Samsung RF28HMELBSR/AA Refrigerator With Wi-Fi-Enabled LCD

Pros Attractive design. Spacious. Functional. FlexZone drawer is incredibly useful.

Cons Expensive. Touch screen offers limited usefulness. Few apps. Pandora is integrated, but audio output is weak, and there's no ability to connect a speaker. Bottom Line The Samsung RF28HMELBSR is a well-designed high-end, french-door refrigerator with an 8-inch touch screen and some useful features. But limited-use connectivity adds too much to the price.

By Will Greenwald

Smart appliances, which often boast the same capabilities as the smartphones and tablets we take for granted, haven't quite caught on yet. The RF28HMELBSR/AA is Samsung's attempt to change that. It's a smart fridge equipped with an app-equipped, Wi-Fi-networked, 8-inch touch screen. You can leave notes for family members, check the weather, read the news, and even play music on the panel. That brand of connectivity, along with many high-end design elements, help the fridge reach its hefty $3,599 price tag. The touch screen is of limited usefulness, however, and this hints at why smart, connected appliances aren't ubiquitous. Still, if you can cough up $3,600, it's a very well-designed refrigerator, regardless of whether you think the Pandora-streaming, news-displaying touch screen is a worthwhile addition. Samsung is currently the only major manufacturer offering connected fridges, so if a touch screen is a must-have, your choices are limited.

Design and Space
The RF28HMELBSR is an impressive, striking appliance even without the connected features. It's a spacious stainless steel, French-door refrigerator with a large freezer below waist height, and a very useful FlexZone drawer I'll detail below. This model is only available with a stainless steel finish, but the equivalent version without the 8-inch touch screen, the RF28HMEDBSR, is available in the stainless steel finish for $3,299 or white or black for $3,199 each. The door and drawer handles are elegant, curved metal bars that bolt to the front of the fridge. The drawer handles feature clever, pivoting mounts that tilt upward when you pull them, providing a satisfying bit of give that lets you open drawers smoothly even if they're positioned lower than what would be comfortable. The left door holds both the 8-inch touch screen and the combination ice-and-water dispenser. The ice portion of the dispenser can provide ice cubes or crushed ice, but since it requires a dedicated water line, we were unable to test it in our lab. 

This is a big fridge, measuring 70 by 35.8 by 36.5 inches (HWD) and weighing 374 pounds. It offers a total storage capacity of 29.1 cubic feet between its three compartments: The refrigerator area can hold 17 cubic feet, the freezer can hold 8.3 cubic feet, and the FlexZone drawer can hold 3.8 cubic feet. According to Samsung, that means you can pack 17 bags of groceries in the fridge, 8 bags in the freezer, and 3 in the FlexZone drawer. It's plenty of room even if your grocery bags tend to be a bit more full than a cubic foot each as Samsung assumes, though it's not the largest fridge the company offers; Samsung also makes 30- and 34-cubic-foot versions, though they aren't Web-connected. The refrigerator has six door bins (including three large enough to hold full gallons of milk), five tempered glass shelves, and two humidity-controlled crisper drawers. The highest shelf closest to the ice maker actually flips up to make room for very tall items, which is a nice touch and adds to the overall flexibility. The other compartments have fewer accoutrements, and focus mostly on pure space for storage, but the freezer has a very useful pull-out drawer that puts, say, ice cream in easy reach while reserving the lower portion of the drawer for larger frozen food items.

FlexZone Drawer
The FlexZone drawer is one of the most clever design elements. It's a compartment situated between the refrigerator and freezer sections that can be set to one of four cooling modes, depending on what you want to store. Its settings include Wine/Party Dishes (42 degrees Fahrenheit), Deli/Snacks (37 degrees), Cold Drinks (33 degrees), and Meat/Fish (29 degrees). I found the Cold Drinks setting to be very useful in our lab, where hydration and caffeination are key. The drawer has two sliding wire barriers that can divide space into four sections of varied sizes, another nice touch for family members or roommates who want to keep their drinks and snacks separate.

Wi-Fi Touch Screen, Apps
The touch screen is the main draw of the fridge; It runs on Samsung's own proprietary interface, though some menu elements resemble Android. The 8-inch resistive LCD is covered with a plastic film that helps keep it from getting wet or dirty, and provides touch-based controls and a limited number of useful apps and services. It's not a particularly vivid or crisp LCD, and because it's resistive and covered by a film, it isn't all that precise or sensitive, either. The right bezel holds a small audio speaker, and an SD card slot and a pinhole reset button rest on the underside of the display, where the door cuts inward for the ice maker.

The screen lets you control the refrigerator and freezer temperatures and switch between ice cubes and crushed ice out of the box, and it also offers memo and photo gallery apps. But if you want to do more than that, you're going to have to connect to a Wi-Fi network. It doesn't have an Ethernet port, and most of the apps on the fridge require an Internet connection. Fortunately, Wi-Fi setup is a very simple process of either selecting your router on the screen or connecting with WPS.

Once the fridge is connected to your home network, you can use several more handy apps. Weatherbug and the calendar app are the most useful, offering both local weather conditions and forecasts and displaying your Google Calendar schedule so the family can see where you are at any given time. Pandora streaming Internet radio is a nice feature, but the built-in speaker sounds tinny; music on it sounds slightly less crisp than what you'd hear piped through a supermarket ceiling system. There's no Bluetooth, so you can't connect your own speaker to the system to improve the sound quality.

AP News displays headlines and stories with photos, but it's best for letting you know about a story you should look up later on a device you can read more comfortably. Epicurious provides recipes and cooking tips, which is always a welcome touch in kitchen appliances. The app offers a massive selection of hundreds of different recipes organized in various categories, and is regularly updated online. On the other hand, you could simply get a kitchen-friendly stand and use your own tablet on the counter, so you wouldn't have to walk back to the fridge to view each step of the recipe.

You can put your own pictures on an SD card and view them through the Photo App, which also serves as an optional screen saver that turns the fridge into a constantly rotating digital photo frame. The pictures aren't particularly crisp or vivid, but they look nice enough as an idle distraction. Again, a fridge touch screen isn't necessarily the best way to share your photos.

The touch screen lacks any sort of email or chat app, and social network services like Twitter and Facebook are notably absent. Social networking feeds, or a view of your email inbox would be welcome additions and provide legitimate reasons to glance at the fridge door when you're walking by. 

If you have other Samsung devices on the same network, you can connect them to the fridge. The touch screen can display and make phone calls through a connected Galaxy S5 or other compatible Samsung smartphones and tablets. You can even watch live television on the screen if a compatible Samsung connected HDTV is on the same network, though it can only display over-the-air programming in this manner. For both cases, though, you need to remember the relatively poor quality of both the display and the speaker; the fridge isn't meant to be a home entertainment center.

A Future for Smart Fridges?
According to Samsung, new features and apps will be implemented in future models, rather than added to this fridge's touch screen through a software update. It does support updates over the Internet, but its hardware is relatively limited, so don't expect its usefulness to expand much more beyond what it already offers.

The RF28HMELBSR is a fantastic refrigerator with what is essentially a mediocre tablet computer mounted on its door. It's a fun, semi-useful diversion and message center, with a few handy tricks like weather information and note-taking, but it isn't exactly a useful or vital addition. The FlexZone drawer is a much more functional feature, and you can get the otherwise identical RF28HMEDBSR for $300 less. With the money you save, you could get a Google Nexus 7, a case, and some magnets and make your own smart fridge. You'd get full Android functionality, a better-looking screen, and more features. Also, the tablet would be removable. And you' still have enough cash for some groceries to fill the fridge. 

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LG 34UM95

Pros Huge screen. Gorgeous design. Lots of ports.

Cons Expensive. Middling color accuracy and gray-scale performance. Tilt-only stand. Bottom Line The LG 34UM95 is a beautifully crafted and very expensive 34-inch ultra-wide Quad-HD monitor that lets you split its massive screen into four custom-sized sections. I/O ports are plentiful, and viewing angles are wide, but this monitor's color accuracy and dark gray-scale performance could be better.

By John R. Delaney

The LG 34UM95 ($999.99) is not only the largest ultra-wide monitor to hit PC Labs; at just under a grand, it's also the most expensive. As the model number implies, this behemoth features a massive 34-inch (diagonal) In-Plane Switching (IPS) panel with a 21:9 aspect ratio and a Quad-High Definition (QHD) resolution that tops out at 3,440 by 1,440. The 34UM95 offers a beautiful design and a plethora of I/O ports, including two Thunderbolt 2 ports for daisy-chaining multiple monitors. However, its performance, while decent, doesn't live up to the monitor's high price tag.

Design and Features
LG products are known for their stylish looks, and the 34UM95 is no different. It has a bezel-free design, with a sleek-looking, faux-brushed-aluminum cabinet and shiny chrome trim. The matching wedge-shaped stand offers tilt adjustability, but doesn't support height, swivel, or pivot adjustments.

The non-reflective IPS panel is huge, measuring 34 inches diagonally, 31.5 inches in width, and 13.5 inches in height. You won't find the usual array of function and power buttons here; instead, the 34UM95 uses a small, four-way joystick button located under the bottom bezel. The joystick is responsive and makes it easy to adjust picture settings, power off the monitor, adjust speaker volume, and set up Picture-by-Picture (PBP) sizes and screen positions. It also enables one of two Reader modes, which change luminance levels to make it easier to read text.

The 34UM95 has a pair of 7-watt speakers that offer great volume and crystal-clear audio output. You don't get much in the way of bass response, but they don't sound as tinny as the typical 2-watt speakers embedded in most desktop monitors.

The rear of the cabinet holds a wealth of high-speed connections, including two HDMI ports, a DisplayPort input, and two Thunderbolt 2 ports that allow you to daisy-chain up to six compatible monitors. There's also a USB hub with one upstream USB 3.0 port, one downstream USB 3.0 port, and two downstream USB 2.0 ports. Rounding out the I/O array is a headphone jack that would be more convenient if it were located on the side or the front of the monitor.

