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131 Pages·2012·11.36 MB·English

PC
X79 TESTED GPU COMPUTING BUILD IT
We put the screws Are graphics cards putting Step-by-step to
to Asus’s new CPUs out of work? Read a Sandy Bridge-E
LGA2011 mobo our full report powerhouse
PC
MINIMUM BS • JANUARY 2012 www.maximumpc.com
PC
REVIEWED: 21
Three Android
ESSENTIAL
tablets that break FIRST
from the pack STEPS
SET UP
YOUR
NEW PC
THE RIGHT
WAY!
Check your hardware specs
FACE-OFF!
Confi gure and tweak your settings
Nero vs. Roxio Create a backup and recovery plan
vs. CyberLink: Optimize your network
Which has the And more!
best media
suite?
where we put stuff table of contents
inside
On the Cover JANUARY 2012
Photography by QUICKSTART
Mark Madeo
8 NEWS
What's behind HP's decision to
stick with PCs; fl oods in Thailand
could harm overall PC market.
14 THE LIST
FEATURES
Eight great webcomics for geeks.
16 HEAD TO HEAD
Amazon Prime and Netfl ix battle
for your video streaming dollars.
R&D
56 WHITE PAPER Dueling Analogs
Many of today's cell phone
makers claim to utilize 4G, but
what constitutes the technology
is open to interpretation.
59 HOW TO
Change Windows Explorer's
default start location;
benchmark your Android phone
for free; create a personalized
QR code.
64 BUILD IT
We construct a dream PC
around Sandy Bridge-E.
22 36 46
HOW TO SET UP THE STATE OF THE MEDIA
A NEW PC GPU COMPUTING SUITE SPOT
LETTERS
You've got a new rig and How graphics parts are Ditch those old photo albums
are drooling at the thought taking on more CPU chores and scratched discs—with a
of moving in. Follow our 21 and which consumer media suite, you can manage 18 DOCTOR
steps for optimizing your applications are benefi tting all your pictures, music, and
setup. from it. video wherever, whenever.
94 COMMENTS
IN THE LAB
+
E
R
72 77 80 82
O
FALCON COOLER 3TB SEAGATE ANDROID
M
NORTHWEST MASTER BARRACUDA TABLET
MACH V ICON 2 HYPER 212 EVO HARD DRIVE ROUNDUP
5
maximumpc.com JAN 2012 MAXIMUMPC
where we put stuff table of contents
inside
On the Cover JANUARY 2012
Photography by QUICKSTART
Mark Madeo
8 NEWS
What's behind HP's decision to
stick with PCs; fl oods in Thailand
could harm overall PC market.
14 THE LIST
FEATURES
Eight great webcomics for geeks.
16 HEAD TO HEAD
Amazon Prime and Netfl ix battle
for your video streaming dollars.
R&D
56 WHITE PAPER Dueling Analogs
Many of today's cell phone
makers claim to utilize 4G, but
what constitutes the technology
is open to interpretation.
59 HOW TO
Change Windows Explorer's
default start location;
benchmark your Android phone
for free; create a personalized
QR code.
64 BUILD IT
We construct a dream PC
around Sandy Bridge-E.
22 36 46
HOW TO SET UP THE STATE OF THE MEDIA
A NEW PC GPU COMPUTING SUITE SPOT
LETTERS
You've got a new rig and How graphics parts are Ditch those old photo albums
are drooling at the thought taking on more CPU chores and scratched discs—with a
of moving in. Follow our 21 and which consumer media suite, you can manage 18 DOCTOR
steps for optimizing your applications are benefi tting all your pictures, music, and
setup. from it. video wherever, whenever.
