Dell Venue 11 Pro 7139 (Security) review: Supremely powerful and super secure

What happens when you put an Intel Core i5-4300Y in an 11-inch tablet like the Dell Venue 11 Pro? It gets really, really fast. Indeed, having used the previously-reviewed Atom-based version of the Venue 11 Pro, I can attest to a rather significant jump in performance.

The “Pro” suffix indicates that this tablet runs Windows (Dell’s Venue tablets are Android devices), and the “7139 Security” tag adds a whole list of features not found in the more consumer-oriented Venue Pro. These include Intel vPro and TPM (Trusted Platform Module) support (for hardwired security and remote management), and a fingerprint scanner and smart card reader to keep the bad guys out.

Michael Homnick

The optional keyboard dock turns the Venue 11 Pro into a small Ultrabook.

In its basic form, the Venue 11 Pro is a widescreen Windows 8 tablet with some clever docking options: A small keyboard, a super-thin keyboard, and a port-laden pedestal that can transform it into a high-powered Ultrabook or an under-screened, all-in-one desktop. I say under-screened, because as large as the 10.8-inch, 1920x1080 display seems when it’s in your hand, it’s rather tiny when you have a full-sized keyboard and mouse in front of it.

You might also be interested in Laptops for work and play: the differences that matter.

The Venue 11 Pro was only doable in AIO configuration for weak-eyed me with the keyboard tucked in a tray underneath my desk. Dell’s Tablet Dock does support dual display configurations, however, and it’s equipped with both HDMI (max resolution of 1920x108) and DisplayPort (max resolution of 2560x1600).

Image: Michael Homnick

This optional dock ($140) can transform the Venue 11 Pro into a small all-in-one. Dell’s model 7130 and 7139 can drive a second display via HDMI or DisplayPort.

The 7139 (Security) model is a higher-end configuration priced at $1081. In addition to the aforementioned quad-core CPU and security features, it also comes with 4GB of DDR3/1600 memory and a SanDisk 128GB m.2 SSD. The tablet measures 0.6 inches thick and weighs in at 1.85 pounds sans keyboard. As tablets go, this one feels a bit thick, but I didn’t find it overly heavy. Then again, I tend to prop a tablet on my chest while lying down, or rest my elbows on the counter while I hold the tablet. Folks who hold the tablet without extra support might disagree.

Michael Homnick

If the fingerprint scanner doesn’t provide enough security for your needs, you can use a smart card with this Venue 11 Pro. 

The Venue 11 Pro 7139 features an 8MP rear-facing camera and a 2MP front-facing webcam. The right side is home to the power button, reset pinhole, microSD card slot (with a pinhole release), a micro-USB 2.0 port for charging the unit, and a mini-HDMI port. The lower edge of the tablet has only the docking port and auxiliary battery connection points. On the left are a full-sized USB 3.0 port, the volume control rocker, and the headset jack. The top is occupied solely by circulation vents—a Core i5 needs to breathe.

Michael Homnick

Dell’s best tablet is on the chunky side (shown here attached to the thicker of its two optional keyboards). 

The bottom of the Venue 11 is largely given over to a pressure-fit plastic panel that pops off to reveal the 36-watt-hour battery. It also facilitates access to other components, though the only thing you can get to without further disassembly is the micro-SIM card for optional cellular broadband. The Venue 11 Pro 7139 also supports 802.11ac Wi-Fi (via an Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 adapter), Bluetooth 4.0, and WiDi/Miracast (for wireless video streaming to displays that support that standard).

Michael Homnick

Worried about battery life? This is one of the few tablets that lets you swap a dead one out for a fresh one.

Our test unit came with the 1.5-pound Mobile Keyboard ($160), which also houses a supplementary 28-watt-hour battery. The significantly lighter (0.72-pound), Surface-style Slim keyboard is also available for $110, but it does not include a second battery.

The Mobile Keyboard types nicely for its size, and the keys have good bit of travel. The one-piece touchpad, however, proved idiosyncratic at registering clicks when pressed in the corners, versus the center of the click area. Swiping, cursor movement, and tapping, on the other hand, registered without a problem. Dell also shipped its $27 Active Stylus, which provides Wacom-like abilities to the unit.

The Venue 11 Pro model 7139 scored a very un-tablet-like Laptop WorldBench 9 score of 52—a full 23 points higher than the Atom Z3770-based Venue 11 Pro we tested earlier this year. It felt super-lively in my hands-on and played even high bit-rate 1080p movies like butter. In spite of its faster CPU, the model 7139 managed to run for 4 hours and 48 minutes by its lonesome, and 7 hours, 46 minutes with the Mobile Keyboard keyboard/auxiliary battery attached.

The Venue 11 Pro 7139 (Security) is the fastest Windows tablet we’ve tested.

Sadly, the Core i5-4300Y’s integrated graphics (Intel HD Graphics 4200) don’t game. The tablet struggled to reach 15 frames per second with BioShock Infinite, even with the resolution dialed down to 1024x768 and image quality at low. Sound, on the other hand, was surprisingly good. Apparently the air spaces required to keep the i5 cool helps with bass response. The Venue 11 Pro sounds beefier than many full laptops I’ve reviewed. Yes, the games you can’t play will sound great!

Dell’s secure tablet delivered an excellent performance with our productivity app benchmark, too. 

If you’re into the Venue 11 Pro’s form factor, versatility, and accessories, but don’t care as much about—or can’t afford—this model’s performance and security features, a host of less-expensive configurations are also available. Dell’s website is confusing to navigate, but you should be able to find a model that fits your budget if you dig around. The Venue 11 Pro is warrantied for a single year by default, but you can purchase up to three years—including onsite service—for $216.

If you need a business tablet that can work all day and into the night, Dell’s Venue 11 Pro 7139 (Security) with its keyboard dock is the one to buy.

The Venue 11 Pro 7139 (Security) is a versatile business tablet/laptop/mini all-in-one that’s surprisingly usable in all three orientations—provided you can live with the heft and smallish display (as a desktop without a second monitor, that is). This high-end model proved particularly adept at movies and presentations, but it’s a highly capable, very secure Windows 8 tablet in nearly all aspects.

The package reviewed here, which includes several options including the stylus and keyboard dock with supplemental battery, costs $1081. That’s a lot of green, but its performance justifies its price tag. 

From PC World. Electronics product reviews and advice for best reference

Acronis True Image 2014 review: Still powerful and feature-rich, now easier to use

You might think Windows has you covered with its own imaging/system backup, but there's still a need for programs such as Acronis True Image. Windows' built-in utility is extremely limited and reacts badly to new hardware. True Image handles bare-metal restore and diverse hardware without hiccup. Owners of recent versions of True Image probably won't find anything particularly compelling about this latest rendition, as only the online service is really new, but the new interface is a breeze to use. It also takes Acronis Backup to the cloud for the first time.

Acronis True Image 2014's new backup pane is simplicity itself.

If there's one thing that stands out about the latest version of True Image 2014, it's how friendly it is. Gone are the poorly rendered dialogs and oddly phrased instructions. The interface is clean, efficient, and simple. You can perform a backup without answering a confusing stream of questions. All the options advanced users want—including password protection, sector-by-sector backup (the program defaults to backing up only occupied sectors),  pre- and post-run commands, splitting (or not) of files, and validation—are still present. They're simply hidden away in a very cleanly organized dialog.

