Text content (OCR)
FIX YOUR G | Fee Control with Photo
|
|
www.macworld.com May 2005
POW
New PowerBooks
Reviewed and
Lab Tested
PLUS
Expert Advice for Safer,
Easier, Anywhere Computing
50 YOUR MAC IS GOING TO LOVE
Logic Pro7 z=
Half studio. Half instrument. Total creative freedom.
More of a suite than an application, Logic Pro 7 sets a new standard in music creation and audio production. New Apple
imaginable and Sculpture lets you synthesize anything naturally via component modeling. The 70 effect plug-ins, 34 software
4
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instruments and expandable DSP processing power, thanks to Distributed Audio Processing, will make the $999" price tag music to your ears.
Rr 71 lWhed
May 2005 www.macworld.com R EV | Ws
: 26 = Apple laptops
$8$$ 12-inch PowerBook G4/1.5GHz with
a Combo drive
g $4968 12-inch PowerBook G4/1.5GHz with
SuperDrive
$8$% 15-inch PowerBook G4/1.5GHz with
me Combo drive
O P| N | O N $884 15-inch PowerBook G4/1.67GHz with
SuperDrive
5 From the Editor’s Desk $8$% 17-inch PowerBook G4/1.67GHz with
JASON SNELL SuperDrive
We're listening to you. Check out what's new at Macworld.
= 28 __Instant-messaging software
12 Feedback $$$} AOL Instant Messenger 4.7
Readers respond. $68: iChatAV 2.1
r =o $3 MSN Messenger 4.0.1
AC BEA
$8 Yahoo Messenger 2.5.3
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16 Is 2005 really the Year of High-Definition Video? Also, Apple's new iPod $66) Fire 1.5.1
models, Napster’s bad math, and the lowdown on Blu h 2.0. $$$} Proteus 4.10
py 32 Top Products
34 Online Reviews
42 Game Room
| PETER COHEN
Get scared silly with Doom 3. Plus, reviews of
Lemonade Tycoon 2: New York Edition, Bionicle,
Project Nomads, and the sweat-free Air Flo EX.
itiifitiiigs
YOUR DIAL PHOTOS
POWER \ sat 7 Pits: /
. ae / =
pee . 50 Mac Gems
cchint The Virtual CD DAN FRAKES
SOsswes) ETT All aoe ete ers Ee to the Make a Windows keyboard play nice with a Mac,
contents of the CD- at comes
On the Cover <a dene ples of Macihorld. To view the download music from your iPod to your Mac,
Photography by contents of the CD, go to the following keep track of how many words you type, brush
Peter Belanger URL (broadband Internet recommended): up on your geography, add better scrolling to
http://cd.macworld.com/2005/ your iBook or PowerBook, and extract audio or
O5isqueaky-goose video from your DVDs.
2 MACWORLD May 2005 ‘wwwemacworld.com,
COVER STORY _ SECRETS _
54 Hit the Road, Mac 72 | WORKING MAC
What kind of tech gear do you take on the road, and how do you get the | 5 Quick Productivity Tricks
Most out of it? How do you get online and stay in touch? We asked our | ROB GRIFFITHS
in-house experts and our readers to let us in on their favorite tech travel tips. Add superpowers to the programs you use most,
| without spending a dime.
FEATURE
a —— | 75 PLAYLIST
62 The Macworld Goody Bag | Play Anything
If you're tired of using the same old hardware and software day after day, | JONATHAN SEFF
it's time to break out of your rut. We've collected 50 of the coolest gadgets, Stumped by Windows-only media files? With the
apps, and Web sites out there. Some are useful, some are just fun, and all of right software, you can play almost any audio or
them will give your Mac—and you—a welcome boost. video file your friends throw at you.
| 78 DIGITAL PHOTO
iPhoto 5’s Secret Weapon
BEN LONG
iPhoto 5 has all the tools you need to quickly cor-
fect color and add life to your snapshots. These
surefire techniques will spruce up any image.
| 80 CREATE
| Speedy Online Portfolios
CYNTHIA BARON
\s your online portfolio chasing away potential
| business? Learn how to optimize your image-
heavy site for short attention spans.
82 MOBILE MAC
AirPort Dynamics
GLENN FLEISHMAN
Share your single Internet connection with com-
puters and devices throughout your home.
|
| 84 GEEK FACTOR
Multiply Your Drive
KIRK McELHEARN
Want easily accessible file-sharing space? Quicker
performance? Easier backups? Partition your hard
drive. We show you how.
|86 HELP DESK
Mac OS X Hints
ROB GRIFFITHS
Put PDFs in their place, use iTunes to organize PDFs,
cycle between tabs in Firefox, stop Terminal trip-ups,
protect your laptop with personalization, quickly
| open AppleScripts, and more.
|
| 90 Mac 911
|
e
i @¢6c6ce ce
§ @ CGE Ce
CHRISTOPHER BREEN
E-mail URLs from Safari, get rid of iPhoto thumb-
nails, turn playlists into a single track, correct capi-
talization, speed up OS X's Help Viewer, and more.
BACK PAGE _
| 120 Hot Stuff
| Check out our editors’ favorite developments of
the month.
www.macworld.com, ‘May 2005 MACWORLD 3
Charity begins at home.
And being that our home is planet Earth, we at Small Dog Electronics believe it benefits us all
to act responsibly. To that end, we have recently begun our new eWaste initiative that allows
our customers here in Vermont to conveniently drop off their old electronics for safe recycling.
In addition, for the past four years we have been offering matching charitable contributions
for all of our customers whenever they make a purchase at smalldog.com.
Small Dog
Elecironics
www.smalldog.com
1673 Main St., Waitsfield, VT 05673
Next time you visit smalldog.com, we invite
you to browse our huge selection of new and
factory-refurbished Apple products and
related gear.
Together, we can all make a difference.
« Apple Specialist
1-800-511-MACS
PORTRAIT BY PETER BELANGER
We’re Listening
Oya 8 = )dKe)s Sead BY JASON SNELL
What makes a magazine what it is? It's not the editors, writers, design-
ers, and other content creators. It's not the advertisers or the physical
paper and ink that arrive in your mailbox or on your newsstand every
month. It’s the readers. Magazines exist to serve readers, and the pub-
lications that don’t tend to disappear in a hurry.
The Internet hasn’t killed the printed word, but it has
redefined what readers want from paper-and-ink
magazines. These days, readers look to the Internet
for breaking news, product information, and fixes to
nagging computer problems. These are all areas
we're focusing on at Macworld.com. At the same
time, we're tweaking Macworld magazine to take bet-
ter advantage of the strengths of print. Today's Mac-
world focuses more on tips and in-depth how-to
articles, and less on breaking news, than the Macworld
of five years ago. You changed, technology changed,
and so did we.
How Are We Doing?
The Internet has also changed how we interact with
our readers—and that, in turn, has changed Macworld
even more. Since we launched our Macworld.com
forums in December 2000, we've been interacting
with readers daily, answering questions, getting feed-
back, taking criticism, and brainstorming cool story
ideas. More recently, we began using the Web to sur-
vey Macworld readers on a monthly basis, finding out
which articles you read, which you skip, and which
you find the most valuable.
The results on both fronts have been fantastic.
‘Today we have a much better view of who you are
and what you want from this magazine. The online
interaction, combined with all your e-mails and your
direct feedback at events such as Macworld Confer-
ence & Expo, has helped us make sure that Macworld
meets your needs.
Of Cameras and iPods
More than a year ago, we introduced several depart-
ments to the back of Macworld, including Mobile Mac,
Working Mac, and Geek Factor. When we launched
them, the department topics were shots in the dark—
we didn’t really know whether they’d work. To our
great relief, they’ve all been generally well liked. But
we've realized that those initial choices failed to
devote regular space to two of the areas of greatest
interest to Macworld readers: digital photography and
digital music.
So this month, we’re inaugurating our new Digi-
tal Photo and Playlist columns, within the Secrets sec-
www.macworld.com
tion. Digital Photo covers all aspects of digital pho-
tography, from tips on shooting to advice on how
best to process and print your images. Playlist (which
shares its name with our iPod- and iTunes-focused
Web site and magazine) is devoted to digital music
playback in all its forms. To make room for those
two new columns, we’re eliminating Digital Hub.
But never fear—all the topics we used to address in
Digital Hub will now be divvied up among Playlist,
igital Photo, and Create.
A Reviews Revolution
In this issue, we're also changing the way we present
product reviews, again based on your feedback.
We've boosted our coverage of new Macs and other
major products, enhanced our product roundups,
and expanded our Mac Gems column, which features
the greatest Mac products you've never heard of.
We've also expanded our Top Products section, which
lists your best bets in printers, monitors, and other
hardware categories every month. As a result, we've
actually increased the number of hardware products
we test in Macworld Lab every month.
Finally, we're debuting our new More Reviews sec-
tion. In this section, you'll find shorter reviews
of products that appeal to smaller audiences. These
reviews will give you a good snapshot of each prod-
uct’s strengths and weaknesses. If you want to
know more, look for a URL at the end of the review.
Type that address into your browser, and you'll
get the full, expanded review of that product on
Maeworld.com.
The Listening Never Stops
As the saying goes, change is the only constant in the
universe. Your interests as Macworld readers will con-
tinue to evolve—and so will Macworld, We promise
to keep listening, so please keep telling us what
works—and what doesn’t work—for you. We want
to give you what you want and need. Because, as
another saying goes, without you, we’re nothing.
IF you'd like to join our reader-survey pool, apply at wn macivorld.com!
surveys/panel, And | continue to welcome your feedback in public at www
_macworld,convforums, or in private at jason_snell@macworld.com.
May 2005. MACWORLD 5
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acworld
Editorial Director Jason Snell
Executive Editor Dan Miller
Managing Editor Charles Purdy
Senior How-to Editor Kelly Lunsford
Senior News Editor Jonathan Seff
| Senior Reviews Editor Jennifer Berger
Senior Editor Scholle Sawyer McFarland
Lab Director James Galbraith
Senior Associate Editor Jackie Dove
Assistant Managing Editor Sue Voelke!
