Text content (OCR)
le] DAVID LYNCH TALKS MAC P.50 iLIFE ON TRIAL P.46 81
An exclusive interview with moviedom’s most ara eccentric. Do Apple's new media apps live up to the hype?
dict
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>Edit Non-DV.- °
Clipsin'iMovie .
>Move Old'Files:-
to.a New Mac 5
>Give Clocka “»
YOUR GAMES| Face-Lift — WN
Bring new life1 to your . >Create a ‘
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MAY2003
NO.81*VOLUME8*ISSUE5
a better machine. a better magazine.
features
20 Extreme
Wireless
Apple’s pushing portability and mobility, and
we can help, Here’s what you need to know
about AirPort Extreme, Bluetooth, and all
the cool stuff that’ll unchain your Mac.
by Dave Hamilton
30 Wild at Heart
In this exclusive interview,
acclaimed film director David
Lynch talks digital video, the Mac,
and why the Internet kicks TV’s butt.
“| by Narasu Rebbapragada
34 The Next Level
If you’re looking to add spice to your games,
look no further. We show you how mods, skins,
maps, and more can give your games some extra
oomph. by John Lee
62 Ask Us
Get your old bookmarks into
Safari. Safely pry apart your iPod.
Transfer Mail’s spam savvy to
another Mac. Pronounce Unix
terms correctly. And more.
64 Run Unix Apps
in Mac OS X
Need a reason to explore Unix?
How about this: free apps. Here’s
how to get a load of great Unix
B apps, games, and utilities running
on your Mac. by Mary E. Tyler
Bt Apalcatons Ea Wndo
X xinvaders
67 Make Non-DV Movies
Compatible with iMovie
Who says you need a DV
camcorder to use iMovie? Not us.
We show you how to use iMovie
to edit movie files from a digital
camera or the Web. by Kris Fong
aC
ON THE COVER
photograph by Mark Madeo
ilustration by Oliver Wolfson,
Urban renewal, arcade-style.
CONENE
how to
07
68 Give Clock a Face-Lift
PS We show you how to
\ = easily slap a new face
on Clock that'll make
even Michael Jackson jealous.
by Kris Fong
70 Adorn Your Site with
a Custom Favicon
————-| Now that you’re surfin’
Oho!) Safari, you've seen
SEG" those munchkin icons
flanking Web site URLs. Find out
how to hang one on your own site.
by Niko Coucouvanis
72 Move Old Files
to a New Mac
Yay, you got a new Mac! Yay,
you get to endure the tedium of
moving all your old files to your
new machine! Yay, you have us
to help! by Carol S. Holzberg
May 2003 MacAddict 07
/ CONTENTS
08
a better machine. a better magazine.
SVel
12 Editors’ Page
Wireless connectivity is a ae convenience—but some
of us prefer the fast lane to easy street.
14 Get Info
Get the 411 on the massive
new Xserve RAID and FireWire
800’s blazing speed. Plus: a
4GB CompactFlash card, three
new Mac games, and a 40-inch TV/LCD.
41 Reviews
45 AirPort Extreme wireless network ina box
48 Cinema 4D 8 XL_3D-modeling and -animation software
42 Coolpix 3100 3.2-megapixe! aigital camera
51 extendAIR AirPort Extreme antennae
44 Final Cut Express 1.0.1 video-editing software
58 FontAgent Pro 1.1.2 font-management and -repair software
53 FontLab 4.5.1 font editor
59 Freestyle Speedball notebook riser
AG iLife multimedia suite
57 Momo Racing Wheel USB steering whee!
57 NASCAR Racing 2002 Season racing game
56 Spamfire Pro 1.3.2 antispam utility
51 SpaceShuttle A/V AV controller
56 Spell Catcher X 10.0.1 spelling checker
52 Storm 2 software music studio
59 StudioMouse Wireless wireless mouse
42 Stylus 300 Digital 3.2-megapixel digital camera
58 The Sims Unleashed Sims expansion pack
59 UFO USB and FireWire hub for iMac G4
50 VR Worx 2.1. QuickTime-VR authoring software
54 World War Il Online massively multiplayer online game
QUICK TIPS
FROM THIS MONTH’S ISSUE
> BE REALISTIC =
Apple’s new Final Cut Express | ge
shares most of its big brother ho
Final Cut Pro’s features, so. =
unless you're a working video
pro who needs HD video or massive effects
and compositing, Express is probably all
you need, From Reviews, p44
> AVOID EMBARRASSMENT
Read this month’s Unix University to learn
the pronunciations of common Unix terms.
For example, .cshrc—a C shell setup
file—is pronounced like sea shark.
From Ask Us, p62
> INSTALL UNIX APPS EASILY
Sure, you can surf the Web and find tons of
Mac-compatible Unix apps,
month
One more spaceship
joke, and I'll
mind-probe alll of you.
Two, four, six, eight, how
many terabytes will it take?
but the installation process
{and your digestion) will
run a lot smoother if you
use Fink. From “Run Unix
Apps in Mac OS X,” p64
08 MacAddict May 2003
> SET DEFAULT APPS
Ifyou want to set files to automatically
open ina specific app (for example,
have all QuickTime JPEGs open in
Photoshop), fy open with:
choose afile, | (—yadabe Photoshop 7.0 |
calectaat | |
Info, select | Yseumea@ne ieee
Pe spe ony
the Open
With pop-up menu, and click Change
All. From “Move Old Files to a New
Mac,” p72
> SOUP UP YOUR SIMS
Before you put new
objects and skins into
The Sims’ Floors, Skins,
and Objects folders,
download bangsplat’s
‘SkinShrinker (free, www.bangsplat.cc),
which shortens long file names so
The Sims can recognize them.
From “The Next Level,” p34
60 The Hot List
The best of the best from recent reviews.
\f the editors of MacAddict went shopping,
this is what we'd buy.
94 Log Out
94 Letters
MacAddict bridges the
generation gap, gives you
the skinny on a low-cost
layout app, and ruefully
Who was that
remembers the boxer-brief.
masked Village
Person?
95 Contest
Fill out our quick Reader Survey and win a
stylish LaCie Data Bank 20GB micro-drive.
‘96 Shut Down
How often do you
get the chance
to win a genuine
50-pin SCSI cable
autographed
bythe entire I'm too SCSI for my shirt, too
MacAddict staff? scsi for my shirt, too SCSI...
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CONTENTS
10d
Whether you want to save the
world in WarCraft Ill, save your
email from spam, or save time
by using Photoshop 7’s Healing
Brush, there’s something here
for you. Also featured this
month: a killer software music
studio, help with installing
Unix apps, Niko versus an egg
(check out the staff video), and
much more.
reer 1
+ me Os
UPGRADE
If you don’t receive the Disc with your copy of MacAddict, you might want to consider upgrading! Each monthly
disc contains cool demos, useful shareware and freeware, and the inimitable MacAddict Staff Video. To get 12
issues of MacAddict that include this value-packed disc with your subscription (prorated if necessary) for just
$1 more per issue, call 888-771-6222—the operator will take care of everything,
10 MacAddict May 2003
JIS IITA TST)
oe
Pachages 924 Opa.
a better machine. a better magazine
ythe isc
Ores, Elves, Photoshop,
the Undead, and Spam
Storm 2.0 demo
This beginner-friendly,
modular music studio
| specializes in the Big Three
S’s of computer-generated
audio: synthesizing,
sampling, and sequencing.
FinkCommander
Want to run a bazillion
free Unix apps on your
Mac? FinkCommander is
a nifty GUI that makes
installing them a breeze.
WarCraft Ill:
Reign of Chaos
demo
We give you a playable
WarCraft Ill game and
toss in two bonus maps.
A dark shadow falls over the wort,
arcra
PlUS: Photoshop 7, Spamtire, FontLab, and mul
demo of the hyperpopular |—~
aa
May 2003
ontheDisc
MPS Dock 1.0
[—® Storm 2.0 demo
DEVELOPMENT
4D 6.8.3 demo
Fink 0.5.1
FinkCommander 0.8.0
FUN & GAMES
Sims Objects
WarCraft Ili Bonus Maps
[—® WarCraft Ili demo
Worms Blast demo
GRAPHICS & MULTIMEDIA
Adobe Photoshop 7.0 tryout
Cinema 4D RB demo
FontLab 4.5.1 demo
GraphicConverter 4.5.4
GraphieConverter (OS X)
454
iDraw 1.3.2
VR Worx 2.1 demo
INTERFACE
Path Finder 2.1
INTERNET &
COMMUNICATION
‘Spamfire (OS 9) 1.3.2 demo
‘Spamfire (OS X) 1.3.
‘Transmit X 2.3
PRODUCTIVITY
Little Office 1.5
UTILITIES
DiskTracker (OS X) 2.2.2
Doublet Scan 4.0.5
Doublet Scan X 10.0.2
Ericsson GPRS Scripts
FontAgent Pro 4.1.2 trie!
‘SPONSORS
DrivoSavers: DriveSavers
Video Demo
hs
ft
MacAddict
PUBLISHER Chris Coelho, 415-656-8770
EDITOR IN CHIEF Rik Mysiewski
EDITORIAL
MANAGING EDITOR Jenifer Morgan
EXECUTIVE EDITOR Cathy Lu
SENIOR EDITORS Narasu Rebbapragada (news), Kris Fong
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Niko Coucouvanis (reviews)
EPONYMEDITOR Max
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Raf Anzovin, Steven Anzovin,
Joseph O. Holmes, Frank O'Connor, Angus Paldean, tan
Sammis, Deborah Shadovitz, Andrew Tokuda, Buz Zoller
ART
ART DIRECTOR Christopher Sterling Imlay
ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Lestie Brown Osborn
PHOTOGRAPHER Mark Madeo
PHOTOGRAPHY INTERN Katherine Quan
PRODUCTION
PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Richard Lesovoy
PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Hans Hunt
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EDITORS’ PAGE
a note from the kernel
The Wireless
Revolution
Sign me up—but not quite yet.
| don’t need any convincing.
Take a look at my home setup. My TiBook
sits enthroned on a Griffin iCurve, surrounded
by—count ’em—19 different cables snaking
to and from various devices and hubs. Take a
look at your own setup, and I’m sure you can
_ relate. It’s obvious: Cables are a royal pain.
So it’s been with great interest that I’ve
followed Apple’s efforts to liberate us from the
tyranny of twisted pair, the captivity of cables.
My only complaint is that going wireless still
involves a trade-off: speed for convenience.
In this month’s issue, David Hamilton (of Mac Observer fame) digs deep
‘into the wonderful world of wireless. He sizes up the latest and greatest
in wireless networking—known as AirPort Extreme to us Mac folks and
802.11g to the not-yet-converted—and takes a gander at the rapidly
emerging convenience of Bluetooth.
It’s a great article about a great set of technologies. But not every new
technology is for everybody—if that were true, we'd all have TiVos and
digital cable. But | don’t. | don’t like television, and | do like network
connectivity at higher speeds than AirPort can provide—so my home
network is wired for Gigabit Ethernet. Yeah, that’s wire, as in twisted-pair
CAT-5e. Expensive and a pain to install? Yeah. But hey, an libergeek’s gotta
do what an iibergeek’s gotta do.
