Source: PC World – December 1999

A computer magazine with around 400 pages at a cover price of under $6. This is what it was like in 1999. 400 pages is getting close to Computer Shopper territory. A lot of it was ads of course but there was a lot of content too. The December 1999 issue of PC World includes:

Cover Story

• Ultimate Buyers Guide: Home PCs – The best power PC this month is the Dell Dimension XPS T600 featuring a Pentium III-600, 128MB of RAM, 512K L2 cache, 20.4GB hard drive, and 19-inch monitor (CRT of course) for $2549. The best midrange PC is the similar Dell Dimension XPS T500 featuring a Pentium III-500, 128MB RAM, 512KB L2 Cache, 13.6GB hard drive and 17-inch monitor for $1659. The best budget system was the Micron Millennia C466 featuring a Celeron-466, 64MB RAM, 128KB L2 cache, 4.3GB hard drive and 15-inch monitor.

• Ultimate Buyers Guide: Color Printers – The best color ink jet printer was the HP DeskJet 812C for $149. Printers from Canon, Lexmark, and Epson were also in the Top 10.

Features

• The Digital Century – 100 of the best, worst and weirdest events in computing history. Some highlights include the introduction of the IBM PC in 1981, the creation of the Apple I in 1976, the Pentium math bug in 1994, VisiCalc (the first killer app) was released in 1979, people line up for the midnight release on August 23 1995 of Windows 95, and tons more.

• Postmasters – 75 e-mail related tips. Tips include switching from HTML to plain text and other formatting tips, saving e-mail without the attachments, encrypting e-mail, using webmail, and much more.

Top of the News

• 700 MHz…and Beyond – Intel introduces the Pentium III-733 (Coppermine) and AMD introduces the Athlon-700 for the fastest processors available so far.

• PIII Notebooks: Speed and Power – A look at new PIII based notebooks including the Dell Inspiron 7500 (Pentium III-500), Gateway Solo 9300 (Pentium III-450), and HP OmniBook (Pentium III-500) as well as some benchmarks and how the compare vs. slightly older Pentium II models.

• BCENTRAL.COM for Web Business – A web site from Microsoft meant to get your small business a presence on the web.

• Office Apps Move Online – Online office tools are not really a new idea but just didn’t seem to get widespread use until Google Docs came along (being free helped). Here, plans from Sun Microsystems (StarOffice), Microsoft, and Corel (WordPerfect Suite) are talked about.

• Free Online Storage – A look at new free online storage options including FreeDrive (20MB), I-drive (25MB) and Free Disk Space (25MB).

• Corel Sweetens Linux – It could be argued that Corel Linux was the first “user friendly” Linux. “User friendly” being a relative term.

• Faster Home Networks – A look at new home networking options including Netgear’s Phoneline 10X PCI cards, and more.

New Products

• Compaq Deskpro EP 500, Dell OptiPlex GX110 Desktop PCs – Two new systems that use Intel’s new 810e chipset. They each feature a Pentium III-500 and 128MB of RAM and cost a little over $1400. I have a GX110 at home waiting for a hard drive and memory upgrade.

• Paint Shop Pro 6 – Paint Shop Pro was my favorite image viewing/editing app for a long time.

• Compaq Presario 305 ultralight notebook; Corex CardScan 500 scanner – The Presario 305 is an ultraportable weighing a little over 3 pounds featuring a Celeron-333 CPU and 64MB RAM for $2199. The CardScan 500 is a business card scanner (along with software for the purpose) for $299.

• Epson Stylus Scan 2500, Xerox WorkCentre XK35c multifunctions; SmartOnline.com – The Stylus Scan 2500 and WorkCentre XK35c are presented here as the first multifunction devices with a flatbed scanner at a reasonable price ($440 amd $349).

• Gateway Astro desktop; Matrox Marvel G400-TV graphics card – The iMac popularized the all-in-one PC design and the Astro is Gateway’s version featuring a 400-MHz Celeron CPU and 64MB RAM for $799. The Marvel G400-TV is a graphics card from Matrox that combines 2D/3D output along with video capture capabilities.

• Encarta 2000 Reference Suite, Year 2000 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia 2-CD Deluxe Edition; Wow Thing sound booster, Labtec LCS-2514 4.1 speaker system – I kind of miss the days of CD/DVD-based encyclopedias but they lasted far less time then their book-based cousins. Encarta was the better of the two here. I might have a copy somewhere that came with a Gateway system I bought back in the day. The Labtec speakers were a mediocre but relatively cheap set of sort-of surround sound speakers for your PC.

