Australian PC World articles from November 2002

Australian PC World archives from November 2002

Happy hunting: gadget envy, superficial good looks, or form married with function? No matter how you look at a new product, in the end, it's still got to deliver the goods! (Editorial).
November 1, 2002... Working for a PC magazine rather than a glossy fashion mag, you'd think we'd be above judging on looks alone. You would be right, of course--especially if you're familiar with the in-depth testing procedures we use for our Best Buys...

Sun intros Linux PCs. (Analysis News).
November 1, 2002... In a bid to undercut arch-rival Microsoft in one of the software giant's key markets, Sun Microsystems has unveiled its plans to offer desktop computers running the Linux operating system. Sun will target the machines initially at...

Intel goes Banias. (Analysis News).
November 1, 2002... While its desktop chips may be zipping along at ever-increasing speeds, Intel has changed its tune for the upcoming mobile architecture, claiming speed is not everything. The mobile PC processor, dubbed Banias, is Intel's first...

Windows locks out OS competitors.
November 1, 2002... Windows 98 is maintaining its market dominance as the leader in operating systems worldwide and is used by roughly 35 per cent of computer users. In a report, business intelligence specialist RedSheriff said the prominence of Windows 98 is...

Sony raises the white flag in DVD format war.
November 1, 2002... Sony has introduced the world's first DVD combination drive that incorporates competing +RW and -RW technologies. The drive, the DRU500A, is already being offered to consumers on the Sony Style US Web site, although shipping dates for the...

Palm offers refund on colour device.
November 1, 2002... Palm is trying to make amends to disenchanted users after overstating the number of colours available on its m130 handheld, permitting users to apply for a cash refund, or download a free game. Palm was sued in the US in August by two m130...

XP SP1 released. (Analysis News).
November 1, 2002... Almost a year after the release of Windows XP, Microsoft has made available the first service pack update to the OS. The service pack, known as SP1, sports dozens of security and bug fixes, additional driver support, and interface changes,...

AMD attacks SYSMark. (Analysis News).
November 1, 2002... Advanced Micro Devices has launched an assault against the SYSMark 2002 benchmark, charging it has been altered to favour processors from Intel. SYSMark is distributed by a consortium called BAPCo, or the Business Application Performance...

Pioneer has problem with DVD-R drives.
November 1, 2002... Pioneer Electronics has announced that some of its DVD rewritable drives and DVD recorders may freeze when writing data to high-speed media. 2x DVD-RW and 4x DVD-R discs are the culprits, and the freeze, if unattended, may cause the optical...

Microsoft dumps subscription model trial.
November 1, 2002... Microsoft has dropped the pilot for its Office XP End User Subscription Licensing (ESL) scheme--an initiative that saw consumers rent copies of the software at discounted prices. Under the ESL, consumers could rent a version of Office XP at...

eMachines stir PC retail. (Analysis News).
November 1, 2002... Harvey Norman has secured an exclusive deal to sell a new range of personal computers in Australia from us manufacturer eMachines. eMachines has taken the US retail market by storm in recent years with a range of extremely price-competitive...

Business broadband users boom. (Broadband).
November 1, 2002... Businesses have recorded the highest levels of broadband take-up across Australia over the past 12 months, according to newly released figures from the ACCC. The latest Snapshot of Broadband Deployment report found business broadband users...

AOL7 to trial broadband service. (Broadband Briefs).
November 1, 2002... AOL7 claims it will be an "aggressive competitor" when it enters the ADSL market next year. "We're about to see a major growth phase in the mass market," said AOL7 spokesperson Jennifer Parker. "That's why we're going to enter the...

ihug embraces Quadtel for ADSL launch. (Broadband Briefs).
November 1, 2002... New Zealand-based ISP ihug has launched its first ADSL service in Australia and is planning to provide stiff competition to local telecommunication players with competitive rates and higher download limits. ihug is no stranger to...

