MacAddict 049 200009

Adobe’s Illustrator 9 and LiveMotion Reviewed MacAilcict SEPTEMBER 2000 | no.49 17-Point Maintenance Plan Keep Your Mac Hearty, Healthy, me pe f : Systems Unite! Make Your Mac Work with : a PeeCee \ =. Is Mac Gaming kb Deal? Consoles Take Over The New Psycholday. of Mac Atlvocacy It's Not Just Windows Bashing Anymore +99 U $7 99 CANAD: i | I O'01096'"s slo Office: mac 2001 (© 2000 Microsoft Corporation. llrightsreserved. Keerosot is registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or ether counties. Apple, Mac, and Macintosh are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, nc. f Rita | need to communicate. With my office, my boss, my customers. My kids. | need words, microsoft.com/mac numbers and pictures to speak their language. And a way to use them that’s fast and fun. Microsoft Office 2001. All the essentials. Made easy. Made for my Mac. BJC-8200 Printer Peripheral MultiPASS C545 Multifunction Printer Take a quick look around. You'll find a Mac compatible Canon peripheral for just about any purpose you can imagine. From high- résolution printers and scanners to the world’s besi-selling portable printer, we’ve got what it takes to keep Mac users smiling. And with CanoScan 630Ui Scanner High-Performance Desktop Printers Award-Winning Porta Choices abound, Now Mac users can pick from an Need a traveling companion for your iBook™ or PowerBook® G3? extensive selection of Canon Color Bubble Jet™ Printers. All Our 3.1 pound” BJC-85 Color Bubble Jet Printer was pronounced with photo-quality imaging and razor-sharp black text. “Best of Show” at the Macworld 2000 San Francisco Expo. "5 pound wth AC adepte and optional battery pack. ©2000 Caron Compute Stems Inc anon 1, Bubble et, Caron Krow Hon, CaneScan, MUiPASS and VAROS are‘vadetrts of Canon ht Ma ad the Ma og at trademarks BsC-6000 Printer #: Vi i IS I 0 n BJC-3000 Printer more than sixty years of imaging expertise built into every single detail, the term “state- of-the-art” is somewhat of an understatement. CanoScan 1200S Scanner Come and see for yourself. Visit us on the " Internet at www.ccsi.canon.com/macfriendly, or call 1-800-OK-CANON for more information. Canon knownow" BJC-85 Printer ne Advanced Flatbed Scanners Superior Multifunction Printers Our colorful CanoScan® FB 630Ui Scanner was designed with the Print, Fax. Copy. Scan. After introducing the world’s first iMac™ in mind. And for graphics professionals, there’s our CanoScan Mac-compatible multifunction printer, one good thing led to FB 1200S Scanner featuring groundbreaking VAROS™ technology. _ another: our new MultiPASS™ C545 Multifunction Printer. ple Computes ne, registred in tho US. an ler counties Al aur pose ae rand ames ave aden of thei respective omen. Speciation subjest to change witha! mete. Jn Canada call -800-263-121. Discover True Compatibility VIRTU RA AL PC delivers true compatibility by enabling you to run mul- tiple operating systems on your Mac. With Virtual PC, you can run Red Hat Linux, Windows 2000, 98, 95, or PC-DOS from a window on your Mac desktop. You will be more productive by enabling your Mac to run PC Programs, access PC networks, and share files with your PC-based co-workers or clients. Connectix Virtual PC is a software solution that’s like having a Pentium chip in your Mac. And, it’s available in 5 different versions. Whether you need to run Red Hat Linux, Windows 2000, 98, 95, or PC-DOS on your Mac, Virtual PC makes it easy to get started because the operating system is pre- installed. Bridge the compatibility gap between your Mac and most PCs by using Virtual PC from Connectix. To buy or for more information, go to www.connectix.com or call 1-800-395-1804 ab Connectix © Copyright Connectix Corporation. Connectix and Connectix Virtual PC are tredemarks of Connectix Corporation. All other trademarks are property of their respective holders. NO. 49 | SEPTEMBER 2000 VOLUME 5 | ISSUE 9 highlights how A better machine. A better magazine. to. | 28 The New Face of Mac Advocacy Back in the day, bashing Windows | was more fun than TP-ing the | neighbor's house on Halloween. But } Mac advocacy is changing. it’s no longer about survival; it’s about strengthening the platform. Here's what Apple, third-party developers, and you can do to further the Mac. BY DAVID REYNOLDS 36 Hold Your Nose! Integrating Macs and PCs | Okay, okay. We know the thought of hooking i up your Mac to a PC is as icky as having to touch a member of the opposite sex in first grade, but sooner or later it’s got to be done. We show you how to transfer files, set up a network, and all the rest. ' BY JOHN RIZZO WHO'S THE LEADER of the club that's made for you and me: M-A-C-LN-T-0-8-H. { 42 The 17-Point Mac Maintenance Plan | Is your Mae, like your car, long overdue for a service? If so, it's time to get on the plan. We lay | out a clear and easy-to-follow maintenance schedule sure to suit your personality. BY ALAN STAFFORD WE'VE BEEN WORKIN’ on the | G4, all the live-long day... 76 Use Quark's Freebies Get that QuarkXPress off your shelf or out of your shoebox, or pull from your dog’s mouth— there are a whole bun of free XTensions on it that can save you tim BY ELYSE CHAPMAN 82 Share a USB Printer Take that shiny new USB printer you just bought, and let your coworkers get their grubby little files all over it. Maybe they'll buy you a beer. BY DAVID REYNOLDS I'M 100 SEXY for a torso, too sexy for a torso... 86 Relocate with the Location Manager if there were ever an award for Least Used Control Strip Module, it'd have to go to the Manager (well, Keychain comes close). Here’s how to get it working for you. BY JAN SAMMIS cD it ich e. | Location REPRINTS HMM...WHAT’S the rest of his brain thinking about? Volume 5, Issue 9 For reprints, contact RMS at 717-399-1900. SUBSCRIPTION QUERIES Please phone customer service toll-fee at 888-771-6222, MacAddict (SSN 1088-548) is published monty by imagine Media, Inc., 150 North Fill Or, Brisbane, CA 94005, USA. Petiodical-ciass postage peid at Brisbane, CA, and at adclional mailing offices. Newsstand distibution is hancied by Curtis Crculation Co, Basic subscription rates: one year (12 issues ~ 12 CD-ROMs} U.S, $39.90, Canada $43.95, US. prepaid funds only. Canadian price includss postage and GST 128220888, IPM 0962392. Outside the US and Canad, price is $53.95, US, prepaid funds only, POSTMASTER: Send address changes to MacAddict, PO. Box 68251, Boudet, CO 809288251 Imagine Media, Inc. also publishos Maximum PC, Businass 2.0, Games Business, Next Generation, diatalFOTO, PC Gamer, and PSM Entire contents copy- right 2000, Imagine Mada, Inc.All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in partis prohibited. Imagine Media, inc. is not atfilated wih the companies or products covered in MacAdvct. Ride-Along, enclosed in the folowing ediiions: AS, 8, B1, B2, 69, PRODUCED .N THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. ‘SEP/OO | MacAdaict { 5 every month 10 Editor’s Note Everything | know | learned from playing Marathon. 14 Letters Okay, now you're scaring us. 18 Get Info ——. MS bought Bungie? That can’t be good. We also check out Canon's svelte new scanners, turn a folder into a Super Ball, and take a look at screen savers, LE versions, and the first wave of OS X shareware. 26 Scrapbook t's our fourth anniversary—happy birthday to us—and we take a nostalgic look back at our first cover. Yeah, OpenDoc rocks! 48 Reviews Adobe hopes you'll go freehand with Illustrator 9. It's a Web, Web world with LiveMotion and FreeWay 3. Shake it with GrooveMaker 2.0 and the Pontis SP504 MP3 player. HP clicks digital pics. Lara’s back, and so is Sid Meier. Plus, Cinema 4D, APS's FireWire CD-RW, and the ScanMaker 3600. That's Infotainment, too. 74 Powerplay Get behind the wheel and take your hopped-up muscle car out for a drive with MacSoft’s Driver. We'll give you the scoop behind this killer new game. Plus, we'll show you the best Millipede clone ever. 90 Ask Us Texan, father, and Mac-specialist Buz Zoller saves the world. Again. 120 Shut Down BUST OUT THE DROOL CUPS! I's wafer-thint TME PUBLISHER Peter Hirschfeld EDITOR IN CHIEF Robert Capps EDITORIAL EXECUTIVE EDITOR David Reynolds (technology) MANAGING EDITOR Jenifer Morgan SENIOR EDITOR Cathy Lu (features) ASSOCIATE EDITORS Narasu Rebbapregada (reviews), fan Sammis DIGITAL MEDIA EDITOR Kris Fong CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Raf Anzovin, Steven Anzovin, Joseph 0, Holmes, Buz Zoller ART ART DIRECTOR David Ross: ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Christopher S. Imlay CONTRIBUTING DESIGNER, Gevin Shaw CREATIVE DIRECTOR Wayne Allen MACADDICT.COM PRODUCER Niko Coucouvanis CONTENT EDITOR Rich Pizar PRODUCTION PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Richard Lesovoy PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Hans Hunt ADVERTISING ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Don Kimenker REGIONAL AD MANAGER Michelle Paredes SR. ACCOUNTS MANAGER, DIRECT SALES Ana Epstein DIRECTOR OF MARKETING Mary LaChapelle MARKETING MANAGER Balin Brandt AD-COORDINATOR Matt Wheeland BUSINESS MANAGER Doug Haynie CIRCULATION GROUP CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Kate Bailey NEWSSTAND DIRECTOR Erie Aleman NEWSSTAND SALES MANAGER Jonathan Verier ONLINE MARKETING MANAGER Mayumi Stroy FULFILLMENT MANAGER Peggy Mores DISTRIBUTION COORDINATOR Quyen Nguyen DIRECT MARKETING SPECIALIST Melissa Maske TEAM IMAGINE COMPUTING DIVISION Prosidort « Chor! ‘MacAddict, Maximum PC, Maximum Linx, MacAddct Network, Maximum PC Network, cigtalFOTO} IMAGINE ENTERTAINMENT DIVISION ‘Jonsthan “pe Gamer Pa. P PC Accelerator, Nex Generation, Games: pean Imagine Media nad rhe rer ioe eur pion whe grevet nova, we lve {have fur, and we havea castro rele Alvaye fo Guer spectacle! ue Tat means doing whatever hee to.de you ne infermatior you need. Wh any luck, wl even mals you erie ‘oatimes.- Tanke fo Jelnag ue passion for games. For ao are panstors we share: Su Iagasines, Web tee and O-ROMS | | Imagine Media Ine. is part of The Future Network plc. — Don't you hate pants? ITS ABIAD! It's a plane! It's a...Ford Fiesta? See ~ - seemelwyivie Welcome, Andrew—take off your coat and Jagermeister, Niko? Righteous telefrag! ren made of gino ron win sare edn, nay mation, 14 Web sites that offer auperD value for money, trustworthy | pears oreo Vt. Tia ame aiegy hex hated crete one meet ‘wor: we publiah more than 100 magazines, 20 mgazine Web sles, and a The ito eames tines n 0 coin ‘The Future Network Isa publlo company quoted on the London Stock Exchange (symbol FN Find and purchase products mentioned in MacAddict at SeeMeBuyMe. Visit http// www.seemebuyme,com and enter a product code, or call 888-220-1146. awhile. Goodbye Hi-fives. Media Beth London Mian Munich New York Pare San Franclsco (Chairman Chis Anderson Chief Executive Greg Ingham Tol +44 1225 442244 wun thefuturenetworkple.uk Passion 6| MacAddict, | ‘SEP/00 Suitcase 9 includes three free connections to Suitcase Server, so small workgroups can immediately coordinate their fonts. lat least you. can control your fonts. So many things are out of your control in this world... even your personal space. If you're feeling crushed by your surroundings, just practice this simple technique: Breathe in. Imagine a world where your fonts are organized. Where youre able to. quickly preview fonts, print out sample pages, and make sure your workgroup has access to the same fonts. A place where your system runs faster and crashes less. Breathe out. Still feeling pressured? Get new Suitcase 9, the font management solution from Extensis. It will take you to a peaceful valley of orderly fonts...in a world that’s out of control. Extensis Suitcase 9 800.796.9798 (© 2000 Creativepro.com,inc.All rights reserved. Extensis and the Extensis logo are trademarks of Creativepro.com. Inc. Suitcase isa trademark of Symantec Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. @ Doing Doubie-Duty as a Pizza Cutter... {t's The Disc! GLITTER AND GLITZ—great, all we need now is the Bee Gees. @ “2. 