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KEEP OUT INTERNET INTRUDERS
FIRST LOOKS:
3 NEW PALMS
20 GREAT GOOGLE SECRETS
www.pcmag.com
PRODUCE YOUR
OWN DVD MOVIES
T H E I N D E P E N D E N T G U I D E TO T EC H N O LO GY
OCTOBER 28, 2003
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PLUS
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ALSO Windows
Media Center 2004
MICHAEL J. MILLER
Forward Thinking
THE 64-BIT REVOLUTION
I R E M E M B E R W H E N we moved from 16-bit to 32-
bit computing. In the mainstream market, the transition came with the release of the Intel 386 chip in
1985, but most of us kept running 16-bit applications
until Windows 95 came, nearly ten years later. Of
course, there were early 32-bit chips and operating
systems, notably the Motorola 68000 and Mac OS.
Fast-forward nearly 20 years, and the steps toward
a similar kind of a transition are coming again. We’ve
now seen 64-bit processors in a number of niches,
including the Sun SPARC chips and the Intel Itanium.
But these are primarily used in high-end servers and
very specialized workstations.
Again, Apple seems to be leading the way toward
the next transition, with its new G5 processor (also
known as the IBM PowerPC G5 or PowerPC 970) and
its work on Panther, the latest version of OS X. Panther isn’t a full 64-bit operating system yet, but it’s
headed down that road.
Our first test results clearly show the G5 to be
more powerful than the previous-generation G4,
more powerful in some cases than the fastest Pentium 4, and even on a par with the fastest dual Xeon.
See the full test results in First Looks, page 36.
AMD RESETS THE COMPETITION
ILLUSTRATION BY ROBERT NEUBECKER
O N T H E M O R E M A I N S T R E A M side, AMD has
just released the Athlon 64, the desktop version of its
64-bit Opteron chip, which promises terrific 32-bit
performance as well as a path to 64-bit computing.
Initially, there will be two major versions of
the Athlon 64. The Athlon 64 FX pretty
much is the Opteron chip, and you can expect to see it only in high-end desktops—
those aimed at gamers and enthusiasts.
Our first test results show the FX winning hands-down on typical 2-D and 3-D
tests. For more information, see the test results on page 32.
The second Athlon 64 version will be
a more mainstream chip, designed
for somewhat less expensive systems. At press time, AMD wasn’t letting
that chip out yet; we’ll test one as soon as we can.
Of course, none of this means much without a 64bit operating system. Microsoft has promised an
early version of a 64-bit edition of Windows later this
year, but it won’t be officially released before late
2004. More important, that version is likely to have
far fewer drivers than mainstream Windows edi-
tions, since the drivers need to be 64-bit. The real
mainstream move to 64 bits will happen after the
Longhorn OS arrives.
In the meantime, AMD is promoting the fantastic
32-bit performance of the Athlon 64. I recently had a chance to talk to AMD
chairman and CEO Hector Ruiz,
and he says the Athlon 64 FX “is
being positioned as a product for the
PC enthusiast crowd—the people who
have always wanted the best,” while
the regular Athlon 64 is aimed at the
consumer market.
Ruiz says that with the 64-bit
chip you can get cinematic computing and audio-visual functions.
“We expect to see 64-bit applications in
the consumer space next year,” he says. “Microsoft
will have an OS in the second half of next year that
will lead to [64-bit] applications.” Still, he says, consumer applications will focus on new experiences
rather than on productivity applications.
(For more of my latest interview with Hector Ruiz,
log on to www.pcmag.com/interviews.)
The move to
64-bit computing won’t happen overnight.
But 64-bit
environments
will probably
be an integral
part of computing for the
next 20 years.
6 4 B I T S O R H Y P E R -T H R E A D I N G
W I T H A M D A N D A P P L E both pushing 64-bit
chips, where does this leave Intel? It has the Itanium
chip, but that’s not designed for desktops or notebooks. Intel says the market isn’t ready for 64-bit
applications yet. Instead, the company is countering
with the Hyper-Threading capabilities of the Pentium 4. For some applications, like running an
antivirus scan in the background, this approach does
www.pcmag.com OCTOBER 28, 2003 P C M A G A Z I N E
7
Forward Thinking
MICHAEL J. MILLER
seem to provide more immediate gains than a move to 64bit computing would.
Still, 64-bit applications will be the future, though I
wouldn’t be surprised to see Hyper-Threading–style architectures in 64-bit chips as well. On servers, 64-bit applications are having a big impact, mostly because the larger
address spaces let more of a database remain in memory,
increasing speed for top-end financial and scientific applications. On desktops, my hope is that 64-bit computing will
let game developers create more realistic games. Eventually,
I’d like to see better indexing and more sophisticated voice
recognition algorithms. If the 32-bit transition is any guide,
we’ll probably need a good-size base of 64-bit–capable
machines before the real applications get here.
The move to 64-bit computing won’t happen overnight, and it probably won’t be easy. But 64-bit environments will probably be an integral part of computing for
the next 20 years.
MICROSOFT OFFICE 2003:
W H AT ’ S H E R E , W H AT ’ S M I S S I N G
FO R B U S I N E SS E S , perhaps the most important product
we’ve seen lately is the new version of Microsoft Office.
Office 2003 offers some major new functions for businesses,
such as exposing many
more XML (eXtensible
Markup Language) features
in Word and Excel, as well
as InfoPath, which elegantly
uses XML to tie together
information.
One interesting aspect
of Office is that it now
takes advantage of and
integrates with a number
of Microsoft’s new Server
features, including SharePoint Services (part of Windows Server 2003), SharePoint
Portal Services, and the upcoming Rights Management
Server. Sharing information is a key issue for most businesses, and Microsoft did a good job of implementing
that through SharePoint. Many businesses are very concerned about rights management as well. But it’s interesting—and perhaps a bit troubling—that Microsoft has made
these features available primarily through proprietary
server products. (For more details, see our feature starting
on page 86.)
Unless businesses are going to use these new features,
end users will probably not find Office 2003 a compelling
upgrade, although I really do like the changes to Outlook,
including the new vertical preview pane and the spam filter. Other than Word’s new Reading view, the core apps—
Word, Excel, and PowerPoint—haven’t changed much in
this version.
That was a deliberate decision on Microsoft’s part,
according to Office general manager Steve Sinosky. He says
users told Microsoft not to add more features because of
concern about “bloatware” and having more features they
don’t use. I’m sure some people did say that—I hear it all
the time—but I still have a list of features I’d like to see:
n
Better control of formatting, bullets, and the like in Word.
Microsoft gets credit for improving this with the last few
versions, but it still could get better.
n Full-text indexing across Office applications. Microsoft
chose not to do this, in favor of working on operatingsystem–level functions for the forthcoming OS codenamed Yukon, so in the meantime I’m using third-party
indexers like X1.
n Better integration of graphics between Excel and PowerPoint. When I create a chart in Excel and paste it into
PowerPoint, I often end up with a chart that looks wrong.
n Better graphics in PowerPoint, period. We now have
sophisticated graphics engines on our computers; we
could get much better graphics displays, transitions, and
more in PowerPoint. Just look at Apple’s Keynote.
In the meantime, the new version of Office has some
useful things, and I can dream.
MEDIA CENTER
I A M E X C I T E D about the new version of Microsoft
Windows Media Center Edition, as it seems to be a step
forward. It should offer more control over selecting television programs to record, more extensibility for thirdparty applications, better TV picture quality, and better
overall stability.
The recording and extensibility features I just mentioned are clearly present in several white-box machines
we have received (see our reviews on page 43). As far as
TV picture quality and overall stability, we’ll have to wait
until we have final machines from the computer makers,
which I expect to see shortly.
8
P C M A G A Z I N E OCTOBER 28, 2003 www.pcmag.com
As a Media Center user, I’m also glad to see that most of
the system vendors will be offering low-cost upgrades to this
new version. I really like the Media Center concept (the
most used computer in our house is running Windows
Media Center Edition) for everything from Web surfing and
games to music. Like most users, though, my PC resides in
my home office/den, not in the family room. The family
room PC is still a ways off, but it certainly is getting closer.
MORE ON THE WEB: Join us online and make your voice heard.
Talk back to Michael J. Miller in our opinions section,
www.pcmag.com/miller.
䊛
Contents.1
OCTOBER 28, 2003 VOL. 22 NO. 19
www.pcmag.com
Imagine a workplace without Microsoft Office. We look at cheaper alternatives to the suite; see page 102.
32
First Looks
32
AMD Athlon 64 FX-51
33
Falcon Northwest Mach V FX-51 M
34
Velocity Micro Raptor 64
34
VoodooPC Voodoo F1
36
Apple Power Mac G5
S O F T WA R E
86 MICROSOFT
OFFICE
A NEW
STRATEGY
38
Palm Zire 21
38
Palm Tungsten E
40
Palm Tungsten T3
40
Liquid Surf
43
Microsoft Windows XP Media Center
Edition 2004
46
Canon EOS Digital Rebel
48
Microsoft FrontPage 2003
48
Samsung SPH-i500
50
Niveus Media ONEbox Media Center
50
ZyXEL ZyAIR B-4000
52
Canon CanoScan LiDE 80
52
Epson Perfection 3170 Photo
54
HP Scanjet 4670 See-Thru
Vertical Scanner
54
Microtek ScanMaker 6000
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
56 Feedback
164 Backspace
The newest version of
Microsoft Office is finally here, and it’s more
than an incremental upgrade. Corporate
workgroup users will find significant
improvements under the hood, while solo
Office users will find meaningful tweaks here
and there. Here’s a close-up look at the changes
to Word, Excel, and Outlook, as well as the
debut of the suite’s OneNote app.
ON THE COVER
HOT NEW PRODUCTS:
Microsoft Office 2003
page 86
64-Bit Speed Demons
(Velocity Micro and
others) page 32
Keep Out Internet
Intruders page 70
First Looks: 3 New Palms
page 38
20 Great Google Secrets
page 68
Power Mac G5 page 36
Produce Your Own DVD
Movies page 114
HP’s Cool See-Through
Scanner page 54
Windows Media Center
2004 page 43
15
Contents.2
OCTOBER 28, 2003
25 Pipeline
A new chip could make Wi-Fi ubiquitous.
25
Startling new data on identity theft.
26
Libraries face the law.
26
Roku device puts art and photos on giant displays.
25
August’s virus outbreaks: The aftermath.
26
HP reinvents the e-book.
28
COMING ATTRACTIONS: Adobe Creative Suite Premium Edition, IBM ThinkCentre
SERVERS
114 DVD Recorders:
128 Full Service
says
The Burning Question Who
bigger is
68 Solutions
68
20 Great Google Secrets: You
already use Google, but our clever
tips will help you search smarter.
70
Internet: CAPTCHA tests weed out
spammers from human Web users,
and they’re getting smarter.
72
Security Watch: Your PC communicates with the world through
its ports. Unless they’re secured,
attackers can exploit them.
74
Enterprise: Investment management
firm T. Rowe Price is making steady
gains by using voice recognition.
76
Internet Professional: Here’s how to
embed specialty fonts on your Web
pages so that visitors won’t need
them preloaded.
81
User to User: Learn how to calculate
special averages in Excel, combine
characters in Word, and more.
16
We’ve boiled down our Classic and
Undiscovered lists to give you our top
choices for the most incredibly useful sites.
(www.incrediblyuseful.com)
SERVERS
line, Acer TravelMate 250PE, Alienware Area-51m, PersonalBrain 3.0.
DVD burners are all the rage,
but how do you decide
which one to buy?
Internal or external,
FireWire or USB 2.0,
DVD “plus” or “dash”—it
feels like a three-ring circus. We tell you
which formats are best for which purposes,
and which manufacturers make the best
products. We also take you on a tour of
DVD-authoring software.
www.pcmag.com
TO P 1 0 1 W E B S I T E S
25
H A R D WA R E
Online
better? Skinny
1U servers
used to be
for Web
apps only,
but they have gotten much stronger
and can pack quite a punch. They’re
now used for everything from Web
serving to application serving,
messaging, thin-client computing,
and even small databases.
Opinions
7
59
61
63
65
Michael J. Miller: Forward
Thinking
Bill Machrone: ExtremeTech
John C. Dvorak
John C. Dvorak’s Inside Track
Bill Howard: On Technology
Personal Technology
158 After Hours
Virtual Worlds: We look at several
sites that take online socializing to a
whole new realm, with rich 3-D
graphics, endlessly customizable
avatars, and loads of fun activities.
160 Gear & Games
A roundup of noise-canceling headsets; the Davis CarChip/EX; the S3i
Sound Omnivox; Microsoft Encarta
2004 and Flight Simulator 2004.
Once you’ve read our story on 1U servers,
find out what budget servers have to offer
small businesses and workgroups.
(www.pcmag.com/onlineextras)
FIRST LOOKS
New reviews every week! Coming soon:
• Canon i960 photo printer
• DVD CopyWare
• Sony VAIO GRT190G notebook
(www.pcmag.com/firstlooks)
N E W S A N D A N A LY S I S
The latest technology trends:
• Gaming notebooks
• Low-cost printers proliferate
• Overhaul for application software
(www.pcmag.com/news)
TO O L S YO U C A N U S E
• Discussions: Log on and participate!
(http://discuss.pcmag.com/pcmag)
• Downloads: Check out our indexed list
of utilities from A to Z.
(www.pcmag.com/utilities)
EXCLUSIVE COLUMNS
DVORAK ONLINE
K Each Monday, John C.
Dvorak gives you his
take on what’s
happening in high tech
today. Visit www.pcmag.com/dvorak.
ULANOFF ONLINE
K And each Wednesday,
Lance Ulanoff puts his
own unique spin on
technology. Visit
www.pcmag.com/ulanoff.
Coming up:
• Build a high-definition home theater PC
• Create a legacy-free PC
• Opteron on the desktop
(www.extremetech.com)
w w w. p c m a g . c o m /p i p e l i n e
T E C H N O L O G Y T R E N D S & N E W S A N A LY S I S
SHRINKING JUICE
Lock ’Em Out
TAKE STEPS TO PROTECT YOURSELF.
Wi-Fi Here, Wi-Fi There
A mini chip could put wireless networking everywhere.
In September, the Federal Trade
Commission (FTC) made public
some startling statistics on identity theft. According to its survey
data, 27.3 million Americans have
been victims of identity theft in
the past five years, and a whopping 9.9 million people have
joined this unfortunate list in the
past year. In 2002, identity theft
cost consumers $5 billion and
businesses nearly $48 billion.
“For several years we have
been seeing anecdotal evidence
that identity theft is a significant
problem that is on the rise,” says
F
ILLUSTRATION BY MILAN TRENC
[
[
irst your company
“The key thing that enables
launched a wireless netthis new platform is that it’s so
work. Then you set one up small,” says Jeff Abramowitz,
in your home. What’s next?
Broadcom’s senior director of
How about having Wi-Fi in
wireless LAN marketing. “It will
make Wi-Fi pervasive.”
your cell phone, MP3 player, or
even your digital camera?
With its low-power requireIf chipmaker Broadcom Corp. ments, diminutive size, and
reasonable price (about $12
has its way, the Wi-Fi juggereach), the Airnaut will keep
Force One is
rolling along.
expected to
The company
“The key thing
appear in PDAs
recently took the
that enables
before the end
wraps off its tiny,
of the year and
low-power Wi-Fi
this new platin Wi-Fichip called the
form is that it’s
equipped cell
AirForce One, a
so small.”
phones early
technology that
next year.
promises to put
Abramowitz
built-in wireless
networking into all sorts of elec- anticipates that the AirForce
One will also be used in innovtronics gear.
ative products such as VoiceThe AirForce One is the first
over-IP (VoIP) phones. BroadWi-Fi solution to combine a 2.4GHz radio, power amplifier,
com is in talks with makers of
802.11b baseband processor, and many kinds of mobile and
communication devices.
medium-access controller on a
single CMOS chip that’s smaller
Of course, the 802.11g wirethan a postage stamp. By putting less standard has been grabmore than 100 components on a
bing headlines lately. With
single chip, Broadcom claims
consumers’ need for speed,
the AirForce One requires 70
some manufacturers are
percent less transmit power, 80
already looking for a singlepercent less receive power, and
chip 802.11g solution. “Let’s
97 percent less standby power
just say that ‘g’ is not far away,”
than a typical Intel Centrino
claims Abramowitz.
Wi-Fi solution.
—John R. Quain
A chemistry professor and two
graduates of the University
of Tulsa have been awarded
a patent for a way to make
nanobatteries so small that
40 of them can be spread
across the width of a human
hair. Each battery packs as
much as 3.5 volts. The inventors foresee tiny, batterypowered devices that could
travel through human arteries
and perform other tasks.
NO MORE CDS OR DVDS?
Streaming and downloading
video and music will eventually bring doom for CDs and
DVDs, claims a recent Forrester Research study. Analysts predict that in five years,
33 percent of music sales and
19 percent of home video
revenue will shift to ondemand downloading. The
Forrester study also names
Internet portals serving
entertainment content and
broadband providers as the
beneficiaries of the shift.
UP, NOT SIDEWAYS
Researchers at Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute are
developing new interconnect
technologies that they hope
will lead to smaller, faster
microprocessors that will
work in three dimensions. A
number of prototypes have
already been developed. The
technology calls for several
chip wafers to be bonded
together vertically—or in 3-D.
“We’re working with others
on vertically integrated 3-D
circuits, going up instead of
across,” says physics professor Jian-Qiang “James” Lu.
Howard Beales, an FTC director.
“Now we know.”
In response to the problems,
The Coalition on Online Identity
Theft was recently formed by
Amazon.com, eBay, Microsoft
Corp., Network Associates Technology, RSA Security, VeriSign,
Visa, WholeSecurity, and Zone
Labs. In the coming months, the
coalition will issue advisories,
seeking to take a bite out of
crime.—Sebastian Rupley
Seeking Virus Help
Concern over the viruses that spread quickly in mid-August
brought millions of visitors to virus-related sites. The
number of unique visitors to Microsoft TechNet grew more
than twelvefold during the week of August 10.
Fastest-growing virus-related sites, mid-August 2003
Unique visitors
(in thousands)
Microsoft TechNet
MSN Tech & Gadgets
Symantec online
Microsoft Windows Update
Zone Labs online
August 10
August 17
Growth
317
258
1,007
6,605
368
3,902
1,042
4,049
11,637
638
1,131%
304%
302%
76%
73%
Source: Nielsen/NetRatings, August 2003.
25
PIPELINE
E-Books
Reloaded
E
ILLUSTRATION BY MILAN TRENC
-books have generated
their share of excitement—and an equal share
of disappointment. Despite
support from major players
such as Microsoft, they’ve
failed to reach true mainstream
status. But Hewlett-Packard
researchers in England are
convinced that some new
interface ideas, in conjunction
with a set of emerging display
technologies, will mark a
turning point for e-books.
At HP’s Bristol, England, facility, researchers have developed
26
prototype e-books—which may
become commercial products
in the next two years—with
Etch-a-Sketch–like displays bordered by touch-sensitive strips.
You move your fingers on the
strips to turn a page in animated
fashion, much like you would
with a regular book. You can riffle through pages by dragging
your finger quickly along the
touch strips.
“A lot of people look at our
devices and wonder why there
isn’t a touch screen,” says Huw
Robson, manager of HewlettPackard’s Digital Media Lab in
Bristol. “Touch screens present
a lot of readability issues. So
what we’ve done is put touch
strips around the edges of the
e-book display.” HP’s prototype
is about 1 centimeter thick and
has a metal case. The device also
has wireless connectivity and
USB ports for loading content.
Electronic paper displays are
high on Robson’s list of technologies that could revolutionize e-books. But the market
remains tough.—SR
Libraries Face
Up to Filters
Long Arm of
The Law
T
WHEN A DIVIDED U.S. SUPREME
Court ruled this summer that
federally funded libraries must
install software filters on publicaccess computers, the decision
capped off a fiery debate over
library patrons’ First Amendment
rights. Months later, it’s clear the
controversy isn’t over.
Recent studies report that filters used in libraries to block
Internet pornography often prevent patrons from accessing
important information. For
example, because many filters
concentrate on keywords, they
can prevent access to sites containing the word breast—blocking sites that offer reliable information on breast cancer.
In August, the Henry J. Kaiser
Family Foundation released a
study revealing that the least
restrictive filters correctly
blocked 87 percent of pornography and incorrectly blocked 1.4
percent of sites containing health
information and 9 percent of sexual-health sites. The most restrictive filters blocked 24 percent of
legitimate health sites, 50 percent of sexual-health sites, and 91
percent of pornography sites.
The blocked content does not
end at health. Excluding sites with
the word breast could also block
chicken recipes. “Can filters be set
too high? Absolutely,” says Andrew
Tull, executive vice president of
BioNet Systems, developer of Internet filter Net Nanny. “They could
block historical documentation and
valid research on celebrities.”
The difficulty, he says, lies
in training personnel at understaffed libraries how to change
restriction levels depending on
the patron. In response to the
Supreme Court ruling, BioNet
will release a version of Net
Nanny with a more easily manipulated configuration by the end
of the year. “We don’t tell people
what they can and can’t see,”
says Tull. “We just want to
help people mediate that in
the best way possible.”
—Alexandra Robbins
he havoc created by
widespread viruses in
August resulted in serious legal hardball. U.S. law
enforcement agents say the
arrest of the alleged author of
the Blaster worm sends a
message to virus writers that
the federal government will
prosecute similar crimes.
The U.S. Attorney’s office
confirmed that federal agents
arrested 18-year-old Jeffrey Lee
Parson of Hopkins, Minnesota,
for intentionally damaging a
computer. If convicted, Parson
faces a maximum penalty of ten
years in federal prison or
$250,000 in fines or both.
“The DOJ takes these crimes
very seriously,” says U.S. Attorney John McKay.
Parson is accused of modifying the original Blaster or
LoveSan virus and releasing it
on the Internet, attempting
to use thousands of PCs as
“drones” to mount a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS)
attack, according to the U.S.
Attorney’s complaint.
Antivirus vendor Symantec
says that the Blaster worm
infected more than 500,000
machines in August.
—Mark Hachman
Art on the Wall
Giant LCD and plasma TVs that hang on
your wall are enticing for watching TV
shows or DVDs. But when the movie ends,
you’re left with a big, blank canvas several feet wide. Enter Roku.
The new company with the weird
name (Japanese for six, since Roku is
the sixth company founded by Anthony
Wood, a key player
behind ReplayTV) recently unveiled the Roku
HD1000, which uses its
otherwise blank display to showcase photo slide
shows or even movies from CompactFlash,
SmartMedia, Secure Digital, and Memory Stick
cards. In addition to memory slots, the HD1000
($499) also has an Ethernet connector and builtin Wi-Fi to hook into your home network, letting
you pull pictures and movie clips directly off your
The software interface for Roku allows to be
pulled from several different kinds of media.
hard drive. The HD1000 also plays MP3s, with
visualizations dancing on screen to the music for
those in search of an animated wall. Get the picture now?—Jeremy Kaplan
PIPELINE
Adobe Suite
Gets Creative
Graphic designers in the market to
upgrade their toolboxes will have a
compelling choice in the Adobe
Creative Suite Premium Edition. The
offering will bundle full versions of
Adobe Photoshop CS, ImageReady CS,
Illustrator CS, InDesign CS, GoLive CS,
and Acrobat 6.0 Professional. All these
programs are new versions, featuring
common interface and toolset conventions, more intuitive workflow, automated Web production, and unprecedented integration.—Jamie M. Bsales
Acer’s Tablet-Enabled
Notebook
The upcoming Acer TravelMate 250PE
will look like a regular notebook, but it
will come with a digitizer-equipped
screen and Microsoft Windows XP
Tablet PC Edition. Such features makes
it an interesting option for users who
only occasionally need the OS’s writing,
drawing, and touch-screen capabilities
and have shied away from paying the
premium that tablet devices currently
command.—JMB
$1,229 direct (upgrade pricing available).
Adobe Systems Inc., www.adobe.com.
$1,500 street. Acer America Corp.,
www.acer.com/us.
IBM’s New
Corporate Line
IBM is revamping its managed-PC
offerings with the upcoming IBM
Alienware’s
Upgradable Graphics
As GPUs continue to advance, gaming
enthusiasts who opt for the upcoming
Alienware Area-51m notebook won’t
be stuck with yesterday’s graphics
solution. Equipped at launch with the
nVidia GeForce fx Go5600 chipset, the
Area-51m will let users swap out the
module themselves to upgrade down
the road.—JMB
ThinkCentre line. The ThinkCentre
A50, M50, and S50 (pictured, along
with the new ThinkVision monitor) all will feature an easy-access
chassis, enhanced manageability,
Intel 865G chipsets with 800-MHz
front-side bus support, and onebutton disaster recovery via
IBM’s Rapid Restore PC
utility.—JMB
Prices: TBD.
IBM Corp.,
www.ibm.com.
$2,152 direct. Alienware Corp.,
www.alienware.com.
A Better Brain
Bigger Photo
Frame
Pacific Digital is rolling
out a speaker-equipped
8-by-10 version of the
popular MemoryFrame
digital photo frame. With
this frame, you will be able to
connect your digital camera via
USB and load up to 32 images,
complete with background music
for the slide show.—JMB
28
$500 street. Pacific
Digital Corp., www
.pacificdigital.com.
TheBrain Technologies’
PersonalBrain 3.0 will help
you organize your work and
personal life by organizing
information as a network of
linked “Thoughts,” rather than
using the rigid hierarchical filing
typical of most PC utilities. With its simple
drag-and-drop interface, users will be able
to create associative networks that reflect
their ways of thinking about data.—JMB
$79.95 direct. TheBrain
Technologies Corp.,
www.thebrain.com.
HANDS-ON TESTING OF NEW PRODUCTS
36
38
40
40
40
Apple Power Mac G5
Palm Zire 21
Liquid Surf
Palm Tungsten E
Palm Tungsten T3
43 Microsoft Windows XP Media
Center Edition 2004
46 Canon EOS Digital Rebel
48 Microsoft FrontPage 2003
48 Samsung SPH-i500
AMD Brings 64-Bit Computing to
the Desktop
BY RICH FISCO AND KONSTANTINOS KARAGIANNIS
THE MAGAZINE
WORLDS LARGEST
COMPUTER TESTING
FACILITY
AMD is angling to bring 64-bit com-
puting to your desktop. Based on the
same 64-bit architecture (called
AMD64) as the company’s Opteron
processor for servers and high-end
workstations, the new Athlon 64 FX
chip promises 64-bit speed while delivering top-ofthe-line 32-bit performance.
As with the server chip before it
(“AMD Opts for 64-Bit Computing,” First Looks, June 17, page 36)
and the Apple/IBM PowerPC G5
processor, applications need to
be rewritten to take full advantage of the 64-bit platform.
AMD has actually released
two versions of the desktop
processor. Both chips are based
on the same core as Opteron but
do not support multiprocessor
designs. Rather, they provide
two levels of performance in
single-CPU systems. The Athlon
64, available at launch in a 3200+
(2.2-GHz) version, is aimed at
being the best-performing chip
in the 32-bit marketplace for
today’s typical desktops.
The Athlon 64 FX line is the
no-holds-barred performance
leader aimed at PC enthusiasts,
gamers, multimedia mavens,
and digital designers. The first
entry is the Athlon 64 FX Series
51 (FX-51) running at 2.2 GHz.
We had hoped for an Athlon
64–equipped PC for this
roundup, but it appears that
AMD’s initial partners aren’t bit-
AMD ATHLON 64 FX-51: PERFORMANCE TESTS
L High scores are best.
M Low scores are best.
Bold type denotes first place.
Processor
Hard drive
Graphics card
(and driver version)
Business
Winstone
2002
Multimedia
Content
Creation
Winstone
3DMark 03
2003
1,024 x 768 L
1,024 x 768 L
Anti-aliasing/Anisotropic filtering K
Windows Media Encoder 9
Serious
1,600 x 1,200 L
Sam (fps)
1,600 x 1,200 L
4X / 8X
4X / 8X
Alone
Concurrent
with Norton
Antivirus 2003
(min:sec)
1,024 x 768 M
(min:sec)
1,024 x 768 M
Falcon Northwest
Mach V FX-51
Athlon 64 FX-51
(2.2 GHz)
Two 7,200-rpm SATA
(RAID Level 0)
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
(6.14.0010.6378)
47.2
65.4
2,066
70
7:41
8:11
Velocity Micro
Raptor 64
VoodooPC
Voodoo F1
MPC Millenia 920i
Creative Studio*
Velocity Micro
Vector VX*
Athlon 64 FX-51
(2.2 GHz)
Two 10,000-rpm SATA
(RAID Level 0)
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
(6.14.0010.6378)
47.1
64.1
2,067
69
7:57
8:39
Athlon 64 FX-51
(2.2 GHz)
Two 10,000-rpm SATA
(RAID Level 0)
nVidia GeForceFX 5950
Ultra (6.14.0010.5171)
47.0
64.5
2,284
63
7:49
8:29
P4 (3.2 GHz)
Two 7,200-rpm SATA
(RAID Level 0)
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
(6.14.0010.6378)
38.5
55.5
1,769
62
6:56
7:29
Athlon XP 3200+
(2.2 GHz)
Single 7,200-rpm IDE
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
(6.14.0010.6378)
40.1
47.5
1,581
44
8:39
9:25
RED denotes Editors’ Choice. * Reported for comparison. We tested all systems with 16GB of 400-MHz DDR SDRAM using Microsoft Windows XP Professional.
32
istered DDR SDRAM, the Athlon
64 FX has a maximum memory
bandwidth of 6.4 GBps on its
dual channels, versus 3.2 GBps
on the single-channel Athlon 64.
(By comparison, the fastest Intel
P4s with either the 875P or 865
chipsets also achieve a peak
memory bandwidth of 6.4 GBps
using dual-channel 400-MHz
DDR SDRAM memory.)
The Athlon 64 will come with
the familiar performance ratings
you’ve seen on Athlon XP processors, but the chip’s performance
won’t be the same. For instance,
the 2.0-GHz Athlon 64 3200+ and
the 2.2-GHz Athlon XP 3200+
have different clock speeds, architectures, and performance
qualities but share the same
3200+ moniker. This is because
AMD is using different applications and benchmark tests to derive the 64-bit performance ratings. Still, this naming convention
is sure to cause confusion among
buyers, so be careful to check
ing on that chip yet.
Both the Athlon 64 and
Athlon 64 FX family have 128K
L1 and 1,024K L2 cache, AMD’s
3DNow! Professional, and support for SSE2. The Athlon 64
chip has a single-channel, onchip memory controller with a
64-bit interface that supports
200- to 400-MHz DDR SDRAM
memory in its desktop version.
The mobile Athlon 64 has similar specs but supports only up to
333-MHz DDR SDRAM memory
and adds AMD’s PowerNow!
technology. Desktop and mobile
Athlon 64 chips will come in a
754-pin package.
The higher-powered Athlon
64 FX line comes in a 940-pin
package and gets its performance boost from a dual-channel, on-chip memory controller
with a 128-bit interface that supports 200- to 400-MHz DDR
SDRAM—but of the rarer registered type. Using 400-MHz reg-
w w w. p c m a g . c o m /f i r s t l o o k s
50 Niveus Media ONEbox
Media Center
50 ZyXEL ZyAIR B-4000
52 Canon CanoScan LiDE 80
52 Epson Perfection 3170 Photo
54 HP Scanjet 4670 See-Thru
Vertical Scanner
54 Microtek ScanMaker 6000
WHAT THE RATINGS MEAN
lllll EXCELLENT
llllm VERY GOOD
lllmm GOOD
llmmm FAIR
lmmmm POOR
whether you’re getting an Athlon
64 or an Athlon XP.
Some of the confusion will be
alleviated for those interested in
the higher-end chip, as the
Athlon 64 FX won’t have a performance rating number at all.
Rather, it will have a series number (the first being series 51)
which is to be compared only
with other Athlon 64 FX series
numbers to get a sense of relative performance.
The Athlon 64 and Athlon 64
FX will be used mostly as 32-bit
processors out of the gate. That’s
because at launch, there will not
be a 64-bit operating system
available for the chip. Linux vendors Red Hat and SuSE will have
64-bit versions soon, and by
early next year, we should see a
64-bit version of Windows XP
for the Athlon 64. For now, however, our testing shows the
Athlon 64 FX-51 to be a 32-bit
powerhouse with extra potential
waiting to be harnessed.
To gauge how the new Athlon
64 FX-51 compares with the
incumbent performance leaders,
we tested new systems from Falcon Northwest, Velocity Micro,
and VoodooPC against two representative 32-bit-only systems
Photoshop 7
Gaussian Blur RGB to CMYK
Despeckle
(seconds) M
(seconds) M
(seconds) M
17
7
4
17
7
4
17
7
4
16
8
3
24
9
4
that had a 3.2-GHz Pentium 4 and
an AMD Athlon XP 3200+.
We tried to standardize configurations wherever possible.
The Falcon Northwest and
Velocity Micro systems ship with
the 256MB ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
graphics card, so we added this
card to our comparison
boxes and ran all tests with
the Catalyst 6378 driver.
Only the VoodooPC system ships with the new
nVidia GeForce FX 5950
Ultra card, which we tested
with the Detonator 50 driver. All systems had 1GB of
400-MHz DDR SDRAM,
with the Athlon 64 FX systems using registered memory. The 3.2-GHz Pentium 4
comparison system was run
with Hyper-Threading enabled on all tests.
AMD claims that the Athlon 64
FX-51 is the best-performing 32bit processor, and for nonmultitasking tests, that claim seems to
be true. On our Business Winstone and Multimedia Content
Creation Winstone tests, the
Athlon 64 FX-51–based systems
turned in the highest scores
we’ve ever seen.
To measure 3-D performance,
we ran Futuremark’s 3DMark03
and the game Serious Sam SE.
3DMark03 is a DirectX-based
synthetic benchmark test using
DX8 and some elements of DX9,
while Serious Sam SE is an Open
GL–based game. Once again the
Athlon 64 FX-51 machines won,
recording the highest scores
we’ve seen.
We also ran Photoshop and
multitasking tests. This is where
we found a chink in the Athlon
64 FX’s armor. The Photoshop
tests show the 3.2-GHz Pentium
4 comparison system beating
the Athlon 64 FX systems in two
of the three filters.
For the multitasking scenario,
we chose to run Norton AntiVirus in the background while
using Windows Media Encoder 9
in the foreground to convert a
30-second AVI
Falcon Northwest
Mach V FX-51
It may seem egotistical for us to
rave about how attractive we find
the case of the Falcon Northwest
Mach V FX-51, given that the
laser-cut artwork (a $200 option)
that glows out of its side is our
logo. But it does indeed look
great, and it shows off the
newest customization
technique Falcon offers.
Considering what you’ll
be spending ($4,495 direct,
The Falcon Northwest
Mach V FX-51 is the
fastest—and best-looking—of the new models.
clip to a
high-quality
WMV file. We report the time it took to run just
the video encode by itself and
with NAV running in the background. The results show that
Intel’s Hyper-Threading clearly
pays off. The Pentium 4 took
about a minute less time to run
the multitasking test than the
Athlon 64 FX-51 systems did.
Now that both AMD and
Apple have toes in the 64-bit
pool, when can we expect an
Intel desktop entry? According
to an Intel spokesperson, the
company’s 64-bit infrastructure
is just not ready yet, and it is not
concerned about not being the
first to market a 64-bit desktop
chip. Instead, Intel will continue
to bring speed gains to its P4.
without a monitor or speakers), looks count. But performance also counts, and this
machine does not disappoint.
The Mach V FX-51 edged out
the other Athlon 64 FX-51 PCs on
most of our tests.
The system has 500GB of reasonably fast storage in the form of
two 250GB 7,200-rpm SATA hard
drives in a RAID 0 configuration.
Although the other two systems
use paired 36.7GB 10,000-rpm
SATA drives in RAID 0 and add a
250GB unit for deep storage, the
Mach V FX-51 still outperformed
them overall, and it provides
about 180GB more storage. You’ll
have to fill this storage with software, though, as Pinnacle Studio
8 is the only notable title.
The Sony DRU-510A DVD+/RW drive burns at 4 X for all
DVD formats, and it’s the only
one in our roundup that hits this
speed across the board. It’s
paired with the modest Veritas
RecordNow DX app. A standard
33
FIRST LOOKS
16X DVD-ROM is the other
installed optical drive. The only
slightly outdated internal component is the Audigy (not Audigy 2) sound card.
