MacWorld9805May1998

Internet Explorer 4.0 Stumbles, p.41 ¢ 19-Inch Monitor Shoot-Out, p.85 30002! ‘ Cheaper, Faster, <a More Options Apple Build-to- Order Delivers the Fastest— G3 Maes Yet, p. 63 ALSO $499/$599 i who INN lea Cie Econ and th ta ie Lago oe trademarks of la Gi, 1 © Copyright 1998 lea Ci, LAB sights ever If you wrestle with color professionally, get a match with the Blue Hood. Introducing the La Cie Electron21;" the monitor with the color~ enhancing Blue Hood. Circle 52 on reader service card Wels || WJ || Incorporating MacUser Features Cover Story C 63 The Build-to-Order Dilemma reate BY ALLYSON BATES Apple's new 300MHz Power Macintosh G3 is really fast, but can you fit all your options in the box? Print 105 10 Menacing Font Foibles BY KATHLEEN TINKeL Whether you're working with other Macs or with PCs, we show you how to relieve the most-frustrating font- related headaches. 68 The Web Publisher's Essential Tool Kit BY TONYA ENGST There’s no one right solution for all Web publishers, but our expert uncovers Web the best solution for every need. 108 Tile Your Site BY LYNDA WEINMAN Creating seamless tile patterns for your 81 Java Finally Delivers BY STEPHAN SOMOGY!I AND JASON SNELL Mac Java is so Web page can be a nightmare, Macworld shows you how to create tiles and sleep easy. improved that it now beats its Preventing font fiascos, Windows counterpart. page 105. Motion 111 The Black Art of Bluescreening 85 Monitors That sy Jim He1o You too can Show It All create Hollywood-like scenes BY SCHOLLE SAWYER Nine- with Adobe Premiere and After teen-inch monitors are now Effects, if you follow our affordable. Macworld picks the expert's advice. best one to expand your screen. Nineteen-inch monitors are now inexpensive and good—see for yourself, page 85. New layout software tries to pave new ground, page 24. 2 May 1998 MACWORLD 22 23 24 26 ‘Apple's new Java thas a real kick, page 81. News Mac Vendors Ponder Netscape Gambit Software developers are intrigued pe’s surprise decision to y browser source code. The Proof Is in the Ink-Jet Epson takes on the color-proofing market with a $10,000 ink-jet printer that features a stand-alone EFI Fiery color server. Pretenders to the Throne New page-layout programs chal- lenge the dominance of Qu XPress and Adobe PageMaker. New Releases Strengthen Painter Brand MetaCreations offers new graph- ics packages with no-frills natur- al media and enhanced 3-D painting. ON THE COVER Photograph by Mark Jobann 15 19 170 10 95 99 Opinion Letters The Vision Thing BY ANDREW GORE death of the Newton, The The Desktop Critic BY DAVID POGUE Joininon our seasonal Easter egg hunt. How to Contact Macworld Epson goes after color proofing, page 23. Secrets New Answers to an Old Question By TED LANDAU Did you start your day with a blinking question mark? Macworld finds solutions to start-up problems. Quick Tips BY LON POOLE and shortcuts. Tips, tricks, Slice through Web publishing problems with our top options, page 68. 30 32 34 36 38 a1 43 45 46 46 48 48 50 50 52 52 54 54 56 58 Reviews $000 Virex 5.8.1; $99 VirusScan 3.0 Virus-protection software compared 499% Claris Home Page 3.0 Web authoring tool $986 Elastic Reality 3.1 Morphing software $999 Visual Café for Java 2.0 Java programming tool DNews 4.4; $8¢% NewsRunner 1.0; $6481 Newstand Pro 1.0; $6 RumorMill 1.1 Usenet news servers compared thy $9 Internet Explorer 4.0 Web browser 69% SiteWarrior 1.1 Web-site-management tool $904 Final Effects Complete After Effects plug-in suite $4¢% Stuffit Deluxe 4.5.1 Compression utility $0404 EtherPeck 3.5 Network-traffic and -protocol analyzer $8%% VideoShop 4.0.1/3D Video-editing software $06 Surf Express Web acceleration utility $946 QX-Effects 3.0 QuarkXPress plug-in package $9%% Hard Disk Toolkit 2.5 Hard-disk formatter $940% Test Strip 2.02 Color-correction plug-in $v: LANsurveyor 4.0 Network-management software 94% Entable 1.02 Table editor for QuarkXPress 84% Noesys 1.1.2 Data-analysis tool $84% Movioke Interactive cinema game 48% Deadlock Simulation game www.macworld.com May 1998 3 ©1998 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft and Where do you want to go today? are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The Apple logo, Macintosh, and Power Macintosh are trademarks of Apple Computer, nc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Introducing Microsoft Office 98 Macintosh Edition. Work different. From: New Microsoft Office 98 Macintosh Edition Sent: Tuesday, 5:15 p.m. To: PowerMac users Subject: It's finally here. We started from scratch. We threw away all the old stuff. We created an entire division dedicated to the Macintosh and assigned them to build a totally new Microsoft Office for the Macintosh. One that takes full advantage of the Mac OS. One that looks and acts the way you expect it to. So you can move from application to application—from e-mail, to word processing, to the spreadsheet and ‘so on—without ever feeling like you've suddenly entered some kind of bizarre foreign territory. In other words, you're working your Mac like a Mac. You work the way you want to work. And that makes all the difference. New Microsoft Office 98 Macintosh Edition—check it out at www.microsoft.com/macoffice/now/. a 2 Micresoft Where do you want to go today?" www.microsoft.com/macoffice/now/ PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT Mac OS 8.1 uses the first ince 1986. HFS+ is faster, id increases the efficiency and reliability of your entire system. But you can't update a hard disk to HFS+ without ‘a backup. Use our award-winning backup software, Retrospect, so you can confidently erase your hard disk, reformat it with HFS+, and restore all your files, Same as it was, but better. ‘To upgrade to Mac OS 8.1, follow these steps: 1) GetMac0s 8:1), Go to http://support.info.apple.com/ftp/8. Lus.html or get the Mac OS 8.1 CD. 2) Retrospect 4.0 is the most recommended backup software available. DantzLab has verified its full compatibility with Mac OS 8.1. 3) Before installing MacOS 8.1, backup your Retrospect will back up your hard disk to whatever storage device you have—Zip, Jaz, SyQuest, CD-R, tape, even another hard disk. If you don't have a backup drive, get one, not just for Mac OS 8,1, but to protect all your files, every diy trom disk crashes, viruses ie, the, even gpersionerom 4) Update your hard disk drivers Use Apple's or contact the manufacturer of your I I I 1 1 ! ! 1 1 1 1 ! 1 1 1 hard disk driver software for the latest version. 1 5) InstallimaciOs8iy | 6) Restore your ies) : With Retrospect, just click "Restore" and that'Siit!, ! I I i] ! I I ! I "| anc] To go forward, you must backup.” Le ee ee ee ee ee ed se Nadine enc ope AL ah kee et oA Or Circle 26 on reader service card May 1998 MACWORLD Macworld fOITOR IW CHIEF Andrew Gore EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT Patricia Carberry-t EDITORIAL towron Galen Gruman s1w108 CorTon/news Stephen Beale ston torron/mtvuws Anita Epler SENIOR KOITOR/OEFARTAAINTS Nancy Peterson SstM0R THEMNOLOGY LOITOR Henry Bortman SENIOR ASSOCIATE EDITORS Cathy B. Abes, Linda Comer, Jason Shell, Katherine L. Ulrich ASSOCIATE CorTORS Allyson Bates, Scholle Sawyer, Brooke C, Wheeler {DITORIAL LAB COORDINATOR Shaven $. J. Sadler CONTRIBUTING EDITORS y. Christopher Breen, Bruce Fraser, ‘Tes! Landau, Deke McClelland, David Pogue, Lon Poole, Joseph Schorr, Franklin N.Tessler tas as oiaecror JefFS. Pitelkaw ASSISTANT (AB DIRECTOR Susan Silsius SENIOR LAB ANALYSTS Jefiy kK. Milstead, Kevin Mitchell ASSOCIATE LAB ANALYST Gil Loyola coy epIT MANAGING 101TOK Chaire H. Breen cory cnr Paul-Michael King. stn1ok COPY torrons Fissa Rabellino, Jon Zabenica ‘ART AND DESIGN asian oIRECTOR Eleanor Leishman any oinecror Sylvia Chevrier ASSOCIATE HIGHER Martha Katt, Michael Rattary DESIGW ASSOCIATES Jackie Goodman, Jonathan Woolson ONLINE manacine 107108 James 8. Bradbury onuint corto Philip W. Dyer conten encinten Jeff Cheney ASSISTANT CONTENT ENGINEER Jessica Graves 20 6 i 4 ©2O® ita) Work different. (By this time tomorrow.) Get your copy of Microsoft Office 98 Macintosh Edition delivered overnight. Upgrade fort Call The MacZone at $269° (800) 706-9884 Dept. MOPUB. ($449.98* for new users) : i Or visit www.zones.com/office98/ Orders received before 12:00 midnight EST any weekday (holidays excluded) can be delivered the next business day. So get your copy of Microsoft Office 98 Macintosh Edition now. ie MICTOSORE were co youwant to go today" ‘An Apple Power Macintosh computer is requited to run Office 98 Macintosh Edition. ©1998 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserve. Microsoft and Where do you want to go today? are either registered ‘ragemarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Macintosh and Power Macintosh are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and ‘other countries. *Shinping and handling charges will apply. Reseller prices may vary—estimated retail price is $299 for upgraders and $499 for new users. The listed prices of $269.98 and $449.98 are valid only fram The MacZone. To qualify for the upgrade price, you must be a registered user of Microsoft Office or one of the component applications, Offer valid only in the U.S. and Canada. Did you get yourg3¥)?