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CUSTOMER SERVICE shouldn't begin when you have a problem. It should start when a product is built, so that you don't have to futz around on the Web or wait […]

HERE'S A WIRELESS PHONE that's big, clunky, and never really worked indoors. Now it won't work outdoors either, because the service it connects to has gone dark--except for 'heavy industry […]

Technology is making live, knowledgeable humans disappear from service desks everywhere. IN THE DIGITAL AGE, it's an ironclad law: Companies claim they're improving customer service, but it only gets worse. […]

THE CASKET IS READY. The grave is deep. The dirges are sounding. Enemies on every side declare the PC fatally fat and musclebound, awaiting what they insist will be its […]

A STERN RECKONING AWAITS the dot-com-world. I call it the Kaneing, after the classic business model revealed in Orson Welles' visionary media-mogul movie, Citizen Kane back in 1941. 'You're fight,' […]

IN THE EARLY 1980s, PC World's founding editor, the late Andrew Fluegelman, developed PC-Talk. It wasn't just the best computer communications package of its day; it was also the first […]

'YOU KNOW HOW TO take the reservation,' Jerry tells the rental-car clerk in a memorable Seinfeld episode. 'You just don't know how to hold the reservation.' Sure enough something similar […]

From the November 1, 1999 issue of PC World. In some Jetsonian future, robot-assisted home networks may grab recipes for Thanksgiving dinner from gourmet Web sites and do everything from […]

IF YOU HOPPED into your car one morning and discovered that the pedal on the right had mysteriously become the brake and the one on the left had become the […]

BAD ENOUGH THAT I'm my own tech support person. Thanks to the muddled magic of digital technology, I also get to handle the support calls of friends, neighbors, and acquaintances. […]

IT'S GUARANTEED: WHENEVER I say mean things about some third-rate bloatware that doesn't remotely live up to its hype--like, say, Windows Vista--I get a batch of e-mail berating me for […]

Revolutionary: you just knew you'd encounter that word in Apple's iPhone hype. But all you have to do to get past Steve Jobs's smarmy, congenital puffery on the occasion of […]

IN A MASSIVE housecleaning a few weeks ago, I rediscovered my beloved TRS-80 Model 100, the first notebook I ever bought. Maxed out to 32KB (no misprint), it cost over […]

NOT MANY YEARS ago, just about every home PC came with software that could turn the computer into a telephone answering machine. At first it seemed like a clever idea--who […]

EIGHT-CORE PROCESSORS! Super-smart browser-based apps! Ubiquitous high-speed wireless! Personal robotics! You may find the glimpses of the future in this special issue thrilling, but remember: What matters isn't the technology. […]

BACK IN THE dial-up era, the advent of broadband seemed like nirvana. 'Blazing speed'--in computerdom it's always called 'blazing' even when the improvement is a teensy one--wouldn't be the only […]

BIG NEWS! TO better serve you, our devoted readers, we have decided to eliminate unproductive time and effort spent checking nonessential elements like facts and speling. In keeping with the […]

PARADOX: AS software increasingly becomes available for free, developers keep trying to foist more of it on us--along with lots of extras (call it, oh, say, spam) we don't need. […]

'WEB 2.0' IS A PROMISING IDEA--and there are plenty of sites that reflect its innovations in this issue's cover story, 'New, Improved Web' (page 80). But you know what I […]

MAYBE BILL GATES AND STEVE JOBS want a computer at the hub of their home entertainment systems. Maybe you do, too. But excuse me for believing that the PC music […]

AS BROADBAND PROVIDERS revamp and improve their services, they increasingly offer more bandwidth per buck, too. But another encouraging trend often gets lost among the escalating megabits: Connection speeds in […]

IT'S TIME TO THINK about backup, and I don't mean just files. I'm talking about your entire digital life. As we increasingly depend on products and services that are anything […]

IT MAY BE A LITTLE premature, but I already have a pretty good idea about my nominee for next year's World Class Product of the Year. (See page 86 for […]

THANK THE NET FOR endless software updates. Some programs--such as antivirus utilities and Windows itself--let you get them automatically. More often, as with drivers, you have to find new versions […]

YOU FRAME THE SHOT OF YOUR LOVED ONE beautifully on your digital camera, with the setting sun at the perfect angle in the background. You press the button, and--wait a […]

WHAT TECHNOLOGICAL BREAKTHROUGHS won't happen in 2003? The same as in most years: all the ones you really want. When the hardware industry isn't churning out boring boxes same as […]

I'VE SAID IT BEFORE, AND I'LI SAY IT AGAIN: Pundits consistently lousy job of handicapping the future, even when that future is Simply the year ahead. So every now and […]

PC World Contributing Editor Stephen Manes has been writing about computers and their frustrations for more than 15 years. He is coauthor of Gates, a biography of Microsoft's chairman. If […]

If my virtual computer hall of shame is any indication, quality is fast becoming little more than a marketing buzzword. Each week the list of offenders keeps growing. Look at […]

So I fire up this new Dell Dimension, and it doesn't boot. It just beeps at me, one long and two short. Hey, I've got it covered. I just reach […]

Here's what i predict about the future of computerdom: Hardware will continue to get faster, more powerful, cheaper. Software will continue to be a pain. And that's as far as […]

MAYBE IT'S THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT Maybe it's one party toast too many. Maybe I've just watched It's a Wonderful Life once too often. But as I look back on the […]

In this business, the product you want is always just around the corner and everyone lives in a perpetual state of almostness. Just the other day I was chatting with […]

Talk To My Computer? I do it all the time, usually in words I can't print here. Dictate to my computer and have it recognize what I say? Until recently […]

It's one small blip for man, a giant heap of uselessness for mankind. The hours wasted at computers each year are astronomical. Multiply the time it takes to boot a […]

Pop Quiz: somebody has given you a compact disc. Will your computer be able to play it? Or say you've received a file with a .doc extension. Will your word […]

Now that designers are moving in, your computer may be more attractive than you are. This year's fall fashion statement? From the Darth Vader-like Toshiba Comme des Garons to the […]

From the October 1996 Issue of PC World Online (Full Disclosure) 'I don't use beta software,' I proudly declared. 'It's my policy to keep it well away from my machines.' […]

Stop! Before you read this column, please take a moment to register it. Simply dial our toll-free number and give the operator your name, address, phone and fax numbers, e-mail […]

What's the next version of Windows 95 going to be called? I'm voting for 'Windows for Webnuts.'The big deal in the upgrade is supposed to be a Web browser interface […]

Full Disclosure The Yuletide cometh, that season of cheer, fellowship, and the obligatory consumer warnings. At the top of my Christmas list is a wish that we consumers didn't have […]

I am stunned. A software manufacturer recently disclosed something I did not expect to hear in my lifetime. Corel says some of its beta testers, those anonymous folks who evaluate […]