MacWorld 9902 February 1999

48 Mac Games Reviewed Fepees ROUTTAR Y Te 9 9a 4 v Vx THE ESSENTIAL MACINTOSH® RESOURCE \ _/ www.macworld.com Gawpgra Buyer’s Guide $7.99/$8.99 I il py 0 70992"069240 "8 The world’s most advancec It on your search tool isn't on the Web, Macintosh. How in the world do you find what you need on an Internet that gets more complex Sher lock every second? Well, if you have a PowerPC=based Macintosh; the answer is easy: Upgrade to Mac’ 0S as te with Sherlock; the Internet search detective. Just type in your “" PE aes i request—in plain English—and Sherlock unleashes a cadre What in the world are you looking for? Sherlock understands plain, simple English — no need to typein strangesymbols. __ Of the Internet’s most powerful search engines simultaneously. In just seconds, the results begin to stream Excitg QDiinfoseck onto your screen, dynamically ranked by relevance. Then, all you have to do © is click on any item and off you go. Sherlock starts out powerful, then gets E> “YAHOO! barnesandnoble@y) WLEVARD) even more powerful—because you can download free “plug-ins” that expand Sherlock's reach to other search engines and all kinds of Internet content, LookSmart” (aii from news centers to retailers. And it doesn’t stop with the Internet. Sherlock P 2 i F ‘ ae QDIRECT HIT isso clever in the way it searches, it can also find files that are hidden within : your hard disk, by title or by content. So it's easy to locate documents even if #™4z0n.com ; 4 k You can expand Sherlock's reach with you can only remember a key word or phrase. If you're searching for faster yer a jundred, fre Sherlock pl-ins now available on the Internet for a rrr er and better ways to use your — news, musi spor, you name 7 oc =] é . IO scat in = Macintosh computer, stop by and pick up your copy of | © weicorse ts Blow Sty = ~ “i Fa) to, Sy bie dl ia the new Mac 0S 8.5 at an authorized Apple reseller (call Sherlock unleashes the power of several search engines al once and reports bac in seconds dynamically ranking resulisby relevance. 1-800-538-9696 for locations) or visit the Apple Store” at wwwapple.com. For only $99; it’s like putting a powerful new Macintosh inside the Mac you already own. 4 S Think different: "Estimated retail price Tee noted Royaires MacOS bd pple compe wth PeucerPC proces amd 16MB of pyscal RAM, with ira memory sto a least 24 pple PC Compatible Cands ot sugpored. Inde aces rues BP © 1998 ppke Computer bu Allrighs resrved. dpe the Ay lo, Mac Macinaah and Think cert are trademarks of sple Compute. nc, regiteredtin We tiS eed ther enalris The pple Sore ant Shertock are rademuarks of pple Computer, in. Pera trademarks ef 188! Crp, sed der Hence erefom. Ober pradct ancl company names ‘mentioned ert aay be racks of ir expect compane. ions of id parts rds for ference ny an contender recent nor enudsement. PRESB ROU ARN 4 1919) 19 cworid Incorporating MacUser Features Cover Story Better back it up! Learn to prevent data-loss tragedies, page 85. 64 Born-Again Macs BY CAMERON CroTTy Feeling left behind? Turbocharge your older Mac with a blazing-fast G3 upgrade card. Macworld Lab tests 20 of these rocket boosters and finds which give the most power for your peso. MACWORLD ULTIMATE GAMING GUIDE 74 Illustration’s Golden Age BY DEKE McCLELLAND Mac illustration’s big boys—Adobe Tllus- trator, Macromedia FreeHand, and Create CorelDraw—have blossomed into 179 potent creative instruments. But which really owns the throne? Our in-depth investigation reveals the reigning king. Be Safe, Not Sorry BY ADAM C. ENGST Losing data: yes, it will happen to you at some point. Learn how backing up data regularly—and correctly—can alle- viate costly tragedies. February 1999 MACWORLD Print 99 Unleash the Power of QuarkXPress 4 BY DAVID BLATNER ‘Tap into QuarkXPress 4’s unsung power- user capabilities. Web 103 Worst Web Faux Pas BY PETER MORVILLE Creat- ing a Web site? Before you start, learn from others’ mistakes. Motion 109 Media Cleaner Pro 3 Expert Clinic By JIM Helo Fine-tune your skills for crafting low-fat video in. ‘Terran Interactive’s MCP 3. Let loose the lesser-known talents of ‘QuarkxPress, page 99. Name Your Game COMPILED BY MICHAEL GOWAN Psst—looking for some action? Ie’ all here in our comprehensive collection of mouse-rated games— including five new releases. 186 The Game Room BY PHiLip DYER We harassed game vendors to get the scoop on new Mac games for 1999—so you don’t have to. Get your pixel fix with a new megapixel digital camera, page 30. 25 26 27 27 27 28 N THE COVER a taseration by Mateu News Next-Generation Graphics ATI’s Rage 128 graphics chip powers a new line of 2-D- and 3-D-accelerator cards. Electric Image Goes Mainstream ‘The company best known for high- end 3-D software unveils a model- ing program for the rest of us. More Multimedia in the Mix As Macromedia adds Web features to Director 7, Tribeworks launches iShell, a potential rival to the multi- media powerhouse. Screaming Upgrades for G3 Macs Fast new processor upgrades boost early G3 Power Macs to between 300MHz and 400MHz. Product Watch The latest products for your Mac, including new versions of Kai’s Power Tools, from MetaCreations, and Bare Bones Software's BBEdit. More Room to View New 18-inch LCD monitors from Princeton and ViewSonic give your Mac desktop some breathing room. Time to show OS 8.5 who's the boss, page 93. 15 21 188 10 93 95 Simplicity is a beautiful thing, page 188. Opinion The Vision Thing BY ANDREW Gore Travel- ing through time to keep tabs on Apple. The Desktop Critic BY DAVID POGUE Enjoying the backlash of simplicity. How to Contact Macworld Secrets Mac OS 8.5: Beyond the Basics BY JOSEPH SCHORR You've upgraded to OS 8.5—now you need to tame it. Quick Tips BY LON POOLE and shortcuts. Tips, tricks, 30 32 37 38 39 40 42 47 49 51 52 54 56 58 60 60 Reviews $881 Agfa ePhoto 1680; $% Casio QV-5000 Sx; 88% Fuji Mx-700; $888 Kodak DC260; $8% Ricoh RDC-4200; $662 Toshiba PDR-M1 Megapixel digital cameras compared $$¢¢ Painter 5.5 Web Edition Natural-media painting software 69% SoftWindows 98 5.0; 69% Virtual PC 2.1 Windows 98 emulators compared $988 PhotoTools 3.0; $868 Xenofex Photoshop plug-in packages $¢ CompuPic 1.80; $84%% Cumulus Network 4.0; $¢v% Media Cataloger 2.0; $848 Portfolio 4.0 Media-management tools compared 884% AppleShare IP 6 Server software $94 Quarkimmedia 1.5 Multimedia authoring software $6¢% WebPainter 3.0 GIF-animation software $96 Adobe Pagemiill 3.0 Web authoring software $888 Adobe ImageStyler Web- graphics tool $68 LaCie DVD-RAM DVD-RAM drive $8%% Creation Station Pro Graphics tablet $88 =KL-w9000 Rear-projection monitor $%% MouseHouse 2.0 Macintosh Starter Kit Home-automation kit $$ PowerMail 2.2 E-mail client $98 Avid Cinema 1.2 Video-editing software $98% Charts Pro 3-D-chart creator www.macworld.com February 1999 3 BUY YOUR MAC FROM APPLE BUY YOUR PRINTER DIRECT FROM GCC. op rittible 1S & F 5 LSA KON ai Smeets - x GCC TECHNOLOGIES We're GCC Technologies, and our printers are sold direct against some of the most famous names in the computer industry. This creates a buying opportunity for those who understand a basic principle of free enterprise: Selling direct is better for the manufacturer and buying direct is better for the customer. Therefore, we sell our printers direct, eliminating many prosperous middlemen, and lowering your costs. We also provide direct technical support, eliminating other middlemen who can’t solve your problems. And we are compassionate hand-holders. We offer unlimited free technical support, not just on business days, but on Saturdays too — throughout the one-year warranty period. If during that period you have a problem that our technical support people can’t solve, our Platinum Exchange program guarantees you a replacement printer by the next business day. We invite you to buy your next printer direct from GCC and join our growing family of satisfied customers. All GCC printers come with an unconditional thirty-day money-back guarantee. For complete details, call the 800 number below. And, for the record, yes, our printers have wonderful technology too. It’s just that you don’t have to pay extra for it. ELITE 12 Series ELITE XL 20 Series ELITE XL 8 Series ] 12 pages per minute Maximum Print Area: 8.5" x 14" Letter/A4, legal, envelope 250-sheet Universal Tray PostScript® Level 2 compatible, PCL 5 35 PostScript fonts, 15 PCL fonts, 45 downloadable fonts RAM expandable to 64 MB Ist year Platinum Exchange Warranty EtherTalk®, LocalTalk®, TCP/IP Ethernet (10 Baset), Bi-directional Parallel 2nd Paper Feeder* {includes 500-sheet Universal Tray) Add $299 20 poges per minute Maximum Print Area: 12.75" x 35.25" letter/A4, tabloid/A3, legal, envelope, poster 500-sheet Universal Tray PostScript® Level 2 compatible, PCL 5 35 PostScript fonts, 15 PCL fonts, 250 downloadable fonts RAM expandable to 64 MB Jst year Platinum Exchange Warranty EtherTalk®, LocalTalk®, NetWare™, TCP/IP Ethernet (10 BaseT, AAU), Bi-directional Paralle! 2nd or 3rd Paper Feeder” {indudes 500-sheet Universal Troy) Add $299 8 pages per minute Maximum Print Area: 11" x 17" Letter/A4, tabloid/A3, legal, envelope 250-sheet Universal Tray PostScript? Level 2 compatible, PCL 5 35 PostScript fonts, 15 PCL fonts, 45 downloadable fonts RAM expandable to 64 MB Ist year Platinum Exchange Warranty EtherTalk®, Localfalk®, TCP/IP. Ethernet (10 BaseT,10 Base2), Parallel 2nd Paper Feeder* (Includes 250-sheet Universol Tray) Add $319 (Includes 500-sheet Leter/Ad Troy) Add $419 ELITE 12/600 $999 ELITE xL 20/600 $1799 ete xL608Lc $1399 600 x 600 dpi resolution 600 x 600 dpi resolution 600 x 600 dpi resolution 8 MB RAM expandable to 64 MB 16 MB RAM expandable to 64 MB 8 MB RAM expandable to 64 MB 2nd year Platinum Exchange Add $ 99 2ndyear Platinum Exchange Add $179 2nd year Platinum Exchange Add $139 Business Lease $50 Month/24 months** Business Lease $63 Month/36 months’* Business Lease $50 Month/36 months** ELITE 1212 $1199 Evite xL 20/800 $1999 1200 x 1200 dpi resolution 800 x 800 dpi resolution 16 MB RAM expandable to 64 MB 24 MB RAM expandable to 64 MB “The Ete 12/600 le 112, ond ha eee 8 be 2nd year Platinum Exchange Add $119 2nd year Platinum Exchange Add $199 cezlfona pops ede Th et 20/600, Eis 70/800 op Business Lease $59 Month/24 months** _ Business Lease $69 Month/36 months** by independant ee companion gualfied ‘customers. Lease Visit us at MacWorld Expo booth # 2233 ELITE XL 20/1200 $2199 *" 1200 x 1200 dpi resolution 64 MB RAM installed 2nd year Platinum Exchange Add $219 Business Lease $76 Month/36 months** order call 1-800-42 payments bosed on 2 nd 36 month forms. Lease terms Subject to change without notice or ebligation. -C Technologies is o registered trademark of GCC Technol Elite Soigeanes tant XL 608 IC, Elite XL zolen ee 20/800 and the Elite XL 20/1200 are trademarks of GC Technologies, In, All ther trademarks or registered hademarks are trademarks of ther respective companies ies, Inc. lite XL Choose 43 at www.macworld.com/getinfo AnthroCarts! Built like tanks with a Lifetime Warranty! Configure Them for Your Application * Tough as Nails Dozens of Shapes and Si © Over 75 Accessories ¢ Order Direct! Call for a free Catalog: => 800-325-3841 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM PST, M-F Anthro Corporation” Technology Furniture” Tualatin, OR 97062 Fax: 800-325-0045 ¥ Ja 1.03 Kkyo)-3947-2735 ANTHRO ivwianuiro.com Since 1984. Prices from $299. GSA contract. Available for OEM applications. 