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SEPTEMBER 2013
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
FEATURES
Windows 8.1 Android Apps
Media Streaming
DEPARTMENTS
News
Consumer
Watch
Reviews
Sta
Picks
Tech
Spotlight
Business
Center
COLUMNS
Answer Line
Bugs & Fixes
Hassle-Free PC
Heres How
COVER I MAGE BY JOSEPH FAGAN

BY JON PHILLIPS
PCWORLD has been publishing digital editions of the magazine for
about ten years, but none are packed with as many enhancements and
features as the issue youre reading now. Many of you are rst-time
readers of a PCWorld digital edition, so Id like to
walk you through some important improve-
ments weve made to our digital magazines.
Larger text, more stories
Starting with this issue, PCWorld has been rede-
signed for easier navigation. Our new layout is
cleaner and simpler, and it puts a greater
emphasis on visuals. Our article text is larger
tooa user convenience that we couldnt have
delivered in the print version without signi-
cantly reducing the amount of content. In fact,
not only have we increased the size of our type,
weve also increased the number and length of
the articles. PCWorld readers are now getting
more content for their money than ever before
another benet of all-digital publishing.
Video, audio, and animations
PCWorld oers two types of digital magazines:
Enhanced Editions for iPad, Android tablets, and Kindle Fire, and Replica
Editions for viewing the magazine on a traditional PC or smartphone. All
PCWorld: New design,
new features
EDITORS
DESK
Our digital editions now ofer rich multimedia features and
more interactive content.
Multimedia Options Check out the
video segments that accompany many
of the articles in the Enhanced Editions.

editions benet from our new design. And all editions are available to all
digital subscribers through our All-Access Pass. That said, if you read
PCWorld on a tablet, youll enjoy a more feature-packed experience.
For starters, each Enhanced Edition includes illustrated animations,
like the ones on this months cover and our feature on the Windows
8.1 upgrade guide. Enhanced Edition readers can also view slick, 360-
degree photos of notebooks from Dell, Vizio, and Micro Express in this
issue. Want even more visuals of hot hardware? The Enhanced Edition
includes video segments on the construction of a 3D printer, a Dell
wireless notebook docking station, the Razer Blade gaming notebook,
and a trio of behemoth tabletop tablets.
Rounding out the special features for our
Enhanced Edition this month, we have an
interactive slideshow on mastering to-do
lists; an audio segment on buying smart-
phone insurance; and a screencast on how
to upgrade from Windows 8 to 8.1. Finally,
throughout the Enhanced Edition, youll
nd linkable text (just like on a webpage) as well as pop-up features
that you can click for extra information and context.
Single subscription, multiple options
Again, if you subscribe to one digital edition, you eectively subscribe
to all of them through the PCWorld All-Access Pass. So even if you
dont own a compatible tablet today, if you buy one next monthor
any time during your subscription periodyoull be able to enjoy the
enhancements I describe above.
Theres no denying that digital magazines allow publishers like
PCWorld to oer much more content for the price of a traditional
magazine subscription. And with all your issues archived in bits and
bytes, you wont have to worry about recycling either.
As always, we invite your feedback. Please send us a note at
letters@pcworld.com and share your ideas on how we can improve
our digital editions.
If you subscribe to
one digital edition,
you efectively sub-
scribe to all of them.
PHOTOGRAPH: ROBERT CARDI N

NEWS
What Microsofts
unified vision
means to you
Tech and trends that will afect you today and beyond.
Microsof has overhauled its organizational structure
to focus on a vision of ubiquity. BY BRAD CHACOS

NE MICROSOFT, ALL THE TIME. Theyre just ve words,
but they hold a universe of importance to Microsoft. In
July, they prompted a sweeping revamp of the compa-
nys core organizational structure: Newly vertical divi-
sions were carved out, executives were shufled, and some senior-level
people lost their jobs.
One Microsoft, all the time. What could it mean for you? If everything
goes according to chief executive Steve Ballmers grand plan, no less
than a seamless computing experience across every device you
owna truly unied OS experience across your phone, tablet, note-
book, desktop PC, and TV.
This vision couldcouldbecome reality in a few years.
Islands in a rocky sea
The rst hints are already in place with Windows 8. The controversial
modern UI spans desktop displays and tablet screens alike, shares a
plethora of design elements with Windows Phones and the Xbox 360,
and even rocks a common core with Windows Phone 8 and the
O
Xbox would share
more in its UI archi-
tecture with other
Microsoft products.

impending Xbox One, making it easier for developers to swim
between the various islands in Microsofts ecosystem.
Previously, the Windows Phone team worked on Windows Phone;
the Windows division worked on Windows proper; the Oce team
worked on Oce; the Interactive Entertainment Business presided
over Xbox; and so on. Microsoft has been shifting to a more unied
design structure in recent months, but having so many efdoms
with so many chiefs introduced cracks on the edges of Microsofts
grand vision.
Windows Phones core UI is just a wee bit dierent from Windows 8s,
as is Xboxs interface. No underlying design principles unite the Xbox,
the Surface tablets, and the average Windows Phone. Apps and servic-
es are updated as each department sees t. No more.
One Microsof, all the time
Microsofts reorganization slices the com-
pany into divisions aligned much more
closely with its One Microsoft, all the
time vision. All the companys devices,
from Surface tablets to Xboxes, now fall
under one division. Another division cre-
ates the core operating system for every
Microsoft platform, while yet another
heads virtually all app development.
Each division controls the reins of a crucial
vertical slice of Microsoft, slices that tran-
scend specic platforms and services. Those
divisions will deliver a unied product across
the width and breadth of Microsofts plat-
formsassuming all goes according to plan.
And each division depends upon communi-
Surface tablet chamfers
would look sweet on a
Surface Phone...or Xbox.
...a seamless com-
puting experience
across every device
you own.

cating with the others. An app needs an OS to run on, and an OS is
mere bits on a disc without hardware.
Now, we wont see major changes anytime soon, despite Microsofts
newfound rapid-release religion. Correcting the course of an organiza-
tion as large as Microsoft takes time. But when the fruits of these
changes do blossom, they could be mighty tasty.
Imagine this: Its the future. Your Xbox One, Surface tablet, Surface
Watch, Surface Display, and Surface Phone all sport the same sleek
VaporMg styling on their cases, complete with the same physical con-
trols in the same general area.
More important, all those devices share the same basic experience: A
unied system design, with crucial elements in familiar locations
across devices. The same apps and services are available on all devices,
either from the Web or from the shared OS core; and thanks to the
touch-friendly modern UI that spans platforms, you can even run
most apps on your Surface Watch. Behind the scenes, SkyDrive syncs
your apps, settings, game saves, and DVR details. Shifting from device
to device would be utterly seamless.
Bumps in the road
Idealistic? Sure. But even if the grand vision doesnt coalesce com-
pletely, everybody wins if Microsoft simply manages to rival Apple and
Google and build out a cohesive ecosystem of apps and services with a
NEWS
Surfaces touch-
friendly modern UI
will span platforms.

common look and feel.
Well, almost everybody wins. I have to
wonder: Where do the third-party device
manufacturers stand in all this? Windows
can run on a wide swath of hardware, but
One Microsoft, all the time carries some-
what ominous tidings for the likes of Acer,
HP, and Dell. Dont be surprised to see more experiments with
Chrome OS or $200 Android laptops in the future.
Or could the grand vision result in an elegant, yet desultory same-
ness? And if that happens, is that where third-party hardware can
shine? The service and software roots of One Microsoft, all the
time would work just ne on hardware from any manufacturer,
after all.
The desktop is dead, long live...the Tile?
The desktop is the past for Microsoft; the modern UI vision is the
future for the company. The desktop simply cant carry over from
device to device and app to app in the same way that the modern
UI and its flexible architecture can. The die is cast.
As a devout lover of the keyboard and mouse, Im grimacing, too.
But if Microsoft succeeds, I wont cry for the desktops loss. Howev-
er, thats a big if, as Microsofts ambitions have exceeded its ability
to execute in recent times. Nor has Microsoft been able to con-
vince consumers to jump aboard the Windows 8 Live-Tile bandwag-
on en masse. But if One Microsoft, all the time lives up to its
potential, the bedeviled Windows 8 UI could become much more
than just a tacked-on tablet interface.
I have to wonder:
Where do third-
party device manu-
facturers stand?

NEWS
IF THE WINDOWS PC market is in big trouble, someone forgot to tell
Lenovo and Samsung. In June, within 24 hours of each other, the two
Asian tech giants unveiled broad, new product lines. A critical mass of
next-generation Windows 8 machines is coming down the pike.
The new arrivals cover every shape and form of portable PC, with
touchscreens galore, and even some daring dual-boot systems.
Crawford del Prete, chief research ocer at tech market research
rm IDC, says the Lenovo and Samsung announcements show how
fundamentals are coming together for the PC market. Haswell should
signicantly improve battery performance, del Prete says.
Haswell, the code name for Intels fourth-generation Core processor,
is nally starting to show up in new systems. Early tests of the Haswell-
powered Macbook Air indicate that the chips do, indeed, deliver on
their promise of maintaining great CPU performance along with much
New Windows 8 PCs innovate
to capture attention
BY MELISSA RIOFRIO

longer battery life. Haswell also brings a new Ultrabook spec for PCs
that calls for touchscreens and that will play better with Windows 8.
And Windows 8.1 is just around the corner. Windows 8.1 will be a
more familiar interface for customers that have objected to Windows
8, del Prete says.
Touchscreens are cropping up in more systems, too. Consumers are
looking for touch and alternative form factors like convertibles and
detachables, says Patrick Moorhead, founder and principal analyst at
Moor Insights.
The just-announced Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus has no pricing or ship
date yet, but its an Ultrabook and then
some. Weighing only 3.06 pounds, its
13-inch touchscreen display sports a high
resolution of 3200 by 1800 pixels, and its
aluminum chassis is just over a half-inch
thick. Samsung says its battery could last
up to 12 hours.
Lenovos new IdeaPads will oer touch
capability at aordable prices. The IdeaPad
S210 Touch, for instance, will start at
$429 and include an 11.6-inch HD
touchscreen display.
The tablet/hybrid space remains fer-
tile ground for innovation. The Lenovo
Miix, as its name (not a typo) suggests, is
designed to be versatile. It uses an Intel
Atom dual-core processor and has a
10.1-inch screen with a 1366-by-
768-pixel resolution. You can buy a
detachable folio case with a
The Samsung Ativ
Book 9 has a very
high-res touch-
screen display.
Touchscreens and
high resolutions are
cropping up in more
systems.

built-in keyboard. Itll cost $500 to start and is supposed to last 10
hours on a full charge.
The Samsung Ativ Tab 3 is a Windows tablet designed to make iPad
users pause. Its bigger, with a 10.1-inch display, versus the iPads 9.7-
inch one. Its thinner, at just 0.32 inch thick versus the iPads 0.37 inch.
And its lighter, at 1.21 poundsthe iPad is about 1.45 pounds.
Finally, the Samsung Ativ Q is a 13-inch tablet-laptop hybrid with the
same superhigh resolution as the Ativ Book 9 Plus. Its screen can prop
up like a laptop and tilt back on a raised hinge. And it comes with both
Windows 8 and Android 4.2.
A device like the Ativ Q indicates PC manufacturers are still in
exploration-mode, looking for that silver bullet to turn around PC
sales, analyst Moorhead says. For Windows 8, it indicates what most
in the industry already know: Windows 8 lacks the right apps.
But for J.P. Gownder, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester
Research, the Ativ Q has inherent limitations. Android is not going to
be a substitute for Windows, Gownder says. It has the same problem
as a Chromebook: How does it t into your overall computing envi-
ronment?
No one knows how many of these products will still be around in a
year, but their innovative spirit shows that
PC vendors arent giving up.
The Samsung Ativ Tab 3 is just 0.32
inch thick and weighs 1.21 pounds.
NEWS

NVIDIA WILL START licensing its graphics cores more widely in a bid
to cash in on the need for powerful graphics in smartphones, tablets,
and other devices.
Nvidia will start by licensing graphics cores based on the Kepler
architecture used in its latest graphics cards, the company says.
Kepler cores will also be used in Nvidias Tegra 5 mobile chip, code-
named Logan, shipping next year.
The reality is that weve done this in the past, says David Shannon,
Nvidias executive vice president and general counsel, in a blog entry.
But now, the explosion of Android devices presents an unprecedent-
ed opportunity to accelerate this eort.
Nvidia is taking a path similar to that of Imagination Technologies,
the main supplier of graphics cores to mobile chip makers. Imagina-
tions graphics cores are used in Apples iPad and iPhone, Samsungs
Galaxy S4 smartphone, and other mobile devices.
Nvidia will also license its visual computing patents, Shannon says.
It has 5500 patents issued or pending.
Nvidia to license graphics cores
BY AGAM SHAH
NEWS


THE WI-FI ALLIANCE is nally kicking o a certication program for
routers, adapters, and other wireless networking gear based on the
IEEE 802.11ac draft standard. The organization has a strong track
record when it comes to ensuring that networking products will be
interoperable even when the standards theyre based on have yet to
be nalized, so this is a positive development.
As it did with the 802.11n wireless networking standard, the IEEE is
taking its time to ratify the 802.11ac standard. In fact, the responsible
working group isnt expected to be done until November, and nal rat-
ication isnt expected until February 2014. That lengthy timeline
hasnt stopped manufacturers from shipping 802.11ac gear, of course;
products based on the draft standard have been on store shelves since
August 2012. But buyers havent had any assurances that those prod-
ucts will work together.
Wi-Fi
Alliance
to certify
802.11ac
equipment
BY MICHAEL BROWN

NEWS
So why is the certication program launching now? We want to
ensure that the standard is substantially mature, Wi-Fi Alliance senior
marketing manager Kevin Robinson explains. There is work that we
have to go through to ensure interoperability, and [were] elding a
test bed to certify that.
The Wi-Fi Alliance launched a similar certication program back in
2007 for networking equipment based on the draft 802.11n standard.
Unlike that eort, however, the 802.11ac certication program will not
acknowledge the standards draft status and is being described as
simply Wi-Fi CERTIFIED ac.
The Wi-Fi Alliance has a long track record of certifying products
ahead of IEEE ratication, said Robinson says. With the Wi-Fi Certied
N program, we found that in addition to the backward interoperability
[with products based on the 802.11b and g standards], nal products
were backward-compatible with draft products. The core set of fea-
tures remained unchanged. The Wi-Fi Certied AC program will pre-
serve interoperability with every certied product from the past ten
years. Robinson also says he expects that most manufacturers that
shipped 802.11ac products prior to the certication program will sub-
The 802.11ac-based
Asus RT-AC66U is one
of the fastest routers
weve ever tested.

mit their products for certication after the fact.
To gain the Alliances imprimatur, 802.11ac devices are expected to
be dual-band, meaning that they can operate on both the 2.4GHz and
5GHz frequency bands. If such a device cant connect at 5GHz using
the 802.11ac protocol, it will attempt to
drop back to 2.4GHz and use the older
802.11n protocol (or even 802.11b or
802.11g, if necessary). Since dual-band
routers are capable of operating networks
on both frequencies simultaneously, con-
sumers will be able to use the 2.4GHz band
for basic needs and preserve bandwidth on
the less-crowded 5GHz band for media streaming and other high-per-
formance applications.
PCWorld tested ve of the rst 802.11ac routers last September (go.
pcworld.com/11acrouters). We were generally impressed with their
performance then, but we dont know at this time whether those
products will be certied after the fact. The Wi-Fi Alliance did provide
a list of 802.11ac components that will be the rst to receive 802.11ac
certication. These devices also form the test suite for the certica-
tion program as a whole:
Broadcom BCM4706 5G WiFi Communications Processor
Broadcom BCM4360 5G WiFi Single Chip MAC/PHY/Radio
Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260
Marvell Avastar 88W8897 AP Reference Design
Marvell Avastar 88W8897 STA Reference Design
Mediatek Dual Band 802.11ac Reference Access Point
Mediatek Dual Band 802.11ac Reference STA
Qualcomm VIVE 802.11ac 3-stream Dual-band,
Dual-concurrent Router
Qualcomm VIVE 802.11ac 3-stream, PCIe Client
Realtek RTL8197D+RTL8188AR+RTL8192CE AP/Router
Realtek RTL8812AE HMC card
PCWorld tested ve
of the rst 802.11ac
routers last year, and
we were impressed.

NEWS
MICROSOFT IS PLANNING AN OVERHAUL of our Oce documents,
weaving live data into the once-static fabric of our Word les and
Excel spreadsheets. Its a bold experiment that could kill the very de-
nition of an Oce documentbut it could also spell the rebirth of
Microsofts productivity suite in the age of cloud-driven collaboration.
Microsoft has been evangelizing tools that will enable app develop-
ers to automatically use Bings search capabilities in documentsfor
example, they might enhance a travel guide with live demographic
information on Belize. And Microsofts new PowerBI tools can import
data from both public and private sources to provide more up-to-date
context in documents.
Both developments reveal a sea change in the way well interact
with Microsoft Oce in the future. Today, you create an Oce doc-
How live data will redene
the Oce document
BY MARK HACHMAN

Microsoft sees
its Bing search
technology as
the foundation
for a number of
capabilities.
ument, save it, and then email it to a colleague, who quite likely
prints it out.
But all this can change once Oce begins hooking into living data.
Oce docs wont simply document the past: Theyll also accurately
reflect the ever-changing present.
In the past, people would send around a static spreadsheet or a
static PDF, with static data, Kelly Waldher, director of Oce 365
product management for Microsoft, said in an interview. What Pow-
erBI oers with Oce 365 are a couple of new elements: real-time
updates and real-time data.
Microsoft has connected its SQL Azure cloud database to Share-
Point Online, creating shared PowerBI
workspaces that partners and coworkers
can access, Waldher said. With a live data
source powering the document, you can
be sure youre getting the most up-to-
date informationand therefore the best
information to base decisions on. This
model assumes that documents will no
longer be printed out or archived in a dead, static format, since
doing so would rob them of the contextual intelligence that live
data oers.
Microsoft understands that its vision will rst be enabled within
Ofce docs wont
just record the past;
theyll reect the
changing present.

Madonna ruled 1987 in this king of the hill vizualization of pop-music artists.
What we mean by
documents will
move far beyond
todays denition.
NEWS
business environments, where enterprise
tools can make sense of big data. But its
not hard to imagine a future where a col-
lege paper on climate change might fea-
ture an interactive map that plots aver-
age mean temperatures for various cities.
With consumers increasingly turning to
the cloud for data storage, people will place less value on older,
static documents, and more on up-to-date responses to changing
conditions.
If Microsofts vision takes hold, static documents loaded with static
data will seem increasingly irrelevant as time goes by. Which raises
the question, at what point will traditional Oce documents
spreadsheets, Word documents, and the likebegin to go away, vic-
tims of their own irrelevance?
If Microsofts vision of live, connected les becomes reality, the
document of tomorrow could evolve into a framework, a predened
query. We may not know what the 100 highest-grossing movies of

Are natural-
language
queries the
future of data
interaction?
2010 through 2020 will be, but we can create a document thats
preformatted to access that information.
If that happens, seemingly disparate technologiesOce, Bing,
and Azurewill become more closely tied to one another. And what
we mean by documents will move far beyond todays traditional
denition.

NEWS
HAVE YOU HEARD the saying, The best thing about standards is that
there are so many to choose from? That saying popped into my mind
when I learned of the new nVoy brand and certication program for
products based on the IEEE 1905.1 standard. If youre not familiar with
it, IEEE 1905.1 denes hybrid networks that combine Wi-Fi, ethernet-
over-powerline, MoCA (Multimedia over Coax Alliance), and conven-
tional wired ethernet topologies.
And each of those technologies is dened by a standard of its own,
of course. And then theres the ITUs G.hn, a wholly separate standard
from a dierent international body that denes hybrid home net-
works that use powerline, coax, and phone line, but not wireless
Will nVoy become the one
home networking standard?
BY YARDENA ARAR

(although it can coexist with Wi-Fi).
So why does the world need a standard that
denes a collection of standards? For that
matter, why does the world need the Wi-Fi Alli-
ances 802.11ac certication program? If IEEE
1905.1 and IEEE 802.11ac are standards, why do we need marketing
consortiums to certify that products based on those standards will be
interoperable? Isnt that the very denition of the word standard?
After all, I already operate a hybrid network at home: Some of my
devices connect via Wi-Fi, some use HomePlug AV powerline, and my
entertainment center runs on MoCA. Everything is connected to my
gigabit ethernet Wi-Fi router. And my hybrid network was running ne
long before someone thought to come up with a fancy logo for it.
In search of answers to these questions, I interviewed HomePlug Alli-
ance vice president and Broadcom senior technical director Stephen
Palm and consumer communications services analyst Mike Jude of
market research rm Frost & Sullivan.
Help with setup and troubleshooting
So, what does nVoy certication bring to the networking party? The
major benets are simplied setup and diagnostic tools that can help
troubleshoot problems. A new nVoy component can get its congura-
tion info from existing ones at the push of a button, freeing consum-
ers from having to tediously input info such as SSIDs and passwords,
Palm explained. The diagnostics (information on link rates, network
topology, and so on) can be accessed locally by customers and
remotely by service providers.
Service providers especially stand to benet from widespread
deployment of nVoy and its successors (as the IEEE 1905 working
group develops them). As more and more people use networks for
streaming media and are therefore more likely to notice performance
problems, service providers will want a way to see whats going on
when a customer complains, without incurring the expense of dis-
patching a truck and a technician. Keeping that network running is
nVoy is a new
certication
program for
hybrid home
networks.

absolutely essential to selling services that use it, Jude says.
Both Jude and Palm say that while G.hn and nVoy both seek to make
network setup easier, they are fundamentally dierent technologies.
G.hn describes a chip technology (its a PHY, a physical spec) for gear
that would replaceand is incompatible withequipment based on
existing wire-line standards. A G.hn component cant talk to a Home-
Plug or MoCA device.
The nVoy spec, on the other hand, doesnt work at the PHY layer of a
network chip. Its part of the software overlay that talks to the hardware
of all supported network standards. At launch, these supported stan-
dards include HomePlug, MoCA, Wi-Fi, and
ethernet, but theres no reason why nVoy
couldnt be revised to support G.hn, too.
More important, nVoy-certied gear will
be backward-compatible with the popular
network technologies that it supports
the underlying ethernet bridging doesnt
changeso you dont have to abandon the
equipment you already have. You can simply upgrade to nVoy-certied
gear as you replace older components that dont enjoy the benets of
the technology.
This doesnt mean that theres no place for G.hn in the home, Jude
notes. It might, for example, be useful for someone building a new
home entertainment center who wants to mix and match compo-
nents that use dierent network technologies. And having compo-
nents based on G.hn would greatly simplify setup.
Timetable for nVoy
Those who follow networking standards may wonder how long IEEE
1905 has been in the works. The answer: not that long. The working
group was set up two and a half years ago, Palm says, and the draft
spec followed in December 2011. Having lived through the drama of
802.11n Wi-Fi development, which took many years, I wondered aloud
how the working group was able to produce the draft so quickly.
nVoys major net-
working benets are
simplied setup and
diagnostic tools.
NEWS

Palm explains that unlike the 802.11 work-
ing group, which has been composed of as
many individuals as cared to pay for IEEE
membership, 1905 is composed of only
entities (read: companies). Companies cant
pack the group, as happened with 802.11,
by paying for more of their employees to join. That means the working
group had a lot fewer members, which tends to speed things up.
At Computex in Taiwan this year, the news release announcing the
nVoy branding and certication program (which will be managed by
the HomePlug Alliance) indicated that the rst nVoy-certied prod-
ucts were expected to reach the market later this year. As with the
Wi-Fi Alliance, the certication program will test products that claim
to adhere to the IEEE 1905.1 standard to ensure that they will be
interoperable with other products making the same claim.
As Palm points out, however, the news release covered only certica-
tion, so actual products will likely not ship until sometime later. It may
take a while for us to enjoy the benets of nVoy, the standard that
could make home networking easiereven if its one more logo to be
on the lookout for.
nVoy-certied gear
will be backward-
compatible.