Senior Writer Dan Frakes
Production Consultant Jennifes Werner
|
|
|
|
| President. ick LePage
Contributing Editors Christopher Breen, Adam C. Engst, Bruce Frases, |
Rob Gifts, fim Heid, Andy hnatko, Ted Landau, David Pogue Teri Stone
‘Art Director Rob Schultz
Designer Amy Browne
Contributing Photographer Peter Belanger
| Online Content Director Philip Michaels
| Editor, Macworld.com
| ‘and MacCentral.com Jim Dalrymple
‘Senior Editor, MacCentral.com Peter Cohen
Online Managing Editor Curt Poff
| International Editors Matthew. owl atl: Sebo Hr,
| Germany; Enrico Lott, italy; Yoshio Morya, Japan; Kraysztof Pietrasik,
|, Poland; Daniel de Blas, Spain; Valter Bengtsson Sweden; Engin Gedik,
|
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| Turkey; David Fanning, United Kingdom
Director of Finance Eos de Feminis
Accounting Coordinator Ronda Bittner
| VP of Human Resources Kate Coldwell
Human Resources Manager Julie Mekie
| Human Resources Coordinator Jenny Steele
| I Director Sean Greathouse
Publisher Cynthia Ramsey (973/228-3074)
National Accounts Manager Paul Bonarrigo (508/533-4020)
West Coast Regional
Sales Manager Stacey Stephenson (415/978-3341)
Account Executive Franck Zamora (514/273-6106)
Showcase Account Managers Carol Johnstone (415/243-3691)
(415/243-3664)
Sales Associate Marc Fong
(415/243-3628) |
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‘Associate Publisher, Online
Online Sales Associate
Online Sales Representatives
Marketing Manager
Doug Detlefsen (415/243-3598)
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AdministrativerMarketing Asst. Amanda Cartier (415/978-3380) |
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6 MACWORLD May 2005, www.macworld.com
to 20 years of
ng electric lift tables,
workstations and,
tle gray cart.
You might not believe it, but our original cart is still one of our
biggest sellers. Of course now we make a lot “fancier” furniture —
laptop storage units, power supply carts and workstations that tilt
and lift with the touch of a button. But you can also count on us
to have a cup holder or flat panel monitor arm for, say, your 1991
AnthroCart. After all, we made it with a Lifetime Warranty.
Need a furniture solution for your latest technology? Contact the
friendly and knowledgeable folks at ant m or
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~ Fast and Friendly!
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im vi
Microsoft:
Your potential. Our passion.”
‘ofporation. Allrights reserved. Micfpsoft, Windows, and "Yo pUMony are either registered trade
bf 9 orgpration in the United States and/or offher countries, Apple, Mac, ( oni
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chat. See it work at www.microsoft.com/mac
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Disaster Response
KIMBERLY BARNES
I just wanted to say thanks for the great
info in “Prevent Mac Disasters” (Febru-
ary 2005). Although I’m not new to Macs,
I didn’t know where to start my cleanup
chores with this latest beast (OS X 10.3.5).
‘Thanks to your tips, the spinning beach
ball is packed away and my Mac is running
like a new one. (Too bad—I needed a
good excuse to order a G5 iMac.)
SKIP BLUNT ie)
Just got the February issue and got lost
in “Prevent Mac Disasters.” The “eight
simple steps you can take now to keep
your Mac from falling apart” were too
techie for me. For example, in the section
about preferences, you recommend we
“use the Unix utility plutil.” What is a
plutil and where is it? Sherlock can’t find
any plutils! Then you go on to tell us to
type some text in Terminal. Sherlock
found that one, but I couldn’t use it,
thanks to all my fat-finger typos. Gener-
ally, I really appreciate the articles in Mac-
world and look forward to every issue. But
this one should have come with a techie
warning for regular computer users.
KEVIN CHURCHMAN ie}
I was surprised to find no mention in
“Prevent Mac Disasters” of a wonderful
product I use: Marcel Bresink’s Tinker-
‘Tool System (find.macworld.com/0310). It
runs maintenance scripts, repairs permis-
sions, and deletes cache and log files. It
can also verify the integrity of preference
files, lock and unlock groups of files,
remove foreign-language files, silence the
startup chime (thank you!), and much
more. I evaluated some of the other prod-
ucts you mentioned, but I found Tinker-
Tool System to be superior. I think it
12 MACWORLD May 2005,
should be mandatory issue for the Mac
newbie. I know your article should be.
RYAN HANNAN BS
I was surprised not to see Anacron (find
.macworld.com/0311), a free open-source
utility that runs daily, weekly, and
monthly cron jobs while using practically
no system resources.
DONALD TUCKER
I’m surprised you didn’t include Dicom
Datautveckling’s Cocktail, which received
four mice in Macworld (August 2003), has
more features than the Titanium OnyX
program you included, and costs just $14.
We tried to provide a cross-section of apps, but
we didn’t have room to mention them all. Some
of the aforementioned apps were in the original
draft but were cut for space reasons.—Ed.
Underpowered Power Mac?
RON STEWART iE]
As the owner of a Power Mac G5/1.8GHz,
I must take issue with your lukewarm
review of this Mac ($$$; February 2005).
Your criticisms might be valid for someone
to whom price is no object—but for some-
one looking to upgrade, this is a great unit.
An 80GB hard drive and a SuperDrive are
nothing to sneeze at if you’re coming from
an old iMac with a 6GB hard drive and a
CD-ROM drive. Sure, graphics pros who
really need dual processors might find this
Mac lacking, but the average user won't.
STEVE DUNLAP B
Stop encouraging Apple to eliminate the
bottom end of the Power Mac lineup! I just
read your review of the Power Mac
GS/1.8GHz single-processor desktop. I
think it’s great that Apple has a machine in
the Power Mac lineup that fills this partic~
ij FEEDBACK
Don’t Let This Happen to You
| Conventional wisdom says you just don’t put images of smoking, battered
Macs on the cover of a Mac magazine. To which we say phooey. Let’s face
it: Mac maintenance—like flossing your teeth and changing your oil—may
not be scintillating, but it really is important. So excuse us for slightly
exaggerating the consequences of neglect on our February cover. Judg-
ing by your responses to “Prevent Mac Disasters,” a little editorial license
on the cover didn’t keep you from reading what was inside, 9
ular price, performance, and expandability
slot. Because budget buyers like me typi-
cally keep machines longer, expandability is
more important than top speed. In the real
world, people do use computers for things
other than desktop publishing and render-
ing movies. To say that a 1.8GHz 64-bit
processor is good only for file serving and
driving multiple terminals is ridiculous.
Hatin’ on Quicken
PHILIP MEISSNER, Es}
T’'ve noticed that Macworld consistently
gives Intuit Quicken high ratings (6464;
February 2005). If you only knew the tor-
ture that Quicken has put its users
through! Like QuarkXPress, this is the
program people love to hate. Adobe InDe-
sign gave QuarkXPress users an out.
Quicken users have not yet been so lucky.
CHET DURNAL Es]
As a registered user of Quicken 2002, I
recently received a letter from Intuit that
stated, “As of April 19th, 2005, in accor-
dance with the Quicken sunset policy,
Online Services and live support will no
longer be available for Quicken 2001 and
2002 users.” So a product I’ve been using
for just two years will no longer have
support, and many of its features will be
broken. This is the first time I have experi-
enced a company virtually breaking its
product in order to get me to buy a new
version ($69.95 minus $20 for being a good
customer). I plan to look elsewhere for per-
sonal finance software.
Readers’ Choice
DAVID WASSON B
After reading “The 20th Annual Editors’
Choice Awards” (February 2005), I have
to say you really blew it with your “Games
www.macworld.com
of the Year” selections. You chose a four-
year-old port of Bungie’s Halo over Bliz-
zard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft,
a massively multiplayer game that had a
simultaneous Windows and Mac launch.
Waiting four years for a port is not as
good as playing the same game at the
same time that our Windows peers are
playing. The Mac community should
applaud Blizzard for giving us a current
game that plays so well on our chosen
platform. And the game rocks!
To be eligible for this year's Eddys, products
had to be released between November 1, 2003,
and November 1, 2004. That's why World of
Warcraft wasn’t eligible: it wasn’t released
until around Thanksgiving 2004—well past
our deadline. (We reviewed it in our Febru-
ary 2005 issue.) Bungie released Halo in
December 2003. We'll certainly consider
World of Warcraft for the 2005 awards.—Ed.
Mac Off the Web?
TOM DALTON &
I generally prefer my old Macs to my PCs
(two new Dells and a Gateway laptop). But
those Macs have a big problem: a growing
number of Web pages use ASP (Active
Server Pages) apps that don’t work on the
Mac. Try using a Web-based WYSIWYG
Web editor or NetSuite on a Mac; chances
are it won't work. These sites require the
latest version of Internet Explorer, but
Microsoft stopped developing Explorer
for the Mac several years ago.
The Internet promised to level the OS
playing field. Has Apple noticed that the
Mac is becoming increasingly incompat-
ible with the Net? Is Apple doing any-
thing about it? And what will happen in a
few years when all software (including
Microsoft Office) is Web-based? Where
will that leave the Mac if it’s compatible
only with basic HTML Web pages?
Cover Arts
MATT LITTLE &
On the cover of your February 2005
issue, there's a picture of a broken Mac
GS. In the picture, the Apple logo on
the side of the computer is peeling off
like a sticker. But isn’t the logo etched
into the metal?
JIM GLEESON EY]
I could never bend my G5 Mac’s case that
way. In fact, I think whatever it’s made
of could replace the Kevlar in bullet-
proof vests. The thing is a fortress. And
when its chip got fried, there was a click,
some smoke, and an interesting smell,
but no extensive damage. Still, kudos on
the amazing cover.
As noted in “About This Macworld” (From
the Editor’s Desk, February 2005), “no
Maes were harmed in the production of this
issue’s cover.” Our artist rendered the abused
Mac with NewTek’s LightWave 3D.—Ed.
