MacWorld0112December2001

INSIDE MICROSOFT OFFICE V.X Mac OS X's First Killer App Has Finally Arrived, page 66 OSX 10.1 Apple's Faster PowerBooks and iBooks Lah Tested: Two New iMacs DVD Burners, DV Camcorders Reviewed Move Your Web Site to XHTML loo2’2L sS}adxyJ yONpold DEW 9YyL Pros on Final Cut Pro’ | #2 in aseries = : Fie _Fat_View Mark Mody Sequence (Hects Tools Window Nelo Clears [Gyles Teor no [heaton El aeteartips ie osoos2 Ete il eon r< oe comet (c0001510 00009901 09] El raptor Atoms 10 {©2001 pple Computer, Ine. Al rights reserved. Final Cul Pro iar Sen) Barrett Sanders, Editor for Evergreen Films. “Thanks to Final Cut Pro, [now have two complete high-end editing systems, without spending a lol of money. The program offers mea level of polish and professionalism I've never experienced before.” Barrett first saw the capabilities of Final Cul Pro two years ago, and bis comment at the time sums it all up nicely; “This is going to completely change production as we know it. Learn more at apple.com/finalcutpro. fs ) 5 O ¢ C eC i) [t's jam-packed with Mac tools. The robot arm, though, that’s just for show. Opinion 17 Forums and Feedback Readers respond. 53 The Game Room PETER COHEN Journey through the cosmos in Star Trek Deep Space Nine: the disturbing Wonderland of American McGee's Alice. he Fallen, or into 140 Ihnatko ANDY IHNATKO Darwin should be made welcome at the Mac OS X party. Mac Beat 20 Apple’s new PowerBooks and iBooks, Mac OS X 10.1 and multiprocessing, Macworld’s 2001 Holiday Gift Guide, and Terra Soft Solutions’ Briq. How-to 78 Turn Cassettes or LPs into CDs JONATHAN SEFF 84 Print Publishing Secrets DAVID BLATNER Learn the techniques for using Adobe Photoshop's spot-color tools. 86 Web Publishing Secrets JEFFREY ZELDMAN Prepare your site for the move to XML with this guide to XHTML, a transitional markup language. 88 Mac OS X Secrets DAVID MORGENSTERN Take advantage of Mac OS X’s Unix servi without using the Terminal program. 90 Mac 911 CHRISTOPHER BREEN Ins multiple operating ditch expendable e: and format disks correctly. Macworld www.macworld.com Incorporating MacUser OS X Comes of Age JASON SNELL The first release of Mac OS X was a radical change, but it was seen as a step backward by many Mac users. With the new version, 10.1, Apple fixes many of the original’s problems—both improving existing features and adding new ones. Has OS X finally grown up? 56 Data to Burn JIM HEID Read our review of six DVD-R/RW drives that bring DVD- burning power to us all 38 Double Dose MATHEW HONAN With Mac OS X 10.1 and a slew of rewritten applications, 30 Illustration software $988 Painter 7 33 Consumer systems $986 Apple iMac 600 $¥4% Apple iMac 700 Special Edition have we entered the era of Mac multiprocessing? 20 36 DV Camcorders $$ Canon ZR25 MC 49% Panasonic PV-DVI01 $999 Sony DCRTRVI7 38 DVD-R/RW Drives $98 APS Tech DVD-R/RW+CD-RW FireWire Pro2 $#/2 CD Cyclone DVD Revo $$%% ClubMac FireWire DVD-R/RW $994 EZOQuest Boa FireWire DVO-R/RW $99 LaCie DVD/CD Rewritable Drive 9984 QPS Que Fire DVDBurner Pro 40 Wide-format color printer $8982 Epson Stylus Pro 5500 Turn Your Cassettes or LPs into CDs Ss /- 41 Software-updating utilities JONATHAN SEFF Transform your dusty old records $8942 TechTracker Pro 1.2 for OS X into a CD collection you can listen to anywhere. $4¥%4 Updateagent x 10.0.4 78 44 Financial software $v Moneydance 3.2 $484 Quicken 2002 Deluxe 45 Backup utility 48% Rewind 12 Office Remodeling TOM NEGRINO When it comes to adoption of OS Xx, 46 Spreadsheet application $42 Mesa 3 available native software is 4 N Preflighting software high on many recuirement $8494 FlightCheck Classic 4.2 lists. With Office v.X, Microsoft brings the first killer app to 48 Encyclopedia OS X. Here's a look inside 48499 World Book Mac OS X Edition 49 Video codec $482 Sorenson Video 3 Professional Edition 50 More reviews online Macworld.com Reviews Macworld.com Visit our site for online-only reviews and extras, a thriving forum where you can speak your mind about all things Mac, and the latest product information. Sq ©2001 Corel Corporation, All sights reserved sn ctotace | what will you make of it?” Inspiration is everywhere. How will you bring it to life? Corel GRAPHICS SUITE 10. Intuitive and powerful graphics software specifically designed for Mac® OS X. GRAPHICS 3 CorelDRAW" 10% Core! PHOTO-PAINT® 10 $8 Corel RAVE!" Circle 79 on card or go to www.macworld.com/getinfo Great Gifts for CD/DVD Storage 7 Firewire CD & OVD Bumers CD-R & DVD-R Media DV Firewire Hard Drives | naraee MAEDIASTORE.COM | i rotate 800.555.5551 EEE 127 on card or www.macworld.com/getinto MacMania tary Bird discount ‘til Dec, 1st AN ALASKA ADVENTURE Ria a Ses SBS icrnaliona Ss ¢ SEAM NOTSTOR/CUROTS CHILL OUT WHILE YOU EXPLORE ALL THINGS MAC Macworld 8 December 2001 wwv.macworld.com ®— € rRekcruses com Macworld Por contenr/crton cnt RckLePoae Kosr0R Jason Sel | [EXECUTIVE Coron, WACMOMLO.COM Lisa Senmelser enon 0170 Now-to Tet Stone son oiTon news Pip Michaels stom coon, eviews Linda Comer Mathew Honan, ely Luntora Jonathan sett CONTRIBUTING EDITORS David Biatner. Henry Bortman, Christooher Breen, Adam C. Engst. Bruce Fraser. Jim Held, Andy Innatho, Ted Landau, Dobe tcCietlnd, Scholle Sanyer McFarland, Tom Negrino, Nancy Peterson, David Pogue. Stephan Somogyi, Franklin N. Tesster AaB DIRECTOR OF PRODUCT EVALUATION Kristina De Nike Test Manacen James Galbraith SEWOR LAB ANALYST Jey K, Misteod ASSOCIATE TECHNICAL ANALYSTS. Livssis Bravo, Jason Cox copy EDIT awasine corroR Jennifer Werner Assistant waNasine COITOR Charles Putoy cory coitons Diane Oli Sue Vorne! ART AND DESIGN oxsion oimeeron Sharon Anderson anv ointeton Watlene Sern! oesiew associate Alissa Mach Pnconcss consuLtant Stephen Sugg CoMTMIBUTING DESIGNER Jenner Steele INTERNATIONAL EDITORS Matthew JC. Powel, Australia: Beenata Le Du, France; Sebastian Wirsch, Germanys Enrico Lott, italy; Yoshio Moriya, Japan; Tomasz Bitner, Poland; Danie! de Blas. Spain Mis Holm. Sweden: Engin Geaih, Turkey; Simon Jary, United Kingdom OUR CUSTOMERS FORM LONG-TERM, MEANINGFUL RELATIONSHIPS WITH OUR FURNITURE. FORTUNATELY, EVERY PIECE COMES WITH A LIFETIME WARRANTY. JD AmhroBench Catalog.pg6 You will form an attachment to your AnthroBench. This is a given. So we build them strong and sturdy— 4% for all the changes you'll go through and for all the heavy loads you'll put on them. And our Lifetime if 47) Warranty assures that you and your Bench will be together far into the future. Visit our Web site 44 TECHNOLOGY FURNITURE’ Or call us. We'll get a catalog to you right away. ANTHRO.COM or 1-800-325-3841. “a New! Support for inkjet printing in OS X. My files are important. | Macworld Very important. Jocsnisl aken Gai eared \VP/CHIEF OPERATING OFriceR Stephen Daniels DIRECTOR OF FINANCE Eos de Feminis | I only share my files | wits those 1 trict. | Sis iin woe \VP OF HUMAN RESOURCES Sue Murphy WOMAN RESOURCE MANAGER SuTsen Wu I trust DAVE’. vernon sees aiaaen Sean create IT MANAGER Jenriter Torres Mac to PC, PC to Mac. 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Cordesse MARKETING SeRVICES MANAGER Joanna Bock Colombo MARKETING INTERN. Guillaume Guersing PRODUCTION PRODUCTION pinECTOR Steve Spingola ‘PREPRESS MANAGER Alan Ancalone ‘2OOKING AND BILLING MANAGER Ricardo Sandoval AB coomDINATOR Megan Matteon’ ONLINE and print the File, chore FolLé" ‘stwion TEeHNoLocy DIRECTOR Paul Forrester SewioR WEB PRODUCER Christina Gonzales ‘ONLINE PRODUCTION MANAGER Ron Neal Eee te Eas aly Shae Se | Circle 124 on card or go to www.macworld.com/getinto 10 December 2001 www.macworld.com Now, when you've got anelle the whole Heal neighborhood wi WI | iTunes; iMovie; email. No matter what you do uae i Mac; it’s going to sound infin Aaa tter with our 40-watt USB-enabled SoundSticks speaker system. Get your: at www.harman-mu cies dia.com. harman’ kardon Out! Tell Macworld How You Use Your Mac! If you're a Macworld subscriber, we want to hear from you. For Macworld to be the best magazine it can be, we need to know how our readers use their Macs. 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Smart Solutions.™ AccountEdge on the Mac. _ Software includes QuickBooks® conversion utility, MYOB also offers conversion service. 800.322.MYOB myob.com/us = a ee \ "QuickBooks is trademark of Intuit, ine. : Circle ¥71 oF DECEMBER 2001 orums and Feedback The Pleasure Is Ours Nothing pleases us more than making our readers happy. Likewise, nothing displeases us more than upsetting them—and many of you were a little miffed by the September issue’s “Save Your Data” feature, which recom- mended Dantz Retrospect but didn’t mention that program’s incompatibil- ity with Apple’s internal CD-RW drives. Other readers were just as peeved about Apple’s product announcements at Macworld Expo New York, But fortunately, everyone still seems happy with Andy Ihnatko—and we couldn’t be more pleased. m Back Up a Minute [S)HENRY F. DOMKE Much of “Save Your Data” (September 2001) was helpful and clear, such as the part called “The Best Backup Device,” but I beg to differ on a few points. The only backup software you mention is Dantz’s Retrospect. I've tried to use Retrospect for years, and it has never made sense to me. Connectix’s Copy Agent allows disk mirroring—a tech- nique you didn’t mention, though I predict it will become the norm in the near future. Or what about online s such as BackJack? not cheap, it’s simple, safe, and reliable, Thanks for the fine article. If only I had read it before my 60GB drive containing 12 years of work failed. © JAMES MILLIGAN I could not believe my eyes when I saw that you'd given Retrospect your highest rating, because Retrospect doesn’t support the standard CD-RW drive Apple puts in its G4s, Retrospect is obviously flawed. What other software product do you know of that won’t work on a standard Power Mac G4 but still gets a top rating, which says, in essence, “This is a must-have piece of soft- ware”? I'm hoping we can put some pressure on Dantz to get this white elephant fixed and some pressure on Macworld to revise its rating. The bot- tom line for me is that Retrospect has been a great program and a good sup- porter of the Mac platform; unfortu- nately, Dantz has dropped the ball and is taking too long to pick ir back up. When Dantz releases a fix or an upgrade, I'll probably buy it. But I would've thought a Mac magazine of your reputation would inform readers of this problem, especially when you devote several pages to backup solu- tions and prominently feature Retro- spect as one of the best. The article focused on Retrospect because it is by far the dominant backup program on the Mac. All other Mac backup options are essen- tially unchanged since our previous comprehensive backup article (“Be Safe, Not Sorry,” February 1999), We definitely should have mentioned Retrospect's incompatibility with Apple's internal CD-RW drives, It is Macworld’s policy to refer to appro- priate software reviews; that’s why we referred to the five-mouse rating we gave Retrospect long before the release of Macs with internal CD-RW drives. When Dantz ships the next version of Retrospect, expect a new review that takes into account any incompatibilities that may exist at that time. In September, Dantz announced Retrospect support for Apple's internal CD-RW drives.