Among the plentiful picture setting controls are Brightness, Contrast, Color Temperature, Black Level, and Gamma Adjustments. You can also adjust the basic red, green, and blue saturation levels and fine-tune all colors with the six-color Hue and Saturation settings. Picture presets include Custom, Cinema, Photo, and Game modes.

The monitor comes with DisplayPort and HDMI cables, and a resource CD containing a user guide and drivers. It also comes with LG's 4-Screen Split utility, which allows you to partition the screen into four quadrants so you can view multiple custom-sized windows on the massive display. It also has a 3-year warranty covering parts, labor, and backlight.

Performance
The 34UM95 delivers rich, uniform colors and dark blacks, but color accuracy is a little off-kilter. As shown on the chromaticity chart below, red and blue colors, represented by the colored dots, were very close to their ideal coordinates as defined by the CIE, but green was completely outside of its ideal zone. The flaw is minor and doesn't make greens appear oversaturated, but I expect better out-of-the-box color accuracy from a $1,000 monitor. Fortunately, the 34UM95 has a calibration option in the Picture Settings menu that, when used with the six-point color setting, will allow you to fine-tune color accuracy.

Gray-scale performance was good, but not ideal; the panel had no trouble displaying light shades of gray on the DisplayMate 64-Step Gray-Scale test, but the two darkest shades were crushed (appeared black), which resulted in a slight loss of shadow detail in my test images. Off-axis viewing was excellent, as the panel retained color fidelity and luminance when viewed from every angle.

The panel's 5-millisecond pixel response (black-to-white) isn't ideal for gaming, but the occasional motion artifact (blurring) while playing Aliens vs. Predator didn't detract from the unique ultra-wide, high-resolution gaming experience. The movie The Avengers on Blu-ray played smoothly, and skin tones appeared well-balanced and natural.

The 34UM95 used 64 watts of power during testing, which is quite efficient considering its gargantuan dimensions. Switching over to Super Energy Saving mode had little effect; power consumption was reduced to 63 watts, and the picture remained the same. By way of comparison, the Dell UP3214Q and the Asus PQ321, both of which are 32-inch Ultra High Definition (UHD) monitors, used 88 watts and 72 watts, respectively.

Conclusion
If you're looking to replace a two- or three-monitor configuration with a single screen, the LG 34UM95 is one of the largest ultra-wide monitors around. Its 4-Screen Split utility makes it easy to customize up to four separate viewing partitions, so you can put all of that screen real estate to good use, and a pair of Thunderbolt 2 ports lets you view multiple video streams or daisy chain up to six monitors. Its IPS panel delivers excellent viewing angles and an overall sharp picture, but its color accuracy is a bit skewed, and it has trouble reproducing the darkest shade of gray. If you need a 34-inch ultra-wide display, the 34UM95 is currently the only game in town, but if you can live with a smaller, 29-inch screen, the Acer B296CL is a reasonably priced ultra-wide monitor that delivers all-around solid performance and lots of features, which is why it remains our Editors' Choice for ultra-wide monitors.

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Feedly (for Android)

Pros Clean, legible pages. Many reading options. Free.

Cons Some navigation issues. Occasionally froze in our tests Bottom Line Feedly is an RSS reader that houses your favorite sites' articles in one central location, but performance and interface issues keep it from achieving its full potential.

By Jeffrey L. Wilson

We're living in the golden age of online content, a time when there's an extraordinary number of excellent sites, blogs, and vlogs to visit on a daily or weekly basis. RSS reader Feedly (free) lets Android tablet and smartphone users stay on top of the latest updates from their favorite online publications by pulling stories into a clean, distraction-free interface. Feedly works well for the most part, but confusing navigation and some freezing issues prevent it from ranking as an elite app.

The Feedly Feel
Your first course of action is to decide whether you want to create a Feedly account. You should. You don't need to log in to read content, but there's a significant benefit that comes with logging into Feedly with your Evernote, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, or Twitter credentials: You can save sites to your Feedly list and sync them across multiple devices. If RSS is your primary method of receiving online content, I highly recommend creating an account.

Unfortunately, navigating Feedly on my Samsung Galaxy Note II was a confusing experience—at least at the start. Some pages require tapping the Back button to back out to a previous screen; others require hitting the X button. There are pages with full-screen images that link to one story, and there are pages with the expected multiple images and links. Feedly could greatly benefit from a more consistent user interface experience. Flipboard, the PCMag Editors' Choice among mobile reading apps, tops Feedly in this regard. Its panel-driven interface is straightforward and simple to understand. Likewise, the redesigned Digg mobile reader has a very simple, but effective, interface that you can easily grasp upon booting up the app.

Content, Content, Content
Conversely, adding content to Feedly is quite intuitive. Tapping Add Website launches a panel that showcases Feedly's recommended sites such as Smitten Kitchen and Seth Grodin. Feedly also contains numerous Starter Kits, categories that contain similarly themed sites such as Cooking or Video Games. You can, of course, key in an URL.

Sites are listed in a vertical column that display their logos, number of subscribers, and + icons. The + icon saves a site to your account; tapping the logo launches a page. Like Digg, Feedly displays stripped down, uncluttered pages that are filled with text and images—no adds or extra graphical elements. It's very easy on the eye.

Depending on the source, Feedly displays pages in their entirety or truncated with an icon that requires that you visit the true site page (so that the source gets the page view and ad load). You can share pages to Twitter, Facebook, Evernote, and other destinations. Feedly, thankfully, doesn't pull in your buddies' tweets and updates—something that's one of the noisier elements of the Flipboard experience.

Feedly has a surprising number of useful options that let you customize the reading experience. For example, the default reading setting is black text on a white background, but if you're in a dark environment, you may want to go with the alternate theme designed for night reading: white text on a black background. You can also rearrange the article order, label stories as Must Read, and more.

Freezing Issues
Unfortunately, pleasant reading moments were often interrupted by Feedly locking up for seconds at a time in my testing. Every app has the occasional wonky moment, but Feedly's freezing issues occurr more frequently than I can tolerate. Hopefully an update will eliminate this problem in the near future. Digg, on the other hand, runs superbly on my mobile device; I experience very few hiccups.

The Finale
Feedly is a free and relatively simple to use mobile RSS reader, but Flipboard remains the PCMag Editors' Choice due to its superior performance, intuitive interface, and special features (such as the option to create shareable, curated magazines).  If you're looking for a more basic RSS reader that doesn't have an unusual amount of potentially distracting bells and whistles, you should check out Digg's app, too. Feedly's decent, but there are better options.

For more on RSS readers, check out Get Organized: Streamline Your News Feed and 10 Great Google Reader Replacements.

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Apple iTunes 11.3

Pros Sleek design. Largest catalog of music and video around. Internet radio with large selection of genres. Excellent Mini Player interface. iCloud integration. Improved podcast management. Extras for HD movies. Wi-Fi syncing for mobile devices. iPhone and iPad app organization tools.

Cons Large disk space requirements for a media player. Pushes purchases a bit too much. Device Authorization limit can be a problem for people with many devices. No all-you-can-eat music subscription service. Bottom Line Apple iTunes is still the mother of all media-player applications, with the biggest music and video store, Internet radio, and great podcast features.

By Michael Muchmore

Features just keep piling up for Apple's killer media-player software, iTunes (free). The latest update adds support for features of the upcoming iOS 8, but also throws a small bone to current iTunes users with Extras for HD Movies, which enhance your viewing pleasures of Hollywood's latest releases. The last few point versions of iTunes saw the addition of iTunes Radio, more podcasting features, and an improved Mini Player—just a few of the features that make iTunes a powerhouse for satisfying not only your ears, but also your eyes.

Installing iTunes 11.3
You can get iTunes for Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8 in addition to Macintosh OS X version 10.6.8 or later. I tested the new iTunes on Windows 7. It's a 108MB download for Windows, larger than any previous version, which have already been on the portly side. By comparison, Windows Media Player weighs in at just 12MB and MusicBee is just 15MB. The Mac installer for iTunes is even larger, at 224MB.

The installer requires a reboot and makes iTunes your default player for music files, but you can uncheck the box for this if you prefer an alternative like Windows Media Player or VLC.

On first run of the app, after agreeing to the updated license terms, tutorial videos explain new features. A privacy option asks if you'd like to share details of your music library and listening habits with Apple so iTunes can display album covers and even artist photos from concerts and studio sessions. This choice also enables iTunes' store recommendations, since poor old Apple really needs you to buy more and more content.

Interface
The interface is more trimmed down and muted than in previous versions of iTunes, if that's possible—and it looks great. Even the standard app menu is gone in the Windows version, replaced by a square icon in the extreme top left. (You can re-enable the menu if you like from that newfangled menu.) The AirPlay button is still there, so you can throw whatever you're playing to a home entertainment system attached to an Apple TV or one that supports AirPlay natively. You also get basic play/pause, fast-forward, and reverse controls, as well as a volume slider and a search box along the top of the program window.

Switching among Music, Movies, and TV Shows is instantly accomplished by using buttons at top left, which drops down choices for these media types. It may be unfamiliar to those used to the old iTunes sidebar, but once you get it, it's a snappier way to navigate the app. To get the Classical choice in the Music view, you have to go into the Preferences dialog's Views section, and tick the first option, Composers.

To switch between your library and the iTunes Store view you tap a button at top right. Next to the dropdown is a cloud icon for iCloud that's merely an indicator of whether iCloud is connected or actively downloading.

When you click on an album a panel the full width of the program window drops down, showing tracks, timings, album art, and play options (shuffle, repeat, and so on). You can also add album tracks to any playlist or to Up Next from here. In a slick design touch, the color of this panel is based on the album cover, so each will usually have a different shade. A button in this tinted area also lets you see related music available on the iTunes Store.

A key feature introduced in iTunes 11 is Up Next. Accessible from a bullet-list icon next to the top-center song information area, it shows you a list of songs on deck to be played. You can move or remove upcoming songs with the cursor.

