technotes
» INSIDE APC
APC is Australia’s oldest consumer
technology magazine – having been
consistently in print for over 35 years,
since our first issue way back in May
1980 – and we take that heritage and
responsibility very seriously. While our
focus is obviously on the personal
computer – it’s in our name, after all –
the very definition of the PC has
changed and shifted markedly since
the early 1980s. As such, we touch on
many other areas of tech, too, from
smartphones and apps to peripherals,
accessories, online services and beyond.
We have two main goals: to track down
the best of modern tech and also to help
our readers make the most of it.
We’re also an open church in terms of
platforms. We know most people aren’t
wed to a single brand’s products and
use a variety of devices. And, like you,
APC’s journalists want to know what’s
good in tech – no matter what platform
it resides on.INDEPENDENT REVIEWS
Championing technology doesn’t mean
we’re unrelenting yes-men and -women,
however, and APC aims to be as
objective as possible in all our coverage.
That means identifying the best
products from multiple perspectives –
the best performance, best value and
best features and, ideally, the products
that offer the best mix of these three.
As a matter of policy, reviews
published in APC are not shared with
product-makers prior to print. We will
contact vendors under certain
conditions; for example, if we have a
problem testing a product that seems
to indicate it may be faulty, or to invite
a vendor to clarify how a particular
feature works. If an APC reviewer has
any potential conflicts of interest
involving a brand, the review will
always be assigned to another writer.LABS TESTING
Despite being a small magazine with
limited resources, APC still strives to
conduct the most rigorous, objective
scientific tests and benchmarks we can
so as to make our reviews as unbiased
as possible. We use a variety of tools
and programs for this, including many
freely available benchmark suites
for assessing media encoding, general
system performance, gaming and
battery life.
In most cases, for the benchmark
results published in APC, you can
assume that higher is better. There
are certain tests that deviate from this
rule where the opposite is true; in those
cases, we’ve flagged the results with a
note explaining as such.
We use both tables and graphs for
displaying results; the latter are our
preference due to their ease-of-
readability, but tables are more
compact, so we use these in cases
where thoroughness is preferred.Inside APC
Find out all about APC’s editorial policies, test practices,
how to read the benchmark results, and more.