Don’t get me wrong—I'm all for the rapid acceptance of AirPort Extreme
in every nook and cranny of the known world, It’s a great technology, and
yet another example of Apple having the guts to stick its neck out while
timid peecee makers lag behind. Just don’t ask me to abandon my cables
until AirPort Extreme evolves into AirPort Ludicrously Excessive.
Enjoy, 74
fromiheeditor’scesktop
WHERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY
One of the coolest things about emerging technologies is that they’re,
well, emerging. Things move fast. Here are a couple of sites that can help
you stay up-to-date on the wireless revolution.
802.11 Planet
www.80211-planet.com
The technology and business of 802.11,
including a discussion forum.
The Official Bluetooth Web Site
www.bluetooth.com
Just what you'd expect: marketing, news
and events, SIG info, and white papers,
Wi-Fi Networking News
http://80211b.weblogger.com
Up-to-the-minute Wi-Fi news,
ruminations, rumors, and discussions.
The Bluetooth Wel
http://bluetooth. WebIoUS: com
Links to Web articles and discussions
about Bluetooth.
Apple AirPort Weblog ‘The Wireless Transmission of
http://wireless-starter-kit.com Electrical Energy
airportblog www.tfcbooks.com/articles/tws8c.htm
Links to Web articles and discussions There's no getting around it: Nikola Tesla
‘was one wacky dude.
about AirPort.
12 MacAddict. May 2003
SIAPE RANTS
: What's more important to you,
convenience or speed?
Q2: Wirel pot eciey washt
abs, or fried foods?
Narasu Rebbapragada 24-HOUR SITNESS EoIToR
What's more Important to you, convenience or speed?
Convenience. Big Gulps, lattes, and Internet connections
should always be within walking distance,
Wireless connectivity, washboard abs, or fried foods?
Wireless. Abs are unnecessary (| just lean my gut up
against my desk) and fried foods make my fingers slip off the keyboard.
Niko Coucouvanis MA. CONCEPTION
What's more important to you, convenience or speed?
Living in lawless Oaktown, | could get speed right down
the street—which would be supremely convenient. But
{'m not ike that.
Wireless connectivity, washboard abs, or fried foods?
Wireless tood fryers, actually. Dammit, Rik, stay out of my top-secret-
inventions notebook!
Kris Fong sai DEA0
What's more important to you, conventence or speed?
Convenience, though | have friends who live for
§) speed—and then promptly crash and burn when the
effect wears of.
Wireless connectivity, washboard abs, or fried foods?
Mobility and eye candy are nice, but I'd take a basket of fried oysters and
chips over the other two any day—unless the abs are connected to an
intelligent, good-looking guy.
Cathy Lu KickBoxeR WITH A BAD UPPERCUT
What's more Important to you, convenience or speed?
Convenience. I'd much rather have a convenience
store next door than a fast cat to get me to a store
that's 10 miles away. Even better would be to have the
‘convenience store deliver a daily bag of snacks.
Wireless connectivity, washboard abs, or fried foods?
Washboard abs. Because then | could sit on my couch surfing the
Internet wirelessly while eating all the fried food | want.
Jenifer Morgan Ertl PiLAF
What's more Important to you, convenience or speed?
Convenience, because as our friend Mr. Auden put it, “in
headaches and in worry, vaguely life leaks away, but time
‘will have its fancy tomorrow or today.”
Wireless connectivity, washboard abs, or fried foods?
‘Well, now that French fries are being called Freedom fries in some parts
ofthe U.S.A., I have to go with wireless connectivity.
Chris Imlay caste sNAKER
What's more Important to you, convenience or speed?
Depends. Speed for big-file things like my iPod, but my
phone must be wireless.
Wireless connectivity, washboard abs, or fried foods?
1'd lke to wirelessly connect fried foods while my abs
get washed.
Leslie Osborn pocTon DETROIT
What's more important to you, convenience or speed?
‘Speed? Whosaidanythingaboutspeedioniyusecatfeine
'mjustreallysensitiveandithelpsmeworktasterondeadline
| youknow!
(e4 Wireless connectivity, washboard abs, or fried foods?
My grandma's Southern-fried combread. Mmm...where’s the number for
FedEx again?
ds
4
Max VISIONARY FUTURIST
What's more important to you, convenience or speed?
Both. As Veruca Salt sang to the nobie Wonkster, “I want
the world, | want the whole world...Dor't care how, | want
itnow!"
Wireless connectivity, washboard abs, or frled foods?
Wireless connectivity, of course. But | want itto include USB, FireWire,
alternating current, and—why not?—UItraSCSI.
u're’ ane alone or in thultiplayer |
Let the battles nag, :
GAMES gameXStudios
~ :
Copyright 2002 Microsoft Corporation. Al ghts reserved. Microsofts a vegistefed trademark of Microsoft Corporation inthe United States and/or other counties. ‘Soft
DDungecn Siege is Copyright 2002 Gas Powered Games Corp. Al rights resarved. Gas Powered Games and Dungson Slege ae the exclusive trademarks of Gas :
Powered Games Corp. Trademarks used under ticense by Destinee Inc. Destineer isa trademark and MacSoh isa registered trademark of Destine, nc
perl
the news of the month in bite-size chunks
INSIDE FIREWIRE
», | Why It's So Freakin’ Fast
The new shape
of FireWire 800
nearly doubles data
transfer speeds.
14 MacAddict May
crew USB 2.0 with its paltry 480
Sri per second (Mbps).
Apple’s new FireWire 800 technology
whizzes data through cables at a blinding
800 Mbps, nearly twice as fast as USB
2.0 or the original FireWire. Here’s how
it works, where to get it, and what its
future is.
FASTER AND LONGER
FireWire 800 gains its extra 400 Mbps
primarily for two reasons, First, it uses a
faster data-encoding scheme (based on
the same efficient code used in Gigabit
Ethernet) that quickly speeds data across
meters of copper or glass cable. Second,
ituses a faster arbitration process.
Arbitration determines which of the
devices sharing a FireWire connection
(computer, camcorder, hard drive, and so
forth) get to send data when. With FireWire
400, arbitration occurs after a packet of
data is sent or received, resulting in a
slight delay before transmission of the
next wave of data. However, with FireWire
800, arbitration takes place during
transmission, so the next wave of data is
ready to go right after the previous one is
received. And while the original FireWire
(FireWire 400) uses a six-pin connector,
the new FireWire 800 design adds three
extra pins, which shield the other pins
from the speed-hampering electrical
interference that can occur during
transmission.
FireWire 800 can also travel up to 100
meters without a repeater, which lets you
combine cables to extend range. This
distance is about 22 times further than
FireWire 400’s 4.5-meter limit. What’s the
catch? To get your data to travel that far,
you must use glass optical-fiber cabling,
and it’s far more expensive than the copper
wiring in traditional FireWire cables, which
can reach similar speeds but at FireWire
400’s distance limitations.
Speaking of cable costs, one
manufacturer of FireWire 800 drives says
that since the companies spitting out the
updated copper FireWire 800 cable are few
and far between, they’re charging a higher
price for it than for regular FireWire 400
cable. Add to that the cost of brand-new
chip sets, and you can expect FireWire 800
drives to be priced about $75 more than
their FireWire 400 counterparts.
WHERE IS IT? :
{twas the wait for two chips that, in part,
delayed the production of new FireWire
800 drives: Oxford Semiconductor’s
Oxford 922 chip set, which links the hard
PHOTOGRAPH BY MARK MADEO
disks themselves to the
FireWire bridge, and Texas
Instruments’ Phy (physical)
chip, which links the
Oxford component to the
actual FireWire port. Drive
manufacturers like WiebeTech
(www,wiebetech.com)
needed the parts to deliver
the goods. “Without those
two parts you can’t brew
up any 800-megabit stuff
at all,” says James Wiebe,
president of WiebeTech.
(Both components should
be shipping by the time you
read this, so expect to see
the drives soon.) See “The
Indy 800,” below, for what
FireWire 800 drives are
in the works.
THE 400 CLUB
Despite the buzz, the reality
is that most Mac users out
there will remain tethered
to the FireWire 400 ports on
their existing Macs. Given the
FireWire 800 port’s different
shape, it doesn’t take a
genius to see that the square
peg won't fit in the (sort of)
round hole. Don’t worry. Your
old six-pin FireWire devices
—
—
o
©
—
—
will work perfectly fine—
albeit at slower FireWire
400 speeds—in the new
nine-pin ports with a legacy
adapter such as Belkin’s
18-inch, nine-to-six-pin
FireWire 800 cable ($29.95,
www.belkin.com).
WHAT'S NEXT?
FireWire 800 is just part two
of Apple’s multipart FireWire
standard, which, according
to the IEEE 1394b road map,
will reach 3.2 gigabits per
second. According to Lewis,
future iterations of Oxford’s
922 FireWire chip set will
use OS X’s built-in support
for multichannel audio to
output 7.1 surround sound
(that’s eight-channel audio,
folks). If Apple ever decides
to support Dolby Digitai
decoders (hint, hint), the
result will be one mean set
of FireWire home-theater
speakers. Until then, write
and read data faster on your
FireWire 800 drives, and as
you blaze on by, stop to catch
the embarrassed looks on
your USB 2.0 friends’ faces.
—Neil Sroka
MAXTOR SMARTDISK LACIE D2
FIREWIRE FIREPOWER FIREWIRE 800
800 DRIVE § —www.smartdisk DRIVE
www.maxto.com com www.lacie.com
Available: TBD Available: Available: March 2003
No word yet March 2003 Comes in 200GB to
on sizing, Comes in one S00GB sizes.
20068 size,
STANFORD UNIVERSITY. SCIENTISTS SET A NEW
RECORD FOR INTERNET SPEED/SENDING 6.7GB OF
DATA ACROSS 6,800 MILES INLESS THAN A MINUTE.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF LACIE
GET INFO lS iS
APPLE'S BIGGEST
STORAGE BOX EVER
Inside the Xserve RAID
pple’s new Xserve RAID ($5,999 to $10,999, www.apple.com)
boasts a maximum 2.5 terabytes of disk space andis the single
biggest storage product the company has ever sold.
FAST DATA TRANSFER
RAID stands for either redundant array of independent disks or
redundant array of inexpensive drives, depending on whom you ask.
Either way, RAID consists of two or more disk drives connected in a
way that gives you fast, reliable storage. Its 3U design (it uses three
tungs of a standard server rack) currently comes with 4, 7, or 14 180GB
iBM 7,200-rpm ATA/100 drives (depending on the configuration you
choose). At full capacity, each Xserve RAID holds 2.52 terabytes of
data, which it can transport using two 200-MBps Fibre Channel ports.
(Apple sells the Fibre Channel PCI cards for the two ports at $499
each.)The Xserve supports RAID types 1, 3, 5, 0+1, 10, 30, and 50.
SAFE DATA TRANSFER
At the back of the unit are two hardware RAID controllers, each of
which can manage up to seven drives. Hardware RAID controllers
are preferable to software RAID controllers because they don’t tax
the server’s CPU. According to Apple, neither does the Fibre Channel
PCI card, which is loaded with DMA (direct memory access). When
combined with Apple’s new
IP-over-FireWire technology,
the two FireWire 800 ports
on the back support TCP/IP
connectivity for clustering
and daisy-chaining units. One
FireWire 400 port on the front
plugs in devices for diagnostic
tests. Two Ethernet ports
let you plug a RAID directly
into an Ethernet network for
remote management.
