Lenovo IdeaCentre B750 review: An extra-wide-screen all-in-one

The Good With one of the only 21:9 screens we've seen on a PC, the Lenovo IdeaCentre B750 offers a ton of desktop space to fill with browser windows and productivity apps. With the right software, Blu-ray and HD movies can play without letterbox bars, and games feel much more immersive.

The Bad The midlevel graphics card, left over from last year, can't push the higher screen resolution and high-end game settings at the same time; bundled media player software oddly doesn't help with 21:9 playback, and the lack of a touch screen feels dated.

The Bottom Line A refreshing new way to look at all-in-one desktops, the Lenovo B750's Blu-ray-friendly, extra-wide display is great for movies (if you add some extra software), and games greatly benefit from a wider field of view. It's different, and fun to use, but it cries out for a touch screen.

Lenovo's B750 all-in-one desktop PC isn't the first system we've seen with a wider-than-normal screen, but it's still a relatively rare animal. And, with a discrete GPU, high-end CPU, and excellent IPS display, it's also a fun alternative to run-of-the-mill all-in-ones, and hopefully something we'll see more of in the future.

The B750 swaps the usual 1,920x1,080 screen, a 16:9 aspect ratio (the same as HDTV screens), for a 2,560x1,080 screen, which works out to 21:9, or the same as many theatrical release films. Technically, the aspect ratio is 64:27, but that's commonly rounded to 21:9. This wider style of display may never become a mainstream trend, but it's a nice change of pace and serves three major goals.

 

First, you can display HD video content, such as Blu-ray movies, without the traditional letterbox black bars you'd see on 16:9 displays. Note, however, that you'll need special media playback software for this.Second, PC games gain a new level of immersion by adding a wider field of view, essentially giving you extra peripheral vision in games that support that 2,560x1,080 resolution. Many of the games we tried, from Call of Duty to BioShock Infinite to Skyrim, worked well, although some will need config file tweaks to force the higher resolution.

Third, the wide desktop allows you to put full apps and browser windows side by side, much as one might do on a multiple monitor setup. For example, putting a Web browser and Word doc next to one another, or a large video playback window and another app.

At $1,449 for our configuration, which included a current-gen Intel Core i7 CPU, a big 2TB HDD, 8GB of RAM, and a Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 graphics card, the B750 feels fairly priced, considering its unique features. My most notable complaints are two-fold: the older video card (Nvidia is up to the 800-series now) suffers from serious frame-rate drops when trying to push the higher native resolution; and the otherwise excellent display isn't a touch screen, making Windows 8 hard to use, and making the entire system feel dated.

 

SPECS COMPARED

	Lenovo IdeaCentre B750	Dell XPS 27	Apple iMac (27-inch, September 2013)
Price	$1,449	$2,099	$2,199
Display size/resolution	29-inch, 2,560 x 1,080 screen	27-inch, 2,560 x 1,440 touch screen	27-inch, 2560 x 1,440 screen
PC CPU	3.4GHz Intel Core i7-4770	3.1GHz Intel Core i7-4770S	3.4GHz Intel Core i5 4670
PC Memory	8GB 1,600MHZ DDR3 SDRAM	8GB 1,600MHZ DDR3 SDRAM	8192MB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz
Graphics	4GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 760A	2GB Nvidia GeForce GT750M	2GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 775M
Storage	2TB, 7,200 rpm hard drive	2TB, 7,200 rpm hard drive	128GB SSD 1TB hybrid hard drive
Optical drive	Blu-ray/DVD/DVD RW combo	Blu-ray/DVD/DVD RW combo	None
Networking	Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth 4.0	Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth 4.0	802.11a/c wireless, Bluetooth 4.0
Operating system	Windows 8.1 (64-bit)	Windows 8 (64-bit)	OSX Mountain Lion 10.8.5

 

Design and features

The Lenovo B750 cuts a different desktop footprint than other all-in-one PCs, just because it takes up so much room. The screen itself measures 29 inches diagonally, but it's an entirely different aspect ratio, so that translates to a shape that's wider and shorter than a regular 16:9 monitor of the same size would be. You won't mistake this for a high-design all-in-one like the Apple iMac or even Dell's excellent XPS 27, and at 32.5 pounds it's heavy enough that you'll want to move it only when absolutely necessary.

 

The wide body requires a wide stand, and the v-shaped base extends nearly the entire width of the system. The stand is hinged in the back, but it can pivot the display only slightly up and down. The body is largely plastic, with a sleek edge-to-edge glass screen overlay that would make you think the display was touch-enabled, even though it's not. However, a row of simple capacitive touch controls sit under the screen on the black lower bezel and can control brightness, volume, and a few other functions.

Bundled with the system are a basic Lenovo wireless keyboard and mouse. The keyboard is slim and angles up at the rear. It includes a full number pad, but I like my space bars a little wider, and the backspace button is too small. The plastic mouse is as basic as it gets; if you want to use the B750 for gaming, I'd suggest a more specialized model with more buttons and a sleeker shape.

 

But the real star here is the display. The giant IPS screen has a native resolution of 2,560x1,080, which is the same vertical resolution as a standard 1080p screen but a horizontal resolution 1.3 times as wide as 1,920. Why would you want that? Productivity is one reason -- you can create two side-by-side windows, each housing a 1,280x1,080 Web browser window or office document. It's not as much real estate as you'd get from combining two 1080p monitors, but not having the physical break between screens as with a dual-monitor setup gives you a seamless view that may be easier to work with.The bundled DVD/Blu-ray software, PowerDVD, didn't seem to have an aspect ratio option that would present the Blu-ray content in a 21:9 format, so I eventually gave up and downloaded ArcSoft TotalMedia, which did allow for this. Note, also, that while watching a Blu-ray on a 21:9 screen is fun and immersive, you are losing some resolution, as the full image, including the black letterbox bars, is 1,920x1,080. In this case, you're essentially zooming in on that image, cutting off the top and bottom, to fill the screen. Still, I'd call it a worthwhile trade-off and a reminder of how ridiculous it is that HD movie content has one aspect ratio (actually several, but one modern primary aspect ratio), while HDTV content has an entirely different aspect ratio.

 

The final reason you may want a 21:9 display is for PC gaming. Fortunately, this system has a discrete graphics card, giving it the muscle to play most current games. That card is the Nvidia GeForce GTX 760, a decent card but one from last year's Nvidia line, since replaced by the 800 series. It's not top-of-the-line but fine for mainstream PC gamers. However, pushing games to the wider 2,560x1,080 resolution, when a game even supported it, caused a notable drop in performance. We had to compensate by lowering the detail level in some games.

The end effect is still very impressive, giving you an expanded sense of peripheral vision in games, which is even more immersive in some ways than playing in stereoscopic 3D, which can have a tunnel-vision effect. Skyrim, the expansive fantasy RPG, worked well, although I had to force the correct resolution in a config file. Metro: Last Light and BioShock Infinite both also benefited from the added field of vision, although their detail levels needed to be knocked back for smooth gameplay.

Seeing this wider screen up close while gaming, I quickly got used to it, making it a letdown to go back to a normal 16:9 display. To take it one step further, I can see how having a curved 21:9 display would be even more immersive, although I'm not aware of any curved 21:9 PC monitors for sale right now.

Audio from the 2.1 speakers was good for internal sound, helped by a rear-firing subwoofer on the back of the chassis, but you'll still want to hook up external speakers if you're DJing a party from your desktop.

 

CONNECTIONS

Video	HDMI in, HDMI out
Audio	Stereo speakers plus subwoofer, headphone/microphone jacks
Data	4 USB 3.0, 2 USB 2.0, SD card reader
Networking	Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
Optical drive	Blu-ray player

 

Connections, performance, and battery

One of the nice things about working with a full all-in-one desktop computer rather than a laptop, tablet, or even hybrid "tabletop" all-in-one is having plenty of room for ports and connections. Here, you get a total of six USB ports, although one is needed for the included keyboard/mouse dongle, as well as both HDMI-in and HDMI-out connections. The former is interesting in case you want to hook up an external source -- a tablet, laptop, game console, or other device -- and just use the B750's display.

 

With what's frankly a pretty robust 3.4GHz Intel Core-i7 4770 CPU, the B750 is a very powerful mainstream/premium desktop. It was faster in some benchmark tests than a couple of our other favorite all-in-one PCs, the latest Apple iMac and Dell's XPS 27. Outside of desktops and laptops built for serious PC gamers, you're unlikely to find anything much faster, especially for under $1,500.

The Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 graphics card in the system is good for mainstream gaming but a few stops short of the top of the line (and part of last year's 700-series of cards from Nvidia). We tested games two ways -- at the same 1,920x1,080 resolution we use to test other PCs, and also at the higher 2,560x1,080 resolution. At 1,920x1,080, the B750 ran BioShock Infinite at high detail settings at 23.5 frames per second; bumping up to 2,560x1,080 gave us 17.9 frames per second. In Metro: Last Light at both resolutions, a challenging benchmark, the scores were 10.0 frames per second and 7.7 frames per second, respectively.

 

If those all sound too low to play, you're right -- but those are running at high-detail settings. Dial things down to medium or lower, and both of those games, as well as others, including Skyrim, Hawken, and Modern Warfare 3, all play smoothly.

While gaming is a major attraction of this unusual screen size/resolution, it's disappointing that you can't crank game detail levels up. I'd be willing to pay a bit more for a newer, higher-end GPU.

Conclusion

The Lenovo B750 is unusual, and it's not for everyone. But if you're looking to skip the multiple monitor setup while still maximizing screen real estate, it's an interesting way to go. And "interesting" is the operative word here. Games, while requiring a detail/frame rate trade-off, take on a new immersive quality on a 21:9 screen, and movie-watching feels more cinematic.

Even better, with a high-end CPU, a big 2TB hard drive, a decent GPU, and a massive extra-wide display all for $1,449, it's a decent deal if you're looking for a desktop that's a little different without breaking the bank. But beyond the specs and price, I just found it fun to use. With a few tweaks, such as a touch screen and a faster GPU, it could be a hard-to-beat alternative to more common all-in-ones.

Article by Dan Ackerman

Pushbullet for Android review: The app you never knew you needed

The Good Pushbullet transmits items from desktop PC to Android device, or Android to PC, quickly and reliably.

The Bad You can push links, notes, and more to friends, but there's no way to control who can or can't send items to you.

The Bottom Line Pushbullet is the easiest way to transfer files, links, notes, lists, and

Pushbullet is one of the fastest and easiest way to get links, notes, lists, files, and addresses both from your desktop computer to your mobile device and vice versa. All of this is done from the Pushbullet Android app, the service's Web site, or one of the browser extensions for Chrome or Firefox.

Thanks to a recent update in March 2014, you can now also view new notifications from your phone on your desktop. After having used it for several months, I can confidently say it has changed the way I interact with my phone for the better. Perhaps it will do the same for you.

Getting started

To get started with Pushbullet, simply install the app and pick the Google account that you prefer to use. Next, go to Pushbullet.com on your desktop and use the same Google account to log in there.

It's important to note that you can set up Pushbullet on as many Android devices as you need, and from your desktop, you'll be able to easily choose to which device you want to push data.

Push it

Once you're all set up with Pushbullet via the app and site, you can start pushing text notes, addresses, lists, links, and files (up to 25MB) immediately. From the Pushbullet Web site, just pick which device you want to push to and choose what you want to send. You can drag and drop files from your computer to push them, and there are simple text fields where you can add notes, lists, and addresses. For now, Pushbullet can send notes, links, checklists, addresses, photos, and file attachments.

 

You can send links, notes, images, and other files from your phone to your computer

 You can also use the Android app to push files, notes, and other items to other Android devices or your computer. Just tap the tiny bullet icon at the top-right of the app and select what kind of item you want to push and where. Just like on the Web site, you can type in (or copy and paste) notes, lists, and links. For files and photos, the app will ask you to grab a file from an app, such as the photo gallery or your file manager, you want to grab the attachment.

When Pushbullet pushes an item to a mobile device, it generates a notification in the notification bar. If you tap a note or list notification, those items will open in the app, while pushed links open in your phone's default browser and addresses open in a map app. Finally, files that are pushed to your phone open up in the appropriate app for that particular file type. For instance, an image opens in the Gallery app, while PDFs might open in Adobe Reader, if you have it installed.

It's important to note that files are, once pushed from your desktop, automatically downloaded onto your mobile device. This makes Pushbullet a more convenient option for transferring files than sending an email attachment or using Dropbox. That's because neither of those options automatically saves the file. For now, file size is limited to 25MB, a step up from the earlier 10MB limit.

Share with friends

You can even push items to the Android devices of your friends (so long as the you have the email address they signed up with) and vice versa. You can add friends from either the Web site or app, but it's easier to do in the app. Just pick something you want to send, and in the field where you choose where to push your item, select "Add a friend." The app pulls in all of your contacts that are synced with your phone. If they do not already have Pushbullet, they'll get an email inviting them to join.

Keep tabs on your notifications

The most recent Pushbullet update makes the app even more useful because you can now see every notification from your phone on your desktop. That means when your phone goes off, you can see if it's an important notification or something you can ignore simply by glancing at the top-right of your computer screen.

 

Notifications from your phone can show up on your desktop. 

You can control which apps trigger desktop notifications in the Pushbullet app, and dismiss the notification on your phone if you're done with it, which to me, is a great feature.

To set up desktop notifications, head to the settings menu in the Android app and tap the Notification Mirroring option to let the app access your notifications. Then you'll need to install the Pushbullet Chrome extension or Firefox add-on and sign in to your account when prompted. That's all there is to it, and you'll begin to get small pop-up messages when you get a new notification on your Android device.

Add-ons

Pushbullet is even more useful when you connect it to IFTTT. If you're not familiar, If This Then That, or IFTTT, is a service that connects almost any two apps or services that never communicated in the past, such as Facebook and Dropbox. You set triggers, or actions that spark another action, and then an outcome. A great example is if I share a new photo on Facebook, then save it to my Dropbox account.

Pushbullet was added to IFTTT in March 2014 and can turn hundreds of triggers into items that can be pushed to your devices. One way I use Pushbullet and IFTTT is to send a link to my phone when my favorite blog publishes a new article, but there are many more ways to use it, including sending a weather report to your phone, being notified when a sports team scores, or getting a link when there's a new Instagram photo from your favorite user.

How well it works

When it comes to performance, Pushbullet is reliable and fast. In my tests, transmissions from desktop to mobile device (and mobile to desktop) occurred immediately, so long as the device had an active data connection. And every pushed item also successfully made its way into my Android's notification bar. This is perhaps Pushbullet's most important capability. Having pushed items fed into my notification bar keeps them at the front of my mind.

You can, of course, clear any of Pushbullet's items from your notification bar as needed, and just as easily, you can add them to the bar again directly from the Pushbullet app. This means you can actually use your notification bar as a handy reminder tool.

Final thoughts

Pushbullet is a simple app that's far more useful than it appears. You can quickly send almost anything between your phone and computer, and it's more convenient than using email or a cloud storage service like Dropbox.

The recently added notification mirroring feature that pushes all of your phone's notifications to your desktop means you don't need to constantly check your phone every time it buzzes or beeps. It's a very convenient addition that makes the app even more useful than before.

If you ever need to send links, notes, and files between your Android device and your computer, or to another Android device, you can't beat the speed and ease of Pushbullet.

Article by Sarah Mitroff

Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet review: A supercharged, super-skinny slate

The Good Its processor is searingly powerful and copes well with games. It has a bright, vivid display and its razor-thin body can be taken in the shower without worry.

The Bad It loses its battery far too quickly in standby mode. Huge bezels around the display don't look good and make the body needlessly big, and its slim design has resulted in the whole thing being a little flexible.

The Bottom Line While the battery is a concern, the Xperia Z2 tablet is still a good-looking slate that's loaded with more than enough power for anything you're likely to throw at it. It's a good choice if you're looking for a more affordable iPad alternative with 4G LTE -- particularly if you've ever lost a gadget through water damage.

The Apple iPad Air might be a slick piece of design, but dunk it in the bath and it'll quickly turn into a lifeless slab. Enter the Sony Xperia Z2 tablet -- a 10.1-inch slate that is completely waterproof. It replaces Sony's existing Xperia Tablet Z, but packs in a new quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor clocked at 2.3GHz, adds the latest Android KitKat software and slims the design down to only 6.4mm thick.

The Xperia Z2 tablet is available to buy now online in the UK starting at £399 or throughout wider Europe for €499. Sony is yet to announce wider availability. The iPad Air also starts at £399 (both with 16GB of storage) but Sony's comes with 4G LTE connectivity, something which will cost you an extra £100 on the iPad. The Z2 tablet's waterproof skills may mean you're less likely to have to shell out on a new one if you're clumsy enough to drop it in the sink.

  

Design and build quality

When you first pick the Z2 tablet up, the first thing you'll almost certainly notice is just how incredibly slim it is. It measures only 6.4mm thick, knocking 0.5mm off its already razor-thin predecessor. It feels like you're holding a skinny pamphlet, which is compounded by its light 426g weight. By comparison, Apple's iPad is both slightly thicker and heavier, at 7.5mm and 469g.