/ Available Now! VST Zip"100 Drive for your: a G3, 3400, 1400 and 190/5300 Series PowerBooks° Available At: og | k& UeMell MGO, Concer | 1-800-222-2808 ata ClubMae 800-998-0040 1-800-258-2622 1-800-248-0800 avo 1-800-255-6227 ‘Questions? Call VST @: (978) 263-9700 \orepa tera eg Ze a he Copy ToDo Were are vader rep Cerin Alterac frp bya ekatraporng nS woe as Circle 74 on reader service card 8 May 1998 MACWORLD Macworld PRESIDENT AND CLO Colin Crawford ASSISTANT TO THE CLO Sharon Sanderson CCHIFE FINANCIAL OFFICER Stephen Daniels USINESS MANAGER Eos de Feminis [ACCOUNTING COORDINATOR Ronda Bittner ‘VICE PRESIOINT OF HUMAN aESoURCES Shelly Ginenthal EMPLOYEE RELATIONS MANAGER. Marisa Chow ‘Macworld ia pubeaton of Mac Pubhong, LLC DISPLAY ADVERTISING SALES. VICE PRESIDENT, SALES, & PUBLISHER ‘Mat Sweeney NATIONAL SALES DIRECTOR Steve Plevin (415/978-3138) SAUS/MARNETING COORDINATOR Nancy Galany (18978-4128) wisrenn Aoventisne oimtcron Karl Elken (415/978-3155) Account axrcunve Chris (415/978-3192) NATIONAL ACCOUNTS MANAGER r Account oxrcurive Jessica Ross (15/2 Aommuisrearive assistant Jesse Wadhams (415/97 NATIONAL ACCOUNTS MANAGER Sara Culley (970/827-1499) Account extcunive Margaret Level Green (415/267-4877) tastenn aDvERTSING oINtCTOR Cynthia Ramsey (973/243-1197) NATIONAL AccouNTs MANAGER Paul Honatrigo (SU/533-H020) ACCOUNT ExccUTWE Jo Zonterelli (516/277-1139) RESEARCH (ARCH ANALYST Phillip Hibbert MARKETING Vice PRESIOENT, MARKETING Welch SENIOR TRADE SHOW AND EVENTS MANAGER ‘Anna Noetzet CREATIVE SERVICES MANAGER Kelvin Gee PRODUCTION ‘VICE PRESIONNT OF MANUUACTURING Anne Foley PRODUCTION IRECTOR Cynthia Neustadt [ASSISTANT PRODUCTION MANAGER David W. MeAferty [MANUFACTURING TECHNICAL DIRECTOR Clayton Haberman DIGITAL AD COORDINATORS Brian Mullin, Mark Van Slyke Ao SALES COORDINATOR Rick Sandoval ONLINE | runuswer Jeff Julian NATIONAL ACCOUNTS MANAGER Ed Ramirex ACCOUNTS MANAGER Nicholas Harvey MEDIA COORDINATOR Jamil Johnson redraw, stress filter, stress scroll, stress render, stress rasterize, stress model, stress make all of the above happen faster than you've ever dreamed. (without the stress) From the makors of TwinTurbo® come the powerful, pertoctly balanced graphics board solutions you've been hoping for. ix3D boards climinate those long, gut-wrenching moments spent waiting for your computer to execute the 2D, 3D and video functions on which your creativity depends. ix3D boards are powored by IXMICRO's now TwinTurbo 128-30 for raw graphics power you never thought possible. Look for us at your favorite retailer, or check out our Web sil for more details. And stop stressing. www.ixmicro.com ix3D Ultimate Rez — Circle 150 on reader service card O ixmicro 10 work hard and fast. do it with style. 1,800.688,2446 x622 lesigns.com/mw free catalog aGlo DESIGNS” furniture for the way you do business DIscOvER A New Way To SHop! Find exciting product offers at the Mac Shopper on The Essential Macintosh Website. www.macworld.com/buyers/shframed.htm. Mac shopper Contact your Macworld sales representative for details. (800) 888-8622 May 1998 MACWORLD Macwor'd HOW TO CONTACT MACWORLD Subscription Questions Phone 303/665-2930 Fax 303/608-7495, US Mall Subscription Services PO. fox 54529, Boulder, CO 80322 ‘America Onine Keyword Macworld World Wide Web vor zdnet con/diubs/macworld/service Reprints and Permissions You must have permission before reproducing any materal trom ‘Macworld. Wnte to Macworld, Reprints and Permisions, 301 Howard St. 16th FL, San Francico, CA 94105; inchade a phone number. To order reprints of your company’ edtonal coverage, call 800/217-7875, Back Issues of Macworld Bach sues (subject to aval) ave $7 per isue for US. delivery ($12 ‘overseas; prepayment in US, funds is requited. Send check oF order to Back Isues Department, Zif-Davis Ine, RO. Box 53131 Boulder, CO 90322-3131. ‘Macworld in Microfilm ‘Macworld is avallable on mrolim and microtiche from UM, 300 N Zeeb Ras, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346, 393/761-4700, ‘Macworld Editorial The editors of Macworld welcome your tips, compliments, oF complaints We are unfortunately unable to look up stories ftom past hives: recom: ‘mend products or dagnose your Macintosh problems by phone, e:mal oF fax, Contact Apple tote at 800/538-9696, ext $00, for informa ‘on on user groups in your area (Our offices ae located at 301 Howard St. 16th Fl, San Francsco, CA 98105, 415/243-0505, fax 415/442-0766 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Dycet al comments and wegestions regarding any aspect of the magazine to letersmacword com Ove to the high volume of mail received, we cant respond personally to each Jeter. We reserve the right o edit all submissions Alletters published in ‘Macworld or Macworld Online become the property of Mitcword, QUIEK TIPS Send your questions oF tps on how to use Mac comput= 1, peiphera, oF software tothe attention of Macworld, Quick Tips. 301 Howard St. 16th Fl, San Francneo, CA 94105; fx 415/442.0766, ‘e-mail quicktps@macword com, Please include your name, addtess, and telephone number VPA. Juice Up Your Mac With Windows Compatibility! Squeeze OrangePC into Your Apple! Our newest Windows® compatibility card, the OrangePC® 550, when armed with the AMD-K6™ or Intel? Pentium 233 MMX™, provides the highest performance solution on the market. To demonstrate the phenomenal power of real hardware-based Windows® compatibility, the OrangePC was benchmarked apie a software emulation competitor. Using the Ziff-Davis Business Winstone benchmark running on a Power Macintosh G3, OrangePC ran 7 times faster. 700% more performance, now that’s some serious juice! The new OrangePC 550 has a stunning set of exclusive features including accelerated 3D video, 3D wavetable sound, 512 KB L2 cache, and 4 MB of video SGRAM - all leading edge stuff! And the OrangePC’s software application has made quantum strides as well. It sports 32-bit drivers facilitating CD-ROM long file names and NDIS3 networking. Our exclusive SnapShot™ feature allows a Now available from: (800) 615-3183 © Orange Micro, Inc, 1998 Windows? screen to show the Mac environment and the Mac screen to display the Windows® environment in a Mac window. It’s ike a “picture in picture” on your TV! OrangePC OrangePc 0 530 The Technical Specs: OrangePC is aonilable in 12” or 7" PCI cards (7” cards support “all-in-one” Macs); up to 233MHz MMX Intel, Cyrix® or AMD-K6; expandable RAM to 256 MB; up to 512 KB pipeline burst L2 cache on matel 550; parallel port (for PC dongles); 2 high speed serial ports; game port; 3D wnvetable sound injout; 24MB video memory. GOrange Micro inc. hn Years of Innovation and Excellence” 1400 N. Lakeview Ave., Anaheim, CA 92807 (714) 779-2772 www.orangemicro.com Circle 33 on reader service card 1GB The Super-Fast, Extremely Vast Personal Storage Drive: € AS BT 5279 INTERNAL “How | fit 5 Fortune 500 companies, a warehouse full of big ideas, and the entire kingdom of Valhalla into a A INCH SQUARE.” CLEMENT MOK Information Architect Studio Archetype, Inc. Clement Mok is an idea guy. As creator of award-winning corporate identities and design solutions for companies like Microsoft, Twentieth Century Fox, Herman Miller, as well as Apple Computer, ideas are the capital of his three companies. Whether he’s creating a cyber themepark, compiling tons of stock photos, or designing the elaborate kingdom of Valhalla for the local opera, his ideas need space. Big space. Which is what he gets with the high-capacity Jaz* drive. So while his office resides in San Francisco's warehouse district, his ideas reside on handy, removable Jaz disks. Check out more of Clement's story at www.4inchsquare.com/mwd. high-performance standard in removable 5 1 * Th \lion Jaz 1GB drives already out t ; tora ge with one ™ here, Two times the capacity and over Ne 30% faster than the 1 gig Jaz’ INTERNAL BECAUSE IT’S YOUR STUFF. omega It's SHOW time! SHOW offers you an easy way to add dazzling transitions, animated text effects and audio clips to your digital photos fo create slide shows with pizzazz, Home Photo and Busines resentati iets great slide shows fast! & MetaCreations <== The Visual Computing Software Company ° Works great with digital cameras and scanners! * Adds instant special effect transitions! ie aa ut com (PA eainatins Cay gts reserved Marve ante Watts og at adoro etuetions Copa Poe SMO Wadena Marais Cry RFE NCUNANN Letters Gadget Grumbles H OW COULD YOU BLATANTLY MIS- lead prospective magazine buyers on your February cover? Most of the gadgets in “Gadgets!” had nothing whatsoever to do with the Macintosh— or any computer for that matter (Febru- ary 1998). The cover was enticing because it suggested that there were gadgets that would interface with a Mac. While some of the ones covered in your article did (cameras, monitor, scanner), many didn’t (cordless phones, voice recorder, speakerphone). You disap- pointed me big-time. GERALD A. RISKIN via Macworld Online Most Macintosh fans we know have a fascina- tion with cool gadgets (we certainly do!), whether or not they interface with a Mac— although about two-thirds of the products we included do. We rounded up the tech toys our readers would appreciate most, based on the high standards for design and function we Mac users share. C'mon, didn’t anything tempt you?—Ed. ‘THINK YOU MISSED A VERY COOL gadget in your “Gadgets!” article (February 1998): a transportable satel- lite telephone. It works anywhere in the world. You can forget about modems, phone lines, and local numbers to ISPs when you're traveling. All you have to do is plug your PowerBook or Newton into the satellite phone, and you’re online, Of course, connection speed is slow and you have to be in direct line of sight to a satellite, but still, you have to admit that this is a cool gadget. And it’s only around $6,000. BRUCE MCLAUGHLIN Berkeley, California NT Inclusion . . . or Intrusion? FTER READING ANDREW GORE'S “The Relevance Engine,” I was as shocked as the next Mac fanatic when I realized that Microsoft’s NT OS is going to be a continuing topic in Macworld (The Vision Thing, February 1998). 1 almost spilled my coffee as the notion of such a foe’s intrusion into my trusted, favorite Mac magazine sunk in. But when | thought aboutit, it started making sense. After all, in my SOHO workday environment of mixed-platform computing, where we use the Mac OS and Windows 95 connected through an NT server, this information might be useful. The outside firm that does most of the work with the NT server has little under- standing of Macs (which make up the majority of computers in the office). In the past month, I’ve spent count- less hours trying to set up a RAS connec- tion from a Mac to the NT server for e-mail, TCP/IP network access, and so on. It has been frustrating, to say the least. ‘The article “Macs and NT: Allies or Adver- saries?” (News, February 1998) gave me the information that Apple tech people didn’t know and Microsoft wouldn’t answer with- out a $190 tech-support package. Since I’m in charge of Mac adminis- tration in the office, I’m looking forward to knowing something about cross- platform compatibility and everyday issues that affect NT server relations with Macs. I hope your continuing coverage of the NT OS asit relates to Macs includes many business situations, not just graphics-relat- ed topics. Who knows, maybe this article will be of some relevance after all. BEN KAUFFMAN New Holland, Pennsylvania READ ANDREW GORE'S COLUMN, and I assure you that I have plenty of sources for information about Windows NT, and Macworld is one place where I have no interest whatsoever in reading about it. Ivis irrelevant, irrelevant, irrele- vant. Windows NT synergizes with the Mac about as much as the whale syner- gized with Jonah, I am surprised by your remarks implying that this is in response to e-mail and reader