Allthis, combined with two
hot-swappable cooling
modules, two hot-swappable
power supplies, and the
drives’ independent data
channels, means maximum
data redundancy.
All this sounds great, but
the true test of success is
whether enterprises will
choose the Xserve RAID
over more-traditional
brands of RAID storage.
—Narasu Rebbapragada
Rack ’em up. This rack with 4 Xserve
RAIDs and 12 Xserves can potentially
hold more than 18 terabytes of data.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTES
May 2003 MacAddict 15
16 A GET INFO
the news of the month in bite-size chunks
Do your cocktail gloves scan fingerprints from
wineglasses? They can in Alias Underground.
ALIAS
UNDERGROUND
Hit TV Show Inspires Free Web game
ans of the spy show Alias should download Alias
Underground, a free episodic Web game spawned
by the hit ABC show.
In most missions, you play Sydney Bristow, a double
agent helping the CIA bring down evilorganization S0- 6:
Alias fans know that Bristow is
the diminutive, attractive grad-
school student and spy who can
kick anyone’s butt.
Missions are loosely tied to
the show’s story line. The first
mission, reminiscent of one of Alias’s embassy episodes, has
you infiltrating a Turkish embassy using tech guy Marshall’s
crazy gadgets. Even Sydney’s dress rings true to the TV show.
Don’t overlook the training session, where you learn to shoot,
kick, and—like any good chick-spy—crawl under lasers.
Alias producer,
writer, and director J.
Abramsis guiding the
game’s development.
Abrams is a huge Mac
fan and created the
show’s theme song on
his Mac.
New missions come
out approximately
every five weeks, with
the last one set fora
May 26 release.
—Cathy Lu
Alas Underground
Buena Vista Interactive Group
http://abe.abcnews.go.com
/primetime/alias/underground
Free
Available: Now
Sydney spots a guard lurking
around the corner in Alias
Underground.
16 MacAddict May 2003
" www.macplay.com
OF tail-to-tail?
Whatever itis,
it's multiplayer
competition in
| Worms Blast.
i, ON THE
y DISC
Worms Blast demo
RRS Cm
(000078055)
THE NEW WORMS
ON THE BLOCK
Worms Blast Single-Player
and Multiplayer Arcade Shooter
G artoonlike humor, fast arcade action, and unnerving twists in
gameplay make Worms Blast a fun alternative to the worms-
versus-worms combat in the rest of the Worms franchise (Worms.
and Worms Armegeddon). Shoot to eliminate
| colored blocks with the appropriately colored
» bazooka (or other special weapons), while
ae February 2003 | Watching out for falling land and other mishaps.
' The game offers multiplayer and single-player
action, quirky characters (worms, a pigeon, a skunk, and-a human),
and ten gaming modes including Tournament, Deathmatch, and Star
Catching—Bryan Chaffin
MASTERS OF ORION III:
COMIN’ AT YA
Turn-Based Strategy Game of Galactic Conquest
acSoft is putting the finishing touches on Masters of Orion
Il, Announced back in the summer of 2001, Masters of
Orion III takes the superpopular galactic-empire—building series
to new heights of complexity with 16 races, @ ” .
new levels of control, new interaction, i beetle i
more stories, and galactic (rather than | www.macsoftgames.com
mere planetary) conquest—BC ay
‘Worms Blast
MacPlay
pring 2003
Get to a galaxy
far, far away
in Masters of
Orion Ill.
GET INFO [S | x
BACK TO
THE FUTURE
Peter Tamte Founded
MacSoft, Left It, Then
Bought It Back
eter Tamte has a long
history in Mac gaming that
includes founding MacSoft
in 1993, heading up Bungie
Software’s publishing arm
until Microsoft bought the
company in 2000, and pater Tanite!
launching Destineer Studios. founded
(www.destineerstudios Reet ne
i the original
com), which recently tect
announced the buyout of
MacSoft (www.macsoftgames.com). We talked
to Tamte to find out what his plans were.—BC
MA: How will the MacSoft acquisition benefit
Mac gaming?
PT: We have a stronger lineup of games planned
for MacSoft during 2003 than has ever been
released by any company in the history of
the Mac games industry. We already have 17
releases identified for 2003. Ten of these are new
big-name blockbuster
games, afewwill be
games we've remade
for Mac OSX.
MAs\s there anything specific in the pipeline?
PT: Our first retease will be Master of Orion Ilt,
the sequel to the most popular space-strategy
sim ever created. Then we'll release Dungeon
Siege, followed by Unreal Tournament 2003
and Neverwinter Nights, an outstanding
D&D role-playing game created by legendary
developer Bioware. And, of course, later in the
year we'll release the Mac version of Halo.
MA: How do you feel about acquiring a company
you helped create?
PT: Anxious. We have this incredible list of really
great games to release. |’m anxious for us to.
make sure we make the Mac versions everything
they can be. It’s also important to say that
MacSoft won’t be the only one releasing great
games this year. Aspyr, MacPlay, and others also.
have outstanding lineups planned for 2003.
Ithink Mac game players wilt be really happy
with what happens throughout this year.
FREEHAND MX
Macromedia Upgrades its Drawing App ~
acromedia’s FreeHand 10 ($399, $99 to $149 upgrade,
www.macromedia.com) has graduated to the MX status enjoyed by the rest
of the major Macromedia apps with a revamped interface and toolset. Multiple
Attributes lets you apply an unlimited number of fills, strokes, and effects toa
single vector or text object. Live Effects lets you apply vector and raster effects
to an entire object or its
selected attributes. The Live
Edit feature lets you change
the appearance of graphics
without changing that
object’s state, so you can
round off rectangle corners
while retaining the object's
rectangle quality. Updated
tools include the Connector
Lines tool for site mapping
and the Extrude tool for
creating 3D graphics.
As you might expect,
Macromedia has upped
the integration with Flash
(SWF) files and Fireworks
(PNG) graphics. FreeHand
MX runs in OS 9 and
OS X.—CL
© 2004 TRIO Qz
HYBRID 4V
FreeHand joins the Macromedia MX clan with
consolidated panels, Live Effects, and better
Flash and Fireworks integration.
_SHAREWARE PICK OF THE MONTH
PATH FINDER 2.1.
CocoaTech * www.cocoatech.com + $35
fyou think that the OS X Finder’s Icon, List, and Column views are sufficient,
you haven’t tried Path Finder. This application gives you a souped-up version
of the OS’s Finder views that’s easier to look at, uses less space, and provides
snazzy features such as document previews in any view, resizable icons, viewing
of invisible files, and Trash on the desktop. Plusyoucan _
(/ , ON THE | perform tons of commands right from the menu bar. For power
&. DISC navigation and file management, we'd take Path Finder over the
era ea 2 OS X Finder any day.—Andrew Tokuda
a RtVAC lw
‘iam DR
5 OAC Ow
isi on oo ge
oe aS
ana sar = rer {] Path Finder is
pentane Saieeill\ Oe rider
_ yaw, || OF Steroids,
ephedrine,
other nefarious
| performance-
24 boosters.
oe Ritalin, and
oe
=
May 2003 MacAddict 17
| 8 | GET INFO
A
the news of the month in bite-size chunks
DROOLWORTHY
Sexy Stuff We Can't Wait to Get Our Mitts On
40-Inch
LCD/TV >
Samsung * www.samsungusa.com
$7,999 street
Ne be the belle or beau of your block
if you invest in the Samsung 40-inch
LCD/TV (model LTM405W) with a built-in
NTSC TV tuner, HDTV support, a 600:1
contrast ratio (much brighter than your
average LCD), a 170-degree viewing angle,
and connection options such as S-Video,
component, and DVI.—NR
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF SAMSUNG
Get one of
these and your
neighborhood will
christen you Saint
Super Bowl.
Throw a little Mozart into this
3-inch-long number and your
friends will have pianist envy.
Tiny Tune
Player >
Digitalway * www.mpio.com *
$149.99 (128MB), $199.99 (256MB)
he MPIO FL100 MP3 player is about the size of
your middle finger and comes with five-band EQ, a
backlit LCD, an FM radio, and a voice recorder. You can
expand its 128MB or 256MB of internal memory with
an MMC or SD card, and the FL100 syncs via USB to
iTunes 3 (for Mac OS 10.1 or later).—NR
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF DIGITALWAY
18 MacAddict May 2003
GET INFO
EQUAL-ACCESS MACS
How To Comply With Stricter-Than-Ever Disability Laws
hose who face physical challenges often need a few extra tools to navigate their Mac. Apple has
long recognized this fact and has incorporated what it calls Universal Access tools in the Mac OS
since System 7.x. In 2001, Congress mandated more stringent rules, outlined in Section 508 of the
1998 Rehabilitation Act. Here’s how you can make the Mac a more accessible place.—NR
ACCESS-ORIZE YOUR SITE
Jason Taylor and Richard St. Arromand of UseableNet
(www.useablenet.com), which makes the accessibility software line
ACCESS-ORIZE YOUR MAC
Apple has added even more accessibility shortcuts to Jaguar’s
Universal Access system preference.
Lift, gave us some tips for “access”-orizing your Web site.
Turn On Zooming for Users with Visual Difficulties In
the Seeing panel, click the Turn On Zoom button. Now use the
shortcut Option- = Sarat
Command-plus « @ACa
@)tozoominon — PEA ies set meme mane
an area of the
screen and Option
Command-minus |
(Q to zoom out.
Make Tables Speak Imagine a person with a visual impairment
trying to read a train schedule online. Define row or column headers as
«th» (table header) cells, not as <td> (table data) cells. This way, speech
browsers can read the appropriate title cell before a data cell.
When using he cenputer have dius wh
RR Hearing Y Kevooars [mouse |
Simplify Navigation for Speech Browsers When people read a
Web page, they tend to ignore repeated navigation elements. Help
speech browsers skip this redundant data by using “skip to unique
content” alt tags.
Turn Off Zoom
icc
White on Black
Provide Text Alternatives to Images People with eyesight problems Makes for Easier White on Black |
often rely on speech browsers like Synapse Adaptive’s Jaws (www Reading Click Sere
.synapseadaptive.com), GW Micro’s Windows-Eyes (www.gwmicro Switch To White
.com), and other audio accessibility devices to read alt tags, which
are mark-up tags USAR ompasgneenave (Compass sie Compasfiomentn
for downloaded 2) 5, Bi) Bi | 1 Repent —_—_] OO 0.
graphics. Provide
atext alternative
On Black in the
Seeing panel for
a higher-contrast
screen that’s easier
toread.
ow Universal Acces Shorts
enable acess for asistve devs
erable rest-to-speech for liners Access preferences
High-contrast screens are easier to read.
to describe the eee
purpose of all | EE : 100 Flashing Alerts Help Users with Hearing Difficulties
images using either In the Hearing panel, you can set your screen to flash during
the alt tag or the sage an alert sound.
longdesc tag, which
is an HTML tag used Sticky Keys for Sticky Fingers !f you have trouble pressing
for long descriptions
of media.
simultaneous keyboard combinations, Sticky Keys (inthe
Keyboard panel) lets you press keys sequentially.
err: @ Bev oven OMe
Defining row and
column headers
makes data
tables talk. \
4GB OF COMPACTFLASH
Lexar Releases Biggest Media Card to Date
hen Lexar Media releases its new 4GB Professional Series
CompactFlash card (www.lexarmedia.com, $1,500) in the second
quarter of 2003, it will be the largest image-storage card that digital
photographers have ever seen (short of a hard drive). For those shooting in
high-resolution TIFF and RAW file formats, the 4GB size is a blessing. This 32X
Type || CompactFlash card transfers data at 4.8 Mbps, as do Lexar’s 1GB and
2GB cards. (Lexar’s 256MB and 512MB cards have been revamped with 40X
data-transfer speeds.) The 4GB card and all other Lexar Professional Series cards
come with Image Rescue software for recovering damaged and newly erased files.
ti nt ope xa
Store 4GB
of pictures
on this
new card.
