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macworld au 2008 08

  • PublicationMacworld
  • Date2008-08-01
  • Pages84
  • Sourcemacworld_au-2008_08.pdf
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OWC and OWC logo ae registered trademarks and Mercury On-The-Go, Mercury ElteAL Pro Mere ioc, SS trom Fran ter or computing ences ol cther Hod Camping Ohentamaxee ster catia ces ttadeark propery ofthel overs Pre specications and avai are subject fo change wihout notice Sh INTRODUCING THE NEW \ ADVC HD50 ae eiore Our ADVC® HD family supports virtually any high-definition (HD), video conversion need. Standalone or connected to a computer, all ADVC HD products feature sturdy construction and broad compatibility with most video equipment. Capture/Edit with any HDV compatible video editing software + Powered by FireWire bus on Desktop or Notebook computers + Noneed to install drivers or any additional software applications + Supports 1080i and 720p HD formats + Windows® and Mac OS® compatible Capturing video from HDMI-equipped camcorders ; + Video capture from DVI sources (such as PC graphics) Recording gaming sources ADVC55*, ADVC110*, ADVC300*, ADVC700*, ADVC1000*, ADVC3000*, ADVCHDM1, ADVCHDSC1, TwinPact100* Distributed by Playback Systems 03 9885 5888 sales@playback.com.au ess eal do-A 36-N 012 Matthew JC. Powell 019 The month in review. Aussie telcos, face your Apple Store opens in Sydney, 3G consequences iPhone hits the market — hard, App oe V Store debuts, Mac transforms into im MobileMe, TV shows arrive on Austra- 015 AMW readers lia's iTunes Store and the price of the A few readers had some Mac like to share their stories. the moment oP | 022 MUG events for August 027 Off the Net 034 Fleur Doidge All about Nolobe d6-¥ 044 Martin Levins Photoshop Elements training in alll its guises 36-0 064 Keith White The latest computer books 3-0 082 Alex Kidman Can technology be allergic to humans? www.macworld.com.au MacBook Air gets slashed. Yeah, not difficulties this past month and would much happening in the Mac market at 029 Openers, closers and lower-thirds Danny Gorog Adding titles and credits to a video production adds professional polish as well as communicating valuable information to your audience. But there’s more to it than just slapping some text on screen. 036 Return of the clones Rob Griffiths With the transition to Intel processors across Apple's line, it's now possible to build your own computer capable of running Mac OS X from off-the-shelf parts. But should you? We put a DIY kit and a Psystar Open Computer up against the real thing AMW August 08 09 4 bO1OA 047 Save time, type less 049 Quickly create new tabs in Safari 050 Run apps in X11 051 Take screenshots on an iPhone 053 Check your AirPort speed Page-scroll Mail's message list 054 Send photos at the right size Control the new iTunes Visualizers 057 Create iCal events from anywhere Annotate non-pdf files in Preview 059 Do more with the Media Browser Save all attachments to iPhoto Quickly capture video frames Protect disk images with a password 060 Overcome camera glitches 069 AMW lab: Wireless routers No strings attached Virgin Mobile Broadband GlobeSurfer I ae Linksys WRT310N thie Apple Time Capsule thn Billion BiPAC 7300N ae Belkin N1 Vision He SMC Mini WirelessG Barricade thie NewerTechnology MAXRange hue 072 iPhone 3G Does it live up to the hype? Ay 074 Remote for iPhone Must-have app for iPhone users ebie 075 TopXNotes 1.3 Sets itself apart from the pack ate 076 Nikon Coolpix P80 Startling at the price Ait 076 Pentax K20D Idiot-proof dSLR tte O77 RapidWeaver 4.0 Takes the pain out of web publishing beth. 078 Pacemaker DJ Feel the beat eee With 23 locations we're closer than we appear. The ultimate Apple experience. | g www.nextbyte.com.au sales@nextbyte.com.au 1300 361 119 Premium Reseller Matthew JC. Powell has a deep and abiding passion for the Mac, the magazine and its readers — in no particular order. Hotlinks Commentary on all and sundry he above headline is intended for whomever it was at Telstra and Vodafone who decided to keep the pricing plans for iPhone 3G secret until the last possible second Consider it administered, as they say, “upside the head”. Optus could also have come out with its info a little earlier, but it at least gave customers a solid week to pore over the plans. And Apple shouldn't escape the smackings either, if only because its own coy behaviour in the leadup to the iPhone's release served to encourage the secrecy on the part of telcos. Two days before the thing went on sale, | was still getting “we haven't made an announcement yet” in answer to the simple question “will the iPhone be sold at the Sydney Apple Store”. Hold out your hand — this is going to hurt you more than it hurts me. The iPhone 3G is, in some ways, like a new Star Wars movie. The fan base is already there, the hype is vir- tually self-perpetuating, and it really doesn't much matter what the critics say, it's going to have a big opening weekend. Everyone involved knew that, and to my mind took advantage. In Telstra's case particularly, | can't help feeling that if the iPhone data plans had been publicised a week in advance there would not have been many people queued up outside Tite shops. Instead, the final plans were announced the day the device went on sale, so people who'd queued since the wee small hours were signed up before they'd even fully gained consciousness. apcmag.com/best_value_australian_iphone_plans.htm AMW’s Danny Gorog weighs up iPhone plans 012 AMW Augus You could say, and many have, that no-one was holding a gun to anyone's head and saying you have to buy on day one. More than a few people said “sit back and wait a few days or even weeks, and check out the plans. Don't sign anything until you're sure”. Time magazine also said The Phantom Menace was kind of dull, but it made a billion bucks anyway. Likewise people rocked up to Telstra and Vodafone and Optus with 100 points of ID ready to sign on the dotted line for whatever two-year com- mitment they could get in ten minutes If they couldn't get the 16GB black model they wanted, they'd take the 8GB, or a white one — just don't let me leave the store without an iPhone! It was foolish. It was reckless. And the telcos knew it was going to hap- pen, and they were waiting, The great irony in it is that all three were apparently holding back their plans to avoid being undersold by their competitors, yet Optus, the one that released its plans earliest, turns out to have generally the best value plans. Some of the Vodafone plans offer similar value to Optus, though there's less flexibility. Don't get me started on Telstra. SMB included data a month? What? There were practically riots in the streets in Canada (I say practically because, really, Canadians aren't the rioting kind) when its one and only iPhone provider came out with a plan offering 2GB of data for $C115 (about $A117). For $4119 you get 1GB from Telstra. That is frankly absurd. Rogers has relented and now offers a plan with 3GB of data for $C60 ($A61.50). Of course it relented because people knew about its plans far enough in advance to realise how awful they were, kick up a stink, sign petitions and get media coverage that made Rogers look opportunistic and greedy. No-one knew Telstra's plans were even worse until it was too late. Maybe we could riot in the streets now, but it won't help people who, groggy at 6am and running on the pure adrena- line hit of owning an iPhone, have already signed the contracts. We're supposed to have a competi- tive telecommunications industry here. We've got telcos providing iPhones — that should have led to better deals, not worse. The secrecy, the skuldug- gery, the sheer arrogant silence of the three telcos and Apple over the weeks leading up to the iPhone launch com- pletely undermined what the market should have been able to provide. In the USA, where there is only one telco selling iPhones, AT&T offers plans from as little as $US70 (about $A72) with unlimited data. For what it’s worth, at time of writing I'd been using the iPhone 3G for three weeks on a variety of networks and had used about 180MB of mobile data (not counting WiFi, which | gen- erally use at home and in the office) Of course only a few days of that had included the availability of MobileMe and the App Store. At a guess I'd say the $89 200MB per month plan wouldn't be enough for me (even with its very generous $25 of included calls — that's not a typo). I'd have to go on to the $119 1GB plan Anyone care to join me in a riot? & Habla Wall We all shine on... www.macworld.com.au Com ate ties compnow.com.au SAVE! CompNow Catalogue out now! Grab one in-store or download from our website. WIN an Apple MacBook + Office Simply visit our new Monash On-campus store to go in the running. 