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  • PC World (November 1999)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: PC World – November 1999

    I haven’t researched the numbers but it wouldn’t surprise me if PC World was the most successful PC magazine in history. Of course, these days I don’t think there are any successful PC magazines. Certainly not on the scale they used to be. The November 1999 issue of PC World includes:

    Cover Story

    • The Lowdown on Upgrades – For this article, PC World upgrades a Hewlett-Packard Vectra VL5 Series 5 in the following way: Pentium 166 -> K6-III-400 (via a PowerLeap adapter) ($199), 16MB RAM -> 64MB RAM ($100), add 17.2GB Seagate Medalist hard drive ($210), add 3dfx Voodoo3 with 16MB ($130), plus upgraded sound card, modem, USB ports, and monitor.

    Features

    • Spam!: How it Happens and How to Beat It – Spam, the eternal problem. This article offers tips to avoid and filter spam.
    • Notebooks for Cheapskates – A survey of “bargain” (i.e. sub $1700) notebooks. Ranked highest on their list of 10 notebooks is the Compaq Presario Notebook 150 featuring an AMD K6-2 380, 64MB RAM, and a 4GB hard drive for $1499.
    • Eyes on the Price: 17-inch Monitors For Under $400 – A look at 10 different 17-inch CRT monitors. The “best buy” in this bunch is the Mitsubishi Diamond Plus 71 for $349.

    Special Report

    • You Say You Want A Revolution: Music on the Web – A look at new ways of getting music and other audio on the web. While there were already some streaming sites, most were still downloads of static content.

    Top of the News

    • What’s a Buyer to Do? – A look at new chipsets for the Pentium III and the new Pentium III-600. Chipsets for the PIII and Celeron at the time included the Intel 440BX, Intel 810, Intel 810e, and Via Apollo Pro133 4x. RDRAM was available on the 820 but didn’t make much difference and the Athlon 600 was faster no matter what.
    • Speechware Needs Less Coaching – Speech software continues to improve but hasn’t quite reached Star Trek levels. Today, we practically have the Universal Translator.
    • High-Style Portables – A look at new Notebooks including the Thinkpad I Series 1480, Sony’s PCG-XG9, NEC’s Versa FX, and the Apple iBook.
    • Instant Messaging Brouhaha – Microsoft and AOL bicker over compatibility between Instant Messenger and Microsoft Messenger. I mostly used ICQ myself.
    • Microsoft Does Its Home Works – Microsoft releases Works Suite 2000. Works was sort of a lite version of Office that was cheaper and meant for home users.
    • Signed, Sealed, Delivered…Online – The legality of electronic signatures.
    • Whose Cable Is It Anyway? – AOL and other ISPs fight with AT&T over who should connect AT&T’s customers to the Internet.

    New Products

    • Micron Millennia Max PIII-600 – Back when I was buying Gateways, Micron was another computer maker I considered. This one includes a Pentium III 600.
    • Polywell Poly 800K7-65 Desktop PCs – AMD’s Athlon was the main competitor for the Pentium III and at this time it tended to be faster. This Polywell includes an Athlon 750.
    • HP Pavilion FX70 Flat Panel Display – Flat panel displays were around in 1999 but they were very expensive and not very good. This 15-inch LCD would set you back nearly $1200, had a native resolution of 1024×768 and one analog plus one DVI input.
    • Toshiba Portege 3110CT Ultraportable – This 3.1 notebook includes a 300 MHz Pentium II, a 6.4GB hard drive and 64MB of SDRAM for $2300.
    • Handspring Visor PDA – A PDA that runs PalmOS apps better than the Palm Pilot. The Palm Pilot and its derivatives made the best PDAs but it couldn’t compete with iOS and Android when they arrived.

