Brand: MacNews

A record number of U.S. residents went online last month, according to both Nielsen/NetRatings and Jupiter Media Matrix. Nielsen reported a 15 percent year-over-year increase in Web usage, with 115.2 million U.S. residents going online during October 2001. Jupiter Media Matrix, meanwhile, reported that there were 102.1 million unique Web users during the month, the first time its survey has topped 100 million users.

In stark contrast to the relatively painless installation procedure for Mac OS X, c|net has devoted an entire article to covering reader opinions of installing Windows XP, which range from painless to problematic. One individual notes, “I returned [Windows XP] to CompUSA in Boulder. The woman working the return counter said that usually they don’t take returns of opened software, but too many people were having problems with Windows XP, and she gave me a cash refund on the spot.”

Mac-only ISP AppleOnline has changed its name to MacUnlimited, as part of an amicable resolution regarding the use of Apple’s trademarks, according to MacUser UK. The move is merely administrative and does not affect any aspect of the services MacUnlimited provides.

Netscape has posted a new version of Communicator — their suite of Internet tools for Web browsing, email and more. No details of changes in this latest release are available, but Netscape Communicator 4.7.9 can be downloaded now.

VersionTracker notes that Power On Software has released Now Up-to-Date & Contact 4.1 — a fully Mac OS X native version of their popular personal information manager. A demo version is also available.