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PC Authority Issue: December, 2006

Australia's premier computer magazine, PC Authority gives you the facts, opinions and insight to make informed PC and tech purchasing decisions.

Issue: 109  |  December, 2006

What's in this issue

* Wi-Fi Routers group test
* Wireless Broadband feature
* Feature: Supercharge your Wi-Fi
* Wearable computing feature
* New iPods reviewed

In this month’s magazine, we’ve got possibly the best package of wireless technology coverage we’ve ever done. We’ve gone all out, covering the topic from all angles ranging from our features on long range mobile broadband and Bluetooth-powered wearable computing, to our comprehensive lab test of 802.11n Wi-fi routers. But we didn’t stop there, adding our corresponding feature on supercharging your Wi-fi, which explores wild new applications of the technology at home. We’ve left nary a stone unturned in our quest to bring you the finest wireless coverage relating to consumer PCs.

In the labs, we’ve got outstanding coverage of the top new notebooks from Toshiba, Lenovo, Acer and Sony, along with our special comparison of notebook hard drives. We’ve put the new iPods through the wringer, as well as the “BlackBerry killer” Nokia E61 phone. We also cover some of the latest world-class software, with Dragon Naturally Speaking 9 Preferred, BitDefender Internet Security 10 and Spyware Doctor 4.

In Real World Computing, Jon Honeyball makes a startling claim about Mac computers and Leigh Dyer manages to fit the entire Linux operating system onto a bootable flash disk. In Gamelabs, we’ve got coverage across the board of next-generation game consoles and those that’ll be on sale for Christmas, with or without their external HD-DVD drives or internal Blu-Ray players.

On the cover DVD, we’ve got a special version of TweakMASTER 1.71, an acclaimed tool for tweaking your Internet connection settings which also includes a trial of DU Meter, one of the best programs for logging your Internet traffic usage that we’ve ever seen. That kind of careful accounting is absolutely essential for mobile broadband users and people on a data cap with their Internet service provider. We also have full versions of Ashampoo Movie Shrink & Burn and PC Tools Privacy Guardian.

If you have any comments or requests for your magazine, PC Authority, go ahead and drop me an email. We're always listening.

Ed Dawson, Editor
edawson@pcauthority.com.au

Articles in this issue

Acer TravelMate 3273WXMi
A decent notebook but too expensive for the features on offer.

Albatron 7900 GS
It’s the best-value graphics card for those playing games at 1280 x 1024.

Albatron 7950 GT 512MB
Regardless of the fact that it's stuck half way between value and performance, it's still a good card.

Apple iPod and iPod nano
With new, supercharged battery life, the new iPods offer superb design and performance. But compatibility caveats remain.

Asus A8JP
Very powerful and, with few features missing, it’s good value at the price.

Asus P5NSLI
This early Nforce 570 for Intel board lacks luxuries and speed compared to Intel chipsets, but boasts a good price.

Asus PW201
The glossy screen both delights and frustrates, but this is an impressive entertainment display.

BitDefender Internet Security 10
Excellent value for money, but a few performance glitches.

Blu-ray drives shootout
Blu-ray takes another tentative step towards the mass market, but is now the time to buy?

Compaq Presario V2656AU
Impressive quality, considering the bargain basement price. We're talking sub $1000 here.

Imation Clip Flash Drive 2GB

Internet Anywhere
The future of Internet access is now. The idea of connecting cables to a computer to enable a connection will soon seem as archaic as manually cranking the engine of an automobile. Ed Dawson samples a cross-section of bleeding-edge wireless broadband services and cuts through the hype.

Iomega Desktop Hard Drive 250GB
Superior real-world transfer performance makes it a winner this month.

Iomega REV USB 2 70GB
Iomega insist on doing things its own way, but usually hits the mark.

IRIS Readiris Pro 11
A few usability niggles don’t detract too much from this great-value OCR package.

LG L204WT
Solid performance at an incredible price makes this the best-value 20in widescreen LCD you can buy.

Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 3200 Laser
A fine, fully-featured, high-end desktop set which is decent value at $130.

Matrox RT.X2
Excellent features and performance, but it’s pricey and you need a suitably powerful PC to make the most of it.

Microsoft Windows Media Player 11 Beta 2
Huge improvements in speed and a revitalised interface bode well for the future.

Nokia E61
A stylish and rugged business-class smartphone with a huge choice of push-email clients available.

PC Authority issue 109 now on sale!
Mobile broadband, making the most of wireless networking and routers put through their paces this issue

PC Tools Spyware Doctor 4
A great product, but it falls slightly behind its main competitor when it comes to updates.

Sam and Max: Culture Shock
Bite-sized adventure gaming that will leave you waiting for episode two.

Samsung K5-QB

Samsung SH-S182D
Take the ultimate DVD drive and remove one feature. Now up the speed. Now drop the price.

Samsung SpinPoint HD400LJ
A high capacity, low cost per gigabyte drive, with performance that will make it perfect for media PCs.

SandiskCruzer Titanium 2GB
If you’re buying a USB key, buy this.

Slim Devices Squeezebox 3
Good looking and easy to use, the Squeezebox is also well featured. The only downside is the price.

