LockDox

Pros Easy-to-use Web interface. Watermarks files. Straightforward access control. View access logs. Free.

Cons Can't customize expiration time. Requires recipients to create an account. No mobile component yet. Bottom Line LockDox is a good file service for sending users large files quickly and simply while retaining control over what the recipient can do with them. If the file viewer didn't require a Java browser plugin, it would be a better security service.

By Fahmida Y. Rashid

Imagine you are working on a proposal for a project your company is bidding on, and you want to share the draft of the document with a colleague for some feedback, or you need to send some financial files to a subcontractor. Enter LockDox (free), a service from WatchDox designed to make it easier for individuals and the smallest businesses to securely send confidential files.

Yes, you can just use email or any of the several file-sharing services out there, but LockDox allows you to apply basic access-control rules to the files and track who viewed the file, and when they viewed it. Perhaps you want a colleague to be able to view the file for a certain period of time, or maybe you want to make sure a contractor cannot download the file you sent. With LockDox, it's possible to revoke the recipient's access to the file even after it has been sent.

There is no software to download or any complex setup to perform. You only need a Web browser and an account on the LockDox site to send and view files. It doesn't even matter if recipients don't have the appropriate client software (such as Microsoft Word) installed, since all files are displayed within the browser window.

Creating an account is straightforward—just the first name, last name, email address, and a password—although you have to confirm the email address before LockDox will send or open any files. The recipient also has to create an account on the site in order to view the files. I personally prefer services that don't require users to create an account. For example, Hightail, formerly known as YouSendIt, just provides a link to the file. But I understand that method won't work with LockDox because of the way access control is implemented.

Mail Interface
Clicking on the bright yellow Share New File button opens up the file-sharing dialog: a simple mail form with fields for Send to and Message. You can send to multiple recipients at once (just separate the email addresses with a comma), but there doesn't seem to be any kind of an address book or any way to save frequently used email addresses. The address has to be manually typed each time, which seems tedious in these type-ahead times.

The bottom of the mail form has two areas, one for uploading the files to send, and the other to select access control rules. It is possible to just drag and drop the file into the document area, or you can browse through the directory structure to find the file you want to send. In the access control section, you can set the file as view-only or view-and-download, add watermarks to the file, and define an expiration date. The watermark option (more on this below) is available only if you select the view-only mode. Finally, you can set the files to never expire or to expire in a month, a week, or a day. I wish there was a little bit more flexibility in defining the expiration period, though. For example, I'd like to be able to say that the file expires at 3 p.m. on a certain day, as opposed to the default, midnight.

Watermark is my favorite feature in LockDox. The system superimposes the email address of the recipient and the date the file was sent on top of the file's contents. This way, if the recipient takes a screenshot of the file and leaks the contents, you will know exactly which file was exposed.

Inbox and Sent Interfaces
There are two tabs in the My Files section of the site. Inbox shows all the files you have received, and Sent lists all the files you have sent others.

Next: LockDox Web Interface

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Amazon Prime Music

Included with a $99 Amazon Prime subscription.By Jeffrey L. Wilson

When Amazon raised the price of its marvelous Amazon Prime service from $79 to $99 per year, many subscribers wondered what the company would give them to justify the boost. Amazon quickly responded. First, select HBO content became available for streaming in the Instant Video section. Next, Amazon Prime Music—the subject of this review—arrived, giving subscribers fast access to millions of tracks and hundreds of curated playlists. If you already subscribe to Amazon Prime, you'll likely find Prime Music a solid addition, but it lacks several features—and artists—found in Slacker Radio, our Editors' Choice among music streaming services.

A Lot of Genres, Some Missing Artists
The Amazon Prime Music home screen is divided into two main sections: a primary content section that takes up most of the screen real estate, and one column just left of it. The former houses popular playlists and songs, while the latter hosts more than 20 genre categories. You can, of course, search for content by band or song name.