—Ed, iMac: 2; Expo: Nothing © MATTHEW RAMPY The new Power Mac G4s look really cool (“Mac Beat Special Report: New Apple Products,” September 2001), and I’m glad to see that Mac OS X is getting an upgrade, bur I was still a little disappointed. 1 had hoped to see some new iMacs. Another Way to Flash © PER-ANDERS EDWARDS There's a small problem with the preloader- creation tutorial that Russell Chun gives in “Ease the Wait with Flash 5” (How-to, September 2000), as there is in many such tutorials I’ve seen on the Web. Although this tutorial is easy to understand and demonstrates the way most people first create a preloader in Flash with ActionScript, the results are neither stable nor accurate. Also, if you have more than one scene in your movie, the frames-loaded method can be troublesome: for some reason, Flash can end up either dumping you into the movie before it’s finished loading— continues www.maeworld.com December 2001 17 this happens especially when there are bitmap images in the body of the movie—or deciding that your movie never loaded and leaving you on the loading page with a full “fuel gauge” but nowhere to go. For a far more ele- gant and solid way of doing the same task, and to produce a preloader that truly lets users know how much of the movie has loaded and how far it has to go, Macromedia Flash 5 users should use the getBytesLoaded and getBytesTotal properties, For an explanation of how to perform this technique, see the Magazine Feed- back forum on Macworld.com.—Ed. Stranger in a Strange Land (2) ANDREW STONE (FOUNDER AND CEO OF STONE DESIGN) Thank you for your review of Stone Studio (Sep- tember 2001). We'd like to correct one possible misunderstanding; text is completely editable in Create simply by double-clicking on it (a Cocoa stan- dard) using either the text tool or the selection tool. This includes text that has multiple fills and strokes, text that has been placed along a path, and text thar has been placed within or around other objects. We'd also like to note that Create is not intended to be a Macromedia FreeHand or Adobe Ilustrator clone. In one low-priced package, it includes major illustration, page-layout, and Web-publishing fea- tures. Create is not wedded to older interfaces and technologies; since it was built from the ground up using Cocoa, it’s structured to take advan- tage of all the features built into Aqua and Mac OS X, including future fea- tures when they're added to the sys- tem. Macworld constantly advises against upgrading to Mac OS X and insists there is “no software.” If you face backward as you approach the future, always comparing it to the old tools of a prior generation, it may look strange. But if you turn around and embrace the future, you'll find all the magic it has to offer. (2) sim DEMAS Deke McClelland writes that “[Stone Studio's] creators have little idea what today’s artists 18 December 2001 www.macworld.com expect from a graphics program. Tra- ditional editing and navigation short- cuts go unobserved, the type tool lets you create text but not edit it, and there is no such thing as a context- sensitive pop-up menu.” In Create, text is fully editable. Just double-click on it and then use either the text tool or the selection tool. This text editing can be done with text that has strokes, text that has multiple fills, text that has been placed in or around objects, and text ona path, Double-clicking on text is a standard Cocoa convention, Apparently, Mr. McClelland is not as up-to-speed on Cocoa or OS X as he ought to be. Selecting a type tool and clicking or dragging inside text is a standard observed by a host of publishing appli- cations—but not by Create. | am not aware of any OS X convention that calls for an end to using a type tool to edit type—Deke McClelland A Not-So-Perfect 107 (|) KENT LUFKIN FreeHand (Reviews, September 2001) is one of two or three applications I depend on to make a liv- ing. Although FreeHand 10 includes exciting new features such as master pages, it no longer supports dynamic font-menu updates under Mac OS 9 or carlier—a glaring problem if you regu- larly switch fonts on and off. When FreeHand 10 is launched on Macs running OS 8.6 or 9, fonts activated or deactivated with a utility such as Adobe Type Manager, Font Reserve, or Suitcase will nor appear in any Free- Hand font menus until you quit and restart that application. A Macromedia tech-support person confirmed that font menus do update dynamically when FrecHand 10 is run under Mac OS X, but that an apparent conflict with CarbonLib prevents this longtime feature from working properly on non-OS X machines. | applaud Mac- romedia for being among the first on the block to launch a mainstream graphics application that runs natively under OS X. But while OS X intrigues me, I’m not inclined to risk potential disruption of my business by convert- ing to it until I’m positive it's ready for prime time, Andy Ihnatko, Master Craftsman © ALAN ULLMAN Andy Ihnatko made some great points (“Making, Great Software,” Ihnatko, September 2001), but when he used BBEdit’s abil- ity to search and replace FileMaker data via an AppleScript as an example of BBEdit's strength, he missed a great opportunity: to provide the script! I've long wanted a simple way to search and replace in FileMaker databases, (2) mary Jo DISLER How | agree in principle with Mr, Ihnatko’s column. Why can’t companies just maintain some of the simple, direct apps of yesteryear? After yet another frustrat- ing session trying to master style sheets in AppleWorks 6, I long for the simplicity and efficiency—not to mention the small RAM footprint— of good old MacWrite Pro. Unlike Andy, I do need some basic format- ting capabilities for day-to-day work, and MacWrite Pro easily manages all Ineed. For example, AppleWorks 6 takes three mouse clicks to change a style, versus MacWrite Pro’s one. This is progress? My plea to software companies: Please maintain the best of the basics as single applications, and let customers choose either those or the bells-and-whistles versions. Think of the benefit for new computer users as well as for us longtimers who just want to get some work done. © Post your comments on our forums at wwwemacworld.com or send them by mail to 2) Letters, Macworld, 301 Howard St., 15th Fl., San Francisco, CA 94108; via fax to 415/442 0766; or electronically to letters@macworld .com, Include a return address and daytime 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 and posts. All published letters and forum com~ ‘ments become the property of Macworld. CORRECTIONS The Canon Si10 digital camera received a 98992 rating in our online-only review: (Reviews, October 2000). The price of Adobe filustrator 10 upgrade is $149 (“Here Come the Killer Apps,” Mac Beat, November 2001). OLYMPUS Sharp, colorful pictures. Minute detail. Subtle degrees of shadow. True, natural color. These are the things that drive us to create the very best digital cameras. Our latest is the CAMEDIA C-4040 Zoom. An f1.8 zoom lens. 4.1 megapixels. Noise reduction. Auto-Connect USB ease. Creative control. It will help you see things in new ways. Transform the ordinary into art. And capture the CAMEDIA. c-s0s0z00m most realistic digital images yet. Nothing’s impossible. http://c-4040.0lympus.com Circle 7 on card or go to www.macworld.com/getinfo _ Mac beat Double Your Pleasure OS X ADDS MULTIPROCE EXTRA! APPLE'S NEW POWERBOOKS. AND IBOOKS, P.22 What's New, What's in the Pipeline, What's Hot | SSING POWER—NOW ALL YOU NEED ARE THE APPLICATIONS EVERY TIME A DUAL: Mace arrives on the scene—whether it’s the 1996 Power Macintosh 9500/ 180 MP or the Power Mac G4/500 DP that appeared four years later (“Double Vision,” November 2000)— Mac users hail the advent of multipro- cessing, But all dual-processor Macs have faced the same hurdle: us won't enjoy significant performance gains unless they're using applications specifically written to take advantage of multiprocessing. With Mac OS X, though, all of that should change. For the first time, there is a uni- versal benefit for all Mac users who 20 December 2001 www.macworld.com purchase a dual-processor machine: large parts of OS X have been designed to take advantage of mul- tiple processors. Unlike previous ver- sions of Mac OS, the new operating system divides various tasks between i pro MP savvy or not. ‘ors, whether applications are Working Together In OS 9, MP application tasks between two processors. But split their most applications run on only one processor, and the OS has no way to divert tasks to the second CPU. When one chip reaches the limits of its processing power, applications that are MP optimized are not able to send some of their work to the other chip. Work gets divided differently in OS X. The operating system can send different programs to different processors, splitting the work more efficiently. This doesn’t translate to system performance that’s twice as fast as it would be with only one chip, but it does mean that one pro- cessor will reach its limit more slowly as other, non-MP-savvy programs are launched. Some applications are OS X native and MP savvy. Quake IIL is perhaps the best example of this (see “Twin Engine”). Rather than having to work on just one processor while other pro- grams run on the other, Quake III can split its tasks up, sending the work of game play to both processors at once. Therefore, the operating not have to “assign” Quake to one processor or the other. em does. 7 ee ie Sipe Doubled U ‘A number of major Mac applications have been written to take advantage of multiprocessing and run natively in OS X. And more are on the way. | osx MP OS X APPLICATIONS | NATIVE? | SAVVY? Activision Quake it e e Adobe AtterEffects50 | ° Adobe Photoshop 6.0 2 ° Adobe Premiere60 | __-O e Alias|Wavetront Maya | @ On Apple AppleWorks Apple Final Cut Pro 2.0 “Apple MTunes 11 Maxon Cinema ab XL 71 ° ° Media 100 Cleaner 5 5 e ig v7 e oa \ @ = y05; (9 = ro. STUART BRADFORD MP Ready? All this talk of multiprocessing has raised a frequent question among visitors to Macworld.com’s forums: Now that Mac OS X has arrived, should I run out and buy the dual- processor 800MHz G4? The answer is largely the same as it was a year ago—an unequivocal maybe, leaning toward yes. Although numerous processor- intensive programs have been opti- mized for multiprocessing (see “Doubled Up”), most of these appli- cations have yet to be Carbonized, let alone written in OS X’s Cocoa programming application. Users running a multiprocessor- enabled application in OS X’s Classic mode will see some benefit, though not the performance boost you could expect from an MP-savvy OS work- ing in tandem with an MP-savvy pro- gram. An MP-enabled application running in Classic on a dual-proces- sor machine should be faster than the same program running on a processor Mac. But its performance single- will lag behind that of a dual-proces- sor