That extreme skinniness has come at a slight cost however. While the iPad Air's metal body is incredibly sturdy, with little flex anywhere, the Z2 feels much less secure. It's not difficult to give the entire tablet a slight bend in your hands -- I don't imagine it would come off too well if it was accidentally sat or leant on.

Design-wise, not much has changed since the previous model. The front is a button-free, all glass design, while the back panel is a wide expanse of matte white or black plastic, with the minimal Sony branding in the middle. It maintains the 16:9 aspect ratio, which, while helping show movies without black bars, does mean it's quite wide in landscape mode making it cumbersome to use with one hand.

That's not helped by the enormous black bezels which surround the screen -- 22mm on either side, to be exact. That's a hell of a lot of wasted space. Apart from making the tablet look like a less premium device (cheap slates often use wide bezels) it means the body is needlessly wide for the screen. Sure, it allows you to easily grip it without activating the touchscreen, but I'm sure there's a happy medium.

 

At only 6.4mm, it's incredibly skinny. 

Like its predecessor, the Z2 Tablet is completely waterproof, allowing it to shrug off an errant spilled drink or even let you happily take it into the bath to watch 'Breaking Bad'. Personally, I like being able to prop it up in my kitchen to watch shows while cooking, safe in the knowledge that when it gets splattered with sauces, I can simply chuck it in the sink with the other pots and give it a rinse.

It keeps the water out by covering the main ports -- including the microSD card slot -- with rubberised flaps. Mercifully, the 3.5mm headphone jack doesn't require a flap, meaning you don't have to unhook a cover every time you pop your headphones in. You'll also find an infrared blaster on the top, allowing you to use it as a remote control for your TV. Setting up the remote app is a simple process -- select your TV manufacturer and the app will do the rest. It took less than a minute for me to set it up with my Toshiba telly and gives access to all the essential controls you'd normally find on your remote.

Display

The 10.1-inch display boasts a Full HD resolution, giving it a pixel density of 224 pixels per inch, making it well equipped to tackle glossy, high-definition video. It doesn't quite match the iPad Air's whopping 2,048x1,536-pixel resolution (264ppi), although side-by-side, I doubt you'd notice a massive difference.

The display is extremely crisp, with sharp edges on text and icons throughout the Android interface and on Web pages. High definition photos look sharp and well defined too, which is helped by the high brightness of the screen and the excellent handling of colour.

 

The Full HD display is bright and has great colours. 

Sony states that the tablet uses some of the same 'Triluminous' display technology from its line of TVs, which promise brighter, bolder colours. Whatever Sony has done, it works well. Colours are rich and deep, without looking bold to the point of being unnatural. If you're not keen on the colour balance, you can pop into the settings and tweak the hues to get something more to your taste.

Software and processor

The Z2 tablet comes running the latest version of Android known as 4.4.2 KitKat. Sony isn't brilliant when it comes to updating its products with Android updates -- we're still waiting for KitKat on last year's Z1 -- so it's good to see the latest version on board at launch.

Sony has made many of the same tweaks to Android as you'll see on the rest of its recent mobile range. The five homescreens are littered with icons for Sony's music and movies services and there's a tool to the left of the app tray that lets you easily change the order of the app icons. Although the Sony photo and video galleries are a little clunky, the interface is generally easy to use and won't take long to get used to.

Stuffed into that skinny frame is a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, clocked at an impressive 2.3GHz, backed up by 3GB of RAM. That's a burly lineup of specs so it wasn't much of a surprise that it has a some serious power behind it. It achieved an impressive score of 3,787 on the Geekbench 2 benchmark test, putting it alongside its superbly powerful Xperia Z1 smartphone sibling. Navigating around the Android interface was extremely swift, with zero lag when flicking between homescreens, opening menus or pulling down the notification bars.

 

The latest version of Android, known as 4.4 KitKat, comes as standard on the Z2 tablet.

 

It turns its hand to more demanding gaming tasks very well too. It scored a whopping 18,971 overall on the Ice Storm Unlimited 3D Mark graphics benchmark test, casually besting the 14,605 achieved by the iPad Air and the 13,677 Samsung's 2014 Galaxy Note 10.1 managed to rack up.

Gameplay was very smooth in Riptide GP 2, and I saw the same high frame-rates in zombie shooter Dead Trigger 2 and GT Racing 2. There was generally very little I could find that the slate wasn't able to handle well. Whether you want a tablet to tackle the latest high definition games from the Google Play store, or just want to watch Netflix or browse the Web on the sofa, the Z2 tablet will cope admirably.

Battery

The Z2 tablet's battery life is definitely something of a mixed bag. On the plus side, it put in a more than acceptable performance on a video drain test, managing to keep going on battery (at half brightness) for 13 hours and 20 minutes -- that's exactly the same time as the iPad Air achieved.

It's not all good though. With more intense use (gaming, for example) the processor seems to go into overdrive, draining the battery incredibly quickly. It also seems to take much longer to charge up than I would normally expect to see. Those two points together meant that I regularly found the tablet lost power even when it was plugged in to the mains. That's very worrying if you're down to your last few percent of life and desperately want to keep racing in Asphalt 8 as the tablet isn't drawing in enough power to make up for the amount it's using. Inevitably, the slate will just run out of juice and shut down.

It also doesn't seem to hold its power well in standby mode. When the screen was off, I found the tablet to have lost around 10 percent of its charge over a period of about four hours. Even if you only plan on using it for moderate use, you'll still need to pack a charger if you're going away for a few days.

The battery drain test showed that the slate is capable of managing its power well, so it could be that its power loss in standby mode is more of a software issue -- background processes not being properly turned off, for example. Fingers crossed Sony takes a look soon and issues a patch to sort it out.

Camera

Tucked into the top-right corner on the back of the tablet is an 8-megapixel camera. Having a camera on a tablet this size is arguably a little unnecessary -- you're not likely to be carrying it around all day using it as your main camera -- but it's handy for those quick snaps in the home that you'd miss if you were to spend time fishing your phone from your jeans.

 

The Xperia Z2 tablet's camera achieved an even overall exposure in this scene.

 

Thankfully then, the camera is at least good enough for those quick shots of your kids. On my first test shot in the CNET offices, the camera achieved a satisfying overall exposure, with a very natural colour balance. Clarity isn't brilliant -- particularly when you view the image full-screen -- but I've certainly seen worse.

 

There's a bit of image noise in the darker parts of this shot, but it's not a bad effort at all.

 

It coped well on my second shot too, managing not to blow out the bright highlights or under-expose the shadowy areas too much. There's quite a bit of image noise in the darker portions of the picture, suggesting that it won't do as well if you're trying to grab pictures of your dinner by candlelight -- particularly as there's no LED flash. Keep to well-lit areas and the Z2 tablet's camera should be more than adequate for Facebook snaps.

Conclusion

The Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet isn't a massive overhaul from its predecessor, but that's no bad thing. Its skinny frame looks and feels great, while its waterproof design will keep it safe from spilled drinks or accidental dunks in the bathtub. Its quad-core processor provides heaps of power for gaming and the Android KitKat software is easy to navigate. Although the battery put in a good effort in our drain test, its inability to hold charge causes me some concern. Sony needs to address this if it wants the Z2 tablet to really give its rivals a run for their money.

Article by Andrew Hoyle

Microsoft Office for iPad (iOS) review: Office anywhere finally makes sense

The Good The new Office for iPad apps give you a rich set of tools for managing and creating documents. Sharing features let you work with others. The tools work great on the touch screen.

The Bad The iPad versions don't give access to user-created templates online.

The Bottom Line The Office for iPad apps are a great middle ground between desktop and smartphone versions, and are a must-have for frequent Office users.

Finally, we have the Office for iOS that we've always wanted. Released today, Office for iPad is a much more robust app than what we got with Office Mobile for iPhone. Packed with tools and elegantly optimized for the touch screen, it belongs on the iPads of Office users.

Instead of having Word, PowerPoint, and Excel accessible in one app like it did on the iPhone, Microsoft made them separate apps with far more features in each. With the bigger screen of the iPad, there is simply more room to work with, and Microsoft took advantage with better tools, more templates, and touch-focused controls that are intuitive, familiar, and work great on-the-go.

Before you rush off to download the apps, however, it's important to note that you get limited features with the free versions. All three apps let you connect to OneDrive to browse your files and read Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents for free. But to get the full power of the Office apps that let you create and edit documents, you'll need a subscription with Office 365, Microsoft's service that lets you work on your documents from anywhere.

It's also important to note that this review will cover all three apps, with sections dedicated to each.

Creating documents with Word

Microsoft's word processing software is now iPad-friendly, and has many of the tools you're used to from the desktop versions.

