Microsoft Extends Free AV Tool to Small Businesses

Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) has been around for nearly an year. All along, the company has maintained that it has no plans of extending the free antivirus software to small businesses, as it is solely intended for consumers and home-based businesses.
However, the company is no longer averse to offering MSE to small businesses, even at the expense of its enterprise security solutions. In an abrupt policy change, MS has announced that it will begin offering “its Microsoft Security Essentials available to small businesses on up to 10 PCs for FREE, beginning in early October!”
“By providing Microsoft Security Essentials to small businesses free of charge, Microsoft extends its commitment to help these companies save money and grow their business by offering no-cost protection from viruses, spyware and other malicious threats,” the company said in a blog post.

iBuyPower Launches Sweet Looking Dragon Themed Chassis

We're not into the whole branding thing ourselves, but if you're a fan of AMD's dragon graphics, don't plan on rolling your own rig, and don't have a hankering for Intel hardware, then iBuyPower has a chassis right up your alley. Designed in conjunction with AMD, the new Dragon Special Edition enclosure is really an NZXT Lexa case with a killer makeover.
"The uniquely wrapped NZXT Lexa enclosure features the metallic AMD Dragon with its piercing red eyes, wings spread, and jaws open poised to strike," iBuyPower explains. "The AMD Dragon Special Edition chassis is designed to add an element of lethality to gamers' lifestyles."
And a bit of flair to your desktop. But the real draw here is that iBuyPower isn't price gouging. The Dragon themed Lexa is available on iBuyPower's entire range of AMD systems, including as part of a fully configured Athlon II-based setup starting at $439. Just ignore the 'X6' tag on the side of the case, we won't tell.

Image Credit: iBuyPower

Amazon Updates Kindle for Android with Voice Search and Other Goodies

Amazon today announced a new update to its free Kindle app for Android. The latest update shoehorns a handful of new features, including the ability to search within a book either by typing or a speaking a word or phrase. Other features include:

• Add, Edit, and Delete Notes and Highlights: Add notes and highlights to books, and have them automatically synchronized between devices.
• Wikipedia Lookup: Look up words and phrases in Wikipedia simply by selecting text
• Shelfari Book Details: View additional book details from the books-focused social networking site Shelfari. Readers will find a description of the book, synopsis, summary, cast of characters, and many more features, and be able to view real-time discussions that the Shelfari community is having about the book.
• Orientation Lock: Choose to the lock the orientation of the screen in landscape or portrait mode.

Nothing earth shattering in and of themselves, but collectively, but not a bad little update for fans of the Kindle app. Kindle for Android is available for free from the Android Market.

Image Credit: Amazon

Study: Mobile Apps Popular, but Hardware Drives Smartphone Sales

A new survey called "Revolutions 2010" conducted by Deloitte lays out some fairly interesting findings detailing the influence mobile apps have -- or don't have -- on various hardware.
Video may have killed the radio star, but it's mobile apps that are helping to snuff out MP3 players. The survey, which pinged 1,960 U.S. consumers between the ages of 14 and 75 years old, found that 43 percent of app users have reduced or completely eliminated their use of MP3 players in favor of smartphones or tablets. Thirty-eight percent of app users said they no longer use or hardly ever use traditional AM/FM radios, and 30 percent said they no longer care about their videogame consoles.
"While the market for mobile apps is still in its infancy, once consumers get a taste, they appear to start using those apps for all aspects of their digital lives," said Phil Asmundson, vice chairman and Deloitte's technology, media, and telecommunications sector leader. "What we are seeing is a significant shift in how consumers access media, entertainment, and information. The growing demand for smartphones, led by Millennials and Xers, will increasingly threaten to cannibalize many consumer electronics."
At the same time, apps aren't the driving force in smartphone sales. About 58 percent of consumers who own or plan to purchase a smarphone indicated that features such as size, quality, camera, keyboard style, and price play the biggest role in what device to buy. On the flip side, only 18 percent cited additional features and functionality provided by apps as a determining factor.