machine running OS 9. While the dual-processor Mac makes much more sense for someone who uses an MP-savvy, processor- Seem T iTUNES Twin Engine | mmm Shorter is better. ADOBE PHOTOSHOP 6.0.1 fe WW. | Gaussian |RGBto | Unsharp | V2 le Power Mac G4/800 DP —_— — <j, she 37 [ Aopte Power Mac Ga/e6y foe 17 eee s ee 12 ec ee a7 hier Better) ¢Better —¢Better Better Better QUAKE ADOBE PHOTOSHOP 6.0.1 *** | iTUNES | uy Gaussian RGB to Unsharp hs Mac OS X | VEN29F" | pide CMYK * Mask Apple Power Mac G4/800 DP Apple Power Mac G4/867 = — — | — 3 ABetter —4Better Better 4 Better Better > + Running in OS 9, Quake Ul is not multiprocessing savvy. ** Non-MP-enabled filter, *** Running in Classic mode, Photoshop ang iTunes scores are in seconds. Quake il scores are in frames per second. We tested all systems with 256MB of RAM, a default system disk cache, and virtual memory enabled (except for Photoshop tests) under OS 9, We set displays to 1024:by-768:-pixe! resolution and 24:bit color. For Photoshop tasks, we used a SOMB file, with the memory partition set to 'SOMB and History set to Minimum. We tested MP3 encoding with an audio:CD track that was 9 minutes and 25 seconds long ang converted it using HTunes’ Better Quality setting of 160 Kbps testing by Ulyss intensive app that runs exclusively as an OS X-native program, that’s not a universal experien he dual-pro- cessor Mac isn’t much more attractive now than it always has been to a user running a non-MP application in Classic. It’s only slightly more appeal- ing than it used to be for those who work mainly in MP-savvy apps that have not yet been Carbonized. As more programs become Car- bonized, the dual-processor Mac will become an increasingly attractive option. Users who are making their Mac purchases with long-term use in mind and who place a performance would be foolish not to consider a multiprocessor machine, because eventually every significant Mac application will switch to OS X. Even without these programs, premium on though, dual-processor machines boast certain advantages. An MP ystem sports two cache buses and double the cache size of a single-pro- cessor Mac. It also offers a perform- ance boost by efficiently running multiple applications at the same time. ac users have heard about the wonders of multiprocessing for Yellow Brig Road years. The arrival of OS X 10.1 may For years, Mac users have been able : finally mark the beginning of multi- to run powerful Unix software on their processing’s glory days, especially Macs by installing Linux and Mac OS side by for high-end Mac users. But with side. While the Unix-based Mac OS X may make more OS Xetiative and MP-cnabled that issue moot, the power of Linux on the Mac hasn't gone away—it just A applications slated for the future— comes in a smaller package. The Brig, from Terra Soft Solutions (970/278- acid: miu proctaiog thachings with 9243, www.terrasoftsolutions.com), is a tiny PowerPC computer that runs CPUs that top 800MFKz sure to fol- the company’s Yellow Dog Linux or Black Lab Linux. Starting at $1,454, the 5 : Briq weighs less than 2 pounds, is as small as a CD-ROM drive, and is pow- low—it may take ered by a 400MHz or SOOMHz G3 or G4 chip. Terra Soft also offers four- and eight-Briq “nodes” to be used for rendering—or anything else that requires a load of raw processor power. Imagine unleashing eight G4 chips —_—____— on that 3-0 file you need to render, and you've got the idea. The Briq comes | More info: www.macworid.com/ with serial and Ethernet ports (so you can put it on the network) and a f 2001/12/macbeat/mp.htm! 100MHz system bus. Terra Soft also offers a $150 PCI slot add-on that even some time before a majority of Mac users are seeing double—MaTHew HONAN Macworld’s online archives offer an extensive look at the history of multi- processing and the Mac. gives you a place to stash a video card. www.maeworld.com December 2001 21 It may not look different on the outside, but the new PowerBook sports a faster processor, more storage space, and a new graph- ics card, PowerBooks, iBooks Get Boost Ata time when most computer mak- ers are struggling, Apple’s iBook and Titanium PowerBook G4 have been remarkable successes. And updated versions, unveiled in mid-October, now make these laptops even more compelling. PowerBook Viewed from the outside, the new PowerBook G4s look much the same as their predecessors. But inside are serious speed improvements, particularly on the new high-end model. Powered by a 667MHz G4 processor and a 133MHz system bus, it’s one of the fastest Macs—desktop or laptop— Apple has ever built. The other new PowerBook, pow- ered by a 550MHz processor, uses the same 100MHz system bus built into previous PowerBook G4 models. Both variations offer 256K of Level 2 cache, a drop from the IMB of cache in the original PowerBook G4. _ Macworld’s 2001 Holiday Gift Gui WHAT DO YOU GET THE MAC USER WHO HAS EVERYTHING? THESE IDEAS ARE A START. This holiday season, skip the iMac-shaped alarm clocks and talking Steve Jobs dolls. Treat your favorite Mac users to gifts that make their com- puters even more powerful. We searched Mac- world’s reviews to find gifts that deliver high performance at an affordable price—PHILIP MICHAELS AND KRISTINA DE NIKE More Info: www.macworld.com/ Z 2001/12/macbeat/giftquide.ntmi | Looking for more gift ideas? Go online | to find links to Macworld reviews of cam- eras, PDAs, and everything in between. 22 December 2001 www.macworld.com TWO-MEGAPIXEL CAMERA What to look for: Once you've settled on megapixels, look for 2 comfortable- to-hold camera with a good optical zoom. What you'll spend: $400 to $800 What we'd buy: PowerShot S1i0 Digital Elph ($8992); $599; Canon (800/652-2666, www.usa.canon.com) Why: It delivers sharp images and good con- trast at a reasonable price. And it’s small enough to fit ina stocking. Read our review: November 2001 However, that cache now runs at the speed of the processor, not at half the speed, as with previous models. Hard-drive capacity has also been boosted in these two models, to 20GB in the SS50MHz PowerBook and 30GB in its 667MHz counter- part. Space-hungry users can choose a 48GB drive instead, via Apple’s Web site, and the company will also offer a slot-loading CD-RW drive as a built-to-order option. The video subsystem of the PowerBooks has also been markedly improved. Gone is the ATI Rage Mobility 128 graphics processor that’s been around since the days of the PowerBook G3. Instead, these new PowerBooks come with ATI's Mobility Radeon AGP 4X graphics system, allowing for improved DVD playback and faster graphics on some 3-D games and applications. Both new PowerBook configura- tions offer built-in Gigabit Ethernet (10/100/1000BaseT), an improvement POWERBOOK PHOTO COURTESY OF APPLE: CD-RW DRIVE PHOTO, PETER BELANGER; PDA PHOTO, KIRK AMYX EDUCATION SOFTWARE What to look for: It's all about the recipient; pick software that matches the interests and the age level of the person you're buying for. What you'll spend: SiO to $100 What we'd buy: Break It, Fix It, Ride It Mountain Bike Repair (96961/s); $30; Break It, Fix It, Ride It (866/237-2453, www.bfr-it.com) Why: When the snow clears off those rugged mountaintops, you'll want to take to the hills—and this interactive CD-ROM makes it easy to get your bike in shape. Read our review: Macworld.com Apple's New Laptops MODEL PRICE | RAM Disk | systeMeus | OPTICALDRIVE | VIDEO CARD ETHERNET AIRPORT CARD [PowerBook 4/667 | $2999 | 256MB | 30GB | 133MHz DVD-ROM | ATiMobitityRadeon || 10/100/1000BaseT | Included | PowerBook G4/550 | $2199 | 128MB | 20GB | 100MHz DVD-ROM [ATI Mobility Radeon TO/00/000BaseT _| optional 1B00k/600 $1,699 | 128M8 | 20GB | 100MHz Combo [ATiRage Mobility 128 | 10/00BaseT ‘optional 1800k/600 $1499 | 12emB | 15GB | 100MHz DVD-ROM ‘ATI Rage Mobility 128 | 10/i00BaseT ‘optional iBook/500 $1299 | 12eMB | 15GB | GeMHz CD:ROM ‘ATI Rage Mobility 128 | 10/i00BaseT ‘optional over the 10/100BaseT Ethernet sup- port in the original Titanium Power- Book G4, The 667MHz model even comes with a built-in AirPort card. These models are less expensive than the previous versions, too, At $2,199, the 5S0MHz PowerBook G4 sells for $400 less than the 400ME configuration introduced in January. The 667MHz model sells for $2,999, compared with $3,499 for the 500MHz PowerBook Gé4 unveiled earlier this year. iBook Like the PowerBook, the consumer-friendly iBook doesn’t look much different—but there have been speed boosts inside. While Apple still offers an iBook configuration with a 500MHz G3 processor, the company has added two new models with 600MHz CPUs to the mix, In addi- tion, the 600MHz iBooks include a 100MHz system bus, as opposed to the 66MHz bus in other models. Memory and storage space have both been bumped up in this update. MOUSE What to look for: Size matters. So does the number of buttons—and where they're located ‘on the mouse. What you'll spend: $10 to $150 What we'd buy: PocketMouse Mobile Optical Mouse (#989); $30; Kensington (800/235-6708, www.kensington.com) Why: It's tiny and portable with a Rudolph-like optical light to guide it. Read our review: Macworld.com All iBook models now come with the Mac OS X minimum of 128MB of RAM and are expandable to up to 640MB. The base hard drive configu- risen from 10GB to 15GB. ration And as with the PowerBook G4, these new iBooks are slightly less expensive than their predec with prices ranging from $1,299 to $1,699.—PHILIP MICHAELS sors, The Writing on the Wall Unless your life's ambition is to destroy thousands of dollars’ worth of perfectly good hardware, it's not a wise move to take a pen and scribble on a plasma dis- play. However, with the Smart Board for Plasma Displays, from Smart Technologies (888/427-6278, www.smarttech.com), drawing on a 40-inch plasma display is no longer the act of a madman—it's an effective communi- cation tool. Similar to devices that attach to whiteboards and capture any- thing you write, the Smart Board is an overlay that fastens to the front of a plasma display. As you press on the overlay with one of the Smart Board's “pens"—which actually contain no ink at all—you register a contact point with the Smart Board software running on your Mac, making electronic ink marks as you move the pen. Every mark you make can be saved, printed, or e-mailed. With prices ranging from $3,299 to $4,999, the Smart Board over- lay isn’t cheap. But it's less expensive than taking a Magic Marker to your plasma display the next time your muse pays a visit. CD-RW DRIVE What to look for: Speed and ports are key, and make sure the drive comes with Sanyo's Burn= Proof technology to avoid buffer underruns, What you'll spend: $200 to $400 What we'd buy: 1610x40x USI Drive (9498); $300; LaCie (503/844-4500, www.lacie.com) Why: It features USB and FireWire ports, as well as the all- important BURN- Proof technology. Read our review: August 2001 PHILIP MICHAELS PDA What to look for: Check expandability—can you connect with add-on devices, as well as memory and application cards? Also, you'll need to decide between color displays and the typically less