMARTPHONES

WIRELESS HARDWARE AND SERVICE

Sprint VI-125 by LG $189.99

llllm

Small and light. Excellent ergonom-ics and call quality.

No MP3 ringtones. Relatively littlememory for games.

If you’re a Sprint subscriber andneed a simple, basic phone, the VI-125 (priced as low as $9.99 with contract) is the best choice.

CDMA, 1.7-inch 128-by-160 display,1MB RAM, 3.08 oz. Talk time: 4:21.

NEW

palmOne Treo 650 from Cingular $549.99 direct

llllh

Good battery life. Internationalvoice and data roaming. Fast EDGEmodem.

Service plan costs more than thatof Sprint’s Treo 650. No dial-up networking—yet.

The Treo 650 performs better onCingular’s network than onSprint’s, but you’ll pay more for the speed.

Palm OS 5.4, 312-MHz CPU, 32MBRAM, 2.6-inch display, 0.3MP cam-era, Bluetooth, SD slot, GSM,GPRS/EDGE, 6.3 oz. Talk time: 7:33.

P C M A G A Z I N E AUGUST 23, 2005 www.pcmag.com46

F I R S T L O O K SPersonal Finance

Making Money Make SenseBY KATHY YAKAL

This year’s edition of the ever-popularMicrosoft Money 2006

Premium adds en-hancements and in-

creased usability in areas likeinvesting, spending, and billpaying. The most noteworthychanges debut in the investingcenter. All told, it’s an incre-mental upgrade that makes thisalready excellent personal fi-nance package that much better.

As in the past, the product’sSetup Assistant walks youthrough the process of creatinga record of all of your bank,credit card, and investment ac-counts. You can either enter information about all of them or build them automatically bysupplying your usernames andpasswords for any accountsyou’ve established online.Money then pulls history andother pertinent information infrom the financial institutions’

Web sites and contin-ues to update them.New in this version isthe ability to entertransactions frommultiple accounts onthe same page. A sim-ple cash-flow analysishelps you predict fu-ture scenarios.

In several areas ofthe program, like ac-count registers andbudgeting, you canopt to use a verybasic set of tools or a more advanced one. Essential(simple) Budgeting, for exam-ple, tracks categorized expens-es and lets you compare in-come to expenses and spend-ing to the budget. AdvancedBudgeting lets you break downmultiple budgets into more de-tailed slices. Money also tracksyour spending patterns andalerts you to problems.

Money’s investing tools are

top-notch, and they’re well in-tegrated with Microsoft’s ex-ceptional investing Web site(http://moneycentral.msn.com).So integrated, in fact, that muchof the investing content inMoney comes directly from thesite, such as the enhanced in-vestment home page and thenew ETF Center (for exchange-traded funds). The portfoliomanager (which now instantly

updates stock priceswhen entering trans-actions) and equityscreener are aboutthe best free tools of this type around.Money Premium alsooffers terrific plan-ning and tax tools, including help mini-mizing capital gainstaxes, a variety of calculators, and animpressive interactiveplanning feature. Andyou can now finally

back up to any folder or drive. Unless you long for one of

the new features, there’s nocompelling need to upgrade ifyou’re happy with the versionyou use now. But for new users,Money Premium is an extraor-dinarily elegant, meticulouspersonal finance manager.

Microsoft Money 2006 Premium

$79.95 list. Microsoft Corp.,

www.microsoft.com. lllll

customizable columns, key-board shortcuts, better help, andmore flexibility in field defini-tion) would make the programmore usable, too. Medical Ex-pense Manager does not importor export even existing medicalpayments and deposits fromQuicken or data to Excel.

That said, the shortcomingsare not all Intuit’s fault. Wepulled out a stack of old med-ical bills and tried to enterthem. We were quickly stymiedby several things, includingbilling line item differencesamong providers and insurers,and unfamiliar breakdowns ofinsurance payments, discounts,adjustments, and so on. Still, wesay wait until the next version.

Quicken Medical Expense

Manager

$69.99 direct. Intuit Inc.,

www.quickenmedical.com. llhmm

BY KATHY YAKAL

Accounting and person-al finance software ex-pert Intuit had a great

idea: Use its expertise to helpfamilies track medical expens-es, payments, and insurance re-imbursements. But while weapplaud the attempt,this first version ofQuicken Medical Ex-

pense Manager leavesus wanting more.

Medical ExpenseManager is a slightlymodified blank slate, a framework for en-tering the bills andstatements you re-ceive from suppliersof medical servicesand the companiesthat insure you. Fromthis, you can see quickoverviews of what

you’re spending and receiving,and track missing money.

Like every other Intuit prod-uct, Medical Expense Manageris exceedingly easy to use. Pre-fab, customizable fields let yourecord things like provider, ser-vice, and reason; insurance and

co-pays; and additional pay-ments. Other fields in the detailbox can hold provider billingamount and write-off, insurancepayment, mileage, FSA status,and notes. Reports show youany claims in dispute (disputeletter models are included),

any claims pending,tax deductions, andother groupings.

That’s all fine, butit’s not enough—andit’s not up to Intuitstandards. There aremany omissions, likethe ability to track insurance premiumsand deductibles moreintuitively, partialpayment and refundprocessing, and in-depth tools for med-ication management.Smaller changes (like

A So-So Solution for a Thorny Problem

MICROSOFT MONEY’s new ETF Center is an example

of the program’s capable integration with MSN’s

financial Web site.

QUICKEN MEDICAL Expense Manager offers a clean

understandable interface, with options like prefab

dispute letters.

www.pcmag.com AUGUST 23, 2005 P C M A G A Z I N E 47

F I R S T L O O K SDigital Camcorders

Direct-to-DVD Gets BetterBY TERRY SULLIVAN

We’ve seen camcord-ers that record directlyto DVDs before, butthey’ve all left us wish-ing for better video

quality. The new Sony DCR-

DVD403 DVD Handycam Cam-

corder features a Carl ZeissVario-Sonnar T lens, a 2.7-incharticulating LCD, and (best ofall) very good video quality. All told, it’s the best one-CCDminiDVD camcorder in its priceclass, and it even lets you takefairly decent digital stills.

DVD camcorders aregreat if you want to playyour raw footage backon a DVD player withoutthe need for a PC. But be-cause they encode footageto MPEG-2 format on thefly, quality is lower thanwhat you’d get from onethat captures pure DV.

In our talking-head video clip,the DCR-DVD403’s footage re-

vealed good dynamic range, andits action footage was free of ex-cessive artifacts and noise.

The video clips also lookedvery good and were clear onour TV monitor, which tends tohide a lot of quality problems.Audio was more dynamic,fuller, and clearer than that ofother models. Still shots fromthe 3MP sensor, however, pro-duced acceptable but not great4-by-6-inch prints.

As with other miniDVD cam-corders, we had trouble view-ing the footage (from theminiDVD-Rs we recorded) inMicrosoft Windows MediaPlayer, even after finalizing thediscs. We were, however, ableto play that footage in otherprograms such as InterVideo’sWinDVD. And it’s hit-or-miss ifyou want to reedit these videosin a popular video-editing pro-gram. We were able to importthe finalized video into the

Sony Picture Package editingapp but not into several popu-lar third-party packages.

Despite these problems, theSony DCR-DVD403 producesthe best video we’ve seen from

a DVD camcorder,and it comes withplenty of other nice

features, too. Sony DCR-DVD403 DVD

Handycam Camcorder

$999.99 direct. Sony Electronics Inc.,

www.sonystyle.com. llllm

BY TERRY SULLIVAN

The Canon ZR200 is oneof the better sub-$500camcorders around.

It’s not perfect, but it’s a goodchoice if budget is a primaryconcern.

The ZR200 features a multi-tude of well-placed manualcontrols: buttons, switches,and knobs are logicallyspread out all over thecamera. Five more areavailable when youopen the large 2.4-inchLCD door, which articu-lates 270 degrees. TheZR200’s tall, thin bodyfeels good in the hand,and we like the powerful20X optical zoom and thecamera’s “easy” mode (whichis an auto mode, of sorts).

But we found a few prob-lems when we started shoot-

ing. The video quality wasn’tawful, but it wasn’t spectacu-lar, either. In our talking-headclip, the ZR200 displayed gooddynamic range and sharpness.We found good skin tones inthe clip, but overall, therecould have been better con-

trast, and the low-light footagewas fuzzy and filled with arti-facts and shimmering. In ouraction clip, the camera hadproblems finding the focus,but the clips did not show a lotof artifacts. Audio quality wasadequate, without a signifi-

cant amount of hiss. All told,we were impressed with theskin tones and the goodsound when we watched the

clips on a TV monitor. The Canon ZR200 can cap-

ture digital photo stills, thoughthe resolution is poor even by 1-megapixel-camera standards,and colors are muddy. Notice-

able shutter lag further de-tracts. Still, for a modestlypriced digital camcorder,

the Canon ZR200 is fine.

Canon ZR200

$399.99 list. Canon U.S.A. Inc.,

www.canondv.com. lllmm

Low Price, Long Zoom

CVS One-Time-Use

Video Camcorder

Pros: Easy to use. Slick

user interface. Handy

e-mailing option for

sending video clips.

Cons: Video resolu-

tion is about half that

of a normal camcorder.

Pricey if you need several,

especially when you consider

the processing fee.

Bottom line: Though the price

and video quality keep it from

being a good option for regular

use, the CVS One-Time-Use

Camcorder gives users an easy

way to capture that one day at

the beach or water park without

spending a bundle—or putting

an expensive camcorder in peril.

Camcorder: $30 street; processing fee:

$13. CVS/Pharmacy Inc., www.cvs.com.

lllmm

JVC GR-DF550

Pros: Good

video quality.

Night mode is

funky (in a

cool way).

Cons: Needs better

instructions and feature descrip-

tions in menus and manual.

Grainy electronic viewfinder.

Poor still-image quality.

Bottom line: The JVC GR-DF550 is

a safe and reasonable choice for

a midprice digital camcorder,

especially if you want to get

creative with the oddball effects.

$599.95 list. JVC, www.jvc.com.

lllmm

Sony DCR-DVD7 DVD

Handycam

Camcorder

Pros: Cool

design.

Good menu

structure.

Cons: Some-

what difficult to

hold. Poor quality in low light.

Bottom line: It’s cool and hip,

but the DCR-DVD7’s great-look-

ing design isn’t so practical from

a usability standpoint.

$699.99 direct. Sony Electronics Inc.,

www.sonystyle.com. lllmm

For an in-depth look at these products,go to go.pcmag.com/camcorders.

I N S H O R T

THIS SONY unit

delivers good images on DVD.

THE CANON ZR200 is

a fine low-cost DV camcorder.

P C M A G A Z I N E AUGUST 23, 2005 www.pcmag.com48

F I R S T L O O K SEntertainment Technology

Forward TV Content to Any PCBY BILL HOWARD

Sling Media’s Slingbox

scratches an itch you maynot yet have. This techni-

cally impressive set-top boxcompresses and transfers liveTV, satellite, or DVR videofrom your home to a computeranywhere in the world, allwithout requiring a PC to be upand running at home, and withminimal quality loss.

Why, however, would youwant to do that, when there’s a TV in virtually every hotelroom and friend’shouse around theworld? It turns outthere are someuseful reasons asyou dig deeper.But dig you must.

Streaming mul-timedia content fromyour home to a remote PC (orother device) is a hot area, andthe Slingbox joins a handful of other devices or services targeting this market (most no-tably Orb Networks, Sony Loca-tion Free TV, and TiVoToGo).The unit connects in-line withyour TV set, cable box, DVR, ora PC equipped with a TV tunerand infrared remote. It has in-puts and outputs for virtuallyany kind of video, plus a wiredEthernet jack.

An IR blaster controls pow-er, channels, and play/pause onthe TV, cable box, or DVR. Youset the Slingbox up from a PCinside your house (hence theEthernet jack), but that’s thelast time you need an in-housePC running while using the de-vice. That is, unless you decideto use the Slingbox like a mediahub to rebroadcast video with-in the house, which you can doover Ethernet, powerline net-working, or Wi-Fi.

Any PC with an Internetconnection—for all practicalpurposes, you need broad-band—can connect and playwhatever signal the Slingbox iscurrently receiving. It’s a one-

to-one relationship of one play-er streaming to one remote PC,and the remote PC must havethe proprietary SlingPlayersoftware installed. (You can’tjust walk up to a Web terminalin a Key West coffee shop andsee the latest episode of what-ever shows TiVo recorded lastnight at home.)

Though the need for a specialapplet seems like a drawback,it’s also the Slingbox’s strength,because the algorithms in theproprietary software do a first-

class job of providing

remarkably good video quality.The quality is markedly betterthan in any streaming webcastsports event or news feed. Ifyou’ve got a solid broadbandsignal, picture quality is rough-ly on a par with a good video-tape recording.

Inside the house, where theSlingbox can use almost 1Mbps of bandwidth, you’d havea hard time distinguishing therebroadcast stream signal fromthe original. At times, we gotbetter quality pulling video offa TiVo player three time zonesaway than we did from stream-ing the local cable provider’sanalog feed within the house(because of the variable quali-ty of analog cable TV). Thevideo initially comes up as awindow, but you can expand itto full screen; the controls lieover the video (full screen) orsit adjacent (windowed). Whatis also impressive is that the re-sponse to remote commands(such as to change the channel

or pause a recording) takes justa second or two.

As for the “why?” part of theSlingbox: If you’re traveling,you can catch the local news.You could use the Slingbox toplay a TiVo-recorded movie inyour hotel room (might as well,as long as you’re paying $10 a day for hotel broadband). Dis-tant grandparents could seehome movies stored on yourDVR or Media Center PC;they’d just need the SlingPlayersoftware loaded on their PC(and a guest-access password).One or two of the channels

you set up could be home securitycameras that youconnect to, say, thevideo-in jacks of your

TV or VCR.While the concept

is intriguing, there aresome drawbacks withthe current implemen-tation. For starters, if

you want to choose amongmultiple video sources, not justmultiple channels fed from onesource, you’ll need multipleSlingboxes. The Slingbox can’tstream content from a vanillaPC’s hard drive (it must have anIR remote), and it’s not a one-to-many solution (in partbecause of concerns that re-broadcasting copyrighted con-tent would put Sling Media inHollywood’s gunsights).

Sling Media warns that setupcan be tricky if your routerlacks universal plug-and-play(UPnP) capability (which manycurrent ones have), or if youhave multiple routers. Thatsaid, we found that even withnon-UPnP routers, setup wasn’tthat bad, and the company pro-vides good general instructions.All in all, the Slingbox is a finesolution for a need that somepeople have today and morewill have in the future. Slingbox

$249 direct. Sling Media Inc.,

www.slingmedia.com. lllhm

THE SLINGBOX lets you

send A/V content to a remote PC.

Cowon iAudio X5

Pros: Very good sound

quality. Solid recording

capabilities. Broad audio

file format support. USB

Host port lets you

transfer images direct-

ly from a camera.

Doesn’t require drivers.

Cons: Joystick navigation

can be tedious. Screen is small

and blocky.

Bottom line: The X5 delivers

sound quality that rivals the

Apple iPod’s—and a feature set

that buries it. So many features,

however, hamper the player’s

ease of use.

20GB, $299 list. Cowon America Inc.,

www.cowonamerica.com. lllhm

Ultimate Ears

super.fi 5Pro

Pros: Excellent

bass and crisp

highs. Cheaper than

the competition.

Cons: Bass can be

overpowering on very

subtle music. Earbuds stick

out pretty far from your ears.

Bottom line: These aren’t cheap,

but they sound very good, and

we found them quite comfort-

able. A worthy competitor to the

Shure E4c.

$249.99 list. Ultimate Ears,

www.ultimateears.com. llllh

WinBook LC32

Pros: Excellent

image detail.

Lots of A/V

inputs. Good

viewing angles.

Cons: Limited dis-

play controls. Aspect

distortions when viewing stan-

dard-definition content. Unre-

sponsive remote.

Bottom line: The WinBook LC32

is an inexpensive LCD TV that

offers impressive image detail

with HD content. However,

perfectionists will be annoyed

by the display’s aspect distor-

tions when viewing standard-

definition video.

$1,099 list. WinBook Computer Corp.,

www.winbook.com. lllmm

For an in-depth look at these products,go to go.pcmag.com/guides.

I N S H O R T

www.pcmag.com AUGUST 23, 2005 PC MAGAZINE 53

MY KEYBOARDS WORK SWIMMINGLY

I enjoyed Jim Louderback’s column, “Keyboard Happiness” (July 2005, page 71). As a computer user going back to CP/M days, I have gone through my share of spilled drinks, sticky keys, or keys that need to be depressed harder than normal.

About 15 years ago a friend who was an Air Force electronics technician told me how they used to dip monitors and other electronic equipment in the fl uid used by ultrasonic equipment, and then put the gear in fancy dry-ing equipment. This gave me an idea. The next time I had a problem with a keyboard, I put it on the step of my pool, where my pool sweep wouldn’t get it. After one day I took it out and left it out in the sun to dry for three days. Then I put it in the closet with the other PC stuff I’ve accumulated. The next time a keyboard went out, I replaced it with the one in the closet, and put the problem keyboard in the pool to repeat the process. It’s worked great for all these 15 years as I’ve acquired more computers and networked them in the house for the family.

If one doesn’t have a pool, I imagine a bathtub would accom-plish the same purpose. Of course I wouldn’t be so stupid as to try this with a monitor or some other high-voltage appliance, but for a keyboard, this has worked out great.

Gary Kielman

WHAT FUTURE PHONES NEED

Discussions of “future phones” (July 2005, page 30) invariably turn to videophones, though it’s been clear since the 1950s that no one has any interest in these.

There is a phone innovation that would be wildly success-ful: a screen that lists the choices one must so painfully listen to whenever calling a company. Instead of 5 minutes of listen-ing to irrelevant choices, a glance at the screen and a press of a button would get you to your desired destination (or, in worst cases, a second screen for choices that currently take you 5 minutes to get to).

Some companies won’t like this. They want to keep you wait-ing for various reasons. But competition from companies that wish to serve their customers would force them to switch.

Steven Goldberg

PC MAGAZINE : EVOLVING?

I’m all for forward thinking and fi ne-tuning, but you’ve done away with my favorite feature of PC Magazine—the quick-reference format of the First Looks section.

There was no better publication to reference when shopping for the various products that I buy each month for my company or when friends

and relatives ask me as their “gadget/computer guru” for prod-uct recommendations.

One could turn right to the Editors’ Choices page and read from a list of recommended products and also note which ones were newly added. Now I have to search through many pages to fi nd reviews of a now-limited number of product categories.

James Carney

In place of the Editors’ Choices page, in each issue we are run-ning lists of our top picks in several product categories.—Ed.

GAMERS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN

I think that John C. Dvorak’s ideas about the future of video games (May 10, page 67) and reader John Walker (June 28, page 57) suffer from perspective. The perspective of age.

They forget that there is a never-ending fresh crop of six-year-olds who will want to solve puzzles, traverse mazes, race, crash, and blow up stuff on their computers, game consoles, and portable game devices. They care little if the ideas are new or if the graphics are improved. They just want to have fun.

As long as the games do what they do today, there will always be a market for games of all kinds. Admittedly, the market will top out at some point. Eventually the foreign mar-kets will be fully exploited, and the huge growth the video game industry has experienced will slow to a stop. But the games will still sell, and there will be profi t to be made. Board games have been around for more than 200 years, without any real innovation, and they still sell.

Of course, for us older kids like Mr. Dvorak, Mr. Walker, and me, our interest in video games will lessen over time unless some new idea, concept, or the ability to experience, um, physical pleasure, is realized.

Bernie Druckman

‘‘ ’’

Corrections and Amplifi cations

■ Though Apple plans to switch to Intel processors, you’re not about to see a Windows

screen on a PowerBook G4 (as was incorrectly depicted on page 90 of the July issue).

■ The battery life of the Toshiba Qosmio G25-AV513 is not 1 minute 59 seconds, as

it said in our Editors’ Choice note on page 91 of the July issue. We tested it at 1 hour

59 minutes.

How to Contact UsWe welcome your comments and suggestions. When sending e-mail to Feedback, please state in the subject line of your message which article or column prompted your response.E-MAIL pcmag@ziffdavis.com. MAIL Feedback, PC Magazine, 28 East 28th Street, New York, NY 10016-7940.All letters become the property of PC Magazine and are subject to editing. We regret that we cannot answer letters individually.

go.pcmag.com/feedback

We need a screen that lists the choices that one must painfully listen to when calling a company.

