A P R I L 2014

GAMEVOLUTIONTHE CHANGING LANDSCAPE

GAME MARKETING SUMMITTHE ESSENTIAL CONFERENCE FOR INTERACTIVE GAME MARKETERS

www.GameMarketingSummit.comREGISTER NOW at

9TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE and AWARDSAPRIL 23, 2014

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

San Francisco, CA

» DEPARTMENTS

5 News

28 Consumer Watch

43 Reviews & Ratings

132 Farewell, Pat McGovern

» COLUMNS

113 Here’s How

» FEATURES

83 12 PC upgrades for under $300

99 Laptops for work and play

APRIL 2014

TABLE OF

CONTENTS

122 Hassle-Free PC

125 Answer Line

3

Get your digital PCWorld now!

enhanced editions

The best way to experience PCWorld magazine on your device.

Get it here: go.pcworld.com/digitalDIGITAL SUBSCRIPTIONS: Monthly recurring, $1.99 per month; single issue, $6.99

The enhanced editions on Android, iPad, and Kindle provide

these kinds of interactivity and more!

VIDEOS: Tap and play videos

(with Internet connection).

SLIDESHOWS: Swipe

image to activate slides.

360-DEGREE VIEWS: See products from all angles.

NEWS

6 Windows 8.1’s spring update

16 UI designer: Forcing Metro on all is great for power users

19 Microsoft to use a pop-up to push users off XP

22 Intel wants its new mobile chips in all your devices

25 Three big trends ruled the Mobile World Congress

5

» By far the most welcome change in the Windows 8.1 update

is one that many users may not even notice. If Windows 8.1

does not detect a touchscreen input on your device, it’ll boot

directly to the desktop to keep its finger-friendly live tiles

away from keyboard-and-mouse users. The operating system

then tosses up a new tutorial prompt to tell you how to find

the modern Start screen.

Boot to desktop by default

Windows 8.1’s spring updateDue in early April, the OS’s third refresh might be the charm. BY BRAD CHACOS

Tech and trends that will afect you today and beyond. NEWS

6

» Microsoft’s modern Windows 8 apps now appear in the

taskbar, mimicking the functionality of traditional desktop

software. The Windows Store app is pinned in the taskbar by

default in the Windows 8.1 update, to serve as a guidepost and

to drive users to Microsoft’s marketplace. Modern apps still

appear full screen when maximized; windowed modern apps

are reportedly in store for the 8.2 update (“Threshold”) in 2015.

Modern apps on the desktop taskbar

7

» In modern apps, you now can find the taskbar by moving your

cursor to the bottom of the screen. The taskbar spans the screen’s

length even when multiple modern apps are snapped side by side. As

a result, bouncing between standard desktop programs and modern

apps is much less of a burden (though still not seamless).

Unfortunately, the taskbar sometimes covers interface elements in

modern apps since they weren’t designed with it in mind.

The taskbar is everywhere

8

Inside Windows 8.1’s spring update

NEWS

» Previously, closing modern apps or snapping them side by side

required moving your cursor to the top of the screen, clicking and

holding, and dragging the app to one of the edges—a gesture

designed for touch displays. In the new update, a title bar appears at

the top of modern apps. Clicking the upper left corner reveals a

mouse-ready context menu with sizing options, while minimize and

close buttons appear at the upper right.

Mouse-friendly title-bar menus

9

» On the Windows 8.1 Start screen, if you’re using a mouse, right-

clicking an app now pops up an options menu for that live tile. In

contrast, if you’re using a touch input, the familiar modern-style

options bar pops up at the bottom of the screen. And the Start

screen now includes discrete power and search buttons at the upper

right. Before, you could find those crucial functions only via the

hidden charm bar.

Start screen changes

10

Inside Windows 8.1’s spring update

NEWS

» Windows 8 dumped tiles on the Start screen for every modern app

you installed. Windows 8.1 required you to add tiles manually, which

reduced clutter but made it easy to forget you’d installed an app

unless you added it to the Start screen immediately. The update

finds a happy medium: Next to the arrow that moves you from the

Start screen to All Apps, a notification appears if any newly installed

apps are available.

New apps installed notification

11

» The All Apps screen that displays installed programs has received a

slight rejiggering. The Tiles menu under the Settings charm now has

a ‘Show more apps in Apps view’ option, which does what you’d

expect by reducing the size of each app’s icon. The condensed view

should come in handy for traditional-PC users who configured their

Windows 8.1 desktop Start button to launch the All Apps screen as

an ad hoc Start menu.

Show more apps in Apps view

12

Inside Windows 8.1’s spring update

NEWS

» The Windows 8 and 8.1 versions of the modern Internet Explorer

hide the open tabs and address bar behind an interface that you

must manually summon. The incoming update leaves that interface

visible by default. A helpful Options button in the Tools menu now

negates the need to go messing around in the Settings charm, and

the button to launch IE’s awesome Reading Mode is now more

clearly labeled.

Internet Explorer tweaks

13

» Windows 8.1 added a slew of granular options to the modern

version of PC Settings in a bid to keep lovers of Microsoft’s touch-

centric interface ensconced in it. The update continues the shift by

including a new ‘Disk space’ menu under the ‘PC and devices’ options,

which provides tools for you to view and manage the gigabyte

gobblers on your hard drive. A button to purge the Recycle Bin is a

particularly convenient touch.

Disk Space menu in PC Setings

14

Inside Windows 8.1’s spring update

NEWS

» Finally, an under-the-hood change: Microsoft has said that the

coming Windows 8.1 update will be usable on devices outfitted

with just 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage space, a change that

essentially halves the previous system requirements. Why move

backward? Sick of losing customers to Android tablets and

Chromebooks, Microsoft seems to be gearing up for a price war

with Google.

Reduced system requirements

15

16

UI designer: Forcing Metro on all is great for power usersBY BRAD CHACOS

WINDOWS 8’S MODERN interface didn’t go over well out of the gate.

Although the live tiles and touch-friendliness offered a lot to like,

usability experts panned many of the design choices, and power users

felt abandoned.

But beyond bridging the gap between PC and tablet, Windows’

immersion in the interface formerly known as Metro may have had

another purpose: separating novice and power users. This move could

preserve the best of Windows while making it more palatable to the

casual computing public.

“Before Windows 8 and Metro came along, power users and casual

users—the content creators and the content consumers—had to

share the same space,” Windows interface designer Jacob Miller wrote

17

on Reddit in February (go.pcworld.com/

millerreddit). (A Microsoft spokesperson

confirmed his employment.) Any new feature

had to be simple enough for newcomers but

practical enough for power users. Miller

claims that many features, such as virtual

desktops, fell by the wayside.

All work, no play, and vice versaEnter Windows 8. Yes, the modern interface is simple and better

suited for content consumption than content creation, but Miller—

who clarified that he was speaking as an employee sharing his

viewpoint rather than in an official capacity—claimed that was

the point.

Our hands were bound, and our users were annoyed.

So what did we do? We separated the users into two

groups. Casual and power. We made two separate

playgrounds for them.

So if Windows 8 was designed to herd casual and power users into

separate corners, why does the OS default to the modern interface?

Casual users don’t go exploring. If we made desktop

the default as it has always been, and included a nice

little start menu that felt like home, the casual users

would never have migrated to their land of milk and

honey… So we forced it upon them.

Now that Microsoft has fenced casual users inside the land of live

tiles, Miller says it can work on making the modern interface better for

casual users while filling the desktop with power features.

Once [the modern interface is] purring along

smoothly, we’ll start making the desktop more

advanced. We’ll add things that we couldn’t before.

Things will be faster, more advanced, and craftier.

NEWS

Displaced Windows desktop aficionados can start to feel optimistic again.

18

Peering into the futureIf Miller’s claims prove to be true, the results could be enticing.

Windows 8.1 started the migration, adding an optional boot-to-

desktop feature and numerous tweaks that improve the modern

interface: more control settings, more flexible snap functionality, and

Bing Smart Search. Microsoft’s modern apps are constantly adapting,

too, as the company shifts toward rapid-fire updates.

Leaked versions of the impending Windows 8.1 update 1 (see

“Windows 8.1’s spring update,” page 6) show that even more

improvements are inbound. But its new features—such as the ability

to boot to either the desktop or the Start screen, depending on

whether your setup has a touchscreen—seem like a Ballmer-esque

“refinement of the blend” (go.pcworld.com/ballmerblend) to make

the desktop and modern interfaces play more nicely together, rather

than a doubling down on the strengths of both.

It’s unclear whether Microsoft always intended to smooth the edges

or if it became more of a priority after Windows 8’s hard landing. But

considering the new update’s changes, Satya Nadella’s appointment

as Microsoft’s CEO, and Miller’s comments, displaced Windows

desktop aficionados can start to feel optimistic again.

Windows 8.1

update 1

offers mouse-

friendly Metro

options.

19

Microsoft to use a pop-up to push users off XPBY MARK HACHMAN

NORMALLY, AN UNEXPECTED pop-up is a reason to worry: Is your PC

infected with a virus? Is this pop-up an ad? With one particular pop-up

from Microsoft, you’re supposed to worry—but the message is legit.

In its ongoing bid to encourage Windows XP users to move to

Windows 7 or Windows 8, Microsoft began pushing a pop-up window

to users’ machines in March. The company is also partnering with

LapLink to offer a free migration tool to assist with the transition.

NEWS

20

By now, PCWorld readers and other people who keep up with tech

news should know that the expiration date for Windows XP is April 8,

2014. Support for XP is ending, meaning that any vulnerabilities

Microsoft hasn’t patched by now will remain open for malware

writers to exploit. A few contingency plans (see “Keep Windows XP

secure after Microsoft ends support,” page 37) can mitigate that

threat somewhat; Google will support Chrome for Windows XP

through 2015, for example. And although Microsoft has ditched

support for Internet Explorer 8 (the last browser for XP), Microsoft

Security Essentials will support Windows XP until July 14, 2015. Still,

that’s like wrapping duct tape around the Titanic.

So the challenge for Microsoft is to find a way to move users off XP.

The company’s answer? The tried-and-true pop-up notification.

According to Brandon Leblanc, the chief blogger for Microsoft,

the pop-up displays only for users who have elected to receive

updates via Windows Update. It includes a link to the Windows XP

End of Support website (go.pcworld.com/xpend), where XP users

can learn how to stay protected against security risks and viruses

after April 8. The notification is set to recur on the 8th of every

month unless the user disables it, Leblanc says.

Son, am I supposed to click this?The problem, however, is that the pop-up looks like every other pop-

up, complete with a link, that decades of computer use have taught

Pop-ups

generally raise

suspicion, but

this one’s

legitimate.

21

us not to click. Every tech-savvy son or

daughter has told their parents to avoid

such pop-ups, too. The alternative now, of

course, is for those kids to step in and to

encourage their parents to buy a new PC.

Or a Mac. Or a Chromebook.

For those people who want to provide

such family tech support, Microsoft is offering a free copy of

PCmover Express for Windows XP, which will copy files, music,

videos, email, and user profiles and settings from the old PC to the

new system, including across a network. The utility also allows

Windows XP users to customize exactly what to bring over to their

new machine. The free software is available from WindowsXP.com. If

users want to transfer applications from Windows XP, they can do

so, but they’ll need PCmover Professional (go.pcworld.com/

pcmover). Normally the price for that version is $60, but after a

Microsoft-sponsored discount it’s just $24.

NEWS

Microsof’s solution for moving users of XP: the tried-and-true pop-up.

22

Intel wants its new mobile chips in all your devicesBY MELISSA RIOFRIO

DESKTOP WHO? WINDOWS what? The classic Windows-based PC

remains Intel’s bread and butter, but it has needed to diversify its diet

for a long time. At an event at the Mobile World Congress in February,

the company announced two new Atom chips, code-named Merrifield

and Moorefield, that could be its first truly competitive mobile

solutions—and they arrive not a product cycle too soon.

In case you didn’t know how high the stakes were, Intel President

Renée James laid it out in her remarks at the event. “About 50 billion

connected-computing somethings”—yes, that’s what she called

them—“will be online by the year 2020.” Getting even a small slice of

that pie would be pretty sweet. But competitors like Qualcomm and

Samsung have enjoyed a long head start, so Intel has a lot to prove to

prospective customers.PH

OT

OG

RA

PH

Y B

Y M

EL

ISS

A R

IOF

RIO

Watch the video at

go.pcworld.com/merri

23

The new chips have two big selling points: Their 64-bit architecture

enables faster performance. At the same time, Intel wrings more

battery life out of the chips by designing them to power down

quickly after executing a task.

They’re also designed to work with operating systems beyond

good ol’ Windows. Hermann Eul, Intel vice president and general

manager of its Mobile and Communications Group, called the chips

“complete platforms…that can support multiple operating

systems and multiple segments in the market.” The company is

particularly eager to associate itself with Android, if the green

robots strutting around Intel’s booth on the show floor were any

indication—hardly surprising, as Android could provide the entry to

a much bigger market.

In a small, sterile room tucked discreetly into its booth, Intel

demonstrated a bank of reference Android mobile phones in action.

Using the Battery Xprt app for Android, the phones can last as long

as 19 or 20 hours on a full charge, according to Intel. The tests

simulate real-world cell-phone use, which is sporadic, as opposed to

NEWS

Intel showed its Merrifield and

Moorefield chips running in

reference designs at the Mobile

World Congress.

24

the rundown tests traditionally

conducted for PCs.

The demo also included two

identical Windows tablets, one

running Windows at 32 bits and the

other at 64 bits, “just to show we

could do it,” said a spokesperson.

But the real test of these chips lies ahead: Which device makers

will include them in their phone and tablet designs? Eul named

several at the event—Asus, Dell, Lenovo, and Samsung—and

promised there would be more partners to come. We’ll see. The lack

of on-board LTE in Intel’s chips has long been a sticking point, for

instance, and the new chips are also LTE free (go.pcworld.com/

nolte), though Intel does sell a separate LTE solution.

Eul aimed some

trash talk at

Qualcomm, whose

64-bit ARM chip

isn’t due until the

end of the year (go.

pcworld.com/

qualchip). Intel got

there first, Eul

emphasized: “We

ship. That is the

difference.”

The new chips

have tested with

up to 19 or 20

hours’ battery life.

The real test lies ahead: Which device makers will design with Intel’s chips?

25

Three big trends ruled the Mobile World CongressBY FLORENCE ION, SUSIE OCHS, AND MELISSA RIOFRIO

WE SPENT A WEEK IN BARCELONA at the Mobile World Congress, wading

through wearables (go.pcworld.com/wearables), sampling many

smartphones (go.pcworld.com/tensp), and trying out a tablet or two.

While the Galaxy S5 (go.pcworld.com/galaxys5) was the biggest product

to debut—with wearables from Sony (go.pcworld.com/sonywear) and

Huawei (go.pcworld.com/talkband) also garnering attention—it’s not a

revolutionary release for Samsung, despite some impressive software

additions (go.pcworld.com/s5features). We noticed three trends.

Low-end phones: Flagship models like the S5 aside, most phone

makers were touting low-cost handsets. Mozilla showed off phones

running the Firefox OS that could sell for the low, low price of $25. Even

when phone makers had a big handset to announce—say, Sony’s Xperia

NEWS

Watch the video at

go.pcworld.com/mwc2014

26

Z2 (go.pcworld.com/xperiaz2)—usually a lower-priced model (like the

Xperia M2) came along for the ride.

Phone makers are looking beyond users who want the latest and

greatest smartphone technology to people with more basic needs and

budgets—in particular consumers in

emerging markets. Nokia is getting into the

Android arena with a trio of phones built on

the Android Open Source Project (go.

pcworld.com/nokiatrio). That’s allowed

Nokia to give the X, X+, and XL a Windows

Phone–style tiled interface, which it can sell

to users in growth markets. And if those

users get accustomed to that Windows Phone feel by the time they’re

ready to upgrade, Nokia reasons, so much the better.

