Reviews

Review: Track your stolen laptop for free with Prey
The free, open-source Prey service can help you locate and possibly recover a stolen notebook. Is it as good as a paid laptop-tracking service -- or is it simply 'better than nothing at all'?

Image gallery: Office 2010 beta debuts major features
The first public beta of Microsoft's Office 2010 suite is fast and stable with some useful additions, including integration with Office Web Apps. Unfortunately, the most intriguing new features are only partially functional.

Hands on: Office 2010 beta debuts major features
The first public beta of Microsoft's Office 2010 suite is fast and stable with some useful additions, including integration with Office Web Apps. Unfortunately, the most intriguing new features are only partially functional.

Obama administration unsure about new cybersecurity laws
Current laws addressing cyber crime aren't adequate to address growing attacks on the government and businesses, a representative of U.S. President Barack Obama's administration said Tuesday.

Review: Mini projector from BenQ brightens your presentations
BenQ's Joybee GP1 mini projector provides presenters with a lightweight but powerful tool -- and it's not bad at showing videos, either.

Book Review: Four Steps to Becoming a Top-Tier CIO
The authors of The Real Business of IT show how CIOs can demonstrate and communicate the value of IT in terms the CEO will understand.

Office 2010 public beta leaks to Internet
Office 2010's public beta has leaked to the Web, days ahead of its anticipated roll-out next week, searches of file-sharing sites showed today.

Review: Taking the Droid on the road
To test whether Motorola's new Droid is good enough to vanquish his iPhone envy, David Haskin took it on a road trip.

Microsoft shutters Office 2010 preview, preps public beta
Microsoft may launch the public beta of Office 2010 as early as next week, according to e-mail messages received by people who have been testing the company's next application suite.

How to prepare for a performance review
Columnist Dave Willmer offers five questions that will help you prepare for your next performance review.

Image gallery: 3 Windows 7 touch-screen laptops
We review 3 new touch-screen notebooks that take advantage of Microsoft Windows 7's touch-friendly infrastructure.

Review: 3 Windows 7 touch-screen laptops
We review 3 new touch-screen laptops from Fujitsu, HP and Lenovo that take advantage of Microsoft Windows 7's touch-friendly infrastructure.

Image gallery: 3 alternative OSes for your netbook
Netbook fans who feel that Windows 7 Starter edition is too limited for their liking might want to try one of the Linux distros made especially for netbooks. We review three.

Review: 3 free Linux alternatives for your netbook
Netbook fans who feel that Windows 7 Starter edition is too limited for their liking might want to try one of the Linux distros made especially for netbooks. We review three.

Facebook offers up privacy policy for user review
Looking to avoid user angst, Facebook today unveiled a proposed new privacy policy for review by its users.

First Look: Google Social Search
Google is pouring personalized social data into search results with its new Google Social Search, launching in experimental mode today. Google Social Search, announced at last week's Web 2.0 Summit, adds content from your friends right into your Google searches.

NASA ready for Mars rocket test flight Tuesday
NASA said it's ready to launch the next generation Ares I-X rocket tomorrow morning, though weather woes may postpone the test flight for a day.

Review: Psystar's Rebel EFI -- Snow Leopard on a PC
Psystar's latest challenge to Apple is a software package that purports to let PC owners install a Mac OS on their systems. But does it really work? Yes and no.

Google Wave: It's innovative, but is it truly useful?
A groundbreaking real-time collaboration tool, Google Wave is in a controlled beta that everyone wants to try out. But it may get lost in the crowd of communication apps.

Review: Wireless docking with Toshiba's newest Dynadock
A wireless docking station that works with any notebook is a nice idea, but the Toshiba Dynadock Wireless U comes with a few major caveats.

Windows 7 to go: New portables for the new OS
Microsoft's Windows 7 is bringing with it a wave of new and stylish netbooks and notebooks. Here's a preview of what's coming.

Browser wars redux: The top 5 contenders duke it out
Over the past few months, the top 5 browsers for the PC and the Mac -- Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera and Safari -- have come out with major new versions. We put them through their paces.

Image gallery: Browser wars redux
Over the past few months, the top 5 browsers for the PC and the Mac -- Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera and Safari -- have come out with major new versions. We check them out.

Review: The NZXT Lexa S case allows easy SSD installation
The NZXT Lexa S computer case lets you convert a 3.5-inch bay to accept two 2.5-inch drives, making it simple to add SSD drives.

Microsoft to put free Office Starter 2010 on new PCs
Microsoft announced today that it will abandon its decades-old Works entry-level suite, and will instead offer a stripped-down, advertising-supported version of Office 2010 on new PCs next year.

Karmic Koala: The best Ubuntu Linux ever?

After kicking the tires of the beta of Ubuntu Linux 9.10, I'm impressed. This may be the best version of Ubuntu to date.

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Why Office Web Apps won't trump Google Apps

As polished as Microsoft's Office Web Apps may be, in one very significant way, it's far inferior to Google Apps, and will give Google plenty of time to catch up to Microsoft. Once again, Microsoft can't seem to get synchronization and sharing right.

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ExamDiff Pro finds the differences

If you need to compare HTML, XML, or even binary files, only a proper diff utility will do. And ExamDiff Pro meets the gold standard for diff utilities, including its unique "fuzzy comparison."

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Google launches Chrome 3.0 -- should you care?

Chrome 3 is finally out, but the first reaction you might get when loading it is, "So what?" Yes, Chrome is fast. But it doesn't have much going for it beyond speed. I have a review and screenshots in my blog.

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Archos 5: The Linux Internet tablet for everyone

You can keep your Zune HD; the brand-new Archos 5 Internet tablet is the real competition for Apple's iPod Touch.

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Five reasons to switch to Opera 10

Opera, may be the browser that time forgot, but the final version of Opera 10 is a very nice piece of work. I've put the release candidate version through its paces --- here are five reasons it's worth switch to Opera 10 from your current browser.

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The easiest operating system to update is...

Mac OS X, Ubuntu Linux, and Windows, which is the easiest to update? The answer may surprise you.

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The affordable Mac

Yes, you read that right. You can buy a Mac, with Snow Leopard, for not much money. Here's how.

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Seven reasons for upgrading to Windows 7

I recently put Windows 7 RTM through its paces for an in-depth Computerworld review, can vouch that it's well worth the upgrade. Here are the seven top reason you should switch to Windows 7, whether from XP or Vista.

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A first look at KDE 4.3

KDE 4.3 will be released within the next few days, and the latest release candidate proves that the KDE 4 is finally ready for prime time.

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