May 2003 MacAddict 19
BISc
Ross Barkman's
Ericsson GPRS Scripts
‘and POF file “Set Up the
‘T68i for Web Surting”
SP MacAddict May 2003
by Dave Hamilton
illustration by Oliver Wolfson
photograph by Mark Madeo
The second wave of the
wireless invasion is here.
Its mission: to make
your life better.
0 two ways about it: Wireless technology will change your
life. Whether it’s the convenience of being able to work and
play on the Internet from your La-Z-Boy or the ability to search
the Web for information while you’re in a business meeting,
wireless opens up limitless possibilities.
And now Apple has upped the ante.
Apple was the first computer manufacturer to adopt the
original AirPort wireless standard. Once again, the fruitheads
from Cupertino are leading the wireless charge, bringing both
Bluetooth and the faster 802.11g standard to the masses, and
making sure Mac users.will never again have to be tethered to an
uncomfortable desk chair if they don’t wantta be. *
But does AirPort Extreme deliver on its promise of speed,
‘speed, and more speed? Is Bluetooth the savior rescuing us from
ollr cord woes? “
Read on for the answers. We intraduce you to the technology
and give you the good and bad news. We test out the products
and tell you just how rad AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth are. We
give you pointers on getting your wireless network into tip-top
condition. And we show you how Bluetooth can save you from a
hellish life filled with servers, Zip disks, 28.8-Kbps dial-up, and
USB cradles.
* May 2003 MacAddict 21
.
IR
=> Bees or 802.11b, as the wire-rimmed-glasses crowd callsit,
was the first widespread wireless-networking option for Mac
users. When Apple introduced it in 1999, it was an immediate hit
as people realized they could surf CNN.com—and MacAddict.com,
of course—from the comfort of their featherbeds.
AirPortis a fully cross-platform standard, which means Mac
users can easily hop onto wireless networks in homes, offices,
hotels, coffee shops, and...well, airports, The problem with
GET THE MOST
QUT OF AIRPORT
Ifyou want to get the best performance with the least amount of interference,
heed the following hints. They apply to both AirPort and AirPort Extreme.
© Update to the latest firmware. This is especially true for AirPort Extrem
which isn'ta ratified’standard yet, A little update can mean big changes,
and it’s worth staying on top of things. In fact, make sure you have the
latest firmware’even if you just bought your Base Station. Check Apole’s
AirPort support page to keep up on the latest firmware developments
(www.info.apple.com/usen/airport)
© Set the Base Station to 802.11g-only mode. If you always want the hi
speeds of AirPort Extreme, this wil keep older machines from slowing you
down, But doing so will also lock out 802.11b users, so make sure you're
willing to sacrifice those slowpokes before you Switch to this mode.
© Keep microwave ovens, cordless phones, Bluetooth devi
wireless networks from operating in the same area as your ne
devici deliver interference by the bucketload, and if you'
max out your speed, you need to rid the airwaves of any nol
and other
fork, These
looking to
© Make sure no large metal objects lie between your Mac and the Base
Station, Look out for metal fling c efrige metal plates in your
head, and tioning ducts. Yep, central air can be a nuisance to anyone
h a wireless network. You are willing to sweat for your wireless, aren't you?
© If you're getting interference from a cordless phone or other wireless
device, try changing the AirPort channel to the other end of the spectrum
that helps. While it’s true that you can set AirPort and AirPort
Extreme to any of 11 different channels, those channels are not distinct
from one another. Rather, the channel you set is merely a focal point.
i fines the middle oi the signal, which then spreads out into the
surrounding channels.
22! “WideAddict_ May 2003,
HIGH-SPEED
ELESS
802.11b is performance—while its theoretical 11-Mbps speed
is plenty fast enough for completing that Buy.com transaction
or checking email at the local cafe, it’s simply not good enough
for the really cool stuff like streaming video or transferring large
graphics files.
Enter AirPort Extreme, or 802.11g, as the ponytailed developer
crowd calls it. It’s faster, it’s more powerful, and it’s Apple’s new
baby. But don’t get out the bon voyage confetti yet—it will take
years for companies and schools to move from regular ol’ AirPort
to the next standard. Most likely, you'll be living in a mixed 802.11g
and 802.11b society for some time to come. That’s OK, though—the
two work seamlessly together.
What Is 802.119?
The 802,118 protocol is quite new to the market—it isn’t even
officially a ratified standard yet. The IEEE (the group of folks who
approve such things) doesn’t expect to ratify it until summer of
this year, which means we're back to a situation much like that of
the first 56-Kbps modems—they work with others of their ilk, but
you may run into compatibility problems if you try to connect to
different brands (more specifically, products with different chip
sets). Thankfully, most vendors, Apple included, expect their
chip sets to be software upgradable to comply fully with the new
standard when it’s set in stone.
Extreme is actually a hodgepodge of ideas and concepts from
both 802.11b and 802.11a (see “What Happened to 802.114?”
24), To work with AirPort, Extreme uses the same frequency
as 802.11b—that’d be the very popular (and crowded) 2.4GHz
range. But to attain higher speeds, it uses the same OFDM
signaling methods as 802.11a—more on that later.
What's the Good and Bad News?
AirPort Extreme operates up to five times faster than previous
AirPort technology, maxing out (in the carefully controlled confines
of the lab) at 54 Mbps. That, of course, is the killer part of 802.11.
The fact that AirPort and AirPort Extreme operate in the
unlicensed 2.4GHz range is both good and bad. The good
part, of course, is that they are compatible with one another.
AirPort users can connect to an AirPort Extreme Base Station,
and AirPort Extreme users can connect to older AirPort Base
Stations—at slower speeds, of course.
nthe same network
The bad part: The 2.4GHz range is as cluttered as the airspace
over O’Hare (airport pun not intended—puh-lease). That means
other devices in this range can cause interference: microwave
ovens, high-end cordless phones, Bluetooth products, satellites,
wireless cat-litter boxes. (OK, just kidding about the litter boxes,
but it’s not a bad idea, eh?) Also, each and every AirPort and
AirPort Extreme Base Station uses approximately 30 percent of
the available bandwidth of that spectrum, so you can really only
have three Base Stations overlapping each other and covering
the same area.
Unless you have a lot of kids or live in a commune, that’s
not likely to be a huge problem in your home, It is, however, an
issue in offices or public areas where you want to connect lots of
people at high speeds in one concentrated spot. But even home
users need to be somewhat careful—having just one or two other
devices operating in the 2.4GHz range can increase your chances
of interference and incompatibility. You might have to choose
between a 2.4GHz cordless phone and an AirPort network.
AIRPORT SPEED
As you can see from our in-home testing, AirPort Extreme can go
much faster than standard AirPort. But make sure you're using the
latest firmware updates from Apple to get the best performance.
AirPort
Extreme
AirPort
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Choose the 802.11g Only mode to kick 802.11b users
off your network.
Will AirPort Users Slow Down
AirPort Extreme?
Like ebony and ivory, AirPort Extreme and AirPort should work
together in perfect harmony. But in fact there is some discord: If
you have 802.11b users on an AirPort Extreme network, they can
potentially slow everything down.
Blame the technology. To achieve its higher speeds, AirPort
Extreme encodes the data in a different way when sending the
signal across the radio waves. AirPort uses a standard called
DSSS (direct-sequence spread spectrum), and AirPort Extreme
uses OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing).
Without getting too detailed, let’s just say that by using OFDM,
Extreme can cram more data into a given amount of bandwidth
than AirPort can. The upside to DSSS is that it is a little more
resistant to interference and has a slightly longer range (in the
lab, anyway). The downside to DSSS is that it uses almost exactly
the same amount of bandwidth as OFDM—that is, they each use
every bit they can get.
May 2003 MacAddict 23
o>
Wireless in a Nutshell
Standard
802.114
Supported by Apple
802.11b (AirPort)
Since 1999
802.11g (AirPort Extreme)
Since 2003
Maximum Theoretical Speed [EZ e5)
14 Mops 54 Mbps
Maximum Real-World Speed
Typical Indoor Range
22 Mbps 5.5 Mbps 22 Mbps
40 feet or within one large room, since walls } 100 feet 30 to 50 feet for full speeds (18 to 22 Mbps);
pretty much stop the signal in its tracks 100 feet for slower speeds (about 12 Mbps)
5GHz 2.4GHz 2.4GHz
Frequency
Bit-t-11°9) 802.112 is about as popular as New Coke
‘because of its pathetic range and lack of
compatibility with 802.11b.
Public access points are
popping up everywhere,
from cafes to convention
centers.
For now, 802.11g is compatible with
802.11b public access points. We expect
most of those will probably convert to
802.119 eventually.
And therein lies the problem. Because of the way Apple—or
more specifically, its chip-set vendor—is currently implementing
the technology, simply having one 802.11b user connected to
your 802.11g network can significantly reduce performance.
In ourtests, we consistently found that our network’s maximum
throughput at very short ranges dropped from 22 Mbps (yep,
22, not 54—but we'll explain that in the next section) to
14 Mbps the moment we connected a poky 802.11b.user to
the network.
While that won’t make a lick of difference for most folks
who use AirPort to share Internet access, it will affect those of
you who regularly transfer large files across your wireless link.
Keep the faith, though—this could change as the 802.11g
specification matures. Again, we recommend that you stay on
top of firmware updates.
Until then, you can use Apple’s AirPort Admin software to
keep 802.11b clients from connecting to an AirPort Extreme Base
Station. Open the AirPort Admin utility (version 3.0.1 or later),
choose your Base Station, and then click Show All Settings.
Here you can adjust Mode to 802.11g Only. Click Update, and
all of your elite AirPort Extreme users should be good to go.
WHAT HAPPENED 10 802.11?
i80 operates at a theoretical 54 Mbps, has been
ailable for quite some time. No Mac-compatible
implementations e: nd there aren't likely to ke any in the future,
Apple is clearly committed to 802.11g.
That said, there are some pros and cons to 802.11a. The most
‘obvious problems are that it only works within a very short range (think
one room), and it’s not backward or sideways compatible with 802.11b
anything to do with anything that bears
1g. It simply wor
no AirPort.
Itis, howeverga much more robust technology, especially for
corporate installations where short range, high bandwidth, and high
user density matter, As opposed to AirPort’s three distinct available
channels (yes, three~see "Get the Most Out of AirPort,” p22), 802.11a
has 12’completely separate channels available. Yep, them’s the perks of
ing in the highfrequéncy SGHz Fange. Still, don’t expect to see it
“fof the Mac unless:the 802.114 mafia brainwashes Steve Jobs.
