PC

Through a deal with TiVo Inc., Amazon.com Inc. is trying to bridge the river-wide gap between the PC and television. The two companies announced yesterday an alliance that lets some TiVo customers watch, on their TVs, movies and television shows purchased through Amazon's nascent online-video store, Unbox. The service addresses one of the greatest impediments to the growth of Internet video - viewers can't watch it on their living room TVs. "There's a ton of content flowing over broadband - premium content, meaning the best in movies and television shows," TiVo Chief Executive Officer Tom Rogers said.

Seventeen years ago I bought my first PC. It was a Radio Shack Color Computer with a whopping 16K of memory, no disk drive and no monitor (I hooked it up to an old TV).I paid $800 for the package -- including a tape recorder for storing programs and a 300-baud modem -- and I thought it was magic. Why? Because thanks to that computer, I could write a story at home and send it to my newspaper's computer system.If I had to cover a late meeting, I didn't have to drive to the newsroom to write my story and then drive home.

A friend who recently upgraded to Windows 98 Second Edition was miffed and mystified. Every time Rick left his desk for more than a few minutes, his computer would go into a state of suspended animation. When he came back and touched the keyboard, he had to wait for what seemed like an eternity while his system came back to life."It's a royal pain in the you-know-what," he said. "I don't know what they did, but I'd like to find the guy who did it and wring his neck."I understand how he feels.

Choosing a computer style has long been easy: You can have any color you want, as long as it's beige.In a world where people speed by in hunter green sports cars and flaunt cherry red cellular phones, the personal computer -- perhaps the most important new consumer product of the last two decades -- has stuck with its original bland shade and boxy architecture. "Function over form" has been the serious-minded computer industry's message to the masses, and the masses have gone along.Until now.New waves of computer consumers are looking for devices that reflect their personalities.

There are plenty of bargain PCs on the market today, and they offer astonishing power for the money. For $1,000 or less, you can buy a computer that will run rings around virtually anything that was on the market two years ago.But when I went shopping for an inexpensive machine a few weeks ago, I learned that all too often, what you see is exactly what you get. And what you may not get is the ability to expand or upgrade your PC as your needs change.While...

When my friends and I headed off to college three decades ago, we had only one technical decision to make -- manual typewriter or electric?Today, computers are standard equipment on campus, a situation that elicits more than its share of angst from my generation -- parents who find themselves footing the bill for a complex and expensive gadget they don't understand and which didn't even exist when they were in school.Kids, tell your parents to relax. Most students use their computers for three basic activities -- word processing, Web browsing and electronic mail (with games and digital music thrown in for fun)

WHEN you spend too much time fooling with computers, you tend to forget that most humans are engaged in more honest pursuits -- and that they're often mystified by what they see and hear when they sit down in front of a keyboard.Here's an example from this week's messages:"I was having trouble with my e-mail, and the people at my Internet service asked me what kind of 'client' I was using. I wasn't sure what they were talking about, and they said it meant what kind of e-mail program I had. Why did they call it a 'client,' and why didn't they say what they meant in the first place?"

IF YOUR LIST OF family Christmas presents includes a new computer or some other electronic wonder, it's time to think about making sure your holiday is a digital delight and not a digital disaster.There's nothing more unnerving than unwrapping a computer and spending a couple of hours fumbling with unfamiliar plugs, cables and other paraphernalia while the kids are looking over your shoulder, and then finding out that there's something broken or missing. Or worse yet, watching the kids' faces when you can't figure out what's wrong.

There are few sure things in life. But among the exceptions is this: You will be overwhelmed when you walk into a computer or electronics store this season and try to pick out the perfect gift.Is it any wonder? Hundreds of new high-tech toys, computer games and gadgets cram the shelves each holiday season, vying for attention. Pick the wrong one and you can kiss your hard-earned cash goodbye.Fear not. The Plugged In staff has dedicated itself to the onerous task of playing with - er, evaluating - new games and gadgets.

If you buy a PC today, there's a good chance that something will go wrong with it over the next couple of years.I'm not talking about system crashes, which affect virtually everyone, but real problems - a bad disk drive, faulty memory, a video display adapter that goes haywire or something else that goes thunk in the night.That's why it's a good idea to pay attention to a PC's warranty before you buy. A good warranty, backed by a good service organization, can turn a hardware failure into a minor inconvenience.