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Is it possible to get realistic, full- spectrum sound from virtually weightless earphones that can easily slip into a pocket? Would we have brought it up if the answer were no? Letters should be e-mailed to matthew.powell@niche.com. au with a subject header of “Command - V” or by post to Australian Macworld Mailbox, 170 Dorcas Street, South Melbourne, Victoria 3205. Letters of fewer than 200 words are given preference. Comments posted to the forums on www.macworld. com.au are also eligible for the JBL Reference 220 prize. We reserve the right to edit letters and probably will. To be eligible for the JBL Reference 220 prize, you must include your full name and address, including state or territory. Welcome to the world About 2 months ago | decided it was time for a change in my computing world, and that | was going to try out a Mac computer. Next Byte is the main Apple reseller in Tasmania, so | bought a MacBook from them. | got home and started the computer up, only to find that it had an account already on it. Upon ringing Next Byte, | discovered they had given me a laptop that had been taken back to them because it was dodgy. Bad salesmanship, but no fault of Apple. So | went back and they promptly gave me anew one. Unfortunately, when | ‘opened this one, it had a warped battery. A\little perturbed, | went back again and showed them the problem. So they ‘sent it back as a dead on arrival, and after a few days they got me a new MacBook. This third MacBook seemed fine for a while, but then every now and then it started using insane amounts of CPU and would lag horrendously. Once Weird (lack of) Science lam a PhD student studying biological science and a regular reader of Australian Macworld. | just wanted to know if there is anyone else out there who would thinks it would be good to hear some tips on using a Mac as a scientist either in the mag or on the web site. There are plenty of topics that could be covered, including using Macs to find and keep track of scientific literature, how to produce a scientific paper with Word and Endnote, how to handle large documents in word processors (such as theses) and so on. There could be advice on the best way to word with other scientists using Windows and how to submit a paper so that you don't run into compatibility problems. There are also many scientific applications (such as Endnote) that could be reviewed can suggest a few applications that | regularly use. Is this something that you might consider? I'd be happy to contribute in some way. Ben Via AMW Forums d6-V Your magazine, your forum. again | went back to Next Byte (keep in mind this was nearly a month after | had purchased the first computer), and they played around with it for a bit. When they realised it was faulty, they made arrangements for me to get a fourth MacBook: the one | am currently typing on. When I first got it, | noticed it had a slightly wobbly mouse button, but Iwas too tired of dealing with them, so | decided to let it pass. That was the beginning on my adventure into the world of Macs. Thankfully it has been a smoother ride since then. Leuke Marriott ‘South Hobart, Tas. /t would be great if every new Mac user had an absolutely flawless experience when they made the switch. Unfortunately stories like this one seem to come up from time to time. My recommendation: join the AMW. forums, where you'll get a virtually infinite source of help and advice. — M.JC.P If there's enough interest from readers, of course we'd look at covering more special- ist scientific topics. We've done a few such articles in the past (and most of what we cover is at least partly applicable to what scientists do with their Macs as well) but if there's something we should be looking more closely at, we'll look. —M.JC.P World traveller if | purchase a 3G iPhone in the USA, will it be the same as one purchased in Australia (apart from the charger plug)? Will it work, and will all the functions work? Rob Herweynen Vie e-mail Itwon't be exactly the same as one purchased in Australia, but very very close. The specs of Phones sold here are ever so slighty different. Nonetheless, a phone purchased in the USA and legally unlocked over there will work on the Australian network. The function set available is partly dependent on the carrier you choose over here. —MJC.P. Podcast feedback A unny thing happened the other day when | was listening to my iPhone mp3 collection, | realised (after hearing the same song too many times this week and wondering if the Shuffle function was broken) that | had 22 editions or so of the AMV podeasts that | had been automat- cally downloading and synchronising to my iPhone and they were all unlistened to. So | played them for something different and apart from being shocked by MJCP's quaint mixture of accents | never would have expected (I've been accused of having a twang in my voice after spending only 2 1/2 years in Calgary) was very im- pressed with the content. I've never been involved with a MUG but | am guessing that i | were | may become engrossed in the sort of conversations that you guys do ‘on the Podcasts. The irritating part was that | found myself trying to butt in and add my two cents worth before I realised it was recorded conversation, and | was just talking to myself (thankfully in the privacy of my car) The oddities like MJCP sometimes pretending he is not in some way a geek, when clearly, everyone who is on the PodCast is — and being one myself | have to suggest that there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Other imagina- tive responses to the simple question “How are you today" show just what an interesting mix of people we have work- ing behind the scenes. | have to say the technical content as well as the interplay is a great combination and | am now determined to listen to the remaining 12 | haven't made it to yet and in future | will keep up to date each week ‘AppleConvert Via AMW Forums Hotlinks www.macworld.com.au/forums Got a beef? Chew the fat ‘Aw, shucks. We've got big plans for the AMW Weekend Edition podcast, so keep listening for some pretty interesting changes. — MJC.P Problem screening recently used a brand new MacBook I was shocked to find that when you closed the lid the keyboard left indents on the screen. This was also the case with another MacBook | used. Is it a design flaw ors it a manufacturing mishap? Nicholas Bosch Hazelbrook NSW The screen of a MacBook should end up very close to the keys when the lid is closed, but not touching. Ifit's actu- ally touching and leaving indents on the screen, that’s a fault. Even when not touching though, you can end up with oil and gunk from the keys finding its way onto the screen, which looks unsightly. You can prevent this by covering the keyboard with a light cloth when closing the MacBook. —MJCP iPhone conundrum | don't get it. What's the big deal about the iPhone? OK, it's well-designed, like a lot of Apple things, but is it any better than other phones? What can it do that any other ‘smartphone can't do? Given what a small share of the computer market Apple has. why does anyone care that it's also going to have a small share of the phone market? ‘Theo Deisel Adelaide, SA It's an interesting question and one that quite a few people are asking. In truth the iPhone is missing a lot of features you'll find on other smartphones. What it does well (like web browsing) it does extremely well though, I'm sure we'll be having this discussion for some time yet. — MJC.P COMING TO AUSTRALIAN MACWORLD Portable storage. There's no excuse to leave your data behind, AMW lab: All-in-one inkjets. Print, scan. copy and even fax from a single device Pro File: Jeff Klopmeyer, musician To advertise. Call Liana Pappas 03 9948 4974, To subscribe. Free-call 1800 804 160. >016 AMW August 08 COMING TO DESKTOP Create:08. It's time to announce the winners of the 2008 Desktop Create:awards. Trailblazers. Australia's design gurus and how they have shaped design Getting started. Setting up your own studio. To advertise. Call Chantelle Ford 03 9948 4984, To subscribe. Free-call 1800 804 160. AUSTRALIAN Macworld August 2008 / Issue No. 126 Publisher Niche Media Associate Publisher Nick Harris nick harris@niche.com.au 03 9948 4976 Editor Matthew JC. Powell ‘matthew powell@niche.com au National Advertising Manager ana Pappas. liana pappas@niche.comau 03 9948 4974 Designer Hannah Ogivie hannah ogivie@niche.com.au Production Coordinator ‘Samantha Gopal ‘sam gopal@niche.com.au Prepress Emma Meagher emma.meagher@niche.com.au IT Manager Joel Robertson joel robertson@niche com au (niche) Australian Macworld is a publication of Niche Media Pty Lid ABN 13 064 613529 170 Dorcas Street South Meleourne, Victoria 3205, Tel: 03 9948 4900 / Fax: 03 9948 4999 Chairman and Publisher Nicholas Dower ‘Managing Director Paul Lidgewood Financial Controller Sonia Jursta Studio Design Manager Keely Akins Keely atkins@niche.com.au Subscription Inquiries Free Call: 1800 804 160, subscriptions@niche.com au CTPIPrint Blvestar print - Australia 03.8514 6000 ISSN 1929-9484 Wake up Happy Dual Alarm AM/FM clock radio IPod dock AEM Table radio Let there be light iPod Speaker dock and light PRE #1 Brand in iPod/MP3 Speaker Systems www.ihomeaudio.com ES CONEXUS _ istributed by conexus www.conexus.comau Ph 02.9975 0900 Learn why FontAgent Pro 4 is the world's smartest font manager... g pro g FontAgent Pro Fontagent!Pro. @ FontAgent pr. Ml f 7 S fe . i el ABE z 5 = / y 2 | ao. i 4) a \ i | /)) Qsider » a Q Windows Edition Mac OSX Edition Order your FREE 30 day TRIAL PACK Today! includes BONUS Tutorial Video plus SPECIAL OFFER! 