Once Britannica has stopped trying to sell you things, it's a grand piece of software. Yet the box comes with leaflets for extra products, the lengthy installation routine sells you them too, and you're not even ...

At first glance, there's no discernible difference between Autoroute 2004 and this latest version. Second glance? Er, the same conclusion actually, with the look and feel of the program seemingly photocopied from last time around. In ...

It's always been quite difficult to demonstrate the value of an electronic map. The printed versions are so easy to use and comparatively cheap that you need to be able to achieve more with an electronic ...

With all this renewed activity around Mars, and George W. Lightyear's decision to send humans there, you might, like us, be taking a more active interest in the night sky. Red Shift 5, which was launched ...

Ever since AutoRoute Express was launched for Psion's 3a palmtop in the mid-1990s, route planning and city mapping software has been very popular for palmtop computers. It makes sense, really. Rather than carrying a bulky guidebook ...

The sheer comprehensiveness of Microsoft's top notch multimedia encyclopedia program makes it simply impossible to cover the full breadth of its work in one single review. Frankly, the numbers can get bewildering. This time around, over ...

This edition of the Britannica encyclopaedia is stamped with a 2002 date, although it has just been re-released this year at the budget price of £9.99. So what do you get, exactly, for your tenner? A ...

It's easy to review route planning software without ever leaving the comfort of your posterior. However, anyone who has battled with some of the, ahem, 'less accurate' online route planning resources will appreciate that this doesn't ...

Space cadets out there, rejoice. And no, we're not talking about bong-toting hippies or avid Star Trek anoraks, but those disciples of the night sky who like to spend the wee hours gazing up into space ...

Okay, let's throw out a tangential line here. What if you were an alien, visiting Earth - imagine that. If otherworldly inspiration lets you down, just pretend you're Bill Bailey or Grace Jones. What's the first ...

Route planners are part of the staple diet of software your average PC might expect to encounter. They can work out some pretty fancy stuff these days; not just telling you how to get from A ...

Planning a journey on the UK's embarrassingly inefficient rail network can be problematic. It's simple enough - at least in planning terms - if you only want to travel within one franchise's area, but as soon ...

CD-based reference software can seem a bit dull. For example, encyclopaedias been given away with new PCs for so long that they're hardly even noticed any more. That's a shame, because while the idea may not ...

Once you reach the age of 12 or so, learning a new language becomes progressively harder. Various techniques have been employed to help make the process easier, including audio and video tapes and structured evening classes, ...

Ordnance Survey maps are the staple of ramblers, walkers, climbers, cyclists and other outdoorsy types all over the UK. They're highly detailed maps showing contours, roads, railways, rivers, lakes, sites of interest and all sorts of ...

Explaining the concept of stars, galaxies and the universe in general is a tough task, but multimedia titles such as this can certainly help to dispel some of the confusion. Deep Space Explorer lets you take ...

I wonder how many people have Stephen Hawking's "A brief history of time" on their bookshelves, unopened and gathering dust. It seemed like a good idea at the time; an accessible, easy to read book about ...

We've been reviewing each new version of the CD/DVD Encyclopaedia Britannica for the last few years, and a thought occurs... Has so much really happened in the last year compared with the entire history of human ...

The Louvre is without doubt the world's most impressive greenhouse, although it's depressingly bereft of fruit and veg produce. What were those foolish Parisian architects thinking...? Apparently there's a few reasonably famous doodlings underneath it, though. ...

It must be said that Focus likes its space titles - it wasn't that long ago that the company unleashed RedShift 4 on us. This program, however, is very different in tack, presenting an encyclopaedic overview ...