Top tablets: A pair of tablets caught our eye. Lenovo’s Yoga Tablet 10

HD+ (go.pcworld.com/lenovoyoga10) is a sleek-looking tablet with a

crisp display—a definite improvement over previous Yoga models. The

promised 18-hour battery life is welcome, too. And HP’s Pavilion x360 (go.

pcworld.com/hppavilion)—priced to entice at $399—takes a page out of

the Yoga’s book, with a hinge that lets

you use this laptop as either a

conventional notebook or a tablet.

Better audio: Manufacturers see

audio improvements as a way to make

their mobile devices stand out. Sony

built noise-canceling technology into

its Xperia Z2. HTC’s midrange Desire

816 (go.pcworld.com/htcdesire)

offers dual front-facing speakers.

Find more show coverage on our

Mobile World

Congress page (go.

pcworld.com/mwc).

For Android news,

visit Greenbot.com.

Flagship models aside, most phone makers were touting low-cost handsets.

Intel has its

eye on the

Android

market.

Welcome to Greenbot, a new website for

Android enthusiasts.

We’ve got the ’droid info you’re looking for.

Helpful tips, critical reviews, and expert

analysis for passionate Android users

of every experience level.

www.greenbot.com

28

TWITTER IS REPORTEDLY working on an e-commerce project

powered by Stripe (go.pcworld.com/twitterstripe), a

company that processes payments for sharing-economy

startups such as Lyft, Postmates, and Sidecar. What this

social-shopping initiative will look like is still unclear right now, but

this isn’t the first time social networks have set their sights on retail.

Pay by hashtagTwiter and other social networks aspire to become the go-to spot for shopping. BY CAITLIN McGARRY

CONSUMER WATCH

Make smart purchases, stay safe online.

ILL

US

TR

AT

ION

BY

JU

DE

BU

FF

UM

29

Cashtags and gifsLate last year, for instance, Facebook worked with Stripe to allow

Facebook users to store their credit card information with the social

network. When users then enter their Facebook login on partnering

retailers’ apps, their info fills in the payment fields automatically.

In February 2013, Twitter teamed up with American Express to launch

an experiment in which AmEx cardholders can sync their credit cards

(go.pcworld.com/amexsync) with their Twitter accounts and then

take advantage of discounts or buy physical goods by using an AmEx-

approved hashtag. Major brands such as Amazon, Best Buy, J. Crew,

McDonald’s, and Whole Foods have since signed on with American

Express to offer deals on Twitter, and American Express claims that its

social-network offers attract users who are ten years younger than

the average AmEx customer and spend about 30 percent more.

Twitter also partnered with Starbucks last fall. Instead of hashtags,

however, Starbucks required users to include a specific phrase—

”@tweetacoffee to @insertnamehere”—to trigger the sending of a

$5 gift card to the recipient of their choice. Keyhole, a company that

tracks social conversations, estimated that the promotion generated

$180,000 in sales for Starbucks (go.pcworld.com/twitterstarbucks).

The coffee chain has long offered gift cards on Facebook Gifts, too.

Gifts took a hit last summer, though, when Facebook determined that

physical goods weren’t selling well and decided to focus on digital gift

cards, which amounted to 80 percent of all gifts on the platform.

Sync your

AmEx card with

your Twitter

account to

get access to

special deals.

30

Pinterest drives purchasesAlthough Pinterest gets little attention for its ability to turn inspiring

images into sales, it’s cleaning up as far as social shopping goes.

On largely text-driven social networks such as Facebook and Twitter,

it’s difficult for companies to organically turn brand messages into

sales because those messages stick out like a sore thumb. Pinterest, in

contrast, drives purchases more naturally: Users can conceivably click

through any image from any board on the site to reach a product link.

Some numbers confirm the online bulletin board’s influence:

Pinterest captures the bulk of product sharing on social networks with

44 percent of shares (go.pcworld.com/pincommerce), while Facebook

and Twitter lag behind at 37 percent and 12 percent, respectively. One

pin translates to 78 cents in sales, according to research from Piquora.

People use pinned images and hashtag deals in vastly different ways,

though. Pins have a longer shelf life than hashtags, which are all about

Pinterest is

currently the

only social

network that

inspires people

to buy.

31

immediacy and serve to promote limited-time

offers or flash sales. A pin continues to push as

much traffic to a site three and a half months

after it’s posted as it does when initially

pinned, according to Piquora.

The retail challengeMaking a purchase directly from a product page feels safer than using

a hashtag as shorthand for “buy now.” If Twitter wants people to buy

stuff from a tweet, it has to convince users that shopping on a social

network is truly secure—and it has to present sales messages in a way

that doesn’t annoy users.

Social-conversion platform Chirpify is helping companies meet the

latter challenge. A recent campaign involving Lady Gaga let Twitter

users hashtag their tweets to get a package with the pop star’s latest

album. In Chirpify’s promotions, users aren’t storing their financial

information with Twitter—Chirpify’s team sees the promotional hashtag

and directs the user to a payment page.

“You don’t want to carpet bomb,” says Chirpify CEO Kevin Tate. “You

CONSUMER WATCH

Twiter has to convince users that shopping on a social network is secure.

Chirpify helps

big brands turn

hashtags into

purchases.

32

want to let the conversation be about other things. It lets customers

who are interested raise their hand and continue the conversation

from there.” And that conversation could begin outside of Twitter. If a

brand includes a hashtag in a print ad or TV commercial, for example,

Twitter users could enter that hashtag to take advantage of deals.

In the end, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and the retailers who want

to translate eyeballs into sales are just throwing things at the wall to

see what sticks—and to see what helps them get into your wallet.

33

CONSUMER WATCH

ROUTERS AND OTHER connected devices are leaving home networks

open to attack. The worst-case scenario? Strangers can access your

files, slip malware into your network, or use your own security cameras

to spy on you—all without laying a finger on your hardware.

For example, some older Linksys E-Series routers and Wireless-N

routers and access points are vulnerable to a malware infection that

deposits a self-replicating worm (go.pcworld.com/linksysworm). And

recent reports indicate that the default settings of Asus routers leave

USB storage devices wide open (go.pcworld.com/routerflaw).

If you’re running an Asus router with a USB storage drive attached,

download and install the latest firmware from Asus’s website (www.

service.asus.com). Don’t depend on the router’s Web interface to get

the update, as it might not download the most recent version.

As for Linksys routers, “customers who have enabled the Remote

Management Access feature can prevent further vulnerability to their

Routers: More

vulnerable than everBY JON L. JACOBI AND MICHAEL BROWN

34

network by disabling the Remote Management Access feature and

rebooting their router to remove the installed malware,” company

spokesperson Karen Sohl wrote in an email. “Linksys will be working on

the affected products with a firmware fix that is planned to be posted

on our website in the coming weeks.”

Asus and Linksys are hardly alone, however: Recent reports noted

similar flaws in Netgear’s ReadyNAS line (go.pcworld.com/netgearflaw).

How atackers get inYour public IP address is as well defined as your street address. In most

cases this public address leads straight to your router. If someone

gains control of your router, that person can open connections and

redirect traffic anywhere. The havoc the intruder wreaks can also ruin

the day for a lot of other people, depending on what the attacker

relays through your equipment.

A router directs traffic in and out of thousands of numbered ports.

Port 80, for starters, handles HTTP traffic (Web access). Port 21 sends

and receives files over FTP (File Transfer Protocol). Port 443 takes care

of HTTPS (encrypted Web traffic, such as banking or shopping

transactions), and port 3369 is for Remote Desktop.

If a port is open—normally all of them are—the router simply

shufles data to and from whatever IP device each port is directed to.

So you must password-protect not only your router but also every

Using the

Shodan search

engine, we easily

found an FTP

server filled with

pirated TV shows,

wide open.

35

device that communicates with the Web, even if it’s a refrigerator, to

prevent outsiders from gaining access via the ports.

Most routers and many NAS (network-attached storage) devices have

well-documented default login IDs and passwords, such as “admin” and

“password,” and their installation wizards encourage users to change

these defaults. If you neglect to do so, you leave your network vulnerable.

Note, though, that even if you create a secure, complex password, any

hard reset you might later perform on your router for troubleshooting

purposes can restore the old, weak password without your knowledge.

You must also keep your router’s configuration firmware updated

and secure all the services running on it. For example, enabling UPnP

on older firmware—an action that most router manufacturers

recommend, because doing so simplifies configuration—can expose

any FTP and SMB servers you have running on the router, enabling

Internet snoops to access every file on your attached storage devices.

A complete action planWant to assess your network’s vulnerability? First browse to What’s

My IP Address (www.whatsmyip.org). At the top is your public IP

address. To the left, select the Port Scanners option, and then run the

tests to see which ports are open. Some Internet gateways won’t let

you run such tests locally; you’ll have to note your public IP address

and then try these tests from a coffee shop or a friend’s house.

CONSUMER WATCH

You can learn

more about

network ports

on Wikipedia.

36

At Wikipedia you can find a list of all available

ports (go.pcworld.com/ports), but the critical

ones are those that allow remote access to

your files or remote control of your network

devices, such as FTP, HTTP, and RDP.

Checking to see if your network is password-

protected is easy enough. Open a browser and

type in your public IP address preceded by the

proper header (ftp://, http://, and so on). If you

connect, you should see a screen asking for a

password. If instead you go immediately to the

homepage for your router, NAS, or IP camera,

your network isn’t protected—and anyone

else with an Internet connection can access

those resources just as easily.

In addition, confirm whether the FTP service on your router or

NAS box is enabled, and whether it allows anonymous access—unless

you’re sharing files with the world, you should disable anonymous

access. You can find FTP in your router’s HTML configuration pages,

which you can access from your browser locally at 192.168.1.1,

192.168.1.254, or a similar address. (Check your user manual for the

default address of your router.)

For maximum security, you can put your router or router/modem into

pin-hole mode, in which every port is blocked by default and you open

only the services you need. It takes a bit of work, but it’s very secure.

Unless you’re sharing files with the world, you should disable anonymous access to your FTP service.

37

CONSUMER WATCH

THE WINDOWS XPOCALYPSE is upon us: Microsoft is no longer

providing security patches for Windows XP as of April 8, 2014. Nearly

30 percent of Internet-connected PCs still run XP. They’ll continue

operating normally, but they’ll be rotting inside, suffering from

increasingly numerous security holes.

If you’re using Windows XP, and you can’t upgrade your machine

immediately, you can protect yourself. Make no mistake, however: The

following tricks are like sticking your finger into a leaking dam. They’ll

help a bit, but the dam is crumbling.

Choose your sofware wiselyIf you use Internet Explorer, let it go—IE 8, the most recent version

available for XP, is no longer receiving patches. In contrast, Google

Chrome will continue supporting Windows XP until at least April 2015,

while Mozilla Firefox has no announced plans to stop supporting XP.

Keep Windows XP secure after Microsoft ends supportBY CHRIS HOFFMAN

38

Most antivirus utilities will continue supporting XP; even Microsoft

Security Essentials will do so until July 14, 2015. Antivirus-testing

company AV-Test asked 30 antivirus companies (go.pcworld.com/

avsupport) about their intentions, and all of them committed to

supporting XP until at least April 8, 2015. Most committed to an even

longer period, into at least 2016. Be sure you’re using an antivirus

program that’s receiving updates, though. And as Microsoft warns

(go.pcworld.com/xpav), remember that “the effectiveness of anti-

malware solutions on out-of-support operating systems is limited.”

If you’re still using the defunct Outlook Express, switch to the full

version of Outlook in Microsoft Office. If you want an alternative,

Mozilla is still supporting Thunderbird with patches, though it’s unclear

how long Thunderbird support on older operating systems will continue.

Or you can use a Web-based email service in Chrome or Firefox.

Office 2003 is losing its support just as XP is. If you’re using that

suite—or, even worse, Office XP—update to a newer, supported

version. (Yes, this means a Ribbon-bedecked version. Sorry.)

Remove insecure sofware

The Java browser plug-in is exploit-prone on any OS. Unless you need

Java for a specific purpose, uninstall it. If you need it, disable the

Mozilla’s

Plugin Check

ensures that

your browser

extras are fully

patched.

39

browser plug-in (go.pcworld.com/ditchplugins) and keep it up-to-date.

Attackers frequently target other browser plug-ins, too; Adobe Flash

and Adobe Reader are crucial. Modern versions of Flash and Reader

update themselves automatically, but older versions didn’t even check

for updates. If you don’t need these applications, uninstall them.

Scan for unpatched software on your computer with Secunia PSI

(go.pcworld.com/secunia_psi). You can also visit Mozilla’s Plugin Check

page (go.pcworld.com/plugincheck) to see if outdated browser plug-

ins are installed. Don’t let the page’s name fool you: The check works

in other browsers, too, not just Firefox.

Risky behavior will be magnified in a post-patch world. For tips,

check out our complete guides to staying safe in the Web’s worst

neighborhoods (go.pcworld.com/websworst) and guarding against

devious security traps (go.pcworld.com/devious).

Take drastic measures

Now let’s dig into the more radical but totally appropriate tactics.

Go ofline: Say you need Windows XP only to run a crucial business

CONSUMER WATCH

Windows 7’s XP

Mode lets you

run XP in a

virtual machine.

40

application, or to interact with hardware that

doesn’t function with newer versions of Windows.

In this case, disconnect that Windows XP system

from the network if possible. This action is the

easiest, most foolproof way to keep a Windows

XP computer secure.

Use a limited account: If your machine is

blasted by malware, the invader can do only as much damage as

the account it infects. Administrator accounts (go.pcworld.com/

adminrisk) give baddies the keys to your computing kingdom. Stick to

using a limited account for your day-to-day activities. Use an admin

account to create the locked-down login and fill it with the software

you need, and afterward don’t stray from limited land unless you need

to install or update software. (And even then, use the admin account

only for as long as is necessary to finish the installation.)

Confine XP to a virtual machine: Virtual machines let you run

Windows XP in an isolated container (go.pcworld.com/vminternet),

placing it in a window on your desktop. Windows 7 Professional includes

Windows XP Mode for just this reason, offering businesses and other

professional users the ability to set up such a virtual machine without

buying an additional Windows XP license.

If you’re upgrading to Windows 8 or Windows 7 Home, however,

Windows XP Mode is not included. In this situation you’ll have to get a

boxed copy of Windows XP—an old one will work—and then install it

inside a virtual machine. Fortunately, you don’t have to buy virtual

machine software: The free VirtualBox (go.pcworld.com/virtualbox43)

or VMware Player (go.pcworld.com/vmwarepl) will work fine.

Inside a virtual machine, you can run most Windows XP applications.

Note, however, that if a program needs direct access to a piece of

hardware, it may not work.

Remember, too, that the cessation of Microsoft support extends to

Windows XP Mode and Windows XP in virtual machines. However,

running XP in a virtual machine on a modern version of Windows is

much more secure than running XP as your primary OS.

Stick to using a limited account for your day-to-day activities in XP.

Move on

Suppose you have a trusty old XP system that works for Web browsing

and you don’t want to invest in a new computer or a new Windows. To

stay secure, you might try installing Ubuntu Linux (go.pcworld.com/

ubuntuguide) and tweaking its appearance (go.pcworld.com/

tweakubuntu), or perhaps installing the more lightweight Lubuntu

(go.pcworld.com/lubuntu). These completely free OSs work well on

older hardware, and will be supported with patches for years to come.

If Windows 8 puts you off, you can still upgrade to Windows 7, which

Microsoft will support until 2020. New copies of Windows 7 or 8 cost

nearly $100, though, and they might not run on XP-era hardware, so

you may be better off buying a whole new computer.

Sure, Microsoft wants to sell you a new Windows license, but it’s

been 12 years. Make plans to move on. You don’t have to go to

Windows 8, but you can’t stay here—not for long, anyway.

