MacWorld0006June2000

JUNE 2000 « a“ ll | A Y THE MACINTOSH® AUTHORITY ~« a” Mi ’ www.macworld.com Ng wa 4 i | His Master’s Voice It Really Works! Use Your Voice to Write Documents and Control Your Mac, page 66 = Apple - Tools Ze 2 O2e¢OESQ@KkAc SGRa [© | Store ineview [Took | iCards | quicktime | Support | [ai] iTools. At your service. Introducing a new class of Internet services from Apple created exclusively for Mac users. With iTools, you can make the Internet safer for your children, email friends, share your photos and iMovies, and even create your own web site. And iTools are free for Mac OS 9 users. By signing up, here's what you'll get. KidSafe HomePage KidSafe and Mac OS 9 work Build your own personal together to nake the iuemet aie site in three easy steps, Mac COST SB piace ae _ | With HomePage, its - your kids on cexarzordinanly simple to KidSale gives iDisk make a website that's a them acess ; rellecion With your veryonn 203 cof storage on Apple's Intemet server, iDisk is the easy way to share Email of you Get your own Mac.com email address. It's easy and free, and works with files over the Intemet. your Evorite email di ‘ ; Hiking action? Geate : Sat pho andiones as aR0uncEREn an autoreply message, ithe est. KicSafe also Aah tihemininyour "sume, instant photo On the go? Your Maccom CoPttelsaccessto ntemet Co nehsie Whileyourfiks dum, or even an iMovie mail can be automatically Sicessuch aschat rooms, ae ofely sored on Apple's theater. We'll even host fornardedto another ettalandonline games" Tht STet cerer sreang Your website on Apple's email address them isaseasyasusinga __Intemet server, sos iCreate a birt folder on your Mac desktop, _dlsays there forthe world GaSED 2 2202 € as The door. Apple now gives you a faster, easier, safer, more productive way to take advantage of what the Internet has to offer. Just visit www.apple.com and click on iTools. Now you have full-powered email (with your very own “mac.com” address), 20MB of free Internet storage space, a rock-solid way to protect your kids and a personal website you can build in minutes. © 2000 pple Compaen. rights reserved. pple the pple og, Sac and the Mac logo are registra trademarks ane Dis. erie Mac OS 9 Featuring Sherlock 2 The key ‘Touse iTools, all you need is Mac’ OS 9. (Oh, and a Mac, of course.) And upgrading gives you many new features. Like Sherlock*2, your personal shopper and Internet search detective. Multiple user support. And voiceprint passwords. So upgrade today and open the Internet's most powerful door. Just call 1-800-MY-APPLE or visit us at wwwapple.com. @ Think different” QuickTime, Sherlock and Think different are trademarks of pple Comper. beret aces ers interne service account. os may app BJC-8200 Printer Peripheral MultiPASS C545 Multifunction Printer Take a quick look around. You'll find a Mac compatible Canon peripheral for just about any purpose you can imagine. From high- resolution printers and scanners to the world’s best-selling portable printer, we’ve got what it takes to keep Mac users smiling. And with CanoScan 630Ui Scanner High-Performance Desktop Printers Award-Winning Portable Printer Choices abound. Now Mac users can pick from an Need a traveling companion for your iBook™ or PowerBook® G3? extensive selection of Canon Color Bubble Jet™ Printers. All Our 3.1 pound” BJC-85 Color Bubble Jet Printer was pronounced with photo-quality imaging and razor-sharp black text. “Best of Show” at the Macworld 2000 San Francisco Expo. 4.5 pounds with AC adapter and optional battery pack ©7000 Canen Comptes Sytem, Cane, 8X0, Bale et Canon Koon Hon, CaneSean, MNPASS an YARDS ate trademars of Canen la, Mac andthe Mat log are trademarks BJC-6000 Printer Vi i I SIO n BJC-3000 Printer more than sixty years of imaging expertise built into every single detail, the term “state- of-the-art” is somewhat of an understatement. CanoScan 1200S Scanner Come and see for yourself. Visit us on the Internet at www.ccsi.canon.com/macfriendly, or call 1-800-OK-CANON for more information. Canon knownow: BJC-85 Printer i ‘Advanced Flatbed Scanners Superior Multifunction Printers Our colorful GanoScan® FB 630Ui Scanner was designed with the Print. Fax. Copy. Scan. After introducing the world’s first iMac™ in mind. And for graphics professionals, there’s our CanoScan Mac-compatible multifunction printer, one good thing led to FB 1200S Scanner featuring groundbreaking VAROS™ technology. another: our new MultiPASS™ C545 Multifunction Printer. of Apple Comput, Inc eistred ia the US. and othe countries. Al ther product and band names ar trademarks oftheir respective ones. Specifications subject to change without noice. fn Canada, cll 1-800-263-1121 JUNE 2000 | 3 Incorporating MacUser Features Cover Story 66 Listen Up BY DAVID POGUE Speech recognition for the Mac has finally arrived. Here’s how it works, and a tour of the prod- ucts that make it happen—plus a review of IBM’s ViaVoice. 74 Bridge the Gap BY CHRISTOPHER BREEN XTend your reach in QuarkXPress, page 93. Want to hook up a new } ing peripherals, or an older Mac to recent USB devices? Our connectivity guide shows you how. ac to ‘Speak up! Mac voice recognition is ae ek cosas Create BY CHRISTOPHER BREEN Your Mae can roam free with Apple’s Print wireless AirPort technology— 93 Extend Your Efficiency in follow our expert tips and set up QuarkXPress a wireless network in a jiffy. BY DAVID BLATNER Make XPress work the way you want with X'Tensions. Web 96 Flash with Substance BY FRITH BREITZER Bring your ideas to life with Macro- media Flash. Web 99 Animation in a Flash BY DAVE McFARLAND Keep Snip that cord and go wireless your creativity flowing: let with AirPort, page 82. Macromedia Flash handle the grunt animation work. 4 june 2000 MACWORLD 26 28 28 28 News Are Internet Devices in Apple's Future? Apple may be mulling an entry into the Internet-appliance market. Analysts say the move could make sense. Adobe Puts It All Together Updates to Illustrator and GoLive continue Adobe’s migration toward interoperable applications. Product Watch New products for your Mac, including a new line of printers from Hewlett-Packard and a 42- inch plasma display from NEC. Pantone's More Colorful World The color-standards provider has updated its reference products for graphics professionals. The Whole World in Your Hands Symbian’s Quartz computing platform brings multiple applica- tions under one roof. ON THE COVER Photograph by Mark Jobann; Cisco provided by Bow Wine Productions Is Apple gearing up for a Net appliance? page 25. 17 23 61 172 12 89 91 Opinion Letters The Vision Thing BY ANDREW GORE Computer, speakable items are not enough. The Game Room BY CHRISTOPHER BREEN M. tering the subtle art of the Deathmatch. The Desktop Critic By DAVID POGUE OS Xisjust around the corner. How scared should we be? How to Contact Macworld Get cozy with the new iBooks, page 36. Secrets The Mac for Many BY JOSEPH SCHORR Secrets for maintaining your multiple- user Mac. Quick Tips 8Y LON POOLE and shortcuts. Tips, tricks, 32 34 36 38 40 a1 42 44 46 46 48 49 50 52 54 56 Reviews $8%%72 Apple PowerBook G3/400; $8%%% Apple PowerBook G3/500 High-end portables Or Do Or tt Newer Technology Maxpowr G4 350MHz; Newer Technology Maxpowr G4 400MHz; Powerlogix PowerForce G4 350MHz; Powerlogix PowerForce G4 400MHz; $886 Sonnet Technologies Crescendo G4 PCI 350MHz; $8%% Sonnet Technologies Crescendo G4 PCI 400MHz; 98% XLRB Mach Carrier G4 350MHz; $88 XLRB Mach Cartier G4 400MHz G4 processor slot upgrades $86% Apple iBook; $$% Apple iBook Special Edition Consumer portables $488 Carrara 3-D-modeling application 888% Kodak DC290; $8% Olympus C-2020 Zoom Two-megapixel digital cameras $$%$%: MacDrive 2000; $886 MacOpener 2000 Disk-mounting programs $4%% Palm Illc Color handheld organizer $$¢%% 4th Dimension Standard Edition 6.5.3 Relational-database application $6%%% Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Civilization-building game $%% Epson Perfection 1200U Photo Photo scanner ¥8%% Mixman Studio Mac 1.1 Real-time sample mixer $886 Quake Ill Arena First-person action game $888 ArtMatic 1.2 Art synthesizer $446 ImagePort Quark XTension $$$ Chessmaster 6000 Chess tutor 48% DoorStop Personal 1.1 Personal firewall $88 CelView 2.0 Terminal-emulation software www.macworld.com June 2000 5 The world’s largest PC makers buy our memory direct. Cut out the middleman. Buy your memory direct from one of the largest memory manufacturers in the world. Performance, reliability, selection & factory direct savings — Crucial Technology, a Division of Micron Crucial is your source for Macintosh memory. 64 M B Receive a 10% discount for ordering online. You can't get this quality for a lower price, anywhere. . = 39 de Upgrades for popular Macintosh models such as . ) As low as... iMac, Power Mac G3, iBook, and Power Mac G4. video cards - scanners - motherboards - digital cameras S | More PC upgrade: From The Memory Experts. Online discounts for over 41,000 upgrades at: www.crucial.com or call toll free 1-888-363-3082 The Memory Experts Crucial TECHNOLOGY A Division of Micron® 8 AnthroCarts! Modulay, Mobile and Strong. You tailor your own AnthroCart. With so many models, and lots of accessories, you can make it fit anyone and any space. And change it when your needs change. Plus you can't beat its Lifetime Warranty. Suit yourself! 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Call us for a free catalog at 800-325-3841 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM PST M-F @ www.anthro.com ANTHRO Anthro Corporation® Technology Furniture® Since 1984 June 2000 MACWORLD Macworld ¥P OF conTent/t0sT0R W CHEE Andrew Gore [x€cUTIVE ASSISTANT TO THE VP OF CONTENT Shane Clark torron Michael Penwarden t0170%, macwonto.com Jason Snell S190 FoITOR, FEATURES Scholle Sawyer ston torTon, reviews Linda Comer stwox tortor, maceuy.com Suzanne Courtean stox torr0R, MACWORLO.cOM Lisa Schmeiser Associate cortons Philip Michaels, Terri Stone ASSISTANT EDITORS Frith Breitzer, Brett Larson, Kelly Lunsford, Jonathan Seff EDITORIAL ASSISTANT David Read CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Henry Borman, Christopher Breen, Bruce Fraser, Jim Heid, » Naney Peterson, Ted Landau, Deke McClelland, ‘Tom Negeit David Pogue, Lon Poole, Stephan Somogyi, Franklin N. ‘Tessler Lap tas omnccton Kristina De Nike SOWOR LAB ANALYST Jeffy K, Milstead ae anatyst Gil Loyola ASSOCIATE TECHNICAL ANALYST Ulyssis Bravo copy EDIT - AcTING MANAGING EDITOR Paul-Michael King cory cnite Jon Zobenica cory eo1ron Charles Purdy ART AND DESIGN DESIGN OIRECTOR Eleanor Leishman ART DIRECTOR Sylvia Chevrier ASSOCIATE DESIGNERS Jackie Goodman, Jonathan Woolson INTERNATIONAL EDITORS Australia; Bernard Le Du, France; Andreas Borchert, Germany; Enrico Lot, Italy; Yoshio Moriya, Japan; Tomasz Bitner, Poland; Daniel de Blas, Spain; Nils Holm, Sweden; Anderson Huang, Taiwan; Bahattin Apak, Turkey Simon Jary, United Kingdom =| & AP3OS LH ] Color excites. Stands out. Makes an impression. | You'll find no color richer, no color more true-to-life fos than Ricoh Aficio color. It sizes up to 13 x 19, and handles paper stock up to 140 Ib. index. And when your business can realize the most brilliant color. At the Well, isn’t it time to say “aloha”? RICOE! Image Communication 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 6.03 fils the bil. It keeps me ‘organized and in control displaying all my project details in tich, colorul timelines. FastTrack Schedule provides just the right amount of power because i's more sophisticated than day-planners, but easier to use and half the price * ot tao tighend $499 project managers. ‘The presentation-quality schedules clearly ilus- trate project objectives and deadiines keeping team members and clients informed and up-to-date. In a single sched- ule, | can outline multiple projects, make assignments, track cash | flows, set-up dependen- | Parr caster = Whether | use it once a || week or every day, FastTrack Schedule makes project scheduling easy. Try It & Buy It! Download the demo and order online today at www.aecsoft.com. Fastirac Version 6.03 Schedule\. AEC Soriwant esrcy ct ow oY om PO NE oe es id RD, a nom Ed ny SLA LL Deen Y 4 RE ES Circle 83 on card or go to www.macworld.com/getinfo 10 June 2000 MACWORLD Macwor't PRESIDENT AND CEO Colin Crawford ASSISTANT TO THE CEO/OFFICE MANAGER Elizabeth Lilly oFrice assistant Franck Zamora aecerniowst Cheryl Richardson VPVCHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Stephen Daniels “ Eos de Feminis ACCOUNTING COORDINATOR Ronda Bittner BILLING MANAGER. Ricardo Sandoval DIRECTOR OF HUMAN RESOURCES Sue Murphy HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGER Su-Tyen Wit INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DIRECTOR ‘Michael Dawson IT MANAGER it Jose “Peps” Jara DISPLAY ADVERTISING SALES. \vP OF SALES/PUBLISHER Steve Plevin (415/243-3509) associate runusnen. cast Cymthia Ramsey (973/243-1197) NATIONAL SALES DIRECTOR Liz Pabon (415/243-3526) sates & mancering cooroiwaTOR Laura Ross (415/243-3642) SALES ASSISTANT Katherine Lebioda (415/243-3577) SALES ASSISTANT Brock Keeling (415/243-3662) mamiowat accounts mawacer Jessica Ross (415/243-3583) account execute Coretta Wright (415/243-3615) NATIONAL ACCOUNTS maNAGER Sara Culley (970/327-4499) Account executive Margaret Level Green (415/243-3582) NATIONAL ACCOUNTS MANAGER Paul Bonarrigo (508/533-4020) AccoUNT extcuTIvE Jo Zottareli (631/277-4134) SHOPPER ACCOUNT MANAGER [Niki Stranz (415/243-3664) sworreR ACCOUNT MANAGER Carol Johnstone (415/243-3691) SHOPPER SALES COORDINATOR Alissa Mach (415/243-3628) MARKETING DIRECTOR OF MARKETING Hilary Weber MARCOMM MANAGER Sharon Sanderson MARKETING EVENTS COORDINATOR Tara James PRODUCTION PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Steve Spingola DicITAL AD COORDINATOR Alan Anzalone scold pebestion of Mac Pubihing, LLC. Macwerld san Independent journal not affliated with Apple Computer, ic raps, Quick Tp. Star Ratings, Buyer Teo Stetwise Shopper, and Conspicuous Consumer ae reghtered Pubahing. LLC. Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, and Macintosh ate registered ademas, nd Mscltter and PowerBook ae tae demarks of Mac of Aspe Compute, Ic. Printed in the United States of Americ, Copyright © 2000 Mac Pabtohing. LLC. Allright reserved Big screen, PerfectFlat technology, outstanding color and a ton of bandwidth — the new PF815 has it all. The screen is a big 22” (20.0 viewable) and utilizes ViewSonic’s PerfectFlat technology for edge-to- edge precise images and minimal glare. A flicker-free maximum resolution of 1,920 x 1,440, refreshing at 75Hz and a wide video input bandwidth of 300MHz, delivers a sharp and crisp image even at very high resolutions. A super-fine 0.25-0.27mm variable aperture grille pitch provides high contrast for ultimate image clarity and outstanding color saturation. OnView® controls including The Visual Technology Company™ ViewSonic’ will improve your image with... PerfectFlat® Technology advanced color purity adjustment for all four corners of the screen gives you even, color performance, making the PF815 the ideal choice for pre-press, imaging, animation, desktop publishing and graphic design. At ViewSonic, we offer the #1 best selling monitors and flat panel displays in the USA*. Buy with confidence from the company that’s won over 600 industry awards. Our warranty covers 3 years parts and labor. Plus 24-hour customer service, 7 days a week. SS6 ad aye 2 enn Co Oa ant es ee 1 bs fa ane tad ees ron cae mira by Sak as, :Fk 12 Conquer Disk Damage DiskWarrior is a revolutionary new utility that combats disk damage. It quickly rebuilds, recovers and optimiz« 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. Circle 140 on card or go to www.macworld.com/getinfo June 2000 MACWORLD Macworld HOW TO CONTACT MACWORLD Subscription Services Phone 800/627-2247 or 303/665-8930, North America only 303/604-7445, outside North America US. Mall Macworld Subscription Services PO. Box 54528, Boulder, CO 80322-4528 World Wide Web \ww.zdnet.com/zdsubs/macworld/service Subscription Rates ‘ ‘The one-year (12+ssue) subscription rates $3497 in the United States and ‘85497 for all other countries (send $104.97 for ar mail. The rate for a ‘one-year (124s5ue) subsription with the menthly CD-ROM is $49.97 in the United States and $69.97 for all other counties (air mail not avallable at thiste). Checks must be made payable in U.S. curency to Macworld Please alow 6 to 8 weeks to receive your fist issue. Back issues of Macworld Back issues (subject to avalabiliy) are $8 per isue for US. delivery ($12 ‘outside the United States); prepayment in US. currency to Macworld is equired, Send check or money order to Back Issues Department, Ziff- Davis Inc, BO. Box 53131, Boulder, CO 80322-3131, Reprints and Permissions You must have permission before reproducing any material from Macworld, Write to Macworld, Reprints and Permissions, 301 Howard St, 16th Fl San Francisco, CA 94108; include a phone number. To order reprints of your company’s editorial coverage, call Reprint Management Services at 717/388-1900; fax 717/399-8900; e-mail sales@rmsrepints.com, Malling Lists We periodically make lists of our customers avallable to mailers of goods and services that may interest you. If you do not wish to receive such rmalings, please wite to us and include a copy of your maling label ‘Macworld on Microfilm ‘Macworld is available on microfilm and microfiche from UMM, 300 N, Zeeb Rd, Ann Arbor, Mi 48106-1346; 734/761-4700, ‘Macworld Editorial The editors of Macworld welcome your tips, compliments, ot complaints Stories and product reviews from past issues can be located at www :macworid.com. We are unfortunately unable to look up stories trom past. issues: recommend products; or diagnose your Macintosh problems by phone, e-mail or fax. Contact Apple tlre at 800/538-9656, ext, 500, for information on user groups in your area, (Our offices are located at 301 Howard St, 16th Fl, San Francisco, CA 194105; 415/243-0505, fax 415/442-0766, LETTERS TO THE EOITOR Direct all comments and suggestions ‘regarding any aspect ofthe magazine to letters@macword.com. Due to the high volume of mail received, we can't respond personally to each letter. We reserve the right to edit al submissions. Al leters published in ‘Macworld or Macworld Online become the property of Macworld QUICK TIPS Send your questions or tips on how to use Mac comput- es, peripherals, or software to Macworld, Quick Tips, 301 Howard St, 16th FL, San Francisco, CA 94105; fax 415/442-0766; e-mail quicktips@ ‘macword com. Please include your name, address, and telephone number, VPA. POWER ON SOFTWARE of Productivity. The PeRAER. of Productivity The Internet-Savvy Contact Manager & Calendar hether you drive a desktop Mac (even a trusty old 68K machine running System 7), pound a PowerBook, or pack a Palm®, you need Now Up-to-Date & Contact, the best choice in contact management and calendaring. No other product allows you to keep track of your contacts and schedule so easily. With its ability to recognize common phrases and automatically enter items on your calen- dar, you will spend less time on data entry. Built-in email tracking; word processing with mail merge; label and envelope generators with postal bar codes; and alarms to remind you of key events make this an essential product for anyone who needs to save time and stay organized. A built-in TCP/IP server allows you to add users and share group data, while keeping personal information private. Designed for the Internet, Now Up-to-Date & Contact offers a unique web plug-in architecture that will have you soaring through cyberspace. Need a map or an e-mail address for someone? Click the blazingly fast search engine to find the contact and let the software do the rest! It is no wonder that Now Up-to-Date & Contact is the #1 best-selling Macintosh PIM on the planet. Phone: 800-344-9160 m 612-317-0344 m Fax - 612-317-0345 m http://www.poweronsoftware.com Now Up-to-Date and Now Contact are registered trademarks of Power On Sotwore, of Apple Computer, Inc. Palm Computing is 0 registered trademark and Palm Vis 0 bsidones. Al other trademarks acknowledged Circle 118 on card oF go to www.macworld.com/getinfo © 2000 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Adobe, the Adobe logo, tagline “Inspiration becontés reality’ Adobe Premiere, After Effects, GoLive, Illustrator, LiveMotion and Photoshop are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated, Flash is a trademark of Macromedia, Inc. ww.shredtheweb.com Adobe LiveMotion. Web animation. Tight integration. Killer. Push your content to the extreme with Adobe® LiveMotion” software —a brand new applicaton for creatin: PP 9 ADOBE web graphics and interac- | Gouive i imati Apose tive animation. Developed | pycrosnop for seamless integration, |/ApoBE ‘i 5 LIVEMOTION. LiveMotion has the Adobe ¢ ADOBE interface you already know | !Ltustrator from Photoshop’ Illustrator® | ADOBE After Effects” and GoLive”. | avose AFTER EFFECTS ‘ADOBE WEB ing curve. And some insane | COLLECTION Which means a fast learn- animation. It even supports many popular file formats, including Flash™ (.swf). Go A see LiveMotion in action at www.shredtheweb.com Adobe Inspiration becomes reality" ae Ux Job HTML, Perl, CGI, SQL, ASP, PHP, JavaScript, ‘Apache and Coldfusion. Can you program any or all of these in your sleep? Then wake up and get your “back-end” moving] If you have at least 3 years of experience and are highly proficient in programing, send us your resume today to take advantage of some exciting opportunities: Washington, DC + We are in search of designers who can make web sites come alivel If you know Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash and have a strong sense of what is aesthetically pleasing as well as functional, send us your online portfolio today. Chicago ® An international agency with an extensive client list seeks experienced copywriters to work directly with senior copywriter and creative director. The ideal candidate possesses 3-5 years of agency experience plus knowledge of current trends and consumer behavior. Chicago * An innovative client is seeking Multimedia Software Engineers. Proficiency in Macromedia Director, Lingo, Dreamweaver or Authorware is required, You will be working in @ team environment that offers career growth and an excellent compensation package Providence ® Rl company is looking for Mac/PC gurus with extensive knowledge of networking, operating systems, and cross-platform connectivity. The ideal candidate will be familiar with hardware and software for upgrades and troubleshooting Providence * A Rhode Island printing company is looking for a computer: based typesetter. Expertise in PageMaker is required. Experience with Quark, Photoshop, Illustrator, Freehand, the ability 10 convert files from PC to Mac, rip, and perform color separations is also needed San Francisco * Part. ime and permanent positions in and around San Francisco are available for experts in Photoshop, Quark and Illustrator. Any experience with the production of 2D graphics for interactive and video applications is a plus. These skills are in high demand and offer very competitive pay. paired oe Opportunitt es St. Louis * Seniorlevel Art Director with experience in high-level design sought to work closely with the client from initial concept to a multi-tiered corporate marketing initiative. Supervisory experience is helpful but not essential. Dallas « Do you have strong conceptual skills and the drive to develop awarc-caliber websites and online advertising? Our client is looking for someone with a solid background in web-based technologies, development and marketing who can also present creative ideas and finished work to clients with