FEB 1996

Britain's favourite Personal Computer magazine

Personal-

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VNU Business Publications

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Modem

MegaT

ium

Pros

Six P6s on trial

Enhanced CDs

Where data and audio meet

Low priced lasers

ljf| from just £299

Qemm 8 for Win95

IF YOUR CD-ROM OR 3.5" DISK ARE MISSING ASK YOUR NEWSAGENT

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February 1996|

PCW

&

Contents

V34 Modems

198

So you want to get online? First step is to get hold of a fast, up-to-the-minute modem. Geoff Marshall tested fifteen, priced from as little as £139.

Cover Photography by Bruce Mackie

Cover Disk or CD-ROM

Cover Disk

8

Group

Tests

Visual Programming 130

• Visual Basic once ruled the roost but now it has a whole host of young pretenders with which to contend.

Tim Anderson checks out the opposition.

V34 Modems

• 15 fast modems on test.

198

Hey! Tiny Elvis is alive and kicking on our disk. Plus, find your way with our mini version of the AA’s A to B route planner.

• PCW Interactive CD-ROM 9

650Mb of programs, with demos, games, a selection of the best utilities, and more... (CD-ROM Notes continue on page 102.)

Awards ’96 Nominations ^ 119

• Your chance to vote for the 1996 PCl/1/awards „ , and WIN a

1 Dan Pentium 133.

Features

Enhanced CDs

by GEORGE COLE

Are interactive albums a passing fad or the next CD-ROM revolution? We explain what they are and check out a selection.

Dominic O’Brien

by MICHAEL HEWITT

Want to beat the odds? Dominic O’Brien reveals how a PC and a brilliant memory helped him to blackjack gambling success.

Amstrad PcW 16 i o 6

by SIMON ROCKMAN

A sense of deja vdu surrounds our review of this new desktop machine.

Pentium Pros 122

by DYLAN ARMBRUST

A mini round-up of the first superfast Pentium Pro machines to hit the PCI/l/office.

ABC GraphicsSuite 175

by PAUL FISHER

Powerful, general-purpose graphics software for Windows 95 that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

Access 7 for Win95 is a

by ELEANOR TURTON-HILL

Easier than ever for non-programmers to use, but the phrases “a dog” and “runs like” tend to spring to mind.

Ergonomics & RSI 1 9 c

by NICKY GLATTER

Are you sitting comfortably? A lot of PC users aren’t, and repetitive strain injury could be the result.

Cheap laser printers

by ELEANOR TURTON-HILL

Personal laser printers churn out excellent black and white text and graphics, and can cost as little as £300.

We test out the latest generation.

Delphi Tutorial:

by TIM ANDERSON

In the final part of our Delphi tutorial, we tackle building a database application and making Delphi’s data-aware components slot together.

2 18

Part 4

222

6

PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD

FEBRUARY 1996

February 1996

4

First Impressions 55

Regulars

■Personal,

mpu

World

Hands On

58 Viglen Genie PCI 166MHz

Intel’s fastest Pentium yet and the quickest way to run Win95.

60 Microsoft Money for Windows 95

61 Power Computing Power 120

The new breed of Macintosh clones arrives.

63 Quarterdeck QEMM 8.0

A memory manager that’s worthwhile even with Windows 95.

65 Dell Latitude ST1 20

66 AST vs Brother home PCs 68 Canon BJC-610

72 Apple Newton 2.0

73 Connor EIDE tape backup

73 Diamond Multimedia Edge 3D

The first of the do-it-all video cards with support for MPEG and sound.

74 Wacom UltraPad

76 MoreMem and TopBar 4.0 76 Mannesmann Tally T7010T 78 SMS link for Psion 3a 78 Hewlett-Packard 5simx DataBecker

Family tree “

Long Term Tests

84 Canon BJC-600

85 TurboCAD 2

18

31

37

39

41

43

45

48

357

358

647

Newsprint

Microsoft in massive assault on the Net. Amstrad revives its word processor. NexGen unveils Pentium Pro-beater. Intel launches 166MHz Pentium — and says PI 00 set to become entry level. BT stands firm on ISDN prices... but disk-based phone directories get cheaper. Cambridge firm pioneers electronic paper. Tulip offers notebook-like desktop PC. Macro bombs highlight new online threat. Cheap Macs on the way as Motorola signs UK PowerPC deal.

