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December 27, 1997
News
Giveaway: 3 tickets to MacWorld Expo
Predictions for 1998
- Component prices (drives, memory, screens, etc.) continued to drop, which will lead to
lower and lower PC prices. Expect to see lots of action in the sub-$1,000 range for
desktops, as well as a selection of sub-$1,000 notebooks.
- More mobile PCs
- Home servers
- Windows 98 is a bust, but Explorer 4.0 matches Netscape
- Apple?
New Computer Troubleshooting Advice
- Check the dumb stuff—cables, power, etc.
- Watch the startup process carefully to see what happens and what doesn’t. Note when
any errors occur
Cybermedia has got a nice holiday gift for PC-based computer users. They’re
offering a free, full-use version of their Oil Change internet-based software updating
software. Between Christmas Day and January 1, if you visit their web site at
www.cybermedia.com and click on the Free Oil Change link, you can download and use a
fully-capable version of Oil Change between those two dates. Oil Change is a product that
looks at what software you have on your computer, including drivers, and then goes out to
its database on the web to see what if any updates or bug fixes are available, and then
gives you the option to download and install any fixes that you may be aware of.
Apparently the company has been sure to get fixes and/or upgrades for popular games, such
as Riven and Tomb Raider II, as well as the bread-and-butter stuff, like driver updates
and the like. If you’ve ever wanted to make sure you’ve got the latest version
of all your software, or if you’ve been curious to see what these automatic software
updating products are like, this sounds like a great opportunity. Their web site again is
www.cybermedia.com.
Fast new notebooks are coming. As I mentioned last week, January 12 is the launch date
for the new 266 Mobile Pentium MMX Processor [explain differences with PII] and as
expected, quite a few companies plan to refresh the high end of their notebook lines
around that time. Compaq will apparently be offering the Armada 4220T, which will include
the fast processor, 32 MB of RAM and a 4 GB drive. It also plans new additions to its 7000
and 1500 Series. IBM and Digital will also be adding new machines—the Digital will be
a new addition to the company’s line of UltraNote 2000s with the enormous 14.1"
screen. Micron too, will be getting into the picture with a Transport XKU that offers a
266-MHz Pentium, 48MB of RAM, and a 8GB hard drive, priced at $4,799. Also look for new
additions from Dell, NEC, Acer and others.
Retail store sales may have been somewhat slow this holiday season, but that apparently
wasn’t the case online. According to a report I read, online industry analyst company
Jupiter Communications is projecting sales of $1.1 billion for all of 1997, with a
significant chunk of that coming in the last part of the year. AOL also reported doubled
online sales this holiday season, so it seems that online commerce is finally starting to
happen. Significantly, the number one item according to a news report I read was not
computers or computer-related items, but clothes.
Some of the confusion regarding recordable DVD drives, or DVD-RAM should go away thanks
to a new effort to reunite some of the various contentions and potentially competing
specifications. The DVD Forum is now working a spec for recording up to 4.7 GB on a
single-sided disk. Final products that support the standard probably won’t be
available for a year.
Tired of having to replace a color inkjet printer’s color ink cartridge, just
because you ran out of the blue, or any one of the three colors typically included? Well,
then you’re probably a prime candidate for Okidata’s new 2020 color inkjet
printer. Priced at $249, the new 600 dpi inkjet offers separate cartridges for each of the
cyan, magenta, yellow and black inks. It’s print speed is rated at 4 ppm for black
and 1 ppm for color.
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