© Post comments on our forums (www
-macworld.com); send them by mail to
(2) Letters, Macworld, 501 Second Street,
5th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94107; or send
them by e-mail to letters@macworld.com.
Include a return address and daytime phone
number. Due to the high volume of mail we
Teceive, we can't respond personally to each
letter. We reserve the right to edit all letters
and posts. All published letters and forum
comments become the property of Macworld.
wew.macworld.com
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OU CAN’T BLAME CREATIVE PROFESSIONALS AND
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The Race Is On
APPLE CALLS 2005 THE YEAR OF HD VIDEO—IS STEVE JUMPING THE GUN? BY ANTON LINECKER
At January’s Macworld Expo, Steve Jobs stood onstage during his keynote address and confidently declared
that 2005 would be the “Year of High-Definition Video.” To back up that claim, Jobs then introduced new
versions of Apple’s consumer-level and midlevel video-editing applications—iMovie and Final Cut Express—
that are compatible with the HDV format. He also showed off a new video codec, known as H.264, that will
be included with Mac OS X 10.4 and is intended for high-definition DVDs.
As a video professional who often
works with HD formats, I was defi-
nitely intrigued by the announce-
ments. HD editing has been possible
for years on Macs, but it normally
requires expensive hardware and
fast hard-drive array. HDV, however, is
a different story. It produces an excel-
lent picture at a very low data rate that
even very modest Macs can handle,
and it’s quickly becoming a staple of
reality television shows and sports
channels. Many video pros, from wed-
ding videographers to Mark Burnett
types, can see dollar signs in HDV. For
ordinary consumers, however, the Year
of HD is probably not going to be
until 2006 or later—despite Apple's
best efforts.
ve
Not So Fast
Why the reality check? The history of
DV shows that widespread consumer
adoption requires three things—low-
cost cameras, easy-to-use editing pro-
grams, and flexible playback options
(such as DVDs). Jobs’s announcement
directly addressed only one of these
requirements: editing. DV also had
another advantage for fast adoption
that HDV doesn’t—practically every-
one already owned a standard televi-
sion. HDTVs have nowhere near that
kind of market penetration.
Despite HD's increased resolution
and picture clarity, the adoption of
HD has been glacial at best. In the past =
16 MACWORLD May 2005 www.macworld.com
few years, though, HD has started making
serious strides when it comes to television
sales. Screen Digest (www.screendigest
.com), which publishes a newsletter about
audiovisual developments, estimates that
more than 12.6 million HDTVs are in
U.S, households (versus 250 million stan-
dard TVs). Also, as more and more high-
definition programming becomes available
via cable, satellite, and over-the-air trans-
missions, HDTV sales will increase. This
will further drive interest in HDV.
HD consumer camcorders also are
starting to gain some traction this year.
JVC introduced the first HDV camcorder,
the GR-HD1, in October 2002. Unfortu-
nately for JVC, neither Final Cut Pro nor
Avid Xpress Pro worked with HDV (they
can’t even now). So, hampered by the lack
of pro-level editing software and the fact
that the cameras shot in the 720p format at
30 frames per second, rather than the
more desirable 1080i format, the GR-
HD1 and subsequent JVC models failed to
catch on. The HDV format got a huge
Codec (AIC), which transcodes HDV’s
hard-to-edit MPEG-2 into a more man-
ageable format. This codec, though effec-
tive, is expected to be only a temporary
patch until a better method is ironed out.
“T wouldn’t say editing HDV [using the
AIC codec] is 100 percent ready for prime
time,” says Jerry Miles, Mac product man-
ager for Promax Systems, a computer and
video reseller. But he is very impressed
with the quality of HDV in iMovie—
especially considering iMovie’s low cost.
Another Piece of the Puzzle
Shooting and editing are only parts of the
overall picture, What do you do with a
movie when you're done editing it? Cur-
rently, there are only two ways to show
your iMovie HD creations—export them
back to your HDV camcorder and connect
it to an HDTY, or send the movie to a
DVHS recorder, a $700 consumer HD
deck that records HD MPEG-2 to VHS
tapes. You can’t use iDVD or DVD Studio
Pro and a SuperDrive to create an HD
Editing DV is remarkably stable—
HDV editing is a
boost when Sony released its $3,700 HDV
camcorder, the HDR-FX1, at the end of
2004, Compared with professional HD
cameras—which have a typical entry price
of $70,000—HDV camcorders such as the
HDR-FX1 are a relative bargain. Still, the
HDR-FX1° price tag puts it out of the
reach of most casual consumers.
For adoption to become more wide-
spread, prices will have to drop to the sub-
$1,000 level—something not likely to
happen this year. (Sony’s pioneering DCR-
VX1000 DV camcorder cost $4,200,
whereas you can pick up an entry-level
digital camcorder now for less than $300.)
As Daniel Slagle, who runs the iMovie
Unofficial FAQ (http://iMovie.DanSlagle
.com), points out, “The majority of
people have a huge investment in DV.
Unless they are in the market for a new
camera, and have at least $3,000, they
are going to stick with DV.”
In addition, after many years of refine-
ment, editing DV is remarkably stable.
HDV editing is still a moving target. For
iMovie HD and Final Cut Express HD,
Apple added the Apple Intermediate
www.macworld.com
moving target.
DVD, because the format is still in its
infancy. The biggest names in technology
are battling to be part of the winning for-
mat, and, as Slagle says, “It is Betamax ver-
sus VHS all over again.”
‘Toshiba’s HD-DVD and Sony’s Blu-ray
DVD are the new proposed standards in
this scrap, and, naturally, they are incom-
patible with each other (Apple recently
came out on the side of Blu-ray). With so
much uncertainty, most people will want
to wait before buying either format, for
fear of investing in something that will
quickly become obsolete. You can expect
the first high-definition DVD players to
reach the market later this year; affordable
burners, some time after that. Don’t expect
Apple to equip Macs with high-definition—
capable DVD burners until 2006.
It seems that 2005 is really more the
First Year of High-Definition Video for
most people. This year will, however, hint
at what is to come for consumer HD,
Apple has already accomplished so much.
With the company at the forefront, Mac
users will be ready when the rest of the
industry catches up.
R.I.P. JEF RASKIN
In February, the Mac community
lost Jef Raskin, the lead designer of
the first Macintosh computer and a
pioneer in the development of user
interfaces. The 61-year-old Raskin
had recently been diagnosed with
pancreatic cancer.
Raskin joined Apple in 1978 as employee num-
ber 31; he headed the Macintosh development
team from its founding until 1982. He named
the project after his favorite type of apple.
He is credited with significantly advancing
the design of user interfaces, which in the early
1980s were largely text-based and required
that users memorize complex commands.
Raskin convinced his peers at Apple that to
reach a wider audience, the Macintosh needed
an interface that was elegant and easy to use.
“Up to that
time, at Apple
and most other
manufacturers,
the concept was
to provide the
latest and most
powerful hard-
ware, and let the
users and third-
party software vendors figure out how to make
it usable,” Raskin wrote later on his Web site
(wwwiefraskin.com).
Raskin left Apple two years before the
Mac went on sale, but he continued to influ-
ence the design of computers through his
writing, lectures, and consulting work. Soon
after leaving Apple, he founded Information
Appliance, where he designed the Canon
Cat computer for Canon USA. He consulted
for big names such as IBM, Intel, and HP, and
he published the book The Humane Interface
in 2000,
Raskin was last at work on a project called
Archy (www. raskincenter.org), in which he
hoped to put many of the ideas expressed in
his book into software. Archy uses simple com-
mands for common operations in word pro-
cessing and e-mail. Raskin wrote on his Web
site that it “doesn’t work like anything else on
this or nearby planets."
His son, Aza, plans to continue developing
the project. His family said in a statement that
a preview version is due out later this year.
Raskin’s interests went beyond com-
puters: He taught the recorder, the harpsi-
chord, and music theory at San Francisco
Community Music Center in the 1970s.
Read our 2002 interview with Jef Raskin at
find.macworld,com/0421.—JAMES NICCOLAI
3
i
i
May 2005 MACWORLD 17
MAC BEAT
APPLE UPDATES iPOD LINE, DROPS PRICES
A Pod for Everyone
Although the popular iPod represents nearly three-
quarters of all digital music players on the market,
Apple has shown that it isn’t content to rest on past
achievements. With its recent updates to the iPod
line, the company has closed the gaps between prices
of different models, changed storage capacities, and
made improvements (see “Pods Aplenty”).
More than Mini
The new version of the iPod mini, which features a
6GB hard drive, increases storage capacity by 50
percent and leapfrogs over many competitors’ SGB
players. At $249, it has the same price as the origi-
nal iPod mini. Apple will continue to sell that first-
generation 4GB model, but the company dropped
the price down to $199—an important step, both
financially and psychologically.
“$199 is just the magical place to be in the con-
sumer market,” says Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice
president of hardware product marketing.
PODS APLENTY
$99
$149
$199
$209
$2992
$349
18 MACWORLD May 2005
BATTERY LIFE MORI
Whours —_find.m
12 hours fi
18 hours find.m
cworld.com/t
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15 hours find. macworld,com/036
‘That price also puts the iPod mini on a more com-
petitive level with other companies’ digital music
players. Is Apple feeling the heat from competitors?
“If you look at the market data, nobody has
really gained traction,” says Joswiak. “We certainly
take the competition seriously, but we have the
perfect solution.”
Another improvement to the mini is in the area of
battery life: Apple claims to have more than doubled
the capacity, from eight hours to 18 hours per charge.
“The longest flight in the world is from New York to
Singapore,” says Joswiak. “We've got you covered.”
The iPod mini’s Click Wheel is now color-
coordinated to match the iPod mini, and Apple also
introduced a new line of $29, color-matched arm-
bands for iPod mini users—in silver, blue, pink,
and green (the gold model is now gone).
