t's usually not very interesting to review each month's crop of desktop computers. Frankly, they just aren't very different from one another these days. Most machines have a keyboard, a mouse, a screaming-fast microprocessor, not enough memory (you almost always have to upgrade), and the standard collection of input/output ports.
The software that comes with the machines is also pretty standard. If the computer is designed for business users, you get the operating system and usually little else. Machines targeted for consumers come with Microsoft Works, cut-down versions of Microsoft Money and Intuit's Quicken, and perhaps antivirus software.
Nevertheless, there are changes coming to desktop computers. Besides getting faster, they are becoming easier to set up, use, and somewhat more forgiving. Last month I was fortunate enough to have an Acer Aspire 6160 on my desk. In many ways, this computer - and the entire Acer Aspire product line - shows what's coming down the line for many Windows users.
The Acer 6160 is somewhat easier to set up than other computers because it is based on the Universal Serial Bus (USB). Gone are the traditional keyboard, mouse, and serial ports that clutter up the backs of most computers.
Instead, the Aspire has four neat USB ports. You plug the keyboard into one port, the mouse into another, and the speakers - yes, the speakers - into a third. Unlike other machines, it doesn't matter which plug goes into which socket. The fourth is a spare, for future expansion.
The USB, however, only goes so far. Although the speakers do plug into the USB socket, they only use the USB interface to power their built-in amplifier. A second wire runs from the speakers to the computer for the sound itself. This wire is analog. It would have been more daring, and only a little more expansive, if Acer supplied the Aspire with fully digital speakers. Then there would have been just one wire, and much better sound.
The USB keyboard is a good idea, but in addition to the cable the keyboard should have two USB sockets of its own, so that you could plug in a mouse and perhaps a digital camera. That's the way the USB works on Apple's iMac, and Acer should have copied it.
Acer also should have put USB connectors on both the front and the back of the computer, perhaps giving customers eight sockets, rather than just four. Nevertheless, Acer's use of USB is a good first step.
On the software side, Acer boasts an innovative feature called the Aspire TimeMachine. The idea behind the TimeMachine is rather simple: When a Windows-based computer stops working properly, it's usually because some important file has been deleted, or some new file has been installed in the directory that shouldn't be there, or because some critical application setting has been altered.
Enter the TimeMachine. Once a day, the Aspire TimeMachine program takes an electronic snapshot of the operating system, all of the application files, the configuration files, DLLs, and the Windows registry.
Then, if something stops working, you can use the TimeMachine to roll back the system to the way it was on a previous day when everything was working properly. And because you might not immediately realize there are problems, the TimeMachine stores many snapshots on the hard disk - one a day for the past week, one a week for the past few months, and one for each month going back a full year.
I was skeptical about the TimeMachine software when I first heard of it, but after trying it out a few times, I'm a believer. The snapshots happen when you aren't paying attention, they don't take up any space at all, and the restore process really works.
How is it possible that the snapshots don't take up any space? Because Acer hides them on the computer's hard drive.
Although my Aspire was allegedly delivered with an 8 gigabyte hard disk, a detailed inspection revealed that disk's true size is 12 gigabytes. Those extra 4 gigs are used to hold TimeMachine snapshots.
What's happening here is that Acer is selling its computers with a hard disk larger than advertised. The company is then using that additional disk space to decrease its technical support costs.
My Aspire also came with version 5.0 of Inoculan Antivirus. Whoops! While Acer should be applauded for supplying this, the virus signature files included with the program are more than a year and a half out of date, and the product itself has been discontinued. That's not very useful.
If you buy the computer on line at http://www.shopacer.com/ you'll find Acers are pretty competitive. The 6150 I've been using has been discontinued.
But in its place, consider the Aspire 6151. It has a 500 Mhz Pentium III with 64 megabytes of RAM, 8.6GB of hard disk, a DVD-ROM, and a 17-inch monitor, for $1299. Pay an extra $99 and you can get it with 128MB of RAM and 10GB of disk space. If you want to run speech recognition, be sure to get 128MB.
Technology writer Simson L. Garfinkel can be reached at plugged-in@simson.net
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