Reviews

After Google, Twitter, and Facebook, Yelp is arguably the Internet company next in line to have its name converted into a verb. If you want to find a restaurant, a plumber, or even a lawyer, Yelp probably has you covered.

As a consumer, you likely use Yelp and similar services all the time; but as a business owner, you realize what a double-edged sword it is. Many restaurateurs have watched their free time vanish along with their hair as they tried to massage their Yelp star rating and appease every last customer unhappy with the crème brulee.

Digital cameras may be advanced, but by definition they're missing one key ingredient that has long given photographers lots of creative options and control: film. And that's exactly what DxO hopes to reintroduce into images with its FilmPack 3.1.

Photographers used to choose specific “emulsions” (types of film) for a particular grain, color response, contrast, or saturation, or to create a certain look or style. To take this even further, photographers knew they could intensify particular characteristics depending on how they processed the film. Sometimes, they’d even purposely use the wrong chemicals (cross-process) for an extra punch of unexpected colors.

HP's TouchSmart 9300 Elite is a business-centric, all-in-one powerhouse. It may not be much to look at, but it delivers excellent performance, sits on an easy-to-adjust stand, and even tackles multimedia rather well.

Our review model, priced at $1599 (as of February 9, 2012), came packed with an Intel Core i7-2600 processor, 8GB of RAM, a 1TB hard drive, a discrete Nvidia GeForce GT425M graphics card, a slot-loading Blu-ray drive, a high-definition webcam, and built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity. As befits a business PC, our model ran the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Professional.

The Polywell Ignition X7900i-3960 boasts powerful hardware in an imposing package. But it certainly spares no expense, at $4599 (as of February 1, 2012). Does the cost add up? Let’s find out.

The Ignition is packed to the brim with power, starting with the Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme processor. That’s a $1000 CPU, which alone accounts for almost a quarter of the cost of the machine. The X7900i-3960 pulled off a score of 206 in our WorldBench 6 benchmark suite. Polywell left the CPU running at the CPU’s stock frequency of 3.3GHz, which leaves any overclocking in your hands.

Plenty of people turn to social networks like Facebook and sites like Twitter for fun. And plenty of folks turn to these tools because of the boost they can give their business. These business-oriented users, especially the ones who manage multiple Facebook pages, Google + Pages, and Twitter accounts, are the ones who will benefit most from HootSuite, a cloud-based service that offers a potent set of social media management tools.

HootSuite organizes your social media accounts into tabs, and within those tabs, it presents information in streams.HootSuite is available in two plans: Basic, a free (but ad-supported) version that includes five social profiles and two RSS/Atom feeds, as well as quick reports, and Pro, a $6/month ad-free plan that includes unlimited social profiles, one free team member, one free enhanced analytics report, integration with Google Analytics and Facebook Insights, and the ability to archive tweets. Rival TweetDeck, which is available in both a desktop and Web-based version, is free, while Web-based SocialOomph offers a free version and a paid version that starts at about $30 per month.

Envizen Home Roam TV has a simple purpose—to let you watch any home entertainment center video on a small, low-res display you can carry around the house—and it gets the job done for a modest $160. But the gotchas are so numerous—starting with no ability to control the remote device—that it’s difficult to recommend it.

Home Roam TV is basically a two-piece kit. A small transmitter box connects to any media source with AV (composite audio-video) out ports, and sends the signal wirelessly to a portable 7-inch display. The transmitter has one set of standard AV ports for a direct connection (using a provided cable) between the transmitter and a primary media source (most likely a TV or cable/satellite box), and three additional ports that accept a single-pin adapter cable to which you attach a standard AV cable, so that you can connect up to four AV sources, total. Envizen includes one adapter cable, but you must buy additional cables yourself.

The Samsung ML-2955DW monochrome laser printer is notable for its very low street price ($150 as of February 8, 2012) and its full network connectivity, namely USB, ethernet, and Wi-Fi. Unfortunately, the expensive toner restricts it to low-volume use.

