mac week v 10 n 12

USERS KISSIOFF ENERGY\STAR See Solutions, Page 39 Business Source: Dataquest Inc ewsweekly for Macintosh Managers VoL UME 10 NUMBER 12 Home Education Government Apple takes the bronze | Opportunities for clones, Pippin By James Staten While Apple shipped a record number of Macs in 1995, its sales didn’t keep pace with the growth of the overall personal computer market, analysts said. However, projections for 1996 point to a US. — market slowdown that could _ benefit | Compag tosses cold water on clone rumors. See Page 70 Apple's worldwide cloning strat- egy and Pippin model. According to figures released last week by Dataquest Inc. of San Jose, Calif, Apple’s piece of the worldwide PC pie was thinner last year, 7.8 percent compared with 8.3 percent in 1994. This oc- curred despite record sales of 4.7 million Macs, up from 3.9 million in 1994. Apple fell from second to third in total shipments for the year, losing ground most no- See Apple, Page 70 OS update a mixed bag: 7.5.3 fixes vie with quirks By Henry Norr It’s easy to see why Apple no longer calls its interim system- software enhancement packs “tuneups”: System 7.5 Update 2.0 is more like an en- gine overhaul, The update, which weighs in at about 17 Mbytes, upgrades any previous version of System 7.5 to 75.3. 1t makes more changes than we have space to consider, but most REVIEW of the changes fall into five areas: The first area is bug fixes. The documentation lists an astonish- ing variety of glitches supposedly fixed. Many are obscure; others, such as Type I er- rors on Power Macs, have been all too common. It’s too early to tell how much of an improvement this will add up to; some users report that their See OS update, Page 72 NEWSPAPER SE COND CLASS Power halts meltdown By Joanna Pearlstein and Kelly Ryer “Success ... nearly killed us,” Stephen Kahng, CEO of mputing Corp., last week ina letter to customers that addressed a months-long saga of failed customer service and tech- nical glitches. The problems Kahng alluded to came to a head in January at Macworld Expo in San Francisco. As potential customers swarmed the company’s booth, things were falling apart behind the scenes: A combination of technical and ad- ministrative snafus were leading to what one official later described as “an almost total meltdown.” In late November, cus' reported heat-related crashes and wrote Power omers Game makers bullish about new API suite By James Staten This week, Apple will finally admit that yes, the Mac is a toy. At the Computer Game Devel- opers Conference in Santa Clara, Calif, this weekend the company plans to deliver Game Sprockets, a new suite of APIs that will im- prove the performance, interactiv- ity and realism of Mactitles. Apple said it expects the first games using the code to appear in time for the holiday buying season. The forthcoming tools will ar- rive with a new commitment by Apple to the games market — a tional position. “For years the Mac has been la- beled a toy by the Wintel market, so Apple has put its emphasis on fighting this image, selling the Mac as a business machine,” said | See Games, Page 70 drastic about-face from its tradi- | display anomalies with the Power 120, a 120-MHz 601-based Mac system that Power shipped in Sep- tember 1995, Director of Market- ing Michael Rosenfelt said Power accepted units for repair, but its engineers were confounded by the problem. In late December the company began sending out fans as a stopgap measure. But the fans didn’t fix the prob- lem, and in some cases aggravated it. Anthony Vitti, a professor at after operations crisis Boston’s Berklee College of Music, received five sets of fans for his Power 120. “They called this a ‘ventilation upgrade,’ ” he said. “I knew it was an attempt at a cheap fix for a major design problem.” It was mid-February before the problem was traced to a bad batch of epoxy glue used to fasten a heat sink to the processor on some Power 120s. “We knew the [symp- toms were] typical of a hot proces- See Power, Page 70 __Sonuaey 14410 At Macwa LOSED) told CompuAdd is closing its one as executives return to Austin to cain Apple courts small business By Mark Hall Apple’s marketing of the Mac to corporate buyers has slowed down since late last year, while programs aimed at small busi- ness have raced ahead. Sources said Apple lacks experienced staff to design and imple- ment programs to large sites. “There's a complete failure of product management inside Apple,” one source said. “There are no solutions for corpo- rate buyers. We're spinning our wheels of the wheels that remain.” Dramatizing this point was the collapse of The Corporate Mac, a reach Buckley: Not backing away from big business. trade show that shut down last week be- fore iteven got off the ground in New York. Tt joins MacIS and the Worldwide Publish- ing Consortium, two. other defunct organi- zations that focused on large Mac sites. Organizers pointed | to the lack of support from Apple as the main reason for these failures. In the case of WWPC, a lawsuit has been filed against Apple for pulling out of the consortium. “Initially, Apple was enthusias- tic,” said Pat Prieser, president of P&V Enterprises Inc. of New York, See Marketing, Page 72 MAKE YOUR OWN CDs? | kn CD media - $15 (100 year shelf life) #1 Selling Recordable CD system New 4X read, 2X write performance Archive all kinds of information: databases, company records, photos, charts, etc. Mix & master your own custom audio CDs. Digidesign approved New CD Burner 2.0 - Mac _ ae 4 Backup your data with Pinnacle's RCD backup utility ™ o pao, ghee she Pinnacle’s new RCD 5040 is a 2X CD Recorder and 4X VALUE-PACKED COMPLETE SYSTEM CD-ROM player for only $1295. As a Recorder, it can create ¢ Pinnacle 2X CD Recorder/4X Player « Extreme Software's UP!” custom data, audio or video CDs up to 650 MB. As a Player + Pinnacle RCD Creation Software - 100 Digital Video Startup Clips it can read thousands of educational, multimedia and music * Pinnacle RCD Backup Utility #2 Pieces of Recordable CD Media CD-ROMs. Pinnacle’s new CD Burner 2.0 Mac creation * Digidesign” MasterList CD Approved —_« Full One-year Limited Warranty software offers the best graphical user interface and the most comprehensive support for the Mac environment. And with Pinnacle’s RCD backup utility, CDs can easily replace magnetic tape for better reliability and fast random access to your data. Each CD is only $15 per disc or 3 cents per megabyte! . The RCD 5040 is the - easiest way to create your own CD of multimedia accounting records, business plans, charts, graphs or confidential information on CDs for decades - safe and secure. The RCD 5040 system is simply the best way to store, archive, distribute and create information. Best of all, it's now affordable - it's recordable. To order or for a local dealer Callto receive your free ! n Nev Rep call:800.553.7070 eueaura titles, interactive games, 5040 eterna or even master your own audio CD MAC/p¢ Pi NINACLE ICR@®D of your favorite tunes. You can backup nee coemrsas sroeece somrane Pinnacle CD Bumer Mac Creation Software Tel: 714-789-3000 Fax: 714-789-3150 All Trademarks and Registered Trademarks of Their Respective Owners. http://www. pinnaclemicro.com SL OMP 334, MIRO CENT 800-843-2489 800-266-7872 614-481-8041 qa all 03.25.96 VOLUME 10 NUMBER 12 Table of Contents PAGE 3 @ UP FRONT DayStar looks ahead to multiprocessor upgrades ® Insignia does Windows 95 ¢ Radius spinoff dives into RIP market 6 NEWS Big Software gets business on the Web ® Macs go under the magnifying glass with TechTool Pro ¢ Apple appoints new Internet chief * PrinterSwitch utility lets users bypass Chooser * Duo 2300c RAM upgrades 14 GA ViaGrafix bolsters 2-D, 3-D capabilities in revamped DesignCAD ¢ Minerva system does MPEG video # Quark breaks out text- Packing them in: WebRamp has a hub, router, ISDN ‘terminal adapter and fire wall in one unit. See Gateways, Page 22. ViaGrafix gears up to ship a new version of DesignCAD 2D/3D that enhances its 3-D rendering capabilities and editing tools. See GA, Page 14. TechTool puts 29 REVIEWS Adobe SiteMill 1.0 * Apple Media Tool 2.0 ¢ In Brief: Markzware FlightCheck 1.7.2 © Specular LogoMotion 2.0 ¢ Reviews Forum: Readers speak out on Photoshop shootout 38 SOLUTIONS Users are now sidestepping that once-hyped EPA standard called Energy Star, choosing to be compliant as long as it doesn’t cost more. DEPARTMENTS & OPINION 26 Editorial 26 Second Decade 38 MacInTouch 72 StockWatch processing application 22 GATEWAYS combo ® Microsoft touts OLE for the smart ® GraceLAN deep-sixed WebRamp is first hub, router, ISDN pod Internet ¢ Verity helps Internet searching get computers through their paces, identifying more than 300 hardware and software problems. See News, Page 6. ALSO 27 Letters 27 Mac Manager | INSIDE 41 Mail Order 54 MarketPlace 74 Mac The Knife 73 Advertiser Index 73 Product Index One of my favorite stories from the Cold War concerns feisty little Albania, long the poorest country in Europe and the last of the hard-line Stalinist dictatorships. After breaking with the bourgeois backsliding of Kruschey’s Eastern Bloc, Albania at- tempted to cozy up to the People’s Repub- lic of China as the other true Marxist state. While geographically small, the tiny country had big chutzpah and wanted to assume the lead role in any association with the Asian behemoth. In fact, it man- aged to alienate the Chinese at a joint con- ference in Beijing by pointing out that, thanks to their combined might, the Al- banian Socialist Revolution was nearly 1 billion strong. Meanwhile, of course, Alban- ian’s own 2 million-worker economy was unable to get more than six taxis on the street in the entire country. Now, I don’t want to say that Apple’s domestic Mac clone ef- fortis in an equal state of disar- ray. Nevertheless, I am amused MACWEEK INSIDER MATTHEW ROTHENBERG US. clones left out in cold at the notion that Motorola Inc.’s forth- coming Chinese Mac clones may descend asa deus ex machina for the OS while U.S. clone makers continue to struggle with basic organizational challenges. It’sa sad commentary on the current clone lineup that the strongest licensee so far — Motorola — will initially concentrate its ef- forts on the Chinese market while leaving the United States to a number of more cal- low competitors that still have some serious organizational issues to resolve. ‘Take Joanna Pearlstein and Kelly Ryer’s story on Power Computing Corp.'s travails (see Page 1). While this cautionary tale has a happy ending, it is sobering to learn how close the poster child of Apple’s yearlong li- censing push came to disaster. Power has been admirably forthright in owning up to its brush with the Grim Reaper, but its mad scramble to over- come sticky quality-assurance problems and the meltdown of its main subcontractor is less than reassuring. After all, this company is supposed to be the successful Mac clone maker ina field already littered with the bodies of less-fortunate competitors. The rest of this week’s clone news is a mixed bag, and I’m not sure that much of it inspires confidence in the health of the Mac clone lineup. While DayStar Digital Inc. argues con- vincingly that its recent layoffs reflect the wan- ing of the upgrade-board market, not a failure to move its high-priced that Motorola will in the US. and Euro- clones, the company has reese wwe pean markets. only recently ramped up concentrate its If Compaq, _ the production of its Genesis sss ve General Motors Corp. CPUs. Meanwhile, for- efforts on China. of American CPU mer player Radius Inc continues to slough off technologies in an effort to stop the free fall that ensued after its disastrous foray into Mac OS licensing. By far the brightest news for Mac- compatibles in the West this week comes out of Germany, where Compaq Com- puter Corp. is reportedly on track to li- cense the operating system for its PowerPC boxes, according to rumors flying around the CeBIT ’96 trade show in Hanover. According to our cousin in the PC camp, It's asad comment PC Week, Compaq is looking to license Motorola’s PowerPC designs and offer them with the Mac OS. (Readers can get the complete scoop on-line at http://www. zdnet.com/macweek/.) The deal will include Compaq’s long- time companion on the manufacturing side, Mitac International Corp. of Taiwan. Despite the ever-present Chinese con- nection, however, the