News The New Look of Entertainment PCs

From PCMag:

"Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition gets the lion's share of publicity, but you can enjoy entertainment applications on popular Sony VAIO and Apple systems, too. Here's a visual features comparison of the two Windows-based contenders; we also survey Apple's key multimedia attributes in our sidebar "What About a Mac?"

Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 (MCE) is the company's second iteration of the multimedia OS. Think of MCE as an easy-to-read "10-foot interface" atop Windows XP rofessional, so you can see and control your multimedia applications from across your living room. With MCE, you can switch to standard Windows PC mode and still use all of the Media Center features. MCE PCs come in a variety of form factors-from systems that use large plasma displays to notebooks. (For a detailed review of MCE 2004, see "Second-Generation Media Center Edition: Worth the Wait," in our issue of October 28.)"

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