HP Slate Prototype Shows Up in YouTube Video

A YouTube user who goes by the name "x313xkillax" posted what may end up being the first hands-on look at HP's upcoming Windows 7-based Slate in prototype form.
Naturally there's some chatter that the video could be fake, and we can't say that it isn't. But if it is a ruse, it's a convincing one. The 4-minute video starts off with a tour of the external features, which shows a textured backing, built-in camera, SD card on the side, a keyboard button to bring up the virtual keyboard, volume buttons, USB port, and a few other accoutrement. There's even a CTRL-ALT-DEL key and a home key.
The second half of the video shows the device booting up and browsing the Web, as well as a brief look at the virtual keyboard.
Check it out below and then tell us what you think.

Motherboard Mega-Roundup: 6 Top Mobos Reviewed and Compared

We put the top 890FX and X58 mobos through their paces

Gordon's freestyle technique is decent, but next time he decides to fling mobos, we want to see him do a thumber backhand, or better yet, a skip shot.
Ready to finally build your post-recession machine?
That’s good, because we’ve decided to round up the best and brightest motherboards available. And we’re not talking Micro ATX, sub-$100 budgetrino boards here. We reached for the most feature-filled, over-the-top X58 and 890FX boards from the top three mobo vendors.
Want to know how over the top? One board lets you remotely reboot or overclock it using your cell phone. Another features power connectors usually found only on dual-processor server motherboards. Hell, one has a heat pipe so freaking big, some editors here thought it was some sort of new PCI-E add-in card. And one board is so large, you’ll have to buy a case specifically for its generous dimensions.
So if you’re ready to build a machine that will motor you away from those recession doldrums, keep reading because the best board here will be the one you want in your AMD or Intel machine.

The X58 Reviews

Gigabyte X58A-UD7

MSI Big Bang-XPower

Asus Rampage III Extreme

X58: The Final Analysis

With performance essentially equal, it comes down to overall experience
We know, enthusiasts like to see benchmarks and measurements and numbers. But, as we’ve observed for a long time, performance across the same chipset rarely sees major variances. That lesson is evident here, where there’s no clear performance winner. Each board scored minor victories that were most likely the result of a benchmark’s margin of error and/or each board’s out-of-the-box overclock. The Gigabyte board, for example, runs its bclock at 134.9, which gives it a slight clock-speed advantage. Still, all the boards are fast.
In the overclocking department, we didn’t try to wring each board to its fullest potential manually, as that’s dependent on the individual overclocker. We did, however, test how each board handled automatic overclocking. Interestingly, all three were pretty safe automatic overclocks, taking our 2.8GHz Core i7-930 to the 3.33GHz Core i7-975 Extreme Edition range without fail. Of course, everyone knows that’s a pretty wimpy feat. All three companies are simply being realistic. Folks who use the automatic tools will be happy with what they get but anyone who buys a board designed to boot with frigid liquid-nitrogen is going to overclock manually.
So, what this comes down to are features and the setup experience. Surprisingly, with the amount of engineering and qualification that goes into the top-tier boards, not everything is perfect. The Gigabyte X58A-UD7 was probably the trickiest. Out of the box, with the latest public BIOS and a retail Core i7-930, the board kept falling back to a 15x multiplier, which made our 2.8GHz chip a 2GHz chip. And no, it wasn’t in SpeedStep mode. That won’t trip up an enthusiast, but Joe 12-pack might not know he’s underclocking a chip. Only manually setting the multiplier to 22x gave us the right clock speed.
The Gigabyte’s ET6 utility also kept tripping Windows 7’s UAC control on each boot. Another kvetch about the Gigabyte board: It’s qualified for tri-SLI and includes a bridge, but you will need a special case to accept the last card. Both MSI’s and Asus’s tri-SLI configurations should fit in most standard enclosures.
Not that the MSI and Asus boards were without fault. As we noted above, MSI’s default power configuration was plain wacky. Requiring a user who has just spent a ton of cash on a top-tier board to enable S3 and tweak two power settings to enable “wake on USB” seems wrong. Granted, at $300 on the street, MSI’s board is the cheapest of the three here. And we do dig the Big Bang’s PCI-E layout and surface-mounted controls.
As for the Rampage III, Asus needs to send its north-bridge fan design back to the drawing board. Besides it not working with large coolers, the fan is shrill and prevents you from reaching the top GPU latch with your fingers. And how ’bout another USB header? The other two boards here pack two USB headers for case front-panel ports, but Asus only gives you one.
In the end, though, those are pretty minor complaints. It was a very close competition between Asus’s Rampage III Extreme and MSI’s Big Bang-XPower, but the RC Bluetooth mode and out-of-the-box flawless setup give the Rampage III Extreme the edge.