94 COMMENTS
IN THE LAB
+
E
R
72 77 80 82
O
FALCON COOLER 3TB SEAGATE ANDROID
M
NORTHWEST MASTER BARRACUDA TABLET
MACH V ICON 2 HYPER 212 EVO HARD DRIVE ROUNDUP
5
maximumpc.com JAN 2012 MAXIMUMPC
a thing or two about a thing or two editorial
MAXIMUMPC
Gordon
EDITORIAL Mah Ung
Editor-in-Chief: Katherine Stevenson
Deputy Editor: Gordon Mah Ung
Reviews Editor: Michael Brown
Senior Editors: Nathan Edwards, Markkus Rovito
Online Managing Editor: Alex Castle
Online Features Editor: Amber Bouman
Associate Editors: Alan Fackler, Dan Scharff
Contributing Writers: Seamus Bellamy, Loyd Case, Brad Chacos,
Pulkit Chandra, Ken Feinstein, Tom Halfhill, Justin Kerr, Paul Lilly,
Thomas McDonald, Quinn Norton, Bill O’Brien
Copy Editor: Catherine Hunter
Podcast Producer: Andy Bauman
Editor Emeritus: Andrew Sanchez
ART
Art Director: Richard Koscher UNIVERSAL
BUSINESS
Vice President, Consumer Media: Kelley Corten, [email protected]
Vice President, Sales & Marketing: Rachelle Considine, GRAPHICS FOR ALL
[email protected]
Executive Director Integrated Sales: Nate Hunt, [email protected]
Associate Director of Sales: Isaac Ugay, [email protected]
Regional Sales Manager, West Coast: Greg Ryder, [email protected]
Account Executive, East Coast: Samantha Rady, [email protected]
Advertising Coordinator: Heidi Hapin, [email protected]
AMERICAN’S, I’VE BEEN TOLD, don’t care The PC gaming resurgence that we’ve
Marketing & Sales Development Director: Rhoda Bueno about discrete graphics anymore. seen lately tells us that we need to care
eCommerce & Fulfi llment Director: Lisa Radler
Consumer Marketing Director: Stephanie Blake No, not you. If you’re thumbing through about graphics performance. Certainly
Newsstand Director: Bill Shewey
Maximum PC magazine, you know the not every new PC buyer is going to want
PRODUCTION value of a good graphics card or two. to play Battlefi eld 3 on Ultra, but even
Production Director: Michael Hollister
Production Manager: Larry Briseno The problem is, the average consumer “casual games” will board the feature-
Senior Production Coordinator: Dan Mallory
Print Order Coordinator: Jennifer Lim in North America apparently feels little creep train and start to require more and
need for the GPU. more graphics fi repower. That doesn’t
FUTURE US, INC.
4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080 This isn’t just anecdotal evidence, ei- even take into account the increasing
Tel: [phone], www.futureus.com
ther. Research analysts who look at the reliance on the GPU for highly parallel
President: John Marcom ebb and fl ow of chip sales across the workloads.
Vice President & Chief Financial Offi cer: John Sutton
Vice President, Internet & Mobile Products: Mark Kramer world have told me this, and I’ve also I’d be concerned that this was a lost
General Counsel: Anne Ortel
heard it from system builders, graphics cause if not for the fact that AMD and Intel
SUBSCRIBER CUSTOMER SERVICE card vendors, and various other plugged- are making the right moves in integrated
Maximum PC Customer Care,
P.O. Box 5159, Harlan, IA 51593-0659 in PC people over the years: Yankees just graphics performance. AMD’s Fusion
Website: www.maximumpc.com/customerservice don’t care about the discrete GPU. I’ve chips are a step in the right direction. In-
Tel: [phone]
Email: MAXcustserv@cdsfulfi llment.com seen it with my own eyes as I browse stead of getting craptastic chipset-based
BACK ISSUES the confi gurations of many PCs at the integrated graphics with a fair quad-core,
Website: www.maximumpc.com/shop big-box stores: The vast majority use consumers now get $70-level discrete
Tel: [phone]
integrated graphics, with only a handful graphics and a quad-core chip, to boot.
