MacAddict 055 200103

PHOTOSHOP LAYER TIPS, STUPID EMAIL TRICKS, 50 PALIM APPS A better machine. A better magazine. www.macaddict.com MARCH 2001 Anle's New Strategy Ultrathin, Ultrasexy PowerBook G4s, | 733MHz 64 Towers with CD and DVD Burners, Supercool MPS and DVD ADDS! Fai; = DREAMWEAVER 4, VIRTUAL PC 4, HIPZIP DRIVER, = 4X4 EVOLUTION, NIKE PSA/PLAY, WEBCAM ROUNDUP (iia RATED CanoScan D660U | Scanner CanoScan N656U Scanner CanoScan N1220U Scanner BJC-85 Printer The Canon Think Tank System™ The $400, $450 and 8/C-8200 printers all feature individual ink tanks to reduce ink waste and save you money. Plus, the ink sensor system alerts you when you're running low. Peripheral Take a quick look around. You'll find a Mac® compatible Canon peripheral for just about any purpose you could imagine. From high- resolution printers and scanners to the world’s best-selling portable printer, we've got what it takes to keep Mac users smiling. And with Award-Winning Portable Printer Need a traveling companien for your iBook™ or PowerBook” G3? Our 3.1 pound” BJC-85 Color Bubble Jet Printer was named “Best of Show” at the Macworld San Francisco 2000 Expo. {©2001 canes SA, ne Cara, 81, Bute et, Canc tow Hor, CanScan, Canta Tink Tan Silom, APASS and ZL arevadumars of Canon ie Mat andthe Mac ogo are tagemars of Aple eat Ine, registered i ha US ond ee BJC-8200 Printer S450 Printer Vision $400 Printer more than sixty years of imaging expertise built into every single detail, the term “state- of-the-art” is somewhat of an understatement. e. MultiPASS C555 Come and see for yourself. Visit us on the Multifunction Printer Internet at www.ccsi.canon.com/macfriendly or call 1-800-OK-CANON for more information. Canon know now: Advanced Flatbed Scanners Superior Multifunction Printers Our rew CanoScan? family showcases a host of innovative Print. Fax. Copy. Scan. After introducing the world’s first features including our Z-Lid™ Expansion Top (on select models) and Mac-compatible multifunction printer, we've taken technology to built-in 35mm film adapter on the CanoScan D660U Scanner. a new level with our MultiPASS™ C555 Multifunction Printer, ‘cunts Al ober pad and brand names ar tragenarks fh respective ome. Speitcatons suet a change wit nati. 5 pounds with AC adapt and optina ate pac. In Canada, cal 1-800-263-1121. Disturb the peace. Tranquility is highly overrated. Earsplitting high- SoundSticks speaker system, is most definitely not. For more seismic details, HA ttarman international Company. ©2000 Herman Multimedia. Harmen Kardon and SoundSticks are trademarks of Harman International. Toll-free 877-266-6202 fidelity sound, like the kind you'll get from our new 40-watt, USB-enabled check out www.harman-multimedia.com. harman/kardon Great Galloping disse os! A Drag & Drop Utility for CD-RW that Actually Works! Announcing Wr RW!” for Apple” PowerMac and iMac systems. Now you can reliably mount, drag & drop files to, and exchange disks with PC’s using CD-RW disks... fast and easy, every time! a to use: Simply “drag & drop” files to the WriteCD-RW! icon. No time consuming mastering applications needed! i F: : Our RhinoCache™ hard disk cache speeds file copies and frees up your Mac fast. Files are written to disk in the background, so you don’t have to wait. RhinoCache™ eliminates “hot spots” on your disk to extend media life too. #& Compatib! using our exclusive “Red Rhino” UDF file system technology, WriteCD-RW! formatted disks are readable on MS Windows systems running Win Me or 2000, as well as any Apple system running Mac OS 8 & 9, without any additional software required! Disk interchange was never easier! ; #9 Supports old le WriteCD-RW! even reads & te CD-RW!) writes to disks formatted with Adaptec’s Direct CD™, Toast™ ‘Drag Drop £0-RW Ditty far Aple Systems and Easy CD Creator™. Unlike competitive offerings, WriteCD- RWI! reliably supports disk interchange between Mac OS and Windows systems using UDF file system readers. No more hassles, It just works! #& Affor WriteCD-RW! costs only $49.95. To order, contact us at: www.softarch.com, or call 1-800-863-9297. 8 A A Software Architects Inc. No, 65 March 2001 Volume6 Issue 3 highlights Abetter machine. A better magazine. how to 24 Sex, Power, and Rock and Roll Apple’s opened up a whole new can of whoop-ass with the introduction of the uitra- thin G4 laptop, the ultra-fast DVD burning Power Macintosh G4, and some great new software. by the MacAddict Staff © You're really going to 0. 34 Pack Your Palm For many people, a Palm Pilot or other PDA device is as essential as money, oxygen, ora spouse (more essential, in some cases). | Well, it’s time to fancy up that little handheld of yours with 50 of the coolest Palm OS apps money can buy. by Joseph 0. Holmes Can I get one of those little umbrellas in my drink? 40 20 Games for Nongamers If the weekly Friday afternoon office frag is leaving you ina blue funk about your gaming skillz, try your hand at a simpler game. We've got 20 titles for the nongamer that will keep you as addicted and sleepless as that Quake freak 64 Use Email to Control Your Mac Remotely If all that pesky “security” and “unhackability” is getting you down, here’s a more than slightly hacky way to control the Mac on your desk from anywhere in the world. by lan Sammis 68 Build Interarchy i fa virus strikes... interfaces = (ilnterarchy taterface Builder SSeS Interarchy is more than just eae = Anarchie with a spiffy new name. oy Thanks to a new feature called either Wands or Interfaces, depending upon which version of ay O Interarchy you’ve got, you now can easily make wild and bizarre (or, if you're that sort of person, useful) new interfaces to the application. As usual, if there’s something wild and bizarre in the Mac world we’re all over it. by David Reynolds 72 Make Layer Masks Bo Your Bidding ‘Once again we delve into Photoshop, this time to give our Art Director a fishtank while trapping. our incoming editor in chief in a horrifying Max gives new meaning to drawn and quartered. in the next cubicle. by John Lee Photoshop effect. by lan Sammis Dave fires up iTunes and reaches a new state of Nirvana. For ail our special fans: Pantone 877! ae Att REPRINTS ‘SUBSCRIPTION QUERIES Uh, that’s the shiny stuff on the cover that - = appears gray here. 0 You're welcome. Volume 6, Issue 3 For reprints, contact RMS at 717-399-1900. Please phone customer service toll-ree at 888-771-6222. ‘MacAddict (ISSN 1088-540%) s published monthly by imagine Media Inc. 150 Norh Hill, Brisbane, CA 94005, USA, Periodial-class postage paid at Brisbane, CA, and at adctional maling offices. Newsstand distribution is handled by Curtis Circulation Co, Basic subscrion rates: one year (12iesues ++ 412CD-ROMs) US $39.90, Canada $43.95, U.S. prepald funds ony, Canadian pce includes postage and GST 128220688, IPM 0962592, Outske the US. ‘and Canada, price is $53.95, US. prepeid funds only. POSTMASTER: Send ‘acres changes to MecAdlict PO, Box 58251, Boulder, GO 80828-8251. Imagine Media, nc. also publishes Maximum PC, Business 2.0, Games Business, Next Generation, digtalFOTO, PC Gamer, and PSM, Entre contents copy- ‘ight 2000, imagine Media, Inc. Al rights reserved. Repoduction in whole or in parts prohibited. Imagine Meta, Inc. is not affliated with ne companies or ‘pfodicts covered! in MacAdtlict. Ride-Along enclosed in he folowing edilons: As, 81, 82, B3, PRODUCED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. MAR/O1 | MacAddict |5 THE TEAM EDITOR IN CHIEF Robert Capps EDITORIAL | EXECUTIVE EDITOR Dav Reynolds ib eS te Seite =, MANAGING EDITOR Jenifer Morgan ) SENIOR EDTORS Cathy Lu (teatures), lan Sammis (technology) 10 Editor's Note ——_—— ASSOCIATE EDITOR Narasu Rebbapragata (reviews) Rob recounts his favorite moments at MacAddict as he bids DIGTAL MEDIA EDTIOR Andrew Tokuda WEBMONSTER Niko Coucouvanis Beohithe EDITORS Rat Anovi, Steven Avzovn | us farewell to become a warld traveler. Jerk. real White erty bt 2 | = Belt Jones? 12 Letters rot ART DIRECTOR David Ross You wrote ‘em, we read ’em and, against our better ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Christopher imtay judgment, published ’em. CREATIVE DIRECTOR Wayne Allen PRODUCTION 14 Get Info — ‘And modeling RODUCTION ORECTOR Ae eam, | More Macworld Expo updates for those who can’t get this year's See eae | enough, plus a cordless keyboard conundrum solved, a black mock way to save digital photos from media gone bad, a titillating’ turtleneck ADVERTISING. tactile sound module, and one lucky reader wins a Canon and jeans ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Don Kimenker scanner for doing a creative writing exercise. combo... REGIONAL AD MANAGER Michelle Paredes: SR. ACCOUNTS MANAGER, DIRECTSALES Ana Epstein : DIRECTOR OF MARKETING Mary LaChapelie MARKETING MANAGER Balin Brandt AD COORDINATOR Matt Wheoland BUSINESS MANAGER Doug Haynia 22 Scrapbook : Adobe releases a revamped—and much improved—version of Premiere upon the world, and we give it the hairy eyeball. CIRCULATION i pf GROUP CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Kate Balley | 44, Reviews MR cath Ue) dou ’ CIRCULATION MANAGER Jerry Murphy. | Now, that’s entertainment. This month we play Driver, NEWSSTAND DIRECTOR Eric Aleknan 4x4 Evolution, and StarTrek: Voyager Elite Force, and NEWSSTAND SALES MANAGER Jonathan Vernier we play with the JamP3, HipZip, and Nike PSA/Play 120 ONUNE MARKETING MANAGER Mayumi Stroy MP3 players. For the Webbies, we look at Dreamweaver 4 FULFLLMENT MANAGER Peggy Bares Fireworks 4 Studio, as well as the iBot Pro and PYRO Bee MENS oe ar aes oe 1394 Web cams. For audiophiles, we pound Phrazer 1.0 ay i poet Ne and Mixman Studio Pro 4.0. Plus, Bodypaint 3D and Stole the rest imagine] Virtual PC 4. What more could you want? Don’t answer that. of my car? 62 Powe rplay = sou fb Brstune ca e400 (es) 466-4684, tp:/Avwimagiremedia.com Although the Sims introduced to us the world to simulated people ie we’ re este EE yer not counting certain municipal employees), it took the Livin’ Large toa AER AEAEO To tet expansion pack to make things truly right. Plus, Ragnar smash! Oh, and we included your best screenshot for all to see. Ariel, Ookla-RIDE! Ragnar-SMASH! lan-STOP! 76 Ask Us ne EE ae This month we’ve got some possible cures for your woes, as long as they’re of types 1, 2, or 3. We've also got some OS X-rated advice and a 1psor-Bint help for Mac administrators that are down with a bad case of the pushy comes dusiness, Total Mavi, Revalion, Dresmcas Magazine) ‘server connection boxes... IMAGINE ENTERTAINMENT DIVISION. ‘agin esi nae at people wha hav a pasion Apssion or ‘games, For business. For computers. Or forthe nterict These ara Fe lapel eager wrelove to have un ad we hove a eaten ule avaye oder 104 Shut Down eee ere: i {out ntomaton you noua: With any tack we'l oven make you | First they come for the lawyers and then the folks who create Microsoft ads. mile sometimes..qhanks for Joining ws Imagine Media Ino. i part of The Tee PuureWeoor Bb srv he , OE eee hit execu Greg ingen ‘ere pace We neo ety Tol saa tzas senza Welcome to the corral, Ryan! How ‘creating magazines and Web ion by Sites that offer superb val “wwwthefuturenetwork plo.uk ‘Media with Passion about some more Sees? Gum, Niko? Anyone seen the bottom feeder? Both London Milan Munich New York Pace Saq Francisco snd snurber feb netvor rom ofcesin ve countries. The company alec Kenses £2 magazines In 20 unos The Fare Network ins Pub copay gute onthe London Stock Sxcumgeevmbol NER). 