MacWorld9809September1998

CD-R & CD-RW SHOOT-OUT: BURN YOUR OWN CDs, PAGE 91 S€ P TE MB EOR 19 9-8 THE ESSENTIAL MACINTOSH® RESOURCE Al | N E W | www.macworld.com = TOP MAC SE APPLICATIONS - OS - UTILITIES > GAMES worwilagiecom — ta Cie 2! und the bs Cie loyo aye rochemork SECURE Keep your ideas safe from harm in a La Cie d2™ encased hard drive. Made with a rugged metal shell, it comes in a range of sizes and speeds to meet your specifications. LACIE Made for ideas, Choose 52 at www.macworld.com/getinfo 72 85 91 September 1998 Features Cover Story Macworld's Top Tips COMPILED No matter what you do on your —desktop publishing, graphics, Web production, multimedia, or just playing games—our experts give you 101 ways to do it better. BY CATHY ABES QuickTime Goes Pro BY CHRISTOPHER BREEN version 3, Apple’s Quick grown into a truly impressive multimedia all-star. Find out why this extraordinary technology is potentially Apple’s biggest cross- platform touchdown ever. With Pime Burn, Baby, Burn BY STEPHAN somocy! Areyou hot to make your own CDs? Mac- world Lab tested 21 CD-Record- able and CD-Rewritable drives to determine the best for your burn- ing pleasure [ MACWORLD SEPTEMBER cWOr 1s ss 107 Save time when you work so you have more time for yourself, page 72. 111 115 117 Get online no matter where you travel, page 99. ees CD player and backup device in one, page 91. Incorporating MacUser Create Motion PowerPoint Goes Interactive sY sim eID Harness the unexplored multimedia-author- ing capabilities of Microsoft PowerPoint 98. Mastering PageMaker's Control Palette BY OLAV Adobe Page stood, multits be your key to superior efficiency. MARTIN KVERN aker’s misunder- lented palette may Print Retrain Your Fingers BY DAVID BLATNER Draw simple shapes without leaving the comfort of your QuarkXPress file. Graphics The Power of Photoshop's Pen Tool ay CHRIS LEHAN Conquer your confusion over the complexities of Adobe Photoshop’ pen tool. ON THE COVER Mustration by Glenn Mitsui/Studio MD 27 28 29 32 32 News Macworld Takes Manhattan We bring you the hottest news from the Big Apple as Macworld Expo debuts in New Yor Macworld Expo Best of Show Macworld’ editors pick the hottest hardware and software products at the New York conference. Do Floppies Have a Future? As Apple preps its floppy-less iMac, three technologies vie to replace the venerable 1.44MB disk. Lasers on Parade A troop of new color chrome laser printers the Mac market. ind mono- marches into More Mac Outlets? CompUSA’ acquisition of Com- puter City could add up to new Apple stores. sa Cutting-edge products make their debut at Macworld Expo, page 28. 13 25 180 10 99 103 ‘Adobe Premiere 5.0 adds power but keeps things simple, page 40. Opinion The Vision Thing BY ANDREW GORE The joy f six. Slots, that is. The Desktop Critic BY DAVID POGUE Con- fronting the guile over Jiking Microsoft software. How to Contact Macworld Get ready for a flurry of new laser printers, page 32. Secrets Online on the Road sy Teo taNpAU Elude the hassles and hazards of connecting while traveling, Quick Tips BY LON POOLE and shortcuts. Tips, tricks, 40 42 44 53 55 57 59 60 60 62 66 68 Reviews $499 Premiere 5.0 Video-editing software $4'% Quid Pro Quo Plus 2.1; $86 WebStar 3.0; $998 WebTen 2.0.4 Web-server software $84 Flash 3.0 Web vector-graphics animation tool $4494 CyberStudio 3; 488% Dreamweaver 1.2 Web-page editors compared $464 Director 6.5 Multimedia-authoring software $%% CoolDVD DVD-ROM upgrade kit $999% BarbaBatch 2.4; $46 = QDesign Music Encoder Pro 1.0 Audio-compression/conversion software #6996 Retrospect Express Backup utility $% Text Cleaner 1.0 Text-handling utility $4$%% Tools Plus 4.0 Code libraries 9% HyperCard 2.4 Multimedia-authoring software $69 InstallAnywhere 2 Java-application packager 9$% Power MachTen 4.1 Unix environment Back-to-School Guide, page 36 $6 Freddi Fish 3 $¢% Jump Start Fifth Grade ¥49$% Kid Pix Studio Deluxe 96% Slam Dunk Typing $94 Success Builder: Math Library #946 LanguageNow $99 Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego? $6 Ultimate College Money Guide #949 Zap www.macworld.com September 1998 3 35.5 Inches BREAKTHROUGH FILM-MAKING For Single, Spot, Or 4-Color Work faving fast lsiness or eng anvironm PTC.purchase’ a XAN tel-a- Writer 3G, Call ‘Toll Free Ere, 1-800-92628639 ....2:..... - msi mae soe Ext, Se ie ; RP PD Nd eee Paty Si researc eet Leste an ry Poet (he tons pee anevada ces pec bes UTE. ORROPATIN Po red Boe (ERS so A ERNBDERE LSA a9 Choose. 