When creating a new document, you get 15 common templates to help you get started, with everything from brochures and business correspondence, to invoices and personal letters. You also can start from scratch with a blank document, but it's nice to have pre-made options for the more common word-processing tasks. One thing you don't get with the iPad is access to online templates created by other users. It's not a big problem, but it would be nice if Microsoft let iPad users get access to all the available templates.

Once in a document, you can immediately see how much more robust the iPad version is over Office Mobile for iPhone. Across the top of the iPad screen is a sort of abbreviated Ribbon (known to desktop Office users), with tabs for Home, Insert, Layout, Review, and View. Just like on the desktop, your Home view is where you can choose fonts, change text styles, adjust text alignment, and other common actions as you create your document.

The Insert tab lets you add images, tables, shapes, footnotes, and provide links to online sources in your document. Layout lets you set margins, adjust page size, format your document with columns, add headers and footers, and more. Already, the features listed so far are much more than what you get with Office Mobile for iPhone.

The Review tab is especially useful for editing types like myself, letting you track changes while editing and view comments from other contributors (more on this later).

When you save your work, you can store it on OneDrive or directly onto your iPad for offline use.

Touch-screen PowerPoint presentations

With PowerPoint for iPad, you can browse and edit presentations already saved to your OneDrive, start fresh with a blank slate, or pick from 19 available templates.

Once in your presentation, you can double-tap place-holder text to add your own titles, change fonts and styles, and add more information such as bulleted lists. The templates here are all very elegant with options for additional slide variations within each template. In other words, once you start a presentation from a template, there is a lot of room for customization.

Just like Word for iPad, you also have the abbreviated Ribbon across the top, with tabs for Home, Insert, Transitions, Slide Show, Review, and Shape.

Like Word, the Home tab is where you'll be doing most of your work, but you can insert images and tables, choose from a long list of great-looking transitions for your slides, view a preview of your slide show, review comments from other contributors, or add shapes to your slides. The surprising thing here is that you have almost 50 different transitions to choose from in the iPad app, so your options for presentations are virtually limitless.

Finally, when it comes time for the big meeting, you can stream your presentation from your iPad and use handy tools, like an on-screen laser pointer as well as the ability to draw arrows to call attention to the content.

Spreadsheet creation in Excel

Excel for iPad is also head and shoulders above the iPhone version, with many of the most used features from the desktop version right at your fingertips. Excel also has a Ribbon, with tabs appropriate to working with spreadsheets.

But what's exceptional about the iPad version of the app are the tools for displaying your data and the sheer amount of formulas you can use.

When you want a visual representation of your data, Excel for iPad lets you select the data and will give you several recommended chart and graph types which will best represent it. Even if you don't like what Excel recommends, there are countless options in the Charts section and they're organized by type, with graph categories that include lines, columns, pie charts, and numerous other types.

When it comes to formulas, Excel for iPad has you covered. It won't be on par with the desktop version for the sheer number of formulas, but you can choose from long lists of common formulas by category. There are common functions for financial spreadsheets, logical functions, text-focused functions, Lookup and Reference functions, and several more.

Sharing your work

One of the big selling points for the modern Microsoft Office for desktops and mobile devices is the ability to work together on whatever device you're using. The Office apps for iPad continue to make it easy to connect with others and share documents with a button in the shape of a person in the upper right which lets you add people to collaborate.

When you touch the button, you have the option to send a link via email, email the document as an attachment, or copy the link to the document on OneDrive so you can send it to a colleague any way you like. Once they receive it, they can login to your document and you can work simultaneously and see what your colleague is doing in real time.

A note about subscriptions

Like I said earlier, you can only view documents on your OneDrive with the free versions of the iPad apps. In order to edit and create documents, you'll need an Office 365 subscription for $9.99 per month for home, or $5 to $15 per month for business.

Office for iPad is the missing link

Rather than just a place to view documents and make small edits, Office for iPad actually lets you get real work done on your tablet. That's a big, and welcome, improvement from Office Mobile for iPhone. While it's still not as powerful as the desktop version (obviously), it sits right where it should be, which is comfortably between Office on a computer and a smartphone.

What I'm now realizing is with the iPad app, the limited Office Mobile for iPhone makes a lot more sense. Here's why: Microsoft reasonably assumes that you'll start your work on your desktop, then gives you the tools to make substantial tweaks on your iPad with many of the most used features. Then, with Office Mobile for iPhone you can make last-minute edits and fix typos while on your way to the big meeting. Without this piece of the puzzle, the gap between the desktop and smartphone versions was too big. But with the iPad version, it starts to feel like the modern Microsoft Office is a set of tools that truly works together.

With the last piece of the puzzle, Microsoft appears to have finally met the challenge posed by iWork and Google Docs. Both of those competing solutions have their advantages (for one, Google Docs doesn't require a subscription), but they bring disadvantages as well (such as fewer easily accessible templates). We'll be exploring the differences in more detail over the next days, but for now, Microsoft is off to an impressive start.

Article by Jason Parker

Acer Aspire E1-472G-6844 review: Better graphics, budget laptop

The Good The Acer Aspire E1-472G-6844 has a good combination of processor, RAM, and Nvidia graphics for its price, and all the legacy ports you've always dreamed of (Ethernet, VGA).

The Bad Non-touch, lower-res display, plastic chassis and unresponsive touchpad all feel low-end; graphics aren't good enough to satisfy serious gamers.

The Bottom Line Acer's variation on the budget E1-472G Aspire laptop has good guts but an underwhelming exterior and design, and also lacks a touch screen. Nvidia graphics add a boost.

Why hello, 2014. Computer shoppers, I have some bad news: some of the products you see out there will feel like they came from 2011. Maybe that's because some of the biggest changes in electronics are happening in phones and things that go in your pocket. Alas, poor budget Windows laptop: you're stuck in time.

The Acer Aspire E1-472G is a laptop I'm sure I've seen before somewhere. The déjà vu occurred the moment I first snapped open its plastic lid. This the big-boned budget laptop, packed with capable but generic specs, ready to serve you decently, but not impressively. It's harder to accept than ever. The one new addition? The latest entry-level Nvidia GeForce 820M graphics, which are better than you'd otherwise get. It's a shame they're stuck in a laptop that feels so low-rent in design and comfort.

But, here's the good news: it's a fair deal for what you get, and with a little extra boost from new entry-level Nvidia graphics that debuted very recently, there's a whiff of something fresh. But these graphics aren't really good enough for serious gamers -- so don't get too excited. You're also paying $100 extra for those graphics, plus RAM. Do you need them?

 

 

	Acer Aspire E1-472G-6844	Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 14	Samsung ATIV Book 9 Lite
Price	$599	$999	$799
Display size/resolution	14-inch, 1,366x768 screen	14-inch, 1,366x768 touch screen	13.3-inch, 1,366x768 touch screen
PC CPU	1.6GHz Intel Core i5 4200U	1.6GHz Intel Core i5 4200U	1GHz AMD A4 Quad-Core
PC Memory	8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1600MHz	8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1600MHz	4GB DDR3 SDRAM 1600MHz
Graphics	2048MB Nvidia Geforce 820M	1792MB Intel Graphics 4400	512MB AMD Radeon HD 8250
Storage	500GB 5,400rpm hard drive	128GB SSD hard drive	128GB SSD hard drive
Optical drive	None	None	None
Networking	802.11b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth 4.0	802.11b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth 4.0	802.11b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth 4.0
Operating system	Windows 8.1 (64-bit)	Windows 8 (64-bit)	Windows 8 (64-bit)

 

Design: Functional, generic

Black plastic underneath and a white, glossy lid and keyboard deck design with silver stippled dots give this laptop a generic feel. It's the type of plastic that feels entry-level. This Acer E1's not unattractive, but it's yet another variant on what we've seen before.

Windows 8 attempted to transform PCs, but the host is partially rejecting the graft. Lots of "old-fashioned" PCs are still out there, and this Aspire is a classic example. There's no touchscreen. There's no click pad. The chassis feels like any other generic laptop. You make your way around using this Aspire the old-fashioned way, with keyboard and trackpad.

The keyboard, which is plenty wide, feels cheaper than other laptops. So does the matte plastic trackpad, which doesn't have click-- you'll have to use the click bar beneath instead. Off-edge finger gestures to bring up the Charm Bar, for instance, don't work smoothly.

The display, with its lower resolution and worse-than-average picture quality and viewing angles, just isn't good. You get what you pay for, but actually, at $599, I'd expect a little more.

Speakers that fire out of grilles in the bottom are loud enough, fine for everyday use. A door on the laptop's bottom lets you swap your own battery, but this 14-inch Acer doesn't have an easy-open door for hard drive/RAM swapping like the 15-inch E1 did.

