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A better machine. A better magazine. 7 = Wi
the ,
Future,
Mac’
You Ain’t Seen
Nothing Yet!
¢ Incredible Power
e Massive Storage
* Dazzling Displays
DV Mac
Digital vido pros share their secrets
Encyclopedia of Networking
All you need to know, from ABC to XYZ
JuarkXPress 5.0 & Adobe InDesign 2.0
Our experts test, review, and rate ’em—is it time to switch?
REVIEWED:
Adobe After Effects 5.5, Civilization lil, Digidesign Mbox, OmniPage Pro X, SmartScore 2.0, and more...
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No. 69 May 2002 Volume 7 Issue 5
A better machine. A better magazine.
highlights === howto ©
"22 The Future 68 Design Pages
of the Mac |
| with AppleWorks
Join us—and a host of tech
AppleWorks may be your trusty
| experts—for a trip into the word-processing and spreadsheet
future. Take a peek at the app, but you can also use it to design
| technologies that will invade pages like the pros. Learn the basics
your home or office in the next of page layout as we show you how
five years. by Cathy Lu to create an ad. by Kris Fong Come on in, the water's...freezing!
|= > || 72 Work Faster and Easier
Tetra ts bg wm with ACTION Menus
All you type-A personalities will benefit from this. Not only are
82 The Encyclopedia of
we giving you the full version of ACTION Menus on this month's
65 Disc, but aiso we show you how to use it to set up custom
| Networking
Do you really know the difference
menus and keyboard shortcuts. by Kris Fong
between a router, switch, bridge, hub, a =
| and gateway, plus how to get the most = Eo i gcse
out of your network? Ifyou don’t, 1) a (oe
we're here to help. by Rik Myslewski Megamenu = 1 Eee > ts
madness! I SS. i
74 Create Convincing
Sound Effects with
Your Voice
Ethernet Pops—now in You can spend beaucoup bucks buying
four fruity flavors! sound effects on CD—or you can create
= your own. Grab the free, full version of
39 DV Magic Pro Tools 5.0.1 off the Disc and leam
Take a behind-the-scenes look how to edit your own voice recording to
at the making of the movie create an explosion. by Kris Fong
| Waking Life, a Nine Inch Nails ans,
76 Make Your Mac Multilingual
| DVD, and a special-effects
hort film, all di rt
ons Sauble ot MINDY, eid Mac OS X supports multiple languages, but do you know how
to put that power to use? We show you how to get
| eaitetas sig tig Mice your Mac and apps to comprehend multiple
| by Ni Reb! di
| V Natal Hebbapraxeda languages so you'll never have to eyeball cryptic
gibberish from other countries. by Chris Ott
Does your belch register
on the Richter scale?
| DV goes MOMA.
| i From MacAddict’s Cyrillic edition.
|
| REPRINTS SUBSCRIPTION QUERIES:
| For reprints, contact RMS at 717-399-1900. Please phone customer service toll-free at 888-771-6222.
Volume 7, Issue 5
‘MaccAddict (SSN 1088-548) is pubished monthy by imagine Media, ine. 150 North Hl Dr, Brisbane, CA 94005, USA. Peiodcal-class postage paid at Brisbane, CA,
cower and at addtional malingffices, Newsstand dtttion handled ty Cuts Creation Co. Basic subscription rates: one yaar (12issues + 12 CD-ROME) US. $9.60, Canada
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by Mark ‘and PSM. Enfire contents copyright 2001, Imagine Madi, ine, Al rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in partis prohibited. Imagine Media, thc. js not affliated with the |
companies or products covered in MacAdift. Ricte-Along enclosed In the following editions: A3, B, B1, 82, BS PRODUCED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
MAY/02 MacAddict/§
|
| This month, Macs fall victim to party politics, become a
8 Eston’ $s $ Note
What will the Mac be like in 2020? The past provides clues.
10 The Diss —_____—..
We've got an exclusive 380MB installer file of NC
Soft’s Lineage for you—one of the most addictive
massively multiplayer RPGs is now availablefor =
the Mac! Plus, a full version of the powerful Pro
Tools 5.0.1 for digital-audio recording and
sequen a full version of ACTION Menus; a video trailer fora Nine
Inch Nails concert movie; and a host of other goodies,
12 Letters
Tl show you,
athiete’s foot fungi!
symbol for everlasting love, and offer a way to waste valuable
time. Also, garage doors pay homage to Apple.
14 Get Info
Apple unveils QuickTime 6 and QuickTime Broadcaster with
support for the elusive MPEG-4. See the creative masochism
some of you underwent to win games. Palm has a new,
affordable color handheld, the new Flash player streams
video, and classic rocker J. J. Tindall makes us wonder what
Stand back, or this giant starfish
will suck the life out of you!
would have happened if the Velvet Underground had stumbled across Logic Audio.
20 Scraphook
Quit wondering how to get music in and out of your Mac. Here’s what you need to know.
46 Reviews
59 ABS Plus automatic-backup drive 60 Lucid co-aw anve
49 After Effects 5.5 video-editing software 56 MacDraft 5.0.5 CAD sonware
57 ArtMatic Pro 2.5 animation-generation software ‘59 Mbox usa aucio interface
54 Boris FX 6.0 video-effects plug-in suite 62 OmniPage Pro X OCR software
61 Civilization III strategy and role-playing game 63 Otto Matic famity-fun game
60 CRW-70 Spyder cD-AW drive
58 Finecam 3.3-megapie! digital camara
46 800MHz G4 iMac fiat-screen iMac
50 InDesign 2.0 pago-layout sotware
64 Powerplay
MacPlay brings Mystto the 21st century, and MacSoft lets the bullets fly with
Beach Head 2002. Aspyr releases Star Wars: Galactic
Battleground, and a gory medical game contributes to the
September 11 cause. Plus, check out the graphics cards in
Apple’s Power Mac lineup.
80 Ask Us
Our tech guru solves the case of the missing RAM, the mystery
behind the Desktop DB file, the green-screen blues, the Mac
OS X custom-install conundrum, and iPhoto printing problems.
96 Shut Down
Does the new Gq iMac live up to the hype? Are the iPod’s
earbuds too big? Can your Power Mac Gq handle slab meats and
the major wieners?
48 Dual 1GHz Power Mac dual-processor pro Mac
52 QuarkXPress 5.0 pageayout software
55 Sacrifice strategy and role-playing game
‘55 SmartScore 2.0 music-scoring and notation software
Only one man can be
King of Kielbasa.
‘| MacAaaict | MAY/02
PUBLISHER Don Kimenker
EDITOR IN CHIEF Rik Myslowst
EDITORIAL
MANAGING EDITOR Jenifer Morgan
EXECUTIVE EDITOR Cathy Lit
SENIOR EDITORS Kris Fong,
Norasu Rethapragada (news)
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Niko Coucouvanis (reviews)
CONTRIBUTING EDTORS Raf Anzovia, Steven Anzovio, Joseph 0.
Holmes, Frank 0'Conney, fan Sammis, Andrew Tokuda, Buz Zoller
ART
ART DIRECTOR Christopher Imlay
ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Leslie Brawn
PHOTOGRAPHER Mark Madeo
PRODUCTION
PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Richard Lesavoy
PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Hans Hunt
ADVERTISING
REGIONAL AD MANAGER Michelle Paredes
SENIOR ACCOUNTS MANAGER, DIRECTSALES Ata Epstein
AD COORDINATOR Jasmin Dave
MARKETING MANAGER Alison MeCreery
CIRCULATION
‘GROUP CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Tina Rodich
[NEWSSTAND MARKETING MANAGER Mim Hall
BILLING AND RENEWAL MANAGER Robyn Pally
FULFILLMENT MANAGER Peggy Mores
DIRECT MARKETING SPECIALIST Mary Nicklin
150 North Hil De, Brisbane, CA 94005
415-468-4684, ww.imaginemeti.com
(CHIEF EXECUTIVE/FUTURE NETWORK. Greg Ingham
PRESDENT Jonathan Sipson-Bit
\VP/EDTORIAL DIRECTOR Matt Fre
VICE PRESDENT/CFO Tom Valentina
\VP/CRULATION Kaly Kg
\VP/HUMAN RESOURCES Stee Letaan
GENERAL COUNSEL Charles Sehug
PUBLSHING DIRECTOR Shnon Whitcombe
DIRECIOR OF MARKETING Mary Lathepele
ren od apc who ve pln A pson
ie For business, juters. Or for the Intemet. These:
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{hos to glve yor the informaton You need. With any tuck, well
‘even make you smile sometimes. Thanks fr fining us
Imagine Media Inc. is part of
The Future Network plc.
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or hs helped ereste one
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Tol +44 1205 483284 « warutheturenetworkple.ak
‘Mocia With Passion
‘Beth, Lonéon, Nilan, New York, Pais, San Francisco
Now, when you've got
mail, the whole freakin
neighborhoed will Know.
|
iTunes; iMovie; email. No matter what you do with your Mac; it'll sound infinitely better with our 40-watt USB-enabled
SoundSticks’ speaker system. Get yours at www.harman-multimedia.com/soundsticks. Narman/kardon
H atierman inter
Tors nore
Amessage from the kernel.
0 prepare for this month’s cover
story, “The Future of the Mac,”
MacAddict executive editor Cathy
Lu interviewed a who’s who of industry
luminaries, pored over a mountain of
documents, and scoured the Web for
insight into the latest technologies. Solid
journalism from a solid journalist.
Being more of an unrepentant geek
than a seasoned journalist like Cathy,
| tooka different tack: math.
Rather than relying on the
prognostications of fallible liveware—
humans—I used cold, hard numbers to
project the Mac’s future. My goal was
simple: to discover the extent of growth in
Mac power in the first 18 years of its history
and to project that rate of increase over the
next 18 years. In one simple spreadsheet, |
could divine the power of the Mac of 2020.
silly way to predict the future? OF
course—as every investor has been
repeatedly warned, “Past performance
is not an indicator of future retums.” But
hey, hiding behind numbers is a good
way to deflect criticism when predictions
get wacky. Just ask Enron’s buddies at
Arthur Andersen.
First | gathered stats on 1984's
Macintosh 128K and the current top-of-
the-line Dual 1GHz Power Mac G4, plus
the first G3 iMac and the new flat-panel
G4 iMac. | then applied the time-honored
formula of percentage increase over time,
x =n (pt), to the assembled stats.
The results can be summed up in
one word: “Whoa!”
An 8MHz processor powered the
original Macintosh 128K. Today's top
PowerPC chip blazes along at 1GHz—
that’s 125 times as fast. Simple math: My
spreadsheet projects that the 2020 Mac
will house a 125GHz processor. Or two.
Or sixteen. Wait until you see the heat sink
‘on that baby—and no, the spreadsheet
couldn’t predict whether Motorola or Intel
will manufacture that processor.
With its measly 128K of RAM, the
original beige box cowers in abject
terror of the 2020 Mac, which will come
equipped with over 2 terabytes of RAM.
And that'll just be its standard config—it'll
max out at nearly 19 terabytes. (A terabyte
is 1,024 gigabytes, or 24° bytes.) How will
that teraload of RAM talk to the 125GHz
8 gee | MAY /02
Rik grabs his crystal ball and throws a
high hard one.
processor? Over a 256-bit-wide data
path running at a bus speed of 2,211MHz.
That puppy will finish complex Photoshop
fitters before you hit the OK button.