1 2 at www. Beat com tinfo™ Macworld torron mw ewir Andrew Gore extcunive asssrant Paul Dom EDITORIAL torron Michael Perwarden seuoe corroMntws Stephen Beale stor tortonatviews Anita Epler ‘SeqoR {OITOR/OUPARTALNTS Naney Peterson ston torronsreatuens Jason Snell simon ASSOCIATE tOsTORS Cathy B. Abes, Scholle Sawyer ASSOCIATE (OxTORS Laura Li Brouke C. Wh ASSISTANT fO1TOR Michael Gowan CONTRIBUTING EDITORS. David Biedny, Henry Bortman, Christopher Breen, Hruce Fraser, Ted Landau, Deke McClelland, Rik Myslewski, David N. Tester Pogue, Lon Poole, Joseph Schorr, Fra tae as ointeron ASSOCIATE LAB DinKCTOR Simon La anncysrs Jefiy K. Milstead, Kevin Mitchell ASSOCIATE LAB ANALYST Gil Layola inventory coonoINATOR Ulyssis rave copy EDIT ‘ManAcine f01708 Chire 1, Breen cory ewtt Paul-Michael King stwoR cory to1toRs Flisea Rabellino, Jon Zol ART AND DESIGN DtsicN DIRECTOR Eleanor Leishman ant pintcton Sylvia Che ASSOCIATE O1SICHEES Martha Kate, Michael Rattary tsicn associates Jackie Goodman, Jonathan Woolsan ONLINE punusuen Jeff Jalan intern oF conttnt Matthew Rothenberg 008 fo1t08 onuint Philip W. Dyer contUNT cIMER Jeff Cheney sistant CONTENT NciNEER Jessica Graves ATIONAS ACCOUNTS MANAGER Nicholas Harvey on.int Account exteurwe Nicole Prucss se01A COORDINATOR Jamila Johnson Introducing SuperDisk To you it's a 120MB To floppies, it’s “Mr. Compati sk, the SuperDisk design tratlemark, compattilty symbol, Imation and the Imation logo are orp iMac is a trademark of Apple Computer, inc. IMATION Choose 147 at www.macworld.com/getinfo Schedule Today, Succeed Tomorrow. The Right Choice for Basy Project Scheduling. Why waste lime struggling with complicated project management ‘Of spreadsheet programs? FastTrack Schedule 5.02 is easy to use, intuitive, and extremely flexible. So whether you need to plan ‘a day's worth of activities of a year’s worth of projects, you'll stay ‘organized and achieve project goals. FastTrack Schedule has the tools to track and revise progress and costs as changes occur —- even link activities to establish depend- encies. Add your schedules to proposals, reports, of use the web ‘Publishing features to turn your schedules into HTML tables or web graphics, FastTrack Schedule is also available for Windows 3.1/95/NT*, so everyone in your office can stay on schedule, FastTrack Schedule | NEW Version 5.02} For information or to order, call 800) 450-1982 @ @ mere Hitt coos Gees Macworld, Dec. 97 Mac\WEEK; Oct 97 Macword, UK, Deo. 97. Maclse, UK, Nov. 97 Choose 203 at www.macworld.com/getinfo Macworld raesionn AND €t0 Colin Crawford assistant 10 a8 €t0 Sharon Sanderson vats FMANeiAL OFricER ‘Stephen Daniels susiNtss MANAGER Eos de Feminis ACCOUNTING COORDINATOR Ronda Bittner Vick PAESIDUNT OF HUMAN RESOURCKS Shelly Ginenthal suman atsouncts COORDINATOR Ada Vian | stacwort na pabiation ef tue Fubisbing, LLC DISPLAY ADVERTISING SALES VICE PAESIONNT, SALES, & PUBLISHER Matt Sweeney ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Steve Plevin (415/243-3509) SALES COORDINATOR Karla Kyriay (415/278-8542) NATIONAL ACCOUNTS MANAGER Liz, Palin (415/243-3584) REGIONAL ACCOUNT MANAGER ——_Jessica Ross (415/243-3583) ‘Apumastrative assisTANT Jesse Wadhams (415/293-3577 wATIONAL ACCOUNTS MaNActR Sara Culley (970/327-4499) Account exteurive. Margaret Level Green (415/243-3542) astian aovenrisine omtcron Cyni y (O7M2AN-1197) ational AccouNTS Manactn Paul Bonarriga (508/531-4020) AccoUNT IxtcuTIVE RESEARCH St:OK RESEARCH ANALYST Phillip Hibbert MARKETING Vice PRESIDENT, MAREETING Vickie Welch MAREETING MANAGER Franeesea Koe TRADE SHOW/AVINTS COORDINATOR Naney Galanty PRODUCTION VICE PRESIDENT OF MANUFACTURING MANUFACTURING TECHNICAL DIRECTOR DIGITAL AD COOKOINATOR rian Mullin, AD SALIS COORDINATOR Rick Sandoval “Tm Sith OF having to settle For a Slower Mac JUS because my Hudgew Sucks.” Sometimes Newer Is Smarter Than New. In a perfect world, we all would buy a new, top-of-the-line Mac right now. Of course, there's that little thing called money, the stuff most of us don't have coming out of our ears. That's why you need a Newer Technology MAXpowr G3 processor upgrade card. They're easy to install and save you thousands of dollars compared to buying Dict ts hee revo wat a whole new system. Newer Technology makes processor upgrade cards for almost every Power Mac and are adding more machines to the list with faster processor speeds as you read this. With a MAXpowr G3 card, you'll have a faster processor with a much faster cache, In fact, the MAXpowr G3 card can make your old Mac one of the fastest desktop computers available even compared to Apple's new screaming G3 machines. Thanks to Newer Technology, your older, slower Power Mac has new life which makes waiting for a brand new machine a lot less painful. n> newer To find out how to make your old Mac newer visit www.newertech.com or call 1-316-943-0222 Choose 55 at www.macworld.com/getinfo 10 2GB, 3GB, G3 Hard Drives 3 41GB G3 Charger G3 Zip" 100 Drive Get out r of the office this summer. There really is no reason why you have to work cooped up inside. And to make it @asier, we're giving away zipio0 drives at MacWorld NY. TECHNOLOGIES Incorporated Visit us at www.vsttech.com for our complete line of quality