Searching for Led Zeppelin tracks quickly revealed one of Amazon Prime Music's bigger flaws: holes in the catalog. The service offers tons of Zeppelin tribute band content, but no actual music by the official group (Slacker and Spotify, on the other hand, both have access to the Zeppelin catalog). Likewise, I found just one Michael Jackson song—"Will You Be There" from the Free Willy soundtrack. The service also lacks content from Universal Music Group. That said, Amazon Prime Music isn't a total wasteland. You can stream music from popular and not-so-popular artists such as Bruno Mars, The Dirtbombs, Madonna, and Rage Against the Machine.

Playlists, Purchases, and Recommendations
Like Songza, Amazon Prime Music is stocked with hundreds of themed playlists that were assembled by the rather pretentiously named collective known as Amazon's Music Experts. I found interesting collections such as Foo Fighters Top Songs and the oddly named 50 Great Epic Classic Rock Songs. Each playlist displays a track listing, the total runtime, and curator. When you find a track or playlist that you like, you can quickly add the music to Your Music Library (a section where your favorite tracks live) by clicking Add to Library.

Naturally, Amazon gives you the option to purchase these songs, too. You can buy them individually (many are priced between 69 cents and $1.29) or toss a few into the MP3 Cart for a mass purchase.

Unfortunately, if you're looking for Slacker-like recommendations to expand your music horizons, you must look carefully. Recommendations are stashed in the Recently Viewed Items and Featured Recommendations section—a section that's located below the comment section. It's very inconveniently placed and easily overlooked. Even worse, it can be confusing to discern at a glance which items are actual recommendations as opposed to previously eyeballed items. Fortunately, the recommendations on the Your Music Library page are separate from items that you previously viewed, so there's no confusion. I wish Amazon had opted for a more unified user interface.

Importing and Audio
Like Spotify, Amazon Prime Music lets you import music into Your Music Library. To do so, you must install Adobe Flash, download the import app, and manually upload  music files. You can also opt to let the Music Importer scan your iTunes and Windows Media Player folders for music and automatically upload the songs.

All your new and previously purchased Amazon music files are stored free of charge, as are the first 250 uploaded tracks not bought from Amazon. If you need to import more non Amazon music, you can import 250,000 tracks for $24.99 per year. The imported music and bookmarked Amazon Prime Music tracks exist as a single playlist within Your Music Library.

Amazon Prime Music takes many cues from Apple's iTunes Match, a subscription service ($24.99 per year) that removes ads from iTunes Radio and fills your iCloud account with tunes that match the music files on your computer. iTunes Match also lets you store 250,000 non-iTunes purchased tracks.

The music streamed to my ears via an Astro Gaming headset was crisp and satisfying. It wasn't audiophile good, but most people won't have an issue with the audio. Still, I favored iTunes Match's audio over Amazon Prime Music's as it was a bit crisper. Apple streams its iTunes Match tracks at a solid 256 Kbps; I've reached out to Amazon for its Prime Music streaming bitrate and will update this review with a response when it's received. Note: Billboard states that Amazon's streaming music will be delivered at a bitrate ranging from between 48 Kbps to 256Kbps, depending on the Internet connection speed.

Not Amazing, but a Good Addition to Prime
By itself, Amazon Prime Music isn't a selling point for a Prime subscription, but it's yet another feature that the service affords. If you want a feature-packed streaming service that offers live radio, lyrics, weather updates, and excellent DJ-curated stations, Slacker Radio is your go-to pick. But if you're an Amazon Prime subscriber who just wants to listen to a few tunes without incurring additional costs—or exploring other apps—Amazon Prime Music is a streaming music service to check out.

