November, 2021 - Organizer

11:31 pm | November 30, 2021

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Pro Security | Comments: Off

Our series on identity theft protection apps will evaluate the features, pricing options, competition, and also the overall value of using each app. However, these are not full hands-on reviews since evaluating identity theft protection apps is almost impossible. It would require several months of testing, purposefully hacking accounts to see if the protection app works, handing over personally identifiable information, performing multiple credit checks, and risking exposure of the reviewer’s personally identifiable information.

Despite the passage of time, virtually all reviews and news articles about Experian IdentityWorks commence with the same disclaimer about the data breach. This assessment is no different, yet it's debatable if that's entirely just. IdentityWorks, a brand you might not recognize, is a subsidiary of Experian, a name you may be familiar with, albeit not for favorable reasons. In 2015, this consumer credit reporting agency disclosed one of the most prominent data breaches up to that point, leading to the leak of over 15 million customer records. While there have been subsequent data breaches, perhaps the irony of a credit reporting agency suffering a significant breach is what garnered global attention.

More than a decade has passed since the incident in question. Serious movie enthusiasts will recognize this reference, but it may also remind some of a scene from The World According to Garp, where Robin Williams plays a character in search of a home. Unexpectedly, a plane crash-lands in the living room, and Williams' character decides to buy the house. He reasons, "The chances of another plane hitting this house are astronomical." The same logic applies here. Experian has likely taken steps to improve its data security more than most companies, and one could argue that the chances of another major data breach are, at best, "astronomical."

Experian IdentityWorks Pricing — Experian offers a number of plans to choose from depending on how many adults and children there are in your household (Image credit: Experian)

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Experian IdentityWorks: Plans and pricing

The Basic plan, a free tier of Experian, offers limited features. It includes a complimentary Experian credit report, FICO score, dark web surveillance report, and FICO score tracker. While cost-effective, this plan provides minimal protection.

The Premium plan offers a comprehensive range of features designed to protect adults from identity theft and fraud. Priced at $24.99 per month, this subscription service provides robust monitoring and alerts to safeguard sensitive personal information.

One of the key features of the Premium plan is 3 bureau credit monitoring. This service monitors your credit reports from the three major credit bureaus—Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion—and notifies you of any changes or suspicious activity. This allows you to stay informed about your credit profile and quickly identify any potential issues, such as unauthorized inquiries or fraudulent accounts.

To enhance account security, the plan offers financial account takeover alerts. These alerts vigilantly monitor your financial accounts for any unauthorized transactions or changes. By doing so, this feature safeguards your bank accounts, credit cards, and investment accounts against potential compromises. If any suspicious activities are detected, you will receive immediate notifications, allowing you to take prompt action to secure your accounts effectively.

Within the Premium plan's robust offerings, change of address alerts stand out as a crucial feature. This service keeps a watchful eye on public records to detect any modifications to your address, such as alterations to your driver's license or voter registration. Identity thieves frequently exploit change of address requests to reroute your mail, allowing them to pilfer confidential documents. However, this alert system safeguards you by promptly notifying you of any unauthorized changes, empowering you to take proactive steps to shield your identity from harm.

In addition to its monitoring features, the Premium plan provides social network monitoring alerts. This service vigilantly scans social media platforms for any unauthorized use of your name, photos, or personal information. Given that social media accounts are frequent targets for identity thieves, this alert system keeps you informed of potential online fraud attempts.

Among the many benefits of the Premium plan, the most notable feature is the up to $1 million in identity theft insurance it provides. This coverage acts as a financial safety net in the unfortunate event you become a victim of identity theft. The insurance covers expenses associated with restoring your identity, including legal fees, lost wages, and credit repair. This coverage offers invaluable peace of mind, knowing that you have a support system in place to help you recover from the devastating impact of identity theft.

The Premium plan provides a comprehensive array of security features to safeguard adults from identity theft and fraudulent activities. This subscription service offers robust monitoring, timely alerts, and substantial insurance coverage, creating an invaluable layer of protection for your sensitive personal information.

For families with more than one adult, the top-tier Family plan is the best choice. With a monthly cost of $34.99, this plan covers two adults and up to ten children, offering all the features of the Premium plan except for one minor difference.

The assumption of identity theft prevention software that users could have "up to" 10 children is perplexing, particularly given that the average number of children per family in the US is only two, and even fewer in the UK. Despite this, IdentityWorks inexplicably offers pricing options that accommodate up to 10 children and one or two adults. This pricing structure stands in stark contrast to the reality of family sizes in most countries and raises questions about the rationale behind such an assumption.

Regrettably, annual discounts are unavailable at this time. Instead, a brief 7-day free trial is offered. However, it necessitates purchasing the plan and then canceling it within the trial period, effectively converting it into a money-back guarantee during the first week.

App — Experian does not offer a standalone app for IdentityWorks and instead the service is baked into its credit report app. (Image credit: Experian)

Experian IdentityWorks: Interface

Thank goodness we're working with a major corporation like IdentityWorks, which has the resources to create a user-friendly and feature-rich app. IdentityWorks' dashboard features a minimalist design with tabs at the top, making it easy for users to navigate and find the information they need. The dashboard also includes a wizard that shows users how many steps they've completed and how many accounts they've configured, much like how Norton LifeLock presents everything in a straightforward and accessible way.

In contrast to PrivacyGuard, IdentityWorks' interface is clean and understated, giving users the impression that they are working on something important rather than playing a game. PrivacyGuard's website and app have a bit too much color, which can be distracting and overwhelming for some users.

IdentityWorks' app also includes a number of features that make it easy for users to manage their identities and protect their privacy. For example, users can use the app to create strong passwords, monitor their credit reports, and receive alerts about potential identity theft. The app also includes a variety of tools that can help users recover their identities if they are ever stolen.

Overall, IdentityWorks is a great option for users who are looking for a comprehensive and easy-to-use identity management solution. The app's clean interface, user-friendly features, and robust security make it a top choice for anyone who wants to protect their identity and privacy online.

While the Identity Works website provides links to Android and iOS apps, many consumers are unaware of their existence. Unfortunately, the linked apps are for the Experian app, not a dedicated IdentityWorks app. This oversight is disappointing for consumers seeking a comprehensive identity management solution.

Experian IdentityWorks: Features

While Experian boasts a vast library of threat detection information on their website, app, and through hundreds of blog posts, IdentityWorks sometimes overlaps functionality offered by Norton LifeLock and similar products. You can monitor your credit, check your score, receive alerts about potential identity theft attempts, and even be notified of nearby registered sex offenders – all fairly common features. However, IdentityWorks does differentiate itself with a few unique offerings.

Verification of court records is a unique feature of IdentityWorks that sets it apart from other programs. You will be notified if there are any changes or updates to your court records (if they exist). Additionally, IdentityWorks offers a more accurate simulation of credit checks and FICO scores. The frequency of access to these credit checks differs between the Premium and Family versions. With Premium, you can check your daily FICO credit score. On the other hand, with Family, you receive a daily Experian credit report, which may be more frequent than some users need.

Experian IdentityWorks: The competition

In the realm of identity theft protection, Norton LifeLock stands as a prominent rival to Experian. Those familiar with the industry are well aware of LifeLock's leadership position, with Experian also being a recognizable name. While Experian primarily operates as a credit reporting organization, Norton emphasizes security. This distinction grants Norton an advantage in addressing various ways individuals' credit can be compromised, whether through their own actions or by malicious external entities. However, potential users face a choice regarding their primary concern – safeguarding their identity and reputation from theft or protecting their creditworthiness to facilitate significant purchases like homes or cars. Though both aspects are equally vital, users must carefully consider the product they select to align with their specific needs.

Experian IdentityWorks: Support

Experian doesn't provide a specific phone number or email address for direct contact regarding issues. Instead, clicking on "Contact us" directs users to a help center with various articles. For immediate assistance, Experian recommends obtaining an Experian credit report and calling the phone number provided on the report.

To enhance user satisfaction, we would suggest more streamlined and accessible communication channels for users to reach out to Experian.

Experian IdentityWorks: Final verdict

In today's digital age, safeguarding personal identity has become paramount. With the proliferation of online transactions, social media platforms, and interconnected devices, our personal information is more exposed than ever before. While credit protection is essential, it only addresses a limited aspect of the potential risks associated with identity theft.

Identity theft encompasses a wide range of fraudulent activities that can have devastating consequences for victims. Criminals can use stolen personal information to open credit accounts, apply for loans, file fraudulent tax returns, or even commit crimes in the victim's name. The impact of identity theft can extend far beyond financial loss, as it can damage credit scores, harm reputations, and lead to emotional distress.

Experian IdentityWorks is one of the leading identity theft protection services available. It offers a comprehensive suite of features designed to help individuals safeguard their personal information and mitigate the risks of identity theft. These features include credit monitoring, fraud alerts, identity theft insurance, and access to a dedicated fraud resolution team.

Experian IdentityWorks' teaching materials are particularly noteworthy. These materials provide valuable information on identity theft prevention and best practices for protecting personal information. The materials are presented in a clear and engaging format, making them accessible to individuals of all ages and backgrounds.

Ultimately, the decision of whether or not to use Experian IdentityWorks is a personal one. Those who are primarily concerned with their finances and credit may find Experian IdentityWorks to be a smart alternative to other identity theft protection services. However, customers who are concerned about Experian's past data breach may want to consider other options.

We've also highlighted the best identity theft protection

Wondershare PDFelement review

5:00 am | November 29, 2021

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Pro Software & Services | Tags: PDF | Comments: Off

The popularity of the PDF format has resulted in lots of different applications for PDF documents, and as a result, a wide variety of tools to work on them. Some of the best PDF editors are very simple, offering little more than basic conversion features and perhaps some highlighting and other minor edits. Others are much more powerful, rivaling office suites in their editing capabilities. Finding a good PDF editor starts with identifying your own needs.

PDFelement lies somewhere in the middle between the two ends of the spectrum. While it’s not as powerful as some of the leading applications on this market, it’s not just a simple PDF editor either. It comes with various features that can be useful to a wide range of users, and can allow you to do some interesting things with your documents. However, it does suffer from having a higher price than most other tools in its class.

We reviewed the latest version of the software to see how it compares in a competitive field.

Wondershare PDFElement during our latest review — There are two paid plans available for PDFelement and Wondershare also offers a free trial so you can test the software out before purchasing it (Image credit: Wondershare)

PDFElement: Pricing & plans

Wondershare PDFElement offers a 7-day free trial that provides access to the application’s features for a limited time, or for a limited number of uses (depending on the tool being selected). Beyond that, there are premium subscription plans which can be paid either for one or two years, as well as a perpetual licence option.

The cost of these subscriptions or licences depends on whether you need to invest in a cross-platform version, just require its use on a single one (namely, Windows, Macs, iOS or Android), and whether you’re an individual, a business, or in education. To give you a rough idea, a cross platform individual plan would cost you $90 for a year, $120 for two, or $140 for a perpetual licence. For alternatives, we tested the best free PDF editors.

PDFElement: Features

PDFelement offers a variety of features for editing documents. Standard markup features are available – users can change the font family and size of text, make it bold/underlined, highlight parts of the document, and even make various structural changes. The tool can also create PDFs from other file formats. Combined with its advanced batch operation support, this makes it a good choice for those who regularly need to convert large volumes of files and want a convenient and quick solution for that.

Documents can also be split into separate ones, protected with a password, and the application can automatically extract data from documents that have been scanned and run through its OCR engine. On that note, PDFelement does stand out with a reliable and robust OCR system that tends to work better than most of the competing solutions on the market.

PDFElement: Interface & experience

The application resembles most modern office suites in its interface, and everything is exactly where you would expect to find it. Tools are sorted in several main tabs, with individual buttons providing access to specific features. Users who are familiar with document editing on a computer should have no problem navigating the menus of PDFelement, including those who want to do more advanced edits.

