This is not the first 'desknote' that we've reviewed (see Protac DeskNote, June 2002, page 37) but in our estimation the Aspire 1703SC is the first system that truly expounds the virtues of true desknote-ism.
What makes PDF (Portable Document Format) unique is that it can provide an exact electronic replica of any document from any application on all major platforms, including all text, graphics and fonts. It’s an amazingly flexible format with a myriad of uses ranging from electronic manuals and e-books, through secure document exchange and archiving, to multimedia presentation and high-end commercial print.
Digital video is a rising star, with DV camera sales increasing from year to year and digital software sales to consumers and enthusiasts alike also on the rise. It's a welcome trend, to be sure, but with all such trends there is a widening gap between the digital haves and the have-nots, with no easy way to share video between.
The second cheapest scanner in our labs roundup this month, the S2W 5000U is designed with Web use in mind. As such, it features a 'Scan to Web' (S2W) and PDA (Palm compatible) quick launch function.
Another scanner to share the same software as the LiDE 20, Canon's 3000F boasts a jumbo sized Z-hinge for scanning of books and large bound documents helping to evenly light image scanning – great for students and perfect in conjunction with the quality results gained from the included OCR scanning software.
One of the larger form-factor units in this months Labs, Canons 9900F comes with a sexy mag alloy top coating and features a clearly labelled and attractive front control panel for easy single button press access.
The Canon LiDE 20 strikes a balance between quality and price. The scanner is well designed, with Z-hinges combined and the space-saving ability to stand upright.
We’ve seen products like Silicon Memory’s ClearLight range of portable hard drives before, yet the ClearLight has some of the most solid yet attractive plastic housing we’ve reviewed.
Throughout its long and chequered career – first under MetaCreations, then Procreate and now Corel – Painter has always stood out as the artistic and creative computer application bar none. The reason is simple: Painter's unique range of natural media brushes.
Telstra says it now has more than 300,000 ADSL subscribers and is on target to reach a million by 2005. The problem with home ADSL is that unlike cable, Telstra doesn’t make it easy to network even though it requires an Ethernet connection. Interestingly, the Ethernet requirement for broadband Internet connectivity is also helping to drive the rising popularity of home networks.
If you're looking for a computer geared for gaming, the Vitesse is it. If you think that a Pentium 4C rumbling at 3GHz with a massive 1GB of DDR400 RAM has a nice ring to it, its gamers'-poetry when you add in a RADEON 9800 PRO.
Supplied with Adobe Photoshop Elements it features direct printing, scanning, email and Web quick launch buttons.
The Epson Perfection 3200 Photo represents absolute quality scanning for the serious amateur or professional user.
It uses a matrix CCD and micro lens to produce an amazing 3,200dpi optical resolution. Even though it wasn't the highest optical resolution scanner this month, standing behind both the Microtek 4,800dpi scanners, it still produced stunning results without long scanning times, care of USB 2.0 and FireWire.
John Gillooly takes a ride with the limousine version of ATI’s luxury card.
Not the most advanced scanner this month, featuring just two front shortcut buttons, the HP scan software is pure simplicity with many advanced options
A 2,400 x 2,400dpi flatbed scanner, features an LCD and one-touch front panel buttons for printing/copying, emailing, burning and sharing images.
Subtitled, 'Steganography And The Art of Covert Communication', Hiding in plain sight is a thoroughly intriguing book about hidden communications. Whereas encryption is an obvious, yet impervious, form of communication, steganography (stego) is more about the communication aspect as it hides data where people may not think to look.
The 2300 series, HP's new laser offering for the small to medium-sized workgroup, includes a myriad of significant improvements over the previous 2200 series.
Looking sleek and a little smaller than your average midi tower, the t134a sits on top of the Pavilion series. This machine is a powerful home/office PC – not rigged purely for gaming.
We've been impressed with InFocus' low-priced video/data projectors in the past (review on the PC Authority Web site), and were keen to see what one of its fully-featured data projectors was capable of.
Your PC is only as good as your last upgrade, and this is truer than ever with current gaming and software applications milking machines for everything they're worth.
When you think of photo editing, the chances are you think of Adobe Photoshop. However, the majority of non-professional users don't need Photoshop's high-end power and can't justify its cost. That's where Paint Shop Pro (PSP) comes in. Its low price is definitely its initial attraction, but that has never stopped it aiming high. At times, as with version 6's introduction of vector layers, it has even left Photoshop trailing behind. However, version 7's minor fiddling was a serious letdown and as time passed, it began to look as if PSP had run out of steam. Version 8, though, shows this isn't the case.
