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Issue 219JanuaryCONTENTS

100 BEST APPS OF THE YEAR 26Make the most of a wonderful year forapps by downloading our favourite 100of 2012.

CHOOSE THE RIGHT BUSINESSBROADBAND 74There are multiple grades that vary greatly inprice. We help you make the right choice.

RISE OF THE MOBILE PROCESSORS 50Mobile chip performance is accelerating atsuch an incredible rate that it may sooninvade our desktops.

THE ILLUSTRATED GEEK 44For as long as there’s been a tech industry, therehave been cartoons lampooning it. StuartTurton explores the evolution of the geek comic.

INTRODUCING UEFI BIOS 56BIOS is on its way out – but don’t shed atear. Darien Graham-Smith explains howthe flexible UEFI system brings computingup to date.

TOP TEN RASPBERRYPI PROJECTS 60Gareth Halfacree peeksat some of the mostimaginative and originaluses for the tiny, lightweightcircuit board.

GET STARTED WITHHYPER-V VIRTUALISATION 64Microsoft’s virtualisation host is nowavailable to all users of Windows 8Professional. Darien Graham-Smithshows you how to get started.

PC PRO PODCASTDon’t forget to download thelatest PC Pro podcast. There’s anew show availableevery Thursdayfrom www.pcpro.co.uk/podcast.

Prolog 7

Technolog 9

Feedback 10

How we test 127

Market Pro 161

A-List 162

Subscriptions 168

Contact us & next month 169

Epilog 170

IDEALOG 73

Dick Pountain tracks hisjourney from Casiocalculator to Google’sNexus 7.

CAREERS 78

Stuart Andrews exploresthe role of technicalwriter, the person behindtechnical documentation.

AdvancedWindows & Mac 80

Mobile& Wireless 83

Online Business 88

Security & SocialNetworking 91

Office Apps 94

Web Apps & Design 97

Networks 100

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48 NEWREVIEWSTHIS ISSUE

PCs, LAPTOPS & TABLETSSony VAIO Duo 11 106Dell Inspiron One 23 108Gigabyte X11 116Acer Iconia Tab A110 120

BUDGET LAPTOPSDell Inspiron 15R 146HP Pavilion G7 148Lenovo IdeaPad Z580 150Samsung Series 3 NP355V5C 151Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 153Acer Aspire V5 153Dell Inspiron 14z 154HP Envy 6 154Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E530 155Packard Bell EasyNote TE11H 155Sony VAIO E Series 15 156Toshiba Satellite C855 156Toshiba Satellite L855 157

COMPONENTS & PERIPHERALSDucky DK9008 Shine 110Lian Li PC-CK101 110Focusrite iTrack Solo 111Livescribe Sky 111Microsoft Sculpt Touch Mouse 111Fitbit Zip 112KoubachiWi-Fi Plant Sensor 112Triggertrap 112BubbleScope 113Jabra Halo2 113Jabra Solemate 113Mikey Digital 113AMDTrinity 118Pure Sensia 200D Connect 120

SOFTWARETomTom for Android 121Adobe Acrobat XI Pro 122Ubuntu 12.10 125Sony Vegas Pro 12 Edit 126

EBOOKREADERSAmazon Kindle 114Barnes & Noble Nook SimpleTouch with GlowLight 114Kobo Mini 114Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 115Kobo Glo 115

ENTERPRISEBroadberry CyberServeXE5-R224 130Supermicro RTG RX-M140i 132Toshiba IPedge EP 134EpsonWorkForce ProWP-4595DNF 136eSoft InstaGate 404s 136Canon ImageFormulaDR-C130 137Logitech BCC950ConferenceCam 138Y-cam Bullet HD 1080 138

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BUDGET LAPTOPS – READY FOR WINDOWS 8 140Upgrading a Windows 7 machine is both cheap and simple.We’ve taken 13 laptops with prices starting at £300 and putthem to the test using Microsoft’s latest OS.

COVER DISC 68Make your own animations,tweak home moviesand improve hard diskperformance with thismonth’s cover disc software.

NEWS

THIS MONTH 12Apple’s MacBook Pro with Retina display has beenapproved by a green registry, but can ultrathin laptopsever be environmentally friendly? We investigate. Plus,find out who’s liable for software flaws; a detailedanalysis of the tablet market; and why black-listing telcogiant Huawei is nothing more than sinophobia.

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Prolog OPINION

With an abundance of cheap computerhardware on offer, is it any wonderpremium PCs are struggling to sell?

PC makers have lost touchwith what we’re willing to pay,

says BARRY COLLINS

BARRYCOLLINS is the editor of PC Pro.He’s selling that 2004 Sony VAIO. No timewasters, £1,500 ono.

Blog:www.pcpro.co.uk/links/barryc

Email: [email protected]

Idon’t have a degree in economics. I dohave a mortgage, two children, a car,and an annual commuting bill thatsuggests I’m sitting next to Elton Johnon a private jet every day. The list of

things I’m willing – or even able – to pay £1,500for could be comfortably jotted down on theback of my train ticket. A PC isn’t one of them.

Which is odd, because eight years ago I didjust that. I spent nigh on £1,500 on a SonyVAIO for work and (more importantly)watching DVDs on the train home from theoffice. This wasn’t the lavish spending spree of ayoung, single man: I already had a family, a car,a sizeable rent, and the ransom fee going toSouthern Railway every month, and I was paidconsiderably less than I am now too. Yet, todaythere’s simply no way I’d pay the £1,500 tobuy the Windows 8 convertible VAIO we’vereviewed on p106 – and that’s without castingaspersions on the laptop itself, which is farsuperior to the one I bought in 2004.

I know the costs of manufacturing ahigh-end laptop haven’t gone down sincethose halcyon, pre-recession days. I dare saySony is paying even more to Intel and the othercomponent manufacturers for the parts thatmake up the VAIO Duo 11 than it did for thebits inside my 2004 model. What has gonedown dramatically, however, is my estimationof what a new PC is worth.

In 2004, £1,500 was about the going ratefor a nippy laptop capable of doing everythingI wanted: office work, photo editing, lightgaming, smooth DVD playback. Indeed, theValue Laptop on our A-List in March 2004was the Multivision Nexus 8020, costing£1,174 inc VAT.

Since then we’ve had supermarket shelvesstacked with super-cheap laptops – indeed, asreaders of my last column may remember, myVAIO’s replacement was a £450 Dell Inspiron1525 that was purchased from the Tesco overthe road, and is still (just about) in active servicetoday. When 2008’s laptop is still capable ofdoing most of what I need it to do, anddisposable income is shorter than RonnieCorbett’s inside leg, £1,500 seems much harderto justify than it did eight years ago. Especiallywhen you can turn to p140 and find a selectionof budget laptops – all perfectly capable ofrunning Windows 8 – from as little as £300 incVAT. Of course, the VAIO is better than any ofthem, but £1,200 better?

It isn’t only bargain-basement laptops thathave lowered the perceived value of hardware.

The true cost of a smartphone may be disguisedby two-year contracts, but most people paynothing up front for the computer in their pocket– which probably has a faster processor andjust as much memory as my 2004 VAIO. Gamesconsoles, which are effectively fully fledged PCs,can be bought new for as little as £150. Andthen there are Chromebooks for £230, tabletssuch as the iPad mini from £269, and swathesof cheaper Android alternatives (see p22 for ourtablets infographic). The VAIO Duo 11 arrivesat a time when you can buy a device such asGoogle’s Nexus 7, with a near HD-qualityscreen, quad-core processor and decent 3Dgraphics, for almost a tenth of the price.

With such an abundance of cheap computerhardware on offer, and with many peoplestruggling to make ends meet, is it any wonderpremium PCs are struggling to sell? Intel hopedUltrabooks – which typically cost £600 andupwards – would account for 40% of laptopsales by the end of this year. According toanalyst firm IHS iSuppli, the actual figure willbe closer to 5%, and it’s slashed its Ultrabooksales prediction for 2012 by more than half.

While the power users among the PC Proaudience may still be prepared to pay severalhundred, or even thousands of pounds forpremium PC hardware, the mass market is not.And, frankly, even those who are willing tosplash out are increasingly turning to Macs.

Which is why Microsoft’s failure to be moreaggressive with its Windows 8 pricing surprisesme. I’ve stated before I think Microsoft shouldhave made Windows 8 a free upgrade, with the30% cut from apps sold via the Windows Storecompensating for the loss of direct licensingrevenue. And by setting the base price of itsWindows RT Surface tablet at £399 (£479if you want the keyboard), it’s hardly takingthe fight to Apple and the Android tabletmakers. The full Windows 8 version willbe even more expensive.

Microsoft may be frightened of undercuttingits PC manufacturer partners, but this isn’t thetime to be timid. The PC is losing the fight forpeople’s wallets. The price isn’t right.


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Technolog OPINION

I’ve seen hard disks dropped, smartphoneswaterlogged and Lloyd Vivian reverse overmy laptop with his car. All still work

Broken phone? No problem:DARIEN GRAHAM-SMITH is

always ready for an upgrade

DARIEN GRAHAM-SMITH is PC Pro’s technicaleditor. The story about LloydVivian is true. Thoseold Toshiba Tecra laptops were built like tanks.

Blog:www.pcpro.co.uk/links/dariengs


Iam not one of those people whoobsessively tries to protect their gearfrom scratches and knocks. Somewhatthe opposite, in fact: I rather enjoymistreating my possessions. I like to

think it reminds them who owns whom.I wasn’t always so blasé about these things.

As a child, I handled my computing deviceswith almost reverential respect. I actually usedto pack up my ZX Spectrum into its box eachnight after I’d finished using it. More than onceI dismantled my Amiga 500 to clean the dustand crumbs from beneath the keyboard.

Gradually, though, my attitude changed.I came to notice that when the inevitablehappened and one of my computers orperipherals did stop working, my father – whoalways shared and encouraged my fascinationwith technology – would often take theopportunity to replace it with something newerand more powerful. It dawned on me thatprotecting my gadgets against wear and tearmight not be in my best interest.

Even as I grew up and started paying for myown toys, I continued secretly almost hopingthings would break, just so I could justify tomyself the expense of upgrading. Spending mymeagre student loan on a shiny new laptop Ididn’t need? Irresponsible, without a doubt.But if my old one should stop working, clearlynobody could object to my replacing it, Imused, as I dropped my laptop bag heavily tothe floor.

Before you start to think of me as a wantondestroyer of computers, I should make clearthat I never set out to damage anythingdeliberately. I may not handle my gadgets withkid gloves, but it turns out that most of themare tougher than you might expect. In my timeI’ve seen hard disks dropped, smartphoneswaterlogged and motherboards so ineptlymisconnected that actual sparks have flown off.One time, Lloyd Vivian reversed over my laptopwith his car. All still work.

All of which is a very roundabout way ofexplaining why, when my phone fell out of mypocket onto the pavement the other day, Iwasn’t fazed or alarmed. I didn’t even think tocheck for damage. I scooped it up, stuck it backin my pocket and carried on along my way. Itwas only a few minutes later, as I pulled it outto check my messages, that I realised somethingwas wrong. Was that a spider’s web in front ofthe screen? Instinctively I tried to brush it offbefore realising the glass front of my SamsungGalaxy S II was now transparent crazy paving.

I was irritated at the inconvenience – butalso excited at the sudden prospect of anunexpected upgrade (albeit a self-funded one, asI’ve more than a year left to run on my contact).As I carried on walking, I found myself startingto wonder: how much does a SIM-free GalaxyS III cost these days? Or might the HTC One Xmake a refreshing change?

A rude awakening was in store. If you keeptabs on the phone market you’ll already knowhow much it costs to buy a high-end smartphoneoutright. I don’t, and I didn’t have a clue aboutSIM-free prices. When I’d originally got myGalaxy S II, I hadn’t paid a penny upfront: thecost had been wholly hidden in a modestmonthly tariff. Now I learnt that to walk intothe O2 shop and buy the same phone againwould cost me £300. Moving up to a newGalaxy S III would be £450. My excitementdrained away pretty quickly.

In fact, in one of those spooky synchronies,I found myself thinking along very similar linesto those expressed by Barry in his column thismonth – not something that happens every day,as regular podcast listeners will know. Yes,

when you sit down and think about what goesinto a modern smartphone – a big, brighttouchscreen, a 3G radio, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS,a pretty decent camera, and so forth – £450 isreally a very fair price. But to replace a “free”device? No way, not today.

Instead, I’ve ended up doing somethingI’ve never done before: rather than replacingmy broken phone, I’m having it repaired.Moreover, I’ve actually resolved, when itreturns from the mender’s, to make at leasta passing effort not to damage it again.

I’m not saying this is a life-changingepiphany. I will probably be a technologyabuser until the day I die. But I do wonderwhat it means when, even given the excuse of asmashed-up device, I find myself so easily ableto resist the idea of upgrading to a newer,shinier model. If the desirability gap betweengenerations is narrowing, perhaps it’s a signthat the market is maturing. Or perhaps, justperhaps, it’s a sign that I am.


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FEEDBACK Your say

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FEEDBACKGlobal recyclingYour recent article about cashingin on old kit (see issue 215, p35)

reminded me of all the waste we generate withthe continual and rapid technological changesthat take place in the computer industry, andthe costs that result from our desire to alwayshave the latest kit.

Dumping devices that are still working, buta little out of date, is wasteful – surely there’sa better use for a much this equipment.

For most people in developing countries,access to computers is limited and expensive.Ownership, even of older equipment thatwe’d throw away, is an impossible dream:the costs involved in computing are far beyondthe budgets of most people.

Even old or unsophisticated mobilephones are sought after by many people in thedeveloping world because of the enormousbenefits they can bring to people’s lives.

I’ve been working in Uganda for the pasttwo years, and I can attest to the huge benefitsand opportunities that a working laptop canprovide for many people there. In a small way,it helps these populations to move out of thecrushing poverty that prevails across much ofthe continent.

However, treating Africa as a dumpingground for our old IT equipment can alsoresult in serious environmental hazards.

Fortunately, there are plenty of charitableorganisations that are willing to ensure thatequipment is safely sent to those who willbenefit from it. Most of these will alsoremove any personal data and refurbish theequipment. MARKPENHALLOW

Facebook’spersonal problemsFacebook’s lack of privacy settingshas been in the news recently, as

people’s sexual preferences have been disclosedwithout permission by the social networkingsite. I’ve experienced something similar,although not in such serious circumstances.

I recently created an account in order tocommunicate with someone who wouldonly use Facebook, and nailed down everyprivacy setting I could find – and didn’t useFacebook for anything other than chattingwith that person.

Despite my privacy settings, Facebookthen emailed me friend requests from severalneighbours and business associates, which Iignored. It then started suggesting I might wantto be friends with a huge list of people I didn’tknow, but who weren’t friends with those ithad originally suggested.

Now I know much more than I everwanted to about the personal and family livesof these casual contacts, some of whichwould be quite embarrassing if I wasn’t sucha broad-minded guy!

The major flaw with Facebook appears tobe this merging of personal, family and businessidentities in ways that I can’t believe that peoplewould want – or have properly considered.JOHNAHIND

Unwanted visitorsI read with interest Barry Collins’opinion piece regarding software

that installs itself without permission on yourPC by hiding inside an application you actuallywant (see issue 218, p7).

It struck a chord with me, as I’m now inthe habit of choosing “custom install” foreverything I allow onto my PC, regardlessof whether or not I intend to change theinstallation path or select individual componentsof the software to install.

I choose custom installs for the oppositereason – so that I can deselect the mountains ofcrapware that some applications insist on tryingto install on my computer.

Sometimes, to my annoyance, I find that itisn’t actually possible to deselect some of thissoftware, and then I’m required to uninstall theunwanted rubbish myself once the program Iactually want has been installed correctly.

As a case in point, I recently downloadeda demo of PC game The Witcher 2, and itasked me to install software called IMinentToolbar, ezLooker and Selection Links, all ofwhich I declined.

To my annoyance, I then found that thealleged game demo installer had done nothingmore than add a link to my desktop – in anutshell, I gained precisely nothing from theexperience. JULIANHALL

Don’t just dump your old computer kit – it can be used to benefit developing countries

Phot

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Dan

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Thismonth’s star letter winsa Corsair 128GB PerformancePro SSDworth £136Visit www.corsair.com

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BLOG BITES

Mobile phone contracts provoked lots of debate on the PC Pro blog thismonth, as features editor David Bayon wondered how much data theaverage user requires on a monthly basis. With companies providing aslittle as 250MB per month while others offer “unlimited” deals, readerswaded in with their opinions – and how much data they’d been using.

STAR LETTER

Intel has shown off its latest Atom processors for tablets, butit isn’t only new chips that can be helped by Windows 8.

I have an old laptop that uses an Atom N270 processorwith Windows 7 Starter, and it was so slow that I regretted

the purchase – it couldn’t even run BBC iPlayer’s full-screen modewithout hiccups.

A couple of months ago, I installed Windows 8’s ReleasePreview, and it’s given this laggard a new lease of life. I can runiPlayer without any issues, the delays that caused my bloodpressure to rise have virtually disappeared, and performance issurprisingly slick, notwithstanding the lack of a touchscreen andmy reliance on a small USB mouse rather than the naff trackpad.

I’ve upgraded the RAM from 1GB to 2GB, which was cheap,but I’ve found that RAM usage is better optimised in Windows 8.

I was also using it with an external 1,280 x 1,024 monitor,since the laptop’s native resolution of 1,024 x 600 won’t runModern UI apps. That’s the resolution used by most netbooks, eventhough I see plenty of these being sold in Tesco with Windows 8stickers next to them! Luckily, I’ve recently found a Registry hackthat lets me downscale a 1,024 x 768 image to the netbook’sscreen, and it works surprisingly well.

I’m in two minds about whether it’s a good decision byMicrosoft to effectively cut netbooks out of its Windows 8ecosystem, but I’ll certainly be using my netbook with Windows 8.I also suspect Tesco may have some irate customers soon – peoplewho buy Windows 7 netbooks might be surprised when they findout they can’t upgrade to Windows 8. FOGTAX

Addressingpassword issuesI understand the need for multiple

and unique passwords – especially after readingJon Honeyball’s thoughts on the matter (seeissue 218, p78). However, multiple passwordsare difficult to concoct and remember. My wife,who is no computer expert, has a brilliant idea:using old street addresses. Most people have atleast one; they have the combination ofupper- and lower-case letters and numbers thatstrong passwords need. They’re also easy foryou to remember – and meaningless to everyoneelse. Just make sure you don’t use your currentaddress! MICHAEL J LEDGER

“I typically use 150MB of my 500MB allowance on O2, but when Iupgraded my phone and used more demanding apps such as iPlayerI found that I used 500MB in little over a week. This was the fault ofa setting that allowed little Flash ads to run on web pages; sinceturning it off I’m back to around 150MB monthly.” EDDIE

“I use only 30MB per month when using my mobile network. I roamoutside of Europe when travelling on business, and roaming chargesare prohibitive. I discovered that lots of free apps send informationback to their developers, so I delete any app that does this –and I don’t use any social apps, either.” DAVID

“According to the built-in monitoring software on my SamsungGalaxy S III, I’ve used around 1.2GB in the 76 days I’ve had it so far.That’s approximately 16MB a day, 110MB a week or 500MBa month – suffice to say, I don’t think I’ll be troubling my 2GBmonthly allowance.” GRAHAM

“In France for a week with my iPad hooked up to an Androidhotspot, it used 3GB! I couldn’t determine which apps were using thedata, but I wonder if the main culprit might have been iCloudbackups. I think this is configured to work only on Wi-Fi, butthe hotspot is Wi-Fi as far as the iPad is concerned.” HUGH

“I use Android’s built-in data monitor. I use around 450MB mostmonths, although twice this year I’ve hit my 1GB monthly cap. At thatpoint, I had a text from T-Mobile saying that my connection would bethrottled to 64Kbits/sec for the rest of the month. Luckily, itwas the last day of the month!” DAVIDWRIGHT

“Access to 3G will be a big factor. Where I live in Norfolk, you onlyget a 3G connection in Norwich or a couple of other towns; in thecountryside it’s a matter of crawling along on whatever network youcan find, or using Wi-Fi. That makes my 3G usage negligible,although I have to constantly explain this to Vodafone.” JOSH

Thismonth’s star letter winsa Corsair Neutron 120GBSSDworth £85Visit www.corsair.com

CORRECTION: In issue 218, our review of the Amazon Kindle Fire HD7in stated that Amazon’s Whispersync service had been upgraded tosupport audiobooks. However, this upgraded service is currentlyoffered only in the US; isn’t available to UK customers.

SubscriptionsSubscriptionsTo subscribeto PC Pro,visit http://subscribe.pcpro.co.uk.For existingsubscriberqueries,contact [email protected], call0845 126 0386or visitwww.subsinfo.co.uk

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NEWS PC Probe

A US environmental agency has backed the green credentials ofultrathin laptops. Is it merely greenwashing? Nicole Kobie investigates

Can ultraportablesreally ever be green?

NEWSIN-DEPTHREPORTS,ANALYSISANDOPINION www.pcpro.co.uk/news

When Applepulled out of theUS environmentalscheme EPEAT,

ahead of the launch of theMacBook Pro with Retina display,the move appeared to be definitiveconfirmation that ultrathin laptopscan’t be environmentally friendly.

Five months on, and EPEAThas given a range of ultrathinlaptops, including the MacBookPro with Retina display, thethumbs up, provoking widespreadscorn from fellow environmentalgroups and industry experts.

The question remains: canultraportables really be green?

EPEAT vs AppleIn July Apple withdrew fromEPEAT, leaving many – includinglaptop teardown expert iFixit –wondering if this was due to itsMacBook Pro with Retina display.Public pressure saw Apple rejointhe scheme soon after, whichwould verify whether the modelmet EPEAT’s recycling standards.

The results of the tests – whichEPEAT widened to all “ultrathin”unibody laptops in its registry –were announced in October andlooked at four areas: whether toolswere readily available; if a productwas upgradeable; and whetherboth battery and screen could bedismantled quickly and safely.

Every laptop passed EPEAT’sverification, and the surprisingdefinitions of “readily available”and “upgradeable” led toaccusations from Greenpeacethat the group had “caved” tomanufacturer pressure. Calling ita “clear case of greenwashing”,iFixit founder Kyle Wiensclaimed in a blog post thatApple’s MacBook Pro with Retinadisplay was “the least repairable,least recyclable computer I’veencountered in more than a decadeof disassembling electronics”.

Two points of contention weredecided by EPEAT’s independentpanel. It declared that a tool couldbe considered easy to obtain if it

was available to buy online,without going directly to themanufacturer. That means Apple’sproprietary screws don’t fall foulof EPEAT’s standard, as third-party firms have developed theirown screwdrivers for them.

Second, EPEAT’s paneldecided that any device that hasa high-speed bus of any sort canbe upgraded – if you need morestorage, plug in an external drive.Wiens said that “incredibly loosecriteria” includes every laptop onthe market. Even EPEAT’s CEORobert Frisbee admitted that thedecision was a surprise, and saidit showed the standard needsupdating. “Just as an example,


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the standard refers to upgradingfloppy disks; that’s just a sign it’sa little dated – which it is,” hetold PC Pro.

EPEAT also timed how long ittook to dismantle five laptops –including one from Apple –declaring all took fewer than 20minutes, with batteries requiringbetween 30 seconds and twominutes to remove. However,iFixit disagreed, saying it took anhour to safely remove the batteryfrom the Apple MacBook Pro –noting it wasn’t handedmanufacturer instructions asEPEAT was, and that such dataisn’t usually distributed freely.

Whatever the rights or wrongs,the dispute appears to have donelittle harm to Apple’s sales. Frisbeenoted that many consumers feelguilty for prioritising “cool”electronics over green ones, butadmits there’s nothing available onthe market that perfectly combinesthe two. “That’s the conflict: ifyou’re going to make somethingeasily replaceable, no-one yet hasbeen able to design an ultra-sleekunit,” he said.

Sticky problemHowever, iFixit suggests it ispossible. The company performsteardowns – methodically takingapart devices to see what they’remade of and how to repair them.Wiens told us the few Ultrabookshis firm had dismantled have been“decent”. While the MacBook Prowith Retina display scored a lowlyone out of ten in its repairabilityranking, the version without thehigh-end display scored seven;Asus’ Zenbook scored eight.

The problem isn’t the thinnessof the devices, or innovative formfactors; it is glue. “It’s easier tomake products if you glue themtogether, but harder to repairthem,” Wiens said.

“Design for disassembly/repairis something that you have tofactor in at the beginning of thedesign process. If it isn’t part of

management’s priorities, it isn’tgoing to happen,” he added.“Apple has the best designers inthe world, and they have madesome tremendously repairableproducts in the past. The currentMac Mini is a great design. Theyjust have to decide that they care.”

Caring about repairsHowever, the eager adoption of“black box” devices such astablets suggests that mostconsumers aren’t too keen to openup gadgets and poke around. “Isuspect the general consumer nolonger has an interest to get intothe guts of their machine,” Frisbeesaid. “If a TV goes wrong, nobodyhas the instinct to pull out ascrewdriver.” Plus, he noted thatthere’s “some conflict with thecommercial side” – tech companiesare happy selling us new productsrather than replacement parts.

That’s one point with whichWiens agrees. “New softwaredegrades old hardware, and simpleupgrades such as RAM have reallyhelped people in the past,” he said.“Now, the primary upgrade weneed in mobile devices is storage.But the manufacturers are makingso much money marking it up thatthey refuse to add microSD slots.”

Regardless of whetherconsumers want to pick upscrewdrivers or manufacturerswant to shift more new products,shorter replacement cycles have anegative effect on the environment.

According to FrancescaBroadbent, a spokesperson forrecycling charity Computer Aid,reusing IT equipment is 25 timesmore energy-efficient thanrecycling. “To put this in adifferent way, over 4,000 timesmore material is used to make alaptop than it actually ends upweighing,” she told PC Pro.

Higher standardsThe upcoming refresh of the IEEE1680.1 standard is key to placingmore pressure on manufacturersto change their ways. However,Wiens said the last time changes tothe standard were voted on,manufacturers “completelyoutgunned” other interest groups,holding 61% of votes while iFixitwas the only consumer advocacygroup at the table.

“We need to show themanufacturers that it’s in theirinterests to design long-lastingproducts,” Wiens said. “Mosttool companies know this – youwouldn’t buy a power drill thatfailed after 12 months. We need tohold electronics companies to thesame standard. Upgradeability andrepairability don’t come at the costof progress. Great design shouldbe long-lasting.”

iFixit didn’t pull any punches when it took apart theMacBook Pro with Retina display, giving it a score ofone out of ten for repairability – a damningjudgement, given that devices such as the iPhone 5,Kindle Fire HD and Nexus 7 all scored a muchhealthier seven out of ten. The repair site criticised

Taking apart a MacBook Pro with Retina

Some parts can be lifted out easily, but othersare glued in, making them difficult to replace

The MacBook Pro with Retina display can betaken apart, but specialist tools are required

Apple’s proprietary pentalobe screws, which requirespecialised tools to access the laptop’s interior.Inside, the RAM is soldered to the logic board, andthe SSD is proprietary, so neither can be upgraded.Plus, the battery is glued in and the display fused,making them difficult to replace, according to iFixit.

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NEWS Headlines


The government has finallyblocked the extradition of accusedhacker Gary McKinnon, morethan a decade after he accessedUS government computers.McKinnon’s backers – led by hismother Janis Sharp, a host ofcelebrities and The Daily Mail– have been battling his extraditionto the US on the grounds that hisAsperger’s Syndrome would leadhim to attempt suicide.

The issue has been in front ofthree successive home secretaries,and PM David Cameron raisedthe issue with President Obamaearlier in the year.

However, it was Theresa Maywho declared that an extraditionwould breach McKinnon’s humanrights on health grounds. He maystill face a criminal trial; at thetime of publishing, Britishprosecutors had yet to say whetherthey will bring charges in the UK.

Whatwe said: “It’s abouttime. McKinnon has waited morethan a decade to discover his fate,which is far too long for a hackingcase that’s yet to show any cleardamage or victims,” said newseditor Nicole Kobie. “Hacking isa serious crime – regardless of

Microsoft revealed its WindowsRT Surface would be released inthe UK at £399 for the 32GBversion. However, that doesn’tinclude the keyboard cover – akey distinguishing feature.Instead, the Touch Cover willcost £99 and the conventionalkeyboard Type Cover £109.A 32GB version of the tabletwill be available with a blackTouch Cover for £479, whilea 64GB Surface with the coverwill cost £559.

As promised, that’s on a parwith rival tablets; the 16GB iPadis £399 while a 32GB version is£479. However, there are majordifferences between the tablets,notably the new iPad’s impressive2,048 x 1,536 resolution (see p20for more on the tablet market).

Whatwe said: “Ever sincethe Surface RT was announced,it’s been seen in quite differentways by different people,” saidtechnical editor Darien Graham-Smith. “To some, it’s a pluckyupstart with everything to prove;to others, it’s a new breed ofprofessional tablet that makes theiPad and its Android counterpartslook like toys.

whether or not there’s any truth toreports McKinnon was searchingfor data on aliens – and hisAsperger’s Syndrome is no excuse.However, it’s very likely that hadhe stood trial in 2002, he’d alreadybe out of prison. Now, he faces aUK trial more than ten years afterthe hack happened.”

What you said: PC Proreaders were divided over the case.“It’s shameful that this person hashad to suffer years of uncertaintyand fear in order to assuage thefeelings of Americans who wereso incompetent that they didn’tproperly secure their vital militarysystems,” argued qpw4141.

Others disagreed. “I have nosympathy with hackers,” saidrjp2000. “Even if security wasweak, it doesn’t give anyone theright to hack into military systemslooking for little green men.”

“Is hacking into militarycomputer systems to leaveanti-American messages illegalor not?” asked Tony_Yeah. “The‘looking for UFO info’ angle isa red herring. If he committed acrime, he should be extradited, asshould Americans who commitcrimes here.”

The pricing details released thismonth do nothing to resolve thatambiguity – to be fair, this willdepend as much on the maturationof the Windows Store as on thehardware itself. However, if it’s tooearly to say whether the Surface(and the RT platform as a whole)is worth the money, one thing isfor sure: in terms of sustainingcuriosity and anticipation,Microsoft’s pricing strategy isalready a success.”

What you said: Onceagain, opinion was split on Surfacepricing. “Great price for what Ihope to be a great product,” saidonegin101. “If all I’ve seen pansout then the build quality andcapability of this device puts itout in front.”

“This new software isunproven in the tablet space, somaking the price higher than thecurrent market leader is crazy,”argued Chatan.

“It will come down to tastefor most people, but for thecorporates it will be a questionof reliability, compatibility andprice,” said baldmosher. “I suspectMicrosoft will rely on its base andthe rest will eventually follow.”

TOPSTORIESREADERSREACTTOTHEMONTH’STECHNEWS

Government finally blocksGaryMcKinnon’s extradition

Surface pricing andUKavailability announced1 2


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HP has revealed the situation atthe PC giant is likely to becomeworse before it gets better. CEOMeg Whitman said that revenuewould fall in every divisionexcept software – and warned notto expect any signs of recoveryuntil 2014.

While Whitman pinned muchof the turmoil at the strugglingtech firm on its leadership woes– she’s the third CEO in as manyyears – part of the firm’s trouble isdown to slipping PC sales. HP’sshare of the shrinking PC markethas fallen from 18.9% three yearsago to 15.5% this year, accordingto analyst firm Gartner, whichsaid Chinese rival Lenovo hadpipped HP to the top spot inglobal shipments in the lastquarter. HP disputed the figures,preferring IDC’s numbers thatshow that it still holds the topspot, but there’s no denyingLenovo’s success – the firm hasalmost doubled its market sharein the past three years.

Whatwe said: “It’s hardnot to feel sympathy for MegWhitman, as the mistakes weremade long before she arrived,”said features editor David Bayon.

“HP still has its fingers in so manypies – many of them going stale –that a period of cost-cutting isinevitable. Whitman needs todecide on HP’s main focus, as thethings for which many consumersmay know the company are notthe things making money. Whilewe’ve recommended many of itsconsumer products over the years,a smaller HP that concentrates onenterprise could well be the moststable long-term solution.”

What you said: Rhythmsaid HP’s troubles were a“shame”, adding: “We mainly usethe EliteBook/ProBook range atwork and I have the 8470p, whichis fantastic. Come on HP... get ittogether and come out fighting.”

Anteaus isn’t surprised by HP’stroubles – and it’s nothing to dowith CEOs. “You have to providewhat the customer wants. HP’sproblems started when it droppedsupport and drivers for anythingother than the preinstalled OS.Years ago, IBM found out thehard way that no matter howbig you are, you can’t force thecustomer to buy the product thatyou want to sell. It works theother way around.”

email: [email protected]

HPwarns on revenue asLenovo pips it to the top3

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NEWS Talking point

Editor, Barry Collins: Speaking as someone who has beenrunning Windows 8 on my primary work laptop since theDeveloper Preview, my initial response is no. I’ve had very few

stability issues even on those early betas, and the only driver issues I’veencountered have involved specific touch hardware – where trackpads failto respond properly to gestures, for example.

Technical editor, Darien Graham-Smith: The idea ofwaiting for Service Pack 1 was really always a corporate thing.I’m not saying home users aren’t affected by bugs, but it’s

when you’re supporting dozens or hundreds of machines that the cost ofdesktop support and rolling out patches stacks up, so a cautious approachmakes sense. Home users generally seem willing to jump at new operatingsystems as soon as they’re available and, like Barry, I’ve seen no reason todissuade anyone from doing that with Windows 8.

Editorial director, Tim Danton: Darien’s right about waitingfor SP1 being a corporate mantra, and you should be cautiousif rolling out hundreds of devices, but businesses need to start

thinking differently if they want to stay competitive. There might be amajor advantage to switching to Windows 8; for instance, you may findthat apps precisely tailored to one task save lots of time for your salesteam, and it’s now much easier to run a mixed environment. So why notequip key sales staff with convertible Windows 8 Ultrabooks, and keepWindows 7 and XP for less cutting-edge users?

Barry: One reason that businesses might want to hold off fora while is the shock factor. Even old hands such as ourselvestook a while to get used to the more radical parts of the

Windows 8 interface, such as Charms, and where to find them. It mightbe better to let Windows 8 seep into users’ consciousness at home beforeintroducing it into the workplace. Or am I being too cautious?

Tim: Definitely. In fact, for vast quantities of the workforce,that’s quite a patronising attitude to take. Intelligent, clued-upemployees will get their heads around the new Start screen in

TALKINGPOINTMembers of the PC Pro teamtackle the month’s big issue

Windows 8 has arrived, but should you wait for ServicePack 1 before installing it? It’s a common belief that it’sbest to wait until the first service pack before installinga new Microsoft OS to avoid early bugs. However,

Microsoft has been issuing updates for Windows 8 even before itsrelease. So should you wait, or is it stable enough to start?

minutes, and may well head into the Windows Store and suggest an appthat’s perfect for their needs. But I agree that a hefty proportion of peoplewon’t receive any benefit from Windows 8, so why confuse them with anew interface?

Darien: From a corporate perspective, there are goodreasons to make the switch right away. Improvements toBranchCache and Group Policy management come to

mind, for example, as well as full-disk encryption. However, if I werean IT manager, I’d be very hesitant to roll out such a major change tothe user interface. I actually have a fantasy that Windows 8 SP1 willinclude an option to switch back to the old Windows 7 desktop. Anunlikely prospect, I know, but I can’t think of a better way to encouragebusinesses to upgrade. In that scenario, waiting for SP1 really would bethe smart option.

Barry: There’s more chance of Steve Ballmer starring in thenew Head & Shoulders adverts than of Microsoft revertingto the Windows 7 Start screen in SP1. The old Start menu is

gone, and businesses and consumers will have to learn to lump it, or stickwith Windows 7. I suspect most will take the second option. And giventhat Ballmer has repeatedly talked of incremental improvements toWindows, even the concept of Service Packs may fall by the wayside. Bugfixes will simply be rolled into Windows 8.1, which most users will installvia Windows Update without even noticing.

Tim: That’s a very good point: the whole concept of ServicePacks is looking outdated. But I think you’re both clingingonto an old idea of a binary IT setup, where everything is

unified on one OS, one image and one way of doing business. The mostsignificant benefit Windows 8 brings to businesses is flexibility, mainlythrough new types of device, and if they don’t experiment then they couldbe handing the advantage to a more innovative, modern rival. In short,the IT department needs to give the right devices to the right employees,whether that’s an iPad, an Android tablet or a convertible Ultrabookrunning Windows 8.

Should you wait for Service Pack 1before installing Windows 8?


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NEWS Headlines

Q&A

Trend Micro’s solutions architect,Rik Ferguson, is one of thebest-known faces on the British ITsecurity scene. Not only is he a

refreshingly frank public speaker, but healso regularly delivers his thoughts via thecompany’s CounterMeasures security blog(http://countermeasures.trendmicro.eu).

One of Ferguson’s recent posts questionedwhether new legislation was necessary to holdsoftware vendors legally responsible for bugsin their software. We ask him to explain whyhe doesn’t think it’s needed.

Should software vendors be heldlegally liable for flaws in their

products that cause damage?

Certainly cases have been brought, andaccording to our in-house legal counsel,

liability does exist in one form or another. Ifyou’re making something available for publicconsumption, you’re under some obligationto make sure it won’t cause them harm.

Compare it to a physical good, where theSale of Goods Act applies – [say] in the carworld. If there’s a fault with the brakes, thenthe manufacturer issues a recall notice, youtake the thing back and they apply the patch,in effect. Surely that’s what we’re doingalready with security updates and patches?

The legal counsel said to me that as longas a software vendor can demonstrate that itcomplies with best practices when it comesto software development… and you candemonstrate you made your best effort at thetime, your liability is likely to be very limitedor non-existent.

Does that mean software vendorsare being let off the hook, especially

as many consumers may not applyupdates or patches?

I think update mechanisms need tobe more transparent, more invisible to

the user. It needs to just happen and it needsto be configured out-of-the-box to justhappen. It must be aconscious decision foryou to go in, find thesettings and disablethat stuff, which inmany cases isn’t thecase right now – it’smore opt in than optout. Otherwise, you pop up the decision infront of the user and they will drag the boxoff the screen because they just want tobrowse the web.

Obviously, the question is slightlydifferent when something requires a reboot.

You need to at least say, “do you want toreboot now or do you want to reboot later?”.The installation should take place whateverthe decision is; you shouldn’t have tomanually say I need to update. It needs tobe configurable, because a lot of enterprisesdon’t want that auto-update stuff in case itbreaks something else that’s already in place.

We’re increasingly seeing third-party software being bundled

with software updates. Do you think thisdiscourages people from updating?

I hate that. On a personal level, Iabhor that behaviour. If you’re

updating a product, you should get the

thing you’re updating. If you’re choosing todownload a product, you should get the thingyou download. If somebody wants to bundlesomebody else’s stuff with it, then it should bean unticked option to which you have to optin, not opt out of it.

Software flaws: who’s liable?Security guru Rik Ferguson on who should be held responsible for flaws inour software, and the need for more transparent update mechanisms

“A lot of enterprises don’t wantthat auto-update stuff in case

it breaks something else”

Scholarships for top tech teachers

Computer scienceteaching is set for amuch-needed boost,with scholarships for

top graduates and retraining forthose already in the classroom.

The number of students takingcomputing and ICT classes hasfallen dramatically over the pastseveral years, with reportssuggesting that classes fail tochallenge or engage students –or as the students themselvessay, that classes are “boring”.ICT classes are already beingrevamped, amid discussionsthat students should be taughtprogramming in school.

The government is offering the50 scholarships – worth £20,000each – to fund pre-teacher trainingcourses, aimed at boosting technicalskills of promising graduates beforethey gain their teaching credentials.The initial teacher training (ITT)course in computer science wascreated by the BCS and industry– including Microsoft, Facebookand BT – alongside the first officialsubject-knowledge requirementsfor would-be computer scienceteachers. This includes the abilityto code in two languages,understanding algorithms, andknowing the difference betweenthe internet and the web.

The government is alsocontributing £150,000 to helpimprove the tech knowledge of500 existing teachers. Theannouncements come as thegovernment stopped funding ICTteacher training, as that curriculumis set to be reworked.

Back to schoolThe additional training waswelcomed by one educationexpert, but he warned it won’tsolve all the issues. “Given thenew GCSE computing coursesand an increased role forprogramming and other aspects

of computer science in theanticipated national curriculum,there’s an obvious need for moreteachers with the ability to teachcomputer science,” said MilesBerry, chair of tech educationgroup Naace and a seniorlecturer in ICT at the Universityof Roehampton. “Offeringscholarships to top computinggraduates, and supporting CPD[continuing professionaldevelopment] for those inschool should certainly helphere. However, a first-classcomputer science degree doesn’tnecessarily make someone a goodteacher of computing.”


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Refresh also sees slimmer iMac, faster iMac miniand a MacBook Pro 13in with Retina display

Apple targets rivalswith iPadmini

Apple couldn’tkeep the launch ofits widely anticipatediPad mini a secret,

but it did pull off a shock –unveiling another new iPad – inits biggest product shake-up inrecent memory.

CEO Tim Cook took to thestage alongside Phil Schiller,head of marketing, to reveal themuch-rumoured 7.9in iPad mini– a form factor that Steve Jobsfamously derided as too small,saying users would have to “sanddown” their fingertips.

Apple’s opinion has beenswayed by the success of theAmazon Kindle Fire HD and theGoogle Nexus 7, but Schiller wasquick to stress the company’s 7.9indevice is much larger than itsrivals, with a third more screenspace than the Nexus 7. Since it’sthe same resolution as the iPad 2,apps designed for the largertablet will still work. Schilleralso pointed out it’s much thinnerand lighter – although he didn’tcompare the price. The bottom-end 16GB Wi-Fi-only iPad mini

costs £269, compared to the 16GBNexus 7 at £199 and the 16GBKindle Fire HD at £159 – and it’sdouble the price of the 8GB KindleFire at £129.

Schiller dismissed gripes aboutthe price. “The iPad is far andaway the most successful productin its category,” Schiller toldReuters. “The most affordableproduct we’ve made so far was$399 and people were choosingthat over those devices.”

However, the biggest challengerto the iPad mini may be its biggerbrother. The iPad 2 – with thesame 1,024 x 768 resolutionscreen – costs only £60 more.

New iPad upgradedA bigger surprise than the iPadmini is the update to the full-sizediPad. The fourth generation of thetablet now features the Lightningconnector, an HD FaceTimecamera, faster Wi-Fi, extendedLTE support, and a new A6Xchip, which Apple said offeredtwice the CPU and graphicsperformance of its predecessor –

all for the same price asthe third-generation iPad,which has been withdrawnfrom sale.

Apple normally updatesthe iPad at the beginning of theyear, which has lead to complaintsfrom third-generation “new” iPadowners. Reports suggestedsome retailers were acceptingreturns on iPads that were boughtin the previous month, but theupdate has raised fears overApple’s accelerating refresh cycle,and whether it would have anynew hardware to announce in thefirst half of next year.

Mac revampApple has also refreshed its laptopand desktop models, slimmingdown the iMac, bringing a Retinadisplay to the MacBook Pro 13in,and updating the Mac mini.

The most eye-catchingupdate is the iMac, which Appleclaims is 80% thinner than itspredecessor, with an edge that’sonly 5mm thick. It comes withthe latest Intel Core i5 or i7chips, and a new storage system.Customers can choosefrom either an SSD of up to768GB or a hard disk up to 3TB– or a combination of the two,called Fusion Drive. That marries

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128GB offlash with eithera 1TB or 3TB harddrive, but the iMacviews it all as a singledrive, automatically movingthe most-used apps to theflash side for betterperformance. The 21.5inversion starts from £1,099 and the27in from £1,499 – but pricingfor the Fusion Drive optionwasn’t available at the time wewent to press.

While Apple’s iPad and iPhonegrab the most attention, Schillerclaimed the MacBook Pro was thetop-selling laptop in the US; the13in was its best-selling model.That model has now beenrefreshed with a 2,560 x 1,600Retina display for a starting priceof £1,449 – a solid premium on its£999 non-Retina predecessor, butit also doubles the RAM to 8GB,switches to an all-flash drive,and it’s slimmer.

The Mac mini has also beenupdated to dual-core Intel Core i5or quad-core i7 processors, whichApple said were twice as fast asprevious versions. It remains thecheapest Mac at £499.

Mac mini2.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 • 4GB RAM • 500GB HDD •197 x 197 x 36mm (WDH) • 1.22kg • HDMI • Thunderbolt • 4 xUSB 3 • FireWire 800 • 802.11n wireless • Bluetooth 4(base version, £499)

MacBook Pro 13in with Retina display2,560 x 1,600 IPS display • 2.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 • 8GB RAM• 128GB SSD • 314 x 219 x 19mm (WDH) • 1.62kg • 720p FaceTimecamera • HDMI • 2 x USB 3 • dual Thunderbolt ports • 802.11nwireless • Bluetooth 4 (base version, £1,449)

iMac: 21.5in1,920 x 1,080 IPS display • 2.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 •8GB RAM • Nvidia GeForce GT 640M graphics • 1TB HDD • 528 x 450mm(WH) • 5.68kg • FaceTime HD camera • Thunderbolt • 4 x USB 3 • 802.11nwireless • Bluetooth 4 (base version, £1,099)

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NEWS Headlines


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NEWS Infographic

Nexus7 AppleiPad(3rdgen)

Screen size (inches)

Apple68.2%

Samsung9.6%Amazon5%

Asus3.4%

Acer1.5%

Other12.3%Source: IDC

770

10

20

30

40

50

Above 10Below 7 8 9 10

iOS8%

Windows72%

QNX3%

Android 73%

Android2.22.7%

Android3.X20.6%

Android457.5%

Android4.16.9%Adapted6.9%Windows810%

WindowsRT4%


Android2.35.5%

AppAppAppAppiPaiPaiPaiPa(3r(3r(3r(3r

Price

£100 £200 £300 £400 £500 £600

TOP51,280x800 40.8%1,024x600 14.3%1,024x768 8.2%1,366x768 7.1%2,048x1,536 6.1%

29% of all the tablets inour sample costbetween £151 and £200.

Whenwe last surveyed the tablet market 18

months ago, the iPad had 87% of global sales. Now,

competition is heating up: Samsung has found

success with the Galaxy Tab, while Amazon and

Google’s 7in devices have convinced Apple to

make its own smaller iPad. We examined 100

tablets to reveal themost popular price point,

resolution and screen size amongmanufacturers.

PRIC

ERANGE

OPERATIN

GSY

STEM

MARKETSH

ARE

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REENSIZE

TABLETS A SNAPSHOTOFAGROWINGMARKET

iOiOiOiOS8%

WiWiWindows72%

QNQNQNXX33%

AnAnAnAnAndrdrdrdrdroioioioioiddddd 73737373%%%%

Android2.22.7%

Android3.X20.6%

Androi57.5

Android4.16.9%Adapted6.9%WiWiWiWindows810%

WiWiWindndowsRT4%

Android2.35.5%

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Android73%


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NEWS Opinion


It’s no coincidence it’s election season,giving politicians the chance to furthercareers at the expense of the accused

Huawei uproar is nothing morethan political protectionism,says STEWART MITCHELL

In the 1950s, McCarthyism swept theUS, fuelled by fears that Communistagitators could encourage Soviet valuesto emerge in US institutions. The witchhunts that followed ruined lives and

reputations, often based on little evidence.Despite a leap in international trade, the

same fears still fuel similar tactics, and the attackon China’s network equipment manufacturerHuawei is a case in point. A report from the USHouse Intelligence Committee warned againstdoing business with Huawei and fellow Chinesetelecoms firm ZTE due to fears the companiescould install snooping back doors.

Much of the report focuses not on Huawei,but on the waves of cyber-espionage attacks,informally blamed on China. Any “smokinggun” evidence either doesn’t exist or is classified– the worst the report manages is that the firm isChinese and unwilling to disclose proprietarydetails of its technology, although the companyisn’t helped by the fact that boss Ren Zhengfeionce served in the People’s Liberation Army.

Security experts that work with Huaweiclients have told PC Pro that the reason the US

doesn’t provide any evidence is because noneexists. One expert cited a similar investigationby the Indian government: nothing untowardwas found, and Huawei is currently buildingthe country’s counter-intelligence centre.

“There isn’t a single article that describes aback door found in Huawei equipment, orwhich describes experiences from network orsecurity engineers who have detected suspiciousdata flow that originated from these allegedback doors,” said the expert, who asked not tobe named. “I have yet to see the first technicalwrite-up from the information security sectorthat would substantiate the allegations.”

Security experts say the idea that back doorscould be easily deployed doesn’t stack up,because the network equipment can be closelymonitored by the people running networks.Indeed, the UK security services are involvedwith tests run by Huawei at a facility nearCheltenham, where equipment is monitoredby BT, security services and other customers.

So why the fuss now, given that Huawei hastraded in the US for years? It’s no coincidencethat it’s election season, giving politicians thechance to further careers at the expense of theaccused. In a series of ads that stray close to theoffensive “yellow peril” invective of the early20th century, US politicos have lamented thefact that President Obama has failed to “standup to China”, blaming the country’s growth forthe loss of two million US jobs. Sinophobia isrife and Huawei is caught in the cross hairs.

The sense that Huawei’s black-listing hasmore to do with protectionism than security isstrengthened by revelations that the companieslobbying for the probes are rivals. Cisco hasbeen vocal in its criticism, while Juniper and HPcould also benefit from a block on Huawei.

In a global economy, technology companiesoften face suspicion from overseas; Kasperskyhas been regularly forced to defend itself againstallegations it’s too cosy with the Kremlin. Butfor Huawei, the black-listing will be doublygalling coming from the US, which is believedto have mounted some of the most high-profilecyber-attacks to date. Both the Stuxnet andFlame malware that targeted nuclear facilitiesin Iran and PCs in the Middle East have beenattributed to the US.

If the US is using such tactics, should the restof the world echo its worries over Huawei?British officials have confirmed the governmentis investigating Huawei’s role in the UK, whileCanada and Australia have raised concerns. Butas allies, none are looking into the US.

The UK’s investigation into Huawei is stillongoing, but it’s hard to see a hard line beingtaken in Britain. Not because there isn’t adanger, which remains to be seen, but becausethe UK could barely afford to kick the companyout. Huawei is a major supplier for the fibrerollout currently under way, and also a keypartner for companies rolling out 4G networks.Decommissioning the Huawei hardware in theUK’s infrastructure and blocking the companyfrom future work would plunge the alreadydelayed upgrade into chaos. And which UKcompany could take up the slack?

Then there’s the small matter of Huaweiplanning to create 700 UK jobs through a£1.2 billion investment, which won’t be ignoredby a government desperately seeking cash.

BT says there’s no risk in using Huaweiequipment, and given the scale of the upheavalthat would be needed to cut the company out ofthe loop, it’s unlikely the government officialswill disagree – even if the US does.

Contributing editor STEWARTMITCHELL hascovered cybersnooping for more than fiveyears, but has yet to find a Chinese agentrooting around his desk.

Blog:www.pcpro.co.uk/links/stewartm



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FEATURE Apps of the year


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FEATUREApps of the year


As we approach the end of anotheryear, mobile computing hasballooned into something barelyimaginable just a few years ago.

There’s now a powerful smartphone in almostevery pocket, whether adorned with a fruitylogo, a little green robot, or one of several otherupcoming or declining brands. Meanwhile,tablets have gone from a premium Applecuriosity to being the hot new platform ofwhich we all want a piece. While the hardwarehas certainly played its part, so much of thatsuccess is down to the unprecedented qualityand quantity of the apps.

KEY

AppleAndroidBlackBerryNokia SymbianwebOSWindows PhoneWindows 8

In this feature, we’re not going to run youthrough the popular apps you already have.We’re not going to recommend Facebook orSkype, or tell you to download Flight Control(although you should if you haven’t already).Instead, the 100 apps over the next ten pagesare either new for 2012, or were updated with aredesign or significant new features.

We’ve covered smartphone and tablet appson all the main platforms, ranging from freeand simple apps through to more expensiveprofessional and educational options. We hopeeven the most ardent app collector will findsome new gems to take into 2013.

Make the most of a wonderful year for appsby downloading our favourite 100 of 2012


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2 TweakDeckFreePhone: Tablet:

TweetDeck’s purchase by Twitter has stuntedits mobile development, but Android developerMoDaCo takes up the slack with TweakDeck(“rising from the ashes of that other app”). Onthe surface it’s similar, but it adds compatibilitywith a host of photo services and support formore devices. It’s unfussy, clean and competent,and that makes it our favourite for Android.

3 Google+FreePhone: Tablet:

Don’t laugh – we know there are more peopleusing Commodore 64s than Google+, but thecompany’s app is the nicest of the socialnetworks. The image-led layout gives ita modern feel, and its Hangouts work neatlywith a phone or tablet camera. If you’re not yeton Google+, or if you are and haven’t logged infor a while, try the app – it might convert you.

4 StorifyFreeTablet:

Twitter is where people go to discuss liveevents, but how do you later look back on theevent as it unfolded? With Storify you createedited highlights of events as told on socialnetworks – just drag and drop posts frompeople in your timeline to form a coherentnarrative that can be saved and publishedunder its own URL. It also accepts videos fromYouTube or photos from Flickr and Instagram.

5 QuoraFreePhone:

Quora is a social network for questions andanswers: post any query you like, and if peopledeem it interesting they’ll post responses,which other users then up- or down-vote.How useful Quora can be naturally depends onwho sees your questions, so the app dovetailswith Facebook and Twitter. Even if you don’thave a question to ask, browsing topics quicklybecomes an addictive time sink.

6The Guardian & EyewitnessFrom £10/mth; freeTablet:

Unlike the smartphone versions, the GuardianiPad app is a full-on digital conversion of thedaily paper. Your opinion on the content mayvary, but in design, layout and navigation, it’sthe best we’ve read. Plus, even if the paper’spolitics aren’t to your taste, the free GuardianEyewitness app offers stunning dailyphotography updates. If your iPad has aRetina display, you’re in for quite a treat.

7 InstapaperFrom £1.93Phone: Tablet:

Install the Read Later bookmark on yourbrowser, and whenever you come across aninteresting article while you’re busy at work,just click to send it to Instapaper. The servicethen strips out the page furniture and stores itfor reading later. We know Instapaper is farfrom new, but its feature list is growing, with

support for all the major Twitter clients andsocial news apps, such as Zite (see 10).However, if you’d prefer a free app, there’salways the highly polished Readability.

8 Longform£1.49Tablet:

This year has seen a surge in the appeal oflongform writing, with all manner of curatedprint periodicals and websites popping upwith the kind of in-depth, intelligent articlesthat don’t really fit the quick-fire internet. TheLongform iPad app acts as a repository for suchpieces, collating the best from various (mostlyAmerican) sources. It also connects toInstapaper and Readability (see 7).

9 The VergeFreePhone:

We’re happy to praise other quality tech sites,and they don’t come much better than TheVerge. With its finger on the pulse of the gadgetscene, the site is a mix of product news andreviews, plus imaginative feature pieces, and itssmartphone app is one of the neatest around.

SOCIAL/NEWS

10 ZiteFreePhone: Tablet:

Personalised news is something many appsattempt, but Zite manages it better thanmost. By selecting your categories, thenspending the first few weeks rating thestories you’re offered as relevant to youor not, Zite gradually evolves into anews-gatherer that works to your interests.It can be a little over-zealous – don’t goliking too many articles from the samesource unless you want your homepageswamped by it – but if rated sparingly, it’sa great news-reading and sharing tool.

1Tweetbot for Twitter£1.99Phone: Tablet:

Twitter clients are something of a personalpreference, but there’s one that wins near-universal approval from the iOS users of PC Pro.Tweetbot doesn’t do anything hugely novel – fewTwitter clients do – but it does make the basicexperience as smooth, stylish and painless as anywe’ve used. It can turn your Twitter lists intomultiple timelines and sync your reading positionacross devices, and it’s all navigated with intuitivegestures, keeping the clutter of so many clients toa minimum. We also like the cartoonishly sinistercompany logo.


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12 Sky Sports for iPadFreeTablet:

The dedicated Sky Sports iPad app is anotherthat keeps improving. While it performs thestaple duties of EPG and live player for yoursubscribed sport channels, it’s even better as asecond-screen viewing companion. The PremierLeague Match Centre keeps you up to date on aSaturday, with a Champions League alternativefor midweek. The Formula 1 Race Control has(not quite) live timing updates and video feeds,and Sky added a great live scorecard and feedsin time for the recent Ryder Cup.

13 zeeboxFreePhone: Tablet:

There’s no denying zeebox’s popularity, butwhether it’s for you will largely depend on youropinion of tapping away at a tablet duringGame of Thrones. People of, ahem, a certainage may find the idea of “second-screenviewing” as horrific as those odd people onthe tube who listen to music while reading abook – but if you’re up to it, few apps integrateTV and social networking with such panache.

14 BBC iPlayerFreePhone: Tablet:

Mobile iPlayer has been around since 2008,but this year’s update was big. You still get themajority of the BBC’s output, including plentyof sport and film, but the update allows you todownload video to your device. Not only doesthis make you less reliant on battery-killing 3G,but it also means that you can stock up with afew episodes of QI before you head abroad.The feature is iOS-only for now, butan Android update is due soon.

15 NetflixFrom £5.99/mthPhone: Tablet:

Although we could just as easily have gone forLovefilm Instant – and your choice may comedown to the differing content in the services’listings – Netflix is much better designed.Categories drill down into subcategories witha more creativity, and the scrollable cover-flowlayout makes spotting your favourites muchsimpler. Whichever you prefer, both tabletservices are a good complement to the existingset-top box and console plugins.

16 SpondleFreePhone: Tablet:

With the exception of the more stylish iPad app,Spondle’s results pages have the unattractivemulticoloured look of an early HTMLexperiment, but there’s something lovely abouta location app that pushes people towards localtheatres and exhibitions rather than chainrestaurants. Spondle uses your GPS to tell youwhat entertainment is going on around yourlocation, so the phone apps are great for aweekend break in an unfamiliar part of the UK.

17 SoundCloudFreePhone: Tablet:

SoundCloud members can record and uploadtheir own music, DJ mixes, sound effects oraudio recordings and share them with as many,or as few, people as they care to – which alsomakes it an invaluable resource for globalcollaboration. It’s taken the place of Myspacefor many professional musicians, artists, recordlabels and DJs, who regularly share exclusivetracks fresh from the studio, upload DJ mixesfrom recent events, or demo their latest releases.

18 PlexFrom £2.99Phone: Tablet:

Streaming audio to mobile devices is made easyby Plex, which works on most phones andtablets – including Windows Phone as of thisyear. Set up the client on your home PC andyou’ll be able to access its content on the move,as well as taking advantage of a wide range ofinternet channels. Just watch your 3G datausage if you’re not on an unlimited contract.

19 Xbox SmartGlassFreeTablet:

SmartGlass turns a Windows 8 tablet into atouchscreen Xbox controller, allowing you toaccess the non-gaming aspects of Microsoft’sconsole. The interface includes tiles for the apps– such as BBC iPlayer, Lovefilm, Sky and so on– that you’ve installed on your Xbox, althoughnavigating through them can be tough. Swipingaround the homescreen is intuitive, though, andit’s a godsendwhen yourXbox controllerbatteries die.

ENTERTAINMENT

11 Sky+FreePhone: Tablet:

On phones Sky+ is a great way to checkwhat’s on and remotely record TV, but theiPad app takes things up a notch: it’s nowa full remote control for your Sky box.The interactive channel listings show fullprogramme information along with Sky’shighlights, and when you click Watch,your TV responds instantly. You can thenflip to the live gesture interface and rewindwhat you’re watching with a simple swipe.Sky has said the remote control featurewill also be coming to phones “very soon”.

20 Amazon Cloud PlayerFrom freePhone:

Transferring music to your smartphone can be a pain, but storeyour music in the cloud and you can listen wherever you are, onwhatever device you want. Amazon’s Cloud Player app, whichrecently went live in the UK, lets you stream or download tracks,provides unlimited storage for music bought via Amazon’s MP3store, plus storage for up to 250 of your own tracks for free, andup to 250,000 songs for an annual fee of £21.99.


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GAMES

21WordamentFreePhone: Tablet:

Need a killer reason to buy a Windows device?Meet the horrendously addictive Wordament.It’s Boggle-esque, with two minutes to formwords using vertical, horizontal or diagonalmoves, but you compete against the rest of theworld in real-time, with the biggest challengebeing to break into the top ten in a given round– no-one at PC Pro has managed it. Yet.

22 UplinkFrom £2.99Tablet:

Yes, it’s a conversion of Introversion’s classichacking sim from 2001, and the good news isthat it plays identically but with touch controls.The not-so-good news is that it has aged, butthere’s something wonderfully nerdy about theretro hacking hardware and the methods youuse to steal, sabotage and cover your tracks.

23 Draw SomethingFrom freePhone: Tablet:

The prize for the Angry Birds of 2012 goes tothis take on Pictionary – there was a pointwhen it seemed that was all people were usingtheir phones for. Facebook integration meansthere’s plenty of opponents, and (once youweed out the oddballs who just write theanswer or doodle big male appendages) thegame brings out hidden talents.