Pop-ups are here to stay. (Online News).
November 1, 2002... Pop-up ads may seem everywhere but, according to UK analysts at research firm Nielson/Netratings, they account for only a small proportion of online advertising--and, unfortunately, they're here to stay. During the first seven months of...

Judge blocks Napster sale. (Online News).
November 1, 2002... A US judge has blocked the sale of Napster's assets to media giant Bertelsmann in a move that could thwart the best-known music swapping site's attempts to get back up and running. Judge Peter Walsh of the US Bankruptcy Court for the...

Looking for clues. (ALT. NET [right arrow] Steganography).
November 1, 2002... A day begins like any other. You check your e-mail and notice a message from your boss. He's sent you a picture of him fishing on his boat. It's not the most artistic picture in the world, but you know it is valuable. A few clicks of the mouse...

Optus outguns Telstra for customer satisfaction. (Online News).
November 1, 2002... Optus has topped Australia's Internet Service Providers (ISP) tally, recording the highest levels of customer satisfaction, according to a new user survey. For the third time in a row, AC Nielsen. consult's Internet survey found Optus...

PalTalk upgrade gets chatty with MSN. (Online News).
November 1, 2002... Software maker PalTalk has released the 7.0 version of its PalTalk instant messaging (IM) software, which is interoperable with both Microsoft's MSN Messenger and America Online's Instant Messenger (AIM). While PalTalk allowed its users to...

LifeView Fly TV-Box, X-Media Dreambox: TV tuner boxes. (First Looks).
November 1, 2002... Both these tuner boxes are designed to be connected to a CRT or LCD monitor to watch TV with any signal, without having to power on your PC. Alternatively, you can hook up just about any external device including DVD players, VCRs, games...

Cornea MP704, Hercules ProphetView 920 DVI, Samsung SyncMaster 181T: flat panel displays. (First Looks).
November 1, 2002... Anyone looking to upgrade a monitor would surely want to consider the latest Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) monitors available on the market. LCD monitors still use less power, weigh less, don't flicker and give off less radiation than a Cathode...

Yamaha CRW-F1: CD-R/RW drive. (First Looks).
November 1, 2002... The CRW-F1 can write and read at up to 44x and ups the CD-RW ante by being able to re-write at up to 24x. Compatible with Windows 98 SE, Me, 2000, XP and Mac OS X, this EIDE drive was a breeze to set up under XP. It came bundled with Nero...

Microsoft Windows .NET Server 2003, RC1: server operating system. (First Looks).
November 1, 2002... Windows .NET Server 2003 is almost here and many IT departments will be debating whether or not to upgrade their systems. There will be four main editions (Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, and Web), and although the naming scheme is a little...

Directory Opus 6.2: file manager. (First Looks).
November 1, 2002... If you've ever wondered if there was a better way of doing things when using Windows Explorer, this is the program for you. Directory Opus, built from the ground up for the Windows OS (and now supporting XP), offers an Explorer replacement and...

ACT 6, Smart Contact Manager 2001 Rev 1: contact managers. (First Looks).
November 1, 2002... The latest editions of Best Software's ACT and Surado's Smart Contact Manager each try to serve you a gourmet contact-management meal with a side dish of basic sales planning and forecasting. ACT's recipe is much tastier. Both products...

Adobe Premiere 6.5: video editing suite. (First Looks).
November 1, 2002... Version 6.0 of Premiere provided belated but vital support for FireWire and DV (digital video)--enabled hardware. A year later, this new version addresses two remaining major weaknesses: the lack of real-time software previews and disappointing...

Iomega zips up storage speed. (Quick Takes).
November 1, 2002... Aiming to redirect interest from CD-RW back to the Zip format, Iomega has added a new 750MB-capacity Zip drive to its family of products. This new version triples the capacity of its predecessor and claims faster speeds than current CD-RW...

Philips DVD recorder. (Quick Takes).
November 1, 2002... Squarely aimed at the consumer market as a VCR replacement, the Philips DVDR 890 gives you the opportunity to record all your favourite TV programs (or other video sources) onto DVD+RW (or DVD+R) discs at the quality setting of your choice. ...