THE BATTLE FOR mobile video supremacy rages on: In July, Instagram
nally made it possible for users to easily embed photos and videos on
their own websites, as Twitters rival Vine app does.
Easily is the key word. Workarounds already existed for embedding
Instagram photos and videos, but they entailed too much eort for
content sharing.
Instagram is now oering an embed code on desktop browsers that
lets you share your photos and videos (look for the button under the
comments). The company in a recent blog post said it wants to ensure
that your content is clearly attached to your account, so the embed-
ded photo or video will display your Instagram username and link to
your account.
What if your account is private? Well, no one will be able to share
Instagram takes a swing at
Vine with embed codes
BY CAITLIN MCGARRY
NEWS

your photos or videos until you change your set-
tings. Instagram has an all-or-nothing approach
to privacy, so you cant pick and choose which
photos you want to share with the world and
which you want to share only with friends.
Adding an embed code is a small change, but it
better positions Instagram to compete with the
popular mobile app, Vine, and its parent company, Twitter. Vine posts
(Vines) were already easily shareable, not just within the app but
across the Internet, because of the Vine embed code. Twitter also
oers embed codes for tweets, while Facebook (which owns Insta-
gram) does not let users easily share their posts on third-party sites.
The new feature is especially useful for news organizations that
have already been embedding tweets and Vines but have had no
way to share Instagram photos and videos of breaking events.
Vine and Instagram have volleyed back and forth since Instagram
introduced its own social video product. Vine recently added a handful
of new features in the wake of Instagrams 15-second-video launch,
with plans to add even more. If both companies continue to improve
their apps in an eort to woo users, well, no complaints here.
Instagrams
new embed
code lets you
share photos
and videos as
easily as Vine.
Vine and Instagram
have volleyed back
and forth by adding
new features.

IN JULY, HEADLINES screamed that global computer shipments
had plunged 11 percent year over year in the second quarter
after dropping 14 percent in the rst (go.pcworld.com /pcsalesq2).
But wait! A closer look at the numbers shows that we may be
past the worst of the bleeding.
Yes, the rst quarters year-over-year decline was the sharpest
ever, falling from 88.6 million PCs shipped in Q1 2012 to about
76.2 million PCs in Q1 2013, according to IDC. (Data from Gart-
ner, another research group, yields roughly the same numbers.)
From Q1 2013 to Q2 2013, however, the drop is not so devastat-
ing. According to IDC, 75.6 million PCs shipped in Q2 2013a
decline of just 600,000 units from the rst quarter.
NEWS
PC sales decline
slows down
BY BRAD CHACOS

And in the United States, Gartner says, Q2
shipments declined by only 1.4 per-
cent year over year; IDC
says U.S. ship-
ments
dropped by
1.9 percent.
Why? We may be over
the tablet boom.
The U.S. industry is denitely the most
advanced [in tablet adoption], says Mikako
Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. So the U.S. market might
see some slowdown of tablets eating into the PC space.
FULL DI SCLOSURE: PCWORLD AND I DC ARE OWNED BY I NTERNATI ONAL DATA GROUP, BUT THEY
SHARE NO EDI TORI AL AFFI LI ATI ON.
Tablets remain
very popular,
but Gartner
thinks their
eect on PC
sales in the U.S.
will diminish.

Vendor
1Q13
Shipments

Vendor
2Q13
Shipments
1. HP 11,997 1. Lenovo 12,619
2. Lenovo 11,700 2. HP 12,378
3. Dell 9,010 3. Dell 9,230
4. Acer Group 6,150 4. Acer Group 6,226
5. ASUS 4,363 5. ASUS 4,590
Others 33,075 Others 30,589
Total 76,294 Total 75,632
According to IDC, the decline in PC sales in the United States is slowingand a
few vendors even saw an uptick.

NEWS
IF GOOGLE GLASS isnt enough to get you worried about technology,
how about a device that can see through walls?
MIT researchers are experimenting with a Wi-Fibased system called
Wi-Vi, which they say can track moving objects through walls. The
technology could be built into a smartphone or a dedicated handheld
device and used in search-and-rescue and law enforcement, says Dina
Katabi, the MIT professor who developed Wi-Vi along with graduate
student Fadel Adib.
Katabi thinks consumers might use Wi-Vi, too. For example, someone
walking outdoors at night who fears being followed might use it to
detect a person sneaking behind a fence or around a corner, she says.
No need to worry about the person in the next hotel room watching
you dressat least not yet. Currently the display oers very low resolu-
tion. However, Katabi notes that she and Adib are working on higher
resolution, and that Wi-Vi might someday show recognizable faces.
Society, she says, might want to develop policies around its use.
Wi-Vi sends Wi-Fi radio waves through a barrier and measures the
way they bounce back. When a Wi-Fi signal reflects o an object, the
shape and makeup of that object aect the signal that returns. But
when the signal hits a wall, most of it reflects o the wall, and only a
faint bit of it reflects o the people on the other side.
To get around that obstacle, Wi-Vi transmits two signals, one of
which is the inverse of the other. When one signal hits a stationary
object, the other cancels it out. But because of the signals encoding,
MIT researchers
see through
walls with Wi-Vi
BY STEPHEN LAWSON

they dont cancel each other out for moving objects, so reflections
from a moving person are visible despite the presence of the wall.
Wi-Vi translates those faint reflections into a real-time display of the
persons movements.
Because of its low resolution, Wi-Vi could actually enhance peoples
privacy in some cases, Katabi suggests. For
example, someone could use it to remote-
ly monitor whether an elderly parent had
gotten out of bed, without installing
intrusive video cameras.
But whether in the hands of police o-
cers or ordinary people, a tool to see
through walls raises questions that the law hasnt answered, warns
Hanni Fakhoury, a sta attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Your location is something thats worthy of privacy, Fakhoury says.
Even within your house, where you go can reveal a lot about yourself.
Wi-Vi now is like radar tracking a plane.
Your location is
something thats
worthy of privacy.

NEWS
SAMSUNG IS EXPANDING its Ativ line with new systems and a touch of
Android. (As of this writing, the company has not yet announced pric-
ing or availability.)
Ativ Q: This tablet-laptop hybrid, driven by an Intel Core i5 (Haswell)
processor, has a 13-inch, 3200-by-1800-pixel display that can prop up
and tilt back on a raised hinge. It boots into Windows 8, but can switch
to Android 4.2. Users will be able to pin Android apps to the Windows 8
Start screen, and transfer les or folders between the OSs.
Ativ Tab 3: Samsung says the 0.32-inch Ativ Tab 3 is the worlds thin-
nest Windows 8 tablet. It oers a 10.1-inch, 1366-by-768-pixel display,
runs an Intel Atom Z2760 processor, and comes with an S Pen stylus.
Ativ Book 9 Plus: The successor to Samsungs Series 9 laptops sports
a 13-inch, 3200-by-1800-pixel touchscreen display, carries an Intel Core
i5 or i7 processor, and has up to 256GB of solid-state storage.
Samsung enhances
Ativ line
BY JARED NEWMAN

Ativ Book 9 Lite: This laptop has a 1366-by-768-pixel display, up to
256GB of solid-state storage, and a quad-core processor. The non-
touch model weighs 3.17 pounds, while the touchscreen model
weighs 3.48 pounds.
Ativ One 5 Style: Behind the 21.5-inch, 1080p touchscreen display
of this all-in-one desktop sit an AMD A6 processor, 4GB of RAM, and a
hard drive with a capacity up to 1TB.
Samsung Ativ
One 5 Style.
NEWS

l ccc
l cra
l I
l
5 X5O avc l rroc, ] ^a, PC, 5 & Ar
2013 Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc. All rights reserved. Fujitsu and the Fujitsu logo are
registered trademarks of Fujitsu Ltd. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Document scanners for
your digital life.
Visit http://Ez.com/pcworld

1
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Hammerhead Pro

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Brother
MFC-J870DW 2

Near-eld communication is a tech-
nology waiting to take otap any two
NFC-enabled devices together, and they
can share data. Consumers, however,
have been slow to adopt NFC. Perhaps
the MFC-J870DW will change that. Sim-
ply tap your NFC-enabled phone to the
printer, and you can print photos from
the handset.
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HTC
HTC One Google
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The HTC One easily ranks
among our favorite phones
this year: It has a great look,
an impressive camera, and
powerhouse specs. And
now, if you like the stock
Android OS more than
HTCs interface, Googles
got you covered. Both the
HTC One and the Samsung
Galaxy S4 are getting the
Google Play treatment,
combining customizable,
transparent software with
gorgeous hardware.
go.pcworld.com/steelapex
Steelseries
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The sleek Apex
keyboard is a joy to type
on, but it really shines in its
lighting options. Each of the
Apexs ve zones illuminates
independently, displaying any
of 16 million colors. The
resulting eect is stunning,
but also eminently useful:
Youll never lose your place
during a frantic multiplayer
match ever again.
Why insuring
a smartphone
makes sense
Can you aford up to $700
to replace your phone?
CONSUMER
WATCH
How to make smart purchases,
and stay safe online.
A smartphone
in danger.
BY ANNE B. McDONALD

F YOURE SMART, youll consider insuring your brand-new
smartphone. Yes, we bristle at the thought of insuring any con-
sumer electronicsthe result of too many sales clerks pitch-
ing us on extended warranties for TVs, DVD players, and audio
systems. But those devices arent nearly as vulnerable to damage or
theft as our delicate smartphones.
Consider: You probably dropped $200 to $300 on a Samsung Galaxy
S4, HTC One, or iPhone 5 after inking a two-year contract. The phones
are worth more than that, but carriers subsidize the retail prices to
lure new customers.
If youre klutzy, wild, or just plain unlucky, however, you could tank
your cool new phone with one unfortunate encounter with a toilet.
Yes, this happens, and when it does, a replacement phone of the
Company
Purchase
window
Coverage Cost
Replacement
time
Protect Your
Bubble
(insurance)
12 months
after pur-
chase;
makers
warranty
must still
be in eect
Water damage, drops,
mechanical/electrical
failure, screen failure,
antenna/Wi-Fi failure,
broken connectors,
touchscreen failure,
wont power on; loss
and theft covered
$8/month or
$144/two years;
$100 deductible;
can cancel
anytime
Replace-
ment in one
to three
business
days (may
be refur-
bished)
SquareTrade
(warranty)
New
smart-
phone
bought in
the last 30
days
Water damage, drops,
mechanical/electrical
failure, screen failure,
antenna/Wi-Fi failure,
broken connectors,
touchscreen failure,
wont power on; loss
and theft not covered
$7/month or
$125/two years;
$6/month or $99
two years for
Samsung Galaxy
S4 only; $99
deductible;
can cancel
anytime
Fixed phone
or a check
for value
of phone
guaranteed
within ve
days
I
Online insurance sites compared
Note: SquareTrade has dierent pricing for iPhone warranties (go.pcworld.com/iphonewarranty).

same model or caliber could cost you up to $600 to $700. Thats
some serious dough.
Check out these numbers: Asurion (go.pcworld.com/asurion) which
partners with nearly all the major wireless carriers to provide smart-
phone insurance, estimates that 80 million phones will be lost, stolen,
or damaged in the United States in 2013.
Smartphones are small, slippery, and highly portable. We extract
them from our pockets countless times a day, so its a wonder that
more dont go skittering
across concrete sidewalks,
or get stolen from caf
tables. Indeed, in 2012 the
Federal Communications
Commission reported that
between 30 to 40 percent
of all robberies in major cit-
ies involved cell phones.
Bottom line: If you live life
to the fullestwith your
phone at your sideinsur-
ing it may be a good bet.
A big investment
in a tiny package
David Anderson is the
director of product at
ProtectYourBubble.com
(go.pcworld.com/protect),
which has been selling
online insurance for smart-
phones and other gadgets
in the United States since
March 2012, and in the
United Kingdom for more
than four years.
How active
are you when
using your
smartphone?

People tend to treat their smartphones like their car keys, Ander-
son said. If it was a bundle of $20 bills equivalent to the cost of the
phone, Im sure theyd treat it dierently.
Jessica Homan, the director of corporate communications for Square-
Trade.com (go.pcworld.com/squaretrade), agreed. Her company has
been selling warranties for new smartphones and electronics since 1999.
Our lifestyles are mobile, Homan said. Were out on bikes, were
texting at supermarkets, were checking in at the airport.
By the numbers
I took a look at both Protect Your Bubble and SquareTrade, which are
two of the largest online companies specializing in insuring or war-
ranting tech gear, including smartphones. One advantage they oer is
that you can buy warranty or insurance coverage after you buy your
smartphonehistorically, youve had to buy them at the same time.
Heres how the two companies stack up:
Its important to note that SquareTrade deals in warrantiescon-
tracts that govern repair and replacement of an item due to damage
from ordinary use or faulty workmanship. Protect Your Bubble, mean-
while, oers insurance, which protects your item from hazards like
theft or water damage.
I found both sites fairly easy to use, but the topic is so complicated
that I wanted to speak with a human being in both cases to clearly
understand their policies.
The phone service for SquareTrade is more pleasant to interact with.
Its automated system clearly tells you how long youll have to wait to
reach a customer rep, and also oers the choice of leaving a number
to be called back when its your turn.
Protect Your Bubble plays bad music while youre on hold, and its
automated system doesnt tell you exactly how long youll have to
wait for a human. The customer service rep also didnt seem to be as
informed when answering my questions.
Shawn DuBravac, chief economist and director of research at the
Consumer Electronics Association, follows companies like SquareTrade
and Protect Your Bubble. One of the interesting things these compa-
CONSUMER
WATCH

nies do is they let you buy the insurance or warranty after you buy the
product, DuBravac said. Historically, you bought them at the time
you bought the product.
Alternative paths to protection
There are many other ways to get smartphone coverage besides the
online providers.
You can check your homeowners or renters insurance to see if your
policy covers your phone if its lost or damaged. You also can buy insur-
ance from the carrier you got the phone from.
Its also possible that your credit card provider or bank oers a war-
ranty or insurance for your mobile devices. Additionally, iOS device
owners are eligible for AppleCare (go.pcworld.com/applecare).
And dont throw away or give away the phone you used before you
bought the sexy new model. You may need to activate the older
phone to get by until a replacement arrives, or to use until your con-
tract is up and you can buy a new, subsidized phone.
PHOTOGRAPHS: ROBERT CARDI N
Avoid a cracked
screen by using a
protective case.

YOUVE PROBABLY READ at least one story with warnings about
using nonsecure public Wi-Fi hotspots, so you know that eaves-
droppers can capture information traveling over those networks.
But nothing gets the point across as eectively as seeing the
snooping in action. So I parked myself at my local coee shop the
other day to soak up the airwaves and see what I could see. My
intent wasnt to hack anyones computer or devicethat would
be illegalbut just to listen.
What a snoop sees when you
use a nonsecure Wi-Fi hotspot
BY ERIC GEIER
CONSUMER
WATCH

As youll see, its relatively easy to capture sensitive communications
at the vast majority of public hotspotslocations like cafs, airports,
and hotels. Someone can snag emails, passwords, and unencrypted
instant messages, and hijack unsecured logins to popular websites.
Fortunately, you have a number of ways to protect your online activity
while youre out and about.
Capturing webpages
I opened my laptop at the caf and began capturing Wi-Fi signals, tech-
nically called 802.11 packets, with the help of a free trial version of a wire-
less network analyzer. I visited my own website on my smartphone. The
network analyzer I used reassembled the packets and displayed them in
a regular webpage view. The formatting was slightly o and some of the
images were missing, but plenty of information still came through.
I discovered test messages Id sent and received via my smartphone
while it was connected to the hotspot. Since I use an app to connect
My own web-
site, captured
via the hotspot
packets and
reassembled
for viewing.

to my email service via POP3 without encryption, you could have seen
my login credentials along with the message. With that information,
someone could congure their email client to use my account and
start receiving, and perhaps even sending, emails from my account.
I also used Yahoo Messenger to send a message while I was cap-
turing Wi-Fi signals. Sure enough, the tool plucked that information
CONSUMER
WATCH
This is a copy of the email I sent (and subsequently received) when using my smartphone
connected to the hotspot.

out of the air, too. You should never use an
unencrypted instant-messaging service
with any expectation of privacy.
How to use Wi-Fi hotspots
securely
Every time you log in to a website, make
sure that your connection is encrypted. The URL address should start
with https instead of http.
Make sure that the connection stays encrypted for your entire
online session. Some sites, such as Facebook, encrypt your login and
then return you to an unsecured session. Many sites give you the
option of encrypting your entire session: On Facebook, for example,
enable Secure Browsing in the security settings.
When you check email, try to log in via the Web browser and ensure
that your connection is encrypted. If you use an email client, make
sure your POP3 or IMAP and SMTP accounts are congured with
encryption turned on.
To encrypt all your online activity, use a virtual private network (go.
pcworld.com/usevpn).
Private networks are also vulnerable to eavesdroppers. While
enabling WPA or WPA2 security will encrypt the Wi-Fi trac, obscur-
ing the actual communications, anyone who also has that password
will be able to snoop on the packets traveling over the network. This is
particularly important for small businesses that dont use the enter-
prise (802.1X) mode of WPA or WPA2 security that prevents user-to-
user eavesdropping.
Some sites encrypt
your login and then
return you to an
unsecured session.
PHOTOGRAPH: MI KE HOMNI CK

THE RECENT DISCLOSURE that the U.S. government has been spying
on Americans email and other electronic communications for the last
several years reignited concern about communications monitoring. So
what can you do to protect yourself from such surveillance? Here are
some tips to protect yourself.
Protect
your PC
from
surveillance
BY MARK HACHMAN
CONSUMER
WATCH

Avoid using popular Web services
If youre concerned about the government or any other entity watch-
ing your moves online, avoid using Microsoft Bing or Google as your
search engine; try DuckDuckGo (go.pcworld.com/duck) instead. The
site promises not to track or store your searches (although it does
store anonymized searches to improve results, executives said).
Naturally, this also means ditching a Gmail or Hotmail account, and
deleting your accounts from those sites. Instead, its time to think
about laying low and skipping around services that you might have
forgotten about: Mapquest for maps, for exam-
ple. You may as well stop social networking alto-
gether, unless it happens to be direct, person-to-
person communications.
And theres no sense in surng using Chrome,
Internet Explorer, or Safari, either. Sure, theres
Firefox and Opera, but PCWorlds review of the Tor
browser (go.pcworld.com/tor) shows it to be an
anonymous, if slow, way of browsing the Internet.
Ditch your smartphone
If we assume that Apple, Google, and Microsoft
are being monitored, then the safest way to
avoid being tracked is to ditch your smartphone.
A number of services already ask for your location, in the name of pro-
viding better search results or services. And BlackBerry has already
acceded to requests to allow foreign governments access to its data.
Non-smartphones may be no better, but the amount of information
that can be captured from them is much smaller.
Use encryption
First, encrypt your hard drive and existing les (go.pcworld.com/how-
toencrypt). Next, protect your email by encrypting it (go.pcworld.
com/emailencrypt). You should encrypt three things: the connection
from your email provider; your actual email messages; and your
stored, cached, or archived email messages. If you want to take it even
If youre concerned
about the govern-
ment or any other
entity watching your
moves online, avoid
using Microsof Bing
or Google as your
search engine.

further, consider using a secure email service. Companies like Silent
Circle profess to oer secure voice and email, communications via
dedicated connections between subscribed devices.
Subscribe to a VPN
Consider setting up a virtual private network (go.pcworld.com/
vpnsetup), which creates an encrypted tunnel to another server.
Note that the performance of your PC may suer somewhat.
Watch those hotspots
Wandering from coee shop to library to free caf may provide anoth-
er layer of security, as your client IP address will vary by location. But
youll still want to protect your privacy while on the go with these free
software solutions (go.pcworld.com/freesecsoft). For more informa-
tion about staying secure in public hotspots, read What a Snoop Sees
When You Use an Unsecured Wi-Fi Hotspot in this section.
Block that malware
One of the most important things you can do to secure your PC is to
lock it down from malware. These antimalware solutions (go.pcworld.
com/antimalware) can help ensure that no Trojan horse or other worm
provides its own spying eyes on your online activities.
Use strong passwords
Make sure that all of your encrypted services are tied up neatly with a
unique, easy-to-remember-but-impossible-to-crack passphrase. Read
these tips on creating passwords and passphrases (go.pcworld.com/
passphrases). But the best practice right now seems to be to use a
good password manager like LastPass (go.pcworld.com/lastpass).
CONSUMER
WATCH

BY JAMES MULROY
BUGS & FIXES
Mozilla and Google have each released new bug-killing ver-
sions of their Web browsers.
Firefox 22 squashes some bugs
Mozilla patched a few known bugs in Firefox, squashing 17
vulnerabilities, and added some nifty little fea-
tures. Seven of the flaws were marked as criti-
cal, and many of the issues involved memory
corruption and vulnerabilities in the Mozilla
Maintenance Service (the feature that installs
Firefox updates for you).
Firefox 22 also added support for WebRTC
(Web Real-Time Communication), a Web applica-
tion that lets you use in-browser audio and video
communication services without having to install
plug-instake that, Adobe Flash! Read more
about the update (go.pcworld.com/3109bf1).
Google Chrome 28
enhances notications
Google released a new stable version of Chrome out of beta
with version 28.
The biggest addition is an improved notication system
that shows important messages outside the browser win-
dowuseful in case you dont want to miss that important
email. You can pick and choose which Chrome apps and plug-
ins show notications, and developers can now implement
them to send notications right to your desktop. Gmail has
Mozilla and Google
update browsers
CONSUMER
WATCH
PLUS:
Many
companies lag
in adopting
Java security
updates.

had this option since 2011, so its good to see that other Web apps
will be able to use this feature.
Google has plans to take features from its Chrome operating system
and implement them in a sort of mini-OS inside of your existing one
via the Chrome browser, so be on the lookout for other features simi-
lar to those in Chrome OS in the future. Read more about version 28
(go.pcworld.com/3109bf2).
Java makes businesses vulnerable
Oracle has done its best to patch all those holes in Java weve been
hearing about over the last six months. And luckily, many of those
bugs and vulnerabilities have been patched
up, and Java is at a secure point for now in
the recent update to Version 7, Update 25.
Unfortunately businesses havent been
quick to adapt.
Many businesses continue to use the out-
dated Java 6, Update 20, which is vulnerable
to 215 security issues. Despite the fact that
Oracle stopped supporting Java 6 back in April, its still the most preva-
lent version on about 80 percent of enterprise computers, according
to security rm Bit9.
Even when Java does get updated on the machines, old versions
can remainon average there are 50 dierent versions of Java on
business machines, Bit9 reports. These older versions are still vul-
nerable to attack. Businesses need to take an enforcing stance on
Java and determine where its truly needed, and have only the
most recent versions installed. Read more about Java in the work-
place (go.pcworld.com/3109bf3).
Many businesses
continue to use the
outdated Java 6,
Update 20 version.
I LLUSTRATI ON: GARY NEI LL

Tips to keep small businesses
productive.
ARANOIAIN SMALL DOSES is an excellent preventive
medicine. If you think your business is too small to be a
target for hackers, identity thieves, and similarly unsavory
characters, youre dangerously underestimating the value
of your business.
Lock down your business:
Security essentials
Guard your invaluable information assets. BY PAUL MAH
P
BUSINESS
CENTER

IT security might seem to be a daunting prospect for a small busi-
ness without an expert sta, a large budget, or expensive consultants,
but you can take several easily implemented measures to lock down
the computers your business relies on.
Encrypt your hard drives
First, implement full-disk encryption on each PC. This step is crucial
because system passwords alone oer no defense against hackers
accessing the hard drive from another computer, or against someones
attempts to clone its contents for o-site examination. In addition,
recovering previously deleted les from an unencrypted storage device
or disk image is a relatively trivial matter for an attacker or snoop.
Selectively encrypting sensitive folders or les works, too, but full-
disk encryption is the best means of ensuring that every le is pro-
tected. Microsofts BitLocker is the gold standard for this task, thanks
to its ease of use and the fact that it comes with the Ultimate and
Enterprise versions of Windows 7, and with the Ultimate and Profes-
sional versions of Windows 8.
You can also nd no-cost encryption software such as DiskCryptor
(go.pcworld.com/diskcryptor) and TrueCrypt (go.pcworld.com/
truecrypthowto), though the latter is not compatible with Windows 8.
Microsofts
excellent Bit-
Locker disk-
encryption tool
can protect all
of the les
on a PC.

