PC World articles from May 2001

PC World archives from May 2001

No Guardian Angels on the Net.
May 1, 2001... IT CAME AS A RUDE AWAKENING--literally. As I dozed in bed one recent Sunday morning, the phone rang. A rep from my bank was on the line, wondering whether I'd used my credit card to pay for any phone calls lately. In Moscow. Well, no. As I...

LETTERS.(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2001... YOUR TAKE ON: Buggy software * Doing taxes online * Web piracy * Rating PCs WIRELESS WONDERS YOUR ARTICLE on wireless services for PDAs ["Take a Walk on the Wireless Side," March] makes good points about what to expect from devices...

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS.(Correction Notice)
May 1, 2001... IN MARCH'S "Bet Free Stuff Online," though we tried to avoid including shareware, three such products slipped in: AprCalc, Cash Express 2000, and Alexsys Team 98. Each has a registration fee as well as a free trial version, as follows: AprCalc...

Hold the Spam -- Maybe.(Internet/Web/Online Service Information)
May 1, 2001... ISPs have declared war on junk mail, but some of their users are getting caught in the crossfire. IT'S OUT THERE 24/7, desperately trying to get your attention. It wastes your time, tests your patience, and tries to steal your money. It...

ON YOUR SIDE.
May 1, 2001... I ORDERED A computer from Axis Systems last October. When it didn't arrive in time for the holidays, I canceled my order and received an e-mail from the company acknowledging my cancellation. As of late January, Axis still had not issued my...

Smarter Ways to Search.(Internet/Web/Online Service Information)
May 1, 2001... I THOUGHT THAT I HAD finally settled down with the right search engine. In fact, for the past few months I'd found life with Google (www.google.com) so agreeable that the other search sites I used to dally with in my younger clays had become no...

GIMME FIVE.(Brief Article)(Directory)
May 1, 2001... Sites for Office Suite Help ARE YOU A WORD wrangler? A spreadsheet jockey? Make the most of Microsoft Office and its rivals with the help of these sites: 1. Woody's Office Portal: Home of busy message boards and an opinionated...

LP to CD: Music Soothes Savage Bass.(Roxio's Easy CD Creator 5.0 Platinum and EnhancedAudio's Diamond Cut Audio Restoration Tools 32)(Product Information)
May 1, 2001... ITS SCRATCHES are deep enough to fall into, it's got one small gouge, and, like me, it's slightly warped. Still guessing? It's Dave Brubeck's Elementals 33-rpm long-playing record I found in a bargain bin nearly 40 years ago. And it's the...

Windows Me: Problems for You?(Web sites to go to for help)(Product Information)
May 1, 2001... IS WINDOWS Millennium Edition driving you crazy? You're not alone. We've received a ton of complaints recently about all kinds of Me woes--even though the new operating system has been around since last fall. Readers grumble about installation...

Avoid Last-Minute Tax Problems.(Block Financial's Kiplinger TaxCut and Intuit's TurboTax causing some problems)(Product Information)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... IF YOU HAVEN'T filed your tax return yet, now is a good time to go online and collect any recent updates to your tax preparation software. If you use Intuit's TurboTax and you are filing from Alabama, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, or Oklahoma,...

Gigahertz to Go.(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
May 1, 2001... FOR YEARS, notebook users have suffered from desktop envy: Despite high marks for versatility and style, mobile systems couldn't quite match the performance and features of their desk-bound cousins. Intel's latest mobile CPU, the 1-GHz...

Stinger Gets Closer.(Product Development)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... Microsoft's smart-phone operating system, code-named Stinger, puts Pocket PC-like features on a mobile phone. Microsoft has demonstrated a beta version of the OS on a prototype phone by Sendo; that company, along with Samsung and Mitsubishi,...

Visor Gets Thinner.(Handspring Visor Edge)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2001... Handspring's latest salvo in the battle of the Palm OS-based PDAs is a Visor about the size of a Palm V that accommodates Springboard expansion modules via a slide-on sled. The $399 Visor Edge will compete with the new Palm M500 (see page 58).

