TechGenie PC Optimizer review: Maximum advertising, minimal value

TechGenie PC Optimizer Free Though PC Optimizer’s optimization and cleaning features seem to work, it spares no effort in trying to upsell you and get you to call the company’s phone support.

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Handsomely rendered in the latest Windows 8.x tile-style, TechGenie’s PC Optimizer is undoubtedly one of, if not the best-looking Windows maintenance suite out there. The free version offers marginal value—if you’re careful with it. But if you fall for the copious embedded advertising, you’ll wind up spending well over $100 for utilities you really don't need, then calling iYogi’s tech support to undoubtedly spend more. You might want to move on the next review now.

Still reading? The free version of PC Optimizer offers a decent registry cleaner, a junk file remover, disk defragger, a security advisor, an Internet settings optimizer, plus two-way remote control. The $40 Pro version adds a duplicate file finder, backup and restore, plus file encryption. There’s also an $80 Absolute version that brings parental controls, and a firewall to the party. Best I could figure, you need to throw in another $50 to $80 to get antivirus. A lot of upgrading and a lot of money for features that are already embedded into your operating system or available for free elsewhere.

Optimizer's Internet optimizer wants to add a lot of registry settings.

Giving the suite its due, PC Optimizer’s registry cleaner did about as good a job as my old freebie standby, CCleaner, in finding the detritus from recent uninstalls. And the junk file cleaner was moderately effective as well. However, the defragger wasn’t smart enough to realize it was dealing with a virtual machine drive or an SSD. Defragging doesn’t help the performance of SSDs and reduces their lifespan. On a hard drive, the defragger worked well, though seemingly no better than the defragger that comes with Windows. It also recommends defragging once a month, which is far too often.

There are a lot of settings provided by PC Optimizer’s Internet Optimizer, many of which are those that Windows doesn’t implement by default. The wisdom of changing these settings and the benefit derived therefrom is debatable. Also, once you’ve let the PC Optimizer “fix” it, there’s no way back, i.e. no undo. If there was any improvement in throughput, I didn’t see it.

Think they could squeeze in more mentions of the tech support phone number? The genie gets bigger, is animated, and got annoyed when I quit a defrag operation.

PC Optimizer’s Security Advisor mimics the Windows Action center in telling you what anti-virus program you have installed, what anti-spyware you have installed, and the status of your Firewall. The duplicate file remover doesn’t need explaining, but it seemed to base its selections on file size and came up with a whole lot of files that weren’t duplicates, just small installation or info files that are only a few bytes. Be careful with that one. The Encryptor (iYogi’s spelling) works on a file/folder basis and performed fine, though I limited my testing after the issues with the duplicate file remover.

I did most of my testing in a virtual machine, however, the Absolute version wouldn’t install in a VM so I used my main test bed to check out anti-spam, parental controls, and firewall (from BitDefender) in a limited fashion. Mistake. It required me to uninstall Microsoft Security Essentials before proceeding, then as far as I could tell, the anti-virus required upgrading yet again to something called Total security. With the anti-spam apparently only for Outlook (I use Thunderbird) and no way to confirm that the Firewall was working, plus numerous additional ads telling me to call technical support, enough was enough. I didn’t even get around to checking out the remote control of other PCs because I wasn’t sure where the data was going. This is only time I’ve quit on the testing for a software review in over 20 years.

We're not sure if the up-selling in PC Optimizer ever stops.

After the un-install, my Cisco AnyConnect VPN stopped working, and I had to uninstall and update my Ethernet controller driver to get it to connect to the Internet. I spent a good hour digging around, editing the registry, enabling, disabling, uninstalling, and reinstalling software to get my system back up to snuff. PC Optimizer had enabled remote assistance to the test bed without asking. I was not pleased.

This was not my first run-in with software from iYogi. The last was in 2009 with a Windows XP to Windows 7 migration tool that bombarded you with up-sell and tech support advertising, looked like it was going to do something, and transferred nothing. Sensing a pattern? At least PC Optimizer’s utilities do something, and some of it's positive. If they had been flawless, I could forgive the ads and upselling. As it stands, no user really needs a maintenance suite, but if you feel you must have one, look elsewhere.

