How the stimulus package will affect tech; dealing with the “digital cliff”; the best of our blogs; handy Web sites; finding the right GPS.

Front What’s New from the World of Tech

seNdiNg a message After much debate, President Obama finally signed a stimulus bill that ensures, among other things, money for technology so he can continue to use his BlackBerry.

Tech Gets a Cash Boot-Up

The economic stimulus act dedicates billions to technology development.

The economic stimulus package has dominated nightly newscasts and newspaper headlines for months. Democrats and Republicans disagree over whether the bill will actually boost the economy or simply give handouts to companies that help cause this mess. Despite the political pugilism, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 has passed, and the final version includes some serious cash for techrelated projects. The money invested could have some significant long-term effects on the tech landscape—in both the public and private sectors. So what are your tax dollars buying tech-wise? Basically everything from broadband grants and a $650 million boost to the DTV program to an upgraded electric grid and millions of dollars worth of explosive-detection devices at airports. Here is a more in-depth breakdown of some of the technology projects and initiatives that will get funding. Access to broadband is increasingly considered essential to competing in our 21st-century economy. The package allocates $7.2 billion for broadband grants and loans, split between the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) within the Commerce Department. Agriculture must allocate at least 75 percent of its $2.5 billion to rural areas without sufficient access to broadband, and these grants must be open-access. The NTIA will also get $350 million to track

broadband availability and develop a Webbased broadband inventory map. Although the DTV transition has been delayed until June (see the story below), the stimulus act allocates an additional $650 million for the converter box coupon program. About $90 million of that total can be used for education and outreach efforts. Also, research funding for technology and other fields will get a nice boost (in an effort to keep math and science Ph.D graduates in the country), including $1 billion for NASA, $3 billion for the National Science Foundation, $2 billion for science research within the Department of Energy, and $220 million for research and grants at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) within Commerce. As for security technology, if you enjoy those machines at the airport that puff air at you to detect explosives, there are more on the way. The Homeland Security Department gets more than a billion

In addition to security and infrastructure, the stimulus act includes some serious cash for tech-related projects.

for border and airport security technologies, as well as for nonintrusive detection technology at seaports. There is also more money to repair and construct inspection facilities at land borders and to purchase explosive-detection systems. We at PCMag are always reminding readers of the importance of backing up your data. Well, Uncle Sam is also getting the message. At the State Department, the bill allocates $290 million for immediate information technology security and upgrades to support mission-critical operations. Of that, about $38 million will go toward the creation of backup information-management facilities to protect the systems from mission failures, enhance cybersecurity, and secure immediate hardware and software upgrades Don’t forget about $4.5 billion to give our electrical grid a makeover. Digitizing health records is also a hotbutton issue these days. Well, the stimulus package will help make that a reality with about $2 billion for health information technology (HIT), including establishing a national HIT coordinator. And in case you think the government forgot about the children, the stimulus package also sets aside $650 million for the Enhancing Education through Technology program. In addition, $50 million has been divested to state-level Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) initiatives. —Chloe Albanesius

Falling Off the Digital Cliff

Even with a converter box, some will be left out in the cold after the DTV switchover.

As we know, the transition from analog to digital TV has been delayed from February 17 to June 12. The delay is meant to allow extra time for consumers to get their converter boxes and for the government to implement its transition programs, including the coupons for those boxes and the recycling of the thousands (and maybe even millions) of TVs that will be thrown away. One issue that is still unresolved is that of the “digital cliff.” In a nutshell, a digital cliff means no TV signal (regardless of whether you have a converter box) for those in rural areas or who live a great distance from a digital broadcast station. With analog, a weak signal means low quality, but a weak digital signal means a blank screen. The digital cliff has not been widely reported, and it’s an issue the FCC has not, according to many, addressed effectively. At DTV .gov, for example, you can find information about antenna adapters, but there are no diagrams or maps that explain how a DTV signal works or how far the signal travels. “At this point, our estimates are that 5.1 percent of U.S. TV households are unprepared, which is about 5.8 million households,” says Anne Elliot, a vice president at The Nielsen Company. Elliot says that a DTV signal travels in a different kind of contour from analog and either finds a receiver or doesn’t. Nielsen defines as “unprepared” a household that does not have any TVs capable of receiving a digital signal after the transition. Nielsen uses a representative sampling of 35,000 households to derive its estimates. The company issued a readiness alert in January stating that the elderly with more disposable income are more ready for DTV than those under 55 Nielsen also found that the top six least-prepared cities were Albuquerque, Houston, Tulsa, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Austin, and Memphis. The most prepared market is the Hartford-New Haven area of Connecticut, because of the proliferation of cable TV access in that region. Of course, Nielsen does not track small communities such as Ames, Iowa, or remote locations in Montana or Minnesota. Households in rural areas will likely not get digital reception after the transition even if they own a converter box, which could cause a problem for retailers trying to sell DTV antennas. “Our advice for people in rural areas is to buy an upgraded antenna and to test digital reception now, before the transition,” says Mary Diamond, an FCC spokesperson. She declined to elaborate.—John Brandon