Want more storage space for your
iMovies? Just wait until 2020, when your
Mac will come stuffed with nearly 17
petabytes of storage. (A petabyte is
1,024 terabytes, or 2°° bytes—that’s
1,125,899,906,842,624 of the little buggers,
ifyou’ve misplaced your calculator} If that
sounds unbelievable, think of this: The
original Mac came with a pathetic little
400K floppy; today’s top-of-the-line Power
Mac has an 80GB hard drive. That’s over
200,000 times bigger. That’s unbelievable.
There'll be some drawbacks, though.
The original Mac drew just 60 watts of
power; the 2020 Mac will suck more than
1,900 watts and cost over $3,600 in
today’s dollars, but it’ll communicate
over a network running at well over 4
terabits per second. Worth a few extra
bucks, in my humble opinion.
The 2020 iMac? For a mere $1,299,
you'll get a 531.5GHz processor, 14.6
terabytes of RAM, an 893MHz system
bus, 94 petabytes of storage—and it'll
all weigh a mere 11 ounces!
OK, OK, we've now officially gone off
the deep end.
Or have we? Only time will tell—after
all that’s transpired over the past 18 years,
nothing surprises me anymore. So do mea
favor: File this page away someplace safe,
and then pull it out in 2020 and compare
these “do the math” predictions with what
Cupertino’s shipping at the time. Might be
interesting.—Rik Mystewski
Chris Imlay
Procrastronaut
Q. What as-yet-
| unknown features
will appear in the
Mac of 2020?
A, The Big
Announcement at
Expo 2020 will be new
time-warp advice software called USE
MacAddict in 2020?
AA. Our crack staff of more than 200 seasoned
professionals will create a daily dose of 3D
holographic wenderment that will beam from
your iPad and hover before your eyes.
Leslie Brown
Lady Font-leroy
Q. Whatas-yet-unknown
features will appear in the
Mac of 2020?
AA. 20/20's getting a Mac?
Rock on, Barbara Walters!
Q. What changes do you
foresee for MacAddict in 2020?
A. Apart from rivaling Modern Bride in sheer
bulk, we'll have a giant art army over which |
will rule! Bwab-ha-ha!
Niko Coucouvanis
Mr Demeanor
Q. What as-yet-
unknown features
will appear in the
Mac of 2020?
A. Moore’s taw says
that by 2020, desktop
computers as we know them will be replaced
implants. Apple will take the “i”
thing: all the way with the iMac 2020: a full
brain transplant.
Q. What changes do you foresee for
MacAddict in 20207 é
A, Keeping up with the times, MacAddict, like
all forward-thinking rags, will be distributed
electronically (wirelessly, of course). The
information will flow right into your cerebral
cortex and you'll just know.
with bi
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARK MADEO
When did it start for you?
Ever since you discovered a better use for broccoli than eating it, you knew you were hooked.
And now you can take your creative passion to a new plane with Bryce® 5.
Full of intuitive tools that let you design impressive landscapes and fantasy worlds, Bryce 5 will
change your perception of what a 3D product can do. Take the new Tree Lab. With it, you can
create highly realistic trees, specifying features such as tree type, branch density and coloration.
You can even generate tree roots for greater detail.
This version also gives you better control over lighting, support for Metaballs technology and
network rendering.
Bryce 5—3D software at its peak.
www.corel.com/bryceS
‘© 2001 Core Corpmaton, Nigh reserved, KURIO74.3
fj Exclusive!
/ Lineage comes to the Mac—and fo the Disc.
a
Plus: pro music, productivity, and pizzazz.
h 4 million players, this online game puts
the “massive” in massively multiplayer RPGs,
Pro Tools 5.0.1: Find out why professional musicians
agree that with a Mac and Pro Tools, you can do anything,
ACTION Menus 1.0.3: You'll wonder how you ever
got along without this versatile menu-creation app.
@ Lineage Full Version
Lineage, the world’s largest online game—with 4 million
players worldwide—is finally here for Mac OSX. We’ve
got the full 380MB installer file exclusively on tne Disc.
This massively multiplayer RPG lets you interact with other
Lineage players around the world as you explore fantasy
lands, meet fellow travelers and kick their asses, discover
ancient ruins, stay dragons, cast spells, and become the ruler of your own domain.
@ Pro Tools 5.0.1 Full Version
Listen up, all you musicians and aspiring musicians. This is the real deal: a full
version of Pro Tools software, Pro Tools is the industry-standard digital-audio
recording, editing, and processing app, and this version allows you to record
multitrack audio on your Mac without a Pro Tools hardware system. You can record
up to 8 audio tracks, sequence up to 48 MIDI tracks, and process it ali with a slew
of plug-in effects (contingent on your Mac’s processor speed and RAM, of course).
@ ACTION Menus 1.0.3 Full Version
What a lucky reader you are! This month we’re giving you the full version of ACTION
Menus (just make sure you read the enclosed “Get It for Free!” document before
May 31, 2002). Create custom menus that launch or quit your applications alt at
once, open and close documents, get file info, launch URLs, list open windows,
and even set your own key-command shortcuts in just about any Classic app.
@ After Effects 5.5 Tryout
Add pizzazz to film, video, multimedia, and the Web with this powerful motion-
graphics and visual-effects package that enables you to create complex special
effects, sophisticated graphic animations, and more. You can animate Photoshop
layers and Illustrator art in 3D space. The latest version adds native support for
Mac OS X, Colored Shadows and Projection layers, eight new effects, an advanced
3D renderer, adjustment lights, an effects palette, and more.
‘aad all hat could have boon
Extras! Rock out to some cool tunes:
Cheap Tick’s in the MacAddict Tour music
boxthis month, along with three other gieat
Mac-supporting artists. Or curl up with one
offive electronic books, including Dracula,
Heart of Darkness, and War ofthe Worlds.
This month, Nine Inch Nails’ front
man Trent Reznor becomes an
honorary MacAddict staffer—our
staff video is a trailer he produced
for the movie And All That Could
After Effects 5.5: This effects app has a great rep
among pros—and the latest version will win more converts.
7 MacAddict |MAY/02
Gets Have Been. Live concert footage and
seer &) behind-the-scenes peeks were
captured using DV cameras, and
edited and mixed on Macs with Final
Cut Pro and Pro Tools.
Antique frames. Quartz mov
}2| MacAdaict
ers
Tell us how you really feel,
WRITE TO US: MacAddict,
150 North Hill Dr, Brisbane, CA 94005
or letters@macaddict.com.
FOR CD PROBLEMS: Go to
https://secure.imaginemedia.convdisc.
FOR SUBSCRIPTION QUERIES:
Call (toll-free) 888-771-6222.
@ JUNK-FOOD ADDICT
While reading the March 2002 Shut
Down section (p96), | was disgusted,
disappointed, and disturbed to see the
out-of-work programmer carrying a bag
of Cheetos, which are about the same as
Cheez-Its. | was under the impression
that itwas decided back in the last
millennium that Cheez-Its suck and
Fritos rule!—Mark Kibbey
Mark, thanks for the insight only a junk-
food aficionado could provide.—Ed.
Out-of-work programmers can't be choosers.
PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE
YOUR MAG IS
| can’t afford your “free gift” magazines
anymore. Over a two-year period, I’ve had to
purchase three PowerBooks, two iMacs, one
(G4 Power Mac, and an iPod, allin order to
receive these complimentary issues of your
magazine. I’m going broke!—Glen
Uh, who’s going to fill him in on the yearly
subscription secret?—Ed,
Maestro
you begged to differ.
“\ vote Republican, and Apple
—Gretchen Wieshuber
TO BUY OR NOTTO
BUY THE NEW IMAC
I'm 14 years old, and I’ve saved up the
money for the new iMac. My parents aren’t
convinced they should let me buy it. They
said | need the money for the car! will soon
be buying, or the computer | will need for
college in five years. How do | convince them
that the new iMac is the savior that will keep
me from setting fire to buildings and going
‘on murderous rampages?—Aron Weiss
Now that we've printed your crazy ultimatum,
you'll be a prime suspect for any arsons
and/or homicides in your area unless your
parents let you getthe new iMac. (Check out
our review of the new iMac on p46).—Ed.
BT ON THE DISC
The interview video of BT on the March 2002
Disc was simply awesome. Count on me to
renew my subscription for the next 75,
years.—Jeff
Thank MacAddict contributing editor
Andrew Tokuda for shooting and editing
the video.—Ed.
BT SAVES YOU MONEY
Articles like “Mac Maestro” (Mar/o2, p31)
about BT, the electronic musician, are rare
but essential to people who are in the dark
like myself. Based on my own research
before | read that article, | had a goal of
The Political Remix
hen electronic musician BF said, “Let’s face it: PCs are Republican
computers,” in our “Mac Maestro” feature (Mar/o2, p31), a lot of
Computer isn’t giving away Macs.”
“When it comes to Macintosh computing, leave the cheesiness of politics out of it.”
—Ed Beach
“{ would just like to commend you on your lack of fear about expressing opinion in the
magazine. Freedom of speech rules, even if it offends some of those oversensitive
types.”—Patrick Glenn
“BT is wrong. Republicans and Democrats are
Libertarian computer.”—Curtis Gropp
two sides of the same coin. The Mac is a
“Tell BT he can kiss my Mac-using, conservative Republican ass!”—Randy Karg
“Macs are not Democrats. They are about freedom from the oppression of the Wintel
regime.”—Michael Gibbs
MAY/02
Recently Sighted
My dude is a Mac addict from way back.
When we moved into our house, we
painted our garage door to make it look
like a System 7 desktop. | guess my dude
made quite an impression on my parents.
They love their Macs so much, they
painted their garage door as well.
—Lemon james
$8,000 to save up before | could even get
started creating music, but now | can get
going!—Joe Manning ti
To our advertisers: This man is lying. We
actually told him to purchase $80,000 of
new hardware, which he did instantly and
unquestioningly.—Ed.
OFFICE SPACE
| used to use Microsoft Office: Mac 2001 for
8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 50 weeks a
year, and | never customized a darned thing
because | figured my job was too mundane
to warrant any fancy shenanigans. After
reading “Office Tricks” (Mar/o2, p38), |
tock the plunge and upgraded to Office v. X,
then customized my toolbars, keyboard
shortcuts, and even ditched my email
program for Entourage. All this efficiency
created more time in my day for talking on
the phone, surfing the Internet, and going
home early. Thanks.—Kristina Flug
We're glad we enriched your lifestyle.—Ed.
L'AMOUR FOR SURE
My better half has given me the gift that will
keep on giving throughout the year. Yes,
she gave mea one-year subscription to
MacAddict as a Valentine’s Day present. Now
| know she really loves me!—Louis Gaulin
And she didn’t even have to spend two
months’ salary.—Ed.
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Full Stream Ahead
The news of the month in bite-size chunks,
Apple Announces QuickTime 6
and QuickTime Broadcaster
alk about a one-two sucker punch.
i Apple kicked offits annual
QuickTime Live event in Los
Angeles by first unveiling QuickTime 6 and
QuickTime Broadcaster and then saying we
can’t have them yet.
Six in the City
Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide
product marketing, Phil Schiller, delivered
the keynote and demonstrated QuickTime 6
with support for the long anticipated MPEG-4
format, which lets you stream near—DVD-
quality video and audio on the Web and over
wireless networks. QuickTime 6 also adds
support for MPEG-2 decoding, Flashs, and
Advanced Audio Coding (AAC). Developed by
Dolby Laboratories, AAC is an almost
transparent audio codec that can encode
A\FF files at 128 Kbps (or even 64 Kbps) and
retain their full dynamic range. Apple's
director of QuickTime product marketing and
QuickTime 1), Frank Casanova, proved AAC’s
merits by playing a CD-quality AIFF music file
and a 128-Kbps MPEG-4 music file. Most
listeners couldn’t tell the difference.