REPRINTS
Future US, Inc., 4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400, offering a discrete card. With its larger market share, Intel’s
South San Francisco, CA 94080
Website: www.futureus.com Even more disturbing are the trends next-gen chip, code-named Ivy Bridge,
Tel: [phone], Fax [phone] I’m being told about: While Americans will put another great big foot forward. Ivy
don’t care about graphics, in European Bridge’s x86 functionality improvements
and Asian countries, PC buyers have el- are ho hum, but the company has made
evated the discrete GPU to a must-have major advancements in the graphics side
item in new PC purchases. of the chip. More importantly, it’s clear
So why aren’t Americans choosing that Intel fi nally cares about graphics, so
discrete GPUs when we buy a new PC? newer chips will just build upon the trend.
Some believe Americans have moved While I’m not certain we can ever con-
onto consoles as the primary gaming vince our brothers-in-law or aunts to buy
Future produces carefully targeted
platform, so we give the PC short shrift. a PC with a discrete graphics card, all of
magazines, websites and events for people
with a passion. We publish more than 180 Others think that the PC’s role in the us would be for the betterif that PC just
magazines, websites and events and we
export or license our publications to 90 physically smaller homes of Europe and came with fairly decent graphics for free.
countries across the world. Asia give it more prominence as a TV,
Future plc is a public Non-executive Chairman: Peter Allen productivity tool, and game machine.
company quoted on the Chief Executive: Mark Wood
London Stock Exchange. Group Finance Director: Graham Harding Well, I’m here to tell you that Ameri-
Tel [phone] (London)
www.futureplc.com Tel [phone] (Bath) cans should care about graphics per-
formance, even on their low-end ma-
chines—at least as much as they care
©2011 Future US, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine
may be used or reproduced without the written permission of about the typical three specs of CPU Gordon Mah Ung is Maximum PC’s
Future US, Inc. (owner). All information provided is, as far as Future
(owner) is aware, based on information correct at the time of press. clock speed, RAM allotment, and hard deputy editor, senior hardware expert,
Readers are advised to contact manufacturers and retailers directly drive capacity. and all-around muckraker.
with regard to products/services referred to in this magazine. We
welcome reader submissions, but cannot promise that they will
be published or returned to you. By submitting materials to us you
agree to give Future the royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive right ↘ submit your questions to:[email protected]
to publish and reuse your submission in any form in any and all
media and to use your name and other information in connection
with the submission.
7
maximumpc.com JAN 2012 MAXIMUMPC
quickstart the beginning of the magazine, where the articles are small
NNoo PPoosstt--PPCC
EErraa ffoorr HHPP
The computing giant caps a fl ip-fl oppy 2011
and looks forward to righting the ship
A Windows 8 slate is probably the most tablet-y thing
you'll see from HP in 2012.
NOBODY NEEDS THE clean slate the new CEO. Whitman quickly business was spun off. Whit- a ton of money into WebOS,
of a new year more than HP. established that (surprise!) HP man admitted that was “one so he expects the company to
After announcing a brave new does plan on keeping its PC line. element of (the decision)” in an continue to license the soft-
vision for the company on Au- interview with AllThingsD.com ware to other manufacturers
gust 18, 2011—a vision that A Change of Heart (dthin.gs/ue0r4W). until it fi gures out a way to
included killing all WebOS Why the sudden shift in di- actually see some return on
hardware and possibly ditching rection? A number of factors Stopping the Bleeding in its investment. Enderle isn’t
its top-selling PC business— probably infl uenced the deci- 2012 quite as optimistic. The recent
the company quickly discovered sion—including HP’s plummet- “(HP) will be working hard departure of WebOS’s lead
that, well, no one but CEO Léo ing stock value and widespread to put the strange year that supporter at HP leads him to
Apotheker could see a future jeers from virtually all cor- was 2011 behind them,” says believe that “unless it is sold
without the HP name on com- ners—but supply chain issues Crawford Del Prete, chief re- quickly, WebOS is history.” As
puters. Amid fi erce consumer, were defi nitely part of it. As search offi cer at International this issue went to press, the
enterprise, and investor back- the largest PC manufacturer Data Corporation. So how will latest word was that HP is in
lash, HP’s board of directors around, HP has extensive le- the company go about winning fact looking to sell WebOS,
gave Apotheker the boot and verage with component and lo- back the hearts and minds of with Amazon, RIM, Oracle, and
named former eBay boss and gistic providers, leverage that skittish end users? By getting others interested.