CONSUMER

WATCH

41

Join The Nature Conservancy to plant a billion trees, one tree at a time, in the fght to end climate change at plantabillion.org

44 We push six 802.11ac Wi-Fi USB adapters to the limit

54 Lenovo ThinkPad X240: A no-non-sense business laptop

57 Toshiba CB35-A3120 Chromebook hits the sweet spot

60 Reveal 11 Business automates profes-sional videography

63 Samsung Galaxy Note Pro: Android challenges Windows in the office

67 Intel 730 Series SSD (480GB): Good performance and a strong warranty

71 Lenovo Miix 2 8: A fast tablet that’s short on features

76 Pro document shredders offer total destruction

REVIEWS

& RATINGS

43

44

We push six 802.11ac Wi-Fi USB adapters to the limitThe competing devices we tested had significant diferences in performance and price. BY MICHAEL BROWN

TESTED IN PCWORLD LABS

In this section, hardware & software goes through rigorous testing.

REVIEWS

& RATINGS

Buffalo Technology AirStation

WI-U2-866D

D-Link DWA-182 Wireless AC1200

Dual Band USB Adapter

Trendnet TEW-805UB AC1200

Dual Band Wireless USB Adapter

Netgear A6200 WiFi USB Adapter

Asus USB-AC56 Dual-band

Wireless-AC1200 Adapter

Linksys WUSB6300 Wi-Fi Wireless AC

Dual-Band AC1200 USB Adapter

PH

OT

OG

RA

PH

Y B

Y R

OB

ER

T C

AR

DIN

45

ONCE YOU’VE PURCHASED a new 802.11ac router (see

go.pcworld.com/routers2013), you have to decide on a

wireless adapter to connect it to your client PC. If the

client doesn’t incorporate an 802.11ac adapter—and few

machines do—you won’t get the maximum benefit from the router. I

benchmarked six of the newest 802.11ac Wi-Fi USB adapters and

found striking differences in their performance.

The 802.11ac draft standard delivers a physical link rate of up to

1300 megabits per second (with a router that supports three spatial

streams for sending and three for receiving). Products in the current

I tested each adapter in four spots inside my 2800-square-foot single-story home, using only the 802.11ac protocol.

46

batch of 802.11ac Wi-Fi USB adapters, however,

support only two spatial streams and deliver a

maximum physical link rate of 867 mbps.

To find the top-performing adapter, I tested

each adapter in four spots inside my 2800-

square-foot single-story home, using only the

802.11ac protocol. I sequentially installed each

product in an AVADirect gaming notebook powered by an Intel Core

i5-3210M processor and 4GB of DDR3/1600 memory. Then I used an Asus

RT-AC68U802.11ac Wi-Fi router (go.pcworld.com/asusrtac68u) to create

a wireless network. Using the JPERF benchmarking utility, I measured TCP

throughput between the wireless laptop client and a server that was

hardwired to the router.

Some adapters come with a tethered USB cradle, increasing your range

of placement options. If the adapter had such a cradle, that’s how I

evaluated it. Other models plug directly into the client’s USB port, and

that’s how I tested those. A couple of models have articulated USB

connectors that allow you to orient the adapters either straight out from

or at a 90-degree angle to the client. In those cases I selected the angled

option if it was available—unless the vendor also provided a cradle.

USB surprise The type of USB interface had no detectable impact on the adapter’s

performance. The Asus USB-AC56, which has a USB 3.0 interface, turned

in the highest throughput overall, but the Netgear A6200 placed second,

despite its USB 2.0 interface. And the Trendnet TEW-805UB, which has a

USB 3.0 interface, was the slowest overall performer by a wide margin.

The Asus USB-AC56 took first place in tests with the client located in the

bedroom (9 feet from the router) and in the kitchen (20 feet away). Though

the Asus didn’t perform quite as well at longer distances, it came out on top

overall when I averaged the routers’ performance in all four locations.

Netgear’s A6200 finished a strong second overall, just 2 mbps behind

the Asus, and did especially well at longer distances. The D-Link DWA-182

finished third overall, with Buffalo’s AirStation WI-U2-866D close behind it.

I measured TCP throughput between the wireless laptop client and a server.

More: Wi-Fi USB Adapters

47

REVIEWS & RATINGS

The Asus USB-

AC56 was the

top performer

overall, but

Netgear’s

A6200 finished

right on its

heels. The

Netgear is also

much easier to

travel with.

802.11ac Wi-Fi Client Adapter Using an Asus RT-Ac68U Router

0 100 200 300 400 500

MEGABYTES PER SECOND. (LONGER BARS INDICATE HIGHER PERFORMANCE.)

Bedroom (client 9 feet from router)

Kitchen (client 20 feet from router)

Home theater (client 35 feet from router)

Home office (client 65 feet from router)

163.0

347.0

404.0

213.0

227.0

251.0

240.0

248.0

175.0

288.0

290.0

244.0

190.0

232.0

230.0

143.0

233.0

312.0

310.0

264.0

104.0

199.0

256.0

79.1

Trendnet TEW-805UB

Netgear A6200

Linksys WUSB6300

D-Link DWA-182

Buffalo WI-U2-866D

Asus USB-AC56

48

Asus USB-AC56 Dual-band Wireless-AC1200 AdapterThe USB-AC56 ($70; ; go.pcworld.com/ac56) comes with a

tethered USB stand and a hinged, detachable antenna. I thought the

latter would give the adapter an edge at longer distances, but it didn’t.

Designed with a USB 3.0 interface, it had the fastest TCP throughput

when the client was close to the router, reaching 404 megabits per

second when the client was in the bedroom, 9 feet from the router.

With the client in the kitchen and the router 20 feet away, the USB-

AC56 achieved a roundup-best TCP throughput of 347 mbps.

Given the size of the USB-AC56’s antenna, I was surprised when it

landed in fifth place on my test with the client inside the double-thick

walls of my home theater. Also unexpected was its fourth-place finish

on my test with the client in my home office, 65 feet from the router.

Even so, with data rates of 163 mbps and 213 mbps respectively on

those tests, the Asus adapter should have no trouble streaming high-

def video to any location inside a typical house.

The USB-AC56 is a bit unwieldy, whether you use its external

antenna or not (it also has an internal antenna, so the external one

isn’t essential). Without the antenna, the adapter protrudes almost 4

inches from your computer’s USB port. Remove the cap protecting

the threaded antenna connection and attach the antenna, and the

device’s length extends to nearly 4.5 inches.

When I averaged each adapter’s throughput at all four test locations,

the USB-AC56 had the highest mark—though by less than 1 percent.

The Asus USB-AC56 has internal antennas, too, so

you can leave the cap covering the thread mount

on, if you don’t want to use the long antenna.

More: Wi-Fi USB Adapters

49

REVIEWS & RATINGS

Bufalo Technology AirStation WI-U2-866DIn our roundup of 802.11ac Wi-Fi client USB adapters, Buffalo

Technology’s AirStation WI-U2-866D ($40; ; go.pcworld.

com/wiu2866d) earned two second-place finishes, and it ended up in

fourth place overall. Its $40 street price makes it an attractive value.

The WI-U2-866D’s antennas are mounted internally. Though Buffalo

doesn’t provide a cradle, you’ll find a bendable (but disappointingly

weak) USB 2.0 stub cable in the box.

The adapter’s hinged interface allows you to position the adapter

vertically or horizontally. The adapter is a bit over 3.5 inches long; but

when vertically oriented, it protrudes less than an inch from the PC.

Buffalo’s model was the only adapter in my test group that lacked a

WPS button. If you choose this model, you’ll have to remember your

router’s passphrase in order to establish a wireless connection. Like

Asus, Buffalo provides a software utility that reports connection

status, signal strength, and other details. You can use the utility with

either Buffalo’s adapter or your laptop’s built-in adapter.

The Buffalo adapter delivered TCP throughputs of 248 mbps from

65 feet away from the router (good for the second place in the

roundup), 227 mbps from 35 feet away (again, second), 251 mbps

from 20 feet away (fourth), and 240 mbps from 9 feet away (fifth).

The WI-U2-866D’s

hinged USB interface

folds into a recess on

the adapter’s back to

protect it.

The WI-U2-866D’s hinged USB

interface folds into a recess on the

adapter’s back to protect it.

50

D-Link DWA-182 Wireless AC1200 Dual Band USB AdapterIn our latest roundup of 802.11ac client adapters, D-Link’s DWA-182

($50; ; go.pcworld.com/wusb6300) finished in third place

overall, without achieving any first- or second-place finishes on any of

the individual tests. The compact adapter measures about 3 inches

long, not including its USB interface, and D-Link provides a USB cradle

that gives you some welcome flexibility in positioning it.

D-Link switched to a USB 3.0 interface with hardware revision C1. I

had an older version that uses a USB 2.0 interface, but I don’t think it

makes a big difference. The adapter itself isn’t hinged, so your only

orientation choices are horizontal or vertical. My benchmark numbers

came from using the adapter in the cradle.

The adapter has a WPS button, which simplifies connecting the

client to the router. The antennas are inside the device. D-Link offers a

simple utility for establishing a connection to your wireless router:

The utility reports the status of your connection, notes the channel

it’s using, and shows a graphical representation of the signal strength.

The DWA-182’s $50 street price is $20 lower than that of the top-

performing Asus USB-AC56, but at the same time it’s $10 higher than

that of the fourth-place Buffalo AirStation WI-U2-866D.

The ‘C’ rev of the D-Link DWA-182

has a USB 3.0 interface, but the USB

2.0 interface on the model

reviewed here didn’t present a

performance bottleneck.

More: Wi-Fi USB Adapters

51

Though Linksys was one of

the first manufacturers to

ship an 802.11ac Wi-Fi

client USB adapter, the

WUSB6300 is far from a

standout model.

REVIEWS & RATINGS

Linksys WUSB6300 Wi-Fi Wireless AC Dual-Band AC1200 USB AdapterDespite its USB 3.0 interface, Linksys’s WUSB6300 802.11ac Wi-Fi client

USB adapter ($70; ; go.pcworld.com/wusb6300) was slower

than average at three of my four test locations. The compact adapter

protrudes from a PC by just 3 inches. It hides its two antennas inside its

plastic shell, and its WPS button makes connecting to your router easy.

But there’s no USB cradle, and the adapter isn’t hinged, so you don’t

have much flexibility in positioning the adapter for optimal reception.

Aside from its third-place finish on my home theater test, 35 feet

from the router, the WUSB6300 was a mediocre performer.

The Linksys adapter finished dead last when the client was 9 feet

away from the router in the same room, with TCP throughput of 230

megabits per second, versus 404 mbps for the Asus USB-AC56 at this

location, and 310 mbps for the Netgear A6200. The WUSB6300 did

slightly better when I moved the client into the kitchen, registering

TCP throughput of 232 mbps, but that rate is nowhere near the 347

mbps that the Asus adapter delivered.

The Linksys WUSB6300 finished third, fifth, or last in my individual

tests, and placed fifth overall. Combine that undistinguished perfor-

mance with a $70 street price, and you have little reason to favor this

adapter over any rival except the Trendnet TEW-805UB.

52

Netgear A6200 WiFi USB AdapterThe Netgear A6200 ($50; ; go.pcworld.com/a6200) has a USB 2

interface and a hinged connector. Its antenna lies inside a thin rectangular

bar that you can pivot to fine-tune its reception. Netgear’s antenna design

is much less fragile than the Asus USB-AC56’s screw-on antenna (unless you

remove the Asus model’s antenna every time you pack it).

Tested with its USB cradle and its antenna in a vertical orientation, the

Netgear adapter almost matched that of the first-place Asus USB-AC56

overall, falling short by just 2 megabits per second. But the performance

gap was far larger when the client was 9 feet away from the router: 310

mbps for the Netgear’s TCP throughput versus 404 mbps for the Asus’s.

The A6200 placed second when the client was in the kitchen, too, with

throughput of 312 mbps as opposed to the USB-AC56’s 347 mbps.

The Netgear adapter beat the Asus at longer ranges, however, with TCP

throughput of 233 mbps versus 163 mbps when the client was in my home

theater, 35 feet from the router; and 264 mbps versus 213 mbps when the

client was in my home office, 65 feet from the router.

The A6200 measures nearly 5 inches long with its antenna extended

(not including its USB interface), and slightly less than 3.5 inches long

with its antenna folded down for travel. The USB interface pivots, but it

doesn’t fold away completely as the Buffalo WI-U2-866D’s interface does.

If long-range performance is crucial in your network setup, this adapter

is a great choice. But if not, the Asus USB-AC56 is a better bet.

Netgear’s Genie utility provides useful

information such as site polling,

physical link rate, and the client’s

current IP address.

The hinged USB interface enables you

to fine-tune the adapter to your router.

Netgear also provides a USB cradle.

53

Nonhinged and cradleless, the

Trendnet TEW-805UB gives you

minimal placement flexibility.

REVIEWS & RATINGS

Trendnet TEW-805UB AC1200 Dual Band Wireless USB AdapterThe Trendnet TEW-805UB ($40; ; go.pcworld.com/

tew805ub) is small (protruding from a PC’s USB port by about 2.625

inches) and inexpensive. ($40 street). But it brings up the rear on most

performance metrics, and It has no special features.

The adapter is short and has a nonhinged USB 3.0 interface; it also

lacks a USB cradle, giving you little placement flexibility. The TEW-

805UB’s close-range performance was merely adequate. Whereas the

top-performing Asus USB-AC56 delivered TCP throughput of 404

megabits per second when situated 9 feet from the router, the

Trendnet managed just 256 mbps, good for fourth place.

In the other three test locations, Trendnet’s adapter finished last by

wide margins. It couldn’t muster triple-digit performance when the

client was at its farthest point from the router—65 feet away—and it

only barely achieved that mark when the client was in my home

theater, 35 feet away. When the client was in the kitchen, the TEW-

805UB was 33 mbps slower than the fifth-place Linksys WUSB6300.

If your 802.11ac Wi-Fi budget is limited to $40, Buffalo’s WI-U2-

866D is a far better buy. If you can stretch it just $10 more, D-Link’s

DWA-182 will deliver even higher performance. There’s very little

reason to opt for Trendnet’s TEW-805UB.

IF LENOVO’S SPENDY ThinkPad X1 Carbon is the laptop every worker

bee craves, Lenovo’s thrifty ThinkPad X240 (go.pcworld.com /

thinkpadx240) is the one an employer is more apt to spring for.

You might think the ThinkPad X240 is too big to qualify for the

Ultrabook designation, but it’s only 0.79 inches thick and weighs

just 3 pounds. It has two batteries and a battery bridge that allows

hot swapping.

The X240’s WorldBench score of 282 leaves it slightly behind

Dell’s XPS 12 Ultrabook Convertible (with the same dual-core CPU)

and Samsung’s Ativ Book 7 (with a third-generation Core

i5-3337U)—surprising given that the ThinkPad has twice as much

DDR3/1600 memory: 8GB versus 4GB.

Lenovo ThinkPad X240: A no-nonsense business laptopBY MICHELLE MASTIN

Lenovo’s

ThinkPad X240

may look big next

to wafer-thin

notebooks—but

it’s only 0.79

inches thick.

PH

OT

OG

RA

PH

Y B

Y R

OB

ER

T C

AR

DIN

54

REVIEWS & RATINGS

The X240 packs a fourth-generation Intel Core processor, so you can

expect long battery life. Our test unit came with a Core i5-4200U, but

there are other choices. The three-cell battery ran for 6 hours, 26

minutes.

The X240 has a number of I/O ports absent on the X1 Carbon,

including a gigabit ethernet port, a smart card reader, a 34mm Express

card socket, a VGA port, an always-on USB 2.0 port, and a docking port.

Like the X1 Carbon, it has two USB 3.0 ports, a Mini DisplayPort, an SD

card reader, and a fingerprint reader.