Performance: Boosted graphics, extra RAM

In terms of raw under-the-hood specs, you get a fair amount of PC here: 8GB of RAM, a decent ultrabook-level Intel Core i5 processor, and 500GB hard drive. An extra Nvidia GeForce 820M graphics processor with 2GB of VRAM is this particular Acer config's main calling-card feature, since it's part of Nvidia's new graphics line.

The Haswell Intel Core i5-4200U processor matches what we saw last year on the Acer Aspire E1 572-6870, and is the type of ultrabook-level CPU that's cropped up on a lot of laptops, including some priced much higher. It performs well, and is a no-compromise solution for a PC shopper looking for a solid no-frills upgrade on a years-old machine. It's a great CPU for a budget starter laptop, and it's definitely better than some budget processors we've seen horned into other laptops at this level.

Now, about those Nvidia graphics: how good are they, and are they worth getting this Acer for? You can choose an Acer Aspire E1 with otherwise identical specs, half the RAM, and no Nvidia graphics (just Intel integrated) for $499. That extra $100 buys 4GB of extra RAM and boosted graphics...again, not a bad deal.

We were able to run BioShock Infinite with UltraDX11 at 16.5 frames per second and at Medium settings at 28.9 fps, on an admittedly low-res display. That's still good enough that you could consider this an adequate way to play mainstream games, if you really hold back your expectations. BioShock Infinite played fine, with some screen tearing, while older games like Left 4 Dead 2 played very smoothly. We ran this Acer with Nvidia graphics turned off, and the built-in Intel integrated graphics performed at about half the frame rate. So, yes, these particular Nvidia graphics seem worth it...just don't expect the type of gaming boost you'd get from Nvidia's higher-end GPUs.

 



This Acer covers its bases on ports and connections. There's an SD card slot, Bluetooth 4.0, and 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi. You also get an Ethernet port, HDMI, USB 2 and 3, and -- why not? -- VGA. What looks like a DVD drive door on the right side appears glued shut, a vestigial non-feature. On the left side, vents push out some heat when the Aspire starts getting taxed.

ACER ASPIRE E1-472G-6844

Video	HDMI, VGA
Audio	Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks
Data	1 USB 3.0, 2 USB 2.0, SD card reader
Networking	Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
Optical drive	None

 

Battery life: Passable

Battery life on our tests held up for 4 hours 18 minutes, a completely mediocre and unimpressive result. I'd expect six hours or more. But, for a budget laptop, it's not bad...unless you consider something like the Asus Transformer Book T100, which is a smaller, less powerful laptop, but gets far better battery life. And, it costs less (and has touch).

Good value, unimpressive design

This Acer is fine for a basic starter laptop. But don't expect more. If you really care about graphics on a laptop, spend up a bit. If you want a completely bare-bones laptop, spend down. I wouldn't straddle the line. Acer's addition of Nvidia graphics into this laptop just amounts to a tease. I'd rather have a better-feeling computer that did a little less than cram more performance into a body and screen that make it awfully hard to appreciate.

Article by Scott Stein

Android 4.3 goodness married to a nice 21x zoom point-and-shoot

The Good As connected cameras go, the Samsung Galaxy Camera 2 is an example of one done well. Having Android 4.3, dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi with NFC, powerful processing, and a big, beautiful touch screen makes for a very good shoot-and-share experience.

The Bad At $450, the photo quality and shooting performance might disappoint those looking for significantly better results than a high-end smartphone.

The Bottom Line The Samsung Galaxy Camera 2 delivers the app and connectivity options of your smartphone, but with the shooting flexibility of a long zoom lens.

Who doesn't like a good sequel?

Of course, what makes a good sequel is open for argument. For the Galaxy Camera 2, Samsung went with basically the same main characters -- a 21x-zoom wide-angle lens, 16-megapixel backside-illuminated sensor, and a giant 4.8-inch HD touch screen -- put in a new wireless sidekick (NFC) to add some interest, and updated the storyline to almost modern day (Android 4.3 Jelly Bean).

If you thought the original formula was cool, but lacked substance (e.g., a faster lens or larger image sensor), the Galaxy Camera 2 (GC2) is probably something you'll want to skip or maybe catch when the price comes down.

After all, $450 isn't exactly inexpensive for what's essentially a point-and-shoot camera, and there are a lot of cameras available between $400 and $500 including bridge cameras with much more zoom range, high-end bright-lens compacts, and even entry-level dSLRs and mirrorless compact system cameras.

Not everyone needs the absolute best image quality, though, and while the camera specs are easy to come by at lower prices, this is basically a really good media player or gaming device as well as a camera. Well, it's a little awkward for the latter, but you get my point: it's more than just a camera you're buying.

 

 

Back to the camera bit for a moment, though. Photo quality is very good for what you're getting, as it was with the original. Outside in daylight, it'll turn out some very nice photos that you probably won't hesitate to share with friends and family on the Web or for viewing on mobile devices.

While the image processing might be a little better than its predecessor, you probably still won't want to enlarge pictures and heavily crop them. Viewed at full size, you'll see noise and artifacts even at lower ISO settings, and subjects look soft and and are lacking in clean fine details. This really isn't a camera for pixel peepers.

Low-light photos are better than what you'd get from a smartphone, but it's best to stay away from the high ISO settings regardless. Instead, take advantage of the camera's Night mode, which reduces noise and improves detail and color by combining several shots into one photo.

Video quality is good and the optical image stabilization is certainly nice to have if you're tired of the shaky clips from your smartphone. However, like its photos, video does get softer and noisier the less light you have. The zoom does work while recording movies, but it was a bit jerky when moving in and out.

Also, the mic is right next to the shutter release, so it picks up any finger movement or snapping of the zoom lever. The lens motor makes a faint noise when moving, too; there's a Quiet Zoom setting that dampens audio when zooming to help. One thing that's cool, though, is that there's a headphone jack on the right side that can also be used with a microphone.

Key specs	Samsung Galaxy Camera 2 (EK-GC200)
Price (MSRP)	$449.99
Dimensions (WHD)	5.2 x 2.8 x 0.8 inches
Weight (with battery and media)	11 ounces
Megapixels, image sensor size, type	16 megapixels, 1/2.3-inch backside-illuminated CMOS
Display size, resolution/viewfinder	4.8-inch HD touch screen, 921K dots/none
Lens (zoom, aperture, focal length)	21x, f2.8-5.9, 23-483mm (35mm equivalent)
File format (still/video)	JPEG/H.264 AAC (.MP4)
Highest resolution size (still/video)	4,608x3,456 pixels/1,920x1,080 at 30fps
Image stabilization type	Optical and digital
Battery type, CIPA rated life	Lithium-ion rechargeable, 400 shots
Battery charged in camera	Yes; Micro-USB cable, wall adapter supplied
Storage media	microSDHC card; 8GB internal
Software	Android 4.3 Jelly Bean OS, Google mobile services

The GC2 looks slightly different than the original, but the overall design remains pretty much the same. It has a new pop-up flash that can be angled back slightly to bounce its light. There are now silver accents along the top and bottom and a leather-grain look to the front making it look more like a camera and less like a smartphone. At least from the front.

The back, on the other hand, is very much that of a smartphone. There's nothing but the 1,280x720-pixel-resolution 4.8-inch display. As was the case with the first version, it's a pleasure to shoot with as well as to view and edit pictures and movies on. As long as you're not in full sun anyway, which is a problem for most screens really.

Much like the photo quality, for $450 you might expect shooting performance to be faster than an average point-and-shoot with a CMOS sensor. It is not. Assuming you did an initial startup of the camera, it sits in standby until you're ready to use it. From standby to first capture takes about 2.7 seconds, mostly because of the lens unfolding and the touch screen kicking in.

 

From shot to shot it takes on average 1.1 seconds, but that time jumps to 2.5 seconds when using the flash (a definite improvement over the first-gen model). Shutter lag -- the time it takes from pressing the shutter release to capture without prefocusing -- is 0.4 second in bright lighting and 0.5 second in dim.

The camera does have a continuous shooting option that can shoot at up to 4.3 frames per second. That's pretty good, and you can start shooting another burst almost as soon as you release the shutter button. Focus and exposure are set with the first shot, though, so if you're shooting a fast-moving subject, chances are good that not all of your shots will be in focus.

