eu Macworld 1999 07 OCR

CQUICKTIME 4.0 AND FINAL CUT: WHAT'S BEHIND APPLE'S VIDEO REVIVAL, P. 27 SPECIAL REPORT IMac Waa we 19°93 9 THE ESSENTIAL MAcINTOSH® RESOURCE www.macworld.com ALSO INSIDE *MP3 EXPLAINED *333MHZ iMAC RATED *PALM CONNECTIONS *400MHZ G3 ACCELERATOR CARD ROUNDUP $6.99 International WW | 0" "70992"06924"8 | (© 1999 Apple Computer, Inc. Alright reserved. Te pple logo sa reer rademark and Poe Mac und hin efferent are iracemarks of ple Compe, te proc ad company names mented State of the Pentium-crushing art. Chip vs. chip, the G3 has been crushing Pentium processors since the day it was born: But what about computer vs. computer performance, using demanding applications like Photoshop? Good question. For that, we surrender the podium to what is fast becoming one of our favorite authorities, PC Magazine: “The Power Mac”G3 outperformed the (450MHz Pentium II) PC in 12 of our 13 tests by an average of 35%” and continues to “outperform” even the SOOMHz Pentium III, they say. Factor in our built-in 128-bit 3D graphics accelerator, storage up to 100GB, high-speed networking and revolutionary open-door design — and it’s an open-and-shut case. @8. Think different: bern may be trademarks of tr pct compares *Comparson based on BYTEmark integer dex proces lst Qk reprinted rom ¥C Nagai Olive March 1989. © 199 2D Ine. Al righ reroed. 2 88 So Long, CDs Features Cover Story BY CHRISTOPHER BREEN AND MICHAEL PENWARDEN Ad hype aside, which is really easier to use: an iMac or a consumer PC? We recruited a panel of new computer buyers to spend quality time with both and give us the answer. The results may surprise you. 80 You Can Take It with You By Davin poGue Want the power of a Mac in your palm? New Mac conduit software finally lets Palm organizers talk to Microsoft Office, FileMaker Pro, and other key Mac apps. BY JIM HEID “Toss out your cas- settes and compact discs—MP?3 is the wave of the music future. The format that lets you create, down- load, and play CD-quality music on your Mac, MP3 will forever change the way you consume your tunes. july 1999 MACWORLD Sur 4:19 99 cWOr 68 The iMac Challenge [USGS Is the iMac really a new computer buyer's best friend? page 68. 103 108 Incorporating MacUser ON THE COVER Photography by Mark Jobann Create ‘Motion After Effects 4 Expert Clinic sy Jim Hei0 Hit the ground running with this video-effects tool's fab new features. Graphics Image Alchemy 8Y BROOKE C. WHEELER ‘Trans- form plain layered images into complex concoctions. Web Invigorate Your Site with JavaScript ey por! smitH Create slide shows of artwork on your Web site with simple JavaScripts. 27 28 29 29 Better Web 3-D for you and me, page 29. News QuickTime 4 Moves Upstream Apple introduces a pumped-up version of its multimedia system software, with live streaming capabilities. Epson Rolls Out New Printers Epson unveils two new photo ink-jet printers, plus an iMac version of its Stylus Color 740. Finally Here Apple moves into the digital- video arena with its release of Final Cut, acquired last year from Macromedia. 1 Want My Web 3-D VRML may be languishing, but developers are hard at work on the next generation of 3-D stan- dards for the Web. Product Watch New products for your Mac, including 3-D paint software from Maxon and an ODBC Driver for FileMaker Pro. 17 23 63 176 10 97 Laser printer and desktop imagesetter in one, page 44. Opinion The Vision Thing BY ANDREW GORE Can Apple turn QuickTime 4 into the gold standard for Web video and audio streaming? The Game Room BY CHRISTOPHER BREEN Geezer’s guide to Virtual Game Station. The Desktop Critic BY DAVID POGUE Micro- soft: even more nefarious than previously thought. How to Contact Macworld Secrets Unlock Your Printer's Potential By JOSEPH SCHORR Coaxthe best photo-quality output from your inexpensive color printer. Quick Tips BY LON POOLE and shortcuts. ‘Tips, tricks, Good-bye, audio CDs—hello, MP3, page 88. 38 39 40 42 44 47 49 51 52 56 60 61 Reviews 898% Mac OS X Server Server software ¥4%% Crescendo G3 400/200; $8% JoeCard 400/200; $68 = Maccelerate 750; 88% Mach G3 400/200; $884 Maxpowr G3 400/200; $8 PowerForce G3 400/200; $49 PowerJolt 400/200 G3 upgrade cards $886 Fireworks 2.0.2 Web graphics tool 986% Bryce 4 3-D terrain generator 446% 3D Invigorator; $989 Extensis PhotoGraphics Photoshop plug-ins $$ Headline Studio 1.0 Web animation tool $968 Xanté Accel-a-Writer 3G Laser printer 94% ProMax Technology TurboMax EIDE storage system 998% Apple iMac 333MHz Consumer system $949 Adobe GoLive 4.0 Web-page editor $88% Alps MD-5000 Color printer $% Asanté FriendlyNet Dual 56K; #99 Asanté FriendlyNet ISDN Internet-access servers $#% Amapi 3D 4.1 3-D modeling tool $86%y. BlissPaint 2.0 Color-animation software $889 TelePort 56K Internal Modem Internal 56K modem $¥%% Spring Cleaning 3.01 Uninstaller utility $98% Cruise Control 1.0 Task-automation utility $$ BookEndz PowerBook G3 dock www.macworld.com July 1999 3 7 YOUR MAC FROM APPLE. BUY YOUR PRINTER DIRECT FROM GCC. New - reduced prices! We're GCC Technologies, and our printers are sold direct against some of the most famous names in the computer industry. This creates a buying opportunity for those who understand a basic principle of free enterprise: Selling direct is better for the manufacturer and buying direct is better for the customer. Therefore, we sell our printers direct, eliminating many prosperous middlemen, and lowering your costs. We also provide direct technical support, eliminating other middlemen who can’t solve your problems. And we are compassionate hand-holders. We offer unlimited free technical support, not just on business days, but on Saturdays too. If during that period you have a problem that our technical support people can’t solve, our Platinum Exchange program guarantees you a replacement printer by the next business day. We invite you to buy your next printer direct from GCC and join our growing family of satisfied customers. All GCC printers come with an unconditional thirty-day money-back guarantee. For complete details, call the 800 number below. And, for the record, yes, our printers have wonderful technology too. It’s just that you don’t have to pay extra for it. ELITE 12 Series [ ELITE XL 20 Series [ ELITE XL 8 Series 12 pages per minute Maximum Print Area: 8.5" x 14" Letter/A4, legal, envelope 250-sheet Universal Tray PostScript® Level 2 compatible, PCL 5 35 PostScript fonts, 15 PCL fonts, 45 downloadable fonts RAM expandable to 64 MB Ist year Platinum Exchange Warranty EtherTalk®, Localfalk®, TCP/IP Ethernet (10 Boset), Bi-directional Parallel 20 pages per minute Maximum Print Area: 12.6" x 35.1" Letter/A4, tabloid/A3, legal, envelope, poster 500-sheet Universal Tray PostScript® Level 2 compatible, PCL 5 35 PostScript fonts, 15 PCL fonts, 250 downloadable fonts RAM expandable to 64 MB Ist year Platinum Exchange Warranty EtherTalk®, LocalTalk®, NetWare™, TCP/IP Ethernet (10 BaseT, AAU!), Bi-directional Parallel 8 pages per minute Maximum Print Area: 11" x 17" Letter/A4, tabloid/A3, legal, envelope 250-sheet Universal Tray PostScript? Level 2 compatible, PCL 5 35 PostScript fonts, 15 PCL fonts, 45 downloadable fonts RAM expandable to 64 MB Ist year Platinum Exchange Warranty EtherTalk®, Localfalk®, TCP/IP Ethernet (10 BoseT,10 Base2), Parallel 2nd Paper Feeder* 2nd or 3rd Paper Feeder* 2nd Paper Feeder* (Includes 500-sheet Universal Tray) Add $ 299 (includes 500-sheet Universal Tray) Add $ 299 (Includes 250-sheet Universal Tray) Add $319 (Includes 500-sheet Letter/A4 Tray) Add $419 ELITE 12/600 $849 ELITE XL 20/600 $1599 ELITE XL 608 LC $999 600 x 600 dpi resolution 600 x 600 dpi resolution 600 x 600 dpi resolution 8 MB RAM expandable to 64 MB 16 MB RAM expandable to 64 MB 8 MB RAM expandable to 64 MB 2nd year Platinum Exchange Add $ 99** 2nd year Platinum Exchange Add $179** — 2nd year Platinum Exchange Add $139°* Business Lease $56 Month/36 months*** Business Lease $50 Month/24 months*** ELITE 1212 $949 ELITEXL20/800 $1899 1200 x 1200 dpi resolution 800 x 800 dpi resolution Rr done Picker Ure spring egy elle 16 MB RAM expandable to 64 MB 24 MB RAM expandable to 64 MB porn epi o irmmee i cian - cares 2nd year Platinum Exchange Add $119°* — 2nd year Platinum Exchange Aad. $170" ee tun cities aa wr Leagiens Business Lease $67 Month/36 months*** at rr fanenpoee ice pepe ‘36-month terms. Lease terms subject to change without notice or signed for obligation. Mac icrosoft® Windows NT* Windows 98 -800-422-7777, or visit ELITE XL 20/1200 $2199 1200 x 1200 dpi resolution 64 MB RAM installed 2nd year Platinum Exchange Add $219°* Business Lease $77 Month/36 months*** GCC Technologies iso registered trademark of GCC Technologies, Ine Elie 12/600, tite 1212, Elie XL 608 Lc, Elite XL 20/600, Ele XL 20/800 and the Elite XL 20/1200 are trademarks of GCC jes, Inc. All other rks or registered trademarks ore’ of their respective companies. ur web site, www.gcctech.con Choose 43 at www.macworld.com/getinfo %& Ranked TOP 1% of 1998 Software Reviewed * Macworld toivok i cae ‘tian Gore EDITORIAL rorron Michael Penvarden Sh SOA AD Mae Seopa Bake available everywhere . | sili eocronaaTonet Jason Snel | sawon aoc torTons Allyson Bates, petty, | Linds Coven, | Schill Sewyer eseceiton Brooke C, Wheeler Siiiatiniea baa Cunnes ds happiea | ssssanreirons Michael Gowan, to good computers. Your screen i Jonathan Seff freezes. (Along with the blood in your veins.) Or your 6-months-and-almost- CONTRIBUTING EDITORS done project is accidentally thrown out with the trash. (Icllo?) Or files Hieary Bocoan, Chaieopher ivan, frase tras thd Landi are mysteriously “corrupted.” | just Deke MeClelland, Rik Myslewski, Tam Negrino, David Pogue, dont have the time to reconstruct my docs, files, bookmarks, fonts, preferences, financials, reports, and e-mail. Do you? | My hard = | Lon Poole, Stephan Somogyi, Franklin N, Tessler INTERNATIONAL EDITORS Steven Noble, Australia; Bernard Le Du, France; Andreas Borchert, Germany; Enrico Lott, Italy; Yoshio Moriya, Japan; Retrospect Express provitles automatic protection for everything on your Mac at @ no-brainer price. It's never been easier to back up your hard drive and everything on it) to Zip, CD-R, Jaz, or even to the Internet. With sinall and adie plain TECHNICAL DIRECTOR Joff Pitta ina De Nike iy K. Milstead, Lan pinecton Kris SENIOR LAB ANALYSTS J home offices among those ASSOCIATE LAN ANALYST il Loyola hardest hit when disaster | inventory cooRDINATOR lysis Beavo strikes, the laws of prob ] ability guarantee that ] prey sooner of later, your number will come up. MANAGING EDITOR Claire H, Breen | But for less than 49, | ASSISTANT MANAGING tOITOR Paul-Michael King Ratroapect Rxprees | cory cor Jon Zobnica Lapriarosarwnae) Soheaaa SENIOR COPY EDITOR Elissa Rabellino smiling when it does. ART AND DESIGN stan inecton Eleanor Leishman anv DIRECTOR Sylvin Chevrier ASSOCIATE DESIGNERS Martha Katt, Michael Rattary DESIGN ASSOCIATES Jackie Goodman, Jonathan Woolson ONLINE dantz ee pals Save Your World: piRector ONLINE AD PRODUCTION MANAGER Steve Spingola USINESS oEVELOPMENT FOR ONLINE Nicholas Harvey " Choose 26 at www.macworld.com/getinfo 6 July 1999 MACWORLD RICOH Image Communication eye candy > The power of color to entice. To mesmerize. To make presentations more involving. You |know] the use of color is as unlimited as the imagination itself. From paper sizes up to 12 x 18, to handling heavy paper stock, no color is more accurate than the 3 ia 4 » | 800 63 RICOH full line of Aficio Color digital imaging systems. [those who know demand Ricoh] Aficio Color ricoh-usa.com i 2S 1© 1999 Ricoh Corporation Choose 4 at www.macworld.com/getinfo [ba nay Project Scheduling Made Easy! {Im not a project management expert, but everyone thinks | am. ‘Most of my time is spent completing tasks, so | need a scheduling tool that's easy, fast, and flexible. FastTrack Schedule 6.01 fils the bill. it keeps me organized and in control displaying all my project details in ich, colorful timelines. FastTrack Schedule provides just the right ‘amount of power because it's more sophisticated than day-planners, but easier to use and half * the price of traditional, high-end project ‘managers. The presentation-quality schedules clearly ilustrate project objectives and deadlines keeping team members and clients informed and up-to-date, Ina single schedule, | can outline multiple projects, make