============================================================ -------- INSIDE PCMAG.COM -------- -------- for December 20, 2004 -------- ============================================================
============================================================ ********** Sponsored by St Bernard ********** Amazing Savings on Web Filtering Order by December 31, 2004 and get the award-winning iPrism Web Filtering appliance, now with a spyware category, at a remarkable 34% savings! This includes a free third year on your two-year subscription. Get software upgrades and iGuard database downloads automatically in a true hardware solution with superior interoperability and secure hardened connections. Don't miss this year-end savings! To find out more about iPrism, download Free Tools or to order call 1-800-782-3762 today. http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132404-0-0-0-1 ************************************************************ ============================================================ Welcome to today's edition of Inside PCMag.com. We're betting that if we had asked you a few years ago if you download music, the answer would have been either "No, never" or "No, unless we wanted to talk about the stuff downloaded illegally." But with a host of new, legal music-downloading services out there, we're guessing the story is quite different today. Tell us in the forums if and how you download music. http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132407-0-0-0-1 IN THIS ISSUE: * Review Roundup: Desktop Search Explosion! * Review Roundup: Buying the Right Gaming Console * Feature: Best of the Year 2004 * Column: Is Imvite Kosher? * Security Watch: The Big Threats of 2004 * Daily Gift Ideas: Accessories for Your iPod * Reminder: Holiday Gift Guide * Special Offer: PC Magazine Gift Subscription! ============================================================ Review Roundup: Desktop Search Explosion! The most hotly contested battleground in search is not the Web, it's your desktop. Google, MSN, X1 and Ask Jeeves (and perhaps even Yahoo!) are all jockeying for position. These are powerful tools that index *all* of your files, e-mail, and more, and they let you enter a query to search against all of them. Accuracy and speed are their hallmarks. Read our reviews. This is the new way to search. Ask Jeeves Desktop http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132410-0-0-0-1 MSN Desktop http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132413-0-0-0-1 Google Desktop http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132416-0-0-0-1 X1 http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132419-0-0-0-1 ============================================================ Review Roundup: Buying the Right Gaming Console GameCube, PlayStation 2, XBox. For full-blown home-theater gaming, these are really your three choices. But which one is right for you and will fit in your living room, bedroom, kid's room, or playroom/den? We've collected all of the reviews of these systems (including the redesigned PS2) and a boatload of product images for your edification. When you're all done, you'll know which one belongs under your holiday tree. http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132422-0-0-0-1 ============================================================ Feature: Best of the Year 2004 With 2004 slowly setting in the west and 2005 waiting impatiently to rise in the east, it's only fitting that we take a long and rich last look at the computer and consumer-electronics products that made our days in 2004. It's a big list, but the tidbits we offer here could help you figure out what to purchase now and in the next 12 months. http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132425-0-0-0-1 We pick the best products in the following categories: Desktops http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132428-0-0-0-1 Notebooks http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132431-0-0-0-1 Mobile http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132434-0-0-0-1 Peripherals http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132437-0-0-0-1 Digital Imaging http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132440-0-0-0-1 Personal Security http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132443-0-0-0-1 Software http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132446-0-0-0-1 Gaming http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132449-0-0-0-1 Entertainment http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132452-0-0-0-1 Security & Networking http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132455-0-0-0-1 ============================================================ Column: Is Imvite Kosher? There's a new multiplatform instant-message client in town, and the good news is that it works well and offers a few nifty features. The problem, says executive editor Lance Ulanoff, is that the sign-up takes you through some twists and turns that may worry you--or scare you off. Read his thoughts and then make your own judgment on Imvite. http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132458-0-0-0-1 ============================================================ Security Watch: The Big Threats of 2004 We've got a look a new and dangerous phishes, a list of the year's top 12 hoaxes, and some very valuable advice about how to avoid turning your new PC into a virus/spyware machine. http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132461-0-0-0-1 ============================================================ Daily Gift Ideas: Accessories for Your iPod Trick out your iPod with these swank and useful extras. http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132464-0-0-0-1 ============================================================ Reminder: Holiday Gift Guide There's still time to find the right high-tech gift for that special someone. Visit our Holiday Gift Guide home page for some great ideas. http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132467-0-0-0-1 ============================================================ Special Offer: PC Magazine Gift Subscription! It's the perfect gift for your techie friends. http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132470-0-0-0-1 ============================================================ The PCMag.com Bookstore PC Magazine's Windows XP Solutions Ever wish they'd consulted you before they designed Windows XP? Sure, it's a great system, but there's this one feature that makes you crazy. Or that annoying problem that keeps occurring. Well, you can rely on Neil Randall and your friends at PC Magazine to correct that oversight. Here's the complete compendium of solutions to the things that bug you, threaten your security, slow you down, or other-wise prevent Windows XP from running like it should. http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132473-0-0-0-1 PC Magazine Guide to Home Networking Ready to plunge into creating your own home network? Reading this book is like having PC Magazine contributing editor Les Freed drop by and set the whole thing up for you. http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132476-0-0-0-1 More Books http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132479-0-0-0-1 ============================================================ Job Search http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132482-0-0-0-1 ============================================================ The Channel Insider http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132485-0-0-0-1 ============================================================ DevSource http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132488-0-0-0-1 ============================================================ Free White Paper Brought to you by Symantec ============================================================ Download the white paper and much more! Perform your network scan, download and deploy patches, validate installations, and generate reports, all within minutes, not hours. Symantec ON iPatch is an automated patch management solution designed to proactively protect an infrastructure from known vulnerabilities by identifying missing patches and then installing them on hundreds of computers, simultaneously. Get your white paper today! http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132491-0-0-0-1 ============================================================ Upcoming Events ============================================================ New Solutions for Highly Available, Simply Managed Database Applications New innovations in cluster file system and HA technology enable fault-tolerant Linux server and storage clusters that prevent costly downtime of mission-critical database applications, a crucial requirement for data centers weighing the move from UNIX to Linux. Learn how this new technology eliminates single points of failure and streamlines server and storage management of the Oracle Linux environment. Attend for free right from your desktop! http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132494-0-0-0-1 ============================================================ Security Alert: Stop Virus Outbreaks in Real-Time Attend this interactive eSeminar to find out what IT managers can do to protect themselves from these email borne threats, regardless of whether they are viruses, worms, hybrids or something entirely new. This eSeminar discusses what IT departments can do to keep their systems running and protected against viruses, whether known or unknown. Attend for free right from your desktop! http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132497-0-0-0-1 ============================================================ Elsewhere on Ziff Davis Internet ============================================================ The Tech Generation Gap http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132500-0-0-0-1 Best of the Year 2004 http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132425-0-0-0-1 Tools Block Code Busting Crooks http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132503-0-0-0-1 A Portable Satellite Radio http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132506-0-0-0-1 ============================================================ eNewsletter Information ============================================================ You are subscribed to Inside PCMag.com with the e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe to this newsletter, click below: http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132509-0-0-0-1&[EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your e-mail address, change your text/HTML preferences, or to subscribe to other FREE PC Magazine Online e-mail newsletters, visit: http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132512-0-0-0-1 If you'd like to advertise in our eNewsletters, visit: http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132515-0-0-0-1 ============================================================ PC Magazine Print Subscriptions ============================================================ Start or Renew a subscription: http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132518-0-0-0-1 Give a gift subscription: http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132521-0-0-0-1 Help with your subscription: http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-1348-1-53-371668-132524-0-0-0-1 Copyright (c) 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. 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