expensive gray-scale models. What you'll spend: $100 to $450 What we'd buy: Palm mS05 (#999); $449; Palm (800/881-7256, www.palm.com) Why: The mSO5 js light and thin, with a color screen that'll make your season bright, Read our review: September 200) w.macworld.com December 2001 23 jeaq DEW In with the new... In with the newer... TechTool Pro 3 is the super utility for your Macintosh. Besides repairing and recovering data, TechTool Pro can help you circumvent problems in the first place. Our new virus detect and repair feature, as well as our software conflict check feature, lets you keep your computer in tip-top shape. When booted from the included emergency CD, you can even check, repair and optimize your OS X computer. Every day, more and more Macintosh professionals are choosing TechTool over other system utilities. In fact, even Apple Computer includes TechTool Deluxe with every copy of their AppleCare™ Protection Plan. Simply put, TechTool Pro 3 is the most complete and powerful troubleshooting utility available for your computer. Why would you settle for anything less? WiMicromat Inc. 800-829-6227 707-566-3831 For Apple's next-generation operating system, you'll need a next-generation disk utility. That’s why Micromat has introduced Drive 10, the first and final disk utility for Mac OS X. Problems with your drive? Drive 10 can repair almost any drive problem with one simple click of your mouse. All within OS X's native environment. While Drive 10 is a new product, it is derived from TechTool Pro, Micromat’s world-class diagnostic and repair utility. Using TechTool's time-tested routines as well as some new routines developed exclusively for OS X, Drive 10 offers many tools for checking and repairing any drive on your system. Don't entrust your OS X drive to ancient utilities. Protect your data and drive safely with Drive 10. info@micromat.com www.micromat.com ©2001 Micromat, Inc. All rights reserved. TechTool is a registered trademark of Micromat, Inc. Drive 10 is a trademark of Micromat, Inc. Macintosh and AppleCare are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. Circle 37 on card or go to www.macworid.com/getinto. a eS ——— product wa Accounting for Change For MYOB (800/322-6962, www.myob.com/us), the ability to manage a small company from a Mac is serious business. To that end, it released MYOB AccountEdge in late 2000 to fill the void left by Intuit’s decision to stop updating the Mac version of its QuickBooks business-management product. Now comes MYOB’s next salvo in the fight to win former QuickBooks users and new small-business customers—an updated version of AccountEdge for the Mac priced at $249. Existing users can upgrade for $99 before November 30, or for $119 afterward. AccountEdge 2.0, which could be available by the time you read this, streamlines some administrative tasks while expanding the flexibility of other features. Getting Started A new Company File Assistant reduces the setup process from eight steps to five. An Easy Setup Assistant walks users through setting up payroll, purchases, sales, an accounts list, and cus- tomization features, letting them skip sections that don’t apply to their business. “We more or less tore down what we had before and created a new way of navigating through the setup,” says Tom Nash, direc- tor of product management. New View Interface changes include the addition of more drop-down menus. AccountEdge’s Report Center now offers brief descriptions and sample views of each of its 150 reports. Most important, users can now choose to enter transactions and view accounts in a Quicken- ike Bank Register. Old Features, New Tricks AccountEdge 2.0's Bank Register fea ture gives users an over- view of their accounts and lets them enter trans- actions right from the register. MYOB has made existing features more flexible, extending the capabil- ity of tools within AccountEdge. Users can insert lines, headers, and subtotals to customize the look of invoices. Packing slips printed in AccountEdge can now include orders. And credit-limit warnings, for- merly available only on invoices, can be set on quotes and orders. Take It to the Bank AccountEdge users who download bank and credit card transactions online can now import thar data. AccountEdge matches it with existing transactions in the register; users can then review, fix, and enter any unmatched trans- actions, Version 2.0 supports most online-banking data formats including QIR, OFX, and Microsoft Money OFC.—pHILiP MICHAELS COMPUTERS © Anentry-level IMac, trom Apple Computer (800/692-7753, www.apple .comi: The indigo-only iMac sports a SOOMH2 G3 pro- cessor, 64MB of RAM, and 2 2068 hard drive. The CD RW crive available in other models is replaced with a CD-ROM drive ($799). DIGITAL CAMERAS © Two digital cameras from Olympus (800/622-6372, wwrwolympusamerica.com): The Camedia E-20N ($1999) is 2 5-megapixel camera that also lets users set @ progressive scan mode of 25 megapixels. The Brio D-230 ($299) is 2 2-megapixel camera. DISPLAYS ® Alower-priced pen display from Wacom (B00/ 922-9348, wwwwacom com): The Cintiq 15X ($1,900) costs $2,000 less than its predecessor, the L500. The Cintiq 15x combines 3 full 24-bit color LCD display with a cordless, battery-free pres- sure-sensitive pen, The 15-inch active matrix color TFT display with 1,024-by- 768-pixel resolution is equivalent to that of a 17- inch CRT monitor. INPUT DEVICES @ New mice from Microsoft (800/426-9400, www microsoft.com): The Wire- less IntelliMouse Explorer ($75) is Microsoft's first wireless optical mouse. Microsoft also released a wired version of the Intelfl- Mouse Explorer ($55) with enhanced grip support, finger grooves, and a new shape, a5 well as a new version of the IntelliMouse Optical ($45), All three mice ‘come with enhanced ver- sions of Microsoft's intell!- point driver software. ‘© An OS X-compatible wireless trackball from Kensington Technology Group (800/280-8318, www.kensington.com): The ‘Turbo Mouse Pro Wireless trackball ($120) has six Direct Launch buttons, four programmable mouse but tons, and a scroll wheel. PDAs @ Two new handheld devices from Handspring (888/565-9393, www shandspring.com): The Visor Neo (S199) adds a ‘33MHz Dragonball VZ pro- cessor to Handspring's entry-level PDA. The Neo's casing is available in your choice of three colors. The Visor Pro ($299) doubles the installed memory to 16MB of RAM and comes with a recharge- able lithium ion battery, @ Anew handheld trom Palm (800/881-7256, www .palm.com); The Palm mi25 ($249) features dual-expan- sion architecture so users can add software, extra memory, or modules, The PDA has 8MB of RAM and a 3MHz processor, and It comes with a USB cradle and bundled software. ‘© The purchase of Cleaner 5 by Autodesk (800/869 continues www.maeworld.com December 2001 25 jeaq OeW }e9g JEW co Whats HOT A QUICK LOOK AT THE WORLD OF TECH 1, Steve Jobs compares progress in the transition to Mac OS X toa clock's hour hand. So when the clock strikes midnight, do all Macs running Mac OS 9 change into pumpkins? 2. Instead of charging a shipping fee for the OS X 10.1 update, Apple makes a free version available at some stores. But if you still feel like mailing $19.95 off to someone, the Mac Beat staff will send you a lovely thank-you note in return. 3. Windows XP was set to ship on October 25. Guess they cele- brated Halloween a week early in Redmond this year. 3504, www.discreet.com): Autodesk bought the com- pression tool along with latenightsw.com): The PRODUCTIVITY SOFTWARE © FileMaker Developer 5.5, from FileMaker (800/ and usability improvements 325-2747, wwwfilemaker (S189; upgrade, $79). GRAPHICS SOFTWARE Discreet line, which includes @ Canvas 8, from Deneba (305/596-5644, www deneba.com): The update AppleScript authoring soft: ware adds Mac OS X sup the rest of Media 100’s soft- _port and features scripting ware product line for $16 million, The products will com): The database soft- become part of Autodesk's ware aimed at developers and workgroup-database the animation and 3-D- administrators adds features compositing application from FileMaker Pro 5.5, such Combustion, © Aix to the Britannica layout software runs on both with database-design, report, 2002 Standard Edition (0S 9 and OS X 10.1. New Encyclopedia CD-ROM, from —_ features include advanced Britannica (800/323-1229, www.britannica.com): The tothe illustration and page- —_as OS X compatibility, along and script-debugger tools, and updated ODBC drivers ($499; upgrade, $399). © Grammarian X, from Casady & Greene (800/359 4920, www.casadyg.com): automation capabilities and a file-sharing component called DenebaShare ($400; upgrade, $200) © KPT Effects from the CD-ROM ran only under Mac 0S X, despite labeling that said it would run on OS The application-independent 8.6 and higher. A replace- Procteate division of Corel (800/772-6735, www procreate.com): KPT Effects Cocoa and Carbon applica grammar checker is now ‘ment CD that runs on the classic Mac OS should be available by the time you OS X native, supporting (S199) is acollection of nine _ tions ($50; upgrade, $20). UTILITY SOFTWARE ble plug-ins that addeffects @ Stuffit Deluxe 6.5, from ‘Aladdin Systems (800/ 732-8881, wwwaladdinsys com): The updated com: read this. Customers will be Adobe Photoshop-compati- able to choose between the {ree replacement CO or a {0 digital images. The soft- full refund, ware runs on OS 8.6 and higher, and natively in OS X. Corel also released Core! Graphics Suite 10 for Macintosh ($569; upgrade Vy for CorelDraw users, $249), i pression utility includes Stuffit Express Personal Edition, which lets users create customized drop-box a suite of vector-illustration, applications to automate image-editing, painting, and DEVELOPMENT animation applications that SOFTWARE © Script Debugger 3.0, file-compression and trans: fer tasks. Version 6.5 also includes Core!Draw 10 and offers Magic Menu support Photo:Paint 10. The graphics for OS X ($80; upgrade, from Late Night Software (888/999-3210, www suite runs in both the classic $20). Compiled by Mac OS and OS x. PHILIP MICHAELS, 26 December 2001 wv v.macworld. MAC OS X UPDATES powered by teat versiontrackercom Adobe SVG Viewer X 3.0b2 Browser plug-in to view SVG files Agfa ScanWise X 2.1 Beta software for the SnapScan line Apple Macintosh Manager 2.0.3 OS X Server client-admin tools ConceptDraw Professional 1.7 Expanded graphic formats from standard version of diagramming application Corona 1.5.1 Accounting and payroll application Dantz Retrospect cllent 1.0.425 Beta of OS X client for backup software Divx for X 1.4.2 ‘QuickTime divx/3ivx component FoldersSynchronizer 2.2b9 Beta tool to synch and back up files and folders [View Media Pro 1.2 ‘Adds import options, fixes bugs in asset- management application Keyspan USB adapters 1.0b8 OS X driver for USB serial adapters Lexmark X83 1.44 Drivers for the X83 multifunction printer MacDoppler Pro X 1.7.0 Amateur radio application Maxum Rumpus 2.0 High-performance FTP server software PopChart Xpress X 3.5.2 Builds Web-ready charts from spreadsheets Snax 1.0 Cocoa-based file browser Speech Text 1.0 ‘Advanced text editor Stone Studio 9-2001 Web- and print-apps suite optimized for OS X 101 Super Get Info 1.0.2 ‘Adds Empty Trash command to replacement for Show Info command Test Pilot 4.0.3 Creates tests and surveys for delivery and collection over the Internet TimeSlice 2.2 Adds Edit Fee feature to billing application Unsupported UtilityX 2.0b1 Helps install Mac OS X on some unsupported Macs (the Power Mac 7300 to 9600 series, and equivalent clones) VueScan 7.1.16 Alternate film scanner driver for Nikon, Minolta, Hewlett-Packard, and others XML Editor 1.11 XML building too! J ror these and other current | updates, visit: | www.macworld.com/subject/updates The best-selling connection between high-speed, high-capacity, low-priced ATA drives and your PCI Power Mac TANGO’ Firewire/uss Portable, flexible, secure—these driverless, car key-sized USB “drives” are simply amazing! Join the desktop video revolution—upgrade your original iMac” with this 500 MHz G3 processor/FireWire adapter combo SIMPLY FAST Do it all... Fak iwre Tnferination vist Wanksennettechicom Circle 133 on card or go to www.macworld.com/getinto Outstanding Color, Unlimited Possibilities. XANTE COLOURLASER XANTE COLOUR SCREENWRITER MORE GREAT PRINTING _ SOLUTIONS FROM XANTE: Accel-a-Writer 3N © Serves as a workgroup laser printer © Resolution up to 1200 dpi © Output up to 13” x 18.5" Lease pice per nth aan PIB ScreenWriter 3 © Desktop film positives for screen printing applications Resolutions up to 1200 dpi © Output up to 13" x 35.5" 00 Lease pce per month... 