26 Great Big War Game£1.99Phone: Tablet:

This 3D, turn-based RTS has you hiring anddirecting soldiers to defeat the enemy. Thesequel to Great Little War Game adds moreunit types and bigger maps while retaining theimmature humour that worked in the original.

27 Kingdom RushFrom 69pPhone: Tablet:

In the tower-defence genre, waves of enemiesmarch across a map for your defences to stop.That simple concept has spawned countlesstitles, but few capture its essence as purely as

Kingdom Rush. Cartoonish creativity belies adevious tactical approach, with forking upgradetrees forcing you to choose between snipers,wizards and Big Bertha mortar guns. Perfect.

28 W.E.L.D.E.R.£1.86Phone: Tablet:

W.E.L.D.E.R. plunges you into an industrialnightmare from which you escape by “welding”words from a grid of letters. The unique featurehere is that you make words by swappingadjacent letters until they sit in the correct order– and you have a limited number of swaps.

29 Dungeon VillageFrom £2.49Phone: Tablet:

We could put several Kairosoft games on thislist – so successful and addictive is its mini-RPGblueprint – but Dungeon Village raised the barfor addiction levels. Build a town that attractsadventurers from across the land, then managethese intrepid folk as they complete quests andcollect loot. If you haven’t played any Kairosoftgames yet, you’ll soon be trying them all.

30 Tiny WingsFrom 69pPhone: Tablet:

This one-button flier has been stealing sparetime since early 2011, but in a rare display ofaltruism, its designer Andreas Illiger releasedan update in July that isn’t far off a full sequel.It added races against other birds, and newgameplay elements to reignite the addiction.

24 New Star SoccerFrom 69p for career modePhone: Tablet:

One game swallowed up as much of PC Pro’s time as allthe others put together during 2012. It’s dangerous. It’saddictive. Warnings circulated to avoid it for the sake ofyour health. New Star Soccer is a lot of things. It’s a SensibleSoccer-style football game and a Championship Manager-style text game in one. It’s an RPG, a time-managementpuzzle and a footballer’s lifestyle sim. And it moves soquickly that you’ll handle all of those things in every fewminutes of gameplay, as you battle to earn a transfer toBarcelona and lead England to World Cup glory while alsotrying to buy your own tropical island, woo your girlfriendand ensure you have enough energy left to make it to thenext match. New Star Soccer provides a lesson in how tokeep players coming back for more.

25 The Room£2.99Tablet:

There are puzzle games, and there’s The Room.As the name suggests, the “action” takes place ina single, strange room, in the middle of which sitsan ornate wooden box. All you have to do is finda way in – but as you solve each ingenious visualriddle, another layer peels back to reveal more,each one building on, yet subverting, previous

solutions. The Room isn’t so much a game as an elaborate method of torture, often seemingto have you beaten, only to relinquish its next secret in a breakthrough that literally had uspunching the air at times. It’s really only a test of attention to detail and lateral thinking, yet itproved to be one of the most fiendishly enjoyable experiences of the year. Hint: if you want thatsporadic feeling of elation only a game this tricky can elicit, don’t accept the offer of hints.


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31 Super Hexagon£1.99Phone: Tablet:

Difficult games are in fashion right now, andfew come tougher than Super Hexagon. Thereare two controls – spin left and spin right – andone goal, which is to not die. You will die,though. Repeatedly. To a techno soundtrack,the walls close in and you dodge, and dodge,and die. And go again, and dodge, and die. Go.Die. Repeat. The office record is 41.49 seconds;the average game must be fewer than ten.

32 Plague Inc.From freePhone: Tablet:

Imagine a game of Risk where, instead ofarmies on a world map, there’s the spread ofdisease. And you’re that disease. Choose astarting nation, evolve your transmissionmethods, target human weaknesses and mutateinto something horrific as you devour mankind,all the while combating efforts to develop acure. It’s much less gruesome and far moretactical than it sounds.

33 Machinarium£2.99Tablet:

A truly gorgeous tablet app, Machinarium isa treat for the eyes and brain. The aim is toreunite Josef the robot with his girlfriend bysolving a series of magnificently conceivedpuzzles. The steampunk animation is soadorably intricate that the hard part is findingthe objects needed to solve the puzzles. If youbecome stuck, a pencil sketch of the solution isprovided – if you first beat a mini shoot-’em-up.

37 SongPopFreePhone: Tablet:

Choose a playlist, race to identify the musicalsnippets before your friends, then use thewinnings to unlock more playlists. Repeat.

38 Ticket to RideFrom £1.49Phone: Tablet:

Board games make perfect iPad fodder, andalthough Ticket to Ride isn’t well known in theUK, its strategic card-based play is easy to pick

up. Each card is a carriage; carriages maketrains; trains connect cities – except you needthe right colour, and cities can be a continentapart. It’s as much about hitting your goals asit is about blocking those of your opponents.

39 SpellTower£1.49Phone: Tablet:

SpellTower ekes something new from theword-game formula. In Puzzle Mode, yourletters shift upwards with every word youeliminate. Dead tiles and letters that demandwords of a certain length mean you’ve lostcontrol in no time, blocked by a Q with no U,or an extra-long P. It’s tense and moreish – anddon’t get us started on the hellish timed mode.

40 Waking Mars£2.99Phone: Tablet:

Trips to Mars tend to involve blasting aliens,so it was refreshing to experience the morethoughtful, creative gameplay of Waking Mars.When life is discovered on the Red Planet, yourmission to make contact goes wrong, and youhave to learn about these strange creatures andnurture their fragile ecosystem to make it out inone piece. Yes, there’s combat of a sort, but it’sas much a (slightly cheesy) journey of strategyand discovery as it is an action game.

34 Bastion£2.99Tablet:

It says a lot about the power of the iPad that thiswonderful action RPG can make the transitionfrom PC and Xbox without losing its lushvibrancy and charm. The tale of a boy fighting tosave civilisation, its distinctive style comes fromthree things: the dreamscape-level layouts, inwhich the floor appears often out of nowhere in

front of our hero; the wonderful array of weapons, challenges, power-ups and foes; and theperfect combination of soundtrack and laconic narration. Among a growing crowd ofbig-budget, ultra-slick yet ultimately vacuous iPad titles, Bastion stands out a mile.

35Hunters 2£2.99Phone: Tablet:

36 Call of Cthulhu:The Wasted Land£2.99Phone: Tablet:

These two perfectly nail the turn-based strategyformat in very different ways. Hunters 2 seesyou control a team of bounty hunters in space,blasting aliens, levelling up, and bagging lootand weapons as you track down the rogueveteran Caius Black. If that’s too futuristic,Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land takes thesame basic concept into the dark world of H.P.Lovecraft, to atmospheric and charming effect.As anyone who loved X-Com or JaggedAlliance will appreciate, both games are allabout using the terrain, along with your team’sdistinct weapons and abilities to keep themalive and kill everyone else.


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CREATIVITY

41 Adobe PhotoshopTouch£6.99Tablet:

We’ve yet to see another photo-editing app thatoffers the fine precision of Photoshop. Thebrilliantly conceived Scribble Select tool lets youcut out parts of an image by doodling on thescreen with your finger, with the softwarecleverly taking care of the rough edges. Otheradvanced features such as layers, andcompatibility with AirPrint and full-blownPhotoshop make this well worth the price.

42 Snapseed£2.99Phone: Tablet:

The beautiful Snapseed wasn’t new for 2012,but developer Nik Software was acquired byGoogle, which could have major implicationsfor its future as a standalone app. Google has ahistory of swallowing start-ups and rolling theirfeatures into its own products, which meansyou could well see Snapseed’s spot-editing toolsand range of stunning filters blended intoAndroid. Snap up the iOS app while you can.

45 PaperFree (£4.99 for extra tools)Tablet:

This app delivers the closest experience towriting with pen and paper that we’ve foundon a tablet. Don’t be fooled: this is an artist’ssketchbook, not a note-taker, and without anoption to pan and zoom around pages, thecanvas is limited to the size of the iPad screen.That said, the pen strokes are beautifullyauthentic, and with the paid-for additionaltools, it’s possible to create lovely pieces.

46 Fresh PaintFreeTablet:

This Windows 8 app emulates the joy ofslapping paint on canvas like no other. Paint inone colour and then brush over that same areawith another; then sit back and watch as thecolours bleed authentically together. Whenyou’re ready, you can switch on the dryer andprevent the colours from merging. The optionto paint over your digital photos is anotherfeather in this terrific app’s cap.

47 CinemagramFreePhone:

The concept behind Cinemagram is so goodthat Nokia has purloined it for its thinly veiledCinemagraph feature in the Lumia 920. Theapp allows you to shoot a short video, freeze aframe, and then paint in areas that retain theirmotion, creating clever effects such as bubblesrising up a static pint of cider (www.pcpro.co.uk/links/219apps1). A steady hand and a richimagination are prerequisites.

48 Auria£34.99Tablet:

This 48-track digital recording app turns theiPad into a professional-grade mixing andproduction station. It comes with a plethora ofeffects, and Auria imports and exports AAFsessions so you can use it as a mobile extensionto your desktop audio workstation. Partner itwith an external audio interface, such as theFocusrite iTrack Solo (see p111).

49 Triggertrap£2.99Phone:

Adding a remote trigger to a camera can beexpensive; getting one that reacts to sound ormovement adds even more. Triggertrap allowsyou to fire either your phone’s internal cameraor, via an external cable, a wide range ofDSLRs. The software supports various externalstimuli such as sound and movement, or cansimply be used as an external cable release.Read our full review on p112.

50 AmpKitFrom freePhone: Tablet:

For occasional musicians, adding effectspedals to your guitar setup costs money,occupies space, and produces a tangle ofcables. The Peavey AmpKit adds a smallbreakout box (£25) in which to plug yourguitar; gives you a number of virtual pedalsand effects; and allows you to play yourphone through the resulting hardware andsoftware setup. It works brilliantly, even onan old iPhone 3GS.

43 ArtRageFrom £1.49Phone: Tablet:

ArtRage is a painting and drawing app foriOS that lets you create stunning imageswith a series of natural brushes, pencil andinking tools. Our favourite feature is itsability to import photos and paint overthem. With painting and drawing toolssampling colour from the pictureunderneath, it’s possible to turnunremarkable photos into strikingpaintings, no matter what your skill level.It isn’t strictly new, but it was updated forthe Retina display earlier in the year, andthis is where it really looks its best.

44 500pxFreeTablet:

500px has replaced the labouring Flickr as the sitefor many photographers to show off their wares,and its stunning tablet app is one of the reasonsfor this. The 500px app is essentially a viewer thatshows off the intimidatingly high-quality editor’spicks and user-voted photos in glorious full screen.It can also be used as a slideshow for the photosin your own or others’ accounts, with smoothtransitions and music stored on your tabletplaying in the background.


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58 Little Digits£1.49Tablet:

YouTube will confirm that toddlers andtouchscreens are a winning combination, andLittle Digits takes advantage of that and theiPad’s ten-point multitouch to great effect. Inbasic mode the digit on screen responds to thenumber of fingers touching it, and the conceptis extended into add and subtract modes. It’ssimple, child-safe and wonderfully intuitive.

59 Famigo Sandbox£3.16Phone: Tablet:

It can be a worry handing your phone over toa young child, so Famigo Sandbox essentiallychildproofs Android devices. You can set upa list of approved apps to run within theSandbox, automatically hiding the rest, andyou can lock the Android home button so itredirects to the Sandbox. Famigo also curatesa list of apps for your child to add to a built-inwishlist, and it blocks in-app purchases.

EDUCATION

52 iTunes UFreePhone: Tablet:

It’s easy to forget the astonishing amount ofknowledge that’s freely available from Apple’sown educational repository – which may bewhy it was separated into a standalone appearlier this year. The courses are growing innumber as well as in ambition and creativityas time goes on, and the service has beenembraced by some of the most prestigiouseducators in the world.

53 TEDFreePhone: Tablet:

Attending the annual TED (Technology,Entertainment and Design) conference meansan hour-long application form and thousandsin membership fees. Thank goodness, then,that the free TED app has talks by luminariesranging from Stephen Hawking to Steve Jobs.It isn’t technically new, but as the app includesTED’s entire back catalogue and is constantlybeing updated with new talks, it remains amust-have. Talks are available for offlineviewing, and it supports AirPlay on iOS devices.

54 Khan AcademyFreeTablet:

Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organisationthat aims to educate the world for free. TheiPad app gives access to its library of more than3,200 teaching videos, covering branches ofmaths, science (including its recent foray intocomputing), history, and even finance andeconomics. It also has a section for talks, similarto the TED app. The quality of teaching varies,but it’s a free resource designed to engage andexplain rather than simply lecture.

55 EncyclopaediaBritannicaFree (requires subscription)Tablet:

There have been Britannica apps for a while,but the Windows 8 app stood out from arelatively meagre crowd at launch. It’s welldesigned, makes full use of a large monitor togive you detailed information, lots of imagesand other interactive elements, and a search forone topic quickly leads to several more. Thebad news? To browse beyond the top 100articles, you have to subscribe.

56 HistorypinFreePhone:

Locational apps tend to focus on entertainment,but they can educate too. Developed inpartnership with Google, Historypin uses yourphone’s GPS to deliver historical snippetsstretching back to 1840. As well as information,it’s focused on images, and its best trick is tooverlay historical photos on the feed fromyour camera, so you can compare life todaywith how it used to be. It’s also a burgeoningwebsite (www.historypin.com).

57 King of MathsFreePhone: Tablet:

If you want your kids to speed up their mentalcalculations – from basic addition to complexequations – then give King of Maths a try.The free version is limited to addition andsubtraction, with 69p unlocking furtherlevels. With a straightforward interface, easyachievements and multiple-choice answers, it’sa great way to persuade reluctant children tospend a few minutes honing their maths skills.

60 Wordflex TouchDictionary£7.99Tablet:

This app isn’t cheap, and at the last countit took up almost 800MB on our iPad.However, Wordflex is an Oxford EnglishDictionary like no other, taking wordsand definitions, and spinning them intointelligent word trees that have youlooking up one then staying on to linkto dozens more. It’s nerdy, uses gesturecontrols brilliantly and is surprisinglyaddictive – and that’s on top of doing itsbasic job of defining words very well.

51 Monster Physics69pPhone: Tablet:

With its high production values, it’s hardto believe Monster Physics is a one-mancreation. A little like the popular Flashgame Fantastic Contraption, MonsterPhysics begins with simple assembly tasks– feed your monster by creating a swing toroll an apple into his mouth, for example– but quickly progresses into morecomplex assault courses that demandthinking about the physics involved. It’saimed at kids, but it’s moreish enoughthat parents will soon be joining in.


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TRAVEL

61 HailoFreePhone:

Next time you stumble out of a nightclub at2am, don’t stand on a corner waiting for a cabto pass by; whip out your Hailo app and orderone. Using GPS, nearby black cabs receive yourrequest, and you’ll be sent details of the firstdriver that accepts, with an estimated time ofarrival. You can even pay by card and Hailowill handle it. It’s London-only in the UK, butalso works in several cities in other countries.

62 Field TripFreePhone:

Google’s Field Trip app runs in the background,popping up nearby snippets from all sorts ofinteresting feeds, including architectural and artinterests, as well as music and live events. It’savailable only in the US, but UK users candownload and install the APK manually. It runsoff feeds, which means there are plenty of UKpop-ups. It’s a little inconsistent and fiddly, butwith Google behind it, it has real potential.

63 SkyscannerFreePhone:Tablet:

Skyscanner enjoys a reputation for findingthe keenest flight prices, and the app makesnavigating them easy. It’s intuitive, consideringthe wealth of information it manages, and weespecially love the Explore feature, whichallows you to circle the globe finding prices tovirtually anywhere from your home airport.

66 GlympseFreePhone:

Glympse arrived on our radar earlier this yearwhen it partnered with Mercedes. It’s a simpleapp with a simple purpose: to let others knowwhere you are. When you set off from work,for example, tell Glympse to send a link homeand set it for an hour, during which therecipient can monitor your location in any webbrowser. When the time is up, the link stopsworking to eliminate any privacy concerns.

67 TomTomFrom £31, UK & IrelandPhone: Tablet:

Such as expensive app is unusual, but when itcan make an appreciable difference to yourjourneys, with associated benefits in fuelconsumption, it’s hard to argue. We A-Listedthe TomTom iPhone app when it arrivedbecause of its superb route-finding and

excellent – if pricey as a £27 extra – HD Trafficfeature, and it’s now finally made its way toAndroid (see p121). Bear in mind, though, thatat present the iOS version is more polished.

68 Bus CheckerFrom £1.99Phone: Tablet:

Available in London and UK versions, this neatapp pulls in live information from the GPSreceivers on every bus to tell you exactly (well,roughly) when yours is due. It also locates allnearby stops, lets you follow buses live on themap, and – our favourite trick – buzzes yourphone when you’re near your stop (especiallyfor the dozing 4am night-bus crowd).

69 Nokia TransportFreePhone: (Nokia Lumia)

Launched quietly alongside the Lumia 610,Nokia’s Transport app is now available to allLumia owners. It’s the ultimate all-in-one publictransport app, covering bus, train, tram andunderground services. Its clever visuals clearlydescribe a route leg by leg, with map links tohelp you out when you need to walk.

70 FlightTrackfrom £2.99Phone:Tablet:

For a less full-on alternative to TripIt (see 64),FlightTrack jettisons all the other gubbins tofocus purely on the flights. Track the live statusof any flight, see how late it left its departuregate and how much time it’s made up in the air,or just watch the live departure boards on yourphone so you can finish your pre-flight meal.

64 TripItFreePhone: Tablet:

“TripIt drags travelling kicking and screaming into the 21stcentury,” states the website, and we have to agree. Wheneveryou book a flight, hotel, rental car, restaurant or even a concertonline, just forward the confirmation email to TripIt (if you’reon Gmail, you can set it up to auto-import, which is like blackmagic), and the full itinerary is compiled in your TripIt account.Even if you book everything separately, TripIt aggregates thedetails in the correct order, and stores it across pretty much anydevice you own. If that sounds great, for an annual fee, TripItPro can also alert you to delays and gate changes, point you tocheaper flights, and track your frequent-flier points.

65 Partly Cloudy£1.49Phone:

It takes something special to stand out from the throng of identikitweather apps, and Partly Cloudy’s clever visualisations are exactlythat. Its clock-face design is minimalist, but its genius lies in itssimplicity. The strip around the edge represents the temperature andthe blue blobs in the middle mean rain; for more precise figures, justswing the arm around to any hour. With 12-hour, 24-hour andseven-day views, and the ability to show any location in the world, itwill become your go-to weather app primarily because it gives a fullforecast for the day in a single, momentary glance.


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LIFESTYLE

71 EndomondoSports TrackerFreePhone:

While Endomondo isn’t new in 2012, this feelslike the year when it has become the must-havedownload for runners, walkers and cyclists.Naturally, it tracks your movements via GPS,but what makes it special is that your Facebookfriends can follow your progress – and send youlive audio messages to give you that little extraencouragement. You also receive the “benefit”of an audio coach telling you how you’re doingevery mile or kilometre.

72 ViewRangerOutdoors GPSFreePhone:Tablet:

ViewRanger is an outdoor navigation app totake you off the beaten track. Global open-source map data is streamed over 3G or cachedfor offline use, and paid-for upgrades add theability to download Ordnance Survey 1:25,000and 1:50,000 maps. You can plot walks andrecord your progress with speed, distance andelevation data; there’s also a dynamic ETA. TheBuddyBeacon feature, which tracks friends’GPS locations in real-time, is a potentiallife-saver, too.

73 Nike+FreePhone:

Everybody knows Nike+, but with accessorieslaunching all the time – and a personalisedtraining suite for Microsoft Kinect on the waybefore the end of the year – it’s one of the most

comprehensive fitness solutions there is. We’restill not sure we’d buy the trainers, but youneedn’t do anything that drastic to take part.

75 St John AmbulanceFirst AidFreePhone:

Recently released for Android phones, the StJohn Ambulance guide to simple first aid isan app that should be in every pocket. Withpictures and simple instructions for a widerange of health issues, it isn’t a replacementfor proper training, but it might just make thedifference until an ambulance arrives.

76 FoodspottingFreePhone:

Forget apps that let you rate and sharerestaurants – Foodspotting goes a step furtherby focusing on the dishes themselves. Next timeyou’re munching on a curry, take a snap of thedish and rate it; with a growing communitydoing the same, the best dishes in an area willrise to the top. A social network-style profileand activity log mean it’s crowdsourcing forspecific meals, so you can see if the Italian downthe road cooks a mean calzone.

77 KoubachiFreePhone:

We review Koubachi on p112, but tosummarise: it’s an app that helps you to carefor your plants. Even if you don’t invest in theWi-Fi sensor, the free app gives a watering andfeeding schedule based on its species database,and can nudge you with notifications.

79 Cocktail FlowFreePhone: Tablet:

This cocktail app makes a fine transition fromsmartphones into the Windows 8 Store. Selectrecipes by name, type or colour, or – we likethis part – select the spirits, mixers and liqueursyou have at home and the My Bar section willscan its database for cocktails it can create fromthem. Alas, it isn’t yet daring enough to createsomething out of eggnog, champagne and beer.

80 CAMRA GoodBeer Guide Mobile£4.99, 1yrPhone: Tablet:

With the latest Good Beer Guide, the bestreal-ale pubs in the UK are only a few prodsaway. You can search by nearest tube station,and brief reviews give a flavour of eachestablishment and its facilities, providingessential information such as when food isserved and whether there’s a covered smokingarea or pub garden. A list of the UK’s breweriesis also included, with potted histories andcontact details for arranging visits.

74 StravaFreePhone:

Whether you’re a reluctant runner or an adrenaline junkie, Stravaturns your phone into a sports computer. You can record bike ridesor runs, including the distance covered, speed and estimated calorieconsumption, and the results are automatically uploaded to youraccount and plotted on Google Maps. As a training tool, it’sinvaluable. With the ability to compete against other users’ timedsegments on disciplines ranging from cross-country running todownhill mountain-biking and even the daily cycle commute, Stravais as addictive as exercise apps get.

78 PaprikaFrom £2.99Phone: Tablet:

There are many recipe apps, but Paprikais more than that. It’s a search engine formeals, and results can be clipped into apersonal and editable recipe book thatsyncs across mobile devices and your Mac.You can control which sites are includedin searches from a long list of sources,and you can search by ingredients too.The recipe layout is perfect for a tabletpropped up on a kitchen counter. Paprikais also a weekly meal scheduler andgrocery-list maker, cleverly importing anyingredients you don’t have in your fridgedirectly from your chosen recipes.


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MISCELLANEOUS

82 ChromeFreePhone: Tablet:

This year has seen Google’s browser launch firston Android and then on iOS. Its main strengthis synchronisation: open tabs on a work PC,continue working in them on the train home onyour tablet, then access them again on a homelaptop. This seamless working has quicklymade it a favourite in the PC Pro office, eventhough the iOS version lacks some of Safari’sintegration with the rest of the OS.

83 FileBrowser£2.99Phone: Tablet:

No-one likes syncing their iPhone – because ofiTunes. With FileBrowser, you can move files onand off your iOS device another way, albeitwith restrictions. It can see your Photo Libraryand your iTunes sync files by default, but youcan use your own folder to store files, and copythem to and from any network-connecteddevice for which you know the address. Itrequires tech knowledge, but with Dropboxintegration for an extra 69p, and the ability tostream files to your phone, it’s Android-esquefeature-adding for iPhone and iPad users.

84 µTorrentFreePhone: Tablet:

We only condone this for legal uses, of course,but popular peer-to-peer service µTorrent isnow an Android app. It has all the featuresyou’d expect, including customisable uploadand download limits, TCP port selection,subscriptions and more.

85 Traffic MonitorFreePhone: Tablet:

From the plethora of data-tracking apps, thisone from RadioOpt wins our vote for itsmultiplatform operation and clean UI. It keepsan eye on your Wi-Fi and 3G data usage,warning when you hit selected daily or monthlythresholds. Android users get the better deal:their version breaks that traffic down by app.

86 Prey Anti-TheftFrom freePhone: Tablet:

Open source app Prey protects your phone ortablet (or laptop). In the event of theft, it canuse GPS to provide a location, deactivate it viatext message, and notify you if the SIM isreplaced. A camouflage mode hides Prey fromsavvy thieves, and pro accounts enable featuressuch as constant hardware tracking, reportingoptions and real-time device management.

87 NoLEDFreePhone: Tablet:

NoLED is for Android devices that lacknotification LEDs (it was created for theSamsung Galaxy S). Whenever you receive anew notification – such as a new email or textmessage – NoLED places a small colour-codeddot (or icon) on the standby screen, so you cansee at a glance if you have pending messages orappointments. Battery consumption will varydepending on your device, but with a non-backlit AMOLED screen, it shouldn’t be high.

88 Clear£1.49Phone:

To-do list apps are ten-a-penny, and it comesdown to which one you like the feel of. Still,this minimalist iOS app is as effortless as theycome. Create, delete and clear items with simpleswipes, and drag items up and down in the listto keep your priorities in order. And that’s it. It’sa doddle to learn, and its colour-coded entriesgive a suitable sense of urgency to your tasks.

89 LastPass Premium$12/yrPhone:Tablet:

With a lower (albeit recurring) price and widerplatform support than 1Password (see 90),LastPass is a worthy alternative. Plus, it’s freeon the PC. Enable its two-factor authentication,and its one-time passcodes for use on publicPCs. Just be aware that the app is less intuitivethan 1Password’s, and the desktop browserplugins are far less polished.

81 Chameleon Launcher£6.32Tablet:

If Android is too cluttered for your liking, this Kickstarter-funded homescreen might be the solution. It isn’t cheap, butit lets you add resizable widgets to its customisable tabletdesktops, and has a more professional look than most.However, that’s only the beginning. Create one panel withyour work email and corporate Twitter feed, and anotherwith your home accounts, then set conditions for each. So ifyou’re on the office Wi-Fi, your work panel shows up; after6pm, the home one becomes default. It’s a wonderful way touse your tablet for work and play without mixing the two.

90 1PasswordFrom £6.99Phone: Tablet:

If we could use only one password management system across ourdevices, it would be 1Password. Whether it’s the basic app foriPhone or the Pro app that also supports the iPad, it offers the mostintuitive way to use a different, randomised password for every siteyou visit without having to remember them. Combine it with thedesktop software for Windows and Mac, which can store creditcards, passport details and even personal notes, and you have theultimate password solution. Our only gripe is the cost – the desktopversion is $50 – which is why we’ve also included LastPass on thislist. Note the free Android app is only a password reader.


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MISCELLANEOUS

92 EvernoteFree (£4/mth for Premium)Phone:Tablet:

Evernote has been around for a while, butthere’s still little out there to top its mix ofnote-taking, to-do lists and recordings, syncedacross pretty much any device and platform.The number of services it’s incorporated andtied in with grows with each new release, sowith perseverance, it’s capable of performingthe duties of several other apps in this feature.

93 CloudMagicFreePhone: Tablet:

CloudMagic is a hub that helps you tomanage your myriad online services; it letsyou search email, contacts, Twitter, Facebook,Google Drive, Dropbox and more. Plus, thehomescreen gives an overview of recentactivities across all services.

94 SteamMobileFreePhone:

Valve’s digital distribution platform, Steam,still calls the PC its home, but its app is aversatile companion. It has many of the desktop

features in a similar interface, and games can bepurchased via the app – they’ll be downloadedto your PC when you next start Steam. The applets you browse your friends list, see whichgames they’re playing and chat, no matter whatdevice they’re using. The only thing it doesn’tdo is let you play the games themselves.

95 Smartr ContactsFreePhone:

Devoted users of Xobni – the popular Outlookplugin that spruces up your inbox with picturesand updates from social networks – will enjoythe company’s mobile offering. SmartrContacts creates an address book with thedetails of pretty much anyone with whomyou’ve ever had any communication. It can pullin data from social networks, email contactsand conversations and even calendar entries; itrecognises phone numbers among the wealthof information. It doesn’t work with all emailaccounts, but it’s a powerful tool.

96 Fantasy PremierLeague 2012/13£1.49Phone:Tablet:

Considering it has more than 2.4 millionplayers, it’s amazing that it’s taken until thisseason for the Premier League to support itsfantasy competition with an app. It isn’t hugelyinnovative, but it does the job. You can changeyour team right up to the deadline, maketransfers and check your points live, which isall us budding Mourinhos have wanted allalong. Use in conjunction with the Sky Sportsapp (see 12) for a perfect Saturday.

97 SwiftKey 3 Keyboard£2.99Phone: Tablet:

SwiftKey 3 is one of Android’s most popularthird-party keyboards, and it’s easy to see why.As well as providing a sensible, versatile layout,it will analyse what you type – whether it’s inemails or on social networks – to help correctcommon mistakes and compensate forindividual quirks. Typing styles also help totailor the app to slow, precise typists or rapidtappers. There are separate phone and tabletversions, so be sure to buy the right one.

98 Crime MapFreePhone: Tablet:

Yes, the police have an app. To be honest,there’s nothing particularly new – it’s the samefascinating crime-mapping system that’s beenavailable in browsers for some time – but usingGPS on a smartphone makes it easier than everto see the recent crime levels wherever you maybe house-hunting. And we’re just pleased to seeour public services embracing technology.

99 HeyTellFreePhone:

Who doesn’t love using a walkie-talkie, given achance? Over. That’s right: no-one. Over. AndHeyTell brings the walkie-talkie concept to yourphone: push the onscreen button and recordyour message. On release, it’s sent to yourchosen HeyTell user, who can send back aninstant reply. With its launch on WindowsPhone in 2012, it’s a great addition to anyphone. Over and out.

91 RightmoveFreePhone: Tablet:

The totally redesigned Rightmove app is arevelation. Whether you’re at home withthe iPad, scouring a postcode for houses inyour price range and eyeing up interiorshots, or out and about with a smartphoneletting the GPS do its job, it eliminateswasted viewings and brings up others thatwould have been a chore to find.

100 PC Pro EnhancedSubscribeTablet:

Of all the apps on this list there’s one that cameout of our own blood, sweat and tears, so pleaseforgive us a brief blow of our own trumpet. ThePC Pro Enhanced app takes all the content you’reused to reading in the magazine and adds voicerecordings, 360-degree photography and videoclips, and a whole new layout designedspecifically for the iPad (other platforms areunder review). We’re immensely proud of it,and we hope you’ll enjoy it too.


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Tech cartoonsFEATURE

For as long as there’s been a techindustry, there have been cartoonslampooning it. Stuart Turton exploresthe art and evolution of the geek comic

xkcd.com is one of the best, and most popular, cartoon sites

mong all the flowing tributesto Neil Armstrong, it was asmall cartoon from xkcd.comthat best summed up his

achievements. Tweeted and retweeted, thecomic didn’t lament the great man’s passing.Instead, it pointed out the number of people tohave walked on the moon and the depressinglysmall number who were likely to do so in thefuture. As clearly as any opinion piece, it said“we’ve lost our way”.

It’s no surprise that xkcd managed to do ina single panel (see below) what most obituarieswere struggling to do in a thousand words.Geek comics are the tech world’s fairgroundmirror, presenting a truth that’s distortedbut still familiar. They’ve been with us sincebefore the internet took its first tottering steps,distilling complex issues into a few panels anda dozen words.

In this feature, we talk to some of today’smost prolific tech cartoonists,discussing the difficulties of whatthey do, how their profession ischanging, and the joys of tacklingthe tech world’s biggest issues.Meet the men holding the pencils.

Weekly wisdomIt’s difficult being funny on aweekly basis, especially in anindustry where issues tend to beas inflammatory as a footballer’stweets. So it’s testament toJohn Klossner’s skill that he’s

been a professional cartoonist for 25 years,contributing illustrations to The UNIX-HatersHandbook and numerous other publications,before being taken on as Computerworld’sresident comic writer.

“When I started out, I didn’t even have acomputer, much less create technology-relatedcartoons,” says Klossner. “But cartoons andhumour aren’t necessarily about the specifictopics; they’re about the relationships, humanand otherwise, within those topics. A cavemanhaving trouble lighting a fire is experiencing thesame emotions as someone whose computerkeeps crashing.”

Anybody who’s ever dealt with a belligerentoffice printer will understand how apt thisimage is. Just like the caveman, Klossner claimsthe dark art of being consistently funny is morehard work than inspiration, especially in thoserare weeks when the tech industry forgets to dosomething amusingly calamitous.

“I read a lot to familiarise myself withmultiple topics,” says Klossner. “I find the bestprocess for me is to spend a couple of hourssketching and thinking about a topic for a dayor two, and then coming up with two to threeideas after sleeping on it. I like to share a coupleof possibilities with clients and, after gettingtheir reactions, pick one of the ideas to drawthe finished piece, which takes me anywherefrom 30 minutes to several hours. I have aweekly deadline, which definitely helps me. Itmakes my thoughts flow. If I waited until theperfect joke or idea came along, I’d end updoing one cartoon a year and then putting thatoff until next year, in case I came up withsomething better.”

It’s a slightly different story over onGeekCulture.com, where the wonderfullymonikered Nitrozac and Snaggy produce theJoy of Tech comic. GeekCulture is anad-supported website pushed into the black bymerchandise sales, giving its artists free reinwhen it comes to their creations. So long aspeople keep clicking and buying T-shirts, theartists can draw whatever they want – whichis like giving somebody the gift of flight, justso long as they keep flapping their arms.

“We publish thrice-weekly, so the constantdeadlines hinder our lives as human beingsmore than as artists,” says Snaggy. “We used

to publish a new comic every day,which was brutal, but it honed ourtechnical and creative skills, andour discipline. That was the fire wewere forged in. I like to think ofit as our Hamburg Period, à laThe Beatles.”

It’s a far cry from the early daysof the web, when geek comics weredominated by the weekly belittlingof Dilbert – the office automatonbeing ordered around by a cluelessmanager in a shirt and tie. Dilbertresonated with every IT workerwhose boss had more desk than

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John Pritchett: “It’s ironic, and humorous, that a hi-tech communication device could completelysubvert a more traditional form of communication. Hyperbole, you say? Of course, cartoonistsalways exaggerate, but I have witnessed this situation in real life, which was the inspiration.”

Snaggy: “This is one of my favourites, because I grew up reading my brothers’ old Supermancomics. It was great fun to work with those classic characters, and combine them with acontemporary subject such as the loss of privacy that so many of us experience today.”

brain. These days, it’s just as likely the bosswill be wearing a hoodie as a shirt, andunless he’s handling an IPO, he’ll be far fromclueless. As a result, Dilbert’s imitators, whichwere ubiquitous in the early 1990s, havedisappeared, replaced by comics that take aimat wider issues in the industry, rather than theoffices they take place in.

“Sure, just like everything else, comics havechanged,” says Paul Johnson, who graduatedfrom writing jokes for chat-show host DavidLetterman to drawing comics for ITworld.com.“The audience has changed as well, but I’m notsure they’re more sophisticated than they usedto be. People’s sense of humour has changed,related to general changes in society and culture.

Almost anything is fair game for a cartoon thesedays; that’s probably the biggest change.”

Snaggy agrees. “I think the audience is moresophisticated as to the language of comics, thetypes of speech balloons and comic devices, butI think our collective attention span is waydown due to the ‘point and click’ factor of theinternet. We find if a comic has more than afew speech balloons, a large segment of theinternet population doesn’t have the patience tofinish reading it. So although in some ways theaudience is more sophisticated, another part ofit has become less patient.”

Don’t be memeReaders may be less patient, but they’re certainlymore vocal. Dilbert creator Scott Adams stokedup a great deal of support early in his career byprinting an email address on his strips, allowingthe public to communicate with him directly. Tohis credit, he usually responded, although as thecult of Dilbert grew, that became increasinglydifficult. Nowadays, an email address ispractically antiquated. Cartoonists havewebsites, are reachable over Facebook andTwitter, and have their work dissected on theirown forums – fun when everybody is laughing;a digital scourging when they’re not.

“We don’t receive a ton of criticism,” saysSnaggy. “Occasionally, we encounter someoneon the internet who makes it their mission inlife to tell everyone we are never, ever, ever,funny. Trolls will be trolls. When we do get arabid email, it’s usually from Google fanboyswho think we never, ever make fun of Apple – aview that I find extremely puzzling. When wedo skewer Apple, it seems that Apple fanboyscan take a joke and can laugh at themselves.”

“The audience ismore sophisticatedas to the language ofcomics these days”

FEATURETech cartoons

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FEATURE Tech cartoons

Yes, we’re as shocked as you are by thatcomment. According to Johnson, it’s thistribalism that makes tech such a rewardingpasture to stomp around in. “Tech is aninteresting cartoon and comedy topic these daysbecause it’s everywhere,” he says. “Most peoplehave smartphones or tablets or laptops, andthey know what Apple and Google andFacebook are, so it’s a large base of sharedknowledge and experiences. That makes it ripefor lampooning.”

Cartoon mash-upsBeyond interacting with the cartoonist, theinternet also allows people to interact with thecartoon itself. This fate befell Mark Stivers, apart-time cartoonist and full-time piano tunerwho woke up one morning to discover that his“what atheists cry out during sex” cartoon hadbeen co-opted by the 4chan community.Replacing the speech bubbles, the joke swiftlybecame “what 4chan cries out during sex”followed by answers that would have lawsuitshitting us like meteors if we republished them.Should you choose to seek them out, pleasemake sure there are no children present, orindeed human beings of any description. We’dalso lock away any family pets you may have.

This torrent of crude humour was finallycapped by Randall Munroe over at xkcd, whopublished his own cartoon ridiculing the meme

John Klossner: “Cartoons and humour aren’t necessarily about the specific topics; they’reabout the relationships, human and otherwise, within those topics. A caveman having troublelighting a fire is experiencing the same emotions as someone whose computer keeps crashing.”

Scott Adams’ famous Dilbert cartoons have been lampooning the tech industry since 1989


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FEATURETech cartoons

overload. Thankfully, Stivers had a sense ofhumour about it all. “I liked it!” he says. “Andmy younger friends, including my daughter,were impressed. If you don’t want your work tobe appropriated in that way, you shouldn’t postit on the internet. Some of the variations werehilarious, some were dumb, and some wereobscure. Just like graffiti on a wall.”

The good, the bad and the uglyThere are dozens of geek comics out there, fromxkcd’s stickmen to Penny Arcade’s chunkybuffoonery. Some revere words, while otherstreat them like razor blades being sprinkled intotheir cereal. It seems there’s no right or wrongway to construct a comic, yet there are certainlygood and bad comics. So what’s the difference?

“In my view, the best cartoons have as fewwords as possible, or even no words at all,”says cartoonist John Pritchett, who draws aweekly strip for the Honolulu Weekly. “Acartoon that delivers an unambiguous messageat a glance without anybody having to read asingle word may be the best cartoon. For thatto work, the artwork needs to look professionaland sophisticated. It needs to have humour andconvey a relevant message, and produce somekind of reaction from the viewer.”

Well that’s unambiguous. “Words areincredibly important, for what is left out asmuch for what is included,” argues Klossner.

“Cartoons are one of the few art forms thatcombine visual and written humour. I thinkthe best cartoons find a way to use thatcombination to make a strong point. Youhave the reader’s attention for ten to 30 secondsat the most – you’d better be concise.”

While this certainly explains the genius ofxkcd, it shatters like a snowball when tossed inthe direction of Joy of Tech, which uses full-colour pages, featuring multiple panels, speech

bubbles and dense text boxes, much like thosein comic books. In these days of stifled attentionspans it’s practically Ulysses. It isn’t surprisingthen that Snaggy’s view is slightly… Joycean.

“The proliferation of comic styles on theinternet shows that there’s an infinite numberof ways to make good comics,” he says. “Ofcourse, that applies to bad ones too. Goodcomics are so subjective. For me, the idea isparamount, and if the execution of the art canenhance but not distract from the idea, it’s a

giant plus. Sometimes art can get in the way,either by being too elaborate, or by beingdistractingly poor. It’s the same with words;one has to know what not to say, as much aswhat to say.”

Okay, so there’s no consensus on whatmakes a good comic, but presumably we can allagree on their purpose? “My own primary goalis to make people laugh,” says Johnson. “Butthere are many great editorial cartoonists tryingto spur a debate or conversation, so, I don’t seeit as an either-or situation.”

Not surprisingly, this isn’t quite Pritchett’sview. “I believe cartooning can be a doorwayleading to a more informed electorate. Beyondthat, I hope my cartoons make people laugh,make them happy or mad. I’ve always said thatif I didn’t p*** off somebody with my cartoons,then I wasn’t doing a good job.”

Whether you want to be churned into afrothing fury, or reduced to a giggling heap,it’s likely there’s a comic somewhere that willappeal to you. Even if there isn’t, just give4chan a week and a set of crayons, and thereprobably will be. As for the cartoonists, they’lljust keep doing what they do: scouring thenews, reading between the lines and thendrawing within them. The web has changedmuch over the years, but its hall of mirrors ishere to stay. After all, somebody has to pointout how ridiculous this all is, and we may aswell be laughing while they do it.

“Cartoons are oneof the few art formsthat combine visualandwritten humour”

Paul Johnson: “This cartoon came out of the flurry of news on two-factor authentication. I like it because itpokes fun at a serious tech issue that many people were learning about for the first time, plus it’s silly and funand a little off-centre.”

Snaggy: “We find if a comic has more thana few speech balloons, a large segment of theinternet doesn’t have the patience to read it.”

Copyright 2012 by ITworld, 492 Old Connecticut Path, Framingham, Mass. 01701-9171. Reprinted by permission of ITworld. All rights reserved.

www.pcpro.co.uk 047PC PRO•JANUARY 2013WorldMags.netWorldMags.net

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FEATURE Mobile tech


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FEATUREMobile tech


Mobile chip performance is accelerating at such an incredible rate thatit may soon invade our desktops, as Stuart Andrews discovers

Rise of themobile processors

AMD versus Intel.Athlon versusPentium. Radeonversus GeForce. For

years we’ve tracked the ongoingbattles between the giants ofprocessing and graphics. Now,however, something strange ishappening, something that couldleave the latest developments indesktop CPUs and GPUs lookinglike a sideshow.

What if the real battle forthe future of computing isn’tbetween Intel and AMD, butIntel and ARM? What if thenext crucial step in graphicstechnology comes not fromNvidia, but from ImaginationTechnologies or Qualcomm? Whatif mobile processor technology isthe mainstream?

Ever since the rise of thesmartphone and then the tablet,the mobile and desktopcomputing paths have beenconverging. The PC isn’t dead –Gartner still put global sales at87.5 million units in the secondquarter of 2012 – but smartphonesales were 154 million in the samequarter, and tablet sales are set togrow to 369 million a year by theend of 2016.

What’s more, we’re seeing anexplosion of mobile processingpower, with the potential totransform computing. We’re notmerely talking mobile CPUs andGPUs that reach desktop levels ofpower, but mobile architecturesthat might invade the desktop.

The state of playJust as the desktop processormarket belongs to Intel, so themobile processor market isdominated by ARM. The British

firm designs and licenses itsmicroprocessor architectures toothers rather than manufacturingchips itself, and the list of partnersmaking system-on-a-chip (SoC)products includes Samsung, Apple,Nvidia, Texas Instruments andBroadcom. Qualcomm licenses theARMv7 instruction set but uses itsown architecture in its SnapdragonSoC line, while Intel has its ownMedfield SoC for smartphones andClover Trail SoC for tablets, bothbased on the Atom architecture.

However, the CPU is only onepart of the SoC picture: since it’seffectively a computer, it alsoneeds to incorporate a memorysubsystem, an I/O subsystem and aGPU. Not surprisingly, that lastitem has become the focus ofintense competition, with ARMlicensing its Mali GPU cores,Qualcomm designing its ownAdreno GPUs, and Nvidiashowcasing its expertise with itsTegra SoCs. Meanwhile, the UK’sImagination Technologies hasreversed the fortunes of itsPowerVR technology, taking itfrom desktop failure to the GPUthat powers the iPhone and iPad.

A few years ago, the idea ofcomparing SoCs with desktopprocessors would have seemedlaughable, but not anymore. Ofcourse, direct comparisons aredifficult. As Laurence Bryant,director of mobile solutions forARM, puts it, “it’s always hard todraw a direct parallel, becauseARM processors are working inthe sub-watt category, whereasyour desktop processor maybe 40W or more in terms ofpower consumption.”

Nvidia’s technical marketingdirector Nick Stam also sounds anote of realism. “They’re not as

powerful as today’s Sandy Bridgeor Ivy Bridge, and that differenceis going to be maintained well intothe future because of, basically,power.” However, the gap isclosing. “I would say today thatthe Tegra 3 SoC performs closeto a mainstream CPU that’s, say,maybe three years old. I knowthere are certain tests where we’resimilar to a low-end Core 2 Duo.”

In terms of simple instructionsper second, ARM’s next quad-core

Cortex-A15 processor isn’t farbehind a six-year-old Core 2Extreme QX6700, at 35,000Dhrystone MIPs (millions ofinstructions per second) against49,161 Dhrystone MIPS. That’s alot of performance in a low-powerSoC. Meanwhile, Intel’s CloverTrail SoC looks set to banishthe bad memories of the oldnetbook Atoms, with reportsof more-than-acceptableperformance in Windows 8.

It’s a similar story when itcomes to graphics. Nvidia’sStam says Tegra 3 is “not aspowerful as the chip in aPlayStation 3 today, but give usanother generation or two and Iwould say that, both from theCPU and GPU side, the SoCwould be comparable to acirca-2006 PlayStation 3 in pureprocessing FLOPS [floating pointoperations per second].”

This isn’t inconceivable.Imagination Technologies claimsits next-generation SGX Series6

GPUs will push more pixelsper second than a mainstreamGeForce 7600 GT graphics card ofthat same era, with a 5-gigapixelfill rate as opposed to 4.48. What’smore, Imagination claims that itstile-based deferred renderingtechnology makes that 5-gigapixelfill rate look like 13 gigapixels onthe screen, which would put theSGX Series6 GPU ahead of aGeForce 9600 GT GPU of twoyears later.

As David Harold ofImagination Technologies puts it,“mobile is behind in terms of rawfps [frames per second], but not somuch in terms of features.” Withsupport for DirectX 11, OpenGLand OpenGL ES 3 features,today’s mobile processors canproduce mobile content that “tomost eyes, looks just as good asanything on PC or console,”says Harold. “You and Imight appreciate that there aretechniques being used to createthat effect – less complexity insome areas, a little less aliasingon the smaller screen – but theproof is in the experience.”

The challenges aheadIn many respects, improvingprocessors for smartphones andtablets is no different to improvingprocessors for desktops andlaptops. The biggest challenges arepower consumption and heat, buton mobile both issues become

“Intel’s Clover Trail SoC looksset to banish the badmemories

of the old netbook Atoms”


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FEATURE Mobile tech


“Nvidia is finding answersby sharing technologiesacross its product lines”

more critical. Up to a point, thesame tricks that work on desktopprocessors also work on mobile:new process technologies and adie shrink.

“We’re continually designingnew CPUs to squeeze moreperformance and lower energyout of new process nodes,” saysBryant, noting that ARM is nowvalidating cores down at 20nmand below. Intel is taking Atomfrom 32nm to 22nm and 14nm,and Nvidia’s Stam adds that dieshrinks will also help Tegra. “Wehave the process technologies thatare allowing us to go to smallerdimensions or put a lot moreprocessing power in the samedimensions,” he says.

However, on its own this won’tbe enough. “We can see the samemistake from the PC market beingapplied in mobile: higher andhigher clocks,” says Imagination’sHarold. “But it’s terrible for powerconsumption, so everyone doesDVFS [dynamic voltage andfrequency scaling] to bring thoseclocks back down. It isn’t a

solution, it’s a market patch.”The answer, he believes, isn’t intaking desktop processor designsand scaling them down, but takinga highly scalable architecture and“integrating dynamic scalability,intelligent power islanding, fast,context-sensitive save/restore andmany other techniques.”

This is the approachImagination is pushing withPowerVR, and it isn’t alone.ARM talks about the concept ofdynamic range; of how you createa SoC that doesn’t waste energywhile handling lightweight,background tasks, but also rampsup to handle high-performanceapplications. For ARM the answerlies not in dynamic clock speeds,but in what it calls big.LITTLEprocessing technology, combiningvery small, highly tuned processorsdesigned to handle the basics, withlarger, more powerful and moreversatile processors for theintensive work.

“You want to go further inboth directions,” says ARM’sBryant. “You want to eke out

your battery life when you’redoing low-intensity workloads,but you want to be able to delivergreat user experiences andhigh-performance throughput onbigger processors when you’ve gotan intense workload.” In a way,it’s a more sophisticated take on

the Variable SMP (4-PLUS-1)architecture Nvidia introducedwith Tegra 3, where four CPUcores handle heavy workloads anda lightweight single core handlesbasic OS tasks.

Nvidia, meanwhile, is findinganswers by sharing technologiesacross its product lines, mixingthe performance expertise of itsGeForce GPU and Tesla high-performance computing teams,with the power-engineering skillsof the mobile and Tegra teams.

“If you can take some of thatexpertise and cross it over into thedesktop side, and take some of thedesktop expertise of how to buildhigh-performance designs andbring it over into mobile, then youget the best of both worlds,” saysStam. “Absolutely, we’ve beencross-pollinating our engineers,and that’s been going on for a fewyears now in earnest.”

Stam can’t be specific on whattechnology is shared betweenKepler and future Tegra productlines, but he will say that circuitdesigns, power managementfeatures and DVFS concepts havemoved up and down the chain.“For fast paths, you have to usefast transistors, but these tend tobe a little leakier,” he says. “Butfor the paths that aren’t critical,you can use transistors that aremore power efficient. Our Keplerarchitecture – and certainly Tegra– is engineered with different typesof transistors that have differentbehaviours from a powerperspective, and we optimisethe layout.”

Nvidia’s hope is that itsexpertise in desktop graphics willtranslate to the mobile sphere, butthe approaches differ. Imagination,ARM and Qualcomm have alladopted tile-based renderingtechniques, where the scene isanalysed and broken down intoblocks before it goes into therendering pipeline. “This approachminimises memory and, mostimportantly, power whileimproving processing throughput,”says Imagination’s Harold.

Stam is critical of the PowerVRtechnology at the heart of Apple’sA5X and A6 chips. “That graphicshorsepower isn’t really beingefficiently used – at least not froma gaming perspective,” he says.“They use what is called tiling/chunking technology, and that’sgood for certain things but notgood for certain other things.”

Nvidia uses a more directpipeline, using on-chip cachesand a strong geometry-renderingarchitecture to create an efficient


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FEATUREMobile tech


Nvidia Tegra 4CodenamedWayne, Nvidia’snext chipwill pair four to eight28nmARMCortex-A15 coreswith a newGPU architecture,believed to be based on Kepler.With a unified shaderarchitecture featuring 24 to 64fully programmable, general-purpose GPU cores instead offixed-function geometry andpixel shaders, it promises to betwice as fast as Tegra 3.

TexasInstruments OMAP 5TI’s OMAP processors powertablets from the SamsungGalaxy Tab 2 to the Kindle FireHD. TheOMAP 5will have twoARMCortex-A15 cores forintensive work, two Cortex-M4companion cores forbackground tasks, and aPowerVR SGX544MP2GPU.

QualcommSnapdragon S4The Snapdragon S4 is alreadyin high-end smartphones,where its 28nmQualcomm-designed Krait cores outrunthe ARMCortex-A9 cores inmost current SoCs. However,Qualcomm’s Adreno 320 GPU,which supports the newOpenGL ES 3 standard formore advanced visual effects,will double the performanceof the existing Adreno 225.

ST-EricssonNova A9600With only two ARMCortex-A15cores, but also the firstimplementation of a PowerVRSeries6 “Rogue” GPU, the NovaA9600 is expected to appear innew smartphones fromNokia.Rogue looks set to deliver up to20 times the performance ofexisting Series5 GPUs (as usedin Apple’s A5, A5X and A6SoCs) at the same powerconsumption, in dual-coreand quad-core designs.Performance should scaleup from 100 gigaFLOPs(the same level as a 2008GeForce GTX 260) to a dizzying1 teraFLOP.

SamsungExynos 5 DualSamsung’s upcoming SoCcouples two ARMCortex-A15cores to a quad-core ARMMali-T604 GPU. TheMidgard-based T604 has a unifiedshader architecture, morememory bandwidth andsupport for DirectX 11 andOpenGL ES 3, enablingconsole-quality effects such asself-shadowing andHighDynamic Range lighting, whileopening up plenty of potentialfor high-end GPU computing.Exynos 5 Dual should open upRetina-beating resolutions onfuture Samsung tablets.

pipeline. For Stam, it’s this thatwill allow future Tegra processorsto enable “more advanced lightingeffects, higher levels of geometryin characters and games, morecomplex environments and physicsbetween objects.”

It’s also what Stam claims willallow a massive speed increasebetween the current-generationTegra 3 and the chip threegenerations on, codenamed Stark.“Stark is a few years away, butthat’s going to be roughly 25 timesthe performance of Tegra 3,” saysStam. “Twenty-five times thepower in just a couple of yearswithin a similar power envelopeis pretty amazing stuff.”

Mobile GPUsOf course, it isn’t only aboutconsole-quality 3D games andslicker graphics. Improvementsin CPU and GPU power willalso change the way we interactwith our devices. Stam talksof having “more processingpower to handle more naturallanguage recognition”.

“Right now you have Siri,”he says, “which is back-endprocessing, and Google Voice,which is back-end processing, butyou’ll be able to do more stufflocally as well as at the back-end.The phone or the tablet will bethat much more intelligent andcontextually aware.”

Meanwhile, Imagination’sHarold describes how PowerVR’sSeries6 GPUs could benefit GPUcompute. “We measure thatperformance in gigaFLOPS, notpolygons,” he says. “That’s ameasure of the way GPU computeis changing how people thinkabout GPUs. They’re no longerjust for putting pixels onscreen;with APIs such as OpenCL youcan use our GPUs to do gamephysics, augmented reality, imageenhancement and more.”

ARM’s Bryant concurs that“you can compute parallel tasks– such as image-processingtasks – on GPU, again becausethat’s all about efficiency, powerconsumption and throughput.”For Bryant, more high-performance, efficient processingcapability on mobile devices,combined with the softwareecosystem and high-performanceLTE networks, will change the

landscape for good. “I really thinkwe’re looking at the future ofcomputing being mobile”.

Amobile revolutionFor ARM, this is critical. “I thinkwe’re probably getting to thepoint, if not at that point, whereconsumers are already reaching fortheir mobile devices first,” saysBryant, “because that’s the userexperience they want.” In ARM’sview, devices with tailored appsthat are always there, alwaysconnected and always updating,will win over more conventionalPCs, and wireless connectivity andcloud-based services are changing

the shape of computing. “It’sreally convergence. I really believethat we’re living through thisexperience where you’ll startto do computing on whateverscreen is in front of you.”

Nvidia’s Stam agrees. “We’regoing to be in a space where yourmobile device will be your mostimportant device, and will be ableto do 95% of everything you wantto do.” Stam makes it clear thatthe desktop PC won’t go away,and that Nvidia’s business thereis still a major focus. However,he also talks of a future where“you’ll sit your device downnext to whatever screen ormonitor you want to use, and it

will talk wirelessly – and that’sit. That’s your gaming rig, that’syour system.”

Not everyone sees the futurein smartphones and tablets. AnIntel spokesperson noted thatthe smartphone market offeredIntel “an incredible opportunity”,but added that “Ultrabookscontinue to build momentum”and that “we’re really pleasedwith the level of innovation andinvention being brought into thiscategory”. Nor should we forgetthe Intel-based servers running allthe back-end stuff.

However, this leads us to atwist in the mobile processortale. As ARM-based processorsgrow more powerful and bettertuned to sophisticated multicorearrangements, so ARM’s partnersare looking to take them up tothe laptop, the desktop andeven beyond. A number ofcompanies are already producingARM-based servers, and thecompany’s own literature targetsthe Cortex-A15 at low-powerall-in-one PCs and nettops.

Nvidia, meanwhile, is hard atwork on Project Denver, its ownhigh-performance, ARM-basedCPU/GPU, which it claims will“provide the heterogeneouscomputing platform of thefuture, by combining astandard architecture withawesome performance andenergy efficiency.” Accordingto Stam, Project Denver “willhave the ability to process up anddown the chain, from mobiledevices to supercomputers.” He’sreticent on where it will appearfirst, but insists “it’s what ourcustomers demand, and whatwe think makes sense, becausethe efficiency of the ARMarchitecture plays into that wholeperformance-per-watt equationreally well, both up and downthe processor spectrum.”

In other words, the futureof mobile processors might turnout to be the future of computing.It’s an arena where newcompetitors will battle it out,and where Atom might yet endup being a more importanttechnology than Core. Whateverthe future holds, we’re seeingadvances right now that willtransform the devices we useand the way we use them inour everyday lives.

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IN DEPTH UEFI BIOS


BIOS is on its way out – but don’t shed a tear. Darien Graham-Smithexplains how the flexible UEFI system brings computing up to date

Introducing UEFI BIOS

If you’re buying a new PC, you may seesystems described as boasting a UEFIBIOS. If you’re building a computerfrom scratch you may notice that some

motherboards feature a UEFI BIOS, whileother, older models lack it. But what does UEFImean, and is it worth paying extra for it?

Why BIOS needs replacingAnyone who has used a PC will be at leastvaguely familiar with the BIOS – the BasicInput/Output System that’s stored in yourPC’s firmware and kicks in as soon as you turnon your PC. Before the operating system loads,it’s the BIOS that handles the fundamentalbusiness of enumerating which hardware isinstalled and applying basic settings such asCPU frequencies and RAM timings. Byaccessing the BIOS’ built-in menu, you canadjust various settings to make components run

at different speeds, or configure your PC toboot from a different disk.

Broadly speaking, the role of a PC BIOShasn’t changed in more than 20 years, andfor most of that time it’s done a satisfactoryjob. But as PC technology has advanced,more features that need BIOS support haveappeared, such as remote security management,temperature and power monitoring, andprocessor extensions such as virtualisationand Turbo Boost.

Unfortunately, the BIOS was neverdesigned to be extended ad infinitum in thisway. At heart, it’s a 16-bit system, with verylimited integration with the hardware andoperating system, and it can access amaximum of only 1MB of memory. It’sbecoming increasingly difficult to accommodateeverything we expect from a modern computerwithin the old BIOS framework. A newapproach is needed.

The UEFI approachEnter UEFI, the Unified Extensible FirmwareInterface. UEFI is a much more sophisticatedapproach to low-level system management. Youcan think of it as a miniature operating systemthat sits on top of the motherboard’s firmware,rather than being squeezed inside it like a PCBIOS. It’s therefore debatable whether or notit’s really meaningful to talk about a “UEFIBIOS” (see What’s in a name?, p56).

This means that UEFI can be just as powerfulas a “real” OS. It can access all the memoryinstalled in a system, and make use of its ownlittle disk storage space – a sequestered area ofonboard flash storage or hard disk space calledthe EFI System Partition. New modules can beeasily added (hence “Extensible”); this includesdevice drivers for motherboard componentsand external peripherals, so user options can bepresented in an attractive graphical front-endand controlled with the mouse. On touchscreenhardware, it’s possible to change system settingsby swiping and tapping. It’s all a far cry fromthe clunky blue configuration screen of mostBIOS implementations.

What’s more, since UEFI is a softwareenvironment, its high-level functions aren’t tiedto any particular platform: right now, UEFIworks on ARM devices as well as regular PChardware, and there’s no reason it can’t becompiled for any other architecture that maycome along.

Who created UEFI?UEFI has been under development for a lotlonger than you may realise. Chip giant Intelfirst started work on a replacement for theclassic PC BIOS back in 1998, to partner itsnascent Itanium platform. In 2002, its fruitswere formalised as the Extensible FirmwareInterface (EFI).

Intel hasn’t kept the standard to itself,however. Since 2005, the system has beenmanaged and developed by a cross-industryworking group, including not only Intel but

INDEPTHGETMOREOUTOFYOURPCWITHOURCOMPREHENSIVEADVICE


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Contents

IN DEPTHUEFI BIOS

also AMD, Apple, Dell, Lenovo and Microsoft.The organisation is called the Unified EFIForum – hence the addition of the “U” to UEFI.

You might wonder why UEFI hasn’t caughton sooner. In fact, the system in its variousversions has been quietly gaining momentumfor a long time. In 2006, Apple switched allnew Macintosh hardware from PowerPCprocessors over to the Intel platform, and chosethe original EFI for its pre-boot firmware, asystem it uses to this day.

Some Windows laptops have also startedusing UEFI in the past few years, in order toprovide friendlier and more flexible pre-bootenvironments. This hasn’t attracted muchattention, for the simple reason that it makes novisible difference to most end users. And in thecut-throat desktop market, PC motherboardshave tended to stick with traditional BIOSrather than invest in the more sophisticatedUEFI. Until now, that is.

UEFI and Windows 8Historically, Windows hasn’t got along wellwith UEFI hardware. In fact, back in 2006,when enthusiasts tried installing WindowsXP on the first Intel-based iMacs, they werestymied precisely because Windows XP – thecurrent version at that time – has no abilityto boot on an EFI system. The situation wasresolved only when Apple issued a firmwareupdate allowing Mac hardware to emulate atraditional BIOS (along with a driver pack

enabling Apple’shardware to workin Windows).