2 PS GSI III IPI IIR PLUGGING IN A SCHEME will make your folders, windows, and icons match up nice and pretty—better than Garanimals! BLUEBERRY, GRAPE, LIME, strawberry, tangerine...yeliow? What, no graphite? 8] MacAadict} ‘SEP/00 september’s cheesy highlights EditDV Unplugged 1.6.2 Full Version with Media Cleaner EZ And you were jealous of all those iMac DV owners who flaunted iMovie in your face. iMovie may be free now, but so is this movie-making package just for you. Edit digital video like a pro with this nonlinear video editor and throw ina few special effects to detract from any bad acting—hey, now why didn’t we think of that? You'll also get a diet version of Media Cleaner to slim down and clean up your movie files. If you enjoyed the demo version we brought io you a few months back, you'll really appreciate this fully functional special treat. Firefall 2.0 Inthis day and age, when retro continues to dominate all shiny new things, Firefall pops up as the latest entrant in reissues. Seven years ago, Pangea originally published this addictive, fast-paced arcade shooter in the same vein as Centipede. Now it has revamped it to run on current Macs. Defend your territory against the fiercely frantic Fireworms, who threaten to invade your mineral fields and have you for dinner. Blast the beasts with your firearms as they come charging—before they label you a Kentucky-fried chicken. Kaleidoscope 2.2.3 Much safer than an acid pee-—give your Mac a complete facelift with this master of a thousand disguises. Using plug-ins called Schemes, this application will visually overhaul just about every aspect of your desktop—windows, icons, dialog boxes, buttons, even the Trash. Plus, as an added treat, we've included over 100 schemes—created by some of the most talented scheme designers around—that you can try on for size. You'll find them individually packaged on The Disc this month. Buming Monkey Puzzle Lab 1.0 Looks like those guys at Freeverse have been monkeyin’ around again! This time they've cooked up a concoction of lab coat-parading simians ‘who taunt you in the name of science with their challenging brain game. This amusing and addictive Teiris-style game has you juggling groups of colorful globules that tend to split apart on impact. Just don’t let your container fill up, or they'll make a monkey out of you. MEET NEW ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Chris Imlay and watch him squirm as we subject him to a few off-kilter questions in our new-kid hazing. Find out why he prefers tarantulas to cockroaches as his delicacy du jour. J)" Knees Banging Your Chin? Bending your head over the handlebars and shouting out “Vroom, Vroom” won't move you any faster — or get you any closer to your dream job. Our clients value the time we spend getting to know you, your skills, and your goals, so that HireKnowledge associates are uniquely positioned ahead of the others as qualified, tested, guaranteed candidates. Whether you're looking for more challenging contract work — and more of it — or a permanent position that makes the most of your unique talents, we can get you there. Visit www. hireknowledge.com or call 800-937-3622. HireKnowledge. Putting Intelligence to Work. HireKnowledge’ Specialized Staffing Solutions Baltimore * Boston * Chicago ¢ Dallas * New York * Philadelphia * Providence * San Francisco * St. Louis * Washington, DC Tors nore Somewhere in the heavens... a game of Bungie's Marathon. This is, of course, untrue, but I have always felt that I owe my Mac-journalism career some- what to that hugely addictive game. Even though I had worked on Macs since my dad brought one home in the mid-eighties, eventually working up to wielding a Quadra as a graphic designer for my college magazine, I didn’t really fall in Jove with the machine until the early nineties, I became hooked when a friend took me to the Adobe campus and [) treated me to a quick network battle on the original Marathon Arena map across Adobe's substantial LAN. I was amazed. I had a PowerPC Performa 6116 and quickly learned everything I could about networking to ready my Mac for Marathon-multiplayer games. I delved into extensions, RAM requirements, cache settings, and system updates, trying to tune my Mac to get the best possible frame | once joked that I first got a job at MacAddict by beating all the other candidates at WHAT'S ROB GOT cookin’ in the kitchen?! Staff Rants David Reynolds Executive Top-Sites-on-the-Web Editor Q. What's your all-time favorite Mac game? A. My all-time favorite Mac game is either Marathon or WarCraft HL I lost hours upon hours playing each of those games. Marathon was the first computer game I ever played that actually d me out, When I first started playing, I kept the lights Q if we decided job titles with Marathon, what A. Assistant Chief Bob-Popper and Door Opener. rates across a LocalTalk network. If you're a fan of Bungie like me, you probably felt a little stunned over the announcement that Microsoft had purchased Bungie in late June. Microsoft has now slated Bungie as a game developer—possibly the premier one—for Microsoft's Xbox gaming console, Bungie hasn't yet announced that it plans to stop making games for the Mac, but I think it probably will. The Mac's market share, when it comes to games, is just too small, and Bungie's star is just too bright. When I talked with Bungie cofounder Jason Jones shortly afier the li’s time we Mac gamers face the reality: If game sales remain stagnant, we're not likely to see Mac gaming reinvigorated. Microsoft buyout announce- ment, I found that the Mac community was definitely weighing on his mind. Bungie got its start on the Mac, and Jason and his cohorts love the platform. But they also love to make great games, and their deal with Microsoft will put them at the forefront of gam- ing’s next big thing. Read our “Game Over?” story (Get Info, p18), and you'll see that the exciting Mac gaming future for which we've all heen hoping just isn’t on the horizon, Even the PC market is facing hard times. It’s ime we Mac gamers faced the reality. Companies such as MacSoft and Aspyr will surely continue to bring us a few goodies a year, but if game sales remain stagnant, we're not likely to see Mac gaming reinvigorated. If you want to play the latest, greatest games, buy a console. [ hope you can take some solace in the fact that at Jeast Bungie’s future is bright. I've talked with the gaming experts, who assure me that the Xbox is going to blow everything else away. Its technology is more sophisticated and its developer environment more enticing than that of the Dreamcast, Nintendo Dolphin, or Sony PlayStation2. Hfyou're like me, you're a Bungie fan as well as a Mac fan. When the Xbox hits store shelves, I'l be the first in line to buy one, along with my copy of Halo. JUST THINK OF THAT little warrior as Mac gaming...ouch! 10 peeale) { ‘SEP/0O Associate Art Director, Class Clown Q. What's your all-time favorite Mac game? A. Td have to say the Marathon series, Back when there was nothing else, it gave my work- mates and I hours of blissful fragging within those multiplayer levels, Those were good times, (Sigh.) Q. If we decided job titles with Marathon, what would your position be? A. You might be thinking, “Don’t get cocky,” like Han Solo or something, but I’d at least be the art director, te Art Director, Heretic Q. What's your all-time _faworite Mac game? A. That's easy. Doom, no doubt. ‘While the lesser beings lurking around here seem to think Marathon is the heir to the first-person—shooter throne, Doom was by far the hest game, as well as the biggest boost to the gaming industry since Pac-Man (or Dig Dug). Q. if we decided job titles with Marathon, what would your position be? A. Who cares? Already these henchmen of a lesser god are trying to steer me from the right path, Be gone, you hate-mongers! Be gone! David Ross ILLUSTRATION COURTESY OF BUNGIE SOFTWARE CORPORATION SOMETIMES BUSINESS IS ABOUT MOVING PRODUCT. SOMETIMES IT’S ABOUT MOVING THE CROWD. ouse district to Wall Street, more professionals trust Imation™ C Vhy? Probably because of Imation’s nearly 50-year history in managing and storing data, In fact, all of our prod are tested to exacting standards to withstand even the toughest environmental conditions. But then, our quality testing and customer service reputation have always been second to none. No matter what shape your busine s you can count on Imation as a devoted leader in breaking new ground in technol olutions. For more information, call 888. 294 or visit www.imation.co: roving CD-RW imaginative solutions. JENS: Gabba, gabba, gabba, hey! acaddct debate, WRITE TO US: MacAdaict, 150 North Hill Ds,, Brisbane, CA 94005, or email to letters@macaddict.com, FOR CD PROBLEMS: Go to http:// support. imaginemedia.com. FOR SUBSCRIPTION QUERIES: Call (toll-free) 888-771-6222. WOW, THAT'S EERIE Do you people just sit around all day push- ing buttons to see what happens and then play Unreal Tournament?—Joun Fisos MICROSOFT'S MARATHON IS PRETTY COOL What the heck is wrong with LucasAris?! Everybody else is making games for Mac, but all we've gotten from Lucas is a racing game. ( Recently Sightel—_@ e have a large design studio Were Mac clients, four AppleShare IP Servers, and one cinema display), full of illustrators, designers, art directors, programmers, content editors, and Web designers. | call this picture | _ HERE ARE ALL YOUR Gés for catching typos, 4 MaeAddict | ‘SEP/00 1AM your father. What's the deal? Why should Mac users have to drool while PC users can go around killing droids with lightsabers, and turning their friends into cyberslag in an X-wing? I mean, even the evil Microsoft is making games for Mac. How the heck did LucasArts get worse than the Evil Empire?—Arraur Sayre HEARING THAT MAKES IT ALL. WORTHWHILE MacAddict is an amazing publication. \ buy it every month and read it cover to cover. You all have a great sense of humor, a vast knowledge of what it takes to appease fellow Mac addicts, and good, unbiased reviews of the newest and most usable software and hardware, But the best thing about MacAddict is...pulling the adbesive off the back of the cardboard (you know, the sticky stuff that keeps The Disc glued to the magazine). That’s so much fun! —LETHBRIDGE ALBERTA YOU WANT BAD HACKER SLANG FOR CHRISTMAS? While ordering holiday wares online is a good idea and saves you time (“365 Days,” Jul/00, p30), who wants holiday wares? Holiday warez are what you meant to say, right? There's a gift I'd like for Christmas!——Joet. Cretan DOES AMAZON KNOW ABOUT THIS? Reading “365 Days,” I noticed that your first tip is to download Internet Explorer and trash Netscape forever, In your dreams! | like Explorer a lot, but there’s one thing it still needs to do before I'll trash Netscape: When I read a news- paper article, Netscape allows me to email the entire article and URL with one click. Explorer sends only the URL. —Eenio Lemo SOME THINGS ARE J SECRET ‘Thanks for the calendar. Nowhere in the maga- zine, however, could I find any tips or tricks related to the illustra- tions on pages 30 and 31. So in future issues, I'd really like to see articles on how to do the following: 1. Launch an iMac with fireworks. 2. Make a backpack out of an IMac shell. 3. Use input devices as batons for relay races. 4, Use an iMac as a Halloween decoration. 5. Cook up a Mac for Thanksgiving. 6. Use a laptop as a sled—and make the Apple Jogo out of snow. 7. Bench-press G4s, 8. Exchange love messages over networked iMacs. 9. Make cloverleafs out of iMacs. 10. Make Macs look like Easter eggs. 11. Dust out the inside of a minitower. 12. Find iBooks at the bottom of the ocean. —-Par McCarmay OUR BAD I think you owe all of us true Mac addicts an apology regarding your rather distasteful sug- gestion in the June issue (“365 Days,” p32). I refer, of course, to the suggestion that we spend a day (shudder) withont a Mac. What were you thinking?