MacWorld0205May2002

May 2002 Which New Mac Should You Buy? Lab Tested Reviewed a Three All-New Power Mac G4s | 14.1-Inch iBook | Flat- Panel iMac RECC ve INDESIGN NESS VS INVE GH Which Page-Layout Program Reigns Supreme? p Tian ©2002 dpple Computer: tne All rights reserved. *Not iactuded. (MSRP 70O-MH2/CD:RW model. Call 1-900-MY APPLE or visit we apple com yf The new iMac. +! \"y | : Ss It does the Internet. It does digital music. Itdoes digital movies. It does digital photography. Itburns CDs and DVDs. Iteven runs Microsoft Office: And because its flat screen effortlessly adjusts to any position you want, it does it all more personally than any other personal computer in the world. Ud 15"LCD flat screen. 800-MHz G4. CD/DVD-burning SuperDrive. Starting at $1,399: @ EYE-P¢ There’s a Xerox network printer that the page at a stunning 22 ppm. With Xerox color, details pop and get noticed. The Xerox white, but speeds out your first color page in just 13 seconds. I Phaser’ 7700 tabloid color laser printer will surprise you in prints up to 11x 17 full-bleed, with 1200 dpi for the photographic countless ways. It not only prints 22 ppm, color or black & color quality you and your clients demand. And PhaserMatch” (©2002 XEROX CORPORATION. A rights reserved. XEROX! The Documant Company the digtat Xt Phasar* and There's a new way to look at ate registered trademarks and PhaserMatch”s a trademark of XEROX CORPORATION. “Estimated US rotal price. Reseller price may vary. 36USC2Z0500, delivers vivid color that leaps off There’e « aT way tc nok at it y To see what a difference detailed color can make, simply give us a call at 1-877-362-6567 ext. 1872 or visit us at xerox.com/officeprinting/frog1872 color management software ensures the colors you 44. want are what you get. It’s just what you’d expect N from one of the full line of Xerox network printers. Xerox Phaser 7700 ‘THE DOCUMENT COMPANY $6,999" Choose 101 at wwwmacworld.com/getinfo It’s jam-packed with Mac tools. The robot arm, though, that’s just for show. PINION From the Editor's Desk RICK LEPAGE Mac users face tough choices—we can help, 16 Feedback Readers respond, 120 Ihnatko ANDY IHNATKO. How many cans of Coke does it take to compile ‘Open-source software? MAC BEAT 18 Publishing pros and OS X, Flash MX, opinions ‘on the new iMac, the ins and outs of DDR RAM, and an interview with Patrick Marchese of Markzware Software. sek RET> Macs without Limits SHELLY BRISBIN Learn more about utilities, hardware, and work- arounds for users with disabilities, and about federal accessibility guidelines. 76 Open Excel to the Web JAMES BRADBURY Set up a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that can gab data from anywhere on the Web. 80 Master Photoshop's Vectors DAVID BLATNER Achieve remarkable results by combining vector artwork with bitmaps in Adobe Photoshop. 82 Control ViaVoice DAVID POGUE Our tips can help make IBM's ViaVoice for Mac OS X faster, more accurate, and more useful, 84 Many Users, One Mac DAN FRAKES Understanding OS X's user accounts will help you achieve better security on your Mac, 86 Mac 911 CHRISTOPHER BREEN Turn here for tips on iTunes, iDVD, and the iPod. Also learn more about AOL compression, Entourage identities, and adjusting magnifica- tion in AppleWorks. Vy May 2002 www.macworld.com a STORY The Fast Crowd JASON SNELL AND RICK LEPAGE Want to know more about Apple's hot new hardware and how it compares with the company's other systems? Read our reviews of the flat-panel iMac; the 800MHz, 933MHz, and dual-processor 1GHz Power Mac G4s; and the 14.1-inch iBook. Then check out our advice ‘on choosing the system that's right for you. FEATURE 60 QuarkXPress versus InDesign DAVID BLATNER The newly minted QuarkXPress 5.0 and Adobe InDesign 2.0 are competing for the title of best page-layout application. We take a look at everything from table creation and Web design to print Capabilities, and pick the top performer in each category. The re resul [6 | nacworto | May 2002 | | wowwmacworld.com_| [_weww.macworld.com | | REVIEWS 28 37 38 39 41 40 | 43 Pa wo Video-editing software $$8$ Final Cut Pro3 Motion-graphics application | ANH ter sfeds 55 Color-management tools $$%% GretagMacbeth Eye-One Pro with Eye-One Match 3-D-authoring tools for the Web 408 Asel 15 Image-processing application $e DeBabelizer ProS FireWire CPU-upgrade card for iMac #944 Sonnet Technologies Harmoni G3 5-megapixel prosumer camera $863 Nikon Coolpix 5000 5-megapixel professional camera $66 Olympus E20N Backup utility $66 Backup Toolkit 3.0.5 Music-visualization program $98 Onadime Composer 1.4 Fax software $1 Faxstf X CD/DVD-burning software Aid } Discribe 5.0 | Keller on Cameras JEFF KELLER Macworld’s new digital-imaging column debuts— with a review of four 4-megapixel cameras: the Canon PowerShot G2, the Canon PowerShot S40, the Olympus C-4040 Zoom, and the Olympus D-40 Zoom The Game Room PETER COHEN One thing this month's three games—Sheep, Myth Ill: The Wolf Age, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone—have in common is that they're all extremely entertaining. On the Cover: Designer, Paul Carpenter; Photoshop Artist, Stephen Sugg May2002 | wACWoRD | 7 Now, when you've got mail, the whole freakin’ neighborhood will know. iTunes; iMovie; email. No matter what you do with your Mac; it'll sound infinitely better with our 40-watt USB-enabled SoundSticks’ speaker system. Get yours at www.harman-multimedia.com/soundsticks. Narman/kardon H _FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK mance is quite good, and its overall feel is excellent. I've heard some folks complain about the design, but I think it works. Then I played around on one of the new Power Macs with two 1GHz PowerPC G4 chips, and I walked away wanting one of those, too. And last year, we saw Apple return to the top of its game in the portables market—with the Titanium PowerBook G4, which is nearly as powerful as a desk- top Mac, and the iBook, an excellent compact laptop for all but the most-demanding tasks. While the Power Mac hasn’t changed as much as Apple's portables or the iMac, the changes there—both in price and performance—have been solid. But I keep finding myself drawn to the iMac, even though it lacks many of the things I want in a Mac: expandability, top- of-the-line performance, and a large display. ‘This new iMac is very different from its predecessor. When I first saw the original iMac, I thought that it was pretty cool, in a “this would be a good computer for my mom” sort of way. That's not the case with the new model: even the $1,300 iMac, with its CD-RW drive and 700MHz G4 processor, looks like a great machine for me in many ways. Apple’s latest enhancements to its hardware line have made choosing a Mac harder than ever. In this issue, Jason Snell shows you what to consider when you're deciding where to plunk down your money. He also puts the top-of-the-line iMac through its paces, and I review the updated Power Macs. Granted, there are no big surprises in any of the new pro desktop models—but there is a potential sleeper hit in the $2,300 Power Mac G4/933, a screamer packed with all the right extras. Page-Layout Marathon Choosing a Mac isa big deal, but people get downright religious about their choice of applications, especially when the choice is in the publishing arena, This month, David Blatner looks at the near-simultaneous releases of QuarkXPress 5.0 and Adobe InDesign 2.0. For the past decade, the real choice for publishing professionals has been between newer and older ver- | sions of XPress. (And Quark has had its own prob- lems getting users to upgrade to new releases in a timely manner.) This time around, it truly is a free- Ls : wwwewmacworld.com eee eee BY RICK LEPAGE | From New Macs to Page-Layout Programs, Choosing Is Tough Decisions, Decisions YOU CAN BELIEVE THE HYPE—THE NEW iMAC IS A VERY cool machine. Shortly after I sat down for my first extended session on one, I wanted to take it home: its flat screen is wonderful and bright, its perfor- for-all, since Adobe appears to have its act together with InDesign 2.0. I’ve been experimenting with that program, and I really it—and I’ve been using XPress since 1990 and think that it’s still a damned good product in its own right, ‘The big problem for Adobe isn’t how well InDesign 2.0 stacks up against XPress 5.0, though; it’ inertia. For good reason, designers, publishers, and service bureaus are reluctant to change from one product to another. ‘That, and XPress’s feature set, has helped Quark main- tain its position as the market leader for all these years. Adobe seems to understand this, and it has continually enhanced InDesign with the right tools, features, and support. For the first time in years, there may actually be a horse race in the pag ut market—but it’s going to be a /ong race, not a sprint. Covering Digital Cameras One of today’s most vibrant product categories is digital imaging: given the rate at which new cameras, peripherals, and imaging-related software packages come out, we could fill Macworld’s Reviews section every month with evaluations of digital-imaging products. We've been looking for a better way to cover this vital category, and this month we debut a new column in our Reviews section. In Keller on Cameras, Jeff Keller, the editor of the highly regarded Digital Camera Resource Page (www.dcresource .com), will periodically look at a group of new cameras and offer his valuable insights and advice. For his first column, Jeff takes a look at new 4-megapixel cameras from Canon and Olympus. In addition to Jeff's coverage, we'll continue to dis- cuss and evaluate digital cameras throughout the magazine. This month, we've got reviews of Nikon's Coolpix 5000 and Olympus’s E20N; next month’s issue will feature an in-depth look at the digital photo studio, with a look at new photo printers, photo- printing services, and more. Let me know what you think—good or bad—about Macworld in general or anything else Mac-related. There will be a horse race in the page-layout market, but it'll be a long race, not a sprint. You can drop mean e-mail, at rick_lepage@macworld.com, or join the discussions in our forums, at www.macworld.com. I'd love to hear from you. May 2002 MACWORLD 5 New! Support for inkjet printing in OS X. | My files are important. Very important. I only share my files with those I trust. I trust DAVE’. the File, Aare Follé" Baik soc 08x_ / Mac to PC, PC to Mac. Cross-platform file and print sharing is too vital to your business. to risk. Trust Thursby, the company with 15 years experience, Trust DAVE, the solution with a proven track record. Share files and printers across a network with no barriers. DAVE installs on your Mac with no additional software required for the PC, It’s fast, secure and easy to use. Download a free evaluation today! www.thursby.com Mac (s a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. Tepistered in the U.S. anc other counties. ‘The "Bull for Mac O8 x" graphics 8 trademark of Apple Computer, Inc, used Under lense, DAVE isa registered trnemark of Thursby Software Systems, © 2002, Thursby sokware Systems, Tne Choose 124 at wwwmacworld.com/getinfo 10 | MACWORLD | May 2002 il Associate Editors VP of Content/Editor in Chief Rick LePage Editor | Jason Snell Executive Editor, Macworld.com | Lisa Schmeiser Senior Features Editor | Teri tone Senior News Editor | Philip Michae's Senior Reviews Editor | Jennifer Berger Kelly Lunsord, Nancy Peterson, Ji Rotr, Jonathan Seff CONTRIBUTING