QuickTime is gaining greater market
share in the multimedia industries.
‘According to Apple, the majority of alt
enhanced music CDs are made using
QuickTime, and Schiller says 251,800 video
sites store or stream QuickTime (MOV)
content, which is more than the 57,400 sites
that display Windows Media (ASP) content
and the 109,100 that display Real Media
(RAM) content.
While you can look at QuickTime 6, you
can’t touch it for now. Apple says it can’t
release QuickTime 6 untilit reaches a
licensing agreement with the MPEG LA, a
consortium of 18 companies that have dibs
Our “Fu
Apple’s Phil
Schiller unveils
QuickTime 6
and QuickTime
Broadcaster,
on the technology (see “LA LA Land,” right, for
more on the MPEG-4 licensing controversy).
Broadcaster News
Apple also announced the exciting
QuickTime Broadcaster, which it will release
as a free product. This Mac OS X app allows
anyone with a DV camera to broadcast
video live over a network and to stream
content anywhere around the world. It
features a simplified look for multimedia
newbies and an extended interface for
media mavens. Apple spokespersons
demonstrated QuickTime Broadcaster by
capturing live video from a DV camera into
a TiBook housing Broadcaster. They then
broadcast the signal via AirPort to a server,
and finally displayed the stream on a wired
Mac and a wireless TiBook onstage with
only a3-second delay (for the record, this
crashed after about a minute, but we’re
sure Apple will work out the bugs before
the final release). QuickTime Broadcaster
supports MPEG-4, all other QuickTime
codecs, FireWire capture, unicast and
multicast, AppleScript, and more.
Unfortunately, QuickTime Broadcaster is
embroiled in the same MPEG-4 licensing
conflict as QuickTime 6, leaving both
products dangling out of reach in front of
our aching, bloody noses.—Kris Fong
PEG-4 streaming technology isn’t
new. Many companies have been
ready to ship it for awhile, and we first
reported on itin our July 2002 issue (“The
Magical Mystery MPEG-4,” p17). However,
you can’t use it until the MPEG LA—a
group of 18 companies with MPEG-4
patents—and developers who use MPEG
technology in their apps and devices
agree on licensing fees.
Right now, Apple has graciously
agreed to pay the 25 cents per
distributed decoder and encoder (with a
$1 million cap per year for each decoder
and encoder) that the MPEG LA is
charging for MPEG-4. What's in dispute
is a second fee for content. As of press
time, the MPEG folks want to charge 2
cents per hour to every streaming host
and 2 cents per hour to every streaming
fite downloader. Apple and the video
industry say no. Apple suggests writing
a constructive letter to the MPEG LA
(licensing@mpegla.com) courteously
protesting the content portion of the
licensing fee. We couldn’t agree more,
so start writing.
PHOTOGRAPH BY KRIS FONS
You Game. You Win.
The Winners of the Spectacular Mac Gaming Contest
I n conjunction with our January 2002 games
issue, we gave away more than 50 games to the
people who most creatively impersonated their
favorite game characters, Here are the winners.—NR
Gold Medal Winner
Matthew Leonard Superdock, Age 14
Who's he impersonating? Flux from AirBurst
@ (Strange Flavour, www.strangeflavour.com, $5)
What did he win? 30 Mac games.
‘Shrunken and digitally superimposed, Matt (right) becomes
a dead ringer for the character Flux (inset) in AirBurst.
So what went info Matt’s costume, you ask?
Matt shaves
his head,
Ww Silver
Samantha Lynn, Age 31
Who’s she impersonating?
Maniacal driver from
Carmageddon (Interplay,
www.interplay.com,
discontinued)
What did she win?
15 Mac games
Matt starts looking —_—Six friends stuff Matt Matt sprouts arms and legs
into a beanbag chair, —_(taken from an old doll).
| J Bronze Medal Winner
Kevin McArthur, Age 11
Who’s he impersonating? The Ranger
from Pillars of Garendall (Ambrosia Software,
“1. Fz] www.ambrosiasw
Re, .com, $25)
: What did he win?
5 Mac games.
It took Kevin's brother
five weeks to make
this costume.
The original inspiration
was Apple II's Car Wars,
Amanda Gail Storm, Age 23
Lara Croft from the Tomb
Raider series (Aspyr Media,
Wwww.aspyr.com, $19.95)
Joseph W. Schwartz, Age 10
Ferazel from Ferazel’s Wand
(Ambrosia Software,
Www.ambrosiasw.com, $30)
Michel Boissonneault, Age 39
Harry and friends from Harry Potter
and the Sorcerer's Sione (Aspyr
Media, www.aspyr.com, $29.95)
Concept: MiniTower with LCD.
Artist: David L. Schafer
Schafer designed this G3 tower successor
to resemble a train. Why a train? “To give
the impression of speed,” he explains.
These days a G3 is hardly cutting-edge,
but add one of those fabled G5 processors This futuristic PowerPC
and you'll be doing the locomotive. is built for speed.
Concept: iPod 1
Artist: Sani Seesuchart
the new iPod easier to hold
and contains the iPod's
Control buttons, minimizing
Seesuchart's side grip makes
‘the need for finger movement.
Open Source Streaming
Apple announced QuickTime Streaming Server 4,
which allows multimedia content distributors to
stream MPEG-4 and’MP3 audio content almost
flawlessly. Unlike QuickTime 6 (see “Full Stream
Ahead,” p14), QuickTime Streaming Server 4 is
available today free at Apples Open Source Projects
(Wwww.opensource.apple.com/projects/streaming).
Here Comes the Sun
At Apple’s QuickTime Live conference, Apple, Sun,
and Ericsson announced a partnership to bring
streaming video to cell phones and PDAs. Sun
Microsystems demonstrated how to export MPEG-4
video from Apple’s Final Cut Pro, drop it onto a Sun
streaming server, and deliver content to computers
and television screens. We're assuming Ericsson
will provide the phones. Sun and Apple are
cofounders of the Internet Streaming Media
Alliance for developing interoperable standards-
based technologies and gadgets. See the Sun
Streaming Technology Web page (www.sun.com
/wireless/streaming) for more information.
QuickTime Gets Real
Apple announced thatin the year 2001 QuickTime
beat out RealNetworks in the “How many new
users did you get?” contest. Apple says 80 million
new users downloaded the QuickTime Player,
while only 75 million downloaded RealOne and
RealPlayer combined.
Apnle Wins a Grammy
Apple took home the 2002 technical Grammy
award for “bringing computer technology into
the studio and revolutionizing the way music
is written, produced, mixed, recorded, and
creatively imagined.” (We would never dare
paraphrase the Academy.)
In with the Old
The desktop computer market may have tanked
last year, but the market for peripherals stayed
afloat. According to NPDTechworld’s survey, the
market for LCD monitors rose 262 percent, the
market for external hard drives rose 182 percent,
the market for RAM rose 150 percent, and the
market for network access points (like hubs and
routers) rose 128.3 percent.
This wavy
iPod adds
better finger
management
waa to the mix.
MAY/02| MacAddict!| 15
en 7 meet ela
iroolWORTHY
Sexy Stuff We Can‘t Wait to Get Our Mitts On
Palm m130
Paim | www.palm.com| $279
Pry 225 tartet desc yu can afford. he new mgo comes ith 2 E
16-bit color display, a rechargeable battery, a USB cradle, a flip-top lid, é
swappable faceplates, and an SD card slot. if money is no object or ifyou can get your 3
employer to cough up the dough, you should opt for the all-new msis ($399). This high- é
end, slim PDA has 16MB of memory and a brighter, active-matrix display. Incidentally, the e
final version of Palm Desktop for Mac OS X should be available by the time you read this.—CL Fe
SOR It's small, it’s cotor, and it’s affordable—
f = what more do you want?
FinePix 30i
Fujifilm | www.fulifilm.com |§399
w, how cute. The FinePix 30i by Fujifilm packs a ws
2.1-megapixel digital camera, an MP3 player, digital voice =
annotation, and AVI video support into one cute 5.6-ounce id
device. A remote control scrolls through photos and MP3s stored 2
on the included 16MB SmartMedia. At $399, we'd like more than z
a 2.5X digital zoom, but it’s so adorable we just can’t resist. The 8
FinePix 30i should be available in the United States by the time é
This digital camera went on a diet.
you read this.—Whitney Hess
Shareware Pick of the Month
FPocketNotes [ea
fe ocketNotes is one serious notepad. Create tabs
r to categorize your notes. Use the Outliner
Panel to organize your topics hierarchically, Store
Find email and Web links with the Link Shelf, and fire up
112, files, folders, and applications with a single click.
ontheDise. You can customize the toolbar, and PocketNotes
supports skins, so it’s personalized as well as
productive, If that’s not enough, the program also
includes password protection, priorities, reminders, PocketNotes is a notepad on steroids, taming Customize PocketNotes’ toolbar until
and unlimited undos.—Andrew Tokuda your wild clutter of notes. it reflects the real you.
mping Jack Flash
The New Flash MX Supports Video
M acromedia ditched the
number system and called
the new version of its multimedia-
authoring tool Flash MX. Perhaps
the biggest change to Flash is its
new support for video through the
adoption of Sorenson Spark,
technology (see “New Stuff,”
right). Flash MX includes.
Sorenson’s Spark codec. Video
support makes Macromedia’s new
Flash 6 player a viable alternative
to QuickTime, Real, and Windows
Media players for viewing short movie clips. Flash MX can import MPEG, DV
(digital video), MOV QuickTime), and AVI formats. It can also scale, rotate,
mask, and animate video objects.
Flash MX offers a host of other tools, including industry-standard Bézier
drawing tools and a Free Transform tool for scaling, rotating, and skewing
objects. Pixel Snapping allows precise placement of objects, and Macromedia
has enhanced Flash’s color mixer.
Flash MX comes with new workspace-optimization features like collapsible,
Dockable panels, a better timeline with Layers folders for collapsing nested
layers, and a Property Inspector (borrowed from Dreamweaver) whose
settings change to reflect the selected tools and objects. And for application
developers, Macromedia has enhanced the code debugger and ActionScript
Editor. Flash MX should be available by midyear 2002 for $499.—NR
Video support makes Flash MX an alternative
to Real and Time.
Bluetooth Fairies
PDAs and Printers Further
Device-to-Device Communication oe
oyou remember Bluetooth? This
wireless technology was supposed
to change the way devices like ceil phones, =
printers, and PDAs communicate. We've heard y
much talk but seen little action—until now. Epson's Bluetooth Adapter
Palm is now shipping a Bluetooth card that _—‘éts Palm users print to the
slips into the SD slot ofyour Palm handheld. The Epson C80 color inkjet printer.
card ($129, www.pali.com) ships with several apps, including one that allows
you to dial your Bluetooth-enabled cell phone from your Palm’s address book,
as well as another app that allows two people with Bluetooth-enabled PDAs to
chat. Perhaps the coolest use for one of these puppies is Blueboard, an app that
lets you and a fellow Bluetoother collaborate on text or graphics documents.
Anything you write or draw on your Palm’s screen appears on your cohort’s
screen—tike a virtual whiteboard.
