Stardock Releases PlusPak: PMINews for OS/2!

Canton MI -- Stardock Systems, Inc., a leading OS/2 software vendor, released the second product in the PlusPak series û PlusPak: PMINews.  PlusPak: PMINews is the result of several months of close collaboration between Stardock, OS/2's leading commercial software vendor, and SouthSoft, OS/2's leading shareware company.

PlusPak: PMINews was designed from scratch to be "the ultimate newsreader" and contains many features designed to appeal to both the casual Internet user as well as USENET news junkies.

Some of the features include:
Multiple Server Support.  Users with access to more than a single news server can now combine the power of those news servers for their own use.  PlusPak: PMINews integrates multiple news servers into a single master list of all available newsgroups.

Multiple GroupLists.  If you read a significant number of newsgroups, multiple GroupLists are likely to be one of the most useful and unique features of PlusPak: PMINews.  Users can have different sets of newsgroups in each GroupList. Each GroupList can also contain its own settings, such as different e-mail addresses, signatures, custom filters, etc.

Advanced Filtering and Searching.  Users can filter out particular users or entire threads they do not wish to not see again with only a couple mouse clicks.  PlusPak: PMINews' search features allow users to search any portion of a post or newsgroup filter the results based on a particular attribute.  Boolean relationships can be used in searches and filtering. For example, a user could create a single filter that searches for posts that are cross-posted into ALT. newsgroups AND has the word "money" in the subject.  For true newsgroup power users, PlusPak: PMINews also comes with its own filtering language.  PlusPak: PMINews example filters, when activated, can help weed out SPAM and filter binary newsgroups to only display messages with actual attachments. Few newsreaders on any platform can even remotely compare to PlusPak: PMINews anti-SPAM features, all of which are user viewable and customizable to help make your newsgroup experience less of a hassle.

Offline support. Rather than forcing you to stay connected to the Internet while browsing messages of interest, PlusPak: PMINews includes extensive off-line support to minimize your time online and maximize your newsgroup viewing experience. After marking the messages or threads you wish to view, simply let PlusPak: PMINews download them to your machine to view at your leisure. You can even create filters to automatically download messages that are of interest to you!

Spell Checking.  The spell checking features of PlusPak: PMINews help ensure that your posts do not go out with a bunch of unnecessary spelling mistakes.  The spell checker's dictionary is dynamic and highly configurable. The more you use it, the better it will be at correcting your mistakes.

Integration with the world's best selling OS/2 mail program.  Because PlusPak: PMINews has been developed by SouthSoft, it integrates seamlessly with PMMail.  If PMMail and PlusPak: PMINews are both installed to the same directory, address books and drag-and-drop can be shared between the two products.

Excellent binary news group handling. Users who download images, shareware, sounds, and other binary files from Internet newsgroups will be pleased to find that binary posts are treated as actual files.  These files can be dragged and dropped to the desktop or even manipulated right from the post itself.  Moreover, PlusPak: PMINews also handles multiple-part binary postings.

A ton of usability features. The number of convenient little features in PlusPak: PMINews are too numerous to articulate. Developers at both SouthSoft and Stardock have years of experience using Internet newsgroups and sought to bring to OS/2 a news reader that supplied the vast majority of feature requests from the various newsreader wishlists that have ever existed.

PlusPak: PMINews is currently available from Stardock's on-line commerce server (http://www.stardock.com).  PlusPak: PMINews lists for $34.95, but it is only $29.95 off the commerce server.  Users can also order by phone at734-762-0687 or 734-762-0687.  PlusPak: PMINews will soon be available via Stardock's reseller network, along with other PlusPak products.  A special bundling of PMMail and PMINews will be available from Stardock later this week.

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PlusPak: PMINews
$34.95 ($29.95 from Stardock's electronic commerce server)
E-mail: sales@stardock.com
Phone: (734) 762-0687
Fax: (734) 762-0690
Site licensing available.