News Analysis

• Tim Bajarin on Oracle’s new approach to home computing.

• Ben Tisdall looks at customer service.

• Clive Akass asks why BT charges so much for its faster digital lines.

Computations NEW!

Rowland Morgan has fun with statistics.

Sounding Off by Michael Hewitt

Homefront by Tim Nott Straight Talking by Barry Fox Business Matters by Nick Beard Letters

PCW Marketplace The best place to compare hardware and software prices.

Buyer’s Charter ChipChat

■U

291 Introduction

292 Windows 95 296 Windows 3.1 298 OS/2

300 32-Bit

303 DOS

304 Word Processing 308 Spreadsheets 312 Databases

316 Graphics & DTP 322 Multimedia 326 Sound

330 Visual Programming

337 Numbers Count

338 Networks 342 Comms 348 Macintosh

351 Computer Answers 353 Beginners

CUTTinG EDGE

2 3 1 Introduction

PCWOnline 2 3 2 Focus: Hot Java “Java Jim” Smith spills the beans 2 3 8 Net.answers 2 4 2 Net.news

(incorporating Net.surf)

2 4 9 Net.newbies 2 5 0 Focus: HTML part 2

PCW Futures 2 5 9 Innovations 2 6 1 Horizons 2 6 3 Bluesky 2 6 5 Retro Computing

PCWMedia 266 Books 2 7 4 CD-ROMs

PCWFun 2 6 9 Kids’ Stuff 2 7 9 Screenplay

(with Leisure Lines, page 282)

7

PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD

FEBRUARY 1996

PCW

Cover

Disk

If you’ve always poo-poohed claims that Elvis is alive and well and stacking shelves in Asda, proof to the contrary is here at last. Tiny Elvis is an invaluable utility which allows The King to randomly pop up onto your desktop. He’ll dance, and provided you have a sound card, he may even offer some constructive criticism of your Windows setup.

A to B

The AA’s nifty A to B Route Planner could save the day for the directionally challenged — we’ve squeezed the cut-down version onto our cover disk. It includes the UK’s 1 50 biggest towns and cities. Even though the number of cities is limited, the number of possible combinations you can try runs to several billion. The locations supported range from Blackpool to Bognor Regis, Winchester to Wolverhampton. If you would like to upgrade to the full release of the program, call the number that appears in the program and remember to quote “ATOB/PCW”

IMPORTANT

If you have problems with the Cover Disk such as receiving a “Cannot read from drive A”, error, please return the disk to the duplica¬ tor: TIB pic (PCW), TIB House, 1 1 Edward Street, Bradford BD4 7BH (who may be con¬ tacted on 01274 736990) together with a stamped addressed envelope and two 25p stamps. Where it is a duplication fault, the postage will be returned along with a replace¬ ment disk.

If your problem is not due to a faulty disk, and a phone number is shown for the publish¬ er of the program in question, then it will prob¬ ably be quicker for you to call them first as they will be able to provide direct assistance on their own programs faster than might other¬ wise be possible.

Alternatively, ring our Cover Disk hotline on weekdays between 10.30am and 4.30pm on 0891 7 1 5929. Calls are charged at 39p per minute cheap rate and 49p at all other times.

The PCW cover disk is virus checked at every stage of production. However, PCI/l/will not accept liability for any problems arising from the use of the disk. Installing or running any of the programs on the disk indicates your agreement to this condition.

You are advised not to install any software on a networked PC before checking the disk. While PCW maintains a high standard of quality control, disks may be damaged in transportation. Check the disk’s shutter before inserting it in the drive by sliding it to the left and allowing it to spring back.

