PC World (magazine)
Encyclopedia
PC World is a global computer magazine published monthly by IDG
. It offers advice on various aspects of PCs
and related items, the Internet
, and other personal-technology products and services. In each publication, PC World reviews and tests hardware and software products from a variety of manufacturers, as well as other technology related devices such as still
and video camera
s, audio devices and televisions.
The current editorial director of PC World is longtime tech journalist Steve Fox, effective with the December 2008 issue of the magazine. He replaced the magazine's veteran editor Harry McCracken
, who resigned that spring, after some rocky times, including quitting and being rehired over editorial control issues in 2007.
PC World is published under other names such as PC Advisor and PC Welt in some countries. PC Worlds company name is PC World Communications, and it is headquartered in San Francisco.
trade show in November 1982, and first appeared on newsstands in March 1983; its original staff consisted of people who had left PC Magazine
en masse after that publication was acquired by Ziff Davis
.
The magazine was founded by David Bunnell
and Cheryl Woodard, and its first editor was Andrew Fluegelman.
PC Worlds magazine and web site have won a number of awards from Folio, the American Society of Business Publication Editors, MIN, the Western Publications Association, and other organizations; it is also one of the few technology magazines to have been a finalist for a National Magazine Award
.
Many well-known technology writers have contributed to PC World, including Steve Bass, Daniel Tynan
, Christina Wood, Stephen Manes
, Lincoln Spector, Stewart Alsop
, David Coursey, James A. Martin, and others. Editors have included Harry Miller, Richard Landry, Eric Knorr, Phil Lemmons, Cathryn Baskin, Kevin McKean, and Harry McCracken.
In 2005 the show Digital Duo was slightly rebranded and relaunched as PC World's Digital Duo
and ran for an additional 26 episodes.
As of 2006, PC Worlds audited rate base of 750,000 makes it the largest-circulation computing magazine in the world.
On January 9, 2007, senior editor Rex Farrance was killed after being shot during a home-invasion robbery attempt.
however it is also available in other countries (51 in total), sometimes under a different name:
. Crawford responded, calling media reports of McCracken's resignation "inaccurate." CNET
later reported that McCracken had told colleagues that IDG
"was pressuring him to avoid stories that were critical of major advertisers." On May 9, Crawford was transferred to another department and McCracken returned to PC World until his departure in 2008.
IDG
International Data Group is a technology media, research, event management, and venture capital organization.IDG evolved from International Data Corporation which was formed in 1964 in Newtonville, Massachusetts, by Patrick Joseph McGovern and a friend, Fred Kirch...
. It offers advice on various aspects of PCs
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
and related items, the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, and other personal-technology products and services. In each publication, PC World reviews and tests hardware and software products from a variety of manufacturers, as well as other technology related devices such as still
Digital camera
A digital camera is a camera that takes video or still photographs, or both, digitally by recording images via an electronic image sensor. It is the main device used in the field of digital photography...
and video camera
Video camera
A video camera is a camera used for electronic motion picture acquisition, initially developed by the television industry but now common in other applications as well. The earliest video cameras were those of John Logie Baird, based on the electromechanical Nipkow disk and used by the BBC in...
s, audio devices and televisions.
The current editorial director of PC World is longtime tech journalist Steve Fox, effective with the December 2008 issue of the magazine. He replaced the magazine's veteran editor Harry McCracken
Harry McCracken
Harry McCracken is creator of Technologizer, a technology-oriented website. He also presently writes a weekly column with the same name for the TIME.com website. Harry is also a contributing editor at CNET....
, who resigned that spring, after some rocky times, including quitting and being rehired over editorial control issues in 2007.
PC World is published under other names such as PC Advisor and PC Welt in some countries. PC Worlds company name is PC World Communications, and it is headquartered in San Francisco.
History
The publication was announced at the COMDEXCOMDEX
COMDEX was a computer expo held in Las Vegas, Nevada, each November from 1979 to 2003. It was one of the largest computer trade shows in the world, usually second only to the German CeBIT, and by many accounts one of the largest trade shows in any industry sector...
trade show in November 1982, and first appeared on newsstands in March 1983; its original staff consisted of people who had left PC Magazine
PC Magazine
PC Magazine is a computer magazine published by Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009...
en masse after that publication was acquired by Ziff Davis
Ziff Davis
Ziff Davis Inc. is an American publisher and Internet company. It was founded in 1927 in Chicago by William B. Ziff, Sr. and Bernard G. Davis. Throughout most of its history, it was a publisher of hobbyist magazines, often ones devoted to expensive, advertiser-rich hobbies such as cars,...
.
The magazine was founded by David Bunnell
David Bunnell
David Bunnell is a media entrepreneur and technology pioneer who was involved in the earliest days of personal computing revolution and industry...
and Cheryl Woodard, and its first editor was Andrew Fluegelman.
PC Worlds magazine and web site have won a number of awards from Folio, the American Society of Business Publication Editors, MIN, the Western Publications Association, and other organizations; it is also one of the few technology magazines to have been a finalist for a National Magazine Award
National Magazine Award
The National Magazine Awards are a series of US awards that honor excellence in the magazine industry. They are administered by the American Society of Magazine Editors and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City...
.