PartitionMagic 8.0. (Quick Takes).
November 1, 2002... Partitioning is possibly the best way to organise data on your PC, allowing you to divide your hard drive into manageable sections for convenience. Partitioning can prevent conflicts, protect data and increase efficiency, among other benefits....

Intel Pro/Wireless 5000 LAN Dual Access Point. (Quick Takes).
November 1, 2002... If your growing business wants to give employee fast 802.11a (Wi-Fi5) wireless access to an existing Ethernet network yet still support slower--but more popular--802.11b (Wi-Fi) equipment, then Intel has a deal for you. Intel's...

Apple Mac OS X 10.2. (Quick Takes).
November 1, 2002... Mac OS X version 10.2 (codenamed Jaguar), featuring over 150 amazing new features and applications, is now on sale for $229 at Apple Authorised Resellers and the online Apple Computer Store (www.apple.com.au/store). OS X version 10.2...

NEC MobilePro 300E Pocket PC. (Quick Takes).
November 1, 2002... This latest Pocket PC from NEC, the MobilePro 300E, has a good, but very common spec: a 206MHz StrongARM processor, 64MB of RAM, 32MB Flash ROM and a 3.5in TFT backlit 16-bit 320x240 colour screen (which isn't bad, but isn't as bright as that...

200GB Western Digital arrives. (Quick Takes).
November 1, 2002... Western Digital recently announced the release of a monster 200GB hard drive in its Caviar series. At a time when too much hard drive space is never enough, this is a boon for power users and gamers who require a glut of hard drive space but...

Infocus LP650 projector. (Quick Takes).
November 1, 2002... Featuring 2500 ANSI lumens brightness, and aspect and contrast ratios of 4:3 and 800:1, respectively, the LP650 weighs 4.24kg and has dimensions of 11x35x32.5cm (HxWxL). The device has a native resolution of 1023x768, a minimum projection...

Easy label printing. (Quick Takes).
November 1, 2002... With most desktop label printers, threading the roll of labels into the device is a major hassle. Dymo's nifty, petite LabelManager PC eliminates that headache by working with rolls stored in pop-in cartridges that come in assorted background...

Windows Media Player 9 beta debuts. (Quick Takes).
November 1, 2002... Microsoft has released for free download the first public beta of Windows Media Player 9, offering faster streaming and better compression, high-quality music playback, and support for multichannel movie surround sound, plus other features--if,...

Evoluent VerticalMouse. (Quick Takes).
November 1, 2002... Unlike a conventional mouse, which you grip with your hand parallel to the desktop, the optical VerticalMouse lets you work in a relaxed handshake position that eliminates unnatural forearm twisting--a potential factor in carpal tunnel syndrome...

Red Hat Linux 8.0 sets a challenge. (LinuxWorld).
November 1, 2002... Red Hat Linux, long the market leader in Linux distributions, has had a major facelift with the release of version 8.0--including a significant overhaul of the user interface--that sets the distribution even farther apart. In this month's...

Rescue me, part II. (Readers' Forum).
November 1, 2002... Jamieson Yu, HP's product marketing manager, consumer desktop PCs, responds to the letter from Tony Kennedy printed in October's Readers' Forum: HP Pavilion PCs with Microsoft Windows XP have a hidden `recovery' partition on the hard drive. The...

Value for money? (Readers' Forum).
November 1, 2002... After recently installing a DVD drive on my PC I purchased a couple of DVD movies: Star Wars Episode 1 and Lord of the Rings. They cost $30-plus each but what value for money! I got the movies plus extras. George Lucas, for example, discusses...

Dilbert[R].
November 1, 2002... THIS IS RASPUTIN, OUR NEW CONSULTANT HE STOPPED MY PAPER CUT FROM BLEEDING. HE HAS CHARISMA. I'D LIKE TO SE A DEMONSTRATION ON ASOK. ACK... CAN'T... BREATHE... THAT'S CALLED THE EVIL EYE PROCESS. NOW DO WALLY. ...

