Brave new world on a silver platter - Software Review - includes related articles on CD-ROM industry resources and review process - Software Guide - Evaluation

Home Office Computing, July, 1992 by Philip Bishop

15 Business Resources On CD-ROM

CD-ROM technology is close to a decade old, but people started to notice it only a couple of years ago. Apple helped get the ball rolling in March 1988 when it introduced its first CD-ROM drive; later this year the company is expected to give it another big spin with the rollout of a CD-ROM-based Macintosh. Microsoft's president, Bill Gates, has also been a prime mover in the field through his passionate support of the "multimedia PC." The MPC, as it is known, is essentially a 386SX or better containing superior audio and video capabilities--and high-capacity database access in the form of CD-ROM.

CD-ROMs can hold about 600MB of data. Such massive storage capacity has made them the obvious way to house large databases. And information on CD-ROMs cannot be overwritten. What's more, CD-ROMs can withstand years of use (and abuse) without missing a beat. And, of course, they are eminently transportable. Since their early days, CD-ROMs have been a favorite medium of educational and government agencies. Now they are reaching the mainstream.

As the number of CD-ROM-based computers and CD-ROM players increases, we should see an increase in the number of disks available to businesspeople. More important, as publishers tune in to the needs of the business community, the overall quality and usefulness of CD-ROMs should dramatically increase, too.

There are many specialized CD-ROM products available, such as medical and science references as well as general-interest titles. In the reviews that follow, you'll see the great promise CD-ROM technology offers for home-office use. For example, Arc Tangent's Professional Mail and ZIP + + could comfortably serve as core tools for a mail-management business, while Market-Place and Information Corp.'s MarketPlace Business enable you to carry out marketing campaigns right on your desktop.

Facts on File News Digest (PC)

Rating:

VERSION REVIEWED: 1980-1991 LIST PRICE: $695 STREET PRICE RANGE: N/A

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: 640K IBM compatible; hard-disk drive; CGA, EGA, VGA, or Hercules; DOS 3.1 or higher; CD-ROM Extensions 2.1 or higher

PUBLISHER: Facts on File, 460 Park Ave. S., New York, NY 10016: (212) 683-2244

If speedy access to news about world events is important to your business, Facts on File News Digest may be a smart investment. The CD-ROM I reviewed contained summaries of more than 40,000 news items and an index of more than 700,000 items covering the period from 1980 through 1990; the version available by the time you read this will include 1991. In addition to text, the disk also contained 300 maps showing geographic, political, and other features of life on earth. The maps and text can be printed or downloaded to your hard-disk drive for use in other applications.

Searching the database is quick and easy; you can use and, or, and not parameters to be more efficient. You can also search the database by keyword or from the main index. Your search will retrieve a reverse-chronological list of articles. Some articles also contain citations that you can access by cross-referencing with a highlighted code.

While the text files are impressive, the maps leave a lot to be desired. They tend to be crude and difficult to read. A few more keyboard commands would be useful, too. The good news is that Facts on File says all of these shortcomings have been addressed in the latest DOS version, plus the price has been lowered $100, to $695. The bad news is that the current Mac version has sold out and the next version won't be out until 1993.

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Apple Macintosh Software Product Database (Mac)

Rating:

VERSION REVIEWED: October 1991 LIST PRICE: $30 STREET PRICE RANGE: N/A

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: IBM Macintosh; hard-disk drive; HyperCard 2.0 or higher; System 6.0 or higher

Publisher: ICP, 823 E. Westfield Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46220; (317) 251-7727, (800) 428-6179

This ICP disk contains descriptions of almost 3,000 Macintosh products together with contact information for 1,500 vendors. The 92.9MB disk also contains more than 300 software demos. You can view this abundance, including the demos, through a HyperCard front end.

HyperCard does a pretty good job of getting you to the information you need, although finding and launching demos takes too long; the company promises a smoother front end with the next release. Microscoft is well represented on the disk (there are demos of Word, Works, PowerPoint, Mail, and Excel). Conspicuously absent are Aldus PageMaker, FreeHand, Quark XPress, and anything from Adobe Systems, Claris, or CE Software; this, too, should change in the next release, ICP says. Even with these absentees, the Apple Macintosh Software Product Database represents a very good demo service on a single disk. And for $30, you can't go wrong. ICP hopes to publish the collection several times a year. (NOTE: For those without CD-ROM drives, the database [without demos] is available on floppies for $30.)

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