Benchmarks

	Gigabyte X58A-UD7	MSI Big Bang-XPower	Asus Rampage III Extreme
PCMark Vantage 64-bit Overall	8,993	8,903	8,940
Everest Ultimate Mem Read (MB/s)	14,618	15,406	14,628
Everest Ultimate Mem Write (MB/s)	12,076	14,776	12,194
Everest Ultimate Mem Copy (MB/s)	16,470	17,036	17,062
Everest Ultimate Mem Latency (ns)	59.8	60.2	60.5
SiSoft Sandra RAM Bandwidth (GB/s)	22.8	22.6	23
3DMark Vantage Overall	15,549	15,211	15,443
3DMark Vantage GPU	14,643	14,415	14,640
3DMark Vantage CPU	18,618	18,227	18,483
Valve Particle test (fps)	149	144	149
Resident Evil 5 low-res (fps)	130.2	128.2	126.7
HAWX low-res (fps)	175	177	174
HD Tune Pro Sustained Write (MB/s)	98.9	102	102
HD Tune Pro Burst (MB/s)	136.7	136.7	172

Best scores are bolded. We outfitted all three motherboards with an Intel 2.8GHz Core i7-930, 6GB of Corsair DDR3/1333, a VisionTek Radeon HD 5850, a ThermalRight Ultra-120, a Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black, and Windows 7 Professional.

The 890FX Reviews

Gigabyte GA-890FXA-UD7

MSI 890FXA-GD70

Asus Crosshair IV Formula

890FX: The Final Analysis

Does AMD have the moxie to run an enthusiast platform?
We have to give credit to the AMD faithful for sticking it out with the underdog, for what has quite frankly been a bumpy ride. Some of the best times date all the way back to the Barton (Socket A/462) era, in which even high-end boards, like the Asus A7N8X and Abit NFS-2, could be yours for about $100. After that, Socket 939 reigned supreme in Sunnyvale, but not before AMD pissed people off with its stopgap Socket 754 and 940 platforms, both of which had barely left the assembly line before reaching obsolescence.
Here we are on stable ground again. Chalk it up to remarkable engineering or just plain good planning, but while Intel has been busy juggling sockets, AMD has made the most out of its AM2, AM2+, and AM3 platforms with a staggering amount of backward compatibility. The bigger problem for AMD has been the chipset, and most notably the wonky AHCI support. That’s been the case even as recently as 790FX, but AMD appears to have finally figured things out with its 890FX chipset. We ran all three boards in AHCI mode, and while we did run into a single hiccup, we can’t definitively blame it on AHCI.
So, where does that leave these three enthusiast boards? If we’re basing our opinion on performance alone, Gigabyte’s GA-890FXA-UD7 walks away with the crown in the narrowest of victories. But for the most part, there really isn’t a whole lot that separates these boards in terms of benchmarks other than bragging rights, and even then, is pulling in 155 frames per second in HAWX really worth gloating over with the competition scoring 154.3 (Asus) and 153.3 (MSI)? If it is, then by all means, grab the Gigabyte board, and make sure to pick up a chassis that can accommodate XL-ATX formfactors while you’re at it—you won’t be cramming Gigabyte’s board into your mid-tower.
We’re more enamored with the Asus Crosshair IV Formula and MSI 890FXA-GD70. The Crosshair IV wins on sex appeal, and again, if you’re splitting hairs over benchmarks, then this time the nod goes to Asus. Throw in the gold-plated audio inputs, Q-Connector, SupremeFX X-Fi module, and enough fan headers to generate a tornado, and you’re left with one helluva mobo. So how did MSI earn a Kick Ass award?
To start with, MSI managed to cram one more PCI-E port onto its board than Asus did, and also found room for an IDE port. Sure, the Crosshair IV comes with an additional PCI slot, but now that even soundcards ship in PCI-E form, is anyone even using PCI anymore? Anyone? And while both boards nailed the layout, we like that the SATA ports sit a tad lower on MSI’s mobo, keeping them away from overhanging videocards.
Finally, we have to give MSI props for its OC Genie. It took a single button press and a 20-second reboot to supercharge our 955BE by almost 700MHz. And did we mention MSI’s board is the least expensive?