deal will be born in the U.S.A. and will result in a slew of new clones manufacturing (per its continued presence at No. 1 in Dataquest Inc.’s reports), does finally jump into the fray, it would be a whole new diplomatic ballgame for the Mac OS. | Ifa superpower like Compaq adopts the platform, the Mac's cachet will skyrocket, and it should offer a shot in the arm to the smaller guys, too. 0 . Matthew Rothenberg is senior associate editor/GA. He welcomes correspondence at matthew _rothenberg @macweek.com. MacWEEK ('SSN 0892-81 18) is published weekly, with the exception of Jan. 1, July 1, Sept. 2, and Dec. 23 and 30, by Ziff-Davis Publishing Co., 1 Park Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. Single-copy price, including postage: $6. One-year subscription rate: U.S., $125; Canada/Mexico, US. $225; International, U.S. $350 (airmail. All orders must be prepaid, Direct subscription inquiries to Customer Service Department, MacWEEK, /o JCI, P.O. Box 10634, Riverton, N.J. 08076-0634; (609) 786-8230. Changes of address require that a new application be filled out completely and include both new and old addresses, Allow four to six weeks for processing, We periodically make lists of our customers available to carefully screened mailers of quality goods and services. Ifyou do not wish to receive such mailings, please let us know by writing to us at Customer Service Department, MacWEEK, P.O. Box 10634, Riverton, N.J. 08076-0634. Postmaster: Send address changes to MacWEEK, P.O. Box 10634, Riverton, N.J. 08076- (0634, Second-class postage paid at New York and additional mailing offices. Printed in U.S.A. Canada Post international Publications Mail Product (Canadian Distribution) Sales Agreement No. 410667. Canadian GST registration number is R140496720. PAGE 4 03.25.96 MACWEEK Shifts its focus off accelerators By David Morgenstern After a recent round of layoffs, DayStar Digital Inc. last week said it is on track with efforts to shift its focus from upgrades to Mac clones. The company also unveiled multiprocessor Genesis upgrade packages for PCI Macs, price cuts on its systems and a new upgrade card for PCI models. The company said it laid off more than a dozen employees ear- lier this month. The reductions came primarily from manufac- turing and support workers for By Clifford Colby Windows 95 is shipping all over again — for Power Macs. Insignia Solutions Inc. this week said it ex- pects to deliver two new versions of its Windows emulation soft- ware for Power Macs, including a version that runs Microsoft Corp.'s latest OS. SoftWindows 95 includes In- signia’s new TurboStart feature, which trims Windows 95's launch time to about 10 seconds. Insignia said SoftWindows 95 offers SoundBlaster-equivalent | sound support and comes with a Windows MIDI driver. The ap- plication can also use compressed sound files. The application also comes with an Advanced SCSI Pro- gramming Interface driver for controlling Macintosh and Intel- standard PC SCSI devices. With the driver, users can bypass DayStar’s PowerPC accelerators. Countering published reports that questioned its commitment to the clone market, DayStar said the single-processor accelerator mar- ket for older models is fully devel- oped and is focusing on multi- processor clones and upgrades. “If you don’t have a lot of bandwidth, it’s better to focus on your strengths,” said analyst Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies International Inc. of San Jose, Calif. Multiprocessor technology is “the right strategy given their size,” Bajarin said. The company in April will re- lease nPower 300, a dual-processor upgrade card for PCI Macs. The new card will cost about $2,500 DayStar pushes clones and offer two 150-MHz 604s. DayStar also unveiled Genesis MP 528 Conversion, a modifica- tion plan for the Power Mac 7500, 8500 or 9500. The cost is $7,499 for the three-slot models and $8,499 for the 9500. The upgrade puts a processor daughtercard with four 132-MHz 604s into a Genesis MP tower. In addition, DayStar cut prices on the four-processor Genesis MP models. Previously priced at $19,999, the Genesis MP 600 is now $17,499; the Genesis MP 528 slipped from $14,999 to $13,499. DayStar Digital Inc. of Flow- ery Branch, Ga., can be reached at (770) 967-2077 or (800) 972-8711; fax (770) 967-3018. 0 Apple’s CD-ROM extensions to read Windows CDs. SoftWindows 95 is Open Transport-aware and includes a Windows printer driver that works with any printer selected in the Mac’s Chooser. The second Insignia update shipping this week, Soft- Windows 3.0, lets Mac users run Windows 3.1 better. The com- pany said SoftWindows 3.0 is 35 percent faster than the previous version and is tuned for graphics and multimedia applications. The software features the same improvements as the Windows 95 version except for TurboStart and includes MS-DOS ; Users can upgrade SoftWindows 3.0 with Windows 95. Insignia recommends a Power | Mac with 20 to 24 Mbytes of RAM for SoftWindows 95 and 16 Mbytes for Version 3.0. Insignia’s Soft- Windows 95 lets users run Windows 95 programs on their Macs, 057252 0 0.205723, 0452209 0 1016. 0.95005 Poser 020s 072012 osx (561705 O719616 0 SE3ER0 0.312087 a 0608078526, O.I66AD 0521716 including the 32-bit version of Microsoft Excel. SoftWindows open to Windows 95 SoftWindows 3.0 has a street price of $299, and owners of Ve sion 2.0 can upgrade for $79. So! Windows 95 has an estimated price of $349, and owners of Version 2.0 can upgrade for $149. Insignia Solutions Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif. can be reached at (408) 327-6000 or (800) 848-7677; fax (408) 327-6272; fax-back (800) 876-3872; maccs@isinc.insignia. com; http://www. insignia.com. StarGate card to put NuBus into PC] Macs Five months after it made the offi- cial announcement, Power Com- puting Corp. this week expects to ship StarGate, a PCI-to-NuBus card for its Power Wave clones. The card was initially delayed because of a manufacturing prob- lem (see 01.08.96, Page 142); according to Power, extensive quali delayed shipment. The company y-assurance testing further promised to post a list of compat- ible NuBus cards on its Web site. Power Computing Corp. of Round Rock, Texas, can be reached at (512) 388-6868 or (800) 999-7279; fax (512) 388-6799; info@powerce.com;_ http://www. powercc.com. Options include a Digital Data Storage-2 DAT drive, additional Fast and Wide SCSI-2 hard drives, Apple's hardware RAID PCI controller, and 10- and 100-Mbps Ethernet PCI cards. Users must pur- chase the $1,489 AIX for Apple Network Server Accessory Kit, which includes AIX software (see 02.26.96, Page 1). APPLE SHIPS UNIX NETWORK SERVERS || Apple last week began shipping its high-end Network Servers. The Unix boxes are available in several versions. An entry-level, diskless Network Server 500 costs $8,819 and includes a 132-MHz PowerPC 604 processor with 32 Mbytes of RAM, 512 Kbytes of Level 2 cache and a quadruple-speed CD-ROM mechanism. Abase Network Server 700 goes for $11,829 and holds a 150-MHz PowerPC 604 processor with 32 Mbytes of RAM, 1-Mbyte cache, a | 4-Gbyte Fast and Wide SCSI-2 hard drive, and a 4x CL a 4x CD-ROM drive. Radius spinoff draws plan to make splash in printing By Kristin Balleisen With new products reportedly in the queue and its independence established, Radius Inc.'s print- server spinoff, Splash Technology Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif, hopes to be the next Silicon Val- ley Cinderella story. The deal, finalized in late Jan- | uary, had Boston-based venture capital firm Summit Partners putting up $23.5 million for an 80 percent stake in the new com- pany; Radius retained the re- maining 20 percent and a seat on the board of directors. “To achieve its destiny, [Splash] had to be separate from Radius,” said Kevin Macgillivray, Splash CEO and former vice president of Radius’ publishing division. “We didn’t use their [sales] infrastruc- and we couldn't retain our profits. But as separate entities, we can really spread our wings.” Splash will make its official debut at April's On-Demand Digi- tal Printing and Publishing show in New York. Sources close to the company said the show will also be the scene of a new product launch — reportedly, a new PCI-based ture @ Splash color copier RIP that includes a PowerPC 604 chip. In addition, the new spinoff is reportedly looking beyond out- put; sources said itis investigating applying its color technology to dis- play subsystems and Internet products. The company sells PowerPC 601-based, Adobe PostScript Level 2 Splash boards and soft- ware, which range in price from $17,000 to $20,000, as well as turnkey Mac-based RIP systems for $20,500 to $33,500. While RIP rival Electronics for Imaging Inc. of San Mateo, Calif, supports copiers from Canon U.S.A. Inc., Minolta Corp. and Ricoh Corp. Splash RIPs drive | only Xerox Corp.’s MajestiK and Regal 5790 models. Industry analyst Robert Fein- blatt of New York-based broker- age firm Furman Selz LLC said color copier sales are up 30 percent from last year, with connecting servers rising even faster. “It’s quite an attractive market,” he said. Backup software is included, but file and print servers must be pur- chased separately. 0 | We've helped 56 million people accomplish things they never dreamed of. We'd like to thank them for helping us do the same. Thank you. Thank you for making Apple one of America’s most prosperous and successful companies. Were presently positioned at a notable one hundred twenty-three on the Fortune 500 ahead of companies like McDonalds, Federal Express and Toys “R” Us, to name but a prominent few Thanks also for making us the third largest manufacturer of computers in the world. Last year, Apple sold more personal computers to more people than ever before. During the last quarter of 1995 alone, we shipped over 1.3 million Macintosh’ computers, generating $3.1 billion in revenues. Most important, thank you for your support. The kind of generous sup- port weve been receiving from customers like Brenda Clark, school principal in St. Petersburg, Florida: “We can't afford to invest in a company that doesn't have sta- bility. Stability is evident in every dealing I have with Apple. It’ first class”” The world’s favorite computer. Its the reason we can look so confidently to the future: 56 million people like you who fervently believe in the Macintosh way of working, learning and playing, Its why Apple is one of the most recognized and loved brands in the world. And why brand loyalty to Apple is the highest in the industry. In fact, a remarkable 90% of Macintosh owners buy Macintosh again when making a second purchase — the highest repurchase rate of any computer manufacturer. Apple ranks number one for reliability and service, as well, requir- ing less customer support than any other computer. And today there are over 9,000 Macintosh software titles available for business, home, education and entertainment. Including 1,600 native Power Macintosh’ applications. No other computer shares this kind of popularity. 123) Apple Leadership in business, home and education. Of course, these aren't the only successes we plan to build on. Macintosh is the number one computer in education. The number one computer in publishing. And right now, you'll find Apple in more homes around the world than any other computer. We continue to set the standard in markets like engineering, multimedia and film, video and music production, where 63% of all digital authoring is done on the Macintosh. And we continue to define industry standards for the Internet, where over 20% of all Internet servers are Apple and over 40% of all Internet sites were created on the Mac* Making Macintosh the number one web authoring platform. Which also helps explain why the Power Macintosh 7500 and 8500 received Byte magazine’ 1995 Editor's Choice Award of Excellence. The power to accomplish more than ever. It all because we continue to practice a philosophy most com- puter companies still haven't managed to grasp: that technology is useful only if it helps people bridge the gap between where they are and where they want to be. ‘Do that end, we will always be committed to building computers that anticipate the way people work instead of forcing people to adapt to the way computers work. To providing you with tools that make it easier to do everything you have to do. Yet give you the freedom to do things you never thought you could do before. The kinds of tools that are already carrying thou- sands of businesses into the future. Including ours. * As Mary Lou Johnson, VP of Reservation Systems for Budget Rent a Car Corporation, puts it, “*7he increased speed and powerful net- working capabilities of our Power Macs are additional factors contributing to improved productivity and time savings?