élan. St. Louis * We haye a variety of openings for Web/New Media expe nl Proficiency in coding HTML and JavaScriph hs crucial; knowledge of CGI and ASPs Boston * The Web Writer is responsible for feature, program and promotional content throughout the client's site: He/she will also manage other web editorial projects, serving as both writer and creative project manager. Familiarity with HTML and associated authoring software and tools as well as 5+ years in business communications is required Locations Philadelphia Providence San Francisco St. Louis Washington DC 800-937-3622 «ea I Baltimore Boston Chicago Dallas New York Philadelphia * Center City marketing agency has an ongoing need for Art Directors. Positions require excellent knowledge of Illustrator, Photoshop and QuarkXPress plus 3.5 years design or art direction experience in an agency environment. New York * Work on the internet's best and most attractive auction site! You must be an expert in HTML and at least one of the following: JavaScript, DHTML/CSS, Flash, streaming media, JSP, QuickTime VR, multiple-platform support. Real-world web development experience on at least one commercial site is desired, The successful candidate likes working on a team, doing intense and rewarding work, and being around cool, creative and intelligent people. Experience with graphics software or server-side development is helpful Baltimore * A small suburban ad agency seeks a Print Designer who displays grace under pressure to handle everything from proofing to design to pre-press production. You must be a QuarkXPress expert, exhibit acute attention to detail and have the ability to work independently. PHreitnmowl1led ge Circle 97 on card or go to www.macworld.com/getinfo Dave curr a Lellers X Marks the Spot S X REPRESENTS A COMPLETE bastardization of the Mac interface (“Mac OS X Unveiled!” March 2000). Nearly everything about the new user interface is repulsive, counterintuitive, gimmicky, and unnecessary. The worst feature of the new interface is its nauseat- ing motion. No one wants throbbing but- tons, oozing icons, or sliding windows. There are other problems, too. For example, the window control buttons are identical and very small. The Mac OS used to representa truly easy-to-use, log- ical, and elegant interface. Apparently, Apple’s lust for dollars and newfound bravado, arrogance, and profitability have made the company lose its foc STEPHEN R SaveR II Oxford, Ohio Top Secret 0S 9 HANK YOU FOR YOUR FEATURE ON OS 9 (“Top Secret OS 9,” March 2000). I'd been pulling my hair out for two weeks because I could not get Netscape Commu- nicator 4.7 with 128-bit encryption booted up. [ downloaded ita second time—almost a two-hour undertaking—just to experi- ence the same problem. But then Macworld told me to remove the Talkback folder from the Communicator folder. Hats off to you, Macworld—I'm back on the Internet. Jerry $ Antigo, Wisconsin HUNKE Quicken Ain't So Swift APPRECIATED YOUR ARTICLE ON using Quicken 2000 (“Easy Money,” March 2000), but you failed to mention one of Quicken’s great failings: its inability to divide in the Portfolio view. If you use Portfolio to keep track of your stocks and a stock splits, the Aver- age Cost Per Share function doesn’t ¢: culate the average cost per share. Quick- en’s fix is simply telling users to do the math themselves. What's next? Rather than printing through my printer, might Quicken suggest that I get a pencil and paper and simply jot words down as I read them off the screen? ANDY MILDER Santa Monica, California L QUICKEN 2000 IS THE MOST wretched kind of bloatware. Intuit took a product that once did something well and then added a lot of bells and whistles, and now the program no longer does the thing that made it so wonderful. I've used Quicken for years, since my old Apple IIGS. I don’t need a mon- ster program, but there is no basic ver- sion for Macintoshes—only the Deluxe version. I was forced to upgrade when Quicken SE 96 turned out to be not Y2K compliant. My credit union insists that I’m downloading QIF files, but Quicken 2000 doesn’t recognize them, even though I've updated it as you suggested. Once I enter the data by hand and begin to reconcile (the only reason T have the program in the first place), am faced with what Intuit’s extremely limited tech support calls a “known issue”: since only the first three digits of a five-digit check number are shown in the reconciliation window, all my checks appear to have the same num- ber. I don’t call this progress. Davip Hart Anchorage, Alaska YALEN GRUMAN'S REVIEW OF Catobe PressReady missed most of what the product does (Reviews, March 2000), He incorrectly thinks the program is another low-end PostScript translator for ink-jet printers. PressReady is the first affordable color-printing tool for designers that accurately simulates CMYK print colors as they would appear on a Heidelberg or other press. ‘The program provides huge cost sav- ings over other proofing methods such as Iris prints, film prints, and Matchprints. In our office, we’ve found that our Epson 3000's PressReady proofs are amazingly close to our final output. This has saved us hundreds of dollars in incorrect film. Gruman entirely missed the fact that PressReady simulates Pantone spot colors without forcing designers to load an entirely different set of Pantone sim- ulation color files into Adobe Illustrator or QuarkXPress. continues www.macworld.com June 2000 17 UPsrading j Your GPU F It’s all about | tll The Mei@hon d0eGARD Dreabhes new lire into UoUP Vintage Mac giving You he power Your Pesource-hungry applicavions demand. \A Turho-charging vour LU vintage Mac with @ | Met@boH d0eGARD is BHEEDUIONAllY Gost BrFepUIVE, Get Une MOBO UU OF One tools wou firuet Wibnout baking @ bibe in One Bank aecount. The =Met@bor iDBGARD is desioned | 0 Give You too Derrormance Without AFFECUINO sabiliY. YoU BU boba) conGPO in even he moso Gemanding sustem environments. It’s all about met(@)box In addibion Oo Fasb, reliable DerFormance and BHoeDbional Value You also ef MeG@hows | Linrivaled support From a abable, enduring company. ‘opean magazine comm | For more information please visi www metaboxUSA.com 18 June 2000 MACWORLD LETTERS PressReady also simulates printing to coated and uncoated paper stock—a real- world printing-press concern—and applies ink-dot gain accordingly. It lets us give our clients proofs that correctly set their expectations for color. With all these features, PressReady is asteal with a street price of around $200. Heck, it paid for itself during the first job by eliminating the need to rerun one set of film and Matchprints. Gruman’s review cast doubt on a very exciting product for designers. Press- can deliver fool-proof Portable Document Format files for high-end color work. It should have received four mice (not five, only because it’s not a stand-alone raster image processor that a workgroup can use). Dave DANLBERG Bountiful, Utab Your CADdish Review FTER READING CHARLES SEITER’S A review of DenebaCAD 2.0, I came away unable to discern the basis for several of his perceptions (Reviews, March 2000). I take issue with his insinuation that contracts are won by dazzling renderings at presentations. While effective render- ings do help win a client’s approval, the strength of a design is the real deal maker—or breaker—for modern archi- tects. CAD is not the same as rendering. I was particularly baffled by the reviewer's assertion that DenebaCAD’s lack of a scripting language is not prob- lematic because “today’s processors deal with complex objects at lightning-fast speeds, negating the need for such lan- guages.” Savvy CAD professionals realize the value of a scripting language lies not in processor speed but in the design flexibility it provides its users. Every leading CAD application— AutoCAD, MicroStation, VectorWorks, and ArchiCAD—has moved to object- based scripting languages. Advice counter to this trend further exposes an utter lack of understanding of today’s CAD tech- nology and breaches the trust of Mac- world’s well-informed readership by sug- gesting that inferior functionality is offset by processing speed. Lastly, the reviewer displays a lack of familiarity with the CAD-software mar- ket by suggesting that DenebaCAD’s only direct competitor is one that costs five times as much and takes longer to master. This is truly irresponsible jour- nalism. There are several similarly priced CAD programs with a comparable learn- ing curve that not only adequately com- pete with DenebaCAD 2.0 but also completely outperform it. BARTON GREER Diebl Graphsoft, Columbia, Maryland Diehl Graphsoft produces VectorWorks, a com- peting CAD program.—Ed, Steely Interfaces COMPLETELY AGREE WITH DAVID Pogue’s assessment of Apple’s interface direction (“Why Stainless-Steel Soft- ware Stinks,” The Desktop Critic, March 2000). It seems to me that the popularity of successful Apple products can be summed up in one word: simplicity. The concept that has set Apple apart from its competitors is its ability to put a simple, friendly, intuitive face on a potentially intimidating technology. As Windows has evolved in the direc- tion of the Mac, the Mac has unfortu- nately gained some of the baggage that makes PCs so difficult. As the new Mac hardware delivers on the promise of sim- plified technology, the new software seems to be moving in the opposite direc- tion. I’m sure that some focus group was impressed with the QuickTime Player's cluttered, oversize interface, but I was sad to see the old, simple one go. Tuomas Hatt Phoenixe le, Pennsylvania AM VERY DISAPPOINTED IN DAVID Pogue’s tone. First, I like the look of the brushed-stainless-steel windows. I think they have a more elegant look-and-feel. But my disagreement goes further than mere aesthetics. If you look at the screen shot of the Mac OS X desktop on page 70 (“Mac OS X Unveiled!”), you can see a new QuickTime window with the stan- dard Mac OS X controls in the upper cor- ners. Also, the annoying thumbwheel vol- ume control has been replaced with an easier-to-use sliding button. Apple is listening and making the necessary changes to its software. If the folks in Cupertino are feeling little arro- gant, I say let them! They've earned it. Curis Tatian Portland, Maine The Man behind the App WAS EXTREMELY DELIGHTED TO see Sustainable Softworks’ IPNetRouter 1.4.3.3 win an Editors’ Choice award in the network-utility category (“The 15th Annual Editors’ Choice Awards,” March 2000). I have used IPNetRouter for over a year, and it’s a great product. But that’s only half the story. Peter Sichel, the man behind the application, works in a way that should be copied—he creates well-written applications that don’t hog memory or processing power. And he lets users try out full working ver- sions for a period of time. His software is backed by a philosophy of honesty and humility and a support system that can’t be beat. Peter has always responded to my e-mail questions within 24 hours. Peter’s product made life at our little union office much easier—no more yelling into the next office to make sure someone else wasn’t already hooked up on their computer before going online. Thank you, Macworld, for recognizing a great application and a great programmer. Eric ODIER-FINK Brooklyn, New York Free Macs for All? | ee JUST HEARD THAT APPLE IS not allowing FreeMac.com to distribute free iMacs, even though FreeMac.com is offering to pay full price for them. Ihave the ability to purchase an iMac, but the single mother next door doesn’t. FreeMac.com’s program would have brought many new people to the Mac plat- form without Apple having to do anything Steve WaTson Dallas, Texas Letters should be sent to Lerters, Macworld, 301 Howard St., 16th Fl,, San Francisco, CA 94105; 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 illustration for “Getting Into In- Design,” (Create, March 