PC powerbrokers maintain fairly low profiles at Comdex
LAS VEGAS—Compaq Computer Corp., Dell Computer Corp. and IBM Corp. all stayed away from last week's Comdex, the capital of geekdom. But the most noticeable absentee was Intel Corp. None had booths at the trade show. The string-pulling chipmaker has PC makers at a standstill waiting for next year's introduction of a 500-MHz processor, which will have new instructions for floating-point computations in multimedia and 3-D video.
Olympus digital recorder: a good idea that gets lost in translation
TEST DRIVE Pros and cons: + Clever use of flash card as voice recorder - Voice recognition quality not yet acceptable Real-life requirements: Windows 9x, Pentium-class PC or notebook, 32M of RAM, CD-ROM drive, 125M free storage, sound card, PC Card slot What a great idea: Put a flash memory card into a tape recorder and use it like a miniature cassette to digitize and transfer spoken words to a computer.
ProSwap lets users change notebook drives on the fly
Pros and cons: + No rebooting to swap devices in notebook bay – Doesn't work with all Dell notebooks, possibly others Real-life requirements: Win9x, 4M of RAM, 500K free on hard drive, 31/2 inch floppy drive Tioman ProSwap from Agate Technologies Inc. may turn out to be one of those obscure products that sweeps the computing world.
Portables deliver noteworthy flexibility
After checking them for shipping damage, the staff categorized them by processor and speed, weighed them and examined components. The lab staff powered up each system with AC current, installed an operating system if necessary and looked for conflicts. The GCN Lab then loaded test applications and files and ran them in the same sequence: Symantec Norton Utilities 3.0 for Microsoft Windows 9x with appropriate updates, GCNdex32TM benchmark suite, year 2000-readiness tests, multimedia files and an
New 450-MHz chip gives some oomph to Compaq Deskpro EP
Pros and cons: + Strong performance, especially for 2-D video – Hard drive slightly sluggish The 450-MHz Pentium II re-leased last week by Intel Corp. will be king of the desktop hill until its 500-MHz Katmai processor arrives early next year. Intel also last week unveiled 300- and 333-MHz Celeron processors, both with 128K of Level 2 cache.
This Exchange preps you for next year's OS
Exchange Server 5.5 stores directory information. REDMOND, Wash.—Installing Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 could ease the path to next year's Microsoft Windows NT Server 5.0 network operating system. In briefings at Microsoft's corporate headquarters last week, Exchange group product manager David Malcolm said the Active Directory Services component of NT Server 5.0 will pull user information from the current version of Exchange.
Microsoft will beef up product security for feds
REDMOND, Wash.—Microsoft Corp. is raising the ante in the competition to sell secure operating and messaging systems to the federal government. Company officials last week said that their client-server messaging and browser products would meet Level 2 of the Federal Information Processing Standard 140-1 for cryptographic security, rivaling that of Netscape Communications Corp. products.
Come 2000, will Chicken Little be peeping or will he be squawking?
If you were to ask Chicken Little, he'd say the sky will fall on Jan. 1, 2000. A weather forecaster, however, would say there's merely a chance of stormy weather. A week rarely goes by without someone touting a miracle tool for ferreting out the double-digit year codes buried in every PC and server.
High-end desktop tool is low on accurate feedback
Pros and cons: + Powerful text tools – Output not WYSIWYG Real-life requirements: Windows 9x or Windows NT, Pentium Pro or Pentium II processor, 64M RAM, 25M free on hard drive; Mac requirements not tested Almost five years ago, I installed QuarkXPress 3.0 on a brand-new Apple Power Macintosh. It seemed gloriously faster than the desktop publisher I had been using on an old Classic Mac.
Lack of client management tools sinks Kayak XA-s
Pros and cons: + Great benchmark performance – No client management or other tools Average XA-s 400-MHz Kayak Pentium II Floating-point math 8.83 8.65 Integer math 16.08 16.02 2-D video 28.08 21.78 Small-file access 16.17 11.22 Large-file access 9.98 9.44 CD-ROM access 18.85 N/A 1.0=66MHz6 486 baseline
Illustration app duel ends in near draw
Version 5.5: rix and Solaris Current version: NT or Alpha (Mac coming soon) Version 3.5: Irix, HP-UX, Solaris and AIX Overall grade B+ B- Price $325 GSA $82 upgrade GSA $448 NIH ECS2 $225 upgrade GSA Microsoft Windows' Paint function can't always do the job when you need an illustration program. But Adobe Illustrator 7.0 and CorelDraw 8 can daunt even the techno-savvy.