—Lewss Buruer WE KNEW Last Thursday I checked my handy Word-a-Day calendar and found that the word of the day was dross. Then, 1 remembered that in your staff videos, you gave your art director David Ross this name as a contraction of his first and last name. 1 don’t think David will be very pleased to know what this word means. dross \'dris\ n 1: The scum that forms on the surface of molten metal 2: Waste or foreign matter; impurity 3: Something that is base, trivial, or inferior My only question: Did you know you've been insulting your excellent art director all this time?—Marr Laquipara That explains a le ny ex-girlfriend gave me tha DR ILLUSTRATION BY DAVIN “SOD OFF ROSS. SWITCH HITTING 1 jast read the July article on the App Switcher (“How to Tap into App Switcher,” p84). 1 got excited because recently I found a secret in the App Switcher. Do you remember the ol’ “secret about box” pong game on Macs with Mac OS 7.5? Well, that secret (not the pong game) still exists in the Application Switcher. A couple of months ago T was looking at the Application Switcher through Resourcer when I found these words at the bottom of all the junk: secret about box. I went to Nowe ad and typed “secret about box.” Then I selected the words, dragged the selection to the Application Switcher, and boom! Up scroll the credits for Application Switcher!—Keyi Woyniak ONE WORD: TELEFRAG Allyou have in your magazine now is Unreal this and Unreal that. You give out all the good info for skins and everything else for Unreal. I know it's a good game, but I think Quake Ill: Arena is better. Please try to give out some good Quake Web sites and other info in the next few issues. —KEN ORISEK HOW THICK IS HER BEARD? Please, enough of the look-alike picture com- parisons from readers who don’t get out enough (Letters, Jul/00, p16). If 1 put a mus- tache on my grandmother's picture, they would swear it was Wozniak.—-Anpy ScHELZ, WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THE FLAG? In Unreal Tournament, wouldn't it be nice to | play Facing Worlds as a deathmatch? Well, i | figured out how to make any map that starts with CTE, AS, or DOM into a deathmatch. First make a copy of the map (say, ctf-Face), then change ctf to DM. That's it—now your | favorite CTF map is a deathmatch map. Happy fragging—Anpy ReeD WHAT'LL OUR FRIENDS THINK Its hard to believe you find it easier to manage a Mac via tabbed windows than with Launcher (“Using Tabbed Windows fo Build a Better Launcher,” Ju/00, p86). With | Launcher, you create an alias by simply drag- ging an item to a Launcher panel. The alias is listed alphabetically and acts as a button. | Once you have an alias in a panel, you can | just select the panel and click that icon to | open the alias. You almost never need to close the Launcher window, so it is always right at hand. The process is quicker than finding a tabbed window, opening it, and clicking the desired item. Moreover, cne must eventually send the window back to its tabbed position. —Lirry MansfiEtD ERE STILL NOT | SHOWING YOU OURS Here are the attached files for a real Apple tat- too I got in New York in July 1999 while attend- ing Macworld Expo. No, they weren’t tattooing people at the Expo—I got this at a body art parlor on Canal Street. —Dan BucHan am now among the truly | devout, as I recently got } my first tattoo—and it is the six-color logo on my ankle. I guess you % could cal] me pleasantly | 18 IT COOL to usa the Launcher? obsessed!—KarnERine | (aka BonpIBLuE2) FIREWIRE 1394 “of.6> 10 SCSI Sane CONVERSION HAVE YOU EVEN read Apple's Jogo usage guidelines? e= Converter The Orange Converter is a unigue device for Mac and PC users allowing SCSI peripherals to connect to FireWire 1394 ports. The Orange Converter easily attaches to any Macintosh FireWire port or any Windows based PC that has FireWire ports, and converts all SCSI data from your SCSI peripheral, both input and output. iMac owners with FireWire ports can now haye access to SCSI peripherals. Macintosh G3 and G4 owners who are "slot challenged" can use the Orange Converter to save a valuable PCI slot by removing any existing SCSI PCT host adapter card, and replacing the SCSI functionality with the Orange Converter, © Orange Micro, ne. 2000, For Zip, Scanners, Hard Drives, and other SCSI Devices. The Orange Converter is limited to a single SCSI device, however, most devices once connected to the Orange Converter can be het plugged to a FireWire port. The Fast SCSI data transfer rate is 10 Megabytes/second. This is up to 5 times faster than the existing USB to SCSI converters currently on the market. The Orange Converter comes standard with a 25 pin SCSI connector, a 6 foot FireWire cable and a power supply. Get an Orange Converter and connect al} your SCSI devices!! l[%"| Orange Micro” Mac | |rce dened 4 Inc. nents www.orangemicro.com erlers {fcc everywhere, 47 0M-1000) C1 === addicts everywhere, 7PM-1000 ic] Sal addicts everyviere, (47 PM- 1000-1 === addicts everywhere, 047M-1000,<No] EL] Sos addicts everywhere, 470M =10) (mara) Byte gC carargEa ™o= aa ® Wighest) # (iahest) * Wighest) * Wighest) The werld wilt * (High) idle com * igh) * (High) Ao * (High), Set een ~ «Normal) |) This isan } lv Normal) 3 ily (worman pet (ow) fen deat wth ~ (low) Jan la old (low) ~_ (low) (Lowest) 3 (lowest) ¥ dowest) || Ti i me Yh you set rune ise 3] ; Raise Raise sey [| ret eeriy. Raise 28] [| tossonntinowinn earcememer) | Meese * wer sf Lower sf Lower #1 tower _ Sf thie message. Lower _ 2] Pinephors used fodiplay PEOPLE DO IT TO US ALL THE TIME Hey yall, I was just browsing my computer with the help balloons turned on, and look what I found, Gasp! Can people lower my writings to this?—Benyanin WEAVER OLD-SCHOOL Rummaging through the closet the other day, I found an old Kensington IIGS System Saver. It matches my iMac nicely! The iMac is elevated to eye level andthe pow- - ered outlets on the back of the System Saver work great for those bulky USB peripheral power plugs. I disconnected the noisy fan on the System Saver years ago. Looking at the stack calls to mind Apple past and present—Srive Hurr ISN'T THAT a bit of an anachronism? AN OPEN LETTER TO BUNGIE Congratulations on Microsol have been at the forefront of gaming technology back in 1992. While the move to topple Sony®), yet again. On the fip side,.as ; and selfish reasons, about your acquisition by has released over the last nine ye ple amount of ingenuity, kept me staring at my Mac scree! \eading Mac-game developer Is e | won't find any more ingenuity i Apa secondhand PC ports. Ym writing to you to ask yol et when you move to resources to the XBox, you helped keep alive oi where love your games. 16! Mc ial SEP/00 “eed Se ft’s recent acquisition ‘of your company. You ‘since you started distributing games e to the Xbox is risky (will Microsoft have enough clout you will be in an excellent position to an avid Mac user, | am quite saddened, for personal Microsoft. Every single game Bungie ars has been groundbreaking, st sense of humor. These games have work, and a great ee ‘an | care to remember. Now that the ns for longer th sentially out of the in the games availabl rt from a few crafty shareware programmers, 1s kindly not to abandon the Mac gaming mar- Redmond. While | realize you wil it would be a terrible shar ily a few short years ago. We hope you don’t forget abo IS THAT MADE BY MICROSOFT OR AOL? When reading Get Info in the July issue, I couldn’t help but notice that while you men- tioned the new Netscape 6 preview as an alter- native to Internet Explorer with a weird inter- face (p26), you completely failed to mention the browser iCab (http://www.icab.de). iCab will show almost any Web page as accurately or more accurately than Netscape or Explorer, has built-in image filtering and a configurable con- textual menu, and allows you to selectively turn off several annoying tags, such as the blink tag. It also displays an indicator showing the quality of code on the Web pages you visit; you can click this for a full error report (very handy when you're trying to perfect a page). Also, iCab is Mac only, with no plans for a Windows version. It’s a 1MB download and has reached preview release 2.0, which is more sta- ble than the previous versions (and on my sys- tem, more stable than Netscape). It does have some downsides: It’s only a browser and doesn’t support email or news groups, and its developers haven't completed the CSS2 and Javascript support features. Still, add a copy of Eudora and MT-Newswatcher, and you're all set for the majority of your surfing. —Stanoant Sack ALKIRE ange the face of gaming showing an incredi- Mac gaming market, I'm afraid le for my platform of choice. Mac gaming will consist solely of 1 be devoting the bulk of your me if you abandoned the platform Millions of Mac enthusiasts every- ut us in the future, —Jean-Luc DINSDALE IF SHE HEARS THAT ONE MORE TIME... This is a message for Jenmo: How many times did people tell you how lovely and beautiful you are, especially when you...get mad? —Manio FROM GREECE HACKED HACK As I was creating an iDisk without Mac 0S 9, 1 hit a snag. When I tried to sign up at Apple’s Web site using the address given in your how-to article (“Create an iDisk... Without Mac 0S 9,” Jul/00, p90), I got blocked. A page came up that said I was not running Mac OS 9 (Why is it telling me? I know that already—I’m running 0S 8.1). The message told me I should upgrade. Has Apple blocked this whole workaround, oris there another trick I can use to create my own iDisk?—JonatHan Oxer Yep, Apple wised up and changed its Web site, breaking our clever little workaround. We found a newer, skank- ier hack that still appears to work, however: see bttp:/Avww.macaddict.com /magazine/plugin/06_06.btmt for details. Of course, Apple may block that one too by the time you read this—keep an eye on the MacAddict Web site for updates.—IS You Know Youre a Mac Addict When... .your Car breaks down and your first impulse is to turn the ignition while holding down the shift key. Your sec- ond impulse is to look for copies of ObjectSupportLib under the hood. —Joser V. KeLiy .YOU notice that the good guys in Mission Impossible 2 use Macs, the bad guys use PCs, and the Apple Studio Display Flat Pane) in the lab shootout scene never gets hit, —Jorin WIEDENHEFT your child says the last part of the alphabet like this: W, 10, Y, Z. —Puiuip KiRKHAM XANTE’s XANTE’s Accel-a-Writer 3N Accel-a-Writer 3G Starting at starting at °1695 °2795 er IniO Game Over? Get depressed reading the first two, cheer up on the back four. Personal Computer Gaming in Trouble—And You Were Worried about Not Getting Halo { Microsoft's purchase of Bungie in late June made you tremble with horror at the thought that Halo might not come to the Mac, you may have an even worse shock coming. Bungie's move to work on the Xbox— Microsoft's game console rivaling the PlaySta- tion2—s symbolic of a much bigger issue than just our platform’s probable loss of a great company’s support. As more vendors head for the greener pastures and stabler environments of consoles, the PC games market is starting to suffer seriously—calling into question the notion of gaming on any kind of computer. In the March issue of Next Generation magazine (owned by Imagine Media), Eidos president Rob Dyer predicted that the PC would be dead as a viable gaming platform within two years. The reasons Dyer cited for this dreary forecast were the tise of broadband-equipped consoles— such as the Xbox and the PlayStation2— and proportionally low game unit sales on computers as opposed to consoles, Industry watchers widely regard Dyer’s prediction as an overstatement, but the num- bers lend a lot of weight to his theory. Accord- ing to Eidos PR manager Greg Rizzer, a pop- ular PC game sells about 100,000 copies, whereas a successful PlayStation game moves more than 1 million copies. Best-sellers hit around 1 million on the PC and about’5 mil- ion on the PlayStation. (For comparison, one top title from a Mac publisher we contacted sold only around 20,000 copies.) PlayStation games also tend to tank less often than their computer brethren, partly because they have amuch longer shelf life. ANOTHER ONE bites the dust, Former Next Generation editor Chris Charla doesn’t agree with Dyer that the PC gaming industry will become extinct, but his vision of the future is not much cheerier. “Bverybody is going console. Everybody