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Adobe Photoshop Mix (for iPad)

Requires Creative Cloud Photography subscription ($9.99 per month) for access to Photoshop and Lightroom content.By Michael Muchmore

Adobe has no fewer than six photo-related apps in the iTunes app store, ranging from the free (with in-app upgrade purchases) Photoshop Express to the touch-ified version of Photoshop itself, Photoshop Touch. The company's latest iPad offering, Photoshop Mix (free) brings some of Photoshop's most powerful tools into an easy-to-use app that ties in with the leading image editor and Lightroom on the desktop. Mix will appeal to a broad cross-section of users, from those who simply want to create collages to print or share on Facebook and Instagram to hardcore Photoshoppers who want to add iPads into their workflow.

Start Mixing
Mix is a free download from the iTunes App Store, but to get started you'll need to sign in with an Adobe ID, which you can get without even entering credit card info. Of course, Adobe hopes you'll like the app and its other photo software services enough to pay for a Creative Cloud Photography plan, at $9.99 per month. Doing so gets you the company's leading photo programs, Photoshop and Lightroom, which tie in with Mix by allowing round-trip editing among your desktop computers and iPads.

The first time you experiment with the app, you don't even need your own photos. Mix includes sample images for demonstrating its capabilities, including cutouts, selective looks (like Instagram filters), and mixes (combining images). The interface is remarkably spare, with just a double-circle button at top left and a big plus sign in the middle of the left margin. The circle button takes you to your main menu, which offers access to your Adobe account, tutorial videos, and sharing buttons. Tapping the plus sign lets you open a new image from the iPad Camera Roll, snap a picture from the tablet, download one from Creative Cloud, open one from Lightroom Mobile, or get a pic from Facebook.

Once you have a photo open, tooltips show you that you can add a second image or edit the current one. Editing tools include an auto-enhance, along with exposure, contrast, clarity, and saturation controls. These use a clever press-and-hold input method, in which you slide your finger left or right to reduce or increase the effect. I found that reducing Clarity could itself create a glowing, dreamy effect. However, I missed shadow and highlight controls, which are available on several photo editing apps, including Adobe's own free Photoshop Express.

Cutouts
Photoshop has long included a near-miraculous object-selection tool called Magic Wand, which has now come to the iPad. One of Mix's keynote features is its ability to create masks, or cutouts of things like people or objects from your photo. This capability lets you, for example, place a friend in an exotic location or add an exotic object to your mundane premises.

When cutting out your image object, you can use either Smart or Basic tools. The smart option automatically selects the best-guess object, and, with either tool, you can switch to minus mode, removing an incorrect bit of selected area. During selection, you also can adjust the edge's feathering and choose to refine edges, for tricky things like hair or treetops. One interface feature I miss, however, is Undo; another that I would like to see added is a before-and-after view.

Once you've got your cutout, it's a snap to add another photo for the background. Thumbnails at the top let you select which photo layer you're working on, or you can just tap the image you want to affect with your next edits. One shortcoming is that you can't switch the layer order—whatever you add last becomes the top image.

Looks
Mix's looks have a big advantage over Instagram' filters—you can apply them just to selected parts of a photo. You can still apply one of the 20 effects to the entire image, however. Both monochromatic and color enhancements are available. Some simply brighten or punch up the image's colors, and others add film looks such as instant, sepia, and cross process (in the Twin Peaks effect). The effects are, well, effective, but the ablity to apply them to selected parts of the photo is what makes them extra special. Selecting is easy, and you can invert the selection, too, which can come in very handy.

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Lomography LC-Wide

Pros Ultra-wide 17mm f/4.5 lens. Full-frame, square, and half-frame shooting options. Integrated meter and hot shoe. Compact. Includes two hardcover books and two rolls of film.

Cons Pricey. Zone focusing only. No manual exposure control. Bottom Line The Lomography LC-Wide is a pocketable ultra-wide 35mm camera with a lens that's surprisingly sharp and shows minimal distortion.

By Jim Fisher

The Lomography LC-Wide ($389) is the wide-angle version of Lomo's popular LC-A+ 35mm camera. It's similar in design, but its 17mm f/4.5 lens captures a much larger breadth, and both square and half-frame shootings option are available if you'd like to narrow the field of view. It's on the pricey side, but when you consider just how wide its field of view is, its compact size, and the extras that Lomo puts in the package, the sticker price is easier to justify.

