Lenovo Z560 Review

The Lenovo Z560 is an new mainstream multimedia laptop aimed at the heart of the laptop market. It promises solid performance at a reasonable price, but there are numerous laptops that compete in this same class. Can the Z560 stand out from the crowd?

Introduction

The Lenovo Z560 is a new laptop from Lenovo advertised as a multimedia laptop. With a display size of 15.6” inches and a weight of about 5.7 pounds, the Z560 is clearly a mainstream laptop targeted toward users who will primarily keep their laptop at home.

The review unit we received came with a Core i3 350M processor (2.26 GHz), 3GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive and Intel HD graphics. The base price for this entry-level model is generally around $700 ($699 at the time of this writing).

Some significant upgrades are available if desired. A Core i7 dual core processor is available, but quad cores are not. The graphics can be upgraded to an Nvidia GeForce 310M or 315M. Upgrades to the RAM and hard drive are also available.

Impressions
Rating

Build quality is one of the Z560’s best traits. The first thing you notice about the laptop is, unfortunately, a glossy black lid (the only color option so far). However, the lid feels very sturdy when you raise it, and inside you’ll find a nice expanse of brushed aluminum that covers the palm-rest and extends around the enter keyboard.

The trackpad is responsive and has a great texture. The keyboard feels like it would not be entirely out of place on a ThinkPad. Flex exists, but is not readily apparent unless you go banging on the keyboard to look for it. The keys are well spaced and comfortable.

On the downside, the numpad on the right of the laptop is a disaster. It is crammed right next to the keyboard, requiring that some of the keys on the left side of the keyboard – like the Control, Enter and Backspace keys – be cut down or placed in an odd position.

Display quality isn’t great. Although large, the display resolution is a meager 1366x768. Viewing angles are poor, the backlight isn’t particularly bright, and the glossy finish is both distracting and unattractive. But having said all of this, it is hard to knock the Z560 down for these flaws, as virtually every other laptop in this price range has the exact same problems. It seems that you have to spend at least a grand to get a laptop with a decent display in today’s market.

Overall, Z560 leaves a good impression. It feels more expensive than it is.

Performance
Rating

The Core i3 processor in the Z560 runs at 2.26 GHz. It is fast, capable of converting 14 iTunes tracks to AAC in less than two minutes. It is more than adequate for the average laptop buyer. The 5400-RPM hard drive is capable of moving a 2.5GB file from one partition to another in about two and a half minutes, which is about the same as any other laptop with a 5400-RPM hard drive is capable of doing.

Although Intel HD graphics are standard, they do a very good job of accelerating video, which means the Z560 can easily handle any video file you throw at it. An included HDMI port allows for output to an external monitor or HDTV. Surprisingly, the Intel HD Graphics scored almost 1300 in 3DMark 06. That is very low when compared to most graphics solutions, but it is a big improvement over previous Intel integrated graphics solutions.

Avira AntiVir 10 Review

Version 10 of Avira AntiVir is offering an improved removal of malware and its remnants. Find out what AntiVir Personal Edition has to offer! Avira antivirus download is everywhere but watch out for fake AV exploiting AntiVir's good name.

What's New in Avira AntiVir 10 Free

Avira released Avira AntiVir Version 10 last March 2010. The new version boasts new features in AntiVir Personal edition:

• Shadow Copy function - The program is now using the Shadow Copy technology by Microsoft in Windows. This allows the antivirus to scan locked or currently in use files.
• Simplified UI on detected malware - The user interface in AntiVir 10 that prompts users for action when a malware is detected has changed to single option only instead of 6. More about this in the Malware Protection section in page 2 of this article.
• Generic system repair - The malware removal method used by AntiVir is now improved. Remnants of malware in the Windows registry or any critical area in the system are now completely removed. This is why AntiVir 10 has received a 5.5 score out of 6.0 from AV-Test.org*.

* AV-Test.org published August 16, 2010 the result of their test on 19 security solutions - http://www.av-test.org/certifications?order=repair_desc&lang=en

Installation and System Requirements
Rating

AntiVir Personal edition runs on Windows 7, Vista and XP. Windows 2000 users can still use AntiVir program but Avira will stop supporting Windows 2000 on July 13, 2011. Please note Microsoft has discontinued support to Windows 2000. Avira wrote on their website that the AntiVir ProActiv technology in the paid solutions of Avira will not run in Windows 2000. This is why using unsupported operating systems is not recommended.

Please note that I recommend getting AntiVir from the vendors' website or reputable download sites only. There are many rogue antivirus distributors that are exploiting the name of legitimate antivirus programs. Avira antivirus download is located here on their website. The program is currently available in 9 languages.

The installation of AntiVir Free is a quick process using its Express install method. A custom installation is also offered but I recommend using the custom install, only if you are advanced user. If Windows Defender is enabled in Vista and Windows 7 or installed in XP, AntiVir recommends disabling Windows Defender manually:

The configuration wizard for AntiVir 10 is presented after installing AntiVir using the "custom" install. To take advantage of better protection, I recommend using the high detection level:

You should also configure Avira AntiVir to detect all types of threats that the program is capable of detecting:

Also, you should configure AntiVir Guard to use the Secure mode so it will start as early as possible to immediately block or remove malware that will auto-start right after the user login to Windows:

Other recommended settings are to allow AntiVir scanner and guard to scan all files by choosing the Expert mode in the Configuration window. Use this setting only if you have enough RAM installed on your computer:

Finally, configure AntiVir by enabling the advanced processes protection for the program

Memory Usage & Program Performance
Rating

The memory usage by AntiVir Personal edition is acceptable. In the test system, Avira is only using 24MB of memory. The running processes are avshadow.exe, avguard.exe, sched.exe and avgnt.exe. If you have the antivirus configuration and the program's UI window opened, you will find avcenter.exe and avconfig.exe as active processes which will use 11MB and 17MB of memory, respectively.