Aberdeen - Gramp Barnsley - S.York Barrow-in-Furness - Cumb Basildon - Essex Basingstoke - Hants Bath - Avon Bedford - Beds Birkenhead - Mersyd Birmingham - W.Mids Blackburn - Lancs Blackpool - Lancs Bognor Regis - W.Susx Bolton - Gt.Man Bootle - Mersyd Bournemouth - Dorset Bradford - W.York Brentwood - Essex Brighton - E.Susx Bristol - Avon Burnley - Lancs Bury - Gt.Man Cambridge - Cambs Cannock - Staffs Cardiff - S. Glam Carlisle - Cumb Chatham - Kent Chelmsford - Essex Cheltenham - Gloucs Chester - Ches Chesterfield - Derbys

Clacton-on-Sea - Essex Coatbridge - Strath Colchester - Essex Coventry - W.Mids Crawley - W.Susx Crewe - Ches Darlington - Dur Derby - Derbys Doncaster - S.York Dover - Kent Dudley - W.Mids Dundee - Tays Dunfermline - Fife East Kilbride - Strath Eastleigh - Hants Edinburgh - Loth Ellesmere Port - Ches Exeter - Devon Folkestone - Kent Gateshead - T&W Glasgow - Strath Gloucester - Gloucs Gravesend - Kent Great Yarmouth - Norfk Greenock - Strath Grimsby - Humb Guildford - Surrey Halesowen - W.Mids Halifax - W.York Hamilton - Strath

Harlow - Essex Harrogate - N.York Hartlepool - Cleve Hastings - E.Susx Havant - Hants High Wycombe - Bucks Hove - E.Susx Huddersfield -W.York Ipswich - Suffk Keighley -W.York Kidderminster - H&W Kilmarnock - Strath Leamington Spa - Warwks Leeds - W.York Leicester - Leics Lincoln - Lines Liverpool - Mersyd London - Gt.Lon Lowestoft - Suffk Luton - Beds Maidstone - Kent Manchester - Gt.Man Mansfield - Notts Margate - Kent Middlesbrough - Cleve Middleton - Gt.Man Newcastle-under-Lyme - Staffs Newcastle-upon-Tyne - T&W Newport - Gwent Northampton - Nhants Norwich - Norfk Nottingham - Notts Nuneaton - Warwks Oldham - Gt.Man Oxford - Oxon Paisley - Strath Peterborough - Cambs Plymouth - Devon Poole - Dorset Portsmouth - Hants Preston - Lancs Reading - Berks Redditch - H&W

Rochdale - Gt.Man Rochester - Kent Rugby - Warwks Scunthorpe - Humb Sheffield - S.York Shrewsbury - Shrops Slough - Berks Southend-on-Sea - Essex Southport - Mersyd St Albans - Herts St Helens - Mersyd Stafford - Staffs Staines - Surrey Stevenage - Herts Stirling - Cent Stockport - Gt.Man Stoke-on-Trent - Staffs Stourbridge - W.Mids Sunderland - T&W Sutton Coldfield - W.Mids Swansea - W.GIam Swindon - Wilts Tamworth - Staffs Tayport - Fife Telford - Shrops Torquay - Devon Tunbridge Wells - Kent Wakefield - W.York Wallasey - Mersyd Walsall -W.Mids Warrington - Ches Waterlooville - Hants Watford - Herts West Bromwich - W.Mids Weston-super-Mare - Avon Widnes - Ches Wigan - Gt.Man Winchester - Hants Woking - Surrey Wolverhampton - W.Mids Worcester - H&W Worthing - W.Susx York - N.York

FEBRUARY

19 9 6

David Price introduces this month’s blockbuster of a CD- ROM, crammed with fantastic multimedia demos, fast-action shoot-em-ups, stunning soccer games, a selection of the best utilities, and much, much more. It may be cold outside, but PCWI brings you a CD-ROM to warm the most frozen of cockles.

MAIN FEATURES

Demos

This month the PCWI CD-ROM is under siege from more explosive demos than Mururoa Atoll. Included is Tempest 2000 — hectic new arcade action from the resurgent Atari and their top programmer Jeff Minter who reputedly owns a real-life Llama farm! While Endor Fun promises mind-bending and

PCW INTERACTIVE:

Entire Contents List

Actua Soccer — A bigger hit than Eric Cantona at Selhurst Park.

The Art of Magic — Learn where to stick your wand.

Endor Fun — Mind bending, stategy, and subliminal messages — it’s no endor fun. Picture Album — Produce your own photo albums and accompanying text.

Retros — Stylish demo and video selection from the beat combo of the same name. Tempest 2000 — Llama-man and Atari programmer Jeff Minter’s pulsating shoot- em-up.