General shooting options	Samsung Galaxy Camera 2 (EK-GC200)
ISO sensitivity (full resolution)	Auto, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200
Photo Filter)	Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Fluorescent H, Fluorescent L, Tungsten, Custom
Recording modes	Auto, Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Manual, Smart Modes (Smart mode suggest, Beauty face, Best photo, Selfie alarm, Continuous shot, Best face, Color bracket, Kids shot, Landscape, Dawn, Snow, Macro, Food, Party/indoor, Action freeze, Rich tone (HDR), Panorama, Waterfall, Animated photo, Drama, Eraser, Sound & shot, Interval, Silhouette, Sunset, Night, Fireworks, Light trace), Movie (Normal and Multimotion)
Focus modes	Multi AF, Center AF, Touch AF, Face Detection AF
Macro	1.9 inches (Wide)
Metering modes	Multi, Spot, Center-weighted, Face Detection AE
Color effects	Vignette, Grey-scale, Sepia, Vintage, Faded colours, Turquoise, Tint, Cartoon, Moody, Rugged, Oil pastel, Fisheye
Burst mode shot limit (full resolution)	Unlimited continuous

As for the device's overall performance, it's nice and fast. The 1.6GHz quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM kept everything relatively zippy. Apps run smoothly, and again with the large touch screen editing photos and video right on the camera is really nice.

Of course, since it's running on Android 4.3 Jellybean you can load up more than just photo- and video-related apps. With the headphone jack on the right side, you can plug in and stream music and movies, play games, read and answer e-mail, or whatever else you'd be able to do on a modern Android device. (And thanks to a larger removable battery you can do more without worrying as much about killing your battery life.)

Unlike the Galaxy Camera, the GC2 currently comes in just a Wi-Fi-only version. This means you'll have to connect to a wireless network for Web access, whether that's at home or work, a mobile hotspot, or turning your smartphone or tablet into a mobile hotspot.

 

You can also create a Wi-Fi connection directly between the camera and your smartphone or tablet. The GC2 has NFC built in, so if you've got an Android device with that feature, you can simply tap the two together to start the connection between them. You can also use the NFC to quickly send photos taken with the camera straight to your phone.

With the Wi-Fi connection established, Samsung's MobileLink feature lets you transfer files from a smartphone or send files from the camera to one or more smartphones and its AutoShare feature gives you the option to automatically send photos to a smartphone as you shoot them with the camera.

You can also use your smartphone or tablet as a remote viewfinder and control the camera's zoom; set a self-timer; turn on the flash (if it's popped up); change picture resolution, and release the shutter. Unfortunately, you can't use it for recording movies or shooting in any mode other than Auto.

 

 

That's a shame considering how many shooting options are available. Its Smart Modes -- a mix of standard scene modes such as Macro, Landscape, and Sunset, and some automatic ways to do things like freeze action or create light trails without messing with shutter speeds on your own -- have grown to 28 options. This includes the new Selfie Alarm that lets you position a box on screen for where your face will be so that when you turn the camera around, it can lock on and give you an audible warning before it fires.

If you like more control, the GC2 does have manual and semimanual modes with an interesting interface for changing shutter speed, aperture, exposure compensation, and ISO. Tap the mode you want and a lens barrel pops out; you just slide the rings till you get what you want. Unfortunately, it's not exactly fast if your initial settings weren't quite right and you need to adjust again.

At the wide end, there are 10 available apertures from f2.8 to f8.0; at the telephoto end there are four from f5.9 to f8.5. Shutter speeds go from 1/2,000 second to 16 seconds.

For movies, you can shoot at 1,920x1,080 pixels at 30 frames per second; 1,280x720 pixels at 30 or 60fps; 768x512 pixels at 120fps (slow motion); 640x480 pixels at 30 or 60fps; and 320x240 pixels at 30fps. You can also pause movies in the middle of shooting, so you don't end up with a bunch of small clips.

In the auto, program, manual, and semi-manual shooting modes there is a row of 12 filter effects you can call up from the bottom of the screen. These can be used when shooting movies and applied to photos after you shoot as well. If you want to read about all that this camera can do, I recommended downloading the product manual from Samsung.

Conclusion
Despite its core components remaining the same as its predecessor, the power and flexibility of Android keeps the Samsung Galaxy Camera 2 from being an ordinary above average point-and-shoot.

Article by Joshua Goldman

Garmin's Dash Cam watches your back...er, front

The Good The Garmin Dash Cam 20 unobtrusively records crisp HD video of the road ahead. A video buffer and G-sensor automatically capture the moments leading up to an accident and those immediately following. GPS location and speed data is embedded in the recording.

The Bad Garmin doesn't include any software to take advantage of the captured GPS data. The AVI video format requires third-party software to view. Out of the box, the device beeps loudly and often.

The Bottom Line With a bit of tweaking, the Garmin Dash Cam 20 is a (mostly) silent witness that watches the road without attracting the driver's attention.

Garmin's latest product is packing GPS, but it's not a Nuvi or a navigator. It's the Garmin Dash Cam 20, a seemingly odd fit for the navigation giant, but not at all a bad first step in this direction.

It's a camera...

The Dash Cam 20 is a dashboard camera or dashboard DVR. The Cam hangs from a car's windshield with an included lever-activated suction cup mount that connects to its body via a ball-in-socket joint. The camera body itself is about 6.6 cm square (not counting the connection to the mount) by about 3.7 cm thick and fairly unobtrusive when hanging above the dashboard.

Pointing out at the road ahead is a small, fixed-focus HD video camera that is capable of capturing 1080p, 720p or WVGA video with an extremely wide field of view. Think of GoPro footage and you'll have an idea of how wide an angle we're looking at. Mounted above the center of the dashboard of the car I tested it in, the camera captured the entire view out of the front windshield.

 

The Dash Cam 20 automatically captures video of incidents at up to 1080p.

 

Facing the driver is a 2.3-inch color LCD display that shows a preview of what the camera sees to aid in framing. Here is also where the driver interacts with the various settings, menu options, and media playback controls via a bank of four physical buttons just below the screen. Once the vehicle gets moving, the screen dims and then shuts off after a few moment to prevent driver distraction; the only indicator that it is recording is a small blinking red light.

On one edge of the device is the Mini-USB port for connecting the included 12-volt power adapter. When the Dash Cam senses power, it automatically fires up and starts recording. When the power is cut (such as when the car's ignition is shut off) the camera will automatically turn off after about 15 seconds. The Dash Cam can be used without 12-volt power -- there's an internal rechargeable battery and it has a power button on one side for manual startup and shutdown -- but for extended recording, the adapter is recommended.

Located just below the power button is a small slot for the included 4GB microSD card storage. Should you need more room for clips, the Dash Cam can accept cards of up to 32GB.

It's always recording...

The Dash Cam records a continuous loop of the action happening outside of the front windshield (or wherever you choose to mount it), overwriting old footage as it loops around with new imagery. The camera can capture up to 1080p video and audio, but the owner can set it to record at a lower resolution or without audio to save space.

Internally, the Dash Cam is equipped with a G-sensor that detects bumps and shocks. When the sensor is triggered, the camera beeps loudly and captures and protects the video clip leading up to the bump and a few seconds following, saving the footage of a potential accident from being overwritten. Over bumpy roads, this can lead to multiple false positives. I filled the 4GB card up after just a few hours of spirited driving, but on smoother roads you'll likely not have as many false triggers as I did. Fortunately, the driver does have the power to adjust the G-sensor's sensitivity.

Video is captured in an AVI format, which will require Mac users to download third-party software to play back. Video quality is crisp and generally clear enough that you can make out the license plate numbers of passing cars. As with most ultrawide-angle cameras, you'll have to be pretty close to the lead car to capture the plate number in detail. Also like most "outdoor action cameras" with simple optics, the Dash Cam did have trouble with scenes with a high range of exposures and I did see skies being blown out and shadows lacking detail. The video isn't pretty, but it gets the job done.

The Dash Cam 20 features an internal GPS receiver that captures and overlays latitude, longitude, speed, direction of travel, date, and time on the bottom edge of the recorded video. Unlike some GPS-enabled cameras, the Dash Cam 20 doesn't include software that would later match and overlay some sort of street map data with the video to make it easily understood. Considering Garmin's access to excellent mapping software, this is disappointing.

 

Video quality is good and detailed, but the high-contrast image isn't exactly pleasing. 

A Dash Cam 10 model is available that lacks the 20's GPS receiver, but is otherwise identical in hardware and operation.

Finally, the Dash Cam can be removed from the suction cup mount and handheld to capture still photos (1,920x1,080 pixel resolution, JPEG format), which can be useful for surveying damage to your vehicle or snapping shots of the area around a traffic incident.

It's simple, really...

I had remarkably few complaints during my testing of the Garmin Dash Cam 20 -- even fewer after a quick dive into the Settings menu. My main disappointments were the lack of software to some sort of map overlay that would make better sense of the captured GPS data, and the decision to use the AVI format instead of the more common and universal MP4. However, after I'd tweaked the sensitivity to reduce false positives, disabed the loud beeping that accompanied every automated capture, and disabled the secondary beeping that accompanied each button press, the Dash Cam 20 hardware functioned unobtrusively. That's sort of the point with dashboard DVRs; you don't want them attracting your eyes and ears while you drive.

