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Our Upgrade for 2004Michael J. Miller
We're always looking for ways to make PC Magazine better, and with this issue you'll notice some of the latest improvements. In our new Editors' Choice section on page 29 we offer a quick summary of our favorite products in many categories, updated every issue. And starting with this issue, we've changed our product-rating system to allow for "half stars." This will enable us to make finer distinctions among the many products we test. You'll also notice that the magazine has undergone a facelift, thanks to the design work of art director Richard Demler and his talented staff. Important changes are also going on behind the scenes at the magazine. We recently increased our edit and labs staff so that we can test even more products, especially in areas where consumer electronics meet personal computers. At PC Magazine Labs in New York, we just finished building a digital-imaging lab to test digital cameras and camcorders. We've also upgraded our wireless-testing equipment and enlarged our network test-bed with 120 new nodes. And in our West Coast facility, we'll now be able to test big-screen television in our new consumer display–testing lab.
As computer and consumer electronics products evolve, we're committed to evolving PC Magazine along with them. Please let us know what you think.
Windows on the Edge
Microsoft Windows is in for some big changes in Europe, since last-minute talks between Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and European Union competition commissioner Mario Monti broke down in March, leaving Microsoft bracing for a legal fight. The EU then ruled that Microsoft violated European competition laws. It ordered Microsoft to pay a $613 million fine, to produce a version of Windows that does not include Windows Media Player, and to make more details of its client operating system available to competing vendors of server operating systems. Microsoft, of course, is appealing.
Sound familiar? In fact, the arguments are very similar to those used in the U.S. antitrust case, in which Microsoft was found guilty of anticompetitive actions against Netscape in its bundling and promotion of Internet Explorer. In the EU case, though, the subject isn't Microsoft's Web browser but its media player, which competes with RealNetworks' RealPlayer and Apple's QuickTime. The case could take years to resolve, as has the U.S. antitrust case, which is still winding down.
In the near term, though, Microsoft may be forced to offer versions of Windows with and without Media Player. More important is the EU's concern about forward-looking software—meaning software that Microsoft could bundle into future versions of Windows. It was on this very issue that the two sides couldn't agree.
New versions of any OS usually include features that some software developer was already offering. For example, Microsoft is improving the firewall in Windows Service Pack 2; it has added personal video– recording features to Media Center Edition; and it is said to be considering antivirus features and content indexing for the next major release of Windows, code-named Longhorn. The conclusion of the U.S. case doesn't seem to offer clear guidelines as to what Microsoft can and can't add to Windows. While I understand the need to police antitrust violations, I'm concerned that too many restrictions may result in less innovation for everyone.
XP Reloaded
While Microsoft's legal worries drag on, it looks as if the Longhorn release of Windows will be pushed off even farther. According to rumors from Redmond, this is partly because people have been pulled off Longhorn to work on security fixes for Windows XP Service Pack 2, which is due in a few months. In view of the latest EU action, Microsoft could push the release back even more. The result may be an interim release of Windows, which some are calling XP Reloaded.
I can understand that Microsoft wants to get new technology out faster than its current plan of releasing a major new OS every few years. I just hope that the result is comparable to Windows 98, which was an improvement on Windows 95 that didn't change the underlying code—as opposed to the equivalent of Windows Me, which looked good but wasn't stable. Despite having too many security holes and their associated patches, Win XP has proved to be a stable OS, and stability should continue to be a top priority.
Better Ways to Search
It's amazing how something as simple as search has become one of the hottest technologies in the computer industry. Google continues to be the leader, and the company continues to come up with innovations such as a new "local" search feature for finding information related to your local area. Meanwhile, Yahoo! has a new search engine that claims to do a better job of giving you more relevant information. And MSN is about to enter with a new search engine of its own. Each has its own toolbar for accessing its search tool more easily. The intense competition can only push the technology forward.
I'm also impressed with some of the add-ons that make these search tools more useful. p-ZOOM, a neat little utility that runs inside Internet Explorer, organizes your search engine's results into categories. It often helps me narrow down a search quickly.
Grokker is a clever way of organizing search data visually. It creates concentric circles, breaking out search results into different areas to help you see related topics. The new version also searches Google.
Another new utility is Onfolio, which helps you collect and analyze the information you find online. As you search, you can easily clip information and store it as part of a collection. The Onfolio Publisher module helps you create a report based on that information. It's a highly useful tool.
Often, people just need to know a simple fact. For that, the best tool I've seen is GuruNet, and it, too, has a new version. GuruNet is a subscription service that gives you answers or related information from a variety of reference services. If you have the new version, you can search online at www.gurunet.com, run it as a toolbar, or load a local client that lets you Alt-Click on any word to pull up the search results.
My Favorite New Utility
My favorite new utility is X1, which indexes my e-mail, contacts, and files, then lets me search through them in a flash. This sounds easy but is actually quite difficult. I've tried similar products over the years, but they either require too much overhead or aren't stable. The folks behind X1 are from IdeaLab; many years ago, they worked on a DOS search tool I loved called Magellan. Since then, the issues have gotten more complex: I get loads more e-mail now than I did then, files change more quickly, and everything needs to run in the background.
Version 3 of X1 is stable enough to recommend. I use it to search through e-mail. I just type a word or two I think is in the message, and X1 returns the messages that include it. I can also search by a particular sender or date. The results are instantaneous. X1 works with Outlook, Outlook Express, Netscape, and Eudora mail. It does not have every feature you could possibly want—one of our editors desperately wants phrase searching—but I find X1 incredibly useful.
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Copyright © 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in PC Magazine.