* Thanks, Mary Lou. There’ a lot more to come. Apple http://always.apple.com registered rademarks of ple Computer ne. Mac and Power Nac ae trademarks of ple Computer Inc All Maino computers are designed fo be bel 800-600-7808 or TTY 800-755-060. PAGE 6 03.25.96 MACWEEK Big Business to wrap New TechTool uncovers glitches: By Clifford Colby Adding a stack of new features, Big Software Inc. plans to ring up a new version of its Big Business integrated financial-management and accounting software by the end of April. Version 2.0, which is not yet priced, will include Internet au- thoring capabilities, which can create Web pages automatically from Big Business databases, in- cluding catalog prices and images. Version 2.0 will come with a built-in report and forms de- signer. Users will now be able to save reports to a text file. In addition, the update will ex- pand import and export capabili- ties; it will import check and jour- nal payroll data from CheckMark Software Inc. and Aatrix Software Inc. payroll systems as well as data from Intuit Inc.’s Quicken per- sonal finance software. Although pricing for the new version has not been set, users who finance apps in Web Big Business 2.0 will automatically turn business data into a Web page. purchased Big Business after Jan. I can upgrade to Version 2.0 free; users who purchased it before Jan- uary can receive a $100 rebate. Sites running Big Business Server can upgrade for $199 per user Big Software Inc. of Los Altos, Calif., can be reached at (415) 919-0200 or (800) 970-0022; fi (415) 919-0205; hrtp://www. bigbusiness.com. 3 fax By Joanna Pearlstein Putting systems through their AicroMat tems recently rele Pro, the company warediagnosic utility, The $150 TechTool Pro can test for and identify more than 300 hardware and software problems, paces, computer ‘ased TechTool s new hard- MicroMat said. The new program expands on MicroMat’s free Tech- Tool, which can zap parameter RAM, rebuild the desktop and provide basic system information. According to the company, TechTool Pro can testa variety of internal hardware components, including RAM, ROM, cache memory, PRAM, FPU (floating- point unit), video, video RAM, serial ports, and floppy and hard drives; it also checks connected external units, including ADB input devices and storage “Ie takes testing toa whole other level of depth,” said Dan Cassel- ance graphics de- signer in Elizabeth, N. comprehensive program,” he said. Itsavery ‘The new software can find cor- rupted programs and files, iden- tify extension and program in- compatibilities, and compare system performance to bench- marks, MicroMat s: an run the tem managers entire test suite in an Auto Pilot mode or customize sets for particu- lar programs. The software comes with on-line help that guides users through each test and assists in an- alyzing results. TechTool Pro test data can be viewed on screen or printed in a report format. Scott Andersen, Apple technical champion at The Future Now, a value-added reseller in Cincinnati, uses TechTool Pro to evaluate This tool is invaluable for that proce Andersen said. “It’s quick, easy to install and runs on every Mac.” MicroMat Computer Systems of Windsor, Callif., is at (707) 837- 8012 or (800) 829-6227; fax (707) 837-0209; micromat@nbn.com; http://micromat.com/mmes. [ used systems before resale. Users can J ——nom | corps —] testa panoply | ei eee For the record of Machard- | 10101010 poratonal ———— ooo ware and soft- | Borris: Charen | In the 03.18.96 Stock Watch ware with Peon Fie | (Page 78), stock prices for MicroMat's Chr. GiMnormrch Fractal Design Corp. and TechTool Pro Graphsoft U.S. Inc. were utility. incorrect; the correct num- bers are $13.25 and $6.63, respectively. pry propuct |” fem | FREE DISK Pace EL135drive | $199] $20vae 200HB drive] $399 over $60 value TIONG dive] $399 | over $50 value EZI35 dt Bane "0 Source: SyQuest. SyQuest's award-winning EZ135 external removable cartridge hard drive holds 35% more, is twice as fast, has double the warranty and costs less overall than high-performance floppies, like Zip. And for a limited time, when you buy an EZ135 SCSI drive, a SyQuest 270MB 3.5" subsystem, or a SyQuest 200MB EZ135: MORE THAN TWICE AS FAST High performance flopp' c AVERAGE DATA ACCESS TIME IN MILLISECONDS (ms) when you can e Purchase SyQuest at Best Buy, Compusa, a Computer City Egghead, Incredible ete Universe, ig andoterinesoes MW RXR S9 putt-putt around, go with those other drives. But if you want to fly, get SyQuest. 5.25" subsystem, we'll throw in a free cartridge. And if you buy the EZI35, you can get a carrying case for half price, too. Look, if all you want to do is @ syquest’ EE CARTRIDGE COUPO ~ HERE'S HOWTO GET YOUR FREE CARTRIDGE! I For each SyQuest drive you purchase I If you would like to purchase a carrying you must include the following items: name, address, phone number, this rebate coupon, UPC label from back of box, original sales | receipt.a $5 check for shipping & handling and registration card included with the drive. bag at 1/2 price, include an additional $15 plus I ‘$5 for shipping & handling. Mail these items to the address listed at the bottom of the Free Cartridge Promo, SyQuest Technology, 535 Brennan Street, San jose, CA 95131-1202. you have questions call 800-245-7334, Offer begins 3/25/96 and ends 7/31/96. ad. Offer good for UPC numbers: 742078982368 (EZ135 drive), 742078914260 (200MB. SyQuest and the SyQuest iogo are registered trademarks of SyQuest Technology Inc.All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 01996 SyQuest Ll drive), 742078984263 (270MB drive). Offer begins 3/25/96 and ends 7/31/96. sayy ] = ee eee ee MacWEEK 03.25.96 PAGE7 Apple names Tesler Internet czar By James Staten Apple Chief Scientist Larry Tesler last week took charge of the company’s dis- parate Internet efforts. Tesler, 50, is now vice president of Inter- net platforms; his duties include oversee- ing the creation of Internet products, forg- ing business alliances around key technologies and making sure all divisions at Apple build products that embrace the Internet. “The first thing to do will be to articu- late our Internet strategy,” he said at last week’s PC Forum conference in Tucson, Ariz. He added that Apple’s plan will become clear in coming months after the company announces “key alliances with leading Internet companies” and unveils a collection of new products, Apple’s first action with Tesler in charge was to join the World Wide Web Consor- tium, the body that defines cross-platform Web standards. Three departments report directly to Tesler. Internet Products Business Devel- opment Group will manage Apple’s rela- OpenDoc given nod as standard By Clifford Colby Giving OpenDoc a boost, the Object Man- agement Group Inc. last week announced it has adopted the OpenDoc specification as its industry standard for distributed component software. The Object Management Group, or OMG, is a Framingham, Mass.-based industry consortium that promotes object technology for the development of distrib- uted computing systems. Among the standards endorsed by OMG is CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Archi- tecture), which defines interactions among objects. OpenDoc complies with CORBA through its implementation of System Object Model, IBM Corp.’s scheme for language-independent packaging of parts. By supporting CORBA, OpenDoc parts will be able to communicate with CORBA-based back-end systems, such as Oracle Corp.’s upcoming object- oriented architecture. “Obviously this is a boost — anything that says ‘industry standard’ has to be a boost,” said Jesse Feiler, software director for the Philmont Software Mill in Philmont, N.Y. “People are seeing Open- Doc is a stable, reliable architecture. All these announcements build its momen- tum, and maybe developers will say now is the time to move to it.” In related news, Component Integration Laboratories Inc. announced today that Justsystem Corp. of Japan has joined the | Sunnyvale, Calif.-based consortium pro- moting the OpenDoc standard. 0 tions with third-party developers, includ- ing Netscape Communications Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc. and Adobe Systems Inc. The Internet Program Office will coordi- nate all Internet development efforts throughout the company, while the Internet Engineering Group will oversee Internet- specific products not covered by other pro- jects. These include Cyberdog as well as the Apple Internet Connection Kit and Internet Server Solution but not Internet-related work on the Copland OS. Tesler will also manage all of Apple’s Internet and intranet services, such as http/www.apple.conv/, Tesler comes to this new role from Apple's Research and Development Divi- sion; before that he was vice president and chief technical officer for eWorld. His appointment is the first internal ex- ecutive advancement by new CEO Gilbert Amelio. Since taking office, Amelio has appointed outsiders from National Semi- conductor Inc. and PepsiCo Inc. to fill the roles of chief administrative officer and chief financial officer. 0 eXodus for acintosh 6.0 enhancements: White Pine’s eXodus for Macintosh makes accessing critical information easy whatever your host platform, operating system or network. Here’s just a handful of the latest Also available for Windows “Native” Open Transport (1.1) support Accelerated for Power Macintosh 100% X11R6, guarantees compatibility with all X applications Complete Common Desktop Environment (CDE) support Support for MS Windows apps via Windows NT X software “eXodus CD" included for faster and easier installation oXodas The X Connection® for Every Desktop MacOS You brought them Windows and e-mail and the internet. Isn tC 1t tine OU brought them ills sia ade? Mac compatible. EPSON and EPSON Siyus are registered trademarks of Seiko Epson Corp. Windows isa registered trademark of Microsoft Corp. inthe U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property oftheir respective owners. ©1996 Epson America, Inc EPSON COLOR INK JET PRINTERS. People are demanding more from technology than ever before. Better quality color printing. Crisper text printing. Compatibility with all Windows" based applications, NT, -Macint | for yo h and OS/2. And you’ve got to do all this on a smaller budget. It’s time to call on a name that’s delivered 1 before. Epson. The Epson Stylus Pro gives you (and them) everything you need. 720x720 dpi of Photo Quality Razor-sharp black text. All at a price that will fit anyone’s budget. Just give us a call at 1-800-420-2470 isk for operator 3400), and we'll be glad to send you a color print sample, set up a product demo, or qualify you for our evaluation program. Because before you can take care of their needs, you’ve got to take care of your own. Make Epson Color your secret weapon. 