Personal Computer World articles from January 2005

Personal Computer World archives from January 2005

Editorial - Make the most of the IT space race. If your computer equipment is taking up too much space, this issue of PCW can help, says Rob Jones.
January 1, 2005... Byline: Rob Jones, rob_jones@vnu.co.uk. If you spent any time looking at the front cover of this issue, you'll have probably worked out that space is an underlying theme this month. It's something that many of us suffer a lack of,...

How we test. PCW uses the services of VNU Labs to perform all its hardware testing. VNU Labs' highly experienced staff use industry-standard benchmarks and methodologies to generate accurate, repeatable test results. Below you'll find the details of the most frequently used benchmarks that PCW publishes.
January 1, 2005... SYSmark 2004 Sysmark 2004 is a system productivity benchmark, designed to reflect system performance when running the most popular application software in real-world scenarios with real-world workloads. Sysmark 2004 uses 15...

3.8GHz cap ends an era.(Intel Corp. capping its processor speeds)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Clive Akass. Intel is capping its processor speeds at 3.8GHz in a move some have interpreted as the final humiliating climbdown of a difficult year. Certainly it marks the end of an era... more than three decades of cranking up...

BT Wifi phone could cut mobile bills - and revenues.(British Telecommunications PLC)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... BT plans to launch a Wifi-enabled mobile phone next year that will allow people to make cheap international calls from wireless hotpots across the world using Voice-over-IP (VoIP). The phones could threaten the revenues of mobile operators...

Anger at TV tax on screens.(liquid crystal displays prices)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... A new tax ruling could add [pounds sterling]35 to the price of a [pounds sterling]250 LCD monitor and prolong the use of old analogue VGA connectors the industry has been trying to phase out. European customs authorities have ruled that...

Dust-up over overheating Dell 5100 notebooks.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Dell has admitted that a 'small percentage' of its Inspiron 5100 notebooks had overheating problems and that a fan vent has been redesigned and the Bios tweaked on later models to prevent this. The admission came after reader Chris...

Media Centre PCs start to challenge Apple style.(Window XP Media Centre Edition 2005)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... The launch of XP Media Centre Edition 2005, the latest version of the operating system that turns a PC into an entertainment centre, seems to have encouraged PC makers to be more inventive in their system designs. The most spectacular is...

Transcend rival for Ipod Photo.(new media player)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Apple's Ipod Photo was not the only music player and photo viewer launched last month. Transcend released its EUR400 ([pounds sterling]278 inc VAT) Digital Album, with a 2.5in screen, 20GB disk, 8-in-1 card reader and editing software. It plays...

Vendors seek rough trade.(new tablet computers)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... US companies Motion Computing, Itronix and (see page 31) Symbol were in London last month touting different approaches to the unglamorous but lucrative market in specialist portables. Itronix, which took over rival UK rugged computer...

Light relief for notebook purchasers.(new laptops)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Samsung and Sharp last month launched notebooks they said were among the thinnest and lightest in the world. Sharp's Actius MP30, using a low-drain 1.6GHz Transmeta Efficeon TM8800 processor, weighs just 1.27kg and claims a 4.6-hour battery...

Life recorder means you need never miss a thing.(Deja View)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Computers brought you the TV Pause button - and now they allow you to 'pause' your life. A tiny $400 ([pounds sterling]218 approx) camcorder called the Camwear 100, designed to clip onto a hat or glasses, feeds a continuous video stream to a...

ARM power.(new chips from ARM Computer Inc.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Chip designer ARM has unveiled a new 32bit core called Cortex M3, designed to put more power into devices such as hard-disk controllers that currently use 8bit and 16bit chips. It is the first of a family that will include more powerful chips...

Video Skype.(Skype Technologies S.A., plans)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Peer-to-peer VoIP specialist Skype will branch out into video calls in the new year, said chief executive Niklas Zennstorm. It also plans to offer Skype clients for smart phones.

Blue note.(forecast for bluetooth products)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Sales of Bluetooth products will double next year and vendors should incorporate the technology into more products, says a report from market watcher Context. But it warns that Bluetooth could be overtaken by Ultra Wideband (UWB) within four...