Triazzle — Rotate your pieces devillishly, puzzle fiends.

Hexen — The Doom creators bring you an excellent new game

You’re Hired — Job interview test simulator.

Oakley date services — Oakley’s superb and complete Smart software.

Linux — The powerfully compatible operating system for PCs

Critical Mass — Acclaimed game for Buzz Aldrin with a taste for mayhem.

Cthuga — Turn your PC into a fractal disco light spectacular.

Defendroid — Shoot your boosters off in ecstacy with top hole arcade memories. TheJungle Book — Be the king of the swingers.

Illusion — How did you ever live without this graphic editing package?

Jazz Jackrabbit — Hi-spec updated demo of the new improved bunnymungous favourite

Multimedia Home Database — Plot labour- saving routines for other people while you put your feet up.

PC Rally — Not a gathering of junior police¬ men; a fast and addictive driving game. Sound Effects Generator — Create and edit sounds like you never believed.

Spelling Sentry — Invaluable utility for Windows Write files.

Tiny Elvis — Stunted Presley arrives unexpectedly.

Personal a

Computer

World

Delphi — Hands on the Delphi files accom¬ panying the magazine tutorial Windows 95 — A mixed bag of pulsating Microsoft tools.

Visual Basic Hands On — The file bonanza from the VB articles continues.

PCW Back Issues — Tip toe down memory lane.

CONTINUES

OVER

Otto’s Resolve — Unmissable Context Menu for shortcuts.

Win95 Graphic Display Drivers

Copy QM — Essential backup for Microsoft

High Density floppy copying.

NBench — Gives your PC’s operating system a thorough check-up.

Sound Gadget Pro — Gorgeous 32-bit sound editing.

Tommy’s CAD — Fab CAD (Easy and powerful)

Moneybox — Cash flow and accountancy support for the Hush Puppy-wearing Chan¬ cellor of the Exchequer in your household.

Just for you Mac pleasure-seekers out there, we’ve included 25Mb of the latest Shareware to tickle your juicy Apples and get your Macs flapping.

[Minimum requirements: 4Mb free RAM (some can be in a permanent swapfile), 386SX/33 processor, Windows 3.1 . Users with less than this should be able to run all the DOS programs on the CD-ROM directly from DOS or Windows (rather than using the front-end). For best performance we recommend: 8Mb installed RAM, 486 DX/50 processor, Windows 3.11 or Windows 95]

CONTINUES ON PAGE 103

PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD

FEBRUARY 1996

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9

COVER DISK

+1

powerful operating system, and the ever present incredible shrunken Elvis will bring your PC to new heights of usefulness.

Mac software

If Al Bunny’s Typing, Cribbage and Sonix fail to quicken your pulse then you must already be in cryogenic suspension!

Includes all this and over 20Mb more fun, games and utilities.

controversial subliminal messages, so decide for yourself. And don’t miss Actua Soccer, a cutting edge game which is as close as you or George Graham can get to the real thing. Plus there are many more fabulous demos to try out.

Windows 95

We bring you the latest gadgets and gizmos to complement your flashy new Windows 95 operating system.

Utilities

As usual we bring you the backup to some of our most popular magazine articles, and among this stash of good¬ ies is the indispensable Windows 95 Microsoft Power Tools and some Del¬ phi gems. Plus there’s Oakley’s com¬ plete set of SMART software, a

About last month’s CD-ROM

Some readers may have received a General Protection Fault when running the CompuServe demo on last month’s disc. If this happened to you, you should not use the front-end to call it up, but you can run the demo and install the new version of WinCim if you double click on the program CSERVE.EXE in the root direc¬ tory of the CD using File Manager (or Windows 95 Explorer).

Configuring Video for Windows

If you select the “New users start here” button, on the first page of PCW Interactive you’ll have the opportunity to install the latest version of the Video for Windows runtime, so that you can view the digital movies on the CD. If you haven’t installed Video for Win¬ dows from a PCW Interactive CD before, then you should install this new version as it contains the latest drivers which deliver higher quality, a larger size and a faster play¬ back rate. If you don’t install the new version, some videos will display the message “Cannot display this video”, or give similar warnings.

