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Pedal To The Metal Hard facts on the latest software.

By J. W. Dysart

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Too often, Internet accelerators have problems working withmajor online services like AOL and CompuServe. Not so with NetSonicPro. Universality was a key component behind the design of thisprogram, and it delivers the goods when used on all major ISPs andbrowsers.

Load this baby onto your PC, and you'll find a noticeablyfaster Net connection and a significantly enhanced ability to jumpquickly around a Web site. Old friends of the program willappreciate new features like auto-refresh and its ability topre-fetch in background the text and graphics of links on any Webpage you're viewing.

NetSonic Pro
Street Price:
$39.95
Requires: an IBM or compatible PC, 758K hard-drive space,Windows 95 or higher. Works with virtually all major browsers,including Netscape 3.0 or higher, Internet Explorer 3.0, Aol 3.0 orhigher, CompuServe 3.02 or higher, and Opera 3.10 or higher
Web 3000
Redmond, Washington
(425) 836-3000
http://www.web3000.com


Joe Dysart (joedysart@aol.com), a softwareanalyst and Internet business consultant, has written for more than40 publications, including The New York Times.

Ad Libs

Can't afford to hire a crackerjack advertising pro tojump-start your advertising campaign? Then leverage the insights ofmore than 20 with this program. In an hour or so, you'll beable to interactively create a blueprint for a 12-month advertisingplan specific to your industry. AdPlan 3.0's e-mail directoryof more than 10,000 media contacts for submitting yourbusiness's online press releases is worth its price alone. Butyou'll also profit from its Web Site Submission tool forautomatically submitting your company's Web site address tomore than 950 sites, customer survey templates, and GeoMap Archivefor targeting specific geographic regions.

AdPlan 3.0
Street Price:
$129
Requires: An IBM 386 or higher PC, Windows 95 or higher, 8MBRAM, 35MB hard-drive space (Mac version available)
Orbital Communications
Framingham, Massachusetts
(508) 620-6610
http://www.orbitalcom.com

Net U

Used to be the Net could only be mastered after much gnashing ofteeth and truckloads of Jolt cola. No more. Instead, it's allhere on The InfoHighway Encyclopedia. With beautiful graphics andan intuitive interactive interface, this offline Net simulatorintroduces you to the Net at your own pace. Grasp a fundamentalunderstanding of how the Net works, how to use Web research tools,how to use e-mail, how to participate in discussion groups and thelike. Indispensable for the beginning surfer.

The InfoHighway Encyclopedia
Street Price:
$50
Requires: An IBM 486/66 compatible or higher PC, Windows 95or higher, 12MB RAM, 16-bit Sound Blaster compatible sound card, 2XCD-ROM
Concept Action Multimedia
Montreal, Canada
(514) 866-0434
http://www.concept-action.com/ang

I Say Tomato, You Say Tomahto

Nothing is less impressive--and more costly--than a loftilyexpressed business concept riddled with mispronounced words. TheAmerican Heritage Talking Dictionary 5.0 helps you guard againstsuch self-betrayal with access to more than 90,000 spoken words.You can keep the dictionary onscreen while using other programs.Plus, it's not a hard-disk space hog: All the audio can beaccessed from the program's CD. Now everyone can sound likethey went to Harvard.

The American Heritage Talking Dictionary 5.0
Street Price:
$30
Requires: An IBM 486/66 compatible or higher PC, Windows 3.1or higher, 8MB RAM, 2X CD-ROM, sound card
The Learning Company
Cambridge, Massachusetts
(617) 761-3000
http://www.learningco.com

Voice Over

This is a clever employee- attendance management solution thatenables you to clock employees' whereabouts using their"voiceprint." Employees "clock in" and"clock out" by speaking their own password to TimeWolf,which verifies their voiceprint against samples it already hasstored. Plus, TimeWolf frees you from the tedium of tabulatingtraditional time sheets by generating those reports automatically.Only drawback: no module for listening to the sorry excuses of thechronically late.

TimeWolf
Street Price:
$79
Requires: An IBM or compatible PC, Windows 3.1 or higher,20MB hard-drive space, CD-ROM
Lone Wolf Software
Bellflower, California
(800) 473-9457
http://www.lonewolfsoftware.com

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