Small wonders: the 2009 Ars USB flash drive roundup Since our last roundup in 2005, USB flash drives have become ubiquitous. So ubiquitous, in fact, that we wondered whether there was any difference at all among models. In our 2009 roundup, we find out the answer.

If you look at the SSD market today, you’d assume that it’s very different from what it was just six months ago when the X25-M launched. People are worried that the Intel drive has issues with degrading performance over time. Some vendors are now shipping “revised” JMicron drives with multiple controllers, supposedly fixing all of the problems I talked about last year. I hate to break it to you guys. As different as the world may seem today, it’s all very much the same. The Intel drive is still the best of the best. Yes, it, and other SSDs do get slower over time and later in this article I’ll explain why it happens and why it’s not as big of a deal as you’d think. The issues I complained about with the JMicron drives from last year are still alive and well today; they’re just somewhat occluded.

We compared the 10 most prominent FLOSS projects: XBMC, MythTV, Boxee, Elisa, Neuros OSD, Freevo, My Media System, Entertainer, CenterStage+Plex and MediaPortal.

This project examines security software for Windows OS that implement application-based security model – i.e. most of the products called Internet security suites, personal firewalls, HIPS, behavior blockers and similar products on the market. A product must meet some fixed criteria in order to be included in this project. The list of products suitable for this project that we are aware of is available on the product list page.

This edition of Hard Disk Manager 8.5 is mainly a disk-partitioning utility, and in that respect it does the job very well indeed. The wizards make it hugely accessible, although it still isn’t perfect, and we like the push towards more OS and file system independence. The backup options are a useful extra for keeping things in order, although we’d still recommend using a proper file backup program such as Ghost or True Image along with it. But when you consider the power and range of features on offer here, it’s a decent investment for users on a budget.

Cons Help system geared more toward experienced users than novices; backup process slower than with some other apps; Rescue CD performs inconsistently

The boot management tool, once in place, refused to spot the main Vista partition on our hard drive, and thus wouldn't boot. If we booted straight to CD and loaded up the Hard Disk Manager from there, we could find a way in, but this slowed down the workings of the computer enormously.

Corporate Critic is a product of the Ethical Consumer Research Association Ltd. Corporate Critic indexes and rates the Corporate Social Responsibility records of over 50,000 companies, using primarily civil society data. Ranging from large multinationals to small independents, it includes both publicly listed and private companies from anywhere in the world.

Looking for speed? We polled tens of thousands of PCMag readers across the country to find out which ISPs, and which types of connections, yield the blazingest speeds.

With the flurry of news we've seen (and reported on) about the Palm Pre, it's pretty hard to keep track of what's what. Between the launch, our first hands-on, and repeated encounters with the company's little star, we've hit dozens of stories exploring the ins and outs of the webOS-based device. Everything we know to date has been compiled on this page, with the high priority stories you need to see right up top. So, take a stroll through the archives and learn all about the Pre.