6| MacAdaict | MAR/O1 puter's lAchos d\Pains. as your Mac® seen healthier days? viruses, while preventing it from getting sick Maybe it caught a bug. Is badly congested. in the first place. Or suffers from hardware headaches. Fortunately, So to keep your Mac out of the infirmary, there’s a simple remedy for such ailments.... here’s our diagnosis: Take the all-in-one cure, Norton SystemWorks™ for Macintosh® Norton SystemWorks for Macintosh. You'll find Norton SystemWorks gives your entire Macintosh __ it over the counter at your nearest software a complete check-up. Then, cures what ails it. store, or visit www.symantec.com/mac. Plus, it inoculates your computer against ‘Compatible with Mac 0/5 8.1 or greater, {yt ana he yan oy a8 US. ta aoa of Sze Copan. Naan Syste saa of Syme Copoaton ) Sy m a ac and Macias ae registered ademas of Aple Computer, ne. Copigh © 2000 Synanc Corporation. Al igh esered Another Good Reason to Be a Mac Owner—The Disc! Kiwe hada monitor 4 feet high, maybe we could see all the modules aonce! nt {mneoorse) | Hefty, fetch me > @ Reason Demo that elusive 150MB demo while | sleep, would ya? i. oo 8 | MacAaddict MAR/O1 Packin’ the Plastic Pure Digital Power! When we say pure digital, we mean it! Reason isa godsend for those would-be electronic musicians who want an all-in-one studio solution but can’t afford the hardware. \magine having a rack with an analog synthesizer, sampler, drum machine, mixer, effects, sequencer, and more—working entirely on your Mac! No cables to trip over or heavy electricity bills to worry about! Try the demo and you'll realize that the virtual studio is now reality! Phrazer Demo We Mac users have long been denied a decent production tool for loop- based audio sequencing and composition. Bitheadz saw that empty space and put together Phrazer, the answer for those sample-hungry DJs who want a truly professional program to edit, splice, effect, and sequence their audio masterpieces. This program is compatible with a range of audio files, including proprietary formats such as Sonic Foundry’s Acid and Bitheadz’s ‘own Unity DS-1 Sampler format. Think you've got what it takes to be a remixer? Give Phrazer a spin! Majesty Demo You've seen the futuristic fantasy in Starcraft. Now see the mythical past in MacPlay’s Majesty. You are in contral of a kingdom full of heroes, villains, monsters, wizards, and a tax collector} (A tax collector?) This game is a balance of strategy and resource management. Expand your kingdom while battling the forces that try to destroy it. Hefty FIP Whether you're a Webmaster who demands an efficient environment for file transfers, ora file junkie who needs to download huge files from the Web or FIP servers, Hefty FTP is coming to your rescue! This queue-based FTP client automatically retries connections, downioads, and uploads, and resumes. transfers {if possible). Ifyou just can’t wait for that humongous demo to appear on The Disc, let Hefty FTP do the dirty work and retrieve files for you from the Internet. ® cleaning tan Sammis’s workspace was truly ‘an amazing sight to behold. There came atime, however, when even the foundation of load-bearing boxes couldn't support the weight of COs, manuals, press releases, pennies, iBorg parts, paper clips, and miniature alcohol bottles from hotels, Rob Capps decided it was time to take matters into his own hands. This is a video collage of the ‘momentous event, Enjoy. [+ cor09x9 The Simple Way to Access PC Networks ubleTalk fr 2 revolutionizes Mac-PC networking by enabling Power Mac users to connect to PC networks and printers from within the familiar Mac interface. DoubleTalk sets up quickly and easily in the Mac environment. It automatically configures its network settings, then lets you access network resources and services through the Chooser or Network Browser, DoubleTalk works automatically and transparently in the background, requiring little or no user intervention. Access file servers, transfer files from shared Windows workstations, print to networked Windows Postscript printers, and create a peer-to-peer network with Macs and PCs with little or no help from your IT department. Purchase Connectix DoubleTalk online from the Connectix eStore or from your favorite software retailer. For more information, go to www.connectix.com. Come Visit us at Booth #1407 during Macworld SF. © Copyright Connectix Corporation. Connectix and Connectix DoubleTalk are trademarks of Connectix Corporation. All other trademarks are property of their respective holders. Connectix ors nore Last call. G6lt’s better to be a pirate than join the Navy.99 —Steve Jobs 4 4 W e’re losing the sun, where the hell’s Richie?” MacAddict photo contributor Aaron Lauer shouts at me above the noise of Oyster Point Boulevard. | have no answer. It's late October 1999. As has been the case so many times befare, | have no idea what I’m doing. I've dragged a $1,000-per-day photographer, his assistant, a prop stylist, and new MacAddict art director David Ross to an abandoned tractor at the side of a major thoroughfare in South San Francisco. We're all waiting for Richie Lesovoy, head of Imagine’s production department, who has promised to show up and model Apple’s new clam-shaped iBook for the magazine. As we don’t own an industrial backhoe to use for this concept shot (iBook Fashion, |an/oo, p47), we had to wait until a local construction crew knocked off for the day, allowing us to, well...commandeer ‘one. | had tried to make official arrangements, but those didn’t work out. (“Um...excuse me, could we borrow your tractor? You see, Apple Computer has just come outwith a laptop that some people think looks girly, and we thought it'd be funny to dress up a bunch of magazine staff as construction workers and...no? OK.”) Aaron’s worried about losing the sun, \’m worried about the possibility of a band of surly construction workers wandering by. My foray into playing photo shoot producer is going questionably at best. So far I’ve managed to take us way over budget and ve completely run out of time—the magazine goes to press in just two days. This isn’t to say the situation’s abnormal. Since | have been employed at MacAddict, | have found myself in the rote of film director, on-air radio host, lecturer, technical consultant, stunt guy, model, programmer, and travel agent. !'m always trying things | have no training for, no experience in, and generally no business doing. That’s the wonder of MacAddict. In the midst of this unsanctioned, oddly conceived, and most likely illegal photo session is everything | love about this magazine, our readers, and the Mac universe. MacAddict, like its subject matter, is the underdog. It’s not the biggest, broadest, best-funded, or longesi-running magazine in its market. Apple is likewise the small, 10 | eal MAR/O1 ‘So long, and thanks for all the Gas! scrappy competitor in the larger computer market, But that’s what makes both MacAddict and the Mac great. Being number two is amazingly liberating. Ifyou are the top dog in any field, to some extent you have to maintain the status quo. You're inhibited from taking risks or straying too far from the formula that made you successful. If you're number two, you have to try new things. You have to bethe rebel. The number twos of the world must be the boldest, the most inventive, and the biggest risk-takers if they hope to stay alive. The energy and opportunity you get from | being the underdog is what I’m going to miss most about this job. As of next issue | am officially stepping down as editor in chief of MacAddict. A strange collision of events has offered me the opportunity to spend the next year circumnavigating the globe, and it’s not an opportunity one should pass up. MacAddict stalwart David Reynolds will be returning to the post starting with the April issue. Most of you probably know Dave—he has been with the magazine since it launched, and served a previous tenure as editor in chief. Needless to say, the magazine is in very good hands, and you can expect more thorough reviews, in-depth how-tos, and absolute lunacy under his command. Pll always look back fondly on those adventures like the iBook photo shoot. Many times weas a Staff have heen stretched beyond our means, trying to pull off an idea no other Mac magazine in its right mind would attempt, and questioning our own sanity. More often than not we've pulled it off. ‘thing you've had to do for Le Q. What will you miss least about Rob? __A, Rob never let my stupidest ideas for cover lines and articles get very far. _ Damn that man! Jenifer Morgan Not-Traveling-Around-the- World Managing Editor What is the strangest thing you've had to do for : » MacAddict? Actin ‘out emotions for the inter- active movie The Four Faces of fenmo jun/oo)...at least it solicited a letter of admiration from the mysterious and no doubt Don Juan—esque “Mario from Greece.” Q. What willyou miss least about Rob? AA, Dance parties, air guitars, and kung fu practice in my cubicle. Q. Whatis the strangest thing you've had to do for MacAddict? A. Sorry, but I’ve signed an NDA regarding anything that may or ney not have occurred. -Q. What will you miss least about. Rob? AA. His stubborn U THEN HE BOUGHT THE PoWerRFILeE C200™ AND PULLED A GENIUS OUT OF HIS HAT. ‘ Digital asset management doesn't have to be messy or expensive. 4 Now with the PowerFile C200 CD/DVD Jukebox, you can enjoy central access to all of your archived data across your existing PC or Mac network. No more shuffling through piles of discs. Store, manage, and retrieve data through a simple, easy-to-use interface. And for a price that will make y you look like a genius. enius and order the PowerFile C200 Jukebox 8-DVD-NOW (1-877-838-3669) kebox.com/ma trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners. We've got mail. WRITE TO US: MacAddict, 150 North Hill Dc, Brisbane, CA 94005, ‘or emait to letters@macaddict.com. FOR CD PROBLEMS: Go to http: support.imaginemedia.com. FOR SUBSCRIPTION QUERIES: Call (toll-free) 888-771-6222. LIVE NUDE HARDWARE Great magazine, but | take issue with the January 2001 issue. In the center of the mag (“Look & Feel,” p24), | see the great, sexy photo layout of the Mac product line. My problem is that the images are not on the CD! You get my chops all watered up, just to leave me frustrated (talk about needing a cold shower). If you had inserted a Macintosh centerfold, | would have just keeled over. Take that, Playboy! —Mack Willingham GUESS YOU'RE NOT A VISUAL PERSON What a great issue, |’ve always wanted to view huge close-up shots of Mac peripherals. This just goes to show that MacAddict has finally admitted it has no. ideas, nothing useful or informative to write about, and will never come up with anything innovative in its teenybopper magazine. As soon as | saw this “feature article” in your latest issue, | moved on to better pastures— Macworld,—gollum20 12 | MacAddict |MAR/01 Psst, you don’t have to be 18 to buy this mag. WE'RE DREWLING | was watching the Drew Carey show, and | noticed that Drew got rid of his old Mac and bought the Cube. | was drooling as | stared atthe new G4. What's really sweet is that Mimi already has an iMac. | envy those people on the Drew Carey show that have the privilege of using those beautiful machines. | also just noticed that Drew has an iBook at his house. Man, is he ever lucky.—Gregory Coes THE MAXIM OF MAC MAGS? JenniCam is porn due to the fact that she moves her camera to angie-in during her sex acts with Dex. That is immoral behavior, as underage kids can easily access her site. | am appalled that you chose to brush over this fact and tout her Web site (Get info, Jan/o1, p2o). | am outraged, in fact, since many articles on the subject of pornography have discussed her, and to brush over this controversial topic is unethical. Please take a closer look at your assessment of future candidates for articles. Shame on you, MacAddict—very irresponsible!—Felicity ARE YOU YOUR BOSS? Although your magazine generally keeps us well informed, the article “Boss-Proof Your Mac” (Oct/oo, p42) crossed a few lines. My boss not only subscribes to your magazine, but also purchases and owns all Macs on the premises. He has respect for his employees and probably wouldn't look at their information, but what if he wanted to? Who. owns the computer and the software rights? He does, not the employees. Informing them to spend their work time covering their behinds is as bad as their having information on their computers that their bosses shouldn't see.