As a few lucky parts of the country get to enjoy snow, and shops prepare their Christmas music tapes for the annual Yuletide torture, settle back with the PC Plus Christmas issue. Have no fear - the sentiment stops right about there. Except our massive collection of reviews, giving you pointers to the best kit to ask Santa for, or ask forgiveness from family members for splurging on, it's just like any other month - packed with all the best news, features, tutorials and other great content.

In features, we find out how forensic techniques hope to stamp spam for good, how the latest entertainment devices plan to turn everything from games to movies into a full sensory experience, and the future of energy, seen in next-gen batteries, power-saving PCs, and everything else you need to squeeze the extra seconds out of your machines. We also take a trip to the far-off future, with a look at what science-fiction has to tell us about the world... and what it got wrong. From Gulliver's Travels to Star Trek, we'll be getting our hands on robot maids, holodecks, sexy robots and more. Or will we?

In reviews, get the last word on Intel's new Penryn processor, and find out why it's the fastest processor ever. We also look at X38 motherboards, huge capacity hard drives, and more. In Make It, automate your PC with macros, build a firewall Fort Knox would be proud of, code Silverlight applications for the web, hide your browsing from online con artists, and create a custom email client in Delphi.

All this and more is out now at all good newsagents, a few bad ones, or already on your coffee table if you're a subscriber. And a Merry Premature Christmas, to be saved for a month or so if you prefer.