This month is rather unique for PC Authority in that we’ve teamed up with Channel 7’s popular news programme, Today Tonight, to bring you an investigation into one of the biggest names in tech: eBay.
When Today Tonight asked us to comment on why eBay’s stock price had plummeted the idea was born to do a combined investigation. As such, many of the horror stories you’ll read this month come from Today Tonight viewers in addition to PC Authority’s readers.
We investigate the company itself, its subsidiaries and the legality of its decisions. We also give tips on how to win every auction and much, much more. If you’ve ever used eBay, if you’re planning to use it or if you’re one of over 50,000 people in Australia who makes a living using it, then you need to read this month’s feature.
Also this month, the MacBook Air has finally been through our full suite of Labs torture tests and we give it a special double-length review.
On top of this we’ve arguably the widest variety of notebook reviews that we’ve ever printed. We’ve a tiny 600g Tablet from Fujitsu and a 6kg, quad-core monster from Pioneer. We’ve a bargain from MSI, new 45nm processor-based models from Asus and Zepto and stylish models from Toshiba and Sony. Whatever type of notebook you’re after, you can bet we’ve got one for you this month.
We also have a report on the steps being taken to digitise and preserve the contents of one of the world’s most prestigious libraries and a tutorial for those interested in Web 2.0. Our more business-oriented readers will like our special supplement on Security.
What's in the mag?
* Ebay friend or foe?
* Macbook Air
* Windows Home Server
* Notebook Reviews
* HTML superguide: Web 2.0
What's on the disc?
* America’s Army demo
* Steganos Safe One
* Bluesquad Booster 4.0
* McAfee Internet Security 2008
* Webroot Firewall 5.5
FULL VERSIONS Avanquest Driver Genius 6
Magix Music Maker silver
Large Software PC Tune-Up
Bluesquad PC Booster
Webroot Desktop Firewall 5.5
Reallusion Crazytalk Messenger
Steganos Safe One
McAfee Internet Security (90-day trial)
GenieSoft Archive for Outlook (60-day trial)
Geniesoft Mail Backup (60-day trial)
FREEWARE Abiword 2.5.2
Ambient Design Artrage 2.5 Starter Edition
Audacity 1.2.6
DeepBurner Free 1.8.0.224
GIMP helpfiles 2.4
GTK+ 2 Runtime Environment 2.10.13 (required for installation of the GIMP)
Microsoft Virtual PC 2007
Open Office 2.3.1
PDFCreator 0.9.5
The GIMP 2.4.2
EDITORIAL Real World Benchmarks
Creating a burned CD-R from an ISO image using Deepburner
Download - Data Protection
How-to: 3D Graphics Part 1
How-to: HTML basics
How-to: CSS
WINDOWS Ad-Aware 2007 7.0.2.6
Adobe Reader 8
AVG 7.5.503
Editpad Pro 6.3.2
Explorer XP 1.07a
Foxit Reader 2.2
Google Desktop Search
Google Earth 4.2
LP Recorder 8.7
Microsoft Windows Media Player 11
RocketReader 8.2
Spybot Search & Destroy 1.5.1
True Launch Bar 4.2
Tweakui
Winrar 3.71
Winzip 11.1
Zonealarm firewall
GAMES America's Army
Conflict: Denied Ops (demo)
Rise of Atlantis (1hr demo)
Sam and Max Ice Station Santa (demo)
LINUX Damn Small Linux 4.2.1
SystemRescueCD 0.4.2
INTERNET AOL Instant Messenger 6.5.7.20
Azureus Beta 2
Crazy Browser 3
CWShredder 2.19
Diino 4.1
eBay Desktop (with Adobe AIR runtime)
FileZilla 3.0.3
Google Toolbar
Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.12(98/ME)
Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0.0.9
MSN Messenger 7
NetStumbler 0.4.0
Portable Firefox 2.0.0.9
Remote Administrator 3.1
Skype 3.6
SpamBayes 1.0.4
Trillian Basic 3.1.9
Windows Live Messenger
PATCHES (XP and Vista) ATI Catalyst 8.1 Control Center Package (XP)
DirectX 10
NVIDIA Forceware drivers (for FX, 6000, 7000 and 8000 series GPUs) 169.21; 169.25
NVIDIA Forceware drivers (for laptop; 7800 and 7900 GO Series) 84.63
VIA HyperionPro drivers 5.13A
Realtek AC'97 Codec 4.04
Realtek High Definition Audio Codecs 1.86
A retrograde step from its predecessor, but a super low price makes this dinky PC very desirable
Forget the bloat of unwieldy office suites: if you just want to edit documents, there’s a host of lightweight alternatives
Apple's iconic ultraportable goes under the knife and comes away looking better than ever
A blisteringly fast processor, strong build and stylish design make this an extremely attractive laptop
Everything you need to know about maxing-out your broadband connection, including interleaving, fine tuning MTU settings, firmware updates, ADSL filters and splitters,and that old chestnut - electrical noise in your wiring
An interesting concept, but there are far more capable devices around.
How did a vibrant palace of bargains and trust turn into a standoff between buyers and sellers? Part one of our major feature.
Find out how Microsoft’s impressive new OS will share and back up all the data on your home PCs, among other tricks.
Google's free document editor is serviceable but lacks all the tools we wanted.
A phone with a personality crisis, but although it’s no iPhone it makes an interesting choice for business users
A useful code editor that offers a small, but powerful set of features.
A wireless security system with good roaming support, but it isn’t perfect
An expensive camera, but one offering superb image quality, features and handling
The best of the bunch we reviewed, this is a document editor worth checking out.
It might not look like a serious case, but it’s got some chops where it counts, and for the price, it definitely has us impressed.
Grab yourself a copy of Microsoft’s Flight Simulator X, and one of these, and you’re about as close as you’ll get to a flight deck at home.
How much capacity and how many drives do you need? We look at a selection of storage options
A mighty dual-GPU board that makes light work of even today’s toughest DirectX 10 games
A mighty dual-GPU board that makes light work of even today’s toughest DirectX 10 games.
The A700 has excellent image quality, but is let down by design quirks and the high price.
One of the best lightweight document editors available
Great picture and an impressively high resolution at a good price, but with few features
Craig Grannell reveals quick, efficient ways to add interactive components to websites.
Drag and drop functionality that allows audio to be recorded direct to page.