Benchmarks

	MSI 890FXA-GD70	Asus Crosshair IV Formula	Gigabyte GA-890FXA-UD7
PCMark Vantage 64-bit Overall	11,439	11,180	9,870
Everest Ultimate Mem Read (MB/s)	7,928	8,043	8,050
Everest Ultimate Mem Write (MB/s)	6,728	6,783	6,790
Everest Ultimate Mem Copy (MB/s)	9,589	9,947	9,966
Everest Ultimate Mem Latency (ns)	56.8	55.4	55.6
SiSoft Sandra RAM Bandwidth (GB/s)	12.4	12.8	13
3DMark Vantage Overall	13,509	13,562	13,504
3DMark Vantage GPU	14,582	14,599	14,632
3DMark Vantage CPU	11,067	11,179	10,967
Valve Particle test (fps)	90	74.3	76.7
Resident Evil 5 low-res (fps)	79.63	80.3	81.1
HAWX low-res (fps)	153.3	154.3	155
HD Tune Pro Sustained Write (MB/s)	103.4	13.3	105.1
HD Tune Pro Burst (MB/s)	224.3	225.8	231

Best scores are bolded. We used a 3.2GHz Phenom II 955 Black Edition, 4GB of Corsair DDR3/1333, a VisionTek Radeon HD 5850, a Cooler Master Hyper 212, a Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black, and Windows 7 Professional. Burst and write tests were obtained with a 64GB Kingston SSD Now.

Dare to Compare

(Click to enlarge)

Maximum PC Reads the Motherboard Tea Leaves

For the record, neither AMD nor Intel have told us squat about what to expect out of their next-generation chipsets. Instead, we sifted the Internet rumor mill and grilled motherboard vendors for what little info we could get.
First up, Intel. There have long been rumors of an X68 chipset and new ICH11 south bridge. Those rumors, however, are likely wrong. The chipset is shaping up to be a minor update of the current X58. Expect native SATA 6 support and possibly more PCI-E lanes. We wouldn’t expect USB 3.0, though. Rumored to be included in ICH11, USB 3.0 is looking more like it won’t be integrated until late 2011.
More important for Intel is the P65 chipset. The company badly needs to update the P55 chipset, which is finding itself starved for bandwidth now that SATA 6 and USB 3 components are arriving. Intel is unlikely to continue compatibility with its upcoming Sandy Bridge CPUs and its current crop of chipsets. There’s already talk of an LGA2011 socket for Sandy Bridge that, obviously, is incompatible with LGA1366. The LGA1156 will likely get left out in the cold, too.
AMD’s plans are a bit murkier and more secretive. With an integrated GPU, AMD’s upcoming Fusion chips is almost certain to require a new socket and a new chipset. Of course, the big question is, will current AM3 boards support AMD’s upcoming Bulldozer core? At this point, we’re going to give it a 50/50 chance. AMD has been fairly wonderful at giving its users an upgrade path, so it’s likely the company could cash in on some of that good will by introducing an updated socket. We can usually count on Intel to make you buy a new board, though. Sigh.

Don't Expect to Mix AMD with Nvidia Multi-card Configs

Viewed from the comfort of today’s X58 platform, the multi-GPU war seems like a hundred yarns ago. Unfortunately, AMD users continue to suffer in the ongoing war between ATI and Nvidia.
Today, if you want to run an Nvidia multi-card configuration, you buy an Intel board. If you have an AMD board, your only choice is to buy CrossFireX. Of course, it’s not that Radeon HD cards are bad; in fact, ATI’s resurgence with the award-winning Radeon HD 5870 and 5970 cards has many satisfied AMD users.
But still, as capable as the 890FX boards are, why can’t you run Nvidia cards if you want to? Is it a technical problem?
Neither company would say, but we’re certain it’s not. We’ve seen a clear pattern where you could run either brand of cards in a multi-card setup on any chipset and with any CPU, provided there is enough PCI-E bandwidth.
To try to shed some light on the subject, we attempted to pry info from AMD and Nvidia as to the reason for the hold-up. Unfortunately, we weren’t very successful. Nvidia provided us with a terse response: “We have no plans to support SLI on motherboards using AMD chipsets.” And AMD was no better. It’s apparently quite happy for its customers who want to run two or more cards to have ATI logos on them.
Board vendors aren’t so happy, though. Those we spoke with said they’ve looked at options to get SLI running on AMD boards, and one even said that its engineers have tested hacked SLI running on an 890FX to see if it works and it does just fine.
Unfortunately, there’s nothing to force anyone’s hand here. When Nvidia faced a situation where Intel chipset users were choosing CrossFire over SLI, the company caved and started allowing board vendors to include SLI support. With AMD’s much smaller market share, it appears that the situation won’t change until one company blinks.