The keyboard still has a nubby red dot in the center, but the dedicated

buttons are gone. You must press the whole trackpad with your finger in

the correct click zone. The roomy size lets you make the most of

Windows 8’s multitouch gestures, but at times the trackpad registered

If you don’t

mind toting an

extra battery,

the ThinkPad

X240’s hot-

swap feature

will keep you

productive

for hours.

55

Lenovo ThinkPad X240

Batery life

Asus VivoBook

S550CA

(reference)

Lenovo ThinkPad X240

Dell XSP 12 Ultrabook Convertible

Samsung Ativ Book 7 model NP740USE-K01UB)

LONGER BARS ARE BETTER.

0:00 1:00 2:00 3:00 4:00 6:00

6:26

5:00

6:49

6:03

3:22

7:00 8:00

two-finger scrolling when I only

used one finger. But it was

smooth and responsive overall.

The keyboard still has a

nubby red dot in the center,

but the dedicated buttons are

gone. You must press the

whole trackpad with your

finger in the correct click

zone. At times the trackpad

registered two-finger scrolling

when I only used one finger.

But it was smooth and

responsive overall.

If you’re looking for a

workhorse laptop with great

battery life, Lenovo’s X240 is a

solid choice.

Lenovo ThinkPad X240

PROS:

• Durable carbon-fiber chassis

• Hot-swappable battery

• All the I/O ports you could ask for

CONS:

• Disappointing 1366 by 768 display

• Keyboard not up to ThinkPad

standards

• Weak speakers

BOTTOM LINE:

Has fourth-gen Intel Core CPUs and

hot-swappable batteries. But its

display resolution is a letdown.

$1555

The 1366 by 768 display

lacks definition.

56

THE CHROMEBOOK HAS found its sweet spot, and it’s around the

$279 range, where the Toshiba CB35-A3120 Chromebook resides

(go.pcworld.com/toshibacb35). It sure isn’t down with the $200-or-so

cheapies, with their clackety plastics and sorry little screens. Nor is it

in the 1-percenter fantasyland of the gorgeous and expensive

Chromebook Pixel. The $250 Samsung Chromebook 3 is nice, and for

$300 you could get an 11-inch touchscreen in the Acer C270P, or a

14-inch (non-touch) display in the HP Chromebook 14. But the

Toshiba Chromebook hits the sweet spotBY MELISSA RIOFRIO

REVIEWS

& RATINGS

A top-down

view shows

the roomy

clickpad and

island-style

keyboard.

PH

OT

OG

RA

PH

Y B

Y M

ICH

AE

L H

OM

NIC

K

57

Toshiba CB35-A3120 is nearly as good as those higher-priced competitors, and it’s

a notch better than the similarly priced HP Chromebook 11.

What the Toshiba CB35-A3120 has over the HP Chromebook 11 is a much larger

13.3-inch LED backlit display; a mobile-

friendly Intel Celeron 2955U (Haswell)

processor; and a 52Wh, four-cell lithium

ion battery. The Toshiba performed well,

scoring 2910 in Peacekeeper. The

battery lasted almost 7 hours in our

tests—noticeably longer than what the

HP Chromebook 11 achieved with its

ARM processor and 30Wh battery.

The CB35-A3120 also trumps the

Chromebook 11 in connectivity, sporting

two USB 3.0 ports (the HP has just USB

2.0), an SD card slot, a headphone jack,

and an HDMI-out port. It has built-in

Wi-Fi 802.11a/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0,

and a webcam and microphone sit atop

the display. Built-in stereo speakers

deliver tolerable though tinny sound.

The screen’s wide, 16:9 aspect ratio

keeps this system compact, at 8.9 by

12.9 by 0.80 inches; the HP Chromebook

Toshiba CB35-A3120

Chromebook

PROS:

• Long battery life

• USB 3.0 ports

• Decent-size display

CONS:

• Display feels a little bendy

• Just adequate video playback

BOTTOM LINE:

The Toshiba CB35-A3120

Chromebook strikes a nice balance

with its good-size display, long

battery life, and compact design.

$279

The right side

has an audio jack,

two USB 3.0

ports, and an

HDMI-out port.

58

REVIEWS

& RATINGS

14 is decidedly bulkier. The 1366-by-768-

pixel resolution is nothing special, nor is

the occasionally choppy video playback,

but that’s typical for this price range.

The Sunray Silver plastic chassis has an

attractive, easy-to-grip surface. The

display lid feels slightly bendy, but the

bottom half is nicely stiff. At 3.3 pounds,

the CB35-A3120

is easy to tote.

Most low-end Chromebooks have crummy keyboards with

hard plastic keys and hard travel. The CB35-A3120’s island-

style keys offer softer travel—a pleasant surprise. The top-row

function keys and lower-right cursor keys are half-size but

usable, and the clickpad is roomy and pretty responsive.

The Chromebook’s other features include 2GB of DDR3L

1600MHz memory and a 16GB SSD.

Chromebooks are hitting their stride. My current favorite in

this price range is the HP Chromebook 14, but the

CB35-A3120 is a tempting alternative for a bit less cash.

The CB35-A3120 is

slender, small, and light.

The CB35-A3120’s island-style keys ofer sofer travel than most low-end Chromebooks do—a pleasant surprise.

59

60

Reveal 11 Business automates videographyBY JON L. JACOBI

MOST PEOPLE DON’T think of video-production software as a business

tool. In today’s video-centric advertising, training, and communications

environment, however, they should. Muvee Technologies seems to

share that opinion, judging from its simple-to-use but effective Reveal

11 Business (go.pcworld.com/reveal11).

You provide the pictures, video, and text, after which you arrange

their sequence and pick a style template; then you simply let the

program process everything into a complete production. The number

REVIEWS & RATINGS

of style templates—which contain background music, effects, and

transitions melded into a consistent look and feel—is what

differentiates the regular $80 version of Reveal 11 and the $500

Business edition. The regular version has only a few, while the business

version has more than 40, plus 2000 musical renditions that you may

use royalty-free. Functionally, the versions are identical.

My only complaint is that Reveal 11 Business could stand to look

more, well, businesslike. The styles offered in the Business pack are

nice, but they’re named in artistic terms. If you’re looking for

something like “Target: 27-year-old to 32-year-old food-centrics,”

forget it—you’re getting “Reflections,” “Soar,” and “Turn Back Time.”

Reveal 11 Business is

supremely easy to use. A

content row sits at the top,

and style-selection and

preview panes appear

beneath that. But the

program offers more

control over video

production than is

apparent at first glance.

Click Personalize in the

bottom-left corner, and

you can insert your logo,

adjust the scene timing,

define the titling and

credits, or record a voice-

over. You’ll find a small

audio-mix console, too.

Click any picture or video

in the media bay, and the

program presents slick and

simple editing controls

such as a zoom-effect

Muvee Reveal 11

Business

PROS:

• Easy to use

• Produces professional-quality

video

• More affordable than a

videographer

CONS:

• Styles content not organized in

a businesslike fashion

BOTTOM LINE:

Reveal 11 Business could be just

the software you need to create

high-quality promotional or training videos.

$500

61

62

control for photos and a highly accurate scene detector and slicer for

videos. Attached to each style are controls for color profiles, scene-

change speed, camera wonkiness, and more.

Even better, labels and messages are concise yet not overly terse:

They actually tell you what to do. Additionally, there’s not one

cluttered area, overcrowded toolbar, or cryptic icon in sight. Interfaces

don’t get any better than this. I never once cracked open the help file.

I’m not trying to step on the toes of professional videographers—

good ones are worth their weight in gold. But many people don’t have

the gold, and Reveal 11 Business largely meets the need, if not for a

professional advertising campaign, then for just about everything else.

If you’re strapped for cash, you could buy the regular version of the

software and then shop in the Muvee store for a $10 or $15 style that

suits you. The company also offers a music store with affordable

licensing fees based on your intended usage.

In Reveal 11’s

Personalize

section, you

can record a

voice-over for

your video.

63

REVIEWS

& RATINGS

Samsung Galaxy Note Pro: Android moves into the officeBY MARK HACHMAN

IN THE CURRENT market, paying $750 for a 12-inch Android tablet

seems exorbitant. But if now isn’t the time for consumers to start

thinking of large Android tablets as legitimate Windows laptop

replacements, that day isn’t far off.

The massive Samsung Galaxy Note Pro (go.pcworld.com/

galaxynotepro), like the Microsoft Surface, functions best on a desk.

Offering a 12.2-inch screen and weighing 1.65 pounds, it’s virtually

identical to the Galaxy Tab Pro save for the addition of an S Pen stylus.

According to Samsung, the Wi-Fi version of the tablet houses a

Samsung’s

Galaxy Note Pro

makes Android an

attractive option

for business use.

PH

OT

OG

RA

PH

Y B

Y M

ICH

AE

L H

OM

NIC

K

1.9GHz quad-core ARM Cortex A15

chip and runs Android 4.4 (KitKat). On

our performance tests it produced a

Sunspider score of 0.97 second

(hitting the upper echelons among

tablets), and a PeaceKeeper score of

815. For the sake of comparison, the

third-generation iPad managed 516 in

PeaceKeeper (higher scores are better).

You can configure the optional ($70) foldable cover so that it wakes

and unlocks the tablet when you flip it back. The cover also doubles as

a flimsy stand. To use the tablet as a laptop replacement, however,

you’ll need to buy a

Bluetooth keyboard and

possibly a mouse.

Charging takes three to

four hours, but battery life

is excellent: You’ll see two,

possibly even three days

of casual use from its

integrated 9500-mAh

battery. In our looping

video test, the battery

lasted 8 hours, 37 minutes.

The 12.2-inch display

boasts a resolution of

2560 by 1600 and a pixel

density of 247 ppi. You

can hook up an external

monitor via an optional

($40) HDMI dongle.

Pulling out the S Pen

triggers several options,

including my favorite, the

Samsung Galaxy Note Pro (SM-P900)

PROS:

• Large, vivid screen

• Excellent battery life and

performance

• Office and videoconferencing

apps built in

CONS:

• No wired display connection

• Flip cover doubles as a flimsy stand

BOTTOM LINE:

This capable tablet offers a generous

screen, excellent battery life, and

access to plenty of productivity apps.

$750 (32GB), $850 (64GB)

64

Judging from the

home button’s

position, the

tablet’s preferred

orientation is

landscape.

65

REVIEWS

& RATINGS

Pen Window. This mode lets you run a second

app inside a window, providing Android with a

desktop-like multitasking environment. Even

better is Multi Window mode: To trigger this

mode, you swipe in from the right side, using a

list of supported apps. Dragging one app to the

main screen fills it. Dragging a second one

“snaps” the screen into two halves—and so on, up to four screens.

Productivity apps such as Cisco’s WebEx and Samsung Remote PC

(an alternative to Microsoft Remote Desktop) are included. On Google

Play, Hancom’s Hanword word processor costs more than $17, but on

the Note Pro, it’s free, as are similar apps to view and edit PowerPoint

and Excel files. Aside from some possible font-compatibility issues, the

Hancom apps work surprisingly well. Google’s own Quickoffice is also

installed. Android versions of virtually every productivity app you

could want are available from either the Samsung app store or

You can have

up to four apps

open at once in

Multi Window

mode.

You’ll see two, possibly three days of casual use from its integrated batery.

66

Google Play, adding up to a PC-like experience on an Android tablet.

Considering the sum of its parts, the Galaxy Note Pro is not only a

viable choice for a tablet enthusiast but also an option for an

adventuresome road warrior eager to leave the Windows world. If

only Samsung could knock another $150 or so off the price.

The tablet

gives access

to a host of

productivity

apps.

67

REVIEWS & RATINGS

Intel 730 Series SSD offers good performanceBY JON L. JACOBI

INTEL’S NEW 730 Series of enthusiast-class SSDs come emblazoned

with the image of a skull, but they don’t fully live up to a killer image.

The company shipped a pair of 480GB drives to us so we could

benchmark them striped as a single volume in RAID 0, which is how a

PC enthusiast might deploy them. Theoretically, you should get close

to double the performance this way; but because we haven’t tested

any other SSDs in tandem, we stuck with one drive for our full bench-

marking regimen and ran CrystalDiskMark for the RAID 0 setup.

Plenty of roomSSDs in the 730 Series use 20nm MLC (multilevel cell) NAND. Since

the SSD is just 7mm high, it will fit in most laptops and even in an

68

all-in-one (if the machine is upgradable), as well

as in a conventional desktop rig. It relies on

Intel’s PC29AS21CA0 controller, which the

company also uses to power its 3500- and 3700

Series SSDs for data-center operators. Intel says

that it overclocks the controller by 50 percent

and the NAND bus by 20 percent to increase

overall performance substantially. Though Intel suggested at its 2013

developers’ conference that it might allow end users to overclock the

controller, in the end it decided against doing so.

The drives are available in 240GB and 480GB flavors, priced at $250

and $490, respectively. We tested the 480GB model and it performed

well, but not superbly, ranking tenth among the 19 drives we’ve

tested to date. That said,

this SSD does smoke the

Intel 335 Series; and the

difference between the

first and tenth-place

drives is statistically

insignificant once you

exclude Plextor’s new PCIe

drive and Samsung’s EVO

using its Rapid caching

software.

The 480GB Series 730

wrote our 10GB mix of

files and folders at 469.1

megabytes per second

and a single 10GB file at

461.9 MBps. It also read

the files and folders at

384.4 MBps and the single

large file at 454.2 MBps.

I noticed a significant

Intel 730 Series SSD (480GB)

PROS:

• Strong 5-year warranty

• Enterprise-class controller

• 7mm height

CONS:

• Midrange performance

• High-end price tag

BOTTOM LINE:

Intel’s 730 Series SSD ought to last a

good long while, but you shouldn’t

imagine that the drive’s skull logo

portends killer performance.

$490

The 480GB model performed well, ranking tenth among 19 drives tested.

69

REVIEWS & RATINGS

performance jump when testing two of these drives striped in RAID 0,

using Intel Rapid Storage Technology. The uptick approaches the 100

percent improvement that Intel claims for it.

CrystalDiskMark’s sequential write number jumped from about

460MBps to 800 MBps, and its read number went from 470 MBps to

just over 900 MBps. But the performance gains will vary depending on

which RAID technology you use. When I repeated the tests on my own

system—a motherboard with an Intel Z77 chipset, an Intel Core

i7-3770 CPU, and 8GB DDR3/1600 memory—the performance

increase topped out at about 50 MBps.

The Intel 730 Series finished in the middle of the pack on this test involving

reading and writing a 10GB collection of small files and folders.

Intel 730 Series SSD (480GB) Read/Write Performance With 10GB of Small Files/Folders

0 100 200 300 400 600

411.9

443.3

414.6

465.2

394.9

494.1

361.3

342.7

376.7

469.1

384.4

MEGABYTES PER SECOND. (LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE.)

Files and Folders (Read)

Files and Folders (Write) 500

493.7

Toshiba Q Series Pro 512GB

Samsung 840 EVO 500GB, w/RAPID

Samsung 840 EVO 500GB, w/o RAPID

OCZ Vertex 460 480GB

Intel 335 Series 240GB

Intel 730 Series 480GB

70

Performance is only part of the 730 Series story: Intel backs the SSD

with a healthy five-year warranty. You can tell from the capacities—

240GB and 480GB, versus 256GB and 512GB—that much of NAND is

devoted to housekeeping and overprovisioning (memory cells set

aside to replace bad blocks, or to swap with deleted-but-not-erased

memory in certain situations).

Intel rates both drives at 1.2 million hours mean time between

failure, which works out to about 13 years. The claimed 50GB of writes

per day (on the 240GB model) and 70GB of writes per day (on the

480GB model) amount to roughly 90 and 125 terabytes written under

warranty. Those are decent numbers.

Summing upTo judge from our tests of the 480GB model, Intel’s 730 Series SSDs

aren’t the fastest solid-state drives you can buy, but they’re very solid.

The enterprise-class heritage and five-year warranty are reassuring;

and in pairs—coupled with Intel’s Rapid Storage Technology—they

make for a very fast storage subsystem.