Tiny Camera, Big Picture.(Kyocer Finecam S3)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2001... Kyo-cera's Finecam S3 challenges Canon's Digital Elph for the title of smallest and lightest-yet powerful-digital still camera. Due in April, the $699 Finecam $3 is just slightly larger than the credit card-size Elph, and both have 2X optical...

Breakthrough Combo Drive Burns DVDs More Affordably.(Pioneer New Media Technology's Pioneer New Media Technology DVR-A03 DVD-R/CD-RW burner)(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
May 1, 2001... FIRST LOOK EVERY 50 OFTEN, a product like Pioneer's DVR-A03 DVD-R/CD-RW burner comes along and makes a host of high-cost computing tasks suddenly affordable. DVD-R writers and their capacious 4.7GB DVD-R media used to be extremely...

Video Rentals Over Broadband.(Blockbuster)(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... Blockbuster wants to rent you videos without making you drive to the store. A service currently in trials in Portland, Oregon, and Seattle lets customers watch movies streamed to their TVs via a special Motorola set-top box. Blockbuster's...

Wireless Access for Your PDA.(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... PDA users on the move can now access Web information such as stock quotes or download e-mail using Get2Net's new Infrared NetStations. Get2Net, the provider of airport NetStation Internet PC terminals, has already launched several wireless PDA...

Swap CDs Instead of MP3s.(via CD Swapper)(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... With Napster's future up in the air, sharing MP3s over the Internet will likely become more difficult. Here's another option: Trade CDs via CD Swapper, a new service from Swaplt and MP3.com. Once you register and print out a mailing label, you...

Great XPectations: Next Windows Rocks, But Copy Controls Could Hamper Reinstalls.(Product Development)
May 1, 2001... WINDOWS XP, Microsoft's next operating system, is shaping up as one of the most exciting--and controversial--products ever put out by the Redmond, Washington, technology behemoth. The controversy over the OS formerly code-named Whistler,...

Web Surfing in a Limo.
May 1, 2001... Luxury carmaker BMW has a limousine equipped with a mobile multimedia office. The prototype, a BMW L7, includes a computer with an Intel Celeron processor, an infrared keyboard, a wireless Internet connection, and a retractable 15-inch flat...

E-Reading Like Paper.(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... Although e-books may sound like a good idea, screens on the first devices just aren't as readable as paper. But researchers may change that. Philips Electronics and E Ink are developing a display technology for handhelds to make text and images...

Connecting with Bluetooth BLIPs.(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... Ericsson envisions people relying on Bluetooth Local Infotainment Points (BLIPs) to exchange information when using low-power wireless technology. BLIPs are connection hubs for Bluetooth-enabled devices such as mobile phones and PDAs. Device...

Site to See.(Property Bureau's PropertyRoom.com)(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... POLICE AUCTIONS are great places to find deals on seized or unclaimed goods, but you have to show up at odd times, and selection is spotty. Now, at Property Bureau's PropertyRoom.com (www.propertyroom.com), local authorities can sell recovered...

Top PC World Downloads.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2001... 1. 3DMark2000 19,532KB. Evaluate your system's 3D graphics performance. 2. PhotoPhilia 4563KB. View, edit, and organize images saved in almost any format. 3. PC Accelerator 5500 SE 2011KB. Improve your PC's performance,...

A Lovelier Linux Boosts Its Hardware Support.(Linux 2.4)(Product Information)
May 1, 2001... FIRST LOOK LOTS OF us would love to love Linux. The operating system is stable, secure, and--best of all--free. But for many years, tales of installation and configuration hassles have discouraged most desktop users from giving Linux a...

Palms Gain Expansion Options, Keep Popular, Sleek Design.(Palm M500, M505)(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
May 1, 2001... FIRST LOOK THE SIMPLICITY and elegance of Palm-connected organizers have made them the most popular personal digital assistants ever. But a growing number of PDA buyers are turning to feature-rich competitors--to Pocket PCs with glitzy...