24 -MacAddict May 2003
How Fast Is AirPort Extreme?
AirPort Extreme definitely beats AirPort in speed. Hands down.
No questions asked. No ifs, ands, or buts—you getthe picture.
Even better, we got about the same range, given the same
combination of clients and Base Stations. Different computers
and/or Base Stations will affect your range—you know that if
you used an iBook and then suffered through the crappy range
of the first-generation PowerBook G4,
We did our testing in a four-bedroom home using a 12-inch
PowerBook G4 equipped with an AirPort Extreme card and an
Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station. To test the full speed of
AirPort and AirPort Extreme, we FTPed a series of 50MB-plus
files back and forth between two machines—one connected
wirelessly, and one hard-wired directly to the Base Station.
Starting with the 12-inch PowerBook sitting right next to the
Base Station, AirPort Extreme maxed out at about 22 Mbps while
Standard AirPort clocked in at about 5.5 Mbps. Remember: 54
Mbps and 11 Mbps are only the theoretical maximums for AirPort
Extreme and AirPort. As we got farther from the Base Station,
transfer rates held consistently for AirPort Extreme at up to
about 30 feet, whereas AirPort held its maximum bandwidth
out to almost 75 feet. At the 75-foot mark, reception began
to falter for both AirPort and AirPort Extreme machines (see
“AirPort Speeds,” p23).
Be forewarned: Environment is the biggest contributing factor
to radio reception (or lack thereof!), so our tests are only a
You need this.
card to get higher
802.11g speeds.
relative gauge as to how well all of this works. You may get 100
feet, oryou may get 2. You may live in an open field, or you may
live in a lead-lined safe room.
We also tested other wireless networking devices that support
802.11g. The Belkin 54g Wireless Cable/DSL Gateway Router has
two external antennae that you can adjust and angle to improve
performance. You can also stand the device on end, which gets
the antenna a good 10 inches off the table. This can improve
reception, and we noticed the biggest difference with—you
guessed it—the 15-inch Titanium PowerBook. The TiBook’s
metal-encased antennae hiding under the keyboard get more
signal and longer range with this extra boost. The Belkin router
only minimally improved the range of the 12-inch PowerBook,
which has the antennae in the screen bezel.
If your decide to stick with Apple’s Base Station, note that there
are two models: one with an external antenna jack, and one
without. For those of you who opt forthe high-end station, you can
spend even more money on the stylin’ Dr. Bott antennae (see our
reviews of the Base Station, p45, and the antennae, p51). Dr. Bott’s
extendAIR Direct allows you to focus the signal of your Base Station
in one direction so you can connect two networks. The extendAIR
Omni should increase your range by about 25 percent—not stellar,
but if you’re looking to reach a particularly tricky corner of your
home or office, it might do the trick.
Honestly, though, you can get yourself a Belkin or Linksys
router with adjustable antennae for less than half the cost of this
arrangement. These alternatives might not yield the same range
as the combination of a Dr. Bott antenna and AirPort Extreme,
but they may satisfy your needs.
HIGH-SPEED WIRELESS: THE BOTTOM LINE
Lots of people use AirPort only to check email or sneakily look
up Jeopardy answers from the couch in an attempt to look smart.
\f that’s you, blazing AirPort speed won’t make any noticeable
difference in your wireless experience. But for those of you
using your network to transfer large files or stream MP3s from
computer to computer, faster AirPort can vastly improve your
wireless experience.
Cable-modem and DSL connections (and, let’s face it, those
1.544 Mbps Tis too) transmit data at speeds far slower than
what even standard AirPort can handle—so upgrading to the
faster AirPort Extreme isn’t likely to make a lick of difference
in your Web-surfing speeds. Where AirPort Extreme might
help is in transferring data between two AirPort-equipped
computers. Since that requires two AirPort connections to be
active at the same time, speed takes an instant hit. AirPort
Extreme can help ease that blow by providing additional
bandwidth to those Macs.
That said, if you haven't yet gone wireless and are looking
to cut your ties to the wired world, there’s really no reason not
to go with 802.11g. The 802.11g routers don’t cost much more
than their slower and older counterparts, and since everything’s
backward compatible, your system can still support any legacy
AirPort hardware.
BUYERS BASEMENT
‘Considering that we're talking about a standard that's not really'a standard
yet there's no shortage of 802.11g products hitting the market.
apple AirPort Extreme Base Station ($249 and $199, www.apple.com)
ie ort Extreme Card ($99). The more expensive Base Station has a,
node and a jack for an external antenna (see our teview on p45). The other
“Hoes not. Both offer USB ports for wireless printer sharing, and the more
expensive mode! offers the option of dialing out of or into your home network.
Bel in 54g Wireless DSL/Cable Gateway Router ($189.99,
Swiywlbelkin.com). This router has two angle-adjustable antennae attached
“6:the back, which means it offers an out-of-the-box range superior to that
of theApple products.
It's not as pretty of
Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router ($129, www.linksys.com).
This is the 802.119 version of Linksys’s most popular router.
Dr. Bott extendAIR Direct ($149.95, www.drbott.com) and
extendAIR Omni ($99.95). These two antennae connect to th:
more expensive 'of Apple's Base Stations (see our review on p51)
The extendAIR Direct
allows you to focus
the signal of your
Base Station in one
direction so'you
can connect two
separate networks.
Up to 500 feet apart
(so Dr. Bott claims).
The extendAIR Omni
can expand your
AirPort range 25 to 50
percent beyond what
the Base Station's
intemal antenna’
reaches (although
that increase is
more apparent to
802.11b users than
to 802.119 users,
due to the signaling
methods each
technology uses).
Unsatisfied with
‘ort Extreme’s range?
Extend it with these Dr. Bott doohickeys.
May 2003 MacAddict
S » M ost of you probably only occasionally connect one or more
peripherals to your Mac—a cell phone, for example, ora
Palm device or printer. However, you don’t need to have them
connected to your Mac full-time. In fact, it would be a lot easier
ifthey weren’t.
This is where short-range wireless technologies like Bluetooth
and infrared really shine. Imagine syncing to your Palm while it’s in
your briefcase, or pulling out your laptop in an airport and checking
email via your cell phone—all without plugging in a single cable.
Right now, Apple is hot on Bluetooth. So hot that it built
Bluetooth support into Mac OS 10,2 and stuck Bluetooth in both
BUYERS’ BASEMENT.
rful world of Bluetooth, the first
99 with antenna,,$49.99 without
w.belkin.com). Belkin is one of the only companies to
featuring an extendable antenna that
Belkin also offers a compact version sans:
‘SS Belkin Bluetooth USB Adapter (5:
+ antenna
offer USB Bi
ieDWE-120M USB Bluetooth Adapter ($49.95, www.apple.com)
the one Appie sells on its s
ar.comn). This kit comes
Bluetooth. logear
keyspan.com). Thi
* MacWireless Bluetooth USB Adapter ($39.98, www.macwireless.com)
This is,oné of the cheaper adapters we found—and cheap is good.
. Ti,
Palm Bluetooth
Into the exps ion slot on the Palm i705, mS15, m505, mi
m125 handhelds. te
SD card will fit
10, m130, and
_ Palm Tungsten T Handheld ($399, www.palm.com). This high-powered
« PDA has Bluetooth builtin, allowing you to syne data with your N
‘
tie ; «,
"© Sony Ericsson T68i (prices vary depending on service,
www.sonyericssoi 8). This tiny cell phone has long battery
GSM and GPRS capabilities, and built-in Bluetooth, Available service
providers in the U.S. include T-Mobile and AT&q.
ty May 2003
26 MacA
SHOR T-RANGE
WIRELESS
the 17-inch and 12-inch PowerBooks. It’s also selling D-Link’s
tiny USB Bluetooth adapter on its site for $49.95. Here’s the
skinny on Bluetooth and how you can incorporate this cool
technology into your everyday life.
What Can Bluetooth Do?
Bluetooth provides a short-range, low-bandwidth, cheap way to
tid your life of cables. If AirPort is wireless Ethernet, Bluetooth is
Wireless USB.
Bluetooth operates over radio waves. Like AirPort—and
everything else, it seems—Bluetooth operates in the 2.4GHz
range (we hear that 2.3GHz and 2.5GHz are now seeing
therapists in an attempt to combat lifetimes of neglect).
Bluetooth uses very low-power transmitters, which has two
benefits—they’re cheaper, and lower power means lower range,
which limits interference with other devices. Bluetooth signals
usually peter out at about 20 feet.
One exception is the Belkin Bluetooth USB adapter, which
has an antenna you can raise (butis much larger than the D-Link
adapter). The Belkin adapter just about doubled our effective
range, even besting the range of the 12-inch PowerBook’s
built-in Bluetooth adapter. Though the 12-inch PowerBook has
antennae in the screen bezel, they provided no noticeable range
improvement over what the USB-based D-Link adapter gave us.
Bluetooth can handle conversations with up to seven devices
at any time. Most of these are part-time connections—your
keyboard and mouse will always be talking to your Mac,
but the chance that you’ll need to talk to your printer as it’s
corresponding with your Palm PDA, cell phone, and scanner is
unlikely. The seven-device limitation shouldn’t be a problem for
most people—unless you're that good at multitasking.
How Fast Is Bluetooth?
Bluetooth is no racehorse, but its speeds are satisfactory for
its purposes. It supports a few different modes (which are
hardwired into the various peripherals) that dictate top speeds.
In full-duplex mode (sending and receiving data at the same
time), Bluetooth can transmit and receive data at 64 Kbps.
Full-duplex mode is useful for voice communication—say, via a
Bluetooth headset and telephone.
However, your peripherals usually only need to transmit data
cradle, However, cordiessness Aa its price: Syncing via Bluetooth is significantly slower than with USB, taking up to ten times as fong,
Still, count us in as fans of wireless ing—but not of the rather unwieldy (but one-time-only) setup process.
Devices tab in the Bluetooth system pr ference. Click the Pair
i Ones you've paired up your Mac and the device, make sure
you've gota serial port set up for your PDA. For this, youll
New Device button, i Use the Bluetooth Serial Utity (introduced! in OS 10,24) inthe
Cc Theiooh a Applications > Utilities folder.
it MACOB Y [eee Bluetooth Seral Uuly
ShowAl_Daplre Sound Nefvoxe Sap ak teay Sarr
Bluetooth Serial Ports
_ [serings [File Bichange FROee 2 You can add any numberof stil ports to yout Computer to enable incoming or outgoing
‘connects wih Buetoath devices. For example, port may be used to synchronize with
‘Your Buetooth equipped handheld organizer.
Seed ay (n/04 Ath. Direction’ Name Ovvce serie
No In Bluet..A-Syne
Palred Devices Sc
b) Deland)
Ge oo ee
S if you see a Bluetooth-PDA-Sync port, you're all set and can skip
The wizard will show you all of the available devices. Make sure 5 to the next step. Otherwise, click New, type a descriptive name for
you've set your specific davice as discoverable. To do this on your new port, choose Incoming for Port Direction, and set Port -
the Tungsten, goto Preferences, click Communication, select Typeto Modem.
Bluetooth, and set Discoverable to Yes. As long as your device is within
20 feet of your Mac, it should appear in this list. Select it and click Pair.