About our test environment: We benchmark hard drives and SSDs

using an Asus Z98 Expert motherboard (Intel Z87 chipset) with an

Intel Core i7-4770K CPU, 32GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR3/1600

memory, and a 512GB Toshiba Q Series Pro SSD. The operating system

is Windows 8.1 Pro.

71

Speedy Miix 2 8 tablet is short on featuresBY MICHELLE MASTIN

INTEL’S BAY TRAIL–CLASS Atom processors allow PC manufacturers

to build powerful tablets with a key feature that competitors like

Google’s Nexus 7 and Apple’s iPad mini can’t deliver: the ability to run

Windows 8.1 and all the apps available for that operating system.

For its Miix 2 8, Lenovo paired Intel’s quad-core Atom Z3740 with

2GB of low-power DDR3/1066 memory and 32GB of storage. In our

WorldBench 8.1 test results, the Miix 2 8 outperformed Dell’s Venue

Pro 8 (go.pcworld.com/venuepro8) by a margin of 12 percent—

earning a mark of 164, versus the Venue Pro 8’s 146—even though

Dell’s tablet carries a very similar Atom processor (the Atom Z3740D)

and faster memory (low-power DDR3/1333 RAM).

REVIEWS

& RATINGS

PH

OT

OG

RA

PH

Y B

Y M

ICH

AE

L H

OM

NIC

K

When can a display be

too bright? When you’re

using it to read it in a

darkened room.

Watch the video at

go.pcworld.com/miix28.

72

Lenovo Miix 2 8

PROS:

• Very thin and light

• Great benchmark performance and

battery life

• Touch-sensitive Windows button

CONS:

• Speakers distort at high volume

• Too few I/O ports

• Screen too bright for nighttime

reading

BOTTOM LINE:

Lenovo’s Miix 2 8 delivers great

performance and battery life, but

few extra features.

$300

Its batery delivers enough juice to support more than a day of productivity.

The processors in both tablets have the same

base clock speed—1.33GHz—but the one in the

Miix 2 8 has a slightly speedier higher burst fre-

quency (1.86GHz) than the one in the Venue Pro

8 (1.83GHz). More responsible, I suspect, are the

dual memory channels in the Lenovo’s processor;

the Dell’s processor has a single memory channel.

The Miix 2 outperformed the Venue Pro 8 in terms of battery life,

too, lasting more than 10 hours, compared to 7 hours, 44 minutes for

the Dell. Here again, much of the credit goes to the Atom Z3740 in

the Miix 2 8, which has a scenario design power of 2 watts while the

Atom Z3740D in the Venue Pro 8 has an SDP of 2.2 watts.

Intel devised its SDP

formula to measure the

heat generated by CPUs

in “thin, thermally

constrained designs.” As

with desktop and laptop

CPUs and their associated

thermal design power

(TDP) numbers, a mobile

CPU with a higher SDP will

generally consume more

power than one with a

lower SDP.

The Miix 2 8 has all the

horsepower it needs to run

Windows 8.1, and its battery

delivers enough juice to

support more than a full day

of productivity away from

an AC outlet. But you should

seriously consider spending

$50 more to move up to the

73

REVIEWS & RATINGS

model with 64GB of storage, because the 32GB model we tested

leaves only about 7GB of space for your apps and data. You also have

the option of slipping a memory card into the MicroSD slot in either

model to expand its capacity.

Adequate resolutionThe Miix 2 8’s touchscreen display delivers resolution of 1280 by 800

pixels. That resolution isn’t as high as the 1080p screen on the $269

Nexus 7 or the 2048-by-1536-pixel screen of the $499 iPad mini with

Retina display, but it’s enough to ensure that text, graphics, and video

look crisp and clear. On the other hand, an 8-inch screen doesn’t offer

a lot of viewing real estate at any moment, so you may find that you’re

still scrolling around quite a bit once you zoom text to a readable size.

Reading books is a great application for mini tablets like this one. I

have tried several dedicated e-readers and dozens of tablets in pursuit

Lenovo’s Miix 2 8 outperformed its 8-inch rival, the Dell Venue Pro 8, and its

larger (10.1-inch) sibling, the Lenovo Miix 10, on WorldBench 8.1.

Lenovo Miix 2 8 Laptop WorldBench 8.1 score

Lenovo Miix 2 8 (Intel Atom Z3740)

Dell Venue 8 Pro (Intel Atom Z3740)

(LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE.)

0 100 150 20050

Lenovo Miix 10 (Intel Atom Z2760)

121

146

164

74

of the perfect balance between that activity and everything else a

tablet can do—but achieving that balance is difficult.

In the past, my biggest complaint was that the screen seemed dim

or that the touch layer ruined the clarity. Neither of those flaws is

present here. The Miix 2 8’s IPS panel is bright and clear. In fact, I found

it a bit too bright for reading comfortably in a darkened room, even

when I adjusted it to its dimmest setting. My eyes grew tired much

sooner than my wrist did—a credit to the tablet’s thin profile (it

measures 0.3 inch thick) and light weight (just 0.77 pound).

Video enthusiasts will have reason to cheer. The built-in stereo

speakers are loud enough to fill my home office with the sounds of a

Netflix binge, but they begin to distort if you crank them up to their

maximum level. Lenovo’s optional Flip Cover with Stylus ($30) protects

the Miix 2 8’s display and can fold into a handy stand while the tablet

is in landscape mode.

Years of using Android phones and iPads have taught me to press

something at the center bottom of the device to get to the home

screen, and the Miix 2 8 didn’t leave me hanging: It provides a

capacitive Windows button on the bottom bezel.

Tablet-optimized apps work wellAny Windows tablet can run any program that doesn’t require 2GB or

more of memory, but you’ll be happiest with apps that are optimized to

run on a tablet. The Windows store offers a generous array of apps, and

A svelte profile is one

of the thin and light

Miix 2 8’s most

appealing aspects.

75

REVIEWS

& RATINGS

the ecosystem is growing. And since the Miix 2 8

runs Windows, you can watch Hulu videos that

aren’t available on purely mobile platforms—when

you’re not being productive with the preinstalled

copy of Microsoft Office Home & Student 2013.

Can this device replace a laptop? Its only input/

output is a Micro-USB 2.0 port that’s also used for

charging, so I wouldn’t recommend going Miix 2 8 only. You could pair

it with a Bluetooth keyboard, but there’s no way to connect an

external display, hardwired ethernet, or other peripherals.

The Miix 2 8 is an excellent tablet, but this is a tough market and

details matter. For me, the more dimmable screen on Dell’s Venue Pro

8 makes it a better nighttime reader. For other users, the Micro HDMI

port on Toshiba’s Encore 8 (go.pcworld.com/encore8) or the active

Wacom digitizer included in the Asus VivoTab Note 8 (go.pcworld.

com/vivotabnote8) is a must-have feature. Ultimately the Miix 2 8’s

top-notch performance isn’t enough to overwhelm comparably priced

competitors that have more features.

You can watch Hulu videos that aren’t available on purely mobile platforms.

76

Pro document shredders

offer total destructionBY CHRISTOPHER NULL

DESTROY IT, ALL of it: Obliterate the old bills and tax documents you

don’t want to store. Eliminate your expired credit cards and aging CD

backups. Do that, and you’ll keep your data out of the wrong hands.

Shredding specialistsYou need a good shredder to rip everything into bits small enough to

confound even the most obsessive-compulsive puzzle master. To find

the best models, we tested the pulverizing potential of five professional

cross-cut shredders intended for small offices. These machines can

feed more sheets and shred for longer periods than the typical, low-

volume home shredder available at your local big-box store.

Watch the video at

go.pcworld.com/shred

77

PH

OT

OG

RA

PH

Y B

Y M

ICH

AE

L H

OM

NIC

K

REVIEWS & RATINGS

Office Depot’s Ativa V141C (go.pcworld.com/ativav141c) has a traditional,

vertical top-feeding system. A flap covers the slot as a sort of safety catch.

The unit is quiet and unobtrusively small despite its sizable waste bin.

In contrast to most shredders, which require cooldown intervals (usually

after only minutes of sustained operation), the V141C is rated for

continuous use: Theoretically it can run forever without a break.

The machine’s 14-sheet feeding-capacity rating is on the low side—and

worse, it didn’t bear out in my testing. The actual limit for the very narrow

feeding slot seemed to be 8 to 10 sheets. Fat envelopes jammed the unit

regularly. It can shred credit cards, but not optical discs.

I spent more time trying to wedge material into the slot and wrestling

with jams than I did shredding. I’d give this machine a pass.

Ativa (Ofce Depot) V141C

Street price: $480

Weight: 28 pounds

Bin capacity:

8.7 gallons

78

Although the design of the Fellowes Powershred 99Ci (go.pcworld.com/

fellowes99ci) is largely typical of top-feeding shredders, the slot is

positioned so that pages go in aligned side to side instead of the usual

front to back. As a result the unit is narrower but deeper than the

average setup. To guide optical discs and credit cards into the waiting

jaws, you move a slightly odd flap over the slot.

The 99Ci is rated to chew up 17 pages per pass, and that proved to be

about accurate in my testing. If the sensors detect an overload, the unit

refuses to start the motor, preventing jams before they start. Once the

99Ci is running, it’s fairly jam-free, though not quite “100% jam proof” as

promised on the box. Clearing jams that do occur can be arduous.

The unit’s big bin, its 25-minute cycle time, and its preinstalled casters

are all helpful features, but it’s louder than other shredders here. And the

bin’s strange shape makes it difficult to empty without spilling confetti.

All in all, the Powershred 99Ci is a serviceable shredder, though bargain

hunters should consider the Staples SPL-TXC24A first.

Fellowes

Powershred

99Ci

Street price: $300

Weight: 38 pounds

Bin capacity:

9.0 gallons

79

REVIEWS & RATINGS

The GoEcolife GXC205Pi Platinum Series (go.pcworld.com/goecolife20)

sets the pace for destructive potential. While surprisingly quiet, it plows

through most anything, including CDs and credit cards, and up to 20 sheets

of paper per pass. I was rarely able to jam it, even with junk-mail envelopes

and misfed sheets, and creating a jam took far more than 20 sheets of

paper. A front LCD gives you status updates (a rare feature for shredders),

and the 20 minutes of continuous run time is plenty for most operations.

The slot is on the side instead of on top. To feed the beast, you slide

papers in parallel to the floor. It sounds like a small thing, but in many

environments this design will free up some space by letting you keep the

shredder under your desk instead of beside it. Casters make this hulking

device (the largest in this roundup) easy to maneuver.

The unit includes a dust cover, too, and its built-in compartment can

hold odds and ends. It’s also certified CarbonFree by Carbonfund.org.

GoEcolife GXC205Pi Platinum Series

Street price: $500

Weight: 44 pounds

Bin capacity:

7.8 gallons

80

Staples 24-Sheet Cross-Cut Shredder SPL-TXC24A

Street price: $300

Weight: 44 pounds

Bin capacity:

8.0 gallons

The Staples SPL-TXC24A (go.pcworld.com/staplestxc24a) is a Death Star

of a shredder: What it lacks in sophistication it makes up for in raw power.

It’s standard in design, with a vertical slot for feeding paper, credit cards,

or CDs. The slot is thin and barely wide enough to accommodate a regular

sheet of paper, but no matter. You can shove just about anything into

this shredder, and it chews the material up without complaint. It’s also a

particularly tough unit to jam: It can easily handle two junk-mail

envelopes, provided that you can wedge them into the slot.

Other nice features include (user-installed) casters and a lighted

waste-bin area that makes it easier to see how full the unit is, which

sounds silly but turns out to be surprisingly useful. The 20-minute duty

cycle is acceptable. One minor complaint: This shredder is slightly louder

than the others here, though it’s hardly deafening.

Incredibly, this model is significantly less expensive than most of the

other tested shredders. You may want to get his and hers units.

81

REVIEWS & RATINGS

The pint-size Swingline Stack-and-Shred 100X (go.pcworld.com/

swingline100x) has a killer feature: You can fill the autofeed tray with up

to 100 sheets of shreddables and let ’er rip. If you have a large amount of

relatively standard sheets of 8.5-by-11-inch paper to shred (no piles of

mail or stacks of CDs, alas), this is one of the easiest ways to get rid of it.

Otherwise, the 100X is a simple, quiet shredder that’s best reserved for

light use. If you’re not using the autofeed tray, the additional manual feed

slot can handle only six sheets of paper at a time, and it chokes if you try

to push past that. Jamming it is easy to do with even a small junk mailer,

which means you’ll have to open envelopes and shred their contents

piecemeal. The feed slot (which has a conduit just for credit cards) is

difficult to work with, owing to its narrow opening and odd alignment.

The smaller bin and short duty cycle (a barely acceptable 5 minutes)

aren’t deal-breakers—in fact, the compact bin makes this shredder the

easiest to empty among those tested—but the manual feed slot’s

measly capacity is the Stack-and-Shred 100X’s biggest drawback.

Swingline Stack-and-Shred 100X

Street price: $500

Weight: 27 pounds

Bin capacity:

7.0 gallons

Children are our greatest hope for the future.

Let’s be their greatest hope too.

Cancer strikes infants and children. For teens

and young adults, survival can depend on

treatment by a pediatric oncologist, designed

specifically for them.

The St. Baldrick’s Foundation and Stand Up To

Cancer are funding groundbreaking collaborative

research to bring the most effective therapies to kids

fi ghting cancer. To learn how you can help keep

these kids in play, go to stbaldricks.org/inplay and

standup2cancer.org/pediatrics.

175,000 KIDS WILL BE DIAGNOSED WITH CANCER THIS YEAR.

HELP KEEP THESE KIDS

IN PLAY.

Julia HernandezDiagnosed at 16, in remission. Samuel L. Jackson

Stand Up To Cancer and St. Baldrick’s Ambassador

St. Baldrick’s Foundation is a charitable 501(c)(3) organization funding childhood cancer research. Stand Up To Cancer is a program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation, a 501(c )(3) charitable organization. P

ho

to b

y N

ige

l Pa

rry

ADD SOME ZIP TO YOUR DESKTOP WITH NEW STORAGE, NETWORKING, OR ACCESSORIES.

BY JO N L. JACO B I A N I M AT I O N BY JO H N U E L A N D

F O R U N D E R $30012 PC UPGRADES

83

IS IT TIME

FOR A

PC UPGRADE?

Maybe your old desktop is struggling to

keep up with the demands of modern,

high-resolution games and media. Or

perhaps someone in your family has a

computer that needs rejuvenating. We

have PC upgrades to fit every budget.

We set an upper limit of $300, but we

did so just to cover some of our pricier

recommendations. Most of these

upgrades cost far less. Presented in order

of how much of a transformative effect

they’re likely to have, from greatest to

least, here are our 12 favorites.

84

85

OUR NUMBER ONE UPGRADE RECOMMENDATION

is a solid-state drive. Why? No upgrade provides a

more noticeable, practical increase in performance

than a fast SSD. Getting one is almost as good as

buying a brand-new PC.

About a year ago, a top model would have run you

approximately a buck per gigabyte. This year the

cost is 80 cents per gigabyte, and sometimes even

less. You’ll wonder how you ever got along without

one of these drives.

With most drives, more capacity

equals faster performance, due

to the presence of more

chips and channels. Also,

if your motherboard

doesn’t have a SATA 6-gbps

connection (all good SSDs are of

this type), pick up a good PCIe 2X

SATA 6-gbps controller—it makes a

huge difference in system speed.

Toshiba’s Q Series Pro 256GB (go.

pcworld.com/toshibaqpro) is almost as fast

as Samsung’s top-dog 840 Pro (go.pcworld.

com/samsung840); we found the 256GB version

of the Toshiba drive online for only $200. It’s the

only drive we’ve tested whose performance doesn’t

drop off at lower capacities, too. In fact, the 128GB

version tested slightly faster than the 256GB model.