7:1300 761 466 _— e-freetrial@fontagent.com.au Hotlin ks www.macworld.com.au Thanktully we have a web site for keeping up with this stuff now High-fives and t-shirts. I's smiles all round at the opening of the Apple Store, Sydney. Not a slow news month he 07.2008 issue of Australian Macworld went to the printers the day Steve Jobs announced the iPhone 3G at the WWDC keynote. Almost unbe- lievably, it's only been a month since then. In that time Australia offici: ly joined the fraternity of countries that have an Apple-owned retail presence with the opening of the Apple Store Sydney on the 19th of June. The day before that opening Ron Johnson, Apple's Vice President responsible for retail, told AMW that “by having the Store opening before the iPhone 3G launch we get to have two big events”. The first of those two was the Store itself, which doz- ens of people slept in front of overnight in order to be among the first through the doors. By the time the Store actually opened, thousands of people had queued on George Street, up King and onto York Street — many of them with no intention of actually buying anything. At least you got a free t-shirt. They popped up on eBay days later selling for upwards of $100. The second event was of course the iPhone 3G launch on the 11th of July. The first place you could go to buy an iPhone in Australia was the Optus “Yes” Store in George Street, Sydney, a few blocks from the Apple Store. Hun- dreds of people lined up around the block in the middle of a rather chilly Sydney night in order to obtain Apple’s new wonder device. Luckily Optus provided scarves. None of them have yet turned up on eBay. Of course if you didn't want to get an iPhone from Op- tus you could also line up at a Telstra or Vodafone outlet. Some even lined up outside the Apple Store overnight. But wait, there’s more. The other changes in tan- dem with the release of the iPhone — the transition from -Mac to MobileMe and the launch of the App Store for iPhone applications — were also of significance to Mac users this month. At time of writing the MobileMe transition was go- ing other than entirely smoothly, with users reporting problems synchronising contacts and other information, as well as new iPhone users finding that the push e- mail functionality didn’t work effectively. Hopefully by the time you read this those teething problems will have been solved. What won't have changed is the features that have been dropped from .Mac, such as iCards and HomePage editing using iWeb. While the discontinuation of these services had been announced at WWDC many users still reported disappointment once the transition had taken place. And yet more. Late on the afternoon of 24 June, some astute iTunes Store users noticed something new: TV shows had been added to the Australian store, complete- ly absent any degree of fanfare. Apple didn’t even issue a press release about it until 5am the following day, and that was sent out without a header in the e-mail. Perhaps the low-key approach was in line with the mod- esty of the offering: 21 programs were available at launch, from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the Ameri- can ABC network, MTV, Channel Nine and Disney. Also virtually unheralded was a price reduction in the solid-state disk option in configuring the MacBook Air. That option now costs $769, quite a reduction on the $1409 premium it attracted at launch in January. I think that's everything. One very busy month in the life of Apple and the Mac, — Matthew JC. P AMW APPLE NEWS] 3108 0194 db-N www.apple.com/au/iphone/appstore/ Find out more The App Store cometh t's the not-so-secret weapon that turns the 3G iP- hone into a utility powerhouse. It's the App Store, and Apple unveiled it on the night the iPhone went on sale. Which was great, if you happened to have an iPhone by then, which means that those who queued up in Sydney's chilly climes outside the Optus store could jump right in straight away. That also applied to those who had early access to the iPhone. I fit into that cat- egory, and spent some time perusing the App Store at length. Canny AMW forumites (aren't they all canny? Well, maybe not all the time) also spotted at around the same time that the iTunes 7.7 (which came through as an update yesterday) gave access to the App Store, albeit only for browsing purposes at that stage. I've used a lot of smartphones over the years, and tried to install applications to many of them. Typically, this process can be described as insanely painful, involving downloading an application on a computer, then sync- ing the phone, then installing the application, then hop- ing like crazy that it’s not a virus or doesn’t just crash the phone and wipe the SIM. By comparison, the App Store is almost stupidly simple. Hit the App Store button, and you're taken to a “Featured” page, similar to that you could already get via iTunes on an iPod Touch. The bottom menu al- lows you to quickly flick between Categories, the Top 25 applications, search for Apps and check that you're running the most current version of each of these ap- plications. It's an effortless procedure, and everything is clearly laid out — almost. There are, predictably, a few launch quirks. At first, I'd presumed that there were only 15 games on offer (and at the time of writing, Games make up about 75 percewnt of the Top 25 applications, so there's definitely interest), because the Games category lists that many. In fact, there are many, many more games — including some free ones — but the vast majority are located in the “Entertainment” category. Clearer guidelines might be in order there. It's also tough not to be somewhat overwhelmed by the sheer number of applications on offer. Apple’s claim- ing over 500 applications available at launch, which is far more than I'd ever thought of running on any other smartphone I've ever come across. Checking via the iP- hone, there's a total of 725 applications listed via cat- egory, although that example, all 15 of the “ somewhat deceptive —- as an ames” turn up again in “Enter- tainment” as mentioned above. Up and running. Installing an application is remark- ably simple, either from the Phone (and later, the Touch) itself, or via iTunes. As with the iTunes Store, you make your selection by clicking on the price, at which point it swishes away to become an “install” icon. You tap on that icon, and i di 2G), although WiFi is by far going to be your quickest bet Il begin downloading the application imme- ely. This works on either WiFi or 3G (and presumably in almost any situation, and you also won't run foul of the 3G limitation of 10MB per application. The application sets itself the next available icon spot on the Phone, and a small download bar across it lets you know how quickly it’s progressing. Once it’s in- stalled, you're by default dropped back out of the App Store, but you can click on your application of choice and start using it immediately. From iTunes, it’s not much different, although you will d to sync with the iPhone to actually get the appli- cation running. Synchronising also backs up applica- ni tions, although this can mean if you've downloaded an application from iTunes and subsequently deleted it from the iPhone, it'll reappear by default the next time you synchronise. In terms of pricing, Apple seems to have largely left that up to the application vendors. There's a swag of free Apps (we'll let you do the maths there) along with appli- cations that start at $1.19 (including some games and a raft of public domain e-books). The typical top-end price is $12.99, mostly for games, although at least one appli- cation, TravelTracker, will set you back a meaty $36.99. One factor that I found interesting was that it’s a lot easier to just browse the App Store from within iTunes than it is on a 3G iPhone. There's a certain amount of inevitability about that, simply due to screen real estate issues, but there’s a couple of key areas that Apple really should address to make things simpler for iPhone/iPod Touch users. There's no way to quickly browse for free applications (there is on iTunes), although you can view the top 25 free applications at any given time. Search functionality is rather rudimentary; while you could search for “Free” (and it will return free applications), it'll also return any application with that in the title. Must-have. Speaking of Free applications, one of the really nice aspects of the App Store is the breadth of free software on offer. This ranges from the very silly (Moo, PhoneSaber) to the more serious, such as VoiceNote, EasyNote, AIM and Facebook, as well as the very use- ful Remote, which lets you remotely control iTunes on a Mag, or control an Apple TV outright. A quick Remote tip, by the way. When I first installed it, there was no way it would work for me — I kept getting told that “an un- known error occurred. Please check your library and try again.” Library files were on the MacBook I was trying to control, My gut feel was that this was because my iTunes but the music files resided on my NAS, and for whatever reason, Remote didn’t like that. I discovered the fix, however, if it strikes anyone . First of all el |, try quitting out of Remote. Start play- back on your Mac, then connect Remote up again. It should spot that something's playing. Pause that, and from then on, you should have full remote control back again. Getting back to the App store, there’s also a certain quantity of free software on offer that’s essentially adware — either front-ends for business applications such as Salesforce.com, or just advertising, such as the Carling-sponsored iPint. Although in the case of iPint, it does at least offer a virtual beer for free; there's also iBeer, but that will cost you $3.99. At the time of writing, Apple has announced that the 2.0 software will cost $12.99 for iPod Touch owners. 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Best Deals, Technical Service & Friendly Staff!