Where's Native Support for the New, Faster USB?

Every motherboard we reviewed here features SuperSpeed USB 3.0, but none has true native support. The blame lies with Intel and AMD, because neither has yet added support for the latest USB spec in their respective south-bridge chips.

To get around this limitation, motherboard vendors have tapped discrete USB controllers from such vendors as NEC to hit those super-fast transfer speeds over USB. That’s good enough to get a USB 3.0 logo on the motherboard box, but it’s not good enough for true enthusiasts who don’t want to be limited to a mere two ports.

So, why the hold-up? It didn’t take this long for USB 2.0, did it? Actually, it practically did. USB 2.0 launched in early 2000, with most mobo vendors integrating NEC chips for USB 2.0 support. It wasn’t until two years later, when Intel launched its ICH 4 south bridge with the DDR-based 845E, that USB 2.0 became truly integrated.

OK, so maybe we’re just being impatient, but we wanted to hear from the chipset makers why the much-requested feature wasn’t on tap for this year. AMD’s explanation was that it was one of the features that didn’t make the priority list when the 890FX (and its accompanying SB850 south bridge) was in the factory.

Intel said it’s following the game plan it used with USB 2.0: The spec is finalized, discrete controllers are released and integrated into boards, and then, when there’s enough actual hardware out there that needs it, the company will add native support.

The company also refuted tin-foil hat theories that Intel was intentionally sandbagging USB 3.0 in order to push its upcoming Light Peak optical technology. “Light Peak does not compete with USB 3.0. The first USB 3.0 products started to appear in the market in 2009, with a volume ramp expected to begin in 2010, using discrete controllers,” the company told Maximum PC. “We see Light Peak and USB 3.0 as being complementary, as Light Peak enables USB and other I/O protocols to run together on a single, longer cable and at higher speeds in the future. We expect both to exist together in the market and on the same platform at the same time. The Light Peak initiative does not signify any change to Intel’s direction on USB 3.0 or any other existing I/O efforts.”

Nespresso CitiZ Automatic Espresso Maker Review

One-touch, no-fuss espresso that actually tastes good

For much of the world, the aroma, flavor, and lightning bolt of energy that a café dopio delivers are magic. But a big part of the delight is also the ritual of preparation: grinding the beans, tamping the portafilter, and pulling the shot yourself.
So what can we make of Nespresso’s CitiZ Automatic Espresso Maker, which eschews this loving ritual in favor of a push-button system? Insert an espresso capsule, press a button, and 18 seconds later, you get a shot of espresso.
On the surface, it smacks of heresy, but Maximum Tech wondered: Could the fully automated espresso shot pulled by this machine rival the flavor of a traditional espresso? The answer is yes. Mostly. With a few caveats.