—gasp107@aol.com GEE, THANKS (BLUSHING) The January 2001 issue arrived today. | have been looking for scanner reviews—thank you, thank you, thank you (Reviews, p66, p68, p70). Rob, you are just as cute without as with the goatee (Editor’s Note, p8). (I hope this isn’t too crippling coming from a gay man, but hey, subscribers write in about the cute women on your staff all the time.) —Ken Matthews A PRINT IS WORTH A MILLION PIXELS Thanks for Cathy Lu’s article on serious digital photography (Portrait of an Artist, Jan/o1, p42). It’s interesting to see an evaluation of digital image quality from a professional who knows what he’s talking about. Specifically, Stephen Johnson believes film is superior to 3- megapixel digital imaging for prints larger than 5 by7. There is so much sloppy hype in this field that careful judgments from working photographers are especially valuable. —Jerry Harris NOT QUITE THE MESSAGE BILL INTENDED I'm not too sure about Microsoft's new advertising campaign for Office 2001 Mac. ILLUSTRATION BY DAWD “HUBBA-HUBBAIT ROSS Office: mac ‘The essentials made easy. Just for Mac. Just for you. Edit someone else’s document electronically Remove Office tools ONE FOR THE RECORD You don’t pay much attention to a market in which the Mac has continued to dominate: the professional recording industry. The Mac has always been the professional engineer’s machine of choice, whether for running a MIDI sequence, editing a waveform, interfacing with hard disk recording units, or capturing multitrack recording directly. I’d like to see reviews of professional audio software a little more often. Readers would find it some of the most challenging, interesting, and feature- rich software available. —Sam Jordan We recognize this growing group of | avid Mac users. Look for how-tos and Using Entourage to send and receive Hotmail No, wait—the iBook just /ooks like a toilet seat cover! Doesn't it look like this guy's taking a big dump on his iBook?—Jean-Luc Dinsdale BRAVE NEW VIDEOS | just viewed the staff video with the interview of photographer Stephen Johnson (The Disc, Jan/o1), and | am pleasantly impressed. You guys are finally getting it. After suffering through many a strange and seemingly pointless video, | am glad to see that you are taking advantage of your resources. It was a great interview with a cool artist. Keep up the good work and watch your sound levels. —Christopher Flory EDITING KILLED THE VIDEO STAR Pve been a reader since issue 1 and enjoyed your spiffy movies (especially the PeeCee bashing). Now you've crossed the line by moving into the information market (The Disc, Jan/o1). Please, if you’re going to film talking heads, let’s see what the artist (Steve Johnson) is talking about. It’s not necessary to watch a person talk, talk, talk. Cutaways to the photos mentioned add interest and help the flow. Cute dissolves...eeechh! Maybe the old film- editing adage says, “If you can’t solve it, dissolve it”—but there are better ways. —Kirk Schuler WHAT IS NORMAL, ANYWAY? Why is that whenever | am missing something in the ever-present clutter of my room, my fingers go to the nonexistent Command-F keys? Am | addicted to Sherlock? Should | see a psychiatrist? Please tell me I’m normal! —Andrew Oates other articles on audio software and hardware in upcoming issues.—Ed. THE PRICE IS RIGHT Just wondering how you could possibly give the Rio 600, a ridiculously underpowered MP3 player, your Freakin’ Awesome! rating (Reviews, Jan/o1, p53). It has a measly 32MB of internal memory, which provides less than 30 minutes of music. Yes, you can add more storage, but that adds another $100 to the price tag. And by the way, in your review of the Rio 500 (Reviews, Feb/oo, p58), you mentioned that it suffers from “still-suspect memory capacity”—and yet it has 64MB, double that of the 600. The 600 should have received a Yeah, Whatever at best.—Neil McDougal Of all the MP3 players in this price range, the Rio 600 performed the best—hence our rating.—Ed, PROBABLY NOT How could a 13-year-old strain of nVIR end up ‘on The Disc (Jan/o2)? Everyone knows that two plus two equals five, so obviously your Disc editor is really an evil spy from Maximum PC magazine, who still has System 6 running with the nVIR virus and is planning to infect all unsuspecting Disc users so Maximum PC can assist Microsoft and Intel in taking over the world.—Dan Parnell The virus in the DarkRage Public Beta installer seems to work only on pre—Mac OS 7 machines, but the installer itself doesn’t work on pre—Mac OS & machines. This means Macs that can run the installer are apparently immune, while Macs vulnerable to the virus can’trun the installer. Of course, we offer our sincerest apologies that the little bugger got through our screening process.—Ed. MacAddict.com Rumor Mill R ecently, (magine Media, which publishes MacAddict, announced plans to downsize, spawning rumors that MacAddict.com would cease to exist. Some of you wrote in response. While the rumors were false (MacAddict.com continues to breathe), it gave us 2 chance to see what you really thought. THEY LOVE US You can’t go away. A bunch of old men run your only competitor. The very fact that you even know what tomacco is keeps me reading your magazine and visiting your Web site —7om Rehor Major bummer! 'll really miss Rich Pizor (MacAddict.com’s former online editor), and | wish you well with the Web site. if it means something to you, I'ma subscriber and avid reader of your mag, and as for the Web site, | check out you guys every day and | really, really, really appreciate your expertise, your sense of humor, and your generosity of spirit. So there. Best wishes!—Kate THEY LOVE US NOT lread on your Web site today that you are laying off the Macaddict.com staff. | hope this means bona fide change is coming. The current Macaddict.com frankly stinks. First ofall, there is that dangling mouse ad you refused to move. Second, there is the “content,” which seemed like an excuse to show off your network banners rather than providing any useful stuff. | hope any new incarnation of MacAddict.com is actually worth my time. We'll see.—Chris Turkel Your Web site looks like one of those cheap Mac-sale magazines that come to my house every other day. You could make your site fun and informative, but it looks cheap and the fonts are crappy. The green color is horrible, and there is so much blinking and flashing, it looks like a whorehouse of bad advertising. Now you have pop-up windows likea chintzy home page ora pom site. | really used to like your mag and your site, but something has changed.—John Hannah MAR/O1 Mecacctot We get info Ah. Good to the last drop. Best and Brightest Another Expo Brings Another Bumper Crop of Cool and Bizarre Mac Products T here are some constants in \ife: Apple wilt aiways be jf in turmoil, Motorola will always be light-years ahead of the competition in their own minds but struggling hard in reality, and Microsoft will always sway between good -and evil to an alarming degree. It’s time once again to revel in the fruits of another of life’s little rituals—the coming out of cool and bizarre third-party applications and peripherals featured at January's Macworld Expo. Here are some of the niftiest things we've seen.—/S Maya ia) Alias | Wavefront (www.allaswavelront.com) ‘Scheduled for release Q2 2001 $7,500 (SRP) If there was ever any doubt that Mac OS X would attract developers to the Macintosh platform, the 3D animation masters over at Alias|Wavefront have eliminated it—and they've done it with style. Within a few months of the March 24 release of Mac OSX, Alias|Wavefront is planning to bring Maya to the Mac. If you’re not drooling, you don’t know Maya—this is the 3D powerhouse responsible for the pod racers in Star Wars: Episode |; the mummy in, er...7he Mummy; and (shudder) the mouse in Stewart Little. But before your drool hits the floorboards, be aware that this is The Last Word in Three-Dimensional Animation. Alias|Wavefront knows it and has priced Maya accordingly. FlyLight Notebook USB Light Kensington Technology Group (www.kensington.com) Available immediately $19.99 (ESP) When we built a FireWire flashlight in the February issue (“How to Light Up Your FireWire,” Feb/os, p78), we tried to make it clear that we were just fooling around. Kensington’s not kidding, though—they used the same concept to make a sleek, well-executed flashlight that plugs intoa USB port. If you’d rather skip the solder fumes and get a device that doesn’t lock like you beat it with an ugly stick, this one might be for you—if you need a little light on you desk or you just like cool gadgets. Now we can see the dust inside our keyboards! 14 | Macagae Rend These plants were just painted on with Maya’s spectacular Paint Effects. If you're ready to pay thrice the cost of a 533MHz G4 for a software package, Maya is yours. FlashTrax ‘SmartDisk Corporation (www.smartdisk.com) Availability unknown at press time Price unknown at press time This flash card—based device lets you play MP3s on any cassette tape player. It looks exactly like any other casseft tape—if you ignore the’ SmartMedia card slot in the top. Just copy MP3s onto a SmartMedia card, slip it into the FlashTrax, and stick the FlashTrax into a cassette tape deck. That’s one for the road. For those c with computers, but no CD players! PHOTOGRAPHY 8 WB, JONES SoundBlaster Live —————— Creative Labs (www.creative.com) Availability unknown at press time Price unknown at press time Creative Labs has now lapped themselves—the ultra-cool SoundBlaster Live sound card that the company said e was coming soon Be ayear ago showed itself ‘SoundBlaster—almost live. again this year, and it’s... still coming soon. While we're getting a bit impatient, we’re willing to wait—the card seems to be shaping up nicely, and it should bring amazing audio to the Mac when it ships (assuming they manage to beat Mac OS X—otherwise we may find ourselves with another wait on our hands). Out of the Mouth of Johs D uring his Macworld Expo keynote address in January, Steve Jobs said several interesting things about the Mac and the PC industry in general. Here are a few selected tidbits. “The last several months of 2000 were particularly challenging for us and our industry.” Understating recent PC market worries. L£> “Qur goal is to never have Darwin Crash.” On lofty goals. (Darwin is the core of Mac OS X.) “We know that Mac OS X is really laying the foundation for the next decade, decade and a half, for our software efforts.” On the importance of Mac OS X to Apple. “We've read every single one.” On the 75,000 Mac OS X feedback submissions Apple has received. “We were late to this party, but we're here.” On including CD burners in the Power Macintosh Gg line. “It's made out of titanium, like the spy planes.” On why the PowerBook Gg looks cool. “My god—the brushed metal virus spread to the hardware.” lan Sammis, on the PowerBook G4 Titanium case.—DR MacAddict Labs 'L ogitech’s line of wireless keyboards lets you untether yourself from your computer, keying in text from as far away as 25 feet (Logitech claims 6 feet, but others report much longer distances). This begs the s 2 question of what exactly you are going to see on a 77-inch monitor at that : distance. We took it upon ourselves at MacAddict Labs to find out. We used ™ a 2-foot viewing distance as our basis for comparison.—DR Cordless Keyboard Conundrum 2 5 Making Good Media Gone Bad Good Again fyou’re a digital camera enthusiast and you haven't lost any images to corrupt media or Although it may look other snafus, count yourself lucky— and start counting the like your friend, that days until it will happen. Like it or not, _ piece of media is just the media that stores digital images waiting to abscond with can be fragile and finicky. But if your your digital pictures. media card does go legs-up on you in the middle of photographing an alien invasion ina com field, there is hope. DriveSavers (800-440-1904, www.crivesavers.com), known for its daring feats of hard-drive data recovery, has just launched a digital image recovery service. For a fee typically ranging from $100 to $300, the company will do its damdest to recover your images. Turnaround time can be as quick as one or two days, but the extra speed will cost you. IFit makes you feel better, Kodak, Nikon, and Olympus endorse DriveSavers’ recovery process.—DR That's right—someone sitting in a seat on the left can use a computer as far away as the monitor to the right, using Logitech's wireless keyboards. The question is, who would want to? Font size required to ! 2 === @) =e to screen (oa) make text appear as | 2 ae o=(2) a) ifit's 12 pt. 142 ptA' Eloy ae 72 pt. 1 ‘ H Apparent monitor ' ' } area ofa 17" screen = ¢ y auc at On: L 139 15 39! 