True Image 2014 can perform file and image backups, one-off backups, multiple tracked backups, incremental, differential, scheduling, notifications, and more. There's really no imaging trick from the last fifteen years that the program doesn't have in its bag. In addition, if your laptop lacks a boot-time recovery option, True Image will provide it. The SecureZone and Try and Decide options are still available, and there's a full list of secure erase options. You can even convert Windows backups to Acronis's format, and vice-versa.

Acronis True Image 2014's friendly new interface and vibe are major improvements to the once obtuse GUI.

In keeping with modern times, there's an online backup option in Acronis's own Acronis Cloud. You get one year of 5GB (enough only for data, not system backups) for free with the program, but after a year, or for more storage, it'll cost $10 per year for 5GB, $30 a year for 50GB, $40 for 125GB, and $50 for 125GB. That's highly competitive pricing.

Every imaging or backup program should feature the ability to create disaster recovery boot media—ideally, both CD (for older systems), and USB flash drive. The ponderousness of TI's older boot media forced me to abandon previous versions of the program, as it wasn't good for older, memory-challenged PCs. R-Drive Image is better for those. True Image 2014's rescue disc still requires 512MB of system memory, and the new interface isn't implemented, making it less friendly that the Windows UI. However, Acronis provides the means for adding it to a Windows PE boot disc, though it's not as simple a process as it should be.

Though they aren't available until you ask, True Image's options are advanced and myriad.

If  If If If you're more than a version or two back on True Image, the 2014 version is well worth a look.you're new to backup products, simply know that it really doesn't get any better than Acronis True Image for the average user, though I recommend R-Drive Image for pros.

Note: The Download button takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software.

Jon L. Jacobi has worked with computers since you flipped switches and punched cards to program them. He studied music at Juilliard, and now he power-mods his car for kicks.
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Review: MultiPLX RSS reader offers powerful features and a few too many bugs

The RSS race is slowly calming down as we come to terms with the death of Google Reader. With big names such as AOL and Digg clambering for a spot in the news-reader scene, and with smaller readers popping up all over the place, you'd almost think there were no RSS readers available prior to Google's announcement. MultiPLX is an innovative take on the traditional reader that boasts quite a list of features, and it also happened to be around when we were all still in Google Reader's grasp.

Even in the Cards layout, it's easy to see which items you've already read

With MultiPLX, you can start following a large lineup of websites without ever creating an account or signing in. Going to multiplx.com launches a watered-down version of the reader, full of dozens of feeds about business, food, science, sports, technology, travel, and more. This version does not support read and unread counts or starring and liking items, but does support MultiPLX's wide variety of sharing options.

Once you sign in, you get the benefit of the full list of features, and can also import your feeds from a different website using the import tool. The tool is not limited to only your feeds, though; MultiPLX lets you import your starred items, liked items, and shared items as well, using JSON files. You can also easily export all this data from MultiPLX to be used in a different service.

The reading experience itself is pretty straightforward. There are three layouts to choose from: card, list, and condensed list. Your feeds appear in the left sidebar or in a dropdown menu on the top navigation bar. Aside from your imported feeds, you can use MultiPLX's Discover feature to add predefined websites from dozens of categories. Another way to add feeds, at least in theory, it the +PLX bookmarklet, which I could not get to work on any of my browsers. The +PLX button is also available on MultiPLX itself, where is does work, at least most of the time.

The MultiPLX reading experience is clean and distraction free

Individual articles are displayed in either a lightbox or in fullscreen mode. You can navigate between these using keyboard shortcuts, or by clicking the Previous and Next buttons. MultiPLX supports sharing to a wide array of services, including Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Pocket, and Buffer, to name a few. You can also share items via email, and star them or like them—two features that have about the same functionality, but provide two distinct ways to save items for later.

There's no way to manage feeds and folders from the main page, but under the Manage Followed tab you can move feeds between folders, rename items, and remove them. The interface for this is not the most intuitive. I kept looking for a "Save" button, when in fact each feed has its own little save button in the form of a checkmark button. From here you can also add new folders and remove existing ones.

Though not the most efficient, MultiPLX's feed manager give you full control over your folders and feeds

Three features make MultiPLX truly stand out from the crowd: trends, search, and folder sharing. In the trends tab, you can learn more about your own reading habits, and discover which feeds really are your favorite according to your starring, liking, and reading habits. Search, as to be expected, lets you search your entire feed collection for keywords.

The folder sharing feature is promising, but was unfortunately broken when I was testing MultiPLX. In theory, each of your MultiPLX folders can be marked as public, and shared with others using a public link or via email. You can also add a clip or a blogroll to your website for that feed, and even get an RSS feed URL for that specific folder. In practice, I did not manage to share a folder with anyone, but the developers promise that this will be fixed soon.

MultiPLX resides entirely on the Web and is fully responsive, and therefore available on any browser, including mobile ones. The reader is still in beta, and while bugs are a bit too common at the moment, it is being actively developed with weekly updates and bug fixes. It's a flexible and easy to use reader, which makes it a great option for both beginners with no RSS experience and power users with their own feeds, preferences, and websites, although beginners should wait until it's out of beta. If you're still looking for Mr. Right in the RSS scene, MultiPLX could be it.

Note: The Download button takes you to the vendor's site, where you can use this Web-based software.

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Review: MuseScore is powerful and free musical notation software

If you thought you had to pay an arm and a leg for a top-notch musical notation editor, think again. MuseScore is powerful, versatile, and free. It may not offer the bells and whistles provided by some of the paid competition, but the core functionality is there: WYSIWYG creation and editing, support for unlimited staves, unlimited score length, a plug-in architecture, and excellent-looking notation.

You can compose intricate music with MuseScore.

The more I played with MuseScore, the more impressed I became. There's finer control over the size and spacing for nearly every object: clef, stave, accidental, performance mark, etc. than most users will need. It has MIDI input, Music XML import and export, its own internal sounds, and support for ASI0 (a low latency audio standard) and JACK MIDI (a free patch bay that works between MIDI programs), though not the more popular Rewire (another patch bay/signal router).

If you're used to Sibelius or Finale, you'll probably feel right at home with MuseScore. I'd prefer a simple left-click to do something other than just drag the page around, but that's me. One area where the program hits the nail on the head is allowing you to drag note modifiers and performance markings directly to the notes they will operate on. Brilliant.

Also brilliant is allowing users to redefine the keyboard shortcuts, though the process could be streamlined a bit. MuseScore is as challenged in the area of mouse editing as the rest of the notation industry, which has never seemed to fully grasp the drag-and-drop concept. But all in all, it's as easy for entering symbols and editing as the competition is.

Most MuseScore features work flawlessly, but I did find a couple of oddities. The program imported a piano MIDI file onto a single treble stave, rather than the usual treble and bass staves. There's a split staff function, but it would be nice to automate the process. Also, playback volume for the internal synthesizer was very low. Other than that, the program seemed stable as a rock.

MuseScore's page settings help you print out sheet music exactly the way you need it.

