The Which? Home Computer, Video and Audio Guide

Personal Computer News

John Lettice

'The Which? Home Computer, Video and Audio Guide', edited by Quentin Deane, published by Consumers' Association and Hodder and Stoughton at £6.95. The run-up to Christmas is the traditional time for publishers to produce guides to the consumer jungle. But in all jungles, there are times when you ask for a machete and someone hands you a teaspoon. Unfortunately, this book is in nothing like the great tradition of the Consumers' Association. What it does give you is a very basic - and at some points misleading - guide to what computers are all about, and what you might want one for. It's sorted into chapters with sub-headings, at the end of which you get a few lines headed 'Buying Guide'. These 'guides' lack the pithiness of the standard Which? summaries. For example: 'If you intend to run mainly bought software then the limitations of the built-in Basic do not matter too much; if you want to write your own programs, the more commands there are for handling words and numbers, the better.' Is this really a recommendation to budding programmers to buy a machine without built-in Basic? This particular Which? guide covers - as you may have deduced from the title - video and audio as well. The press release accompanying the review copy was deeply unconvincing on why this should be, but it would seem that the book is aimed at the consumer goods junkie who has little or no knowledge of the various fields covered. In the first place I don't think this is a particularly fruitful line of enquiry, and in the second I don't think nearly enough hard consumer information has been included. Far better to be 'baffled by the terminology or swept along on a tide of uncritical journalism.' That way, you'll eventually pick up some facts.