EDITORS David Blatner, Henry Bortman, Christopher Breen, Adam C. Engst, Bruce Fraser, Jim Heid, Andy ihnatko, Ted Landau, Deke McClellan, Scholle Sawyer McFarland, Tom Negrin, David Pogue, Stephan Somogyi, Franklin N Tessler ve Lab Ditector | Kristina De Nike Test Manager | James Galbraith Associate Technical Analyst |_Ulyssis Bravo copy EDIT Managing Editor | Jennifer Wemet Assistant Managing Editor | Charles Pudy Copy Editor | Sue Voekel ART AND DESIGN Design Director | Sharon Anderson Senior Designer | Jennifer Steele Design Associat isa Mach Design Consultant | Paul Carpenter Prepress Consultant | Stephen Sugg MACCENTRAL.COM News Director | Jim Daliymple Senior Editors | Petet Cohen, Dennis Seles INTERNATIONAL EDITORS Matthew JC. Powell | Australia Bernard le Du | France Sebastian Hirsch | Germany Entico Lotti | Italy Yoshio Moriya | Japan Tomasz itner | Poland Daniel de Blas | Spain Nils Holmi6v | Sweden Engin Gedik | Turkey Simon Jay | United Kingdom wewwmacworld.com Shanan (and the rest of our team) would be happy to help you configure your Anthro Workstation. Whatever your heart (or offi solution just for you. Everything from Anth enough to come with a Lifetime W choose configure your A President and CEO | Colin Cra VPIChief Operating Officer | Stephen Daniels Director of Finance | Eos de Feminis Accounting Coordinator | Ronda Sitine’ Vv? of Human Resources | Sue Murphy Human Resource Manager | Su-Tsen Wu Network Services Manager | Sean Greathouse IT Manager | Jennifer Torres DISPLAY ADVERTISING SALES VP of Sales/Publisher | Steve Plevi (415/243-3509) Associate Publisher, East | Cymhia Ramsey (973/243-1197) Sales & Marketing Coordinator (508/533-4020) National Accounts Manager Account Executive | Jo Zottare (516/277-4134) Western Advertsing Director | Sara Culley (831 Account Executive | Margaet Level Green (415/243-3582) Sales Assistant | Franck Zamora (415/243-3628) Showease Account Manager | Niki Sanz (415/243-3664) Showcase Account Manager (415/243-3691) Encore. Silt MARKETING (asi 43-3598) Senior Marketing Manager _ Sharon L. Cordesse Marketing Services Manager | Joanna Bock Colombo PRODUCTION Production Director | Ste Prepress Manager | Alan Anzalone Booking and Billing Manager Ricardo Sandoval Ad Coordinator | Megan Matteoni ONLINE PRODUCTION Senior Web Producer Clvistina Onlire Production Manager Ron Neal FastTrack | Schedule The se 5 1 yorsinn ofthe award-winning project manager will soon make its debut on screens and in stores. To preview, pre-order, and find out more information on features and availablity, call 800,346,9413 or visit May 2002, Volume 19, sue 5 www.tasttrackschedule8,com ana nt te Choose 84 at wanwmacworld.comigetinfo wonwmacworld.com Now the hardest part is Openn the box. aD ‘: a You're probably already running a business. We make it easy to manage. FirstEdge™ — all you need for accounting. Allin one place. Small business management 5 he I made simple. [iam FirstEdge A Small Business. Smart Solutions.™ nt te mt Choose 144 at wwrwsmacworld,comigetinto {14 Service. macworld.com MACWORLD | May 2002 | (3) Pay for your subscription e Change your mailing address (3) Sign up for continuous service e Give a gift subscription e Renew your subscription Inquire about missing/duplicate issues \Manage your © / SUBSCRIPTION with a simple click! Macworld _@ Your online service options allow you to: Using our Subscriber Services Web site is the fastest way to take care of any of your Macworld subscription inquiries. Contact us directly with your questions HOW TO CONTACT MACWORLD Subscription Information and Services, Phone 800/288-6848, from the United States and Canada 303/604-7445, from all other locations US. 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Pease include your name, address, and telephone rnumbet. To share tips and discuss Mac problems with other Mac users, Visit the Macworld com forums. MACWORLD CONFERENCE & EXPO ‘As the flagship sponsor of Macworld Conference & Expo, Macworkd encourages all subscribers to attend this exciting biannual industry ‘event. For information about registration, exhibitor lists, conference schedules, dates, and much more, please vist wavw.macworldexpo.com. ‘Vera, www macworld.com ‘By far the coolest drives on the planet." — John Manzione, MacNet2.com "..the nirvana of portable storage in the Mac environment." - Mac Home Magazine “It's a looker and a cooker... Think fast. Think small. Think FireFly and you've got it all!" - Dingbatmag.com Actual Ss ize ! FireFly and FireLite, 5 GB to 40 GB USB and FireWire Hard Drives Macworld SF 2002 Editor's Choice Awards macreviewzone.com | iereton eS asi SM4A7T Sisk. Simplifying The Digital Lifestyle™ Available at www.smartdisk.com, the Apple Store and other fine Apple resellers. Choose 103 at wwwzmacworld.com/getinfo “Fantastic product! Well worth your money and investment. The best of its kind — John Nemerovski, MyMac.com “FireLite provides an combination of high perform- large storage ance a capacity." — Steve Becker, MacEase.com 2] Readers’ Choice JEFF SCOTT By choosing the Epson Stylus C80 as the winner and the Stylus Photo 820 as the runner-up in the printer category (“The 17th Annual Editors’ Choice Awards,” February 2002), Macworld left me and all other Stylus Scan 2500 owners hanging out to dry, Epson doesn’t write OS X driv- ers for these printers; therefore, my per- sonal editor’s choice is to never buy anything from Epson again. But thanks to Lexmark, my all-in-one, OS X prayers have been answered natively. VINCE ANGELONI 2 You forgot one category in the Editors’ Choice Awards: Most Microsoft-like Tactic. And the winner would have to be Apple, for its locked grip on DVD burning on the Mac. PC users can buy external DVD burn- ers that come loaded with DVD-authoring software, but if you own a pre-SuperDrive Mac, you're completely out of luck. Sure, you can buy an external SuperDrive to burn DVDs, but in addition to spending between $500 and $700 for the DVD burner, you must spend $1,000 on DVD Studio Pro. I might as well buy a new Mac. The Big Picture FRANK HASSLER i= Reading your review of monitors (“Mac- world’s Ultimate Buyers’ Guide: Monitors,” February 2002), I was struck by the differ- ences in power consumption between a 17- inch LCD and a 19-inch CRT. I did some quick math using your numbers (38 watts and 140 watts, respectively) and calculated that the LCD model uses about 75 percent less electricity than the CRT model, so the LCD costs about 75 percent less to operate. FEEDBACK © Prize Patrol In our February 2002 issue, we listed the winners of 25 Editors’ Choice awards, which we'd handed out to makers of 2001's outstanding hardware and software. But to hear some of our readers tell it, a few of our winners should have let someone else accept the trophies. And our readers have ideas for awards of their own: Best Display Choice (an LCD monitor); Strangest Ad Campaign (Microsoft Office v. X); and Most Talked- About New Product of 2002 (the redesigned iMac). Will Apple's flat-panel wonder take home top honors from next year’s Eddy awards? You'll just have to wait and see, ©) At 2,000 hours of use a year (8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year) and $0.09 per kilowatt-hour, the LCD costs $18.36 less to run per year. Over the lifetime of the monitor, the gap in price narrows between the LCD and CRT. Not only that, you’re doing the earth some good when you save money on your electrical bill. JEFF BINDER 2 The article about monitors says that the higher your monitor's resolution, the less VRAM is available for refresh rates. This isn’t how it works. VRAM does store the image that’s currently on screen, but that image can’t come close to filling it up. (For example, recent computers have 16MB to 64MB of VRAM, yet a 1,600-by-1,200- pixel resolution at 16-bit color requires only 3.84MB). 3-D-accelerated games and applications use the rest of the VRAM for texture memory—storage of textures and other images. The monitor, not the amount of VRAM, is what determines the maximum refresh rate ata given resolution. Just open the OpenGLInfo application, which comes with the OS X developer tools. It displays the amount of free texture memory. If you change the refresh rate, the amount of available texture memory does not change. This makes sense. If you have a 17-inch monitor, it'll probably only man- age a 1,280-by-1,024-pixel resolution ata low refresh rate. If you get a 19-inch mon- itor, however, it should easily manage that resolution at a reasonable refresh rate, even. with the same graphics card. Office Space MATIAS BILBAO 2 Thank you for your article on Microsoft Office v. X (Reviews, February 2002). It explained Entourage’s inability to syn- chronize with Palm’s software, rightas my OS X-incompatible Palm CD arrived in the mail, I returned it and saved $50, MARTIN M. MUNE 2 For the most part, [ agree with your review of Office v. X, One thing that really gets me, though, is the comment about Office checking for duplicate copies running over the network: “Macworld Lab has con- firmed that the check is contained within the LAN and does not send any informa- tion over the Internet to Microsoft, so this shouldn't raise privacy concerns.” Why, after all these years of covering products from the likes of Adobe and Quark, have you suddenly decided to make privacy an issue? Companies haye the right to protect their software—even Microsoft. Maybe you should write an extensive article on why companies have gone to such lengths to protect their software. TOM HASTINGS 4 Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that in its ads for Office v. X, Microsoft seems to treat the product as if it were a virus? JAMES WYATT. & I'ma little baffled to have read such a pos- itive Office v, X review, which says that this program is fast. The main problem I have with the program is lack of speed. On my 500MHz iBook (2001 version), both Word and Excel are so slow at scrolling and typing that they feel unresponsive. Even moving through text with the arrow keys causes visible delays. When I resize windows, the outline doesn’t move along with the cursor. Like your reviewer, I have seen screen-redraw problems. Unlike your reviewer, I haven't consistently seen these go away when I stop scrolling. Often, when I open a new window in {46 | MacwoRtD | May 2002 | wowwmacwarld.com | MAY 2002 | FEEDBACK Word, it opens behind another window. AutoText also works poorly. Finally, Word X crashes much more frequently, in my experience, than Word 98. I’m seriously considering migrating back to Office 98. Small Tablet, Big Heart DAVID McKNIGHT 2 In your review of graphics tablets (February 2002), you say that the small size of the Graphire2’s work area makes its included mouse of limited use. This surprises me because I find that the mouse is a real joy to use and far more valuable than the pen. The tablet’s 4by-5-inch live area easily accom- modates the real estate of a large monitor. Simply set acceleration and tracking speed to medium or high, and you won't need a big tablet. The lighter weight of the mouse and smaller live area of the tablet seem more ergonomic. While I do wish that ‘Wacom would get rid of Graphire?'s tablet cord, it’s still a damn good tablet. Toolbar Time CARY McKEOWN icy} Your article “Customize OS X’s Finder Toolbar” (How-to, February 2002) failed to mention the toolbar’s biggest failings. First, it’s a global toolbar that you can’t customize on a per-folder basis, as you can with Views in the Finder. Second, there