(or “Xserve 2.8 GHz MacBook Pro 15"/2.4GHz/ eld | 4GB RAM - $2898 = MacBook | Pro 15"/2.5GH2/ 4GB RAM - $3498 MacBook Pro 17"/2.5GH2/ 4GB RAM - $3998 INDAY! ~ENTAGON 9896 15555 Sacingtismontn sam-5:30pm digital sales@pentagon.net.au www.pentagon.net.au Sat 9am-5pm, Sun 10am-3pm % Conditions apply/while stocks last d6-N [USERS AND GROUPS| >022 AMW Auc www.macworld.com.au/events All the most up-to-date information MUG event listing for August Fri South Australian Apple Users’ Club [SA] www.saauc.org.au Sat 2 AUSOM Incorporated [VIC] www.ausom.net.au/nextmeetings Mon 4 AMUG Sydney [NSW] homepage.mac.com/sydamug Gold Coast Macintosh User Group [QLD] www.goldcoastmacusers.org.au Tue 5 North Queensland Macintosh Users Group [QLD] www.ngmug.org MacTalk — Newcastle & The Hunter Macintosh User Group www.mactalkhunter.org.au Western Australian Mac Users Group [WA] www.wamug.org.au/meetings Wed 6 South Australian Apple Users’ Club [SA] WWw.Saauc.org.au Club Mac [NSW] www.clubmac.org.au Toowoomba Apple & Mac UG [QLD] www.taamug.org.au Thu 7 TasMac [TAS] groups.yahoo.com/group/tasmug Hervey Bay Mac Users Group [QLD] Sat 9 AMUG Sydney [NSW] homepage.mac.com/sydamug North Queensland Macintosh Users Group [QLD] www.ngmug.org ACT Apple Users Group [ACT] www.actapple.org.au Sun 10 Gold Coast Apple Users Group [QLD] goin.to/gcusers Mon 11 Macintosh Users Group Sunshine Coast [QLD] www.mugsunco.org.au Tue 12 ACT Apple Users Group [ACT] www.actapple.org.au Macintosh Multimedia Group [VIC] www.ausom.net.au/nextmeetings www.imug.com.au/meetings.php Wed 13 Bellarine Mac User Group [VIC] www.bellarinemac.org.au Club Mac [NSW] www.clubmac.org.au AUSOM Retirees & Others [VIC] www.ausom.net.au/nextmeetings Coffs Harbour Mac User Group [NSW] groups.yahoo.com/group/coffs_mac_users Thu 14 Melbourne Cocoaheads [VIC] www.melbournecocoaheads.com Sat 17 Apple-Q [QLD] www.apple-q.org.au Sun 18 Byron Shire Macintosh Users [NSW] www.ozshop.net/bsmug Tue 20 Bendigo Education Apple Users Team [VIC] www. beaut.org.au Sun 24 Apple-Q [QLD] www.apple-q.org.au Mon 25 Alice Springs Apple User Group [NT] www.bizcom.com.au Tue 26: Mug (Internet Macintosh User Group) [NSW] www.imug.com.au Thu 28 Central Victorian Macintosh Users [VIC] www.cvmu.net Sat 30 Geraldton Macintosh User Group [WA] www.gmug.org.au nipiled by Nicholas Pyers Hotlinks moocowmusic.com/Band/ Band The iPhone as music machine ith the iPhone now a local reality, it's worth thinking about the musical applications it can be put to, The WWDC announcement covered one significant application available from the App Store at launch: Band from Moo Cow Music. It's a feature-packed application that allows you to record drums, bass, guitars and keyboards onto the one song. The 12 Bar Blues option gives you the option of playing a guitar solo with full backing band and seems to be one of the more immediately fun aspects of Band. There’s also more esoteric instruments like DJ scratching and one called “Audience” which allows you to record ap- plause by pressing in sections of a large crowd. Band is no one-finger data entry slouch either — up to five-fingered chords can be played and the lack of physical feedback is partly compensated for by the ani- mation of the instruments being played. Press a string and it plucks, Band also has a number of features you'd normally only find on a more full-featured application: overdub- bing, configurable metronome and undo options are three that caught my eye. There’s even a decent mixing capability to polish your final product. I can already see the iPhone song sharing that'll be occurring as people try to outdo each other — it’s extreme air guitar. Moo Cow Music has created another great application also available from the App Store. Pianist is a full 88- key piano. This would be my first purchase as a keyboard player — I just love the idea of being able to explore chords or create melody lines simply and on a “proper” keyboard. Like Band it has multi-finger chords, a con- figurable metronome and the ability to overdub. I'm making one fairly safe prediction for the coming few months: lots more music applications will be ap- pearing and they'll have increasing feature sets. I'd even go so far as to predict a version of GarageBand for iP- hone at some stage — a 16GB iPhone has plenty of stor- age for a good set of Apple Loops and it'd make a superb scratch pad for music on the go. The day a good quality audio input for iPhone is available, the creative options will expand further. A vocoder for iPhone anyone? For obsessive songwriters or just iPhone users wanting to do something more engaging than games, things are looking up. MM 50 iP - Give your iPhone the sound it deserves - Superb stereo sound with high dynamics and excellent bass response - Subtle in-ear monitors that effectively block out surrounding noise - Integrated in-line microphone with convenient answer/end button - High dynamics and excellent bass response - Silicon sleeves — available in three sizes for an exact fit to your ear - High-quality headphones for any MP3 player or a PC For more information, please contac! Australia: Free Call 1800 648 628 New Zealand: (09) 263 9885 www.syntec.com.au TZ SENNHEISER COMMUNICATIONS d6-N [PEOPLE] Arare word from ive While Jonathan Ive, Apple's senior vice president of in- dustrial design, may be well known for his creative prow- ess, he’s also notable for his retiring nature: unlike a lot of Apple's other executives, he doesn’t give many interviews or do public appearances. But that reticence belies the im- portance of his role at Apple; aside from Steve Jobs him- self, there is arguably no one more significant at the com- pany. Ive recently gamered two “Black Pencil” awards, handed out by British charity Design & Art Direction— aka DEAD (not to be confused with AD&D, or Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, which gives the somewhat less prestigious “Best Bugbear” award). The Black Pencils are extremely prized in the industry, given that they are not automatically awarded every year; if no design in a given year meets the organisation's standard, D&tAD will opt not to hand out any awards at all, as happened in 2003. In the wake of receiving the awards, Ive spoke to England's The In- dependent: “My goal is simply to try to make products that really are meaningful to people. Ultimately, there is something motivating and inspiring in seeing someone using an Apple product and enjoying an Apple product.” [MOBILITY] Air New Zealand installs iPod docking stations The love affair between iPods and airplanes is nothing new—heck, iPods have even traveled to space. According -to-a report on England’s Times Online web site, Air New Zealand is now preparing to expand this relationship even more with the inclusion of Panasonic's X Series in-flight entertainment system in 13 Airbus A320s and five Boeing 767s. Once the aircraft are outfitted with this high-end gadgetry, passengers who own iPods (which, as we know, is pretty much everyone in the world) and even other portable media players will be able to hook them up to the system and listen to their music, watch videos on seat-back screens, and control the iPods through the custom interface. — Aayush [APPLE] Apple dinged on the environment Despite Apple’s big push last year on environmental issues, it seems that the green community still isn’t impressed. While Greenpeace marginally raised Apple's ranking in its latest scorecard, nonprofit Climate Counts has a few choice words to say about Cupertino’s stance on the environment. In its most recent scorecard, the organisation ranks Apple at the bottom of the list for electronics companies, with a score of 11 out of a possi- ble 100. Apple is deemed “a choice to avoid for the cli- mate-conscious consumer” (we say bravo for the catchy, alliterative verdict). Even second-to-last Nokia scored 37, and IBM led the pack with 77. As with Greenpeace, a lot of Climate Counts’ criticisms concern Apple's lack »024 AMW August 08 of transparency on environmen- . improving upon ade eener Apple i slowly. A year after Steve Jobs posted his “A Greener Apple” memo, in which he promised that Apple would provide updates of its efforts and accomplishments “at least annually,” all is quiet from corporate HQ. I think it's about time for the company to deliver on at least that promise. tal issues, some- thing the com- pany has been Custom ringtones for your iPhone. iToner Hector D. Byrd's iPhone iloner Now your iPhone can have custom ringtones using your own audio files. : Download your free trial now: AMBROSIA S (Oo R Tr WAG Rae INC iToner requires Mac OS X 10.4.10 or later. Ambrosia Software, Inc. and the Ambrosia Software logo are registered trademarks of Ambrosia Software, Inc. iPhone is a trademark of Apple Inc. Mac Universal Macworld 1 YEAR = AN ERGO LITE 2 YEARS = 1GB COMPACT MP3/WMA PLAYER + ERGO LITE ae §Subscribe now: Macworld 2 years $129 (save $38) or 1 year $79 y « www.niche.com.au/subscriptions — ; Si and get $5.00 off the subscription price! ——_ on <a *Promotion available to residents of Australia only. 279174 Disc of the month: Audiophile A collection of audio and music tools for the Mac. Ableton Live. Your companion from creation to pro- duction to performance. Airfoil. Send any audio to AirPort Express units, Apple TVs, & even other Macs and PCs, all in syne! Alarm Clock Pro. Waking up to buzzers and radio stations can now be consigned to your past. Amadeus Pro. A powerful multi-track audio editor sup- porting a variety of formats. Audacity. Open-source software for recording and edit- ing sounds. AudialHub. AudialHub is designed to chop through the mighty jungle of sound formats. Audio Hijack Pro. Record any audio with — it's the cor- nerstone of your digital audio experience. AudioCodex. Real-time effects media player that tightly