6 February 1999 MACWORLD Macworld EDITOR IN CHIE Andrew Gore EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT Cynthia A. MeDonald EDITORIAL sorron Michael Penwarden sewioR eoironmnews ano neviews Stephen Beale ‘E410 tOlTOR/DEPARTHENTS Nancy Peterson SENIOR EDITOR/FEATURES Jason Snell SENIOR ASSOCIATE EDITORS Allyson Bates, Linda Comer, Scholle Sawyer ASSOCIATE EDITOR Brooke C. Wheeler ASSISTANT EO:TOR Michael Gowan CONTRIBUTING EDITORS David Biedny, Henry Bortman, Christopher Breen, Bruce Deke McClelland, Rik Myslewski, David Pogue, Lon Poole, Franklin N. Tessler Fraser, Ted Landat INTERNATIONAL EDITORS Steven Noble, Australia; Bernard Le Du, France; Andreas Borchert, Gerinany; Enrico Lotti, Italy; Yoshio Moriya, Japan; ‘Tomasz. Biter, Poland; Daniel de Blas, Spain; Lennart Hikansson, Sweden; Fred Jame, Taiwan; Bahattin Apak, Turkey; Simon Jary, United Kingdom tas us pinccrox Jeff Pittelkan Ass0ciATE Lam BIRECTOR Kristina De Nike SENIOR LAB ANALYSTS Jeffy K. Milstead, Kevin Mitchell ASSOCIATE LAB ANALYST Gil Loyola ventory COORDINATOR Ulysss Bravo copy epit anacine to11oR Chaire H. Breen corr enter Paul-Michael King senioR cory corrons Elissa Rabellino, Jon Zobeniea ‘ART AND DESIGN DESIGN DIRECTOR Eleanor Leishman ART DIRECTOR Sylvia Chevrier ASSOCIATE DESIGNERS Martha Katt, ‘Michael Rattary DESIGN ASSOCIATES Jackie Goodman, Jonathan Woolson ONLINE puausnen JeffJulian DIRECTOR OF CONTENT Matthew Rothenberg. SENIOR OMLINE EDITOR. Philip W. Dyer ‘CONTENT enciween Jeff Cheney ASSISTANT CONTENT ENGINEER Jessica Graves DIRECTOR, aUSINESS DEVELOPMENT FOR ONLINE Nicholas Hlarvey ACCOUNT MANAGER Diana Berry Redefine the Possible Kai's Power Tools www.metacreations.com 800. 846.0111 ss Choose 5 at www.macworld.com/getinfo Project Scheduling Made Easy! I'm not a project management expert, but everyone thinks | am, ‘Most of my time is spent completing tasks, so ! need a ‘scheduling tool that's easy, fast, and flexible. FastTrack Schedule 6.0 fills the bill. It keeps me organized and in control displaying all my project details in rich, colorful timelines. FastTrack Schedule provides just the right amount of power because it's more sophisticated than day-planners, but easier to use and half the price of traditional, high-end project managers. in a sin- gle schedule, | can outline multiple projects, make assignments, track cash flows, set-up dependencies—even add graphics, The presentation-qualily schedules clearly illustrate project objectives and deadlines keeping everyone up-to-date, Coworkers can Update tasks across our Intranet, collab- orate remotely, or use a Macwor'd PRESIDENT AND CLO Colin Crawford ASSISTANT TO THE CO Sharon Sanderson CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Stephen Daniels BUSINESS MANAGER Fos de Feminis AccoUNTING COORDINATOR Ronda Bittner I AssistANT Christian Semel DIRECTOR OF HUMAN RESOURCES Sue Murphy HUMAN RESOURCES COORDINATOR ‘Ada Yim DISPLAY ADVERTISING SALES. VICE PRESIOENT, SALES, & PUBLISHER Mart Sweeney ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Steve Plevin (415/243-3509) SALES COORDINATOR Karla Kyrias (415/278-8542) SALES ASSISTANT Bryan Farnsworth (415/243-3577) aTionAL accounrs manacte Jessica Ross (415/243-3583) marionat accounts MaNacen Sara Culley (970/327-4499) ‘AccounT entcurive Margaret Level Green (415/243-3582) easTeRN aveRTisinG piRcctor Cynthia Ramsey (97 243-1197) mATIONAL ACCOUNTS MANAGER Paul Bonarrigo (508/533-4020) ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Jo Zoutarelli (516/277-4134) SHOPPER ACCOUNT MANAGER Niki Seranz (415/243-3664) shorren account manacer Carol Johnstone (415/243-3691) RESEARCH FastSteps” scriot to automatically SENIOR RESEARCH ANALYST Phillip Hibbert export schedules to our client's web site. MARKETING Whelhanlseitornca Vice Paesiogir, MARKETING Vickie Weleh a week or every MARKETING MANAGER Francesca Koe ay, FastTrack | rape swowsevenrs coonoiaron Nancy Galanty ‘Schedule makes | : MACWORLD GLOBAL PRODUCT SUPPORT CENTER Project scheduling Ra] a8), cooromaton Sharon Sanderson (415/243-3640) For the free Demo CD, wy more info, or to place an order call 800-450-1982. Fastirac Version 6.0 Schedule. Schedule Tomorrow's Success Today.” Choose 203 at www.macworld.com/getinfo February 1999 MACWORLD PRODUCTION VICE PRESIDENT OF MANUFACTURING Anne Foley Cynthia Neustade MANUFACTURING TECHNICAL DIRECTOR Clayton Haberman DIGITAL AD COORDINATOR Mae Scott AD SALES COORDINATOR. Rick Sandoval Macworld it publation of Mac Publsting, LLC Macioid an Independent journal not afitated with Age Ci Macwerla, MacUser, MacHeek. Macworld itera Graphics. Quick Tips, Star Ratings, Buyers” Tool, Shopper, snd Contpcuout Consumer sre regintered trader of of Apple Computer, ne Printed in he United of Ameria, Copyright © 1999 Mac Publishing, LLC. All hts America Demands Digital Color For Everyone "Flory Onven sa trademark of Electionies for inagin, Ine, © 1998 Ricoh Cargoration Affordable Digital Color. For Every Company. Every Department. From $11,500 Brilliant digital color every office can afford. Spectacular e- Aficio Color” Presentations every time. Experience the productivity of smart digital A complete range features for thousands less. Ask for a demo of the most affordable, of digital solutions fg hs fully featured, fully connectable digital color systems in the U.S. For more details, call 800 63 RICOH. Online www.ricoh-usa.com Choose 4 at www.macworld.com/getinfo RICOH Image Communication omega, teow pay tar 1 orporaon AY ater dear of Apple Computer, Inc. Choose 73 at www.macworld.com/getinfo January 5-8, 1999 Macworld Expo Booth # 1207 South Hall Moscone Center Turn to pages 90-92 to find out what you don’t want to miss! PLUS! See some of the fantastic prizes you can win at our daily sweepstakes. Special thanks to our Premier Daily Sponsor n newer technology: “HEIDELBERG NEWS, 10 February 1999 MACWORLD HOW To CONTACT MACWORLD Subscription Services. Phone 303/665-8930, United States only 303/604-7448, outside the United States US. Mall Macworld Subscription Services P.O. Box 58528, Boulder, CO 60322-4529 Word Wide Web ww.tdne conadsubs/macwoldserice Subscription Rates “The one-year (12-ssue) subscription rates $3497 in the United States and ‘$5497 in Canada and Mexico; forall other counties, send ether $54.97 {fr surface mal of $104.97 for ar mall The two-year US. rate is $5997, ‘and the three-year rate $79.97. 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Stories and product reviews from pest issues can be located at wirw macworid com. We are unfortunately unable to look up stols from past Issues; recommend products; or diagnose your Macintosh problems by phone, e-mail, o fax, Contact Apple tol-free at 800/538-9696, ext. 500, for information on user groups in your area (ur offices are located at 301 Howard St, 16th Fl 94105; 415/243-0508, fax 415/442-0766. San Franco, CA LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Direct all comments and suggestions regarding any aspect of the magazine to leters@macword.com. Oue to the high volume of mail received, we can’t respond personaly to each letter. We reserve the rght to edt all submisslons. Al letters publahed in ‘Macworld or Macworld Online become the property of Mizcwold auice irs 5, peripherals, or sftware to Macworld, Quick Tips, 301 Howard St 16th FL, San Francisco, CA 98105; fax 415/442-0766; e-mail quiktps® rmacword com, Please inde your rame, address, and telephene sumbet, VPA. Send your questions or tps on how to use Mite comput TIME 1 chines / i Play hottest % cee " best selling PC games! Battle Zone Bladerunner Curse of Monky Island Deer Hunter Descent Freespace FAS Fallout 2 Final Fantasy Vil Flight Simitator 98 Forsaken Grand Theft Auto Hexen Il Incubation Interstate 76 Jedi Knight Outlaws Outwars Police Quest S.WAT. 2 Prophecy Quake I Rocky Mountain Trophy Hunter ‘Tomb Raider i And More Windows? Games! Aativision’s Civilization ‘Ago of Empiros ‘Age of Sail Alpha Centauri ‘Anacronox ‘Apache Havoc ‘Asheron's Call Asteroids 3D Baldur's Gate Betrayal at Anatra Birth of the Federation Blackstone Chronicles Blood I Cabela's Big Game Hunter Ceasar Ii Chaos Gate Close Combat 2 ‘Combat Flight Simulator Cyberstrike It Dark Reign Death Rally Descent tl Diablo tt Diakatana Dominant Species Draken Duke Nukom Dungeon Keeper East Front Enomy Stations And Many More... Available At: Micro Center Retail Stores CompUSA Retail Stores 1 ClubMac The Ultimate Game Card for The Macintosh! MacConnection The new PCfx!™ PC game card from Includes: aN Mie-n Orange Micro was specially designed to 32MB, nVidia RIVA 128" 3D graphics Orange Hilicro run the high-end 3D PC games on the pics rave ag tS Aceh Hel ompeu e Int, Mac! See TOM a Window e: Pe Game 19 Years Of Innovation and Excellence” . ie (714) 779-2772 Inc, 1999, PCIa!™ isa tdemark of Orange Micra, Inc. FORSAKEN'Y & © 197 Acelion Eiertinment Ine, Al rights reserved. ; f ‘ademark of Activision, Ine www.orangemicro.com Choose 60 at www.macworld.com/getinfo Craftsman a 1 pte veserin 052000 HHI Bal i ens | perso; ‘(astancono e08 RIS J Peneriidthe fe n | Paper Height: } 7" | J Aedoce or Enlarge: |109% Severin Neely PREPRESS OPERATOR Treasure Valley Litho | neyo "Oy ‘*doneris of Guar, inc. ond all opplcabe oflicled companies, Reg US, Fo &. Tm, OF. ond in mony other counties. The Guo ogo isa kademark of Quark, Ine. ond ol opslicable ioted companies. 96034AD ) A) QuarkXPress [iq When you've Worked in the print industry tor over 25 years, you learn to be a jack of all trades. You also learn how to deal with any situation that comes your way by using the right tool for the job. For Severin Neely, Prepress Operator at Treasure Valley Litho, that means QuarkXPress” 4.0. The new print styles in 4.0 are the top feature for Severin. “The biggest advantage is setting up several styles for different output purposes. Print styles can be set up once and saved for various press conditions, such as black and white, spot color, or process separation. Then an unskilled operator can output a file by simply choosing the print style that has been set up previously. That's a great asset when I have staff using the system. They don’t have to worry about complicated set-ups, and I save time.” Severin relies on QuarkXPress 4.0 for cost savings, too. “I love Print Preview because I can see the best way to print files with weird dimensions, and Ican save half of the film I would have normally used.” “With QuarkXPress 4.0, my jobs output correctly.” Call (800) 676.4575 to upgrade to QuarkXPress 4.0 now. http://www.quark.com {for a list of resellers, product information, and to download updaters Mitsubishi Is Changing The Face Of Desktop Monitors. The Finesse Of Flat: Introducing Mitsubishi’s Diamond Pro® 900u With The Breakthrough DIAMONDTRON NE™ CRT. Mitsubishi’s new DIAMONDTRON NF (Natural Flat) CRT technology represents an unprecedented improvement in the way you'll look at monitors from this moment on. The revo- lutionary, truly flat-faced CRT creates distortion free, intuitively correct images that are much easiee on your eyes, Conventional CRTs produce curves and distortions that are hard on your eyes, Grerescine fatigue and eeducing productivity. DIAMONDTRON NF CONVENTIONAL FLAT 1 3 You've come to expect crisp, clear images from Mitsubishi’s award-winning DIAMONDTRON monitors, and now the innovative Diamond Pro 900u takes monitor performance to an even higher level. The Diamond Pro 900u delivers consistently accurate image quality — side to side, center to corner. In addition, Mitsubishi's patented CRT manufacturing process makes the Diamond Pro 900u stay brighter up to twice as long as conventional CRT designs. First ina family of DDAMONDTRON NF monitors, the 19-inch (18.0-inch DVI*) Diamond Pro 900u has a maximum resolution of 1600 x 1200/75 Hz. For added flexibility it also features a self-powered USB hub that allows two independent computers to share the display and a single set of USB devices. DIAMONDTRON NF monitors are just flat-out better. For more information contact Mitsubishi Electronics today. USA: 800-843-2515 « Canada: 800-387-9630 QWIKFAX: 800-937-2094 www.mitsubishi-display.com/pb/mwd/900u A gz ea S23 MacOS MITSUBISHI 1 DISPLAY PRODUCTS ~~ Innovation On Display, a, Inc. DIAMONDTRON NF i a trndemark Mictonatt, Windows rr ponition. Mac DVI (Diagonal registered trademat trademarks of Apph Choose 261 at www.macworld.com/getinfo Visit us at booth #649 at Macworld Expo a Leliers Solving Workplace Hazards re HIS ARTICLE ON REPE VE strain injuries (“Occupational Haz- ards,” November 1998), Dr. Franklin N. ‘Tessler didn’t mention a simple and effec- tive strategy to prevent repetitive strain injury while greatly improving your pro- ductivity: learn to type using the Dvorak keyboard layout. Usually all you have to do is select the Dvorak layout in your key- board control panel, and then get an inex- pensive typing program that includes Dvorak, such as Typing Tutor 7 by David- son. The standard QWERTY keyboard reminds me of Microsoft’s operating sys- tem: omnipresent, painful to use, and designed to slow you down. You can learn more about Dvorak by contacting Dvorak International, at dvorakint@aol.com or www.dvorakint.org. Jim Lavurenzano, M.D. Longineadow, Massachusetts Some computer users do find the Dvorak layout Jess stressful and faster than the conventional QWERTY arrangement. You can download sev- eral alternative Dvorak keyboard layouts for the Mac from Apple's Web site, at www.apple .com/education/k12/disability/shareware -html.