Many well-known technology writers have contributed to PC World, including Steve Bass, Daniel Tynan
Daniel Tynan
Daniel Tynan is an American journalist, television and radio commentator who specializes in technology, humor, and humorous takes on technology. A contributing editor for PC World, InfoWorld.com, and Family Circle magazine, he recently launched a new Geek Humor Web site titled eSarcasm, along with...
, Christina Wood, Stephen Manes
Stephen Manes
Stephen Manes is the author of the 2011 nonfiction book Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear: Inside the Land of Ballet. Its subject, the workings of a ballet company, marked a significant departure for an author best known for his journalism on technology and his books for children.Manes wrote the...
, Lincoln Spector, Stewart Alsop
Stewart Alsop
Stewart Johonnot Oliver Alsop was an American newspaper columnist and political analyst.Born and raised in Avon, Connecticut, Alsop attended Groton School and Yale University...
, David Coursey, James A. Martin, and others. Editors have included Harry Miller, Richard Landry, Eric Knorr, Phil Lemmons, Cathryn Baskin, Kevin McKean, and Harry McCracken.
In 2005 the show Digital Duo was slightly rebranded and relaunched as PC World's Digital Duo
PC World's Digital Duo
PC World's Digital Duo was a computer themed US television series that aired on PBS stations in 1999 as Digital Duo for 26 episodes and returned to broadcast as PC World's Digital Duo with an additional 26 episodes in 2005. It ran for a half hour per episode and was produced by Incandescent...
and ran for an additional 26 episodes.
As of 2006, PC Worlds audited rate base of 750,000 makes it the largest-circulation computing magazine in the world.
On January 9, 2007, senior editor Rex Farrance was killed after being shot during a home-invasion robbery attempt.
Countries
Based in San Francisco, PC World's original edition is published in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
however it is also available in other countries (51 in total), sometimes under a different name:
- PC World in AlbaniaAlbaniaAlbania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
, AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, BangladeshBangladeshBangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
, BulgariaBulgariaBulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
, BrazilBrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, DenmarkDenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, GreeceGreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, HungaryHungaryHungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
(from July 2006), ItalyItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, KosovoKosovoKosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
, New ZealandNew ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, NorwayNorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, PeruPeruPeru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, PhilippinesPhilippinesThe Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, PolandPolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, SpainSpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, RomaniaRomaniaRomania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, TurkeyTurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, VietnamVietnamVietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, EcuadorEcuadorEcuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
. - PC Advisor in IrelandIrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
and the United KingdomUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. (Another now-discontinued magazine called Personal Computer WorldPersonal Computer WorldPersonal Computer World was a long-running British Computer magazine.Although for at least the last decade it contained a high proportion of Windows PC content , the magazine's title was not intended as a specific reference to this...
and a PC WorldPC World (retailer)PC World is OWNED BY THE GOVERNMENT one of the WHER MA MEMORY STICK ?!?!??! United Kingdom's largest chains of mass-market computer superstores. It is part of Dixons Retail plc. PC World operates under the brand name PC City in Spain, Italy and Sweden....
retailer —neither related to the PC World magazine —already exist or existed in those markets.) - PC Welt, is the German-languageGerman languageGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
edition. - Info Komputer, is the Indonesian-languageIndonesian languageIndonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....
edition. - Kompiuterija, is the Lithuanian-languageLithuanian languageLithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...
edition. - Thế Giới Vi Tính, is the Vietnamese-languageVietnamese languageVietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...
edition (also called PC World Vietnam). - Computer!TotaalComputer!TotaalComputer!Totaal, conveniently abbreviated as C!T, is a Dutch monthly magazine about computers and related subjects. C!T is published by IDG Nederland. Computer!Totaal is the largest computer magazine of the Netherlands....
, is the Dutch-languageDutch languageDutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
edition - Mikro - PC World, is the Serbian-languageSerbian languageSerbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
edition
Controversy
In May, 2007, McCracken resigned abruptly under controversial circumstances. According to sources quoted in Wired Magazine, McCracken quit abruptly because the new CEO of PC World, Colin Crawford, tried to kill an unfavorable story about Apple and Steve JobsSteve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs was an American businessman and inventor widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc...
. Crawford responded, calling media reports of McCracken's resignation "inaccurate." CNET
CNET
CNET is a tech media website that publishes news articles, blogs, and podcasts on technology and consumer electronics. Originally founded in 1994 by Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie, it was the flagship brand of CNET Networks and became a brand of CBS Interactive through CNET Networks' acquisition...
later reported that McCracken had told colleagues that IDG
IDG
International Data Group is a technology media, research, event management, and venture capital organization.IDG evolved from International Data Corporation which was formed in 1964 in Newtonville, Massachusetts, by Patrick Joseph McGovern and a friend, Fred Kirch...
"was pressuring him to avoid stories that were critical of major advertisers." On May 9, Crawford was transferred to another department and McCracken returned to PC World until his departure in 2008.
Forums
Forums at forums.pcworld.com have existed for several years, and currently have a significant number of members.See also
- PC MagazinePC MagazinePC Magazine is a computer magazine published by Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009...
- WorldBenchWorldBenchWorldBench is a Windows benchmarktool offered by PC World Labs since 2000. The PC World Test Center uses this same tool every month to test contenders for PC World's Top Desktop PCs and Top Notebook PCs charts...
- Donya ye BaziDonya ye BaziDonya ye Bazi is an Iranian biweekly Persian-language computer games magazine.It is the first official game magazine in Iran....
The first official game magazine in Iran