The only complaint we have in this regard is that the interface can occasionally seem a bit big, especially on smaller screens. There aren’t many options for configuring the application’s appearance, and if you don’t enjoy its style of using large buttons for everything, you might be a bit displeased. Other than that, there aren’t any major issues that stand out with the interface and presentation of PDFelement.

PDFElement: AI tools

A new addition to PDFElement is, you’ve guessed it, AI. AI is everywhere - we’ve even been testing out the best AI tools - so why not here, right? And there’s a lot you can do with AI within PDFElement. You can use it to discuss the content of your document with it, translate it, check the grammar, or summarise it, among others. Most of these features have been available elsewhere, such as Google’s services for instance, but here you can do it all without having to leave the interface, which can and is a great time saver.

There is a major drawback: these AI features aren’t included in the fee you pay Wondershare to use the application: every time you use an AI feature, you’ll spend a certain number of tokens to do so - the more complex the function, the more tokens you’ll need.

The free trial gives you 25 for ‘Content Processing’. All the other paid options give you 100. After that, you’ll need yet another subscription to get more: $4 a month (ie, $48 a year) for a million additional ones each month. If these features felt truly unique and revolutionary, it might be worth it for some, but as it stands, this almost feels like price gouging, seriously jacking up the cost of the app to $138 or $216 for the one or two-year subscription respectively. Thankfully you can keep using PDFElement without touching AI, no matter how much Wondershare tries to entice you through their promotional ads, and with prominent sections in the interface.

PDFElement: Support

Wondershare is a well-known name in the field of small tools and utilities, and one of the features the company stands out with is the quality of their customer support. You can expect issues to get resolved quickly and with a knowledgeable attitude, and that’s if you even need to contact their support in the first place. Many of your questions will likely already be answered in the knowledge base, so take a look around to see if your issue is addressed.

PDFElement: Final verdict

This is a well-designed PDF editor with various features that should keep most people happy, including some advanced users. While the application does lack certain features that are standard in other editors, it doesn’t leave anything critical to be desired. For the most part, it’s a more than adequate application with enough to satisfy the average user. If you’re looking for a long-term subscription though, you might want to explore other options, particularly editors that are offered for a one-time purchase as opposed to a recurring annual subscription. For a long enough period of time, PDFelement can actually get quite expensive, especially if you’re using the Pro version.

Should I buy Wondershare PDFElement?

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For more top PDF tools, we reviewed the best Adobe Acrobat alternatives.

PDF24 Creator review

6:30 pm | November 24, 2021

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets Pro Software & Services | Tags: PDF | Comments: Off

There’s a good variety of PDF creator and editor tools out there, making it important to compare the market carefully before choosing something for the long run. Some premium tools come with lots of bells and whistles that can help you get the most out of your editing work, streamline and even automate common processes, and more. On the other hand, some tools are very simple and do just one or two jobs, but they do them well.

PDF24 Creator falls somewhere in the middle. While it doesn’t have all the fancy features of some of the best PDF editors out there, it’s also surprisingly feature-rich for a program, making it one of the best Adobe Acrobat alternatives out there.

The developers have obviously put a lot of effort into making their product as accessible as possible, as PDF24 Creator is one of the lightest editors on the market right now. It can easily run on weak computers, which, combined with its free price, makes it great for a wide range of Windows users. Mac and Linux owners will have to look elsewhere, like online: you can forgo the ‘Creator’ software, as all tools are available online. The drawback here is having to upload your files, relying on a third party server, and always needing an Internet connection to do your work.

We took a look at the latest version of the software to see how it compares against the best free PDF editors you can download right now.

PDF24 Creator: Pricing & plans

PDF24 is completely free. The company doesn’t offer any premium options at all, and there is just one single download option for the main application, no different versions. It also doesn’t install any additional software on your computer, as is common with other free applications on the market right now. The program can be used for all purposes without having to explicitly get a license from the developers, which is great for those who want to try it out in a commercial production environment.

PDF24 Creator during our latest review process — All of PDF24 Creator’s tools can be accessed from the main window (Image credit: PDF24 Creator)

PDF24 Creator: Features

PDF24 Creator comes with a good number of features, and it allows users to do all sorts of basic and even more advanced editing with ease. You can create a new PDF, merge existing ones, compress a PDF, convert a PDF to other formats, extract specific pages into a separate document (or otherwise split the document in different parts), optimize a PDF for different environments like the web, and extract different media from a document.

You can also apply OCR to a PDF, allowing you to convert scanned images to text that can be freely copied and edited further. This is a useful feature when working in an office setting, where you might frequently have to scan incoming documents and make slight adjustments to them as part of the processing pipeline.

Some nice additional features include the ability to spice up your documents with an overlay and page numbers, compare the contexts of different PDFs, and protect your documents against further editing.

PDF24 Creator: Interface & experience

The interface of PDF24 is clean and intuitive, and a bit minimalistic in places. The application is designed around speed of use, and all important features are right where you would expect to find them. There are lots of different features packed in this package, so it can take some time to explore them all and figure out which ones you actually need in your work.

Something that might annoy some users is that the application offers most of its features in a modular manner, with completely separate interfaces isolated from one another. When you first start PDF24, you’ll be presented with a grid of editing options. Clicking on one will take you to the appropriate interface. This can make it a bit clumsy to go through lots of PDFs in sequence, but once you get used to the interface, it should be very easy to find your way around it.

As PDF24 Creator is designed to be as compatible as possible, you’ll find two versions available, depending on which Windows OS you’re running: as of this writing, it’s version 9.9 for Windows 7 and 8, and version 11.19 for 10 and 11.

Support

The one downside of being a free application is that you shouldn’t expect much in the way of customer support. The developers have gone through a lot of effort compiling a help database in both English and German, that covers a large variety of topics, but if you get stuck and need actual human assistance, it can take a while to get a response. They do have contact options and encourage their users to make use of them, but you shouldn’t expect a speedy reply or any kind of priority treatment.

PDF24 Creator: Final verdict

PDF24 Creator gets the job done, and it does so with minimal hassle. The application works fast, and is reliable enough to be your main PDF editor if you need to do this kind of work on a daily basis. It’s also perfect for making small occasional edits here and there. If you want a professional PDF editor with lots of advanced features, there are better options out there. But in this corner of the market, PDF24 is uncontested, and easily your best bet.

Need to convert more files? Check out the best PDF to Excel converters, best Excel to PDF converters and the best PDF to Word converters

Keap review

2:02 pm | November 23, 2021

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets | Comments: Off

Keap delivers an integrated sales and marketing CRM suite including contact management, email marketing, and payment capabilities. Your business needs one of the best CRM software solutions to manage its pipeline, so read our Keap review to find out if this is the right one for you.

Keap review: Snapshot

Keap is not your typical CRM software. Its combined set of features blurs the line between sales and marketing, with native payments, appointment booking, and email marketing functionality built on top of a core contact and pipeline management system.

Though its steep price and contact storage limits may deter some small businesses, Keap helps you convert leads through advanced marketing campaigns and save time through workflow automation and payment integration.

Its straightforward interface and generous support options make it highly accessible even for the most novice CRM users. With Keap, you can get started straight away and reap benefits from email campaigns and automated triggers without a huge learning curve.

Score: 4/5

Read on for our full review.

Keap competitors

Keap: Key features

You can add your contacts to Keap manually, through a CSV file, by scanning business cards with the mobile app, or by capturing leads from webforms. You can use Keap tags, such as “Nurture subscriber,” to segment contact lists, or create your own. On the Pro and Max plans, you can create unlimited sales and project pipelines by using existing Keap templates or designing your own.

With a UI similar to Mailchimp’s, Keap offers advanced email campaign building, sending, and tracking functionality. You can create unlimited templates on all plans and send bulk emails at no additional cost and with no contact limits. Customer engagement is recorded, including open and click rates, and is synced across contact lists.

Native appointment management functionality saves you from setting up meetings in another program: you can create recurring appointments, accept bookings via shareable links, and automate meeting reminders directly from Keap. If you’re in the US or Canada, you can also make and track calls.

Keap throws payment functionality into the mix, which isn’t usually native to CRM products such as Zoho CRM or HubSpot CRM. On Lite plans and above, you can track your invoices, send one-click quotes to clients, and receive one-time payments directly to your bank account. On Pro and Max, you can additionally set recurring payments and create checkout forms for your e-commerce website.

Finally, automation is an enticing Keap feature: triggers can be set based on contact tags, email engagement, and pipeline stages, among others, so you can reduce your team’s manual work. For example, you can automate a welcome email when a new lead is captured on a webform.

The sales reporting function, available on Pro and Max plans, includes not just internal company data, such as closed deals and email engagement, but also comparative industry data. The main shortcoming is that you can’t build your own reports from scratch, which is a common feature among competitors including Zoho CRM, Hubspot CRM, and Insightly.

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Keap review — Keap’s home screen summarizes sales figures, campaign stats, and upcoming team tasks (Image credit: Keap)

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Keap: What’s new?

Keap has integrated the formerly known Infusionsoft software into its Max plan, aimed at established businesses. Max includes advanced features such as lead scoring, one-click cross-selling, customizable analytics, and real-time updates and automations from Shopify sales.

E-commerce integrations have been upgraded on Pro as well, with online check-out forms being customizable and synced across your CRM data. The Lite and Pro plans have additionally seen improvements in mobile marketing: for instance, you can broadcast and automate text messages to your contacts if based in the US and Canada.

Keap: Pricing

Keap charges for its three plans on a monthly basis. Although it has no annual billing option, it does drop 30% off the initial five months, with regular prices billed thereafter. Keap monthly pricing increases with the number of contacts stored, and each additional user is billed at a flat $30 each. Starting with $56 a month for 500 contacts on the Lite plan, Keap plans can go as high as $350 a month for 25,000 contacts on the Max plan.

Users can also work with a professional Keap coach to develop a personalized sales and marketing playbook for a one-off fee of $499.

*limited functionality

Testing Keap

Below, we test how well Keap’s main features perform and how quickly you can start to use it with a small to midsize team. Our tests help conclude whether you can expect to increase your team’s productivity and pipeline effectiveness.

How easy to use is Keap?

Keap’s UI is impressively intuitive. Though chatbot tips and in-app tutorials are provided on first use, an inexperienced user could easily get by without them. With a larger-than-average font size, plenty of white space, and observable action buttons, doing the CRM basics - managing contacts, visualizing pipelines, and appointing tasks - is seamless.

When starting off, you’re prompted to add your first contacts, either manually or by importing from a spreadsheet or alternative contact lists such as Google, Mailchimp, or Quickbooks. This would be a quick process necessitating only a few clicks, if not for a spam-deterrent question asking if the contacts are expecting emails from your business. If the answer is no, Keap won’t allow you to email them.

Some automations can be set without leaving the Contacts tab, such as adding contacts to a list when an email has been opened. Conveniently, real-time information about ongoing conversations, appointments, and tasks is available in the contact’s profile summary.

Overall, Keap’s interface is easy to get used to, but there are some less intuitive features, such as placing the Save button at the top of forms and not at the bottom.

Screenshot from Automations tab in Keap — You can choose Keap’s ready-made workflow automations or create your own (Image credit: Keap)

Get up and running with Keap

On sign-up, a quick but mandatory questionnaire registers your top CRM priorities using straightforward statements such as “I want to quickly follow up with new leads.” It also integrates with email and calendar services such as Google or Microsoft. This saves time doing vital integrations later on and tailors your in-app recommendations.

The home dashboard provides a big-picture view of your sales figures, upcoming meetings, and email campaign stats, with a short two-click journey to create a new contact, email, task, or appointment.

Setting up a pipeline takes only a few minutes: you can either choose Keap’s template or customize your own. A drag-and-drop Kanban board makes it easy to move deals throughout sales stages, and pipeline analytics are just one click away, allowing you to identify bottlenecks across pipelines and appraise individual rep performance.