3 sq.in.! syn, | Sin! i 39. in, { ' t 1 f i ; 5 I t : D A onito 8 z 0 04 : LJ MAR/O1 | MacAddict |15 j | PHOTOGRAPH BY W. B. JONES get in firoolworthy Raylink Wireless Networking Products Raylink |www.raylink.com |$329 for access point, §69 to $89 per card f AirPort’s 150-foot range is just too short, Raylink may have the solution for you. Sacrificing speed for range, Raylink uses a different broadcast technology than AirPort’s to shove a slower 2-Mbps signal out to 500 feet 4,000 if you’ve got a direct line of sight to the access point). The whole thing’s Mac compatible, so if you want to get away from your base station without tosing touch, Raylink’s systems may be your best bet.—/S SSE ive your spine the vibrations it craves with When you want to keep your distance, you want Raylink. Tactile Sound Modules Clark Synthesis | www.clarksynthesis.com $399 and up bl€eding from the ears—NC a Clark Synthesis tactile sound module. VJ Dave Holmes talks about music, technology, and the Internet ometimes no speaker is loud enough. Whether it’s for music, for combat, or just to feed a really strong addition to startup chimes, occasionally you want sounds you can feel as well as hear. If you prefer to retain your valuable eardrums at the same time, check out the tactile sound modules sold by Clark Synthesis. These marvelous devices transmit the Vibrations from sound directly into the solid object te which you mount then—so | shove one under your chair and your music will pound through you, without all that messy fyou constantly want your MTV, then you might be familiar with the face of Dave Holmes, who arrived on the MTV scene as a ‘VJ two years ago. Holmes started his career asa DJ ata small St. Louis radio station when he was 14, and is a self-admitted music fanatic. He is also something of a Mac fanatic, having acquired his first Apple machine when he was 13. He’s now the proud owner of a Special Edition iBook, which he uses as “a very expensive Walkman” for storing MP3s. Recently, we asked Holmes for his thoughts on music, the Internet, and the infamous Napster controversy.—CL MacAddict: What is your take on Napster? Dave Holmes: It’s really good for the recording industry in the tong run. Nobody thinks about the long run. Everyone thinks. about what it’s going to mean for this 16 MacAdaict MAR/O1 quarter. | use it fo sample new artists and find rare things that have gone out of print. Or if there’s a band somebody is raving about, then (ll tryto find that and listen toa song, and nine times out of ten ll end up’ going to the store and buying it. And | think most people do. MacAddict: What do you think the recording industry should do about Napster? Dave Holmes: | really think they should keep their hands off it, to be honest. It can prove to be beneficial to them the way radio isif. they would just leave it alone and let it grow ‘on Its own, MacAddict: What are some of your best Napster finds? Dave Holmes: Just goofy stuff | thought only | knew about....You would never think there is ‘such a thing as early Stacey Q, but there is. And | found it on Napster. MacAddict: Are music videos on the Web going to become big like MP3s? ‘Dave Holmes: | think so....The Internet is going to become what cable was 15 years ago. It’s just going to be a repository for whatever—the kind of messed-up stuff you find in pop culture. MacAddict: How do you think overall technology has changed the music industry? Dave Holmes: Within the next couple of years, as people statt to use it more intelligently, it's going to pop in the place of radio and MTV. We don’t break artists the way we used to—because of ratings, we just can't. It's difficult to take a chance on a new artist, and of course radio hasn’t done that in years. But I’m waiting for the first break-out band from Napster, the first word-of-mouth, word-of-email success. It will happen in the next year or so. Of FireWire With VST's ultra-portab got tl ectivity to do wt e you want. je ding line of ripherals, speed you want, From high-performance, ultra-thin hard drives that fit in your hand, to full height hard drives that stack on your desktop, VST gives you the jou need to keep going. From CD-R/W drives to Zip drives, will enhance your pr the CD-RW Drive FireWit Zip Drives ~ SmartDisk Personal Storage Systems 7 Making Stuff Work by \ Any Means Necessary The Belkin OmniView SE 2-Port KVM hether it’s the hands that don’t stop shaking until that crucial 23rd cup of coffee, or the outrage he expresses that some local newsstand doesn’t carry either MacTech or C/C++ User’s Journal, a diehard geekis usually easy to spot. There’s one acid test—go to a geek’s house (assuming said geek is out of college), and you'll almost invariably find more than one computer. ifyou’re a neophyte geek, you may recently have encountered the flaw in multiple-computer nirvana. Unless you're willing to sacrifice your entire deskto keyboards, mice, and monitors, you're going to have trouble setting up both computers at once. The solution is a clever little device called a KVM switch. KVM siands for yboard, Video, and Mouse. Just flip a i 0 different computers gle keyboard, monitor, and mouse. While that sounds great, USB-based KVM switches are still new enough so that they're hard to find on the used market. That’s a shame, because KVMs are expensive beasts With a KVM, you can lose those geekier-than-your-desk-space blues. The 46Lympic Games (typically over $100 for a two-port s\ unge, and you can get them working just fine with some extra parts. We decided to use a PS/ le KVM. switch for a beige G3 and a home-brewed Linux box. We ended up needing three additional pieces of hardware: a VGA-to-Mac video converter to plug our VGA monitor into the G3’s DB-15 video port, a PS/2-to-USB converter, and a USB PCI card. This hardware would be somewhat expensive new; make sure you can find used components if you don’t want to spend more money than you’ll save. At first everything seemed to work, but we soon encountered a new problem when the WM video abruptly cut out. It turns out the signal coming from the VGA converter got sufficiently distorted after passing thro the KVM so that it simply couldn’t drive the . Swapping out the japter for another model (one that came bundled with a Sony monitor) solved the proble: Connect this end to your computers. Connect your - keyboard, monitor, and mouse to these ports. Canon Scanner Finds Home with Creative Writer B ack in our December 2000 issue, we challenged you to interpret the text on the Read Me icon in Mac OS X Public Beta. You responded with a variety of creative {and nonsensical) items. Andy Putschoegl won the Canon scanner (the first prize) with this creative interpretation: Ah and was here it then drama digested in the lingerie of lips o clickable dolls shall appear in whip related to Lincoln bedroom on donor of million we found that his hat ain’t got mice. santas and firewire and the hack himself suspect to survive to be basic heroes age 21. His statement: “| believe it’s some sort of haiku. Beautiful, really.” Now before you go crawling all over Andy’s case about haiku having a specific structure, give it up. He knows and we know. You can read the best of the rest of the entries—and they are worth reading—at www.macaddict.com.—DR Mandtmates thes drera ‘Sgn bs re Proremptr ole a cada ths ae appeared a roby related oe Teron bored a shone su amiton vas toard Guat ‘hie taint ga omc Saar tm and burvoen anche herd Feet ak expat Te ere ‘abs rake nares age tt Andy Putscheeg! read me and won a scanner! Pave Wi sanfeen|SRs SLOTS Oe>: Tus Danger: Steep Learning Curve Ahead K, all you Mac coding fiends—we've got a challenge for you. The prize: three copies of Omnis’s bewilderingly complex but outrageously powerful Omnis Studio 3.0 Web Edition ($1,179). The challenge: demonstrate your worth as a programmer by figuring out Omnis well enough to send us a working, useful Omnis application before April 30. Send your entry to contest@macaddict.com with “4GL” as the subject line. Omnis is giving MacAddict readers the Lite version of Omnis Studio for free, so to get started just browse over to www.omnis.net and click Buy, then Lite Registration. The password you should use is MAoos (that’s MA zero zero one). OEE Find Omnis: ff ‘Sidi 30m Na canteen mane nlf ESO The Dist. SS dL eee aawcot sy r Once you enter your registration code, you'll have Omnis Studio Lite. Entries = should differ significantly from the templates provided by Omnis—we'll be judging them on originality, aesthetics, and functionality.—/S 18 | mote MAR/O1 databases out there, you might get $1,173 worth of software! If you can figure out one of the orneriest (but most powerful) Flatbed Color Flatbed Laser Multi-Function Multi-Function —— As Low as $499 As Low as $599 Laser Multi-Function As Low as $399 — Multi-Function As Low as $299 Machines That Do Everything. Affordable Multi-Function Center® Models—one less thing you'll have to wait for, thanks to our Mac compatible MFCs. Fact is, we've developed some very smart all-in-one solutions. That's right, all-in-one, as in printing, copying, scanning and even faxing—all in one compact unit. Plus, your MFC is available in zippy 12 page per minute laser, color inkjet, For Machines That flatbed and sheet-fed models. When it comes to . multi-function, think better... think Brother. Mean Everything. ‘G4 Cube — Various models available at: MACWAREHOUSE, CDW, MACZONE, J&R COMPUTER WORLD, ‘OFFICE DEPOT, OFFICEMAX, FRY’S, MACCONNECTION AND STAPLES At your side. ‘© 2000 Brother International Corporation, Bridgewater, NJ « Brother International Corporation, Nagoya, Japan For more information please call the Brother Fax-Back System at 800-521-2846 or visit our web site at wwrw.brother.com, All brand and product names are registered trademarks of their respective companies. Shareware Pick of the Month i PRICE: $20 URL: www.ilamingpearcom fyou’re the sort of dreary person who uses Photoshop to express the pathos of your life, the plug-in meisters over at Flaming Pear have got a tool right up your depressing little alley. Melancholytron lives up to its name—it can alter even the happiest, most cheerful photos to give them a darker, more brooding impact. It exhibits the usual thoroughness Flaming Pear brings to its products—you can easily fine-tune the filter's effects to create just the right combination of sepia tone, desaturation, blur, and vignette, bringing a moody sigh to even the most irritatingly upbeat picture.—/S = Granted, this shot already has a nostalgic took. == Metancholytron Color RID La ma nee ome (epecty ) a oa (es) C@) Ge) Ca) ce =] (ome ] (— }| ' Melancholytron makes the original shot look positively joyous by comparison. You can tweak Melancholytron’s options to create a host of beantiful (if not terribly cheerful) effects. Scripter’s Corner | wit a ri hile most scripters are satisfied with simply controlling Mac processor. Thanks to a useful scripting addition that applications, occasionally you need to go a bit further. Sometimes there’s just no substitute for creating a text file, whether you want to import it into a database or open itin a word comes with the Mac OS, it’s pretty easy to create a file from a script. To see how it works, take a look at this script, which writes the contents ofa folder to a file.