This shows thepower of UEFI’sopen-ended design.To date BIOSemulation has

remained necessary, because Windows hasnever had full support for UEFI.

This isn’t entirely Microsoft’s fault. Fortechnical reasons, a 32-bit operating system canboot only from 32-bit UEFI firmware, while a64-bit OS requires 64-bit firmware. This becamea problem when Microsoft introduced WindowsVista in both 32- and 64-bit flavours. Nobodywanted to tell users they’d have to reprogramtheir motherboards to match their Windows

edition, and motherboard manufacturers didn’twant to support two parallel versions of theirUEFI firmware anyway.

So Microsoft settled on a compromise: UEFIwould be supported natively on 64-bit editionsof Vista, while 32-bit editions would continueto use a BIOS, either real or emulated. Thesame strategy was adopted for Windows 7.

In Windows 8, however, the situation haschanged, and Microsoft has wholeheartedlyembraced UEFI. Its certification standardsrequire that all new desktops, laptops andtablets sold with Windows 8, and bearing theWindows 8 sticker, must use a UEFI BIOS, toenable the use of the UEFI Secure Boot feature,which we’ll discuss in more detail below. Youcan still upgrade an older non-UEFI system toWindows 8, however – you’ll simply miss outon Secure Boot and a handful of other features,as we’ll describe below.

Practical benefits of UEFIWe’ve mentioned that UEFI lets motherboardmanufacturers provide a friendly graphicalinterface to system settings, and that may bereason enough to switch. Once you’ve used ahandy dropdown menu to configure your harddisks and tweak the frequency settings on yourCPU, the old business of moving back and forthwith the cursor keys feels impossibly primitive.

However, UEFI provides a few morefar-reaching benefits, too. A major one is theability to work better with modern hard disks.The original PC BIOS system was designed towork with the Master Boot Record (MBR)partitioning system, which only supports disksof up to 2TB, and no more than four partitionsper disk. This may have seemed like plenty ofheadroom back when the system was introducedin 1983, but today it feels restrictive.

UEFI brings full support for the newerGUID Partition Table (GPT) partitioningscheme. This system can accommodate up to128 partitions per disk, with a total capacity of8ZB – equivalent to eight billion terabytes.Modern BIOS implementations can oftenhandle GPT disks, but with limitations: manyare unable to boot from very large disks,limiting the usefulness of the latest 3TB drives.

UEFI also allows a generally closer degree ofintegration between the operating system andthe pre-boot environment – something Windows8 takes advantage of in its Advanced StartupOptions. If you’re using a UEFI system, you canchoose these options from the PC settings

● IntroducingUEFI BIOS.............p56

●TenRaspberry Pi projects ........p60

●Data visualisation .......................p64

Asus takes advantage of UEFI to make overclocking settings more accessible to enthusiasts

“It’s all a far cry from the clunkyblue configuration screen ofmost BIOS implementations”


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IN DEPTH UEFI BIOS

screen and select a device to boot from directlywithin the Windows 8 interface. (This optionalso appears if Windows 8 fails to start upproperly, and takes you to the Troubleshootingscreen.) If you’re using non-UEFI hardware,this option won’t be available: to boot from adevice other than the default, you’ll have tojump in when the computer restarts andconfigure your BIOS directly.

Secure BootThe most significant UEFI feature found inWindows 8 is Secure Boot – a system thatensures only authorised operating systems canstart up on your PC. It works by reading acryptographic signature embedded in the OSbootloader and verifying it against a databaseof authorised keys stored within the UEFIfirmware. When you buy a new Windows 8PC, laptop or tablet, the relevant key ispreinstalled by the manufacturer, so you won’teven know Secure Boot is active. However, ifyou try to start a different operating system,the UEFI platform will refuse to boot.

This may not sound like a good thing.Indeed, when it was first announced that allnew Windows 8 hardware would come withSecure Boot enabled, there was uproar amongthe technorati. Microsoft was accused ofshutting out competing operating systems, suchas Ubuntu Linux, and limiting customers’ability to run whatever software they wantedon their PCs.

In reality, Secure Boot – as implemented onx86 Windows 8 hardware – brings real benefits,as we’ll discuss below. And it doesn’t stop youfrom doing anything. Although it’s enabled onall new Windows 8 systems, you can simply gointo the UEFI settings and turn it off with a

click. Once this is done, you can boot whicheveroperating system you like. If you’re upgradingolder hardware to Windows 8 then it’s likelythat Secure Boot won’t even be available; itrequires the latest version of UEFI to function.

It’s also worth noting that you’re free toauthorise bootloaders other than the Windows8 one. For example, you might add a key forUbuntu to the Secure Boot database, enablingboth Windows 8 and Ubuntu to start, whilecontinuing to disallow other, unknownoperating systems. The precise process forgenerating a Secure Boot key should be detailedin the manual for your motherboard or laptop,or in the installation instructions for theoperating system.

What’s more, Microsoft has agreed to allowother recognised operating system publishers

to use the same bootloader key as Windows 8(for a fee). Fedora Linux has already donethis, so you can install and boot Fedora ona Windows 8 system with no additionalconfiguration required.

The advantages of Secure BootNot only is Secure Boot not harmful, it can begreatly beneficial, both at home and at work.For businesses, it can help to enforce securitypolicies. If users are able to plug in their ownhard disks and boot into unauthorisedoperating systems, they could bypass restrictionson which software can be run, what sort ofnetwork access is permitted and so forth. Ifthe IT department uses Secure Boot – and apassword protects the UEFI settings, to preventthem from being tampered with – the potentialfor data leaks is greatly reduced.

For home users, Secure Boot can protectyour security in a different way. Here, themajor risk isn’t from corporate spies, but frommalware. Specifically, Secure Boot protects yoursystem against rootkit-type infections that infectthe bootloader and effectively make themselveshypervisors for the operating system. SecureBoot stops infections like this in their tracks byrefusing to execute unrecognised startup code.

Before we go overboard singing the praisesof Secure Boot, there’s one catch we must pointout. We mentioned above that Secure Bootcould be disabled on x86 hardware. However,if you buy an ARM-based Windows RT device,you won’t be able to disable Secure Boot: onthis platform, the feature is permanently lockedon, and all third-party bootloaders are strictlybanned. You can see why Microsoft insists onthis: it ensures that consumer tablets provide acompletely seamless and consistent experience,with no possibility of malware or confusingmultiple environments. However, it’s bad newsfor anyone hoping to install Android or Linuxon Windows tablet hardware.

The rise of UEFI raises questionsabout terminology. Some motherboardmanufacturers have taken to referring totheir UEFI offerings as sporting a “UEFIBIOS”. Arguably, this is misleading, sincethe UEFI system completely replaces theclassic PC BIOS.

However, the combination of UEFI andthe underpinning firmware does constitute a“basic input and output system”, albeit not ofthe specific sort that’s typically referred toby the term “BIOS”. Alternatively, you mighttake the view that the firmware itself is aBIOS, and the UEFI is merely a shell that sitson top of it. Either way, the use of the termBIOS isn’t exactly wrong, and as long as the

What’s in a name?term UEFI is present as well, the meaningshould be clear.

Another question is how to pronounceUEFI. Although the Unified EFI Forum haspublished voluminous standards material, ithasn’t provided any official guidance on thisburning issue. Here at PC Pro we tend to say“weffy”, but it’s been reported that Microsoftinternally spells the term out as “U-E-F-I”.Another possibility is “you-fee”, or perhaps,for football fans, “you-eh-fee”. Whicheverpronunciation you choose, get used todefending it: if the ongoing lack of consensuson “SATA” is any guide, pronunciationarguments over UEFI will probably be with usfor at least as long as the technology itself.

Once you’ve experienced UEFI. the traditional PC BIOS looks decidedly primitive


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IN DEPTH Raspberry Pi projects

Gareth Halfacree peeks at some of the most imaginative and originaluses for the tiny, lightweight personal computer

Top tenRaspberry Pi projects

The Raspberry Pi has turned outto be a terrific success. Despiteminimal third-party softwaresupport and manufacturing delays,

it remains a bestseller, with buyers waitingweeks to receive their orders as production isramped up to meet demand. Over the followingpages, we discover exactly what people aredoing with all these Pis and explore whatfuture revisions may bring.

1 The Raspberry Pisupercomputer

As a computer, the Raspberry Pi itself is hardlythe equal of the average desktop or laptop, yetsome buyers have been investigating itssuitability for high-performance computing – ifonly as an educational exercise. ProfessorSimon Cox of the University of Southampton,in partnership with fellow computationalengineers and his six-year-old son, recentlyunveiled the first large-scale supercomputercluster to be constructed entirely fromRaspberry Pi hardware.

“As soon as we were able to sourcesufficient Raspberry Pi computers, we wantedto see if it was possible to link them togetherinto a supercomputer,” explains Cox. “Weinstalled and built all of the necessary softwareon the Pi, starting from a standard Debian‘Wheezy’ system image, and we’ve nowpublished a guide sothat you can build yourown supercomputer.”

At a cost of £2,500,the system boasts 64nodes, 16GB ofmemory, 1TB of SDcard storage and aLego chassis. While its performance lagsbehind that of traditional supercomputers,Cox’s creation provides a low-cost platformfor experimenting with computing clustertechnology – something that normallyrequires a hefty server environment andsoftware simulation.

Details of the build are available at www.pcpro.co.uk/links/219id1, along with a guide toconstructing a similar Pi cluster.

2Translation gogglesWearable computing has been “just

around the corner” for decades now, butbeyond the odd bulky wristwatch, little usabletechnology has hit the open market. Google’sProject Glass is due to appear in shops sometime next year, but for now the Pi is helping to

fill the gap thanks to its small size, light weightand low power draw – so low it will run forhours from a cheap lithium-ion battery.

The most impressive wearable Pi effort sofar has to be Will Powell’s project, which turnstwo Raspberry Pi systems and a pair of digitalglasses into the closest thing the world has seento the universal translator of Star Trek fame.Combining a Vuzix STAR 1200 wearabledisplay and a Jawbone Bluetooth microphonePi, the system performs on-the-fly voicerecognition and translation through Microsoft’spublicly accessible application programminginterface (API).

“I can have a conversation withElizabeth, who speaks Spanish to me and Ireturn with English,” explains Powell. “I havenever learnt Spanish, but using the glasses Ican have a full conversation.”

Details of the build, including a video of thesystem in action, are available on Powell’s blogat www.pcpro.co.uk/links/219id2.

3Solar-powereddistributed computing

Another area where the Pi’s low powerdemands are proving popular is distributedcomputing. Through projects such as Folding@home and SETI@home, computer users acrossthe world have for years been contributingspare processor cycles to create a powerfulsupercomputer. Inevitably, those cycles havecome at a cost of increased energy usage.

HANDSON

Professor Cox and his son with a cluster of Pis that link together to form a supercomputer

“Wewanted to see if it waspossible to link Raspberry Pis

together into a supercomputer”


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IN DEPTHRaspberry Pi projects

The Raspberry Pi, however, can run from asolar panel, giving distributed computing fans ameans of contributing environmentally friendlyprocessing power to their favourite projects.The business of attaching a solar panel isn’tparticularly challenging, and Andrew Back hastackled the other half of the equation by portingthe Berkeley Open Infrastructure for NetworkComputing (BOINC) distributed computingclient to the Pi’s ARMv6 instruction set.

“The idea of a self-contained, solar-poweredBOINC appliance is attractive,” Back writesof his experiments, “as it would not onlyaddress concerns over energy consumptionbut could take a novel and even decorativeform, perhaps with a small E Ink screen todisplay computation statistics.”

Details on how to install BOINC on theRaspberry Pi, and how to set up the SETI@home client, which analyses radio telescopedata for signs of alien intelligence, can be foundat www.pcpro.co.uk/links/219id3.

4Musical instrumentsElectronic synthesisers are incredibly

versatile instruments, but they’re frequentlypriced at the top end of most amateurs’ bankbalances. Given a little extra hardware andsome clever software, however, a Raspberry Pican be turned into just such a device – andthat’s exactly what the Piana project aims to do.

Taking its name from a portmanteau of “Pi”and “analogue”, the project aims to create aMIDI-addressable software-based analoguesynthesiser along the lines of the popular MoogSlim Phatty, with up to eight voices and anOpenGL ES-accelerated user interface thatincludes a live oscilloscope and adjustablecomponent connections.

“All this – oscillators being alias-managed,bonkers modulation, Moogy roll-off filters,GPU[-powered GUI] interface with tons ofoscilloscope vertices bouncing around inreal-time – all of this runs on a stock700MHz Raspberry Pi,” project founderOmenie explains of his creation.

Piana is already capable of some impressiveeffects but it isn’t the only effort to turn the Piinto a synthesiser: others are working to portthe open source Pd software synthesiser to thePi’s ARM processor. More details on the Pianaproject are available on the official blog atwww.pcpro.co.uk/links/219id4.

5Marine robotics withthe FishPi

The general-purpose input-output (GPIO)port on the Pi provides an easy means ofinterfacing with external hardware, and formany technical types that spells “robotics”.Several small-scale projects have seen the Pimated to off-the-shelf remote-control cars andthe like, but the FishPi project goes a stepfurther in its aims.

The brainchild of Greg Holloway, FishPilooks to create a fully autonomous marinesurface vehicle capable of crossing the AtlanticOcean without human intervention. As wellas making heavy use of the Raspberry Pi’s

inter-integrated circuit (I²C) connectivityfor the electronic speed controller, servocontroller, GPS and electronic compass, theFishPi takes advantage of the Pi’s low powerdraw in order to run the entire system from asolar panel.

The intention is eventually to produce a kitthat will allow anyone to turn a Pi into a fullyautonomous marine vehicle for purposesincluding environmental monitoring, detailedmapping, development of autonomousnavigation systems and, as Holloway himselfputs it, just “something to geek out to”.

The FishPi project is still very much at theearly stages of development, with Hollowayactively seeking input on its development andproduction through the official website atwww.fishpi.org.

6Bare-metal programmingThe processor at the heart of the Raspberry

Pi, a Broadcom BCM2835 system-on-a-chip, iscertainly slower than a desktop processor, butbeing a Reduced Instruction Set Computing(RISC) chip it’s also more accessible forbeginners to the subject. Taking advantage ofthis fact, the University of Cambridge – locatedconveniently close to the Raspberry PiFoundation’s headquarters – has launched afree online course dubbed Baking Pi, designedto teach anyone how to program an operatingsystem from scratch in assembly language.

Although the example operating systemcomponents used in the course, created by AlexChadwick, aren’t going to rival Windows 8, it’sa useful starting point for learning assembler.

“I have tried not to assume any priorknowledge of operating systems developmentor assembly code,” Chadwick explains in

It’s still in the early stages, but Greg Holloway is hoping to develop his FishPi into anautonomous marine surface vehicle, able to perform tasks such as environmental monitoring

The Piana project turns the RaspberryPi into an analogue synthesiser


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his course introduction; he warns that “itmay be helpful to have some programmingexperience, but the course should beaccessible without.”

For those who have been thinking ofdabbling in assembler for a while, perhaps afterworking with higher-level languages such as Cand .NET, the free course provides a greatintroduction – and the lessons learned can bequickly applied to developing software for thePi and for other ARM-based devices such assmartphones and tablets. The full course isaccessible at www.pcpro.co.uk/links/219id5.

7 Space explorationPutting a Raspberry Pi in space may sound

extreme, but the device is well suited to suchendeavours: it’s passively cooled, with nomoving parts, and can run from batteries orsolar power. Several projects have appearedhoping to create Pi-powered micro-satellites,but the first to bear fruit is slightly more sedate:near-space photography using a Raspberry Pi,a webcam and a weather balloon.

Dave Akerman was the first to think ofusing the Pi as a lightweight near-spaceexploratory vehicle, and to date is the most

successful: his Raspberry Pi in the Sky maidenvoyage hit an altitude of 39,994m – only 300mshort of a world record.

Achieving near-space flight did require a fewmodifications to the Pi, including heatsinks forimproved cooling in the rarefied atmosphere,shorted-out USB fuses to increase output currentfor the webcam, and direct soldering to a high-amperage 5V power supply. But Akerman’smodifications, detailed in full on his blog, arewithin reach of a hobbyist with a soldering ironand some spare time.

Akerman’s experience as an amateurhigh-altitude balloonist certainly helped withthe success of the Raspberry Pi in the Sky, butit’s a project that has captured the imaginationof many other Pi owners across the globe – andis only likely to be bettered when the first Pireaches orbit.

Full details about the Raspberry Pi in theSky mission can be found on Akerman’s blogat www.pcpro.co.uk/links/219id7.

8 ZX Spectrum emulationThe compact form factor of the Raspberry

Pi is exciting to retro-computing enthusiasts:for the first time, it’s possible to emulate almostany home computer from the 1980s and 1990s– and a large chunk of arcade machines andgames consoles, too – on a device the size of apack of cards.

Steve Wilson, a fan of Sir Clive Sinclair’slow-cost computers that helped define the1980s, demonstrates the Pi’s flexibility with hisproject to place one inside the casing of anoriginal Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Using a varietyof cheap additional components, Wilson hasgiven an old rubber-keyed Spectrum asignificant upgrade from its original 3.5MHzZ80 processor and 48KB of RAM.

“The initial problem was finding somewhereto locate the Pi with the minimum componentremoval,” Wilson explains. “I knew I wanted

The Raspberry Pi Foundation recently shiftedmanufacturing to Wales – and took theopportunity of moving factories to makemodifications to the design of the circuitboard. Although those with original boardsneedn’t upgrade, the changes do addflexibility to an already capable device.

The most visible change is the additionof two mounting holes, drilled to acceptan M2.5 screw. Where the earlier Pisrequired a case that would grip the board atthe edges, it’s possible to mountRevision 2 boards directly to almostany surface.

There have also been somemore fundamental changes: theUSB and Ethernet controller hasbeen modified to reduce itsoperating temperature, and it’snow possible to reset theBCM2835 system-on-chipprocessor by shorting Pin 1 to Pin2 on the connector marked P6.

More importantly, thegeneral-purpose input-output

Raspberry Pi Revision 2(GPIO) capabilities of the Revision 2boards are improved by the addition offour more GPIO signals on a new connector,which can alternatively be used for digitalaudio output.

Currently, there’s no way to guaranteethat you’ll get a Revision 2 board, butsupplies of the original boards are runninglow; orders placed now have a good chanceof receiving the updated hardware.

IN DEPTH Raspberry Pi projects

The University of Cambridge has launched Baking Pi, an onlinecourse that uses the Pi to teach beginners programming skills

Steve Wilson has placed a Pi inside a Sinclair ZX Spectrum, creatingan emulator that can run original software and play Full HD video


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the Pi’s USB ports internal, so they were thefirst to come off. The video-out connector wasthen the only problem, and swiftly resolved byits removal.”

Once the keyboard is wired to a USBcontroller, Wilson will have something of aunique item: a Spectrum that can run originalsoftware through an emulator, but which canalso play 1080p Full HD video as a hometheatre system. Wilson’s progress can befollowed on his Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/_SteveWilson_.

9Commercial productsand services

One of the first projects to dip its toes into thewater of Pi-powered commercial products isShoop, a souvenir photo printer created byfreelance software developer Brian de la Cruz.

“When I started selling my software, I sawa huge market for photo-souvenir solutions,and I became more and more interested infurther innovating the business and offeringfresh solutions to the market,” he explainsof his inspiration. “When I got my handson a Raspberry Pi, a light bulb went onand Shoop was born.”

Combining a Raspberry Pi and an inkjetprinter, de la Cruz created a system that canaccept image uploads over Wi-Fi from anysmartphone or tablet. Templates are applied tothe images, which are then printed – and thecustomer, naturally, charged.

The Foundation has indicated that it’shappy to see the Pi used in profit-generatingcommercial enterprises, providing the varioustrademarks are respected and that a messagedeclaring the product to be RaspberryPi-powered is included somewhere on thepackaging or website.

A video demonstrating the Shoop printerin action, missing only some security-relateddetails, can be found on de la Cruz’s blog atwww.pcpro.co.uk/links/219id6.

10Home theatreThe most accessible project in our

list: setting up the Pi as a home theatresystem requires no changes to the hardware.The Pi’s multimedia-centric BCM2835 system-on-chip processor is capable of decoding andplaying 1080p Full HD video content, butlicensing restrictions on the codecs used had

previously meant that only H.264 format videowas supported.

Recently, the Foundation announced a dealthat allows those who desire broader video

support access to twoadditional codecformats: MPEG2 andVC-1. The former,common to older videofiles and DVDs, costsan additional £2.40in licensing, while

Microsoft’s (significantly less popular) VC-1codec costs only £1.20 to enable.

The Foundation has also enabled H.264hardware encoding, which is available for all

Raspberry Pi systems via a free firmwareupdate, along with support for the ConsumerElectronics Control standard – meaning mediaplayback on the Pi can be controlled using theremote control from a CEC-compatibleHDMI-connected TV.

Using a freely available distribution such asRaspbmc, XBian or OpenELEC, the RaspberryPi can become a powerful tool for mediastreaming and playback – and at less than £30,it’s one of the cheapest high-definition playbackdevices on the market. More information on thenewly released codecs, CEC support and usingthe Pi as a home theatre system can be found onthe official Raspberry Pi blog at www.pcpro.co.uk/links/219id8.

The Raspberry Pi is by far the most popularmicrocomputing system today, but it isn’t theonly device on the market – and for sometasks, it may not be the best choice.

Low-power computing specialist VIA haslaunched a sub-brand, APC, which existsspecifically to offer the Pi some competition.Its first product is a Neo-ITX system based ona WonderMedia 800MHz ARM11 processorwith 512MB of RAM (http://apc.io). It offersa faster processor and double the memory,and comes in at a similar price – with an RRPof $49 compared to the Pi’s £30, although itis around twice the size.

An older alternative is the BeagleBoard,an open hardware project packing apowerful ARM Cortex-A8 processor running

Alternatives to the Raspberry Piat 1GHz alongside 512MB of low-powerRAM (http://beagleboard.org). It’s a step upin power from both the Pi and the APC, butcomes at a significant cost: the BeagleBoard-XM, the latest revision, costs $149.

If your project is more about sensingand control, an ARM-based microcomputermay be overkill. A popular choice forrobotics projects is the open sourceArduino, which uses an Atmel microcontrollerin place of a CPU (http://arduino.cc). Muchsimpler than a Pi – running at 16MHz andproviding program storage space of only32KB – it nevertheless boasts powerfulfeatures including 14 general-purpose input/output pins and 12 analogue input pins, andcosts only £19.

IN DEPTHRaspberry Pi projects

Licences for codec formats can be purchased,transforming the Pi into a home theatre system

“Putting a Pi in spacemaysound extreme, but the deviceis suited to such endeavours”


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IN DEPTH Hyper-V


Microsoft’s virtualisation host is now available to all users of Windows 8Professional. Darien Graham-Smith shows you how to get started

Get started withHyper-V virtualisation

Windows 8 Professional isthe first desktop edition ofWindows to include theHyper-V virtualisation host.

It’s a terrifically powerful and flexible system,based on server-grade technology, so if you’veever fancied dabbling in virtualisation there’snever been a better time to dive in.

To be clear, this isn’t the first timedesktop Windows users have been able totake advantage of virtualisation software.All editions of Windows 7 (save for thenetbook-orientated Starter edition) come withthe option to install Microsoft’s Virtual PChost, which in the Professional, Ultimate andEnterprise editions underpins “XP Mode”. Ifyou’re using Windows 7 you can downloadVirtual PC, with or without XP Mode, fromwww.pcpro.co.uk/links/219idh.

There are third-party options too. We’vewritten before about Oracle’s VirtualBox(www.virtualbox.org), a completely free,general-purpose virtualisation host.Alternatively, IT professionals with VMwareexperience may prefer the VMware Player host,

which is available for free for personal usefrom www.vmware.com.

The version of Hyper-V provided withWindows 8, however, is more capable thanany of these. In fact, it’s largely identical tothe version provided with the full-blownWindows Server 2012, to the extent thatyou can configure and manage it across anetworked environment using PowerShellcmdlets. To detail these capabilities in fullwould fill a book, but if you just want tocreate a few virtual machines (VMs) fortesting or development, you can get startedquickly and easily – and on these pages, we’llshow you how.

The power of virtualisationVirtualisation is often associated with bigdata centre applications, but the technologycan be useful on a smaller scale too. Forexample, if you want to try out a differentOS without repartitioning your hard disk,virtualisation provides an easy way to do it.A VM can also serve as a “sandbox”

environment for testing new,possibly untrusted, applications.If you take “snapshots” of yourVM before making changes, youcan easily revert to an earlier stateif something goes wrong.

For developers, maintaininga library of VMs means you canquickly and easily test your codeon multiple platforms withoutleaving your desk. Microsofteven makes available a selectionof VM images, covering WindowsVista with Internet Explorer 7 andWindows 7 with Internet Explorer8 and 9, offered at no charge forsoftware testing purposes. Youcan download them from www.pcpro.co.uk/links/219idh1.

These images were originally created for usewith Virtual PC, but they’ll run happily inHyper-V. Just don’t try to use them foreveryday computing, as they’re not activated.

Installing Hyper-VHyper-V’s system requirements reflect itsprofessional-grade design. To give thebest performance, security and softwarecompatibility, it makes use of second-generationhardware virtualisation features. This meansyou’ll need an AMD Phenom II or laterprocessor, or an Intel Core i3, i5 or i7. Ifyou’re running Windows 8 on an old Athlonor Core 2 Duo system, Hyper-V won’t work.

Hyper-V also requires at least 4GB ofRAM, and a 64-bit OS. The guest OSes youinstall in your VMs can be either 32-bit or64-bit (an advantage over Virtual PC,which supports only 32-bit OSes), but thecopy of Windows 8 doing the hosting mustbe 64-bit. New Windows 8 systems willalmost certainly meet this requirement, butif you’ve performed an in-place upgrade of a

HANDSON

You can create as many virtualmachines as you wish, and runany number of different operatingsystems all on a single desktop


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IN DEPTHHyper-V

32-bit Windows 7 or Vista system, you’ll beleft out.

So long as your PC meets the requirements,setting up Hyper-V is simple. Search Settingsfor “Turn Windows features on or off”, then,when the window opens, tick Hyper-V andclick OK. Hyper-V will be downloadedand installed, after which you’ll be promptedto reboot Windows. Don’t try to skip thereboot: Hyper-V installs at a very lowlevel, “underneath” Windows 8, to allowguest operating systems and software to rundirectly on the CPU. You could even thinkof Windows 8 as just another VM runningwithin Hyper-V – although this particularmachine is unique since it has full control overthe hardware and Hyper-V itself.

Configuring a virtual switchCreating a VM with default settings is verystraightforward: our six-step walkthroughoverleaf will guide you through the wholeprocess. However, if you just step through thedefault settings your VM will end up with nointernet access.

To remedy this you need to create a“virtual switch” to connect your VM’s virtualnetwork controller to your physical network.You do this from the Virtual Switch Manager,accessible under the Action menu in the mainHyper-V console. The default option is tocreate a new external virtual network switch,which is what we want to do. Click onCreate Virtual Switch, check that yourcorrect physical network controller is selectedfrom the dropdown, give the connection aname and click OK. Your new switch willnow be available within the New VirtualMachine wizard. Alternatively, you canconnect an existing VM to it using theSettings view, as we’ll discuss below.

You can create other types of virtual switch,

too: an internal switchlets your VMs talk toone another, and to thehost OS, but is isolatedfrom the outside world.A private switch can beused only among VMs.

Working withvirtual disksBy default, the NewVirtual Machinewizard creates eachnew VM with adynamically expandingdisk in the VHDXformat. This is a goodgeneral-purpose setup,but depending on howyou plan to use yourVM, it may not be thebest choice.

For a start, VHDX is a new format,introduced with Windows 8 and its Server2012 counterpart. If you want your virtual diskto work with older hosts and disk imagemanagement tools, you’ll need to choose theestablished VHD format instead. This providesa slightly lower level of fault tolerance, andsupports disk images only up to 2TB in size,but it should be ample for all but the mostambitious projects.

Consider disk type, too. A dynamicallyexpanding disk appears to the guest operatingsystem as a fresh, independent hard disk of a

user-specified size (the default is 127GB), but inreality it’s simply a data file on your real harddisk. When created this data file takes up amere 4MB on your physical disk, and growsas needed – up to your specified size – toaccommodate the files that are written to it.

Dynamically expanding storage savesspace (see Compacting and converting VHDs,below), but the trade-off is performance. Ittakes time to dynamically allocate file space,and over time the disk file is likely to end upbecoming fragmented, further slowing thingsdown. If you can spare the space, you’ll likelysee consistently smoother performance from afixed-size disk, where the entire space of thedisk is allocated when it’s created.

If you want to get the very best performancein your VM, a third option is to give it adedicated physical hard disk. This must be anon-removable drive, set offline in the host OS:it will remain in this state while it’s being usedby Hyper-V, ensuring the guest OS remains fullyisolated from your real system.

In certain cases you may not want to use adedicated disk or image at all, but to createwhat’s called a differencing disk. Here, anexisting disk image is chosen as the base image:to the guest operating system it looks like anormal disk, but in reality any writes you makeare stored in a separate file, leaving the originalimage file unchanged. If you want to baseseveral VMs on the same operating systemimage, this can be a space-efficient way to do it.

If you want to use one of these disk typeswith your new VM, skip the default diskcreation section of the New Virtual Machine

If you want your VMs to talk to the outside world, you need to setup a virtual switch to handle virtual network connections

When you create a dynamicallyexpanding disk image, it starts out smalland grows as you save data. However,when you delete files, the image doesn’tshrink: reducing the size of the image fileis a disk-intensive process that couldseverely affect performance, so the eraseddata is only “virtually” deleted. This can leadto a lot of wasted physical disk space.

The solution is to manually compact your

Compacting and converting VHDsdynamic disks at convenienttimes, to reduce their size to onlywhat’s required for their contents.To do this, click “Edit Disk…” inthe Actions pane of the Hyper-VManager, then step through thewizard, select your disk imagewhen prompted, and accept“Compact” when asked to choosean action.

You’ll also see the option toconvert a disk to a new format– useful if, for example, you wantto change a dynamic disk image

to one that’s of fixed size, or vice versa. Youcan also convert images back and forthbetween VHD and VHDX formats, so you canfor example use a new image with an olderversion of the host, or with Virtual PC.

The final pair of options – expand andshrink – speak for themselves. Here youcan extend your virtual disks if things arebecoming tight, or reduce their size if you’rerunning low on physical storage.

Compacting disk images is best done offline


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IN DEPTH Hyper-V

Create and configure a virtual machine in Hyper-V

WALKTHROUGH

2 Start by giving your new VM a name and choosing where youwant to store its configuration file. Then click Next and you’ll be

asked to specify how much memory you want to give the VM: if youenable Dynamic Memory, Hyper-V will automatically divide memorybetween multiple VMs as needed.

4 The last step is to configure OS installation media. Here you canset your new VM to boot from a physical CD or DVD, or from an

ISO file. Remember that you need a licence to install Windows in aVM: if you’re trying out virtualisation for the first time, it might be agood idea to use a free OS such as Ubuntu Linux instead.

6 To open a window on your VM, right-click and select Connect.A window opens showing an interactive view of your VM’s

desktop. If you close this window, the VM will continue to run in thebackground: to stop it running, shut it down or “pause” it in theHyper-V Manager.

1Once you’ve installed Hyper-V and rebooted the system, theHyper-V Manager lets you configure and create virtual machines

(VMs). To get started with your first VM, click New in the Actions paneat the right of the window, then select “Virtual Machine” in thesubmenu to launch the New Virtual Machine wizard.

3 If you’ve already created a virtual switch, you can connect it now.Otherwise, you can create one later and attach it in the Settings

view (see main text). The default storage settings will create a diskimage that’s fine for experimenting; if you’d prefer to create a customdisk image, select “Attach a virtual hard disk later”.

5Your VM is now created. If you need to connect a hard disk orconfigure a virtual switch, right-click on your VM’s name in the

Hyper-V Manager and select Settings. Here you can manage yourVM’s virtual hardware, and tweak settings such as where snapshotsare saved and what happens when the host PC shuts down.


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IN DEPTHHyper-V

wizard by selecting “Attach avirtual hard disk later”. Then, tocreate your new virtual disk, selectNew | Hard Disk in the Actionspane of the main Hyper-V Managerand follow the wizard. Under“Configure Disk” you’ll notice theadditional option of copying thecontents of a physical drive intoyour new disk: this provides an easyway to virtualise a running system,perhaps so you can try out softwarewithout affecting your realoperating system.

Once your virtual disk file hasbeen created, you can store itanywhere you want – even on anetwork share or USB stick. Allyou need to do now is attach itto your VM.

Configuringvirtual hardwareWhen you right-click on a VM inthe Virtual Machines pane and selectSettings, you’ll see a selection of hardwareand management options. Some of theserelate to advanced features that you won’tnormally need to worry about, but feel freeto browse: the interface provides plenty ofhelpful contextual information explainingwhat the various settings do.

It’s here that you attach virtual disks toVMs. To do this, click on one of the virtualIDE or SCSI controllers in the left-hand list,ensure Hard Drive is selected from the list ofdisk types, then click Add and select the diskfile you want to use.

You can also connect a VM to a virtualswitch from this interface: simply click onNetwork Adapter and select your switch fromthe dropdown.

While you’re here, it may be worth lookingat the BIOS options, which allow you to setboot priorities if you have more than onevirtual disk attached. Memory options let youassign RAM to your VM and prioritise howmemory should be dynamically allocated if itbecomes low. Processor options let you controlhow many cores and how much processorpower your VM can use – useful if you wantto ensure your host OS remains responsive.You’ll also find a compatibility setting here,which restricts the processor to using featuresthat work across a wide range of physicalhardware, so the VM can be hosted bymultiple different computers.

Installing the OSVirtual hard disks are created blank, sounless you’ve copied the content of anexisting physical drive, the first thing you’llneed to do is install an operating systemon your virtual machine. If you allowedthe New Virtual Machine wizard to createa virtual hard disk, you’ll have had theoption of mounting a physical bootableDVD, or an ISO file, from which to installyour operating system.

You can also configure this from yourVM’s Settings window: select an IDE controller,then choose DVD drive as your disk type. Click

Add, then choose eithera physical driveinstalled in your hostOS or an ISO imagefile to mount as aDVD drive in yourVM. Job done.

Remember: youneed a licence to install an operating system ina VM, just as you do for physical hardware.Legally, a retail copy of Windows 7 or 8 canbe used on only one machine at once – be itphysical or virtual – so you’ll need a productkey that isn’t being used anywhere else tolegitimise your virtual installation. If your OSis an OEM edition then you have even lessflexibility: these licences are valid only for thefirst system upon which the OS is installed, soif your OEM copy of Windows has ever beenused on a physical PC, you’re not permitted toinstall it in a VM at all.

Unless you have some spare Windowslicences to hand, therefore, you might prefer touse one of Microsoft’s freely available virtualWindows environments (mentioned above) –or simply install a Linux distribution, such asUbuntu, available free from www.ubuntu.com.

Using yourvirtual machineOnce you’ve sorted out your OSinstallation media, it’s finally timeto “power on” your VM. Right-click on its name in the VirtualMachines pane and click“Connect…” to open a windowview on your VM; then selectAction | Start to switch on themachine. You can now installyour operating system andinteract with your VM inwhatever way you wish. In themenus of the Virtual Machinewindow you’ll also find options tocreate and revert to snapshots of thestate of your VM, as well as poweroptions and the ability to “insert”discs and images into your virtualdrives. To change the size of thewindow, simply adjust the screenresolution inside your virtualmachine: the window willautomatically resize to fit.

If you’re using Windows as your guestoperating system then once you’re up andrunning you can take advantage of Microsoft’sIntegration Services. These provide usefulbackground services such as host-level backupand time synchronisation. In day-to-day use,the big visible benefit is the ability to move themouse freely in and out of a guest OS window:without Integration Services, clicking within aHyper-V window “captures” the pointer, andyou must press a special key combination torelease it and access the host OS. By default thecombination is Ctrl-Alt-Left Arrow, but youcan change this: to access the relevantconfiguration options, click Hyper-V Settingsin the Actions pane.

If your guest OS is a recent edition ofWindows, there’s a good chance IntegrationServices will be enabled automatically. If not,installing them is easy: select Action | InsertIntegration Services Setup Disk from the VMwindow to present a virtual installation CD tothe guest OS containing the installation files.Even if Integration Services has beenautomatically installed, this virtual disc maycontain a more recent version of the software.

Integration Services makes it convenientto use your VM in a window, but Hyper-Vdoesn’t actually need to run in a window at all.When you click the Close button, your VMwon’t stop: it will continue to run, with CPUusage and status shown directly within theVirtual Machines pane in the Hyper-VManager. You can also start a VM in“headless” mode by right-clicking on its namein this view and selecting “Start…” directly. Inthis way you can have as many VMs as youlike running simultaneously, without clutteringyour screen. To access power options for aheadless VM, simply right-click on its namein the Hyper-V Manager.

Hyper-V isn’t installed in Windows 8 by default, but Professionalusers can download and set it up with a tick

“Remember that you need alicence to install an operatingsystem in a virtualmachine”


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COVER DISC CD & DVD

COVERDISC

ON THE CD & DVD: FULL PRODUCTS

THISMONTH’SCD&DVD–JANUARY2013 [email protected]

CD&DVD

Hundreds of props, textures and shapes can be imported to helpcreate the perfect scene

Detailed character customisation options and plenty of templatesmean creating and tweaking the stars of your show is simple

With the wide range of options available, even novices can quicklybegin to create their own animated movies

INFORMATION As sold for £125; requiresWindows 7,Vista orXP, and online registration

Make your own animations,tweak home movies and improvehard disk performance

iClone 4.2 ProIf you’ve ever tried to make your own animated movie, you’llknow that the software needed can be expensive and intimidating. Ifyou’re looking for a change of pace, try iClone 4.2 Pro – it’s freeon this month’s cover disc, and is a real-time 3D animation toolthat offers a wealth of options.

There’s plenty if you’re creating a movie from scratch. Scenes can bealtered and perfected with a broad range of lighting options, and camerasare just as versatile: multiple viewpoints can be added quickly, and theirmovement and positioning can be tweaked endlessly.

It’s easy to create your environments and characters, too. Backgroundscan be imported, objects can be created with a host of 3D templates, andcharacters can be generated from a range of models – and their attributescan be tweaked, too.

With lip-syncing, facial animation and many other options alsoavailable, it’s never been easier to get started with movie making.

iClone 4.2 Pro


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Technical problems?If you have any difficulties with your CD or DVD, check the cover disc forum at www.pcpro.co.uk/forum

CD & DVD COVER DISC

ON THE DVD: BONUS FULL PRODUCTS

DisclaimerDennis Publishing Ltd cannot accept responsibility for any loss,disruption or damage to your data or your computer system(including hardware) that may occur while using either the discor programs and data on it. If you do not accept the terms andconditions, please do not continue. Full products available to UKreaders only. Full product registration closes on 12 February 2012.THISMONTH’SCD&DVD–JANUARY2013 [email protected]

For full listing, go to:www.pcpro.co.uk/links/219disc

JetDrive 6 Professional

AOMEI Partition Assistant Pro 5.1

The interface looks simple, but don’t be fooled: this applicationserves up a huge variety of hard disk optimisation options

Numerous operations are available for creating, modifying, deletingand working with your hard disk and its partitions

Effects and touch-up options enable you to perfect home moviesbefore sharing them with the world

INFORMATIONAs sold for £25; requiresWindows 7,Vista orXP, and online registration

INFORMATION As sold for £25; requiresWindows 7,Vista orXP, and online registration

INFORMATIONAs sold for £10; requiresWindows 7,Vista orXP, and online registration

JetDrive 6 ProfessionalJetDrive 6 is a one-stop disk optimisation suite, designed to improve theresponsiveness of your PC by identifying files that are scattered acrossthe disk and moving the data blocks together for quicker access.

The main defragmentation module includes options for bothquick and complete processes, depending on how much time you haveto spare, and next door is the Registry defragmentation area. The thirdmodule, a drive-checking tool, analyses all your hard disks for potentialproblems – and lets you know how they can be fixed.

Defragmentation operations can be scheduled, you’re able to pickindividual files and folders to be defragmented, and JetDrive 6 candefragment system files, too.

If you have multiple hard disks, you can selectively exclude certaindrives, and generate reports from previous defragmentation operations.JetDrive 6 even includes more than a dozen visual themes, so it can matchthe style you’ve chosen for the rest of your machine.

AOMEI Partition Assistant Pro 5.1If you have numerous hard disks or SSDs, then you’re likely to be familiarwith partitioning. AOMEI Partition Assistant Pro 5.1 is ideal for dividingup your hard disks – and it’s free on this month’s cover disc.

Plenty of options are available to manage your hard disks. Wizards areavailable to extend, copy or delete existing partitions, and the versatilitycontinues with tools to merge, split and move individual partitions.

Advanced options are available for more technical users: partitions canbe converted to different file systems, drive letters changed, and partitionsformatted or hidden. Bootable CDs can be created, hard disks tested forerrors, and your OS can be migrated between hard disks and SSDs.

AOMEI Partition Assistant Pro 5.1 uses easy-to-digest wizards anda straightforward interface, so it’s easy to get started despite the wealthof powerful options on offer.

Ashampoo Video Styler 2013Every smartphone has a video camera these days, so it’s easier thanever to capture precious moments. Ashampoo Video Styler 2013 isthe ideal application to manage, edit and publish your favourite clips.

Home movies can be enhanced with a variety of effects, fromsimple brightness and colour saturation options to more imaginativesepia and “old TV”-style tweaks. Background music can be added tofootage and, once you’ve finished tweaking, exporting your creationscouldn’t be more simple: settings for YouTube and Facebook areintegrated into Ashampoo Video Styler 2013, and numerous qualitysettings and aspect ratios are available for each.

A Windows Explorer-style list of folders is used to navigate yoursystem, and clicking a folder unveils a list of its video files in a menuat the top of the screen. Select a file, and it appears in the main window– with a handy timeline so you can head to the right moment of yourmovie in an instant.

Ashampoo Video Styler 2013

DVDONLY

DVDONLY

CD&DVD


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REAL WORLDCOMPUTING

EXPERTADVICE FROMOURPANELOF IT PROFESSIONALS

Our expert line-up

RWC Contents

Networks 100

Steve Cassidy is surprised at the unsuitabilityof laptops being sold as business-ready, butat least he’s making money out of it.

Office Applications 94

Simon Jones wonders why Google is reducingdocument compatibility, and is disappointedwith the limitations of Office 2013 RT.

Security&Social Networking 91

Davey Winder explains how securitypros get scammed and wonders whetherMyspace can make a comeback.

Online Business 88

Kevin Partner investigates video marketingfor online businesses and learns that evenham-fisted marketing may conceal a good idea.

Mobile & Wireless 83

Paul Ockenden is accosted by a reader in acoffee shop, and thinks there’s more to iOS 6than the sub-standard maps.

Advanced Windows & Mac 80

Jon Honeyball has another look at tape drives,but is disappointed that LTFS has promised somuch and, so far, delivered so little.

Careers 78Stuart Andrews explores the role of technical writer, the person behind the creationof technical documentation for new hardware and software.

Choose the right business broadband 74There are multiple grades of business broadband that vary greatly in price.Barry Collins helps you to make the right choice.

Do you need help with abusiness IT problem? PCPro’s Steve Cassidy andDavey Winder will visit yourcompany to deliver freeadvice on your firm’s ITsetup. Send details [email protected] we could pay you a visit!

BUSINESS CLINICFREE BUSINESS ADVICE FROM PC PRO’S EXPERTS Web Apps & Design 97

Tom Arah investigates Adobe’s CreativeCloud and asks whether it’s all good newsfor end users.

We

ToClfo


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RWCIdealog

As an Android device, the Nexusimmediately grabbed my contacts,calendar and mail from Google’s cloud

DICK POUNTAIN trackshis journey from Casiocalculator to Nexus 7

DICK POUNTAIN is the editor of PC Pro’s RealWorld Computing section. The calculator on hisNexus 7 isn’t as good as that 1977 Casio.

Blog:www.dickpountain.co.uk

Email: via http://about.me/dick.pountain

Awave of nostalgia aboutold-school personal computing iscirculating the web, with peoplerestoring and emulating SinclairSpectrums, Jupiter Aces, Dragons

and Orics, or just reminiscing about them.I’m not too proud to jump on a passing

bandwagon, so here’s my recollection. I boughtmy first “computer” – a Casio fx-201P, one ofthe first programmable calculators – around1977. It had a ten-digit, fluorescent greendisplay and 127 steps of program memory(with no editor – if you made a mistake, youhad to enter them all again). I programmedit to check printers’ invoices for magazineswith varying numbers of pages, sections andamounts of colour, which impressed theprinters who had no such assistance. WhenDennis Publishing acquired Personal ComputerWorld in 1979, it earned me a column called“Calculator Corner”, of which this columncould be regarded as a direct descendant.

That Casio was a fairly chunky beast,measuring 104 x 3 x 172mm and weighingin at 370g, which hardly mattered, since itremained on my desk. By the oddestcoincidence, my latest “computer”, a Nexus 7,is around the same size at 120 x 10 x 199mmand weighs 340g, although it contains around128 million times more memory and runs morethan 100,000 times faster. And instead of tengreen glowing digits, its display showsstreaming movies and TV. Had cars advancedat a similar rate then just one could carry theentire population of England to the moon inless than two minutes, with 20 million people inthe front seat and 30 million in the back. TheGerman philosopher Hegel famously claimedthat sufficient quantitative change eventuallyleads to qualitative change, and that’s what I’mfeeling right now about my Nexus – that tabletcomputers are poised to change the game.

During these years between the Casio andthe Nexus, I’ve spent a lot of energy pursuing aparticular idea of computing, deeply influencedby Alan Kay’s notion of the “Dynabook”, hisuniversal portable information store. I’vetried and abandoned several drawers fullof pocket-sized computers, looking forone that would sync transparently to a desktopPC. I’ve rejected a desktop altogether in favourof a powerful laptop. I’d reached the point, asdescribed in last month’s column (see issue 218,p69), where I can use my Android smartphoneto share files with my laptop via Dropbox, butit was all still a little fiddly, with data entry via

the phone too slow and a screen rather toosmall for viewing complex websites. I expecteda tablet to improve matters in both respects, butdidn’t anticipate by how much.

As an Android device, the Nexusimmediately grabbed my contacts, calendar andmail from Google’s cloud, and I soon had allmy preferred apps (in their latest Jelly Beanversions) installed. On installing File ManagerHD, I noticed a new menu option called LANConnection, so I tapped the Scan icon to seewhat would happen. After an agonising delay,it came back with a connection to “USER-PC”,my laptop! It took me a further afternoon ofwading through Microsoft’s grim networkmodel – what is HomeGroup and how is itdifferent from a workgroup? – but eventually Ifound that everything I wanted was shared. Noneed to duplicate any music, videos, documentsto the tablet; just access them over Wi-Fi.

I work at home, where I’m either sitting atmy desk upstairs in front of my laptop, or onthe sofa downstairs – I may have to adopt avigorous exercise regime to replace all the stairclimbing I no longer need to do. I rarely work

away from home, so the Nexus’ lack of 3G isn’tcritical, and I wouldn’t want to pay for anotherSIM anyway. Then I discovered the “Tethering& Portable Hotspot” setting on my phone. BTFon already gives me free Wi-Fi throughoutmuch of London, but where it doesn’t, I canGoogle and Wikipede via my phone’s existingdata service.

I’ve never been even slightly tempted by thehome server or media PC offerings, but nowI’m beginning to see the possibility of a differentsort of animal: a tiny Linux box containinga 1TB disk and Wi-Fi, with no display orkeyboard. All it does is locally store data fromPCs, tablets and phones over Wi-Fi, whilecontinually backing itself up to Dropbox orsome other cloud service. There’s no sharedmedia streaming; that’s all handled at the clientend (I have Spotify even on my phone). AndI’ve started to feel wallet palpitations of almostHoneyballian intensity whenever I see ads forthe Asus Transformer.


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RWC Feature

There are multiple grades of business broadband that vary greatly inprice. Barry Collins helps you to make the right choice

Choose the rightbusiness broadband

FEATURE

There’s an enormous range ofacronym-heavy technologiesavailable to business broadbandcustomers – ADSL, SDSL, FTTC and

EFM to name but a few. The consequences ofchoosing the wrong access technology for yourbusiness could be an unnecessary bill runningto tens of thousands of pounds, or – at theother end of the scale – tens of thousands ofpounds worth of lost business, because yourconnection wasn’t up to scratch or properlybacked up with a failover.

To help you avoid making a costly mistake,we’ve spoken to leading business ISPs andindustry experts to guide you through thestrengths and weaknesses of the variousbroadband technologies, and show you whatto look for in SLAs and backup connections.

ADSL and FTTCThe majority of sole traders and smallbusinesses are using precisely the samebroadband technology as they use at home:either ADSL, or a fibre connection in areas thatare fortunate enough to have been upgraded.

Virgin Media’s lesser-known business armoffers cable connections of up to 100Mbits/secto small-business customers, at pricescomparable to those of consumer-gradebroadband. BT’s fibre rollout is well under way,too, with the majority of connections usingfibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) technology thatrelies on copper cabling to deliver the finalstretch of the connection, as opposed to themuch faster fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP).That still delivers download speeds of up to80Mbits/sec, with typical speeds averagingaround 40-50Mbits/sec, according to AndrewSaunders, Zen Internet’s head of productmanagement and marketing. Upstream speedsof up to 19Mbits/sec will also appeal tobusinesses that have long struggled to uploadimages to their website via ADSL connections.

Many business fibre packages based onBT Openreach products have a “minimumdownstream speed” of 12-16Mbits/sec –but don’t be fooled into thinking this is anSLA-backed bandwidth guarantee. These


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RWCFeature

“While SDSL is uncontended, itrestricts themaximumspeed to2Mbits/sec in both directions”

The S of SDSLstands for symmetrical– as opposed to theasymmetrical ofADSL – meaning thatdownload and uploadspeeds are evenlymatched. Better still, the service is normallyuncontended, so your speeds won’t suffer inpeak traffic periods. However, SDSL isn’tavailable in every telephone exchange and it’san ageing technology, restricting the maximumspeed to only 2Mbits/sec in both directions.Even a contended ADSL connection couldregularly surpass those speeds, never mind afibre line. With a 2Mbits/sec SDSL line costingas much as £300 per month, few businesses willconsider that a price worth paying.

“When it came out five or six years ago, the[SDSL] upload speed was quite astonishing,”says Zen’s Andrew Saunders. “If I was abusiness today, I wouldn’t even be thinkingabout SDSL.” Spitfire’s Fellowes claims that

“SDSL has always been a pretty terribleproduct”, but says that it still has a placefor delivering VoIP traffic, with even a modest2Mbits/sec line able to handle as many as 15calls simultaneously.

Businesses looking for speeds faster thanthose ADSL can offer might be better offwith Annex M. This sacrifices a little ofADSL’s download speed for an increase in theuplink. Spitfire’s Annex M promises amaximum downstream of 16Mbits/sec for anuplink of 2.5Mbits/sec, although unlike SDSL,the line is contended.

“Annex M should give you fasterdownloads [than SDSL] and probably fasteruploads,” said Andrew Ferguson, editor of

Ethernet/leased-line connections shouldalways have an SLA that details targetavailability, repair times, and the level ofcompensation paid if the ISP fails to meet itsobligations. Compensation is paid in the formof credit for periods of downtime that surpassthe stated period in the SLA. In reality, thatmeans the ISP is never going to pay you anymore money than the amount you’ve paid itfor the service in the first place, and no ISPwill ever pay damages for the loss ofbusiness that results from your downtime.

That being the case, is there any pointin comparing SLAs of various ISPs before

What difference does an SLAmake?making a decision? The point at which an ISPstarts to pay compensation should be takeninto account, argues BT’s Simon Osgathorp.“BT Net customers can claim from the firstminute of an outage,” he says. “When youlook into a service, it might be six hoursbefore they pay you back.”

Thinkbroadband.com’s Andrew Fergusonsays beware not to confuse compensationperiods with fix times. “Everyone thinks‘great, it will be fixed in four hours’ [becausethat’s the stated compensation period]. No,it won’t. It means if it isn’t fixed within fourhours, you receive a little money.”

promises simply mean that the ISP and BT willregard connections running consistently belowthe stated speed as faulty – you won’t qualifyfor compensation or a time-guaranteed repair ifyour connection suddenly slumps to 5Mbits/sec.For those kinds of assurances, you’ll need tolook at the more expensive Ethernet in the FirstMile (EFM) or leased-line products (see p76).

For those who live outside fibre areas, ordon’t need high-speed connections orguaranteed bandwidth, ADSL remains the mostcost-effective access technology. The familiarconstraints of long lengths of copper wiringmean that ADSL2+ download speeds canfluctuate from only a few hundred Kbits/sec tobeyond 20Mbits/sec, and throughput is also atthe mercy of contention on the network. Itisn’t unusual to see speeds slump during lateafternoon, as children arrive home from school,and start firing up their iPads and gamesconsoles – which isn’t what you need whenyou’re trying to upload a large file for clientsat the end of a working day.

However, even with ADSL, some ISPs willplace business customers’ data ahead of theXbox downloads – for a price. “It gives yourtraffic priority over the network at busy times,”explains Tom Fellowes, sales director atbusiness ISP Spitfire. “It might cost only £10a month, and it allows you to make sure yourcritical stuff is still going to work, whatever ishappening on the network.” In practice, itmeans that an ADSL2+ connection with anelevated traffic option will deliver throughputof at least 12Mbits/sec for 90% of the busythree-hour period, Fellowes explains.

SDSL and Annex MBusinesses that don’t want to rely on thefluctuations of ADSL, but can’t justify the costof a leased line, have two middle-of-the-roadoptions: SDSL and Annex M.

Fluctuating speeds can be frustrating ifyou’re uploading important business data


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RWC Feature

industry watcher Thinkbroadband.com.Annex M is much cheaper, too, typicallycosting around £60-70 a month – a saving of£230 a month over the top-tier SDSL lines.

Ethernet and leased linesThe next level brings you to the varying degreesof Ethernet and leased-line services. These canbe copper-based, such as EFM, or fibre-based,providing a dedicated connection between yourpremises and the internet.

Such dedicated circuits aren’t cheap, andare really only suited to larger companies orbusinesses that require assured bandwidth andguaranteed uptime; this could be a web designagency, for example, or a video productionstudio that doesn’t want to be gamble on

a variable broadband connection when it’suploading a client’s video at 6pm on a Friday.

EFM is one of the most cost-effectiveways of obtaining assured bandwidth. It usesmultiple copper pairs to offer symmetrical,guaranteed bandwidth. “We offer EFM upto 35Mbits/sec symmetrical,” says Zen’sSaunders. “Typically, we see it deployed at10-15Mbits/sec.”

Speeds of 10Mbits/sec or even 35Mbits/secmight not sound that impressive whenstandalone FTTC lines are capable of deliveringboth download and uplink speeds in excess ofthat, but there’s more to EFM than just theheadline speeds. “It’s symmetrical anddedicated bandwidth,” says SimonOsgathorp, head of leased line internetat BT Business. “If a customer takes10Mbits/sec, then they’ll get10Mbits/sec, 24/7, 365.”

“FTTC is absolutely fantasticfor SoHo businesses, but peopleseem to want bandwidththat’s guaranteed forthem exclusively,” agreesSpitfire’s Fellowes.

EFM also includes serviceguarantees. BT has a targetavailability of 99.95% for EFMand backs that with a service-levelagreement (SLA).

“There’s a better fix time forEFM [than FTTC] of seven hours –whether that’s day, night orweekend,” Osgathorp adds. “If theinternet connection goes down andtheir business goes down, runningit over a service that has targetavailability backed by an SLAmight be a wise option. They might

Whether you’re running an ADSLconnection into your home office, orplanning a fibre link for a 200-seatbuilding, it’s vital to think about afailover option in case your primaryconnection collapses.

For a home worker, that failoverconnection could be as simple as a 3Gdongle that allows you to get online ifyour landline connection fails. Don’t waituntil the connection fails to rush down toCarphone Warehouse for an emergencydongle, however; the middle of anoutage isn’t the time to find out thatreception is weak on your chosennetwork. Several business-grade routersallow you to keep a 3G dongle pluggedinto a USB port, acting as a failover if theADSL line goes down.

If a high-speed connection is criticalto your SoHo setup, you should invest in asecond landline. Thinkbroadband.com’sAndrew Ferguson works largely fromhome, and has an ADSL line on BT’snetwork in addition to an ADSLconnection from an LLU provider. “Therehave been line faults where one wasaffected, and one wasn’t,” he said.

Even with two lines, that may not beenough to save you if a JCB scythesthrough the cables leading to yourpremises or the local telephone cabinet.Wireless fallbacks obviously come intotheir own here, but Ferguson suggests amore low-tech approach to backup forsmall firms that aren’t entirely dependenton the internet. “If you have a garage andyou have to deal with online invoices, youhave an agreement with another localgarage down the road,” to use theirconnection when yours fails.

When it comes to EFM, Ethernet andleased-line services, ISPs often providebackup options as standard or for anextra fee. Zen, for instance, provides anADSL backup on all leased-line/Ethernetconnections (it even provides a dial-upbackup for business ADSL lines), whileSpitfire provides a backup line for the costof line rental.

For companies dependent on afast broadband connection, a fullyredundant connection may be considereda business necessity. “If you’re going tospend on EFM, and another EFM asbackup, you need to ensure there’s diverserouteing,” says Ferguson. That meansensuring the cables leave your buildingat different points, and perhaps evenconnecting to different telephoneexchanges – although the latter willramp up costs considerably.

Failoverbe taking orders online, and if the service isdown for a couple of days, they lose thousandsof pounds of orders. Or perhaps it woulddamage their credibility if they host a website.”

EFM services typically cost between £150and £250 per month, but there’s a slightlycheaper option called Generic Ethernet Access(GEA), which uses a single copper pair, forspeeds up to 20Mbits/sec and starts at around£130 per month.

Although GEA also has a guaranteed fixtime, it doesn’t have the built-in resilience ofEFM’s multiple copper pairs, which means ifone of the pairs fails, the bandwidth drops offonly slightly rather than falling away altogether(see Failover, right).

Beyond copper, you’re moving into theworld of pure fibre connections, where

essentially the decisionboils down to howmuch bandwidth yourequire. Spitfire, forexample, will sell youa 10Mbits/sec fibreEthernet circuit from£350 per month, with

100Mbits/sec starting from £650.Exact pricing depends on the degree of

physical digging and the distance from the corenetwork required to wire up your building(s).“Fibre is very much the Blue Riband of internetaccess,” says Fellowes.

Whichever Ethernet/leased-line service youchoose, make sure you factor in plenty of leadtime. An EFM connection typically takes 20-70working days to install, according to Zen’sSaunders. Fibre takes even longer at 55-75working days.

In other words, you need to be planningmonths, not weeks or days, in advance.

“EFMusesmultiple copperpairs to offer symmetrical,guaranteed bandwidth”

The familiar constraints of long lengths of copper wiringmean that ADSL2+ download speeds can fluctuate


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8 OUT OF 10 BUSINESSES

WANT FASTER BROADBAND.

HOW ABOUT 8x FASTER?

Infinity for businessOur recent survey with the British Chambers of Commerce found thatmost businesses want faster broadband. Infinity for business is 8x fasterthan UK average broadband, so you can upload or download large filesin seconds, even at the busiest times. Call or go online to see how otherbusinesses are doing more with our superfast broadband.

Making technology work for people.0800 032 8596 bt.com/superfastbusinessbroadband

Great work Sarah,our results have improved enormously.

8 times betterwouldn’t you say?

Broadband speed can be affected by a number of things: how far your business is from the fibre cabinet as well as the wiring in your building. Not all lines in an Infinity-enabled area can support the service. BTInfinity for business may require a BT line or similar and a fibre compatible router such as the BT Business Hub provided with Infinity. 12 or 24 month Minimum Period. Terms and conditions apply. The speedsprovided by BT Infinity for business are more consistent than standard broadband, giving you 16Mb assured throughput at 90% of the internet busy period. Speeds based on UK average from Ofcom report,August 2012. BT Business commissioned research through the British Chambers of Commerce, June 2012.WorldMags.netWorldMags.net

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RWC Careers


Stuart Andrews explores the role behind the creation of technicaldocumentation for new hardware and software

So you want to be a…technical writer

Manuals, help files, interactiveguides – you’ve used them,moaned about them, possiblyignored them, but have you

ever wondered who writes them? The peopleresponsible for writing the documentation thatships with new hardware and software, whetherit’s a photo-editing package or the latest smartTV, are the technical writers, sometimes knownas technical authors or communicators.

Their work might come in the form of aprinted manual, an interactive guide or awebsite with wikis and screencasts, throughwhich they can help you get the most out ofyour products, and ensure that manufacturersand developers spend less time and money onsupport. If it’s done properly, you might noteven notice. As Ginny Critcher, of technicalwriting services company Cherryleaf, puts it:“I read somewhere that the best thing atechnical author can hear about their workis when they don’t hear anything. Thatmeans people are just using it and gettingon with it.”