Screenshot of customizing a sales pipeline in Keap — You can choose Keap’s ready-made workflow automations or create your own (Image credit: Keap)

How advanced are Keap’s email campaigns?

Keap’s bulk emails are sent from the Broadcasts tab and its email builder felt intuitive and glitch-free in our testing. Pop-ups offer useful suggestions - including adding name fields in subject lines - while industry-specific templates get you started with email structures and designs.

The template editor works by dragging and dropping content blocks, including text, image, video, and social media buttons. It is easy to make quick changes directly in the email design, such as undoing, deleting, or adding an element. Switching from desktop to mobile preview is just a click away at any point. This is an important feature as a large proportion of emails are opened on mobile devices.

Before sending to specified recipient lists, Keap asks for details such as your business address, to comply with marketing regulations. While this is a welcome feature, the pop-up could appear prior to editing for a more frictionless experience. In our test, the email broadcast reached the recipient within a minute or so, after choosing “immediate” sending.

Screenshot of Keap’s email template editor — Email templates are easily customized with drag-and-drop elements (Image credit: Keap)

Alternatives to Keap

Like Keap, competitors Zoho CRM and HubSpot CRM are suitable for small to midsize businesses that require an integrated sales and marketing suite. A shared feature for all three products is the ability to send and track bulk emails, although Zoho CRM lacks advanced features provided by the other two, including newsletter templates, drag-and-drop functionality, and A/B testing.

Keap outperforms Zoho CRM and HubSpot CRM in user-friendly design: contact lists, appointments, and pipelines look less cluttered, and automations are created with fewer clicks. Keap also features payment and quote management, which is rare across competitor products. That said, reporting and pipeline management, which Zoho CRM and HubSpot CRM offer on their free plans, are not available on the Keap starter plan.

For more information, read our Zoho CRM review and HubSpot CRM review.

Keap: Final verdict

Keap’s above-average price tag is justified through a seamlessly integrated sales and marketing engine. Its price includes unlimited emails and templates, which can be sent to all contacts in your database. Real-time payment integrations with ecommerce platforms such as Shopify are augmented by automatic quote-to-invoice conversions as leads become clients.

One of Keap’s biggest selling points is how easy it is to set up and use. With clear user journeys, pop-up tips, and an action-oriented interface, you can add contacts and appointments, and send email campaigns in no time. Though you can do advanced tracking and A/B testing for email campaigns, sales reporting and analytics are reserved for Pro and Max plans. But even then, it’s not as customizable as reporting offered by competitors like HubSpot CRM or Zoho CRM.

Keap’s workflow automation effectiveness can’t be understated. Available across all plans, it can replace manual tasks with triggers from sales stages, contact details, email engagement, payments, and more.

While clearly on the pricey side, Keap has a compelling set of tools for small teams who are ready to ride their next wave of growth.

Editor's note: January 2024

• Original review date: June 2021
• Newer Sony WH-1000XM5 now out
• Launch price: $279 / £250 / AU$449.95
• Official price now: $199 / £199 / $359

Even three years after their launch, we still rate the Sony WF-1000XM4 earbuds highly among the best wireless earbuds, because price cuts over the years (and the fact that their successor, the Sony WH-1000XM5 actually came with a price rise) means they still offer fantastic value. The particular balance of noise cancellation, sound quality and features is unbeatable at the discounted price you can often find them for during sales events – we've seen them at $160 / £180 / AU$260 during Black Friday. You can't do better at that price – though obviously, these days, if you pay more you'll get a better overall package. The rest of this review remains as previously published.

Sony WH-1000XM4: Two-minute review

The Sony WF-1000XM4 are smaller, lighter and greener than previous wireless earbuds in the line – oh, and the Sony WF-1000XM4 also sound even more articulate and immediate than the model they replace.

It’s true to say there’s no one area (with the possible exception of control-app excellence) in which they truly lead the field; but if you want to beat them for their combination of sound quality, noise-cancelling and battery life you’ll have to buy three pairs of noise-cancelling earbuds.

In every respect, the Sony WF-1000XM4 are either ‘very good’ or ‘very good indeed’ –and taken as a complete package they’re very difficult to lay a glove on.

Compared to their predecessors, the Sony WF-1000XM3, the new wireless earbuds offer enough quality-of-life features to make them worth upgrading to, even if they are slightly more expensive.

A more compact design means the Sony WF-1000XM4 are more comfortable and easier to carry around, while the accompanying app makes it simple to adjust the controls and your EQ settings, rivalling the best headphones.

Meanwhile, features taken from the over-ear Sony WH-1000XM4, including Speak-To-Chat, DSEE Extreme audio upscaling, and adaptive noise cancellation, mean you’ll be hard-pressed to find a more comprehensively-specced pair of wireless earbuds, even when seeking out the best wireless headphones.

While other true wireless earbuds surpass the Sony WF-1000XM4 in particular areas – noise cancellation, for example – no other model comes close to offering such excellent quality across the board. That’s why the Sony WF-1000XM4 are hands-down the best true wireless earbuds you can buy today.

Read on for our full Sony WF-1000XM4 review.

Sony WH-1000XM4 review: Price & release date

Available now, released June 8, 2021
$279.99 / £250 / AU$449.95

The Sony WF-1000XM4 are on sale now, priced at $279.99 / £250 / AU$449.95, and when you consider that the outgoing WF-1000XM3 started life at a nominal $230 / £220 / AU$399 back in 2019, with the last few pairs currently available for around $170 / £150 / AU$200, that price seems fair enough.

In terms of the competition, the WF-1000XM4 compares pretty favorably with alternative designs from the likes of Bose, Grado and Sennheiser, and looks a bit of a bargain next to Bowers & Wilkins’ outstanding (and dizzily priced) PI7.

sony wf-1000xm4 case — The charging case is 40% smaller than the Sony WF-1000XM3. (Image credit: TechRadar)

Sony WH-1000XM4 review: Design & controls

Smaller than predecessors
Outstanding control app
Touch controls

The outgoing WF-1000XM3 gave us plenty of reasons to recommend them, but ‘discretion’ was not high on that list. The earbuds were big, and so was their charging case, and Sony has wisely chosen to try and reduce some of this bulk in this new model.

Key specs

Acoustic design: Closed

Weight: 7.3g

Frequency response: 20-40,000Hz

Drivers: 6mm

Battery life : 8 hours (earbuds) 16 hours (charging case)

The charging case is a full 40% smaller, while the earbuds themselves are 10% smaller. The fact that they’re still among the heftier examples of this type only serves to illustrate how big the WF-1000XM3 were – but at least the new charging case might conceivably slip into a trouser pocket, while the earbuds don’t protrude from the wearer’s head like a prop in a sci-fi movie.

(Sony has taken a big chunk out of the packaging, too. The box the WF-1000XM4 arrive in is 40% smaller than the WF-1000XM3 box, and it’s entirely paper-based, recyclable and eco-friendly.)

sony wf-1000xm4 — The earbuds come with some of the features first shown on the Sony WH-1000XM4 over-ear headphones. (Image credit: TechRadar)

The WF-1000XM4 incorporate some of the features first showcased on last year’s WH-1000XM4 over-ears: active noise-cancellation that can ascertain what you’re doing and where you’re doing it in order to adapt to your circumstances; fast pairing for Android and Windows devices; and ‘speak to chat’, which simply requires you to make a noise in order to pause your music so that you can have a brief chat without removing the earbuds. Noise cancelling is augmented by new polyurethane eartips (small, medium and large are all provided) designed to provide improved passive noise reduction.

Your one-stop-shop for controlling the WF-1000XM4 is Sony’s fully featured, fully stable Headphones app. Here’s where you can fiddle with all the features (both great and small) that are partially duplicated on the capacitive touch surface of each earbud. In the app you can decide what you’d like the left and right earbuds to control: ‘volume up/down’, ‘play/pause/skip forwards/skip backwards/summon voice assistant’, ‘active noise-cancelling on/off/adaptive’, or the rather less helpful ‘nothing assigned’.

There’s also EQ adjustment (the numerous presets include one racily titled ‘Excited’), with space for a custom preset or two, and the option to turn auto-pause and DSEE Extreme on or off. Here’s where you can submit pictures of your ears, too, in an effort to help Sony optimize those music streaming apps that offer 360 Reality Audio or Dolby Atmos, and where you can decide whether you’d like your Bluetooth connection to prioritize sound quality or connection stability.

sony wf-1000xm4 app — The app allows you to adjust the EQ settings of the earbuds. (Image credit: TechRadar)

Control is also available via the big three voice assistants – Siri, Google Assistant, and Alexa – which can be summoned via their established ‘wake’ words. No matter your assistant of choice, the WF-1000XM4 prove sharp-eared and alert to instructions, even in unpromisingly noisy environments.

There are three mics in each earbud, taking care of active noise-cancelling, call quality, and interaction with voice assistants. A combination of feed-forward and feed-back mics capture the wearer’s voice directionally (from the mouth), though the feed-forward mics will automatically mute when adverse conditions (wind noise, most likely) are detected. Sony has also included a bone conduction sensor, which picks up voice vibration, but doesn’t register it as ambient sound.

Sony WH-1000XM4 review: Audio performance and noise cancellation

Balanced, driving, poised and convincing sound
Pretty good noise cancellation
Great dynamic and rhythmic ability

Positioning the WF-1000XM4 comfortably takes a little longer than it really should – we found them a little fiddly to insert, and felt they should fit more deeply in the ear than is the case – but once it’s done you can set up the touch controls, the EQ levels and the myriad other options to your liking. All done? Good. Time to stick some music on.

We kicked off our testing with a Tidal Masters file of Burner by Ross From Friends, and the WF-1000XM4 immediately impressed. They don’t give any area of the frequency range undue prominence, they don’t let any details go unnoticed, and they don’t let rhythms or tempos hang around. There’s vigor and enthusiasm to their presentation, but it’s tempered by unarguable control.

Down at the bottom end, the earbuds freight bass sounds with substance, texture, and an absolute stack of detail. There’s drive and momentum to spare here, but the WF-1000XM4 never lose the run of themselves – there’s an equal amount of poise to go along with it. Entry into and exit from bass notes is clean and well-defined, which helps prevent the bottom end smearing up into the midrange.

The midrange itself is equally information-rich – listening to Kate Bush’s Lake Tahoe, the ability of the WF-1000XM4 to identify and incorporate the tiniest details or the most fleeting transients into a much broader picture was obvious. ‘Communicative’ may seem a redundant word when discussing a person’s singing voice, but here it’s absolutely appropriate: if they’re anything, the WF-1000XM4 are communicative.

The handover from midrange to top end is smooth and naturalistic, and treble sounds themselves have plenty of shine and bite without ever getting shouty about it. Both Kate Bush and Ross From Friends are more than happy to pile on the high-frequency information, but the WF-1000XM4 control it as deftly as they do the rest of the frequency range.

(All of the above assumes an unchanged EQ setting, we should point out. Sony is slightly unusual in allowing the end-user to fiddle endlessly with the sound of their earbuds, but the most natural and convincing sound comes from the WF-1000XM4 when their EQ is flat.)

Dynamically, too, there's little to criticize. The WF-1000XM4 are capable of switching from ‘ear-splitting’ to ‘almost silent’ and back again in an instant, and even the most subtle harmonic dynamics of Bush’s piano-playing are given full description too. As far as rhythmic certainty and expression goes, their combination of control and attack ensures that, like James Brown, they’re always on the good foot. All of this is helped no end by convincingly natural timing and unity of presentation.

The active noise cancelling is a success of the slightly more qualified kind. The problem for every other pair of ANC true wireless earbuds is that the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds have demonstrated that it’s possible to utterly reject external sounds, without leaving any counter-signal and without impacting on the quality of the music you’re listening to.