Memory Malaise: Rambus Lawsuits Could Raise RAM Prices.
May 1, 2001... FIRST LOOK YOUR NEXT PC or memory upgrade could cost more if Rambus wins pending court cases against memory makers. Best known for designing high-speed RDRAM, Rambus also holds patents crucial to popular SDRAM and DDR SDRAM (an RDRAM...

Open QuickBooks: Big Web Tools Brew for Small Businesses.(Intuit)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2001... FIRST LOOK IT'S A small-business owner's tech dream: affordable software that delivers capabilities only large enterprises now enjoy. And this dream may be coming true, thanks to a new initiative from Intuit, whose QuickBooks accounting...

NOMADS WITH KNOW-HOW.(Technology Information)
May 1, 2001... No matter how much you spend on desktop computer equipment, that investment is all but worthless the moment you step away from your desk. Wireless devices keep you connected to your technology investment. Gone are the days of choosing...

POWER TO THE PEOPLE.(ASUS Computer International's notebook computers)(Product Information)
May 1, 2001... Have you noticed how notebook PCs--once a luxury reserved for top executives--have suddenly become a necessity for everyone from students to telecommuters? American workers are especially hitting the road more than ever, and, they're looking...

WATCHING YOUR WEIGHT.(InFocus' InFocus LP130 microprojector)(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
May 1, 2001... Business travelers are weight-conscious. Not only of their own body weight, but of their luggage's weight as well. When you are already toting cell phones, laptops, and PDAs, less is definitely more when the need arises to bring along a...

HAVE ALL YOUR IMPORTANT FILES WITH YOU ANYTIME, ANYWHERE.(Product Information)
May 1, 2001... DataViz delivers an office companion for your handheld. Mobile professionals would like to use their compact, sleek handheld devices as often as they can in place of the bulkier laptops they have traditionally lugged around. Handhelds like...

LONG DISTANCE OPERATORS.(Technology Information)
May 1, 2001... Network tools and technologies to care for remote workers Whether they're telecommuting or working at a branch office, you can safely say three things about remote users. First, there are more of them than there used to be (and that trend...

Power, Easy Access Make for a Winning Corporate Dell.(Dell's OptiPlex GX150SD)(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
May 1, 2001... DESKTOP WITH ITS FUTURISTIC, easy-to-open, black-and-gray case, Dell's new $1353 OptiPlex GX150SD looks like a power toolbox. But this is no ordinary box. With its network administration features, muscular performance, tool-free...

Easy CD Creator 5: A Software Smorgasbord.(ROXIO's NEW Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum software suite)(Software Review)(Evaluation)
May 1, 2001... CD-RW SOFTWARE ROXIO's NEW Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum software suite is a fine first product from this Adaptec spin-off. Improvements over version 4 include a slicker, more intuitive interface; the ability to encode MP3s (with playlist...

Portable Personal CD Burner for Music, Data.(Sony's Digital Relay CRX10U-A2)(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
May 1, 2001... CD-RW PLAYER/DRIVE WHEN YOU'RE on the road, an audio CD player helps kill time during flight delays. But you may also need a CD-RW drive for emergency backups and for passing data to colleagues. Sony's $399 Digital Relay CRX10U-A2...

Peek Into Your PC From Anywhere.(Expertcity's Web-based GoToMyPC and an updated version of Symantec's long-standing PCAnywhere)(Software Review)(Evaluation)
May 1, 2001... REMOTE ACCESS ON THE ROAD--and missing an important file left behind on your office system? With remote PC-access software, you can quickly save the day. New entrants in this category include Expertcity's Web-based GoToMyPC and an updated...

Tote a Tiny Mouse.(Atek Electronics' Super Mini Optical Mouse)(Hardware Review)(Brief Article)(Evaluation)
May 1, 2001... IF YOU HATE that touchpad mouse on your notebook but don't want to pack a regular mouse for the road, read on. Atek Electronics' $50 Super Mini Optical Mouse is just 1 inch wide and 2.5 inches long, comes in its own travel bag, plugs into a USB...