In addition to dropping a color choice, Apple has
decided not to include a FireWire cable with the
new minis. All iPod minis come with only a USB 2.0
cable, which makes sense for keeping costs down in
a cross-platform product (all current Mac models
include USB 2.0). For people who prefer FireWire,
Apple sells that cable for $19.
Fun with Photos
The other big iPod news is a refreshed line of
iPod photos. A slim, $349 30GB model replaces
the previous 40GB model—at $150 less than its
40GB predecessor. What's more, Apple has reduced
the price of the 60GB iPod photo by $150, from
$599 to $449.
The 40GB drive used two platters to store infor-
mation, while the 30GB drive needs only one—so
this iPod is thinner and lighter. (Apple has discon-
tinued the fourth-generation 40GB iPod, too.)
Apple also removed the dock and the AV cable
from the box—they’re now accessories, available for
$39 and $19, respectively. Like the iPod mini, the
iPod photo no longer includes a FireWire cable.
iPod Camera Connector
For many people, the most important change to the
iPod photo is Apple’s new iPod Camera Connector,
which the company announced at the same time as
the new iPod photos. The Connector is a $29 acces-
sory that connects the iPod photo and your digital
camera, allowing you to transfer images directly to
the iPod photo, without a computer.
Apple says that the iPod Camera Connector allows
iPod photo users to view pictures immediately and
then syne them back to iPhoto later—PETER COHEN
AND JIM DALRYMPLE
www.macworld.com
Everything to concept, collaborate and create.
(Well, except the great ideas.)
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MAC BEAT
Do the math.
How much will it cost to fill up your player?
é +iB- 10,000
AD PRESENTS MISLEADING PICTURE OF MUSIC’S TRUE COSTS
Napster’s Bad Math
During this year’s Super Bowl, Napster launched Napster To Go, a new subscrip-
tion service aimed squarely at taking business away from Apple's iTunes Music Store
(see the ad pictured here).
As the first online music service to use Microsoft's Janus digital rights management
technology, Napster ‘To Go offers a new approach to subscription-based digital music.
For $15 a month, you can download as many of the servi
and listen to them on a PC or a compatible MP3 player.
“Napster To Go provides infinitely greater value
| and is much more exciting than the iTunes pay-per-
|
|
‘Your eholen of « mon
en your eampatie MP3
+
'5 1 million songs as you want
download model,” says Chris Gorog, Napster’s chair-
man and CEO. “This
But if market share is any indication, more than 70
percent of consumers want an iPod—which is not
compatible with the Napster To Go service.
Paying $15 a month may be less expensive than
buying even a few dozen songs from the iTunes Music
Store every four weeks, but the difference is that you
own anything you get from iTunes. With Napster To
Go, if you stop paying, the music stops playing—also,
what consumers want.”
you do need to pay for tracks if you want to burn them to CD.
And most people already have hundreds (or thousands) of songs ripped from
CDs. But even if you did buy 10,000 songs from the iT
probably wouldn’t cost anywhere near $10,000: mos
songs but cost $10.
nes Music Store, they
albums include more than ten
In the end, Napster’s math just doesn’t add up. If nothing else, giving up the iPod
is a price most people won’t want to pay.—JONATHAN SEFF
FASTER SPEEDS AMONG NEXT-GENERATION IMPROVEMENTS
Inside Bluetooth 2.0
Back in 1998, Apple included USB in its first
iMacs—and faced widespread ridicule through-
out the computing industry: Why include a
new technology when only a few avail-
able products can work with it?
These days, it's safe to say that
Apple made the right decision (or
even that Apple helped push the
adoption of USB). And Apple is
once again at the forefront of tech-
nology, as the first company to
include Bluetooth 2.0+EDR (Enhanced
Data Rate) in a computer line—the
new crop of PowerBooks.
You're probably familiar with Bluetooth, the
short-range wireless technology designed for
input devices, cell phones, and headsets. The new
2.0 flavor improves on the original in terms of
both speed and efficiency, Bluetooth 2.0 bumps
up bandwidth from 1 Mbps to 3 Mbps; that
improvement in raw speed not only allows faster
transmission of data but also prolongs the bat-
20 MACWORLD May 2005
tery life of Bluetooth devices. A telephone head-
set, for example, can transmit the same informa-
tion faster, so it will use less energy.
“Because the headset can burst two to three
‘times more data in a transmission, it is able to
sleep longer between transmissions,” says Mike
Foley, executive director of the Bluetooth Special
Interest Group, which sets Bluetooth standards
and certifies products.
Foley says that even where battery life isn’t
much of an issue—in devices that transmit tiny
amounts of information, such as mice and key-
boards—Bluetooth 2.0's faster speeds will help
users operate several Bluetooth devices at the
same time with less latency and fewer delays.
Foley expects that we won't see Bluetooth 2.0
peripherals until this summer or fall. David Rus-
sell, Apple's senior director of portables and wire-
less technology, recalls that when the company
adopted USB, "We literally did prime the pump on
that entire industry.” And Apple expects history to
repeat itself with Bluetooth 2.0.—cLENN FLEISHMAN
IMAGING
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Coolpix 4600, Coolpix 5600, and
Coolpix 7600, from Nikon (vw
.nikondigital.com): 4-,5.1-, and
7.1-megapixel cameras feature In-
‘Camera Red Eye Fix technology
and a D-Lighting feature that com-
pensates for insufficient flash or
excessive backlighting (4600,
$200; 5600, $280; 7600, $380).
D2Hs, from Nikon (www
-nikondigital.com): Digital SLR
camera has a 4.1-megapixel
sensor and a large picture buffer
for snapping as many as 8
frames per second for up to 50
consecutive shots ($3,499).
D-545 Zoom and D-595 Zoom,
from Olympus (wwwolympus
america.com): 4- and 5-megapixel
cameras feature a 3x optical and
4x digital zoom (D-545, $200; D-
595, $280).
D-630 Zoom, from Olympus
(www.olympusamerica.com):
5-megapixel camera has a two-
inch LCD, a 3x optical and 4x digi-
tal zoom, and a QuickTime movie
mode ($300).
EasyShot 500Z and EasyShot
5102, from Concord Camera
(wwew.concord-camera.com
‘megapixel cameras have a3x opti
cal zoom. The 500Z has a voice-
recording feature, and the 5102
has a 2.5-inch display (5002, $179;
5102, $229),
Exilim EX-2750, from Casio
(httpy/elixim, asio.com) The EX-
2750 is a 7.2-1 -megapixel camera
that has a 2.5-inch display and a
3x optical zoom ($450).
GraphicConverter 5.5, from
Lemke Software (www.lemkesoft
com): Utility for manipulating
digital images and converting
them to different formats adds a
function for smudging and blur-
Ting pictures, a keyword window,
and a brightness and contrast
function ($30; upgrade, free).
Stylus Verve S, from Olympus
(wwwolympusamerica.com): 5-
megapixel camera uses TruePic
Turbo processing technology to
produce clearer pictures at lower
resolutions ($350).
waww.macworld.com,
BEAT ICON BY PAUL HOWALT
Wanted: Control Freaks!
DiskStudio™ allows you to create
and remove disk partitions on the
fly! Want to create a new partition
for games or photos? No problem.
Want to get rid of that old OS 9
partition without backing up and
reformatting your drive? It's easy.
PodLock” is a new utility that lets you
do cool new stuff with your iPod.
Optimize the data on your iPod so it
works faster. You can also create a
secret drive within your iPod that
allows you to keep sensitive data away
from prying eyes. And much more!
Micromat is dedicated to bringing you cool and useful utilities for your
Macintosh and iPod. Our flagship product, TechTool® Pro, has helped
thousands of Macintosh users keep their Macs running at their absolute
best. TechTool Pro can even recover lost data and resurrect faulty disk
drives. Learn more about Micromat products by visiting our website.
Wifi Micromat Inc. 800-829-6227 707-566-3831 info@micromat.com www.micromat.com
©2005 Micromat, Inc. All rights reserved. DiskStudio, PodLock and TechTool are trademarks of Micromat, Inc.
MAC BEAT
SOUNDFLAVOR SUGGESTS YOUR NEXT FAVORITE SONG
Playlist-a-Palooza
With millions of songs available at the click of a
button, finding gems can be hard. Wouldn't it be
nice if there were a reliable way to discover new
songs similar to the ones you already like? That's
the premise behind Soundflavor (www.sound
flavor.com), a community Web site that delivers
personalized new-music recommendations,
Members create playlists from Soundflavor's
database of music and rate tracks in others’
playlists, The site then recommends new songs
based on your choices. Unlike Amazon.com and
Apple's iMix site, which look for matches with oth-
ers’ tastes, Soundflavor derives its suggestions from
a complex algorithm that analyzes hundreds of
song attributes—from the tempo, genre, and date
of release to whether the lyrics contain irony—and
looks for patterns. This, says CEO Steve Skrzyniarz,
produces a more reliable recommendation system.
Soundflavor can also help you find “trusted”
members—people who might share your
tastes—and can then incorporate their ratings,
but the selection process is still algorithm-driven.
Soundflavor's 123,000-song database is rela-
tively small at present—the site is still in beta.
Skrzyniarz says his “small army” of staff is con-
stantly reviewing and adding more songs to the
database. Now if only they had an algorithm to
explain my fascination with Neil Diamond's “For-
ever in Blue Jeans."—MATHEW HONAN
www.I|InsideMacRadio.com
22 MACWORLD May 2005
Listen live
5;30-8pm PT,
8:30-11pm ET
Wednesdays
Can't listen live?
Archives at:
www.yourmaclife.com
—
ll LUSTENTG sins
8 ICE
‘Vourmaciis
INTERNET
BEAT ©
Communigate Pro 4.3, from
Stalker Software (wwwstalker
com): Communications server for
0S X adds a carrier-grade SIP
infrastructure that lets users initi-
ate SIP calls directly from their
address books (single-server 25-
user pack, $699; upgrade, free to
customers within their mainte-
nance period).
FIP Suite 4.0, from Pyramid
Design (wwwpyramiddesign. us):
Software for adding FTP capability
to RealBasic applications can
now start and administer multiple
FIP sessions (hobbyist version,
$35; upgrade, $15; professional
version, $80; upgrade, $25).