—Franklin N. Tessler, M.D. WAS DISAPPOINTED IN DR. TESS- ler’s article. I’m sure his advice about avoiding wrist damage is sound, However, his advice about monitor placement, although it is what's often quoted, is incor- rect for baby boomers and older people who are now wearing progressive lenses or bifocals in their glasses. These lenses are designed for looking down at close things. For all of us who wear these glasses, a monitor positioned with the top edge at eye level is certain to produce neck dis- comfort. For us, a monitor needs to be recessed into the desk, preferably at a tilt, with the bottom edge of the monitor no higher than the desktop. An article deal- ing with recessed-monitor desks would be appreciated by our aging workforce. Haug J. Davis, O.D. Westminster, Maryland As an aging baby boomer who also wears pro~ gressive lenses, Lfind that the middle focal zone is ideal for reading my monitor, which is posi~ tioned with its top at eye level. For those who pre- {fer the alternative positions Dr. Davis describes, LCD panels offer far more flexibility than bulky 17-inch or larger monitors: —E.N.T. Talking Back for the Mac AVID POGUE’S COLUMN “SPEECH Impediments,” on the state of voice- recognition software in the Mac world, was very revealing (The Desktop Critic, November 1998). He tells of a software developer who would already have cre- ated a voice product for the Mac except that he was fearful Apple would undercut him. This reminds me of how Apple treated the clone manufacturers, who made a huge commitment to support the Macintosh, only to have Apple pull the rug right out from under them. Meanwhile, Pogue says, Dragon Nat- urallySpeaking for the PC is selling 250,000 copies a month. I wonder how many of those buyers are people like me, longtime Mac users with a repetitive strain injury who were forced to switch platforms. That’s a lot of Mac users and yetanother missed opportunity for Apple. MICHAEL Bascock Oakland, California D AVID POGUE’S UNCRITICAL RAVE about Mac OS 8.5 touches on all of its admittedly fine improvements, but his article is no more critical or balanced than the average car-magazine article (“Mac OS 8.5,” November 1998). The beast is a memory hog, and one simple sentence could have been added to the skimpy paper manual that would have made life so much less maddening to those of us not tethered to Ethernet backbones: “You must load Open Trans- port, and all of its blubber, before either Sherlock or OS Help will work.” J applaud Apple’s new directions and innovations, but the rats who screw up the details are still around. Maybe Apple should thicken the “manual” by another 20 pages for those of us unwilling to sur- render 25MB of RAM just to make mandatory features work. PaTRick COLLINS San Francisco, California continues www.macworld.com February 1999 15 -. INTRODUCING INTERACTIVE MUSIC FOR MULTIMEDIA AUTHORING ROYALTY-FREE QUICKTIME" MUSIC TRACKS FROM /Mediatratt -_ MAG & WINDOWS COMPATABILITY jp... QUICKTIME" 3 PRO INCLUDED Choose 20 at www.macworld.com/getinfo 16 February 1999 MACWORLD LETTERS PICKED UP MY NEW Copy OF OS 8.5 yesterday, was on the brink of installing it, and read the fine print of the fine print: “Apple PC Compatibility Cards are not supported.” Ouch! Trun my consulting engineering prac- tice off my Power Mac 7200 with an Apple PC Card. I only use the PC Card for items that “industry deman example, I have to issue schematics ACad LT format. It works great. although I do 80 percent of my work on the Mac side, I cannot get along without the 20 percent on the PC side. I'm sure I’m not the only engineer or architect in this situation. If Apple were to update the PC Compatibility Card drivers, there would be a lot of very grate- ful professional Mac users. If the PC Cards are not going to run on the Mac, many of us may have to take a different fork in the platform road, against our pref- erence. (Virtual PC isn’tan option—a new Wintel machine is far more attractive if it comes to that.) How about reconsidering that support issue, Apple? s”—for Ray NELSON Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Faxstf Downgrade? HAVE BE! ADDICT OF (Reviews, November 1998) for quite a while, to the point that because of the quality of transmitted documents I per- suaded my worldwide clientele to accept these faxes as solid legal documents. But that was version 3.2.5. Lam thoroughly disappointed with the new version, Faxstf Pro 5.0. The phone book doesn’t automatically trans- fer over (what were they thinking?), and the log doesn’t, either; the software doesn’t facilitate ten-digit dialing; the visual quality is lower; the gray-scale quality is less clear; and the OCR utility is totally gone. I found Faxstf to be a lifesaver sever- al times, and now it’s gone. I have since switched back to 3.2.5 and have made arrangements to return Pro 5.0, but lam waiting to see what the manufacturer is going to do—maybe get wise and fix it all with an update. I am also looking for another application that’s more up-to- date and has the quality and user inter- face one would expect these days. M. MANELIS Littleton, Colorado OUR REVIEW OF FAXSTF MISSED A serious bug, maybe because your reviewer never tried sending a fax over- seas. The program has a nice feature of automatically adding country codes for overseas calls when you y the desti- nation country. Unfortunately, the phone book loses that information, and the next time you tr ing to that destination, it thinks the destination is in the United States. Well, most of the time. Once it ta British destination to Alban Jerr He ton, Massachusetts CHT For Want of Good Storage OUR ARTICLE “GIGS TO GO" (November 1998) gives the good advice to keep a safe backup of the back- up of magnetic media. But what about the dr T've gone through five (!) LGB Jaz drives in less than two years, and suffered the lost data, headaches, countless wasted hours, and many damaged disks caused by the drives’ mechanical failures. The accom- modating customer-service reps of Tomega cannot make up for a techno- logy that doesn’t work. REINHARD SOKOL Providence, Rhode Island HAVE A BONE TO PICK WITH THE focus of “C to Go,” Magnetic- storage technology is still in its infancy and has quite a way to go before it reaches either the speed of a real SCSI hard disk or the archival cost, reliabil- ity, and portability of CD-Recordable technology. As you noted, CD-R costs only 0.3 cents a megabyte, plus it can be dropped ten feet without damaging the data, taped to a computer screen for a week and still retain its data, survive the win- ters of Siberia and the summers of the Amazon, and live in an environment as dusty as a wood mill. In addition to its durability, the CD media can be read by any PC or Mac built since 1994, with- out additional hardware needed for recovery or transfer of the information. I recommend CD-R to all my clients, and they all agree there is no better backup medium. Name WITHHELD BY REQUEST Washington, D.C. continues ey — ‘, Saas Apparently, we've built a better mousetrap. The Saphir Ultra 2 emerged as the “big cheese” in Macworld's October under-$4000' flatbed scanner shootout. And no wonder, The Saphir Ultra 2 with LinoColor Elite Macworld software is the only solution that employs the same core technology that both Apple rity and Microsoft chose to manage color in their operating systems. This means that. your scanned images will have consistent color from desktop through final output LinoColor Elite with ColorAssistant software also had the Macworld Editors saying...”[The Saphir Ultra 2] offers unparalleled SAPHIR ULTRA 2 SPECIFICATIONS: Optical resolution: 1200 x 2400 dpi « Bit depth: 42 * Interpolated resolution: 7200 x 7200 dpi * Optical density: 3.4 « Transparency adapter included » Maximum scan area: 11.7 x 8.5 inches « Set-up: Fully automatic ColorSync support, three types of selective color correction and very precise control over saturation, overall color balance, and shadow and highlight gradation. if you've been thinking of bringing scan- ning in-house, there’s never been a better time to do so...the LinoColor Saphir Ultra 2 is . an exceptional value.” When performance, productivity and price are the issues, the Saphir Ultra 2 | outdistances the competi- | tion...by a fuzzy pink nose. “HEIDELBERG COLOR PUBLISHING SOLUTIONS LinaCotor Elite with ‘lord itensures drum quality scans, even for the novice operator. *Saphir Uta 2 MSRP: $3695, For more information call: (BBB) LINOCOLOR « or vst our website at: Www.linocolor.com « Purchase the Saphir Ulra 2 before December 31, 1998 and receive a FREE gilt! (©1728 HELBERG HEDELENG ALO LNOTWE ARE REGISTERED TADEMARS: AND LNOCOLEE I A TRADI: OF NEOELERG DRICAMASCIONN AG Choose 7 at www.macworld.com/getinfo Conquer Disk Damage Introducing DishWartior a fevolutionary new way to restore damaged disks! DiskWarrior is a revolutionary new utility that combats disk damage. It quickly rebuilds, recovers and optimizes your HFS and HFS Plus disk directories, eliminating all directory errors and recovering lost files. Other utilities attempt to repair disks by patching the damage. Patching can result in more damage and permanent loss of files. 1007 Recovery Assurance Only DiskWarrior builds a new optimized directory using data recovered from the damaged directory. You have 100% assurance that DiskWarrior will always restore your disks and recover your files when directory damage is your enemy.* You'll also have 100% confidence that you're getting the desired results. DiskWarrior’s exclusive Preview ability lets you preview the restoration. You can examine your damaged disk in the Finder as it will appear after the directory is restored but before any changes are made to your disk. Routine Maintenance DiskWarrior is your first line of defense against unseen disk damage. Running DiskWarrior regularly prevents small unseen problems from becoming large ones by keeping» your directories error free. You'll also keep your directories optimized to speed up overall disk performance. ©1996 Alsoft, Inc. PO Box ‘Texas 77383-0927 USA. or fax 28133 7-638 | 80-25 February 1999 MACWORLD LETTERS Keeping Games in Hand N YOUR RECENT FEATURE ON joysticks and game pads (“Take Con- trol,” November 1998), you omitted a great product, the ChoiceStick Mark V by Kernel Productions (www.kernel.com). ‘This is an adapter that allows you to use any Sega Genesis, Atari, Sony PlaySta- tion, Nintendo 64, or PC joystick with your Macintosh. It greatly increases the number of controller choices available to Mac game fans. Scorr Arwoop Redivood City, California We indeed wanted to add the ChoiceStick to our roundup, but alas, it was not available to test at the time we wrote the article.