11A SOLID-STATE DRIVE

86

WHEN IT COMES TO CPUS, what once was state-of-

the-art now won’t pull the cart. And if installing an

SSD doesn’t completely satisfy your need for speed,

maybe adding a new CPU will. Your choice of CPU

depends on what motherboard your computer is

packing under the hood. If your PC has a Socket 1155

motherboard, for instance, your best choice is the

Intel Core i7-3770K (go.pcworld.com/intel3770k),

whose price slips in just under our $300 ceiling and

whose hardware supports overclocking (running

faster than spec) for even better performance.

If you have an AMD AM3+ motherboard, make

your target an AMD FX-9370 (go.

pcworld.com/amdfx),

priced at around $200.

If you already own a

Socket 1150 Haswell

system, but went the

cheapskate route

originally with an Intel

Core i3 or Core i5, opt

for a fourth-generation

Intel Core i7-4770K

(go.pcworld.com/

intel4770k).

A F

AS

TE

R C

PU

22

87

THIS UPGRADE IS FOR GAMERS AND FOR PHOTO

and video geeks only, as even the lowliest integrated

GPU is fast enough to handle the 2D graphics found

in everyday applications. For playing games at a

decent resolution, however, you need a discrete

graphics card from AMD or Nvidia.

Combined with built-in Avivo or CUDA codec

acceleration, a discrete graphics card can also speed

the processing of video files—and with 4K video

rearing its extremely bandwidth-hungry head, that’s

not a bad thing. OpenCL support helps accelerate

photo rendering.

You’re not going to get a state-of-the-art board for

anywhere near $300, but the Nvidia GTX 760 (go.

pcworld.com/nvidgtx) is a great all-around card that

will bring you most of the way there for about $250.

If you’re an AMD diehard or if you want to save ten

fivers, the Radeon R9-270X (go.pcworld.com/radr9)

offers comparable performance for only $200.

A F

AS

TE

R V

IDE

O C

AR

D

33

88

A NEW MOTHERBOARD

MAYBE WHAT’S BUGGING YOU is your motherboard’s

lack of USB 3.0, PCIe 3.0, SATA 6-Gbps, SLI/CrossFire

(for multiple graphics cards), or Thunderbolt. If your

CPU is reasonably young, a new motherboard will

provide some or all of those faster technologies.

Another reason to upgrade the motherboard is

downsizing. A micro-ATX or mini-ITX motherboard

takes up less room and fits in a smaller case.

Finally, Intel’s Haswell platform really does use a lot

less energy—which is always a good thing, and an

even better reason to upgrade your motherboard.

(The upgrade requires a new Socket 1150 CPU, too.)

You can find scads of motherboards out there, and

it has been a while since we ran across a lemon from

any manufacturer, but you should probably stick

with a well-known brand name. We have a fondness

for anything from Asus (asus.com/us), Gigabyte

(gigabyte.us), or MSI (us.msi.com), as we’ve rarely

encountered a problem with their products.

44

89

THOUGH IT DOESN’T OFFER THE OBVIOUS

performance boost of an SSD or a faster CPU,

more and better memory lets your operating

system spend less time swapping stuff to disk

and lets you keep more apps and larger files open.

And if you love video, you can’t have enough memory.

Most users will be fine with memory that matches

the fastest frequency their motherboard’s chipset

supports, which is generally DDR3/1600 these days.

As for the amount—2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, 32GB—

the more, the merrier; but 8GB should be plenty

unless you need extreme speed. You’ll pay about

$7.50 a gigabyte for on-spec, brand-name, non-ECC

(error-correcting code) memory, and about $12 per

gigabyte for the ECC kind.

If you took our advice and bought a CPU with

overclocking capabilities, you’ll want memory that

supports the same feature. A lot of high-quality

enthusiast-level memory is available, but we’ve had

good luck with the Kingston 2400MHz HyperX

Predator, which costs about $12.50

a gigabyte. Kingston

also sells 2800MHz of

memory for about $32

a gigabyte if you really

want to push the limits—

and your budget.

SPEEDIER MEMORY

55

AND MORE

OF IT

66

HARD-DRIVE PRICES STILL

haven’t returned to their all-

time low level of a couple of

years ago, but they’re no

longer the premium item they

became immediately after

the 2011 floods in Thailand.

You can now get 4GB in a

single drive—just in time to

hold all those 1080p movies

you’ve been downloading.

Hybrid drives didn’t live up to

the hype, so you’re best off

sticking with the traditional kind.

Our pick of the litter is the Western

Digital Black 4TB (go.pcworld.com/

wdblack) . The successor to the Caviar

Black, the WD Black 4TB costs a pretty penny (about

$220 at the time of this writing), but it spins at a

dizzying 7200 rpm, has a whopping 64MB cache, and

carries a reassuring five-year warranty. It has tested

faster than just about everything else in its class, too.

You might, of course, opt for a cheaper drive—

especially if the newcomer will be playing second

fiddle to an SSD in your system. If you’re feeling

adventurous or you’re worried about losing your

data, consider buying two drives and running them

in RAID 0 (for more speed) or in RAID 1 (for safety).

A F

AS

TE

R, V

AS

TE

R H

AR

D D

RIV

E

90

NO WIRELESS SETUP WILL BE AS FAST

as wired gigabit ethernet, but you might

find that the latest generation, 802.11ac, is fast

enough to let you embrace a life without wires

and switches. Under the right circumstances

(802.11ac at both ends), the technology gets

you about two-thirds of what you get with

gigabit ethernet. For this upgrade, you’ll

have to purchase both an 802.11ac router

and an 802.11ac adapter for your PC.

On the router side, Asus’s RT-AC68U

(go.pcworld.com/asusrta) bested all

competitors in our recent tests. At

$220, it’s pricey—but it’s also very

fast. As for an adapter, you can’t

go wrong with the $70 Netgear

A6200 USB 3.0 (go.pcworld.

com/netgearusb).

77

AN 802.11AC WI-FI SETUP

91

92

A LIQUID COOLER

LIQUID-BASED SYSTEMS COOL BETTER THAN

traditional air-only systems do—and that

advantage can be a significant boon if we’ve talked

you into overclocking, with its high thermal over-

head. Although a liquid-cooling system’s radiator has

a fan, chances are good that it’s replacing an existing

case fan and is a whisper-quiet, top-of-the-line

model. You might consider ornamental liquid-

cooling systems with clear tubing and colored or

UV-reactive fluid, if you’re into such things.

You can pay a lot of money for liquid cooling—but

most users will be fine with something modest, such

as Corsair’s $85 Hydro Series H75 (go.pcworld.com/

corsair75), which consists of a copper water block,

a radiator, and a single 120mm cooling fan, or with

the same company’s $120 Hydro Series H100i (go.

pcworld.com/corsair100), which has a dual radiator

and two 120mm fans.

88

93

HAVE RETINA OR 4K ENVY? Want to reach out and

drag things around on your Windows home screen

with your bare hands? A new display may be the

upgrade you’re looking for.

Alas, even the least-expensive 24-inch touchscreen

display currently exceeds our $300 limit; however,

you can find a 23-, 24-, or 27-inch 1080p model

without touch capabilities for less than that. A

multitude of good displays are available, but we’ve

had particularly good results over the years with Dell

models. You can pick up the company’s 23-inch

E2314H (go.pcworld.com/dell2314) for just $200.

A LARGER DISPLAY

99

94

DESPITE SOME USERS’ UNBRIDLED PASSION

for touch, the fastest way to navigate and to input

information on a PC remains the humble mouse and

venerable keyboard. Moving up to models with more

heft and a better feel opens a world of luxurious

tactile sensations. Wireless models reduce cable

clutter. Sold yet?

Logitech makes many worthy keyboards, and some

people swear by the Microsoft ergonomic models.

Nevertheless, if you can find an old IBM Model M,

you’re typing on the best keyboard ever made. The

$129 Das Keyboard Professional Model S Mechanical

Keyboard (go.pcworld.com/daskey) is much the

same thing, sans the Model M’s rather high decibel

level. Me? I live for the clack.

Among mice, consider the svelte, wireless $70

Logitech Ultrathin Touch Mouse T630 (go.pcworld.

com/logi630). Although it’s designed for Ultrabooks,

it’s a pleasantly self-indulgent pairing for any system.

A B

ET

TE

R K

EY

BO

AR

D A

ND

MO

US

E

1010

95

I RECENTLY UPGRADED MY PC CASE—to make it

smaller. For $50, I snagged a Cooler Master HD 120,

which is about the size of a breadbox but has room

for a full-size graphics card. Alas, going small means

switching to a smaller motherboard as well—and

before you know it, you’re sliding down the slippery

(but not altogether unpleasant) upgrade slope.

Tastes vary when it comes to case aesthetics, but

the $100-and-up Corsair Obsidian

series (go.pcworld.com/

corsairob) for all

the flavors of ATX,

the $70 BitFenix

Prodigy (go.

pcworld.com/

bitfen) and $50

Cooler Master

Elite 130 (go.

pcworld.com/

elite130) for mini-

ITX are good

places to start

looking. You can

save a few bucks

by reusing your

old power supply,

if it’s up-to-date

enough.

A NEW CASE

1111

WE CONSIDERED MAKING

backup the number one item on

the list because its presence will

forestall so many problems.

If you want a local backup,

choose a hard drive with the

fastest interface technology your

system supports: Thunderbolt,

eSATA, USB 3.0, FireWire (which

is fading from the scene), or

USB 2.0, in that order. Speed is

essential—if backups take too long

to make, you’ll give up on the process.

LaCie (go.pcworld.com/laci), Seagate

(go.pcworld.com/seagate), and WD (go.

pcworld.com/wd) all manufacture capable

external drives, and all of them include backup

software, though Windows itself provides

everything you need.

You might even consider opting for a NAS

(network-attached storage) box, which can also

back up multiple PCs and devices without your

having to drag it around. You can also opt for online

backup, by itself or in addition to a local option;

figure on paying $50 a year for such a service. If that

seems expensive, think about the minimum $700 it

costs these days to recover data from a corrupted

hard drive—if recovery is possible at all.A B

AC

KU

P P

RO

DU

CT

OR

SE

RV

ICE

1212

96

GET STARTED with Win-dows 8. Follow step-by-step instructions to install the new operating system.

BECOME AN ANDROID authority with this compre-hensive guide to the Android Honeycomb OS.

EXTEND BATTERY LIFE in your laptop, phone, and camera with these useful hints and tricks.

SPEED UP YOUR TECH gear that has lost its pep. These fixes will get you back into the fast lane.

ICE CREAM SANDWICH is the most delicious Android OS yet. Get the scoop on Google’s latest mobile OS.

DISCOVER EVERYTHING about Windows 7. Uncover its most useful features with this hands-on guide.

GET THINGS DONE while you wait for a flight. Find out which airports are the best for tech travelers.

MASTER WINDOWS 7 with these 50 essential tips and secret utilities. Master Windows Update, and more.

PCWorld Superguides are available in a variety of formats, so they’re easy to read on nearly any device.

The PCWorld Superguide Series Get PCWorld’s thorough reference guides to help you learn more about your tech gear. These books are packed with practical how-to advice, in-depth fea-tures, tips and tricks, and much more.

Get Yours Today: pcworld.com/superguide

You might know Joshua.

He loves video games, and he

owns enough to know they’re not

all meant for kids. That’s why he

reminds his friends (at least the

ones that have kids) that they all

have big black letters on the box

to help parents find the ones that

are best for their families.

You can learn about those

ratings at ESRB.org

Los Angeles, CA

LAPTOPS

WORK & PLAY

FO

R

THE DIFFERENCES THAT MATTER

99

aptops come in many flavors—

thin-and-light, convertible, desktop

replacement, portable workstation—but all

of them fall into one of two main categories:

consumer and business models. Laptop

manufacturers label some systems for

consumers and others for business. While

both incorporate similar components and

run the same operating system, business

laptops can cost twice as much. Why the high

price tag? Primarily it’s because businesses

demand computers that are built to last and

easy to maintain. Once you understand the

differentiators, you can decide what best fits

your computing needs—and your budget.

BY JO N L. JACO B I / I L LU S T R AT I O N S BY C H I B I R M I N G H A M

Which is right for you, a business or consumer laptop?

We’ll help you figure it out.

100

du

rab

ilit

y and

lif

e c

ycl

eompanies expect business laptops to

remain in service much longer than a

typical consumer notebook does, and to withstand

at least a little rough handling. As such, business

laptops normally rely on especially strong

materials—aluminum or magnesium, for

instance—and rugged design specifications.

Consumer laptops—especially budget models—

make copious use of plastic.

Most businesses standardize on one or a few

laptop models, and they keep the machines in

service for at least three years. This stability

reduces the tech-support burden on the

company’s IT department. When a manufacturer

introduces a new business laptop, it often commits

to keeping that model available for between 18

months and five years, so its corporate customers

can supplement their fleets down the road.

Business systems

like Dell’s Latitude

6430u are made of

rugged materials.

PH

OT

OG

RA

PH

BY

RO

BE

RT

CA

RD

IN

Business buyers also expect replacement parts to

be available over the laptop’s entire service life. That

means the manufacturer must maintain an

inventory of parts it might never actually sell. The

price of the notebook reimburses the manufacturer

for some of that cost.

Consumer laptops tend to have much shorter shelf

lives. A given model might be available for a year or

even less before a newer model replaces it. Toshiba

initially manufactured a limited number of its

luxurious Kirabooks, for example, and switched to

Intel’s fourth-generation Core processor when it

produced the next batch.

Consumers are more apt than businesses to

replace rather than repair a failing laptop.

Sometimes this decision represents the most

sensible strategy—or even the only strategy, as

manufacturers may run out of crucial replacement

parts for models in their consumer product lines.

Other times, this approach gives consumers an

excuse to buy a new model with all the latest

fripperies. Businesses can’t afford to change

models on a whim, as each switch incurs costs

beyond acquiring a new machine: testing, training,

software licenses, and more.

du

rab

ilit

y and

lif

e c

ycl

e

Businesses can’t change models on a whim, as each switch incurs costs beyond buying a new machine.

Only Apple

uses these

screws on

business

systems.

usiness laptops are generally easier to

maintain and fix than consumer models.

You won’t find Torx screws or Apple’s ridiculous new

Pentalobe fasteners on a business machine (unless

it’s a MacBook Pro).

With many business laptop models, a common

Phillips screwdriver should be the only tool you

need. And with a machine like HP’s ZBook 15 (go.

pcworld.com/hpzb15) mobile workstation, you

won’t even need that. Slide open two friction locks,

and you can remove its bottom panel to reach its

memory, storage, Wi-Fi adapter, battery, and more.

User-serviceable components are increasingly

rare in consumer-oriented notebooks, as they have

become disposable commodities.

With many business models, the only tool you’ll need is a Phillips screwdriver.

ma

inte

na

nc

e and

re

pa

ir

he port selection on consumer laptops

usually depends on the price tag: High-end

machines sport the newest technologies early,

while budget machines lag behind. These days,

many I/O technologies—such as USB 3.0 and

HDMI—are ubiquitous on consumer laptops. Very

advanced technologies, such as Thunderbolt and

Thunderbolt 2, have caught on more slowly.

Business laptops usually lag in offering the latest

connection technologies because corporate nickel-

nursers don’t want to pay for something that isn’t

yet—and may never be—mainstream. And legacy

technologies like VGA hang around on business

laptops because users need to connect their

systems to aging video projectors.

Today, wireless networking is de rigueur in both

classes of laptops. An integrated 802.11ac Wi-Fi

adapter is your best choice, but 802.11n adapters

are cheaper and more common. Some business

laptops also permit cellular connectivity via a SIM

If you spend a lot of time at a desk, but still need laptop mobility, a docking station can be a godsend.

HP’s ZBook 15 has almost every I/O port you can think of.

po

rts and

co

nn

ec

tiv

ity

card that users can install inside the laptop or plug

into an external port.