The WF-1000XM4 can’t quite pull off the same trick – but they certainly minimize the impact of ambient noise on your listening experience. They may not be the market leader where noise-cancellation is concerned but, for most of the people most of the time, they’re extremely capable.

sony wf-1000xm4 charging case — The noise cancellation is very good, but it's just beaten by the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds. (Image credit: TechRadar)

Sony WH-1000XM4 review: Battery life and connectivity

Eight hours onboard battery life
Wireless charging
Bluetooth 5.2

Even within the new and reduced physical dimensions of the WF-1000XM4 there’s much more going on than there was before. Connectivity is now via Bluetooth 5.2, which means simultaneous transmission to the left and right earbuds, and (when using Sony’s bespoke LDAC codec) Hi-Res Audio Wireless certification.

Bluetooth 5.2 should, in theory, mean better battery life, too – but the best-case real-world scenario of 24 hours (between eight and 12 in the earbuds, depending on whether active noise cancellation is on or off, plus another couple of charges in the case) is really nothing special. Still, at least the WF-1000XM4 are Qi charging pad-compatible, and five minutes plugged into an outlet will deliver another hour of action.

As well as LDAC, the WF-1000XM4 are compatible with SBC and AAC codecs – but there’s no sign of aptX in any of its guises. They also incorporate DSEE Extreme capability, in case you’re a believer in an algorithm supposedly capable of extracting high-resolution sound from a standard-definition digital audio file (we've never been entirely convinced).

Should I buy the Sony WH-1000XM4?

Buy them if...

Don't buy them if...

Sony WH-1000XM4 review: Also consider

Not convinced by our Sony WF-1000XM4 review? Here are three more pairs of true wireless earbuds to consider.

First reviewed: June 2021

See where the Sony WF-1000XM4 rank in our guide to the best earbuds.
Check out our guide to the best wireless earbuds for the competition

Sonos Arc review

11:45 pm |

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets | Comments: Off

The Sonos Arc is the company's biggest and beefiest soundbar even now, a few years on from its release. While we’re not sure if the device gets its name from the HDMI interface it uses, the curved sound it pitches or the fact that it is perhaps, metaphorically, a vessel delivering impressive surround sound to the modern minimalist home – but whichever the case, this bar is built to deliver big sound without taking over the room.

The Sonos Arc can deliver the best quality Dolby lossless audio found on cutting edge Blu-ray disks, and can provide the 3D soundscape of Dolby Atmos object tracks from discs and streaming movies. This means that it can bounce certain sounds off the walls around you so they feel like they’re coming at you from all angles. Interestingly, this is what the Sonos Era 100 & 300 are rumored to do – the upcoming Sonos speakers that could blow the competition out of the water.

the sonos arc soundbar on a tv stand — (Image credit: Future)

While all this might sound complicated, the Sonos Arc setup couldn’t be simpler, involving just a couple of steps on the smartphone app. The minimalist cable connections and all-in-one system construction add to this no-fuss feeling and streamlined aesthetic. If you’ve got a media room with four walls and a roof then this is absolutely one of the best soundbars around.

There are some caveats for those with expansive TV rooms – or smaller rooms that might be able to get away with using the smaller and more affordable Sonos Beam (Gen 2) instead. It's also important to note that it only has one HDMI port – it doesn't have a 'passthrough' port, like most soundbars do these days, so you lose the use of the port it's connected to.

But all up, the Arc is a pretty amazing bit of kit that can mimic impressive 3D sound from a sleek and self-contained unit, making it the best Dolby Atmos soundbar around if you want one without a separate subwoofer or speakers. Though being Sonos, you could add those later, of course…

a closeup of the Sonos Arc soundbar — The Sonos Arc soundbar was subject to a price increase. (Image credit: Future)

Sonos Arc: price and availability

Released in June 2020
Official price: $899 / £899 / AU$1,499

The Sonos Arc soundbar launched globally on June 10, 2020 and cost $799 / £799 / AU$1,399 as a standalone unit. However, after Sonos announced a nearly product-wide price hike, it now costs $899 / £899 / AU$1,499.

While this Atmos-enabled speaker is perfectly capable on its own, you can also add the Sonos Sub (Gen 3) for $749 / £749 / AU$1099 for huge bass upgrage, or a Sonos Sub Mini ($429 / £429 / AU$699) for a smaller bass boost. You can also add a pair of Sonos One SL units for rear left and right surround sound, which will set you back $199 / £179 / AU$289 each. These speakers have also increased in price since their launch.

The Arc has been designed to sit on the tabletop beneath your TV, but you can also mount it below a screen using the Sonos Arc compatible wall mount ($79 / £79 / AU$99).

A lot has happened in soundbar world since the Sonos Arc's release, and it's price looks a little on the high side if you just want big home theater sound. You can get something like the Samsung HW-Q930B, with sub and rear speakers included, for around the same price as the Sonos Arc alone. However, not everyone wants all those boxes, even when they're wireless, and when it comes to all-in-one soundbars, the Arc is good value compared to competition such as the Sony HT-A7000.

Sonos Arc: design and features

Width of a 55-inch TV
Simple setup
Taller than most soundbars

There was a time where you wouldn’t consider anything other than a multi speaker array for the best quality surround sound, but Dolby Atmos is leading the charge to deliver 3D audio effects from a more streamlined system – and the Sonos Arc is a great example of this.

The self contained single unit has only two essential inputs: a power cable and a HDMI in, and while an Ethernet socket and a Digital Optical to HDMI adapter are available out of the box, it’s only recommended you use them if you absolutely have to. Sonos doesn’t even include a remote, suggesting you instead connect the soundbar to your TV via the Audio Return Channel (ARC) and just use your TV remote (or control it through the new Sonos S2 smartphone app).

Key specs

Speakers: 5.0.2, 11 Class-D amplifiers, 8 woofers, 3 tweeters Dimensions: 45 x 3.4 x 4.5 inches (1141.7 x 87 x 115.7mm), 13.78 lbs (6.25 kg )
Finish: Matte Black or White
Connections: HDMI input (ARC), optical digital audio to HDMI converter, Bluetooth, Ethernet port, 802.11b,g Wi-Fi, Apple AirPlay 2, IR receiver
App: Android (no Trueplay), iOS
Subwoofer included: No

Even the color choices are simple with the Arc, being available in just back or white. And while you can of course pair the Sonos Arc soundbar with the Sonos Sub or a pair of One SL speakers for deeper bass and true surround sound, it’s been created to be an excellent audio solution on its own, which cuts down on overall clutter.

Since the Arc is intended to bounce audio off the roof and walls of your room to create a 3D soundscape, it’s wrapped on the top, front, and either end by metal, hole-punch speaker grilles that cover the various orientations of the Atmos driver array.

The soundbar sits a little higher than most at 3.4-inches (8.7cm), and this can be a problem with TVs that sit very low on their stands. But the built in IR repeater means it won’t block your remote connection, and this extra headroom gives a little more space to the upward firing Atmos drivers. At 45-inches (114.17cm) wide it’ll line up roughly with the edges of the average 55-inch TV, and its scale makes it suitable for anything up to 85 inches.

There is a simple status LED light that self-adjusts brightness according to ambient light and the subtle capacitive play/pause, volume and mute buttons help it blend into the background.

There’s two rear reinforced holes to wall mount the 13.78 lb (6.25 kg) unit for a forward facing mounting setup, but naturally the bass response is a little more concentrated when it can reflect off a tabletop surface.

While there is a Digital Optical converter included with the Arc, Atmos can only be carried over HDMI so by connecting it you’ll be sacrificing top quality sound. Dolby Atmos still isn't ubiquitous in terms of availability so making sure you have all the right bits can be a bit of a process. To see if your other current components are Atmos-ready check out our Dolby Atmos explainer.

a closeup of the Sonos Arc — The setup process is designed to be as simple as possible, all done through the Sonos S2 smartphone app. (Image credit: Future)

Much like everything else with the Arc, the setup process is designed to be as simple as possible, all done through the new Sonos S2 smartphone app. After the initial plug in, you’re asked to download the app from the App store or Google Play Store (if you don’t already have it).

Then, you'll need to follow a couple of prompts to connect the TV to Wi-Fi, any audio streaming or internet radio services you may already be signed up to, and your choice of Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. Other than this there’s not much else to the setup, it’s a relatively painless process (especially if you already have a Sonos account).

There is one last task you’ll want to perform before firing up your favorite movies, however: Trueplay Tuning. Trueplay is Sonos’ tool that analyzes the shape of a room in order to best balance the sound output. It can detect how the sound reflects, and tweak its audio to make everything sound as good as possible.

It makes a marked difference to detail overall, and to the clarity and precision of Dolby Atmos positional effects.

the sonos arc on a tv stand — Trueplay is Sonos’ proprietary adaptive soundscape tool which analyzes the shape of a room in order to best balance the sound output for everyone in it. (Image credit: Future)

There is one pretty considerable hitch, however: Trueplay is only compatible with iOS devices. This is a big inconvenience for non-Apple users and Sonos says that the diversity in Android hardware means it isn’t planning on developing it anytime soon.

Fortunately, you can borrow an iOS device to run the calibration in the soundbar’s final location and it’ll remain true as long as you keep things in vaguely the same place. It’s an inconvenience, but on balance it’s probably simpler than having to store a dedicated tuning microphone somewhere memorable after setup.

the side speakers on the sonos arc soundbar — The Sonos Arc contains eight elliptical woofers combine to deliver a solid overall bass response. (Image credit: Future)

Sonos Arc: audio performance

Excellent for both music and movies
Great surround sound for a single bar
Best with the right-shaped room

The Sonos Arc’s audio capabilities are seriously great. Eight elliptical woofers combine to deliver a solid overall bass response and the tuning balances a nice amount of warmth through the mids with an impressive level of clarity.

This precision is matched by the three silk dome tweeters that deliver particularly crisp highs with an impressive level of control. We were particularly taken by the unit's ability to deliver soundscapes that distinguished sound from individual instruments during particular arrangements without feeling disjointed.

This type of spatial precision makes sense when you consider that the Sonos Arc was designed to make the most of Dolby Atmos, an audio codec which separates sounds into object based audio tracks, so particular sources can be quickly shifted between speakers and bounced around the room more easily. So unsurprisingly, the Arc is very capable once you’ve tuned it to the room and it’s able to bounce effects around you.

It’s worth pointing out that because the system uses your room to actually get the sound around you there’s going to be some variation in the Arc’s ability to deliver surround sound.

We tested it in a room with a 20 foot (6 meter) vaulted ceiling and a nib wall behind the sofa, which makes it essentially impossible to bounce audio around behind you.

So while we were able to experience excellent height and left/right soundscape movement, we definitely didn’t get the same surround sound experience as a multi-speaker array.

That said, the speaker’s audio positioning was good enough that in a boxier media room we’d expect you’d be able to get surprisingly close to multi-speaker surround sound using just the Arc soundbar.

We really didn’t feel any desperate need to add a Sub to the Arc soundbar, there was more than enough powerful bass to allow you to feel those on-screen explosions or beat drops when turned up loud. We even felt the night mode settings that lower the bass EQ would be a useful feature for those in apartments with thin walls.

However, we have tested the Sonos Sub Mini with all three Sonos soundbars, and it does add extra power to the mix, no question – it's just not essential.

Should I buy the Sonos Arc?