MuseScore is built on the cross-platform QT library and is also available for both Linux and the Mac. I highly recommend taking it for a test spin if you're in the market for your first notation program, or to see just how powerful free can be. Don't forget to check out the plug-in library which may offer any functionality that you find missing.

Note: The Download button on the Product Information page will download the software to your system.

Jon L. Jacobi has worked with computers since you flipped switches and punched cards to program them. He studied music at Julliard, and now he power mods his car for kicks.
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Supercharge your laptop with 6 powerful utilities

It's a dark day. Your shiny new laptop has arrived, but it doesn't deliver the performance or usability you expected. You've taken for granted all the tricks your desktop system has delivered on a daily basis, and now your new (and much more mobile) PC pales in comparison.

The display seems cramped, your games run slower than expected, and battery life isn't anywhere near what you were promised. But don't resign yourself to choosing between a desktop behemoth and a finger-smudged smartphone. Below are a handful of utilities that can help get your laptop up to speed—and bring that new-computer smile back on your face.

Unless you spring for the elusive built-in 1080p display, chances are your laptop is starved for desktop pixels. The more portable your system, the worse this problem gets. You don't have to lasso your laptop to a monitor with an HDMI cable to get more screen real estate, however. MaxiVista ($40, free demo) lets any display on your network act as an extra monitor or mirrored view.

MaxiVista's interface may not turn heads, but the extra screen space it gets you is well worth a look.

You can also go the other way and use your laptop's screen to extend your desktop system's display or use MaxiVista as a virtual KVM switch, allowing up to four computers to be connected to a single keyboard, display and mouse. Although vendor Bartels Media has recently added iPad support to MaxiVista, laptop users with Mac-centric hardware should also take a look at Avatron's similar Air Display, which was designed from the ground up with Apple products in mind but includes Windows support.

MaxiVista comes in 32-bit and 64-bit editions. The Air Display Windows drivers are free, but you need one of Avatron's various Air Display editions to make Windows work with an iPad, Android device, Mac, or another PC. Neither MaxiVista nor Air Display currently works on Windows 8.

Virtual desktop manager Dexpot is fast, powerful, and slick.

For those times when attaching to an external monitor is impossible, there's Dexpot. Dexpot  (free for personal use, 25 Euros for business use) is a tiny virtual desktop manager that allows you to create multiple independent instances of Window's desktop work area and switch between them via hotkeys or on-screen buttons. This means you can configure each workspace to suit separate needs and optimize screen area for related groups of tasks. Various preview methods keep you abreast of what's happening on other desktops while you work, and swapping between them is nearly instantaneous.

You can combine Dexpot with MaxiVista to create multiple desktops for each wireless display, giving even the most demanding of us ample room to run our mice.

Perhaps the most extravagant claims about laptop performance involve battery life, many of which are outright fiction compared to real-life usage scenarios. Part of the problem arises from the battery meter applications found on most laptops. These utilities are rarely accurate, and few have features beyond the basic metered display. Without reliable feedback on battery usage, wear, temperature, and charging status, it's almost impossible to gauge efficient use of the power reserve you take with you when unplugged from the wall.

BatteryCare (free) provides this detailed information so you can make informed decisions about configuration and system status for the most efficient use of energy when you're off the grid.

BatteryCare gives far more information than the usual laptop battery discharge meter.

BatteryCare's detailed breakdowns of power consumption provide highly accurate estimates of remaining operating time, and special modes allow you to halt energy-sapping background services when unplugged. Maximum charge values show the wear on your battery in direct terms; this will slowly erode over time and use, giving you a good idea of when you'll need to buy a replacement for that aging laptop.

Your phone isn't the only piece of equipment able to share an Internet connection with other devices. Windows has done this for years; the problem is getting it accomplished quickly, easily, and wirelessly, especially on the go with a laptop system.

Connectify Hotspot provides the tools to do precisely this, acting as a software router between whatever Internet connection you provide and the other computers connected to your laptop.

 

The free Connectify Hotspot Lite is robust enough for most personal use and includes a simple firewall program to boot. The Pro version lets you use your laptop as a repeater and permits sharing of 3G/4G connections as well as ethernet and Wi-Fi. Connectify Hotspot Pro isn't cheap, however, with licenses starting at $30.

Laptops don't measure up performance-wise to desktop systems, but they are often further encumbered with OEM software and other junk that burdens general system overhead with extraneous services and tasks. While it's possible to take a fine-tooth comb through start-up options and the registry, there are tools that do this for you without permanently disabling services you might actually need to use at some point.

Piriform's CCleaner is a freeware utility that wipes leftover installation files, lingering cache fragments, dead-end registry entries, and other system messes without taking all afternoon or damaging complex pre-existing software installations. The disk savings can be significant, especially if you're on a strict SSD-induced low-gig diet. CCleaner also performs some system security functions, providing options to wipe sensitive data such as credit card info, stored passwords, usernames, and other personal information left behind during standard browser use.

Razer Game Booster's game-by-game profiles help you determine what processes need to get out of your game's way.

If heavy system resource demands are a drag on your gaming, there's IObit's Razer Game Booster. Game Booster examines your operating environment and selectively shuts down services and programs not directly related to the game you're playing. The result is a noticeable increase in responsiveness and frame rate performance, especially in laptop systems where every clock cycle counts. Sporting ready-to-use profiles for many popular titles, Game Booster attempts to streamline the process many gamers manually perform to get the best numbers from their favorite titles, but reduces the strip-down procedure to a single button push. New features add screenshot and gameplay video capture modes to the toolbox. Although there has been talk of transition to a paid service, Razer Game Booster remains free.

All this software is cool, but before you install, carefully consider your needs. Laptops aren't about stuffing every available gig with apps; they're about balanced computing and capable, lightweight software. Sometimes the best way to improve your laptop's performance is by removing something, rather than adding anything. That said, none of these utilities will steer you wrong.

From PCWorld. Visit Amazon Computer and Notebook Center here

Supercharge your laptop with 6 powerful utilities

It's a dark day. Your shiny new laptop has arrived, but it doesn't deliver the performance or usability you expected. You've taken for granted all the tricks your desktop system has delivered on a daily basis, and now your new (and much more mobile) PC pales in comparison.

The display seems cramped, your games run slower than expected, and battery life isn't anywhere near what you were promised. But don't resign yourself to choosing between a desktop behemoth and a finger-smudged smartphone. Below are a handful of utilities that can help get your laptop up to speed—and bring that new-computer smile back on your face.

Unless you spring for the elusive built-in 1080p display, chances are your laptop is starved for desktop pixels. The more portable your system, the worse this problem gets. You don't have to lasso your laptop to a monitor with an HDMI cable to get more screen real estate, however. MaxiVista ($40, free demo) lets any display on your network act as an extra monitor or mirrored view.

MaxiVista's interface may not turn heads, but the extra screen space it gets you is well worth a look.

You can also go the other way and use your laptop's screen to extend your desktop system's display or use MaxiVista as a virtual KVM switch, allowing up to four computers to be connected to a single keyboard, display and mouse. Although vendor Bartels Media has recently added iPad support to MaxiVista, laptop users with Mac-centric hardware should also take a look at Avatron's similar Air Display, which was designed from the ground up with Apple products in mind but includes Windows support.