portable essentials. Choose 73 at www.macworld.com/getinfo September 1998 MACWORLD Macworld HOW TO CONTACT MACWORLD Subscription Services Prone 303/665:8930, US. enly 303/604-7445, outside the US. US. ta ‘Mcworld Subscription Services PO. Box 54529, Boulder, CO 90322-4529 Word Wie Web wow dnet com/2dsubsrracwarld/service Subscription Rates The one-year (12 se) subsrpion rte $39.97 inthe US. and $59.97 ‘n Canada and Nexen; fora other courtres, send eer $59.97 for wt face malor$10997 for at ma Checks must bemade payabi in US. cat tency to Macworld, Please alow 6 to 8 weeks to receive your fat hive Back issues of Macworld ‘ack sues (subject to avai) ore $8 per isu for US. deWwery ($12 Cutside the US. prepayment In US. currency to Miword Is relied Send check oF money ender to Back Iswwes Department, 2M-Davis Ine PO, Box 53131, Boulder, CO 80322-3131, Reprints and Permissions ‘You must have permission before reproducing, any material rom ‘acwd, Write to Macworld, Reptints and Permissions, 301 Howard St. 16th F, San Francico, CA 94105; Inde a phone number, To onder reprints of your company’s editorial coverage, call 8OK1/25-427, ‘Malling Lists We periodcally make Iss of our customers avaliable to maliers of noods and services that may interest you. If you do not wish to ceive such rmaibngs, please wite to us and incude a copy of your masbng label ‘Macworld an Microfilm Macworld is avalable on mverofin and micratiche fom UM, 300 Zee Rd, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346; 313/761-4700, ‘Macworld Editorial The edtors of Macworld welcome yout tips, compliments, oF complains \We are unfortunately urable ta look up stores from past issues: recom mend products; or diagnose your Macintosh problems by phone, ema fr fax. Contact Apple toll-free at 800/538-9696, ext 500, for infor tion on user groups in your area ‘Our offices are loeated at 301 Howard St. 16th Fl, San Fancico, CA 94105; 415/243-0505, fx 4157442-0766, LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Direct all comments and supgestions regarding any aspect of the magazine to lettersmacworld com. Ove to the high volume of mail received, we can't respood personally to each letter We reserve the right to edit al submnss.ons. Al eters published in seworld oF Nucwerld Online become the property of Macworld QUICK THs Send your questions oF tips on how to ute Mac comput: 1, petiherals, oF software to the atention of “Axcworld, Quick Tips, 30% Howard St. 16th Fl, San Fanesea, CA 94105; fx 415/482-0766; ‘e-mail quektpr@racwortd com. Pease ncude your name, aes, and telephone cumber VPA. Our quality and craftsmanship | ee haven't won a single award. They’ve won 375 Take Home The Professional's Choice: The ViewSonic PT771. ViewSonic* proudly presents the latest member of our award-winning family, the P1771 Professional Series SonicTron* monitor. This 17” (16.0" viewable) monitor is tailor-made for professionals who require the excellent quality, high resolutions and superb performance that ViewSonic del ViewSonic is acclaimed for its quality, and the PT771 is a fine example. It has an ultra-fine, 0.25mm aperture grille pitch, sophisticated SonicTron technology that delivers clear, crisp images, and a SuperContrast” feature for brilliant, bold colors. ‘The PT771 also offers a super fast 86Hz refresh rate at a 1,280 x 1,024 resolution, OnView" controls for fast, push-button screen adjustments and Plug & Play which supports easy installation under Windows" 95 and 98, ViewSonic es Ask for the better monitor at the better price. ViewSonic, the leader in quality and craftsman- ship. And that's not just one opinion. It's 375. For the dealer nearest you, call ViewSonic at (800) 888-8583 and ask for agent 81328, or visit our website at: www.viewsontc.com. Warranty seed ae| Choose 59 at www.macworld.com/getifno e0 tt: ewvenconk com # Spactications Suter to change (909) 869-7976 Fac (205 Copy © 1998, VewSon en # AN of reserved # Caporale remes ad redamavks ae the groper hor > ov cer0 ViewSonic ‘PT813 March 1998 January 1998 January 1997 See The Difference!’ “HOW THEY FIT LAWSUITS, RECALLS, DEFECTS AND Da 0 Fa Just buy a DynaMO 640 SE or DEATH BY DROWNING IN A Dyna 640 $21 bore September 30, 1998 and get a 1.92 gigabyte 3-pack of media 4 INCH SQUARE.” Sree. { Call, or visit our website for details.) ® Of the countless problems with Jaz, losing your irreplaceable data to something as trivial as spilled coffee is the most senseless. Fortunately, DynaMO® 640 SE removable storage from Fujitsu resists such tragedies. Our media is so durable, it withstands mois- ture, x-rays, magnets — and can be rewritten an unlimited number of times. It wins on price, too. A 640MB cartridge costs $19.95; which is 3¢ a megabyte compared to Jaz’s 10¢, DynaMO 640 SE is backward compatible, unlike Jaz, so you can save your work on different media capacities. And