feedback. I do not recall your ever asking readers if they wanted more NT coverage, and I suspect that you are misreading the e-mail you've received or are selectively reading it to support a posi- tion you have already adopted. Daniet P. B. Smit Norwood, Massachusetts UDOS TO MACWORLD FOR ITS news story on Mac integration for NT. As a support provider and network administrator in a large enterprise increasingly unfriendly to providing continues www.macworld.com May 1998 15 LETTERS © The Embluze WebCharger review (March 1998) was cowritten by David Biedny and Nathan Mocaly. © We incorrectly described Vicom Technology's features when refer- ring to Vicor SoftRouter 4.0 (“The Mac’s Brightest Stars,” March 1998). SoftRouter is a remote- access server solution. Mac-based services (a wealthy institution of higher learning, no less), I have been dismayed by the lack of coverage of Mac- intosh integration into NT and Net- Ware environments. Macworld might help the Mac flourish if it were to provide more information on the availability of cross-platform products and were to give information about Mac- intosh access to non-Macintosh network services. It's a shame that I couldn't find anything of use from the Mac press when recently purchasing an Intel-based serv- er. It would have been nice to hear what works and doesn’t work with Novell's Macintosh NetWare Client 5.11 and NT Server’s Services for Macintosh from someone other than Novell and Micro- soft. The Mac will disappear from enter- prise environments if local support and network administrators don't have the sort of information provided in this ground-breaking piece. Bayard BELL Atlanta, Georgia ‘THINK YOUR IDEA OF PUBLISHING more material about integrating Macs into non-Apple environments is excellent. Unfortunately, you seem to have been enslaved into the service of the Microsoft hype/misinformation campaign. PCs, particularly PCs in large organizations, are not just NT, Despite the garbage from Redmond, most PC servers out there are Novell, and a large number of them are Unix and even VMS. ‘The facilities for supporting Macs were downgraded in NT 4 when compared with NT 3.51, It is not, and never has been, Microsoft's real intention to properly sup- port interoperability with any other oper- ating system. Lip service is paid to other operating systems for marketing purposes. ‘Twelve months ago I too believed the hype, but since then I have acquired con- 16 May 1998 MACWORLD siderable experience in using NT with both PC and Mac clients. It stinks. Fur- thermore, NT 4 was a significant down- grade that reduced reliability and useful features in favor of marketing objectives, BILL Norvucort via Macworld Online | T’S SURPRISING TO ME THAT Apple now won't let users speak with a technician about a hardware problem without the user giving out a credit-card number. I found this out recently when, the CD-ROM drive on my Power Mac 9600/233 began failing to recognize a CD that played readily on my 8600. Since I was within my one-year hardware warranty, I called Apple to find out how to proceed and discovered that I would have to provide a credit-card number in order to speak to a technician. “Mike,” a level-2 customer-relations agent, told me that loyal Apple users are always very pleased to provide Apple with their credit-card numbers. Apple wants to be sure that it can charge customers if hardware issues turn out to actually be software issues. In this way, it makes sure to never let a customer get inadvertent software support without paying—but I worry that the company will simply be alienating its customer base. Kurt Krause Houston, Texas LAMING ‘ing its free tech support, Id like to give a little insight from an ex-Apple phone-support technician. Apple cannot continue to provide free support in its current business condi- tion—or any business condition. A toll- free number works out for Apple to be about $13 per call for people asking how to turn their computer on. Granted, many people call in about serious bugs or engi- neering problems, but you would be sur- prised at the percentage of calls that could be prevented by the user reading the man- ual. If users have the choice between a free call and reading their manual, a large portion of them will make the free call. Until free tech support was taken away, we were supporting Mac Pluses and Apple TI's that had been purchased at garage sales! Now tell me how a company can survive providing this service. I cannot understand how people expect so much from a computer manu- facturer. Apple is a business, and busi- nesses must lay people off, reorganize, and change their services to stay prof- itable. Give the company a break, and be glad you don’t have an autoexec.bat file to call tech support about, Dre GoLpen Austin, Hankering for NCs I T'S POSSIBLE TO HAVE NETWORK computers without abandoning the stand-alone computer, just as it’s possible to develop Rhapsody and continue devel- opment of Mac OS. I oversee Macs and graphics/prepress systems for newspapers in various parts of the country, all of them with internal client-server networks. I’m slated to replace editorial Macs in about 6 of our papers during the next 19 months. Averaging 10 workstations per newspaper, that’s about 60 computers. Let's see, do I want to pay $2,000 per workstation for glorified typewriters (remember, these are in the news depart- ment, not graphics), or would I rather pay $800 per workstation? Hmmm, ‘There are roughly 7,500 newspapers in the United States alone, and at least 5,000 of those have a circulation of 50,000 or fewer readers. Chances are that those papers are using Macs for production. While the folks handling page-building and graphics at these papers need high- end machines, the reporters do not. They need to be able to type stories, move them across the network, check e-mail, and get on the Web. I can’t think ofa better appli- ion for NCs, and I hope Apple has peo- ple working on them because I plan on buying them. Lee WALLS Je Birmingbim, Mabie cers should be se l to Letters, Macworld, 301 Howard St, 16th Fl, San Franeiseo, CA 99105; fax, 415/442-0766; or electronically via CompuServe (70370,702), MCI Mail (294-8078), America Online (keyword Macworld), AppleLink (Macworld), or in the Internet (Jetters@macworld.com). Include a return address and daytime phone number, Due 0 the high volume of mail r¢ sd, we can’ respond personally co each letter, We reserve the right to edit all levters, All published letters become the property of Macworld, ™ Get up to speed fast with the Canvas 5 Video Workshop Series (65825 SRP each). Discover the many uses of Canvas 5 with guided, in-depth instruction. Get [07 the only complete graphics and publishing solution. TP in Photoshop”? Image editing in Illustrator™ or Industrial strength vector illustration in XPress® 4? i Web publishing out-of-the-box in any of these? 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SmartCursor Circle 46 on reader service card MiniCad yaemarh of Dhl Graphs te Allee ean * Precise Sun Positioning * Expression Evaluation Inside Textboxes * Automated Databases/ Spreadsheets * Multi-Decimal Dimensioning * Rotatable Grid and Customizable Coordinate System * Plus Dozens of Performance and Interface Enhancements To learn more about MiniCAD’s extensive feature set and why the program has been called “the eas ty most cost-effective way to design,” call 1-888-MINICAD www.diehlgraphsoft.com MiniCAD 7, which retails for a suggested price of $795, comes with 18 months of FREE Tech Support and a 30-Day Money- Back Guarantee! Jon aten Feet of Clay The Vision Thing by Andrew Gore THE NEWTON'S DEATH SHOULD BE A LESSON FOR APPLE N THE LONG HISTORY OF Apple’s blunders, the death of the Newton may qualify only asa foomote. Butit’s a footnote that speaks volumes about what is at the core of Apple's troubles. As a coauthor of Newton's Law, a guidebook to the first Newton, I was fortunate to be a firsthand witness to the Newton’ life, even before the MessagePad was intro- duced to the world in August 1993. So it’s with some perspective that I say the failure of the Newton can in no way be attributed to the acumen of the prod- uct’s designers, who were one of the most creative teams of programmers and engi- neers I’ve ever known. No, the responsi- bility for the Newton’s untimely demise must be laid at the feet of Apple execu- tives, who simply didn’t get it. Ignoble Birth No one will ever forget what an absolute, bone-shattering disaster the launch of the original Newton was: the details of its poor handwriting recognition and other failings have been immortalized in popu- lar culture, That first MessagePad was literally half-baked, a product that should have stayed in Apple's development oven for at least another six months. Many of the Newton engineers begged Apple not to release the product until it was ready, but Apple was terrified that some other PDA (personal digital assistant) would steal the Newton's thunder, and chose to release a product that wasn’t finished. As it turned out, none of those first- generation PDAs caught on and Apple easily could have waited another year to release the Newton. Apple let itself be motivated by fear, and fear is the worst emotion on which to base a decision. Although the first MessagePad was deeply flawed and completely overhyped, that didn’t mean the Newton was dead in the water, After all, the first two versions of Windows were hardly barn burners, but Microsoft kept at it, chipping away at the product's flaws until customers final- ly started buying it. If Apple had followed a similar course, it would be the Newton's OS, not the PalmPilot’s, giving Windows CE fits. Think about it: would any of us have guessed that U.S. Robotics would be the one company to design an OS that would kick Microsoft's butt in the marketplace? Think Small Apple started on the right track. Rather than abandoning the Newton and starting over, it continued to make refinements. Most recently, the impressively powerful Newton OS 2.0 stood as a release whose technology still trumps anything that Microsoft or U.S. Robotics have to offer. But Apple never really recovered from that first failure. Long after users had for- given the Newton’s awkward birth, Apple managers obsessed about it. That's a shame, because despite the problems Apple’s prelaunch hype created, all that excitement showed that people did want a small, inexpensive device for tracking per- sonal information, A lot of those people use PalmPilots now, but it didn’t have to end up that way. Even today, the Newton’ superior inter- face could grab a sizable portion of the PDA market, if only you could find a Newton that was the size of a PalmPilot. Here we run up against Apple again. The Newton engineers realized that they had to get small, and over the last couple of years, they did come up with designs for pocket-size, inexpensive Newtons. But Apple was gun-shy, afraid that it couldn’t compete with U.S. Robotics’ momentum. Instead of trying to fight it out, Apple turned its attention to vertical markets. Fear of Failure What ultimately killed the Newton was fear. Apple was afraid of taking a risk, even though risk was the only thing that could have saved the Newton. At Apple, it takes a hun- dred people to come up with a good idea but only one to kill it. Unless Apple can start encouraging intelligent risk taking, the company will be doomed to repeat the error it made with the Newton, Til admit it: I'm in mourn- ing. Not just for the Newton but for ai! the great ideas Apple has had that now may never see the light of day, P'm talking not just about ideas for the Newton—I’m talking also about brilliant ideas to improve and extend the Mac, Tcan only hope that Apple has finally learned that you can’t succeed if you don’t take chances. May the Newton be the last of Apple’s good ideas to meet an untimely end simply because its creator had feet of clay. m Send messages of condolence to visionthing@macworld.com. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Museum of Dead Apple Technologies—we hear it’s looking to expand. www.macworld.com May 1998 19 SO ter a cneren catia . ik 3 ae RI 3 Disa ea ETE ds at up to 56 Kbps and Sending at up (693.2 Kbps. Due {0 FCC regulations, receiving speeds ate limited to 53 kbps. Act phone'tine and server equipment. Complies with both the determined V.9o ITU 56K. standard and x2" technology. Ratification expe ‘See. venwiacom,com/s6k for details $01998\aComt Corporation Or its subsidiaries. Al rights rest or its silbaidiaries, #4556 2.08 Can a modem hurl you into the center of a mosh pit? In a word, no. But wil near CD-quality audio and smoother-streaming video, the new V.90 U.S. Robotics® 56K* standard modem, comes closer than ever before. It connects up to 80% faster than other 28.8 modem brands. And it's compatible with nine of the top ten Internet providers and over 1,400 more around the globe. No wonder U.S. Robotics is the world's best-selling modem. To learn more, contact a U.S. Robotics reseller or visit www.3com.com/56k. MAY 1998 online Mac Vendors Ponder Netscape Gambit BROWSER DEVELOPER TO GIVE AWAY SOURCE CODE by Cameron Crotty hen Netscape announced its plan to release the source code for its Communi- ator suite of Internet-ac clients, you could almost hear the computer industry’s col- lective gasp. For most soft- ware developers, the source code—the commands that make a program work—rep- resents their most valuable and protected asset. But Net- pe, fighting a do-or-die battle with Microsoft over Internet dominance, decided in January to follow its rival’s lead in giving away its brow: er. By releasing the source code along with the Commu- nicator software, Netscape hopes to enlist hordes of pro- grammers to create Commu- nicator enhancements that it could not produce itself. So what does this mean for Macintosh users? Should you prepare yourself for an onslaught of exotic new Web browsers? Mac developers say they are excited about the 22° May 1998 MACWORLD potential of Netscape’s offer, and a few have offered hints about forthcoming products that might incorporate Net- scape’s browser technology. But they are also aware that the devil lies in the details, some of which Netscape i still working out. Murky Conditions Net- pe admits that it hasn’t error = AEGetParamPtr (messageln, (AEKeyword) ‘scye’, typeLonginteger, established the precise terms under which it will make the source code available. Devel- opers can sell packages that incorporate Communicator source code, says Netscape Communicator product man- ager Todd Goldman, but the company hasn't decided what requirements developers will have to fulfill, such as making jeturnedType, (Ptr) AspatlalPeriod, their improvements freely available to other program- mers. Without that informa- tion, “we can’t determine exactly what we would or wouldn’t be able to do [with the software],” says Macro- media chief technology offi- cer Norm M i result, he says, Macromedia will wait a couple of months before deciding whether to follow Netscape’ initiative. Technical Obstacles Dev opers who want to use the Communicator source code also face a daunting technical task. Communicator is a huge, complicated beast: about 3 million lines of code developed over a span of four years. Developers who want to use the code will have to pick it apart by hand, learning its intricacies and interdepen- dencies as they go. “(Netscape has} given us something with very sharp knives exposed, instead of packaging it up neatly,” says Roger Spreen, director of en- gineering for Adobe PageMill. Nevertheless, he says, he is intrigued by the possibilities. “Theoretically, this is a great thing for Adobe,” he says, cit- ing the countless hours that the PageMill team spends figuring out how browsers render HTML. Adobe embedded Microsoft's Internet Explorer in PageMill 3.0 so that site developers could directly pre- view their HTML. Spreen says he'd like to do something sim- ilar with Netscape’s browser code, but he’d prefer that someone else do the hard work of building an application-pro- gramming interface that makes it easier to develop Communi- cator-based products. Better E-Mail? For some developers, Navigator—the browser component of Com- municator—is the least-inter- ting portion of the software suite, Netscape’s e-mail client uses IMAP and LDAP, new ing and directory pro- tocols that most in the indus- try believe are the future of Internet e-mail but that aren’t available from most ‘in- tosh e-mail clients. “Some enterprising company could take [Netscape’s e-mail] code and build a cool application on top of that,” says Eric Zelenka, WebStar product continues on page 26 The Proof Is in the Ink-Jet NEW EPSON PRINTER WITH EFI RIP REDEFINES DIGITAL PROOFING by Stephen Beale pson (310/782-0770, www.epson.com), which spent much of 1997 setting new quality standards for under-$500 ink-jet printers, is now taking on the profession- al graphics market with a $10,000 digital proofer that includes a stand-alone EFI Fiery PostScript 3 color server. The Epson Stylus Pro 5000, scheduled to ship in March 1998, is positioned as a low-cost alternative to the Iris Realist FX 5015 ink-jet print- er, which sells for $45,000. I's also likely to pose a stiff chal- lenge to Imation’s popular Rainbow 2730 dye-sublima- tion proofer, which sells for about $20,000. Where's the Proof? These printers are known as proofers because they are designed to replicate, as accurately as pos~ sible, what a page will look like when reproduced on a commercial press. Analog proofs, which are generated directly from the film used to make printing plates, offer the highest degree of accuracy, bur they are costly and time- consuming to produce. igital proofers generally cannot match the accuracy of analog proofing systems, but even at $45,000 they are cheaper than analog proofers and have the added advantage that they can work directly from digital data—there’s no need to produce film on an imagesetter before you can see the proof. Many designers who once might have produced mul- tiple analog proofs for a proj- ect are now using ink-jet or dye-sublimation printers for preliminary proofs, turning to an analog system only when the job is ready to go on press. Some commercial printers are even accepting digital proofs as contract proofs meaning the printer is con~ tractually obligated to match the colors in the proof. In addition, digital proofers are the only choice if you're using one of the new filmless printing technologies, such as computer-to-plate systems or digital press Fiery Sale At $10,000, the Stylus Pro 5000 promises to dramatically lower the entry point for digital proofing. To put its price in perspective, consider that an EFI Fiery color server alone costs $10,000 or more; Epson and EFI say they are counting on Epson's $10,000 Stylus Pro 5000 ink-jet proofer includes a stand-alone print server from EF. volume to compensate for the system's low price. The server and printer both include pro- prietary chips that prevent the use of the server with other output devices. ‘The server features 32MB of RAM, a 2.1GB hard drive, and a high-speed 100/10BaseT network connection. The sery- er can simultaneously spool, rasterize, and print PostScript files and includes a built-in Web page that lets you control printer functions, Du Pont has provided color-rendering dic- tionaries designed to simulate popular analog proofers, including Fuji Color-Art and its own WaterProof system. Du Pont also offers a wide range of proofing media for the Epson printer, ‘The printer itself uses the me six-color, Micro Piezo jet technology found in son's Stylus Photo, bur the Stylus Pro 5000 boosts the res- olution from 720 by 720 dpi to 1,440 by 720 dpi. Its paper cas- sette handles up to L1-by-17- inch paper, but you can use a straight-path paper-feed mechanism in the back to print on stocks up to 13 by 19 inches, permitting full-bleed tabloid ourput. The direct-feed mechanism also allows the use of heavy paper stocks, inchid- ing high-rag-content water- color papers that often jam other printers. Cost per copy ranges from about 12 cents to 7 dollars, depending on the proofing media. Caveats Lik other ink-jet print- ers, the Stylus Pro 5000 offers a big advantage over dye- sublimation devices in that it can print on a wide range of media. However, dye-sublimation printers—and the Iris ink-jets—are continuous-tone devices, meaning that they can vary the density of each dot placed on the page; the Stylus Pro 5000 uses tiny dots along with light cyan and magenta inks to simulate con- tinuous-tone photographic output. Early print samples from Epson appear to rival the photo quality of output continues Fiery www.macworld.com May 1998 23 from continuous-tone print- ers, but under a magnifying glass, you may notice minor banding and other artifacts that would not show up in an Iris print. On the other hand, the Epson printer, with its 1,40- by-720-dpi_ resolution, pro- duces sh And given the $35,000 price difference, many users will no doubt overlook the Tris advan- tage