Take care, however, to congure these
programs properly. For details on how to
encrypt les the right way, read our hands-on
guide (go.pcworld.com/encrypt).
Enabling disk encryption automatically mandates
the use of passwords, but it does nothing to stop users
from choosing passwords that are easily cracked. Ensure
You cant access
Apricorns Aegis Bio
1TB hard drive with-
out rst verifying
your identity via its
ngerprint scanner.

that staers select robust passwords that are
not too short and that are suciently complex.
Afterward, you can further harden security
by conguring Windows on each PC to
prompt for a password upon waking from
sleep. Set a reasonably short inactivity time-
out of no more than 10 to 15 minutes for the
PC to enter sleep mode.
Better yet, develop the habit of using the <Windows>-L keyboard
shortcut to lock your PC when you step awayeven if youll be
gone for just a few minutes. This action not only prevents data from
being siphoned out during your absence but also keeps unscrupu-
lous insiders with physical access to your computer from install-
ing malware on it surreptitiously.
Use secure portable storage
The excellent BitLocker to Go technology can prevent lost or
stolen portable storage devices from becoming liabilities.
Although you can enable BitLocker to Go on an external drive only
through one of the aforementioned BitLocker-equipped versions
of Windows, a BitLocker to Goenabled device can be subsequent-
ly used on all supported Windows operating systems, meaning that
a small business can implement it companywide without having to
upgrade everyone to a Windows edition that includes BitLocker. Be
aware, however, that computers running Windows XP or Vista
wont recognize USB drives encrypted with BitLocker to Go unless
you install the BitLocker to Go app (go.pcworld.com/btgreader).
Mac OS X computers wont recognize such drives, either.
Alternatively, you might prefer to use specialized hardware-encrypted
storage devices, such as the Lok-It flash drive or the Apricorn Aegis Bio
portable hard drive. Be particularly careful with unbranded devices, as
not all such models implement hardware encryption correctly.
Use a password manager
Most users opt for the convenience of using the same password across
BUSINESS
CENTER
Lock your PC when
you step awayeven
if youll be gone for
just a few minutes.

multiple Web services, even though it leaves them open to severe
consequencesincluding identity theft and nancial lossshould
hackers snag their password.
Instead of trying to memorize a dozen passwords, set up a tool to
manage passwords. Numerous apps are capable of this, including Sticky
Password Pro (go.pcworld.com/stickypass), LastPass (go.pcworld.com/
lastpass), and Roboform (go.pcworld.com/roboform). Many of these
tools can generate strong passwords and can even ll out login pages.
Dont ignore security updates
Finally, ensure that your PC has the latest updates and patches. Con-
rm that Windows Update is congured to download updates auto-
matically, and then periodically check for errors or failed updates. The
same advice goes for common targets such as Oracles Java runtime
environment and software such as Adobe Reader and Apple Quick-
Time. One invaluable tool is Secunia Personal Software Inspector (go.
pcworld.com/secuniapsi), which tracks and installs updates to a large
number of third-party applications.
Using a pass-
word manager
is much easier
than trying to
remember doz-
ens of complex
passwords.
I LLUSTRATI ON: MATTHEW HOLLI STER; PHOTOGRAPH: COURTESY OF APRI CORN

BUSINESS
CENTER
Slideshow:
10 best to-do list apps
Many task-tracking apps sync with email and calendars, and allow you to
collaborate with colleagues. BY JASMINE FRANCE

Slideshow:
10 best to-do list apps

BUSINESS
CENTER

Slideshow:
10 best to-do list apps

BUSINESS
CENTER

Slideshow:
10 best to-do list apps

BUSINESS
CENTER

Slideshow:
10 best to-do list apps

BUSINESS
CENTER

Slideshow:
10 best to-do list apps

SOCIAL MEDIA HAS been a boon for businesses, but its also becoming
a mineeld. Although tweets and Facebook posts can be deleted, evi-
dence of their existence is invariably captured for posterity within sec-
onds of their going live. Say something wrong on a social network, and
it will haunt you forever. Dont believe me? Check out these examples.
BUSINESS
CENTER
BY CHRISTOPHER NULL
6 social media mistakes
you must avoid

1.
Hand the
keys to
someone who is
not ready to drive
Tending to Twitter and
Facebook pages is a high-
eort job, so handing o
the task can be tempting.
Big mistake.
The annals of business
will likely record thou-
sands of posts and tweets
gone wrong, courtesy of
ignorant contractors or staers. The mixing of personal and corpo-
rate accounts is usually to blame. Its how a social media specialist
posted about gettng slizzerd on Dogsh Head beer to the Red
Cross Twitter account.
Ensure that your authorized social media users are properly trained.
Tools such as HootSuite (go.pcworld.com/hootsuite) can make man-
aging multiple accounts easy, but they increase the risk of posting errors.
2.
Commit rank insensitivity
Piggybacking onto a trending hashtag is a popular tactic, but
it can backre.
Weve seen both American Apparel and Gap get raked over the coals
for suggesting that people shop during Hurricane #Sandy, and Ken-
neth Cole get beaten up for suggesting that riots in #Cairo were due
to his new spring collection. (Cole was back at it again later with a
#gunreform tweet related to selling shoes.)
Mentioning current events that involve human suering or death
simply shouldnt be part of any businesss social media strategy.
3.
Fire the person in charge of social media
How you handle terminations is criticalparticularly if one of

the people getting the axe runs your companys social media accounts.
A round of layos at HMV, a global entertainment retailer, resulted in
a live-tweeting of the mass execution by its social media planner,
who was among the fallen. The tweets also included allegations that
the management had used illegal interns.
Sometimes layos are the only option. But conrm that youve
changed the passwords to key social media accounts before said
layos take place.
4.
Fail to protect corporate condentiality
Dont attend a private board meeting and then tweet
Board meeting. Good numbers=Happy Board. Thats what Gene
Morphis, CFO for clothing retailer Francescas, did last year, causing
the companys stock price to spike 15 percent. Such behavior is
illegal, a practice known as selective disclosure, in which private
information is divulged to a few (in this case, Morphiss 238 Twitter
BUSINESS
CENTER

followers) instead of to the world at large.
Thinking about going public? Personally follow all of your nancially
oriented employees on social networks and conduct audits to keep
tabs on what theyre telling the world.
5.
Ask potentially hostile people to chime in
It sounds like a good idea to ask followers to write about your
company. Sadly, that concept often doesnt work out.
Just ask McDonalds, which created a hashtag (#McDStories) and
encouraged its use among McFanatics. Of course, the McTrolls got
there rst, with a flood of tweets like Ordered a McDouble, some-
thing in the damn thing chipped my molar. #McDStories.
Once you unleash a hashtag, you cant undo it. Make sure that senti-
ment is squarely in your favor before trying this trick (and perhaps
gaming the system a bit by oering a prize to your favorite tweeter).
6.
Neglect social media security
Although a lot of terrible social media behavior can be
blamed on accidents or publicity stunts, some of this stu really
is due to hacker involvement. Social media security is a serious
issue, and phishing attacks that attempt to abscond with your
Twitter and Facebook credentials are unbearably common. Lock
your businesss accounts up tight with strong passwords, and
ensure that the only people who have access to the accounts are
those who truly need it.
BUSINESS
CENTER
PHOTOGRAPH: MI KE HOMNI CK

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
Duty Travel Management System (DTMS)
For further information contact:
MFN Office of the CO
Tel: (+356) 25998 226
Email: cio.mfin@gov.mt
www.mfin.gov.mt
The Ministry for Finance in Malta is conducting
market research on the availability of a TraveI
Management System and invites interested
parties to submit information on such systems.
A soft copy of the document Duty Travel
Management System RF (Ref: DTMS/01/2013)
may be downloaded from MFN website: http://
mfin.gov.mt/en/Library/Pages/tenders.aspx
at no charge. A hard copy may be obtained
free of charge by sending an email request to
cio.mfin@gov.mt.
Closing date for the submissions is noon (CET)
of Friday, 8th November 2013.

INDOWS 8 HAS spurred a lot of unusual hardware
designs, but few are as intriguing as the tabletop
tablet. Imagine a full-fledged all-in-one PC that
lies flat on whatever surface you have handy. Its
a design that oers all the screen real estate and CPU performance
of a touchscreen all-in-one system, along with the portability of
a battery-operated tablet.
If you use these PCs as their manufacturers intended, your hybrid
machine will be a family-room desktop computer by day and a
living-room gaming platform by night. But is this an experience
that consumers want or even need? Asus, Dell, Lenovo, and Sony
sure hope so.
None of these machines, however, pose a threat to Apples iPad or
Invasion of the
tabletop tablets
Are these clever hybrids the ultimate family PCs?
BY MICHAEL BROWN
W
TESTED IN PCWORLD LABS
In this section, hardware & software
goes through rigorous testing.
REVIEWS &
RATINGS
Thanks to their
massive touch-
screens, you can
operate these
giant hybrids
flat on a table or
propped up in
your lap.

any small tablet running Android or Windows 8. After all, these mon-
sters are too big to t in a backpack. And three of the four reviewed
here lack a key feature common to the best all-in-ones: an HDMI
input, which allows you to plug in a gaming console or set-top box
and use just the display. Finally, none of these computers provide
enough GPU horsepower to fully support graphically intense games.
That said, they do deliver all the key features weve come to
expect from all-in-one PCs, including the ability to run all the same
software, and to connect to printers and other peripherals. And by
virtue of their large displays, the new hybrids deliver better Web
browsing and media streaming than any tablet Ive used. Finally,
these machines could reinvent multiplayer gaming, with multiple
people gathering around a single, giant tablet to play electronic
versions of Monopoly or Risk.
Some of these hybrids are better than others, but all of them
are interesting. Find out how well each company executed on
the promise of marrying the all-in-one PC to the portable Win-
dows 8 tablet.
PHOTOGRAPH: COURTESY OF LENOVO

Asus took the most
daring design route,
but its remote-
desktop mode is
problematic.
PHOTOGRAPH: COURTESY OF ASUS
Asus Transformer
All-in-One P1801
While Dell, Lenovo, and Sony adopted the same essential design for
their respective all-in-ones, Asus took a completely dierent
approach. In fact, a better description of Asuss machine might be all-
in-two, because the Transformer All-in-One P1801 (go.pcworld.com/
p1801) is essentially two discrete computers, each one with its own
CPU and operating system.
The Transformer P1801s base houses one computer powered by a
quad-core 3.1GHz Intel Core i5-3450 CPU and 8GB of DDR3/1600
memory. When the 18.4-inch, ten-point-touch display is docked to the
base, the combination functions as a conventional desktop all-in-one.
Remove the display from the dock, and it becomes a giant tablet run-
ning Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean). The display provides a native resolution
More: Tabletop Tablets

REVIEWS &
RATINGS
of 1920 by 1080 pixels.
The base unit is a well-equipped
computer all its own. In addition to
the quad-core CPU, it has a discrete
graphics processor, a 1TB 7200-rpm
hard drive, wired and wireless net-
work adapters, a DVD burner, four USB 3.0 ports, one USB 2.0 port,
and a memory card reader.
The base also has built-in speakers, mic and headphone jacks, and
an HDMI output so it can connect to an external monitor. With a
second monitor attached to the system, one person can use the base
station as a regular Windows 8 computer while someone else uses
the display as an Android tablet.
Thats because the
tablet has its own
quad-core microproces-
soran Nvidia Tegra
3with 32GB of flash
memory. You can access
the storage in both the
tablet and the base sta-
tion while youre using
the system in Windows
mode, but the Android
side can see only the
tablet storage.
The tablet has its own
802.11n Wi-Fi network
adapter, so you can surf
the Web as well as
download, install, and
use Android apps and
games. While the dis-
play is docked and the
Transformer P1801 is
The P1801 has a third
mode that renders it
unique in this group.
Asus Transformer P1801
PROS:
Two computers in one
Desktop Core i7 CPU in the base unit
1TB, 7200 rpm hard drive
CONS:
Mode switching can be clumsy
Webcam not functional in Android mode
No HDMI input on either the base or
the display
BOTTOM LINE:
The Transformer P1801 is a world apart
from the other portable all-in-ones weve
seen, but its not as sexy as Dells XPS 18
Touch.
PRICE:
$1,299

operating in Windows mode, you can initiate a download and undock
the display, and the download will continue uninterrupted.
The display has its own stereo speakers, a mic/headphone combo
jack, one USB 2.0 port, and a memory card reader, but its 1-megapixel
webcam operates only while its in PC mode. The displays built-in
handle makes it easy to carry, and its fold-out stand lets
you use it on a table or desktop (reclining at up to a
100-degree angle). The Transformer P1801s display is
only slightly heavier than that of Dells XPS 18 Touch,
weighing 5.29 pounds.
In addition, the Transformer P1801 has a third mode
that renders it truly unique in this group: It can switch
between running as an Android tablet and as a remote Win-
dows 8 desktop. This flexibility means you can remove
the display from its base and take it into another
room, where it will function as a wireless touch-
screen for the Windows 8 session running on the
docking station. You have limited range in this
mode, however, and response time can be laggy.
The Dell XPS 18 Touch scored better on our World-
Bench 8.1 Desktop benchmark suiteearning 171 to
the Transformer P1801s 153but we can attribute
that dierence primarily to the presence of the SSD
cache drive on Dells machine. The P1801 performed
better with games and productivity apps. It delivers a
better price/performance ratio too., especially when you
consider that you can use its base unit as a PC while
someone else uses its display as an Android tablet.
The Windows
computer is in
the Transformer
P1801s base.
PHOTOGRAPH: ROBERT CARDI N
More: Tabletop Tablets

REVIEWS &
RATINGS
Dell XPS 18 Touch
The Dell XPS 18 Touch (go.pcworld.com/xps18) is one of the best
all-in-one hybrids Ive seen, but I hope Dell introduces a second, larger
model. While an 18.4-inch touchscreen is ginormous for a portable
computer, its just a little small for a desktop machine.
The screen boasts a high resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels, however,
and photos, movies, and websites look great on it. And since the
device is outtted with an Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2230 Wi-Fi adapt-
er, you can stream its video output to a big-screen TV with a built-in
Wi-Di adapter or to a box that can connect to any TV. The XPS 18
Dont buy the
XPS 18 Touch
without its
excellent stand.
PHOTOGRAPH: ROBERT CARDI N

Touch provided very good battery life of
4 hours while streaming HD video in our
tests, so it should last much longer if
youre just surng the Web.
Because the system relies on the
graphics processor integrated into the
CPUa low-power 1.8GHz Intel Core
i5-3427U with hyperthreading supportyou shouldnt expect to play
hard-core games on it. While it did manage to run Dirt Showdown at
the displays native resolution at a rate of 44.9 frames per second, it
turned Crysis 3 into a slideshow, with a frame rate of just 1.5 fps. Its all-
around performance was much better, achieving a WorldBench 8.1
Desktop score of 171
(compared to our refer-
ence all-in-one system,
an Acer Aspire U
A5600U-UB13, which
scored 100).
The XPS 18 Touch has
8GB of DDR3/1600
memory. And unlike
your typical tablet, it
comes with a 500GB
hard drive (supplement-
ed by a 32GB SSD acting
as cache), plus a Blue-
tooth keyboard and
mouse. The tablet has a
media card reader, two
USB 3.0 ports, and a
combo headphone/
microphone jack. A
720p webcam is built
into the top bezel,
alongside a dual-mic
Dells XPS 18 Touch
comes with a 500GB
hard drive.
Dell XPS 18 Touch
PROS:
Very thin and light
Supports Intels Wireless Display
technology
32GB SSD for fast boot times
CONS:

No discrete GPU

5400 rpm hard drive

Plastic feet feel flimsy
BOTTOM LINE:
Its great to see such a solid execution of
a new form factor. The XPS 18 Touch
would be even more exciting if Dell took a
page out of Asus playbook and added a
more functional dock.
PRICE:
$1,350
More: Tabletop Tablets

REVIEWS &
RATINGS
array for Skype videoconferencing.
This device measures only 0.7 inch thick and weighs
less than 5 pounds. Two plastic feet flip out of the back
for use as a conventional all-in-one on a desk with the
mouse and keyboard. Alternatively, you can lay it
almost flat (completely flat if you fold the feet in)
or prop it up in your lap and use the touchscreen.
Dell bundles two games that take advantage of
the touchscreen display when its lying flat: the
music game Fingertapps Instruments and an air-
hockey simulator.
Dell also provides a sturdy stand (an optional
accessory on the less-expensive models) that
will charge the tablets battery on contact.
The XPS 18 Touchs smaller dimensions
render it much more transportable than my
other favorite monster tablet, the Lenovo
IdeaCentre Horizon, and its ultrathin pro-
le and low weight beat the tar out of
the Asus Transformer All-in-One P1801
and the Sony Tap 20.
The Dell XPS 18
Touch is amazingly
thin and light.
PHOTOGRAPH: ROBERT CARDI N

Lenovo IdeaCentre Horizon
Lenovos IdeaCentre Horizon (go.pcworld.com/lenovohorizon) is the
boldest expression of the portable all-in-one concept to reach the
market. Asus, Dell, and Sony have giant tablets. Lenovo has a com-
puter the size of a tabletopits display measures a full 27 inches.
Lenovo does bundle several other accessories for playing games on
the Horizon, including four joysticks, four strikers (for playing air hock-
ey), and one example of e-dice (a wireless die that informs the com-
puter which number is face up after a roll). The Horizon comes with a
variety of games, including Monopoly, air hockey, and roulette.
The large display renders the Horizon the best all-in-one PC in this
group, as well as the best casual gaming platform, but it has one
Lenovo IdeaCentre Horizons
massive 27-inch screen.
PHOTOGRAPH: COURTESY OF LENOVO
More: Tabletop Tablets

drawback: Its resolution is limited to
1920 by 1080 pixels. If youre a stick-
ler for detail when it comes to preci-
sion tasks such as photo editing, you
probably wont like seeing the pixels
spread so far apart.
The other drawback to the Horizons massive screen is its consider-
able bulk: This monster tips the scales at 18.95 pounds. On the posi-
tive side, it has a discrete graphics processor, an Nvidia GeForce GT
620M with a 2GB frame buer. The balance of the Horizons spec
sheet is equally tasty. Youll nd a low-power 2GHz Core i7-3537U, 8GB
of DDR3/1600 memory, and a 1TB hard drive (unfortunately, its a
5400-rpm model).
The slow hard drive
signicantly depressed
the Horizons World-
Bench 8.1 Desktop
score, lowering it to
111. But the fast CPU
and the discrete GPU
gave this machine rst-
place nishes on the
image-editing, audio-
and video-encoding,
and le-compression
tests that also make up
our benchmarking
suite. Battery life was
surprisingly good: It was
able to play an HD video
for 3 hours, 28 minutes.
The IdeaCentre Hori-
zon is the only portable
all-in-one in this round-
up to include an HDMI
Its the boldest ex-
pression of the portable
all-in-one concept.
REVIEWS &
RATINGS
Lenovo IdeaCentre Horizon
PROS:
27-inch display
Fast CPU and a discrete GPU
HDMI input
CONS:
1920-by-1080 resolution (on a
27-inch display)
Very heavy
Expensive
BOTTOM LINE:
The Horizonss size makes games and
everything else more enjoyable, even
though it also makes it more dicult to
move around the house.
PRICE:
$1849

More: Tabletop Tablets
input. Its puzzling that no other manu-
facturer thought to include this feature.
The rest of the Horizons features
include a 720p webcam, a media card
reader, an 802.11n Wi-Fi adapter, and a
wireless mouse and keyboard.
The Horizons humongous screen, fast CPU, discrete
graphics processor, and fun accessories drive its
price tag up to $1849. Thats higher than the rest
of the machines in this roundup. Dells XPS 18
Touch makes a better giant tablet, but Lenovos
IdeaCentre Horizon is the superior family-
gaming platform.
Lenovo was the only
manufacturer that
thought to include
an HDMI input on
its tablet.
PHOTOGRAPH: ROBERT CARDI N
Lenovo IdeaCentre
Horizon Cart: Put your
27-inch tablet on wheels
I thought this cart (go.pcworld.com/horizoncart27) for Lenovos
27-inch IdeaCentre Horizon was pretty cool when I rst laid eyes on
the prototype. But now that Ive spent some time with the nished
product, Im not nearly as jazzed.
Let me give you the upside, rst. The tablet itself weighs nearly 19
pounds, so its not something you can just tuck under your arm and
move from room to room. Mount it to the cart, on the other hand, and
the combo can move eortlessly around the house. Brakes on all four
wheels keep the cart stationary when you arrive at your destination,
and the base is wide enough that you dont need to worry about it tip-
ping over even if you push hard while the brakes are locked. Lay the
computer flat in table mode, and you can play air hockey, arcade and

REVIEWS &
RATINGS
PHOTOGRAPH: ROBERT CARDI N
board games.
However, you cant pivot
the tablet into portrait mode,
which means its no good for
playing virtual pinball. And
while you can tilt the tablet
on its horizontal axis and use
it as an all-in-one PC, youll
need to hold the keyboard on
your lap. Also, the cart is not
height-adjustablea big
ergonomic no-no.
On the bright side, you twist
just a single knob to remove
and reattach the tablet to the
cart. So its easy to use the Hori-
zon as an all-in-one PC most of
the time, and as a roll-away
arcade system on game nights.
Michael Brown
The cart lets you
use the tablet as
a roll-around all-
in-one system.