FEEDBACK

www.pcmag.com AUGUST 23, 2005 P C M AG A Z I N E 55

The United States has dropped to 16th in the world in per capita broadband deployment, and we can expect to slip further until we probably settle at the level of sub-Saharan Africa. While there

is local interest in improving the situation, state and federal offi cials will make sure it doesn’t hap-pen. It’s as if they are mandating a dumbed-down public. Heaven forbid we should be on the Net dis-covering cronyism, favoritism, and corruption.

The established phone and cable companies have no qualms about being on board with this sort of thinking. After all, why should they have to do more than coast along with high prices and substandard service?

The most onerous and disgusting example of this emerged last year in Pennsylvania in the form of state House Bill 30, which was passed despite protests and signed into law as soon as possible by Governor Edward G. Rendell.

Philadelphia wanted to create a municipal Wi-Fi network in the form of a universal MAN (metro-politan area network). This would be like a utility, costing the public next to nothing while provid-ing universal access. You’d be able to log on from anywhere. It would provide municipal news and broadband access to the Net for anyone with a computer and an 802.11 connection.

The telecom lobby got wind of this and had its stooges in the state legislature draft House Bill 30, which actually banned such municipal activ-ity. The rationale for such a ban? You tell me.

This was softened slightly after some protests to a semi-ban, with Comcast and Verizon getting an opportunity (with potential subsidies) to build a MAN themselves within 14 months of any pro-posed municipal implementation. This means for anyone to implement a MAN with either Wi-Fi or WiMAX, they have essentially to go through Com-cast and Verizon, who can stall the project as they see fi t. There are ways around this, but the bill was written to make these corporations de facto gate-keepers on behalf of the state. Sweet deal, eh?

This is one of the most astonishing laws I’ve ever seen enacted. Apparently, Gov. Rendell was trying to get Comcast a big tax break to build a fancy offi ce in Philly, too. My advice to Pennsyl-vanians: Just make the CEO of Comcast the gover-nor. Cut out the middlemen. You’ll save money.

This same sort of public policy is practiced at the federal level too, again at the behest of the big phone and cable companies. A recent court ruling in favor of the telcos says it’s okay for them to with-hold DSL service if the user doesn’t have some sort of voice service. In other words, if I have a phone and decide that I want just DSL and not voice, I can’t have it. There’s your free market for you.

The telcos fear they could lose their voice busi-ness to VoIP, and the cable companies could lose their business to IP TV. Easy money will be gone forever—or at least until they do some real work.

What’s most galling is that both the cable and phone companies are trespassers in any munici-pality and are there by invitation. Local govern-ments used to lord it over the cable companies, and throw them out if they didn’t adequately serve the public. Now the cable companies tell the govern-ment what to do. Does this sound right? Our spine-less and corrupt politicians are putting the entire country at risk by letting advancements in tele-communications and connectivity pass us by.

Has anyone noticed that most of the buildup in high-speed access and effi cient VoIP is in India, not here? That’s how they can do all the offshore help desks there in the fi rst place.

In much of Asia, and increasingly in Europe, DSL is cheaper and faster. You can get 30 Mbps in many locations for what someone here might pay for 512 Kbps. But cheaper and faster are not what this should be about. It should be about what Philly wants to do: universal high-speed service for the public, like cheap water. This is not a situation where publicly traded monopolies serve the pub-lic because free enterprise is better or more com-petitive. It isn’t. Deregulation absolutists talk a big game, but when you see slippage like what we’re seeing, you have to ask for the proof of these free-market and deregulation assertions. I don’t see it.

I see crummy service, bad practices, useless util-ities commissions, cheating, and unregulated may-hem. It’s a disaster, and the public is not served by it. Our future and safety are at grave risk, thanks to these jokers and the apologists who back them. Let’s get rid of them all.

John C. Dvorak

MORE ON THE WEB: Read John C. Dvorak’s column every Monday at go.pcmag.com/dvorak. You can reach him directly at pcmag@dvorak.org.

My advice to Penn-

sylvanians: Just make

the CEO of Comcast

the governor. Cut out

the middlemen. You’ll

save money.

Disserving the Public

PC MAGAZINE AUGUST 23, 2005 www.pcmag.com 56

Some years ago, various initiatives encour-aged the idea of putting more processing power on memory chips, in order to give the chips more capability. Though Kingston

hasn’t exactly done that, the company did put some hardware into its most recent USB sticks, including an ARM chip, to add hardware encryption, further upping the ante in this most competitive scene.

According to Kingston, most users are too cava-

lier with these USB key fobs and invite disaster for themselves or their companies. I have to agree. While people freak out over the loss of a laptop because contact names and other valuable informa-tion are now in the hands of a thief or competitor, few think about how much easier it is to steal or

take data off these USB sticks. I carry a USB stick on my car keychain. And

though I tend to remove the house key while hav-ing my car parked, I seldom pay attention to the USB fob. It would be easy for a valet to shove the key into a laptop and take all my fi les if they were not protected. And with USB 2.0 it can be done in an instant. Look for the Kingston DataTraveler Elite line, with hardware-based encryption (AES). As with most USB sticks, expect to pay around $100 to $120 per gigabyte. Get the most capacity you can afford.

I’m now pushing the higher-capacity USB sticks, since nearly all their manufacturers are support-ing the emerging U3 standard (www.u3.com) that allows you to execute code from the USB stick more easily. This means that developers need to use a special API that keeps much of the DLL and registry data on the stick itself, so you can go from machine to machine, for example, and run your code from your stick on an alien machine.

I was skeptical when I first heard of this con-cept, but it’s only a few steps away from becoming a universal standard, as the memory key folks are looking for ways to sell more product.

If this concept does take off, I can see more peo-ple leaving their laptops behind and putting more than just their e-mail data on the USB stick. But when it comes to dragging your personal copy of, say, Adobe Photoshop from place to place, you’re going to need a lot of memory. So buy the bigger

sticks, and walk softly.Sneaking up from Behind Dept.: While we in the

U.S. think of DRM as digital rights management, you can be certain that the acronym will soon take on the Euro-meaning: Digital Radio Mondial. This is the latest and greatest digital radio technology. From what I can tell, it has already reached criti-cal mass and is expanding everywhere but in the

U.S., where we’ve never heard of it. Here is all you need to know, directly from www.drm.org:

DRM is the world’s only, non-proprietary digital radio system for short-wave, AM/medium-wave and long-wave. It has been endorsed by the ITU, IEC, and ETSI. While DRM currently covers the broadcasting bands below 30 MHz, the DRM con-sortium voted in March 2005 to begin the process of extending the system to the broadcasting bands up to 120 MHz. The design, development and testing phases are expected to be completed by 2007-2009.

DRM is the only universal, non-proprietary digi-tal AM radio system with near-FM quality sound available to markets worldwide.

What About the “Other” DRM Dept.: The pre-occupation with digital rights management has made it so that many of these buck-a-song music initiatives have had to incorporate all sorts of protection schemes to keep people from burn-ing CDs from songs they bought for their music player. Enter MuvAudio. This is a Microsoft .NET patch for your computer that essentially takes anything (audio or video) that is playable on the Microsoft Windows Media Player and converts it

to whatever you need for whatever purpose you want. For $20, it essentially removes all those nasty limitations. Check it out at www.muvaudio.com. These cracks never end, do they?

This brings me to MythTV, the homebrew DVR that people are fl ocking to for its extra functional-ity and versatility. As this is being written, a stan-dard platform specifi cation is emerging, using a Knoppix distribution of Linux and MythTV code. This should make the systems easier to build for Microsoft Windows users unfamiliar with Linux. To make things even easier, you can go to www.systm.org and download an excellent video on how to build a MythTV. It’s done by ex-TechTV folks, and I expect to see a lot more from them.

Some Thoughts on the AMD-Intel Lawsuit Dept.:

As readers know, AMD sued Intel over various trade practices, claiming antitrust violations. This is not a business climate conducive to such actions, but it might never be conducive. The problem for me with this lawsuit is that it will drag on for at least two or three years, maybe lon-ger, and is of questionable benefit to end users. That said, we should be better off in a more com-petitive environment, as these companies try to outdo each other. AMD is demanding a trial by jury. If that ever comes to pass, it should be one of the funniest and most interesting public exhi-bitions in the history of high technology. I know that the dirty laundry out there is hilarious.

When it comes

to dragging

your personal

copy of, say,

Photoshop

from place to

place, buy the

bigger USB

sticks, and

walk softly.

Inside TrackJ O H N C . D V O R A K

www.pcmag.com AUGUST 23, 2005 P C M AG A Z I N E 59

Did you hear about SBC? They just slashed DSL to 15 bucks a month. Now there’s no excuse for AOL, EarthLink, or expensive cable-based broadband. But how good is the service? Luckily I live in one of 13

SBC states, so I decided to give it a whirl.I’m not a DSL virgin. Back in 1998 I hooked up

with SBC’s predecessor, PacBell, when it was the only game in town. I dropped it two years ago for Comcast, when it promised fi ve times the speed for less than $40 a month—$10 cheaper than PacBell.

The Comcast service was reliable and fast, delivering more than 3 Mbps down. But after a year, the price was up to $56 a month. While I was gone, SBC’s DSL throughput improved markedly, though it was still just half of Comcast’s. But for $40 a month less, it was worth a try.

Cheap comes at a cost, though. Unlike PacBell and Comcast, SBC does not bundle a “truck roll” with the service (although the modem is free). You have to install it yourself—a site visit is $200 extra. Five days after my order, UPS delivered the modem, line fi lters—to tame noisy telephone equipment—and a CD and instruction booklet to help me install “Yahoo! SBC DSL.”

Uh-oh. Unlike cable’s simple PPP connection, SBC uses SLIP—for Serial Line Internet Protocol. And the installation CD installed 125MB of spy-ware, craplets, and other junk to SLIP-enable my system. Even worse, it totally messed up my net-work, rendering the cable modem useless.

But I’d checkpointed my PC in Microsoft Win-dows XP, so a simple System Restore erased the worst of the installation junk. And it turned out I didn’t need this Yahoo! DSL garbage. The DSL modem doubles as a SLIP router, so that let me trash the Yahoo! SBC CD. I reprogrammed the modem to connect to DSL securely and spit an IP address out the backside. Theoretically, I needed only to hook it up to my router and I’d be set.

But there’s many a slip between theory and con-nection. I just could not get the modem to sync up with the local DSL server. My configuration was fine, but the DSL was absent. After many discus-sions with a veritable UN of SBC reps, I suddenly noticed an odd box where the phone line entered my house, left over from my PacBell DSL days.

Apparently, before the whole “line filter” con-cept, PacBell would install a splitter just inside the

house. I couldn’t sync up because the DSL signals had already been fi ltered out. Out came the wire strippers. A few seconds later I’d patched into that mystery box, and voilà! Connectivity at last!

With a bit more fi ddling, I routed a dedicated line from my wiring closet to that box. Finally I had both DSL and cable broadband plugged into my Ethernet hub. Now I had to determine just how much speed I’d sacrifi ce for that $40 savings.

Comcast reliably delivered about 3 Mbps down-stream and 350 Kbps upstream, with a ping speed of around 10 milliseconds. The DSL service is rated at half that down, but the same amount up. And that’s basically what I’ve been getting—speed of about 1.25 Mbps down and about 300 Kbps up. Ping speeds are a bit slower, in the 20-ms range.

I can’t reliably report on uptime, as it’s been just three weeks, but the SBC service hasn’t gone down yet. And though it’s less than half as fast as my old Comcast service, I haven’t noticed. Per-haps that’s because I don’t watch a lot of Inter-net (IP) TV, nor do I regularly download audio fi les. The upstream speed seems fast enough too, because I don’t share fi les with others.

I’m a speed kind of guy. I build a new computer and upgrade to a faster processor every year, and tweak them for maximum performance. But at this price, SBC gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse.

Verdict: Whether you’re on a cable modem or dial-up service, jump at SBC’s $14.99-a-month offer, unless you share lots of fi les. If you’re not in SBC’s territory (which covers much of the West and Midwest, plus Connecticut), don’t fear. I expect other DSL providers to offer similar pric-ing soon. But don’t drop cable before giving your provider a chance. Comcast is apparently offering a $25 rate to keep customers from switching.

Cheap Geek Tip: pckeyboard.com. Last month’s keyboard comparison caused some folks to write about pckeyboard.com, the Web site of Unicomp Inc., which offers $50 keyboards based on IBM’s buckling spring technology. I snapped one up, and it’s a great replacement for my old IBM workhorse. Though it costs $35 more than the Logitech I rec-ommended, it’s well worth it.

Jim Louderback

MORE ON THE WEB: You can contact Jim Louderback at Jim_Louderback@ziffdavis.com. For more of his columns, go to go.pcmag.com/louderback.

I’m a speed kind of

guy, but at this price,

SBC gave me an offer

I couldn’t refuse.

DSL Reconsidered

www.pcmag.com AUGUST 23, 2005 P C M AG A Z I N E 61

MORE ON THE WEB: You can contact Bill Howard directly at bill_howard@ziffdavis.com. For more of his columns, go to go.pcmag.com/howard.

Are you planning to buy an HDTV to watch high-definition cable and satel-lite and to play DVDs? You won’t lack for buying advice. But if you also want to be able to view video content from a multi-

media PC on your TV, some of the rules change. PCs are capable of delivering higher-resolution

video than cable, satellite, or DVD can offer. So you should think about the just-arriving HDTVs that can display a 1080p signal. (1080p denotes 1,920 by 1,080 pixels with progressive scan—meaning that all 1,080 lines are displayed in order, as opposed to being interlaced.)

DVD video provides a higher-quality image than VHS tape or most over-the-air broadcasts do, but that doesn’t make it high-def. It’s a 480-line image, and most current DVD players are progressive-scan, producing a 480p image. With video, the horizontal pixel count (720 for DVD) usually isn’t cited—only the vertical number is given, and it’s expressed as lines.

TV sets that use 480p signals instead of 480i (interlaced) are enhanced-definition—ED—but they aren’t high-def. Nor is digital TV necessarily high-def. Some smaller sets (19 inches) can digi-tally enhance analog signals; their ability to clean up a shabby cable or broadcast signal is dazzling.

But that isn’t high-def, either, although at such a small screen size, you wouldn’t be able to tell. High-defi nition cable TV, satellite, and over-the-air (so-called ATSC) content is 720p or 1080i. Cable and satellite could go to 1080p, but not immedi-ately; over-the-air broadcasts won’t, because the bandwidth required won’t fit in the bandwidth allocated by the FCC for each channel.

PCs, the upcoming Sony PlayStation 3, and Blu-ray and HD DVD (the still-warring next-generation DVD formats) all are capable of out-putting 1080p signals. When playing content authored for 1080p, you’ll get the full effect. Any native PC app also could take full advantage.

Most likely, the content you’ll be watching for the next couple years will be less than 1080p, so image quality will be affected by the ability of either the player device or the display device to upconvert or downconvert signals. Convert unnec-essarily, though—for instance, upconvert a 480p DVD image to 1080i for a set that renders at 720p—and you may wind up with artifacts in the picture.

For interlaced images, deinterlacing quality is important as well. If deinterlacing is done by a PC, the quality is a factor of the video adapter, not of the PC’s raw horsepower. nVidia has made big advances in this area with its PureVideo technology.

Other practical matters will affect image quality: Does the PC have a DVI or HDMI connector in addi-tion to the traditional DB15 connector? Often you’ll get the best signal, even from a PC, if it has a DVI or HDMI jack. HDMI is a superset of DVI and can be made compatible with DVI by an adapter plug.

To make matters trickier, there are subtly dif-ferent PC-versus-consumer-electronics interpre-tations of the video connectors. So even if you’re a wizard at connecting cables, paying an A/V technician to tune your TV makes sense.

Most every TV on the market is better, cheaper, and higher-res than what you’re now watch-ing. Purists still love glass-tube TVs, but they’re beasts, and top out at about 36 inches. LCD is the choice for smaller hang-on-the-wall dis-plays, and plasma for larger screens. They cross over at about 40 inches. LCD works better in bright rooms; plasma has vivid colors and seems brighter. When the fi rst plasma sets reach 1080p later this year, they’ll be ultracostly.

Among rear-projection TVs, CRT-based sets are the dimmest, heaviest, deepest front-to-back, and cheapest. DLP, LCD, and the reemerging LCOS (liquid crystal on silicon) displays are preferable; they can be as small as 10 inches deep. Expect to pay $1,000 to $2,000 more than you would for a 720p set.

If you do spring for a 1080p set this year, know the drawbacks. Programming will be limited. The improvement may not be apparent on sets below 50 inches. Also, the desirable version of the CableCard, the cable set-top box replacement that slides into your TV, is two-way, and that won’t be here until next year at the earliest. On the other hand, HD images let you sit closer without seeing individual pixels, and the thinness of the sets may let you move them up to an extra foot away.

Finally, many of us want to be fi rst on the block. This is a terrifi c opportunity to be just that.

Most every TV on

the market is better,

cheaper, and higher-

res than what you’re

now watching.

Your Hi-Def PC

Bill Howard

P C M A G A Z I N E AUGUST 23, 2005 www.pcmag.com64

You’ve worked hard takingvideos and photos of yourspecial event and editing it alltogether into a masterpiece.Now you’re thinking ahead to

the finishing touches. Clearly, a Sharpie in-scription on your DVD and a generic jewelcase just won’t do. Instead, you’d like tomake a great first impression with your discand packaging, with a consistent look thatincludes the case, disc label, and DVD menu.Thankfully, with a little planning, you canaccomplish all these goals with minimumeffort and at a surprisingly low cost.

THE IMAGE IS EVERYTHING

The easiest way to tie your DVD menu,label, and case together is to use the sameimage for all three components, usually aframe captured from the video file. If youhave a high-resolution digital image of theperson or event, that’s even better, but ascreen grab will definitely get the job done.

When choosing a frame or digitalpicture, keep the following thoughtsin mind. First, the image will serve asthe background for text on your DVDmenu and disk and case label. It isbest if the frame has some areas withlow levels of detail, which will make thetext easy to read. Otherwise, you’ll have toblur, fade, brighten, or darken the frame inyour image editor to create an appropriatebackground.

Second, since you’ll be using the imageon a DVD disc with a hole in the center, theideal image will have no critical content

in the center. Finally, if possible,choose a frame that doesn’t contain a lot of motion, sincethis will provide the clearest,sharpest image.

Most video editors includesimple tools for grabbing framesfrom a video file. In Figure 1, forexample, I’m grabbing a frame inMovie Maker 2 by clicking theTake Picture icon.

To optimize quality, youshould deinterlace the capturedframe; this will minimize the“jaggies” caused by merging thetwo interlaced fields that makeup the frame. You can either per-form this in your video editorduring capture or use an imageeditor like Adobe Photoshop or

Ulead PhotoImpact (shown in Figure 2).Once you have the frame, store it in an

uncompressed format like TIF or BMP andimport it into your DVD-authoring pro-gram. Again, while procedures differ be-tween such programs, nearly all of themlet you insert a custom image as a menubackground.

Figure 3 shows our DVD menu in Adobe Encore, a prosumerproduct with complete menu-customiza-tion capabilities. Most consumer DVD-authoring programs are not this flexible,but nearly all let you arrange your buttonsto some degree, either by manually drag-ging them to the desired position or by

choosing among different positioning tem-plates. Budget some time to optimize theplacement of buttons so they don’t obscurecritical sections of your background image.

When choosing your text font, remem-ber that your DVD will most likely beplayed on a TV set, which has much lowerresolution than a computer monitor. Artis-tic fonts with lots of curlicues can shimmeror blink uncontrollably on TVs, so choosea relatively thick, simple font and use thelargest font size possible. Jot the name ofthe font down, since you’ll want to use itfor your disc and case labels as well.

SOLUTIONS

FIGURE 1. After you select a frame, you can use a

video editor such as Microsoft’s Windows Movie

Maker 2 to grab it.

FIGURE 2. To minimize “jaggies,” you should

deinterlace your captured frame in Ulead

PhotoImpact or a similar program.

Packaging Your DVD MasterpieceMake your homemade DVD’s disc, case, and menu look as

good as the video it contains. BY JAN OZER

M A K I N G T E C H N O L O G Y W O R K F O R Y O U

www.pcmag.com AUGUST 23, 2005 P C M A G A Z I N E 65

66 HARDWARE:Recovering images from memory cards.

68 DIY: INTERNET: Working together with wikis.

72 SECURITY WATCH:Phighting phraud.

74 BUSINESS:The NFL’s wireless game plan.

77 USER TO USER:Tips and tricks.

PRINTING YOUR DVD LABELS

Press-on paper labels can make your DVDsunplayable on many players, so printingdirectly on the DVD itself is the preferredapproach. You’ll need a printer designed todo this.