At three years, the warranty is
on a par with the others. And like
all the other vendors here, Falcon
Northwest lets you return the
system to upgrade components
at a special rate. Its technicians
retest the new configuration and return it to
you. Since you’ll want
to hold onto your custom laser-cut case for
years to come, that’s a
welcome service.—KK
suite (albeit OpenOffice 1.1).
We love the 6.1-enabled Audigy 2 sound card, which is bundled with a free MP3 codec for
encoding. Going from MP3 to
audio CD is fast, too, as there’s a
dedicated fast 52X CD-RW drive.
For DVD burning, there’s the
competent Sony DWU10 DVD+/RW drive, which records DVD
at 4X but other DVD formats
The Velocity Micro
Raptor 64 is a relative
bargain among Athlon
64 FX-51 PCs, making
it our Editors’ Choice.
Velocity Micro
Raptor 64
Not only is the Velocity Micro Raptor 64 the
lowest-priced Athlon
64 FX box in our
roundup ($3,658 direct), in terms of features and
performance you don’t really
sacrifice much over the other
systems. For that combination, it
gets our nod as Editors’ Choice.
The silver and black case
looks good, and the front panel
sports thermometer readouts
showing the temperatures
around the internal components. Like the Mach V FX-51,
the Raptor 64 is based on the
trio of AMD Athlon 64 FX-51, 1GB
of registered 400-MHz DDR
SDRAM, and the 256MB ATI
Radeon 9800 Pro.
Also helping it along are two
36.7GB 10,000-rpm SATA hard
drives in a RAID 0 configuration,
which run the OS and major
apps. A 250GB 7,200-rpm hard
drive provides file storage. A few
interesting programs come preinstalled, including Jasc Paint
Shop Pro 8.0, NTI CD&DVDMaker 6 Gold, Pinnacle Studio 8,
and even an office productivity
34
at 2.4X.
As with
all the systems, the Raptor
64 comes with a three-year
warranty—and more. You can
return the Raptor 64 for upgrades for the life of the system,
paying only the wholesale cost
of the chosen parts and a
modest fee (around $100 for
most jobs, according to the
company).—KK
NEC unit; the latter a Klipsch ProMedia Ultra THX 5.1 set that real-
ly rumbles with the Audigy 2
Platinum eX. There’s even a pair
of Zalman 5.1 headphones, maybe
for apartment dwellers who want
immersion without eviction.
While the Voodoo F1 has the
AMD Athlon 64 FX-51 processor
paired with 1GB of registered
DDR 400 SDRAM, it does differ
from the other systems in one
main performance component: VoodooPC did
not choose to go the
ATI route, choosing
instead a 256MB
nVidia GeForceFX
5950 Ultra graphics
card and overclocking its GPU from 475
MHz to 570 MHz. On
our performance tests
this pumped-up card
did help pull the
Voodoo F1 ahead on
3DMark03.
The Voodoo F1 has
the amazing Cool-IT
Liquid Chiller—a cooling system with transparent tubes that resemble racing-engine hoses.
These tubes use a specially
prepared glycol liquid to draw
heat away from the CPU and the
graphics card and to a radiator
element with one silent fan. In
addition to catching our eye
(thankfully, not our ears, as some
fan-laden machines do),
Falcon Northwest Mach V FX-51
With AMD Athlon 64 FX-51, 1GB registered 400-MHz DDR SDRAM, two
250GB 7,200-rpm SATA hard drives
(RAID Level 0), 4X DVD+/-RW drive,
16X DVD drive, 256MB ATI Radeon
9800 Pro, Microsoft Windows XP
Home, $4,495 direct. Falcon Northwest,
888-325-2661, www.falcon-nw.com.
OVERALL llllm M lllmm
P llmmm V llllm
Velocity Micro Raptor 64
With AMD Athlon 64 FX-51, 1GB
registered 400-MHz DDR SDRAM, two
36.7GB 10,000-rpm SATA hard drives
(RAID Level 0), 250GB 7,200-rpm hard
drive, DVD+/-RW drive, 52X CD-RW
drive, 256MB ATI Radeon 9800 Pro,
Microsoft Windows XP Home, $3,658
direct. Velocity Micro, 800-303-7866,
www.velocitymicro .com.
OVERALL llllm
M lllll P llllm
V llllm
VoodooPC Voodoo F1
Painted an exotic Lamborghini yellow, the VoodooPC
Voodoo F1 comes in at a price
that’s Lamborghini-like for a
PC: $5,995. While said paint
job makes up a few hundred
of the price, the rest of this sweet
machine is suitably top-notch to
please even the most particular
enthusiast.
Unlike the others here, the
Voodoo F1 has a price tag that includes a monitor and speakers.
The former is a gorgeous 22-inch
The Voodoo F1 uses two
10,000-rpm drives in a RAID 0
configuration to provide 73GB
of fast storage for the OS and
core apps; data can be stored on
the 250GB 7,200-rpm drive.
Some good apps come installed,
including Ulead VideoStudio 7
and InterVideo’s WinDVD,
which help take advantage of
the Pioneer AO6 DVD+/-RW
drive—the system’s only optical
drive, surprisingly. At least it
can burn DVD+R and DVD-R at
4X, though you may want to add
better software than Ahead
Software’s Nero Express.
As with the other vendors,
VoodooPC helps protect the
sizeable investment in its
machine with a lifetime wholesale-pricing upgrade plan. The
parts you get now are covered
by a three-year warranty.—KK
The Lamborghini-yellow
Voodoo F1 has a liquid
cooling system to keep
fan noise to a minimum.
VoodooPC Voodoo F1
the Chiller
helped keep the
system very stable
during graphics testing despite
the overclocking.
With AMD Athlon 64 FX-51, 1GB
registered 400-MHz DDR SDRAM,
two 36.7GB 10,000-rpm SATA hard
drives (RAID Level 0), 250GB 7,200rpm hard drive, 4X DVD+/-RW drive,
256MB nVidia GeForceFX 5950 Ultra,
22-inch CRT, Microsoft Windows XP
Professional, $5,995 direct. VoodooPC,
888-708-6636, www.voodoopc.com.
OVERALL llllm M llllm
P lllmm V lllll
FIRST LOOKS
Apple Power Mac G5: Neck
And Neck with Intel PCs
BY TROY DREIER
hen Apple’s Steve
Jobs introduced the
W
Apple Power Mac G5
this summer as the fastest personal computer any company
had built to date, we took it with
a grain of salt. After
all, Apple had made
that boast in the
past, and those
claims did not tend
to hold up when independent third parties (such as ourselves) ran tests on
current, real-world
applications (not the
synthetic benchmark
tests Apple cited).
Well, we’ll take that
salt with a side of
fries. After testing a
loaded ($4,349 direct,
after we opted for
more RAM and upgraded graphics) dual
2.0-GHz Power Mac G5
on a range of high-end
content creation applications and comparing the results with a similarly configured (and priced) Dell Precision
650 Workstation running dual
3.06-GHz Xeon processors, we
see that indeed the G5 is generally as fast as the best Intelbased workstations currently
available (see chart).
The key improvement to the
new line of Power Macs is the
PowerPC G5 processor, developed jointly by Apple and IBM.
The G 5 architecture is much
stronger in accessing memory
and handling computing-intensive tasks without making
repeated, time-consuming trips
to the hard drive.
The G5 also will bring 64-bit
processing to the Mac platform,
allowing an exponentially
greater ability to handle integers than the previous 32-bit
processors. As
with the AMD
emulation mode, as with Intel’s
64-bit Itanium processor.
As of this writing, only a few
programs have been updated for
the G5; these include Adobe
Photoshop 7.0.1, Emagic Logic
6.2.1, and PyMOL 0.91. Current
users can download 64-bit plugins or upgraded versions of
each. Apple expects many more
programs optimized for the G5
to reach consumers by year-end.
(To help that effort along, thirdparty programmers can download a free set of
development tools
from Apple’s site,
which analyze programs and offer
tips on optimizing
for the G5.)
The G5’s improvements would
be nothing without a radically improved underlying
system architecture.
Apple has matched
the chip with a 1-
cation tests, the G5 was the clear
winner on tests using Adobe
Acrobat and Sorenson Squeeze
(a video compression tool).
The Dell entry bested the G5
under Adobe Photoshop 7 and
New Tek Lightwave 3D, a 3-D
modeling application. (For a
complete explanation of each
test and more test results, see
the online version of this story
at www.pcmag.com/g5.)
We also tested the G4 and G5
under Apple’s Final Cut Pro,
which isn’t available for Windows. This test clearly shows
the speed improvement of the
G5 over the previous generation
of Power Macs. The G5 pared
more than half an hour from the
total time the G4 took to render
our video file and output it to
MPEG-2 format. If you make
your money working with video
on the Mac platform, replacing a
G4 with a G5 could pay for itself
in short order.
The physical appearance of
the G5 is just as impressive as its
The perforations on the Apple Power Mac G5’s chassis
aren’t just a design element; they let air move through
the enclosure to help cool the 64-bit chip inside.
Athlon
64 (also reviewed in this
issue; see page 32), applications
need to be optimized for 64-bit
computing to take full advantage of the architecture. But the
PowerPC G5 (like the Athlon
64) will continue to run 32-bit
applications (like those in our
test suite) natively instead of in
GHz front-side bus
per processor (up
from 167 MHz with
the G4), for a total FSB
bandwidth of 8 GBps
(up from 1.3 GBps).
You can load a G5 with up
to 8GB of 128-bit, 400-MHz DDR
SDRAM (2GB of 64-bit SDRAM
was the max on the G4), as well
as new 160GB Serial ATA hard
drives. Hence even nonoptimized 32-bit applications will
see a significant performance
increase compared with the way
they run on a Power Mac G4.
On our cross-platform appli-
performance numbers. With its
20-inch-tall anodized aluminum
shell, the G5 is larger and heavier (39 pounds) than its predecessors. System ports have been
upgraded, so the G5 has three
USB 2.0 ports (one in the front),
two FireWire 400 ports (one in
the front), and an additional
FireWire 800 port in the rear.
The G5 also has dedicated AirPort antennas and Bluetooth
dongle ports, so users won’t
need to sacrifice a USB port
for Bluetooth.
The rear panel contains optical digital audio-in and -out
CROSS-PLATFORM PERFORMANCE TESTS
Adobe Acrobat
All scores are in minutes:seconds.
Low scores are best.
Processor
Convert Word Convert
document
nine images
Apple Power Mac G5
Apple Power Mac G4*
Dell Precision 650*
Dual PowerPC G5 (2.0 GHz)
Dual PowerPC G4 (1.4 GHz)
Dual Xeon (3.06 GHz)
1:24
1:42
1:35
1:47
2:27
3:12
Adobe
Photoshop**
Apple’s Final Cut Pro
NewTek
Lightwave 3D**
Sorenson Squeeze
Apply filters
Render
video
Output to
MPEG-2
Render scenes
Encode video
2:11
3:07
1:43
7:40
12:46
N/A
60:41
90:34
N/A
9:22
14:05
9:08
5:22
7:12
8:44
* Reported for comparison. ** For the results of individual subtests and a complete explanation of the tests, see the online version of this review at www.pcmag.com/g5.
N/A—Not applicable: Apple’s Final Cut Pro runs only on the Mac platform.
36
FIRST LOOKS
ports and analog audio-in and out jacks, while the front has a
convenient headphone minijack. Unfortunately, the G5 also
ships with the standard unremarkable keyboard and one-button mouse, which look and feel
more out of date with each main
system update.
The chassis features innovative improvements under the
hood, as well. While previous
Power Macs had a latch for easy
access to the internal components, the G5 is lockable to prevent unwanted intrusion. Once
the side panel is removed,
there’s a clear plastic screen in
place, covering the components.
It’s called the air deflector, and
it’s part of the G5’s revolutionary
cooling system.
The inside is divided into four
discrete cooling zones. Each has
its own fan (or fans), and each is
self-contained when the air deflector is in place. The G5 draws
air in through the holes in the
front panel and passes it over
the components. When any section runs hot, only the fan for
that area runs faster. The result—a surprisingly quiet machine—will come as a great relief to users who have suffered
with noisy G4s.
New G5s ship with Mac OS X
10.2.7, an update that provides
system tweaks for the 64-bit
processor. Machines also come
with the standard—and excellent—iLife bundle, which includes the latest builds of iDVD,
iMovie, iPhoto, and iTunes (for
individual reviews of these
apps, see www.pcmag.com/mac).
Palm Fights Back
BY BRUCE AND
MARGE BROWN
alm, the market-leading
PDA company, will have a
new name (palmOne as of
mid-November) and a new lineup of handhelds to combat the
raft of Microsoft Windows Mobile PDAs that have surfaced.
The line now consists of
seven models, including three
that the company has just announced: the entry-level Zire 21
($100 street), with a more powerful CPU and more memory
than the previous Zire; the
Tungsten E ($200 street), a business-oriented handheld at an affordable price; and the Tungsten
T3 ($400 street), a beefed-up
version of the outgoing T2 featuring a class-leading display,
more powerful productivity and
multimedia software, and improved Bluetooth configuration
and management software.
Those two Tungsten entries
also come with software improvements. The basic PIM applications have increased capability, including more fields and
views. And the significant applications are now preloaded in
P
38
ROM, so you
don’t have to
load them from
an auxiliary CD.
For Microsoft
Outlook and Office compatibility,
the new DataViz
Documents to Go 6
Professional Edition
has native file support
for Word and Excel. This lets
you view files directly from
e-mail or file transfers without
conversion. Multimedia is handled by RealOne Mobile Player,
Kinoma Video, and Palm Photos
(all conveniently preloaded).
A new addition is J2ME compatibility via IBM’s WebSphere
Micro Environment, which
opens a world of J2ME programs
for Tungsten users.
PALM ZIRE 21
The Palm Zire 21 takes over the
entry-level slot in the Palm lineup, and it’s an even greater
value than the original Zire.
Now boosted to 8MB of RAM
(from 2MB) and running a 126MHz CPU, the Zire 21 features
the latest Palm OS version and
Other bundled software includes Intuit’s QuickBooks
(New User Edition), as well as
Apple’s Address Book, Art Directors Toolkit, iChat, Mail, and
the Classic (OS 9) operating system for running older apps that
haven’t been upgraded to OS X.
The G5 is available in three
configurations. A $1,999 model
has a single 1.6-GHz PowerPC
G5 processor, 256MB of SDRAM,
and an 80 GB Serial ATA hard
drive. The $2,399 model has a
single 1.8- GH z Power PC G 5
processor, 512 MB of SDRAM ,
and 160 GB of storage. The
$2,999 model has dual 2.0-GHz
PowerPC G5 processors, 512MB
of SDRAM , and 160 GB of storage. All models come with
SuperDrive (Apple’s DVD - R /
CD - RW writer). AirPort Ex-
The new entry-level
Zire 21 is faster, more
powerful, and has
more memory than
the original Zire.
applications.
That’s good, since
with its monochrome 160-by-160
display and lack of a
memory expansion slot, the
Zire 21 is really suited only for
those basic applications.
The Zire 21’s main competition is the Sony Clié SJ20 ($130
list, before $30 rebate). The SJ20
is also a monochrome unit, but it
has 16MB of RAM, a 320-by-320
display, and a Memory Stick
removable media slot,
giving you more PDA for
the money.
That said, if the Zire
21 really winds up selling for closer to $80,
PIM
The Tungsten E,
with its bright
screen, is an
affordable business-oriented
PDA that’s
easy to carry.
treme (802.11g Wi-Fi) cards and
Bluetooth modules are among
the possible options.
Apple has succeeded in boosting its Power Mac line, taking
Apple users into high-performance computing. And by outperforming top-of-the-line Windows workstations on some tests,
Apple has proved that megahertz
isn’t everything. The new flagship Mac will more than satisfy
power-hungry graphics, video,
and business users and may even
win Apple some users from the
Windows/Intel camp.
Apple Power Mac G5
With dual 2.0-GHz PowerPC G5 processors, 2GB SDRAM, 160GB SATA
hard drive, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
graphics, $4,349 direct. Apple Computer Inc., 408-996-1010,
www.apple.com/powermac. llllm
as its predecessor did, it’s well
worth the price. This model
isn’t good for multimedia handling, and power users will want
more capacity and expansion.
But we found it adequate for
students, teens, or anyone who
wants a low-cost PDA for handling to-do lists, contacts, and
calendar items.
Palm Zire 21
Street price: $100. Palm Inc., 800-8817256. lllmm
PALM TUNGSTEN E
Remember when business buyers had unlimited budgets for
technology? Well, we can’t,
either. Enter the new Tungsten
E, the spiritual successor to the
popular Palm V and m500 series. It’s built for business
but equipped
for multimedia as
well, though
playing MP3s
requires
a
memory expansion card.
Weighing just
4.6 ounces and
measuring 4.5 by
3.1 by 0.5 inches
(HWD), the sleek
FIRST LOOKS
The Tungsten
T3’s best
feature is its
bright, 320-by480 dis-play. It
can switch from
portrait to landscape mode as
well.
Tungsten E has a remarkably bright 320by-320 transflective
display. It’s ready for all
standard Palm business
applications. With the addition
of an MMC or SD card to store
media files and a pair of stereo
earphones (neither is included),
it’s suitable for on-the-road
entertainment purposes.
The $200 Tungsten E is the
same price as the entry-level HP
and Dell Windows Mobile PDAs,
which are larger and heavier. It
also goes up against the Sony
Clié SJ33 ($220 street).
The Tungsten E’s 126-MHz
CPU and 32MB of RAM are about
twice the speed and capacity of
the Sony Clié SJ33. It comes with
the newest Palm OS and PIM
software, but the Sony unit has
the advantage of the much-appreciated jog-dial, plus Sony’s
excellent proprietary interface
and applications. But all in all,
the Tungsten E offers a great
value in a powerful and highly
mobile business device.
Palm Tungsten E
Street price: $200. Palm Inc., 800-8817256, www.palm.com. llllm
PALM TUNGSTEN T3
The Tungsten T3 takes its place
as the flagship among Palm’s
PDAs. With its 400-MHz Intel
XScale CPU and 64MB of RAM
(52MB available to users), the
T3 is easily the most powerful
Palm-branded PDA yet. It’s a bit
larger and heavier than the T2,
measuring 4.3 by 2.9 by 0.6
inches (HWD) and weighing 5.4
ounces.
Most physical features carry
over from the earlier models, although the application launch
and five-way navigation buttons
40
have changed. They
are now bigger and
hence easier to use.
The T3 uses the
same slider design
as the earlier T
models. But in
this instance, instead of exposing a Graffiti
area, the case
opens up to
show more
screen (for
a total of 2.1
by 2.9 inches).
That bright, transflective TFT
display has 320- by 480-dpi resolution (half VGA). This increased screen resolution is
stunning: The display seems to
pop right out at you. And by tapping one button, you can switch
from traditional portrait orientation to landscape.
The company positions the
T3 for professional and enterprise users, in part because of its
Bluetooth wireless capability
and support for SD I/O. A new
Socket SD Wi-Fi card will also
be supported, but it was not
ready for our testing. The lack of
integrated Wi-Fi holds back the
T3 somewhat, although the
Tungsten C is available with WiFi built in.
The closest Sony model that
corresponds to the T3 is the Clié
TG50 ($350 street), which lacks
Bluetooth and has a smaller display with lower resolution. In
the Windows Mobile world, the
closest competing model would
be the HP iPAQ h2215 ($400
street), which has a similarly
rated CPU and RAM amount, integrated Bluetooth, and a CF II
slot as well as an SD slot.
The h2215 is about the same
weight and just a bit larger than
the T3, but it has a lower-resolution display. Unlike any current
Palm OS models, however, the
h2215 can keep multiple applications running—still a Palm
shortcoming. The T3 and the
h2215 are equally impressive.
Your choice should be dictated
by your OS preference.
Palm Tungsten T3
Street price: $400. Palm Inc., 800881-7256, www.palm.com. llllm
Browser
Booster
BY ALFRED POOR
he problem: Desktop
and notebook displays
are getting increasing
larger with higher resolutions,
yet most of the trillions of Web
pages are formatted for 800-by600 displays. These two details
collide, resulting in Web pages
with content that is too small to
read comfortably at a screen’s
native resolution, or that is formatted in ways that waste display space. Portrait Displays has
a solution: Liquid Surf.
When used in conjunction
with Internet Explorer 6.0 or
later, Liquid Surf adds a toolbar
to Explorer that lets you zoom
the active image from 75 to 250
percent. Liquid Surf lets you
take a column that is narrower
than your screen and expand it
to the screen’s width. Or if the
image is too wide, you can reduce it so that you can view it
without scrolling horizontally.
The zoom feature alone
would be enough to justify the
cost of the product. But—as they
say in the late-night infomercials—wait, there’s more. You
can choose between three
modes: Full View, Extended
T
Liquid Surf’s Extended View reformats vertical Web content as
side-by-side columns, taking full advantage of the larger, highresolution screens that more of us are using.
View, or Split View. Full View is
the normal mode. Extended
View takes a page that scrolls
vertically off your screen and reformats it as two side-by-side
columns, letting you see more
information at a glance.
Split View lets you set up two
windows within a single browser session. This also brings up
an option called Link Leap,
which lets you choose to bring
up the link page in the same
window or in the opposite window. The Link Leap feature can
be especially handy when you’re
looking at an index page with
many links (such as the home
page of a news service) in the
left pane: Clicking on a link will
cause the story to appear in the
right pane. Once you get the
hang of it, it’s much easier, faster,
and more convenient than setting up separate browser sessions and dragging links from
one to the other.
Liquid Surf has limited value
if you’re running at XGA resolution or lower. But if you run at
1,280-by-1,024 or higher, or have
a large display, you’ll find that it
helps you get much more done
when browsing.
Liquid Surf
Direct price: $19.95. Portrait Displays
Inc., 925-227-2700,
www.portrait.com. llllm
FIRST LOOKS
Second-Generation Media Center Edition: Worth the Wait
BY BILL HOWARD
sers who sit out the first
version of a new Microsoft product often find
their patience rewarded. A current case in point is Microsoft
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004, announced September 30 and scheduled to begin
shipping this fall on a growing
roster of multimedia PCs.
This second edition of the
photo-, video-, and music-centric operating system, codenamed Harmony during development, has many little tweaks
that add up to provide better
performance, stability, and usability. We found that the most
poised and complete sections
are photos and music. New to
Harmony is a radio player (FM
and Internet) and also the ability to download movies for rent
(though this service wasn’t activated in time to include in our
testing).
But with MCE 2004, Microsoft
did the most significant work on
the TV and PVR (personal video
recorder) sections. Microsoft
says MCE 2004 allows for betterquality TV as well—an important point, since the soft-focus
picture quality found in the first
batch of MCE PCs left us wanting.
As to whether picture quality is
markedly improved in this version, let’s just say the jury’s still
out until we see final-production
MCE machines from PC makers.
For this story, Microsoft provided us with a white box system
from its labs so that we could get
an early look at the OS. Video
card choices will have a major
impact on quality.
As before, an MCE PC boots to
what’s called a 10-foot interface,
meaning the fonts are big
enough to be read from across
the room, and selections can be
made from a remote control. You
can use a keyboard (most MCE
machines come with a wireless
keyboard and mouse) but you
generally don’t have to, except to
surf the Web from the couch or
to clear the occasional applica-
U
tion error message (hey, this is
still a Windows OS, after all).
Start Menu choices are Play
DVD, Online Spotlight (not active, but promised to be a link to
a Microsoft site offering news,
weather, promos, online music
and movie downloads), My
Video, My Pictures, My TV (live
TV and PVR), My Music, Radio
(on some systems), More Programs (for third-party apps), Settings, and the two most recently
used items from More Programs.
Press the My TV button and
you see an inset displaying the
channel you’re watching, plus
buttons for selecting a television
guide, a program search function, TV settings, and a list of the
last three shows you’ve recorded. If a TV is your primary or
only display, you can select a
high-contrast background. This
is a welcome change, as some
users found the default blue-onblue text of the first MCE interface a bit hard to read on TVs.
The TV guide and video
recorder are smarter in MCE
2004. You can make a 100-channel cable guide more manageable
by filtering to show just sports,
movies, or children’s shows, for
instance. Similarly, a listing of
separate recorded episodes of the
same program can be collapsed
into a single listing, which can
greatly help to reduce scrolling.
You can now start recording
Unlike standard Windows
XP, the Media Center
Edition interface is designed to be easily viewed
and navigated from across
the room.
show didn’t get saved (such as
user cancellation or a bad video
signal). Best of all, the robust
Microsoft guide remains free, unlike subscription-based PVR services such as TiVo and RePlay.
Of course, all those options
don’t count for much if the picture quality isn’t very good. And
the single most dazzling feature of MCE
The My TV sec2004 is the display
tion allows quick
calibration wizard, a
access to proshows a few
painstakingly program listings and
minutes early
duced series of
shows you’ve
and end a few
videos that you
recorded.
minutes late
watch while setting
compared to the
screen centering and
listed time, though of course sizing, aspect ratio, contrast,
there’s still no solution for the brightness, and color balance.
possibility of overtime in sports
The tools are simple and efevents except recording an fective, better than at least some
extra hour just in case. The new of the third-party reference
version’s conflict management videos used by video technilets you decide which conflict- cians when setting up home theing show gets recording priori- ater systems. Combine these
ty, or you can let the guide de- factors with the ability to contermine if one of your choices vert a DVD to 1,080-line (interis being repeated during the laced) resolution and you have
two-week span of the program the potential for great video—as
guide and defer recording that long as the content you start
with is digital.
program.
Despite all the work MicroThe keyword-record capability lets you record shows based on soft has done with graphics vena category, show title, actor name, dors to get the timings down
or director name. What Mi- right and then to calibrate discrosoft calls enhanced Record plays, analog video, such as your
History, a troubleshooting fea- typical cable or broadcast signal,
ture, tells you in detail why a may still seem a bit soft. And
43
FIRST LOOKS
that’s the Achilles’ heel of Media
Center Edition, which leaves
the door open for PC manufacturers such as Dell (with its Dell
Media Experience) to create
their own multimedia PCs using
Windows XP (not MCE 2004)
and proprietary across-theroom interfaces.
The My Pictures section in
the first iteration of MCE was
very good (especially for slide
shows) and has been enhanced
modestly for MCE 2004. Using
only the remote control, you can
make minor but useful editing
corrections to images. It’s possible to rotate but not crop, adjust
contrast but not brightness, and
automatically detect and eliminate red-eye. You can then save
the changes.
You can play your slide show
to background music by jumpYou can download the album covers
of CDs you add to your my Music
collection and view your collection by
cover, playlist, and more.
ing to My Music, starting an
album or playlist, returning to
My Pictures, then starting the
slide show. There’s currently
no way to match the timing of
the slide show to the duration
of the audio by adjusting the
duration of each slide (a few
programs, such as PhotoDex,
offer this). The default transition between photos begins by
panning randomly across the
slide (an effect associated with
Ken Burns, who used it to dramatize still images in his Civil
War series for PBS).
My Videos lets you play
home movies or video clips
stored on optical media or on
the hard drive. Some MCE 2004
PCs will even include a built-in
analog-to-digital converter and
front-mounted input jacks, so
you’ll be able to convert and
archive VHS and camcorder
tapes. As movie making becomes easier and as hard drives
and optical disc capacities get
bigger, My Videos may become
as popular a part of the MCE experience as My Photos.
44
MCE 2004’s My Music section
needs less help from Windows
Media Player this time. In the
past, when you added tunes, you
had to go to Media Player, log
the new files, then restart the
Media Center. Now if you add
files to a folder tagged as a watch
list location, they’re automatically added to My Music.
The new Auto Playlists feature groups similar styles of
music for you, such as quiet
evening music, jogging music,
or favorites you haven’t listened
to recently. Some 20 Auto
Playlists tags come with MCE,
and you can create others. Manual playlists allow greater finetuning, of course, but quickly associating a newly added song to
one of the default choices is a
nice option to have between the
times you update your playlists.
Based on Windows Media
Player 9, My Music plays but
won’t rip MP3 files. That said,
you can add a third-party MP3ripping module to use with
grams to DVD.
In addition, MusicMatch offers its MusicMatch MX streaming music service currently on
HP systems. Around year-end,
MusicMatch will release a Media
Center Edition version of its bestin-class Jukebox software, which
would load
from More
My Pictures lets you
Programs
organize digital photos
(Microsoft
into slide shows, which
says it won’t
you can set to music with
replace My
songs from your My
Music). And
Music collection.
we’re told
Adobe
is
considering adapting its excellent Photoshop Album to better
integrate with MCE PCs.
If you have a first-edition
Media Center Edition PC, most
PC makers will make an upgrade
available for a nominal amount,
typically $5 or $10 to cover the
cost of mailing a CD. (The OS is
too big for most users to download.) You can’t order it from
Microsoft directly. Nor can you
upgrade a standard PC to the
Media Center Edition interface,
although that’s something
Microsoft may reconsider given
Windows Media Player or in- that vendors such as Dell are
stall a standalone app like the creating their own looks-likepopular MusicMatch Jukebox MCE software for systems that
are media centers minus the TV
and rip files with it.
A couple of minor new fea- tuners and PVRs.
Media Center Edition 2004 is
tures show Microsoft’s grasp of
minutiae. For instance, if you a worthy upgrade for current
have caller ID and plug a phone users and a very compelling
line in to the modem jack, product for anyone in the marcaller information pops up on ket for a multimedia PC. For
screen when the phone rings. bringing music and digital phoWe found that Media Center tos (and home videos, on modEdition does a fair job of cata- els equipped with the proper
loging files on removable hardware) into the living room,
drives and recognizing when an MCE 2004 PC is superb. The
they’re attached. If you play PVR functions are an added
live radio (or TV ) and hit the bonus. The only drawback we
pause button, you can rewind, still see is in the picture quality
play back, and skip ahead up to of cable and broadcast TV
viewed through the device.
30 minutes.
And while Media Center Edi- We’ll see in upcoming reviews
tion started out as a Microsoft- of final MCE 2004 machines if
only software show, the inter- makers are able to remedy this
face is open, meaning that other somewhat with better hardware.
companies can write add-on
Microsoft Windows XP Media
modules. For instance, Sonic
Center Edition 2004
PrimeTime ($80 direct, www
Microsoft Corp., 800-426-9400,
.sonic.com) is an MCE add-in that www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/
lets you burn recorded TV pro- mediacenter. llllm
FIRST LOOKS
It’s smaller and cheaper than
its big brother, but the Canon EOS Digital
Rebel SLR (right) outputs images that are
just as amazing as those produced by the
EOS-10D.
Canon Breaks
Digital SLR Price Barriers
BY LES FREED
he impressive Canon EOS
Digital Rebel SLR carves
out a new niche in the
hard-to-define prosumer digitalcamera market. The price of the
6.3-megapixel Digital Rebel
($900 street, $1,000 with an 18to 55-mm lens) is about the same
as the Minolta DiMage 7Hi, the
Olympus E-20N, and other prosumer cameras. But the Digital
Rebel uses interchangeable
lenses, a major attraction for advanced amateur and hobbyist
photographers.
The Digital Rebel even manages to steal some of the thunder
from the Canon EOS-10D digital
SLR. The two cameras share
much of their internal electronics, including the CMOS image
sensor, DIGIC image processor
chip, and even the battery pack.
Also, the image quality from the
two is nearly identical, but the
Digital Rebel sells for about
$500 less.
How much camera do you
get for less money? The Digital
Rebel is the digital member of
Canon’s value-priced Rebel SLR
camera line. Rebel cameras
have a carefully balanced mix of
features and performance with-
T
46
out stepping on the toes of
Canon’s higher-priced cameras.
Noticeably smaller and
lighter than the EOS-10D, the
Digital Rebel is comfortable and
compact. Although the unit is
primarily plastic, it feels solid.
The controls are simple, well
marked, and easy to understand. The viewfinder is smaller than that of most digital SLRs,
but the images are bright and
sharp. Seven focus-point LEDs
in the viewfinder glow red
when the camera locks focus on
the subject.
The 18- to 55-mm lens—
made specifically for the Digital Rebel—is almost as interesting as the camera itself. The
modified EOS lens mount
reaches farther into the body
(and closer to the surface of the
image sensor) than do other
Canon lens mounts. The unit
accepts all current Canon EOS
lenses, and the new mount
paves the way for a range of
newer, smaller, and cheaper
lenses designed specifically for
the Digital Rebel.
As is the case with most other
digital SLR cameras, the Rebel’s
image sensor is about two-thirds
the size of a 35-mm film frame, so
the sensor can “see” only the center part of the lens’ image circle.
This effectively multiplies the
focal length of attached lenses by
a factor of 1.6, so the 18- to 55-mm
lens offers a field of view roughly
equivalent to that of a 28- to 90mm lens on a 35-mm camera.
Apart from Olympus’s forthcoming (and much more expensive)
E-1 camera, Canon is the only SLR
maker to offer this popular and
flexible range of focal lengths in a
single zoom lens.
Its light weight and long battery life make the Digital Rebel
easy to carry and use, even on
all-day outings. The image quality is essentially identical to the
excellent EOS-10D, with very
low noise, accurate colors, and
excellent color balance.
Digital SLR cameras typically
produce images with less incamera sharpening and lower
contrast than point-and-shoot
cameras. As a result, images
from these cameras often need a
little post-processing work to
make them look their best. The
Digital Rebel’s default settings
apply more sharpening and have
slightly higher contrast than
we’re accustomed to seeing in
Canon SLR cameras.
We used the 18- to 55-mm lens
for most of our test shots, and
we were pleasantly surprised at
the quality of the images from
such a lightweight, lowcost lens. The lens
showed very little optical distortion and was
remarkably free
from chromatic
aberration (also
known as purple
fringing), a common optical flaw
in many lenses
that shows up as
purple outlines on
high-contrast subjects.
The Digital Rebel
came up short in a few
areas, however. To make
room for the deeper lens
mount, the mirror has to slide
back before it can tilt up. This
two-step operation makes quite
a bit of noise, although we
quickly got used to this. The
built-in flash pops up higher
than most, helping to reduce
red-eye. But the pop-up flash is
also fairly weak, and the camera
body doesn’t offer a +/- flash
adjustment feature, so you’re
stuck with whatever flash exposure the camera chose.
We had better results using
an external flash, but the camera’s light weight makes the
whole package feel top-heavy
and awkward. The auto-focus is
nearly as fast as the EOS-10D’s,
but there’s no way to select the
focus mode or light-metering
mode; the camera makes these
decisions for you.
The Digital Rebel offers an
entrance into the world of digital SLR photography for slightly
more than the cost of a highend point-and-shoot camera.
Hard-core hobbyists may find
the EOS-10D’s higher shooting
speed, heftier feel, and advanced controls more to their
liking. But the Digital Rebel’s
excellent image quality and
budget price tag are appealing,
and we expect that dealers will
have a hard time keeping it in
stock this holiday season.
Canon EOS Digital Rebel
Street price: $900; with 18- to 55-mm
lens, $1,000. Canon USA Inc., 800652-2666, www.usa.canon.com.
llllm
FIRST LOOKS
Smoother Site Building with FrontPage 2003
BY EDWARD MENDELSON
icrosoft FrontPage
2003 is the Web site
creation and editing
component of the Office 2003
system we review in this issue
(Microsoft Office 2003: A New
Strategy,” page 86). But unlike all
previous versions, which were
M
shared Office features like the
Picture Manager and Clip Organize. But it’s now intended for
serious Web authors and businesses that want to build sites
based on data sources in XML,
OLEDB, or Web services formats. Many advanced features,
like Web logs and data-driven
FrontPage’s
Remote Web
Site view
allows precise
control over
synchronization or updating between
local and
server-based
versions of
a site.
sold either separately or with
the rest of the suite, the newest
version can only be bought as a
separate package.
FrontPage still integrates with
the rest of Office and employs
news pages, require Microsoft’s
SharePoint services.
Sleek new features make the
highly automated, businessoriented FrontPage 2003 worth
the upgrade. A more efficient in-
terface eliminates the vertical
Views bar and replaces it with a
tabbed interface on the editing
screen, giving you quick access
to site management and editing
features.
A remote-site view has been
added to the site management
tabs, so you don’t have to open a
separate Publish dialog. Improved page-editing features
include a split-window view
that displays raw HTML code at
the top and the WYSIWYG page
at the bottom. New accessibility
checking finds code that may
cause problems for vision-impaired visitors, but on our tests,
this generated some annoying
false positives. And some longterm frustrations remain, such
as keyboard shortcuts that are
inconsistent with older Office
applications.