—/S The choose folder command lets you pick a specific folder to list. The outer copy command stores the chosen folder in a varlable called thefol. fad ep Od Here's how to write a file from a script. From here on, you'll be issuing commands to the Finder. “This line just creates an AppleScript list ofthe ————_| contents within the folder you chose in the fitst fine. To start writing a file, you issue an open for access command, Since we're choosing with write permission, AppleScript will Create the file if it doesn’t exist already. The command returns a special eference number that the seript associates with the file as long as it ve an mn; we store the number in a varlable called cefnum, copy (choose folder with prompt "What do you went a jist of") to thefol tell epplication “Finder” |_—-set thelist to every item of thefoll “to refnum lend tett copy (open for sccess the file “Meintosh HD‘SeriptGenrile" with write permission) to refnum try repeat with thefile in thelist —— write (thefile es string) “~~ The repeat with v construct executes the commands it ins once for ea nent in the 8 we use it to write each file in eparately. fable in list end repeat t endtry close access refnum ifs very important that you close the file properly before: the script exits; otherwise the | ) Finder will mark the file as in use, making it impossible to access. This try block guarantees thatthe close access command at the end will execute, even if the script encounters errors. The close access line Is extrem soriptis is done meddling with the file, 20 MacAdcict MAR/01 Here's the meat of the routine-—this line writes each file's name in turn to the disk. Using thefile as string like this writes an entire path name (fer example, Macintosh HD:Apple Extras:AppleSeript:Script Editor instead of simply Script Editor). if you just want the name itself, replace thefile as stringwiththe name of thefile. / ely imporiant—it tells Mac OS that the meaning that the file's no longer in use. A More Powerful Virtual PC Now, up to twice as fast! Virtual PC 4 puts a fast, powerful PC inside your G3 or G4 Mac, enabling you to run PC applications, access PC networks, share files with PC-based colleagues, and use PC-only services and applications. The latest version of this award-winning software from Connectix runs PC operating systems up to twice as fast as previous versions, so it’s easier than ever for Mac users to stay compatible with the PC world. What's new in Virtual PC 4? Improved features in Virtual PC 4 include faster performance, larger disk images, easier to use interface and help system, and the ability to run multiple PC operating systems simultaneously. Run PC software faster and bet- ter than ever with Virtual PC from Connectix. Go to www.connectix.com for more information or to purchase Virtual PC. Come Visit us at Booth #1407 during Macworld SE. ‘© Copyright Connectx Corporation. Connectix and Connectix Virtual PC are trademarks of Connectix Corporation. All other trademarks are property oftheir reapective holders. Johnson was unseitling. And you thought Ray Jay Premiere 6 Improved Preview When you build a preview of your masterpiece, Premiere now gives you some feedback on how things are going, including how many frames per second it’s writing and how efficiently it’s using memory. by David Reynolds fter a few years of hanging out at version 5, Adobe has finally released a new version of Premiere. Besides including native digital video support and Web output capabilities (finally!), Premiere 6 includes an interface revamp. Here’s a look at what's new. A Brand-New Project Window No longer do you have to use the bland project bin—Premiere 6 now includes a preview, hierarchical folder views, and lots of Photoshop-like tools along the bottom. == Building Preview {| Memory: Performance: Frame 48 of 692 90:16 (Charlie Brown Desktop Folder :Adabe Pr. 10.408 7196 used of 6248 2:90 frames/see [lf Read /becompress G6 = Hi compress/Write Better Monitor With better layout of controls and more widgets to show you what's going on, the new Monitor window addresses some of the old complaints about Premiere. =) Look Familiar? With tabbed palettes—including a History tab and a Navigator tab—that include controls at the bottom, Premiere looks more and more Adobefied alt the time. -—! | Tempting Transitions Transitions are no longer stuffed ea 5) es a RNS REE ACE — into a tong list-now they are — es a categorized in hierarchical ai 2 + — 1 folders. Video and audio effects TP also find homes here under their “aos a own tabs. [er ns = ~ es ie —— > Sere FH > De > me Srmre > Sh css > Sam > seeauemes, > Game > wee, Ome — na Ties ool Updated Timeline Mixmaster Motie Premiere’s venerable timeline view now includes a new The new audio mixer window mode—single-track editing. The timeline also provides a lets you exercise pinpoint keyframe track, audio track buttons (for quick feature access), control over your Premiere and the ability to add new tracks by just dragging a clip. audio tracks. 22| MacAdaiict| MAR/01 Our family has expanded! We just added several innovative ways to upgrade your Macintosh®; i even more are on the way! Try ; our Tempo™ Ultra ATA66 PCI host : adapter card, our new Tempo RAID66 i ATA hardware RAID controller card ‘ and our Tango FireWire°/USB f combo card. Don’t miss our latest additions — the Crescendo” G3 and G4/7200 processor upgrades. Depend on Sonnet for simply fast Macintosh enhancement products. To learn more, call 1-800-786-6260 or visit our website at: . Www.sonnettech.com/ma Visit us at MacWorld San Francisco t January 9-12, Booth #535 (ONNey SIMPLY FAST OEX, POWER ROGK ‘W' ROLL Apple's new strategy appeals to the three vice groups hy the MacAddict Staff PoiietBOOK GA? eta ack in October 2000, Steve Jobs performed the ) unenviable task of telling the world that Apple would have a smaller-than-expected profit for the fall quarter and that the business side of things would be rough going for the next few months. Jobs pointed to several causes for the profit shortfall, including the megahertz gap and a soft overall PC market. Nota man to be caught withouta plan, Jobs said that the company would come out with faster Power Macs and all-new applications to take advantage of Apple’s unique position as the developer of both hardware and software—a combination that met tremendous success in the iMac and brought USB forward as the standard peripheral connection for the entire PC world. Now that Apple’s spring lineup is out, it’s clear that Apple means to make geod on its promises. With the top Power Macintosh G4s running at 733MHz and the introduction of an ultrastim, ultrasexy PowerBook Ga, the hardware line is seductive and mighty. And with new MP3 and DVD software (and CD bumers in every G4 tower), Apple’s got the rock ‘n’ roll department covered, too. You're gonna want one of these new Macs—we guarantee® it, * Not a guarantee. 24 |MacAdaict|MAR/01 idlen Age | : Ithough some have declared the PC dead—and we mean | ran the broader sense—Apple believes that this just publishing, email and the Web, and modern digital gadgets such as MP3 players and digital camcord ers, Apple is banking on the Digital Lifestyle and plans to be there first with new iMovie-tike *> applications and killer hardware. While that might serve as a fine _ Strategy for a multinational computer company, it doesn’t do much or the individual. So here’s our take on the true Golden Ages for [> Mac users. . ° THE NEW MAC—There’s nothing like that honeymoon—when you first pull your shiny new Mac out of its Styrofoam and fire it up. This Golden Age lasts anywhere from a few days to several months. * DISCOVERING THE INTERNET—The fir ‘time you receive email from an old friend or use the Web to find out what's causing that unsightly rash are enough to give you warm fuzzies. Those feelings should last for weeks, that is, until the spam starts pouring in. Then that Golden Age crumbles like the Roman Empire. | * GETTING GAME—When you first take the plunge into gaming— whether that means your firstspin behind the wheel in 4x4 " _ Evolution, your first kill in Unreal Tc | buy in Monopoly (OK, not really)—the glow of that experience is likely to make for one of the more enduring Golden Ages. © UNBRIDLED CREATIVITY—After that first digital print slides out of a photo printer or you show off your Blair Witch iMovie parody, you'll get hooked and remain addicted to this creative outlet—at least until your significant other ends this Golden Age abruptly and tells you to knock it off. And that’s what Jobs is counting on. MAR/O1 | MacAaddict|25 ncased ina sleek titanium sheil, Apple’s new = PowerBook makes the Cube took oversize and clunky— and that’s quite a feat. Apple’s second stab at miniaturizing its by-now-familiar 500MHz Gq platform has turned an 8-inch cube into a 1-inch-thick (or shali we say thin?) siab with a massive 15.2-inch screen (1,152 by 768 pixels) and weighing in at a sprightly 5.3 pounds. And lest we forget what's inside the sleek casing, it now has a G4 processor where a G3 chip resided for years, finally giving the PowerBook the kind of, well...power Mac users have been clamoring for. Screeit—the screen supports resolutions of more than the usual 4:3 aspect ratio—at 3:2, it’s perfect for wide-screen movies. Type H PEMCIA slot—the Pc-card slot hasn't changed much—if you discount the shiny metal eject button. Microphone—wnite the microphone port is missing, Apple has at least built an omnidirectional microphone into the case. Case—the case is made out of 99.5 percent pure CP1 (commercially pure) titanium. According te Encyclopedia Britannica, titanium has been used in the making of ships, aircraft, missiles, and spacecraft for years thanks to its combination of high strength, low weight, and resistance to corrosion (titanium can survive immersion in seawater for several years, although we wouldn't vouch for the electronics inside the PowerBook). And no, this picture isn't backwards—Apple has flip-flopped the logo on the lid so that the apple is upright when the PowerBook is open. The Tale of the Tape Memory architecture— The PowerBooks don’t sport the 133MHz bus the new towers have; they're still at 100MHz. The two SO-DIMM slots can support up to 1GB of RAM. Processor—the low-end mode! comes with a 400MHz G4, while the high-end model offers SOOMHz of power. For a notebook, this is pretty darn speedy—even considering that the desktops have moved on to faster and better things. he PowerBooks appear to be on a yo-yo diet—they’ve slimmed down and then thickened out enough times to warrant a trip to any eating-disorder treatment facility. Here are some notable milestones in PowerBook weight-loss history. PowerBook Macintosh Portable PowerBook 100 PowerBook 180c PowerBook Duo 280c Introduced September 1989 October 1991 June 1993 May 1994. Size 4.05 by 15.25 by 14.83 inches_} 1.8 by 11 by 8.5 inches 2.34 by 11.25 by 9.3 inches | 1.5 by 10.9 by 85 inches Weight 15.8 pounds 5.1 pounds 7-.pounds 4.8 pounds 26 | ee MAR/O1 So Which One? pple’s got three versions of the PowerBook Gg (although the two top-end models are almost identical). All of the PowerBook Gq models come with | slot-loading DVD-ROM, an ATI Rage Mobility 128 video card with AGP 2X and 8MB } of video memory, a 56-Kbps modem, 100-Mbps Ethernet, two USB ports, and one FireWire port. 400MHz G4 500MHz G4 500MHz G4 4MB La cache at 200MHz_| 1MB La cache at 250MHz_| 1MB L2 cache at 250MHz 128MB RAM 256MB RAM 256MB RAM. 10GB hard drive 20GB hard drive 30GB hard drive | $2,599 $3,499 $3,997 Keyboartd—the keyboard looks familiar, but Apple's done great work with magnets and metal to kill that spongy keytouch that afflicted older PowerBooks. Battery—situated underneath the PowerBook, the new titanium bombshell features a Lilon battery ———__—_______ DVD-ROM drive—the siot-loading ovo int of the device to drive reduces the foot little more than a thin gash. with five hours of life. Ports—the PowerBook G4’s complement of ports should look familiar—the usual PowerBook ports are all represented, right down to the IrDA port—a 4-Mbps infrared port to communicate with other PowerBooks. PowerBook 5300ce/117 | PowerBook 2400c PowerBook 63 (FireWire) | iBook (FireWire) PowerBook G4 August 1995 May 1997, February 2000 September 2000. January 2001 2.2 by 11.5 by 8.5 inches 1.9 by 10.5 by 10.5inches | 2.7 by 12.7 by 10.4 inches 4.8 by 13.5 by 11.6 inches | 1.0 by 13.4 by9.5 inches 6.2 pound: 4.4 pounds 6.1 pounds 67 pounds 5.3 pounds MAR/O1 | MacAcaict |27 Power Macintosh 64 design and power. It’s also been mired at 500MHz and below—until now. The latest generation of G4 power shatters the half-gig barrier, boasting speeds of up to 733MHz (up to 5.5 gigaflops). With this kind of speed (and recognizing that the faster G4 chips will be hard to come by for a while), Apple has decided that a single processor js fast enough for now, so the only way you can get an Apple-original dual processor Mac via the build-to-order option or by snatching up one of the few temaining multiprocessor G4s Apple announced last July (if you can find one). The processor speed bump is just the start of things for the new Gg line. Apple has bumped the system bus (which shuttles between hard drive, processor, RAM, and so on) to 133MHz from 100MHz in previous models. Apple dropped an nVidia GeForce2 MX (a killer graphics card) into the three top-of-the-line models. Unfortunately for the budget-conscious, the low-end G4 model still has the ATI Rage 128 Pro card. However, all of these cards appear in the new 4X AGP slot for faster graphics power. Also, to suit the audio and video crowd, the company from Cupertino added one PCI slot—bringing the grand total to four. Finally, Apple has changed the CD/DVD drives in these bad boys. The three low-end models get CD-RW drives In lieu of DVD, while the highest-end model gets a hybrid CD-RW/DVD-R drive dubbed the SuperDrive—giving these Macs a capability that, as of press time, no PC possesses. With the SuperDrive and iDVD or DVD Studio Pro (see p30), Power Mac Gq users can create their own DVDs and play them back in any consumer DVD player. Ss ince its introduction in August 1999, the Power Mac G4 has been a wonder of Brand-New Tunes SuperDrive—this combination CD/DVD reader and burner is the crown jewel of Apple’s hardware achievements. With the 733MHz model, Apple is bundling iDVD, a program for creating DVO interfaces. The addition of the SuperDrive (if only to the most expensive G4 model) is an improvement over DVD-RAM, which came with the old G4s, because you can play DVDs burned on the SuperDrive on any consumer DVD player. In the three low-end models, Apple discarded DVD altogether and instead included only CD-RW. (You can still substitute a DVD drive for a CD-RW from the Apple Store.) GeForce2 MX—atter years of relying on ATI to previde video cards, Apple has moved to nVidia’s kick-ass GeForce2 MX video card—a solid choice among PC gamers. The GeForce2 MX ships with 32MB of video memory as opposed to the Rage 128’s 16MB, and reports have it that the card is easy to overclock for maximum performance. However, if you're attached to ATl’s cards, you can opt for a Radeon when you order through Apple. Fourth PGI slot—atier years of complaints from ae high-end audio and video people that three PCI slots just aren’t enough, Apple has finally come through with ‘more—one more, that is. Combine that with an AGP stot for video, and we're finally getting back into a real pro-level system. 