In the sub-$200 class, there are two basictypes of DVD printers. Both Casio andPrimera have special-purpose DVD printersthat print text and graphics, but they printonly one color at a time. They are ideal for

labeling backup DVDs andbusiness records, but for ourpurposes, only full-colorprinting will do.

Your best option in thisprice range is the StylusPhoto ink jet CD/DVDprinter line from Epson,starting with the R200 ($99direct). A high-resolution,six-color photo printer, theR200 comes with a specialadapter that feeds CDs andDVDs through the print-heads, which means you canuse it both for printing digi-tal pictures and for labelingDVDs. You can’t print direct-ly on standard DVDs, soyou’ll need printable DVDs,which are offered by most major manufac-turers, including Ridata and Verbatim.

Like the Casio and Primera printers, theR200 comes with its own label-design soft-ware, shown in Figure 4: Note the impor-tance of choosing an image without criticalcontent in the middle. These custom pro-grams make it simple to import your imageinto the background, add the desired text titles, and start printing your discs.

DVD CASES AND LABELS

You can purchase cases like those used forHollywood DVDs for well under 50 centseach, even in small quantities. A Googlesearch for “DVD cases” yielded over855,000 hits, so you should have no troublefinding a reputable supplier. Disc cases arefairly generic at this point, but if you havespecial needs, like multiple discs or in-serted booklets, consider sleeves fromUniventure and Nexpak.

Most DVD cases come with transparentsleeves for inserting printed labels, whichare available from a number of vendors.Here the most important issue is makingsure that you have a template that canprint to the precise size and layout of thelabels. Some companies, such as Verba-tim, supply custom software with tem-plates for their labels, which simplifies theprocess immensely (Figure 5). If you al-ready have CD/DVD label software, checkit to see which templates it supports, and

be sure to buy a type of label that is sup-ported by the software.

Creating these accoutrements—andpaying attention to detail—will help makeyour video look like a million-dollar pro-duction. Fortunately, you won’t have tospend a lot of time or money to do so.

Jan Ozer is a contributing editor of PC Magazine.

go.pcmag.com/solutions

FIGURE 4. Creating a DVD label with Epson

Print CD software. It’s important to avoid

putting critical content in the center.

FIGURE 5. Creating the case label in Verbatim’s label-

design software. Make sure you get a type of label that

your software supports.

FIGURE 3. We used Adobe Encore DVD to create the DVD menu.

P C M A G A Z I N E AUGUST 23, 2005 www.pcmag.com66

H A R D W A R E

S O L U T I O N S • go.pcmag.com/solutions

You slide the flash memory cardfrom your camera into the cardreader on your computer, but your

photos can’t be found. Neither MicrosoftWindows, nor your image-editing soft-ware, nor your file undelete utility can de-tect them. But don’t panic: Most lost im-ages can be recovered using commonsense and specialized recovery tools.

If you fear something is wrong withyour flash card, stop using it at once. Sus-pect a problem if the card can’t be read inyour camera or PC, if you know the cardholds 50 pictures but the camera indicatesnone shot and 38 left, if photos you wantedseem to have been erased, or if images onyour LCD appear distorted.

WHY WINDOWS CAN’T HELP

Windows lets you read and erase photoson a flash card, but the operating systemcan’t recover images, because of differ-ences between your PC’s hard drive andremovable flash cards. (You can also for-mat cards in Windows, but it’s much saferto format them using your camera’s built-in Format command.) Flash cards do con-tain many structures common to storage

devices: a file allocation table (FAT), a rootdirectory, subdirectories, a data area, anda boot sector with a master boot recordand a partition table, but they are format-ted using a non-PC device—a camera—that has its own operating system. Theyalso have a CIS (card information system)that holds data about the manufacturer,camera, and photos.

Even when the data area of the card(which holds your photos) is intact, prob-lems with other parts of the card can ren-der it inaccessible. The most commonways to lose images are removing a cardwhile the image is being saved, acciden-tally reformatting the card, and erasing thewrong images. In such cases, it is often notthe image files themselves that have beendeleted or damaged, but the FAT that indi-cates the files’ start and end points, so theimages are usually recoverable. Unfortu-nately, some cameras format media cardsby overwriting each byte with a zerorather than simply removing the FATpointers. In those cases, your images aregone. Also, photos in the built-in memoryin Casio and Kodak EasyShare camerascan’t be recovered.

If the boot sector becomes corrupted,you may get messages that the card is unreadable or not formatted. If the root directory is corrupted or if the boot sectordoesn’t point to it, you may lose access tosubdirectories and image files, which areusually located in \DCIM\[camera name].Odd filenames or extreme file sizes suggestsuch corruption. But if you stopped usingthe card on realizing there was a problem,the actual image file probably still existsand is recognizable by its EXIF data. Win-dows can’t read EXIF (exchangeable imagefile) headers, but most recovery tools can.

RECOVERY TOOLS

To retrieve lost photos, you’ll need imagerecovery software. We reviewed severalsuch products in our recent Utility Guide

(go.pcmag.com/recovery). Nearly all letyou recover from the most common situ-ations of erasure and data corruption forJPEGs. Two good tools are ImageRecall,our Editors’ Choice (FlashFixers, $39.95direct, www.flashfixers.com llllm), andPhotoRescue ($29 direct, DataRescuesa/nv, www.datarescue.com lllhm).

Download and install a recovery tool,select the location (or drive letter) of theflash card, and run a scan. You may be of-fered a standard or a deep scan. For acci-dentally deleted files, standard may beenough. It will list files, or show thumb-nails of potentially recoverable files. Pickthe ones you want to recover—“All” is thebest choice—and a hard-drive locationwhere they should go. Your odds of suc-cess are best with deleted files andsecond-best with corrupted disks. Theyare worst with an image that was beingwritten when the card was removed orpower lost. If you’re lucky, you may beable to save part of the image.

As a last resort, you can bring the cardto a recovery facility. Lexar’s free servicefor its Pro series cards extends to disas-sembling a physically damaged card whenwarranted.

If you can recover your images, refor-mat the card in the camera, take sometest shots, transfer them to your PC(make sure that they really were moved),and reformat the card. If all goes well,keep using the card.

Bill Howard is a contributing editor ofPC Magazine.

Recovering Images fromMemory CardsYour missing photo files may be intact but trapped inside your

card, waiting for the right tool to unlock them. BY BILL HOWARD

DON’T DO THIS!

• Yank the card out of the camera just

after taking the picture, while the activ-

ity LED is still lit.

• Power down just after taking a picture.

• Take pictures with a nearly dead

battery.

• Swap image cards in your PC while the

card’s folder is open.

• Accidentally reformat the card.

• Format the card on a PC or on a camera

other than the one you shoot with.

• Continue taking pictures using a

problematic card.

• Sit down with a thin SmartMedia card in

your back pocket (likely only a problem

if you have an older camera). Crunch!

IMAGERECALL was able to recover many

photos from a damaged CompactFlash card.

P C M A G A Z I N E AUGUST 23, 2005 www.pcmag.com68

D I Y : I N T E R N E T

If your project team needs to developa proposal together, or your schoolfriends want to jointly create a re-

union Web site, you don’t need to pur-chase expensive collaboration software.Instead, you can create a wiki. Anyonewho has spent time at Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org) or other wikis (the nameis derived from a Hawaiian word for“quick”) knows them as sites where userscan both add content, using any Webbrowser, and edit other people’s content.Most wiki engines provide basic featuressuch as creating and deleting pages, bul-let lists, headings, emphasis, indentation,and horizontal lines. And you can findplenty of information on the Web abouttext formatting rules and wiki style andstructure guides.

The basic idea is to make collaborationeasy, which provides some obvious poten-tial benefits, allowing you to:

•get more people involved•see who contributed information •spend less time on e-mails and in

meetings•keep information up-to-date•show and restore previous versionsThere are numerous wiki implementa-

tions. Most of them are open-source andcome with a variety of feature sets (someemphasize security, for example) and varying support for diverse programming languages (such as Java, PHP, PERL, andSmalltalk) and more. Two good sites to help you choose a wiki engine arehttp://c2.com/cgi-bin/wiki?ChoosingaWikiand Wikipedia (search on “wiki software”).We chose PmWiki for this article.

PmWiki, which was developed in PHP,is available for free at http://pmwiki.org,under the GNU General Public License.The software is quite easy to install anddoes not require a database. It providesthe basic features needed to collaborateeffectively, along with features to cus-tomize the system (such as skins, file up-load, and security).

SETTING UP

To run PmWiki, you will need a Web serverwith PHP support. First, I installed theApache Web Server (v2.0.52, http://httpd.apache.org). Second, I installed PHP(v4.3.10, www.php.net). I ran Microsoft Win-dows 2000, but these programs are alsoavailable for Linux and other systems. (In-cidentally, information about the softwareprerequisites was not available on the

PmWiki site, so I added a Requirementspage to the site by editing the PmWikiHome and Download/Install Web pages viamy browser—showing the power of thecommunity-driven wiki process).

The only glitch was that the PHP installercould not configure Apache, so I had to editmy http.conf file manually (in C:\ProgramFiles\Apache Group\Apache2\ conf) byadding the following lines:

ScriptAlias /php/ “c:/php/”AddType application/x-httpd-php .phpAction application/x-httpd-php“/php/php-cgi.exe”

I could have run PHP as an Apache mod-ule, but I couldn’t locate the required PHPDLL file for Apache (php4apache2.dll) inmy PHP install. (Others have encounteredthe same problem.) The CGI option workedinstantly, so I stuck with it. See httpd.apache.org for information on security andother considerations.

Third, I installed the PmWiki enginesoftware. I downloaded the ZIP archive

Working Together With WikisOnline collaboration has never been easier. BY ANIL HEMRAJANI

FIGURE 1. PmWiki’s “out of the box” look (left), and its appearance

using the jh skin, which is included with PmWiki (top).

FIGURE 2. To make a grocery list, we

created a new wiki “ToDo” page (above)

using the “n=PageName” parameter in the

URL. We then clicked the edit tab (right)

and added some content, including head-

ings and numbers. The history tab (far

right) lets you view changes and, if you

choose, restore a previous version.

www.pcmag.com AUGUST 23, 2005 P C M A G A Z I N E 69

(pmwiki-latest.zip) from pmwiki.org (atarball version is also available) and un-zipped it in my Apache’s DocumentRootdirectory (C:\Program Files\ApacheGroup\ Apache2\htdocs\pmwiki).

That’s all it took to get PmWiki up andrunning! Next, I decided to try some cus-tomization.

I copied the htdocs\pmwiki\sample-config.php file to htdocs\pmwiki\local\config.php, since PmWiki looks for this optional configuration file there. In myconfig.php, I changed the values of the$WikiTitle and $Skin variables to greatlytransform the look and feel of my site usingone of the provided skins (see Figures 1and 2 for a before-and-after look); then Ichanged the $DefaultPasswords[‘admin’]and $DefaultPasswords[‘upload’] vari-ables for security purposes. Changes toconfig.php take effect immediately after itis saved.

I also tested the portability of thePmWiki software. I FTP’d my PmWiki di-rectory (htdocs\pmwiki) to my ISP’s Website (which runs Linux Red Hat Enter-prise 3, Apache HTTP server, PHP sup-port, and MySQL) and pulled up thePmWiki home page in my browser; itworked on the first try.

USING PMWIKI

Once PmWiki is installed, you can create,edit, and delete Web pages within its envi-ronment. One way to create a new Webpage is to place the name of a new page indouble brackets (for example [[My newpage 1]]) anywhere in the editable contentof an existing Web page (such as thePmWiki home page). To delete an existingpage, replace all content on the page withthe word “delete” and save the page. Whenediting a page, you can use formatting op-tions such as headings, bold or italic type,bulleted or ordered lists, horizontal lines,

tables, linking, and images. You can alsoattach uploaded files.

With PmWiki, you can password-protect individual pages, groups of pages,or an entire wiki site. Password levels in-clude read (to allow viewing of pages), edit(to allow modification), attr (to controlwho can set passwords), upload (to permitthe uploading of files), and admin (to over-ride passwords).

My colleagues and I use wikis for someserious purposes, such as planning pro-jects or gathering documents, but wikiswork equally well for simpler applicationssuch as a personal to-do list. My family, forexample, uses a wiki for creating an easilyupdatable grocery list, as you can see inFigures 2, 3, and 4. Instead of having apiece of paper posted on the refrigerator,we can manage the list from our comput-ers. This way if any of us thinks of some-thing we need while at work or home, wecan simply add it to this list. And of course,when we’re ready to go grocery shopping,we simply print the list and take it with us.The following week we can start with aclean list again, or we can use the currentlist as the basis for a new one, adding anddeleting items as necessary. We can evensave lists that focus on preparations forvarious holidays.

There are many wiki engines out there,so choose one to fit your needs. Once theengine is installed, it should be easy to geta wiki site up and running—and then youcan invite your family, friends, or col-leagues to join you there on the projectyou’d been planning.

Anil Hemrajani has almost two decades ofsoftware development experience workingwith Apple, PC, and Unix systems for largeand small companies. He also publishes,teaches, and does presentations on IT-related topics.

TO DO...More Cool Projects to Try

>> Though the Star Wars saga is over, it’s

not too late to build your own lightsaber or

to turn your basement into a droid factory.

For lightsabers, check out the Big Yellow

Box (http://mywebpages.comcast.net/yellowbox/bigyellowbox/index.htm).

It presents designs for eight spiffy-looking

models; two designs are based on Obi-

wan Kenobi’s blades, or you could take a

walk on the dark side and go with a Darth

Vader special. Parts start at about $15.

A good port of entry to the droid-

building universe is the R2 Builders Club

(www.astromech.net),which includes tutori-

als, articles, a “Droid

registry,” and images.

The Yahoo R2-D2

Builders Club

(http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/r2builders) has more

than 4,000 members who can access

blueprints and other material. Be fore-

warned; building an R2 droid can run

many thousands of dollars.

>> Wi-Fi stir-fry, anyone? Hobbyists have

tried using everything from umbrellas to

sieves, scoops, strainers, and lamp-

shades in their quest

for the perfect, inex-

pensive Wi-Fi repeater.

Many of these efforts

are detailed on New

Zealander Stan T.

Swan’s Web site

(www.usbwifi.orcon.net.nz). Our favorite

is his wok, parabolic and 330 mm in

diameter, which makes a fine 2.4-GHz

Wi-Fi repeater. (See www.usbwifi.orcon.net.nz/wokwifi.jpg).

>> Getting the maximum performance

out of your ATI or nVidia video cards

won’t happen using either company’s

standard video drivers. Head on over to

Omega Drivers (http://omegadrivers.net), for custom-modified drivers. While

the performance increase in frames per

second will vary, the drivers unlock a

host of other options in your display

menu, depending on your brand: over-

clocking, additional control panel set-

tings (especially for Direct3D and

OpenGL), and the helpful Multires utility,

which allows you to select your display

resolution right from the system tray.

go.pcmag.com/solutions • S O L U T I O N S

D O - I T-YO U R S E L F

P C M A G A Z I N E AUGUST 23, 2005 www.pcmag.com72

If you asked Internet users what scaresthem most, they’d probably say identitytheft. And increasing phishing attacks

only make things worse. In the typicalscam, an e-mail that purports to come froma bank or other well-known company asks you to click on a link to a legitimate-looking but spurious site to “verify” per-sonal information. Unfortunately, such attacks are not very amenable to techno-logical solutions. There’s usually no signa-

ture to scan for, and it is often as difficultfor programs to identify the site’s maliciousbehavior as it is for people. But several ven-dors are taking a shot at the problem, in theform of free browser plug-ins.

One of the first is the Netcraft Toolbar(http://toolbar.netcraft.com), now availablefor both Microsoft Internet Explorer andFirefox. Netcraft has compiled a list ofknown phishing sites from its own surveydata and from user input. Users are en-couraged to report sites, and a menu optionon the toolbar makes it easy. According toNetcraft, thousands of phishing sites havebeen quickly identified in this way. If you at-tempt to visit a known phishing site, thetoolbar will block it and warn you. Withother sites the toolbar includes a “risk rat-ing” indicator that slides from green to red,

based on technical factors in the page thatmay be typical of phishing.

The toolbar uses Netcraft’s historicaldatabase to great advantage, for example toshow how long the site you’re viewing hasbeen monitored. If you think you are goingto Citibank but the site is new, that’s a cluethat it’s not really Citibank. And you can seethe country in which the site is running(hint: Citibank.com is not hosted in SouthKorea) and the site’s network provider.

The Netcraft Toolbarprovides great informa-tion but is better suitedto more savvy users,who will also appreci-ate the research linksavailable through itsmenus. Some third par-ties, including banks,rebrand the NetcraftToolbar as their own.

Users who are lesssophisticated may bebetter served by the EarthLink Toolbar

(www.earthlink.com/software/free/toolbar),which is also available rebranded throughthird parties such as Equifax. The toolbar,which supports only Internet Explorer, alsoincludes a pop-up blocker.

When you visit a site you get a greenthumbs-up, a red thumbs-down, or a “neu-tral” indicator. EarthLink maintains its ownlist of known phishing sites, and if you at-tempt to visit one you will instead bebrought to a page with warnings and expla-nations. If you’re suspicious, you can viewa page analysis, similar to Netcraft’s, whichlooks at technical characteristics to see ifthe page exhibits phishing-like behavior.

Another good option for less-techieusers, the Cloudmark SafetyBar (www.cloudmark.com/products/safetybar), alsosupports only Internet Explorer. Cloud-mark characterizes sites using green happy,red sad, and yellow neutral faces, and userscan block and unblock individual pages.The ratings are based on the consensus ofthe community of Cloudmark users, under

which each user has a reputation. Your rep-utation is based on the extent to which yourratings correspond to the consensus.

Two other toolbars are more limited but are useful nonetheless. SpoofStick(www.corestreet.com/spoofstick)—for IE orFirefox—makes it easier to spot a spoofedWeb site by prominently displaying the actual domain name of the site. Wherephishing sites may use tricks to concealthe actual domain name, SpoofStick willstate clearly “You’re on pcmag.com” or“You’re on 123.234.221.12.”

The mozdev.org TrustBar (http://trustbar.mozdev.org, Firefox only) lets youknow whether you are on a secure Website. It also displays the name that signedthe certificate and the certificate authority,if any, that issued the certificate.

We’re partial to the Netcraft Toolbar,since it gives technical information thatcan provide interesting clues about a site.If you’d rather not think about the detailsof Web sites, the EarthLink Toolbar isprobably a better choice.

Larry Seltzer is a contributing editor of PC Magazine.

Phighting Phraud When you confront cyber scams, you need all the support you

can get. These toolbars can help. BY LARRY SELTZER

S E C U R I T Y W AT C HTCP PORT ATTACK

IMMINENT?

An ominous increase in sniffing activity on

TCP Port 445 could signal an impending

attack targeting a recently patched Micro-

soft vulnerability. Researchers at Symantec

Corp.’s DeepSight Network have detected a

surge in scans on Port 445, an indication

that malicious hackers may have already

created exploits for a flaw in Microsoft

Corp.’s implementation of the SMB (Server

Message Block) protocol.

In Windows 2000, Windows XP, and

Windows Server 2003, Microsoft uses TCP

Port 445 to run SMB directly over TCP/IP to

handle the sharing of files, printers, and

serial ports, and also for communication

between computers. The vulnerability,

which was rated “critical,” was patched in

Microsoft’s June 14 MS05-027 bulletin,

and the increased noise on that port could

be the first sign that a password brute-

force attack is imminent. A spokesperson

for Microsoft’s Security Response Center

said the company was not aware of any

active attempts to exploit the vulnerabil-

ity. “Port scanning is an activity that may

be indicative of an attempt to discover

attack vectors against any vendor product

and is not an activity unique to Microsoft

products,” she added.—Ryan Naraine

S O L U T I O N S • go.pcmag.com/solutions

T H E LO O KO U T

WHEN WE CLICKED in this fraudulent e-mail, the Netcraft toolbar

blocked the Web page.

KEEP YOURSELF SAFE! Subscribe to our

Security Watch newsletter and get

up-to-date info on the latest threats

delivered to your inbox automatically:

go.pcmag.com/securitywatchletter

P C M A G A Z I N E AUGUST 23, 2005 www.pcmag.com74

B U S I N E S S

S O L U T I O N S • go.pcmag.com/solutions

Buy a ticket to see the Arizona Cardi-nals next year and you’ll get morethan just an afternoon of football,

beer, and hot dogs. You’ll also get wirelessaccess. Due to open in the summer of2006, the Cardinals’ new $450 million sta-dium in the Phoenix suburb of Glendalewill boast the most sophisticated IT infra-structure ever to grace the National Foot-ball League, including a wireless networkaccessible from all 63,000 seats. Carryyour laptop or handheld to the stadiumand you’ll have access to real-time gamestats. You’ll play online fantasy footballwith other fans. You may even use the net-work to order your beer and hot dogs.