The processTechnical writers can work freelance or as anemployee or partner in a company providingoutsourced services, although some will alsobe employed in-house by manufacturers ordevelopers. Some will simply write the

documentation, while others may be involvedin its design, layout and production.

Most projects begin with a quote, with thewriter looking at the product, exploring itsfeatures and hammering out a provisionaldesign and table of contents in concert with theclient. Here the writer will be guided by theclient, who will have their own ideas about theproduct, its features and the audience. Once the

quote and the structure are approved, the writergoes on to explore in depth, trying out differentfunctions and alternate routes through thehardware or software, and establishing themost effective ones for a given task.

Having got a feel and made notes, it’s on tothe writing. Depending on the size of the project,the work will be split into a series of milestones,with the client signing off on each one as workprogresses. The writer handles editing andproofreading, while the client handles technical

reviews, ensuring thateverything is correctand that no featureshave been changedduring development.It’s an iterative process;even a small projectmight have two or

three reviews before the final sign-off.Technical writers are rarely involved early

on. As Critcher explains, the process oftenstarts with a hurried phone call towards theend of product development. “That happensin probably 70% of our work. It’s pretty nearthe end and we have to be quick.”

However, there are advantages to gettingthe writer involved earlier. “It’s much easier

and, actually, we can then be quite supportiveto the developers,” says Critcher. “Since we’relooking at it more from a user perspective andin such detail, we’re able to say to the developers,‘look, this doesn’t work too well’ or ‘it isn’tactually that intuitive’. Developers have aparticular way of thinking, and it often isn’tthe way users think.”

That’s an opinion shared by technicalauthor Philip Tory, of Authorgraphic. He notesthat a good technical writer can give developersthe equivalent of years of user feedback. “Ihave an adage for software design: don’t makeme guess.”

Getting startedThere are two main routes into work as atechnical writer. First, you can come in as agraduate, or from a writing background.Sheffield Hallam University offers a post-graduate distance learning course in TechnicalCommunication, and the University ofPortsmouth offers an MA in Translation andTechnical Communication, but there’s no needto study anything specific. Sean McKenna ofspecialist recruitment consultancy Talent Crewsuggests you can work with either “an excellent

CAREERS

“The process often startswith ahurried phone call towards theend of product development”


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PROFIL

E

I’m pretty nine-to-five. It fits in with my day butsometimes I’ll work later if I have a deadline. Imostly work from home. We’ll go in to see theclient at the beginning of a project, whenwe’re getting a lot of information and goingthrough the initial meetings, but much of thework can be done from home.

I start by going through emails, and I’ll seeif there’s anything urgent for the project I’m

working on. If there is, I’d have to get on withthat and juggle my other projects. Otherwise,I’m quite a list person, so I tend to have what Iwant to achieve that day worked out. HopefullyI can stick to it and get through the list, but Ihave to be flexible.

At the beginning of the project I would belearning the software; going through, lookingat different features and looking to see what itcan do. I would also be producing a table ofcontents and designing the actual help file –that’s the creative bit so it’s quite good fun. The

second phase is just getting down to it andwriting. On a writing day I could be sittingdown and writing for maybe seven hours.

We always have the software with us,either installed on a laptop or accessibleremotely. Without that it would be impossibleto write the help file, even if it’s just checkingsomething stupid, like “where’s the button todo this?”.

If it’s a project day I’ll spend the afternooncarrying on with the morning’s work, althoughon some days I might travel to see a client orfor a networking meeting. I’ll usually stop by5-5.30pm. By then, particularly if I’ve beenwriting, I find that I can’t really do it anymore.There’s a lot of attention to detail in what I do,and I need to concentrate. I’ll sometimes dohousekeeping and admin stuff later in theafternoon. Since it’s our own company, I maywrite some articles or put something on ourblog. There are always routine things to do.

A day in the life of atechnical writer

Name: Ginny CritcherJob title: Director, CherryleafExperience: BA in Spanish; language teacher; MScin Information Systems; co-founder Cherryleaf

“The second phase is just getting downto it and writing. On a writing day, I could

be writing for maybe seven hours”

degree in a science or engineering disciplinecombined with strong writing skills”, or “anexcellent degree in an arts-based disciplinecombined with a strong interest in andunderstanding of technology”. Critcher agrees,but suggests that newcomers “get in with acompany that has a good programme forgraduates. The best training is on the job.”

Alternatively, you can come from a technicalor industry background. For example, Tory hada career working in electronic engineering, salesand software quality assurance and productmanagement before starting Authorgraphic.“I was made redundant in 2000 and it was thebest career move I ever made,” he jokes. Torynow has more than 160 clients internationally,covering everything from lawn-care productsto telescopes, software and medical systems.

Skills and personal qualitiesFor Tory, technical expertise is crucial. “Ifyou don’t understand the technicalities of aproduct,” he says, “how can you write aboutand explain it to someone else?” This doesn’tnecessarily mean that you need an in-depthknowledge of the subject or product category,but you do need an aptitude for grasping newconcepts and technologies. As Critcher adds:“You have to be a little bit technical, but it’smore about picking things up quickly.”

Yet, this needs to be balanced with an abilityto express things clearly. “I’ve always been goodat explaining things to other people,” says Tory.“It doesn’t matter what industry it is – peoplewant to understand.” Critcher concurs. “Thewriting we do is about getting facts acrosscleanly and plainly to people. You’re not tryingto make it an exciting read. What you want isfor people to understand the information you’retrying to get across.”

Technical writers might ignore the rulesfollowed by other writers, adopting a passivevoice and focusing on clarity over impact, butit’s all in the service of making instructions easyto follow. Tailoring the text for the audience isanother vital skill. “If you’re writing instructionsfor a man in a van who’s got a little softwarewidget that guides him around various jobs,then it needs to be ‘man in a van’ English,” saysTory. Other projects might allow, or evendemand, a more technical or scientific approach.For Tory, it’s a question of hitting “100% of thereaders, not just 80%” and “giving them therelevant points for what they need to do”.

Most of all, as McKenna notes, “attentionto detail is paramount”. After all, instructionsare no good if they don’t take the reader to thedesired result. “Being meticulous and ensuringthat everything is comprehensively coveredcomes naturally to technical authors – it’s intheir nature,” McKenna concludes.

Beyond this, technical writers need the“ability to plan, manage time, prioritise work,work under pressure and complete multipletasks effectively,” says McKenna, while

“excellent communication skills, both writtenand oral, are essential”. Why? “It’s importantto be able to persuade subject-matter expertsto divulge their knowledge.”

Critcher agrees. “You have to spend a lot oftime speaking to clients and developers, andyou’ll have to interface with project managers,so you’re working with many types of people.”For Critcher, technical writers work as “abridge between developers and users”.Although writers might suggest where userswill find problems, they always need to beaware of the fact that any product orapplication will be someone’s baby.

Challenges and rewardsOf course, being a technical writer has its shareof challenges. One is that not all aspects of thejob are creative or interesting. “Like any job, ithas its mundane side,” says Critcher, such ascreating indexes. You can feel like an outsider,and it isn’t a career where you’ll get massesof praise or attention – nor will everyone

understand the importance of your work. “Ithink it’s hard convincing clients of the value ofgood documentation,” says Critcher, “but oncepeople have documentation and start using it,they soon realise.”

And the rewards? Well, technical writing canbe a stable career, with good writers earninganywhere between £25,000 and £40,000 peryear. ITJobsWatch lists the average salary at£35,000, and senior writers could earn £50,000or more. On top of this, there are furtheropportunities in training and seminars, withmany larger enterprises now wanting toimprove their in-house documentation.

What’s more, it’s a job with variety. “Therole can be challenging,” notes McKenna, butthis is balanced by the fact that “learning andworking with exciting new technologyand software while producing an actual endproduct is very rewarding”. And in the end, youknow you’re producing good work that helpspeople do what they need to do. As Philip Torysays: “I enjoy it, I love the variety, I loveencouraging people.”


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RWC AdvancedWindows & Mac

Jon Honeyball has another look at tape drives, but is disappointed thatLTFS has promised so much and so far delivered so little

Getting it taped

If you ever want to bring someone out ina cold sweat, just have a little chat withthem about their data backup routines.It can be quite shocking how poor such

arrangements are at the small end of the SMEmarketplace. Things are somewhat better atlarge corporation scale, but only up to a point– and up there the failure modes can be evenmore catastrophic and cause untold woe. I shallforever treasure the memory of trying to fix a“clustered Exchange Server” installation, onlyto discover that there was no cluster, just twoservers blissfully ignorant of each other, andthey had no shared storage either.

In the past we used tape drives, and we alllearned the real meaning of the acronym DAT:you might think it stands for Digital AudioTape, but those of us with a more intimateknowledge of the format will forever interpret itas Dies After Two years. That was certainly myexperience, although I’ll confess it was a decadeago with early HP devices. Since then the rise ininterconnect speed over the internet has meant

it’s possible to push things out to the cloud oronto other sites. If you’re in a big city such asLondon then it’s remarkably inexpensive to getsome fibre into one of the server hosting centresand run that connection at 100Mbits/sec, whichis just like old-fashioned 10/100 Ethernet. Thebackup servers will appear on your own LAN,but are actually many miles away.

However, some of us can only dream ofsuch connectivity options, and since the amount

of data we have to hold explodes in seeminglyinexorable fashion, backup can become aconsiderable worry. Then stir in allsorts of regulatoryrequirements and theresult is a thumpingheadache. For manysmaller businesses andhome workers, thecapability of suchservices as Dropboxor SkyDrive can be alife-saver. Indeed, I takethe view that installingone of them ismandatory on anymachine that isn’tcontrolled by centralisedgroup policy in a businessenvironment. They’refree for a starter level ofstorage, easy to installand use, and just work:what else does the home/small-business user want?

The shape of the backup solution ischanging shape, too, as we move to more andmore cloud-based solutions. For example, itwasn’t that long ago that I had to ensure thatregular backups were being run on ourin-house Exchange server. Not only was thisnecessary to ensure we had a backup, but itwas part of the routine housekeeping requiredto keep the log files under control. Today, all ofthis has just vanished. We use, live by and

utterly love Office365’s hosted Exchangeserver solution, andfrankly I shudder atthe thought of goingback to an internallyhosted Exchangeserver. It isn’t

perfect – far from it – and it can be a source ofconfusion and frustration, but the fact is thatthe backup and recovery of both the Exchangeserver and the underlying server services is ahuge weight off my shoulders, and that’s beforewe’ve mentioned the endless patching that theseservices require.

Given all this, I was intrigued when Irecently read a press release that said that thePromise Thunderbolt-to-Fibre Channel box

was certified for use with Tandberg LTO-5Fibre Channel tape drives. LTO is a technologyI had years ago, in a huge Dell twin-driveauto-changer that could shuffle 24 tapecartridges. Connectivity was via SCSI andthe Windows Server software to drive it wasthe very definition of a nightmare. SurelyLTO must have died out since then, as weall moved over to larger hard disks andcloud solutions? Well, it seems it’s aliveand well, and the LTO-5 specification still hasmuch to offer. After all, remember the oldsaying that “nothing does disaster recoveryfaster than a motorbike courier with a rucksackfull of tapes”.

LTO-5 offers 1.5GB of native space, or 3GBcompressed, on one tape costing around £40.The drives cost less than a couple of grand,which is certainly somewhat more expensivethan a tired old DAT solution, but is in anotherleague for robustness. My investigation led meto a technology called LTFS. Introduced as partof the LTO-5 specification, LTFS is a new openfile system for LTO-5 tape drives, which inessence allows you to mount an LTO-5 tape asa large hard disk onto your computer and treat

ADVANCEDWINDOWS&MAC

JON HONEYBALL

Computer journalistand consultantspecialising in bothclient/server andoffice automationapplications.Email [email protected]

“I shudder at the thought ofgoing back to an internallyhosted Exchange server”


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RWCAdvancedWindows & Mac

it as local storage. Now this soundedinteresting, because LTO-5 is capable ofseriously fast transfer rates. What could bebetter? The robustness of a tried-and-testedtape format, high-speed data transfer and amountable file system?

I contacted Tandberg and it graciouslyagreed to lend me a desktop standalone LTO-5tape drive with a Fibre Channel interface, thePromise Thunderbolt-to–Fibre Channel adapterand all the necessary cable, fibre and a pair oftapes for a month or so. Since I was trying thisfrom a Mac, the Thunderbolt interface addedextra spice – regular readers may recall I have apair of the 12TB Promise Thunderbolt arraysset up as 10TB RAID5s. I use one for mainstorage, connected to my 27in iMac, and thesecond one solely as a Time Machine backup ofboth the internal 256GB SSD and the 10TBarray. This is largely historical – in the past, I’verun large Windows Server-based installationsand made heavy use of iSCSI. However, at themoment I’m having fun with Thunderbolt, andbeing able to suck data down the Thunderboltbus onto the fibre adapter and hence ontothe LTO-5 drive had a particular appeal.

Getting everything up and running on thehardware side was very simple, with nocomplicated physical configuration required.Connect the Promise Thunderbolt-to-FibreChannel adapter to the Thunderbolt bus andthen run some fibre into the back to theTandberg LTO-5 drive. A new icon popped upin System Preferences, showing me the newFibre Channel facility was up and running.Clicking on this brought up the managementtools, which confirmed that one of the pair ofFibre Channel buses was running happily andtalking to the LTO-5 drive over fibre. Thesecond port was unused, of course, thusallowing me to connect a second drive orsomething else over Fibre Channel if I wanted.

Then came the software required to getLTFS up and running. I was forewarned that

this wasn’t going to be easy, and there wasa distinct lack of any sort of GUI tools tohelp, but I was assured that these were indevelopment and would be out by Christmas,with LTFS for Windows arriving sooner thanthat. The documentation raised concern: theTandberg site showed that the latest version ofOS X that was supported is 10.6 – umm, that’ssomewhat out of date – and, worse still, someof the components come from the osxfuse.github.com source. OSXFUSE is a technologythat lets you extendOS X’s built-in filehandling and filesystems by usingthird-party file systems:in essence, you installOSXFUSE and thenthe LTFS code on topof it. Fortunately, the OSXFUSE code is testedfor 64-bit OS X 10.7, which is somewhat morerecent than 10.6.

Getting these components installed isn’t forthe faint-hearted, given the mishmash ofinstallers and confusing instructions, but onceyou’re done and you’ve performed a rebootyou should have the LTFS subsystem up andrunning. To actually start using the LTFSsubsystem and the LTO-5 tapes, drop a tapeinto the LTO-5 drive and open up a commandprompt. To format the tape, enter “$ mkltfs -d

0”, which may work but will fail if the tape isalready formatted; to force a reformat, use the-f option to force the formatting. The tapewhirrs and finally calms down. Then you needto mount the volume into the file system usingthe “ltfs LTO-5ltfs” command. Ratherstrangely, it appears as an OSXFUSE item onthe desktop, but it doesn’t appear in the list ofdevices, which is a little confusing.

At first glance it works a treat. You can dragand drop files onto the OSXFUSE icon, or open

its window and drop the files in there, and thedrive whirrs into action. Remarkably, a fewseconds later, the data is written to the tape.This is a tape format that supports rolling backin time so you can actually dig out an olderversion of a particular file if you like. AsTandberg explained: “An LTO-5 LTFS tapecontains two partitions, the primary partitionstores the file system data (filename, size andlocation on tape, and so on); the secondarypartition stores the actual data files. In thesecondary partition we can only append data,meaning that we can roll back to an earlierversion, which as you indicated makes LTFSideal for long-term archiving and compliance.”

Performance is excellent and, as you’dexpect from a tape drive, it really motors whenyou have a large binary file to back up, such asan ISO image. Give it a pile of smaller files andit can’t deliver such high-speed performance,but quite happily whirrs away in thebackground. I fully accept that no Mac“creative user”, or even power user, is going tobe happy with command line tools, but the GUItools are coming, and assuming that they workit might seem like an ideal solution for aMac-based creative user who works withlarge files: photographers using Aperture orvideo-editing in Final Cut, for example. Pop ina tape, use these forthcoming GUI tools tomount that tape and format it, then drag anddrop your files onto the tape, just like a disk.

That would all be true except that I have toreport that it’s a mess of incompatibilities.

“OSXFUSE is a technology thatlets you extendOS X’s built-infile handling and file systems”

OSXFUSE is an installable file system extension. It also appears as an OS X System Preference

Fibre Channel automatically appears in the OS X System Preferences, and finds the Promiseinterface with no configuration required


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RWC AdvancedWindows & Mac

I tried copying an Aperture library onto thetape and it fell over just after creating the icon.No data appeared to have been copied at all.Maybe it was due to the complicated quasi-filesystem database file structures that Apertureemploys. Maybe it was something in OS X 10.8glitching with the OSXFUSE or LTFS code. Thewhole issue of OS version compatibility wasrearing its very ugly head.

LTFS is a fascinating technology thatoffers huge storage capacities in a robust andproven tape format, and brings with it aninteractive immediacy and accessibility that’sbeen sorely lacking from tape storage in thepast. As such, it ought to be a no-brainer to usethis technology if you want to have a high-capacity, robust data-archive format that youcan take off-site and stash away (or throw intothe bag of a bike courier and send 100 milesin a few hours). The reality, though, is adisappointment. It currently has the feeling

of a half-cooked school experiment, and thatsimply isn’t good enough.

I haven’t yet had the opportunity to look atthe Windows LTFS implementation that’s justaround the corner, but it will need to berock-solid and support the very latest MicrosoftOSes if it’s to have any credibility at all. Restassured, I will be attaching a Fibre Channelcard to a Windows server to see whether thisworks properly when it’s released. I really

would like this stuff to work, because tapedefinitely has its place. Not for everyone, notfor every task, but in its niche it’s still strong.

Iron BRU?I decided to take the LTFS and OSXFUSEcodebases off my iMac and look for anothersoftware solution. A few searches found me onthe Tolis website downloading its BRU PE tapebackup and archive software. The “PE” standsfor “Producer’s Edition”, and this is clearly amature software solution written over manyyears, and is aimed at creative types using OS Xwho need large file archiving. It’s nice to see a30-day demo that simply goes into restore-only mode if you don’t drop a licence in placeafter that period. BRU PE found the tape driveon my Thunderbolt and Fibre buses and simplyworked. Its UI is clear, performance is excellentand there were no compatibility issues. And it’s

tested and certified forOS X 10.8. Thecomparison betweenBRU PE and LTFScould hardly be starker.

I’ve been veryimpressed by thePromise Thunderbolt-

to-Fibre Channel interface box, and theTandberg LTO-5 drive has worked flawlessly.Having 1.5/3TB of storage online isn’t to besniffed at, but I’ve found that several vendors,including Tandberg, do a rack-mount versionthat gives you one physical tape drive but witheight slots of autoloader, too, which ups thetotal capacity to 12/24TB. BRU PE appears tohave no problems dealing with something thatbig, and it even works with the special WORM

versions of the LTO-5 tapes that are availablefor regulatory archival purposes. I suspect therewill be one of these devices in my future. It’sjust a pity that LTFS has promised so much, buton the strength of what I’ve seen so far, deliversso little. I will certainly be cautious in myinvestigation of it on Windows Server in afew months.

Backup and archive solutions need to be100% reliable, totally trustworthy, kept up todate, and supported to a level that has almostno parallel elsewhere in our industry. Anythingless than perfection simply isn’t good enough.

And finally...I guess I should answer the obvious question– why spend several thousand pounds on a tapedrive when you can get 3TB of external harddisk storage for a few hundred quid? Surely thistape stuff is so last century and has no placetoday? You might well be right, except for afew factors.

If you put a hard disk on the shelf and leaveit for 15 years, will it work when you come topower it up again? Will there be an appropriateport to plug it into, and will there be thenecessary OS support? Alright, I’ll admit thatNTFS format and FAT32 have been aroundfor a very long time now, and aren’t goingto disappear in the next few years. But it’salready getting hard to find FireWire 800 ports,especially on PCs. I’d need serious convincingthat any drive made today will be workablein ten years’ time.

For another thing, tape systems and themature software that drives them activelypromote clean ways of working: take a fullbackup, followed by differences, in a managedand catalogued fashion. Large hard disks on theother hand encourage drag and drop, exactlythe easygoing approach that’s created much ofour data explosion in the first place. And no, Iwouldn’t particularly trust even a claimedruggedised, standard cheap hard drive in theboot of my car for the next decade. I might betempted by Tandberg’s RDX solution, though:a removable hard disk designed specifically forbackup and archive. The company even does amultidrive server product that can look justlike a tape drive and autoloader, and PC Pro’sreview of it was very positive (web ID: 369091).

The big concern is having too much of yourarchive in the same format as the main solution.At least with tape for archive, I’m using anentirely different technology to the disc RAIDarrays, and there’s a comfortable differentiationthere. Maybe I need tape plus industrial-strength removable hard disks? This is a subjectthat isn’t going to go away any time soon, sohere’s how you can get your voice heard. Whatdo you use to back up and archive a data set of2GB, and one of 10GB? Remember you mustbe able to take the storage off-site for it tocount. Drop me a note, and let’s compareexperiences in a few months.

“LTFS currently has the feelingof a half-cooked experiment,and that isn’t good enough”

BRU PE is a robust, solid and reliable tape backup program. It had no problems finding theTandberg LTO-5 drive on Fibre Channel connected to Thunderbolt


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RWCMobile &Wireless

Paul Ockenden is accosted by a reader with a powerline networkingglitch, and thinks there’s more to iOS 6 than the Maps

HomePlug problemsin a factory setting

MOBILE &WIRELESS

Many of the things I write aboutin this column are inspiredby emails that I receive fromreaders, messages you send me

via the various social media networks or thecomment threads on the PC Pro website andforums. It’s a formula that’s always served mewell, but this month’s topic was decidedly lesselectronically inspired – what follows is theresult of being accosted while queuing forwhat passes as a latte in a well-knownAmerican coffee chain.

There I was, minding my own businessand awaiting my pint of four-shot, low-fatbrown liquid when suddenly an irate mancame up and started berating me, accusingme of writing rubbish in this column. Therewas no “Excuse me, are you the chap whowrites for PC Pro?”; no “I wonder if youcould help me with something that you wroteabout?”. He went straight into a mega-rant

about how I’d recommended powerlinenetworking as a good alternative to Wi-Fi,and how he’d gone out and bought the kit onmy recommendation, yet it hadn’t worked.

I’ll have to admit that my first instinctwas “this bloke’s a nutter”. But it turns outmy ranty man wasn’t like that at all. Beneaththe red face and close-to-exploding neck

veins, he was actually quite rational – andgenuinely quite upset.

It turns out he runs a small factory-cum-workshop housed in an ancient building,and over the years he’s struggled with data

networking. Since heonly leases the propertyhe isn’t allowed to drillholes in the walls andceilings to install awired network, andsince these walls arereally thick, Wi-Fi

reception is fairly flaky. He’d read my adviceabout using HomePlug kit in such situationsand then spent several days tearing his hairout being unable to make it work.

At this point I did what any self-respectingcoward would do – rather than stand up tohis insults and defend my advice, I offeredto pay for his coffee, sat down and chatted

through his problems. (I almost ordered hima decaf; I was worried that a couple of shotsof espresso might set him off again – luckily,he remained calm.) He explained how he issporadically upgrading the various mouldingand milling machines in his factory, and thatthe newer models almost always need someform of data network connection, withoutwhich he has to run around the factoryplugging a laptop into each machine in turnto download designs – hardly a productiveway to work.

After a few minutes chatting to him,his problem became obvious – or rather,I thought it did. His factory was fed by athree-phase supply and so if different bits ofkit were plugged in on different floors of thebuilding, they’d probably turn out to be ondifferent phases. Just in case you don’t know,the 240V mains electricity supply to yourhome is probably 120 degrees (one-third

PAUL OCKENDEN

Owner of one of theUK’s oldest webagencies, Paul workson award-winningsites for many blue-chip clients. Twitter:@PaulOckenden

“There aremany generationand transmission benefits torunning a three-phase system”


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RWC Mobile &Wireless


of a cycle) out of phase with your neighbour’ssupply, and a further 120 degrees fromthe house next door to them. There arenumerous generation and transmissionbenefits to running a three-phase system inthis way. But although domestic propertiesand small offices will be fed by a single oneof these phases, larger offices and factoriestypically take a feed from all three of thephases – in fact, much factory machinery(and on the IT side, many big UPS units)require three-phase current.

Since HomePlug was primarily designedto be used in the home (it says so on the tin),there isn’t usually anything in the manualto warn you that the system won’t work ina building with more than one mains phase.The problem is that the three phases areusually quite separate, with no physicalconnection between them within the building,so if you impose a HomePlug signal ontoone of the phases, it can’t be heard on eitherof the other two. I explained all of thispatiently to my now-calmer companion, andhe went away to experiment with plugginghis HomePlug units into different sockets.Phew, another happy reader!

Well, actually, no – because this storyhas a part two. I bumped into the same chapa couple of days later and he said he wasstill having problems: all of his powerlinenetworking adapters were now on the samephase, and when the factory shut down hecould communicate between his CAD suite

and the workshop machine controllers. Butas soon as some of the heavy plant fired up, theHomePlugs lost their signal. It was immediatelyobvious to us both that the problem wasmains-borne noise, and that perhaps HomePlugunits weren’t the right solution for him.

By pure luck, though, that very morning –honestly, I’m not making this up – a parcel had

arrived from the nice peopleat Solwise, containing asample pair of its newSmartLink-based powerlinenetworking adapters (www.pcpro.co.uk/links/219mb),which are designedspecifically for noisyenvironments such as his.The NET-PL-500AV-SMTadapters, to give them theirfull name, use a relativelynew chipset from Atherosthat’s designed to combatnoisy mains.

Where a normalHomePlug unit transmitssignals via the live andneutral wires within themains cable, these newSmartLink adapters canswitch to employ liveand earth instead. Thelive wire (or “line”for our internationalreaders) is always goingto be noisy in a factoryenvironment, but the earth wire will often bea little quieter than neutral. The switching isdone automatically – there’s no need toconfigure anything.

To be honest, I was a little sceptical – surelythe things are still connected to the live wire,and that’s still going to be crackling with noise

– but my new-foundfriend and his factorywould give me theopportunity to do aproper real-world teston these units. Andyou know what?Much to my surprise,

they did make a difference. It isn’t a completesolution – throughput still dropped wheneverthe machines started up – but the SmartLinkunits at least kept the connections alive ratherthan dropping them.

We discovered that, although these unitscan talk to other HomePlug AV adapters, touse their Smart Link feature you need all the

adapters in the networkto support it: as soon asyou introduce onenon-SmartLink device itseems to lock all of theadapters into using liveand neutral. This wasn’texactly clear from thedocumentation, butknowing how the unitswork it’s hardly a surprise.

I normally like to giveproducts and services areal-world workout, butthis turned out to be abit more real-world thannormal, all thanks to anencounter with a red-facedman in a coffee shop.Finally, just so that youdon’t think I’m beingmean, I should end bytelling you that I’ve shownhim this part of the columnand he laughed, saying he’smore than happy for me toprint the story exactly aswritten, so long as I don’tmention him by name.What a great sport!

What aboutthe aqueduct?

You’ll have read aboutthe problems with the iPhone 5 and iOS 6launch. As long-term readers may know, thiscolumn is no longer on the Apple PRdepartment’s Christmas list, as we’ve had ourdifferences over the years. Despite that, I’vestarted to feel a bit sad for the companyrecently. The Maps fiasco reminds me of that“What have the Romans ever done for us?”scene from the Life of Brian: there’s a wholelist of brilliant improvements in the iPhone 5and its iOS 6 operating system, but they’rebeing ignored or overshadowed becauseeveryone just wants to complain aboutApple’s terrible map application.

So, despite the lack of love between us,I thought I’d spend a few words defendingApple’s latest hardware and software babies.Let’s start with the phone. Some have arguedthat in the face of much of the Androidcompetition, the screen on the iPhone 5simply isn’t big enough, yet I know fromfeedback that a significant proportion of youare fed up with the massive phones that seemto be fashionable at the moment. What Applehas done is actually quite clever: by retainingthe width and just making the phone taller,it can still be held comfortably in one hand;even people with fairly small hands can reachright across the touchscreen with their thumb.Any wider and for many people it wouldbecome a two-handed device, especially forthat important Far Eastern audience who(on average) tend to have smaller hands thanus in the West.

Some argue that a bigger screen is neededto see more of a web page, but this isn’t onlya factor of physical size – screen quality andresolution matter too. The fact is that theiPhone 5’s display contains more pixels than

“The SmartLink units at leastkept the powerline networkingconnections alive”

SmartLink HomePlugadapters are designed forsituations where themains wiring is noisy

There’s much more to theiPhone 5 than dodgy maps


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RWCMobile &Wireless

many of its competitors, and the screen is betterquality too. Put it alongside any other high-endsmartphone and it’s just as easy to read a webpage on its screen as on bigger-screened devices.

Of course, there’s more to the iPhone 5 thanthe screen. It has a faster CPU and a host ofother improvements, but I’m getting a bit wearyof the usual box-ticking comparison of phonespecifications that make many smartphonereviews look like a game of Top Trumps:phone A has two extra cores in its CPU butphone B has a higher clock speed and phoneC has a 2% brighter screen. It’s all starting tofeel irrelevant to me because, ignoring thebudget end of the market, pretty well everycurrent smartphone is utterly brilliant. Ofcourse, some do certain things slightly betterthan others – the quality of the onboard cameraor battery life, for example – but bickering oversingle-figure percentage differences in CPUspeeds seems increasingly pointless.

Where the differences are significant isbetween the phones’ operating systems. Muchof the market is now running Android –sometimes vanilla Android, but often Androidin drag. Phone manufacturers like to plaster onlayers of make-up to make their device lookprettier, but underneath it’s still Android andyou’re still going to be running Android apps.There are several credible alternatives toAndroid, including iOS on the iPhone and anincreasing number of Windows Phone devices;and outside of the USA people are still buyingBlackBerry (although it’s starting to look like abit of a dead end as the company’s new 10 OSgets closer to launch).

It’s these OS differences that really providethe differentiation when comparing phones: ifyou want the largest selection of (mostly)high-quality apps then iOS is the obviouschoice; if you want freedom from lock-in, tofeel that you own the phone rather than thephone owning you, then Android is a wiserchoice; and if you want something innovativeand different that integrates superbly withMicrosoft-based back-office systems thenWindows Phone is the logical buy.

Now iOS 6 is taking a real pastingfrom users and the press about its awfulmapping software; but having said that,as a satnav system it works very well,provided you manage to locate yourdestination properly (I’ve found thatentering precise postcodes is best). It offersvery clear instructions, good routes andcomprehensive live traffic updates. Apple’sbiggest mistake seems to have been in callingthe thing “Maps” and wielding it as a

replacement for the old Google-based map app. I think if thecompany had called it “Satnav”instead then most people wouldhave been quite happy with it.

However, there’s plenty moreto iOS 6 than mapping. You’llhave read about many of thenew features in reviews andnews stories, so here I’m goingto mention some of the lessvisible new features that youmay have missed; even iPhone 5owners may have missed someof them!

Let’s start with a tune: I’vediscovered that the play positionof certain music tracks I’ve listenedto seems now to get synced acrossmy various iOS devices, includingthe little Apple TV box that sitsunder my TV and isn’t really a TVat all. The same ability applies to videos andpodcasts, too – start listening to something athome on TV, carry on listening by phoneduring your commute, then switch to anotherdevice when you get to work. There’s actually awhole host of extra stuff that’s synced in iOS 6,including keyboard shortcuts and browser tabs.

A nice improvement in the App Store isthat you no longer need to keep typing inyour password when updating previously

installed apps. Alsowhen installing newapps, you now onlyneed your passwordfor paid-for apps;freebies just downloadautomatically(although parents

worried about kiddies now being able tofill their phones with rubbish can lock downthis feature by using restrictions).

One tiny update that I really like is theway the auto-brightness feature works onthe lockscreen, which previously wasalways turned up to 11 and only dimmeddown when you unlocked the phone ortablet. Some people still have trouble withthe iOS auto-brightness setting; if you’reone of them, what you need to do isgo into a darkened room and setthe brightness fairly low. Fromthen on it should work asdesigned, but please note thatit only auto-brightens: thescreen doesn’t auto-dim ifyou move to a darker place.The only time it will dim iswhen idle for a few minutes, orwhen awakening from sleep.

Finally, something that web

developers will appreciate: for iOS 6, the Safariweb browser now supports HTTP uploads.This is a big deal, as anyone trying to maintaina website using a CMS couldn’t previouslyupload images, only text. It was a bugbear,which sparked a whole industry of workaroundapps and tweaks, although none of them werereally successful. For people writing web-basedapplications, it’s a big step forwards thatiPhone and iPad users can now make use of<input type="file"> or even <input type="file"multiple> statements.

Incidentally, since I don’t receive any helpfrom Apple with this column, I have tolook elsewhere when I need access to thecompany’s products. This month, Vodafonecame to the rescue. I’ve got a lot of time forthat particular network: T-Mobile, Orangeand their love child EE are all making plentyof noise at the moment regarding 4G (orso-called 4G) rollout; O2 is a network thathas brilliant customer service but is stilltaking flak for the quality of its mobiledata network; and 3 is improving, but stillhas very patchy coverage outside the mainpopulation centres.

Meanwhile, Vodafone has justbeen sitting quietly, not making

a big fuss, but graduallyimproving its networkquality and coverage in amethodical manner. I oftenfind when doing a networktest in a particular locationthat Vodafone might notalways offer the strongest

signal, but it will quiteoften be the network with

the best throughput.

Easiershopping

Another long-overdueupdate to iOS 6 is that you

no longer get dumped out tothe springboard after everypurchase. Imagine a shop

where you had to go outsideand re-enter by the door

after every itemyou bought!

“If Apple had called it ‘Satnav’instead of ‘Maps’, people wouldhave been quite happywith it”

The fact that mobile Safari nowsupports HTTP uploads is a hugedeal for web developers


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OVH EG

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OVH network August 2012

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to the future


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RWC Online Business


An email dropped into my inboxthe other day, sent via the contactform on my sister’s driving schoolwebsite. “Dear Jo,” it began – a

poor start since that isn’t her name – “go tothis link and you’ll see an animated video thatmyself and my team have made that promotesYOUR business right there on the internet”.The 500 words of marketing copy that followedwere littered with spelling, grammar, style andfactual errors, such as calling my sister a“fitness instructor” and employing theantique expression “lo and behold”. Thisself-proclaimed “SEO expert” was using aGmail address, had no website, and as forthe “professional-grade, powerful and verycompelling video”, the less said the better.

The email’s subject line read: “Let me knowwhat you think.” I flirted with doing so, thenheld fire because I’m not cruel (and I gave the

spammer credit for having the initiative tocreate the video before sending the email). OnceI’d stopped laughing, my overriding feeling wasone of sadness for this inexperienced chancer,whose ham-fistedness is unlikely to persuadeothers to entrust their marketing to him. Usingvideo to promote a website is an excellent idea,but far better to have built his own site first andused YouTube to generate traffic.

Internet marketing is being tarnished bythe reputation of being a source of easy money.Whenever an internet marketing “guru” triesto persuade you to pay for his secret money-making method by boasting of his income,it’s almost certain that most of it came fromselling to mugs rather than the “secret method”itself. Many newcomers to online businessbelieve a good idea and persuasive copy are allit takes to win customers; in my view, this was

never the case and isless so in the currentcash-strapped climate.Success requirescredibility to persuadecustomers to dobusiness with you:prove you can deliver

what you’re offering with recommendations,testimonials and reviews from existing clients.

The YouTube effectAsk 100 people to list the main social networksand very few would include YouTube; yet justlike Facebook, it provides a way to view,recommend and share content (although

YouTube users share video rather than text andhumorous photos). Despite Google’s reluctanceto reveal precise user numbers, YouTube’sactive audience runs into the hundreds ofmillions, placing it alongside Twitter andGoogle+, but it has a lower profile. Most peoplesee YouTube as a video library, or end point forsearch engine queries, but I believe Google’sambition to own a social network will makeYouTube increasingly social and collaborative.

Unlike many commentators (even someeditors of this magazine) I don’t believeGoogle+ will sink like its half-bakedpredecessors Wave and Buzz, because Google isintegrating it into so many of its other services.For example, whenever you comment on apost, all further interactions can take placewithin a single Gmail thread, and it’s becominghard to get the most out of a Google accountwithout using Google+. If you have a YouTubeaccount, you’ll be invited to merge it with yourGoogle+ account when you next log in, and it’slikely that at some point in the future the twoservices will effectively become one.

In my view, video is a critical part ofGoogle’s vision of the future, so YouTube willplay an increasingly important role in driving

Kevin Partner investigates video marketing for online businesses, andlearns that even ham-fisted techniques may conceal a good idea

Is video going to killthe SEO star?

ONLINE BUSINESS

KEVIN PARTNER

Online businessmanand app developer.Runs MakingYourOwnCandles.co.ukand app firmNlightN.co.uk.Email [email protected]

“Success requires credibilityto persuade customers to dobusiness with you”


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RWCOnline Business


traffic to websites. My cack-handedcorrespondent had guessed correctly that it’spossible to achieve front-page position for asufficiently precise key phrase using a video –whether it’s easier in practice than usingstandard SEO techniques is beside the point,since a video thumbnail is more likely tocatch the eye than a line of text. The biggestadvantage of video, however, is that it can beused to generate traffic from multiple sources.

Say, for example, you run a laptop repairbusiness and a customer brings in his SamsungSeries 3 to have its screen replaced. Record thetechnician at work, edit it down to a sequenceof steps, and embellish them with voiceover andcaptions (no more than a couple of hours ofwork). Upload the finished video to YouTubeunder the title “How to replace the screen on aSamsung Series 3 laptop”, and repeat for everymajor laptop model repair. Google will indexyour videos automatically, and they can also beembedded into your firm’s website, its Facebookpage and Google+ stream. This will drive trafficboth from YouTube itself and from standardGoogle searches, where I’d expect it to appearon the front page.

What’s that I hear you cry? You didn’t learnto repair laptops only to give away your tradesecrets in a video? Won’t it reduce business ifpotential customers learn to do it themselves?No, because most users will be searching forthose phrases in case it turns out to be veryeasy, but also to find practitioners if it isn’t.Look at it from their point of view: they typed“how to repair an HP dv6 keyboard” andup pops your video. They’ll take that as arecommendation from Google that you’re anexpert. They may watch your video and arelikely to conclude that they’d rather have youdeal with it than try it themselves. Either way,you’ve become visible to them in a way thatyour competitors aren’t.

That’s all very well if they’re usingGoogle Search, but what if they’re lookingon YouTube? If they find your video, andyou’ve included your branding and a URLprominently, they’ll very likely click the linkthrough to your website. The likelihood of

them coming across your video in the firstplace, however, depends on how high YouTuberanks it, so it’s essential to understand thefactors that contribute to this before youupload it. My research suggests that YouTuberelies on four main criteria to decide whereyour production appears in search results.

The first, and the easiest to get right, isthe quality of the match between the user’ssearch term and your video’s title. Forsufficiently long-tailed phrases, this can beenough on its own to secure you a prominentposition, but if you want to rank well forhigher traffic searches you’ll need to considerthree other criteria: views, likes and comments.It makes sense that the more often a video isviewed, the higher it will rank, but whatconstitutes a view?

YouTube is coy about this, since revealingsuch information could enable people to gamethe system, but it’s very likely that it keepscount not only of the number of times a videohas been started, but also how often it was

watched all or most ofthe way through.Rumour has it that thissecond metric stronglyinfluences ranking,since it indicates thevideo was relevantin both content andlength. A practicalconsequence of this isthat you should makeyour video no longerthan necessary. Ithought I was beinghelpful by creating a15-minute candle-making video, as itwas so thorough, but

I was almost certainly damaging its chances of ahigh rank.

Video comments are also very powerful:YouTube considers a heavily commentedvideo to be engaging and relevant to itstarget audience. This means that by disablingcomments to protect yourself from abuse andspam, you’re also reducing your ranking. Byresponding to comments, you can generatemore interest and a further boost. Finally,the more “likes” a video receives the better,although I suspect this is the least importantof the four factors, since a user doesn’t have tobe particularly engaged to click that button.

Drum up interest – views, comments andlikes – as you launch each video by promotingit heavily on the other social networks andkeeping an eye on any discussions thatdevelop. Finally, use the embed code providedby YouTube to include the video in your ownsite – that way, any “likes” or commentswill contribute to its ranking.

Advertising on YouTubeAll four major social networks depend onadvertising as their main source of income.Facebook, Twitter and YouTube place adswithin the pages you see, whereas Google+appears gloriously ad-free, but remember thatit’s part of the whole promotion-rich Googleecosystem. Each network has built an ad-delivery platform, and the integration betweenGoogle and YouTube is now manifesting itselfas “AdWords for video”, launched in May. Myfirst impression is that, while work still needs tobe done on the interface, and tutorials to guidenewcomers through the principles and processof video advertising, it offers a powerful newchannel for forward-thinking online businessesto compete with the big boys.

You can now use Google AdWords for video to advertise on YouTube. Download the officialguide from www.pcpro.co.uk/links/219ob

If you’re going to boast about your video production skills in a spamemail then make sure they’re up to snuff


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RWC Online Business


While you can pay to promote an existingvideo, for most commercial purposes it’s betterto directly push the traffic to your website –otherwise, you add an extra step betweengetting potential customers’ attention andgiving them the opportunity to buy, and atevery step some will drop away. It’s betterto create a 15-30 second video ad aimed atdriving traffic to your website.

Just as with standard AdWords, you targetcertain keywords, and provide display anddestination URLs, along with a bid priceyou’re prepared to pay per view. AdWords forvideo offers four display formats, using its“TrueView” placement service split intotwo main types. Choosing “in-search” or“in-display” formats means your ad will appearalongside another video or set of search results.Your ad appears as the text you chose, plus athumbnail, and clicking it sendssearchers to the main YouTubepage containing your video.Contrast this with the“in-stream” and“in-slate” forms,which presentads within theYouTube playerjust before a userwatches theirchosen video,essentially likeTV advertising. Inthis case, clickingthe ad when it playstakes the viewer tothe destination URL– usually your website – sothis is the form to choose. Atthe moment, this isn’t a competitivemarket, so it’s possible to secure ad placementat bargain-basement prices, and with theseforms you pay only if the user watches thewhole ad (unless it’s longer than 30 seconds).

Whether you opt for the “free” approachof creating “how-to” films or choose the pay-per-view (PPV) model of AdWords for video(or both), video can no longer be discountedas solely the domain of hobbyists, jokers andpropagandists. As marketers, we need to followour audience if we’re to gain an advantageover our competitors, and with the increasingubiquity of mobile devices, video is becoming

the preferred medium for many people. PPVprices are relatively cheap and it’s possible torank highly in the YouTube and Google searchresults for relatively modest effort. I considervideo marketing to be five or six years lessmature than text and display advertising, andI’ll be focusing heavily on it over the comingyear (and I suggest you think about it too).

AdWords filteringText-based pay-per-click marketing is likely toremain the mainstay of most online businessesfor a while, however, and Google continuesto beef up its AdWords tool with new featuresand reporting tools. The principle of running asuccessful campaign is the same as it’s alwaysbeen – I use a technique roughly analogous tothrowing mud at a wall and seeing what sticks.As a practical example, my candle-kit businessadvertises on a range of keyword phrases, butif we open up our ads to a wider audience,they become far less profitable because they’reshown to people who may click and visit oursite but aren’t likely to buy. You can usenegative keywords to limit this effect, butthat works best for broad exclusions.

There’s a better, simpler way, but it involvesspending a little money upfront to save inthe longer term. Pick the broadest possiblekeyword – such as “candle making”, forexample – and run it as a whole phrase match

(that is, in quotes) in its own ad groupso that Google will display ads

to any search phrasecontaining those words

in any order. Run thisfor a month or moreto see what works,then accessthe AdWordsinterface andview all thekeywords thathave triggeredyour ad over the

past month.When I did this

recently, there were1,455 different phrases,

most of which were clickedat least once – but only a tiny

fraction converted to sales. It doesn’ttake a mathematical genius to work out that1,000 phrases clicked once for 15p without asale is £150 down the drain. A possible solutionwould be to add each of them as a negativekeyword, but that would be time-consumingand wouldn’t prevent another 1,500 wackyphrases generating wasteful ads. Rather thanremove these duff phrases, I include only theprofitable keywords and stop ads being shownfor any others, by creating a filter with thefollowing parameters: “Conversions (1-per-click) >= 1” and “Cost per conversion(1-per-click) <= [your chosen maximum]”.

This will produce a list of those keywordsthat have generated at least one conversion inthe past month at a price you’re prepared topay, and they’re your profitable search phrases.Select them all using the checkbox at thetop left of the table and click the “Add askeyword” button. Now return to your mainkeywords view, where you’ll see them all listed.Click the Edit dropdown and select “Edit intable”, and pause that original phrase-matchkeyword (“candle making” in my example)then change the match type to “exact” forall the phrases you’ve just added.

The net result is to replace that originalbroad match with dozens, even hundreds, ofsearch terms that have proven to be profitable.The cost of this experiment was the cash lostthrough poor keywords, but the last time Idid it (it’s worth repeating every so often), itreduced my AdWords bill at a time of risingtraffic, so the percentage of turnover spent onAdWords dropped by around 30%.

When you have a business to run, it’simpossible to become a true expert in allpossible marketing techniques. The trick is toselect those avenues that are best suited to yourbusiness and become good enough to makethem profitable, or outsource responsibility.A profitable business means having the rightproduct and support systems; establishingcredibility by enticing an initial group ofcustomers to buy (even if that means offeringdiscounts) on the understanding that they’llrecommend you if they like what you do; andfinally, marketing like mad. Reverse this orderat your peril, because today’s customers wantto see proof before they part with their cash.

This AdWords filter shows me which searchterms triggered my phrase-match ad

Splasheo.comSplasheo.com is a new venture

producing short animated sequencesfor incorporation into videos. At the

moment, it’s concentrating on the sort of“ident” clip that typically plays at the beginning,

and sometimes end, of a video. Choose ananimation type from a gallery of choices, select

the music and upload your own graphic –typically your logo – and 24 hours or so lateryou receive a high-quality MP4 clip. I signedup to its mailing list and was offered an 85%discount, bringing the cost down to $7. The

results were excellent and we both benefited,as Splasheo.com receives a glowing

testimonial and I got a cheapcustom clip.

An in-stream YouTube ad gives you thechance to promote your product or service


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RWCSecurity & Social

Davey Winder explains how even IT security professionals getscammed, and wonders whether Myspace can make a comeback

Security pros getcaught out by QR codes

SECURITY& SOCIALNETWORKING

Irecently warned PC Pro website readers– www.pcpro.co.uk/links/219ss – aboutthe hidden security threat posed by QRcodes, those giant barcodes used for

marketing just about everything these days. I’veseen them in magazines, on posters and even agiant one on the back of a bus, although I’mstill unsure how anyone was meant to scanthat. Yet scan them people do, sometimes withthe promise of a free something-or-other, butmore often than not without any promise ofanything (and that includes what web pageyou’ll end up on).

As I warned in that PC Pro online feature:“QR codes present one ofthe biggest hidden securitythreats, precisely becausegenuine marketingcampaigns rely upon thecuriosity factor to getconsumers to scan them;don’t think for a momentthat the bad guys have failedto notice this.” Now youmight think that such advicewouldn’t be required for thoseworking within the IT industry,who tend to be a bit moresecurity savvy than your averageuser, and certainly not for thosewhose particular niche within theindustry is information securityitself. Well think again, if the resultsof a little experiment perpetratedby GreenSQL founder DavidMaman are anything to go by.

During the course of a three-daysecurity conference in London recently,

a poster on the wall of the hall featured thelogo of a well-known security vendor, thewords “Just scan to win an iPad” and a QRcode. That poster had been created and stuckthere by David, but neither the organisers of theevent, nor the security vendor whose logo wasfeatured, bothered to ask what it was doingthere or request that it be taken down. Some445 people did scan the QR code and browsedthe page that it linked to. At this point it’sworth a reminder that this was a conference forIT security professionals. All they actually gotwhen they scanned that QR code was a webpage featuring a smiley face, but it could havebeen a piece of malware, or one of a multitudeof poisoned URL attacks.

The scanning was perpetrated via a varietyof smartphones and tablets, and as we allknow, most people don’t believe that suchdevices require any kind of antivirus or URLfiltering to protect them. Even the usual adviceof “don’t scan it unless it comes from a reliablesource” wouldn’t help in this case, because itappeared to come from an impeccable source,and bad guys won’t shrink from pretending to

be good guys if it will get you to click a link orscan a barcode. Personally, I adopt a simplesolution to the QR conundrum by just sayingno. After all, they usually just point to moremarketing junk that you can do without...

Facebook friendswho should know betterDid your mother never tell you that ifsomething seems too good to be true thenchances are that it is? Mine did, and it’s heldme in good stead for close-on 40 years. Even ifsocial networking had been around back then, Ilike to think that mum wouldn’t have added“unless it’s on Facebook” to her homily. Yetsuch suspension of common sense if somethinghappens within the Facebook realm seems tobe rife, even among my own circle of friends,whom I consider pretty clued up on technologyand IT security.

Well you would, wouldn’t you, once yourealise that these people are tech magazineeditors, journalists and a fair smattering ofnetwork engineers and IT consultants. So howcome my Facebook feed filled with friends“liking” a so-called voucher offer from Tescothat promised a £175 shopping discount if I

were to click a link quickly enoughand share the scam with all my

own friends? That linkappeared to land at Tesco,

but it’s a simple task tosteal the look and feel ofa website, and run it ona rogue server. To getyour non-existentdiscount voucher youhad to complete a

survey, and what couldbe the harm in that – other

than giving the scammersyour personaldetails for whateverpurposes they fancy

using them at a laterdate; providing them

with referral cash for completingwhat is often a genuine and innocent

DAVEYWINDERAward-winningjournalist and small-business consultantspecialising inprivacy and securityissues. [email protected]; follow him@happygeekon Twitter


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RWC Security & Social


third-party survey; and being tempted byadverts or pop-ups that offer to take you tomore revenue-earning surveys or a malware-installing site or three?

Factory-fitted malwareAlmost six years ago, I won a “best securitynews story of the year” award for a story atDaniWeb (www.pcpro.co.uk/links/219ss1)that exposed how some TomTom Go 910satnav units had been shipped from the factoryinfected with what was, at that time, the firstever trojan to be discovered on such devices.This was a big deal, despite the trojans beingunable to do any damage to the satnav itself,because that satnav unit needed to beconnected to a PC to update its maps andmanage the device, and the trojan could thenpotentially move across to the PC and wreakhavoc there.

It seemed likely that the devices wereinfected, ironically enough, during thequality-control process when they’d havebeen connected to a PC at the factory. Suchinstances are still pretty rare, and I cancount on one hand the number of times I’veheard of brand-new hardware being infectedby malware of any kind. However, maybethat’s because neither I, nor my circle ofbusiness contacts and friends, tend topurchase hardware directly in China. Onthe other hand, Microsoft’s Digital CrimesUnit did exactly that, as part of an investigationinto pirated copies of Windows,and bought a total of 20 laptopsand desktops from a number ofcities in China. Of these – allfactory-sealed items, remember –no less than four were found to bepre-infected with malware.

That lowers the surprise factora notch or two, because as anyfool knows, you shouldn’t touchcounterfeit software with abargepole, and particularlycounterfeit OS software. It wouldbe bad enough to discover yourcheap computer was running abootleg version of Windows,since any savings you made maybe wiped out by the cost ofpurchasing a kosher copy – buteven worse, if you didn’t alsodiscover it was running malwarethat connected it to the Nitolbotnet used in hacking attacks.Nitol is part of the well-known

3322.org hostingsite that’s beenlinked to maliciousactivity for manyyears now, includingthe kind of cyber-espionage enabled bymalware giving access

to webcam and microphone hardware oninfected PCs.

Now you might think that such problemscouldn’t possibly have an impact upon you,but I beg to differ, especially since more andmore small businesses and consumers arelooking to save money by taking a “buy ‘emcheap on eBay” approach to computerupgrades. I know folk who have, within thepast six months,purchased very cheapsmartphones ofdubious origin, andequally cheap“unknown brand”laptops too. All ofthese could be tracedback to China, and that’s where the realproblem lives, because these low-budget/no-budget supply chains appear to be totallyunsecured. At this bottom end of the industry,where every single cut that can be made willbe made, bothering to secure a supply chainreally isn’t an option – and that leaves the dooropen for malware infection at pretty well anypoint, whether it be at the factory itself, thewholesaler/distributor or at the final retailer inthe supply chain.

As Mark James, technical team leader atsecurity vendor ESET says, the supply chain“seems the logical place to start, if at allpossible, from the malware writer’s point ofview; a lot of ‘home’ users would just un-boxand switch on, with antivirus software

typically being one of the later items peopleconsider installing once the machine is upand running, usually expecting it to bepreloaded from day one. If the machine isalready infected and talking to the outsideworld, the end user may be unaware andaccept any strange occurrences as ‘normal fora new machine’. Often the end user noticeswhen a new machine becomes infected andslow, but in this scenario, they may not noticeuntil a specific problem arises. Apart frominstalling the OS yourself and installing agood antivirus from day one, there isn’tmuch users can do to protect against this typeof abuse – and to be honest, this is oftenbeyond the ability of the average home user.I’d hope a business environment would have a

procedure in place to test new machines forany kind of infection before adding them to thedomain or work environment, using a goodantivirus program.”

Return of Myspace?Knock knock. Who’s there? Myspace. Myspacewho? Precisely. Long before Facebook, Twitterand LinkedIn conquered the social networkingworld (sorry Google+, but you really don’tcount yet), the undisputed king of the hillwas Myspace. This once News Corp-ownedsocial network had all the media mentions,had all the members, had everything – or so itseemed. Launched in 2003 and acquired byNews Corp for some $580 million in 2005,

Don’t let greed cloud your common sense online

“At the bottom end of theindustry, bothering to secure asupply chain isn’t an option”

Can Justin Timberlake’s new Myspace take on Spotify and Facebook?


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RWCSecurity & Social

the future looked very bright for Myspace.Indeed, in 2006 it was officially the biggestwebsite of them all, getting more visitors thanGoogle and boasting more than 100 millionregistered members.

Meanwhile, Facebook opened its doorsto everyone in 2006 – having previously beenrestricted to students – and by 2008 it hadovertaken Myspace in terms of internet traffic.The reasons why Facebook went on to amassclose to a billion members and Myspace endedup being sold to online advertising outfitSpecific Media (and investor Justin Timberlake,who is now a part-owner of Myspace) for areported $35 million last year could be debateduntil the cows come home.

Personally, I think it was a classic case ofold media, in the shape of News Corp, notbeing able to grasp the social aspects of the newnetworking media quickly enough, bywhich I mean that Facebook wasspearheading the whole“user-generatedeverything” approachto content andcommunity building,with third-partydevelopers bringinggames and apps tothe party, whileMyspace remaineda communicationsportal with anemphasis on teenagers,music and proprietaryin-house-developed tools suchas karaoke machines, videoplayers and instant messaging clients.A three-year advertising deal with Google thatbrought in close to a billion dollars didn’t helpeither. Sure Myspace now had plenty of cash,but it also had a surplus of contractuallyrequired advertising that made the site slowand sloppy to access.

Fast forward to now and the Timberlake/Specific Media combo are about to relaunchMyspace – which has somehow managed toretain a none-too-shabby 25 million members– with a brand-new Windows Metro-inspiredinterface. Indeed, according to various reportsit seems that this year Myspace has gone froma big fat zero of new member registrationsto 40,000 per day, to gain a million newmembers. To put that into perspective, it wasmore than Pinterest could manage and morethan Google+ as well. Much of this renewedmember interest can probably be put downto its new policy of integration with bothFacebook and Twitter, both of whichremain firmly above Myspace in termsof traffic, along with LinkedIn. Perhaps notsurprisingly, given the Justin Timberlakeconnection, Myspace is basing many of itshopes for social media resurrection on whatused to be the not-quite-unique selling pointof becoming an online music hub.

If you like the Windows 8 image-centric-panels-and-tiles interface approach, then you’llprobably like the new Myspace. But if you likemusic then the chances are that you’re alreadyusing another social media service to discoverand listen to new music – namely, Spotify.Whether or not Myspace can succeed remainsto be seen, but it can already claim to provide

access to more than twice as much freemusic as Spotify, with more than

40 million tracks. Myspacealso seems determined to

remain the free musicchoice, while Spotifyseems to be movingmore towards thepaid-for subscribermodel. The thing isthat, despite theallure of the free anddespite the jazzy new

look (which you canpreview at (https://new.

myspace.com/play), I’mnot convinced that Myspace

has what it takes to succeed –namely, the momentum of the

moment. By which I mean that all the freemusic in the world is of no consequence if themusic player itself is below par, and no amountof design revamping and hyperbole will makeany difference if your target audience is talkingabout someone else. The combination ofyesterday’s pop star with yesterday’s socialnetwork has a rather ominous ring of doomabout it, don’t you think?

Mobile malwaremarches everonwardsThe latest McAfeeThreats Report makesfor slightly uneasyreading, not leastbecause it shows thelargest rise in malwarethat the firm hasreported for fouryears now. In fact,McAfee reveals that

there were 1.5 million more malware samplesdetected in the second three months of 2012than the first three. The sample discovery ratehas risen to around 100,000 per day, withmalware variants jumping from traditionaldesktop targets to tablets and smartphones.Pretty well all the new mobile malware detectedwas directed firmly at Android, and includedSMS senders, mobile botnets, spyware and datadestroying ransomware trojans.

USB thumbdrives also proved a bigtarget, with 1.2 million new samples of theAutorun worm discovered. This is distributedby way of a removable USB drive and executesmalicious code as soon as that drive is insertedinto a host machine. New thumbdrivesattached to an infected machine also becomeinfected, and so it goes on. I must apologiseto McAfee for hijacking its research findingsto plug a rival security vendor’s solution, butthe Bitdefender USB Immunizer, codename“Peeved Panda” (don’t ask!) will disableAutorun-related threats by monitoring allnewly inserted USB storage devices andimmunising them on the fly. If an infecteddevice is inserted, then the malware containedin it will not be auto-executed. It works well,and it’s free to download.

And finally, stating the bleedin’obvious (part 37)The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)has finally got around to clarifying the dataprotection responsibilities of a business whenusing cloud services. It’s the usual fairly

long-winded document, butfeel free to take a look at thePDF at www.pcpro.co.uk/links/219ss2. Alternatively, Ican sum it up for you: you’resolely responsible for theprotection of your own data.Just because you outsourceto a third party in the cloud,doesn’t relieve you of that basicresponsibility. This just goes toconfirm what I’ve been sayingfor yonks now, that you needto know where your data isstored and who can access it.Think ownership and thinksovereignty of data whenthinking cloud and you’ll bein the right ballpark.

USB Immunizer protects against the rising threat from thumbdrive malware

More breachesA Freedom of Information Act

request about self-reported databreaches to the Information

Commissioner’s Office (ICO), made bysecure storage outfit Imation, reveals they

have increased by more than 1,000%since 2007. Local government breachesincreased by 1,609%, while other publicsector organisations saw a 1,380% rise.

The private sector wasn’t much betterat 1,159%. The average was 1,014%,reduced by low reported rates from

central government and thetelecoms sector.

feelPDlinkcasoprJutodorecofotostTh

The ICO takes 25pages to explain thecloud changes nothing


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RWC Office Applications


Simon Jones wonders why Google is reducing document compatibility,and is disappointed with the limitations of Office 2013 RT

New restrictions onold office software

Google Drive has withdrawn theoption to export documents in theold binary formats of DOC, XLSand PPT, ostensibly in order to

concentrate on improving export of the newerOOXML formats (DOCX, XLSX and PPTX).These formats were introduced with MicrosoftOffice 2007, and produce smaller, more robustfiles consisting of zipped XML code: all arefully documented via Ecma and ISO standards,making it easier to write good export routinesfor them than for the poorly documented oldbinary formats. Google Drive will continue toimport files in the old formats. The restrictedfunctionality of Drive already alters the look ofOffice documents you import, but improvedexport routines might make the results onexporting back into Office more faithful.

When you upload a Word, Excel orPowerPoint document to Google Drive, you get

a read-only copy of the file that can only beviewed online and shared with other people,but an extra step of “exporting” the file toGoogle Drive is needed if you want a separate,editable copy of the document. The online viewof the read-only file may not look much like theoriginal, depending on the complexity of itsformatting, but the editable copy will almostcertainly show differences unless its formatting

is so simple as to correspond to the fonts, sizes,colours and formatting available in Docs.

As I warned when reviewing Google AppsPremier Edition in January 2009: “The Googleapplications themselves can be updated andchanged at any time without any warning asGoogle releases new versions, and if you don’tlike the change or it breaks your documents,there’s no way for you to go back to using theold version.” If your version of Office is 2000,XP or 2003 and you use Google Apps, from1 October 2012 you’ll need the compatibilitypack from www.pcpro.co.uk/links/219oa.

Users of laterversions of Officearen’t affected, whileusers of Office 97 andearlier will have toupgrade or switch to asuite that can read thenew file formats. One

awkward question is why did Google give onlyfive days’ notice of such an important change?