Buy the Arc if ...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

Not convinced by our Sonos Arc review? We've picked three other soundbars you may want to consider below:

First reviewed: June, 2020
How we test: read TechRadar's reviews guarantee

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition (2021) review

10:30 pm | November 19, 2021

Author: admin | Category: Computers eReaders Gadgets Tablets | Comments: Off

Editor's Note

• Original review date: November 2021
• No refresh on the horizon
• Launch price: $189 / £179 / AU$289
• Official price now: $189 / £179 / AU$299

Updated: January 2024. The Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition still fills the gab between the standard Paperwhite and the ageing Kindle Oasis. And it remains one of the ereaders to get if your an audiobook fan thanks to its 32GB of onboard storage as standard. If you can do without the extra space then you can save a bit by going for the standard Kindle Paperwhite. Overall the prices have remains broadly the same as they were at launch outside of sales events like Black Friday, only the price appears to have increased a bit in Australia. For 2024, the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition is still an ereader worth considering, but do think about whether you really need its few extra features over cheaper Kindle models. The rest of this review remains as previously published.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition 2021: Two-minute review

Among Amazon’s current ereaders, the new Kindle Paperwhite (2021) is a middle-of-the-road model that has everything you need to read – but the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition has just a little bit more.

The Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition is essentially a rebranded version of the previous Paperwhite’s higher-storage configuration, with those aforementioned extras (wireless charging and an auto-sensing screen dimmer). We don’t feel the bonus perks justify the Signature Edition’s significantly higher price, but if someone did want to pay for more features, this is the model to choose.

The Signature Edition has the same design as the standard Kindle Paperwhite 2021, which is the first upgrade on the ereader since 2018. Both versions have some obvious improvements from the 2018 ereader, like smaller bezels around the screen and a bigger 6.8-inch display (up from six inches on their predecessor).

While the 2021 ereader doesn’t have a drastically different visual design than its predecessor, keeping the E Ink front display and plastic back, Amazon claims the screen is 10% brighter at maximum brightness than the 2018 model, though it keeps the same 300 pixels per inch density.

Kindle fans will cheer the addition of some long overdue Paperwhite upgrades including the swap out of the micro-USB for a USB-C charging port. The battery life has also increased to 10 weeks, per Amazon’s claims, which is significantly longer than the six weeks we got with the 2018 Paperwhite.

The Kindle Paperwhite 2021 still starts at 8GB of storage, which is enough space for plenty of books and some additional media. If you want the larger 32GB option, go with the Signature Edition.

The Signature Edition is an improvement for an ereader slightly more affordable than the luxe Kindle Oasis, especially with the wireless charging – a feature even the pricier model lacks.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition 2021 review: Price and release date

The Kindle Paperwhite 2021 remains Amazon’s mid-entry ereader, between the basic Kindle and the Kindle Oasis, and the Signature Edition is a pricier version that costs $189 (around £139 / AU$250). For that price, you get a higher internal storage (32GB) and some premium features like wireless charging and auto-adjusting brightness.

Given the extra features, it makes sense that the new Signature Edition got a price bump from the 32GB version of the 2018 Kindle Paperwhite, which retailed for $159 / £149 / AU$249. It still costs more than the standard Kindle Paperwhite 2021 with 8GB of storage, which has a price tag of $139 (around £100 / AU$190), but if you want more space for books and a bigger display for reading them, the Signature Edition is right for you.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition 2021 review: Design and display

The new Kindle Paperwhite 2021 hasn’t changed much from its predecessor in terms of looks, as it’s still an E Ink front screen and plastic black. It’s still a flat slate with no buttons, so you’ll have to swipe and tap to navigate around the display. This is fine for those with the patience to withstand the slow transitions when turning a page, but it can be annoying for faster readers trying to get through a real page-turner.

If you want buttons, you’ll want to opt for the Kindle Oasis, a more expensive model than the Signature Edition. But you should know that the Oasis hasn’t been updated since 2019, so the new Signature Edition has upgrades that its more expensive sibling lacks (the aforementioned wireless charging and an auto-dimmer).

New in the 2021 Paperwhites is a USB-C port at the bottom, which replaced the aging micro USB. Next to the port is the power button, which really only gets in the way if you’re standing the ereader up (say, for some product photos), so you’re unlikely to accidentally bump it and power off your device.

As previously mentioned, the new Kindle Paperwhite 2021 has a 6.8-inch E Ink display, which is noticeably larger than the 6-inch screen on the 2018 Paperwhite. But don’t expect the 2021 display to be any sharper since it still has the same 300 pixels per inch density.

Still, text is displayed clearly on the ereader. The Paperwhite’s front light allows users to read in the dark without harsh blue light. The ereader also features an adjustable warm light and a white-on-black dark mode to ease eye strain for those reading in dim surroundings.

The Paperwhite has an IPX8 waterproof rating (but no dust resistance), which means it can be submerged up to two meters for an hour – enough to save it from accidental spills or dips into the pool, but don’t leave it in water for too long.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition 2021 review: Reading

Like most ereaders, the Kindle Paperwhite 2021 has a non-glossy E Ink display that looks like paper. This means reading on a Kindle is easier on the eyes than reading books or viewing media on the LCD or OLED displays on tablets. The Paperwhite is also easy to hold, and pretty light at 205g (the Signature Edition is only slightly heavier at 208g). These Paperwhites are only a bit heavier than most smartphones.

The Paperwhite 2021 has Amazon’s Kindle operating system and interface, with simplified swipe navigation and an animation when turning pages. Unlike other ereaders that have buttons for getting around, you’ll only be able to swipe when navigating the Paperwhite.

Being restricted to swiping can be annoying if you’re used to different ereader interfaces. Even the smartphone Kindle app has different touch controls: tap on the center of the screen and you’ll bring up menu and navigation bars when reading on a phone. With the Signature Edition, you’ll need to tap the top of the display.

The Paperwhite also features Amazon’s assortment of reading tools: you can look up word definitions, sync pages between Kindle devices and apps via the Whispersync feature, and keep track of characters and terms with X-Ray. Note that these features are only available for ereader formats, though there are limited format, sizing, and font choices for other file formats like PDFs.

The Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition packs 32GB of storage, but with the OS and other core data taking up space, you’ll have about 27GB for storing media. Still, books usually only take up around 1MB apiece, so you can conceivably store tens of thousands of works without any issues. We downloaded our entire Kindle library and didn’t even use up a single gigabyte (full disclosure, we don’t have a lot of large-file formats like audiobooks or graphic novels).

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition 2021 review: Battery life

Amazon claims that the Kindle Paperwhite lasts up to 10 weeks on a full charge. Whether that holds true for you will depend on various factors. In our experience, we were able to drain 4% in a 24-hour period by keeping the display at maximum brightness while we casually read. Under those conditions, the battery wouldn’t last longer than about 3.5 weeks without a charge. The battery range can also fluctuate depending on other factors, including the length of reading sessions.

Suffice it to say that it’s tough to fully verify Amazon’s claims, but using energy-saving methods like keeping brightness down and keeping the Power Saver mode switched on (on by default) will definitely help the battery to last longer.

The ereader includes a USB-C cable in the box, but not a wall charger – you’ll have to supply that yourself. The maximum charge speed of 9W isn’t that fast compared to other devices, but it might not be necessary to have a faster one since you can fully charge the device in about 2.5 hours, according to Amazon estimates.

Exclusive to the Signature Edition is wireless charging, which is compatible with any Qi charger, but it can be finicky to get working. We were able to charge our device on a pad sometimes, but at other times we couldn’t get it in the right position to allow the wireless charger to do it’s thing.

Should you buy the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition?

Buy it if…

You want a sleeker ereader with less bezel

The Paperwhite 2021 design is a step up from the 2018 model, with thinner bezels and a larger 6.8-inch display. The new model looks a bit sharper, too.

You want more storage space on your ereader

While you could surely store a ton of books in the 8GB standard Kindle Paperwhite 2021, the Signature Edition’s 32GB storage ensures enough space for plenty of audiobooks and graphic novels, too.

You want more premium ereader perks at a (relatively) lower price

The Signature Edition has several perks like USB-C, wireless charging, and an auto-adjusting display that not even the more expensive Kindle Oasis has, making this a more enticing option (if you don’t need button navigation).

Don’t buy it if…

You want to read comics (or anything in color) on your ereader

E-Ink screens like on the Signature Edition are monochrome, which is great for battery life but not for media that deserves to be seen in color, like comic books. If you like colorful graphic novels and vivid comic books, opt for a traditional tablet like the Amazon Fire HD 8 or even a cheap iPad.

You want a more premium-feeling ereader

The Signature Edition has smaller bezels, but still the same plastic case and back. If you want a more premium ereader, pick up the pricier Kindle Oasis (which has a more refined metal frame).

You want an ereader that’s easier to hold in one hand

The Signature Edition has a symmetric design that looks nice, but can be tough to use one-handed. If you like reading on the go or while you cook, opt for the Kindle Oasis or the Kobo Libra H20, both of which have asymmetric layouts conducive to holding with one hand.

First reviewed: November 2021

Microsoft Surface Pro 7 review

9:09 pm |

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Laptops | Tags: Battery Life, CPU, Microsoft Surface Pro, RAM | Comments: Off

Editor's Note

• Original review date: October 2019
• Launch price: Starts at $749 / £799 / AU$1,249
• Target price now: No longer available

Update – September 2024: At five years old, it shouldn't be surprising that the Surface Pro 7 is no longer available for purchase - and frankly, you wouldn't want to buy one now anyway.

That's because the latest model, the Microsoft Surface Pro 11, is an absolute beast compared to this outdated version of Microsoft's signature Windows tablet. The newfound power of Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite chip, combined with Microsoft's improved Prism emulation for running Windows on Arm-based processors, has arguably made the Pro 11 the best Surface device ever - a far cry from the rather wonky SQ-series chips powering older Surface devices like this.

Of course, those newfound powers and updated design (plus half a decade of inflation...) mean that the Surface Pro 11 is a bit pricier, starting at $999.99 /£1,049.99 / AU$1,899.99. For my money, though, it's well worth the new price - as someone who bought a first-generation Surface way back in 2012, I'm over the moon to see the product line finally achieve greatness.

Original review follows.

Microsoft Surface Pro 7: Two-Minute Review

We had hoped the Surface Pro 7 would have fixed all the issues that the Surface Pro 6 had when it was released. But its successor unfortunately does not do much to right the ship and establish itself as one of the best tablets. This was the perfect opportunity to get the product line back on course but this update ends up falling short where it matters.

That’s not to say that there are no improvements here. The Surface Pro 7 comes with an increasingly important USB-C port as well as some updated components. But, there’s not much else beyond that making this a hard device to recommend unless you want to stick with the Surface Pro line and have an outdated model. In fact, if you’re willing to spend the extra cash, the newer release, Surface Pro 8, is the better machine.

As with the Surface Laptop 4, this shows that Microsoft can still make great portables when it makes the effort. It’s just that the Microsoft Surface Pro 7 comes up short. If you’re on a budget, however, you could potentially get it at a good price now that a newer model is available.

Microsoft Surface Pro 7: Price and Availability

Spec sheet

Here is the Surface Pro 7 configuration sent to TechRadar for review:

CPU: 1.1GHz Intel Core i5-1035G4 (quad-core, 6MB cache, up to 3.7GHz boost)
Graphics: Intel Iris Plus Graphics
RAM: 8GB DDR4x
Screen: 12.3-inch, 2,736 x 1,824 PixelSense display (Contrast ratio: 1,500:1, 100% sRGB color, 10-point multi-touch, 3:2 aspect ratio)
Storage: 256GB SSD
Ports: 1 x USB 3.0, 1 x USB-C 3.1, microSDXC card reader (UHS-I), headphone/mic jack
Connectivity: 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6 (2 x 2 MIMO), Bluetooth 5
Cameras: 8MP rear-facing, auto-focus camera (1080p HD); 5MP front-facing, 1080p HD camera
Weight: 1.7 pounds (771g)
Size: 11.5 x 7.9 x 0.33 inches (292 x 201 x 8.5mm; W x D x H)

The new Surface Pro 7 starts at $749 / £799 / AU$1,249 as with previous versions and comes without the Type Cover ($129, £149, AU$249) and Surface Pen ($99, £99, AU$139) included. That means this price is fairly par for the course.

