Price: $5,999.99
Editors’ choice: 4/5
The Sharp Elite Pro-60X5FD might seem
pricey, but the excellent picture quality on this 60-inch backlit LED screen
makes its $6000 price tag seem reasonable to cinephiles who wants the darknest
blacks and brightest, most accurate colors.
Vizio M3D550KD
Price: $1,429.99 (street lower)
Editors’ choice: 4.5/5
Vizio’s M3D550KD offers a terrific picture,
a board selection of online services, and very good 3D images at a low price.
Because it’s passive 3D and comes with four pairs of glasses you don’t need to
spend more than the price tag on the HDTV to watch 3D movies.
Apple iOS 6
Price: Free
Editors’ choice: 4.5/5
Apple’s beautiful mobile OS does it again.
If you argue that Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (a far more popular OS at
retain than its successor, Jelly Bean) represents Android, iOS 6 has a much
smoother UI and Siri. And regardless of the Android version, Apple’s SDK and
App Store let developers write, distribute, and profit from apps much more
easily – hence the higher-quality wares you’ll find available for iOS.
WhatsApp Messenger
Price: $0.99 per year
Editors’ choice: 4/5
Are you still paying to spend and receive
text messages? Hang onto your wallet! WhatsApp is the resolution everyone is
using, and you should, too. it’s a cross-platform instant messaging app that
lets you spend unlimited text-like messages to contacts all over the world. The
app itself is free to download and use for the first year, with a tiny fee of
99 cents per year thereafter.
Norton internet Security (2013)
Price: $79.99
Editors’ choice: 4.5/5
Some suites excel at just one task. Norton
Internet Security provides solid protection in all areas, though its firewall
in particular aced our tests. Worried about the performance impact? Norton once
had a reputation for slowing machines, but our testing shows it bogs down your
PC less than most other security suites.
Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus 2013
Price: $39.99
Editors’ choice: 4.5/5
Webroot
SecureAnywhere Antivirus 2013
Webroot’s Antivirus is a ridiculously small
package, at under a megabyte. But size isn’t everything, as the app aced our
malware blocking and removal tests. It is also super-fast to install and scan,
and it doesn’t bother you with unnecessary details (although there are plenty
of advanced user controls under the hood).
Apple OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion
Price: $19.99
Editors’ choice: 4.5/5
Apple
OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion
Apple’s latest desktop OS may not look any
different from its predecessor, but digging in reveals over 200 substantive
improvements. Much of what’s new was taken from the best of iOS: a notification
sidebar, Messages that interact with iPhones and iPads, voice input, and iCloud
syncing. You can use it with Apple TV for the biggest possible desktop screen,
and a new Safari syncs with the browser on your other iDevices, for a completely
integrated Apple ecosystem.
Apple Final Cut Pro X 10.0.3
Price: $299.99
Editors’ choice: 4.5/5
Final Cut Pro X is a drastic change from
its predecessors, and the abrupt break upset the pro video community. But the
new nonlinear video editing system signaled a new, more intuitive paradigm,
along with far better (background-rendered) performance. New yet sensible
concepts like a Magnetic Timeline, Auditions, Compound Clips, and Media Stems
catapult the application beyond all the completion, while its price undercuts
the rest.