assignments, track cash flows, set- up dependencies— even add graphics. Whether |use it SINE) | ‘once a week or every day, { FastTrack Schedule makes project scheduling easy. For the free Demo CD, more info, or to place an order call 800-450-1982. ' Fastirac Version 6.01 Schedule. Schedule Tomorrow's Success Today. ~ AEC 1m AEC Ser eA ert Cpe tba ne . neocpen dtr tone ces Ea Sr es $8 2 Ma Works best with si Oso ed Ste. peal 7 0 0 rome ‘MacOS85 Choose 203 at www.macworld.com/getinfo July 1999 MACWORLD ‘Macworld [PRESIDENT AND CEO Colin Crawford ASSISTANT TO THE CEO Sharon Sanderson Cv0EF FINANCIAL OFFICER Stephen Daniels usiness manacen Bos de Feminis AccoUNTING cooKDATOR Ronda Bittner Christian Semmel DIRECTOR OF HUMAN RESOURCES Sue Murphy HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGER Marisa Chow DISPLAY ADVERTISING SALES VICE PRESIOENT, SALES, & PUBLISHER Mate Sweeney ASSOCIATE PURLISHER Steve Plevin (415/243-3509) SALES 8 manxeTinc COORDINATOR Karla Kyrias (415/278-8542) SALES ASSISTANT ‘Jennifer Russell (415/243-3577) WATIONAL ACCOUNTS MANAGER Jessica Ross (415/243-3583) Account extcunive Coretta Wright (415/243-3615) NATIONAL ACCOUNTS MANAGER Sara Culley (970/327-1499) Account extcurive Margaret Level Green (415/243-3582) tasremn aovennisng ovmecton Cynthia Ramsey (973/243-1197) ariONAc accounTS manactr Paul Bonartigo (508/533-4020) Account ExtcuTivE Jo Zomtareli ($16/277-4134) shopPER ACCOUNT MANAGER Niki Strana (415/243-3664) sworrin account manactn Carol Johnstone (415/243-3691) Shopren aowunsrearive asistanT Alissa Mach (415/243-3628) RESEARCH Phillip Hibbert | MARKETING MARKETING MANAGER Francesca Koe ONLINE MARKETING MANAGER Kelvin Gee WADE SMOW/IVENTS MANAGER Naney Galanty MACWORLD GLOBAL PRODUCT SUPPORT CENTER cooRDINATOR Sharon Sanderson PRODUCTION VICE PRESIDENT OF MANUFACTURING Anne Foley PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Cynthia Neustadt MANUFACTURING TECHNICAL DIRECTOR Clayton Haberman DIGITAL AD COORDINATORS Russ Nordmeyer, Mac Scott [AD SALES COORDINATOR Rick Sandoval -Macrrid 4pubiation of Mac Pubihing. LAC. Magma is independent journal not atiated with Apple Compute, Ine Shoppet, MW, MW Lab, MW Shoppe, The Bestop Cie. Expert Graphics, Quick Tip, Star Ratings, Buyers” Toa, Seetwiie Shopper, se Conspico Contumer se retered ademas of ac Pvbhing. LLC Apple, the Apple loge Ma. and Macintosh teademarks of Apple Computer, Is, Printed the Unted States ct America Copyright © 1998 Mac Publishing, LLC. Al rights Without the disappearing act. You find a great performer. Tops in the field. Amazing feats follow. You call for an encore.When suddenly—poof. The performer's nowhere to be found. Time to make our entrance. Aquent Partners." Not another staffing company. A specialized talent agency. Focused on creating the best, custom-tailored matches between you and the outstanding creative experts you need. Not just once, but time after time. How? Introducing The Partner Program. A handpicked, highly screened group of top Creative and Design professionals—from Graphic Designers to Creative Directors to Web Designers. They work exclusively with us. And, they stay with us. Five times as long as the industry average. Which means our great performers are far more likely to materialize whenever you need them. Portfolio,® MacTemps,® and WebStaff® are now Aquent Partners. The best of three specialty agencies, in one. Creating the strongest Creative, Web, and Technical matches for you. For contract and permanent work. Just in time.On demand. No smoke and mirrors. > The Creative, A Q U E N i Web, and Technical partners’ Talent Agency Amsterdam, Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Brisbane, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, London, Long Island, Los Angeles, Manchester, Melbourne, Miami, Minneapolis, Munich, New Jersey, New York, Northern Virginia, Orange County, Paris, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, St. Louis, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Schaumburg, Seattle, Singapore, Stamford, Stockholm, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Vancouver, Washington, D.C ©1999 Aquent Choose 110 at www.macworld.com/getinfo 10 VST FireWire Hard Drives ECHNOLOGIES| r) They're fast, really fast Data transfer rates are up to 400 Mbps. Plus the drive is FireWire Bus powered, so there is no need for an external power supply. VST rts tre oxve > And small, really small So lightweight and thin, they require virtually no desk space. You can take them with you wherever you go. So say good bye to big, dunky, external ot hard drives vst ee a We know you're interested, so come visit our web site to learn more. Choose 73 at www.macworld.com/getinfo July 1999 MaCWOrld x=pemNTs Printed reprints are highly effective marketing tools that will enhance your promotional efforts. Use reprints as: Trade show handouts Direct mail pieces Sales tools Presentation materials HTML / PDF files MACWORLD Macworld HOW TO CONTACT MACWORLD Subscription Services Phone 200/627-2247 ot 303/665-8930, North America only 303/604-7445, outside North America US. Mail Macworld Subseription Services P.O, Box 54528, Boulder, CO 80322-4529 World Wide Web ww:ztnet-com/adsubs/macword/service Subscription Rates ‘The one-year (12-ssue) subscription rate ls $3497 n the United States and $5497 for all other counties (end $108.97 for air mall. The rate for a ‘one-year (12-ssue) subscription withthe monthly CD-ROM is $49.97 in the United States and $69.57 for all other countries (ir mall not available st this time). Checks must be made payable US. curency to Macworld Please allow 6 to 8 weeks to receive your frst sue. Back Issues of Macworld Back issues (subject to avalabiity) are $8 per sue for U.S. defvery ($12 cuts the United States) prepayment in U.S. currency to Macworld is required. Send check or money order ta Back isues Department, Zit Davis ne,, PO. Box 53131, Boulder, CO 80322-3135. Reprints and Permissions You must have permision before reproducing any materi from Macworld, \Write to Macworld, Reprints and Permissions, 301 Howard St, 16th Fl San Francisco, CA 98105; include a phone number. To order reprints of your companys editorial coverage, call Reprint Services at €00/217-7874 582-3000; fax 651/633-1862. Mailing Lists We periodically make lists of our customers avalable to males of goods and services that may interest you. if you do nat wish to receive such malings, please write to us and include a copy of your maling label ‘Macworld on Microfilm ‘Macworld is available on microti and microfiche from UM, 300 N. Zeeb Rd, Ann Arbor, MI AB106-1346; 724/761-4700, Macworld Editorial he editors of Macworld welcome your tips, complments, or complaints Stores and product reviews from past isuet can be located at www rmacworld com. We are unfortunately unable to look up stories from past issues; recommend products; or diagnose your Macintosh problems by phone, e-mail or fax. Contact Apple toll-free at 800/538-9696, ext 500, for information on user groups in your area (Our offices are Jacated at 301 Howard St, 16th Fl, San Francisco, CA 5; 415/243-0505, fax 415/442-0766, LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Direct all comments and suggestions regarding any aspect ofthe magazine to letters@macworld.com. Due to the high volume of mail received, we can't respond personally to each eter. We reserve the right to edit submissions. Alters published in Macworld or Macworld Online become the property of Macworld Quick T1Ps Send your questions or tips on how to use Mac comput 5, petipherals, or software to Macworld, Quick Tips, 301 Howard St 16th FL, San Francisco, CA 94105; fax 415/442-0766; e-mall quicktips® macwodd.com. Please include your name, address, and telephone number, ‘VPA. Is youR COMPANY KNOWLEDGE POWERED? 1.KNOWLEDGEABLE We SERVICE. 2. KNOWLEDGEABLE STAFF.) Temporary and Permanent Staffing www. hireknowledge.com Choose 207 at weww.macworld.com/getinfo www.lacie.com/mw19.htm ACCURATE. Get a perfect reflection of your idea with / the LaCie electron! blue.” Its flat screen CRT technology displays an image which is shielded from outside light influence by LaCie’s color-enhancing blue hood. All on a vertically and horizontally flat screen that eliminates distortion. So you can be sure the idea you see is the idea you get. LACIE. Made for ideas. uel. Now that you've got that hot, new computer, wanna really make it go? Get Microsofts Office 98 Macintosh Edition. Office 98 is the productivity suite that’s right for everyone. With it, you'll zip through tasks, dash through data, and create stunning documents, presentations, and spreadsheets faster than you can say, “fasten your seatbelt.” That's because Office 98 includes the kinds of features that make getting off the ground easy. Like drag-and-drop installation. Automatic spelling and grammar checking. An interactive Office Assistant that offers suggestions as you work and stands at the ready to answer any question. And—get this—a self-repair feature that automatically replaces necessary files if they accidentally get deleted. Best of all, Office 98 was built from the ground up for the Mac. From the interface, to the icons, to the sophisticated ease of use, even the experts agree we finally got it right. Which means with Office.98 you can make good on all the reasons you bought that powerful new iMac in the first place. To really go places. Faster and more easily than ever before. Microsoft Office 98 Macintosh Edition. Prepare for take-off. “This software suite demonstrates that, for the first time in its history, Microsoft truly understands what ‘Macintosh elegance’ means.” —David Pogue, Macworld 1998 Eddy Where do you want to go today?» WINNER Winner of Macworté's 1998 Microsoft ord " for Software Product of the Year www.microsoft.com/mac Y3K Compatible aca ernie = +N A Introducing MACh Carrier G3° XLR8’s Upgradeable Upgrade! Upgrading your Mac 7300 to 9600 just got a lot easier. The new MACh Carrier incorporates the latest ZIF (zero insertion force) technology to deliver full user-upgradeable compatibility. Just pull out the old ZIF based CPU, and put in the latest and greatest anytime you need to upgrade, at a fraction of the cost of another new card. Yes you can perform today, and upgrade forever, because the New MACh Carrier is virtually unlimited -- it uses standard ZIF based CPU upgrades! [ sine as 399 [a oo And as the newest member of the MACh G3 family of processor upgrades you get: unparalled compatibility, virtual firmware, XLR8’s G3 Control Software, toll-free technical support, and Utilizing our exclusive much more. Smart Control” Just plug , oo in the MACh Carrier and And that’s not all, XLR8 is offering valuable trade-in rebates for customers that upgrade their it configures automatically!’ MACH Carrier, So you'll save even more by sending your old CPU to XLR8 for a valuable rebate! For more information on the new MACh Carrier, or the MACh Speed Performance Package, visit wwwxlr8.com, or call 888-XLR8TOR today! Available from distributors and resellers worldwide. www.xlr8.com 1-888-XLR8TOR XLR8 by Interex, Inc. * 8447 E. 35th St. N. * Wichita, KS 67226 * 316-636-5544 * 316-636-4639 fax ‘Other brand and product names ae trademark or registred trademarks oftheir respective holders. Product speiiation subject to change without tice. ©1999 Inerex, nc ~~ [eters _ ov] ~ Tales of Web Travelers N HER “WEB TRAVELER'S COM- panion” (April 1999), Shelly Brisbin recommended a workday-diversion Web site called the Onion. In viewing this Web site, I was shocked to find that it con- tained adult-oriented material unsuitable for children. I would appreciate it if in the future Macworld would do a better job in reviewing its recommendations and not include material that most people would find offensive and inappropriate. Davip McCowan Lexington, Kentucky ENJOYED VISITING THE SITES described in the “Web Traveler's Companion.” You emphasized that the Web is worldwide, but unfortunately you provided only American sites. Arguably the best news site in the world is main- tained by the British Broadcasting Corpo- ration, at http://news.bbe.co.uk, and con- tains the same quality of coverage as the BBC’ radio and television services. The site provides news, history, analysis, reader feedback, and relevant links and breaks coverage down by continent so that read- ers may explore their region in depth. GAGGAN Boparat Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania USUALLY AGREE WITH MOST OF the reviews and awards in your mag- azine, but sorry, Macworld, I’m not agreeing this time! In the “Web Travel- er’s Companion,” Shelly Brisbin picked MIT’s Info-Mac HyperArchive for best shareware site. I didn’t even have it in my bookmarks, so I thought I would check it out. I searched for Flash-It, the screen- capturing software. The MIT site had no clue. I went back to my favorite, ZDNet Macintosh Software Library (www.zdnet .com/mac/download.html), and I found the application on the first try. MICHAEL SCORzZO DeKalb, Minois New Life with Linux TEPHAN SOMOGYI’S EXCELLENT article about Unix on Macs (“The Beauty of the Beast,” April 1999) men- tioned that LinuxPPC can make an old Power Maca great Web server. Older Macs with 68030 and 68040 processors also can take advantage of the OpenBSD operating system. In the small company I recently worked for, we set up a Centris 650 with OpenBSD and Apache and found it very adequate for our Web-service needs. This is not something for the fainthearted, but it’s a great way to recycle pre-PowerPC Macs. Thave even seen a Mac SE/30 running as a decent FTP server with OpenBSD. Davip SIMMONS Alexandria, Virginia HANKS FOR A TERRIFIC INTRO- i ductory article about Unix options on the Macintosh. I use LinuxPPC R4 on my Motorola StarMax 3000 and can attest to the extraordinary speedup—booting, start- ing Netscape Communicator, and doing page layout in Communicator are all at least three times faster than with Mac OS 7.6.1. But I agree that it is not for everyone. I cannot count the times I was thankful for my ten years of Unix experience. Get- ting the X Windows graphics system run- ning optimally is tricky, and not all video cards are fully supported by the kernel or X Windows. My MacPicasso 540 video card, for example, does not yet have a valid color map, so applications are quite ugly—although in the spirit of Linux, I am testing and debugging kernel patches to correct this, and the patches will be incorporated into a future Linux release. The next version of LinuxPPC, called RS, reportedly has significant improve- ments in installation, as well as the very nice GNOME desktop, which I’ve used on Linux/Alpha. When it becomes avail- able, please review the upgrade so read- ers can better evaluate the Linux option. ADAM CLAYTON Powe Lt IV Arlington, Virginia The Good, the Bad, and the NT ACWORLD SEEMS TO BELIEVE that Windows NT is superior to the Mac OS (“Put Your Files in the Fast Lane,” April 1999). ‘Time after time the magazine down- plays the Mac OS and implies that NT is where we're headed, or where we should be headed. NT is headed downhill. The inclusion of a Windows NT 5 beta—which probably won't be released for continues www.macworld.com July 1999 17 The New OrangePC® 660/450MHz Windows® compatibility card is 10 times faster than VirtualPC® and tracks a real Pentium® IIT 450 MHz, Mac/Windows® Compatibility When you're tired of fooling around with other people's PCs, or some pokey PC software emulator, it’s time to step up to a real Windows® compatibility card for your Mac — the Orange®PC. You know it’s serious when the new OrangePC 450 MHz benchmarks side by side with areal Pentium? III; it’s also 10 times faster than VirtualPC®, And OrangePC is better than a PC clone anyway. OrangePC is seamlessly integrated into your Mac giving you a single platform footprint, live copy/ paste between Mac/PC environments, shared files and shared peripherals. It’s elegant; it’s cool; it’s just plain better! A 30 day money back guarantee is the same as a no risk test drive, without speed limits! F 1-94 GIWY/“ ZHI Benchmark is « 3DMark 99 Mas. Synthetic CPU Speed run on a “Blue ‘and White” G3 Power Macintosh a3/400, **VirtualPC sofware emulator Orange Micro inc. nd Years of Innovation and Excellence” 1400 N. Lakeview Ave. Anaheim, CA 92807 (714) 779-2772 * www.orangemicro.com Choose 60 at www.macworld.com/getinfo 18 July 1999 MACWORLD LETTERS another year, if ever—and exclusion of Mac OS X Server was just the latest example of Macworld’s obvious bias. The tests showed the current Mac OS superior in file-serving performance, but you almost seemed dis- appointed that NT didn’t win. Be proud of the Macintosh. Things are only going to get better on the side of the good guys and worse on the side of the “evil empire.” KEN C. SHERMAN Melbourne, Florida We did not include Mac OS X Server in the story because it was not shipping at the time, and a public beta was unavailable for our tests. For our assessment of Mac OS X Server, please see this month’ Reviews.— PDF for Presentations IM HEID'S ARTICLE “PRESENTING with HTML.” (Create, April 1999) pre- good arguments for using a univer- sal format as a presentation medium, but he promotes the wrong one. Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) fea- tures all of the same benefits plus some not inherent in HTML—sealability, built-in navigation tools, text search, output to film, and embedded fonts. Plus, any print- able file can be converted to PDF with Acrobat PDF Writer or Distiller, and most Adobe products save directly to PDF. C. ScorTr MILLER Studio City, California Surfing with Efficiency S | READ JOSEPH SCHORR’S “URL A Magic Tricks” (Secrets, April 1999), I looked for him to talk about a timesaving trick I use: in addition to my browser's bookmarks, I have hundreds of URLs saved in different ClarisWorks spread- sheets for different top You can collect URLs in spreadsheet files that you might name “www (Some ‘Topic).” For example, in my folder on recre- ation, I have three spreadsheets: “www Sports&Recreation& Games,” “www ‘Trav- el& Attractions,” and “www Tourist Offices.” I now have 53 such files organized into a hierarchy of folders related to topics that interest me. Each spreadsheet has many URLs that Ican select, copy, and paste into a browser window. I organize my URLs into conve- nient subtopics within each spreadsheet and hot-link those that I use often. RicHarp L. Gooppopy San Diego, California Crossed Cables COULD NOT BELIEVE WHAT POOR performance David Pogue got from his cable modem (“Differently Cabled,” The Desktop Critic, April 1999). Twenty- four seconds to download Macworld.com? Golly, my cable modem is several times faster than his. Pogue downplays the advantages of a cable modem, It is about the same price as an Internet service provider and less expen- sive than having a second phone line and an ISP. Pages that used to take minutes to download now take seconds. On poorly handled sites, there is only a little difference in download speed, but Macworld.com is not one of them. I’m used to downloads of at least 80 Kbps, and similar uploads. Pogue’s conclusion that the only real advantage is not having to spend time con- necting via phone line is a gross disservice to a wonderful new technology. James BE. GRamze Dearborn Heights, Michigan Weirdly enough, my cable modem continued to slow down after wrote the column, I called Microsoft tech support and learned about a conflict between RAM Doubler and Internet Explorer 4.5. Without RAM Doubler, Web pages appear on my screen in two or three seconds, which is much more representative of a cable modem's actual performance. I'm happier with that cable modem with every passing day.—David Pogue Disproving an Adage NDY GORE STATED IN “BARGAIN Hunters, Beware” (The Vision Thing, April 1999) that “if a deal seems too good to be true. . . itis.” That is not always the case. One day I was procrastinating and came across 800.com. It was selling three CDs, DVDs, or VHS tapes for $1. My first thought was the same as Gore's: this was too good to be true. After further exami- nation I found there were no catches to the deal, and it even included shipping and handling. They even offered the more popular films and recordings. So I ordered three movies, and in about four weeks I continues You've got Macs. You've got PCs. IT You share a network. Now, your printer's not fitting in. H AVE 10 BE GET POWERPRINT FOR NETWORKS. j tt lets both Maes and PCs print to virtually any PC-printer across ; an ethernet network. Whether tj : you're adding a Mac into an existing network or a PC printer to a Mac network, PowerPrint's unique software and print server solution allows you to use any printer, anywhere. PowerPrint for Networks, Group therapy that works. oe ai ees i To pick up PowerPrint, visit major retailers in the U.S. and Canada, or call 800.330.6833. www.infowave.com SSERIAL AND USB SINGLE-U E Choose 32 at www.macworld.com/getinfo 20 Conquer Disk Damage Introducing DishWarrior.” a revolutionary new way to restore damaged disks! DiskWarrior is a revolutionary new utility that combats disk damage. It quickly rebuilds, recovers and optimizes your HFS and HES Plus disk directories, eliminating all directory errors and recovering lost files. Other utilities attempt to repair disks by patching the damage. Patching can result in more damage and permanent loss of files. 1007 Recovery Assurance Only DiskWarrior builds a new optimized directory using data recovered from the damaged directory. You have 100% assurance that DiskWarrior will always restore your disks and recover your files when directory damage is your enemy.* You'll also have 100% confidence that you're getting the desired results. DiskWarrior’s exclusive Preview ability lets you preview the restoration. You can examine your damaged disk in the Finder as it will appear after the directory is restored but before any changes are made to your disk. Routine Maintenance DiskWarrior is your first line of defense against unseen disk damage. Running DiskWarrior regularly prevents small unseen problems from becoming large ones by keeping your directories error free. You'll also keep your directories optimized to speed up overall disk performance. £01998 Alsoft, ne: PO Box 927, Spring. ‘Texas 7383-0927 USA, 281-353-4090 ‘or fax 281-383-9868. DiskWarrior Is ‘trademark of Also Ine. *Visit our 7-638 Choose 140 at www.macworld.com/getinfo July 1999 MACWORLD LETTERS received my three movies. My credit card was billed only $1. So if a deal seems too good . . . it might actually be true. MICHAEL FRANK Waterbury, Vermont Faster Than a Speeding Pentium (Re A RECENT MACINTOSH CON- vert and was a little skeptical about Apple’s claims that the G3 processor is faster than a Pentium II and that Mac OS 8.5 is better than Windows 98. I'd like to apologize to all Mac users and to Apple for any misconceptions I may have had. T bought a lime iMac after looking at them countless times in the stores and reading about them in Macworld and at the Apple Store. I was very impressed with the speed of the G3 processor. I decided to test it out against my Pentium II 350MHz, computer, so I placed both computers side by side and turned them on. By the time the Pentium II computer finished booting up, my iMac was already surfing the Net. Kudos to Apple for designing a fantastic computer and OS, and thanks to Macworld for the informative articles. Without all that information I might never have bought an iMac—I shudder to think. MICHAEL JACK Hooper Twentynine Palms, California nt to Letters, Macworld, 301 cisco, CA 94105; via ronically, to letters@ Letters should be Howard St., 16th Fl, San fax, 415/442-0766; or ele maeworld.com, Include a return address and day- il y to each letter time phone number, Due to the high volume o received, we can't respond persona We reserve the right to edit all letters. All published letters become the property of Macworld. Contrary to our assertion, Alsoft’s DiskWarrior can see some unmountable disks (Reviews, April 1999). Silicon Graphics? version of Unix is Irix, not Irex (“Put Your Files in the Fast Lane,” April 1999). Only some of Extensis Intellibance Pro 4.0's functions don't show up in Adobe Photoshop’s Actions palette (Reviews, April 1999). In the review, we erro- neously indicated that none of the func- tions appeared. m More connected. Gww.paim.com A Marilyn; book racing school; timesheets today! 