There are also some extra buttons on the Video for Windows page, which allow you to fine-tune your PC’s perfor¬ mance without having to leave PCW Interactive or restart Windows. In par¬ ticular you can choose to have digital movies played back on your PC at full screen resolution! That’s right, without having to recourse to hardware add¬ ons such as MPEG cards, you can have full screen digital videos when you run the PCW Interactive CD-ROM.

But please remember that when you exit from PCW Interactive, if you leave

All that Jazz Jackrabblt

Jumpin’ Jazz Jackrabbit

Could it be Magic? Yes, just like that

Mind-bending strategy with Endor Fun

Graphics editing with Illusion

16 7

PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD

FEBRUARY 1996

CD-ROM

Right and below Retros: dig that crazy beat combo Far right Triazzle: Rotate your pieces in a devilish fashion, puzzle fans

-fU»

]F|

the option for full screen video selected, then all video in other applications will also be full screen. If you don’t want this, then re-run PCW

linteractive and select the “Windowed” option and quit again.

Testing your CD-ROM

If you suspect your CD-ROM may actu¬ ally be faulty or damaged you can run the file CDTEST.EXE in the SYSTEM directory of the CD-ROM. The program will then examine every byte of data in the PC partition of the disc to see if it can be correctly read. The process takes up to 35 minutes and generates a verifica¬ tion code if the disc passes the test. If the CD-ROM fails this test, try cleaning it with a light solution of washing-up liquid and dry it with a lint-free cloth and run the test again. If it still fails, return your CD-ROM to the magazine for a free replacement.

You are free to copy the CDTEST.EXE program to your hard disk in order to test other CD-ROMs, as long as it is not distributed in any way. If you are running CDTEST from your hard drive you need to specify the CD-ROM drive to test, as follows:

CDTEST D:

Note: We offer this tool “As is” purely as an aid to diagnosing possible faults, some of which may occur because an older version of MSCDEX.EXE is in use and not because of a faulty CD-ROM, and disclaim any responsibility for any erroneous error reports it may generate.

0

IMPORTANT — READ THIS! General Protection Faults

If you receive Gen¬ eral Protection Faults when running PCWI or playing any digital videos, your graphics display driver may not be entirely 100 percent Microsoft compatible. The answer is therefore to install one of Microsoft’s own drivers, as follows (but NOT if you are using Windows 95, as the drivers supplied with it are even newer than the ones on this disc):

1 . Run “Windows Setup” from File Manager, then select “Options” followed by “Change System Settings”.

2. Scroll through the list of displayed graphic dri¬ vers until you get to the final entry “Other Display (Requires Disk from OEM)”, and select it.

3. Insert this month’s CD-ROM into the drive and replace the “A:\” prompt with “D:\SYSTEM\SVGA256” (changing the D: to the correct letter if your CD-ROM is not in drive D:), then press Return.

4. Scroll through the new drivers until you find the ones beginning “Super VGA....” and select the one for the reso¬ lution you prefer to use. The driver will then be installed and Windows restarted. PCWI and Video for Windows should then have no further problems.

If this works (which it should do in 95 percent of cases) you may wish to con¬ tact the supplier of your graphics card to see if they have an updated graphic dri¬ ver. If Microsoft’s drivers don’t work you will need to contact your graphics card supplier anyway.

If video for Windows install fails

If the Video for Windows installation fails and you receive an error such as “XXXXXXXX.YYY cannot be updated as it is a shared file”. The answer is to delete the file “XXXXXXXX.YYY” (or whatever it is called) and reinstall Video for Windows.

If PCWI is slow to load or runs slowly

You need at least 4Mb of RAM free to

PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD

FEBRUARY 1996

use PCWI. If necessary you can obtain this by creating a permanent swap file of up to 4Mb. You are also advised to enable read caching of your CD-ROM by adding its name to the SMARTDRV line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. You should also allow MSCDEX to set up its own buffers by adding a line such as /M:10 to the MSCDEX line, also in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Please refer to your manuals for full details.

Windows NT and OS/2

Unfortunately Macromedia Director, the program used to create PCWI, is incom¬ patible with Windows NT. However, you should be able to run PCWI from OS/2 by simply calling up PCWI.EXE from the command line.