A new Button Builder adds
mouse-over actions to navigation bars. Complex page layouts
are built with the new Layout
Table feature, which positions
text and graphics in a
A PDA Phone That’s Small Enough
BY BRUCE BROWN
inally, the days of “inevitable compromises”
are over for PDA/phone
combos. The Samsung SPH-i500
($600 street, plus monthly service fees), from Sprint PCS, is
the first PDA phone you can
hold to your ear without looking like a geek. Sure, we have
wish-list items that aren’t included (such as a digital camera,
a removable-memory slot, a
QWERTY keyboard, and a speakerphone), but that doesn’t diminish Samsung’s impressive
accomplishment.
The SPH-i500 is a dual-band,
tri-mode CDMA/1xRTT Sprint
PCS Vision phone. It weighs just
4.7 ounces. The 1.6- by 1.8-inch
color touch screen and four application launch keys are in the
top half of the case. A real key-
F
48
pad, a Graffiti area, and navigation keys are on the lower half.
The color display lights up
brightly, and the ample-size keys
are backlit. A travel charger,
desktop synchronization dock,
spare stylus, and leather case are
included. Standard battery life is
rated at 4.2 hours talk time and
250 hours standby.
Even though it’s approximately the size and weight of the
original Motorola StarTAC, the
SPH-i500 doesn’t compromise as
a PDA, running Palm OS 4.1 on a
66-MHz DragonBall CPU with
16MB of RAM. Downloading PC
Magazine’s Web page using the
Blazer 2.1.4 browser took about
2 minutes.
The SPH-i500’s closest competitors are the Handspring
Treo 270/300 Communicators
and the upcoming Treo 600.
The Treos weigh at
least an ounce
more than the
SPH-i500 and are
more than an inch
wider. The Treo
600 will have an
on-board digital
camera and an
SD media slot.
The Treos’
QW E RT Y keyboards are good
for frequent messaging and e-mail,
but when it comes
to size and mobility
for users who are
primarily phone-centric, the SPH-i500 has them beat.
Of course, you can also use the
SPH-i500 to access e-mail, messages, and the Web, and take advantage of the Palm OS classic
table-like framework visible in
the editing screen but not in a
browser. Sites being built by a
collaborative group can use layout templates in which all but
specified regions are uneditable,
like locked cells in a spreadsheet. A Tracing Image feature
lets you take a mockup image of
your site and view it as a semitransparent layer behind the
editing screen, allowing you to
position page elements manually
to match their locations on the
mockup. Sitewide visual themes
are now based on Cascading
Style Sheets (CSS), not HTML, for
more compact and easy-to-maintain code.
Macromedia Dreamweaver
MX 2004 may offer more powerful CSS features and easier access
to controls over graphic-intensive sites, but FrontPage remains
first choice for small-business
and school-based site building.
Microsoft FrontPage 2003
List price: $199; upgrade, $109.
Requires: 128MB RAM, 180MB free
hard drive space, Microsoft Windows
2000 SP3 or Windows XP. Microsoft
Corp., www.microsoft.com.
llllm
Just a bit larger
than most clamshell
cell phones, the
Samsung SPH-i500
is a highly potent
PDA/phone combo.
PIM features.
According to a recent
report from IDC, sales
of voice communications–enabled PDAs will
experience significant
growth in the next few
years, while conventional PDAs will continue to lose sales.
The Samsung SPHi500 is a great example of the low-compromise PDA phones we
can look forward to.
Samsung SPH-i500
Street price: $600, plus monthly service fees. Sprint Spectrum L.P., 888253-1315, www.sprintpcs.com. llllm
FIRST LOOKS
Not Quite Media Center
BY BILL HOWARD
uch a deal: a PC-based, single-box media center for
$999 that acts as DVD
player, a TV tuner, an MP3
recorder, a personal video
recorder, and a photo viewer.
For a complete home theater, all
you need is a decent TV and
speakers. That’s the promise of
the Niveus Media ONEbox
Media Center, although it’s
somewhat unfulfilled.
The ONEbox runs on Windows XP Home and includes
media player software from
Home Media Networks. It’s not
a Media Center Edition (MCE)
PC (see page 43), although it has
a similar look and feel, complete
with an interface you can see
and control from across the
room. Like MCE, ONEbox boots
directly to its media-centric interface, presenting the user with
seven choices: Television, Video
Files, DVD, Jukebox, CD, Picture
Viewer, and ShowGuide. The
ONEbox uses the free TitanTV
program guide.
You can output to a TV set, a
PC monitor, or both, although
Windows apps were uncomfortably fuzzy on the 19- and 36-inch
TVs we used. TV hookups are
better for playing DVDs, checking program listings, and watching TV than they are for word
processing.
The compact, 3.7- by 11.4- by
12.9-inch (HWD) silver chassis is
small enough and quiet enough
to fit into any audio rack or TV
stand. The front panel has a
DVD/CD-ROM drive and a flashmemory bay for reading CompactFlash, Memory Stick, MMC,
MMC/SD, and SmartMedia
cards. Inside, there’s a 1-GHz C3
processor, 256MB of RAM, an
ATI All-in-Wonder PCI VE
video adapter, and an 80GB
hard drive. On the rear panel
are one FireWire and two
USB ports, as well as serial, parallel, monitor, and Ethernet
ports. There’s a 5.1 channel
output (SP/DIF) for surround
sound. Neither a keyboard
S
50
nor a mouse is supplied, but
you get the near-ubiquitous X10
universal remote.
The case design needs some
improvement. A riser and an ex-
tender are used to seat the ATI
card, all of which could work
loose. Further, the back is a maze
of extension blocks for audio
and video connections—something that traditional AV components don’t suffer.
While $999 was dandy when
The Niveus
Media
ONEbox
Media Center
is fairly complete but not
as polished as
full-fledged
Media Center
Edition PCs.
the ONEbox was announced a
few months back (and MCE PCs
ran $1,500-plus), full MCE PCs
are better and now near $1,000.
An MCE PC is equally happy as a
high-end PC or media player;
ONEbox is more a media player
with a lower-end PC.
Niveus is considering less
costly operating systems: Linux
or Windows XP embedded. For
now, ONEbox Media Center is a
compact, fascinating tool best
suited to enthusiasts. It’s not
something you can recommend
yet to friends who want a simple
solution for converged home
entertainment.
Niveus Media ONEbox Media
Center
Direct price: $999. Niveus Media Inc.,
866-258-2929, www.ONEboxmc.com.
llmmm
Instant
Internet Café
BY CRAIG ELLISON
he ZyXEL ZyAIR B-4000
wireless service gateway is best described
as an Internet hot spot in a box.
At its core, the B-4000 is a wireless NAT router with a built-in,
four-port Ethernet switch. It
acts as a DHCP client to acquire
an IP address from an ISP and as
a DHCP server to pass out
addresses to local clients.
Wireless services are provided
via the built-in 802.11b access
point.
Priced at $650 (street), the B4000 is designed to be a complete, turnkey Internet café
appliance that provides access
for both wired and wireless
clients. It includes built-in accounting and authentication
services that enable you to
charge customers for time spent
online. You simply connect the
WAN port to your broadband
modem, follow the Web-based
setup wizard, and your Internet
café is open for business.
As part of the initial configuration, you define a time interval, such as 30 minutes, and how
T
much you are going to charge—
say, 50 cents. The supplied thermal printer plugs into the parallel port on the rear of the
B-4000. To sell surfing time, you
simply push the single button on
the printer once for each time
increment the customer wants
to purchase. In our example, if
you push the button twice, the
printer outputs a receipt with
your café’s name, the wireless
network’s SSID, WEP key (if
Though customization options are minimal, you can redirect the default log-on page to
your own Web server. You can
also configure a “Web Garden”
of up to ten free sites that appear
on the log-on page. Customers
can access these pages without
authentication.
The B-4000 is shipped with a
printed quick start guide. All
documentation is contained in
PDF files on a CD . Logging,
The ZyAIR’s
customer
interface is
easy to use,
but it’s grammatically
shaky and not
customizable.
used), and a dynamically generated user name and password
that are valid for an hour.
The customer’s first Web request is intercepted, and a logon page pops up. Once authenticated, a separate browser
window tracks the time remaining. When the timer reaches
zero, the customer is blocked
from the Internet and another
message pops up indicating that
the time has expired.
though adequate, could be improved. Detailed logs can be
viewed through the administrator interface or sent to a syslog server, but a café owner
probably won’t have one. Still,
the B-4000 lives up to its goal
of being a turnkey Internet hot
spot in a box.
ZyXEL ZyAIR B-4000
$650 street. ZyXEL Communications
Co., 714-632-0882, www.zyxel.com.
lllmm
FIRST LOOKS
The Canon
CanoScan
LiDE 80
scanner runs
on USB
power for full
portability.
Midrange Scanners,
Pro Functions
BY SALLY WIENER GROTTA
AND DANIEL GROTTA
espite the popularity of
MFPs and digital cameras, many users still
need a scanner suitable for
photographs, negatives, slides,
optical character recognition
(OCR), and Web and e-mail
duties. We put four scanners
through their paces to determine
ease of setup and use, speed and
performance, image quality, and
OCR accuracy. All the units we
tested offer true 48-bit color, the
ability to scan up to 8.5- by 11inch originals, one-touch convenience, and USB 2.0 interfaces.
Each also comes equipped with
a transparency adapter for scanning slides and negatives.
All the units came through
with flying colors, but two deserve PC Magazine’s Editors’
Choice: the Epson unit for
image quality and productivity
and the HP model for its unique
form factor and versatility.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY THOM O’CONNOR
D
52
CANON CANOSCAN LiDE 80
Slim and light enough to fit into
an attaché case, the Canon CanoScan LiDE 80 ($180 street) has a
maximum optical resolution of
2,400 by 4,800 pixels per inch
(ppi). Since it’s based on CIS
(contact image sensor) rather
than CCD (charge-coupled device) technology and can be
powered directly via USB, you
can use it anywhere. The LiDE 80
delivers good image quality, but
software installation is tedious,
and the unit doesn’t provide true
one-touch automation.
The svelte and stylish LiDE 80
has a distinctive brushed aluminum cover, grey plastic sides, a
black front panel and trim, and is
a mere 1.5 inches thick. Other
than the USB port, the only interface is a socket in the rear for the
external film adapter. There’s a
lock switch underneath but no
power button. On the front panel
are four programmable buttons:
Copy, Scan, File, and E-mail.
You can operate the LiDE 80
horizontally or vertically. When
positioned upright, the scanner
tilts at slightly more than 90 degrees, allowing the cover to open
and close easily. The cover stays
firmly shut, but laying originals
on the glass vertically can be
difficult. The film adapter unit
(about the size of a cigarette
pack) can accommodate 35-mm
negatives or transparencies but
only in single frames or strips,
not in slide mounts.
Setup involves manually installing up to eight separate programs, a process that can take up
to 15 minutes. With CanoScan
Toolbox you can program the
one-touch buttons to do things
like scanning to an application.
While we had no difficulty
setting up scanning directly
into Photoshop, we weren’t able
to automate OCR scanning directly to Word. Instead, we had
to open Word manually and click
on Text in the File menu.
When you’re scanning, origi-
nals must be positioned backward, with the top placed opposite the cover hinge. Scanning is
somewhat poky as well as noisy,
though the LiDE 80 works quieter
on its side than horizontally. And
ScanSoft had difficulty automatically cropping the white border from our test photo.
Although our OCR test document lost its formatting, the
body text was very accurate. Our
test photo image was very sharp,
with good colors but some loss
of detail in the shadows.
The LiDE 80 is an excellent
scanner for those who make
portability a priority.
Street price: $180. Requires: 128MB
RAM, USB port (USB 2.0 recommended), Microsoft Windows 98 SE or later.
Canon U.S.A. Inc., 800-385-2155,
www.usa.canon.com. lllmm
EPSON PERFECTION
3170 PHOTO
The Epson Perfection
3170 Photo ($200
street) is a nicely designed unit that will
appeal to users who
scan regularly. That’s because
it’s the largest, heaviest, and
fastest unit in our roundup—
and it produced the best OCR
and photo scans as well. It also
accommodates an optional $200
automatic document feeder.
The Perfection 3170 provides
an optical resolution of 3,200 by
6,400 ppi. The unit itself has a
conventional-looking, two-tone
plastic body. A heavy, curved
cover has an easily removable
white reflector board that exposes the transparency adapter un-
derneath. This is the only builtin adapter in our roundup, and
it’s the only one that can scan
both 35-mm and medium-format
negatives and transparencies.
The front panel has four programmable buttons for automatic scanning functions, including
E-mail, Copy, OCR, Web, Print,
Business Card, File, PDF, and Application. In the rear is a USB
port, a DIN connector for the
transparency adapter light, and
an AC adapter plug. The scanner
also comes with a sliding hardware lock and a power switch.
Setup and installation are
easy, automatic, and hassle-free.
Epson’s Smart Panel interface is
logical and intuitive. The scanner automatically recognizes the
type of original (text, photo, and
so on) and activates the correct
software for it. Users may configure the interface in the Full
Auto (beginner), Home (intermediate), or Professional modes.
The scanner operates quietly,
efficiently, and smoothly.
Our test OCR scan was the
best in the roundup, with the
fewest mistakes in formatting
and virtually error-free text. Our
test photo scan was sharp but
not quite as crisp as that of the
Canon model. Colors were attractive, but there was some clipping in the shadows. Epson
claims that the Perfection has a
dynamic range of 3.4, which
should eliminate most clipping
when scanning slides and film.
The software bundle includes
Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0,
Epson’s Easy Photo Fix, ABBYY’s
FineReader Sprint 5.0, and NewSoft Presto! BizCard Reader.
The Epson
Perfection
3170 Photo is
as hefty and
impressive
as a professional unit.
FIRST LOOKS
was very good and sharp, with
attractive colors and only minor
clipping in the highlights.
The Scanjet 4670 is sure to be
a hit with those who appreciate
form, function, and good scans.
HP Scanjet 4670 See-Thru
Vertical Scanner
The HP Scanjet 4670 wins
accolades for
its unique
style, ease of
use, and solid
performance.
RAM, USB port (USB 2.0 recommended), Microsoft Windows 98 SE or later.
Hewlett-Packard Co., 800-752-0900,
www.photosmart.com. llllm
The Perfection 3170 is a good
buy if scan quality, productivity,
and affordable price are your
most important priorities.
RAM (256MB recommended), 500MB
hard drive space, USB port (USB 2.0
recommended), Microsoft Windows
98 SE or later. Epson America Inc.,
800-463-7766, www.epson.com.
llllm
HP SCANJET 4670 SEE-THRU
VERTICAL SCANNER
It’s easy to mistake the
amazing HP Scanjet
4670 See-Thru Vertical
Scanner ($200 street)
for a picture frame or a
flat-screen monitor. This eyepopping, supercool device will
win raves for design and innovation. Apart from its stunning appearance, the Scanjet 4670 is a
versatile, easy-to-use 2,400- by
2,400-ppi scanner.
The Scanjet 4670 is a onepiece, 11- by 16-inch unit that
consists of a rectangular, silvercolored plastic bezel sandwiching two transparent polycarbonate sheets. Only three-quarters
of an inch thick, this 3-pound
scanner is sealed and coverless,
with the image sensor and lamp
assembly positioned between
the two polycarbonate sheets:
You can watch them move while
scanning. Underneath is a black
plastic bezel with angled rubber
feet at each corner and a 15-inch
cord protruding from one corner that attaches to a split
USB/AC adapter cable.
On the right side are four buttons: Scan, Print, Web, and Low
Power. The Low Power button
54
MICROTEK SCANMAKER 6000
The handsome, all-black Microtek ScanMaker 6000 ($150
street) is sleek, trim, and nicely
contoured. But it is by far the
slowest scanner in our roundup.
Like the Epson unit, the
Microtek model has an optical
resolution of 3,200 by 6,400 ppi,
but it does not automatically rec-
puts the scanner into immediate
standby mode. Next to the Web
button is a tiny port for inserting
the included external Transparency Material Adapter.
Accompanying the Scanjet
4670 is a foldout stand. It is
about the same size and shape as
the scanner and lets the unit
scan at a vertical angle. You slide
the scanner into the stand in
such a way that the device can
be easily pivoted for inserting
and removing originals.
Setup and software installation are simple. So is actual
scanning, though adapting to the
nontraditional handling takes a
few minutes. To scan, you move
the scanner away from the
stand, slip in the original face up,
and position the scanner so it’s
flush with the stand. Or you can
scan without the stand, either by
slipping the device over the
original or by turning it upside
down and placing the original
face down. This lets you scan
sections of oversized originals
and stitch them together, using
the bundled ArcSoft Panorama
Maker. You can even scan wallpaper or hanging artwork.
The body of our test OCR
scan was very accurate, but the
Scanjet 4670 was unable to retain the formatting or reproduce
the header text. Image quality
All timings are in seconds.
Low scores are best.
The Microtek
scanner gets
points for
appearance,
but the ScanMaker 6000
is a bit slow.
ognize the type of original being
scanned. It’s 50 percent thicker
than the Canon model, in part
because the ScanMaker 6000’s
scanner arm uses CCD technology. There’s a hardware lock on
the bottom of the unit and eight
buttons on the front panel: Scan,
Copy, E-mail, OCR, Setup/Cancel, Web, Custom, and Power.
Setup and installation are
problem-free, but every program
must be installed individually.
Also, the one-touch buttons require configuring, either by
8-by-10 Photo
OCR
Scanned and opened in
Photoshop at 300 ppi
Scanned, processed,
and opened in Word
52
N/A
41
37
HP Scanjet 4670
41
82
41
90
RED denotes Editors’ Choice.
N/A—Not applicable: We had to open the document manually in Word.
pressing the Cancel/Setup button or by opening ScanWizard 5’s
MSC utility.
ScanWizard 5 has two interfaces. The Standard view is simple to operate, with its spartan interface and minimal tools. The
Advanced view offers most of the
prescan tools an expert user
could want or need. Scanning is
simple and straightforward, except that, as with the Canon, the
original must be placed with the
top toward the user.
Unfortunately, the Microtek
scanner is painfully slow. Onetouch scanning took far longer
than with other scanners here.
The unit did very well with
our OCR test document, retaining some but not all of the formatting and accurately recognizing almost all the text. Photo
image quality was good, with the
best color accuracy of all the
scanners. But the image was not
sharp as those of the other products, and we saw some clipping
in the highlights.
The software bundle includes
Adobe Photoshop 5.0 LE,
ABBYY’s FineReader Sprint 5.0,
Microtek ScanWizard 5, Ulead
PhotoExplorer 7.0, and Ulead
DVD PictureShow SE Basic 1.0.
As the least expensive scanner in our roundup, the ScanMaker 6000 should appeal to
bargain-conscious users who
crave one-button convenience
over performance.
RAM (128MB recommended), USB
port (USB 2.0 recommended),
Microsoft Windows 98 SE or later.
Microtek USA, 310-687-5800,
www.microtekusa.com. lllmm
“Are Microsoft managers
so incompetent that they actually do not run code reviews
to remove elementary bugs?”
B AC K- D O O R M A N
IN HIS COLUMN OF OCTOBER 1 (page 55), John C. Dvorak wonders whether Microsoft has put a back door in
Windows at the NSA’s behest. The same issue of PC
Magazine reports yet another gaping hole in Windows
(Solutions, page 64), courtesy of a buffer overflow in
DirectX. This problem and solutions for it were already
well known decades ago. Most programming courses since the 1970s
have treated checking for that specific bug as an integral part of
every code review of every major project.
Yet buffer overflow problems—as well as other common bugs—
are regularly reported and patched in Windows. Many such bugs
can easily be used as back doors. Systematic testing can find these
bugs without even requiring the source code. It’s a safe bet that the
NSA has done such testing on Windows and has known about all
the resulting back doors reported so far. They probably have a
reserve of unreported ones to use in the future.
Are Microsoft managers so incompetent that they actually do not
run code reviews to remove elementary bugs? From the NSA’s point
of view, the best part is that when someone finds a back door, it’s not
recognized as such; it’s just another bug, and there are plenty left.
DAVID DUNTHORN
EXPIRING INK
IN “MAKE BETTER PRINTOUTS” (September 16, page 99), Tip 20,
“Buy Two Ink Tanks At a Time” should have contained a caveat:
Some printers use ink tanks and print heads that expire. This is
especially true with some so-called professional printers. Spare ink
tanks can easily expire on the shelf. Unfortunately, printer reviews
do not usually address expiration dates, and printer manufacturers
don’t make this information prominent. A drawer full of expired
print heads and half-used ink tanks is a powerful driver of per-page
printing costs. Check before buying spare tanks.
WILLIAM L. BOREN
D O N ’ T FO R G E T T H E N E WS G R O U P S
NOTICEABLY ABSENT FROM “Broadband Scorecard” (September
16, page 102) is any mention of newsgroup access policies. Newsgroups are an important broadband benefit and a component of ISP
How to Contact Us
We welcome your comments and suggestions.
When sending e-mail to Letters, please state in the subject line of
your message which article or column prompted your response.
E-MAIL [email protected]
MAIL Letters, PC Magazine, 28 East 28th Street, New York, NY 10016-7930.
All letters become the property of PC Magazine and are subject to editing.
We regret that we cannot answer letters individually.
w w w. p c m a g . c o m /fe e d b a c k
56
satisfaction. For instance, I recently switched from
Time Warner (A-rated) to Comcast (D-rated). Time
Warner provides unlimited newsgroup downloads
(albeit with a relatively short retention cycle), whereas Comcast provides only 1GB monthly through a partnership with GigaNews. For this reason alone, I agree
with the rating differential.
Newsgroups are available at full ISP bandwidth, they contain a
vast collection of postings, and with the right tools, they’re easy to
use. But most discussions on downloading ethics focus only on Napster clones, not on newsgroup postings. Just as well I suppose; why
give the entertainment industries a new target?
RANDALL PACE
CABLE ISP DONE RIGHT
I FOUND “BROADBAND SCORECARD” interesting. Where I live, my
broadband choices are SBC Yahoo! (http://sbc.yahoo.com) and Buckeye Express (www.buckeyecablesystem.com). In my opinion, Buckeye Express is the best cable ISP in the nation. When I signed up, I
paid a $19 installation fee. A technician installed my Ethernet card
and an included firewall. Buckeye also provides a 2-hour appointment window for the setup, and the technician came on time. Buckeye screens all incoming e-mail for viruses and spam, and it provides a pop-up blocker. The regular rate for this service is $43.99 a
month, but if you add a digital cable package, the rate goes down a
bit. The modem is included for as long as you stay with the service,
and the tech support is the best I’ve had. I would rate Buckeye an A+.
I challenge all other cable Internet providers to step up to the
plate and attempt to provide the excellent customer service that I
have come to expect.
WENDY MAHAFFEY
A N OV E L I D E A
WHY WORRY ABOUT RIPPING DVDs and CDs and illegal file sharing
(First Looks, September 16, page 30)? I have an idea that will revolutionize the entertainment distribution system: Put content on USB
mini-drives. Plug the minidrives into USB ports in your entertainment system or car dashboard. Such devices can hold over 1GB of information, easily enough for a movie or a music album. Can you
imagine the savings? Transferring high-quality music and video to a
USB drive would be far faster and cheaper than producing a CD or
DVD. Media conglomerates can implement proprietary player software or other copy-protection schemes to control piracy.
THOMAS HOFF
Corrections and Amplifications
n In Coming Attractions (October 1, page 22), the captions for the Epson Stylus C84
printer and the HP Photosmart 7960 were inadvertently switched.
w w w. ex t re m e te c h . c o m •
BILL MACHRONE
ExtremeTech
SAD Day for CRTs
Y
ou’ve seen the plot before: The damsel
in distress is beset by a recurring problem. Experts dismiss the problem; some
say it’s all in her head. This continues
unabated until she doubts her own sanity. She suspects something, but she’s told that
couldn’t be it. Finally, a brilliant scientist/detective
discovers the underlying cause. The problem is vanquished, the damsel regains her self-confidence, and
we breathe a collective sigh of relief.
The damsel in this case was Glynis Gibson, the
principal of a highly regarded Chicago-based PR
agency. She runs her business from her home office
and has the usual computers, printers, fax machines, and phones. Her desk is dominated by a
19-inch NEC-Mitsubishi FE990 display. It’s her third
monitor in as many years; her previous one was an
identical FE 990, and the one before that was a
17-inch ViewSonic model.
She had noticed that the text on the ViewSonic
screen had begun to jitter. She’s one of those people with “fast” eyes; she can see the flicker of a 60Hz refresh rate, and she found the jitter annoying
and fatiguing. She increased the refresh rate to the
fastest her video card would allow, which reduced
but didn’t eliminate the jitter. She replaced her
video card. That didn’t help. So she retired the
ViewSonic display and upgraded to the FE990. The
image was stable and sharp—for a week.
One day the monitor went click and started to
jitter. It never stopped after that, despite higher
refresh rates and different resolutions. She upgraded her computer along the way with yet another video card, but still the monitor jittered. The
problem became one of those under-your-skin irritants, so she returned the display and replaced it
with another FE990.
You know what comes next: The unit worked fine
for a while, then went click and started to jitter. Having once worked at NEC, Gibson called one of her
friends there, who told her to send the monitor back
for a technical evaluation. She was understandably
confused when an engineer declared the unit in perfect working order.
It was time either to go mad or to get methodical.
She did the latter. All of the outlets in her office were
powered by the same circuit breaker, so she started
unplugging one piece of equipment at a time, checking to see if there was any effect on the monitor.
Printer, fax, laptop—nothing. Finally, there was nothing left but the lights.
The lights....One of them was a high-intensity
fluorescent desk lamp—a Northern Light SADelite
—intended for people with sunlight-affective disorder (SAD) who need extra-bright illumination, especially in winter, to counteract the blues. It was a
great work light, and it was always on when she was
in the office.
She asked me if I thought a simple desk lamp
could be at fault. I thought that was a possibility and
wished I could do a field-strength survey of her office to see if there were any strange emanations from
the lamp. Strong ones could possibly override the
sync signals on the video card or swamp the sensitive timing circuits in the monitor. This seemed unlikely, but you never know.
Her contact at NEC-Mitsubishi did me one better
and invited her to send him the lamp. He found several potential problems right away.
First, the electronic ballast was an outdoor type,
designed to the less stringent FCC Class A emission
standard. Anything used in a home or office must be
Class B. Second, the lamp had no FCC approval marking, though it did have generic UL approval. Third,
the ground terminal on the ballast was not connected to anything. And finally, the AC cord was not
shielded.
He didn’t have time, however, to test the lamp’s
emissions, so I asked him to send it to me. I have
more than the average amount of electronic test
gear, but when the lamp arrived, I took the see-whathappens approach and ran it near AM and FM radios
and a TV. I could hear it all over the AM spectrum;
it wiped out channels 2 through 6 on the TV and was
audible on half the FM spectrum. A cursory look
with a loop antenna and a spectrum analyzer
showed the expected 60-Hz spike and strong AC
harmonics to 1 kHz, as well as impulse noise as far
up as I could measure.
I’m keeping that lamp far away from my CRTs.
One day
the monitor
went click
and started
to jitter. It
never stopped
after that.
Bill Machrone is VP of editorial development for Ziff Davis
Media. Visit his digs at www.extremetech.com. You can
also reach him at [email protected].
59
John C. Dvorak
Damn the Drill-Down
M
icrosoft really should reconsider
its horrid “drill-down” concept.
This is the process whereby you
click through a series of screens to
a point where you can fix a problem or change a simple setting. The company seems
enamored of tabbed dialog boxes as well as the Advanced Settings button, which hardly ever reveals
anything truly advanced. This is nothing more than
playing hide-and-seek with users. And worse, because of the series of drill-down clicks needed to
make a simple change, users often can’t recall the
exact sequence and must click over and over, hoping
to find something recognizable.
We need an approach in which everything is all on
one big page—a form. And we should be able to load
and save the page as a file, so any series of complex
settings can be recalled. This would be useful for network settings in scenarios where a user hooks up a
laptop to different systems, one or more of which use
a proxy server, a fixed IP address, or some other complexity. The problem was solved to some degree by
the “make a new connection” approach that appeared
in Windows 95, but that solution was confusing and
created a mess of connection options.
One of the arguments in favor of a big form is that
Microsoft can’t seem to get its act together as to
how tabbed dialog boxes should work. Windows 98,
2000, and XP are confusingly different. If the company were using a form instead of the drill-down
crapola, moving from OS to OS would be easier. And
when there is a problem, the user could look over all
the settings and more easily compare one system
with another.
The entire drill-down concept, I believe, stems
from Microsoft’s deep-seated inability to think for itself. If Apple is doing something, then Microsoft
copies the idea.
Apple’s dialog boxes were designed to look cool,
and the first time I saw a tabbed dialog box, I
thought it was kind of a neat idea. But all it does is
hide information. I think the original concept was
designed to save screen real estate. These days,
though, most people have 1,280-by-1,024 displays.
Unless you are using a handheld device, exactly
what is the point?
Sometimes tabbed dialog boxes are necessary—
as in Microsoft Word, which has so many options
that having them all on one form would be confusing. But even in such situations, Microsoft does the
job poorly by stacking the tabs in a confusing manner. Instead of just a line of tabs, there are two or
three rows. And when you click on a tab, it’s difficult
to remember what you clicked on previously. When
you are looking for something, you spend a lot of
time clicking on tabs you’ve already been through.
A bigger page with a single long line of tabs would
be easier to work with.
Microsoft handles even simple drill-down stuff
poorly. Open a regular folder, for example. Why must
you go to three disparate menus to set the folder display properly? Under Tools you find Folder Options.
Under View you find Choose Details and Customize
This Folder. All these items are related, so why are
they scattered? And why does Customize This Folder
show up only once in a while? I won’t even go into
other complaints I have.
The themes here are confusion and the inability of
typical users to remember a series of clicks to change
a single thing. Even getting to the TCP/IP settings in
Windows XP is an ordeal.
When I’m having trouble with a wireless connection, I’m always amused when someone digs up dialog boxes I can’t find on my own. Can anyone easily
jump to the WEP page, for example, to enter the correct encryption code? This should be on a networking form—one big page that can be opened with a
click. Instead, it’s buried.
Some of the thinking behind this is that users
hardly ever change the WEP settings, so why confront them with that information? But if a user rarely
needs a feature, then he will not perform the complex drill-down sequence often enough to recall it.
The opposite approach should be used.
Seldom-used features should be on top of the
pile so they can be found when they are needed.
Going to a large form instead of tabbed dialog
boxes is the best solution and the most practical improvement Microsoft can make in the next version
of its OS.
The entire
drill-down concept, I believe,
stems from
Microsoft’s
deep-seated
inability to
think for itself.
MORE ON THE WEB: Read John C. Dvorak’s column every
Monday at www.pcmag.com/dvorak. You can reach him
directly at [email protected].
61
Inside
Track
JOHN C. DVORAK
B
ig Bluff Dept.: Microsoft recently purchased the assets of
Rumanian-based antivirus firm
GeCAD Software and acquired
the company’s key engineers. It
immediately took the RAV line of
antivirus software off the market, which
upset many Linux users—the software’s
primary market. According to one report,
Microsoft will use the GeCAD engineers
to develop new products and to improve
the platform. What this means is unclear.
In a related move, Microsoft also created
a drinking club called the Virus Information Alliance.
I believe that Microsoft bought
GeCAD ’s expertise and code for some
key patents and possibly for its antispam
and other technologies. The fact is that
Microsoft cannot afford to get into the
antivirus business. I suspect that the
company will discard the antivirus assets or possibly sell them to Symantec as
a quid pro quo, since Symantec executives testified favorably on behalf of
Microsoft in the antitrust trial. Microsoft cannot deal with the liability issues
of making Windows and protecting it.
Killing the Company Dept.: Outsourcing is a double-edged sword—twice as
easy to cut yourself on! So the move to
outsource nearly everything to India and
China is questionable, yet for competitive reasons, companies often have little
choice. But you have to wonder how
much companies will suffer. I recently
dialed 4-1-1 and reached a call center in
India. Of course, it could not help me. I
have given up on calling information and
use the Internet SuperPages.
Recently, a Ziff Davis executive called
his bank to find out why he was getting
service charges on his checking account.
The customer service agent he spoke
with told him it was because his bank
account was below 50,000 rupees.
Not all outsourcing is bad or embarrassing. Using Russians to do high-level
coding, for example, has always seemed
like a good idea to me, since so many of
them are adept at high-level mathematics.
A California-based start-up called Vanguard Software Solutions is using Russian
coders to develop a high-efficiency version of H.264, the proposed video standard for high-definition compression.
But India gets the attention. Numerous
companies and consortiums are putting
together so-called design centers in India
to exploit graduates from the Indian
Institute of Technology, a school that
considers itself on a par with or even better than MIT and other U.S. engineeringand science-oriented institutions.
The graduates of IIT are all over Silicon
Valley, but many want to go back to India
eventually. Insilica Semicondutors in
Bangalore, India, is recruiting them, and
companies are setting up shop there.
Analog Devices, Cadence Design Systems, Cisco Systems, Mentor Electronics,
Network Associates, Synopsys, and just
about every other big name in integrated
circuit design has a center in India,
mostly around Bangalore. India is gearing
up to be the world leader in IC design.
Cisco already employs 1,000 design
engineers and says it will be expanding
its center. Philips has just announced that
it will put 25 percent of its design force in
India and invest $300 million for a design
center. I hate to be a skeptic, but I have to
ask whether there are that many qualified
and talented designers in India. Can
every company have thousands on staff
and move out of its own country, where
apparently nobody can design a circuit?
This, to me, looks like an exercise in bean
counting. “By spending $300 million we
can save $400 million....”
Most outsourcing decisions are made
by persuasive bookkeepers looking to
save a nickel. The only good reason to
outsource is that you can’t do a specific
task, so you have to give it to an out-ofhouse specialist. At PC Magazine, for
example, we do not have printing presses, so we outsource our printing. I think
The only good
reason to outsource is that
you can’t do a
specific task,
so you have to
give it to an
out-of-house
specialist.
that India will eventually experience a
shortage of talent (if there isn’t one
already), which will result in enough
wage increases to eliminate the moneymaking aspects of this scheme.
What Is SCO thinking Dept.: You have
to wonder about the latest ploy by The
SCO Group and its attacks on Linux. Now
the company is going after the General
Public License (GPL) as an illegal contract that naturally violates copyright law.
This would kill not just Linux but the
entire open-source movement.
The wild card is SCO’s iconoclastic
attorney David Boies. He could potentially win the case with some extreme
argument that could bamboozle the
courts. Boies is an enigma. He defended
Napster but is known as being computernaive, maybe even phobic. He defended
Al Gore in the Florida ballot chad
recount, but he is also a former head of
the Young Republicans. He fought for
IBM against the government. He fought
for the government against Microsoft. He
is a dyslexic who is a professional-level
bridge and poker player. He’s represented
by the William Morris talent agency. Jeez.
His fee is $750 an hour. My favorite attribution for the guy is that he taught journalism at a mental hospital! You can
make up your own jokes for that one. But
can he beat the open-source movement?
I doubt it.
63
B I L L H OWA R D
On Technology
The New Digital Camcorder
T
he next time the networks go to war—a
shooting war, not a ratings war—they
may well be carrying video cameras
without bulky tape cassettes or shockprone hard drives. Instead, they may be
using flash memory in Panasonic ENG (electronic
news gathering) cameras with quad-SD-card arrays
or Sony cameras with Blu-ray optical discs, which
are less vulnerable to blowing sands.
Consumer-oriented video cameras are following
suit, in a move away from tape. We’re starting to see
alternatives to digital video ( DV ) and analog
8-mm/Hi8 videotape cameras. Several makers now
use recordable DVDs in their camcorders. And flash
memory cards now have enough capacity and write
speed to let you capture reasonable amounts of
fairly high-quality video. Thumbnail-size flash
memory also allows for smaller video cameras.
Among digital video cameras, there’s not much
new in the mainstream other than better quality and
lower prices, which are nothing to scoff at. DV camcorders can be found for as little as $500, while
$1,000 is the price/performance sweet spot for products such as the recent Editors’ Choice–winning
Canon Optura 20. We’re only just beginning to see
high-resolution hard drive–based camcorders;
affordable products are still a year or so off. Right
now, the most fascinating products are the smallest
ones and the handful that provide high-resolution
stills along with video.
One breakthrough device is the new Panasonic
D-snap SV-AV100. It offers a 10X optical zoom lens,
image stabilization, and a 2.5-inch LCD—and it fits in
a pocket or purse. Imagine a stack of eight PC Cards.
That’s about the size and weight of the SV-AV100: 3.5
by 2.2 by 1.3 inches (HWD), and 5 ounces. The SVAV100 creates MPEG-2 rather than digital video (DV)
images. DV offers better quality and wider choices in
video-editing tools, but MPEG-2 is more than good
enough, as you’ve probably noticed in DVD movies,
which use this format. Don’t confuse MPEG-2 with
MPEG-4, which is often used at compression levels
that make videos look like second-generation VHS
tapes.