I liked that the camera included a small screen for positioning. I'm not the kind of owner who would leave this thing stuck to my windshield in an unattended car, so I ended up removing and replacing it quite a bit. That said, I also liked that the screen automatically shut down once I hit the road.

The Dash Cam 20 is about as plug-and-play as they come. Once you plug the Dash Cam in, it starts recording and you don't have to think about it beyond that until you fill the memory up or find yourself in an accident. The bits of interaction that I had (previewing videos and photos on the LCD and adjusting the menu options) were easy and intuitive.

 

The Dash Cam 20 is good, but considerably more expensive than the generic models you'll find around the Web. 

The Dash Cam 20 will run you $249.99 if you're interested. In a world where Amazon.com is jam-packed with no-brand cameras for less than $100, that's a steep price to pay, but you're getting a good product for the money with an embedded GPS receiver.

The aforementioned Dash Cam 10 is $219.99, but that's not nearly savings enough to justify the lack of GPS.

Article by Antuan Goodwin

1 TB cloud storage by Space Monkey

Review Date: Mar. 27, 2014

The Good Space Monkey gives you 1TB of cloud storage for only $50 per year.

The Bad Setup takes longer, and requires more effort, than other cloud storage services. The drive also requires an Internet connection, even to access your own files.

The Bottom Line Space Monkey's alternative cloud service is cheaper and offers more than its competitors, but you need to invest time and effort to set it up.

Cloud storage meets local storage with Space Monkey, an alternative way to store your files online that uses a small desktop hard drive and network of other Space Monkey subscribers. Instead of sending your files to a large data center, like most other cloud services do, they are broken into tiny chunks which are then encrypted and sent to the Space Monkey drives that belong to other users. For $50 per year, which is a steal, you get one terabyte of storage, but only after you purchase the $200 2 terabyte (yes, 2TB) drive to use the service.

Since Space Monkey bills itself as an all-in-one cloud storage system, I am not going to focus on the hard drive's performance, but instead the entire cloud service, including the desktop and mobile apps. While you must buy the hard drive to use Space Monkey, you're really buying into the whole cloud network, because out of the box, you can't use the hard drive unless it's connected to your Internet service. In fact, you cannot even connect the drive to your computer with a cable.

Space Monkey's low-cost cloud storage, with enough space to store thousands of photos, documents, videos, and songs, is a good option if you're in need of a place to backup your files, or just want to access them from anywhere. However, the service requires more babysitting than any other cloud storage service, making it less ideal for those who want to set up their cloud and forget it.

Getting started

You need three things to get set up: a Space Monkey drive, an internet router, and an account. First, to create your account, just head to the company's Web site and choose an email and password combination. Then, you'll need to download and install Space Monkey's desktop software. It's available for both Mac and Windows, as well as Linux.

Now you're finally ready to put together your drive. Plug it into a power source, and connect it to your router through any open Ethernet port using the included Ethernet cable. The drive will start to connect to your network, and you should see small lights come on around the Ethernet port on the device.

Once the drive connects to your Internet connection, you can launch the Space Monkey software to get to start the set up process, which includes provisioning the drive. This was a tedious process for me, because my drive didn't automatically connect and I had to unplug it and plug it back in. It took several minutes for the drive to connect to my computer and show up in the Space Monkey app. Then, it took another five minutes for my drive to finish setting up so that I could start adding files. In my experience, it's faster, start to finish, to sign up for and get started with a cloud service such as Dropbox or Google Drive.

Put your files in your own cloud

Once your drive is online, storing files on it is as easy dragging the file from its original location on your computer and dropping it into your Space Monkey folder. Like Dropbox, or Google Drive, there's a dedicated folder in your computer's file system just for Space Monkey.

By default, there are sub-folders for Documents, Photos, and Video, but you can also create new folders and organize your files anyway you'd like. Interesting, when you move a file to Space Monkey, it copies and pastes it. That's different from Dropbox and Google Drive, both which move your file off your hard drive and into the cloud.

 

The power, Ethernet, and USB ports on the drive. 

When you add a new item to Space Monkey, you'll see a small syncing icon in the lower left of the file icon. Once it has fully synced to your drive, you'll see a spaceship icon that lets you know your file is in the cloud. You can also choose to pin an item in your drive, which means it's available offline, even if it never fully synced to the cloud.

This setup is nearly identical to all the big, popular consumer cloud storage services including Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive. Just download a download a desktop client, drag your files over to the cloud folders, and they'll sync to the cloud, so you can get to them anywhere with an Internet connection.

Overall, managing files with Space Monkey is just as effortless as working with Dropbox and other competing services. The desktop app is as easy to use as your computer's file system, and the status icons are helpful markers to tell you which files have synced, and which are still uploading.

Interestingly, you can use your Space Monkey drive without a subscription to the cloud service, however you'll need a program from Space Monkey that wipes the data off your drive and turns it into a typical backup hard drive, that does not connect to the Internet. You'll also need a male-to-male USB cable, not included, but it's an option.

Also, if you take your drive offline at any time, you won't be penalized by the company, nor will you lose any data already synced to the cloud.

Security and storage

As soon as your files sync with your drive, Space Monkey's unique storage method takes effect. The company uses a process called erasure coding, a fancy way of saying that your file is broken into many tiny pieces. Those tiny pieces then get encoded with redundant data pieces and are sent to up to 40 other Space Monkey devices, spread out across the US and every other continent (except for Antarctica and Australia) . The system is set up in a way that even if up to half of the drives that are storing your file pieces fail, you can still recover your file.

Those pieces are also heavily encrypted, and the company says that in order for a hacker to compromise your entire file, they'd need to get into dozens Space Monkey drives and then get through the layers of encryption. The company's Web site offers a deeper and slightly more technical explanation of exactly how it protects your files.

 

You can get the sleek drive in glossy white or matte black.

While all of that is happening in the background, you never get a glimpse of that process. You'll just see your files syncing with the Space Monkey network, and then be able to recall those files any time, in the same amount it takes to open a file in any other cloud storage service.

Space Monkey claims that it's system is very safe and extremely hard to crack. However, no cloud storage service is impenetrable to hacking. So if security is a paramount concern for you, you might consider not storing files in any cloud.

Always online

I mentioned earlier that each Space Monkey drive has 2 terabytes inside. That's because you get 1TB to use, and the other terabyte is left open to store other users' data. Because Space Monkey is a two-way street of uploading your data to cloud, downloading others' data onto your drive, it's constantly using your Internet connection.

 

Space Monkey's Windows desktop app. 

Most people have modest internet connections at home, somewhere around 20Mbps according to data from Ookla. That means if you try to add several gigabytes of files to your Space Monkey drive at once, it's could to take hours, and possibly even days, to upload, depending on the number of gigabytes and your network speed.

Space Monkey has an answer for this, saying that the service tries to be nice to your network by backing off syncing when you're doing other things on your network, like playing games online or streaming video. The company is still trying to improve how the cloud affects your network, but in the meantime, you can control the download and upload speeds in the desktop application.

Mobile apps

Like other cloud services, Space Monkey has mobile apps so you can add, delete, and edit files from your phone. Both apps have simple, basic designs. The home screens show all of your files and folders. The only other screen just shows all of your camera uploads from your phone. You can add new folders, and upload new files from the app, and everything will get synced automatically.

If your drive goes offline for any reason, you'll still be able to view and download your files from the apps or Space Monkey's Web site.

Both the Android and iOS apps have a helpful auto-upload feature, which will automatically save every photo or video you take to the cloud. This is similar to Dropbox's and Microsoft's OneDrive automatic uploading features in their mobile apps.

 

The Space Monkey Android app. 

Why Space Monkey?

Space Monkey's biggest draw is cost. It's cheaper than most other options out there, including Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and Box.

The reason the service is less expensive is that you're covering the cost of the hardware that stores yours and other people's files, instead of the companies paying to use server space in a data center. This approach helps Space Monkey keeps its costs low, which means you'll pay less for cloud storage.

However, it might not be the cheapest option forever. When Space Monkey first came on to the scene, 1TB of storage was a rare, and expensive option. Now, costs are lower, with Google charging only $10 per month for 1TB. As the cost of for more storage continues to fall, Space Monkey will become a less compelling option, especially considering Dropbox, Google Drive, and other traditional cloud services are faster and easier to set up.

Western Digital also has Space Monkey slightly beat with its cloud option. It's My Cloud NAS server gives you 2TB of storage for $150 and comes with your own private cloud for no extra cost. There's no subscription cost, and you get all 2 terabytes to store your files. The only downside is that if you drive fails, you'll lose your files because they aren't stored anywhere else.

Conclusion

With the help of a sleek-looking desktop hard drive, Space Monkey gives you 1TB of storage that also backs up to the cloud, so you don't lose precious files. The service costs only $50 per year, which is cheaper than most other cloud storage options.