2000) was created by Gordon Studer. S FireWire or USB Hard Drives Ready...Set Ready! Boost your storage capacity by 6 Gigs with PowerHD from ‘TechWorks! Complete with a FireWire or USB cable, AC adapter, manual and Disk Drive TuneUp Special Edition, it’s “hot-pluggable’ making it READY to use out of the box. Set! The PowerHD is available in the complete set of 5 iMac flavors, ‘Mix or match a FireWire model with your iMac DV or G4, or try a USB model with your iBook or iMac. Go! PowerHD is super portable. The total weight, including the AC adapter, is less than one pound! Just pick it up and GO! PowerHD —a simple solution for adding hard disk drive space to your Mac. Give us a call at 0.434.4032, or visit us online at www.techworks.com to order one today! Why wait? Just plug & play! TECHIORKS Power To Perform labs eon eo las mon Ala on pe tne pt ni Circle 29 on card or go to www.macworld.com/getinfo www.macworld.com June 2000 19 - & ) is Wall Street now has a passing lane. | | ] \ | Introducing Velocity” for Macintosh” A smarter, more efficient way to trade online. Reborn. It's from Charles Schwab. It kicks your trading into high gear, fast. And it's made for Macintosh. Simply install Ve ity on your hard drive and you'll have the power to place multiple trade orders simultaneously. Manage all your Schwab accounts with a single login. Create as many as five real-time quote Watchlists. And keep your trading window open while you research and access tools at schwab.com. Ready, set, trade: Welcome to Velocity'*—the desktop trading software designed for active investors. Velocity uses the power of your desktop to help you manage your investing more quickly and effectively Monitor up to 200 stocks. Create and customize as many as five different Watchlists with up to 40 symbols per list. Allin realtime © Mac Welcome to MacOS. Requires 20MB Hard Drive space, 64MB RAM, MacOS 8.5 or higher, an Internet connection, and G3 (iMac and iBook included) or better processor. Order Velocity now. Order your Velocity CD-ROM now. And start experiencing smarter, more efficient online trading right away. Call 1 800 3-SCHWAB or visit www.schwab.com/velocity “Access to services in your account may be limited lable during periods of peak demand systems upgrades, maintenance ns, "Velocity Software 1s avaiable to Schwab Signature Service® customers (evel on Level one Signature Service mambersh 12 oF more ‘commisionabl trades per year with a $10,000 minimum balance or $100,000 or mare in asses a Schwab. CharlesSchwab ado, Sao Paul, Beall MacUser Circle 46 on card or go to www.macworld.com/getinfo Vector Wor the design process state of the art Object Technology helps streamline y making it easy to create common design elements. Now, Objects like doors, windows, nuts and bolts, can be created and edited with a click of the mouse, =e making it easy to explore di ~ lee ign Dy alternatives, consider "what if” scenarios, and handle last- aia minute client changes. VectorWorks offers a solid i} foundation based on proven CAD || technology—giving you the power and flexibility to tackle design problem. New features such as Workgroup Referencing, DWG (v.14), Round Walls, Multiple Undo/Redo and an improved scripting language, strengthen Vector Works’ Dea photo-realistic rendering plu core Ci abilities. And, with RenderWorks, VectorWorks’ new an b ng your designs to life with textures, shadows and dran lighting, With VectorWorks, you get it all—the flexibility and control of proven CAD technology and the productivity benefits of Object- Based design. Vector Works ships FI Landscape Design, DTM and HVAC among others. Best of all, solutions for Architecture, you aren't limited to the solutions we provide. VectorWorks is completely customizable, allowing you to create your own custom business solutions. we Save $134 by purchasing VectorWorks with photorealistic rendering direct for $1061 or, without rendering for only $795. Includes FREE Tech Support and a 90-Day Money-Back Guarantee. Diehl Graphsoft Inc Software for Today's Professional G Speak Easy The Vision Thing SURE, YOU CAN TALK TO YOUR MAC—BUT WHO KNOWS IF IT N A FINE SUNNY DAY, A man sits down at bis com- puter and goes to work. But instead of grabbing the mouse or pecking at the key- board, be leans into a micro- phone and begins to speak. “Computer, open ‘Vision Thing’ for June.” I'm sorry, Andy, but I can’t do that. “Computer, why not?” I don't understand. “Computer, open the document s enteen dot zero six Vision Thing dot A G.” I'm sorry Andy, but Lcan't do that either; “Computer, why not?” I don't understand “the document s teen dot zero six Vision Thing dot A G.” “Computer, open the volume The Tron Age.” Volume The tron Age is open. “Computer, open the folder Vision Thing Stuff.” Folder Vision Thing Stuff is open. “Computer, open the document sev- enteen dot zero six Vision Thing dotA G.” Document seventeen dot zero six Vision Thing dot A G is open. “Computer, start ViaVoice.” sorry Andy, but I can’t do that. n- “Computer, WHY NOT?” I don't understand “ViaVotce.” “Computer, close the folder Vision Thing Stuff.” Folder Vision Thing Stuff is closed. “OK. Computer, open the folder Applications.” Folder Applications is open. “Computer, start ViaVoice.” ViaVoice started. e Over “Start dictation.” “Speech recognition on the Mac has been a long time coming. Few may remember this now, but the Mac had command-and-control speech recogni- tion long before the PC did. I was at the debut—former Apple CEO John Sculley on stage with speech-recognition wun- derkind Kai-Fu Lee—as the first com- mand was given to Casper, as what would ultimately come to be known as Plain- Talk was then code-named. It worked. And the audience went wild. “Correct ‘skull.’ C: “Once Plain Talk arrived in the § tem Folder it was allowed to languish, never more than a cute trick you could use to entertain your friends. It wasn’t until many years later that speech recognition in the Mac OS got a much-needed update. With OS 9, command-and-con- trol in the OS finally got usable. “And, of course, Apple didn’t deliver the biggest innovation in recognition: dictation. Thanks largely to IBM’ efforts, dictation now works, and works well, on the Macintosh. Yes, there is still some work left to perfect it, especially in terms of integration with other applications, but IBM’ ViaVoice continuous speech recog- nition is an amazing step forward. “Correct ‘four words.’ Pick 1 “Want to know more about how to get speech recognition to really work on your Mac today? Check out our special report in this issue.” by Andrew Gore WILL UNDERSTAND YOU? Speech Impediment “The real shame is, as far as we have come, the Mac is still behind Windows in speech recognition, especially in getting it to work consistently in all applications. I don’t blame this on the developers. I blame this on Apple. Apple could be doing a whole lot more to make it possible for companies to fully integrate speech soft- ware into the operating system. Users shouldn't have to build their own Apple- Scripts to get speech recognition to do basic things, like access menu commands. “And there should bea standard way of connecting dictation to applications so that all features work in all applicable software. For example, we shouldn't have to give up direct correction of misinterpreted words just because we happen to be using an unsupported application. “Correct ‘mist interpreter.’ Pick 2. “And perhaps the best op- portunity Apple has to fulfill the potential of this technology is just around the corner: Mac OS X. In the modern Mac OS, Apple could reinvent the user interface by making voice a standard way of interacting with the Mac. Not as an add-on, but asa fully and ele- gantly integrated input method. “Too bad Apple seems con- cerned only with making the Mac OS X interface look pretty. The company could be doing for voice what it did for the mouse two decades ago, instead of agoniz- ing over what shade of blueberry the buttons should be. With voice, you wouldn’t even have to look at the screen to get work done. “Transfer to Word. “Computer, print document.” I'm sorry, Andy, but I can’t do that. “Computer, stick it where the sun don’t shine.” Sorry, Andy, I can’t find that volume. 1 Questions? Comments? E-mail them to Andy at visionthing@macworld.com. www.macworld.com June 2000 23 The Seven Deadly Macintosh Sins: Software Conflicts r\ Network Problems Hardware Problems Memory Problems Viruses Damaged Software Disk Damage Salvation: When good Macs go bad and fall from grace, it’s good to know there's help nearby. Salvation is only a mouse- click away with the new TechTool Pro 3. Now featuring virus protection and conflict detection, TechTool Pro is the only program you need to help abolish the evil forces that have possessed your Macintosh. TechTool Pro 3 checks more aspects of your Macintosh than any other utility available. Period. Besides repairing and recovering damaged drives, eradicating viruses and catching the occasional software conflict; you can also test all those other critical parts of your system that other uti ignore. Like RAM, logic board components, floppy drives, scanners, modems, internet connections and so much more. TechTool Pro even supports technologies like System 9.0.1, “Pure” HFS+, Firewire and USB drives, and all of the latest Macintosh models. TechTool Pro can also help you in between times of trouble, Our disk and directory optimize features can help improve the performance of your Macintosh as well as help circumvent problems before they happen. The TechTool Protection control panel will regularly check your system so you don't have to. It will also back up critical directory data, so if something goes wrong, you'll be up and running in no time flat. But just because TechTool Pro is the most advanced Macintosh troubleshooting utility available doesn't mean that it has to be difficult to use. Our easy-to-use interface makes checking and fixing your Macintosh as easy as pressing one button. For advanced users, expert access allows you to control and configure TechTool Pro in almost any way you wish. So if Macintosh troubles are turning your life into a living Hades, check out the tool of the trade: TechTool Pro. After all, you have the most powerful computer in th world, Shouldn't you be using the most powerful util “Purchase TechTool Pro 2 now and receive a free upgrade to TechTool Pro 3 when it ships in Q1 2000! MicroMat Inc. 800-829-6227 707-566-3831 FAX: 707-566-3871 info@micromat.com www.micromat.com Fix different 6066 MacWorld Aug. I *Offeer subject to change without notice. Offer expires April, 30 2000. ©2000 MicroMat Inc.All rights reserved: Tech Tool isa registered trademark of MicroMat Inc. Fix Different isa trademark of MicroMat Inc, Macintosh i a tridemark of Apple Computer, Inc Circle 67 on card or go to www.macworld.com/getinfo JUNE 2000 NEW PRODUCTS COULD EXTEND INTERNET PRESENCE by Philip Michaels obile phones that let you send and receive e-mail; Web terminals in your kitchen that download recipes; cars equip- ped with on-board computers able to locate restaurants, print out directions, and even help you phone ahead for reservations—devices such as these are either already on the market or at least in the plan- ning stages. They’re part of a growing universe of Internet appliances—basic consumer devices that offer easy access to the Internet. And, if one Wall Street analyst proves correct, Apple could soon join that universe. Appliances Ahead? In a report issued after a February visit to Apple, Merrill Lynch computer analyst Steven Fortuna wrote that he expected Apple to unveil an Internet-appliance strategy this summer, possibly at Maeworld Expo in July. Such an announcement would “add some meat” to the Internet strategy Apple announced earlier this year, wrote Fortuna in an earlier report. can Apple’s reaction? “That would be