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Painter 7 adds realistic new watercolor brushes to its predecessor's already impressive toolbox, and it’s the first fully Mac OS X-compatible version of the pro- gram. But while the ability to run a major graphics application in Mac OS X is exciting, the program’s lack- fers PHOTOSHOP MAY BE THE 30 December 2001 www.macworld.com luster performance in the new oper- ating system will likely drive you to reboot in OS 9. More of the Same With version 6 ($999; Reviews, Janu- ary 2000), then-owner MetaCreations gave Painter a streamlined new inter- face—a marked improvement on its predecessors’ huge, screen-gobbling palettes. Procreate (a division of Corel) has Aquafied version 7’s inter- face for OS X users, but overall the program’s look has changed little. If you’ve never used Painter before, getting started can be daunting; learn- PAINTER 7 Rating: 8665 Pros: Great new watercolor and Liquid Ink features; simple color management; numerous additions and improvements. Cons: Disappointing Mac OS X perform- ance; complex interface. Company's estimated price: $399; upgrade, $199 OS compatibility: Mac OS 9, Mac OS X Company: Procreate, 800/772-6735, www.procreate.com ing your way around the palette-driven program, with its hundreds of tools, may take some time. For example, Painter includes 17 brushes, each with variants that change how the brush performs. In addition, each brush has a slew of parameters that allow you to create custom variants. Fresh Watercolors Painter has had watercolor brushes since its first release, but version 7 sports a completely rewritten water- color engine that produces incredibly realistic results. In previous versions, watercolor brushes painted onto a single “wet” layer of a document. This layer stayed wet—meaning that watercolor strokes could interact with each other—until you chose the Dry command. With version 7, you can create as many wet layers as you like. You can even use the new watercolor SCOTT LAUMANN tools to manipulate imagery created with “dry” tools, by moving the con- tents of dry layers onto wet layers. Real-world watercolors consist of granular paint pigments suspended in water. As you move your brush across paper, these particles diffuse into water spread by the brush, as well as into water already on the page, mixing and bleeding into other colors. Painter 7’s new watercolor engine simulates this process and includes several new parameters that let you control how “water” spreads, dries, and evaporates, To use the watercolor tools, you simply grab a watercolor brush and start painting; Painter automatically creates a new wet layer for your strokes. By controlling the Wetness and Pickup parameters, you can change how a stroke expands across your virtual paper, as well as how your current color mixes with and leaches into existing wet colors. Other parameters let you control the speed at which paint spreads on the page. In addition to yielding startlingly realistic results, Painter 7's watercolor tools are fun to use. Select a really wet brush, and you can watch the virtual water and pigment drip and spread across your page in real time. Because Painter actually simulates the physics of water and pigment, the program includes special Wind para- meters that you can use to alter the gravity of your canvas, These controls let you tilt your canvas and blow on your strokes to spread the colors. All this sounds processor inten- sive, and it is. Procreate recommends a G3 or higher, and you'll want the fastest clock speed you can afford— and at least 128MB of RAM—if you plan to do a lot of high-resolution watercolor work. Liquid Inks and Other Effects Painter 7’s other major addition is the Liquid Ink feature, which lets you paint with a thick, gooey ink. Like watercolors, Liquid Inks go on their own layers. As strokes pass near each other or intersect, color blobs and spreads, as real ink does. And Liquid Stroke of Genius Painter 7's watercolor engine has been redesigned to yield amazingly realistic results. Ink goes on in layers, like a thick oil paint, so you can create realistic built- up strokes. This feature is similar to Painter’s Impasto tools, but there’s no limit to how many layers you can have or how high the ink can build. The Liquid Ink and watercolor tools are the biggest new features in Painter 7, but this version offers other additions (such as nonprinting per- spective grids) and many improve- ments. For example, while Painter has always allowed tools to interact with an underlying paper texture, version 7’s tools are sensitive to the direction of the paper's grain: a stroke in one direction (with the grain) might lay down more ink than a stroke in the other direction (against the grain). The Text tool is also greatly improved. A single palette lets you control everything from fonts to drop shadows to text on a curve. Painter’s main weakness in terms of text is its continued inability to apply colors to individual characters. The program can now open and save RGB or CMYK Photoshop files with full layer support; it also offers JPEG and GIF preview options for selecting compression parameters. Perhaps the best enhancement is that you can now use Painter’s scripting feature to execute a stroke repeatedly in a selection, giving you a quick and easy way to add cross-hatching, tex- tures, and patterns. Fast, Accurate, and Under Control Painter 7’s updated color-management facility offers full support for ICC pro- files. The single Color Management dialog box makes it easy to select scanner, monitor, and printer profiles and to specify a document color space; a separate dialog box lets you control the handling of docu- ments saved in other color spaces, When you're printing or moving documents from Painter into an image editor, version 7’s new color-man- agement tools should make it much easier to maintain con- sistent color. Although we were very pleased with Painter’s performance on a 400MHz G4 PowerBook running Mac OS 9.2.1, we were eager to see if the program would run even faster in OS X 10.1. Alas, using Painter 7 is a very different experience in the new OS: brush strokes are slow to render, tools respond sluggishly, and the program is generally less tactile than in OS 9. For example, Painter’s Sharpen fil- ter rook almost twice as long to work in OS X as in OS 9, as did the Apply Surface Texture and Rotate com- mands. Script performance was par- ticularly bad in OS X, ranging from three to six times slower than in OS 9. Oddly, when we launched Painter 7 in OS X’s Classic mode, performance approached normal OS 9 speeds. Procreate is aware of the problem and is working on optimizing the program to bring it up-to-speed in OS X. Although Painter 7 is usable— and yery stable—in OS X, the per- formance hit OS X causes is too great. For now, you're better off booting directly into OS 9 or running Painter in Classic mode, Macworld’s Buying Advice With its new watercolor tools and dozens of other enhancements, Painter 7 doesn’t disappoint in the painting department. And if you already rely on Painter, the new tools and improve- ments make this upgrade worthwhile. But for Mac users longing to make the transition to OS X, version 7’s per- formance in the new operating system is a big deterrent. m wyrw.-maeworld,com December 2001 31 a SMBdIAd Upgrading your memory doesn't have to be complicated. i Fy : rf fy i? ct i tik 7 I You need Crucial RAM. Select your system make and model at Crucial.com, and you'll find memory guaranteed to be compatible with your system or your money back. Its that easy! Best of all, you'll get the same top-quality memory the world’s leading computer makers install in their systems. Visit Crucial.com and get great memory upgrades at low, factory-direct prices. ” 428MB PC100 SDRAM for today’s most popular systems Price reflects an automatic 10° discount for ordering online. Price was taken on 9/24/01 from Crucial’s Web site; however, prices can (and do) change daily. Prices may vary according to specific system requirements. Order online: Cruicia www.crucial.com TRICENIOUOLEY call toll-free 1-888-363-3082 Mie The Memory Experts COURTESY OF APPLE iMac and iMac Special Edition Capable New 600MHz and 700MHz Models Are More of the Same BY CHRISTOPHER BREEN pple’s latest iMacs could inspire some differing opinions. Some may celebrate the idea that with the new 600MHz iMac, Apple provides almost the same machine it released earlier in 2001 (Reviews, June 2001), but with more RAM, a bundled copy of Mac OS X, and a more traditional color scheme—all for $200 less than the previous 600MHz model. These same people will likely cheer for the new top-of-the-line iMac, the $1,499 Special Edition (SE), which runs at 700MHz and, like the 600MHz model, includes 256MB of RAM. Others, however, may wonder if Apple isn’t coasting just a bit with this release. They might suggest that the iMac—now three years old and counting—is ready for changes some- what more substantial than a faster G3 processor, a greater RAM allot- ment, and a roomier hard drive. They might also question whether a 100MHz-faster processor and a 20GB-larger hard drive really make this Special Edition “special.” ‘We believe that the truth of the matter lies somewhere between these divergent viewpoints. Few Changes If you’ve used an iMac built during the past year, you'll find no surprises in the new models. Each of these iMacs includes two USB ports, two FireWire ports, a VGA port for mir- roring video on an external monitor (at the same three resolutions avail- able to the iMac), a 10/100BaseT Ethernet port, a slot-loading 8x4x24 iMAC 600 Rating: $886 Pros: Good price; solid performance in OS 9 and OS X 101; good RAM allotment. Cons: inflexible Software Restore CD. Company's estimated price: $1,299 OS compatibility: Mac OS 9, Mac OS X Company: Apple Computer, 800/692- 7753, www.apple.com iMAC 700 SPECIAL EDITION Rating: $$$ 2 Pros: Solid performance in OS 9 and OS X 101; high-capacity hard drive. Cons: inflexible Software Restore CD; not terribly "special" for its price. Company's estimated price: $1,499 OS compatibility: Mac OS 9, Mac OS X Company: Apple Computer, 800/692- 7753, www.apple.com CD-RW drive, a 56K modem, an internal microphone, an audio-input and -output port, two internal speak- ers, an Apple Pro Keyboard, and an Apple Pro Mouse. Both iMacs include a welcome 256MB of RAM and an ATI Rage 128 Ultra graphics board with 16MB of VRAM, and either model is available in snow (white) or graphite (dark gray). The reasonably beefy software bundle has changed little since the last iMac iteration. Apple’s iTunes (and a rich collection of more than 11 hours of spoken-word and music MP3 files), iMovie 2, and Apple- Works 6 are preinstalled, as are FaxSTF 6, Quicken 2001 Deluxe, and three games from Pangea— Nanosaur, Bugdom, and the Flint- stones-era driving game Cro-Mag Rally. On our 600MHz model, the bundled copy of Mac OS X was continues www.macworld.com December 2001 33 a SMdIA9 Yu SMIIAd You Don’t Bring Me Flower Power SPEEDMARK 2.) = | | ITUNES 1.3 es Normal MP3 Encode | Render 133 === 2) ) ———— .