The LC-Wide measures 2.5 by 4 by 1.6 inches (HWD) and weighs about 7.7 ounces. There aren't a lot of controls—there's a shutter release and a film advance wheel on the top, along with the film rewind control and a hot shoe. The lens cover opens via a switch on the bottom. It's got two positions—one for full-frame and one for half-frame shooting, and there's a toggle switch on the bottom plate to change between full and half frame advance. There's a switch labeled MX on the bottom plate that allows for multiple exposures; it cocks the shutter without advancing the frame. The battery compartment is also on the bottom, and takes three LR44 batteries.

There's a wheel on the front, next to the viewfinder, to set the film speed; it supports ISO 100 through 1600 at full-stop increments. The shutter speed is automatic based on ambient light, but it will only stay open if you continue to hold the shutter release down, so you can release it more quickly in order to avoid camera shake. Focus is controlled via a lever next to the lens-the two settings are for 0.4 to 0.9 meters and 0.9 meters to infinity. The wide-angle lens has a fixed f/4.5 aperture, so there's a lot of depth of field to work with. Zone focusing is practical with a wide lens of this aperture, and you can still get some background blur behind subjects when working close. The field of view is wide enough that you'll have to take some care as to not to get a stray finger or, if you're pointing the camera down, your feet in a shot.

The optical viewfinder is fairly bright, and it shows a lot of barrel distortion. But that's not an indication of image quality; the lens shows very little distortion, and is quite sharp through most of the frame. There is some blurriness at the edges, and the corners of images are darker than the center of the frame due to fall-off. But when you consider the LC-W's size, cost, and field of view, there's very little to complain about when it comes to the quality of images it captures.

You can skirt some of the edge issues by shooting in square (24 by 24mm) or half-frame (24 by 17mm) formats. You'll need to commit to these for an entire roll, however; film masks that block stray light from making its way to the film are included and must be changed at the same time the roll is. You'll still only get 36 exposures to a roll with the square option, but you'll be able to shoot 72 shots between film changes when shooting half-frame.

Lomography includes a few extra items with the LC-Wide. There are two rolls of 36-exposure ISO 100 color negative film in the box, each in a reusable tin canister. There's also a standard shutter release cable for tripod exposures, a set of batteries, and two thick hardcover books. One includes shooting tips and showcases some available accessories for the LC-A+ and LC-Wide; it's full of images captured with the LC-A+. The other is all about the LC-Wide; it does provide some shooting tips—including how to capture panoramic images using the half-frame mode without installing the frame mask, but it's mainly a photo book that shows off some wonderful images captured with the camera. Both are suitable for your coffee table.

The Lomography LC-Wide is one of the more expensive cameras in the company's lineup, but it's also one of the more refined. Its lens covers an ultra-wide field of view, and is quite sharp through most of the frame. The corners show some blurriness and fall-off, but you'll have to spend a lot more to get a professional lens that covers this field of view and doesn't show those issues. The pocketable form factor, half-frame and square shooting options, and automatic operation are appealing to shooters who are more concerned about artistry than capturing a technically perfect exposure. If you're still using 35mm film, and like the idea of shooting at such a wide angle, the LC-Wide is a solid choice.

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Olympus Tough TG-850

Pros Sharp, wide-angle lens. Super Macro mode. Waterproof, shockproof design. Tilting rear display.

Cons Lacks Wi-Fi and GPS. No dedicated charger included. Images on the noisy side. Bottom Line The Olympus Tough TG-850 is a tough camera with a wide-angle lens that is a fine choice for photographers on a budget.

