Joe Wilcox

Mac enthusiasts say Apple is the mother of all invention. Maybe they're right. Microsoft took six years to deliver the kind of operating system the company promised in 1995. Windows 95 didn't live up to the hype until Windows XP. Apple managed the same feat in less than two years. Mac OS X 10.0, released in March 2001, lacked fundamental features such as CD burning and DVD playback. Successor 10.1, which debuted in September 2001, delivered better performance but couldn't match some of XP's best features. But Mac OS X 10.2, also known as Jaguar, beats Apple's original promise of a robust, modern operating system and outclasses Windows XP's handling of multiple programs running simultaneously. Still, many important changes are mere catch up to XP or even Apple's older Mac OS 9.

Apple delivered my official Jaguar copy on Aug. 16, 2002, about a week before OS X 10.2's official Aug. 24, 2002 release. Talk about efforts to woo the reviewer: Apple preloaded Jaguar on a PowerBook G4 800. But I already had been working with betas and final code obtained though "special sources." Before Apple's woo-the-reviewer package arrived, I had the "unofficial" official release running on three Macs: Dual 1GHz Power Mac G4, 700MHz flat-panel iMac and another PowerBook 800.

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I have never considered myself a big car kind of guy. If anything, I often laugh at the person sitting behind the wheel of a Lincoln Town Car or Cadillac. My dad drove bugs, as in Volkswagen Beetles, through the snow-covered back woods of Maine. I've been driving small cars since I got my license--at 25. Point: A 1988 Toyota Corolla sits in my driveway, which as much as anything is testimony to just how little regular working reporters are paid. (Don't quit your McDonald's job just yet to take up writing for a living.)

But Toshiba has given me a taste of the big car world, by way of the company's innovative new Satellite 1955-S801 portable, and it's much sweeter than I imagined.

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They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Most big companies must really believe this, because the majority have a corporate logo. Hell, logos have a long legacy, going back to families' coats of arms. That picture has been a way of identifying an entity--whether a family or business--for a long time. But one major U.S. company doesn't have a corporate logo, which might explain some rather strange behavior about branding.

I'm talking about Microsoft.

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I've never paid full price for a PC, and I'm not talking about bidding for junk on eBay. The best deals, both in price and reliability, come in refurbished--also known as "reconditioned"--PCs. These are models returned for some reason, occasionally for defect but mostly because the buyer changed his or her mind. Once returned, the seller can no longer sell the PC as new.

Most major PC makers sell refurbished computers online, including Dell, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Sony. Vermont-based Small Dog Electronics specializes in Apple refurbs, and PC Connection serves up a wide selection of reconditioned computers.

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Apple has been itching to get PC users switching.

In fact the company has big plans, starting with bringing PCs into the 30-plus Apple retail stores for byte-to-byte showdowns with Macs. Hell, reliable sources tell me Apple is seriously considering bringing Dell Computer models into the stores. I got to chuckle. On the way to my local Apple Store on June 16, 2002, some guy with Maryland vanity plates spelling out "Dell" pulled in front of me on Connecticut Ave.

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Many computer manufacturers are hawking thin-and-light notebooks as the next big thing. Dell Computer, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Sony and Toshiba are some of the big name companies delivering small portables, some weighing under 3 pounds. But none of these companies has achieved notebook nirvana, a slim-and-light model with a beefy display and enough power to replace a desktop computer. Consumers that want desktop power must buy heavy-set portables, many weighing as much as 8 pounds or more. Those people looking for true portability have had to accept less computing power and smaller displays.

Until now.

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Analog is dead. Long live digital.

Digital media is storming the consumer market, unleashing new territory to would-be DJs, movie makers and photographers. The rise in popularity of digital music, photos and movies naturally has led to a new class of personal computers that bring once expensive music, movie or photo technologies into the home. These are the ultimate entertainment computers--and not for those with feint-of-heart wallets. While entry-level systems for doing most digital media tasks sell for under $1,500, the real exciting stuff costs nearly twice that.

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The debut of the new iMac has many potential Windows XP upgraders wondering if they should ditch their PCs and join the Apple crowd. But cool design is the wrong reason for buying a computer. Most people will want to be able to do something productive or fun--ideally both--with their new computers. There, a solid operating system foundation can make all the difference and matters much more than the computer's packaging. So before plunking down your hard-earned cash consider: Whither Windows XP or Mac OS X?

Apple officially released Mac OS X in March 2001. The new version is the most significant upgrade to the Mac OS since its 1984 introduction. Apple built the core of Mac OS on Unix, adding a very cool interface--dubbed Aqua--true multitasking that allows many programs to run at once, better memory management and improved crash protection. But Mac OS X was not ready for primetime when first released. Apple initially did not support CD burning or DVD playback, leaving people using these optical drives in a lurch. Mac OS X also suffered from performance and stability issues that prevented Adobe, Microsoft and other software developers from quickly releasing applications that run natively in OS X rather than in "Classic" compatibility mode. Apple largely remedied this latter problem with the September upgrade to OS X 10.1. The current version is OS X 10.1.4.

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Just two years ago, 2,500 bucks would buy a pretty good multimedia PC that, while powerful, was little more than a computing ball and chain. It was great fun for use in that one room in the house or apartment. But a new generation of Pentium 4 notebook computer has changed all that, delivering better performance for the same or less money and, with wireless networking technology, true desktop performance on the road or around the dwelling.

Notebooks of this class had, before the recent introduction of Pentium 4 processors, only a 133MHz front-side bus and 133MHz SDRAM. Pentium 4 models sport a 400MHz front-side bus and 266MHz memory. In simple terms: The faster the bus and/or memory, the faster data moves among some system components. The move to 400MHz and Pentium 4 means blazingly fast notebooks that, while not yet as fast as some of their desktop counterparts, are worthy desktop replacements for more than 90 percent of tasks--and that includes intense gaming or digital content creation.

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