Skip navigation

WinInfo Daily UPDATE, May 14, 2002

WinInfo Daily UPDATE—brought to you by the Windows & .NET Magazine Network
http://www.winnetmag.net


THIS ISSUE SPONSORED BY

Winternals Software's ERD Commander 2002
http://winternals.com/ERD-CD-FREE


WINTERNALS SOFTWARE'S ERD COMMANDER 2002

Tuesday, 9:20 a.m. Jonny takes a calming breath and enters the office of Marge in Accounting. Third call in three weeks. He nods smoothly to Marge, who chatters about her system not starting. Runs down the hardware checklist; it's an OS problem. "Add any new software recently?" he asks. "Goodness, no," Marge replies, "except that new 'Whack-A-Badger' screensaver." Right. Jonny places ERD Commander 2002 in the CD drive and boots to CD. Once in the self-contained windowing environment, he loads the dead system's Registry in RegEdit, removes the screensaver, then re-starts the system. Problem solved. GET THE FULLY-FUNCTIONING TRIAL CD!
http://winternals.com/ERD-CD-FREE


May 14, 2002—In this issue:

1. NEWS AND VIEWS

  • Attack of the Homes: Video-Game Price War Erupts
  • Intel Releases Pentium 4-based Celeron Family

2. ANNOUNCEMENTS

  • Win a Free $200 Gift Certificate to RoadWired.com
  • Mobile and Wireless Solutions—An Online Resource for a New Era

3. CONTACT US

  • See this section for a list of ways to contact us.

1. NEWS AND VIEWS
(contributed by Paul Thurrott, [email protected])

  • ATTACK OF THE HOMES: VIDEO-GAME PRICE WAR ERUPTS

  • Just a week before Microsoft plans to lower the price of its Xbox video-game console from $300 to $200 in the United States, market-leader Sony has offered the same price reduction for its PlayStation 2, despite previous statements that Sony wouldn't attempt to meet Microsoft's pricing. The price cuts, which also come a week before the important Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2002 conference, will likely touch off a new stage in the battle for consumer's hearts, minds, and pocketbooks. Nintendo, which markets the GameCube, and Microsoft currently lag behind Sony, which controls more than 80 percent of the video-game market.

    According to reports, Microsoft has already slashed the Xbox price by 38 percent in Europe and will cut its price by 33 percent in the United States next week. Nintendo says it has "absolutely no plans" to cut the GameCube price.

    Sony launched its popular PlayStation 2 almost 2 years ago, and the device has sold more than 30 million units worldwide, the company says. Since its launch, the PlayStation 2 has sold for $300 in the United States, the same price that Microsoft has asked for the Xbox; Nintendo's GameCube, which features lower-end technology than its rivals, has always cost $200.

    Compared to Sony's soaring success, consumer acceptance of the Microsoft and Nintendo boxes has been somewhat muted. Microsoft has sold more than 1.5 million Xboxes since the devices became available late last year, and the company says it's on track to sell more than 3.5 million units by midyear. Nintendo's GameCube has sold about 4 million units so far. Sony sold more than 10 million PlayStation 2 units in its first year of availability and would have sold more had the company been able to meet demand. Since then, Sony has increased capacity to meet the demand.

    Unlike previous-generation consoles, all three devices are as powerful as many home computers, and each will eventually offer some sort of connectivity to provide online gaming functionality.

  • INTEL RELEASES PENTIUM 4-BASED CELERON FAMILY

  • Intel announced dramatic price cuts for its current line of Celeron microprocessors, leading the way for a new generation of Celeron chips based on Pentium 4 processor technology. The company will probably announce the new Celeron microprocessors, which will debut at speeds of 1.7GHz and 1.8GHz, on Monday; PC makers will start shipping systems based on the new chips early next week.

    Even with the move to a Pentium 4 processor-based design, the low-end Celeron family will see less-significant performance boosts than you might expect, thanks to smaller on-chip cache sizes and other technical limitations. But the new Celeron chips will still offer enhancements over the previous generation, which topped out at speeds of 1.3GHz. For example, they'll use a 400MHz system bus, compared to 100MHz for the previous generation. And the new Celeron chips will use the Pentium 4 processor NetBurst architecture, providing such advanced internal features as the Hyper Pipelined Technology and Rapid Execution Engine.

    If you're interested in buying the current-generation Celeron, the prices are right. You can buy the 1.2GHz version for $69, a $10 reduction; the 1.3GHz version is selling for $74.

    2. ANNOUNCEMENTS

  • WIN A FREE $200 GIFT CERTIFICATE TO ROADWIRED.COM!

  • Visit the Connected Home Virtual Tour and browse through the latest home entertainment, home networking, and home automation options. Sign up for prize drawings, too, and you might win a free gift certificate to RoadWired.com. Take the tour today!
    http://www.connectedhomemag.com/virtualtour

  • MOBILE AND WIRELESS SOLUTIONS—AN ONLINE RESOURCE FOR A NEW ERA

  • Our mobile and wireless computing site has it all—articles, product reviews, and other resources to help you support a wireless network and mobile users. Check it out today!
    http://www.mobile-and-wireless.com

    3. CONTACT US
    Here's how to reach us with your comments and questions:

    (please mention the newsletter name in the subject line)

    This daily email newsletter is brought to you by Windows & .NET Magazine, the leading publication for Windows professionals who want to learn more and perform better. Subscribe today.
    http://www.winnetmag.com/sub.cfm?code=wswi201x1z

    Receive the latest information about the Windows and .NET topics of your choice. Subscribe to our other FREE email newsletters.
    http://www.winnetmag.net/email

    Hide comments

    Comments

    • Allowed HTML tags: <em> <strong> <blockquote> <br> <p>

    Plain text

    • No HTML tags allowed.
    • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
    • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
    Publish