720 x 720 dpi of chart-popping color on plain paper. Who ever thought a bar graph could give you an unfair advantage? YOU’VE GOT TO SEE IT IN | EPSON | COLOR? PAGE 10 03.25.96 MACWEEK Utility speeds printer access Users loaking for an easy way to print to different devices on their networks can get relief with PrinterSwitch, a new shareware utility from Brookline Software. The $14 control panel lets users change their currently selected printer from the Print or Page Setup dialog boxes without having to go through the Chooser every time. The program selects the proper Post- Script Printer Definition file when switch- ing between printers, Brookline said. Printers are added automatically to the PrinterSwitch pop-up list after they are se- lected in the Chooser. Managers can also cre- When You \ ate sets that direct users to specific printers. In addition, PrinterSwitch comes with a Control Strip module that allows printers to be changed even within applications that do not support the standard print di- alogs, such as Adobe PageMaker. A site license is $280; a 14- sion of PrinterSwitch is available on-line. Brookline Software of Brookline, Mass., can be reached at (617) 566-0883; brookline_ software@kagi.com. ( trial ver- ake It To The Big Screen Second Best Is Not Good Enough. Apple’s #1 Choice In Mac-To-TV Interfaces When Apple needed to ship the best portable Mac-To-TV interface with their Apple Presentation System, they chose the FOCUS LeTV Portable. Simply because presenters, educators and train- can plug the small, lightweight LeTV Portable into a Mac with video-out capability (including PowerBooks) and instantly have a fast, powerful, big screen multimedia presentation system. Duplicate the Mac screen on the TV or record to a VCR. Flicker elimination soft built-in RCA, S-Video connectors and all cables are included. The FOCUS LeTV internal color card also lets classroom trainers use the TV as a second monitor. LeTV Portable $229.99 LeTV Portable Pro $299.99 LeTV LC Card $299.99 Plug-and-play desktop or PowerBook Macs Our Customers’ A Must For New #1 Choice In Big Screen Color Cards LapisColor Cards from FOCUS are performers, pure and simple. For Macs with an LC-PDS slot, the 64-bit Internal Bus Acceleration on LapisColor cards will make your Mac fly. With up to 3 megs of VRAM, they are favorites with our customers who work with complex graphi or video editing and viewing, and who have no patience to wait for their monitor to catch up with their mind. LapisColor cards are compatible with Apple, Sony, SuperMac, Radius and RasterOps monitors, to name a few. The complete line of LapisColor 24-bit, 16-bit or 8-bit cards work with any LC-PDS slot-equipped Mac. From $339.00 Owners! permanent, but PCMCIA your network and display. COLOR Call for more information Call for a free product guide INGRAM MICRO} oo oo PowerBook 190/5300 Combo Video & Ethernet Cards For Macintosh PowerBook 190/5300 ‘The new MV series, exclusively from FOCUS, gives your PowerBook fast 16-bit color for large monitor support, and a ethernet conn slots. The MV family of cards use dedicé ethernet controller chips to provide maximum performance. A dual purpose MicroLatch connector cable provides a solid cable link to sieved eet. QOUOSOOU00 Display up to 16.7 million colors on your TV, and record to videotape. tion that doesn’t use precious video and LapisColor MV8-EN $249.00 LapisColor MV16 $299.00 LapisColor MV16-EN $399.00 FOCUS enhancements networking + graphics * software STORAGE BEAT CD speedy. Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. of Irvine, Calif., this month re- leased new 6.7-speed CD-ROM drives. The XM-3701 mecha- nism comes in $320 internal and $420 exter- nal Fast SCSI-2 versions with average data transfer rates of | Mbyte per second; the units also support single- and double-speed modes. The drives can be used as stand- alone audio CD players. Phone (714) 455- 0407; fax (714) 455-6382; http://www. toshiba.com. In an Ultra mood. Paralan Corp. of San Diego took the wraps off its converter boxes for Ultra SCSI-to-differential SCSI translation. The $475 SD10B and $625 SD16B support eight-bit narrow and 16- bit wide Ultra interfaces, respectively. The external units come with a power block and incorporate noise-reduction technol- ogy as well as autosensing termination. Phone (619) 560-7266; fax (619) 560-8929. Storage bits and bytes. At CeBIT °96 in Hanover, Germany, last week, Philips Electronics Inc. demonstrated a working prototype of a Digital Video Disc player slated to ship near the end of the year. Philips expects the computer- oriented DVD-ROM market to lead the consumer market for DVD players, con- trary to the history of the CD-ROM. One reason: The DVD data drive will sport a lower price tag than the video box. ... In March, Iomega Corp. of Roy, Utah, said it had shipped 1 million Zip drives since the drive’s introduction a year ago. Users have purchased almost 10 million car- tridges as well. ... A group of storage manufacturers recently formed the SCSI Trade Association, based in St. Peter, Minn, Pledging to push parallel SCSI, rather than the trendy, speedy serial fla- vors, the group said “SCSI is alive and well!” Who knew it was so sick? — By David Morge MACWEEK 03.25.96 PaGE 11 By David Morgenstern Looking to warm up document-delivery options, Blueridge Technologies Inc. this month will ship Optix COLD, an off-line archival system for its cross-platform Optix document servers. In addition to the usual archiving of text documents, the $75,000 software will let users store data as TIFF images, Optix said. Optix COLD will index stored docu- ments automatically and let users view mainframe data as forms on the Mac. Form layouts will support multiple fonts and type sizes as well as a variety of line lengths and field orientations; backgrounds will include scans of paper forms, Optix said. Managers can archive the data to RAID, Optix COLD lets Mac users create forms to view archived mainframe data. NSM jukeboxes slated for Macs By Stephen Howard NSM Jukebox this month announced a deal that makes its CD-ROM off-line stor- and CD-Recordable archives more accessible to the Mac market. The company will bundle Miles Apart networking software from Astarte GmbH of St. Paul, Minn. (see 02.12.96, Page 8) with its Mercury and CDR lines. Miles Apart presents the contents of multiple CD-ROMs as a single, Finder-mountable network volume. NSM will sell the soft- ware in a 10-user pack for $3,499 and an unlimited-client version for $4,299. With the software side in place, users will be able to use NSM’s existing CD-ROM changers on AppleTalk networks. Its $7,995 CDR 100 XA jukebox stores 100 discs and uses one Toshiba quadruple-speed drive. The company’s $17,995 Mercury 20 and $18,995 Mercury 40 models swap up to 150 discs into two and four 4x Toshiba drives, respectively. For archiving, NSM will sell its $13,995 CDR 100 Recordable box. This SCSI-2 de- vice combines up to 100 CD-R discs with one 4x Yamaha CD-R mechanism. NSM Jukebox of Bensenville, IIl., can be reached at (708) 860-5100 or (800) 238- 4676; fax (708) 860-5144. 0 age devi Optix COLD freezes data tape or optical storage, Optix said. De- pending on the site license, current Optix users can upgrade starting at $25,000. Blueridge Technologies Inc. of Flint Hill, Va., can be reached at (540) 675-3015; fax (540) 675-3130; optix@blueridge.com; http://www.blueridge.com. 01 Duo 2300c gains RAM upgrades Viking Components Inc. recently shipped memory upgrades for the new PowerBook Duo 2300c. Viking’s 2300 memory modules come in 8-, 16-, 24-, 32-, 40- and 48-Mbyte capaci- ties and cost $570, $1,070, $1,590, $2,120, $2,650 and $3,170, respectively. The PowerPC-based Duo comes with one RAM expansion slot and 8 Mbytes on board; it supports up to 56 Mbytes of RAM. Viking Components Inc. of Laguna Hills, Calif, can be reached at (714) 643- 7255 or (800) 338-2361; fax (714) 643-7250; http/www.vikingmem.com. 1 Macintosh volume. 5840 West Inte Facsimile: (817) 561-2313 « Internet: s yisx sy MacNFS* teaches your Macintosh and UNIX to share. Not long ago, Macintosh and UNIX machines were about as compatible as, well you know. Now, you can achieve true NFS connectivity with MacNFS from TSS. MacNFS lets users share information with multiple-vendored UNIX machines as if they were on a local + The only Open Transport Ready NFS client available + Shares data with UNIX, DOS, and Windows applications + The fastest and most reliable NFS client for the Macintosh + MacNFS is as easy to use as AppleShare For an immediate NFS solution for your Macintosh, contact us today! Thursby Software Systems, Inc. te 20 ¢ Arlington, TX 76017 U.S.A. Telephone: (817) 478-5070 , les@thursby.com » www: http://www.thursby.com MacOS ©1996 Thursby Software Systems, Inc. Mac and the Mac OS logo are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., used under license Fastest MacOS System Ever aUMaPowerPt 604 Fast PCL and NuBus Expansion Accelerated 64-bit PCI Video and Fast SCSI 3 Front Accessible Drives for optional Quad-Spin (4X) CD-ROM, lomega Zip, lomega Jaz, or SyQuest EZ-135 Easily upgradeable Plug & Play CPU daughtercards featuring the PowerPC 604 at 120, 132 and 150MHz Fast PCI 3-slot expansion Need NuBus? Get both PCI and NuBus with Power Computing’s STARGATE Choose either 3 PCI slots or 2 PCI and 2 NuBus slots - allows you to reconfigure at any time from NuBus to PCI Eight DIMM slots for up to 512MB of RAM using 64-bit DIMMS with fast interleave memory; Socketable High Performance L2 DIMM Cache Slot allows for either 256K, 512K or 1MB Internal Fast SCSI Bus (up to 10MBs/sec) and external SCSI Bus (up to 5MB/sec) as well as Internal Drive Bays for additional storage Accelerated 64-bit PCI VRAM video graphics card with both Mac 15-pin and SVGA connectors (2MB of VRAM upgradeable to 4MB) Love-Me-Or-I’m-History, 30 day money back guarantee. Toll-free lifetime technical sup- support. 1, 2, or 3-year on-site service avail- able, starting at only $49. " PowerComputing 12337 Technology Blvd., Austin, TX 78727-6104 tel. 512/258-1350 fax. 512/250-3390. Check out our Web site: http://www.powercc.com Internet: info@powercc.com bed pe, ne, Powerave i a trademark of ae valid in the US only and subject to muting Corporati st notice. Blow Your Mind, Not Your Budge PUWER WAVE Editor’s Rave! “Considering the purchase of a PowerMac?...We strongly recommend that you take a serious look at what Power Computing has to offer.” MacUser- Aug 95 “They might as well have come from Apple - the performance and compatibility are that good.” Macword- Aug 95 “an excellent Mac alternative, whether or not you are pinching your pennies.” PC Magazine- Aug 95 “Power Computing’s ‘systems match their PowerMac counterparts for speed and compatibility and are every bit as good as a dyed-in-the-wool Macintosh.” Infowortd- June 95 “A machine we love even more than the PowerMac 7500 - the PowerWave 604” Macworld- Feb 96 aa MWe “The Power Computing PowerWave 604 is a very impressive Macintosh” [New York Times, November 7, 1995 PowerWave 604/132 Hot Pick 132 MHz PowerPC’ 14 16MB RAM (512MB Max RAM) 256K Level 2 Cache (1MB Max) 1.0GB 11ms SCSI Hard Drive Quad-Speed (4X) CD-ROM Drive 3 Fast PCI Expansion Slots Built-in Ethernet (10Base-T & AAUI) 64-bit PCI Graphics w/2MB VRAM. Extended Keyboard & Mouse $3699 PowerCurve 601/120 Starter 0 MHz PowerPC™ 601+ 8MB RAM (256MB Max RAM) Upgradeable CPU daughtercard Optional Level 2 Cache (1MB Max) 850MB 11ms SCSI Hard Drive 3 Fast PCI Expansion Slots Built-in Ethernet (10Base-T & AAUI) Built-in Graphics w/1MB VRAM upgradeable to 4MB VRAM Extended Keyboard & Mouse Bundled Software $1899 PowerWave 604/132 MultiMedia Hz PowerPC™ 604 24MB RAM (512MB Max RAM) 256K Level 2 Cache (IMB Max) 1.0GB 11ms SCSI Hard Drive 14 inch .28 DP Monitor (Quad-Speed (4X) CD-ROM Drive 3 Fast PCI Expansion Slots Built-in Ethernet (10Base-T & AAU!) 64-bit PCI Graphics w/2MB VRAM Tower Configuration Extended Keyboard & Mouse $4299 PowerWave 604/120 Starter 120MHz PowerPC™ 604 16MB RAM (512MB Max RAM) Optional 256K, 512K, or 1MB Cache 1.0GB 11ms SCSI Hard Drive Quad-Speed (4X) CD-ROM Drive 3 Fast PCI Expansion Slots Built-in Ethernet (10Base-T & AAUI) 64-bit PCI Graphics w/2MB VRAM. Desktop Computer Case Extended Keyboard & Mouse $3199 PowerWave 604/150 Hot Pick 150 MHz PowerPC™ 604 16MB RAM (512MB Max RAM) 512K Level 2 Cache (1MB Max) 1,0GB 11ms SCSI Hard Drive 14 inch .28 DP Monitor Quad-Speed (4X) CD-ROM Drive 3 Fast PCI Expansion Slots Built-in Ethernet (10Base-T & AAU!) 64-bit PCI Graphics w/2MB VRAM. Tower Configuration Extended Keyboard & Mouse $4799 PowerWave 604/120 Home Office 120MHz Powel 604 16MB RAM (512MB Max RAM) Optional 256K, 512K, or 1MB Cache 1.0GB 11ms SCSI Hard Drive 14 inch .28 DP Monitor Quad-Speed (4X) CD-ROM Drive Internal lomega Zip™ Drive 3 Fast PCI Expansion Slots Built-in Ethernet (10Base-T & AAU!) 64-bit PC! Graphics w/2MB VRAM Extended Keyboard & Mouse $3599 PowerWave 604/150 XL 150MlHz PowerPC"™" 604 32MB RAM (512MB Max RAM) 512K Level 2 Cache (1MB Max) 1.0GB 11ms SCSI Hard Drive 15 inch Sony Monitor Quad-Speed (4X) CD-ROM Drive Internal lomega Zip™ Drive 3 Fast PCI Expansion Slots Built-in Ethernet (10Base-T & AAU!) 64-bit PCI Graphics w/4MB VRAM Extended Keyboard & Mouse $5899 o> K INFO pi tors wen 95 OVER $1200 OF FREE SOFTWARE “BUNDLED WITH EVERY SYSTEM Mac 0S 7.52 Insignia Soft Windows 2.0 60 day trial, Grolier’s Multimedia Encyclopedia, Now Utilities, Now Up-to-Date, Now Contact, intuit's Quicken, FWB HardDisk Toolkit PE, CD-ROM Toolkit, ClarisWorks, America Online, 250 Bitstream Fonts, Launch CD, US CD Atlas, World CD Atlas, The Animals CD-ROM, Nisus Writer Service & Supp‘ 30 day money back, Love-Me-Or-I'm-History guarantee. Toll-free lifetime technical support. 