A clock icon takes you in the other direction chronologically, showing the list of songs you've already listened to. A context menu next to song entries includes choices for Add to Up Next, as well as simply Play Next, and adding to playlists.

Mini Player
For times when you don't want iTunes taking up all or even a significant portion of your computer's screen, the application has long offered a Mini Player interface, accessible from the View menu. For several years the Mini Player remained unchanged as a bare-bones tool, offering nothing more than a play/pause button, volume slider, rewind/fast forward buttons, and a collapsible panel showing what's playing. Once your selected songs were finished playing, the Mini Player didn't give you any options for choosing more music—you had to open the larger window view.

The Mini Player is now even smaller, though it still doesn't shrink down to the minuscule size of WinAmp's mini-player sliver. But it does offer a lot more capabilities. It's also easier to access, as a top-level choice from the main menu. The play controls now only show up when you hover the cursor over the player, otherwise you simply see song info, including a tiny album cover. It has icons for search and the What's Next list, so you don't have to open the larger iTunes window to start playing something new. When you choose either of these, the tiny window drops down a box showing song art and titles.

The Mini player now offers album art and a progress bar, and you can click to get a CD-size view in a separate window. The Mini Player lets you drop down the playlist, and the album cover drops down right from the Mini player. If you move the cursor away, the art is all you see.

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Finovera (Beta)

Pros Free online app for bill management. Consolidates e-statements and bills into one place. Easy to use. Lets you upload additional household documents. Excellent, insightful features.

Cons Does not support travel-reward accounts. Bottom Line Finovera is a new site where you can create a free and secure account to keep an eye on your bills, collect your e-statements, watch your bank balance, and monitor other matters of personal finance. Though it's not meant for budgeting, the service it does provide is superbly useful.

By Jill Duffy

With the rather recent shuttering of the bill-management service Manilla, many people have been on the hunt for a new tool that automatically collects account statements and reminds them of upcoming bills. Finovera may very well be exactly what they've been hoping to find.

While technically in beta, Finovera is a solid and secure online tool (verified by Norton) that does pretty much everything Manilla did, and a little more. It connects to your service providers, credit card companies, and other online accounts to consolidate the information you need from them into one place. It reminds you of upcoming bills, houses all your e-statements, shows you how much you've been billed month-over-month against your average, and more. It even connects to your bank accounts and can alert you if the balance is too low to cover upcoming bills.

Finovera feels very polished, despite the fact that it's still in beta. I didn't encounter any major bugs in my testing. That said, users should still approach the app with some caution until the company (also called Finovera) signs off on the final release. Nevertheless, it's open and free to use by all right now.

Note that Finovera is not a budgeting and money-management app, the way Mint.com is. Mint gives you detailed insight into where and how you spend your money, showing line item expenses and income. Finovera is more about managing your bills and making sure you have enough money in your bank accounts before a bill is due.

The Finovera Experience
Getting a free account with Finovera is as simple as going to finovera.com and signing up with your name, email address, and ZIP code if you're in the U.S., and then creating a password. Once you're into the portal, you can start by adding accounts. Accounts include utility providers, such as PG&E and Con Edison, phone service providers, and financial accounts. For example, you can add credit cards, savings and checking accounts, investment accounts, insurance plans, and more. I found all my major banks, credit cards, and utility providers.

If Finovera doesn't support your account, or you have any non-electronic payments (such as paying a babysitter in cash), you can create an offline payment, with options for it to be recurring.

Finovera then automatically pulls the last 12 months' worth of statements from those accounts to consolidate them all into this one system. It's very similar to the digital filing cabinet system Doxo. Doxo has other filing-cabinet features, like the ability to upload other non-electronic documents from your household (medical forms, for instance, or the title or deed to your home). Finovera has those capabilities as well, with a whole section dedicated to documents you upload, which are kept separate from the bills and statements that port into Finovera automatically.

One type of account that Doxo supports but Finovera does not is travel. A Doxo account can connect to frequent flyer accounts and hotel rewards programs. Doxo also shows you the contact information for all the account providers to which you are connected, making it easy to visit a support website or make a call to a customer service center if you spot an issue with your bills or accounts. Finovera has a tab for each bill that lets you manually add contact information and notes (helpful if you're repeatedly calling the same customer service line), but it doesn't have contact details in its system by default.

As you start to examine your accounts, you'll notice that Finovera does an excellent job of showing you how each provider's monthly bill or balance compares with the average amount in that account. For example, you might see that your average ConEd bill is $70 per month. If it unexpectedly jumps to $76 two months in a row, that could be an early flag that you're being billed for something new. New charges put on your bill without your express knowledge are sometimes called gray charges. Another excellent personal finance app that specializes in dealing with that problem is BillGuard, which we here at PCMag recommend highly. You could certainly used BillGuard and Finovera in tandem.

Finovera offers bill-payment alerts, too, one of which I think is superb: It notifies you if your bank balance is insufficient to cover outstanding bills within a certain time frame (as shown in the image above).

Finovera Helps Manage Your Digital Payments
Finovera is for helping you manage your bills, including making sure you have enough money in your accounts to pay bills before they're due. Considering that it's a beta product, I am very impressed. I didn't encounter any bugs or design flaws in my time testing it, and it supports all the major accounts I use—except travel-related accounts. If you also want access to your travel rewards programs in the same service you use to consolidate all your bills, give Doxo a try. Otherwise Finovera is very good at what it does and is off to a strong, promising start. I'd recommend using it in conjunction with Mint, our Editors' Choice for personal finance, relying on Mint for budgeting and Finovera for managing your bills.

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Ground Labs Data Recon Standard Edition

For a 1-year subscription on a single PC. Pricing is on a per-machine basis. By Fahmida Y. Rashid

If thieves get their hands on your laptop, will they discover a gold mine of personal information or a barren workspace? Data Recon Standard Edition from GroundLabs ($179 per machine per year) is a lightweight scanning tool that looks for files containing credit card numbers and other potentially sensitive information stored on your computer. The software then helps you either move the data elsewhere or delete the files permanently. Considering that a significant percent of data breaches and exposures occur when an unauthorized user stumbles upon forgotten files on a laptop or file server, small businesses should definitely track down these potential landmines before an incident, and Data Recon is a good way to start.

Data Recon goes a little further than PANscan, another lightweight scanning tool that looks for sensitive pieces of information. Data Recon can handle a broader variety of data types. It is not, however, as robust as Editors' Choice Identity Finder's Data Discover, but it does share many of the award-winner's scanning and remediation capabilities.

There are enough differences between Data Recon Standard Edition ($179) and Advanced Edition ($399) that they need to be considered separately. This review focuses on Data Recon Standard Edition for one Windows target (which I explain below). Standard Edition allows scanning on Windows workstations and servers, and Linux machines. I get that Macs are a whole different beast, but with more people carrying sensitive data on their pricey Macbooks than ever, I wish Data Recon (and the marketplace in general) would stop ignoring this user segment.

Data Recon Standard Edition can search through text files, multiple encoding types, office documents, compressed (zip) files, local database files, emails stored in client software such as Outlook, and a few other formats.  If you want to scan, say, webmail or email servers, you need the Advanced Edition. Once sensitive data is found, Standard Edition allows you to mask data elements such as credit card numbers, quarantine the file in a secure location, or permanently delete the file. I like the fact that all the remediation features are the same, no matter which edition you choose.

Getting Started With the Software
Pricing varies by the number of systems the software will scan, and this could get expensive very quickly, especially for smaller businesses. The base Data Recon Standard Edition price of $179 provides a 1-year license to scan one target system. The license is tied to that target's MAC address or hostname. If you buy a new computer midway through the year, you need a new license. If you want to scan a laptop and a Windows file share where employees keep their data, that counts as two targets. You can't fool the software by mapping the file share as a drive on the computer, either.

To scan multiple systems, Data Recon offers licenses for 3, 10, 25, 50, 100, 175, and 250 targets. Cost per target drops progressively, so a 3-target license comes out to $119 per target, or $357 for the year; a 10-target license becomes $109 per target, or $1,090 a year; and so on, up to a 250-target license for $59 a target, or $14,750 a year. This is an important service, but it's definitely not cheap. You need to think carefully about where you need to run this software and plan out how many targets you will need. If you aren't sure whether you need the Standard or Advanced version, you can request a free trial license from the website.

The GroundLabs customer support portal lists links for a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Data Recon, and you can decide whether you want to work in a command line or a graphical user interface. I stuck with the GUI and popped in the hostname to generate the correct license. The entire software is a single executable—nothing to unpack or install—and you can see all the licenses associated with your account listed in one place. I love how lightweight the whole thing is.

Scanning Rules, Options
When you run the Windows executable, it opens up a simple window with six icons for data types, and six search settings. Clicking on each icon or option opens a modal window with various options. You make your selections, hit the Search bar at the bottom, and just wait for the scan to finish. Depending on your settings and the number of files selected, your scan can take anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours.

Under Card Holder Data, you can define credit card types (Mastercard, American Express, and so on) and issuing country. Under Bank Account Data, you customize the search with tax file numbers, bank account numbers, and the bank routing numbers. National ID contains options for searching for U.S. Social Security numbers, Canadian Social Insurance numbers, United Kingdom National Identity numbers, and other similar numbers from other countries.

Personal Detail is perhaps the most useful section. Here you select mailing address, telephone number, email address, driver's license number, date of birth, login credentials, and passport number. There is also a section to identify health plan information, such as the health insurance claim number and plan identifier.

The final icon opens up a rules engine to define custom data types, which means you can specify a specific string or phrase that you want to search on (for example, "confidential" if you want to make sure you don't have files marked confidential on your laptop). If you want to search for a specific Social Security number (as opposed to any nine-digit number), or an actual address, you can specify that under the custom data type section.

Next: Data Recon Reporting and Remediation

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Sling Media Slingbox M1

Pros Affordable. Smooth, sharp picture. Easy to set up. Integrated Wi-Fi.