with our No Excuses™ limited warranty, you'll get a replacement drive in two business days in the event of a defect. DynaMO 640 SE, It's a serious solution. Not a serious problem. For more details, call, or visit our website. FU} ITSU (800) 831-8094 ext.300 www.fcpa.com/drowning Choose 202 at www.macworld.com/getinfo or Leiter's Passionate about PowerBook 63's yuu BOUGHT A NEW APPLE PowerBook G3, and itis a laptop mar- vel (“Desktop Invaders,” June 1998). ‘The design is the most impressive of any notebook computer from any manu- facturer, The 13.3-inch active-matrix screen is sharp, bright, and clear. The keyboard is comfortable and has the best feel of any I’ve used. My page layouts and image files fly with the G3 chip. My assistant is green with envy, as he still uses the 120MHz 603 desktop Mac we used to share. The recent story in the New York Times claiming that fewer and fewer Mac owners would consider buying a new Mac is a crock—they never took into unt that Apple would come out with this won- derful machine. JOUN A, CHERMACK New York, New York HE NEW G3 POWERBOOKS ARE AN ergonomic disaster. They are the size of Mack trucks! Perhaps an aging Steve Jobs didn’t have his glasses on when he approved the blueprints for their foor- prints. After waiting all this time for an insanely great PowerBook, I am disap- pointed that Apple was unable to match the compact designs of Wintel machines. Think small, Apple. James L. PeRcenay New York, New York OUR URE ON THE N PowerBook G3 didn’t mention whether Apple brought back true dual- monitor support when an external moni- tor is connected, like the 500-series PowerBooks had. This is part of what really made my PowerBook 540c viable as a desktop feature is why [ have not purchased a new PowerBook so far. Do the new Power- Book G3’s have dual-monitor support? M. OPPENHEIM via Macworld Online The PowerBook G3's don’t support dual moni- tors directly, but you can hook up an additional monitor by installing a display card such as iXMicro’s ix3D Road Rocket (3 xmicro com) into the PowerBook's CardBus slot.—Ed. Looks Aren't Everything WAS DISAPPOINTED BY THE emphasis on interface in the Macro- media FreeHand 8 review (Reviews, June 1998). Your reviewer said that “FreeHand is the best drawing program on either platform, but at times I'd still rather be using Illustrator” because of its interface. That’s like complaining that the clutch on a Mercedes feels a bit different from the clutch on my Honda—but if I get my hands on a Mercedes, I'll adjust. Besides, if you want to complain about interface, let's talk about Corel- Draw—yeesh. JusTIN WitLs Dallas, Texas Deliver Me from Office 98 ORRY, DAVID POGUE, BUT 1 DON'T buy Microsoft’s turning over a new leaf with Office 98 (Reviews, June 1998). For what little the program does, the hardware and RAM requirements are onerous. ClarisWorks/AppleWorks still captures the spirit of Mac computing bet- ter than Microsoft can ever hope to. Tom Semoun Overland Park, Kansas No PDFs, Please ne A VICE-BUREAU OWNER, I cringe every time I read an article informing people that they can send PDF files to their service bureau (“Get Pre- press-Ready PDFs from QuarkXPress,” Create, June 1998). I want to explain why that is a waste of time. First, many service bureaus (like mine) already have hundreds of thousands of dol- lars invested in their existing PostScript Level 2 RIPs. A PDF file is worthless unless you have a PostScript Level 3 RIP. There is currently not enough incentive to go anoth- er $50,000 into debt, and many service bureaus will not upgrade for a few years. Second, there is no advantage to PDF which is not also given by PostScript print (PRN) files. And even so, both PDF and PRN can be problematic, since they take continues www.macworld.com September 1998 13 LETTERS ° oN © The Web site for 3D Gear's Cinema 4D XL (Reviews, June 1998) is www.cinemadtdusa.com. © GIF stands for “Graphics Interchange Format” (“The Web Publisher's Essential Tool Kit,” May 1998). control out of the hands of the service- bureau technicians—who image hun- dreds of jobs per day and know the ins and outs of preparing film that printers can use, It puts responsibility for the film out- put in the hands of designers, whose job does not demand that same expertise. ‘Third, there are many possible settings when creating the PDF file. PDF was orig- inally designed for use on RGB monitors, so you have to be sure to set up the files for high-resolution CMYK. You also need to include the fonts, and not allow ATM to use its generic Serif and Sans-Serif fonts. Incorrect settings can result in low-resolu- tion images, poor color matches, or incor- rect fonts. With a PDF, there is nothing the service bureau can do to fix these prob- lems, and it may not be possible to detect them until the film is run. Sure, PDFs sound like a good thing. You