—Ed. Letters should be sent to Letters, Macworld, 301 Howard St., 16th Fl, San Francisco, CA 94105; via fax, 415/442-0766; or electronically, to letters@ macworld.com. Include a return address and day- time phone number. Due to the high volume of mail received, we can’t respond personally to each letter. We reserve the right to edit all letters. All published letters become the property of Macworld, ‘The E4 CoolDVD Mac DVD Playback Card is $279, and the CoolDVD Mac SCSI DVD-ROM Upgrade Kit is $499 (DVD: Now Playing?” Novem- ber 1998). The iMac’s video SGRAM can be expanded to 6MB (Reviews, Novem ber 1998). We inadequately attributed the source images in the animation project done by Bert Monroy in “Photoshop Show-and- Tell” (Create, November 1998). The project was based on an original Joff Schewe image selected by Apple Com- puter. The following images are all copy- right 1998 Jeff Schewe: sky background, stone texture background, globe, man’s head, and bead with globe mapped onto it. The Hitachi NSA PCX-DT3140 flat- panel display, which we chose as our Edi- tors’ Choice in “The World Is Flat” (December 1998), bas been renamed the SuperScan LC140, The contact infor- mation is now 781/461-8300, www bitachidisplays.com. a ~ IT’S SIMPLE. IT’S USER-FRIENDLY. COULD IT BE ANY MORE MAC COMPATIBLE? \ Palm Ill Connected Organizer cally for the Mac 0$ and includes new Palm™ Desktop software, based on award-winning Claris Organizer. And our enhanced HotSync® software makes it even easier to exchange information with your Mec. What's more, e-mail, expense, and many other third party applications are now available, To learn mor www-palm.com or call 1-800-861-2529 Bore More connected? Coming soon—VectorWorks...the next generation of MiniCAD’s power and performance Mini Windows?/Macintosh’ The Easiest, Most Cost-Effective Way to Design For more than a decade, professionals seeking an out-of-box CAD solution have selected the award- winning MiniCAD. This stand-alone program lets you create everything from precise working draw- ings to sophisticated client presentations to extensive materials lists and cost estimates. As always, MiniCAD 7 offers the same core features that have made Visit us at booth #2039 at Macworld Expo Diehl Graphsoft Inc Software for Today's Professional ® it the program of choice for design pro- fessionals in more than 80 countries — multi-decimal accuracy for precise draft- ing, a built-in database/ spreadsheet to track costs and materi- als, extensive library of industry-specific symbols, cross-platform compatibility (Mac and Windows), and a macro programming language for automating complex and routine tasks. Now this total CAD solution speeds your design process with these new features: * True 3D Boolean Solid Modeling * DWG and DXF Import/Export © Dual-Unit Dimensioning wi Choose 46 at www.macwo sia 7 | * Auto Wall Framing _* Rotatable Grid * QuickDraw 3D and Customizable Rendering Coordinate System * Associative Hatching * Plus Dozens of * Automatic Wall Performance Joining and Interface * Next-Generation Enhancements SmartCursor * Precise Sun Positioning + Expression Evaluation Inside Textboxes * Automated Databases/ Spreadsheets * Multi-Decimal Dimensioning wall i. sh 1 10004 RITTER Let's Do the Time Warp Again The Vision Thing by Andrew Gore LOOKING BACK (AND FORWARD) TO THE MAC'S FUTURE RITICIZING SCIENCE fiction is something of a spectator sport here at Macworld. Many an im- promptu review of the previous evening’s televi- sion has been presented for the edification of fellow editors, whether they want to hear it or not. And, of course, that includes the obligatory heated argument over differences so minute you couldn’t view them through an electron microscope. Even though I’m a die-hard Star Trek fan, I simply can’t stomach ay TV show— or movie, for that matter—that attempts to deal with time travel. With the possible exception of William Shatner himself, time travel has got to be the most contrived of all sci-fi contrivances. And yet, here Tam, wishing for a time machine of my very own. No, I'm not wishing I could go back to an earlier day and convince a much more callow Steve Jobs that licensing the Mac OS would be a good idea—that would be way too pre- dictable. No, I'd travel back in time almost exactly one year to Macworld Expo ’98 in San Francisco so I could give a shockingly accurate forecast of the Mac world in 1998. Look Back Can you imagine people’s reactions when T let the iMac out of the bag, a full five months before its debut is fated to stun the world? I could take the veil off the OS. named X and explain that it, not Rhap- sody, will be the fuel that will power the Mac of the Future. I could also let slip that Apple will close the year with con- secutive profitable quarters that will make even the most dedicated disbeliev- ers on Wall Street bow down before its shares. Time travel: the ultimate form of insider trading! I could predict, with unfailing accu- racy, that Mac gaming will return with a vengeance as the Macintosh again be- comes a player in the consumer market. I wonder what the Macintosh community of a year ago would have thought of the idea of mobs of people queuing up to buy a Macintosh as if it were a Powerball lot- tery ticket. Perhaps they would think me mad—there’s another sci-fi cliché for you. But as the year wore on and my predic- tions came true, perhaps they would remember that crazy editor in chief who foresaw the stellar 12 months that was before them and would let him out of his padded basement cell. Or perhaps they’d be too busy basking in the glow of one of the most successful years in the history of the Mac platform. LED Look Forward But wait! If I have a Wayback machine, why not just flip the switch to Wayfor- ward and head for the first Macworld Expo of the new millennium, San Fran- cisco, the year 2000? I can grab the last 12 months’ worth of Macworld for some quiet reading on the ride back to 1999. When I get here, I can write a column. foretelling what the year has in store. A new line of desktop Macs won’t surprise anyone—you can read about those on the Web. But maybe my prediction that Mac OS X will ship pretty close to on-time— and certainly during 1999—will raise an eyebrow or two. And just think of the facial convulsions when I prognosticate that Mac OS X will be a huge hit and will see unheard-of adoption rates for a totally new OS, as Mac users finally get to see the real power of the G3 processor unleashed by X. I can also speak coyly of the midyear arrival of an iMac that runs on batteries. This portable for consumers will have many of the values we've come to expect of its deskbound sibling: a breakthrough design, a reasonable price, and a few sur- prises up its eMate-like sleeve. That the iMac will continue to be a winner seems a given, but a whole line of iMacs? It seems only logical for Apple to create consumer systems with a variety of shapes, sizes, and feature sets. And then, of course, I’ll have to issue a few somber warnings. Beware the Ides of Gates—that sort of thing. One thing I'll be sure to tell my readers is that although 1998 was a year of surprise victories, 1999 will be trench warfare for Apple. Everyone will be watching Apple, and many will be imitating the company’s best moves, trying to one-up them. Expect to see a lot of Windows-based iMac knock- offs and maybe a few Power- Book clones as well. And third-party developers will continue to have their Mac loyalties tested. OF course, all of this is just idle spec- ulation, because, as I said at the begin- ning of the column, the notion of time travel is absurd. But you have to admit, that’s just the kind of thing I’d be likely to say if I had indeed gotten hold of a time machine, isn’t it? m Although Andy already knows what comments you're going to make, e-mail visionthing@macworld.com anyway, so we avoid any nasty temporal paradoxes. www.macworld.com February 1999 21 i ° 5 www.lacie.com/mwtx.htm toCie 1x-8000 1998 LaCie, Lid ASTRONOMICAL. The capacity of the LaCie TX-8000" is simply colossal. It can store up to one quarter terabyte in eight RAID accelerated drives with either Ultra2 SCSI or Fibre Channel host controllers. And four scaleable towers combine to total one terabyte (1000 GB).So, go ahead, think as big as you please. LACIE Mode for ideas. DANGER! DANGER! dq LY, ) Don’t let your important data become Lost in Space” When your Macintosh computer is not functioning properly, it is important that you have the right tool to find and correct the problem. And as any knowledgeable robot will tell you, one can never have too many tools when important data is at stake. TechTool Pro 2 checks and repairs more aspects of your Macintosh than any other utility available. E les repairing and recovering damaged drives (including those with the new HFS+ format), you can also test all those other critical parts of your system that other utilities ignore like RAM, CPU, floppy drives, scanners, modems, Internet connections, CD-ROM drives and much, much more. TechTool Pro will even help your computer run faster by optimizing your disk dri But just because TechTool Pro is the most advanced Macintosh troubleshooting utility available doesn’t mean that it's difficult to use. In fact, we’ve added an easy-to-use interface that makes checking and fixing your Macintosh a snap. For the advanced user, our expert mode allows you to control and configure TechTool Pro in almost any way you wish. So if Macintosh troubles are making you feel like a bubble-headed booby, check out'TechTool Pro. After all, you have the most powerful computer in the galaxy. Shouldn’t you be using the most powerful utility? Visit us at MacWorld San Francisco January 5-8, 1999 at Booth #3859. MicroMat Inc. 800-829-6227 707-837-8012 FAX: 707-837-0209 info@micromat.com www.micromat.com Al eights reser ‘Mleroniat Compu hoose 6; 9m Space rradnctons Liceneed by se Ti ine 7 at wwrw.macworld.com/getin! FEBRUARY 1999 RAGE 128 POWERS NEW LINE OF 2-D AND 3-D ACCELERATOR BOARDS. by Stephen Beale TI Technologies (905/882-2600, www .atitech.com), whose Rage IT and Rage Pro chips drive the dis- plays in Apple’s G3 Macs, has developed a faster processor for a new generation of graphics accelerators. The Rage 128 features an internal 128-bit data path, compared with the 64-bit path in earlier Rage chips, along with other performance enhancements. ATI plans to offer two versions of the chip, one for its own accelerator cards, and the other for system mother- boards. The former features a 128-bit path to video mem- ory, while the latter uses a 64- bit external path. The Rage 128 is a complex piece of engineering, packing 8 million transistors, compared with about 3 million in the Rage Pro. The Rage 128 incorporates a 250MHz digi- tal-to-analog conyerter (DAC), which produces the signals that drive the display. Earlier Rage chips lacked an integrated DAC, which then had to be implemented as a separate piece of silicon. Faster 3-D The chip features several enhancements designed to accelerate 3-D-graphics per- formance, including 32-bit Z-buffering and_ single-pass multitexturing. ATI has also added support for Open GL 1.2, a set of standard 3-D- graphics routines that is gain- ing favor among software developers. Because the Open GL operations are encoded ATl Launches Next-Generation Graphics Chip on the chip, software that supports the standard should run much faster on systems equipped with the Rage 128. Another new feature, four-tap filtering, offers smoother inter- polation of QuickTime movies that have been enlarged from their original size. ATI plans to use the chip in three new graphics accelerator cards: the Nexus 128, Xclaim VR 128, and Rage Orion. The company has also introduced the Xclaim 3D Plus, a $179 board—featuring the older Rage LT Pro chip—designed for use with digital flat-panel displays (see “LCD Monitors Get Bigger and Cheaper,” else- where in this section). The $299 Nexus 128, the successor to the $599 Nexus GA, features 32MB of mem- ory and a maximum full-color continues www.macworld.com February 1999 25 3-D resolution of 1,920 by 1,200 pixels. The Nexus GA, by comparison, offered 8MB of RAM and a maximum 3-D resolution of 1,024 by 768 pix- els. The new board also adds QuickTime acceleration, which was previously available in other ATI graphics cards but not in the Nexus GA. The Nexus GA used an external DAC and_ costly Windows RAM. ATI says the performance improvements in the new chip allowed its engineers to replace the Win- dows RAM with less-expen- sive synchronous RAM. The $229 Xclaim VR 128 features 16MB of SDRAM, offering a maximum full-color 2-D resolution of 1,600 by 1,200 pixels and a maximum 3-D resolution of 1,280 by 1,024 pixels. The price in- cludes ATT’s Xelaim TV, a TV tuner that works with the board’s video-in port. By comparison, the $399 Xclaim VR sported just 8MB of memory and lacked the bun- dled tuner. Targeting the Voodoo The Rage Orion board, which is targeted at Mac gamers, will compete with Micro Conversions’ Game Wizard. The $229 board features 32MB of memory and a max- imum full-color resolution of 1,900 by 1,280 pixels. ATI claims that the Rage 128 offers game performance comparable to that of 3Dfxs Voodoo 2 chip, which powers the Game Wizard and numer- ous PC graphics boards. ATI is also positioning the Rage 128 against 3Dfx’s new Voo- doo Banshee chip, which offers 2-D and 3-D acceleration; the Voodoo 2 is limited to boost- ing 3-D game performance. e Xclaim 3D Plus— the only new board to feature an older ATI chip—will power digital flat-panel dis- plays as well as analog CRT or LCD monitors. 