—== 2:0} 1:66 f = = = —=—=—=<_=— ———_ i — 2 21 | Better) Better 4 Better Better | Speeamark 22 scores are relative 10 these ofan Mac 380MM (1999), which is assigned a score of 100. Quake scores are in frames per secone. Tunes and Movie scores are in minutesseconds. We tested encn system with its preinsalled 05, the standard shipping RAM configuration of 256MB, a default system ask cache, and virtual memory enabed, We Set splays to L024 by 768° pike} resolution and 24-bit color We tested MP3 encoding with an audio-CD track tnat was 9 minutes and 25 seconds long and comverted it using a defaut setting of 160 Kbns in (Tunes 1). We tested Quake at a fesoution of 640 by 480 pives, with graphics set to Norma Macworld Lab testing by Ulyssis Bravo and James Galbraith Reference system in italics. Best results In bold. QUAKE 111 V1.29F iMovie 2. ‘mmm Shorter is better. am Longer is better. $21 <— Apple iMac 600MHz (OS 9) Apple iMac Special Edition 700MH:z (OS 9.2) Apple iMac Special Edition (Flower Power) 600MHz (OS 9.1) included on the Software Restore CD; the 700MHz iMae offers it on a separate disc. According to Apple, the system software that ships on all the new iMacs will be included on one Software Restore CD. We'd pre- fer that this weren't the case, as it prevents users from choosing where and how to install OS X. The limitations of this Software Restore CD scheme become apparent when you attempt to restore a single application from the CD. In short, it can't be done. Regrettably, except for the Pangea games—which can be restored from a separate Applications disc—you can’t reinstall copies of the bundled applications individually. Rather, you must restore all the hard drive’s contents—erasing the hard drive (or partition if you've parti- tioned the drive) in the process. Although the Software Restore CDs allow Apple to more easily pro- tect its software from unauthorized distribution, they're far too limiting and cumbersome for users. In the future, Apple might address this shortcoming by including an installer that would allow users to reinstall only selected applications—without jeopardizing the contents of their hard drives. In the meantime, those who purchase one of these iMacs might be wise to put the CD-RW drive to good use and burn backup copies of each application and its support files. Fair Gains For the most part, the two iMacs performed as we expected. The new 600MHz model slightly outpaced the 34 December 2001 v.macworld.com 600MHz Flower Power iMac SE, due to updated drivers in the version of OS 9.1 bundled with the new system. The new, 700MHz iMac SE produced the best scores—though none of its scores are really earth-shattering. In our Speedmark tests, for example, the 700MHz model bested the new 600MHz iMac by only six percent. The new iMac SE also squeezed out an extra five frames per second in our Quake III test. And in our iTunes MP3-encoding test, the iMac SE crossed the finish line nine seconds earlier than the 600MHz iMac. But considering this iMac’s 1OOMHz- faster processor, we'd hoped to see greater gains. We had also hoped Apple would include faster CD-RW drives in these iMacs. Although the included drives are adequate, their 8x write speed is rather slow—modern CD-RW drives often boast write speeds of 24x. We pray that the next iMac release will include faster media drives. Mac OS X Although Macworld Lab doesn’t cur- rently support an official suite of OS X tests, we were cager to get a feel for how these new iMacs performed with Apple’s next-generation operat- ing system. Although both were a bit sluggish with OS X 10.0.4, they fared far better with OS X 10.1. (Systems built before OS X 10.1's release ship with earlier versions of OS X installed, yer these machines come with an OS X 10.1 installation CD.) On the new 600MHz iMac, AppleWorks launched in a single bounce, and Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.1 appeared after a mere two bounces. Even the Microsoft Word X Test Drive application, a version not yet completely opti- mized, was reasonably snappy. It launched in just three bounces and felt responsive—a great relief to us. Given OS X’s ability AltiVec functions of the G4 proces- sor, we had wondered if a G3 pro- cessor could do OS X justice. With OS X 10,1 and these iMacs, our fears have been laid to rest. to utilize the Macworld’s Buying Advice These iMacs are perfectly capable computers that perform well enough for all but the most demanding users. Both iMacs turned in respectable scores in our Speedmark, Quake III, and iTunes tests, and they seemed to handle Mac OS X 10.1 with aplomb. The software bundle covers the basics and offers some compelling multi- media applications. The 256MB of included RAM is welcome, the CD- RW drive—though no speed demon— is useful, and while Apple has offered more-attractive iMac color schemes in the past, we can’t say that we're sorry to sce the last of Flower Power and Blue Dalmatian. While the 700MHz iMac Special Edition is the fastest iMac ever pro- duced, we expected more from it than slightly better performance and a higher-capacity hard drive. For that additional $200, you might expect a G4 processor or an Nvidia graphics board. We hope that the next itera- tion of the iMac Special Edition (and all iMacs, for that matter) will be truly worthy of the word special. m GL1 XLis Professional performance in a compact Mini DV. The ultimate Mini DV camcorder. = 20x Optical Zoom Lens plus 100x Digital Zoom - 27 new features provide extensive control over with Optical Image Stabilizer” picture and sound adjustments - Lseries Fluorite Lens used by professional photographers - 3CCD with pixel shift gives you the highest - 1.33 megapixel CCD for = 10x Optical Zoom Lens - Exclusive XL Mount gives zoom lens options: Extra Wide Angle 3x, 16x Manual Servo, NEW 16x with Optical Image Stabilizer”, and 3D Imaging Video Lens - 3CCD with pixel shift gives you the highest resolution and sharpest color available - Accepts EOS EF Super Telephoto camera lenses with optional EF adapter resolution and the sharpest color available Shoot in Movie mode, take pictures in Photo Mode or record 30 frames per second for a cinematic look and internet compatibility Record directly from analog camcorders - Full manual control Moviemaking is , all about having the right connections. Optura 100i The digital camcorder that’s a digital camera. The ZR20, ZR25MC and ZR30MC are perfect companions for making digital home movies. hi-resolution still images - Canon 10x Optical Zoom Lens plus 200x Digital Zoom NEW. with Image Stabilization plus 200x Digital Zoom with Optical Image Stabilizer™ ~ Store still images with + Store still images on an ELURA 2008 an MMC or SD Memory Card MMC or SD Memory Card The Elura 10 and Extended recording time; (2R25 MC and ZR30 MC only) ‘ Elura 20MC: Pocket-sized up to {hours ona Thanet i Tonigmit power tan powerhouses. _singlé cassette Lanes Rowe! tes + Built-in flash with 4 modes attachable microphone or Progressive Scan CCD with video light (ZR30 MC only) RGB Primary Color Filter attachable microphone of video light - 10x Optical Zoom Lens plus 40x Digital Zoom rae = Record directly from with Image Stabilization 3 shooting modes: analog camcorders MultiMediaCard or Movie, Photo and Digital SD Memory Card for still Motor Drive images (Elura 20MC only) Only 0.86 pounds Each of our Mini DV camcorders has an IEEE 1394 (FireWire®) digital terminal for easy computer connectivity, superior picture clarity you can only get from Canon lenses, and an optional Floppy Disk Adapter for capturing stills. Because what you record is just the beginning. 1-800-OK-CANON www.canondy.com Canon Connects, and the Car & U.S. and other cou sot ear imam atenmiamieneesi —— COENTIQTA Know HOW" Circle 23 on card or go to www.macworld.com/getinfo DV Camcorders Latest Canon, Panasonic, and Sony Models Offer More for Less BY JEFF PITTELKAU hose who don’t own a digital-video camcorder are missing out on one of the best reasons to own a Mac. All of Apple’s Mac models, even the least-expensive iMac, have built-in FireWire ports and iMovie software, making the creation of professional- looking videos for business, home, and school projects very easy. Until now, digital-camcorder prices were prohibitively high, and the lower- priced models had only the most-basic features. But as with all technology advancements, camcorders’ best fea- tures have migrated down to the latest entry-level models. We compared three of those models—the Canon ZR25 MG, the Panasonic PV-DV101, and the Sony DCR-TRV17—that can be had for less than $1,200. Why Dv? All the camcorders we tested use MiniDV tapes, tiny cassettes that store 60 minutes of high-quality digi- 36 December 2001 www.macworld.com tal video in standard-play mode or 90 minutes in long-play mode. Once you record your video, you can upload it to your Mac via a FireWire cable (sold separately) and edit it using either Apple’s iMovie or a higher-end program such as Apple’s Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere. The DV format—used by DV, MiniDV, and Digital 8 cassettes— stores video at more than twice the resolution of standard VHS or 8mm tapes, and it stores 25 percent more information than S-VHS or Hi8 tapes. Color fidelity and noise immu- nity are also markedly better on DV tapes than on analog tapes, resulting in breathtaking video quality. And because the recorded video is digital, you can upload it to your Mac or copy it to another DV tape without any loss of quality. How They Feel The Panasonic PV-DV101 was the most affordable model we looked at but also the lightest on features. Although it’s a bit bulky, resembling a standard 8mm camcorder, its size allows for a 20x optical zoom lens. Two notable features also make it eas- ier to use: the intuitive zoom control and the simple tape-loading mecha- nism. The zoom control on the PV- DV101 consists of two buttons operated with one finger each. The other two camcorders have a smaller, up-and-down lever that’s operated with a single finger. The PV-DV101’s simple tape-load- ing slot pops open and allows cassettes to be loaded from the top. In contrast, the more-compact camcorders load tapes into a mechanical contraption— with cautionary stickers advising you to press here but not there—that’s accessed via clamshell covers on the underside of each camcorder. How They Work Although its simplicity allows for a price hundreds of dollars lower than Canon’s ZR25 MC and Sony’s DCR- TRVI7, the PV-DV101 lacks many desirable features. Like the ZR25 MG, it has a 2.5-inch color LCD screen, but its viewfinder is a black- and-white monitor inside a fixed- length tube thar extends well past the camcorder housing—presumably to accommodate the optional higher- capacity batteries. In contrast, both _ DV Camcorders Compared COMPANY'S MAXIMUM | OPTICAL/ MOUSE | ESTIMATED. co BATTERY (DIGITAL |REMOTE COMPANY |PRODUCT |RATING | PRICE CONTACT SCREEN* LIFE** |z00M — [CONTROL | PROS CONS Canon | ZR25MC | 00% [$800 Boo/esz2666, [25 18:30 10%/200% |yes Compact; records trom | Flimsy port wwwwusa.canon.com | | analog sources. covers. Panasonic |PV-DVIO) |#@# $600 800/211-7262. 