sees that as where the money is,” he says. cr What's an Xbox? Microsoft to Sell Custom PCs in Console Clothing ith Bungie apparently mesmerized by the Xbox, Microsoft's new console deserves a closer look. The Xbox’s hardware looks extremely familiar—it’s identical in many ways to a custom PC built for gaming from the ground up. The machine has an Intel Pentium III processor, a powerful NVIDIA 3D graphics processor, an 8GB hard drive, a 4X DVD drive, and 100-MBps Fast Ethernet. The Xbox also looks a lot like a PC from the software's point of view: Game developers can program it in a high-level language using the same Windows and DirectX APIs they already know from PC game development. If everything goes as planned, game developers will find the Xbox a dream come true when it launches next fall—a system that's as easy in terms of development as a PC, but that offers a con- sole’s consistent graphical power and vastly larger potential market, It's tough to fault Bungie for loving what the Xbox offers (although most of us have managed to lay blame quite nicely) —/S Xbox Features Pentium Ill processor (speed net yet announced) Custom 3D NVIDIA graphics processor 64MB of RAM Custom audio processor 868 hard drive 4X DVB crive (for movie playback) Four game controller ports Expansion port Proprietary A/V connector 100-Mps Ethernet eeeoeoaonveeoee0 18 | MacAdaict | SEP/00 Charla predicts that the PC game market will survive, but will become increasingly polar- ized, with developers concentrating only on mega-blockbusters and inexpensive family titles (sound familiar?). In addition to sheer numbers, some tech- nological issues are beginning to work in favor of consoles. Along with offering high- speed Internet options, the next generation of consoles is expected to catch up to the PC in terms of graphics and processing power. And in the case of the Xbox, because the console is based on traditional PC architecture, devel- opers will use familiar tools for building games rather than having to work in the obscure assembly languages console games currently require. Both of these issues are key factors Bungie cites for its decision to go with Microsoft. Consoles also rarely crash and don’t require game makers to support a range of third-party hardware. Of course, a mass exodus from the PC market doesn’t bode well for the Mac. Since most Mac games come from the PC market, the number of Mac releases will shrink as fewer games come out for PC. Additionally, as the PC market veers toward increasingly impressive technical feats to sell games, the cost of porting and supporting games for the Mac will rise, further discouraging develop- ers from turning to the platform (cost of sup- port was one reason Sierra cancelled Half- Life). The fact that the Mac game market itself is not growing will intensify these prob- lems. According fo Aspyr’s vice president of marketing, Jeff Baietto, though Apple has sold millions of new machines, the market for Mac games has remained flat. Peter Tampte, former MacSoft executive director (and Bungie's current executive vice president of publishing), puts forth one ray of hope: OS X will offer a richer platform for game development and give the Mac a boost. Id’s John Carmack is a poster boy for this the- ory, but according to Charla, he stands alone. No other developers have publicly paid OS X much attention. Computer gaming does still offer advan- tages over playing on a console. Bungie cofounder and lead programmer Jason MacHack 2000 Jones acknowledges that people don’t set up their consoles as game servers, nor do peo- ple make third-party maps for console games. Then there is the keyboard-and- mouse issue—although the next generation of consoles will offer keyboard options, Jones feels most people still won't want to sit back on a couch playing games this way. It's ‘uncertain, however, if these issues are com- pelling enough to retain loyalty for the com- puter as a gaming platform—Bungie didn’t find them sufficient reason. As for Bungie’s upcoming titles, as part of the Microsoft deal Take2 Interactive will publish Oni for the Mac, PC, and Play- Station2 (Take2, which previously owned around 20 percent of Bungie, will also get the rights to the Myth name and franchise). Bungie’s more anticipated title, Halo, has a less certain future—Bungie says it has not yet decided for which platforms to publish the game. Bungie is also not sure which platforms it will develop for an unannounced third game. You can bet that the Mac is not high on the list —RC Three-Day Geekfest Produces Another Pile of Cool Hacks na summer ritual that has endured for the entire 18-year history of the Macintosh platform, developers gathered at Dearborn, Michigan, in late June to demonstrate their technical prowess at the annual MacHack conference. In a three-night orgy of coding, caffeine, and sleep deprivation, developers did their best to increase the level of weird- ness on the Macintosh platform, A series of firsts marked the Best Hack awards. For the first time, a team repeated its win in the Best Hack category—Miro Jurasic and Alexandra Ellwood, authors of 1998's wia- ning asciiMac hack, won again this year with DockStrip. Dockstrip magnifies the Control Strip modules directly under the mouse in the same manner that OS X icons in the dock mag- nify. In another first, a “yoot” (youth) hack received a separate award this year: Mark Johns and Justin Lee won the Best Yoot Hack award for their Doggie-Style Windows exten- sion. Based on a discussion of canine territor- ial disputes in Eric Raymond’s keynote address, Doggie-Style Windows makes all background windows “run away” from the foreground “alpha” window until they don’t overlap (or at least until they overlap as little as possible) with the foreground window. The windows bark as they run, so this hack isn’t necessarily great for crowded offices, but it's fun to watch. ease APOE THIS ETHERPEG HACK grabs GIF and JPEG images right off an unencrypted AirPort network. Turn on encryption already! A number of other hacks won lesser prizes. A team from Apple Computer (Peter Bierman, Sam Bushell, and Stuart Cheshire) created EtherPEG (http://www.etherpeg.org) to grab images from unencrypted AirPort networks. Drew Thaler, Ed Wynne, Darrin Cardani, and Keith Stattenfield collaborated to build Vertigo, which adds 3D (using the usual colored glasses) to menus and fold- ers. Monitor Doubler by Eric Traut doubles the size of the pixels, while Los Alamos Security by Jonathan Gary moves folders so that your Mac appears to lose them; the hack actually moves them so that they sit behind the icon for a folder labeled Copy Machine —JS SEP/00 | MacAdaict|19 get in Shareware Pick of the Month Pate ele Ge Price: $7 url: http:/jerome.toucher.ree.fr/ADock.html ome of you may be sick of hearing about Mac 0S X, but we're going to ignore your pain. It’s all for a good cause—a great piece of shareware, actually. A-Dock by Jérome Foucher takes a Mac OS X concept—the Dock—and puts it on your Mac 0S 8.5, 8.6, or 9,0 desktop. A-Dock works a bit like the Mac OS Application Switcher by displaying a line of icons for running applications—you can switch between applications by clicking the icon of the app you want to use (or by using a key combination that you can set). The program goes beyond that, though— you can store icons in the A-Dock for appli- cations that aren't currently running but that you want to keep at hand. The A-Dock also maintains a space for the Trash and Desktop, and you can customize it easily. There's alot more to this application—you should check it out—DR FAVORITES: Add favorite THE THUMB; Lets TRASH: Works like the Trash applications to the you reveal or hide icon on the Desktop. A Control- A-Dock—their icons A-Dock and grab the click command brings up a appear here whether or window to drag it to menu that lets you empty the not they're running. a new location. Trash from the A-Dock. Serinter's Corner Bouncing Icons that the application is currently running. RUNNING APPLICATIONS: All open applications appear here. The three dots below the icon indicate DESKTOP: Hides all other running applications and reveals the desktop. ‘ith AppleScripts now turning up everywhere from OS X to Photo- shop to those strange dreams you keep having that your therapist just can’t seem to figure out, they seemed worthy of a bit more coverage than an occasional how- to. We'll begin showing off the stranger side of scripting here on a monthly basis, To get started, we decided to take advantage of the remarkable amount of scriptability the Finder has developed since the release of System 7.5 five years ‘ago. Using AppleScripts, you can modify just about everything from the positions of the items to the selection color. Because AppleScript has a tortured syn- tax only a language designer could love, these abilities often go unused, To get you started with your Finder fiddling, here’s cute script that can make an icon bounce like a Super Ball. Create an untitled folder in your frontmost window, rename it Ball, and put it near the upper left corner of the window. Switch to the script editor, run the script, and watch the bouncing balll—is Canon | http://www.ccsi.canon.com OU $199] ome say health conscious while others say unhealthy body image. Whatever the label, thin is in, and the new CanoScan N1220U is about as in as you can get without going out again. This color image scanner weighs a scant 3.3 lbs, measures 10.1 by 14.7 by 1.3 inches (that's right: just over an inch thick!), and it boasts an optical resolution of 1200 by 2400 dpi (which goes to 9600 by 9600 dpi through some software interpolation voodoo). The N1220U has a low price ($199) and low power consumption (2.5 watts), about the same as a low- watt nightlight. The power consumption is so low that the USB-based N1220U has no power cord—it gets all of its power through the single USB cable—DR " ASCANNER SO THIN, if) ‘give you a paper cut you won’t soon forget. g 2 F g 2 20 | MacAdaict | SEP/00 sae ws sane pg ‘copy the item "Ball" af the frst vindoy to ball, he fon) ‘copy the postion af the ball to curpos onic rents out re pte ‘Sapp item 1 af curpos to xpr6 == aid ey positon apy ie 2 of curpos te ypoe a tae repeat S00 times here we uptte te ors poiton ‘Set te position of the bal to (xp, yoos) typos "150 end yvel > 0 then, = is hep as fram falling "Ori the ground copy 150 to yp == the 095 mates te Dol ewe lover each tne copy -yel ®0.95to ye enait <> thse next two hegp th bln 250 pve rps ‘tgos > 250 andvel > Othen vel tox endit it xpos. O.and sve! <O then, Seve to ve engin > tis ste pevity tot fll copy yvel + gto yal end repest end tett JUST MAKE A FOLDER NAMED Bail in the frontmost window and run this script! So What Can $200 Get You? It All Depends on Who You Are The PDA-phile: $199.89 Palm tle: $149 (htip://www.palm.com) Premiere slim leather case: $39.95 (hitpz/¥ peim.com) Jesse Ventura’s “| Ain't Got Time to Bleed” eBook, $6.99 (https/www peanutpress,com) Venti Caramel Frappuccino: $3.9 (nt: starbucks com) (htp:/www. microtek The New, New Thing PHOTOGRAPHY BY AARON LAUER, by Michae! Lewis: $18.16 (http://www.amazon.com) The SOHO CEO: $197.15 ScanMaker 3600: $89.99 com) Epson Stylus Color 670: $89.00 {http:/Avw.pson.com) The Napster hipster: $191.71 JazPiper portable MP3 player: $149.95 (http://w jazpiper.com) 16MB SmartMedia card: $41.76 (htta:/wuw.memorex.com) ‘Actual music: free (http://www.napster.com) Tay The paparazzo: $184.95 Photo easy digital camera (hardly the best, but one ofthe cheapest): $149.95 (http/iwow.ixla.com) GraphicConverter: $35.00 ¢htpy/wwa:Jemkesot.com) In the Tool Chest Screen Savers LN hile phosphor burn-in is an ugly thing, between modern monitors and the Energy Saver control panel it’s aimost entirely a thing of the past. So why get a screen saver? Some give you a way to show off the prowess of your favorite graph- FINO. ics card, while others let you quickly lock your work away from prying eyes. Fortu- ALES, | nately, thanks to the efforts of the fanatically active Macintosh shareware industry, ‘onthe Disc. | you've gota lot of screen savers to choose from!