Transmit 3, from Panic (www
panic.com): FTP client adds a
column view, tabs for multiple
connections, a Finderlike sidebar,
and a new preview drawer ($30;
upgrade, $18).
(ie Number One Mac Radio Show!
.con
www.macworld.com
ICON BY PAUL
Mick, meet Keith.
Say hello to iFi,” your iPod's sonic soulmate - power, detail and emotion
unapproached by any other iPod” speaker system. Perfect in your bedroom, as
your primary home audio system, or even for pre/ post-production monitoring
Controlied by a long-range RF remote, the iFi docking station fits all dockable
HPods, charges your iPod and even allows computer sync. Satellites are
fing oF wall-mountable. Satisfaction, indeed. Get yours at an Apple
jor select Klipsch retailers. Or check out klipsch.com.
MAC BEAT __
FRAZETTA BIO RELIES ON MACS FOR DVD RELEASE
Mac for Art’s Sake
In 2003, Lance Laspina A
and Jeremy DiFiore
directed and produced,
respectively, a docu-
mentary, called Frazetta:
Painting with Fire,
about famed fantasy
artist Frank Frazetta.
They used Macs for the
entire production, and
the duo again turned to
Macs to produce the two-disc DVD release.
The film documents the life of Frazetta, an artist
from Brooklyn whose work first appeared as illus-
trations for stories and comics in the 1940s and
1950s. He eventually turned to painting covers for
Tarzan and Conan the Barbarian books. His work
also appeared on the covers of magazines such as
Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella.
Laspina and DiFiore edited all of the extra
features they created for the DVD— including
commentaries,
deleted scenes,
a photo gallery,
and an animated
film that fea-
tures Frazetta’s
work—using
Apple's Final
Cut Pro.
DiFiore moved
across the coun-
try before the two could record the DVD's audio
commentary track—so Laspina created an
MPEG-4 version of the movie and sent it to
Difiore. Then they phoned each other, simul-
taneously played the movie, confirmed that they
were in sync, and recorded their commentary to
their Macs. Difiore burned his commentary track
to disc and mailed it to Laspina, who used Final
Cut Pro's Voice Over tool to edit the best com-
ments together—PeTeR COHEN
UNIVERSITY REPLACES LINUX CLUSTER WITH XSERVES
Fast and Furious
In 2003, Virginia Tech made headlines by creating the third-fastest supercomputer in
the world: a supercluster of 1,100 Power Mac G5s. A new Xserve cluster at the Uni-
versity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (www.uiuc.edu) furthers the tradition of using
s high-speed computing systems.
he Turing Xserve Cluster (named after Alan Turing, the British mathematician
credited with founding the field of computer science) is a 640-node system made up of
~ dual-2GHz Xserve G5s, Apple’s rack-mounted
{ servers. Running Mac OS X 10.3 Server, the sys-
tems use Myrinet’s Myricom networking hardware
to talk to one another. In addition to the local stor-
age on each Xserve, the system uses an Apple
Xserve RAID system with 7 terabytes of storage.
“We needed as much capacity as we could get,”
says Michael Heath, the school’s director of com-
putational science and engineering. “We do very
large-scale simulations for rockets, and we wanted
a first-rate environment in which to do that.”
Heath says that the Turing Xserve Cluster, which cost around $3 million, replaces a
208-node Linux-based system—and that results have been excellent. “We're seeing a
tenfold increase in computing power,” says Heath.
Other attractive features were the Xserve cluster’s power and cooling requirements.
“We already knew we were going to have to upgrade our computer room to accom-
modate the new systems, but Apple’s Xserve solution was more efficient by a factor of
two than other competitive systems,” says Heath.
Also working in the Xserve’s favor is Mac OS X’s Unix base. “Our users are all used
to various flavors of Unix, so coming to grips with Mac OS X Server is totally natural
for all of them,” says Heath —PETER COHEN
24 MACWORLD May 2005
STORAGE
BEAT ©
ARAID 1500 Dual Mode and
ARAID 2000 Dual Mode, from
Accordance Systems (www.accor
dancesystems.com): RAID devices
slide into a pair of drive bays and
connect to either IDE (1500 Dual
Mode) or SATA (2000 Dual Mode)
drive ports (1500, $365; 2000,
$370).
DRaid Serial ATA RAID, from dr
group (www.thedrgroup.com):
External storage system offers
RAID level 0 and level 5 capabili-
ties and comes in four- and eight-
drive configurations ($1,320 to
$5,200 depending on configura-
tion).
‘Super DVD Writer 16x16 Dual-
Layer Format USB 2.0 Drive,
from lomega (www.iomega.com):
External drive features double-
layer burning at 4x speeds and
can write as much as 8.5GB on a
single double-sided writeable
DVD disc ($190).
HARDWARE
BEAT &
Astra 6700, from Umax Technolo-
ies (Wwww.umax.com) Flatbed
scanner features a USB 2.0 inter-
face, 2,400-by-4,800-dpi resolu-
tion, and 48-bit scanning ($150).
Cintiq 21UX LCD Tablet, from
Wacom (www.wacom.com):
Tablet features a 21.3-inch screen
and eight programmable
ExpressKeys and Touch Strips for
scrolling, zooming, or changing
brush settings ($2,999).
CyberTablet 12000, Cyber-
Tablet 8600, and CyberTablet
6400, from Adesso (www.adesso
com): New line of graphics tablets.
features 512 levels of pressure
sensitivity and comes in 12-by-9-
inch (12000), 8-by-6 (8600), and
6-by-4.5 (6400) versions (12000,
$170; 8600, $130; 6400, $70).
MasterView CS-1762 and Mas-
terView CS-1764, from ATEN
Technology (www.aten-usa.com):
‘Two- and four-port KVM switches,
respectively, are designed to sup-
port systems with DVI-based dis-
plays, allowing users of different
‘computers to use the same mouse,
keyboard, and display (C5-1762,
$250; CS-1764, $350).
ww.macworld.com
(ONS BY PAUL HOWALT
BEA
ou know that finding just the ri
memory upgrade plays a big part in
getting the performance you want from
your Mac (and that upgrading your Mac's RAM
can save you a bundle of cash compared to buying
a new system). Now that you're ready to get your
upgrade installed and start enjoying better
performance, how do you figure out who has
“the best deal” on Mac memory? You'll see tons
of “lowest-price-anywhere!* deals, but really
getting the best deal involves more than just
price—it's also about things like compatibility,
performance, and support. That's where Crucial
comes in.
Will your memory be
COMPATIBLE with my Mac?
Today's Macs require specific memory designed to
exacting standards. Do you really feel
comfortable trying to sort through a foreign-
looking list of base part numbers to figure out
which memory is right for your Mac? Our Crucial”
Memory Advisor* tool has approximately 594
upgrade choices for 250 distinct Mac models. in
just three clicks, we'll provide you with a specific,
detailed list of compatible upgrades,
recommended upgrades, and even the most
popular upgrades. Your FREE memory upgrade
advisor report will show you only the parts that
we guarantee will work in your Mac, or your
money back!
We're able to do this because Crucial is a division
of Micron, one of the world's largest memory
manufacturers and a supplier to leading
notebook and desktop manufacturers (OEMs)
Micron collaborates with OEMs to develop
memory that will perform compatibly with the
rest of the system specifications; in fact, chances
are good that you have Micron memory in your
Mac right now!
What kind of PERFORMANCE
can I expect?
Whether you use your Mac as a tool for
schoolwork or household bills, an entertainment
center for music or movies, or as part of your job
in image editing and design, a Crucial memory
upgrade is a fast and easy way to prepare your
Mac to run faster, multi-task between
applications, and open large files. Our Memory
Advisor tool provides you with information to
advise you and explain the various levels of
performance gains you can expect when you
purchase a certain upgrade.
Exclusive offer for
Macworld readers!
Visit Crucial today, and in just three mouse clicks, get your
FREE memory upgrade advisor report for your specific Mac
desktop or notebook, including specific performance recommendations,
the most popular upgrades, and the best upgrade value for you. And, for a
limited time, Crucial is offering Mac users a SPECIAL DISCOUNT. To find the right
memory for your system in just seconds (and get a great deal!) visit:
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GET EXACTLY
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Will your PRICE max out my
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You want the assurance that your memory
upgrade is the right match for your Mac and that
it will be the same quality as the original
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consumer memory upgrade provider that's part
of a major DRAM manufacturer, Crucial sells OEM-
quality modules over the Internet at factory-
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On top of that, enjoy free shipping (for a limited
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doesn't perform as you expected, simply package
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it easy to get compatible memory for your Mac.