The only issues that I noticed is when opening the configuration window of AntiVir on "Archives," the setting will take a while before displaying the available options.

Updating AntiVir detection signature is easy using its built-in updater. However, the program will display AntiVir Notifiers to promote the paid edition of Avira AntiVir.

On Page 2, our review of Avira AntiVir 2010 continues including a look at scan performance and malware protection and removal.

SpyDLLRemover Review

SpyDLLRemover is a scanning utility developed by RootkitAnalytics that scans for hidden dlls inside the processes. It is an advanced scanner designed to detect all hidden dll files that might corrupt your system or might be spying on your computer system.

Introduction

SpyDLLRemover is an advanced spyware scanner designed by RootkitAnalytics. Scanning the system takes only a few seconds after which a detailed report containing all the information about a dll is shown. The report also contains the threat level of each dll along with other information like company, description, process id (if running in the system), file size, file data, etc.

Features
Rating

• Advanced DLL or Spyware scanner
• Detects hidden dlls running in the system
• Automatic analysis of the scanned dlls
• Threat level indicator
• DLL tracer
• Process Viewer
• Detailed report that contains critical data about the DLL

Installation
Rating

The best part of the application is that you don’t require any sort of installation. Just download the application, unzip the file and directly execute the SpyDLLRemover.exe file to run the application.

User Interface
Rating

User interface of the application is very nice, filled with rich graphics and information. The application is very easy to use and every option is available at your finger tips. When you launch the application, you will be taken to the scanning section where you can scan your system for hidden dlls that might damage your computer system.

Click the Start Scan button and within few seconds a detailed report containing all the dlls running on your system and their threat level will be displayed on the screen. I ran it for the first time and had no dlls that were a threat to my computer system.

Double click on any of the dll to view more information about it. You can also remove all or a selected dll from your system by clicking the remove dll or remove dll from all button.

On the top, you can also notice a Process Viewer tab. Click on it to view the processes currently running on your system along with complete details like description, process id, company, memory occupied, file size, etc.

Last tab is the DLL Tracer that allows you to trace a dll based on the keyword supplied by the user.

Pricing
Rating

The application is available for FREE.

Conclusion
Rating

After considering the features, pricing and the user interface part, I rate this application 4 out of 5. If the application had more number of features, I would have definitely rated it 5 out of 5.

Note: Users should be cautious before removing a dll, otherwise you might end up with corrupted window or application malfunctioning.

Gigabyte Mercury Pro

In our last big case roundup (April 2007), Gigabyte’s Aurora 570 earned top marks for its excellent design and convenience as a chassis. But Gigabyte certainly hasn’t rested on its laurels since then­­—the company’s designers have gone back to the drawing board and given us a case that rivals the coolness of its predecessor. Gigabyte calls it the Mercury Pro; we would have named it the Monstrosity Pro if we were in charge. That’s because this case isn’t just a run-of-the-mill chassis. It’s a fully functional (armed and operational?) water-cooling/case hybrid. Take a moment if you need to collect yourself.

Both the 5.25-inch bay and PCI locking mechanisms are screwless, and they do an excellent job of holding your stuff in check.

At least, that’s how we felt in the presence of this case’s greatness. Typically, when water cooling is involved, we expect high levels of frustration and/or fluid leaking all over our expensive gear. But to our extreme satisfaction, Gigabyte has turned an otherwise irritating process into utter simplicity. For example, the water block stays the same regardless of your computing platform. Just snap a bracket over the top of the block and you’re good to go. It took us about one minute to switch from an Intel to an AMD setup—we spent far more time looking for the mounting bracket amidst the Gigabyte’s many accessories than we spent clamping the block to our motherboard.

Splitter valves at the top and bottom of the case offer plenty of room for expansion.

The cooling mechanism itself is Gigabyte’s Galaxy II water-cooling system. Rather than slapping this system to the side of the chassis and calling it a day, Gigabyte went to great lengths to integrate the water-cooling kit into the chassis itself. Ugly tubing runs alongside the framework of the case as much as possible, and we can’t speak highly enough about the six additional splitter valves Gigabyte includes in the case. They make for a stylish and handy way to add more cooling to your rig without having to disassemble the entire kit or, for that matter, spill even a drop of fluid.

Watch your liquid churn through the Mercury Pro's front panel.

Performance-wise, the cooler rivals some of the top all-in-one kits we’ve reviewed. It runs on a variable fan-speed dial, and we saw excellent performance on both its low and “cover your ears” setting. The cooler dropped our CPU to 40.5 C and 35.5 C, respectively, during full-burn testing, and 18 C and 15 C, respectively, when idle. Filling the system with fluid is as easy as holding a bottle over the case’s blowhole—a front-panel flow meter and tiny reservoir window show you exactly what’s pumping (and how much is left!).

Believe us, if we could find something about the Mercury Pro to criticize, we would. The Galaxy II does emit a horrible shrieking noise if it’s underfilled, but really, that’s it. This case rocks.

As always, Gigabyte gives you a choice between a windowed or grilled side panel.

NZXT Alpha

There are apparently two versions of the English language going around the technological world: One is the version manufacturers use when they say things like, “The NZXT Alpha also enables the user to fit large expansion cards like the Nvidia 8800 GTX.” The other version is the kind we use, where the word “fit” doesn’t suggest a large bucket of grease, a hammer, and profanity that would make a longshoreman blush.

If you're looking to build a screaming SLI or CrossFire rig, you'll have better luck using the box this case came in.

The blue LED fan on the Alpha's window adds some lovely coloration to the chassis.

The smallish size of the NZXT midtower case was obvious the minute we cracked the box, but we figured that installing a decent-powered gaming rig into the chassis wouldn’t be a total bust. And it wasn’t; it was just a hassle. The PCI holders aren’t your average combination of a screw and a metal tab. No, these holders have multiple notches and tabs that are meant to lock into the slots—obviously designed so the holder doesn’t accidentally fall out of your case. You know, when it’s not attached with a screw.