—iS The Screen saver |The Price The Autor Comment BlackWatch 1.5.3] Freeware '| Simple, unpretentious. Not as pretty __ out it does its job well and its fee, rk US as Darkside fs] $20 Tom Dowdy Getting a bit dated, but provides a wide range of 5.06 (httpy/Aww-poubelle.com) | screen savers that includes some classis like Kitten, Eclipse | $15 Simplistic screen saver lets you cycle through aid MacDim Freeware tbrium HB Slick control panel with some very diferent BE] | (mast modules | (httoy/anwitrium.se) modules. AterDark compatibility moduies [==s==I are $5 shareware) available for $5 shareware, MaySoreen Freeware Jesse Bole Easily the best freeware option—provides a whole saver (httoy/wvew.andrew.cmu.edu | bunch of modules ported from UNIX sereen / si /—boley/maxss.himi) Rrihseeaiceds Setting Sun $20 Purple Shark Software if you want to show off your 3D card’s prowess, {htloy/wmw.webthing.net | Setting Sun is Yor you—it provides a beautiful set 1] /settingsun) of 2D soreen savers. Setting Sun is our favorite |—its clean, efficient, and elegant, ay you found two Ben Franklins on the sidewalk (that’s $200, folks). What would you buy for your Mac? A few years ago, some mice and one of those UV monitor screens, maybe, but now you have options. What you'd buy depends on who you are, and we've taken the liberty to choose a $200 basket of products for a select few stereotypes (tax and shipping not included) —NR Le pseudo-artiste: $196.55 Graphire drawing tablet and pen: $99.95 (http://www wacom. com) Photoshop LE: $95.00 (htto://www-adobe.com) Double espresso siraight up: $1.60 The fashion victim: $198.94 Tangerine GrabPac carrying case for iMac: $30.00 (http://www.grabpac.com) Grape Apolla Speakers: $39.99 \ (http://www pelestore.com) Strawberry Flavor Saver DV security cable: $29.95 (htip://vwrw.secure-it.com) Harman Kardon iSub: $99.00. (http:/Avww.apple.com) QuickDraw 3D Rises from the Dead It’s Back and on OS X hen Apple killed QuickDraw 3D in favor of OpenGL in January 1999, the move horrified a small group of developers. While OpenGL was the clear choice of game developers, it lacked the higher- Jevel features that made QuickDraw 3D modeling pro- grams a joy to write. These developers didn't follow the usual pattern of shrieking incoherently before moving on to other projects—they dusted themselves off and rewrote the high-level parts of QuickDraw 3D to sit atop OpenGL. The new project, “Quesa,” is now nearing completion, giving Mac 3D a boost. Quesa (http/Avww.quesa.org) is an open source project, protected by the LGPL (Lesser General Public License), which forces Quesa’s source code to remain available, but allows closed-source commercial pro- jects to use Quesa. When we spoke to Kevin Matthews, Quesa’s project coordinator, he described Quesa as “90 percent done—86 percent of the function calls, but some of those no one uses.” Because Quesa sits atop OpenGL, it’s easily portable—versions of Quesa run on Mac 0S, Mac 0S X, Linux, and (sigh) Windows NE—IS ‘SEP/OO | MacAaddict | 21 get info They're Everywhere The Hottest Hollywood Star Is Not Charlize Theron These Days...It’s the Mac © ABC, PHOTOGRAPH BY RICHARD CARTWRIGHT nless you've been living in a cave, you must have noticed that iMacs, iBooks, and everything else Apple have been popping up in the movies and on TV like gophers on a golf course. If it's not the strawberry iMac on Ally McBeal, then it's the tangerine iBook on Just Shoot Me or the Apple Cinema Dis- play on Once and Again. Apple products also made appearances in the recent films YEP—THAT'S AN APPLE studio display. Black and White, Return to Me, and Scream 3. So what makes Apple products hotter than capri pants these days? Beth Tracy, who does product placement for MIWW/Savitt in Seattle, attributes it to a whole lotta marketing. Getting products placed on TV and in the movies is a lot of work—and the two media require completely separate processes. Film studios, in an effort to cut costs, usually require a fee for product place- ment. The price depends on what kind of exposure the product gets and for how long, as well as how positive the exposure is. For instance, if the iBook saves the world in a James Bond film, the price might be higher than if it destroys the world. Tracy says that in Apple's case a studio may also use the equip- ment to do work on the set, and so most like- ly would require less in terms of payment. In the case of TV, FCC regulations pro- hibit companies from paying for product placement because the FCC considers that paid advertising. That means it's more of a handshake deal. Companies usually contact 0S X Shareware Waiting in the Wings Shareware Developers Gearing Up for X ‘he early looks at Aqua that we got at Macworld Expo in January and again at Wordwide Developer's Conference in May have caused a certain malaise in the Macin- tosh community. After all, 16 years of devel- opment have refined most of the Mac OS to a fairly impressive state (with exceptions— whose idea was was it to put the AppleShare Client in the Chooser, anyway?), while Aqua is an entirely new interface with rough edges that await polishing. Many of the coming improvements will probably start with the same folks responsible for most of System 7’s user interface scrubbing—the shareware community. We did some look- ing, and found many shareware authors already hard at work on Mac OS X goodies. Sig Software's Gideon Greenspan (http:// wwwsigsoftware.com) was one of the first out of the gate with Classic Menu, a $10 shareware utility that adds Apple and Appli- cation menus to OS X, making it behave a bit more like what we’re accustomed to. Sig Software’s now hard at work porting Drop- 22 | Maes odict S/d Drawers, which lets you put pop-out drawers on either side of the screen. Other folks aren’t far behind. James Thomson's busily carbonizing his DragThing application dock (http://www.dragthing .com), while Dair Grant is working hard to get his Setting Sun screen saver working. Ambrosia Software is planning a fancy new version of Snapz Pro that should offer the ability to browse through screen shots as well as take them. Those unhappy with the overall look and feel of Aqua are probably already wondering about Kaleidoscope author Greg Landweber’s plans—after all, Kalei- doscope revolutionized Mac OS interface hacking (http:/Avww.kaleidoscope.net). While he’s looking into porting Kaleido- scope, he warns it’ll be a “huge undertak- ing,” as OS Xis entirely unlike the current Mac OS at the low levels Kaleidoscope uses. For the moment, he’s focusing his efforts on Greg’s Browser, a replacement for OS X's Finder —iS product placement specialists at the various television studios and offer to send a slew of their wares in hopes that a show will use them—but no money ever changes hands. Because of FCC regulations and how courts have interpreted them, networks like ABC black out all corporate logos. But in Apple's case, says Tracy, that doesn’t really matter: “[Apple products] are as easily rec- ognized as a Coke can, where you don’t even need to see the word Coke. If someone sees that white swish on the red background, they automatically know that someone is drink- ing a Coke because the branding has been so defined over the years, And that's what you're getting with Apple.”—CZ Good Support for Old Products laris Products—After Apple restruc- tured Claris to creaie FileMaker, Claris's products scattered to the four winds. Apple recently posted some information describing the future of Claris products ontine. * ClarisDraw—The last version of Claris Draw is 1.0v4, and that's it. No more versions, no support, * Claris Emailer—The last version of this killer email app is 2.0v3, and only ‘the updater is available—the original app isn’t. A great place to get some utilities and information (but not support) for all you Emaller fans is Fog City Software, at htto:/Avww.fogcity.com. * Claris Organizer—Sold to Paim Computing, Claris Organizer lives on as a free download from the Palm Web site at http://www.palm.com/support/macintosh. * ClarisWorks—Renamed AppleWorks—you'll need to contact Apple for support. There's a great Web page at http://www.info.apple,com/info .apple.com/support/pages.taf? product = AppleWorks. The current version as of this writing is AppleWorks 6.0.4, if you're looking for a wealth of great tidbits like these, visit Apple's Tech Info Library at http://tilinfo.apple.com—DR Creation is the easy part... Keeping them under control r story. | get in The SIIG USB Compact Flash Reader he USB and PCI ports in modern Macs a study in frustration. While most PC peripherals now physically plug into the Mac, often that’s all they'll do. Without dri- vers they act just like electronic leeches, draining the Mac’s power without perform- ing any useful function. In this new section, we'll try to whip shirking hardware devices into shape. Fox our first victim, we chose the SUG (http:/Avww.siig.com) USB Smart Media card reader—it’s cheap ($59 street price), simple, and has the potential to make getting images from a digital camera onto the computer far simpler. There's only one problem—nowhere on its box do you find a single mention of the Mac. We bought the device anyway, in hopes that we could find a way to make it work. When we first plugged it in, we were discouraged to see the usual “You don’t have drivers” dialog box. Still, a quick peek in the Apple System Profiler gave us one last reason for hope. SIG didn’t build the card’s internal mechanism—instead, the Apple System Profiler listed the manufacturer as Carry Computer Eng (http:/Avww.carry.com .tw), a Taiwanese manufacturer. Moving to its drivers page, we quickly found free Macintosh drivers. Installing them worked beautifully (they used the usual installer package) and gave us a working Smart Media—iS. ‘05 on the box, but once we located ‘the drivers, this USB reader handled ‘Compact Flash cards like a champ. PHOTOGRAPH BY ARRON LAUER The Alpha Channel In Search of the Missing 8 Bits { you're mathematically inclined, you may have noticed a mystery in the number of col- ors you can use, Most graphics programs give you options for 256 colors, which requires 8 bits per pixel; thousands of colors, which requires 16 bits per pixel; and millions of col- ors, or...24 bits per pixel? ‘The first two make sense—computers can easily handle groups of 8 bits (called bytes), and groups of 16 bits (called words). Using 24 bits per pixel, though, is weirder than that guy you dodge every morning on the subway. Com- Puters can’t deal with 24 bits at a time very well; the next size they deal with is 32 bits (called a long word). If the computer's using 32 bits per pixel, though, what happened to the final 8 bits? ‘Typically, your system uses that last byte for an exita piece of information called an alpha channel, Each pixel contains a number value between 0 and 255, which indicates trans- parency—0O means the pixel is completely transparent, while 255 means it is completely opaque. QuickTime understands alpha chan- nels, but QuickDraw doesn’t (QuickDraw is a primitive graphics environment). In Mac OS X, the more advanced Quartz display system takes full advantage of the alpha channel, and uses it to draw everything from drop shadows to the translucent background of the Dock 1S (= >) Setting Limits t's easy to get carried away when you read software packaging substantially cheaper “limited editions” of their heavy-duty apps, ‘that promises more features, more templates, more tutorials—ali and often these might fulfill all your needs. Check out the examples for a whole lot more money. 