Cons Mobile apps cost extra. Slingbox and connected HDTV can only watch one channel at a time between them. Lacks HDMI connectivity. Bottom Line If you want to watch live TV on your mobile devices, the Slingbox M1 is the most affordable place-shifting device yet, even if you need to pay extra for the apps.

By Will Greenwald Watching live television on your mobile devices should be a no-brainer feature by now, but it's still a limited and often complicated endeavor. You can stream live over-the-air TV with a tuner/DVR like the Tablo, or you can rely on the place-shifting services offered by various cable and satellite companies—which are often hamstrung by individual networks' content restrictions, with the exception of Dish Network and its Editors' Choice-winning Hopper with Sling).

Another option is to use a physical place-shifting device like Sling Media's Slingbox (which uses the same technology that powers the aforementioned Hopper with Sling). The Slingbox was one of the first place-shifting television devices, and its most recent iteration, the Slingbox M1, is the best so far. At $149.99 it's the least expensive Slingbox yet, and the addition of Wi-Fi makes it incredibly flexible to configure. It's a solid upgrade across the board from its predecessor, the Slingbox 350, and earns our Editors' Choice. Just keep in mind you'll still have to pay an extra $15 for each mobile app.

Design
The Slingbox M1 measures 1.7 by 7 by 4.3 inches (HWD) and weighs 13.9 ounces, making it the smallest Slingbox device so far. It eschews the blocky, textured design of the Slingbox 350 in favor of a more curved, glossy, Dish Networks-like look. It's a slightly rounded trapezoid with a glossy black front panel that holds power, network, and status indicator lights. The side panels are a smooth matte black, and the top panel is textured and vented, bearing the Slingbox logo. The back of the M1 holds component video inputs and outputs, an Ethernet port, a 3.5mm IR blaster port, the power port, a WPS button, and a pinhole Reset button.

Like most previous Slingboxes, the M1 requires a component video connection to get a picture. This isn't as advanced as HDMI and requires five jacks (often bundled into one or two cables) rather than one, but still supports 1080p video. HDMI signals are almost always encrypted through HDCP, preventing the picture from being split or shared. Component video is an analog connection, and doesn't have such a limitation. As long as your cable or satellite box has a component video output, this shouldn't be a problem and it won't even be noticeable after you first set it up. If you want an HDMI connection, you'll need to get the more expensive Slingbox 500 (now renamed as the SlingTV), which can handle HDMI and offers an on-screen menu system that will receive expanded content in August. It's twice the price of the M1, though.

Besides the lower price, the biggest change to the M1 over the Slingbox 350 is the addition of Wi-Fi, a feature the Slingbox 500 and SlingTV shares. It can connect to your home network with its dual-band Wi-Fi radio if an Ethernet cable is too inconvenient (which it easily can be, if your router isn't near your cable or satellite box). A wired connection will still provide the most consistent, high-quality stream, but the Wi-Fi option greatly expands the M1's flexibility of placement and setup.

Simple Set Up, Watching Live TV
Configuring Wi-Fi is almost as easy as just plugging the M1 into your router. You can directly connect by pressing the WPS button, or use the iOS, Android, PC, or Mac versions of SlingPlayer to input your network information. After that, all you need to do is register a free Slingbox account and you can access the Slingbox M1 through any Internet connection.

If you want to watch streamed live television on your PC or Mac, you're covered by the Slingbox M1 straight out of the box with the free SlingPlayer Desktop software. If you want to watch it on your mobile device, you'll need to spend a bit more. The iOS and Android versions of SlingPlayer are $14.99 each, which seems a bit high to add functionality that should come with the device itself. On the other hand, even the total cost of the M1 and the app is less than the Slingbox 350 on its own, and that required the paid app as well. Still, if you want to watch your cable or satellite service on your smartphone or tablet, mentally prepare yourself for at least a $165 purchase rather than just the $150 on the M1's price tag.

After a very fast setup, the M1 worked flawlessly. It streamed high-definition video over the Internet through Wi-Fi, letting me pick it up on both SlingPlayer on an iPad Air and SlingPlayer Desktop on my PC. Both programs offered a full program grid and emulated remote control commands to the connected Dish Network Hopper, thanks to the included infrared remote. The remote commands lagged a few seconds, and it often took another few seconds for the stream to catch up to any changes in quality settings, but that's normal for all place-shifting hardware.

I flipped between Good Eats on the Food Network, Aladdin and the Death Lamp on SyFy, and Star Trek: The Next Generation on BBC America, all of which came through in HD. The Slingbox M1 sends IR commands to the connected cable or satellite box as if they were remote commands, so whatever you watch over the Slingbox will be what's on the connected HDTV. If you just want to access your live television when you're away, this isn't a problem, but don't expect to be able to watch something different from whatever your family is tuned to while they're on the couch. Like with other Slingboxes, this can potentially make fighting over who has the remote an international incident.

Conclusion
The Slingbox M1 is the least expensive and most flexible Slingbox yet. It doesn't bother with an on-screen menu or any sort of HDTV content portal like the Slingbox 500 (now the SlingTV), but at $150 it doesn't need to. Even with the extra investment for the mobile SlingPlayer software, it's a bargain for getting your cable or satellite service anywhere you go without additional subscriptions or fees. The lower price and addition of Wi-Fi earn it our Editors' Choice.

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Acer P7505

Pros Bright, 5,000-lumen rating. 1,920-by-1,080 resolution. 2x zoom lens. Good sound and data-image quality.

Cons Usefulness for video is limited by rainbow artifacts and annoyingly obvious digital noise. Bottom Line The Acer P7505 projector delivers a bright image, good quality for data images, and the convenience of a 2x zoom lens.

By M. David Stone

Designed for applications that need to put a lot information on screen at once, the Acer P7505 projector ($1,999.99) offers a 1,920-by-1,080 resolution. That's suitable for, say, a complex engineering drawing with lots of fine detail, or four windows at once, with each one showing a little more detail than a single SVGA screen. Together with the 5,000-lumen brightness rating, it makes the P7505 of obvious interest to anyone who needs to show a lot of detail in an image that's big enough for a midsize to large room.

The P7505 has a lot in common with the BenQ MH680 and BenQ SH940, two other 1,920-by-1,080 projectors that are meant for business use. In particular, all three handle data images, but not video, well, and they all offer a step up in resolution from the 1,400-by-1,050 Editors' Choice Canon REALiS SX80 Mark II.

One other key feature the P7505 has in common with both BenQ models is that it's DLP-based. The Canon SX80 Mark II is built around an LCOS engine, which gives it better image quality despite the lower resolution. The Canon model also offers unusually capable color management, which makes it a particularly good choice for showing photos at top quality.

Whatever the advantages of the Canon SX80 Mark II, however, the P7505 delivers on the single most important issue for a high-resolution data projector by doing a good job with fine detail in data images. It also offers the highest brightness rating of these four models, potentially giving it the edge when producing large, bright images.

Basics
The P7505 measures 5.1 by 15.7 by 12.2 inches (HWD) and weighs a substantial 16 pounds 8 ounces. That makes it most appropriate for permanent installation, although you could mount it on a cart for room-to-room portability. One particularly welcome convenience for setup is the 2x zoom lens, which gives you substantial flexibility in how far you can put the projector from the screen for a given image size.

Aside from the level of zoom, setup is standard, with manual control for focus and zoom. As with most projectors meant for permanent installation, you'll find plenty of connection options for image inputs on the back panel, including three HDMI ports, two VGA ports for computers or component video, and both S-video and composite video ports.

There's also a LAN port, a mini USB Type B port for direct USB display and for controlling the mouse from the projector's remote, a component video input using three RCA connectors, and a USB Type A port for reading files directly from a USB memory key. In addition, you can store files in the 2GB internal memory for the projector to read directly.

Brightness
Talking about brightness for DLP projectors is a little complicated, because most models, including the P7505, offer different levels of color brightness and white brightness. That's important to know, because differences between the two can affect both color quality and the brightness of color images. (For more on color brightness, see Color Brightness: What It Is, Why It Matters.)

As a point of reference, using Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) recommendations, and assuming a 1.0-gain screen, 5,000 lumens would be appropriate in theater-dark lighting for roughly a 275- to 375-inch (diagonal) image at the P7505's native 16:9 aspect ratio. With moderate ambient light, it would be suitable for a 180-inch image.

Not surprisingly, the projector was more than bright enough to stand up to ambient light with the 90-inch-diagonal image I used for most of my tests. For smaller screen sizes and lower light levels, you can adjust the brightness by switching to Eco mode, one of the lower brightness preset modes, or both.

Image Quality
In my tests, the P7505 did a good, though not quite excellent, job with data images. On our standard suite of DisplayMate screens, red was a little dark in the brightest preset modes, which is typical for projectors with a difference between color and white brightness. In most modes, however, colors were generally well-saturated and eye-catching. The projector did an excellent job on color balance, with suitably neutral grays at all levels from black to white. It also scored unusually well for holding detail. Both white text on black and black text on white were crisp and readable at sizes as small as 6 points.

See How We Test Projectors

The one important problem I saw was with screens designed to bring out pixel jitter and moiré. In addition to noticeable dynamic moiré, I saw some black horizontal lines, which simply shouldn't be there. The good news is that you won't see this issue with the vast majority of data images you're likely to use. Also, you can avoid the problem by using an HDMI connection.

The P7505 scored far lower on video quality, with enough digital noise to be distracting and with flat color typical of a low-contrast ratio. I also saw a few too many rainbow artifacts (flashes of red, green, and blue) for comfortable viewing. As with most DLP projectors, they show rarely enough with data images that it's unlikely that anyone will be bothered by them. With video, however, anyone who sees these artifacts easily is likely to find them annoying.

One final plus for the P7505 is its audio system. The two 3-watt speakers don't provide any noticeable stereo effect, but they deliver good sound quality and are loud enough to fill a small to midsize room. For more of a stereo effect, more volume, or better quality, you can also connect an external sound system to the audio output.