More: Tabletop Tablets
Sony VAIO Tap 20
Sony deserves credit for establishing the portable all-in-one market,
having introduced the VAIO Tap 20 (go.pcworld.com/tap20) last win-
ter. This model boasts a Core i7 CPU, 8GB of memory, and a 20-inch
ten-point touchscreen for just $1100. On the downside, its display res-
olution is disappointingly limited to 1600 by 900 pixels.
The Tap 20 also relies on the GPU integrated into its mobile 2GHz
Intel Core i7-3517U processor to drive that display, and its 750GB hard
drive spins its platters at only 5400 rpm. The Tap 20s fast CPU helped
it deliver good performances on the content-creation elements of our
benchmarking suite (image editing and audio- and video-encoding
tasks), but the absence of a discrete GPU generated a goose egg in
our GPU-accelerated image-editing test. In the end, the Tap 20 earned
a WorldBench 8.1 Desktop score of 95 (our reference all-in-one, Acers
Aspire U A5600U-UB13, scored 100).
I found the Tap 20 only slightly less dicult to carry from room to
room than the 27-inch Lenovo Horizon. Sony suggests using the
Sonys Tap 20 is the oldest model
we looked at in this group, but its
a good buy at $1100.
PHOTOGRAPH: COURTESY OF SONY

kickstand as a handle, but to do so you must tilt
the computer forward, grab the bottom of the
kickstand, and rotate the entire machine upside
down. The computer is then dicult to set up at a
new location because your most natural movement
is to rst set it face down on the desk or tabletop
not a good idea.
This computer is also almost twice as thick as
Dells XPS 18 Touch. I was surprised by the Tap
20s relatively poor battery life: It played
our HD video for just 2 hours, 21 minutes
before it pooped out.
When we reviewed the VAIO Tap 20 back in October 2012 (go.
pcworld.com/vaiotap),
nothing comparable
was on the market. The
competition has res-
ponded aggressively
since then, and the Tap
20 has lost some of its
luster. Fortunately, Sony
has adjusted its pricing
accordingly, and the
current street price of
$1100 renders this
machine a good value.
Sony VAIO Tap 20
PROS:
Intel Core i7 CPU
1TB hard drive
Sonys Bravia video technology
CONS:

Thick and heavy for its size

Short battery life

5400 rpm hard drive
BOTTOM LINE:
Sony essentially created this market,
which means the Tap 20 has been around
for a while. This computer is thicker and
heavier than it should be, but Sony has
priced it aggressively.
PRICE:
$1,100
The Tap 20 is thick
and much too
heavy for its size.
REVIEWS &
RATINGS
PHOTOGRAPH: ROBERT CARDI N

ADOBE HAS ADDED some nice features to its new, subscription-
based, pro-level Photoshop Creative Cloud (go.pcworld.com/
adobephotosCC) and rolled all the features of Photoshop Extended
into the CC version. Photoshop CC has some good stu, especially in
actions, lters, and enlargements. But Bridge CC, Photoshops le-
management sidekick, has had several useful features removed.
Photoshop CC improves,
but leaves Bridge in limbo
BY LESA SNIDER

Whats new
Photoshop CCwhich you download and
install on your hard drivehas a new 200 per-
cent option in the View menu (to see Web
graphics at the size theyll appear in a brows-
er). And look for two tiny new icons at the
bottom left of document windows: one for syncing your settings to
the Creative Cloud for access on other machines, and one for upload-
ing artwork to the collaborative, online Behance community.
A useful new feature is for conditional actions; it lets you record an
action that chooses among previously recorded actions and runs the
one that matches criteria you set (to account for variables such as
document size, color modes, and so on). The Image Size dialog box is
simpler and includes a resizable image preview to see the results of
your settings before applying them. A new Preserve Details interpola-
tion method sharpens areas of ne detail to produce higher-
quality enlargements.
All interpolation meth-
ods have keyboard
shortcuts.
In CC, the Field Blur,
Iris Blur, and Tilt-Shift
lters work with Smart
Filters, so you can run
them nondestructive-
ly. They also take
advantage of OpenCL,
a technology in newer
graphics cards that lets
Photoshop tap into
the cards processing
power whenever it
wants, so previewing
and applying these l-
ters is faster.
REVIEWS &
RATINGS
Photoshop CC
PROS:
Retina-ready
Can x blurry images
Has more lters
CONS:
Bridge is a separate installation and has
some useful features missing.
BOTTOM LINE:
If you use Photoshop professionally, its
time to subscribe.
PRICE:
$50 per month for full Creative Cloud
subscription
The new Shake
Reduction lter does
an incredible job.

The Camera Raw plug-in can now be a Smart Filter inside Photoshop.
Camera Raw 8 also sports a Radial lter to apply adjustments in a cir-
cular fashion either from the inside of your image to its edges or vice-
versa. You can heal areas that arent round using Camera Raws Spot
Removal tool, and the Upright feature lets you correct perspective
problems.
The new Shake Reduction lter analyzes your image and traces the
pattern of blurry areas to eradicate them. It does an incredible job on
slightly blurry images. The redesigned Smart Sharpen lter sports a
new sharpening method that keeps halos from being introduced
around high-contrast edges, and a noise-reduction slider.
At the top of the Layers panel, a new Selective layer-ltering option
lets you view just the currently active (highlighted) layers in your Lay-
ers panelhandy when your Layers panel is long and youre editing
layers that dont necessarily match other layer-ltering criteria, or
overlapping vector-shape paths.
Once youve saved frequently used text formatting as character or
paragraph styles, you can use the new Save As Defaults option to make
REVIEWS &
RATINGS
The new Image Size dialog box includes both a preview and a new algorithm
named Preserve Details that creates higher-quality enlargements.

Photoshop automatically add them to new documents and to existing
documents that dont contain styles.
If youre a Web designer, a new Copy CSS command in the shortcut
menus of Type and Shape layers lets you copy color and formatting
information into your computers memory as fully functional CSS
code, for pasting into an HTML editor.
Photoshop CC has a slew of little changes, too. Among them: The
Crop tool gets a setting that brings back the resolution eld in the
Options bar. You can save more than one Photoshop document at the
same time, and the Color Range command is better at detecting faces.
An antialiasing option makes text appear as it will in popular Web
browsers. The Migrate Presets feature copies over presets that arent
currently loaded in Photoshop, and it no longer requires a restart.
Adobe Bridge CC
Bridge CC is now a separate installation from Photoshop CC, making
it less discoverable. Also, to optimize Bridge CC for modern operat-
ing systems and display resolutions, Adobe removed some useful,
relatively new features. The most glaring omission is the Adobe
Output Module (AOM) for creating Web galleries and PDFs. The
Export paneluseful in converting multiple images from one for-
mat to another and quickly posting images on Flickr and Face-
bookis gone, too.
REVIEWS &
RATINGS
The Shake
Reduction lter
automatically
analyzes your
image and traces
the blur pattern.
The Shake
Reduction lter
automatically
analyzes your
image and traces
the blur pattern.
You can have it
analyze multiple
areas by opening
the Advanced
section (circled).

If your workflow depends on the AOM, keep using Bridge CS6. But if
you are new to the program or have never used the omitted fea-
tures, you wont miss them, and youll like the zippier performance of
Bridge CC.
Botom line
If you use Photoshop professionally, its time to subscribeeveryone
will benet from having fewer new features released at one time, but
more frequently. If you use three Adobe programs, youll save money
by subscribing to the full Creative Cloud (the break-even point on cur-
rent pricing is at 2.5 programs). That lets you explore more programs
and diversify your skills.
If you use only Photoshop and Lightroom, youll save money by pur-
chasing a single-app subscription to Photoshop for $20 per month
and a stand-alone copy of Lightroom for $149. If you use only Photo-
shop, try Photoshop Elements (go.pcworld.com/adobepselements)
instead; its an incredibly powerful, user-friendly stand-alone image
editor.
But those using Bridge CS6s AOM or its Export panel should avoid
Bridge CC.
The Smart
Sharpen lters
new and simpli-
ed dialog box.
The Fade
Amount elds
let you reduce
the sharpening
applied to your
image.

REVIEWS &
RATINGS
THE ORIGINAL NEXUS 7 was merely a bargain, a good-enough tablet
at a great price. The new Nexus 7 (go.pcworld.com/newnexus7) is a
downright steal. Its the best 7-inch tablet, period. Google has rede-
ned budget tablet so that it no longer refers to cheap-feeling, sub-
$200 devices. You can now grab a svelte, premium 7-inch tablet with
a high-resolution screen, wireless charging, a quad-core processor,
The new Nexus 7 is the best
7-inch tablet available today
BY FLORENCE ION
Google redenes what
we can expect from a
budget tablet.

and 2GB of RAM for a measly $229.
The revamped Nexus 7 is more than just the next stock Android gad-
get oering from Google. Its the companys re-do of what it should
have done right the rst time. The giant of search (and maps, and mail,
and), with its ginormous, seemingly all-inclusive Android ecosystem,
has nally entered the premium tablet market.
Easier to hold, faster than ever
The rst thing I noticed about this Nexus 7 is that, despite sharing the
same name as its predecessor, its an entirely dierent product. Next to
this shiny new toy, the previous-generation Nexus 7 looks antiquated.
The new Nexus 7 is easier to holdthe bezel is 3mm thinner on
each side, so you can comfortably cradle it in one hand while using the
other to grip the handrail on your train ride to work. One-handed use
is much easier this time aroundthough I would have loved to see an
option to shift virtual buttons to the side of the screen where my
thumb naturally falls.
(LGs Optimus UI has
such functionality in
the dialer app on the
companys Optimus line
of Android phones.)
Google has ditched
the Nvidia Tegra 3 pro-
cessor found in the ear-
lier Nexus 7 in favor of
Qualcomms 1.5GHz
Snapdragon S4 Pro. If
the name sounds famil-
iar, thats because this is
the same processor the
LG-manufactured
Nexus 4 handset con-
tains, essentially mak-
ing the new Nexus 7 a
Nexus 7
PROS:
Vibrant, high-resolution screen
Its a Nexus device, so youll get most of
the software updatesfor now
CONS:
No expandable storage
BOTTOM LINE:
If youre in the market for an Android tab-
let, the new Nexus 7 is the one to get.
And if youre got the old one lying around,
considering trading it in for this one.
PRICE:
$229

slightly bigger Nexus 4. This Nexus 7 certainly feels much faster than
its predecessor. Games and apps launch quickly, and multitasking
between the Home screen and Google Now is a cinch. I noticed some
stuttering on simple tasks such as posting a photo to Facebook from
the image gallerybut that could be the fault of the apps themselves.
Google claims that its newly revamped Nexus 7 can support up to 9
hours of continuous use away from a charger.
In our own battery tests, the Nexus 7 lasted 8
hours, 47 minutes on a single charge while
repeatedly playing back a locally stored, high-
denition video. Thats a bit less than what
Google advertises, and much less than the 10
hours, 12 minutes that last years Nexus 7
managed. The dierence may be due to the
bigger battery pack and lower-resolution
screen on last years model. Though the Nexus 7s battery life is aver-
age for a tablet of its size, direct comparisons are dicult, as the iPad
mini and the 7-inch Kindle Fire HD dont have high-resolution screens.
If you were a fan of the last Nexus 7, you probably wished that
Google had added a rear-facing camera to handle all of your Instagram-
posting needs. Well, its nally herebut while the 5-megapixel cam-
era is certainly capable, you wont want to rely on it for vacation pho-
tos. Photos taken at the stock Android camera apps low-light setting
came out too dark; better-lit photos are adequate for posting to the
Internet, but not for archiving the days of your life.
The Nexus 7 comes with a few other goodies, including an MHL
(Mobile High-Denition Link) port, support for wireless charging, and
NFC capabilities. The new stereo speakers are a dramatic improve-
ment, too. But if you have big hands and hold the device in landscape
orientation, you might mufle the soundinconvenient when youre
trying to play a game or watch a movie without headphones.
Annoyingly, the Nexus 7 doesnt supply any expandable storage, so,
if youre a media junkie, youll have to opt for the priciest versionand
probably buy into some cloud storage, too.
Whether its dark in your house or very bright on the train, the Nexus
REVIEWS &
RATINGS
The giant of search
has nally entered
the premium tablet
market.

7s new 1200-by-1980-pixel LCD display is quite a sightliterally. I was
stunned to see a display of this caliber on a device priced at under
$250. At 323 pixels per inch, the resolution makes for crisper text in
reading apps.
At full brightness, last years Nexus 7 display looked dimmer than
the new Nexus 7s display, though the colors on the new model did
seem a little oversaturated, like a bag of Skittles.
In general, I enjoyed reading text more on this years Nexus 7 than on
last years, thanks to its slimmer body and brighter display.
Beter than all the rest
On the basis of specs alone, the rival iPad mini has some work to do.
The minis current processor is a bit more dated than the one that the
new Nexus 7 runs on, and it packs only 512MB of RAM. The minis dis-
play is bigger than the Nexus 7s and features a dierent aspect ratio,
but its not a pricy Retina display, which, in my opinion, gives Google
the upper hand. And whereas Apples 16GB iPad mini sells for $329,
Googles new Nexus 7 starts at $229, and its 32GB variant costs only
The new Nexus
7 tablet is thin-
ner and lighter.

$40 more. If you need that much space on an iPad mini, Apple asks you
to fork over an extra Benjamin. The only upside to Apples oering is
its superior collection of tablet-optimized apps. The Google Play store
is full of apps, but fewer of them are speci-
cally made for tablets.
Meanwhile, Amazons Kindle Fire HD is in
big trouble. The 7-inch Kindle Fire is cheaper
at $199 (for 16GB of storage) and $229 (for
32GB), but its screen resolution and pixel
density leave much to be desired. Its also
about 2mm thicker than the new Nexus 7.
In addition, the Kindle Fire HD uses a cus-
tomized version of Android and doesnt come with Googles standard
appsand theyre not available to download if you decide you want them.
First with Android 4.3
The Nexus 7 is the rst device in the Google Nexus family to use
Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, an incremental software update with features
such as support for OpenGL ES 3.0 (something that will make for
better-looking games), Bluetooth 4.0 LE support, and the ability to
restrict certain user accounts (a feature called Restricted Proles that
you can bring into play when setting up multiple accounts). That last
capability might come in handy if you plan to buy this tablet for your-
self and your family. Not many tablet-optimized applications are avail-
able for Android yet, but Google is changing the way it showcases
those particular apps, to make them easier to nd.
Beyond that, youll still have access to the Google applications that
come with every stock Android device, including Gmail, Hangouts, and
Google Maps. Youll also have access to Googles new stock camera
application, which debuted in the Google Play editions of the Sam-
sung Galaxy S4 and HTC One in June. Because its a Nexus device, this
Nexus 7 will receive the most timely Android software updates, so you
wont have to worry about software fragmentation or getting left
behind with an older version of Android.
REVIEWS &
RATINGS
The Nexus 7s
1200-by-1980-pixel
display is quite a
sightliterally.

Botom line
I cant help but feel a little trepidation. The previous-generation Nexus
7 had quite a few issues to contend with after its update to Android
4.2.2 Jelly Bean. If I let the battery die, the tablet wouldnt turn on
without a hard reset, and the tablet became buggier and slower to
use over time. I hope this new Nexus 7 wont suer from those foibles
because if history repeats itself, Google will have to do much more
next time around to rid us of our bad memories.
The second-generation Nexus 7 oers strong features at an aord-
able price. If youre a seasoned tablet user, whether you should buy
this tablet will depend primarily on whether you are tied to Googles
ecosystem. Still, this particular device can hold its own against any
other 7-inch tablet currently available. At the moment, it has some of
the best specs, a bright screen, and a few other little goodiesand its
hardly a splurge. If youre in the market for a 7-inch Android device,
this is the one to get.
PHOTOGRAPHS: MI KE HOMNI CK

BY ALEX WAWRO
REVIEWS &
RATINGS
RAZERS SECOND-GENERATION Blade (go.pcworld.com/razerblade) is
an ultraportable, high-performance Windows 8 laptop packed into a
slim body that any Apple engineer would envy. Better than the origi-
nal Blade, its sleeker, lighter, and more powerful, with a fourth-
generation Core processor. And it loses the Switchblade LCD touchpad
that made the old Bladenow the Blade Proso quirky.
Thinner, lighter, faster
The Blade is two-thirds of an inch thick and weighs 4.25 pounds. With
its diminutive power adapter, the package tops out at just over 5
pounds. Although the Blade is 1.5 pounds heavier than the 13-inch
Razers Blade is a sleek, smart
ultraportable gaming PC

MacBook Air, it is thinner than the Air by 0.02
inch at its thickest point. But Apples ultraport-
able feels skinnier because its unibody chassis
tapers down to such a knife edge.
A green-backlit keyboard sits atop a matte-
black aluminum chassis. Inside is a quad-core
Intel Core i7-4702MQ processor, an Nvidia
GeForce GTX 765M GPU, and 8GB of DDR3/1600 memory. The chas-
sis gets very warm when the GPU kicks in, despite an intake fan on
the bottom that exhausts heat through vents near the sturdy dis-
play hinges.
We applaud the inclusion of a 256GB SSD, an HDMI output, and three
USB 3.0 ports, but the absence of hardwired ethernet means you must
download all your software via Wi-Fi.
Price reflects performance, screen reflects glare. The Blades
cheap TN (twisted nematic) panel is disappointing, doubly so in
that the resolution of
the 14-inch display is
limited to 1600 by 900
pixels. The screen
looks decent enough
when viewed straight
on, but move your
head more than a few
inches in any direction,
and colors quickly fade
and bleed together.
Still, Razer deserves
credit for making good
on its promise to deliv-
er the worlds most
powerful ultraportable
gaming laptop. Among
the gaming-focused
features of the Blade:
Razer Blade
PROS:
Sleek, attractive design
Excellent performance
CONS:
Disappointing screen quality
Can get very hot during extended
game play
BOTTOM LINE:
Haswell-powered Blade panders to PC
gamers on the go, cramming pricey pre-
mium hardware into a petite chassis.
PRICE:
$1999
Razer makes good
on a promise to de-
liver a truly powerful
gaming laptop.

You can crank the stereo speakers nice and loud, and the keyboard is
fully programmable through the included Razer Synapse 2.0 software.
The keyboards antighosting feature enables the Blade to recognize
multiple keypresses at the same time, so you dont have to worry
quite as much about hitting the wrong key in the heat of a match.
The keys themselves are small and comfortable, with enough travel
that you can touch-type with condence. You can dim or shut the
backlight o entirely, but the green glowing Razer logo on the lid cant
be killed.
The Blade costs a cool $2000 as reviewed. Since it earned an excel-
lent score of 414 in our Notebook WorldBench 8.1 benchmarking
REVIEWS &
RATINGS
The Blades screen is
perfectly serviceable
for the lions share of
your computing
needs, but its poor
viewing angles
diminish the joy of
watching movies or
playing games.
PHOTOGRAPH: MI KE HOMNI CK

suite, thats not bad. That score
means its roughly four times
faster than our reference model,
the mainstream Asus Vivobook
S550CA, and very close to the
performance of the fastest note-
book weve tested to date, the
CyberPower FangBook EVO HX7-200 (go.pcworld.com/fangbook). The
FangBook, which sells for $1550, has a larger display, a faster CPU and
GPU, and more memory, but it also weighs more than 10 pounds.
Botom line
The Blade is the most practical laptop Razer has made. It functions
equally well as a gaming laptop or a high-powered Windows 8 work
machine, is compact, and has a battery life of more than 4.5 hours). And
while it doesnt sport the touchscreen or the funky peripherals of the
Razer Edge Pro, its more powerful and far more comfortable to use.
The Razer Blade doesnt sport a touchscreen,
but its powerful and comfortable to type on.
The Blade is Razers
most practical lap-
top: Its good for
gaming and work.
PHOTOGRAPH: ROBERT CARDI N

REVIEWS &
RATINGS
DELL IS OFFERING a docking station and a wireless network adapter
card based on the IEEE 802.11ad standard (WiGig). Plug all your cabled
devices into the Wireless Dock D5000 (go.pcworld.com/dockD5000),
and your laptop establishes a wireless connection (on the 60GHz fre-
quency band) to the dock.
But the internal adapter card (the $37.50 Dell Wireless 1601 WiGig
and 802.11n 2x2 Wi-Fi Half Mini Card) required for pairing a notebook
to the docking station is an option with only one laptop: the Latitude
6430u. You cant buy the adapter card separately, and no third-party
adapter can let you use the D5000 with other notebooks. But a Dell
representative says the company absolutely expects to oer its
WiGig adapter with additional products in the coming months.
In my tests, Dells wireless docking station performed remarkably
well. The D5000 has two video outputs (DisplayPort 1.1which means
no multistream transportand HDMI 1.3), three USB 3.0 ports, one
Dells Wireless Dock D5000
frees your laptop from cables
BY MICHAEL BROWN
The D5000 has a single USB 3.0
port on its front panel, along with
a 1/8-inch stereo audio jack.

gigabit ethernet, and one 1/8-inch stereo audio jack.
Dell says the D5000 delivers up to 10 meters of range (almost 33
feet, with dock and laptop in the same room), but I lost connection
if the separation was more than 6 feet. Still, the ability to drive two
displays and transfer les between a host PC and a docked hard
drive wirelessly is impressive.
Transferring les over the wireless connection was signicantly
slower than when we hardwired a USB 3.0 hard drive to the notebook.
When writing our single 10GB le to the drive using a hardwired USB
3.0 connection, for
example, we saw
throughput of 99.2
MBps. When we wrote
the same le to the
drive via the D5000, the
transfer occurred at
just 31.5 MBps.
Though the conve-
nience of the dock far
outweighs the sluggish
wireless le-transfer
speed, its usability with
only one notebook
today makes the dock a
problematic buy at
best.
Dell Wireless Dock D5000
PROS:
Requires no physical connection
Can drive two displays
Three USB 3.0 ports
CONS:
Currently compatible only with Latitude
6430u Ultrabook
Limited range
Doesnt support HDCP
BOTTOM LINE:
Awesome productas long as you dont
mind being tied to Dells Latitude 6430u
Ultrabook.
PRICE:
$270 (as stand-alone purchase)
PHOTOGRAPH: ROBERT CARDI N
Youll nd two
more USB 3.0
ports, Display-
Port 1.1, HDMI
1.3, and gigabit
ethernet on the
rear panel.

REVIEWS &
RATINGS
ON THE DAY we reviewed Dells Latitude 3330 (go.pcworld.com/
latitude3330), the starting price online was $801, but the listed Dell
price was $561. On the day you look, those numbers could be dier-
ent. What wont change, however, is the fact that this 13.3-inch note-
book with Windows 7 Pro is aimed at buyers working with very tight
budgets. Just remember that you get what you pay for.
In this case, youre getting a sub-4-pound laptop with a slim prole
but skimpy specs that include an Intel Core i3-2375M CPU (part of
the Sandy Bridge family introduced back in early 2011), equally
Dell Latitude 3330:
A no-frills laptop
BY YARDENA ARAR

dated HD3000 integrated graphics that share
just 4GB of system memory, and an incommodi-
ous 320GB hard drive that spins its platters at
5400 rpm.
In real-world terms, the across-the-board low
scores it produced in our benchmark translate to
longer wait times for basic computing operations, such as installing
apps, editing digital photos, and decompressing zipped les. The lag
may not be too bothersome if you merely need to write letters and
term papers, run simple spreadsheets, check email, and catch up on
news in a browser.
Nevertheless, the Latitude 3330s Notebook WorldBench 8.1 score
of 68 marks it as 32 percent slower than our reference laptop, the Asus
VivoBook S550CA. Weve seen the VivoBook selling online for $650,
but that $90 bump
buys a lot, including an
Intel Core i5 CPU, a
15.6-inch touchscreen,
6GB of memory, and a
500GB hard drive with
an SSD cache.
In my tests, the Lati-
tude 3330 couldnt
even stream YouTube
music videos over a
2.4GHz wireless net-
work without stutter-
ing or pixelating (it
does not support 5GHz
Wi-Fi). Video captures
with the integrated
720p webcam looked
washed out, and video
received on Skype calls
was blockyand you
Dell Latitude 3330
PROS:
Budget price
Attractive design
CONS:
Mushy keyboard
Only 2.4GHz Wi-Fi networking
BOTTOM LINE:
Sleek and lightweight, the budget-priced
Dell Latitude 3330 makes a good rst
impression. But it has diculty running
even the most routine multimedia
much less gamesbecause of its bare-
bones infrastructure.
PRICE:
$561
This laptop is aimed
at buyers with very
tight budgets.

can forget even
trying any serious
gaming.
You do get a fairly
standard port array: two
USB 3.0, one USB 2.0 with
PowerShare support (for
charging devices even when the
laptop is powered down), gigabit
ethernet, HDMI- and VGA-out, a head-
phone/microphone jack, and an SD/
MMC card reader. Our review unit came
with a six-cell battery that lasted a respect-
able 5 hours, 13 minutes.
The Latitude 3330 looks handsome and sturdy
enough, with a pewter-colored brushed-metal exte-
rior trimmed with black plastic that repeats inside. The
island Chiclet-style keyboard keys are a bit mushy and flat,
but well spaced and adequate for touch-typing. The multitouch
touchpad is reasonably responsive, and the 1366-by-768-pixel display
looks bright and crisp. Stereo speakers embedded in the front edge
produce surprisingly robust audio.
Dell oers multiple customization options that can make the Lati-
tude 3330 less expensiveand even less powerful. This notebook will
fulll a students or business travelers most basic needs, but buyers
should be prepared to accept subpar performance for even routine
Web multimedia.
REVIEWS &
RATINGS
PHOTOGRAPH: COURTESY OF DELL
The Latitude
3330s 13.3-
inch display is
not a touch-
screen. Then
again, this
notebook ships
with Windows
7 Pro, not Win-
dows 8.

