| This week's gainers |
| 1. |
Mozilla 1.0: |
The day that so many Web geeks have been waiting for is finally here: Mozilla 1.0 has debuted. (Now, if only Morpheus could get its act together; see No. 4.) Four years in the making, the open-source browser is at least as fast as its competitors and boasts tabbed browsing and skins--features that go well beyond the humdrum interfaces we're used to. But let's not kid ourselves; Mozilla won't take the Web browser crown from Internet Explorer anytime soon. |
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| 2. |
Trillian: |
Are you still using four different instant-messaging clients on your desktop? Make things easier on yourself. The latest release of Trillian is out, and it's a cinch to set up and use. While earlier versions were marred by connectivity glitches, the latest promises even more stability. |
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| 3. |
Apex: |
Why is the Apex AD-1500 DVD deck suddenly a hot seller on eBay? It's a cheap, discontinued DVD deck with little going for it except upgradable firmware. Ah, but that's the key. You can upgrade that firmware with a program that wipes out the copy-protection schemes of the player, making this Apex a very special DVD deck indeed. This is just a glimpse of the legal battles to come as DVD burning gets more accessible. |
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| 4. |
Morpheus: |
So where is the latest release of file-sharing software Morpheus? Originally scheduled for December, the debut of Morpheus 2.0 is bogged down in delays and legal nightmares. Hoping to please its loyal followers, parent company Streamcast upgraded the existing software this week. Just goes to show that the simple days of nappy-haired Shawn Fanning writing a file-sharing program for his dorm buddies are long gone. |
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| 5. |
Palm OS 5: |
While the launch of Windows XP created a huge media splash, the release of the gold code for Palm's OS 5 for handhelds has barely gotten any coverage at all. That's too bad, because this operating system includes several buzzworthy features, at least for devoted handheld users. Among the top changes are its support for ARM processors (high-performance chips that Pocket PC-based PDAs have been using for some time) and support for the 802.11b wireless standard (see No. 8). |
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| 6. |
Sculley: |
This week, eBay announced its new eBay Anywhere wireless service. In my mind, the big news here is that eBay is embarking on m-commerce in a serious way, allowing users to wirelessly bid for the goods they want. But search terms across our network show that CNET readers are more interested in the fact that former Apple CEO John Sculley is behind the deal. |
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| 7. |
Yahoo: |
For many surfers, Yahoo is the Web. So when the Internet portal decides to tweak its home page, the Net watches anxiously. But if this screenshot from News.com is any indication, it doesn't look like the portal is changing all that much. |
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| 8. |
802.11: |
From wireless home networking to satellite radio, 802.11 wireless standards are gaining huge interest. Last week, two satellite-radio broadcasters dropped their petitions to curb the standard, which they featured might interfere with their respective services. In the meantime, the battle of whether 802.11a or 802.11b will end up the dominant standard for wireless networking continues to brew. |
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| 9. |
.13 micron: |
Who would have thought that a teeny, tiny, minor manufacturing change (as it seems to the layperson, anyway) could boost the performance of your PC? Both Intel and AMD now use a .13-micron fabrication process for CPU manufacturing, which means that more chips can fit on a wafer. Did our lab tests find significant speed jumps as a result? Well, for Intel, they did; for AMD, not so much. |
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| 10. |
Bandwidth Meter: |
Word has clearly gotten out about this CNET service, which tests your Internet connection and tells you how fast it really is. Use it to find out whether you're actually operating at broadband speeds and fulfilling Senator Joseph Lieberman's utopian vision of broadband for all. |
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