4X AGP slot—Appie is bringing the Mac vs up to speed with the PC side of things—not 28 | wie MAR/O1 T 0 go with the new Gg tower @s well as with iTunes), Apple has released the Apple Pro Speakers, which go for $59. These speakers work with a 20-watt audio amplifier buitt into the new G4 tower, and they plug into the tower’s speaker minijack. The speakers, which look very much like the speakers that ship with the G4 Cube, deliver a frequency response of 70 to 20,000 hertz—not bad for such teeny little balls. only in processing power, but also with the AGP siot, which it has boosted to 4X from 2X to make graphics just that much faster. You Want One? pple has four new Gg configurations to make your consumer decision easy— although you can still customize your purchase at http://store.apple.com. All of the following models come with gigabit Ethemet, a 56-Kbps modem, a 4X AGP slot, and four PCI slots. 466IIHz 64 128MB RAM 30GB 5400-RPM hard drive CD-RW drive ATI Rage 128 Pro with 16MB video memory $1,699 533MHz 4 (Also available ina dual-processor model for an extra $300) 128MB RAM 40GB 7200-RPM hard drive CD-RW drive nVidia GeForce 2MX with 32MB video memory $2,199 GG7MHz 64 256MB RAM 60GB 7200-RPM hard drive CD-RW drive nVidia GeForce 2MX with 32MB. video memory $2,799 733Miiz G4 256MB RAM 60GB 7200-RPM hard drive SuperDrive (CD-RW/DVD-R) with G4 processor—there are two flavors of G4 chips in the next- iDVD software generation Power Macs. The 466MHz and 533MHz models are the nVidia GeForce 2MX with 32MB G4s we all know and love, with 1MB of backside L2 cache to keep video memory instructions and data flowing. The two higher-end G4s, the 667MHz $3,499 and 733MHz models, are a new kind of G4, offering 256K of on-chip L2 cache and 1MB of backside cache (L3, in this case), which keep things moving along at a brisk pace. Three RAM slots—rhat's right How Fast Are N owthat Apple has ditched DVD-ROM and DVD-RAM in favor of CD-RW and the SuperDrive, here’s a quick Instead of the four RAM slots the = S 3 imevies pews aloes 4 Power Macs Those Drives? lookat the kinds of speeds youll be getting. had, the newest line has just three. The calling’s stil way high, though: Model CD Write _| CD Rewrite | CD Read DVD Write | DVD Read You can pack 1.5GB of RAM into these models. CD-RW 8X 4X 32X N/A N/A ‘SuperDrive (CD-RW/DVD-R)j 8X 4X 24x 2x 6X MAR/O7 eae The Software Strategy pple announced a new guiding strategy with the release of A iDVD and iTunes, a brand-new genre of applications. It’s all part of a Sony-style strategy to put the Mac at the center of what Appie calls the Digital Lifestyle. At its heart, this philosophy makes the Mac the hub of all the digital widgets that infiltrated the market during the last few years—MP3 players, digital camcorders, DVD players, PDAs, and digital cameras. The glue that holds the whole IDVD Joins the Party shi ebang together is a new class of applications, such as iMovie and the brand-new iDVD and iTunes, which take advantage of Apple’s control of both the operating system and the hardware on which they run. These applications (along with Mac OS 9 and the forthcoming Mac OS X) represent Apple’s new mantra—to help its users take creative advantage of these ultraspiffy hardware gadgets in new and exciting ways. This one-window wonder-app ’ is probably not the smartest marketing sirategy in the book. It might lead one to think that the product is, well, simple—like your not-quite-right cousin Earl who used to sit on the front porch muttering about them little people under the stairs. But when the one-window wonder burns your iMovies, QuickTime files, and photo stills to DVD media, which you can view on a commercial DVD player without worrying your pretty little head about the technology behind it, simple turns out to be a damn good thing. That’s what Apple’s new iDVD does. Oh, and it’s free, provided you've kicked down the dough for a new high-end Power Mac Gq with a CD-RW/DVD-R SuperDrive. iDVD comes bundled with that machine. (But what's $3,500, anyway?) Creating the DVD interface in iDVD is easy. Just drag flicks from your desktop into the main window—you can fit a total of six buttons inside the interface. By flipping through the frames of your movie, you can choose one of the stills as an icon for the button that will launch the movie. No problem if you have more than six flicks to distribute—you can create folders in any slot, which allows you to list multiple movies or photos in submenus. Of course, iDVD wouldn't be a proper Mac app if it weren't customizable. Clicking the Theme button in the toolbar at the hottom of the window brings up a variety of backgrounds that transform the look of your DVD interface—styles include leather, chalkboard, photo album, road map, and a variety of other fun-filled themes. Still not customized enough for ya? (Or is the predesigned background kitsch too hokey?) No problem. You can import your own still image to use as a background. Use the Custom menu to choose fonts and sizes for your DVD buttons, and choose from nine different button shapes. You can also create a slide show of still images, though using iDVD solely for this purpose seems a little bit like overkill for the family photographer. But for those looking to create a portfolio of high-quality photography that wouldn’t easily fit on other media—or that deserves to be displayed on a large-screen TV—it could be the way to go. Now you're ready to burn your disc. Clickthe Bum DVD button on the toolbar at the base of the screen, insert your DVD media, and go grab some dinner while iDVD writes your movies to disc. Actually, DVD's MPEG compression technology is relatively speedy, according to Apple—3o minutes of source footage should take approximately an hour to burn. iDVD carries further the desktop revolution started by iMovie. Sure, when you unwrap your birthday gift next year and finda DVD with footage of your niece's first tooth instead of Fight Club, you may not be so glad about it. Nevertheless, iDVD is pretty cool. N ormally, touting a product as a single-window application 30| MacAdaict| MAR/O1 | e sedis lets you collect your movies = Sur Imer hime Run: and burn them to DVD media. 4 A What's the technology behind it? Who cares? Customize the buttons on your DVD interface using the Custom menu inthe Theme dialog box. Hint: Heart shapes show you care. Burn, baby, burn. With Apple selling DVD media at $10 a pop, you can a have a veritable disco inferno right in your ‘T33MHz G4. DVD Studio Pro: The Forgotten App pple completes its professional video solution with DVD Studio Pro, which Steve Jobs breezed over at Macworld Expo and which he billed as the perfect complement to Final Cut Pro. Perfect, we're not sure, but we do know that it will let you encode video in MPEG-2 and audio in Dolby Digital. You can workwith up to 99 video tracks, customize DVDs with still or motion menus, and create interactive, direct links to the Web. DVD Studio Pro costs $999. iTunes—the i Stands for—Uh, Well, Something 1 Tunes—not to be confused with iTools, please—is Apple’s new, freely downloadable MP3 player. This killer bit of software can convert songs from audio CD to MP3 format, tune in to Internet radio broadcasts, interface with hardware MP3 players, and even burn CDs full of MP3s. There’s a caveat with that last bit, though— iTunes can only bum CDs using the new Power Macintosh Gq tower's CD-RW, at least until Apple releases some promised plug-ins for the most popular CD-RW drives. The interface bears a striking resemblance ta Microsoft Entourage (or Outlook Express), but we won't tell Microsoft. ' Controls—there are Status window—this window switches between showing Search—sy typing a few letters or words three transport controls you the song title, the artist and elapsed time, and an equalizer into this box, you can search for a particular (back, play/pause, and view for a more visceral take on your tunes. artist, album, song, topic, whatever. | forward) and a volume PSE slider. What else could you foe need? Incidentally, Apple ee got this set of controls right, . = avoiding the interface rs “7— Browse view— problems that plagued Fess Hegel: | Click the Browse button, QuickTime Player 4.0. ects erm ered |] and iTunes wil fet you Rarenaked Ladies ‘A Momentary Lapse Of Reason t peruse your music library ewes Ace ema ue-Teterctvareznoe ll by artist and/or album. Song, Tine Ate Albu Ceore Music sources— 4 Comes Lowe “$02 file Heiday ‘Bile’ Besk Bes | iTunes keeps all of your torrleeranag + 53 | ano ti er Te aA wor music sources available in " [eather Ear leone Laetaecher ae Fore this resizable column, 4 Indust 554 Ove Seats love Over Cold Rock | Playlist—your music ey eepeleomgers ee init tome ge pina ry, i itheres Rains 757 Die Sualts lomOrerGold Rok | collection shows up here, Internet radio stations, any oe eatin oe You 3:02 Euaames p with resizable and hagels ove Bad Men 335 Highwaymen hardware MP3 players you A cepaaiasreeaCaoalrerinen eee sortable columns. 