41, 2, or 3-year on-site service available, starting at $49. Since.Power Computing is the manufacturer, you can customize your RAM, hard drive, video and monitor options — just call. ORDER DIRECT AND SAVE 1-800-404-7693 PowerComputing MORE POWER TO YOU: MIRO’S CHEAP PCI miro Computer Products Inc. has shipped its miroMotion DC20 video card, which carries alow price of $999. PAGE 14 Graphics Applications ¢ Publishing © Multimedia 03.25.96 MACWEEK By Matthew Rothenberg ViaGrafix Software Division is ready to round out its CAD of- ferings with a new version of DesignCAD 2D/3D, which will add 3-D rendering capabilities and a variety of editing tools. The $299 drafting and design application will jump from the current version, 3.0.1, to Version 8.0 in the second quarter. In addi- tion to making the release num- bers consistent across platforms, the new version will add solid- modeling capabilities for 3-D ob- jects. According to ViaGrafix, Boolean operations will let users add to, subtract from or slice through objects. It will be able to remove shading or background lines from 3-D objects to make them appear solid. With Version 8.0, users will be able to calculate the surface area and volume of an object by double-clicking on it. New autodimensioning features will generate dimensions based on a fixed reference point. Version 8.0 will also include twice as many radial and diametrical dimension commands as the previous By Kristin Balleisen Elbowing into the North Ameri- can inkjet market, Xerox Color- grafX Systems Inc. this month unveiled its newest large-format inkjet printer. The VivagrafX XL will output a variety of media up to 36 inches wide. Getting in gear: Design- CAD 2D/3D 8.0 will add solid- modeling capabilities and let users remove shad- ing or back- ground lines from 3-D objects. Xerox debuts oversize inkjet The VivagrafX XL, due to ship in April for $15,995, is based on the same engine as EnCAD Inc.’s NovaJet Pro plotter (see 10.09.95, Page 12). According to Xerox, the new printer can out- put four-color, 300-dpi images measuring up to 36 inches wide and 100 feet long. It can print toa variety of cut-sheet and roll-fed media, including adhesive vinyl and canvas, as well as clear and white-backed polyester film. Xerox said the VivagrafX XL features five print modes: draft, normal, draft three-pass, enhanced three-pass and enhanced four-pass. According to the company, the de- vice takes about 30 minutes to out- put a poster-size image in en- hanced four-pass mode. See Xerox, Page 16 ViaGrafix to reshape DesignCAD for Macs version, ViaGrafix said. New 2-D editing tools will in- clude trim, fillet and chamfer controls, and users will be able to switch between 2-D and 3-D modes to apply these tools to 3-D objects. For example, Trim will now let users cut short intersect- ing lines in a floor plan that can subsequently be extruded in 3-D. The upgrade will feature interac- tive editing capabilities. Version 8.0 will let users im- port and export DesignCAD files to MacRenderMan format. New DXF (Drawing Interchange File) filters will work with AutoCAD 12, ViaGrafix said. The software exports DXF, PICT, EPS and RIB (RenderMan Interface Byte- stream) formats, among others, and works with TrueType and Type | fonts. DesignCAD 2D/3D 8.0 will be available for Power Mac and 680x0-based models. Owners of previous versions will be able to upgrade for $79.95. ViaGrafix Software Division of Prior, Okla., can be reached at (918) 825-7555 or (800) 233-3223; fax (918) 825-6359. 0 © file Edit Project Events Tools Windows “Dominator= feature film Project ersten 00502608 TE] Start tee 0:32:22:15 Minerva Studio is the software component of the $17,000 Minerva Pub- lisher system. The software's Premiere-like editing environment drives an MPEG-1 digital encoding and processing engine. Minerva Publisher packs MPEG tools By Kelly Ryer April 15 will bring more than just taxes this year for digital video users. It will also mark the ship date of Minerva Publisher, a new MPEG-1 video-publishing sys- tem from Minerva Systems Inc. The $17,000 system comprises a software suite and a large black box containing a hardware engine and will be announced at next month’s National Association of Broadcasters conference in Las Vegas. The system will require but will not include a dedicated Power Mac 7500 or 7600 with at | least 24 Mbytes of RAM, a 265- Kbyte cache, and a 2-Gbyte or larger AV hard drive. Minerva Publisher is “like pre- press is to desktop publishing,” said See Minerva, Page 16 By Matthew Rothenberg company said QuarkCopy- It might not steal too much of Microsoft Word’s thun- der, but Quark Inc. has released a stand-alone version of its text-processing and editing application. The Quark gets word out with text-processing software matches the typographical characteristics of an XPress page and offers a black-and-white preview of the first XPress page in which a story will appear. CDSE users also have access to XPress style sheets, Quark said. Because users down- Desk Special Edition is aimed at professional writers and editors who are using QuarkXPress, the company’s page- layout application. The package offers the copy-fitting and text- processing capabilities of Quark Publishing System, Quark’s system for work- group publishing. Quark CDSE gives writers infor- mation on line counts, and hyphenation and jus- tification. The package Fite “tait_Style View _vtiities [Engineered trusses and beams often are used between a The use of steel framing is bsoos8] Page 51a] o Ca ES a Sonor One of three views available with Quark CDSE, this WYSIWYG mode lets users preview text documents. Annotations appear as sticky notes. load copy-fit information directly from XPress lay- outs, the product does not require QuarkDispatch, the server-resident data- base application designed to track files created with QPS. CDSE is available for an introductory price of $195 through April; after that, it will cost $295. Quark Inc. of Denver can be reached at (303) 344-3491 or (800) 326- 3946; fax (303) 894-3399. socket OF Ptical disk. Slip it into your PO” ch "a8ne%0 Sin MO. It’s Fujitsu’s DynaMO® 230 Portable Magneto-Optical Drive. [fjjnji Where's multimedia going next? Anywhere you want it to go. Simply slide Fujitsu's 230 MO is perfect for storing, transporting or backing up everything from multimedia presentations and graphics files to spreadsheets, engineering drawings and applications. All on a single reliable, rewriteable MO disk. MO is faster and smaller than CD-ROM. It has the capacity of 160 floppies. And at less than $20 for a 230MB megabyte MO drive into the expansion bay in your PowerBook or notebook PC and go. disk and under $500 for a drive, it's extremely affordable. MO. It’s the floppy of the future. And it’s from Fujitsu, the world leader in magneto-optical storage. For MO info, call Fujitsu Computer Products of America at 800-898-1455. © 1996 Fujitsu Led, All rights reserved. DymaMO isa registered trademark of Fujitsu Ltd. PowerBook isa registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. fo®) FUJITSU ‘COMPUTERS, COMMUNICATIONS, MICROELECTRONICS PAGE 16 G A 03.25.96 MACWEEK Sweet xs for Media 100 By Kelly Ryer The deafening digital noise at next month’s National Association of Broadcasters show in Las Vegas will include an announcement from Data Translation Inc. The Marlboro, Mass.-based company will announce the Media 100 xs, an upscale digital video sys- tem due in the fourth quarter. Unlike the low-cost Media 100 qx, an- nounced in December (see 12.04.95, Page 1), the new Media 100 xs is aiming for the top of the Media 100 product line. Designed for broadcast and post-production markets, it will offer a superset of the Media 100's cur- VersaTerm is an incredible value. All of these features and time-proven depend- ability are yours for about $125.00. A typical upgrade is a mere $35.00. VersaTerm value begins with design excel- lence and price leadership, and continues with technical support that is uncommon- EDITORS CHOICE rent features. Official pricing information is not yet available, but sources said the board will cost about $30,000. According to Data Translation, the sys- tem will let users generate real-time effects, such as dissolves, wipes, slides and pushes, as well as real-time chroma keying and titling. ‘A Power Mac 9500 equipped with a fast disk array and the Media 100 xs will be able to compress 300 Kbyte-per-frame motion JPEG at ratios of 2-to-1, the company said. Sources said the new package's real- time editing effects will only be available in a draft mode. However, the Media 100 xs will reportedly also support six tracks of audio, edit-decision list import and export, and draft-mode blue-screen compositing. The Media 100 xs will be based on the same Vincent PCI board as previous Media 100 systems, sources said. Data Translation is pitting the Media 100 Minerva From Page 14 Enrique Godreau, research director for Gartner Group Inc. of Stamford, Conn. “This kind of product packages and preps the video for output, those final stages [when users lay] the bits to the medium. You can throttle MPEG video to match videotape, CD-ROM or Internet delivery.” Minerva Publisher will handle NTSC or PAL (European) video input in com- posite, S-video and component YUV for- mats and will be able to output both com- posite and S-video. According to Minerva, the system supports resolutions of 352 by 240 pixels and can encode in real time at speeds ranging from 600 Kbps to 4.5 Mbps. The system will accept digital AES/ EBU and balanced analog audio files and will export them in Digital S/PDIF and balanced-analog formats. Audio sample rates are 32 kHz, 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz. The software portion, dubbed Minerva Studio, will feature a plug-in architecture and offer VCR-like controls as well as drag-and-drop support. Its player will dis- play video segments hierarchically. Users will be able to insert I-frames and control bit rates, and a timecode calculator will have a “paper tape” scroll. “Tt has one great feature that I really value,” said beta tester Masha Dikosavlje- vic, multimedia director at Bell Atlantic Creative Services of Arlington, Va. “Its automatic scene detection automatically forces MPEG I-frames on sudden scene changes, like cuts. It’s really useful for broadcasting very fast-paced content, like music videos — MTV-type stuff.” Robert Mirani, senior analyst at The xs against Avid Technology Inc.’s Media Composer, which ranges in price from $39,900 to $98,900. Competition between the two companies is fierce: Data Translation re- cently launched a campaign that lets owners of Media Composer buy a Media 100 system for almost $10,000 off the list price. In other news, Data Translation this month announced plans to create a new subsidiary responsible for development of the Media 100 product line. If Data Trans- lation’s shareholders approve the measure at their annual meeting on April 10, the new group will get a separate board of di- rectors, although the subsidiary will still be financially linked to Data Translation. The company is considering selling shares of the new business unit publicly. Data Translation Inc, can be reached at (508) 460-1600 or (800) 832-8188; fax (508) 481-8627; http://www.media100.com. 3 Minerva Publisher's black box contains an MPEG-1 video-encoding engine. The system requires a dedicated Power Mac 7500 or 7600. Yankee Group in Boston, said: “It looks a lot like [Adobe] Premiere. It looks very ac- cessible, and at this price point, it’s an attrac- tive Mac-based option. It reasserts the Mac’s pre-eminence in multimedia authoring.” An additional $10,000 video pre- processing option will provide video filter- ing, noise reduction and deinterlacing. The $2,500 Minerva MPEG-2 Multiplexer plug-in option will combine streams of compressed audio and video into a single MPEG-2 stream. Future releases of Min- erva Publisher will include options for MPEG-2 encoding, the company said. Mirani said that Minerva Publisher may be competitive with more expensive non- linear systems, but this may not guarantee sales. "I’m not certain how big that market is right now,” Mirani said. “It will be inter- esting to see how many people bite at it.” Minerva Systems Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., can be reached at (408) 970-1780 or (800) 806-9594; fax (408) 982-9877; http:// www.minervasys.com. 0 Xerox From Page 14 The printer will ship with 4 Mbytes of buffer RAM, which can be expanded to 68 Mbytes with standard SIMMs. It will ship with RS-422 serial and Centronics parallel interfaces. The new device will come with Viva- grafX CTX software joint effort from Xerox and Fairfield, N.J.