Greatest Hits of CES 2013: PC Pro’s pick of the best products

Thursday, January 10th, 2013

The world’s largest consumer electronics show is now into its final throes, which means we can reveal the shortlist for our pick of the show’s innovations: PC Pro’s Greatest Hits of CES 2013.

Now we need your help to decide the winner for the Best Innovation. Read the descriptions below and then cast your vote using the link at the bottom of the blog — but be quick, because voting closes at 6pm (UK time) on Thursday 10 January. [Edit: the vote is now closed]

In addition to the winner of this category, on Friday we’ll also be announcing our pick of the tablets, phones and laptops that have been unveiled at CES 2013. (more…)

The ten worst products of 2010

Thursday, December 30th, 2010

We’ve seen some absolutely brilliant kit this year. Stand-outs include the obvious (think the Apple iPad) and the less obvious (why hello there, Sony VAIO Z13), but this blog is to celebrate the rubbish. The stuff that, with any luck, may already have been pulled off the shelves due to its sheer stupidity.

In a very particular order, here goes:

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Top 10 Christmas gifts

Monday, December 8th, 2008

The second Monday in December has become known as “Cyber Monday”, when internet shopping levels peak ahead of Christmas.

In the current issue of PC Pro you’ll find a full Christmas gadget guide, with 41 products tested and reviewed, from photo frames to cameras to USB guitars. But to help you beat the rush this year, we’ve plucked out ten of the best from the feature and from our A List.

Samsung NC10 – £300

Hands-down the best netbook on the market right now. It feels as sturdy as a proper laptop, offers a hefty seven-and-a-half hour battery life and features an almost full-width keyboard. Stylish, strong and hugely portable – and all this for less than £300.

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Windows 7: the user interface

Tuesday, October 28th, 2008

The most obvious change to Windows 7 is the revamped Windows desktop. The Taskbar has been completely redesigned, with the text descriptions of open windows replaced with large icons of the open applications. It’s an idea that has clearly gleaned more than a little inspiration from the Mac OS X Dock, but it goes further than the Apple concept.

Right click on an application’s icon – or swipe a finger upwards from it if you’re using the new touchscreen controls – and a “jumplist” opens. The jumplist provides a list of recent documents accessed in Word, for example, or recent sites visited in Internet Explorer, allowing you to open them with a single click. The jumplists can also be populated with commands, such as selecting a playlist from Windows Media Player. Microsoft has published a new API that will allow software makers to tailor the jumplists to their applications, and this has the potential to become a great timesaver.

The new Taskbar also comes into play when you plug a digital camera, MP3 player, or other peripheral into the PC. Instead of the old Autoplay prompt, a digital camera icon will show in the Taskbar. From here you can select options to import photos into editing software, for example, or kickstart a slideshow of your pictures.

As well as the thumbnail previews of tabs that were first introduced in Windows Vista, the new Taskbar provides full-screen previews when you hover over the thumbnail preview with the mouse. This feature could be pretty handy for a quick glance at an email, whilst you enter data into a web form for example, although it doesn’t really save much time compared to simply switching Windows if you’re proficient with keyboard shortcuts. More useful is the option to simply drag programs from the Start menu straight on to the Taskbar.

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