in photographic output. In addition to being used as a proofer, the Styhis Pro 5000 will likely be used by digital fine artists who might otherwise turn to the Iris printer, Expect the first mod- els to show up in-service bureaus, but given its low price tag, the Stylus Pro 5000 will eventually find into ad agencies, design stu- dios, and corporate publish- ing environments, Pretenders to the Throne NEW PROGRAMS TAKE ON QUARKXPRESS AND ADOBE PAGEMAKER by Stephen Beale uarkXPress and, to a lesser extent, Adobe PageMaker have long dominated the market for professional layout software. But this hasn't kept a parade of developers from trying to compete with the desktop publishing titans. The latest to try is SoftLogik (314/305-7878, www.softlogik .com), a small developer of Commodore Amiga software that recently ported its PageStream_page-layout _pro- gram to the Mac. Bold Claims On its Web 24 May 1998 MACWORLD | News site, SoftLogik boldly claims to have the best desktop publish- ing program on the market, and PageStream 3.3 (the first release) certainly has a t of features, including long | character style sheets and Bézi- er drawing tools. It also has one glaring omission—it can’t directly import Microsoft Word files—and some of its features, such as 3,000 percent zoom, are of dubious value. But even if these problems are addressed in a future soft- ware release, SoftLogik—and other Quark and Adobe chal- lengers, such as Multi-Ad Ser- vices and Manhattan Graph- ies—face some huge, and like- ly insurmountable, obstacles before they can blish a b ead among graphics professionals. Most designers and pub- lishers depend on other com- pani service bureaus, trade shops, and commercial print- ers—to produce high-quality output from their files. These ervice providers have largely standardized on a few key applications—QuarkXPress, followed by PageMaker, Adobe Illustrator, and Macro- media FreeHand—that pro- duce the bulk of the jobs com- ing into their shops. Most ser vice bureaus have technicians who thoroughly understand these programs; they can easi- ly identify and fix common (and sometimes uncommon) problems in the files submit- ted by customers. ‘This is a huge advantage, considering the mission-criti- cal nature of publishing soft- ware. If you can’t get your cat- alog, brochure, or magazine to print, you lose real money. So if your current page-layout package is working, you need a compelling reason to switch to a different one. None of the current challengers to Quark and Adobe has provided such a compelling reason. Plug-in Advantage Quark- XPress has a second advantage that has given ita big lead over PageMaker and the lesser- known contenders: Quark- X Tensions, the technology that allows developers to create programs that customize the page-layout software. Every publishing operation has. its own peculiar needs, and QuarkXTensions can be used to transform QuarkXPress into a highly specialized program. Quark’s plug-in architec- ture is much more powerful than the add-on technologies in other graphics programs. Developers have almost un- restricted ability to integrate their XTensions with the QuarkXPress source code. Adobe PageMaker, by compar- ison, has a limited application- programming interface; several Tensions developers have said that it would be impossible to create PageMaker versions of their QuarkXPress add-ons, Adobe Beckons Adobe apparently recognizes this. MacWeek, citing anonymous sour i reported that Adobe is working on 1 new page-layout application, code- named K2, that will be built from the ground up to chal- lenge QuarkXPress for the wallets of graphies profession- als. The new program will reportedly feature a revamped continues 7 | ") () 9 Get Em while They're Hot? Apple Computer (408/996-1010, www.apple.com) has launched a blowout fire sale on its once-exclusive Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh. These sleek 603e-based Macs— manufactured ina limited edition of 20,000 units—debuted in February 1997 at a pricey $7,500 and were available only through select Apple Specialists. But now the computer is available from any Macintosh reseller for just $3,999. These Macs may seem like a bargain, but with their 603e CPUs, they are slower than the latest shipping Power Macintosh G3/266 and cost $2,000 more.—ALLYSON BATES 3 A Digital Color Copier For Every Department. Every Company. °14,895. Digital Color + Productive B & W Converts to network printer-scanner Unique optional embedded Fiery Prints up to 11 X 17 format ‘kas ven Aficio Color’ 2003 Brilliant color every office can afford. Spectacular presentations every time. Experience the productivity of easy, smart digital features for thousands less. Get a demo of your colorful future from the #1 maker of digital copiers in the USA. Call 800 63 RICOH Online www.ricoh-usa.com Image Communication Circle 4 on reader service card extensions architecture offer- ing capabili imilar to those in XTensions, Adobe would not comment on the MacHeek report, but it should come as no surprise: Quark- XPress 4.0 eral- ly regarded as being uperior to Adobe PageMaker 6.5 the latter the Ma market has been in slow, steady decline for the past few years, Adobe is. proba- bly the only vendor with a realistic chance ously challeng- ing Quark. As the developer of PostScript, Adobe has instant credibility with service-bureau pros; after all, one of the biggest fears is that an incom- ing job will cause a PostScript error. On the other hand, Adobe will have to recruit XTensions developers to port their add-ons to the K2 plug-in architecture, and that may not be easy, But it will be far easier for Adobe than it is for Soft- Logik, Manhattan Graphics, and other Quark wannabes New Releases Strengthen Painter Brand PAINTER CLASSIC GETS BACK TO BASICS by Cathy Abes ttempting to broaden and consolidate the Painter family of products, MetaCre- ations (805/566-6200, www. metacreations.com) is releasing a $100 streamlined version of Painter aimed at intermediate users, as wel new, renamed version of its 26 May 1998 MACWORLD [ News 3-D paint software, Detailer. With Painter Classic, the company has focused on what defined the original Painter: the program’ ability to simu- Painter Classic gives you more natural-media brushes and fewer palettes, late traditional media will include image hos seamless tiling of images, and an extensive library of brushes, but much of Painter's complex- ity has been stripped away. You won't see Painter's confusing floaters, nor will you be able to create brand-new brushes, although existing ones will still be customizable via sliders. Classic’ simpler interface won't have any hidden palette: You'll be able to personalize your workspace by tearing off and creating custom palettes. Painter 3-Deified Detailer has been improved and re- christened Painter 3D, both to strengthen the brand identity and to better reflect the pro- gram’s purpose, It will include such Painter 5 featur dynamic floaters, customi palettes, and plu New capabilities include map sharing, for applying one tex- ture map to multiple 3-D objects; hierarchies, which allow you to paint just selected parts of a model; multiple- object management, which lets you group objects for te: ture mapping; and views, which allows you to view an object from any angle. Due to ship by early April, Painter 3D is expected to sell for about $300. Up- grades from Painter Cl Painter 5 will be $200, “MAC VENDORS PONDER NETSCAPE GAMBIT” continued trom page 23 manager for StarNine. Small Fry The most- exciting work on Communi- cator may come not from large, established companies but from independent Inter- net citizens who support a particular technology or plat- form, Just a few weeks after Netscape made its announce- ment, a gang of loosely orga- nized programmers and non- programmers banded togeth- er with the goal of building a free version of Navigator for Apple’s Rhapsody OS. Says group cofounder Raven Zachary, currently in Prague working as the senior Internet analyst for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, “We all intend to make Rhapsody our desktop operating system.” He says he has no interest in devel- oping browser refinements for the Mac OS but expects that other independent program- mers will take on that t Help from Mozilla Net- scape has established an in- house group called Mozilla, along with an associated Web site (www.mozilla.org), to assist developers who want to create browser variations. The source code for the forthcom- ing Communicator 5.0 was scheduled to be posted on the Mozilla Web site by March 31. Netscape will also distribute the source code on CD-ROM, possibly at a nominal charge. Celebrating Apple T-Shirts Macintosh users may be a tight-knit group, but not as tight- ly knit as the many T-shirts worn by Apple employees during the company’s tumultuous 20-year history. Two years ago, software test engineer Gordon Thygeson began collecting photographs of these mementos, and the result is Apple T-Shirts: A Yearbook of History at Apple Computer, a 204- page coffee-table book featuring photos of more than 1,000 T-shirts given to company employees. The T-shirts range from staid renditions of the Apple logo to more-outrageous sentiments. One reveals the true mean- ing of IBM: “1 Build Macs.” Another, parodying an infamous Mac error message, reads, “Sorry, the AppleSoft engineer ‘unknown’ has unexpectedly quit." 