integrates your media. Audiodia. A real-time sound processing application. AudioMixer. Play and mix multiple audio tracks. Canto Pod. Offers users of iPods the ability to download song lyrics for later viewing. ClickRepair. Declick and decrackle your audio. CrossAmp. Cross-platform audio player. Desktoplyrics. Display the lyrics of the song currently playing in iTunes right on your desktop. Disco XT. DJ mixing and music playback software. Djay. Turns your Mac into a full blown DJ setup using all your songs from iTunes. EasyWMA. Convert wma, wmv/flv audio, asf and ogg vorbis files to aiff, mp3, m4a or wav. Express Dictate. Works like a dictaphone. Send dictation to your typist by e-mail, internet or over the network. Fission. Copy, paste and trim audio, as well as split files, all with no quality loss! Futuredecks Pro. Mix your songs, nothing else needed but your imagination. iLike. Get updates, music, and videos from your favou- rite artists; Share your music library and tastes. iRedLite. Control iTunes using your Apple Remote. JackOSX. Connecting audio from any OS X application, to any OS X application. LibraryMonkeyPro. Audio asset librarian, editor, CD ripper, and batch-processor. Lineln. Play sound coming in through a microphone or any other device. Max. Creates high-quality audio files in various formats. MegaSeg. Easy to use, yet powerful music mixer, broad- caster and scheduler, MusicPort. Stream iTunes music over the internet be- tween Macs. www.macworld.com.au Naiocast. A free HTTP streaming server that allows live transmission of audio files. Nicecast. Create your own internet radio station or lis- ten to your iTunes library from anywhere in the world! Pure Vinyl. Audiophile quality digital LP playback, con- version, editing and archival software. QuickVoice. Feature-rich voice recorder with voice e- mail, voice reminders, and voice stickies. recorder.xhead. A voice recorder, audio player and audio conversion application that is designed to be easy to use. RecordPad. Ideal application for recording voice or other audio to add to digital presentations, creating an audio book or to simply record a message. SFX Machine Pro. Create audio effects from scratch. SFX Machine RT. The ultimate audio effects software. SiriusMac. Stream Sirius satellite radio to a Mac. SoundByte. Digital automation software for a variety of recorded sounds. SoundGrinder. Batch audio conversion application. SoundGrinderPro. Batch audio conversion application. SoundSource. Switch your audio input and output sources with a single click, and even adjust their volume settings. SoundStudio. The best waveform editor and batch-pro- cessor combination ever available! StreamRipperX. Record and listen to internet radio sta- tions broadcast in the popular mp3 format. Switchmac. The most comprehensive and stable audio file converter around. TapeDeck. Simple, fun audio recording software for Mac OS X using the familiar metaphor of a cassette recorder. TuneQuiz. Fun game that tests your musical knowledge from your iTunes library. TwistedWave. Powerful and easy to use audio editor. Ubercaster. Complete production suite for podcasting. UltraMixer. DJ mixing software which enables you to mix digital music in various formats. VoiceCandy. A fun, effortless, recorder for your Mac. Wakeup. An alarm clock that plays tunes. WavePad. Full-featured professional audio editor. WireTapStudio. 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Ring to claim your bonus offer on purchase. Address: 91 Reservoir st, Surry Hills, NSW, 2010, Fax: 02 9280-4777 poweqit=acl Openers, closers & lower thirds Capturing and editing video footage is only half the job when creating a great movie. The rest of the post-production — like adding effects and titles — is often where the true genius in movie making lies, and it’s often the hardest to get right. Hotlinks www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7p1veNWnhw 25 of the best title sequences cooltext.com/Fonts-Movies+and+TV Movie and TV fonts www.macworld.com.au : _ AMW August 08 029 4 +030 AMW Av ow often have you seen a movie that was re- ally great, but you can’t remember what it was called and who it was produced by, because the titles were so bad? I've even seen movies that had me asleep before the movie began, thanks to a long and boring title sequence. Adding titles to your own movies is easy, and, in the final analysis, adds value to the viewing experience. Title sequences can give your viewers lots of informa- tion about what they're about to see, or what they've just seen. Information like the name of your movie, who made and produced it and the actors’ names gives your audience the chance to better appreciate the effort that’s gone into the production. You can also use titles to give your audience clues about other important details, like where and when the story took place. And if required, sub-titles can be used to help your audience understand the movie if it's been filmed in a different language. In broad terms, title sequences can be broken into s. Opening credits, as the name suggests, should be shown at the beginning of your opening or closing credii movie and list the most important cast members. Clos- ing credits come at the end of the movie, and should include a list of all the cast and crew involved in mak- ing the movie. Before jumping into the deep end, it’s worth thinking about some of your favourite movies and trying to recall the titles they used. One example that always sticks in my mind is Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho title sequence by Saul Bass — the combination of music and jolted title makes for a chilling opening, well before there's any sign of a shower curtain. Another more recent favourite of mine is the title sequence for the Pixar movie Monsters Inc. According to Big Film Design, a New York-based consultancy that specialises in title production, “A title sequence is more than just a list of credits. It can be a mini-movie which sets up the film that it's a part of. It can establish mood, period and style. A title sequence can take care of back story. It can soothe the audience or get them agitated. Title sequences are an art form of their own”. Big Film Design would know, it’s been involved in producing title sequences for many big-budget Oscar- winning movies like No Country For Old Men and Michael Clayton, and also TV series like Sesame Street, 30 Rock and Six Degrees. Another expert in Title Sequences, Deborah Allison says that great title sequences forge a “contract with the audience at the outset, instructing them of the param- eters within which the film operates, alerting them to the tonalities of the film to come, and encouraging them to approach that experience in a frame of mind where they will be receptive to the pleasures it has to offer’. t 08 How do you do it? We all know that creating title sequences like those found on the silver screen isn't something that iMovie ‘08 can do, but with a little bit of tweaking, and some patience, adding proper title se- quences can even make your home movies look better. There are two different styles of titles: Overlays (where the words appear over the moving image); and full- screen (where the titles appear against a black back- ground). Full screen titles are generally found at the be- ginning and the end of a movie, while overlays are more common in the middle. That's not to say however, that you can’t throw a full-screen title in the middle of your movie — and in fact, some do, as a way of breaking up a movie into several parts. Often home movies have many titles in them that are used to tell the audience where you are, the date the movie was taken, and who was in it. My latest home movie for example, consisted of movies from the first twelve months of my son's life, and at the start of the footage for each month I added a short title sequence that explained to the audience what and who they were about to see. If you've had experience putting together PowerPoint or Keynote presentations some of the techniques are rel- evant when creating movie titles too. The general “less is more” rule applies well for instance. Titles should be kept as brief as possible, making it easy for the audience to read and absorb. As in all written material, spelling mistakes should be quickly eliminated. Also, white text on a black background is easiest for the brain to proces: for light characters on a dark background, but in some instances dark characters on a light background can also be effective. Choosing a font is also important when designing your titles, If the font you choose is too thin interlaced displays, like TVs, can cause lines to flicker — caus- ing strain on your viewers’ eyes. That’s why it’s gen- erally recommended that thicker fonts are used in title sequences. In the same vein, the size of the font should be appropriate to view from a distance. The bigger the In movies, this can be substituted nacworld.com.ai title, the easier it will be to read. While both of these tips sound like common sense, you'd be amazed to discover how many people make these fundamental errors. Finally, from a technical perspective, if the movie you've made will be watched on a TV (as opposed to a flat-screen or computer display) you'll need to consider overscan. Overscan is when a video image is cut off at the edges of the screen. If your title is on the edge it might well be cut off when viewed on a TV set. Most video editing programs allow you to see these borders, and design your titles accordingly. Another good habit to get into