MaxiVista comes in 32-bit and 64-bit editions. The Air Display Windows drivers are free, but you need one of Avatron's various Air Display editions to make Windows work with an iPad, Android device, Mac, or another PC. Neither MaxiVista nor Air Display currently works on Windows 8.

Virtual desktop manager Dexpot is fast, powerful, and slick.

For those times when attaching to an external monitor is impossible, there's Dexpot. Dexpot  (free for personal use, 25 Euros for business use) is a tiny virtual desktop manager that allows you to create multiple independent instances of Window's desktop work area and switch between them via hotkeys or on-screen buttons. This means you can configure each workspace to suit separate needs and optimize screen area for related groups of tasks. Various preview methods keep you abreast of what's happening on other desktops while you work, and swapping between them is nearly instantaneous.

You can combine Dexpot with MaxiVista to create multiple desktops for each wireless display, giving even the most demanding of us ample room to run our mice.

Perhaps the most extravagant claims about laptop performance involve battery life, many of which are outright fiction compared to real-life usage scenarios. Part of the problem arises from the battery meter applications found on most laptops. These utilities are rarely accurate, and few have features beyond the basic metered display. Without reliable feedback on battery usage, wear, temperature, and charging status, it's almost impossible to gauge efficient use of the power reserve you take with you when unplugged from the wall.

BatteryCare (free) provides this detailed information so you can make informed decisions about configuration and system status for the most efficient use of energy when you're off the grid.

BatteryCare gives far more information than the usual laptop battery discharge meter.

BatteryCare's detailed breakdowns of power consumption provide highly accurate estimates of remaining operating time, and special modes allow you to halt energy-sapping background services when unplugged. Maximum charge values show the wear on your battery in direct terms; this will slowly erode over time and use, giving you a good idea of when you'll need to buy a replacement for that aging laptop.

Your phone isn't the only piece of equipment able to share an Internet connection with other devices. Windows has done this for years; the problem is getting it accomplished quickly, easily, and wirelessly, especially on the go with a laptop system.

Connectify Hotspot provides the tools to do precisely this, acting as a software router between whatever Internet connection you provide and the other computers connected to your laptop.

 

The free Connectify Hotspot Lite is robust enough for most personal use and includes a simple firewall program to boot. The Pro version lets you use your laptop as a repeater and permits sharing of 3G/4G connections as well as ethernet and Wi-Fi. Connectify Hotspot Pro isn't cheap, however, with licenses starting at $30.

Laptops don't measure up performance-wise to desktop systems, but they are often further encumbered with OEM software and other junk that burdens general system overhead with extraneous services and tasks. While it's possible to take a fine-tooth comb through start-up options and the registry, there are tools that do this for you without permanently disabling services you might actually need to use at some point.

Piriform's CCleaner is a freeware utility that wipes leftover installation files, lingering cache fragments, dead-end registry entries, and other system messes without taking all afternoon or damaging complex pre-existing software installations. The disk savings can be significant, especially if you're on a strict SSD-induced low-gig diet. CCleaner also performs some system security functions, providing options to wipe sensitive data such as credit card info, stored passwords, usernames, and other personal information left behind during standard browser use.

Razer Game Booster's game-by-game profiles help you determine what processes need to get out of your game's way.

If heavy system resource demands are a drag on your gaming, there's IObit's Razer Game Booster. Game Booster examines your operating environment and selectively shuts down services and programs not directly related to the game you're playing. The result is a noticeable increase in responsiveness and frame rate performance, especially in laptop systems where every clock cycle counts. Sporting ready-to-use profiles for many popular titles, Game Booster attempts to streamline the process many gamers manually perform to get the best numbers from their favorite titles, but reduces the strip-down procedure to a single button push. New features add screenshot and gameplay video capture modes to the toolbox. Although there has been talk of transition to a paid service, Razer Game Booster remains free.

All this software is cool, but before you install, carefully consider your needs. Laptops aren't about stuffing every available gig with apps; they're about balanced computing and capable, lightweight software. Sometimes the best way to improve your laptop's performance is by removing something, rather than adding anything. That said, none of these utilities will steer you wrong.

From PCWorld. Visit Amazon Computer and Notebook Center here

Review: Handy Backup is plain, powerful, and easy to use

Handy Backup is utilitarian in the best sense; it's a backup program with a no-nonsense interface and a boatload of features. Despite its plain countenance, one of its iterations is sure to appeal to IT types and smart consumers. I looked at Handy Backup Free, which is... free.

1. There's not a lot to look at, but there's power behind the Handy Backup grille.

Handy Backup Free is easy to use and lets you select files as well as repositories for backing up. Repositories are folders or accounts such as My Documents, an FTP, WebDav, Amazon S3, etc. It's a little odd to see the latter items listed under a backup list, but it's also nice. You can back up to and restore data from local drives, CD/DVD/BD, FTP, and across a network.

You create a backup, restore, or synch task in Handy Backup Home using step-by-step wizards. These are easy to use, and once a task has been defined you can edit all the options directly from a multiple-paned dialog. To skip the wizard, you can simply duplicate a task and edit the pertinent options. Said options include full, incremental, differential backups; compressing the backup to encrypted zip files; scheduling; and running tasks before or after a job.

Handy Backup also comes in $39 Home, $99 Professional, $199 Small Server, and $599 Server editions. Home is the latest 7.x version, while Pro adds disk imaging, backing up to SFTP servers, and ODBC database backup. The Small Server edition backs up numerous business and enterprise-level databases such as Microsoft Exchange data, Oracle, and more. The full Server version has all that plus the ability to back up multiple PCs to a central location.

Handy Backup's step-by-step wizard helps you through jobs.

About the only thing missing that I'd like to see in Handy Backup is support for Rsync, a backup and synchronization protocol used by many servers and NAS boxes. Aside from that, one or the other editions of the program should have all the features you need. I had an easy time with the program; it's lightweight it does the job, and it stays out of the way. What else could you ask for?

Note: The Download button on the Product Information page downloads the software from the vendor's site. The Handy Backup website can make downloading the proper version confusing. You need a serial to use the free version, which you can obtain from the developer. Also, the message to upgrade is for a trial of the home version. Ignore that message to continue using the free version.

Jon L. Jacobi has worked with computers since you flipped switches and punched cards to program them. He studied music at Julliard, and now he power mods his car for kicks.
More by Jon L. Jacobi

From PCWorld. Visit Amazon Computer and Notebook Center here

QNAP TS-269 Pro review: A fast and powerful NAS box with a steep learning curve

Jon L. Jacobi has worked with computers since you flipped switches and punched cards to program them. He studied music at Julliard, and now he power mods his car for kicks.
More by Jon L. Jacobi

Few would dispute that QNAP makes very fast NAS hardware—the company's boxes are consistently at the top of PCWorld's performance charts. The TS-269 Pro is no exception, being the overall fastest two-bay NAS box that we've scrutinized on our new test platform. The margin of victory, however, wasn’t that great. What really sets this $600 (unpopulated) unit apart from the crowd is its slew of software features and its superior connectivity.