Exchange futuresThe past few versions of Office have containedversions of Exchange, SharePoint and LyncServer that were completed in lockstep withtheir front-end clients, and you could also rely

on the server being backwards-compatiblewith other Microsoft software in yourenvironment. There are times when featuresof client and server are interdependent – forinstance, where a feature of a new Exchangeversion requires a new version of Outlook – butwe’re used to all the software arriving at onceand working together, and with our existinginfrastructure. Regrettably, this seems to befalling apart for “Wave 15” – that is, Office2013, Exchange Server 2013 and the rest.

Microsoft has announced that a ServicePack (SP3) will be required for Exchange Server2010 to make it compatible with WindowsServer 2012 and Exchange Server 2013, andthis isn’t going to be shipped until the first halfof 2013. Now H1 is usually a euphemism forQ2, April to June, to avoid having to say itwill be that late. If it were going to ship in Q1,surely the company would know by the end ofSeptember 2012? How much work is left to do,three-to-six or six-to-nine months’ worth?

When Office 2010 was released, Microsofttalked about delivering new versionsapproximately every two years, so customerswith Software Assurance agreements could seethe benefit by receiving at least one upgradeduring their term. Everyone confidentlypredicted that the next version of Office wouldbe “Office 2012”, but release slipped into H2

OFFICE APPLICATIONS

SIMON JONESAn independentIT consultantspecialising inOffice Automation,Visual Basic andSQL Server. He livesup a mountain inWales. Email [email protected]

“Why did Google give only fivedays’ notice of such animportant change?”


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RWCOffice Applications

2012 and Microsoft announced it would becalled “Office 2013”. A couple of months agoit became clear that Office 2013 wouldn’t becomplete by the launch of Windows 8, at theend of October 2012, despite being integral tothe Windows 8 RT offering on ARM-poweredtablets. What was actually going to ship withWindows 8 RT was a preview version of Office,with finished code to follow probably betweenNovember and February, alongside full versionsfor x86 and x64 architectures.

It now emerges that until SP3 for ExchangeServer 2010 ships, you won’t be able to runExchange Server 2013 in the same networkwith it, nor will you be able to install ExchangeServer 2010 on Windows Server 2012. Thatwill make migrating Exchange from 2010 to2013 difficult – and it highlights that ExchangeServer 2013 isn’t as far along in its developmentpath as it should be.

Exchange 2013 requires Windows Server2008 R2 (or Windows Server 2012, which isalready available) and it won’t run on anyprevious version of Windows Server. In short,Microsoft said in July that Exchange 2013would be compatible with Exchange 2010 uponrelease – but now we’re told it requires SP3 forExchange Server 2010, which might not beavailable until next June.

If Microsoft goes back on its commitmentto server compatibility from release, and plansto ship Exchange 2013 before this necessaryService Pack, then you’ll have a hard timeinstalling it – unless it’s onto a brand-new,clean network. Exchange 2007 is also meantto be compatible with Exchange 2013 from

release, but there’s no word yet on when(or if) a Service Pack will be required/availableto enable this.

Microsoft has been consistently poor atcommunicating about its “Wave 15” products,allowing snippets of information to leak out onvarious blogs rather than providing consistentinformation through recognised channels.

This is just another example where we’vehad to tease out facts from the Exchange 2013Preview documentation and combine them withother snippets about Exchange Server 2010SP3, to discover things we’d rather not hear.

Office 2013 RT limitationsAs I write at the end of September 2012,no-one has seen Office 2013 RT – the versionfor ARM-powered tablets – except in thehands of Microsoft employees. No journalisthas been allowed to play with it, let alone tryit in real-world scenarios. Back when Windows

8 RT and Office 2013 RT were announced,Microsoft promised Office 2013 RT wouldrun “fully featured” versions of Officeapplications and “provide complete documentcompatibility”. Later we found out thatmeant the Office Home and Studentversion comprising Word, Excel, PowerPointand OneNote. More recently we’ve alsodiscovered which features haven’t made it intothese so-called “fully featured” applications.

Features that havebeen removed include:

•Macros, add-ins,and features thatrely on ActiveXcontrols or third-partycode, such as the

PowerPoint Slide Library ActiveX controland Flash video playback;

• Certain legacy features, such as playingolder media formats in PowerPoint (upgrade tomodern formats and they’ll play) and editingequations written in Equation Editor 3, whichwas used in older versions of Office (viewingworks fine);

• Certain email-sending features, sinceWindows RT doesn’t support Outlook orother desktop mail applications (opening amail app, such as the Mail app that comeswith Windows RT devices, and insertingyour Office content works);

• Creating a datamodel in Excel 2013 RT(PivotTables, QueryTables, PivotCharts work);

• Recording narrations in PowerPoint2013 RT;

• Searching embedded audio/videofiles, recording audio/video notes, andimporting from an attached scanner withOneNote 2013 RT (inserting audio/videonotes or scanned images from anotherprogram works okay);

So much for “fully featured”. It isn’tobvious from that list whether all macrosupport is missing, or whether it’s only macrosthat relied on ActiveX or third-party code.“Certain email-sending features” could justmean mail merge from Word, or it might meanany of the File | Share | Email tools such as“Send as Attachment” or “Send as PDF”.Having to save your file, start a new messagein the Mail app, then find and attach the file,is the sort of fiddling computers are meantto relieve you from. Recording narrationsin PowerPoint would be a good use for atablet that you could take away from your deskto a quiet room, while recording audio andvideo is one of OneNote’s neatest tricks,allowing you to make a searchable recordof a meeting in one click.

Removing this feature to improvebattery life is a false economy; better to restrictit to when the machine is on mains power, ordisplay a warning that it will run down yourbatteries in “x” minutes, rather than lose italtogether. While I understand how andwhy these restrictions came about, they’redisappointing and contradict the “fullyfeatured” claim that was promulgated earlier.

Office pricingMicrosoft has released some details of its USprices for the new Office 2013 packages andOffice 365 subscriptions, and is still heavily

“Office 2013 RT’s restrictionscontradict the ‘fully featured’claim promulgated earlier”

Google Drive is getting better, but it has suddenly dropped support for exporting files inMicrosoft Office 97-2003 format


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RWC Office Applications


pushing subscriptions over standalone suites.I believe that the $100 per year for Office 365Home Premium will translate to £80 in theUK or €100 in Europe. (I’ve rounded up by apenny in all cases as I despise those deceitful99p price points.)

From the table (see right) you can see thatthe Office Home and Student edition, whichused to be priced very attractively for up tothree PCs in one household, is now only asingle-user/device licence and looks poor valuecompared to Office 365 Home Premium. Thisgives you seven applications instead of four,inclusive Skype time, extra SkyDrive storageand allows up to five users in your household touse the Office applications on their PCs. Ofcourse, all this is in return for giving Microsoft$100 every year, but that’s only $1.67 per userper month if you used all five licences.

There are questions over which user accountgets access to the Skype time: does the primaryaccount holder get it all, or can they apportionit out to other users in a household? And is the20GB of SkyDrive storage controlled by theprimary account or spread evenly among theusers? At the moment it looks like the primaryaccount holder receives all the benefit of theseextras, which isn’t too good in a family whereperhaps the kids would get the most use fromthem, but they’re added to the parent’s accountas bill payer. You can use Macs instead of PCswith an Office 365 subscription, but there areno Mac versions of OneNote, Access orPublisher. Of course, if you buy one of thestandard Office 2013 editions you’ll be ableto add Skype time and SkyDrive storage,therefore enabling to use the Office Web Appsand Outlook.com for email. However, those areall free or paid-for extras and aren’t included inthe purchase price of the Office suites.

If you bought a previous version of Officethrough a volume licence agreement withSoftware Assurance, one of the extras youreceived was the ability to install Office ontwo devices for each user, provided these deviceswere for the use of one person and not normallyused at the same time – that is, the same user’sdesktop and laptop PCs. We don’t yet knowwhether this benefit will continue with Office2013 since Microsoft hasn’t released details ofthe licences and pricing for the editions of Office2013 aimed at businesses.

If you buy a new copy of Office 2010 from19 October 2012, you’ll be entitled to anupgrade to the equivalent edition of Office2013 when it’s released, or a free year’ssubscription to the nearest Office 365 package.Swapping a perpetual licence for a one-yearsubscription seems like a bad deal, but at theend of the free year you can either pay tocontinue, or else drop back to the Office 2010package you originally bought, so you’re notactually losing anything. Whether or not anOffice 365 subscription is right for you dependsvery much on your particular circumstances: itcertainly won’t be right for everyone.

Debunking Office2013 fallaciesComments appearing under online newsstories about Office 2013 and Office 365suggest some users have misconceptions aboutthe products being prepared: they appear to beunder the impression that you have to storeOffice 2013 or Office 365 documents in thecloud through SkyDrive or SharePoint. Youdon’t. Office 2013 will offer to store yourdocuments in SkyDrive or SharePoint, but youcan store them on your PC’s local drive. Youcan also add the SkyDrive application toWindows and sync one or more foldersfrom your PC to the cloud, and hence havedocuments stored in both places by savingthem once to a synchronised folder.

Some people also believe that if you havean Office 365 subscription, you can editdocuments only if you’re connected tothe internet. While some currentOffice 365 subscriptions (K1,K2, A2, P1, E1 and E2)come with only OfficeWeb Apps, the mainones (E3, E4, A3and A4) and all thenew Office 365subscriptionsdetailed in thetable above comewith the full Officeapplications installedonto your PC using thenew Click-to-Runinstallation mechanism. Thisrequires an internet connection

while installing, but once installed you don’tneed to be connected to use them. If youhave any recent copy (2007 or 2010) ofMicrosoft Office installed already – whetherthat’s an OEM, retail or volume licence copy– you can use that as well as the OfficeWeb Apps provided through an Office 365subscription. You can also add an Office 2010subscription to any Office 365 plan that doesn’tcome with one, for about £10 extra per userper month.

Some people aren’t sure where Microsoftstores their Office 365 or SkyDrive documents,and worry that it’s vulnerable. Microsoft hassaid all data for EU subscribers will be held atits data centre in Ireland, although there arecontingency arrangements to move it toother data centres in an emergency such as aprolonged power outage. Storing data within

the EU makes it subject to EU ruleson data security and privacy, and

all communication betweenyour PC and the servers

is encrypted. There’sstill more chance ofinterception, snoopingor data loss whenusing a cloud facilitythan if your datastays on your ownencrypted hardware,in your secure

premises, backed uponto your securely held

and frequently testedbackup tapes, accessed by

only your security-vetted staff.

Trust?Security all comes down to

how much you can trust people.If you use an off-site facility for

your backups, do you trust them not tolose your tapes or sell copies of your

data to your rivals? If you employ staff,do you trust them not to take a copy ofyour client list when they’re poachedby another firm? When you buy cloudservices or storage from a company,do you trust them to keep your data

safe? As always, read the smallprint carefully and make up

your own mind.

Office pricingOffice 2013editions

Office 365editions

Home& Student

Home &Business

Professional HomePremium

SmallBusinessPremium

ProPlus Enterprise

Price $140 $220 N/A $100/year $150/user/year

N/A N/A

Maxusers 1 1 1 5 10 25 UnlimitedMax devices 1 1 1 5 5 per user 5 per user 5 per userApplications

Word

Excel

PowerPoint

OneNote

Outlook

Access

Publisher

InfoPath

Lync

Services

Skype 60mins/month

SkyDrive 20GB

SkyDrive Pro

WebApps

LyncOnline

ExchangeOnline

+

SharePointOnline

KEY: not included, included, + extra features


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RWCWeb Apps & Design

Tom Arah investigates Adobe’s Creative Cloud and asks whether it’sall good news for end users

Away with the cloud?WEBAPPS &DESIGN

Adobe’s Creative Suite (CS) iscurrently going through a period offundamental change. In previouscolumns I’ve focused on this

seismic shift away from Flash towards universalHTML5 and device-specific native apps, butequally significant is Adobe’s new softwareand business model called the Creative Cloud,which promises users “ongoing membership”of “a digital hub where you can explore, create,share, and deliver your work”. We’ve heard thiskind of cloud-based-revolution hype before,which almost invariably proves a crashingdisappointment (often literally). So is CreativeCloud any different?

The buzzword “cloud” might suggest thatAdobe has set up a massive server farm tostream its CS applications directly to end users,which is accessible from any internet-enableddevice, but it hasn’t. Creative Cloudremains based around the existing native CSapplications installed locally on your maincomputer, plus one backup copy (although asmall advance is that one of your installationsmay now be Windows and the other Mac).

The fact that it isn’t true cloud-based SaaS is agood thing, since it means our applications willwork just as before and access won’t depend ona working internet connection.

That said, you’ll need to connect at leastonce every 30 days for Adobe to check yoursubscription status, as Creative Cloud isessentially a reworked version of the software

subscription model that Adobe introduced withCS5.5, but without the flexibility of rentingindividual applications. Before you dismissCreative Cloud, you should check the prices.The monthly rental for a full year’s subscriptionto the CS5.5 Master Collection costs £116, butto subscribe to Creative Cloud costs £47 (incVAT). While the CS5.5 subscription offered nodiscounts to existing CS users, Adobe nowoffers registered owners of any CS3-or-later

application the first yearof Creative Cloudmembership for only £27(inc VAT) per month.

This pricing places avery different slant onCreative Cloud. Thinkof the CS5.5 episode

as an experimental way to check the feasibilityof subscriptions, but this is the real thing andits aggressive pricing and advertisingdemonstrate that Adobe is committed tomaking it work. It looks as though Adobeexpects the majority of CS users to becomeCreative Cloud members eventually. Sowhat can you expect if you sign up?

The magic toolboxThe Creative Cloud experience starts with thenew central Adobe Application Manager, whichmanages your installations. Open this andyou’re presented with a clean and simple dialoglisting all the Creative Cloud applications,starting with the 14 that make up the fullMaster Collection suite. Not all of these will berelevant to your own interests, and you don’thave to install those that you won’t use. AsAdobe puts it: “think of Creative Cloud as amagic toolbox that gives you the right creativetool the moment you need it”. That mightsound a little over the top, but the creativepower it offers – including web design anddevelopment, video production, commercialprint, interactive design for smartphones andtablets, photo editing and vector illustration –is pretty extraordinary.

As a standalone suite, the current MasterCollection represents pretty good value formoney at £2,645, but Creative Cloudmembership gives you access to all theseaward-winning apps for a fraction of thatcost. Positive first-user reviews show that manynew members can’t quite believe that they’ve

TOM ARAH

Set up his Edinburgh-based designcompany in 1987. Aswell as design work,he provides trainingand consultancy.Email [email protected]

Adobe is heavily promoting its new Creative Cloud, which offers many powerful applications

“It seems that Adobe expectsmost CS users to becomeCreative Cloudmembers”


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effectively bought an access-all-areas pass toWilly Wonka’s factory for such a knockdownprice. This is all well and good, but Adobe isdetermined to make Creative Cloud far morethan just a new way of paying for access to itsMaster Collection.

To begin with, it provides an even widerrange of applications, starting with the inclusionof Lightroom for quickly managing and editingyour digital photos. The main beneficiaries areweb designers and developers who gain accessto two additional applications: Adobe Muse,which lets you create advanced websites withabsolutely no HTML coding skills; and thepreview version of Adobe Edge, which lets youcreate Flash-style animations in HTML5 (I planto take a look at both these applications inmore detail in a future column).

Creative Cloud members also automaticallygain access not only to Adobe’s promisedannual round of version x.5 releases, butto a continuous stream of exclusive newfunctionality. For example, in early Septembersignificant capabilities were added to Illustrator,Muse and Edge; a couple of weeks later, newfeatures including streamlined handling ofHTML5 objects, audio, video and animationwere added to Dreamweaver. All this newfunctionality is welcome, but even more sois the sense that you’re getting an even betterdeal for your money.

Adobe is also using Creative Cloud toextend its reach beyond the traditionaldesktop, with a new range of tablet apps thatyou have to buy from the app stores, but Adobeextends your membership accordingly. Thereare six of these Adobe Touch apps: PhotoshopTouch for image editing and compositing;Kuler for colour theme handling; Debut forpresentation of creative work; Ideas forvector-based sketching; Collage for creatingmultimedia moodboards; and – most relevantto web users – Proto, which lets you createwireframes of websites and mobile appsdirectly on your tablet.

The digital hubThat’s it in terms ofapplications and apps,at least for now, butAdobe wants users tosee Creative Cloud asfar more than justsoftware. This is wherethe “digital hub” andcloud-based handlingcome in, providingmembers with a rangeof supporting onlineservices, such as accessto 20GB of CreativeCloud storage as partof your subscription(non-members cansign up and receive2GB for free).

At the moment,online file management is pretty basic – youhave to manually upload and download files inthe browser – but greater control and desktopintegration are promised. Meanwhile, it’sa handy way of sharing files between desktopsand essential for syncing files between desktopCS applications and tablet Touch apps. You canalso choose to share hosted files with others,which enables workmates and customers toview your CS file in their browser and makegeneral comments on them. This sharing isn’t areplacement for PDF-based collaboration anddocument review via Acrobat.com, but thenAcrobat X Pro is included in the package.

For web designers and developers, CreativeCloud offers a number of additional services.The first is the ability to host up to five websiteson Adobe’s Business Catalyst servers. BusinessCatalyst integration is now built into bothDreamweaver and Muse, making it incrediblyeasy to create and update sites. In addition,Business Catalyst offers various advancedcapabilities such as online tracking andreporting, e-commerce handling and email

campaigns. Whether or not you plan on usingAdobe’s hosting, Creative Cloud members cantake advantage of Adobe’s TypeKit system toboost the typography of their sites by deployinga huge range of high-quality web fonts.

Most exciting of all, and hot off the pressat the time of writing, is the inclusion ofsubscriptions to Digital Publishing Suite, SingleEdition (DPS SE) and PhoneGap Build. Theformer means that designers can take advantageof the new folio-building capabilities inInDesign CS6 to create rich digital publicationsfor the iPad with absolutely no coding required(presumably Android and Windows 8 supportwill follow). The latter means that developerscan create a mobile app with HTML andJavaScript within Dreamweaver, and havethis automatically cloud-compiled ready fordeployment to all mobile platforms from iOSand Android through to Windows Phone,BlackBerry, webOS and Symbian. What’sespecially impressive is that, while deliveringjust one app of the standalone version of DPSSE to the App Store costs no less than $395,your ongoing Creative Cloud membership letsyou “publish an unlimited number of apps atno additional cost”. Produce a couple of iPadapps a year and you’ve effectively paid for yourannual Creative Cloud subscription.

An offer you can’t refuse?Touch apps to explore new ideas; award-winning, market-defining CS6 applications withexclusive additions and updates; online storageand hosting that let you share your work bothinternally and externally; and integration withthe Digital Publishing and PhoneGap services tohelp get your work onto the crucial new mobileplatforms. The Creative Cloud really deliverson its promise of “a digital hub where you canexplore, create, share, and deliver your work”,and at less than a £1 a day for existing users, itlooks almost too good to be true. However, it’sworth thinking a little more critically first.

New Creative Cloud applications such as Adobe Muse have plenty of features to offer

The Adobe Application Manager lists all the Creative Cloud apps


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RWCWeb Apps & Design

For a start, it’s deeply irritating that, yetagain, UK users are subjected to a punitive £1for $1 exchange rate; the respective US annualpricing is only $50 per month and $30 forexisting users. After the first year’s discount, theannual cost will rise from £328 to £563. Moreto the point, Adobe hasn’t given any priceguarantees, and without any serious high-endcompetition, what’s to prevent the companyfrom ratcheting up prices in the years ahead?It’s a free world. So if the price does rise youcould always vote with your feet, but here’s therub – what would that leave you with? TheFAQ makes it pretty clear:

“When you cancel a month-to-month orannual membership… you will no longer haveaccess to the CS applications, other desktopsoftware, and services that are components ofCreative Cloud. However, if you saved yourwork to your computer, you will continue tohave access to those files.”

It’s nice to have it in writing that Adobepromises not to destroy your data files if youleave, but not all that reassuring; what good arethe files if you no longer have the applications?If you’re an existing CS user you can always fallback on your last standalone copy, but whathappens if you’ve been making heavy use ofsome of the more recent features? More to thepoint, what happens if you’ve been takingadvantage of the online support services such asBusiness Catalyst hosting, the Digital PublishingPlatform and PhoneGap Build? Suddenly, all

your published websites and apps willdisappear. No wonder Adobe calls this an“ongoing membership”, because as soon as itstops then, in the words of Anne Robinson,“you leave with nothing”. With lock-in sointegral to the whole system, the Creative Cloudsuddenly looks a lot darker.

Universal deliveryThe view is far brighter from Adobe’sperspective. When the unstoppable rise ofApple’s iPad led to the apparently catastrophicdemise of Flash, Adobe desperately neededsomething to keep its customers happy. Thesheer power and value for money offered byCreative Cloud achieves this brilliantly, as thefirst user responses show. Unlimited appcreation should satisfy disgruntled users stillfurther, effectively replacing Flash as Adobe’suniversal delivery mechanism and moving themobile platform centre stage. Creative Cloudmembership restores universal delivery toAdobe users, but in a completely new way.Under the old Flash-based publishing model,

once they’d bought thetools CS developerswere free to create asmany projects as theywanted and deliverthem directly to endusers. In short, they nolonger needed Adobe.In business terms,Adobe was selling thefamily silver – actually,with the open sourceFlex platform it wasgiving it away for free– but the CreativeCloud’s “ongoingmembership” modelties users’ long-termbusiness interest intoAdobe. Previously,Adobe had to hopethat every CS releasehad enough newfeatures to persuade users to upgrade, but withCreative Cloud, their annual upgrade purchaseis almost guaranteed.

Let’s get cynical. Many CS users werebewildered and frustrated by the feebleresponse Adobe put up when Apple firstbanned Flash and Flash-derived native appsfrom its iOS devices back in 2010. Where wasits mobilisation of public opinion; where wasthe court case for anticompetitive practices?

The company meeklyagreed to kill off Flashin the browser merelyin return for access tothe App Store. At thetime, the benefits forApple were obvious,but for Adobe – forced

to abandon Flash, the centrepiece of its richdesign strategy – it looked like a completedisaster. However, moving away from Flash inthe browser to native apps via Creative Cloudis actually very good business for Adobe,enabling it to push users into a completelynew subscription model.

I believe this cynical reading probably isn’ttoo far from the truth and that this is a silvercloud with a dark lining, but what can users doabout it? Many will recognise Creative Cloudfor what it is – an Apple-style walled garden– and run for the hills of open web standardsand CMS. Others will reach differentconclusions. Code-phobic designers may findAdobe’s support for pain-free, professional,“HTML-free” web design via Muse andBusiness Catalyst quite attractive, whilehands-on developers who want to produce therichest online experiences via HTML5 may findEdge the best code-based Flash replacement.Ultimately, professional web design requirestools, and Adobe is good at providing them.

More to the point, with Creative CloudAdobe is enabling its users to move on from the

old world of traditional page-based print andwebsite creation to deliver next-generationinteractive apps for the new medium thatdefines the future of content consumption – thehandheld mobile device. This booming mobilemarket is central to the future of rich design,and by including unlimited app creation in anaffordable monthly package, Creative Cloudpromises to give its members a hugecommercial edge. Producing work as nativeapps for handheld devices has the potential tobe both creatively and financially rewarding ina way that largely eluded Flash applications.And in the long term, there really isn’t anyalternative for professional designers, ascustomers will simply demand mobile delivery.A subscription to Creative Cloud is an offerthat most Adobe users can’t afford to refuse.

Overall, I have mixed feelings about whatAdobe is doing with this shift away from Flashand into the new Creative Cloud. Like manyAdobe users, I’m angry and disappointed aboutthe death of Flash and Flex in the browser, andthe simple SWF-based solution that made itpossible for content producers to deliver richapp-style experiences directly to consumersover the universal web. And I’m not exactlythrilled that Adobe’s way forward is so clearlybased on Apple’s walled-garden model,complete with user lock-in.

On another level, though, I’m pleasantlysurprised. When Apple first announced theiPad and its ban on Flash, Adobe seemedclueless about what to do next. With theCreative Cloud and the new focus onHTML5 and native apps, Adobe has createdan impressive alternative route that ensuresits users can continue to deliver the richestpossible experience to a universal audience.Crucially, its mobile delivery is turning intothe creative platform’s greatest strength.Adobe’s plan makes good business sensefor the company and its users.

“I havemixed feelings aboutthis shift away from Flash andinto the newCreative Cloud”

Creative Cloud file hosting lets others view and download your files


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RWC Networks

I’m beginning to suspect that the currentfad for bring your own computer(BYOC) is a plot thought up by MikeMyers’ character Dr Evil, to double IT

staff requirements. The upsides – choice; fasterprovisioning; avoidance of unhealthy intimacybetween purchasing department and reseller;user care and involvement; and so forth – areall promised with no attempt to enumerate thecorresponding downsides. As with otherarticles of religious faith, the conditions underwhich those promises might be delivered arenever explored, either in the nerd-speak youand I use or in plain English for everyone else.You’ve guessed right, I’m smarting from recentpainful experiences – although it hasn’t alwaysbeen my own ego that wasbruised: others have sharedmy pain, but it’s my brain thatgot an Olympic-class workout.

Let’s take the easiest casefirst. A client suffered apalace revolution in whichits IT users renounced theold school and stormedthe steps of the nearesthigh-street PC retailer toreplace their irritatinglynasty home-builtworkstations (that’s theirdescription: sorry Asus andGigabyte). The users hadspoken, although in my opinion they weredead wrong. They were quite sure that nicemid-range Sony VAIOs would cure allperceived ills and do a far better job thanthese ageing and annoying deskside

Steve Cassidy is surprised at the unsuitability of laptops being sold asbusiness-ready, but at least he’s making money out of it

Bring YourOwn Confusion

NETWORKS

STEVE CASSIDYSteve mixes networktechnologies withhuman resourcesconsultancy work.Read his blog atwww.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/stevecassidy.Email [email protected]

self-builds. (Okay, you self-builders, pleasewait for the punchline before you startventing spleen over Twitter in support ofyour team.)

I listened to the client’s catalogue of woes.The chief gripe with the shiny-new laptopswas that after a meeting they would all emergefrom the room to discover their units wereall running slow – horribly slow; verging onunusable. I became increasingly suspiciousof their pattern of activity vis-a-vis thispattern of systematic slowdowns. It soundeduncomfortably like their previous complaintsabout those old desktop PCs, so I resolved to goforensic on them. It wasn’t so much about howmuch RAM was in their machines but moreabout precisely how they were working insidethat meeting room. “We love our VAIOs,” theyall said, “we all take them into the meeting onwireless so we can check our calendars and setup any to-dos that arise”. Not much wrong

with that, except that I already knew theimpressive size of their average mailboxes inthe IMAP store, and guessed they might seeperformance issues when half-a-dozen peoplein the same room wielded both VAIO andBlackBerry through the same antenna.

Their reply was mildly peevish: “Yes, weappreciated that at an early stage, so we runthe web-based access to our mail server in themeeting room, then let the machines do a fullreconcile back at our desks.” That offered me aglimmer of a hint, but it wasn’t until my nextvisit that the full horror of the situation sank in.Their VAIOs – very nice machines, to be sure– had all been bought with port replicators, andthey all had secondary monitors, Ethernetcables, proper keyboards and mice hangingoff those ports. These almost-portless, slimUltrabooks docked smoothly into theirreplicators, with none of the grinding ofplastic and tedious flashing of LEDs during

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RWCNetworks


new device detection that I remember from thelast time I had a job posh enough to warranta port replicator. (I recall it was a 486/66ThinkPad – that long ago.)

Each VAIO replicator dock shows a glowingLED on its cabled Ethernet port, regardless ofwhether or not the VAIO is in it, and when half-a-dozen people came out of the meeting andplugged in their laptops, these LEDs remainedstubbornly on. By squinting (I’m getting old) atthe tiny pixels making up the taskbar dock inWindows 7 on a super-hi-res VAIO screen, Icould just see that the usual wired networkconnection glyph, a square with a mousetop-right, wasn’t visible. Despite sitting in theirdocks, all these laptops were still stuck on theWi-Fi! I walked around the whole lot, lookingat their LEDs to verify I wasn’t going potty.

Modern laptops can automatically switchLAN connections, and indeed these VAIOswere managing a completely seamless transitionfrom wired to wireless. Rush into a meetingwith them, and by the time the coffee is pouredyou’ll be reconnected on Wi-Fi. What I didn’texpect was that the reverse transition requiresmore than merely docking the machine again.

Even with the wired Ethernet link active,some accursed manufacturer’s bloatware, orrogue configuration of the Wi-Fi basestationand stored passwords and SSIDs, was causingthe VAIOs to remain locked onto Wi-Fi, sothat when users performed their Outlooksyncs on what they thought was a GigabitLAN, they were instead getting an eighth of a25Mbits/sec Wi-Fi connection. Despite theiravowed non-techiness, surely they could tellthe difference?

Manufacturer bloatware is nothing new. Iremember stripping the tiny disk in my 486/66machine of all manner of utilities with six-wordnames that had nothing to do with the jobthey did (this being IBM, the network pickerwas called something like “Access IBMThinkVantage Internet Protocol ContextSettings”). But at least they did their job. I alsoremember hunting down the Wi-Fi softwaresuite for a Toshiba Tecra and being impressedby its radar-like circular display of nearby radiosignals – although since its antenna didn’t haveany kind of directionality, this display was acomplete fabrication.

It’s therefore long been my habit to collectall the manufacturer’s support site downloadsfor a machine before I finally decide to buy it,but these VAIOs were being sold as ready forsmall business. I suspect Sony’s rationale forreplacing the standard Windows 7 networkpicker and Wi-Fi connector is that it (like

everybody else) hasbeen replacing thestandard offeringfor at least twodecades, andnow believes itknows moreabout the workingpatterns of its users than eitherMicrosoft or its competitors.

Vendors apparently expect their laptopsto be running wireless for the majority oftheir service life, which makes it a puzzle whythey’d bother to sell port replicators at all.Punchline number one, which clearlydemonstrates what a danger BYOC can be tocorporate life, is that these VAIOs were prettyrubbish at pushing Outlook data around theLAN, even after a cold restart to kill thepersistent Wi-Fi links. This turned out to bebecause the standard build they’d bought failedto include an updated Realtek Gigabit Ethernetdriver from Sony’s support site, which reallyuses the “Generate & Respond” option forflow control: the driver actually includedhad the tickbox, but it made no difference

to performance.Now I maintain

that the averagehigh-street retail guywon’t have the levelof understanding ofcompany networksto realise that first,

manufacturers’ initial builds can be rubbish;and second, that all updates should be applied,possibly as part of the pre-delivery inspection.

Guys, if some of you do have suchunderstanding and are offended by readingthis, let me explain further. If you’re alreadycarrying out such updates, burning themidnight oil on your customers’ behalf for ashop assistant’s salary, then you’re being hadby the manufacturers. Their attempt to sellbusiness-ready systems is completelyundermined by such bungled configurationchoices and rushed specifications, even as itbecomes more crucial for them to get it right.What they’re doing is turning you intothe IT department, so make sureyou’re being paid the goingrate for the work you’redoing for them.

64-bit bluesI haven’t forgottenthose poor, rejected,self-build PCs.Gigabyte and Asus,you can relax, becauseI’ve uncovered the tworeasons why thesemachines were dumped asunusably slow: one theyshared with the VAIOs, while the

other was an unexpected side effect of whatseemed a routine hardware configurationdecision. The first problem was withWindows 7 64-bit (actually, any 64-bitWindows version) – namely, that Microsofthas been far too lenient about what itpermits to be installed and run in the 64-bitenvironment. This used to be a rarefiedproblem affecting only server-side wonks likeme (see Bracketed exposure, p100), but sadlymany home users and BYOC naifs are nowsold 64-bit licences because “it’s gotta be better,innit. It’s got more bits”.

My client’s VAIOs were all running a 2011release of a 32-bit antivirus product, and beingIMAP mail users they’d ticked all the boxes inthis 32-bit antivirus to turn on Outlookintegration, but hadn’t unticked any of theboxes for real-time scanning. As a result, diskaccess workloads were a nightmarish mishmashof 32- and 64-bit code, patches, thunks andlibrary routines, with at least one halfway-house IMAP send/receive file getting scannedassiduously four times for every send/receivecycle by different parts of the antivirusprogram. There should have been ablizzard of errors and warnings from allthe participating products – but no, on thesurface the machines just appeared slow.

To my amazement, this antivirus product(which, since it was out of date, it would beunfair to identify) didn’t offer any option toexclude particular directory trees fromon-access scanning – scanning was only by

file type or everything. While my clientworks out what to do with the

expensive corporate antiviruslicence it bought, and

the server-basedupdate distributioninfrastructure, I’veput the real 64-bitversion of MicrosoftSecurity Essentialsin place, becauseit’s a well-behaved64-bit add-on

and because itdoes allow you to

nominate directory treesto be skipped in the more

paranoid protection modes.

Nasty tasteMy experience of updating

Lotus Notes to 64-bit Windows lefta lingering aftertaste that’s

all too familiar from many otherserver-side installs. One concludes

that they weren’t very happyoccasions. And yes, I’m thinking ofVeritas Backup Exec here, whose

pre-flight checking process used to bethought of as appallingly intrusive, but

which now from this new vantagepoint looks like thevery embodiment ofsensible precaution.

Despite being plugged into their portreplicators, the VAIOs were still using Wi-Fi

“Vendors expect their laptopsto be runningwireless for themajority of their service life”


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RWC Networks


Please don’t tell anyone how long it took meto sort this one out. I’m a self-professed fan ofLotus Notes, but increasingly people look onme with patience and pity, ignore my protestsabout the longevity of both the product andthe messages it holds, and prefer instead to

condemn everything it does as irritating orwilfully perverse. It’s a good email system,and I especially like the way the server-sidemail databases are only files, and so can bedirectly copied via Windows down onto aclient PC, a laptop, or another server, withoutany arcane utilities, weird limitations ornail-biting export procedures. Most of theNotes servers I look after are blasting alongat almost 100% capacity all the time,because their users have figured out howreliable they are, so upgrading one to 64-bitWindows was a no-brainer when it came tothe project-authorisation meeting.

Unfortunately, the process didn’t provequite so simple once I sat down to give it a

Bracketed exposuretry. The host platform is a large but antediluvian64-bit Windows Server 2003 machine, releasedfrom its previous duties, tuned and cleaned upby yours truly. What the hell, I thought: it has alot of RAM and some disks, so how hard can itbe? It was a humble bracket that did me in.

When you install a32-bit application ontoa 64-bit OS, everythingabout that applicationgoes into a path thatreads “Program Files(x86)”, as if by magic.

This is supposed tobe totally transparent – you can refer to that pathand it will all just work, or you can ignore it and32-bit programs will end up in there all the same.In the case of my Domino Server install, though, Igot a path with one of those brackets in it but notthe other, so my server’s Path environmentvariable ended in “ProgramFiles(x86”. This looked like a typoand I treated it as such for far toolong, but like many reserved partsof the Windows directory tree onservers or workstations, it isn’tactually a typed field at all andcan’t be edited – the OS,applications and calls to pick upfiles are sent to it “transparently”, at

least until something comes along withoutenough knowledge or forewarning of 64-bit,at which point an entirely separate directory,which really does exist and that has only onebracket in its name, is created.

Whose responsibility is this: the appmaker (in this case, IBM) or Microsoft? I’dhave to say that this time I’d put Microsoft inthe dock. Its decision to permit 32-bit installsby way of a cunning hack, without checkingfor consequences or providing a suitablelibrary of supportive error messages, is aslap in the face for usability, and indeedfor BYOC initiatives, because it’s preciselythis kind of arcane and obscure knowledgethat us IT types revel in.

You might want to argue that it’s amiracle my install ran at all, and that finickyinstall processes and a tough road to reach

a stable config are what keep Linuxout of the market that Windows

has made its own. Doesanyone actually believethat voodoo superstition,random rules of thumbabout perceived speed,and games of hunt-the-

bracket are signs of awell-structured, business-

critical software toolkit?

The other problem crippling the self-buildPCs was that the boot drives were mirrored,using the hardware features of the on-motherboard SATA RAID chipsets. My firstclue that this might be the source of theproblem was an aside from a techie, thatwhenever they actually have a mirror fail ittakes more than a few hours to rebuild –whereas by contrast, Acronis could mirrorthe whole drive in 15-25 minutes, dependingon the space used.

By examining the Windows DiskManagement and the Intel Rapid StorageTechnology tray monitor, it became clearthat in effect these mirrored C drive partitionswere treating one drive as a primary store whileleaving an exceedingly slow motherboardchipset’s dedicated CPU to sync the secondarydrive by continually re-mirroring it. So your2KB file would get written to the primary drive,then get swept up by a periodic re-mirrorprocess and read back, and finally written tothe secondary. There was never a time reachedwhen the volume was actually marked as “insync”. On a C drive full of temporary files, pagefiles, System Restore repository and so on,such architecture had a disastrous, truly awfuleffect on performance.

Mirroring works well enough on a £400RAID card with battery-backed cache memory

and a fast, dedicated CPU, but it’s a poorsolution when implemented with lesscapable hardware. To demonstrate the point,I set up one of the machines with a stripeinstead of a mirror. On paper you’d expectthis to be four times faster – since it doublesthe throughput rate, which is halved by amirror – but actually it was more like seventimes faster, because the stripe prevents allthat primary/secondary churning. Everythingthat arrives at the controller is just split inhalf and writtensimultaneously. Isuspect that Asus andGigabyte (and manyothers) expect users tobe more interested instripes than mirrors.

Let’s not gethypercritical, though, or at least let’s make sureblame is apportioned fairly. I’m sure there areother VAIO models more suitable for non-technical business users to throw around anoffice, and equally sure that some of theproblem lies in my client’s Wi-Fi basestation.My client had walked into a retail operationthat took no responsibility for long-termsuitability for its technical environment (whichnobody even discussed), and was sold theitem of stock with the best retail margin.

BYOC at this level becomes an adventurecourse in painful discovery for the users, whileoffering us poor put-upon nerds the chance torelaunch and redefine what it means to be“an IT professional”.

In the case of the laptop purchases, nostatement of needs versus costs had been madein advance, and the price difference between a£399 home laptop and an £899 businessmachine was assumed to be just “flim-flam”(actually, a stronger word was used). My client

sincerely believed that designers of expensivemachinery are morally bankrupt price-gougers,while the young chap in the retail park with aload of stock to shift before the end of the weekwas some kind of saint.

I guess I shouldn’t really be complainingsince I’ve so far charged the client aboutthree times what it saved to sort out theshortcomings of these cheap machines,and that money has gone straight into mypocket rather than into Sony’s.

“BYOC at this level becomes anadventure course in painful

discovery for the users”

onment

, at

a stable conout of

hasany

brawel

critical

“It’s this kind of arcane andobscure knowledge that usIT types revel in”


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Dock your iPhone /iPod directly into thesocket

Stylish design with1.29 cm profile

Easy accessiblemenu/buttons

www.aoc-europe.com

The AOC e2343Fi is an intelligent display providing the

Apple® fan community with the ability to listen to music

or view their pictures, videos and YouTube content from

numerous iPhone and iPod devices on a stylish 23”

(58.5 cm) monitor, with or without the need for a PC.

Connect it to a PC to synchronise music, downloads and

office applications or simply work on your PC applications

and listen to great music through the powerful 5 W inbuilt

speakers. A complete multimedia solution for Apple users.

Monitor specifications: 23” LED backlight monitor, 50,000,000:1 contrast ratio,5 ms response time. Connections: VGA, HDMI connection, audio input,audio output, USB 2.0, iPhone/iPod docking station

ULTIMATE MONITORfor iPod®/iPhone® fans

STYLE


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REVIEWS Contents


REVIEWSHIGHLIGHTS FORA FULL INDEX, SEE PAGE 5

Ebook readers 114The Amazon Kindle Paperwhite takes on four key rivals.

Dell Inspiron One 23 108Can a touchscreen work on the desktop? Dell aims to prove it can.

Christmas gadgets 110Searching for inspiration this Christmas? Take a look at our guide.

Sony VAIO Duo 11 106The first dedicated Windows 8 device is here – and it’s a hybrid.

REVIEWS LABS

IN THE LABS

Budget laptops – ready for Windows 8 140In this month’s Labs we’ve installed Windows 8 on 13 low-costlaptops to find out which work best with Microsoft’s new OS.

Ubuntu 12.10 125The latest version of Ubuntu touches down with a handful ofimprovements. We road-test the Quantal Quetzel.


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REVIEWSOpinion

I don’t think I’ll ever again be able to useany device with a screen without somepart of me wanting to reach out to poke it

An all-touchscreenfuture isn’t far off, says a

touchy-feely JONATHAN BRAY

JONATHAN BRAY is PC Pro’s reviews editor.There’s a little white lie somewhere in thiscolumn. Can you spot it? That’s right, hedoesn’t wear a tie.

Blog:www.pcpro.co.uk/links/jonb


Afunny thing happened to methe other day. After spending afew months reading with myAmazon Kindle Touch, Iswitched to the new £69

standard Kindle for our review (see p114). Iswitched it on, waited for the homescreen toflicker into life. I pressed my finger to one ofthe items on the screen. Nothing happened.

“Why isn’t it working?” I momentarilythought to myself, before it finally dawned onme that, of course, this Kindle doesn’t have atouchscreen. And yet, despite that realisation, Icontinued to make the same mistake. I tried toturn the page by flicking my finger across thescreen; I tried to tap letters on the onscreenkeyboard; I kept having to remind myself touse the buttons.

All of sudden, and I’m not quite sure whenthis occurred, my subconscious mind seems tohave connected the image “handheld gadget”with the adjectival sub-clause “has atouchscreen”, and permanently supergluedthem together.

I find this most disconcerting. I’m usuallya pretty rational person. I don’t usually getemotionally or psychologically attached toproducts of any kind, whether it’s an ebookreader, a smartphone or a laptop.

In fact, I actively try to keep myselfagnostic about such things by switchingbetween a variety of devices running differentOSes on a frequent basis. This year I’ve spentsignificant time with Windows Phone 7 andAndroid handsets, plus the Apple iPhone 4 and5. I’ve used an iPad, Windows 8 and Androidtablets for long periods. I’ve installed LinuxMint on a laptop at home and use Windowson my work PC.

It’s all the more worrying because, froma purely practical point of view, I know thata touchscreen on an ebook reader is flawedin some ways. If you nod off while reading,it’s a recipe for disaster as your thumbs sliponto the surface of the screen, changing thepage so you’ve lost your place when youwake up. And you can’t pick up a touchscreenreader without turning it off, or the same thingwill happen.

Yet I can’t stop myself from touchingdevices in inappropriate ways. I’ve recentlycaught myself prodding the screen of my laptopat home, and the only reason I don’t absent-mindedly dab the display on my work PC isbecause I can’t reach it without running the riskof dipping my tie in my coffee. At home, I see

the kids often reach over and try to pokethe laptop’s unprotected LCD panel and I’veseen them do the same with the TV, to the pointat which I’m becoming concerned about morethan just a few greasy fingerprints.

The point I’m trying to make here is thatno matter how hard you try to resist, no matterhow appropriate it is, touch is here – and it’shere to stay. Count the products in theReviews section (discounting the Enterprisesection) and you’ll find that a staggering 34%either have a touchscreen or rely on a devicewith a touchscreen to operate: the SonyVAIO Duo 11 (see p106) and the Dell InspironOne 23 (see p108) kick things off from aWindows 8 perspective, then there’s the AcerIconia Tab A110 Android tablet with its 7incapacitive panel and the Pure Sensia 200DConnect (see p120) internet radio with a 5.7infinger-friendly display.

Turn to page 110 for our Christmas gadgetsspecial, meanwhile, and you’ll find all sorts oftouchy-feely things – a new Microsoft mousedesigned to make using Windows 8 easier,Bluetooth headphones with a touch-sensitive

volume control, several smartphone gadgets,and five of those ebook readers – four of whichsport touchscreens of one kind or another.

Many observers scoffed when Microsoft’sJensen Harris said at the original unveiling ofWindows 8 that “every screen needs to betouch,” and “a monitor without touch feelsdead”. It seemed a patently ludicroussuggestion, but it looks as if this prediction isalready becoming a reality. When everyonefrom small children right up to advanced usersbegins to subconsciously expect devices torespond to touch, you know you’re a gooddistance along the way.

That’s the future Microsoft glimpsed when itstarted out on the road to developing Windows8, and there’s no going back now. Much thoughthe thought of it disturbs me, I don’t think I’llever again be able to use any device with ascreen without some part of me instinctivelywanting to reach out to poke it, pinch it, tap itor swipe it.


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REVIEWS Hardware

W indows 8 has finallyarrived, and after manymonths of sneak-peeks

and product teases, manufacturersworldwide have unveiled theirranges of Windows 8 devices.The Sony VAIO Duo 11 is inthe vanguard of this new breed:fusing the DNA of an Ultrabook

with an 11.6in Full HD tablet,this swanky convertible isSony’s vision of the ultimateWindows 8 device.

Features and designMeasuring 21mm thick at its rear,and tapering to a whisker over18mm towards the front, theVAIO Duo 11 is thicker than theslimmest Ultrabooks, and, at1.3kg, a good deal heavier thanthe Samsung Series 7 Slate 700TMicrosoft supplied to us fortesting Windows 8. Build qualityis excellent, however. The mattecarbon base and metal keyboardsurround feel outstandingly rigid,and there’s barely any flex or givein evidence until you start heavingit brutally from side to side.

While it fails to grasp theattention with achingly slimdimensions, the Sony’s relativelychunky frame conceals its novelparty trick: grip the lip along thedisplay’s upper edge, and a lighttug sees the display pivot upwardsand click home to reveal akeyboard underneath.

As the spring-loaded hingetakes up the rearward third of theSony’s base, there isn’t the roomfor a full keyboard and dedicatedtouchpad. Instead, Sony hasdedicated most of the availablespace to a compact, Scrabble-tilebacklit keyboard, and squeezed inan optical trackpoint between theG, H and B keys. The trackpoint’sbuttons, meanwhile, are placedon the raised keyboard surroundbelow the spacebar, with the usual

left and right buttons plus amiddle button which, when helddown, permits vertical scrollingwith a nudge of the trackpoint.

In tablet mode, you can flickand gesture your way throughwith your fingers or, thanks to theN-trig digitiser lurking beneath thedisplay’s glossy finish, prod andscribble with the bundled stylus.The latter is a stylish, metal-cladaffair with two buttons positionedon its brushed-metal shaft, and ispowered by a tiny AAAA battery.There’s a choice of two pen nibs,

❱❱PRICE £1,249 (£1,499 inc VAT)❱❱SUPPLIER www.sony.co.uk

KEY SPECS

1.9GHz Intel Core i7-3517U • 8GB RAM • 256GBSSD • Intel HD Graphics 4000 • 11.6in 1,920 x1,080 TFT • dual-band 802.11abgn Wi-Fi • Bluetooth• Windows 8 Pro 64-bit • 1yr RTB warranty • 322 x200 x 21mm (WDH) • 1.3kg (1.6kg)

Sony’s convertible tablet gets Windows 8 devices off to an exhilarating start,but ergonomic niggles tarnish the experience

Sony VAIO Duo 11

3.4GHz Intel Core i7-2600K, 4GB DDR3 = 1

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0.82WINDOWS

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0.56MULTI

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OVERALL ✪✪✪✪✪✪PERFORMANCE ✪✪✪✪✪✪FEATURES & DESIGN ✪✪✪✪✪✪VALUE FOR MONEY ✪✪✪✪✪✪

REVIEWSHardware


allowing users to opt for a softeror firmer feel, but there’s nowhereto dock the stylus.

Looking around the VAIODuo 11’s chamfered metal edgesreveals two USB 3 ports, full-sizedHDMI and D-SUB video outputs,an SD/MS card reader and aGigabit Ethernet port at the rear,next to the power socket. Peerunder the front edge, and there arebuttons for adjusting the volume,launching Sony’s VAIO Caresoftware suite, and toggling theautomatic screen rotation onand off. And with dual-band802.11abgn wireless, Bluetooth 4and NFC support included asstandard, the Sony is fully loadedfor wireless connectivity, too.

HardwarespecificationsFor review we were suppliedwith the faster of the two basespecifications, with a Corei7-3517U processor taking prideof place alongside 8GB of DDR3RAM and a SanDisk 256GB SSD.The cheaper model, at £1,000 incVAT, includes a Core i5-3317U,4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD.

The Core i7 processor deliverssparkling performance. Set to thetest in our suite of Real WorldBenchmarks, the Sony acquitteditself remarkably well, with anoverall score of 0.71. And with theSSD recording sequential writespeeds of 305MB/sec and readspeeds of 417MB/sec, applicationsspring into view with little delay.With Sony’s Quick Boot doingits bit to speed up the process,booting from cold sees the VAIODuo 11 leap into life in anastonishing seven seconds flat.

Cramming in a clever spring-loaded hinge and whole host ofhardware leaves little room for aninternal battery, but the Sony stilllasted for 7hrs 6mins in our light-use test. Splash out on the batteryslice that clips to the underside – a£120 optional extra – and thatfigure will reach well over the ten-hour mark. As an added bonus,the battery slice provides a slot

to a minimum, but with nowristrest to lean on, it’s difficultto find a comfortable typingposition. The positioning of thetrackpoint buttons beneath thespacebar often results in accidentalclicks, and the narrow Shift keysmake it all too easy to dab theneighbouring keys by mistake. It’spossible to balance the Duo 11 ona lap and type, but if you’reexpecting the same levels ofcomfort as you’d demand froma dedicated laptop, you’ll becoming away disappointed.

In other cases, it’s the littlethings that aggravate. Comparedwith our Samsung Series 7 Slate700T running Windows 8, flickingacross the Start screen seesthe scrolling motionbrake abruptlyrather than gentlycoming to ahalt. With no

control panel options to tweak, wecan only hope that updated driversmight yet improve matters.

Then there are the flawsthat may be down to our reviewunit’s pre-production status:when shifting to desktop mode, weoften found the Sony refusing toautomatically rotate the display tosuit. The only solution we foundwas to either give it a shake, or totilt the whole device forward untilthe screen was vertical, at whichpoint the screen duly rotated backinto landscape mode.

ConclusionDespite glimmers of brilliance, theSony is neither a great tablet nor agreat laptop. Indeed, the problemis that, while ingenious andbeautifully formed, Sony’s decisionto go down the true convertibletablet route has forced it tocompromise usability in bothmodes. As a tablet, the VAIO Duo11 is heavy, and in laptop modethe fiddly trackpoint and averagekeyboard are no competition forthose of a good-quality Ultrabook.

Taken as a whole, there’sstill much to like – the superbperformance, sterling imagequality and fine build areimpossible to ignore – but wecan’t help feeling that in themost crucial area, namely usability,the VAIO Duo 11 doesn’t hit thespot. Some may be willing toforgive the Sony’s flaws given thesheer breadth of its abilities, butwe’d recommend you think longand hard before committing yourcash. SASHAMULLER

The slidingmechanism isexposed when inlaptop mode

The pressure-sensitive digitiser and stylus let you express your creative side

for stashing thesupplied stylus.

The Sony’s displayis superb. Stretchinga Full HD, 1,920 x1,080 resolution acrossits 11.6in diagonal, theVAIO Duo 11 boastsexceptionally wideviewing angles andpunchy colours. Amaximum brightnessof 451cd/m2 ensuresthat the screen remainslegible in the brightestconditions, and thosesparkling whites combine withdeep, luscious blacks to resultin an excellent contrast ratio of868:1. The panel doesn’t quitecover the full range of coloursin the sRGB gamut, but colourreproduction is pretty accurate,despite the panel’s inability toproduce the most intense shadesof blue.

ErgonomicsWhile the initial wow factor willbe enough to loosen many people’swallets, the VAIO Duo 11 isn’twithout its niggles. The mostpressing issue is that, in laptopmode, the VAIO Duo 11 isn’tthat comfortable to use. Thetrackpoint works, but is fiddlyenough that we regularly resortedto prodding the screen with afinger instead, while othermembers of PC Pro disliked it sovehemently that they immediatelyreached for a USB mouse.

The trackpoint’s tap-to-clickmode is best left disabled. Withit left on, it’s all too easy toaccidentally jog the cursor whiletyping, and on occasion weselected swathes of text with astray finger and deleted wholechunks without realising.

The keyboard ismarkedly better.The wide channelsbetween thetiny keys keepmis-presses


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With Windows 8pushing touch intothe spotlight, the

market for touchscreen laptops,tablets and all-in-ones is set toskyrocket in the coming months.Dell has mobilised an entire rangeof new hardware in readiness forMicrosoft’s new operating system,and we’ve caught an exclusivefirst review of its redesigned andrather gorgeous touchscreenall-in-one, the Inspiron One 23.

The first moments with Dell’slatest all-in-one will be spenthuffing and puffing after haulingit from its box. The Inspiron One23 is hardly giant-sized, but the

chassis feels incredibly hefty, moreso than its 11.6kg weight mightsuggest. That weight is backed upby a rock-solid build, without ahint of flex or give in the plasticand metal body.

The combination of a crisp,unfussy design, subtle curves anda monochromatic palette of silver,grey and gloss black makes for astylish, classy device.

Features and designSpend a little while with the Dell’s23in capacitive touchscreen and,initially at least, there’s little tocriticise. Flicking in a finger fromthe screen’s edges to activate theCharms bar or scroll throughweb pages soon becomes secondnature, and the Core i5 CPU

makes sure that Windows 8responds to the slightest flick andstroke of a finger.

There’s no skimping on themore practical aspects, either. Theburly stand keeps the InspironOne 23 planted firmly on thedesk, with no hint of wobble,and provides a good degree offorwards and backwards tilt.There’s no means of adjustingthe height, but since the standfixes to the back of the unit by atraditional 100 x 100mm VESAmount, it’s possible to bolt theInspiron One 23 onto a wallmount for a cleaner look.

In fact, if it weren’t for thetell-tale Windows 8 and Intelstickers adorning the Dell’s front,it would be easy to mistake theDell for a high-end 23in monitor.

The glossy front is dominated bythe 23in, 1,920 x 1,080 pixeltouchscreen and, handily enough,Dell has equipped the InspironOne 23 with D-SUB, HDMI andcomposite video inputs so youcan use its display in tandem withother devices.

Examine the chassis moreclosely, and you’ll see the InspironOne 23 is simply bursting withconnectivity. There’s a D-SUBoutput for running a secondarydisplay, an aerial input for theintegrated DVB-T Freeview TV

❱❱PRICE £733 (£879 inc VAT)❱❱ SUPPLIER www.dell.co.uk

KEY SPECS

2.7GHz Core i5-3330s • 6GB RAM • 1TB harddisk • AMD Radeon HD 7650A • 23in 1,920 x1,080 touchscreen • 4 x USB 3 • 2 x USB 2 • SDcard reader • DVB-T TV tuner • 574 x 219 x386mm • 11.6kg

Dell’s first Windows 8 all-in-one PC partners a glossy, 23in Full HD touchscreen with a fast Ivy Bridge processorand oodles of connectivity – the Inspiron One 23 looks set to make a big impression

Dell Inspiron One 23

REVIEWS Hardware

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REVIEWSHardware


tuner, two USB 3 ports, two USB2 ports (one of which is taken upby a USB dongle for the wirelesskeyboard and mouse), GigabitEthernet, optical S/PDIF, and a3.5mm audio out. A trio ofbuttons on the right adjust screenbrightness and switch betweenthe various video inputs, while afurther two USB ports, an SD cardreader and a pair of audio socketsare positioned on the left. There’salso a basic 1-megapixel webcamin the display’s upper bezel, whichcan be tilted up and down using awheel on the Dell’s top edge.

PerformanceAs our review unit was anearly production sample, thespecification is different to thatof the pre-order model shown onDell’s website at the time of goingto print. Rather than a 2.7GHz IvyBridge Core i5 and 6GB of RAM,our model sported a 2.8GHz chip

and 8GB of RAM. We expectDell will provide a wider range ofconfigurations at launch, but witha result of 0.93 in our Real WorldBenchmarks, the Dell is anythingbut slow.

If there’s a trade-off to bemade, it’s in graphics performance.The dedicated AMD Radeon HD7650A chipset is appreciably fasterthan the integrated Intel GPU,but those expecting top gamingperformance will be disappointed.Indeed, while the AMD GPUpowers to a smooth, playableaverage of 47fps in our easiestCrysis test, using Medium detailsettings and a 1,600 x 900resolution sees the average framerate tumble to a modest 27fps.

ErgonomicsThe bundled wireless mouse andkeyboard work well. The slightdip in each of the Scrabble-tilekeys grips the finger, and eachstroke presses home with a light,crisp feel. The mouse, meanwhile,had no issues at all. Both deviceshave dedicated power switches toprevent the batteries from runningdown needlessly.

The final addition is aminiature Media Center remotecontrol, but with Media Centerunavailable at the time ofwriting, we couldn’t test it. TheWindows 8 Media Center Packwill be available as an optional,paid-for download.

After a few hours working onthe Dell, glaring problems beganto bubble to the surface. Touch

operation makes sense for casualuse but makes far less sense at adesk, where reaching out to atouchscreen quickly becomestiring and uncomfortable. This isa problem faced by all touchscreenall-in-one PCs, and while someemploy stands that fold into a flat,coffee-table-style orientation, theDell’s stand permits only a slightrearwards tilt.

This isn’t to say that thetouchscreen operation doesn’thave its appeal. The Windows 8Start screen begs to be touchedphysically, rather than interactedwith via a mouse or keyboard, andwe often found ourselves flittingfrom mouse to touchscreenwithout even thinking. In spiteof the ergonomic niggles, there’ssomething far more instinctiveand satisfying about pressing orinteracting with an onscreenelement using a prod of a finger.

The final and most pressingniggle concerns screen quality.Average viewing angles causecontrast shift when viewed awayfrom head-on, and mediocrecolour reproduction left our testphotos and movies lacking theirusual vibrancy. We measured amaximum brightness of 189cd/m2

– only just enough for it to remainlegible in really bright rooms – andthe contrast ratio of 305:1 isaverage by desktop monitorstandards, too.

VerdictThere’s much to like about Dell’sInspiron One 23. It has plentyof power, and the understateddesign both looks and feels thepart. However, the Dell’sdisplay is an unsightly blot onan otherwise able and fullyfeatured all-in-one. With plentyof rivals soon to be vying foryour cash, and Dell’s own XPSOne 27 promising a 27indisplay for only a couple ofhundred pounds more, Dell’sInspiron One 23 just isn’t goodenough. SASHAMULLER

The slender design ismatched with a sturdymetal stand

Dell’s beautifully crafted all-in-one packs in plenty of connectivity


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47fps


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Struggling for a gift idea for the techie in your family? We have a selectionof gadgets that could be ideal, including a steam-powered PC case and aselection of the latest ebook readers, including the Kindle Paperwhite

REVIEWS Christmas gifts

Christmasgadgets

It isn’t themost practical ofcases, but Lian Li’s catchilynamed PC-CK101 has to be themost unusual PC chassis we’veever seen: it’s shaped like a train,has a vaporiser that blows“smoke” through its funnel,comes with amotor and track to

The Ducky DK9008 Shinemighthave a daft name, and ratherdistracting blue LED lighting togo with it, but it’s a fine thing totype on. The key, if you’ll pardonthe pun, is it usesmechanicalCherry MX Blue switches,precision-engineered in

Lian Li PC-CK101PRICE £265 inc VAT SUPPLIERwww.overclockers.co.uk

Ducky DK9008 ShinePRICE £129 inc VAT SUPPLIER http://tigerimports.net

or a luggage rack. In truth,it’s about as convenient asengineering works, but we have asoft spot for Lian Li’s dementeddesktop locomotive. WithmostPCs sold as boring black boxes,it’s good to see a company tryingsomething genuinely different.

run it up and down, and costs a cool£265. Themotherboard fits in therear carriage (mini-ITX only), andthere’s also room for an SSD andeven a slimline optical drive, withthe latter loading at the very frontof the engine. You’ll have to buildthemotor yourself, but it isn’t the

Germany. These provide analmost-perfect combination ofspring, click and feedback thatmakes writing for long periodspainless, and the stiff plasticchassis gives it a super-solidbase. We can’t promise it willsolve writer’s block, though.

trickiest of jobs – attach a coupleof drive shafts to the wheels, plugeverything in, and you’re good togo. Fitting the PC hardware istrickier; cables have to be routedthrough small holes and there’shardly any spare room in thecarriage – certainly no sign of a loo

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REVIEWSChristmas gifts

A tempting little stocking-filler, theMicrosoft Sculpt TouchMousedelivers gesture controls forWindows 8 – as well as MacBooksand even selected Android tablets.The full-sizedmouse offers bothvertical and horizontal scrollingfor theWindows 8 Start screen,although the latter still feelsdesperately counter-intuitive. It’s asturdy blighter, with a rubberisedstrip running around thecircumference of the base, whereyour thumb naturally rests, andthe two AA batteries adding thenecessary heft. We’re left entirelycold by the haptic feedbackdelivered by the central scroll strip,whichmakes it feel as if there’s adust-clogged ball trapped beneathits glossy surface, but this can beswitched off in the driver settings.The software also allows you toreassign buttons in specificapplications: a press of the centralscroll strip to go back in yourbrowser, for instance.