Epson unveiled a Bluetooth Print Adapter ($129, www.epson.com), which
lets Bluetooth-enabled Palm devices print to the Epson C8o color inkjet printer
via a Palm .PRC application called (S/Complete’s BtPrint (free with Epson’s
adapter, www.btprint.com). A $14.95 upgrade lets you print from DataViz’s
Documents To Go.—CL
Concept: iSee
Artist: Yuhay-Raymond Ng
The futuristic and fashionable iSee is a
combination global positioning system and
mobile phone that shows worldwide political
boundaries, U:S. cities, highways, major roads,
national parks, waterways, and railways. You
can upload tocation data from your Mac via USB.
1 see everything with iSee.
Concept: iPod
Artist; Maureen Lin
Lin goes retro, bringing old iMac
fruit flavors (remember those?)
to the iPod. She goes back to
the future, however, with a
smoother shape that fits more
easily in users’ pockets.
new STUFF
Sorenson Squeeze for
Macromedia Fash MX
Sorenson, www.sorenson.com,
$299
The latest pro version of
Sorenson’s video-
compression and -streaming
software supports Flash MX (see “jumping Jack Flash,” left).
Squeeze includes a new ifeo codec called Spark Pro. This
product should be available by the time you read this.
Canon Bubble Jet Printers
Canon, www.usa.canon.com, $499 (S9000), $399 (S980),
$299 (S820)
Canon released a slew of new inkjet printers. The Sgooo Color
Bubble Jet Photo Printer prints sizes up to 13 by 19 inches ata
maximum resolution of 2,400 by 1,200 dpi. The S900 and $820
Color Bubble Jet Photo Printers print standard paper sizes at a
maximum resolution of 2,400 by 2,400 dpi.
Sony CRT Displays
Sony, www.sony.com/displays, $250 (CPD-E240), $600 (CPD-E540)
Sony released the 17-inch CPD-E240 CRT display, which has
a maximum resolution of 1,280 by 1,024 dpi, and the 21-inch
CPD-E540 CRT display, which has a maximum resolution of
1,920 by 1,440.
Musicmatch Jukebox Plus 3.0 for Mac
Musicmatch, www.musicmatch.com, $19.99
This new version of Jukebox (available now) lets you play, burn,
record, and organize your music, as well as convert it to MP3.
Mercury On-the-Go
GOGB FireWire drive
Other World Computing, www.macsales.com,
$639.97
This 60GB, 2.5-inch portable FireWire drive
(available now) weighs in at a mere 11 ounces.
It offers an Oxford 911 chip set and a 60GB IBM
Travelstar drive.
GOGB FireWire drives
Trans Inti, www.transintl.com, $479 (internal),
$579 (external)
The 2.5-inch 60GB internal IDE drive is for PowerBooks only.
Trans Intl also offers a 60GB external FireWire version, enabled
by an Oxford 911 FireWire-to-IDE bridge chip. Both drives are
available now.
Squeeze Flash MX video.
Get this drive to go.
q
D
Viva trait
- flavors.
MAY/02 | MacAdaict| 17
get info
INtheSTUDIO with J.J. Tindall
Ver recording artist ). J. Tindall has recorded, mixed, and distributed his
own classic-rock records for nearly 20 years. He produced his latest album,
Songs in the Rock Genre, using a Power Mac G3, Emagic’s Logic Audio Gold
sound-editing software ($499 street, www.emagic.de), a mixing board, anda
whole lot of microphones. Tindall told us how he uses his Mac to make music,
recording a rich spectrum of sounds from his electric and acoustic instruments.
—Keelin Devincenzi
The All-Important Mic
Tindall set up elaborate microphone
configurations when recording Songs in
the Rock Genre. Just to record drums, for
instance, he used five microphones: an AKG
Acoustics D112 ($179, www.akg-acoustics
.com) in front of the bass drum, a Shure
SMs57 ($146, www.shure.com) on top of the
snare drum, another Shure SMs7 on top of
the floor-tom drum, and two AKG C1ooos
($299) in front of and above the drum kit to
the left and right to capture the room
sound. Laying guitar tracks was no less
elaborate. He plugged his old Martin SIX
Stinger electric guitar into a Fender Champ
amplifier with vacuum tubes. He then set
up one mic in front of the amp, another
behind the amp, and still a third 6 feet back
to get the room sound. When recording an
upright piano, he used three mics—one to
Classic Rocker Records Acoustic Music Digitally
the left, one to the right, and one 6 feet
back—to capture the room sound. “You can
tweak to the 1,c00th degree using Logic
[Gold audio software], but you still need a
really good setup,” Tindall says.
The Mac Setup
Tindall still uses his 300MHz Power Mac G3
running Mac OS 8.6, although he boosted
his RAM to 256MB and bought a Yamaha
CRW 4416 drive ($469, www.yamaha.com)
for burning master discs and making
backups. He connects the mics to a Mackie
Designs 1604-ViZ Pro mixing board with
premium XDR mic preamplifiers
($999, www.mackie.com), and the mixing
board plugs into a Mark of the Unicorn
2408 digital interface ($995, www.motu
.com), The MOTU breakout box connects
to the Mac through the bundled PCI-324
‘Sotions Rvindows 1 net
Sant GG iegcmaecn]
sound card, “PCs are fine for
word processing and household
g accounting, but when it comes
Tindall used Logic Audio’s GoldVerb (reverb) plug-in on the
overhead drum mics to provide a sense of space and depth.
to state-of-the-art multimedia,
Macs are really the only option,”
Tindall says.
Using His Logic
Tindall used Logic Audio Gold
for tecording, editing, mixing,
and mastering each track on the
album. Logic has 50 different
plug-ins, and Tindall specifically
recommends using echo,
equalization, compression,
and reverb for maintaining the
warmth of acoustic music. To
His logic’s not electronic. Tindall uses Logic Audio and
a Power Mac G3 to record classic rock.
Tindall’s small-room setup can record
hig-room sound.
add an effect in Logic Audio Gold, you click
the audio-mixer icon to bring up the virtual
mixer, then select the plug-in you want to
use. You can add up te three effects on
each track, but that boosts the file size.
Tindall uses a technique called busing to
combat this expansion of girth. He puts,
say, an echo effect on one trackand uses
the mixing board to reroute the individual
instruments to that track; this allows him to
use lots of effects without increasing the file
size. Tindall’s songs still get quite large,
however. An average 24-track song can be
as large as 700MB.
“if you know what sound you want in
your head, it's amazing how precisely you
can create it in Logic,” Tindall says. “It is
absolutely the best way to make custom
sounds on a limited budget with limited
space.” Tindall spent one month writing,
recording, and producing each songon
Songs in the Rock Genre, which is available
at www. jjtindall.com. His music is also
available at www.amazon.com.
uld double
PHOTOGRAPH BY J, THOALL
DEFEND. DESTROY. PLAY THROUGH THE NIGHT!
MacSoft
OO
crap
Learn what's on the inside
without voiding your warranty.
Audio Ins and Outs
by Keelin Devincenzi
Y
hether it’s old (with 1/8-inch audio-in and/or a serial port)
ornew (with USB ports), here’s what you'll need to bring
for USB Audio support, and you'll also need an audio-capture
program like like Digidesign’s Pro Tools (on the Disc), which lets
cnithe fil music to your Mac. Don't forget thatyou’ll need Mac OS 9.0.4 0rlater you edit and mix audio.
‘Tools 5.0.1 on
Ce Older Macs Input Newer Macs
If your turntable hooks up to a stereo receiver, connect
an RCA-to-1/8-inch stereo cable between the receiver's
‘tape out or aux out and the Mac’s 1/8-inch audio-in jack.
if there's no receiver, get a phono preampiifer like RCA's
AH500 ($29.95, www.rca.com). An RCA stereo cable
connects the turntable outs to the preamp ins. An
RCA-to-1/8-inch cable joins the preamp to the Mac.
Amicrophone with a 1/8-inch miniplug fits into your
Mae's audio in. A mic with a 1/4-inch plug requires
a 1/4-inch female-to-1/8-inch male adapter. A mic
with a professional XLR connection requires an
additional XLR-female—to-1/4-inch male adapter,
such as Shure’s ASSUF Line Matching Transformer
($42.17 SRP. www.shure.com). The more adapters
you use, however, the more likely
you'll lose sound quality.
Plug an electric instrument like a keyboard or guitar into
your Mac's audio-in port using a 1/4-inch-to-1/8-inch
cable. Some instruments have two (left and right)
1/4-inch stereo outputs, so use a miniplug cable that
connects dual 1/4-inch to single 1/8-inch stereo.
Invest in a miser like Midiman’s MultiMixer 6 with
six input jacks ($99.95, www.midiman.com).
uy your instruments and mics into the
mixer’s 1/4-inch jacks, and
connect the mixer to your
Mac's audio-in port wth a dual
(left and right) 1/4-inch-to-1/8-
inch stereo cable.
computer, just digital information. To
connect a MIDI instrument to a Mac with
Serial ports, use a serial-based MIDI interface
box, such as Midiman’s Macman ($59.95).
MIDI instruments transmit no sound to the
Connect your stereo recelver or preamp to a USB-to-
audio adapter such as Griffin Technology's
iMic ($35, wwwgriffintechnology
com) using an RCA-to-1/8-inch ad
stereo cable. Connect the iMic to your
Mac via the USB port.
ee.
[Plug your 1/8-inch miniplug mic into the Griffin iMic,
which then connects to your USB port. For 1/4-inch
and XLR microphones, check
out Edirol's UA-3 USB Audio
Interface ($179, www:
.edirol.com) with 1/4-inch
stereo jack and RCA line
inputs and outputs.
Electric Instruments
The cheap solution is to plug your
instrument into Griffin iMic's 1/8-inch
miniplug jack with a dual 1/4-inch-to—
1/8-inch stereo cable. Then plug the iMic
into your Mac's USB port. You can also
use a 1/4-inch cable to plug your
instrument directly into the UA-3 USB
Audio Interface (see above). Both solutions
give you 44.1KHz, 16-bit CD-quality audio.
Multiple Instruments
.com)—see p59 for our Mbox review.
Ifyou need more than the one input on Griffin
Technology's iMic, get a mixer. Plug its stereo
‘outputs into the iMic using a dual 1/4-inch or
RCA-to-1/8-inch stereo cable. If you've got
more cash, check out Digidesign’s Mbox
USB audio interface ($495, www.digidesign
Use a USB MIDI interface
box, such as the
Midisport 4X4 USB Midi ue
Interface from Midiman
($199.95).
Professional Recording With a Sound Card
|NPUT PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF HEMERA
If you need to record audio that’s better than CD-quality and/or you need
multiple audio inputs, invest in a sound card plus a breakout box that
houses multiple audio ins and outs. Mark of the Unicorn’s PCI-324 card
plus its 2408 MKII box ($995 total, www.motu.com) is one option. Connect
your instruments to the breakout box, then
connect the breakout box to your sound card. If you have
FireWire, the MOTU 828 ($795, www.motu.com) external
FireWire recording system eliminates the need to instal! a sound card.
| Mac Addict | MAY/02
9 a i
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bought me a warm beer and stole danced with me atthe Rattle & _infeligence, tumor? Attract
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Borg, 6054 DUGOUT FIRECRACKER. You
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EXCLUSIVE, IN-DEPTH REPORT
MAY/02
3 MacAddcict|
AVEC
Hint: It's cooler
than you can
possibly imagine.
Rewind five years to1997. Back then, Mac OS X didn’t
exist. Nobody could conceive of editing home movies
on their computers. Few people used Palm Pilots,
and MP3 players didn’t exist. Only rich people could
afford LCD displays.
