Cade Metz

Early this month, MPC Computers took an unusual step. At a time when so many companies offer technical support through third-party, often off-shore, facilities, MPC is moving its entire technical support operation in-house. All support duties will be handled by MPC employees working at the companys Nampa, Idaho headquarters. “Thirty new employees will be on […]

Yesterday, Microsoft announced a new version of its MSN online service that will be available in early January. Today, the company unveiled a new version of Hotmail, its Web-based e-mail service. This update, already available to the general public, includes improved spam filters, calendar software, and a contact application for keeping track of names, addresses […]

On Tuesday, Microsoft Corp. announced its latest online service: MSN Premium. The new service, for use with broadband Internet connections, will be available to the general public on Jan. 8 and offer a wide range of online features including spam filters, anti-virus capability, a firewall, parental controls, photo management, exclusive multimedia content and multiple e-mail […]

Voice over IP services—products that use the Internet to mimic telephone calls—have been around for ages. Net2Phone launched the first widely-available VoIP service back in July of 1996. Such services were much cheaper than traditional telephone service—in the heyday of the dot.com, you could even use them for free—but they never really caught on with […]

Today, Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com), the popular Internet portal, introduced four new antispam tools for its Web-based e-mail service, Yahoo! Mail. Most notably, the service now lets you create disposable e-mail addresses—DEAs—which you can easily discard should they fall into the hands of spammers. Yahoo! Mail, launched six years ago this month, is available in a free […]

IBM had its latest tools and strategies for pervasive computing—technologies that give you access to computing power outside the home and office—on display this week at its Industry Solutions Lab in Hawthorne, New York, just north of Manhattan. The centerpiece of the companys presentation was its WebSphere Everyplace Access product, but the company also provided […]

In May, according to the NPD Group, a sales and marketing research firm based in Port Washington, New York, notebook computer sales finally surpassed sales of traditional PCs. Notebooks now account for 54 percent of the nearly $500 million retail computer market, the firm says, up from only 25 percent in January 2000. “Notebooks sales […]

Apple isnt the only one selling notebooks with 17-inch displays. Today, Toshiba announced its first notebook with a display measuring a full 17-inches across the diagonal: the Satellite P25-S507. Available starting at $2,099, the metallic-blue system also includes a 2.80GHz Pentium 4 processor with hyper-threading technology, 512MB of RAM (expandable to 2048MB), a 60GB hard […]

In May, the Federal Trade Commission held a forum in Washington, D.C., for experts, including PC Magazine technical director Matthew D. Sarrel, to discuss the escalating spam problem. Coinciding with the forum, antispam firm SurfControl released data from a survey it commissioned through research firm Public Opinion Strategies. What exactly constitutes spam? Of 1,600 respondents, […]

Our feature on the world of spyware didnt scare you? This will. PCs the world over are being hit by a new breed of software known as a dialer. These programs are far more malicious than spyware, which merely keeps a record of your online behavior. Dialers use your modem to surreptitiously dial long distance […]

Last week, the Federal Trade Commission held a three-day forum in Washington DC, bringing together experts, including PC Magazines Technical Director Matthew D. Sarrel, to discuss the issue of Internet spam. The trouble was that no one could agree on how to define spam. Some said it is any unsolicited bulk e-mail. Others said its […]

Welcome to the era of the antispam tool. With the average e-mail user receiving 2,200 unsolicited and unwanted messages a year, according to Jupiter Research, the market for software designed to block the flood of junk is getting bigger by the month. The latest entry is Ella, a $29.95 download that not only filters spam […]