failed California gubernato- would disappear and hurt other thinner and trimmer. Del Prete WebOS hardware may be
rial candidate Meg Whitman HP divisions if the consumer expects HP to entice custom- done, but HP won't let the mo-
ers with lightweight, sub- bile money-train pass it by. “I
$1,000 Ultrabooks that feature expect HP will now put the ef-
“leading-edge technology and forts they would have put into
forward-thinking design” and the WebOS tablet into their com-
are ready for use in the work- ing Windows 8 tablets instead,”
place as part of the “consum- Enderle writes, a comment
erization of IT” trend. echoed by Del Prete. Look for
Rob Enderle, the owner and both ARM- and traditional x86-
principal analyst of the Ender- based HP tablets for Windows 8.
le Group, predicts HP will slim
down in yet another way, citing No More Drama
Whitman’s disapproval of HP’s Experts agree: Expect HP to
vast number of offerings. “I'd be much more focused on ex-
expect fewer products that are ecution—and much less fo-
both more richly confi gured cused on drama—under Meg
and more aggressively priced, Whitman in 2012. Don’t make
as new, simpler lines replace the mistake of ruling the com-
the old, complex ones.” pany out, either; Lenovo may
Look for HP to slim down
be making strides, but HP is
some of its bloated product
What about Tablets? still top dog in the PC world.
lines with simpler offerings,
Del Prete notes that HP sank –BRAD CHACOS
including Ultrabooks.
8
MAXIMUMPC JAN 2012 maximumpc.com
Tom
Halfhill
pacity. This in turn will lead to massive
drive shortages as retailers and system Fast
integrators run through existing inven-
Forward
tories. Hard drive prices had already
doubled as early as November 2011, with
shortages expected to last through the
ARM
fi rst quarter of 2012.
The hard drive shortage could have
EMBRACES 64
a chilling effect on the entire PC in-
dustry; motherboard vendors reported
BITS
slower-than-expected fourth-quarter
sales, while PC sales could drop by
nearly a quarter in the early part of
IT WAS THE best-known secret of the year:
next year, according to IDC, the tech re-
ARM was prepping its fi rst 64-bit CPU ar-
search group.
chitecture to bash head-on with Intel in the
It’s not just consumers who'll feel the
low-power server market. ARM’s offi cial
pinch. Nick Bilton at the New York Times
announcement fi nally came in October, and
(nyti.ms/w3Kvtu) warns that cloud-com-
AppliedMicro revealed bold plans for the
puting companies, which rely on ever-
fi rst 64-bit processor based on the new ar-
increasing storage pools, could run into
chitecture.
problems—or even run out of space.
With Microsoft readying its fi rst ARM-
The drive shortage will lead to lean
Thai Floods Lead compatible version of desktop/server Win-
times for just about everyone in the PC
dows, PCs may fl irt with ARM, too, although
to Massive HDD component business, though SSD manu-
notebooks are more likely candidates than
facturers could see sales soar. After all,
Shortages desktops. It’s the fi rst serious challenge
with hard drive prices rising, their once
from a non-x86 architecture that Intel has
This autumn, heavy rain in Thailand absolute price advantage over solid-
faced in 20 years.
caused fl ooding that led to massive state drives may start to disappear,
These days, the desperate quest for pow-
property damage, as well as more than and if SSD manufacturers can keep up
er effi ciency is driving the industry in new
500 deaths. The fl ooding forced the shut- with demand, they could wind up sitting
directions. Not all those roads lead to In-
down of many of the world’s hard drive pretty. Some manufacturers, like OCZ,
tel. ARM’s existing 32-bit CPU architecture
factories, including those of Seagate and have already announced lower-cost SSD
rules the cell phone market and is popular
Western Digital—up to 40 percent of the models to try to capture some of the
in numerous other devices, such as Apple’s
world’s hard drive manufacturing ca- market. –NE
iPad. Although ARM-based processors can’t
yet match the performance of Intel’s best
chips, they are powerful enough for many
Skype LSI Scoops up
purposes and are more power effi cient.
