Review: Applica Multimedia

Installation was very difficult on my Celeron 466 machine. First off, Applica Multimedia's Savage3D chip was not detected because I had two video cards (an Intel i740 AGP and a TNT PCI) in the computer. This in theory should not be an obstacle since I had successfully used three video cards in one PC when I wrote the multiple-monitors under Windows 98 article. I then decided to remove the i740, only to have Windows hang before booting up. It turns out that TNT-based video cards currently do not work with Applica Multimedia. I proceeded to download a new version of the software which claimed to have solved the problem, but still no go. Then I decided to just go with the the i740, but then when I tried to connect to my ISP using the a USB modem, the computer froze. I finally decided to install Applica Multimedia in a K6-2 300 computer with 96 MB of PC100 SDRAM, a Diamond Viper V330 AGP, and an internal 56K PCI modem. Thankfully, after plugging in a spare 15" monitor, PS/2 keyboard and mouse to the Applica adaptor and then rebooting, the monitor lit up as Windows 98 loaded, displaying a cool-looking Powered By Applica icon fronting a blue background. When the Applica station is switched ON via the control panel software on the host PC, Windows near-instantaneously appeared on the monitor connected to Applica Multimedia. Note that the Applica software allows the user to auto-start the Applica station upon starting the host PC; by default this setting is set to manual launch. It is a good idea to leave it that way initially because if the station for some reason fails to start up, it usually causes a blue-screen and freezes the host PC. To have a successful installation, I recommend a very "clean" host PC. A system freshly installed with Windows 98, drivers, and applications very likely has a better chance of succeeding than a one that's been running the same installation for a while.

During testing, it was apparent that the Applica station takes less priority processor-wise than the host PC. When running the notoriously CPU-intensive screen-saver 3D Maze on both stations simultaneously, the Applica station displayed the maze somewhat choppily, while the host machine ran it without a hitch. When the screensaver is deactivated on the host, the maze motion immediately sped up on the Applica station. More formal benchmarking showed that the Applica station, powered by the lackluster S3 Savage3D, is not very good at 3D gaming. The NVIDIA Riva128-based Diamond Viper V330 in the system easily outpaced the Savage, although it should be noted that the Applica station is not given nearly as much attention by the CPU as demonstrated in the 3D Maze test. What is somewhat surprising is how performance on the host PC suffers when the Applica station is actively surfing cached web pages at about a new page every five seconds. The culprit is disk-swapping- I noticed that whenever there is some sort of disk activity, mouse-movement would become very jumpy.

Performing less-intense tasks such as word processing simultaneously on both the station and the host proved to be more manageable. Playing MP3s on both "machines" at the same time also was no problem.

The Applica station shares every resource on the host PC, except for video and sound. This has its advantages and drawbacks. The advantages include not needing to purchase a separate computer, power-saving, and the near-instant boot-up of Windows (provided that the host PC is already in Windows). Internet connection sharing also worked great- upon connecting to the Internet, both the host computer and the Applica workstation can access the Net without having to change any setting. The main drawback of resource-sharing is that if either "computer" freezes, the other also locks up at the same time. Therefore the user needs to be careful not to, for example, run too many programs at once to prevent freezing up Windows due to low system resources- or face the wrath of his or her Applica buddy :-). In addition, you cannot, for now, install separate drivers for the mouse on the Applica station. Thus if you alter a mouse setting such as cursor speed on the Applica station, the mouse attached to the host computer will also be affected. Furthermore, the Applica station cannot be shutdown without restarting the host PC, which can be an annoyance. Another concern is how far away the station can be from the host- the distance between the two is limited by the length of the second set of keyboard, mouse, and VGA cables. Thankfully now 25 feet extension cables made especially for Applica Multimedia are now available ($29.95).

Although compatibility is suspect, Applica Multimedia is nonetheless an innovative product. The more powerful your computer is, the more bang-for-the-buck you'll get with Applica Multimedia. A good setup might be a Pentium III/Athlon 500 or faster, plenty of RAM and a 7200 RPM disk subsystem. I envision Applica Multimedia as an excellent fit for family members or college roommates who only have one PC. Not exactly for head-to-head 3D gaming, but for simultaneous web surfing, word processing, or listening to MP3s, Applica Multimedia does the job.   

[ Back to Product Reviews | Sections index ]