The TS-269 Pro features a 2.13GHz, dual-core Intel Atom D2700 CPU and 1GB of memory (which you can expand up to 3GB, using the single free SODIMM slot). One of my few complaints about the TS-269 Pro is that removing the case cover to access said memory slot was a bit of a chore the enclosure is baby smooth with nothing to grip. QNAP populated our test unit with two 1TB Western Digital WD10EFRX hard drives mirrored in RAID 1. The drive normally ships without drives.

My other minor gripe concerns the TS-269 Pro's otherwise top-tier port array. The front USB port, normally used for quickly copying the contents of a USB flash drive, is only USB 2.0. I'm now using USB 3.0 thumb drives almost exclusively and reaching behind the unit to access the two significantly faster USB 3.0 ports is a bit of a pain. Otherwise it's all good: dual gigabit Ethernet ports with failover and binding, an eSATA port, and two additional USB 2.0 ports. There's also a Kensington lock port for securing the unit to your workbench or rack, and an HDMI port for outputting HD content and surveillance to a monitor or TV.

Don't be fooled by the friendly graphical user interface; taking advantage of the TS-269 Pro's advanced features requires deep knowledge on the part of the IT admin.

QNAP outshines everyone but Synology in the breadth of software features n its Linux-based operating system. These go way beyond simple file-sharing, administration, and backup to include iSCSI, iTunes and DLNA servers, direct photo/music/video viewing in your browser, and video surveillance support. You also get a VPN, FTP, and TFTP servers; full domain and LDAP support; and more. Check the company’s website for the full list, where you can also play with the operating system via an online demo. QNAP matches—and in some small ways beats—Synology in operating system features, QNAP’s OS is generally not as easy to use; it takes a fair amount of knowledge to implement many of its features.

As I mentioned up front, the TS-269 Pro is very fast, although it’s not as fast writing data as previous QNAP models we've tested. It wrote our large 10GB file at 85.8MBps, read it at 94.2.4MBps, and wrote 10GB of smaller files and folders at 66MBps. For some reason, the TS-269 Pro read the smaller files and folders slower than it wrote them, at 41MBps. Overall, those are first-place numbers, and very good for a box running in mirrored mode, though Iomega's px2-300d is a faster reader. Note that we tested using only one Ethernet port.

All in all, the TS-269 Pro is a very good NAS box—arguably the best in its class. It's not remotely budget-priced, and you’ll need decent IT chops to get the most out of it, but more advanced users and IT personnel will love it.

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Dell OptiPlex 9010 business desktop PC review: small but powerful

Jon L. Jacobi has worked with computers since you flipped switches and punched cards to program them. He studied music at Julliard, and now he power mods his car for kicks.
More by Jon L. Jacobi

The small form factor Dell Optiplex 9010 Desktop takes up little space, packs a nice performance punch, and is very easy to repair or upgrade. If also has all the service and warranty options and legacy connectivity businesses need. Couple that with Dell's promise of a long product lifespan and plenty of warning for upcoming changes, and you have a powerful compact PC that won't stress out your purchasing agent or IT personnel.

Dell refers to the small form factor 9010 as a Desktop, which it is in the older sense of the word--a PC that literally sits on top of your desk. At only 12 inches deep, by 11 inches tall, by 5 inches thick it will fit easily beside a monitor, or flipped on its side, serve as a monitor stand. Styled in black and gray, it also looks like it belongs on your desk. Being small also makes it easy to hide away, if that's your preference.

Our small form factor 9010 Desktop shipped without a display, though there are a number of 20-inch or 24-inch LCDs ($250 to $400) as well as dual-display options available. We did get a mouse and keyboard, which, while obviously not top-tier items, get the job done. The mouse tracks well and the keyboard, despite being very light in weight, has a better than average typing feel.

The 9010 Desktop small form factor offers a large array and logical mix of modern and legacy ports. There are a whopping 10 USB ports; four on the front of the unit, six on the back, and two in each set are USB 3.0. There are also dual DisplayPort connectors, VGA output, a gigabit Ethernet port, and a serial port. That latter is to support the still rather large fleets of serial port devices such as hand scanners still used by businesses.

Also included are microphone and headset jacks on the front, plus audio in and out jacks on the back. There are legacy PS/2 connectors for both keyboard and mouse--something I and my collection of old IBM M-series clackers can get behind. Lastly, there's a lock slot on the back so you can securely cable the 9010 Desktop to prevent it from being easily opened or carried away.

Our test small form factor 9010 Desktop sported a highly-capable Intel Core i7 3770, 8GB of DDR3-1600 memory (two 4GB parts filling two of the available 4 DIMM slots), and a 1TB Seagate ST31000524AS hard drive occupying the single hard drive bay. The hard drive is married to a pop-out caddy as is the 8X DVD burner that sits on top of it. One of the two 16x PCIe slot on our unit was filled by an AMD Radeon HD 7470 graphics card.

The SFF 9010 Destktop garnered 107 points on our older WorldBench 7 test suite, which is a good if not spectacular score. Feel-wise, the unit is snappy. Not SSD-snappy, but darn good for a system with a traditional hard drive. The aforementioned HD 7000 graphics card will render modern games acceptably at 800 by 600 and in some cases, 1024 by 768. Good enough for the lunch break if your situation allows.

With one PCIe slot available, you could add IEEE 1394, or another Ethernet port. You could also utilize the back panel opening for the slot to add eSATA, as one of the three SATA 6Gbps ports and a SATA-style power connector are available. You could also use those to add an SSD. There's no mounting point but there is room for one inside the chassis.

The small form factor 9010 Desktop carries a three-year warranty with four- and five-year versions available for another $150 to $300 or so. An onsite option to the three-year plan is available for around $50. The 9010 also features a TPM (Trusted Platform Module) for security and optional out-of-band (remote management via hardware only, powered or not) management in the form of Intel's standard or vPro management. Dell will also sell you software encryption for a cool $40, or you can opt for a self-encrypting hard drive.

Because of the security features, warranty options and support, business PCs are more expensive than consumer models. Our test configuration will set you back about $950 with Windows 7 Professional. A Windows 8 option is available, though few businesses need or want it at the moment. You can back off our near high-end configuration to the minimum Core i3-3220, 4GB of memory, a 250GB hard drive and read-only DVD drive for about $650.

Dell's been playing the corporate game for a long time and that experience shows in the Optiplex 9010 Desktop. It's powerful, has all the features businesses ask for and just enough expansion to add a random capability you might need. The 9010 Desktop's small form factor makes for convenient placement, but if want more extensive expansion capabilities; the 9010 is also available in a variety of other form factors.

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Trendnet SecurView Pro Outdoor PoE Megapixel IP Camera Review: As Complex as It Is Powerful

TRENDnet's TV-IP322P is a pro-grade surveillance camera that delivers amazing resolution and long-distance night vision. Whereas Logitech (with its Alert 750e Outdoor Master System) and Swann (with its DVR-4 2600 4 Channel DVR & Camera Kit) emphasize ease of use, Trendnet focuses on delivering maximum performance and flexibility. Instead of making all of the design decisions for you, Trendnet assumes that you know exactly what you need, and the company provides the building blocks you need in order to realize your vision. The upside of this approach is that you get exactly what you want in a video-surveillance system and can expand it as your needs grow. The downside is that you must know precisely what you want and how to put it all together.