4 é Back up my Palm V" organizer with my Mac. With just one touch Tom Seclow Attorney “<a Catles Cohen, C. Cohen Designs ine, Tooneo, Canada; Rendered with Render Works VectorWorks (Chater Duncan, Py Lad Vector Works’ state of the art Object Technology helps streamline the design process by making it easy to create common design elements. Now, Objects like doors, windows, nuts and bolts, can be created and edited with a click of the mouse, making it easy to explore design 1 i alternatives, consider “whac if’ (lil | S scenarios, and handle last- ( if minute client changes. ee Vector Works offers a solid foundation based on proven CAD technology—giving you the power and flexibility to tackle any design problem. New features such as Workgroup Referencing, DWG (v.14), Round Walls, Multiple Undo/Redo and an improved scripting language, strengthen Vector Works’ core CAD capabilities. And, with RenderWorks, VectorWorks’ new photo-realistic rendering plug-in, you can bring your designs to life with textures, shadows and dramatic lighting. With VectorWorks, you get it all—the flexibility and control of proven CAD technology and the productivity benefits of Object- Based design. Vector Works ships FREE solutions for Architecture, Landscape Design, DTM and HVAC among others. Best of all, you aren't limited to the solutions we provide. VectorWorks is completely customizable, allowing you to create your own custom business solutions. Save $279 by purchasing Vector Works with photorealistic rendering direct for $820 on, without rendering for only $595. Includes FREE Tech Support and a 90-Day Money-Back Guarantee. Diehl Graphsoft Inc JOHN RerTER To the Victor Goes the Stream The Vi ion Thing by Andrew Gore APPLE MUST FIGHT STRONG CURRENTS TO WIN THE INTERNET-BROADCASTING RACE OR YEARS NQW, TV and computers have been swimming up dif- ferent forks of the same stream, headed for the same destination from various directions. Tele- vision has struggled to become more interac- tive. The computer industry, on the other hand, has labored to engage, fascinate, and enthrall computer users. Both are headed toward an enriched form of interactive media that offers peo- ple choice and control without giving up quality and timeliness. Until now, you couldn’t have it all. But thanks to ever- burgeoning bandwidths brought to you by technologies like cable modems (thanks, television industry) and DSL (thanks, computer industry), it’s becom- ing possible to shove massive amounts of video into households in real time. Up a Creek Thanks to media-compression and -streaming technologies like Microsoft's Windows Media Technology and Real- Networks’ RealMedia, the quality of Internet video keeps getting better. It’s possible now to watch an entire channel’s worth of programming live, with no wait- ing for files to download—albeit in a small window and with a few annoying skips and pauses. But even this low-fidelity experience has proven good enough to spark an explosion in Internet streaming. ‘And the quality of audio-only streaming is so good that Internet radio could devel- op audiences larger than the wireless vari- ety in short order. Into this world Apple brings Quick- Time 4.0, the edition of the venerable media standard that’s able to stream media live over the Net. At first glance, the massive amount of QuickTime con- tent already on the Net and that content’s high quality would make it a fait accom- pli for QuickTime 4.0 to displace Win- dows Media and RealMedia and reign as the King of All Streaming Media. But Apple will find overtaking these two pop- ular formats a challenge. When it comes to video from the archives, QuickTime has the advantage. Roughly 50 percent of all video stored on the Internet is in QuickTime format. And QuickTime already serves as an intermediate step between the source material and other Internet streaming technologies. According to Apple, 90 percent of the content served up by RealVideo servers was previously in QuickTime format. However, when it comes to broad- casting live video and audio, the advan- tage goes to RealNetworks and Micro- soft. What counts here is the number of Web sites that have already based their Net broadcasting technology on those two companies’ formats. Being so late to the market with robust streaming sup- port, Apple has to swim hard and fast against a very strong current to catch up with RealNetworks and Microsoft. After all, setting up a streaming Web server is a difficult task, and the Web sites that have already invested significantly in one par- ticular format are unlikely to get rid of it any time soon. From their standpoint, if the technology they’re currently using isn’t broken, why fix it? Spawning Grounds Luckily for Apple, there are still opportu- nities here. Because the bandwidth to support even a moderately satisfactory streaming experience is still limited to businesses and the households lucky enough to have high-speed access, video streaming is still a relative rarity. The trick for Apple won't be to go after the pio- neering sites that have already cast their lot with a particular standard. What Apple can do is ride the big wave that follows the first brave adopters of new technologies. It must connect with the vast number of sites that would like to offer stream- ing but have steered clear of it because of cost, logistics, and a seeming lack of demand. To reach them, Apple must make serving live video inexpensive and easy. The Mac OS X Serv- er—based QuickTime Stream- ing Server is a step in the right direction, but the company also needs to let other companies use Apple’s software and hard- ware package to roll out and support those systems through- out the world. There are thou- sands of site owners out there who would jump at the chance to offer live video and audio streaming if it could be set up and made to work without a huge output of time or money. It’s true that Apple is late to offer streaming as a part of QuickTime, and that the two formats already on the mar- ket have made a lot of headway. But while the current is strong, this stream is also wide—and with a little aggressive mar- keting, QuickTime’s superior technology could still win the race. m Questions? Comments? E-mail them to Andy at visionthing@macworld.com. www.macworld.com July 1999 23 tast astier ites with Dreamweaver — N and Fireworks. DIRECTOR SHOCKWAVE (DREAMWEAVER) (FIREWORKS) FLASH FREEHAND GENERATOR add life to the web Dreamweaver creates sweet code that goes great with anything on the web. Close integration between Fireworks and Dreamweaver lets you create, optimize and integrate great web graphics and code on your site. It’s the smoothest combination for professional site design and production. Try them together and you’ll wonder how you ever used them separately. www.macromedia.com macromedia Choose 36 at wwwamacworld.com/getinfo If this is Norton”... When your Macintosh computer is not operating correctly, having the right tool to find and fix the problem is important. And as any technician will tell you, you can never have too many tools, TechTool Pro 2 checks more aspects of your Macintosh than any other utility available, Besides repairing and recovering damaged drives (including those with the new HFS+ format), you can also test all those other critical parts of your system that our famous competitor ignores like RAM, CPU, floppy drives, scanners, modems, Internet connections, CD-ROM drives and much, much more. This is TechTool® Pro: But just because TechTool Pro is the most advanced Macintosh troubleshooting utility available doesn't mean that it's difficult to use. In fact, we've added an easy-to-use interface that makes checking and fixing your Macintosh a snap. For the advanced user, our expert mode allows you to control and configure TechTool Pro in almost any way you wish, So if your Macintosh troubles are getting you down, check out TechTool Pro, After all, you have the most powerful computer in the world. Shouldn't you be using the most powerful utility? MicroMat Inc. 800-829-6227 707-837-8012 FAX: 707-837-0209 info@micromat.com www.micromat.com Fix different: ©1999 MicroMat Computer System, Inc, All rights reserved. TechTool is a registered trademark of MicroMat Computer Systems, Inc. Fix Different is a trademark of MicroMat Computer Systems, Tne. Macintosh is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. Norton is a trademark of Symantee, Ine. JEFF NEUMANN JULY 1999 QuickTime 4 Moves Upstream APPLE'S MULTIMEDIA SOFTWARE GETS LIVE STREAMING CAPABILITIES by Stephen Beale pple’s QuickTime logo, already a com- mon sight on many Web pages, could become even more familiar to Internet users as the company rolls out a new version of its multimedia soft- ware with live streaming capa- bilities. Upgrade to Quick- Time 4.0, and the same browser plug-in you use to view QuickTime movies on the Web will let you watch live broadcasts as well. It’s all part of Apple’s strategy to make QuickTime the reign- ing multimedia standard for the Internet. Apple unveiled Quick- Time 4.0 in April at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas. Along with the new version, Apple announced that it will give away the source code to the QuickTime-based server software needed to host live Internet broadcasts. A public beta version of QuickTime 4 is available for free download (www.apple .com/quicktime/). Apple won't say when the final ver- sion will be available. Live Streaming QuickTime 3 introduced the ability to stream QuickTime movies over the Internet, meaning you could begin watching a movie as it was being downloaded. However, unlike RealNetworks’ Real- Media or Microsoft's Win- dows Media (formerly Net- Show), QuickTime 3 did not support streaming of live audio or video broadcasts. QuickTime 4 supports live streaming through Apple’s new QuickTime Streaming Server software, which Apple will make available as a free update to Mac OS X Server. Apple will also offer an open- source version of the soft- ware, the Darwin Streaming Server, that developers can download for inclusion in their applications (see “Apple Goes Open Source with Mac Server,” News, June 1999). By opening its streaming software, Apple hopes to make it as easy as possible for devel- opers to include live broadcast capabilities in their server products. Silicon Graphics, IBM, and Cisco Systems are already working to incorpo- rate QuickTime streaming functions into their servers. Because QuickTime stream- ing is based on standard Inter- net protocols, Apple says it should be relatively easy for developers to create cross- platform versions of the soft- ware. In contrast, the stream- ing servers from Microsoft and RealNetworks are based on proprietary streaming pro- continues www.macworld.com July 1999 27 tocols. Neither server is avail- able in a Mac version. Apple’ streaming technol- ogy also benefits from the other capabilities in Quick- Time. QuickTime product manager Steve Bannerman notes that streaming content can be incorporated with other media types, so you could have a CD-ROM title that pulls in a live video stream, or an inter- active QuickTime movie with controls that let you jump from one video channel to another. A single QuickTime movie can even include streams originat- ing on multiple servers. ite these advantages, that no assurance ’s streaming technology will catch on. Microsoft and RealNetworks are well estab- lished in this market, and both offer specialized soft- ware for handling tasks re- lated to live streaming, such as pay-per-view operations. With its open-source strategy, Apple hopes that other devel- opers might step in with such products, but there’s no guar- antee that they will do so. Other Goodies Aside from the real-time streaming capabilities, Quick- Time 4 adds new playback software, a more flexible continues on page 30 Epson's Stylus Color 740i Epson Unveils Photo Printers NEW INK-JET MODELS. OFFER FASTER OUTPUT AND SHARPER IMAGES by Michael Gowan pson (800/463-7766, www.epson.com) has released the latest additions to its M: intosh-compatible ink-jet printer line, including two new photo printers and a flavorful version of its Stylus Color 740. The $299 Stylus Photo 750, successor to the Stylus Photo 700, uses a six-color process to print photo-realis- tic images at up to 1,400-by-720- dpi resolution. It produces sharper images than its pre- decessor by using 6-picoliter ink drop- lets, compared with 11 picoliters for the Stylus Photo 700. It’s also faster: at 720-dpi resolution, Epson claims, the Stylus Photo 750 can print an 8-by- 10-inch photo in about two minutes, compared with five minutes for the previous model. The printer will be available only through mail order and online outlets Epson will continue