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So for all of your portable computing needs stop by www.vsttech.com to learn more about these sit, and other exciting products designed with your mobility, productivity and convenience in mind. Slop ly booth #347 and enter for your chance to win a FivecWire pergheral/ =z GO USB CD-R/W PowerBook Tri-Media FireWire USB/FireWire Drive peripherals Reader Hard Drive Combo Drive Designed for www.vsttech.com lomega, the Iomega logo, Zip, and The Capacity To Do More, are trademarks of Iomega Corporation. All other trademarks are property of other respective holders. lomega patents protected by patent Mac applications pending in the US and other countries. Apple, Macintosh, ‘the Mac OS logo, PowerBook, and iBook are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. SuperDisk is a trademark of Imation Corporation. ‘SmartDisk Personal Storage Systems Windows98 humble beginnings. A misty look back at our Happy Anniversary by David Reynolds Pouvess ago this issue, MacAddict bucked __ of the troubles afflicting Apple. To celebrate, for.speed? common sense and a sound business plan, we take a closer look at our first cover—after | That's right—the first 180Mtz Mac- and we published our first issue—in the midst drying the tears, of course. compatible system was a Power Computing PowerTower 180 with a whopping 16MB of RAM, a 2GB hard drive, and a 180NiHz 604 atits heart. All that power came at a price back then: $4,195, to be exact. the need a” 5S Custom-Painted Macs a huge A Better machine. A better magazine. pain Z 3 the last Judging this contest, in| Y big thing which readers submitted | | . Remember OpenDoc? We thelr work in five . say do—and it did rock. Too Categories to win one of h , bad italso rolled into an five professionally painied AA PR ) FD) J Cc T 1 a alll early grave. The technology Macs, involved several || | oS demos were pretty amazing, days of work ina locked 2 P if though. OpenDoc allowed room and a couple of 4 users to embed such things lawsuit threats. We did, aS live Web pages, running however, come up with Clocks, and spreadsheets in winners in these areas: any document. graphics, sound, movie, | ras | PUTTS IS me . —— 1 Se + : : design. let us never B | { ef i eo speak of it again, | i ) | ey | q the San of something obnoxious it wasn’t Your {aith in We started our lst of reasons hy the Mac rules with this a stretch w : 25-item treatise by Nikki Echler. ‘We went 2 long way to the world's Bh show why the Mac stil Many of the reasons stil hold 1ow why the Mac sti had abit eur, andj MSE Computer ts PHOTOGRAPH BY AARON LAUER true today, even after the t ’ ‘advent of Windows 98, itturns out we were about to be restored n Windows 2000, and the ‘ight—tt just took a BEnTRe ER AARoR Ey Justice Départment’s decision. couple of nail-biting BOCennseraane years to get there. <3 ir do anything Q lewent waiting Pbeginning, we wanted to y io nappen show our readers how to do cool the birth of max ‘Athough we figured the laws allowing certain uses of things with their Macs via our How To Our stick-figure mascot made his cover debut, copyrighted material for news reporting covered us, some section. In our first issue, we showed borrowing a line from a 1986 Timbuk 3 song of the staffers were just a bit nervous over the use of this readers how to create a fake photo, get ("You're gonna need shades!") to make our point stylized 30 Apple logo because they weren't sure how started in Web design, and build a that Apple would be back. Apple's legal department would perceive it. No problem. home network using LocalTalk. 26| MacAdaict |SEP/00 SONNET SEMPLY FAST Don't let another opportunity fly by. Add a Sonnet processor card to your Power Macintosh or PowerBook and instantly work faster. Depend on Sonnet for simply fast upgrade products. To learn more, call 1-800-786-6260 or visit our website at: www.sonnettech.com/ma Visit us at MacWorld New York July 19-21, Booth # 1707 | | few years ago, desperate times called for desperate mea- | | 4 sures, Remember the dark days of 1997? You couldn’t read = the word Apple in a news story without seeing it preceded | wsrme | by the word beleaguered, and every day felt like a life-or-death strug- | MACADDICT FORUMS at smacadict.com ‘and tel us your good fight. Every time a misinformed news story about Apple | | gle as we watched losses mount and market share plummet. Together, Mac enthusiasts reacted by digging in and getting ready to fight the iip/ww tales of appeared, thousands of us would contact the author to inform him or | advocacy: what ? 4 rt | itmeans, now to her of the mistakes. Every time a software company announced that it ds | Aide |__ Was dropping Mac support, we would bombard it with reasons why / the Mac remained a viable platform. Things are different now. Steve Jobs and his crew of turnaround wizards came to power and changed everything. Now Apple is posting near-record profits, its unit sales continue to rise, profit margins are meaty, and it's cool to own a Mac again. The computer landscape has changed, too: Microsoft is no longer the unstoppable juggernaut it . { Tt's not just about survival anymete by Pavid Reynolds Thstration by Sharon Dal once was. With the rise of alternative operating systems (such as Linux and Be), the increasing importance of the platform-agnostic Internet, and the recent Microsoft court rulings, the Redmond behe- moth is just not the same bad guy anymore. That puts a new spin on the question, What is Mac advocacy? Advancing the Macintosh cause has transformed from guerrilla war- fare to a social movement, and that means we must change our tac- tics to match better times. At its core, the goals of Mac advocacy remain the same: to bring new folks to the Mac platform; to make sure we have the best technologies and toys; and to keep Macs in our workplaces, homes, and schools. Though times are better, it’s not a given that the Mac will continue to thrive: We need to stay vigilant. MacAddict takes a look at what we as Mac users can do to keep our platform robust, as well as what Apple and third-party developers have been doing right—and what more they can do—to ensure that the Mac market stays healthy. 28) MacAadict} ‘SEP/0O success of the iMac in new markets, Sure, Apple can still count on tons of people from the old guard—gurus and geezers who can say things fike “Remember the SE/30? Now ¢hat was a Mac” with a straight face— but more and more, Macintosh users are Wintel converts or first-time computer buy- ers. These newcomers haven't been hanging around the Mac universe forever, trading hair-raising PRAM-zapping tales. Newbies may not know—or care—about the struggles Mac users have had at work, at school, and at home over their platform of choice. This means you may need to reconsider how you talk to those around you when you're advocating the Mac. Issue 1: Keeping Your Mac Mac users tend to bond with their computers, and while Wintel users may also feel some kind of perverse attachment, the Mac relationship is usually posi- tive, We tend to name our Macs The Po'r and Pant's of A art of Mac advocacy Is a your ideas about which. platform is best and why—that Means you'll invariably get into discussions (Some might call them arguments). Always remember that the goal of advocacy is to educate without alienating. Five Solid Advocacy Tactics 1. Be Polite Please, thank you, your're | welcome—simple| bits of polite discourse go.a long way when you debate others about your platform of choice. 2. Be Generous Don’t jump on bad happenings in ‘the Wintel world. ‘A perfect example is the } Love You virus that slammed Wintel users, leaving smoking hard dives: lurt Mac users isn't going to help make Instead, offering sympathy (whether gen- uuine or well acted) dispels defensiveness, Bes ‘we all know the real truth. 3. Pick Your Fights Carefully Ifyou take on every fight as ifit were a hill to die on, What Mae Users Can Ba Te people who compose the Macintosh com- munity are changing, thanks to the huge AY you'll find that hill soon you exhausted when the truly important fights come along. Exercise good judgment before pick ing up the gauntlet. 4, Check Your Facts ‘you state facts (such as “The Mac is better cause it dispenses soft-serve ice cream”), make sure they're true, Nothing damages your credibility fike an outrageous or inflammatory claim. if you do ‘Mmake a mistake, correct it honestly and openly, Ground to Get Ground ground is a great way to build feturn,. you may find that others and embrace certain portions of your point of view. Remember: Unconditional surrender worked only in World War I Five is Adioeeny Tactics. to Avo 1. Don’t Troll for Fiames Don't troll Usenet groups, mailing lists, bulletin boards, or chat areas for defensive people whom you can pick.a platform fight. While it may and ascribe personalities to them; some of us even hug them (shhh). That's why, when you arrive at work and your boss says you'll be working on a Pentium II instead of a new 64, you may find it truly upsetting. What You Can Do About it Educate your employer or institution. Make sure those in charge of obtaining new comput- ers know the benefits of having Macs: They're easier and cheaper to support; they use almost entirely standard components; and they now have access to almost all of the important soft- ware. Also point out that you'll be a much happier, nr» more productive person if you're using a Mac. For help with education info, join the Evangelist mailing list at http://vww -macevangelist.com and visit the comp sys.mac.advocacy Usenet group. Turn the tight labor market to your advantage. If you're adamant about using 2 Mac at work, consider making that a condition of employment. (We know people who have done this.) Just take great care not to make this a threat—that'll get you bounced out faster than a Super Bail in a room full of second- graders—and only employ this tactic if you're truly willing to look for another job. vocacy to whip someone into a slavering fury, it's: ‘hot constructive. 2. Don’t Attack indiscriminately if you must go'on the offensive, keep your altack focused. Falling ‘speaking) is just sad, especially when it comes to arguing platform niceties and processor speeds. 3. Don't Go Beyond the Subject at Hand -Don't move the discussion from Pentium Ill Versus G4 to how fat someone's mother is, Whi itmay be funny (or true}, italso is not construc - 4, Don’t Turn Pit Bull Know When to give up an argument. Pi focking jaws for a reason—and it's certainly not to hold on to a discussion that has degenerated well: ‘beyond recognition. 5. Don't insist on Changing Someone’s Mind ‘While you want to bring people around to your paint of view, you can’t control whether: actually does start to see things your way. Witness the Flat Society, SEP/00 | MacAdaict| 29 (| DME Lad en era Buy your own Mac. This is a last resort, but if you can’t face the thought of using a PC, consider getting permission to buy a Mac with your own scratch for work. Best-case scenario: You'll get a subsidy out of your employer. Worst case: Your employer denies the request altogether. Issue 2: Getting Others to Go Mac It's an irrefutable axiom: The more people who use the Mac, the healthier the platform. It’s in your own best interest to bring others to the Mac, and you'll also do them a favor by converting them to a better machine. What You Can Do About It © Make sure potential computer buyers at least consider buying a Mac. | Sometimes this is half the battle—often once folks start doing research on | both Macs and PCs, they'll choose the Mac. | © Emphasize the positive, but don’t blow smoke. Feel free to tell tales | about how wonderful it is to own a Mac, but don’t pretend that bad things don’t happen. © Honor the choice that others make. If your potential converts choose to go Windows, don’t berate them. Just let the PC do the talking, and don’t give them a sack of “I told you so” when they run into trouble. | | | | | | | | | | j | | la ray cat $20 1 fat Peay Saas esr colon 12, growth of Mac shareware. BE SURE TO PAY || [®e>wser]=[a[= "TT ™ | 1 fawccter’ seo || | for shareware ||| 2 @ la. ri 2 g seounetery 3300 | te Cternoy |i a Ft | from John | (@ Name: Hewat Pockard A oe +| | Mauro Software |||) :| Mtmimeree siz BD Saves, | a no | to ensure the | Ww does the PG world seem to get so 2. More Games contact information, issue 3: Keeping the Platform Healthy Keeping the Mac industry vibrant requires some conscious effort. While Apple hears the brunt of this responsibility, you can do some things to make sure the market keeps moving in the right direction. What You Can Do About It © Buy lots of Mac products. Of course, you shouldn't buy items you don't need, but it really does help to support companies that make Mac soft- ware and hardware. This includes shareware developers, who provide some of the best software on the Mac today and let you test it without mak- ing you pony up the cash first. If you use shareware, pay for it. Also, don’t pirate software. The more people pay for their Mac programs, the more that will encourage developers to continue working with the platform. © Ask for Mac products in stores and insist on help when you shop. It's important to show retailers that you as a consumer value Mac knowledge and support. If enough folks go in asking for Mac products and demand- ing answers, stores will realize that Mac support matters and will give it higher priority. =: e asked Macht com vistors what Mac users can do to better the platform. Here's what they said: * Quit beating up on Windows users for their platform of choice. —Hyle DeMilo + When you know someone is in the market for a new computer, make sure they research Macintoshes as well as the cheap PCs. —Chris Reid “+ Support the products released by third-party developers. Don’t abuse Hotline and your CD burner to get the latest software or game. —Chad Lindsay * The best thing Mac users can do to improve their platform is code, “code, code —Michael Travers \.