before you begin de- signing your titles is to create a list of the text you want to add to your movie in a text document. That way, you can lay out the sequence of titles, check for spelling errors, and get a feel for the number of titles you'll need. Creating titles in iMovie ‘08. Adding titles in iMovie ‘08 is easy. To access the titles menu either go to Window > Titles, or click the Titles button in the iM- ovie toolbar. Bringing up the Titles window gives you a list of different titles styles. You can choose from any of the styles, but my favourites are Centered or Lower Third for the title sequence. It's important to note how- ever, that you don’t need to choose just one sequence per movie — you can drag in multiple sequences any- where in your movie. Once you've selected the title sequence you prefer, click and drag the sequence to the position in the time line where you want the titles to appear. If you're build- ing your opening sequence, click and drag the title and drop it in front of the first clip. Adding the title sequence to the front of a clip tells iMovie that you want to create the clip over a black background, rather than overlaying the title on the movie. If, however, you want to overlay your titles on an existing clip, simply drag the title sequence to the posi- tion of the clip where you want the title sequence to be- gin. You'll notice as you drag a title sequence over a clip www.macworld.com.au iMovie highlights either the first third of the clip (to in- dicate that the title will overlay only a third of the clip), the whole clip, or the last third of the clip. This feature makes it easy to build your title sequence quickly. Once you've dropped your clip into the timeline you'll need to start adding text to the title sequence. You'll notice once you've placed your clip that iMovie shows you text boxes within the title sequence. This is where you place your cursor and start typing. If you added a simple Centered sequence all you need to add are a title, and a subtitle if you've got one. An example for the title might be My Family Holiday and the sub- title May 2008. If your title sequences are over black you can always create multiple different title sequences and link them together using transitions. For instance, you might start to use the Centered theme, but want to add a number of centered titles. To do this, drag in the Centered theme as many times as you need, and once in the timeline add the text to each frame. You can then add transi- Choosing the right font Choosing the right font for your title sequence can have an effect on how your audience views your movie. Some fonts, for example, aren't suited for use on screen — they are too difficult for the brain to interpret quickly. Instead, stick to fonts that are easy to read and legible. The same rules that apply to selecting a serif or sans serif font for your web site or presentation can be applied when adding titles to your movie. Typically serif fonts (like Helvetica) are easiest to read but often look formal and serious. Sans serif fonts (like Times) are often more informal and can be easier to read in captions. If you want to have a bit of fun with the fonts in your titles sequences try downloading some of the samples at CoolText (see “Hotlinks”). AMW August 08 031 4 Openers, Closers and Lower Thirds tions between the frames to add some motion to the opening sequence. Each pre-built title sequence that Apple includes comes with a default font. In my experience these generally look good, however you may want to customise the font that you use in your movie. To customise the font your title uses click the Show Fonts box in the top of the viewer window to bring up the standard Mac OS X font dialogue, with a few differences. As well as standard Collection, Family, Typeface and Size options, the font dialogue also gives you some iMovie-only options. These give you more control, and are especially important when designing titles. For ex- ample, the Outline option means you can use coloured titles, and still make them easier to read by adding an outline. Also, if you want to change the colour of the text in your title remember to highlight the text first and then click on the Text Colour button at the top of the Fonts dialogue. After you've added your title sequence to your time- line you'll notice iMovie adds a cartoon-style bubble above your clip to indicate the presence of a title sequence. To change the time the title sequence runs, simply click and drag either end — the time (indicated in the middle of the title bubble) will change as you drag. You can also click and drag the entire sequence to move it anywhere else in your timeline. To finish off your masterpiece you can add another title sequence at the end. An appropriate theme for the end of your movie might be Scrolling Credits. As the name suggests, this theme will let you scroll your credits from the bottom of the screen to the top. You can add as much text as you want to this theme, and can format it any way you prefer. By default, this theme is set to keep the text centred, but it’s easy to left- or right-align the text by deleting the tabs in front of the text (to get the text centred again place your cursor to the left of the text and press the tab key). You can control the speed of your scrolling credits by clicking and dragging the bubble above the clip. If you only want to scroll the credits over a black screen you can extend the black frame by clicking on the small clock icon that appears if you mouse over the black frame, and changing the length of time the black frame is on screen. Once you've added your title you'll need to preview it. Do this by playing the movie as you normally would, or by pressing the spacebar. It’s also important to re- member that you can't change the style of the sequence once you've added it to your timeline — if you later de- cide you prefer a different style you'll need to delete the existing sequence and drag in a new one. Deleting the sequence is as easy as selecting the title sequence and pressing the Delete key. LiveType 2. While iMovie ‘08 lets you create great- looking title sequences easily, the flipside is that there’s not a huge amount of flexibility. If you need more flex- ibility, and more options when building your title se- quence you may need to consider upgrading your movie editing program to either Final Cut Express, or Final Cut Pro (now part of Final Cut Studio). Both Final Cut Express and Studio include a standalone title program called LiveType 2. LiveType 2 lets you create professional and sophis- ticated title sequences — the sort of stuff you might see in movies or on TV. In a traditional workflow, creating title sequences is very complex, but Live- Type 2 lets novices create stunning titles using Alpha channel technology. Because LiveType 2 is tightly integrated into both Final Cut Express and Final Cut Studio, learning the technology means you can easily move between the two applications. You can also use LiveType 2 in DVD Studio Pro (now part of Final Cut Studio). Once you've created your LiveType sequence you import it to your project and add it to your movie timeline. You can still edit the LiveType sequence even if you've added it to your timeline as Final Cut Pro and Express actually maintain a link to the original LiveType sequence. && NEC COLOUR MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS r stior Nl =< Multiync LCD2esowuss When colour is critical. The ability to interpret and reproduce colours accurately is not only a matter of survival to Madagascar's chameleons, it is also critical to the wellbeing of any colour and image editing business. 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To find out more, call 131 632 from anywhere in Australia or visit nec.com.au Insights into the Australian Mac community Hotlinks www.nolobe.com Nolobe web site www.stairways.com Fleur Doidge believes everyone has a story to tell No lobe required ne-time lead developer at Stairways Software, Mat- thew Drayton, liked the com- pany’s flagship app for the Mac so much that he led an employee buy- out in February last year and formed his own independent software development outfit to take the app even higher. This year his new Western Australia- based company, Nolobe, has already announced updates to the program, known as Interarchy, while honouring existing licenses of the award-winning file transfer and web maintenance client for the Mac. Twenty-nine-year-old Drayton led the development of Interarchy for around six years at Perth-based Stairways, which launched the app in 1993 as Anarchie 1.0. “I went to work for Peter N Lewis at Stairways Software at the start of 2001. | had just finished my computer science degree and desperately wanted to write Mac software. Peter gave me that opportunity,” he said. According to Pokolbin, NSW-raised Drayton, Interarchy's target customer is anyone who needs to transport files around the internet; web developers, system administrators, power users and the like. “Our mission is to write great Mac software that is a pleasure to use,” he said. “We are looking to expand into the image editing market with a new program called Iris. Iris has been created for previously overlooked Mac owners who simply wanted an accessible and easy to use image editing application that provides professional results.” Iris 1.0 should be available by the time you read this. Nolobe has also Stairways Software web site +034 AMW Au: just released a major revision to Interarchy — version 9.01. But Drayton says the most