1 Pity Doar Love Alfa 338 Joe cison eee na fi On Ad cine 1101 Jota Redan 2 tara teps 2:2 tye Lovet espe ahh fend pollens viel one sonia’ 1 Think You Know Wha Mean 3:05. Lye Lovett Beet aoe Se ‘show up on the right. Setting Up iTunes T o make playing with MP3 files a breeze, iTunes. comes with its own Setup Assistant to walk you through the program’s configuration. Here’s what it entails, in a nutshell. STEP 1. After iTunes welcomes you, and you click the Next button, it asks for your Internet preferences. These include whether you want to use iTunes for Intemet Linda fie ie aa val playback and whether your Mac should connect to the lly to audio CD: id.ip Stk surresiienh Aghia Store Internet automatically to get information about: udio CDs page online, where you can buy CD- RW media, speakers, and the like. You can easily set iTunes’ preferences, including how fast you want to burn CDs, the thickness of your buffer, and how the MP3 encoder does its job. Look familiar? Users of SoundJam will find the ‘Tunes’ visual effects plug-in looks like a piece of home. and tune in to a streaming broadcast. STEP 2. iTunes will ask if it should scan your hard drive for MP3 files and add them to your music library, The program won't move the files themselves ipl just add them to iTunes, It can take a long time ‘search your hard drive, so you might: want to lunch. it can also grab non- MP3 files ( (such by mistake, so check over the final list very carefully. STEP 3. There’s no step 3. MAR/O1 i wesedcter|31 Secret Upgraties: Mac 0S 9.1 B File Euit_View [INEM Special Help ¥ Desktop Adobe Photoshope 6.0 | iTunes Macintosh HD Maya_osx_screenshots Month by Month | blank_screen.tif posit e can’tremember a time when Apple released a Mac OS W upgrade with less fanfare. So little mention was made of Mac OS 9.1 during the recent Macworld Expo that we were surprised when we found it lurking on http://asu.info.apple.com, trying to avoid notice. Those who either suffer through the 7oMB download or pony up the $19.95 to get an update CD will find that Mac OS 9.1 isa good overhaul of the system—short on sexy new features but long on cleanup work. The number of files that have seen tweaks from their 9.0.4 versions is huge—everything from the Finder to the fonts has received a polish. The most immediately visible change is the addition of a Window menu to the Finder, letting you quickly choose among open Finder windows. The rest of the changes are subtler—Apple has tweaked the class drivers for USB devices, allowing equipment like USB headsets to work quite a bit better. The new OS supports the CD-RW drives built ‘MW Feature ResEdit 2.1.3 Q MW Feature Mac OS 9.1 adds a new member to the happy Finder menu family. into the new Gqs in a remarkably transparent way—stick in a blank CD and it will appear on your desktop. Mac OS 9.1 burns the CD when you eject it. Unfortunately, the 9.1 installer has the bad habit of rearranging things to suit itself—it'll shuffle the Apple Extras in Internet folders to the Applications folder. Mac OS X Public Beta testers should steer well clear of 9.1—it’s not compatible with the Public Beta’s version of the Classic environment. Otherwise, OS 9.1 appears to be a pleasantly tame bug-wrangling release that should make Mac OS 9 a bit less finicky. Final Approach: IViac 0S X hen Apple first released Mac OS X Public Beta, many long- W time Mac fans were horrified. No Apple menu? No menu bar clock? Every single Finder window simply labeled “Finder”? For a company that’s always prided itself on caring more about the user interface than almost any other aspect of computing, these were disturbing blemishes. Fortunately, the garrulousness of the Mac community appears to have served us well. According to Steve Jobs, Apple got approximately 75,000 individual feedback messages during the Public Beta period—including an earful about some of the less popular interface changes. After a quick scramble, Apple has made plenty of adjustments that should make the operating system much more Mac-like when it launches on March 24. Here’s a look at some of the interface elements that have changed since the Public Beta. APPLE MENU—the apple's not just there for looks anymore; MENU BAR CLOCK— -— FINDER WINDOW FOLLIES—appie has changed it has returned to its traditional position on the left side of the menu People wanted their menu back the name of the application that lets you browse bar and is taking on some new tasks, including Sleep, Restari, and —_bar clock back. It once the file system from Desktop to Finder. Better yet, Finder ‘Shut Down, along with the usual Recent Documents and Recent again sits on the upper- windows now show the names of the folders they're Applications folders. And get this: You don’t have to leave an right corner of the screen. displaying, instead of showing the generic label application anymore to shut down or restart your computer— “Finder.” The toolbar you can head over to the Apple menu straight from Photoshop. at the top of each 7 Finder window is now customizable—and . you can even remove it ee Sfe nF entirely by clicking the — Seite Fay re button at the top right psa £ corner of the window. Nove rot tahee Sone aT bo ———- HIERARCHICAL DOCK—stick a folder osconens > | Prentiss in the Dock, and you can hws 5 ‘now pop up a menu to showing its contents. i piel This makes the Dock To let the Dock behave more like much more like the old the Control Strip, OS X now allows Me Apple menu. you to pop up contro! menus. ¥ Mee ncac| MAR/O1 You think your kids are safe on the Net. Think again... You don't let your kids read just anything, do ou? Well, when they surf the Internet, they can see whatever they want, unless you're there to watch over their shoulders, With ContentBarrie, the Internets a safer place for your children, ContentBarrier sets up a protective wall around your computer. Its pre-defined categories let you choose what you don't want your children to see, and you can also create your own custom categories. Inappropriate web sites are blocked, shielding your children from things they are too young for. ContentBarrier blocks adult web sites, sites with subjects not fit for children, and even blocks chats when predatory language is used. It blocks all offensive content coming from the Internet. ContentBarrier. The new Parental Control solution for your Macintosh. CConientBarrier works with multiple users if you have several clildren, you can set different ceria, corresponding to their age or maturity You can choose whether they have access to newsgroups, email, or whether they can download files. You can set the program to let them only use the Inte at certain times, and on specific days. The program can even send you e-mail, automaticaly, when certain events occur. ContentBarrier keeps a complete log ofall web sites visited, whether blocked or not. This allows you to have a full record cof exactly what your children are doing on the Internet. You can also take an inventory of your children's computer, and find al pictures, movies, music files and web pages, ContentBarrier makes the Internet a safer place for your children. cow) wile opepot GER 800-509-4239 800-258-2622 800-622-3381 AAREEBOOSE Zone GET COMPHSA mco. cre | MacWorld 800-255-6227 800-436-0606 877-688-7678 @®buyonet pase Mac and he Mac log are ademas of ple Compa MacMall | 800-221-8180 800-217-9492 | to $605 GENERATION sje ie US and aber oun Oupos.con”™ is trakoark of eran Otpo, Inc Al ede trademarks belong othe epativ cme Hasan Mona Day ©200 aie Stock Imag. -T1some ways, Palm OS software is reminiscent of the early as ‘days of the Mac. Just th applications like MacPail q in size and software was inexpensive, innovative, and fu One of the ways the Palms and Handsprings of today cs of yesteryear is that they go get that information back into your p Mac—think expenses, addresses, and databases. " But the latest Palm OS software goes way beyond merely extending your desktop Mac. A handheld can actually stand in ‘ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPH BY AARON LAUER Fol area ached a Sa 4 AvantGo G0 www.avantgo.com, free WHAT IS IT? BITE-SIZE BITS OF INFO OFF THE WEB Some applications tap into the whole reason for owning a Palm. Every time you hot-sync, AvantGo scoops up Palm-size channels off the Web, such as full articles, maps, and news. For instance, you can check MapBlast driving directions and read full articles from Salon.com and Suck.com. Plus you can create your own channels from favorite Web pages (see “Going Custom with AvantGo,” right). minutes for 48.37 miles of travel, otal of 20 steps. 1. Begin at Ontario International on Documents To Go Professional ey) www.dataviz.com, $49.95, WHAT IS IT? WORD AND EXCEL DOCS ON THE PALM He bette oe We do 90 percent of our work in Microsoft Word, the other ele 10 percent in Excel. Thank goodness for Documents To Go, Roy Barboni? which seamlessly loads the latest versions of Word and BONES Excel documents, updated every time you hot-sync, then Whole tis? copies changes back to your Mac. Little-known trick: Control- HARRY click selected text in a doc on your Mac, select Take Text To Cacemenen Go from the pop-up menu, and your clipping appears in Documents To Go the next time you hot-sync! (The $29.95 Standard Edition lacks editing capability on the Palm.) Vindigo www.vindigo.com, free WHAT IS IT? ENTERTAINMENT LISTINGS Ifyou’re hit with a sudden urge to see a movie in Manhattan, Atlanta, or San Francisco, whip out Vindigo, the ultimate metropolitan dating tool, to find which movies are playing where and when in 21 different cities. Aprés film, Vindigo guides you to local restaurants. You can even tell Vindigo your location to display the closest restaurants first, with precise walking directions. To keep the information up to date, just hot-sync while running an Internet connection. Jot www.cic.com, $39 WHAT IS IT? GRAFFITI REPLACEMENT When the Palm first appeared, Graffiti was a godsend, but a few years later, it’s becoming a little annoying. And let's face it—you never do get really good at Graffiti. Enter Jot, which uses a much more natural set of strokes to enter info—you can dot your i's and cross your t’s! 't also lets you scribble directly on the screen rather than only in the text entry box. Pocket Quicken oF) www.landware.com, $39.95 WHAT IS IT? QUICKEN FOR THE ROAD While you're paying the check at lunch, wouldn't it be great to jat down expenses in your Palm, then have them magically appear in your Mac’s copy of Quicken? (Especially when lunch is on the company.) Pocket Quicken does just that, moving financial records from your Palm to Quicken 2000 oF 2001. italso imports custom categories and classes and protects data behind a password. Going Custom with AvantGo A vantGo offers just a small fraction of all the Web pages you might want on your handheld. Luckily, it’s a snap to create a custom channel. Set up an AvantGo account if you don’t already have one, log in, then follow these steps. Search AvantGo’s existing channels at www.avantgo.com/channels to make sure the Web page you want isn’t already covered. page (https://avantgo.com 2 Head for AvantGo’s AutoChannel /mydevice/autochannel-html).. Eventually, you'll find yourself at this well-hidden page. Following the instructions, drag the AutoChannel URL to your Internet Explorer Toolbar or add the URL to your Favorites or Bookmarks menu. In the latest browsers, the AutoChannel link will come in handiest in your toolbar. you'd like loaded onto your Palm, 4 Now whenever you see a Web page st select the AvantGo button in your toolbar, Bookmarks, or Favorites and follow the directions. MAR/O1 | MacAdaict | 35 Games Traffic hittp://mail.med.upenn.edu /~pchengj/traffic/traffic.html, free Bubbiet www.oopdreams.com/bubblet, $42 Vexed download via www.palmgear.com, free WHAT ARE THEY? PUZZLE GAMES: We're suckers for good puzzle games, and we must admit that we have serious addictions to these four. Note that some games come in a separate version for color Palms and Visors. For noncolor models, make sure to download the grayscale versions. Race Fever ) ‘wwwedigital-fiction.com, $24.95 WHATS IT? 3D RACING GAME Some games are fun, others look incredible—Race Fever boasts both. Smooth animation highlights this 3D racing simulation, offering a choice of manual or automatic shifting, pen or button control, 16 different tracks, and of course wild crashes. In version 1.4 or later, you can pointyourPalmat 900 oe a friend’s infrared port for head- to-head real-time racing. Tetris www. pocketexpress.com, $14.99 Lode Runner www.pocketexpress.com, $14.99 WHAT ARE THEY? CLASSIC GAMES Not every ganie translates well to the Palm, but some old standards are a natural fit, including Tetris and the chase- and-dig classic, Lode Runner. Both are also available bundled in the Pocket Express Entertainment Pack ($29.99), along with PocketChess, Poker Dice, Black Jack, and Solitaire. Puzzles in Motion at) www.puzziesinmotion.com, $7.95 WHAT IS IT? RUBE GOLOBERG PUZZLE GAME Some of you might remember the Incredible Machine, a game that involved creating Rube Goldberg chain reactions of falling balls and switches. Now you can experience that.level of frustration—er, inspiration—on your Palm. Drag devices and objects around the screen; set off the whole shebang; and watch candles, balls, and rockets fall and slide along conveyor belts to accomplish each level’s goal. Select adjacent bubbles of fike color in Bubblet, It's only Tetris, but hey—is there a more addictive game? 36| Mac Addict) MAR/OT 1 SimCity www.ateliersoftware,com, $29.95 WHAT IS IT? THE ORIGINAL SIMCITY Old-timers remember the original SimCity, a simpler if no less addictive simulation than the 3D behemoth of today. Now you can relive those days with the Palm: version, nearly identical right down, to traffic jams, citizen revolts, and natural disasters. AncientRed & www.skenext.com, $29.95. WHAT IS IT? 3D DIABLO