Computer Shopper (April 2002)

in #retrocomputing • 2 days ago




Cover of the April 2002 issue of Computer Shopper


While off of its peak telephone book sizes, Computer Shopper was still going pretty strong in 2002 with the April 2002 issue having well over 400 pages. The Internet was killing it slowly. This issue includes:

Features

  • Clash of the CPUs - A comparison of three Athlon XP based systems (1800+, 1900+, and 2000+) with a couple of Northwood 2.2 GHz Pentium 4 systems. While I was building my own Athlon XP based systems at the time, if I had been buying one of the pre-built systems here it would have probably been the Gateway 700XL featuring a 2.2GHz Pentium 4, 256 MB DDR RAM, and a GeForce3 Ti 200. This was probably the last Gateway design I liked.

  • Top of Your Game - A comparison of the Xbox, GameCube, and PlayStation 2, including some of the top games on each system.

  • Service...Please! - Things to do to prepare for a tech support call.

  • Rock Your World - The MP3 revolution was in full swing with tons of different types of devices that could play them including flash based portable players, hard drive based portable players, CD players, DV players, and more. Devices looked at here include the Bantam Interactive BA350, Apple iPod, iRiver iMP-350 SlimX, Panasonic DVD-RP56, Audiovox D1700, Sony NetMD Walkman, and HP Digital Entertainment Center DE100C.

  • Image Makers - A look at four different image editors including Adobe Photoshop Elements, Jasc Paint Shop Pro 7, Microsoft Picture It, and Ulead PhotoImpact 7.

  • Calling All PCs - A guide to making phone calls on your PC.

  • Virtual Meeting Places - A look at six Web-conferencing services (this was well before the days of Zoom and Temas). Products looked at here include Centra Conference 5.3, eRoom 5.4, PlaceWare Conference Center, Raindance Web Conferencing Pro 5.10, and more.




Table of Contents from the April 2002 issue of Computer Shopper


News

  • Trends - Apple's new iMac G4, a wireless plan from Palm, Rhode Island first with Enhanced 911, new optical disc format form DataPlay, and more.

  • Gear - A look at various products including the Creative Labs Sound Blaster Exigy, NexiCam for the Compaq iPaq, Sony Xplod MEX-SDI, Logitech Cordless Presenter, XGaming X-Arcade, Targus Blacktop CBT100 Handheld Organizer, Archos Jukebox Multimedia, and more.

Opinons

  • Rik Fairlie - Concerns about copy protected CDs.

  • Steve Fox - More on the convergence of the computer and the TV. It happened eventually...sort of...but not really in the ways predicted.

  • John C. Dvorak - Pen based computing bounces back with devices like the Palm and Pocket PC.




Table of Contents from the April 2002 issue of Computer Shopper (continued)


Help & How-To

  • CD-RW to the Rescue - Using a CD-RW drive and discs to backup your hard drive. This was perfectly reasonable for the hard drive sizes of the time, however, it rapidly became less reasonable as drive sizes grew.

  • The Hard Edge - The dot-com comeback Intel's new iteration of the Pentium 4, and more.

  • Alfred Poor's Computer Cures - Questions answered about hidden files after a Windows Me upgrade, a whining sound on Windows 98 shut down, cleaning the hard drives of donated computers, random modem disconnects, and more.

  • Buying Advisor - The advantages of a PVR over a DVR.

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