That base configuration gets you an Intel Core i3 processor (CPU) 4GB of memory (RAM) and a 128GB solid-state drive (SSD), with the latter points upgradeable to as much as 16GB and 1TB capacity, respectively.

This pricing, again, is inherited from previous versions, but it's still not a great deal when you're spending upwards of 1,000 bucks or quid to get the full experience with the accessories that are still sold separately.

The Surface Pro 7 that we’re reviewing here will cost you $1,199 in the US. Again, that’s without the Surface Pen and Type Cover that Microsoft has included in our review sample. To get the full Surface Pro experience at this configuration, you’ll be spending around $1,460 in the US.

That said, a similarly configured 12.9-inch iPad Pro – with 256GB of storage, the Smart Keyboard Folio, and second-generation Apple Pencil – originally cost around $1,480 in the US. Apple is just as guilty for selling accessories separately that are arguably central to the experience.

So it doesn’t look like Microsoft is way out with its pricing, and you’re getting a full mobile PC with Microsoft’s tablet option, but it’s nevertheless a bit egregious.

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The display bezels are awfully thick for a tablet in 2019. (Image credit: Future)

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The Surface Pen is still not included in the box. (Image credit: Future)

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Not much has changed about the Surface Pro 7 design from last year’s model. (Image credit: Future)

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The Type Cover keyboard now has deeper-feeling travel as well as a bouncier feel as our fingers leave the keys. (Image credit: Future)

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The touchscreen is just as sharp, vibrant and responsive to touch as the previous generation. (Image credit: Future)

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The device still measures 11.5 x 7.9 x 0.33 inches (292 x 201 x 8.5mm). (Image credit: Future)

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The tablet also still comes in the same matte black and silver aluminum finishes. (Image credit: Future)

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This is essentially the same Surface Pro you’ve known for years. (Image credit: Future)

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We appreciate the Alcantara fabric that makes a return with this Type Cover. (Image credit: Future)

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Microsoft has finally included a USB-C port. (Image credit: Future)

Microsoft Surface Pro 7: Design

Microsoft may have finally included a USB-C port, but absolutely nothing else has changed about the Surface Pro 7 design from last year’s model. The device still measures 11.5 x 7.9 x 0.33 inches (292 x 201 x 8.5mm) and weighs 1.7 pounds (770g). The tablet also still comes in the same matte black and silver aluminum finishes.

The tablet's touchscreen still comes in at 12.3 inches on the diagonal with a 2,736 x 1,824 resolution (267 pixels per inch) and 3:2 aspect ratio. It's just as sharp, vibrant and responsive to touch as the previous generation, which was already quite impressive. But, again, this specification hasn’t changed in years, and could use an update at least in features, such as HDR and enhanced color gamut coverage. Also, the bezels are awfully thick for a tablet of this price in 2019.

Now having issued practically the same tablet for two years, it’s becoming clear that either Microsoft has reached its limits on the original Surface Pro design, which is unlikely, or the company is simply no longer interested in tweaking the Surface Pro any more – except for tinkering with the Pro X.

Instead, it feels like Microsoft is far more inspired by its upcoming dual-screen devices, which will likely herald the future of the company’s hardware design – depending on how successful they are.

As for the most major Surface Pro 7 design change, we get USB-C at long last, but it’s on the USB 3.1 standard and not Thunderbolt 3. With that, you get the versatility of this new connection without the raw throughput of the Thunderbolt 3 technology.

Apple and countless other competitors at similar price points have widely adopted Thunderbolt 3, which makes its absence in the Surface Pro 7 more glaring. While Apple didn't including it in the iPad Pro, it did with the similarly-priced 13-inch MacBook Pro, for example.

Now, Microsoft has improved the device's studio microphones for stronger accuracy when using Cortana with your voice, but that's such a minor improvement it's hardly worth mentioning.

In Microsoft’s favor, however, the Type Cover keyboard now has deeper-feeling travel as well as a bouncier feel as our fingers leave the keys. This is an upgrade for sure, though will certainly be an adjustment for longtime Surface Pro users – at least for a few minutes. Meanwhile, the Type Cover’s touchpad remains unchanged, and is just as smooth and responsive to the touch as ever.

We also appreciate the Alcantara fabric that makes a return with this Type Cover, which appears and feels to be more tightly woven than before. Hopefully this will make the fabric more stain resistant, as Microsoft claims.

All told, this is essentially the same Surface Pro you’ve known for years, only now it features a more versatile USB-C port in lieu of a DisplayPort connection. Why not drop the original USB-A as well for another USB-C? Who knows. There is a lot that could have been done to improve this product at the same price that simply wasn’t done, so forgive us for being nonplussed by the Surface Pro 7 design and feel.

Microsoft Surface Pro 7: Performance

Benchmarks

Here’s how the Surface Pro 7 performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

PCMark 8 Home: 3,312
Geekbench 4 (Single-Core): 5,904; (Multi-Core): 17,512
Cinebench CPU: 559; Graphics: 61 fps
PCMark 8 Battery Life: 3 hours and 12 minutes
TechRadar Battery Life Test: 6 hours and 2 minutes

The Surface Pro 7 was the first of its kind using one of Intel’s 10-nanometer (nm) processors (CPUs) across all specifications, and the numbers certainly show that.

With that in mind, expect a device that’s much faster at processing both everyday tasks and more commonplace ones, not to mention stronger graphics potential now with Intel Iris Plus graphics over an Intel UHD graphics processor (GPU).

The latter should contribute to stronger media streaming, especially at higher resolutions, as well as a slightly expanded gaming profile.

The Surface Pro 6 of 2018 employed a 14nm Intel Core CPU, which was fine for the job (and arguably still is), but this CPU has brought that transistor size down to 10nm, which means more transistors in the same overall CPU die space. Basically, with more transistors comes better performance, and it shows in the numbers.

For example, the Surface Pro 7 gets an impressive 25% boost in the Geekbench 4 multi-core test over the Surface Pro 6. Likewise, the Cinebench graphics test sees a 15% increase in performance in Pro 7 versus Pro 6, hitting the almighty 60 frames per second mark.

Could you expect to game on the Surface Pro 7? Sure, as Intel promises smooth 1080p gaming from its latest CPUs, but we certainly wouldn't buy this tablet for that purpose. You might be able to get Fortnite to a playable frame rate at 1080p, but why bother when you could grab a solid gaming laptop for the same price?

In short, this tablet is going to chew through all ordinary computing tasks, and serve as a fine portable multitasker to boot that can handle the odd gaming session over lunch. The additional graphics brunt should also serve digital artists well to boot. It’s all in all a major bump forward in performance that power users will definitely see, but that the average user likely won’t notice.

Battery life

Microsoft Surface Pro 7: Battery Life

However, when it comes to lasting power, we’re not seeing the same levels of battery life exhibited by the previous generation Surface Pro and its 14nm Intel Core CPU. In our tests, the Surface Pro 7 fell more than two hours short of the 8 hours and 45 minutes that the 2018 Pro 6 achieved in our local battery rundown test.

Likewise, the Surface Pro 7 came up more than 45 minutes short of the PCMark 8 battery test, with the Pro 6 clocking in at a straight 4 hours.

You would normally expect battery life to increase when moving to supposedly more efficient processor architecture. However, Core i5 and i7 versions of Intel’s CPUs made major boosts to graphical performance, which could come at the expense of battery life.

Hardware manufacturers and software makers – of which Microsoft is both – have had half a decade now to optimize their products around Intel’s 14nm silicon. They’ve likely had a fraction of that time to prepare for and adapt to Intel’s 10nm chips, and this could explain why the Surface Pro 7's battery life is worse than the previous model's.

Oddly enough, if it’s peak battery life you’re after, you may be better off picking up one of Microsoft’s Surface Pro 6 models. That is, at least until the company improves the Surface Pro 7 battery life via firmware patches, which is entirely possible, and we'd argue quite likely.

Microsoft Surface Pro 7: Software and Features

Like just about every Surface before it, the Surface Pro 7 isn’t necessarily feature-rich or has many key pieces of software to discuss, which has its pros and cons. The major pro here is that there is practically no bloatware on this tablet at all, as it’s issued directly from Microsoft.

Another pro is the Windows Hello facial recognition, which uses the tablet’s infrared camera next to its webcam, and is as speedy and accurate as before. Once again, we can open the tablet from its Type Cover and it’s already logged us into Windows 10. Talk about instant-on performance.

However, there is basically nothing else in the way of distinctive software and features. If it’s on this tablet, you can get it on any other Windows 10 tablet. That includes the Your Phone feature, which allows you to sync up an Android phone with Windows to see and respond to text messages, edit calendar entries or even take calls.

Microsoft Surface Pro 7: Our Verdict

All things considered, the Microsoft Surface Pro 7 is one of the company’s most powerful Surface tablets. However, that boost in power appears to come at a cost to battery life.

If you’re willing to wait for those battery life improvements to come, and you don’t necessarily need all day staying power, then by all means jump in on the most technologically advanced Surface ever. But, know that those technological gains aren’t exactly massive, and come at the expense of other aspects of performance, specifically battery.

We honestly would have expected a bit more advancements from the seventh Surface Pro tablet. USB-C is nice, but for a device at this price should be Thunderbolt 3, and the display bezels are awfully thick for a tablet in 2019. It appears that Microsoft has saved all of this year’s advancements for its Pro X, which is a shame for anyone looking to pay the same price. In short, the Surface Pro 7 isn’t far enough of a leap over the Pro 6 for us to recommend it to either upgraders or folks just getting into Microsoft’s tablet.

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First reviewed November 2019

How We Test

We pride ourselves on our independence and our rigorous review-testing process, offering up long-term attention to the products we review and making sure our reviews are updated and maintained - regardless of when a device was released, if you can still buy it, it's on our radar.

SpeedLine POS: Pricing

Despite the fact that the SpeedLine POS system is designed specifically with pizza outlets in mind, it doesn't have an off-the-shelf pricing system. Naturally this is largely down to the fact that businesses vary in size, have varying numbers of staff who will use the point of sale system and different customer needs to boot.

If you’re interested in exploring the capabilities of this pizza POS system then it’s a good idea to sign up for a demo in the first instance. This will let you see the SpeedLine POS software in action, how the SpeedLine POS hardware could work in your own business environment and also check that it will integrate with any other systems your outlet may be running.

The major benefit of the SpeedLine POS system is that it’s an all-in-one solution, which means that you’ll be able to get software, hardware and the whole thing installed via one source. Of course, what you actually get depends on your business needs as well as the complexity of your menu and ordering options, along with how many terminals will be required.

You could therefore find that a custom quote from the SpeedLine POS sales team might seem higher than some other providers, but the initial cost is tempered by the fact that there are no on-going subscription fees. So, while there may be a seemingly sizeable outlay early on, there is the opportunity to claw back this value over a longer period of time.

SpeedLine POS: Perks

As part of your POS search, it's useful to keep in mind the perks you get from partnering with a pizza delivery-specific POS such as SpeedLine and its dedicated tools including:

✔ SpeedLine LiveMaps visual dispatch

✔ SpeedDine online ordering

✔ SpeedLine Pay

✔ SpeedLine Inventory

✔ SpeedLine Menu Designer Topping Matrix

In addition SpeedLine POS empowers your team to easily keep on top of common pizza business tasks, such as the following:

Monitor delivery statistics all day
Cut costs with accurate forecasts and schedule planning
Ensure accurate street addresses
Flag side orders to avoid missed items on deliveries
Improve rate of on-time deliveries
Make more with consistent delivery zones and fees

SpeedLine POS: Features

The pizza delivery business, and indeed the whole food delivery landscape have changed dramatically since COVID-19 arrived. As a result, it's now more important than ever to ensure you have the right POS system for your pizza delivery requirements.

