Reviews

In a world filled with cheap but underpowered inkjet multifunction printers (MFPs), using the HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus is a pleasant departure. One of the most competent MFPs for the price ($300 as of 12/05/2011), it lacks nothing in its features, is solidly constructed, fully supports legal-size paper, is faster than everything else in its price range, and even offers dirt-cheap ink. There's not much more you could ask for.

When it comes to paper handing, the Officejet Pro 8600 Plus can do everything. It automatically duplexes printouts, and copies two-sided-to-two-sided as well. Legal-size paper is fully supported throughout the printer (as it is with all OfficeJet Pro models), including the scanner and the 50-sheet ADF. The 250-sheet paper tray is adequate for most small businesses and workgroups, as is the approximately 50-sheet output tray. If you need more tray capacity, you can step up to the HP Officejet Pro 8600 Premium e-All-in-One Printer, which has an additional 250-sheet input tray--for another $100.

The Sony Reader Wi-Fi PRS-T1 is a slim and stylish e-reader whose unusual design sets it apart from the pack. Its core specs are on a par with those of the other big guns, too. In spite of this model's handy buttons, however, it stumbles in overall usability and navigation.

The Reader Wi-Fi carries a competitive price of $130 (as of December 9, 2011). That puts it at $31 more than the Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch, and less than the advertising-free version of the Amazon Kindle Touch. (Until December 24, 2011, though, Sony is offering the Reader Wi-Fi for $99. And through the end of the year, you can save an additional $50 by trading in an e-reader from any manufacturer.)

The Toshiba Thrive 7” Tablet is the latest in a recent deluge of 7-inch contenders. Its biggest distinguishing factors are its crisp, high-resolution 1280-by-800-pixel display and its strong complement of ports. But disappointments lurk as well--the tablet's disappointing audio performance foremost among them.

Not unexpectedly, the Thrive 7” (model number AT1S5-T16) comes in at a significantly higher price than this season's budget 7-inch models, the Amazon Kindle Fire and the Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet. But the 7-inch Thrive is, at least, a full-blown Android tablet running Google's Android 3.2.1 Honeycomb operating system (Toshiba has yet to confirm whether it will offer an upgrade to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich next year). And you get a lot more versatility for that amount of money. At $380 (price as of December 8, 2011) for a 16GB model, the Thrive 7” is competitively priced with the Acer Iconia Tab A100 and costs less than the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus ($400) and T-Mobile SpringBoard ($430, including monthly device payments over a two-year mobile broadband contract). A 32GB version will sell for a modest $50 more, at $430.

When I contacted Chris Mallett, the creator of free utility AutoHotKey, about writing this review, I received an interesting reply: "Please feel free to write whatever you like about AutoHotkey, even if it isn't all positive. AutoHotkey is something of a power user tool, so it isn't for everyone."

AutoHotKey's user interface, such as it is. You'll spend most of your time in a text editor.Chris knows what he's talking about. Some types of software, no matter how useful, aren't for everyone. If you're looking for a GUI-based hot key assignment program with an intuitive interface and short learning curve, AutoHotKey will be more than you need. Best you take Chris's advice and move on to a package like Macro Recorder or Macro Scheduler.

The ZTE Warp ($200 as of November 30, 2011 from Boost Mobile) is a prepaid Android smartphone that sets a new standard for prepaid handsets. Though by no means perfect, ZTE is a high-quality Android phone for the carrier-free masses.

Design

ZoneAlarm Free Firewall has been arguably the most popular third-party firewall for Windows. It’s a two-way firewall that’s designed to help protect your PC from hackers getting in and any malicious programs on your PC from sending data out. However, it doesn't protect against Web-based exploits like some (but not all) other firewall solutions do. It does include anti-phishing to help detect and block dangerous sites, though. Additionally, it includes 2GB of free online storage for backing up your files, also offered separately from ZoneAlarm.

When you install ZoneAlarm Free Firewall 2012 (I tested version 10.1.065), you’ll find product registration is required but you can opt-out of providing your email address if you wish, and only have to enter your name.

Cells racing in tiny race track; Credit: Nature

Most "normal" people race in race cars, in marathons, or on bikes, but not these people. No, these researchers raced cells in Petri dishes.

Winter is upon us, and with it the holidays. The media blitz starts up just after Thanksgiving here in the U.S. as we're inundated with images of Santa Claus, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, stockings hung up by the chimney with care--the works. If you'd like to celebrate the season yet avoid Christmas overkill, check out this Winter Windows 7 theme.

The Winter Windows 7 theme puts five exquisite and unusual snowy scenes on your desktop. In "Ninglinspo Waterfalls on Ice," Geoffrey Gilson presents an otherworldly landscape in which falling water seems to be frozen in time. Mike Nebesniuk gives us an extreme close-up of an ice-covered rock in "Gros Cap Ice Cap." "Sleepless," by Solkku, and "Winter," by Kari Liimatainen, both take snow-covered trees as their subject--but with completely different effects. Finally, in "Winter Wallpaper II," Sven Müller gives us an intimate perspective on a quiet stream in a snow-shrouded forest. These photographers are all members of the DeviantArt online community; be sure to visit the website for more amazing artwork.

When I first picked up the AVADirect X7200, I almost dropped it. It's heavy--12 pounds, 10 ounces, without the 300W power brick, which weighs more than 3.5 pounds by itself--and it's also not well balanced, so the unit nearly tipped out of my hands. This hulking unit is specifically designed to replicate a high-end desktop gaming system in a somewhat mobile package.

It's also rather unattractive, sitting higher on a desk than do most laptops--even those with larger (18-inch) screens. It's all sharp corners and angles, and is mostly a somber black, giving it a vaguely coffinlike appearance. The fan noise is considerable: Though not too bad at idle, when you crank up a game the fans spin up to levels high enough to almost drown out the built-in speakers.

I've worked from home for many years. When I need to quickly get a hold of a colleague, I turn to my trusty instant messaging client, Miranda IM. I've been using Miranda for over five years, mainly because of how customizable it is. Thanks to Miranda's advanced plugin systems, I was able to make it into instant messaging client of my dreams.

Miranda supports multiple protocols, lets you filter your contacts by protocol and status, and is almost infinitely configurable and extensible.Miranda lets you customize just about anything--starting from the small things, such as fonts used in for message display, all the way to swapping out entire parts of the application, such as changing the list into a completely different software component, that looks and works differently than the one bundled with Miranda by default. You can also add new functionality, such as semi-transparent popups that show the contents of incoming messages before you even open them, or intelligent contact status change notifications.