__“* Start by upgrading whenever possible —John Gilmer Many of the cool toys first? Well, it cou/d Although Apple has done a great Job ‘of getting It was only a matter of time before some be because it's ten times the size of the Mac choice games tothe Mac, many of us want more— ing soul built an MP3 | ‘player into a’ digital market. Here we've listed five cool PC-only giz- like Half Life, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, and Moto- and Casio's done it with the WMP-V (hitp:// mos and programs we're drooling over. ff you cross Madness, to name a few. Unfortunately, we www.casio.com). Problem Is, you need aPC to get also start drooling, try sending these companies don't have space to list all of the game company your digital music into the watch, even though the a letter advocating a Mac version. Who knows? —_ addresses, but if you have a title you really want to interface is USB. Maybe it will actually happen. See on the Mac, check the company’s Web site for Contact: Casio Computer Company, 570 1. LEGO MINDSTORMS 3. Sub-$1,000 Laptop LEGOs are the coolest low-tech toy ever, and with — While the iBook is killer, its $1,599 price tagis steep Weather geeks can relate to our desire for Oregon the advent of cheap processors and memory, for an entry-level laptop. Adding insult to fiscal Scientific’s WMR-918 Wireless Weather Station LEGO-based robot kits have made the leap to high injury Is the iBook SE, which ‘costs an extra $200 (http://www.oregonscientific.com). Although the tech. Problem is, the interface between the kits and for a gray paint job (and some minor feature weather station (which can track wind speed and Computers is PC only. Boo—especially regarding upgrades). PC users can get a laptop (admittedly of direction, barometric pressure, temperature, and the coo! Droid Developer Kit! slightly inferior specs and quality) for $899—really the like) can operate without a comput : Contact: LEGO Systems, 555 Taylor Rd., PO. — scrimp on the specs, and you can get one for $799, thas t the capability to ‘dump this, Info:into Box 1600, Enfield, CT 06083. Or write to the MIND- Contact: Apple Computer, 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, not a Mac. STORMS division directly at LEGO MINDSTORMS, — CA95014, oruse the company's Web feedback form at Contact: Orégon Scientific, 19861 S.W. 5th 52 Leveroni Ct., Novato, CA 94949. hitpy/Awww.appe.con/hotnews/feedback. html. Place, Tualatin, OR 97062 4. Wearable MP3 Player ch, Mount Pleasant Ave., Dover, NJ 07801 5. Wireless Weather Station companies that produ Teoh Ompatible (thanks to USB), and many PC). You can mobiliz "i Hse Produce PC software will often consider 2 Mac versi mobilize these people if need be, While i version. If paigns can’t ‘ mpanies over to the Mac, send them becking ae " res he ceneanY Om the edge may consider then you explain why you would like to see that : ness the petitions to hring Quake I and Th i Mac—in both eae : ie Sims to the Also join localuser group—it'sa great way ceded the ieee ae me a epee Hot ards Mets pe- to get to know your fellow Mac-philes (many of whom also—gasp!—ase a letter-writing cam- At you 2 force to rackon with or a hindrance to the Mac community? Find out by taking our Mac Advocacy Quiz. Detailed psychosocial analysis has never been this easy—or this fun! Situation 1: A coworker is buying a home computer. To get him or her to consider a Mage, you: A) Engage your coworker in conversation to find out what he or she wants in a computer, and then explain how a Mac can address those needs. B) Steal your coworker’s credit card and buy a Mac for him or her. C) Point out the fiaws in every PC ever manufactured, and for good measure throw in the flaws of every person who ever purchased a PC in the past. D) Pummel your victim about the head and shoulders with a wet sock full of lime Jell-O. Answer: A, of course—a Classic sales tactic in which you match needs to features. B would only work in the movies, C is just bad form, and D—while some might enjoy this practice, it will prob- ably result in a personal injury lawsuit. Situation 2: A well-known software company announces a killer new application for Windows only, but hints that it might consider creating a Macintosh version. You: A) Write a thoughtful email to the appropriate customer service representative at the company and provide reasons why releasing a Mac version would be 2 good idea, B) Take up the issue at your Macintosh user group and in any online communities you frequent and ask that others write emails to the company detailing why a Mac version Is a goad idea. C) Threaten to bomb the company’s mail servers with illegally encoded Britney Spears MP3s until it ports the application. D) Pummel! the company’s board of directors about the head and shoulders with a wet sack full of ime Jell-O. Answer: Bath A and B are effective ways to go. A 1999 amendment to the Geneva Convention pro- hibits C, and while D might lock good in a Jackie Chan film, it will most certainly get you arrested. Situation 3: Your sister-in-law sends you an email screed about how Appie is on its deathbed and then casts aspersions on the lineage of al! Mac users. You: A) Ask her how your brother is doing. B) Remind her that she married the blood relative of a Mac user and by making those comments, she has opened herself up to a bioad feud. C) Reply to the email with carbon copies to everyone on your Mac user group mailing list, detailing why Apple will stay strong. how Macs surpass PCs, and in what church your parents got married. D) Pummel your sister-in-law about the head and shoulders with a wet sock full of lime Jell-O. Answer: A is the way to go. Bis only for Klingons and Vikings, you dork. C stil! won’t change her mind, plus you've just dragged several strangers into a private discussion. Leave option D open if you just can’t stand the thought of family harmony. SEP/OQO0 | MacAcdint al ver the last three years, Apple has done a Qs job of turning the Mac platform . around by picking the right partners, plac- ing its products carefully, and getting the cream of the crop in software ported to the Mac. The chal- lenge comes in keeping the Mac on the upside, because the forces that whupped on Apple back in the mid 1990s are still out there—as soon as Apple has a bad quarter, we'll start seeing more reports on Apple’s doom, yadda yadda yadda. It’s nothing we haven't heard before and nothing Apple hasn't weathered before—but to forestall this, Apple must address a few issues. KING YOURSELF TOO SERIOUSLY WARNING Issue 1: Falling Behind the Latest PC Technologies While a S00MHz G4 is a beautiful thing—and it can hold its own versus a \GHz Athlon or Pentium UI when using software that takes advantage of the Velocity Engine—it just sounds half as fast. In marketing, that makes a huge difference. It’s even more problematic when you look at midrange PCs, which hang out in the 850MHz range. These machines sound as if they can trump the fastest Mac available. Processor speed isn't the only place where Mac systems lag—the latest crop of Wintel iron generally has 4X AGP slots for graphics cards and 133MHz system buses. Apple sticks high-end Macs (barring any last- minute announcements that occurred after press time) with 2X AGP slots and 100MHz system buses. While the actual speed difference between Macs and PCs is small (and very difficult to measure), the perception that PCs are faster is growing Five Smart Maver Apple Can Make pple has done a great job of giving consumers what they want the past few years—but that doesn’t mean it can't do more. Here are five moves ‘we think Apple should make. 1. Open the AGP Slot 8y giving you the option to choose what graph- ics card you have installed in the AGP slot when you buy a new Mac, Apole will bring more com- petition to the Mac market and give: buyers more choice. Don’t get us wrong—we think that ATi makes a killer graphics card—hut there are other gfeat- graphics cards out there, like 3dix’s Voodoo 3 and the upcoming Voodoo 5 series, If Apple goes this route, though, it needs to make sure all’ graphics catds meet minimum stan- dards—for example, they should support DVD and digital monitors. 32| MacAdaict|SEP/00 2, Release Multiprocessing G4s Yeah, this one's a no-brainer, but we still need to say it. With the advent of Mac OS X and jts muttipro- cessing capabilities, Apple could offer an amazingly Powerful Mac based on two or mote G4 proces- sors, and it needn't cost an arm anda leg. While we're on the topic of redesigning hardware, why not includs a couple more PC! slots for high-end folks? 3. Build a Killer Server With the power of Mac OS X, a couple of fast Ethernet cards, and a copy of the now-cheap Web- Objects software, a Power Mac G4 can make some serious server iron. Apple should build one. 4, Go Back to a Reasonable Mouse and Keyboard it should be clear to Apple by now that most peo- ple find the keyboard and mouse that ship with the current crop of G4s and iMacs inadequate: Although Apple has done some work on the mouse to solve its orientation problems, it's sti an undersize hockey puck—why not give us a two-button mouse like the ones that. ship with PCs? And don't even get us Started on the key- board. It's time for a redesigned mouse and afull- size keyboard, complete with a full complement of function keys and navigation keys—especially a freakin’ forward-delete key. 5. Include an iMac Upgrade Slot Yes, the iMac is a great machine, but it could be So much more if it had a simple slot for hardware upgrades. The original iMac ‘series had the undocumented Mezzanine slot, for which a few enterprising companies made SCSI and video card upgrades, but current iMacs don’t offer any such option. ie Son te every day. That makes high-end Macs a tougher sell, especially on the heels of Apple’s we're-faster-than-you-are ad campaign. To remedy this, Apple needs to pick key high-end technologies—processor speed, AGP speed, and system bus among them—and deliver the fastest of the fast on new systems. What You Can Do About It While you probably won’t be going into Apple’s design center and tweaking a few resistors on a logic board to provide a 4X AGP slot, you can help by keeping tabs on the newest technologies making their way into PCs and understanding which matter and which don’t have much meaning in terms of features or performance. Armed with this knowledge, you can better defend the Mac against would-be detractors. Visit Slashdot (http:/Avww Slashdot.org) or Ars Technica (http:/Aywwarstechnica,com) for a good (and sometimes Mac-related) assortment of tech geek news and informa- tion. If you're determined to squeeze every bit of performance out of your Mac, visit Accelerate Your Mac at http:/Avww.xlr8yourmac.com. begun “experimenting” with its software user interfaces. Sherlock II and the