The SpeedLine POS system has therefore been carefully adapted to better handle pizza deliveries in the wake of the pandemic. SpeedLine has tweaked its POS system to meet customer requests for a wider range of alternative delivery and pick-up options. Much of this development work has resulted in the SpeedLine POS system requiring much less physical contact with the end customer.

At the same time, however, the system is now much more efficient. A combination of neat SpeedLine POS integrations, the beefed up SpeedLine POS hardware and software, plus a much-improved SpeedLine POS app, has produced a much more rounded end user-experience.

SpeedLine POS is now able to better support customer needs having also introduced SpeedLine Pay, which allows restaurants and takeout businesses to offer the ability to pay at the table, curbside and also on delivery.

Crucially for pizza delivery businesses the new SpeedLine Pay system also tackles common security and payment issues, with the ability to handle fraudulent and card-not-present transactional issues more effectively.

SpeedLine Pay works by pairing with an EMV card reader using either a Windows-based tablet or an iOS device. This automatically offers more freedom for the customer, allowing them to pay at their table, in a vehicle or on pickup using tap to pay simplicity. As a result, SpeedLine POS offers more credit card security for both business and customer, while also reducing transaction fee overheads for the former.

SpeedLine POS: Interface and in use

SpeedLine POS monitor and display screen — The SpeedLine POS interface is user-friendly yet incredibly powerful (Image Credit: SpeedLine) (Image credit: SpeedLine)

The SpeedLine POS, including the SpeedLine POS software and SpeedLine POS hardware respectively, will be installed locally. While it’s not a cloud-based arrangement and interface is slightly dated in design, using it everyday is still very quick and easy. You get off to a head start because the SpeedLine staff can set up and implement the point of sale system for you.

Once that’s in place the SpeedLine POS system enjoys much praise for its powerful but easy to use software design. Most obviously, the point of sale interface offers control over online ordering and menu management, but it’s also a great tool for managing inventory, allowing outlets to forecast demand, along with offering a huge array of customizable options.

For example, the online ordering and delivery journey includes everything needed for staff to process requests in a fast and efficient manner. There are detailed delivery reports, automated customer messaging about the status of orders, a practical visual dispatch feature that boosts delivery efficiency and, of course, simple everyday tools including the option that allows customers to pay at the door using their credit card.

Crucially, SpeedLine POS possesses a formidable suite of delivery dispatch and driver management tools. The great thing about using this map-based system is that it allows staff to coordinate deliveries and their respective drivers much more effectively using the simple but slick on-screen interface.

This is complimented by the SpeedLine POS on-screen menu system, which whilst it is certainly busy, offers unrivalled management of pizza-making ingredients plus all of those ancillaries, such as soda, sides and so on.

SpeedLine POS: Support

A very big part of the appeal with the SpeedLine POS system is its beefy levels of support. Although this point of sale system might not be the cheapest to initially implement, SpeedLine POS enjoys frequent praise from its customers and a lot of that is based around the levels of support on offer.

The support journey starts early on, and after working with the sales team to ensure you’ve got the right package there follows a series of steps from support staff to get things up and running. SpeedLine POS integration will need the help of some experts, and this comes as part of the package.

For product support there’s the opportunity to speak to an in-house and fully qualified technician, toll-free and this is offered 365 days a year. The SpeedLine support options are flexible too, with a standard SpeedLine Support subscription offering unlimited support along with system upgrades, which is seen as a ‘best value’ option by many.

Meanwhile, if you have multiple stores, it may be advantageous to use your own IT staff to offer second level support after receiving full training from SpeedLine, which comes with certification too.

There’s SpeedLine Live Assist too, which can connect with your POS stations remotely to tackle any technical issues or help with staff training. Crucially, alongside using secure access for any technical hands-on help, all installation work and training is covered by specialists who are QIR certified. This means that they have been trained by the PCI Security Standards Council to meet its specific guidelines.

SpeedLine POS delivery map tracking software — The dynamic map system in SpeedLine POS allows tracking of both drivers and their deliveries (Image Credit: SpeedLine) (Image credit: SpeedLine)

Let’s also not forget the SpeedLine POS customer support website, which is an online hub that comes packed with greats resources. There are training tutorials and videos, documentation, critical update advisories, constantly updated guides showcasing new features and functions plus the option to order more hardware and software if your business is expanding.

Rounding things out is the Premiere Support Services option from SpeedLine POS. This can be really useful if you need to make frequent menu changes, or add upgrades to systems. The service offers one hour of menu changes per month, for each of your stores that are in operation. It’s a feature that’s worth thinking about if you’re looking for someone to help take the strain.

SpeedLine POS: Security

SpeedLine POS can be used to process payments via major payment gateways such as Worldpay and Monetra and that’s good news for security. Any transactions processed use end-to-end encryption, plus there’s the added benefit of flexibility.

Speedline POS is a secure POS system that's EMV and PCI compliant — SpeedLine POS has the added advantage of great support, installation and training (Image Credit: SpeedLine) (Image credit: SpeedLine)

With customers wanting more ways to pay you can use secure processing no matter if they’re making an in-person payment, an online order, want to use a mobile wallet or prefer to pay by credit card when their food gets delivered.

With security being of such a concern for both businesses and customers alike it’s also reassuring to know that the SpeedLine POS system is fully PCI and EMV compliant. This provides additional reassurance to those ordering food through your outlet while your business gets the benefit of secure and fully-encrypted payment processing.

The competition

Aloha POS Systems: Aloha POS Essentials and Silver Hardware — (Image credit: Aloha POS Systems)

If you’re looking for the best POS system for pizza shop requirements, either to upgrade or for a new food delivery venture then SpeedLine POS is certainly one to consider. However, there are alternatives out there, alongside the best POS systems aimed at a wider market.

The main difference to consider about SpeedLine POS is that it’s not a cloud-based system. This might be perfect for some needs, but if you’re running a pizza delivery operation that requires a cloud POS it’s also worth considering the likes of Revel POS, NCR's Aloha POS, the Upserve POS and Toast's point of sale system.

Similarly, TouchBistro is worthy of a look too, although this is tailored more to restaurants rather than catering businesses dealing with customer deliveries in mind.

Much the same can be said for Lightspeed POS, which has more of the same beefy features and functionality that makes it suitable for use in the catering industry and, in particular, the restaurant sector.

Final verdict: Is Speedline the right bite for your business?

Business team in suits eat pizza together — (Image credit: Getty Images)

SpeedLine POS is very clearly a niche point of sale product, but the seemingly small slice of the market it serves is huge. Pizza delivery has and continues to be a big business opportunity thanks to low cost fresh ingredients and high mark-up, so having the right point of sale system in place is crucial. We like the way that SpeedLine POS has a raft of features and functions that can boost efficiency and make the customer experience a better one.

We’ve been really impressed with the level of positivity shown towards SpeedLine POS support staff too. The help with integration and ongoing support once the SpeedLine POS is in place is hugely impressive.

Day-to-day features such as being able to dynamically modify menus, often with SpeedLine POS support assistance and the ability to collate reams of customer data with ease, also makes it appealing.

While there is a reasonable cost involved with the implementation of a point of sale system like this one, any pizza delivery business looking for a non-cloud based setup that’s easy to use will doubtless warm to SpeedLine POS. It’s certainly got plenty going for it.

Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020) review

1:08 am |

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Laptops Macbooks | Tags: CPU, RAM | Comments: Off

Two-minute review

The MacBook Air (M1, 2020) is now several years old, but it still remains one of the best laptops you can buy today. Why? Well, it's almost all thanks to the Apple M1 processor it launched with. This was Apple's first highly-acclaimed, impressively powerful ARM-based chip, under its hood, giving it just the right boost it’s long deserved, after years of being powered by Intel chips.

The M1 chip inside this MacBook Air proved that Apple could make its own chips that didn't just match what the likes of Intel and AMD were putting out - but it could surpass them as well. The performance of the MacBook Air (M1, 2020) was incredibly impressive when it launched, and it still remains an excellent performer today.

Sure, Apple has now released a successor, the MacBook Air (M2, 2022), which comes with hardware improvements and a brilliant new design, and it's also since launched new M3 MacBooks (though no MacBook Air... yet), but as the years have gone on, the M1 MacBook Air has dropped in price, making an already great value laptop (which launched at $999 / £999 / AU$1,599) even better value.

It also continues to run applications well, and supports macOS Sonoma, the latest version of Apple's operating system. Its long battery life, which is again down to the M1 chip, which is impressively efficient, remains ahead of many more modern (and expensive) Windows 11 laptops as well.

That's why Apple, with a break from tradition, has continued to sell the MacBook Air (M1, 2020), even after the release of its M2-powered successor.

Price-wise, Apple nailed it at launch, undercutting a lot of Windows-powered ultrabooks. Of course, this certainly isn't a cheap laptop, but nor does it feel overpriced, especially compared to its similarly specced rivals - something that Apple has been accused of in the past. However, nearly four years after it was released, the MacBook Air (M1, 2020) has enjoyed several price cuts (especially when the M2 version later launched), so if you can get it in a sale, this is even better value for money, and is one of the reasons we also recommend it as one of the best laptops for students as well.

Apple has also been accused of caring more about aesthetics of its products than the actual features and functions, but with the MacBook Air (M1, 2020), we actually think the opposite is true. This is because while the MacBook Air has some huge changes on the inside - most noticeably the M1 chip - on the outside, nothing has really changed.

So, this model looks (and feels) just like the previous model (and the model before that). For people who love the look of the MacBook Air, this may be good news, but we feel it's a bit of a missed opportunity. The M1-based MacBook Air is such a revolutionary and exciting device, we'd have loved to have seen Apple take a few risks with the design as well, even if it was just by making it lighter, or slimming the bezels down that surround the screen. Funnily enough, this is exactly what Apple did do with the M2 MacBook Air, which came with an overhauled design - but also a higher price tag.

When it comes to performance of the M1 MacBook Air, however, we have no qualms. The M1 has proved to be a complete beast that puts Intel to shame in many respects. During our time with the MacBook Air (M1, 2020), we were incredibly impressed with how it performed.

macOS runs well, and the visual overhaul of the operating system offers a nice change, while still feeling familiar. The fact that both new and legacy apps run well on the M1 chip is very commendable, and so far there don't seem to be any issues with running apps built for Intel Macs using Rosetta 2, the tool used by Apple to allow older Mac apps to run on the M1. Also, the fact that you can now run thousands of iOS apps and games pretty much flawlessly is a huge win as well.

Battery life also seems to be fantastic, and the fanless design is nice, as it means the laptop runs silently; we do have our concerns about how it manages heat, however.

In the end, we'd have liked Apple to have been a bit more ambitious with the design of the MacBook Air (M1, 2020) – a bold reinvention of the laptop to match the internal hardware and software overhauls would have made this an even more exciting device.

Apple MacBook Air (M1,2020) on a gray surface — (Image credit: Future)

Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020): Price and availability

Starts at $999 / £999 / AU$1,599
Cheaper than Windows alternatives

Spec sheet

Here is the MacBook Air (M1, 2020) configuration sent to TechRadar for review:

CPU: Apple M1 (8-core)
Graphics: Integrated 7-core GPU
RAM: 8GB Unified PDDR4X-4266 MHz SDRAM
Screen: 13.3-inch, 2,560 x 1,600 Retina True Tone display (backlit LED, IPS)
Storage: 256GB PCIe SSD
Ports: 2x Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C), 3.5mm headphone jack
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5
Camera: 720p FaceTime HD webcam
Weight: 2.8 pounds (1.29kg)
Size: 11.97 x 8.36 x 0.63 inches (30.41 x 21.24 x 1.61cm; W x D x H)

Prices for the MacBook Air (M1, 2020) start at $999 / £999 / AU$1,599. As usual, there are a number of specifications available at launch, and you can further customize these to get the MacBook Air (2020) that best suits your needs and budget.