In actuality, you’ll likely break one or more of the tabs when you try to remove the flimsy metal holders from the Alpha. It’s a small concern if you never plan to build a second machine in this case or switch any PCI cards around. But that’s just silly talk. Nobody likes a gaping hole in the rear of their case, but that’s what you’ll end up with if you start futzing around with your PCI-based devices.

Have fun wedging an Nvidia 800 next to this neighboring drive bay!

Of course, the Alpha has an ingenious solution for this problem: It just doesn’t make any room for large PCI devices like today’s high-end videocards. If you try to put an 8800 GTX into the case straight on, it’s not going to happen. The videocard slams right into the case’s hard drive bay. It’s possible to get the card in there if you hit on the perfect combination of patience, deft angling, and brute force, but why bother? Once the hellish task is complete, you’ve got your card wedged in so tight that there’s no more than a fraction of an inch between the end of the card and the drive bays, and you still have to attach cables!

A strange benefit of the case’s miniature size is that airflow, for all intents and purposes, is perfect. The fresh breeze produced by the case’s two 12cm fans covers your motherboard just as well as it covers your videocard and hard drives. So feel free to pack your rig full of hot equipment—but not large graphics cards. The NZXT Alpha is, at best, an above-average case with a deal-breaking flaw.

Next: The Ultra m998!

You can purchase an Alpha with or without the side window; we recommend the former.

Griffin Evolve Wireless iPod Speaker Dock

Only the best-sounding speakers ever earn our highest praise. Griffin’s Evolve wireless iPod quite speakers don’t reach that height, but their wireless capabilities are almost remarkable enough to overcome their middle-of-the-road sound.

In fact, we hesitated to call the Evolve “iPod speakers” because any analog stereo source can drive them; but Griffin clearly envisions its customers docking their iPods to the device so they can stream their music nearly anywhere in the house—and we do mean anywhere.

We were skeptical of Griffin’s range claim—150 feet? Riiight. So the first thing we did after charging the speakers’ batteries (more on that shortly) was take them into the double-walled media room at Maximum PC Lab North. The room has caused problems for many a 802.11n router, but it didn’t phase the Evolve in the least. In fact, the speakers didn’t as much as hiccup in any room we took them.

When we took them outside the house, we stared slack-jawed as they continued to play until we were 145 feet from the source. The stereo signal passed through an interior firewall and a fiber-cement exterior wall as if they weren’t event there. We didn’t get as much range on the other side of the house, because the signal had to penetrate multiple interior and one exterior wall, but our experience was only slightly less impressive.

The system sends and receives on the 900MHz band, which could cause problems with cordless phones that operate at that same frequency. We didn’t test this configuration because the cordless phones in use at our test location are based on the DECT standard and operate on the 1900MHz band. (But if you’re still relying on an old 900MHz cordless phone, it’s time to upgrade anyway.)

The two speaker cabinets are 5.5-inch sealed plastic cubes with magnetic shielding, a glossy black finish, and protective rubber trim. Wire grills protect the 3.5-inch drivers. A deeply recessed handle in the back of each makes them easy to pick up and tote around, one in each hand. There are power buttons on each, so you can shut them down to conserve the lithium-ion batteries when you’re finished listening. To recharge the batteries, you simply set them on their base—there’s no need for cables unless you want to use a source other than your iPod.

Michael Brown Asus EAH 3870

AMD has pulled a rabbit out of its hat by transforming the near-debacle that was the R600 architecture into a serious mainstream contender: The Radeon HD 3870.

The new GPU delivers several important features left out of AMD’s previous best effort: the Radeon HD 2900 XT. The most important of these is the inclusion of AMD’s Unified Video Decoder, which offloads all high-definition video decoding chores from the host CPU. The new part supports HDCP on both DVI links, too, so Blu-ray and HD DVD movies can be displayed at the native resolution of a 30-inch panel. There’s also support for new technologies such as PCI Express 2.0, DirectX 10.1, and Shader Model 4.1, although it remains to be seen how important these features will be in the near future. (Nvidia’s new 8800 GT is also PCI Express 2.0 compliant, but it doesn’t support DirectX 10.1.)

Asus’s EAH3870 is the first retail board we’ve examined that uses the 3870 part, and we’re impressed: It’s been a while since we’ve been able to laud anything other than an Nvidia-based videocard with a Kick Ass award. This card is not only powerful, it’s also affordably priced at $260 (and includes the first-rate game Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts).

AMD promises we’ll see other cards based on this GPU selling for $220, but those will likely come with reference-design clocks. In this case, Asus bumped the 3870’s core clock speed to 851MHz and the card’s 512MB of GDDR4 memory to 1.143GHz (from AMD’s reference-design speeds of 775MHz and 1.125GHz, respectively). Asus had just begun shipping these cards and was able to provide us with only one, so check MaximumPC.com for an updated review with CrossFire numbers.

Great job, AMD! Now get back into the lab and build a new GPU that can compete at the high end of the market.

Consumers finally have a real choice in GPUs. The Radeon HD 3870 at the heart of Asus’s EAH3870 is a genuine contender.

Asus EAH 3870
www.asus.com

Aces

Unified Video Decoder; PCI Express 2.0, DirectX 10.1, and Shader Model 4.1support; affordable. AMD's first card in a while that can compete with Nvidia.

Deuces

Not as fast as the 8800 GT in DirectX 9.