should be a Customize Toolbar item in a contextual menu, when and if there is a contextual menu for the toolbar, Finally, you should be able to directly resize the toolbar, as you can with NextStep’s Shelf or OS X’s Dock. Like most of Aqua, the toolbar is overly basic, underpowered, and feature-poor. Why is Apple moving so slowly on fixing Aqua and OS X? New iMac, New Views DAVID MARICICH iE] T’ve seen the new iMac. Impressive. I’ve heard all the hype and positive predic- tions. Exciting. But I can’t figure out why Steve Jobs doesn’t strike at the heart of the problem. Most people will not drop a grand on something that’s not obviously compatible with the computer they use at work—a PC. With applications such as Virtual PC and the Unix-based OS X, why not introduce and market the Mac’s abil- ity to run PC programs? Heck, let's call it the Mac iPC—a computer that seamlessly connects Mac and PC environments, two computers in one, BRUCE LAMMERS i=} I am amused by reader comments in Macworld and Time saying that 95 percent of the world uses Windows. Though my first computer was a Mac, I bought a PC because my company switched to PC-only software, and I bought one for my kids because they whined about the lack of Mac games. As it turns out, my kids tell me that for new games, Microsoft's Xbox and the Nintendo GameCube are the way to go. T've had better luck running my work soft- ware on my Power Mac G4 using Virtual- PC than on my PC laptop; and everything else I do on a computer involves the Inter- net, digital photography and video, and Quicken. My next computer will be a flat- panel iMac. Apparently, I’m not missing out on whatever 95 percent of the world does on their PCs. TIM HICKS iE] Amidst the enthusiastic comments about the flat-panel iMac, there was no mention of the fact that one of the new models ships with only 128MB of RAM. Am I wrong in thinking that you actually need 256MB of RAM to run OS X? This inadequate RAM configuration is just a scam to make the iMac's true price appear to be less than itis. Te’s like a carmaker advertising the price of a truck with a small four-cylinder engine, knowing that 99 percent of buyers will upgrade to the big V6. It looks like a great machine, but I wonder about its marketing. CHARLES KEFAUVER ics) As I watched Steve Jobs's opening keynote at San Francisco's Macworld Expo, my hopes were high that I’d finally have my own digital hub at a reasonable price. G4 processor, flat screen, SuperDrive: it seemed perfect. I'd finally be able to have a Mac connected to my stereo system and my TV. I could use it as an MP3, DVD, and DivX player. I could use it to watch my photos as slide shows on my TV and even use it as a Web server. But when I visited Apple.com for the technical details, the ugly truth came out—no video-out port. ‘The new iMac's VGA port (mirroring only) doesn't let you connect it toa TV. How can the iMac be a digital hub if you can’t do something as basic as plug it into your TV? Timely Edits CAMERON J. YEE icy ‘Thank you for the article on low-res editing in Final Cut Pro 2.0 (How-to, January 2002). Thad spent all morning looking through the manual for that very information and had essentially given up on it for the day. Fortu- nately, the office copy of Macworld showed up on my desk, giving me all the informa- tion and direction I was looking for. OS X—for Better or Worse? JEFF JOHNSON Ey} Lam amazed by reader criticism of Apple and OS X in Macworld. I recently upgraded our small office systems to Windows XP and OS X, linked to an OS X server. The migration went smoothly, and we’re now peacefully coexisting. As with the previous Mac OS, which forced me to suffer through incompatible third-party add-ons to make my Mac fully functional, the transition is worth the trouble. We’ve got the most advanced, securest, and stablest operating system in the world. Thanks, Apple, for having the guts to deliver it. MICHAEL PELTSMAN. icy} Unlike OS 9, OS X doesn’t support a soft- ware base station for AirPort. I used to have my iMac connected to an iBook with Air- Port, without an AirPort Base Station. To use OS X, I have to spend another $300 just to return to the state I was in with OS 9. ‘What a shamefully overhyped system. Follow instructions on the GDIF Web site (bttp: Mbomepage.mac.com/gdif/masgfirewall.btml) to set up a software base station via Terminal. Programs such as BrickHouse ($25; bttp:// personalpages.tds.net/~brian_hill/brickbouse -btml) can also make the process easier —Ed. © Post comments on our forums (www .macworld.com), or send them by mail to ©) Letters, Macworld, 301 Howard Street, 15th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105; 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 fetter. We reserve the right to edit all letters and posts. All published letters and forum comments become the property of Macworld. [Lwewmemacwortd.com | |_May 2002 | macworto | 47 | | PUBLISHING PROS MULL OVER THE JUMP TO OS X | Time to Dive into OS X? | >> It’s been a little more than a year |WHAT'S — NEXT ‘The Worldwide Developers Con- ference—Apple’s annual conclave of Mac software makers—convenes on May 6 in San | Jose, California. Past events have revealed the latest additions to OS X. 18 | MACWORLD May2002 | since Apple released Mac OS X. A series of updates have hammered out many of the early kinks and brought improvements to the new operating system's overall perfor- mance. And software developers have come out with OS X-native versions of many critical pro- grams—with Adobe Photoshop 7.0 to join the mix soon. So is it finally time for profes- sional designers, illustrators, and print and Web publishers to use OS X as their default operating system? For Apple, the question is signif- icant. Graphic designers are a key segment of Mac users. Their willingness—or reluctance—to incorporate OS X into their daily work will have a serious impact on the overall success of the new OS. All Systems Go? ‘The print and Web pros we spoke with generally had high praise for OS X. All have experimented with it; some are even using it full-time on their personal machines. But none has made OS X the default system for their professional lives, for reasons ranging from software bility to training. Phe promised benefits of OS X—protected memory, preemptive multitasking, advanced memory management, and symmetric mul- tiprocessing—seem ideal for the performance-intensive work of designers. Indeed, those benefits are the ones print and Web pros often cite first when talking about the new OS. “I like the system stability,” says Chuck McKenna, principal of the Web-design firm Macmedia in Urbana, Illinois. “I use so many different programs. In [Mac OS 9], when one application crashes, it usually brings down the whole system, and I have to restart and open six or seven apps again.” Mark Owen-Greene is a former art director who now runs Square Work Consulting, a New York- based firm that sp i chnical training, support, and allation for m: ¢ publish- “great com- B 5 in: ers, He calls OS Xa puting experience,” and he adds that he thinks OS X signals a coming Apple resurgence. “A lot of people are intrigued by the technology coming out of Apple, from OS X to iPhoto,” Owen- Greene says. ‘That's driving professional designers to take OS X out for a pin—and many like what they see. “I love using OS X,” says Eric Nelson, an IT manager with the prepress and print shop Winthrop- Atkins in Middleboro, Massachu- setts. “It’s fun and fresh. I'm 100 percent OS X at home.” Publish or Perish But as positive as their personal experiences may be, the designers we spoke with haven’t made the final switch to OS X. Several fac- tors are holding them back, with missing or incomplete software providing the largest barrier. ‘Take Photoshop, a key appli- cation for designers. While Adobe has announced an OS X-=native version, widespread migration won't happen overnight—especially in these budget-conscious times. Even with Photoshop running on OS X, designers will still need OS ‘X-native plug-ins. Many of those have yet to come out (see “The Wait Is Over,” April 2002). Quark plans to release a native version of its popular Quark- XPress—it just hasn't said when. ‘That's going to hinder people like Patrick Hannagan, an illus- trator and textbook designer at HRS Interactive in Peekskill, New York, who relies on XPress and can’t switch to a native competi- tor such as Adobe’s InDesign 2. “We need XPress for our complex math textbooks,” Hannagan says. “There's a certain math XTension that’s essential.” It’s not just the usual software suspects that are keeping designers waiting, “I use QuicKeys a lot,” McKenna says. “The OS X version doesn’t work as well as the OS 9 version. No support for AirPort’s software base station is another big drawback. And of course there are the driver issues. A lot of designers have expen- sive hardware that suddenly wouldn't work if they switched. “Maybe there are workarounds for all of these,” McKenna adds. “But I try to bill seven or eight hours a day, [The] time I take messing around with my machine is money out the door.” Training will also be necessary as the design industry adopts OS X. “People migrating to OS X need structured tutorials so they know where to put things, where to find things,” says Owen- Greene. “When someone wants to add more memory to Illustrator 10, for example, you have to be able to explain that that functionality is no longer available or needed with X’s memory- management scheme.” Zelda Lin, a Los Angeles-based freelance designer who works on Web, print, and video projects, has been stymied by OS X’s unfamiliar interface, Training would help, she concedes, but “ic’s a matter of finding downtime, which isn’t part of my life. Maybe when I’m not under pressure to turn things around quickly, but I can't remember the last time that was,” The Last Word Even though designers may be taking a cau- tious approach to integrating OS X into their professional lives, that doesn’t mean they’re resistant to change. The way McKenna sees it, using OS X is a way to back Apple—especially as support and development of the classic Mac OS peters out. “It’s like when designers made the transition from X-acto knives to the computer,” contin- ues McKenna. “People who didn’t switch were left behind." —rerri STONE Ready or Not? Here's what creative professionals should consider before choosing Mac OS X as their default OS. SOPTWARE se 5 > Do the applications {use every day run natively in OSX? > If'so, how well do they perform? If not, how well do they run in OS X's Classic mode? HARDWARE 92 enn > Are there OS X drivers for my printer and other vital peripherals? SUPPORT SERVICES > Do my service bureau and printer accept files from the OS X programs I'll use? TRAINING = > Have | taken the time to familiarize myself with OS X? > How do I balance my regular workload with OS X training? WHAT'S KEEPING QUICKTIME 6?