Fast-forward to the present. We now have not one,
but two 1GHz chips in a single Mac. We have a
consumer desktop computer that features a floating
flat-panel display. People are creating professional
movies on Macs. You can sit in your living room
Surfing the Web wirelessly at speeds that put 56-Kbps
modems to shame.
Five years ago, few could have predicted what
things would be like now. And now, nobody can
predict exactly what things will be like in five years.
But that’s not going to stop us from trying.
In the pages that follow, we'll look at the
technologies, trends, and consumer demands that
will change the Mac over the next five years. Some of
these technologies may indeed live up to their hype.
And others may end up in tech heaven alongside the
Cube and the Newton. We can't infallibly predict what
will and won’t happen (if we could, don’t you think
we'd be doing something far more lucrative right
now?). But we can tell you what looks promising at
this moment in time. And from where we're sitting,
the future looks pretty damn sweet.
by Cathy Lu
photograph by Mark Madeo
MAY/02 | MacAdoict, | 23
The Processor
Guessing Game
n late January, Apple reached a major
milestone: It finally hit the gigahertz mark
by releasing a dual-processor 1GHz G4 Mac.
So what's next?
Unfortunately, that question’s not as easy
to answer as you might think. Ask Apple or
Motorola, maker of the PowerPC chip, about
plans for the future, and they fall quieter than
Ken Lay at a Congressional hearing. What we
can do, short of bugging Jobs’s office (and
don’t think we haven’t thought about that),
is examine public documents, analyze
technological trends, talk to industry experts,
and make predictions based on Apple’s
past actions.
Of course, the biggest question mark is
the Gs. According to Motorola’s processor
road map, it’s coming—but when? Some
industry insiders are speculating that it might
be too optimistic to hope fora Gs this
summer or even this year, especially
considering that the G4 in the dual-gigahertz
Power Mac (the MPC7455) is a newly tweaked
processor. As Greg joswiak, Apple’s senior
director of hardware product marketing has
been quoted as saying, the Gq still has a long
life ahead of it.
However, as Peter Glaskowsky, senior
editor of Microprocessor Report, says, there is
some pressure on Apple to deliver the Gs this
year. “Itwouldn’t kill them, but it would hurt
them [not to deliver it],” says Glaskowsky.
“Despite all of [its] ability to say a G4 at 1GHz
is comparable to a P4 at 2GHz, a lot of people
still don’t buy it.” That said, Glaskowsky is
one person who thinks Apple might announce
a Gs this summer, although he stresses that
it’s an educated guess. We do, however,
know a few things about the mysterious chip,
based on Motorola’s PowerPC road map, a
public document outlining the company’s
processor strategy. (Note that some Mac
Web sites have reported that Apple will be
releasing a chip with many of the Gs’s
features and will call ita G4. For the purposes
of this article, we'll make assumptions based
‘on Motorola’s published road map.)
First off, several important features of
the G4 chip will remain in the G5 chip,
including AltiVec and support for L3 cache.
AltiVec (also referred to as the Velocity
Engine) is a vector processor, which means it
executes the same operation on many pieces
of data at the same time, thus allowing the
Info Flow: Inside the Dual-Gigahertz G4
Processor, memory, hard drive, AGP. How do they all work together? Here’s a look at how
the whole shebang comes together.
L3 Cache 13 Cache
Syste sus
System Controller
FireWire
Gigabit
Ethernet
a Meee | MAY/02
USB
Audio,
Controller,
YO Canvollar é
arcOnivey
SOURGE: APPLE COMPUTER
chip to perform
computations such as MP3
encoding in iTunes and translucency effects
in Mac OS X faster. The L3 cache provides
quicker access to recently used data, much
the way your Internet browser’s cache works.
As for the new stuff, the road map
indicates that the G5 will feature a new
pipeline, RapidlO interconnect, 0.13 micron
process with SOI (silicon-on-insulator), and
speeds of 800MHzto 2GHz-plus. \fyou’re a
processor geek, you're already salivating at
the specs. if not, you should be. Here’sa
quick look at what all of these goodies mean:
Deeper Pipelines. When Steve Jobs talks
about the megahertz myth, much of what he
is referring to comes down to the number of
stages per pipeline, Imagine alittle boy
walking with his mother; the boy may be
taking more steps and his tegs may be
moving faster, but he’s not walking any faster
than her. Same deal with pipelines. The
Pentium 4 divides tasks between more but
shorter stages than the G4 does, which
allows—and requires—intel to bump up the
clock speed. Still, Motorola is deepening its
pipelines—the MPC7455 chip has a seven-
Would You Like
a Byte?
Ifyou can’t tell your teft from your right
and your bit from your byte, read on for
some insight.
Short for binary digit, a bit is the
smallest unit of information on a
computer. A single bit can hold only
‘one of two values: 0 or 4, Programmers
typically combine consecutive bits into
a larger unit, like a byte. Bits often
quantify data-transfer rates.
Meanwhile, a byte, short for binary
term, is a unit of storage capable of
holding a single character. A single
byte equals 8 bits, although many
languages, such as Japanese and
Chinese, use double bytes, or 16 bits,
to describe one character. Bytes
quantify storage capacity and RAM.
stage pipeline, while the original 64
processor had four stages—and that
number is expected to grow in the Gs.
RapidlO Interconnect. RapidiO refers to
the system-bus technology. The system
bus is responsible for the transfer of
information between the CPU and the
system controller, which acts as a traffic
light for regulating data flow to the rest of
the system, such as the AGP graphics slot,
memory, and hard drive (see “Info Flow:
Inside the Dual-Gigahertz G4,” p24). The
curtent system-bus speed of the G4 towers
is 133MHz. RapidiO interconnect enables
system-bus speeds of 250MHz to 2GHz,
although Glaskowsky expects the first G5
processors to fall in the 400MHz to
500MHz range. Translation: These babies
will fly.
0.13-Micron Process. Current G4
processors feature a 0.18-micron process.
The Gs will feature a 0.13-micron process.
For reference, fine human hair is equal to
approximately 50 microns in diameter. in
geek terms, a lower micron process means
the transistors on the chip will be smaller,
which will make them switch faster and
allow Motorola to squeeze them closer
together. Smaller process and chip features
also mean that Motorola can produce more
chips per wafer—if the yields are good
(that is, ifyou get enough chips that are
functional and perform up to the desired
megahertz standard). To you, this means
the chips will be faster and cheaper (again,
if the yields are good).
Silicon-on-Insulator. Motorola
introduced the SOI process to the Gg line
with the MPC7455 chip and will continue to
use it in the Gs, As Glaskowsky explains it,
SOI is “a way of putting a layer of insulating
material between the silicon wafer and the
transistors. This reduces the capacitance
[the ability of a substance to store an
electric charge] between the transistor and
the wafer and allows the transistor to
switch faster.”
High Clock Speeds. Current G4 chips
max out at 1GHz clock speeds (the speed
at which the chip’s internal clock moves
data around). That’s nothing to sneeze at,
but with clock speeds capable of 2GHz,
@ Gs Mac should burn through tasks in
processor-intensive apps like Photoshop
and Final Cut Pro. »>
The $64,000 64-Bit Question
Ever wonder why you can’t add more than 1.5GB of RAM to your G4 Power Mac? (If not,
and ifyou think 128MB is rad, just humor us.) The short answer is it’s Apple's fault.
The long answer is it’s the technology's fault.
The PowerPC chip has a 32-bit integer core. That means when you specify an address
in memory, you have 32 bits to describe it. Unfortunately, that restricts the total amount
of memory you can have in your Mac to 4GB. Furthermore, some of that memory must be
reserved for talking to hardware, which further limits the amount of memory available to
users. Apple chose to make 1.5GB of memory usable—a decision the company probably
made when memory was ridiculously expensive.
The only solution for the long-term memory limit is to employ a true 64-bit chip,
which allows for terabytes upon terabytes of RAM. That’s where the PC industry is
headed—both AMD and Intel are working on 64-bit solutions, and our sister publication,
Maximum PC, predicts that it will take one to two years before 64-bit computing
becomes a reality in a desktop PC.
Certainly the folks at Motorola also have 64-bit computing in mind. The specs of
the Gs chip on Motorola's road map indicate the possibility of a 64-bit product. Apple
has not said word one about making a 64-bit version of Mac OS X, butit’s no small
undertaking. Most operating systems—as well as apps—currently divvy up data in 32-bit
chunks, Because of that, it would take years to transition from 32- to 64-bit operating
systems—so don’t start holding your breath,
Mac OS X:
OS of the Future
Interview: Apple
The original Mac OS lasted us a good, long
17 years (some pro musicians would argue
it’s still the superior operating system). So
what did Apple have in mind when building its
new system for the future? We talked to Ken
Bereskin, director of Mac OS product marketing
for Apple.
MA: What were your goals in designing an
operating system for the future?
KB: At the highest level, Mac OS X was designed to
be the platform of the future for us...We wanted to
design another operating system that would serve
Apple for the next generation, for another 10 or 15
years...The next most important [goal] was to
embrace and to drive industry standards. We
wanted to make sure the Mac was the most
compatible, the most open platform out
there...[and] that it would be a platform that would
not only have the Mac community excited about
doing software development but would also brit
into the Apple fold Java developers and Unix
developers...The third biggest goal was to deliver
truly on what Apple does best—ease of use—and
to make using computers as simple and as
automatic as possible
MA: What does the fact that Mac OS X is based on
Unix mean to consumers?
KB: There's a number of great benefits. The
system is going to offer just remarkable reliability
and stability...On a modern operating system
like Mac OS X with Unix underpinnings, if an
application fails, if'l stop working, but it wor
impact anything else that’s going on with your
system...Another big one for Mac users is that tl
Darwin plumbing is really smart at automatically
managing memory.
MA: Can you explain how Mac OS X supports dual
processors?
KB: There [are] two terms that often get confused.
The first is multitasking, and the second is
multithreading. in the case of multitasking...[Mac
OS X is] able to assign the first task to one
processor and the other task to the other
processor. And they basically operate in parallel,
and it’s like each application has its own dedicated
Power Mac...Multithreading is when you have an
application that needs to go as fast as.
possible... Through specific programming, [a
Photoshop devel an say, hey, if | had to do a
Gaussian blur on this image, | can actually divide
the image up into two halves and have one thread
deal with the top half of the image, and have the
second thread dea! with the bottom half of the
image and have them run in paraitel.
MAY/02 | MacAdaict |25
Optical Wars
One group giveth, another taketh away. While
‘one consortium is trying to provide us with a
standardized method of writing CD-RWs, another
is trying to steal the hearts of Appie SuperDrive
owners in favor ofits standard.
Mt. Rainier. No, we're not talking about the
mountain in Washington. This technology
standardizes the way CD burners write
information to discs so that any computer,
running any operating system, attached to any
CD drive, can read and write information as
freely as it would with a floppy.
The Mt. Rainier standard would theoretically
be built into the operating system and would
allow you to drag and drop data to CD-RW
discs—and it doesn’t require packet-writing
software such as Roxio’s Toast. The file system
burns data in smali chunks, then verifies the
operation before proceeding to the next chunk,
tepeating the process if an error occurs—and all
of this occurs transparenily to users.
Microsoft is reportedly adding support for Mt.