Windows XP (DirectX 9)
	EVGA E-GeForce 8800 GT SSC	ASUS EAH3870 (Radeon HD 3870)
3DMark06 Game 1 (FPS)	30.0	24.6
3DMark06 Game 2 (FPS)	22.9	21.3
World in Conflict (FPS)	32.0	22.0
Lost Planet (FPS)	34.3	23.4

Windows Vista (DirectX 10)
	EVGA E-GeForce 8800 GT SSC	ASUS EAH3870 (Radeon HD 3870)
3DMark06 Game 1 (FPS)	28.0	24.0
3DMark06 Game 2 (FPS)	22.3	21.3
World in Conflict (FPS)	20.0	23.0
Lost Planet (FPS)	22.0	24.2
Best single-GPU score bolded. AMD-based cards tested with an Intel D975BX2 motherboard; Nvidia-based cards tested with an EVGA 680i SLI motherboard. Intel 2.93GHz Core 2 Extreme X6800 CPUs and 2GB of Corsair DDR RAM used in both scenarios. Benchmarks performed at 1920x1200 resolution on ViewSonic VP2330wb monitors.

Toshiba Gigabeat T400 Media Player

It’s taken many a year, but Microsoft is finally figuring out how to build operating systems for handheld devices. Windows Mobile Portable Media Center 2.0, embedded in Toshiba’s Gigabeat T400 4GB digital media player, is better than anything Apple has to offer.

We’ve grown so accustomed to the iPod’s touch wheel that we didn’t think any other type of design could be as effective for browsing. But the Gigabeat’s crossbar (Toshiba calls it a PlusPad) and four-square button configuration are remarkably effective for navigating menus on the T400’s large 2.4-inch LCD. The device is also extremely easy to use with either hand.

Media Center Mobile looks and feels just like the big-screen version of the OS. Pressing the button with the familiar Windows icon brings up the main menu from which you can choose listings for TV, music, pictures, or video. Use the crossbar to move the selector to My Music, press OK, and you get a listing of your music sorted by artist, genre, album, song, or playlist. Toshiba recommends using Windows Media Player 10 or 11 to copy music to the player and create playlists, but you can also create a “quicklist” using nothing more than the player.

Although Microsoft’s PlaysForSure program has pulled a disappearing act, we had no problem syncing the player to our Rhapsody account and copying protected subscription tracks to the player. But what’s really exciting is that the device supports Microsoft’s WMA Lossless format—a rarity among portable media players of all stripes. The T400 sounds great with tracks encoded with both lossy algorithms, but it’s utterly fantastic with losslessly encoded music.

As much as we hate accepting trade-offs, we’re going to let the T400 bump SanDisk’s Sansa Connect from our Best of the Best list. The T400 doesn’t offer Wi-Fi support, but it does provide a bigger screen, a better user interface, and support for WMA Lossless. Here’s hoping Toshiba decides to build a version with a hard disk (and adds support for FLAC while they’re at it!).

Toshiba's Gigabeat T400 is our new favorite flash-based media player.

Crysis

Let's get the obvious stuff out of the way up front. On a properly configured Vista machine with DirectX 10 hardware, Crysis is the best-looking game we've ever played. Its jungle environments are lush and realistic, with plenty of wide-open areas and just a handful of loading screens in the entire game. This incredible level of graphical detail is what PC gaming is all about.

Stealth tactics make sense when you’re on foot, but when you’re driving a 60-ton tank, you need not be subtle.

Screenshots don't do this game justice. Seeing Crysis in action will take your breath away. The perfectly rendered jungle scenes, gorgeous beaches, and water that looks better than the real thing set a new high mark for PC graphics and far surpass what we expected from a first-gen DirectX 10 title. Even more surprising, when we tested the game on DirectX 9 hardware, it still looked stunning—although we missed the fancy depth-of-field effect that is used fairly liberally on DX10 systems.

As for the game, it's carved straight from the generic first-person shooter playbook. There are bad guys (North Koreans, this go around), who are doing something they shouldn't (unearthing an alien artifact), and a hero (you) with powers (via a supersuit that lets you jump higher, run faster, and be invisible) that make you uniquely capable of accomplishing a challenging goal (saving the world). It’s all very predictable. The game mechanics aren’t particularly innovative either—we've done all this before.

That's not to say Crysis isn’t a fun, well-polished game—it definitely is. It's just not revolutionary from a gameplay perspective. The game’s by-the-book weapons include pistols, a shotgun, a rifle or two, and a submachine gun, which you customize with different add-ons—scopes, silencers, grenade launchers, and a few others. While this level of customization could have added some needed depth, you generally end up choosing between the silencer and grenade launcher, depending on the number of baddies you want to take out. Because you'll pick up all of the weapons and add-ons within the first hour or two of the game and you gain absolutely no new suit capabilities beyond those you start with (armor, superspeed, cloaking, and superstrength), character development feels extremely stunted.

Where Crysis really excels is in actual combat, especially at the higher difficulty settings. While the AI seems mildly stunted at the default difficulty, at more challenging settings it’s more realistic without seeming prescient. The brilliant AI, combined with the open maps, which let you scout an encounter unseen and then approach from the best possible side to crush the enemy, is the game's saving grace.

In Crysis, merely shooting a bad guy isn’t the only way to kill him. You can literally blow his house down.

On easy, Crysis is a forgettable run’ n’ gun shooter, which you'll finish in a few short hours. When you crank the game up to the highest difficulty setting, it's a much more tactical experience. You must silently dispatch your enemies while evading detection or you’ll be killed. To up the immersion factor, the game also forces you to use iron sights and the Korean baddies actually speak Korean. You won't know whether they're talking about the weather or one just saw you skulking through the undergrowth.

Crysis is undoubtedly the type of game that will make your console-playing buddies take note, but compared to other recent shooters, there's virtually no character development. Luckily, the combat is outstanding, more than making up for the game's minor failings.

Crysis sets a whole new level for visual quality in games with its unbelievable graphics.

Microsoft Sidewinder Gaming Mouse

We like fancy gaming mice. We like them for their super-accurate sensors, their adjustable resolutions, and the veritable cornucopia of buttons that grace their frames. But above all, a gaming mouse has to remain comfortable during marathon wrist-crippling gaming sessions, which is where the new Sidewinder really falls apart.

