PCWorld Mar-12

AS I WRITE this, 2012 International CES—the Las Vegas–based tech mega-showcase—is winding down. For journalists and civilians alike, CES offers a great way to monitor the state of technology. Piles of product introductions, interesting ideas, and out-of-left-field innovations indicate a healthy tech ecosystem, with plenty for consumers to be jazzed about. A lackluster CES foretells a dreary upcoming year in tech. Fortunately, CES 2012—which put roughly 20,000 new products out on display—was chockablock with great stuff. The big themes were smart HDTVs, Ultrabooks (supermodel-thin laptops built around Intel’s latest chips), and, perhaps inevitably, Android tablets. And that means 2012 will be the year of brainy televisions, MacBook Air look-alikes, and tablets that don’t start with a lowercase i, right? Not so fast, pardner. CES may be a terrific barometer for tech’s health in aggregate,…

Android Phones, Sleazy Ads Regarding January’s “Alert: Sleazy Ads on Android Devices” [Forward]: As a rule of thumb, I never answer ads that show up on my cell phone. If unsolicited, they are illegal; the rest are suspect. 0004673968, PCWorld.com forums I do not see any ads at all on my phone. Ads have to be downloaded, and if you turn off the data link and Wi-Fi features of your phone while playing a game, you will see zero ads. guitarest, PCWorld.com forums When will people realize that a smartphone is just a miniature computer? The Internet has been filled with viruses since day one. It’s just a fact of life. The people who get fooled by these ads are the same people who click the ‘Your computer is infected!’ ads. AlexHumva, PCWorld.com forums If you use your…

IT HAD A long run, but the tower desktop is finished. It has survived all kinds of threats—laptops, gaming consoles, and netbooks. This time, though, it’s done—put down by a PC that may even now sit on top of your desk. Out With the Old In 2011, all-in-one desktops went from being a novelty to becoming a palatable product category that served up strong value and great performance in a compact case. So here’s my firm prediction for 2012, and for the following few years: All-in-ones will be everywhere. You’ll still find a few towers haunting store shelves. And they may even look like a good deal—say, $400 for one with a 1TB hard drive, 4GB of RAM, and a middle-of-the-road CPU from AMD or Intel. Pair that with your monitors and a keyboard and…

DOCS 2 GO Ion Audio’s scanner is designed for use with an iPad, which sits on its 30-pin dock. You operate the scanner via an app that displays the results of the scan in real time on the iPad screen. This one is due by midyear, price to be determined. CUBE This tiny rectangular mouse from Logitech is about 2 inches long and 1 inch wide—and it becomes a PowerPoint presenter the second you pick it up (no flipping through modes). It costs $70 and could be very handy for business travelers. MOBILE PROJECTOR MP225a 3M’s mobile projector is made for use with iOS devices; an included cable hooks up to Apple’s 30-pin dock connector. About 6 by 2.5 by 1.2 inches, the LED-based unit projects images of up to 80 inches…

SEAGATE AND Western Digital are shortening their hard-drive warranties—in some instances from five years to one—to save money or redirect it to new products. Seagate reduced its warranties on certain drives as of December 31, and Western Digital followed on January 2. But all drives that shipped before those dates will continue to carry their original warranty term. The company is even cutting back the warranty on its hybrid drive, the Momentus XT, which combines NAND flash-based solid-state storage with a spinning disk. Seagate is redirecting money previously spent on upholding longer warranties into product development. Seagate’s new warranties apply to internal hard drives for laptops, desktops, and consumer electronics devices. The drive maker says warranties on “mission critical enterprise drives,” such as its Cheetah line and its external drives, are unchanged. Seagate has reduced…

Smaller Carriers Rank Higher in Customer Satisfaction According to survey results released by Consumer Reports, customers of small wireless carriers are, overall, more satisfied with their service than those of the Big Four carriers. Industry titan AT&T finished last, while two smaller carriers, Consumer Cellular and U.S. Cellular, ranked at the top. The survey, which polled 66,000 cell phone customers, found that Verizon and Sprint ranked highest for customer service among the four largest carriers, with T-Mobile finishing behind them. Dell Abandons Netbooks for Ultrabooks Dell has confirmed that it will no longer make consumer netbooks. Instead, the company will focus on developing higher-end, premium “thin and powerful” laptops, following the industry’s shift to Ultrabooks. If you really want a Dell netbook regardless of price, Latitude netbooks for business users are still available…