speculation,” spokes- woman Rhona Hamilton says, “and we wouldn’t have a com- ment on it.” Analysts say Apple may be keeping mum about an Internet-appliance strategy in public. But that doesn’t mean the company isn’t mulling over such a plan behind closed doors. “They have no inten- tion of getting out of the PC business. They’re very firm about that,” says Tim Bajarin, president of consulting firm Creative Strategies. But, he Are Internet Devices in Apple's Future? adds, “if you’re Apple, you’d be crazy not to look at” devel- oping the Mac OS for another company’s Internet device or even producing an appliance. Net Growth Consider the potential market. The number of Internet appliances should top 37 million in 2002, reports Jupiter Communications, an Internet-commerce research firm. That's a jump from 1.2 million in 1997. Compaq, IBM, Hewlett- Packard, and Microsoft have either expressed interest in the Internet-appliance market www.macworld.com or started rolling out stripped-down devices, But don’t expect other companies to force Apple’s hand. Devices such as Compaq’s iPaq target the corporate market—not an area that Apple tries to woo, says Gerard, Klauer, Mattison & Company analyst Lou Mazzucchelli. “Apple’s always been a maverick,” Creative Strategies’ Bajarin says. “I don’t expect them to march to [someone else's] drumbeat.” There are other reasons continues June 2000 25 Apple might not pursue an Internet-appliance strategy. ‘The company already has a successful consumer prod- uct—the iMac—that prom- ises easy access to the Internet. An Apple-branded Internet device may harm iMac sales, And after putting its house in order with a series of successful product launches, Apple may want to avoid a Newton-like disaster, ll, Apple may decide that Internet appliances make per- fect sense. While Internet devices won’t ever replace PCs, their sales should skyrocket in the next few years. By 2005, Bajarin esti- mates, Internet appliances could outsell PCs by as much as a 4-to-1 ratio. “Apple is the top brand in the world,” Bajarin adds. “There's no reason to believe they can’t make hay with an Internet device.” A Friendlier Linux? APPLE VETS BUILDING A CONSUMER VERSION OF POWERFUL OS by Frith Breitzer or the past few years, Linux _ proponents have trumpeted the merits of their grass- roots, Unix-like oper- ating system. It’s free, it’s fast, and because it enjoys broad support among program- mers, bugs are easy to fix. But Linux’s command-line inter- face may have put off many power users, keeping the 26 June 2000 MACWORLD | News operating system from gain- ing wider acceptance. ‘That could soon change. Former Apple employees Andy Hertzfeld, Michael Boich, Bud Tribble, and Susan Kare have teamed up at a new company called Eazel. The! a new graphical shell, code- named Nautilus, for Gnome 2.0 (a popular Linux desktop environment and applica- goal? To build tion framework), and to offer Internet services that will help users install, con- figure, and update the oper- ating system. Apple Seeds Eazel’s core management team has. experience building an inter- face simple enough for anyone to use. Boich, the company’s president and CEO, founded Apple’s software-evangelism group for the Macintosh. Hertzfeld designed and imple- mented much of the original Mac system software, while ‘Tribble managed the original Mac software team. Kare worked on the first icon designs for the Mac OS. The question now: Can these Apple veterans do for Linux what they did for the Mac? “The graphical shell is the glove through which the user touches the rest of the system,” says Hertzfeld, who has kept the title “software wizard” from his days as a Mac programmer. “It really is a key point in terms of usability. But the toughest part is the system’s care, feeding, and maintenance. The real opportunity here is to use the Internet to pro- vide the knowledge base that can keep your computer running smoothly without any_ technologi- cal expertise on your part.” Programmers and developers make up the bulk of Linux users. About 89 million copies of operat- ing systems were sold in 1999, search firm IDC says. Linux made up 4 per- cent (by compari- son, the Mac OS accounted for 5 percent), Source of Strength Eazel believes that the open- source nature of Linux is the OSS s . With open- source developers are free to distribute and change code. Therefore, the software-development pro- cess becomes a collaboration, and no single company really owns the code. A big focus at Eazel is developing custom interfaces for various file types. For example, the file manager might recognize a directory as being made up of music files and display it in a partic- ular way. Users could then view the files in a mode that resembled an MP3 player, complete with song titles and running lengths. Gnome 2.0—including Nautilus—will be free for people to change and distrib- ute. Eazel plans to turn a profit by providing Internet- based services to Linux users. “Our overall goal is to make Linux and open-source soft- ware in general easier to use,” Hertzfeld says. For now, Gnome is aimed at current Linux users. In time, Eazel hopes it will appeal to novice computer users. A beta release of Nautilus is scheduled for this summer, and all the components of Gnome 2.0 should be ready for distribu- tion by this fall. Adobe Puts It All Together ILLUSTRATOR, GOLIVE UPDATES OFFER MORE SHARED FEATURES by Frith Breitzer ith Adobe's (800/ 833-6687, www sadobe.com) lat- est versions of Illustrator — and GoLive, users will find that the company’s applications have more in common than ever before. ke the updated Web- authoring tool, GoLive 5.0. Tt includes Photoshop tech- nology that allows users to automatically resize and opti- mize native Photoshop files within GoLive. What's more, GoLive, Illustrator 9,0, and the recently unveiled Live- Motion can share objects with one another. Clicking on an image in GoLive will automatically launch the Adobe application that cre- ated it. After you've edited the source file, it’s automati- cally updated in GoLive. Illustrator 9.0 shares fea- tures with other Adobe pro- grams, including Photoshop. Users can export files to Photoshop with intact, edit- able type layers. Designers can use Photoshop and third-party filters on vector images, and the vectors remain editable. Web Wonders The Illustrator upgrade includes ciwsow Web-savvy features that users may recognize from other Adobe products. Illus- trator 9.0 can export to Flash, GIF, JPEG, PNG, and SVG formats. Users of Adobe ImageReady will find that Illustrator 9.0 makes use of a Save For Web feature similar to the one in Live- Motion. This Web optimiza- tion tool allows users to see how changes in compression and optimization affect image quality. GoLive 5.0 and Illustrator 9.0 add many other new fea- tures, including a few that designers have been request- ing for some time. For example, Illustrator 9.0 supports transparency. Designers can use effects including ghosted type, fades, and soft shadows. They can control feathering to soften transitions between fore- ground and background objects. In addition, users can turn any object into an opacity mask that controls how objects underneath it show through. Common Code GoLive 5.0 includes new features such as a QuickTime editor for audio and video files that lets designers place Quick- Time and Flash files on a timeline. GoLive is compati- ble with other forms of code, such as ASP, ColdFusion, and XML, because the program won't change code it hasn’t created itself, Taking a cue from Macromedia’s highly exten- sible Dreamweaver HTML- editing program, GoLive 5.0 is extensible via a software development kit. GoLive 5.0 includes an integrated devel- opment environment for JavaScript that lets program- mers customize features such as palettes, inspectors, and menu items. GoLive 5.0 also supports the WebDAV standard, so designers can avoid over- writing each other's work. Illustrator 9.0 is slated to ship during the second quar- ter of 2000. It will cost around $399, with upgrades priced at $149. CorelDraw and Macromedia FreeHand users can purchase Illustrator 9.0 for $249. Customers who bought Illustrator 8.0 after April 5, 2000, are eligible for a free upgrade. GoLive 5.0 is expected to ship in June 2000. At press time, Adobe hadn't set a price. Photo Printing Comes Home PRINTERS MAY BE A BOON FOR DIGITAL CAMERA USERS by Frith Breitzer ore-powerful cam- eras have brought the digital photo market into focus. Some recently introduced printers that cater to digital shutterbugs may push the digital photo busi- ness to the next level. Photo printers have been available for years, but only recently have digital cam- eras been able to produce the high- resolution image files that make traditional photo- quality _ printing possible. And this time around, more-affordable photo printers could encourage more people to give digital cameras a try. Epson (800/873-7766, www.epson.com) claims that its new Stylus Photo 870, Stylus Photo 1270, and Stylus Photo 875DC ink-jet printers can reproduce the look-and-feel of traditional silver-halide prints. Epson’s printers feature a continuous edge-to-edge 4-by-6-inch snapshot printing system similar to those used in com- mercial photo labs. All three Epson printers —_ feature 1,440-by-720-dpi resolution and new inks that the com- pany says last longer than its earlier products. The $299 Stylus Photo 870 and the $399 Stylus Photo 875DC were set to hit the market in early April 2000. The $499 Stylus Photo 1270 should ship in May. It has a wider, 13-inch carriage, mak- ing it compatible with more print sizes. The Dye Is Cast Fujifilm (800/800-3854, www.fujifilm .com) has leveraged its expe- rience with conventional film-based photofinishing to offer a different type of printer. The portable FinePix Printer NX-500 uses Fuji- film’s Thermo-Autochrome dye-sublimation __ printing technology to produce 4-by- 6-inch, 306-dpi prints in two minutes. Unlil ke ink-jet printers, the FinePix requires no inks, toners, or ribbons. Instead, as in conventional photo print- ing, the dyes form in the paper. The FinePix should ship in May for $299. Like Fujifilm, Sony (800/ 686-7669, www.sel.sony.com) uses a dye-sublimation print- ing process. Sony’s UP-DP10 photo printer uses special paper to produce laminated 4-by-6-inch borderless photo prints with 300-dpi resolu- tion. The printer was to ship in April, priced around $389. Windows 2000: Server with a Smile? GIVES MAC USERS MORE THAN WINDOWS NT by Philip Michaels ac users most likely took little notice of Microsoft's (425/ 882-8080, www -microsoft.com) splashy launch of Windows 2000. After all, the new oper- ating system caters to the high-end computer-network market—not exactly the home turf of Apple’s Mac OS. Still, Mac users on net- works run by Windows NT Server 4.0 may have reason to welcome Windows 2000. Microsoft promises that Windows 2000 Server will provide easier-to-manage file sharing and remote access for Mac users. Cross-platform networking specialists call the upgrade’s Mac support a big improvement over what NT offers. Corporate networks com- monly include Macs, and Windows NT is often the server of choice. “There are probably just as many Macs connected to NT servers as there are connected to AppleShare,” notes John Rizzo, editor of the cross- platform integration Web site MacWindows.com. Windows Dressing? Still, NT Server 4.0 had a few problems supporting the continues www.macworld.com June 2000 27 Print It Pretty Hewlett- Packard (800/552-8500, www hp.com) has given graphics pro- fessionals more printers to choose from with its release of the HP Color LaserJet 8550 printer series. The new printer line includes the 8550GN, aimed at the graphics market. The 8550GN features 11-by-17-inch full-bleed printing, automatic Pantone color calibration, a 300MHz processor, and 128MB of RAM, Prices