Order yours today and start enjoying better
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crucial
TECHNOLOGY
\ Division of Micron
The Memory Experts “
£22005 cron Technology, ne ll rights reserved. Information subject to change without notice Crucial Technology, the Crucial logo, Memory Advis, and The Memory Experts are trademark sevice marks
(of Micron Technology, Ine: Ail other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Crucial Technology isa
Technology.
vision of Micron Semiconductor Products Inc, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Micron
OUTSTANDIN
VERY GOOD:
GOOD:
FLAWED:
UNACCEPTABLE:
PowerBook G4s
No Big Changes, Many Small Improvements
BY HENRY NORR What’s New, PowerBook? > Hard-Drive Protection A new technol-
Apple's PowerBook product developers faced Across-the-board enhancements to the — ogy that Apple calls Sudden Motion Sensor
a dilemma in the past year: With the GS pro-_ PowerBook family include: instantly parks the hard drives? read-write
cessor still too hot for laptops and no block- > Faster Hard Drives All models now _heads—thereby preventing them from slam-
buster new technologies to add, how could come with hard drives that spin at 5,400 ming into the magnetic platters that hold
they breathe some vitality into a PowerBook rpm, up from the 4,200-rpm drives in previ- your data—when it detects accelerated
line that’s now more than two years old? ous Apple laptops (and most Windows movement that indicates you've dropped
Instead of one big answer, they came up _ portables). This change didn’t make a big your notebook. Frankly, we didn’t dare test
with a slew of small ones. Individually, none difference in our test results (see the bench- this feature, but it’s nice to know it’s there.
will knock your socks off. But collectively, mark chart), but it saves a few seconds on _> Scrolling Trackpad If you find trackpad
they make the PowerBook lineup both more some disk-dependent operations, such as _ scrolling a drag, the new PowerBooks’ track-
appealing and more affordable. launching applications and saving big files. pads may offer a better way for you to move
Cinema Adobe Unreal
P Macworld Speedmark 3.3 4D XL8.5 ‘Compressor iMovie HD iTunes 4.7 Photoshop CS —_ Tournament
OVERALL SCORE RENDER MPEG-2 ENCODE RENDER MP3 ENCODE SUITE FRAME RATE
| 12-inch PowerBook G4/1.5GHz (SuperDrive) i 136 i 436 ST 12:06 Se 052 a 224 a 2:00 i 224
15-inch PowerBook G4/1.5GHz (Combo drive) I 136 i 4:24 ST 13:55 ES 0:56 A 2:30 ST 2:02 RN 25.5
15-inch PowerBook G4/1.67GHz (SuperDrive) ESS 142 SN 4:15 SN 12:36 SIN 0:51 EE 2:16 NY 2:00 NS 28.4
17-inch PowerBook G4/1.67GHz SS 148 417 12:23 0:66 2:15 1:56 29.1
15:inch PowerBook G4/1,5GHz (2004) 14 38 1222+ 05S 226 205s 26.5 | =
>Better <Better <Better <Better <Better <Better >Better
BEST RESULTS IN BOLD. REFERENCE SYSTEMS IN ITALICS
| Speedmark 3.3 scores are relative to those of a 1GHz eMac, wich assigned score of 100, Cinema 4D XL, Compressor Mav, anes, and Photoshop sores ae
and had 512MB of RAM. Processor Performance wes set to Highest nthe
| iTunes’ High Quality setting, We used Unreal Tourament’s Antalus Botmatch
50MB file. Photoshop's memory was set to 75 percent and History was set
minutes'seconds. All systems were running OS X 10.3.7
d MP3 encoding wit an audio-CD track that was 45 minutes long, converting it from the hard drive using
1,024 by 768 pivels. The Photoshop Suite test isa set of 14 scripted tasks using a
TESTING BY JAMES G
‘Minimum, For more information on
26 MACWORLD May 2005 www.macworld.com
26 PowerBook G4s
28 Instant-Messaging Software
32 Top Products
34 More Reviews
REVIEWS YOU CAN TRUST Macworld rates only final shipping products, not prototypes. What we review is what you can actually buy.
around your documents and other windows:
just slide two fingers instead of one across the
trackpad, and the contents of the active win-
dow scroll in the direction you move (see
“Smooth Scrolling”). This action takes some
getting used to, but it can save you time and
spare you some irritation. (If you decide you
don’t like this feature, you can turn it off in the
Keyboard & Mouse preference pane.)
> Latest Bluetooth Along with AirPort
Extreme, Bluetooth remains standard in all
new PowerBooks. But the latest models fea-
ture support for an updated wireless standard
called Bluetooth 2.0+Enhanced Data Rate
(EDR). Equipment based on it can exchange
data at up to 3 Mbps, three times the maxi-
mum rate of earlier versions (Bluetooth 1.0 to
1.2). You’re not likely to notice the difference
in throughput—the real value, according to
Bluetooth experts, is that Bluetooth phones
and other battery-operated devices should
last longer on one charge, and your system
will be less likely to become bogged down if
you connect multiple Bluetooth devices.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t test these
claims, because the new features require Blue-
tooth 2.0+EDR-supported devices, and none
are available. Apple is the first to include sup-
port, (The new standard is backward-compat-
ible, so the new PowerBooks should work fine
with existing Bluetooth phones and peripher-
als. But with these devices, you won't see any
advantage in using Bluetooth 2.0+EDR.)
> Faster, Better SuperDrives New Power-
Books equipped with SuperDrives can burn
DVDs at 8x, twice the rate of the mechanisms
Apple used in previous portables.
And for the first time, there’s full support
for DVD+R and DVD+RW media, as well as
DVD-R and DVD-RW media, which Super-
Drives used to require. (Some earlier Super-
Drives could work
with DVD+R and
DVD+RW media,
according to online
reports, but Apple did
not support this capa-
bility.) We burned
DVD+R and DVD+
RW discs with no
problems, We don’t
know of any advantage
to the DVD+R/RW
format—its pricing is
now about equal to
DVD-R/RW’s—but
it’s one less thing to
worry about when
you're buying blank
discs. And unlike some
previous SuperDrive
updates, this one doesn’t seem to cause prob-
lems with older media: we tried some ancient
1x discs, which still burned just fine.
> Better Backlighting The backlighting
that automatically illuminates keyboard
labels when you're operating the 15- and 17-
inch PowerBooks in dim light is noticeably
brighter than before—10 times brighter,
according to Apple.
So Many Configurations
There are still five configurations—two with
12.1-inch screens, two with 15.2-inch screens,
and one with a 17-inch screen. They still
weigh 4.6, 5.6, and 6.9 pounds, respectiv
Like its predecessor, the new entry-level
PowerBook has a 60GB hard drive, a Combo
(CD-RW/DVD-ROM) optical drive; and a
12.1-inch, 1,024-by-768-pixel screen driven
by an Nvidia GeForce FX Go5200 with
64MB of video memory. But this model’s G4
Smooth Scrolling A nice new feature is the Scrolling Trackpad. Slide two fin-
gers across the trackpad, and your document scrolls in the same direction.
processor has moved up from 1.33GHz to
1.5GHz, while its price moved down $100, to
$1,499. In practice, you'll save even more,
because Apple also doubled the standard
memory to 512MB—enough to avoid the
memory upgrade most people used to need.
The other 12.1-inch configuration, now
$1,699 (also down by $100), is identical except
that it includes an 80GB hard drive and a
DVD-burning SuperDrive. Both 12.1-inch
configurations provide a full complement of
standard ports: two USB 2.0, one FireWire
400, audio-in and -out, a 10/100 Ethernet, a
V.92 modem, and a mini-DVI (with adapters
for connecting both DVI and VGA displays).
One disappointment is that Apple hasn't man-
aged to shave any weight off the 12.1-inch
PowerBook, especially since Windows PC
vendors offer comparably equipped laptops
that weigh around four pounds (not to men-
continues on page 40
COMPANY PRODUCT RATING PRICE MOREINFO —_—PROS CONST Le, ee a
Apple Computer 12-inch PowerBook G4/ $84 — 51,499 find macworld Compact; increased standard memory; Small screen; lacks high-end ports and
1.5GHz with Combo drive <com/0398 improved trackpad and Bluetooth; reduced features; only one DIMM slot; heavier
price, than comparable Windows laptops.
Apple Computer —12.1-inch PowerBook G4/ 868% © $1,699 find.macworld Compact; increased standard memory; ‘Small screen; lacks high-end ports and
1.5GHz with SuperDrive -com/0399 improved SuperDrive, trackpad, and features; only one DIMM slot; heavier
Bluetooth; reduced p than comparable Windows laptops.
Apple Computer 15-inch PowerBook G4/ $8%% © $1,999 find.macworld Wide screen; plenty of power; advanced ‘Somewhat expensive, given features.
1.5GHz with Combo drive -com/0400 port options; backlit keyboard now standard;
improved trackpad and Bluetooth.
Apple Computer 15-inch PowerBook G4/ $#8% = — $2,299 find.macworld —_—_Wide screen; plenty of power; advanced Price is high relative to that of the
1,67GHz with SuperDrive scom/0401 port options; improved SuperDrive, trackpad, Combo-drive model.
backlighting, and Bluetooth; reduced price.
‘Apple Computer 17-inch PowerBook G4/ #88 $2,699 find.macworld Enormous screen; roomy hard drive; improved Too big and heavy for comfortable travel.
1.67GHz with SuperDrive com/0402 ‘SuperDrive, trackpad, backlighting, and Blue-
tooth; advanced port options; reduced price.
wwwmacworld.com May 2005 MACWORLD 27
REVIEWS. es
Instant-Messaging Software
iChat AV Has Nearly Perfected the Art of Chat
BY MATHEW HONAN
With e-mail systems overloaded by spam,
always-on Internet connections on PDAs:
and cell phones becoming the norm, and
superfast communication in vogue, your
instant-messaging (IM) application may be
as important—and as personal—as your
e-mail software. It’s easy to think that
all IM programs are the same, but depend-
ing on how you want to talk—and with
whom—there are some differences. I
uated the four major chat applications for
the Mac: America Online’s AOL Instant
Messenger 4.7 (AIM), Apple’s iChat AV
2.1, Microsoft’s MSN Messenger 4.0.1, and
Yahoo’s Yahoo Messenger 2.5.3. And I
found that iChat AV 2.1 can really do it all
for most Mac users—as long as they have a
$100 .Mac or free AIM account.
AOL Instant Messenger 4.7
Years ago, America Online was the first to
provide easy-to-use Internet chat, with
its popular chat rooms. And the company’s
instant-messaging platform, AIM, remains
the most widely used service and the de facto
standard. The software is nearly ubiquitous
on new computers, cell phones, and PDAs.
Walk into any Internet café in the world,
and AIM will probably be the chat program
@ © @aimomatic's Bud...
a Find a Job
Search by category arch by cateqor’
[Select Scie i ail
x
> &, Family (2/7)
> & Co-Workers (2/7)
> &, friends (2/7)
> &, © Offline (27/36)
® [asl
Info Chat IM
Ei5§ -0.4 !NDEX:COMPX 208/
(G=]| Prices delayed at least 15 mins.
Keep Them Separated Using AOL Instant Messen-
ger, you can group your buddies into categories.