E-mail frustration. (Readers' Forum).
November 1, 2002... I have had enough. This morning, yet another unsolicited e-mail from a pornographic site: passionlovers_center_ 6856h07@hotmail.com. I use the junk mail facilities of Outlook extensively, but have become fed up. It would appear that all a...

Ad nauseam. (Readers' Forum).
November 1, 2002... No one would put up with TV networks if they could take control of your television during commercials. Everyone would be mad if viewers could not control the volume, change the channel, or turn the set off during a commercial. That's what is...

Take back your privacy; neutralise nosy web sites and stop stealthware and other snoops in their tracks with these tips. (Web & You).
November 1, 2002... STEALTHWARE FIGHTERS Do you ever suspect that someone else is calling the shots on your PC? You're not doing anything online, but the modem lights show that your system is sending and receiving data. One day you research a New Caledonian...

Office & Home PCs. (The Box).
November 1, 2002... WHAT MATTERS: even inexpensive PCs are very capable and now boast many features that were once exclusive to high-end systems. Today, almost any PC on the market can more than adequately handle such standard office chores as word processing...

Notebook PCs. (The Box).
November 1, 2002... WHAT MATTERS: power makes a difference if you're replacing a desktop, but portability means more to travellers. If you have ever shopped for a notebook PC, you know that the factors you should consider go far beyond performance and...

CD-RW drives. (Inside The Box).
November 1, 2002... WHAT MATTERS: prices don't vary much, so look for fast models that have features such as Mt Rainier support. Speed isn't everything: in the past year, CD-RW drive technology has vaulted over one speed hurdle after another--reducing the...

Rewritable DVD drives. (Inside The Box).
November 1, 2002... WHAT MATTERS: of the competing drive types, DVD+RW copies data and formats discs most quickly, but DVD-RW is more compatible. Interest in DVD writers is soaring--and no wonder: the average price of a drive has dropped a long way in the past...

Hard drives. (Inside The Box).
November 1, 2002... WHAT MATTERS: if you work mostly in standard office programs, nearly any drive will do. But speed counts for multimedia authoring. The stunning capacity of today's hard drives--which doubles every 12 to 18 months--has made it possible, even...

Graphics boards. (Inside The Box).
November 1, 2002... WHAT MATTERS: budget cards let you play most games at moderate resolutions, but die-hard gamers should opt for more power. Graphics chip and board makers update their hardware every six months, mainly as a response to consumer demand for...

Motherboards. (Inside The Box).
November 1, 2002... WHAT MATTERS: spending extra for a motherboard with features like USB 2.0 ports and IDE RAID can save you money in the long run. Whether you're building a new PC or overhauling an old one, a new motherboard is the place to start. And with...

Home networking gear. (Outside The Box).
November 1, 2002... WHAT MATTERS: wired and wireless choices are available, and prices are falling. Selecting the right type of network (or a hybrid) is key. In general, a wireless home network offers more convenience than wired ones: you don't need to install...

Broadband. (Outside The Box).
November 1, 2002... WHAT MATTERS: cable Internet costs the least, but you should choose DSL if you plan to share access among multiple PCs. Once you've switched to a high-speed Internet connection, it's hard to go back to dial-up. Instant connections and file...

Printers. (Outside The Box).
November 1, 2002... WHAT MATTERS: inkjets print great photos, and lasers excel at text. You can't get both in one printer, however, so you'll have to compromise. For most people, choosing a printer entails balancing price, speed, and print quality. As models...

Monitors. (Outside The Box).
November 1, 2002... WHAT MATTERS: inexpensive CRT and LCD models are suitable for general use, but many fully-featured models are worth the extra cost. If you replaced an old PC in the last few years, you probably decided to use the old monitor with the new...

Scanners. (Outside The Box).
November 1, 2002... WHAT MATTERS: a scanner with at least 1200dpi and 48-bit colour depth gives demanding users the most image-editing flexibility. Today's consumer scanners commonly have optical resolutions of 2400dpi--and that's likely to remain the maximum...