for the new printers start at $4,500, with the 8550GN retailing for around $8,500. Bigger Is Better Continuing a quest for ever larger and ever flat- ter display screens, NEC (800/ 632-4636, www.nectech.com) has produced a 42-inch plasma display. The PlasmaSync 42MP1 is designed for conference-room presentations, videoconferencing, and training programs. It's com- patible with conventional video, HD video, computers, and DVI digital inputs and sells for $9,995. ‘The Note to End All Notes Weary researchers should be happy to hear that ISI (800/554-3049, www.isiresearchsoft.com) has ResearchSoft upgraded its bibliographic soft- are. EndNote 4.0 features a new user interface and more lev- els of customization. It also fea- tures autocompletion of new entries and automatic inclusion of entries in terms lists. The program retails for $299, though ISI ResearchSoft has special upgrade prices and student rates EDITED BY FRITH BREITZER, Mac. Early tests of Windows 2000 Server indicate that it corrects those flaws. For example, Windows 2000 sup- ports Apple File Protocol over TCP/IP, whereas Windows NT allows Mac clients to share files only through AppleTalk. The addition of TCP/IP sup- port via Windows 2000 MacFile feature makes it eas- ier for Mac users to share files, Microsoft says. There's also the potential for faster data- transfer speeds with TCP/IP. Another new feature, MacPrint, lets Mac users send documents to printers con- nected to a computer runt Windows 2000 Server. Win- dows 2000 users can also send documents to printers on an Apple'Talk network. With Windows NT, Mac users couldn't dial in to the server and access the network remotely. Windows 2000 Server fixes that by letting Mac users dial in using the Mac OS's Remote Access con- trol panel. The upgrade also fixes a bug in Windows NT that incorrectly reported the size and remaining space of volumes mounted on a Mac. Windows 2000 Server also offers consistent security for Mac and PC users across a network—a benefit for net- work managers, Rizzo says. Even with those benefits, though, not every network administrator will rush to upgrade. Besides using more memory than Windows NT, the new operating system may have some glitches to overcome—as many as 63,000 bugs, according to an internal Microsoft memo. “Once that’s shaken out, I do think Windows 2000 Server will benefit Mac users,” Rizzo says. Microsoft is selling Windows 2000 Server with ten-client access licenses for $1,199. The advanced version of the server sells for $3,999. Upgrades cost $599. newly unveiled Quartz design — develope (650/598-4747, www.symbian.com) can com and a mobile phone to offer features such z | as « [ browsing, telephony, and wireless connectivity with other devices. The idea behind Quartz is ‘to make it easier for handheld de- vices to commu- nicate with each other, Motorola, a partner in the ‘Symbian consor- tium, plans to release a Quartz-based phone of 2001. Symbian Partners E Ericsson and Psion have aa Quartz as well. No word on | whether Quartz devices will also. do windows.—PHILIP MICHAELS Pantone’s More Colorful World UPGRADES ADD COLORS, PAPER STOCKS by Philip Michaels ixty-four colors may be enough for a box of crayons, but graphics profession- als are a little more demanding. Enter color- standards provider Pantone (888/726-8663, www.pantone .com) with updates to its ref- erence products that bring the total number of colors in its guides and chip books to 1,159. “When you take a prod- uct that’s 37 years old, you have to revamp and revise it based on the needs of the people who use it today,” says Richard Herbert, Pantone executive vice president. The upgrades add colors across the spectrum, as well as a more diverse palette of earth tones. Pantone says the new paper stocks are cleaner and brighter, and the com- pany has added a matte— coated-paper edition. The upgrades include revised color guides and chip books that show off the new colors and paper stocks. Pan- tone’s $109 Formula Guide should be on shelves by this May, as should Pantone Solid Chips, a three-volume binder that will sell for $289. Also coming out this spring, the Solid to Process Guide, which compares Pantone colors to their closest matches in CMYK process color, will sell for $109, while Solid to Process Chips will sell for $229. Pantone’s $129 Process Guide and two-volume $229 Process Chips are already available. 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All entrants will also receive an “Are You at Risk" Kit. (See APC'’s Web site for complete promotion details) Enter now: Visit http://promo.apcc.com Key Code s762z « Call 888-289-APCC x8935 - Fax 401-788-2797 (©2000 American Power Conversion. All Trademarks are the property of thair owners. APCIHOEFUS * PowerFax: (800)347-FAXX * Exmait apcnfo@apce.com * 132 Fairgrounds Rd., West Kingston, Rl 02892 USA Circle 72 on card or go to www.macworld.com/getinfo Brian Hancock - EVP Marketing, snowboardertv.com (leap MARKET RESEARCH TRENDS & FORECASTS COMPETITOR ALERTS ANALYST REPORTS MARKET CALCULATIONS Our tools. Your ideas. Better get used to praise. WWW DEEPCANYON COM PowerBook 2000 MILD-MANNERED UPDATE, OR SUPER-POWERBOOK? POWERBOOK IS MORE THAN A computer. It’ a loyal companion, an indispensable assistant, a home entertainment system, and a gate- WA way to the world, The mobility of the PowerBook, combined with an uncompromising feature set, makes it a fix- ture in the lives of mobile users. The only thing holding it back is a single wire lead- ing from the back of the portable to a phone or Ethernet jack. No more. With the release of the latest Power- Book G3, Apple has added a host of improvements to a product that just ago Macworld deemed without pet the list ofimprovements is long and impr sive, one new feature makes the release of the latest PowerBook a watershed event in the history of mobile computing: the addi- tion of an internal AirPort slot. With a $99 AirPort card installed, the PowerBook cuts its last tie to the earth, leaving users free to roam their homes and offices. \ il \ A Featured Player How can you one-up yourself when you already make the most feature-rich portable on the market? Simple: Pile on even more features. All the features from the bronze PowerBook remain intact, including last year’s industrial design (see Reviews, Sep- tember 1999). But fear not: while the new PowerBook’s chassis is unchanged, under that black polycarbonate skin is a totally new logic board that gives this portable more in common with Apple’s supercom- 74 desktop machines than last year’s PowerBook. Because the G4 is too power-hungry to make a good processor for a portable, the new PowerBook features a G3 what a G3! The high-end configu still priced at a moderate $3,499, clocks in at SOOMHz; the $2,499 model, at 400MHz. Better yet, Apple has surrounded these speedy G3s with state- of-the-art G4 logic boards. Highlights of the new board include the ATT Rage Mobility 128 graphics controller with 8MB of SDRAM and support for 2-D and puting 3-D graphics, the AGP 2x graphi tecture to push those pixels even faster, a 100MHz memory bus capable of sup- porting up to 512MB of PC100 RAM, and an Ultra ATA/66 hard drive with as much as 18GB of storage capacity. Perhaps most incredible is what you get in the base model: a 400MHz G3 pro- cessor, 64MB of RAM, a 6GB hard drive, and a DVD-ROM drive. Yes, now all PowerBooks come standard with DVD- movie-playback capability, giving you the best seat in the theater on your next cross- country flight. The high-end model adds another 64MB of RAM; 6GB of disk stor- age; and of course, the S00MHz G3 pro- cessor. (A $3,997 system with an 18GB ibe REAL RATINGS VERY GooD: $466 Goop: $$$ Reviews you can trust: Macworld rates only final shipping products, not prototypes. What we review is what you can actually buy. OUTSTANDING: $99¢% UNACCEPTABLE: $ 32 June 2000 MACWORLD drive, an extra battery, and an AC adapter is available only from the Apple Store.) By the Numbers Like cold, hard numbers to back up a product’s claims? The results of Mac- world Lab’ testing should impress even the most-skeptical shoppers. Using MacBench 5.0, we compared the 2000 PowerBook to both of last year’s models and a 400MHz G4 desktop (see “More Power to Go”). We found that the new PowerBook’s logic board delivered seriously improved disk and graphics per- formance, especially compared with its 1999 predecessor. For example, the 2000 PowerBook’s graphics score is more than 60 percent higher than the 400MHz bronze PowerBook’s. The 500MHz PowerBook delivered especially impre: sive graphics numbers, coming within shouting distance of the G4 desktop. Our biggest surprise when testing the new PowerBooks wasn’t speed results but battery life. You would expect battery life to go down as performance goes up. Not so with the new PowerBooks, which actu- ly offer improved battery life. Using our office-software test and default energy- aver settings, we ran the 400MHz model for 3 hours and 26 minutes on one bat- tery charge; last year’s 400 MHz model ran out of juice 25 minutes sooner. The 500MHz model delivered slightly le: than three hours of battery life. No Strings Attached When you've got that extra battery life, what's the first thing you want to add to your portable? More power-hungry f tures, of course. This PowerBook is the first to offer AirPort wireless networking, and we couldn’t be happier. Until you've had the pleasure of showing someone a favorite Web site while cradling your PowerBook in one hand and running your other hand underneath it to demonstrate that there are no visible connections, you just can’t appreciate how liberating wireless net- working at Ethernet speeds can bi While wireless technology offers the greatest impact for portable users, it’s not the only important new capability in the 2000 PowerBook. This portable also adds. two FireWire ports to the back panel, at last putting a stake through the heart of SCSI on the Mac platform. The PowerBook is the ideal home for FireWire—who better than mobile professionals to take advantage More Power to Go Best results in red. Reference systems in italics. MacBench 5.0 scores are relative to those of a first-generation Power Mac G3/300, which is assigned a score of 1,000 for each test. MACBENCH 5.0 Processor Disk Graphics 1 Apple PowerBook G3/500 FreWite) — 1S 1257 2,725 Apple PowerBook G3/400 (FiteWire) — 1231 12) 2,487 Apple PowerBook 3/400 Con) —- 7,224 2 1,501 Apple Powerbook G3/333 (ome)$$—_ = 948 2 = 1.385 Apple Power Macintosh G4/400. a 20 52,126 Behind Our Tests ‘We tested each system with Mac OS 9, a 2MB system disk cache, and virtual memory disabled. All machines were tested with 64MB of RAM, except the S500MH2 PowerBook, which ships with 128MB of RAM—Macworld Lab testing supervised by Gil Loyola of tiny, light, hot-swappable hard drives that don’t require separate power sourc Then there's the matter of being able to directly download video from a Fire Wire-equipped DV camera to the Power- Book. Apple has foolishly left iMovie off the hard drive, expecting PowerBook users to pony up $999 for Final Cut Pro if they want to join the DV revolution. Sorry, Appl boat on this one, , but you clearly missed the Bugs and Boos Tt may take a while to learn all of the PowerBook’ idiosyncrasies and figure out whether you can really live with them. For example, the first PowerBook G3. to include USB had several bugs a with using that port, including losing USB Those bugs, it turned out, were ssociated devices. not fully addressed in the bronze Power- Book; Apple added to the list of petty annoyances DVD drives that would sud- denly cease to function, and a tendency for the PowerBook to crash when waking up from sleep mode on a new network We're happy to report that with the new PowerBooks, the USB problems seem to have been resolved at last. So, too, have the mysterious problems with the