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PC Authority Issue: January, 2008

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

Issue: 122  |  January, 2008

What's in this issue

Current issue
Issue 122 | January 2008

What's in the mag?
* Reliability and Service Award results
* Asus Eee PC - $499 laptop
* Double Superguide
* New Adobe elements
* Intel Penryn
* 2008 tech trends

Well it’s finally here. After nagging everyone to fill in our Reliability and Service Awards survey over the past several months the results are in. After absurd amounts of statistical analysis and processing we finally have our winners. And boy was it all worth it.

Much has been made about the state of Australia’s broadband but our survey adds facts and figures to the hearsay. Australia’s biggest tech company, Telstra, once again performed terribly with less than half of its customers willing to recommend its BigPond service to a friend.

Another fascinating facet of the survey was the performance of Vista. Only 50% of buyers thought it was easy to use, only 60% were happy with the features on offer and only 53% thought it was good value for money.

But there’s far more to this month’s issue. We reported from Computex in June that Intel was ready to ship its new 45nm ‘Penryn’ processors. These promise more performance, less power requirements and less heat generation. But does the promise ring true? We find out on page 44.

Computex also heralded Asus’ Eee PC. Now available in Australia, this super cheap ($499) notebook is aimed specifically at kids (and third world countries). But the product is so good that, quite frankly, there’s no excuse for anyone to not have a notebook anymore. Read the review on page 45.

On top of all this we look at Adobe’s new photo- and video-editing Elements packages (page 58) and look at the best software for connecting to a remote computer in our Remote Access Software Labs (page 67). We also tell you everything you need to know about music encoding (page 81), how to get free games (page 87), what tech to expect in 2008 (page 75) and a whole lot more. Enjoy.

Nick Ross
Editor
PC Authority

Articles in this issue

Adobe Photoshop Elements 6
A new interface, smart albums, guided editing and photo merging keep Photoshop Elements ahead of the pack

Antec Sonata III
A slight iteration of a solid and well constructed case, with low noise levels a priority

Asus Eee PC 701
A genuine step forward for the laptop, with unbelievable capabilities for the price, plus an ultra-low weight.

Call of Duty 4:
Visually mindblowing, COD4 provides you with an enormous arsenal of real-world weapons to hack and chop at the seams of international terrorism.

Canon Pixma iP4500
A brilliant performer, particularly in terms of photo image quality. It’s superb value, too.

Canon Pixma MP610
Canon continues the good work and delivers another winner with the MP610.

Crysis
This is a game that pushes PC hardware to the limit, and puts so called ‘next-gen’ consoles to shame.

Dell UltraSharp 2407WFP-HC
Superb styling, packed with ports and features, and now with an increased colour gamut

HP Compaq 2710p
A versatile and compact tablet PC with stunning battery life, but we do have a few usability complaints.

HP Compaq dc7800 Ultra slim
Attractively small and aggressively priced, the Ultra Slim is an interesting proposition for businesses

Informatix Piranesi 5
Piranesi gets the major overhaul of interface and tools that its extraordinary creative power deserves

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650
This first of a new generation is only a little faster than the old, but its potential is clearly huge

Nero 8
Refocusing on disc-related features makes Nero the top choice for optical disc authoring.

OpenOffice 2
Our pick of the low-cost office suites has had a much-needed overhaul, and now battles Microsoft in terms of features, not just price.

Roxio Easy Media Creator 10 Suite
You still get a lot for your money, but HD optical burning only extends to data discs

Skate
Awesome skating realism with motion capture playback

Sony HDR-SR8E
A fully featured hard disk AVCHD camcorder with plenty of recording space

SONY HDR-SR8E
A fully featured hard disk AVCHD camcorder with plenty of recording space

Sony VAIO VGN-CR13GW
An inexpensive laptop that, when it comes to style and quality, more than punches above its weight

Transforming experience
When consumers balk at high HD prices, there’s only one solution for retailers

Walkthrough: How to Play Nintendo Classics on your PC
If you're stuck at home on a rainy day, we have a recipe for some gaming nostalgia that may just bring back some memories.

X-mini Capsule Speaker
An interesting take on portable sound reproduction

What's on the disc

PC Authority Issue: 122
January

Windows Live OneCare (90-day trial)
PC Tools Registry Mechanic 6
Agnitum Outpost Firewall 4
Paragon Total Defrag 2008 SE
Ashampoo Magical Uninstall 2.81
McAfee SpamKiller 2006


Freeware
AbiWord
Ambient Design ArtRage 2.5 Starter Edition
Audacity
DeepBurner Free 1.8
GIMP help files
GTK+ 2 Runtime Environment v2.10.13 (required for installation of the GIMP)
Microsoft Virtual PC 2007
Open Office 2.3
PDFCreator 0.9.3
The GIMP 2.4.1

Games
Unreal Tournament 3 (Demo)
Crysis (Demo)

Editorial
Real World Benchmarks
Creating a burned CD-R from an ISO image with DeepBurner
Download Upgrading Vista

Updates

Windows
Ad-Aware 2007 7.0.2.3
Adobe Reader 8
AVG 7.5.503 Free Edition
EditPad Pro 6.3.2
ExplorerXP 1.07
Google Desktop Search 4
Google Earth 4 Beta
Microsoft Windows Media Player 11
RocketReader 8.20
Spybot Search & Destroy 1.4
True Launch Bar 4.1
Tweak UI
WinRAR 3.62
WinZip 11.0
Zone Labs ZoneAlarm Firewall

Internet
AOL Instant Messenger 6.5
Crazy Browser 3.0 Beta2
CWShredder 2.19
Diino 4 Trial Account
FileZilla 2.2.32
Google Toolbar 4.0
Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.6
Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0.0.4
MSN Messenger 7.0 (98/ME)
Portable Firefox 2.0.0.6
Remote Administrator 3.0
SpamBayes 1.0.4
Trillian Basic 3.1.6
Windows Live Messenger

Patches
ATI Catalyst 7.3 Control Center Package (XP)
AVG Free Edition Updates
DirectX
Norton AntiVirus definitions update
NVIDIA Forceware drivers for the FX, 6000. 7000. and 8000 series GPUs. Version 162.22 (Vista)
NVIDIA Forceware drivers for the FX, 6000. 7000. and 8000 series GPUs. Version 162.13
NVIDIA Forceware drivers for 7800 and 7900 GO Series Version 84.63 (Laptops)
Spybot Search & Destroy Update
VIA HyperionPro drivers 5.12A
Realtek AC'97 Codec
Realtek AC'97 Codec (Vista)
Realtek High Definition Audio Codecs
Realtek Realtek High Definition Audio Codecs (Vista)

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For editorial queries, please contact:
William Maher
Brand Editor, PC Authority
wmaher@pcauthority.com.au

Zara Baxter
Deputy Editor, PC Authority
zbaxter@pcauthority.com.au
For advertising queries, please contact:
Joanne Nichols
Group Advertising Manager, Print and Events
ph: +61 (02) 8399 7603
jnichols@haymarketmedia.com.au

Sam Askin
Product Manager, Consumer IT Digital
ph: +61 (02) 8399 7619
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

August, 2009
Issue: 141
August, 2009

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