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PC Authority Issue: January, 2009

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

Issue: 134  |  January, 2009

What's in this issue

I’m not fixated on size, I swear. It just happens to be a theme in the January issue. It’s not like we planned it. Well, except for the huge Reliability and Service Awards. And the external hard drives test, and the Windows 7 preview, and the nine-page review of CS4....

20,000 people filled in our Reliability and Survey Awards, now in their third year, and well over 100,000 votes were cast among the 16 categories included. We’re confident that these represent the largest consumer technology survey in Australia. You’ll find it an indispensible guide to the good, the bad and the ugly of products and services.

Also huge is our external hard drives test, which covers 15 models, both portable and desktop. External hard drives keep getting cheaper and cheaper – we just received a massive 1.5TB drive to test in the labs for next issue (unplanned enormity!). External storage is great for backup, and thanks to gadgets like the WDTV featured in this issue, it’s also great for multimedia libraries.

To keep with the theme, Windows 7 is the next big thing in the OS world, and a pre-beta is finally here. We got a private viewing of some of its features from Windows Evangelist Tim Sneath. We’ll show you why it’s going to be worth waiting for in the pages of this issue. If you can’t wait, we’ve got a stack of tips for turning your current OS into something more 7-like.

The nice folks at Dell let us steal away their Precision Workstation M6400 for a brief look over and test, and we’re heartily impressed. It’s a massive Quad Core laptop with DDR3 and a Quadro graphics card – only in the pages of this issue!

We’ve got Australia’s biggest guide to Adobe Creative Suite 4. If you’re a designer or web developer, this nine page review is a one-stop shop of information about Adobe’s flagship product.

Articles in this issue

Adobe CS4 - sink your teeth into our massive review guide
Our massive guide to Adobe's huge overhaul of the Creative Suite, including reviews of Photoshop CS4, Illustrator, InDesign and Dreamweaver.

Adobe CS4 Design Standard / Premium
Adobe builds on its print strengths to take its rich design mission online. And it has made a success of it, too.

Adobe CS4 Web Standard / Premium
A period of transition as Adobe deals with its Macromedia inheritance and the changing nature of the web.

Adobe Dreamweaver CS4
A shift of focus to advanced CSS and JavaScript handling, but Dreamweaver is beginning to look old-fashioned

Adobe Fireworks CS4
The new interface plus PDF and AIR export sees Fireworks CS4 fully integrated into the Creative Suite.

Adobe Flash CS4 Professional
A new focus on animation, better video support and deeper integration, but not the core authoring package it once was.

Adobe Illustrator CS4
Still heavy going, but a raft of improvements means it’s the most comprehensive drawing package on the market.

Adobe InDesign CS4
Advanced long document functionality and screen-based publishing via Flash contribute to another Quark-bashing.

Adobe Master Collection
Adobe significantly strengthens its print, web and production workflows – and the integration between them

Adobe Photoshop CS4
An excellent release that reworks Photoshop’s core colour-correction capabilities, making them even more powerful

Billion BiPAC 7402NX, it's fast and there's no downtime
Fast, full of features and with mobile broadband support, but just a little too expensive

Buffalo Drive Station Combo 4
Quick, packed with interfaces, but just a little too expensive.

Buffalo Ministation Pro
Strong on data security measures, this drive is a stand-out.

Dell Precision Workstation M6400
If you don’t care about weight, this is what a laptop should be

External hard disks - 15 rated and reviewed
Is your PC’s hard disk getting cramped? Invest in an external hard disk and never again worry about running out of room.

Far Cry 2 the review - unflinchingly brutal
Far Cry 2 is an ugly game, simply because it all too accurately portrays a modern world conflict in a war-torn African nation.

Freecom Mobile Drive XXS
Light on features, but it’s tiny and ferociously quick.

Freecom Toughdrive
Rugged and durable, but overall it’s a bit pricey

Garmin Nuvi 265W, clean navigating
Garmin’s Nuvi 265W offers a clean navigating experience with a host of useful features and suffers only a handful of small issues.

Gorge yourself on 1TB of storage "Caviar"
A great desktop drive but you can get this capacity and similar performance for less

Intel Core i7
Intel’s new range of desktop processors has been a long time coming, but at last it’s arrived - and it leaves all others in the dust

Iomega eGo
Stylish, quick and cheap but not Particularly small.

Iomega Prestige Desktop Hard Drive
Thin, but short on features and not particularly cheap either.

LaCie Hard Disk
It may lack eSATA, but this is a fast and cheap terabyte drive.

LaCie Little Disk
Clean lines undermined by poor performance and a high price.

Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus
Quick, cheap and light: the best 3.5in drive in the group.

Seagate FreeAgent Go
Great design, but average performance lets it down.

Seagate FreeAgent XTreme
Stylish and versatile, its only drawback is the mammoth price

Sony VAIO VGN - Z17GN/B, it's pure class
Sony’s Z-Series is an ultraportable to aspire to, even if there are a couple of areas where it could improve.

The Investigator: is your ISP ignoring you?
This Investigator reports how one man spent six weeks fighting "tooth and nail" with People Telecom over a contract he claimed was extended by 12 months without his permission.

Transcend StoreJet Portable
Tough, quick and a good choice if you need a little extra protection.

Trend Micro Internet Security 2009
A well-featured package with some unusual tricks that falls just short of a first-rate performance.

Verbatim External Hard Disk
Relatively quick and cheap, but not quite up there with the best

Western Digital My Book Home Edition
Western Digital MyBook Home Edition

Western Digital My Passport Elite
Fine performance and features make this a worthy winner.

What's on the disc

PC Authority Issue: 134
• Paragon Partition Manager SE
• Ashampoo Photo Commander 6
• O & O Disk Image Express
• Alpinesoft VinylStudio LE
• LEGO Batman Demo

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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

View all back issues
 
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