PCW Advice & Contacts

The PCW CD-ROM is virus checked at every stage of production. However, PCW will not accept liability for any problems arising from its use. You are advised not to install software on a networked PC before checking the disc.

For technical support on the CD-ROM and the programs on it call the VNU 24- hour Hotline on 0891 616 444. This is a computerised touch-tone advice system providing hints and tips on a wide range of topics. It also offers you the opportunity to speak to a member of our technical support staff during office hours by pressing the “0” key on your keypad. Calls cost 39p min off- peak and 49p at all other times (tone phones only).

Using the computerised system, you can access the information you need very quickly. If you ask to speak to a member of our technical support staff and we cannot answer your question immediately, we will offer to call you back at our expense. Out¬ side office hours you can leave us a mes¬ sage by pressing the “9” key. If you leave your phone number, we’ll call you back at the earliest opportunity during office hours.

If you prefer you can email rnixon@cix.compulink.co.uk, or

CompuServe: 70007,5547, or write to us at tho manazinp

4~i Personal -

Computer

World!

Editorial

Editor Ben Tisdall Associate Editor Simon Rockman News Editor Clive Akass Cutting Edge Editor PJ Fisher Features Editor Chris Cain Reviews Editor Gordon Laing Technical Writer Eleanor Turton-Hill Staff Writers Adele Dyer Dylan Armbrust

Editorial Assistant Joanna Scott

Columnists Nick Beard / Barry Fox Michael Hewitt /Tim Nott/ Rowland Morgan

International Correspondent Tim Bajarin Contributors

Eric Adler • Tim Anderson •

Nick Beard • Paul Begg • Chris Bidmead • Stephen Caplin • JJ Clessa • Stephen Cobb • George Cole • Simon Collin • Drew Cullen • Andrew DornaneTim Frost# Panicos Georghiades • Nicky Glatter • Terence Green • Simon Head •

Steven Helstrip • Michael Hewitt • Toby Howard Gabriel Jacobs • FRK Jarvis • Cliff Joseph Nicola Kingsley • Frank Leonhardt • Ken Me Mahon • Bruce Mackie • Johnny Millar • Rowland Morgan • Mike Mudge • Janice Murray •Tim Nott • Tim Phillips • David Price • Stephen Rodda • Joanna Scott# Jim Smith • Stephen Wells • Mark Whitehorn • Nigel Whitfield • David Whyte

Editorial Phone 0171 316 9000 Editorial Fax 0171 316 9313 Editorial Email

first namejast name@pcw.ccmail.compuserve.com VNU Web Site url://www.vnu.co.uk/hc/pcw/

Production

Production Editor Lauraine Lee Sub-Editors Patrick Ramus Jessica Hodgson

Design

Art Editor Darrell Kingsley Designer Jeanine Fox

VNU Labs

Labs Manager George MacDonald

Labs Technical Director Julian Evans Operations Manager Alan Ryder

Lab Phone 0171 316 9067 Lab Fax 0171 316 9059

Enquiries or complaints regarding any advertiser in this magazine should, initially, be presented in writing to: Anthony George, ‘Customer Relations Department’, VNU Business Publications, VNU House,

32-34 Broadwick Street, London W1A 2HG.

Advertising

Head of Sales Paula Devine 0171 316 9194 Portfolio Sales Manager Pranav J Oza 0171 316 9466 Assistant Ad Manager Kevin Elderfield 0171 316 9303 Senior Sales Executives Catherine J Russell 0171 316 9461 Jon Miles 0171 316 9302 PC Consumer Sales Ben Hedges 0171 316 9308 Nick O’Connor 0171 316 9304 Matt Rigney 0171 316 9306 Beccy Carr 01 71 316 9307 Fran Taylor 0171 316 9309 Stuart Mills 0171 316 9439

Micromart Sales Executives Robert Miskin 0171 316 9305

Sales Support Executive Susie Ross 0171 316 9465 Credit Control Manager Tosh Bruce-Morgan 0171 316 9667

US Sales Representative Global Media Representatives, Inc 0101 415 306 0880 Taiwan Sales Representatives Grace Chu/Kent Lai 010 886 2717 7663

Production

Production Controller Melanie Thomson 0171 316 9481 Production Manager Adrian Brown 0171 316 9484 Micromart Production Assistant Susie Ross 0171 316 9306