QuickTime Player offer examples of this trend, and not particularly attrac- tive ones. We can charitably describe both as quirky in appearance and behavior. Apple shouldn’t make these changes wholesale, and needs to take greater care when altering the look and feel of its software. When in doubt, stick with what works. After all, Apple has more experience with designing human interfaces for software than just about any company out there. What You Can Do About It Let Apple know when its interface changes don’t make sense to you. Apple has been listening carefully to its customers over the past couple of years, so by voicing your opinion (and encouraging other Mac aficionados to do the same), you can actually affect how Apple addresses future design issues. Although Apple doesn’t have an official department in charge of dealing with user interface complaints, you can send a letter to Apple Computer, 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA 95014, or use the Web-based feedback form at http:/Avww.apple.com/hotnews/feedback.huml. FuaNecteonsband, alan, and cours othr redo. 4 are the difficult-to- _| use volume control, "| the unnecessary pause button (which does the same thing as the play button), QUEENS, MLV! YORK RICK FOLEAUM SLASHDOT.COM IS A GREAT place to start to get the ‘skinny on what all those PC specs really mean. Issue 2: Market Share Squeeze Because Macs compose a small percentage of market share in certain areas (such as business, science and technology, and the server market), they often face the danger of removal, a bow to the pressure of homoge- nization. With its latest round of hardware and the pending release of Mac OSX, Apple occupies a better position to bolster its presence in those areas than it has in years. By savvy marketing to Mac-friendly (or at least agnos- tic) businesses and universities, Apple stands a good chance of increasing its market share in these areas. The company is already doing this with its science and technology road show, a venture in which Apple is going out to various institutions and touting the wonders of the G4 and Mac OS X (see http:/Avww.seminars.apple.com/series/scitech2000 for more information). Also, with the arrival of Maya on Mac OS X, the Mac once again becomes a great platform for 3D graphics. Beyond these specialized markets, Apple can improve its market share by making a stronger push into the retail channel—through its relationship with CompUSA, for example. Although more and more people are buying their computers online, there's still no substitute for walking into a show- room full of knowledgeable sales people and well-maintained demo Macs. What You Can Do About It Ifyou work in an area that could benefit from more Macs, lobby respect- fully for consideration in new equipment purchases. Provide those in charge with information on Mac hardware and software so they can make informed decisions. Whatever you do, don’t alienate these folks, regardless of their decision—or they'll forever go PC out of spite. It's human nature. Issue 3: Fast-and-Loose User Interface “Innovations” We've beaten this dead horse into sausage, but that won't stop us from turn- ing it into paté. Apple, once the paragon of human interface design, has and the unwieldy favorites drawer. AMONG THE BIGGEST | atrocities of QuickTime re" what MacAddict.com vistors had to say on the topic of what could do to improve its image in the larger world: . Get ‘some serious support for real corporate apps such as Microsoft's Outlook and Access.—Scott Boettcher te Work with Motorola and IBM to raise the clock speed of the PowerPC line to.parity with the current x86 offerings. As Mac users, we KnoW § sheer clock speed isn’t that important, but vast majority ‘of consumers believe it is —Mark Hayes + Court software industry leaders, encouraging them to migrate 38 X where it makes se ee : ~~ SEP/00 |MacAdaict /33 at T titd Party Mac a) Partners Can hird-party hardware and software developers, the driving force behind the Macintosh, can make—or break—the platform. Since the Internet burst onto the scene, this group has grown to include Web site developers, many of whom create pages that don’t work well—or at all— on the Mac. Issue 1: Uneven Release Schedules Often, announced Mac versions of hardware and software ship weeks or months later than their PC counterparts—if at all. By adhering to a release schedule that puts the Mac version as close to the PC release as possible, developers will earn the eternal gratitude of Mac enthusiasts. What You Can Do About It Reward developers who do right by the Mac, and let those who flake hear about it (politely). Aside from supporting Mac developers by purchasing their products (good numbers are a huge motivator), let them know when they've done a nice job with an appropriate thank-you email or letter. Issue 2: Web Sites That Aren’t Mac Compatible It’s not that difficult to make a Web site that works properly regardless of platiorm—after all, that’s what the Web is designed to do. By staying away from platform-specific Java and JavaScript, using cross-platform plug-ins, and not discriminating against users based on platform (as companies like Disney have done in the past), Web designers can make sites truly cross-platform. What You Can Do About It Standard consumer advocacy tactics apply here, too. Contact the Web site’s administrator with a respectful letter, organize an email campaign, and THE AUCTION MANAGER, while useless to those of us who don’t partake in online auctions, is a nice Mac-first feature in Internet Explorer 5. keep up the pressure until there’s a change—or until you get tired of the whole thing and find a Web site that offers the same services but doesn’t impose arbitrary platform restrictions. If you choose the latter course of action, let the offending Web site know about its competitor—sometimes that’s a grand way to prompt action. Issue 3: Incomplete Mac Versions Companies such as Adobe have fallen into this trap—offering a Mac ver- sion of their software that lacks features found in the PC version. The clas- sic example of this is Adobe Acrobat 4.0, in which the Mac version lacked several features the Windows version offered. Adobe later fixed that prob- Jem, but not before it cost the company a lot of good will in the Mac com- munity. Even if it slows down product release, developers should concen- trate on feature equity. What You Can Do About It Again, it comes down to consumer advocacy tactics: letters, mobilizing a crit- ical mass of Mac users, and finding an alternative. Also consider requesting a product that contains some exclusive features for Mac users. Microsoft has done a spectacular job of this. For instance, Internet Explorer 5 includes some nice Mac-first features—like the Scrapbook and the Auction Managet—winning grudging respect from even hard-core Mac enthusiasts. From Your Lips ere’s what MacAddict.com visitors had to say about what developers can do to improve the Mac platform: * Produce Macintosh products at the same time as PC products. —Chris Reid * Support AppleScript with a comprehensible and comprehensive dictionary.—Richard Einhorn + Work toward open source and cross-platform compatibility. More than anything else, this would take the wind from the sails of the Evil Empire's marketing department—William Jurgenson F ortunately for us, the list of great Mac com- panies is too tong to include in full, so we chose five software developers to acknowledge, 1. Microsoft Yeah, it's a little weird to put the Evil Empire at the top of our list, but the Microsoft Macintosh Business. Unit (those responsible for Microsoft's Mac software) is arguably the best large Mac developer out there. Great examples of its soft- ware include Office 98, Internet Explorer 5, and Outlook Express 5. rf Jokes about Acrobat and Clown aside, Adobe has made tons of quality Mac products, even during the dark days. Mac users know the company best for Photoshop and Illustrator, but Adobe also produces Premiere, GoLive, InDesign, Page- Maker, LiveMotion, Acrobat, and After Effects, among others 3. Aspyr, Bungie, MacSoft Okay, so that's three companies, but these folks kept us in games when no one else would, giving us such titles as Tomb Raider, Myth, and Unreal. Let's just hope Bungie can maintain its dedica- tion to the Mac now that Microsoft has acquired it (though we're not holding our breaths). 4. Macromedia Again, the awesome Mac support and products that come from Macromedia are too great to enu- merate, but you may recognize these: FreeHand, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, and Director. 5. Apple With the release of Final Cut Pro, iMovie, Quick- Time 4, and a cheaper version of WebObjects, Apple has been its own best friend. David Reynolds will always treasure the time he spent camping behind enemy lines with nothing but a pocket knife, fishing line, and a fear of roaches. |MacAddict/SEP/00 ay nett: D tor ~ Digital huake Management Image viewing at its very PS 27S Se K6in_ 2000 best “Germany Download ACDSee For Mac trial version at PO Box:%, ey fs www. ACDSYSTEMS.com/ma 11005795909 F800 819.207 OSs Es ”~ F Peano A rf ' et’s face it. As much as you've tried to ignore | a? , We L Windows, you just haven’t succeeded in mak- ing it go away. PC users send files you can’t open. Then they complain whenever you email them a file hey can’t open. You know how much better a Mac is, but it’s getting annoying to hear PC users snarl, “Oh, you have a Mac,” as if you were working with a broken pencil and an abacus. The truth is, others are less enlightened than you when it comes to operating systems. Worse yet, PCs are starting to pervade more aspects of your life. | owes1 C Perhaps your office is crawling with PCs and you're | amet the lone Mac user, or maybe your wicked boss has 1] even replaced your work machine with a PC. How ] 1 : are you going to hang onto your beloved Mac when everything around you is turning into Windows? FIND GRAPHIC- CONVERTER 3.8.2 ey 3 ; i ; Fortunately, you don’t have to go over to the sean ise Tonn TTT ] ] Dark Side completely. With a little knowledge and ue Rizzo | We a some cool tools, you can share files, printers, and : | | | | Internet connections across the two platforms and illustration ia ee i by S. Britt a z officially integrate the Mac and Windows worlds. 36 | MacAdaict| SEP/00 | MOoOvE IT OR LOSH rr Sending Email Attachments to PCs To ensure that a file you send to a PC doesn’t arrive as a garbled mess, you have to treat it like a Windows file. That means encoding it in a format Windows software can recognize. Email software encodes files as text when it attaches them to a mes- sage. The trouble is, Mac email software defaults to a different encoding standard than the one PCs use. The prime encoder for Windows-targeted attachments is MIME/Base64. In Microsoft Outlook Express 5, the old but popular Claris Emailer, and Qualcomm Eudora, you can encode your attachments directly within each message—just bring up a new message and find the encoding menu. In older versions of Outlook Express, it’s a bit more complicated because you have to change the Preferences set- ting, In the Edit menu, go to Outlook Express and choose Message Composition in the left column. Near the bottom of the window you'll see the Attachment Encoding pop-up menu, where you can select MIME/Base64. Eudora uses a variant of MIME/Base64 called AppleDouble, which you can select from your encoding menu—this also works with Windows. Just make sure to choose BinHex or AppleSingle when you send attachments to another Mac—other- wise files will lose their icons, as well as their type and creator codes, and Mac apps ‘won't recognize them. When you're emailing attachments, pay attention to compression as well, since some email software compresses a file before encoding it. Mac software defaults to Stuffit (SIT) compression, 2 format most PCs won’t recognize. One simple solution is to turn off compression in your email software—you’ll usually find this option in the same window where you set encoding. Another option is to compress files in a format Windows understands, such as