Founders Hit SandForce for System vendors want to try building large
servers using boatloads of low-power ARM
Play on Vdio $322 Million chips, but the critical missing piece was a
64-bit ARM architecture. Every other serv-
Video may have killed the radio In a bit of a shocker, LSI signed a de-
er-processor architecture (x86, Itanium,
star, but Vdio, the online video fi nitive agreement to acquire Sand-
POWER, SPARC) has been 64-bit for years.
equivalent of Rdio, will do battle Force, maker of popular high-speed
Unlike Intel, however, ARM doesn’t actu-
with Netfl ix for streaming su- SSD controllers in the performance
ally make microprocessors. It licenses its
premacy. Skype creators Niklas category. In recent years, LSI has
architecture and CPU cores to other compa-
Zennström and Janus Friis head focused most of its attention on en-
nies, which design the chips and outsource
up a team of heavy hitters with ex- terprise networking and storage.
manufacturing to independent foundries.
perience at Napster, Microsoft, TV Many assumed a company like Intel
Hence the importance of AppliedMicro’s an-
Guide, and Apache. or Corsair would pocket SandForce,
nouncement: a future 32-core server proces-
Like Netfl ix, Vdio lets you in- just as OCZ did with Indilinx.
sor called X-Gene. Someone has to go fi rst.
stantly watch TV and movies. It's a Yet LSI agreed to pay approxi-
Intel retains awesome advantages in
privately funded project currently mately $322 million in cash and
CPU performance, fabrication technology,
in closed beta. Vdio will debut in assume around $48 million of un-
engineering resources, and market posi-
the UK, but it's a safe bet that it'll vested stock options and restricted
tion. Frankly, I give ARM only a 50/50 chance
land in the U.S. shares held by SandForce employ-
of succeeding outside its traditional mobile
The Vdio team isn't backing ees. The acquisition should close in
scope. But the battle will be good drama,
down from inevitable compari- Q1 2012, and LSI envisions becom-
and the fresh competition will push Intel to
sons to Netfl ix. Their answer to ing an industry leader in the high-
design lower-power x86 processors, so al-
how Vdio is different from Netfl ix volume fl ash storage processor
most any outcome is a win for the rest of us.
is, "We think people will love us- market space for Ultrabook, note-
ing Vdio." This should be fun. –PL book, and enterprise SSD and fl ash
Tom Halfhill was formerly a senior
solutions. –PL
editor for Byte magazine and is now
an analyst for Microprocessor Report.
9
maximumpc.com JAN 2012 MAXIMUMPC
quickstart
Ubuntu 14.04 to
Thomas Run on Tablets,
McDonald Smartphones,
Game and TVs
Theory At the Ubuntu Developer Summit in
November, Canonical described a new
strategy: “By 14.04 LTS, Ubuntu will
power tablets, phones, TVs, and smart
screens… and connect those devices
seamlessly to the desktop, the server,
RAGING and the cloud,” wrote Canonical found-
er Mark Shuttleworth in a blog post.
MEDIOCRITY Key to the strategy is Unity, the oft-
maligned interface that became the
default GUI of Ubuntu 11.04. In his blog,
I REMEMBER 1994 well. OJ Simpson debuted
Shuttleworth noted that Unity was de-
a new kind of TV show running 24/7 on ev-
signed for its core elements to scale to
ery network. Ace of Base proved that Swed-
any form factor, and he underlined the
ish musical artistry didn’t die with ABBA.
importance of partnerships with ma-
And Id Software released its last game that
jor silicon vendors. Canonical recently
didn’t disappoint me.
rolled out support for chips based
I’m not saying that Doom II was Id’s last
on ARM’s architecture inside Ubuntu
game of any value, but that it was its last Go Ubuntu Unity is a great theme for the Go
11.10. –PC Launcher Ex Android app.
game that met expectations. Everything
since then has marked Id's gradual slide
into game design mediocrity—a slide that
reaches its nadir with Rage.