Adobe Photoshop Elements Buries Its LE Past.(Adobe Systems' new Photoshop Elements image editor)(Software Review)(Evaluation)
May 1, 2001... IMAGE EDITING DO YOU WANT to fix up photos from a digital camera or scanner without having to master a high-end graphics program? Adobe Systems' new Photoshop Elements image editor provides a robust mix of features and enough handholding...

A Digicam That Plays MP3s.(the Kodak MC3 digital camera)(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
May 1, 2001... DIGICAM/MP3 PLAYER WITH A purple-and-black case and a vertical design, the Kodak MC3 digital camera grabs your attention. And this capable, if low-resolution, still and video camera doubles as an MP3 player. The $299 unit has a...

Light Is Right: Apple's Ultrathin PowerBook G4.(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
May 1, 2001... NOTEBOOK APPLE'S PowerBook G4 might be the right portable studio for churning out your next video opus. This well-designed notebook features an extra-wide screen, high-speed ports, and video-editing software--all in a sturdy, lightweight...

Making the Most of Humongous Hard Drives.(V Communications' DriveWorks)(Software Review)(Evaluation)
May 1, 2001... UTILITIES MASSIVE HARD DRIVES offer lots of storage space, but dividing that space into sections can make using it a lot easier. V Communications' DriveWorks is an integrated suite of software utilities that handles partitioning a hard...

Still and Motion Pictures in One Digital Camera.(Sanyo Fisher's IDC-1000z IDshot)(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
May 1, 2001... DIGITAL CAMERA TIRED OF LUGGING both a digital camera and a camcorder when you want to take stills and videos of vacations or a kid's soccer games? Sanyo Fisher's IDC-1000z IDshot gives you full image and video capture in one...

Mini-Modem for Wireless Internet Service.(the Merlin for Ricochet PC Card modem from Novatel Wireless)(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
May 1, 2001... PC CARD MODEM METRICOM'S Ricochet service lets mobile users in major metropolitan areas access the Internet at speeds up to 128 kbps--wirelessly. But until recently, you had to hook up an external modem the size of a large handheld to use...

Pass Notes the Wireless Way.(Motorola's Talkabout T900)(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
May 1, 2001... E-MAIL PAGER IF YOU CRAVE constant communication but can't always use a cell phone or PC, why not combine a WebLink Wireless 2-Way Messaging account with Motorola's petite Talkabout T900? This pairing allows you to send and receive brief...

Plug Audio Into Your Whiteboard Meetings.(EBeam's Presenter and Mimio's BoardCast)(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
May 1, 2001... ELECTRONIC NOTETAKING WHITEBOARD capture kits that let you record scribblings done on conventional whiteboards have proved to be a cost-effective alternative to electronic whiteboards. Now they're getting even more useful: New plug-ins for...

Big Storage, Small Drives.(Agate Technologies' key-size Q drive; Microtech International's Zio)(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
May 1, 2001... STORAGE BUY A NOTEBOOK computer today, and chances are pretty good that it will come without an integrated floppy drive. In fact, even some new desktop PCs have shed their legacy 3.5-inch drive. So what do you do if you want to move data...

Roomy Memory Keeps Intel's Music Rolling.(Intel's Pocket Concert Audio Player)(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
May 1, 2001... MP3 PALYER THE SKIMPY capacity of most MP3 players is a major drawback of these devices: Just as you get into a nice groove, it's time to stop and transfer some bits. That's because the 32MB of memory that many MP3 players offer is too...

Privacy Matters.(Internet/Web/Online Service Information)
May 1, 2001... Your personal data has never been more vulnerable to pryinq eyes than it is today. Even with independent watchdoqs on the case and touqher laws on the horizon, self-protection remains the best defense. It's 10 a.m. and Richard M. Smith is...

Dot Cons.(Internet/Web/Online Service Information)
May 1, 2001... Auction scams, dangerous downloads, investment and credit-card hoaxes--the ancient art of the swindle is alive and well on the Internet. Here's how to make sure that you don't become the next victim. Xmas Maxon thought she knew the ins and...