PC. Rated Teen. Microsoft Xbox 360, also for PS3, PS2, Nintendo Wii, PC; $59.99 ($39.99 to $59.99 for other versions) ** 1/2 James Bond is out for revenge in Quantum of Solace, and his quest lends itself to a fast-paced first-person shooter in this game adaptation. The game covers the action sequences of Casino Royale as well. It's a solid shooter with a handful of online game types, but aside from the Bond license, there's not much to make it stand out. Bond can rush and take out enemies with a quick, nasty attack, there are occasional Simon-style hacking minigames and fistfights with foes, and some levels call for stealthy movement.

Through a deal with TiVo Inc., Amazon.com Inc. is trying to bridge the river-wide gap between the PC and television. The two companies announced yesterday an alliance that lets some TiVo customers watch, on their TVs, movies and television shows purchased through Amazon's nascent online-video store, Unbox. The service addresses one of the greatest impediments to the growth of Internet video - viewers can't watch it on their living room TVs. "There's a ton of content flowing over broadband - premium content, meaning the best in movies and television shows," TiVo Chief Executive Officer Tom Rogers said.

I am very disappointed in my shares of Dell Inc. and wonder if there is light at the end of this tunnel. - K.T., via the Internet There is trouble in what was once the paradise of the computer world. The nation's No. 1 personal computer manufacturer must reassess everything it does, including its long-admired direct-to-consumer business model based on Internet and telephone orders. Its fiscal second-quarter report to regulators has been delayed due to probes of its accounting methods by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. attorney's office of the Southern District of New York.

As I write this, my laptop computer's battery meter shows just over an hour of juice left, so I'll have to get most of this column finished before it runs out. That's because there's no more electricity where this charge came from, at least for now. Yes, there's no better time to write about the perils facing PCs and other delicate gadgets in this damp early-summer of discontent than in the middle of a blackout. Actually, when the power died a half-hour ago, some of the precautions we'd taken worked just fine.

NEW YORK -- Sometime in the near future, Paul S. Otellini, Intel Corp.'s new chief executive, hopes we'll all be chanting the word "Viiv," as in rhymes with "five." That's Intel's name for the technology powering a new generation of devices for the "digital home." These machines are designed to make it easy to connect your personal computer with your TV, your stereo, your digital phone and any other gadget you've recently been persuaded to buy. In tech jargon, that's called "interoperability."

Downloaded singles 1.Run It! (Remix featuring Juelz Santana), Chris Brown 2. Hung Up, Madonna 3.When I'm Gone (explicit version), Eminem 4.My Humps, Black Eyed Peas 5.Photograph, Nickelback[ Courtesy iTunes] Downloaded albums 1.Rent (original motion picture soundtrack), Various artists 2.Try! (Live), John Mayer Trio 3.Confessions on a Dance Floor (deluxe version), Madonna 4.Hypnotize, System of a Down 5.Walk the Line (original motion picture soundtrack), Various artists[ Courtesy iTunes]

If you're shopping for a computer this season, you'll find a lot of machines with labels that say "Windows Media Center Edition." If you buy one and don't know what you're getting, you could be in for a surprise - good or bad. Windows MCE, as it's known in the trade, is software designed to turn a suitably equipped PC into a friendly, family room multimedia center that can play video and music through a TV or home stereo. It can also serve as a digital video recorder, much like the well-known TiVo.

Can a computer die of old age?" The question, in the subject line of an e-mail, brought a chuckle. But the writer was quite serious. He had a PC that was well into its fifth year, and for some months now it had been slowing down. His original processor, once a muscleman, was overmatched by 7-megapixel digital photos and graphics-heavy Web pages. His once copious 20-gigabyte hard drive was full and badly fragmented - which slowed his system even more. On top of that, years of installing and removing software had left his Windows registry a bloated, gloppy mess.

FOR MANY victims of Hurricane Katrina, there may be one more disaster waiting at home besides the obvious - I'm talking about the wreckage of personal computers and their data. Computers are as vulnerable to flooding, destruction and looting as other electronic devices. But the impact of losing one can be far more devastating if the PC contains critical personal or business records. Looking at the images of Gulf Coast wreckage, it's easy to see how the normal infrastructure of people's lives has been wrecked - including electricity, phone and Internet service.

SAN FRANCISCO - Add personal computers to the list of throwaways in the disposable society. On a recent Sunday morning when Lew Tucker's Dell desktop computer was overrun by spyware and adware - stealth software that delivers intrusive advertising messages and even gathers data from the user's machine - he did not simply get rid of the offending programs. He threw out the whole computer. Tucker, an Internet industry executive who holds a doctorate in computer science, decided that rather than take the time to remove the offending software, he would spend $400 on a new machine.