THE PATRIOT AERO Wireless Mobile Drive (go.pcworld.com/aero)
resembles a simple but fairly large 2.5-inch external USB 3.0 hard
drive. The only clue that it can also function as a wireless multimedia
streamer is its Wi-Fi indicator light. With suitable Android and iOS
apps, you can access the Aeros content from most mobile devices.
When you plug the Aero into a USB port, its Wi-Fi shuts o so that
the unit can charge and can function as direct-attached storage (like
a normal USB hard drive). When you remove the drive from the USB
Patriot Aero streams media
even without a power cable
BY JON L. JACOBI
The Patriot Aero is a
wireless hard drive with
a USB 3.0 interface.
PHOTOGRAPH: ROBERT CARDI N

250 300
Reformatted
as NTFS, Patri-
ots Aero drive
performed
much faster
writes of our
10GB collec-
tion of test
les. (Patriot
ships the drive
formatted as
exFAT.)
Portable USB 3.0 Hard Drive Performance
1TB Drives Formatted as NTFS
Read a single
10GB le
Write a single
10GB le
Read 10GB
mix of
les & folders
0 50 100 150 200
Write 10GB
mix of
les & folders
101.5
Seagate Wireless Plus Corsair Voyager Air
(Megabytes per second)
93.0
102.4
210.5
208.3
215.9
109.2
106.4
110.2
Patriot Aero
port, Wi-Fi automatically turns on. The Aero also
comes equipped with both an AC jack and a mini
power-to-USB cable, which youll need to use to
keep the unit streaming and charging from a USB
port. A battery meter on the Aeros side lights up
when you press the accompanying button.
The Aero creates its own network (10.10.10.x),
and also connects to another wireless network to provide Internet
pass-through. Patriot says that everything should show up within 30
seconds. But in my tests, the device took nearly 5 minutes before it
was ready to access again. (Patriot says the lengthy wait could be
related to other hardware in my setup.)
With suitable apps,
you can access the
Aeros content from
most mobile devices.
REVIEWS &
RATINGS
245.6
247.1
255.5

Patriot Aero Wireless
Mobile Drive
PROS:

Wireless media streaming

Apps for Android and iOS

USB 3.0 interface
CONS:

No onboard DLNA server

3-hour battery life
BOTTOM LINE:
The Patriot Aero creates a Wi-Fi hotspot
for multimedia streaming, and it works
well. In battery life and performance, how-
ever, its a step behind the competition.
PRICE:
$200
Patriot supplies client apps for Android and
iOS, but not for Windows Phone. It has no DLNA
server to feed Windows Media Player, iTunes,
XBMC, or the like, so instead you must use
Explorer to reach the drive at \\10.10.10.254
and treat it as direct-attached storage.
According to Patriot, the Aero can stream 720p
video to up to ve devices at once. It eortlessly
streamed video to the three devices in my test setup at rates up to
about 2 MBps. It read our 10GB le and folder mix at 217.4 MBps, and
it wrote and read our single large le at 109.7 MBps and 247.9 MBps,
respectively. In writing our mixed batch of les, however, it operated
at 41.9 MBps, about half the USB 3.0 norm. After we reformatted the
drive from ExFAT to NTFS, the write speed on the 10GB collection
jumped to 102.4 MBps.
One signicant draw-
back: At just shy of 3
hours, the Aeros bat-
tery life was about an
hour shorter than that
of its rivals, the Seagate
Wireless Plus and the
Corsair Voyager Air (go.
pcworld.com/corsair).
According to
Patriot, the Aero
can stream 720p
video to up to ve
devices at once.

REVIEWS &
RATINGS
THE MAIN SELLING point of the Vizio CT15T-B1 Thin + Light Touch
(go.pcworld.com/ct15tb1), the latest iteration of the companys 15.6-
inch Thin + Light laptop, is its glossy HD touchscreen. The laptop has
a smooth, gunmetal-gray metallic cover with neatly beveled edges, a
spacious keyboard deck, and an edge-to-edge glass screen.
Inside, the CT15T-B1 packs a quad-core Intel i7-3635QM processor
from the Ivy Bridge line, along with 8GB of DDR3/1600 memory and a
256GB SSD. That conguration helped it to a very peppy Notebook
WorldBench 8.1 score of 334. The laptop lacks a discrete graphics
Vizios CT15T-B1 adds an HD
touchscreenand little more
BY SARAH JACOBSSON PUREWAL

card, however, and its graphics perfor-
mance is mediocre (or worse). In our
Bioshock Innite test (low resolution/
low quality settings), it managed a
frame rate of just 24.2 frames per
second.
The CT15T-B1s looks great. The
15.6-inch IPS display has a native reso-
lution of 1920 by 1080 pixels. Colors are
bright and accurate, text looks crisp and
clear, and the touchscreen responds well
to multitouch gestures.
Streaming HD video plays
smoothly, with mini-
mal artifacting and
noise; but audio from
the built-in speakers is
fuzzy, slightly distort-
ed (even at lower lev-
els), and generally di-
cult to listen to.
This laptop isnt an
Ultrabook (it weighs
almost 5 pounds with-
out the power brick),
but it has few ports.
The left side houses a
USB 3.0 port and a
mic/headphone jack,
while the right side
accommodates
another USB 3.0 port
and an HDMI port.
Theres no ethernet
Vizio CT15T-B1
Thin + Light Touch
PROS:
Bright, accurate touchscreen
Good performance
Attractive industrial design
CONS:
Too few ports
Minor design flaws
Somewhat heavy
BOTTOM LINE:
A few design tweaks and a bit less
weight would have made this good
notebook great.
PRICE:
$1470
The Vizio CT15T-B1 is over
three times faster than our
reference notebook, the
Asus VivoBook S550CA.

jack, lock slot, or eSATA port.
Other design flaws include the keyboard, which looks pretty but
oers exceedingly lightindeed almost non existentfeedback. In
my tests, I managed a rate of around 85 words per minute, but usu-
ally I type 115 wpm. I found the laptops cover hard to open, even
with my slim ngers and nails, because the indentation on the lower
half is so shallow.
I was somewhat disappointed to discover that Vizio hadnt xed
some of the minor annoyances that cropped up on the CT15-A4 (go.
pcworld.com/ct15a4)the predecessor to this modelbut the
CT15T-B1 is a good laptop if youre looking for a slim and reasonably
light high-performance machine. Its speedy, even though it lacks a
Haswell processor; and it has a nice, bright touchscreen ready for all of
your hands-on Windows 8 activities.
REVIEWS &
RATINGS
PHOTOGRAPHS: ROBERT CARDI N
Its speedy,
even though it
lacks a Haswell
processor.
Vizio carried over most of the
design elements from its rst
Thin + Light notebook.

ITS NO ULTRABOOK, but the Micro Express NB5720 (go.pcworld.com/
nb5720) doesnt look bad for a boxy, half-plastic laptop that carries a
respectable 15.6-inch screen. It comes with a smooth, slate-gray,
brushed-aluminum cover with tapered edges and a minimalist key-
board deck. However, its 1.68 inches thick and it weighs 5.75 pounds.
The NB5720 packs some high-performance components under its
hood: a 2.8GHz Core i7-4900MQ, 16GB of DDR3/1600 memory, a dis-
crete Nvidia GeForce GTX 765M graphics card, a 256GB solid-state
drive, and a 750GB, 7200-rpm hard drive. It roared to a Notebook
Micro Express NB5720: Plain
looks, but high performance
BY SARAH JACOBSSON PUREWAL

WorldBench 8.1 score of 483, though all that power did
wear down the battery in just 3 hours, 37 minutes.
The systems 15.6-inch, nonglare screen has a native
resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels
and looks great: It is very bright,
produces accurate colors and skin
tones, and renders sharp text. Its not
a touchscreen, however, which can be a major
drawback if youre using Windows 8. (You can order your unit
with whichever operating system you prefer.)
The NB5720s keyboard deck looks simple and uncluttered despite
oering tons of func-
tionality. The deck
includes (in addition to
a full-size keyboard) a
ten-key numeric pad,
a trackpad with dis-
crete mouse buttons,
a ngerprint reader,
and two convenient
buttons: Airplane
Mode, which toggles
your Wi-Fi on and o;
and VGA, which toggles
between the discrete
graphics card (for bet-
ter performance) and
the integrated GPU
(for longer battery life).
The keyboards
matte-black island-
REVIEWS &
RATINGS
Micro Express NB5720
PROS:
Excellent performance
Plenty of connectivity options
Very good keyboard
CONS:
Worst speakers ever
No touchscreen
Subpar battery life for its class
BOTTOM LINE:
Micro Expresss NB5720 gaming note-
book is short on looks, but very long on
performance.
PRICE:
$1599
The Micro
Express NB5720
produced the
highest Note-
book WorldBench
8.1 score weve
seen to date.
The keyboards island-style keys
are comfortable to type on.

style keys are comfortable
and easy to type on. In my
tests, I managed 99 words
per minute, which is good
for a laptop keyboard (I
typically average around
115 wpm when typing on a full-size keyboard that Im accustomed to
using). The medium-size trackpad is responsive, though a bit choppy.
The discrete mouse buttons are widely spaced and easy to press, but
they provide little tactile feedback.
The speakers, which are located above the keyboard, sound brassy,
tinny, and shrilland the sound only gets worse when you play it at
higher volume. Theyre awful.
Overall, the NB5720 is easily the fastest laptop weve tested. Though
its a bit clunky and heavy, you wouldnt mistake it for a desktop
replacementand yet it outperforms most of them.
PHOTOGRAPHS: ROBERT CARDI N
The speakers sound
brassy, tinny, and
shrill. Theyre awful.
The NB5720 has a great collection of components,
but its more than twice as thick as the typical
Ultrabook and weighs nearly 6 pounds.

REVIEWS &
RATINGS
FROM THE FRONT, the thin (0.27 inch thick), light (1.1 pounds) Sony
Xperia Tablet Z (go.pcworld.com/tabletz) looks likes a black glass slab.
The sides are featureless black, aside from a silver on/o button, and the
back is matte black. Its pretty, but it picks up ngerprints in a hurry.
When its removable (with diculty) port covers are in place over the
tablets Micro-USB port and MicroSD slot, the Tablet Z is waterproof
within reason, anyway. The Micro-USB port also handles charging.
Sonys display isnt as high-resolution as those found in Apples Retina
iPad (go.pcworld.com/retinaipad4) or Googles Nexus 10 (go.pcworld.
Sonys
bathtub-compatible

Xperia Tablet Z
BY JASON SNELL
PHOTOGRAPH: MI KE HOMNI CK
You cant go deep-sea diving
with the Tablet Z, but remov-
able port covers make this
Android 4.1 tablet waterproof.

com/nexus10), but its 1920-by-1200-pixel screen can display 1080p HD
movies at full resolution and crisp text at 224 pixels per inch.
Inside, the Xperia Tablet Z carries a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon
S4 quad-core processor and an Adreno 320 GPU. It has a 2.2-megapixel
front-facing camera and an 8-megapixel rear camera.
The Xperia Tablet Z runs a modied version of Android 4.1. You can
place commonly used apps, as well as a shortcut to the apps list, in a
nifty app dock at the top of the screen. The entire U.I. and app experi-
ence felt responsive, though performance can be spotty: Some apps
scroll smoothly while others lag and judder.
The Xperia Tablet Z comes with an infrared blaster on its top edge,
and the included Remote Control app lets you program it. Unfortu-
nately this software isnt up to the job of enabling the tablet to func-
tion as your primary living-room control.
The Xperia Tablet Zs setup procedure initially tried (and failed) to
connect to the Internet before asking me to connect to my local
Wi-Fi networka pret-
ty basic mistake for a
setup routine to make.
But once I opened the
settings manually and
connected to my Wi-Fi
network, the remainder
of the setup process
proceeded apace.
The Sony Xperia Tab-
let Z certainly isnt the
best 10-inch tablet
available on the market
todaynot while the
outstanding Nexus 10
and iPad 4 roam the
land. But in the water,
the Xperia Tablet Z
reigns supreme.
Sony Xperia Tablet Z
PROS:
Remarkably light
Waterproof
CONS:
Weak add-on software
Image quality cant match that of its
high-end rivals
BOTTOM LINE:
This waterproof, easy-to-carry tablet
rates as a serious contender in the
10-inch Android market.
PRICE:
$500

REVIEWS &
RATINGS
ALTHOUGH THE $400 HP Ocejet Pro 276dw (go.pcworld.com/
hpoj276dw) is expensive, its an excellent inkjet multifunction printer
that plays nice even in a corporate environment.
Installation is a breeze, despite quite a few dialog boxes. The 4.3-inch
touchscreen control panel has a well thought-out menu structure.
Text is near-laser-quality, and color graphics are nice. Plain-paper
photos appear slightly washed out, but look good in newsletters.
Color photos on glossy paper are excellent, though HPs bent toward
HPs Ocejet Pro 276dw:
Speedy, capable
BY JON L. JACOBI
The 276dw is an inkjet
alternative to small-
oce lasers.
PHOTOGRAPH: ROBERT CARDI N

orangey skin tones remains. The greenish tint has vanished from its
PCL 5 monochrome graphics but is still apparent in monochrome
graphics printed via PostScript on the Mac. Scan quality is quite good.
Performance is smooth and quick. Our text pages (which included
simple monochrome graphics) printed at a rate of 10.8 pages per min-
ute on the PC and 13 ppm on the Mac. Our 4-by-6-inch photos printed
to plain paper at a bit over 4 ppm, and to glossy paper at about 1 ppm.
A full-page photo printed at best quality took 2 minutes, 15 seconds
on the Mac, and just over 2 minutes on the PC. At the default settings,
which look nearly as good, you can cut the time down to 75 seconds
or so. An informal test of printing a simple Excel spreadsheet took per-
haps 15 seconds on the PC, but slowed tremendously on the Mac. We
were unable to determine where the fault lay, but you should look for
driver updates if youll be sharing the 276dw with Mac users.
Ink costs are outstandingly low, especially for the high-capacity XL
supplies: 1.6 cents per
page for black and 5.6
cents per page for
cyan, magenta, and yel-
low. A total cost of 7.2
cents per four-color
page is a lot cheaper
than what youd pay
with a similarly priced
laser printer. The stan-
dard supplies add up to
about 12 cents for a
four-color page.
Paper handling fea-
tures include automat-
ic duplex printing,
duplex scanning (auto-
matic refeed), and a
50-sheet automatic
document feeder.
HP Ofcejet Pro 276dw
PROS:
Fast
Great print quality
Inexpensive ink
CONS:
Steep purchase price
BOTTOM LINE:
The Ocejet Pro 276dw is pricey, but its
a Cadillac among inkjet MFPsspeedy
and capableand a bargain next to the
laser competition.
PRICE:
$400

REVIEWS &
RATINGS
CONSUMERS ARE POSTING online more and printing lessand losing
their patience with pricey ink cartridges. The $99 Epson Expression
Home XP-410 Small-in-One (go.pcworld.com/epsonxp410) certainly
does not solve that issue, but it does oer surprisingly good output
quality along with basic multifunction features.
The tiltable control panel is better than what youll see on most low-
cost printers. Included are a 2.5-inch color display and context-sensitive
touch controls. The panel works well and is intuitive and responsive.
One annoyance is the exile of the primary user guide and the Mac OS X
drivers to Epsons website. The CD has plenty of roomwhy not put
them there? Its a puzzler, but common on Epsons lower-cost models.
Epsons Expression Home
XP-410: Good for light use
BY MELISSA RIOFRIO
The XP-410s control panel is surprisingly nice, with
a color display and responsive touch controls.
PHOTOGRAPH: COURTESY OF EPSON

Epsons gently pink color palette works to the benet of most images.
Test photos showed good color accuracy and realistic contours and
shadows. Flesh tones, though pinkish, looked okay. Photos printed on
plain paper were a little grainy, but had good brightness and accuracy. A
color copy on plain paper was gorgeous. The XP-410 also produced sur-
prisingly good text: Edges looked classically inkjet-soft, but not fuzzy.
Print speed is decent. Documents with plain, black text and small
monochrome graphics printed at an aggregate 6.6 pages per min-
ute on the PC and 6.4 ppm on the Mac. Color photos took consider-
ably longerespecially the full-page photo we print on the Mac,
which took 3 minutes at best settings. On the PC, a 3-by-5-inch
photo took 16 seconds at default settings on plain paper, and 70
seconds at the photo setting on Epsons own photo stock. Scan
times were among the
slowest weve seen,
but the scans them-
selves were good.
Regrettably, the
XP-410s ink is expen-
sive. The 500-page, $30
XL black works out to
6 cents per page, while
the $17, 450-page cyan,
magenta, and yellow XL
cartridges cost 3.8 cpp
each. Thats an above-
average 17.4 cents for a
four-color page. In the
standard capacities,
black is 7.4 cpp, and
each color is 5.4 cpp.
Spending 23.6 cents for
a four-color page is
pricey even for the
entry-level category.
Epson Expression Home
XP-410 Small-in-One
PROS:
Very good print quality overall
Nice, responsive control panel
CONS:
Expensive inks
Slow scans
Mac drivers and primary documentation
are online only
BOTTOM LINE:
The XP-410 will suce for light home/
student use, but the pricey inks mean you
shouldnt buy this MFP unless you dont
print much.
PRICE:
$99

REVIEWS &
RATINGS
CREDIT BUFFALO TECHNOLOGY for taking advantage of cheap memo-
ry prices to marry relatively aordable DDR memory cache with an
external hard drive to speed up the drives write performance.
The Bualo DriveStation DDR (go.pcworld.com/drivestation)a 3.5-
inch, USB 3.0 driveeasily surpasses the write performance of any
external hard drive weve tested. In fact, it rivals the speed of external
USB 3.0 solid-state drives, at a far lower cost per gigabyte.
External hard drives are relatively simple devices. The DriveStation
DriveStation DDR caches
for superfast writes
BY JON L. JACOBI
Bualos DriveStation DDR
easily beats other external
hard drives weve tested.
PHOTOGRAPH: MI KE HOMNI CK

DDR is an approximately 8-by-5-by-1.75-
inch black box sporting a tick of red on the
top front. Inside are a USB 3.0 type B port,
a Kensington lock port, an AC jack, power
and activity lights, and a cooling vent on
the back. It has no fan because Bualo
believes that passive convection cooling is sucientand
that seemed to be the case during our subjective and ocial tests.
With both volatile memory and a hard drive on board, though, its no
surprise that the drive needs to operate on AC power.
The units 1GB of
DDR3 cache helped
the DriveStation
DDRs write perfor-
mance tremen-
dously. It wrote our
10GB mix of les
and folders at
140.8 megabytes
per secondthats
at least 40 MBps
faster than the
next-speediest
external USB hard
drive weve tested.
But the DriveSta-
tion DDR really
Buffalo DriveStation DDR
PROS:
Much faster write speed than normal
USB 3.0 hard drives
Very good price per gigabyte
CONS:
Requires AC power
Pricier than a typical USB 3.0 drive
BOTTOM LINE:
A fast, capacious, not-too-expensive
direct-attached backup drive, the Drive-
Station DDR uses 1GB of DDR3 memory to
dramatically improve write performance.
PRICE:
$160 (2TB), $200 (3TB)
The one drawback to using DDR mem-
ory for caching is that the DriveStation
DDR requires an AC power supply.
PHOTOGRAPH:
ROBERT CARDI N

showed its mettle in writing our large 10GB le at a scintillating 201.8
MBps, nearly twice what the average USB 3.0 hard drive can manage.
The DriveStation performed on a par with most of the USB 3.0 SSDs
weve tested. It read the le and folder mix at 210.8 MBps and the
large le at 248.9 MBps. Each of those scores is close to what youd get
with a typical USB 3.0 hard drive. Dont expect such numbers in every-
day usage, however, as our tests write to and read from a RAM drive in
order to avoid the eects of any bottlenecks in our test platform.
Available in 2TB and 3TB versions, the DriveStation DDR isnt the
lowest-cost external 3.5-inch hard drive on the market, but it is the
fastest weve seen by a long shot. And compared with the external
SSDs whose performance it matches, its dirt cheap.
REVIEWS &
RATINGS
External USB 3.0 hard-drive performance
Reviewed drive: Buffalo DriveStation DDR
Read a single
10GB le
Write a single
10GB le
Read 10GB
collection of
les and folders
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Write 10GB
collection of
les and folders
Bualo DriveStation DDR
LaCie Rugged SSD
WD My Passport Edge
Aegis Bio 3.0
(Megabytes per second)
Thanks to its
use of DDR3
memory as
cache, Bualos
DriveStation
DDR achieves
near-SSD write
performance.
248.9
244.7
243.2
243.2
201.8
194.5
80.8
107.5
210.8
211.4
209.6
212.9
140.8
148.7
80.3
22.8

OFFERING A NICE blend of price and performance, SanDisks Extreme
II SSD (go.pcworld.com/sandiskext), in its bigger capacities, retails
for considerably less than a buck a gigabyte. Its also one of the fast-
est drives with large les that weve tested. Its performance with
small les, on the other hand, is merely average, and the drop-o in
write performance from the 240GB and 480GB models to the 120GB
version is steep.
SanDisk has ditched the SandForce SF-2281 controller of the original
Extreme series, and equipped the 7mm-prole, 6Gb/s Extreme II with a
Marvell 88SS9187. The combination of the new controller and fast,
19nm toggle-mode NAND helped the Extreme II outpace the sustained
write performance of such capable drives as OCZs Vector and Corsairs
Neutron. The 240GB version wrote our 10GB large le at 644.3 MBps
SanDisks Extreme II SSD
is fast and aordable
BY JON L. JACOBI
The Extreme II, which comes
in three capacities, handled
large test les quickly.

and read it at 479.8 MBps. With small les,
however, the 240GB Extreme II was mundane,
writing our 10GB mix of les and folders at
352.0 MBps and reading them at 373.6 MBps.
The 480GB versions numbers were nearly
identical, but the 120GB drive wrote les
signicantly slower. Thats the norm for SSDs with less than 240GB or
256GB capacity, as they have fewer chips and channels to write across
(although the drop-o can vary). The 120GB drive was actually the
fastest drive weve seenwith a rate of 485 MBpswhen reading our
large le, but it wrote the le at only 465.6 MBps (nearly 200 MBps
slower than the two larger models). The 120GB model read our 10GB
mix of les and folders at 378.9 MBps, about the same performance as
the larger capacities turned in, but it wrote the data at 300.8 MBps.
The 120GB Extreme II retails for $130; the 240GB and 480GB models
cost $230 and $440, respectively. Thats nice pricing for SSDs with a
ve-year warranty and top-notch performance. SanDisk rates the
drives for at least
80TBW (terabytes writ-
ten). If you can scrape
up the extra bucks for a
larger capacity, youll
get signicantly better
write performance.
Note that no cloning
software is included
with the Extreme II, but
the downloadable
SanDisk Toolkit utility
provides S.M.A.R.T. info
and allows you to
update the drive rm-
ware as new versions
become available.
REVIEWS &
RATINGS
SanDisk Extreme II
PROS:
Excellent performance for the price
Five-year warranty
CONS:
Only average performance reading and
writing small les
BOTTOM LINE:
The Extreme II series carries an excellent
price/performance ratio and a strong
ve-year warranty.
PRICE:
$130 (120GB), $230 (240GB), $440 (480GB)
Its one of the fastest
drives with large les
that weve tested.