New Palm.(new smartphone from palmOne Inc.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Palmone has unveiled its latest smartphone, the Treo 650, available as either a digital dual-band or quad-band. The Palm OS-based device features email, organiser, messaging and web browsing using a 320 x 320 display. It is expected to ship in...

Paradise lost.(Paradise Holdings Inc. discontinued its services)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Paradise Holdings, the parent company of defunct Borehamwood-based Paradise Computers, has ceased trading. A creditors' meeting hosted by accountants BDO Stoy Hayward decided that it should go into voluntary liquidation, along with another...

Error trashes good Raid drives.(new product from Western Digital Corp.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Good drives are being rejected as faulty in Raid disk arrays because of confusion over error correction, says drivemaker Western Digital. The problem could get more common when Raid becomes standard on desktops, which Intel is pushing to happen...

Storage and Lans - Tera rival for Rev jukebox.(new product from IOMEGA Corp.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Iomega is still throwing development effort at proprietary removable storage - although USB flash drives, low-cost DVD recorders and capacious plug-in hard drives have transformed the market since the glory days of its hugely successful Zip...

Storage and Lans - Appliances offer alternative to networked peripherals.(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Routers for homes and small offices, such as the Ovislink WMU9000VPN, reviewed on page 66, have features enough to qualify as fully fledged gateways. They are computers in their own right of course, and you can configure an old PC for the...

Storage and Lans - Speech input 'improves'.(new product from ScanSoft Inc.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Scansoft claims the accuracy of its Dragon Naturally Speaking voice-input product has improved by 20 per cent to reach 'up to' 99 per cent on the latest Version 8. The figures need interpretation as they show what experienced users can...

Storage and Lans - Multimedia broadcasts fight for air.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Two multimedia broadcast technologies are competing for scarce bandwidth following the launch of a pilot Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB-H) service for handhelds in Oxford (see PCW December). Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) trials have also...

Storage and Lans - Mobile porn.(forecast)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Mobile-phone porn will generate $1b worldwide by 2008, according to a report from the Yankee Group. The market is inhibited by fears for children, says the report, but operators can use protection measures, as Vodafone UK has done....

Storage and Lans - Big picture.
January 1, 2005... This 61in plasma screen is one of a new NEC range, some with anti-reflective and anti-glare technology to make them easier to read in bright rooms. www.nec.co.uk

Video gateway.
January 1, 2005... Terratec's [pounds sterling]249.99 inc VAT Cameo Convert 800 will translate digital to analogue video and vice versa, allowing you to process and save analogue video on a PC or view digital video on a TV. www.terratec.co.uk.

Mobiles - Hand scanners could do better.(new product from Symbol Technologies Inc. Laser Scanning Div.)
January 1, 2005... US company Symbol became a leading Wifi pioneer by specialising in portable devices needing untethered network links in shops and warehouses. It was ahead of the curve, too, in offering handhelds with bar-code scanners. They might not sound...

Displays - Bi-stable door opens. HP researchers claim a breakthrough in screen technology - but admit they are a long way from realising the dream of epaper that is anything as good as the real thing.
January 1, 2005... Researchers at HP Labs in Bristol say they have made a breakthrough in the development of bistable displays of the type touted for use as electronic paper. But initial target applications are large high-definition information displays and...

Displays - Organic screens get big and very small.(new product from Seiko Epson Corp.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Organic screens, another potentially revolutionary display technology, also reached a milestone last month with a demonstration of a 40in TV monitor using the technology. The Polymer Light Emitting Diode Technology (P-Oled) screen was made by...

Graphics - ATI shows its soft side. Ben Bar-Haim, head of software at the graphics-chip developer, tells Clive Akass about the balance of power between the GPU and CPU - and what happens to Windows crash reports.
January 1, 2005... Users should pay more attention to the software bundled with graphics cards if they want to get the best and most reliable performance, according to a leading developer. Ben Bar-Haim, ATI's head of software, said most users ignore the...