Digital cameras. (Beyond The Box).
November 1, 2002... WHAT MATTERS: high resolution will help you print great photos, but to get great photos in the first place, look beyond the pixels. With digital cameras, resolution remains the prime specification that vendors hype, and it's the most...

DV camcorders. (Beyond The Box).
November 1, 2002... WHAT MATTERS: a big LCD screen and plenty of features justify a higher price, but overall size and ease of use are critical. Ever since home movie cameras were invented, people have been pointing them at one another and asking family and...

PDAs. (Beyond The Box).
November 1, 2002... WHAT MATTERS: for simplicity look to a Palm OS-based device, and for a Windows look and feel go with a Pocket PC model. While Personal Digital Assistants of one type or another have been around for about a decade, the technological advances...

MP3 players. (Beyond The Box).
November 1, 2002... WHAT MATTERS: today's players pack more songs than ever, and the devices are easier to manage, too. A portable digital audio player sets your music free so you can easily mix and match songs in any order and take all the tunes with you....

Shopping tips: beware of dodgy sites. (Beyond The Box).
November 1, 2002... Online research can be an important part of your buying process. You can use manufacturer and vendor sites to check and compare prices as well as technical specifications. But you shouldn't trust any site that comes up during a search. If...

Protect your PC: from dangerous new viruses to stealthy hackers, the assaults on your computer just keep coming. Who's in charge here? You--with these tools.
November 1, 2002... Your home is your castle, and your virtual home--your PC--should feel just as secure. However, protecting both requires vigilance against a multitude of intruders ranging from the merely annoying to the truly dangerous. Just as you must guard...

Designed to thrill: graphics cards. (Best Buys).
November 1, 2002... The Test Centre was an enthusiasts' paradise this month, where no fewer than 40 graphics cards lined the benches waiting to be put through their paces. They encompassed the range of offerings currently available. About 20 different brands were...

42in Samsung Plasma screen.
November 1, 2002... While they may be way outside the realm of most household consumer budgets, a Plasma screen could make the ideal display in a corporate office boardroom. Slim enough to hang on a wall like a painting, yet large enough to be easily viewed from...

Graphics and storage get boosted. (Tech.Files).
November 1, 2002... When building a high-performance machine, CPU and memory are not the only factors that need considering. You also have to take into account the graphics sub-system and the hard drives you use. There have been recent advancements in the latter...

AMD releases new, faster Athlon XP.
November 1, 2002... AMD has bumped up the frequency of its Athlon XP processors to 2.25GHz in the latest incarnation of the chip, the XP 2800+. Along with the 2700+, this chip features some improved specifications over the Athlon 2600+--mainly a faster front side...

Brighten up.
November 1, 2002... Feel like adding a little colour to your utterly dull case? If you're a case modifier and have a windowed PC enclosure, you'll definitely benefit from these Antec fans that are available from Altech Computers (www.altech.com.au). Apart from...

Over $4000 home. (Best Buys).
November 1, 2002... Metalbox Systems BeF [1] NEW This machine from Metalbox is one of the best gaming systems on the Best Buys charts right now. It features an optimal configuration that shone brightly in our benchmark tests (refer to the table), and its...

Over $4000 business. (Best Buys).
November 1, 2002... Plus Corporation Dezign 123 New For ultimate performance you have to pay hefty prices, but this configuration from Plus Corporation for its Dezign 123 video editing system should appeal greatly to both professionals and enthusiasts. It...

$2001-$4000 home. (Best Buys).
November 1, 2002... Infocom Gaming Beast [1] Perfect for the user looking for a fast and fully-featured PC, the $3350 Gaming Beast is a well-built monster that can be used for home theatre as well as gaming due to the inclusion of a 5.1 channel speaker system...

$2001-$4000 business. (Best Buys).
November 1, 2002... Acer Veriton 7200D [1] Boasting an extremely rich configuration, the Veriton 72000 managed to produce hefty results in all our tests. Running under Windows XP Professional and utilising the less secure FAT32 file system (which almost...