to sell the Stylus Photo 700 through retail stores for $249. If you're going for the big picture, the new $499 Stylus Photo 1200 offers the same resolution, droplet size, and print speed as the 750, but with a maximum print area of about 12 by 44 inches. It replaces Epson’s Stylus Photo EX. Epson also announced an “{Mac” version of its Stylus Color 740 ink-jet printer (see Reviews, January 1999). The $279 Stylus Color 740i features an iMac-inspired translucent design with a blueberry cover. If you don’t like that flavor, you can order a lime, strawberry, tangerine, or grape cover for $14.95. All three printers feature USB and serial connections. Final Cut Is Finally Here APPLE RELEASES VIDEO SOFTWARE ACQUIRED FROM MACROMEDIA by Stephen Beale pple Computer's decision last year to acquire Macro- media’s Final Cut software raised a few eyebrows. The company that had so successfully narrowed its focus to Power Mac hard- ware and the Mac OS now appeared to be diverting its energies into the applications m. ‘The acquisition also seemed to place Apple on a collision course with Adobe Systems, whose Adobe Pre- miere dominates among under-$1,000 digital-video packages. But now that Apple has released Final Cut, its intentions are clearer: the company sees huge potential in digital video, and it wants to ensure that the Mac plays a central role in what is likely to be a booming market. Middle Ground Apple says that the $999 package occupies a middle ground between Premiere and high- end digital-video systems from Avid ‘Technology and Media 100. In addition to offering basic video-editing functions, Final Cut provides many of the compositing and special-effects features found in Adobe After Effects. It also KEVIN: CANDLAND BRYAN WIGGINS offers some productivity fea- tures commonly found in high-end video-editing pro- grams, such as the simultane- ous trimming of multiple tracks and sophisticated audio- syncing functions. Final Cut also. provides tight integration with the high-speed FireWire inter- face built into the Power Mac G3, as well as many—but not all—FireWire-equipped digi- tal camcorders based on the popular DV standard. You can control DV cameras directly from Final Cut, copying audio and video to your hard disk for editing. Explosive Growth? Apple sees DV as one of several fac- tors contributing to explosive growth in digital video. Tim Myers, Apple’s senior product manager for video products, notes that video professionals and consumers alike now have access to relatively inexpen- sive digital-video—capture devices. In addition, oppor- tunities for distributing digital video are expanding, thanks to the Internet and DVD. What's missing, he says, are afford- able, easy-to-use ~- tools that are well integrated with sup- porting hardware, a niche that Apple hopes to fill with Final Cut and spe- cial configurations of the Power Mac G3. Adobe Systems, for its part, is touting Premiere’s tight integration with other Adobe packages. The compa- ny has announced a forth- coming Premiere plug-in that will allow the program to take advantage of new func- tions in QuickTime 4, in- cluding direct control of DV cameras and the ability to produce “hinted” movies to reduce file size. Final Cut also competes with EditDV, a digital-video-editing pro- gram from Digital Origin (formerly Radius). Web 3-D Heats Up for Mac Users METACREATIONS READIES METASTREAM FOR MAC by Stephen Beale or Macintosh users, the ability to view and nav- igate 3-D graphics on the Web has been more promise than reality. ‘The Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML), the reign- ing 3-D Web standard, has failed to catch on among Mac- intosh or PC users, However, two companies, MetaCrea- tions (805/566-6200, www -metacreations.com) and the Sweden-based Cycore (www .cycore.com), are attempting to remedy the situation by introducing their own Web- based 3-D graphics technolo- gies. In the meantime, an industry group called the Web3D Consortium, with support from Apple, Micro- soft, and other heavyweights, is working on an official suc- cessor to VRML. Metamorphosis Meta- Creations introduced __ its MetaStream technology a year ago, but the initial version, developed with cooperation from Intel, was available only for the PC. The company is now preparing a Mac version of the MetaStream player, and current Mac releases of Bryce and other MetaCreations software packages can export scenes as MetaStream con- tent. Although you need a browser plug-in to view the content, MetaCreations scored a coup last year when Micro- soft agreed to distribute MetaStream with Windows. Formerly known as “The Visual Computing Software Company,” MetaCreations now refers to itself as “The Creative Web Company.” One victim of the transition is apparently chief design officer Kai Krause, who left the company in April for undisclosed reasons. With its new focus, Meta- Creations plans to offer tools that make it easier to create 3-D graphics for the Web. One of the most intriguing new programs is Canoma, a $499 package that creates 3-D environments from a series of still photographs. For example, you can use aerial photos of a city to create models of buildings that you can navigate with the MetaStream player. At the Core Cycore’s 3-D tech- nology, Cult3D, is aimed at electronic- commerce applica- tions. It has two com- ponents: a Windows-based 3-D authoring package and a free cross-platform Cult3D Animation player. You don’t have to pay for the design software, but you do have to pay a $3,600 licensing fee for each 3-D model you post. Web3D As MetaCrea- tions and Cycore push their plug-in technologies, the Web3D Consortium (www .web3d.org), successor to the industry group that estab- lished VRML, is working on a new accredited standard for 3-D graphics on the Web. The standard, known as X3D, is based on the Extensible Markup Language (ML). Product WATCH Play Fetch with FileMaker FileMaker Pro is playing with the big boys of information manage- ment now that FileMaker (800/ 325-2747, www.filemaker.com) has announced enhanced support for the ODBC database standard. FileMaker 4.1 gave you the abili- ty to read ODBC databases. Now, with the company’s new ODBC Driver, you can use FileMaker as an ODBC data source, permitting ODBC client programs, including Microsoft Word and Excel, to interact with FileMaker data- bases. You can download a free preview of the driver from the FileMaker Web site. Stay Updated Keep your soft- ware current without the hassle of surfing to dozens of Web sites. Insider Software's (800/ 700-6340, www. insidersoftware .com) UpdateAgent 3.0 scans your Mac for installed software and then searches the Web for any free updates. The new version pro- vides an improved interface and greater control over file down- loads. You can download updates through Insider's Web site for $50 per year, or purchase a CD version for $90 per quarter or $250 per year. A onetime update of your ‘Mac's software costs $12.95. New Dimension to 3-D Now you can spruce up your 3-D models without rendering them. Maxon Computer's (877/226- 4628, www.maxon.net) 3D Painter, like MetaCreations’ Painter3D, lets you paint directly ‘on the surface of 3-D objects using continues Product | WATCH a brush or pencil tool, Painting effects include glows, transparency, and surface relief. The program is expected to ship this fall; price had ‘not been set at press time. Scans for Everyone Canon Computer Systems (800/652- 2666, www.ccsi.canion.com) has unveiled two new flatbed color scanners. The $499 CanoScan FB 12008, scheduled to ship in June, offers 1,200-dpi resolution and ‘connects via a SCSI port. For sim- pler needs, the $129 CanoScan FB620U features 600-dpi resolu- tion and a USB connection. It should be available by the time you read this. Printer Equality No need to be jealous of PC users’ abundance of printer choices. Infowave Soft- ware's (800/663-6222, www infowave.com) $249 PowerPrint for Networks lets Macintoshes print to any of 1,600 PC printers ‘over an Ethernet connection. The bundle includes printer drivers, a 10/100BaseT multiprotocol print server, and a printer cable. | Savior Don't throw away those serial-port peripherals just yet. The $39.95 Stealth Serial Port from GeeThree.com (www geethree.com) converts the blue Power Mac G3's internal modem slot into a standard mini-DIN8 serial port for printers, digital cameras, and other serial devices. Installing the port precludes use of the modem.—EDITED BY MICHAEL GOWAN 30 July 1999 MACWORLD “QUICKTIME 4 MOVES UPSTREAM” continued from page 28 installer, a handful of new file formats, and improved ver- sions of the Sorenson and Qdesign codecs that were introduced in QuickTime 3. As with the real-time stream- ing functions, many of these features were designed to make QuickTime more ap- propriate as a universal media format for the Web. QuickTime Player The QuickTime MoviePlayer is now known as QuickTime Player and features 2 and other M ations programs (see “A New Look for Quic r”). The Quick PictureViewer, used to view images, new look. As Goo and convert still sports a sim before, Apple will offer the QuickTime Player in Basic and Pro versions. Flexible Installer Down- loading previous QuickTime ni all-or-nothing ou wanted any versions w proposition: part of the software, you had to download the whole thing, a hefty 7MB to 8MB. Quick- Time 4.0 includes a flexible new installer that lets you add only the components you ly want, making the soft- ware more attractive to users who might balk at the prospect of a huge download. rea You can choose from a 2.2MB Basic Playback down- load for viewing QuickTime movies and streaming Web content; a 2.7MB Enhanced Playback download that adds support for QuickTime VR, Video for Windows (AVI, MPEG files, video effects, and interactive movies; and a 5.6MB QuickTime Authoring download that adds compo- nents for creating QuickTime movies. A Custom Download option lets you pick specific | Hews QuickTime components. QuickTime 4 also provides for easier software updates; a menu option in QuickTime Player automatically accesses Apple’s Web site to download new components. New File Formats One of QuickTime’s big advantages is the long list of image, audio, and video formats it supports. Developers of QuickTime- based software can easily add the ability to import or export the supported formats. It’s also a boon for Web develop- ers, because the QuickTime browser plug-in lets you view a host of media types that might otherwise require r rate proprietary plug-ins. ew readable formats in me 4 include h- Pix, a bitmap image format developed by Live Picture, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, and Eastman Kodak; Flash, the vector animation format developed by Macromedia; and MP3, a popular standard for downloading music from the Web. With Flash sup- port, you will be able to use a Flash animations as inter- active elements in QuickTime movies. For example, you could include animated menu items that take the viewer to different parts of a movie. QuickTime 4 also in- cludes new versions of the Sorenson codec, used to compress QuickTime video, and the Qdesign audio codec. Apple says the upgrades offer higher quality, faster en- coding, and new features designed to accommodate QuickTime’ streaming capa- bilities. Sorenson Vision (435/ 792-1100, www.s-vision.com), the developer of the Soren- son codec, has announced a $199 Mac OS program, Sorenson Broadcaster, that configures video or audio for streaming through the Qui ne server software, Along with announcing QuickTime 4, Apple released Final Cut, the digital-video~ editing software the company acquired last year from Macro- edia (see “Final Cut Is Finally Here,” elsewhere in this section). ARNOLD TIOSEO Power) JOMAIN, Gladaptec SI Manager and newer S SCSI peripheral you might be using. But it gets even better. Adaptec significantly outperforms Apple’s previous built-in SCSI, enabling your Jaz, scanner, and other peripherals to operate at peak performance. So if you want to upgrade to a new blue G3 without sacrificing anything, get an Adaptec SCSI card. For more information visit www.adaptec.com/mac. INSPIRING. Introducing Adobe® InDesign™ software. It’s the all new page layout and design application built from the ground up to let your imagination do the talking. Whatever you dream up, you can make it happen with InDesign. Because