important factor is the customers, without whom Nolobe couldn't exist. So what's with the name? “| wish | had a good story about what Nolobe means but! don't. It is just a short punchy name like Kodak or Pixar; it doesn't mean anything,” Drayton said. He wanted something short and punchy, and his wife came up with the name. “There has been a fair bit of conjecture from our users as to what Nolobe means. | think my favourite theory was that our software is so easy to use you don't have to use your brain. Hence, ‘no lobe’.” At the moment, Nolobe is just Drayton and his wife. His brother worked with them for a while but has moved on. Drayton’s sister is also a business owner. Her Mint Marketing & Design does a lot of design work for Nolobe. “My passion is programming. It has been ever since my dad introduced me to BASIC on the Apple Il. It is what | enjoy most,” said Drayton. “[ also like being in control. It is my company; | get to steer it in the direc- tion | want. | guess | have my dad to thank for that too.” That said, Drayton is currently looking to expand and is aiming to hire one or two staff to help with maintenance and development of the Interarchy and Iris applications by the end of this year. Opportunities in Australia and glob- ally exist and are growing, especially with the popularity and convenience of online sales. Although the Australian market for Nolobe product is currently rather small — accounting for about three per cent of Nolobe’s total sales — other English-speaking markets add to it to form the greatest portion of its customer base, followed by French-speaking, German-speaking and Japanese-speaking markets. “We sell online. Anyone with a Mac and an internet connection can buy our software,” Drayton said. “The future is bright. Apple keeps selling com.au more and more Macs. Our potential customer base keeps going up. | don't think there has ever been a better time to be a Mac developer.” For Drayton, the advantage of Apple product is in the attention to detail. “You can't get away with anything on being pixel-perfect and | think this reflects positively on user experience,” he explained. Conversely, the few times he has sat down and worked on a PC have mostly left him frustrated and annoyed — longing for the pleasures of the iPod and the Mac. There's “nothing major” he doesn't like about Mac product and, arguably, some of the things he doesn’t like are relatively new and a function of the increasing trend to ‘lockdown’ in much modern information technology, particularly if targeted to consumers. “[However] from a user perspective, | don't like how | no longer have full control of my Mac,” explained Drayton. “Some things | understand — like the removal of user-customisable themes — but others | don't. There is no good reason why | shouldn't be able to customise the behaviour of $8-Tab. Nor should | not be able to delete the Movies folder. It is my Home folder — | should be able to do what | want to it.” What's more, as a developer, Drayton says he can be frustrated by the successful promotion of technolo- gies by Apple that really don't matter to the majority of users. “Take 64-bit for example. It is only important to a small segment of the Mac user base but, thanks to Apple's marketing department, a lot of people are asking for it without really knowing why. I'd much rather devote develop- ment resources to something more useful,” he said. Meanwhile, Nolobe is looking at creating a boxed version of Iris for sale in Apple stores following an approach by Apple to do so — a prospect Drayton finds thrilling albeit somewhat foreign. The developer is also starting to branch out into advertising but up to www.macworld.com.au this point has pretty much survived by word-of-mouth and press coverage. “Although Interarchy has been around for 15 years it has been exclu- sively sold electronically,” he said Also, Interarchy 9 introduces a new file transfer protocol based on SSH and Perl that will allow users to do some “very powerful and unique things" in the future. “| am very excited about it,” Drayton said. Drayton is also watching the latest iPhone evolutions and revolutions with interest, like many Mac users. “The iP- hone SDK is very interesting but | fear some of the heavy-handed restrictions will stifle innovation. I'd reallly like to do a mobile version of Interarchy so people can administer their web site ‘on the run but the SDK as it currently stands is too limiting,” he said He also worries about Apple being the exclusive provider of applications via the App Store, because, he says, there's no guarantee Apple will actu- ally publish a developer's application “We will be taking a wait and see approach with iPhone apps. | think it would be foolish to commit heavily to developing an iPhone app when there are so many unanswered questions,” Drayton said. The biggest challenge, Drayton says, is finding time to do everything. On top, of course, of making enough money to survive. “Very few indie Mac programs make enough money for their developers to work on them exclusively. Often it is a labour of love — they will have a regular job to pay the bills and come home each night and work on their program.” Recently, Drayton hasn't had much ‘spare time to do other things he en- joys — such as basketball and mak- ing models. He has a large remote control model plane he is looking forward to finishing and he also likes to garden — which provides much amusement for his family. “My wife would say | am never not at Nolobe. But I'm lucky — | love computer programming and Macs and this is what | do for a living.” & All your business processes in a Single application Accounts Job Costing Contact Management / CRM Point of Sales Stock Control Service and Repairs and more... Suitable for businesses of any size HansaWorld Australia Ltd, Tel: +612 9289 9845, Email: moore @hansaworld.com HANSAWORLD | SURE ENTERPRISE, db-2 aoo™ Rob Griffiths CLONES: You can run Mac OS X on an Intel PC — but should you? or a few years in the mid-’90s, there were Mac iz clones, computers that ran the Mac operating system but weren't made by Apple. Shortly after Sieve Jobs's return, Apple shut down official Mac clon- g for good. \day’s Macs are really Intel-based PCs. And any- a little bit of know-how can assemble a PC out milar to those that Apple uses to build Macs. work of a group called the OSx86 Project, id OS X to run on PC hardware, and Mac again a reality. (? Probably not, because the license that OS X specifies that it be installed only filed hardware. However, Apple hasn't gone @ fo prevent hobbyists from installing OS juilt PCs. And a couple of months ago, amed Psystar was selling an Intel PC with version of Mac OS X. (It’s entirely pos- though, that by the time you read this Psys- if will have received an unpleasant letter from pple’s lawyers.) ‘Although most Mac users won't want to cross yer to the dark side and run Mac OS X on non- Apple hardware, we here at Macworld are a cu- Tious lot. Which is why we set out on a journey to discover whether a Mac really is more than otras the sum of its parts, by building a Mac clone, -psystar.com: buying a Psystar Open Computer, and testing tentially illegal cloner them both in the lab. www.macworld.com.au 936 AMW August 08 It’s Alive! There's a gap in Apple's desktop lineup. The Mac Pro is overkill, and the Mac mini isn’t expandable. While the iMac has become a strong option for many, a lot of Mac users would prefer having a system with much more room for expansion. I'm one of those people. So that’s what I decided to build. I call my creation the Frankenmac. Picking out parts. To create my dream Mac system, I set myself a budget of $US1000 (about $A1050 — not including a keyboard, monitor, and mouse), and started shopping for computer parts. When you build your own PC, you must decide ex- actly what goes into it. You must choose the moth- erboard, processor, cooling system, video card, hard drives, CD/DVD burner, memory, case, and more. And if you're building a Mac-compatible PC, you have to limit yourself to hardware that’s compatible with Mac OS X. I spent a lot of time searching on the web to find out what would work and what wouldn't. As you can see in the table “Frankenmac parts,” the total parts cost was just over $US980 (and the same parts purchased in Australia would cost $A1451.26, not including ship- ping — of course if you shop around you may be able to beat that price). When I set out to configure my machine, | wanted to make it reasonably fast, with the best video card I could fit into my budget, and lots of room for expansion. (I plan on using it for cross-platform testing and for run- ning key Windows productivity software such as Half- Life 2, Crysis, and Microsoft Flight Simulator.) Building it. After all of the parts arrived at my home, it took me a few hours to build the machine. If you've never built your own computer before, it’s an inter- esting experience — there’s something quite satisfying Frankenmac parts Part Description Cost Motherboard Asus PSK-E $152.99 [8223.94] Intel Core 2 Quad cru 06600 2.4GHz $219.99 [$4293.37] CPU Heat Sink Zalman CNPS7700-Cu | $48.00 [$A69.00] 4GB DDR-2 B00MHz RAM Pc6400 $94.99 [$488.00] MSI NxB800gt Video card 512MB OC $189.99 [$4368.95] Case Antec Sonata ill 500 $119.90 [$4239.00] UGHLDT-ST Optical drive GSA-H62N $40.00 [$459.00] Seagate 5006B Hard drive SATA2 93,00 [$4110.00] Other Shipping Charges $23.45 [SAunknown} Total $981.41 [$A1451.26] about putting it all together, powering it up, and hear- ing that first “beep” that lets you know you