Smart card and ExpressCard slots appear

exclusively on business laptops. Smart cards prevent

unauthorized users from gaining access to the

computer while it is powered up but unattended.

ExpressCard is a legacy interface that replaced the

even older PC Card and PCMCIA technologies.

Many business laptops come with docking ports;

consumer laptops almost never do. If you spend a

lot of time at a desk, but still need the mobility of a

laptop, a docking station or port replicator can be a

godsend. You hard-wire your peripherals to the

docking station, and then physically connect the

laptop to the docking station. Push one button (or

disconnect one cable), grab your laptop, and go.

You don’t have to buy a business laptop to use a

docking port. Third-party devices such as the

Targus Universal USB 3.0 DV (go.pcworld.com/

uniusb3) deliver similar functionality via USB and

DisplayLink technologies. And the WiGig wireless

technology eliminates the need for a physical

connection between laptop and dock. WiGig has

been slow to catch on, but Dell jumped on it early

with the Wireless Dock D5000 (go.pcworld.com/

dockd5000), which is now compatible with a

number of its laptops.

No Wi-Fi hotspot around?

That’s no problem if your

laptop can handle a SIM card.

po

rts and

co

nn

ec

tiv

ity

Surprisingly, Toshiba’s

business-oriented Tecra

offers an HDMI video port.

he graphics processors integrated into

modern CPUs are all you need for surfing

the Web, watching movies, and performing most

other common tasks. For computationally intense

applications, you need a discrete graphics

processor. If a consumer laptop has one of these,

the system is designed to run games. A business

laptop with a discrete GPU is designed to handle

computer-aided design (CAD), 3D modeling,

scientific or medical imaging, content creation,

and the like; look for machines outfitted with AMD

FirePro Mobile Graphics or Nvidia Quadro Mobile

Workstation cards.

Most HDTVs have HDMI ports, and consumer

laptops often use that interface, too. But

DisplayPort, which business-oriented laptops and

displays tend to use, is a superior video interface

for business users; see “HDMI vs. DisplayPort:

Which display interface reigns supreme?” (go.

pcworld.com/hdmivsdp). A single DisplayPort 1.2

interface can support four monitors at

1920-by-1200-pixel resolution each, or two

monitors at 2560-by-1600-pixel resolution each. In

either case, each display can receive independent

audio and video streams. Both DisplayPort and

HDMI can support a single 4K monitor (defined as

having a resolution of 3840 by 2160 pixels).

display

te

chn

olo

gy

orporate IT departments that oversee

hundreds or even thousands of laptops

need to be able to manage these devices

remotely. Though most small businesses don’t

have IT departments, many pay consultants to

manage their IT resources. Buying a laptop

equipped with a CPU- or BIOS-level technology

such as Intel’s vPro, DASH (Desktop and Mobile

Architecture for System Hardware), or HP’s

SureStart can save time and money.

These tools enable IT specialists to monitor,

manage, remotely access, and even repair

laptop software installations in the field. The

user doesn’t need to be present, and the laptop

may be so compromised—by a malware

infection, a borked software installation, or a

corrupted file—that it can’t boot to its

operating system.

Remotely reimaging (that is, copying all the

software, including the OS, back to the laptop’s

hard drive over a network connection) saves

time and avoids the expense of travel or

shipping. Furthermore, vPro can prevent certain

types of malware and attacks that occur below

the operating system level, and SureStart

Business laptops ofen integrate security features into their hardware to protect sensitive data.

ma

na

ge

me

nt and

se

cu

rity

The Toshiba Tecra

incorporates a

fingerprint scanner.

(available only on HP machines) can quickly

restore a previous version of the computer’s BIOS

if the current version suffers is attacked or

becomes corrupted.

To protect sensitive information they may

contain, business laptops often have special

security features integrated into their hardware.

A biometric device such as a fingerprint scanner

can verify an authorized user’s identity, for

instance, while encryption tools such as a TPM

(Trusted Platform Module) chip and Windows

BitLocker can scramble data as the user writes it

to the laptop’s hard drive. Data encryption

prevents interlopers from reading data in

coherent form unless they have the proper keys

for decoding it.

If you consider vPro or DASH must-have

features for your laptop, make sure that the

model you buy has those features. Not every

business laptop does. For models with Intel

CPUs, check Intel’s ARK site (ark.intel.com) to

see whether the chip has vPro support. Any

laptop that has both an AMD CPU and a TPM

chip will support DASH. SureStart is strictly an

HP technology, so check the specs for the

model you’re interested in buying to see

whether it has that feature.

Next Up: Preinstalled software

ma

na

ge

me

nt and

se

cu

rity

npack a consumer laptop and you’ll find

lots of junk consuming storage space

already: games, demos, trialware, links to websites,

and more. Software companies pay laptop

manufacturers to preinstall this glop, which can

reduce the price of the finished product. You don’t

have to leave any of it in place, of course, but

removing it is a hassle, even with the aid of free

software like Piriform’s CCleaner (go.pcworld.com/

ccleaner). The tech-support desk at your local big-

box store will happily handle the removal process—

but not for free.

Businesses don’t want to waste time and money

removing bloatware, so manufacturers reduce or

eliminate such add-ons from their business laptops.

Businesses that buy systems in bulk can specify the

exact software footprint they want.

Because most corporations are keen to keep all

employees on the same platform (to simplify and

reduce the cost of tech support), they often stick

with an operating system long after a new version

is released. When you buy a consumer laptop, it will

most likely come with Windows 8.1 installed.

Business laptops often come with the rights to

downgrade from Windows 8 to Windows 7, or with

the option to have a flavor of Linux.

Businesses that buy systems in bulk can specify the exact sofware footprint they want.

pre

installed

so

fw

are

ypically the manufacturer’s warranty for

a consumer laptop promises to correct

any defects that may arise in the machine within

the first year of ownership, at no charge. Low-ball

units might be protected for just 90 days. Such

brief warranties keep prices low and allow

retailers to pitch third-party extended

warranties. Any business laptop worthy of the

name will come with a three-year warranty, and

the buyer may be able to extend the period of

coverage to five or even six years.

When a consumer laptop fails, the owner

usually must ship or carry the unit to a service

depot for diagnostics and repair. Such depots

rarely offer a guaranteed turnaround time, and if

a component needs replacing, they may not have

the part in stock. In a worst-case scenario, a

laptop submitted for repair could be missing in

action for weeks.

Businesses can’t afford to have their employees

sitting around twiddling their thumbs as they

wait for their laptops to be fixed. An enterprise IT

department will have loaner units on hand, and

Next Up: Preinstalled software

Dell’s Latitude 7440

offers easy access for

upgrades or repairs.

serv

ice and

tec

h s

up

po

rt

they’ll often perform the repairs in-house or deal

with the vendor directly. Small businesses can

avoid lost productivity by taking advantage of a

business-laptop manufacturer’s guarantees of

on-site service and a short turnaround (typically

24 hours, not including transit time if the unit

must go back to the factory).

Consumer tech support varies in quality and

efficiency, but it’s generally a hit-or-miss

proposition that may occur only via email or

online chat. The toll-free support number, if it

exists, is unlikely to be available 24/7, and callers

commonly have to endure long hold times. The

tech support offered may not cover software

issues at all.

Business travelers trying to finish their work

before a big meeting need their hardware and

software problems solved right away, so

manufacturers’ support policies for business

laptops are far more robust. Telephone tech

support is nearly always available, and it includes

software support.

Next Up: Preinstalled software

When a consumer laptop fails, the owner usually must ship or carry it to a service depot for repair.

serv

ice and

tec

h s

up

po

rt

fter reading this article, you may wonder

whether I think business laptops are the

better choice for all potential buyers. I don’t. They

tend to be more expensive at the outset, and their

higher cost of ownership doesn’t make sense for

nonbusiness buyers, especially those with DIY skills.

If you’re not purchasing a fleet of laptops and you

don’t rely completely on your laptop for your

livelihood (smartphones and tablets can serve as

tolerable stopgaps these days), a consumer laptop

should fill your needs.

But if time is money in your world, a business

laptop’s better support, longer warranty, extended

life cycle, and enhanced security features will save

you some cash over the long haul—even if your

“fleet” consists of a single laptop.

Consumers should, for the most part, stick with

consumer products. A higher-end model will

provide many of the features you’d find in a

business laptop, for less money—though you’re

unlikely to find a consumer model that offers Intel’s

vPro or HP’s SureStart.

A consumer-

oriented system

like the Toshiba

Kirabook may fit

the bill just fine.

bu

sin

es

s or c

on

su

me

r?

114 Your backup drive needs a backup plan

118 Master texting with these 9 basic tips

122 Hassle-Free PC: Supercharge Gmail with Labs features

125 Answer Line: Reinstall Windows when you’ve lost your disc or partition

HERE’S

HOW

f you’ve gotten into the habit of backing up your PC (go.

pcworld.com/simplebackup), congratulations—but you aren’t

as safe as you may think you are. Files on your backup drive can

be just as vulnerable to disaster as files on your system can be.

Most recently CryptoLocker (go.pcworld.com/cryptolocker)

demonstrated that an external drive connected to a PC—such as an

Files on your backup drive may be vulnerable to disaster unless you take precautions. BY TONY BRADLEY

I

How to build, maintain, and fix your tech gear.

HERE’S HOW

Your backup drive needs a backup plan

PH

OT

OG

RA

PH

Y B

Y M

ICH

AE

L H

OM

NIC

K

external USB hard drive used for backup purposes—could fall victim

to ransomware just as easily as the computer itself.

“A lot of people got burned by CryptoLocker because their attached

backup drives were also encrypted by the Trojan,” explains Dwayne

Melancon, chief technology officer of enterprise security company

Tripwire. “CryptoLocker encrypts local data files, but it also looks for

attached storage devices, network shares, and other storage locations

connected to your computer.”

Don’t let such a catastrophe befall you. Here are a few options for

protecting your backup drive.

Disconnect your backup mediaMarc Maiffret, CTO of security software firm BeyondTrust, sums up

the most commonsense solution: “Make sure to back up to media that

can be removed physically from your system and stored offline.”

This approach is not especially convenient, of course, but it’s a good

tactic for a couple of reasons. First, it moves your backup data out of

harm’s way if ransomware ever infects your computer. Second, if you

store the backup media in a fireproof safe—or better still, off-site in a

safe deposit box—the backup may survive even if a natural (or

unnatural) physical disaster destroys the original data.

One option is to back up your data to

less-volatile media such as

recordable CDs or DVDs. Once

the recording session is

finalized, the data should be

safe from malware threats even

if the disc remains in the drive.

The downside of using optical

discs is the media’s much

smaller storage capacity

compared with a modern hard

drive: Performing a full backup

may require multiple discs.

Back up to the cloudConsider using the cloud to hold your backups rather than storing

the files locally. Cloud backup applications generally run as a

background service that the system doesn’t view as an attached or

networked drive. As a result, malware threats are unlikely to spread

directly to your cloud backups.

Most modern backup systems use a proprietary storage format for

further protection. “This makes the backed-up files unable to be read

or written to by common malware,” says Paul Lipman, CEO of Total

Defense, which sells online backup services as well as antivirus and

security software. “It doesn’t mean it’s impossible—it’s just highly

unlikely. Malware generally works by attaching to existing files on

the system; and in cases of proprietary storage formats, the malware

would not be able to infect the backup directly.”

Note, however, that most cloud backup services automatically sync

and update data. If your local PC becomes compromised, you’ll want

to disable the service to prevent the compromised data from

overwriting your good backup data.

HERE’S HOW

Using a cloud

backup service

such as

Backblaze

helps to secure

your data.

Back up multiple versionsThe most effective way to safeguard your backup is to maintain more

than one copy. You have two methods to accomplish this.

First, most security experts suggest backing up important data to

more than one location: For example, back up to an external USB drive

that you then disconnect, and also use cloud backup. If infection or

disaster compromises either backup, you’ll still have a good copy.

The second approach is to maintain version histories of your files:

Save multiple backups from different points in time, and choose a cloud

backup service that holds more than just the most recent backup, so you

can restore data from a time before the compromise occurred.

“I also create several generations of local and off-site image backups

of my computer, so I can quickly restore one of them if my system is

lost, compromised, or otherwise unusable,” Tripwire’s Melancon says.

Without a backup plan for your backup drive, you’re not much better

off than if you’d never backed up. Follow one of the methods here to

ensure that your backup will be available when you need it most.

HERE’S HOW

Redundancy is

the strongest

protection for

your backed-up

data. CrashPlan

can back up to

multiple

locations.

TEXTING IS THE NEW CALLING, and with so many texts flying back

and forth, it’s a good idea to make sure you’re getting your message

across as clearly as possible. Here are some suggestions.

Use text shortcuts

Save time with text shortcuts—shorthand blurbs that you enter and

that expand to a longer word or phrase when you tap the spacebar.

For instance, you can have “brb” turn into “be right back.”

On iOS, open Settings, tap General, and then tap Keyboard. In the

Shortcuts section, tap Add New Shortcut, enter the phrase you want

ready access to, and enter the shortcut you want to assign. Tap Save.

On Android, go to Settings, select Language & input under the

BY NICK MEDIATI

Master texting with these 9 basic tips

PH

OT

OG

RA

PH

Y B

Y M

ICH

AE

L H

OM

NIC

K

Personal subheading, and tap Personal dictionary. Press the plus (+)

button at the upper right, and then enter the phrase and its shortcut.

Tap the Back button, and Android will save your shortcut.

Switch your keyboardIf you have an Android phone, try a new keyboard on for size. A

different keyboard can offer extra features—or even different layouts.

Check out the recommendations at our sister site TechHive (go.

pcworld.com/andkeyboards), and then head to the Google Play store.

Use emoji or emoticonsEmoji and emoticons are more than just cute—they can convey

meaning and subtext. If you own an iPhone, or are one of the lucky

few to have Android 4.4 KitKat, check out the emoji keyboard.

On iOS, open Settings, tap General, and then tap Keyboard. On the

Keyboard settings screen, tap Keyboards u Add New Keyboard, and

HERE’S HOW

Keyboard

shortcuts make it

easier to express

your rage in text

messages.

select Emoji from the list. The next time you tap out a text in the

Messages app, you’ll notice a globe icon next to the spacebar. Tap it,

and then insert a few faces. (Just don’t go too crazy with it.)

On Android, things are a little more involved. KitKat has built-in

emoji support (learn more at go.pcworld.com/kitkatemoji), but earlier

versions don’t make emoji entry easy.

Although not all smartphone models support emoji, remember that

you don’t need anything special to use traditional emoticons such as

“:P” and “:/” (so those are always an option).

If in doubt, be directNot everyone is great at picking up on subtext, not everyone is

skilled at using emoticons, and not every situation lends itself well

to sarcasm, irony, or humor. And even though your friends might

appreciate your quirky sense of humor, other people might find it

to be an acquired taste. If you’re exchanging messages with someone

you don’t know well, keep your text direct and to the point, and avoid

unintentional miscommunication.

To add a keyboard

shortcut on Android,

create a new

dictionary entry.

(Mmmmm,

cheesecake.)

Avoid autocorrect mishapsWe’ve all been there: You make a typo and autocorrect misinterprets it.

You hastily try to correct it, which then begets a cascading autocorrect

nightmare, and your mangled text ends up on Damn You Auto Correct

(www.damnyouautocorrect.com). Before tapping Send, take a deep

breath and count to three. Review the message for unfortunate typos

or autocorrect errors. Confirm that your text makes sense and that

you’re using something approaching proper grammar, too.

Don’t text while angryTaking a moment to think can also come in handy if you’re upset. If

someone’s text puts you in a foul mood, stop, put the phone away,

and resist the urge to reply until you’ve calmed down. Showing a little

restraint now can save you from headaches and heartache later.

Don’t text while inebriatedNothing says “bad judgment” like running off your virtual mouth while

you aren’t in control of your mental faculties. If you’re at the bar, hand

over your car keys—and your phone—to your group’s designated driver.

