PCWorld Aug-13

THIRTY YEARS AGO, PCWorld published its very first issue, a magazine packed with essential advice for PC early adopters. It was a pioneering publication written by, and written for, tech enthusiasts. Fast-forward 30 years: Our hardware has changed dramatically. Processor performance has increased exponentially, and we no longer run various versions of DOS. But like the PCWorld of 1983, today’s PCWorld remains committed to the basic tenets of technological progress: We love consumer electronics. We embrace forward movement. And we’re interested in the many different ways we can use technology to make life more fun, convenient, and productive. PCWorld has evolved in sundry ways since our first issue, but we haven’t lost our pioneering spirit, and this month I am excited to introduce a new chapter in our history. Beginning with our…

Microsoft’s Fast Updates: A Bad Deal? About “Microsoft Needs Rapid-Fire Updates” (Editor’s Desk, June), by Brad Chacos: Except for Windows 7, Microsoft has had a lousy track record on new products and updates for quite some time. If you use Windows like a toy and feel you need pretty pictures and dozens of extra wasted mouse clicks and menus to get something done, then by all means, buy into this rental model and spend most of your time dealing with such questions as “What’s new in this release?” “How do I do this?” and “Why did my computer stop working?” Real work environments, however, will continue to use the older software, somewhat locked down and configured for efficiency, and upgraded or updated when practical, without fear that upon the next reboot everything…

EVER SINCE JANUARY, when Microsoft introduced Office 365 Home Premium subscriptions, we’ve been wondering when the company might give up on packaged versions of Office. Now we may have our answer, from Redmond itself. The software giant is betting that, over the next ten years, most people will pick subscriptions over traditional boxed software. “We think subscription software-as-a-service is the future,” Microsoft says on its official Office blog. “Within a decade, we think everyone will choose to subscribe be cause the benefits are undeniable.” Microsoft says, however, that for now it will continue to offer packaged Office suites as well as Office 365 subscriptions, saying that the transition will take some time. These comments follow Adobe’s announcement that it was dumping Creative Suite as a software package and going all in with its…

GOOGLE HAS announced a new kind of inbox for Gmail that automatically sorts messages into categories, or “tabs.” Updates from Google+ and other networks go into a Social tab, deals and offers into a Promotions tab, forum messages into a Forums tab, and receipts and bills into an Updates tab. Most other types of messages will be in the Primary tab. On the desktop, the new tabs will appear just above the inbox, so you can switch between them with one click. On Gmail for Android (4.0 and up) and iOS, non-Priority tabs appear in the left sidebar menu, and as teasers in the main inbox view. The auto-sorting inbox isn’t mandatory. In a blog post, Google says users will be able to switch back to the Classic view, or use Priority Inbox. The…

Netflix Plans to Double Its Original Content Netflix’s newfound love affair with original content isn’t disappearing anytime soon: Reports claim that the company wants to double its original-programming slate in 2014. That would give Netflix eight different series next year, according to the Hollywood Reporter. House of Cards, a critically acclaimed political drama released in February, has been the service’s biggest and most widely studied original launch. Soon You Can Order Shrimp on Amazon Amazon already delivers soup to nuts at fast speeds, especially if you shell out $79 a year for Amazon Prime, which brings free two-day shipping on thousands of products. Now Reuters reports that Amazon plans to roll out AmazonFresh in up to 40 new markets (it’s already in Seattle), delivering fresh produce and other quick spoilers along with your…

SAMSUNG TVs WILL be able to play movies streamed directly from PCs running Intel’s latest processors by the end of this year. In June, Intel and Samsung announced a joint effort under which the chip maker’s Wireless Display technology would be integrated directly into Samsung’s TVs. That in tegration will eliminate the need for a separate receiver to play PC content on TVs. Samsung is a big customer win for Intel. Around 10 million TVs from manufacturers including LG, TCL, and Toshiba already have Wireless Display integrated; with Samsung, that number will double by the end of the year, Kirk Skaugen, senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s PC Client Group, says. Wireless Display capabilities are available in Intel’s latest Core processors. Intel has said that it will eventually put the mediastreaming…