_| 1 . Apple's Fee Fight When Apple unveiled QuickTime 6 (see “Coming Attraction,” Mac Beat, April 2002), the biggest surprise wasn’t the multimedia technology’s full support for MPEG-4, the emerging standard for high-quality streaming video. Rather, it was Apple's decision to delay QuickTime’s launch | because of a dispute over MPEG-4 licensing terms. MPEG LA, which handles the royalties for 18 MPEG-4 patent holders, has proposed a royalty structure that would charge companies such as Apple for encoding and decoding MPEG-4 content, as well | as for providing streaming content. Frank Casanova, director of QuickTime product marketing, says that Apple doesn’t have an issue with the royalties for encoding and decoding video. “We agree there's value there, and we're willing to pay for it,” he says. “What we disagree with are the royalties applied to content pro- | viders who want to use the format to stream over the Internet.” MPEG LA proposes a 2-cent-per-hour royalty, on every MPEG-4 stream, for commercial-content providers. “That can add up really fast when you're an AOL Time Warner,” Casanova says. Apple fears that this could hinder the adop- tion of MPEG-4. “The MPEG Licensing Authority should let the streaming of MPEG-+ happen for free, to build the industry berter and faster,” Casanova adds. MPEG LA chief technology officer Marina Bosi defends the idea behind the licensing proposal, saying that if content providers make money off of streaming video, then the people involved in developing the streaming format should also get a cut. “Were we pleased that Apple delayed? No, we were not,” Bosi says, “But we're learning from the marketplace, and in our mind that’s a positive.” MPEG LA's proposed licensing terms are far from set in stone. “The ques- tion is, what is the right solution,” Bosi says. “We must sort that out so the adoption of the technology is not hindered.” | As of press time, Apple was working with content providers and MPEG LA to come to terms on the royalties. “As soon as that comes together, we'll pull the trigger on QuickTime 6,” Casanova says.—ANTON LINECKER 1S DDR RAM HEADED FORTHE MAC? | _ RAM Doubler | ‘The falling price of memory chips forced RAM manufacturers to turn to | Double Data Rate (DDR) RAM, which commanded higher prices than PC133_ | RAM. But now DDR RAM prices have dropped to about what PC133 RAM costs, making DDR RAM a more appealing option for computer makers. If this faster RAM finds its way into your Mac, it could mean a boost in performance. DDR RAM transmits data on both the rise and the fall of the clock signal (the PC100 or PC133 RAM in your Mac sends data on the rising edge). That effectively doubles the bandwidth of the RAM, allowing the processor to stay busier. Adding DDR RAM doesn’t improve performance as drastically as, say, doubling the CPU's clock speed. But it does provide a significant benefit. ‘The Mac doesn't support DDR as its system memory, but you'll find it else- where; the Nvidia and the ATI graphics cards that ship in new Macs use DDR. The latest Apollo G4 CPUs also feature 2MB of DDR RAM in their L3 caches. Top PC and motherboard makers have incorporated DDR RAM systems. Apple declines to comment on plans for future products. But adding DDR toa computer system would be fairly easy to do—Apple would just need to replace its current memory controller with a DDR memory controller and add a couple | of DDR RAM sockets. It’s something to keep an eye on the next time Apple | redesigns its motherboard.—pavib READ wwwmacworld.com | May 2002 | Macwono | 19 | mac WEIRD STUFF | Spies Like Us SpectorSoft (561/770-5670, www.spec torsoft.com) introduced its Spector util- ity as a tool aimed at helping parents monitor their kids’ activity on the family happens to be using the computer. The _ necessary. “You're going to try and cover computer. But soon, adults were turning —_ $70 utility is both undetectable and your tracks because you don’t want to to Spector to confirm suspicions about invulnerable to being disabled by anyone get caught,” he says, adding that this a partner's cheatin’ heart. Once a Win- but the installer, according to Spector- doesn’t mean that you should install dows-only program, Spector—which Soft’s president, Doug Fowler. Butishe Spector on a computer just because you crouches silently on a hard drive, taking —_ bothered by the prospect of selling a can. “We encourage the use [of Spector] snapshots of on-screen activity for later product that people can use to spy on only in very defined situations.” Oddly, playback—now lets anyone running Mac _ one another? Fowler points out that it seems that the only people you should | | OS 8 or later (SpectorSoft is developing when it comes to indiscretions, some- spy on are those you trust to use your | aversion for OS X) spy on anyone who times a little invasion of privacy is Mac in the first place.—LIsA SCHMEISER | THE READERS SPEAK | The Redesigned iMac: A Flat-out Winner? It’s been only a few months since Apple took the wraps off its flat-panel, G4-powered iMacs, It will be a while before sales figures become avail- © WHAT ONE THING WOULD YOU CHANGE ABOUT THIS iMAC? — able, but if the Macworld readers we talked to are any READER \ indication, we can safely say that Apple has another SURVEY hit on its hands. In a February 2002 survey of 441 ea Pose see Macworld subscribers by market-research firm Karlin If you subscribe Associates, 48 percent of the respondents described 4% No. to Macworld and themselves as potential buyers of the new iMac— answer would like to par- they either had one on order or couldn't wait to get ticipate in editorial ‘one. Another 46 percent didn’t think they would buy 12% Other surveys, visit WwW one but praised the new iMac. Only 6 percent were stsch.com/mwpanel | disappointed in the new machine, Even with its s tolearn about our | overhauled appearance, the iMac remains an attrac- ae i Subscriber Panel, tive option for novices—at least according to our T survey. Nearly two-thirds of the respondents say the | new machine is the Mac they'd recommend to first-time computer users. So what changes would the surveyed subscribers make to thenewiMac? OF ALL THE MACS AVAILABLE FROM APPLE, WHICH WOULD While a larger LCD screen and lower price were the top choices, Apple ~~ YOU RECOMMEND FOR A FIRST-TIME COMPUTER USER? can take comfort in a response given by 20 percent of the survey partici; == se At ee -—— pants: they wouldn’t change a thing.—puitiP MICHAELS 1% Other 24% Previous iMac 7% Faster processor 27% Lower price 4% PowerBook G4 | WHAT'S YOUR OVERALL REACTION TO THE NEW iMAC? aM | Sa rar on mes oa a ae Pe _— 8% took | 46% | can't wait = | to get one. <=" Power Mac G4 tk 58k Whe ed 2% Don't know | ‘Apple start making Bet _ desk lamps? 3% I'm disap- = 61% New iMac | pointed—I was ~ expecting some- 2% | already thing more. ‘own one or have ‘one on order. More info: | vww.macworld.com/2002/05/macbeat/pol.htm| | age Wresiepeieis What else did Macworla’s subscribers say about the new iMac? Read the | | it's not for me. complete results of our survey. | { 20 | MacwoRLo | May 2002 = - wowmacworld.com | PROFILE | Q&A WITH PATRICK MARCHESE TAKING FLIGHT Like any longtime Mac user, Patrick Marchese is making the adjust- ment to OS X. But as Markzware's CEO, he can see the transition to the new operating system from another perspective—that of a developer working on native versions of preflighting software and Quark XTensions. Macworld spoke to Marchese to get his thoughts on what OS X will mean for print and Web publishers—anoRew SHALAT AT A GLANCE ) PATRICK MARCHESE CEO, Markzware Software MAC: 550MHz PowerBook G4 SOFTWARE: Qualcomm Eudora, FileMaker Pro, Adobe Photoshop Is OS X a positive development for publishing? Tthink for Web publishing, it’s a great positive. And I hope for offset and print publishing, it will be a positive as well. There’s going to be a lot of confusion out there with Web designers who are used to designing for the Web trying to convert their knowledge to print. And OS X currently does a lot more for the Web, in terms of PDFs, so we might have a little bit of confu- sion there. IfI know [Apple], it’s going to do everything it can to keep with its core constituency—and show how OS X can | work for magazines, newspapers, and traditional print media. Where does PDF support fit into future Markzware products? PDF is really important, and a lot of people have gotten the wrong impression about Markzware, that we don’t comply with PDF files at all. And that’s not so. Hopefully, in the future we'll be putting that rumor to rest, because Markzware is focused on PDF files and creating solutions for Acrobat. So you have something in the works? Absolutely. We are definitely going to be creating products in the future for PDFs. You should be hearing about it by the [September 2002] Seybold show, if not sooner. By the way, you mentioned OS X. This is one of my dreams—and I don’t know if it will ever come true—but if preflighting could be built into the OS, I think it would be a lot better. Then the applications that are compliant with the OS would have to write their pre- flighting function calls into a standard preflighting engine. Are you making an offer here? Sure! No, well, I’m just thinking that it would make things more compatible for all. Maybe I’m just single-minded, but it would make it easier on a company like ours, where we're reverse-engineering file formats—we could do it from the start. The applications would have to adhere to this standard that would already be built into the OS. {More Info: - | www.macworld.com/2002/05/macbeat/marchese.html In our online interview, Patrick Marchese talks about the history of Markzware and the future of the company's software. CLICK HERE_| Rumor Has It... Not many news Web sites possess the journalistic fortitude to run headlines like “Apple to Speed-Bump Power Mac G4s by 1MHz” or to report that Steve Jobs appeared at last January’s Macworld Expo in the buff. But then again, not many news Web sites enjoy the luxury of being able to make up stories. Then there’s Crazy Apple Rumors Site—www.CrazyAppleRumors.com—which, in the words of creator and sole contributor John Moltz, “is dedicated to the fabrication of Apple rumors that defy verifiability, grammatical | convention, or any basis in reality.” Moltz, who started the site last December to feed his writing jones, considers it an affectionate parody of the many Mac rumor outlets. “If Apple's story were told asa Greek drama, the rumor sites would play the part of the Oracle | at Delphi,” says Moltz, “only the Oracle would be really drunk.” Though the humorless may accuse his site of Mac bashing, Moltz is passionate about the platform. He uses Blogger and BBEdit to CARLOS CASTERS | build and maintain the Web site on a PowerBook G4—one of six | Macs he owns. “The great thing about buying a Mac is you're | joining a community, and that makes something like Crazy Apple | Rumors Site possible,” he says. “There are no sites about Dell product rumors. No one cares.” —PHILIP MICHAELS | COOL STUFF Flash Dance | The Internet is bustling with Flash files, thanks to the animation format’ ability to present moving images while using little band- width. But if all you want isa bit of fancy tes effects—or if you don’t have the time to master Macromedia Flash program— | be more your style | results as Shockwav | preprogrammed tex effets, ranging from Quills, which write cursive text, to more-psychedelic effects named after Hunter S. and outputs the ‘Thompson and Timothy Leary. You simply select fonts, colors, and looping options; in no time, you've got spinning, sliding, twirling, | animated Flash files, without ever having to learn what a vector is, much less how to manipulate one —M www.macworld.com May 2002 nimated 5 $499 VEX, from Wildform (www.wildform.com), may The $29 program comes with 303 MACWORLO._|_ a 22 | MacwoR OFFICE POLITICS | How Suite It Is Microsoft's fully native Office v. X is a compelling reason to switch to Apple's next-generation 0S—unless, of course, you don’t