It’s Official: Mobile Flash Sucks
Since Doom II, Id’s game design sen-
sibility has hardly progressed at all. The There’s one thing we’ve long agreed with Steve Jobs on: Adobe Flash sucks.
Quake games added almost nothing to the It appears that Adobe finally agrees, too—at least regarding the mobile ver-
basic Doom formula, while Doom III milked sion of Flash. Adobe announced it will stop developing its Flash mobile plugin, as
every cliché in the design book, from mon- well as TV support for it, in favor of HTML5.
ster closets to a tedious obsession with Adobe made the abrupt about-face after years of trying to squeeze Adobe
sudden darkness. Flash onto low-powered mobile devices and television sets. That’s no easy feat
I’m not talking about the technology. A considering that, at times, Flash would cripple even more powerful desktop PCs.
new Id game is a chance to see technology Flash’s fate on mobile was likely sealed when Steve Jobs declared a fatwa on the
tools that push PCs to do wonderful things. plugin for the iPad and iPhone. Adobe says that going forward, it will concentrate
But if you’re writing a review of an Id game, on HTML5 as well as AIR applications for mobile devices.
and you’re lingering over the wonders of While Adobe is committed to Flash for desktops and laptops, many question
curved surfaces, volumetric fog/lighting, how long that will last, as consumers turn more and more to tablets and phones
or nice, smooth shadow maps, you’re not for general browsing. –GU
reviewing the game, you’re reviewing the
engine. Each new Id release is the great-
est tech demo ever, but as games, they just
don’t offer much. Expect Ivy Bridge No Earlier than March
With Rage, the Id formula finally comes
The doomsday clock is already ticking on Intel’s spiffy Sandy Bridge processors. Ivy Bridge,
completely undone. It’s as though the de-
the slimmer, trimmer 22nm next-generation processors, are barreling down so fast that
velopers studied other games with more
you can already pick up motherboards that accommodate Ivy Bridge’s PCIe 3.0 support.
depth and innovation (namely Fallout 3
Intel only says “early 2012” for Ivy availability, but one source claims to know more.
and Borderlands), and then attempted to
DigiTimes (and its as-always anonymous sources) reports that Ivy Bridge will hit the
squeegee a thin film of those gameplay el-
streets no earlier than March. The same sources claim that quad-core Ivy Bridge processors
ements over their old formula. They didn’t
will use just 45W, 65W, and 77W of thermal design power, thanks to Intel’s energy-efficient
even nail their two strongest areas: The
tri-gate transistors (pictured below); dual-core processors will run at 35W and 55W. –BC
tech is impressive but glitchy, and the mul-
tiplayer is weak. Oddly, Rage's visual de-
sign is the most aesthetically unappealing
Id has ever done. It’s hard to recall a more
lovingly detailed, ugly environment.
Something good will come of this. Quake
III gave us Call of Duty; Doom III gave us
Prey; and something worthwhile will come
from Rage. It just won’t come from Id.
You can follow Thomas McDonald on
Twitter @StateOfPlayBlog.
10
MAXIMUMPC JAN 2012 maximumpc.com
quickstart
Flexible Screens Come
Quinn
to Samsung's 2012
Norton
Gadgets
Byte
Samsung has announced that its 2012
Rights
lineup of mobile gadgets will include flex-
ible screens—initially hitting phones,
and eventually tablets. Though this is an
THE CRAPPY exciting prospect, Samsung had little
more information to give; we don’t know
HOUSE REMIX which phones will include the technol-
ogy first, or whether or not the screens
will be able to stand up to Samsung’s
EVERY TIME a terrible bill like COICA touted AMOLED screens used in
or PIPA gets exposed for what it would phones like the Galaxy Nexus.