The SV-AV100 uses a special Panasonic SD card
with a 10X write speed. The camera comes with a
512MB card as part of its $1,000 street price; that’s
good for 20 minutes of MPEG-2 recording or up to 10
hours of MPEG-4, if you must. (A 1GB 10X SD card
will cost about $500.) The SV-AV100 is about onethird smaller than Sony’s newest MicroMV (tape
technology) camera, the Sony DCR-IP1 ($1,200
street), which also records to MPEG-2 (as do camcorders using 3-inch DVD-Rs). Traveling with an SVAV100 means you’ll have to bring along a laptop or
portable hard drive to off-load the video.
Expect also to see home DVD player/recorders with
SD card slots that can play the videos directly. You
may also be able to edit on such devices, although the
first generation of home AV DVD recorders have had
woefully poor editing capabilities.
When you want to carry just one camera yet take
good stills as well as videos, you have one reasonable
choice: the Sony DCR-PC330 ($1,700 street). Some DV
camcorders can take still photos at 640-by-480 or
1,024-by-768. The DCR-PC330 creates 2,016-by-1,512
(3.31-megapixel) photos. That should satisfy most
users, as long as they understand that the constraints
of current CCD and lens technologies make it impossible to have camcorder stills that are as well rendered as those from a standalone digital camera.
If I were shopping for a video camera, here’s what
I’d do. First, I’d ignore analog 8-mm and Hi8 video
cameras, and convince my friends to do the same. I
think the time is past, too, for Digital8 camcorders—
the hybrids that play old Hi8 analog tapes but record
new tapes digitally. (You can easily record 8-mm/Hi8
tapes onto DV tape or DVDs, and if your 8-mm camera
is broken, it shouldn’t be too hard to find a friend
who’ll loan you one.) If you want to do more than
make Web clips, think twice about tiny lifestyle camcorders that only record MPEG-4 . As for mainstream
DV cameras, if I had to replace an old camcorder, I’d
try not to spend much more than $1,000, knowing that
many of us will have HDTVs in the next couple of
years and may want HD camcorders to match. So I’d
give some consideration to MPEG-2 and DV camcorders under $1,000 or, knowing I’d spend up to
$1,700, look for dual-purpose models with 2-megapixel
(or preferably 3-megapixel) still-photo capabilities.
Right now, the
most fascinating products
are the smallest ones and
the handful
that provide
high-resolution
stills along
with video.
MORE ON THE WEB: You can contact Bill Howard directly
at [email protected]. For more On Technology
columns, go to www.pcmag.com/howard.
65
w w w. p c m a g . c o m /s o l u t i o n s
20 Great Google Secrets
You already love searching with Google. These tips can make
finding what you need even easier. By Tara Calishain
Google is clearly the best general-purpose search engine on the Web (see
www.pcmag.com/searchengines). But most people don’t use it to its best advantage. Do you just plug in a keyword or two and hope for the best? That
may be the quickest way to search, but with more than 3 billion pages in
Google’s index, it’s still a struggle to pare results to a manageable number.
or phrase (intitle:“Three Blind Mice”)
restricts your search results to just the
titles of Web pages.
Intext: does the opposite of intitle:,
searching only the body text, ignoring titles, links, and so forth. Intext: is
perfect when what you’re searching
for might commonly appear in URLs.
If you’re looking for the term HTML,
for example, and you don’t want to
get results such as www.mysite.com/
index.html, you can enter intext:html.
Link: lets you see which pages are
linking to your Web page or to
another page you’re interested in.
For example, try typing in link:http://
YOU CAN TRACK your portfolio with the stocks:
syntax element. Use stocks: plus a ticker symbol
www.pcmag.com.
(stocks:ibm, for example) to get data from
Try using site: (which restricts
several sites, including Yahoo! Finance.
results to top-level domains) with
intitle: to find certain types of pages.
go beyond simple keywords, the Web, and For example, get scholarly pages about
even its own programmers. Let’s look at Mark Twain by searching for intitle:“Mark
some of Google’s lesser-known options. Twain”site:edu. Experiment with mixing
various elements; you’ll develop several
strategies for finding the stuff you want
SYNTAX SEARCH TRICKS
Using a special syntax is a way to tell more effectively. The site: command is very
Google that you want to restrict your helpful as an alternative to the mediocre
searches to certain elements or character- search engines built into many sites.
istics of Web pages. Google has a fairly
complete list of its syntax elements at SWISS ARMY GOOGLE
www.google.com/help/operators.html. Google has a number of services that can
Here are some advanced operators that help you accomplish tasks you may never
can help narrow down your search results. have thought to use Google for. For
Intitle: at the beginning of a query word example, the new calculator feature (www
But Google is an remarkably powerful
tool that can ease and enhance your Internet exploration. Google’s search options
.google.com/help/features.html#calculator)
lets you do both math and a variety of conversions from the search box. For extra
fun, try the query “Answer to life the
universe and everything.”
Let Google help you figure out whether
you’ve got the right spelling—and the right
word—for your search. Enter a misspelled
word or phrase into the query box (try
“thre blund mise”) and Google may suggest
a proper spelling. This doesn’t always succeed; it works best when the word you’re
searching for can be found in a dictionary.
Once you search for a properly spelled
word, look at the results page, which
repeats your query. (If you’re searching for
“three blind mice,” underneath the search
window will appear a statement such as
Searched the web for “three blind mice.”)
You’ll discover that you can click on each
word in your search phrase and get a definition from a dictionary.
Suppose you want to contact someone
and don’t have his phone number handy.
Google can help you with that, too. Just
enter a name, city, and state. (The city is
optional, but you must enter a state.) If a
phone number matches the listing, you’ll
GOOGLE IMAGES (http://images.google
.com) searches millions of image files.
SOLUTIONS
401(k)
plan
participant
“Transfer $1,000 from
my bond fund to my
index fund.”
T. Row
IBM RS/600
with WebSphe
70 Internet: Stop spammers with CAPTCHA.
72 Security Watch: Keep
your PC ports secure.
74 Enterprise: Voice
recognition technology.
76 Internet Professional:
Embedding fonts.
81
User to User:
Tips and tricks.
M A K I N G T E C H N O L O G Y W O R K F O R YO U
THE GOOGLE TOOLBAR powers up your browser with a lot of extras, and Google Toolbar 2.0
includes a pop-up blocker, country-specific searches, and one-click form filling. The toolbar is
available at http://toolbar.google.com, and you must have Internet Explorer installed. There’s
also a Google toolbar for Mozilla available at http://googlebar.mozdev.org. Windows users
can also try Dave’s Quick Search Toolbar (http://notesbydave.com/toolbar), which is browserindependent and runs from the Windows taskbar.
see it at the top of the search results along
with a map link to the address. If you’d
rather restrict your results, use rphonebook: for residential listings or bphonebook: for business listings. If you’d rather
use a search form for business phone listings, try Yellow Search (www.buzztoolbox
.com/google/yellowsearch.shtml).
EXTENDED GOOGLING
Google offers several services
that give you a head start in focusing your search. Google
Groups (http://groups.google
.com) indexes literally millions of messages from decades of discussion on
Usenet. Google even helps you with
your shopping via two tools: Froogle
(http://froogle .google.com), which indexes products from online stores, and
Google Catalogs (http://catalogs.google
.com), which features products from
more 6,000 paper catalogs in a searchable index. And this only scratches the
surface. You can get a complete list of
Google’s tools and services at www
.google.com/options/ index.html.
You’re probably used to using Google
in your browser. But have you ever
thought of using Google outside your
browser?
ONE OF THE MOST interesting applications based on the Google API is GoogleMovies (http://24.60.188.10:8080/
demos/GoogleMovies/GoogleMovies.cgi),
which uses Google to search for movie
reviews, then uses its own engine to analyze the content of the reviews and deliver
an overall opinion. You also get links to the
full text of the reviews.
Google Alert (www.googlealert.com)
monitors your search terms and e-mails
you information about new additions to
Google’s Web index. (Google Alert is not
affiliated with Google; it uses Google’s
Web services API to perform its searches.) If you’re more interested in news sto-
GOOGLE API Proximity Search (GAPS)
lets you specify that one query word must
be near another query word (www
.staggernation.com/cgi-bin/gaps.cgi). You
can add terms to the query and sort your
results by proximity, URL, title, or ranking.
ries than general Web content, check out
the beta version of Google News Alerts
(www.google.com/newsalerts). This service (which is affiliated with Google) will
monitor up to 50 news queries per e-mail
address and send you information about
news stories that match your query.
(Hint: Use the intitle: and source: syntax
elements with Google News to limit the
number of alerts you get.)
Google on the telephone? Yup. This
service is brought to you by the folks at
Google Labs (http://labs.google.com), a
place for experimental Google ideas and
features (which may come and go, so
what’s there at this writing might not be
there when you decide to check it out).
With Google Voice Search (http://
labs1.google.com/gvs.html), you dial the
Voice Search phone number, speak your
keywords, and then click on the indicated
link. Every time you say a new search
term, the results page will refresh with
your new query (you must have
JavaScript enabled for this to work).
Remember, this service is still in an
experimental phase, so don’t expect 100
percent success.
In 2002, Google released the Google
API (application programming interface),
a way for programmers to access
Google’s search engine results without
violating the Google Terms of Service. A
lot of people have created useful (and
occasionally not-so-useful but interesting) applications not available from
Google itself, such as Google Alert. For
many applications, you’ll need an API key,
which is available free from www
.google.com/apis. See the figures for two
more examples, and visit www.pcmag
.com/solutions for more.
Thanks to its many different search
properties, Google goes far beyond a regular search engine. Give the tricks in this
article a try. You’ll be amazed at how
many different ways Google can improve
your Internet searching.
Tara Calishain is the coauthor of Google
Hacks and Google Pocket Guide (O’Reilly &
Associates). She writes ResearchBuzz, a
weekly newsletter on Internet research and
online information collections.
69
SOLUTIONS | INTERNET
CAPTCHA-ing the
Spammer
The scientists may print out the image
and scan it back in or apply a technique
called thresholding—transferring the
image from color to black and white and
back again, which significantly changes
gray levels. They may just add random
noise to the image. “It often looks like the
A technology that tries to distinguish between humans and
image has undergone a shark attack,” says
machines may be a capable weapon against spam. By Cade Metz PARC scientist Henry Baird, who heads the
project. “Basically, we make the image
hances are, you’ve been When a message arrives, such apps will worse and worse and worse until OCR sysCAPTCHA-ed. Since the Internet
mail the sender a challenge message with tems crap out trying to read it.” But even if
spam problem reached epidemic a built-in reverse Turing test (reverse an OCR engine were able to discern a letproportions several months ago, an in- because a machine applies the test). The ter or two, it couldn’t guess the remainder
creasing number of Web-based e-mail most famous, a tool called MailFrontier, of the word, because BaffleText uses only
services and antispam applications have asks senders to identify the number of nonsense words.
A team of computer scientists at UC
started using CAPTCHA (Completely Au- cats in a digital photograph.
Berkeley led by Jitendra
tomated Public Turing test
Malik has broken the Yahoo!
to tell Computers and HuCAPTCHA, but BaffleText
mans Apart) to combat the
has proven insurmountable
online bots spammers so
thus far. Meanwhile, PARC
often use to carry out their
has done many user tests
dirty deeds.
with the system, and huSince 1950, when British
mans can read the degraded
mathematician Alan Turing
images with ease.
wrote an article called “ComBut BaffleText could
puter Machinery and Intellimake using the Net even
gence” for an Oxford philosmore difficult for the visualophy journal, people have
TO PREVENT automated e-mail registration, Yahoo! asks you to type the
ly impaired. CAPTCHAs are
applied the phrase Turing test
obscured word in the graphic into a box.
already a big problem for
to any experiment in which
blind Web users. “If you’re
subjects must distinguish
CAPTCHAs are blocking all sorts of
using standard screen-reading programs
between man and machine by exchanging
information with the unknown entity. online misbehavior. The Ticketmaster such as speech-output technology to read
Such tests strive to determine whether a Web site, for instance, posts CAPTCHAs to a Web site, those programs have no way
computer exhibits human intelligence, prevent scalpers from buying enormous to access the information contained in a
indicated, in Turing’s view, by the com- numbers of tickets to sell at a profit. The CAPTCHA,” says Dan Aunspach, chief
puter successfully fooling subjects into trouble is, diligent spammers find ways engineer for the Virginia Department for
believing it’s human. CAPTCHA turns the around such tests, rolling out new and the Blind and Visually Impaired.
game around, with the machine separating improved bots. For example, circumventAunspach adds, “Normally we tell Web
humans from computers.
ing MailFrontier’s CAPTCHA isn’t difficult. designers to add HTML tags to their image
When you sign up for a Web-based After all, only so many cats can fit in a pho- files to describe the image for screen-reade-mail account on Yahoo!, for example, the tograph. With the Yahoo! CAPTCHA, bots ing programs, but you can’t do that with
site displays a small rectangular graphic can use optical character recognition to CAPTCHAs, because that would allow bots
containing a short, well-known word, such identify hidden words. And since the to get around them.” BaffleText would
as coat, manage, or worry. The word is Yahoo! implementation uses common cause the same problem for blind users
obscured, but you can just make it out. As English words, a bot must identify only the and hinder people with partial visual impart of the account registration, you are first one or two letters and guess the rest. pairments. “The more difficult you make a
To make life more difficult for spam- CAPTCHA to read, the more problems it’s
asked to type the word in an adjacent box.
This is a CAPTCHA process. A human can mers, scientists at the Palo Alto Research going to cause for people with limited
read the word and correctly type it in the Center (PARC) have designed a new vision,” Aunspach says. “A lot of people
box, whereas a bot can’t, ostensibly. In this breed of CAPTCHA called BaffleText. The have a loss of central visual, and they have
way, Yahoo! hopes to prevent spammers CAPTCHA is similar to the one Yahoo! to use peripheral vision for sight. It’s very
from registering thousands of e-mail ad- uses in that it asks you to identify words hard for them to read and decode a
dresses and using them to broadcast buried in digital graphics, but it can’t be CAPTCHA image.”
The lab has yet to sell the technology
read by today’s OCR technology. PARC
unwanted advertisements.
At the other end of the e-mail chain, scientists begin with a graphic in which for commercial use, but plans are in the
Internet users often install software that the embedded word is easily visible, then works. Spammers beware.
uses CAPTCHA to weed out incoming use a host of techniques to degrade the
Cade Metz is a senior writer at PC Magazine.
spam from legitimate correspondence. image progressively.
C
70
SOLUTIONS
w w w. p c m a g . c o m /s e c u r i ty wa tc h
T H E LO O KO U T
A FIX FOR RFID
Batten Down Those Ports
Don’t let malicious intruders find a way into your system. We tell
you how they try to sneak in—and how to keep them out.
By Brett Glass
W
ith worms such as Blaster
prowling the Net, every user
ought to know the ways a
computer may be exposed to attacks. One
of the simplest but most vital tests you
can do to determine potential vulnerabilities is to find out which ports your PC
has open to the outside world.
Computers that speak TCP/IP obtain
services from one another via “handles”
known as ports. Many ports are preassigned to specific network services,
such as HTTP (port 80) and FTP (port 21);
these are called well-known ports. There
UDP ports are used by the User Datagram Protocol, which lets machines send
short messages to one another. Unlike
TCP, UDP does not establish an ongoing
conversation; each message stands alone.
If a program on your computer has
asked to field requests that come in via a
particular port, it is said to be “listening”
on the port. A program that does this is
called a daemon in Unix or a service in
Windows-speak.
Unfortunately, any program that listens on a port represents a potential liability. If the program isn’t equipped to
recognize when too many
requests come in at once—
and reject at least some of
them—it may tie up the entire
machine trying to service
them all. This is one form of
denial-of-service (DoS) attack.
And if the program has a bug
that allows an intruder
to overwrite memory (a
THE SHIELDSUP! UTILITY
buffer overflow), it may
can tell you which ports are open.
allow the system to be
taken over completely.
Also, Trojan horse programs
frequently reveal themselves
are two kinds of ports: TCP ports and because they listen on specific ports.
UDP ports.
In general, the fewer the ports on which
TCP ports are used by the Transmission
your computer is listening, the less likely
Control Protocol, which allows a server to it is to be susceptible to certain types of
conduct a conversation, or session, with attacks. So be sure to shut down as many
another machine. When your computer unused services as possible—especially
wants to request a page from a Web server, those involved with Windows file sharing,
it sends a packet to that machine indicat- instant-messaging services, and so forth.
ing that it wants to talk to TCP port 80 (the
One way to see which ports are open
well-known port through which most Web on your machine is to use computer punservers deliver pages). The server, seeing dit Steve Gibson’s utility ShieldsUP!,
that you’ve asked for port 80, connects which you can find at http://grc.com. It
your computer to the Web server pro- provides a graphical representation of all
gram, which—of the many programs run- of the ports on your machine, showing
ning on the machine—is the one that spe- which ones appear to be open.
cializes in delivering Web pages. The
Another way (which may work better
conversation between the machines may if your ISP or company has a firewall) is
to open a command window and type
be brief or may continue indefinitely.
72
Researchers at RSA Security’s lab have
come up with a technique they say will
eliminate many of the privacy concerns
surrounding the use of RFID (radio
frequency identification) tags.
RFID tags are being used in a quickly
expanding array of industrial and corporate
applications, including inventory control,
tracking, security, and access control. The
tags are tiny, integrated circuits coupled
with antennas. Each tag is programmed
with a unique identification number, which
it sends to a reader on request. The tags
can be embedded in nearly anything, including clothing and other consumer goods,
as well as money and credit cards. Privacy
issues have surfaced, because any RFID
reader can read the numbers on any tag.
The solution uses what’s known as a
blocker tag to simulate all possible tag
serial numbers. In doing so, a blocker tag
prevents a reader from discovering whether
a specific tag is present.—Dennis Fisher
netstat -an.
In the resulting listing, the
ports you care about are the ones on
which your computer is listening. If the
open ports are listed at www.iana.org/
assignments/port-numbers, and you know
that your computer is providing the services that normally use those ports, fine.
But if not, or if other ports are open, be
suspicious. Check lists of ports that Trojan horses use, such as the one at
www.robertgraham.com/pubs/firewallseen.html, to see whether any open ports
are associated with malware.
One good way to protect yourself from
exploitation is to install a personal firewall
program, such as Intuit’s Norton Internet
Security or Zone Labs’ ZoneAlarm Pro.
Such programs don’t just guard against
incoming attacks, they can also be set to
alert you whenever a program on your
machine tries to connect to another one
on the Internet. Most of the time, the
attempt will be legitimate, and you can
“bless” the program so that alerts don’t
recur. But a warning will sometimes
betray a rogue program that’s gotten loose
on your machine. In all cases, blocking all
ports except those you need open (and
perhaps setting the firewall to require
operator approval before they’re used) is
a prudent security strategy.
Brett Glass is a freelance consultant,
author, and programmer.
SOLUTIONS
CASE STUDY
T. Rowe Price
Money Talk
In 2001, T. Rowe Price launched a pilot
system for the 60,000 participants in five
of the 401(k) plans it serviced. The test
subjects could check balances, review
the funds that were in their accounts,
and check fund prices. By the beginning
of 2002, it was expanded to include the
1.3 million participants in all T. Rowe
Price 401(k) plans.
Gradually, transaction capability was
added so customers could increase or
decrease contributions, move money
between funds, and request loans. By
tracking user sessions, the company has
been able to tweak the system to shorten
calls further. For example, it found that 80
percent of callers wanted only their
account balances. So now the system
automatically gives balances.
Indeed, like any good investor, T. Rowe
Price is thinking long-term. While an
increasing number of customers have
embraced the system, the uptick has been
modest so far. In August, system use was
up 13 percent from the previous year. But
that, too, says Walsh, is beside the point:
“This may not be a demanded technology,
but over time it’s going to be an expected
technology.”
Ironically, the amount of time that
human reps spend talking to customers
hasn’t decreased. But Walsh doesn’t see
that as a bad thing. “They spend less
time giving account balances and more
time advising clients on investment
strategy,” she says. And in the end, that
can add far more to the bottom line than
cuts in support staff.
T. Rowe Price is putting its stock in voice recognition technology.
By Alan Cohen
A
irlines, pharmacies, and even
movie theaters have rushed to
set up automated phone lines
that can understand spoken commands,
but the systems often produce more
frustration than convenience. Who
hasn’t waded through a long phone
menu only to have his words deemed
unrecognizable?
Indeed, voice portals—Internet-based
systems that promise traffic conditions,
weather reports, and sports scores at the
bark of a command—have gone from the
next big thing to the last overhyped thing.
So it is no surprise that companies looking into voice recognition are treading
carefully.
One such company is T. Rowe Price, a
Baltimore-based investment management
firm. As far back as 2000, the company
wanted to try voice recognition on its
automated phone lines, where customers
can check investment accounts. But more
than a year passed before a system was
even tested, and another year passed
before it was fully launched. During that
time, several key decisions have enabled
it to avoid the pitfalls of voice recognition
technology. While gradually gaining
ground with customers, the new system
saves time and better positions the company for the future.
Perhaps the biggest decision T. Rowe
Price has made is to forgo the traditional
menu-driven voice system, where callers
perform specific tasks by speaking their
way through a carefully scripted, timeconsuming series of prompts. Instead, the
company opted for a more complex technology known as Natural Language
Understanding (NLU). An NLU system
simply asks a caller “How can I help
you?” and the caller responds with a
request. The idea behind the system is to
reduce call times—and frustration.
The advantages are clear. “You’re not
on the phone for 15 minutes going
through three levels of the tree just to get
your account balance,” says Heidi Walsh,
vice president and director of marketing
74
for T. Rowe Price’s retirement plan
services. “We’re just opening a big door
and saying ‘jump.’”
The technology was developed by IBM,
and although it is complex, on the surface
it is simple enough: one IBM RS/6000
system running Unix derivative AIX and
WebSphere Voice Response to answer the
phones, and another RS/6000 running AIX
and WebSphere Voice Server to translate
voice-to-text commands and carry them
out. Because the system must decipher
full phrases—not just prompted keywords—a huge database of words had to
be developed, taking into account
synonyms, alternate phrasings, and
accents. Over the course of 14 months,
T. Rowe Price and IBM studied tapes of
customer support calls to build a “constrained grammar” of over 35,000 phrases.
The complexity of the system and its
need for an elaborate grammar made it
better suited for the company’s retirement plan services than for its retail
business. “With retirement accounts,
people call for specific reasons; you
know you’re going down a certain channel,” says Walsh. So a grammar could be
constructed around those common
tasks—account balances, transactions,
fund information, and so on.
A Kinder, Friendlier Voice Response System
A participant in one of T. Rowe Price’s 401(k) plans can call the investment firm’s Plan Account Line (PAL) to manage
his account. His call reaches one of three call centers (in California, Florida, or Maryland), where it is answered by an
IBM RS/6000 server running IBM’s WebSphere Voice Response software. The call is then passed to a second RS/6000
devoted to voice recognition. Here WebSphere Voice Server software translates the caller’s voice to text—with the
help of a customized 35,000-phrase database that is programmed with regional accents—and processes commands.
401(k)
plan
participant
“Transfer $1,000 from
my bond fund to my
index fund.”
Transfer $1,000 from
my bond fund to my
index fund
T. Rowe Price call center
IBM RS/6000
with WebSphere
Voice Response
TXT
Voice is converted
to text
IBM RS/6000
with WebSphere
Voice Server
Call is
passed to
voice
recognition
Customized
database with
35,000 phrases
Funds are
transferre
SOLUTIONS
Embedding Fonts in
Web Pages
SCRIPT and LINK tags in the HEAD container
of the HTML document and FONT tags within the BODY container. The SCRIPT line
points to a font-viewer JavaScript app on
the TrueDoc site, while the LINK tags point
to the specific PFRs the browser needs to
Web designers can’t always be sure what fonts site visitors will see. render the fonts on the page. FONT tags surround each block of text that’s rendered
Here are two alternatives that may help. By Neil Randall
by each PFR, with the FACE attribute specifying the font and other attributes, such as
font-family: fontname;
esigning Web pages can be a
SIZE and COLOR, configuring the font prefont-style: italic;
frustrating experience if you like
cisely. You can also use Cascading Style
font-weight: normal;
using nonstandard fonts, because
Sheets (CSS) to apply the fonts by using
src: url(fontname.eot); }
</STYLE>
CSS’s font-family attribute.
there’s a good chance your visitors won’t
The font-family element contains the
Of course, making use of a wide variety
be able to see those fonts in their browsers.
Web browsers can display only the fonts name of the font in the EOT file referenced of fonts almost always brings up questions
installed on users’ systems, making it in the src: url line. When a visitor loads of font ownership. Because of the way we
almost impossible to build creative font the page, IE knows to look for the file Font- use fonts—calling them up at will from
name.eot when it encounters text that re- within applications—it’s easy to forget that
choices into your designs.
fonts aren’t simply in the public domain. In
The typical method for including an un- quires the font .
The WEFT utility is wizard-driven, with the case of TrueDoc, Bitstream offers a
usual font on a page is to create a graphic
of the text, then insert the graphic into the a decent help system guiding you through technology called DockLock to tie the
HTML page. But while this works well
PFRs to your Web server, allowing only
enough for short headings, it’s a poor idea
documents located on that server to renfor longer text, because the resulting
der the fonts. Because Microsoft’s WEFT
relies on EOT files stored on the Web servgraphic requires extra download time, and
er, it effectively does the same thing. But
because the graphic is much harder to edit
WEFT offers greater flexibility by allowing
than standard text. This method also has
the possibility of producing any font as an
the disadvantage of being impossible for
EOT, as long as the font has been designatsearch engines to index.
ed by the font’s owner/designer to be emA useful alternative is to embed the fonts
beddable. WEFT determines embeddabilin the Web document so that they’ll be disity during its analysis process, or you can
played even if the recipient’s system does
manually check the fonts on
not have those fonts installed. There are
THE FONT Cataneo BT was
your systems by downloading
currently two options for doing this.
used for this entire Web site
and installing the Font ProperMicrosoft Web Embedding Fonts Tool
and was embedded via WEFT.
ties Extension utility from www
(WEFT) lets you create font files in the process. You begin
Embedded Open Type (EOT) format to up- by pointing WEFT to
.microsoft.com/typography and
load to your Web server, allowing Internet your site, where it performs a font analy- examining the Properties dialog of the
Explorer 4.0 or later to display them. Bit- sis. As you work through the wizard, you fonts in your Fonts folder.
stream offers a different solution that lets specify the fonts you wish to embed, and
Font embedding seems such a clear
you embed fonts that are visible in either IE WEFT creates the EOT file based on your enhancement for Web designers that it’s a
or Netscape Navigator 4 (but not 6 and 7), decisions. You complete the process by bit difficult to understand why it hasn’t
by pointing to a Portable Font Resource adding the <STYLE> container shown above caught on more. Having to deal with font
(PFR) file on the TrueDoc site (www to each page on the site, and you can test it ownership may be one reason. Another
.truedoc.com) or another Web server.
by accessing the site using a PC without may be that neither of the two current
Microsoft WEFT 3.2 is a free down- the specifically embedded fonts installed. solutions work with modern browsers
load available at www.microsoft.com/
By contrast, TrueDoc’s dynamic fonts other than IE. But given that many
typography/web/embedding/weft3. With are contained in Portable Font Resource designers already create separate docuthis utility, you can create one EOT file for files (PFRs). Bitstream has made several ments for IE and Netscape users, and that
each font you wish to embed. You then FPRs available on its site for free use on IE remains the dominant browser, it seems
code the pages to point to the font files by your Web pages, a varied selection rang- worth giving TrueDoc or WEFT a try as a
adding a <STYLE> element to the <HEAD> por- ing from Calligraphic 421 through Snow workable solution to a persistent design
tion of the page. This element takes the fol- Cap and Zurich Black Extended. For com- problem.
lowing form:
mercial applications, Bitstream requires
that you host the PFRs on your own site. Neil Randall is a contributing editor of PC
<STYLE >
The Bitstream technology works via Magazine.
@font-face {
D
76
SOLUTIONS
w w w. p c m a g . c o m /u s e r to u s e r
PC MAGAZINE’S COMMUNITY OF
EXPERTS AND READERS
items is =SUMIF(Temp,TRUE,Bal)
/COUNTIF(Temp,TRUE).
Unfortunately, that system breaks
down when the value in D1 or
D2 is 0 (that is, if you cut off
TO TRIM VARIABLE
numbers of high and low
no items at the high or low
values from an average,
end). If your spreadsheet
add a column to determine
must handle that eventuality,
each value’s eligibility
change cell B1 to this lengthy
before calculating.
formula:
=AND(IF(D$1>=0,A1>SMALL
(Bal,D$1),TRUE),IF(D$2>
Averages Without Extremes
In Excel
I have a column in Excel that contains
account balances. I would like to find the
average balance after throwing out the
one or two highest and one or two lowest
values. I have not found a clean way to
keep track of the count while averaging
only the values that meet my criteria. Is
there a way to choose how many values to
trim from the top and bottom before
calculating the average?
RICHARD WOLFF
Suppose your balances are in a range named
Bal that starts in cell A1 and extends down
column A. If you want to discard only the
highest and lowest values, you could do that
with a formula like this: =(SUM(Bal)-SMALL
(Bal,1)LARGE(Bal,1))/(COUNT(Bal)-2).
But we’ve found no easy way to go from
this to a formula that lets you discard a
variable number of items from the high and
low ends. Instead, we worked up a second
range of cells that indicate whether the
adjacent cells should be included in the
average.
Suppose the number of low values to be
dropped is in cell D1, the number of high
values to be dropped is in cell D2, and column B is empty. In cell B1, enter this formula:
=AND(A1>SMALL(Bal,D$1),A1<LARGE(Bal,
D$2)). Copy it down the column to all the
cells adjacent to your balances. Then select
all of those cells and name the range Temp.
Each item in this range will contain TRUE if
the adjacent balance should be included in
the average and FALSE if otherwise. The
formula for the average of the remaining
=0,A1<LARGE(Bal,D$2),TRUE)). Then
copy the formula throughout the remainder
of the Temp range. You’ll still get a #DIV/0
error if you cut off so many that none remain,
but that’s not unreasonable. Readers, if you
have a less unwieldy solution, we’d love to
hear about it.
—Neil J. Rubenking
Remove Many Links at Once
I regularly work with large Word documents that start out as HTML documents,
and they contain hundreds of hyperlinks. I
know how to remove one link at a time by
moving the cursor to the link, hitting Ctrl-K
to bring up the Edit Hyperlink dialog, and
then choosing the Remove Link button.
But when I have to remove hundreds of
links, this takes a maddeningly long time.
Is there a faster way to get rid of the
hyperlinks?
BARBARA BROWN
along with the hyperlinks and you don’t
want to convert those fields to text, you can
select a portion of the document, being
careful not to include the fields you don’t
want to convert, and then press Ctrl-ShiftF9, repeating as many times as necessary
for the entire file. This isn’t as easy as giving
the command for the entire document at
once, but it is still faster than removing
each link individually. By the way, a somewhat quicker way to remove a single link
than the Ctrl-K method is to right-click on
the link and choose Remove Hyperlink from
the context menu.—M. David Stone
Windows XP System
Information Fails
When I try to display the System Information in Windows XP Home, I get the following response: Can’t Collect Information. Cannot access the Windows
Management Instrumentation software.
Windows Management files may be
moved or missing. What can I do to correct this problem? The error message
does not tell me what files are missing, so
I don’t know what to look for.
BRUCE PIPER
The Windows XP System Information utility
(Msinfo32.exe) relies on certain services to
supply it with information. If the services
You can remove all of the
links with just two keystrokes: Ctrl-A to select the
entire document and CtrlShift-F9 to convert all the
links into text. This technique works with other
fields as well, turning a field
into text using the field
result. For example, if you’ve
IF YOU SEE this error message, some of your Windows
inserted a date field to
services may be disabled.
show the current date,
selecting the field and
pressing Ctrl-Shift-F9 will turn it into text
are not running—perhaps because of an
so the date won’t change from one day to
earlier diagnostic start-up—System Inforthe next.
mation displays the error shown in the
If you have other fields in your document
figure. To fix the problem, open Administra-
You can remove all the hyperlinks in a Word
document with just two key combinations.
81
SOLUTIONS
Word offers an equation editor that lets you
design complex equations visually.
tive Tools in the Control Panel and launch
the Services applet. Locate the Event Log
service in the list and double-click on it.
Make sure its Startup type: is set to Automatic.
If its Service status does not display Started, click on the Start button. Repeat this
process for the Windows Management Instrumentation service and for the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) service. You may need to log
off or restart your computer to regain access
to the System Information utility.—NJR
Search Internet Explorer
Favorites
Internet Explorer does not provide a way
for users to search the Favorites folder,
something that becomes essential when
you have a large number of favorite sites.
To work around this limitation, find your
Favorites folder (you can search for it in
Windows Explorer) and drag it onto the
Links toolbar. Then, to search in your
Favorites folder, click on the icon on the
Links toolbar and press F3.
JOHN B. SEYBOLD
The online version of PC Magazine’s recent
article “Top 100 Web Sites” (www.pcmag
.com/article2/0,4149,942894,00.asp)
included a downloadable version of the site
list that automatically installed all of the sites
into submenus of your Favorites menu. If you
have installed the “Top 200” or another
prepared collection of favorites, you’ll find
this tip especially helpful.
You don’t have to search for the Favorites
folder; you can reach it from the Favorites
menu. Click on Favorites in Internet Explorer’s main menu, right-click on any submenu,
and select Open in the context menu that
appears. This will open the subfolder corresponding to that submenu in Windows
Explorer. Click on the Up button in the
Windows Explorer toolbar to select the
Favorites folder itself. Then drag the
HOW TO CONTACT US
E-MAIL K [email protected]
FAX K 212-503-5799
MAIL K User to User, PC Magazine, 28 East
28 Street, New York, NY 10016-7930
If we print your tip, you’ll receive a PC
Magazine T-shirt. We regret that we
cannot answer letters individually.
82
Favorites folder from Windows Explorer’s
Address bar to IE’s Links toolbar.
When you click on the shortcut in Links,
the Favorites folder will open in Windows
Explorer. Pressing F3 invokes the standard
Search dialog, and you can launch the found
favorite by double-clicking on it.—NJR
overstrike effect. If you do that by accident,
don’t worry. Click somewhere else on the
page to exit the equation editor, then press
Ctrl-Z to undo the change.—NJR
No Such Addressee
For the past month, I have been receiving
e-mail with addresses similar to but not
Character Overstrike in Word
exactly mine in the To: field. Supposing
I wanted to print an N and an equal sign in
my address were My_name1, I’ve
the same spot, similar to the Euro symbol,
received mail for My_name143, My_
which combines a C and an equal sign. I am
name1guy, and other variations. These
able to do this in WordPerfect, but in Word I
messages are all spam. I suspect that I
must use a field code. The solution I found
may not be receiving mail properly adis somewhat complicated but very flexible.
dressed to me, but how can I find out?
My ISP’s customer service
claims that this is not the company’s problem. Friends have
suggested that the spammer
may be using a program that
generates names in an incremental pattern, or that my
ISP may be sending me mail
for which the address is
similar to mine but not the
same. Any light you can shed on
this will be appreciated.
ENTER THE FIELD CODE, then press Alt-F9 to see
JIM BIRDSALL
the results (inset).
First, press Ctrl-F9 to insert the curly
brackets that surround a field code.
Between the brackets, type eq \o(N,=).
Press Alt-F9 to toggle from displaying field
codes to displaying field results (see the
figure).
The eq field is used to create equations,
and the \o switch tells Word to overstrike
the next characters within the parentheses. You can put as many characters in
the parentheses as you want. There are
other switches for displacement, as well
as for creating fractions, integrals, alignment, and so on. Search for the eq field in
Help for more information.
BRYAN GILLSON
Word offers an equation editor that lets you
design complex equations visually. It’s much
easier than building an equation by stacking
up switches in an eq field. Word’s behavior
favors the equation editor; if you double-click
on an eq field, it is converted to an embedded equation. Such behavior is desirable in
most cases, but if you double-click on the
example described here, you’ll lose the
Unfortunately, your ISP is correct
in stating that this particular problem is not
its responsibility. The ISP is not sending you
messages that are meant for someone
else; all those pieces of spam are actually
addressed to you.