28 MACWORLD May 2005
you'll find. Every AOL sub-
scriber has an account; if
you're not a subscriber, you
can sign up for a free screen
name that you can use with
the AIM software.
AIM is much more cus-
tomizable than MSN Mes-
senger or Yahoo Messenger.
You can create custom buddy
icons and backgrounds, and
choose fonts for a personal-
ized look-and-feel. Setting
custom status messages to
let your friends know that
you're out to lunch or occu-
pied with the Super Bowl is
quite easy. You can organize
your buddies into groups (for
example, coworkers, friends,
and clients) simply by drag-
ging and dropping names,
and the AIM service will remember your
preferences no matter where you log on.
T transferred files to and from other AIM
on both Macs and PCs, and the trans-
fers went smoothly overall. It’s also easy to
set up a multiuser chat with AIM, and a list
of available chat rooms is accessible from the
menu bar, Starting a Short Message Service
(SMS) chat with a cell-phone user is as easy
as entering the plus sign and then the user's
phone number.
But AIM has its drawbacks. Although AIM
5.5 for Windows lets Windows users set up
video chats, the Mac version still limits users
to text-only messaging. The scrolling news
and stock tickers are a nuisance (fortunately,
they can be turned off). And although AOL
gave AIM a nice Aqua makeover, the effect is
negated by the unattractive animated adver-
tisements embedded in buddy lists. Overall,
AIM is a good application with a vast net-
work of users, but it wasn’t the best program
of the four I looked at.
iChat AV 2.1
Apple’s iChat AV picks up where AIM
leaves off, offering an even greater degree
of customization, as well as unmatched
audio and video capabilities. It takes advan-
tage of the AIM protocol to give Mac users
s to everyone on that system and
to people on the .Mac network.
T continue to be amazed at all the ways
I can customize iChat AV. I can use my
iSight Web cam to tak jot of myself
for a custom buddy icon; I’ve set up special
audio alerts that tell me when a specific
friend, family member, or coworker signs
on; and I regularly set custom status mes-
Frame nae tons 29.7
‘Un Rae bone 2559
Quality Assurance iChat AV's Connection Doctor automatically estab-
lishes the best picture and sound for each audio or video chat.
sages, 3 task that is, by far, easiest to do in
iChat. (iChat AV even lets you use Apple
Speech to announce new messages from
particular contacts.)
iChat users will also benefit from the pro-
gram’s OS X integration. Because iChat AV
is tied into Apple’s Mail and Address Book,
all your Address Book contacts are accessible
within iChat, and you can tell when your
iChat buddies are logged on when you're
working in Mail or Address Book. iChat
AV’s real-time spelling checker keeps typos
at bay, and Rendezvous support lets you send
me: to other users on your local net-
work without connecting to the wider Inter-
net. File transfers are a breeze; you can send
files by dragging a file and dropping it on a
contact’s name in your buddy list or on a
message field.
Thanks to iChat AV, videoconferencing
has gone mainstream, and it’s surprising that
the other IM programs haven't caught on
yet, Inviting another user to talk via audio or
video i as clicking on the camera icon
(or the speaker icon for an audio chat) next
to his or her screen name. iChat’s Connec-
tion Doctor utility scans both parties’
machines and Internet connections to deliver
the best picture and sound without overload-
ing either system. What's more, you can even
use it to video chat with Windows XP users
running AIM 5.5 or later, and to audio chat
with Windows users running Cerulean Stu-
dios’ Trillian, a Windows-only application
that allows you to be logged on to multiple
services using the same chat client.
iChat AV does have a few downsides. The
sound on both video and audio chats can be
continues
www.macworld.com
time. Progrant is subject to availablity of evaluation units. Evaluation units provided to
reserved. Joméga, the Stvlzed.°V” logo, REV and Save Everything are registered
Ea eg
oriega
+ Based on 28 GD RIW anid Bx DYD RAW speeds. tlomega reserves the
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REVIEWSs —
iffy, with some random
noise, though not enough
to seriously affect the qual-
ity of the chat. Audio and
video chats could have
more flexibility in terms of
who can connect. For
example, I might have a
Web cam stashed in my
laptop bag, but if I don’t
have it connected, I can see
only another user's text or
audio capabilities, even if
he or she has a Web cam set
‘Connection: Peer To Peer
Frame Rate: 0.77 trames per second |
‘Bandwidth: 16.98 Ks per secood
Image Sze: 320 x240 pacts
€
up. It would be nice to see
all of another user's capa-
bilities, no matter what my current status was.
Likewise, I'd prefer to be able to set up a one-
way video chat if I’m the only chatter with a
Web cam. Opening the door to other proto-
cols, such as MSN Messenger, Yahoo Mes-
senger, ICQ, and even the open-source
Jabber—as Fire, Proteus, and Adium X do
(see “All You Can Chat”)—would greatly
enhance iChat. Furthermore, iChat AV is the
only IM software for the Mac that doesn’t
;
& & a
Send Send File Page == Mail (1)
My Status }
harper (Online)
f (*) Online (1)
|| Qy Mathew
| (® Not Online
By Nove
‘=
+ Passion’ now on DVD.
+ Find ‘Ashlee Simpson’ on MSN Search
+ Today's top entertainment news
Assaulting Ads MSN Me Messenger embeds unwel-
come ads in your chat experience.
Lip-Reading Yahoo h Messenger video chats are one-way only, v with no sound,
have an integrated function that forwards
messages to your cell phone or another
mobile device. I'd also like to be able to video
chat with multiple parties, but Apple has
already demonstrated this as a feature of the
next version of iChat AV, for Mac OS X 10.4
(Tiger), scheduled for arrival in mid-2005.
MSN Messenger 4.0.1
Of the major chat services, MSN Messenger
is the most bare-bones, offering text chat
only, although it does have a few advanced
features. Like AIM, MSN Messenger has the
advantage of being tied to a large network of
users. Multiuser chats are easy to establish.
Since it’s integrated with the MSN Network,
it will notify you when a new Hotmail mes-
sage arrives. I didn’t have any problems with
file transfers, and adding and removing con-
tacts was relatively painless,
I say “relatively” because all of your con-
tacts must be tied to MSN Messenger, and
you have to search for existing users to add
one, rather than merely entering a contact’s
screen name as you do in iChat AV and
AIM. New users must sign up for a Micro-
soft .Net Passport account if they don’t
already have one. And like America Online,
Microsoft tries to recoup a few bucks
by placing annoying, and potentially offen-
sive, animated ads in your contact list. For
example, my contact list showed an iconic
image of the bleeding Christ from the
continues on page 40
All You
Can Chat
Your parents use AIM, all of your coworkers are
‘on MSN Messenger, your old college roommate
has a Yahoo Messenger account, and your
brother, the open-source fanatic, refuses to even
consider logging on to anything other than Jab-
ber. You need an all-in-one program that allows
you to log on to multiple chat services at once.
so you can chat with everyone,
Adium X 0.75 (#8%%; www.adiumx.com),
from Adam \ser, Fire 1.5.1 ($683; http://fire
-sourceforge.net), from Epicware, and Proteus
4.10 ($862; www.defaultware.com/proteus),
from Defaultware, all let you access your AIM,
MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ, or Jab-
ber accounts from a single application. These
eke don't support audio or video chats, but
for text-only chats, they make great alternatives,
All three programs are easy to set up and
Tun; each automatically imports your contacts
from the four major chat applications (including
iChat AV) and organizes your buddy lists into
your existing categories. Both Adium X and Fire
are free, while Proteus is $15.
Aithough they're similar, each program has its
‘own strengths. Both Fire and Adium X alert you
when you receive a new e-mail message in your
Yahoo or Hotmail account, Adium X and Proteus
can display the song you're listening to in iTunes
5 your user status, Proteus alone supports SMS
forwarding, allowing you to forward incoming
‘messages to your cell phone or PDA. Meanwhile,
‘Adium X lets you take a snapshot of yourself with
your Web cam to use as a buddy icon.
None of these programs are perfect, however.
‘Adium X doesn’t support blocking, so you can’t
blacklist problem users. Fire had trouble with
transferring files—both sending and receiving.
Proteus did better, but still hada few file-transfer
issues, and it occasionally launched iChat when
it received a new message from an AIM user.
Overall, all three applications are top-notch.
But Adium X was the easiest to use for file trans-
fers, customizing the look-and-feel of the chat
experience, and adding accounts.
NESTE me ot ern PROGRAMS COMPARED &- rss cnc
AOL Instant Messenger 4.7
wwwaim.com
Vast network of users; customizable icons. §
and groups; il Short Message Service
attractive interface.
Unequaled audio and video chat qualit
integrated with Mail, Address Book, and
Rendezvous; highly customizable; uses
huge AIM netw network; best for file t transfers,
ichatav2.0*
ple.com/ichat
MSN Messenger 401
Heraakieasy We iaesbre
Yahoo Messenger 2.5.3 Can handle video chats; Yahoo Mail.
notification; attractive interface; easy to
add and remove contacts,
30 MACWORLD May 2005 www.macworld.com
Introducing the new Bose® SoundDock” digital music system.
Bose SoundDock
digital music system
(shown with iPod mini)
FREE
Shipping
| with your
|
order.
my // £7 ie
Better sound through researche
SEE MORE
HARDWARE
REVIEWS!