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

Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4630 review: For $300, small-office inkjet offers better output and value than a color laser

Epson’s new $300 WorkForce Pro WF-4630 is just the kind of affordable, capable multifunction printer most small offices could use—even if they think they need a laser. A laser MFP may offer better text output (barely), but everything else lines up in an inkjet’s favor: purchase price, supply costs, and graphics output. Epson’s WF-4630 is the avatar for the breed: easily fast enough for small office work and packed with features. It also produces outstandingly sharp text, thanks to Epson’s new PrecisionCore print head.

The ethernet/USB/Wi-Fi-connectable WF-4630 stands approximately 13.5 inches high by 18 inches wide. It’s not the massive unit you’ll see in a printer room, but the size that sits on a table closer to the action. Output arrives in a fold-out catch above the bottom 250-sheet paper tray. A second, 80-sheet vertical rear feed will handle paper up to 8.5 by 47.2 inches (banners, anyone?) and provides a straighter path for envelopes and photo paper.

Image: Michael Homnick

The Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4630's output tray extends out from the front of the unit to catch printed pages.

The WF-4630 is managed via a 3.5-inch color touchscreen and a well thought-out set of buttons, including a keypad for fax duties. Epson's on-display interface is super-easy to navigate, and there’s now a preview of scanned documents. Sweet.

The driver dialog is typical Epson, logically and cleanly rendered. Epson also provides the standard set of now commonplace Web, Wi-Fi direct, remote, and email printing features with the WF-4630.

Copying, faxing, and scanning are facilitated by a letter/A4-size flatbed scanner for single-page documents and an automatic document feeder (ADF) for longer documents. The scanner lid telescopes slightly for magazines and the like, while the ADF scans both sides of documents automatically. Nice. The only thing nicer would be duplex scanning via dual scanner elements rather than re-feeds.

Image: Michael Homnick

The 3.5-inch color touchscreen on Epson's WorkForce Pro WF-4630 sports large, easy-to-understand icons for all the main functions.

The output from the WF-4630 is outstanding, and I mean outstanding for any type of printer, inkjet or laser. Text is extremely sharp, as are the focus and edges of both monochrome and color graphics. Color graphics, while a bit sharper, still offer the usual Epson palette—warm but not overly so.

We did run into one issue with our first test unit, where occasionally lines were offset to the right about four times per page. Our second unit exhibited this flaw in the first run, but rarely after that. 

Image: Michael Homnick

All functions are accessible via the Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4630's 3.5-inch color touchscreen.

The Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4630 not only produces great-looking documents, it’s a very good performer. Standard, letter-sized, monochrome business documents arrived at 14.9 pages per minute on the PC, and 13.4 pages per minute on the Mac. Even better, there’s little to no wait time before pages start arriving as with laser printers that need to power down to keep cool.

Full-page photos on plain paper issue forth at approximately 5.5 per minute, while the same photo prints to glossy stock in about 40 seconds. Scans complete at a moderate but workable pace: 10 seconds for a preview, 32 seconds at 600 dpi and just over a minute at 1200 dpi.

Image: Michael Homnick

The Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4630's ink cartridges fit into spring-loaded bays behind a front panel.

Supply costs are up a hair from previous generations, but still very cheap. When using Epson’s standard 1,100-page cartridges ($35 black, $30 for cyan, magenta, and yellow), ink costs for the WF-4630 are well below normal: 3.2 cents per black page, and 2.7 cents per page/per color for 11.3-cent four-color page—several cents lower than most consumer-grade inkjets and low-end lasers. The real savings begin with the $42, 2,600-page black (1.6 cents per page) and $44, 2,000-page color tanks (2.2 cents per page, per color). With those more capacious supplies, you’re paying a mere 8.2 cents for a four-color page.

Epson warranties the WF-4630 for one-year, with a recommended monthly page load of 2000 pages. You may extend the warranty to two years for $40 and three years for $60. The fact that extensions are available speaks to the overall quality of construction, which is generally quite sturdy.

The WorkForce Pro WF-4630 inkjet is a sweet little multifunction that does everything well. Supply costs are distinctly better than those of similarly-priced laser printers and low-end inkjets. If you want to spend less time adding paper, the functionally-equivalent $400 WorkForce Pro WF-4640 doubles the capacity of the bottom tray to 500 sheets.

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Acer Aspire E1-572-680 review: This budget 15.6-inch laptop is an outstanding value

Acer Aspire E1-572-6870 $580.00 You’re not going to get everything in a 15.6-inch notebook priced less than $600. Acer made nearly all the right compromises to get to that price point.