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To Order Mon-Fri 9 AM to 8 PM (Eastern Stondard Time) Sat 10 AM to 4 PM (Eastern Standard Time) Or Order from our web store irus-Protection Software VIRUSSCAN'S BARE-BONES FEATURES CAN'T MATCH VIREX'S ROBUST SOLUTION fy EXT TO HARD-DRIVE MISHAPS, A computer viruses are among the IWF most pernicious things that can | affect your Macintosh. But al- though both afflictions seem to be out of our immediate control, virus infections are preventable with a combi- nation of common sense and the right antivirus software, ‘Two competing products offer basic protection from viruses, but with differ- s of supplemental features and Mac OS integration. Veteran Macintosh antivirus package Virex, which was recently acquired by Dr. Solomon’s Soft- ware to replace that company’s original minimalist Ma ent ley intosh offering, continues to offer the best features of currently available products. Alternatively, Virus Scan for the Macintosh, from Network ssociates, offers a no-frills package that consists of the standard application and extension duo, with few bells and whis: des and a puzzling interface. A Virus Bestiary On the PC platform, the pace of new- virus discovery is positively frantic, In the Macintosh realm, things have been com- paratively sedate. Mac-specific viruses are rare beasts, and many Mac users have become lax in their safe-computing habits. Consequently, well-known viru: reappear occasio and online Although the shareware product Dis- infectant offers a perfectly adequate solu- tion for Mac-specific viruses, a new breed of virus has been leaping over the great platform divide. So-called macro viruses are all the rage on the PC, and with the increasing desire for cross-platform file compatibility, PC-born macro viruses can affect Mac users as well. Many programs contain macro lan- guages that let users add custom features specific to individual documents—a us = ful option. But any time you can attach code to a document or application, there's a good chance for abuse, Both Microsoft Word and Excel let macros automatically run when a document is opened—without offering you a chance to say anything about it—a weak link that led to the cur- rent spate of macro-virus infestation, It’s quite possible to encounter a multiplat- form macro virus, and even if such a virus is harmful only on a PC, infected docu- ments making a stopover on a Mac can still act as carriers. Microsoft Word 98 and Excel 98— REAL RATINGS Reviews you can trust: Macworld rates only final shipping products, not prototypes. What we review is what you can actually buy. OUTSTANDING: $6988 VERY GOOD: $9%$ GOOD: $89 FLAWED: $$ UNACCEPTABLE: ¢ 30 May 1998 MACWORLD both part of the upcoming Office 98 for Macintosh—each sport a “macro- virus protection” preference that detects whether a document contains a self- launching macro and allows you to pre- vent the macro from being run. Al- though Microsoft's taken the right first step, there’s no way for Word or Excel— or you—to know the intentio macro. This is where antivirus s comes in. Covering All the Bases Virex 5.8.1 includes an application that scans and repairs and a control panel that provides prevention as well as scan-and- repair features. The straightforward ap- plication displays its options in a button bar along the top of its main window; the behavior of this window's left pane, which contains the list of available volumes, i: the program's sole user-interface irritation. Clicking on a volume toggles its selection on or off; as a result, there’s no simple way to select one volume without first having to manually deselect all the others. Virex offers several scan-and-repair approaches. The first time you scan a vol- ume, the program scans all its files— optionally including the contents of most compressed files—and remembers each scanned file. Any subsequent time that same volume is scanned, Virex will first check to see whether a file has changed before performing a time-consuming re- examination. Since rescans are quick, you're less likely to dread the process of regularly scanning and therefore more likely to catch infected files sooner. Virex’s control panel contains the same scan-and-repair engine as the appli- cation and adds the ability to protect against attacks by infected files. When, for example, an infected Word file is opened, a dialog box offers to repair the file before Word actually opens it. In dow interface provides access to each of the pro- gram’s feature areas. On the Horizon: NORTON ANTIVIRUS FOR MACINTOSH AT PRESS TIME, SYMANTEC ANNOUNCED PLANS TO SHIP ITS NEXT-GENERATION antivirus package early this summer. The package formerly known as Symantec AntiVirus for Macintosh—or SAM—will be rechristened Norton AntiVirus for Macintosh (NAV) in the new release, version 5.0. Symantec promises that NAV's virus-definition upgrades will be free for the life of the product. Furthermore, Symantec says that its software will be able to update itself automatically over the Internet, guaranteeing that you always have the latest version of the virus descriptions. These two features alone set NAV apart from its competition. Symantec's upgrade reportedly will also contain cleverer ways of detecting new macro viruses, though specifics weren't yet available as we went to press. And unlike its predecessor, SAM 4.5, NAV will be able to repair infected files without launching the main application; the current version of Virex includes a similar feature. If the shipping version lives up to the promise of its press release, Norton AntiVirus for Macintosh could become an interesting addition to the Mac virus-fighting arsenal. We'll review the product when it ships, to determine whether Symantec truly delivers. addition, Virex automatically scans newly created files, including archives from pro- grams such as Aladdin Systems’ Stuffle. Although this feature sometimes makes. Virex seem overzealous, it also means that any newly downloaded files are intercept- ed before damage can occur, Along with its bread-and-butter anti- virus features, Virex sports an impressive level of integration with Mac-specific tech- nologies—including contextual menus, the Control Strip, and drag and drop—and this lets you quickly scan volumes, files, and folders. Basic Functionality ‘The first time you launch VirusScan 3.0, the program guides you through a series of questions that help the software con- figure its scanning frequency. But other than this notable feature, VirusScan’s user interface is sparse to the point of being cryptic. The main window shuns text in favor of pictograms but isn’t successful in making all features obvious; you have to go exploring to find what you're looking for (see “Hide and Seek”). VirusScan’ configuration wizard lets you modify the conditions required to trigger a scan, including defining a scan- ning schedule. VirusSean’s extension offers prevention features and contains the basic scanning engine. In fact, the application won't run unless the extension is in the Extensions folder, which can be a slight problem if you have to move or disable the file, as you might before installing new software. And unlike Virex, VirusScan isn’t particularly friendly about running scans in the background—doing so causes the foreground application to respond sluggishly. Macworld's Buying Advice Both products offer the basic features required of contemporary Macintosh antivirus software, but Virex shows a much greater attention to detail, better Mac OS integration, and the overall pol- ish of a package that has been through several major revisions, Although each package has its flaws, VirusScan has sig- nificantly more rough spots and less-com- plete integration with the Mac environ- ment. Of these two products, Virex is clearly superior.—srepHan somocyt RATING: $966 PROS: Excellent integration; fast repeat scanning, CONS: Overzealous scans. COMPANY: Dr, Solomon's Software (888/377- 6566, wwvedrsolomon.com). LIST PRICE: $69. VirusScan 3.0 RATING: $§% PROS: Offers basic antivirus fea- tures. CONS: Cryptic interface; other applications’ performance suffers during background scans. COMPANY: Network Associates (408/988-3832, www.nal.com). LIST PRICE: $29.95, www.macworld.com May 1998 34 [ Reviews Claris Home Page 3.0 — THE BEST BASIC WEE WEB EDITOR GETS BETTER HE LOW-END WEB PUBLISHING niche is crowded with shareware and commercial progra from Optima System’s PageSpinner to Adobe's PageMill and Symantec's Visual Page. ‘The newly formed File- Maker, Inc., distinguishes its offering, Claris Home Page 3.0, by adding ease-of- use and new site-management features the competition can’t match. Database Publishing Made Easy The big news in this release is integra- tion with FileMaker Pro 4.0 databases (see “The Web Publisher's Essential Tool Kit,” in this issue), Using the Lasso tech- nology Claris acquired from Blue World Viewing the Gestalt The Site Editor shows off Claris Home Page's new ability to work with sites as well as individual pages. window, you can check your pages and fix broken links, ‘ar, Home Page v to build Web ges that can search, and modify FileMaker Pro databases over the Internet. To do this, your Web pages need to contain the spe- cial HTML-like tags of the Claris Dynamic Markup Language (CDML). ‘These tags trigger a new component in FileMaker Pro, the Web Companion, which interprets the CDML and turns it into FileMaker commands. If you aren’t thrilled with the prospect of learning another markup language, the included FileMaker Connection Assistant can walk you through the process of building a FileMaker-enabled site. This assistant lets you select the database capa- bilities you want users to have, choose which fields from which FileMaker lay- 32 May 1998 MACWORLD outs you want to include, and pick one of 18 preset styles for your pages. Although the FileMaker Conn tant cre- ates rather bland page: add a bit more style in either the Edit Page or Edit HTML Source mode. The sites T built with the Connection Assistant worked very well and allowed me complete ace to FileMaker Pro databases. If you want total control over your pages and don’t mind working directly with the CDML tags, you can use Home Page’s two FileMaker Connection Libraries. The FileMaker Reference Library contains all the CDML tags in alphabetical order, while the FileMaker Form Library groups them by form type (for example, the tags related to searching are grouped together). Using the Form Library is simple: all you need to dois find the fields you want to use and drag them from the library and onto your page. In addition to the Con- nection Assistant, Home Page 3.0 includes seven other tants to help you create ney letters, presentations, reports, personal pages, and other typ- ical sites. The frame assis for example, lets you pi from cight basic frame types and define one frame igational menu; it then auto- matically generates links in the na tional frame based on the files you to the other frames. From this Think Globally, Not Locally Unlike previous versions, Home Page 3.0 can work with a collection of unified site, Among its new site-manag ment features are a Site Editor window that lets you import a site by dragging a folder from your hard disk; global search and replace; automatic link checking; and FTP capabilities that make it ea upload files to, maintain files on, download files from a remote server. can also create sier to id You media folder for storing images, QuickTime movies, and Java applets, and Home Page will automat cally consolidate all referenced files in your site into the folder. Visual Page no longer has an edge over Home Page in table formatting: you can