Spammers do indeed send e-mail to
computer-generated lists of names. They
typically put the names in the Bcc: (blind
carbon copy) field, where those names
can’t be seen. But since a message with
no name in the To: field can be instantly
flagged as spam, they’ll choose one name
from the group for the To: field. As the
names in the group are similar, it will
seem that you have received mail that
was addressed to someone whose address
is similar to yours.
It’s possible that by switching from a
national ISP to a small, local one you
might get less of this automatically
generated spam. But there’s really no way
to avoid this except to use a spam-filtering
program.
For PC Magazine’s full coverage of spamfighting tools and techniques, visit www
.pcmag.com/spam.—NJR
Microsoft Office’s
new app InfoPath
2003 lets you
easily design
templates and fill
IN THIS STORY
88
Collaborating with Office 2003
94
Office 2003 for the Enterprise
100
Word 2003
100
Excel 2003
101
Outlook 2003
102
OneNote 2003
89
in forms, taking
the difficulty out
of working with
XML data.
Should You Upgrade?
100
The Rest of the Office Gang
102
Life Without Office
104
XML in Action in Office 2003
FPO
MICROSOFT
OFFICE
A NEW
A
Microsoft Office 2003 utilizes
SharePoint Services, allowing users
to collaborate on projects more
efficiently, either from within
STRATEGY
applications or through portals.
fter so many versions, how much can Microsoft generally more efficient. There are handy new features, such
really change its Office suite? Depending on how you as the ability to look at shared calendars side by side, as well
use it, the changes in Microsoft Office 2003 range any- as a much-improved spam filter. A new application, Microsoft
where from moderately useful to ground-breaking. OneNote, looks to change the way we take notes when we
Individual users running Office on a desktop will want to save our thoughts and ideas. Integration among Office
find the changes convenient but not necessarily es- applications has gotten even stronger, making it easier to work
sential. Nonetheless, the improvements are for the best and re- with various types of data and move data from one application
sult in a more productive set of applications. Microsoft Word, to another.
for example, includes better change-tracking and annotation
While individuals will find these general improvements helptools, additional views for working with documents, and other ful, the big changes are aimed at users working in collaborative
enhancements that make it easier to use. Meanwhile, Micro- environments. With Office 2003, Microsoft has changed its stratsoft Outlook has had a fairly dramatic faceegy for the suite. In fact, rather than referlift. The interface is better organized and BY MATTHEW P. GRAVEN ring to the new version as a suite, Microsoft
86
Outlook has had a dramatic
makeover. The new version is
better organized, includes a variety
of useful new features, and
has an impressive spam filter.
Word 2003 has
subtle yet
very welcome
changes, including the new
Reading Layout
OUR CONTRIBUTORS
Helen Bradley, Richard V. Dragan, and
M. David Stone are contributing editors.
Ben Z. Gottesman is an executive editor
of PC Magazine. Neil J. Rubenking is a
PC Magazine Labs project leader. Sarah
Pike is a staff editor. Associate editor
Matthew P. Graven and PC Magazine
Labs project leader Jonathan Roubini
were in charge of this story.
view (seen here)
and improved
change-tracking
options.
has dubbed it the Microsoft Office System. This is
because the new features—the pith of Office
2003’s improvements—extend beyond the desktop, making data
available throughout the workplace.
Office 2003 is about collaboration. It’s about efficiency and a
streamlined workflow. To start, the new Office integrates well
with an improved Microsoft SharePoint service, allowing workers throughout a company to collaborate and work on documents.
A central SharePoint portal lets team members post files, participate in threaded discussions, link to dynamic Web content, generate tables based on information in corporate databases, and so
on. More important, however, is that the Office 2003 applications
tie directly into the corporate system. You can, for example, share
Word documents without ever leaving Microsoft Word and chat
with coworkers from within applications.
The new version also makes greater use of XML. A new
product, Microsoft InfoPath 2003, lets you design templates
that pull information from databases and enter it into forms,
which are then saved to the corporate database.
Meanwhile, data is no longer tied up in files and applications.
Data typed into Excel, for example, can be made independent of
Excel. It’s actually XML data. Now, you don’t need to print out
an Excel spreadsheet and pass it to another department, which
will rekey it into a different system; instead, the original Excel
file can tie into the system and
pass on the data electronically.
MORE ON THE WEB
In action, Office 2003 provides
For more information about
employees throughout the comMicrosoft Office, collabpany access to up-to-the-minute
oration software, and XML,
data in real time.
go to www.pcmag.com/office.
Until now, working with XML
has required a certain level of expertise. Granted, to get your systems up and running, your IT department will need to understand the ins and outs of this XML system. But Microsoft has
taken much of the difficulty out of the process, putting the power
of XML into the hands of mainstream business users. With a bit
of understanding, these users will be able to customize their own
documents, creating a more efficient workplace.
87
YOU AND YOU BUT NOT YOU
To protect shared Office documents from falling into
the wrong hands, support for information rights management (IRM) comes as standard equipment here.
(For those not running the IRM component, Microsoft
offers a Passport-based hosting service to authenticate
users.) Available from within the File menu of each
Office application, as well as from within the Shared Workspace,
the documents can be marked as available for certain users only
or marked “do not distribute.” We marked an Excel budget as
available only to selected users, and it could not be viewed by
those outside a simulated group of managers. (Examining the raw
bytes of this file proved that it was indeed encrypted.) By using
digital keys to match user identities to content, Office 2003 can
ensure your company’s intellectual property remains safe.
There is the briefest glimpse here of Microsoft’s future plans
for trusted computing, which locks down programs as well as
content (though at the operating-system level) based on a user’s
digital identity. If your organization makes use of IRM, who you
are determines what you can view and access in Office 2003.
COLLABORATING WITH
OFFICE 2003
W fairly limited tools for sharing documents. Realizing that
ith earlier versions of Office, users had some handy though
few important documents are produced by a single person these
days, Microsoft has significantly beefed up its collaboration
tools, many of which are at the heart of Office’s transformation
from a suite to a system that goes beyond just client-side tools to
a network of clients and companion servers.
While there is nothing extra to install on clients for collaboration in Office 2003, you’ll need to set up one of Microsoft’s two
current intranet portal offerings, Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services (free with Windows Server 2003) or the fullfledged Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2003 ($3,999 per
server plus $71 per user).
Both SharePoint products allow users to create browseraccessible workspaces around one or more documents. Each
workspace can contain a set of members with varying rights
to files, group calendars, and to-do lists, and Web links to
related materials.
Fortunately, Office 2003 users don’t need to run to their
browsers every time they need to work on documents stored
within a workspace. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint now contain
a Shared Workspace task pane (on the right side of the screen
by default). From here you can create new workspaces or jump
to a library of shared documents (and links) for your team and
then work together very intuitively in the same interface. A convenient toolbar running across the top of this pane provides
access to tasks, members, and shared documents and links.
Inviting users to a shared work session can be done through
e-mail or built-in support for instant messaging via Microsoft
Office Live Communications Server 2003. We like that you
can see who is online, using built-in presence indicators. With
IM, users can contribute to live discussions about shared
documents. And a whiteboard feature
Setting up a portal in
lets users share text and drawings in
SharePoint is easy,
real time.
using wizards and
After a user opens a document,
templates designed
SharePoint keeps track of the version
for common events.
control, locking it for edits from other
users, who can still read the document.
Another option lets users get automatic document updates
when changes are made.
A fantastic new feature lets members view and even edit documents together in real time, as if in a virtual meeting, as long
as their systems are properly configured. (The mouse pointer
disappears from your screen as different participants make
changes.) Once the changes are saved, the document on the
main SharePoint server is updated.
Overall, the Shared Workspace console is very intuitive, letting you work with others from within the familiar interface of
applications like Word and Excel. The Shared Workspace task
pane expedites finding collaborative features quickly, leaving
the content pane available for standard viewing and editing.
88
OUR OUTLOOK
Outlook 2003 is also an impressively capable team player.
Whenever you attach a file to an e-mail, Outlook offers to put
the file in a SharePoint document workspace instead. This
makes it easier for all intended recipients to work together on
the same version.
In addition, calendaring and scheduling are significantly improved. We like the program’s new side-by-side calendar feature, which let us view another user’s available dates and times
next to our own. While users could negotiate a meeting in previous versions, there’s nothing like being able to view someone’s
entire day planner to simplify scheduling. Team calendars are
also available so that you can view upcoming events and
appointments for your workgroup.
GET TO THE SHAREPOINT
Since the best of Office’s collaboration depends on SharePoint,
we wanted to make sure that getting Windows SharePoint
MICROSOFT OFFICE 2003
Should You Upgrade?
Through some readers may not know
it, Microsoft isn’t the only company building suites these days (we review some
alternatives on page 102). But in reality,
Microsoft Office 2003’s biggest competitor
is Office XP and earlier versions of the
Office suite.
Most people already have a version of
Office installed. So the big question is: Do
you really need to buy this latest iteration?
The short answer for the vast majority is
no, you don’t need to upgrade. Office has
been a very competent suite for many
years, and you’ll get along just fine with
whatever version you have. (Of course, the
more recent the version the better.) With
Office 2003, most of the major enhancements to the core applications, such as
Word and Excel, involve improved collaboration capabilities in conjunction with the
Office system. These changes have to do
with Windows SharePoint Services and
SharePoint Portal Server, as well as Office
2003’s ability to read and write XML and
integrate with Web services to help improve business processes.
These are great features and are generally well executed in Office 2003. Most
businesses should at least consider the
upgrade, as the enhancements will
improve productivity in any organization
that relies on Office applications. For
individual users, however, and those without the necessary support to run SharePoint or take advantage of XML, the Office
2003 advantage boils down to some handy
new features and interface tweaks.
Even individuals will find that Office
2003 offers some nice personal productivity enhancements. Nearly every change
in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access is for
the best. The new Reading
View in Word, for example, makes it significantly
easier to read documents.
But few of these refinements will justify rushing
out and purchasing the
new Office.
What might make you
rush out, however, is the
new version of Outlook,
which has had a major
overall and now makes
navigating and reading
mail, combating spam,
and working remotely
much easier. It’s a huge
step up from an already
good mail client.
Microsoft is offering
several flavors of Office
2003, so pick the one that
best suits your needs.
And if you are a home
user and do decide to
purchase Office 2003,
don’t ignore the $149
Student and Teacher
The individual Office applications have some handy new features,
Edition. If you’ve ever
such as the abilitiy to view two calendars side by side in Outlook.
stepped foot in a classThe biggest changes, however, have to do with how Office 2003
room, you can buy this
promotes collaboration and flexibility of data in the workplace.
version. And business
users buying at retail should note that
2003 system makes you also buy into
they’re eligible for upgrade pricing if they
Microsoft’s latest server technology. Many
use any version of the suite going back to
of the new tools in Office 2003, especially
Office 97 or if they use a fairly recent
those that provide improved collaboration
version of Microsoft Works.
capabilities, will work only in a Microsoft
Bear in mind that buying into the Office
environment.—Ben Z. Gottesman
Microsoft Office
2003 Editions
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89
Services up and running wasn’t too onerThe Shared Workspaces task pane lets
ous. Fortunately, setup is really simple
users access shared
compared with that of traditional portal
documents and other
products. The server runs on top of IIS
team information.
6.0 in Windows Server 2003. It bundles
Microsoft Data Desktop Engine as a database. (Connecting to SQL Server is also a database option.) We
had a default SharePoint Web site going quickly. The site contained options for all the core shared content, like posted documents and pictures, contacts, events, and shared tasks.
Administering users in a portal environment can be demanding. SharePoint’s administration strikes a good balance
between granularity and ease of use. In testing, we used the
standard Active Directory tools to model an organization of 100
users assigned to 10 departments, with overlapping groups for
executives, managers, and the like. SharePoint made simple
work of assigning reader, contributor, editor, and administrator
rights through its slick, Web-based administration console.
These core roles let you control who can access and modify
content; they are exactly enough for a basic portal, though they
will not permit highly customized workflows with approval
from different players, as in a full-fledged portal.
One of the strongest aspects of SharePoint is the impressive
wizards for creating new sites and shared content automatically.
Several standout tools surpass what we’ve seen in traditional
portal space. Uploading content of all kinds is also a snap. In addition to posting from within the Office applications, we posted Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files, as well as Web links, from
the SharePoint site itself. In particular, we admire the excellent
support for uploading and organizing pictures. With integrated
support for thumbnails and slide shows, posting image files for
a simulated company picnic and corporate retreat was very simple. (The interface here is so smooth, we were tempted to use it
for a personal photo library.)
For those with the rights to add and modify Web content,
SharePoint has a number of guided step-by-step wizards that
simplify creating new mini-sites for specific events, like meetings. We simulated a company-wide meeting and a more selective sales meeting. We are impressed that the automatically generated Web site offered about half a dozen default template
options for different kinds of meetings, from those with agendas to more informal meetings.
Notifications can be e-mailed as content changes (either in
real time or as scheduled) so users can keep up to date. A busy
team, of course, won’t want to use alerts for every event, or
mailboxes will become clogged; stick with the daily or weekly
SharePoint at Work
The emphasis of Microsoft Office 2003 is on collaboration. With new tools and integrated support for Microsoft
SharePoint portals, Office 2003 improves workflow and increases productivity.
1
3
To a user creating a document,
applications like Word and Excel
remain very much the same. An
employee—let’s call him
Bob—can use Word to draft a
corporate press release. But
now, directly from within Word,
he can save his work to a
SharePoint portal so other
team members can
collaborate.
2
90
Other team members can also access the file.
Pat, for example, can read the file even though
he doesn’t have permission to edit it. If Pat
notices a figure or other data is wrong, he can
post a message to an ongoing threaded
discussion about this press release.
Once the file is saved, Bob’s boss, Elizabeth, receives
notification that the new file is now available. She can then
open the file, make edits, and save the file back to the
SharePoint server. Meanwhile, if she has any urgent questions,
she can chat from within Word to discuss the file with Bob.
updates. Additionally, all content is marked new after it has been
added or edited, which helps you find it.
While there isn’t extensive customization for the placement
of portal elements within these sites, you can tweak content
placement. In the new SharePoint, Microsoft has gone back to
the drawing board with a revamped portal component model.
Though it is still called Web Parts, it has been redesigned to provide support for all current browsers (not just IE) and more extensive support for XML. SharePoint Portal Server bundles many
more such controls. (Microsoft and its partners are at work with
hundreds of components due out shortly.) The basic set of parts
in SharePoint Services presents shared data for Office.
SharePoint exposes the core areas of collaboration in a familiar interface centered around such Outlook staples as contacts, calendaring, and tasks, while adding some support for
business essentials like threaded discussions, online surveys,
and simple content management. In testing, we found the
interface for creating surveys quite effective. Another wizard let
us type in questions and responses, including numeric and multiple-choice answers. Graphical feedback of survey options
makes it easy to see how users voted.
When posting files, you can mark content to expire, and
SharePoint Services provides built-in versioning to track
changes during the collaborative process. Getting a simple workflow approval process will probably mean turning to the more
powerful SharePoint Portal Server. Though readers and contributors may be clearly defined, SharePoint Services offers little support for content approval via a chain of command that includes
different kinds of users—editorial and legal, for instance.
OFFICE 2003 FOR
THE ENTERPRISE
icrosoft has big aspirations for streamlining business
M processes
using Office 2003. The key is XML and Web services. Microsoft’s strategy is promising, but you will need some
in-house XML expertise to set up the ideal system.
According to a recent Gartner Research report, more than
half of North American companies surveyed plan to invest in
Web services for business-to-business transactions within the
next two years. These Web services, which will rely on XMLbased standards such as SOAP and WSDL, allow disparate systems and computers to talk to one other in an easily understood language.
But while an enterprise’s servers, databases, and various
processes may support XML, too many old-fashioned programs
are creating noncompliant documents with data that is not
XML-friendly. Take a budget created in Excel or an expense
report created in Word, for example. The data in such documents is essentially locked inside and not easily moved to other
systems that need it. Most likely, the expense reports will need
to be entered into a corporate system, and someone will need
to do this manually.
94
Businesses will clearly need SharePoint Portal Server 2003
to integrate multiple sites and for extensive customization for
new portal sections. BizTalk Server integration and connectors
to standard ERP systems like PeopleSoft, SAP, and Siebel also
come standard in the full version, along with a library of Web
Parts beyond the dozen or so that ship with the free SharePoint
Services. Other enhancements in SharePoint Portal Server
2003 include personal Web pages for users and the ability to
define and manage “audiences” for content more easily, plus
improved full-text searching.
COME TOGETHER
With the almost instant portal access SharePoint Services
affords, Office 2003 makes managing shared files and team resources easy. Using its well-thought-out wizards, individual
teams can benefit from personalized content with minimal IT
intervention (as long Active Directory has been used to model
departments and users beforehand). Like some of the best
groupware, Office (with SharePoint) lets ordinary users build
and manage content, including quickly adding new Web sites
for particular projects or meetings.
Microsoft is clearly betting that through the common wiring
of SharePoint, users will be able to tap into a wide range of
Office 2003 functions via a Web browser. While more extensive customization will certainly require IT input, the default
portal makes a strong case for collaboration in the new Office.
It puts sharing documents and all kinds of Office data, as well
as events and notifications, into play for any organization, with
minimal up-front investment of time and effort from the IT
folks. Overall, SharePoint Services raises the ease-of-use bar for
lightweight portals. What SharePoint Services does it does
really well—and that’s to place collaboration at the forefront of
the new Office. Microsoft has devised a polished portal-style
interface that can jumpstart any workgroup into doing more
together in Office.—Richard V. Dragan
Instead of effectively trapping corporate data inside Word,
Excel, and Access, Office applications can now store it natively
in XML, which means the data can easily move across machines
and applications. For example, your company’s standard format for budgets can be defined once, and then reports can be
completed in Excel and consumed via Web services in an enterprise system.
A new application, Microsoft InfoPath 2003 (available with
Office 2003 Professional Enterprise Edition), simplifies bridging the gap between databases, XML schema, and Web services.
The program is a very flexible form designer and filler that, in
accordance with XML’s promise, effectively separates the underlying data from its presentation, letting it be easily viewed
and manipulated in the most appropriate manner.
DOWN THE INFOPATH
InfoPath 2003 installs effortlessly as a separate tool within Office
2003. The program will be familiar to anyone who’s seen Microsoft Visual Basic or almost any other modern programming tool.
We tested InfoPath using sample data from PC Magazine
Labs’ inventory system for
tracking products, vendors, and
items for review. First, we connected to an SQL Server 2000
database. (InfoPath also supports Access.) Connecting to
other databases must be done
via Web services. (Luckily, vendors like Oracle already provide this capability, but we
would like to see the addition
of OLE DB support for other
databases.)
A wizard let us select which
tables and fields to include in
our electronic form. This tool,
which is comparable in difficulty to Excel’s query designer, lets you point and click your way
through designing queries. The wizard had no trouble with a
single table, but with a more complex one-to-many join to track
invoices and invoice details, the wizard required some tweaking. A second source for new forms is standard XML Schema
files (with the extension .xsd). We had no trouble importing a
model order form created with Microsoft Visual Studio . NET.
Finally, we tried tapping into several simple Web services
built with C#, which simulated processing orders for a sample
online store. This met with mixed results. There is some debate
over how to structure Web services—whether to use multiple
New XML-aware forms in InfoPath
can be generated from existing
databases and Web services, or
using sample documents.
calls to pass smaller amounts
of data or fewer calls to send
larger chunks of information.
InfoPath generally requires the
latter. If your Web services are
highly focused (meaning they
don’t pass large XML documents back and forth), you
should think about redesigning
them. This is easy enough to do,
but it was evident that tweaking
Web service APIs is a fairly important step before jumping into InfoPath form creation.
On the plus side, the Web services wizard lets you browse
UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration)
directories to locate available Web services and choose whether
you will be sending and/or receiving XML calls. It then parses
the WSDL (Web Services Description Language) and generates
a form based on the shape of your Web service data.
In fact, from various data sources, InfoPath generates a
default form, with labels and input boxes for all the fields in
your file. Database tools and report generators have done this
sort of thing for years, of course, but InfoPath is aimed at gen-
The Streamlined Enterprise
Microsoft Office 2003 helps tie systems together, making data more flexible. Information entered into an Excel or Word file,
for example, can now populate a company’s databases. Allowing information to flow throughout the corporate infrastructure
removes numerous redundancies and makes the workplace far more efficient.
1
3
During a sales call, an
employee can type a customer
number into Office’s InfoPath
component, and all of that
customer’s data—name,
address, recent orders, and so
on—is automatically pulled
from the corporate database.
The salesperson can then
enter any new information,
such as new business
opportunities, and the central
database is updated so this
information is available
throughout the company.
2
96
When a CFO is creating a budget in Excel, she can use templates
that automatically pull in data such as recent sales numbers,
likely prospective sales in the upcoming months, and
more. By linking to live data, the CFO is certain to
have the most up-to-date figures.
A sales department manager can use SharePoint to
view summaries based on all the most current data
available inside her browser. She can customize these
reports to show exactly the information she wants,
automatically pulling in data that has been entered by
salespeople throughout the office.
4
A vice president can use
Word to create monthly
sales summary reports that
pull the previous month’s
data into specified fields
(including rich-text fields)
and automatically format
the information.
eral business users rather than database programmers. And it
does a good job, for the most part, at hiding the complexity from
end users.
There are about a dozen control types that can be placed on
a form, including drop-down lists and repeater-type controls for
creating repeating sections (for example, the details or line
items common to many business documents). We found the repeating controls a little tricky, but we had little trouble generating a custom invoice form with multiple rows for shipped items.
The resulting form automatically creates new rows to fit the
data, which can save space in real-world forms if lines aren’t always required. Certain kinds of forms will really benefit from
such streamlining, since they can actually shrink and grow to fit
the data at hand. And we appreciate that Office 2003 includes
more than two dozen sample forms to work with, covering such
items as absence requests, project-planning documents, meeting agendas, and purchase orders.
Within InfoPath, it’s generally easy to customize the positions
of controls, and you can set properties and
add validation to each control. Power
users can even add VBScript and JScript
statements for more complex processing.
When you are satisfied with your form,
InfoPath saves it to an XML file with the
.xsn extension. A quick look at our invoice
form showed use of XML Schema including name spaces and attributes (with the
schema stored on our SharePoint Services
server when we published it for teams).
Once your organization decides on the
shapes of commonly used forms that fit
your databases or Web services, reusing
them is a cinch via the built-in shared
library or team workspace window.
In form entry mode, InfoPath turns into a facile data entry utility with powerful ease-of-use features. First of all, we like that all
date fields can easily be selected using the standard calendar
control. Using auto-complete, we easily picked by value, even for
standard input boxes. For extensive data entry, you can expect
users to type a lot less using this feature. For example, common
phone numbers and ZIP codes can be reused effortlessly.
In our experience, InfoPath is a very capable data entry tool.
With some additional effort (which will inevitably involve help
from IT), you can get users to edit XML data in the software they
are most familiar with, like Word and Excel. To use InfoPath
forms with Word, you should create an XLST file in Microsoft
FrontPage, which can apply visual formatting to raw XML. Without an XLST file, you can view and edit the contents of XML,
which will display within tags. In Excel, you can import raw XML
data into a row of cells in a spreadsheet. Still, we expect InfoPath
will be used most of time for data entry. Although it will take
some time to get everything set up for editing XML in Word and
Excel, these features can be very useful for working with certain
kinds of files, such as reports (in Word) or budgets (in Excel).
CAN AN ACROBAT DO THIS?
As a form designer/filler, InfoPath has some competition from
Adobe Acrobat. Like InfoPath, Acrobat also supports smart
98
forms that can be completed by users, and the latest version of
Acrobat adds the ability to create custom XML as well. Meanwhile, Adobe is releasing a form designer that will compete with
InfoPath. InfoPath’s forms are generally not exact pixel-by-pixel
duplicates of printed forms, as you get with Adobe Acrobat 6.
And Adobe Acrobat Reader, being free and cross-platform, has
far more reach than Microsoft could possibly get in the foreseeable future. We’d like to see Microsoft release a free or inexpensive version of InfoPath that could be used to fill in forms
but without the design tools. Until InfoPath gets wider acceptance, we can’t see it being used across companies or for consumer documents such as tax forms and loan applications.
For complicated business documents, however, InfoPath
has the advantage of being a hybrid of print and digital technologies. You can easily add new line items for any number of
parts on a purchase order, for example. An extensive 20-page
business document that is mostly empty space can be condensed in InfoPath to only the pages that are filled in. For
Adobe Acrobat is an
adept tool for designing and filling in forms.
Unlike InfoPath, Acrobat’s documents retain
complete fidelity when
be printed or displayed
on different computers.
InfoPath, however, is
more flexible, allowing
you to modify the look
of documents.
items like legal forms, which require perfect fidelity so a given
document always appears exactly the same, the pixel-perfect
approach of Adobe Acrobat has the advantage for mimicking
printed documents.
WHAT IT ALL MEANS TO YOU
In the past couple of years, XML Web services have achieved impressive critical mass on the middle tier in today’s enterprises.
We’ve seen XML help wire together Wintel and other hardware,
including legacy mainframes and Java/J2EE software. Microsoft
is now attempting to help businesses take the next, surprisingly difficult step of getting employees to work in XML on the corporate desktop, ultimately bringing more corporate data into
shareable systems.
Overall, InfoPath is a promising technology. Integrating it
into your enterprise will require some work on the IT end, but
Microsoft is betting that the tool’s ease of use will help desktop
users and IT meet in the middle, using documents based on
XML, without all the traditional difficulty surrounding this powerful though somewhat daunting set of standards. With the arrival of Office 2003 and the new InfoPath technology, Microsoft
strikes a blow against duplicated effort in the business world—
a move that could save time and money and improve competitiveness.—RVD
MICROSOFT WORD 2003
F
or personal use on a
desktop PC, Microsoft Word 2003 has
changed relatively little
from Word 2002. Where
it has changed, though,
has been for the better.
Much of what is new and
different applies to Office
as a whole—including
shared workspaces, information rights manageWhen collaborating on a document,
ment, and other features
you can prevent others from modifycovered elsewhere in this
ing or adding new formatting styles.
story. But there are several new features specific to
Word, such as the Reading Layout view.
The Reading Layout view ignores line and page breaks as
they show in the Normal and Page Layout views. This ensures
that you see as much text at once as possible. In full-screen
mode, the view divides the text into two snaking columns; as
you narrow the window, the columns narrow. Narrow the window too far and the view snaps to one wider column. We found
that text is far easier to read with two narrow columns, as
opposed to the single column you get in the other views.
There are also some invaluable new Protect Document
options. If you’ve ever spent time carefully creating styles for
a document, only to receive versions back that are filled with
manual formatting or unwanted styles, you’ll love the new ability to limit formatting to styles only, using a list of styles that
you define. If you send the document to collaborators, be sure
to tell them what you did, or they may be confused when they
can’t bold, italicize, or make other formatting changes.
MICROSOFT EXCEL 2003
M volve workgroup functions, but there are a few enhance-
ost of the major improvements in Microsoft Excel 2003 in-
ments that may tempt individual users to upgrade.
The key new Excel enhancement—XML, IRM (information
rights management), and SharePoint aside—is its new List feature. This addresses some of the problems traditionally associated with lists—including the fact that the SUM function didn’t work as you might expect on filtered lists. Once you’ve
created an Excel 2003 list by clicking on Data | List | Create List,
it’s surrounded with a blue border showing clearly where it begins and ends. The last row in the list contains a single asterisk,
much as you’d see in an Access table. Entering data in any cell
in that row (within the list) inserts a new row in the list.
The Rest of the Office Gang
ny’s Project Server and Project Web Access.
(Standard, $599; Professional, $999.)
There’s a lot more to Microsoft
Microsoft’s familiar business publishing
program now has enhanced Web support,
new design sets, improved commercial
printing support, an e-mail wizard that lets
you preview publications in various e-mail
clients, and a catalog-merge feature. (Professional and Small-Business Editions, $169
each; with Digital Imaging, $209.)
Office than Word, Excel, and Outlook. Each
program in the suite is available separately,
and a few apps are considered part of the
Office family but aren’t bundled in any
edition of Office.
ACCESS 2003
This database program has an improved
interface, with a task pane that helps find
and correct common errors and reveal
object dependencies. Other enhancements
include more import/export power and the
ability to link tables. (Professional Edition,
$229 list.)
FRONTPAGE 2003
A significant upgrade, this Web site creation
and management program adds many new
100
Another new Protect Document feature lets
you select sections of a document to protect
from editing, then create a list of people
who can edit each section. The feature didn’t work on our
tests, but Microsoft says that this is a known problem in the
late beta version we looked at and that it will be fixed in the
final release version.
Other small but welcome touches include the option to call
up the pre–Word 2002 dialog box for reviewing tracked
changes, which restores the ability to find the next item automatically when you accept or reject a change (an option sorely
missed in Word 2002). Similarly, a new Compare Documents
feature lets you open two versions of a file in side-by-side windows that both scroll when you scroll either one. There’s nothing here that you can’t do manually, but the synchronous
scrolling makes the mechanics of comparing documents a lot
easier.—M. David Stone
features and controls to previous versions,
including Flash support and tools to help
you generate JavaScript and XML. ($199.)
POWERPOINT 2003
The new PowerPoint includes support for
smart tags, workgroup collaboration, and
information rights management. Multimedia support lets users easily save PowerPoint 2003 files to a CD and play streaming
audio and video within a slide show. ($229.)
PROJECT 2003
Office’s project management program
employs flexible reporting and analysis to
optimize resources and set work priorities.
The Professional version is the client side of
Microsoft’s enterprise project management
solution, which includes links to the compa-
PUBLISHER 2003
MICROSOFT VISIO 2003
Office’s diagramming program, Visio 2003,
is updated with several new types of diagrams, as well as the kinds of interface
improvements seen across the suite. The
Professional version, meant for IT pros,
engineers, and developers, adds directory
services and network rack diagrams. (Standard, $199; Professional, $499.)—Sarah Pike
MICROSOFT OUTLOOK 2003
Outlook 2003 is brimming with so many new feaM icrosoft
tures that we don’t have room to mention them all, much
less discuss them in detail. Most important, they’re designed
well enough that you won’t feel overwhelmed. Instead, you’ll
probably take each change in stride and wonder why Microsoft
didn’t add it before.
The obvious changes are those that, taken together, create a significantly different look and feel. When you launch Outlook, you’ll
notice the vertical Navigation Pane on the left, which is similar to
the Folder List. The pane is divided into two sections. At the bottom are buttons for all the categories of data that Outlook handles—tasks, mail, and so on—as well as buttons for shortcuts and
the Folder List. Pick a category by clicking on a button, choosing
from the new Go menu, or using a shortcut key and the top of the
Every column has the AutoFilter enabled by default, which
lets you quickly filter and sort the list. Totaling a column is as
easy as clicking the Toggle Total Row button on the new List
toolbar and choosing one of a range of functions for each column, such as Sum, Count, Average, Max, or Min. Excel lists can
be published to a SharePoint site, keeping the local and server
copies in sync if required.
There is a new Compare Worksheets feature, which you use
by opening two workbooks and then choosing the Compare
Side by Side option from the Window menu. Excel stacks the
sheets vertically and, like Word, synchronizes them so moving
around in one worksheet scrolls the other, letting you compare
their contents easily.
A range of statistical functions—VAR, STDEV, STDEVP,
DVAR, FORECAST, SLOPE, INTERCEPT, PEARSON, RSQ, STEYX,
and others—have been fixed by changing how they are calculated, to reduce the likelihood they will return incorrect answers. In earlier versions, these functions
The Compare Side by Side feature synchrowere known to fail,
nizes the navigation in two worksheets,
because of the roundletting you easily compare documents.
ing required where
large numbers were
involved.
Other changes include a new Date
Smart Tag, which lets
you schedule a meeting or display your
Outlook Calendar.
And a new Person
Name Smart Tag lets
you get data from
an Outlook contact
you’ve recently e-mailed. As with Word, Excel users can remove personal data from a workbook before saving it—
although the option is disabled by default. To enable it, choose
Tools | Options | Security.—Helen Bradley
pane will show only folders with that
type of data. If you pick Contacts, for
example, you’ll see a list of folders with
contacts, as well as a list of views so you can easily change the
viewing format.
The Navigation Pane does an excellent job of making the
myriad forms of data in Outlook easier to work with. Alas,
having significantly improved this feature, Microsoft stops
short of giving you everything you might want. For example, the
pane would be even more useful if you could define new buttons
and assign folders to them.
Much of the new
look and feel comes
from e-mail features.
Mail folders show
three vertical windows: the Navigation
Pane, the list of e-mail
messages, and the
Reading Pane, which
shows the currently
selected message.
This new arrangement lets you see Alerts inform you of
more text at once.
new e-mail and let you
Other welcome enhancements in- deal with messages
clude the ability to add color-coded flags without leaving your
for following up messages, a For Follow current application.
Up folder that automatically stores all
the messages you’ve flagged, and an Unread Mail folder—separate from the Inbox—which shows all unread messages no matter what folders they are in. The app also lets you easily group
messages by date, size, conversation, subject, and more, and a new
visual message alert that includes the sender’s name, the subject
line, and options to flag, open, or delete the given message.
In the antispam department, you’ll find a junk mail filter that
does a decent job of identifying spam and automatically sending it to a junk mail folder. You can also block the program from
downloading images and other files when you view or open a
message (this is turned on by default), and you can override
blocking for specific messages or senders.
One feature that demands mention even though we weren’t
able to test it (because we weren’t running Microsoft Exchange
Server 2003) is the ability to connect securely to an Exchange
Server over the Internet without a VPN. Once you’ve set up this
feature, Outlook will first try to connect directly to your Exchange Server. If you’re not plugged into your network, however, it will establish a connection over the Internet instead.
The option to read two calendars side by side is extremely
useful. For example, when you’re planning a meeting with a
coworker, you can bring up both your calendar and hers to
check for available time slots.
With Office 2003 Professional Edition, you get Microsoft
Outook with Business Contact Manager, which helps you track
business contacts and send target marketing e-mail.
All of these features—and more—make Outlook 2003 a significant upgrade. If you use Outlook for e-mail, you’ll find a lot
to like in the new version, both as an individual and as part of a
company.—MDS
101
MICROSOFT ONENOTE 2003
isn’t known for getting its products right on the
M icrosoft
first release. But Microsoft OneNote 2003, the company’s
new note-taking program, is one of the best Microsoft debuts
we’ve seen. This handy application provides a single interface
for taking notes, which can include formatted text, outlines,
graphics, snippets of Web pages, and even drawings. OneNote
is very simple to use for entering information and—most important—finding it later on.
Notes are organized into Pages and Subpages. Subpages appear as tabs down the right side of the screen, and Pages appear as
tabs at the top of the screen. For one more level of structure, you
can store multiple Sections in Folders.
OneNote is a good solution for creating rich-text outlines.
Simply place the cursor anywhere on a
page and you can
start a new outline. If
you have multiple
outlines on a page,
you can easily drag
and drop items
among them. You
may have to play
with the width of
each outline section,
When copying
however, to make things fit properly.
information from
You can easily add pictures to your
Web pages, OneNote
notes. And if you have a Tablet PC ,
automatically
you can also add handwritten notes,
generates links.
which OneNote can either convert to
typed text or simply recognize for
searching. Additionally, you can
paste pieces of Web pages into OneNote, and the program will automatically generate links
to the source.
OneNote includes an interesting if not yet perfected audiorecording feature. You can record meetings to an audio file, and
the application automatically synchronizes the sound with your
notes. You can then click the audio icon next to any part of your
notes to play back what was recorded at that time. Unfortunately, when we simultaneously recorded a meeting and took
notes on our laptop, the recording consisted mostly of the sound
of typing on our keyboard.
Searching is generally very easy. Enter a search word and the
program looks through all your notes and lists results, showing
the pages in which the item was found.
Double-clicking on the OneNote icon in the system tray lets
you add a Side Note, which looks like a sticky note on a piece of
paper but is really a miniaturized version of the complete program. If you enlarge the Side Note window beyond a certain
point, the whole application appears.
OneNote is not included in the Office 2003 suite. Like Microsoft FrontPage, Microsoft Visio, and some other Office-related
programs, it is sold separately. The program is available for $99
direct, after a $100 rebate.
We’d like to see some security options in OneNote—such as
password protection and encryption—as well as true integration with Outlook. While OneNote makes sharing notes via
e-mail or SharePoint posting easy, it would be useful if OneNote
were used as Outlook’s native note format. Similarly, although
you can easily create to-do lists within OneNote or turn bits of
notes into Outlook Tasks, Microsoft needs to integrate these
two concepts.—BZG
Life Without Office
Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations
dominate the business world; they’ve
become de facto standards. It seems you
can’t escape Office even if you’re unhappy
with its price, its product activation
scheme, or Microsoft in general. Fear not,
there are numerous less expensive alternatives. While not quite as feature-rich as
Office 2003, they handle all common tasks,
including reading and writing Office files.