Sony LocationFree
A nice idea, particularly for PSP owners, but it’s ultimately too restrictive to be considered a must-have item.

The practical guide to Wi-Fi
Your wireless network is more powerful than you imagine. Use this guide to fully understand and utilise it.

TI C2D Extreme 6800
Very fast, but the top-end components offer poor value in the face of competition.

TomTom Go 910
The world maps make the 910 good value, but other features seem gimmicky.

TomTom One Regional
The best GPS to have right now, and a steal at $649!

Toshiba Satellite Pro A120
A good, basic notebook that’s specifically designed with the accident-prone user in mind.

Webroot Spy Sweeper 5
The revamped interface and unbeatable performance make this the best option on the market.

Western Digital Passport
The miracle of pocket portable data continues, with more storage in a smaller physical space.

What's on the disc

PC Authority Issue: 109
FULL VERSION SOFTWARE

TweakMASTER Pro 1.71 (including DU Meter!)
TweakMASTER Pro promotes faster Internet download speeds by carefully and intelligently tweaking various 'hidden' Windows settings to provide a substantially faster Internet experience. TweakMASTER can substantially improve your download speeds for all types of connections from dialup to DSL, Cable, and Wireless. TweakMASTER also includes Hagel Technologies' award-winning tool DU Meter to measure your download speeds and data usage accurately – a must for wireless broadband! See the disc interface for full version registration instructions.

PC Tools Privacy Guardian
From the makers of Spyware Doctor, Privacy Guardian resolves privacy problems by clearing away many of the tracks left behind on your PC. It can selectively delete any or all of Internet Explorer's auto-complete form data, cookies, downloaded program files, cache files, history information or address bar URLs. It directly supports clearing your tracks in Firebox, Mozilla, Netscape and the Opera browser, too.
Get your code from www.pctools.com/privacy-guardian/free/promo/VNU1006

Ashampoo Movie Shrink & Burn 2005
Ashampoo Movie Shrink & Burn 2005 takes the guesswork out of re-encoding a video so that it'll be small enough to email or download. Supporting .avi, .wmv, .mov, .mpg, and .asf file formats, just give it a target size in megabytes and click Start.
Check "Get fullversion key" during installation, or select Help > Buy / Register > Obtain a free full version key.

FontExpert 2004
Managing fonts is one of the more mudane tasks when maintaining a PC, but it can also be notoriously tricky. FontExpert 2004 helps you browse through your fonts, locating any you don't need, then uninstalling them.To register your full version, visit www.proximasoftware.com/vnu to retrieve your licence key.

NovaPDF Lite 2.5
This useful tool works by installing a virtual printer driver on your PC, allowing you to save any document as a standard PDF file in a couple of seconds. The document resolution can be set to values from 72 to 2400 dpi, as well as scaling the output to between 1 and 400% of the original document size. Get your serial code from www.novapdf.com/free-registration.php?src=15


GAMES
Battlefield 2142 demo
Company of Heroes Single Player demo
Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption demo

MUSIC SAMPLES
Selected MP3 tracks by Australian artist Mike McCarthy

LINUX
SimplyMEPIS 6.0 ISO
Puppy Linux 2.10r1 ISO

EDITORIAL
Real World Benchmarks explained
Turorial: Creating a burned CD-R from an ISO image with DeepBurner

FREEWARE
AbiWord
Ambient Design ArtRage
Audacity
DeepBurner Free 1.8
The GIMP 2.2.13
GIMP help files
GTK+ 2 Runtime Environment v2.8.18 (required for GIMP)
LP Recorder 8
PDFCreator 0.9.3

WINDOWS
Ad-aware SE Personal 1.06
Adobe Reader 7.0.8
AVG 7.1.407 Free Edition
EditPad Pro 6.1.1
ExplorerXP 1.07
Google Desktop Search 4
Google Earth 4 Beta
Spybot Search & Destroy 1.4
True Launch Bar 4.1
Tweak UI
WinRAR 3.61
WinZip 10.0
Zone Labs ZoneAlarm Firewall

INTERNET
Classic AOL Instant Messenger 5.9
Crazy Browser 3.0 Beta 2
CWShredder 2.19
FileZilla 2.2.28
LeechGet 2006 v201650
Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.7
Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5.0.7
MSN Messenger 7.0 (98/ME)
MSN Messenger 8.0 (XP)
Portable Firefox 1.5.0.7
Remote Administrator 2.2
SpamBayes 1.0.4
Trillian Basic 3.1

PATCHES/UPDATES
ATI Catalyst 6.9 Control Center Package (2000/XP)
AVG Free Edition Updates
DirectX 9.0c
Norton AntiVirus definitions update
NVIDIA Forceware drivers 91.47 (2000/XP)
Spybot Search & Destroy Update
VIA HyperionPro drivers 5.10A

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Zara Baxter
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zbaxter@pcauthority.com.au
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saskin@haymarketmedia.com.au
 
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Back Issues

November, 2009
Issue: 144
November, 2009

October, 2009
Issue: 143
October, 2009

September, 2009
Issue: 142
September, 2009

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Issue: 141
August, 2009

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