InDesign is packed with features that allow you to do the impossible. Including curved text and graphics frames, scaling and shearing of text and graphics frames, gradient fills, bézier curves, and much more. InDesign uses the standard Adobe interface—which you already know from Adobe Photoshop” and Illustrator® It supports Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) standard, and can even open and work with your existing QuarkXPress® files. You're basically unstoppable with InDesign. The future of professional publishing looks a whole lot brighter. For more infor- mation call 1-800-562-3623, ext. 57800, or visit us at www.adobe.com/indesign99 Adobe NUFaragrash\ ee a vfi2p24 ] ufeapis77 | 2: Fs0° Tf Mac OS X Server SERVER SIGNALS A NEW ERA IN MAC NETWORKING COMMON CONVE starter among Macintosh server administrators “The Mac would be a great server if only...” If only it had preemptive multi- tasking. If only it supported multiple net- work interfaces. If only it supported remote clients. Mac OS X Server is Apple’s answer to the “if onlys.” A com- pletely different operating system from Mac OS 8.5, OS X Server not only addresses all of its predecessor's short- comings but also retains the flavor and familiarity of the graphical user interface we know and love. Like the end-user version of OS X, due next year, OS X Server features a completely new (to the Mac) operating- system kernel that’s based on Mach 2.5 and BSD 4.4 Unix and offers preemptive multitasking, protected memory, pri management, and standards-based script- ing. The server edition, which is geared toward file, client, and Internet serving, includes Apple file sharing, an Apache Web server, WebObjects application- development tools, and a new feature called NetBoot for managing networks of client workstations. This last feature is clearly the most enticing aspect of OS X Server in that it should vastly simplify network administration while lowering deployment costs. Installing OS X Server couldn’t be simpler: insert CD, boot computer, click SATION cess on Install. A setup assistant asks you a few salient questions about your network and which OS X Server fe: use and then automati server for you. Once it’s installed, though, you'll find that many advanced features use a command-line interface rather than the familiar Mac interface, making OS X Server a challenge to use. (If you spring for the $4,995 bundle—OS X Server pre- installed on a Power Mac G3—you don’t need to worry about installation and you get a handy System Image CD for restor- ing your system.) atures you plan to The New Stuff Considering OS X Server's radically dif- ferent innards, you're probably wonder- ing about the look-and-feel of its applica- tion-level services. It’s a mixed bag: from the client’s point of view, using OS X Server file sharing is largely indistinguish- able from using AppleShare IP, while OS X Apache offers a completely different experience from AppleShare’s Web server. NetBootis an entirely new animal, with no parallels in the current Mac universe. Users access OS X Server's Apple file services exactly as they have all previ- REAL PRODUC R T Reviews you can trust: Macworld rates only final shipping products, not prototypes. What we review is what you can actually buy. OUTSTANDING: $4888 very Goon: $86% Goon: $4% UNACCEPTABLE: § FLAWED: 69 34 July 1999 MACWORLD ous Mac OS file services—by mounting remote disk vol- umes and using them as if they were local. OS X Server uses a Web-based manager that AppleShare administra- tors will welcome: just point a Web browser to the Remote Administration URL and you can add users, change permis- sions, and control server per- formance from any authorized workstation (even from Win- dows-based systems). OS X Server is not AppleShare IP, however; it lacks printing, e-mail, DNS, Windows file- sharing, and firewall functions. The Apache Web server bundled with OS X Server is a full port of the standard Apache distribution. This means you can run off-the- shelf Apache enhancements, download new Apache Group updates, run Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption, and support multiple Web sites, although none of these additional features are easy to exploit. Apache isn’t Mac software, and Mac zealots will find a lot to com- plain about with Apache’s administra- tion, especially compared with that of other Mac-savvy Web servers. Although Apple includes a setup assistant to help you perform basic Apache configuration chores, serious users must resort to old- fashioned text-file editing to configure advanced features such as SSL encryp- tion. Fortunately, Tenon Intersystems is working on a graphical interface and SSL overlay for OS X Apache that will address these shortcomings. NetBoot lets you remotely boot Mac- intosh G3 computers from an OS X server, using the server as the sole source of such resources as application programs, printer access, and disk storage. (This fea- ture requires a firmware upgrade on older G3 Macs.) A special Macintosh Manager deputizes a specific client machine as an administrator, from which you then establish basic NetBoot parameters and the network topology. When you boot a client Mac from an OS X server, the client prompts you for a user ID and password and then establishes remote access to resources—preferences, desktop organi- zation, OS configuration, and server vol- umes—for that user. Thus, you can log cworld LAB TEST Behind Our Tests — Mac OS x Server — WebTen 2.11 As a Web Server, OS X Lags — Solaris 2.6 —= Windows NT Server 4.0 IIS 3,000 2,500 - Requests per second : onto any client Mac via Macintosh Man- ager and access your personal computing environment. NetBoot makes central-site administration easy, reduces the cost of client computers, and improves overall network security by giving administra- tors a single point of control. How Well It Works Macworld Lab compared OS X Server's file-serving performance with that of AppleShare IP 6.1 and Microsoft Win- dows NT Server 4.0. We found that OS X Server makes a mediocre file server, capable of handling more users than AppleShare IP but generally taking twice as long to move files. Still, OS X Server was almost twice as fast as Windows NT Server (when running AppleShare on Windows NT; OS X doesn’t support Windows file sharing). You won't want to run OS X Server if you need stellar file- serving performance, but if you're using it as a NetBoot server, you'll find the con- current file serving a great convenience. We tested OS X Server's Web-server performance against that of Tenon’s WebTen 2.11, Windows NT Server 4.0 Internet Information Server (IIS), and Sun Solaris 2.6. OS X Server's Apache is a decidedly slower Web server than WebTen running under Mac OS (see “As a Web Server, OS X Lags”). With ten or We tested Web-server performance using ZD Benchmark Operation's WebBench 3.0 (www.webbench.com). The servers consisted of an Apple Power Macintosh G3/400 running ‘Mac OS X Server and Tenon Intersystems’ WebTen 2.11; a 500MHz, multiprocessor Compaq 1850R running Windows NT Server 4,0 Internet information Server (IIS); and a Sun E250 running Solaris 2.6. The 56 clients—a mixture of 233MHz Pentium Ils, 20OMHz Pentium Pros, and 166MHz Pentiums running Windows 95—were connected to two Extreme network ‘switches divided into four segments. Macworld Lab testing supervised by Kevin Mitchell fewer users, the two performed compa- rably, but under heavier loads, WebTen served up to 40 percent more requests per second. OS X Server's performance was similar to that of Solaris running Apache, but the large-scale, multiproces- sor NT Server IIS far outstripped OS X (asmaller NT Server configuration com- parable to the Mac tested wasn’t avail- able at press time). Macworld’s Buying Advice With performance numbers well below those of traditional Mac OS servers, Mac OS X Server really isn’t a contender in transaction-intensive environments; stick with AppleShare IP and WebTen for file and Web serving, respectively. But as the herald of a new paradigm in Mac net- working, OS X Server's NetBoot feature promises to simplify network administra tion vastly while giving users new freedom from their physical desktops.—met seckman RATING: $$$ PROS: Preemptive multitask- ing; protected memory; NetBoot client/server paradigm; multiple network interfaces, CONS: ‘Mediocre performance for file and Web serving; incomplete graphical interface; incomplete docu- ‘mentation. COMPANY: Apple Computer (800/ ‘795-1000, www.apple.com). LIST PRICE: $499, www.macworld.com july 1999 35 | Reviews 4O0MHz G3 Upgrade Cards FAST G3 CARDS ARE WORTH A SECOND LOOK HEN WE LAST EVALUATED G3 upgrade cards (see “Born- Again Macs,” February 1999), 400MHz G3 accelerators for pre-G3 Power Macs were just coming to market and were so prohibi- tively expensive that we could not recom- mend one. Prices have since come down, and with a couple of new manufacturers joining such familiar faces as Newer echnology and Sonnet Technologies, time was ripe for a second look. We tested seven 400MHz G3 accel- erators that plug into the processor slot of the Power Mac 7500, 9500, and 9600: Mactell’s PowerJolt 400/200, met@box’s JoeCard 400/200, Newer Technology's Maxpowr G3 400/200, Phase 5’s Maccel- erate 750, PowerLogix’s PowerForce G3 400/200, Sonnet Technologies’ Crescen- do G3 400/200, and the XLR8 Mach G3 400/200. Most of the cards also work with some Macintosh clones from Power Computing and Umax ‘Technologies. All of the cards boosted the perfor- mance of our test platform, a Power Mac 9500, approaching the speed of our 400MHz reference system. However, although prices have fallen dramatically, these cards still aren’t inexpensive, and you may find that it’s best to save your money for a true G3 Power Mac. Most of the cards installed easily, although you may have trouble if you want to accelerate a Mac clone housed in a low-profile box. The Newer Technolo- gy and XLR8 cards have removable brackets so they can fit in the smaller enclosures, but the other cards are too large. Mactell’s PowerJolt was a tight fit in our test system, and it requires a separate power connector for a cooling fan that’s mounted to its heat sink. Most of the cards feature switches to change the CPU speed or other settings. The PowerForce G3, PowerJolt, Mac- celerate 750, and JoeCard all feature rotary switches, but in the latter two, the controls are inaccessible when the cards are installed. The Mach G3 has 12 DIP switches that you can set from the top. ‘The Maxpowr G3 has four DIP switch- es to set which Mac model you're using. The Crescendo G3 was the only card that dispenses with switches altogether, largely because it doesn’t let you change CPU or cache settings. Performance ‘To gauge performance, we ran CPU benchmark tests using the MacBench 5.0 Processor test (see “Speed, but at a Speed, but at a Price Best result in ved, Reference system in italics. MacBench 5.0 scores are relative to that of a Power Mac G3/300, which is assigned a score of 1,000. MACBENCH 5.0 Processor ‘Mactell Powerlolt 400/200 —SSSa 1.200 ‘met@box JoeCard 400/200 === 1315 Newer Technology Maxpowr G3 400/200 —Soe 13? Phase 5 Maccelerate 750 —Sa 1788 PowerLogix PowerForce G3 400/200 SSS 193 Sonnet Technologies Crescendo G3 400/200 —_———_— 1.88 XLRB Mach G3 400/200 _————— 1273 ‘Apple Power Macintosh G3/400 SaaS | ee —— a Behind Our Tests —_We tested all cards on a Power Macintosh 9500/132 with 64MB of RAM, a 16GB RAID storage system with an Adaptec 2940UW Ultra Wide SCSI card, an ixMlcro 1x3D Pro Rez graphics card, a 2MB disk cache, and Mac OS 8.5.1. Displays were set to 1,024-by-768-pixel resolution at 24-bit color—Macworld Lab testing supervised by Jeffy K. Milstead 36 July 1999 MACWORLD Price”) and also timed typical operations in Adobe Photoshop 5.02. There was some discrepancy between the two sets of tests. MacBench showed a small but noticeable gap in CPU scores between the slowest and fastest cards, and a cou- ple of cards nearly matched our reference system, a 400MHz Power Mac G3. The Photoshop tests (not shown) yielded a narrower speed difference among the cards, but here the blue Power Mac clear- ly outpaced all of the cards. Why the difference? The system bus in the blue Power Mac G3 is much faster than those in older Power Macs, so the new G3 systems should be faster than older Macs equipped with G3 upgrades. The MacBench