YOU MAY THINK that an Instagram app that doesnt allow you to take
pictures would be kind of pointless, but Instagram Explorer (go.
pcworld.com/instexp)a Windows 8 app for the modern user inter-
facehas plenty of potential. Using it is not unlike browsing through
the Instagram.com site.
Instagram Explorers default view displays your live feed, and its nice
to view some of Instagrams gorgeous photos on a bigger screen. The
spacious real estate of a Windows 8 desktop or laptop makes it easier
to comment on photos, toothe comment eld is more prominently
displayed here than it is on Instagram.com.
Similarly, Instagram Explorers prole view is superior to the view on
your smartphone, which simply displays square tiles of identically
Instagram Explorer
BY LIANE CASSAVOY
Instagram
Explorer for
Windows 8
displays your
friends proles
almost exactly
the way youd
see them on
Instagram.com.

sized recent photos. The Explorer prole view displays photos in a vari-
ety of sizes, which is far more visually appealing.
Instagram Explorer suggests famous users that you might want to
make your favorites, but I found this feature unnecessary. It suggested
a few folks I knew of, some Id never heard of, and several Id like to for-
get. Clicking any of the suggested names lets you visit that persons
prole, though the app was a
bit slow to make the transi-
tion at times.
If youre constantly snap-
ping photos and sharing
them with your Instagram
followers, you may nd Insta-
gram Explorer a bit limited.
And if youre not relying on
Windows 8s modern UI, you
have no need for this app.
But if youre looking for an
easy way to sit back and
browse photos on Instagram
while using Windows 8, this
free app is for you.
REVIEWS &
RATINGS
Instagram Explorer
PROS:
Attractive interface
Free
CONS:
Cant take photos
BOTTOM LINE:
Instagram Explorer oers a free,
easy way to browse Instagram
when youre using Windows 8.
PRICE:
Free
Pretty pictures
look even prettier
on a big screen.

WINDOWS MEDIA CENTER is dying a slow death. Its not included with
Windows 8, and adding it to the new operating system will cost you a
hundred bucks. But third-party developers havent yet given up on the
concept of the home-theater PC, and Cetons InniTV 6 (go.pcworld.
com/innitv6) is a good example of one.
This digital tuner lets you watch and record up to six digital cable TV
channels simultaneously. It works with a digital cable TV subscription
and requires a multistream CableCard (M-Card), which your cable com-
pany is required to provide (it might also provide an SDV tuning adapt-
er, which plugs in to the InniTV 6s USB port). Unfortunately, there is
no equivalent option for satellite-TV subscribers.
The InniTV 6 plugs in to your router, so every PC on your network
thats running Windows Media Center can access live TV. For a wire-
Ceton InfiniTV 6
BY RICK BROIDA
The Ceton InniTV 6 can
replace the set-top box you
rent from your cable compa-
ny (if you have a CableCard).
PHOTOGRAPH: COURTESY OF CETON

less network setup, however, youll need an 802.11ac router.
I tested the box with several Windows 7 systems and a Comcast-
supplied M-Card. Setup was fairly straightforward: I installed the drivers,
ran through a few quick setup procedures, andpresto!I had six HD
tuners at my disposal. Everything worked well from the start, and I never
encountered a problem viewing or recording shows on any PC I tried.
Whats more, although I rarely hit the tuner limit, Cetons software
has a feature called dynamic tuner assignment that helps reduce
conflicts when one PC tries to use a tuner thats already in use else-
where. Instead of giving up and returning an error message, the
InniTV will look at all
six of its tuners to see
if one is available.
Thats valuable for
households with a lot
of TV watchers.
The InniTV 6 lacks
one notable feature:
DLNA certication,
which would guarantee
the ability to stream
media to other devices,
such as Blu-ray players
and the PlayStation 3.
If you want to bring
TV viewing and record-
ing capabilities to mul-
tiple PCs in your home,
this box has you cov-
ered. But youll have to
put up with the InniTV
6s network infrastruc
ture requirements and
its dependence on Win-
dows Media Center.
REVIEWS &
RATINGS
Ceton InfiniTV 6
PROS:
Six digital tuners
Supports premium and encrypted SD
and HD cable TV channels
Dynamically assigns tuners to dierent
PCs as needed
CONS:
No way to view or record shows on your
smartphone or tablet
Requires Windows Media Center
Requires high-end home network
infrastructure
BOTTOM LINE:
Provided you have the right network
infrastructure, Windows Media Center,
and digital cable TV service, Cetons
InniTV 6 is an excellent foundation for a
homewide TV-entertainment system.
PRICE:
$299

ITS EASY TO make a thin solid-state drive for low-prole laptops and
other mobile computing devices, but the NAND flash memory used
for SSDs doesnt come cheap. Designers must make a trade-o
between capacity and aordability. On the other hand, 2.5-inch hard
disk drives are about one-fth the cost of SSDs, but their 7mm or
9mm proles render them dicult to implement in ultraportables and
other smaller laptops. Thats why the Seagate Laptop Ultrathin HDD
(go.pcworld.com/sgultrathin) is big news.
At 3.3 ounces and just 5mm thick, it provides 500GB of relatively
cheap storage that straddles the line between price and capacity.
The hard disk drive has a SATA 6-gigabits-per-second interface, but
its platter spins at only 5400 rpm, so you shouldnt expect extreme-
ly high performance.
In our tests, the drive wrote our 10GB mix of les and folders at 73.8
megabytes per second (MBps), and it read them at 91.1 MBps. It wrote
Seagate
Laptop
Ultrathin
HDD
BY JON L. JACOBI
Seagates Laptop
Ultrathin hard drive
may look delicate,
but it can handle
substantial shocks.

our single large 10GB le at 151.4 MBps and read it at 100.2 MBps.
Thats not bad given the spindle speed, but that performance is hardly
SSD-like. On a relatively speedy laptop, our Windows installation felt
decently responsive, but that has as much to do with Windows
advanced caching as it does with the speed of the drive.
The Laptop Ultrathin HDD is rated to survive up to a 400G shock while
its operating, and 1000G when powered down. Those are pretty impres-
sive ratings. We didnt perform any drop tests, but with the drive pow-
ered up and spinning outside the case, it survived several small shocks.
Another upside to the drives 5mm form factor is that you could poten-
tially install multiple hard drives in a standard-size laptop. Two Laptop
Ultrathin HDDs in a RAID
1 setup could provide
the redundancy most
laptops lack; in a RAID 0
array, they could com-
pensate for the slowish
performance of the
drive. The thin size also
allows for beeer shock-
mounting in devices
that have room for it.
Regardless of how its
employed, the odds are
that youll see the Lap-
top Ultrathin HDD in
laptops soonand
were betting no one
will complain about
cheaper ultraportables.
REVIEWS &
RATINGS
Seagate Laptop Ultrathin
HDD
PROS:
Just 5mm thick
Aordable compared to SSDs
Lightweight
CONS:
Platter spins at only 5400 rpm
Only 500GB
Middling performance
BOTTOM LINE:
This superthin hard drive could help PC
manufacturers build thinner models. It
could also bring a bigger storage capacity
to tablet designs.
PRICE:
$89
PHOTOGRAPHS:
ROBERT CARDI N
The Laptop
Ultrathin hard
drive is about
the same thick-
ness as four
credit cards
stacked.


Windows 8.1
has tons of new
features, both
obvious and
hidden.
If you own Windows 8 and dis-
like it, you might consider giving
Windows 8.1which is available
now in preview form and is
expected to be released to the
public October 18a try. Not
only does it have tweaks intend-
ed to make Windows 8 friendlier,
but it also has tons of new fea-
tures, both obvious and hidden.
Just about a year after releasing
Windows 8, Microsoft is introducing the next itera-
tion of its controversial operating system. From a
marketing standpoint, Windows 8.1 represents a
do-over, a bid to simplify and personalize an OS
that, quite frankly, turned o a lot of people.
Snap
views

And Microsoft has updated many
of the OSs built-in apps, too.
Improvements
and changes
Desktop diehards will nd a pres-
ent waiting for them in Windows
8.1. A wonderful, horrible, oh-so-
teasing present. The Start button
is backbut the Start menu isnt.
Instead, clicking the old familiar
button dumps you right into the
modern-UI Start screen. While
the new feature is notable for
adding a helpful visual cue to an
operating system rife
with hidden menus, it
isnt exactly what peo-
ple were looking for.
That said, most of
Windows 8.1s enhance-
ments bolster the mod-
ern environment, not
the desktop.
The most welcome
improvement is the
addition of customiz-
able snap views. No lon-
ger are you locked into
the two-app, quarter-
screen snap limitations
of Windows 8 vanilla. In
Windows 8.1 you can
resize snap apps to any
ratio, and you can snap
three apps side by side by side.
Microsoft also says that you
can have multiple instances of
an app open and snapped,
though we havent been espe-
cially successful in getting that
feature to function in the Win-
dows 8.1 Preview.
Internet Explorer 11 will pre-
miere in Windows 8.1, as well.
While most of the tweaks sound
fairly basicfaster page loads,
better touch performance the
new version also adds a tab sync-
ing feature that allows you to
WINDOWS 8.1 Features Guide
Shut down
from Start

open tabs across
multiple Windows
8.1 PCs and tablets.
And you can open
and snap multiple
instances of the
modern version
of IE 11.
Along those lines,
Windows 8.1 brings
the ability to sync
your settings and Start-screen
apps across multiple devices,
assuming that you sign in to
those devices using an online-
connected Microsoft account.
Hate Windows 8s insistence on
plopping every newly installed
app onto your Start screen? Once
Windows 8.1 hits, that annoying
feature will go the way of the
dodo. Instead, any apps installed
from the Windows Store will appear
under a New lter in the All Apps
view, from which you can choose to
pin apps to the Start screen.
The modern-style PC Settings
options are getting a boost, too.
One of the biggest complaints
about Windows 8 concerns the
way it constantly swaps between
the desktop and modern inter-
faces, a problem exacerbated by
the fact that you have to dive
into the desktop control panel
Taskbar
Properties
just to tinker with under-the-
hood stu. No more.
Hidden new features
What hasnt been talked about
much are the subtler changes
the secrets tucked away in the
dark corners, waiting for their
turn to shine. These hidden gems
arent as flashy as some of Win-
dows other newfound abilities,
but theyre arguably just as con-
venient (if not more so).
Shut down from the Start
button: Although the Start but-
ton is back, you still need to
swipe through a multiclick pro-
cess involving the charm bar if
you want to shut down your PC
if you dont know about the Start
buttons secret menu, that is.
Just right-click the Start button
that appears when you hover the
mouse over the lower-left corner
of the screen to bring up a bevy

of powerful options. The menu
itself isnt new to Windows 8.1.
What is new is the addition of a
Shut Down item. Hovering over it
for a second gives you the option
to shut down or restart your
machine right then and there,
no ddling required.
Boot to desktop or All Apps,
and more: Taskbar Properties is
another old friend bearing a sub-
tle new look, and it conceals a
crucial new option for desktop
devoteesWindows 8.1 lets you
boot directly to the desktop on
startup. Microsoft, however,
clearly doesnt want you to do so,
since the option is buried in this
obscure corner of the OS.
Head to the desktop, right-click
the taskbar, select Properties, and
open the brand-spankin-new
Navigation tab. Some of the
options in this tab are also avail-
able in the modern-style PC Set-
tings utility, but many Start
screen options can be found only
here. And how handy-dandy they
are! Want to boot directly to the
desktop or to the All Apps
screen? Heres your chance.
The great gigs in the
Sky(Drive): In Windows 8.1, Sky-
Drive takes on a much bigger
role, driving Microsofts vision of
a seamless, cloud-connected
world even further.
In fact, SkyDrive is so vital an
underpinning to Windows 8.1
that Microsoft dedicates a sec-
tion to it in the modern-style
PC Settings. A vast number of
settings now sync and follow
you from device to device by
defaultincluding modern apps.
But if you really want to live in
the cloud, youll need to enable
some options buried three or
four levels down.
Open the charm bar and select
Settings u Change PC Settings.
From there, open the SkyDrive
WINDOWS 8.1 Features Guide
SkyDrive
integration

options and select
Files in the left menu
bar. Here you can tog-
gle the ability to save
documents and Cam-
era Roll snapshots to
SkyDrive by default,
an awesome new
option if you want to
be able to sit down at
any Windows 8 com-
puter and have it feel
like your own.
Hush, my darling:
Relaxing aint easy if
your gadget blasts alarms
throughout the day. Fortunately,
Windows 8.1 lets you silence the
cacophony with its new Quiet
Hours setting.
Open the Settings charm, and
navigate to Change PC Settings u
Search & Apps u Notications.
Scroll down to Quiet Hours. By
default, Windows 8.1 is set to go
silent from midnight to 6 a.m.,
but you can change the window
to any time frame.
Get a grip on your apps: In the
vanilla version of Windows 8,
modern-style apps are incredibly
pesky to manage from anywhere
except the Start screen. Modern
apps dont show up in an obvious
way in the desktop File Explor-
ers folder structure, and you
cant eliminate them from the
Control Panels Programs &
Features interface.
Windows 8.1 changes that.
Navigate to the Search & Apps
section, and select App sizes in
the left menu. The screen dis-
plays a full listing of all your
installed modern apps, complete
with the le size of each app. If
you are looking to free up hard-
drive space, you can click an app
to bring up an uninstall option.
Wireless Miracast pairing:
Microsofts operating system
update includes full support for
the fledgling Miracast wireless
display standard, which is similar
to Apples AirPlay technology. Its
your PC screen, beamed to your
Quiet Hours

TV or monitor as if by telecom-
munications magic!
Miracast is so new that you
might have trouble nding com-
patible television sets, but you
can pick up a Miracast receiver
dongle that will transform any
TV with an HDMI port into a
Miracast-compatible display.
Even better, when Microsofts
Xbox One console lands in time
for the holidays, itll be a fully
capable Miracast receiver, further
deepening the synergies be -
tween Windows 8 and Xbox.
If you want to connect your
Windows 8.1 device to a Miracast
receiver, you can dig deep into
the modern-style PC Settings.
But the easier option is to open
the Devices charm and select
Project u Add a display. If a Mira-
cast display is nearby, Windows
8.1 should nd it.
Theres a whole lotta printing
going on: Windows 8.1 packs
3D-printer support in the form of
a driver and a native API. Heres
hoping that the addition will make
the 3D printing process as simple
as the traditional 2D printing
process, rather than the compli-
cated export-lled mess that it
is now. The idea is to allow you
to kick 3D printers to life using
the Print option under the
Devices charm, so you can print
from directly within the modern
interfaceassuming that the
printers software takes advan-
tage of Microsofts support.
Windows 8.1 also includes sup-
port for NFC printers. If both your
Windows device and your printer
are members of the (currently
rare) NFC-enabled breed, simply
tapping one against the other
automatically pairs the two
devices for hassle-free printing.
And if 3D and NFC printers are
WINDOWS 8.1 Features Guide
Search &
Apps

just a bit too adventurous for
you, note that Windows 8.1 also
includes Wi-Fi Direct printing
capabilities. That means you
can connect to a Wi-Fi Direct
enabled printer without having
to jump on a Wi-Fi network or
fuss with installing software.
The Start screens
new, friendly face
Microsoft has pulled some of the
best aspects of Windows Phone
into its revision of Windows 8s
Start screen and modern UI. Pur-
ists may still dislike the fat, space-
sucking fonts and live tiles, but
new features such as the ability
to display pictures of loved ones
when the PC is not in use have
unquestionable appeal.
Jensen Harris of the Windows
User Experience team outlined
the new features in a video the
company posted to YouTube
(go.pcworld.com/win81start).
Some of the improvements are
especially notable.
Lock screen enhancements:
According to Harris, the new lock
screen automatically pulls photos
from your PC, your phone, and
SkyDrive. Granted, you could end
up showing the world (and your
coworkers) some Hangover-style
shots, but in general weve been
impressed by how the Facebook
app for Windows Phone already
All Apps
screen

does this. Its a small touch, but
for people who are unfamiliar
with Windows 8, this feature
could be a real winner.
Dierent tile sizes: Microsoft
has resized the tiles that are
available in the Start screen to
include larger and smaller for-
mats. Those users who want to
pin more apps to the Start
screen (without having to scroll,
scroll, scroll) will probably nd
this change useful. Harris also
notes that the larger format
could display several email mes-
sages or a whole days worth of
appointments.
All Apps screen: The revamped
All Apps screen is no match for
the Windows 7 Start menu; it
doesnt seem to oer any way to
reorganize the apps in folders, for
example. However, you can pull
selected apps out of the All Apps
screen and pin them to the Start
menu in groups, which kind-of
sort-of re-creates the Windows 7
functionality. This is going to
strike some people as an articial
limitation.
If youre used to embedding
dozens of apps and games,
theres still the possibility that
youll forget the name of one you
rarely use, and be forced to hunt
for it in the list of apps. The abili-
ty to add an Other Utilities fold-
er (one that wouldnt necessarily
clutter the Start screen) would
be quite useful.
Desktop wallpaper and per-
sonalization options: In Win-
dows 8.1, youll be able to change
the background color of the Start
screen. Microsoft also says that it
will add a few quasi-interactive,
WINDOWS 8.1 Features Guide
Dierent
tile sizes

moving backgrounds, such as a
dragon. And in a nice touch, the
Start screen will be able to share
the same background image
as the Desktop. Simply syncing
the background image of the
two interfaces goes a long way
toward implying that theyre two
parts of a cohesive whole. If we
were Microsoft, wed be tempted
to make this the default option.
Search improvements: The
Search app now gives results a
more app-like feel, presenting
a flood of text, images, related
searches, and other content.
Frankly, if youre used to the
Google text-based environ-
ment, the gush of multimedia
will feel a little overwhelming.
If youre performing a topic
search on, say, a celebrity or a
band, however, the revamped
Search might oer a lot more
of what youre looking for.
Meanwhile, Microsofts own
internal search better integrates
the Web with local results. Simply
inputting a few letters into the
search box will pull up internal
apps and settings as well as
external search results.
Improved
Search app

Apps: Additions
and updates
While many of Windows 8.1s
major changes focus on the user
interface, ultimately it comes
down to the apps. After all, the
modern-UI side of Windows 8 is
supposed to be all about getting
out of the way and letting you
enjoy those big-screen, touch-
friendly applications.
Microsoft has done a lot of
work on its existing apps, and
it has also come up with some
new oerings. Following are
some of the apps that are get-
ting an overhaul or are making
their debut in Windows 8.1.
Alarm: The new Alarm app is a
helpful addition if you want to
keep a Windows 8 tablet at your
bedside, but in its current state
it seems a bit sparse. All the
basics are intact, including a
timer and a stopwatch, as well
as the ability to set an alarm to
repeat any given day of the
week. The interface is slick, and
the circular dial for setting times
is cute. It would be nice to see
some advanced functions, such
as volume fade-in, wake to
music, and a dimmer for using
the app as a nighttime clock.
WINDOWS 8.1 Features Guide
Alarm

Calculator: In Windows 8.1,
Microsoft has gone above and
beyond the basic desktop calcu-
lator. The standard math functions
are still present, but users can
also switch to a scientic calcula-
tor. With the unit converter, users
can calculate volume, length,
weight, temperature, energy, area,
speed, time, power, and data. The
new Calculator is especially use-
ful when snapped side by side
with the desktop, allowing you
to calculate without messing
around with window sizes.
Camera: If you enjoy taking
photos with tablets, youll nd
lots of useful new features in the
Windows 8.1 Camera app. The
interface is now a little less con-
fusing, with quick-camera and
video-capture buttons on the
right side. The app menu includes
a Camera Roll button, exposure
settings, and the timer. Camera
options, including video stabiliza-
tion and aspect ratio, have moved
to the Settings section of the
charm bar.
Once youve taken a photo, the
app provides some new editing
options. You can also set a photo
as your lock screen, open it in
another app, or start a slideshow.
This app doesnt oer drawing,
cut-and-paste, or precise crop-
Camera

ping and resizing tools, but it
looks like a ne choice for basic
photo editing on touch-based PCs.
Food & Drink: Microsofts
impressive new food app oers
recipes, tips, and articles about
food, wine, and cocktails, all gath-
ered by Bing. Users can select
from the apps recipes or enter
their owneither by typing it in
or taking a picture of a paper rec-
ipe. The app also lets you create
shopping lists and meal plans,
which you can share with other
apps through the charm bar.
Less useful, at least in our
experience, is the hands-free
mode thats supposed to allow
you to swipe through recipes
using your PCs webcam. Getting
the app to respond to hand ges-
tures was unreliable for us, so it
might just be easier to swipe
with your elbows.
Health & Fitness: Packed with
features, Microsofts new Health
& Fitness app is a sprawling pro-
gram. The main page provides
links to tness exercises, news
articles, nutrition tips, and medi-
cal news.
The apps diet, health, and exer-
cise trackers have potential, but
right now theyre far too limited.
The diet tracker lets you record
what youve eaten, but its data-
base of items is lacking. (For
instance, it has information on
some Subway salads and sand-
wiches, but not others.) The exer-
cise tracker cant sync with popu-
lar tness services such as Fitbit
and Runkeeper. The health track-
er is ne if you have weight, cho-
lesterol, blood pressure, and vac-
cination details on hand, but its
basically just a record-keeping
app. For now, the Health & Fit-
WINDOWS 8.1 Features Guide
Health and
+
Health &
Fitness

ness app is best for general
health tips, not for keeping tabs
on your own well-being.
Internet Explorer: Internet
Explorer 11 boasts some truly
useful changes in Windows 8.1.
Most helpful is the ability to open
up to three webpages side by side
in separate windows. Opening
multiple windows creates several
instances of IE 11 in the Windows
multitasking menu, so you can
return to any open pages even if
you drag them out of snap view.
Other tweaks include syncing
among all Windows 8.1 devices,
a reopen closed tab function,
saved passwords, and a built-in
download viewer. And for those
people who cant stand modern-
style IEs insistence on hiding
tabs and the address bar, IE 11
includes a setting to show them
at all times in a collapsed view.
Photos: Microsoft has changed
the interface for the Photos app
in Windows 8.1, bringing it clos-
er to the le picker that appears
in other apps. Strangely, the abil-
ity to view online photo sources
such as SkyDrive, Facebook, and
Flickr was missing in our tests.
That may be just a bug, however,
as online sources were available
through the le picker in other
apps. As for editing tools, the
Photos app mirrors the Camera
app, with a mode that includes
Reading
List

lighting tweaks, red-eye reduc-
tion, and other options.
Reading List: While its no
replacement for Pocket or other
true read-it-later apps, Reading
List oers a simple way to save
articles for another time. You dont
have much to do in the app itself,
at least not until youve saved up
things to read by using the Share
charm in other apps, such as
Internet Explorer or News.
Keep in mind that this app
behaves a bit dierently from
other readers. Instead of suck-
ing up the text into the app
itself, Reading List merely sends
you back to the original source.
The downside to this approach
is that the app doesnt work as
an ofline reader.
SkyDrive: At last, SkyDrives
modern-style app functions more
like its desktop counterpart in
Windows 8.1. Users now have the
ability to cut, copy, paste, and
rename les, as well as to make
les available for ofline access.
You also have the option to make
all SkyDrive les available ofline.
Aside from those substantive
changes, the SkyDrive apps inter-
face has been tweaked, with
smaller icons that allow for more
items on the screen at once.
Sound Recorder: Like the desk-
WINDOWS 8.1 Features Guide
Windows
Store

top Sound Recorder app, the new
modern-style version is dead-
simple. Just press the microphone
button and start recording. You
can trim an audio le, rename it,
or delete it.
Windows Store: The Windows
Store is now much more inviting
in Windows 8.1. The layout is
completely dierent, with a sin-
gle carousel of featured apps on
the left side, followed by several
rows of suggestions. These tiles
are less crowded than they were
in Windows, and they each
include a short written descrip-
tion. Individual app pages are
getting a makeover as well, with
everything laid out on a single,
scrollable page. Overall, the Win-
dows Store feels less sparse and
easier to browse than it did in
Windows 8.
Xbox Music: Microsofts Xbox
Music app is get-
ting a major
visual overhaul
in Windows 8.1.
The new design
is a departure
from the hori-
zontally scroll-
ing, modern-
style apps were
used to, with a
navigation col-
umn on the left side, and a verti-
cally scrolling list of artists on
the right. Its denitely an
improvement, more conducive
to quickly accessing your music.
The app also does a better job
of explaining itself. Small dialog
boxes tell you when music has
been stored locally or in the
cloud, while buttons at the top
oer clear options for sorting
your collection.
MORE ONLINE:
Learn about Windows
8.1s security enhance-
ments at go.pcworld.
com/win81security,
and nd out what fea-
tures Windows 8.1 is
missing at go.pcworld.
com/win81missing.