This spring, the Cardinals entered intoa multimillion-dollar partnership with In-sight North America—a soup-to-nuts ITprovider headquartered just down thestreet from the team’s Tempe, Arizona,training facility. The two organizationshave teamed up to build a data, voice, andvideo IP network that will span not justthe new stadium but each of the Cardi-nals’ satellite facilities as well.

As everyday fans enjoy wireless accessin the stands below, ticket holders in corporate luxury boxes will chat, browsestats, order concessions, and even pur-chase team merchandise on their owninteractive IP phones and video-confer-encing consoles. And in between games,players and coaches will use similar videoconsoles for virtual team meetings, shar-ing training films across multiple Arizonalocations in real time.

More than a year ago, the Cardinalscontacted eight IT companies about build-ing such a network, and after eight monthsof negotiations, they settled on Insight.Not only was the firm nearby, it was pre-pared to handle every step of this massiveundertaking, from designing the network,purchasing equipment, and putting it alltogether to handling maintenance, repairs,and upgrades. “We wanted someone who

could provide the entire technology infra-structure for the stadium as well as ourheadquarters and practice facilities,” saysMark Feller, the Cardinals’ technology di-rector. “But we also wanted someone whocould support it all—in the long term.”

Insight, a 20-year-old technology resellercum full-fledged IT consultant, begins theproject this summer, overhauling the net-work infrastructure at the Cardinal’s train-ing facility and headquarters. This will

include the installation of a new opticalfiber network backbone and dozens ofCisco IP phones for the bulk of the staff, aswell as video-conferencing consoles for theexecutives and coaches.

Before the Cardinals travel to Flagstafffor preseason training, Insight will set upa fiber connection to the team’s facilitiesthere at North Arizona University. Teampersonnel will still have access to their IP phones, and all calls will be rerouted

accordingly. “If I call Mr. Bidwell’s Tempenumber,” says Insight’s engineering lead,Ron Lopez, referring to team’s longtimeowner, William Bidwell, “his phone willring in Flagstaff.”

Construction is already underway onthe new stadium, and Insight’s work will becompleted by the summer of next year.The fiber backbone will extend to Glen-dale. The wireless network will be up andrunning. And each luxury box will includeCisco 7970 interactive IP phones, completewith 5- by 4-inch digital touch screens.

In addition to handling voice and videocalls, these phones can be programmed,with XML, to run all sorts of other customapplications. You’ll be able to order food,for instance, simply by tapping a few timeson the phone’s touch screen. “These aren’tmerely phones,” says Lopez. “These areconduits to so many products and services.”

The entire network—stretching from

Tempe to Flagstaff to Glendale—will in-clude more than 1,000 IP phones andvideo-conferencing consoles, 700 plasmascreens used for advertising around thestadium, and hundreds of IBM PCs andservers. How much will it all cost? Noone’s saying. But you can bet it accountsfor a hefty chuck of the stadium’s $450 mil-lion price tag. After all, this could be themost technologically advanced sports sta-dium the world has even seen.

The NFL’s WirelessGame Plan The Arizona Cardinals’ new stadium will deliver advanced

networking and more for coaches and fans. BY CADE METZ

At the Arizona Cardinals' future stadium, fans will be able to access live game stats via the wireless network. Corporate luxury boxes will have interactive IP phones. And coaches will use video- conferencing consoles to share training videos during live team meetings at multiple Arizona locations.

Beer, Hot Dogs, and Web Access

Fan with wireless notebook

Wireless network

Cisco 7970 IP phone

Corporate box

Coach with video- conferencing console

Data, voice, video fiber-optic IT network

Plasma screens for advertising

Satellite training facilities in Flagstaff and Tempe, Arizona

Glendale, Arizona, stadium

www.pcmag.com AUGUST 23, 2005 P C M A G A Z I N E 77

go.pcmag.com/solutions • S O L U T I O N S

PC MAGAZINE’S COMMUNITY OF EXPERTS AND READERS

USER TO USEROld DOS Programs Revisited

A recent Solutions tip explained how to “Help

Windows XP Run Old DOS Programs” (go.pcmag.com/dosprograms) by recreating the

Autoexec.nt file in the C:\Windows\System32

folder. As it turns out, there’s an even easier

solution. The C:\Windows\Repair folder

should contain a copy of the default Auto-

exec.nt. Using the right mouse button, drag

that file to C:\Windows\System32 and select

Copy Here from the menu that appears. Don’t

use the left mouse button, as that will move

the “spare” Autoexec.nt out of the Repair

folder rather than creating a copy.

Some readers have reported that Windows

seems to delete the restored Autoexec.nt file

at start-up. If that occurs, you can automate

the process of restoring it. Create a batch file

containing just this one line:

COPY /Y C:\Windows\Repair\AUTOEXEC.NTC:\Windows\System32

Put a shortcut to this batch file in the

Startup submenu of the All Programs menu.

Now each time Windows starts, it will

automatically put a copy of the default

Autoexec.nt into the System32 folder.

—Neil J. Rubenking

XP SP2 Firewall Versus

Microsoft Outlook

If your e-mail is based on Microsoft’s Ex-

change server, you’re probably accustomed

to having new mail appear automatically in

your Inbox, possibly accompanied by a

sound or a desktop alert. Updating to Micro-

soft Windows XP SP2 may termi-

nate your automatic notification

and the download of new mail.

The same can happen if you

switch from a third-party firewall

to SP2’s Windows Firewall.

Worse, if you’re using Microsoft

Outlook 2002 or 2000, the Find

feature may lock up each time

you use it.

The problem, in both cases, is

that the Windows Firewall

blocks UDP (User Datagram

Protocol) packets by default.

Outlook 2003 uses such packets

to receive new mail notifica-

tions. Outlook 2002 and 2000

do the same, and also use them

in performing searches. You

need to configure the Windows

Firewall to allow these packets.

Launch the Windows Firewall applet from

Control Panel, click the

Exceptions tab, and click the

Add Program button. Look

for Outlook in the list—if

you don’t find it, click the

Browse button, locate Out-

look.exe, and click Open.

With Outlook selected in the

list, click on OK twice. Now

Windows Firewall should

allow the necessary UDP

packets to pass.

If you’re using Microsoft

Office 2002 and 2000, you

are not finished yet. If you’re

using Office 2000 and

haven’t upgraded to its Service Pack 3, start

by doing that. Then launch Regedit from the

Start menu’s Run dialog. Navigate to the key

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft. Select New | Key from the Editmenu and add a subkey named Office.

Below this key add a subkey named 10.0 (use

9.0 instead for Office 2000). Add a subkey

named Outlook, and to it add a subkey

named RPC. The result should look like

HKEY_CURRENT_ USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook\RPC (with

10.0 replaced by 9.0 for Office 2000 users).

Now select New | DWORD Value from the Edit

menu and create a DWORD value named

ForcePolling. Leave the value’s data set to 0.

Close Regedit and restart the computer. That

should restore your automatic notification

and download of new e-mail.—NJR

Finding Hidden Columns in Excel

I somehow lost several of the leftmost

columns in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet

and have been unable to make them visi-

ble again. How can I get these lost

columns back?

PAUL ROSE

The first thing to check is whether you’ve

split your spreadsheet into panes and inad-

vertently frozen them. You can easily tell if

this is the case because you’ll see one extra-

thick horizontal and vertical gridline. Also,

the Freeze Panes option under Excel’s Win-dow menu will have changed to UnfreezePanes. If that’s what you see, just select it,

and you should be able to move to the

hidden rows and columns.

If this doesn’t work, you’ve probably

hidden the columns. If you’ve hidden

columns in the middle of your spreadsheet,

it’s easy to unhide them. You simply click on

a column to the left of the hidden columns,

drag to the right of them, and then select

Format | Column | Unhide. But what to do

when you can’t get to the left of the hidden

Updating to Microsoft Windows XP SP2 may terminateautomatic notification and download of new mail.

IF UPDATING TO Windows XP SP2 terminated automatic

notification and download of new e-mail, you’ll need to

configure the Windows Firewall to allow UDP packets in

Microsoft Outlook.

THE C:\WINDOWS\REPAIR FOLDER should contain a copy

of Autoexec.nt.

P C M A G A Z I N E AUGUST 23, 2005 www.pcmag.com78

You can generally get better output by moving photos toyour computer and printing from a graphics editor.

columns is less obvious.

Here’s the solution. Press the F5 (GoTo)

key. Type A1 and press Enter. This puts the

cursor into A1 even though it’s hidden

(notice the thicker line in the top left cell).

Now hold down the Shift key and press the

right arrow. This will highlight everything

from A1 to the first visible cell in row 1.

Finally, select Format | Column | Unhide,and your columns are back. If you had

hidden rows instead of columns, you

would have simply gone to A1, pressed the

down arrow while holding down the Shift

key, and then selected Format | Row |

Unhide.—Ben Z. Gottesman

Printing Directly from Cameras

I’m considering buying a Canon Pixma

iP5000 printer but am told it will print

directly only from cameras with Pict-

Bridge, which means it won’t work with

my relatively new Olympus camera. For

non-PictBridge cameras, you first have to

move the photos to your computer. Am I

missing something? I would think that

any printer would be designed to be

backward-compatible to work with older

cameras.

NANCY BOROWICZ

The only thing you’re missing is that there’s

no standard from before PictBridge for a

printer to be compatible with. Both the

camera and printer have to follow the same

standards to work together for direct print-

ing. Until recently, PictBridge was the only

industry-wide standard, so if you have a

camera and printer from different manufac-

turers, both have to offer PictBridge support

for direct printing to work. (The new Image-

Link standard lets printers also act as docks

for cameras.)

Before PictBridge, direct printing was

vendor-specific. If a vendor had a propri-

etary direct-printing scheme for its own

cameras and printers, the vendor’s new

printer models usually support both Pict-

Bridge and the older, proprietary scheme.

But they don’t support other vendors’

proprietary schemes. If you have a camera

that doesn’t support PictBridge and print-

ing directly is important to you, you should

look for a printer that can print from the

memory card your camera uses. One thing

to keep in mind, however, is that you can

generally get better output by moving the

files to your computer and

printing from a graphics

editor. For more photo print-

ing tips, see “Photo Printing

Made Easy” at go.pcmag.com

/photoprint.

—M. David Stone

Truly Powerless

When a device isn’t working

right, you’re always told to

turn it off and leave it off for

at least 30 seconds, instead

of immediately turning it

back on. Why? What’s hap-

pening in that 30-second

period that doesn’t happen

if you just flick the switch off

and then on again?

Also, I’ve heard you can unplug your

notebook, remove the battery, and then

press the Power button for 10 seconds to

clear it. Is this good advice?

BEN GOLDMAN

Such devices often contain small amounts

of volatile memory that hold configuration

data and so on. Even after you turn the

device off, capacitors inside may continue

to deliver power for several seconds. Once

the capacitors have discharged whatever

remaining power they have, the memory

is cleared.

When you want to clear the capacitors in

your notebook, you can simply unplug the

machine and pull the battery for five min-

utes. That should give the notebook enough

time to clear any charge out of the onboard

capacitors.—Loyd Case

When New Word Documents

Aren’t Blank

A couple of months ago my wife wrote a

letter using Microsoft Word 2000. She

remembers printing it and choosing not

to save it. Since that time, though, every

time she opens Word, that letter pops up

instead of a blank page. Though the page

is labeled Document 1, it shows the entire

letter with the font she used in it, rather

than a blank page with Times New

Roman as its font. Needless to say, it has

become quite annoying to have to delete

the letter and change the font every time

she uses Word. She wants her blank page

back, and no one we know has been able

to fix the problem. Any help would be

appreciated!

JOSH PRICKETT

Here’s what happened. Your wife acciden-

tally saved the file as Normal.dot, which is

the template that defines the layout,

formatting, macros, settings, and even

content for every new document. People

do this on purpose sometimes, for exam-

ple to put certain default formatting into

place, or when they want to start every

letter with a predefined letterhead. But

when you do it inadvertently, the result

does indeed seem bizarre.

Assuming you haven’t deliberately used

Normal.dot to change other default set-

tings, the solution is simple. Close Word if it

is running. Use the Find/Search function

from the Start menu to locate files match-

ing the name Normal.dot. Select any of the

found files that aren’t already in the Recycle

Bin and delete them. Word will create a new

blank Normal.dot file the next time you

launch it.—NJR

IF YOU’VE FROZEN panes in your spread-

sheet, the option under Excel’s Window

menu will have changed to Unfreeze Panes.

DELETE ANY NORMAL.DOT files you find. Microsoft Word

will create a new blank one the next time you launch the

program.

www.pcmag.com AUGUST 23, 2005 P C M A G A Z I N E 79

go.pcmag.com/solutions • S O L U T I O N S

A corrupted or incomplete download from WindowsUpdate can indeed cause big trouble.

Audible Alert for Caps Lock

I am helping my brother-in-law get his

new computer configured. He’s not a

proficient typist, and he looks at the keys

while typing, not at the screen. He is

forever accidentally striking the Caps

Lock key, so he spends an inordinate

amount of time going back and correct-

ing his work into lower case. He’d like to

set up a sound to alert him when he

strikes the Caps Lock key. He says he

could do this on an older computer, but

on his new one, with Microsoft Windows

XP, the Sounds applet in Control Panel

has no Caps Lock press event with which

to associate a sound. Is there a way to

add an event such as this to the Sounds

applet’s list?

SHERWOOD SMITH

The Sounds applet was a good try, but in

this case it’s not the one you want. Instead,

launch Control Panel’s Accessibility Options

applet. On the Keyboard tab check the Use

Get Rid of Corrupted Windows

Updates

Is there any way to delete Windows XP

updates that are already downloaded but

not installed? I’ve got two driver updates

that have crashed Windows twice after

being downloaded and supposedly in-

stalled. I need to remove these updates so

Windows won’t keep trying to install them

when it restarts.

ED OVERSTREET

If you get a corrupted or incomplete down-

load from Windows Update, it can indeed

cause big trouble. Most problems with

automatic update downloads can be

solved using this simple routine. From the

Start menu’s Run dialog, launch

Services.msc. In the resulting list find the

item named Automatic Updates. Double-

click it to open its Properties and click the

Stop button, then leave the Propertieswindow open.

Launch Windows Explorer, navigate to

C:\Windows, and find the folder named

SoftwareDistribution. Rename this folder

SoftwareDistribution.old. Now go back to

that Properties window and click the Startbutton to restart the Automatic Updates

service. That should clear up the problem.

At the next automatic update your system

will receive the necessary files, and this

time, we can hope, they’ll be complete and

uncorrupted.—NJR

ToggleKeys box. Now Windows will make

a high-pitched sound when Caps Lock is

turned on and a lower sound when it is

turned off. It will do the same for Num Lock

and Scroll Lock.—NJR

Automating Page Breaks

in Excel

In the April 12 issue, your “Row-Based

Page Breaks in Excel” article (go.pcmag.com/excelpagebreaks) showed one way

to create page breaks every n rows. I’d like

to propose an Excel macro that automates

the process:

Sub PageBreaks()Dim Nrows As Integer, i As Integer,

Nbreaks As IntegerConst PageLines = 10 ‘Set the

number of lines per page hereCells(1).SelectNrows = Selection.CurrentRegion

.Rows.CountNbreaks = Int(Nrows / PageLines)For i = 1 To NbreaksWorksheets(“Sheet1”).Rows(i *

PageLines + 1).PageBreak = xlPage-BreakManualNext i

End Sub

As written, the macro sets the

spacing for ten lines per page,

but you can change the Page-

Lines variable to any value.

DONALD I. RUBIN

We fixed a tiny problem with

the original macro that sur-

faced when the number of rows

was precisely divisible by the

lines per page. And we recom-

mend you either clear all exist-

ing page breaks manually

before running the macro or

insert the line ActiveSheet.Re-setAllPageBreaks at the begin-

ning of the macro. If you’d

rather clear all page breaks by hand, select

Page Break Preview from the View menu,

right-click any cell, and choose Reset AllPage Breaks.

Note that the macro is substantially

slower than forcing page breaks by adjust-

ing the margins as in the original tip. The

earlier example described a 50,000-row

worksheet—if you try something that

large, you’ll want to go for coffee while the

macro does its work.—NJR

WITH THE TOGGLEKEYS accessibility

option, you’ll hear a sound when you press

the Caps Lock key.

See more tips online at

go.pcmag.com/usertouser.

HOW TO CONTACT US

E-MAIL K pcmsolutions@ziffdavis.comFAX K 212-503-5799

MAIL K User to User, PC Magazine, 28 East 28 Street, New York, NY 10016-7940

If we print your tip, you’ll receive a PC Magazine T-shirt. We regret that wecannot answer letters individually.

YOU CAN DELETE any previous page breaks manually

before running the macro.

a how we’ll solve theow we’ll solve themhllsolve them the tene ten biggests proble

Here at PC Magazine, we’re

continually inundated with

cool new prod-

ucts. Every day we

meet with innova-

tive companies dreaming up to-

morrow’s high-tech computing wonders. But all

too often, we encounter the dark side of comput-

ing. As editors and lab analysts, we’re heavy com-

puter users ourselves. We know what it’s like when gadgets

stop working the way they’re supposed to—PCs slow to a crawl

and we can’t get them back up to speed; incompatible software

creates a tangled mess of conflicts. Problems like these cause more than just a little annoyance: They can take

a huge investment of time and energy to fix and can result in lost productivity—not to mention the desire to

hurl your PC out the window. We can relate to your frustration.

So for this special issue on new and developing technology, we identified the top ten problems in comput-

ing today and set out to find what sort of solutions are on the way. We have good news: Creative minds are

hard at work making computing easier for us all. It may take some time before we have software that never

crashes, notebooks that never run out of battery power, Internet connections that don’t make us wait, wire-

less links that never fail, and utilities that stamp out viruses and spam for good. But to see just how close we

are, read on.—The Editors

www.pcmag.com AUGUST 23, 2005 P C M A G A Z I N E 83

m the ten biggest pthe ten biggest probbiggest problems i

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ittoo easy it’s too easy to gt oeasy to get hacked,Infec

t hacked, infected, and spameected,and spammed it’s to

P C M A G A Z I N E AUGUST 23, 2005 www.pcmag.com84

You can set up a network fire-wall. You can run softwarethat fights viruses, spyware,and spam. You can installpatches that shore up vulnera-

bilities in your operating system. But nomatter how diligent you are, the number-one, nastiest, most frustrating problemfacing computer users today—whetherthey’re aware of it or not—is that ma-chines are far too vulnerable. There aretoo many exploitable holes in the soft-ware we run, and today’s security meth-ods aren’t always nimble enough to keepup with ever-evolving methods of attack.

Even if you’ve been lucky enough toevade malicious viruses and spyware,you’re still receiving bucket loads ofspam, which can also be malicious—thanks to such online confidence tricksas phishing and pharming. This unend-ing barrage of nefarious software slowsour PCs and keeps them from behavinglike they’re supposed to. At its worst, it can compromise our privacy—andempty our wallets.

A NEVER-ENDING BATTLE

Sadly, as good as we become at identi-fying malicious code, we’ll never be asaccurate as we’d like. “It’s provably im-possible to run one program that can al-ways look at any other arbitrary programand tell if it is evil,” says Charles Palmer, head of security andprivacy at IBM Research. That said, the situation is sure to im-prove in the coming years. Many researchers are working tobuild software with fewer vulnerabilities (see Problem #2), andothers are working on better ways of fighting viruses, spyware,and spam.

The biggest issue is that current antivirus and antispyware

tools use signature-based detection methods. A lab captures avirus, identifies it, extracts a signature—a unique way of rec-ognizing it—and passes the signature to your desktop antivirusengine. The engine then compares the signature to all incom-ing code, and if it finds a match, it knows it’s caught a virus. Butthe lag between the time a virus hits the Net and the time theworld’s machines receive a signature gives viruses hours to run

OUR CONTRIBUTORS: Michael J. Miller is PC Magazine’s editor-in-chief. Sebastian Rupley is a senior editor and Cade Metz is asenior writer. Sascha Segan is a lead analyst at PC Magazine Labs. Alan Cohen and John Knowles are freelance writers. Staffwriter Erik Rhey, features editor Sean Carroll, senior editor Carol A. Mangis, and executive editor Carol L. Gonsher were incharge of this story.

1by Cade Metz

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rampant—and that’s assuming peoplekeep their signatures updated, whichthey don’t.