-based Cactus. The Adobe Photoshop plug-in will in- clude an Adobe Configurable PostScript Interpreter Level 2 software RIP. Xerox said the VivagrafX XL will come with four ink cartridges, four 500- milliliter bottles of ink and a sample roll of photo-glossy paper. Xerox ColorgrafX Systems Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Xerox Corp., of San Jose, Calif., can be reached at (800) 247-4412 or (408) 225-2800; (408) 229-3617; http/www.xerox.com. 0 EtherWave® PowerBook PC Card Award winning daisy-chainable 10Base-T with dual RJ-45 connectors allows you to connect to the network even if the only 10Base-T connection is already in use. (I, 3995 PN361 $69 EtherMac™ PowerBook PC Card Get basic 10Base-T or combo with thinnet (PN595-C) for an easy Ethernet connection for PowerBooks with PC Card slots. a Inoustrv: AirDock™ Now your infrared-equipped PowerBook can connect to any Mac or the network over thin air at 230kbps—without cables! a PN5O2a $39 EtherMac™ Transceiver PN550C-ADB $229 These small, low-cost transceivers offer Ethernet-equipped PowerBooks easy EtherWave® PowerBook Adapter 10Base-T or thinnet network connections. a EtherMac™ PowerBook Adapter Use the DIN-S8 serial port to connect PowerBooks without on-board Ethernet FtherWave® Transceiver jo 10Base-T-or ‘Thin: Bthernet..ga Choose daisy-chainable EtherWave for the most ‘ " flexible way to connect Ethernet-equipped ea PowerBooks to a 10Base-T Ethernet network. (A, a New PowerBooks with PC Card slot B PowerBook 500 series Wether you've got a brand-new PowerBook (5300 or 190) or an older one, there’s a Farallon solution for you. For new PowerBooks with PC Card (PCMCIA) slots, PowerBooks with Ethernet installed, or even older PowerBooks without Ethernet, Farallon has the right connection that will put you on the network today, All Farallon PowerBook products come with top-rated technical support and a lifetime warranty to guarantee you reliable performance. So when you need any type of connection for your PowerBook, Farallon has an ffordable plug-and-pl: lution f¢ . 7 _ ae Call now for your free consultation on the best way to hook your book. = 4 Ask for your free copy of Farallon’s Network Selector Slide Rule! &; Sa x runing NM 1-800-949-7761 LIFETIME Nacos M's’ F : Farallon Internet ID infoarallon omy All trademark ar the property oftheir respective ‘owners, © Copyright 1995 Farallon Computing, Inc. Ether Wave® technology is covered by US Patent ‘No. 5424708, Other US and international patents are pending http://www.faralion.com/www/pbad.html PAGE 18 03.25.96 MACWEEK CalComp tones up EcoGrafix plotter By Matthew Rothenberg CalComp Inc. this month boosted the per- formance and cut the price of its EcoGrafix large-format, dry-film plotter. The company also announced a 600-dpi member of its ScanPlus III line of large-format scanners. The EcoGrafix II is shipping now for You didn’t think a 4-up imagesetter $31,995, compared with $39,995 for the orig- inal EcoGrafix system. The new model’s mechanical media throughput rates are dou- ble those of its predecessor, and print speeds are 60 percent faster, CalComp said. Like the original version, the EcoGrafix II's direct-to- film technology lets users generate color sep- arations without chemicals or manual strip- ping of smaller images Anexternal Adobe PostScript Level 2 in- terpreter, w ith a 33-MHz Intel i960cf RISC chip and 65 Type 1 fonts, drives the EcoGrafix II. The previous version of the plotter used CalComp’s Print Bridge RIP, easier. After all, you're a printer. But this one has a format to give you output that’s compatible h your presses. This one produces film and short-run plates that are perfectly sized and ready to us This one is so fast and so accurate, it never holds up a press run. And this one helps you turn all of that expensive high-tech equipment you is for printers bought into 1 think, Introducing the The first 4-up imagesetter made expressly for printers. Format perfectly matches 29" presses. 30,000 RPM spin motor produces more flats per hour. IntelliTrack™ optics transport system delivers stability and precision, Repeatability over 8 consecu- tive separations. DualSupply™ cassettes make two media options available at | all times. Touch screen panel with intuitive icons for ease of use. Internal bridge integrates imagesetter and on-line processor. OptiSpot™ adjusts spot size to any resolution. OptiFocus™ compensates for varying media thick: nesses. Built-in database captures system information for maintenance scheduling, integrates easily into any production environment. AGFA The complete picture CalComp's EcoGrafix II plotter uses EcoFilm, a proprietary heat-sensitive medium that re- quires no processing chemicals. which ran a third-party Level 1 interpreter ona 25-MHz AMD RISC CPU. The new RIP includes multiprotocol Ethernet, Local- Talk, RS-232 serial and Centronics parallel ports. It ships with 16 Mbytes of RAM, which can be expanded to 128 Mbytes, and a 270-Mbyte hard disk. Users can buy the plotter without the RIP for $26,995 The EcoGrafix II uses a proprietary thermal engine to output 400-by-800-dpi images measuring up to 35.13 inches by 20 feet. The device accommodates 36-inch- wide film, paper or vellum and can print 0.4 inches per second to film and 0.5 inches per second to paper. A 200-foot roll of dry film costs $1,250, CalComp said. This month CalComp also tweaked its Solus 4 plotters. The D- and E-size mod- els, priced at $22,995 and $34,995, now print 26-foot-long continuous plots; earlier versions could handle only 8-foot-long continuous segments or 20-foot-long tiled plots. CalComp is also selling 2- or 4-Gbyte hard drives for the plotters, up from the 540-Mbyte option available previously. The Solus 4 devices are based on 400-by- 400-dpi LED engines. Each accommo- dates two media rolls in drawers; users can print to film or plain pape ship with parallel and serial ports and can be upgraded to Ethernet. They come with 16 Mbytes of RAM; the D- and E-size ver- sions ship standard with 365- and 420- Mbyte hard drives, respectively. In CalComp scanner news, the company rolled out the ScanPlus II 600, a new 600- dpi model that replaces the 500-dpi Scan- Plus HI 500. The $12,595, the same as the 500. Like the 300-, 800- and 1,000-dpi Scan- Plus III scanners, the 600 captures in a sin- new scanner costs gle pass cight-bit gray-scale or mono- chrome images measuring up to 36 inches wide. The SCSI device can scan an E-size CAD drawing t 300 dpi in about 37 se onds, CalComp said. Software included with the scanner cor- rects skewing and speckling in images The device also implements CalComp's Compressed Raster Format, so users can output scans directly toa CalComp plotter. The ScanPlus III 600 supports TIFF 5.0, PCX and several other file formats. CalComp Inc. of Anaheim, Calif., can be reached at (714) 821-2000 or (800) 932 1212; fax (714) 821-2832 . The plotters PowerDomain 2940W Accelerate your PCI Bus with SCSI. The Apple® Power Macintosh” is fast. And, the new PCI bus makes it even faster. But without Adaptec? PCI-to-SCSI accelera- tion, it may never reach full throttle. Introducing the hot new Adaptec PowerDomain™ 2940W SCSI accelerat It'll make you feel like you turned a crop duster into a super-sonic jet. It’s the fastest PCI-to-SCSI card available. Watch your “files fly at top speed Hiow TO MAKE POWER MACINTOSH Aa FILES FLY. ig — up to 40 MB per second. Plus, it's also designed for Ultra peripherals today. 4 But, that’s the performance people 4 bi MH HHA expect from Adaptec. For over a decade, . r we've made SCSI the performance 1/0 of after helping to develop the PCI standard, we've shipped over 1.2 million PCI-to-SCSI boards — more than all of our competitors combined So the next time you’re finger tapping while you wait to capture a digital file, call 1-800-804-8886 7636 Il tell you how your Power Macintosh can really take off. Gladaptec V/O. NOW MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER. in here revelations happen r AAMESHN2Z2QR WOM MZ2—AKAOCOTrF MAY coK< You are on Your Power Mac” You open Microsoft® Excel 5.0a. You begin With a hunch. You begin At zero. You want to slice And dice your numbers. You build a PivotTable® To see them You open a worksheet. You type “Jan” You use AutoFill From any perspective And the rest of the months You want. Are filled in for you. You see Automatically. Patterns form. You come You enter numbers. To understand. You click AutoFilter And the data you want to see You get it. Rises to the top So you can focus on What you need to focus on. Microsoft WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO TODAY?” ee Gareways NOT THIS YEAR, BILL “Netscape and Sun will lead Microsoft in the Internet standards battle through 1997.” — Gartner Group Inc. PAGE 22 03.25.96 MACWEEK Networking © Operating Systems * Databases It combines hub, router, fire wall By Joanna Pearlstein Trancell Systems Inc. in May will release the Neapolitan ice cream of network devices. Priced from $695, WebRamp will combine an Ethernet hub, router, ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) terminal adapter and TCP/IP fire wall. With one WebRamp, a small office can link machines to a network, route net- -| work traffic and connect to the outside world with ISDN. The included ISDN terminal adapter will be a dual-channel de- vice that can transmit data at speeds up to 128 Kbps; it will sup- port MultiLink PPP for channel aggregation. With WebRamp’s fire wall, users will be able to re- strict the type of packets that can be transmitted as well as the In- By Kristin Balleisen Less than a year after purchasing the product, McAfee Associates Inc. announced last week that it would cease development of Saber LAN Workstation for the Mac. McAfee said the network ad- ministration tool, previously sold under the GraceLAN name, will end its life without supporting Open Transport or the PCI bus. The company cited the above shortcomings and anemic sales WebRamp puts Macs in ISDN, net fast lane ternet Protocol addresses that can be contacted. “T’m pretty impressed with [WebRamp],” said Michael Heylin, senior associate at Creative Strategies Consulting in San Francisco. “What I really like about it is that it’s a low-cost ISDN router to start with, and when it’s coupled with Trancell's WebRamp provides Ethernet NEWS ANALYSIS Microsoft pushes OLE for Internet By James Staten Microsoft Corp. last week changed the name of OLE Controls to ActiveX Controls and recast the technology as an architecture for delivering multimedia over the Internet. Yet the move could push the object technology further out of reach for Macintosh users. The Redmond, Wash., com- pany said it plans to implement ActiveX initially in Version 3.0 of ActiveX Controls require OLE 2.0, which is not implemented on the Macintosh. At the conference, Microsoft said it would enlist Macromedia Inc.'s help to bring ActiveX to Apple’s platform, but analysts said they doubted whether Microsoft would follow through on this promise. Norm Meyerowitz, vice presi- dent of R&D at Macromedia, said the San Francisco-based multi- the Ethernet hub, it’s re- ally attractive.” WebRamp will route only IP and IPX traffic; an IPX-to-IP gateway will convert outbound IPX traffic to IP format. An eight-port IP version of WebRamp will be priced at $695; an eight-port IPX model will cost $995. Additional WebRamp con- figurations will be available, in- cluding a four-port unit, models with ports for connecting to exist- ing hubs and a version with PC Card slots for credit card-size GraceLAN has left the building | 1994 Saber LAN’s death rattle for its decision to phase out the product. According to Saber LAN Product Manager Tracey Mustacchio, just over 1,000 copies of Version 2.0, which shipped in July 1995, have been sold. “Tt really comes down to rev- enue,” Mustacchio