actually do to the Internet, large rights Samsung’s interest in the screen
holders reinvent it slightly, lay some bad innovation probably stems from its
dubstep over it, and call it something you purchase of Liquivista, a screen developer that focuses on making flexible screens
can dance to. that are bright and consume little power. For now, only time will tell whether or not
This time it's the Stopping Online Pi- flex-screens are the next step in the ever-developing world of smartphones. –AF
racy Act—SOPA for short. SOPA is a bill
coming out of the House that is a compli-
ment to the Senate's PROTECT-IP abom- Brits Build Biological Logic Gates
ination. It's entirely unlike PROTECT-IP,
After a team at Imperial College London demonstrated logic gates made from
in that while it does all the same things
harmless bacteria and chemicals in October, science took one step closer to pre-
and worse, it phrases them differently…
senting humanity with Kurzweilian living computers that could keep our bodies
so you won't notice.
healthy from the inside.
SOPA has done away with PROTECT-
Researchers modified the DNA of E. Coli bacteria and reprogrammed it to per-
IP's "blacklist," after realizing Americans
form “on” and “off” switching when stimulated by chemicals, mimicking an elec-
don't really like blacklist censorship.
tronic AND gate. A different experiment resulted in a NOT gate, and the scientists
Instead, SOPA allows the attorney gen-
combined both gates into a NAND gate. These biological gates perform more like
eral to cut off sites from the Internet by
electronic gates than previously demonstrated, and their modularity bodes well
prohibiting them in some sort of non-list
for making more complex biological processors in the future.
document. Since that's not a blacklist, it
While still a long way off, microscopic biological computers could include sen-
doesn't need any judicial review. Prohibit-
sors that detect cancer cells, toxins, harmful plaque in the bloodstream, etc., and
ed sites would be arranged in a tag cloud
then neutralize those dangerous elements. –MR
of some sort, and DNS providers would be
required to not show them to you.
SOPA goes on to ban advertisers and
credit card processors from doing busi-
ness with sites dedicated to copyright in-
fringement. Whether a site is dedicated Windows 8
to infringement is helpfully determined Watch
by what the guy filing the legal nasty-
gram thinks looks like a site dedicated to
infringement, without any law enforce- Windows 8 Accepted by IT Pros and
ment getting into the act, much less
Gadget Makers
judges. The law calls this the "market-
based approach." This provision could With Windows 8 expected to show up on machines in time for the back-to-school
not possibly be abused as much as the season of 2012, we're keeping a close eye on the industry anticipation for the OS.
infamous DMCA take-down notice, a For example, a recent InformationWeek survey of 973 IT professionals found that 52
provision used more to hobble competi- percent of their employers already had definite plans to adopt Windows 8.
tion and speech than protect copyright, While Windows 8 PCs are a given, one of the leading Android tablet developers, Asus,
according to a Google study, because is planning two Windows 8 tablets to hit in Q3 of 2012, according to a presentation at the
I heard recently that all the bad people Asus 2011 Investor Conference. No further details were given.
left the Internet. Though ITG is not a PC giant like Asus, the obscure Taiwanese
This bill may let corporations and component maker nonetheless has announced its xpPhone 2,
government break the Internet, but don't a 4.3-inch smartphone that will initially run Windows 7
worry, because they've put out press re- when it launches in 2012 but will also support Win-
leases promising they would never do dows 8 when that operating system arrives.
anything like that. The xpPhone 2 sheds bulk while improving
on the battery life of its predecessor and
has a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530, 2GB RAM,
Quinn Norton writes about copy- and 112GB of solid-state storage. –MR
right for Wired News and other
publications.