Its scorching out. Any housework
that needs doing is already done.
And with the weekend ahead, its
time for a simple computing proj-
ect. Heres one: Install the Win-
dows 8.1 Preview.
Note that Windows 8.1 will be
available through the Windows
Store as a free upgrade for current
Windows 8 and Windows RT users
on October 17; the retail version
of the software will be released to
Install the Windows 8.1
Preview
Get a peek at the updated OSs new
features, and try them for yourself.
BY MARK HACHMAN
WINDOWS 8.1 Upgrade Guide
The Start
screens
new look

general availability on October
18. The version that is download-
able right now is only a preview,
and so it may contain a bug or
two. If you have any critical apps
or data, make sure that you have
backup copies, or that your data
also resides on Microsofts Sky-
Drive. Although I havent encoun-
tered a single bug in the Windows
8.1 Preview, theres no guarantee
youll have the same experience.
If you do run into problems, try
visiting the Microsoft Windows
8 Preview forums (go.pcworld.
com/win81forum). Youll nd
answers to questions that this
guide cant cover, including how
to interpret the most frustrat-
ing error message, Windows 8.1
Preview is not yet supported on
this PC. (Have you already seen
this message? According to
Microsoft, your PC might be
running a 32-bit Intel Atom chip
thats currently unsupported.)
What to know before
you start
Before you download and install
Windows 8.1, consider where
youll be running it. Will you put
it on your main productivity
machine? On a spare PC? Or
within a virtual machine? Since
youll be installing a preview ver-
sion of the operating system, we
recommend digging up a spare
PC and installing 8.1 on top of an
existing Windows 8 installation.
Installing the Windows 8.1 Pre-
view is essentially a one-way trip:
Once youve installed the soft-
ware, theres no going back. (And
be aware that if you begin instal-
lation and then get cold feet in
the middle, youll also have to
uninstall the associated Windows
Update. To do so, open Control
Panel, look for View installed
updates, and delete KB2849636.)
If you decide that you real-
ly cant stand Windows 8.1 after
its installed, the only way out is
to restore your PC to its original
factory settings, using the
recovery media that came with
your PC or a backup. Windows 8
users might also be able to
Before you
download and
install Windows
8.1, consider
where youll be
running it.

restore their machines by per-
forming a refresh. Its bad
news for Windows RT users,
however: Microsoft says you
have no way back. At all.
The other thing to remember
is that if you download and install
the Windows 8.1 Preview, you
may have to reinstall the apps
(go.pcworld.com/win81reinstall)
when the nal Windows 8.1
version is released. That said,
if you choose to sit back, wait,
and upgrade only when the nal
version of 8.1 arrives in October,
dont worryyou shouldnt have
to touch a thing.
The operating system youre
upgrading from also determines
the amount of data youll need to
worry about. Basically, if youre
upgrading from Windows 8 to
the Windows 8.1 Preview, Micro-
soft anticipates that all of your
data, with the exception of some
apps, will be preserved. (Micro-
soft isnt saying which apps may
need reinstallation, however.)
Microsoft sums things up in a
convenient table on its FAQ page
(go.pcworld.com/win81faq).
Again, nothing should change
when you install the preview,
only when the preview expires.
Check out
the
Preview
WINDOWS 8.1 Upgrade Guide

Once again: We recommend that
you back up your PC before you
start. Read Dont Forget to Back
Up Your PC Before Trying Win-
dows 8.1 at go.pcworld.com/
win81backup to learn how to
safely perform such an operation.
We have already heard about
documented cases of Windows
8.1 installations going wrong,
and the last thing you want is to
lose everything.
One nal note before we get
started on the installation specif-
ics: Some corporations dont
allow you to log in with your
Microsoft account, and restrict
you to a local installation. In
these cases, you will not have the
full ability to sync your settings
across multiple PCs. Local instal-
lations wont work with the Win-
dows 8.1 Preview, so be sure that
you have signed up for a Micro-
soft ID, and then log in with that
ID when the installation com-
pletes. (A Microsoft ID generally
Download
the update
Windows 8.1s
requirements
mirror those of
current Windows
8 products.

consists of your Hotmail or Out-
look.com account and password.)
Download and
installation
Windows 8.1s system require-
ments mirror those of current
Windows 8 products. You need a
1GHz or faster processor, and a
DirectX 9 GPU with a WDDM driv-
er. A 32-bit system will need 1GB
of RAM and 16GB of storage
space, while 64-bit systems will
need 2GB of RAM and 20GB of
storage space. For the Windows
RT 8.1 Preview, you need a device
thats already running Windows
RT and has 10GB of free storage
space, Microsoft says.
The installation process itself is
simple: Visit preview.windows.com
and follow the instructions. We
walked through an early version of
the download process (go.pcworld.
com/win81down); Tony Leung, lab
manager of PCWorld Labs, report-
ed that the total time necessary
to download and install the Win-
dows 8.1 Preview was about two
hours on a fast system with a solid-
WINDOWS 8.1 Upgrade Guide
state disk. (Note, however, that
this was during the rst few hours
of the previews life, when Micro-
softs servers were slammed.)
Again, youll need to decide
whether to run an in-place instal-
lation or to install the preview
within a virtual machinethe lat-
ter option isolates Windows 8.1
from the rest of your system, but
sometimes incurs a performance
hit. If you decide on the virtual-
machine route, download the ISO
le at go.pcworld.com/win81iso.
If you need help with installing
Windows 8.1 in a virtual machine,
try the TechNorms guide at go.
pcworld.com/win81vm and a
related discussion forum at go.
pcworld.com/win81vm2.
If you do download the ISO,
youll also need the following
Microsoft product key: NTTX3-
RV7VB-T7X7F-WQYYY-9Y92F
After Windows begins installa-
tion, your PC may reboot a few
times. Once installation com-
pletes, congratulations! Youre
well on your way to enjoying
Windows 8.1.

To stream your movies,
music, and photos anywhere,
all you need is a PC and good
media-server software.
BY RICK BROIDA
Photography by Robert Cardin
MACHINE
STREAMING
TRANSFORM
YOUR SYSTEM INTO A

IF YOURE A DEDICATED FAN
of music, images, and video, youve probably built an
impressive multimedia empire inside your PC, with
album after album of sweet jams, reams of cherished
photos, and a video collection whose holdings range
from smartphone gag reels to family movies to high-
resolution videos ripped from your DVD collection.
Unfortunately, theyre all
trapped in your PC. If you want
to watch one of the videos on
the big HDTV in your living room,
or listen to your complete music
collection on a storage-strapped
smartphone, what do you do?
The solution is simple: Turn
your PC into a media slingera
machine that can stream your
music, movies, and photos to
any destination device of your
choosing. Its easier than you
might think, though deciding
which server arrangement to
use (and how much to spend)
can be somewhat tricky.
Pick the right PC
for the job
The rst step is to make sure
that your computer is up to the
task. Server software can place a
heavy load on your PC, especially
when it rst indexes your media
library, but also when its actively
streaming. And if you want your
media library to be available
around the clock, youll need to
leave your PC running 24/7.
You can configure any PC to sling media over the
Web, but its best to set up a dedicated machine that
can run 24/7 in a closet or basement.

Indeed, many users elect to
repurpose an older system as a
dedicated media server: one
that can sit quietly out of the
way in a closet or basement
until called upon to sling. If you
can aord to devote a PC solely
to media slinging, it doesnt
have to be a screaming power-
house of a system, because it
will be free to direct all of its
resources to server duty.
The software I discuss here
wont place huge demands on
your PC; but to be on the safe
side, you should probably use a
PC that runs Windows 7 or later,
packs at least 4GB of RAM, and
carries a discrete video card to
ensure smooth rendering when
you stream movies. Optimizing
Windows 8 to run on an older
machine is probably the best
way to go (see How to optimize
Windows 8 on old hardware, go.
pcworld.com/optwin8), but you
can also introduce a few no-cost
tweaks to improve performance
in Windows 7 (see How to opti-
After setting up Pogoplug on your PC,
use free Android or iOS apps to access
your media library from anywhere.
To be on the safe
side, use a PC that
runs Windows 7 or
later, packs at least
4GB of RAM, and
carries a discrete
video card.
MEDIA
STREAMING

mize your Windows PC for free,
go.pcworld.com/optwin8).
Choose the sofware
that meets your needs
To handle the slinging, youll
need some reliable media server
software. This softwares capa-
bilities will determine not only
the kinds of media you can share,
but also where you can share it.
For example, Pogoplug PC (go.
pcworld.com/pogoplugpc) is a
fairly straightforward Windows
utility that makes your media
available on your mobile devices,
other PCs, and pretty much any-
thing with a Web browser. Just
choose the folders you want to
share, and then sign in to your
Services like Plex let
you view streaming
content anywhere.

account via one of Pogoplugs
various free companion apps (go.
pcworld.com/pogoplugextras,
available for Android and iOS) or
any browser. From there, you can
open an individual photo, watch
a slideshow, stream a video, or
listen to music.
Youre not limited to media,
either. The software can also
stream lesconvenient if,
for example, you need mobile
access to some Microsoft Oce
documents while youre travel-
ing for work. An integrated pre-
view feature supports Word,
Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, and
other popular formats.
PlayOn makes
sharing your
PCs media
folders with
smartphones,
set-top boxes,
and other
devices a cinch.
MEDIA
STREAMING

Pogoplug also lets you share
items with friends and family
members, generating links oth-
ers can use to view your content.
Plus, you can download les if
youre working at another PC and
need to pop into your home serv-
er for some documents or music.
When you buy the full version
of Pogoplug PC for $30, you also
get 5GB of cloud storage that you
can use to store items in a loca-
tion where you have access to
them even if your PC is ofline.
If you want to be able to stream
your media to your TV, too, con-
sider PlayOn (www.playon.tv).
This media-streaming service
turns your PC into something
akin to a Roku box, giving you
access to channels such as ABC,
Food Network, Hulu, Netflix, and
TBS. But it can also stream your
personal media libraries (though
not your documents, regrettably).
Whats more, PlayOn works
with most game consoles, smart-
phones, tablets, and set-top
boxes (including Google TV and
Roku). It also supports DLNA, a
relatively new media-streaming
standard designed to simplify
home streaming. Plenty of new
smart HDTVs, Blu-ray players, and
the like support DLNA streaming,
so you may already have a DLNA-
certied device in your home. If
you want to be able to see your
media on your HDTV, PlayOn
probably has you covered.
The service and software cost
$40 per year (though you can
often nd them on sale for less;
theyre currently priced at $25
as part of a spring sale). On the
other hand, if you just want to
stream content from your own
library and you dont care about
the premium channels, PlayOn
Lite lets you do that for free.
The Dropbox app lets you view cloud-
stored les on a phone or tablet.

Finally, theres Plex (plexapp.
com), a streaming media service
that is more powerful than either
Pogoplug PC or PlayOn, with such
features as automatic download-
ing of metadata for each item in
your library, and on-the-fly trans-
coding: If a particular video or
music le isnt directly compati-
ble with the device youre view-
ing it on, Plex will transcode it to
a compatible format.
Like the aforementioned Play-
On, Plex oers a number of sub-
scription channels, including CBS,
Hulu, and NBC. It even has a
browser bookmarklet that you
can use to add any Web video to
your queue. You also get a unique
email address for sending links to
your queue, which is very handy
when someone shows you an
awesome video on a smartphone.
Just borrow the phone, email the
link to yourself, and watch it on
your HDTV when you get home.
Unfortunately, Plex is a bit
obtuse. Setting up and using the
service can be confusing, and
several of the companys support
pages are incomplete. But a very
active user forum oers general-
ly strong technical support.
Plex Media Server software (go.
pcworld.com/plexmediaserver) is
free for Windows and Linux, but
Plex (left) and PogoPlug work
with multiple mobile devices.
MEDIA
STREAMING

certain apps and features arent.
For example, if you want to
stream your stu to another PC,
youll have to install the free Plex
desktop client on that PC. If you
prefer to stream from a Web
browser, youll have to pay a $4
monthly subscription to use the
Plex browser client. Plex also
oers decent apps for Android,
iOS, and Windows Phone 7, but
each of them costs $5.
Take advantage of your
cloud storage
If you just want access to all your
media from your smartphone or
tablet, theres one more option
to consider: cloud services.
The apps for both Dropbox (go.
pcworld.com/dropboxdown) and
SugarSync (go.pcworld.com/
sugarsyncdown), for example, let
you view your cloud-stored pho-
tos, documents, and videos on
your phone or tablet. They in -
clude rudimentary music players,
toobut if you want an even
better mobile jukebox experi-
ence, try Google Music (currently
available for Android only).
If youre already syncing your
media to the cloud, you can
probably cut your PC out of the
equation and stream everything
to an app. Dropbox and Sugar-
Sync oer free accounts with
2GB and 5GB of storage, respec-
tively; but if you want more,
youll have to pay for the privi-
lege of streaming your media
from someone elses servers. Its
not a bad solution, but nothing
beats the convenience of setting
up a media-slinging machine
that can deliver your les to
you anywhere in the world on
almost any device you own.
Nothing beats the convenience of setting up a
media-slinging machine that can deliver your files
to you anywhere in the world on almost any device.
MEDIA
STREAMING

10
HIDDEN
GEMS
in the
Google
Play
Store
Move over Angry Birds.
Sayonara, Spotify. Here are
the apps you should have
on your Android device
right now. BY LIANE CASSAVOY
ILLUSTRATIONS BY FLORAFAUNA

10 HIDDEN GEMS
F
inding high-quality Android apps in the Google
Play Store can be challengingwhat with
700,000 or so titles to choose from. Let us help.
Here are ten apps that you may not have stumbled
across yet, all of which have impressed us in some way.
While these gems may not change your life, they just
might make your day a little easier or a little more fun.
AutomateIt
1
Your smartphone is
pretty smart, but
apps like AutomateIt (go.
pcworld.com/automateit)
can make it even smarter.
The app lets you automate actions on
your phone, so that whenever certain
criteria are met, the action is triggered.
You can use AutomateIt for a variety of
tasks, including sending a reply with your
phones location whenever a person texts you
asking where you are. Or you can use it to
turn Wi-Fi on and o under certain condi-
tions to save battery life. You can even have
AutomateIt switch your phone to vibrate mode whenever a meeting saved
on your calendar starts.
If all of these settings seem a little too utilitarian, and just not fun
enough, consider this: You also can use AutomateIt to play audio that says
Dont Touch Me! whenever anyone comes too close to the proximity sen-
sor on your phone. Add it for free.

8tracks radio
2
Finding new music can often be
even more challenging that
nding new apps. A lot of whats
out there is junk, and what sounds
melodious to some may sound like dying
cats to you. Thats where 8tracks radio (go.
pcworld.com/8tracks) shines: This app boasts
almost 1 million playlists, each of which has been
created by someone who knows and loves
music. You can browse through music by genres,
artists, activity or mood tags, and more. Add it
for free.
GymPact
3
Having trouble nding the
motivation to exercise? Maybe
a nancial incentive would help.
Thats where GymPact (go.pcworld.
com/gympact) comes in. This app pushes you to
exercise by punishing you nancially when you
miss a planned workout.
With GymPact, you create your own exercise
schedulebasically how many days a week youre
planning to workout. Then, you create a nancial stakean amount that youre willing
to pay if you dont work out. If you miss a workout, GymPact pockets your dues. If you
work out as scheduled, GymPact pays you back, using the money it collects from all
those folks who missed their workouts. You wont get rich using GymPact, but you will
get in shape and maybe earn enough to buy a pack of gum. Add it for free.

Super Swiss Army Knife
5
Okay, so it cant turn your smart-
phone into an actual knife, but short
of that, theres not much Super Swiss
Army Knife (go.pcworld.com/super-
swiss) cant do. You can use the app to
transform your phone into a flashlight
or ruler, or even a protractor (handy if
you have a geometry problem that needs solving).
Super Swiss Army Knife also allows you to measure the
distance between you and another object, as well as
the height of that object.
If youre hanging artwork, youll appreciate the apps
bubble-level tool, which helps you check whether objects are level, and the
cross-vertical-measure tool, which tells you whether an item is level andif its
notthe angle of deviation. Add it for free.
10 HIDDEN GEMS
Car Locator
4
You may not want to admit it, but
chances are youve forgotten
where you parked your car at least
onceif not more. Instead of wander-
ing around the parking lot, install Car Locator (go.
pcworld.com/carlocator). This app lets you save the
location of your parked car, and then helps you nd
your way back to it when its time to head home. Car
Locator also keeps track of how long your car has been
parked, which is helpful if youre trying to avoid parking
tickets or steep garage nes. Just make sure you dont
get caught feeding the meter. Add it for $4.

AutoRotate Switch
6
Sometimes, the best ideas
are the simplest ones. Case
in point: AutoRotate Switch
(go.pcworld.com/autorotate).
This handy little app lets you
turn your phones automa-
tic screen rotation o and on. If
youve ever been annoyed by a screen
that rotates from landscape to portrait
view when you lie down in bed or flop down
on the couch, youll appreciate AutoRotate
Switch. Add it for free.
SnapPea
7
SnapPea (go.pcworld.com/
snappea) allows you to
transfer leswhether theyre
photos, songs, videos, or
morebetween your desktop computer and
your phone. It also allows you to control your
Android phone from your computer, using
either a Web browser or a downloadable desk-
top application. Its almost like iTunes for
Android, but without some of the restrictions
that Apple imposes. Add it for free.

10 HIDDEN GEMS
Snaptastic
8
Smartphone cameras have
improved dramatically these
last few years, but their photo-
editing capabilities have lagged
behind. Snaptastic (go.pcworld.com/snaptastic)
helps rectify this problem by giving you easy-to-use
tools for cropping and editing your photos. With the
app installed, youll be able to adjust characteristics
of your photos, such as exposure and color satura-
tion, and easily post your customized creations to
your social networks. A free, ad-supported version of
the app is also available if you want to try out Snap-
tastic before spending your dough. Add it for $3.
SpellTower
9
If Bejeweled and
Words With Friends
had a love child, it might look like
SpellTower (go.pcworld.com/spelltower),
one of the most addictive word games
around. The object is to nd words hidden
within a grid of letters. Once you swipe or
tap the letters to make the word, they dis-
appear and new ones take their place.
SpellTower includes a multiplayer option
and dierent game modes, almost ensur-
ing that youll never want to put it down.
Add it for $2.

Uber
10
Heres a little secret: You dont have to
be fabulously wealthy or famous to
have your own private driver. Uber (go.
pcworld.com/uber) can hook you up with a
driver and make you feel like a VIP. This app, which works in
select cities in the United States and around the world, lets
you request a ride when you need one. You pinpoint your
location on a map, and a car is sent to pick you up. You can
choose between a sleek, black sedan or an SUV for larger
parties, and the farewhich is
comparable to cab fares in many
citiesis automatically charged
to your credit card, no tipping
needed. Business users will appre-
ciate that receipts are automa-
tically emailed to you, and every-
one will like the way Uber lets you
ride in style. Add it for free.

How to build, maintain,
and x your tech gear.
HERES
HOW
Build the ultimate Intel
Haswell PC for under $1000
The new CPUs require a new motherboard, so
why not build a new rig? BY MARCO CHIAPPETTA

I
NTELS FOURTH-GENERATION CORE
processors, code-named Haswell, have
arrived. And like the Sandy Bridge and Ivy
Bridge processors before them, Haswell
is a big step forward, maximizing CPU and GPU
performance while also consuming less power.
Unfortunately, Haswell-based processors use a
new socketthe LGA 1150and thus require
motherboards built around Intels Series 8 chip-
sets. But that problem also presents an oppor-
tunity: Since you cant just drop a Haswell CPU
into your current PC, now is the perfect time to
build a killer Haswell-based rig. And you can do
it for less than a grand.
Component hunting
Typically, you get the best value in desktop
processors a bin or two below the top-of-the-
line products. For example, a Core i7-3770
costs about $40 (or 15 percent) less than a
Core i7-3770K ($289 vs. $329), but it delivers
roughly 98 percent of the lat-
ters performance. But with
Haswell-based CPUs, the
price delta is a bit smaller.
The top-of-the-line, fully
unlocked (and thus over-
clockable) Core i7-4770K
is $339. A
non-K Core
i7-4770 with
a 100MHz lower base clock costs
$309. The performance dierence is
small, and you could easily spend the
$30 youd save with the plain 4770 on
The complete parts list
PROCESSOR:
Intel Core i7-4770K ($339)
MOTHERBOARD:
Gigabyte Z87-UD3H ($180)
GPU:
Sapphire Radeon HD 7790
Dual-X ($135)
MEMORY:
8GB (4GB x 2) Kingston HyperX Black
DDR3-1600 Dual-Channel Kit ($49)
CASE:
NZXT Source 210 Mid-Tower ($35)
OS DRIVE:
AData SX900 128GB SSD ($119)
BULK STORAGE:
WD Caviar Blue 500GB, 7200RPM,
64MB Cache HDD ($59)
OPTICAL DRIVE:
Lite-On SATA DVD-R ($18)
PSU:
FSP Group Raider 450W
Haswell-ready power supply ($55)
Total cost for the hardware at the
time of this writing: $989

other components. But I wanted the best that Haswell had to oer, so
I sprang for the Intel Core i7-4770K (go.pcworld.com/corei74770k).
Choosing a new motherboard was the next step. I wanted a full
complement of enthusiast-class features, but I didnt want to spend a
ton of money for extras. I settled on Gigabytes $180 Z87-UD3H (go.
pcworld.com/gigabytez87ud3h). This board features Intels Z87 Express
chipset, but Gigabyte doesnt overload it with ports and third-party con-
trollers. Also, the boards basic accessory bundle helps keep costs down.
Next up was the GPU. Haswell uses Intels most powerful and
feature-rich on-processor graphics engine, but with a $1000 bud-
get, I had some room to spice things up a bit. Even though I wasnt
building a gaming PC, I wanted to be able to play the latest games.
I chose Sapphires $135 Radeon HD 7790 Dual-X (go.pcworld.com/
radeon7790). It supports the full DirectX 11 feature set and can run
Case
NZXT Source
210 Mid-Tower
PSU
FSP Group Raider 450W
Haswell-ready power supply

any game on the market today. Best of all, it comes with top-notch
games, including Crysis 3, BioShock: Innite, and Far Cry 3. In fact,
the total value of the game bundle exceeds the cost of the card.
For the memory and storage, I wanted bang for the buck. Intels new
CPUs support a peak ocial memory speed of 1600MHz and work best
with a dual-channel memory conguration. I went with the most aord-
able dual-channel DDR3-1600 memory kit I could nd: Kingstons $49
HyperX Black (go.pcworld.com/hyperx). It contains two 4GB sticks, with
low-prole heat spreaders and ocial support for 1600MHz operation.
Dynamic storage duo
Pairing Intels fastest Haswell CPU with slow storage wouldnt do it jus-
tice, so I opted for a mix of solid-state and traditional rotating media. I
chose a 128GB AData SX900 SSD (go.pcworld.com/sx900). The $119
HERES HOW
Motherboard
Gigabyte Z87-UD3H
Processor
Intel Core i7-4770K

AData SX900 has an LSI SandForce SF-2281 controller, read and write
speeds of 550MB per second and 520MB per second, respectively, and
room for the operating system and most commonly used applications.
To complement the SSD, I needed something that oered more capac-
ity but wouldnt break the bank. I chose a 500GB Western Digital Caviar
Blue hard drive (go.pcworld.com/wdcaviar). It has 64MB of cache and a
fairly swift spindle speed of 7200 rpm, and I snapped it up for $59. I also
picked up a Lite-On DVD-R optical drive (go.pcworld.com/liteondvdr)I
was willing to invest $18 to gain the ability to burn or access a disc.
Normally I would spring for a high-end case with plenty of cooling,
but luckily, Haswell isnt particularly power-hungry, nor is the Radeon
HD 7790 GPU. So a mainstream midsize tower with a few fans and an
open floor plan would do just ne. I opted for NZXTs Source 210 (go.
pcworld.com/source210), a great tower case for the price (about $35).
GPU
Sapphire Radeon HD
7790 Dual-X
Memory
8GB (4GB x 2) Kingston
HyperX Black DDR3-1600
Dual-Channel Kit

Last up: a power supply unit. A high-eciency, Haswell-ready PSU is
critical, so I went with FSPs Group Raider (go.pcworld.com/groupraider)
for three reasons: Its 450W capacity is plenty beefy, the unit is Haswell-
ready and 80-Plus Bronze certied, and the manufacturer is reputable.
Puting it all together
Assembling the system is fairly easy. Start by installing the CPU on the
motherboard and axing the cooler. The CPU ts into the socket in only
one way and requires no force. Simply lift the locking lever and the sock-
et lid, pop in the CPU, and lock the lid and lever down again. To install the
cooler, line up the mounting pegs with the correct holes around the CPU
socket on the motherboard and push down rmly on the four locking
pins that surround the heat sink. Next, snap the memory into DIMM slots
1 and 2 on the motherboard, and youre ready to get things mounted.
HERES HOW
Bulk storage
WD Caviar Blue 500GB,
7200RPM, 64MB Cache HDD
Optical drive
Lite-On SATA
DVD-R
OS drive
AData SX900
128GB SSD

Mount the motherboard in the case, and install the drives in open bays
that line up with the SATA ports on the motherboard, to facilitate cable
routing. Next, install the graphics card and connect the cases front-panel
wiring to the motherboard. Last, connect the drives data cables.
Now youre ready to add the power supply. Secure the PSU in place
with the necessary screws, and try to route each power cable behind
the motherboard tray, to keep the area over the motherboard and
graphics card cable-free and to improve airflow.
Finally, install an operating system (I chose Windows 8 Pro x64).
For more help with assembling a system, read our PC building
best practices for both hardware (go.pcworld.com/hh3110hw)
and software (go.pcworld.com/ hh3110sw).
Heres the way
everything
should look if
youve built your
PC correctly.
Note that the
cables are neatly
routed for easy
access and
maximum
eciency.
I NSTALLATI ON PHOTOGRAPHS: ROBERT CARDI N

HERES HOW
When Malware Strikes:
How to clean an infected PC
BY LINCOLN SPECTOR
YOU WORK HARD to protect your PC from malware, but against all
odds, your computer can still become infested with a virus. Heres a
methodical approach that you can use to determine what exactly the
problem is and how to scan your system for infections.
1.
Verify the infection
Is the PC in question really infected? Or are you dealing with a
hardware or software problem, or is it user error?