606 oe Bluetoott Please provide a name, sirection, and options to use with
{he new aetoth Ser Pore:
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‘Some Bluetooth devices require you to enter a key on both Bluetooth-PDA-Syre port {oF the port you just created).
3 the device and the Mac. This is a security measure fo ensure iCXs HorSync Software Setup
that both your Mac and the device want to be paired with one re
another, lfonly this rnuch discretion was the rule at bars...
By the way, select a password that you can enter easily on your
device. If you're pairing with ¢ phone, choose numbers so you don't
drive yourself crazy using the telephone keypad to type Buffy or
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Please enter a Passkey to use with this device
asskeysaré required to pair with a Suetoots device. The same
ee omer aninnee. fe to create a Bluetooth syne profile on your PDA. On
ros te ten, Go to Preferences, choose Connection, click New, and
ee “name it Bluetooth. Choose PC as the type of device to connect with,
choose Bluetooth as the connection method, and then select your Mac's
l name from the list of available Bluetooth devices.
Device Bk fils
The Me That's it! You're ready to go. Navigate to the HotSync icon on your
deskjet S95¢ S/N MYIBCICICEL Palm, choose Bluetooth from the pull-down menu, and press the
768i syne button,
Palm Tungsten T
May 2003 MacAddict 27
An adapter such as this
one is the key to wireless
power via Bluetooth.
in one direction—in half-duplex mode, In this mode, Bluetooth
operates quite a bit faster, maxing out at 721 Kbps in one
direction (sending) and 56 Kbps in the other (receiving). Another
type of half-duplex mode splits the signal evenly, allowing
transmission in either direction at 432 Kbps, but not at the same
time. In a nutshell, Bluetooth operates at about half the speed of
the slowest USB link, which clocks in at 1.5 Mbps (and maxes out
at 12 Mbps).
As all jaded Mac users know, though, the real world has a
funny way of upending promised speeds. For instance, our file
transfers maxed out at 32 Kbps between two Macs spaced less
than 5 feet apart, That’s fine for small files, but you would be
better off burning a CD for that 50MB movie than sending it via
Bluetooth. Trust us.
The Palm Tungsten T has built-in Bluetooth.
28 MacAddict May 2003
You can use
your Bluetooth
phone's network
to surf the Web
‘on your Mac—
useful when
you're stuck
somewhere
without an
AirPort network.
Syncing a Bluetooth-enabled PDA to your Mac is superhandy,
but significantly slower than syncing via USB. We got different
results each time, but for the most part, syncing via Bluetooth
took up to 10 times longer than with USB. The speed hit is
especially painful on your initial sync because that’s when you're
transferring your entire database of contacts and calendar items.
After that, syncing via Bluetooth isn’t all that bad because you're
only sending changes back and forth.
Using T-Mobile's service with a Sony Ericsson T68i, we surfed
the Web on our Mac via our phone’s GSM network, achieving
consistent speeds of over 40 Kbps. That’s not bad, especially
compared to our hotel room’s phone lines, which were limited to
28.8 Kbps. (This technique is also useful in public places where
there isn’t an AirPort network). Unfortunately, the setup involved
in getting this ploy to work is neither easy nor well documented.
Fortunately, we’ve done the work for you,
First, you need a modem script that tells your Mac exactly
what commands it should send to your phone to get itto
work properly. We used the Ericsson GPRS Scripts from Ross
Barkman’s Web site (on the Disc or at www.taniwha.org.uk).
From there, follow the directions in the PDF file “Set Up the T68i
for Web Surfing” on the Disc.
By the way, if you're thinking about cutting ties to your printer,
don’t get too excited about the prospect. Bluetooth printing
doesn’t currently work in Mac OS X. You can set up a link toa
Bluetooth printer, and even create a virtual serial port (which you
need to do in the Bluetooth Serial Utility to make any peripheral
talk to your Mac via Bluetooth). However, the weak link is OS X’s
Print Center, which currently provides no way of printing to that
port. We're hoping Apple will change this soon.
How Do You Transfer Files
with Bluetooth?
Using Bluetooth to transfer files between two computers is
awesomely convenient. Of course, you need two Bluetooth
adapters—but what’s a hundred bucks when you're paying for
ultimate convenience? Bluetooth file transfer is even easier to
set up than the AirPort-based Rendezvous—simply select a file
and a destination device, and go.
Select the file you wantto send
and drag it onto the Bluetooth
File Exchange utility (in the main
Applications > Utilities folder). Or
you can place a Biuetooth menu in
the menu bar. To do that, navigate
this very intuitive hierarchy of folders
(System > Library » CoreServices>
Menu Extras) and drag Bluetooth.menu to your menu bar. To
send a file, choose Send File from the Bluetooth menu item.
Turn Bluetooth Off
¥ Discoverable
[setup uetot Devs
Browse Device.
Open Bluetooth Preferences.
The Bluetooth
File Exchange
Utility shows a =
list of all the Bluetooth
devices available to ia
your Mac. Just pick one | Gs
and click Send. fralermaner copie
3 computer will
ask its owner
to accept this file. As
soon as that person [<]
agrees, the transfer
starts. See? Much
better than logging in
to a server or fishing
around for a Zip disk or —
USB Flash drive.
SHORT-RANGE WIRELESS: THE BOTTOM LINE
Ifyou have more than one Mac and are constantly shuttling small
files back and forth, or if you want to use wireless devices like
the Sony Ericsson phone or the Palm Tungsten T, Bluetooth is
wonderful. Even though its transfer speeds are slow, Bluetooth
impressed us, especially when you consider the convenience of
not having to crawl under your desk to plug cords into the back of
your computer.
ae)
Sen Fie Soro ofa UTE 1
Select Shetoth Devi
Dewce Type: {AN Types
eee Cutegor: [Al Caepaies
The receiving
Cniotainn
Bluetooth File Exchange
Sending file "Secrets of the Universe.sit"to "The Mac
‘Observer's Computer”.
Cae
312.3 KS of 8.6 MB
3 minutes (at 39 KB/s)
‘Transferred:
“Time remaining:
After spending all this time surrounded by wireless technology,
MacObserver.com president Dave Hamilton was last seen building
a oom with 3-foot-plus thick lead walls, mumbling, “Too much RFmakes
Dave a dull boy.”
. Proprietary radio or infrared conneétions, although some compani
; MictoS@Rt, are starting to move wireless peripherals to Bluetooth (Microsoft
CUTTING MEASURES
ityoU'g tired of constantly tripping over acord when you work, play ,
gafries Or Surf the Web, it's time to untether your mouse—and even your
Ke}board, "Right now, most cordless mice and keyboards use their own
like
Mac Software for its Bluetooth products yet)
Kensington Turbo Mouse Pro Wireless ($142.99, www.kensington
*.comi) and PocketMouse Pro Wireless ($49.99). Both of these products
are similar toltheir wired counterparts,
Keyspan Digital Media Remote ($49, www.keyspan.com). This very
00! deyice allows you to control your Mac with a remote.
r ee
Logitech Cordless Navigator Duo ($79.95, wwwiogitech.com).
Logitech offers.tons of cordless Keyboard-and-mouse combos, but
this is a good midprice,one.
The Cordless Navigator
Duo gets rid of two cords
for the price of one.
Macally RFKey ($69, www.macally.com) and RFMouseJR ($49.99)
Macallly's wireless keyboard and wireless mouse are good for users
ona budget.
Targus Wireless Optical Mini Mouse ($49.99, www-tarcus.com).
This inexpensive wireless mouse is built for the traveling Mac user.
Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop ($84.95, www.microsoft.com),
Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer (64.95), and Wireless Optical Mouse
Blue ($34,95) The Wireless Desktop is a keyboard-and-mouse combo,
The IntelliMouse Explorer and Optical Mouse Blue are both solid devices
Plug the receiver
into a USB port,
and you have a
mouse that mouses
without a cord.
May 2003 MacAddict 29
David Lynch has always been
known io hig unique and very
un-Hollywood films. Now he’s
using the Mac to create an
equally unique Web experience,
one that people actually pay for.
fe pend some time in David Lynch’s
" online fantasy world, and you'll
find birds feeding in a dark
industrial wasteland, with only a
thin Shield protecting them fromfaveraus
rodents. In reality, these birds perch happily
ona bird feeder (the antisquirrel variety) in
the backyard of Lynch's estate. The feeder
sits in front of a 2D backdrop.
Leave it to David Lynch to turn banal
backyard activities into a sinister, if
not bizarre, video experience. This
kind of innovation pervades the
filmmaker’s subscription-only Web site
(www.davidlynch.com), designed and
served completely on Macs.
Lynch is famous for his unusual brand
of filmmaking. His 1977 cult classic
Eraserhead and stylized sci-fi epic Dune
paved the way for more mainstream hits like
Blue Velvet and the TV series Twin Peaks.
Other cinematic credits include the rampant
road rage of Wild at Heart, the real-life story
of a man who crosses the Midwest ona
tractor in The Straight Story, and the sultry
confusion of his recent movie Mulholland
Drive. Innovative is the only way to describe
Lynch’s eccentric array of work.
Innovation alse embodies
DavidLynch.com, a largely black-and.
white film-noir Web experience. Lynch
eschews stick-straight navigation bars for
a more meandering road map. The hand-
drawn zigzags on the main site map (The
Switchboard) take you to a variety of Flash-
intensive pages, riddled with hidden links
and enigmatic information (read: hidden
jewels for die-hard Lynch fans). Activities
like the phone game, where you dial a
deceptively random assortment of Flash-
DAVIDLYNCH.COM
=)
May 2003 MacAddict 31
=»
enabled rotary phones, seem cryptic at first. But like watching a Lynch
film over and over, the more you play, the more you discover and the
deeper into the game and into the site you go. Members pay $9.97 a
month for the privilege of staying tuned into the Lynch experience.
- ea wr
The Art of Web Vid
The Web site’s mainstay is its animations and movies, which Lynch
and his team shoot on MiniDV cameras and edit with Final Cut Pro.
Without film producers and television execs breathing down his
neck, Lynch has unleashed his imagination on four main projects
for his Web site. Rabbits, starring Mulholland Drive’s Naomi Watts
and Laura Elena Harring dressed up in rabbit costumes, is a surreal
episodic series shot with Sony PD-100 MiniDV cameras. Dumbland,
which Lynch animated in Flash, is a seven-part line-drawn raucous
cartoon. Cannes Diaries, also shot in MiniDV, is a live-on-location
series documenting the Cannes Film Festival. (Both Mulholland Drive
and Wild at Heart won awards at Cannes.) Lynch remains tight-lipped
about his new live-action mystery series called Axxon N, due out
this year.
While the Internet is the perfect medium for experimental shorts
and series, it presents its share of problems. For instance, Web
video has trouble showing off certain David Lynch trademarks such
as his penchant for the color red. According to John Worthington,
Discreet’s director of product management for desktop video, red
reacts differently to the separate gamma curves on Macs and PCs,
‘sel mameny 28.48
‘Aone momen 2408 He
Memon log 20808
eget er vecné ot
oviaemeuaes 17.
Sime sane
Qo a enn
| wet server ations
| Qn Qi
4D Business Kit details important information like the number of
pages users request and the Web server's memory allocation.
ee |
© DAVIDLYNCH @
Managing Consultant Eric Bassett of DavidLynch.com uses 4D
Portal to let users create custom cards with Lynch's artwork.