Two major contenders are Sun
Microsystems’ StarOffice 7.0 Office Suite
($75.95 direct download, www.sun.com/
staroffice llllm ) and Corel’s WordPerfect Office 11 (Standard, $299.99;
Professional, $342, www.corel.com
llllm ). Both are powerful equivalents
of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. WordPerfect Professional adds Paradox, a
102
database program.
Microsoft Office users will find switching
to StarOffice relatively painless, though
they’ll need to learn new names for some
features. Switching to WordPerfect Office
will take more adjustment, as the applications in this suite have had years to evolve
their own user interface styles. But unique
features like WordPerfect’s Reveal Codes
and real-time formatting preview can make
the switch worth the effort.
StarOffice shares a source code base
with the free OpenOffice (www.openoffice
.org), which frequently offers newer versions of the applications. Sun tests the
applications thoroughly before release,
provides support, and also adds useful nonopen-source utilities. Businesses will prefer
this stability to living on the bleeding edge.
And mixed-platform companies will appre-
ciate StarOffice’s support for Windows,
Linux, and Solaris.
Both programs warn of possible data
loss when saving in a Microsoft format—
a problem we observed first-hand. After
several rounds of editing this article in
Word, WordPerfect, and StarOffice, we
found that StarOffice’s spell-checker
marked every word as misspelled, and
Word would not open it at all. We recommend saving files in your application’s
native format and exporting to the corresponding Office format only when needed.
Other alternatives include Gobe Corp.’s
gobeProductive 3.0 ($99.95, www.gobe
.com), an all-in-one application that provides the functions of a suite, and E-press’s
EasyOffice (free for personal use, www
.e-press.com), which includes 19 distinct
applications. For more on these and other
choices, see “The Office Alternatives”
(March 18, 2002, www.pcmag.com/office).—Neil J. Rubenking
XML IN ACTION IN
OFFICE 2003
M familiar with to write data to and read data from external
icrosoft Office 2003 lets people use the products they’re
data sources using XML and Web Services. This example shows
how a user familiar with Excel can complete an expense report.
The data can be written directly to a back-end expense-tracking database rather than lying captive inside an XLS file. Another Excel user (with the appropriate rights) can then tap into
the database to analyze the expense data.
1
You don’t need to recreate the wheel to begin linking XML to
external data. Here we start with an existing Excel-based
4 have done with any other spreadsheet. But our report also
Employees fill out the expense report exactly as they would
uses Excel’s new List feature (note the row of cells with arrows on
their right side), which lets you easily sum the data or add new
rows and automatically shift data below the list down.
5
When the user saves the spreadsheet, the data is written
back to the XML source. Here’s how the XML data created
expense report. The spreadsheet includes some fields that appear only
by our spreadsheet looks. Note that the applications let you
once, such as Name and Title, as well as a list of expenses that might
work with your own schemas and namespaces or create new
contain several entries.
ones on the fly.
2
Once the spreadsheet is open, the next step is to link it to an XML
source. The source can be a data file, an XML schema, or some
other choice among many standard types of databases. The XML
Source option in the Data menu opens up the XML Source task pane.
3
104
Once a link is established, a map of the XML source’s hierarchy
appears in the XML Source task pane. The user can then drag
6
Excel is convenient for data entry, but you can also take
advantage of its strong data analysis capabilities to examine
data stored in an XML data source. In this example, we’ve linked
fields from the hierarchy onto cells to link the spreadsheet to the data.
to the expense report data and created several Pivot Tables
This mapping would typically be done once, and then a template file
and a Pivot Chart to get a better picture of how the company is
would be distributed to everyone who needs to fill in the spreadsheet.
spending money. E
DVD RECORDING
The
The DVD arena can seem like a circus!
We make sense of it all, testing 23
burners to find the ones that rock.
Burning
Question
BY DON LABRIOLA
Y
ou’re not using audio tapes anymore, so
why are you still messing around with VHS
tapes? Open your eyes. If you haven’t yet
converted your home movies to DVD, you’re behind
the times. But don’t panic. We’ll walk you through the
alphabet soup of formats and have you burning in no time.
The rewritable DVD—and the different
recipes for baking one—has been troubled
from the start by battles among powerful
corporations, culminating in a schism that
has split the industry. Consumers are now
faced with five recording technologies: the
DVD Forum’s DVD-R, DVD-RW, and DVDRAM (the “dash” formats), and the
DVD+RW Alliance’s DVD+R and DVD+
RW (the “plus” formats).
Thankfully, the worst may be over. With
rewritable DVD now moving into consumer electronics—such as the Elite DVR57H and Pioneer DVR-810H personal video
recorders—manufacturers are intent on
avoiding the confusion that slowed adoption in the computer industry.
Rest assured, however, that almost any
new DVD player you buy will read both
“plus” and “dash” discs. And most hard-
REVIEWED IN THIS STORY
From the history of the format to the future
of the industry, here’s everything you’ll ever
need to know about the recordable DVD.
116
118
117
120
121
External DVD Drives
Internal DVD Drives
Editors’ Choice
Performance Tests
Authoring Software
ware manufacturers have announced
recorders that support both “plus” and
“dash” media (both our Editors’ Choice
winners are dual-format drives).
For this story, we ran a battery of performance tests on 23 of the latest DVD
burners. We tested each drive’s ripping
and burning speeds with every type of
supported media, and we measured relative performance when writing to writeonce DVD and CD media.
COPY PROTECTION AND PIRACY
Laden with more than half a dozen copy
protection technologies, DVD could be the
most heavily secured storage medium
devised. But despite massive efforts to develop foolproof copy protection, crackers
have circumvented most of the measures
already. It doesn’t take long to discover the
wealth of freeware and commercial applications that make duplicating copyprotected DVDs (read: movies) easy. Ironically, this may be the best thing to happen
to the rewritable-DVD industry. The ability to back up movies has become the technology’s killer application. If there were a
sure way to prevent unauthorized copying,
rewriters might never have succeeded.
Since 1998, the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act has made circumventing
ILLUSTRATION BY HUNGRY DOG STUDIO
•
DVD copy protection and content access mechanisms a crime.
But a recent lawsuit filed against the
movie industry by 321 Studios (makers of
the disc-backup app DVD Copy Plus) has
challenged the law on constitutional
grounds. If the studios lose, using a DVD
rewriter to copy movies or to make personal backups may become legal. A decision is expected before year-end.
Content security has long been a flashpoint for the companies that helped
develop DVD. The issue grew so divisive
that the DVD Forum and the DVD+RW
Alliance decided to omit copy protection
details from their specifications.
Antipiracy technologies are
now developed by groups
such as the 4C Entity,
the Copy Protection
Technical Working
Group, the
TDK Indi
DVD Copy
DVD 4X +/Control AsDVD Burner
sociation, and
License Management International.
The carefully devised CSS (Content
Scrambling System) encryption key
mechanism used to protect DVD-Video
discs was easily cracked shortly after it
was released. And although there are no
known cracks for the much more secure
CPRM (Copy Protection for Recordable
Media) technology, very few titles use
that encryption today.
THE BEGINNING: DVD-R
The history of DVD technology is a tangled one. Unlike CD technology, DVD
was developed by large consortia spanning the computer, consumer electron-
PHOTOGRAPHY BY THOM O’CONNOR
115
External DVD Drives
WRITE/
REWRITE
SPEEDS
READ
SPEED
OVERALL
PERFORMANCE
SCORE
Alera DVD Copy
Cruiser Dual
DVD-R:
4X/2X
DVD:
12X
DVD-R:
76
$600 street. 866-772-5372,
www.aleratec.com
DVD+R:
4X/2.4X
CD: 16X/10X
CD:
32X
DVD+R:
88
DVD+R:
4X/2.4X
DVD-R:
4X/2X
CD: 16X/10X
DVD:
12X
CD:
32X
DVD-R:
4X/2X
CD: 16X/8X
lllmm
Alera DVD Quad
Cruiser
$350 street. 866-772-5372,
www.aleratec.com
llmmm
EZQuest Boa
FireWire DVD-RW
$289 list. 888-898-8380,
www.ezq.com
INTERFACE
SOFTWARE
COMMENTS
USB 2.0
CyberLink PowerDVD 4;
MusicMatch Jukebox; Nero
Express; Ulead DVD
MovieFactory 2 SE
Nice setup—at first glance. This external-disc duplicator
can be used without a PC or with one via USB 2.0. Too bad it
had trouble copying CDs, and performance when burning
DVDs wasn’t too hot. And for $600, you could buy a new
computer.
DVD-R:
76
DVD+R:
89
USB 2.0
(FireWire
or
CardBus
optional)
CyberLink PowerDVD 4;
MusicMatch Jukebox; Nero
Express; Ulead DVD
MovieFactory 2 SE
A basic burner with a solid feel and a good grip to your desk.
But it’s pricey and lacks the portability and cool extras of
the QPS. The optional CardBus interface makes it interesting, if you need a big drive hooked up to your slim laptop.
Like the Copy Cruiser, it was not the fastest on our tests.
DVD:
12X
CD:
32X
DVD-R:
73
FireWire
(USB 2.0
optional)
Charismac Discribe CD
Burning, Dantz Retrospect
Backup; Pixela VCD/DVD;
Sonic MyDVD, Simple
Backup; Veritas RecordNow
This is an external drive but not a portable one like the QPS,
because it weighs 6.4 pounds. The design is wanting: It’s an
internal drive wrapped in a heavy enclosure that hides the
headphone jack and volume control. You get a good price
but the second-slowest performance here.
DVD+R:
4X/2.4X
DVD:
8X
CD:
40X
DVD+R:
88
FireWire,
USB 2.0
ArcSoft Multimedia Email;
CyberLink PowerDVD; HP
DVD Writer, Memories Disc
Creator; Sonic Simple
Backup; Veritas RecordNow
Another unit with a good price, though it’s only singleformat. But decent speed with “plus” discs and an intuitive
design keep the DVD300e in the running. Good software,
too. At press time, HP announced the first 8X recorder. We
look forward to reviewing this new speed demon.
DVD+R: 4X/2X
DVD-R: 4X/2X
CD-R:
16X/10X
DVD:
12X
CD:
32X
DVD-R:
75
DVD+R:
98
FireWire,
USB 2.0
InterVideo’s WinDVD 4.0;
Roxio DirectCD 5.3.5, Easy
CD Creator 5.3.5, Toast Lite
5.2.2L; Sonic MyDVD Video
Suite 4.5.2
This one costs just $10 more than the EZQuest monster but
weighs substantially less—even with the sturdy, attractive
metal housing. It also performed substantially better. LaCie
has produced a winner for both PC and Mac fans.
llmmm
HP DVD300e
$299.99 direct. 888-999-4747,
CD: 16X/10X
www.hp.com
llllm
LaCie d2 DVD+/-RW
$299 direct. 503-844-4500,
www.lacie.com
lllll
QPS
Que!007
Portable DVDBurn-er
and Digital Theatre
ics, and content industries. With handsome royalties at stake, the companies
involved fought to promote formats incorporating their own patented technologies. Further fanning the flames was
the long-standing feud between hardware manufacturers and the movie and
music industries over piracy.
DVD recorders emerged in the late
1990s, when Pioneer Electronics introduced a line of write-once DVD-R drives
aimed at professional video authors. The
drives had five-figure price tags and
recorded onto 3.67GB organic-dye media
that couldn’t hold as much content as a
standard 4.37GB (commonly and incorrectly called 4.7GB—it’s really 4.7 billion
bytes), single-sided, single-layer DVDVideo disc. Despite these limitations,
they quickly became a mainstay of DVDauthoring professionals, because burning
small jobs in-house was faster, more convenient, and cheaper than using service
116
By Jeremy A. Kaplan
bureaus. In April 1997, the DVD Forum
incorporated Pioneer’s work into the first
official DVD-R specification.
DVD-R changed radically in 2000, when
the Forum split the spec into two inelegantly named 4.37GB formats: DVD-R for
Authoring and DVD-R for General. The intent had been to introduce an easy-to-use,
general-purpose version of DVD-R for consumers, but the technology ended up becoming even less consumer-friendly. The
formats spawned confusing compatibility
issues: Each required hardware with different wavelength lasers as well as different media. Aside from offering greater capacity, the two-headed spec didn’t have
ON L I N E
For more news and information
about recordable drives, see our
Web site (www.pcmag.com/dvd).
Our contributors: Don Labriola is a
contributing editor, and Sascha Segan is
a frequent contributor to PC Magazine.
Associate editor Jeremy A. Kaplan and PC
Magazine Labs project leader Glenn Menin
were in charge of this story.
many advantages over the original format.
Over the past three years, such issues
have been ironed out. Current consumer
4X DVD-R drives record on the same
easy-to-find discs, which cost about $1
each and can read every past or present
DVD-R format. Despite competition from
the rival DVD+R spec, DVD-R remains one
of the fastest and most compatible DVDrecording formats on the market.
DVD-RAM
First published in 1997, the DVD Forum’s
random-access DVD-RAM format was
originally designed for backing up data
files. Based on phase-change technology,
DVD-RAM has more in common with computer storage devices than with DVDVideo drives. Early versions called for
odd-size media (single-side discs held
2.4GB, dual-side stored 4.8GB), and
because the discs require a different laser
wavelength than most other types of DVD
media, they’re incompatible with most settop players and DVD-ROM drives.
Nonetheless, DVD-RAM is exceedingly
attractive for critical data applications.
Today’s DVD-RAM discs last 30 years, can
be rewritten 100,000 times, and are available with or without protective cartridges
in capacities up to 4.37GB per side. Their
DVD RECORDING
WRITE/
REWRITE
SPEEDS
READ
SPEED
OVERALL
PERFORMANCE
SCORE
DVD:
12X
DVD-R:
78
DVD-R: 4X/2X CD:
CD: 16X/10X 40X
DVD+R:
85
DVD+R:
4X/2.4X
CD: 16X/10X
DVD:
12X
CD:
40X
DVD-R: 2/2
CD: 16X/8X
SOFTWARE
COMMENTS
USB 2.0
CyberLink PowerDVD 4.0;
Microsolutions’ SpeedyCD
3.03; Sonic MyDVD 4.5.2
It’s USB 2.0-only, but the Backpack does have extra ports.
Unfortunately, they’re covered with metal plates and labeled
Printer and Computer. Huh? Solid unit, good grip on the
desktop. Not the best performer on our tests, but at just
over 3 pounds, it could fit in your backpack.
DVD+R:
82
FireWire,
USB 2.0
CyberLink PowerDVD XP;
Dantz Retrospect Backup
(30-day trial); Roxio Easy
CD Creator 5 DVD Edition,
PhotoSuite 5 SE, Toast Lite 5
Very intuitive design, with accessible headphone jack, volume control, and eject buttons. Reasonable performance for
a single format. A fine choice for its design and interface
options. At press time, Plextor announced the 708 series:
dual formats, blazing 8X writes—could be a winner.
DVD:
8X
CD:
24X
DVD-R:
69
FireWire
MedioStream’s neoDVD 4.0,
neoPlayer 6; NTI CD&DVD
Maker 6, NTI Dragon Burn
2.0
Slick spaceship design, with matching headphones. The only
truly portable DVD player/recorder here, at 1.5 pounds. With
the included remote, it’s a handy DVD player when you’re on
the road. There’s even a Toslink cable to hook into your
audio system. Yet it’s slow, single-format, and expensive.
DVD-R: 4X/2X DVD:
12X
CD:
32X
DVD-R:
80
DVD+R:
80
FireWire,
USB 2.0
ArcSoft ShowBiz; CyberLink
PowerDVD; MusicMatch
Jukebox; Sonic MyDVD,
Simple Backup; Veritas DLA,
RecordNow DX
Given Sony’s prominence in this field, we would have liked
front FireWire jacks to connect a DV camera directly or a DV
bundle with camera connectivity software. Well-performing
“dash” drive, though. Still, you’re better off with the equally
appealing Microsolutions unit, for $91 less.
DVD+R:
4X/2.4X
DVD-R: 4X/2X
CD: 16X/10X
DVD-R:
78
DVD+R:
89
FireWire,
USB 2.0
Roxio DVD Max Player, Easy
CD & DVD Creator,
PhotoSuite Lite, Toast
(MAC)
Competitive speeds, good software bundle, two FireWire
ports, USB 2.0. TDK even throws in both cables (as do
others, to be fair). It’s a close runner-up to the LaCie drive
but more expensive and not quite as fast. The black design
will look slick on your desktop.
DVD+R:
Microsolutions
Backpack DVD+/-RW 4X/2.4X
$269 list. 800-890-7227,
www.microsolutions.com
INTERFACE
llllm
Plextor PX-504UF
$240 street 800-866-3935,
www.plextor.com
lllmm
QPS Que!007
Portable DVD Burner
$549 list. 714-692-5573,
www.qps-inc.com
lllmm
Sony DRX-510UL
$359.99 direct. 800-352-7669, DVD+R: 4/4
www.sonyburners.com
CD: 24/16X
llllm
TDK Indi DVD 4x +/External Burner
$329 list. 800-835-8326,
www.tdk.com
DVD:
12X
CD:
40X
llllm
Zoned CLV rotational control (which
divides disc sectors into concentric rings
that are each read at a different constant angular velocity) provide faster overall access
than CLV (constant linear velocity) and
greater storage capacity than standard CAV.
And DVD-RAM is the only DVD format that
guarantees media integrity with hardwareimplemented error correction and defect
management, so data records correctly
even if the media goes bad.
The DVD Forum may give the format a
boost with its new DVD-Multi logo program, which guarantees that Multicompliant burners (there are two in our
story) can read and write DVD-RAM, -R,
and -RW media. But it’s too soon to tell
whether this will help DVD-RAM gain
ground. Nonetheless, the format is here
to stay. In addition to being used as a realtime video-recording medium in several
Hitachi and Panasonic camcorders, DVDRAM is firmly entrenched in businesses
that require secure, rewritable mass storage, such as libraries and hospitals.
DVD-RW: ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH
Introduced in 1999 as a debugging and
proofing tool for DVD-Video authors, DVDRW uses phase-change technology similar
to that of rewritable CDs to store data on
EXTERNAL DRIVE:
LaCie d2 DVD+/-RW
INTERNAL DRIVE:
Memorex Dual Format DVD Recorder
AUTHORING SOFTWARE:
Sonic MyDVD 5
We came, we saw, we burned—again and again and again. But our laborious testing makes it easy for you to pick a drive and some authoring software—and start creating.
If you’re in the market for an external drive, look to the LaCie d2 DVD+/-RW.
The French Canadian company has turned in the sleekest and fastest drive we
tested for our roundup. The d2 is reasonably priced ($299 list), and the dual
formats and dual interfaces ensure compatibility on both fronts. Also, a solid
metal shell adds good looks and protection to this winner. Alternatively, if
you’ve got the free drive bays and IDE channels, an internal burner might be
just the ticket. The Memorex Dual Format DVD Recorder brings to the table the
best combination of price and power. Although it lacks the slick black front of
the TDK product line, it makes up for this in best-of-breed performance.
On the authoring front, Sonic MyDVD 5 blows away the other authoring
packages in this roundup with its video quality and elegance, creating slick,
clean DVDs or VCDs with animated menus and neat transitions. It imports the
widest range of formats of the programs we reviewed, including AVI, MPEG-1,
MPEG-2, QuickTime, Windows Media—and even Media Center files! And the
crisp video and clear audio is worth the slightly slower authoring speed.
Kudos and honorable mention go to Apple for iDVD 3.01, which has lush, gorgeous menus that let your videos rival studio releases. Too bad it’s Mac-only,
imports only QuickTime files, and lacks VCD support.
117
Internal DVD Drives
WRITE/
REWRITE
SPEEDS
CenDyne Dual Format 4x
DVD Recorder
DVD-R:
4X/2X
$250 street. 714-556-1020,
www.cendyne.com
DVD+R:
4X/2.4X
CD: 24X/8X
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HP DVD300i
$200.99 direct. 888-999-4747,
www.hp.com
READ SPEED
DVD: 12X
CD: 40X
OVERALL
PERFORMANCE
SCORE
DVD-R:
77
DVD+R:
82
By Jeremy A. Kaplan
SOFTWARE
COMMENTS
MusicMatch Jukebox; Sonic
CinePlayer, MyDVD, Simple
Backup; Veritas DLA,
RecordNow
CenDyne went belly up as we were finishing this
story, so you can probably find the drives for a
song. Performance was reasonable, but you’ll be
on your own for tech support. And with the poorly printed manual, you’ll be confused as well.
DVD+R:
4X/2.4X
CD: 16X/10X
DVD: 8X
CD: 40X
DVD+R:
81
AOL 8.0; ArcSoft Multimedia
Email; HP DVD Writer, HP
Memories Disc Creator
This unit is one of the cheapest burners here, but
it’s single-format only. Conveniently, jumper settings are printed on the back. Performance was
good with +R discs, but the drive choked on +RW
discs, pulling down its overall score on our tests.
DVD-R: 4X/2X
DVD+R:
4X/2.4X
DVD-RAM: 3X
CD: 24X/16X
DVD: 12X
CD: 32X
DVD-R:
73
DVD+R:
78
Adobe ActiveShare; Iomega
Automatic Backup, HotBurn
Pro and DVD Solutions Wizard;
MusicMatch Jukebox; Sonic
CinePlayer 1.5, MyDVD 4
DVD-RAM is less compatible but ideal for data
backup, thanks to hardware error correction. This
drive is priced high yet lags in performance. A very
usable manual (like HP’s), a fine software bundle,
and automatic DVD-RAM backup add value.
DVD-R:
4X/2X
DVD+R:
4X/2X
CD: 16X/8X
DVD: 12X
CD: 32X
DVD-R:
76
DVD+R:
94
InterVideo’s WinDVD 4.0;
Roxio Easy CD Creator 5.3.5,
DirectCD 5.3.5, Toast Lite
5.2.2L; Sonic MyDVD Video
Suite 4.5.2
If you’re unsure about how to install an internal
drive, watch out! LaCie offers little help. But the
drive’s price is unbeatable, and it burned discs
really fast on our tests. Maybe you don’t need
explicit instructions after all.
DVD-R:
4X/2X
DVD+R:
4X/2X
CD: 16X/8X
DVD: 12X
CD: 32X
DVD-R:
75
DVD+R:
82
Adobe Acrobat Reader; B’s
Recorder Gold 5.32, B’s CLiP
5.32; CyberLink PowerDVD;
MedioStream’s neoDVD 5.0
One of two RAM drives we tested, the LG unit is a
good option for data backup. It lacks a quick-start
guide, and the manual can be confusing. It wasn’t
the best performer on our tests, but the RAM
option makes up for the slow rewrite speeds.
DVD-R:
4X/2X
DVD+R:
4X/2.4X
CD: 16X/10X
DVD: 12X
CD: 32X
DVD-R:
76
DVD+R:
97
Roxio Creator Classic & Disc
Copier, DVD Builder, and DVD
Max Player, Easy CD & DVD
Creator 6, PhotoSuite 5,
VideoWave Movie Creator
A good quick-start manual steps you through the
confusing IDE installation options. The Memorex
burner delivered top speeds on our tests and is
less expensive than average. If you want fast
burns, you want this drive.
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Iomega Super DVD Drive
$279.95 list. 800-697-8833,
www.iomega.com
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LaCie Dual DVD+/-RW IDE
Drive
$199 direct. 503-844-4500,
www.lacie.com
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LG 4X Super Multi DVD
Writer
$269.95 list. 800-243-0000,
www.LGeus.com
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Memorex Dual Format DVD
Recorder
$229 list. 877-474-8548,
www.memorex.com
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Left to
right: the
EZQuest BOA
FireWire DVD-RW, LaCie d2
DVD+/-RW, and Plextor 504UF.
rewritable 4.37GB media identical (in
terms of data organization) to DVD-Video
discs. A DVD-RW drive can rewrite a disc
up to 1,000 times at 2X speeds. And like a
DVD-R drive, it uses CLV rotational control
to ensure uninterrupted throughput when
streaming audio/video content. In a nod to
the familiar CD-R/RW model, DVD-RW
rewriters almost always include writeonce DVD-R recording capabilities.
Although rewriting is important to DVD
professionals, most consumers buy DVDR/RW drives for their write-once capabilities. Those who have embraced DVD-RW
media often use it with so-called packet118
writing software to store
data. But the DVD-RW format remains
best suited for video, which is more tolerant of errors than is mission-critical
data. Software-based defect management
can be enabled in some DVD-RW drives,
but it greatly increases formatting times
and adds a lengthy verification step when
recording data.
THE CHALLENGER: DVD+RW
In late 1998, irreconcilable differences
compelled seven key Forum members—
including Hewlett-Packard, Mitsubishi,
Philips, and Sony—to form the breakaway
DVD+RW Alliance. Within a year, the new
organization had published the first
DV D + RW
specification,
and products were
rumored to be imminent.
This effort collapsed, however,
amid criticism that the initial 2.8GB
DVD+RW proposal fell short of the
Alliance’s goal of a unified solution that
could replace all existing Forum formats. It
took another year for an overhauled 4.37GB
specification to appear, and DVD+RW
drives didn’t enter the market until 2001.
Despite its late start, the new version of
DVD+RW was a compelling technology,
combining many strengths of DVD-RW
and DVD-RAM. It specified inexpensive
phase-change media (rewritable up to
1,000 times) and offered both sequential
CLV and random-access CAV recording
modes (a time-saving background formatting ability), as well as RAM-style hardware
DVD RECORDING
Pacific Digital 4X Dual
Format DVD Burner
$219.99 list. 888-999-0732,
www.pacificdigital.com
WRITE/
REWRITE
SPEEDS
OVERALL
PERFORMANCE
SCORE
READ SPEED
DVD-R: 4X/2X
DVD: 12X
DVD+R:
4X/2.4X
CD: 24/10X
CD: 40X
DVD-R: 4X/2X
DVD+R:
4X/2.4X
CD: 16X/10x
DVD: 12X
CD: 32X
DVD-R:
75
DVD+R:
87
Nero Express; Ulead DVD
A pricey drive from Pioneer. Performance was
MovieFactory 2, DVD
good, though the Memorex was much faster in
PictureShow 2, VideoStudio 7 DVD+R mode. The software is a standout package.
The manual is extremely brief, with only eight
pages in English, so you’re mostly on your own.
DVD+R:
4X/2.4X
CD: 16X/10X
DVD: 12X
CD: 40X
DVD+R:
77
CyberLink PowerDVD; Dantz
Retrospect (30-day trial);
Roxio Easy CD & DVD Creator
5, PhotoSuite 5
The inexpensive Plextor has a good quick-start
guide, but its speed was unimpressive. You can
get more speed and support for more formats
elsewhere; the similarly priced HP is faster.
DVD-R: 4X/2
DVD+R: 4/4
CD: 24X/16X
DVD: 12X
CD: 32X
DVD-R:
65
DVD+R:
81
ArcSoft ShowBiz; CyberLink
PowerDVD; MusicMatch
Jukebox; Sonic MyDVD,
Simple Backup; Veritas DLA,
RecordNow DX
The excellent installation guide offers clear illustrations of the jumper settings and otherwise
confusing IDE options. Note the slick silver bezel
and class-leading 4X +RW specifications. Too bad
we saw faster speeds from slower-rated drives.
DVD: 12X
CD: 40X
DVD-R:
77
DVD+R:
83
Roxio Easy CD & DVD Creator, Sharing the same black-bezel design as the exterDVD Max Player, PhotoSuite nal model, this is a pretty good performer. The
Lite
installation videos and clear diagrams and charts
in the manuals simplify setup. It’s a solid choice,
though the Memorex is cheaper and faster.
DVD-R: 4X/2X
DVD+R:
4X/2.4X
CD: 16X/10X
DVD: 12X
CD: 32X
DVD-R:
75
DVD+R:
87
Ahead’s Nero BackItUp, Nero
Express 6, Nero InCD4, Nero
ShowTime, Nero Vision
Express
This is a stripped-down model, but it gets the job
done. The price is reasonable, and the performance is good.
DVD-R: 4X/2X
CD: 16X/10X
DVD: 12X
CD: 40X
DVD-R:
77
CyberLink PowerDVD XP 4.0;
Pinnacle Instant CD/DVD SE
7.1; PS Audio Power Director
2.5 DE
This single-format drive had strong DVD-R test
results. The manual is short yet comprehensive.
Though not a standout, this is a solid choice if
price is paramount. But you may be better off
spending $20 more on the Memorex.
DVD-R:
73
DVD+R:
75
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YES o NO
Pioneer A06
$279 list. 800-421-1613,
www.pioneerelectronics.com
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‰‰
Plextor PX-504A
$200 street. 800-866-3935,
www.plextor.com
llmmm
Sony DRU-510A
$279.99 direct. 800-352-7669,
www.sonyburners.com
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TDK Indi DVD 4x +/- Internal DVD-R: 4X/2X
Burner
DVD+R:
$259 list. 800-835-8326,
www.tdk.com
4X/2.4X
CD: 32X/10X
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TEAC DV-W50D
$239 list. 323-726-0303,
www.teac.com/DSPD
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Toshiba SD-R5112
$209 list. 949-457-0777,
www.sdd.toshiba.com
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defect management. It also supports the
Mt. Rainier spec, which provides dragand-drop access under compatible OSs,
like the next-generation Windows release,
code-named Longhorn.
The first DVD+RW drives were crippled by a lack of write-once recording
capabilities, a problem the Alliance
addressed last year with a write-once
version of the format called DVD+R. But
manufacturers have not shipped models
that implement data-oriented features
like CAV recording and are unlikely to
offer hardware defect management or
Mt. Rainier support on the PC platform
until Longhorn ships. The result has
been feature parity between DVD+RW/R
and -RW/R drives, which has caused consumers even more difficulty in distinguishing between the two camps.
The “plus” formats do have a small edge
SOFTWARE
COMMENTS
B’s Recorder Gold 5, CLiP 5;
InterVideo’s WinDVD 4, WinDVD for playback; Neato 200
CD/DVD Labeler Kits; Roxio
Easy CD & DVD Creator 6.1
As with the HP, jumper settings are clearly
labeled on the back. For dual format, the price is
attractive, but operation was slow. The quickstart guide is good—the only one here that
shows you where in the driver to enable DMA.
in performance. Our tests showed that
DVD+R is slightly faster than DVD-R, and
the latest DVD+RW drives support 4X
rewritable media, a speed that DVD-RW
models won’t match until next year. But in
most other ways, neither “plus” nor “dash”
has a clear advantage in compatibility,
stability, or function.
BUYING ADVICE
So should you buy DVDR or DVD+R? That
issue is slowly becoming irrelevant.
Dual-format drives
take out some of the
worry, but beyond that,
both formats are equally compatible with thirdparty players. More important,
make sure that the drive supports the
highest media speeds: 4X DVD-R and
DVD+R, 4X DVD+RW, 2X DVD-RW, and
(approximately) 3X DVD-RAM.
Remember that read and write speeds
are different for the same format, and that
ripping speeds often vary among drives
that have the same playback and recording
specs. Because virtually all DVD rewriters
also burn CD media, check CD playback,
ripping, recording, and rewriting speeds.
You’ll also need some
software to create the
neat titles and menus
you see on commercial
discs. Popular burning
programs like Easy CD
Creator and Nero control
the disc writing.
Now, get ready to rip.
Alera DVD Copy Cruiser Dual
119
PERFORMANCE TESTS
I Want My DVD: DVD Burner Testing
With the typical computer aficionado’s
life readily measured in gigabytes these
days, it’s no wonder that DVDs are proliferating. Whether you’re archiving data,
producing or copying discs, or playing
video—or you just require extra storage
(for all those MP3 files, no doubt)—you’ll
need what DVD can deliver: 4.37GB at 4X
speed. PC Magazine Labs put 23 optical
drives through their paces to help answer
all the burning questions about which
device and format suit you best.
To simulate typical usage, we recorded
both video and data files onto 13 internal
and 10 external drives using all available
formats and media: DVD-R, +R, -RW, and
+RW, as well as CD-R and DVD-RAM (not
charted). We subjected dual-format
drives to the full spectrum of burn tests.
A big thanks goes out to Verbatim for
keeping us awash in discs for these tests.
We used a 1.35GB, non-copyrightprotected video file for all recordablemedia tests in a disc-to-disc copying
operation. We used 1.3GB of data for all
rewritable disc tests, which we dragged
and dropped to each DVD drive after
initially formatting the media as UDF.
With each rewritable disc, we also
timed a read operation (copying back
from disc to host). We timed and monitored all these tests.
All DVD drives burn CDs as well, and
given the great difference in manufacturers’ ratings, we assumed this feature
would also merit testing, although we did
not chart the results. As a CD-R test, we
burned two data types: A 170MB TIF file
helped us gauge the transfer of contiguous files, and a 170MB complex directory
structure stressed a nonsequential, random-read and -write process. We also
timed CD read operation. We ran the
same packet-writing tests on DVD-RAM
discs as we did on -RW media.
FORMAT WARS: THE ALLIANCE—
ARE YOU FORUM?
We were curious to see whether the DVD
Forum’s “dash” format or the DVD+RW
Alliance’s “plus” format would emerge
with a clear advantage. But much to our
chagrin, we must admit that the jury is
120
still out. Although we did see some performance differences between formats on
the dual-format drives, the results are
complicated by different processes and
software choices. On the average, we
saw 12 percent faster disc-to-disc
burns on DVD+R media among the
internal drives, while -RW media
could favor either format depending on the drive.
For the initial formatting of DVD-RW
media (a one-time process), -RW discs
can take as long as 30 minutes, compared
with less than a minute for +RW media.
This is because the defect management
feature was enabled for DVD-RW media in
the software we used for testing—Ahead
Software’s popular Nero 6 Ultra Edition.
On the other hand, DVD+RW discs can be
“quick-formatted.” In informal testing, we
used alternative software for formatting
DVD-RW discs; this produced faster results, akin to those for +RW media.
In short, certain programs
require you to use defect management, while others skip it
in favor of speed. Yet defect
management is not a bad thing,
especially if you consider the
sensitivity of DVD media. After all,
you need only perform it once per disc.
WE RECORD THE WINNERS
Beyond offering a breakdown of the
individual test scores for your perusal,
we have formulated overall scores to
summarize the burners’ performance
using both “dash” and “plus” formats.
PERFORMANCE TESTS
OVERALL
PERFORMANCE
SCORES L
DVD-RW DVD+RW
All timings are in minutes:seconds.
L High scores are best.
M Low scores are best.
Bold type indicates first place.
WRITE M
DVD-R DVD+R
REWRITE M
DVD-RW DVD+RW
EXTERNAL DUAL-FORMAT
Alera DVD Copy Cruiser Dual
5:22
4:43
25:27
30:51
9:35
8:18
76
88
Alera DVD Quad Cruiser
LaCie d2 DVD+/-RW
5:21
5:22
4:42
4:52
25:25
26:13
30:42
7:32
9:39
10:10
8:21
8:50
76
75
88
98
5:11
4:55
15:12
16:27
12:12
11:31
78
85
Microsolutions Backpack
DVD+/-RW
Sony DRX-510UL
TDK Indi DVD 4x +/External Burner
EXTERNAL SINGLE-FORMAT
EZQuest Boa FireWire
DVD-RW
HP DVD300e
Plextor PX-504UF
QPS Que!007 Portable DVD
Burner
INTERNAL DUAL-FORMAT
CenDyne Dual Format 4x DVD
Recorder
Iomega Super DVD Drive
LaCie Dual DVD+/-RW
IDE Drive
LG 4X Super Multi DVD Writer
READ M
DVD-RW DVD+RW
5:29
5:29
16:56
11:23
8:02
10:11
80
80
5:09
4:47
15:08
15:10
12:19
9:54
78
89
5:24
N/A
28:50
N/A
11:56
73
N/A
N/A
4:55
N/A
15:05
N/A
9:35
N/A
88
N/A
4:78
N/A
16:51
N/A
11:46
N/A
82
5:56
N/A
26:28
N/A
13:36
N/A
69
N/A
5:10
4:57
15:27
15:21
12:13
14:52
77
82
5:22
5:02
26:49
25:11
12:07
9:18
73
78
5:19
4:43
25:42
12:17
9:32
7:39
76
94
N/A
5:23
4:43
25:46
17:56
9:17
18:06
75
82
Memorex Dual Format DVD
Recorder
5:19
4:42
25:19
7:16
9:32
9:43
76
97
Pacific Digital 4X Dual Format
DVD Burner
5:26
5:21
26:07
21:44
11:56
10:53
73
75
Pioneer A06
5:24
4:42
25:27
31:53
9:38
8:13
75
87
Sony DRU-510A
TDK Indi DVD 4x +/- Internal
Burner
TEAC DV-W50D
6:26
5:30
16:58
10:33
12:01
9:32
65
81
5:09
4:54
15:14
15:13
12:20
15:16
77
83
5:23
4:45
25:09
26:43
9:32
8:20
75
87
INTERNAL SINGLE-FORMAT
HP DVD300i
N/A
4:57
N/A
36:23
N/A
11:15
N/A
81
Plextor PX-504A
N/A
5:02
N/A
15:18
N/A
14:34
N/A
77
Toshiba SD-R5112
5:10
N/A
15:17
N/A
11:40
N/A
77
N/A
RED denotes Editors’ Choice. N/A—Not applicable: The drive does not support this format.