You begin to realise how fundamental the overhaul has been as soon as you load the application.
The Microtek ScanMaker 4900 offers a high resolution of 4,800 x 2,400dpi and decent performance for a fair price.
Featuring an optical resolution of 4,800 x 2,400dpi, the 6800 is the most expensive scanner in our roundup.
Surely, this can't be right – a full-colour laser printer for only $1,800? You'd better believe it,
The catch is that the 2300W is a GDI (graphical device interface) printer, so it doesn't have an internal processor and relies on the host system to do all the legwork in preparing the pages. Furthermore, it's parallel and USB 1.1 only and it can't accept a network card. That aside, the printer offers a fine set of features for the price. There's a 600 x 600dpi resolution with a 1,200 x 600dpi Fine ART mode, along with 4ppm colour and 16ppm mono print speeds.
A glance at the plain DV2150U with its optical resolution of 1,200 x 2,400dpi in no way reveals what it IS capable of.
Although it’s a 600 x 1,200dpi scanner and only 36-bit colour, this was the only unit in our round-up under a hundred dollars.
Never judge a book by its cover, they say, and nowhere does this apply better than to the Nokia 9210i Communicator.
The Zire 71 isn't a business tool. It's not even a straight forward personal organiser. Palm is targeting the ears of Sony's CLIÉ range, the new PDA boasts not only a headphone jack for MP3 player use, but also a 640 x 480 camera.
The camera is ingeniously hidden behind the metal backplate. To activate, you simply slide down the backplate to reveal the lens, the screen becoming a viewfinder. You can save photos to the memory – 12.7MB before you start loading programs – or to an SD/MMC card that slips into the top-mounted slot.
The labs team this month tackled scanners, and they put 16 through their paces to bring you the good, and the not so good.
Ever since the mid-1990s, a variety of manufacturers have been attempting to find a reliable way to turn your PC into a television – without a huge amount of success.
Released already in the U.S. and due out here shortly, PowerQuest has announced Version 7 of its Drive Image software.
Released already in the U.S. and due out here shortly, PowerQuest has announced Version 7 of its Drive Image software. Some significant changes have been made with the latest version including plenty of sensible features for offsite data storage and time and space saving.
The idea of using your PC as the central control point for your home theatre has been bandied about for some time.
Despite various attempts at Windows Desktop alternatives, Linux is still best suited to servers, for which Red Hat is by far the most popular choice. With this in mind, it came as no surprise when in May 2002 Red Hat split its product line in two: Linux and Enterprise Linux.
Your first thought might be, what has MS-DOS got to do with anything these days, but when you consider the huge existing install-base of Windows 95 and 98 machines, plus the number of problems you can still have with Windows that can be solved with a bit of command line typing, you'd be surprised at what a handy reference this book can be.
2003 is going to be remembered as the year of the Matrix glut, with two movies, A multi-platform computer game and DVD releases across the year. Rumours are that there is even another game coming out, although this one may not hit until 2004. For now, in between Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions theatrical releases is the release of the companion DVD, Animatrix.
Toshiba's PDA strategy is clear: business users should opt for the larger, more flexible e750 (above), while consumers are catered for by the e350. After all, this has all the features most people need in a sleek package that won't break the bank.
The Toshiba e740 (review on the PC Authority Web site) boasted great features such as Type II CF and SD/MMC card slots, and the optional expansion pack which includes a VGA output and USB port, allowing the connection of a keyboard and a projector. The e750 goes two steps further. You can now send 16-bit colour to a projector at a resolution of 800 x 600, and this WiFi version connects wirelessly to a suitably equipped Toshiba projector.
Another WiFi enhancement is support for Voice-over-IP with an enhanced microphone socket so a microphone headset can be used.
The Twinhead Efio! 2B18 PTK gives the impression of a modern, sporty and sleek notebook. It’s powered by a Pentium 4-M processor running at 1.8GHz, and carries 384MB memory and a 40GB hard drive.
The 2,400 x 4,800dpi Astra 6700 offers good core functionality without many special features.
The Astra 4600 offers excellent performance for a low price. In the 1,200dpi class, it outscored all but the Mitsubishi DV1250U – which costs $70 more. It managed high scores in both colour and tonal resolution.
WinZip has become the most popular archival program used on the Windows platform, and it’s good to see some serious innovation in this revision.
It's inside that you find a HyperThreaded Pentium 4 3GHz processor with an 800MHz FSB, plus a gig of DDR400 RAM in dual-channel configuration.