Sub-$2000 home. (Best Buys).
November 1, 2002... TI AMD Deluxe Pack [1] For under $1800, it's hard to go past this machine if you're after a well-featured system that can play DVD movies and burn CDs as well as play games. It features an AMD Athlon XP 2000+ CPU at the helm of an MSI...

Best buys.
November 1, 2002... VALUE PERFORMANCE MAKE/MODEL RATING RATING OVER $4000 HOME (1) Metalbox Systems BeF 96 243 (SYS2001) 11626 (3D2001) (2) Plus...

Sub-$2000 business. (Best Buys).
November 1, 2002... AcerPower Sd [1] Built in a small micro-tower enclosure, this 2GHz Pentium 4 system performed on par with other 2GHz Pentium 4 systems we have seen (refer to the table) and should be adequate for users who are looking for a quick, yet...

Over $6000. (Best Buys).
November 1, 2002... Toshiba Satellite 5110 [1] NEW Large in size and ideally a desktop replacement, the newly updated Satellite 5110 has a curved blue lid casing that has been made more flexible to help protect the 15in LCD display. Internally, the display...

$3001-$6000. (Best Buys).
November 1, 2002... Dell Inspiron 8200 [1] NEW Our updated 8200 shipped with a 2GHz (up from 1.7GHz) P4-M processor and 256MB of DDR SDRAM, from a maximum 1024MB. Graphics were delivered courtesy of an NVIDIA GeForce4 440 Go graphics controller with 64MB of...

Sub-$3000. (Best Buys).
November 1, 2002... Sony Vaio FX990 [1] For the most part, Sony's FX series of notebooks will appeal to people looking for a desktop replacement. The FX990 model we tested featured everything most users of a desktop enjoy, while still maintaining the benefits...

Graphi cards. (Best Buys).
November 1, 2002... Since our last graphics card review in October 2001, a lot of exciting new products have been released that offer even greater performance and value for the gaming and business communities. The aim of this review, once again, is to showcase the...

ATI Radeon-based cards. (Graphic Cards).
November 1, 2002... Boasting chips for the dedicated gamer right down to the budget user, ATI has created a few great graphics chips (which it calls Visual Processing Units, or VPUs) that perform superbly when the graphics detail in the gaming environment is...

Creative 3D Blaster 5 RX9700 Pro. (ATI Radeon 9700 Pro).
November 1, 2002... DESCRIPTION: The board is based on a bright red-coloured PCB, complementing the combination gold-coloured heatsink and cooling fan on the VPU. Smaller colour-matched heatsinks are located on the memory chips to dissipate the heat. Be warned:...

Gigabyte GV-R9700 Pro. (ATI Radeon 9700 Pro).
November 1, 2002... DESCRIPTION: This card is similar in looks and layout to most of the other Radeon 9700 cards tested. A gold heatsink-and-fan combination is installed on the processor, and gold heatsinks are applied to the memory chips on the top side of the...

Hercules 3D Prophet 9700 Pro. (ATI Radeon 9700 Pro).
November 1, 2002... DESCRIPTION: Manufactured on a stylish blue-coloured PCB, the 3D Prophet 9700 Pro incorporates a copper-coloured heatsink-and-fan combination atop its Radeon 9700 chipset. Blue-coloured heatsinks are located on the memory chips at the front and...

PowerColor Radeon 9700 Pro. (ATI Radeon 9700 Pro).
November 1, 2002... DESCRIPTION: Based on a red-coloured PCB, this card's black heatsink and fan combine to keep the VPU cool. A lack of heatsinks for the memory chips may be a problem over time. Rear panel connections include VGA, S-Video and DVI outputs,...

Sapphire Radeon 9700Pro. (ATI Radeon 9700 PRO).
November 1, 2002... DESCRIPTION: This card is based on a red PCB similar to most of the other Radeon 9700 cards in the review. It features a heat-sink-and-fan combination on its processor, but no heatsinks have been attached to its memory chips. Although we...