said. “We can’t justify the expense of con- tinuing with the product line.” Customer requests for consoles on the Windows 95 and NT plat- See Saber LAN, Page 25 | networking and ISDN Internet connections. modems. A version with two ana- log POTS (plain old telephone ser- vice) will also be available. Pricing for these models was not available. A graphical configuration appli- cation used to set up ISDN and In- ternet parameters will be included with WebRamp along with a site license for Netscape Navigator. Trancell Systems Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., can be reached at (408) 988-5353; fax (408) 988- 6363; webramp@trancell.com. 0 AppWare no longer homeless By Clifford Colby AppWare, the well-traveled cross- platform application-development system, has found a new home at start-up Network Multimedia Inc. Ed Firmage, former director of marketing for Novell Inc.’s App- Ware Group, is the new com- pany’s president. He said Net- work Multimedia will continue AppWare’s focus on network- application development. Last week the company un- veiled a suite of ALMs (App- Ware Loadable Modules) for Novell NetWare. Due this spring, the components will provide developers with a variety of services, including log-in authentication and client-server See AppWare, Page 25 its Internet Explorer Web browser; the two were unveiled together at the Microsoft Profes- sional Developers Conference in San Francisco this month. media company would not per- form any development work for Microsoft. Macromedia will serve simply as an adviser, and its focus See ActiveX, Page 25 | Verity offers smart searching By James Staten Intranet administrators will soon be able to provide users with intelligent Due this month for $9,995, topicCD-Web Publisher 1.2 is an indexing en- gine and client-based search tool that lets users perform complex searches through a Web browser. The program supports the usual English and Boolean operators as well as Verity's own search language. The Verity syn- tax lets users search for synonyms, homonyms and conjugations of a search term. Users can also look for specific phrases, sentences and paragraphs; the occurrence of two words found in proximity to each other; and terms only in particular parts of a document, such as HTML headers. Version 1.2 will index HTML and text documents stored on a CD-ROM or a local server that is accessible via file sharing. The client tool, a helper ap- plication, works with Spyglass Inc.'s Enhanced Mosaic 2.11 Web browser. An update, due in May, will add support for Microsoft Word, Adobe FrameMaker and Portable Document Format documents. It will also let users access Internet servers with indexes created by Verity's $7,995 Topic Internet Search engine. Anew version of the client, also due in May, will support Netscape Navi- gator and Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer. Verity Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., can be reached at (415) 960-7600 or (800) 935-6246; fax (415) 960-7698; http:/www.verity.com. topicCD-Web Publisher lets Web clients search HTML and CD-ROM libraries using operators such as proximity and Boolean. search tools, thanks to a Mac version of Verity Inc.'s topicCD-Web Publisher. There are two ways to upgrade to Fast Ethernet. Only BlueStreak IS ; seamiegess. a BLUESTREAK™ 10/100 FAST ETHERNET CARDS, HUBS & BRIDGES =e ireak hes ar stuff ona eee the more anda ae ae Card. All support NWay,™ finicky it gets. So when you're automatically switching between 10 and 100Mbps. upgrading to Fast Ethernet, if you don’t go We also offer a 10/100 Bridge that makes with a seamless solution, you might as well connecting workgroups simple, a 100/100 strap on the old tool belt right now. Bridge to extend your network, and a That’s why BlueStreak™ Fast Ethernet 12-port Hub. And all BluteStreak products are so great. Our 10/100 Cards products come with lifetime warranties. and Bridges support both 10 and 100Mbps Plumb your network seamlessly with BlueStreak Cards, Bridges and Hubs. Call and clean, the way Dayna stuff should. today for a free copy of our Fast Ethernet Solution The BlueStreak Family includes a 10/100Mbps PCI Guide, and get your data networks, so they make upgrading simple Card that’s compatible with the new PCI Macs,an LC Card, _ flowing like never before. CA 1.800.531.0600 TODAY FOR COMPLETE SPECS ©1996 Dayna Communications. BlueStreak is nark of Dayna. All other product names are the property of their respective holders. Gateways NETWORK TRAFFIC Carnation takes on emulation By Joanna Pearlstein Rounding out its line of communications tools, Carnation Software Inc. released Mac- Wise, a $95 terminal emulation and data > Sonic supports Open Transport ¢ can connect to ma- thernet, AppleTalk P/IP as well as other Macintosh Com- chines over and > Dayna to add two munications Toolbox-compatible tools. BlueStreaks F transfer program. sessions simulta- The product emulate: point, Wyse 50 and 60, V You're a By supporting multip! w- neously, MacWise can either connect to sev- 100 and Prism eral different hosts at the same time or run tor. You're a visionary. You're a penny-pinching tightwad. Sonic Systems Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., updated its family of software bridges to support Open Transport. The software runs on a Mac, allowing it to act asa bridge between connected 10- and 100-Mbps Ethernet and LocalTalk Dayna Communications ¢ City said it plans to add two bridges to its BlueStreak family of Fast Ethernet products this week. The first is a two-port device that bridges 10- and 100-Mbps Ethernet networks; the second is a 100BASE T bridge with ports for joining two 100-Mbps Ett net segments. The dual-speed brid: has a street price of $950, and the 100- Mbps device costs $1,250. ... Alantec Corp. said it will ship four modules for | its PowerHub 6000 and 7000 switching chassis this spring. The Fast Ethernet modules will come with six to 24 100- Mbps connections and start at $5,950. Alantec is based in San Jose, Calif. Hewlett-Packard Co. of Palo Alto, | Calif,, said it plans to continue its steady release of 1OOVG-AnyLAN de- vices in May when it ships two new switche . Its $3,399 AdvanceStack It’s QuickTime? It directly # Switch 200 will come with 16 lOBASE T controls Adobe Premiere? ports and two 100VG ports, while the It's broadcast quality? It's under 5,000 bucks? Yes, yes, yes, and yes. It's Media 100 qx. The $5,499 AdvanceStack Switch 2000 six-slot chassis will accept four-port 10BASET nodules and two-port 100VG modules. HP said it will offer next astounding machine 10 more 100VG devices this summer, from Media 100° It's designed for all you creative including hubs and transceivers as well types out there who want to use QuickTime and as modules for bridging 100VG and Adobe Premiere to turn out some truly outstanding | Ethernet networks video that’s ready to broadcast to the world. The Digital Equip- ment Corp. of Maynard, Mass., is now price is right, the machine is right. Now, stop read- ing this ad and go to the phone. Call now, today, this second, immediately. 1-800-832-8188. shipping a nine-slot version of its DEC- switch 400. Users can add Asynchro- nous Transfer Mode and Ethernet mod- ules to the $6,850 switch, which joins the | slot model. [ company’s fi 03.25.96 MACWEEK concurrent multiple sessions with one host Carnation said that in all its emulation modes, users can select menu items with a mouse, design connection scripts and copy on-screen text into the Mac Clipboard as an object or as editable text. It includ list and can dial numbers autor phone atically. Carnation Software Inc. of Carnation, hed at (206) 333-4288; fax richlove@netcom.com; http: h., can be 206) 333-4902; //www.carnation-software.com/~carn. Media 100 qx. for under $5,000 1-800-832-8188 tK 03.25.96 AppWare capabilities for NetWare networks. From Pag Firmage said the company is adding sev- eral new capabilities to the visual program- ming environment, including Internet and Newton development tools. Network Multimedia ase a suite of Internet components for AppWare this spring that will provide developers with TCP/IP, security and intends to re Gateways database-access capabilities over the Web. By the end of summer, the Macintosh version will gain Open Doc capabilities and be able to create OpenDoc parts, Firmage said. Further down the road, AppWare will become a container. Firmage said the Windows Microsoft Corp.’s OL! A Power Mac version of AppWare is ex version will use pected soon. I'm ple twork Multi- ed to see media] can now plan around their own strategy instead of Novell's,” said Eric Weidl, vice president of Digital Prairie Inc., a software developer in Naperville, II, and president of the AppWare Devel- opers Association. “They can make the product what it has had the potential to be all these years.” Network Multimedia Inc. of Salt Lake City is at (801) 261-8232; fax (801) 261-9668; support@networkmultimedia.com. 5 Come see us at NAB, booth #9772 South Hall, Las Vegas, April 15-18 WHAT DID YOW hAW IE N MI ActiveX will be to make sure ActiveX interoperates From Page with Xtras, Macromedia’s new plug-in ar- chitecture for Director, and other prod- ucts, Meyerowitz said. Like OpenDoc parts or Netscape Naviga- tor plug-ins, ActiveX Controls will add functions to compatible applications. When used in a browser, ActiveX Controls will be automatically downloaded over the Internet when needed, much like Java applets. In a recent report on Microsoft's Inter- net strategy, Gartner Group Inc. of Stam- ford, Conn., said the company is using ActiveX to leverage its strength in operat- | ing systems and productivity applications to make OLE an infrastructure layer for the Internet. However, the study predicted that ActiveX and the other Microsoft In- ternet technologies would not mak major impact on the market until 1998. “ActiveX is old wine in a new bottle,” said Mike West, vice president of applica tion development and management strate- | gies at Gartner Group. West said he be- lieves the technologies will be used initially on internal networks at companies that are heavy users of Microsoft’s current products. West added that he doubts Microsoft’s commitment to cross-platform solutions. “My feeling is that they don’t really want to bring their technologies to the Mac or Unix,” he said. “They don’t want people using these other platforms.” ActiveX could pose a challenge to Open- Doc, which is preparing to enter the Win- dows market. But Component Integration Labs Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif, and other pundits aren't worried. Component Glue, due this summer on the Mac, will allow OpenDoc to interoperate with ActiveX Coni ActiveX will work with Microsoft's Common Object Model. ‘ols since However, according to published re- ports, Microsoft may implement Mac intosh ActiveX in a runtime model for Web objects only, rather than as a sys- temwide OS extension. Microsoft was un- available for comment on its Mac imple- mentation plans. Saber LAN forms have far outpaced those for the Mac, the company said. From Page “We want to support the Mac on the client side,” Mustacchio said. “We just haven't seen an of network ad- ministrators administering from a Mac.” Originally known to Mac users as GraceLAN network-management soft- ware from Austin, Texas-based Technol- ogy Works Inc., the product was sold to Saber Software Corp. in 1994; Saber was McAfee last summer. McAfee will offer current customers refunds or product swaps to the company’s bundance acquired b other Mac utilities on a case-by-case basis; it will provide technical support for Saber LAN 2.0 for the Mac until April 199 McAfee Associates Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., can be reached at (408) 988-3832; (408) 970-9727; fax. |- 303: hetpy//www.meafe K Editor in Chief Mark Hall Editor Rick LePage Managing Editor Brenda Benner Art Director Eleanor Leishman Director/Editorial Programs Anita Malnig NEWS Executive Editor Stephen Howard News Editor David plorgenstern Senior Associate Editor/GA Matthew Rothenberg Associate Editor/Gateways James Staten Senior Writers Clifford Colby, Joanna Pearlstein, Kelly Ryer Staff Writer Kristin Balleisen REVIEWS AND FEATURES Executive Editor Carolyn Said Senior Editor/Features Catherine LaCroix Senior Editor/Reviews Missy Roback Associate Editor/Reviews Jeff Green Editor at Large Dale Coleman Editor Emeritus Henry Norr Assistant Editor Monica Campbell Contributing Editors Don Crabb, Ric Ford, Bruce Fraser, Connie Guglielmo, Steve Hannaford, Jonathan Oski MACWEEK ONLINE Senior Editor, ZD Net/Mac Mark Simmons Associate Editor, ZD Net/Mac Sasha Pave COPY DESK Assistant Managing Editor Mariann Hansen Copy Chief Marty Cortinas Senior Copy Editor Patricia Orsini Copy Editor Rebecca Gulick ART AND DESIGN £ Associate Art Director Margaret Lee Graphic Designer John Farnsworth I Graphics Associate Gevin Shaw PRODUCTION Production Manager Steve Spingola Production Coordinator Jose Urrutia Pre-press Manager Tim Manousos Assistant Pre:press Manager Tamara Gargus Pre-press Technician Michele Kellogg Group Publisher John Blake Group Business Director Bret A. Violette Group Business Manager Mary E. Colbert Group Marketing Director Laurel Clark Skillman Marketing Manager Renee Bula Marketing Coordinator Stephanie Arnold Director, Controlled Circulation Justin Williams Assistant Circulation Manager Lorraine O'Shea Circulation Assistant Josephine Chang Assistant to Group Publisher Beth Ina Advertising Coordinators Elizabeth McGinnis, Jennifer Sawyer Administrative Assistants Colleen Dasher, Gina Michelucci, Deborah Monaghan, Jennifer Weiss Editorial office: 301 Howard st,, 15th Floor, San Francisco, Calif. 