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DeskMate >
Tandy WinMate
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You create and configure WinMate users with the Profiler.
One thing that strikes me as odd is that it has multiple "Information
Areas" that ask for and store LOTS of personal information. The "Personal
Data" one at the top even asks for your social security number!!!! This
screen shot only shows one of the "Information Areas".
It doesn't say, but presumably this information is used by other WinMate
applications.
An interesting small feature of the profiler is that it provides a
quick and easy way to make a wide variety of faces for your user picture.
Six buttons let you quickly cycle through a number of Hair, Eye, Nose,
Mouth, Hair Color, and Skin Color options to create a composite face.
WinMate bundles a number of applications. Some of the applications,
such as this hangman program, may be familiar to DeskMate users.
The bundled WinMate applications are separate programs from the WinMate
desktop, and can run individually from the Program Manager, but they use
similar interface bits such as the Task and Navigation bars..
Most of the applications include useless sounds and animation. This
is because "multimedia" was still new, so they felt the need to use such
things at all cost.
The included WinMate applications are:
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Banners
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Greeting Cards
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Calendar
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Diary
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Graphics Manager
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Hangman
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MathDrill (game)
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Works Templates
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Message Center
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Nametags
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Notices
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800# Phone Book
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User Profiler
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Puzzler (game)
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Phone Center
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Travel
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Type Defense (game).
The above screen shot shows the Greeting Card application.
This application has a "speak" task that speaks the text in the selected
text box using a text-to-speach feature. (Because... Multimedia!)
The text-to-speech feature is used in a number of the other applications
as well.
This is the calendar application. Not much to see here, but at least
it doesn't require an internet service account to use!
The Travel Manager makes use of the information from the Microsoft
Bookshelf CD-ROM.
I don't think I have seen any other system besides Windows 8 that prominently
tries to hock a travel program to the user.
An interesting feature of WinMate is the Phone Center.
You can plug in a phone line to a Tandy Sensation and it can record
messages for different WinMate users. It can apparently also provide information
over the telephone via text-to-speach and a touch-tone menu.
The Tandy Sensation bundles a number of non-WinMate programs such as
Microsoft Works and Microsoft Money. It also includes online services such
as America Online and Prodigy.
It's kind of funny, the bundled America Online client uses a stripped
down version of GeoWorks instead of Windows!
WinMate includes a tutorial system.
The tutorial features an annoying animated CD named CD-ROM Man. And
this was before the time of Clippy or BOB!
Shutting down WinMate.
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