PC World (March 1988)

darth-azrael (67)in #retrocomputing • 4 days ago

_{Cover of the March 1988 issue of PC World}

PC World was one of the most successful PC magazines (PC meaning x86 compatible). It had a long life before the Internet killed it. The March 1988 issue includes:

Review

Excel - Should You Switch? - Excel makes its debut, ultimately spelling the end for products like Lotus 1-2-3 and VisiCalc.

Thoroughly Modern Modems - Hayes releases new V-Series modems which include internal and external 9600bps and 2400bps models. They sure were expensive though with prices ranging from $849 to $1299. Prices would drop like a rock over the next few years.

Smartcom Wises Up - Smartcom III, a communications/terminal program, was released to coincide with Hayes' new modems. Crosstalk Mk.4 still had more features.

The Hardware Shelf - A look at the Amstrad PC1640 (XT-compatible 8086 from $899 to $1899 depending on the floppy, hard drive, and graphics options you want), the Wang PC 380 (80386 based system starting at $6495), the Toshiba T1000 (an 80C88 based laptop with 512K and 3.5" disk drive for $1199), the Polaroid PallettePlus (a "film recorder" that converts CGA and EGA graphics to film slides for $3000), and the FastTrap trackball.

_{Amstrad PC1640}

The Software Shelf - Reviews of some of the latest software, including Microsoft Works, PageMaker Portfolio: Designs for Newsletters, OfficeWriter Express, Vu/Text, and MemoryMate.

_{Table of Contents from the March 1988 issue of PC World}

Feature

1988 World Class PC Contest - A contest in which you get to vote for your favorite hardware and software for a chance to win prices worth over $40,000.

Putting E-Mail to Work - A look at various e-mail services as an alternative to more traditional and expensive methods of sending documents (FedEx for example).

_E-mail

A License to Clone - An article about the supposed deluge of PS/2 clones to come. This never really happened and Micro Channel Architecture never really took off except for the relatively brief years that IBM used it.

How To

E-Mail to Anywhere - A tutorial on how to send e-mail between various networks.

_{Table of Contents from the March 1988 issue of PC World (continued)}

Departments

David Bunnell - A look at what was a somewhat novel idea at the time, an external hard drive system. Today you have a USB device the size of a key (or smaller) that holds hundreds of gigabytes (or more) for a few 10s of dollars. Then you had an external 2 pound brick that held 40MB for $350

Letters - Readers write in about computer journalism ethics, benchmarking, DacEasy Accounting 2.00, the Remedy Removable Winchester drive, and more.

Richard Landry - OS/2's high cost and incompatibility is leading to a split in the market but software vendors are working to make data compatible between applications on OS/2 and other operating systems.

Stewart Alsop - A prediction that the hottest new persona computer for software development in January 1990 will be from Sun Microsystems.

On IBM - IBM's strategy of using SAA (Systems Application Architecture) to allow their various non-compatible mainframes, minicomputers, and PCs to talk to each other.

Top of the News - Micro Channel clones come closer to market; as VRAM prices drop, manufacturers of graphics cards start using faster VRAM instead of DRAM; HP introduces NewWave, a development tool for Windows 2.0; and more.

Industry Outlook - A look at Hayes' strategy of high end modems and ISDN support; 376,400 laptops sold in 1987 with a projected 621,000 by 1989; memory prices hold steady at $0.65 to $0.75 per kilobyte; four floppy disk formats still common (low and high density 3.5" and 5.25"); and more.

Product Outlook - A look at upcoming products including Info-XL (information management software), Canon Bubble-Jet BJ-130 printer, ImageCard (PostScript-compatible printer controller), Fill & File (forms generator), TransFormer 2 (PS/2 expansion bus), Pixie (presentation graphics software), and the GS/1-IP Gateway Server (network server for connecting separate LANs).