Circulation

Subscriptions Manager Leisha Bulley 0171 316 9712 Subscriptions Supervisor Joanne Nicholls 0171 316 9713

Publishing

Founder Angelo Zgorelec

Marketing Manager Juliet Parker 0171 316 9191 Marketing & Sales Co-ordinator Timothy Mickelborough 0171 316 9820 Portfolio Administrator Janaya Warren 0171 316 9525 Publisher Jon Ross 0171 316 9187

Test Results are based wholly or in part on methodologies provided by National Software Testing Laboratories, a division of McGraw-Hill Inc, and licensed to Personal Computer World. Neither NSTL nor the Publisher guarantees the accuracy or adequacy of its testing activities and makes no representations or warranties regarding tested products. Articles or portions of articles translated and reprinted (or adapted) in this issue from PC Digest or Software Digest Copyright (c) 1994, by National Software Testing Laboratories (NSTL), a division of McGraw-Hill, Inc, 625 Ridge Pike, Conshohocken, Pennsylvania 19428, USA. Reproduction of the NSTL material in any manner or language in whole or in part without permission of NSTL is prohibited.

ABC

BUSINESS PRESS

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JAN-JUNE '95

VNU BUSINESS PUBLICATIONS

REPRINTS

We offer a full reprint service for reproduction of all or part of any current or previous articles. Minimum order 1 ,000. For details contact Melanie Thomson (0171 316 9000).

USE OF EXTRACTS

We are delighted for people to use quotations and segments of articles for internal or promotional purposes. For clearance contact Juliet Parker (0171 316 9000).

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Call 0171 316 9700. Fax 0171 316 9699. Credit card orders welcome.

BACK ISSUES

We keep a stock of past issues and can provide individual copies at a charge of £5. Call Tom Costin (0171 316 9714).

VNU House, 32-34 Broadwick Street, London W1 A 2HG.

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No material may be reproduced in whole or in part without written consent from the copyright holder© VNU Business Publications 1996.

Advertisement typesetting by Typematters, London N1.

Origination by Latent Image, 6 Balmoral Grove, London N7.

Printed and bound in the UK by St Ives pic, Plymouth. Distributed by Comag, Tavistock Road, West Drayton, Middlesex (01 895 444055).

1 2

PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD

FEBRUARY 1996

Editorial

For a long time, dragging a free “journalist’s account” out of CompuServe was like rock-climbing in roller skates. Then Microsoft relaunched Microsoft Network, about a zillion Internet Service Providers appeared, and America Online decided to launch in the UK. It’s now hard to get within 50 yards of anyone at CompuServe without being knocked off your feet by a ton of free accounts.

Perhaps I am exaggerating a little, but the Internet is responsible for waking quite a few slumbering giants. The Online Information Show was a dozy backwater a couple of years ago; full of librarians dusting off text-based CD-ROMs.

Last year, in early December, it was held at Olympia (this year, perhaps Earls Court?) and was chock-full of Internet stuff. At the show, companies who for years have charged a bomb for providing “business intelligence” on private networks were scrabbling to get onto the Internet. MAID, for example, which sells the Corporate Profound database, announced it had turned all its mainframes into a giant Web site.

One by one, the main objections to using the Internet are being eliminated. The bandwidth is low and it falls over all the time: telecomms companies and large corporations are continually putting in new pipes to remedy that. Most of the content costs nothing and is worth little: people are now talking about four levels of Internet access; free, pay as you go, subscription and premium (where you subscribe and pay as you go).

Increasingly, the Internet and online have become synonymous, which is why companies like Microsoft and CompuServe are frantically back¬ pedalling on their proprietary bulletin board approaches and re-launching, with heavy emphasis, on the Internet.

• Microsoft joins calls for cheaper digital lines, page 21

Ben Tisdall Editor

Multimed ia Notebooks

Suite

talking:

MS Office 95

vs

SmartSuite 95

Hard disk upgrades:

which one to buy.