You see, this mouse is just too big. It’s not as though we have tiny, inadequate hands. Really, we don’t. We all have large, extremely manly hands. However, even with our giant meathooks, this mouse is too wide.

What makes it difficult to give this mouse a poor verdict is that we quite like its shape and many of its features. Its sensor is remarkably accurate—and includes the now-standard shift-on-the-fly sensitivity that we’ve come to love. Its button placement is quite good, too, and we really dig the vertically arrayed thumb buttons. Unlike mice that have horizontally mounted thumb buttons, the Sidewinder’s buttons are easy to distinguish from each other and painless to press. And we love the built-in screen, which shows you exactly what mouse sensitivity you’ve set. We even appreciate the macro software, which lets you perform instant 180-degree turns and other custom maneuvers with a single button-press.

The mouse also comes with a weighted box, which keeps the mouse cord from flopping all over your desk. It’s a little gimmicky, but a nice gimmick nonetheless. Without a doubt, the Sidewinder’s interchangeable mouse feet are our favorite feature. The mouse ships with three sets of feet, each with a different level of smoothness. We love this and hope to see it on more mice. There’s nothing worse than wearing out the Teflon pads on an $80 mouse.

While the buttons feel just right, the wheel leaves something to be desired. Its action is too stiff, and it’s difficult to click the mouse wheel without accidentally scrolling the mouse.

Unfortunately, the wonky scroll wheel combined with the monstrously oversized frame means this mouse won’t be living in our house.

It looks good, but the Sidewinder's oversized design isn't good for people who have normal-sized hands.

Tritton Audio Xtreme 360

Tritton’s headset delivers true surround sound, just like the Turtle Beach Ear Force HPA2 we recommended in June. It also offers a feature that the HPA2 doesn’t: a powered Dolby Digital decoder module with optical and coaxial digital inputs, plus a port for plugging in a second set of Tritton headphones. Cool!

This feature renders the AX360 useful for watching movies on a DVD player or gaming on a console system, but it doesn’t do much for PC use. Tritton provides an analog adapter cable, so you can plug the headset directly into your soundcard, but the AX360’s mic isn’t as good as the HPA2’s, and it’s leagues behind theBoom Quiet in terms of rejecting background noise. The Tritton also can’t match the HPA2 in terms of audio fidelity in music, movies, and games, but it sounds far better than the BQ and the utter waste of plastic that is the Genius.

Surround-sound support is a welcome feature, but the Turtle Beach product bundles it in a better package.

HP W2207

HP’s oh-so-affordable 22-inch display isn’t the least bit spartan. It’s attractively styled with reflective-black and anodized-silver trimmings, and it has a dual-hinged neck for height adjustment; tilt, swivel, and rotate functionality; and numerous welcome acronyms: DVI, VGA, two USB ports, HDCP support, and OSD controls. A built-in speaker is hardly worth mentioning.

The w2207 also boasts a glossy screen, which might be prone to glare in environments with bright overhead or direct lighting but otherwise makes for a dazzling picture. In all our real-world tests, the display’s shiny surface made content look more striking and contrast seem greater than on the other two screens reviewed here.

But the w2207 does have its issues. In DisplayMate, it was the least impressive of the group, thanks to some backlight blotchiness on a totally dark screen, minor color-tracking irregularities, and banding in grayscales of 128 or more steps. While these factors tempered our enthusiasm for the monitor, they didn’t mar our experience in games, movies, and other applications.

Trustware BufferZone Pro

On occasion, we’ve clicked a link we knew we shouldn’t have. And before we could say “virtualization,” the latest browser exploit was downloading some spyware onto our PC.

In these cases, Trustware’s BufferZone Pro would have been a lifesaver. BufferZone wraps browsers, instant messaging clients, and media players in a virtualized cocoon at the application level. Unlike Virtual PC, which virtualizes the entire OS, BufferZone virtualizes your computer’s file system, registry, and services. While you’re not as isolated as you would be if you used a program that created a separate virtual OS as a sandbox, BufferZone is far easier to use and involves less maintenance. It also offers protection that antivirus programs and malware scanners can’t by letting you erase any changes that come in through an unknown browser exploit. BufferZone can even virtualize network shares and CD-ROM or USB drives, so applications are forced to open in virtual sessions as well.

We tested BufferZone on an unpatched XP SP2 install, and it worked as advertised. Without it, our OS was borked in seconds, but with BufferZone, we were easily able to undo any damage done. Responsiveness was fair to good on a fast machine and poor to fair on an old P4 box with a full hard drive. The app does have an issue with how windows are configured on multi-monitor setups, but it’s more of an annoyance than a major problem. Restoring a window to full size will cause it to jump from one monitor to the other. We would also like to be able to make incremental dumps of the buffer, so we wouldn’t have to take all of our applications back to day one if something fatal happens.

Maximum PC readers will find the program fairly simple to install and understand, but we’re not sure it’s appropriate for civilians. Saving a JPEG from a website to the desktop, for example, places the file in the buffer. You can’t copy the actual file to a USB drive without taking it out of the buffer—something that’s sure to confuse someone unfamiliar with the app. Still, BufferZone is a pretty handy utility for those who occasionally want to walk on the wild side of the web.

Razer Pro-Tone m250

If you dig your MP3 player but can’t stand jammin’ earbuds into your head to listen to it, you’ll find yourself attracted to Razer’s Pro-Tone m250 headphones. But after using them, you might resign yourself to suffering with the buds.