If you need 1,920-by-1,080 resolution, and don't need the P7505's promised level of brightness, you'll likely be better off with the BenQ SH940 or BenQ MH680, which both offer the same resolution with lower brightness ratings. If you need a projector that can handle video well in addition to data images, and particularly if you need one that will let you precisely adjust color, the Editors' Choice Canon REALiS SX80 Mark II will definitely be a better fit. If you simply need to show detailed data images at large enough size for a midsize to large conference room or classroom, however, the Acer P7505 is a more than reasonable choice.

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Seagate Backup Plus Slim (2TB)

Pros Pocket-size drive. Good per-gigabyte price. Backs up your mobile devices and social media. Available in four colors

Cons Short two-year warranty. Lacks Universal Storage Module (USM) interface. Bottom Line True to its name, the Seagate Backup Plus Slim hard drive is thin and spacious. It can back up all the files on your laptop, as well as media from your phone and social networking accounts.

By Joel Santo Domingo

The Seagate Backup Plus Slim (2TB) ($129.99) is a compact repository for just about everything you need to save, like photos, term papers, and videos. This hard drive offers a generous amount of space in a chassis that's compact enough to slip into your pocket, and its proprietary Dashboard software also lets you save your media from your social networks and phone to the drive. While it's not as fast as the Seagate Backup Plus Fast, our Editors' Choice for portable external drives, and has only half that drive's 4TB capacity, the Backup Plus Slim's features and sleeker form factor still make it a great choice.

Design and Features
Our review unit has a red painted aluminum top panel, but you can also get it in blue, black, or silver. This drive can easily slip into a front pants pocket and is barely noticeable in a commuter bag. It's compact, measuring about 0.5 by 4.5 by 3 inches (HWD) and weighing 6 ounces. That's almost identical to the Toshiba Canvio Slim II (1TB) and much slimmer than the Seagate Backup Plus Fast. It's also slimmer and smaller than the former Editors' Choice Seagate Backup Plus, since the new drive doesn't need to support the Universal Storage Module (USM) interface. The USM interface gave the older drive more flexibility and support for additional interfaces, like FireWire and Thunderbolt, but it made for a thicker and longer chassis.

Most new laptops and desktop PCs have at least one USB 3.0 port, eSATA and FireWire are fading legacy ports, and Thunderbolt only appears on Macs and some workstation-class Windows systems. Thus, the drive supports USB 3.0 via a detachable 18-inch cable.

You can use the NTFS-formatted drive right away as a drag-and-drop backup drive, or reformat it to HFS+ and use it with Time Machine on a Mac. Seagate includes an installer for its Dashboard program, which can back up all your document files on a Windows PC. It doesn't back up program and operating system files, so business users may need a more specialized software package for full Windows system backup, like Acronis TrueImage.

On your Mac or Windows PC, the Dashboard program has added functionality for your social networks and phone. Once you install a free app on your Android or Apple phone, you'll be able to set up automatic backups to your drive over Wi-Fi or the cloud. Just make sure your computer is on with the drive mounted, and photos and videos will automatically backup to the drive. Dashboard can also check your Facebook and Flickr accounts for new photos and download those too if you wish. The Seagate Backup Plus Fast also comes with this program, but a software-free hard drive like the G-Technology G-Drive Mobile USB 3.0 (1TB) doesn't include this functionality. The Backup Plus Slim comes with a two-year warranty, which is a year shorter than other drives in this price range.

Pricing is competitive: At its $129.99 list price and 2TB capacity, the Backup Plus Slim costs about 6 cents per gigabyte. This compares well with the Seagate Backup Plus Fast (6.7 cents per gigabyte) and is significantly better than the G-Drive (11 cents per gigabyte).

Performance
The Backup Plus Slim is competitive with other pocket-size drives, thanks to its generous space and USB 3.0 interface. It copied our standard 1.2GB test folder in 15 seconds. That's faster than the Toshiba Canvio Slim II, but a bit slower than the G-Technology G-Drive (10 seconds), which has a faster, 7,200rpm mechanism. The drive's score of 1,595 points on the PCMark 7 disk test was better than the Toshiba drive (1,488). On the Blackmagic disk test, the drive returned respectable 114Mbps read and 112Mbps write speeds, which is again a bit slower than the G-Drive. The drive is perfectly suited to backup and file-copy duties for most general users.

Highly portable and feature-filled, the Seagate Backup Plus Slim (2TB) is a solid choice if you're looking to back up your digital life. The Seagate Backup Plus Fast is still our top pick, however, by virtue of its higher capacity and speed for power users, but the Backup Plus Slim will work just fine for most everyone else.

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Brother P-touch Edge PT-E550W

Depending on your point of view, the Brother P-touch Edge PT-E550W ($349.95) label printer is either very different from, or surprisingly similar to, models like the Editors' Choice Brother P-touch PT-H500LI. The key difference is that the PT-E550W is an industrial printer, designed for installers who regularly need to label lots of connection panels and cables. Beyond that, however, it has plenty of features that would be useful in any label printer. So while its special-purpose features will lead you to choose this industrial-strength label printer, once you have it, you can use it for general-purpose labeling as well.

Among the features the PT-E550W shares with the Brother PT-H500LI is that it primarily prints laminated plastic labels. Both models can also work as either completely self-contained units or print from a PC over a USB connection. The PT-E550W adds the ability to connect by Wi-Fi—to either an access point on a network or directly to an individual device—to print from a computer or from an Android or iOS tablet or smartphone.

The PT-E550W is longer than it is wide, at 3.7 by 5.0 by 9.8 inches (HWD). The top surface includes a 3.4-inch monochrome LCD near the back of the unit, plus an assortment of buttons, including a QWERTY keyboard, near the front.

Although the design is essentially the same as for true handheld label printers—like the Dymo LabelManager 420P for example—the printer is just large enough that it won't fit comfortably in one hand while you use the other to enter text and commands. You can hold it in two hands and rely on your thumbs to make entries. However, it weighs about 2 pounds 5 ounces, even without batteries, which makes it too heavy to use that way for very long. It's much easier to work with if it's sitting on a desk or other surface.

Basics and Setup
Setting up the printer is easy. Just snap in the tape cartridge and the lithium-ion battery that come with it and connect the power cord. You can then wait for the battery to charge. Alternatively, you can just connect the power cord to use AC power or substitute six AA batteries for the rechargeable battery.

The special-purpose design shows most obviously in a set of buttons for what Brother calls labeling applications. Each one is basically a predefined template that you can adjust as needed. The Cable Wrap application, for example, prints the text across the width of the tape so you can wrap the tape around a cable, with one end of the tape overlapping the other, and read the text along the direction of the length of the cable. You can specify the text, the diameter of the cable, and whether to print the text only once or repeatedly, which lets you read it from any angle, 360 degrees around the cable.

An alternative for cables is the Cable Flag application, which lets you print the text so you can wrap the center portion of the tape around the cable, then paste the tape together to stick out like a little flag, with the text on the flag. Still other application types include three for labeling different types of flat panels—Faceplate, Patch Panel, and Punch Block—plus General, for everything else.

Among the more general-purpose, built-in features are the ability to print barcodes and an option to serialize, which lets you print a set of labels with automatically incrementing serial numbers or the equivalent. You can also save labels you've created to the 6MB internal memory to reuse them later, and can download a database file from your PC or mobile device, save it to memory, and then print labels by merging a master label with the data in the database.

Keep in mind, too, that Brother P-touch Editor v5.1, which comes with the printer, is one of the more sophisticated programs available for printing all kinds of labels from your PC. It even includes its own cable labeling wizard, with all the same label application choices that the printer itself offers.

Tapes
The PT-E550W prints primarily on laminated plastic labels. Brother offers roughly 70 choices of tape cartridges, with various combinations of types, widths, and colors, at prices ranging from $13.99 to $29.99 each.

The choices in tape types include standard laminated labels; flexible labels, which are recommended for cables; labels with extra-strength adhesive for uneven surfaces or harsh environments; non-laminated iron-on fabric labels; labels with acid-free adhesive; and security labels, which show a checkerboard pattern of missing color if you try to remove them.

Also of particular interest for labeling cables are heat-shrink tube labels. As the name implies, these come out of the printer in the form of tubes that you slip onto a cable and then shrink to fit the cable tightly, using an industrial heat gun or a high-wattage hair dryer with a sufficiently high level of heat.

Color combinations vary with the type of label, but include black or white on an assortment of background colors, plus red on white, gold on black, gold on satin silver, and blue on white. Tape widths range from 0.13 inches to 0.94 inches.

Creating and Printing Labels
Creating and printing labels with the PT-E550W is pretty much the same as with other Brother label printers. Both the built-in features and the PC-based program are easy to get started with and capable enough to handle just about any kind of label you need. I found the Android app hard to get started with, but once I learned how to use it, printing with it was easy.

See How We Test Printers

To print with the built-in features, for example, you can simply set the options you want, enter the text, and hit the print button. Among the more welcome touches is the automatic cutter, with the option to half-cut between labels. If you choose it, the printer will cut the label itself without cutting the carrier material. That lets you print multiple labels and leave them all on a single strip. You can then peel each label off the strip as you need it, one label at a time.

You can also upload custom label files to the printer from a PC or other device. You can even upload a database, create a label definition that will print a separate label for each record in the database, and then print multiple labels with a single command.

I didn't run our usual label printer speed test, because the time for printing a single line of text isn't meaningful for the kind of printing the PT-E550W is meant for. Instead, I timed a Cable Wrap label, using the default settings and the text "PC Labs," at 7.6 seconds. A set of 10 identical labels, with half-cuts between them, took 45 seconds.

If you don't need to label a lot of cables and connection panels on a regular basis, you can spend a lot less by getting a general-purpose label printer like the Editors' Choice Brother P-touch PT-H500LI. But if you're in the business of installing, say, wired networks, in-house telephone lines and switches, or anything else with cables and panels you need labeled neatly and correctly, the Brother P-touch Edge PT-E550W may be exactly the printer you need, in which case, it's well worth the price.