Livescribe’s “smartpens” cancapture handwriting and audio atthe same time and digitise both,allowing audio recordings to benavigated by simply tapping thepen to the page. This newmodelintroducesWi-Fi and seamlessEvernote synchronisation to themix. Once the pen has beenconnected to aWi-Fi network anda Livescribe account, notes uploaddirectly to Evernote, without theneed for a PC. If you’ve recordedaudio while taking notes, linked textappears in green, and clicking thislaunches Livescribe’s new HTMLplayer in a separate tab. One wordof warning, though: using theWi-Fihas a negative impact on batterylife, more than halving it from 11hours to 4hrs 30mins of audiorecording, so unless you really needthe near-instant sync it’s best toswitch it off until you need it. Otherthan that, though, it all works asadvertised, andmakes the idealtechie gift for students, or anyoneelse whose note-taking skills leavea little to be desired.

MicrosoftSculpt Touch MousePRICE £36 inc VATSUPPLIERwww.ebuyer.com

Livescribe SkyPRICE 2GB, £160 inc VATSUPPLIERwww.pcworld.co.uk

The iTrack Solo is a digital audiointerface aimed primarily at iPadusers. It works seamlessly withGarageBand, and should supportall third-party music apps too.It offers one XLRmicrophoneconnector (with switchable 48Vphantom power) and oneunbalanced 6.35mm instrumentjack, each with its own trim control.A headphone socket with optionaldirect monitoring completes thefront panel; stereo phono outputsat the back let you hook up anexternal amplifier. We found soundquality to be superb, with nodiscernible noise and very cleanaudio capture thanks to a 24-bit,96kHz ADC. The onboard amplifiersare beefy units too, with adjustablegain up to +55dB at both input andoutput stages. Although Focusriteemphasises the iTrack Solo’s iPadcompatibility, the device will alsoconnect to a Mac or PC (AbletonLive Lite comes in the box), adding

Focusrite iTrack SoloPRICE £130 inc VAT SUPPLIERwww.dv247.com

an extra dimension of versatility.Compared to desktop-only interfaces,the price is steep, and the 6in iPadconnector cable is inconvenientlyshort, but if you’re a keen iPadcomposer the iTrack Solo offerseverything you need to giverecordings a professional edge.


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There aren’t many DSLRaccessories cheap enough tomakethe Christmas list – aside frombags, cases andmini-tripods. Don’tgive up looking for the perfectsnapper’s gift just yet, though: theTriggertrap smartphone remoterelease system costs only £31 forthe cable, dongle and app (for iOSor Android), and it opens up awealth of creative options. It’s asimple system: connect the dongleand camera cable together, thenplug one end into the smartphone’sheadphone connector and the otherinto the DSLR’s remote releasesocket, and you’re ready to shoot.The app provides all manner ofshootingmodes, from the abilityto fire off a shot with a tap of thefinger and capture timelapsesequences automatically, tomotion, vibration and audio-sensingmodes. There’s even asetting that allows you to capturea series of incrementally differentexposures for use in vibrantHDR photographs.

If your horticultural exploits often end upwithered in thecompost bin, help is at hand. Koubachi is a free iOS appdesigned to help keep your plants thriving. Simply selectyour flora from the app’s Plant Cyclopedia, and Koubachidoes the rest, reminding you how often to water, mist orfertilise each one. Splash out on the £100Wi-Fi PlantSensor, and it goes a step further: the streamlinedsensormonitors the ambient light and temperature, andaccuratelymeasures soil moisture too. You can tailoralarms or plant care reminders to be sent via email, orthrough push notifications to an iOS device. The sensoris currently limited to indoor use (an outdoor version isin the works), butmove it between plants in a fortnightlyrota and it will build up an accurate picture of their careneeds. The Koubachi’sWi-Fi Plant Sensor is pricey, butit’s a green-fingered gadget like no other.

TriggertrapPRICEApp, £2.99 (iOS or Android);dongle and cable, £28 inc VATSUPPLIERwww.amazon.co.uk

Koubachi Wi-Fi Plant SensorPRICE £100 inc VAT; app, freeSUPPLIERwww.firebox.com

With the festive season fastapproaching, it will soon bewall-to-wall mince pies, roastdinners and after-workbooze-ups. To ensure all theselovely tidbits don’t have a

Fitbit ZipPRICE £50 inc VAT SUPPLIERwww.fitbit.com

with the accompanying iOS andAndroid app, although it’sprobably best to leave this untilwell after the Christmas lunchhas gone down – you don’t wantto give yourself a heart attack.

negative impact on your waistline,a little time with the new Fitbit Zipmight be in order. This alluringgizmo is a pedometer, but it’sunlike any other on themarket.Plug the accompanying USB

dongle into your PC and sign up fora Fitbit account, and the Zip willrecord your steps, calories burnedand distance travelled on the Fitbitwebsite. You can even track thecalories you’ve been consuming

Fitbit Zip

Theaccthebaggivsna

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If you’re used to Bluetooth speakers that sound tinny, feellightweight and look ugly, the Jabra Solemate could be foryou. This fantastically good-looking device is designed toresemble a shoe, complete with ridged rubber sole for asecure footing on a desk, and has a 3.5mm audio cableembedded in the tread that takes on the appearance of ashoelace. It’s extremely solidly put together: when youhook it up to a Bluetooth source, the sound it pumps outpacks a remarkable punch, with a powerful mid-rangeand even amodicum of bass. There’s also an integratedmicrophone, so if a call comes in while you’re kickingback enjoying some tunes, you can answer with the pressof a button and put the Solemate into speakerphonemode. As portable speakers go, this is very good – butthen it ought to be at this price.

If you’ve ever used any of the recent iPhones to record animpromptu podcast, lecture or interview, you’ll know thebuilt-in mic is pretty good, but it isn’t a patch on thequality of Blue Microphones’ Mikey Digital. This clevergizmo sports a 30-pin connector, and works with anyiPad, the iPhone 3GS, 4, and 4S (iPhone 5 owners willneed the adapter). It has three sensitivity settings, ananalogue 3.5mm line-in and even amini-USB port, so youcan charge your iPhone while it’s plugged in. The boostin sound quality compared with the internal mic is vast:recordingsmade with the Mikey sound full-bodied andwarm, while those captured without it sound thin and flat,withmuchmore background noise. If you regularly use anidevice tomake audio recordings, this will improve theway they sound – the price is a tad high, though.

Jabra SolematePRICE £114 inc VAT SUPPLIERwww.handtec.co.uk

Mikey DigitalPRICE £80 inc VAT SUPPLIERwww.currys.co.uk

Jabra is most famous for itsBluetooth hands-free headsets, butas these Halo headphones prove,that expertise extends to stereoheadphones. They’re well madeand slimline, folding neatly so youcan slip them into a small bag orpocket, and look great in afuturistic, Star Trek kind of way.They have integrated dual-microphones, so you can answercalls without pulling your phonefrom your pocket, and a niftytouch-sensitive sliding volumecontrol on the outside of theright-hand earpiece. They workwell, and although they won’treplace a quality pair of wiredheadphones, audio quality is stillgood, with forceful mids, cleartop-end and powerful bass. Theonly thing we’re not completelyconvinced of is the call qualityfrom the built-in mics: voice wasstill completely understandable inour tests, but sounded scratchy inquality compared to speaking onthe phone itself.

Shooting panoramic photos is hip now that Apple hasincluded the facility in the iPhone’s camera app, butpanoramas take longer than a standard photo to shoot.For instant, truly 360-degree shots and video, there’snow the BubbleScope. It’s an optical camera attachmentfor your iPhone 4 or 4S that attaches to the rear ofyour phone via a snap-on case, and it works with theaccompanying BubblePix app to produce true, full-circlephotos and videos that can be either exported to yourcamera roll or uploaded to the BubblePix website. It’swell made – we particularly like the way it springs up,ready for action, periscope-style – and it’s fun to use,especially in videomode, where it’s possible to panaround a scene while playing it back. We suspect thenovelty will wear off quickly, though, and the imagequality it produces is very grainy.

Jabra Halo2PRICE £55 inc VATSUPPLIERwww.handtec.co.uk

BubbleScopePRICE £70 inc VATSUPPLIERwww.firebox.com

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PCPRO

RECOMMENDED

If it hadn’t been for the Kobo Gloand the Amazon Paperwhite, theNook Simple Touch withGlowLight would have swept allbefore it this Christmas. It wasthe first ebook reader, by acouple of weeks, with anintegrated light, making itpossible to read in bed in thedark without disturbing yourpartner. Battery life isreasonable: with the light on,Barnes &Noble says it will last a

Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch with GlowLightPRICE £109 inc VAT SUPPLIER http://uk.nook.com

month of 30minutes’ reading aday, and twomonths with thelight off. We like the design, withits scooped out, soft-plastic rear,and optical touchscreen. It’s alsogood news that books can beloaded from third-party ebookstores as well as from theintegrated book store via Wi-Fi.Alas, though, both the Kobo Gloand Kindle Paperwhite havebetter screens, and brighter,more even lighting.

There isn’t much differencebetween the new, non-touch £69Amazon Kindle and the old £89version. Aside from a change toblack from gloomy grey, and that£20 price drop, the new devicelooks exactly the same. All thebuttons and ports are in the samelocations. There’s still 2GB ofinternal storage available, with noexpansion, and there’s been nochange to file format support. TheKindle will not load DRM-protectedEPUB files natively, or viaconversion, so you won’t be able toload books from third-party ebookstores and local libraries. Amazon’sebook selection is as good as itgets, though, and this modelretains a lead in themost importantarea for an ebook reader: thedisplay. It may not have the swankyfront light of the Kobo Glo, Nook orKindle Paperwhite, but its pagebackground is closer to print thanever, text looks crisper and darkerthan any other reader we’ve used,and page turns are rapid, too, at 0.4seconds. At this price, it’s hard notto recommend.

Kobo’s diddy ebook readermakesa brave break from the norm.Instead of the usual 6in display, theMini has amore compact 4.9inE Ink panel, whichmakes itpossible to slide into a jeans pocket,as well as a bag or briefcase. Itmeasures a svelte 102 x 10 x133mm (WDH), is lighter than aniPhone 4S, and yet retains a similarfeature set to the Kobo Glo. There’sWi-Fi, allowing you to buy books onthe device from the Kobo store. Ithas infrared touch sensorsembedded in the bezel, allowingpages to be turned with a swipe ortap of the screen. Even the onscreentouch keyboard isn’t too fiddly. Alas,it doesn’t have the same fantasticfront light as the Kobo Glo, andwhen it comes to display quality itsVizplex V110 panel can’t hold acandle to the others here. Theresolution is fine at 600 x 800 andtext is crisp, but the “page” looksconsiderably greyer.

Amazon KindlePRICE £69 inc VATSUPPLIERwww.amazon.co.uk

Kobo MiniPRICE £60 inc VATSUPPLIERwww.whsmith.co.uk

IfandNooGlobefthecouint

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PCPRO

RECOMMENDED

Kobo’s first touchscreen ebookreader appeared in the UKlast Christmas, and we wereimpressed with it. We liked thedesign, with its unusual quiltedsoft-plastic rear andmatte-whitefront; we liked the store, the userinterface and the display. We’reevenmore enamoured with itssuccessor, the Kobo Glo, whichadds an integrated light, similarto the one in the AmazonPaperwhite and Nook SimpleTouch. The Kobo Glo distributesthe light more evenly than theNook, and is brighter on itsmaximum setting than thePaperwhite. This means thatwhen you switch on the light –even in bright sunlight – the pageon the Kobo looks as white, if notwhiter than paperback books.The sense of print-on-paper is

You could be forgiven forwondering how Amazon couldimprove on its already excellentrange of ebook readers. TheKindle Paperwhite is its answer:initially only launched in the US,the Paperwhite is now availableto UK consumers – and a goodthing too. As with the Nook andKobo Glo devices, the Paperwhitefeatures an integrated lightembedded in the bottom bezel.This shines through an anti-glarelayer, illuminating the entiredisplay with a soft, white light.It’s perfect for reading in bed,and Amazon is so confidentabout the efficiency of thelight that you can’t completelyturn it off. Battery life isimpressive, too, although notethe claimed eight weeks is withthe light set to 40% brightness,which doesn’t improve thecontrast at all in daylight. There

Kobo GloPRICE £100 inc VAT SUPPLIERwww.whsmith.co.uk

Kindle PaperwhitePRICEWi-Fi, £109 inc VAT; Wi-Fi and 3G, £169 inc VATSUPPLIERwww.amazon.co.uk

further enhanced by the 758 x1,024 resolution, matching theKindle Paperwhite for pixelcount and crisp, sharp-edgedcharacters. The Glo’s page is alittle less white than the KindlePaperwhite when the light isswitched off; the quoted batterylife is lower; and it can’t matchthe Kindle’s super-quickpage-turn speeds, coming in at0.9 seconds compared to theKindle’s 0.6 seconds. On thepositive side, though, the Glo iscompatible with the DRM EPUBfiles used byWHSmith,Waterstones and local librariesin the UK, and that’s in addition toits own store, which is accessedon the device via Wi-Fi. It’s also£9 cheaper, making it a verytempting alternative to Amazon’smarket leader.

are other improvements,though. The touchscreen usescapacitive technology, replacingthe optical system of old. Wecouldn’t perceive a tangibleoperational advantage, but ithas helped slim the Kindle down;it nowmeasures only 9.2mmthick. The resolution of 758 x1,024 gives ever-so-slightlycrisper characters than the old600 x 800 panel too. The screendoesn’t have asmuch contrastas the standard Kindle withthe light set to its lowest point,but in every other respect, thisis a fantastic ebook reader.The light is themost even ofall the front-lit readers, theoverhauled user interface isexcellent, and it’s a pleasure toread with. It just about holds ontotop spot in the ebook reader race– a hair’s width in front ofthe cheaper Kobo Glo.

KobfeaembThilaydisIt’andaboligturimpthethewhicon

PC


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REVIEWS Hardware

T he usual suspects haveunveiled dozens ofUltrabooks since Intel

debuted the brand last year.Gigabyte, better known for itsgraphics cards and motherboards,has now launched by far thelightest Ultrabook we’ve comeacross. It’s the 11.6in X11, and itweighs only 984g.

It’s also one of the slimmest.The front edge tapers to a wafer-thin 3mm at its thinnest point, andit’s a mere 16.5mm thick whenclosed – half a millimetre thinnerthan even Apple’s MacBook Air11in (web ID: 362995).

Gigabyte has managed to keepthe weight down by constructingthe X11 almost entirely fromsheets of carbon fibre. This lends ita fetching look, with the weavemore reminiscent of a sports carthan a laptop.

It isn’t all good news, though.Gigabyte’s quest to make theworld’s thinnest and lightestUltrabook has seen build qualityfall by the wayside. There’s a lot of

flex in the 4mm-thin lid, and thebase is similarly malleable, twistingto and fro all too easily. It’s nomatch for the MacBook Air’saluminium chassis, or any of themetal-clad Ultrabooks we’ve seen.

The X11 also suffers from poorergonomics. The small cursor keysand single-height Enter key meanthe layout is fiddly. The spacebaroften failed to recognise ourpresses, especially at its edges,and the typing action acrossthe rest of the keyboard isimprecise and uncomfortable.The trackpad is no better. Ithas integrated buttons, whichhave a positive click, but the restof its smooth surface providedinconsistent cursor control andoccasionally failed to respond.

We have no complaints aboutwhat’s inside the X11. The 2GHzCore i7-3667U is Intel’s top-endlow-voltage Core i7 chip, and itflexed its might in our benchmarks,scoring 0.76 – enough to outpaceboth the 0.70 scored by the SonyVAIO Duo 11 (web ID: 377581)and the 0.68 of the Apple MacBookAir 11in. If there’s a downside tothe nippy Core i7, it’s battery life:it lasted for only six hours in ourlight-use benchmark.

The presence of Intel’s integratedHD Graphics 4000 GPU meansthis machine isn’t suitable forgames – it scored only 40fps in ourLow quality Crysis test. However,there’s little wrong with the rest ofthe specification. There’s 4GB ofDDR3 RAM, single-band 802.11n

wireless, Gigabit Ethernet, amini-DisplayPort output, and apair of USB ports – one USB 3,one USB 2.

Storage is provided by Adata’sXM11 128GB SSD. In our tests,its disappointing sequential writespeed of 141MB/sec was buoyedby a far speedier read result of481MB/sec. This isn’t as quickas some SSDs, but it’s fast enoughto keep the Gigabyte feelingspritely, with the system bootingin 14 seconds.

The Gigabyte’s display is agreat all-rounder. A measuredmaximum brightness of 378cd/m2

is bright enough for mostconditions, and the contrast ratioof 640:1 is excellent. Colouraccuracy could be better, withthe panel incapable of reproducingthe most vibrant blue and redhues, but by Ultrabook standardsit’s very good.

This laptop’s biggest problemstems from poor thermal design.The chassis is so small andcramped that it struggles todissipate the heat generated bythe Core i7 processor: it hit aworrying 91°C in our stresstests. To make matters worse,the small fan intake and outletsat the rear of the machine areobstructed when the screen istilted back, which contributes toa loud, irritating whirr from thecooling fan.

Squeezing this much powerinto a sub-1kg chassis is animpressive feat, but Gigabytehas made too many compromisesalong the way. The noisy fanand high temperatures aresymptomatic of a chassispushed to the limits of itsthermal capabilities, and thepoor build and ergonomicsfurther undermine its appeal.It’s light and powerful but at£1,000 inc VAT, this Ultrabookis far too rough around theedges. MIKE JENNINGS

❱❱PRICE £833 (£1,000 inc VAT)❱❱ SUPPLIER www.laptops

direct.co.uk

KEY SPECS2GHz Intel Core i7-3667U • 4GB DDR3 RAM• 128GB Adata XM11 SSD • 1,366 x 768 11.6in TFT• Intel HD Graphics 4000 • mini-DisplayPort • 1 xUSB 3, 1 x USB 2 • single-band 802.11n Wi-Fi• 1.3mp webcam • microSD card reader • Windows7 Home Premium 64-bit • 2yr RTB warranty• 297 x 192 x 16.5mm • 984g (1.2kg)


The X11 is the lightest Ultrabook we’ve seen, but build quality is poor

Slim, light and surprisingly powerful, but ergonomicproblems and heat issues put paid to the X11’s aspirations

Gigabyte X11


0 0.25 0.5 0.75 1 1.25 1.5

BETTER


RESPONSIVENESS

MULTITASKING

0.76OVERALL

0.94

0.78MEDIA

0.53

BATTERY: HEAVY USE 1hr 24mins

BATTERY: LIGHT USE 6hrs 0mins

CRYSIS3D BENCHMARKS

SMOOTH PLAY 22fpsPLAYABLE 9fps

UNPLAYABLE

LOW MEDIUM HIGH

40fps


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REVIEWS Hardware

AMD’s Fusion technologywas mooted when AMDbought ATI Technologies

in 2006, but it took until last yearfor the plans to fully come tofruition. By teaming a CPU withcapable integrated graphics, AMDfinally had something that it couldsay it did better than Intel.

Trinity, the successor to lastyear’s Llano chips, doesn’t straytoo far from this winning formula.This year, AMD has spent timeimproving both the performanceand efficiency of its processor andgraphics cores.

The processing cores used inthe Trinity chips are based on the32nm Piledriver architecture,which is an upgraded version ofthe Bulldozer technology thatunderpinned first-generation FXprocessors. It’s a big improvementon Llano – those parts were basedon the creaking architecture thatwas used in Phenom II-basedprocessors, among others.

There are six desktop Trinitychips in this year’s range, each ofwhich include two or four cores

clocked between3.4GHz and 3.8GHz.We were sent thehigh-end A10-5800Kand mid-range A8-5600Kfor testing.

While many of last year’schips didn’t use Turbo Core atall, the entire range can nowdynamically increase the clockspeed between 200MHz and600MHz. Despite the speedincreases, efficiency improvementsmean that the TDPs remain ateither 65W or 100W.

The HD 7000 Series GPUsthat accompany these CPUs arebased on the 40nm Caymanarchitecture, which formed lastyear’s Radeon HD 6930, HD6950 and HD 6970 desktopgraphics cards.

The decision to use theCayman architecture rather than28nm HD 7000 Series technologymeans that Trinity misses outon the more efficient VLIW5instruction set that was introducedwith the Radeon HD 7970.However, AMD counters this byupdating Trinity with DisplayPort1.2 support and four-screenEyefinity compatibility, plussupport for 7.1 channel audioover HDMI.

Top of the Trinity pile is theA10-5800K. It’s an unlockedquad-core part clocked at 3.8GHzwith a Turbo Core limit of4.2GHz, and it includesRadeon HD 7660D graphics.Despite the stock speed bump of800MHz over last year’s top-endA8-3870K, our benchmarks showit isn’t that much faster, with an

overall score of 0.76 comparedto 0.7 in our application tests.

Meanwhile, the mid-range3.6GHz A8-5600K scored 0.74.Both still have a little way to goto catch up with Intel, whose IvyBridge upgrade saw its low-endCore i3-3240 scoring 0.83.

Trinity takes a convincinglead in games tests. In DiRT 3’sLow quality benchmark at 1,366x 768, the A10-5800K with itsRadeon HD 7660D scored 78fps,almost double the 43fps scored byIntel’s best integrated GPU – HDGraphics 4000.

The AMD chip even scored aplayable 33fps in DiRT 3’s Highquality test running at 1,920 x1,080. It averaged 48fps in JustCause 2’s Low quality benchmark,11fps ahead of Intel, and theA8-5600K wasn’t far behind. Itscored 74fps in DiRT 3 and 40fpsin Just Cause 2.

The move to the Piledriverarchitecture has seen AMDimprove power consumptionover last year’s chips, but Intelstill takes the efficiency crown.While the A10-5800K’s peakpower draw of 131W represents a13% improvement over last year’stop-end APU, it can’t match the87W top draw of the i3-3240.

There’s another caveat. If youalready have an APU, you won’tbe able to upgrade to a new chip,since AMD has moved to a newsocket – FM2. It brings nothingsignificantly new to the table otherthan the promise of support for atleast two generation of APUs.

The new A58X chipsetdoes offer additional features,although these are mainly aimedat enthusiasts. It boasts the abilityto run two PCI Express x16sockets at x8 speed, and supportsup to eight SATA 6Gbits/sec portsand USB 3 – all of which areimprovements over the previous-generation chipsets.

Trinity takes aim at Intel’sCore i3 CPUs, and that meanspricing is extremely competitive.The A10-5800K comes in at £96– £19 cheaper than an Intel Corei3-3240 – and the A8-5600K ismore palatable at £76.

With application performancethat isn’t far behind Core i3 CPUsand gaming grunt that trouncesanything inside a Core i3, AMD’slatest chips are certainly anenticing proposition.

The new socket underminesthe value for money slightly, butif you’re building or buying abudget machine, then we heartilyrecommend an A10-5800K orA8-5600K. MIKE JENNINGS

❱❱PRICE From £40 inc VAT (seetable below)

❱❱SUPPLIER www.scan.co.uk


The Trinity APUs offer improved performance and efficiency

Intel-beating gaming power helps to makeTrinity superb value for money

AMDTrinity

A8-5600K

0 0.25 0.5 0.75 1 1.25 1.5

BETTER

RESPONSIVENESS

MULTITASKING

0.74OVERALL

0.84

0.77MEDIA

0.61

A10-5800K

0 0.25 0.5 0.75 1 1.25 1.5

BETTER


RESPONSIVENESS

MULTITASKING

0.76OVERALL

0.86

0.79MEDIA

0.63

Model Frequency Turbo Core Cores L2 cache GPUmodel Price (inc VAT)A4-5300 3.4GHz 3.7GHz 2 1MB RadeonHD 7480D £40A6-5400K 3.6GHz 3.8GHz 2 1MB RadeonHD 7540D £48A8-5500 3.2GHz 3.7GHz 4 4MB RadeonHD 7560D £78A8-5600K 3.6GHz 3.9GHz 4 4MB RadeonHD 7560D £76A10-5700 3.4GHz 4GHz 4 4MB RadeonHD 7660D £90A10-5800K 3.8GHz 4.2GHz 4 4MB RadeonHD 7660D £96

PCPRO

RECOMMENDED


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REVIEWS Hardware

Ever since Samsungreleased its £200 7inGalaxy Tab 2 earlier this

year, manufacturers have beenfalling over themselves to releaselow-cost compact tablets. Firstthere was the excellent Nexus 7,then we saw the Amazon Fire HD,and there are more launches justaround the corner.

All of a sudden, there’s a lotof competition in the sector,something Acer may not haveanticipated when it decided onthe price for its 7in Iconia TabA110. Last year, £180 inc VATfor this tablet would have lookedtempting; now, it looks pricey

W hen we first reviewedPure’s unusuallyshaped internet radio,

we were unimpressed. A sluggish,unresponsive touchscreen interfaceput paid to Pure’s ambitions tobring its digital radio into thetouchscreen era, despite someinteresting ideas. The Sensia200D Connect is the firm’s updateto its rugby-ball radio, and itmakes a better first impression.

Physically, it’s identical to theprevious model. The whole thingsits on a plastic stand with twotracks in it allowing the radioto tilt back and forth. Thetouchscreen interface looks largelyidentical, too; it’s split into three

next to the £159 of the Nexus 7and Kindle Fire HD.

That wouldn’t be a problemif it was a brilliant product. Alas,there are several areas where theA110 loses out to its cheaperrivals. The most obviousweakness is the screen, whichis poor by any standards.Measured with a colorimeter,its maximum brightness tops outat 208cd/m2, which for a laptopmight be just about acceptable;for a compact tablet you mightuse as a reading device or forgaming on the commute, itsimply isn’t good enough.

Viewing angles are poor: holdthe A110 in landscape orientationthen tilt it back and forth, andyou’ll see the colours shiftdistractingly. And with most

panels with a list of stations to theleft, a graphic representing theradio station to the right, and thetrack or programme details belowit, plus a row of icons along thebottom for navigation.

The good news is thestuttering, sluggish menus of oldhave been replaced by smoothanimations, and lists of tracks andstations that can be effortlesslyflicked up and down. It still isn’tquite the epitome of touchscreenperfection. Some of the buttonscould do with being larger, andtyping in keyword searches usingthe keyboard is more fiddly thanwe’d like. However, it’s usable andvery easy to get to grips with.

Pure has also added a couple ofmajor new features to its alreadybroad selection. The first is theaddition of an accompanying

recently announcedbudget 7in tablets nowhitting 1,280 x 800 orhigher, the A110’sresolution of 1,024 x600 adds to thedisappointment.We’re distinctlyunderwhelmed, and thechunky, 11.5mm-thickchassis and hefty 384gweight don’t help withthe overall impression.

There is redemptionin the form of apowerful CPU. Beneath

smartphone/tablet app. DubbedPure Connect, this allows usersto enjoy the same online contentas that of the radio itself, includinginternet radio, Pure’s song-tagging,and the Spotify-style Pure Musicservice; there’s also the PureSounds library, which allows youto relax to the sound of birdsongor waves crashing on a beach.

In addition, the app allowsthe smartphone on which it’sinstalled to double up as a fancyremote control, from which radiostations and othercontent canbe browsed

❱❱PRICE £150 (£180 inc VAT)❱❱ SUPPLIER www.ebuyer.com

❱❱PRICE £208 (£250 inc VAT)❱❱SUPPLIER http://shop.pure.com

There’s power behindthe A110’s drab exterior

A powerful CPU and a microSD slot, but the Nexus 7 issuperior in almost every respect – and cheaper

A major improvement over the old Sensia,but it needs more polish to justify the high price

Acer Iconia Tab A110

Pure Sensia200D Connect

The Sensia’s touchscreenis easy to get to grips with

and selected, then played on theradio. It’s a great improvement onthe basic infrared remote controlthat’s included in the box.

The app isn’t perfect, though.Anyone considering forsakingtheir Spotify subscription infavour of Pure’s attractive-looking £5-per-month unlimitedstreaming serviceshould be awarethat there’s no wayof bookmarking


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KEY SPECS

1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 CPU • 10.1in 1,280 x 800Super PLS TFT • 16GB/32GB/64GB storage •802.11n Wi-Fi • optional 3G • 3.2mp rear camera •2mp front camera • Bluetooth 3 • Android 3.1 •257 x 8.6 x 176mm (WDH) • 565g


REVIEWSSoftware

On the road, the TomTom app performed well


❱❱PRICE £31, UK & Ireland; £40,Western Europe; HD traffic,£4/mth or £27/yr; speedcameras, £1.49/mth or £17/yr

❱❱SUPPLIER http://play.google.com

In past PC Pro satnav grouptests TomTom has swept theboard, but when it came to

recommending an app forAndroid, we’ve had to lookelsewhere. For years, TomTomignored Google’s popular mobileOS, to the benefit of CoPilot – themost credible alternative.

The satnav giant has finallycrumbled under the pressure,though, and its app is nowavailable on the Google Play store,although only for phones with 480x 800 and 480 x 854 displays.

With a compatible phonelocated, we also had to clear somespace: as with most satnav appsthat store maps locally, there’s ahefty chunk of storage required –3.31GB for the European mapswe downloaded, and 367MBfor the UK. There’s no option todownload a region or country ata time either, or to install to SDcard, so check you have enoughspace before downloading.

With all that sorted, you’ll befaced with a familiar sight whenyou fire up the TomTom app: themaps are as bland and beige asthey are on TomTom for iOS andthe firm’s iOS devices, and theoptions are similar to the iOS app.It’s functional, but not attractive.

We tested the app on our usualsix-leg satnav test route, and foundvoice instructions and onscreenmapping were exemplary.Upcoming turnings were deliveredin good time; turns close to oneanother were linked together; andthe HD Traffic service (a £4/mth

or £27/yr extra) helped us skirtaround the one major traffic jamwe encountered on our test routes.

TomTom for Android alsofeatures the same clever IQ Routesscheme as the iOS app and itsstandalone devices. This useshistorical road speed data suppliedby users to calculate routes, and itworked flawlessly.

It didn’t emerge from the roadtest unscathed, though. Searchfacilities were poor: we wereunable to find three out of five ofthe named destinations, and hadto fall back on the postcodesearch. And on leg two of our trip,even that came a cropper – insert aspace in the middle and the appsearches only on the first part ofthe postcode. It’s a minor bug, butstill irritating.

Add the high price to theseniggles (it’s £58 with a year ofHD Traffic), and it’s tough torecommend TomTom on Androidright now. Things may improve asupdates are introduced, but fornow, CoPilot – currently £20 witha year of traffic – remains thebetter deal. JONATHANBRAY

TomTom for AndroidSuperb route-finding, traffic avoidance and guidance,but too rough around the edges to recommend yet

KEY SPECS

1.2GHz quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 T30L CPU • 1GBRAM • 8GB storage • microSDHC slot • 1,024 x 600TN display • 802.11bgn Wi-Fi • Bluetooth 3 • A-GPS• 2mp webcam • Google Android 4.1 • 1yr C&Rwarranty • 127 x 11.5 x 193mm (WDH) • 384g

KEY SPECS

DAB/DAB+/DMB-radio • FM • 802.11bg Wi-Fi •USB playback and record • 3.5mm audio input andoutput • 5.7in touchscreen • infrared remote • 30Wpower output • 2yr RTB warranty • 280 x 180 x166mm (WDH)



the Acer’s rather dowdy exteriorlurks the heart of a beast, with apowerful 1.2GHz quad-core Tegra3 T30L CPU and 1GB of RAM.Storage isn’t so good at 8GB,but you do get a microSDHCslot capable of taking another32GB – something the Nexus 7doesn’t offer.

This core hardware helped theA110 produce scores of 1,759msin SunSpider and 4,208 inQuadrant. For performance, itholds its own with the Nexus 7,which achieved a similarSunSpider score and was slightlyslower in Quadrant. Games, fromthe demanding Asphalt 7 toShadowgun and HD movies(streamed or local), didn’t causeit any trouble at all, and the JellyBean front-end responded as

quickly and smoothly to the touchas any tablet we’ve tried.

It’s no surprise there isn’t a rearcamera – most other tablets at thisprice sacrifice that – with only afront-facing 2-megapixel unitcapable of 720p video. It’s betterthan the Nexus 7’s 1.2-megapixelcamera, though, and although thebattery is smaller at 3,420mAh,the A110’s stamina is acceptable.It lasted 7hrs 3mins in our loopingvideo test, where the Nexus 7achieved 8hrs 48mins.

The trouble the Acer IconiaTab A110 has is that it’s beatenin almost every respect by thecheaper Nexus 7 – that microSDslot excepted. It’s the poor screenthat really seals it for this tablet,though. Even if Acer did manageto match the price of Google’sNexus 7, we still wouldn’trecommend it. JONATHANBRAY

streamed tracks, either on the appor the radio itself. We weren’timpressed with its stability either;we experienced frequent crasheson the Android app.

The other new feature is theability to record from eitherinternet or FM radio directly toUSB storage, either at the touchof a button or to a timed schedule.This worked reasonably well intesting, but it’s rudimentary: we’dfar rather have a live pause andrewind, or some kind of pre-recordfunction. Annoyingly, the radiowouldn’t allow us to play backrecorded material immediately;we had to wait a few minutesbefore it became available.

The Sensia is capable of doinga lot, but there always seemed tobe a limitation. Streaming is a casein point: we tried it from a numberof network servers, and found theexperience distinctly patchy. Media

Center music libraries streamedfine, but using Plex to serve musicproved frustrating. We’d like to beable to wake up to a track on PureMusic, but this option doesn’tappear when setting up a newalarm. The Pure Music search isflawed, too, to the extent that itreturned no results for “Coldplay”in the Artists section, but listed allthe band’s music under “Albums”and “Tracks”.

We have no argument withthe Sensia’s sound quality. Aswith most of the Pure productswe’ve listened to in the past,both music and voice are presentedwith power and authority, and itcan be turned up loud withoutdistorting, buzzing or rattling.It’s also an excellent DAB radio,easy to use and possesses areasonably fluid touchscreeninterface. However, for a radiothis expensive, we’d expect a littlemore polish than is currentlypresent. JONATHANBRAY


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REVIEWS Software

Most people knowAcrobat through thefree Adobe Reader

application, which lets you viewPDFs across all major computingplatforms. And with the latestreader offering advancedcapabilities such as formfilling, document signing andcommenting, you might wonderwhat else Acrobat XI Pro offersto justify its hefty price tag.

The key difference betweenReader and Pro (and the cheaper,£255 Acrobat Standard) is theability to create PDFs. Betweenthe standalone Distiller, theuniversal print driver, the abilityto open and convert a wide rangeof files (including 3D and CAD),the built-in scanning and OCRcapabilities and its range ofintegrated Office add-ons, whichnow offer improved contentprotection control, Acrobat XIPro has all the bases covered.

The new features in thisversion start with a simpler,more powerful set of tools forcombining files into a single PDF,including the option to load filesdirectly from cloud providers suchas SharePoint, Office 365 andAdobe’s own Acrobat.com. InAcrobat X, the focus was onproducing high-impact, interactive

“PDF portfolios”.With Flash no longerflavour of the month,however, thiscapability hasbeen downplayed.

Form handlingalso sees a host ofmajor improvements.Previously, you had touse the intimidatingLiveCycle Designer tocreate forms, but youcan now create them from scratchor by customising templatesusing the friendlier FormsCentral.To benefit from this you haveto sign up for Adobe’s onlineFormsCentral service, which offersa basic subscription for free, andthis allows forms to be publishedas both distributed PDFs andcentralised web forms, withresponses automatically collectedand accessible from the browser.

That’s not all, though. Usingthe new Sign panel, typed,hand-drawn, image-based orcertificate-based digital signaturescan be quickly added to forms,and with the “Get others to sign”tab, PDFs can be uploaded toEchoSign (offering free and paidsubscriptions) for others to sign.After online signing, which doesn’trequire an account, PDF copies areautomatically emailed to relevantparties, and a backup copy storedcentrally in your EchoSign account.Previously, getting documents andcontracts printed, distributed,

signed and agreed could takeweeks; now it takes minutes.

By its nature, PDF is a fixeddocument format, but that doesn’tmean it has to be the end of theworkflow as Acrobat’s extensivecommenting and reviewcapabilities demonstrate. Now,Acrobat XI Pro goes a stagefurther and lets you edit existingPDFs using the new Edit Textand Images tool. Particularlyimpressive is the way that AcrobatXI Pro can reflow paragraph textas you edit, although this doesdepend on the quality of theoriginal PDF creator and thecomplexity of the layout.

It’s possible to extract thiscontent for re-use, too, withAcrobat XI Pro extending outputoptions from Word and Excel toPowerPoint as well. Again, theprocess is simple and surprisinglyeffective, with elements commonto all pages assigned to a masterslide. Don’t expect miracles,though: if you really want toencourage re-use, you’re betteroff simply including the originalfile with the PDF to begin with.

With PDFs involved in somany different tasks, fromstandard document exchangethrough workgroup collaborationto advanced form handling,signing, archiving and commercialprint production, the danger isthat workflows can becomeover-complicated. Here, the newability for IT departments tocustomise what capabilities aremade available to end usersshould prove handy.

Acrobat Pro XI’s series ofnewly revamped Action wizards,which walk users throughimportant workflows, shouldhelp here too. Perhaps the mostsignificant of these is Optimizefor Web and Mobile, whichautomatically converts colours tosRGB and embeds fonts to ensureconsistent display across alldevices, before compressing filesto keep them lightweight.

It’s worth noting that Adobehas also been hard at workimproving its touch-optimisedreaders for iOS, Android andWindows 8, ensuring all the newfeatures are supported – includingFormsCentral and EchoSign.That’s important as, ultimately, it’sthese free reader apps – and thenew free cloud services that linkinto them – that provide Acrobatwith its cross-platform andcross-device universality, and sojustify the hefty price tag.

Acrobat XI Pro isn’t just themost capable application forproducing and consuming PDFs,then, it’s the key to unlocking thefull potential of Adobe’s all-encompassing, Acrobat-based PDFecosystem. Its high price meansit won’t be for everyone, but forlarge organisations, the efficiencyand productivity gains AcrobatPro XI and its cloud-based supportservices bring will quickly coverthe cost. TOMARAH

❱❱PRICE £315 (£378 inc VAT)❱❱UPGRADE £136 (£163 inc VAT)❱❱SUPPLIER www.adobe.co.uk

OVERALL ✪✪✪✪✪✪EASE OF USE ✪✪✪✪✪✪FEATURES & DESIGN ✪✪✪✪✪✪VALUE FOR MONEY ✪✪✪✪✪✪

Acrobat XI Pro’s new capabilities include the ability to directly edit PDFs

New cloud-based features and efficiencyimprovements make this an essential upgrade

AdobeAcrobat XI Pro

Signing digital documents is made easier by EchoSign

PCPRO

RECOMMENDED


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REVIEWSSoftware

Ubuntu’s biannual releaseschedule tends to meanonly small, evolutionary

improvements between versions,and Ubuntu 12.10 – the QuantalQuetzal, to give it its friendlycodename – looks and behavessimilarly to April’s 12.04 release.

Yet it has some interesting newfeatures. If you perform a cleaninstallation, the first change you’llnotice is a new option to encryptthe entire installation disk using apassphrase – a welcome securitymeasure if you’re worried about alaptop being lost or stolen. LVMvolumes are now supported, too,so you can install Ubuntu on alogical volume and easily resizeor reconfigure it later.

Once you’re in, you’ll seethat the updated Dash features ascrollable preview mode, which isactivated by right-clicking on anysearch result. From here you canbrowse images, documents andother local content, preview andbuy online music, and uninstallor launch applications.

The Dash also delivers a widerrange of online results than before.Search for an application youdon’t already have and you’ll seea link to install it via the SoftwareCenter; search for a physical item

and you’ll find a link toorder it from Amazon.

This latter featureis powered by the new“web apps” concept –small pieces ofconnecting code thatplumb cloud contentand services into thelocal operating system.As well as addingonline results to thesearch interface,extensions can put webmail andsocial networking notificationsinto Ubuntu’s mail menu, placecontrols for online music servicessuch as Last.fm in the audio menu(as local players already do),and make web services accessiblefrom the Launcher as if they wereregular applications. Web apps arecurrently offered for around 40sites, and can be installed bysimply visiting a supported sitein Firefox and accepting theautomatic installation request.

As they stand, these newfeatures don’t add much. Previewmode is limited – it fills the wholescreen, offering no control beyondscrolling left and right throughyour search results – and whilereceiving email notifications in themenu bar is nice, it isn’t exactlylife-changing. When it comes tosearch results, mixing physicalgoods in with programs and filessimply doesn’t make sense.

Yet web apps have greatpotential for the future. At present,you’ll look in vain for connectionsto major services such as SkyDrive,Google Music or the AmazonKindle Store, but the prospect ofaccessing them all from a singlelocal search interface is undeniablyappealing. We hope Canonical cansecure and maintain support fromsuch services – or at least ensureit’s provided by the community viathe open web apps API.

In keeping with the focus oncloud services, Canonical has alsocontinued to develop its UbuntuOne cloud syncing and storageservice. At last, there’s now anative OS X client – albeit in beta– meaning the system works acrossall major desktop and mobileoperating systems. With 5GB ofstorage included, and an upgradeto 20GB offered for $30 a year(around £20), it’s a crediblealternative to Dropbox andGoogle Drive.

One last update in Ubuntu12.10 is a behind-the-scenes switchto rendering desktop graphicaleffects on the CPU when acompatible GPU driver isn’tavailable. This means an end tothe messy distinction betweenUnity 2D and Unity 3D, andpretty graphical effects for all.Unfortunately, on low-powersystems, the increased CPUworkload can have a visible effecton responsiveness. When we tested12.10 on an Intel Atom-powerednetbook, the translucent Dashinterface sometimes took almosta second to fully render; in 12.04,on the same hardware, it poppedup almost instantly.

So is 12.10 a worthwhileupgrade? As we noted in lastmonth’s Labs, Ubuntu is one ofthe most accessible and beginner-friendly Linux distributions thereis, and as long as you’re not usinga netbook or a creaking oldsystem, nothing here diminishesthat. If you’re new to the platform,the Quantal Quetzal is as good aplace to dive in as any.

If you already use 12.04 LTS,you might be reluctant to movefrom that “long-term support”release to one with a shorterlifespan. However, Canonical’sregular releases receive securityupdates for at least 18 months,and there’s usually an in-placeupgrade path at the other end.

The real question is whetherthe new features justify theupgrade. For techies, full diskencryption and LVM supportalone may be enough to close thedeal. If you enjoy trying the latestand greatest features then thereare new toys here to play with.

Ultimately, though, theupdated Dash and web appsfeel like works in progress, andthe loss of Unity 2D means somesystems will experience a drop indesktop performance.

Ubuntu remains one of ourfavourite Linux distributions,but for the casual user, version12.10 doesn’t make a compellingupgrade. We wouldn’t blame youfor waiting to see how 13.04 turnsout. DARIENGRAHAM-SMITH

❱❱PRICE Free❱❱SUPPLIER www.ubuntu.com


The new web apps allow online services to add notifications to the mail menu

An interim update that brings a small,hit-and-miss selection of new features

Ubuntu 12.10

Web apps are automatically installed from a compatible web page


WorldMags.net




REVIEWS Software

T here’s a big gulf betweenconsumer video-editingsoftware and professional

systems, and surprisingly feweditors populating it. AdobePremiere Pro and Apple Final CutPro dominate, but Sony Vegas Prois a powerful editor that deservesto be taken seriously too. Withthe new Edit version costing acomparatively cheap £250, it’seven more enticing.

With such a low price, youdon’t get disc authoring any more,but Vegas Pro itself continues toimprove. Version 12 introducesa proxy editing mode, whichgenerates 720p MPEG2 copiesof 1080p AVC footage toimprove preview performance,automatically reverting to theoriginal files on export.

The performance boost whenrunning the preview window at1080p was fairly small; it managedfive AVCHD streams withoutproxies, and six streams with.However, halving the previewresolution to 960 x 540 gave amore dramatic boost, up fromseven to 12 streams on our Corei7-870 PC. Strangely, 1080pprojects can’t be set to use 720p

for the preview, despitethe fact that this is theresolution of theproxy files. Still, 960x 540 is fine for mostediting tasks, andVegas Pro is backin pole position forpreview performance.

Vegas Pro’s maskingfeatures were alreadyhighly sophisticated,with the ability to draw curve-based masks with featherededges. However, drawing simplerbox-shaped masks was fiddlyand creating perfect circles wasdifficult. The introduction ofrectangle and ellipse mask shapesremedies this, and all mask typeshave handles for resizing androtating. The controls forfeathering the edges now appearnext to the mask itself, ratherthan buried among the otherparameters. And masks can nowbe reassigned to effects ratherthan clip opacity, where effects areapplied to a limited portion of aclip – perfect for blurring faces ornumber plates.

Masks can be animatedusing keyframes, but the lack ofkeyframe lanes causes problems.After animating the position ofour mask, we had to adjust theFeather settings separately for eachkeyframe – with lanes this wouldbe far easier. Adding a second

mask area to a clip was impossibleafter we’d animated the first mask;– we had to start again fromscratch. Animating clips’ positionsis just as problematic, withlocation, rotation and scalekeyframes becoming cloggedup with each other.

There are other new effects.Layer Dimensionality, whichworks with masked clips, providesdrop shadows, glow and embosseffects. There’s a tool for matchingcolours from one clip with thosein another, based on an importedframe from the first. Our attemptto match footage from differentcameras wasn’t very successful,but it was useful for fixing subtlewhite balance mismatches. TheLAB Adjust effect provides colourcorrection using the Lab colourspace, where green-magenta andblue-yellow spectra are handledindependently; a handy additionto what was already a powerful,precise colour-correction toolset.

Expanded Edit Mode,meanwhile, shows the contentsof a timeline track over twosub-tracks, revealing the unusedsections at the start and end ofeach clip, and showing a splitpreview of the frames either sideof the cut. Elsewhere, newkeyboard shortcuts make itdelightfully easy to trim thepicture and soundtrackasynchronously (known as Lcuts), and to trim the selected clipat the current marker position.

There are various otherchanges, such as the ability toapply fades to and adjust theproperties of multiple clips

simultaneously, arrange the UIin rows of docked panels, andmatch the project settings toimported media. It’s also nowpossible to transfer projects toand from Premiere Pro, Final CutPro, Avid Media Composer andothers – although, as always, thisis subject to limitations. Ourattempts to share projects withPremiere Pro were partiallysuccessful at best.

This is a solid update, andthere are enough worthwhileimprovements to warrant theupgrade price. For potentialnewcomers, the price drop givesa greater incentive than ever tograduate from consumer software.However, we’re hesitant to giveVegas Pro our recommendation,as it suffered more than its fairshare of crashes during testing.Vegas’ auto-recovery functionmeant we never lost any work,but it isn’t what we expect fromsoftware aimed at professionalsand serious enthusiasts. It’salso surprising that support for32-bit Windows and XP hasbeen dropped.

With the new Edit versionalmost a third of the cost ofAdobe’s equivalent product,however, it’s worth waiting for amore stable release and giving the30-day trial a whirl when it’s beenupdated. Once the crashing issueshave been resolved, Vegas Pro willbe a serious challenger. BENPITT

❱❱PRICE £250 (£300 inc VAT)❱❱UPGRADE £124 (£149 inc VAT)❱❱SUPPLIER www.sonycreative

software.com


Expanded Edit Mode gives clearer insight into used and unused portions of clips

Many welcome workflow improvements, anda low price, but undermined by stability issues

Sony VegasPro 12 Edit

Circular and rectangular masks are now easier to create


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REVIEWSHowwe test


Our benchmarks aredesigned to reflect theway people actuallyuse computers today.

We use current applications, aswell as a set of generalresponsiveness tests, to get anall-round picture of a PC’s orlaptop’s performance.

ResponsivenessWith low-power netbooks nowso popular, it’s vital to know howresponsive a system is. To measurethis, we first time how long ittakes to open documents andswitch between a series ofcommon applications, includingWord and Excel, Acrobat ReaderX and Internet Explorer. We then

time how long the system takes toopen, close and move dozens ofExplorer windows.

MediaOur Media tests expose howwell a system can process music,photos and video files. We useiTunes 10 to encode an album intoAAC and MP3 formats, thenAdobe Photoshop CS5 to workon a folder of 12-megapixel RAWphotographs. We adjust thecolours and curves, apply artisticsharpening and blurring, andsave the results in JPEG format.Finally, we use Sony Vegas 10 torender a short 1080p video, witha picture-in-picture effect and across-fade transition.

MultitaskingTo really test a system, wesimultaneously run the iTunes andPhotoshop tests, then launch ourResponsiveness tests over the top.

Howwe test

Our battery tests are alsodesigned to reflect the realworld, so we aim to determinethe battery’s life for intensivetasks and everyday browsing.

In the light-use test, weoptimise the system forpower efficiency – Windows’power profile is set to PowerSaver and we set thescreen brightness as close to75cd/m2 as possible using anX-Rite i1Display 2 colorimeter.We disconnect the mainsand run a script scrolling aselection of web pages untilthe system shuts down,giving you a realistic ideaof surfing time.

For the heavy-use test, weengage Windows’ HighPerformance power profile, setthe brightness to maximum andrun the taxing Cinebench 3Drenderer to push the processorload to the limit. This gives aworst-case figure for battery lifefrom a single charge.


0 0.25 0.5 0.75 1 1.25 1.5

BETTER


RESPONSIVENESS

MULTITASKING

0.60OVERALL

0.71

0.63MEDIA

0.45

Displays Tablets &smartphones

Routers

We test all monitors, laptopsand tablet screens in the sameway. We use an X-Rite i1Display2 colorimeter to gauge colouraccuracy (technically known asDelta E), maximum brightness,black level and contrast ratio.We also display a selection ofour own high-resolution testimages and Blu-ray videos toget a real-world perspective.

Tablets and smartphones aresimilar products, so we testthem in largely the same way.We run a selection of browser-based speed tests (including theSunSpider JavaScript test). Wealso thoroughly test battery lifeby simulating real use: phonecalls, browsing, playing apodcast, and leaving the deviceon standby for 24 hours.

We test wireless routers in adomestic setting using similarfile-transfer tests to hard disks.We use two laptops – onehooked up via Ethernet to therouter, the other connected viawireless to the router – andcopy a series of small and largefiles to and fro. We measurespeeds in two locations: at closerange and a 40m distance.

BATTERY-LIFEBENCHMARKS

Finally, we time how long it takesthe multithreaded Cinebench 11.5renderer to produce a complex3D scene.

OverallWe compare all timings with thoseof our reference platform: a3.4GHz Core i7-2600K with 4GBof DDR3 RAM and a 7,200rpmhard disk. All desktops are testedat 1,920 x 1,080; we test laptopsat the display’s native resolution.

Each score is given relative tothe reference platform: a score of1.5 would indicate a PC that was50% faster. We combine the threescores into an overall average,but we also show the breakdownof the three tests, so you caneasily see a system’s strengthsand weaknesses.

3D benchmarksWe test 3D performance usingpre-recorded sequences in Crysis.We use the game’s Low, Mediumand High quality settings in theresolutions of 1,366 x 768,1,600 x 900 and 1,920 x 1,080respectively. For really fast systemswe replace the Low test with oneat 1,920 x 1,080 and Very Highquality. A system’s 3D graphs (seeleft) will be coloured red, amber orgreen to indicate how smooth onaverage gameplay will be.

Focu

son…


CRYSIS3D BENCHMARKS

10fpsUNPLAYABLE

27fpsPLAYABLE86fps

SMOOTH PLAY

LOW MEDIUM HIGH

PCPRO

AREFERENCEGUIDETOOURBENCHMARKSANDTESTMETHODS

Printers

We test inkjets, laser printersand all-in-ones using ISOdocuments, our own magazinePDFs and carefully selected,high-resolution photographs.Every test is timed to the secondand the output quality judged.We use every menu andinterface, and calculate runningcosts using the quoted cartridgeyields and retail prices.


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WHEN PC PRO REVIEWED THE EPSON WORKFORCE PRO, THE VERDICTWAS SIMPLE: “THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS: LASER SPEEDSAND INKJET IMAGE QUALITY, WITH PLENTY OF FEATURES ANDSTUNNINGLY LOW RUNNING COSTS.” NOW FIND OUT FOR YOURSELFWHY THE WORKFORCE PRO RANGE IS TAILOR-MADE FOR BUSINESS USE.

1THEY’RE FASTERThis isn’t a typo. Take a tripto your nearest computersuperstore and compare the

speed of any colour laser you can buy fora similar price to the Epson WorkForcePro. We’re not only talking about the16ppm top print speed, which applies toboth mono and colour, but also the rapid-fire first page. Compare that to theagonising wait for the first page toappear from a laser in standby.

2 THEY’RE MOREECOLOGICALLasers can use 1,000W whenthe fuser is working; Epson’s

inkjets consume a maximum of 26W.When you consider a laser also needsmore power in standby mode, it’s nowonder Epson’s WorkForce Pro uses80% less electricity than laser rivals. Theonly parts you’ll ever need to replace areink cartridges and, with duplex printingas standard, you’ll save paper too.

3 THEY COSTLESS TO RUNAgain, not a typo. Epson hasplaced low ink costs near the

top of its priority list, with the WorkForcePro’s XXL ink tanks lasting for a stunning3,400 pages. That translates into 1p perpage for mono and 4.2p for colour (halfthe cost of some rival lasers). See exactlyhow much you’ll save versus a laser byusing Epson’s cost-saving calculator:www.pcpro.co.uk/links/epson1.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE

WHY BUSINESSES SHOULD BUY ANINKJET RATHER THAN A LASER

FIVEGOLDENREASONS


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4 THEY’REMORE FLEXIBLESometimes only the bestquality will do, whether it’s

printing high-impact presentations ordashing off an image on “proper” photopaper. Thanks to print resolutions of upto 4,800 x 1,200dpi, Epson’s WorkForcePro range offers precisely this flexibility,along with the copying and scanningduties you’d expect from an all-in-onedevice. Need a fax as well? Then you’rein luck: almost all the products in theWorkForce Pro range include a fax too.

5 DID WE MENTIONTHE COST?We all know that total cost ofownership – the price of the

printer, replacement inks andcomponents such as image drums forlasers – ultimately determines the valueof a product. In business, however,cashflow is king, so it helps if you don’tneed to pay a huge price from the start.With prices starting from £179 exc VAT(www.pcpro.co.uk/links/epson2), this isyet another reason to take advantage ofan Epson WorkForce Pro today.

0129PC PRO•DECEMBER 2012

WINAWORKFORCEPRO INKJET!

PCPRO

RECOMMENDED

ingearBESTBUY

PRINTER/SCANNERS

PC Pro has teamed upwith Epson to offer you thechance to win anaward-winningbusiness inkjetprinter worth £263.Epson’s WorkForcePro WP-4525 isspecifically designedto offer high-quality output,durability and energy efficiencyto small and medium-sizedbusinesses.

For your chance to win, headto www.pcpro.co.uk/links/epsoncomp or scan the QRcode below.

GOODLUCK!Closing date: 10 December 2012


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REVIEWS Enterprise

KEY SPECS

A key requirement for a 2Urack server is versatility,and Broadberry’s

CyberServe XE5-R224 has it inspades. It’s designed for businessesrequiring a combination ofrack density, processing power,expansion and storage space –and it looks to have them all.

The XE5-R224 is an all-Intelproduct, and is based on one ofIntel’s premium platforms – theServer System R2224GZ4GCSAS.This comprises its BighornPeak chassis and Grizzly PassS2600GZ motherboard.

Storage makes up a major part,with 24 SFF hot-swap drive bays.This puts it right up with Dell andHP, since only the high-densityversions of their PowerEdge R720(web ID: 374416) and ProLiantDL380p Gen8 (web ID: 376273)servers can match it.

The motherboard has twoembedded mini-SAS four-portconnectors, and by default thesecond port is disabled, with onlySATA supported. A connector nextto the ports will accept an Intelhardware upgrade key, whichunlocks a choice of drive supportand RAID options.

Seven colour-codedkeys are available, andour review model hadthe top-of-the-rangepurple key that opens upall available features. Thisgives you support for SATAand SAS drives, plus choices forhardware-managed mirrors,stripes and RAID5 arrays.

The two embedded SAS portsare cabled through to a SASexpander board that allows all24 bays to be supported by theonboard RAID controller. This isa better arrangement than HP’sProLiant DL380p Gen8; once yougo beyond eight drives, more PCIExpress RAID cards must beadded to support them.

By mounting up to twoadditional 2.5in SATA SSDs inthe space provided above theplastic air shroud, the drivecount can be increased further;the motherboard also has adedicated socket for anoptional eUSB SSD device.

There’s an abundance ofnetwork connections, includingfour Gigabit Ethernet ports onthe motherboard and a separateI/O connector at the rear. Thiscan be used to add more portsusing Intel’s I/O modules.Options include quad-portGigabit Ethernet, dual 10GbE SFP,

and 10GBaseT plus single anddual-port QDR InfiniBand.

There’s lots of room to expandelsewhere, since the two riser cardshave three PCI Express Gen3 slotsapiece (see 1 ). Unlike most 2Urack servers, there’s room behindthe two upper slots in both risersfor full-height, full-length cards.

A single 2.4GHz E5-2665Xeon is included in the price(see 2 ) – one of Intel’s advancedmodels, with the full 20MB L3cache and an 8GT/sec QPI speed.They also feature Turbo Boost 2,which allows the cores to bespeeded up briefly beyond theirTDP rating when sufficientthermal budget has been accrued.

The motherboard has 24DIMM sockets (see 3 ), but inthe review system only 12 wereactive – you’ll need to add asecond processor to enable themall, a feature common to all XeonE5-2600 servers. This also appliesto the PCI Express expansionslots, since the second riser card is

only supported in dual-CPU configurations.

The chassis hasfive hot-swap fansmounted in front of themotherboard, whichwe found to be quitenoisy. However, theBIOS features anacoustic setting andoptions to balancepower consumptionagainst performance;with these optionsselected, the fans

dropped down tonear-silent running.

Two 750Whotplug power suppliesare included in the

price, and for lighter duties youcan go for 460W modules. Overallconsumption is low, though, withthe system consuming 85W atidle and peaking at 199W underheavy load from the SiSoft Sandrabenchmarking application.

The price also includes remotemanagement, with Intel’s RMM4module taking pride of place. Thissnaps into a small socket next tothe I/O module slot and presentsa dedicated network port at therear. It won’t be worrying HP’snew iLO4 or Dell’s iDRAC7 forfeatures, though. It offers a simpleweb interface with details onsensors for all critical components,and options to tie their thresholdsin with email and SNMP trapalerts. It also includes KVM-over-IP remote control and virtualmedia support as standard.

The CyberServe XE5-R224 hasstorage space galore and backs thisup with plenty of room to expandand low power consumption. Itdoesn’t have the same level offeatures as Dell’s R720 and HP’sDL380p Gen8, but a price that’s atleast £1,000 less puts it firmly onthe PC Pro A-List as our rackserver of choice. DAVEMITCHELL

❱❱PRICE £3,795 exc VAT❱❱SUPPLIER www.broadberry.co.uk


A top-value rack server that combines storagespace with impressive expansion potential

BroadberryCyberServe XE5-R224

The CyberServe XE5-R224 has24 SFF hot-swap drive bays

EXCLUSIVE

2U Intel rack chassis • Intel Server Board S2600GZ •2.4GHz E5-2665 Xeon (max 2) • 32GB DDR3RDIMM expandable to 384GB (768GB withLR-DIMMs) • Intel C600 embedded RAID withpurple upgrade key • supports RAID0, 1, 1E, 5, 10 •2 x 300GB WD SAS 2 Enterprise SFF hot-swap harddisks (max 24) • 4 x Gigabit Ethernet • 6 x PCI-EGen3 • I/O module slot • RMM4 • 2 x 750Whotplug supplies • 3yr on-site NBD warranty •Power: 85W idle; 199W peak

PC

12

3


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REVIEWS Enterprise

KEY SPECSPedestal chassis • Supermicro X9SCA motherboard •3.3GHz Xeon E3-1230V2 • 8GB DDR3 1,600MHzECC UDIMM expandable to 32GB • 4 x SATA II(RAID0, 1, 5) • 2 x SATA III (RAID0, 1) • 1 x 1TBWD SATA II Enterprise cold-swap hard disk (max 4) •2 x Gigabit Ethernet • 1 x PCI-E 3, 2 x PCI-E 2, 3 xPCI (32-bit) • Supermicro SuperO Doctor IIIsoftware • 3yr on-site NBD silver warranty •Power: 34W idle; 80W peak

T he new Ready To Go(RTG) servers fromSupermicro UK are

designed for businesses that wanta server quickly. As long as youplace an order by 3pm, you shouldhave one the next business day.

The RTG family comprisesthree rack and two pedestalmodels with a choice of Xeonprocessors, memory and storage.To ensure they can be shiftedquickly, however, they’re availableonly in fixed configurations.

The servers come with a silverwarranty as standard, whichprovides three-year, on-site NBDcover during the hours of 9-5pmon weekdays. Supermicro UKhandles all service requests and youcan increase your cover with Goldor Platinum Health Pack upgrades.