26 February 1999 | News Speakers for Your iMac TIRED OF BEIGE SPEAKERS? THE $50 COZO SYSTEM, from Uchishiba Seisakusho (www.uchishiba.co.jp/e-cozo .html), features a pair of 10-watt powered speakers with the translucent-blue iMac look. Red and amber versions are also available.—MACWORLD STAFF Electric Image Enters the Mainstream VENDOR UNVEILS FIRST CONSUMER PRODUCT by Stephen Beale lectric Image (EI; 888/736-3371, www .electricimage.com), best known as a devel- oper of high-end 3-D software for film and TV production, is making a big move for the mass market with a new, $149 modeling and animation program. The company, fresh from its recent merger with Play, has also announced an upgrade of its flagship ElectricImage MACWORLD Animation System (EIAS) that features a new modeler and a $2,295 price tag—com- pared with $7,495 for previ- ous versions. Amorphium The $149 modeling program, Amorphi- um, features an interface remi- niscent of such Meta- Creations products as Kai’s SuperGoo and Bryce 3D. In- stead of using wire- frame models, the program presents a lump of virtual clay you can reshape using a variety of tools and filters. A potter’s-wheel option lets you use the tools as the model is spin- ning. Simple paint-on mask- ing tools let you confine mod- ifications to certain parts of the object. As you mold the model, you can paint directly on its surface or apply textures, You can also use textures to deform the surface. Once you've fin- ished the model, the program lets you create simple Quick- Time animations in a Com- poser window. You can ani- mate an object’s movement and shape transformations, but you cannot animate multi- ple objects in a single movie— though movies can include any number of still 3-D ob- jects, Backgrounds and smoke and fog effects can also be added. The program’s speedy rendering engine is based on the one in EIAS. In addition to creating models within the program, you can also import and export them in DXF or other 3-D formats. However, the program does not support Apple’s 3Dmf format. The New EI Electric Image has also announced version 2.9 of EIAS, its high- end rendering and animation program. The upgrade is the first. to include Electric Image’s new modeler; previ- ous versions required artists to use modelers from other com- panies, EIAS 2.9 also lets you preview texture maps, another much requested feature. But the biggest news about the upgrade may be its price. Pre- viously, Electric Image offered Amorphium, new from Electric Image, lets you create models from lumps of virtual clay. two versions of EIAS, a $2,995 broadcast edition and a $7,495 film version. With EIAS 2.9, the company will offer a single $2,295 package that incorpo- rates both editions plus the modeler. EI also plans to offer SUZANNE ROADY a five-pack education bundle for $900. In April 1998, EI an- nounced its merger with Play, a developer of PC-based 3-D-graphics products. EI, now a division of Play, will use the latter’s distribution chan- nels to sell the new software, New Tools for Multimedia Developers DIRECTOR 7 UNVEILED AS A NEW RIVAL EMERGES by Stephen Beale hen Quark pulled the plug on its Mtropolis soft ware last March, Macromedia Dir- ector—already the dominant multimedia-authoring pack- age—had the market pretty much to itself. Now, as Macromedia (415/252-2000, macromedia.com) Director 7, the pro- gram faces a potential new rival from a company co- founded by two former Apple executives. That company, Tribeworks (415/732-7004, www.tribeworks.com), has developed an authoring pro- gram called iShell that lets producers create complex multimedia presentations using a visual interface. Director on the Web Director 7 continues Macro- media’s strategy of positioning its applications as Web pro- duction tools. The upgrade incorporates Shockwave 7, a new version of Macromedia’s Web-based multimedia format that improves streaming capa- bilities and automatically updates the Shockwave players on client machines. ‘The up- grade also lets you export vec- tor animations in the Flash 3 format, which now supports transparency. New HTML features let you create Web pages that trigger multimedia actions, such as animating a headline, when the user clicks ona hyperlink. The upgrade also features enhancements to the Lingo scripting language, along with new onion-skinning and alpha-channel functions. Director 7 is offered as part of the $999 Director 7 Shock- wave Internet Studio, which also includes Fireworks for Web-graphics production and Bias Peak LE for sound editing. Out of Its Shell ‘Itibe- works is a new company co- founded by Patrick Soquet, developer of Apple Media ‘Tool, and Duncan Kennedy, formerly the QuickTime product marketing manager for Apple. The vendor's iShell is a software suite consisting of iShell Editor, the main author- ing tool; iShell Runtime, which permits playback of iShell presentations; and a software develop- er’s kit, which lets you create iShell plug-ins. You can deploy iShell pre- sentations on the Web, but the com- pany expects that users will employ the software pri- marily to produce CD-ROMs and electronic kiosks. The — software’s interface uses containers to store media elements. You can assign behaviors to a contain- er by dragging them from a list. Presentations created with the program can retrieve media elements from local storage devices, either through a local-area network or over the Internet. The company has chosen an unusual strategy for market- ing the software. Instead of visual offering iShell as a product, Tribeworks is selling $2,000 annual subscriptions that in- clude upgrades, technical assis- tance, and marketing support. G3 Upgrades for G3 Macs FAST NEW PROCESSOR UPGRADES ACCELERATE EARLY G3 MODELS by Allyson Bates veryone wants more speed, even owners of early G3 Power Macs. A new batch of proces- sor-upgrade cards promises performance boosts for G3’s running at 233MHz, 266MHz, 300MHz, 333MHz, and 366MHz. PowerJolt OverDrive up- grade cards, from Mactell (312/323-6000, www.mactell -com), are available in 300MHz, 333MHz, 366MHz, and 400MHz versions with several cache options. Prices range from $795 to $1,595. The Maxpowr line of CPU upgrades, from Newer Technology (316/943-0222, www.newertech.com), now includes 333MHz, 366MHz, and 400MHz cards for G3 Power Macs. Newer also plans to offer, by the time you read this, CPU upgrades for older continues Product WATCH It’s Back! Kai's Power Tools, which launched a revolution in Adobe Photoshop plug-ins, is back. Kai's Power Tools 5, $199 from MetaCreations (805/566- 6200, www.metacreations.com), lets you create a wide range of special effects from within Photo- shop. You can use KPT FiberOptix to create furry text or shag carpet; KPT Blurrr for zoom, spin, and blur effects; and KPT FraxPlorer for new fractal styles. You can also create objects with reflective glass edges or explode an image into thousands of spheres. Optimal HTML BBEdit 5.0, the latest edition of Bare Bones Software's (781/687-0700, www -barebones.com) text and HTML editor, features a more accurate HTML syntax checker, along with Tag Maker and Edit Tag com- mands that prevent you from inserting incorrect code. The $119. program (upgrade, $39) also strips white space and unneeded text from HTML code and includes an SGML parser that lets you write and validate XML tags. ‘That's the Stuff Are garbled e-mail attachments ruining your productivity? Stuffit Deluxe 5.0, Aladdin Systems’ (831/761-6200, www.aladdinsys.com) upgrade to its $79.95 compression software, adds Microsoft Outlook Express and Bare Bones' Mailsmith to the e-mail programs it supports. The upgrade also offers better com- pression and smoother cross-plat- form file exchanges than before, continues Photoshop Fix Adobe Sys- tems (408/536-6000, www.adobe com) has released a free update to ‘Adobe Photoshop that addresses two major complaints: color man- agement and text keming. Photo- shop 5.0.2, available from ‘Adobe's Web site, changes the working colorspace default from sRGB to None. (Previously, Photo- shop 5.0's default settings convert- ed images to sRGB when you opened them.) A new Color Man- agement Assistant helps you set color preferences when you first launch the update. The update also fixes kerning and tracking problems in version 5.0's Text tool. Get the Edge MagicMask 2.0, an upgrade to the $99.95 ‘Adobe Photoshop plug-in from Chroma Graphics (650/685-6800, www.chromagraphics.com), now lets you convert masks and selec- tions into straight-line clipping paths for easier printing. The new version also offers presets for com- mon colorrange masking and blue-screen knockouts and gives added control over color settings. SyQuest Closes Its Doors SyQuest Technology, maker of the SyJet and SparQ removable- media devices, has shut down and filed for bankruptcy due to low sales and share value. The move followed major layoffs in August 1998. The 16-year-old company’s 44MB and 88MB car- tridges once represented the standard for removable storage in the Mac market—EDITED BY MICHAEL GOWAN. Power Macs, including the 7000, 8000, and 9000 series, and for models from popular clone vendors, including Power Computing, Motorola, and APS Technologies. PowerLogix (512/795- 2978, www.powerlogix.com) offers 333MHz, 366MHz, and 400MHz upgrade cards with various cache speeds, Their prices range from $1,099 to $1,599. Sonnet Technolo- gies (949/261-2800, www .sonnettech.com) has an- nounced three upgrade cards in its Crescendo G3 series, also running at 333 MHz, 366MHz, and 400MHz. Prices begin at $1,099, XLR8 (316/636-5544, www.xlr8.com) is offering a 400MHz, $1,899 version of its Mach Speed G3 CPU upgrade card for Power Macs. The company says the card will work in the Power Mac 7300, 7500, 8500, 8600, 9500, and 9600, as well as most Power Computing models and Umax Computer's SuperMac $900 and J700 lines. XLR8 also offers a 333MHz version and intends to have a 366MHz ver- sion by the time you read this. LCD Monitors Get Bigger and Cheaper VIEWSONIC, PRINCETON UNVEIL 18-INCH MODELS by Michael Gowan he future of LCD monitors—bigger screens, better images, and lower prices—i fast becoming a reality. Among the newest models, the 18.1-inch DPP 800, from Princeton Graphic Systems (714/751-8405, www.prer —is nology, which compensates for the other flat-screen CRTs. The $799 monitor, with an 18-inch com), features an all-digital interface, while the 18.1-inch VG180, from ViewSonic (909/ 869-7976, www.viewsonic .com), sports an under-$2,800 street price. Princeton Goes Digital Princeton's $3,499, 18.1-inch DPP 800, scheduled to ship in January, 1999, offers 1,280-by- 1,024-pixel resolution and includes a USB hub. It joins two new 15-inch LCD moni- tors from Princeton, the $1,039 DPP 550 and the $1,099 DPP 560, which are scheduled to ship by the time you read this. Both 15-inch models offer 1,024-by-768-pixel resolution; the DPP 560 can pivot to por- trait or landscape mode. All three Princeton dis- plays use Digital Flat Panel technology—which does not require the analog-to-digital converters found in other LCD monitors—for improved image clarity. The displays come with ATT’ Xclaim 3D Plus graphics cards (see “ATI Launches Next-Generation Graphics Chip,” elsewhere in this sec- tion). The monitors won't work with your Mac's built-in video. ViewSonic Goes Big ‘The 18.1-inch VGI180, from ViewSonic, lacks Princeton’s digital interface but sells for a street price of $2,795. The monitor offers a maximum resolution of 1,280 by 1,024 pixels. The price does not include a graphics card, but the display will work with your Mac’s built-in video. ViewSonic