25 |9:00 20x/300x [optional Inexpensive; convenient | Black-and-white ‘wrw.panasonic.com top-ieading tape viewfinder; can’t mechanism. charge battery | in camcorder. Sony DCRTRVIT $948 | $1100 Teoo/2227669, [35 1:30 WOx/20x yes Infrared Night Shot mode; | VCR controls ‘wwrwesonystyle.com tapeless conversion of | hard to reach, analog video to DV, in inches. **In minutes:seconds, the DCR-TRV17 and the ZR25 MC have color viewfinders in an assembly that extends or collapses, depending on the size of your batteries. You can also charge batteries in the DCR- TRV17 and the ZR25 MC, a conven- ience not offered by the PV-DV101 and many other Panasonic cam- corders, which rely on a charger module. And the ZR25 MC offers much more. It can capture still images using, progressive scans rather than inter- laced scans, which can lead to jagged photographs of moving objects. In addition to tape, you can store still images on MMC (MultimediaCard) or SD (secure digital) cards, although that feature is of little use to Mac you need to copy the stills to tape before you can upload them to your Mac. Another annoyance is the absence of a lock on the ZR25 MC’s switch for selecting card or tape mode; if it’s accidentally bumped into card mode, the camcorder won't record motion video. The DCR- TRV17, which can also record still images to memory cards, has a pop- out lock on its selector switch to pre- vent this from happening. The ZR25 MC can shoot in wide- screen mode, with a 16;9 aspect ratio. When shot in this mode, images in the viewfinder will appear somewhat squashed, though they're recorded correctly on tape. The DCR-TRV17 can also shoot video in wide-screen mode, and it letterboxes video in the finder and on its LCD screen, so you see everything in the proper aspect ratio as you're filming, And separate users vie like the other contenders, the ZR25 MC has a microphone on its front rather than on its top; the result is better sound than that of other com- pact camcorders. The ZR25 MC's only flaw is that the port covers are flimsy and could break off after extended use, The Sony DCR-TRV17 falls in the middle in terms of size but not features. It nor only feels sturdier and more solid than the PV-DV101 and the ZR25 MC, but also has a 3.5- inch color LCD screen that’s mark- edly clearer than the others’ 2.5-inch screens. The DCR-TRV17 can cap- ture still images to Sony’s proprietary Memory Stick cards, which mount as a virtual disk on your Mac’s desk- top. And if you're using Mac OS X, the Image Capture application will load these images automatically. The DCR-TRV17 also includes a USB port and cable for connecting the camcorder to your Mac. Another handy feature is the DCR- TRVI7’s Night Shot mode: an infrared transmitter lets you film in total dark- ness from as far away as ten feet. Images recorded this way are black- and-white with an eerie green tint, but they’re surprisingly clear, And the DCR-TRV17 provides a fairly accurate real-time estimate of remaining battery life, based on current usage conditions. Our only beef with the DCR-TRV17 is that you have to swing out its LCD display to access the playback controls, If you're upgrading from an ana- log camcorder or have analog footage that you want to convert to or import as digital video, you need a camcorder with analog-video inputs. Both the ZR25 MC and the DCR-TRV17 offer such inputs, allowing you to record analog video to MiniDV tape. How- ever, the DCR-TRV17 can also con- vert analog video directly toa DV stream that can be imported to your Mac—no tape required. How They Performed In our tests, all three camcorders pro- duced high-quality video, though the DCR-TRV17 had an edge on detail and color when recording in less than perfect lighting conditions, And all three worked flawlessly with iMovie on our iBook: they were directly con- trollable from iMovie, which had no trouble recognizing each camcorder's start-and-stop recording sessions as separate clips. All three models also offer digital-image stabilization, which eliminates some of the jerkiness in videos filmed without a tripod. The PV-DV101 goes a step further: its dual-image stabilization can also steady movies while you're playing them back. Macworld’s Buying Advice All three contenders performed well, but we favor the tiny Canon ZR25 MC over the bulky Panasonic PV- DV101—for $200 more, you get a color viewfinder, a built-in battery charger, and wide-screen-recording capability. For another $300, you can get all this and more in the Sony DCR-TRV17, which has enough bells and whistles to quell your camcorder envy for many years to come. m www.maeworld.com December 2001 37 Y SMdIA9 DVD Burners Six External SuperDrive Stand-ins Connect via FireWire BY JIM HEID orget about CD burners. Today’s optical drive of choice is a DVD burner, which lets you create video discs that play in most consumer DVD players. With Mac OS X 10.1, you can also use your DVD burner to back up files through the Finder. And of course, you can burn CDs using CD-R or CD-RW media. The DVD-burning trend began when Apple added the SuperDrive to its top-of-the-line Power Mac G4. Designed and built by Pioneer, the SuperDrive is included in the top two G4 system models. But you don’t have to buy a new desktop Mac to get a DVD burner. Several storage vendors now sell external drives that contain the same Pioneer mechanism and connect to a Mac or Windows computer via Fire- Wire. Although they’re not called SuperDrives, they are super drives. Macworld Lab tested six exter- nal DVD burners: the DVD-R/RW+ 38 December 2001 www.macworld.com CD-RW FireWire Pro2, from APS Tech; the DVD Revo, from CD. Cyclone; the ClubMac FireWire DVD-R/RW, from ClubMac; the Boa FireWire DVD-R/RW, from EZQuest; the LaCie DVD/CD Rewritable Drive, from LaCie; and the Que Fire DVDBurner Pro, from QPS. While our stopwatch says the drives are virtually identical, they differ in other ways, including price, case design, and bundled software (see *DVD Burners Compared”). The $699 QPS Que Fire DVDBurner Pro provides the best mix of value and design, while CD CyClone’s $1,049 DVD The QPS Que Fire DVDBurner Pro Revo is overpriced and unable to play commercial DVD video discs. Fast Burn We expected all six drives to perform similarly, and they did: in our tests, each drive turned in results that were within a few seconds of its competi- tors’ (see “Benchmarked Burners”). The one exception was an original SuperDrive that we tested for compar- ison purposes. In DVD-burning tests, it was twice as slow as the newer units, The slowdown was due to the brand of media we used for testing. Early SuperDrives support double- speed DVD burning with only three brands of media: Apple, Pioneer, and Verbatim. With other brands—we used Mitsui—early SuperDrives down- shift to single-speed DVD burning. Pioneer has since addressed this issue, and mechanisms containing ion 1.44 or later sup- port double-speed burning on a wide firmware ve! assortment of media brands. Alas, Apple has no plans to release a firmware update for its pioneering SuperDrive customers. The Case for Good Design Each DVD burner has a unique design, and some designs are better than oth- ers. The QPS Que Fire DVDBurner Pro takes the size prize—its case is only slightly larger than the drive mecha- nism itself, and because the drive uses an external power supply, the case lacks a noisy fan. The Que Fire drive also includes a padded carrier. The DVD Revo drive also uses an external power supply, but the remain- ing four use internal supplies that con- tain fans. The quietest of these four fans is the one in EZQuest’s Boa, which has a sturdy, silvery case. The Benchmarked Burners Reference systems in italics. puree PROIL. TOAST 5.0.2 QUAKE IIT ITUNES 11 Best results In bold. = = ——— — . Burn Data Burn Data eam: Shorter It batter, DVD Movie on DVD. on CD-R Full Instat APS Tech DVD-R/RW+CD-RW FireWire Prod vane 8:06 707 — 10:50 1:20 CD Cyclone DVD Revo homme 8:09 oem nT —<—< 0) — 120 ClubMac FireWire OVO-RIAW —_—_ = _ —o— 0) — vet EZQuest Boa FireWire DVO-R/RW hes 8:06 I —= 10:9 — 120 Lacie DVD/CD Rewritable Drive —_— a — vel OPS Que Fire DVDBurner Pro boom 8:06 mmm 1. —<—<= 10:49 — 121 Power Mac 64/733 (Sowtooth) po — ii ——— 120 Power Mac G4/733 (Sawtooth) with newer SuperDrive — 8:09 i — — 120 Better 4 Better Better 4 Better Scores are in minutes:seconds, We tested with 256MB of RAM, Mac OS 9.2 installea, a default system-disk cache, and virtual memory enabled, DVD Studio Pro made a 979MB DVD movie that is. 24 minutes long. Toast burned a 690MB folder using CD-R and DVD-R media. We tested MP3 encoding with an audlo-CO track that was 9 minutes and 25 seconds long and converted it using Tunes’ Better Quality setting of 160 Ktps.