Nikkei Personal Computing (June 20, 1994) The cover story of the June 20 issue of Nikkei Personal Computing (323 pages) is "Cheer Up: Personal Computing Leaders in the Office!" This article introduces techniques for being a good PC leader in the office. The techniques cover five categories of tas ks: (1) How to maintain office computers and applications; (2) How to prevent trouble; (3) How to teach the computing to staff members; (4) How to judge the merits and demerits of purchase, lease, and rental; and, (5) How to introduce a LAN system to the office.

The article also offers five suggestions to PC managers: (1) Latch the hardware and software environment; (2) Document the situation and the processes; (3) Maintain a good relationship with dealers; (4) Seek the advice of outside (out-of-office) expe rts; and (5) Prepare your successors.

The monthly "Urgent Report" article details the specifications of the new models of PC, including the PC9801Np (NEC; full-color note) and its docking station CD; PC-9801An (NEC; multimedia desktop PC); SV-98 (NEC; PCI-bus Pentium server); PS/V Vision and PSn/' Master (IBM; multimedia PCs); ThinkPad 330C (IBM; color subnotebook); Woody (Matsushita; multimedia PC); Presario 433(Compaq; beginner model); DynaBook SS (Toshiba; color subnotebook); DynaBook V486FV (Toshiba; full-color notebook); Towns II Fr eshTV (Fujitsu; multimedia PC); and the new PowerBook series (Apple; notebooks). The article covers only manufacturer specifications, however; no tests were conducted.

Other major stories in the issue include an interview with Steven A. President, Sales and Co., Ltd. Mr. Ballmer, Vice President, Support, Microsoft's Ballmer is quoted as saying "We will launch Japanese version applications, as many and as fast as po ssible." The regular "First Looks" section covers the Presario 433, DynaBook SS 433, PS/V Vision models 2408 NTB & NTC, GA-DVL II (I/O Data; Graphics Accelerator for DOS/V PC), and Watch Mate (Try Co.; TV Tuner Board). In the "Report" section, the softwar e column covers idea processors. The "Buyers' Guide" section introduces 290 Japanese outline fonts (from eight companies). -SS

Nikkei Personal Computing (July 4, 1994)

The cover story of the July 4 issue of Nikkei Personal Computing (258 pages) is "The Proper Way to Teach Manners to PCs" (subtitled "Survival in the Era of Coexistence of 98, Mac, and DOS/V"). The article covers such topics as: (1) How do Windows and M ac operations differ? (2) Why can't most data be shared between different applications? (3) Why can't the same peripherals be used on different computers? The article suggests how these problems can be solved and introduces some useful utilities.

The monthly "Urgent Report" story introduces the specifications of the new lineup of Epson's 98-compatible PCs. The PC-486MU is a multimedia PC that competes with 98 Multi; the PC-486MR/MS are standard models that compete with NEC's 98 Mate; the PC-486 FE/FR/FS are low-end, space-saving models that compete with the 98 Fellow; the PC486 Note AU is a notebook PC that is upgradable to a 100-MHz DX4.

Other major stories in the July 4 issue include an interview with Dr. Yoshio Tsukio, a professor in the Department of Technology at Tokyo University. Dr. Tsukio suggests that the coming "network society" will be an "Era of Giga." He prophecies that, "T he structural reorganization (gigainformational revolution) is inevitable in the near future."

The "Report" section focuses on the color ink-jet printers recently introduced into the market. It compares, among others, the Epson MJ700V2C (720 dpi), NEC PCPR101/J110, HP Desk Jet 560J, and Cannon BJC-600J. The regular "First Looks" section covers M S-Word 6.0, EGWord 6.0, the PowerBook 520c and 540c, Dynabook EZVision, Woody, and PC-9801An. -SS

ASCII(July 18, 1994)

The July 18 issue of ASCII (680 pages; 650 has two main themes: "New Products Coming This Summer," and "All of Chicago." In "New Personal Computer Models Coming This Summer," the new products are introduced and benchmark-tested. The machines are classi fied into four categories -- multimedia machines: PS/V Vision II (IBM), MiC/V Station (MiTAC), UpGrade Multi (EPSON), and DynaBook EZ Vision (Toshiba);. notebook computers: PC-9821Np (NEC), Philos4S Color (Olivetti), PowerBook 150 (Apple Computer), WinNot e 9200T (Preside), and FMV433N/S1 (Fujitsu); subnotebook computers: ThinkPad 230Cs (IBM), Dynabook SS433/425 (Toshiba), and Endeavor NT-SOO (Epson); and highend machines: PC-9821An (NEC), PC486HA (Epson), PS-SOJICD and P4D100J/CD (Gateway), P90 PCI PowerS tation (Micron), and Pantera (Zeos International). The editors choices are the NEC PC-9821An or Gateway PS-90 for business use, the Preside WinNote 9200T as a notebook, and the Toshiba Dynabook SS as a subnotebook.