Adopting this à la carte method, we put together a four-camera system anchored by Trendnet's best outdoor night-vision IP camera (the TV-IP322P, $578) and supplemented with two indoor night-vision cameras (Trendnet model TV-IP121WN, $165 each), one indoor tilt/swivel night-vision camera (Trendnet model TV-IP422WN, $300), and Trendnet's SecurView Pro software (a copy of which is included with each camera).

Each of the four cameras can operate using a single cable: The wireless cameras need only a power cord, and the TV-IP322P can operate on power-over-ethernet (PoE), so you don't need an electrical outlet near where you deploy it (Trendnet supplies an AC power adapter, in case you don't want to deploy a PoE switch). We tested the setup with Trendnet's eight-port PoE switch (model TPE-S80, $218). This five-piece package would cost $1426--slightly more than Logitech's surveillance system and considerably more than Swann's--but it delivers excellent service, it's extremely versatile, and it can be upgraded to support as many as 32 cameras (including eight PoE devices; you can deploy more PoE cameras with a larger PoE switch).

Networking

Unlike the Logitech and Swann systems we reviewed, most of Trendnet's cameras rely on a host PC running on your network to store recorded video (the TV-IP322P is equipped with a high-capacity SD Card slot and can support up to 32GB of local memory, though Trendnet doesn't put any memory cards in the box). Swann's system comes with its own DVR, and Logitech's cameras can run independently of the PC, recording video to their onboard memory while the host PC is sleeping. Unless every camera in your setup has onboard memory, as the TV-IP322P does, the system must run Trendnet's SecurView Pro software nonstop.

Add a Trendnet camera with pan/tilt capabilities, and you can monitor an entire room using your mouse and this control panel.The SecurView Pro software can support any of Trendnet's comprehensive collection of IP cameras, regardless of their resolution and feature set. The model TV-IP322P camera, for instance, boasts a resolution of 1280 by 1024 pixels. In contrast, the other Trendnet models and the Swann cameras we tested have a resolution of 640 by 480 pixels, and the Logitech Alert cameras deliver video resolution of 960 by 720 pixels. Check a box in the SecurView Pro software's user interface, and the program will automatically scale each camera's video window to maintain the appropriate aspect ratio. Check another box, and the software will offer a pop-up window for controlling features specific to each camera, such as pan/tilt or audio recording.

The Cameras

Trendet's TV-IP322P is one of the most impressive IP cameras we've seen to date, thanks in large measure to its detailed resolution, strong night-vision capabilities (working at distances of up to 66 feet), industrial-strength housing, and comprehensive connectivity features. In addition to its PoE support, the TV-IP322P can support two-way audio with ports for an external mic and speaker, for video intercom configurations. It has general-purpose input/output ports for integration into an alarm system, it can generate email alerts, and it can stream real-time video to a smartphone--with support for h.264, MPEG-4, and MJPEG compression algorithms--all without requiring a host PC.

The TV-IP322P has a very strong night-vision capability, but other Trendnet cameras we reviewed are weak in this regard. The camera is protected by an IP66-rated weather- and vandal-proof enclosure. An enclosure's IP rating (the acronym stands for "ingress protection") represents its ability to protect against solid objects (indicated by the first digit) and liquids (indicated by the second digit). An IP rating of 66 means that the enclosure will prevent any dust from getting inside, and will protect against high-pressure water potentially entering at the enclosure from any direction.

The indoor Trendnet cameras we tested--models TV-IP121WN and TV- TV-IP422WN--delivered very good daylight performance, but their night vision was weak compared to Logitech's Alert cameras, Swann's Pro 580 cameras, and Trendnet's own TV-IP322P outdoor camera. Factor in the host PC and Trendnet's software, and any of Trendnet's cameras can produce motion-triggered video recordings, generate email and SMS alerts, and perform all the other functions you'd expect of a high-end video-surveillance system.

The Bottom Line

Trendnet's TV-IP322P is a big-ticket camera, but its high resolution and expansive feature set justify its high price tag. The SecurView Pro software that controls it is equally powerful and can support up to 32 cameras, but the software is also complex and difficult to master.

The other two Trendnet cameras--the TV-IP121WN and the TV-IP422WN--are merely adequate: Their night vision is weak, and their resolution equals that of Swann's analog cameras. But when you put the pan/tilt model into "patrol" mode, the camera automatically pans and tilts in accordance with a predefined pattern to cover more area than either Logitech's or Swann's models.

Building a facility-wide IP camera system using only Trendnet's TV-IP322P cameras would be prohibitively expensive, especially if you don't need an outdoor camera in every location. Trendnet recently announced an entirely new line of indoor IP cameras, and we'll take a look at those as soon as Trendnet sends us evaluation units.

Note: This review is part of a roundup of video surveillance systems. For more, read our introduction to the roundup.

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HP Z1 Workstation Review: Pretty, Powerful, and Pricey, but Not Perfect

The new HP Z1 Workstation is the most attractive, most powerful, and most expensive all-in-one PC I've ever seen. And that isn't an exaggeration: This all-in-one workstation, the first of its kind, has a gorgeous 27-inch edge-to-edge glass screen, packs desktop-class components, and will set you back a cool $5673 (as configured, and as of April 10, 2012).

Our review model sports an Intel Xeon E31280 processor, 16GB of RAM, and an Nvidia Quadro 4000M graphics card, and runs a 64-bit version of Windows 7 Professional. The graphics card alone currently goes for around $750 online, so that's a big chunk of the Z1's hefty price tag. The model we tested also features built-in Bluetooth 3.0, built-in Wi-Fi, a high-def (1080p) 2-megapixel adjustable webcam, and a Blu-ray Disc writer. Budget-minded shoppers can pick up the Z1 with lower-end specs (such as a 32-bit OS, a DVD-RW drive, or an Intel Core i3-2120 processor) for less, as the Z1's base configuration starts at $1899.

Performance

I'll just go ahead and say it: This machine is, hands down, the most powerful all-in-one PC we've ever tested. In PCWorld's WorldBench 7 benchmark tests, the Z1 posted an impressive score of 159. That means the Z1 is 59 percent faster than our baseline model, a desktop with an Intel Core i5-2500K processor, 8GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti graphics card. The score puts the Z1 well ahead of the rest of its class (most large-screen AIOs score in the 80-to-100 range on WorldBench 7), and even ahead of some of our lower-end performance tower desktops.

The Z1 also offers impressive graphics performance, thanks to its Quadro 4000M professional workstation graphics card, which supports high-quality 3D. In PCWorld's Dirt 3 graphics tests, the Z1 delivered very good frame rates of 69.1 frames per second (high quality, 1680-by-1050-pixel resolution) and 112.9 fps (high quality, 1024-by-768-pixel resolution).

Design

The Z1 is housed in a gorgeous, if large, all-in-one chassis. The machine sports a glossy 27-inch screen with edge-to-edge glass across the slim black bezel. It sits on a sturdy plastic stand that flexes and folds to allow you to lay the screen flat and snap open the chassis. The stand is rather deep--16.5 inches, to be exact--which is necessary to support the Z1 when it's vertical and when it's horizontal. The depth is unfortunate, however, since it means that this otherwise slim PC takes up a lot of desk space.