On its own, the CitiZ gave the Maximum Tech editorial staff a 37 percent boost in productivity.
The core concept behind the CitiZ is not unlike that of an inkjet printer or a Gillette razor. With the CitiZ, you’re committing to a closed system in which you purchase proprietary espresso capsules exclusively from the Nespresso Club, which promises two-day delivery to most addresses in North America. The cost per capsule varies by volume, but tends to average around $0.43. That’s a solid value, and shipping costs are minimal.
The downside is that unless you live in or near Boston, Chevy Chase, Chicago, Orange County, Miami, or New York City, you can’t purchase capsules in person. The upside is that Nespresso offers up to 16 different roasts and flavors ranging from mild to extra-strong, including three different decafs, all in colorful shells eerily reminiscent of candy.
We were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the espresso. Regardless of which blend we chose, each shot had a thick layer of crema—the thin layer of foam at the top of the cup—and tasted more or less like a barista-prepared espresso. We also appreciated the consistency of flavor, which never wavered. Our only concern was that the espresso tasted slightly less rich, penetrating, and flavorful than our own homemade shots.
The proprietary nature of the system prevented us from testing the CitiZ with our own beans and grinds, but we did compare shots pulled on our own machine (using Peet’s Espresso Forte) to Nespresso’s boldest flavor, Ristretto. We also compared a milder blend from a local San Francisco café to Nespresso’s Cosi roast. We used no milk, sugar, or other additives. Our tests confirmed our suspicions: The Nespresso machine was delivering slightly less-concentrated flavor. This may be because the Nespresso capsules contain 5.5 grams of coffee, while tradition dictates 7 grams.
Nonetheless, informal taste tests in the Maximum Tech Lab were decisively favorable, to the point that we quickly exhausted our initial supply of capsules.
The only real shortcoming is that the base model lacks a steaming wand—essential for steaming/frothing milk or for directly pouring hot water for café Americanos. To be fair, Nespresso does sell a version of the CitiZ that comes with an automatic milk frother.
Espresso aficionados will want a more traditional approach, but the CitiZ is perfect for espresso drinkers who don’t want to pull their own shots, or for environments—like small offices—where tamping a shot would be unwieldy. Frankly, the quality is high enough that even purists should consider the CitiZ as a time-saving second machine. The ability to serve up so many different espresso beans and roasts justifies the purchase.
Nespresso CitiZ Automatic Espresso Maker

Double Caf Pours a high-quality shot; no mess; portable; wide variety of flavors.

Decaf Flavor isn't as rich as manual machines; no built-in steam wand.

Blockbuster Declares Bankruptcy, Netflix Smirks

The day had finally arrived; Blockbuster has finally filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. Chapter 11 means that the company will have the opportunity to reorganize and rid itself of cumbersome debt. In the filing, Blockbuster listed $1.02 billion in assets, and $1.46 billion in debt. The company expects to be able to reduce its total debt to a mere $125 million.
Blockbuster has been seeing steadily decreasing sales as digital services like Netflix have taken of in recent years. The Dallas-based company has about 3000 stores currently. They are expected to close as many as 1000 of them. After they complete reorganization, Blockbuster will attempt to focus more on digital content delivery. Considering the lateness of this push, they'll have a lot of catching up to do.
The future is unclear for the brick and mortar chain. They have been able to bundle video rental app with some phones as of late, and this could be a possible way to move forward. We'd also like to see a viable competitor to Netflix in the online streaming category. But the worry is that content would become increasingly siloed; exclusive to one company or the other. Do you think Blockbuster can find a place in the market?

Image via RocketRaccoon on Flickr

Nokia Tempts App Developers with $10 Million

Even though Nokia still has the global smartphone lead, the trend for the Finnish company is moving in the wrong direction. One of the main reasons for this slide is the relative lack of native apps on the Symbian platform. So now Nokia is upping the stakes by offering $10 million in various prizes for their "Calling All Innovators" contest.
The contest will feature 17 different categories: 6 game, and 11 general apps. Nokia will choose 170 finalists , then a panel of AT&T and Nokia judges will dole out the prizes. Winners of individual categories will win $150,000 in cash. Two apps, and two games will win their developers the additional grand prize of $100,000 cash and $1.9 million in marketing.
The process seems a little convoluted, and users apparently won't get a say in the matter. Still, some devs will probably be anxious to be considered. Nokia stresses that winning apps will need to be responsive and attractive. If you're interested in the contest, check out the official page here.

T-Mobile G2 Up for Pre-order Friday, Launching October 6th

The spiritual successor to the original T-Mobile G1, the aptly named G2 will be available for pre-order tomorrow (Friday). Pricing has not been announced yet, but we're almost certainly looking at $200 for a two year contract. The G2 will be a QWERTY slider phone running stock Android 2.2 and will support T-Mobile's speedy HSPA+ network.
The handset is expected to run on a new generation of Qualcomm's Snapdragon CPU that's clocked slightly lower at 800MHz, but is capable of more operations per clock cycle. This phone is likely identical to the recently announced HTC Desire Z, though it will not have the Sense UI layer on top of Android. Anyone planning to pre-order it? What phone will you be moving from?