Though the process is slow, we’redeveloping ways to recognize mali-cious code before it’s caught andidentified in the lab. Antivirus com-panies such as Kaspersky already useso-called family signatures, which canspot new worms that operate likeolder ones. “Rather than using astring signature that detects only onevirus, there are ways to loosen up thesignature and make sure it detects notonly that specific virus but otherviruses in the same family,” says

Shane Coursen, Kaspersky Lab’ssenior technology consultant herein the U.S.

Better yet, many developers areusing simple heuristic methodsthat can spot entirely new viruses.Heuristic methods involve statis-tical analysis of the way an un-known application is behaving.

Researchers at MIT have devel-oped a heuristic method involvingWindows’ Application Binary In-terface (ABI). The ABI is what ap-plications use to talk to variousparts of the OS. Microsoft has de-fined rules for how the ABI is sup-posed to be used. The rub is, theserules are never enforced. It’s simplyassumed that application writersalways follow the ABI rules, be-cause if they don’t, their apps won’trun properly, causing any numberof problems. To a virus writer, of

course, breaking these rules is a way of undermining the OS. But virus hunters can identify viruses by checking if soft-

ware violates ABI rules. “By doing this, we’re able to stop anentire class of worms in a very deterministic manner withno false positives,” says Saman Amarasinghe, CTO of the se-curity software company Determina, an associate professor

of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT. “Andnow, we’re looking to expand this and identify more patterns,fundamental things that viruses do, fundamental artifactsthey leave.”

DAMMING THE SPAM

Antispam software has longused heuristics to identifyunsolicited mail. Thoughmany tools are able to blocka large percentage of spam,the sheer volume of it meansthat a ridiculous number ofunwanted messages still getthrough. At IBM, researcherscontinue to improve Bayes-ian filtering, running an in-house antispam engine that’sover 99 percent accurate.They’re also looking to stopan even greater amount ofspam by revamping our ex-isting e-mail system.

Mark Wegman, CTO forsoftware at IBM Research,believes that the best optionis an e-mail system incor-porating a charity stamp.Whenever you sent an e-mail, such a system wouldrequire that you electroni-cally donate a small amountof money to charity—a frac-tion of cent, say. Most users wouldn’t even notice the cost ofthese donations, but a spammer who sends thousands of e-mailmessages a second wouldn’t be able to afford them. “There areany number of options where a sender does something that aspammer finds hard to do, and donating to charity is the mostappealing,” says Wegman. “It turns something bad into some-thing good.”

The charity-stamp method isn’t perfect. But that’s true ofany system that seeks to fight spam, viruses, and spyware.Malicious computer attacks will go on, but you can be confi-dent we’ll get better at fighting them.

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The graphs show spam and virus-infected messages as a percentage of total e-mail. Virus-infected e-mail makes up less than a tenth of the volume of mail represented by spam, but is far more harmful.

MIT researchers are working on another way to catch worms: Instead of searching for identifying signatures, the program checks for improper code.

Memory Firewall

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P C M A G A Z I N E AUGUST 23, 2005 www.pcmag.com86

Software bugs aren’t mere inconveniences. Far toooften they crash mission-critical systems, wreakinghavoc on business, revenues, and the sanity of tech-nical support departments. And as more softwaremakes its way into our lives—at the doctor’s office,

at the ATM, on the cable box hooked up to the television—theglitches are multiplying.

The notion of bug-free software seems a lot like time travel,dollar-a-gallon gasoline, and a humble Donald Trump: some-thing we’d all like to see, but won’t. Yet even if we’re not ableto eradicate software bugs entirely, we may be able to stampout a growing number of them.

One of the most promising antibugefforts is underway at Carnegie Mel-lon University. Researchers there areanalyzing how programmers find andfix bugs, and they’re using this infor-mation to create a debugging system.“We spend a lot of time watchingpeople debug and write code,” saysBrad Myers, a professor in CarnegieMellon’s School of Computer Scienceand head of the research project,which is known as the Whyline.“When programmers discover be-havior that they hadn’t expected, theyask “why” questions, usually whysomething did not occur.”

SOMETHING’S AMISS

In a prototype of the Whyline, a programmer watches his codeexecute step by step and hits a button labeled Why when henotices something amiss. The button brings up a menu of 10 to20 items—each representing an event that could have hap-pened as the code executed, but didn’t. By clicking on an item,the programmer is in effect asking, “Why didn’t this happen?”

The Whyline then highlights the relevant part of the code,along with a data flow diagram showing the value of data theprogram was working with. The data diagram is crucial, saysMyers, because many bugs are the result of incorrect assump-tions about data values.

Many other bugs are the unintended results of attempts tofix bugs. By steering programmers to the root of a problem andavoiding the guesswork, the Whyline can reduce these add-onbugs. On one test, programmers using the Whyline createdsoftware with half as many bugs as programmers who did notuse the tool. Now the team is attempting to integrate the Why-line into the C and Java programming languages, which may

take as long as three to five years.Major software developers are hard at

work on bug extermination efforts as well.Researchers at IBM, for example, are scour-ing code looking for so-called antipatterns.“These are patterns in code that can causeproblems,” says Eric Naiburg, group manag-er for desktop products at IBM Rational. “Bybuilding tools that look for antipatterns, we

can find potential problems and give recommendations onhow to fix them.” IBM has already incorporated antipatterntechnology into toolkits it offers to programmers workingwith its Rational software development platform. As moreand more antipatterns are discovered, they’ll be incorporatedinto future toolkits.

As part of its Security Development Lifecycle initiative, Microsoft is building tools to enable its in-house programmersto perform an in-depth analysis on code. The hope is that thiswill flag problems that might otherwise lead to security and re-liability problems in Microsoft software. “The tools go throughthe code and ask questions like ‘What are the inputs you’re sup-plying?’, ‘What are you assuming about these inputs?’, and ‘Issome code down the line making an assumption about those inputs that is wrong?’,” says Steve Lipner, the director of securi-ty engineering strategy at Microsoft. Many of these tools arenow available on Microsoft’s site; others will be incorporatedinto its commercial software development products.

2

GETTING A LINE ON BUGS Carnegie Mellon’s

Brad Myers and Andrew Ko have developed

Whyline, which shows code executing in real

time and makes isolating bugs easy.

by Alan Cohen

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More than 7 million people are victims of identitytheft each year—or nearly 20,000 thefts a day—according to Gartner Research and HarrisInteractive. Many thefts occur because of casu-al mistakes in the offline world: handing a cred-

it card to the wrong person or scribbling your Social Securitynumber on a sheet of paper someone can find. But many moreare facilitated by the Internet, which still has a long way to gowhen it comes to protecting our privacy.

Identity pirates can gather all sorts ofconfidential information about you byprowling the Web. With a little more in-genuity, they can hack into your onlineaccounts—mining credit card numbers,addresses, and telephone numbers. Andif you let your guard down, they can useunderhanded techniques like phishingand pharming to fool you into givingthem information. Social engineers conmany people into giving out sensitivedata simply by asking for it.

Think you’ve taken the necessary pre-cautions? Think again. Virgil Griffith, aresearcher at Indiana University, recent-ly found a hole in the system that affects us all. Most Web sitesprovide a way to access password-protected accounts whenyou’ve forgotten your password. When you sign up for an ac-count, the site typically asks you to fill in the answer to a com-mon question, such as “What’s your mother’s maiden name?”or “What street did you grow up on?” If you forget your pass-word, the site grants you access when you answer this question.

Unfortunately, by trolling free public records in Texas, Grif-fith proved that anyone could track down mothers’ maidennames for more than a quarter of the state’s population.

White hats—corporate security experts—look closely at suchholes. Researchers at RSA Security, for instance, are consideringways of improving so-called knowledge-based authentication.They’re developing a technology, code-named Nightingale, thatlets sites verify answers to authentication questions withoutactually storing those answers on their servers.

“Two servers or even two different Web sites can work to-gether to verify information like this, but without either one of

them knowing enough to answer or findout the answers themselves,” says Dr.Burt Kaliski, chief scientist for RSA Labs.Even if someone hacks the servers, theycan’t access your information.

Others are working to provide strongerauthentication via hardware devices.Charles Palmer, head of security and pri-vacy at IBM Research, believes many on-line privacy woes can be solved byleveraging a security chip like the Trust-ed Platform Module, an IBM-developeddevice now championed by several in-dustry players. This kind of chip encryptsfiles and passwords, making them read-able only on your computer.

Of course, you must also make sure that no one else can logon to your PC. That’s where biometric authentication comes in.Fingerprint readers capable of verifying your identity are alreadyavailable for desktops and laptops. Companies like Compaq,DigitalPersona, Ethentica, Identix, and Sony offer devices thatattach via USB cable, and several IBM laptops actually come withintegrated readers. Other companies, including such names asIridian Technologies and Visage, are offering retinal scanningand facial-recognition tools.

A4Vision’s facial-recognition technology can even verify

F U T U R E T E C H

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CRAZY IDEAS

In a research project spearheaded by Yale University computerscience professor Zhong Shao, the focus isn’t on eradicating bugsso much as verifying that software touted as bug-free is, indeed,bug-free. Shao’s team is developing a system whereby softwaredesigners can create a mathematical proof that travels alongwith their code. In effect, the proof demonstrates that the soft-ware does what it’s supposed to do.

“Most people find the idea crazy,” says Shao, “but when theydesign code, programmers already do a lot of the same logicalreasoning that is required for writing proofs. What we’re tryingto do is to convert their informal reasoning into a proof.”

Already, Shao’s team has created proofs for small programs. Thechallenge now is scaling it up to more complex software. For alot of programs—big operating systems like Windows XP andLinux, for example—proof checking won’t be possible anytimesoon. The most likely applications, Shao says, will be “small butcomplex low-level systems software such as embedded OS ker-nels, runtime systems, and device drivers.”

Software bugs are in the crosshairs, but don’t expect themto disappear completely. “We’re going to get better at elimi-nating bugs, but we’re not going to get perfect,” says Myers ofCarnegie Mellon. “Programming is inherently a human en-deavor, and humans are always going to be imperfect.”

FACING THE PROBLEM A4Vision’s facial recogni-

tion software is one way to authenticate identity.

3by Cade Metz

P C M A G A Z I N E AUGUST 23, 2005 www.pcmag.com88

your identity continually. Projecting a light through a filter, thesystem creates a virtual grid roughly four feet in width. As youstep into this grid, it distorts to follow the topology of yourface. A camera then measures the distance to your face at eachpoint within the grid. These measurements are unique, andwhen you step in front of the camera once again, the system isable to identify you.

“We’ve used it in highly secure areas where companies wantto know who is behind a workstation at all times,” says CEOGrant Evans. “Our system can observe the person and givepositive identification 14 or 15 times a second.”

You could even use biometrics to verify your identity witha third party. The trouble is that when you use traditional bio-metrics, there’s always the danger that someone will hack into

We’ve come a long way sinceC: prompts and DOS com-mands, but using a PC re-mains a painfully difficultproposition for many.

Today’s PC interfaces are less intuitivethan they need to be. A computer screen istoo often a mass of perplexing letters, num-bers, and symbols, and finding what wewant too often involves typing some arcaneaddress or code. A GUI spreadsheet is awonderful thing—but can your grand-mother use one? Google gives you accessto an incredible amount of information—but shouldn’t it be easier to find whatyou’re seeking?

We’re still years from intuitive PCs , butimprovements are coming. For starters,IBM Research is working to improve the way we hunt for infor-mation. Arthur Ciccolo, who runs the lab’s information andknowledge management department, believes that even theword we use to describe this task is flawed. “Search is a reallybad term,” he says. “It conjures up the same feeling you getwhen you’ve lost your car keys.”

Ciccolo prefers the word find, and his team has developedtechnologies that reflect this terminology. “We’re on the cusp ofturning the corner of an entirely new generation of search en-gines and other search capabilities,” he says. IBM Research isworking on not only semantic and natural language searchesbut even simple methods to search audio and video files.

A semantic search engine doesn’t just locate documents con-taining a keyword. “We recognize not only mentions of people,

places, and organizations, we also recognize relationshipsbetween those entities and create data structures that describethose relationships,” says Ciccolo. Search on “bimonthly maga-zine,” and the engine can return a link to the PC Magazine homepage—even if the page doesn’t contain that exact term.

Natural language lets you search by typing ordinary conver-sational questions. These questions are then semantically ana-lyzed and transformed into queries your computer canunderstand. Once the computer finds an answer to your ques-tion, the answer can be translated back into natural language.You could ask for a list of facts about film director Billy Wilder,and rather than returning a list of documents that containWilder’s name, your machine would return a list of facts.

Add in audio and video search, and you can easily locate

a machine where your fingerprint, retinal, or facial informationis stored. Recognizing this problem, researchers at the StevensInstitute of Technology, Johns Hopkins University, CarnegieMellon, and Florida State are working on a biometrics systemthat can operate without storing your physical data.

The system would use your typing or voice patterns to storea code across two different tables of information. “Simply bytyping on your keyboard, you could unlock the code,” says Su-sanne Wetzel, a Stevens Institute researcher, “but to an attack-er, the tables would look like random pieces of information.”

This only begins to describe the vast arsenal of authentica-tion and privacy projects under way at universities and in cor-porate research labs. In the years to come, identity theft willpresent a much tougher challenge to would-be thieves.

und stuff it’s impossible to fiimpossilbe to find stuff it’s im

iio ssible to find stuff it’s imposIBM's Marvel MPEG-7 Multimedia Search Engine analyzes multimedia files and labels them to reflect their content. Given a video of a Boeing 747, Marvel can recognize the jet and tag the video with the word airplane. When you search on airplane, it links you to that video.

A Modern Marvel

Video of an airplane is passed into the system.

Marvel analyzes the video, recognizes the airplane, and tags the video accordingly.

The user asks Marvel for a video of an airplane.

Marvel returns the video to the user.

<airplane>

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F U T U R E T E C H

by Cade Metz

bleto fnd my downloads won’ts ydownloads won’t fit on myads won’t fit on my hard drive

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multimedia files related to particularwords or concepts—even if there’s noassociated text. IBM’s framework cananalyze spoken words, sounds, and im-ages, determining what a given multi-media file contains. The framework iseven accurate enough to recognize in-dividuals. “It got very good at recognizing President Clinton,”says Ciccolo.

Researchers at Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) are alsoworking on improved graphical interfaces. The 3Book projectwould make electronic documents behave more like physicalbooks, with digital pages you turn with the brush of a finger.

PARC is also working on new interfaces for common appli-cations, including computer spreadsheets. Large spreadsheetsare difficult to navigate; you have to scroll through many pagesof tiny words and numbers. With PARC’s revamped spread-sheet, you can view a visual representation of a large spreadon a single page. Letters and numbers are transformed intoshapes and graphs, and as you mouse over a particular part ofthe spreadsheet, specific data appears in close-up.

Despite soaring drive capacities and plummetingprices, our storage needs remain insatiable as dig-ital photos, music, and video fill our drives. Butthere’s no shortage of emerging technologies tokeep up with our archiving needs. In fact, perpen-

dicular recording and holographic storage point to a day in thenot-too-distant future when recording and archiving every-thing we experience in our lives will be possible.

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies recently demonstrateda breakthrough in perpendicular recording. For years, re-searchers have explored vertically aligning the data bits on theplane of a disc, to take up much less space than horizontallystored bits do. Says Shunichi Iwasaki, president of Japan’s Tohoku Institute of Technology, “Around 1975, I began to feelthat the vertical direction was the right way to attain high-den-sity recording and began leading the activities to make per-pendicular recording a practical technology.” Iwasaki is now afield tester for Hitachi’s perpendicular recording drives. Com-mercial products, he predicts, are imminent.

Hitachi’s record-setting drive reaches a data density of 230gigabits per square inch—about twice today’s highest densities.To make the technology work, the distance between theread/write head and the recording media must be just 10nanometers, or 1/10,000th the width of a human hair.

The company hopes to produce a 1-terabyte 3.5-inch harddrive and a 20GB microdrive; the first commercial products will

Meanwhile, Microsoft Research is ex-ploring interfaces that extend even furtherbeyond today’s methods. For example,rather than forcing us to deal with overlap-ping full-size windows, WinCuts dynami-cally grabs small regions of open windowsand displays them without overlap, so you

can move between apps more smoothly. Another Microsoft initiative, multiblending, lets you simul-

taneously display overlapping windows without resizing them.The graphics of background and foreground windows are ren-dered so that you can easily read both at the same time.Microsoft is even working on something called the brain in-terface, which uses your brain activity to mold a computer’s be-havior to your particular needs. “We’re trying to detect motorcortex activation, when a user is reading, counting, etc.,” sayslead group manager Mary Czerwinski. “When we can detectthis kind of processing, perhaps [a PC] can present new con-tent in a manner that won’t interfere with those activities.”

A machine that adjusts its behavior according to yourthoughts? It doesn’t get any easier than that.

5

IN YOUR FACE Multiblending lets you easily

see all open windows.

F U T U R E T E C H

by Sebastian Rupley

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arrive in a year or two. The real revolution inperpendicular recording, though, will be very-high-capacity microdrives. Hitachi foresees60GB one-inch drives that would fit inside cellphones, PDAs, and digital music players.

THE 20 GIG CREDIT CARD

Holographic storage promises a new gener-ation of drives that store data as a 3D imageand pave the way for supersize drives withremarkably fast access times. On a holo-graphic disc, the data is recorded throughoutthe volume of the recording media. InPhaseTechnologies has announced it will ship aholographic drive next year that can store300GB of data on a CD-sized disc and deliveraccess times of less than 200 milliseconds (see photo). Max-ell will manufacture the discs.

InPhase is shooting for discs with a whopping 1.6TB of ca-pacity by 2009. The initial write-once discs will be geared forarchival storage; the next generation will be rewritable. Holo-graphic storage can achieve such massive densities that stor-ing 20GB of data on a credit card could soon be possible.

Progress in holographic drives has been stalled by the searchfor a material sensitive and stable enough to store a holograph-ic image. InPhase’s solution is a unique photopolymer. The com-pany plans to deliver an inexpensive read-only memory productfor consumers and focus on low-cost drives for games and next-

Anyone who carries around amobile gadget knows thatbattery life stinks. The tech-nology just hasn’t kept pacewith the requirements of

our gear. We’ve been hearing about all-day notebook computing power, but itstill isn’t here. And the number of de-vices we need to worry about chargingis rising. Mercifully, super-efficient fuelcells and new tricks for existing batter-ies are on the way.

A lot of research is under way withportable fuel cells for notebooks andwireless devices. Although the science of producing workingfuel cells that run on methanol is already here, designing a small,light, easy-to-manufacture battery has been difficult. Most ex-isting designs rely on central fluorocarbon membranes, whichcall for big, heavy, and costly fuel cells. But a company called

PolyFuel has developed a hydrocarbonmembrane that could lead to moreefficient designs and possibly to wide-spread fuel cells for portable devices.

Fuel cell membranes—think smallcellophane sandwiches—produce elec-tricity by stripping electrons from fuelmolecules. Water vapor is a by-prod-uct—as is carbon dioxide—for cellsthat use methanol as a fuel. PolyFuel’shydrocarbon membrane, dropped intodesigns based on previous fluoro-carbon technology, produces smaller,lighter, and cheaper cells.

PolyFuel’s achievement is “a significant development for theindustry,” says John Appleby, of Texas A&M University’s Centerfor Electrochemical Systems and Hydrogen Research. And basedon data from Frost & Sullivan and ABI Research, PolyFuel esti-mates that the market for direct methanol fuel cells will sky-

generation video distribution, according toCTO Kevin Curtis. Rewritable holographicdrives are scheduled for 2007.

Storage developments are also under wayin DVD and CD replacements. The technol-ogy is in place now to produce high-defini-tion (HD) drives that use short-wavelengthblue-violet lasers to increase data density ina big way. Specifications for HD DVD-ROM,HD DVD-R, and HD DVD-RW formats arenow complete, and serveral companies haveannounced plans to ship HD DVD playerslater this year and recorders in early 2006.Expect discs to hold up to 8 hours of HDvideo. Meanwhile, Blu-ray discs are also onthe way, with Sony supporting them in the

PlayStation 3 gaming console, due to ship in 2006. They mayeventually store 200GB of data.

Meanwhile, a new breed of memory companies is targetingfuture chips combining memory, logic, and configurable ele-ments on the nano scale. ZettaCore, for example, has a proto-type that uses customized molecules to store data. The chipscould introduce new competition for static RAM and DRAM.“Our technology will lead to much greater miniaturization ofmany kinds of devices, especially cameras and things you carryaround with you,” says ZettaCore founder Randy Levine.

All these developments point to a future in which the stor-age problems we now wrestle with will be history.