Graphics - Nvidia Geforce Go 6800 gives notebooks upgradable graphics.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Rory Reid. Nvidia has announced the first notebooks to use its Geforce Go 6800 platform, the first to offer user-upgradable graphics on notebooks. Early models will use the 6800 on a standard PCI Express bus, and you will need...

Printers - Printers multiply at home.(new printer from Hewlett-Packard Ltd.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Two-printer homes are becoming more common as people take advantage of the falling cost of mono laser printers, according to market leader HP. Laura Seymour, personal-laser category manager for HP UK, said people appeared to be using...

Printers - The impact of not having an impact.(about laser printers)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Pictured below is the original HP Laserjet, the first desktop laser printer, launched 20 years ago at a price of [pounds sterling]1,995. It could print eight pages per minute at a resolution of 300 dots per inch. It was not, however, the...

Printers - For the sake of Auld Laing Syne.(Digital Retro)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... PCW's own Gordon Laing has made his contribution to computer history with a coffee-table book called Digital Retro, which is full of pictures and descriptions of classic machines from the 1970s and 1980s. The book costs [pounds...

Dell rival.
January 1, 2005... HP is not the only company making printers. Dell is offering this Photo Printer 540 for [pounds sterling]118 ex VAT and delivery, which is rather cheaper than the similar HP model reviewed on page 74, but is it as good? Watch out for a review...

Film scanner.
January 1, 2005... Epson described its F-3200 film scanner as competitively priced, although at [pounds sterling]549 inc VAT it is not likely to attract your average snapper. But it can cope with formats from 35mm to 5 x 4in film and Epson says it is fast....

Instant replay.
January 1, 2005... Cyberlink has released a Linux version of Powercinema, which allows you access to your DVD or CD drive to play music, look at stills or watch videos, without booting into Windows. www.gocyberlink.com.

WEEE advice.
January 1, 2005... Non-profit Computer Aid International, which sends redundant PCs to schools and community organisations in developing countries, is offering a free guide to complying with new WEEE legislation on the eco-friendly disposal of electronic goods....

TV Express.(new product from Avermedia Technologies Inc.)
January 1, 2005... Expresscard slots will not start appearing in notebooks until early next year but vendors are already announcing peripherals to go into them. Avermedia has launched a TV card for use in the slot, which extends both the USB2 and PCI Express...

Communications - Polycom reaches down to desktop.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Polycom has specialised in high-class video- and voice-conferencing for years, if you count work done by its former rival Picturetel, which it took over three years ago. Its phones and cameras are a familiar sight in company boardrooms and on...

Communications - 11n 'wait for it' warning.
January 1, 2005... Companies tempted to jump the gun on the next-generation 802.11n wireless networking standard have received a warning shot across the bows from the Wifi Alliance, the body that certifies compliant products. Several so-called 'pre-standard'...

Communications - Tri-mode chip set to boost 11a - and clear the air.(new product from Atheros Communications Inc.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... A new chip could lead to cheaper and more widespread use of the 802.11a flavour of Wifi and ease congestion in the 2.4GHz bands used by more common 11g and 11b. Most multi-mode Wifi products support only 11g and 11b, because these can use...

Products - Google guns for Gates.(growth of desktop search services)
January 1, 2005... Google has become to other search engines what Microsoft is to other software houses... so big it can afford to seduce users away from rival products by swamping them with added features. But the latest Google offering is seen by some...

Products - Novell and Linux get friendly on the desktop.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Robert Jaques. Novell is the latest company to throw a 'user-friendly' version of Linux at Microsoft's desktop stronghold. The company's Netware operating software dominated the world's local networks until Microsoft's Windows NT...

Products - Penguin handheld gets a hard drive.(enhanced personal digital assistants)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... With hard drives having made it into handheld mp3 players, other portable devices were certain to get them, too. Sure enough, Sharp has added a 4GB Hitachi drive to its latest Linux-based Zaurus PDA, the SL-C3000. It is unclear if this...

Products - [pounds sterling]300 19in LCD.
January 1, 2005... Videoseven is selling this 19in L19PS LCD panel for [pounds sterling]299 inc Vat. It has a response time of 21ms and a 1,280 x 1,024 resolution. Details of dealers are at www.videoseven.com.