The base model features an M1 chip with an 8-core CPU and 7-core GPU, 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD.

There's also a higher-specced model, priced at $1,249 / £1,249 / AU$1,949, which has an M1 chip with an 8-core CPU and 8-core GPU, 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. So, for that extra money you're getting an additional core in the GPU, and double the storage.

You can also configure these models to have 16GB of RAM (for $200 / £200 / AU$300 extra), and up to 2TB of SSD storage (for $800 / £800 / AU$1,200).

For comparison, the MacBook Air (2020) launched earlier in 2020 also started at $999 / £999 / AU$1,599, which was actually cheaper than the launch price of the MacBook Air (2019).

So you're getting the MacBook Air (M1, 2020) for the same price as the earlier model, which we commend Apple for. If you bought a MacBook Air a few months ago, however, you may feel a little annoyed that it’s already outdated.

That $999 / £999 / AU$1,599 entry point isn’t just the cheapest way of getting an Apple laptop; it’s an incredibly competitive price point that undercuts many of the best 13-inch laptops running Windows 10, such as the Dell XPS 13. If you thought Apple’s laptops were overpriced compared to the competition, think again.

Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020): Design

Thin and light design
Completely silent when in use

We've mentioned how, thanks to its competitive price, the MacBook Air (M1, 2020) is helping challenge people’s preconceptions about MacBooks – but the MacBook Air, along with the MacBook Pro 13-inch (M1, 2020) and Mac mini (M1, 2020), also offer strong rebuttals to the criticism, often leveled at the Apple, that its products are more style than substance.

People often dismiss Apple as making products that look good, but that don’t do anything particularly revolutionary when it comes to the actual hardware. With the MacBook Air (M1, 2020), however, it's the complete opposite.

With this laptop, Apple has actually done some really exciting things on the inside – switching to its own M1 chip, and building macOS Big Sur from the ground up to take advantage of it – while leaving the actual design of the device completely unchanged. This is both good news and bad news.

First, the good news. For many people, the iconic design of the MacBook Air is pretty much perfect, so they don't see the need for any radical change. At the same time, by simply offering minor spec bumps every year, the MacBook Air was in danger of being outclassed by more ambitious rivals. So, by concentrating on revolutionizing the hardware of the MacBook Air, and not tinkering with the design, Apple is doing something many of its critics have argued it should do: focus on the unglamorous, yet essential, stuff.

But what about the bad news? Well, because the MacBook Air (M1, 2020) promises to be such a big revolution, the fact that it looks – and feels – exactly the same as previous MacBook Airs is a little disappointing, to put it mildly.

The MacBook Air (M1, 2020)’s dimensions of 0.16–0.63 x 11.97 x 8.36 inches (0.41–1.61 x 30.41 x 21.24cm) and weight of 2.8 pounds (1.29kg) are exactly the same as those of both the MacBook Air (2020) and the 2019 model, and virtually the same as those of the 2018 Air, which is a bit lighter.

On the outside, then, this MacBook Air looks identical to the three previous models – and it means that the excitement that comes with pulling the MacBook Air from its packaging is somewhat dulled, particular if you've owned one of those earlier machines.

There had been rumors that the move to Apple’s own silicon would result in lighter devices, but this isn't the case. One big design change that has been enabled by the M1 chip, though, is that the MacBook Air (M1, 2020) is now fanless. This means the internals keep cool enough under workloads without the need for fans to kick in and cool them down. There’s a catch to this (which we’ll get to in a bit), but it means the MacBook Air (M1, 2020) runs virtually silently, and it’s very impressive.

The lack of fans could have allowed Apple to make the MacBook Air thinner and lighter, so it’s interesting that it remains the same size and weight as its predecessors.

On opening up the MacBook Air (M1, 2020) you’re again presented with a sight that's familiar, and in a good way. The best addition to the previous MacBook Air’s design, the Magic Keyboard, is again included here. It really is a lovely keyboard to work on, feeling tactile and responsive despite how flat the keys are.

A Touch ID button is again situated above the keyboard, and it remains the best fingerprint scanner we’ve used on a laptop. Too many of the fingerprint scanners on Windows laptops struggle to log us in reliably, but the Touch ID button here logged us in successfully pretty much every time, even when we’d not completely covered the scanner with a finger.

The screen is also virtually the same as the one on the MacBook Air (2020), except for one big difference. So, it’s still 13.3 inches with a 400-nit LED backlit display, and a Retina display of 2560 x 1600 resolution, and comes with Apple's True Tone technology, which automatically adjusts the color temperature on the screen based on the ambient light.

What’s new here is that the MacBook Air (M1, 2020)’s screen now supports the P3 wide color gamut, which results in more accurate, true-to-life images. P3 support used to be only found in the more expensive MacBook Pros, so it’s great to see Apple bring this feature to its more affordable MacBook Air lineup. If you’re a photographer or video editor who requires accurate colors, you no longer have to automatically go for a MacBook Pro.

The screen is also surrounded by those big thick bezels that have been a staple of the MacBook Air’s design for ages now, and which leave this laptop feeling a little dated. Devices such as the Dell XPS 13 and the Huawei MateBook X (2020) offer incredibly thin bezels around the display, and not only does it make these devices look more modern, it means the makers can actually reduce the overall size of the laptop further while offering the same-size screen.

Yep, you read that right: we think Huawei has the edge over Apple when it comes to thin and light laptop design. Strange times indeed.

The webcam above the screen is also unchanged from last time, with the same 720p FaceTime webcam. The 720p resolution feels distinctly outdated when most competitors offer 1080p, and with more people spending more time working from home these days, we’d have liked Apple to have given the webcam a boost.

However, the company claims that thanks to the M1 chip, the image signal processor has been overhauled, giving the webcam supposedly better noise reduction and dynamic range, along with auto white balance. We’ve only used the webcam for a limited time so far, and it seemed fine, if not mind-blowing.

Port-wise you get the same two Thunderbolt 3 ports and an audio jack as on recent MacBook Airs. The Thunderbolt 3 ports support charging, and can be used to power external monitors, and transfer data up to 40Gb/s. We’re glad to see that Apple’s move to its own M1 chip, rather than Intel, hasn't meant the loss of the Thunderbolt ports (Thunderbolt is an interface developed by Intel).

Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020): Performance

Excellent performance
Can now run iOS apps as well

As soon as we began using the MacBook Air (M1, 2020) we were impressed. It boots up quickly (an additional benefit of the M1 chip), Big Sur feels fast and responsive, and the look for the operating system really impresses. The interface has a more modern look, with bright, vibrant colors that really show off the MacBook Air's screen. It's also less cluttered, so you're not overwhelmed by icons and options, while the Control Center has been redesigned based on the version in iOS. It looks neater, and it's easier to use.

Benchmarks

Here’s how the Apple MacBook Air (M1,2020) performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

Cinebench R23 CPU: Single-Core: 1,493; Multi-core: 6,586
Geekbench 5 Single-Core: 1,729; Multi-Core: 7,583
Battery Life (TechRadar movie test): 11 hours and 15 minutes

All applications that you usually run in macOS on Intel-based MacBooks should work fine with the MacBook Air (M1, 2020), thanks to some software wizardry using Apple's Rosetta 2 tool, which allows apps to run on the new architecture.

We tried a mix of both new apps built for the M1 chip, as well as legacy apps built for Intel Macs, and running via Rosetta, and there was no noticeable difference in terms of performance. The fact that you can seamlessly run older apps on the MacBook Air really is commendable – the M1 chip is based on ARM architecture, and one of the biggest drawbacks of Windows 10 on devices running on ARM-based chips is that you're limited to running only ARM-compatible apps from the Windows Store. There's a rather sparse selection of these, and this severely limits the usability of these devices. Microsoft needs to come up with its own Rosetta, pronto.

Not only can you run pretty much any existing Mac app on the MacBook Air (M1, 2020), but thanks to the M1 chip using similar architecture to iPhones, you can now run any iOS app or game as well. This brings a huge amount of new tools to the MacBook, and is genuinely exciting. iOS apps and games are more feature-rich and graphically impressive than ever before, and having access to these could be a game-changer. We played a few iOS games, and they ran perfectly on the MacBook Air – suddenly, the MacBook has become a decent gaming machine.

We were able to have quite a few apps running all at once, swapping between them with ease, and the Apple MacBook Air (M1,2020) kept up brilliantly. Throughout our tests it felt fast and capable. Moving a large 14GB file from an external SSD took less than a minute, for example. This really does feel like a fast and spritely machine.

Apple claims the MacBook Air is three times faster than other laptops in its class, and faster than 98% of PC laptops sold in the past year. It also says the neural engine is nine times faster than the one in the previous MacBook Air, and its SSD is up to twice as fast thanks to the M1 and the latest flash technology.

One thing to note is that the fanless design of the MacBook Air (M1, 2020) could mean that performance is throttled when it's performing demanding tasks over long periods of time. Because there are no fans to stop it overheating, the only thing it can do is reduce the performance of the components – known as throttling – to control temperatures.

In fact, that’s why pros may want to go for the MacBook Pro 13-inch. It has the same M1 chip as the MacBook Air, but it has fans, which means it can be used for intensive tasks over longer periods of time, without, Apple claims, throttling.

However, in our tests we didn't notice any major incidents of throttling, and as you can see from the benchmark tests, the MacBook Air (M1, 2020) came impressively close to the performance of the more expensive 13-inch MacBook Pro (M1, 2020).

In both Geekbench 5 and Cinebench, the single-core performance of the MacBook Air was pretty much on par with the MacBook Pro, and multi-core scores weren't that much different either.

This is great news for the MacBook Air - and slightly less good news for the 13-inch MacBook Pro (M1, 2020). Because the MacBook Air (M1, 2020) is such a good laptop, it almost makes the MacBook Pro feel unnecessary. Performance seemed pretty similar in our day-to-day use, and we even played around with 8K video editing in Final Cut Pro, and while Apple seems keen to stress that the Air is capable of 4K video editing - it actually did a great job at 8K as well, allowing us to scrub through multiple 8K sources with ease. Very impressive.

So, with that boost in performance, along with the P3 color gamut support, the MacBook Air (M1, 2020) is a brilliant choice for video editors who want a more affordable laptop than the MacBook Pro. It makes the MacBook Pro 13-inch a slightly harder to justify purchase, though it does have a few key features that the Air misses, such as the TouchBar and better cooling. Having both MacBooks churning through high intensity tasks for long periods of time should show a bigger performance gap in the Pro's favor. But for most people, the MacBook Air (M1, 2020), will offer plenty of power and performance.

Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020): Battery life

Very impressive battery life
Lasts around four hours longer than previous model

As for battery life, we knew that the 'Apple silicon' would be more power-efficient, so it's no surprise to find that the MacBook Air has the longest battery life of any MacBook Air yet – up to 15 hours of wireless web browsing, or up to 18 hours of video, according to Apple.

We’ve been very impressed with the MacBook Air’s battery life – even after a few hours of work (and web browsing), the battery only dropped a few percentage points, and even if you leave it on standby for a day and come back to it, the battery level remains high.

In our official battery test, where we run a looped 1080p video at 50% brightness until the battery dies, the MacBook Air (M1, 2020) lasted a very impressive 11 hours and 15 minutes.

That's a lot longer than the previous model lasted in the same tests (7 hours 55 minutes), and it just beats the latest Dell XPS 13 as well (11 hours 1 minute).

This means you should be easily able to go a full work day (and more) without needing to charge the MacBook Air - though obviously the battery will deplete quicker if you're doing more intensive tasks with it.

It doesn't quite reach the huge 13 hours and 22 minutes the 13-inch MacBook Pro (M1, 2020) managed, but we can’t imagine anyone having any complaints with the MacBook Air (M1, 2020)’s battery life.

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