A PC that’s light on the wallet
Tuition and other academic fees are plenty expensive, but this new desktop PC might take some of the financial sting out of the fast-approaching back-to-school shopping spree.
The Impact GC3502 from Everex has a list price of $298, and its 1.5-gigahertz VIA C7-D processor consumes less power than the average desktop computer, potentially saving money on the monthly electric bill as well.
This no-frills PC does not come with a monitor, but it does have a keyboard, a mouse and a pair of speakers out of the box. Inside the desktop box itself, the GC3502 runs Windows Vista Home Basic, Microsoft’s minimalist edition of its flagship operating system, which lacks the sophisticated graphics of the more expensive Vista versions. 2.2, a free open-source software suite with a word-processing program that is compatible with most versions of Microsoft Word, is preinstalled on the computer.
The GC3502 has a gigabyte of memory, an 80 GB hard drive, a rewritable DVD drive and a network card; full configuration details are at . The computer is sold at Wal-Mart stores, where a monitor to go with it will cost another $150 or so. – J.D. Biersdorfer, The New York Times
Player aims for ease of use
Some makers of portable media players have learned their lesson: No matter how good the hardware is, if it doesn’t streamline the process of getting and organizing music, pictures and videos, people will just keep buying iPods.
The latest effort to marry hardware with good software is from Iriver, which recently announced a partnership with RealNetworks to integrate Real’s Rhapsody music service with the new version of its Clix player, called Clix Rhapsody. The 4 GB model sells for about $190 at and other online retailers.
The player, which has a crisp 2.2-inch liquid-crystal-display screen, includes a 30-day free trial of the Rhapsody to Go music service. After that, the subscription fee is $15 a month for unlimited downloads.
Clix is the player’s name, but it also describes how it works. Instead of using a scroll wheel, you push on the four sides of the Clix to control it. Right is forward, left is back, the bottom steps through a list of selections and the top steps back. While Rhapsody is the preferred service, the Clix can download music from most online music services, but not iTunes.
For those who purchased the non-Rhapsody version of the second-generation Clix, Iriver offers a free upgrade at . – Stephen C. Miller, The New York Times