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Microsoft Yammer

Free for basic account; $3 per user per month for Enterprise Network account; $8 per user per month for Office 365 Enterprise E1; $20 per user per month for Office 365 Enterprise 3By Jill Duffy Microsoft's Yammer is an online but private business social network meant to foster communication among employees. Because of its freemium model—with a decent array of features included in a free account—Yammer is appealing to businesses just starting to experiment with giving employees alternatives to email for talking and getting work done.

Yammer's greatest strength is that it's easy to use. Many online business platforms compare themselves to Facebook in ease of use, but Yammer is rare in that it actually delivers on that promise. Yammer is so simple to use in part because it doesn't have much in the way of tools and features for workplace management, project management, scheduling, time-tracking, workflow monitoring, or other common business processes. You can get those kinds of tools and services courtesy of Microsoft with Yammer included in the package (see the Price section for more on that), but Yammer itself is really just a business social network.

If your organization needs nothing more than a place for employees to talk to one another, with a few extra features such as a chat box and polls thrown in for good measure, Yammer is a very good choice. But if you're looking for a tool with the potential to change the way day-to-day work gets done—in addition to serving as a private social network—then I recommend Editors' Choice Podio. Podio has everything Yammer has, plus a suite of apps that specifically support workflows and work management.

Price
As I mentioned, Yammer offers a free account that includes all the basic features, as well as the ability to assign a group administrator. The next tier up, called Enterprise Network, costs $3 per user per month. It lets you add an enterprise administrator who can add custom usage policies, change the basic configuration of Yammer's features and security levels, authorize and manage applications connected to Yammer, make network-wide announcements, and control a few other high-level matters. This tier also gets advanced controls, enterprise integrations, and support.

There are two more options, but to be honest, they sound like pitches for other products and services offered by Microsoft with Yammer thrown in as a perk, rather than the other way around. They are Office 365 Enterprise E1 ($8 per user per month) and Office 365 Enterprise 3 ($20 per user per month). For complete details of what's included in each of the offerings, see Yammer's Pricing page.

Yammer's Design and Basic Features
Yammer really is one of the simplest online business platforms to navigate. After signing up your organization or team and creating an account, you can fill out a profile with as much or as little information as you want. From there, you'll want to explore your network. 

Navigation in Yammer is highly streamlined. There are a buttons for home, inbox, and alerts. That's it. You'll find secondary navigation bars on some other pages, but Yammer has really mastered UI simplicity.

Your home page has a stream of content, including status updates and comments on them from around your network. By default, they appear in reverse chronological order with a time and date stamp on each post and comment. You can filter this main feed by top posts, posts by everyone, or posts from people or about topics you're following.

Users can establish groups, which are exactly what they sound like: custom groups of Yammer users, typically used to cluster departments or teams that need to regularly communicate with one another. The person who creates the group becomes the admin (in the free version of Yammer at least; more administrator controls and permission levels are available in the paid version). In business social networks, I'd actually like to see more automated group suggestions, such as everyone who has identified as belonging to the Editorial team, or all New York-based employees, as indicated in their profile, with the option to automatically add everyone who qualifies.

Speaking of profiles, Yammer profiles aren't flashy (there's no big banner image to customize, thank goodness), but they do have a thorough list of fields that encourage users to share relevant information: phone number or extension, current location, interests and skills, various online handles and accounts (LinkedIn, Twitter, Skype, instant messaging app of choice), and more. You can add past information about yourself, such as degrees earned and other places of employment, but it's not mandatory.

All your profile information is consolidated into a downloadable vcard. Vcards are compatible with a many address books and contacts apps, so it's simple to bring someone's contact information with you to other services or sites you use. It's a great feature.

Apples and Oranges
Yammer does have features and functions that let you upload images, attach files, and get other work done, but it really is tightly focused on being a communication platform. Here at PCMag, our news team has used it for a few years to keep track of stories that reporters are covering and their current statuses, which can change by the minute. For that kind of quick-paced communication, Yammer works well.

But it wouldn't work well for other kinds of work. If the news reporters needed a time-tracking tool to record how many hours or minutes they spent writing each story, Yammer wouldn't be a good fit. And it might not be ideal, either, for more nuanced work requiring detailed scheduling, or an in-depth discussion of art and design projects that you might want to annotate directly. You can find a lot of those kinds of tools in other business platforms that are specialized to those ends. For example, Asana is an online tool that focuses mostly on workflow and task-assignment. And LiquidPlanner is another online service that best serves teams with complex scheduling issues related to project management. Yammer doesn't have anything like that.

Podio, on the other hand, does. It's similar to Yammer at the start, but goes far beyond it, with other apps (think widgets, really) you can add on to expand the platform to meet your team's specific needs. This modular approach makes it a brilliant tool that can do whatever you need, without pushing extra tools, features, and apps that you don't need.

One Toe in the Water
Microsoft Yammer is a good business social network that any organization can try out for free. It isn't a complete workplace platform for managing projects, scheduling tasks, or even tracking workflow (though if an enterprise-level corporation pays for some other Microsoft services, Yammer can certainly integrate with those kinds of tools). It's easier to navigate and learn to use than a similar competitor called Jive, but not nearly as comprehensive as Podio, our Editors' Choice. For dipping a toe in the business-social-network water, Yammer is a fine option, but Podio is better if you're committed to implementing a platform with real potential to change how employees communicate and collaborate. 

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Sanyo DP65E34

Pros Big, bright panel. Inexpensive for its size.

Cons Mediocre picture quality. No connected features. Bottom Line The Sanyo DP65E34 lets you have a 65-inch HDTV for under a grand, but you can get so much more in a smaller screen.

By Will Greenwald It's obvious that HDTVs get more expensive as they get larger, but it's not a linear progression. Prices curve upward once you pass the 60-inch mark, and 70-, 80-, and 90-inch HDTVs can easily cost twice as much as the next smallest version. Sanyo's DP65E34 is a 65-inch LED HDTV available for $998. That seems like an excellent deal, but to get down to that price, it ends up with few features and mediocre picture quality. For the same amount of money, you could get the excellent 55-inch Vizio M551D-A2R, and for half as much you could get the solid 50-inch Sanyo FVF5044, which includes a Roku Streaming Stick in the box. The DP65E34 certainly isn't a bad HDTV, but you could get much more if you can settle for less screen. After all, 55 inches isn't anything to sneeze at, and unless your couch is far, far away, a screen bigger than that shouldn't be a priority over picture quality.

Design
The DP65E34 looks nondescript aside from its size. It's surrounded on all sides by a flat, glossy black plastic bezel with no decorations or accents besides a small, raised curve on the bottom bearing a silver-colored Sanyo logo, and a pair of tiny squares on the bottom-left corner holding the power light and remote sensor. The entire screen sits on a very solid, rectangular black glass base that holds the display up with little wobble, but doesn't let it pivot.

A row of buttons along the right edge of the back of the display hold basic Volume Up/Down, Channel Up/Down, Menu, Input, and Power controls. Two HDMI ports, a USB port, and an antenna/cable connection sits facing left on the back of the panel, with the remaining HDMI port, component and VGA video inputs, and optical and 3.5mm audio outputs facing downward.

The included remote is identical to the one that comes with the Sanyo FVF5044. It's a simple black wand with flat rubber buttons that aren't backlit. It sports all of the standard HDTV controls, including a number pad, playback buttons, volume and channel rockers, and a large, round navigation pad that can be found easily under the thumb. If you connect a Roku Streaming Stick to the HDTV, the remote can control it as well as the screen's own settings.

The DP65E34 is a very simple, bare-bones HDTV with no online connectivity or extra features. It's Roku Ready, which means one of its HDMI ports is MHL-equipped and can work with the MHL version of the Roku Streaming Stick (the version that comes included with the Sanyo FVF5044). This is a perfectly serviceable way to get online services on the HDTV, but the HDMI version of the Roku Streaming Stick is available for only $50, has all of the same features, and doesn't require MHL (meaning you can use it on other displays if you wish).

Performance
We test HDTVs using a Klein K-10A colorimeter, SpectraCal's CalMAN 5 software, and DisplayMate test patterns. After a basic darkroom calibration, we found that the best settings for testing were Brightness at 53, Contrast at 55, and Color Temperature set to Warm. At these settings, the DP65E34 showed a black level of 0.05 cd/m2 and a peak brightness of 330.86 cd/m2 for a contrast ratio of 6,617:1. This is a strong showing for a budget HDTV, but it isn't quite as impressive as the FVF5044's 0.03 cd/m2 black level and 10,982:1 contrast ratio.

See How We Test HDTVs

Color accuracy was much less impressive. The chart below shows ideal CIE color levels as boxes and measured color levels as dots. Red, green, and blue all appeared oversaturated and slightly skewed, which is unsurprising for a budget HDTV. However, the white color accuracy was very cool even at the warmest color temperature setting, which is a bigger problem.

Despite the solid contrast of the DP65E34, dark scenes like the alley fight in The Amazing Spider-Man on Blu-ray suffer from poor shadow detail. The scene has a great deal of high contrast between the bright lights scattered through the alley and the shadow-obscured characters, but those shadows swallowed nearly every detail on their dark clothes, making the scene seem like a fight between silhouettes.

The Big Lebowski, a much brighter movie, looked better on the DP65E34. Highlights and bright colors both looked crisp and vibrant, but the whites of the bowling pins looked nearly blue. Fortunately, the various flesh tones of the actors didn't seem thrown off, even if Steve Buscemi's usually sickly pallor looked slightly pinker than it should.

We measure input lag with a Leo Bodnar Lag Tester. Input lag is the amount of time it takes for the HDTV to update its picture to match the video input, and is very important for video games. The DP65E34 lagged 56 milliseconds, which is about what can be expected with an HDTV in this price range. This doesn't mean HDTVs are bad for gaming, of course; generally, input lag of under 80 seconds is still fast enough to excel with the most timing-intensive character action games. It's a measure of degrees among extreme enthusiasts and competitive players.

