PCWorld May-13

YOUR ONLINE PRIVACY is threatened not so much by hackers and phishers, the perennial bogeymen of the Internet underground, as by people who work in big business. They want everyone’s on-line data. And they want it more than the bad guys who make headlines do. These companies aren’t evil agents of destruction who would steal our identities for profit or erase our family photos for kicks. They want our data so that they can track us and categorize us. They want to use what they know about us to sell us something, or to sell what they know about us to someone else, all without running afoul of privacy regulations. Trevor Hughes, president and CEO of the International Association for Privacy Professionals, put it to me succinctly: “Your data is the currency…

Windows 8: Debate Rages On Regarding “Windows 8 Superguide” [March]: Everything is hidden on Windows 8. It takes three times as long to use Windows 8 as any other Windows, even longer until you find out how to delete most of those pictures. Is it designed for slow readers? Or for children? Maybe they are copying Apple? Even turning the computer off is a mystery, and try finding the Control Panel! Thank goodness, I found the desktop and pinned the shortcut to the Start menu. AlaskaArtist, PCWorld.com forums I’ve read a lot of negative reviews of Windows 8, so it’s time for someone to stand up for it. I’m really enjoying the completely new interface and learning all the nuances and different ways to use its new capabilities. The apps are fun. I…

RUMORS ARE RIFE of a mid-2013 update to Windows 8 dubbed “Windows Blue.” (See Briefs, page 15.) Microsoft declined to talk about how it might alter its OS, so we asked some experts to imagine possible ways forward. Kill the Desktop The desktop user interface is just one app among many on Windows 8’s “modern-style” Start screen. Windows 8’s two-OSs-in-one model has led to some interesting hybrid devices such as Surface Pro, but it has also drawn jeers from critics who find the desktop-versus-Start-screen dichotomy jarring and confusing. Tom Hobbs, creative director for Seattle-based design consultancy Teague, argues that Microsoft should ditch the desktop completely, leaving only the touch-friendly side of Windows, with its walled garden of apps. Committing to touch would create a clear path forward for users and developers, Hobbs says. It’s…

WHAT WAS GOOGLE thinking when it dedicated R&D, manufacturing, and marketing to the Chromebook Pixel? (See the related stories on pages 46 and 47.) The Pixel isn’t a cheap, simple portal to the Web like other Chromebooks. It has such features as a touchscreen with 2560 by 1700 resolution, an anodized aluminum chassis, and three noise-canceling microphones. Early Chromebooks were a simpler, faster-booting, lower-cost, more-secure response to Windows PCs. Similarly, the Chromebook Pixel is a response to the MacBook Pro with Retina display. Like the MacBook Pro, the Pixel has a gorgeous screen (but with touch) and a premium design, but it costs $200 less and offers a lifetime of software upgrades at no extra charge. For most people, the difference in price isn’t worth the loss of installed applications. But Google…

Adobe Flash Patch for Windows, OS X Systems Adobe recently released an emergency update for Flash Player on all platforms after two zero-day exploits were discovered in the wild targeting Windows and Mac OS X computers. The vulnerabilities enabled hackers to hijack both Windows PCs and Macs. Adobe advises all users to update their systems as soon as possible. Adobe has also released updates for Flash Player on Linux and all versions of Android from 2.x to 4.x. Chrome OS App Launcher for Windows Taskbar Google is adding a new feature for Chrome so you can launch Web apps and Chrome standalone apps directly from the Windows taskbar without starting your browser. The new app launcher puts all of your Chrome apps under one icon on your taskbar. The official release of the…

THE LATEST EDITION of Windows is designed with touchscreens in mind, and includes features that make Windows easier to use on all devices. Windows 8 picture passwords, for example, are a new, alternative password system that lets you log in to your device using a picture—or rather, a sequence of gestures performed on top of a picture—instead of a string of alphanumeric characters. In a family photo, for example, you might sketch a line from one person’s nose to the next person’s nose. Such passwords aren’t inherently better than alphanumeric passwords; but they are easier to remember than a string of characters, and they offer roughly equivalent security. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania coined the term “smudge attack” in 2010 after successfully deducing gesture passwords for unlocking Android phones from smudge…