Dad's crunching spreadsheet numbers on his PC upstairs. Mom's writing a grant proposal on her machine downstairs. Junior's browsing the Internet in his room. But what happens if Dad wants to get on the Net, or if Mom wants to use the color printer that's attached to Junior's computer? This family needs a home network.
MP3 files have come to the rescue of many independent musicians who want to bypass the uncaring big record companies and market their music over the Internet. But this technology leaves a lot of work for all you potential listeners. You have to find and download the files--then you need an MP3 player utility to listen to the tunes.
IBM this week is firing another shot in the battle of the low-cost PC. Big Blue is announcing a line of PC 300 desktop systems aimed primarily at budget-minded small businesses, with prices starting at $US679 (not including monitor).
Deja.com, the "buyer's portal" offshoot of the Deja News Usenet discussion service, this week expanded its comprehensive Precision Buying Service to the realm of consumer electronics.
It's been a big for week for Universal Serial Bus connectivity at Iomega Corp. On Monday the company announced a USB adapter for Jaz drives. And on Wednesday, Iomega rolled out the Clik PC Card Docking Station.
If you'd like to turn your home videos into Fellini-like masterpieces (or try, anyway), the new generation of digital camcorders--working in tandem with a PC equipped with a special add-in card and editing software--can get you started.
If you own an external Iomega Corp. removable-media Jaz drive, you know that moving your drive among computers isn't easy. You're limited to using PCs equipped with a SCSI port or Iomega's $49.95 SCSI-to-parallel interface, which requires special software drivers.
You may wear a pager or a cell phone on your belt. And if you're a genuine gadget freak, you might even wear one of those oh-so-stylish Leatherman multi-purpose tools in its own holster. But are you ready to wear a computer, complete with a head-mounted display?
Are you ready to toss your VCR and opt for the hard-disk-based TV recorder of the future? For the past year, two companies -- ReplayTV and TiVo -- have tried to convince you to do just that.
Web-based backup services offer peace of mind against a possible PC disaster. The services are widely available, but uploading all of your crucial files over a 56K-bps (bits-per-second) dial-up connection can be a laborious thumb-twiddling exercise. It's like filling your SUV's gas tank through a straw.
MP3 tunes are great when you're hooked to your PC or if you have a portable player. But don't you wish you could play your MP3 tunes on your car's cassette player, or that old-but-still-serviceable Walkman? A method is in development, and it won't involve laborious conversions from MP3 to .wav and dubbing to cassette tapes.
Wish you had a second PC for your home or office but don't want to spend a lot of money? The Applica Inc. Multimedia and Vega Technologies Inc.'s Buddy B-210A offer users on tight budgets the next best thing to another desktop system. Both products allow you to connect a second monitor, keyboard, and mouse to your existing Windows 95 or 98 PC so two users can share applications, files, printers, a modem, and a single Internet connection.
In a world of gadgets that deliver less than they promise, Play Inc.'s Snappy has long been a refreshing exception. The latest edition of this cell phone-size mechanism for capturing still images from video continues the tradition: It's handier and more versatile than ever.
With the right hardware and software, anyone can turn a PC into a digital movie studio.
The hot MP3 software market cranks up another degree with a wide-ranging media player from RioPort, released in a beta edition this week.