94105. Phone (415) 243-3500; fax (415) 243-3651; macweek@macweek.com MacWEEK Online: http:/www.zdnet.com/~macweek! CompuServe: go zmcmacweek, eWorld: shortcut: macweek ‘Advertising office: 950 Tower Lane, Foster City, Cali. ‘94404. Phone (415) 378-5600; fax (415) 378-6903. Subscriptions: Customer Service Department, MacWEEK, ‘lo JCI, P.O. Box 10634, Riverton, N.J. 08076-0634. Phone (609) 786-8230, Permissions and Reprints: Request fr pemision to {uote from an artide should be directed to Chantal Tucker, Ziff-Davis Publishing Co., 1 Park Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016; fax (212) 503-5420. For price quotes on reprints, contact Ziff-Davis Reprints at (800) 825-4237, MacWEEK is an independent journal, not affiliated with ‘Apple Computer Inc. Apple and Macintosh are trademarks ‘of Apple Computer inc. Entire contents copyright 196 Zff- Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. Material in this publication may not be reproduced in any form without per- ), MacWEEK isa registered trademark of Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. VEBPA. OPINION PAGE 26 03.25.96 MACWEEK Keeping pace with the enterprise — y most estimates, the corporate computer market is soft. Regardless of platform, sales of hardware and software products to big business are not growing at the same rate as in the small-business and consumer arenas. In the Mac market, this has contributed to the demise of organiza- tions such as MaclIS, the corporate-oriented World- wide Publishing Consortium and the recently canceled Corporate Mac trade show in New York. Although not great news for Apple, it’s not as de- pressing at one might think. For years, the company has been trying to serve the enterprise, small-business and consumer markets. It’s done a pretty poor job of marketing to all three groups. By changing its focus, Apple can grab mind share and momentum from this market shift. There are subtle indications that Apple’s management understands this. Apple has moved away from going in the corporate front door as a “one size fits all,” blanket solution. In- stead, the company is now focusing on the vertical needs of departments and workgroups inside corpora- tions. By selling a solution instead of a platform, Apple achieves the same result it would get when selling to a special-market small business. In the process Apple continues to drive home the point that the Mac has advantages the Wintel platform still cannot match. In the crucial areas of publishing, multimedia and digital video, Apple still leads the way not only in price/performance, but in ease of use, instal- lation and integration. Third-party vendors also benefit from selling into these specialized high-growth segments. It not only gets them into the small-business markets they’re sell- ing into, but into more enterprises as well. Some of today’s changes inside Apple are the legacy of ex-Apple Vice President Dan Eilers, who, in his short tenure last year, passionately advocated a solu- tions approach to Apple’s marketing message. It’s good to see that, regardless of the current management, Apple is embracing the needs of the market today. 0 Net news, floppy floods and Web-browser battles This week, a March miscel- lany of issues old and new: First, the stale “Apple and the Internet” Web page I cited recently (see 03.11.96, Page 20) disappeared within minutes, it seems, after my column ap- peared on-line. Meanwhile, a new Apple page at http:// cybertech.apple.com now offers information about the com- pany’s Internet-related products and pro- jects. There’s not a lot there yet — certainly nothing even approximating a coherent statement of how Apple plans to respond to the challenges and opportunities the Internet presents — but it does look nice. Browser wars Component software is finally reaching the mainstream, and it’s the rise of the Web that’s propelling the process. For now the ac- tion is mainly in Netscape Navigator plug- ins, but Microsoft Corp. is making a strong case for its ActiveX technology. The latter appears to be not much more than a repackaging of the exist- ing OLE Controls format, but that’s a shrewd move on Mi- crosofi’s part, because develop- erscan leverage tools and exper- tise they already have. Allof this leaves Apple’s Cy- berdog playing pretty much by itself. It’s easy to understand why, and it doesn’t have much to do with the technical merits: Cyberdog is still in beta on a single platform, and OpenDoc, which it depends on, isn’t even part of the Mac OS yet. Meanwhile Netscape Communications Corp., which wasn’t even established until nearly a year after OpenDoc was announced, claims an installed base of almost 25 million for its browser — a figure that puts it ahead of both Windows 95 and Microsoft Office. One bright spot in the picture for Mac users: Cross-platform support is emerging as a major issue in the brewing battle of the browser behemoths. Microsoft's Internet Explorer for the Mac looks surprisingly good. If nothing else, it might help keep Netscape honest, Stemming the floppy flood With America Online software soon to be distributed with Windows 95 and many Mac models, I'm hoping AOL will stop deluging us all with unwanted floppies. Unfortu- nately, its success has apparently inspired competitors — notably CompuServe and EarthLink Network Inc. — to try the same marketing tactic. If you have ideas about how we can put the brakes on this wasteful and annoying practice, please write. I'll pass along the best suggestions in a future column. You're either on the bus ... Last week MacWEEK reported that Apple will adopt the Universal Serial Bus (USB). Take it from me — this is more than speculation. One bit of evidence (not the only one): One winner of a lunch-time raffle at last month's USB Implementers Forum was an Apple engineer. Maybe we'll end up with both USB and FireWire, in place of the ADB and Geo- Port. That’s what I recommended last year (sce 05.22.95, Page 28); it also happens to be what Bill Gates is pushing for Wintel. Henry Norr, editor emeritus of MacWEEK, welcomes feedback in the MacWEEK forums on CompuServe or eWorld or at henry_norr@ macweek.com. MACWEEK 03.25.96 PAGE 27 Navigator's blind spot Your editorial regarding Apple's need to lend, if necessary, the critical engineering resources to expedite the development of Mac-based Netscape Navigator plug-ins was on the mark (03.11.96, Page 20), but perhaps a more telling commentary de- serves to be made about Jim Clark’s com- ments regarding it being a matter of eco- nomics to have to put the market leader first. While on paper this represents sound logic, for Netscape Communications Corp. this mentality represents an Achilles’ heel that Microsoft Corp. is already moving to exploit (via its Explorer browser). Arguably, the greatest promise of the Web revolution is the promise of true platform in- dependence. If delivered, this paradigm would wrest away much of the competitive advantage held by Microsoft’s dominance in the Windows arena and render a level play- ing field for application developers. In the near term, plug-ins are going to proliferate more quickly than Java applica- tions, meaning that during the next six months or so the Web will tilt toward the Windows axis, which couldn’t be better news for Microsoft. Do you think it’s a coin- cidence that, unlike Microsoft’s Mac desktop applications, which have typically felt like crude ports of the Windows versions, the Explorer browser looks, feels and acts like a Mac application and maintains most of the functionality of the Windows version? Microsoft has discovered Netscape’s re- ligion and is readying to co-opt it, once again leveraging its installed base. The browser battles have just begun: Microsoft has an ace up its sleeve in a new API known as Sweeper, and Netscape is play- ing right into its hands. Wake up, Jim Clark! Mark S. Sigal Regional sales manager Tribe Computer Works Inc. Alameda, Calif, Why pay for bugs? I disagree with your editorial (02.26.96, Page 22). I think real releases such as System 7,75 and Copland are reasonable to charge for. Maintenance releases, however, can cost Apple more than $20 or $30 per user if they aren’t widely adopted. As you say, most Mac-based businesses will pay. How- ever, most businesses that are phasing out Macs (or use them little, like my company) as well as most home users won't pay. The end result? The people who are the most essential for Apple to impress with the reliability and features of the Mac won't get the updates, and their systems will remain old and buggy. Let TERS What about the new features in releases such as 7.5.3? These should also go out to customers free. It’s hard enough to ask de- velopers to write for these new technolo- gies already, but if the majority of users don’t adopt new updates because of their costs, then these technologies will be still- born because far fewer programs will be written for them. ‘The experience of 7.5.2 was bad enough: a significantly different version of Apple’s OS that ran only on some Macs. Now 7.5.3 promises to bring us all back on the same level, if the updates are free. Sam Agnew, customer support Epson UK Ltd. Hertfordshire, England Forgetting the basics T agree with Don Crabb’s column “We've seen the problem at Apple, and it is us” (03.04.96, Page 19). I am frustrated with what the news media writes about Apple’s management and frustrated how Apple’s management has managed. The “over- analyzed, overcriticized and overblown” scrutiny by everyone does not allow a com- pany to correct itself. People who criticize seem to think Apple is still two guys in a garage designing a new computer system and think they can tell Apple how to run the company. The majority of users on our campus use Intel-standard machines, but they require constant help because the machines won’t work (the OS is corrupted, video or sound cards have conflicts, people change things and fail to take responsibility for their ac- tions). I don’t see nearly as many problem calls for Macs as I do for Intel-based ma- chines. In fact, Iam involved with a project to teach multimedia to faculty. Nine of them use Intel machines and five have Macs. Half of the Intel machines have problems. It’s an endless nightmare. People buy Macs because they work. They don’t need constant tinkering. They | don’t have constant conflicts. You can plug any SCSI device into them and they work. People have forgotten the basics, and Apple’s marketing people have forgotten the basics. John Fox Radford University Radford, Va. How to contact MacWEEK Send letters to MacWEEK, 301 Howard St., 15th Floor, San Francisco, Calif, 94105; fax (415) 243- 3651. We can be contacted on-line: CompuServe, 76077,1351; eworld, MacW1 ; MCI, 323- 1203; Internet, letters@macweek.com. Include your name, address and phone number. We re- serve the right to edit for clarity and length. THE MAC MANAGER DON CRABB Mac platform becoming the also-ran for vendors Apple’s biggest problem is the timely avail- ability of Mac OS software, and the prob- lem isn’t getting