DVD drives. However, after a couple ting we noted that the hing glitch began to rear its of weeks of t sleep-c ugly head. As we went to press, Apple had posted a bug-fix that seemed to have erad- icated the problem, One other bug the new PowerBook seems to have inherited—not from earlier models but from the iBook—is date reset. Whenever you reset the system by push- ing the button on the back panel, the computer zaps all parameter RAM, including date and time—which are reset to 1/1/1904, 12:01 a.m. Macworld's Buying Advice What can we say? Apple’s done it again with the release of the new PowerBook. Yes, the company blew it by not bundling iMovie, but for most mobile professionals. that won't matter much. And yes, the date-reset bug is unfortunate. Otherwise, this is as close to a perfect PowerBook as. you can get. Now, for next year’s model, let’s talk about wireless communication for when you're away from an AirPort base station. . ANDREW GORE PowerBook 63/400 RATING: $$98Y2 PROS: Absolutely amazing feature set for the money; leaves very few reasons to step up to more-expensive configura tions, CONS: No iMovie bundle makes DV fea- tures inaccessible; annoying date-reset bug. COMPANY: Apple Computer (800/795-1000, wwwaapple.com). LIST PRICE: $2,499. PowerBook 63/500 RATING: $§8#% PROS: Fastest Mac portable ever made; mind-blowing feature list. CONS: No iMovie bundle makes DV features inaccessible; annoying date-reset bug. COMPANY: Apple Computer (800/795-1000, www.apple.com). LIST PRICE: $3,499. www.macworld.com June 2000 33 G4 Processor Slot Upgrades [Reviews SQUEEZE A FEW MORE YEARS OUT OF YOUR POWER MAC PPLE DOESN'T SEEM TO LIKE beige. The public doesn’t seem to like beige. You may not like beige. But if you have a beige Mac on your desktop, you might want to consider upgrading it rather than going graphite. The latest G4 upgrade cards are surprisingly stable and bring older Power Macs’ performance close to that of new Macs. With prices ranging from $600 to $850, G4 upgrades aren't cheap, but many users—particularly those with a significant investment in peripherals—will find them an econom- ical alternative to new 400MHz G4 sys- tems, which start at $1,600. Maeworld Lab took a look at all the U.S.-made G4 processor slot upgrade cards, in both 350MHz and 400MHz configurations: Newer Technology's Maxpowr G4, Powerlogix’s Pow Force G4, Sonnet ‘Technologi Crescendo G4 PCI, and XLR8’s M: Carrier G4. These upgrades work by G4 Upgrade Cards Compared Clockwise from upper left: Newer Technology's Maxpowr G4, Sonnet Technologies’ Crescendo G4 PCI, and Powerlogix’s PowerForce G4, Company's Mouse _ Estimated Company Product Rating Price Contact Pros Cons Newer Technology ‘Maxpowr G4 iil $599 316/943-0222 Easiest card to install; on-board No DIP switches. 350MHz wwwwnewertech.com —_speculative-processing fix. Powerlogix PowerForce G4 008 $599 877/849-2504 Includes fan; DIP switches let you Documentation is only 350MHz wivw.powerlogix.com select optimal bus and processor _for the technically adept. speed. Sonnet Technologies Crescendo Ga Pcl 944 $500 800/786-6260 Easy to install; excellent ‘No DIP switches 350MHz wwwsonnettech.com documentation. XLRE. ‘Mach Carrier Ga $90 $719 888/957-8867 ZF card allows for future upgrades; Most expensive 350MHz 350MHz wovw.xlr8.com DIP switches let you select optimal upgrade at press time. bus and processor speed. Newer Technology ‘Maxpowr G4 one $799 316/943-0222 Easy to instal; on-board specu- Expensive; no DIP switches. 400MHz www.newertech.com _lative-processing fix. Powerlogix PowerForce Ga ry $850 877/849-2504 Tncludes fan; DIP switches let you Most expensive at press 400MHz www-powerlogix.com select optimal bus and processor —_time; documentation is only speed. for the technically adept ‘Sonnet Technologies Crescendo G4 PCI eee $650 800/786-6260 Easy to install; excellent Expensive; no DIP switches. 400MHz wwwsonnettech.com documentation. XLRB ‘Mach Carrier G4 60% $849 888/957-8867 Upgrade comes on small carrier Expensive, 400MHz www.xlr8.com ZIF card for future ZIF upgrades, 34 June 2000 MACWORLD DIP switches let you select opti- ‘mal bus and processor speed. replacing the Mac’s original CPU with a new one driven by a G4 processor. They’re for use in the Power Macin- tosh 7300, 7500, 7600, 8500, 8600, 9500, and 9600; the DayStar Genesis and Millennium; the Power Comput- ing Power'Tower Pro and PowerWave; and the Umax J700 and $900. Do You Need a G4? The big difference between a G4 pro- ‘ssor and a G3 processor is that the G4 s AltiVec (called Velocity Engine by Apple). AltiVec offers a major speed boost, but only to applications that take advantage of it; multimedia and graphics software will see the biggest perfor- mance improvements. In addition, not all software has been optimized to derive a performance benefit from the G4 processor (to see a list of soft- ware currently optimized for the G4, go to hetp://macworld.zdnet.com/2000/03/01/ g4acceleratedtable.html). If the applica- tions you commonly use aren’t on that list, you may want to consider getting a G3 upgrade for your Mac instead; a G4 upgrade won't give you much of a boost. All the G4 slot upgrades we tested delivered similar performance—not sur- prising, since they’re all based on the same processor. What is remarkable about the upgrades is how close they come to matching the performance of new G4 machines. In most of our tests, each upgrade running in a Power Mac 7300 was nearly as fast as a graphite G4 with the same processor speed. Surprisingly, the only time the upgraded 7300 lagged noticeably behind was when we ran the Quake III tests—though, to be fair, the upgrades were running in a machine that previously would allow you to play Quake III only grudgingly. Hardware Issues All sophisticated computer proc use a technique called speculative pro- ing—moving data they think they will need into the cache—to improve overall performance. The G4, since it usually runs four or more times as fast as the system bus, has a lot of time to speculate. (For more information on speculative processing and G4 up- grades, go to www.macworld.com/2000/ 06/reviews/g-+upgradewoes.html.) Getting a G4 upgrade to work in an older Mac means adding a bit of code to the Mac’s open firmware (data stored on your Mac that controls some of its most basic functions) to prevent the new pro- cessor from making catastrophic mistakes while speculating. Newer ‘Technology's upgrades have a ROM chip that contains this data; when the upgrade starts up, it puts the data into the Mac’s open firmware. All the other upgrades take a ces in minutes:seconds. ‘Newer Technology Maxpowr G4 400MHz —— Powerlogix PowerForce Ga 400MHz Sonnet Technologies Crescendo G4 PCI 400MHz XLRB Mach Cartier G4 400MHe Newer Technology Maxpowr G4 350MHz Powerlogix PowerForce G4 350MHz — Sonnet Technologies Crescendo G4 PCI 350MH2 XLRB Mach Carrier G4 350MHz — ‘Apple Power Macintosh G4/400 —— Apple Power Macintosh G4/350 ‘Apple Power Macintosh 730/200 —— Behind Our Tests software approach, requiring you to add the code to your Mac’s open firmware from a floppy disk when you install the upgrade card. The problem with the software approach is that you can accidentally delete the added code simply by zapping the PRAM. If this happens and your Mac refuses to start up, you need to remove the upgrade and reinstall the original pro- cessor, then run the open-firmware updater again, and finally reinstall the upgrade. If you think you'll remember to hang on to your old processor and the firmware floppy, then buy the least- expensive G4 upgrade you can find; if you're the belt-and-suspenders type and don’t want the extra worry, you may want to go with a Newer ‘Technology card. Macworld's Buying Advice This latest crop of upgrade cards offers terrific performance, nearly matching that of Apple’s current systems. Newer ‘Technology’s solution to the speculative- processing issue is more robust, but all the cards are stable and perform well. The upgrade market is competitive, so be sure to check current prices before buying; prices drop often. No matter which card you choose, you'll enjoy the performance boost. You may suffer from graphite envy, but these upgrades make it cool to be beige.—pavio rean G4 Slot Upgrades Add Muscle to Older Macs Best results in red. Reference systems in italics, Photoshop results are in seconds. Bryce and SoundJam results are PHOTOSHOP 5.5 BRYCE 4 SOUNDJAM QUAKE III (Gaussian Blur Lighting Effects Unsharp Mask | | Render Scene | ! MP3 Encode Frames/Sec. | = 82 @ oo =, 39 = 2340 249 MD 24.6 = 38 @ 8. == 26 =! 2330 241 248 = 64 56 me 35 am 242 236 26.0 = 62 @ ‘a. =z 25 36 = 2:36 27.1 — 78 @ oo =z, 46 2:27 2:52 GM 24.1 = 67 = 65 BA on 2615 3:00 23.6 = 6 = 63 40 Mn 25:50 254 NM 24.6 = 68 = 4 =z 36 = 2608 255 C. 25.8 i 67 = 52 = . = 225 224 Cm 313 — 99 5° = 78 Boon 254 244 M303 es 2 74:42 725 112 [Longer bv ae ete We tested each upgrade card in a Power Macintosh 7300/200 with Mac OS 9, 128MB of RAM, a 2MB system disk cache, virtual memory disabled, and an ATI Rage Orion graphics accelerator. We performed Photoshop tests with a 30MB file. We tested MP3 encoding with an audio-CD track that was 9 minutes and 25 seconds in length, We tested Quake Ill at a resolution of 640 by 480 pixels, with graphics set to Normal—Macworld Lab testing supervised by Gil Loyola www.macworld.com June 2000 35 [ Reviews iBook, iBook Special Edition MORE POWER, SAME PRETTY FACE HOSE OF YOU WHO HELD OFF purchasing an iBook until Apple resolved the original model’s problems should get your wallets ready: beefed-up RAM and increased hard-disk space make Apple’s latest portables more than just pretty faces. Both the iBook and the iBook Spe- cial Edition (SE) offer a more reasonable 64MB of RAM (expandable to 320MB)— double the skimpy 32MB that subjected the 1999 iBook to crashes and other prob- lems (see Reviews, January 2000). And if you thought the original iBook’s 3GB hard disk seemed cramped, you'll be pleased to know that the 2000 models offer twice the space. ‘The iBook still comes ina rugged, eye- popping tangerine or blueberry curved clamshell case, while the iBook SE sports ssy graphite and ice exterior and a ssor speed—from 300MHz to 366MHz. Apple is probably hoping the iBook SE will be as successful as the hot- selling iMac DV Special Edition. But unlike the iMac DV SE, which offers twice as much RAM and a larger hard drive than the iMac DV, the iBook SE offers only one technological advantage when compared with the iBook: a faster processor. This, and the graphite case, will cost you a cool $200 extra—the same as the difference between the iMac DV and the iMac DV SE. Still, the color alone may appeal to users who shied away from the Day-Glo tangerine and blueberry models. New Books, Same Story Macworld Lab tests confirm that the iBook SE%s faster processor brings improved per- formance (see “An iBook by Any Other Name”). Users will find the speed increase negligible, however; whether surfing the Web or working in a word-processing application, you're not likely to notice a difference between the iBook and iBook SE. Fortunately, the changes to the iBook hardly compromise its battery life: the iBook SE’s battery lasted about 4 hours, only 15 minutes less than that of the new iBook or the 1999 model. Everything else about the new iBooks is the same—the 12.1-inch TFT display; 24x CD-ROM drive; 56-Kbps modem; 10/100BaseT Ethernet; and AirPort card slot, which lets you take advantage of wire- less networking. And because AirPort 1.1 An iBook by Any Other Name Best results in red. Reference systems in italics. MacBench 5.0 scores are relative to those of a first-generation Power Mac G3/300, which is assigned a score of 1,000 for each test. MACBENCH 5.0 ! Processor Disk Graphics ! Apple iBook Special Edition 366MHz — 7,016 1,200 SE -1,377 ‘Apple iBook 300MHz (2000) — 419 Apple iBook 300MHz (1999)*- 1,290 Apple iMac 350MHz 1005S 2236 “No longer sold. Behind Our Tests We tested each system with Mac OS 9, 64MB of RAM, a 2MB system disk cache, and virtual memory disabled —Macworld Lab testing supervised by Gil Loyola, 36 June 2000 MACWORLD includes a working preview of AirPort Soft- ware Base Station (see the feature story “Cut Loose,” elsewhere in this issue), you can now use any AirPort-equipped Mac as a base station. As before, the iBook weighs in at 6.6 pounds—a bit heavy considering the PowerBook 2000 is only 6.1 pounds. And the Mac’s Location Manager is still plagued by byzantine complexity, making it difficult for novice users to manage set- tings as they change locations. We still wouldn’t recom- mend the iBook as a gaming machine. Its ATI Rage Mobil- ity graphics controller, 4MB of SDRAM, 66MHz_ bus speed, and relatively slow pro- cessor just can’t keep up with demanding games. Macworld's Buying Advice Budget-conscious buyers who need a portable computer—but don’t need a lightning-fast pro- cessor, FireWire, an extra USB port, a PC Card slot, or VGA- and S-Video-out ports—will appreciate the iBook’s value. And if the graphite case is worth $200 to you, by all means get the iBook SE. Road warriors who need more options and more power should consider the new PowerBook (see the PowerBook review elsewhere in this section) or an older-model PowerBook. But remember that for $100 less than the price of an iBook SE, you can get an iMac DV Spe- cial Edition with a 400MHz processor, 128MB of RAM, a 13GB hard drive, a DVD-ROM drive, FireWire, and iMovie video-editing software.