Rainier in a later release of Windows XP. Apple
has not voiced its opinion yet. Drive makers
would also have to add support for Mt. Rainier to
their CD burners—some, including Yamaha and
Sony, are already committed. Unfortunately,
legacy drives cannot read this format without
new drivers, But if Mt. Rainier can alleviate the
hassle of the error-riddled disc-burning process
by even a smidgen, we say Amen.
Battle over DVD. Apple revolutionized the
personal computing market when it released
Macs with a built-in SuperDrive for burning DVDs.
But the SuperDrive is actually just a Pioneer DVR-
103, a DVD-R drive that people are lumping under
a Standard called DVD-R/RW (DVD dash R/RW, or
more unkindly, DVD minus R/RW).
The opposition is DVD+RW (DVD plus RW).
Here's the difference: Manufacturers of set-top
‘DVD players must design in support for DVD-
R/RW discs, while DVD+RW proponents tout
their standard as generally not requiring any
special support. They claim that almost all DVD
players should be able to read DVD+RW-created
discs (although some older players may have
issues), Note, though, that more DVD-player
manufacturers design In support for DVD-R than
for DVD-RW, and the list of DVD players that will
play SuperDrive-burned DVD-Rs is not small
(check www.apple.com/dvd/compatibility).
26 | | MAY/02
Here’s hoping that Apple adopts the faster DDR RAM—soon.
>> fone Gs isn’t good
enough for you, how about
two? We expect Apple to
continue with its dual-processor
philosophy, for several reasons. First, it’s
creative apps like Photoshop that take the
most advantage of the performance a dual
processor offers—and as we all know, Mac
users are nothing if not creative. Plus, with
Mac OS¥’s symmetric multiprocessing
capabilities (see “Mac OS X: OS of the
Future,” p25), your Mac will take full
advantage of a second processor (not the
case in Mac OS 9). Also, there’s an
economic reason why the dual-processor
‘strategy works for Apple but not for PC
manufacturers. According to Glaskowsky,
PowerPC chips are smaller than Pentium 4
chips, so they cost less to manufacture. To
wit, the bulk price of Motorola’s high end
4GHz MPC7455 PowerPC chip is $295, while
the bulk price of the high-end 2.2GHz
Pentium 4 is $562.
Finally, we can’t discount the possibility
that Apple will ditch Motorola altogether and
ally with IBM, maker of the G3 chip in current
iBooks. Just as Motorola is moving forward
on PowerPC development, IBM is doing the
same, including support for SIMD (Single
Instruction, Multiple Data) capabilities,
similar to AltiVec. IBM’s continued support of
PowerPC opens up another track to Apple
should the Motorola train lose steam. Of
course, the only person who can answer all
of these questions is Steve Jobs—and he
ain’t talking.
Viemory
Matters
processor takes one ofits biggest
performance hits when it sends data to
and from system memory. Current RAM—
PC133 SDRAM—tuns at 133MHz, as the name
implies, and has peak data throughput of
1,06 GBps. The bad news is that memory is
ene area where Apple is lagging behind PC
manufacturers. The good news is that several
faster alternatives are waiting in the wings,
and they'll make PC133 RAM feel like a 90-
year-old grandma driving a Cadillac in the
slow lane.
The most
popular of the faster
standards is DDR (Double Data
Rate) SDRAM, which you already find
on graphics cards. DDR technology can
perform two memory accesses per clock
cycle, effectively doubling the performance of
PC133. With the Pentium 4, Intel has decided
to embrace the DDR standard, and it’s using
the Rambus RDRAM standard in its higher-
end chips. Rambus is even faster than DDR,
with memory speeds of up to SooMHz.
Don’t expect Apple to welcome Rambus
into its home anytime soon, however. The
company is much more likely to embrace the
more common and easily adaptable DDR.
Although DDR modules do not fit into the
same sockets as PC133 SDRAM, they look like
and work similarly to existing SDRAM.
modules, easing the migration to DDR.
That migration may not happen until
Apple’s processors have the kind of system-
bus speeds that can better take advantage of
DDR’s 200MHz or 266MHz performance.
“When Apple has the Gs, then they can
use DDR, and I’m sure they will,” says
Glaskowsky. “I don’t think they’d bother
having a Gs, at least at the high end of the
product line, without DDR memory and maybe
never with SDRAM. You can get Pentium 4s
with SDRAM and it’s a total waste of time and
money to do it, so | think the same would be
true of a G5 with SDRAM.” That would be like
having that same go-year-old grandma in her
Cadillac doing 4o in the fast lane. And we all
know how painful that can be.
Expanding
EXOansion
s bus speeds increase, another issue
Apple will have to address is building
faster expansion slots. Current Macs employ
64-bit, 33MHz PCI slots with throughput of
up to 215 MBps, and a 4X AGP slot for the
graphics card with throughput of up to 1,066
MBps. The AGP question is easy enough: AGP
8Xis on the horizon, promising speeds of up
to 2.1 GBps, and should start appearing in
desktop computers sometime next year.
But what about PCI? The next giant leap is to
PCI-X, a high-performance extension to the existing
PCI bus. PCI-X is a 64-bit bus with speeds up to
133MHz (up from the maximum of 66MHz in plain
old PCI) and throughput up to 1.06 GBps. Plus,
PCI-X is backward compatible. For that reason, and
also because Apple led the personal computing
market when it went to 64-bit PCI, it’s logical that
Apple would eventually adopt this standard.
Of course, none other than Intel is working on
yet another standard called 3G10, which should
provide faster performance than even PCI-X
(and reports are that 3GIO will make it possible
to use PCI cards in legacy PCI slots built into
3G10-equipped machines). The main difference
between 3GIO and PClis that 3GI0O is a serial
technology, while PCI has a parallel-bus
architecture. Serial can deliver high bandwidth in
fewer signals, and serial connections don’t have
problems with the delay skew that occurs with
parallel technology, in which bits arrive at different
times and then have to synchronize.
So what kind of speeds is Intel talking about?
Initially, 3G10 promises 2.5 Gbps in each direction \
per channel, but devices can connect via multipie \
independent channels for even higher throughput. : ae :
Whether Apple will adopt 360 is another matter.
“Apple is in no hurry to use [3GI0] since the PCI
road map has another three or four or five years of
further development,” says Glaskowsky. “If 3G10
actually does establish itself as a high-end
alternative for system expansion, then Apple wilt
essentially be required to adopt it into its system.” >>
The latest high-end graphics cards for the Mac can make games
look as cool as this Xbox one called Wreckless. We can’t wail.
a
USB 2.0 devices are starting
to appear on the market.
PP AN
ys
4 :
Hard Drives and the
Future of FireWire
‘maller, bigger, cheaper, faster. That’s
the future of storage, says Mike Mihalik,
who is currently responsible for product
development at LaCie.
Right now, the largest magnetic hard
drives have capacities of 80GB, but Mihalik
says he wouldn’t be surprised to see a
1-terabyte (that’s 1,000GB) hard drive in the
next two to three years. That's all thanks to
breakthroughs that are allowing companies to
double the areal density (or capacity per
square inch) every 15 to 18 months. While
capacities keep growing, prices are bottoming
out—it actually costs about $80 to make any
3.5-inch hard drive (the type you'll find in
desktop computers), So companies can’t go
any lower than that.
Of course, that bottoming-out calls for
new solutions.
Enter the 2.5-inch drive, the standard
in notebook computers. Some hard drive
manufacturers are talking about making these
drives standard in desktop machines as well.
They're smaller, so they’re cheaper to
manufacture and take up less room ina
If you think FireWire flies now, wait till yeu
See 13946.
machine, Plus, with all of the work on the
areal density front, 2.5-inch drives are starting
to get into the high-capacity range. According
to Mihalik, manufacturers can now squeeze
20GB of storage onto a single 2.5-inch platter
(the disc that rotates under the magnetic
head as the drive reads or writes data). This
would allow 60GB of storage if they stacked
three platters.
Changes are also under way for how hard
drives connect. The PC side is gradually
moving from parallel ATA to serial ATA
connectors, a move that would replace that
gawky ribbon cable you find inside your Mac
with a small, round, flexible cable that
obstructs airflow less. Serial ATAis also faster
than parallel. While current ATA drives top out
at 133 MBps (Apple uses ATA/66), serial ATA
willinitially run at 150 MBps, with room to
grow. However, the transition won't take place
overnight. According to Maximum PC,
motherboard integration of serial ATA on the
PC side isn’t expected until late this year or
even next year.
So where does Apple stand on this issue?
It’s nottalking—although, says Mihalik,
“Apple will have to pay attention. Remember,
it switched from SCSI drives to IDE drives to
chase lower system costs.”
While the discussion of serial ATA
probably tickles the fancy of you hard-core
Mac fans, the rest of you will probably have
more interest in the connector battle that’s
brewing between USB and FireWire. USB 2.0
now offers speeds of up to 480 Mbps, and
the second coming of FireWire is around the
comer (the chip sets have been ready for
more than six months), initially promising
speeds of 800 Mbps. Because Apple was a
key player in the development of FireWire
(also known as IEEE-1394 and, in Sony’s
world, iLink), we expect that the company
from Cupertino will adopt 1394b on the
motherboard. What it plans to do with
USB 2.0, though, is another issue. Most
manufacturers think Apple would be cuckoo
not to adopt USB 2.0, since most devices—
from external hard drives to CD-RW drives—
ate rapidly going in that direction in an effort
to appeal to the PC market.
The majority of manufacturers also feel
there’s room enough for both standards. USB
2.0 will claim the low end (scanners, printers,
mice, low-end hard drives, CD-RW drives),
and FireWire will dominate the high end (DV
cameras, networking devices, high-end hard
drives, and CD-RW drives). Also, don’t forget
that FireWire provides 12 to 30 volts and 15,
watts of power, while USB provides just 5
volts and 2.5 waits, so only FireWire can
power huskier devices.
Inthe long term, 1394b should allow
speeds of up to 3.2 Gbps using plastic
optical-fiber or glass optical-fiber cabling
instead of the copper wiring it currently uses.
The optical-fiber cabling allows for faster
speeds and longer transmission distances, up
to 100 meters, What does all of this mean?
1394) will be freakin’ fast and will offer
possibilities beyond our wildest imaginings.
Optical Intrusion: The Promise of Holographic Storage
Imagine being able to store 100 DVD movies, CNN's archives of live
video footage, or the entire contents of the Library of Congress on
something the size of an ice cube. That’s the promise of
holographic storage.
This optical-storage technology writes data in a method
analogous to the way a camera records a photograph onto film. Using
laser beams, holographic storage records your data as a 3D pattem
of light and dark spots on a block of light-sensitive material. The
kicker is that you can record a number of superimposed “images”
onto holographic storage material, which you can’t do with film. This
is possible because during the writing process, the data-carrying
laser crosses a second laser beam, called the reference beam.
al eee MAY/02
Holographic technology can vary the reference beam’s angle or
wavelength to store a large number of images on the same volume
of material. To read the data, the device reconstructs the light pattern
of the two crossed laser beams used in the writing step.
‘thatarea.
ifyour neurons are having trouble processing that explanation,
the important thing to note about holographic storage is that it can
store huge amounts of information, it’s more reliable than magnetic
storage because it doesn’t involve any moving parts, and it enables
lightning-quick data-transfer rates (as high as a billion bits per
second). One pitfall researchers have encountered is finding reliable
recording material, but recently they've been making progress in
Dazz!
hen Apple released the new iMacs, Steve Jobs boldly declared
the death of the CRT. But that may be wishful thinking on é ie :
Steve's part, ees onic i ay —
According to Stan Glasgow, vice president of display-products raha 2 f
marketing at Sony, the industry expects the number of flat-panel
LCDs to draw level with the number of CRTs by the year 2007. And, he
says, “that’s predicated on a lot of things continuing very positively
for LCD technology—continual improvement in yield rates, in
technology, in how they do the transistor work, viewing angle,
response time, and actual speed of the transistors.” All while
keeping costs down, of course.