use Office. So does that mean your options for Mac OS X-native pro- ductivity suites are few and ‘ar between? No—and that’s not just if you consider longtime options such as AppleWorks. Several new suites that bundle word-processing, spreadsheet, and | other applications have debuted on the Mac. That they’re coming out at the same time as OS X is not entirely a coincidence. OpenOSX Office ($30; 760/935-4736, www openosx.com) includes word processor AbiWord - — and spreadsheet program Gnu- meric. OpenOSX has taken these open-source pro- grams, which run within a Unix- style X Windows ele f=" interface (shown = a = =< here) that’s not quite Mac-like, and it has added double-click installers for easy installation. Version 1.0 should be shipping by the time you read this. “The big new thing about Mac OS X that makes our product line possible is the underlying BSD or Unix-type operating system,” OpenOSX CEO Jeshua Lacock says. Then there’s ThinkFree, which offers a Web- based software suite. ThinkFree Office 2.0 ($30 for a year’s subscription; 408/861-9494, www.thinkfree .com) runs on Mac OS 9 and features word-process- ing, spreadsheet, and presentation applications, as well as online storage (ThinkFree Office is also avail- able as a $50 CD-ROM). Since ThinkFree is written in Java, it figures to take advantage of OS X's Java2 support when the native version of the suite comes out later this year. These two suites lack Office’s power and some of its functionality. But both cost a fraction of Office's price and take up less hard-drive space. In addition to suites, look for more stand-alone productivity applications to go native. Nisus Writer, a popular alternative, should be in native form some- time in 2002. An OS X version of Mariner Write is available as a beta; Mariner's spreadsheet application already runs on the new OS. Office may still be the first choice when it's time to take care of business, but the emergence of OS X means there’s more than one way for you to work.—PHILIP MICHAELS | ‘hres Eeamom go 117" LCD Monitors. 007/88: o> ie {cote ova MAY 2002 ATK. Flash Forward When Macromedia (800/470-7211, www.macromedia.com) updates Flash, it usually alters the interface or adds more productivity-boosting features. With the latest version, it has done plenty of both—and it has given the Web-animation and -authoring tool a new moniker. Flash MX, as it’s now known, refines the interface overhaul and scripting capabilities intro- duced in Flash 5. But Macromedia also touts Flash MX as the first in a series of releases aimed at making it easy to create dynamically generated content for the Web. To that end, Macro- media plans mid-2002 releases for an MX version of Dream- weaver and a set of server products designed to work with the updated Flash. Until then, there’s Flash MX, which runs on Mac OS 9.1 and OS X 10.1 (Macromedia has also updated its free Flash Player to run in the new OS). Flash MX sells for $499; existing users can upgrade for $199. Features include: VIDEO SUPPORT OTHER ADDITIONS Flash MX adopts the Sorenson Spark motion-video codec, allow- ing for the import and streaming playback of video in Flash con- tent. Flash can import any video file supported by QuickTime or Windows Media Player. Video objects can be manipulated just as bitmaps can. ACTIONSCRIPT ENHANCEMENTS Additions to the programming language include colored syntax highlighting, code hinting, and an enhanced debugger with sup- port for breakpoints and code stepping, Flash MX also intro- duces named anchors to book- mark content, letting viewers navigate through Flash content with their browsers’ Back and Forward buttons. PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS: New layer folders in the Flash MX timeline collapse and expand | nested layers. A Free Transform feature combines scale, rotation, skew, and distortion in one tool. Pixel Snapping locks objects to exact pixels. Macromedia continues to tweak the Flash interface, adding Dream- weaver-like touches such as a con- text-sensitive property inspector. The program now has accessibility tools (their absence has long been a knock against Flash), so disabled users can navigate Flash interfaces. Digital Cameras Four digital cameras from Canon (800/652-2666, wwnwusa.canon.com): The Powershot A100 ($279) is a 1.2-megapixel camera aimed at entry-level users. The PowerShot A40 ($399) is a 2-megapixel camera, and the PowerShot A30 (pricing to be determined) isa 1.2-megapixel model, Both the A30 and the A40 have a 3x optical zoom. The EOS D6O ($2,999) is a 6.3-megapixel SLR cam- era with interchangeable lenses. ‘Ad megapixel camera from Eastman Kodak (800/235-6325, wwwckodak.com): The Kodak EasyShare DX4900 Zoom ($399) features a6 zoom, a combination of the 2x optical zoom with a 3x advanced digital zoom. Printers Three printers from Brother (800/276- 7746, weerw.brother.com): The HL-1850 ($549) features 16MB of installed memory, May 2002 __vownwmacworld.com In with the new... 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? WM Micromat Inc. 800-829-6227 707-566-3831 In with the newer... The first and fij 1 oz Lee 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. Choose 37 at www.macworld.com/getinto {PRODUCT WATCHTMAY 2002}—— | << | while the HL-1870N ($699) comes with | 32MB of memory and built-in networking capabilities, Both laser printers feature ‘a 2,400-by-600-dpi resolution and print speeds as fast as 19 pages per minute. | The HL-4000CN ($3,199) is a color printer | for workgroups. It has a 1,200-by-1,200- dpi resolution and print speeds as fas: as. 16 pages per minute for color and black- and-white documents, ‘Adye-sub photo printer and four Bubble Jet photo printers from Canon: The Card Photo Printer CP-100 (5249) is a 300-dpi dye-sub printer that produces photo prints as large as 4 by 6 inches. The 34-ounce printer can ‘output directly from Canon PowerShot cameras. The $520 Color Bubble Jet Printer ($149), the S750 Color Bubble Jet Printer ($199), the 5900 Photo Printer ($399), and the $9000 Photo Printer ($499) feature ,200-dpi resolution. Storage Devices A 60GB external FireWire hard drive from EZQuest (714/694-0031, www.ezq.com): The 60GB Cobra Slim FireWire ($629) oper- ates at 5,400 rpm, and it has a 28MB-per- second transfer rate and a 2MB buffer. The hard drive is bus-powered. Productivity IY Firstedge, from mvoB (800/851-1315, www _myob.com): The basic bookkeeping product— which runs on OS 8.6 and higher, including (05 X—offers accounting and business- management tools aimed at very small companies ($99). Publishing Software Atomik 3.0, from Easypress Technologies (wownxeasypress.com): The QuarkXPress- to-XML conversion software now handles character-level content extraction. It also offers greater control over extracting content from QuarkXPress ($6,995). 381-3303, wwwudiamondsoft.com): The font- ‘management utility adds OS X support, as well as management features for multiple font folders and a tool that makes all Font Reserve-activated fonts available to appli- ‘ations running in the Classic environment (590; upgrade from Font Reserve 2.6 users, free; upgrades from earlier versions, $30). Portfolio 6, from Extensis (800/796-9798, wwwvextensis.com): The digital-asset manager offers folder monitoring, data- base management, thumbnail views, and streamlined cataloging. It runs on OS 8.6 and higher; registered owners of Portfolio 6 will be eligible for a free upgrade to the OS X-native version, which will ship later this year ($200; upgrade, $70 to $130). Utility Software ‘Apple Remote Desktop for OS X, from Apple Computer (800/892-7753, www apple.com): The utility remotely manages Macs on a local network, wireless AirPort network, or across the Intemet ($299, 10- user license; $499, unlimited license). Proteron’s MaxMenus (402/932-3894, werw -proteron.com):The OS X-only utility now ChronoSync 1.0.1 ‘Autosync and back up files between two computers WHAT'S _ Cleaner 5 5.1.1 Streaming media authoring tool Concept Draw 1.7.5 HOT has flexible menus that are always available —_Export-to-PDF added to diagramming app A Quick Look at a balnpenh s ripe) ‘aber rad i oe Graphics Suite 10.01 the World of Tech access to common! ica ice suite’s stabil perelplramiged pads pel Improves graphics suite’s stability and performance ei Abehe deteyi jatsesst acharjeK As ae QuickTime 6. Among the coking plan rte hott | arse Security takiepai aad anaiohananice ool in MPEG-4 video-licensing The addition of two uti; —_e-Cryptit Engine 6.7 terms and the removal of Jar ities to software suites RealBasic add-on for encryption, encoding, and Jar Binks from the next Star ce Spee: BO compression Wars movie. 1, wwrwesymantec ST = cmrtepren maties — Saen 2 pin Internet Security 2.0 will include Who's anette award for outstanding Ther Firewall Advisor Norton Personal Fie Fi aN EO | technical contributions to wall, Norton AntiVirus, and iClean. ioaieees | the music industry. With bustin Golesi lage SQL 92-compliant relational-database engine | Emmy and Grammy awards Utilities, Retrospect Express Backup, and -~-«Keyspan USB adapters 1.0.2 ‘now in hand, Apple plens to Spring Cleaning.—cowpco by Pau mcnacis OS X driver for USB serial adapters ratchet up a PR campaign MacJournal 2.1 to take home next year's Too for joa and dares Heisman Toph MetroShop 4.6 powered by Ary s versiontracker Adobe InDesign 2.0 Cross-Media plug-in 2.0 XMedi Software update for AirPort networks Apple Final Cut Pro 3.0.1 Prevents unexpected quits on DP Macs Apple Java 1.3.1 Update 1 Improves text, mouse, and printing components in Java 1.3.1 for Mac OS X ‘Automatic Composition import FCP Suite 1.1 Imports Final Cut Pro timelines to After Effects E-commerce business management sofware _ PhotoToWeb 1.4.2 Manages and creates Web image albums Synchronize Pro File sync, backup, file-server mirroring Tenon iTools 6.5.1 Simplifies Apache confguration and maintenance USB Overdrive X 10.0.0b4 Universal USB driver for any USB mouse or trackball Yellow Dog Linux 2.1 PowerPC version of the operating system 3. Adobe unveils Photo- shop 7, which runs in OS X. Meanwhile, from their — | Denver headquarters, Quark executives are heard to mumble nervously, “What is everyone looking at us for?” | For these and other current updates, visit:| www.macworld.com/subject/updates MAC STUFF Going Around in Circles A 360-degree panoramic image can add depth to your Web site—and hours to your workload if you're using software to stitch together multiple shots taken by a digital camera. But two companies offer digital-camera attach- ments that let you create a panoramic scene without a lot of fuss. Kaidan’s 360 One VR (215/364-1778, www.kaidan.com) and VR Interactive's SurroundPhoto from Sunpak—which is distributed in the United States by Tocad America (973/428-9800, www.tocad.com)—are mirrored reflectors that attach to your digital camera, capturing a 360-degree view in a single shot. Both attachments come with software that converts images; 360 One VR's EyeSee360 PhotoWrap program runs on OS 9 and OS X, while the SurroundPhoto program runs on OS 8.5 and later, with an OS X-native version in the works. The 360 One VR sells for $1,000. The $250 Surround- Photo saves images with a watermark—removing it from the scenes you want to keep costs $7 (a $699 pro version of the program lets you process unlimited images). Either attachment makes the time-intensive process of stitching together a panoramic view a snap.