In this exclusive review, welook at the RX-M140i pedestalserver, which offers a goodhardware package for the price,along with room to expand. Itclaims to be whisper-quiet, withsmall offices firmly on its hit list.

Horsepower is supplied bya 3.3GHz quad-core XeonE3-1230V2 processor, whichspeed-wise sits in the middle of afamily of 11 models. It supportsHyper-Threading and has a lowTDP of 69W. Also included is8GB of 1,600MHz unbufferedDDR3 memory, which can beexpanded to a maximum of 32GB.This comes in the form of two4GB DIMMs, so you can go upto 24GB without replacing them.This leads to minimal powerusage, with our meter recordinga draw of only 34W in idle.Running SiSoft Sandra to stress theCPU saw this peak at only 80W.

The midi-tower chassis is wellbuilt and capable of handling therigours of a small office. Physicalsecurity extends to padlocking theside panel or using the chassis’Kensington lock, but the powerbutton and pair of USB ports atthe front can’t be protected.

The front panel can’t be easilyremoved, but you can get at thepair of 5.25in device bays at thetop by removing a couple ofpop-out panels. The side panelis secured with screws, buteverything else uses tool-freeclips and levers.

A spaciousinterior awaits,with plenty of room to getat the important bits. Thecompact ATX SupermicroX9SCA motherboarddoesn’t take up much space,and has the processormounted centrally with anactive heatsink on top.

A 120mm fan sits at therear of the chassis, andthere’s one more in the fixed500W power supply above.They don’t make muchnoise, though: we had toturn everything else off inthe lab before we could hearany hint of a whirr from theRTG’s compact chassis.

Meanwhile, a cage behindthe front panel supports up to fourhard disks and the price includes asingle 1TB WD Enterprise SATA IIhard disk. The cage can bereleased and swung out for easyaccess and the remaining bayshave quick-mount drive sleds, plusinterface and power cables.

The C204 chipset, meanwhile,has four SATA II and two SATA IIIports on the motherboard, withsupport for RAID5 on the SATA IIports, and mirrors or stripes on the

SATA III ports.There isn’t

any remote servermanagement hardware– Supermicro’sembedded RMM isonly available on theX9SCA-F motherboardvariant – but you canuse Supermicro’s freelyavailable SuperODoctor III tool, whichprovides remote webbrowser access formonitoring. It’s lookingdated now, though.

Considering theserver is available fornext-day delivery, theprice is good. You canpick up an HP ProLiantML110 G7 (web ID:370198), but with anolder 3.3GHz E3-1240CPU, 4GB of RAM

and a 250GB hard disk for around£815. Next-day delivery adds £20and you get only a one-year on-siteNBD warranty. A PowerEdgeT110 II (web ID: 369607) with thesame specification and three-yearwarranty as the RTG is cheaper, ataround £610. However, there’sa £30 delivery charge and Dellwon’t give you an estimateddelivery date until you’ve paid.

There are times when youneed a server in a hurry. Afailed critical system, a suddenhigh-priority IT project, or aneed for an extra test bed meansthere’s no time to lose, and theRTG RX-M140i is a good wayof solving that – at a reasonableprice. DAVEMITCHELL

❱❱PRICE £776 exc VAT❱❱SUPPLIER www.more

computers.com


The RX-M140i has aspacious interior

If you need a low-cost Xeon E3 pedestal server in a hurry,Supermicro’s RTG system could save the day

Supermicro RTG RX-M140i

1 2 3

EXCLUSIVE

PCPRO

RECOMMENDED


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REVIEWS Enterprise

KEY SPECS

Desktop/rack-mount chassis • 1.8GHz Intel AtomD525 • 4GB RAM • 250GB SATA hard disk• Gigabit Ethernet • external power supply •web browser management • 16 x ToshibaIP5522F-SD handsets • Standard Call Manager,meet-me conferencing licensed for 4 x voice,video and collaboration channels • on-siteinstallation, training and 1yr support

I P telephony systems canbe prohibitively expensivefor small businesses, but

Toshiba’s new IPedge EPhas these customers firmlyin its sights. It represents thecheapest of a family of threeappliances, a desktop unitsupporting from eight to 40users with an extensive rangeof communications features.

It slots into an existingnetwork, where it requires onlya single IP address. Its main roleis as a standalone server butit’s also well suited to branchoffice deployments. UsingToshiba’s IPedge Net feature,multiple appliances can belinked together over a WAN,where the primary node providescentralised management of allsecondary nodes.

The appliance supportsToshiba’s IP5000 series ofhands-free IP phones and itsforthcoming IP4100 DECT SIPphones. Laptop and PC userscan also get in on the act usingToshiba’s SoftIPT Softphoneclient or the Call ManagerWindows application.

Full access to all features isprovided by a single web interface,and a four-step network wizardhelps installation. The IPedge EPsupports all the main SIPproviders and can handle upto 20 separate accounts.

For testing we tookup Toshiba’s offer ofremote access to its ownIPedge EM appliance.To link our applianceto the remote unit, wecreated separate trunks forincoming and outgoing calls,and to ensure call security weran this over an IPsec VPNto Toshiba’s offices.

The appliance provides a setof core features that can easilybe expanded by adding extraapplications. Standard featurescomprise the IPedge Coresoftware, which provides callhandling, and Media Serverfor audio processing. The MediaServer plays, records and mixesaudio streams, manages audiocompression and decompressionand applies noise cancellation.Other audio duties include holdmusic, ad hoc conferencing andgroup paging.

During setup, directorynumbers need to be assignedto handsets, and this can beachieved in a number of ways.The appliance can create a range,you can do it manually, or youcan automate the process bylinking each one to a handset’sIP address. After this, you decidewhich functions are availableto users and groups. Voicemailboxes are a standardfeature and these are assignedduring directory numbercreation. Each voice mailboxhas an extension number thatusers dial to access messages.All Toshiba IP phones also havea mailbox quick-access button,

which flashes to alert the user tonew messages.

If permitted, users can alsoaccess the management consoleby logging in with their directorynumber and password. They canaccess their personal telephonysettings and modify functions suchas redial on busy, call holding,call forwarding and key-stripassignments. We also loaded theSoftIPT app on a Windows 7system where it picked up theIPedge appliance and workedseamlessly. The interface isidentical to the physical IP phones,and it supports all featuresavailable to them as well.

The system’s call-conferencingsystem is provided by the GeminiConferencing Server app, andadding licences enables web andvideo capabilities. After creatingmoderators, you define yourconferences and for web accessprovide a URL. Slick integrationwith iCal-enabled apps enablesinvitations to be sent directlyfrom the portal. Clicking theiCal button for our conferenceentry provided an ICS file,which automatically openedOutlook on our host systemand created an invitation

email, complete with theconference URL, dial-in numberand access code.

We found web and videoconferencing easy to set up. Ourusers dialled the access code,loaded a web browser from theemail URL and as soon as themoderator joined, they wereable to share their presentations,documents, desktop and webcam.During testing, we also used theIP phones for a variety of callsand to talk to Toshiba’s engineers.Call quality was extremely goodin all cases and indistinguishablefrom PSTN calls.

The price we’ve shown is forthe IPedge EP appliance licensedfor 16 users with 16 IP5522F-SDhandsets, the Standard CallManager and the conferencingserver licensed for four voice,video and web channels. Thisprice also includes a site survey,on-site installation and trainingby a Toshiba reseller.

The IPedge EP is a small butwell-endowed IP telephony system,ideally suited to SMBs and branchoffices. It’s packed with featuresand, unlike some competingsystems, doesn’t have any hiddencosts. DAVEMITCHELL

❱❱PRICE Appliance and 16handsets, £7,499 exc VAT

❱❱SUPPLIER http://telecoms.toshiba.co.uk


Toshiba’s IPedge EP is packedwith features and suited to SMBs

The IPedge EP delivers enterprise-level IP telephonyand conferencing features at a reasonable price

Toshiba IPedge EPEXCLUSIVE

PCPRO

RECOMMENDED


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REVIEWS Enterprise

Epson’s latest printer maylook like a laser, but it’sactually an inkjet in

disguise. As with its very similarpredecessor, the WP-4525 DNF(web ID: 370111), the aim is tooffer lower costs to workgroupsneeding to print in colour, and onthis front, the WP-4595 DNFcertainly succeeds. Its extrahigh-capacity cartridges delivermono and colour pages for only0.8p and 3.4p, much less than theA-Listed HP LaserJet Pro 400MFP M475dw (web ID: 374509):its prints cost 2p per mono and12p per colour page.

T he InstaGate 404sappliance from UScompany eSoft targets the

SoHo market and offers toughweb security for networks of up to15 users. The base system providesan SPI firewall and VPN support,while eSoft’s Web ThreatPak addsIPS, web content filtering, gatewayantivirus and anti-spyware, plusIM and P2P app controls.

It’s a compact appliance withfour Fast Ethernet ports providingWAN, dual-switched LAN andDMZ duties, and would seem tobe the ideal candidate for use in asmall office. However, the 1GHzVIA C7 processor’s cooling fan is

It also claims an 80%reduction in power usage overlasers, and so it proved: our powermeter recorded only 24W whenprinting and 6W while idle. Thequoted 26ppm and 24ppm speeds(for mono and colour respectively)look good for an inkjet, too, butwe couldn’t get close to them.A simple ten-page mono Worddocument printed in economymode returned 14.5ppm, whichdropped to 2.2ppm for fine andonly 1ppm in high quality.

Colour prints fared worse.Our challenging 24-page DTPdocument returned 10.5ppm in“fast” mode and 0.8ppm in thehighest-quality mode. Copy speedswere sluggish, too, with a ten-pagetest print scanned and copied instandard quality at 6ppm.

noisy: it will be hard toignore in cramped environments.

Installation is a smoothprocess: a wizard helps withregistration and the WebThreatPak download and, onceactive, it keeps all scanners andsignatures updated automatically.The firewall has predefined rulesso you’re ready to go, but you canadd your own if you want morecontrol over specific services.

Options are provided forcreating site-to-site IPsec VPNswith other InstaGates or clientVPNs for mobile workers. Forweb content filtering, you canswiftly set up HTTP scanning

Print quality isn’t up therewith Epson’s photo printers,but it’s good enough forbusiness use Our prints revealedsmooth colour fades with nostepping, and there was verylittle evidence of banding.Unlike Ricoh’s Aficio gel printer(web ID: 376243), graphics andphotos printed on plain paperdried quickly and didn’t wrinkle.

Text was pin-sharp even with

using the transparent proxy mode.Policies can either be applied to allusers or selectively to networksdefined by their IP address ranges.

Proxy authentication comesinto play with the user mode,where you can employ theappliance’s local database or anActive Directory server. Unlikemost competing products, contentfiltering is carried out locally andnot in the cloud, so eSoft’s ownURL database needs to bedownloaded to the appliance.

the driver set to standard quality,although the printer couldn’thandle the 0.1pt and 0.2pt gaps inour colour performance chart. Weused the rear MFP tray to print onglossy photo paper and found thedefault driver settings producedprints with too much contrast,reducing the level of detail.

This didn’t take long and wewere then able to create blockingpolicies using any of the 17 URLcategories and more than 50sub-categories. You can leavepolicies permanently active orapply a schedule so they’re activeonly on selected days and times.

Gateway antivirus is enabledwith a single click, and you cancreate lists of IP addresses that are

❱❱PRICE £315 exc VAT❱❱SUPPLIER www.printer

base.co.uk

❱❱PRICE £570 exc VAT❱❱SUPPLIER www.focus-

technology.co.uk

It’s compact, but the noisycooling fan is difficult to ignore

Epson claims an 80% reductionin power usage over lasers

Cheaper to buy and run than a colour laser MFP, butprint speeds are slow and output quality is average

Strong web content security measures,but it’s pricey and easily overtaxed

EpsonWorkForceProWP-4595 DNF

eSoft InstaGate 404sEXCLUSIVE


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C anon’s ImageFormulaDR-C130 is designed forworkgroups that want fast

and affordable desktop scanning,with the ability to save documentsdirectly to the cloud.

Installation time depends onthe software you choose – thereare seven bundled applications.CaptureOnTouch links thescanner’s start button topredefined actions, which includeemail or any of the bundledapplications. We opted to scandirect as PDFs to Google Drive,and this worked seamlessly, withscans sent directly to Google’scloud service from where theycould be accessed remotely.

Presto’s BizCard Reader makesa stab at business-card scanning.Its flaky OCR abilities mean thatsome manual editing is required,but it’s better than Plustek’sHotcard BizCard. PaperPort 11provides extensive document andimage management features, plusa floating toolbar for scanningdirectly to any app on the host PC.

OmniPage SE 4.2 is old but itsOCR is good and, finally, there’sPDF Pro Office, which turnsdocuments into searchable PDFs.

Scan speeds are as promised,with a 20-page sheaf scanned at30ppm at 200dpi with 24-bitcolour and duplex modes selected.Increasing the resolution to300dpi saw the same test average18ppm. The scanner ably handledembossed plastic cards, althoughstacking the ADF beyond 30 pagesoccasionally caused a jam.

Output quality is perfectlyacceptable for a document-archiving system. Scanned colourphotos revealed good levels ofdetail, and although contrast wasinitially dark, we remedied this inthe advanced scan settings.

The DR-C130 delivers bothspeed and quality, making it a finechoice as a small-office scanner. It’sgood value for money as well andincludes a very generous softwarebundle. DAVEMITCHELL

KEY SPECS4,800 x 1,200dpi A4 inkjet printer • 1,200dpi colourscanner • 384MB RAM • 33.6Kbits/sec fax/modem• claimed 26ppm/24ppm mono/colour • 2 x USB 2• 10/100 Ethernet • duplex • 250-sheet input tray •80-sheet ADF • 1yr RTB warranty • Options:250-sheet lower tray, £63 exc VAT

KEY SPECS

Desktop chassis • 1GHz VIA C7 • 1GB RAM • 8GBCompactFlash card • 4 x 10/100 Ethernet (2 x LAN,WAN, DMZ) • USB • VGA • 1yr Web ThreatPak • 2yrRTB warranty. Options: Annual Gold Care and WebThreatPak renewal, £257 exc VAT

KEY SPECS

600dpi optical resolution • 30ppm @ 200dpi colour• simplex/duplex • 50-page ADF • 2,000 sheets perday • CapturePerfect, CaptureOnTouch, PDF ProOffice, Kofax VRS, Nuance PaperPort and OmniPage,Presto BizCard Reader software • 1yr RTB warranty




The 50-pageflip-up documentfeeder is amajor boon

A good-quality desktop scanner that’s reasonably pricedand includes a big software bundle

Canon ImageFormulaDR-C130

The printer’s scan, copy andfax functions on the front panelare simple to use. With Epson’ssoftware loaded on a Windows 7client, functions could also beeasily accessed from our desktop.For fax operations, you canmaintain a local phone book andcreate a separate speed-dial list.This can be uploaded to theprinter and accessed from thededicated button on the front.The web interface is minimalist,but provides a handy registrationtool for Google Cloud Print. Wehad no problems with this whenprinting from Google Chrome.

The cloud features don’t endthere. Remote users can alsoemail print jobs as attachmentsto the printer. After registeringwith Epson Connect, we wereprovided with a unique emailaddress for the printer. Plus,

from the web portal, we couldcreate approved sender lists anddecide whether they could printon photo paper.

Walk-up features are limited:you can’t scan to FTP, andalthough documents can bescanned to a USB stick pluggedinto the front port, you can’tprint files from it. The printercan scan to email, but doesn’tsend directly to a mail server.Instead, it sends them to a PCrunning the Epson software,which loads its own email client,creates a new message andattaches the scanned file.

Running costs for this inkjetall-in-one are lower than lasers,but its print speeds make it suitedto offices with only an occasionalneed for colour. If demand ishigher, we still recommend the HPLaserJet M475dw: it delivers fasterspeeds, top quality and plenty offeatures. DAVEMITCHELL

exempt from scanning. Anti-spyware is just as easy to activate,and for IPS you can add detailsof specific servers you wantprotected, where the appliancewill then create custom profiles.

eSoft claims a firewallperformance of 100Mbits/sec,although in reality, this is thethroughput limit of the WAN port.To test this, we hooked up the404s to the lab’s Ixia XM2 chassisand its Xcellon-Ultra NP loadmodules. The Ixia IxLoad appconfirmed the firewall was goodfor around 90Mbits/sec, whichdropped only slightly with allUTM functions activated.However, using the appliance’sweb interface during testing hada big impact on performance.

As we refreshed theThreatMonitor interface, we saw

IxLoad register a significantdrop in performance, withthroughput falling as low as10Mbits/sec for brief periods.With such a small supporteduserbase we don’t see this as aserious problem, but if you havebandwidth-hungry users you’llhave to avoid using theweb console where possible.

There’s no denying that theweb content security features ofthe InstaGate 404s are highlyaccomplished, but there areserious issues. The noisyoperation dampens its appeal forthe smaller office, and our testsshow that it’s operating at thelimits of its performance. Theprice is the final stumbling block:stack it up against the PC ProRecommended WatchGuard XTM25-W (web ID: 377104) and itreally isn’t such good value formoney. DAVEMITCHELL

❱❱PRICE £337 exc VAT❱❱SUPPLIER www.lambda-tek.com

REVIEWSEnterprise

PCPRO

RECOMMENDED


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REVIEWS Enterprise

Y -cam has upped its gamewith the latest Bullet IPcamera. Not only has it

given it a boost in resolution, up to1080p, but it’s smaller than ever.Earlier Bullet models were as bigas artillery shells; this one is muchmore dainty.

As with all Bullets, the HD1080 is IP66 rated, which meansit’s weatherproof and can be usedoutdoors. It’s also ready forlow-light use. The lens is circled by

V ideoconferencing solutionsare usually out of reachof small businesses, but

Logitech’s BCC950 melds an HDeyeball camera and speakerphonefor a more affordable alternative.

The camera offers 1080p imagequality at 30fps and its built-inpan and tilt motors can beoperated from the base unit ora small remote control. It uses

32 IR emitters, 20 more than theBullet HD (web ID: 371857).Three H.264 video streams areavailable: the first goes up to1080p, the second supports 720pand the third is fixed at 320 x 180for mobile access.

Image quality isn’t great,with slightly blurry, out-of-focusfootage. It’s possible to make outfaces up to 5m away, but if you’remonitoring a car park it’s tough toread number plates, and there’s nozoom function. We also had toadjust the contrast and brightnesssettings manually, since theautomatic defaults are far toodark for daytime use.

The extra IR emitters havea big impact on night viewing,though, with areas up to 10maway illuminated as if bysearchlight, and a range thatextends to 25m. Happily, the

H.264 encoding, which reducesnetwork demands significantly.

The camera plugs into a recessin the base unit or to the end of a9in extender stalk. The unit hasUSB host and power ports, or youcan use the included power supply.

The unit is UVC compliant, soworks with common apps such asSkype, Adobe Connect and Cisco’sWebEx. We had no problemsinstalling it on a Windows 7 host.For Skype users, a patch enablesthe accept and decline call buttonson the base unit.

The Skype patch also providesa webcam properties page whereyou can switch between manualand autofocus, and modify theimage quality. Logitech’sRightLight manages brightness,

Bullet HD 1080 hasbanished the nastyvertical-smearing effectof its predecessor too.

Scheduled andcontinuous recordings orsnapshots can be sent toNAS appliances, and this workedfine in our tests. Instant snapshotscan be sent to local folders, FTPservers are supported, and thecamera has an internal SD cardslot. For motion detection you cancreate up to three windows, eachwith its own sensitivity setting,and any that are triggered cansend images to email, an FTPserver or the SD card.

The Bullet HD 1080 isa feature-packed device forits compact size. But despitegreat low-light performance,overall image quality could bebetter. DAVEMITCHELL

colour and whitebalance, and werarely had to resort tomanual adjustment.

Image quality putsmany HD IP cameras toshame, with sharp focus,rich colours and smoothmotion. The 78-degree field ofview allows for group video calls,and the pan and tilt feature covers180 degrees horizontally and 55degrees vertically.

Audio is clear, and loud enoughto cover a large room. Full duplexaudio means both parties can talkwithout cancelling each other out.

The camera has its problems.With a bright window directlybehind, RightLight over-compensates, leaving the

foreground far too dark, requiringmanual adjustment.

Logitech’s BCC950 remains agreat product, though: it’s cheap,easy to use and gives great-qualityaudio and video. DAVEMITCHELL

❱❱PRICE £388 exc VAT❱❱SUPPLIER www.broadband

buyer.co.uk

❱❱PRICE £170 exc VAT❱❱SUPPLIER www.misco.co.uk

KEY SPECS

KEY SPECS

1/2in RGB CMOS • 4.15mm f/1.8 lens • 1080p •30fps • H.264/MJPEG • 10/100 Ethernet • 802.3afPoE • 802.11bgn wireless • internal mic • microSDslot • 1yr RTB warranty

Webcam: Carl Zeiss PTZ lens • 1080p • 30fps •H.264 • USB 2. Speakerphone base: 3.5mm audioout • remote control • 2.4m host and power USBcables • external power supply • 2yr RTB warranty



The 32 IR emitters makefor superb night-timeperformance

The Logitech’scamera delivers crisp1080p images

A compact external IP camera with good resolution,but undermined by below-par image quality

High-quality HD videoconferencing at abargain price; ideal for small businesses

Y-cam Bullet HD 1080

Logitech BCC950ConferenceCam

EXCLUSIVE

PCPRO

RECOMMENDED


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LABS Budget laptopsPh

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BudgetBudgetlaptopslaptops

ContentsDell Inspiron 15R 146HP Pavilion G7 148Lenovo IdeaPad Z580 150Samsung Series 3 NP355V5C 151Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 153Acer Aspire V5 153Dell Inspiron 14z 154HP Envy 6 154Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E530 155Packard Bell EasyNote TE11H 155Sony VAIO E Series 15 156Toshiba Satellite C855 156Toshiba Satellite L855 157

Buyer’s guide 142Howwe test 142Feature table 144Upgrading a laptop toWindows 8 152Windows 8 tips and tricks 157Results 158View from the Labs 158

Ready forWindows 8


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LABSBudget laptops

Want a low-cost laptop but put off by the fact thatWant a low-cost laptop but put off by the fact thatit comes withWindows 7? Don’t be. Upgrading ait comes withWindows 7? Don’t be. Upgrading aWindows 7machine is both cheap and simple.Windows 7machine is both cheap and simple.We’ve taken 13 laptops with prices starting at £300We’ve taken 13 laptops with prices starting at £300and put them to the test using Microsoft’s latest OSand put them to the test using Microsoft’s latest OS


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LABS Budget laptops

HOWWETEST

Buyer’s guide

W indows 8 hasfinally landed, andmanufacturers have

spent the last couple of monthsfuriously slashing prices andclearing their inventory ofWindows 7 laptops in readinessfor Microsoft’s latest OS. If you’rein the market for a budget bargain,that means one thing: now is agreat time to buy. And with theability to upgrade any currentWindows 7 laptop to Windows 8for only £15, getting your newlaptop up and running withMicrosoft’s newest OS needn’t costa fortune.

If this month’s 13-strong groupof laptops proves anything, it’s thatthere’s more variety in the budgetmarketplace than ever before.We have laptops that weigh lessthan 2kg, the slimmest 15.6inlaptops we’ve ever seen in the PCPro labs, and super-sized 17.3indesktop-replacement modelsthat retail for only £400. Whetherit’s a go-anywhere portable,do-it-all desktop replacement or alightweight ultraportable, there’ssomething over the next 15 pagesfor everyone.

Most of this month’s budgetgroup sticks to the popular 15.6inscreen size, but an increasingnumber partner these displayswith a far more alluring designthan we’re used to from laptopsin this price bracket. Acer’s AspireTimeline Ultra M3 is a 15.6inlaptop with a nine-hour battery

life; it weighs just over 2kg, andmeets all of Intel’s Ultrabookrequirements, too. HP works itsown magic to produce the firstAMD-powered Ultrabook rival, orSleekbook, that we’ve seen – theHP Envy 6.

It’s great to see AMD back inthe game. Its latest chips, such asthe range-topping A10-4600M inSamsung’s Series 3 NP355V5Cand the mid-range APU in HP’sgorgeous Envy 6, might not beable to keep pace with Intel inapplication benchmarks, but thegap is closing, and battery life isright on a par with its Intel-branded rivals.

When it comes to gaming, thepower of the integrated graphics inAMD’s low-cost chips runs ringsaround Intel, providing impressivelevels of basic gaming power forminimum cash. Better still, AMD’sAPU technology makes it possibleto pair the integrated graphicswith dedicated graphics inCrossFire mode.

Samsung’s Series 3 does justthat, proving powerful enoughto keep pace with the fastestIntel-powered models here, andturning out playable frame rateseven in our more challengingCrysis benchmarks.

Intel was once the only sensiblechoice, but you can now expectthe new breed of AMD-poweredhardware to become a regularfixture in budget and mid-rangelaptop models.

This month’s Labs marks the first time we’ve conducted all ourtesting under Windows 8. Every laptop here was upgraded to thelatest RTM version of Windows 8 Pro, then put through ourusual suite of benchmarks. First, we use our own Real WorldBenchmarks, which run applications such as Microsoft Office,Adobe Photoshop, Sony Vegas Pro and Apple iTunes to assessall-round computing performance. For gaming, we use our custombenchmark in Crysis, which run at progressively tougher settings.

Battery lifeTo give accurate battery-life figures, we run two tests. In thelight-use test, we optimise the system settings for the greatest powerefficiency – Windows 8’s power profile is set to Power Saver mode,and screen brightness is set as close to 75cd/m2 as possible, usingan X-Rite i1Display 2 colorimeter. We then disconnect the laptopfrom the mains and run a script that scrolls through a selection ofoffline web pages until the system shuts down.

For the heavy-use test, we change Windows’ power profile toHigh Performance and set the display brightness to maximum.We then unplug the laptop, setting Cinebench’s 3D rendererlooping constantly until the battery is completely drained. WithCinebench 11.5 pushing every CPU core to 100%, this testprovides a worst-case figure, which you can expect to achieveunder the most strenuous of conditions.

Hands-on testingEach laptop is evaluated for its features, build quality and design.The range of connectivity is taken into account, including networkcapabilities and hard disk capacity, as well as features such asphysical switches to disable wireless networking or temporarilydisable touchpads while typing.

We test the quality of each laptop’s display with our colorimeter,measuring the brightness, contrast ratio and colour accuracy, anduse a selection oftest images andvideos to look forissues such as poorviewing angles orslow response times.

For qualities thatcan’t be measuredobjectively, such asthe laptops’ buildquality, speakersand keyboards,points are awardedby two members ofthe PC Pro team,and the results arethen averaged.

The tasks in our Real World Benchmarkssuite range from opening and resizingwindows to encoding large HD video files

PCPRO


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The ultra-compact, easy-to-use Canon imageFORMULA DR-C125Wdesktop scanner features integrated Wi-Fi capabilities allowingwireless scanning to smartphones, tablets and computers.

Complete with a vertical J-path document transport system tosave space, the scanner can be positioned on the smallest of desktops.The scanner’s Wi-Fi functionality enables users to wirelessly scan and senddocuments to devices in the same network, including smartphones, tablets,laptops and desktop PCs, so it can be shared across a team or department.

Users can also establish a direct Wi-Fi connection between theCanon imageFORMULA DR-C125W and their smartphones or tabletsusing the CaptureOnTouch Mobile app – without the need of existing Wi-Finetworks or additional devices.

For more information on Canon’s desktop scanners, please visitwww.canon.co.uk/desktopscanners.

a Canon imageFORMULADR-C125W desktop scannerWIN

QWhat is the name ofthe CanonWi-Fi app?

A CaptureOnTouch MobileB CaptureOnCommandC CaptureOnCommunicate

Go towww.pcpro.

co.uk/winacanonfor details


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LABS Budget laptops

LABSWINNER BESTVALUE

Acer AspireTimelineUltraM3

AcerAspire V5

DellInspiron 14z

DellInspiron 15R

HP Envy 6 HP Pavilion G7

Overall ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪

Performance ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪

Battery Life ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪

Features &Design ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪

Value forMoney ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪

Purchase Information

Part code NX.RY8EK.001 NX.M1JEK.001 N08I1440 N0815R38 B6W52EA#ABU A9A80EA#ABU

Price (inc VAT) £358 (£430) £363 (£435) £441 (£529) £424 (£509) £417 (£500) £333 (£400)

Delivery (inc VAT) 1 Free Free Free Free Free Free

Supplier www.sainsburys.co.uk www.amazon.co.uk www.dell.co.uk www.dell.co.uk www.dixons.co.uk www.saveonlaptops.co.uk

Dimensions (WDH,including feet)

376 x 253 x 21mm 381 x 254 x 23mm 346 x 246 x 26mm 347 x 240 x 21mm 374 x 253 x 20mm 412 x 267 x 37mm

Weight (with PSU) 2.06kg (2.39kg) 2.21kg (2.57kg) 1.87kg (2.24kg) 2.79kg (3.27kg) 2.06kg (2.45kg) 2.72kg (3.13kg)

Service & support

Warranty 2 1yr RTB 1yr RTB 1yr C&R 1yr C&R 1yr C&R 1yr C&R

Manufacturerreliability/ support 3

84%/72% 84%/72% 83%/73% 83%/73% 82%/72% 82%/72%

Core components

Processor 1.4GHz Intel Corei3-2367M

1.4GHz Intel Corei3-2367M



2.1GHz AMD A6-4455M 2.2GHz Intel Corei3-2330M

Motherboard chipset Intel HM77 Intel HM77 Intel HM77 Intel HM77 AMD A70M Intel HM65

RAMfitted 4GB DDR3 8GB DDR3 6GB DDR3 6GB DDR3 6GB DDR3 6GB DDR3

Display

Size andfinish 15.6in glossy 15.6in glossy 14in glossy 15.6in glossy 15.6in glossy 17.3in glossy

Resolution 1,366 x 768 1,366 x 768 1,366 x 768 1,366 x 768 1,366 x 768 1,600 x 900

Graphics chipset Intel HD Graphics 3000 Intel HD Graphics 3000 Intel HD Graphics 3000 Intel HD Graphics 3000/AMD Radeon HD 7670M

AMD Radeon HD 7500G Intel HD Graphics 3000

Video outputs D-SUB, HDMI D-SUB (via adapter), HDMI D-SUB, HDMI D-SUB, HDMI D-SUB, HDMI D-SUB, HDMI

Drives

Hard disk capacity 20GB + 320GB 500GB 32GB + 320GB 1TB 500GB 750GB

Spindle speed SSD + 5,400rpm HDD 5,400rpm SSD + 5,400rpm HDD 5,400rpm 5,400rpm 5,400rpm

Optical drive DVD writer DVD writer DVD writer DVD writer DVD writer

Battery

Battery capacity 52Wh, 4,850mAh 37Wh, 2,500mAh 44Wh (sealed) 48Wh, 4,400mAh Not stated (sealed) 47Wh, 4,200mAh

Ports & connections

Wi-Fi 802.11bgn 802.11abgn 802.11bgn 802.11bgn 802.11bgn 802.11bgn

Ethernet Gigabit 10/100 (via adapter) Gigabit 10/100 Gigabit Gigabit

Bluetooth version 4 4 4 4 4

Memory card reader SD, MMC SD, MMC SD, MMC, MS SD, MMC, MS SD, MMC SD, MMC

Ports 1 x USB 3, 2 x USB 2,headphone/microphonecombo

1 x USB 3, 2 x USB 2,headphone/microphonecombo


4 x USB 3, headphoneout, microphone in

2 x USB 3, 1 x USB 2,headphone out,microphone in


Other features

Webcam 1.3mp 1.3mp 1mp 1mp 1mp 0.3mp

Fingerprint reader

Touchpad on/offswitch

Keyboard shortcut Keyboard shortcut Keyboard shortcut Keyboard shortcut Dedicated button Dedicated button

Volume control Keyboard shortcut Keyboard shortcut Keyboard shortcut Keyboard shortcut Keyboard shortcut Keyboard shortcut

OS recovery

Recoverymethod Recovery partition, burnown recovery discs

Recovery partition, burnown recovery discs

Recovery partition Recovery partition Recovery partition Recovery partition

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LABSBudget laptops

RECOMMENDED

Lenovo IdeaPadZ580

Lenovo ThinkPadEdge E530

Packard BellEasyNoteTE11H

Samsung Series 3NP355V5C

Sony VAIOE Series 15

ToshibaSatellite C855

ToshibaSatellite L855

✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪

✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪

✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪

✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪ ✪✪✪✪✪✪

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M81EPUK NZQ79UK NX.C1FEK.005 NP355V5C-S01UK SVE1511C5E PSKC8E-05N005EN L855-12G

£417 (£500) £443 (£531) £250 (£300) £417 (£500) £341 (£409) £358 (£430) £479 (£575)

Free £7 (£8) Free Free Free Free Free

www.saveonlaptops.co.uk www.dabs.com www.saveonlaptops.co.uk www.saveonlaptops.co.uk www.sony.co.uk www.amazon.co.uk www.amazon.co.uk

376 x 250 x 33mm 376 x 244 x 31mm 382 x 253 x 34mm 372 x 243 x 31mm 372 x 254 x 35mm 380 x 242 x 34mm 380 x 242 x 33mm

2.41kg (2.76kg) 2.42kg (2.79kg) 2.38kg (2.75kg) 2.34kg (2.82kg) 2.41kg (2.82kg) 2.28kg (2.62kg) 2.37kg (3.2kg)

1yr RTB 1yr RTB 1yr RTB 1yr C&R 1yr C&R 1yr C&R 1yr C&R

88%/75% 88%/75% 82%/66% 87%/73% 84%/73% 84%/76% 84%/76%



1.7GHz Intel CeleronB820

2.3GHz AMDA10-4600M

2.3GHz Intel PentiumB970



Intel HM76 Intel HM77 Intel HM70 AMD A70M Intel HM70 Intel HM76 Intel HM76

8GB DDR3 4GB DDR3 6GB DDR3 8GB DDR3 4GB DDR3 6GB DDR3 6GB DDR3

15.6in glossy 15.6in matte 15.6in glossy 15.6in matte 15.6in glossy 15.6in glossy 15.6in glossy

1,366 x 768 1,366 x 768 1,366 x 768 1,366 x 768 1,366 x 768 1,366 x 768 1,366 x 768

Intel HD Graphics 4000 Intel HD Graphics 3000 Intel HD Graphics AMD Radeon HD 7660G+ AMD Radeon HD7670M

Intel HD Graphics Intel HD Graphics 4000 AMD Radeon HD 7670M

D-SUB, HDMI D-SUB, HDMI D-SUB, HDMI D-SUB, HDMI D-SUB, HDMI D-SUB, HDMI D-SUB, HDMI

750GB 500GB 500GB 1TB 500GB 640GB 750GB

5,400rpm 7,200rpm 5,400rpm 5,400rpm 5,400rpm 5,400rpm 5,400rpm

DVD writer DVD writer DVD writer DVD writer DVD writer DVD writer DVD writer

48Wh, 4,400mAh 48Wh, 4,400mAh 48Wh, 4,400mAh 48Wh, 4,400mAh 44Wh, 4,000mAh 48Wh, 4,200mAh 48Wh, 4,200mAh

802.11bgn 802.11bgn 802.11bgn 802.11bgn 802.11bgn 802.11bgn 802.11bgn

10/100 Gigabit Gigabit Gigabit Gigabit Gigabit Gigabit

3 4 4 4 4 4

SD, MMC SD, MMC SD, MMC SD, MMC SD, MS SD, MMC SD, MMC








1mp 1mp 1mp 1mp 1.3mp 1mp 1mp

Keyboard shortcut VIA software suite Keyboard shortcut Keyboard shortcut Keyboard shortcut Keyboard shortcut Keyboard shortcut

Dedicated buttons Keyboard shortcut Dedicated buttons Keyboard shortcut Keyboard shortcut Keyboard shortcut Keyboard shortcut




Recovery partition Recovery partition Recovery partition Recovery partition


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Dell’s Inspiron 15R partners good looks with a capable all-round specificationand, best of all, the price is eminently reasonable

Dell Inspiron 15R

❱❱PRICE £424 (£509 inc VAT)❱❱SUPPLIER www.dell.co.uk

finished in a dull, textured matteblack, and the Special Editionmodel both looked and feltentirely plasticky.

Funnily enough, this bog-standard version of the Inspiron15R is considerably moreattractive. It’s still plastic, butthe glossy, faux-metal finish makesfor a laptop that looks far smarterthan its £509 inc VAT asking pricemight suggest. It’s heavy, though– at 2.79kg, this laptop isconsiderably burlier than slimlinemodels such as the HP Envy 6.

PerformanceWhereas some of its rivals havesqueezed in Ivy Bridge processors,Dell’s 15.6in laptop balances anippy Sandy Bridge Core i3 CPUwith an AMD Radeon HD7670M GPU. Neither of theseare top-end parts, but the Core i3

There’s no such thing asthe perfect budget laptop.When it comes to building

a great all-round machine for areasonable amount of money,compromise is an inevitable partof the process. However, Dell isno stranger to the challenge ofmaking tight budgets work in itsfavour, and now the computinggiant has taken its Inspiron 15Rright back to the drawing board.

Dell’s Inspiron 15R SpecialEdition clinched victory in our IvyBridge laptop Labs back in issue216, and the one major complaintwe had concerned its looks. It was

CPU, 6GB of RAM and huge 1TBhard disk provide enough powerto keep Windows 8’s interfacefeeling fluid and responsive. Anoverall result of 0.61 in our RealWorld Benchmarks is competitiveenough to place the Dell in fifthposition overall.

Gaming is where this laptop’sreal strength lies, and with Crysiscranked up to a resolution of1,600 x 900 pixels and usingMedium quality settings, theInspiron 15R achieved a smoothaverage of 39fps. That’s onlya few frames slower than themore expensive Toshiba SatelliteL855, and dead level withSamsung’s AMD-poweredSeries 3 NP355V5C.

If there’s a downside to suchfine all-round performance, it’sthat battery life suffers. Even withthe Core i3’s integrated Intel HDGraphics 3000 core taking the

reins, the Inspiron 15R managedto last only 5hrs 27mins in ourlight-use battery test.

ErgonomicsUnlike many of its 15.6in laptoppeers, the Inspiron 15R doesn’tattempt to squeeze in a numerickeypad alongside its keyboard.That’s no bad thing, however,since the very slightly concaveshape of the keyboard’s Scrabble-tile keys hold the tips of yourfingers nicely while typing. Thewide channels between eachkey keep wrong key presses toa minimum.

The touchpad is good, with theample touch area and dedicatedbuttons proving more usable thanthe buttonless touchpads on rivalmodels. Another potential boon isthat the touchpad is almost flushwith the laptop’s wristrest – the


LABS Budget laptops

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current drivers don’t supportWindows 8 gestures, but ifupdated drivers appear, swipe-ingestures should work well.

The only issue we have is theglossy display, and even that isn’ta major complaint. The 1,366 x768 resolution is exactly whatwe’d expect at the price, and itprovides a bright picture with amaximum luminance of 259cd/m2.

Colour reproduction isreasonably natural-looking andaccurate, too – at least by budgetlaptop standards. However, arather low contrast ratio of 217:1drags the Dell down into themiddle of the pack, and results indarker scenes lacking in detail andlooking washed out.

Fire up the Dell’s speakers, andyou’re likely to feel a little moreforgiving towards the display. Yetagain, Dell has harnessed Waves’MaxxAudio sound-enhancingsoftware and it works wonders.

With the audio enhancementturned off, the Dell’s tiny speakersdeliver a performance that’sreasonably loud, but sounds dulland lifeless. Switch on the audioenhancement, however, and theaudio that emerges is transformed,becoming crisper, more lively andmore listenable than any of theother laptops on test.

With several different presets,and the ability to tailor the

individual settings to obtain thebest results across a wide range ofmusic and movie soundtracks, theWaves technology proves to be anabsolute godsend.

Elsewhere on the laptop, thereare four USB 3 ports, D-SUB andHDMI video outputs, and an SDcard reader.

Disappointingly, though,networking isn’t quite so generous.There’s only 10/100 Ethernet, andthe wireless adapter isn’t dual-band, but you do get Bluetooth 4.

It isn’t the perfect combination,then, but no budget laptop ever is.What the Dell Inspiron 15R doesmanage to do is strike a goodbalance between affordability,performance and all-round qualitythat no other laptop in this Labscan match. Non-gamers mayappreciate the Lenovo IdeaPadZ580’s superior applicationperformance, and mobile usersmay lean towards one of theslimline models in this month’sline-up, but if you want a do-it-allsystem that will turn its hand toanything from Adobe Photoshopto FIFA 2013, Dell’s Inspiron 15Ris the one to buy.

OVERALL ✪✪✪✪✪✪PERFORMANCE ✪✪✪✪✪✪BATTERY LIFE ✪✪✪✪✪✪FEATURES & DESIGN ✪✪✪✪✪✪VALUE FOR MONEY ✪✪✪✪✪✪

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240mm

The four status LEDs on the Dell’s front edge arewelcome, while the little Waves-branded speakersdeliver big sound from tiny drivers

With large, dedicated buttons, and an LED thatglows amber when the pad is disabled, the Dell’stouchpad is a reliable, fuss-free affair

1 The trio of backlit shortcut buttons givequick access to a settings menu, theaudio control panel and one applicationof your choice

2 Unlike some of its rivals, Dell hasn’tsqueezed in a numeric keypad. Theresult is a comfy, spacious keyboard


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A 17in laptop with decent performance, sound ergonomicsand a great display – snap one up while you still can

HP Pavilion G7

❱❱PRICE £333 (£400 inc VAT)❱❱SUPPLIER www.saveon

laptops.co.uk

might be surprised to discover it’sactually lighter than the 15.6inDell Inspiron 15R.

Yet, despite the plasticconstruction and hollow-feelingbase, the HP still feels wellconstructed by budget standards.There’s a little give if you produnkindly on the wristrest or base,but there’s barely any flex if youtry to twist the base, and the glossygrey lid feels strong and stiff. For alaptop that’s unlikely to leave thehouse, the HP feels robust enoughto last the course.

ErgonomicsUnlike many of its competitors,the HP’s plasticky build doesn’tseem to impact on the keyboard.There’s only the slightest hint ofgive in the keyboard’s base, andthe square key-tops give way witha light, cushioned stroke that we

I f you’re expecting glamourand gorgeous design to factorinto the average budget

laptop, you’re likely to be sorelydisappointed. If, however, you’resimply after a frill-free replacementto an elderly desktop system, thenHP’s Pavilion G7 will deliver whenit comes to day-to-day computing.

Pick up the Pavilion G7 in onehand and you’ll think twice abouttaking this laptop anywherefurther than the garden table. TheHP’s huge 17.3in display makesfor a laptop with a sizeablefootprint, although at 2.72kg, you

found comfortable. There’s afull numeric keypad alongside it,and the touchpad beneath leavesroom for two full-sized buttons.A quick double-tap in thetouchpad’s upper-left cornerdisables the pad, which ishandy during longer stretchesof typing, and the pad itselfprovides accurate, reliable cursorcontrol. And just like the Dell,the HP’s touchpad is flush withthe wristrest, so should workwell with Windows 8’s gestures,if and when HP releasescompatible drivers.

Despite being the second-cheapest laptop on test, HP’sPavilion G7 is the only modelto offer a display resolutiongreater than 1,366 x 768.Instead, the 17.3in displaystretches a more spacious 1,600 x900 pixel resolution across itsglossy panel, leaving more room

for multitasking and runningapplications side by side. Imagequality is also among the bestwe’ve seen on a budget laptop.

Brightness reaches a modest235cd/m2 and the panel deliversan acceptable contrast ratio of240:1. Where the HP excels,however, is in the range andaccuracy of the colours itproduces. The Pavilion G7produced a wider range of coloursthan any other laptop we tested,and the measured colour accuracywas also ahead of its rivals. Onlythe narrow viewing angles serve toremind that you’re looking at abudget LCD panel.

PerformanceInside, the specification is prettygood for the money. A 2.2GHzCore i3 processor, 6GB of RAMand a 750GB hard disk take centre


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LABS Budget laptops


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stage, and the result of 0.6 in ourReal World Benchmarks provesthere’s power enough foreverything from basic, everydaytasks to dabbling in moredemanding pursuits such asphoto and video editing. Ifanything, we found the HPperforming better in a cleaninstallation of Windows 8 thanthe preinstalled Windows 7 HomePremium – we suspect the rangeof preinstalled HP software andapplications are to blame here.

The only thing lacking isgaming performance: withIntel’s weak integrated HDGraphics 3000 chip at the helm,the HP struggled through ourLow quality Crysis test to anaverage frame rate of 24fps.Still, the modest graphics dotheir bit to keep battery lifecompetitive – in our light-usetest, the HP lasted an acceptable5hrs 17mins before needing atrip back to the mains socket.For the occasional jaunt fromthe office to the garden, that’smore than long enough.

Elsewhere, the HP is thequintessential budget laptop.There’s no sign of USB 3, andcasting around the Pavilion’schassis reveals a DVD writer,three USB 2 ports, a Gigabit-capable Ethernet socket, D-SUBand HDMI video outputs and

an SD card reader. Wirelessnetworking sees the HP deliversingle-band 802.11n connectionsalongside Bluetooth 4, and there’sa basic 0.3-megapixel webcam forkeeping in touch with friends andrelatives via Skype.

Despite the SRS PremiumSound logo tattoed on the HP’sfront edge, audio quality is entirelymiddle of the road. Enabling theSRS music and movie presetscertainly makes a change forthe better, but the tiny speakerdrivers lack the warmth and bodyof the best models here, withmusic in particular soundingtinny and anaemic.

At this price, the HP’s faultsall but fade into the background.Indeed, when you consider you’regetting a capable 17.3in laptopwith a good-quality display for£400 inc VAT, it’s a wonder thereare any left on sale at all. Otherlaptops here are faster, lighterand better equipped, but ifgaming and portability are bottomof your list of requirements, thisaffordable desktop replacementis ready for Windows 8 andraring to go.


267mm

A memory card slot is nestled between thestatus lights and headphone socket on the HPPavilion’s left flank

The HP’s Function keys default to theirsecondary function: the F12 key toggles theWi-Fi radio, and glows amber when disabled

1 A quick double-tap in the top-left cornerdisables the touchpad, an amber LEDwarning when it isn’t active

2 The wide chassis leaves plenty of roomfor a numeric keypad and a full-sized,comfortable-feeling keyboard

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1 The keyboard is among thebest here, with comfortable,responsive keys

2 Three buttons switch betweendisplay modes, adjust fanspeeds and mute the volume

LABS Budget laptops

An attractive exterior, solid ergonomics and unusually spritelyperformance combine to create a cracking budget laptop

Lenovo IdeaPad Z580

❱❱PRICE £417 (£500 inc VAT)❱❱ SUPPLIER www.saveon

laptops.co.uk

exterior lies an Ivy Bridge-classCore i5 CPU and 8GB of RAM,and this helped the Lenovo topower past the Core i3- andAMD-powered models in thisLabs. With an overall scoreof 0.73 in our Real WorldBenchmarks, it’s beaten byonly Toshiba’s models.

That laptop has superiorgraphics power, but the integratedIntel HD Graphics 4000 chip inthe Lenovo is far from poor. Withan average frame rate of 47fps inour Low quality Crysis test and21fps in our Medium quality test,gaming at modest resolutions andreduced detail settings is still onthe cards. Thanks to the frugalgraphics performance staminaremains competitive, with theIdeaPad enduring 5hrs 33mins inour light-use battery test.

Lenovo’s laptops typically excelwhen it comes to ergonomics andthe IdeaPad Z580 is no exception.We aren’t keen on the narrowright Shift key, but it doesn’t takelong to adapt to it. Typing is

Where most of its rivalsare bedecked in sombremonochrome plastic,

Lenovo’s IdeaPad Z580 partnersbold, glossy looks with a speedyIntel Core i5 processor.

It might measure a chunky33mm thick and weigh a portly2.41kg, but it’s the most strikingbudget laptop we’ve seen in awhile. Glossy white glimmersacross the lid and sparkles aroundthe Scrabble-tile keyboard inside.Build quality is excellent by anymeasure, and while there’s somegive in the top and bottom plasticpanels, the chassis feels sturdy andfree from excessive flex.

The specification is unusuallypotent. Under that attractive OVERALL ✪✪✪✪✪✪

PERFORMANCE ✪✪✪✪✪✪BATTERY LIFE ✪✪✪✪✪✪FEATURES & DESIGN ✪✪✪✪✪✪VALUE FOR MONEY ✪✪✪✪✪✪

immensely comfortable – thescooped-out keys give way with acushioned spring and there’s nogive in the keyboard’s base.

The buttonless touchpad’sbroad surface provides fuss-freecursor control and, unlike most ofits peers, we rarely found ourselvesstruggling to register left- orright-clicks. If there’s one issue,it’s the two-fingered scrollingsupport: we occasionally found thetouchpad refusing to scroll downpages until we separated ourfingers by just the right amount.

Lenovo has also made roomfor touch-sensitive buttons belowthe display for adjusting thevolume, muting the speakers,toggling the display presets, andeven tweaking the fan speedsby choosing between silent orstandard operating modes.

We were particularly impressedby the Lenovo’s display. The 1,366x 768 resolution is par for thecourse, but its quality is up withthe best we’ve seen at this price.Brightness reaches a middling

229cd/m2, but contrast hits animpressive 260:1, and respectablecolour accuracy delivers vibrantcolours and natural skin tones.

There’s little missing from theIdeaPad Z580. There’s an ample750GB hard disk, two USB 3ports, a single USB 2 port, aDVD writer, SD card reader, andD-SUB and HDMI video outputs.Only networking lets the sidedown, with single-band 802.11nand 10/100 Ethernet lookingrather stingy.

Whatever you might think ofthe styling, Lenovo’s IdeaPadZ580 is a cracking budgetlaptop. Dell’s Inspiron 15Redges ahead due to its betterergonomics and superior graphicsperformance, but if you just wanta fast laptop for everyday tasks,the IdeaPad Z580 is a bargain.


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LABSBudget laptops

With Intel nowhere to be seen, Samsung and AMD join forces to produce agaming-friendly 15.6in laptop for a very reasonable price

Samsung Series 3 NP355V5C


laptops.co.uk

Gaming is where AMD’sprocessors stamp their dominanceover their Intel-brandedcounterparts, and AMD’sCrossFire technology allows theA10-4600M’s integrated GPU tobe combined with the discreteRadeon HD 7670M GPU forextra performance. In our tests, wecouldn’t get the 32-bit version ofCrysis to run, but running thebenchmark in 64-bit mode sawthe Samsung deliver an averageframe rate of 39fps in the Mediumquality test – enough to put it ona level with the fastest models inthe group. Considering that the64-bit version of Crysis is morechallenging than its 32-bitcounterpart, this is an especiallyimpressive result.

While its Intel-powered rivalsstruggle to partner dedicatedgraphics with competitivebattery life, surprisingly, theall-AMD Samsung edges infront. In our light-use battery test,the Series 3 lasted an impressivesix hours.

From the outside you’dhave trouble telling it apartfrom the many budget

models on the market. With norecourse to eye-catching design,Samsung’s Series 3 NP355V5Cis deceptively ordinary.

Beneath the typical budgetexterior, however, it’s a littledifferent. The Series 3 NP355V5Cis powered exclusively by AMDhardware, and has a range-toppingA10-4600M processor coupledwith a discrete AMD Radeon HD7670M GPU.

The 2.3GHz APU struggles torival Intel’s Core i3 processors,but the gap is closing fast, as theSamsung’s result of 0.56 in ourReal World Benchmarks testifies. OVERALL ✪✪✪✪✪✪

PERFORMANCE ✪✪✪✪✪✪BATTERY LIFE ✪✪✪✪✪✪FEATURES & DESIGN ✪✪✪✪✪✪VALUE FOR MONEY ✪✪✪✪✪✪

It may not look particularlyattractive, but the Samsungremains a smart, sensible laptop.The slight curves to the lid andchassis give the Series 3 much-needed personality, and thecombination of a glossy grey lidand a two-tone, silver and blackinterior look good. There’s arather hollow feeling to thechassis, but there’s precious littlein the way of flex.

That solidity follows throughto the ergonomics: the spacious,comfortable keyboard sits on topof a wobble-free base and isflanked by a handy numerickeypad. Meanwhile, the touchpadbelow keeps things simple. Thereare two wide buttons, whichdepress with a crisp click, and alarge, responsive touch surface.

Samsung was one of the firstmanufacturers to dump glossyscreens across its laptop range andthus the Series 3’s 1,366 x 768display comes with a matte finish.Quality isn’t stunning, but thebrightness of 261cd/m2 is ample,

as is the 215:1 contrast ratio.We were less impressed with thepanel’s colour reproduction,however – its colour palettetended towards a cold, blue tone.

The rest of the Samsung’sspecification is spot on. Thereare two USB 3 ports, two moreUSB 2 ports, D-SUB and HDMIconnections, and an SD cardreader. Wireless is limited tosingle-band 802.11n, but youget Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth 4,and a capacious 1TB hard disk.

It’s great to see AMD backin the game. The Series 3 iscompetitive on both price andperformance, and if Samsungcould lower the price a little, itwould have a award-winner on itshands. If you want an affordableall-rounder, the Samsung Series 3is well worth consideration.

1 The Samsung’s frumpy chassisfeels hollow, but it’s sturdywhere it really matters

2 There’s plenty of connectivity,with two high-speed USB 3ports and two USB 2 ports


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LABS Budget laptops

I f you want to buy a Windows8 PC or laptop, finding anupgrade to Windows 8 is

cheap and easy. Simply point yourbrowser at www.windowsupgradeoffer.com, register your details, andyou can opt for a digital downloadfor £15 or pay a premium for aDVD copy to be sent in the post.

Whichever option you choose,upgrading to Windows 8 is by farthe quickest, easiest Windowsupgrade we’ve seen to date.

Getting startedTo get Windows 8 up and running,you run through the wizard-basedMicrosoft Upgrade Assistant,which downloads the Windows 8disk image, then takes you throughthe process of creating a bootable8GB USB thumbdrive. After that,you just need to check the BIOS tomake sure the laptop is set to bootfrom a USB port.

As Microsoft’s UpgradeAssistant wasn’t available at thetime we wrote this Labs, andwe were installing a release tomanufacturing (RTM) versionof Windows 8 Pro, we used Josh

Cell’s WinUSB Maker software(www.pcpro.co.uk/links/219labs),which makes it easy to wipeany USB device, whether it’s athumbdrive or hard disk, and turnit into a bootable Windows 8installation drive. It can alsobackup the USB device’s contentsbefore doing so.

Playing it safeSince the upgrade version ofWindows 8 doesn’t permitdual-booting with an existingWindows 7 installation, you havetwo options: either upgrade yourcurrent installation of Windows 7to Windows 8, or buy astandalone copy of Windows 8and install it alongside. Whicheveryou choose, we advise cloningyour original hard disk in case itall goes wrong – we cloned all ourtest laptops’ hard disks using theEaseUS Todo Backup Free (www.pcpro.co.uk/links/219labs1).

For those happy to start fromscratch, the easiest method ofinstalling Windows 8 is to simplyinstall it over the top of yourWindows 7 partition. In this

instance, there’s no faffing around– the Windows 8 install processdetects your drive partitions and,should you want to start from aclean slate, also provides theoption to format the whole lot.

However, as we were keento retain a working Windows 7partition on every model, wecreated a new partition forWindows 8. The first step is toshrink the existing Windows 7partition. The easiest way toachieve this is to open Windows7’s Computer Managementwindow and select the DiskManagement option in the Storagedropdown menu on the left-handside. Then select the main systempartition, right-click and choosethe Shrink Volume option fromthe context menu.

In some instances, Windows8’s installation routine cheerfullyinformed us that it couldn’t createany more than three partitionson any one drive. With somemanufacturers creating severalpartitions for restore data, utilities,drivers and so forth, the onlyrecourse is to delete the leastessential partition. In this case,cloning the drive using EaseUSTodo Backup Free is an essentialpart of the process, and providesa fail-safe plan if things go wrong.

Teething troublesThe only model in our group thatpresented any major problems wasDell’s Inspiron 14z. To achieve itsUltrabook designation, Dell haspartnered a 32GB SSD with astandard 320GB HDD and,initially at least, Windows 8couldn’t see either drive. Rootingaround the Dell’s BIOS revealedthe problem: Intel’s SmartResponse Technology, or ISRT,was enabled, and it wasn’t until

the setting was changed to AHCIor ATA mode that the 320GBHDD finally appeared in theavailable drives list. Ultrabookowners, take note.

Most of our 13 laptops workedfine once we’d managed to installWindows 8, but a trip to DeviceManager regularly showed genericor missing drivers for touchpads,webcams and low-level systemdevices. We installed the rightdrivers by using the Update Driveroption and pointing Windows 8 atour old Windows 7 partition.

In the case of Sony’s VAIO ESeries 15, even though the wirelesschipset was detected, and thedriver installed, we couldn’tconnect to any networks at all. Wehad to manually download threeseparate applications from Sony’ssupport website before thesoftware wireless switcher allowedus to toggle the wireless andBluetooth chipsets on and off.

If you’re starting from scratchand haven’t saved a copy of all therelevant drivers, or downloadedthem from the manufacturer’swebsite, we advise copying yourold Windows 7 directory onto aspare USB drive. If you’ve justinstalled Windows 8 over the topof an old Windows 7 partition,then Microsoft should havealready done this for you – justpoint Device Manager at theWindows.old folder in the rootof your system drive.

None of this month’s modelssupported Windows 8’s swipe-from-the-edge gestures, althoughwe could replace the genericWindows 8 drivers with specificWindows 7 drivers. However,installing the right driversoften improved the touchpad’sresponsiveness and gave access tocontrol panels for changing buttonand multitouch behaviour.

Upgrading a laptoptoWindows 8


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LABSBudget laptops

A cer has pushed theUltrabook template tobreaking point with the

Aspire Timeline Ultra M3. Witha DVD writer crammed into a21mm-thick chassis, it’s as daintyas 15.6in laptops come.

The Timeline Ultra M3weighs only 2.06kg – decidedlylightweight by 15.6in laptopstandards – yet despite therigorous weight-loss program, itsbuild quality is solid, with only thelid flexing more than we’d like.

The DVD writer and SD cardreader adorn the Timeline UltraM3’s left-hand side, with two USB2 ports, one USB 3 port, a powersocket, 10/100 Ethernet and asingle audio connector at the back.The only annoyance is having toreach behind the laptop every timeyou need to attach a USB device.

The M3’s Scrabble-tilekeyboard has a light, cushionedspring to each keystroke, butthere isn’t as much feedback asother models. The buttonless,clickable touchpad is responsivewhen it comes to gestures and

cursor manipulation, but clicksdidn’t always register.

The 15.6in display won’tset the pulse racing. While themaximum brightness of 249cd/m2

and contrast ratio of 234:1 areacceptable, the dull colours andslight bluish cast send it towardsthe rear of this month’s group.

Pricier versions of Acer’sgiant-sized Ultrabook cram indedicated graphics and Core i7CPUs, but this affordable modelmakes do with less. A 1.4GHzCore i3 processor joins rankswith a 320GB HDD, and Acerhas supplied a 20GB SSD as perIntel’s Ultrabook requirements.

Performance is limited – theAcer scored a modest 0.45 in ourReal World Benchmarks – andgaming performance is almostnon-existent. The integratedgraphics chip managed only 24fpseven in our least demanding Crysistest. Battery life is superb, though,with a result of 8hrs 34mins in ourlight-use battery test.

While far from perfect, thoseafter a light, full-sized laptop withserious stamina will no doubtappreciate the Acer’s strengths.

It has 8GB of DDR3 RAM,which is generous, and the 500GBhard disk and DVD writer arestandard inclusions, but we’redisappointed to see the Acermake do with 10/100 Ethernet.

This is where things beginto go wrong. Battery life isbelow par, with a 2,500mAhpower pack that’s among thesmallest on test. It lasted only4hrs 12mins in our light-usetest – not even half the lifespanof the best here.

The Acer’s other majorproblem is its 15.6in, 1,366 x 768screen. Its contrast ratio of 260:1is excellent, but the panel strugglesto reproduce the most vibranttones, and the high 7,021K colourtemperature means images aretainted with a cold, blue tone.

In short, Acer’s Aspire V5just isn’t up to scratch. Unlikethe Timeline Ultra M3, it fails topartner frugal processing powerwith long battery life, and doesn’toffer enough elsewhere to beworthy of recommendation.

An average display, small battery and middle-of-the-road performance put paid to this machine’s prospects

Acer Aspire V5

A cer’s Aspire V5 isanything but a dull budgetmachine. It has a 15.6in

screen, measures a slim 23mmfrom base to lid, and it’s one ofthe lighter device on test, too.

The Acer is a distinctive-looking laptop. The lid andinterior are constructed from asilver plastic that almost lookslike metal from a distance, andwith the black Scrabble-tilekeys set in the silver surround, itimmediately draws comparisonswith Apple’s MacBooks.

Build quality is mixed, with asturdy base but a flexible screen.The keyboard and trackpad aresound, though: we had no issueswith the light, clicky touchpad, andthe keyboard combines a roomylayout with responsive keys.

