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--Steve Fox,
editor in
chief,
CNET.com
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Dear
readers,
Attention,
Microsoft-Intel conspiracy theorists: If you stay up nights
speculating about the two behemoths' clandestine plans for
joint world domination, have we got a "coincidence" for you.
It seems the dynamic duo has conspired to dominate this week's
tech headlines. (Note to self: call Oliver Stone.) First,
Intel beat its corporate chest after the release of PCs
powered by the 2GHz Pentium 4 chip. Round numbers such as
2GHz--that's 2 billion cycles per second--are big-time
attention grabbers. (CNET's Hardware team tested
two 2-gig machines to get the skinny on Intel's latest.)
Meanwhile, Microsoft rolled out a round number of its own:
6--as in Internet
Explorer 6, the latest version of the world's most popular
browser. Both releases, though, bring up the question: Does
anyone really need to upgrade, or are Wintel's latest
showpieces yet two more cases of high-tech overkill? Ah, more
grist for the conspiracy
mill.
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 | Internet
Explorer 6
The browser wars may have cooled
down a bit, but they're not over yet. This week, Microsoft released
version 6 of its popular Web-surfing tool. How does it stack up
against Netscape's 6.x browsers? Should you upgrade from IE
5.x? Hold on for a big surprise. In
Software
The
2GHz Pentium 4: milestone or speed bump?
My, how time flies. Pentium 4 is already 2 (gigahertz)!
Check our reviews of the Gateway Performance 2000XL and the Dell
Dimension 8100. These two screamers show that the 2s won't be
terrible. In
Hardware
Quicken
2002 Deluxe vs. Money 2002 Deluxe
Once
again, our two favorite personal accounting apps fight for the right
to manage your money. Both programs make it easy to handle your
finances online and offline, but only one wins CNET's coveted
Editors' Choice Award. In
Software
Samsung
DVD-N501 (Nuon)
Need to be entertained? You
can watch movies, listen to MP3s, and play games, all with one
machine. Samsung's second-generation Nuon DVD player has the ability
to play hours of music in the form of MP3 CDs. And though it may not
be the hottest gaming platform around, the DVD-N501 stands on its
own as a full-featured DVD player at a great price. In
Electronics
The
virtual box office
Sick of sold-out movies?
If you buy tickets online, you'll never wait in line again. Or will
you? Our secret shopper investigates the leading sites, then heads
to the theater. Find out if online movie-ticket sites have star
potential. In
Tech Trends
StarBand
vs. EarthLink Satellite
It's an
all-too-common scenario: you're sick to death of your poky modem Net
connection, but you're too far away from a base station for DSL or
cable Internet access. There's hope yet: consider high-speed
Internet access via satellite. CNET compares two of the top
satellite ISPs. In
Internet Services
A
model affair
We've all heard the recent
buzz around Web 3D, but few developers have begun to explore the new
possibilities. In this tutorial, you'll learn how to combine the
modeling power of Discreet 3ds max with the authoring prowess of
Macromedia Director 8.5 to create an original, Web-ready 3D model.
In
Web Building
The Top 10 list is taking a vacation this week. It will be
back next Thursday--tanned, rested, and snarky.
 
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