Processor score empha- sizes CPU and cache-bus speed over 51 tem-bus speed, while Photoshop relies more on overall performance. Nevertheless, both sets of tests showed relatively little difference between the fastest and slowest cards. The top performer was the Maxpowr G3, followed by the JoeCard. The slow- est card was the Mach 3, which never- theless boosted our Power Mac 9500° performance well past that of a 300MHz Power Mac G3, Newer Technology introduced the Maxpowr at $1,599, making it prohibitively expensive, but after two rounds of price cuts, you can now purchase the card for a much more reasonable $749. Most of the cards let you boost per- formance even further by stepping up the CPU speed (a process called over- clocking) or increasing the speed of the cache bus. For example, when we boost- ed the Maccelerate 750 to 440MHz, the card outpaced our reference system in the MacBench CPU test. But again, the reference system was faster in our Photoshop tests. Although you can get a performance boost from overclocking, we don’t rec- ommend it because it can lead to frequent system crashes. You can test your system’s ability to handle the higher speeds by run- ning Apple’s Graphing Calculator—or any other appropriate software—in demo mode overnight. If your system is still running in the morning, it’s likely that you can get away with overclocking. Aside from the Sonnet and Newer Technology cards, all of the accelerators give you the option of stepping up the CPU speed by setting DIP or rotary switches. However, to access overclock frequencies on the Maccelerate 750, you have to cut a trace on the circuit board, which voids the warranty. By default, all of these cards run the cache bus at half the CPU speed, hence the “400/200” in most of the model names. However, some cards include software that lets you experiment with faster cache-bus speeds. You can get a slight performance increase, but again at the potential cost of frequent system crashes, The Newer ‘Technology and XLR8 cards have automatic sensing fea- tures that prevent you from using cache speed settings that won’t work. Different Power Macintosh families have different system-bus speeds, and we found that some cards handle the variations better than others. The Mac- celerate 750 operated reliably at a bus speed of 53.7MHz, but the XLR8 card, at its default bus setting of S0MHz, could not boot in a Power Macintosh 9500, which uses a 50MHz system bus. We had to reduce the card’s bus setting to 49.1MHz to run our tests. Compatibility Compatibility has improved tremen- dously since Macworld last tested G3 upgrade cards. Previously, we found that some cards had trouble booting from disk arrays or running Retrospect backups due to architectural differences between Power Mac G3s and older Power Mac systems. Since then, most of the vendors have released software that fixes the problem. In this round of test- ing, all of the cards successfully booted from a disk array connected to an Adaptec 2940UW Ultra Wide SCSI board. We also ran a series of Retro- spect backups to a SCSI DAT drive without any errors. Speed Demons PowerLogix’s PowerForce G3 400/200 (front) and Sonnet Technologies’ Crescendo G3 400/200 (back). However, some compatibility issues remain. With any G3 upgrade, you may notice display artifacts due to conflicts with the Power Mac’s built-in video. The only remedy is to install a PCI graphics card. In addition, Apple will not guarantee that Mac OS X and its successors will run on older Power Macs with or without G3 upgrades. All of the cards ship with control panels and/or system extensions need- ed to enable the acceleration. You can use the control panels to set cache speed and other options. Mactell’s control software features a cluttered interface that resembles a race car’s dashboard but does display the current CPU and cache speeds so you can tell if the card is working. Macworld's Buying Advice Prices for 400MHz G3 upgrades have fallen dramatically, but they’re still on the high side, rang- ing from $699 to $959. Because the performance differences are minimal, price and ease of use should be the key buying factors. Fortunately, the top performer in our tests, Newer Technology’s Maxpowr G3, is heavily discount- ed from its original $1,599 price tag. We also liked Sonnet Tech- nologies’ Crescendo G3, which features a three-year warranty. The lower prices make these cards worth a close look, and it’s likely that prices will fall even further. You still may be better off saving your money for a Power Mac G3, but if you have a heavy investment in your existing hardware or you don’t want to give up a six-slot machine, then consider one of these accelerators.—seFFy K. MILSTEAD Speedy G3 Upgrades Mouse List Company Product Rating Price Contact Pros ‘Cons Mactell. PowerJott 400/200 ee $699 888/622-8355. wwwrw.mactell com, met@box JoeCard 400/200 ciid $945 949/862-1180 wowwjoecard.com Newer ‘Maxpowr G3 400/200 itis $749 316/943-0222 Technology ‘wonew.newertech.com Phase 5 ‘Maccelerate 750 itis $849 610/586-5703 wowew.phased.de Powerlogix PowerForce G3 400/200 Tras $959 888/769-9020 ‘wow powerlogix.com, Sonnet ‘Crescendo G3 400/200 Bias $69 800/786-6260 Technologies ‘www-sonnettech.com XLRB- ‘Mach G3 400/200 $68, $879 888/957-8867 by Interex wwwx com fits in low-profile dones; ‘high-quality wrist strap. www.macworld.com July 1999 37 [Reviews Fireworks 2.0 SOLID WEB GRAPHICS TOOL GETS EVEN BETTER EFORE MACROMEDIA FIRE- works, Adobe ImageReady, and Adobe ImageStyler came along, Web graphics designers had to jump through hoops—usually involving Adobe Photoshop and an array of Photoshop plug-ins and shareware util- ities—to prepare images for the Web. With the release of Fireworks 2.0.2, Web graphics tools have come of age. This update fills in some of the original pro- gram’s gaps and adds an assortment of fea- tures nearly every Web designer will find useful. Though the program is still lack- ing in a few areas, it covers the basics so well that it’s hard to remember how we got along without such a tool. Second Time's the Charm Like its predecessor, Fireworks 2.0 lets you export images as GIFs, JPEGs, or PNGs, the most common image-file for- mats on the Web. Besides transforming existing images into Web-ready formats, Fireworks offers vector-based drawing tools and pixel-based image-editing tools that let you create and modify images and export them to Web-friendly file formats. One of Fireworks 1.0’ cleverest fea- tures was its ability to apply an effect— such as a glow, bevel, or drop shadow—to any object, even editable text blocks. The problem was that you could assign only one such effect to an object. With Fire- works 2.0, you can apply all those effects to an object, and once you’ve created a set of characteristics you can save it as a pre- set style in the Style palette. Another improvementis that the program now dis- plays a text item on the canvas as you type and style it in the Text window, so you can see how it will look in your document. Perhaps because it’s a cross between an illustration tool and an image-editing tool, Fireworks still has some interface quirks. Since the program can interpret brushes and selections as either object- based (as in Macromedia FreeHand) or pixel-based (as in Photoshop), it’s easy to get confused about which mode you're in at any given time. Fireworks 2.0 offers a couple of solutions to the problem: click- ing on a bitmapped-image object with the marquee, lasso, or eraser tool automati- 38 July 1999 MACWORLD cally places you in image-editing mode, and in this version you can toggle easily between the two modes. However, if you want to touch up a bitmapped-image object with the paintbrush tool, you have areas that change when you place your mouse over a different part of the image, for example. But if you’re just creating simple button rollovers, Fireworks 2.0 can actually be more difficult to use than its predecessor. Previously, all you needed to do was create two versions of an image and choose Export; now you have to choose Simple Rollover from a pop-up window in the Behaviors palette and then use the Hotspot tool to create an area that overlays your image. However, Fireworks 2.0 does correct one of the earlier version’s major shortcomings: you can now section your doc- ument into multiple image files, a feature that gives designers much greater free- dom and can also speed page loading. Sectioning a docu- ment is simple—just place guides at key points on your image and choose the Slice Starting Fires Fireworks 2.0 lets you add multiple effects, such as glows, bevels, and drop shadows, to a single object to double-click on the object and then select the brush tool and begin to paint. Otherwise you'll be painting in vector mode, a la FreeHand, with your strokes floating on top of the bitmapped image. An Expert Exporter One of Fireworks 1.0’s banner features was its Export window, which let you adjust GIF and JPEG settings to get the best balance of file size and image quality. Fireworks 2.0 also allows you to view four sets of image settings at once and compare the results, but this version adds the clever Export To File Size wizard. You select a target file size for your exported image, and Fireworks chooses image settings that reduce your image to the desired size. It’s a great time-saver. The new version also offers much greater control over a file’s color palette, a feature competitor ImageReady has always offered. Fireworks 1.0 let you create multi- frame images for rollover buttons, but version 2.0 improves the interface for doing so. The program now sports a Behaviors palette straight out of Macro- media’s Dreamweaver, and it lets you create some pretty complicated actions— Along Guides option in the Save dialog box. You can also slice your document into bits, using the Hotspot tool to create areas you can export as individual files. ‘Two other new features make Fireworks more useful for Web animators. An onionskinning box in the Frames palette lets you preview the position of images in other frames of an animation, and a set of VCR-style con- trols at the bottom of the document win- dow lets you quickly view animations without opening the Export window. Because the program still lacks any sort of tweening capabilities, however, you have to create even simple animations one frame at a time. Macworld's Buying Advice If Fireworks 1.0 won the battle of the Web graphics tools by a nose, version 2.0 is out in front by several lengths. If you buy only one Web graphics tool, Fire- works 2.0 is the one to get.