• L&H Voice Xpress Personal Finance; Compaq Aero 1500 PDA – Voice Xpress Personal is software designed to let you use voice commands with Money and Quicken. The Aero 150 was a Windows CE based PDA designed to compete with the Palm V.

• DoughNet, IcanBuy, RocketCash e-wallets; Acer WarpLink Communicator Card – Three e-commerce sites intended for parents to set up spending accounts for their kids.

• Canvas 7, PhotoDraw version 2 – Both programs handle both vector and bitmap images. PhotoDraw is intended for the average person to create business graphics for print and web while Canvas is a much more advanced program.

Top 100

• Power PCs – Three Pentium III-600 systems make the top 10 along with one Athlon-600, one Athlon-650, one Pentium III-500 and a few Pentium III-550s.

• Midrange PCs – Mostly Pentium III-450 to 600s and a a couple of Celerons. My favorite PC maker, Gateway, is on this list at #4 with the Gateway GP6-466c. It’s a Celeron based system though and I never would have bought one of those.

• Budget PCs – Mostly Celerons on this list though there is a Pentium III-450 and a K6-III-400 based system as well.

• Notebook PCs – The top power notebook this month is the Gateway Solo 9300LS featuring a Pentium II-400, 128MB of RAM, 15-inch screen and 12GB hard drive for $3374. The top midrange notebook is the Micron TransPort Trek 2 featuring a Celeron-400, 64MB of RAM, 14.1-inch screen and 4.3GB hard drive for $2299. The top budget notebook is the Toshiba Satellite 2595CDS featuring the Celeron-400, 64MB of RAm, 14.1-inch screen and 4.3GB hard drive for $1499.

• Scanners – The top SOHO scanner is the USB based Epson Perfection 636U (I use a descendant of that scanner now). The top corporate scanner is the SCSI based Umax Astra 2400S (my first scanner was a Umax 1200S I believe).

• 19- and 21-inch Monitors – We are still talking about CRT monitors here. The top 19-inch monitor is the Samsung SyncMaster 950p for $392 and the top 21-inch monitor (useful for breaking your back and making you go bankrupt in addition to viewing stuff) is the Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 2020u for $1169.

• Graphics Boards – AGP was the latest tech and the top graphics board for this month was the Matrox Millennium G400 32MB for $199. PCI was still going strong though and the top PCI board was the 3dfx Voodoo3 2000 for $100.

Here’s How

• Windows Tips – Tips for viewing thumbnails, setting a default replacement for “My Documents”, accessing the Program Files folder in Windows 98 from Windows 95 or NT 4, and more.

• Windows NT – Tips for using the command line in Windows NT 4.

• Answer Line – Questions answered about bypassing the logon password in Windows 98, closing multiple programs at the same time, and sharing a printer among others.

• Internet Tips – Solving crashing and freezing problems on AOL 4.0, printing web pages, using Hotmail as your default e-mail in Internet Explorer, and more.

• Word Processing – Using macros in Word, correcting errors in custom spelling dictionaries, removing line numbers from blank lines, and more.

• Spreadsheets – Using cell protection in Excel, counting autofiltered rows, and more.

• Hardware Tips – Various ways to transfer large files, including using an Ethernet network, a null modem cable, USB direct connection and special software, compressing and using floppies, and more.

• Upgrade Guide – The ultimate upgrade – replacing your motherboard. Here options are suggested including a $350 upgrade featuring a K6-II-400 processor and a $500 option featuring a Pentium III-450 or 500 CPU. Both AT and ATX systems were around so you had to make sure which you had. They weren’t generally compatible in terms of the case and power supply.

Departments

• Up Front – Web sales are expected to be up 6twg_sh0% compared to the previous holiday season but customer satisfaction was not especially high. Web sites that can’t handle the load, late shipping, and poor customer service in general were big problems the previous year.

• Letters – AOL vs. Microsoft in the online world. Microsoft Messenger challenges AOL Instant Messenger (both now dead), and more. Plus questions about BeOS, OS/2 and Linux and more.

• Consumer Watch – A look at Intel’s processor serial number, cable companies, Yahoo and Geocities, and more.

• On Your Side – Problems with Microworkz, so-called “free” PCs, and more.

• Got a Problem? – Using a web based fax service or the Windows 95 fax applet to fax in Windows 98.

• Home Office – Protecting your PC from hackers, especially when using always on broadband connections.

• Bugs and Fixes – Y2K likely to be no big deal. Updates for Eudiora (4.2.1), Windows 9x telnet client, and Internet Explorer (5.01).

…and more!

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