—raitH sreirzer iBook RATING: $$$'/2 PROS: Striking design; more RAM and hard-disk space. CONS: Limited con- figuration and expansion options. COMPANY: Apple Computer (800/795-1000, www.apple com). LIST PRICE: $1,599. iBook Special Edition RATING: $$$ PROS: Elegant design; more RAM and hard-disk space. CONS: Extra money buys only marginal performance improvements COMPANY: Apple Computer (800/795-1000, www.apple.com). LIST PRICE: $1,799. add life to the web Flash websites have mass appeal. Flash feeds the masses. Already the standard with over 100 million users, people drive through Flash Websites every day* Serve up a high-impact experience with Flash. www.macromedia.com macromedia DIRECTOR SHOCKWAVE DREAMWEAVER FIREWORKS (FLASH) (FREEHAND) GENERATOR Choose 36 at www.macworld.com/getinfo Carrara [ Reviews METACREATIONS' 3-D-MODELING DEBUT FTER CORNERIN: the low-end and midrange Mac- intosh 3-D-software market, MetaCreations has introduced Carrara 1.0, a completely new 3-D-modeling, -rendering, and ~anima- tion package. Designed to replace Ray Dream Designer and Infini-D, Carrara takes the strengths of those packages adds a wealth of powerful fea~ tures that will prove attractive to beginning and professional 3-D developers alike. e Rooms, Nice Previews Like other MetaCreations prod- ucts, Carrara sports a unique interface. It distributes 3-D- production tasks among five vir- tual “rooms”: the Assemble room is for scene building and lighting placement; the Model- ing room, for modeling; the ‘Texture room, for texture map- ping; the Storyboard room, for rough animation scripting; and the Render room, for creating final output. MetaCreations touts this “compartmental workflow” as a way of simplifying the creative process. Though the idea is interesting, the modal approach actually slows things down and makes some actions more difficult than they'd be in a document-centered program. And although the interface is beautiful to look at, I'd happily exchange it for larger win- dows and a more expansive workspace. ‘To its credit, Carrara provides excel- lent OpenGL support, with full interac- tive shading and lighting and good per- formance. Well-designed previews and swatches make it much easier to set up complex effects in Carrara than in higher- end programs such as autodessys’s form-Z or Play's Electric Image. Model Modules Carrara offers a number of modeling environments. In the Assemble room, you can create and position simple primitives, including basic geometric shapes and infinite planes. There’s a powerful Bryce- like terrain generator, as well as automat- ic fire, cloud, and fog generators. 38 June 2000 MACWORLD When you're ready to model more- complex shapes, simply decide whether you want to create a spline, polygonal, text, or metaball object and drag the appropri- ate modeling primitive into your scene; ara places you in the appropriate mod- cling room and provides the necessary tools. Ground, y, and z planes make it easy to place objects. As you drag an object Multiple Modules —Carrara's interface divides 3-D tasks among different rooms. Shown here is the Assemble room, where objects are placed and animated. around the screen, shadowy outlines on each plane help you position objects accu- rately, and the Collision Detection option prevents objects from intersecting. In addition to sweeping, extruding, lathing, and lofting tools, Carrara’s pow- erful polygonal modeler provides vertex- level editing. The vertex editor, which lets you select and name groups of vertic« , is one of the best I’ve seen. You can grab and manipulate vertices to easily “sculpt” your digital shapes. And Carrara’s Sphere Of Attraction tool makes it simple to move a natural collection of vertices, preventing weird, pointy edits. You'll also find full Boolean controls and creasing and smoothing commands, although controls for beveling and rounding are conspicu- ously absent. Spline-modeling tools are quite powerful: in addition to extrusions, lathes, and skins, you can easily create twists, sweeps, and spirals and add cross sections to existing objects The Texture room is an excellent, full-featured texturing environment with complete multichannel shaders. With support for multilayered shaders as well as a hierarchical shader tree, Carrara’s shading controls are impressive. Unfor- tunately, the drag-and-drop approach to applying shaders might make texturing difficult if you're working on complex models with many parts. Animation and Rendering Although the animation module is packed with powerful features, animation script- ing is Carrara’s weakest component. The program's timeline is easy to use and lets you animate any property of an object, but the program’s tools can be frustrating to use. Unfortunately, its velocity controls— simple dialog boxes that present different keyframe-interpolation methods—are a far cry from the function-curve editors in more-powerful 3-D programs. And because Carrara doesn’t automatically cre- ate motion paths between keyframes, refin- ing an object's motion is difficult. Multimedia and game designers will appreciate the program’s powerful resolu- tion controls for reducing the geometry of an object. Broadcast and film users, however, will be frustrated by the lack of support for the NTSC-standard 29.97- frame-per-second rate, motion blur, and field rendering. Carrara’s automatic-animation compo- nent is well designed and fun to play with, and the rendering engine is speedy. The hybrid ray tracer is the most impressive of several rendering options, providing ray- tracing quality at Phong shading speeds. Unfortunately, the program bogs down when presented with large polygon counts. Macworld's Buying Advice Carrara is an impressive achievement, especially given its version 1.0 status. If you're in the market for a well-rounded 3-D package, it’s definitely worth a look. However, it’s difficult to say if these good beginnings will ever bear fruit. Meta- Creations has announced that it’s selling off its graphics products but claims it will continue to develop them until a buyer is found. We hope the company will be true to its word.—sen Lone RATING: §$$$ PROS: Very good modeling tools; powerful shading and effect speedy ren- derer. CONS: Weak animation scripting; poor sup- port for broadcast and film animators; bulky inter- face. COMPANY: MetaCreations (800/846-0111, www.metacreations.com). LIST PRICE: $399. WW WWI WW Doing business on the Web today doesn't have to be a major battle. With Interland you sit back and let your own personal Account Manager take you through the whole process, every step of the way, delivering Web solutions tailored to your needs. Easily and affordably. Interland is your business's one-stop Web solutions provider, offering you everything from site design and hosting to secure e-commerce and software application services. So if you want your business to come out victorious in the big www, join forces with Interland and enjoy a little peace of mind. 1.800.845.0684 © www.interland.com © sales @interland.com intenland We make the Web work for your [Reviews Two-Megapixel Cameras © MODEST UPGRADES FROM KODAK AND OLYMPUS ODAK AND OLYMPUS JUST might have the best track records for producing quality digital cam- eras. They release more models than any of their competitors, and their products frequently rank among the best on the market. The companies’ lat- est two-megapixel offerings, the Kodak DC290 and the Olympus C-2020 Zoom, are well equipped with 3x optical zooms, rechargeable batteries, and synchroniza- tion sockets for external flashes. But despite these strengths, neither camera will set the world on fire, each being no more than an incremental upgrade to a model released last year. The DC290 is the DC265 (66%; “Digi- tal Cameras Develop,” September 1999) with a higher-resolution CCD; the C-2020 Zoom is the C-2000 Zoom ($844; Reviews, October 1999) with the ability to record QuickTime movies. Further dimming their brilliance, the images these cameras produce can’t match the quality of those produced by Nikon’s Coolpix 950 (#6415 “Digital Cameras Develop,” September 1999). Everything Old Is New The Olympus C-2020 looks awfully familiar—the CCD, the resolution, the optics, even the housing are the same as the C-2000'. The only noteworthy new feature is the camera’s ability to record 15-frame-per-second, 320-by-240-pixel QuickTime movies. It’s lots of fun, sure, but considering the camera’s limited capacity—an 8MB card fills up after 15 seconds—and inability to record sound, it’s more of a novelty than a gen- uine productivity feature. The Kodak DC290 is the meatier upgrade, adding 700,000 pixels to the image sensor. But despite the box’s claim of ixel resolution, the true resolu- 3 million pixels—only about 9 percent higher than that of the C-2020 and the Coolpix 950. Like the Two-Megapixel Cameras Company Kodak Olympus Product DC290 = €-2020 Zoom Mouse rating frm ow ‘Company's estimated price 5899 $799. Contact 800/235-6325, wwwkodak.com 800/347-4027, wwwwsolympus.com Dimensions (w x hx 4, in inches) 46x42%25 43%29%26 ‘Weight (with batteries, in ounces) “16 B ECD resolution (in millions of pixels) 230 211 ‘Maximum image size (in pels) ° 1,792 x 1.200 7,600 x 1,200 Default memory 20mB MB Removable-media format CompactFlash SmartMedia Storage capacity (in images) ce oe at maximum image size ** Closest focal distance (in inches) 12 8 Optical zoom function yes (3%) yes (3) Focal length (35mm-equivalent) 38mm-=115mm 35mm-=105mm Bulltinflash/external strobe hot syne yes/yes yes/yes LCD preview/playback yes/yes = vyesiyes Optical viewfinder yes yes Rechargeable batteries with charger yes yes ‘Macintosh connectivity serial, USB serial * Excluding interpolation. ** Varies according to compression. 40 June 2000 MACWORLD C-2020, the DC290 captures splendid detail when an image is printed at high resolution, but the quality declines when you zoom in. By contrast, a typical image captured with the Coolpix 950 looks good no matter how close you get. The DC290 ships with a 20MB mem- ory card; can be connected to your Mac's The Olympus C-2020 Zoom (left) and Kodak DC290 USB port; and provides a terrific, user- friendly menu system. Butyou can’t focus on objects any closer than a foot aw: which for the purposes of mac