now select the contents of mul- tiple cells and format all of them at onc you can apply background colors or images to either one cell or all cells in a rows, columns, and cells. Version 3.0 also has. better support for frames, allowing you to view the contents of frames within the program rather than in a browser, Home Page has been updated in lots of minor ways as well. You ean set prima- ry and secondary browsers for previews and format text in font sets; the help files ye been expanded and improved; and the program now supports multiple color palettes, including the all-important Web-safe palette. Another nice touch is a command that resizes the editing win- dow to standard sereen resolutions so you can get a feel for how your page will look on different monitors. Home Page has yet to become the ultimate Web-page editor, however. You won't find support for dynamic HTML, pixel-precise positioning of elements on pages, or a graphical site view displaying all the links in your site—features found in. professional-level tools (such a GoLive’s CyberStudio and Macromedia's Dreamweaver) costing hundreds of dol- lars more. On the other hand, [ome Page offers better site management than Dreamweaver and better table-editing tures than CyberStudio. table; and it’s now easier to re: fea Macworld's Buying Advice Claris Home Page is the only product (besides FileMaker Pro) that FileMaker, Inc., retained when Apple dissolved Claris, and it’s not hard to sce why. The program now handles the vast majority of Web-building tasks with panache, elimi- nating the petty annoyances found in pre= vious versions. Professional Web design- ers will probably still prefer programs like CyberStudio, but most people will find that Claris Home Page is the only Web editor they'll ever need —TOM NEGRINO hating? $699 PROS: Great connectivity to FileMaker Pro databases; improved interface: tter table and frame support. CONS: Doesn't do DHTML or precise positioning. COMPANY: FileMaker (408/987-7000. www.clatis.com). LIST PRICE: $99, expands the Mac market again... ‘Suipeteanananennanenaly Voted MacWorld’s “Best Prof sional Sys SuperMac S9ooBASE w/G3 Apple G3 Tower with Warranty 2 ve Free Tech Suppor teres ae ech , ’ HAR SHOOGASE wt FOR MORE INFORMATION ON WHERE TO PURCHASE PRE ay Oe TONEY THE S9OOBASE w/G3, CALL OR VISIT US AT WWwW.uma? Soest ws 6 oto Sth he tt ‘le 99 on reader service card | Reviews Elastic Reality 3.1 MORPHING SOFTWARE FOR EFFECTS PROS ORPHING, ONCE OVERUSED AS a monster shape-shifter, is now a vital part of producing special effects and visual graphics. Most of the good morphs you see today aren't even recognizable as morphs, and most of those—if they were done ona Macintosh—were likely created using Avid ‘Technology’s Elastic Reality. Designed to morph still and animated images and distort, shift, color-correct, and generate moving mattes, Elastic Reality 3.1 is the most advanced morph- ing software available for the Mac. Getting from Here to There Elastic Reality lets you drag ovo images (still or moving) from the desktop onto the project window; outline the desired features with Bézier shape Production-Minded Precision Elastic Reality 3.1's Group Editor (upper right) color-codes the masks for the earth and sand dunes to distinguish among the ele- ments, while the Curve Editor (lower left) lets you con- trol how the parameters change over time form one image into the other, using the shapes as guides, You can also use shapes as multipurpose masks to constrain color corrections, path animations, and mattes, An assisted-tracing tool speeds masking by detecting color-contrast areas and snapping the Bézier line to the most like- ly edge. After you create the shapes, another set of tools helps you set up correspondences to link them. ‘The extremely useful Group Editor lets you name shapes and groups of pes. Within each group are several editable parameters: color correction, distortion, transparency, layer depth, shadows, path control, scale and rotation transformations, and more. You can save 34 May 1998 MACWORLD or load the groups and edit them with the intuitive Curve Editor. With the Group Editor's layering options, you can assign the groups to individual layers. Some groups can block out other groups, which is useful for masking a that move oyer one another during the course of an animation. Elastic Reality’s Sequence Editor offers a visual layout of the project frames and has four “tracks” for importing images: A- and B-roll s, a matte track, anda background-image track. The display isn’tas customizable as it could be; the iconic representation of frames on the tracks is displayed one frame at a time and can’t be changed to every nth frame, creating a problem for movies with a high frame count. In addition, Avid could have simplified some aspects of the overall interface by combining several of the edi- tors. For example, the Sequence Editor and the Curve Editor probably could have been combined to resemble the timeline in Adobe After Effects, a program likely to be familiar to Elastic Reality users. Fear Not the Mask A good level of control over masks is absolutely necessary in professional video production, and Elastic Reality delivers. adjusting the Bézier mask shapes around the image you want to matte and keyframing those adjustments, you can quickly create a fairly decent traveling tte (an animated mask that tracks the object it’s masking). You can group matte ind apply them to each other using Booleans, varying opacity, and edge sharpness and then export the mattes sep- arately or embed them as an alp! nel within the rendered footage. Motion paths in Elastic Reality let you animate images moving along prede- fined Bézier shapes. For example, say you want to combine a still overhead shot o race car and animate it through a race track: not only can you “trace” the car's predefined routes; you can also point the car in the direction it’s moving. The sole drawb: that only two elements can appear on top of the background image. ‘To get around thi portions of the a shapes a chan= you could render out tion and continue to bring the rendered file into the back- ground plate, compositing layer after layer until the animation is complete. You could also include all the elements to be animated in one image file, allowing mul- tiple masks to be combined into groups that can be animated individually. Another notable drawback is Elastic ality’s inability to auto-update pre- views: every update has to be rendered, and rendering time is related to the size and resolution of the final image, When adjusting the curves in a group, for example, you can’t view the results immediately, Even a preview thumbnail would be a welcome addition. And although a wire-ft ew animates the Bézier paths, it's st useless when fine-tuning color-correction and distor tion intensities When you're ready to render, Ela Reality lets you choose from among more than 20 file formats, including Quick- Time, Adobe Photoshop, Progressi JPEG, and ‘TIFE. The output dialog box offers numerous options for saving and naming files; another nice touch i Format Info button that shows you the selected file parameters (such as alpha channel capabilities, color space, and size). Elastic Reality 3.1 also introduces support for field rendering, a welcome (and overdue) addition, Rendering speed ona 250MHz G3 Macintosh is excellent. Macworld's Buying Advice Elastic Reality 3.1 is the best, most com- prehensive morphing program for the Mac. The learning curve, price, expen sive support policy ($5.99 per minute), and hardware-key copy protection put it out of the reach of casual QuickTime- movie makers; Elastic Reali intend- ed for the professional video market. In the absence of low-end alternativ for the Mac or morphing plug-ins for Adobe Premiere and After Effects, Elastic Reality is your best bet for high- quality, Hollywood-caliber morphing effects.—pavin BIEDNY AND TRAVIS ESTRELLA RATING: @99% PROS: Professional-quality morphing; precision controls; good masking tools; robust file-format support. CONS: Pricey; expen- sive support policy; hardware copy protection; Jacks real-time previews. COMPANY: Avid ‘Technology (978/640-6789, www.avid.com). LIST PRICE: $1,299. Strong Today. And Tomorrow. ‘ou want to buy a UMAX SuperMac — the lone Apple-licensed Mac clone. And therein lies your quandary. You know SuperMacs are tops in features, performance and price. And they're 100% Mac-OS compatible. In fact, as an Apple licensed design, our S900's are just as compatible with Mac software as Apple’s Power Macintosh 9500's. But then you wonder: Is UMAX going to be around to support my purchase for the long term? Well, here are some hard facts about UMAX that will put your mind at ease: UMAX IS BIG — $700 MILLION IN SALES. A publicly traded Taiwanese corporation around for over ten years, UMAX has worldwide annual revenues of over $700 million. We make SuperMacs, Intel-based workstations, servers, mother- Scanners (#1 in the U.S.) Digital Cameras boards, DRAMs, digital cameras, notebooks and of course, scanners (where UMAX is #1 in the U.S.). UMAX is here to stay — today and tomorrow. 