6

NEXT: HOLODECKS InPhase’s holo-

graphic disks may hold 1.6TB by ’09.

FUEL-CELL SANDWICH PolyFuel’s membrane

technology may mean cheaper, smaller fuel cells.

by Sebastian Rupley

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rocket to over 140 million units in 2012.The hurdle to getting there is a manufac-turing process that can deliver them at alow cost.

“We should see test-market productlaunches for portable fuel cells in the 2005and 2006 time frame,” says PolyFuel’s CEOJim Balcom. “This isn’t something you’regoing to see your neighbor with nextmonth, but I think we haven’t evendreamed yet of half the applications that will be used whenyou’ve got the ability to be completely free from a wall plug .”

Meanwhile, Neah Power Systems is focusing on fuel-celltechnology for notebook computers, too. The company recent-ly demonstrated a multicell “stack” functioning as the core en-gine of a fuel cell that could go into notebooks. It’s 70 percentsmaller than prototypes the company had only two years ago.

RECHARGE IN 60 SECONDS FLAT

Fuel cells aren’t the only prospects for all-day power withoutthe headache of battery charging. Toshiba has announced newlithium ion battery technology that could enable faster batteryrecharging, requiring about 60 seconds for a battery to go from

Just a few years ago, we complainedabout the speed of our dial-up con-nections. Fed up with surfing theWeb with 56K modems, we couldn’twait for broadband services like

cable and DSL. Now, more than half of allAmerican households use cable, DSL, orsimilar technologies—not to mention 75percent of all PC Magazine readers—andwe’re already clamoring for more speed.

Cable and DSL are plenty fast for loadingordinary Web pages, but they can’t alwayskeep up with the multimedia that pervadesthe Internet. If you’re streaming audio andvideo to your PC, downloading movies on demand, playing on-line games, or even sharing photos, you’ll undoubtedly findyourself praying for additional bandwidth.

Your prayers will soon be answered. Though much of theInternet backbone has only just made the switch to 10-GbpsEthernet, researchers are already working to create 20-, 40-,even 100-Gbps technologies. More important, telecoms havestarted to run high-speed fiber lines to homes—or close tothem—boosting connection speeds from the roughly 1.5 Mbpsyou get with today’s DSL services to more than 25 Mbps.

Ethernet speeds tend to grow by a factor of ten every halfdecade. Over the past 20 years, speeds have risen from ameasly 10 Mbps to the 10 Gbps widely used on today’s Inter-net backbone. If that trend were to continue, it would mean100-Gbps Ethernet in 2007 and 2008. We may have to wait justa bit longer than that, however.

Bell Labs, among others, has already started work on 100-Gbps technologies, and it’s no easy task. You can’t just expandthe size of the pipe. “It’s a challenging technology in terms oftransporting packets and also processing packets,” says Martin

drained to 80 percent charged. The newSuper Charge batteries will lose only 1 per-cent of their charging capacity every 1,000charge cycles, making them much moredurable than current lithium ion batteries.Units are expected for cars next year, withversions for portable gadgets to follow.

Meanwhile, other approaches are on thedrawing boards. Samsung Electronics hasdesigned its OneNAND Flash memory into

Microsoft’s prototype Hybrid Hard Drive (HHD)—the firstdisk drive to combine NAND-based flash memory with rotat-ing storage media. The new breed of hybrid hard drives maylead to longer battery life for notebooks. The ultra-high-density benefits of magnetic storage technology are preservedin the drives, and the ultra-low-power benefits of NAND tech-nology extend battery life. Samsung expects HHD-enablednotebooks to begin shipping in large quantities in late 2006.

Researchers are pursuing numerous strategies to make thedream of all-day computing power come true. With energy-efficient digital gadgets that sip power and with juicier ways tocharge them, running out of battery power at an inconvenientmoment will soon seem prehistoric.

Telephone and cable services are now brought to your home over different lines. But with telcos beginning to run fiber channels (called "fiber to the curb"), the line can be split to serve neighborhood clusters of 16 to 32 households, each receiving about 80 Mbps of bandwidth. One fiber line can carry telephone, cable TV, and Internet service.

Totally Fiber

HOME WITH FIBER

Telephone, cable TV, and Internet service

Neighborhood cluster

Local telco

Fiber channel

7

SHORT STACK Neah Power Systems has

shrunk multicell stacks by 70%.

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Zirngibl, director of photonics and optical networkingresearch. “At that speed, every little bond and wire ends upacting like a big antenna.”

Some researchers, including Fred Baker, a Cisco Fellow andthe chairman of the board of the Internet Society, say that 40Gbps will likely be the next step. Additional backbone band-width is sure to arrive in the next few years, as more and morepeople move to broadband and start using bandwidth-intensiveservices like streaming video and on-demand movies.

In the meanwhile, fiber to the home—or, more appropriate-ly, “fiber to the curb”—is already arriving. It’s still too expensiveto run optical fiber all the way into our living rooms, but com-panies like Verizon and SBC Communications are at least run-ning cables into big neighborhoods and then sharing them—via

Today’s PCs are fast enough for the average Joe. But fordiehard gamers, multimedia fanatics, professional pro-grammers, engineers, and financial analysts, state-of-the-art hardware still leaves a lot to be desired.

The leading 3D games don’t always run as smooth-ly as they should. Full-motion video can be choppy. High-enddesign and applications can slow to a crawl. Today’s machinesare particularly deficient at handling multiple tasks at the sametime. If you need a true multiprocessing system, you have to paya premium, and it may still lack the speed you’re looking for.

You can rest assured that faster machines are on the way.Nearly 40 years after Intel’s Gordon Moore made his now-famous pronouncement, the number of transistors packedinto a microprocessor still doubles every 18 months or so. Andthanks to ongoing research from leading chip manufacturers,the trend should continue into the next decade. Moreover, theindustry is working to make multiprocessing more pervasive,with manufacturers just starting to put multiple CPUs on thesame chip.

QUICKER ELECTRONS

The first wave of faster processors is just around the corner. Bythe end of the year, both Intel and AMD will introduce chipsbuilt on a 65-nm manufacturing process—chips whose smallestparts are 65 nanometers wide. Equipped with even tinier tran-sistors than the current generation of 90-nm chips, these 65-nmCPUs will run at unprecedented speeds. The smaller the tran-sistors, the faster electrons shuttle between them. Intel’s first 65-nm chip, code-named Yonah, is expected to run at 2.5 GHz.

Moving beyond 65 nm to a 45-nm process and then 32 nm willprove more difficult, but not impossible. Though current designand manufacturing techniques are unable to take Moore’s lawany further, several new techniques are under development. At

the 65-nm level, manufacturers will continue to lean on tried-and-true lithography methods, using ordinary ultraviolet light toetch transistors into a silicon substrate. But ultraviolet wave-lengths are just too large to print even smaller transistors.

For future chips, manufacturers are looking at a pair of new

DSL over existing copper cables—among clusters of 16 to 32 sub-scriber households. Verizon provides such fiber connections tomore than a million customers.

Such customers typically get roughly 25 Mbps of down-stream bandwidth, but that will soon rise to as much as 80Mbps. How much does it cost? Between $40 and $50 per monthfor voice and data, and a bit more for video.

Fiber to the curb isn’t the only option for second-generationbroadband. A faster form of DSL—called VDSL (very high bit-rate digital subscriber line)—is already being deployed in Eu-rope, providing speeds of 13 to 55 Mbps, and it’s possible we’llmove to wireless technology for high-speed connections.Whichever way the technology evolves, you can be sure thatfaster broadband is right around the corner.

uto short my pc isn’t fast enomy cpmputer isn’t fast enoug

o mputer isn’t fast enough m c8

BREAKING THE LAW? Moore’s law has often been declared

dead, but chip makers keep proving the rumors premature.

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methods: extreme ultra violet (EUV) lithogra-phy and immersion technology. With currentlithography techniques, ultraviolet light is sentthrough several lenses, honed to a wavelengthof about 193 nm, and directed onto the sub-strate. With EUV lithography, the light reflectsoff several mirrors before hitting the substrate,and as it does, its wavelength shrinks to a mere13 nm. Light with a shorter wavelength canprint smaller transistors.

WATER AND WAFERS

Immersion lithography uses 193-nm ultravioletlight, but it puts a thin layer of water between thelenses and the substrate. “This takes advantage of certain opti-cal properties that allow for a higher numerical aperture, just asyou’d expand the aperture of a camera,” says Craig Sander, vicepresident of process technology development at AMD. Accord-ing to Sander, immersion and EUV techniques could produce a22-nm manufacturing process early in the next decade.

Manufacturers are working just as hard to improve chipperformance by changing the design of individual transistors.Intel is building what it calls a tri-gate transistor. The typicaltransistor consists of a gate, a source, and a drain. When a cer-tain voltage is applied to the gate, the current flows from thesource to the drain and the transistor turns on. When a differ-ent voltage is applied, the current stops, and the transistorturns off.

Unlike current transistors, the tri-gate design uses a gate that wrapsaround the source/drain channel,touching it on three sides. Rather thanflowing just across the top of thesource/drain, current can flow acrossthree planes, providing greater speed.

Extending Moore’s law is certainlyan important part of the industry’s on-going efforts to build faster machines.But manufacturers can also boost per-formance simply by equipping systemswith more processors.

“There’s a sea change hitting the in-dustry,” says John Fowler, executive vice president of Sun’s Net-work Systems Group. “Rather than using all their energy tomake individual processors more complicated, they’re workingto put more processors on the same chip.” Intel and AMD haveintroduced dual-core chips, which contain two CPUs, and IBMand Sun are focused on similar chips. ARM is working on multi-processing for cell phones and other consumer devices.

With multiple processors, you’re better able to run numer-ous tasks at the same time. Ideally, the software industry willcontinue to develop multithreaded applications, which cansplit up various tasks and delegate them to different CPUs.

Moore’s law will one day reach its limit, but it’s likely to rideout this decade. Maybe by then computers will be fast enoughfor us all.

CONTACT LENS Droplets of water are

being used to make smaller transistors.

nreliable wireless web connem posok connections are spot

c ions spotty and unreliable n9

The U.S. is a wirelessmess. Despite dozensof cell-phone carriers,we’ve got countlessdead spots. Getting

online wirelessly involves acrazy patchwork of fast and slownetworks with a wide range ofsubscription fees. The challengegoes beyond connecting to stay-ing connected when you leave aWi-Fi–enabled area or when youenter one after connecting via acellular 3G network.

The issue of wireless handoff—the seamless switching ofsignals between networks for optimal throughput—involvesmore than just technology. Many dead spots are caused by pol-itics or business. Carriers need to know how to ensure quali-ty in a promiscuous world—and how to bill for it.

“If you flip over to a WLAN net-work that’s run by someone else,how do I bill you? That’s the bigchallenge,” says Berardino Baratta,director of wireless and mobilestrategy for chip maker Freescale.

A WIRELESS CLOUD

Technologies are unrolling thathopefully will cover America with awireless cloud extending from coastto coast by 2012, offering perfectvoice calls and high-speed Internet.The merger of cellular and local-

area networks will help fix dead spots and improve speeds. Anew standard called UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access) will helphandoffs between 802.11x and cellular networks, “tunneling” callslike a corporate VPN from an authorized Wi-Fi access point intoa cellular operator’s system.

by Sascha Segan

Hi!

With better and more reliable connectivity, more innovative services will become available. Here are some of the services planned for the forthcoming SK-EarthLink joint venture.

Future Wireless Services

Music Messaging

Video/TV

Location-based

services

Photos

Games

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“Indoor reception isn’t always reliable for cell networks, butWi-Fi networks are getting more pervasive,” says FannyMlinarsky, CTO of wireless testing firm Azimuth Systems.

For short-range communication, the as-yet-unratified 802.11nwireless networking standard is the front-runner for replacing802.11b and 802.11g Wi-Fi technology. Although products basedon the 802.11n standard are forecast for the end of 2006, 2007 ismore likely. In the meantime, pre-n products based on MIMO(multiple-input multiple-output) technology are already step-ping up the speed and range of Wi-Fi networks. (Product re-views are at go.pcmag.com/mimo.)

Quoted 802.11n data rates can reach 200 Mbps, with actualdata rates going as high as 175 Mbps. (802.11g offers quoted ratesof 54 Mbps, with actual rates less than half that.) One 802.11naccess point may be able to blanket an entire house, and speedscould be suitable for uses such as multiple HDTV streams.

We’re seeing the first awkward Wi-Fi/cellular devices now;by 2012, they’ll be small and cheap, thanks to software-defin-able radios and antennas, which will reconfigure themselveson the fly to receive signals on several bands. “By 2012 you’llhave a radio that can cover the high-megahertz to mid-giga-hertz bands,” says Bill Carney, director of business develop-ment for Texas Instruments’ wireless networking division.

Wi-Fi–cellular convergence makes sense for carriers, Qual-comm senior vice president Jeff Belk says, because it pulls traf-fic off their overburdened networks. “Once they get that fixedamount of dollars from you, it’s in their interest to off-load thattraffic to Wi-Fi,” he says.

The carriers themselves are more circumspect. “There aresome applications where [Wi-Fi–cellular] handoff will be partof the solution, and some where it will not. There are many se-curity and business issues that need to be addressed,” says Cin-gular CTO Kris Rinne.

DSL-LIKE DOWNLOADS

The 3G networks that carriersare building now through 2009will provide the rest of the fastwireless cloud. Five years fromnow, you’ll take DSL-like wire-less download speeds for grant-ed; upgrades scheduled past2008 (called EV-DO Rev A andHSUPA) focus on improving up-

load speeds, for high-quality videocalls and higher-quality voice. “WCDMA [abase technology for 3G] improves the basicthings about handing off calls between towers and the numberof calls you can take,” Baratta says.

Even further out, there’s 4G: Sprint has started looking into thestill-in-development 802.16e, also known as mobile WiMAX.Plain 802.16 (fixed-access WiMAX) will speed up network con-nections to hot spots and homes, letting people make the mostof Wi-Fi. Certified products are targeted for the end of this year.

Mobile WiMAX would allow roaming between wireless hotspots without interruption and could carry Voice over IP(VoIP), making it a true high-speed successor to today’s cellu-lar networks. Another group is working on 802.20, which couldoffer DSL-like speeds in vehicles moving at 150 miles per hour.

Improved competition will help drive innovation. Competi-tion is already coming from MVNOs (mobile virtual networkoperators) such as SK-EarthLink, Virgin Mobile, and Amp’d Mo-bile, which buy minutes wholesale from bigger carriers. It couldincrease if Wi-Fi–cellular convergence brings big ISPs like Com-cast and Time Warner Cable into the cellular MVNO space,speculates Ben Guderian, director of market strategy for Wi-Fihandset manufacturer SpectraLink. New entrants providingmobile WiMAX and other 4G data/voice services on the little-used 700-MHz and 2.5-GHz bands could further rock the boat.

And Joe Nordgaard, wireless consultant for Spectral Advan-tage, points out that sometime in the next decade TV stationsmust return the analog UHF channels to the government, re-leasing 108 MHz of spectrum in bands that transmit well overlong distances. That spectrum could be auctioned off to com-panies with new ideas.

“Things that have a potential to become wide-scale have agestation period of ten years,” Car-ney says. “[With wireless,] we’reprobably in year two or three ofthis ten-year story.”

“The whole concept of ‘wire-less’ will be like ‘horseless car-riage,’” says Sky Dayton, founderof ISP EarthLink and its newhorseless—we mean, wireless—subsidiary SK-EarthLink. “The In-ternet will subsume all networksand be as ubiquitous as oxygen.”

For more glimpses into the future,

visit us on the Web at go.pcmag.com/futuretech.

more on the web

www.pcmag.com AUGUST 23, 2005 P C M A G A Z I N E 99

In the not-too-distant future, you'll be able to stay seamlessly connected as you go from home to car to office. Wireless equipment will be smart enough to carry the wireless signal across different networks.

Total Coverage

At home, your PDA connects via an 802.11g router for wireless Internet access.

In the car, you connect via cellular signals.

At work, a WiMAX antenna receives Internet data, and an 802.11n router retransmits it within the office.

P C M A G A Z I N E AUGUST 23, 2005 www.pcmag.com100

The day is coming when we will scoff at thewires and cables that used to keep ourelectronic gadgets connected, making thebacks of our computers look like old-fashioned switchboards. Between now and

then, a frantic race is on to free us from the ties thatbind. Cutting-edge proposed wireless standards forconnecting peripherals are in the works. They won’tjust speed up and simplify connections, they’ll alsolet us do new things.

ZigBee wireless radio technology, for creating low-power-consuming and low-data-rate connections ineverything from interior lighting to window blinds, ispoised to remove tethers in many houses and will helpautomate them for years to come. “ZigBee is goinginto many home-based applications, but it also willhave a big impact on consumer electronics, especiallywireless remote controls” says Venkat Bahl, a vicepresident at Ember, a maker of chips and tools for en-abling ZigBee devices.

With a ZigBee remote control in hand, you can, forexample, wirelessly control a CD jukebox in the base-ment from upstairs. Bahl foresees ZigBee going intomany Wi-Fi devices, too. A number of examples ofcutting-edge ZigBee products—from wireless lightdimmers to remote audio controllers to touch-screencontrollers for blinds and curtains—may be seenthrough the Solution Gallery link (www.control4.com).

Meanwhile, ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless technology forconnecting devices over short distances is rapidly picking upmomentum, with some companies already shipping precerti-fied products. While 802.11-based wireless technologies carveout a particular portion of spectrum to operate in, UWB sendsout tiny bursts of radio over many frequencies. Data goes outin millions of pulses per second, which the receiving UWBdevice then reassembles.

“If you look at the data rates for UWB, and the distance issues,it becomes clear that the applications will be for connecting de-vices that are in the same room,” says Mike McCamon, directorof the UWB Forum. “I think it will be especially good for appli-cations that require very high data rates, such as streamingaudio and video.” For example, pointing a camcorder at a PC andstreaming video to it is likely to become feasible. UWB is alsolikely to wirelessly connect consumer electronics devices inliving-room entertainment centers.

UWB promises to deliver hundreds of megabits per secondin throughput initially, with gigabit-per-second rates possible.A subset of UWB, Wireless USB, is expected to usher in short-range applications, freeing us from our USB connectors. Icronis one company with working Wireless USB technology.

There’s also room at the high-tech wireless table for exist-

ing technologies, such as Bluetooth. Members of the two majorultra-wideband camps—Freescale Semiconductor and othercompanies that support the DS-UWB (direct-sequence UWB)standard, and the Intel-led people who support the MBOA(Multiband OFDM Alliance) specification—recently backed aproposal to make the Bluetooth standard interoperable withfuture UWB products.

“UWB will start making a difference for people in 2006, anda very big difference in 2007,” says Martin Rofheart, director ofUWB operations at Freescale Semiconductor. “We’re introduc-ing our first commercial products in 2005, culminating in whatis basically wireless FireWire in 2006. The promise of Blue-tooth has been cable replacement, but it’s not fast.”

Rofheart foresees solid-state memory and miniature harddrives in smart phones and similar devices reaching multiple-gigabyte capacities in the coming years. “UWB will be a veryfast way to move files back and forth from these devices,” hesays. Freescale has already shown a prototype of a smartphoneenabled with UWB .

All this wireless technology on the horizon will help our de-vices communicate faster and more effectively. And best of all,it will keep the backs and undersides of our desks from look-ing like a snake pit of cables. E

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Just ten years after Netscape went public, the Internet haswoven its way into the social fabric and the rhythms ofour personal and working lives. In fact, most of us findit impossible to imagine life without the Web. For onething, it would be less efficient, in both easily measur-

able and intangible ways. We would be less connected withfamily and friends, and less tuned in to the world at work. Lookfor much more to come over the next ten years, both positivetransformations and potentially devastating changes.

PROVING GROUNDS

When you’re taking a tour of future probabilities, Internet2is one of the best pit stops to make. The private, high-speednetwork connects research and educational institutionsprimarily, and is a trial balloon for technologies we may alleventually use. Internet2 offers glimpses of our connected fu-ture—as it did recently when the recording industry hitscores of college students with lawsuits, accusing them oftrading millions of copyrighted songs at a high speed andmassive scale achieved through privileged access to Inter-net2. Such large-scale copyright infringement is likely to sur-face on the public Internet in the future, as connectionsbecome exponentially faster.

One of the advantages Internet2 has over the existingInternet is speed. The network will never be available to thepublic, though, as it’s solely aresearch tool. But Internet2CEO Doug Van Houwelingsays that people who don’thave access to it will soonstart seeing much higherspeeds too. “You can get twohigh-end computers,” henotes, “get 10-gigabit Ether-net cards for them, and putone in Chicago and one inSan Francisco. Connect themwith fiber, and then they’recapable of communicating atspeeds of 6 or 7 billion bits asecond. Internet2’s backbone and the fastest networks in theworld run at 10 gigabits, which means for the first time twocomputers can achieve the capacity of the fastest backbonelinks we can build.”