Best of our Blogs

geArlog

Csi stick: a Jealous Lover’s Best Friend

The Paraben CSI Stick ($199) plugs into a cell phone and lets the user pull off all the phone’s “forensic data,” including the phone book, text messages, camera-phone images, call logs—everything. The Stick can even retrieve text messages that have been deleted by the phone’s owner. Terrifying! The CSI Stick comes with replaceable heads that can be used with a number of cell-phone models; it is available at Paraben’s site.—Brian Heater

seCurity WAtCh

security Vendors Offer Windows 7 Protection

Just because you’re running a beta operating system doesn’t mean you can go without security protection. In fact, Windows 7 will nag you to install security and point specifically to security providers AVG, Kaspersky, and Symantec. Kaspersky has announced a prototype of its antivirus app for Windows 7, and Symantec also offers a free beta of Norton 30 Version 3 to those running Windows 7 beta.—Larry Seltzer goodCleAnteCh

Recompute makes a Computer Out of Cardboard

While most “green” computers focus on reduced energy consumption or using bioplastic, this one goes off the usual course and uses something else as a material for the desktop’s build. Recompute, as you can clearly see, utilizes layers of recyclable and renewable corrugated cardboard. According to its designer, there are four low- impact steps in making this computer—die cutting, gluing parts with nontoxic glue, printing, and assembling the electronic parts. There’s no plastic or metal anywhere in the chassis besides what’s in the electronic components. And yes, it’s a real working computer.—Mariella Moon

@Work

Polycom Launches High-Res Videoconferencing

Polycom recently introduced the QDX 000 ($3,999) widescreen videoconferencing system for enterprise-level businesses. The QDX 000 features DVD-quality video that can maintain high resolutions even when operating over low bandwidths. Its video signal operates at 30 frames per second, uses Polycom’s Lost Packet Recovery (LPR), and can take input from up to five video sources.—Mario Morejon

Best

of the Internet

myFOLiO

MyFolio is an online community of artists in which you can easily upload and share media, create your own blog, and create galleries to showcase your talent. The free account offers 1GB of storage space and imposes a limit of 100MB per file uploaded.—Alan Henry

LasT FReeWaRe VeRsiON

With Last Freeware Version, you can find older versions of some of your favorite applications when they were free and roll back to when the app didn’t cost money to use. In addition to some popular programs, Last Freeware Version keeps a number of smaller, lesser-known applications.—AH

CLeRkdOgs

Clerkdogs is a Web service that contains hundreds of thousands of movie recommendations from video-store clerks. Enter the name of a movie you like and the service will return a list of other movies you might also enjoy.—AH

For more cool Web sites and handy utilities and apps, visit PC Magazine’s blog AppScout (www .appscout.com). ConneCted tr Aveler

Find the Right GPS for Your Travels

Here’s the quickest route to the best GPS device.

geT THeRe iN sTyLe GPS models like the Navigon 2200T and Garmin nüvi 755T have big screens and millions of maps.

Now that gas prices have come back down to earth, it’s a lot easier to get behind the wheel again. So, whether that means you’re commuting to work again or you’re finally taking that road trip, a GPS device can help keep you on track. Today’s navigators, though, can do a lot more than just get you from point A to point B. There are units on the market that will help you sidestep traffic, find a great new restaurant, or even make hands-free cell-phone calls. The nuts and bolts of picking the right GPS are fairly straightforward. Start by selecting your screen size and onboard maps, and tack on the additional features that you need (or want) from there. As far as screens go, you can find ones with big displays (like the 5-inch magellan maestro 5310, $599 street, l llhm ) or small (like the 3.5inch Navigon 2200T, $229 list, l lllm ), but most devices these days feature 4.3-inch displays (like

CHeaP TRiP The V7 NAV740 is our Editors’ Choice for budget GPSs. the inexpensive, entry-level Nextar Q4 ($249.99 list, l llhm ), which are perfect for most people. Every GPS will also have a points-of-interest (POI) database to help locate landmarks, hotels, restaurants, and other attractions along your route, in a particular city, or at your destination. On average, you can expect a GPS to pack a few million POIs. The magellan maestro 4350 ($500 street, l lllm ) has six million, for example. On top of that, several systems tack on extra goodies: Navigon’s high-end 7200T includes onboard Zagat guides and 3D landmark views, and Magellan’s Maestro devices include AAA Tourbook listings. A vital part of getting where you’re going is avoiding obstacles, like traffic jams and tickets, along the way. Some systems have speed-limit alerts and traffic-camera detectors in addition to live traffic updates, which can help you sidestep congestion. The garmin nüvi 755T($499.99 list, l lllh ) for example, includes subscription-free live traffic updates provided by Navteq. Many models, like the sony NV-U94T nav-u ($299.99 list, l lhmm ) include built-in traffic receivers and come with trial subscriptions that let you test the service for free. Aside from navigation tools and other extras, you can find a host of multimedia features in many GPS units. Our budget Editors’ Choice model, the V7 NaV740 ($299.99 list, l lllm ) has a media player that supports most common music, photo, and video formats. A few other, typically higherend devices, including the Magellan 4350 and the Navigon 8100T ($599.99 list, l llhm ), can also connect to your Bluetooth-enabled cell phone so that you can make hands-free calls through the GPS.—Corinne Iozzio