DVD RECORDING
We deem DVD-R media performance
(copying videos) the most popular use
of recordable drives, and therefore we
weighted it at 70 percent of each score,
while the -RW performance (packet
reading and writing) accounts for the
remaining 30 percent. The average
result for “dash” performance was 76
among external units, 74 among internal,
while “plus” results averaged 84 for
external and 86 for internal.
The top-performing “dash”-format
external drives are the Sony DRX-510UL,
with an overall score of 80 (and an
overall “plus” score of 80), and the TDK
Indi DVD 4x +/- External Burner and
Microsolutions Backpack, each with
overall scores of 78 (and overall “plus”
scores of 89 and 85, respectively).
In overall “plus”-format scores, the
LaCie d2 (external) and Dual (internal)
drives came in first and third, respectively, scoring 98 and 94 points (with 75 and
76 for “dash” performance, respectively).
The internal Memorex drive came in
second for overall “plus” performance,
with a 97 (and a 76 for overall “dash”
performance). These drives are all dualformat and inherently have an advantage
over single-format drives.
CD-burning performance with all of
the tested drives was relatively consistent, so we decided we would neither
print the timings nor figure them into
the overall scores. CD-R write duration
on all drives was just under 2 minutes
with 170MB of files, while read times
averaged 1 minute 4 seconds.
The Producers
BY SASCHA SEGAN
G
ot the home-movie bug? With one of these
six packages, you can create your own
DVD masterpieces. • DVD-authoring software
sends your home movies out to greet the world,
building menus, reformatting video (to turn ragtag clips
into well-organized discs), and burning
your masterpieces.
The ideal authoring package accepts
video from any source—camcorder, videoediting software, TV tuner card, or even
the Internet—and turns out professionallooking DVDs with razor-sharp images and
glossy motion menus. Of the packages we
reviewed, only Sonic MyDVD 5 does this,
so we gave it our Editors’ Choice.
A wide variation in compression quality exists, as programs squeeze video into
the MPEG-2 format readable by DVD players. For video quality, MyDVD and
Apple’s iDVD 3.01 came out on top, with
Ulead DVD MovieFactory 2 also delivering high-quality compression.
Most authoring packages include basic
video-editing functions, such as burning
from tape to DVD with a few clicks (great
for copying TV shows from old VHS
tapes), dumping low-quality Video CDs
(VCDs) to CD-Rs, and archiving still
images to discs for photo slide shows that
will play back on any DVD player.
If you have a machine slower than 1.2
GHz, however, encoding video can be
painfully slow; we recommend at least 2.5
GHz for direct-to-disc recording. We tested six authoring packages, all under $60,
on an AMD Athlon XP 2400+ system with
a Triton FireWire DVD+RW burner and an
Intel Pentium 4 2.5-GHz system with an internal Sony dual-format burner. We created test discs using a home movie on a
Sony Digital-8 camcorder, a TV episode
copied to the same camcorder, and a short
MPEG clip downloaded from the Internet.
We concentrated on the authoring packages in order to maintain our focus in an
otherwise expansive market. But if your
DVD dreams extend beyond video into
using DVDs to back up data or store music,
then you should consider integrated burning packages. For $50 more than the software we reviewed, Ahead Software’s Nero
6 Ultra Edition, Pinnacle Instant CD/DVD,
Roxio Easy CD & DVD Creator, and Sonic
MyDVD Studio Deluxe include packetwriting software to let you use rewritable
DVDs as giant floppy disks, data and music
burning apps, and video-authoring components. Now that’s using your burner to
its full potential.
A FINAL WORD
We chose to use Nero 6 Ultra Edition
for all our DVD tests because it’s a fullfeatured package: It’s one of a number
of DVD-authoring apps suitable for
enthusiasts and much more robust than
most bundled software. You can get
different results using alternative packages—and in some cases significant
speed increases. We weren’t able to test
comprehensively with all of the major
and minor burning packages on the
market. We suggest you check with the
manufacturer before making software
decisions. And regardless of choice,
scour the Web for updates.
—Analysis written by Glenn Menin
CyberLink PowerProducer 2
$39.95 list. Requires: 700-MHz processor (authoring)
or 1.8-GHz Pentium 4/1.7-GHz Athlon (direct-to-disc
recording); 128MB RAM, 10GB free hard drive space,
Microsoft Windows 98 SE or later. CyberLink Corp.,
510-668-0118, www.gocyberlink.com. l l m m m
CyberLink PowerProducer 2 offers a
smooth and easy workflow, especially if
you’re capturing video from existing (noncopy-protected) DVDs. But the quality of the
output fell short of the discs produced by
Sonic MyDVD 5 and Apple’s iDVD 3.01.
PowerProducer’s three-step workflow
lets you capture video from video and still
cameras, AVI and MPEG files, and DVDs. It
also lets you trim and split clips, build still
menus, and burn VCD, SVCD, and DVD discs.
An editable-DVD format lets you add chapters, edit menus, and append more video
after you’re done.
The program’s menus are simple, and
many of the styles are garish. There are no
motion menus, you can’t set up submenus,
and chapter menus are built automatically;
you can’t select your own thumbnails. But
you can add music to your menus and alter
your video clips with special effects such as
embossing and color-balance alteration.
PowerProducer’s most unique feature is
its disk utility suite, which lets you defragment DVD+RWs. If you use a living-room DVD
recorder, defragging lets you delete programs from the middle of your discs and
121
DVD RECORDING
number of menus, relating them any way
ful, whimsical, and serious by
you want, but the free placement of butturn, each of Apple’s themes
incorporates up to 30 seconds of tons is out of the question.
The program’s advantage is speed. Both
video on the menu pages. You
direct-to-disc recording and regular encodcan replace background video
ing were the fastest of any program we
and audio, swap in one of 13
tested. neoDVD’s highest encoding capabilbutton styles, and place buttons
ity is 6 Mbps, lower than the 8 Mbps of
and titles anywhere on the page.
most other programs. That lets you fit 90
You can also add photo slide
minutes of video on a disc and may conshows, DVD-ROM content, and
tribute to neoDVD’s truly impressive encodsubmenus. The one major restriction
is
that
you
can
have
ing speed. Unfortunately, the audio on our
An easy-to-use interface makes PowerProducer 2
only six buttons per page.
neoDVD discs had too much treble, with an
friendly, but quality and features are lacking.
On an 800-MHz iMac G4, iDVD
irritating, slight squeak echoing over voices.
Video quality was better than that from the
reuse the resulting free space.
took nearly 2 hours to encode and burn 20
CyberLink product but not up to what we
PowerProducer’s direct-to-disc output
minutes of video. It compresses video in the
got from Apple, Sonic, or Ulead.
suffered from pops and skips when written
background while you work, so burn time
neoDVD lets you slap down video faster
on an AMD Athlon 2400+ machine with Intel
appears shorter in most situations. The disc
we created had crystal-clear audio and
integrated video. The pops were cured on an
than any competing product. But if control
minimal artifacts due to compression. iDVD
Athlon 2400+ with an ATI Radeon 9000
or appearance are key, it’s not the most
powerful choice.
video card and on a 2.5-GHz Intel Pentium 4
automatically kicks up the compression level
machine, but the audio had an irritating
if you try to store more than 60 minutes
overtone. In the end, PowerProducer’s ease
on a disc, but the higher compression
doesn’t justify the hit to quality.
level resulted in better-looking output.
Annoyingly, iDVD imports only in
iDVD 3.01
QuickTime format. This makes iDVD
$49 direct. Requires: Apple G4 processor or better,
utterly useless for copying existing
256MB RAM, 2GB free hard drive space, internal
discs or handling much video downApple SuperDrive, Mac OS X 10.1.5 or later (iDVD is
loaded from the Internet, though Apple
part of the iLife suite, which includes iPhoto, iMovie,
says it is working on importing addiand iTunes). Apple Computer Corp., 800-692-7753,
www.apple.com/idvd. l l l l m
tional formats for a future release. The
program also won’t make VCDs or do
Apple’s iDVD set the standard for home DVD
one-touch recording.
production, and it still produces lush, gorIf you’ve got the home movie bug,
geous video discs. Our iDVD output looked
though, iDVD will make your baby’s
the most professional of any product in our
We are wowed by neoDVD’s speed, but we
roundup. The software is tied tightly to
first steps look like a big-budget
want more control over final appearance.
Apple’s iLife suite, pulling music from
masterpiece.
iTunes, photos for slide shows from iPhoto,
and video clips from iMovie. You don’t edit
Pinnacle Instant
neoDVD 5.0
video or set chapter points in iDVD; you do
Video Album (beta)
$49.99 list. Requires: 700-MHz processor, 128MB
all that in iMovie.
RAM, 5GB free hard drive space, Microsoft Windows
$49 list. Requires: 700-MHz processor, 256MB RAM,
In iDVD you choose one of 38 themes, lay
98 SE or later. Mediostream Inc., 408-452-5500,
1.1GB free hard drive space, Microsoft Windows 98 SE
www.mediostream.com. l l l m m
out your menus, and burn your disc. Beautior later. Pinnacle Systems Inc., 650-526-1600,
www.pinnaclesys.com. Not rated (beta version)
Screamingly fast yet clunky,
Mediostream’s neoDVD 5.0
As one of the leaders of the video-editing
comes out on the weak end of
world, Pinnacle—which plans to release a
the speed-versus-quality tradenew authoring package—is making waves.
off. An eight-step wizard guides
We saw an early beta version of Pinnacle
you through the DVD creation
Instant Video Album (IVA), and it looks as if
process, offering 5 button layit will be a simple, powerful way to create
outs, 35 still backgrounds, and
DVDs—once Pinnacle works out the kinks.
35 button frames to help you
IVA is an improved version of Pinnacle’s
customize your menus. But the
older Expression program, and its bold yet
backgrounds aren’t quite up to
simple interface is similar to Expression’s.
the quality of Sonic’s or Apple’s
In terms of features, IVA falls in the middle
software. And while you can add
of the programs we reviewed: There are
motion to chapter thumbnails,
moving menu backgrounds but no moving
Great menus and the Apple touch make iDVD topyou can’t use fully moving backthumbnails, basic video-editing capabilities,
notch. Too bad it imports only QuickTime files.
grounds. You can build any
full control over compression bit rates, and
122
DVD RECORDING
will accept a raw DVD file—called a VOB file,
menus, and you can customize
containing the audio, video, multiple angles,
background video, audio, and
and so on—from another ripper. You can
button frames. MyDVD imports
customize still menus with 60 templates, 40
the widest range of formats of
button frame styles, and 20 button images,
the programs we reviewed,
and you can import your own backgrounds.
including AVI, MPEG-1 and -2,
If you want to edit an already burned DVD,
QuickTime, and Windows Media.
It even imports TV programs
you get full control, although it takes a while
to import the existing DVD content.
recorded with Microsoft Windows Media Center Edition.
DVD MovieFactory is a standout for its
Dolby Digital audio compression
depth. You can pick any arbitrary compreslets you squeeze up to 20 persion rate, switch between LPCM (the audio
Clearly laid out yet still quite powerful, the beta
version of Pinnacle IVA holds a lot of promise.
cent more video on a disc withformat from the original DVD-Video stanout losing image quality.
dard) and MPEG audio, choose constant or
Basic video-editing functions include
variable bit rates, and even tweak the video
the ability to import AVI and MPEG (but not
splitting, trimming, and moving video
QuickTime or Windows Media files).
clips around, with 65 transitions,
IVA’s most gimmicky feature lets you
eight overlay frames, and 20 image
auto-edit video clips to a music soundtrack,
adjustment options available.
similar to what Muvee AutoProducer does.
You can create custom submenus
This feature wasn’t working yet in the beta
easily (although you can’t change
we tried. More useful, the program can also
the thumbnail for a submenu), or
tie the rhythm of a slide show to the beat of
you can have MyDVD automatically
a musical soundtrack. It also offers autocorrect options to fix color, noise, and jiggle
create chapter menus with moving
problems common in home videos.
thumbnails—even in direct-to-DVD
The version we tested was studded with
mode. For photo slide shows, seven
minor bugs, which we’re sure will vanish by
transitions are available, and slide
the final version. For instance, IVA gave wildly
durations can be set at intervals
With the highest quality and all the bells and
ranging up to 1 minute or synched to
inaccurate estimates of burning time. And
whistles, MyDVD 5 earns our Editors’ Choice.
background music.
the audio in our TV program test clip popped
Except for Pinnacle IVA, MyDVD is
slightly. But video quality was excellent,
frame size to make your pictures perfect. No
although menus weren’t quite as slick as
the slowest of the PC programs we tested.
other package we reviewed delivers this
Sonic’s or Apple’s—or as powerful as menus
That slow-but-steady approach pays off in
level of control.
constructed in Pinnacle Studio 8.
quality, however: MyDVD’s discs had crisper
To our eyes, video quality on DVD+R and
For home video enthusiasts looking for
video and clearer audio than any other
easy-to-use software that will spruce up
program’s output except iDVD. Clean, clear,
DVD+RWs fell just short of MyDVD 5’s and
their images, Pinnacle IVA should be a
and powerful, MyDVD 5 is as good as auiDVD’s. Audio was sharp and clear and video
good choice.
thoring programs get for PCs right now.
was smooth, but movies occasionally
showed slightly more visible compression
Sonic MyDVD 5
artifacts than we preferred.
Ulead DVD MovieFactory 2
$69.99 list. Requires: Pentium III/800, 256MB RAM,
Motion menus are crucial to making
Boxed, $49.95 list; downloaded, $44.95. Requires:
10GB hard drive space, video card and monitor
homemade DVDs look professional. If DVD
Pentium III/450, 64MB RAM, 4.15GB free hard drive
supporting 16-bit color at 1,024-by-768, Microsoft
space, Microsoft Windows 98 or later. Ulead Systems
MovieFactory offered this key feature, it
DirectX 8.1 or later, Microsoft Windows XP, Windows
Inc., 800-858-5323, www.ulead.com/dmf. l l l l m
would be among the best. E
Media Player 7.1 or later. Sonic Solutions, 415-8938000, www.mydvd.com. l l l l l
Ulead DVD MovieFactory offers
more control over compression
Sonic MyDVD 5 blows away the
settings than any other low-priced
other PC products in this
authoring package, plenty of menu
roundup with its video quality
options, and a nice, big preview
and elegance, turning videos
window. Only the lack of motion
from pretty much any source
menus and customized transitions
into slick, clean DVDs or VCDs.
for photo slide shows prevents
The newly released $99 version (MyDVD
Ulead from hitting a grand slam.
Studio Deluxe 5) includes CD-burning
Like the other products in this
capability, archive/backup software, and a
roundup, DVD MovieFactory allows
media player.
MyDVD’s clear, colorful interface lets you
direct-to-disc as well as hands-on
capture and burn video in a few clicks, but
authoring. It imports AVI, MPEG,
The absence of motion menus keeps Ulead’s
and QuickTime files. It won’t rip
there’s considerable depth here as well. The
otherwise excellent software a step behind.
directly from existing DVDs, but it
37 built-in styles include 10 with motion
124
Full Service
1U servers aren’t just for Web serving. These skinny boxes can provide
you with everything from application serving to small databases.
D
ynamic Net, a managed Web-hosting provider in Brooks County, Pennsyl-
vania, faced a density problem. Like many companies, Dynamic Net rents or “collocates space for” its servers
at a third-party data center. “As anyone in this business knows, collocation fees are based on rack space
and connectivity,” says Dynamic Net’s CEO, Peter Abraham.
“Regardless of how many servers can fit in a single rack, the
rack fees stay the same; you pay per rack, not per server.”
Dynamic Net had a mix of servers, mostly 4U devices. But the
company could fit only ten 4U servers in a single 42U rack, and
the large servers needed constant processor and RAM upgrades
as the company added customers. (A U is an Electronic Industries Alliance standard unit; each U equals 1.75 inches in height.)
To bring his collocation costs under control, Abraham switched
to 1U servers in September 2002. “We gained everything and lost
nothing by going from 4U to 1U,” he says, noting that his firm can
now fit up to 42 servers with 84 processors in a single rack, as
opposed to 10 4U servers with 20 processors on a rack. His firm
can still run everything it needs on the 1U servers, including Web
hosting, e-mail hosting, spam prevention, and antivirus features.
And even with a small 1U form factor, each server can support 500
customers, versus 200 customers under the old setup.
Abraham’s experience is not unusual. As people continue to do
business online—both internal operations and e-commerce—data
centers have to run more applications: everything from
Web servers, cache servers, and firewalls to e-commerce, database applications, messaging, ERP,
and CRM. To handle the demand, jampacked data centers had to find a way to fit
more server power into a smaller space.
In answer to the increasing burden, Network Engines created the 1U server in
1998. The first 1U boxes to market were
sleek and thin but didn’t pack much
punch; they were best suited for Web
serving, Web caching, and DNS. (Web
page requests and DNS can be serviced quickly with little power,
which suited these 1U boxes.)
It was also easy to add more servers in a load-balanced server
farm configuration. Load balancers, which come as either hardware or software, would distribute requests among the servers
based on availability. If a server failed or had to be taken down
for any reason, a load balancer had the intelligence to redistribute requests among the remaining servers. Unfortunately, the
first 1U’s didn’t provide much storage capacity, but additional
storage was available by adding external RAID boxes or even a
shared Fibre Channel storage area network (SAN).
SERVING SIZE
It took only five years for the 1U server to morph into something
more. Thanks to faster and more heat-efficient processors,
smaller and denser hard drives, and improved server design,
there’s a great deal of power in 1U boxes today, which means
these systems can do that much more.
Take the five Intel-based 1U servers we tested for this story.
Each server can house dual 3.06-GHz Xeon processors sporting L3 cache (L2 in the IBM and MPC
models), can accommodate a maximum of 8GB
to 12GB of RAM, and includes two 1-inch-high
Ultra320 SCSI hard drives, which are available at
up to 144GB each.
Server reliability is also much
improved, as all the servers we tested
J
The Aberdeen Stirling S17,
the Dell PowerEdge 1750, and the HP
ProLiant DL360 G3 (top to bottom).
REVIEWED IN THIS STORY 131 Aberdeen Stirling S17 lllll
131 Dell PowerEdge 1750 lllll 132 HP ProLiant DL360 G3 lllmm
136 IBM eServer xSeries 335 lllll 138 MPC NetFrame 1610 lllll 130 Key Hardware for the 1U Server 132 For the Rest of You: Apple
and Sun Options 131 Editors’ Choice 134 Performance Tests 136 Scorecard 138 Server Appliances 140 Summary of Features
BY LEON ERLANGER
128
•
ILLUSTRATION BY DAN PICASSO
Our contributors: John Delaney, Leon Erlanger, and Kenneth Weiss
are freelance writers. Nick Stam is PC Magazine Labs technical
director. Associate editor Jenn DeFeo and PC Magazine Labs project
leader Joel Santo Domingo were in charge of this story.
have hot-swappable hard drives and PCI slots, which means
you can simply swap a dysfunctional component with a
healthy one without shutting down. Each server can take up
to four hard drives. Paired with either hardware or software
RAID control, each can support the whole gamut of RAID: 0, 1,
5, 10, and 50.
We also looked at the Apple Xserve and Sun Fire V210. The
Apple Xserve can be ordered with either one or two 1.33-GHz
G4 PowerPC processors, 2GB of RAM, and four IDE drives. The
Sun Fire V210 holds two 1-GHz UltraSPARC IIIi processors and
two SCSI Ultra160 drives. (For more on the Apple Xserve, see
the sidebar “For the Rest of You: Apple and Sun Options.”)
With this kind of power, reliability, and storage space, such
servers can also be used in high-performance computing applications that pool the power of racks of servers to provide
supercomputing performance for complex modeling.
MANAGEMENT STYLES
Needless to say, the more servers you have, the more that managing those servers becomes an issue. Some servers, like the
Dell, HP, and IBM models, come with integrated tools for automating server setup and configuration as well as Web-based
management consoles that let you monitor server performance and hardware status remotely. Prefailure notification is
a handy feature that every system supports to one degree or
another; it can alert you to replace aging components before
they actually fail.
Of course, management tools—even generic ones like Intel
Server Manager seen on the MPC unit—can still do a good job of
monitoring system health and scheduling diagnostics. Yet sometimes it’s the small things that can make an IT administrator’s
day. Dell, HP, and IBM understand this. For example, IBM Director includes Light Path Diagnostics—LED lights that signal which
DIMM needs changing—to eliminate the guessing game.
EVER SMALLER
Blade servers from Dell, HP, IBM, RLX, Sun, and others, are
denser than 1U, sit vertically in a rack, like books on a bookshelf,
and are packed with CPUs, chipsets, memory, and a small amount
of storage. The beauty of blades is that they accommodate even
more power in a smaller space, have fewer points of failure, and
have considerably less tangled cabling to mess with. In most
cases, you can replace a failed blade in minutes simply by swapping it out. Intelligent blade management software automatically
reinstalls a blade’s original application based on the placement
of the blade in the chassis.
With the category still in its infancy, however, blade deployment remains sluggish, in part because of a lack of a standard
among vendors; each one deploys its own protocol. Also, a blade
rollout requires careful planning, particularly with the devices’
cooling requirements. And blades are best used in brand-new
installations, not added to existing ones.
If you’re hesitant to commit to blades, remember that 1U
servers fit into existing data center environments much more easily, and as technology continues to advance, they will continue to
pack more power. The following reviews give you the skinny on
the latest 1U powerhouses.
K EY H A R DWA R E FO R T H E 1 U S E RV E R
What makes a good Windows-based 1U server? While
every manufacturer packs its product differently, here is
some key hardware you should look for.—John Delaney
A Tool-free chassis—now on almost every
1U server—provides easy access to internal components. Most have top covers that slide off, but the
Dell PowerEdge 1750 (shown here) receives high
marks for its two-piece cover, which opens up like a
book without having to be removed.
Four dual in-line memory module
(DIMM) slots, each populated with 1GB of ECC
DDR memory (2 x 512MB) and upgradable to 2GB.
Servers with six DIMM slots can hold up to 12GB.
PCI slots—one full-height and one half-height
(low-profile) slot—for installing additional
expansion cards such as video, Ethernet,
and SCSI or Fibre Channel controllers. Systems
using integrated Ethernet and RAID controllers
typically have both slots available.
Because of the low profile of 1U servers,
PCI riser cards are used to
allow sideways installation of PCI cards.
Cooling fans cool processors and other internal
components to prevent overheating inside
the cramped 1U chassis. Ideally, these are hotswappable, and they will rev up to higher speeds if
one fan fails, instead of shutting the server down.
SERVERS
ALL REVIEWS BY JOHN DELANEY
Aberdeen Stirling S17
With operating system, $4,250 direct. 888-300-5545,
www.aberdeeninc.com. OVERALL RATING: l l l l m
The least expensive Intel-based server in
our roundup, the Aberdeen Stirling S17
offers a lot of power and scalability for
the money, though the management tools
are generic. We were impressed with the
Stirling S17’s performance; it generally led
the pack in test results across the board.
And the five-year parts-and-labor warranty is the most generous we’ve seen.
Like the Dell and HP servers, the Stirling S17 is powered by a 3.06-GHz Intel
Xeon processor with 1MB of L3 cache
(the IBM eServer xSeries 335 and MPC
NetFrame 1610 both have the 3.06-GHz
Xeon with only L2 cache). Like the MPC
server, the Stirling S17 uses a generic
server motherboard based on the Intel
E7501 chipset (the Dell, HP, and IBM units
all use the ServerWorks GC-LE chipset).
Also like the MPC, this server comes
with six DIMM slots, for up to 12GB of
memory (the other Intel boxes each have
four DIMMs, supporting 8GB). The Stirling S17 has a full-size PCI-X slot and a
half-height 66-MHz PCI slot; the former
A 3.06-GHz Intel Xeon processor
with L3 cache. You can scale up to two
Xeon processors in most 1U servers. The
second CPU can be preinstalled, or your IT
staff can add it if needed.
Two or three hot-swappable hard
drive bays enable IT technicians to
replace defective drives without taking the
server off-line. The bays shown here are
SCSI, but IDE/ATA hot-swappable bays are
also available (as in the Apple Xserve).
Dual redundant power supplies for
high reliability. If one fails, the other keeps the
server up and running. Since they are hotswappable, the IT tech can replace the failed
unit without powering down the server.
Integrated sensors that monitor
system health, such as CPU voltage and
temperature, fan operation, and chassis
temperature. This data can be accessed
within the server’s management application.
IT staffers are alerted to extreme temperature
and voltage conditions via e-mail or pager.
is occupied by a dual-channel Ultra320
SCSI RAID controller.
The cooling system—especially important in the 1U class—consists of two large
blower units for the processors as well as
an internal fan in the server’s single power
supply; a well-organized internal cabling
system helps optimize air flow through
the 1U chassis. (Other units, like the Dell
and IBM servers, include individual,
replaceable fans; these are better for servicing.) There are four USB ports—two
front, two rear—and two PS/2 ports for
connecting a keyboard and mouse.
The front of the Stirling S17 contains
three buttons: power, reset, and NMI
(Non-Maskable Interrupt), which forces
the server into a halted state, enabling a
memory dump, which eases diagnosing
system problems. Four LEDs indicate
power status, activity on each NIC, and
drive activity. The fifth LED warns of
internal overheating caused by restricted
airflow or a nonfunctioning fan. When
remote diagnostics aren’t enough and you
need to go one on one with the server to
isolate a problem, console administration
is enabled via the rear serial port or a
third Ethernet connection on the front,
which is used exclusively for this purpose
(it is not a network connection).
The Stirling S17 ships with SuperMicro
IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management
Interface) daughtercard software, which
enables remote power-up and powerdown and monitoring of temperature,
voltage, fan, and power-supply status via
LAN, serial, or modem connection.
SuperMicro IPMI lets you view up to 20
systems at a time but does not allow userdefined alert thresholds (these are predefined by SuperMicro), nor does it let you
collect asset inventory, unlike the more
robust tools within Dell OpenManage and
IBM Director. It does support e-mail and
pager alerts, as well as a graceful shutdown procedure that gives the server time
to complete certain processes and close
applications before powering down. The
Stirling S17 also ships with SuperMicro’s
Super Doctor III—monitoring software
that runs locally on the server, displaying
voltage, temperature, CPU fan speed, and
chassis intrusion alerts.
Although the Aberdeen Stirling S17 does
not include top-of-the-line management
software, its class-leading performance,
low price, and liberal warranty program
make up for the deficiency. We would like
Dell PowerEdge 1750
The impressive Dell PowerEdge 1750
incorporates dual redundant power
supplies and reliable fans, with a
unique chassis engineered for
easy servicing. Dell OpenManage software also adds to the
value, as it too is top-notch.
The IBM eServer xSeries
335 and Aberdeen Stirling
S17 are also noteworthy. The IBM
server has a very strong management suite, but its performance was
mediocre. The Aberdeen unit, on the
other hand, topped our performance
charts yet doesn’t have as robust
a suite of management tools.
By contrast, the PowerEdge 1750
manages to offer top performance,
features, and software in one
small bundle.
to see more reliability features (redundant
power and fans), but the Stirling S17 merits
an honorable mention and would fit well
in any server infrastructure.
Dell PowerEdge 1750
$4973 direct. 800-999-3355, www.dell.com.
lllll
The Dell PowerEdge 1750 is an example of
great engineering in a 1U box. Aside from
ingenious design, unique features, and
comprehensive management tools, the Dell
server performed admirably on our benchmark tests, grabbing the EC for 1U servers.
The PowerEdge 1750 has a lengthy list of
remarkable features. Making the most of
the inherent constraints of a 1U box, this
machine and the HP ProLiant DL360 G3
are the only two servers in our roundup
with dual redundant power supplies, yet
only the PowerEdge 1750 offers two power
supplies without taking up a PCI slot.
The PowerEdge 1750 has seven userreplaceable cooling fans, though they tend
to run a bit noisily. These fans, along with
those in the IBM eServer xSeries 335, are
highly reliable: When one fails, the others
rev up to a higher speed to compensate.
Although there isn’t much room for
innovation in 1U chassis design, the
PowerEdge 1750 manages to stand apart
from the rest with its unique chassis,
whose top opens like a book to reveal the
inner components—making it much
131
SERVERS
For the Rest of You: Apple and Sun Options
1U
servers aren’t just for Intel or Windows aficionados. Apple and Sun implementers who appreciate
the space-saving benefits of a 1U box should cast
their eyes on the Apple Xserve or the Sun Fire V210.
For businesses with a high percentage of Mac clients, the
Apple Xserve ($3,424 direct for the tested configuration) will
fit easily into existing infrastructures. It offers several powerful yet easy-to-use management tools, embedded in Apple’s
Unix-based operating system Mac OS X Server.
The sleek-looking Xserve is powered by a 1.33-GHz G4
PowerPC processor with 256K of L2 and 2MB of L3 cache. The
server can be ordered in a dual-processor configuration, but
unlike the Intel-based servers we reviewed, a
single-processor Xserve cannot be later upgraded
to a dual-processor system; scalability is
limited to storage and memory.
The Xserve is also unique in that it uses
ATA/133 hard drives rather than SCSI devices, but it has four independent ATA
channels and can hold up to 720GB of
internal storage using Apple’s hotpluggable drive modules. An optional
dual-channel Apple Fibre Channel PCI
card ($499) lets you connect to the
Xserve’s RAID system for additional storage.
The neatly arranged front panel contains a slick
slot-loading CD-ROM drive, a single 400-Mbps FireWire port,
and indicator lights to display connectivity and system activity
status. The rear of the server contains two 800-Mbps FireWire
ports, two USB 1.1 ports, and a serial connection.
The Mac OS X Server software management tools stay in
line with Apple’s user-friendly feel. Included utilities allow IT
staff to administer client access to applications, printers, and
other servers remotely, as well as manage your Macintosh
network. NetBoot lets administrators create standard client
configurations and deploy a single image across an entire
workgroup, and Network Install lets them perform client OS
and application upgrades and configure Xserve clusters over
the network.
easier to service. The Active ID indicator
lights takes servicing one step farther by
including a blue locator light, which helps
identify a specific server in a fully populated rack.
Every Dell server ships with the Dell
OpenManage suite of management
tools. OpenManage Server Administrator is a browser-based tool for managing
individual servers. Server Administrator
lets you schedule diagnostic tests on
CPUs, the PCI bus, Ethernet and COM
ports, hard drives, and RAID controllers.
It monitors fan speeds, DIMM status
(with failure history), temperature, and
voltage status, and it provides a view of
132
Server Monitor works with the Xserve’s built-in sensors to
monitor system temperature, hard drive reliability, and connectivity status using predefined thresholds, and it will send
e-mail, pager, and cell-phone alerts to inform IT personnel of
real or potential failures. The Xserve comes with monitoring
tools from Neon Software to help track bandwidth issues and
device usage, and Mac OS X Server also supports SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) for monitoring non-Mac
platforms using third-party management tools.
The Xserve is a great server with exemplary management
features, though we wish you could upgrade the system with
a second processor if the need arises later on. (800-692-7753,
www.apple.com.)
J
Though Windows shops may think twice about
buying an Apple or Sun server, the Apple Xserve
and the Sun Fire V210 are ready for business.
The Sun Fire V210 ($4,175 for the
tested configuration) is also a very
competent system and will fit in
any shop that relies on Solaris (Sun’s
version of Unix). The V210 is Sun’s
third-generation 1U server and comes with
Solaris 9.0. It can support up to two 1-GHz
UltraSPARC IIIi chips with eight memory slots. (Sun also offers
an Intel version.)
If you’re familiar with Sun servers, you know that the management set is arguably one of the best. Additional management features include Resource Manager (including software,
user, printer, and port), tasks/projects/accounting management, Reconfiguration Coordination Manager (RCM), and ODS
(Online Disk Suite) for hard drive mirroring. Sun is especially
proud of its numerous security features, like IPSec with Internet Key Exchange (IKE), extensible password encryption, and a
random number generator. More than a Web server, the V210
is an application server, a database server, an FTP server, and
much more. (800-555-9786, www.sun.com.)
—John Delaney and Kenneth Weiss
installed software with version identification, enabling firmware and OS upgrades with one click.
OpenManage Array Manager lets you
create virtual disks, volumes, and partitions, both locally and remotely, while
Asset Information stores acquisition
data as well as leasing information, depreciation values, maintenance statistics, and warranty information. Also included is Dell’s IT Assistant software,
which acts as a central console application for managing multiple servers, storage devices, and client systems across
the network using SNMP, DMI, and CIM
protocols, as well as Server Assistant,
for simplified OS and driver installation,
server setup, and RAID configuration.
The Dell PowerEdge 1750 is a wellloaded 1U box. It’s a strong performer—
highly reliable and easy to service and
upgrade—and it comes with a solid suite
of management tools. You can’t go wrong
with this excellent system.
HP ProLiant DL360 G3
$5,409 direct. 800-752-0900, www.hp.com.
lllmm
The HP ProLiant DL360 G3 is a pricey yet
strong performer with good management
tools. Like the Dell PowerEdge 1750, this
server too has an option for dual
PERFORMANCE TESTS
What the Numbers Mean
We ran five x86 1U servers through the gamut of
WebBench testing. Each has a single 3.06-GHz
Xeon processor with 1MB of L3 cache (except for
the IBM and MPC servers, which had none) on a
dual-processor–capable motherboard with 1GB of
DDR 266 (PC2100) ECC (error correction code)
memory, and with dual integrated Gigabit NICs.
If we look at peak scores on our dynamic WebBench tests,
the lowest-performing server (the IBM) came in at 14 percent
below the highest-performing server (the Aberdeen) in both
requests per second and throughput. Since these are strictly
Web server tests, this performance difference would be
noticeable when serving Web pages. For example, there might
be a lag in serving pages on a heavily loaded server or when
placing an order using SSL encryption at a Web site. If we
had dropped the IBM and MPC server from consideration
because of their lack of L3 cache, then the difference between
the highest and lowest performers would have been 7 percent—indicating that all these servers are solid.
At first we assumed that the IBM’s and MPC’s performance
shortcomings were simply due to their lack of L3 cache. But
after some research we concluded that because L3 cache (like
L2 and L1 cache) is used mainly for repeated instruction sets,
the mere substitution of L3 cache would improve performance by only a few percent; the lack of it affects static and
dynamic WebBench performance only minimally.
On the e-commerce tests, however, the lack of any L3 cache
affected the IBM and MPC more. While the difference between
the Aberdeen and IBM servers was about 15 percent at peak
throughput and requests per second, the Aberdeen and HP
servers were within about 5 percent of each other in throughput
and requests per second. The IBM and MPC tracked similarly on
the e-commerce tests: Their peak throughput scores were within
5 percent of each other. Then again, in the world of high-demand
applications—as in e-commerce transactions—small differences
in speed matter more than you might expect.
WebBench performance is limited by the load generated by the
clients, the CPU, the memory architecture, and the network interface. Since dual Gigabit Ethernet NICs are theoretically capable of
delivering up to 250-MBps (2-Gbps) throughput, the cables and
NICs are not limiting factors. Our clients still had plenty of headroom during testing, so the clients were not a limiting factor
either. Therefore, it’s clear that our WebBench tests successfully
stressed the servers’ CPUs and memory interfaces.