32 MacAddict May 2003
Eric Bassett is
the technical
Mac mind behind
www.davidlynch
.com.
To help Lynch’s filmmaking style shine through the technicalities of
Web video, Managing Consultant Eric Bassett uses Discreet’s Cleaner
($599, www.cleaner.com) to clean up the video, the Sorenson 3 codec
to compress it, and the QDesign codec to compress the audio. Bassett
hopes to move to MPEG-4 encoded video.
\ ne fr é
Web Serving the Mac Way
With 750,000 daily hits, the site is powered by 14 Power Mac GAs,
4 iMacs, and one lone PC for secure ecommerce transactions. All will
soon be replaced by Xserves, Akamai servers deliver the bulk of the
video. Bassett drives the site with 4D server software, databases,
and application-development tools. Using a custom application
developed in 4D Developer Edition ($799, www.4d.com) and run
with 4D Server ($899), he manages a nest of 4D databases that hold
member information (names, demographics, and log-in information),
pay-per-view video-download licenses, and store transactions. The
databases talk to the 4D WebStar Server Suite ($299), and Bassett
uses 4D Business Kit to manage the store, which is stocked with
photos, posters, hats, coffee mugs, CDs, and collectible DVDs of
Lynch's short films.
As on almostany interactive Web site, visitors chat—and Lynch
himself frequents the rooms daily. To monitor the powwows, Bassett
uses 4D Portal, which lets him quiet down ALL UPPERCASE chatters
and squelch the occasional tirade. As forthe members, they are a die-
hard bunch—and 40 percent of them are Mac users. “They're funny,
they’re smart, they’re fun-loving, s0 it’s interesting to talk to them,”
says Lynch.
One member, a 25-year-old software developer named Matthieu
Gosset (aka zygron in the chat room), has been aserious Lynch fan
ever since he saw Dune in 1984. He’s developed a community area
on the site, where members post pictures and information about
themselves. He likes the site because it’s authentic David Lynch.
“The site makes great use of Flash and doesn’t look like anything
existing,” he says.
In fact, DavidLynch.com is much like a David Lynch flick, where you
expect the unexpected and are amazed at the outcome.
MacAddict caught up with David Lynch in his breathtaking Hollywood Hills home,
where we talked to him about the untamed world of Internet movies.
MA; How is making an Internet movie
different from making a full-length
feature movie?
DL; A lot of times you get little fragments
of ideas and they don’t go anywhere
because there’s no place to share short
things. Except now, there’s the Internet.
So on DavidLynch.com there are short
experiments [and] all these things that are
based on ideas that would have not gone
anywhere had it not been for the Internet.
MA: So is that why you created movies in
series on DavidLynch.com?
DL: There’s something very beautiful about
a continuing story, but television got scared
of continuing stories, because they did
surveys and polls, and found out that many
people couldn’t for one reason or another
see a show every week....So it could be
that [the Internet] is a great home fora
continuing story.
MA: Do you shoot your episodes all at one
time or over longer periods?
DL: Both. It’s so expensive to get geared up
and shoot something [so] you really try to
get a bunch of raw material and cut it into
episodes. But you still need scripts. You
need to have a place to put the set, find
locations. You've got to get a crew together.
It’s a mini movie, but you’d be surprised
how much time, money, and effort even a
small thing takes.
MA: What cameras do you use?
DL: [Sony] PD-100s, and it’s real bad
quality, but that’s what | like.
MA: \s it a different experience for the
actors, knowing the movie is going to
appear on the Internet versus a more
traditional medium?
DL: Yeah, the word that comes to mind is
bummer, [Laughs]
MA: How did you get people like Naomi
Watts and Laura Elena Harring to work
on Rabbits?
DL: Bribery and things like that. [Laughs]
No, they turned out to be friends, and so
it’s fun. I’m sure that they didn’t really know
what Rabbits was going to be or where it
was going to go, so it’s kind of interesting.
They got to take a little bit of a chance but
have fun along the way.
MA: \s some of your cinematic style—
detailed, stylish backgrounds, red
rooms—difficult to view on the Internet?
DL: On the Internet, if you want to show
details you just have to do it ina different
way...You can see things—details—sort of,
but if you want to sell a plug in a socket,
you've got to get in very tight, and if it’s not
quite right, you move in a little tighter. You
can See on the screen exactly what you’re
going to get. You can record it and play it
back, so there’s plenty of opportunity to
show every single thing.
MA: Do you see DV going more
mainstream?
DL: It isn’t film but it has its own feel, so if
a story comes up in your head that marries
to that particular kind of feeling—like a DV
story as opposed to a higher-quality film
story—then you go and say this story is
going to be better in DV than in film. And
there are those kinds of stories. There are
no rules, but you're kidding yourself if the
story doesn’t marry to the medium.
MA: Do you feel compelled to create
content every month for DavidLynch.com?
DL: If it were like TV where you had to do
content on a schedule, | think | would by
now or very soon shut it down. It ceases to
be fun....Fun also means that your mind is
open to new things. You cook up something
when things are fun, so it’s just gotta be
that way or it can’t work.
MA: So are you a Mac guy?
DL: Yes, I’m a Mac guy....The whole world up
here is built on Macs.
MA: About how many Macs do you have?
EB (Eric Bassett): 50.
MA: What's your favorite application?
DL: | love [Adobe] After Effects, and [Adobe]
Photoshop is one of my favorite places to go
any day of the week....| love [Macromedia]
Flash, but After Effects is way more organic.
MA: What are some of the technological
advancements you’re looking forward to
that will make a difference to what you do?
DL: Ease of getting what you want. What
you want is a program that doesn’t have
a learning curve of two or three months,
where your brain is aching until it finally
falls into place. Where you just pick it up
and say “Oh”...and you start feeling your
way through instead of thinking your
way through. I’m telling ya, that’s going
* to be killer.
Senior Editor Narasu Rebbapragada’s
favorite David Lynch movie is Blue
Velvet. She's currently stuck in a phone booth
somewhere on the Web site,
May 2003 MacAddict 33
POWER IN
ae cot a a
+ this very moment,
thousands of hard-
working, fanatical gamers |
_ and programmers are working
feverishly to make your favorite
games even better. By spicing
them up with new weapons,
skins, furniture, maps, and
by even gameplay (bonus: almost
John all of them are free), you can
Lee experience your faves in a whole
different way. To help you out,
we spent months playing tricked-
out versions of the best and most
recent Mac blockbusters, from
The Sims to Jedi Knight II, from
reece Sa | Saath ~~ Max Payne to WarCraft IlI—yep,
it's a tough job, but somebody's
got to do it. So what are you |
waiting for? Read on for free fun.
ON THE ‘i 1. |
DISC |
‘WarCraft Il demo, |
‘WarCraft Il Bonus | |
Maps, and | |
ae = ee ‘Sims Objects bali sein pr a a aaereerer” Sen
|
|
|
34 MacAddict May 2003
DUR GAMES. NOW'S THE
TIME TO U
LEASH IT.
__ levels gives you access to new _
SHS &
OBIE IS
Plastic surgery for your games—without the scars.
tired of inhabiting, for example, Joe Townie in The
bsins, what you need is a new look—a new skin to crawl
into, if you will.
Adding skins and objects to your game can greatly increase
-your @@tions by giving you new weapons, fancier furniture, or
even a new face and outfit. You can sometimes find new skins
already in the game, hidden = eee
from view until you earn the
right to use them. Spider-Man |
($9.95, www.aspyr.com) is
a dandy example. Winning
skins. Instead of donning his
usual red-and-black web-
fighting gear, Spidey can go
into battle wearing lavender
leotards and puce boots.
If that doesn’t make you feel
sufficiently emasculated,
put him in a baby-blue
costume with a paper
bag over his head. If you
| the biggest games. Wantto _ Style tox ight Il.
| go into battle as Anakin in
_ Jedi Knight Il: Jedi Outcast ($49.95, www.aspyr.com)? Head
just can’t wait, activate
the cheats for Spidey and
change your look sooner
(for more on finding
cheats, see “Your Cheating
Heart,” p37).
There’s also a hard-working
battalion of third-party
programmers cranking out
hundreds of new skins for Add a dash of James Bond
over to JediKnightll.net (www.jediknightii.net) and you’ll
locate hundreds of skins just waiting to be downloaded.
Installing these new skins is a cinch—just download the skins
files, which have a .pk3 extension, and stick them in a folder © ——---—
named base with the other .pk3 files.
If you’re a dedicated fan of The Sims ($44.95, www.aspyr
.com), you'll find designers of clothing, furniture, walls,
floors, and anything you can think of hard at work on Sims
paraphernalia—just visit one of the many Sims fan sites. But
first hit up Aspyr’s site, which | Replace your lame Sims
offers several bonus skins outfits with fancier duds.
and objects, including new ;
cat and dog breeds (for The & qt 5
se ee oe
2
Sims Unleashed expansion
pack), a Pepsi machine, and ee,
new skins. Simply download 4% Wal
and run the installers, and
the new stuff will show up the
next time you play. E
May 2003 MacAcdicict 35
Using objects and skins
from fan sites is slightly more
involved—but not much.
Surf over to one of the
gazillion Sims fan sites and
download the objects of
your desire. Some good sites
include Sims 4 Mac (http://
sims4mac.com), Around The
Sims (http://aroundthesims
-online.fr), 7 Deadly Sims
(www.7deadlysims.com),
The Sim Land (www
.thesimtand.com), and
The Sims Resource (www
.thesimsresource.com)—this
last one charges a subscription rate of $26.95 a year.
To get your new objects and skins into the game, place them
in the appropriate folder—go to your Sims » GameData folder,
and there you'll find folders called Floors, Skins, Objects, and
so forth. Within the games, specific items may not be available
when you view objects by subcategory, but you should see
them when you look at entire categories. To find a floor lamp in
Buy mode, for example, view all lamps, not just the floor lamps.
There's only one problem—and you can blame it on OS
9. Many objects and skins weigh in with long names, but
The Sims (which came out three years ago just for OS 9)
still adheres to the stupid 31-character limitation set by
that OS (yep, even the Carbon version of The Sims). To get
around this, download bangsplat’s SkinShrinker (free,
www.bangsplat.cc), which shortens the names so your game
will recognize them.
If you’re truly narcissistic, put your own face in
the game. A New York outfit called CyberExtruder
(www.cyberextruder.com) will work from 2D photos to
turn you into a fully developed 3D model for $4.95 (or as
little as $2 each if you order ten faces), letting you put
yourself in games like Return to Castle Wolfenstein ($39.95,
www.aspyr.com), The Sims, and Unreal Tournament 2003
($49.95, www.wizworks.com/macsoft). Any Mac image comes
with an easy installer that makes joining a game dirt-simple.
Don’t have $4.95 to spare? (Hey, that is practically the cost
of a Starbucks Venti mocha.)
You’re in luck: CyberExtruder
has cobbled togethera
whole rogue’s gallery of
well-known faces that you
can use to test out the
program. You can exploit
George Bush, Mel Gibson,
Einstein, Denzel Washington,
Angelina Jolie, and a host of
other famous faces.
_ dungeon, or a woodsy area with scattered houses, grassy
- trails, and lurking monsters.