K6 test units prove average in lab test
Government computer buyers always confront a dilemma: power or price? Systems with the K6 processor from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., are a bargain pricewise but not necessarily powerwise. Other considerations for administrators buying network clients are expandability and ease of access. The GCN Lab examined three systems built on the 300-MHz K6 and one with a preproduction 333-MHz K6-2. The lab found almost no differences between the two generations of processors. Overall, AMD's K6
Power users, meet your systems matches
All systems passed for year 2000 readiness and leap year rollover. A mighty train without a track goes nowhere fast. Likewise, a mighty PC without manageability will go nowhere on an office network. When the GCN Lab asked computer makers to send us power clients to compare, a dozen PCs arrived. Their Pentium II processors screamed at up to 400 MHz. They had husky hard drives and breakneck video acceleration. A
98 tips for using Windows 98
Windows 98, the Microsoft Corp. update to its popular Windows 95 operating system, may be an unavoidable upgrade for government users, especially for portable PC buyers. Why? Most computer makers began installing Win98 earlier this month, although Microsoft officially released the OS only last week. Some makers have said they will continue to offer Win95 for a time. But like OSes before it, it will likely slip into oblivion.
Photo-quality printers make the grade
The GCN Lab asked printer manufacturers to send units that produced photographic-quality output. Six companies responded. They also sent special paper, other media, ink cartridges, toner, ribbon and other supplies. We set up all the printers according to the manufacturers' directions and adjusted software drivers to produce the highest-quality images possible on the manufacturers' glossy stock.
$1,528 flat-panel monitor pales in comparison to its predecessor
Sometimes the second generation just isn't as bright as the first. That's the case with Compaq Computer Corp.'s new flat-panel monitor. The 14 1/2-inch TFT450 is about $1,000 cheaper than its 15-inch predecessor, the TFT500, which earned a Reviewer's Choice designation [GCN, Sept. 15, 1997, Page 39]. But the TFT450 lacks its forerunner's crispness and consistent brightness. When I filled the screen with a single color and looked at it straight on, the top
Servers, workstations have edge in taking advantage of BX speed
The new 100-MHz 440BX motherboard bus, which Intel Corp. rolled out last week, will enhance system performance, particularly for workstations and servers. The current 440LX bus runs at 66 MHz. New Intel 350- and 400-MHz Pentium II processors take advantage of the faster bus. Chips that are faster still will arrive before year's end.
Low-priced Armada 7300 is tough, reliable for travel
Many computer makers want to see a review in print as soon as possible. Compaq's offer conveyed a more relaxed attitude about the Armada 7300, and with good reason. It's not the fastest or the lightest notebook, but it strikes a good balance of power, features and weight. For several months, I carried it on trips to Japan, Las Vegas, Texas and home for the holidays. It never gave a single worry from accidental bumps,
It might pay to skip Windows 98 and wait for NT 5.0
Two-and-a-half years after Microsoft Windows 95 revolutionized the graphical interface, its Windows 98 successor offers little more, at least on the surface. Microsoft Corp.'s newest operating system is set for delivery this spring if schedules hold firm. After examining the latest beta version and others that came before, I believe this upgrade offers few enhancements important enough to warrant a switch by most government users. For one thing, Mickey Mouse waves back at you
Panasonic PanaFlat PF70 is flatter, sharper than the less expensive ToshibaTekBright
Panasonic's PanaFlat PF70 might have a cathode-ray tube, but its 15.9-inch viewable area is almost perfectly flat. The 0.24-millimeter slot pitch makes images quite clear. Red-green-blue controls are bar-shaped, and alignment is tight without distortion. The resolution reaches 1,600 pixels by 1,200 pixels. On-screen controls are the same jagged pictograms as on all Panasonic monitors for the last few years.
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