Fortress PC.(Buyers Guide)
May 1, 2001... How can you patch up the holes and keep attackers at bay? Our ultimate guide to system security gives you the tools you need: antivirus utilities, firewalls, file encryptors, and other PC protectors. Is Henry Kissinger once said, "Even a...

Hacker Nation.(Industry Trend or Event)
May 1, 2001... Computer intrusions have more than tripled in the last two years. Who are the people trying to get their hands on your data, and why? We got answers from some experts--including hackers themselves. He couldn't be more than 12 years old--a...

Safe Kids.(Internet/Web/Online Service Information)
May 1, 2001... Warning: The Web can be hazardous territory for children and teenagers. Try these 23 parent-approved tips to defend them against Internet dangers-from overzealous marketers to online criminals. "You wouldn't put your child unsupervised in...

Cookies.(Internet/Web/Online Service Information)
May 1, 2001... The most familiar and most widely adopted monitoring tool is the cookie. A cookie is a small data Pile--usually containing a unique identification number--that your Web browser stores on your hard drive when a site sends it a certain command....

Web Bugs.(Internet/Web/Online Service Information)
May 1, 2001... Insidious and more difficult to fight than cookies, Web bugs are minute, invisible graphics that load with a Web page. Because Web bugs behave just like banner ads, they provide your computer's unique IP address and the location of the page...

Trojan Horses.(Industry Trend or Event)
May 1, 2001... Trojan horses present themselves to the victim as something worth possessing-- such as a small game or an image file--to mask their true mission: to sneak into a PC and surreptitiously monitor, control, damage, or steal data. Trojan horses...

Peer-to-Peer Gets Down to Business.(Industry Trend or Event)
May 1, 2001... Napster put peer-based networking on the evening news. Now businesses are using similar technology to collaborate, share data, and more. IF YOU THINK Napster has been a boon only to music buffs and copyright lawyers, think again. Sure, the...

When Your ASP Goes Under.(Industry Trend or Event)
May 1, 2001... AS AN EARLY customer of HotOffice, John Simmons thought he had a good relationship with the application service provider. Senior vice president at The Greeson Company, a wholesale food broker in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Simmons had hired...

Secure Networks on the Cheap and Easy.(using OpenReach's OpenReach Gateway)(Product Information)
May 1, 2001... THERE'S NO DENYING that virtual private networks make a ton of sense for companies that need to connect remote offices. Rather than leasing expensive, dedicated, high-speed lines, VPNs allow you to establish a secure network connection over the...

Balancing Act: Manage Your Growing Traffic.(Product Information)
May 1, 2001... THE NASDAQ may have spent the winter in the doldrums, but Web traffic keeps going up. Those site visits and the resulting transactions are great, but who has the money to perform a major server upgrade, never mind the cost of disrupting...

READY, SET, Enjoy!(Magix Entertainment's MP3 Maker Gold and Magix Music Studio Generation 6.0)(Product Information)
May 1, 2001... Let's face it, most of what you use a computer for is boring. Word processing (yawn). Spreadsheets (snore), budgets, e-mail (ho hum). On the other hand--Doom III, yeeeoow! TODAY'S SUPERCHARGED DESKTOP PCS ARE IDEALLY SUITED TO FILL A DUAL...

HANSOL ELECTRONICS: HIGH-QUALITY DISPLAYS THAT "Flatter" YOU!(Company Operations)
May 1, 2001... Hansol Electronics not only packs the most performance and value into their individual monitors, they also guarantee it with the most robust warranty in the industry. And whether you use your computer for recreational game playing, your...

RIGHT Power, RIGHT Price.(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
May 1, 2001... THE BUZZ ON PC processors always hovers around the highest of the high-end: When will the first 2-GHz CPU appear? How many trillions of calculations per second will it handle? But by aiming your sights just a bit below the cutting edge of...