By Jim Fisher

The Olympus Tough TG-850 ($249.99) features a couple of firsts for a rugged compact camera: a 21mm wide-angle lens and a tilting rear display. It's rated for use in water as deep as 33 feet and can survive drops from heights of 7 feet, and has a Super Macro mode that lets you get up close and personal with tiny photographic subjects. Its low cost comes with some trade-offs; there's no Wi-Fi or GPS, images are a little bit too noisy for our tastes, and it lacks the wide-aperture f/2 lens found in our Editors' Choice, the Olympus Tough TG-2. But you can save about $100 by opting for the TG-850, and it's worth your consideration if those aren't must-have features.

Design and Features
The TG-850 follows the same design paradigm as most tough cameras; the lens is located in the top left corner, and is protected by a flat front port so it doesn't extend while zooming. There are a few models that buck this trend, placing the lens in the center; the Pentax WG-3 GPS is one. The TG-850 measures 2.5 by 4.3 by 1.1 inches (HWD) and weighs 7.7 ounces. That's about par for the course in this class; the Pentax is wider than others (2.5 by 4.9 by 1.3 inches) and just a bit heavier at 8.1 ounces.

The 5x zoom lens sets itself apart from other rugged cameras due to its wide-angle field of view. It covers a 21mm (full-frame equivalent) at the wide end, zooming to 105mm at its telephoto extreme. Its aperture starts at f/3.5 at the wide end and drops to f/5.7 at 105mm. The wide-angle design is especially good news for underwater shooters, as shooting through water narrows a camera's field of view. At its widest angle the lens can focus on objects just about 2.3 inches away from its front element, but there's also a Super Macro mode that zooms the lens in a bit. Focus is possible just a few centimeters from the lens in that mode.

On the top plate you'll find the power button, shutter release, and a zoom rocker. Rear controls include a movie record button, a mode dial, playback and delete controls, the Menu button, and a four-way rocker with a center OK button; it includes Info, flash output, and drive mode buttons. There's also an overlay menu that runs across the right side of the display; tapping the left direction on the four-way controller activates it. Its contents change based on the shooting mode, but in Program you have the fullest set of options: color output, flash settings, exposure compensation, White Balance, ISO, drive mode, image resolution, and image aspect ratio.

There are no manual shooting modes available—you can't take direct control over the aperture or shutter speed. If you want to cede all control to the TG-850 you can place it in iAuto, and there are the requisite Art Filter and Scene modes available on the dial. In-camera panorama stitching is supported, and Olympus has placed a couple of special shooting modes directly on the dial. Hand-Held Starlight is designed to capture blur-free images in very dim conditions, and e-Portrait smooths skin tones of subjects for more pleasurable viewing on an HDTV.

The rear display is a 3-inch LCD with a 460k-dot resolution. In a first for a rugged camera, it is mounted on a hinge so that it swings up to face all the way forward. It's adequately sharp, but not as pleasant to look at as the 610k-dot OLED that Nikon uses in its Coolpix AW110. The display's 16:9 aspect ratio is wider than the 4:3 images that the TG-850 captures at its native aspect ratio, but you can change the settings to shoot photos at 16:9, 3:2, or 1:1 if you prefer a different field of view, and HD movies are captured at the HDTV-friendly 16:9 ratio.

The camera is rated for underwater use at depths of up 33 feet, and to survive drops from heights of 7 feet. Olympus also states that it's crushproof to 220 pounds of force, and freezeproof to 14°F. The camera survived dozens of drops, with its screen placed in various positions, and came through like a champ. It also had no problems shooting when completely submerged, although I wasn't able to take any deeper than the kitchen sink. Other tough cameras are rated to be used deeper underwater; Nikon's mirrorless 1 AW1 can be used in water as deep as 49 feet.

Many other tough cameras have GPS, including the appropriately named Pentax WG-3 GPS, but it's absent from the TG-850. Also missing is Wi-Fi, so there's no way to quickly transfer photos to your smartphone for online sharing. You can use an Eyefi Mobi card to add that functionality if you need it, but by the time you spend extra money on the card, you should consider moving up to a model with integrated Wi-Fi like the new Olympus TG-3 ($349.99).

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