It’s the same old story: cheap printer, pricey toner. The ML-2955DW ships with a starter-size toner cartridge with a 1000-page yield. Replacements include a 1500-page cartridge for $63, which works out to 4.2 cents per page--steep compared with the current average of 2.6 cents per page for all the monochrome lasers we’ve tested. The higher-yield cartridge costs $75 and lasts for 2500 pages, or 3 cents per page, versus an average of 1.8 cents per page for other high-yield cartridges we’ve priced. If you take a year or more to get through a cartridge, you probably won’t care. If you have to replace the cartridges several times a year, however, you will definitely start to feel the pinch. For higher-volume use, step up to a model such as the Dell 2350dn, which has reasonably priced consumables.

As we all know, the Jamestown colony was founded on Mars in the early 1600s, where it was destroyed by invading Martian war machines allied with the Spanish. Well, perhaps not, but that's the basis of Jamestown ($10, buy-only), an exciting top-down, retro-style, co-op play, buzzword-compliant game from Final Form Games, whom, I suspect, are in league with the manufacturers of mouse buttons. I nearly wore mine out frantically clicking to evade ever-increasing waves of Martian attackers, exploding scenery, and continual pyrotechnics, all while trying to swoop and swerve to catch the falling coins and gears that would extend my life or power-up my little craft.

We learn the fate of the Jamestown colony... it was overrun by Martians! Of course, it was on Mars.Jamestown brings a unique theme to the top-down shooter genre, namely, "Pilgrims...in.... spaaaaace!" (at least, I've never seen any other game with it), and adds in co-op play (you can have one player use the keyboard while you use the mouse, or add in extra controllers via USB). There are single player leaderboards to record your high scores, and I mean your high scores, because I'll never be on them. There are achievements to unlock, and new ships to buy as you earn coins, and unique, powerful, boss monsters at the end of each levels whose attack timing and weaknesses must be learned to defeat them.

The $80 (as of February 3, 2012) Canon Pixma MG3120 Wireless Inkjet Photo All-In-One is one of the least-expensive color inkjet multifunction printers you can find that offers paper-saving automatic duplex printing. It also prints reasonably quickly, produces good output, and is easy to use. Unfortunately, that collection of positives can't make up for the unit's extremely pricey black ink.

Setting up the Pixma MG3120 is easy, though it lacks an LCD, so you'll have to use the USB connection to perform the wireless setup (unless you have Wi-Fi Protected Setup on your router). The documentation is top-notch, and the control panel is very simple: A two-digit LED shows copy quantity and messages, and Canon provides clearly labeled buttons and LED indicator lights for copying, scanning, and maintenance tasks. A Wi-Fi indicator sits on the front of the unit, but there are no card slots and no USB/PictBridge port. Paper handling on the Pixma MG3120 is rudimentary (aside from the automatic duplexing feature): A front panel unfolds to reveal a 100-sheet input area.

How much would you pay to not have to see anything about someone's weird trick to lose weight that orthodontists don't want you to know about? Is "nothing" a good price to pay? Adblock Plus is a powerful, and free, plugin for Firefox, Chrome, and Thunderbird that strips out almost all advertising from the Web pages you view. Install the plugin, restart your browser, and resume surfing.

Adblock Plus gives you the power to edit filters to limit more ads, or even let some in.I say "almost all" for two reasons: First, the default configuration, with the user can change with ease, allows in a small amount of non-intrusive advertising: No flashy animations, no popups. These ads are allowed in by a user-editable list of "approved" sites and sources. This is not a bad thing; many sites can exist only because of advertising, and blocking everything, even on sites you like and support, will mean the end of a lot of content. Second, while I haven't found problems yet, it is known that advertisers, especially the ones you most want to block due to the sleaziness of their tactics and their products, are constantly working to find ways around blocking, so there isn't an absolute 100% guarantee that something won't slip by. Fortunately, Adblock Plus includes the ability to report such sneaks (so the algorithms can be updated).