For general use, Acer’s Aspire E1 is the clear winner in this roundup. Acer crams a lot of value into this laptop’s $580 price tag, including a Haswell-class CPU (Intel’s 1.6GHz Core i5-4200U) and a 15.6-inch LED-backlit display with native resolution of 1366 by 768 pixels.

Though Acer uses quite a bit of plastic in the Aspire E1’s design, you won’t be ashamed to pull the notebook out of your bag. A smooth finish and rich color—Acer calls it Clarinet Black—make the 1-inch-thick machine very attractive.

The Acer Aspire E1-572-6870 is the easy winner of this roundup.

The chassis and lid, on the other hand, exhibit quite a bit of flex, so you won’t want to subject this machine to rough handling. The upside to all the plastic is low weight: At 4.6 pounds, this laptop has an advantage of more than 1 pound over the other 15.6-inch models I looked at, and it weighs just over a pound more than the ones with smaller displays.

Capitalizing on the display’s generous size, Acer includes a full-size keyboard and a numeric keypad on the Aspire E1’s deck. I expected the island-style keyboard to be somewhat flimsy, but I was pleasantly surprised by its solid tactile feedback. It’s not backlit and it’s a trifle noisy, but I have no complaints about how it felt under my fingertips.

The Aspire E1’s display is plenty bright, producing vivid photos and videos, but off-axis viewing is merely adequate. Acer also shaved a few bucks off the Aspire E1’s asking price by not including a touchscreen, but its highly responsive trackpad supports several Windows 8 gestures, including two-finger scrolling, zoom, rotate, and flip. You can also slide in from the right to open the charm bar, and slide in from the left to switch between applications.

The trackpad, which has a wide bar at its base that provides both right and left mouse-button functions, is off center in relation to the display, but dead center to the keyboard. It looks a little odd until you lay your hands on the keyboard’s home row.

The Aspire E1 has only 4GB of DDR3/1600 memory, but you can open it up and pop in a second module to double that amount to 8GB. Storage takes the form of a 500GB, 5400-rpm hard drive. There’s no SSD, to handle cache or anything else, and I noticed what appears to be an empty bay where an optical drive might go.

Benchmark performance

Acer’s machine delivered a Notebook WorldBench 8.1 score of 177, the best of the group by a wide margin. It also outperformed our reference platform, an Asus VivoBook S550CA, which has both an SSD and a touchscreen (but costs more than any of the systems reviewed here). Diving into the individual components in our test suite, the Acer performed better than the rest of the field in the PCMark Productivity suite, but Lenovo’s IdeaPad Z400, which has a larger and faster hard drive, handled our collection of media editing and encoding tasks better.

Our Notebook WorldBench 8.1 suite includes a broad array of benchmarks for evaluating a notebook's performance.

All work and no play makes for a boring lifestyle, but you’ll want to stick with casual games on this computer. We dialed BioShock Infinite’s resolution down to 1024 by 768 and its image quality to Low, and Acer’s laptop still managed to render the game at no better than a sluggish 25 frames per second. Intel has made strides with its integrated graphics, but its Intel HD Graphics 4400 still isn’t up to snuff for hardcore gaming. Even so, its gaming score beat everything else in the field (aside from our reference notebook).

Connectivity and conclusion

The Aspire E1-572-6870 offers a gigabit ethernet connection for occasions when you can plug into a network, and a Qualcomm Atheros AR956x dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi adapter for times when you can’t. The laptop also has a Bluetooth 4.0 + HS adapter to support theoretical data-transfer speeds of up to 24 mbps, though the only good application I’ve ever found for Bluetooth is streaming audio).

Acer provides an HDMI-out for connecting the computer to digital displays and TVs, and a VGA output for older monitors and video projectors (the latter could come in very handy in classrooms and conference rooms, which tend to have vintage equipment). The system also has three USB ports, but only one of them is USB 3.0. The included memory card reader supports only SD Card.

i enjoyed using Acer’s Aspire E1-572-6870. The machine is blessedly quiet, and it delivered a respectable 4 hours of battery life (middle-of-the-pack performance in this roundup).

Editor's note: This notebook was reviewed as part of a roundup for back-to-school season. You can read that story, along with reviews of the five notebooks we compared it to, here.