12
MAXIMUMPC JAN 2012 maximumpc.com
quickstart
8 GREAT WEBCOMICS FOR GEEKS
PENNY ARCADE
This geek favorite started as a video game
comic but has become so much more.
www.penny-arcade.com
THE TRENCHES DRESDEN CODAK
From the makers of Penny Arcade and Amazing artwork and high-minded philosophical
PvP, The Trenches focuses on the trials and tech content make this comic a double-yes.
and tribulations of video game testers. www.dresdencodak.com
www.trenchescomic.com
SEQUENTIAL
ART
Human and
anthropomorphic
characters
talk games and
fanboyism.
bit.ly/99Xd16
MS PAINT ADVENTURES
USER FRIENDLY
This user-driven, text-based adventure
Centered on the staff of a fi ctional Internet
comic is pure geek awesomeness.
provider, UF is classic IT guy humor.
www.mspaintadventures.com
www.userfriendly.org
DUELING
PVP ONLINE
ANALOGS
One of the fi rst
webcomics, PvP Consistently hilarious,
follows the offi ce antics DA pokes fun at
of a group of game games and gamers.
magazine employees. www.duelinganalogs.com
www.pvponline.com
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MAXIMUMPC JAN 2012 maximumpc.com
quickstart
BY BRAD CHACOS
Amazon Prime
vs. Netfl ix
Remember when Netfl ix and streaming video were virtually synonymous? Yeah, those were the
days. Then, in the course of three disastrous months, Netfl ix jacked up prices by 60 percent,
announced it was splitting off the DVD business, and then announced that, no, actually, it was
going to keep DVDs in house after all. The wacky moves sent investors fl eeing like rats and
confused customers looking for alternatives—alternatives like Amazon Prime Instant Video.
The service offers unlimited streaming, and Amazon has signed several new content deals
since Prime Instant Video’s launch last March. But is it a Netfl ix killer? Let’s fi nd out.
Round 1: Catalog Round 2: Pricing Round 3: Image Quality Round 4: Device
Compatibility
When it comes down to it, it’s Neither Netfl ix nor Amazon It’s kind of hard to make a call
all about the content. Who has Prime breaks the bank. As ev- on image quality because the Amazon Instant Video (which
more of what you want? It’s eryone probably knows from speed of your Internet con- Amazon Prime utilizes) cer-
not really much of a contest at the price-hike outrage of a nection makes such a dras- tainly works on plenty of de-
this point, unfortunately. Al- few months ago, a streaming tic difference. Netfl ix offers vices, including more than 200
though Amazon offers a mas- subscription to Netfl ix costs more HD content in general. Internet-enabled HDTVs, tons
sive 100,000 programs for $8/month for all the video you In a head-to-head viewing test of Blu-ray players, the Roku,
download à la carte at $2 to can watch. Amazon Prime In- of “Broken Bow” from Sea- the Logitech Revue, and—
$4 a pop, only around 10,000 stant Video costs even less on son 1 of Star Trek: Enterprise soon—the $200 Kindle Fire tab-
of those are available for un- a monthly basis—about $6.66 in HD, Netfl ix’ image quality let. Even still, that’s just a frac-
limited free streaming via (ooh, spooky!) a month—but looked slightly better overall tion of the devices supported
Amazon Prime. Netfl ix plays that’s kind of deceptive; you’ll and ran much more smoothly. by Netfl ix. In addition to HDTV
coy with the exact number of have to pay a fl at $80 up front We ran into repeated issues and Blu-ray device support,
its streaming offerings, but to purchase a year’s subscrip- with Amazon Prime con- Netfl ix ups the ante by stream-
we’ve found estimates rang- tion to Amazon Prime. But stantly bouncing our connec- ing to home theater systems;
ing from 30,000 to 45,000 that $80 also includes free tion speed from the minimum Android, iOS, and Windows
titles. Most titles available on two-day shipping on many to the maximum rating and Phone 7 smartphones and tab-
Amazon are also available on Amazon purchases, as well back again, which resulted in lets; tons of set-top boxes (like
Netfl ix, but not vice versa. as access to Amazon's new stuttering playback and re- the Boxee Box and Apple TV);
e-book lending library for duced image quality. Netfl ix and all the major video game
Kindle devices. Both services (and Speedtest.net) didn’t suf- consoles—including Nintendo’s
offer a free one-month trial. fer from the same problem. 3DS handheld.
Winner:Netfl ix Winner: Amazon Prime Winner:Netfl ix Winner:Netfl ix
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MAXIMUMPC JAN 2012 maximumpc.com