YOUR GUIDE TO THE BEST HARDWARE WE'VE TESTED Renee
MINIDV DIGITAL CAMERAS
CAMCORDERS
$898) Optura 40
($999), from Canon
(www.canon.com):
The Optura 40 produces
7.1-MEGAPIXEL DIGITAL CAMERA
$$$$3 PowerShot G6 ($699), from Canon (www.canon.com);
This digital camera takes photos with excellent color quality and clarity, It
also has easy-to-use menus, Raw-format suppor, a live histogram, and
the fastest lens (f2.0) of cameras in its class (find. macworld.com/0206).
excellent video and respectable still photos, supports
a true 16:9 mode, smooths the effects of a shaky ALSO RECOMMENDED: 6a
i is iber 2004; find. Mega- Go to find Originally
ae hatte ol Use (November 2004; ind.mac Company Product Rating Price Contact pixels .macworld.com/ Reviewed
worid.co . - ——————— am
Epson —_L-500V. $465 $350 wwwepson.com 5.00282 line only
946% DCR-PC109 ($899), from Sony Epson PhotoPC «$88 = $200 wwwepson.com 4,0 0249 online only
(www.sony.com): L-410
This camcorder requires a docking station but has Sony Cyber-shot $886 = $499 wwwsonystyle.com 7.2 0206 January
excellent image stabilization. It also has a spot-focus DSC-P150 Bie 2005
feature, headphone and mike jacks, and a hot-shoe Olympus C-8080 $666 © $999 wwwolympus.com 8.0 0091 September
(November 2004; find.macworld.com/0130), Wide Zoom 2004
DUAL-LAYER
YP EUBREDS
Goto Speedmark
Product Processor __Display __Rating _find,macworld.com/ Best Price Scoret $996 d2 Dvds
iMac G5N.6GHz _V7inchesO488 0172, 81,270 150 py RLS Fab
with Double Layer
G5/1.8GH2 1Tinches $41 ($189), from LaCie
G5/.8GHz _20inches $8
0173 $1,460
0174 : __ $1,839 (www lacie.com):
Gali 2sGie | V7indes HNN 067 $789 This DVD bummer offers very good performance (albeit
combo, _ se te with a relatively slow read speed), OS X and iife
eae TTinches —-$$$HA 0168 $989 compatibility, and a full version of Roxio's Toast Titan-
SMe) ee BF = ium (find. macworld.conv/0313).
Mac mini G4/1.25GHz not included $88$ 0316 $494 Nt a A Tha
(GT Ganancte ——notinciuded $894 0321 $594 ALSO RECOMMENDED:
PowerMac GS5/1.8GHz__notincuded #98 0177 $1428 M165 $899. PX-716UE (5239), rom Plextor (www
i GSidual-4.8GHe notincuded $98# 0158 1,850 a plextoccom); April 2005; find.macworld.com/0313.
ki GSidual-2GHz _notincluded $$$} 0157 ____ 82250 212
2 G5/dual-2.5GHz notincluded $488! 0156 $2750 NL 237
iBook G4/1,2GHz inches $$$} 0178 $963 = 106 COLOR LASER
w “GAN33IGH2 —14inches—not_—-O179. "$1,249 not tested PRINTERS
- combate, crated ~~ 2 =
— Ga a3GHe Haines Horo $1,429 mm 6 $998 Laserset 2550Ln
PowerBook a 5GHz 1inches $44$ 0398 “$1,489 not tested | 8500, ton eve
N ainda E Packard (www.hp.com):
th - This inexpensive, network-
a une) Unde Se ey Ls Vi able ae laser printer
cise dH ns meeps ey
GMISTGHe 5 1Sinches_ _SS986 0401 $2150 Le capacity is only 125 sheets, so you wiht ara
i _G4N.67GH2 __17inches $48 0402, $2,540 Le paying the extra $100 for the optional 150-sheet
‘From a PriceGrabber survey of retailers as of March 14, 2005. *Speedmark 3.3 is Macworld Lab's standard test tool for benchmarking sys paper tray (find.macworld.com/0083).
tems running Mac OS X 10.3 (Panthet). For information on Speedmark testing, go to www.macworld.comspeedmark,
32 MACWORLD May 2005 wwew.macworld.com,
DISPLAYS
21-INCH DISPLAY
$898 321 LCD Monitor ($1,599), from LaCie
(wwwlacie,com):
This 21.3-inch LCD's 10-bit color support and
antiglare hood offers graphics pros accurate color
from an LCD (find.macworld, cua
19-INCH DISPLAY
$8985 Multisync LCD1960NxXi ($729), from
NEC (www.necmitsubishi.com); October 2004;
find.macworld.com/0081
17-INCH
DISPLAY
$686 SyncMaster
172X ($539), from
‘Samsung (www.sam
‘sung.com); October
2004; find. macworld
-com/0081
“SS
FLATBED
SCANNERS
MIDRANGE SCANNER
$948) CanoScan 9950F
($400), from Canon
(www.canon.com):
This CanoScan raises the bar for
midrange scanners by offering high
optical resolution, improved scan quality, and
more-intuitive software controls
(find. macworld.com/0188).
LOW-END SCANNER
99% CanoScan 8400F
($150), from Canon —
(www.canon.com):
The 8400F has limited film and transparency
support but is a great all-around scanner with
some high-end features and a low-end price
(find.macworld.com/0187).
FIREWIRE HARD DRIVES
Company Product =
DRIVES
Rating Price Contact
__ Capacity Comments
Hard $94 $319 wwwlaciecom 10GB Low cost per gigabyte; not
Drive by FA. very fast.
Porsche
G G-Drive-mini $884 $279 wwwg-technology 60GB Complements Power Mac GS
Technology com design; great performance;
very fast; a bit expensive.
DESKTOP HARD DRIVES
OWC —MercuryEElite $8691 $450 wwwmacsales 40GB Great performance; not
800 Pro com reat design details.
LaCie 2 Hard Drive #49 $149 wwwilaciecom 20GB Attractive; competitive price;
Extreme with supports FireWire 800 and
Triple interface 400, as well as USB; slow
FireWire 800 tranfers
Go to find. macworld.com/03 14 for more hard-drive reviews and specifications.
NEW: COLOR INK-JET PRINTERS
$%%%3 Photosmart 8450 ($250), from
Hewlett-Packard (www.hp.com):
This network-capable color ink-jet printer uses eight
inks for printing excellent looking photos with or
without your Mac's help (fee macworld.com/0280).
ALSO RECOMMENDED:
4488! Stylus Photo R800 ($399), from Epson
= ou
— =! :
(www.epson.com); January 2005; find.macworld.com/0246
$866 Pixma iP8500 ($350), from Canon (www.canon.com); February 2005; find. macworld.com/0275
Spey
wew.macworld.com
fly reviewed in a comparison of like products. As new
| update the list. For longer reviews of these products
other product recommendations, go to www.macworld.com/roviews..
IN THE
MACWORLD LAB
Hardware Products
We Tested This Month
FLATBED SCANNER
$894 Perfection 4990
Photo ($449), from Epson
(www.epson.com):
This 4,800-dpi scanner has a
built-in transparency unit and =
support for multiple film formats. Its speedy Fire-
Wire and USB 2.0 connections make quick work of
large scans. It provides very good details but some
scans are a touch on the green side (find. macworld
.com/0386).
DISPLAY
$99) Flatron L1780U
($599), from LG Electronics
(w.igusa.com):
This displays small and styl-
ish design is very flexible.
Once calibrated, it performs well as a general-
purpose display and is a good fit for users with lim-
ited desktop space (find. macworld.com/0385).
DISPLAY
$8$ M-17 ($329), from AG
Neovo (www,neovo-usa.com):
The USB ports on the front of
this 17-inch digital display
are a nice touch, but its
noisy speakers and color-uniformity problems:
at the top and bottom of the screen make it diffi-
cult to recommend (find.macworld.com/0387).
ones
PORTABLE FIREWIRE
HARD DRIVE
$996 FireLite
Extreme 80GB
($290), from Smart-
Disk (www.smartdisk.com):
Few palm-size portables offer FireWire 800, but
the small FireLite, in its distinctive SmartDisk case,
does—and it pays off. This moderately priced drive
posted the fastest read speeds in its category (find
macworld.com/0388).
DESKTOP FIREWIRE HARD DRIVE
8% 2.5-inch FireWire Quicksilver
($140), from Kanguru (www
-kanguru.com):
This drive has an interesting
design, but its test results
aren't very impressive, And at a
‘very modest 80GB, the Quicksil-
ver has a high cost per gigabyte
(find. macworld.com/0389).
May 2005 MACWORLD 33
REVIEWS —__ ee
More Reviews
For complete reviews of the products listed here, visit www.macworld.com/reviews
$#3 OpenOSX Office 1.5.1 ($40), from Open0SX import your W-2 information; and it lets you download
(http://openosx.com): OpenOSX says that it has devel- state forms free of charge, without mail-in rebates (find
oped something many people have dreamed of: a good | _.macworld.com/0353),
substitute for Microsoft Office that maintains the ability
to import and export Microsoft's ubiquitous file formats, $885 ConvertX PVR ($229), from Plextor (www.plex
While seemingly a good value, this open-source suite . toccom): Want a TiVo for your
of programs—AbiWord 2.2.0, Gnumeric 1.4.0, — Mac? This USB video recorder
SodiPodi 0.34, and Diagram 0.94—just, provides a great TV-viewing,
doesn’t make the grade (find. macworld -recording, and -editing experi-
com/0352). ence for a good price. It can encode
video to MPEG-1, MPEG-2, or MPEG-4, suit
able for VCDs and DVDs (find. macworld.com/0354),
$8 TaxCut Premium 2004 ($40), from H&R
Block (www.hrblock.com); $6 TurboTax
Deluxe 2004 ($40), from Intuit (www.turbotax.com):
$866% Mathematica |
While H&R Block's TaxCut has a reasonably easy interview | 5.1 ($1,880), from Wol- | |
process and gives you a free state-tax form (after you send | fram Research (www | |
in the mail-in rebate), Intuit's TurboTax Deluxe 2004 is .wolfram.com): Math |
hands-down the easier to use of the two apps, It has a application Mathematica
5.1 features significant
improvements in these areas: input and output of binary
matrices, packing methods for other numeric arrays,
numerical methods for arrays, and special array graphics
(find. macworld.com/0356).
$948 QuicKeys X3 ($100), from Startly Technologies
(www.startly.com): The third Mac OS X release of this ven-
continues
STORAGE
FireWire Hard
Drives
options and is a awe mer, but ithasar relax
tively high cost per gigabyte ind macworld, y
com/0392),
$#%% CrossFire 160GB ($190), from Smart-
Disk (www.smartdisk.com): This moderately
priced drive fea
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