—PHILIP MICHAELS The SurroundPhoto from Sunpak 24 | MACWORLD | May 2002 wew.macworld.com Macintosh PCI host adapter card Conveniently co-exists with SCSI and other pre-existing devices Achieve a maximum data transfer rate of 100MB/s Add up to 4 internal ATA/IDE hard drives Redefines portable storage—about the size of a car key 100% hardware and software compatible Plugs into any USB port, including Sonnet's Tango FireWire/USB card Onboard FireWire port—connect the latest digital video equipment 500 MHz G3 upgrade for iMac 233, 266, 333 MHz (Rev. A-D) Supports iMovie", iPod”, and other popular applications 4 Do it all SIMPLY FAST Choose 133 at wwnw.macworld.com/getinfo 11x17/1200 dpi Laser! Only $995*! 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Post Dice Box T6506, Hobie A SEGIGUSIE, USK Phone DST ATSOMOD, Fa o1-47S e508 omen Choose 113 at wanwmacworld.com/getinfo Reviews you can trust: Macworld rates only final shipping products, not prototypes. What we review is what you can actually buy. FINAL CUT PRO 3 Solid Update Adds Mac OS X Compatibility, Limited Real-Time Effects BY JIM HEID In Hollywood, when a studio has ahit, it quickly releases a sequel. Apple has fittingly adopted this strategy for Final Cut Pro, its professional video-editing soft- ware. Within nine months of shipping Final Cut Pro 2, Apple delivered version 3, an impres- sive update that adds real-time effects, new color-correction and -measurement tools, and expanded editing features. Perhaps most significant, Final Cut Pro 3 is Mac OS X native—although OS X intro- duces important compatibility and workflow issues. Version 3 also has some minor bugs, but it should prove to be as big-a hit as its predecessors. Editing Under Aqua Final Cut Pro 3 looks and works nearly identically to earlier ver- sions. Apple has wisely resisted the urge to tinker with a success- ful user interface that thousands of video pros have mastered. Running in Mac OS X, Final Cut Pro’s interface looks muted and restrained compared with that of many OS X programs. This is critical for professional video work, where rainbow-col- ored toolbar icons and ani- mated gewgaws would become visually fatiguing. We used 1 Cut Pro 3 to edit a 90-minute training DVD, running the program almost exclusively in Mac OS X, with excellent results. Final Cut Pro unexpectedly quit a couple of times, but we were always able to relaunch the program and con- tinue without having to reboot. We did encounter a couple of glitches in Final Cut Pro while it was running in OS X. For i Essentials of Word X 28 | MACWORLD May 2002 Staying Legal When active, Final Cut Pro's range-checking commands indicate areas that approach or exceed broadcast-safe levels—as shown here by the ‘on the white sheet of paper. example, it would occasionally display video incorrectly if the monitor had gone to sleep due to inactivity—quitting and relaunching the program fixed this. Other users have reported problems with batch-capturing video while running Final Cut Pro 3 in OS X, but we didn’t have any such trouble. To X or Not to X Final Cut Pro 3 also runs in Mac OS 9 (Gpecifically, OS 9.2.2). ‘There are reasons why you might want to stick with the older OS, at least for a while. Final Cut Pro can use many filters and effects plug-ins written for Adobe After Effects, but third-party vendors will need to rewrite plug-ins to run in Final Cut Pro 3 in OS X. If your projects depend on an After Effects plug-in that hasn’t been updated for OS X, you'll need to run Final Cut Pro 3 in OS 9. This also applies to video-capture cards whose driver software has not yet been updated for OS X. Editing teams who collaborate ‘on projects might also want to approach OS X with caution. Mac OS X’s multiuser design intro- duces new workflow issues—in some circumstances, you have to futz with OS X’s privileges ser- tings in order for each member of ateam to be able to access a file or folder. Learning how to do this isn’t difficult, but it isn’t some- thing you'll want to do in the middle of a project. Fortunately, one issue that won't affect your OS decision is performance: Final Cut Pro is just as fast and responsive in OS Xas itis in OS 9. Effects Get (Kind of) Real For many users, the best part of Final Cut Pro 3 is its ability to dis- play many common video transi- tions and effects immediately, without the need for rendering. For example, you can add a cross- dissolve between two clips and see it right away—there’s no need to choose the Render command and twiddle your thumbs. When it comes to transitions, Final Cut Pro 3 provides real- time display of cross-dissolves, fades, irises, and several flavors of wipes. A few filters also work in real time, as do some motion effects. You can also combine real-time effects, although on slower G4 systems Final Cut Pro may be unable to render them in real time. It goes with- out saying that dual-processor G4 systems deliver the best real- time performance. But there are some strings attached. For starters, Apple rec- ommends that you have a beefy Mac: a 500MHz or faster G4 with at least 384MB of memory, or, for mobile editing, a 667MHz Titanium PowerBook G4 with the same amount of RAM. What's more, Final Cut Pro’s real-time mode is disabled if you configure the program to display video through a connected FireWire device—a common method of working. Nor can Final Cut Pro 3 perform real-time operations using content stored in formats other than DV or OfflineRT. And finally, in all circumstances, you must still render all effects and transitions before outputting your project to tape. Final Cut Pro's real-time mode isn’t quite as real as many editors might like. Still, anything that reduces the need for rendering during the editing process is wel- come—and editors who need more-robust real-time operation can turn to third-party cards such as the Matrox RTMac. (As of this writing, however, the RTMac was not compatible with Final Cut Pro 3 running in OS X, and Matrox had not announced when OS X drivers would be available.) Correcting Color ‘Two new features help ensure that your video is broadcast-legal— | www.macworld.com | 28 Video-editing software Final Cut Pro 3 29. Motion-graphics application After Effects 5.5 31 Color management tools GretagMacbeth Eye-One Pro with Eye-One Match 32. 3-D-authoring tools for the Web Axel 1.5 “OUTSTANDING: soeee that its colors and brightness are within industry guidelines, With the new range-checking com- you can have Final Cut Pro display “zebra stripes” on areas of an image that exceed broadcast-safe values (see “Stay ing Legal”). If a scene is outside legal limits, you can quickly cor- rect it using the new Broadcast Safe filter. For more-advanced color tasks, such as removing the greenish tint of fluorescent lighting, there are new color filters and monitoring tools, A new ‘Tool Bench window displays several kinds of video scopes, which are useful for analyzing the color and brightness of a clip. New color-correction filters provide exceptional control over color balance and brightness. The new Color Corrector 3-Way fil- ter even works in real time on Macs meeting Final Cut Pro's real-time requirements. New Ways to Work The rest of Final Cut Pro 3's enhancements are a grab bag of useful additions, The new Off- lineRT storage format enables you to store roughly 40 minutes of video per gigabyte—about nine times the normal amount of DV footage—for editing and pre- viewing. OfflineRT is a refined version of a technique that expe- rienced Final Cut Pro editors RATING: $496 PROS: Exceptionally capable, efi- cient interface; real-time effects; powerful color-correction filters; many helpful workflow improvements, CONS: Some minor bugs, particularly in 0S X; real-time effects unavailable when previewing to FireWire device, PRICE: $999; upgrade from Final Cut Pro 2, $299 OS COMPATIBILITY: Mac 0S 9, Mac 0S X COMPANY: Apple Computer, 800/692-7753, wwwsapple.com 33 Image-processing application DeBabelizer Pra 5 35 FireWire CPU-upgrade card for iMac ‘Sonnet Technologies Harmoni G3 36 S-megapixel prosumer camera Nikon Coolpix 5000 37. 5-megapixel professional camera Olympus E20 VERY 6000: $84$ GOOD: $%% have been using for some time. Iv’s particularly well suited to working on the road: you can use the OfflineRT format to edit a project on your PowerBook, then create its full-resolution version when you retum to the studio. Backup utility Backup Toolkit 3.0.5 Music-visualization program Onadime Composer 1.4 39 Fax software Faxstt X CD/DVD-burning software Discribe 5.0 Et 4 Cut Pro makes a backup of your | project every 30 minutes and | maintains a list of 40 backups. You can experiment with aban- don, safe in the knowledge that previous versions are only a couple of clicks away. al Cut Pro includes a ter- rific new text generator—Boris Calligraphy, from Boris FX. Final Cut Pro 2 included a Boris- based titler, too, but Calligraphy is more tightly integrated into Final Cut Pro 3 and has far more features, including 3-D anima- | tion, For previewing animated titles and composites, there's a new QuickView window, which displays RAM-based previews. Surveying the Competition Final Cut Pro has no real com- petition on the Mac. Adobe Pre- sa fine program, but its ca 8 comparison, and it’s not yet OS X-native. Competition could be on the horizon, however. This summer, Avid Technology plans to ship version 3 of its Avid Xpress DV | software, which has been avail- able for Windows for some time. Ahigh-end package, Avid Xpress DV will go head-to-head with Final Cut Pro. It will also cost $1,699—nearly twice as much as Final Cut Pro. When Xpress DV ships for the Mac, Final Cut Pro may well have serious competition—assuming Avid will produce a program that’s as fast, as reliable, and as well inte- grated into Mac OS as Final Cut Pro, and assuming Apple won't leapfrog ahead with yet another FLAWED: $8 Final Cut Pro sequel. Those are big assumptions, and we'll have to wait and see. Macworld's Buying Advice al Cut Pro 35 real-time effects features streamline the editing workflow, even if they do have limitations, The program also packs the most complete array of AFTER EFFECTS 5.5 Surprisingly Significant Update Shows that If It Ain't Broke, You Should Fix It Anyway BY BEN LONG After Effects 5.0 (8868; Rev August 2001) took Adobe's high- end motion-graphies program to a new level by adding 3-D ani- mation capabilities. In addition, version 5.0 added lighting and camera controls usually found only in 3-D animation programs. So it’s surprising to see how much Adobe managed to fix, tweak, and add to the program, producing After Effects 5.5—an important upgrade that also offers OS X compatibility and a slew of workflow improvement UNACCEPTABLE $ 40 Keller on Cameras Macworld’s new digital-imaging column debuts with a review of four 4-megapixel cameras: the Canon PowerShot G2, Canon PowerShot $40, Olympus C-4040 Zoom, and Olympus D-40 Zoom. color-monitoring and color-cor- rection tools available in a soft- ware-only video-editing package. And Apple's wise decision to retain OS 9 compatibility gives video pros more time to transi- tion to Mac OS X. Final Cut Pro 3 is a first-rate sequel, and the only choice for day-in and day- out video production, Transmissions and Intersections After Effects’ interface and work- flow remain largely unchanged: you import media into the Proj- ect window and then place those media elements into a Compos tion window where they can be animated and manipulated. After Effects’ great strengths have always been its ability to animate