Next Computer

Month Jr,d

Pentium notebooks with sound and CD-ROM drives

March '96 issue

— On sale Thursday 8th February

April '96 issue — On sale Thursday 7th March • Sound cards •DTP software

1 3

PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD

FEBRUARY 1996

Newsprint

NEWS Highlights

Generation gap 19

NexGen says chip puts Pentium Pro power on a Pentium board

Same old digital line 21

BT stands firms as Microsoft joins call for cheaper ISDN lines

Paper chase 22

New polymer diodes could lead to “electronic paper”

Bomb threat 24

Macro bombs highlight peril of new fashion for downloading mini-apps

Mac clones 29

British PC makers may build PowerPC boxes rather than fight box-shifting giants

Software bestsellers 29

One snippet of news almost got lost in Gates’s Net stategy speech: there will be no Windows 96.

Instead there will be a major free add-on for Net users which will “integrate folders and Web pages,” Gates said.

This will allow you to view page hierarchy of Web sites, or navigate your PC like it is a Web site.

This will only work with sites that support the features.

Gates said there will be a major upgrade of Microsoft Office, which will also be bound tightly to the Net. All applications will support the Web page- description language HTML.

The effect of all these changes will be to merge the browser into Windows, so that you will not have to start a separate application to use the Web.

See www.microsoft.com for more details.

Amstrad revamps its PCW word processor

Amstrad has launched a PC/TV, the Amstrad Integra, and updated versions of its best¬ selling PCW word processor.

Amstrad chairman, Alan Sugar, claimed the £899 Integra was “a breakthrough in price”. Sugar sees it as the first genera¬ tion of a technology that will migrate onto large-screen TVs in the future.

The entry-level product has an 80MHz 486DX2 processor and just 4Mb of memory. Upgrading to the 8Mb needed by Win95 costs £1 1 0; the soft¬

ware bundle of WordPerfect Works, Quicken 4, Links Pro, Encarta and Descent adds another £100.

Otherwise, it is reasonably well specified with a quad-speed CD-ROM, PCI bus, TV with Fastext and remote control, a 540Mb hard disk and a 14.4bps fax/modem.

Long-time readers may be more interested in the new PcW 16 (review, page 106). The original PCW 8256, launched in 1984 to instant acclaim, sold 800,000 in a year. This success

was consolidated by the PCI 512, launched in ‘86 at £399.

Amstrad’s PcW 16 also costs £399. It comes with a much improved screen, a Canon bubblejet printer, and a 3.5in floppy drive which will read DOS disks. Software now includes a diary, address book and spreadsheet.

The PcW 16 is also available with an Oki laser printer for £499 or on its own for £299.

The decision to launch a new PCW was based on a hunch and continued interest from existing users, said Sugar.

Users will be able to transfer existing PCW files onto the new disks. Ben Tisdall

Gates strikes Internet gold

Bill Gates nailed his colours to the Internet mast last month with a strategy speech that could prove as important as the Win95 launch - and provoked calls for a new monopoly probe.

He described the Net as “the new goldrush” and said online transactions of as low as one cent would become viable, opening up vast business possibilities.

Most controversial was a range of software moves that will squeeze specialists like Netscape. Gates announced:

• New free versions of his Internet Explorer browser for Windows 3.1 , NT and 95 as well as the Mac OS. In Win95, it allows you to drag-and-drop hypertext links to the desktop where they appear as shortcuts - and that’s just the start (see story, left). • Visual Basic Script, with security features for online use. Browsers will be able to run VBS apps.

It is clearly designed to compete with Java (see page 29).

• Active VRML, to enable 3D animations. It will require extensions to the Web’s HTML scripting language.

• A “digital signature initiative” to use encryption techniques to certify the source of a file.

• Internet Studio, a new Web authoring tool. Allows you to give Web pages magazine-quality graphics. Viewers will be freely available.

Bill Gates says we II have to wait for broadband connections, but British Telecom is experimenting with this optical link capable of 80Gbitslsec. Sadly, BT seems reluctant to give us a humble 64Kbitlsec — see page 21 and News Analysis, page 35.

The speech was a retreat in that Gates appeared to be relaunching his Microsoft Network (MSN) more as a friendly Internet gateway than as a CompuServe-style provider of services.

MSN access was bundled with Win95, provok¬ ing a monopoly probe which at one point threat¬ ened to scupper the launch. MSN proved a damp squib because it was not ready in time. UK lines were unusably slow.