Headphones are a highly personal choice, and some people may be put off by the m250’s unusual design. A rubber-coated arm hooks over your outer ear—much like a pair of eyeglasses—and the disk-like driver folds over to rest on top of your ear. The fit was snug but comfortable, and the m250s remained in place through a series of jumping jacks and touch-your-toe exercises (well, as close as we could get to our toes, anyway). The clip design might cause a problem for those who wear eyeglasses, but we didn’t perceive any difference in sound with or without our own cheaters.

After catching our breath, however, we concluded that our dissatisfaction with the way the m250s sound is related to the distance between their speaker elements and our eardrums. Fast-moving high-frequency sound waves travel far; slow-moving low-frequency sound waves don’t. When we cranked up our iPod in search of the wandering bass line in John Hiatt’s “Woman Sawed in Half,” we absolutely cringed when the yah-yah-yah chorus burst in. Harsh highs weren’t as much of a problem with some of the other songs we tested with, but our craving for bass was never satisfied. Razer’s ProBass technology does produce a lot of bass, but the only way it made it down our ear canals was when we pressed the m250s snug against our ears.

The m250s also leak like a sieve: Listening at even moderate volume creates a tinny concert hall in miniature for everyone within a six-foot radius of your head. And as you might have guessed, these headphones do nothing to isolate your ears from outside noise. But this didn’t stop Razer from tucking an airline headphone adapter into the nicely appointed, zippered nylon clutch.

OfficeReady Professional 4.0 - Ready or Not?

OfficeReady Professional 4.0 has a lot more going for it than its predecessor, but is it enough?

OfficeReady Professional 4.0 is essentially an interface tool designed for the Microsoft Office suite. It’s only available for PCs and performs just about every function that one could imagine. For example, there are three basic categories; Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Within these categories one can find an extensive array of templates. Word contains more than 250 templates that can be used for a variety of applications including brochures, flyers, fax cover sheets, CD-DVD labels, eBooks, and photo sheets. Excel contains more than 75 templates that can be used for expense reports, balance sheets, sales forecasts, calendars, purchase orders, and retirement documents. PowerPoint contains more than 75 templates that follow a number of themes such as, earth, education, finance, nature, technology, and the Internet. All of these are embedded within a powerful engine that allows the user to construct professional looking documents. For more on this, see the “Features” later in this review.

Allume Systems, makers of Office Ready Professional 4.0, is a division of Smith Micro, the company that develops communication software for the wireless industry. According to its website, Smith Micro has been in business for over 20 years and has an impressive product portfolio. For example; Quick Link Mobile, Quick Link Mobile Enterprise, Quick Link Phone Manager, Quick Link Music, StuffIt, StuffIt Wireless, Spring Cleaning, CheckIt, Internet Cleanup, FAXstf, and Aquazone are all Smith Micro products. On the surface it’s unclear, however, how Allume Systems fits in to the picture--whether it was bought out by Smith Micro or is a spin-off company. Furthermore, the maturity of the Allume Systems product line was not readily apparent. Nevertheless, its parent company looks to be strong enough to assume that Allume Systems is not going anywhere soon.

Installation & Setup
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What's Hot:

The installation and setup of OfficeReady Professional 4.0 went smoothly. The dialog boxes contained professional looking graphics that were aestheticaly pleasing. The program even runs a nice Macromedia Flash player that gives a brief preview about finding templates, templates in general, custom templates as well as a host of other features. At any rate, the process was smooth, seamless and the instructions were clear. Even the novice user should be able to handle it easily. Overall, the installation was super easy and there were no surprises.

What's Not:

The user should make sure that they have a fast internet connection in order to download OfficeReady Professional 4.0. If one was forced to rely on something like DSL it could take very long. As a cautionary note, users should pay close attention not only to the system requirements but to the other requirements as well. For example, one could run into trouble if they didn’t have all of the latest patches and minimum Widows Office program requirements. These issues, however, are covered on templatezone.com and and other related websites. Finally, during the installation there is a page that attempts to get personal information. The user can opt out by simply providing a system name and leaving the other fields blank . Nevertheless, I find probes like these unwelcome these days.

User Interface
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The user interface for OfficeReady Professional 4.0 is straight forward and amazingly easy to use. The reason for this is that there is a basic toolbar at the top with only three basic categories in a vertically oriented management field . Navigation for accessing Word, Excel and Power Point templates is on the left of the sreen. Immediately above this is a “View All Templates” selection which is the default display selection for the main window. Above that is a search utility. The main window displays twelve templates that are large enough to give the user an idea of what’s available. Scrolling down reveals more and more templates.

The tool bar at the top is divided in half with “Manage Color Themes” in the left most position. Selecting this opens a window that provides a "Basic and Custom" color palate, the functionality to “Create a New Theme,” “Edit Existing Theme,” and “Import/Export a Theme.” To the right of “Manage Color Themes” is “PDF Roundtrip.” This opens a dropdown that offers two simple choices; “Convert Office to PDF” and “Convert PDF to Word.” Once selected, the former opens a simple window that provides two choices; “Select an existing MS Office file” or “Select a destination for you new PDF.” In the latter case, “Select an existing PDF file” and “Select a destination for your new document” are your options. Finally, to the right of “PDF Roundtrip” is “Printing For Less.” This is a browser utility that takes the user to the ‘Printing for Less' website.

In the top half of the tool bar and in smaller font is found “Tutorials,” “Profiles,” “Preferences,” and “Help”. These offer similarly friendly windows and selections. For example, “Tutorials” is a browser utility that takes the user to OfficeReady tutorials. “Profiles” opens a simple management window with the usual “Add,” “Edit,” “Delete,” and “Rename” functions for whatever profile information was entered during the installation process. “Preferences” is simply a management window containing “General” and “Import/Export” tabs each with easy to use check boxes. Finally, “Help” is also a browser utility that takes the user to OfficeReady help.

Considering all of the above, there would seem to be very little that one could do to improve the OfficeReady Professional 4.0 UI. Everything about it is straight forward providing a comfortable experience with all the functionality needed.