product man- ager Mark Gersh says the VG180 is the first in a family of large-screen LCD moni- tors ViewSonic plans to offer. cmson Show this to the salesguy who tries to sell you a new printer with your USB Mac Mac OS Call us at: 888-826-7875 Or visit: www.infowave.com Come see us at Macworld Booth #849 4564 wpe tn Sut 18, bara, 8. Caras VEC 607 ere 644733600 tax 6044753699, cA nl were as ‘SiGe nia we per ren Just because you bought a new USB Mac doesn’t mean you have to buy a new printer. If you already have a PC-printer, you can easily connect it using PowerPrint USB-to-Parallel.. With PowerPrint, your USB Mac can print to over 1500 PC-compatible inkjet, laser, and specialty printers. Everything you need to print is included: an extensive list of Macintosh printer drivers along with a unique USB-to—Par- allel cable. The only things not included are ideas on what to do with all the money you save. ane A Mather PowerPrint. SIX NEW CAMERAS EACH CAPTURE 1.3 MILLION PIXELS OR MORE OMPETITION IN THE DIGITAL- camera market is heating to a boil. While companies such as Kodak, Nikon, and Olympus focus on quality and innovation, others are more interested in simply meeting a demand. This may explain why Toshiba, Ricoh, and Casio—hardly big names in camera circles—are the first to offer megapixel devices for less than $500. But for $499, you shouldn’t expect impeccable image quality. Of the three, the Toshiba PDR-MI fares best. Like Fuji’s $799 MX-700—which relies on the same CCD, lens, and internal hardware—the PDR-MI captures fine details that hold up well to Adobe Photoshop's Unsharp Mask. The downside is that the colors often appear faded, with a yellow cast. The softer images from Ricoh’s RDC-4200 tend to drift toward blue, with exaggerated contrast between light and dark. The Ricoh camera also has problems with blown highlights, so that sunny skies almost always turn white. The worst photos come from the Casio QV-5000SX. The blurry focus, gummy edges, and severe purple cast of its images challenge the skills of even the most accom- plished imaging technicians. One step up from the PDR-M1 is Agfa’s ePhoto 1680. Although the com- pany states that the camera has resolu- tions of up to 1,600 by 1,200 pixels— Megapixel Cameras nearly 2 million in all—this is a function of software interpolation. The 1680's CCD is actually the same size as those in the Casio and Ricoh models, and it like- wise captures 1,280 by 960 pixels. Fortu- nately, the detail is just as crisp as with the Toshiba and Fuji models. The colors tend to be a bit understated, but without the yellow cast. The bad news is the $899 asking price, nearly twice that of the Toshiba PDR-M1. Kodak’s $999 DC260, even in dif- fused or overcast lighting, delivers vivid, accurate colors with rich sculptural details (see “A Cast of Colors”). And unlike the Agfa, it earns its higher price by supply- ing more pixels than any other camera in the roundup. Storage and Connectivity Most of these cameras store images on wafer-thin SmartMedia cards. The Fuji and Toshiba models are the most flexible, accepting 3.3V and older SV cards; the Agfa and Ricoh accept the 3.3V variety only. But whereas the Agfa, Ricoh, and Toshiba models ship with 4MB cards, the Fuji includes only a skimpy 2MB card. REAL PRODUCTS REAL RATINGS Reviews you can trust: Macworld rates only final shipping products, not prototypes. What we review is what you can actually buy. OUTSTANDING: $4698 very Goon: $849 Goon: $44 FLAWED: $$ UNACCEPTABLE: § 30 February 1999 MACWORLD sUzANNe ROAOY Kodak’s DC260 uses a removable 8MB CompactFlash card, thicker than the SmartMedia but more resilient as well. The Casio QV-5000SX features 8MB of hardwired memory. ‘These days, removable storage also translates to faster downloading. If your computer includes a PC Card reader—as most PowerBooks do—you can purchase a SmartMedia or CompactFlash adapter for about $100. You remove the card from the camera, stick itin the adapter, and slide the adapter into the computer's PC Card slot. Copying 8MB of images takes about 10 seconds; erase the card and you're ready for more. By contrast, your only option with the Casio is to connect it to your Mac’ sluggish serial port and wait about 20 minutes to copy 8MB of images—and that’s when the gods are smiling. More often, Casio’s transfer utility has problems finding the camera—this happened every time we tried to download images. In an about-face, the DC260 is the only camera we've used that cannot shuttle images directly to the Mac, by ser- ial cable or otherwise. Kodak forces you to use a PC Card adapter, which you must purchase separately. If you don’t have one, your only option is to cable the DC260 to a PC. Kodak is currently beta-testing software that permits iMac owners to download images via a USB cable. Batteries, Zoom, and Other Finery ‘The Agfa, Kodak, and Ricoh models pro- vide continuous 3X optical zooms so you can close in on your subject. (The others offer fake “digital” zooms, which merely enlarge pixels.) The Kodak DC260 lets you preview the zoom via either an optical or an LCD viewfinder; the ePhoto 1680 and RDC-4200 lack optical viewfinders and force you to use the power-hungry LCD. Thankfully, Agfa bundles rechargeable batteries to feed the LCD and provides an enhanced night view for shooting in low light; Ricoh does neither. If bells and whistles appeal to you, the DC260 is too sexy for its lens cap. It’s the only under-$1,000 model we've seen that permits timed exposures (up to 4 seconds), time-lapse photography, and user- defined scripts. Macworld's Buying Advice Now that Agfa has remedied the software problems that plagued the ePhoto 1280, the 1680’s simple controls, above-average image quality, and optical zoom make it an attractive camera. But if the $899 price scares you away, get Toshiba's PDR-M1. For $400 less than you pay for the Agfa, you sacrifice zoom and rechargeable bat- teries but gain a few thousand pixels. For imaging professionals, Kodak's DC260 deserves a long look. Its superb photographs and wide range of controls will satisfy you for years to come. But it suffers from odd flaws. You have to wait several seconds for the DC260 to turn on or off (despite a recent firmware upgrade), a ae Toshiba PDR-M4 ‘A Cast of Colors. When shooting under cloud cover, the cameras reveal their casts, from slightly yellow (the Fuji and Toshiba models), to distinctly blue (Ricoh), to as purple as an overripe grape (Casio). The Agia captures fairly accurate but drab colors. Only the Kodak DC260 delivers the scene in all its glory, with obvious color distinction between building and sky. and it has difficulty tracking the number of images left to shoot. And in the random- contradictions department, the DC260 is the only camera so far that’s compatible with the iMac, making it a high-end device for a low-end market. If we had to recommend just one under-$1,000 camera, it would continue to be the $###v Olympus D-600L (see “Focus On,” October 1998), which has a unique SLR viewfinder and first-rate image quality, even if it does capture fewer pixels than the DC260. But for those whose main concern is image quality—and who have a PowerBook and a PC Card reader—the DC260 is a serious contender, clearly one of the very best.—pexe mccLeLtano ‘Company Agfa Casio Fuji Kodak Ricoh Toshiba Product Photo 1680 QV-50005K MX-700 C260 ROC-4200. PDR-M1 ‘Mouse rating, CIT ct ct) oan oT $40 Price $899 $499 $799 $999 $499, $499 Phone 978/658-5600 973/361-5400 914/789-8100 716/724-4000 702/352-1600 949/461-4970 Web address wawwagfahome.com _www.casio:com —__wn.fulfilm.com wwwwikodakicom —_wwwricohepg.com __wavwatoshiba.com CCD resolution (in pixels) 13milion 13 milion 45 milion 46 milion 43 milion 45 milion ‘Maximum image size (in pixels) 1,280 x 960 1,280 x 960 4,280 % 1,024 4,536 x 1,024 1,280 x 960 4,280 x 1,024 Default memory 4MB MB 2MB 8MB 4MB Ame Storage capacity (in images) 6t0 12 16 to57 21014 14 to 32 61023 5 to 22 at maximum image size ‘Optical-zoom function yes (0 0 0 yes (3x) yes no. ‘Optical viewsinder no yes yes yes 0 yes Rechargeable batteries with charger yes no yes no 10 no www.macworld.com February 1999 34 [ Reviews Painter 5.5 Web Edition NATURAL-MEDIA PAINTING TOOL GETS NEW WEB DESIGN FEATURES ON’T BE CONFUSED BY THE name. There is no “non-Web edi- tion” of MetaCreations Painter 5.5 ‘Web Edition. Instead, this is an upgrade to MetaCreations Painter 5.0, the popular natural-media painting program. Though most of the upgrade’s new features are Web specific, longtime users will be glad to see a new editable text function and support for Adobe Photoshop 5’ layers complementing Painter's existing array of painting tools. It Slices! It Dices! It Juliennes! Painter 5.5 sports the same interface as version 5, a somewhat palette-heavy, complicated affair that more or less suc- chops a graphic into segments you can reassemble in an HTML table. Slicing typically makes images download faster, particularly if only one slice is changing from page to page. You define slices in the Image Slicer floater by placing and dragging horizon- tal and vertical rules over your image. In addition to specifying file names and URLs for each slice, you can also define separate compression settings, allowing you to choose the best compression options for individual segments. When you export a sliced image, Painter automatically creates a separate document for each slice, as well as an HTML file that reassembles the images into a table. Because slicing is implemented as a plug-in floater, you don’t have to flat- ten your image, so you can slice while preserving all of your separate lay- ers. However, we'd like to see a pre- view window that shows the effects of different compres- sion settings. Slice That Button The Image Slicer floater in Painter 5.5 Web Edition lets you create JavaScript rollover effects. ceeds in organizing the program’s many tools and variants. Painter also makes extensive use of floaters, similar to layers in Photoshop. However, unlike Photo- shop layers, floaters can be different sizes and can function as plug-in utilities as well as image repositories. Painter's tool set is both a strength and a weakness. No other product comes close to offering the sophistication and power of Painter’s brushes and tools, but the sheer number of options makes this a program that can take a while to learn. Still, the results are worth the effort. Painter 5.5 adds a new Image Slicer plug-in floater that performs automatic slicing on any document. Web slicing 32 February 1999 MACWORLD Rollovers also lets you create JavaScript rollover effects in which buttons appear in differ- ent states depending on mouse actions (see “Slice That Button”). You generate rollovers by creating floaters for each but- ton state and then slicing your image so that each button goes on its own slice. Once this is done, you can modify each floater to create the look you want for a particular state. When you're finished, you export the JavaScript code needed to create the rollover effects; you must export each button state separately. ‘This method feels a bit clunky, but it works and it forces you to keep your doc- ument organized into layers with differ- ent buttons and states, making it easy to edit your work later. The Image Slicer - Dynamic Text Because Web pages are constantly up- dated, MetaCreations has added a Dynamic Text tool, a plug-in floater that lets you add editable text to your Painter documents. You enter text in a dialog box instead of typing directly in your image, but the program updates the image in real time, letting you see the effects of font, color, tracking, translation, and leading controls. The plug-in also lets you fill text with a pattern and add automatic, editable drop shadows. Painter 5.5 can now automatically create server- and client-side image maps based on URLs attached to each floater. You can also preserve layering in im- ported Photoshop files, but the program cannot export layered Photoshop files. MetaCreations is touting several other Web features in Painter 5.5 that are actu- ally holdovers from previous versions. For example, the Bevel World feature is great for making buttons, and seamless texturing is useful for creating backgrounds. Macworld's Buying Advice Except for editable text, Painter 5.5 pro- vides no new painting or image-editing tools. It’s nice to have the new Web fea- tures built into the program, particularly since they let you preserve your image’s layering. However, serious Web design- ers probably already have tools for per- forming these tasks. Ifyou do Web design and spend much time in Painter, these additions are worth the upgrade price. Other users might want to wait for an upgrade with more new painting features. Whatever you use it for, Painter 5.5 Web Edition’s unique tool set makes the program an impressive, powerful image-creation utility.