While display companies are continuing to improve current CRT
and LCD technologies, they are also working on development of the
next big thing. ell, the ide iid create
The heir apparent may be a technology called OLED (Organic Light- al yboo eativ
Emitting Diode). Unlike traditional LEDs and LCDs, OLED uses organic i e, but ause of wireless
materials to generate light. A series of thin organic films between two and tt terface anc
conductors emits bright light when an electrical current is applied. The e if the e
main difference between OLED and LCD panels is that OLEDs are er Id dis anc
emissive displays (they generate their own light), while LCDs are ir And ir
passive, meaning they either block or pass light from g lay create it in my house it
an external light source, such as a backlight,
to produce what you see onscreen. >>
Displays Get va gteteh oar
LOD technology should keep bls electronics quys cor That's
getting hetter over the next few e in t e
years. Bat will a brighter new
technology eventually usurp it?
>> People in the display industry are going
gaga over OLED technology for a number of
reasons. Since OLED doesn't require
backlighting, the resulting displays are
thinner, lighter, and less power-hungry than
traditional LCDs. Also, OLEDs have wider
viewing angles—over 160 degrees—as
opposed to LCDs, which typically have a
120- to 160-degree viewing angle (LCDs like
Apple’s Studio Display and Formac’s gallery
1740 have 160-degree viewing angles). The
biggest problem manufacturers have faced
is getting the blue OLED material's quality
up to par with that of the red and green
material—for example, the blue material
fades faster and the full color spectrum
cannot be reproduced. Companies are
making great strides on that front, although
display manufacturers seem to agree that
it will probably be years before we see a
desktop OLED display.
Sony is backing still another display
technology: FED (Field Emission Display).
Think of FED as a skinny version of CRT. In
traditional CRT monitors, three large guns—
one each for red, blue, and green—spray
electrons toward phosphors that light up
pixels onscreen; in an FED monitor, millions
of submicrometer tips emit the electrons that
light up the phosphors. Because FED doesn’t
require a huge tube, the display can be as.
thin as 2 or3 inches. In essence, FED takes
the good parts of CRT technology (bright
color and responsiveness) and junks the
bad part (bulk). The problem facing FED
technology is figuring out a way to
manufacture it en masse economically.
What's the Frequency?
Things are starting to get very crowded. Here’s a look at what
frequency ranges different appliances utilize.
c.f Maendcicl| MAY/02
Wireless
Explodes
irst there was 802.11b. Now there’s
802.11a. Next will come 802.11. 802.11g
will be compatible with 802,12b, but neither
802.11b nor 802.11g will be compatible with
802.114. That's because 802.114 uses a
different frequency on the radio spectrum
than 802.11b and g.
Anyone else have a headache?
Let’s clear the air here: 802.11b, better
known to Mac lovers as AirPort, offers data
rates of up to 11 Mbps and uses the 2.4GH2-
frequency spectrum (see “What’s the
Frequency?” below). Those specs create
several problems, though. While 11 Mbps is
Need faster wireless
access? Proxim will
be releasing Mac
drivers for its 802.114
producis this year.
fine for browsing the Web
or checking email, it’s not
fast enough for, say,
transferring large graphics
files or streaming DVD-
quality video. Also, the
2.4GHz-frequency range is
starting to get as crowded as.
a British soccer—er, football *
match. Many cordless phones, baby
monitors, Bluetooth devices, and
microwave ovens operate in the 2.4GHz
space, which potentially causes interference
for your network. Microwave popcorn while
surfing the Web, and you may end upwith a
network slowdown. Who knew?
802.112 is trying to be the wireless
industry's knight in shining armor. This
new wireless standard offers speeds of up
to 54 Mbps and operates in the 5GHz-
frequency range, a far less crowded space.
Unfortunately, 802.14 is not compatible with
802.11b—your AirPort card will not work with
an 802.114 network, and an 802.11a card will
not work on an 802.11b network.
That doesn’t mean Mac users will be left in
the cold. Networking company Proxim has
already released several 802.11a products for
Windows, including access points, gateways,
and CardBus cards. The company plans to
deliver Mac drivers for those products this
year, including OS 9 drivers in spring and OS
X drivers in summer. And while 802.114 does
require a different antenna from the one built
into your Mac, that shouldn't be an issue,
because the 802.11a-compatible antenna is
already attached to the CardBus card.
Bluetooth,
802.11b, 802.119,
HomeRF,
Microwave Ovens,
Cordless Phones,
Baby Monitors
JOMHzZ 100MHz
Satellite
10GHzZ
100GHZ
AirPort utilizes a wireless technology §
__ known more dully as 802.11b.
End of story, right? Not exactly, 802.11g is yet another
standard the IEEE will probably ratify early next year. It will offer
data rates of up to 54 Mbps and will operate in the 2.4GHz
range. It will also be backward compatible with 802.11, so you
can use your 802.11b cards with 802.11g access points (but only
at the slower speeds).
For the time being, Apple is standing behind the 802.11b
standard, although eventually you could have the best of both
worlds. Ken Haase, director of product marketing for Proxim,
says that in the future you will probably see dual-mode adapters
compatible with both 802.11a and 802.11b or even 802.118.
These adapters are analogous to the dual-band cell phones that
utilize, say, both analog and GSM networks. There are also dual-
band antennas that work in both frequency ranges. “If ’'m
building a future Mac and preparing for possible higher
bandwidth,” says Haase, “I would putin a dual-band antenna.”
There are also several other interesting wireless solutions,
each with unique qualities. First there’s HomeRF, which offers
speeds of up to 10 Mbps and operates in the 2.4GHz range.
HomeRF promises streaming media as well as voice and
telephony capabilities. Since it provides standardized quality-of-
service support for streaming media (meaning it prioritizes
transmitted material), it’s possible that you could, say, stream
MP3s from your Mac toa stereo. Its unique voice features will also
allow one device to act as a wireless and phone base station, so
you can potentially dial a phone number from within your email
program, or even receive email messages on your phone,
Last but not least, there’s Bluetooth, which offers data rates
of up to 1 Mbps and has the potential to provide wireless
communications among cell phones, PDAs, keyboards, and
printers, and literally eliminate all of those unruly cords hooking
up your peripherals and your Mac. Palm recently blessed
Bluetooth (see Get Info, p17) with its Secure Digital Bluetooth
card, which allows you to do things like use your Palm to place a
celi-phone call.
People have been talking up Bluetooth for almost two years
now, yet we've seen few results—at least until now, This just
goes to show that it’s impossible to predict which technologies
will fly and which ones won't. Either way, it looks like an exciting
cordless future. mi
Cathy Lu has been an editor at MacAddict for more than two years.
Afterwriting this article, the only thing she wants in her future is a
‘good night’s sleep.
“multithreaded operating
“reality is that all of those things take battery lif
talk mn David Christopher, senior director of
handhelds, to find out.
MA: What are some of the technological trends you're seeing in the
handheld space?
here's a move to update the processors o use our more
fem and [a move foward] very capable
processors that can multitask. Battery technologies are getting better—
much thinner, much lighter—to enable smaller products. Screen
technologies are getting very, very good...[And] | think you'll see flexible
LCDs—that's a little more futuristic—but the idea is you could have
a... Walletlike device that you could fold and put in your pocket.
My What about high-speed wireless on a handheld?
luetooth, 802.11, CDMA, GPRS—all enable hig!
via handhelds.
MA: How fast will your connection be?
next-generation GSM radio will be very high-speed. analogous toDSL
on | the desktop today.
sly, given Palm’s new Bluetooth card, you think there's a
Do you think Apple needs to consider
‘oftware that allows a device to, for example, talk to a GSM radio in a
(Ghats) scenario and then come into a corporate campus and cone
text...as well as voice commant
number just be dialed.
MA: Can we have one device that does everything—a handheld, cell phone,
MP3 player?
DC: TV [laughs].
MA: And all on your watch, right? Butis that possible?
DG: Itis possible, but instead of being a watch, it will be a backpack. The
, take processing power, take
ize on the actual board, so you can do many of those things today, but
clever thinking on how to package it
attractively, how to get the weight
down, how to get the battery life
up, and how to get the
_ Software such that
“great user experience
This Bluetooth card from Palm
allows you to communicate wirelessly 7
with certain cell phones or another PDA. 33
Bees Are 31
: “ ‘ou know why you want to network the Macs in your
| nstal | | NQ and USI NQ a ¥ home or small office. You want to share files, print to
network is easy—as long
as you speak the lingo.
‘In this comprehensive
encyclopedia of
networking knowledge, we
demystify all the info you
need to get your SOHO
(small office/nome office)
network up and humming.
wireless network.
your network-capable printers, share a broadband
connection to the Internet—even send instant messages to
others when you’re too lazy to walk down the hall.
‘One problem: When your network-savvy friends start
giving you advice about hubs, switches, routers, CAT-5
cabling, and firewalls—or when they start spouting terms
like PPP, TCP/IP, NAT, and DHCP—you begin to think living
in anonnetworked world isn’t all that bad.
Or maybe you’ve already set up a SOHO network—and it’s
running just fine, thank you—but you have a nagging feeling
that you don’t really know if your hub or switch is full duplex,
or understand why your Power Mac’s Gigabit Ethernet
performance has been disappointing, or have the tools to
diagnose and fix network problems remotely. Don’t be shy—
we could all benefit from a little continuing education.
Whether you’re a networking newbie or an IT wanna-be
with a thirst for Net knowledge, we're here to help.
“MacAddict’s Encyclopedia of Networking” explains the
jargon you need to know for network success, and provides
tools and tips for getting the most out of your wired or
of Networking
10Base-T A version of
Ethernet that transmits data at a
maximum rate of 10 megabits per
second, 10Base-T uses twisted-
pair cabling similar to the cables
used in telephone lines.
100Base-T The most
‘common version of Ethernet in
use today, 100Base-T—also known
less commonly as Fast Ethernet—
transmits data at a maximum rate
of 100 megabits per second over
the same twisted-pair cabling
used by 10Base-T.
02.1 1b This specification
for wireless networking is the basis
of Apple's AirPort technology, and
supports a data rate of up to 11
megabits per second.
Active hub In addition to
forwarding data from one Ethernet
device to another, an active hut
also amplifies the
the data.
S
Adaptive bridge ©.
Essentially a bridge with mel
an adaptive bridge remembers
addresses to which it has sent di
so that subsequent transmissions
to the same sue can be |
jl
accomplished |
and fein
AirPort Apple's AirPort
wireless technology is based on
the 802.11b specification, which
allows both peer-to-peer talk and
communication between a client
and a base station—-whether an
Apple AirPort Base Station or a
third-party alternative, often called
‘an access point. You can equip
any currently shipping Macs with
an AirPort client card.