Just make sure to log out of Facebook or Twitter beforehand, lest

they post embarrassing things under your name.

Don’t text while walkingFew things in modern life are as annoying as that person who insists on

tapping out a text message while shuffling along slowly on a crowded

sidewalk. Other pedestrians just want to get on with their day. For

everyone’s sake, step to the side and tap out your message. Once

you’re done, tuck your phone into your pocket and go on your way.

Don’t text while drivingAlthough drunken texting will embarrass you, texting while driving

can injure or kill you—or other people. Research shows the practice to

be at least as dangerous as driving drunk, and it’s already against the

law in many states. If you’re driving, stow your phone. It can wait.

HERE’S HOW

HERE’S HOW

Supercharge Gmail with Labs features

BY IAN PAUL

HASSLE-FREE PC

GOOGLE’S GMAIL PACKS a slew of features for staying

productive and organized. But one big advantage is the extra

stuff you can add through Gmail Labs.

To enable Labs features, first click the settings cog in the

upper-right corner of the Gmail interface and select Settings

from the drop-down menu. Click the Labs tab to see a list of

items. (Any Labs features you’ve already enabled will appear

first.) Click Enable to the right of any item you desire, and

then scroll down and click Save Changes.

Note that a small dose of daring is required: Labs’

experimental tools sometimes become full-fledged Gmail

features, but they can also break or vanish without warning.

That said, some Labs experiments can streamline your email

management. Here are three of my favorites.

‘Mark as read’ buton

Having trouble adhering to the Inbox Zero system? Here’s

what I do: At the end of every day, I click the select-all

Click the Labs

settings tab to

find useful

Gmail add-ons.

checkbox at the top of the Inbox and then mark all messages as read.

Okay, maybe that’s cheating, but it works for me. Of course, life

would be easier if Gmail didn’t require users to right-click or to dig

into the More menu just to find the ‘Mark as read’ option.

Thank goodness for the Mark as Read Button item in Labs. As the

item’s name suggests, enabling it creates a discrete, convenient

‘Mark as read’ button at the top of the Inbox window once you have

selected one or more messages.

Undo Send

Whether it’s a wisecrack delivered to an unintended recipient, an

incomplete and incoherent message, or an incorrect address, sending

a message by accident is bad news. Labs has a remedy: Undo Send

gives you up to 30 seconds after you’ve clicked the Send button to

call your message back—no harm, no foul.

Enabling this experiment takes a bit of work, however. Once you’ve

enabled Undo Send in Labs, open the Settings options again. Scroll

‘Mark as read’

in action.

down under the General tab to the Undo Send section. Click the

checkbox for Enable Undo Send if the setting isn’t enabled already.

Click the drop-down menu that appears underneath and then select

the amount of time you’d like for your undo grace period. Finally,

scroll down and click Save Changes.

Green Robot

Green Robot lets you know, with a little robot

icon, when your Gmail chat contacts are

currently on a mobile device, clueing you in to

expect shorter or delayed responses.

Note that this Labs item works only if you

are using Gmail’s old chat interface rather

than the new Hangouts format. Google, however, has yet to force all

Gmail users over to Hangouts, so this tweak still works for now. If

you’d like to switch back to Gmail chat from Hangouts (PC only),

click your name at the top of the Hangouts/chat window in Gmail.

At the bottom of the drop-down menu, click Revert to old chat.

The Undo Send item gives you up to 30 seconds to call your email message back.

HERE’S

HOW

Reinstall Windows when you’ve lost your disc or partition

Q:WAYNE KLAWUHN USED the Darik’s Boot and Nuke

utility (www.dban.org) to securely wipe his hard drive.

Unfortunately, the erasing procedure also wiped the tools

necessary for reinstalling Windows.

A:EVERY COMPUTER THAT’S sold with Windows

preinstalled must come with a tool for reinstalling

the operating system. The most common approach puts the

restoration tool on a specially designated partition on the

BY LINCOLN SPECTOR

ANSWER LINEP

HO

TO

GR

AP

HY

BY

SIN

ISA

BO

TA

S/

SH

UT

TE

RS

TO

CK

HERE’S HOW

hard drive. Some computers, particularly from

small manufacturers, come instead with an

OEM Windows DVD.

But what do you do if that partition has been

lost—either through a hard-drive crash or user

error? Or what if you’ve misplaced that DVD?

If you purchased the PC from a major vendor,

contact the vendor and ask if the company can provide a replacement.

Such copies usually come on a DVD or on a flash drive. I know for a fact

that Dell, HP, and Lenovo offer this service. Dell charges about $90; I

don’t know what the other companies charge.

Another option that might work: See if you can borrow a Windows

DVD from someone. It must be the exact version of Windows your

PC had—for instance, Windows 7 Home Premium. It also must be a

complete version of the operating system, not an upgrade disc.

After the installation, when it comes time to activate Windows,

use the activation number on your PC. You should find it on a plate,

probably mounted on the back of your desktop system or on the

bottom of your laptop. Do not use the activation number printed on

the package the disc came in. If you do, it will either fail or severely

inconvenience the friend who lent you the disc.

If all of the above tactics fail, you may have to buy a whole new retail

or OEM copy of Windows. Or switch to Linux.

When it comes time to activate Windows, use the activation number on your PC.

News, tips, and reviews covering phones, tablets,apps, and all the other tech in your life.

TechHive helps you find your tech sweet spot.

We steer you to products you’ll love and show you how to get the most out of them.

www.techhive.com | Follow us

SVP/EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Jason Snell

EDITOR IN CHIEF Jon Phillips

DESIGN DIRECTOR Rob Schultz

EDITORIAL

SENIOR EDITORS Michael Ansaldo, Michael Brown, Mark Hachman, Melissa Riofrio

SENIOR WRITER Brad Chacos

ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR Sally Zahner

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Caitlin McGarry

STAFF WRITER Florence Ion

SENIOR COPY EDITORS Steven Gray, Tracy Yee-Vaught

COPY EDITOR Sushmita Mitra

ART AND DESIGN

SENIOR DESIGNER Kate Godfrey

DESIGNERS Liz Marken Fiorentino, Yasmin Vahdatpour

SENIOR PRODUCER Zack Stern

VIDEO EDITORS Dan Masaoka, Victor Schwanke

DIGITAL IMAGING SPECIALIST Michael Homnick

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Yardena Arar, Rick Broida, Jon Jacobi, Aoife M. McEvoy, Sarah Jacobsson Purewal, Lincoln Spector

PCWORLD LABS

SENIOR LAB MANAGER James Galbraith

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Albert Filice

LAB INTERN Michael Smith

Follow Jon’s tweets

at go.pcworld.com/JPtweets

www.pcworld.com/resource/rss.html

nwww.pcworld.com/

newsleters@pcworld www.facebook.com/

PCWorldgo.pcworld.com/

dailyapp

Other ways to read PCWorld

FOUNDERS

FOUNDER David Bunnell

FOUNDING EDITOR Andrew Fluegelman

INTERNATIONAL DATA GROUP, INC.

CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD Patrick J. McGovern

CEO, IDG COMMUNICATIONS Michael Friedenberg

REPRINTS AND PERMISSIONS

You must have permission before reproducing any material from PCWorld. Send email requests to permissions@pcworld.com; please include a phone number in your message.

BACK ISSUES

PCWorld back issues can be downloaded in digital format from www.zinio.com at $6.99 per issue. Back issues in print format (subject to availability) cost $8 per issue for U.S. delivery,

and $12 for international delivery; prepayment in U.S. currency to PCWorld is required. Send a check or money order to PCWorld Back Issues, P.O. Box 37881, Boone, IA 50037-0781.

SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES

Access your subscription account online—24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can use online subscription services to view your account status, change your address, pay your bill, renew

your subscription, get the answers to frequently asked questions, and more.

WEB: www.pcworld.com/support

EMAIL: maghelp@pcworld.com

(Send your full name and the address at which you subscribe; do not send attachments.)

PHONE: In the U.S. and Canada 800/234-3498

QUESTIONS AND COLUMNS

Send material electronically to the appropriate online address listed below, or mail it to PCWorld. We reserve the right to edit letters.

ANSWER LINE: answer@pcworld.com

IDG CONSUMER & SMB

PRESIDENT, IDG CONSUMER & SMB Bob MelkEXECUTIVE ASSISTANT Christine Ebangi

SVP & COO, IDG COMMUNICATIONS, INC. Matthew SmithSVP & GENERAL MANAGER, ONLINE OPERATIONS Gregg Pinsky

SVP & CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER, IDG COMMUNICATIONS, INC. John GallantSVP, HUMAN RESOURCES Patricia Chisholm

VP, DIGITAL ACCOUNT SERVICES Danielle ThorneVP, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT & DIGITAL MEDIA Bill Rigby

About Us

ADVERTISING SALES

VP, SALES Neil Dhanowa

COORDINATOR, SALES OPERATIONS Lauren Eckenfelder (415/975-2687)

ACCOUNT DIRECTORS Patrick Mortonson (415/243-3664), Brian O’Rourke (630/785-3063), Amy Singer (201/634-2317), Cody Widdes (415/974-7356)

SALES MANAGER Duane Hampson (415/978-3133)

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Jennifer Lam (415/978-3271), Shari Redan (207/899-2099), Chrissy Schneider (415/978-3269)

MARKETING

MANAGER, MARKETING Sarah Donato

RESEARCH MANAGER Miguel Beteta Rodrigo

IDG CREATIVE LAB

SENIOR MANAGER, MARKETING SERVICES Tina Marfori

ASSOCIATE EDITOR, CONTENT MARKETING Matthew O’Connell

PROGRAM MANAGER, CLIENT SERVICES Sherry Brecher

PRODUCTION

DIRECTOR, PRODUCTION Nancy Jonathans

SENIOR PRODUCTION MANAGER Tamara Gargus

TECHNOLOGY

CTO, IDG COMMUNICATIONS, INC. Aaron Jones

SENIOR DIRECTOR, SOFTWARE ENGINEERING Thomas Alexander

CHIEF ARCHITECT Jim Hutson

PRINCIPAL SOFTWARE ENGINEER Justin Counts

SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEERS Alexis Barrera, Bill Cappel, Alejandro Germenos, Byron Halbower

QA ENGINEER Eric Pivnik

SENIOR DIRECTOR, IT & WEB OPERATIONS Sean Greathouse

SENIOR WEB OPERATIONS ADMINISTRATOR Andrew Trice

DIRECTOR, DIGITAL PRODUCTS Brandon Mahne

PRODUCT MANAGER Lauren Wakefield

WEB DESIGN

DIRECTOR, ONLINE DESIGN Sky Collins

WEB PRODUCER Ryan Medlin

CONTACT

PHONE 415/243-0500

FAX 415/442-1891

MAIL Editorial: 501 Second Street #600, San Francisco, CA 94107

STAFF ADDRESS To contact any PCWorld staff member, simply format the address as follows: firstinitiallastname@idgcsmb.com

MAILING LISTS

Occasionally we make our magazine subscribers’ names available to other firms whose products may interest you. To have your name excluded from these mailings, send a request

and your email address to PCWorld Subscriber Services at maghelp@pcworld.com.

PUBLICATION INFORMATION

Volume 32, number 4. PCWorld™ (ISSN 0737-8939) is published monthly at $24.95 for one year (12 issues) by IDG Consumer & SMB, Inc. Copyright 2014, IDG Consumer & SMB, Inc. All rights reserved. PC World and Consumer Watch are registered trademarks of International Data Group,

Inc., and used under license by IDG Consumer & SMB, Inc. Published in the United States.

About Us

PH

OT

OG

RA

PH

Y B

Y J

AS

ON

GR

OW

Remembering Pat McGovern, the technology media tycoon you never knewPCWorld is here today because Pat shared our founders’ passion for technology and educating people about it. Longtime PCWorlders remember his vision and his boundless energy. BY MELISSA RIOFRIO

IN MEMORIAM

HE WAS THE media tycoon who flew beneath your radar. And yet Patrick J.

McGovern, who died March 19 at the age of 76, is the reason PCWorld—

along with hundreds of other technology-oriented websites, publications,

and events—is here today.

We’re here because Pat believed in the power of technology and the

need to educate people about what it meant, and how to use it. On one

recent day, for example, PCWorld.com posted breaking stories about new

Intel chips and Microsoft DirectX 12 graphics. We reviewed Toshiba’s

Kirabook and six mechanical gaming keyboards. And we produced a

feature on Excel tips and tricks. If you’ve read and liked any of our stories,

then we’ve fulfilled what Pat wanted from the start.

An independent editorial voiceIt was always all about the technology for Pat, who started following the

industry in 1964 when he founded International Data Corporation, a

research firm that remains a leader in its field and is now a subsidiary of our

parent company, International Data Group. Pat had already founded trade

IT publications, including IDG’s flagship Computerworld, when in 1982 he

invested in the fledgling personal computer magazine PC World. Founded

by David Bunnell and Cheryl Woodard, PC World quickly became a leader in

covering PCs and everything connected to them. Now called PCWorld (we

dropped the space), we celebrated our 30th anniversary in 2013.

From the beginning, Pat McGovern championed an independent

editorial voice. Robert Luhn, who joined PC World’s staff shortly after the

magazine’s launch, recalls, “We were given the freedom to report and

write, and say what was what. I think that’s why people ultimately ended

up trusting PC World more than its competitors.”

“I always felt that he had my back in terms of editorial matters,” says

former editor-in-chief Harry McCracken, who abruptly left PC World in

Pat had already founded trade IT publications, including IDG’s Computerworld, when in 1982 he invested in the fledgling PC World.

2007 over an editorial dispute with our then-publisher. “When I chose to

quit PC World, he called me directly and said I could publish any story I

wanted to.” (IDG swiftly resolved the dispute, and Harry returned to PC

World for another year.)

Steve Fox, who was PCWorld’s editorial director until 2012, says, “In the

same way everyone talks about Steve Jobs being Apple, for those of us

who were at IDG, we understood that Pat McGovern was IDG.”

Pat McGovern built a culture at IDG that had two centers: technology

and people. He believed that high-quality publications started with

hiring and training the best people and keeping them as happy as

possible. This was a tall order in the hard-charging, high-pressure world of

journalism, but Pat persisted. Whether it was the signed memos he sent

to individuals whose work he had noticed, or his yearly tradition of handing

out the holiday bonuses in person, we couldn’t fault his friendly touch.

“In my short time at IDG, I got only a single chance to meet Pat,” says

PCWorld editor-in-chief Jon Phillips, “but his legend preceded him. I’ve

heard ‘Pat stories’ at company meetings and in training sessions, and

even from employees who’ve left the IDG fold. He was basically a founding

father of tech media, and the magazines he established in the ’80s

created a blueprint for so much of the tech journalism we still read today.

The fact that IDG is a three-pronged effort of tech media, tech research,

and tech-focused venture capital says so much about his ambition level.

And his fascination with brain research, via all his work with MIT, tells us

that this guy’s sense of wonder and intellect ran really, really deep.”

So when we say good-bye to Pat today, we’re not saying good-bye to

your standard-issue CEO, who has to be smart, and good at building

businesses and making hard decisions, all while maintaining a company’s

public face. Pat could do all of that. But he also brought a specific passion

for technology to his job, which drove his ambitions for all of IDG’s

Pat believed that high-quality publications started with hiring and training the best people and keeping them happy.

IN MEMORIAM

businesses. And he had a warm and humane approach, which made him

“Uncle Pat” to many of us, even on our hardest and longest days.

We still can’t believe he’s gone. He always seemed to have boundless

energy and enthusiasm, despite a work and travel schedule that would

have exhausted any normal person. “He had the vigor that comes from

loving what you do and loving your life,” Steve Fox told me, and may we

all be so lucky. Thanks for everything, Pat.

Pat brought a specific passion for technology to his job, which drove his ambitions for all of IDG’s businesses.