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March 27, 1999
News
- I’ve got some important news regarding the show.
Starting April 10, the show time changes to 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., so be sure to tell all your
friends. This week and next week it’s still 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., but again,
starting April 10 I’m moving up to 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. so mark your calendars.
- I’ve got a copy of Microsoft’s PhotoDraw 2000 to
give away later in the show.
- As I mentioned last week, the official shipping version of
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 5.0 browser is now officially available. Many people,
myself included, weren’t able to get it initially, however, because of the
overwhelming traffic that was trying to get to the sites that offered it for download, so
I thought I’d talk about it a bit more this week. First of all, one of the
interesting things about IE 5.0 is that because of the way Microsoft wrote the program,
you can get different versions that are "branded" by different sites. So, for
example, you can get the Altavista version of IE5, or the Excite version or what have you.
The programs differ in the various customization features that IE5 offers, including the
list of preset favorites, the default home page, and even the icons available on the
toolbar. One of the nifty new features is the ability to listen to radio shows directly
via the IE toolbar, although only a limited number of radio stations are currently
supported (and KSFO isn’t one of them). To see it, you need to right-click on the IE
tool bar and select Radio from the list of choices—it’s not on by default. Also,
the browser has beefed up it’s searching capabilities in a number of ways, including
adding support for related links via the Alexa technology that Netscape also currently
uses in Communicator 4.5. Also similar to Communicator 4.5, you can now just type keywords
into the address line and the browser will find web sites for you. You can also customize
the left pane that’s used by the Search, History and Favorites functions in a variety
of different ways. In the History view, for example, you can now view the History by Day,
by Most Visited and other ways. In addition, you can now search through your History,
which can be quite helpful. Finally, one nifty trick available from the File menu is the
import/export feature, which lets you save your IE favorites as a single Bookmarks.htm
file, which is what Netscape uses, or convert an existing Netscape Bookmarks.htm file into
IE Favorites format. It’s about time somebody offered this in the browser, instead of
requiring a stand-alone converter utility.
- Kodak released several new digital cameras recently: the
DC200 Plus, DC400 and DC265. The $499 DC200 Plus is a fully automatic megapixel camera
that comes with a 4 MB Compact Flash memory card for storage and connects to a PC via a
serial port connection. The DC400, which is expected to retail for around $750, ups the
resolution to 1.3 million pixels, and includes a 3x zoom feature. In addition, it ships
with an 8 MB Compact Flash card, offers manual exposure settings and provides either a
serial or USB connection. The $1,050 DC265 offers all the DC400 has plus a 16 MB Compact
Flash card, a resolution of 1.6 million pixels, and built-in support for the Digita
scripting language, which can automate several picture-taking and image editing functions
all within the camera. All three cameras feature a color LCD for viewing the results of
your pictures instantly.
- I’m a bit late with this item, but I did want to mention
that Apple released MacOS X Server, which is the company’s first use of the NeXT
technology they acquired several years back. As its name implies, it’s only intended
for Mac-based servers, but some of the same technology built into the server version is
expected to appear in the MacOS X desktop operating system that the company is supposed to
be unveiling later this year. One interesting thing about MacOS X Server is that Apple is
apparently making portions of the source code available, a la the Linux operating system
and other open source software. Apparently Apple’s licensing agreement does include
some restrictions that keep it from being completely and truly open. You can find out more
at Apple’s web site www.apple.com/macosx.
- Compaq has gotten into the multifunction
printer/scanner/copier fax machine business with the release of the A900, the
company’s first entry into this market. The $399 A900, which has a $50 rebate off
that price until July 10, offers up 1,200 x 1,200 dpi color inkjet printing at speeds of
up to 8 ppm for black and 4 ppm for color. In addition, the unit offers faxing, color
copying and 24-bit color or 256-grayscle scanning with a 300 dpi optical resolution. In
addition, the unit offers support for six-color photo printing with the addition of an
optional photo cartridge.
- As I mentioned last week, Intel released the 433 MHz version
of its Celeron processor for desktop systems. As with all other Celerons, including the
previous 400 MHz version, the 433 MHz version features 128K of L2 cache built directly
into the processor. As a result, it offers performance roughly comparable to Pentium IIs
of the same speed. However, there’s apparently very little difference between the new
433s—which are available in PCs from a wide variety of vendors—and the existing
400s. In another month or two, Intel is expected to introduce a 466 MHz version of the
Celeron, all in an effort to gain market share in the red-hot low-end computer market,
where the company is facing serious competition from AMD.
- If you’re into video editing on your PC, you might want
to check out the new Pinnacle MiroVideo DC30 Pro, a combination PCI card and stand-alone
box into which you can plug standard and S-video video signals from camcorders, VCRs and
other video devices. The $999 DC30 Pro is bundled with a full version of Adobe Premiere
5.1, as well as TitleDeko titling software, Pixelan Spice Rack video effects,
MiroInstantVideo rendering plug-in and Sonic Foundry’s Acid Music, a music editing
and creation program that lets you put together original music by splicing short musical
loops. The DC30 captures both audio and video to maintain tight synchronization and
supports compression rates as low as 2.5/1.
- Sony has introduced new CD-RW drives that stand out because
of the interfaces they use: one is USB and the other uses IEEE 1394, which Sony calls
i.Link and which Apple and other companies call FireWire. The $399 Spressa USB CRX100E/X
is an external 4X CD-Writer (2X with CD-RW) and 8X CD Reader that, as its name implies,
connects via a computer’s USB port. The Spressa USB supports both Macs and PCs and,
like most USB peripherals, supports hot-plugging, so that you can connect or disconnect it
while the computer is on. The $499 Spressa i.Link, which is only available now for the new
G3 Power Macs, is also a 4X CD-Writer, but thanks to its fast i.Link connection it
supports CD-ROM reading speeds of 24X. A PC version is expected in the fall, after
Microsoft adds support for IEEE 1394 storage devices into Windows 98.
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