Products - Book this.
January 1, 2005... The latest version of the Pageplus desktop-publishing package introduces the ability to handle book-sized documents. A table of contents or index can be generated automatically across several documents. Serif's Pageplus 10 also includes a new...

Products - Spot-on storage.
January 1, 2005... It's not enough to have a plain USB Flash drive - it has to be 'a personal accessory that represents your modern lifestyle,' according to Twinmos. A rather spotty lifestyle, judging from this picture of its new password-protected Z4 USB2 mobile...

Products - PC texting.
January 1, 2005... Free software, integrated with Outlook and Lotus Notes, allows Vodafone UK users to send and receive text messages from PCs. www.vodafone.co.uk/textcentre.

Columns - Kewney @ large - Technical triumphs or future fads? However clever or useful our technology may be, Guy Kewney explains why it may all become obsolete.(Column)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Guy Kewney, guyk@pcw.co.uk. It's hard to distinguish between a genuinely valuable device and a fad. I can remember being convinced that the Hula-hoop was a useful invention. People need exercise, so it had a valuable function in...

Columns - Inside information - Don't let megapixel envy distract you. There's more to digital cameras than higher resolutions, so don't let marketing hype fool you says Gordon Laing.(Column)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Gordon Laing, gordonl@pcw.co.uk. Digital camera sales are higher than ever. Not so long ago there were two well-defined camps of people who either took the digital plunge or remained faithful to film. There are still two camps, but...

Columns - Straight talking - Too much info, not enough facts. Some companies will never give a straightforward answer to a question, as Barry Fox has discovered.(Column)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Barry Fox, barryf@pcw.co.uk. I don't like loose ends. It's why I don't get on very well with some of the IT companies. I spend far more time than is sensible trying to nail the facts - and sometimes, the companies still win. ...

Columns - IT matters - Taming all those technology demons. Don't be scared of setting up technology in your home, it could be easier than you think, says Kelvyn Taylor.(Column)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Kelvyn Taylor, kelvyn_taylor@vnu.co.uk. If you'd asked me 10 years ago to set up a shared Internet connection for multiple PCs using a router, Ethernet switch, firewall and a wireless access point (AP), you'd have got a distinctly...

Reviews.
January 1, 2005... Byline: Chris Cain. Christmas is coming, the proverbial goose is getting fat and PCs are becoming far more interesting. This month, boring beige and black boxes have been banished from the Reviews section in favour of not one but three new...

Reviews - Media Center PC - Evesham Ebox. A great addition to any digital entertainment setup in the home.(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Rory Reid. The Evesham Ebox is one of the first PCs to come with Microsoft's Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, the operating system formerly known as Symphony. Like its predecessor, this is designed to show off the system's...

Reviews - Ultraportable notebook - Sony Vaio VGN-S2HP. A good-value business notebook, with a stylish design and a high-contrast X-black screen.(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Leo Waldock. When Sony announced the three models in its new S2 series of Vaio notebooks we were keen to review the top-of-the-line S2VP. With hindsight, we're very happy we got our hands on the affordable 1.6GHz Pentium M-based...

Reviews - Desktop mac - Apple Imac G5 20in. Superb design and improved power and performance make this the best Imac yet.(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Cliff Joseph. We should have seen this coming. Apple supremo Steve Jobs has always had a grand vision of the Mac as a simple piece of consumer electronics that is as easy and straightforward to use as a toaster, dishwasher or any...

Reviews - Designer PC - Advent T1. A stylish system with a space-saving design and lots of features.(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Chris Cain. While most PCs are still uninspiring black or beige boxes, more manufacturers are attempting to make their hardware attractive. Sporting a smart all-in-one design, the T1 is Advent's latest designer desktop with Media...

Reviews - Peripherals - 17in TFT - LG Flatron 1730P. A bright picture for movies and games.(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Rory Reid. The Flatron 1730P is LG's latest 17in TFT monitor aimed at home users. Its design is a vast improvement on the company's previous LCD screens, although it doesn't look quite as good as the L1720 series. The monitor...