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

Asus Transformer Pad TF300 Review: Value Tablet Delivers A Solid, But Mixed, Experience

The 10.1-inch Asus Transformer Pad TF300 aims to reshape the tablet market by delivering top-tier performance at a value price. It largely succeeds in this mission, delivering performance that's on a par with its pricier Transformer Prime sibling. However, the Transformer Pad had to make some compromises in components and display to achieve its goal. And more worrying than those compromises--which include a slightly heavier weight and different build materials than what's found on the premium Prime--were the frequent glitches I seemed to encounter, with no rhyme or reason, while using this Android 4.0 tablet.

Priced at $379 for 16GB of storage, and $399 for 32GB of storage, the Transformer Pad is the new value tablet in Asus' lineup. The Transformer Prime, which was released last December and was the first Tegra 3 tablet, remains at the top of the pyramid, for now; that model stars at $100 more than the Pad for the 32GB version. (Asus has already announced high-definition, 1920 by 1280 resolution 10.1-inch models, coming later this spring/summer season.)

Those prices also put Transformer Pad in direct competition with the 16GB Apple iPad 2, which is priced at $399. And if you're just interested in specs, the Transformer Pad has the advantages over the iPad 2 in spades, starting with the fact that you can get twice as much internal storage for the same price. Why anyone would consider spending just $20 less for the 16GB model is beyond me, though; for the cost of less than two movie tickets, you can double your storage capacity for your media and apps. The Transformer Pad's extra bang-for-your-buck resets the bar of expectation for other 10-inch class Android tablets, too, since no other tablet offers 32GB for $400.

Transformer Pad: What You Get

Given their shared heritage, it's only natural to wonder how the Transformer Pad stacks up to the Transformer Prime, which is currently our top pick among Android tablets (only Apple's third-generation iPad and iPad 2 rank higher). The answer is simple: They have a lot of shared DNA, but the two tablets are not identical.

Both run on Nvidia's Tegra 3 processor and come with 1GB of RAM; both offer 32GB of storage in addition to a microSD card slot; both have an 8 megapixel rear-facing camera (no flash on the Transformer Pad, unlike the Prime) and 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera; and both have a keyboard dock accessory that transforms the tablet into a compact, netbook-like clamshell. The Transformer Pad comes with Bluetooth 3.0, and it adds Wi-Fi Direct support so wireless devices can directly connect with one another.

Those similar processing specs--the Transformer Pad has a slightly slower clock speed, 1.2GHz to the Prime's 1.3GHz--powered the Transformer Pad to comparable performance results to the Transformer Prime. This means the Transformer Pad ranks among our top-performing tablets. We saw a few minor differences between the two in our testing, but nothing that should impact a buying decision. In a preliminary battery test, the Transformer Pad's battery lasted 7 hours 7 minutes, same as on the the Transformer Prime.

The displays are different, too. Both are 1280 by 800 resolution IPS panels, but the Prime has a Super IPS+ display with 600 nits brightness, while the Transformer Pad maxes out at 350 nits. That brightness edge makes the Prime better suited to those who need to use the tablet outside in sunlight.

I also noticed some other, subtle differences between the two tablets' displays. Neither tablet did better than average in our image testing suite, and the Transformer Pad actually bested the Prime at displaying an image of a Web site, and of an athlete's hand grips. Of the two, the Transformer Pad has a slightly larger air gap between the touchscreen glass and the LCD beneath; this created a slight bit more glare, but it wasn't as distracting as on some competing tablet models. Images overall didn't have as much contrast and detail as on the Prime, though the Prime's display also seemed to be too bright overall.

The Transformer Pad comes with stereo speakers (side-by-side in a single speaker outlet at the speaker back right of the tablet). I found the audio output passable, but unimpressive. Although both models have Asus' SonicMaster audio technology, the Transformer Pad lacks the Prime's sub-woofer—which would explain why I preferred the audio output by the Transformer Prime. I found audio on the Transformer Pad sounds thin and echoey by comparison.

Physical Design

The Transformer Pad measures 7.11 by 10.35 by 0.38 inches, and weighs 1.39 pounds. That makes it a shade thicker than the Prime (by 0.6-inch), and 0.11 pound heavier; and 0.5-pound lighter than the new iPad. I found the Transformer Pad size and weight to be an improvement over Asus' previous low-cost tablet, the Eee Pad Transformer TF101 (0.2-inch thicker, and 1.49 pounds). But the Transformer Pad is still heavy enough that I wouldn't suggest it for lengthy one-handed reading sessions.