TOP 10 VALUE PCs.(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
May 1, 2001... THOUGH OUR Best Buy this month remains a Dell Dimension 4100, it seems like one from a parallel dimension where everything looks nearly the same but details make it better. This 4100 offers a 1-GHZ Pentium III CPU (upgraded from the PIII-933 in...

Top 15 NOTEBOOK PCs.(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
May 1, 2001... AFTER HOLDING steady for a couple of years--mostly due to high screen costs--laptop prices are trending downward again. It's now easier than ever to find a brand-name notebook in the $1000-to-$1200 range with a fast processor, an active-matrix...

TOP 15 HOME PCs.
May 1, 2001... A WAVE OF NEW POWER HOME PCs--most of them with Pentium 4 processors--has created a trickle-down effect, as systems with formerly top-tier processors cut their prices and move headlong into the midrange and budget sectors. Dell's Dimension...

TOP 10 PRINTERS.(Buyers Guide)
May 1, 2001... TOP 10 PRINTERS Street Speed for plain price Overall text/full-page COLOR LASER PRINTER (2/9/01) rating graphics...

TOP 10 MONITORS.(Buyers Guide)
May 1, 2001... TOP 10 MONITORS Street Quality of Month price Overall text/ 19-INCH MONITOR tested (2/14/01) rating...

TOP 10 GRAPHICS BOARDS.(Buyers Guide)
May 1, 2001... TOP 10 GRAPHICS BOARDS Street AGP BOARD Month price Overall Image Overall tested (2/23/01) rating quality...

TOP 10 SCANNERS.(Buyers Guide)
May 1, 2001... TOP 10 SCANNERS Street Month price Overall SOHO SCANNER tested (2/21/01) rating Scan quality 1...

Top 10 DIGITAL CAMERAS.(Buyers Guide)
May 1, 2001... Top 10 DIGITAL CAMERAS Street price Overall Image CAMERA: $500 AND OVER (2/16/01) rating quality Ease of use 1 Epson...

Your Support Info Is Just a Click Away.(using Microsoft Windows)(Product Support)
May 1, 2001... YOU JUST LOVE your new computer--or graphics card, printer, mouse, adventure game, whatever. You hope you won't have any problems with your new toy, but you can't be sure. That's why you keep all your serial numbers, customer numbers, technical...

Move Your Old Drivers to a New Computer.(Questions and Answers)
May 1, 2001... I WANT TO upgrade my computer but keep my old monitor, modem, and sound card. I don't have the disks that came with these. Where I can find the drivers for these peripherals? Wilber Hernandez West New York, New Jersey YOU'LL FIND...

Hunt Down Those Hackers and...Ignore Them?(Questions and Answers)
May 1, 2001... I USE ZONE LABS' ZoneAlarm firewall freeware on my PC. Occasionally ZoneAlarm sends a message saying it blocked a remote computer from accessing my PC. It then lists an IP address and a TCP port, followed by four digits. Is there a way to find...

Create Your Own Emergency Boot Disk.(Product Support)
May 1, 2001... POP QUIZ: Windows won't start. Do you: A. Panic; B. Take a siesta; C. Calmly smile as you pull out your customized emergency boot disk, use it to start your computer, and proceed to fix your system? If you answered C, I commend you. If you...

Revamp Your PC's Sound System.
May 1, 2001... IF YOUR PC has a basic sound card that's a couple of years old and produces only standard, two-channel stereo, it may be time to expand your audio dimensions. Today's sound cards not only deliver ultrahigh fidelity, but they also offer a raft...

Web Shopping: Point, Click, Hope.(Internet/Web/Online Service Information)
May 1, 2001... I FELL IN LOVE WITH Sony's little DCR-PC5 digital camcorder when I tried it out, so I ordered one over the Web last Christmas. Sure, the unit arrived without a warranty card--but it had very clear instructions for getting service in Singapore....

Netscape 6.01 Rolls Out.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2001... LAST MONTH we reported on various problems with Netscape 6, ranging from installation snafus to browser crashes. Netscape recently (and quietly) released an update, Netscape 6.01. The company says the update makes the browser more stable and...