Ports are mostly located on the back of the Z1, inconveniently underneath the point where the stand connects to the machine. Making things even more inconvenient, these ports angle upward, so plugging anything in is extremely frustrating. On the back of the Z1, you'll find four USB 2.0 ports, one gigabit ethernet connection, DisplayPort in/out, S/PDIF, a subwoofer connection, line-in, and line-out, as well as a lock slot. A few convenience ports--two USB 3.0 ports, one FireWire port, a four-in-one card reader, and microphone and headphone jacks--are located on the side of the system.

Unlike most all-in-ones, the Z1 is made to be opened and tinkered with. However, while it is housed in a toolless chassis, opening the Z1 is tricky. First you have to lay the screen flat, which involves a lot of pushing and hoping that nothing breaks (putting the screen upright again is much more difficult, too). Then the screen snaps open from the bottom, and you're treated to the neat-but-cramped interior of an AIO. Inside you'll find four PCIe slots (one PCIe x16 slot that's full, plus three open MiniPCIe slots), four memory slots (32GB maximum), and three USB 2.0 ports.

Screen, Speakers, and Peripherals

The Z1's crowning glory is its 27-inch LCD In-Plane Switching screen, which has a native resolution of 2560 by 1440 pixels. The screen is very bright, with striking contrast and crisp images and text. Thanks to the IPS technology, colors look accurate, and viewing angles are very good. The screen is not a touchscreen, which is disappointing, since most higher-end AIOs have touchscreens these days.

Multimedia looks and sounds great on the Z1. Video playback is smooth, with very little artifacting (and much of the artifacting we saw was due to the video source, not the Z1's playback). Audio sounds very good, with full, rich bass and decent surround-sound simulation. The speakers are quite loud, so this AIO could easily double as a TV substitute. (Not that you'd be watching much media, when you should be working.)

The Z1 comes with a wireless keyboard and mouse, both of which are mediocre at best. The keyboard, which has regular-style keys, is easy to type on but offers weak feedback. The optical mouse is typical, with two buttons and a scrollwheel, and is slightly jumpy and oversensitive.

Bottom Line

The HP Z1 Workstation is gorgeous and powerful, but it's definitely not perfect. My biggest issue with the system is that it lacks a touchscreen, a feature that most of its competitors have. The Z1 also has difficult-to-access ports, an inconveniently deep stand, and mediocre peripherals. These problems aren't usually deal breakers, but for $5673 I pretty much expect perfection.

Still, the Z1 is exceedingly powerful for an AIO, and it's also extremely attractive. So if you like traditional input devices (and you have your own), and if you have a lot of desk space to spare, you may want to check out this beauty. Plus, the ability to open the PC up and swap out parts--even if it's fairly cramped in there--is something you won't find in any other all-in-one.

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Reviews Roundup: HTC’s Powerful One X is a Hit

Before we dive into the reviews, we’d like to make note of one thing. The One X our colleagues reviewed this week is a world phone version and only offers 3G connectivity. The version we are expected to see here in the U.S. will feature 4G LTE connectivity, and as a result, a different processor. Instead of the quad-core Tegra 3, the One X will launch with a version of Qualcomm’s dual-core Snapdragon S4. The change is a result of issues concerning the amount of power it takes to support both a Tegra 3 and 4G LTE connectivity at the same time.

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s get to the reviews.

Engadget’s Myriam Joire said the One X is a return to form for HTC and places the company in the upper echelon of Android smartphone makers.  She pointed to the One X’s 8-megapixel rear-facing camera as one that will please both photography buffs and the average user and says it delivers, “one of the best all-round imaging experiences we’ve come across without sacrificing quality.” Joire also heaped praise on the One X’s speedy Tegra 3 processor, which she said was able to handle most everything she threw at it with ease.

Unfortunately, Joire said the One X’s  Tegra 3 performed worse than Qualcomm’s dual-core Snapdragon S4 when put to the test in a variety of benchmarks. She also knocked the One X for its six-hour battery life, which she blamed on the phone’s Super LCD 2 display.

CNet UK’s Natasha Lomas said the One X, while powerful, could prove too much for the average user. She also criticized the phone’s large footprint and poor battery life. Still Lomas awarded the phone four out of five stars, saying it had a classy look and feel, and that its HTC Touch Sense 4.0 was slick and responsive, although in need of some slight tweaks.

Chris Ziegler at the Verge was clearly enamored with the One X saying, “It can’t be overstated what a beautiful device this is.” From its display to its performance, Zieglar sang the One X’s praises, adding “The One X isn’t isn’t just one of the best Android phones I’ve ever used – it’s one of the best mobile devices I’ve ever used, period.” Ziegler even went as far as to say that the One X could be one of the best smartphones ever made if only HTC had hued closer to a more stock Android experience.

Still Zieglar did have some critiques for the One X, specifically that it can become noticeably warm during extended use sessions and only last 4 hours and 22 minutes while using both Wi-Fi and 3G with the screen’s brightness set to its max. When user the phone under what he referred to as “normal” usage, though, Zieglar said the One X lasted roughly 13 hours and 38 minutes.

Phil Nickinson over at Android Central said the HTC One X sets the bar high for the newest crop of Android smartphones and praised the One X’s 4.7-inch 720 x 1280 Super LCD 2 display for its clarity and viewing angels, especially in direct sunlight. We can personally attest to the One X’s display quality having seen it in person at Mobile World Congress in February. As Nickinson pointed out in his review, the display looks more like those simulated screen stickers stores slap on their display models than an actual smartphone screen. It’s that good.

As for the One X’s flaws, Nickinson pointed to the phone’s non-removable batter cover, lack of a MicroSD card slot and bulbous camera lens, which he said can be easily scratched.

The Next Web’s Matt Brian gave high marks to the One X’s stylish design calling it the, “best-looking smartphone we ahve seen from the vendor to date.” Brian, like most reviewers, also offered adulation for the One X’s “supremely fast” 1.5-GHz Tegra 3 processor. He did, however, point to some minor issues with the device, specifically related to its software, but said overall it is a phone that should please both the average user and Android fanatic. 

via The Verge, Engadget, CNet, Android Central, The Next Web

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GoodSync: Most Powerful Syncing Solution on the Planet?

GoodSync ($30, 30-day free trial) is the Godzilla of syncing programs, and I mean that in the best possible way. It has tons of features and offers unprecedented connectivity. Not only does it sync or back up one computer to another--including remotely across the Internet with the GoodSync Connect portal, but it also syncs with online services such as Microsoft's SkyDrive. Want offsite backup without the online storage charges? GoodSync could well be your answer.

Though it's not the sexiest interface, GoodSync's main window is extremely efficient and well laid out.You'll find all the basic sync and backup features in GoodSync: bidirectional and unidirectional syncing (aka backup), file filtering, job scheduling, and syncing of deletions. New in version 9 is the ability to include multiple sources (e.g., folders) and single files in a single job. I already mentioned that the program syncs with online services. It's nice having a program that will automatically download the files I create on SkyDrive using my smartphone. Other services supported are Google Docs, Windows Azure, Amazon S3, and Amazon Cloud Drive.