every characteristic and property of a piece of media, as well as its excellent timeline controls. In addition to animating the camera (your viewpoint) and lights, you can also animate your compos Why, It's a Compo: Views of a composition, making it easier to position 3-D objects, which can now cast colored shadows. ing Program! After Effects 5.5 lets you open multiple www macworld.com | May2002_| Macworto | 29 | REVIEWS tion's layers to create elements that move and spin in 3-D space. Version 5.5 augments After Effects’ 3-D capabilities with a number of important improve- ments. Version 5.0 had a well- known inability to correctly render the intersections of dif- ferent 3-D objects, This problem has been fixed in After Effects 5.5, and objects now intersect without incorrectly obscuring each other. ‘The most impressive 3-D fea- ture is the new Light Tra is~ sion property, which lets layers cast colored shadows onto other jon means s through a semitransparent object, it takes on the color of that object. This allows you to ci ealis- tic renderings, as such as stained-g! Any layer can now be d nated as a shadow caster, mean- ing the layer itself is not visible in your scene, but its shadow is. Combining shadow light transmission me: create complex virtual lighting gels for building more-sophisti- ated lighting setups. High-end 3-D users will be pleased to learn fter Effects 5.5 can import Maya camera data, meaning that you can match After Effects’ 3-D camera to a camera move scripted in Maya. This facility means you can accurately rotoscope and render scenes that contain com- plex camera moves into Maya. cd Interface Changes In After Effects 5.5, you can open separate windows with different views of the same composition, which makes positioning objects in 3-D space and navigating your scene much easier than in previ- ous iterations. You can also save your view configurations, and Adobe has added a number of presets, including a four-view setup that will feel familiar to users of 3-D programs. ‘The new Effects palette makes it easier to find and apply effects. Effects can be listed and sorted in a number of ways and can even replicate the organization of your After Effects plug-ins folder. A lightning-fast search facility lets you quickly find your desired effect by typing the first few letters of its name. ‘To apply effects, you just drag them into your composition from the Effects palette. The program's new Post Ren- der options provide a lot of handy new workflow shortcuts, For example, you can drag media elements from the Project window directly into the Render Queue window. After Effects will automatically create a sepa- rate composition for each ele- ment, add it to the render queue, and, after rendering, add the results to your project. Post Render options also offer a way to create low proxy media—a lower-r rendering of your current foi age or composition. Because it smaller than your original med it renders and displays faster, making After Effects’ environ- ment much snappier and easier to work with. When you're ready to render your final output, After Effects can replace your low- resolution proxies with full-reso- lution renderings. Though the interface is a little cumbersome, the ability to easily create and manage proxy rendering is a boon to users who create large, com- plex projects that require high- definition media. New Effects As always, there are two editions of After Effects 5.5: the $649 Standard, and the $1,499 Produc- tion Bundle, which includes an additional set of high-end plug- ins. A number of powerful new effects filters are included with both versions of After Effects 5.5, though the Production Bundle offers more. After Effects 5.5 would be a valuable upgrade even without the addition of any effects filters, so Adobe's inclusion of such cool ones feels like a bonus. ‘The new Color Stabilizer filter provides a simple way to correct color changes in a clip that suffers from variations in exposure. After applying the filter, you simply click on a white point and a black point in the image, and the filer takes care of the rest. Other new plug-ins include automatic, animatable grid gen- eration, a four-color gradient Cell Structure The Cell filter creates intricate cellular patterns, The one shown here is Pillow with Overflow set to Wrap Back, creating the tortoiseshell pattern, generator, and a powerful new lightning plug-in. What's Broken But the addition of cool new effects doesn’t mask After Effects’ weaknesses. Though it’s a top-of- the-line compositing tool, After Effects still lacks state-of-the-art rotoscoping tools. And though version 5.0 added some great vec- tor painting tools, they’re no sub- stitute for the real brushes, paints, and rubber-stamp tools that you can find in a more pow- erful rotoscoping application. After Effects’ motion-tracking features—another rotoscoping mainstay—are also showing their age and pale in comparison to those of competing products such as Pinnacle’s Commotion 4. The X Factor After Effects 5.5 is OS X native, and the CD installs After Effects for either OS 9 or OS X. In our tests, After Effects ran equally well in both OS 9 and OS X, although in two tests the pro- gram ran faster in OS X. OS X provides some other advantages as well. Screen redraw is sometimes faster under OS X, and OS X's more-advanced memory management means that After Effects’ RAM previews will automatically use all the memory it can find. On the downside, all After Effects plug-ins must be rewritten to work in OS X. So if you have a MACWORLD | May 2002 large plug-in collection, you'll have to reboot into OS 9 to apply and render your filter effects there using the OS 9 version of After Effects. Hopefully, vendors will update their plug-ins for use with OS X, but for currently unsupported packages, the OS X future looks grim. Macworld’s Buying Advice Adobe has done well with After Effects 5.5. The new 3-D effects and huge assortment of interface changes make this an obvious choice for regular After Effects users. OS X users should also be pleased with the program's intro- duction to this OS, ifa litle leery of the program’s lack of plug-in compatibility. After Effects is still weak in the rotoscoping depart- ment, but if you design motion graphics for film, video, or the Web, the program remains an excellent choice for compositing and special effects. RATING: 9986 PROS: Improvements to 3-D facility; workflow enhancements; cool effects. CONS: Some interface elements are a little cumbersome; lacks good roto- scoping and motion-tracking tools. PRICE: Standard, $649; Production Bundle, $1,499; upgrade from version 5.0, $100 OS COMPATIBILITY: Mac 0S 9, Mac OS X COMPANY: Adobe Systems, 800/833-6687, www.adobe.com veww.macworld.com_| EYE-ONE PRO WITH EYE-ONE MATCH GretagMacbeth Provides Easy-to- Use Color- Management Tools BY BRUCE FRASER Color management is a wonder- ful technology for keeping your color consistent across differ- ent devices—monitors, scanners, and printers—but its success depends on the accuracy of the ColorSync profiles you use to describe these de Color giant GretagMacbeth has long been known for making indus- trial-strength color instrumenta- tion and software (with indus- trial-strength price tags to match). Its new spec- trophotometer-based Eye-One products may not be inexpe but they offer color-mea- surement and device- profiling capabilities at a cost mere mortals can afford, and you don't need a Ph.D. in color science to get great results with them, The top-of-the-line offering we reviewed has the ungainly mon- iker Eye-One Pro with Eye-One Match. The $2,800 package com- prises the Eye-One Pro, a spectrophotometer apable of measuring emissive (monitor) color and reflective color (ink, toner wax, and so forth, on paper), and Eye-One Match, an OS X-native program that lets you create profiles for scanners, monitors, and just about any hard-copy output device, from a desktop ink-jet to a gravure press. ‘There are two other Eye-One flavors: the $600 Eye-One Mon- itor, which deals solely with monitor color, using an emmi sive-only spectrophotometer, and the $1,500 Eye-One Pro, which includes the same spec- trophotometer as the high-end package but won't let you build output profiles. The Eye-One Pro ‘The Eye-One Pro spectropho- tometer is a nifty little device. It ‘A Sharp Eye The wizard- based Eye-One Match software cheerfully violates most user- interface guidelines but makes it easy to use the Eye-One Pro device to create color profiles, includes adapters for mounting to CRT or LCD monitors, and a transparent plastic guide for measuring reflective targets in scan mode, You can use the instrument to take spot read- ings simply by lining up the measurement aperture on the sample and pressing the me sure button, but its scan mode is really the standout feature. Most of the work in building uring a large number of color patches (the Eye-One Match printer tar- gets use 288 patches for RGB and 323 for CMYK). With most handheld spectrophotometers, this is an agonizing exercise— align the instrument on the sample, press the measure button, move to the next sample, press the button, repeat another 286 times—but Fye-One Pro’s sean mode makes it almost painless. You align the plastic rule to the row of patches you want to me sure, place the instrument in the guide slot, press and hold the measure button, and wait for a beep. Once you hear the beep, you simply drag the instrument across the row, using the plastic rule as a guide, while holding down the measure button; then you release the button when you get to the end. You can measure an entire row in three or four sec- onds and measure the entire tar- get ina couple of minutes. The only downside to the E} One Pro is that its scan mode works only with targets designed for it—the instrument not only needs patches of a specific size, but also needs each patch to be sufficiently (that is, a lot) differ- m the preceding that it can dis- tinguish one patch from the next. But this isn’t a major problem: the RGB and CMYK tar- gets that come with Eye-One Match work well, and third-party profiling packages. are slowly starting to pro- duce targets that the Eye-One Pro can scan. We found that the Eye-One was stable and accurate on both emissive and reflective measure: ments. In fact, it pro- duced results that were almost identical to those of GretagMacbeth’s more expen- sive Spectrolino. Eye-One Match Eye-One Match’s opening screen s you to pick which kind of device—monitor, scanner, or printer—you want to profile; it then prompts you to calibrate your Eye-One devi We quickly got into the habit of keeping the Eye-One resting on the separate base plate that contains the white calibration tile, because that way the Eye-One automatically calibrates itself and advances you to the next screen. If the instrument isn’t on the white tile, you get an error message that directs you to place it there and click on the measure button. The subsequent screens step you through the process of profil- ing your selected device. ‘The application guides you through making the necessary measure- ments and then produces a pro- file. The only decisions that you have to make are your monitor white point (5,000K, 6,500K, or 9,300K) and gamma (1.8 or 2.2), for monitors; whether to use the included reflective scanner target or an ITS, for scanners; and for printers, the type of printer you're dealing with. The profiles Eye- One Match produces are identical to profiles made