haven't just turned your collection of parts into a collection of junk. Of course, if you don’t hear the beep, you'll have an entirely different reaction, one that borders on panic. Thankfully, | heard the beep. Next, I installed Vista on the PC, just to make sure everything functioned. From there, I spent several hours getting OS X to work right; while the process is straight- forward, there are a lot of steps involved and a number of BIOS settings to tweak. To install both Windows and OS X on one drive, I had to jump through even more hoops. Finally, after many hours of reading, assembling, disassembling, screaming, installing, uninstalling, re- installing, cursing, pestering friends, and generally not having much fun, I was done: my machine was up and running, and capable of booting into either Windows Vista or Mac OS X 10.5.2. Getting started. From the outside, my machine doesn’t look anything like a Mac. The case from Antec is a glossy black, with a door that hides the externally-accessible drive bays, along with two USB ports, one external SATA port, and audio jacks on a shiny metallic strip on the front. And when it starts up, the BIOS-loading screen and black-and-white text-based boot loader (which lets you choose between Vista and OS X) is a dead giveaway that this is not your normal Mac. However, if I were to hide the case and set you down in front of the monitor when the system was already running, you’d be convinced you were using a “real” Mac. It ran all the OS X programs | tried with- out problems. On the hardware front, everything also seems to work fine. The onboard Ethernet, audio, USB, external SATA, and FireWire ports all function. My Wacom tablet worked without a hitch. After a week or so with the Frankenmac, it was time for me to transfer it from my own personal mad-scien- tist lab to Macworld Lab, where it could be speed-tested against real Macs and the Open Computer clone from Psystar. The results were pretty good — see the sidebar “It came from the lab!” for all the details. I've created a monster! Given the positive result of my tinkering, you may be tempted to build your own Mac clone. Before making such a d need to consider the pitfalls of building or buying your own Mac clone — and there are many. Parts is parts. Building a computer from parts isn’t a simple thing to do — to put everything together, you'll need patience and the ability to follow poorly-translated instructions. To get the best pricing on the various parts, you have to be willing to shop around, | wound up buy- ion, however, you ing parts from four suppliers, and by doing so, | saved >038 AMW It came from the lab! While Rob was assembling his home-built Franken- mac, we were ordering a Psystar Open Computer for testing in the Macworld Lab. The system we bought features a 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of 667MHz RAM, and a 250GB hard drive with Mac OS X preinstalled. Though Psystar’s base model includes Intel’s integrated graphics, we splurged and pur- chased an Nvidia GeForce 8600GT for $US110. We also purchased a FireWire add-on card. Total cost for the system we ordered was $US715 (Psystar quotes an additional $US ~ ~ ~ for shipping to Australia). It was obvious right away that product packaging is one area where Psystar is not following Apple's lead. When the box arrived, we found it stuffed with white foam packing peanuts, which made the un- packing process a big mess. When we tried to start up the computer, it made a noise like we’d turned on a garbage disposal. It turns out that one of the internal power cables was getting caught in the fan. After we rerouted the cable, the crunching sound disappeared, but the fan was still loud. We also couldn't get Time Machine to run properly, though Psystar released a fix. (Of course, if Psystar were to disappear, future fixes would also vanish — scary.) The Open Computer also can’t handle FireWire Target Disk Mode, Safe Boot, zapping of PRAM, or startup drive selection via the option key. Open Computer. Overall, the Open Computer’s performance ranked somewhere between a 2GHz Mac mini and a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo iMac. Speedmark 5 results show the Open Computer to be quite a bit faster than the high-end Mac mini, but slower than the low-end iMac. However, the upgraded graphics card we bought enabled the Open Computer to blow away the iMac in our tests of 3D game performance. couple of hundred bucks. But finding the cheapest parts takes time and effort. Once you've built your machine, the end product isn't something you'll be able to get serviced at your local Mac store. It doesn’t even have a sing warranty — each part has its own, which means you'll be in for a service nightmare if you have problems. You'll have to diagnose the cause, figure out which part or parts are involved, negotiate a return approval from each involved supplier, and then ship those parts out for replacement. One of the companies I bought parts from went out of business shortly thereafter, so I'm unlikely to get service if any of those items fail. The Frankenmac. Rob Griffiths’s Frankenmac sys- tem performs like a higher-end iMac, with a few test results rivaling Apple’s fastest Mac Pros. The Fran- kenmac earned a Speedmark 5 score of 222, slightly slower than that of the 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo iMac. One area in which the Frankenmac failed to live up to expectations was in our series of hard- drive tests. Rob configured the Frankenmac so that three operating systems were running on separate partitions on the machine’s 500GB drive, which probably slowed things down a bit. In more proces- sor-based tasks, such as MPEG compression and 3D rendering, the Frankenmac’s four process- ing cores helped it beat all our other reference systems handily. Macworld Lab test Speedmark 5 test results Psystar Open Computer Core 2 Duo/2.2GHz 213) FrankenMac Intel Core 2 Quad/2.4 GHz 222} Cinema 4D XL 10.5 test results Psystar Open Computer Core 2 Duo/2.26Hz 64 FrankenMac intel Core 2Quad/2.4GH2 2 ‘Mac mini Core 2 Duo/2GH2 67} 20-inch iMac Core 2 Duo/2.4GH2 (April 2008) 54 For Speedmark scores, longer is better. For Cinema 4D XL scores and results are in seconds. Reference systems are in ital felative to those of a 1.5GHz Core Solo Mac mini, which is we systems were running Mac 0S X 10.5.2 with 2GB of RAM.—macworld lab testing by Brian Chen, James Galbraith, and Jerry Jung, shorter is better, 5 E Even if your machine is running fine, you may experi- ence odd hardware issues. When I shut down the Fran- kenmac, Mac OS X itself shuts down and the screen goes blank, but the fans and hard drive continue to run until I press the power button. Future s stem updates may cause prob- lems with the Mac OS X installations on both the Fran- kenmac and the Open Computer. Since Apple obviously doesn't test for compatibility with these systems, the next software update could very well wreck everything. Though Psystar released a version of Mac OS X 10.5.3 for the Open Computer, the lack of support for software updates di- rectly from Apple makes us extremely uncomfortable. Frankenmac vs. Mac Pro The Mac Pro (top) certainly boasts a much more elegant and functional internal design than the Frankenmac. Legal matters. Perhaps most importantly, to make your machine run Mac OS X, you have to violate the OS X end-user license agreement — and perhaps copyright law, depending on how you go about building it. That's a big issue for people who might take the build-it-yourself route, and of course it calls into question the future of any company that attempts to make a business out of building Mac-compatible PCs. There's nothing inherently wrong with making a PC that happens to use components known to work in Mac OS X, but whoever installs Mac OS X on that computer — you or the company supplying it to you — is entering an area that is legally grey at best and flat-out illegal at worst. Design and aesthetics. Beyond the functional, legal, and moral issues, there are aesthetic and design concerns, While the Frankenmac’s case is attrac- tive, it’s clearly not in the same league as the case on the Mac Pro. The back has some rough edges, the front door feels flimsy, and opening the case requires removing a couple of thumb screws and wiggling a side panel loose. If you open the cases on a Mac Pro and the Franken- mac, you can really see the difference (see the illustra- tion “Frankenmac vs. Mac Pro”). On the Mac Pro, all the cables are hidden, the slide-in drive bays are cov- ered with numbered doors, non-user-accessible parts are hidden behind aluminium covers, and the entire thing has the look of the engine bay in a high-end automobile. The inside of the Frankenmac, on the other hand, bears a striking resemblance to the engine bay in my first car, a 1973 Chevy Vega: loose wires every- where, sharp edges just waiting to cut an unsuspecting arly shouldn't be touched sit- ting right there in the open finger, and parts that cl The Mac Pro has function going for it as well as form Both machines let you mount internal drives in slide-in bays; but on the Mac Pro, the drive and bay slide right into the SATA connector. On the Frankenmag, I have to dig into a bundle of cables and fish out a SATA connec- tor, and then thread it down to the drive bay. The Mac Pro provides eight RAM slots on two easy-to-use slide- out cards, while the Frankenmac has four slots located on a hard-to-reach portion of the motherboard The error of my ways. It was a lot o

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