Reviews - Peripherals - Multifunction device - Epson Stylus CX6600. Affordable all-rounder for the home office.(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Emilie Martin. Combining a flatbed scanner and printer in a single device, the Epson Stylus CX6600 aims to take care of all your copying, printing and scanning needs. The top of the unit lifts to expose an A4 flatbed scanner,...

Reviews - Peripherals - Wireless streaming - Apple Airport Express. Simple wireless audio streaming.(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Will Stapley. Unlike Philips' Streamium SL400i (see right), Apple's Airport Express doesn't attempt to act like an all-in-one media-streaming device. Instead, it simply transmits audio direct from Itunes to your hifi. Airport...

Reviews - Peripherals - Wireless streaming - Philips Streamium SL400i. Very easy to set up, but expensive.(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Will Stapley. Part of Philips' Streamium range, the SL400i is designed to wirelessly stream pictures, audio and video from your computer to your TV and hifi. It can also stream content directly from the Internet, such as Internet...

Reviews - Peripherals - Desktop laser printer - HP Laserjet 1320nw. Fast monochrome printing at a good price.(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Chris Cain. Now celebrating its 20th anniversary, HP's Laserjet is the original corporate office workhorse. The 1320nw is the company's latest personal printer, aimed at home users and small workgroups. While its relatively small...

Reviews - Peripherals - Wireless router - Air Live WMU-9000VPN. An FTP, print and surveillance server.(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Clive Akass. The Air Live WMU-9000VPN is a four-port router and 11g Wifi access point, with four USB2 ports, in a case the size of a slim paperback. It has so many features, you feel there must be a snag. There are a few, but this...

Reviews - Peripherals - DVD rewriter - LG 12x Super Multi DVD. Easy to use, with all-format support.(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Emilie Martin. Adding a DVD writer to your PC lets you back up important documents and images, make your own movie discs and free up valuable hard disk space. Choosing an external drive, such as the 12x Super Multi DVD Rewriter...

Reviews - Peripherals - Colour laser printer - Konica Minolta Magicolor. Affordable mono and colour printing.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Cliff Joseph. The price of colour laser printers continues to fall, to the point where Konica Minolta now claims its Magicolor 5430 is the first model that's affordable enough to be considered as a replacement for a standard office...

Reviews - Peripherals - Mini round-up - 17in widescreen LCD TVs. Ideal for both watching films and working - get the big picture as five widescreen monitors go under the microscope.(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Anthony Dhanendran. Considered something of a luxury only a few years ago, LCD monitors have pretty much become the standard for PC displays. In fact, you'll probably be hard pushed to find a new system that comes with a...

Reviews - Peripherals - Accessories round-up - MS Wireless Notebook Optical Mouse.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Chris Cain. Compatible with PCs and Macs, Microsoft's new optical travel mouse brings the benefits of cable-free computing to notebook users. This mouse is noticeably larger than traditional models, although it's still small...

Reviews - Peripherals - Accessories round-up - Roland GR-20GK.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Clive Akass. While the piano keyboard is a natural Midi input device, mainly due to its inherently digital on/off nature, early attempts at transforming the analogue output of a guitar into playing instructions have been either...

Reviews - Peripherals - Accessories round-up - Avermedia AverTV Box9.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Rob Jones. The AverTV Box9 is a high-definition SXGA device that turns your monitor into a TV. There's no software to install; it simply plugs between your monitor, speakers and your PC's base unit. You need to scan for TV...

Reviews - Peripherals - Accessories round-up - HP Photosmart 375.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Chris Cain. With a dinky toaster-like design that proved a huge hit with the ladies in the office, HP's Photosmart 375 is its latest photo printer. The [pounds sterling]200 unit can print borderless 6 x 4in images from your PC at...

Reviews - Overclocking - Abit RX600 Pro Guru.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Abit's impressive RX600 Pro Guru is the first PCI Express graphics card we've seen that's aimed at overclockers. Built around ATI's X600 Pro core (R420), the Guru boasts 256MB of Ram and features a larger heatsink and fan assembly than is...