What's Not:
When OfficeReady Professional 4.0 opens the default display covers the operating system tool bar at the bottom of the window. Since there is also no apparent way to change this in “My Preferences,” the user has to minimize OfficeReady Professional 4.0 in order to work on other tasks.

Product Features
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What's Hot:

OfficeReady Professional 4.0 includes an extensive set of new and worthwhile features including the following:

· Color Theme Management.
This new feature allows the user to create color themes or use existing color themes from just about any source. A Color Picker provides the functionality necessary to select colors from any website, document, or logo. Then you can save those selections for application to any OfficeReady template.

· PDF Roundtrip.
Provides the functionality necessary to create PDF files from Microsoft Word, Excel, Power Point, as well as Publisher files. Once created, the user can edit the file and then convert it back to PDF.

· Unique PhotoShop Shapes.
This feature increases the creative range of the user by providing various shaped image borders such as curves, circles, slants and geometric shapes.

· Template Browser Interface.
Allows the user to create a customized user interface in order to organize, find, and rate templates.

· Improved Excel Templates.
An upgraded feature including more than 75 modifiable templates.

Office Ready also has an impressive array of standard features including the following:

· Over 250 Word templates, over 75 Excel templates and over 75 Power Point templates.

· A PDF creator allowing the user to create PDF’s from any Word, Excel or Power Point file.

· Automatic Profiles that allow the user to insert a name, address, logo, or signature image into a document.

· A Photo Editor that allows the user to insert images and pictures from a computer, camera, or scanner into a document.

· Professional printing services allows the user to send documents to a low cost commercial printing company called Printing for Less.

Given the above, the new feature set and the standard feature set are very attractive and contain everything that one would expect in a product of this type, and even a little more.

What's Not:

The Excel templates are business oriented and cover six categories from Business Management to Sales and Marketing. The program needs to include more of these templates so that the user doesn’t have to go to templatezone to obtain more of them.

The Power Point templates cover eleven categories from “Earth Views” to “World Currency.” Each of these contains an average of eight templates. Those who do a lot of Power Point presentations will likely want more than this. Again, they should provide more of these with the program. Moreover, the templates that are provided don’t seem to be arranged in any particular order; e.g. from light background to dark back ground etc.

Overall, both Excel and Power Point are limited in both number and variety of templates therefore the program would be more attractive if more of these were provided.

Performance
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What's Hot:
Performance is flawless in a typical exercise of OfficeReady Professional 4.0. All functions occur quickly and with no apparent hang-ups. For example, template modifications such as Photo editing, inserting Photosockets, and adding notes can be performed without error. Managing color themes and applying them to any template also occurs quickly and error-free. The conversion from Microsoft Office to PDF and PDF to Word in the general case performs seamlessly also. Overall, OfficeReady Professional 4.0.'s internal integrity and external compatibility appear to be very tight.

What's Not:
The conversion from Word to PDF appears to hang up sometimes. In fairness though, this isn't easy to reproduce. There were no format changes except in one case when OfficeReady Professional 4.0. didn’t convert a dotted line but just left white space instead.

Help & Support
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What's Hot:
The fact that OfficeReady Professional 4.0. offers free technical suppoort needs to be shouted from the roof tops. Both telephone and email support are available Monday through Friday from 9AM to 6PM Eastern Standard Time. Service is fairly quick and thankfully, there are very few buttons to push before you talk to a live person. Also available is an online support forum at the templatezone.com portal.

Price to Value
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What's Hot:
OfficeReady Professional 4.0 is affordable. The price to value is good and in the range of what one would expect for a product such as this.

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Conclusion

OfficeReady Professional 4.0 is a worthwhile product that is easy to use, performs well, and has many desirable features. It’s a solid purchase for users who produce a lot of Word documents. It's not as valuable for Excel and PowerPoint users. However, to offset this limitation, additional template packs for Excel and PowerPoint can be obtained from templatezone.com. Nevertheless, Allume Systems appears to be making strides with each new product release by adding new features and increasing the number of templates. Hopefully, the drawbacks mentioned will disappear with time.

Related Products

Microsoft Word, Excel, Power Point, Adobe Acrobat, PDF Converter Professional, PDF Create! 4.

OfficeReady Professional 4.0 - Is It Really Ready Now?

I remember using OfficeReady about five years ago. My impression is that it has come a long way with its latest version, OfficeReady Professional 4.0.

OfficeReady Professional 4.0 by KMT Software claims to be a virtual panacea for doing template work in Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. A user can select, modify, or create a template for the visual elements of these Office documents.

OfficeReady Professional 4.0 seems to be ideal for an organization that needs to produce all of its forms, documents, and other assets in uniformity. It enables the unification of the company's or organization’s “look” and “identity”.

OfficeReady Professional 4.0 comes with more than 250 Microsoft Word Templates, more than 75 Microsoft Excel Templates, and in excess of 75 Microsoft PowerPoint Templates.

In this review I’ll take a look at what OfficeReady Professional 4.0 can really do for you and whether it does what it’s supposed to. OfficeReady Professional 4.0 is of particular interest to me because I’ve always been pretty good at making visually interesting documents in Microsoft Word, Small Business Accounting 2006, and Office Accounting 2007. It will be interesting to see how OfficeReady Professional 4.0 stacks up against these three powerhouses.

Price to Value
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What's Hot:

KMT Software has two versions of OfficeReady Professional 4.0; Pro at $69.95 and Deluxe at $49.95. There are “Template Packs” which largely contain more of the same types of templates which come with the OfficeReady installations.

It appears that the biggest difference between the Pro and Deluxe versions is that the Deluxe version lacks PDF roundtrip capabilities and comes with fewer templates.

In this review I’m using the “Pro” version. Consider that in Microsoft Office you can manually create document templates and get virtually the same results that you can with OfficeReady Professional 4.0. Of course, with OfficeReady Professional 4.0 you have the theme browser, the Color Theme Manager, the image editor, and PDF roundtrip capabilities. No doubt it’s easier to create document templates with the head start OfficeReady Professional 4.0 gives you.