CLONE You might consider Diablo an unlikely candidate for a Palm rip-off, but you’d be wrong. AncientRed does an amazing job of generating Diablo’s look and feel, right down to conversations with villagers, collecting weapons and spells, and of course battles. And you can beam weapons and spells to your friends. Dreadiling fig) www.doomling.com, $19.98. WHAT IS 1T? FIRST-PERSON SHOOTER Putting a Diablo clone on a handheld is ‘one thing, but a first-person shooter like Doom or Quake? Impossible! Actually, Dreadling comes darned close, Run around a variety of 3D multilevel episodes, picking up ammo and health, blasting robots and aliens. Youcanswap 0 episodes with friendsviabeaming. Al = that’s missing is the blood. Liberty @ www.gambitstudios.com, $16,95 WHAT IS IT? GAMEBOY EMULATOR It's slow—really slow—but Liberty does emulate a GameBoy incredibly well. Find GameBoy ROMs on the Web (just search on “GameBoy ROM”), convert them with the bundled Mac converter utility, and play many of your favorite GameBoy carts. (We’re currently into Pokemon Gold—you can stop laughing now.) Add an accelerator like Afterburner 3.0 (See. p38) and you get almost decent speed. Zap 2000 & www.astraware.com, $12.95 Galax www.pilotfan.com, $10 Digger hitp://195.128.67.93/#Digger, $8 WHAT ARE THEY? COIN ARCADE GAMES The glory days of arcades are back! Astraware’s beautiful Zap 2000 tecalls arcade favorite Xevious. Meanwhile, PilotFan’s addictive Galax, a Galaxian clone, looks just gorgeous in color. And we also got hooked on the DigDug clone, Digger. We predict serious traffic jams. iH Galax is a near-perfect Galaxian clone. - Productivity Action Names w) — Datebook : www.iambic.com, $19.95 WHAT IS IT? DATE BOOK The Palm Date Book is perfectly okay, but Action Names Datebook is ‘even better. It replaces the Palm interface (using your original data) and adds tons of features, including almost a dozen different ways to display calendars and to-dos. It also lets you enterevents andto-doitems (0 more easilythan the Palm DateBook = does. And the best feature is easy linking of contacts with events. Get a free 30-day trial from www.iambic.com/pilot/actionnames/download.htm. AportisDoc www.aportis.com, $30 TeaiDoc www.tealpoint.com, $16.95 WHAT ARE THEY? BOOK-READING SOFTWARE \fyou’re in search of even more eye-straining activity than looking at your Mac all day, get a document reader for perusing books on your PDA. TealDoc displays embedded graphics and autoscrolls, while you can set AportisDoc to hide the controls and display more text onscreen. For a huge selection of free electronic books in doc format, head for MemoWare (www.memoware.com/index.html). ThoughtManager 2.0 ot) www.handshigh.com, $19.95 WHAT IS IT? CHECK BOX OUTLINER ‘The Palm Memo Pad is fine and good, but one thing we actually miss from our trusty (heavy) Newton MessagePad is the handy checklist, arranged ina hierarchical outline style. That’s why we reassigned our Memo Pad button (go to Prefs and select Buttons from the pull- down menu on the right) to ThoughtMill, ahierarchical list managerthatoffes optional check boxes and drag-and-drop arranging and deleting. BugMe tig www.hausofmaus.com, $19.95 WHAT IS IT? STICKY PAD For quick reminders, the Palm’s built-in to-do takes too many steps. BugMe lets you scribble a note in digital ink (forget about scrawling slowly in Graffiti), set an alarm with two clicks—and you have no more excuses to forget that anniversary dinner this year. The optional PopMe utility brings Up BugMewith asinglepenstroke © 6 (bundled for an additional $5). forget about itt DateBKa 6 www.pimlicosoftware.com, $24.95 WHAT IS IT? DATE BOOK Like Action Names, DateBk4 replaces the Palm’s built-in date book, to-do list, and memo pad, but has oodles more customizability than the Palm Date Book. One outstanding feature: the journal entries save notes as a kind of untimed event. Proceeds support wildlife conservation, so you can get your life in order and save an elephant. Brainforest Mobile Edition ) www.aportis.com, $30 WHAT IS IT? OUTLINER AND PROJECT TRACKER At first glance, Brainforest looks like a simple organizer that lets you arrange a checklist in an outline or hierarchical arrangement. Looka little closer, though, and you'll see that it’s a great project tracker, with the abilityto attach items to dates, room for notes, drag-and-drop arranging, and sorting. Once you start to depend on it, move up to Brainforest Professional ($39.95 or $9.95 upgrade), which adds a Mac application that you can hot-sync to your Palm, Super Names i) www,standalone,com, $19.95 WHAT IS IT? ADDRESS BOOK Super Names provides much-needed enhancements to the Palm’s Address Book, adding the ability to link contacts to calendar events and to-dos, along with faster and easier searching for individual contacts. It also offers more fields than the original, including birthdays, anniversaries, URLs, and room for three different addresses-—for all of your rich, multiple-residence friends (not that you’re bitter). JFile & www.land-j.com/file,html, $24.95 FMSync 4) www.fmsync.com, $38 WHAT ARE THEY? DATABASE APPS Every now and then we need really quick access to our FileMaker Pro Beer Tasting database. JFile makes a fine database for a handheld, but to bring your FileMaker databases (version 3.0 and later) into your PDA, you need FMSync. Best of all, you can make changes on your handheld and hot-sync them back to your original FileMaker database. DateBk 4 offers tons of detail ata glance, Super Names simultaneously displays the list of addresses plus vital details for the selected address, MAR/OU Macaca Fitaly www fitaly.com/palm/paimtitaly. htm, $25 WHAT IS IT? ONSCREEN KEYBOARD Ifyou’d rather tap a keyboard than tiny onscreen keyboard with Keys s| ly movement. Fitaly experts claim to: crank: ot a whopping 60 to 70 words. bet) minutel Dan Wee's Afte erburner ® able letters, consider Fitaly, a Tornado vi d www.iscomplete. com, $10 f WHAT ARE THEY? ACCELERATORS if Danger is your middle name (ours is Coward), test an overclocking utility, which can boost your Palm’s speed by more than 200 percent (less for older Palms). Tomadlo V is easy to use, but for a geekier and more customizable interface, check ‘out Dan Wee's Afterbumer. Eitherway, use BenchMark (www.quartus.net, free)to eyeball the numbers, FireViewer fi www.firepad.com, free WHAT IS IT? IMAGE-VIEWING APPLICATION You don’t need a photo of your fiancé ‘on your Palm (that'd he a little sad), but amap of the New York subway would be useful, FireViewer is an image viewer with support for color, grayscale, and large, scrolling images. Simply convert images to the PDB graphics format using Lemke Software's GraphicConverter (www.lemkesoft.com) and stick’em on What Fits in Your Palm? hile many Palm and Handspring models ship with SMB of memory, old and entry-level handhelds like the Palm V or the maoo come with only 2MB, That’s enough to hold thousands of events and addresses and a few applications, but heavy-duty users can fill 2MB in no time—for instance, AvantGo uses 900K and Vindigo New York takes up 535K! (To check your memory usage, goto the main menu and press the drop-down menu button. Select info.) Rather than shell out hundreds of bucks for a new, bigger-brained. handheld, you can simply upgrade some Palm models. TRG Engineering (www.trgnet.com) offers upgrades to 8MB (3MB for earlier Palms), and the price ranges from $100 to $150. Note, though, that upgrading the Palm V is Free Memory: 315K of 8064K so tricky you have to mail yours in and let the pros doit (www.palmchips.com Ag the saying goes, you can ‘or www.palmworkshop.com). never have too much RAM. 38] MacAdaict| MAR/01 JOT cae Clipper & www.standalone.com, $12 WHAT IS IT? CLIPBOARD The Palm's limited clipboard cries out for a utility that lets you store multiple items. Clipper pops op en whenever you tapa secret spotin the Graffiti area, letting you: special info like date, time, or saved clippings. It even paste where the | -Palm’s built-in paste doesn’t work (for example es for application registration numbers). Bas HackMaster ig) oa www.daggerware.com, $5. WHAT IS IT? “EXTENSIONS” MANAGER FOR THE PALM The Palm doesn’t tofficially use system aoe but t HackMaster Download hacks from PalmGear at www.palmgear. HackMaster hacks can cause conflicts. TealTools i) www.tealpoint.com, $19.95 7 TealLaunch Berne] caPs (abe (Abe) (RBC)( Cut www.ealpoint.com, n® a Lise (+ CDC (copy) r ae et) PI Paste WHAT ARE THEY? DESK ACCESSORIES fia. ,?™*C IO one) Frasdindent Sela TealToo!s includes six desk acc oe a to open on top of any applicat TealEdit module, for example, number or bullet, and change the case selected text. The toolbox also TapPad §) http:/Aappad.com, $19.95 WHAT IS IT? GRAFFITI ANE ae as you would on a calculator, as well as cut, copy, paste, and undo. TapPad stores the last ten copied items for easy pasting, alongwith -often-used words or phrases. All the while, your Jot or Graft function works normally. (Hackmaster is required.) HotTime www.aladdinsys.com/hottime/index.html, $9.95. WHAT IS IT? CLOCK SYNCHRONIZER HotTime does only one thing, but does it well: Every time you hot-sync your Palm, HotTime sets the Palm’s clock to match your Mac’s. Ifyou use the Network Time Server in your Mac’s Date And Time control panel, your Mac’s and Palm’s time will be like ebony and ivory—living together in perfect harmony. (HackMaster is required.) TravelTracker wy www.silverware.com, $29.95 WHAT IS IT? TRIP INFORMATION TRACKER Ifyou’re the type who stresses over travel details, invest in TravelTracker, which keeps such information as flights, hotel reservations, conferences, parties, and meetings. The program not only displays info ina single, clear screen, but also enters it all into your Palm date book and contacts. BackupPro www.trgnet.com, $9.95 WHAT IS IT? BACKUP PROGRAM 3 Imagine this: You’re 3,000 miles from a backup and your Palm batteries get knocked loose foran hour, causing you to lose your contacts and calendar—horrors! Not if you’ve been backing up onto the nonvolatile flash memory built in to every Palm using BackupPro, New batteries and a few taps later, your critical data is back in service. (Note—this won’t work with Handspring Visors, which don’t use flash memory.) Métro http://home.worldnet.fr/—patriceb/Technique/Metro /Metro-en.html, free WHAT IS IT? INTERACTIVE SUBWAY GUIDE Evena city’s natives often find the subways overwhelming, and if you're from out of town? Fuhgettaboudit! Pack Métro and look like a subway pro. Install your favorite cities from among more than 150 worldwide, select starting and ending stations, and the application spells out all the details of your ride. It even estimates the travel time, Mirror ce) www.utilware.com/mirror.html, free WHAT IS IT? A MIRROR AND LIPSTICK FIXER ON YOUR PALM You use your handheld for just about everything—so why not use it to touch up your lipstick or find that poppy seed between your teeth? Of all the original uses fora handheld device, Mirror really takes the cake, turning all of the screen’s pixels black to create, as the name suggests, a passable mirror. If you're a particularly sneaky type, you can even use Mirror to spy over a shoulder, Hell Clock http://minordemons.com /heliclock/index.html, free WHAT IS IT? TERRIFYING TIMEPIECE To be honest, Hell Clock isn’t totally useless. It does tell the time, though the numbers are usually obscured by flashes of lightning and writhing death masks that waft up the screen like the lost souls of Windows CE programmers. MultiMail Pro www.actualsoft.com, $39.95 WHAT IS IT? SOPHISTICATED EMAIL CLIENT \fyour right shoulder is slowly sinking closer to the ground from traveling with that gargantuan PowerBook, check your email with a Palm modem and MultiMail Pro. It offers all the versatility of a real email client, including signatures, filtering, multiple accounts, and attachment decoding. (MultiMail Conduit, $29.95, synchronizes Palm email with Outlook Express, Claris Emailer, or Eudora.) EudoraWeb (i) www.eudora.com/internetsuite, free WHAT IS IT? WEB BROWSER. EudoraWeb allows you to surf the Net and smoothly handles such annoyances as frames and graphics—by ignoring them. The companion email application—free with limited features—launches EudoraWeb- when you click a hyperlink. Zagat Restaurant Guide oy) www.landware.com, $29.95 WHAT IS IT? RES