So what kinds of promising activities are alive on Internet2today? Some are aimed at research organizations, such as thehigh-speed connections that link astronomical facilities likethe Gemini observatory atop Hawaii’s highest mountain,Mauna Kea, and enable them to crunch masses of telescopedata.

Van Houweling points to next-generation video conferenc-ing via the Access Grid, developed at the Argonne NationalLaboratory, a Department of Energy facility in Illinois. Insideone of the conference rooms are three screens, along withthree video projectors. “By bringing 20 or 30 different picturestogether on the screens, you can have a meeting that has 20sites.” (See the photo.) He adds that massively multiplayer on-line games are hugely popular in parts of the world wherebroadband is widely used, and predicts that these games willbe a significant part of future Internet activity.

VIDEO CONCALL Next-generation

video conferencing at Argonne

National Laboratory.

// b y S e b a s t i a n R u p l e y //

THE NET’S

NEXT

The grown-up Internet

promises faster speeds,

fantastic apps, and

a billion connected

gadgets. But what

about the Big One?

YEARS110

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AN IP ADDRESS FOR EVERYONE

Internet-driven social changes loom large in the decade ahead.In September 2004, researchers at the Pew Internet Projectsurveyed a group of technologists and social analysts on theevolution of the Internet over the next ten years. Some of themost notable forecasts were alarming.

Among the highlights: Sixty-six percent of the respondentsexpect that the widely feared Big One—a devastating attack onthe Internet or on America’s power grid—will occur in the nextdecade. Fifty-nine percent agreed that more government andbusiness surveillance will take place, as Internet connectionsbecome embedded in our appliances, cars, and even clothes.

On the positive side, within five years a third of all U.S.households are expected to have home networks that provideIP-based connectivity among PCs and other consumer-elec-tronics devices. Preparations for the spread of Internet con-nections to all kinds of gadgets are already under way. ICANN,the organization overseeing the Internet’s naming and num-bering scheme, has launched the Internet Protocol Version 6(IPv6) on its root servers. The new protocol will make it pos-sible for every device and every person to have an IP address.

The demand for addresseson the current protocol,IPv4, has been threateningto reach the system’s limitof 4.3 billion; about two-thirds are already taken. On IPv6, thenumber of addresses will be more than 10 to the 38th power.

”There is very visible movement in IPv6 uptake, especiallyin the Far East, as well as in Europe and domestically,” saysVint Cerf, senior vice president of technology strategy at MCIand an inventor of the Internet. When IP addresses becomeubiquitous, he says, “entertainment devices at home and thingswe carry with us and in the car will benefit from being part ofthe Internet. They will download, upload, and accept instruc-tions from the Net, from services we retain to manage our entertainment for us and from friends who share family filmsand photos.” Cerf foresees billions of new Net-connected devices emerging in the coming years.

The Pew survey predicted that news and publishing organi-zations, along with educational and health-care institutions,would experience the biggest changes. “Health care is approx-imately 10 years behind other endeavors in being transformed,and will see its boom in the next 10 years,” said one respondent.In fact, the Bush administration has already dedicated funds to-ward digitizing all medical records within the next ten years.

VANISHING DIVISIONS

The digital divide may also fade. “Each year, the online popula-tion will become more like the overall population, with morerepresentation of lower-income people, people of different eth-nicities, the very young, and the very old,” says David Schatsky,senior vice president at Jupiter Research.

Without a doubt, more people all over the world will get on-line in the next decade. The Massachusetts Institute of Tech-nology has plans to manufacture $100 Web-enabled laptopsthat can be sold in huge quantities to educational systems. U2lead singer Bono, working with AMD, plans to Web-enableevery school, health clinic, and hospital in Ethiopia. And AMDCEO Hector Ruiz has announced an initiative called “50 x 15,”which would bring Internet access to 50 percent of the world’spopulation in the next ten years (by 2015) by delivering low-cost hardware and special payment plans.

STOPPING “THE BIG ONE”

On a cautionary note, security problems, from viruses tophishing, are rising at dizzying rates, contributing to the fearof a devastating Internet attack. But Internet2’s Doug VanHouweling predicts that changes in how we authenticate ourcommunication on the Internet will curb many problems.

He cites an authentication-software scheme called Shibbo-leth, which is in use on Internet2 and at universities such asPenn State. “This kind of software will mean that people spendmost of their Internet time in a community that’s trusted, andsince attacks come from outside, there will be ways throughauthentication to tell where they came from.”

Asked to speculate on how the Internet might advance inthe next decade, Van Houweling says, “I think we don’t yet un-derstand the implications of the mobile Net. There is so muchactivity and risk attached to people when they’re movingaround that if you could really make the Net part of that world,it could have an enormous impact. If every vehicle had directaccess to the Net and the roads they travel on facilitated inter-vehicle communication, driving could become immenselymore safe and vehicles much more reliable.”

Jupiter Research’s Schatsky agrees that Web connectionsmay blend into our surroundings. “They will become muchmore ubiquitous, and wireless, with connected cars, connectedclothes, and real-time connections in formerly inanimateobjects,” he predicts.

Ten years is too short for the Net to become the totally im-mersive sci-fi “Metaverse” that author Neal Stephenson envi-sioned in his book Snow Crash. But it’s a good bet we’ll stopthinking of it as an environment separate from our physicalsurroundings, and realize instead that it’s all around us.

NIGHTSCAPE Astronomers atop

Hawaii’s Mauna Kea use Internet2

to observe the night sky.

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BILLIONS OF NEW NET-CONNECTED DEVICES WILL EMERGE IN THE COMING YEARS.

C O V E R S T O R Y

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Resolving today’s

PC problems is just one

focus for technical

research. Computer-driven

innovations help solve

today’s challenges in

nearly every facet of

human endeavor. We’l l

tel l you how computing

may change our lives in

space, at war, in the

hospital, and at home.

Il lustration by

Randy Lyhus

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Computer technology doesn’t just help us explore space:It makes the entire endeavor possible. As technologyevolves, so will our understanding of our world—andall the worlds out there. Here are some of the most ex-citing projects on the horizon.

SPACED-OUT TELESCOPE

Following the Hubble Space Telescope is a bit like followingFriends. In a nutshell, good luck. After a bumpy start, the Hub-ble proved enormously successful, giving astronomers an un-precedented look at the solar system. But as Hubble’s days nearan end, NASA is gearing up fora second act with the JamesWebb Space Telescope (JWST).

Expected to be launched in2011, the JWST will be stationedfar further out in space than the Hubble, in an orbit 940,000miles from Earth. It will also be able to see much fainter ob-jects than the Hubble can. As-tronomers hope it will helpthem explain how galaxiesformed, determine the shape ofthe universe, and better under-stand the birth of stars.

Building the Webb telescopepresents some formidable chal-lenges. Its far-off orbit puts rescue missions out of thequestion, so it will have to workfrom the moment it is deployedand for the next five to ten years. Advanced computer simula-tions let engineers test the telescope’s systems before deploy-ment and calculate the exposure times needed to conductobservations.

Like the Hubble, the JWST needs to maintain a perfect shapeto its mirror to capture sharp images. The Hubble does this byusing a thick, solid glass mirror. That approach, however, won’twork for the JWST; its primary mirror is more than twice thesize of the Hubble’s.

Instead, the JWST’s mirror is composed of 18 lightweightsegments that are kept in perfect alignment by computer-controlled actuators that adjust the mirror’s overall shape.NASA expects to use the technology in future space missions.

MANLESS MISSIONS

Ever since pilots have climbed into cockpits, engineers havebeen working to get them out. Computer-guided flight is par-ticularly compelling when it comes to space: Imagine robotic

craft that can service satellites in orbit and bring supplies tothe International Space Station or future outposts.

Space docking is a tricky business, enough so that NASA hasalways given the reins to humans. Now, building on a Russian-designed automated docking system called Kurs, NASA is attempting to change that. Its DART project—Demonstration forAutonomous Rendezvous Technology—uses computers andsensors to enable a completely human-free link-up in space.

DART uses an on-board GPS to receive signals from the tar-get spacecraft and then work its way to within several hundredmeters. An advanced video guidance sensor then takes over,

feeding navigation data to acomputer that controls thechase craft’s position.

This past spring, the DARTtest vehicle was launched intospace to rendezvous with anorbiting satellite. The testended prematurely when theDART craft ran out of fuel, butdata sent to Earth revealed thatit accidentally bumped the tar-get satellite. Expect to seemore attempts at computer-guided rendezvous as thespace agency works to shiftmuch of the burden—andrisk—away from humans.

GALACTIC DIGITAL CAMERA

Hollywood isn’t the only place where people sit around con-templating objects smashing into Earth. At the University ofHawaii’s Institute for Astronomy, the goal isn’t to entertain uswith killer asteroids, but to save us from them. To that end,work is under way to create the Panoramic Survey Telescopeand Rapid Response System—or Pan-STARRS. An array offour relatively small telescopes, Pan-STARRS will keep an eyeout for approaching asteroids, comets, and other objects thatcould pose a danger to Earth.

The Pan-STARRS’ four highly sensitive telescopes will ob-serve the same wide expanse of sky simultaneously and takephotographs that will each contain 2GB of data (about 4 billionpixels). The system will take the four images and, using ad-vanced software tools, compare them to remove bad pixels andflaws caused by cosmic rays. It will then create a compositeimage, and compare that with a previously stored image of thesame part of the sky, revealing objects that have moved.

This technique allows suspicious objects to be flaggedquickly; all of this is completed in just one minute of comput-er time. Pan-STARRS is expected to be operational by 2008.

s p a c e Space technology is bringing us closer

to the stars—and the stars into

sharper focus—than ever before.// b y A l a n C o h e n

THE DART AIMS to remove

the human factor from space

rendezvous and docking.

F U T U R E T E C H

www.pcmag.com AUGUST 23, 2005 P C M A G A Z I N E 107

The experience of U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq isinspiring some innovative programs at the Departmentof Defense’s top battlefield technology outfit, theDefense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).Often partnering with Army, Navy, and Air Force

research labs, DARPA helps usher new technology onto thebattlefield via classified and unclassified programs, whichrange from Advanced Speech Encoding to the High EnergyLiquid Laser Area Defense System.

NAVIGATING BEYOND GPS

A pair of programs just getting off the ground aims to provideGPS-quality navigation when GPS signals aren’t available dueto jamming or interference. The Robust Surface Navigation(RSN) program will develop a software-defined radio (SDR)that navigates using signals from available civilian transmit-ters, such as communications satellites, TV broadcast anten-nas, and mobile-phone towers.

To calculate its position, the SDR will initially need to de-termine the locations and to “characterize” the individual sig-nals from these local beacons. One idea under considerationfor the program is to have a ground station back at HQ totransmit this reference information regularly to the SDR. Oncethe SDR has the information, it can monitor the civilian trans-missions and calculate its position to within 3 to 7 meters.That’s equivalent to GPS with Wide Area Augmentation Sys-tem enhancements. This means that ground soldiers couldknow where they were inside buildings, on narrow city

streets, under dense jungle canopies, or anywhere else GPSsignals are weak.

A companion program to the RSN program, known as Sub-Surface Navigation (SSN), will focus on deeper locations suchas caves, bunkers, and tunnels. Like the RSN effort, the SSNprogram will use local civilian transmitters to fix the SDR’s lo-cation. It will, however, also make use of natural signals, likelunar or solar gravity fields and geomagnetic noise, which cantravel deep underground. DARPA officials envision soldiersusing special beacons in some instances to help provide moresignal density below ground. In the future, soldiers could nav-igate in underground facilities with concrete walls at depthsup to 100 meters. The idea is to build a single SDR that can useGPS signals when they’re available and other sources whenthey’re not.

Another DARPA program under way will outfit future ver-sions of the F-35 fighter with a laser that can foil or destroy theenemy’s electronic air defenses. Many new air defense systemsuse passive electro-optic (EO) targeting devices before hand-ing the information off to a radar-guided surface-to-air missilesystem. The Multifunction Electro-Optics for Defense of U.S.Aircraft (MEDUSA) program will use a multifunction laser toscan the ground well ahead of the stealthy F-35.

When it illuminates the glass lens of any EO sensor pointedat the sky, the MEDUSA system can detect the “cat’s eye” re-flection off the lens, pinpoint its location, and aim a more pow-erful laser at the EO sensor. The goal is either to blind thesensor temporarily or to burn its sensitive components before

the aircraft can be targeted.DARPA benignly refers tothis last function as “opticaldefeat.”

CELL-PHONE SEEKER

DARPA is also working on aprogram to make future ene-mies think twice about pick-ing up their cell phones toset off roadside bombs or re-port the location and move-ments of U.S. soldiers. ItsRadio Frequency GuidedMunitions Program will de-velop RF seekers that homein on wireless communica-tions signals in the 30- to3,000-MHz frequency range,such as those from radios orcell phones. The seeker willbe fitted to anything from 81-

m i l i ta r y// b y J o h n K n o w l e s

DARPA’s newest projects aim to

protect servicemen and women by

bringing cutting-edge technology

into the combat zone.

Radio Frequency Guided Munitions Program

Enemy uses cell phone to communicate or to set off a roadside explosive.

Cell-phone signal is intercepted by nearby UAV. UAV spots user, confirms he is an enemy.

Rough target area is transmitted to mortar crew via UAV. Mortar crew can launch immediately, without waiting for refined data.

Shell homes in on enemy’s cell-phone signal, adjusts course, and strikes enemy before call is ended.

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take a billion short strips of DNA and compare them with a ref-erence genome. The goal is not only to identify the DNA frag-ments but also to discover variations important for treatingdiseases. “You’re not just looking for where the strand fits onthe genome, but where a strand with some error—or varia-

tion—would fit,” says Lapidus. The sequencing machine is a

64-bit multiprocessor systemwith well over 8GB of memoryand terabyte-level disk drives.Helicos hopes to release its firstsequencing machine by the endof the year. “Essentially, we’vebuilt a spell-checker for DNA,looking for matches and nearmatches,” says Lapidus. “Theonly difference is, we’ve got sixbillion words in our dictionary.”

THE ARTIFICIAL RETINA

An ambitious project funded by the Department of Energyhopes to restore vision to peo-ple blinded by diseases thathave damaged the retina, suchas macular degeneration and

retinitis pigmentosa. In these cases, the eye has lost its photo-receptors, which receive images, but it still retains the neuralpaths that transmit signals to the brain.

An artificial retina would bypass the damage, capturing im-ages and converting them into electrical signals that are passed

Medical technology is advancing so quickly that a 3D image of the brain is as ho-hum as a first-generation Sony PlayStation. Indeed, today’scutting-edge technology bears a strong resem-blance to yesterday’s science fiction. Tailoring

drugs to a patient’s DNA, restoring vision to theblind, enabling the paralyzed to walk again—theseare far-out ideas that may not be far off. The fol-lowing projects are among the most promising ex-amples of how medical science and computertechnology are intersecting to improve our lives.

PERSONAL GENOMICS

Medicine can work miracles, but they don’t alwayswork equally well for everyone. Because we’re juststarting to understand the impact that variations inDNA have on the effectiveness of medicines, doc-tors can’t yet tailor a drug regimen to a patient’sunique DNA. But imagine having a decoded copy ofyour own genome, a guide to your DNA that wouldlet doctors pick specific drugs and dosages.

Currently, decoding a genome is a ridiculouslycostly and time-consuming affair. It takes 100 DNAsequencing machines six months and costs be-tween $20 and $30 million. Yet that may soonchange. Helicos BioSciences, a start-up in Cam-bridge, Massachusetts, hopes to increase sequencing speedby a factor of 100 and bring costs down to $15,000 to $30,000per genome.

“It’s a very computationally intensive problem,” says Stan-ley Lapidus, the company’s CEO. The Helicos machine will

P C M A G A Z I N E AUGUST 23, 2005 www.pcmag.com108

h e a l t hc a r e

What sounds like science fiction today may

be tomorrow’s everyday medicine.

// b y A l a n C o h e n

F U T U R E T E C H

ONE SMALL STEP taken by this robot

represents exciting spinal injury

research based on lamprey eel spines.

mm mortar shells to Javelin anti-tank weapons to air-launchedrockets or bombs, and it willguide the munition to within 20meters of its target—though thatdegree of accuracy would still be problematic in urban areas.

The idea is to use available signals, intelligence ground sys-tems, and aircraft to detect an enemy emitter and locate itwithin 1.5 miles of its source. Ideally, this will include real-timevideo and signals intelligence from overhead unmanned aerialvehicles to ensure that the cell phone is being used by a legit-imate target. This general information will then be quickly re-layed to nearby friendly units. It might be sent, for instance, toground soldiers equipped with mortars able fire 81-mm shellsat targets up to 20 miles distant. As soon as a specially RF-seek-er equipped shell leaves the mortar, it will deploy antennas tofind the emitter while the shell is still on the upward part of its

trajectory, allowing it to refineits own targeting informationwhile in flight. The seeker willthen steer the shell down ontothe target.

DARPA has opted to use the 81-mm mortar shell for its de-velopment program because it requires a small RF seekerwhose components are hardened to withstand the shock of amortar launch. Based on these requirements, however, theseeker could be fitted to any larger munition, such as a Hydrarocket or a JDAM.

The advent of this technology will change the game for enemies who are used to communicating and then quickly relocating before they can be targeted accurately. In places likeIraq, insurgents who use their cell phones to detonate roadsidebombs might think twice if they could be attacked within 20seconds of making their deadly phone calls.

�

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DARPA AIMS TO MAKE

ENEMIES THINK TWICE ABOUT

USING THEIR CELL PHONES.

P C M A G A Z I N E AUGUST 23, 2005 www.pcmag.com110

h o m e

Back in the 1980s, a little-known piece of kitsch culturelay stashed away in the Wisconsin Dells—TommyBartlett’s Robot World. Here visitors saw Technicolorrobot butlers, acrylic loveseats, and mannequins sit-ting around a dining table that was actually a conveyor

belt carrying plastic plates loaded with dinner pills. In the 21st century, pragmatism has largely replaced

space-age futurism in home technology. Currentideas go beyond goofy gadgetry anddystopian automation to propose ahome environment that’s techno-logically advanced yet simple andcustomizable to your needs, in-terests, and surroundings. Thinkof it as the responsive home.

SMART DESIGN

The responsive home starts with thestructure of the house itself. Houses willavoid the gratuitous use of technology infavor of smart design that responds to the

inhabitants’ needs, says Allison Arieff, editor-in-chief of Dwellmagazine. Prefab housing incorporating cutting-edge technol-ogy is one step in that direction. “Prefab houses can beprewired for Ethernet and have all essential utilities—such aswater and electricity—built into one wall,” says Arieff. Dwell

is promoting prefab housing byholding architecture competitions,after which the winning designgets built. The first Dwell Homewas constructed in Pittsboro,

North Carolina, and the second will be builtin Los Angeles.

As for home automation, technologiessuch as X10 have been on the map for years

but haven’t exactly taken off. Next-generationtechnologies such as ZigBee (see page 100 for

details) and Z-Wave (a competing shorter-rangehome-automation technology using the same 802.15.4

protocol) may offer more appeal; they promise not onlyto automate lighting, heat, security, appliances, and enter-

tainment, but also to integrate with your home network.

Forget wisecracking robots and test-tube meals;

think practical, customizable, and eminently

livable. The responsive home will be a

smart and simple place to hang your hat. // b y E r i k R h e y

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F U T U R E T E C H

THE Z-WAVE STARTER kit is

an entry point into home

automation.

to the neural cells. Already, six pa-tients have had a prototype im-planted, and they were able todifferentiate between objects such ascups, knives, and plates.

The artificial retina is the result ofa collaboration among the DohenyEye Institute (DOE) at the Universityof Southern California, North Car-olina State University, Second SightMedical Products, and the Univer-sity of California at Santa Cruz. It relies on miniature electronics, ad-vanced processing power, and high-resolution sensors. A tiny camera embedded in a pair ofglasses captures an image and sends the data wirelessly toa chip behind the user’s ear. The chip converts the datainto electronic signals and sends them via wires under theskin to an electrode implant on the retina.

Only partial vision will be possible—enough, perhaps, toread a book or recognize a face. But for many visually impairedpeople, even this limited achievement would be nothing shortof miraculous.