    Top 100

    • Power PCs – At the top of the list this month is the Dell Dimension XPS T600 featuring a Pentium III-600, 128MB of RAM, and a 20GB hard drive. However, it is the Sys Performance 600A with its Athlon-600 processor that wins out in terms of raw speed.
    • Midrange PCs – Dell tops this category too with the Dell Dimension XPS T450 featuring a Pentium III-450, Diamond Viper NVidia TNT graphics board with 16MB, 64MB of RAM, and a 13GB hard drive.
    • Budget PCs – The top budget system this month is the Micro Express MicroFlec-50C featuring a Pentium III-450, 64MB RAM, ATI RageGL graphics board, for just under $1200.
    • Notebook PCs – The top power notebook this month is the Dell Inspiron A400LT featuring a Pentium II-400, 64MB of RAM and a 14GB hard drive for well over $3000. The top budget notebook is the Micron TransPort Trek2 featuring a Celeron-400, 64MB of RAM and 4GB hard drive for about $2300.
    • Home PCs – Still not sure how “home PC” varies from the other categories but the top power home system this month is the Dell Dimension XPS T550 featuring a Pentium III-550, 128MB SDRAM, Diamond Viper V770 video card with 32MB for a little over $2300. The top budget system is the Quantex M466c featuring a Celeron-466, 64MB SDRAM, 6GB hard drive for under $1000.
    • Graphics Boards – The top AGP board this month is the Creative Labs Graphics Blaster Riva TNT for $100 while the best PCI card is the 3dfx Voodoo3 2000 for $130.

    Here’s How

    • Windows Tips – Tips for disabling startup apps, cascading menus, using CDDB, and more.
    • Windows NT – Using Windows NT to share your internet connection.
    • Answer Line – Questions answered about hard drive crashes, Tweak UI, default file associations, creating a shortcut to standby, and more.
    • Internet Tips – Finding radio stations on the web, troubleshooting audio problems, trimming AOL files, and more.
    • Word Processing – Using watermarks, quick pasting in Word, keyboard shortcuts, protecting styles in Word, an e-mail formatting macro, and more.
    • Spreadsheets – Filling empty cells in Excel in line charts, summing the highest values in a range, and reducing the size of 1-2-3 imports into Excel.
    • Hardware Tips – Adding RAM vs. adding L2 cache, printing on different paper sizes, troubleshooting IRQ conflicts, and automating modem logoffs.

    Departments

    • Up Front – Hotmail suffers one of the biggest security breaches on the web up until that point.
    • Letters – Readers write in about Price Watch, the use of PCs (an the internet) in schools, Y2K utilities, online auctions, using FTP from Windows, and more.
    • Home Office – A look at DSL vs. Cable.
    • Full Disclosure – A look at seven improvements over the past year including aggressive price cuts, faster internet connections, improvements in ink jet printers, better and more affordable CD-R drives, MiniDV and Digtial8 camcorders with IEEE 1394 (firewire) connections, personal video recorders, and “profitless” e-business.

    …and more!


    Computer Arcana DOS 📎and tagged

  • The One (November 1989)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: The One – Issue Number 14 – November 1989

    The One was a gaming magazine that was published in the U.K. It covered various systems over the year but it was primarily a 16-bit computer games magazine. In 1989 it was mostly covering the Amiga, Atari ST and PC. The November 1989 issue includes:

    • Disk – The cover disk included with the magazine this month includes an add-on for the Amiga and Atari ST versions of Populous called Final Frontier.
    • Letters – Letters from readers about Deluxe Paint, game construction kits, Power Drift, and more.
    • News – A look an an interesting new game called Atomic Lunch, new games coming for Christmas including Space Harrier II, Scramble Spirits, Liverpool, Saint and Greavsie, Terry’s Big Adventure, and more
    • Work In Progress – An in-depth look at a game still under development, Chase HQ.
    • Reviews – Reviews of Future Wars: Time Traveler for the Amiga, Power Drift for the Amiga, Tintin on the Moon for the Atari ST, Pro Tennis Tour for the Atari ST, Eye of Horus for the PC (DOS), North and South for the Amiga, Interphase for the Amiga, and Batman for the Amiga.
    • Play Guide – A strategy guide for Xenon II.
    • Tips – Tips and tricks for Paperboy, Dragon’s Lair, Continental Circus, Dynamite Dux, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The New Zealand Story, Rick Dangerous, and Robocop.

    • Demos – A look at various demos for the Amiga and Atari ST as well as where to get them.
    • Showcase – Budding programmers, graphic artists, and musicians submit their work for consideration.
    • Graphics – Creating 64-color art on 16-color displays with EA’s Fusion.
    • Arcades – A look at new and upcoming arcade games including Big Run (Jaleco), U.N. Squadron
    • (Capcom), Sky Adventure (SNK), and Omega Mission (UPL/American Sammy).

    …and more!