2-YEAR WARRANTY AND TECH SUPPORT. UMAX has doubled the length of the basic $900 warranty: Two years for all 5900's purchased after March 1, 1998 — including tech support! Nobody else even comes close to this level of service and support (ranked number one by MacWorld magazine). It's our promise to you, backed by UMAX’s size, profitability and diverse manufacturing capabilities. UMAX IS COMMITTED TO THE POWERMAC PLATFORM. We don’t just make great SuperMacs. We're continuing to make leading edge ones. Proof? The SuperMac S900BASE w/G3 — the most powerful and expandable Mac-OS compatible computer ever (and now for under $3000!). It won MacWorld’s Eddy Award and Editor's Choice Award for Best Professional System. Digital content creators will love the 6 PCI slots, 8 DIMM slots (for up to 1 GB of RAM), 7 total drive bays and a 250 MHz PowerPC 750 (G3) processor with a full 1 MB of backside cache! And no matter what, we'll be selling our award-winning SuperMacs at least through the end of 1998, and perhaps way beyond. Buy UMAX SuperMacs today — with confidence. We're here to stay. UMAX www.umax.com 888-625-UMAX Intel-based notebooks and 5 workstations Award-winning Mac-0S Compatibles (© 1998s reseed Super a rept se 0 UMAX Compe Cap. Maan te Mc OS logo ate rademais lA Compute. se und eee PowerPC apse aden of iteratons Business Machines Carp Circle 98 on reader service card [ Reviews Visual Café for Java 2.0 Ad JAVA PROGRAMMER'S PARADISE AVA MAY BE A GENERAL-PURPOSE programming language, but its utility so far has been limited mostly to jazzing up Web pages and connecting them to server- side databases. On the other hand, pro- re effective sdvertiaing 4 and ing ieee day if ites a programmer. ‘Two new offerings from Symantec—the Professional Development and Database Development Editions of Visual Café for Java 2.0—give Mac programmers a quick way to cash in on commercial Java projects. Hotter, Sweeter Java Visual Café for Java 2.0 Professional Development Edition supplies every on our Java wish list (see “The IDEs of Java,” Reviews, October 1996) and more. It supports Sun Microsystems’ Java Development Kit 1.1, a set of JavaBeans for assembling precoded functions, and offers a Creator Assistant for formulating your own. A new breakpoint view in the debugger makes Visual Café more conve- nient for typical Java debugging chores than its only competitor, Metrower! CodeWarrior Java pa re (Roaster ‘Technologies’ Rowse a Mae Java pio- neer, is no longer available). And the whole package works under Apple's Mac- intosh Runtime for Java 2.0, currently shipping with OS 8.1 and soon to sup- port System 7.6.1 as well. But the Professional Development Edition’s most attractive feature is an interface that lets you drag and drop a huge assortment of components into a visual-editing window and then edit the resulting code in another window as if it were text, Many programming environ- ments claim to offer that capability, but Visual Café’s implementation works well enough for commercial programming. We've been promised “vi program- ming” for a decade, and Symantec deliv- ers by targeting Visual Café’s well- designed interface and huge component set at the relatively modest tasks most Web Java programmers still face. The HTML-based help system is tutorial on object programming in its 36 May 1998 MACWORLD own right; only the program’s scope makes it daunting for first-time pro- grammers. And applets can be not only created but also tested rapidly, since you can run them le Visual Café without invoking a cumbersome browser. Data Automation From the Mac perspective, there are real- ly only two kinds of databases: FileMaker Pro, whose cozy confines are familiar to several million Apple customers, and everything else— capable databases Data on Demand An assistant in Visual Café for Java 2.0 Database Development Edition offers straightforward, step-by-step instructions for allow- ing FileMaker and SQL access over the Web. ranging from ACI US’ 4th Dimension to Oracle and DB2. Visual Café for Java's Database Development Edition goes beyond the Professional Development Edition with two packages for connecting browser clients to databases on remote servers. By us Project Assistant, the first pack: version of Blue World's Lasso, makes it relatively easy to pass data back and forth between a client browser and FileMaker Pro running on a Mac server. For tasks that go beyond FileMaker, al Café offers Symantec’s dbAny- where for SQL, which lets you connect to the rest of the world’s legacy data stor- age. dbAnywhere comes with prewritten drivers for connecting to Sybase, Infor- mix, Microsoft SQL Server, and Oracle databases and offers adequate support for ODBC-compatible databases The tricky part is that dbs Anywhere’s server software runs under Windows 95 or NT and needs to run Sybase SQL Anywhere Standalone Engine (provided on the CD) or Microsoft Access. But a Mac programmer venturing into legacy database connection can reasonably be expected to do Windows NT homework these days, and it helps that the instruc- tions (in actual printed manuals) are a model of clarity. A utility called dbNavi- gator completes the package by offering a imple, practical overview of open server- side databases while you're connected. dbAnywhere’s performance on ar tively inexpensive Web server (a 233MHz Pentium) is quite acceptable. One quibble is that the Windows versions of Visual Café are significandy better optimized, in speed and code size, than their Mac equivalents. But a G3. than 32MB of RAM will let you modi code and see results nearly instantly, tak- ing advantage of canned solutions that will save you weeks of coding time. ac with more Macworld's Buying Advice These new editions of Visual Café for Java Jet you design and implement applets in record time, the main priority in a world where development cycles are clocked in days rather than months. If you’re com- mitted to Java and face project deadlines every month, Visual Café for Java 2.0 is just what you need.—cuaaves serrer Visual Café for Java 2.0 Database Development Edition RATING: $999'/: PROS: Easiest Java-based connection to SQL or FileMaker databases. CONS: Server software runs on Windows NT; ‘Mac tools slower than Windows counterparts; needs at least 32MB of RAM. COMPANY: Symantec (541/334-6054, www.symantec.com). 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Four news servers for the Macintosh—DNews 4.4, NewsRunner 1.0, Newstand 1.0, and RumorMill 1.1—collect news for delivery to your local users, offering multiple upstream news connections, user groups, password authentication, and message- size filtering (to block messages contain- ing large binary files), The server you choose depends on the number of users you need to serve, the volume of news you expect to process, the speed of your Inter- net connection, and your budget. Newsfeed versus Active Pull Traditional news servers require a news- feed—an upstream server that delivers news at scheduled intervals. Because the newsfeed server contacts your down- stream server, this approach requires a dedicated Internet connection; it also means you'll get news you don’t want. An i it See Ht 51 Hit i Hie} it mt i F it i} f = ——E===E_E Feeds and Speeds Newstand’s multiple newsfeeds collect news faster than any other server but stil let you be selective about what you receive. alternative to newsfeeds is Active Pull. It’s slower than a newsfeed, but beca news server initiates contact wi upstream server, Active Pull doesn’t require a dedicated Internet connection. NetWin’s DNews 4.4 takes the Active Pull approach by default (it also supports traditional newsfeed delivery), but it 38 May 1998 MACWORLD doesn’t read news from the upstream server until a user with a news-reader client tries to access a particular news- group. Thereafter, DNews keeps that group up-to-date as long as users contin- ue to read it. DNews is painful to set up; once you get it working, though, it runs automatically, maintaining just the news- groups you've permitted and that users are reading. This clever on-demand retrieval compensates for Active Pull’s slower performance by reducing the vol- ume of news transferred. Hi Resolution’s NewsRunner 1.0, the slowest of the servers tested, also uses Active Pull. Burt because you use a graphical interface to list the groups to be pulled, NewsRunner is much easier to set up than DNews. Rather than let- ting users access downloaded news with a news-reader application, NewsRun- ner either e-mails the news to selected users or outputs it as HTML for post- ing on a Web server. For small volumes of news, the e-mail approach works fine and may even be more convenient for some users. The HTML interface isn’t as easy to use as a news reader, however. And neither delivery method allows users to reply to messages. The Big Feeds An industrial-strength news server with a graphical interface that makes for easy setup, Imagina’s Newstand 1.0 is notable for its blazing speed—this server captures news faster than the others. It comes in two forms: a Lite version for small, single- server organizations, and a Pro version for companies that have multiple sites and need to run mirror servers downstream from a main server. Newstand doesn’t support Active Pull, so a dedicated con- nection is required. However, because it supports streaming-delivery mode—the fastest of all news-delivery protocols—it's ideal for serving up large volumes of news. Indeed, Newstand is the only serv er that can receive and process a full Use- net newsfeed of more than 15,000 news- groups and 10GB of news per day. Stairways Software's RumorMill 1.1 which supports both newsfeed and Active Pull, isn’t nearly as fast as Newstand. It's just as easy to set up, however, and it’s faster in newsfeed mode than the Active Pull servers. Unfortunately, one impor- tant feature—streaming-delivery mode— didn’t work during testing, causing the application to crash. Stairways says the problem will be fixed in a future release. Macworld's Buying Advice Of the four contenders, Newstand is the most professional; its clean user interface, speed, and high-volume capabilities make it a natural choice for organizations that depend on reliable news service. If you don’t have the dedicated Internet con- nection Newstand requires, DNews is a good alternative. For news delivery via e-mail, NewsRunner is the best choice, although you may find its read-only nature limiting. RumorMill, while the cheapest of the lot, is currently too un- reliable to be used for mission-critical applications.—met secxman | DNews 4.4 ‘natin: 99912 PROS: Active Pull; on-demand, ‘group retrieval. CONS: Difficult to configure; ‘delays in retrieving new newsgroups. COMPANY: NetWin (303/347-8657, www.netwinsite.com). ‘LIST PRICE: $485, NewsRunner 1.0 RATING: $66'/2 PROS: Active Pull; e-mail dis- tribution; HTML output. CONS: Doesn't support newsreader applications; slow news collection; no reply capability. COMPANY: Hi Resolution (508/543-6955, www.hi-resolution.com). LIST PRICE: Individual license, $99. Newstand 1.0 hearing 9999/2 PROS: Easy to configure; fast, multiple-newsfeed connections; downstream feeds, CONS: No Active Pull. COMPANY: Imagina (503/ (224-8522, www.imagina.com). LIST PRICE: Newstand Lite, $498; Newstand Pro, $998. RumorMill 1.1 RATING: $§ PROS: Active Pull; downstream feeds. CONS: Slow; streaming-delivery mode rronfunctional. COMPANY: Stairways Software (news-server@stairways.com.au, www stairways com). LIST PRICE: Individual icense, $35; site license, $500. HOW DO YOU FOLLOW UP A COOL MULTIMEDIA PRESENTATION? COOL MULTIMEDIA HANDOUTS. Dp Move” are taderars of Iomega Corporation. “MSRP. Disk cca faced oo purhae of 20-pack, Actual pees may vary See PC mates tor (61996 emaga Corpecation, Ionese, the Yomega logo, ant Zip ate registered trademarks, and ZIP GULE-DK. the ZIP BUILT-IN toge. “Becaune Is You ~ Zip drive. 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