Inside, Acer has plumped for alow-voltage Core i3 processor, andits benchmark score of 0.45 fallsinto the bottom half of thismonth’s pack, so don’t expect thismachine to race through video-editing or 3D rendering tasks.Since the Core i3 processorincludes Intel HD Graphics 3000,all but the wimpiest of games areoff the agenda. It limped to anaverage of only 12fps in theMedium quality Crysis benchmark.

This slimline 15.6in Ultrabook is no powerhouse, but thespartan chassis conceals stunning reserves of stamina

Acer AspireTimeline Ultra M3

❱❱PRICE £363 (£435 inc VAT)❱❱SUPPLIER www.amazon.co.uk

❱❱PRICE £358 (£430 inc VAT)❱❱SUPPLIER www.sainsburys.co.uk






WorldMags.net




LABS Budget laptops

If you’ve been waiting forUltrabook prices to tumble,Dell’s Inspiron 14z is a reason

to be cheerful. This attractive 14inUltrabook trims the price to anaffordable £529 inc VAT, andsqueezes in an optical drive, too.

From afar it would be easyto mistake the 14z for a priciermodel. Light-grey metal abounds,and the chassis is sleek and smart.Be under no illusions, though, thesheets of metal conceal a chassismade predominantly from plastic– the obvious flex in the Dell’sbody betrays its budget origins –and the Inspiron tips the scalesat 1.87kg.

The Inspiron 14z squeezes intwo USB 3 ports, Gigabit Ethernet,an SD card reader and an HDMIoutput. The speakers are good,with Waves’ MaxxAudiotechnology boosting audioquality at the flick of a switch.

The keyboard and touchpadare competent, and while there’s alittle bounce beneath the Scrabble-tile keys, the spacious layout and

the accompanying touchpad’swide, dedicated buttons make afine pairing.

You can specify the Inspiron14z with the latest Ivy Bridgeprocessors and SSDs, but thisentry-level model sports a Corei3 processor and 320GB HDD,while a 32GB SSD fulfils Intel’sUltrabook requirements, anddelivers quick hibernation andstartup times. It isn’t high-endstuff, but the result of 0.45 in ourbenchmarks is adequate.

The glossy 14in display sportsa 1,366 x 768 resolution, but theLED backlighting delivers a low204cd/m2 and a disappointing194:1 contrast ratio; colourreproduction is decidedly dull andmuted, too. Battery life is thislaptop’s biggest problem, though.It’s sealed away inside, and in ourlight-use battery test it lasted only4hrs 37mins.

Despite its flaws, this cut-priceUltrabook retains an appeal. Athalf the price of many of its peers,the Inspiron 14z is portable andjust about powerful enough tomake the most of Windows 8.

When it comes to battery life,though, the low-power processorreally shines, with the Envy 6lasting a mighty 9hrs 8mins in ourlight-use test. That’s this month’sbest result by some margin. Andwith a Radeon HD 7500Ggraphics core onboard, onlyfour of this month’s contendersoutpaced the HP’s 44fps result inour Low quality Crysis test.

It’s a mixed bag ergonomically.We’re fans of the sensible layoutand crisp, responsive action of thekeyboard, but the buttonlesstrackpad isn’t great – we foundthat left- and right-clicks didn’talways register. The screen isn’twithout fault, either. Its contrastratio of 269:1 is fine, but thebrightness level of 183cd/m2 isthe dimmest in the Labs; colouraccuracy is mediocre.

HP’s Envy 6 delivers a finecombination of stamina, gamingpower and style that’s unusual atthis price. It isn’t enough to earn itan award in this Labs, but if this isa sign of things to come, the futurefor budget laptops is bright.

Dell delivers the most affordable Ultrabook to date withits slim and light Inspiron 14z

Dell Inspiron 14z

HP and AMD arehoping to capitalise onthe mid-range with a

selection of Sleekbooks. Withhigh-end style and powered byAMD’s cheaper AcceleratedProcessing Units, or APUs, theseslimline laptops have Ultrabookclass at a reasonable price.

The Envy 6 is finished witha black, brushed metal, and thefamiliar Beats Audio logo and redaccents make for a laptop that’sprettier than any £500 laptopshould be. The Beats brandingisn’t only for show, either; theEnvy 6’s speakers producedecent sound.

With a 20mm-thick frame, anda weight of 2.06kg, the Envy 6 isas light and slim as 15.6in laptopscome. Build quality is admirable,too: the base and wristrest feelstout by budget standards.

HP has chosen the low-powerAMD A6-4455M APU. It’s adual-core part that runs at2.1GHz, but can’t keep up inthis company; its benchmarkresult of 0.36 is lower than eventhe low-voltage Intel Core i3processors. It’s fine for everydayuse, though, and once we’dupgraded to Windows 8 Pro, onlyCPU-intensive tasks such as videoencoding really taxed the HP.

Stellar battery life and an attractive slimline design, butpoor application performance drags down the Envy 6

HP Envy 6

❱❱PRICE £417 (£500 inc VAT)❱❱SUPPLIER www.dixons.co.uk

❱❱PRICE £441 (£529 inc VAT)❱❱SUPPLIER www.dell.co.uk






WorldMags.net




LABSBudget laptops

W hile rivals seize theattention with glossypizzazz and slimline

appeal, Lenovo’s ThinkPad EdgeE530 is altogether more sensible.With the occasional flash ofThinkPad red, this 15.6in laptopis built for the office.

Although it’s plastic, thechunky 2.42kg chassis feels farmore solid and flex-free thanmost of its rivals. Push back thereassuringly thick lid, and thefamiliar red trackpoint is set adriftin the centre of a Scrabble-tilekeyboard, with a fingerprintreader alongside the touchpad.

As ever, typing is a highlight.Every key gives a positive,reassuring feel, and despite thepresence of a numeric keypad, thelayout is spacious and sensible.

The touchpad is merelyadequate, however. While thetrackpoint has dedicated buttons,Lenovo has dispensed with thosefor the touchpad, integratingthem into the surface of thepad itself. It isn’t entirely

successful: if you click the pad tooenthusiastically, there’s a tendencyfor the cursor to jump a few pixelsto one side.

Thankfully, it’s possible todisable the touchpad and use thetrackpoint instead. You can alsoopt to use the trackpoint forcursor control while using thetouchpad purely for two-fingeredscrolling and zooming gestures – afine compromise for working withWindows 8’s user interface.

The ThinkPad Edge E530is available in a variety ofspecifications, but our model useda 2.3GHz Core i3 processor and4GB of RAM. Performance isadequate, with a result of 0.64in our Real World Benchmarks.

If there’s a stumbling block, it’sthe 1,366 x 768 display. The poor164:1 contrast ratio leaves thedisplay looking pale and washedout. Thankfully, though, the mattefinish keeps reflections at bay.

Overall, this is a competent,unexciting business machine. It’sa capable workhorse, but otherlaptops offer better performanceand battery life for less cash.

and the panel has a decent colourgamut, but the contrast ratio of196:1 is decidedly average.

While the keyboard andtrackpad aren’t quite good enoughto challenge the front-runners,they’re adequate. The large keysdon’t have much space betweenthem, though, so we had to takegreat care not to hit multiplekeys by mistake. Also, the smalltrackpad and its rather stiffbuttons are merely average bythis group’s standards.

Our final test, light-use batterylife, revealed a lifespan of fivehours – entirely what we’d expectfrom a budget 15.6in laptop.

If this all sounds ratheraverage, it’s because the PackardBell is as average as they come.There are better laptops in everyarea in this month’s test, but ifyou’re after a bargain-basementworkhorse for the kids, or aninexpensive student laptop, thisplain Jane is worth consideration.

Sensibly equipped, but otherwise this laptop isdisappointingly run-of-the-mill

Lenovo ThinkPadEdge E530

This Packard Bell takeshome one honour thismonth before even coming

out of the box: at £300 inc VAT,it’s this month’s cheapest machine.

That gulf, understandably,means component cutbacks.The Packard Bell’s Intel Celeronprocessor isn’t exactly swift. Its0.41 application benchmark scoreis significantly slower than theCore i5-based machines that leadthe way this month.

The Celeron is also saddledwith Intel’s most basic HDGraphics core, and its Low qualityCrysis result of 22fps is poor. Still,for basic use this laptop is unlikelyto disappoint; with Windows 8installed, the Celeron and 6GBRAM keep things moving swiftly.Elsewhere, it’s back to basics,with a 500GB HDD, single-band802.11n Wi-Fi, a DVD writer andthree USB 2 ports.

The exterior isn’t extravagant,but build quality is reasonable,with a sturdy wristrest and baseproving more than a match formany of the pricier models here.The 15.6in screen’s 1,366 x 768resolution is fine, but quality ismixed: the maximum brightnesslevel of 256cd/m2 is reasonable,

Nomajor issues and the lowest price in the Labs;a laptop worthy of consideration


laptops.co.uk

❱❱PRICE £443 (£531 inc VAT)❱❱SUPPLIER www.dabs.com





Packard BellEasyNote TE11H


WorldMags.net




LABS Budget laptops

Sony’s laptops always makestriking first impressionsand, when this machine is

turned on, it’s clear the VAIO ESeries is no different.

The 15.6in screen sharesits size and 1,366 x 768resolution with most of its rivalsthis month, but its quality ishigher than almost all of thismonth’s competitors. Brightnessand contrast of 254cd/m2 and279:1 respectively are enoughto push it up the rankings.They make for a bright, punchypanel, capable of deliveringgood-quality images.

Sony’s VAIO E Series is oneof the only laptops here thatdoesn’t rely on an Intel Core-branded processor. We assumedthe 2.3GHz Pentium B970 wasgoing to be sluggish, but anapplication benchmark score of0.57 isn’t much worse than a hostof this month’s Core i3 chips.

If that isn’t enough, upgradesare available on Sony’s website;trading up to a Core i3-2370Mcosts only £20, and upgrading to

a Core i5-2450M will set you back£70. Those upgrades will alsoupgrade the GPU, from bog-standard HD Graphics to the HDGraphics 3000 core. As it stands,our review laptop limped throughthe Low quality Crysis test with ascore of 23fps.

The Sony’s exterior isn’tinspiring. The build quality isplasticky and hollow, especiallywhen it comes to the base andwristrest, which bend and flexconsiderably under pressure. Thisaffects the keyboard, which suffersfrom a flexible base and spongykeys, and we weren’t keen on thebuttonless trackpad, which oftenleft us prodding multiple timesto get left- and right-clicks toregister correctly.

There’s another sting in the tail:battery life. The Sony’s light-usebenchmark result of 4hrs 9mins isbetter than only two of its rivals.

While this Sony laptop’sscreen is good and the price veryreasonable, the poor build quality,aggravating touchpad andmediocre battery life put paid toits prospects in a month packedwith several strong contenders.

It’s a fine specification tocram into a £430 laptop, butunfortunately Toshiba hasskimped on the ergonomics. Thebuild quality is poor, with aninsubstantial wristrest and base,and the keyboard and touchpaddon’t cover themselves in glory,either. The former has bouncy keyswith little travel, and the latter istoo small.

The speakers are also poor,with a weak, tinny sound, and thedisplay is equally disappointing.A brightness level of 290cd/m2 isthe only highlight, with a lowcontrast ratio of 193:1 and poorcolour accuracy making for ascreen that’s bright, but lacksnuance and depth.

This is a fast system and thebattery life is good, but thisaffordable laptop makes too manyother sacrifices. It’s worth lookingat if application performance is akey factor, but be aware that build,usability and screen quality are allbelow par.

A good screen, but this Sony lags behind in too manyareas to earn a recommendation

Sony VAIO E Series 15

Most of this month’scontenders make dowith budget Core i3

processors, or even weaker partsin some cases, but Toshiba hasfound the space to squeeze an IvyBridge-based Core i5 chip into itsSatellite C855.

The silicon in question is theCore i5-3210M and, while it’s theleast powerful of Intel’s latest Corei5 mobile range, there’s plenty tolike about it. The dual-core part isHyper-Threaded, and its 2.5GHzclock speed uses Turbo Boost tohit a maximum speed of 3.1GHz.

Its benchmark result of 0.74 isthe second best here, only slightlybehind the 0.76 scored by thismonth’s other Toshiba, and it’sbacked up by 6GB of RAM, a640GB hard disk and a DVDwriter. Despite the extra power,battery life is good. The 4,200mAhpower pack lasted 6hrs 34mins inour light-use benchmark, which isthe third best this month.

Intel’s HD Graphics 4000 can’tmatch discrete GPUs for gamingperformance, but it’s one of thebetter integrated GPUs on offer.Its 46fps result in the Low qualitybenchmark sits in the middle ofthe pack this month.

Toshiba’s 15.6in laptop delivers Ivy Bridge power at abudget price, but corner-cutting lessens its appeal


❱❱PRICE £341 (£409 inc VAT)❱❱SUPPLIER www.sony.co.uk







WorldMags.net




LABSBudget laptops


This has been a monthdominated by budgetmachines trying to offer

a little extra, but Toshiba’s SatelliteL855 is the most expensive laptopon offer – and by quite somedistance, too.

Still, its £575 price has allowedToshiba to cram in this month’smost powerful hardware. TheCore i5-3210M has appeared intwo other systems this month, butneither of these is able to matchthe benchmark score of 0.76served up by the Satellite L855.

Graphics horsepower comesfrom AMD’s Radeon HD 7670M,which is also included in Dell’sInspiron 15R and Samsung’sSeries 3. It delivered the month’sbest gaming benchmarks: its 96fpsscore in the Low quality Crysis testis far ahead of rivals, and 44fps inthe Medium quality benchmark isfive frames faster than othermachines could manage.

The extra cash has allowedToshiba to shore up its buildquality when compared to the

flimsy Satellite C855. It’s a littlestronger, especially in the wristrest,and the keyboard has a firmer,more comfortable action.

The trackpad is larger, andthe speakers are punchier. As anadded bonus, it’s a better-lookingmachine thanks to its brushed-metal-style plastic.

The screen is good, too. Itsbrightness level of 300cd/m2 isthis month’s highest, and its decentcolour gamut is backed up bygood colour accuracy. The onlylow point is the 208:1 contrastratio, which results in a lack ofpunch throughout.

There’s one downside to thislevel of power, though – terriblebattery life. The 4,200mAh powerpack isn’t up to the task, and lastedjust below three hours in ourlight-use test; the worst result here.

The table-topping performancemakes the Toshiba a sure thing ifperformance is key, althoughwe’re unable to give it awholehearted recommendationdue to the dismal battery life.Unless power is a top priority,other models are better balanced.



It’s the priciest laptop in this Labs, but offers Ivy Bridgeperformance and AMD-powered gaming grunt

W ith the arrival of thenew Start screen anda whole host of new

features, Windows 8 takes a littlegetting used to at first. We’vecollected a few tips and tricks tomake getting around the new OSa little easier.

Since most people spendmuch of their time on theWindows desktop, the first thingto do is pin all your frequentlyused applications to the taskbar,to save you swapping back andforth to the Start screen everytime you want to launch anapplication. To do this,right-click the tiles on the Startscreen, and select Pin to Taskbarfrom the options menu that popsup at the bottom of the screen.

Once all your favouriteapplications are pinned in place,you can launch them by holdingdown the Windows key andpressing the number on your

Windows 8tips and tricks

keyboard that corresponds to itsposition on the taskbar.

If you want to launch anotherinstance of an application – asecond instance of Word, forexample – then you can do so byholding down the Windows key,the Shift key and pressing thenumber again.

The new interface also seesfeatures activated by moving themouse into the screen’s corners.Move your mouse in the top-leftcorner and a left-click switchesbetween the active applications.

Move it into the top- orbottom-right corner, and theCharms bar provides quickaccess to the Search, Settings andSharing options. Right-clickingin the bottom-left corner of thescreen, meanwhile, gives quickaccess to a variety of featuressuch as the Device Manager,Computer Management andthe Control Panel.

Windows keyToggles between the Startscreen and your most recentlyused application

+ COpens the Charms bar

+ MMinimises all windows

+ Shift + MRestores all minimisedwindows

+ QOpens the Search Apps function

+WOpens the SearchSettings function

+ FOpens the SearchFiles function

+ Numeric keys1-10Launches an applicationpinned to the taskbar

+ Shift+ Numeric keys 1-10Launches a new instanceof an application onthe taskbar

+ TCycles through itemson the taskbar

+ XOpens the Tools menu

Handy keyboard shortcuts



WorldMags.net




LABS Budget laptops

VIEWFROMTHE LABSResults

With everything from low-voltage AMDprocessors to mid-range Intel powerhouses,this month’s Labs presents one of the widestperformance deltas in recent memory.

The 2.1GHz AMD A6-4455M processor inHP’s Envy 6 brings up the rear with a result of0.36. With even the slowest, low-voltage Corei3 processors here running significantly faster,it’s clear that AMD’s low-end processors havetheir work cut out.

Move up the table, however, and AMD’sfaster A10-4600M APU places itself just behindthe Intel Core i3-equipped models in the field.That’s an impressive feat for AMD, but the IvyBridge-class Intel Core i5 CPUs in Lenovo andToshiba’s laptops still dominate.

Gaming performance is a different story.The AMD-powered HP Envy 6 nips in frontof the models that rely on Intel integratedgraphics; even the models with Ivy BridgeCPUs, and the three laptops with AMDdiscrete graphics are way ahead of the rest.It’s also worth bearing in mind that, due toincompatibility problems with the AMDhardware, the HP Envy 6 and Samsung Series 3were running the more demanding 64-bitversion of Crysis rather than the 32-bit version.

Battery life, meanwhile, sees the low-voltageAMD processor in HP’s Envy 6 lead the fieldwith the 1.4GHz Core i3 processor in the AcerTimeline Ultra M3 following close behind.Only one model delivers really disappointingbattery life, and that’s Toshiba’s Satellite L855,which trades stamina for all-out performance.

[email protected]

Windows 8 may have accruedmore than its fair share ofnegative press, but if ourexperience of installing it on

every one of the 13 laptops in this month’sLabs is anything to go by, it’s the mostpainless OS upgrade we’ve ever encountered.Even on the slowest models here, changingfrom Windows 7 to Windows 8 was nomore than a half-hour job, and in severalcases it was substantially quicker.

If anything, a clean install of Windows 8draws the sheer amount of preinstalled fluffon factory-fresh machines into stark relief.

With manufacturers all too ofteninsisting on preinstalling time-limited trialsof paid-for security suites, and uselessadditions such as Microsoft’s Bing toolbar,the amount of software vying for yourattention with pop-ups and naggingreminders can be irritating in the extreme.


0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8

HP Envy 6

Packard BellEasyNote

TE11H

DellInspiron 14Z

Acer Aspire V5

Acer AspireTimelineUltra M3

Samsung Series3 NP355V5C


HPPavilion G7

DellInspiron15R

LenovoThinkPadEdge E530

LenovoIdeaPad Z580


ToshibaSatellite L855 0.76

0.74

0.73

0.64

0.61

0.60

0.57

0.56

0.45

0.45

0.45

Recommended

Labs winner

0.41

3.4GHz Core i7-2600, 4GB DDR3 = 1

Best Value

0.36

GAMING BENCHMARKS (fps)

0 10 20 30 40 50

DellInspiron 14z


TE11H


Acer Aspire V5


HP Pavilion G7



LenovoIdeaPad Z580

HP Envy 6


DellInspiron 15R

ToshibaSatellite L855 44

39

39

22

21

21

15

14

12

12

10

Recommended

Labs winner

9

Crysis 1,600 x 900, Medium quality

6

Best Value

LIGHT-USE BATTERY LIFE (hrs:mins)

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10



Acer Aspire V5

DellInspiron 14z


TE11H

HP Pavilion G7

DellInspiron 15R


LenovoIdeaPad Z580




HP Envy 6 9:08

Labs winner

Best Value

8:34

6:34

6:00

5:33

5:29

5:27

5:17

5:00

4:37

4:12

4:09

2:57

Recommended

What’s more, starting from a cleanslate is enough to make you appreciate thelittle things in Windows 8.

The lightning-quick wake from sleepand much improved boot times make all thedifference, and even the most sluggish ofCPUs in this month’s line-up made lightwork of the Modern UI. Granted, it doestake a little time to acclimatise to Windows8’s way of doing things, but the wholeexperience feels more fluid andinstantaneous than Windows 7 and, wewager, a little less daunting for the beginner.

Whether you choose to stay put withWindows 7 or take the plunge withWindows 8, the sheer variety of laptopshapes and sizes available for around £500or less is heartening. Whether you’ve beencraving a slimline, go-anywhere Ultrabook;a svelte, stylish15.6in model; ora plain desktopreplacement, this13-strong groupproves you don’tneed to spend afortune to get thelaptop that suitsyou best.

“A good variety oflaptops is availablefor £500 or less”


WorldMags.net




WorldMags.net




THE A-LISTLAPTOPS, PCs&TABLETS

£424 (£509 inc VAT)www.dell.co.ukWEB ID N/A ISSUE 219

Dell Inspiron 15R

With good looks and great all-round performance for a whisker over £500, Dell’s Inspiron 15R isas good as budget laptops get.

KEY SPECS 2.4GHz Intel Core i3-2370M; 6GB DDR3 RAM; 1TB hard disk; DVD-RW; AMD Radeon HD 7670M; 15.6in1,366 x 768; Windows 7 Home Premium; 347 x 240 x 21mm; 2.79kg

£333 (£400 inc VAT); www.saveonlaptops.co.uk WEB ID N/A

HP Pavilion G7HP’s giant-sized 17.3in laptop is no slimline stunner, but with decent performance, sound ergonomicsand a great display, we’d snap one up while you still can.

32GB Wi-Fi, £399 (£479)www.apple.com/ukWEB ID 373648 ISSUE 212

Apple iPad (3rd gen)

Faster graphics and a better camera, but the groundbreaking high-resolution screen is the reason tosplash out – it’s a genuine leap forward. We’d opt for the 32GB version.

KEY SPECS 9.7in 1,536 x 2,048 TFT; iOS 5.1; 1GHz dual-core Apple A5X; 1GB RAM; 32GB storage; dual-band802.11n Wi-Fi; Bluetooth 4; 5mp rear/0.2mp front camera; 186 x 241 x 9.7mm (WDH); 652g

32GB Wi-Fi, £302 (£363); www.pixmania.co.uk WEB ID 376315

Acer Iconia Tab A700The Acer is a little behind its rivals when it comes to battery life, but with an Nvidia Tegra 3 CPUand Full HD screen for less than £400, this cracking all-rounder is the Android tablet to beat.

£634 (£761)www.laptopsdirect.co.ukWEB ID 376558 ISSUE 216

Asus N56VM

Asus’ N56VM packs in a 15.6in Full HD display, a quad-core Ivy Bridge CPU and competent gaminggraphics from Nvidia. With great build quality and crisp audio, it’s a superb all-rounder.

KEY SPECS 2.3GHz Intel Core i7-3610QM; 8GB RAM; 750GB HDD; Blu-ray reader; Nvidia GeForce GT 630M;15.6in 1,920 x 1,080; Windows 7 Home Premium; 380 x 255 x 28mm; 2.75kg. Part code: N56VM-S4034V

£733 (£879); www.dell.co.uk WEB ID 376579

Dell Inspiron 15R Special Edition

Plasticky build and plain looks mask a luscious display and top-notch specification – the Dell is asuperb all-rounder.

£732 (£878); www.laptopsdirect.co.uk WEB ID 370723

Asus Zenbook UX31ECore i7 power, gorgeous design and a high-resolution display make this one of the best Ultrabooksyet, and the Zenbook range is growing.

8GB, £133 (£159); 16GB, £158 (£190)www.dixons.co.ukWEB ID 375886 ISSUE 216

Powerful, well built and with a better screen than you’d expect for the price, the Nexus 7 sets thegold standard for budget tablets.

KEY SPECS 7in 800 x 1,280 IPS TFT; quad-core 1.3GHz Nvidia Tegra 3; 1GB RAM; 8/16GB storage; 802.11n Wi-Fi;Bluetooth; NFC; 1.2mp front camera; Android 4.1; 120 x 199 x 10.5mm; 340g

£167 (£200); www.johnlewis.com WEB ID 372142

Motorola Xoom 2Media EditionSmall and light, with a good screen and attractive design. You don’t quite get the battery life orpower of a larger device, but its portability more than compensates.

ALTERNATIVE

ALTERNATIVE

ALTERNATIVE

ALTERNATIVE

ALTERNATIVE

Nexus 7

£833 (£999)www.apple.com/ukWEB ID 375160 ISSUE 215

Apple MacBook Air 13in

Not strictly an Ultrabook, but the laptop that so obviously inspired them now has an Ivy Bridgeprocessor and a tempting sub-£1,000 price tag. That’s tough to beat.

KEY SPECS 1.8GHz Intel Core i5-3427U; 4GB RAM; 128GB SSD; Intel HD Graphics 4000; 13.3in 1,440 x 900 TFT;OS X 10.7; 325 x 227 x 17mm; 1.35kg

COMPACT TABLET FULL-SIZE TABLET

HIGH-END LAPTOP

ULTRABOOK

BUDGET LAPTOP

ALTERNATIVE

£1,499 (£1,799)www.apple.com/ukWEB ID 375337 ISSUE 215

ENTHUSIAST LAPTOPApple MacBook Prowith Retina display

It’s ditched the DVD drive and slimmed down, but the headline is the incredible 2,880 x 1,800screen, which is forcing developers to update software. A glimpse at the future of laptop displays.

KEY SPECS 2.3GHz Intel Core i7-3615QM; 8GB RAM; 256GB SSD; Intel HD Graphics 4000; Nvidia GeForce GT650M; 15.4in 2,880 x 1,800 TFT; OS X; 1yr C&R warranty; 359 x 247 x 18mm; 2.02kg

£1,349 (£1,618); www.dell.co.uk WEB ID 374749

Alienware M17x R4A quad-core Ivy Bridge CPU and AMD’s top-end Radeon HD 7970M graphics combine to make theM17x R4 a gaming force to be reckoned with.

NEWENTRY

NEW

M-S4034V

NEW


WorldMags.net




Our hand-picked selection of 102 best buys, chosen from thedozens of products tested eachmonth in the PC Pro labs

ALTERNATIVE ALTERNATIVE

£725 (£871)www.lenovo.co.ukWEB ID 376852 ISSUE N/A

BUSINESS PCLenovo ThinkStation E31

This small-form-factor workstation is tiny, but it still includes an Intel Xeon processor and NvidiaQuadro graphics for a reasonable price.

KEY SPECS 3.3GHz Intel Xeon E3-1230 v2; 4GB RAM; 1TB HDD; DVD-RW; Nvidia Quadro 600 graphics; Windows 7Professional; 3yr RTB warranty

From £533 (£640); www.dabs.com WEB ID N/A

Lenovo ThinkCentre M91pIt’s expensive, but thanks to superb chassis design and strong performance, it’s well worththe cash for demanding business users.

£1,066 (£1,279)www.cleverboxes.comWEB ID 368422 ISSUE 205

BUSINESS/EXECUTIVE LAPTOPSony VAIO Z Series

Sony totally revamped its tiny portable late last year, lifting out the optical drive and GPU into anexternal media dock. Expensive, but brilliant.

KEY SPECS 2.3GHz Intel Core i5-2410M; 4GB RAM; 128GB SSD; Intel HD Graphics (media dock optional); 13.1in1,600 x 900 TFT; 3G; Windows 7 home Premium; 330 x 210 x 17mm; 1.5kg. Part code: VPCZ21M9E

£782 (£939); www.saveonlaptops.co.uk WEB ID 371551

Toshiba Portégé Z830The first Ultrabook to focus on business has its niggles, but it’s light, thin, has long battery life and ispacked with features. Part code: Z830-104.

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£1,457 (£1,749)www.pcspecialist.co.ukWEB ID 376309 ISSUE N/A

PC SpecialistVortex Destroyer

Stellar performance is matched with a high-quality 27in monitor, a decent 5.1 speaker set andtop-notch accessories. It isn’t cheap, but it’s a sterling combination.

KEY SPECS 3.6GHz Intel Core i7-3820 @ 4.6GHz; 16GB RAM; Asus P9X79 motherboard; 120GB SSD; 2TB HDD;Blu-ray; Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 graphics; Windows 7 Home Premium; 3yr RTB warranty

£832 (£999); www.chillblast.com WEB ID 376405

Chillblast Fusion ThunderbirdA bold, some would say garish chassis, but inside is an Ivy Bridge PC with power, gamingperformance, plenty of storage and surprisingly little noise. A fine all-rounder.

£582 (£699)www.palicomp.co.ukWEB ID 366679 ISSUE 201

Palicomp Phoenix i5Destiny

A Blu-ray drive, a solid 22in Full HD monitor, and now with an updated graphics card and new IvyBridge, overclocked processor. At this price, it’s a great low-end deal.

KEY SPECS 3.4GHz Intel Core i5-3570K @ 4.5GHz; 4GB RAM; Gigabyte 277-D3H motherboard; 1TB HDD; Blu-ray;ATI Radeon HD 6670; 22in Acer TFT; 2.1 Logitech speakers; Windows 7 Home Premium

£499 (£599); www.chillblast.com WEB ID 372364

Chillblast Fusion ElixirA basic but solid base unit that’s deceptively fast thanks to a huge CPU overclock. It’s quiet in use,and well put together.

HIGH-END PCBUDGET PC

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£2,088 (£2,506)www.laptopsdirect.co.ukWEB ID 375100 ISSUE 215

HP Z1

The first all-in-one we’ve seen in ages to challenge the iMac, and it does so by opening up like abriefcase for easy upgrading of pretty much every component. An expensive technical marvel.

KEY SPECS 3.6GHz Intel Xeon E3-1280; 8GB RAM; 1TB HDD; DVD-RW; Nvidia Quadro 3000M; 27in 2,560 x 1,440IPS TFT; Windows 7 Professional; 3yr RTB warranty; 660 x 419 x 584mm; 21kg

Apple iMac 27inAs we wait for the iMac to receive an Ivy Bridge update, rivals are beginning to get closer tomatching its all-round appeal.

ALL-IN-ONE PC

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£649 (£779)www.tranquilpcshop.co.ukWEB ID 372430 ISSUE 210

MEDIA PCTranquil PC MMC-12

It isn’t cheap, and it has no TV tuner as standard, but this beautiful and silent media system is astylish addition to any living room.

KEY SPECS 2.5GHz Intel Core i3-2100T; 4GB RAM; 80GB SSD; DVD writer; 2 x USB 3; 2 x USB 2; eSATA; Windows 7Home Premium; 3yr RTB warranty; 395 x 225 x 40mm

£832 (£999 inc VAT); www.chillblast.com WEB ID 376774

Chillblast Fusion Vacuum MiniA silent and well-specified living room PC that delivers dual TV tuners and promising performance,but it doesn’t come cheap.

£1,166 (£1,399); www.apple.com/uk WEB ID 367360


WorldMags.net



A-LIST Best buys


£107 (£129)www.scan.co.ukWEB ID 375766 ISSUE 214

£142 (£171)www.play.comWEB ID 372181 ISSUE 208

£170 (£204)www.aria.co.ukWEB ID 375823 ISSUE 214

£2,048 (£2,457)www.jessops.comWEB ID N/A ISSUE 217

Free, £26/mth, 24mthswww.buymobiles.netWEB ID 374950 ISSUE 215

£1,365 (£1,638)www.nativedigital.comWEB ID 368146 ISSUE N/A

£437 (£524)www.amazon.co.ukWEB ID 372862 ISSUE 211

MONITORS CAMERASMOBILE

DIGITAL COMPACT/BRIDGE

DIGITAL SLR/SLDPREMIUM TFT

SMARTPHONE

SPECIALIST TFT DIGITAL VIDEO CAMERA

ViewSonicVX2336s-LED

Nikon CoolpixS9100

Dell UltraSharpU2412M

Canon EOS5DMark III

SamsungGalaxy S III

Eizo ColorEdgeCG275W

PanasonicHC-X800

Superior IPS panels are now entering the mainstream, allowingViewSonic to go back to basics and build a monitor that deliversgood image quality at a far lower price than we’d expect.

Great performance and image quality, a huge zoom and anintuitive interface make this the king of point-and-shootcompacts – especially given the reasonable price tag.

Not the cheapest 24in monitor, but it offers an old-school 1,920x 1,200 resolution on a superb IPS panel, with great buildquality and a fully adjustable stand.

Canon’s 5D Mark III is a stunning all-rounder, and just has theedge on its arch-rival, Nikon’s D800, with faster continuousshooting, less noise and a sumptuous tonal balance.

Slightly iffy design, but with a superb 4.8in screen and8-megapixel camera, a quad-core processor and a host ofsoftware extras, it’s the best smartphone out there.

The Eizo ColorEdge CG275W is one of the finest TFTs ever made.Image quality is superb, and the ingenious integrated colorimetertakes the hassle out of regular colour calibration.

Now that the HDC-TM900 has disappeared from stores, thisis the video camera to buy. It shoots fantastic footage in allconditions and the image stabilisation system is superb.

KEY SPECS 24in 1,920 x 1,080 IPS matte TFT; DVI, D-SUB; 250cd/m2

brightness; 548 x 201 x 426mmKEY SPECS 12mp CCD; 18x optical zoom; 3in LCD; shutter speed1/2,000s-1s; 160-3200 ISO; 103 x 34 x 62mm; 214g

KEY SPECS 24in 1,920 x 1,200 IPS matte TFT; DisplayPort, DVI, D-SUB;4 x USB 2; 300cd/m2 brightness; 556 x 180 x 514mm

KEY SPECS 22.3mp full-frame sensor; 61-point autofocus; 6fps burstmode; shutter speed 1/8,000s-30s; ISO 100-25600; 950g

KEY SPECS 1.4GHz CPU; 1GB RAM; 16GB storage; 4.8in 720 x 1,280TFT; 802.11n Wi-Fi; 8mp camera; Android 4; 70 x 8.9 x 136mm; 132g

KEY SPECS 27in 2,560 x 1,440 IPS TFT; 270cd/m2; 850:1 contrast;DisplayPort; mini-DisplayPort; DVI; 646 x 282 x 425mm; 13.6kg

KEY SPECS 1080/50p AVCHD; 3 x 1/4.1in CMOS sensors; 12x opticalzoom; 9.15mp; 3in LCD; 63 x 68 x 134mm; 345g

£148 (£178); www.scan.co.uk WEB ID 375760 £278 (£333); www.amazon.co.uk WEB ID 371305

£451 (£542); www.morecomputers.co.uk WEB ID 370729 £500 (£600); www.currys.co.uk WEB ID 377503

£159, £31/mth, 24mths; www.three.co.uk WEB ID N/A

£827 (£992); www.morecomputers.com WEB ID 361456 £52 (£62); www.amazon.co.uk WEB ID 367357

Dell UltraSharp U2312HM Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ150

Samsung SyncMaster S27A850D Canon EOS 650D

Apple iPhone 5

HP ZR30W Sony Bloggie MHS-TS20K

A bit dearer than the ViewSonic, but it offers superb imagequality, excellent build and a great warranty.

SLR fans may scoff at the thought, but this bridge camera doeseverything – and does it brilliantly.

Samsung’s PLS panel technology makes a fine debut, mixinggood image quality with a USB 3 hub and adjustable stand.

Touchscreen controls and a vastly improved autofocus make the650D the best all-round consumer DSLR on the market.

Slimmer, lighter and more desirable than ever, but the refineddesign and 4in Retina display command a hefty premium.

With a 10-bit IPS panel and a huge 2,560 x 1,600 resolution,HP’s flagship 30in monitor delivers sublime image quality.

A neat update to the pocket camera, with one ace new feature:a 360-degree lens adapter that makes for hours of fisheye fun.

£109 inc VAT (Wi-Fi),£169 (Wi-Fi and 3G)www.amazon.co.ukWEB ID 377665 ISSUE 219

EBOOK READERAmazonKindle Paperwhite

Amazon adds a front light and a capacitive touchscreen to itsalready excellent Kindle, and the result is by far the best ebookreader money can buy.

KEY SPECS 6in 758 x 1,024 Pearl E Ink screen; 2GB storage; 1yr RTBwarranty; 117 x 9 x 169mm; 213g

£100 inc VAT; www.kobo.com WEB ID N/A

Kobo GloKobo’s answer to the Kindle Paperwhite partners front lightingwith an optical touchscreen.

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£41 (£50)Apple App StoreWEB ID 375418 ISSUE 213

SATNAVTomTom

The TomTom app for iPhone and iPad is undoubtedly the best ofthe bunch, but its Android brethren is inferior and only workswith only certain screen resolutions. Opt for CoPilot instead.

KEY SPECS Requires iPhone/iPad (or iPod Touch with GPS add-on); UK/ROI maps; HD Traffic, £27/yr or £4/mth; speed cameras, £27/yr or £4/mth

£153 (£184); www.handtec.co.uk WEB ID 368701

TomTom Go Live 825Performs superbly and at a very reasonable price. If it’s toomuch, the Go Live 820 is the same but with a 4in screen.

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WorldMags.net



A-LISTBest buys


Create your own reviews comparison shortlistCreate your own reviews comparison shortlistwww.pcpro.co.uk/reviews

£103 (£124)www.lambda-tek.comWEB ID 372037 ISSUE 208

£125 (£150)www.dabs.comWEB ID 375367 ISSUE 215

£85 (£102)www.printerbase.co.ukWEB ID 353659 ISSUE 199

PRINTERS

CONSUMER ALL-IN-ONE

OFFICE ALL-IN-ONE

PERSONAL LASER

Canon PixmaMG6250

HP Officejet Pro8600 Plus

LexmarkC540n

Extra photo black and grey inks make this the finest A4all-in-one for photo enthusiasts, but it’s also very good fordocuments. You pay a bit extra for the quality, but it’s worth it.

HP’s A-Lister gets a curvy, bold redesign for its annual update,and underneath is an office all-in-one that still produces superbdocuments and scans with very low running costs.

A well-built, network-capable colour laser with reasonablerunning costs, a huge 250-sheet paper tray and fast, top-qualitydocument and image output – all at a competitive price.

KEY SPECS 7-ink engine; 3in screen and touch panel; 2 x 150-sheetinput trays; duplex; CD tray; USB; 802.11n Wi-Fi; 470 x 367 x 173mm

KEY SPECS 4-ink engine; 4.3in touchscreen; 250-sheet input tray; fax;duplex; 50-sheet ADF; USB; Ethernet; 802.11n Wi-Fi; 493 x 460 x 315mm

KEY SPECS A4 colour laser; 21ppm speed; USB; Ethernet; 250-sheetinput tray; 100-sheet output tray; 595 x 495 x 402mm

£50 (£60); www.amazon.co.uk WEB ID 372337

£125 (£150); www.printerbase.co.uk WEB ID 375118

£61 (£74); www.printerbase.co.uk WEB ID 362242

HP Photosmart 5510

Canon Pixma MX895

Brother HL-2270DW

If you don’t print as often, this HP is cheap to buy, not too dearto run, and produces high-quality prints and excellent scans.

Dearer to run than the HP, but it has a strength its rival can’tmatch: fantastic, fast photo prints.

A mono laser with all the features a home office needs, plusgood print speed and quality as well.

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£26 (£32), 1 PC, 1yrwww.play.comWEB ID 374038 ISSUE 211

From £62 (£75)www.tesco.comWEB ID 358660 ISSUE 190


£5/mth (unlimited GB), 1 PCwww.livedrive.comWEB ID 373558 ISSUE 210

Freewww.drupal.orgWEB ID 364549 ISSUE 198

£633 (£760)www.kikatek.comWEB ID 374092 ISSUE 213

£18/mth, unlimited userswww.freeagentcentral.comWEB ID 367126 ISSUE 201

£954 (£1,145)www.morecomputers.comWEB ID 374218 ISSUE 213

£334 (£401)www.dv247.comWEB ID 366139 ISSUE 200

SOFTWARE

INTERNET SECURITY

PRODUCTIVITY

PHOTO EDITING

BACKUP/STORAGE

WEB DEVELOPMENT

VIDEO EDITING

ACCOUNTING

GRAPHICS/DESIGN

AUDIO PRODUCTION

Offers a compelling combination ofusability and effectiveness that youwon’t find in any of the free packages.

With Office 2013 on the way, we’d holdoff upgrading for now. Try the previewat www.pcpro.co.uk/links/office2013.

As much an organiser as an editor,it offers the tools that most photographyenthusiasts will need.

Easy to use, cheap and packed withfeatures, Livedrive is the best all-incloud storage service.

It isn’t a simple turn-key CMS, but thecombination with its add-on modulesputs it a step ahead of the competition.

A new interface and improved enginemake this powerful, professional editormore tempting than ever.

Small-business owners, freelancers andtraders lacking accounting experiencewill love the online FreeAgent.

Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator allbenefit from interface overhauls andmuch deeper improvements.

An ambitious update, with improvementsfor editing live recordings and boostingthe quality of MIDI performances.

Free; http://free.avg.comWEB ID 374035

£23 (£27); www.literatureandlatte.comWEB ID 371680

£506 (£608); www.kikatek.comWEB ID 373714

£19 (£23); www.scan.co.ukWEB ID 370153

£287 (£345); www.morecomputers.comWEB ID 374221

£29 (£35); www.amazon.co.ukWEB ID 376474



£249 (£299); www.play.comWEB ID 257713

AVG Anti-VirusFree 2012

Scrivener for Windows

Adobe Photoshop CS6

Acronis True ImageHome 2012

Adobe Dreamweaver CS6

Sony Movie StudioPlatinum 12

Sage InstantAccounts 2012

Xara Photo &Graphic Designer 7

Ableton Live 8

It’s riddled with ads, but offers greatmalware detection and web protection.

The ultimate document creation andorganisation tool for serious writers.

Hugely expensive, but for professionalsnothing comes close.

Still a very good backup package, nowwith live folder syncing.

Improved for mobiles, although no longerthe dominant web standard it once was.

64-bit support and powerful editingtools unite in an affordable package.

Support is limited, but otherwise this isa fine package at a good price.

Graphic design, photo editing and muchmore in one bargain package.

The best version of Live yet, with awell-rounded feature set.

TrendMicroTitaniumInternet Security 2012

MicrosoftOffice 2010

Adobe PhotoshopLightroom 4

Livedrive

Drupal 7

Adobe Premiere ProCS6

FreeAgent

Adobe CS6 DesignStandard

Steinberg Cubase 6

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WorldMags.net



A-LIST Best buys


500GB, £43 (£52)www.amazon.co.ukWEB ID 370369 ISSUE 204

Diskless, £130 (£156)www.pixmania.co.ukWEB ID 374536 ISSUE 212

£116 (£140)www.novatech.comWEB ID 376573 ISSUE 215

256GB, £215 (£258)www.kikatek.comWEB ID 375805 ISSUE 213


NETWORKING COMPONENTS

EXTERNAL HARD DISK

NETWORK STORAGE

PROCESSOR

MOTHERBOARD

SOLID-STATE DISKWIRELESS ROUTER

Verbatim Store ‘n’ GoUSB 3.0

SynologyDiskStation DS212j

Asus P8Z77-V Pro

Corsair PerformancePro

NetgearDGND3700 N600

A portable drive that placed among the top USB 3 performersin our tests, comes in a variety of colours, and has a veryreasonable price per gigabyte.

Fast, feature-packed and blessed with the best interface ofany NAS around. The updated DiskStation Manager 4 adds ahost of new cloud storage features too.

The latest Asus includes 802.11n Wi-Fi as well as almost everyfeature a PC-builder needs, with plenty of sockets, ports and aUEFI BIOS. It’s an ideal partner for Ivy Bridge.

If you want the best, you have to pay for it – but this driveis reasonably priced for its 256GB, and it’s blisteringly fast too.The enthusiast’s choice.

A pricey, but very quick router across both 2.4GHz and 5GHzthat works with cable or ADSL connections. It’s unreliable onolder ADSL 1 lines, though.

KEY SPECS 500GB HDD; USB 3; Nero BackItUp & Burn software;2yr RTB warranty; 80 x 121 x 15mm; 150g

KEY SPECS Consumer NAS; 2 x 3.5in drive bays; RAID0, 1, JBOD; 2 xUSB 2; 2yr RTB warranty; 100 x 226 x 165mm

KEY SPECS Socket LGA 1155; Intel Z77 chipset; 3 x PCI-E x16;2 x PCI-E x1; 2 x PCI; 4 x USB 3; 4 x DDR3 DIMM sockets; 802.11n Wi-Fi

KEY SPECS 2.5in SATA 6Gbits/sec solid-state disk; Marvell 88SS9174controller. Part code: CSSD-P256GBP-BK

KEY SPECS Dual-band 802.11n cable/ADSL router; 4 x Gigabit Ethernet;2 x USB; UPnP; 76 x 160 x 233mm

2TB, £202 (£243); www.misco.co.uk WEB ID 362206 £80 (£96); www.scan.co.uk WEB ID N/A

Diskless, £210 (£252); www.amazon.co.uk WEB ID 374695 £58 (£70); www.pixmania.co.uk WEB ID 376576

240GB, £125 (£150); www.dabs.com WEB ID N/A£66 (£80); www.amazon.co.uk WEB ID 371296

LaCie 2big USB 3 AMD A10-5800K

Qnap TS-412 Turbo NAS MSI Z77A-G43

Corsair Force GTAsus RT-N56U

A little pricey, but it’s reasonably quick, has good securityoptions and is stylish, too.

AMD’s new chip almost keeps pace with the Core i3s,and its graphics performance is streets ahead.

This four-bay NAS device doesn’t major on speed, but gooddesign and a range of features make it the high-end choice.

MSI’s board offers a rich, rounded specification, Intel’s Z77chipset and Ivy Bridge support for a reasonable price.

For tighter budgets, this drive is a little slower, but it comes insix capacities and doesn’t cost the earth.

A low-price cable router with sterling performance, simpleoperation and a design that won’t stick out in a living room.

Typically, £120Depends on brandWEB ID 362152 ISSUE 211

Typically, £400Depends on brandWEB ID 373696 ISSUE 212

1TB, £45 (£55)www.ebuyer.comWEB ID 375973 ISSUE 213

MAINSTREAM GRAPHICS CARD

ENTHUSIAST GRAPHICS CARD

HARD DISK

AMD Radeon HD 6850

Nvidia GeForceGTX 680

Hitachi Deskstar7K1000.D

For most people, a card that will play the latest games at highsettings on a 1080p screen is the goal, and this one will doexactly that.

If you have enough cash, Nvidia’s 28nm debut blows AMDaway: quicker in practically every test, with impressive newfeatures, and it’s more efficient, too.

The fastest drive in our Labs, yet the price for a terabyte –while not exactly dirt-cheap – isn’t nearly as high as you’dexpect. A great blend of value and performance.

KEY SPECS 960 stream processors; 900MHz core; 1GB GDDR5 RAM;40nm; 2 x 6-pin connectors; 230mm long

KEY SPECS 1,536 stream processors; 1,006MHz core; 2GB GDDR5 RAM;28nm; 2 x 6-pin connectors; 257mm long

KEY SPECS 3.5in SATA 6Gbits/sec HDD; 7,200rpm spindle speed; 32MBcache; 3yr RTB warranty. Part code: HDS721010DLE630

Typically, £45 WEB ID N/A

Typically, £230 WEB ID 376438

2TB, £60 (£72); www.saverstore.com WEB ID N/A

AMD Radeon HD 6450

Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti

Seagate Barracuda Green

The HD 6450 is fine for playing HD video on an old PC withoutmodern integrated graphics.

For single-screen gaming, the GeForce GTX 660 Ti provides aserious amount of bang for your buck.

It won’t win any speed awards, but this is a very efficient driveat a good price.

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£139 (£167)www.aria.co.ukWEB ID 374158 ISSUE 213

Intel Core i5-3570K

It’s a little slower than the Core i7s, but Intel’s i5-3570K is ourmid-range chip of choice, thanks to its combination of excellentperformance and a reasonable price.

KEY SPECS 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Mode); LGA 1155 quad-core CPU;Intel HD Graphics 4000; 6MB L3 cache; 77W TDP; 22nm


WorldMags.net



A-LISTBest buys


£5,159 exc VATwww.hp.co.ukWEB ID 377143 ISSUE 217

£447 exc VATwww.misco.co.ukWEB ID 377572 ISSUE 218

1yr Security Bundle,£591 exc VAT; www.morecomputers.comWEB ID 375079 ISSUE 214

Diskless, £625 exc VATwww.dabs.comWEB ID 375013 ISSUE 214

£2,323 exc VATwww.ballicom.co.ukWEB ID 357982 ISSUE 190

£422 exc VATwww.kikatek.comWEB ID 374509 ISSUE 213

£337 exc VATwww.amazon.co.ukWEB ID 374788 ISSUE 213

From £608 exc VATwww.symantec.co.ukWEB ID 374467 ISSUE 213

ENTERPRISE

RACK SERVER PEDESTAL SERVER

BACKUP DEVICE

SECURITY APPLIANCE

STORAGE APPLIANCE BUSINESS LASER

UPS DEVICE NETWORK BACKUP

HP ProLiant DL360pGen8

Fujitsu PrimergyTX100 S3p

WatchGuard XTM 330

Synology DiskStationDS1812+

HP StorageWorksUltrium 3000 SAS

HP LaserJet Pro400 MFP M475dw

APC Smart-UPS1500 LCD

Symantec BackupExec 2012

The DL360p Gen8 is extremely well designed, squeezes lots intoits compact 1U rack chassis, and boasts good storage potentialwith plenty of room to grow.

The Primergy TX100 S3p combines all-roundquality with an unbeatable price, making it atop choice as a small-business server.

Not as easy to configure as, say, Netgear’s UTM 150 appliance,but much smarter. It packs in a lot of security features and ismore versatile than any other appliance at this price point.

A top NAS appliance for small businesses that’s affordable, fast– thanks to its dual-core Atom processor – and absolutelybrimming over with new features.

Many pundits said tape was dead. They also said that LTO wasat the end of its roadmap. HP’s 3000 SAS proves them wrongon both counts.

A lot of features in a compact, affordable device. It delivers onits speed promises and offers excellent output quality, andwireless mobile- and web-printing services.

You pay a premium for an APC UPS, but it’s worth it. It offersunbeatable management features, and its battery runtime is theonly one we’ve seen to come close to a manufacturer’s claims.

BE 2012 is a very different beast to BE 2010, and we’drecommend existing users familiarise themselves with it beforeupgrading, but it simplifies backup and recovery processesimmensely. There’s also an all-you-can-eat licence, priced on thedata to be secured prior to any deduplication or compression.

KEY SPECS 1U rack chassis; 2 x 2GHz Xeon E5-2650; 32GB DDR3; 2 x600GB HP 10k SAS HDD; 4 x Gigabit FlexLOM; SD card slot; 2 x 460W PSU

KEY SPECS 3.1GHz Xeon E3-1220V2; 8GB DDR3; 2 x 500GB HDD; 4 xPCI-E Gen3; 9 x USB 2; 2 x Gigabit Ethernet; 5yr on-site 9-5pm warranty

KEY SPECS 1U rack chassis; 7 x Gigabit; 850Mbits/sec firewall;WatchGuard and Firebox System Manager software

KEY SPECS 2.13GHz Intel Atom D2700; 1GB DDR3; 8 x SATA II hot-swapbays; RAID0, 1, 5, 6, Hybrid, hot-spare and JBODs; 2 x Gigabit Ethernet

KEY SPECS LTO-5 tape drive; 1.5TB; transfer rate 140MB/sec; 256MBbuffer; 6GB/SEC SAS

KEY SPECS A4 colour laser MFD; 20ppm; 2 x USB 2; 2 x RJ-11; 10/100Ethernet; 802.11n; fax; 250-sheet input tray; 50-sheet ADF; duplex

KEY SPECS 1,500VA/980W line-interactive UPS; 8 x C13 batteryprotected outputs; RJ-45 serial and USB ports

£6,235 exc VAT; www.hp.co.uk WEB ID 376273 £4,633 exc VAT; Dell 0844 444 4155 WEB ID 377701 From £2,442 exc VAT; www.fortinet.com WEB ID 372340

Diskless, £1,340 exc VAT; www.pixmania.co.uk WEB ID 371404 £947 exc VAT; www.saverstore.com WEB ID 213831 £529 exc VAT; www.dell.co.uk WEB ID 370231

£207 exc VAT; www.systo.co.uk WEB ID 373693 From £296 exc VAT; www.morecomputers.com WEB ID 373744

HP ProLiant DL380p Gen8 HP ProLiant ML350p Gen8 Fortinet FortiGate-111C

Qnap TS-879 Pro Turbo NAS Quantum LTO-4 HH Dell 5230dn

CyberPower CP1500EAVRLCD-UK CA ARCserve Backup r16

HP’s eighth-generation ProLiant flagship harnesses Intel’sE5-2600 Xeon processors in a superbly designed chassis.

A whisper-quiet pedestal server that combines good value, hugeexpansion potential and class-leading remote management.

It has every security angle covered; the centralised managementoptions make it suited to SMBs and remote branch deployments.

Impressively fast over Gigabit and 10GbE, and drowning infeatures, including superb cloud backup services.

A compact LTO-4 SAS tape drive kit for businesses with bigbackup requirements and a need for speed.

Good speeds, acceptable quality, low running costs and hugeexpansion potential make this mono laser good for workgroups.

A low-cost UPS with a big battery, making it a fine choice forprotecting a small-business server.

Unbeatable data protection features, and CA’s new licensingschemes make it more affordable for SMBs and enterprises.

500 sensors, £790 exc VATwww.paessler.comWEB ID 371584 ISSUE 208

Licensed by the number of sensors, and with a proprietarydatabase included, PRTG offers great value with no hiddencosts. It provides an impressive range of network monitoringtools and combines them with quality reporting and alertingfacilities, making it our favourite network monitoring tool.

100 devices, £2,195 exc VAT; www.ipswitch.com WEB ID 370246

IpswitchWhatsUp Gold 15 PremiumThe redesigned web console is a step up, the existing monitoringtools are present, and the price makes it affordable for SMBs.

NETWORK MONITORING

For the latest Enterprise news and reviewsFor the latest Enterprise news and reviewsvisit www.pcpro.co.uk/enterprise

Paessler PRTGNetwork Monitor 9

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WorldMags.net




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Please note that Labs and features are subject to change.

PCPRO

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IN FEATURESThe future according to…Ever wondered where all that excitingtechnology is born? We speak to theresearch teams at some of the world’sbiggest manufacturers to find outwhat kind of treats they’re workingon, and what might just be the nextbig thing.

15 tips to makeWindows 8 betterIt’s finally here, it’s installed on your PC ortablet and… it’s all a little disconcerting. Don’tworry – from our months using Windows 8, we know what the earlyexperience is like, so we’ve come up with 15 things you can do to makethe transition smoother, from sorting out the Start screen to hackingthe Registry to become a power user.

Howmuchmobile data is enough?When signing a new mobile contract it can be difficult to know if that250MB on offer will be adequate. To make the decision easier, weanalyse the 3G and Wi-Fi data from all of our smartphones here at PCPro – and some of yours as well. We also put a range of apps to thetest to find out the worst data hogs.

How to erase yourself from the internetFacebook, Google and Twitter know a lot about us, but we haven’tgiven all the information knowingly. What if we want to take thatdata back? We look at how to be safer with your data, investigate whoholds (and passes on) the most information about our lives, and findout what we can do when we decide that enough is enough.

IN LABSSmartphonesThe iPhone 5 and the arrival of WindowsPhone 8 mean that there’s never been abetter time to buy a smartphone. We’veput more than a dozen high-end handsetsthrough our toughest ever benchmarksto discover which phone is best for you –whichever OS you prefer.

PC Pro magazine, 30 Cleveland Street, London W1T 4JDDENNIS PUBLISHING LTDGROUP MANAGING DIRECTOR Ian WestwoodMANAGING DIRECTOR John GarewalEDITORIAL DIRECTOR Tim DantonDIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING Julian Lloyd-EvansFINANCE DIRECTOR Brett ReynoldsGROUP FINANCE DIRECTOR Ian LeggettCHIEF EXECUTIVE James TyeCHAIRMAN Felix DennisPRODUCTION & DISTRIBUTION Printed by BGP. Distributed by Seymour Distribution, 2East Poultry Avenue, London EC1A 9PT. Tel: 020 7429 4000PC Pro is published monthly by Dennis Publishing Limited. Company registered in England,number 1138891. All material (c) Dennis Publishing Limited. UK property of DennisPublishing Ltd. This publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form in whole orin part without the written permission of the publishers.

SUBSCRIPTIONSPrice: UK £49.99; Europe £70; Rest of World £90

To renew a subscription, change an address or report any problems, visitwww.subsinfo.co.ukLIABILITYWhile every care has been taken in the preparation of this magazine, the publishers cannot beheld responsible for the accuracy of the information herein, or any consequence arising from it.Please note that all judgements have been made in the context of equipment available to PCPro at time of review, and that ʻvalue for moneyʼ comments are based on UK prices at the timeof review, which are subject to fluctuation and are only applicable to the UK market.SYNDICATION & INTERNATIONAL LICENSINGPC Pro is available for licensing overseas. Licensing contact: Nicole Adams,[email protected] +44 20 7907 6134; Reprints and syndicationcontact: Wrightʼs Media 0800 051 8327 (toll free)

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OPINION Epilog

What we have today is just like whatwe had back then, except it’s far faster,

higher quality and enormously cheaper

JON HONEYBALL marvelsat 18 years of PC progress,and 18 more to come

Imust confess I was rather touched tosee PC Pro republish its first ever PCreview, to celebrate the magazine’s18th birthday (see www.pcpro.co.uk/links/219epilog). Touched, because I

wrote that review back in 1994. It was of arather unpleasant Escom Pentium desktopcomputer built from cheap components. Thesort of stuff that used to come from a plethoraof small PC-building companies that flourishedat the time. They were bigger than a high-streetshop, but way smaller than Evesham, Tinyor the other UK vendors at the time.

I skimmed through the review – nasty tinbox, fairly unpleasant motherboard, a monitorbest used as a doorstop, drab performance anda notable lack of stability – then went to makea cup of coffee. While waiting for the beansto grind, a worry started to form in my head.Surely I had misread the article? It couldn’thave been?

I went back to look. Yes, indeed, the pricewas £1,400, which is about £2,350 at today’sprices if you factor in the 18 years of inflation.But it was the machine specification that really

made me blink. Four megabytes of RAM?Megabytes? Of core RAM? I said “Windowsfor Workgroups felt decidedly wobbly andWord 6 brought the machine to its knees”. Wellyes, but 4MB? And 406MB of hard disk space?Surely this was a typo? But no, with a wrysmile, I recalled that we used to have Windowsrunning on machines with only 4MB of RAM.

Today, of course, a decent machine has8GB of RAM, and a whole terabyte of harddisk to play with. This is not one or two, butseveral orders of magnitude more. And it isn’tonly PCs that have done this. Back in 1994, Iwas running a 9600 Baud modem in my office.Today it’s a 100Mbits/sec symmetrical IPconnection on fibre that, although somewhathigh-end by small-business standards, is withinreach of customers on Virgin cable or BTInfinity. Back then, I used to have a monthlyphone bill that ran to hundreds of poundsdue to dial-up internet costs. Today, it’s afew tens of pounds.

My eldest nephew, Matthew, has justturned 18 and has gone off to university. Hewas able to go with a top-end laptop andsmartphone. He needed a printer, so he got abrand-new colour laser that cost the princelysum of £130 and does photo-quality output.Back in the early 1990s, I bought an HPLaserJet II – the workhorse of businessesat the time – and it cost almost two grand.

It’s intriguing to look forward 18 yearsand wonder what will happen. In truth,what we have today is just like what we hadback then, except it’s far faster, higher qualityand enormously cheaper. Today, I’m writingthis piece in Word for Windows; the samesoftware I used in 1994, albeit a few versionslater of course. I used a desktop machine,with a decent-sized monitor. I typed into akeyboard, and used a mouse. I had a laserprinter. Clearly this downward price trendcan’t continue: if it did, we’d have computerscosting £30 at today’s money, and that simplyisn’t going to happen.

Except, maybe... One other majorchange is the rise of portability, and the sheernumber of devices we own. Back then I hadone computer. Today I have a raft of them,from a pocket smartphone through tabletand laptop to desktop machines. Manyhomes are now a multiple-PC space, just likethe way the TV has gone from an expensivedevice in the living room to something that’sin every bedroom.

If this price/performance curve continues,we’ll have to divorce ourselves from typingand working with fixed screens. Devices willbe smartphone-sized or smaller. We’ll use arange of interfaces, from screens to windowpanels to TV units. Voice, both in-room andin-ear will be everywhere. Don’t ignore thebeaming, steerable audio technologies thatare coming, too, to allow you to stand in a“puddle” of your own localised audio. Speechwill take over from typing, and face and bodyrecognition will be centre stage. Walk into aroom, talk to the fabric of the house, and usewhatever interfaces are appropriate andavailable to you at that time.

On the one hand, I was delighted to re-readthat review from the first issue of PC Pro. ThenI became despondent at how little had changed,and delighted again at the price reductions, andthe plurality of devices we have today. Andnow I’m really intrigued by the far largerchanges to come over the next 18 years. Howbetter to celebrate PC Pro’s coming of age?

JON HONEYBALL has appeared in every issueof PC Pro. He hasn’t changed a bit. Honest.

Blog:www.pcpro.co.uk/links/jonh



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