    Amiga Atari ST Computer Arcana DOS Retro Games 📎and tagged

  • PC World (March 1990)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: PC World – March 1990

    PC World was without a doubt one of the most popular PC magazines of the 1990s. There were still magazines for other types of computers around but they were fading away by the early 1990s. PC World and PC Magazine came to dominate when it came to computer magazines. The March 1990 issue of PC World includes:

    Preview

    • Compaq’s Double-Barreled Server – A preview of Compaq’s new server. It could handle up to two 33-MHz 386 or 486 CPUs and 256 MB of RAM which was absolutely massive for the time. Prices ranged from $15,999 to $25,999 depending on configuration. Adjusted for inflation, at the low end, that’s nearly $40k.
    • The Multiprocessing Payoff: How Side-by-Side CPUs Work – A look at how dual CPU architecture works.
    • New Deal for the Hardcard – Hardcards were hardrives on an expansion card that could plug into an ISA slot. The Hardcard II came in 40 and 80MB varieties at prices of $849 and $999.

    Reviews

    • A Laser on Every Desk – Reviews of under $2000 laser printers including the Hewlett-Packard LaserJet IIP, Toshiba PageLaser6, Epson EPL-6000, Facit P6060, and Office Automation LaserPro Exec.
    • First-Class Laptops for Frequent Flyers – A look at seven 80286 based laptops designed for travelers. Models looked at here include the Compaq LTE/286, Dauphin LapPro-286, Epson Equity LT-286e, NEC ProSpeed 286, Packard Bell PB286LP, Sharp PC-5541, and Toshiba T1600.
    • Notebook PCs: Early Entries Lack Drive to Succeed – Smaller “notebook” laptops were available but they lacked drives (often of any kind) among other niceties.
    • New Dimensions for Flat Files – A review of basic data management software. Titles include Alpha Four 1.0, DataPerfect 2.0, PC-File:dB 1.1, Professional File 2.01, Q&A 3.0, Reflex 2.0, and Xerox FormBase 1.0.
    • Paint Programs Pass the Screen Test – An overview of available paint programs for the PC including Colorix 1.2, PC Paint 3.1, PC Paintbrush IV, and Splash.

    News

    • Top of the News – New 20-MHz version of the 386SX released; Toshiba introduces to laptops to challenge Compaq; R:base 3.0 released; and more.
    • Industry Outlook – A look at the top PC retailers; Epson challenges leading laser printer makers; PC makers start bundling software with computers; and more.
    • Product Outlook – A look at new and upcoming products including the TurboPS/400 printer, Drafix Windows CAD, Super-386c (a 386 based PC from Hyundai), and much more.

    Features

    • Desktop Multimedia: You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet – The first multimedia standard included a 386 based PC and CD-ROM drive. However, multimedia really didn’t take off until the late 486 era (circa 1993, a few years after this article).
    • Developer’s Wait for PC HyperCard – Hypercard was an application on the Macintosh that let you build multimedia applications. It was sort of like a web app without the web. At the time, the PC didn’t really have an equivalent. At least not one that was easy to use.
    • The High Price of Multimedia – Multimedia systems were expensive because they required a hard drive, large (for the time) amounts of RAM, a sound card, speakers, and CD-ROM drive. However, prices would drop quickly.
    • Buyers’ Guide: Printer Sharing Made Simple – A look at various expansion boards that allowed you to share your printer among multiple systems.

    How To

    • Mastering 1-2-3 Macro Libraries – Release 2.2 of Lotus 1-2-3 made macros easier to use and more powerful.
    • Tips & Techniques – Adding graphics to your documents with Word 5.0; speed up your 286 based system with a 16-MHz $599 accelerator card; tips for making drive B: look like A:, helping Windows see COM3, and more.

    Perspectives

    • Richard Landry – A discussion of whether or not PCs in the business environment will become a top down directed affair from corporate higher-ups or continue to be driven from the bottom up.
    • Letters – Letters from readers about product differentiation, repetitive-strain injuries, the best shareware data compression, and more.
    • Taking It Home – Saving on taxes with your home office.

    Departments

    • The Help Screen – Questions answered about scientific notation with word processors, using the PATH command, VGA driver compatibility, and more.
    • Consumer Watch – Many top manufacturers have violated the FCC’s regulations regarding radio frequency interference.
    • Network Q&A – Questions answered about upgrading a network, setting up an asynchronous communications server, and more.

    …and more!


    Computer Arcana DOS 📎and tagged