—sen onc RATING: $$$@ PROS: Image slicing lets you preserve layering; separate compression for each slice; strong painting tools; editable text. CONS: No new painting tools; interface still com- plicated. COMPANY: MetaCreations (805/566- 6200, www.metacreations.com). LIST PRICE: $299 (upgrade from Painter 5, $79; from Painter 4, $129). Fool God. of Sony FD Trinitron’ displays. SONY GDM-F400 19” (18" VIS) /f you think God is in the details, then we have the display for you. The new, virtually flat FD Trinitron display series is the most revolutionary advancement in image technology since the invention of Trinitron in 1968. The colors are remarkably sharp and bright, the resolution incredibly high, and the focus amazingly precise from top to botiom, side to side and corner to corner. In fact, the images on screen are so real, they can foo! just about anyone. Sony FD Trinitron displays give you the tightest aperture grille pitch (0.22mm) and the broadest horizontal scan range available. Not to mention USB peripheral ports that make connections miraculously simple. Call us perfectionists. But when it comes to image perfor- mance, no detail is too small. DISCOVER THE SONY FD TRINITRON DISPLAYS IN DETAIL: VIRTUALLY FLAT FD TRINITRON CRT for minimized distortion and reflective glare. TIGHTEST APERTURE GRILLE Pitch available (0.22mm across the screen) for unprecedented sharp and clear images. DIGITAL MULTISCAN® TECHNOLOGY for broadest horizontal scan range and highest resolutions: 30-121kHz for resolutions up to 1800x1440 @ 80Hz (F500); 30-107 kHz for resolutions up to 1600x1200 @ 85Hz (F400). SMART CABLE DESIGN for shorter display depth on desktop. Unique DispleyMouse™ control for quick, smooth adjust. ‘ment of digital controls trough comprehensive OSD. HiDENSITY™ ELECTRON GUN With Enhanced Elliptical Corregtion System” technology for consistent, accurate focus throughout the screen — even in the corners. GEOLOCK PLUS™ CIRCUITRY fOr’ improved color and brightness uniformity. ACTIVE SIGNAL CORRECTION (asc™) technology for one-touch instant image sizing and centering. DUALINPUT CONNECTIVITY provides 15 pin mini D-sub and 5 BNC connectors for simultaneous connection to two computers. ‘USB Hub connectivity ports (1 upstream, 4 downstream) for easy connection to USB peripherals. www.sony.com/FD FD Trinitron | Reviews Windows 98 Emulators STILL A SLUGGISH PROPOSITION IKE IT OR NOT, BECAUSE MUCH of the software that’s available for the PC lacks a Mac counterpart, you occasionally need to turn to Windows applications to get your work done. But depending on the appli- cation, you may be able to use a software emulator running on your Mac rather than having to use an actual PC. Unfortunately, our lab testing made one thing abundantly clear: if you need to run resource-intensive Windows soft- ware, emulators aren't for you (see “Emu- lation in the Slow Lane”). On a Power Macintosh G3/300, Connectix’s Virtual PC 2.1.1 and Insignia Solutions’ Soft- Windows 98 5.0.4 delivered less than one-fifth the performance of our baseline system, a 300MHz Intel Celeron—based PC. That said, both emulators are fast enough and compatible enough for quick forays into the Windows world. Alike, Yet Different Virtual PC and SoftWindows 98 are philosophically identical: they re-create a S—ineluding its CPU (an MMX- equipped Pentium)—in software and then run Windows and Windows software in this simulated environment. And their performance is remarkably similar: our overall benchmark scores show a differ- ence of just 5 percent between the two. But running the emulators with appli- cations that make heavier use of networks points up some compatibility differences. For example, SoftWindows 98 takes advantage of the Mac’s built-in TCP/IP networking, so you don’t need to config- ure a separate IP address for Windows. More important, if your Mac is already Windows ina Window Virtual PC's window border contains useful LED-like activity indicators as well as buttons for accessing often used features. connected to the Internet via PPP, Soft- Windows 98 uses that connection instead of requiring you to create one from with- in Windows—a feature you'll appreciate when you're on the road. The downside is that SoftWindows 98 is incompatible with some networking software, Virtual PC had no compatibility problems with the networking software we tested, although it requires a second IP address in addition to the one already assigned to the Mac and can’t use an extant Mac PPP connection. Both emulators use large Mac files as their virtual hard disks; both also have a quick-launch feature that lets you put the Windows environment to sleep and reawaken it without having to go through Emulation in the Slow Lane Best result in red. Reference system in italics. Business Winstone 98 ‘scores are absolute numbers. Business Winstone 98 Connectix Virtual PC 24.4 =. “ 4a Insignia Solutions SoftWindows 98 5.0.4 = 43 Intel Celeron-based 300MHz PC ES Behind Our Tests For more information on the 2D Benchmark Operation's Business Winstone suite, see www.winstone.com. For detailed information on our tests, see weww.macworld.com/tests/—Macworld Lab testing supervised by Jefty Milstead the full boot process, though Virtual PC’s implementation of this feature is more than twice as fast as SoftWindows 98's. And although neither emulator has any problem running a variety of basic Win- dows software, contemporary games real- ly want to run on actual PC hardware (see The Game Room, January 1999). Despite their similarities, the two emulators differ in some significant ways. Virtual PC has a much more polished user interface, handy LED-style indicators that show whether hard-disk or network activity is going on, and many smaller usability details (see “Windows in a Win- dow”). In contrast, SoftWindows 98's interface offers so many configuration options as to be daunting for the novice, and its answer to the right mouse but- ton—pressing the equal sign (=) key or 3¢-R—is a poor solution. Macworld's Buying Advice Windows 98 emulation is still a sluggish proposition, but it’s fast enough for less performance-critical applications. While the emulators we tested perform similarly and have remarkably comparable features, SoftWindows 98 5.0.4s ability to use the Mac’s PPP connection is particularly compelling for mobile users. Virtual PC 2.1.1 is more compatible overall, has a cleaner user interface, and offers a faster quick-start mode. If you decide to use an emulator, your decision will come down to which is more important to you: Vir- tual PC's compatibility or SoftWindows 98's convenience.—sterHan SOMOGY! SoftWindows 98 5.0.4 RATING: $9912 PROS: Uses Mac TCP/IP net- ‘working; marginally faster than Virtual PC. CONS: Rough interface; comparatively slow quick-start feature; unsuitable for many games, COMPANY: Insignia Solutions (510/360-3700, www.insignia com). COMPANY'S ESTIMATED PRICE: $169. Virtual PC 2.1.1 RATING: $$$’ PROS: Useful I/O indicators; clean interface; better compatibility with Windows applications; fast quick-start feature. CONS: Needs its own IP address; marginally slower than SoftWindows 98. COMPANY: Connectix (650/ 571-5100, www.connectix.com). COMPANY'S ESTIMATED PRICE: $179. www.macworld.com February 1999 37 [Reviews Photoshop Plug-in Packages PHOTOTOOLS 3.0 HITS THE WEB, XENOFEX GOES OUT OF THIS WORLD OUN NIMBLE FEET TO develop plug-ins for Adobe Photoshop. Create a hot new productivity tool or special- effects filter, and something sim- ilar is likely to appear in the host program. Nevertheless, there’s always room for add-ons, as we see in the latest plug-ins from Extensis and Alien Skin Software. ‘The big selling point in Extensis’s previous version of PhotoTools was the PhotoText utility, which vastly improved on Photoshop 4.0% text function, But with the upgrade of the Text tool in Photo- shop 5.0, Extensis dropped the plug-in, replacing it with new modules that let you create seamless tiles and custom bevel shapes. Meanwhile, Alien Skin has responded to Photoshop 5.0 with a new set of filters that let you add a variety of special effects to your images. Spin a New Tune While it remains a good productivity tool for almost any Photoshop user, PhotoTools 3.0 has a definite Web-centric flavor. One major addition, PhotoTexture, lets you cre- ate seamless tiles for Web-site backgrounds. You can import and combine existing tex- tures or create them from scratch, using a basic set of painting tools and filters. As you paint over the tile’s edge, the stroke auto- matically continues on the opposite side of the frame, making it easy to create seamless textures, which otherwise require some fancy Photoshop footwork. However, the built-in texture-generating tools are rather weak. Don’t expect to create the kinds of natural, photo-realistic effects you can pro- duce in Bryce 3D and Kai’s Power Tools (both from MetaCreations), PhotoGroove, the other major addi- tion, lets you transform Photoshop selec- tions into frames with custom-beveled edges. You control the bevel shape by dragging control points on a curve. You can make the frame interior appear as metal, plastic, or chrome, or let the underlying image show through. PhotoTools 3.0 also includes upgraded versions of older plug-i PhotoCastShadow, a handy drop-shadow generator, can now create multiple shad- ows from a single selection, You can set 38 February 1999 MACWORLD each shadow’s light source, offset, color, softness, noise, and opacity. PhotoButton, which generates beveled buttons for Web Effects on the Go Seven Xenofex filters (clockwise from upper right): Baked Earth, Lightning, Stain, Origami, Flag, Crumple, and Electrify. The background was created in Extensis's PhotoTexture. sites, now lets you add custom bevels, tex- tures, and bump maps. The other modules are largely unchanged: PhotoBars lets you set up cus- tom tool bars, PhotoGlow produces halos around a selection, PhotoBevel applies inner and outer bevels, and PhotoEm- boss creates embossing and cutout effects. The package also includes PhotoAnima- tor ($6%; Reviews, October 1998), a GIF- animation utility that Extensis formerly offered as a $99 stand-alone product. On the Wild Side If PhotoTools aims at the Web designer, Xenofex targets the special-effects wizard. Developed as a complement to the com- pany’s popular Eye Candy Photoshop-fil- ter package, Xenofex features 16 new effects plug-ins. Among our favorites, Flag ripples your selection; Crumple wrinkles it; Origami makes it appear as folded paper; Baked Earth places it on a rough, cracked surface; and Television adds static. Others include Stain, which creates coffee-stain effects, and Stamper, which fills the selection with copies of any TIFF image (see “Effects on the Go”). ‘Two other plug-ins produce electrical effects: Electrify causes glowing arcs to radiate from your selection, and Light- ning generates electrical bolts inside the selected area. Most of the plug-ins give you lots of options for customizing the effects. For example, Electrify lets you choose the arc lengths, amount of branching, and size and color of the glow, and Flag lets you choose the depth and strength of the rip- ples. These options help you avoid creating artwork with exactly the same effects that appear in someone else’s pieces. The colorful Xenofex inter- face resembles Eye Candy’s, offering slider controls for most functions and small preview windows. PhotoTools uses a more conventional Mac-like interface, with tabbed