MARS
Entire new terrains, environments, and worlds
for the exploring.
ust as skins change the appearance of your players, new
maps give you fresh territory to explore or conquer. A
map—the virtual arena in which your action takes place—may
be a meandering collection of corridors in some castle
As with skins, you can usually download maps for free.
To start, drop in on MacGamefFiles (www.macgamefiles.com)
or MacUpdate (www.macupdate.com), both of which list
Mac-compatible maps, mods, and skins. Later, when you
know your way around and feel braver, you can go foraging
through humongous PC-centric Web archives like GameSpy
(www.gamespy.com) for even more Mac-compatible maps
(plus skins and mods).
Download times will vary, of course. Some map packages,
such as the 132K Green Island scenario for Tropico fans
($39.95, www.wizworks.com/macsoft), are small and easy
to grab. At the other extreme, Rogue Spear multiplayers
($39.95, www.wizworks.com/macsoft) can download an
18MB Treasure Island map based on Alcatraz. Many games
will have some kind of maps folder where you can stick new
maps—but if not, read the instructions that (we hope) come
with the downloaded file.
OK, so you're feeling a little more adventurous (or bored).
Games like WarCraft III ($49.95, www.blizzard.com) provide
editing tool sets on the game CD (you'll need Mac OS 10.1.3 or
later to run it), which allow you to create your own maps with
an assortment of palettes and tile sets. A palette is a panel
teeming with items you can plant in a given area—these may be
monsters, textures, heroes, trees, or buildings. A tile set usually
offers items that go together—a forest tile set, for example,
might include tiles of trees, rocks, stone ruins, and streams.
Completed WarCraft Ill maps go into a folder called Maps.
When you're ready to try out your new masterpiece, press
36 Mactcisict May
Control-F9 to bring up a list of maps and select yours. If
you're a gamer and not a cartographer or an arteest, then
try out a map created by someone who is. Start at Blizzard
Entertainment's official WarCraft III site (www.battle.net
/war3/maps) and then hit up fan sites like The Unofficial
WarCraft Ill Maps and Mods Site (http://maps.warcraftiii.net)
and WarCraft.org (www.warcraft.org/w3m), which offer more
than a thousand fresh maps. That’s a lot o’ new territory.
Movs
From simple tweaks to full-scale makeovers.
ora full game makeover, try a mod—short for
modification or module. These gems can simply add a few
new features or can perform a total transformation, including
a complete change of rules, physics, weapons, enemies, and
environment. Though you can usually download a mod for
free, you still need a full retail version of the original game to
make it work. (By the way, many gamers make a distinction
between mods and modules—mods is a stronger word that
implies a major change to a game.)
Here’s a little piece of trivia: Mods got their start back in
the early 1980s, when a couple of Smurf-hating suburban
high-school kids hacked the Apple II version of 3D Castle
Wolfenstein and developed a laugher called Castle
Smurfenstein (www.evl.uic.edu/aej/smurf.html). Publishers.
quickly caught on. Game developers seldom provided help
to amateurs in Smurfenstein’s day, but now they routinely
offer editing tools for their games.
A flood of fan sites offer thousands of mods. They come in
all sizes and can take considerable time to download—in fact,
here’s your excuse to invest in DSL or cable. For example, the
Quake III Fortress mod, which creates a more team-oriented
experience on the Internet, measures a hefty 140MB. Or
swallow hard and start downloading StrikeForce 1.80, an
Unreal Tournament add-on, at 381MB. This mod contains
180 changes and fixes, including new OpenGL drivers, new
reload sounds, slower firing for some weapons, faster firing
YOUR CHEATING
HEART
Can't figure out how to get past that seemingly impossible
level in the game du jour? Plenty of online help can keep
you from banging your frustrated head against your Mac
(ow!). If a game is baffling you, first try its official site
for hints and strategies. If that doesn’t help, look fora
detailed walkthrough on sites like The Adrenaline Vault
(www.avault.com), Universal Hint System (www.uhs-hints
.com), and The Gamer Zone (www.gamerzone.com), to
name just a few.
Or maybe you simply want to rip through monsters and
villains without taking any damage. Looks like you need
some cheats. Try CheatingPlanet (www.cheatingplanet
.com), Cheat Code Central (www.cheatcc.com), or
Cheatportal (www.cheatportal.com). Don’t want to work
anymore in The Sims? Just press Command-Control-
Shift-C and type the word rosebud to get richer by 1,000
Simoleons. Want to go into third-person view in No One
Lives Forever ($49.99, www.macplay.com)? Press the T
key, and then type mpasscam.
But before you enter that secret code, just make sure you
can live with yourself. Yeah, we thought you could.
for others, and so on. If broadband isn’t an option for you,
some developers will burn a CD for a small fee (like $2 to $4).
Many mods are Mac ready, though you'll want to read
summaries or check out a mod’s FAQ to be sure. If you’re feeling
nervous, check with MacGamefFiles or MacUpdate to make sure
the mod’s on the list. Be adventurous, though, and you can find
even more Mac-ready mods hiding out there in PC land.
For example, MacSoft says many PC mods work with Max
Payne ($49.95, www.wizworks.com/macsoft). One of the
coolest is True Matrix, which converts Payne’s adventures
into a version of The Matrix, complete with new weapons,
characters, and even music from the film. Download it at Max
Payne Headquarters (www.maxpayneheadquarters.com),
and move the mod to the root level of your Max Payne folder.
You may need to add the extension .mpm at the end of some
May 2003 Mac/“ciclict
37
Max mods to make them show up. To choose a mod in Max
Payne, fire up the game and press Option-D. You’llseea
Choose Customized Game option. Pick True Matrix or any
other new Max Payne mod.
Then there’s Neverwinter Nights ($49.99, www.wizworks
-com/macsoft), which comes with the Aurora tool set
and three applications: NWN main, the application for
single-player games; the NWN client, which allows you to go
online and join games on NWN servers; and a NWN server
for hosting your own games. You can use the tool set to write
your own mods, or with the NWN client in place, you can
pop over to Stratics (www.stratics.com) or Neverwinter Vault
(www.nwvault.com), where you can find more than 500 new
multiplayer adventure modules.
Here’s a little trick for gauging the coolest stuff: Check the
number of downloads. Some of the most popular Neverwinter
Nights add-ons come from a Neverwinter fanatic, Stefan
Gagne, who has been creating mods for ten years and has
made a humorous six-mod Neverwinter Nights campaign
called Penultima (download from Neverwinter Vault). Try
Penultima 1: Pest Control, which lands you in a mine beset
by a tribe of goblins, or Penultima 2: Dewey’s Decimal,
which puts you in a magical library. IF you enjoy these early
adventures, go for the entire Penultima package, including
Penultima ReRolled, Gagne’s new sequel campaign.
in your modules folder; if the downloads come with a HakPak
file (which lets the module use new game content), copy it
into the hak folder. To play a module, start a new game, then
select Other Modules and pick the one you want. Since the
game wasn’t out at press time, we couldn’t test whether this
worked, but BioWare swears it’s so.
CASICK
EbbS
The unexpected gift at the bottom of your stocking.
n Easter egg is an amusing special event, hidden deep
within a game or app, that will reveal itself only if you
follow the correct steps. Such hidden tidbits seldom have any
useful purpose beyond entertainment—um, kinda like games
in general.
Diablo fans all know by now of the secret cow level in
Play Dark ¢ day, and you'll get into the
ae]
FX Castle on Christmas
mood.
puanpa sipping
f
aia een aad Cr
Diablo II: Lord of Destruction ($29.95, www.blizzard.com).
First find Wirt’s Leg in Tristram. Put it in the Horadric Cube
with a Tome of Town Portal, and you open a new portal to
Tristram. Only this time, instead of monsters, you’ll encounter
a mob of marauding warrior cows, walking upright on hind
legs and crowding toward you with malicious intent, chanting
___ their savage war cry of “Moo! Moo!”
Another classic egg comes in Dark Castle ($24.95,
www.deltatao.com). If you play on Christmas day, the
opening scene replaces a giant statue in the entry hall witha
Christmas tree. Unlike in normal life, you don’t actually have
to wait until Christmas to unveil your surprise—just reset your
Mac’s calendar, and the game won't be the wiser. Similarly,
play Black & White ($34.99, www.macplay.com) on April
Fools’ Day, and your monsters will leave smiley faces in the
MacAdicic! May 2003
dirt instead of their regular footprints.
For a truly complex egg, meet an army of armed rats in
Max Payne. The rats are hidden early in the game in Part
1, Chapter 2. First, you must enable cheats—to do that,
~~~ launch the game, then hold down Option-D. Click the image
of Max in the first window that appears. Click the buttons
for Developer Keys and Developer Mode. Once you’re in the
game, press F12 and type getallweapons. When you finda
hole in the wall, throw a grenade through it. Keep going until
you hear an explosion, then go up the stairs and wait. You'll
soon be facing an army of rats. If you want another surprise,
throw a Molotoy cocktail at them.
Max has other eggs as well. In Part 1, Chapter 3, break
down the door just before the toppling boiler. Go through the
door and out a window. Follow a trail of blood on the ledge to
another window. Inside, you'll see a dead man with a wooden
stake in his back, and the name of his killer, Buffy, partially
written in blood on the floor. You can collect goodies inside
by breaking the window and entering.
We'd also like to drive a stake into the heart of an enduring
myth; the secret “nude” code that would supposedly
unlimber a fresh new look for Lara Croft in Tomb Raider
($29.95 for the trilogy, www.aspyr.com). Sweaty-palmed
teens have spent thousands of hours trying to hack Lara’s
secret codes so they could watch more than just her
bouncing braids as she leaps from crag to crag. But they’ve
PS y | wasted their dedication. The nude code
doesn’t exist. Never has—give up, guys.
But don’t despair—you'll find tons of other
hidden amusements at Egg Heaven 2000
) (www.eggheaven2000.com) and The Easter
Egg Archive (www.eeggs.com).
QUICK GUIDE
Some games inspire a huge outpouring of emotion on the
Web. Here’s where to go to get the goods on some of your
favorite games.
If you're into Unreal Tournament 2003:
PlanetUnreal-UT 2003 (www.planetunreal.com/ut2003).
News, files, and forums for Unreal Tournament 2003.
If you love Neverwinter Nights:
Neverwinter Nights Fan Sites Links (http://nwn.bioware
.com/links/viewcat.html?¢=15). An abundance of links to
fan sites.
If you’re a chick and you love Neverwinter Nights:
Ladies of Neverwinter (www.ladiesofneverwinter.com). A
support community for women players of Neverwinter Nights.
If you’re obsessed with Max Payne:
Deep Six (www.3dap.com/maxpayne). A strong fan site for
Max Payne news, mods, and files.
If you can’t stop playing The Sims:
Around The Sims (http://aroundthesims.online.fr).
Downloadable objects, plus links to hundreds of fan sites.
If you love Tony Hawk:
PlanetTonyHawk (www.planettonyhawk.com). Cheats,
moves, walkthroughs, and everything you need to get
through Tony Hawk.
If you can’t get enough of Jedi Knight
Jedi Outcast (www.jedi-outcast.com). Fan news, FAQs,
and files for Jedi Knight II.
If you’re into Ghost Recon:
Tom Clancy’s Ghos
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