WEBBENCH 5.0: STATIC
Requests per second
20,000
Aberdeen
18,000
HP
Dell
IBM
100
16,000
14,000
12,000
8,000
6,000
80
IBM
MPC
60
40
4,000
1
4
8 12 16
Number of clients
20
24
28
32
36
40
44
48
52
56
BETTER
10,000
HP Dell
BETTER
MPC
Throughput (million of bytes per second)
120
Aberdeen
20
2,000
0
60
4
8 12 16
1
Number of clients
20
24
28
32
36
40
44
48
52
56
60
0
WEBBENCH 5.0: DYNAMIC
Requests per second
16,000
Aberdeen
14,000
Dell
24
28
32
36
40
44
48
52
56
60
70
IBM
60
50
MPC
40
30
4,000
20
2,000
10
0
0
1
4
8 12 16
Number of clients
20
24
28
32
36
40
44
48
52
56
60
BETTER
134
20
BETTER
6,000
MPC
80
HP
10,000
8,000
Throughput (millions of bytes per second)
90
Dell
12,000
IBM
HP
1
4
8 12 16
Number of clients
Aberdeen
SERVERS
HOW WE TESTED
The manufacturers had loaded all five x86-based servers with
Windows 2003 Server and IIS 6.0. We requested that each
server come with two identical Gigabit Ethernet NICs.
Although all the servers were dual-processor–capable, we
asked that each server come with one processor installed,
the way most of these servers are ordered.
For testing, we asked each manufacturer to set the disk
drives for RAID 0 (striping). The disk array setup had a minimal impact on the test scores, since WebBench stresses the
CPU, memory, and networking capabilities more than the disk
subsystems. In an installed working environment, the servers’
drives would likely be set up in a RAID 1 (mirroring) configuration, to help ensure fault tolerance.
We arranged the clients into two identical 30-node subnets,
attached over 1,000-Mbps Ethernet to each NIC. Thus, each
server was connected to a 60-node private LAN of Windows
XP Pro clients (60 identical Pentium 4 systems).
THE TESTS
WebBench 5.0 lets us measure the performance of Web
servers as they handle requests from clients. We tested using
the static, dynamic, and e-commerce test suites. We set the
performance options and file and print sharing to be optimized for applications. We turned the IIS logging and visit
logs off and set the load to 100,000-plus hits a day. The site
was not indexed; there was no application protection on the
static-content directory, and the CGI-BIN directory was set as
a virtual directory for dynamic content.
The static tests serve static HTML Web sites, including
HTML code and GIF files. Examples of static Web pages include the text and graphics on catalog information pages; the
content on these pages is changed externally, usually by a
Web designer. Our static tests do not run any executables on
the server, so the server peaks out at a higher level than on
the dynamic tests.
During a dynamic request, the client asks the server to run
an ISAPI (Internet Server Application Programming Interface) application that lives on the server. This application
(the dynamic executable) creates HTML response data, which
the server returns to the client. Because the executable runs
on the server, it uses processing resources on the server.
Examples of dynamic pages include those that check inventory status from a database; these pages calculate data on the
fly and return results.
WebBench provides a set of platform-dependent dynamic
tests. Dynamic requests constitute about 19 percent of the
Web requests on the dynamic tests, while the other 79 percent are static requests.
For both static and dynamic tests, each client communicated with the server over five threads, which acted like multiple virtual clients on each test run. The use of multiple
threads stressed the servers more than a single thread would.
During an e-commerce request, the client asks the server
to run an ISAPI application that lives on the server, as well as
negotiating a secure link using 128-bit SSL. The ISAPI application (the dynamic executable) creates HTML response data,
which the server returns to the client.
Again, because the executable runs on the server, it uses
processing resources on the server. The act of encoding and
decoding secure communications also increases the load on
the servers’ processor. E-commerce pages are like the checkout pages on store Web sites: The credit card transactions are
secure, while the graphics and inventory computations are
handled by static and dynamic content, respectively.
On our standard e-commerce tests, 8 percent of the Web
requests are secure and about 90 percent are static requests.
Since SSL transactions heavily stress the CPU memory subsystem, we limited each client to one thread during e-commerce
testing. On all three WebBench tests, about 2 percent of the
load simulates type 404 “page not found” errors.—Analysis
written by Joel Santo Domingo
WEBBENCH 5.0: E-COMMERCE
Requests per second
9,000
Aberdeen
8,000
Dell
Dell
IBM
Aberdeen
6,000
4,000
25
IBM
20
15
3,000
10
2,000
5
1,000
1
4 8 12 16
Number of clients
20
24
28
32
36 40
44
48
52
56
0
60
BETTER
MPC
MPC
BETTER
5,000
30
HP
7,000
HP
Throughput (millions of bytes per second)
35
0
4
1
8 12 16
Number of clients
20
24
28
32
36
40
44
48
52
56
60
135
SERVERS
redundant power supplies, but you’ll pay
for this by sacrificing a PCI slot. And to our
surprise, unlike the Dell server, the HP
server does not have redundant cooling
fans; if one fan fails, the system shuts itself
down, similar to the Aberdeen server.
Our tested system was outfitted with
two hot-pluggable power supplies, leaving only one available 64-bit PCI-X slot
(100 MHz), and the server also included
an optional write-cache module with bat-
J
tery backup to store data in case of a
system crash—not an ideal solution.
HP’s Integrated Lights Out software
comes standard on the ProLiant and provides remote management features
through a console interface for power-on
and power-off, diagnostics, error alerting,
group administration, and management
of the server’s boot sequence. In addition
to power, network activity, and hard drive
activity LEDs, a blue light on the front
turns on when the server is being managed remotely or is experiencing a prob-
lem, and a UID (Unit ID) LED identifies
the problematic server. Unfortunately, all
connection ports are located on the rear
of the system.
The server ships with HP ’s ProLiant
Essentials Foundation Pack, which is based
on Insight Manager 7 SP2, a Web-based
management application that lets administrators monitor the health of servers,
client PCs, and notebooks across a network. Insight Manager can query devices
by group, operating-system version, IP
range, or device type (desktop, portable,
server, and so on), and it supports e-mail
or pager alerts when components reach
their set thresholds. The interface is fairly
The IBM eServer xSeries 335 (top)
and the MPC NetFrame 1610 (bottom).
easy to navigate, though not as slick as Dell
OpenManage or IBM Director. It includes
menu selections for the Array Configuration Utility, which lets you modify the
RAID configuration and HP Integrated
Management Log viewer, which provides
a snapshot of system events.
SmartStart, a setup utility, walks you
through the initial server setup process,
including OS installation and management configuration. Like Dell and IBM,
HP integrates the setup tools into its overall management suite. The more generic
suites, like that found on the Aberdeen
server, give you separate CDs to help set
up the server.
The HP ProLiant DL360 G3 is a solid
server with a good set of management
SCORECARD
Each server’s performance rating is derived from its scores on
our WebBench tests. To rate serviceability, we determine how
easily the server’s components can be serviced and swapped out,
and whether key components can be replaced while the server
is running. Our manageability rating reflects the quality of the
included management package. For the overall rating, we take all
of these and other intangibles into account.
–EXCELLENT
–VERY GOOD
l l l –GOOD
l l –FAIR
l –POOR
Aberdeen Stirling S17
Dell PowerEdge 1750
HP ProLiant DL360 G3
IBM eServer xSeries 335
MPC NetFrame 1610
y
ab
ili
lit
bi
M
an
a
ge
ea
ic
rv
OVERALL
lllll
llll
lll
llll
llll
lllll
lllll
lllll
llll
lll
llll
lll
lll
llll
lllll
llll
lll
llll
lll
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136
Se
Pe
r
fo
rm
an
ce
llll
ty
lllll
tools and very good performance. And
though we like the redundant-powersupply option, we are disappointed in the
cooling system. Those with a large percentage of HP and Compaq systems, however, will find that this server integrates
easily into their IT environments.
IBM eServer xSeries 335
$5,095 direct. 888-7467-426, www.ibm.com.
llllm
The IBM eServer xSeries 335 has a solid
combination of features and top-notch
management tools, though its performance was not at full steam. The performance degradation was due, in part, to
its inclusion of the 3.06-GHz Xeon
processor with 512K of L2 cache instead
of the more recent, more popular Xeon
with 1MB of L3 cache. Yet the eServer is
still a competent system.
The server is an object lesson in doing
things IBM’s way—which is not a drawback. For example, there are no video
port or PS/2 connectors, which all the
other servers have, and which are important for accessing servers locally. But IBM
offers C2T (Cable Chaining Technology),
which connects each pair of IBM servers
in a daisy chain with a single cable, eliminating the need for separate keyboard,
video, and mouse cables; thus there is no
need for the additional ports.
The front panel includes two USB
ports, a floppy disk drive, a CD - ROM
drive, and LEDs to indicate system errors
and drive activity, along with a C2T indicator and a blue-light locator for identifying which server in the rack is having
problems. There are two C2T ports (in
and out), and a third USB connector, as
well as a serial port and a Remote Supervisor Adapter.
Unfortunately—and surprisingly— the
eServer’s power supply is not redundant, as
on the Dell and HP servers; the eServer has
only one power supply. It does have five
user-replaceable fans, which (as on the Dell
unit) will compensate if one should fail.
IBM ’s diagnostic and management
tools are among the best we’ve seen.
Light Path Diagnostics is a series of LEDs
that light up to indicate problems or failure of specific components, including
fans, processors, DIMM modules, and PCI
slots. Light Path works with IBM’s Predictive Failure Analysis and Integrated
System Management Processor to detect
when components are operating outside
SERVERS
Server Appliances: They’re Easier than You Think
If
you’re in a small business looking for a server solution
but don’t have the budget for a full-time IT staff to
administrate conventional servers, then a server appliance or integrated office servers might be the answer.
Server appliances are out-of-the-box servers that generally
include built-in file, print, and Web servers and might also
include mail servers, router/gateway/
firewall functions, VPN, Web hosting,
virtual hosts, FTP, DNS, DHCP, remote
access and management, content filtering, server-based virus protection and
SPAM filtering, LDAP, Web caching, automatic backup systems, and—as if that
weren’t enough—SQL server capability.
Sound too good to be true? The trade-off is
losing the application and service configuration flexibility that standard servers afford.
An example is the Net Integrator Mark IIIR
($8,999 direct) a 2U rack-mounted that includes all the features listed above, plus dual Athlon MP processors, up to six
removable Ultra160 or Ultra320 SCSI drives, and one 10/1000
Ethernet and two 10/100 Ethernet ports. (Remember, though
$8,999 sounds expensive compared with the servers in our
main roundup; it is less expensive than employing an IT staff.)
The system is based on a Linux kernel housed in firmware.
their normal thresholds, enabling administrators to resolve potential problems before they occur. The DIMM slots
also have LEDs to guide administrators to
a problematic memory bank without
making them troubleshoot each module.
Although not a breakthrough in innovation, this is a great time-saver.
IBM Director is as easy to use as it is
powerful, letting administrators drag and
drop tasks to single clients or entire workgroups. Director lets administrators configure and monitor servers and clients
across a workgroup, configure RAID
arrays, and collect asset inventory data.
The IBM eServer’s performance was
not up to snuff, yet the intuitive suite of
management tools is hard to beat. And for
an IT administrator who has to monitor
racks and racks of systems, little things
like the DIMM LEDs can be priceless.
MPC NetFrame 1610
$5,650 direct. 888-208-8014, www.buympc.com.
If the disk subsystem fails, the Mark IIIR continues to service
Internet requests (with firewall capability). An intelligent
disk-based backup system can be configured to perform
frequent mirrored backups of the main drives. Alternatively,
the disk subsystem can be configured for RAID operation. You
can also attach tape drives.
Though the hardware is solid, what you’ll really like
is that you simply plug the Mark IIIR into an existing
LAN and your cable or DSL modem.
J Net Integrator After a few minutes, the Mark
Mark IIIR
IIIR’s NetIntelligence feature sniffs
out and discovers other devices
on the network, sets up gateway and
firewall protection, and configures
internal and external IP addresses (a
static IP address can be manually
entered for external communications). DHCP
service is automatically enabled for all IP addresses, and
Dynamic DNS service is included. User configuration is a snap
and accessible from a browser. The front panel displays basic
configuration; it also displays basic status information.
If you’re looking for a powerful all-in-one solution offering a
variety of server functions—and ease of use is a big draw—
check out the Net Integrator line. (866-961-4357, www
.net-itech.com.)—Nick Stam
1610, like the Aberdeen Stirling S17, is based
on the Intel Serverboard E7501 and can be
expanded to 12GB of total memory by populating all six DIMM slots. Although our
system shipped with two hot-pluggable
36GB SCSI drives, the third drive bay (here
occupied by a CD-ROM/floppy disk drive
combo) can accept an additional hard
drive, for a total capacity of 438GB. There
are two available PCI-X slots (1 full-height,
1 half-height) and integrated RAID (dualchannel Ultra320).
The NetFrame 1610 has a single power
supply and a fan module with five cooling fans, which are not redundant. If a
single fan fails, the entire fan module
must be replaced—which means bringing
down the whole server.
IT troubleshooters will appreciate the
inclusion of a VGA port on the front
panel, where you’ll also find the standard
power, drive, and network activity LEDs,
as well as system identification and status lights and a single USB port. Rear-
lllmm
The MPC NetFrame 1610 is the priciest
server in our roundup, which is puzzling
in view of its generic hardware makeup,
lack of L3 cache, and lack of proprietary
management software. The NetFrame
138
MORE ON THE WEB
Log on to www.pcmag
.com/servers for reviews
of budget servers.
panel connections include two integrated Gigabit Ethernet and two USB ports,
one SCSI port, a VGA port for hooking up
to a KVM switch, a PS/2 port, and a LAN
management port, which will let you
plug in a notebook, for instance, to access
the server.
The NetFrame 1610 ships with Intel
Server Management (ISM) 5.5, a capable
remote-management application that
works well with Intel-based serverboards
but lacks many of the integrated tools
found in other proprietary programs,
such as Dell OpenManage. ISM lets
administrators remotely manage SuperMicro IPMI–compliant servers via LAN,
serial, or modem connections using the
Direct Platform Control (DPC) console.
ISM supports e-mail, pager, and LAN
alerting to inform administrators of
system failures, chassis intrusion, or sensor readings that reach predetermined
points. Also included is Adaptec’s SCSI
Select Utility for setting up SCSI drives
and tweaking RAID configurations.
The MPC NetFrame 1610 is an average
system, with generic management tools at
a high price. If management isn’t a priority,
look to the Aberdeen Stirling S17; it had
better performance and costs $1,400 less.
SERVERS
S U M M A RY O F F E AT U R E S
Download this table at
1U Servers
www.pcmag.com.
y YES o NO
Aberdeen
Stirling S17
Apple Xserve
Dell PowerEdge
1750
HP ProLiant
DL360 G3
IBM eServer
xSeries 335
MPC NetFrame
1610
Sun Fire V210
Price (tested configuration)
$4,250 direct
$3,424 list
$4,973 direct
$5,409 direct
$5,095 direct
$5,650 direct
$4,175 list
Processor
Intel Xeon
(3.06 GHz)
PowerPC G4
(1.33 GHz)
Intel Xeon
(3.06 GHz)
Intel Xeon
(3.06 GHz)
Intel Xeon
(3.06 GHz)
Intel Xeon
(3.06 GHz)
UltraSPARC IIIi
(1 GHz)
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
L2/L3 cache
Number supported
yy
yy
yy
yy
yo
yo
yo
Motherboard
Installed/maximum memory
Intel E7501
1GB / 12GB
Apple
1GB / 2GB
ServerWorks GC-LE ServerWorks GC-LE ServerWorks GC-LE Intel E7501
1GB / 8GB
1GB / 8GB
1GB / 8GB
1GB / 12GB
Sun JBUS
1GB / 4GB
Total/free RAM slots
6/4
8/6
4/3
4/2
4/2
4/2
Integrated network interface adapter Intel Pro 1000
Apple
Broadcom
NetXtreme
Broadcom NC7781
Broadcom BCM5703 Intel Pro 1000
6/4
Broadcom
BCM5794
Built-in NIC ports
2
1
2
2
2
2
4
PCI-X
1/0/1
0/0/0
2/2/0
2/2/0
2/1/0
3/0/0
0/0/0
64-bit PCI
32-bit PCI
1/0/1
0/0/0
2/1/0
1/0/0
2/2/0
0/0/0
2/1/0
0/0/0
0/0/0
0/0/0
2/2/0
0/0/0
1/1/0
0/0/0
SCSI adapter
Adaptec AIC-7902
None
LSI1030 Ultra320
HP SmartArray 5i
IBM ServeRAID
Adaptec AIC-7902
LSI1010R
Total/free internal 3.5" drive bays
Hot-swappable
3/1
y
4/2
y
3/1
y
2/0
y
2/0
y
3/0
y
2/0
y
Hard drives installed
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
Total/free/hot-pluggable slots:
Speed and interface type
15,000-rpm Ultra320 7,200-rpm ATA/133
15,000-rpm Ultra320 15,000-rpm Ultra320 15,000-rpm Ultra320 15,000-rpm Ultra320 10,000-rpm
Ultra160
Adaptec 2120S
Added card
AppleRAID
Integrated in
software
PERC 4/Di
Integrated on
daughter card
HP Smart Array 5i+ LSI 53C1020
Integrated on
Added card
motherboard
Adaptec AIC-7902
Integrated on
motherboard
None
N/A
RAID levels supported
0, 1, 5, 10, 50
0, 1
0, 1, 5
0, 1
0, 1, 5, 1E, 00, 10,
50, 1E0, 5EE
0, 1, 5
N/A
Price
Included
y
Included
y
$499 direct
y
Included
y
Included
y
Included
y
N/A
y
Graphics RAM
8MB SDRAM
(66 MHz)
32MB DDR SDRAM
(166 MHz)
8MB SDRAM
(144–166 MHz)
8MB SDRAM
(125 MHz)
8MB SDRAM
(33 MHz)
8MB SDRAM
(66 MHz)
32MB DDR SDRAM
(166 MHz)
Power supplies
1
1
2
2
1
1
1
400W
oo
425W
oo
320W
yy
325W
yy
332W
oo
350W
oo
320W
oo
User-replaceable fans
2
2
7
7
5
5
4
Hot-swappable/Redundant
LEDs for drive/fan/power-supply
failure
Sensors for fan speeds/
temperature/voltage
Operating system
oy
yyy
oo
yyy
yy
yyy
oo
yyy
yy
yyy
yo
yyy
oo
ooy
yyy
yyy
yyy
yyo
yyy
yyy
yyy
Windows Server
2003
Mac OS X Server
v10.2
Windows Server
2003
Windows Server
2003
Windows Server
2003
Windows Server
2003
Solaris 9
Cost of included operating system
5-user licence, $755 Included (unlimited 5-user license, $799 5-user license, $699 5-user license, $799 5-user license, $750 Included (unlimited
users)
users)
Management software
Adaptec RAID
Manager, IPMI
v1.5 Server
Management
Apple Server
Monitor, SNMP
Dell OpenManage
HP Insight Manager IBM Director,
ServerGuide,
UpdateXpress
Intel Server
Management 5.5
Advanced Lights
Out Manager
yy
y
yy
y
yy
y
yy
y
yy
y
yy
y
yy
y
yyy
ooo
yyy
yyy
yyy
yyy
yyy
o
o
o
y
y
o
y
y
o
y
y
y
y
o
y
y
y
y
y
y
y
y
y
y
y
y
y
y
11:00–8:00 M–F
RAID controller
Implementation
Bootable CD-ROM drive
Wattage
Hot-swappable/Redundant
Fault tracking/Remote reboot
Local alert via console
Remote alert via
SNMP/pager/modem
Administers other brands of
servers
Web-based remote-management
interface
Can be ordered through VARs
Can be custom-configured and
ordered online
Toll-free live technical support
7:00–7:00 daily
24/7
24/7
24/7
24/7
9:00–5:00 M–F
Standard warranty on parts and labor 5 years
On-site service included in warranty None
1 year
None
3 years
3 years
3 years
3 years
3 years limited
3 years
3 years
3 years
1 year
1 year
Standard on-site service response
time
N/A
Next business day
Next business day
Next business day
Next business day
Next business day
140
N/A
N/A—Not applicable: The product does not have this feature.
E
w w w. p c m a g . c o m /a f te r h o u r s
T E C H N O L O G Y O N YO U R T I M E
Virtual Worlds
BY DAN COSTA
O
ne of the most appealing aspects of the Internet
is the ability to meet and interact with people
across the globe in real time. Traditionally, this
interaction has been limited either to friendly
(but somewhat boring) text chat or to lopping off
virtual heads in fantasy realms like EverQuest. But a third option is catching on: virtual worlds that have the graphic richness of massively multiplayer online role-playing games
(MMORPGs) but without the gory missions.
The best virtual worlds have smooth chat features and realistic graphic environments, and they offer subscribers the
Disney’s Toontown Online
ability to create unique avatars and to wander freely. To keep
virtual visitors coming back, sites must also offer compelling
activities, such as games you can play with other avatars and
even home building. “The more the sites encourage people to
build stuff in their worlds, the more likely users will stay,” says
Joe Lazlo, an analyst for Jupiter Media.
In this story, we evaluate four virtual worlds. Some are
based on 2-D avatar technology that is nearly a decade old, but
they’re still attracting plenty of visitors. Others are fresh out
of beta and require sophisticated 3-D rendering. All offer virtual alternatives to real life.
pies in their faces. Success adds points to
your Laff meter, which can be used to buy
more gags from a virtual store. If this is all a
bit much for kids, they can perform smaller
tasks and play mini-games to earn points.
Toontown’s greatest strength is its tightly controlled environment. Children have
no chance of exposure to offensive content.
Communication in public spaces is limited
to a drop-down menu with phrases such as
“Hi,” “How are you?”, and “Goodbye.”
To write your own messages to other
Toons, you must first make them “secret
friends” by exchanging a code that can be
given out only via e-mail or a phone call.
Although this makes Toontown a safe
place for kids, it does limit the appeal of
the service. The site may entertain the 8and-under crowd, but any child who has
used instant messaging will want more
action and more interesting conversation
than Toontown can provide.
Adults may find Disney’s Toontown
Online limited, but the site is well suited
to the interests and capacities of children
under the age of 10. When you start off in
Toontown, you create your Toon avatar.
Although the selection doesn’t include the
whole spectrum of Disney characters, it is
ample, including ducks, dogs, cats, and
more. You then select your body type and
$9.95 a month. Disney Interactive,
clothing color, which ensures that just
www.toontown.com. lllmm
about every Toon in town looks different.
The goal is to defend the realm
WHAT THE RATINGS MEAN
Second Life
against incursions of evil Cogs,
lllll EXCELLENT
Of all the virtual worlds we
who want to turn the cartoon
llllm VERY GOOD
visited, Second Life is the one
community into a drab office
lllmm GOOD
llmmm FAIR
we want to come back to the
park. As a Toon, you play pranks
lmmmm POOR
most. The people are friendly,
on the Cogs, such as throwing
158
and the environment is stunning—and we
were able to help build it.
When you first join, you are taken to
Prelude Island to acquire basic skills. The
tutorial process is relatively lengthy; it
took us 20 minutes to get to the mainland,
but we needed that time to get comfortable with the relatively complex controls.
In Second Life, your avatar is completely customizable, with myriad varia-
tions of skin tone, eye color, hair type,
clothing, shoes, and so on. And you can
make changes to the world itself: You can
purchase some land and build a house.
Building in Second Life relies on a series
of menu-based scripts that take some time
to master. Although commands will be
familiar to anyone who has used a basic
AFTER HOURS
design or graphics program, they aren’t
quite point-and-click.
After finishing your time at Prelude
Island, you are transported to a standard
starting area. Here you can check which of
your buddies are online and move through
the world by walking, teleporting, or
flying. The last is definitely the most fun.
Although you can create weapons and
do battle in special areas of Second Life,
that is not a major draw. The game is
designed for a more sophisticated virtual
citizen, one who would be more interested
in building a 3-D replica of the Eiffel Tower
than in blowing away other denizens.
5-day free trial, then $14.95 a month. Linden
Lab, www.secondlife.com. llllm
The Sims Online
The Sims Online looks and plays very
much like the original PC game, but the
ability to converse with real people makes
the game more interesting—at least potentially. This was the most active online
community we visited, but the basic
choose from, but the only way to distinguish among them is to visit them. Just as
in real life, finding a community to which
you want to belong takes a lot of wandering. Once you do, you can become roommates with existing avatars or build a house
and try to attract people to it. The more
people who visit your house, the more
Simoleans (game currency) you earn.
$39.95 plus $9.99 a month. Electronic Arts Inc.,
www.thesimsonline.com. lllmm
VZones newHorizone
Based on technology that dates back to the
1980s, VZones newHorizone isn’t exactly
cutting-edge. It won’t run on Windows XP,
and its 2-D world pales beside the competition. Nonetheless, newHorizone draws
hundreds of daily visits from a multidimensional group of users.
After downloading the client software,
you get a user name and password and log
on to the service. There is no tutorial or
orientation, and when we logged on during
business hours, the world was sparsely
populated. In the early evening, however,
we found plenty of people who were willing to show us around.
For avatar creation, you’re given a few
generic options: male or female, buff or
thin body types, and so on. Our result
was a geeky Ken-doll lookalike. To im-
prove our avatar, we had to navigate a
maze of rooms and find a store that let us
change our clothing, our skin color, and
even our head.
Controls are relatively limited; you can
walk, turn around, wave, and jump up and
down. (You can also sit on people’s laps,
but we never figured out how.) You can
chat openly with a group or use “ESP” to
hold private conversations.
Although we can’t say much for the
world itself, the crowd and conversation
at newHorizone were the most interesting
of all the sites we visited. We met a 31year-old legal professional from Pennsylvania and an 80-year-old grandmother
from Indiana—both of whose avatars
looked like anime sex kittens.
$5.95 a month. Stratagem Corp.,
www.vzones.com. llmmm
THERE
graphic environment and banal conversation disappointed us.
Installing the game takes longer than
with any of the others here, largely because graphics files are stored locally and
are updated every time you log on. It took
us nearly 25 minutes to complete the
installation, registration, and payment
process—and that was with broadband.
Although you can choose from a wide
variety of characters and clothing for your
avatar, the game lacks the fine control of
other online worlds. You can’t change
your eye color, for example. Even if you
could, though, the avatars you interact
with are too far away for you to see that
kind of detail.
To move around in The Sims Online,
you must point to a location, click on a
Walk To icon, and watch your avatar move
on its own. This doesn’t have the same
appeal as moving your avatar freely, as
you can in Second Life and There.
You can have up to three active avatars
at one time, but they must reside in different cities. There are dozens of cities to
When we were working on this story, There was in beta. Many features were not
yet up and running, and the world was open only a few hours per week. Still, we
were able to sneak in and get a peek at what future virtual worlds might look
like. There is scheduled to launch sometime in the fall.
Similar to Second Life in scope and performance, There’s interface and world are
both graphics-heavy, so make sure your hardware meets the requirements. You can get
started quickly: Just pick an off-the-rack avatar,
log on, and start wandering. Once in, you can
customize your look by purchasing new eye
colors, new hair, and enough clothing to fill the
J.Crew catalog. You are given 10,000 Therebucks to start with and can purchase more with
actual cash. It may seem silly to spend real
money for a virtual hoverboard, but after a few
hours, we really wanted one. You can also purchase items designed by a growing crowd of developers; There supports this kind of
participation by providing scripting help for no charge.
The world is designed beautifully, but walking around
goes a bit slowly. There are plenty of activities, though,
including dune buggy races on the beach and discussions
about the works of Italo Calvino.
The site was sparsely populated when we visited—not
www.pcmag.com
surprising since it was still in beta. Given the vital role that
See Personal Techparticipants play in virtual worlds, that means the jury is
nology online for
still out on There. But There looks as if it’s getting there.
more Quick Clips
Free for beta testers; postlaunch pricing to be deterand Gear & Games
mined. There Inc., www.there.com.
reviews.
ONLINE
MORE ON
T HE WE B
159
AFTER HOURS
The Fabric of Our PDAs
The Philips Audio Key Ring and the 1-megapixel Philips
Digital Camera Key Ring are paragons of simplicity and style.
Remove the protective caps, then slide the units into a PC
USB jack to upload photos, download music, or recharge the
integrated batteries—no drivers or other software needed if
you’re running Windows XP. Both come in 64MB and 128MB
versions. An optional neck lanyard for the 128MB MP3 player
cleverly embeds player controls within the fabric. Lack of
controls beyond a shutter release make the cameras best for
fun snapshots, not critical photos.—Bill Howard
64MB, $100 list each; 128MB, $130 each; 128MB Audio Key Ring
with lanyard, $150. Audio Key Ring lllll , Digital Camera Key Ring
llllm . Philips Consumer Electronics, www.philips.com.
Monitor Your Car
The Davis CarChipE/X, roughly the size of two 9volt batteries, plugs into the ODB-II (secondgeneration On-Board Diagnostic) system jack
under the dash of any car made in 1996 or
later and keeps a running record of up to
23 parameters, including speed, rpm,
airflow rate, coolant temperature,
and fuel pressure. Until recently,
such monitors were available
only as diagnostic tools for
professional mechanics. Now
you simply unplug the CarChip
from your dash, connect it to the
bundled serial-port data cable, and view
the data in chart or spreadsheet form on
your computer monitor. The product couldn’t
be easier to use and may just help your loved
ones drive more safely.—William Van Winkle
$179 list. Davis Instruments, www.davisnet.com. llllm
On-the-Fly Speaker
By transmitting audio signals into large flat objects like
desks and tables, the innovative S3i Sound Omnivox can
convert such items into giant speaker systems.
The secret is the “smart material” filling,
which responds to audio signals by vibrating like a speaker cone, and an amplifier
that adds enough power to conduct
these vibrations into any object in
contact with the Omnivox’s rubber
foot. The resulting sound quality
depends on the type of object being
excited, but when placed on a heavy
wooden conference table, the Omnivox
does a creditable job of reproducing
speech and music at frequencies above
200 Hz.—Don Labriola
$295 list. S3i Sound, www.omnivox.biz. lllmm
160
Cancel the Noise
The hassles and fatigue caused by harsh
background noise fade away when you slip on
the Bose QuietComfort 2 noise-canceling
stereo headphones. They’re noteworthy for
refined sound reproduction, and the earcups
swivel 90 degrees for storage. And the electronics and single triple-A battery (good for
40 hours of use) are now integrated, rather
than separate modules. Two downsides:
These headphones require battery power,
and they’re relatively bulky compared with
other models.—BH
$299 direct. Bose Corp., www.bose.com. llllm
AFTER HOURS
QUICK CLIPS
Silence Is Golden
Microsoft Encarta Reference
Library Plus DVD 2004
By Don Labriola
Microsoft delivers an incremental
upgrade to its excellent reference tool.
New elements include a few dozen fun
Discovery Channel videos, expanded literature guides and improved curriculum guides in the Homework center,
a clunky Visual Browser, and a more
dynamic, context-sensitive time line.
But Encarta still has rich, often-updated
content, replete with multimedia, sidebars, quotations, excerpts from great
books, additional reading, and vetted
links.—Sean Carroll
Background noise is annoying under the best of conditions. But when you’re wearing headphones, it’s all
too easy to find yourself boosting volume to hazardous levels to drown out air conditioners, lawn
mowers, cars, and jet engines. Noise-canceling
headphones, which generate a compensating
signal to reduce the din, can help. Here, we
review four popular models (the
Bose QuietComfort 2 is reviewed on
$69.95 list. Microsoft Corp.,
www.microsoft.com/encarta. lllll
the Gear page).
Creative Labs USB
Sound Blaster Go!
The Creative Labs USB Sound
Blaster Go! combines a set of
Creative Labs noise-canceling headphones
with the Creative Labs Sound Blaster MP3+
portable 16-bit sound module. The phones’
noise-canceling capabilities were better
than average among those we tested, easily
turning the rumble of a large air conditioner into a soft hiss. They’re light and
comfortable, and they produce smooth,
detailed sound that’s especially snappy in
the lower midrange and upper bass.
$90 street. Creative Labs Inc., www
.soundblaster.com. llllm
Panasonic RP-HC100
The Panasonic RP-HC100 is a full-size
noise-canceling headset that completely
covers your ears yet folds to about half its
normal size when not in use. Our test unit
lacked competitors’ transparency and
extended high end, and it provided the
least effective noise cancellation. But the
differences were subtle, and the headset
still managed to eliminate most midrange
and low-frequency noise. And the RPHC100 is certainly competitive at the price.
$79.95 list. Matsushita Electric Corp. of
America, www.panasonic.com. lllmm
SENNHEISER PXC 250 (LEFT), CREATIVE
LABS USB SOUND BLASTER GO!
SONY MDR-NC11 (LEFT),
PANASONIC RP-HC100
Sennheiser PXC 250
The ultralight Sennheiser PXC 250 miniheadphones are exceptionally comfortable, but their undersize soft-ring ear pads
may require some fiddling to seal properly. Our test unit’s noise cancellation
capabilities were excellent. Sound quality
was in a class with that of the Bose QuietComfort 2 (reviewed on the Gear page),
but low-end response didn’t match that of
larger over-the-ear models. The PXC 250
is burdened by a cumbersome inline
battery holder the size of a fat marker pen.
Other than that, we consider it a fine
product that easily justifies its price.
$130 street. Sennheiser Electronic Corp.,
www.sennheiserusa.com. llllm
Sony MDR-NC11 Noise Canceling
Headphones
The Sony MDR-NC11 Noise Canceling
Headphones have all the strengths and
weaknesses inherent in the ear-bud design.
Well-designed ear-buds can provide superior bass response and isolation from external noise than open-air headphones, but
some people find them difficult to wear.
Sony increases the odds of a good fit by
providing three sizes of rubber earpieces,
as well as a host of accessories including an
inline volume control. Our test unit
produced solid bass, transparent
midrange, and a slightly exaggerated high end, and it had
the most effective noise
cancellation we’ve heard
in consumer headphones.
$150 direct. Sony Electronics
Inc., www.sonystyle.com.
lllll
162
Z-Opolis
In family-friendly Z-Opolis, players interact in a strictly G-rated environment
filled with colorful characters. Your
avatar can be a male
or female child or
teenager. Z-Opolis
doesn’t have a linear
story to follow; you
can hang out, get a
job, raise a pet, or
complete tasks for
points. The goal of
Z-Opolis is to spend
time getting to know
your fellow gamers through chats, social
activities, and challenges. The best thing
about this online world is its simplicity.
Z-Opolis is good, clean fun.—Tricia Harris
$7.95 per month and up. PersistentWorldZ Inc.,
www.z-opolis.com. llllm
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004
The world changed when Wilbur and
Orville Wright took their first powered
flights at Kitty Hawk 100 years ago.
Microsoft commemorates this event
with Flight
Simulator 2004:
A Century of
Flight. You can
pilot 20 historic
flights, including
the Wright Flyer’s
first launch and
the first airmail route. In addition to
wonderful graphics and multimedia
flight-training materials, this version
offers Internet-updated dynamic weather, improved airport scenery for more
than 24,000 airports, and 3-D cockpit
controls. The best flight game is better
than ever.—Alfred Poor
$50 street. Microsoft Corp., www.microsoft
.com/flightsimulator. lllll
JUST ASKING: IS HI-FI WI-FI BETTER THAN LO-FI WI-FI?
Edited by Don Willmott
Let’s hope—
and pray—for
a successful
installation.
J
(Microsoft site)
J
J
Two-way communications
maybe, but “normal”?
(Computer Network
Accessories site)
J
The correct answer is B, but ponder option
A for a moment. (Trend Micro site)
J
J
J
J
Well, that’s one way to get a bigger
mailbox! (Unidentified spam)
News flash: It looks as if they’ve
been launching space shuttles
from Oklahoma.
(The Weather Channel site)
J
J
Paging Richard Nixon! It’s been a long time
since we’ve highlighted a weird trial AOL
password, but this one has such historical
echoes of the Cold War we couldn’t resist.
w w w. p c m a g . c o m / b a c k s p a c e
If your entry is used, we’ll send you a PC Magazine T-shirt. Submit your entries via e-mail to [email protected] (attachments are welcome)
or to Backspace, PC Magazine, 28 E. 28th St., New York, NY 10016-7930. Ziff Davis Media Inc. shall own all property rights in the entries. Winners this
issue: Michael Fischer, Melissa Fox, David Gerrold, Benjamin Johnstone-Anderson, Pat Roeling, and Brett Vosika.
PC Magazine, ISSN 0888-8507, is published semi-monthly except 3 issues in October (10/14/03 is the Fall 2003 issue) and monthly in January and July at $39.97 for one year. Ziff Davis Media Inc, 28 E. 28th St., New York, NY
10016-7930. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY 10016-7930 and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Address changes to PC Magazine, P.O. Box 54070, Boulder, CO 80328-4070. The Canadian GST registration
number is 865286033. Canada Post International Publications Mail Product (Canadian Distribution) Sales Agreement No. 266477. Printed in the U.S.A.
164

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