can't forget your graphics or fonts because they're included. But what you get out of the imagesetter is all in your hands, not the service bureau’s. The ser- vice bureau can only send your file, pray that you did everything correctly, and charge you for whatever comes out. CARL ARON Columbia, Maryland PDF has a way to go to become a universal pre- press format, but that's clearly the direction the prepress industry is beading, Ofcourse, we're not there yet; so far, only a few printers and service bureaus are managing PDF into their work- flow. But the article directs readers to contact their service bureau before preparing a PDF file—if the service bureau refuses them, the read- ers won't bother: You also mentioned that you can’t produce PDF files without a PostScript 3 RIP. This is not true—you can print to PostScript Level 2 RIPs using Acrobat Reader or Acrobat Exchange; it’s just easier to print to a PS 3 RIP because it processes PDF directly. And there is a difference between a PDF and a PRN file—the former is ‘more compact and less prone to PostScript errors, according to Adobe. —Stephen Beale 14 September 1998 MACWORLD Mac Thanksgiving I AVID POGUE'S COLUMN ABOUT ) Windows was perfectly timed (The Desktop Critic, June 1998), Last week, I broke down and bought Virtual PC and Windows 95, just to prepare myself for the possibility of a Mac-less future. [ couldn’t believe how primitive and hor- rendously unfriendly Windows 95 is. I had no idea how great we Mac users have it until I spent some time on “the other side.” After spending the better part of I: week skirting around error messages, 1 decided I will never switch from the Macintosh. Scort Rose Los Angeles, California Speaking Up ) JUST READ YOUR ARTICLE ON multimedia speakers (“Easy Listen- ing,” June 1998). I thought it was a shame that you did not include the excellent Aura (www.aurasystems.com) Aspect range of speakers—in particular the Aspect 20's. The sound quality of these small speakers blows away those from Altec Lansing, Labtec, and Yamaha, and for only $60. Eviot Lovett San Francisca, California ASY LISTENING" DID NOT MEN- tion speakers from Cambridge SoundWorks. They make a line of three different computer speakers and corre sponding subwoofers that I think blow the socks off the systems you reviewed— all at prices under a few hundred dollars. J. Trbo New York, New York Give Emulators a Break FTER READING YOUR REVIEW OF {AVirtual PC 2.0 and SoftWindows 95 5.0 June 1998), E was astounded at the author's disappointment, Then I realized that he was running them on a Power Mac 7300/200. Wouldn’t it make more sense to test these emulators on a new G3, espe- cially considering that Virtual PC is opti- mized for the G3? Jeremy ¥ Nepean, Ontario, Canada FISE Not testing the PC emulators on Macintosh G3's ‘was a simple matter of timing—G3's were bare- ly in their infancy at the time, But we will be upgrading to a G3 test platform in the near future Ed, OSEPH SCHORR’S REVIEW OF Virtual PC 2.0 was right on the money. It’s true that an emulation pro- gram will be significantly slower than the real thing, so why buy a program like Virtual PC 2.0? My company bought me a computer of my choosing for home use, and I chose a Power Computing PowerCenter Pro 210. The only stipulation was that it have file compatibility with the computers at work, which is a Windows 95 environ- ment. Most of my files requiring compa ibility are Microsoft Office and Word- Perfect documents; both sets of programs work well with Virtual PC 2.0. For a frac- tion of the cost of a PC-compatibility card, Virtual PC is a good value. Slow? Maybe a little, compared with the newer Pentium systems, but Virtual PC 2.0 works, I don’t have to use a PC at home, and I’m happy. . CHANY Bolingbrook, Minnis Back in the Saddle Again C ONGRATULATIONS TO APPLE. FOR A the speed of Mac OS 8.1 and the G3 systems, to Motorola for the PowerPC 750 chip, and to the team that developed Microsoft Office 98 for Macintosh, With the advent of these three products, our company has decided to forgo a switch to PCs and will now invest in new G3's for the whole staff, Its been a long time since Mac users had reason to be this happy. The glory days are b: Bruct MaLone Grand Rapids, Michigan Letters should be sent to Letters, Macworld, $01 Howard St, 16th Fl, San Francisco, CA 9410: fax, H1S/442. CompuServe (70370,702), MCI Mail (294-8078), AppleLink (Macworld1), or the Internet (letters@macworld via -0766; or electronically v com), Include a return address and d: me phe number. Due to the high volume of mail received, respond personally to each letter. We reserve ight to edit all letters. All published letters become the property of Macworld. (SF end.” PC Photo 800.6CANVAS | are we sorry? Well, if you're a | phics pro, you're probably already figuring out how that photo effect would be easy in