—Macworld Lab testing by Ulyssis Br FireWire Pro2 earns the ugly-duckling, award for its basic beige case. The ClubMac FireWire, Boa Fire- Wire, and DVD Revo also include rear-panel audio-output jacks. While not necessary—sound also plays through the Mac’s audio circuitry— audio jacks give you more flexibility when connecting to external speakers. You Can Burn but Not Author All of the drives we tested work with Apple’s DVD Studio Pro and iTunes. ‘We also burned DVDs with each drive using the Finder in Mac OS X 10.1. All of the drives except the Club- Mac model include bundled software for burning; however, the LaCie and the APS drives include only Windows software. The best bundle accompa- nies the DVD Revo, which includes Windows software and Roxio’s Toast 5 Titanium. The Que Fire DVDBurner Pro includes Windows software and Toast 5 Lite. To create DVDs thar will play in a set-top player, you need authoring soft- ware for creating menus and encoding video into MPEG format. The Win- dows software that accompanies some drives includes simple authoring tools, but none of the drives include Mac authoring software. Unless Apple releases a stand-alone version of iDVD that supports third-party burners, you will have to use the $999 DVD Studio Pro for authoring. The Pioneer mechanism in these drives is capable of playing back com- mercial DVDs. But CD CyClone’s DVD Revo can’t play DVDs that are encoded for specific geographic regions, as most commercial DVDs are. CD CyClone is planning a soft- ware update to address this problem, Macworld's Buying Advice The only drive we can’t recommend is CD CyClone’s DVD Revo—it's expensive and unable to play back commercial DVDs. Of the remaining five, the QPS. Que Fire DVDBurner Pro provides the best mix of value and perform- ance, Its $699 price tag is the lowest of the bunch, its padded carrier is a nice plus, and its software bundle is good—although serious users will also want to spring for the full ver- sion of Toast 5 Titanium. m DVD Burners Compared & = Editors’ Choice ] company's |os Mouse |ESTIMATED — | COMPATI- | company |proouct RATING | PRICE siLity | CONTACT PROS cons APS Tech |DVD-R/RW+CO-RW $9@ =| $890 |Mac 0S 9, | 800/395-5871, Includes Windows burning and No Mac software included; FireWire Pro2 MacOSX | wwwapstech.com | authoring software. noisy fan; beige case. CD CyClone | DVD Revo [9% | s1049 Mac 0S 9, | 714/247-0099, Includes Toast § Titanium and Windows | Expensive; unable to play Mac OS X | www.cdcyctone.com | software"; no fan. commercial DVDs. | ClubMac | ClubMac FireWire | ###¥ | $699: $749 with |MacOS9, | 800/217-9153, | Least-expensive drive tested. Includes no software; DVD-R/RW Toast 5 Titanium | Mac OS x _| www.ciubmac.com bulky case; noisy fan. EZQuest | Boa FireWire $999 = ($799 with Toast | MacOS9, | 714/694-0031, Rugged case design; includes Windows | Somewhat noisy fan; Dvo-R/RW Lite; $859 with |Mac Osx | www.eza.com software and Toast § Titanium*, poor documentation, Toast 5 Titanium Lacie Lacie pvo/co =| #48 | S889 MacQS9, | 503/844-4502, —_| Includes Windows burning and No Mac software included; Rewritable Drive MacOSX |www.aciecom | authoring software. noisy fan. ‘Ps Que Fire 9ee8 = S749 Mac OS 9, | 800/559-4777, Includes Toast 5 Lite and Windows: No Mac DVD-authoring DVDBurner Pro * MacOSX | www.gpstinccom | software*; most compact case; no fan; | software included. nice padded carrier included. * Bundled software does nat run on Mac OS X. www.macworld.com December 2001 39 a SMBdIAd r= | SMdIA9 Epson Stylus Pro 5500 Wide-Format Ink-Jet Offers High-Quality Archival Prints, Great Comps BY RICK LEPAGE mall workgroups of graphic artists seeking a large-format color proofer and comping device found it in Epson’s Stylus Pro 5000, a breakthrough printer when it was released a few years ago. With the 5000’s successor, the Stylus Pro 5500, Epson has included the photographic and fine-art market in its scope. The 5500 offers great print quality, excellent performance, and long-last- ing prints while retaining the charac- teristics that made the 5000 an excep- tional graphic-arts printer. Archival Inks and Speed The Epson Stylus Pro 5500's primary enhancement is the use of pigment- based archival inks—similar to the ones found in Epson’s Stylus Photo 2000P—that Epson claims will last more than 200 years when used on specific Epson papers. The device uses six inks and has a maximum print res- olution of 2,880 by 720 dpi. Depend- ing on print size and ink coverage, its four high-capacity ink cartridges can produce from 150 to 1,000 prints each. The 5500 can handle page sizes as small as 4 by 6 inches and as large as 13 by 19 inches. Overall, the Stylus Pro 5500 is close to twice as fast as Epson’s con- sumer ink-jet printers. A S-by-7-inch i] | EPSON STYLUS PRO 5500 Rating: $9992 Pros; Excellent print quality, color con- sistency, and performance. Cons: Occasional manual-feed prob- Jems; no Mac OS X drivers. Company's estimated price: $3,495 OS compatibility: Mac OS 9 Company: Epson, 800/873-7766, http://prographics.epson.com 40 December 2001 www.macworld.com photo that took 4 minutes and 22 sec- onds to print at 1,440 dpi on a Stylus Photo 1280 took 2 minutes and 20 seconds on the $500, An 11-by-17- inch image took almost 20 minutes to print on the 1280, bur it took only 8 minutes and 30 seconds on the 5500. The 5500's print quality is superb; images printed on Epson’s new resin-coated photo semigloss paper are crisp and vibrant, rivaling traditional photographs. Matte-finish and watercolor paper is also avail- able, and the 5500 prints satis- factorily on plain paper. We riety of graphics applications, including, QuarkXPress and Adobe Illus- trator, Photoshop, and InDesign. The 5500 isn’t a PostScript printer, but its high resolution and consistent color allow it to create comps that come very close to a final proof. (Epson will offer a $995 software-based PostScript RIP for the 5500 by the end of this year, also printed from a va Metamerism Be Gone Epson claims that the 5500's smaller ink droplets (the smallest ink dot is 3 picoliters) prevent the color-shift problems that afflicted the 2000P when printing neutral-toned or black- and-white images. This phenome- non—known as metamerism—causes a print to look different depending on lighting conditions. Our tests cor- roborated Epson’s claims: images that exhibited a severe color shift when printed on a 2000P showed signifi- cantly less metamerism when printed on a $500, It isn’t entirely gone— metamerism is a characteristic of pig- ment inks—but the 5500’s output is much more balanced than Epson’s earlier pigment ink-jets. The only problem we encountered with the Stylus Pro 5500 was a rela- tively minor one—an occasional paper jam when we used the manual-feed slot on the printer’s back. Another annoyance is that if you're using Mac OS X, you'll have to wait until the end of the year for a print driver with only limited features. And a full-featured driver won't be ready until Carbon- ized versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, and QuarkXPress are released. Macworld's Buying Advice For heavy-duty prepress comping, the Stylus Pro 5500 is unbeatable. Its archival inks, excellent print quality, and great performance make it a fine choice for artists and photographers, as well as graphic artists. m Software-Updating Utilities UpdateAgent X, TechTracker Pro Keep Your Software Collection Current BY FRANKLIN N. TESSLER he Internet makes it easy for vendors to release software patches and revisions, but keeping track of changes can be a full-time job. Two new Carbonized applications, Insider Software’s UpdateAgent X 10.0.4 and TechTracker’s TechTracker Pro 1.2 for OS X, relieve the drudgery of searching for updates. Cost of Entry UpdateAgent X checks the applica- tions and other software on your hard drive against an online database. A one-time update costs $10; $50 buys you unlimited access for a year. There’s also a $90, two-CD set con- taining 1.3GB of recent updates, TechTracker Pro scans as many as three Macs for out-of-date software. The program is free, but to use it you must register with VersionTracker Pro, which costs $50 a year. In addition to offering free services, VersionTracker Pro lets you access a custom Web page that tracks revisions to any subset of your software, distinct from the updates TechTracker Pro supplies. TeaTracae Latest Versions TechTracker Pro makes it easy to see how far behind the times you are. Customized Updates UpdateAgent X lets you scan all your drives or a single volume. You can also program the software to run unattended and either shut down your computer or put it to sleep when the scan is done. In contrast, Tech- Tracker Pro examines all your disks at once and lacks a scheduling feature. Although TechTracker Pro was slightly faster, both applications ran smoothly and took only a few minutes to inspect a 30GB hard drive contain- ing more than 80,000 files, And both utilities found most of the same updates, although UpdateAgent X didn’t inform me of a major upgrade to Adobe Premiere. UpdateAgent X’s results list distin- guishes between free updates, consist- ing of bug fixes and enhancements, and upgrades, which you generally purchase from the vendor. You select the updates you want, and Update- Agent X downloads their installers to your computer from Insider’s servers. TechTracker Pro’s file view sur- passes UpdateAgent X’s in several respects. For example, a pop-up menu lets you specify the software you want to monitor, and you see two version numbers for every item—one for the software you have, and one for the update, Buttons next to the menu let you filter out applications, control panels, and extensions from the list, although I found it hard to tell when TECHTRACKER PRO 1,2 FOR OS X Rating: $$$ 1/2 Pros: Finds more software updates than UpdateAgent X; e-mail and Web- based notification of updates. Cons: No scheduling feature. Company's estimated price: $50 per year OS compatibility: Mac OS X Company: TechTracker, 503/227-2571, www.techtracker.com UPDATEAGENT X 10.0 Rating: $99 1/2 Pros: Customized scheduling; distin- guishes between free and fee-based updates; inexpensive, Cons: Overlooks some updates. Company's estimated price: $10 to $90 OS compatibility: Mac OS 9, Mac OS X Company: Insider Software, 800/700- 6340, www.insidersoftware.com the buttons were selected. Unlike UpdateAgent X, TechTracker Pro retrieves updates from each vendor's server; that could potentially be less reliable, although I didn’t encounter any significant glitches. Macworld's Buying Advice Even though it’s less exhaustive, UpdateAgent X is a competent, inex- pensive utility ideal for most home or SOHO users; the $10, one-time-only version is especially economical. If you want to find as many updates as possible, TechTracker Pro may be the better choice. With either program, you'll save hours of valuable time. m (Not with TechTracker and publishes a list of Version- Macworld has a marketing relationship Tracker updates in each issue.) www.macworld.com December 2001 41 a SMBIA9) room to burn Need more spac: ‘Try a digital solution, Back up your data, even burn all your video, MP3s and multimedia presentation files onto CD. You can even create your own personalized jewel cases for each disc. Anyone can do it with Toast” 5, by Roxio. The best selling CD burning software in the world for the Mac, Use a PC? Look for Roxio’s Easy CD Creator” 5 Lnted States nc may be registered in tome other utacctons, Al other trademarks used arm own by Hr respective owners, Cur sofware ls designed fo asta yeu n reproducing material in which you own the copyright or have the fogs Circle 140 on card or go to www.macworld.com/getinfo Personal Finance Software The Nimble Quicken 2002 Steps Past the Clumsy New Moneydance BY TOM NEGRINO financial program needs to m