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May 1, 1999
News
- The CIH, or Chernobyl, virus did indeed hit last week and
while there wasn’t a great deal of damage done here in the US, it did apparently pack
quite a wallop overseas. The virus, which would both overwrite your entire hard drive and
attempt to overwrite your system’s BIOS, was primarily transferred through illegal
copies of software and so places where lots of this stuff exists—as well as very
little anti-virus software—got nailed. Taiwan, where the virus’ author is from,
was apparently hard hit, as well as India, Turkey and some other Asian countries. Here in
the US, apparently a few sites suffered, but they were few and far between.
- Many popular web sites are starting to integrate online
scheduling features so that you can store, update and retrieve your personal calendar from
any web browser, anywhere in the world. Many of the popular portal sites, such as Lycos
and Excite, as well as the community sites, such as Geocities and others are either now
offering or in the process of bringing the equivalent of a free PIM program onto their web
sites. In addition, Microsoft recently purchased Jump, a company that currently offers an
impressive-looking online calendaring system and plans to incorporate their technology
along with Hotmail, their free web-based e-mail service. The idea is certainly an
appealing one on many levels, especially as Internet access becomes more ubiquitous,
although there could be some problems with online privacy. Of course, I would venture to
guess that all of these services will password-protect your calendar and its contents, but
as a way for the sites to justify the expense of developing and/or purchasing these types
of services, they may want to have some sort of advertiser tie-in. For example, imagine
the process of putting in an upcoming wedding into your calendar and then seeing a banner
advertisement advertising wedding gifts. On the one hand, it could be very convenient, but
on the other it could be perceived as too invasive. Once again, it’s another example
of how, as technology makes our lives easier and/or more convenient, there can be a cost
involved.
- Along similar lines, we’re starting to see more computer
hardware costs being covered by services, in a manner that’s commonly compared to how
the cellular phone business works. In yet another example of that phenomenon, there was
another company that announced free PCs this week: Enchilada. A quick visit to
www.enchilada.com will show that if you agree to sign up for a four-year service contract
at $19.99 a month, you can get yourself a complete PC, along with Internet access. Of
course, given that most people are already paying $20 a month for Internet access anyway,
that’s not a bad deal. You also have to pay a $99 shipping charge. In return, you get
a PC equipped with a 300 MHz Cyrix MII processor, 32 MB of RAM, 3.2 GB drive, 56K modem,
24X CD-ROM, 15" Monitor and Windows 98. For an extra $10 a month they throw in some
applications as well as a Lexmark 1100 color inkjet printer. If you want, you can also
prepay for either package. The basic system is $749 up front and the Enchilada Grande, as
they call their deluxe package with the color printer and software, is $1,298. In each
case you also still have to pay the $99 shipping and handling charge.
- If you’re looking for a colorfully packaged handheld
organizer, you may want to check out Vtech’s new Helio line of PDAs. The $199
organizers come in ten different colors and provide all the basic address book, calendar
and to-do list features you’d expect. They use a pen and CIC’s Jot character
recognition software for input and can sync up with some popular Windows-based PIM
applications. The Helio runs the proprietary HeliOS and features a voice memo recorder in
addition to the standard PDA applications. The unit features 4 MB of ROM and 2 MB of flash
RAM for data and applications as well as 160 x 160-pixel display with support for 16
levels of gray.
- HP cut prices this past week on some of their top-of-the-line
Pentium II-based portables. The company’s 4-pound Omnibook 900 with a 366 MHz PII, 64
MB of RAM, 6.4 GB hard drive, and 12.1" screen was chopped 17% down to $2,899. For
$2,399 you can get a system with a 300 MHz PII and a 4.3 GB drive. HP also cut the prices
of its larger Omnibook 4150, which also features the current top-of-the-line mobile PII
processor at 366 MHz and a bigger 14.1" screen. This machine was cut about 4% to
$2,999.
- Number 9 has introduced a new line of video cards called the
SR9 series that are available in 16 and 32 MB versions for $109 and $149 respectively. The
SR9 boards, which are available in both AGP and PCI format, are some of the first to
support the upcoming AGP 4X mode, which will be made possible by Intel’s 820 chipset,
which is due to be released this fall. The cards offer sophisticated 3D graphics support
as well as hardware DVD decoding, for playing back full-screen full-motion DVD movies on
your PC. In addition, an optional $49 module lets you attach it directly to a digital
flat-panel display.
- Speaking of chipsets, I picked up a lot more information
about Intel’s new 810 chipset, which was officially introduced this past week. The
810, which was codenamed Whitney, is expected to show up in lower cost PCs later in May as
well as in June. The 810 adds support for a 100 MHz system bus in computers using the
Celeron processor, support for the ATA/66 standard for IDE hard drive connections, and
built-in support for 3D accelerated graphics. In addition, the 810 features a new
architecture that moves the IDE, USB and PCI controllers off the PCI bus and onto a faster
path. The bottom line result to you and me is that performance of your peripherals,
including hard drives, USB devices and some types of PCI cards should be better with these
newer systems, although the exact amount remains to be seen.
- There were more developments in the low-cost printer market
as Lexmark this week unveiled their Z11 color inkjet printer which, after a $30 rebate,
costs just $89. The Z11 offers an impressive 1,200 x 1,200 dpi resolution and prints
speeds of up to 2.5 ppm for color and 4 ppm for black. It ships with a color cartridge,
but it’s not clear from the information I found whether or not it also supports a
black cartridge simultaneously. The Z11 also comes with a coupon for free software from
Live Picture and Corel.
- If you’re looking for a way to better organize multiple
open web pages in your browser, you might want to check out Netcaptor, a utility that
works in conjunction with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 4.0 or 5.0. Netcaptor is
available in two versions: a free one that includes small ads and another for $19.95 that
doesn’t include any ads, which I think is a clever idea. Once it’s installed,
Netcaptor provides tabs along the top or bottom of your browser window and lets you
quickly switch between multiple pages at once. You can also use multiple tabs for
searching several search engines at once.
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