PhotoShop”, the drawing would be cake in Freehand”, and the whole layout plus matching color separations would be simple in Quark XPress. You might be right, but we're sorry you think it’s so com- plicated - and expensive. We did it all using nothing but Canvas. Quickly and easily. ¢ And if you're not a graphics genius, you're probably thinking, “Wait a minute, shouldn't every $500-plus graphics program let me do all that?” You're absolutely correct - they should, but they don’t. (AN ILLUSTRATION + IMAGING Wikio Ww Wie + PUBLICATION © Canvas 5 is the only program - at any price - that offers the conve- nience and power of pixel-level photo editing, precision drawing, and page layout in one program, in one document, at one time. You can even take Canvas to the web with Colada”, a free Java"-based tool for Canvas. You get all the features you need to create everything from a cool logo to an eye-catching ad. Want proof? You're looking at it. ¢ So be- fore you even think about spending thousands of dollars on all those other programs and investing count- less hours learning each of them, get Canvas 5. ® You won't be sorry. + INTERNET ™. Think different” Apple’ and MacConnection Two Originals. 1984 Apple introduces 1CC4 Macintosh One Mission. tee 68000 8MHz processor : 8" monochrome screen makes its debut. 128K RAM 400K single-sided floppy storage ‘The innovative Macintosh turns the comput- | A mouse er industry on its ear by delivering what the customers want — ease of use, unsurpassed graphics capabilities and sheer fun. MacConnection The Original Macintosh @ Mail-Order Source! MacConnection turns the direct marketing industry on its ear by delivering wh: " the customers want — ground-breaking service, unparalleled technical support, “Oo great low prices and innovative practices that are now standard throughout the mail-order industry. Oh yeah, we sold some pretty great Mac products, too. A . A truly customer-centric partnership was born. Needit . orrow? “:4) a. (that's in the morning) and still get 1,982 & S iMac =~ delivery next day! ‘4 Only ‘ awe ‘Today Apple continues to make ) } J @ {¢) ; Need it history with six new lightning-fast Je nstalled? PowerBook G3 models, an stalled: award-winning new ad campaign and coming soon, the cutting-edge iMac! Get It Her MacConnection continues to offer overnight delivery, low pri Yi +: BRERI service, and support that remains the best We'll clo it FREE in the business. Oh yeah, we still sel When you purchase a new 3 Macintosh from us, we will some pretty great Mac products, too. configure it for you at no additional change, 6. , Some things never change. lh leed a ‘Pricing, technical specifications and VEC . availability are subject to change by Apple. Craq Wire) Great Price? Scheriled wo ship in Angst. Just call us! 20,000 HOT PRODUCTS 24 HRS A DAY! Ea SOO-800-6958 CWORLD @. Think different: Apple’ Power Macintosh” G3 PowerPC 300MH2 G3 processor j N O Compr ‘omises, 128MB RAM (2) 4,0GB Ultra Wide SCSI hard drives : i 4 4 GMB SGRAM + 8MB VRAM j ‘ O imits 24K CD-ROM drive . ‘ 54074 $4599 G3 Minitowers That's what you'll get with a new Apple G3 Monitor Sold Start At Separaicy Power Mac. It will deliver the power you need to $ | = run the most data-intensive griphics applications, vr ctuise the Internet at optimal speeds, work faster and more efficiently, share information easily, and push gaming to the cutting edge — and beyond! The G3 Power Mac ' The Power to Do More. S. |2, G3. The third generation Pentiunr Il Toasting Speeds. Ic all starts with scorching speeds up to twice as fast Power to Go. as the Pentium I*, made possible by an innovative Level 2 Backside Cache design that dramatically boosts performance. Plus, the G3 Power Maes are specially optimized for the Mac OS, resulting in 1A" TFT color screen $ increased efficiency, Add to that a revolutionary 64MB RAM ‘2.299 system architecture, high-quality communication and 8.068 hard drive multimedia support, outstanding flexibility and 56k modem expandability, and you have a machine that delivers $6128 $5599 Apple® Macintosh PowerBook G3 PowerPC 292MHz G3 processor Starts At the power you need not just for today, but into the next millennium * Accoading to BYTEmark integer tests MacConnection The Original Macintosh Mail-Order Source -Since 1984!) MACWORLD September 1998 17 On cables, RAM, or connecting a modem or scanner o¢ digital camera to your Mac? We offer toll-free chnical support on everything we sell. Catalog! Lo i Great products from Apple, Adobe, Newer Technology, Microsoft, lomega and more, Call or visit our website to request our catalog, ACCESSORIES Apple 56129 Power AC Adopters 56191 Lithiu-ton Rechargeable Battery {56133 G3 Floppy Disk Dive Expansion Bay Module 48164 G3 Lithium fon Battery. 