palettes, pop-up menus, and a preview window that consumes nearly half the screen. With both pro- grams, you'll want a G3 Power Mac for optimal performance. Most of the filters ran fine on a 180MHz 603e system, but some—especially the Twirl filter in Photo- ‘Texture—were sluggish. Macworld's Buying Advice The PhotoTools 3.0 plug-ins are good productivity boosters, especially if you’re Web designer. Xenofex continues Alien Skin’s tradition of creating plug-ins that effectively mimic natural effects; most designers will probably find at least a few of them useful —stepHen peace PhotoTools 3.0 RATIN' 1$$ PROS: Effective tools for gen- erating seamless tiles and beveled edges. CONS: Slow; weak texture-generation tools. COMPANY: Extensis (603/274-2020, www.extensis.com). LIST PRICE: $149.95 (upgrade, $49.95). Xenofex RATING: $$$ PROS: Natural-looking special effects; lots of customization options. CONS: Slow on alder Power Macs. COMPANY: Alien Skin Software (919/832-4124, www.alienskin com). LIST PRICE: $129, Media-Management Tools MEDIA ORGANIZERS IN ALL SHAPES AND SIZES VEN THE MOST ORGANIZED pack rats can’t possibly keep track of all their multimedia files. So when your work demands quick access to graphics, movies, and sound files, it’s time to invest in an asset- management tool. Four such programs cover the low and high ends of the mar- ket—IMC Media Cataloger 2.0, Photo- dex CompuPic 1.80, Canto Cumulus Network 4.0, and Extensis Portfolio 4.0 —and you get what you pay for. The fundamental purpose of these programs is to create catalogs of images, movies, and sounds. In addition, each organizer accommodates thumbnail images and preview functions. Except for CompuPic, these applications allow you to assign and search by keywords. Beyond since you cannot easily sort cataloged graphics. But you can view images in slide-show format or tiled as a desktop pattern, and it also offers batch conver- sion to a limited number of file formats. Upper Management Those who manage large amounts of media should turn to Portfolio and Cumu- lus. These programs can capably organize and catalog multitudes of media files, as well as application-specific files, In addi- tion to cataloging a greater variety of files than the entry-level programs, these two boast networking capabilities and cross- platform support. As its name implies, Cumulus Network 4.0 isa client-server asset-management sys- tem that includes Canto Cumulus Server and five clients. The $2,495 price seems daunting, but the program is intended for large publishing, printing, and graphic-design houses with ex- tensive networks. This becomes apparent when you discover that, unlike many client-server applications, it lets you log on and administer the server from any client and any location ona TCP/IP network—useful for businesses that span mul- Such a Drag To add assets easily in Cumulus Network, just drag and drop them into catalogs. these fundamentals, the more advanced— and expensive—programs offer network access to catalogs, the ability to drag and drop assets into catalogs, scripting, and support for a wide variety of file types. Cataloging on the Cheap Media Cataloger and CompuPic are inex- pensive products that provide only basics. Media Cataloger offers thumbnails, pre- views, and keyword assignment and searching. If you're an occasional catalog creator on a restricted budget, Media Cat- aloger may be all you need. The program can only catalog text, PICT, TIFF, EPS, MacPaint, QuickTime, and SND files. However, Media Cataloger is a better choice than CompuPic. The latter’s lack of a Find feature severely hampers it, tiple locations. And because the server supports Cumulus’s Windows 95 and NT and Unix clients, you can administer from any com- puter connected to your office. In addition to the client-server pro- grams, Cumulus Network includes freely distributable browsers for the Mac and Windows 95 and NT. The program is also highly scriptable. Less Costs Less Although Cumulus Network 4.0 is a ter- rific choice for asset management in a large, mixed-platform environment, it may not be the best solution for smaller companies. ‘The $200 Portfolio is scalable, meaning that users with individual copies of the program can operate on a peer-to-peer basis across a network, rather than opt for Cumulus Net- work's pricey client-server solution. In addi- tion, Portfolio is faster than Cumulus in cer- tain operations. When dragging 50 24-bit ‘TIFF images to both programs running on a 266MHz Power Macintosh G3, we found that Cumulus spent 1 minute, 33 seconds creating the catalog, compared with the 15 seconds Portfolio took. Although Portfolio may lack Cumu- lus’s free browsers, Unix support, and level of AppleScript support, it offers compre- hensive asset management. In many cases it’s also easier to use than Cumulus. For example, publishing a catalog as a Web page is very easy in Portfolio, while Cumulus’s advanced Internet publishing tools can be daunting for the uninitiated. Macworld's Buying Advice Home users who need to organize their digital drawings and photographs may find that Media Cataloger meets their humble needs. But if you don’t want your media in a muddle, a professional tool such as Portfolio or Cumulus Network is right for you. Cumulus takes the prize for sheer power, thanks to its network, searching, and scripting capabilities, but if this is more kick than your assets need, flip through Portfolio.—curistopHer BREEN CompuPic 1.80 RATING: §§ PROS: Slide-show feature; can batch-convert: inexpensive. CONS: No search function. COMPANY: Photodex (512/406-3020, www.photodex.com). LIST PRICE: $40. Cumulus Network 4.0 RATING: $$$#¥/2 PROS: Multiplatform; free browsers; highly scriptable. CONS: Expensive; slow catalog creation. COMPANY: Canto Software (415/ 905-0300, www.canto.com). LIST PRICE: $2,495. Media Cataloger 2.0 RATING: $$ PROS: Easy to use; inexpensive. CONS: Limited file support. COMPANY: inter- active Media Corporation (650/948-0745, www imcinfo.com). LIST PRICE: $25. Portfolio 4.0 RATING: $$8% PROS: Fast catalog creation; easy to use; scalable networking, CONS: No included browsers or Unix support. COMPANY: Extensis (503/274-2020, www.extensis.com). LIST PRICE: $200. www.macworld.com February 1999 39 [Reviews AppleShare IP 6 INTRANET SERVER KEEPS GETTING BETTER ‘ DMINISTRATORS WHO LIKED AppleShare IP 5 are going to love AppleShare IP 6. The new version sports major improve- ments such as Windows support, TCP/IP printing, a revamped mail serv- er, and a host of smaller but welcome refinements. While AppleShare IP still lacks some advanced features found in specialized Internet/intranet server prod- ucts, it proves a well-balanced and useful suite—and a good value to boot. Extended Service AppleShare IP 6 runs on PowerPC Macs equipped with 48MB of RAM and Mac OS 8.1 or later. Like version 5, it lets Mac clients access files over either AppleTalk or TCP/IP—a decided advantage over Windows NT Server 4.0, which offers only AppleTalk access for Mac clients. Even better, TCP/IP significantly boosts performance: testing revealed that Apple- Share IP 6 over TCP/IP is more than twice as fast as Windows NT Server 4.0 over AppleTalk (see “AppleShare Laps NT”). ‘To fit more seamlessly into mixed net- works, AppleShare IP 6 also offers Server Message Block (SMB) file sharing. Win- dows clients can access the server native- ly over TCP/IP, eliminating the need for special AppleTalk software, and Apple- Share IP servers appear in the Network Neighborhood alongside their Windows NT counterparts. Although this feature isn’t perfect—file names are limited to 31 characters, for example—it’s still reliable, easy to use, and extremely useful. AppleShare IP 6 continues to support FTP access to files, using the same secu- rity permissions as the standard file serv- er. Other file-sharing improvements include account lockouts due to failed log-in attempts, fixed-term accounts, and the ability to resolve aliases via FTP. CMAP) capabilities are impressive: users with an IMAP client such as Microsoft’s Outlook Express can keep their mail on the server; organize it into folders; and even perform fast, full-text searches that use Apple’s V-Fwin search technology. The standard POP and SMTP mail services now include simple antispam tools, multiple domains, and scheduled dial-up Internet connections. AppleShare IP’s traditionally weak print services have also been improved: version 6 supports both TCP/ (or WebaflesenethdvivV ase) IP-based printers and print- stata: Aurion Cerne une renee: ing clients. Administrators can ¥ ne Hh) NM e isa ee: a-ataret : et et restrict queue access to individ- ii ee mien river se ual users, but access is granted based on the owner name of the Gwen aaa) ‘ 2 | tice ei eters machine you print from. The sents or 7 0095 owas] i i di if = See ae print server also allows basic on foo dear eaear manipulation of the print fatemneies fenecrereanietele 0.0001 0 0001 s : queue, printer pooling, and support for up to 30 printers. All Aboard AppleShare IP 6 makes it easy to share files via Apple- Talk, TCP/IP, FTP, and even SMB. AppleShare IP’s Web services are fast; simple; and, with the addition of third- party plug-ins, extensible—perfect for typical intranet sites. Version 6 expands Web capabilities by adding support for W*API plug-ins, keep-alive connections, and custom error pages. The Web engine also shares the file server’s permissions, simplifying basic Web security. But Wait, There's More In addition to expanding AppleShare IPs file and Web services, Apple has over- hauled the mail-server engine. The mail database stores messages only once, even those with multiple recipients, resulting in improved performance and reduced storage requirements. And the server's new Internet Message Access Protocol AppleShare Laps NT Best result in red. Reference systems in italics. All scores are in seconds, 50MB File Copy ‘AppleShare IP 6 AppleShare IP 5.0.2 Windows NT Server 4.0 —— Behind Our Tests We copied a 50MB file from a client to the test servers over a Fast Ethemet network, For detailed information on our configuration, see www .macworld.com/tests/—Macworld Lab testing supervised by Kristina DeNike 40 February 1999 MACWORLD AppleShare IP 6 still has plenty of room for improve- ment. It lacks advanced file- sharing features, such as a centralized accounts database, log-on scripts, and multiple default FTP directories. Web- masters will miss Secure Sockets Layer support, virtual hosts, and an integrated search engine. And the print server's inability to support native Windows print- ing and more-advanced print-queue man- agement is disappointing. Even the instal- lation and administration tools could use work; more-comprehensive setup wizards and a more consolidated administrative console would be welcome. Macworld's Buying Advice AppleShare IP 6 is a good product made better; its support for SMB, IMAP, and W*API make it much more versatile and well suited to cross-platform net- works. It falls short of perfection, but AppleShare IP is nonetheless an excel- lent intranet solution for Mac-oriented environments.—).w. pavis RATING: $$$$ PROS: SMB, IMAP, and W?API support; TCP/IP printing, faster than Win- dows NT Server 4.0. CONS: No native Windows printing: disjointed administrative tools; no bun- dled Web-server plug-ins. COMPANY: Apple Computer (408/996-1010, www.apple.com). ‘COMPANY'S ESTIMATED PRICE: 10 users, $499; 50 users, $999; unlimited users, $1,499. i ms she’ll be using in five years. Ue aC OUR NEW SMORT-DEPTH MULTISYNC E750 MultiSync Software goes out of date. CPUs are superseded COMPLETES THE E SERIES FAMILY. In the face of nearly chaotic change, it's reassuring to know you can count on MultiSync” E Series monitors for years to come. Take a look. Our CromaClear® and dot trio CRTs deliver all the contrast, sharpness and color-saturation you need for demanding applications. But what isn’t so apparent is the reliability and flexibility we build into each monitor. Refresh rates up to 120 Hz, PC and Macintosh compatibility and = ; the optional IntelliBase Series" monitor bases mean MultiSync €500> | Multisyne €750 ne 7 they'll grow as your needs change. And for