The second main theme, "All of Chicago," offers an overview of Microsoft's upcoming Chicago version of Windows. The top story explains the user interface by showing the desk top, the Explorer (new shell), new controls, and common dialog boxes. The seco nd story, "Chicago's System Architecture," describes the 32-bit operating system, multitasking and multithreading, long file name support, and the reliability of the system. Another story discusses Plug & Play, networking, and Chicago's compatibility with Win16 and DOS applications. There are small columns about memory management, registry, and mobile computing.

The regular "New Product Review" takes a look at PC Tools Desktop for Windows, Norton Desktop for Windows version 3.05, ViewMagic-98 (an MPEG decoder for PC-98 series), Midisoft Studio, Claris Works 2.0, color printers (the DeskJet 560J and PC-PR101/J1 10), StarFaxCard 1414, Microsoft Windows (the English version for NEC PCs), Power Cleaner (a Japanese version of MicroHelp Uninstaller 2), Coolprint (a full-color printer), and Ponta (PowerKey for the NEC PC).

Other major stories in the issue include "Review of Microsoft Word 6.OJ," the regular "Mac in the Box" and "DOS/V Highway" (operating a 486DX2/66 at 72 MHz and information about Novell DOS 7), and reviews of game software. -NT

MacLife (August)

The August issue of MacLife (580 pages; 1,200) has two main themes. The first, "The New Era of Color DTP," reports on "PageMaker 5.SJ vs. QuarkXPress3.3J" and "Illustrator S.SE vs. FreeHand 4.0" for color DTP These major DTP software packages have rece ntly been updated and art considered necessary for professiona users. In this issue, Mr. Ishii of Aldus Japan proclaims that PageMaker S.OJ is most suitable for professional Japanese DTP use because of its automatic, realtime spacing of Japanese kanji. Ms . Hayakawa of QMH Japan BV reports that the output function of QuarkXPress3.3J has been reinforced by adding EfiColor XTension, and that Quark Publishing System will be released as groupware for professionals. Related stories review color PostScript print ers and utility software, SMI/Edicolor, Live Picture J, and some Quark XTensions.

The second major story in this issue is "Summer! Macintosh Performa Series for the Family!" This story for beginning users introduces Claris Works and other many "edutainment" programs, peripherals, CD-ROM games and movies, and desktop music (DTM) soft ware.

A special supplement of this issue is "QuickTime 2.0." The hardware section in this issue reports on 3.S-inch MO drives and equipment for ISDN networking (for example, TA boards and modems for the Macintosh). Another article reports on color ink-jet pr inters, the HP DeskWriter 560C, and the Epson Mj-700V2C. The entertainment section in this issue reports on "Tower," a game that simulates the management of a skyscraper. If you enjoyed "SimCity 2000," you'll like this one, too. Other articles cover CD Gr aphics (CD-G) and some CD-ROM games and movies. -- MK

UNIX Magazine (August)

The main theme of the August issue of UNIX Magazine (260 pages; Y810) is "Windows and UNIX." (In the July issue, Mr. Shin Yoshimura of IIJ wrote about "Macintosh and UNIX.) PCs now have a performance level as high as a UNIX workstation. Mr. Manabu Higa shida writes about running UNIX systems on PCs and making the connection between PCs and a UNIX network/Ethernet. He also reports on such software as Chameleon and TCP/IP applications for Windows 3.1 that allow use of NFS (Network File System) and FTP (Fi le Transfer Protocol) and other UNIX functions on PCs, as well as Mule for DOS/Windows (Higashida), TEX for Windows (Impress), and WinFax (Delrina Technology).

Another major article in this issue is "Report of NetWorld + Interop 94 in Las Vegas," which was held on from May 2 to 6. The themes of the show are the technology of computer networking, networking software, the Internet Protocol, and UNIX systems. Mr . Yamaguchi reports on various techniques of network setup and the technologies of switching -- ATM, FDDI, Ethernet -- with Interop viewed as an experimental field using multiple protocols. He also covers numerous leading-edge technologies and products an d reports on a "Fast Ethernet Solution Showcase Demonstration, " which uses 100VGAnyLAN, and "Fast Ethernet Alliance," which is called 100 BaseTX or 100 Base-T4. Today, a user can select among various network technologies, such as Ethernet (10M bps Token Ring (16M bps), Full Duple Ethernet (20M bps), Slow-speed ATR (25.6M bps), Full Duplex Token Rin (32M bps), FDDI (100M bps), 10 Base-TX Fast Ethernet (1OOM bps), ATM (15OM bps), 100VG-AnyLan (100M bps), Fibre Channel (500h bps), and HIPPI (800M bps).

The regular How to Internet column covers "Firewall and Proxy, while the Internet For You Information column is a glossary o Internet terms. Mr. Miyakawa Shin writes about a PC-UNIX router driver by a floppy disk system. Other regular columns include r eports on network security, Windows NT, free software Perl programming, UNIX programming, image processing, NetNews. news of the WIDE project, and a report on JPNIC. -- MK