Peruse GoodSync, and it quickly becomes apparent that someone has a passion to become the best. The GoodSync interface doesn't feature a lot of bitmaps or a sexy color scheme, but it is intuitive and easy to use. That said, there are so many options that it may take you a while to get up to speed with the program.

Unlike many syncing programs, GoodSync displays all files from both the source and destination on the right side of the main window and only their status on the left. This can be a bit disconcerting with a one-way sync from a small folder with few files to a folder with many files--such as syncing SkyDrive to My Documents. To avoid this, always use a dedicated destination folder for the sync.

GoodSync's ability to connect to online services left me wanting more--a positive thing. It would be great to be able to connect remotely to my NAS box's Rsync service. GoodSync doesn't support this yet, but it does support FTP, SFTP, and Webdav, which can be used to the same effect.

While GoodSync functions as a "free" version after the 30-day trial period, it's limited to three jobs of 100 files. That's enough to perhaps sync a thumb drive or two, but effectively renders the program useless for backup. You're better off with Windows Briefcase for the stuff the free version of GoodSync handles. Also, you'll need a license for each PC you want to sync between remotely using the GoodSync Connect service. Not that this is unusual, but those $30 licenses can add up in a hurry.

If GoodSync isn't the most powerful syncing solution on the planet, then someone out there is flying really low under the radar. It's most definitely worth downloading.

--Jon L. Jacobi

GoodSync is an easy and reliable file backup and file synchronization software. It automatically analyzes, synchronizes, and backs up your emails, precious family photos, contacts, MP3s, financial documents, and other important files locally - between desktops, laptops, servers, external drives, and Windows Mobile devices, as well as remotely with FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, Amazon S3 servers. With GoodSync you can automatically backup your files to ensure you'll never lose them again. You can utilize GoodSync's synchronization option to easily Synchronize your files between multiple computers and devices. GoodSync is simple enough for a beginner, yet has many advanced options to satisfy the most advanced computer users.

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Tomboy: Powerful, and Free, Database for Notes

Take the intuitive simplicity of jotting down a quick note in Notepad, combine it with the ever-present nature of Stickies, and add easy linking between topics that's even more instant than TiddlyWiki. You've got Tomboy: A free application that makes managing your knowledge easy and fast.

Tomboy did not start its life as a Windows application: It is a part of the open source Gnome project, which is a desktop environment for Linux. To use it, you first need to install something called GTK# for .NET, a toolkit used to create cross-platform graphical user interfaces. This is a separate download, but the Tomboy installer links to it.

Tomboy stays out of the way while providing powerful search, formatting, and linking features. Once you have Tomboy installed, it looks like a native Windows application. If you are used to the tiny-looking notes that Stickies creates, you may be surprised to discover that in Tomboy, each note is a free-floating window that looks like a full application, complete with all the Windows chrome (minimize/restore/close buttons, toolbar, and so on). This also means that all notes are visible as individual windows when you hit Alt-Tab to switch applications, so you may not want to have many Tomboy notes open on your screen at any one time. Of course, you can always paste several notes into one big note, in which case you will have just one window.

Getting started with Tomboy couldn't be easier: Just start typing. Your text is automatically saved as you type; don't try to hit Ctrl-S to save your note. Counterintuitively (at least for Windows users), Ctrl-S triggers strikethrough formatting, so you'll need to wean yourself off any obsessive saving habit you may have unless you want all of your text to look like it's up for deletion. Hotkeys are one of the few areas where Tomboy doesn't integrate so smoothly with Windows: You can specify system-wide hotkeys, but you do this by typing out their name (you literally have to spell it out, "+F3," angle brackets and all) rather than by hitting the keys you want to use like on most other hotkey-aware applications.

One of the most powerful features in Tomboy is inter-note linking. This is something Stickies can't do, and it turns Tomboy into a powerful knowledge management system a bit like TiddlyWiki. Often, you don't even have to think about creating links: Just type the name of an existing note and it automatically turns into a link, with no double square brackets or any other formatting. If you ever rename the note you linked to, Tomboy will offer to rename all links to it, so there are never any broken links. It is also easy to create new notes by linking to them: Select some text and press Ctrl-L. The text you selected becomes a link, and you find yourself within the new note, ready to write. Tomboy stays true to the Wiki format by optionally supporting CamelCase: It can turn words melded together LikeThis into links.

Once you no longer need a note, just close its window and Tomboy will store it for future reference. If you ever need it again, you can click the Search button on any other note (or press Ctrl-Shift-F) and open the Search All Notes window. Type any fragment of text into the search box, and Tomboy searches all notes (both open and closed), as fast as you can type.

Apart from its clunky two-part installation process on Windows and slightly quirky hotkeys, Tomboy is very easy to get started with. Instead of reading lengthy explanations and tutorials, you just suddenly find yourself writing whatever it is you wanted to write, while Tomboy stays out of the way.

--Erez Zukerman

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Zoner Photo Studio Free: Powerful Photo Suite for a Great Price

It takes a while to get to know Zoner Photo Studio Free 14. The interface is a tad daunting at first, but it's time well spent. There's little that the program won't do in terms of cataloging, displaying, or editing photos and images--and it's free. It beats the pants off of GIMP in ease of use and is more powerful than Picasa, though the language tends to be a bit more technical.

Though it appears daunting at first, Zoner Studio Free 14 is actually easy to use--and very powerful.Zoner Photo Studio Free's interface is divided into three sections, which you switch between using tabs placed in the upper right corner of the main window: Manager, which handles file browsing and cataloging; Viewer, where you view individual files and slide shows; and Editor, where you manipulate your images.

The Manager has several tabs so that you can switch between views of the files as they reside on your computer, placed by date in a catalog, photos you've added to your favorites, and photos you've uploaded to vendor Zoner Software's Zonerama online sharing service. The Viewer is simple, with a thumbnail slider at the bottom to preview multiple photos in the current location so you can jump forward and backward by several photos, as well as a view a slide show of your photos. Though the program doesn't edit video, it does play video in the viewer section.

The Editor offers many effects, such as emboss, detect contours, pencil drawing, waves, etc. Standard editing functions like crop, canvas size, red-eye reductions, clone are on hand--as well as some more esoteric functions such as mesh distort, deform, align horizon, and others.

Zoner PHoto Studio free supports 3D, tags, GPS, and the usual cataloging tools. You will not be disappointed with the editing capabilities--and performance is top-notch with nary a lag anywhere. The program supports a wide variety of file types, including JPEG, BMP, GIF, TGA, PCX, PNG, HDP, JXR, WPG, and Zoner's own BMI.

There is one thing about Zoner Studio that I most decidedly do not like: persistent delete confirmation. I found no way to turn off the dialog asking me if I truly wanted to delete what I just said I wanted to delete. I often scroll through photos to weed out those that aren't up to snuff, and facing this dialog every single time wore on me. In fact, it sent me back to Windows Photo Viewer as my default viewer/pruning tool.

All in all, Zoner Studio Free is probably the best free photo editing software to be had. Unless you're a pro who needs dual-monitor support, HDR, batch operation, and advanced photo correction filters provided by the pay version, the free version is probably all you need. Now if Zoner would just let me get rid of that darn delete confirmation dialog.

Note: The Download button takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software.

--Jon L. Jacobi

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