What's Not:

I didn’t really factor in the value of the hundreds of forms since I didn’t see a single one that I’d be comfortable using for myself or a client. Except a few, they were all kind of corny and had that clip art feel that was so prevalent in years past. That style has thankfully begun to disappear.

I don’t think that the massive supply of templates in OfficeReady Professional 4.0 is really that much of a benefit. I would rather have a fraction of them if they were of better quality.

Installation & Setup
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What's Hot:
Setup for OfficeReady Professional 4.0 was great and utilized the InstallShield installer. The installer is well designed to provide you with installation options such as features and file locations. You can also install it as a demo or an unlocked version. The installer was a little hefty, weighing in at 145 MB for the initial download but there are quite a few printable format images in the supplied templates. It installed smoothly and had the familiar “unlock code” type of activation.

User Interface
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What's Hot:
The first time OfficeReady Professional 4.0 launches, you will be prompted to create a profile which will become your default profile. As you use the document templates data from this profile you can insert them automatically into the documents you create. The application consists mainly of the Template Browser window which allows you to browse through the collection of templates, make changes to them, and use the various other features built into OfficeReady Professional 4.0. The UI is generally well laid-out, intuitive, and responsive.

What's Not:

I wasn't very impressed with how OfficeReady Professional 4.0 integrated into word 2007’s Ribbon (that’s what they’re calling the toolbar now). While using the buttons I found them to be relatively non-intuitive. Furthermore, they mixed in with buttons installed with other applications instead of having a better group delineation.

I also found the link at the bottom of the left pane of the Template Browser (Get More Templates) and the link at the upper right of the Template Browser (Print For Less) slightly distasteful. I have a problem with applications that I buy which have any kind of advertising in them. I don’t even like it when my printer properties dialog offers to help me order more ink. I can tolerate free applications selling me stuff, but paid applications are another story.

Product Features
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What's Hot:

Besides the Template Browser, OfficeReady Professional 4.0 has these notable features:

• PDF Roundtrip.This handy feature allows you to save a word document as a PDF. You can also open PDF documents as if they were Word documents, edit them, and then save them in PDF, or Word format.
• Automatic Profiles. Profiles contain your personal and/or business information. This information is then automatically inserted into corresponding fields in the templates to personalize your document. By setting up a profile, you will avoid needing to type in your information into every template. Whether or not you automatically apply your profile each time you create a new document is optional.
• Photo Editor. Surprisingly, OfficeReady Professional 4.0 has a photo editor built right in. It’s better than Microsoft Paint and since it’s designed for the type of photo editing one would encounter while working with a document template it’s fairly efficient. Although it’s not a replacement for a stand-alone photo editor like Photoshop.
• Photo Sockets. This is a unique concept and helpful in creating visual impact in your documents. The Photo Socket is similar to an “Auto Shape” type of vector shape you can insert in Word, but they act as a mask so you can turn your rectangular photos into circles, ovals, and other shapes.
• Color Themes. By using Color Themes a user can radically change the color scheme of a document template. The built-in Color Manager lets you pick any color from your documents, images and photos. By using this method you can quickly and easily create a color theme for a document that will perfectly match the logo and/or other document elements. Color Themes can also be imported and exported to be used on other computers running OfficeReady.

What's Not:
Oddly, the weakest feature of OfficeReady Professional 4.0 is the template set that comes with it. It would seem to me that there aren’t too many organizations that could use them as they are “out of the box.” Any organization that would wish to use these templates professionally would either edit the supplied templates heavily or replace them entirely.

Performance
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What's Hot:
OfficeReady Professional 4.0 ran as expected on my 1.5 GHz Celeron M laptop with 512MB of ram and Office 2007 on Windows XP.

Help & Support
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What's Hot:

Help is available through the Template Browser window and OfficeReady installs a link to the same “help” file on the start menu’s OfficeReady entry. This help file is a frameset containing the menu and documentation for the product as well as links to some video tutorials and other assets.

There’s also forum, FAQ, and email support available on the company’s internet support site.

What's Not:

Help documentation was apparently out of sync with the application version I was using. For instance, when I looked under “Working With Word Documents” at the “Adding Embellishments” page, the instructions were to set the insertion point in the Word Document and click the “Add PhotoSocket” button on the Office Ready toolbar. Then the instructions show an Embellishments folder, which is something that’s supposed to be available in the “Platinum” edition.

That sent me back to the sales pages for OfficeReady to look for the price of that version. There is no Platinum version available, and from my experimentations there is no “Embellishment” available within the user interface for the product at all.

Another thing I didn’t like about the documentation is that the video tutorials were video only with no sound. Instead of a voice-over on the videos they use callouts which are out of sync with the mouse movements in the video just enough to be a little confusing.

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Suggested Features

I think the developers should look more closely into providing a better integration with Office 2007's Ribbon.

Conclusion

As a framework for making and controlling templates and themes for Office documents OfficeReady Professional 4.0 is a pretty good application. It’s obvious that the designers configured a multi-user situation since they built in the Profile Manager into it. Based on the default templates that come with it, the application can handle, organize, and provide fast access to the templates. I’m particularly pleased to see the keyword facility to aid in finding the template you want quickly.

While I’m definitely not in love with any of the stock templates, they would serve as a good beginning for users who want to customize them or make their own. The fact that the Excel templates are set up to do calculations right out of the box means you can wring some additional value out of the application.

I’m giving it a tepid “thumbs-up”. If the application designers would hire a graphics person to make some really fantastic cutting-edge Office document templates, clear out some of the dead wood in the supplied collection, get rid of the “sales oriented” aspects of the user interface, and improve the help and tutorial documents the endorsement would be much stronger.