35031 1400 NiMH Battery 43408 2400 Lithium fon Battery 98485 3400 Lithium ton Battery 18033 PowerBook 500 Batery 35928 PovieBook AC Adapter 1400, 2400, 3400, 3505 PowerBook 100 Battery 44248 2400 Spare Floppy Div 35929 PowerBook 1400 Video Out CARRYING CASES Targus 7369. Targus otepac Blac) 91084 Targus NotePac Pus 1905 Universal Notebook Case (Black 28851 Universal Deluxe Carrying Case ‘56460 Air Universal w/FREE Fanny Pack 4N412 Digital Camera Case-ylon _ 48238 FOA/andreld eather Wallet 18239. POA/Mandheld Leather Double Walt = 48243 full-ie Leather Potolo, 233MHz G3___ 15"Displayese sae 32MBspraM 128 six 4GB IDE Hard Drive 24Xcp-rom Bui and 10/100BT Ethernet Get lt Hete First! | en Yours Today!” Modem COMMUNICATIONS Simple Technology 56180 56x Communicator PC Card Modem w/Simplelack DATA STORAGE lomega 19867 Zip Disk 10-P 47077 Jaz 268 External Drive ATOB2 Jaz 268 3-Disk Pack FREE Camying (as CS nsder w/FREE Zip 2 la Cie 59400 4.368 H0 Internat 59398 4.368 HO Extema. {58080 24% External CD-ROM Drive. 398965 External 2x6 Recordable Dive. A852 External 226 CR-AW Drive Quantum 50871. 2.168 Fireball SE Uta SCS1 Int HO. 50869 4.368 Fireball SE ultra SCStInt S0B67 8.268 Fireball SE Ultra SCS Int HO SyQuest ABOAD Sylet 15GB External St Drive 1° Sept HERTS SR MNEWORED Thought You’ Seen It All? Think Again . . iMac. Far Beyond ~ § the Ordinary. Leave it to Apple to create a computer as unique as you are. 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Digital mera INPUT DEVICES Kensington 25096 Mouse ina Box 4 39596. Kensington Obi 60.95 25697 Tuibo Mouse 50 9.95 10410. Kensington Deluxe Computer Crying Case.5 9 7OBO MicrSaver Security Cale System 48823 shy Runner Nylon Carrying Case 35526 Saddle Bag Black w/Bleck 33443 Saddle Bag Black w/Brown Trim. 9505 Executive Computer ase Macally * 43892 2-Button Mouse 43890 New Wave Keyboard w/TouchPad S7MO_ 97 Keys Enhanced Yeyboard a5 mos 21456. 2-Button Ergonomic Mouse $19.95 21459 2-Button Facial. 7 22799. 105-Key Sof-Touch Keyboard 40380 2-Bunon Joystick q 40381. Bat Wing GamePad ™. Think different.” b cond Le see e& — Art That Works. The purpose of the iMac is to make Internet access easy, and it does that with one-button simplicity. It also does a lot more, It kills the PC competition with data-crunching G3 speed. You Want Speed? You Got Speed! With its 233MHz PowerPC G3 chip and 512K backside cache, the iMac is up to twice as fast as b, comparable Pentium® II- or Celeron-based systems. Plus, the 66MHz system bus speeds information through the computer, x iMac's 32MB of RAM (expandable to 128MB) “delivers plenty of memory to run all your favorite | applications and games. A4GB EIDE ard drive and 24X ATAPI CD-ROM drive are standard equipment. e ‘The 15" (13.8" viewable) display with shadow mask technology, 1024x768 resolution, and 28mm dot pitch delivers edge- to-edge sharpness and focus, with bigh refresh rates to reduce flicker and eye strain. The iMac delivers premium sound through its built-in SRS stereo speakers. Music lovers also have the option of attaching external speakers. Dees With its built-in modem and integrated 10/100BaseT' Ethernet support, it’s ideal for both home and office use. And it opens a whole new world with dual USB (Universal Serial Bus) ports, which enable peripherals to communicate with your iMac as higher speeds than ever before. Buying an iMac Will Give You X-Ray Vision. (not really) Actually, it’s just the translucent keyboard (included). It bas two 12Mbps USB ports. One is used to connect the mouse, while the otber can be used to daisy-chain peripberals such s, digital cameras, external 2:45am. b1 (as be mart) sand still ger delivery next day! Customize 3 ss, even monitors — up to 12 (not included) devices! Whoa. - This Mouse Is Alive! For a mesmerizing effect, drag the new round mouse across your mousepad, and through its translucent case watch the two-color ball spin and rotate in kaleidoscopic designs. We will configure your Mac the way YOU want it RRER FREE, HANDHELD DEVICES brid rose hac a 23001. Power bac 8500,8600,9500,9600 64MB $149. MONITORS 3am eer mos MODEMS aac 54104. 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Since 1984 MacConnection. has been providing award-winning service and support for Macintosh users Over on the PC side, PC Connection has TT donee same for Up to PC users : ; Named G3 processor the Best fail-Onder Upto Company an. @ unprecedented seven times by PC World Magazine, and honored as one Hard Drive Ht - New Trackpat Solid-state Apple Up to cf the 100) mo , In / ; precise cursor contro onan So, Average Battery Life shy of movement With dual battery operation and acceleration is which-cver Ahatteries are bot swappable) Pentium-crushing speed, a full array of networking and 4 platform = communications ports, two expansion ba easily adjustable (one video-out. . .we could go on. 