If your PC is unusually slow, be suspicious. But before you decide that
a virus is responsible, launch the Windows Task Manager (right-click
the Windows taskbar, and select Task Manager from the pop-up menu).
Open the Processes tab, and check for any strange background applica-
tionsespecially those with nonsensical names and no recognizable
authority listed in the description.
2.
Check for sure signs of malware
If your PC suddenly wont load utilitiessuch as mscong or
regeditthat might help you manually remove malware, be on guard.
If your antivirus program suddenly stops loading, thats a huge red
flag. Or if a program you dont recognize suddenly pops up and starts
displaying dire warnings and asks you to run an executable le or
requests your credit card number, your PC is denitely infected with
some nasty malware.

3.
Check online for possible xes
One benet of those scary pop-ups, however, is that you might
be able to use them to nd a cure. Do a Web search for phrases that
appear in the pop-upyoull probably nd other people ghting the
same infection. Their experiences could help you identify your enemy
or explain how to remove the malware. Remember to perform a full
scan of your PC after youve followed any instructions, even ours.
4.
Assume that your old virus scanner
is compromised
You need a fresh malware scanner, and you need to run it in an envi-
ronment where the malware cant load rst. Linux is your best bet, but
rst try booting into Windows Safe Mode (see next step).
5.
Use a lightweight scanner inside Safe Mode
Windows Safe Mode boots a minimal version of the operat-
ing system. It doesnt load most startup applications, and likely
wont load the malware.

To enter Safe Mode, boot your computer and press the <F8>
function key repeatedly from the moment the motherboard manu-
facturers logo appears until you get the boot menu.
In the boot menu, select Safe Mode with Networking. Then open
Internet Explorer (the best browser to use in Safe Mode) and run an
online virus scanner such as Bitdefender (go.pcworld.com/bitdef).
Another good choice is the ESET Online Scanner (go.pcworld.com/
eset), a Web-based virus-detection app. Before you start the scan,
click Advanced settings and enable as many levels of scrutiny as you
can, including scanning le archives and browser data.
Another good scanner is Trend Micros HouseCall (go.pcworld.com/
housecall). You can download HouseCall on another computer and copy
it to a flash drive, to create a portable PC virus scanner. (Youll need an
Internet connection to get virus-denition updates.) Before you click
the big blue Scan Now button, click Settings and select Full system scan.
Be sure to select the slowest, most thorough scan. The process
willand shouldtake hours. When that rst scan is done, run
another scan with a dierent scanner, just to be safe.
HERES HOW
Use Windows
boot menu to
access Safe
Mode.

6.
Look to Linux as your last line of defense
If you still have an infection after running multiple scans in
Safe Mode, bypass Windows and avoid booting from the hard drive.
To do that, use a bootable CD or flash drive running a Linux-based
antivirus utility. You dont have to know Linux to take this step. But
you do need an Internet connection so that the scanner can update
its malware database.
First, download a bootable virus scanner as an .iso le. From that le,
create a bootable CD. In Windows 7, double-click the le and follow
the prompts. In Win-
dows 8, right-click the
le and select Burn disc
image. For earlier ver-
sions of Windows,
youll need a third-par-
ty program such as the
free ISO Recorder (go.
pcworld.com/isorec).
The Kaspersky
Rescue Disk has a
Windows-like inter-
face. But before using
it, you must update
the softwares malware
dictionary. Select the
Update Center tab and click Start update. Once the utility is updated,
return to the Objects Scan tab, click Settings, and set the security level
to the highest position. Make sure all of your hard drives are selected
before you start the scan.
7.
Protect your newly disinfected PC
When youre satised that your drive is clean, reboot into
Windows and uninstall your old, now-compromised antivirus program.
Then either reinstall the program and update to the latest version, or
install dierent program.
When you boot
your PC with
the Kaspersky
Rescue Disk
utility, youll
nd yourself in
a custom Linux
environment.

HERES HOW
How to back up your PC
before trying Win 8.1
BY BRAD CHACOS
RELEASE PREVIEWS ARE never for the faint of heart. Trial software is
prone to meting out all sorts of bumps and bruises, and if something
goes really, truly rotten, you could wind up with a complete (and inad-
vertent) system wipe on your hands.
Now, the Windows 8.1 preview seems remarkably stable as far as
these things go, but that doesnt mean you should throw caution to
the wind before you install the software. In case you arent already
alarmed enough by Microsofts stern This may go so badly that you
might want to contact your PC manufacturer warnings when you try
to install the update, weve heard several reports of people running
into repeated Windows 8.1 installation problems. Heck, weve run into
installation failures on multiple machines ourselves.

None of them were disastrous, but why tempt fate? Much better to
get your proverbial ducks in a row before you take Windows 8.1 for a
test-drive. You knowjust in case.
How to prepare for Windows 8.1
You should always back up all your important data before you go pok-
ing around your PC at the operating system level. Rather than detailing
how to do that here, Ill point you to this excellent primer on the myri-
ad ways to back up your les (go.pcworld.com/bules).
Thats not all you need to do, though. A recovery drive can help you
restore your Windows 8 installation if your Windows 8.1 adventure
somehow goes horribly wrong. Fortunately, Windows 8 makes it easy
to create just such a drive. Heres how to do it.
Youll need a USB drive with a bit of space on it; just how much space
depends on the size of your recovery partition, assuming you even
have one of your computer. Windows will let you know how much
space you need as part of the process of creating a recovery drive.
According to Microsofts FAQ (go.pcworld.com/msfaq), the standard
recovery partition requires 3GB to 6GB of space. If you dont have a
dedicated recovery partition and just want to create a recovery image
A recovery
drive will help
you restore
your Windows 8
setup if things
go awry with
Windows 81.

to help you troubleshoot, refresh, and restore a
borked PC, that requires 256MB of space.
Once youve gotten your hands on an appropriate
drive, slap it in your PC. Be sure to save the data on
the drive to your PC or to another backup source;
the process of creating a recovery drive wipes all the
data on your memory stick.
Got it so far? Good. Open the charm bar, select
Search, and type Recovery. Then click the Settings l-
ter in the right-hand charm menu. Youll see a Create
a Recovery Drive option; select it.
A wizard pops up and from here, the process is pretty straightfor-
ward. Just be sure to select the right drive when youre asked for a
location, because accidentally wiping the wrong storage device would
be a major headache.
Go forth and tinker
If you end up needing to restore your OS with the recovery drive,
youll need to have your Windows 8 installation disc or drive on
hand, so make sure you know where thats at, too. With your data
stored in a safe place and a recovery image stored on a flash drive,
youre ready to try all the goodies in Windows 8.1 with nary a thing
to sweat about. Check out our guide to installing the Windows 8.1
preview (go.pcworld.com/win81install), which outlines the system
requirements you need, the caveats you need to be aware of, and
walks you through the entire process.
HERES HOW
Tales of
installation
woes drive
home the
point: Back up
your system
before you try
Windows 8.1.

HERES
HOW
Fix pages that print
too small
BY RICK BROIDA
HASSLE-FREE PC
READER TAMMY WROTE in to share this hassle:
Whenever I try to print a page from the Internet, the
size of the print and the photos is extremely small and dif-
cult to read. I do not have this problem with Microsoft
Word documents.
Tammy said she runs Windows 8, but she neglected to
specify which Web browser she usesso Im going to
assume that its Internet Explorer.
Let me be the rst to note that Internet Explorer can be
terrible when it comes to printing. On my Windows 8 system,
for example, I went to any number of pages on Microsofts
MSN (the default site for Internet Explorer) and then selected
Print Preview. The result I got every single time was several
Tweak IEs set-
ting from Shrink
to Fit to 100%
to make webpag-
es you print out
more readable.

pages containing little more than links, with none of the actual text of
the story I was viewing.
So Tammys printing problem is not her fault. (Its Microsofts. And
its ridiculous.) When webpages print out too small, the likely culprit is
the Shrink to Fit option, which Internet Explorer uses by default to try
to squeeze all the elements of a webpage onto a single sheet of
paperoften at the expense of readability.
Thankfully, this problem is easy enough to x. Heres how:
1.
Preview your page
In Internet Explorer, while youre viewing the webpage you want
to print, click the little gear icon in the upper-right corner and choose
Print Preview.
2.
Shrink to t
In the preview window that appears, notice that in the tool-
bars print-size selector, the default setting is Shrink to Fit. Click that
pull-down menu and choose 100%.
3.
Tweak it till its right
Now you should see bigger text and photos. If everything
looks good, go ahead and click the printer icon to proceed with print-
ing. If youre not happy with the way it all looks, click the selector
again and choose a dierent zoom setting.
Its worth noting that your printer drivers could be a factor here as
well. If you press <Ctrl>-P and access the printers properties/set-
tings, you can look for a zoom setting that might be overriding the
browsers settings.
You may also want to look for a Print or printer-friendly option on
the page youre viewing, which will usually strip away the extraneous
graphics, ads, and whatnot that can fudge up the formatting (and
cause smaller-than-desirable print and graphics).
Finally, if youre a Chrome user, check out the Print Friendly extension
(go.pcworld.com/printfriendly), which gives you much greater control
over all the webpages you print.

HERES
HOW
Wipe lesor your
whole drive
PLUS:
Make use
of an old
hard drive.
Q:
How do I delete les o a hard drive so that they can
never be restored? Rommel
A:
When you delete a le, it doesnt actually go away
even after youve emptied the Recycle Bin. The actual
bits remain written on the drive until some other disk activity
writes over them. Even after you reformat a drive, the les can
still be read by those who wantand know howto read them.
To truly and securely delete a le, or the contents of an
entire drive, you need software that will overwrite the space
where the le(s) once resided. Fortunately, several free pro-
grams can do this.
First, I recommend Eraser (go.pcworld.com/3109hh1),
which integrates with Windows Explorer. Once youve
installed the utility, you can just right-click a le or folder and
select Eraser. From there, you can choose to erase the le
immediately or the next time you boothandy if Windows
wont let you erase it now.
BY LINCOLN SPECTOR
ANSWER LINE
Eraser lets you
securely delete
a sensitive le
or folder with a
single click.

Another option is to delete the les the conventional wayby
emptying the recycle binand then use CCleaner (go.pcworld.
com/3109hh2) to overwrite your drives free space. This extremely
useful tool can do all sorts of Windows scrubbing chores. Youll nd
CCleaners Drive Wiper tool in the Tools tab.
Both of these programs oer various wiping techniques that over-
write the drive space multiple times. The implication, of course, is that
overwriting a le 35 times is more secure than overwriting it only
once. But according to Russell Chozick of data-recovery rm Flashback
Data, one pass is enough with todays drives. Chozick told me that it
used to be possible to see what was overwritten, but now data is too
dense, [making] a single-pass overwrite sucient.
Something else to think about: If you have sensitive les that
youll eventually want to securely delete, you should encrypt them
now. For this task, I recommend the open-source Truecrypt (dona-
tion requested; go.pcworld.com/3109hh3).
CCleaner
removes all
traces of
deleted les by
overwriting
your drives
free space.

Q:
I have an extra hard
drive. What can I do
with it? Carol Hart
A:
One useful thing you
can do with an old
drive is to give it awayto a
friend, a school, or a nonprot,
for example.
Before you donate the drive,
however, you need to make sure
it contains no les that might
embarrass you or that might prove valuable to identity thieves. See
Wipe Filesor Your Whole Drive, above, for details.
You can also make use of the drive yourself. If your computer has an
extra drive bay (which is likely if you have a desktop PC), you can install
an old internal drive and gain a bit more storage. Assuming that the
drive connects via todays standard SATA interface, this is a simple
operation. Older drives may use an IDE interface, which your PCs
motherboard might not support.
Finally, you can turn an internal drive into an external one. All you
need is a USB enclosure. These generally cost about $20, but Ive seen
them for as little as $10.
One more thing: If your PC doesnt recognize the drive, read my
advice about how to x this problem (go.pcworld.com/3109hh4).
And though my advice in that story focuses on internal drives, it
works for external drives, as well.

HERES HOW
Four ways to make Internet
Explorer more secure
BY ERIC GEIER
HOW WELL INTERNET Exploreror any Web browser, for that mat-
terprotects against attacks greatly depends on whether you keep it
up-to-date and have the right security settings. Heres how to take
the proper security measures with Internet Explorer 9 and 10.
Keep IE Updated
The latest versions of the browser often contain new security fea-
tures, so be sure you have the latest version installed, and that you
keep it updated. IE 10 is the most current version, and it comes bun-
dled with Windows 8. Microsoft also oers IE 10 for those running
Windows 7 with Service Pack 1 installed. But if youre running Win-
dows Vista, youre stuck with using IE 9. To determine whether you
have the latest version of IE installed, open IE, press the <Alt> key,
open the Help menu, and select About Internet Explorer.
Check to see
if you have the
latest version
of IE installed.

If needed, you can down-
load IE 10 for Windows 7
(go.pcworld.com/ie10win7)
or IE 9 for Windows Vista
(go.pcworld.com/ie9vista).
Once you have the latest
version installed, keep it up-
dated with the latest securi-
ty patches. To do this, open
IE, press the <Alt> key, select
the Tools menu, and choose
Windows Update. If youre
using Windows 8, open IE in
the desktop interface.
In the Windows Update
window that appears, click
Check for updates, and install
IE or other updates. To en-
sure that you stay up-to-
date, consider having up-
dates installed automatically.
Check for Add-on Updates
Many browser attacks exploit security vulnerabilities that aect popu-
lar add-ons like Adobe Flash Player or Java, so you should install
updates for those as soon as you get the update nag message. Also
consider periodically running a scan with free tools like Qualys
BrowserCheck (go.pcworld.com/hhqualsys) or Secunia Personal Soft-
ware Inspector (PSI) (go.pcworld.com/hhpsi).
Verify or Adjust Security Levels
IE lets you set custom security settings for dierent zones: Internet,
Local Intranet, Trusted Sites, and Restricted Sites. When you visit a
website, IE automatically classies it as in the Internet zone. The
exceptions are websites hosted by your local network (say, a site set
You can
customize
the security
settings for the
dierent types
of sites you
browse.

up for use on your companys network)then its Local Intranetor
sites that youve added to the Trusted or Restricted lists beforehand.
Though IE sets each zone to an acceptable level by default, you may
want to double-check your settings for each zone and even turn them
up for greater protection. Open IE, press the Alt key, select the Tools
menu, and click Internet Options. If youre using Windows 8, open IE
from the traditional desktop interface to get at these options.
From the Internet Options window, select the Security tab; youll
then see icons for each security zone, which you can click to change
their security level. The Internet zone is set to Medium-high by
default, Local Intranet is Medium-low, Trusted Sites is Medium, and
Restricted Sites is High. In addition, the Internet and Restricted Sites
zones both have Protected Mode enabled (which alerts you when web-
pages try to install or run programs). I recommend that you use these
default levels.
Use SmartScreen Filtering
In IE 8, Microsoft added the SmartScreen lter, which helps block dan-
gerous websites and downloads. It should be enabled by default, but
in case its not, open IE, press the <Alt> key, open the Tools menu, and
select SmartScreen Filter. If you see Turn On SmartScreen Filter, click it.
HERES HOW
Heres what
youll see if
SmartScreen
ltering
encounters a
potentially
harmful site.

Four great, free Google
Drive tools
BY MARK ONEILL
THOUGH ONLY ABOUT a year old, Google Drive is already a popular
service, and its prices put Dropbox to shame. On Google Drive,
100GB costs $5 a monthhalf what Dropbox charges. But Google
Drive becomes even more useful when you take advantage of third-
party add-ons and services.
These ve free, easy-to-use tools help you encrypt your data, play
music, collaborate on slides, back up automatically, share les, and
more. Some live on the desktop, some in Chrome, and some online.

HERES HOW
go.pcworld.com/
boxcryptor
BoxCryptor
1
go.pcworld.com/
drivetunes
DriveTunes
2
You may be too security-conscious to leave les on a remote
server. Fair enough. But dont let it keep you from using the
cloud. BoxCryptor is a Windows desktop app that creates an
encrypted folder that you can place in your Google Drive folder.
After you create the folder and assign a password, simply drag
and drop the les you want protected into that folder. BoxCryptor
instantly encrypts and protects them using the AES-256 encryp-
tion standard. To unlock the folder and view your les, run Box-
Cryptor, navigate to the encrypted folder, and enter your password.
Cloud storage oers a simple way of ensuring that your music is
always available from anywhere you have an Internet connection.
Google Drive does not as yet provide a default music player, but the
DriveTunes app for the Chrome browser gives you another option.
DriveTunes places a music player inside your Google Drive folder.
It automatically detects all MP3 and M4A music les inside your
Drive and lists them in an easy-to-view interface. You simply
double-click a song to hear it. The player is bare-bonesno album
art, equalizers, or playlists. It plays your music and thats it.

go.pcworld.com/
googleslides
Google Slides
3
go.pcworld.com/
ifttt2
IFTTT
4
As long as there are
businesses, there will be
slideshows. But what if
you have to develop
a presentation with a
colleague whos located
elsewhere? Thats where the collaborative power of Google Drive comes into
play. The Chrome app Google Slides lets you create slide presentations of any
size, with a variety of themes and rich animations, and then add your com-
ments right in the leno more tedious email threads.
Sending les and
backups to cloud stor-
age is a great idea, but
its a chore we all too
often forget or avoid.
The free Web service
IFTTTwhich stands for If This Then Thatmakes the job easier by automat-
ing these tasks in the background, so you dont have to even think about it.

HERES HOW
Maximize
your laptops battery life
BY PAUL MAHARAJA
YOU ADORE YOUR laptopits the key to your competitive edge. That
is, until its battery croaks. To avoid that scenario, follow these tips to
maximize your laptops runtime.
1.
Plug in whenever possible
A common misconception about laptops is that leaving the sys-
tem plugged into AC power continuously will overcharge or shorten
the life of its battery. But lithium ion batteries in todays laptops stop
charging once they reach full capacity. Keeping the battery charged
reduces wear and tear on the power source, lengthening its life span.
Never miss an
opportunity to plug
your laptop into an
AC outlet to top o
its battery.

2.
Adjust the screen brightness
A laptops display consumes a sizable chunk of the systems
juice. Keeping the screens backlight low can increase your laptops
runtime noticeably.
Another way to reduce power consumption is to tweak the backlight
controls in Windows. Open Control Panel, choose Hardware and Sound u
Power Options, and click Change plan settings for the active power plan.
Choose an aggressive timeout of 1 to 3 minutes for the Dim the
display and Turn o the display options. You can also click Change
advanced power settings to set the level of brightness when the laptop
is in the dimmed state.
3.
Track down errant apps
Unnecessary utilities running in the background, or an app that
is hanging, can drain a battery prematurely. Web browsers are also com-
mon culprits. One clue to the existence of an errant app is if your laptop
fan frequently kicks into high gear when the machine should be idle.
Be aggressive
in conserving
power while
your laptop
is running on
battery power.

To identify such
apps, press
<Ctrl>-<Alt>-
<Delete>, launch
Windows Task
Manager, and use
it to identify pro-
cesses that are
showing unexplained
high utilization. If a
program wont quit
normally, terminate
it by right-clicking it
and selecting Kill Pro-
cess. For Web brows-
ers, shutting o all
instances usually
works. As a last resort,
restart your system.
4.
Disable intensive background apps:
Errant apps aside, applications that make intensive use of the
processor or networksuch as peer-to-peer software like BitTorrent cli-
entsare out. You can also conrm that Windows Update and other
software updaters are not trying to download large software patches.
Disabling automatic Windows Update functions outright is too draconi-
an, but periodically check your network usage for unexplained spikes.
5.
Disable unneeded devices:
Start by disabling unneeded wireless capabilities, such as
built-in data modems and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios (many laptops
have hardware switches for this purpose). The optical drive is anoth-
er power guzzler, so dont leave a disc in the drive if you arent using
it. Finally, you can save precious power by doing without keyboard
backlighting when youre running on battery power.
HERES HOW
Use the tabs in
Windows Task
Manager to
identify and kill
errant programs
that are sucking
up battery life
unnecessarily.

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Correction
The August Issues review of Sonys Xperia
ZL smartphone carried a photo of a
slightly dierent model, the Xperia Z.
PCWorld regrets the error.

Tech Spotlight
A video showcase of
the latest trends
3D printing is becoming more
and more popular, with kits get-
ting cheaper and easier to
assemblepreassembled printers are increasingly avail-
able, too. They work by layering plastic less than a milli-
meter thick to create just about anything you can think
up: custom toys, household objects, and more. Watch
the video to see a 3D printer kits assembly, and learn a
bit about the process (go.pcworld.com/3Dvideo).
A look at
3D Printing