Under normal viewing conditions, the DP65E34 consumes 106 watts under the calibrated settings above, and 91 watts in Power Saving mode, which dims the picture slightly. This is fairly energy efficient for such a large HDTV. The 60-inch Sony KDL-60W850B barely sips power at 60 watts, but it's an exceptional example. On the other end of the spectrum, the LG 65LA9700 uses 173 watts in Eco mode and a whopping 250 watts in standard mode. 

Conclusion
The Sanyo DP65E34 is a big-screen HDTV with a reasonable price tag, but it clearly compromises on performance and features to edge below $1,000. Unless you really, really need a 65-inch screen, you can get much better performance and functionality by dipping down to a 60- or 55-inch HDTV, both of which are still large, very respectable sizes. You can find the Editors' Choice Vizio M551D-A2R for around the same amount as the DP65E34 or slightly more, and that packs excellent performance, lots of connected features, and 3D support into its smaller size. The Samsung UN55H6350AF can also be found for around $1,000, and has plenty of connected features and a much more stylish design.

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Kim Kardashian Hollywood (for Android)

Pros Stylish art. Surprisingly clever writing. Addictive and fun.

Cons In-app purchases. Shallow gameplay. Buggy social connectivity. Bottom Line Kim Kardashian Hollywood is shallow, addictive fun, just like everything about actual Hollywood.

By Whitney Reynolds

Kim Kardashian Hollywood (free) is an Android game (also available for iPhone) about playing dress-up, making a lot of money, and crushing your rivals in California—so basically, it's exactly like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Alternately, it's a shallow cash-grab and a sign of everything that's wrong with our society, a harbinger of the end of real gaming. Or maybe it's just some dumb fun to break up your work day.

The KKH Experience
Right from the start it's obvious that Kim Kardashian Hollywood is about The Look—the first task in the game is to decide how your avatar will look, with options to customize hair, eye, and skin tones, hairstyle, and a selection of basic outfit options. Don't worry, though, because you'll be slim and gorgeous no matter what. Kim K. knows her audience. The female avatar options are glamorous, and the male avatars are, frankly, a little goofy looking.

Once you're looking so good, your Hollywood fantasy begins, putting you as a worker in a downtown L.A. fashion boutique. But wait! Who is that who just walked in? It's famous celebrity Kim Kardashian, and she needs an outfit! And once you've hooked her up, she notes that you've got style and flash yourself, and maybe she can hook you up. Because sweetheart, you deserve to be famous. Bible.

Whether Kim is setting you up on a date or finding you your next modeling gig, the gameplay is the same. You tap various actions on screen, like Check Makeup or Flirt, that take varying amounts of energy but pay off in money, experience, and professional stars or romantic hearts to complete the event. Eventually your energy—the capacity of which goes up as you gain levels—runs out, and then the great genius horror of modern mobile gaming sets in: You have to wait.

Ka-Ching!
It takes five minutes to regain one point of energy. Awful, right? Well, if you're really impatient, you can buy more energy with stars. Oh, how do you get stars? Well, you can get one or two every time you gain a level, and occasionally after completing events, or, of course, you can just pay for them with real actual human dollars. Come on, you knew getting famous isn't free.

It is possible to play Kim Kardashian Hollywood without spending a dime, but the temptation to shell out for more stars is hard to resist. Want to adopt that cute kitty outside your apartment? Well, that kitty demands 20 stars. Want the most stylish clothing and hair? Those are going to be a lot of stars. One particularly snazzy dress costs 120 stars, and 105 stars will set you back $9.99. Want to make your social interactions go more smoothly? Want to chat up A-listers more quickly? Oh yeah. Stars.

Even if you have saintly patience or tight purse strings (the nice purses cost stars, by the way), the game goes on.

The, Ahem, "Plot"
There is a story to your climb up the Hollywood ladder. You have a manager who is baffled by technology, a publicist with anger issues, and a socialite rival who tweets about how your rise to fame is obviously a conspiracy (#Illuminati #Obamacare). The random people you can meet to network or flirt with also have things to say, frequently with oddly nerdy, sci-fi references. I think some clever nerd(s) were behind the writing in Kim Kardashian Hollywood, and I salute their efforts, because giggling at my clueless manager saying, "I'm DTF with that," is part of what keeps me playing.

Those randos that you can network and flirt with can add to your fame. Call in a makeup artist for your photo shoot, and you can get a few extra points and actions with him. Go on a date with someone—male or female, Kim K. puts no limits on the sexuality spectrum!—and that'll make you a hotter property. The game offers the option to connect to your Google+ and Facebook accounts so you can brown-nose with your friends instead of imaginary in-game people for some mutual fame-fluffing, but I was never able to make this feature work. It's lonely in Hollywood sometimes.

Living the High Life
What's the end-game? Having it all, of course. After about a week of playing Kim Kardashian Hollywood on Android (and an expenditure of $9 of real American money), I have a great haircut and am at the top of the A-list. However, there are still beach houses for me to buy and furnish, and more of the storyline to unfold. I know the imaginary SUV I can park in the garage of my imaginary condo means nothing, and I know the storyline is just going to be me waiting for three-hour stints here and there to tap on things at a photo shoot or to see what the imaginary Twitter reaction is to my imaginary photo shoot. But, who cares? I'm having fun. I get to put on fancy clothes and hiss, "Don't you know who I am?" at a C-list dentist. Sometimes Kim Kardashian calls me. It's a great way to break up the work day.

And if you find yourself mortally offended by the existence of Kim Kardashian Hollywood, guess what: You never have to play it.

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PayPal (for Android)

PayPal has long been a wonderful payment service, acting as an intermediary between your bank or credit card information and merchants, and anyone who uses it will want to download the PayPal app (free). The app lets you manage your account, send money on the fly, request funds, and even pay with your PayPal account in stores—although that's the app's least exciting feature because of a lack of retailers that participate.

Shopping disappointment aside, PayPal offers a clean and user-friendly app that gives you all the access you could reasonably want into your PayPal account from anywhere you have an Internet connection. It is an indispensable app for PayPal users, even if you don't end up using one of its primary features.

PayPal Mobile Features
In the past year, I've started using PayPal more and more to quickly send money to friends and pay for goods online. More than a few times, I've found myself walking along and suddenly remember that I was supposed to pay back a friend or send money to one of my family members for a shared expense. Rather than make a note of it, the PayPal app lets me just take care of business on the spot.

A collapsible left menu gives you access to the major areas of the app: Shop, Activity, Send and Request, Wallet, and Settings. One thing that's missing in this latest version of the app is the Scan a Check function. Formerly, you could add money to your PayPal account by scanning a check, but that's now gone. If you used that feature in prior versions, you will be sorely disappointed that it's now off the table.

Shop. PayPal, owned by eBay, wants you to shop. Unfortunately, the number and variety of merchants who accept PayPal in their stores is limited. A partnership with Eat24 brought a new batch of restaurants and cafes to the list of merchants in my area that accept PayPal, but that network comprises what I would consider third-tier businesses—all the best eateries accepting mobile payments have already signed up with Seamless, Grubhub, Square, or LevelUp (and occasionally more than one of those).

For in-store purchases, PayPal works very much like Square. When you're ready to check out, you unlock the PayPal app. The merchant can see on her end any PayPal customers who are within the vicinity by name and photo (assuming you've uploaded one). You can select which account to use when you pay, or just stick to your default account. The merchant will then likely confirm you are the person she sees on her app, complete the transaction, and that's pretty much it.

With some restaurants, you can place your order right from the PayPal app, similar to using Seamless or Grubhub.

I find the shopping aspect of the app the weakest because of the dearth of merchants. It's a shame, really, because PayPal has done some innovative work in regards to mobile payments and building infrastructure to support them. But until more merchants—and specifically more big-name retailers—adopt the service, the advancements aren't as applicable as they could be in the real world.

Activity. You can see all your latest transactions from the Activity section. This area is nothing more than a list of transactions with the name, amount, and short description (such as "sent payment" or "transfer"). It's very straightforward. Tap on any line item, and additional details—status, transaction ID, etc.—appear.

Send and Request. Sending payments is extremely simple. When you tap on the Send and Request section, a page appears that lets you fill out the email address or mobile phone number of the recipient, alongside the amount you want to send them. There's an optional message you can add, too. It's exactly the same as using PayPal online. You'll also have to select whether the money is for friends and family, or goods or services so PayPal can charge the appropriate fee if applicable.

Instead of a "pay now" button, the next step is to hit "Review." It's subtle language, but I like that the app is clear that you'll have a chance to make corrections before you complete the transaction.

If you'd rather get money than give it, there's an option at the top of the screen to "Request" funds. You then fill out a short form that's similar to the one described above.

Wallet. In the app, you can see entries for all the bank accounts and credit card accounts that are tied to your PayPal account, and you can change which one you're using for any transaction. You can't see the details, such as the account numbers, though (more on that in the security section).

From the Wallet section, you can also add a new payment: debit card, credit card, bank account, "bill me later" option, or loyalty card.

Security
PayPal, as a service, is a layer of security in itself. It acts as an intermediary so that businesses never get their hands on your credit card or banking information. And the app takes security seriously, too.

None of your banking details are visible in the PayPal app. The app also locks you out immediately if you switch to another app even for a second. You can add a PIN, but more importantly, PayPal prompts you to enter that PIN (or your password) any time you're about move or use your money—not just to unlock the app. Additionally, the app suggests you should add a photo of yourself that looks like you and shows you face clearly so that merchants can visually identify you if you ever do use the in-store purchasing features.

For PayPal Users
If you are a PayPal user, you will absolutely want the PayPal Android app on your phone. It has a clear and useful interface for managing payments, viewing your transaction history, sending money on the spot, and requesting funds. If you have used the "scan a check" feature in the past, you'll probably be disappointed that it has been removed from the latest version of the app. And whether you'll get much use out of the shopping aspect may depend on how many (and which) merchants in your area support PayPal. For in-store shopping, be sure to explore Square and LevelUp. They have more interesting list of businesses. Use PayPal for everything else it offers, though.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 7.0

Pros Smooth performance. Runs Android 4.4. Compact and lightweight.