—iason seu RATING: $$8§ PROS: Solid export features; powerful drawing tools; can apply multiple styles to an object. CONS: No tweening capability; Creating simple rollovers is more difficult than in previous version, COMPANY: Macromedia (800/ 457-1774, www.macromedia.com), COM-~ PANY'S ESTIMATED PRICE: $199. Bryce 4 3-D SCENE GENERATOR KEEPS GETTING BETTER ETACREATIONS’ BRYCE BEGAN its existence as a fun way to create both natural- and alien- looking 3-D landscapes, not as a serious application for creative professionals. But with its intuitive inter- face, powerful texture-generating func- tions, and ultrarealistic rendering capabil- ities, Bryce has become a useful tool for many 3-D pros while remaining approach- able for hobbyists. Version 4 doesn’t add any earth-shattering new features, but it does offer refinements that should please both groups of users. Playing Mother Nature If you’ve never known Bryce’s charms, this 3-D rendering and animation pro- gram lets you create realistic—or surreal- istic—landscapes with relatively little Sone Moon Starry Night Bryce 4's new Sky Lab lets you create star fields, comet showers, and other heavenly effects. effort. Drop ina terrain, apply a stony tex- ture, and choose a sky preset, and you can produce an eye-catching mountain scene within a few minutes. You can also set up keyframe animations in which objects move as a virtual camera flies through the landscape. It’s all done within a well-con- ceived, if quirky, interface that does a good job of shielding novices from the program’s underlying power. ‘This version’s predecessor, Bryce 3D, represented a quantum leap over Bryce 2, adding animation functions and a faster rendering engine. Bryce 4 is a more evo- lutionary upgrade. Graphics pros will most appreciate Bryce’s new import and export functions, especially the ability to import scenes and objects from New Tek’s LightWave 3D. You can also bring in USS. Geological Survey digital elevation files to re-create real-world terrains. And you can export textured Bryce terrains in a variety of popular 3-D formats (Bryce can export other models, but the method is a little cumbersome). Kiss the Sky Perhaps the biggest addition to Bryce 4 is the new Sky Lab, which offers fine control over the sun, moon, and atmo- spheric elements (see “Starry Night”). You can add star fields or comets; change the moon phase; and determine the appearance of clouds, fog, and haze. A preview window lets you see the effect quickly rendered within your scene or against a neutral background, and a timeline in the dialog box can animate sky movement. Along with the new Sky Lab, Bryce 4 features several enhancements to the Terrain Editor, one of the program’s longtime strengths. Via a pop- up menu, you choose from a variety of terrain styles, such as rolling hills and lava flows, to use as a basis for your own topologies. A helpful new tiling feature automatically removes seams between adja- cent terrains. You can also apply Adobe Photoshop filters to terrain maps; the software ships with a selection of filters from MetaCreations’ Kai’s Power Tools 3. Render Me This Bryce’s ray-tracing engine is a double- edged sword. On the plus side, it produces incredibly realistic imagery. On the downside, it can be painfully slow on an older Power Mac, although G3s handle the rendering process reasonably well. If you plan to do serious animation with Bryce, a G3 is a necessity: a 50-frame, 320-by-240-pixel QuickTime movie that rendered in 70 minutes on a Power Mac G3 took 9 hours on a 604e system. Fortunately, Bryce offers several options to speed rendering. New in this version is a nifty rendering brush that lets you selectively render a scene by painting into it. It works much like a progressive JPEG image, spraying a pattern of dots until it has completely rendered the area. ‘As with the rendering engine, it performs much better on a Power Mac G3 than on an older 604e system. Also new is a timesaving nano-preview that lets you create quick versions of your animations at thumbnail size. In addition to showing the actual animation, the pro- gram displays each frame in a storyboard, so you can render scenes selectively. It would be nice if you could drop every mth frame to save time, but the preview is rea~ sonably fast even on a 604e system. Aside from the nano-preview, Bryce’s keyframe animation features haven't changed from the previous version's. Set- ting up an animation is easy: you can have the program add keyframes as you move the camera and objects, or you can add the keyframes yourself. But there’s also a lot of power here: you can animate almost any aspect of a camera’s or object’s move- ment, and edit the motion paths within the scene or in the program's Motion Lab. Bryce’s texture-generation features also remain unchanged from the previous version's, but that’s nothing to complain about; the program has long had one of the most powerful texture generators of any 3-D software. You can choose from dozens of realistic preset textures, with lots of options for modifying the presets or creating new ones. Macworld's Buying Advice Bryce 3D, which added animation capa- bilities and a speedier rendering engine, was a huge advance over the previous version. Bryce 4 is a much more modest upgrade. Animators will appreciate the timesaving nano-preview, and 3-D pros will like the new import and export capabilities. But aside from the Sky Lab, there are no major additions here—just refinements to what was already a pow- erful and easy-to-use 3-D landscape generator.—sTEPHEN BEALE RATING: $§$§ PROS: Easy to use; powerful texture- and terrain-editing features; realistic ray-tracing engine. CONS: Slow rendering on older Power Macs. COMPANY: MetaCreations (800/472-9025, www.metacreations.com). LIST PRICE: $249. www.macworld.com July 1999 39 [ Reviews Adobe Photoshop Plug-ins PHOTOGRAPHICS AND 3D INVIGORATOR ADD HEFTY GRAPHICS CAPABILITIES DOBE PHOTOSHOP HAS MUCH pixel-pushing prowess, but some tasks fall far beyond its native capabilities. Extensis’s PhotoGraphics and Zaxwerks’ 3D Invigorator are plug-ins designed to bring vector and 3-D graphics tools, respectively, to the Adobe Photoshop workbench. Each product succeeds— although not completely—as a quick- and-dirty replacement for stand-alone graphics software. Vectors to Go PhotoGraphics is a straightforward vec- tor-based drawing program. It provides a reasonable selection of basic shape tools, a well-implemented Adobe Illustrator— style path tool, and a powerful text tool. You can choose from multiple levels of antialiasing and create objects with vary- ing degrees of transparency. ‘The plug-in’s professional type-for- matting functions should appeal to designers who have struggled with Photo- shop’s text limitations. You can set up character style sheets, adjust horizontal and vertical scaling, apply superscripting and subscripting, and specify different colors for characters in the same text block. PhotoGraphics also offers an effortless text-on-a-path function, letting you place type along the edge of any shape or curve created with the plug-in. The lat- ter feature might be reason enough for some designers to get the package. Much like Illustrator and Macro- media Freehand, PhotoGraphics lets you group text and graphics into layers, a use- ful feature for managing complex illus- trations. If you're still using Photoshop 4, you'll appreciate the plug-in’s close approximation of a permanently editable type layer. When you save a PhotoGraphics drawing within Photoshop, the vector objects convert into bitmaps, but the Photoshop file also retains the vector data. At any time, you can reopen the file (as long as PhotoGraphics is installed), edit, and rerasterize the objects—a tremendous boon to any Photoshop artist. PhotoGraphics doesn’t replace a ded- icated illustration program, but having 40 July 1999 MACWORLD vector tools available in Photoshop is a great time-saver. Our biggest gripe is that you must create all objects within Photo- Graphics—you cannot import graphics from other programs, even using the Clipboard. We'd also like to see a larger variety of editing functions, such as basic distortion tools. Reaching for New Depths 3D Invigorator packs many controls into a small amount of screen space. Into the Third Dimension Moving into the realm of texture and depth, 3D Invigorator lets you import EPS and PostScript graphics and extrude them into realistic-looking 3-D objects without using an external rendering pro- gram. Once you import the 2-D graphic, it immediately shows up in the main edit- ing window, with a surprisingly rich set of camera, lighting, and rendering con- trols. The plug-in supports compound objects, permitting properly rendered holes, as in the O or D characters If you have QuickDraw 3D installed in your system, you can see a very fast shaded preview of the image. You can rotate, scale, and edit the object, with rapid previews of adjustments even on a garden-variety 604e Mac (G3 Macs update the display instantly). The fast preview capability is critical, because the plug-in’s controls provide many ways to tweak the object. In addition to the quick shaded view, you can also display a wire-frame representation or full ren- der preview. The flexibility of shading and extru- sion options will please even experienced 3-D artists. The plug-in also offers a huge selection of beveling styles. You can edit any existing bevel shape and specify dif- ferent bevels for the holes in an object. However, you cannot set different bevels for the front and back faces of an extruded object, a surprising and seemingly arbi- trary limitation. ‘The plug-in’s speedy renderer sup- ports soft shadows, spotlights, environ- ment maps (to enhance the realism of shiny metal textures), and more. One fea- ture that should find its way into other 3-D software is the ability to view a scene from the perspective of a light source, a great way to see a spotlight’s target. You place the final rendered image on the cur- rently active Photoshop layer. The sheer number of editing con- trols may overwhelm the 3-D neophyte, but the interface is well organized and visually effective, delivering substantial functionality in a minimal amount of screen real estate. Macworld's Buying Advice Mac artists who already own good 2-D illustration and 3-D rendering software might find these plug-ins redundant. In addition, 3D Invigorator is expensive, considering that you can buy a full-fea~ tured 3-D program such as Ray Dream Designer for about the same price. Nevertheless, both plug-ins extend the reach of Photoshop in ways truly useful for creative professionals.—pavio sieony 30 Invigorator RATING: $66 PROS: Rich set of bevel styles; good lighting controls; fast renderer, CONS: Expensive; interface overwhelming at times, COMPANY: Zaxwerks (800/549-0250, www .zaxwerks.com). COMPANY'S ESTIMATED PRICE: $199. Extensis PhotoGraphics RATING: $$88 PROS: Powerful text tool; easy to use; retains vector graphics within Photo- shop files. CONS: Limited tool selection; no import capabilities. COMPANY: Extensis (800/ 796-9798, www-extensis.com). COMPANY'S ESTIMATED PRICE: $150. CENTURION March, march, march... Got to j| keep on the fookout for the Barbarians. Ob ycah, and tumor has it the Car alans may be on the move again. Wait! Is th. ACTOR Can't flub my. dines again or the } director said he'd tum me over | to the lion tamers! Oka | 1u Bruno? No, that’s Ft 1u Brun hilda? 7} GLADIATOR I’ve got to get to the Temple of Mars to make a sacrifice before tonight's contest in the Colosseum. | think I'm losing my touch. Last night the lions nearly took my head off! If only 1 hadn't missed that last lesson at the ladiator School 2 * is simply one of ies Oring ne Ah eee ta ngesans ad Caesarea Sean ine Tt anette vada of ope Compute ne ¢ 102 at www.macworld.com/getinfo | Reviews Headline Studio POWERFUL BUT FLAWED WEB ANIMATION TOOL REATING ANIMATED GIF IMAG for the Web—especially for ban- ner advertisements—has always been a chore. Newer Web graph- ics tools such as Macromedia FireWorks and Adobe ImageReady can help, but only to a limited extent. MetaCreations’ Headline Studio 1.0 offers more power and control than Ersatz Interface Although Headline Studio's interface superfi cially resembles the Mac's, cursor movements are sluggish and you can’t see other applications through the textured background those programs, but a strange interfac and some unfortunate feature omissions prevent it from living up to its potential. 's All about Banners First off, let’s make it clear what Headline Studio is not—it’s neither a cel-animation tool nor a utility for optimizing GIFs or JPEGs. Instead, Headline Studio is designed to create animations that involve text. Translation: it primarily targets people who create animated banner ads. Although Headline Studio's features are geared toward manipulating text, the: also work on imported images and shapes drawn within the program. Using Head- line Studio’s floating palettes, you can adjust the tracking and leading of text; stretch, skew, and color both text and objects; and alter any text or object’s opac- ity. The result: Headline Studio makes it relatively easy to produce animated text that grows, skews, bounces, and even dances across the screen letter by letter. But Headline Studio’s animation effects really kick in when you mani- 42 July 1999 MACWORLD pulate the timeline in the program’s Animation palette. For example, you can set an object to appear a certain way at the beginning of your animation, then reposition the timeline indicator and change the object’s properties—say, turn black text a fiery red. Headline Studio automatically calculates the dif- ference between your object’s initial characteristics and the new ones you've given it, and ani- mates the transformation. Other Web graphics tools support tweening, but those programs are frame-based— you choose the number of frames you want in your ani- mation and then specify an action to take place over the course of those frames. With Headline Studio, you don’t have to specify the number of frames in your animation until you save it as a GIF image. ‘That means you can view smooth transiti