Multimedia stew - CD-ROM titles useful to business - Stop Playing Games: An Entrepreneur's Guide to Multimedia - Software Review - Evaluation - Cover Story

Home Office Computing, Dec, 1994 by Steve Morgenstern

Right now, if industry prognostications aren't entirely amiss, multimedia computers are flying off store shelves and landing in homes across the country. These machines come equipped with CD-ROM drives and high-fidelity sound. But as with the puppy that shows up under the tree on Christmas morning, a question quickly arises for new owners of multimedia computers: What are we going to feed it?

With great software, a multimedia computer can inform and entertain you with exquisite graphics, animation, and video as well as with beautiful music, convincing sound effects, and lifelike speech. Without great software, however, it's nothing more than an overpriced word processor.

Though we chose not to review any applications, you should be aware that more and more publishers are making CD-ROM version of their software. Sometimes the main benefit of this is not having to deal with setup disks for large applications. This may not seem like much, but it's certainly preferable to install Microsoft Office with one CD as opposed to 31 floppy disks. More often, an application on CD-ROM offers more material than what comes on the standard floppies.

CorelDraw ($895), for example, not only contains an entire suite of graphics software, but 22,000 clip art images and a collection of photos as well. Intuit's Quicken Deluxe Edition ($60 street) on CD-ROM includes video tutorials - in which Intuit employees literally walk you through the program - in addition to Quicken Financial Suite, which has a library containing a collection of electronic books.

Here, then, is our guide to 18 terrific CD-ROM titles, handpicked specifically for our readers and spread across three categories: reference and educations business information, and desktop publishing. An attempt lo review even briefly all the worthwhile CD-ROM software on the market today would take an entire issue Of HOME OFFICE COMPUTING, and even then we'd have to make some tough choices to fit it all in. But the CDs reviewed here are a good start - almost all are delivered with style and polish. (unless otherwise noted, prices given are list).

Reference and Education

Automap Streets

Rating: ***

WIN

Street Atlas USA

Rating: ***1/2

WIN / MAC

In a classic eye-opening example of how much information can be shoehorned onto a CD, there are now two products that deliver street maps of the entire country on one or two discs - perfect for traveling salespeople, service providers, and anyone else who has to locate a client,s whereabouts when on the road.

StreetAtlas USA provides neighborhood maps of the whole country on a single disc, all ready to use, with a list price of $169. Its competitor, Automap Streets, costs $50, but you get only a taste for that price - four metropolitan area maps knew York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and San Francisco and the right to unlock one additional section of the country (which is divided into more than 200 sections). Automap's two discs are password protected, and it costs $30 to gain access to each map beyond the original freebie (or you can unlock the whole disc - about 200 maps - in one fell swoop for $600).

Both products offer strong search capabilities, letting you locate an area directly by entering its name or a street name. Automap Streets lets you copy individual maps from the CD to your hard drive, which means you can take the software on the road with a portable computer.

The final distinguishing point between these products Automap Streets's maps are slightly more attractive and easier to read than the Street Atlas's. But both products provide clear, useful results. $50; (Automap Streets); Automap,(800) 440-6277. $169; (Street Atlas USA, version 2.0); DeLorme Mapping, (207) 865-1234, (800) 452-5931.

Berlitz Think & Talk Series

Rating: ***

WIN / MAC

Learn to Speak Series

Rating: ***1/2

WIN / MAC

The folks at HyperGlot have taken the old faithful language learning strategy of combining recorded voices with written lessons and successfully brought it into the computer age. Now the voices are recorded on a series of CDs that act as tutors, providing verbal and text instruction, plus exercises and review materials.

HyperGlot offers two series that take different approaches to teaching foreign languages. Learn to Speak, available for French and Spanish, offers lessons with video clips and the opportunity to record your own voice on the computer (provided you have the proper equipment) and compare it with a native speaker's pronunciation This course follows the traditional route, using your native tongue to teach a foreign language.

HyperGlot also offers a computerized version of the Berlitz language study method, teaching in the foreign language alone aided by pictures and extensive spoken dialog - a more demanding technique than the one found in the Learn to Speak series but effective nonetheless. Each of these Berlitz Think & Talk packages (they're available for Spanish, French, German, and Italian) includes one CD-ROM and six to eight audio discs that can be played on a computer or an audio CD-ROM player. $199 each; (Berlitz Think & Talk); $179 each; (Learn to Speak); HyperGlot, (618) 558-8270, (800) 800-8270.