AppleTalk This venerable
standard is Apple's original
protocol for network
communication. AppleTalk breaks:
up data into a large number of
‘small packets, This is a useful
_ scheme for slow, inefficient
networks, since resending ~
damaged packets takes less time
than it would for larger packets,
but it's a drag on high-speed,
efficient networks. AppleTalk
networks—especially larger
‘ones—are also prone to a large
jount of bandwidth-robbing
, because each and every
jevice is plugged into the
every other device will -
"(and less commonly as an Intern
_ fouter), a broadband router ©
Bandwidth The amount of
data that can travel through a
network—or any information
pipeline, for that matter—in a given
period of time. As is true of storage
space, cash, and free time, you
can never have too much of it,
Bridge A device that connects
two network segments. A bridge
simply passes along packets, and
doesn't analyze their addresses as
a router does or translate between
different protocols as a gateway.
does. However, sloppy IT
wanna-bes sometimes use the
three terms interchangeably.
‘Broadband A relative term,
broadband refers to current high-
speed, high-bandwidth data-
ransfer technologies. Today's
broadband darlings include DSL.
and cable modem—tomorrow,
who knows?
Broadband router Also
known as a cable or DSL router
connects your network with an
ISP's broadband service. Most
padband routers include a
ae ‘or switch, in
jas both a DHCP
Cable modem A
broadband technology that
provides Internet access over your
cable TV (CATV) line. Data-transfer
speeds range from 3 to 50
megabits per second. Because
you share a cable modem with
other subscribers, how much your
neighbors use the Internet affects
your connection speed.
(CAT-5 The most common type
of twisted-pait cable in use today,
rated for 100MHz sustained
signals, Both 10Base-T and
100Base-T networks use CATS.
CAT-Se Enhanced CAT-5.
cable. Wire heads will argue
whether CAT-Se'cable is even
significantly better than CATS—
let alone capable of effectively
handling Gigabit Ethernet.
GAT-S An emerging standard,
_-CAT-6 cable is rated for 200MHz to
250MHz signals, and should
provide Gigabit Ethernet with
idwidth.
‘Grossover cable An
hernet cable with the wiring of
_ its RJ-45 connectors reversed so
that it can directly connect two
Ethernet devices without requiring
a hub or switch,
Wired <->
Sure, wireless networking is cool and convenient, but good ol’ cable has lots of advantages.
hen setting up a SOHO network, the first thing to decide is
whether your network should be wired or wireless. A wireless
network has obvious advantages—no cables to futz with and complete
freedom of movement—but don’t dismiss the cable option too quickly.
The most compelling reason to install a wired network is speed.
The current generation of wireless technology—known by the prosaic
moniker of 802.11b or here in the Apple sphere as AirPort—offers a
meager 11 Mbps (megabit per second) bandwidth. That’s only a hair
faster than the oldest wired network still in common use, 10-Mbps
10Base-T Ethernet, and way slower than the current standard, 100-
Mbps 100Base-T Ethernet. Sure, faster wireless technologies are on the
horizon (see “The Future of the Mac,” p22), but none comes close to
the speeds of 100Base-T—let alone Gigabit Ethernet.
So if your network needs fast file transfers, it’s time to start
stringing cable. If you only want to connect two Macs, or one Mac
toa printer—and yes, these straightforward setups are technically
networks—all you need is a crossover cable, Plug one end of the
crossover cable into your Mac and the other end into another Mac or
printer. You've just created a network.
Ifyou need to connect more devices, invest in an Ethernet hub or
switch. Don’t worry, it’s a tiny investment: You can find a four-port
10Base-T passive hub for less than $30 from Mac-friendly vendors
such as Proxim (www. proxim.com), but we recommend moving up toa
five-port 10/100Base-T hub such as the $47 FriendlyNet 10/100 Fast
Ethernet desktop hub from Asanté (www.asante.com). Of course, if you
have more devices, you'll need more ports, but that won't cost much
more: An eight-port hub runs around $65 to $75.
Fora few dollars more, you can switch to a switch—if you're running
a busy network, you'll appreciate the performance improvement.
Asanté’s five-port FS5005 10/100Base-T switch, for example, costs a
mere $61, and you might find even better deals from vendors like SMC
Networks (www.smc.com) or Netgear (www.netgear.com).
DHCP (Dynamic Host
Configuration
Protocol) Software ruming
ona server, router, or switch that
provides a dynamically generated
{P address to each computer on a
network. Combined with NAT,
DHCP gives computers that don't
have a static IP address the ability
to connect to the Internet.
Downstream The drection
of data flowing from the internet-
or any server—to your Mac.
DSL (digital
subscriber tine) A
broadband technology that
provides Net access over phone
lines, Broadly speaking, DSL is
divided into two subgroups: ADSL
(asynchronous OSL), in which the
upstream and downstream rates
differ; and SDSL (symmetrical
DSL)—we're sure you can figure
that one out, Theoretically, DSL
maxes out at 9 megabits per
second downstream and 640
kilobits per second upstream, but
1.5 Mbps and 128 Kbps are far
more common speeds.
a cat
A standard Ethernet cable (left) has colored wires running to the same contacts
at both ends. A crossover cable (right) switches “em. Don’t get them confused.
Of course, running Ethernet cables around your house can get
messy fast. If you want to do it right (and if you’re planning a home
remodeling or don’t mind tearing open a couple of walls), string CAT-5,
CAT-5e, or CAT-6 cable from each room in which you want network
access to a centralized location, such as a well-ventilated closet ora
part of your basement not already stuffed with your prized collection of
Blatz, Schlitz, and Grolsch beer signs. And make sure you do it right:
Don’t force cable into tight, right-angle curves; keep it away from AC
lines; and please, please, don’t wrap it around nails.
To the cable in each room, attach wall-mounted keystone jacks as
portals to your SOHO network, In your basement or closet lair, connect
each cable to a wall-mounted patch panel rated the same as your
cable—CAT-5, CAT-6, whatever. Into these you plug Ethernet patch cords,
which you then connect to a centralized hub or switch. Both Belkin
(www. belkin.com) and Homaco (www.homaco.com) are great sources
for fair-priced, high-quality patch panels. Oh, and do you want to share
broadband Internet access across your network? Read “Hitch a Ride on
Any Broadband Line,” (Dec/01, p70; a PDF is on this month’s Disc).
Ethernet Invented in 1976 by
Bob Metcalf, the founder of 3Com,
Ethemet is by far the most
common LAN architecture today.
Typical Ethernet implementations,
10Base-T, 100Base-T, and
Gigabit Ethemet, use a “star”
connection scheme in which each
computer connects to the othe
through a hub or switch
Firewall A firewall can be any
number of different schemes that
protect computers on one LAN
against the unwanted intrusion of
hackers attempting to access it via
the Internet. An AirPort Base
Station, for example, uses NAT as
a simple but effective firewall
Full duplex Ina full-duplex
connection, devices can send and
receive data at the same time
(unlike half duplex), essentially
doubling their potential bandwidth.
Gateway A struggling PC
manufacturer, or a device that
connects two networks running
different protocols, translating data
from one protocol to the other.
Gigabit Ethernet An
emerging version of Ethernet,
Gigabit Ethemet theoretically has
the ability to transmit data at a
maximum rate of 1,000 megabits
per second over twisted-pair
cabling similar to that used by
10Base-T and 100Base-T, but
higher quality. To take full
advantage of Gigabit Ethernet,
you need good-quality cabling, a
powerful Power Mac, and an OS
that supports jumbo frames—
packets that carry six tim
much data as standard Ethernet
frames. Mac OS X does; earlier
Mac OSs don't.
connection, devices c
send or receive data—but not
both—at any given moment.
Hub A central device to which a
number of computers or LANS
connect and through which they
communicate, sharing the same
bandwidth. Hubs always function
in half-duplex mode. A switch or
router can perform the same
central-connecticn role as a hub:
Wireless <->
Can't afford to rip up your home or office to install cables? Go wireless—but do so carefully.
fhigh-speed networking is not an absolute necessity for your SOHO
needs—and let’s be honest, it probably isn’t—wireless AirPort
technology may be the way to go. No cables cluttering your floor, no
tearing into walls, no pain-in-the-ass installation of multiple keystone
wall jacks—just simple, easy, no-brainer wireless access to file sharing,
printers, and the richness of the Internet.
Yeah, right. If only it were that easy.
Don't get us wrong. Apple’s AirPort Base Station—especially the
new, greatly improved Snow model (see Reviews, Mar/o2, pss)—is a
great SOHO-network problem solver. However, this wireless technology
brings a few problems ofits own.
First of all, let’s face facts: Cables are simple, physical, brutish
things with but one purpose in life, to carry data from one place to
another. The radio spectrum, on the other hand—the rarified etherin
which AirPort’s 802.11b technology operates—is a much less sturdy
environment, prone to interference from a number of sources. You may
need to try different locations for your AirPort Base Station to get the
best performance—and remember, performance will worsen the
further your Macs are from the Base Station.
Ifyou have a 2.4GHz cordless phone, watch out—it’s operating on
the same frequency as the AirPort. Ifyou find that you occasionally
lose the connection with your AirPort Base Station, ask if anyone in
your home or office just picked up the phone—there’s a good chance
the signals are conflicting. If so, try moving the phone far from the
Base Station, or try selecting a different AirPort channel. If that doesn’t
work, switch to a gooMHz phone—at short distances, they work just as
well and are significantly less expensive.
When you're planning your AirPort network, don’t forget about
printing. You can, of course, print the old-fashioned way, directly from
your Mac (USB or Ethernet) or AirPort Base Station (Ethernet). Oryou
can go fully wireless by hooking your printer's parallel port to a
wireless print server. A number of these are available from
manufacturers
including Buffalo
Technology
(AirStation Wireless
Print Server LPV-
WL11, $199; www.
buffalotech.com),
D-Link Systems
(D-LinkAir DP-333,
$199; www.dlink
-com), and Linksys
(EtherFast Wireless
PrintServer WPS11,
$129; www.linksys
.com). Unfortunately,
we've only been able to track down one that explicitly offers Mac
support: Hewlett-Packard’s wp110. We say unjortunately not because
the wpz10 is a lousy product—it works well and supports a lot of HP
printers—but because it costs a hefty $299 (www.hp.com). For that
princely sum, you could buy a half-dozen Epson Stylus C4oUX inkjet
USB printers and hook up one to each Mac on your SOHO network.
Also, remember that Apple's AirPort Base Station is not your only
wireless option—though it’s a good one. The companies mentioned
above, as well as Mac-friendly stalwarts like Asanté and Proxim, also
offer affordable access points—that’s PC talk for base stations. If your
PowerBook doesn't have an AirPort card slot, Asanté and Proxim offer
Mac-compatible 802.11b PCMCIA cards. For pre-AirPort G3 and G4
Power Macs, Proxim will sell you a PCI card with one of its Skyline
802.11b PCMCIA cards attached for $159 (check the company’s Web site
for compatibility info first, though—this setup doesn’t work with certain
older Power Mac G3s). Finally, Asanté is readying Mac support for its
AeroLan wireless USB adapter—it should be ready Real Soon Now.
With support for 50 Macs, 128-bit eneryption, and
two Ethernet ports, the Snow incarnation of Apple’s
AirPort Base Station is a big improvement over the
earlier Graphite model.
address. Although a NAT scheme
IP address A series of four
numbers separated by periods that
identifies each individual c:
toa netwegiit running
protocol (including the Internet)
Each number must bé between 0
an example, has a
17.254.0.9fh An IP address can be
permaneif§ (static) or dynamical
lor other siagaiit agent.
ISP (Internet service
provider) An Iniernet-access
provider that gives your Mac either
a static IP address or a dynamic
one that usually chang
time you log on.
Keystone jacks if you
have the good fortune—and the
small fortune required—to instal
twisted-pair Ethernet c
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