with Gretag- Macbeth’s industrial-strength profiling tool, ProfileMaker Pro, at the latter's default settings. You don't get control over black gen- eration or ink limits on CMYK profiles, but the default settings are the product of a great deal of research and experience, and they work well. In fact, the only real problem we encountered isn’t Gretag- Macbeth’s fault. Monitors cali- brated using OS X 10.1.2 on Macs that use Nvidia video cards may develop a little shadowed box that follows the cursor around, although restarting the Mac sometimes makes it disap- pear. Sources at Apple indicated that a fix should appear shortly. Macworld’s Buying Advice If you want to enter the world of printer-profile creation, Eye- One Pro with Eye-One Match will give you top-notch results in a relatively short amount of time. Ifyou absolutely must have control over black generation and ink limiting, you'll need a more complex software package than Eye-One Match, However, long after you've graduated to software with fuller features, you'll still find the Eye-One instrument indispensable. [1 RATING: 9896 PROS: High-quality, flexible instru- asy-to-use wizard-based software, CONS: Idiosyncratic user interface; ‘no control over black generation and ink limits for CMYK profiles. PRICE: $2,800 OS COMPATIBILITY: Mac 0S 9, Mac 0S X COMPANY: GretagMacbeth, 845/565-7660, wiw.i1color.com wwwumacworld.com | may 2002 | Macwoato | 31 REVIEWS! AXEL 1.5 Basic Package Simplifies the Creation of 3-D Interactivity for the Web BY MATTHEW LOWRIE As interactive 3-D Web gra progress beyond the pioneering efforts of VRML, Web-design software s' the authoring process, Web designers and 3-D artists—who want to showcase interactive 3-D scenes via a Web browser, for example—need a straight- forward way to bridge the gap between their areas of expertis MindAvenue meets this chal- Jenge—the company has released two ditions of Axel 1.5, the only OS X-native 3-D authoring tools for the Web (they also run on OS 9): Axelcore 1.5, geared toward Web designers with little or no 3-D experience, and Axeledge 1.5, which builds on Axelcore’® foundation with a few advanced features for 3-D artists. 3-D Tools Anyone Can Use Axel 1.5 provides basic, well- designed polygon tools intuitive enough for artists unaccustomed to working with 3-D, You can draw and edit curves using a stan- dard pen tool; however, it lets you create only corner points (this i: limiting if you are used to Bézier curves or control vertices). With a single menu selection, you then create 3-D surfaces by revolving or extruding curves. You maki changes to surface attributes via a palette that describes the objects’ parameters; the program simulta- neously updates layout views, giving you WYSIWYG control over 3-D models. Axel include itive sha for generating extruded 3-D type from ‘TrueType or PostScript fonts, ‘Text options allow for embedding font outlines in Web files and converting characters to curves, ensuring that your text appears the same on any platform. Artists uncomfortable with the technical aspects of 3-D model- ing, or those who need to gen- erate concepts quickly, will be pleased with the vertex push/pull tool, a handy feature that works asa virtual sculptor, Axel doesn’t support any pro- prietary 3-D file formats, but it does support VRML 97 (and ‘MindAvenue says that a Light- Wave importer will be available in Axeledge and for download by the time you read this). Putting It in Motion Axel’s. motion tools will be familiar to content developers who compose keyframe ani- mations in programs such Adobe LiveMotion and Macro- media sh. There is also a Record mode, which automati- cally generates keyframes when you move objects around in the layout views. It’s easy to use, but it creates a jumble of keyframes that needlessly bloats your Web file si: But Axel provid present inter sors handle all the ways a user manipulate an object, such a mouse clicks, rollovers, and ki board entries; each sensor's reac- tions trigger a response, such as changing an object's parametei or playing an animation, sound, or movie, The Interaction Edi- tor window displays a visual schematic of all a scene's sensor- reaction relationships, and you can edit each relationship easily by dragging connection handles between objects. tools tl activity clearly: sen- 1 Pulling It Together All the work that goes into creat ing 3-D Web content is pointle: unless there's an easy way to pub- lish it, and Axel provides one. When you save your entire 3-D scene as an Axel stream file (with an .axs extension), the program automatically exports the correct HTML code to a new or existing can also write the code nece: for rendering windowless content. This is ideal for creating a Web site with a virtual human guide, for example. A 3-D ani- 32 _|_MACWORU 2002 Browsing for Browsers Axel 1.5 creates a custom menu of all installed browsers, making it easy to preview Web content right from the interface. mator can work on the character and then save it to render as a windowless element in an HTML layout. For a site visitor, watching the final scene in a browser requires downloading the free, 700K Axel Player plug-in. ‘The plug-in sup- ports a wide range of browsers available for both the Mac and including the latest OS versions of Internet Explorer, Netscape 6, iCab, and OmniWeb, as well as Opera and AOL for OS 9.2. However, the added step of manually installing a player is inconvenient. A Download Estimate Man- ager gives the approximate trans fer times of your final file, at various connection speeds. Pre- viewing in browsers is also con- venient, Axel generates a cus- tomizable menu after: scanning your hard drive for all installed versions of supported browsers. Selecting one from the menu launches the browser automati- cally and plays the Web fil site visitor will see it. A Choice of Features While both Axel editions are essentially the same product, they’re geared toward different audience xelcore 1.5 is a great introductory 3-D tool for Web designers looking to add pizzazz to their sites, whereas Axeledge 1.5 offers experienced 3-D artists additional character- animation and scripting tools like those in NewTek’s Light- Wave 3D (see Reviews, April 2002). The scripting language is comparable to JavaScript, but with an interface for piecing together scripts from menus of functions and operators. The higher-end Axeledge' nimation tools offer forward and inverse kinemati but only for a maximum of two bones, forcing you to animate longer bone hierarchies (for example, those in a snake ora tree limb) with the more time-con- suming forward kinematics, Macworld’s Buying Advice For 3-D artists seeking a new medium, and for Web-content developers looking to expand their repertoire, Axel offers an intuitive interface for creating interactivity. [ RATING: 9998 | PROS: Easy-to-learn, intuitive inter- face for complex operations; ful ceation-to-publishing workflow; wide-reaching browser support CONS: Lack of support for 3-D file formats; installing browser plug-in inconvenient for site visitors, PRICE: Axelcore, $395; Axeledge, $950 OS COMPATIBILITY: Mac 05 9, Mac 05 X COMPANY: MindAvenue, 866/646- 3283, www.mindavenue.com DEBABELIZER PRO 5 Old Image-Processing Favorite Returns to the Mac Equilibrium’s. DeBabelizer_ was once the most essential utility— hands-down—for anyone who worked with digital images. Soon after the company released ver- sion 3, itabandoned the Mac, but now DeBabelizer is back as DeBabelizer Pro 5, a major upgrade that delivers loads of new features, a greatly improved inter- , and full OS X compatibility. Many other graphies apps have added automatic image pre Rosy Upgrade Though it's still a bit cumber some, DeBabelizer Pro 5's interface is an improve: ment on that of previous versions ing, but none have DeBabelizer’s power, making it onc must-have graphics utility Script to Your Heart's Content DeBabelizer provides _ several methods of creating and execut- ing scripts. The New Script com- mand creates an empty. script window, to which you can add steps by choosing desired opera- tions and commands. Or you can use the Watch Me command to be shop’ Actions palette. You can trigger scripts by drag- ging and dropping images from the Finder onto designated icons in DeBabelizer, or by using the program's Batch feature to create and manage a queue of images. You ial folders in the Finder that have associated scripts. Drop files in these hot folders, and DeBabelizer will process the images using the appropriate script. This lets you create network-based, automatic image-processing workflows. DeBabelizer’s scripting facility surpasses the simple “list of cord actions, 4 la Adobe Photo- can also create spe www macworld.com actions” scriprability you'll find in Photoshop's Actions palette DeBabelizer scripts can include loops, delays, conditionals, and display options that make for flexible batch processing. For example, you can build scripts that perform different actions depending on an image parame- ter, such as size, making it possible to build one script that can process a wide variety of source images DeBabelizer can also export standard AppleScript files, though depending on how you intend to use them, they might need some minor editing. Our main criticism is that DeBabel- izer cannot read the EXIF (Exchangeable Image File) header information in a digital-came Also disappointing program's inability to process digital photos based on their exposure settings and other parameters. Early versions of DeBabelizer were notorious for their impen- etrable interfaces. Version 5's interface is nearly identical to that of DeBabelizer 4 for Windows; it’s much better than it used to be but still alittle cumbersome. Expect DeBabelizer’s huge array of windows and palettes to take up a lot of screen real estate, your scripts as file, is the Image Wizardry The most-powerful tools in DeBabelizer are its palette- manipulation controls. Super- Palette, a DeBabelizer mainstay since the first version, can auto- matically analyze a group of images and create a single 8-bit palette that’s optimized for the entire batch. You can also spe- fy that ce those of interface elements—be preserved processed. And SuperPalette can now automatically download all of a site’s images for analysis and automatic palette creation. > continues on page 36 in colors—such as when images are Mac The-choice is! yours ~ WON! STUD! HEAD 105 Choose 92 at vevnwmacworld.comigetinto Te usu Fon Te WAC BY ee ‘worl co May 2002 | MACWORLD | 33 100% COMPATIBLE | UPGRADING YOUR MAC IS JUST A CLICK AWAY. #1 WORLD'S LEADING | INDEPENDENT ® kingston £35.20 Fax (714)435-2609. All nights reserved, All registered trade- notice. Offer limited ro qualifying Kingston part numbers and is subject HARMONI G3 Processor Upgrade Delivers Speed Boost and FireWire to Early iMacs You were a pioneer, someone who rushed out to buy a cool new iMac a few years ago. Your friends were jealous. But times and technologies have changed a lot, and your aging iMac hasn’t been able to keep pace. Don’t toss out that near relic just yet. Sonnet ‘Technologies has just released the Harmoni G3 Processor Upgrade/Fire- Wire Card Combo for your iMac. For $299, owners of iMac models that processor speeds ranging from 233MHz.to 333MHz and tray-loading CD- ROM drives (Mac revisions A through D) can boost their pro- cessor speeds to as fast as 500MHz—and gain FireWire compatibility while they're at it, something that wasn’t offered by previou