THE SILICON SPINAL CORD

Researchers are discovering that the offspring of biology and robotics may be found in the real world, not just in a

Spider-Man movie. By study-ing the circuitry that empow-ers the spinal cord of thelamprey eel, Johns HopkinsUniversity professor RalphEtienne-Cummings and Uni-versity of Maryland professorAvis Cohen hope to developan implant that could help paralyzed individuals walkagain. Spinal-cord injuriessever the connection betweenthe brain and the nerves thatsend walking instructions toleg muscles. Rebuilding that connection may not be med-ically possible, but Etienne-Cummings and Cohen think

they can bypass it—via microprocessors.That’s where the lamprey eel comes in. As a primitive verte-

brate, it creates its locomotion in much the same way as hu-mans do. By studying how a lamprey eel’s brain transmitselectrical images along its spinal cord, the researchers createda microchip that replicates the process.

Etienne-Cummings has already used the chip to enable ro-botic legs to “walk” (see photo), and hopes to create a similarimplant for humans , though that’s still a good ten years away.

VISIONARY: Electrodes on

the eye may help restore

partial vision.

BodyMedia envisions a world in which an armband monitors vital signs and biorhythms and feeds data to the home network hub, which can adjust lighting and heat according to your mood or sleep/wake state. The armband can control AV equipment and kitchen appliances too. This technology can also be used to monitor elderly or disabled family members; data is beamed to a cell phone, PDA, or PC.

Body

Monitoring Espresso maker

Armband

Lighting

HDTV

Cell phone

Home stereo/Media Center

Wireless router/gateway

Thermostat/home automation node

F U T U R E T E C H

P C M A G A Z I N E AUGUST 23, 2005 www.pcmag.com112

“The emphasis used to be on a Jetsons-type home that essentially controlled you,” says Chris Johnson, vice presidentof business development at Zensys, maker of Z-Wavetechnology. “But the next big thing is to make a home networkthat is positionally aware. The system will know which roomis which without being told.” This will eliminate the need toprogram each node in your home to perform certain tasks.

Johnson proposes outfitting the home with plenty of net-work nodes, or sensors. Zensys and Z-Wave are working tomake such nodes affordable, stretch their battery life from oneto ten years, and have everything fully controllable by PDA, PC,or remote control.

The responsive home won’t just open the curtains on com-mand but will also sense the needs of its inhabitants and respondautonomously. This is commonly referred to as body monitoring.Astro Teller is the CEO of BodyMedia, a company that makesarmbands and adhesive patches outfitted with sensors to reportvital signs back to a home network. He envisions a home inwhich inhabitants wear such sensing devices 24/7; the house willadjust the lighting, temperature, and other environmentalfactors to match moods and biorhythms.

Body monitors will also keep tabs on elderly or disabledloved ones who don’t live with you, tracking their vital signs,

activity (or inactivity), and more. “The most common health-care situation will be one in which the caregiver lives within40 miles of the person needing care but cannot constantlydrive back and forth to monitor that person,” says Teller. Alongwith sending status reports to a remote PC or PDA, the nextgeneration of BodyMedia sensors will have CDMA chips, sodata can be sent to caregivers’ cell phones.

KEEPING IN TOUCH

What if you simply want to keep in better touch with family andfriends? Generational differences divide us into two groups: Theolder group just isn’t comfortable in front of a computer.

The younger set uses digital communication even morethan the phone and almost never writes old-fashionedletters. There’s a need to bridge this communications gap.

The Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) is working onthe problem with Social, Mobile, Audio Spaces, a projectdesigned to create shared audio space so you can be inconstant communication with people in other homes.Instead of making phone calls, you’ll have an always-on,hands-free connection that picks up your voice wherev-

er you are. It’s jokingly referred to as “the God phone.” “You can interact with someone far away the same way you

can with someone you live with,” says Teresa Lutz, manager ofPARC’s Computing Science Laboratory. For example, you’ll beable to listen in on your family’s Thanksgiving dinner if you can’tbe there in person. The Social, Mobile, Audio Spaces project isonly one component of a PARC project that seeks to replace gad-gets with the “disappearing computer” built into the house itself.

With these technologies on the drawing board, you can lookforward to your responsive home without worrying about howto pay for your robot butler.

�

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INSTEAD OF MAKING PHONES

CALLS, YOU’LL HAVE AN ALWAYS-ON,

HANDS-FREE CONNECTION–JOKINGLY

REFERRED TO AS “THE GOD PHONE.”

T E C H N O L O G Y O N Y O U R T I M E

HIGH-END REMOTES

HP iPaq rx3715 Mobile

Media Companion

The HP iPaq rx3715 MobileMedia Companion is amultimedia Pocket PC thatcomes with Nevo Univer-sal Remote software andNevo Media for stream-ing music from your PC.As a Pocket PC, therx3715 is powerful, withlong battery life and a 3.5-inch QVGA (240-by-320) color touch-screen display. It has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and infrared (IR) con-nectivity; a snapshot-quality digital cam-era; and software for organizing andshowing photos. The touch screen stands

in for the remote buttons.You program the rx3715from your PC, accessingUEI’s database of codes,macros, and icons. If a de-vice isn’t in the database,

the remote’s learning mode lets you pro-gram it in. And programming doesn’t re-quire a lot of skill.

You’re not getting a high-end NevoSLfor half price, though this is still a very nicepackage. The NevoSL has vastly more cus-

tomizability through Nevo-Studio programming soft-ware, A/V-specific buttons,and a charging cradle thatdoesn’t require you to line up a multipinned connector exact-ly. The rx3715 can’t be your onlyremote unless it never leaves thecoffee table (unlikely, since it’s a Pocket PC), and other than thebigger screen it doesn’t offer sig-nificant advantages as a remotecontrol over the Logitech Har-mony 880. Actually, it does haveone advantage: Road warriors who

take it along need no longer be both-ered by annoying TV shows in publicplaces like hotel bars. The bartender has a remote, but you’ve got one too, so itshould be a standoff at least.$430 street. Hewlett-Packard Development Co.,

www.hp.com. lllhm

Logitech Harmony 880 Advanced

Universal Remote

The Logitech Harmony 880 rep-resents the future of remotes: It’suniversal, it has a color LCD, it’seasily programmable on a PC (noneed for an A/V installer), and it’s

reasonably priced. It’s our Editors’ Choice.The NevoSL is better and has a bigger

screen, but it costs overthree times as much.

Installation is simple:Go to www.harmonyremote.com and enter in-formation about your TV,stereo, DVD player, and soon. Then download the in-formation to your PC, whichpasses it on via USB to the re-mote. In case something goeswrong, a Help button lets you fixmost simple goofs. The wasp-waisted 880 measures 8.1 by 2.3 by 1.3 inches (HWD), weighs 0.4pounds and includes a 128- by-160-pixel color display bordered by eightcontextual buttons whose icons ap-pear on the screen edges. The unit it-self snaps into a docking/rechargingcradle. As long as it spends a night thereevery week or so, you don’t have to worryabout running out of power, ever.

The 880 is built around activities(watch TV or play a DVD, for example)instead of the macros that power usersprefer, but the effect is the same: This isone remote that does virtually anythingyou want. The street price of $250 mayseem high if you’re used to $49 universalremotes, but keep in mind that the 880’scompetition really comes from custom-programmable remotes that cost $500and up. This one’s a winner. $250 street. Logitech, www.logitech.com.

llllh

Sony Navitus RM-NX7000

If you want to take a crack at program-ming a high-end remote to make it do ex-actly what you want, consider the SonyNavitus RM-NX7000. Sony recommendssetup by an A/V installer, but doesn’tmake it difficult for you to get your handson a Navitus through normal channels, asUEI does with the NevoSL.

The wedge-shaped Navitus—6.5 by 4 by2 inches (HWD)—has a horizontal, 3.5-inchQVGA screen that gives tactile feedback(thanks to a technology called Touch-Engine) when you press an on-screen but-ton. All the controls are on top rather thanon the side, and five direct-access buttonstake you to specific pages. Want to add net-

RemotePossibilitiesBY BILL HOWARD

When relationships founder, arguments about remote controls—proliferation, complexity, who had them last—are the culprits16 percent of the time, says a recent Cosmo survey. Actually,there is no such survey, but this conclusion is probably true. • One way to foster domestic bliss is to buy a universal remote

control. We review seven remotes here, most of them programmable via your PC.The RCA and weemote devices, though not PC-programmable, might be worth con-sidering to supplement one of the higher-end remotes featured in this roundup. Andthe Gyration, while not universal, is a great addition to your PC media setup.

lllll EXCELLENT

llllm VERY GOOD

lllmm GOOD

llmmm FAIR

lmmmm POOR

WHAT THE RATINGS MEAN

AFTER HOURS

P C M A G A Z I N E AUGUST 23, 2005 www.pcmag.com124

MORE ON THE WEBgo.pcmag.com/afterhoursSee Personal Technology online for more

Quick Clips and Gear + Games reviews.

www.pcmag.com AUGUST 23, 2005 P C M A G A Z I N E 125

so that, for instance, a child cantap her picture on the main menu

and see only the icons of the fiveTV stations she watches.

Available only through A/V in-stallers, the NevoSL is a step up for

most of us, but it provides a pricebreak for those who have been pay-

ing $1,500 or more for customtouch-screen remotes. Essentially

a Windows PocketPC that func-tions only as a remote, the

NevoSL communicates by bothIR and Wi-Fi. An available Wi-Fi

hub, NevoLink ($300 street), canbe hidden among your A/V gearand includes half a dozen IRflashers. The remote has a verti-cal 3.5-inch touch screen, 22 but-tons, and a charging cradle.

UEI ran us through a quickie in-staller course; you program theNevoSL on a PC and transfer the informa-tion via USB cable or Wi-Fi. We were daz-zled by the wealth of options. We wereeven left thinking the installation could bedone by a savvy user with time to spare.The sleek design has a price, though: But-tons are backlit but they’re shiny, type is

small, and the important Home buttonis on the side and not obvious. Butthose are minor blemishes. It’s not theEditors’ Choice, but the NevoSL is ourInstallers’ Choice. $800 street. Universal Electronics Inc.,

www.mynevo.com. llllh

ADJUNCT REMOTES

Fobis weemote 3

Simple is good, but simple plus cheapis better. At $24.95, the weemote 3 fillsthe bill perfectly. This limited-func-tion remote has nine big buttons with

different colors and shapes. Program-ming controls and batteries are behindno-kids-allowed, screw-protected panels.It’s not a universal remote, but the wee-mote can switch the TV to an input for

a VCR or DVD player viaone of the five Favoritesbuttons. You can asso-ciate a favorite channelwith the power-on but-ton and lock out others.For control of DVDplayers, you may wantto add the separateweemote DV ($19.95).

Adults who like simplicitycan opt for the color-neu-

tral weemote Sr. (also$24.95), but you’ll lose func-

tions like picture-in-picture. $24.95 direct. Fobis Technologies,

www.weemote.com. lllhm

RCA RCU807

We included the RCA RCU807 as a proxyfor dozens of products that cost from $10 to$75 and roll all your existing,broken, and lost remotesinto one. At $35, this onehits the sweet spot: It offerscontrol of eight devices,macros that span multipledevices (turn the TV and re-ceiver on, play a DVD, and soon), plenty of dedicated but-tons, and a multiline LCD forinformation on what the re-mote is doing. You programthe RCU807 by enteringproduct-specific codes; foroddball devices, there’s alsoa learning mode. It’s not assimple as the weemote seriesof remotes, but it has morefunctionality without beingoverly confusing. $35 street. Thomson Inc.,

www.rca.com. lllmm

go.pcmag.com/afterhours

work logos or a picture ofeach user? No problem,as long as you’re patient:This isn’t a 10-minutesetup. You program theRM-NX7000 on yourPC, then transfer in-formation via USB or(remember whoseproduct this is?) anon-board MemoryStick slot.

On the down-side, most of the 19buttons are brushedchrome and hard to read in dim light.This is an IR-only remote, not RF, so youcan’t turn down the volume from tworooms over. Aesthetically, the RM-NX7000is a bit blocky; some may prefer some-thing sleeker, such as the NevoSL. Withthis model, Sony may be caught being toohigh-end (price) and not high-end enough(no RF). If you’re a one-room user, though,this remote may suit you just fine.$525 direct. Sony Corp. of America, www.sony.com.

lllhm

UEI NevoSL

If you don’t mind theprice—and maybe pay-ing someone else to dothe programming—thenthe cleanly designedUniversal ElectronicsNevoSL is the remote foryou. It can control virtu-ally anything you want todo with any piece of elec-tronics in any room in thehouse. This includes con-trolling MP3s, photos, andvideos on your PC directlyor through UPnP (Univer-sal Plug and Play) digitalmusic hubs (which aremuch more compelling prod-ucts when you don’t have to use their in-terfaces and remotes). The NevoSL’sultracustomizable interface can be set up

The Gyration Cordless Optical Air Mouse controls your computer,

not your A/V equipment; but if you store and play multimedia on

your PC, it makes a reasonable alternative to PC remotes. You can

use the mouse simply by holding it up in the air—no surface

needed (although it doubles as a wireless optical desktop mouse,

too). The mouse has a built-in inertial gyroscope that senses

movements. By tilting, twisting, and clicking, you replicate a

traditional mouse or, through the GyroTools software, pass multi-

media commands through to your PC. The mouse looks and feels

odd at first, but the

hand gestures quickly

become second nature.

The Air Mouse works at 49 MHz, the

frequency used by some older portable

phones, so interference is possible. But you can teach it to pay

attention only to the USB transceiver that connects to your PC.

The signal travels about 30 feet, plenty for most setups.

$80 street. Gyration Inc., www.gyration.com. llllm

3D Mousing

Pool Protection

Younglings have a tendency to

wander, but the last place

they should stray is an

unsafe pool area. The Terrapin

Safety Turtle lets you monitor

your child’s proximity to water

from up to 100 feet away. If the

child’s turtle bracelet gets wet, the

home device emits a piercingly loud

shriek. The devices communicate

through walls, though the receiver

works best when it has line of sight to the pool.

As an added form of protection, it’s hard to top

this turtle power.—David Murphy

$300 list. Terrapin Communications Inc., www.safetyturtle.com.

llllh

Lay Down Some Digital

Vocals

As a home musician, you usually get what

you pay for, equipment-wise. It’s therefore

surprising that the Marshall MXL Desktop

Recording Kit is a fairly good purchase for amateur

recording needs. Included are a large-diaphragm

cardioid microphone, a stand, and enough cabling to

accommodate most audio setups. But don’t expect

to start crooning out of the box; if you want to belt

vocals, you’re going to need some kind of pop filter

and probably a shock mount, neither of which are

included in the kit.—DM

$150 list. Marshall Electronics Inc., www.mxlmics.com. lllhm

Digital DJ

Vinyl records are still the standard for DJs—but try lugging a couple of record cases

through an airport, and the MP3 revolution starts looking pretty good. Enter the Rane

Serato Scratch LIVE, a hardware and software system for playing digital music files

through standard DJ turntables or CD players. The setup looks daunting, but it takes only a few

minutes to get up and running. A USB breakout box connects your PC, turntables, and mixer; the

included, specially encoded vinyl records control the MP3s assigned to each turntable in the drag-

and-drop software interface. Similar to products such as the Stanton Final Scratch, theScratch LIVE

has a deep feature list for those willing to take the time to learn the software.—Dan Ackerman

$725 list. Rane Corp. Ltd., www.serato.com. llllm

G E A R + G A M E S

Track Your

Wandering

Children

If the thought of keeping tabs

on your kid with a wrist-leash is too much for you to bear, the Franzus

Angel Alert Child Distance Monitor is worth checking out. You sepa-

rate the device into two halves, and once they reach a certain distance

from each other, the home device starts beeping. If you keep the Angel

Alert in a purse or pocket during your next trip to a crowded mall, though,

you might not hear it when your kid starts wandering off. Keep it in

earshot and you’ll feel a lot safer.—DM

$39.95 list. Franzus Company LLC, www.angelalert.net. lllhm

P C M A G A Z I N E AUGUST 23, 2005 www.pcmag.com126

www.pcmag.com AUGUST 23, 2005 P C M A G A Z I N E 127

Guild Wars

This MMORPG caters to the action gamer,

with role-playing elements eclipsed by the

emphasis on

hack-and-slash

missions. Log

on, warp to a

waypoint, and

complete one of

the missions

(created only for

you) by the time

you’ve finished your lunch break. The highly

organized player-versus-player environment

makes Guild Wars a serious alternative to

the disappointing slugfests of the genre’s

leader, World of Warcraft.—David Murphy

$40 street; no monthly fee. NCsoft Corp.,

www.guildwars.com. llllm

Water Life Screensaver

Rather than turning

your screen into an

aquarium, Water

Life lets you explore

a full underwater

world. Navigate

through an ever-

changing environ-

ment that’s loaded with fish, plants, and

objects. You can turn off the soothing new-

age music and the sound of a diver’s

bubbles, if you prefer.—Craig Ellison

$17.95 direct. Rixane Interactive, www.rixane.com.

lllhm

Puzzle Pirates

Devoted to the golden age of buccaneers,

Puzzle Pirates charts a new course for

online role-playing games by making

minipuzzles a key element of the experi-

ence. You can customize your on-screen

persona, build a pirate empire, trade for

goods, and if you’re lucky and skilled

enough, retire to an island paradise. This

game may look rather simplistic at first,

but it’s rich with high-sea adventure.

—Peter Suciu

$19.99 list. Ubisoft Entertainment,

www.puzzlepirates.com. llllm

management tool has a helpful site sur-vey that let us select our wireless net-work from a list of those detected. Wewere unable to attach to either of our802.11b networks (one with WEP and onewithout), but had no problem connectingto our 802.11g network.

One annoyance is that the Web GUI re-quires a username and password to log on;these are only in the PDF manual, whichcomes on a CD. The setup wizard makesconfiguration a snap, though, and firm-ware was easy to upgrade.

$110 street. D-Link Systems Inc., www.dlink.com.

lllhm

Linksys

Wireless-G

Game Adapter

The Linksys Wireless-GGame Adapter gets the jobdone but leaves a lot to be desired. It’s thebiggest unit inthis roundup,and you mustconfigure itusing a PCover Ethernetbefore you at-tach it to a PS2or an Xbox.The setup wiz-ard is rough aroundthe edges, and there’s no site-survey tool,so you’ll have to type in the SSID of yourwireless LAN manually.

The worst flaw, though, is that youcan’t select DHCP from the setup wizard;you must use the Web-based manage-ment GUI to choose the most commonmethod of assigning IP addresses. Theadapter has an external switch to togglebetween ad hoc and infrastructuremodes. Configuration isn’t as easy as itshould be, but once configured, theadapter connected without any difficultyto our wireless LANs, using both the PS2and the Xbox.

$85 street. Linksys, www.linksys.com.

lllmm

Actiontec 54 Mbps Wireless

Game Adapter

The easy-to-use Actiontec 54 MbpsWireless Game Adapter would make

a welcome addition to anyhome network. This is

the only device in thisroundup that has a removable an-tenna and is wall-mountable. You’ll

need to configurethe adapter over Ether-

net from a computer runningthe configuration utility, however.

And since no site-survey tool is included,you’ll have to know your wireless LAN’sSSID and type it in manually. One sur-prising quirk in the configuration utilityis that when the device is set for DHCP,the utility reports its IP address as 0.0.0.0.

The adapter supports 64- and 128-bitWEP security and can be used in eitherinfrastructure or ad hoc mode. We wereimpressed by the well-designed configu-ration utility and the ease with which wewere able to get our Microsoft Xbox andSony PlayStation 2 online.

$129.99 direct. Actiontec Electronics Inc.,

www.actiontec.com. llllm

D-Link DGL-3420 Wireless 108AG

Gaming Adapter

The smallest adapter we reviewed, the D-Link DGL-3420 Wireless 108AG GamingAdapter is the only one we saw that sup-ports 802.11a as well as 802.11g. Poweredby GameFuel technology, which priori-tizes gaming traffic, the adapter was alsothe only one in our roundup that the Xboxcould configure directly. If you want touse it with a PS2, you’ll have to configurevia PC and Ethernet. The Web-based GUI

QUICK CLIPS

Millions of online-capable consoles live in homes across the U.S., and we’ve seen explosive growth in wireless home networking. Add these two facts and you’ll under-stand why we’re evaluating three wireless gaming adapters. Each supports 802.11g andtherefore 802.11b, the wireless network standards that are most common in the home.They are relatively inexpensive, easy to configure, and require no maintenance (un-less there’s a firmware upgrade or you change your wireless network settings). Best ofall, each of them will save you from having to run an Ethernet cable to the living room.

Game On, WirelesslyBY MATTHEW D. SARREL

go.pcmag.com/afterhours • A F T E R H O U R S

P C M A G A Z I N E AUGUST 23, 2005 www.pcmag.com128

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