Reviews - Overclocking - Silentmaxx Fanless Pro 503W.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... The Fanless Pro 503W is a larger version of the Silentmaxx power supply featured last month. Despite the name it does include a quiet (12dbA) fan, though it is capable of working without it. A three-way switch on the back lets you change...

Reviews - Overclocking - Scythe NCU-2000 Fanless CPU cooler.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... If you're building a noiseless PC using a large tower case, the latest from Scythe may be of interest. Designed for Socket 478 and Socket 754 CPUs, the NCU-2000 is a massive module that provides passive processor cooling for silent operation....

Reviews - Overclocking - Crucial Ballistix memory.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Crucial has now joined the band of memory manufacturers offering high-performance modules for both DDR and DDR2. The Ballistix line features higher speeds and lower latencies than the company's standard products. DDR options comprise 256...

Reviews - Overclocking - Nexus Real Silent 12cm and 8cm case fans.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... If your system suffers from noisy case fans, it may be time to consider a Real Silent fan from Nexus. Available in 8, 9.2 and 12cm diameters, these fans certainly live up to their name. Running at full speed, the 8cm version delivers 20.2...

Reviews - Overclocking - Nexus PHT-3600 P4 CPU cooler.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Another CPU cooler, the Nexus PHT-3600 is specifically designed to give your P4 the silent treatment. Suitable for Socket 478 Pentiums up to 3.2GHz, as well as the latest Celerons, this well-built cooler is made from a single solid block of...

Reviews - Components - Mini round-up - Graphics cards. Find out how the Gigabyte GV-N68 128DH, Aopen's Aeolus Geforce 6600GT and the MSI RX800XT VTD-256E compare.(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Rory Reid. Choosing the right graphics card for your system can be difficult, particularly as new products are released every few months. We put three of the latest arrivals through their paces to see how they compare. Gigabyte...

Reviews - Software - Image editor - Adobe Photoshop Elements 3; This latest version has many improvements, making it a must-have upgrade.(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Ken McMahon. Photoshop Elements is a repackaged version of the professional image-editing software that's so successful its name has become a verb. We may not Photoshop as often as we Hoover, but we have a lot more fun doing it....

Reviews - Software - Disc burner - Ahead Nero 6 Reloaded. This popular application gets a makeover.(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Scott Colvey. With Nero, Ahead justifiably occupies the number-one spot in the optical disc-writing software category. However, the burning world is changing, and computer users are no longer content with applications just for...

Reviews - Software - PC emulator - Microsoft Virtual PC 7. Run Windows software on a Mac.(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Cliff Joseph. Now on version 7, Microsoft's Virtual PC is an emulator that allows you to use Windows software on a Mac. It runs programs more slowly than a real PC would, but it's still handy for Mac users who occasionally need to...

Reviews - Software - Roxio Easy DVD Copy.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Chris Cain. Originally sold as part of its Creator 7 suite, the latest version of Roxio's Easy DVD Copy is now available separately. The package can back up all non copy-protected CDs and DVDs, which boils down to just about...

Reviews - Software - Alohabob PC Relocator Ultra Control.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Kelvyn Taylor. Buying a new PC is the easy part - transferring all your programs and files from your old system can be a nightmare. PC Relocator Ultra Control is an easy-to-use solution to this age-old problem. To transfer your...

Reviews - Software - Abbyy PDF Transformer.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Anna Lagerkvist. Converting pdfs into editable documents can sometimes get a little tricky, especially if you're asked about whether the file contains text layers or how it was created. Abbyy's PDF Transformer gets around all this...

Reviews - Software - McAfee Virus Scan 2005.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Chris Cain. This latest update to McAfee's best-selling anti-virus software features a redesigned interface along with enhanced email scanning and integrated spyware detection. Virus Scan 2005 includes an updated security...

Reviews - Software - CRM software - Sage Act Professional. Updated contact management software keeps you on top of your clients' details.(customer relationship management software)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Byline: Laura Jones. Aimed mainly at sales staff in small and medium-sized businesses, Act Professional is the latest version of Sage's best-selling CRM (customer relationship management) software. It adds over 50 new features, as well as...