Unlike the aluminum-clad Prime, the Transformer Pad tablet is made of plastic, with a concentric circle design at back. While I could feel a bit of give in the plastic back, it is still of a far superior design compared to the ample flex in the original Transformer TF101. I also liked the feel of the volume rocker and power buttons; I found them easier to press than those on the Transformer Prime.

The Transformer Pad comes in blue, white, and red. The blue version ships first, available this week, while the red and white versions will follow in June, according to Asus.

One of the big hooks of Asus's Transformer series is that the company's tablets can use the docking port to connect into the optional $149 Mobile Dock. The Mobile Dock, redesigned to match the Transformer Pad tablet, provides a highly portable option for productivity fiends to supplement their tablet with a keyboard, multi-touch trackpad, USB 2.0 port, and SD card slot, plus an additional battery, too. The dock adds another 1.2 pounds to the overall weight of the tablet, but it's still an appealing option if you crave the tactile feel only a physical keyboard can provide.

I really liked the design of the new Mobile Dock. The keys had a bit more flex than I'd like, though, with the keyboard dipping when I touch-typed my way through emails and documents. I did appreciate the dock's new touchpad design, which has an easy-to-press single mouse button. this dock laces (By comparison, the touchpad on the Prime is actually a clickpad pointing device with an easy-to-press single button, combining touchpad with mouse buttons in one.) Unfortunately, when connected though, the dock didn't always seem to work smoothly; the pointer often ended up moving easily without me having intended for it to have jumped location, an effect I had not experienced with other Asus tablet/dock combinations.

Asus outfits the Transformer Pad with a selection of pre-installed software and several welcome Android customizations, such as redesigned menu buttons, and a redesigned settings pop-up that brings frequently used settings to the forefront. Asus also provides its own software, like Asus WebStorage (with 8GB of free storage), MyLibrary ebook reader, MyNet (for streaming media from a PC to the tablet), and MyCloud (for wireless desktop access); and third-party software like Polaris Office 2.0 and SuperNote 1.5 for annotating and drawing.

While using the Transformer Pad, I did experience a few oddities and glitches. Occasionally, I saw a flicker in the display's edge, and had to do a cold reboot of the tablet to regain control of it. I also had apps freeze on me several times. The tablet ships with Android 4.0.3, and Asus says it'll release firmware update in the unspecified near future to support Hulu. Whether this update will fix the random wonkiness I experienced, though, remains to be seen.

In spite of the stability issues I encountered, the Asus Transformer Pad makes for a good, large-screen value Android tablet. The extra storage you'll get will come in handy, but you'll have to be willing to sacrifice niceties like a subwoofer, rear-camera flash, and super IPS display to go with this lower-cost model. If you like the idea of extra storage and saving some bucks, the Transformer Pad makes a good choice.

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Where to Get the Most Value for Your iPad 2 Trade-In

As Apple prepares to release the new iPad, owners of older-generation iPads are looking to sell theirs back and upgrade. Several online retailers offer buy-back programs, but keep in mind that retailers are only buying back models that are in near-perfect condition, and the following prices reflect the maximum you should expect to get.

Amazon

$320 for 16GB ($385 for 3G)

$375 for 32GB ($410 for 3G)

$445 for 64GB ($500 for 3G)

eBay

$290 for 16GB ($355 for 3G)

$340 for 32GB ($380 for 3G)

$420 for 64GB ($475 for 3G)

GameStop

$250 for 16GB ($300 for 3G)

$300 for 32GB ($350 for 3G)

$340 for 64GB ($400 for 3G)

*Verizon models receive an average of $50 less than AT&T models, and if you want cash for your iPad 2, you’ll get up to 20% less.

Best Buy

$200 for 16GB ($245 for 3G)

$240 for 32GB ($265 for 3G)

$270 for 64GB ($315 for 3G)

Gazelle

$185 for 16GB ($230 for 3G)

$225 for 32GB ($250 for 3G)

$255 for 64GB ($300 for 3G)

Each buy-back program has its pluses and minuses, but Amazon seems to give the best value if you’re OK with just getting store credit. Just remember that Amazon probably will not sell the new iPad, so this isn’t the best route if you’re looking to trade in models. If you’re set on getting cold, hard cash, eBay is the way to go.

From Laptopmagazine. Visit Amazon Computer and Notebook Center Here