Cons Anemic speaker and cameras. Mediocre battery life. Bottom Line The Galaxy Tab 4 7.0 will appeal to longtime Samsung fans, but it doesn't do enough to justify the premium over similarly equipped competitors.

By Eugene Kim

This year's update to Samsung's mainstream tablet line, the Galaxy Tab 4, continues the company's tradition of tablets that get the job done, but offer little in the way of innovation or even meaningful upgrades. The Tab 4 7.0 is the smallest of the bunch, but at $199.99 (8GB), it offers little advantage over very similar, much cheaper options like the Asus MeMO Pad 7 or the Hisense Sero 7 Pro, while spending just $30 more gets you a superior Google Nexus 7. What you get with the 7-inch model, and with every other Galaxy Tab, is a consistent experience that won't excite, but likely won't disappoint for most uses. It's worth a look for those heavily entrenched in Samsung's world of media and services, but everyone else should look elsewhere.

The Galaxy Tab 4 7.0 is essentially a shrunken down version of the Galaxy Tab 4 8.0, so head over to that review for a full rundown on performance and features. With the same processor and display resolution, the two tablets perform nearly identically, but we did test the two separately. For this review, I'll focus on the differences and relevant competition.

Design and Features
With phones eclipsing the 6-inch mark, the Galaxy Tab 4 7.0 is starting to feel quite petite. At 7.36 by 4.25 by 0.35 inches (HWD) and just 9.74 ounces, it's more compact than the Asus MeMO Pad 7 (7.4 by 4.4 by 0.37 inches). Between the two, I personally prefer the MeMO Pad's soft-touch finish to the Galaxy Tab's faux-leather, somewhat slick plastic back. The 3.5mm jack and micro USB port are on the top and bottom edges, respectively, while the Volume and Power buttons, IR emitter, and microSD card slot are all along the right edge.

In our battery rundown test, which loops a video with screen brightness set to max and Wi-Fi on, the Tab 4 7.0's 4,000mAh battery was good for 5 hours, 23 minutes. That's fairly disappointing considering the specs and the MeMO Pad's 6 hours, 49 minutes. 

Samsung only makes an 8GB model, and our test unit came with 4.72GB available out of the box. That's not a lot for some larger apps, but our 64GB microSD card worked fine for media.

Competition and Conclusions
There's a ton of competition in the 7-inch realm, but even two years after its release (and one year after the latest incarnation), the Google Nexus 7 continues to trump new options that simply can't match its blend of performance, features, and price. Samsung's unimaginative update does little to gain any ground on the Nexus 7. Still, for those already wed to Samsung's services or content, the Galaxy Tab 4 7.0 is a completely capable device. It delivers a familiar TouchWiz experience that I can see appealing to less adventurous Android users who want something consistent. If you want to save $50, the Asus MeMO Pad 7 also delivers a capable and modern Android experience that rivals Samsung's fit and finish.

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Panasonic Toughpad 4K Performance (UT-MA6)

Pros Impressive 20-inch, 4K display. Lightweight, ruggedized design looks great.

Cons Expensive. Extremely unwieldy. Most uses require pricey optional accessories. Short battery life. Limited appeal, even for a niche product. Bottom Line The Panasonic Toughpad 4K Performance (UT-MA6) is a giant, rugged Windows tablet with a stunning 20-inch 4K display. While it's technically impressive and beautifully designed, this slate has very limited use, and a high price that's tough to justify.

By Brian Westover

When Panasonic first showed off the Toughpad 4K at CES, we were gobsmacked. Incredible 4K resolution on a huge screen! A portable tablet design! It was exciting because the Panasonic Toughpad 4K was unlike anything else we had seen: a large-screen tablet, with rugged business utility built in. Fast forward to today, and we find ourselves a bit stymied for many of the same reasons. The Panasonic Toughpad 4K Performance (UT-MA6) ($6,999 as tested) is ostensibly made for professionals, but it's an odd product that doesn't fit neatly into any one product category.

In one sense, the Toughpad is a business tablet, a giant 20-inch tablet with a gorgeous 4K-resolution display. At that size, it's perhaps more of a portable all-in-one desktop PC, but it has no built in stand to prop it up like a monitor, and there is no keyboard or mouse included. With premium components, the ToughPad 4K Performance can also be considered a workstation PC, though it's unlike any workstation we've seen before. It is all of these things at once. Beyond its business focus, even Panasonic is unsure of how it should be categorized, responding with a chuckle and essentially saying "D, all of the above" when asked about it. The Panasonic Toughpad 4K Performance (UT-MA6) is it's own thing, an odd duck that is impressive, but puzzling.

Design
Panasonic is marketing the ToughPad 4K as a portable solution for everything from retail displays to video production, giving users a large display with crystal-clear detail. There are two versions of the Toughpad 4K Tablet available, the Toughpad 4K Standard (UT-MB5) ($5,999 list), and the Toughpad 4K Performance (UT-MA6), which is reviewed here. Our evaluation unit is equipped with a dual-core Intel Core i7 processor and Nvidia K1000M graphics, making it as much a mobile workstation as a simple tablet. That means it's well suited for uses like bedside healthcare in hospitals, where the Ultra HD display lends itself well to viewing X-rays and MRIs, or for architects traveling to building sites, who want to review or change details on blueprints, and need to be able to see the big picture.

Measuring 0.5 by 18.7 by 13.1 inches (HWD), the tablet is technically portable, but mobile use will definitely be limited by the dimensions and the weight (5.6 pounds). The ratio of size and weight are actually quite remarkable, given that most 20-inch monitors weigh considerably more, and don't offer the same sort of touch capability or processing hardware. It's also not much heavier than the Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (2013) (4.46 pounds) or the Toshiba Satellite P50T-BST2N01 (5.1 pounds), despite having a much larger screen. Panasonic calls it "the world's largest tablet," and while there's plenty of truth to the claim, for our purposes, it more closely resembles a portable all-in-one desktop PC, like the Sony VAIO Tap 21 (SVT21217CXB) or the Lenovo IdeaCentre Flex 20. Granted, these are very different devices, with significantly different use cases, but the size of the screen and the semi-portable design do offer some similarity.

The large tablet is wrapped in layer of woven glass fiber that looks a lot like carbon fiber. The materials are actually quite similar, though glass fiber is less brittle. Beneath it is a magnesium alloy frame, and Panasonic has built in some of the expected Toughpad ruggedness. The Toughpad 4K is built to handle drops of up to 30 inches (2.5 feet) on its back, and up to 12 inches from any other direction, including face-down onto the display. That ruggedness is essential for a 20-inch display that will be toted around—anything less and you'd risk damaging the display just by setting it down too hard—but that's as far as the rugged design goes, with no further protection against damage or the elements.

The 20-inch screen is the real star of the show, boasting a razor-sharp 3,840-by-2,560 resolution with 230 pixels per inch (ppi)—that's 9.83 million pixels—with a 15:10 aspect ratio. We've seen 4K displays on other devices—from monitors like the Dell UltraSharp 32 Ultra HD UP3214Q to laptops, like the 4K-equipped Toshiba P50T-BST2N01—but this is particularly impressive, due to both its resolution and its size. Laptops like the Toshiba Satellite P50T-BST2N01 and the Apple MacBook Pro with Retina offer 282ppi and 220ppi, respectively, but do so on much smaller displays. The Apple iPad Air, with its 264ppi actually has a slightly higher pixel density, but the sheer size of the Panasonic's display offers roughly four times the viewable area.

I tested the display using several 4K
videos and a dozen or so giant high-resolution images. The display is really what you're paying for with this device, and it doesn't disappoint. Colors are bright and vibrant, with a wide gamut, and the viewing angles are superb, allowing great visibility from nearly any direction. While the 20-inch display is too big for regular tablet use, it is uniquely suited to serving as a portable presentation device, with Panasonic's In-Plane Switching (IPS) Alpha display technology offering nearly 180 degrees of crystal-clear viewing from any angle, both horizontally and vertically. The screen has a 15:10 aspect ratio, which is proportioned so that it can show large-format (11-by-17-inch) documents, like blueprints and schematics, at nearly full-size. The display offers 10-point touch functionality, but also supports Panasonic's optional Toughpad Stylus Pen ($260).

Accessories
For full functionality as either a
tablet for work or an all-in-one PC, you'll need to pick up a few accessories, none of which are included in the $7,000 price. For those who need more accuracy than fingertips can provide on a 9-million-pixel display, you'll need the aforementioned Toughpad Stylus Pen. The pen connects to the tablet via Bluetooth, and uses an infrared-based optical sensing technology to provide 2,048 levels of pressure sensitivity and almost pixel-level accuracy. You can even use more than one pen on the same tablet, opening up collaborative capability. We didn't have a pen included with the system for testing, but we immediately saw the need for it, especially for anyone who needs high-accuracy cursor control and input.

If you need to use the oversized tablet in a more traditional desktop setup, you'll need to get Panasonic's accessory Desktop Stand/Cradle ($399.99), which docks the tablet using a 24-pin docking connection, and offers three additional USB 3.0 ports (for attaching a keyboard, a mouse, and external storage), an HDMI-out port for connecting a second display, and another Ethernet port, so that you won't have to constantly plug and unplug your network connection whenever you need to grab the tablet and go. And soon to be available is a wall-mounted cradle with a VESA mount, letting you put the tablet on the wall like a monitor.

Finally, as 20 inches of tablet can get a bit unwieldy, Panasonic also has a specially designed portfolio-style tote ($299.99). The bag features a shoulder strap, a fold-away screen cover, and a built-in easel, letting you prop up the tablet for easier use. Again, we didn't get to try this out, but we immediately saw the need for it, as the large tablet is a bit of a pain to carry across the office, let alone across town.

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