However, Space Monkey costs more money up front than its competitors, because you need to put down $200 for the drive, though you get one year of service for free. Luckily, that cost balances out over time, because it's only $50 per year for the cloud storage, compared to Google Drive's $10 per month ($120 per year) cost for 1TB.

While the promise of low-cost decentralized cloud storage is enticing, Space Monkey takes more effort to set up than its competitors. That makes it a bit more daunting for most people, because you have to make sure the drive is running properly to keep your personal cloud online.

If cost is an important factor for you, Space Monkey is worth the up-front investment. However, if you just want a cloud service that doesn't require any hassle, and you're not as concerned about exactly how and where your files are stored, it's more convenient to pick Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive.

Article by Sarah Mitroff

Asus gives the Zenbook UX301 a higher-res touch screen

Review Date: Mar. 27, 2014

The Good The Zenbook UX301 packs in a lot, including a better-than-HD touch screen, big 256GB SSD, and Core i7 processor, in a slim, smart design.

The Bad It costs more than most comparable better-then-HD laptops, including the Retina MacBook Pro. The Zenbook doesn't feel as rugged as its price warrants, and its battery life is unimpressive.

The Bottom Line Asus was one of the first PC makers to go ultra-thin with its Zenbook line. That latest UX301 version packs in nearly every high-end spec you'd want, but it's priced out of reach for most, and lacks an all-day battery.

A few years ago, nearly every PC maker had its own version of the idea ultrabook (some would call them MacBook Air clones), with a slim body, low-voltage CPU, 13-inch screen, and a premium price. In 2014, the nearly identical laptop everyone needs to have is a radically updated version of that ultrabook, adding Windows 8, a touch screen, and a better-than-HD screen resolution.

The Asus UX301 joins the Toshiba KiraBook, Apple MacBook Pro, Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro, Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus, and others in offering a touch screen that goes beyond 1080p. In this case, it's a 2,560x1,440 display, which has so far proven to be slightly more common than the 3,200x1,800 version found in the Yoga 2 and Razer's upcoming Blade 14.

 

In either case, it's a lot of pixels to push on such a small screen, but there are definite benefits in reading on-screen text and editing high-resolution photos. It's not an extra feature that counts as a must-have just yet, but just as touch screens have gone from oddity to standard feature in less than two years, I can see these higher resolutions coming to more and more laptops in the near future.Hopefully, many of those future models won't cost quite as much as as this one. At $1,899 (it's about $50 less at most online stores), this configuration of the UX301 is about as expensive as non-gaming laptops get. The components are appropriately premium, to be sure, with an Intel Core i7 CPU and big 256GB SSD, but only 8GB of RAM and no other particularly unique features, aside from scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass 3 on both sides of the lid. A 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro with similar specs (but minus the touch screen, of course), is $1,799. Likewise, a similarly configured Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus can be found for about $1,750, with an even higher-res 3,200x1,800 screen.

With just a bit of daylight between the prices of comparable laptops, your preference will likely rest on subjective impressions of the design, keyboard, and touch pad (all very good here, but the same could be said for the Ativ Book 9 Plus, for example). And keep in mind, if a better-than-HD screen is the main feature you're after, Lenovo's Yoga 2 Pro offers a 13-inch 3,200x1,800 hybrid for just about $1,000.

 

	Asus Zenbook UX301LA	Toshiba Kirabook 13-i7s	Apple Macbook Pro 13-inch (October 2013)
Price	$1,899	$1,699	$1,499
Display size/resolution	13.3-inch, 2,560 x 1,440 touch screen	13.3-inch, 2,560 x 1,440 touch screen	13.3-inch, 2,560 x 1,600 screen
PC CPU	2.8GHz Intel Core i7-4558U	1.8GHz Intel Core i7-4500U	2.4GHz Intel Core i5 4258U
PC Memory	8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1600MHz	8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1600MHz	8GB DDR3 SDRAM 1600MHz
Graphics	32MB (dedicated) Intel Iris Graphics 5100	1792MB (shared) Intel HD Graphics 4400	1GB Intel Iris Graphics
Storage	(2) 128GB SSD hard drives	256GB SSD hard drive	256GB SSD
Optical drive	None	None	None
Networking	802.11ac wireless, Bluetooth 4.0	802.11ac wireless, Bluetooth 4.0	802.11ac wireless, Bluetooth 4.0
Operating system	Windows 8.1 (64-bit)	Windows 8.1 Pro (64-bit)	OS X Mavericks 10.9

 

Design and features

The Zenbook was one of the first laptops to truly embrace the ultrabook vibe, with slim, tapered metal shells, and lids that stood out from the crowd with a circular pattern that some say resembled rippling water. Here the same effect is generated not in aluminum, but but under a Gorilla Glass 3 lid, over a dark blue background. The big difference between this and other recent slim ultrabook-style laptops we've tested is the incredibly high gloss finish on the back of the lid -- as one would expect from a glass top layer.

 

At a bit over 3 pounds, the UX301 feels hefty in the hand, solidly built, but not as light as some other 13-inch laptops. However, despite the generally tight-feeling chassis, a very minor bump onto a carpeted floor left the power pin from the AC adaptor seriously bent out of shape, although still functional. That's why Apple, for example, has a magnetic power connection (although I've dropped and bumped plenty of Windows laptops over the years with nary a bent power plug pin).

The matte black interior features a sunken keyboard with large island-style keys. Important keys such as Shift, Enter, and Backspace are decently sized, and the entire keyboard has a very MacBook-like vibe, from the layout of the arrow keys to the power button at the very top right corner. Typing was only slightly hindered by some keyboard flex around the center, but you'll have to be a heavy typist to really notice.

 

The large clickpad-style touch pad is much better than the versions found on the early Zenbooks of years ago. Back then, touchpad response was finicky, and multi-touch gestures were near-useless. This version is as good as any Windows laptop, with quick response and natural-feeling inertial scrolling, but I had to turn off the Windows 8 edge gestures because they were too easy to accidentally trigger.

The 13.3-inch 2,560x1,440 touch screen display is a system highlight. Covered with edge-to-edge glass, the touch response was excellent and off-axis viewing was decent, but not best-in-class. The ultra-high resolution allows for an amazing level of zoom, and you can pinch-to-zoom on pages of text to see the effect up close. The glossy screen does, however, have a lot of glare under normal lighting conditions, so you may end up twisting and turning to find a glare-free angle.

The speakers are from Bang & Olufsen ICEpower, a subsidiary of the famous audio company, and sound decent for such a small laptop, although that may be because they're fired from side-edge speakers, which gives you an especially wide stereo image.

 

ASUS ZENBOOK UX301

Video	micro-HDMI and mini-DisplayPort
Audio	Stereo speakers, combo headphone/microphone jack
Data	2 USB 3.0, SD card reader
Networking	802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
Optical drive	None

 

Connections, performance, and battery

On a slim ultrabook-style laptop, you're not going to find a lot of ports and connections. The main compromise here is the inclusion of two off-size video outputs, micro-HDMI and mini-DVI, instead of a single full-size port, as in the case of the similar Toshiba Kirabook, which has a regular HDMI port. More options are great in theory, but you'll need to carry around a pocketful of dongles to make it work. Two USB ports is acceptable, but many ultrabooks offer three.

The 2.8GHz Intel Core i7-4558U CPU is a few notches past the 4200U chips we see in a lot of competing systems, but as long as your 2014 ultrabook has a current-gen Core i7 low-voltage processor, you're in roughly the same camp. That said, the Asus UX301 deserves credit for running most of our benchmark tests faster than systems such as the Toshiba Kirabook or even the 13-inch Macbook Pro, even if you're unlikely to feel a difference in real-world usage.

The integrated Intel Iris graphics go a small step beyond the HD4400 version found in current-gen Intel Core i5 systems, but we haven't found Iris to offer much in the way of gaming abilities, especially if you take the very high screen resolution into consideration.

Despite the excellent benchmark performance in application tests, the UX301 was a letdown in battery life. In our video playback battery drain test, the system ran for 5:22. That's less than every other higher-res laptop we compared it to, with the Samsung Book 9 Plus running for more than three additional hours, and the MacBook Pro running even longer than that.

Conclusion

At first glance, the Asus UX301 is another me-too better-than-HD ultrabook, offering similar features, similar high-end design, and a similar premium price, as models from Toshiba, Samsung, Apple, and others. It stands out from the crowd for its Gorilla Glass lid and best-in-class application performance, but it also costs a bit more.

Add in a battery that doesn't run as long as the competition, and you have a laptop that loses out on being the go-to for this growing category, and instead lands firmly in the middle of the pack.

Average price for Asus Zenbook UX301, $1889