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Workstation takes advantage of With features like 128MB of SDRAM, — Motorola Corp.'s 300MHz 750 ee ma two 4GB 7200RPM Ultra Wide SCSI a 57 128M A , Baio i Fae drives and a 128-bit 2D/3D graphics Power PC chip to deliver Think Fast. Work Fast! =e, PCI card with 8MB of EDO VRAM, —_belter graphics performance UPTOTWICE as fast as Pentium IY pale deer G3s can do everything in record 5 LEI Mot) time! You can even run two monitors 1248 4 desktop system based ON 9.01) | tains at once! 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This stand-alone program lets you create everything from precise working draw- ings to sophisticated client presentations to extensive materials lists and cost estimates, As alw iniCAD 7 offers the same core features that have made it the progr for desi in more than 80 coun- n of ch 1 professionals Choose 46 at www.macworld,com/Getinfo Windows'/Macintosh” The Easiest, Most Cost-Effective Way to Design | tries—multi- decimal accu- racy for pre- cise drafting, a built- in database/ spreadsheet to track costs and materi- als, extensive library of industry- specific symbols, cross- platform compatibility (Mac and Windows), and a macro program- ming language for automating complex and routine tasks, 1 oko of * Precise Sun Positioning * Expression Evaluation Inside Textboxes * Automated Databases/ readsheets ° Meh | and | ble Grid tomizable ° ae Coordinate System * Plus Dozens of Now this total CAD Performance solution speeds your design process with and Inte Enhancements € these new features: * True 3D Boolean Solid Modeling * DWG and DXF Import/Export * Dual-Unit Dimensioning * Auto Wall Framing * QuickDraw 3D Rendering * Associative Hatching * Automatic Wall Joining * Next-Generation artCursor wll wi il L att 1 pping bdr ‘To learn more about MiniCAD's extensive feature set and why the program has been most cost-effective way to design,” call 1-888-MINICAD or visit our Web site: wow.dichlgraphsoft.com MiniCAD 7, which ctails for a suggested price of $795, comes with 18 months of FREE ‘Tech Support and a 30-1 Back Gu Money Six Slots of Separation The Vision Thing by Andrew Gore WHAT'S KEEPING APPLE FROM ITS MOST AVID USERS? THREE LITTLE SLOTS. IX DEGRE OF SEPA- ration is a popular phrase based on the theory that everyone on Earth is connected to everyone else by no more than five people. For example, Bob is friends with Barry, who does taxes for Jeff, who plays golf with Anita, who works with Mark, Carol's son. And I know Carol. Therefore, even though Bob and I don’t know each other, we are connected by only five other people. The Six Degrees theory was devised to show that the world is a much smaller place than any of us realizes. In fact, all it might take to bring any two people together is one really good party. (And at that party, you could show off your knowledge of movie trivia by playing Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon . . . but I digress.) ‘That's why I wish someone would throw a really good party and invite both Apple’s decision makers and its customers. It’s time we got these kids together, if for no other reason than Apple might discover just how cut offit is from the needs of the Mac- intosh power user, Let's call this the Six Slots of Separation theory—six PCI slots, which the Mac's mostavid users desperately need and the Power Mac G3 lacks. Gee... Three? While the iMac and PowerBook G3 both represent great strides for customer cate~ gories long neglected by Apple—con- sumers and mobile professionals—they do little to help the customers who've been most faithful to the Mac during its darkest days. I'm talking about Macintosh power users, the professionals and enthusiasts who must squeeze every last bit of poten- tial out of their desktop Macs. And the cur- rent maximum number of slots on a Power Mac G3—three—is simply not enough to support the expansion needs of these users. ‘To illustrate just how quickly Mac power users hit the ceiling in current G3 desktop systems, let’s play a little game of Slots of Separation: You've just bought a Power Mac G3, and you want to add on a few capabilities. So, naturally, you turn to add-on PCI cards. First you get a high- performance video card, to drive that 21- inch color monitor in 24-bit color at max- imum resolution. And because you need the fastest hard drive subsystem possible for your G3 Mac, you get a RAID card. And because you want to send those big files you're rendering on that big screen and storing on those fast drives as fast as pos- sible, you get a 100BaseT Ethernet card. Next you want to get on the Internet, and fast, so you want to add an ISDN card. But not so fast, buddy! You've run out of slots, Not only does ISDN fall by the wayside but you can also forget about a high-end audio card. Or a digital-video card. Or a 3Dfx game-accelerator card. card for DVD pla Ora FireWire card. You get the picture. No Room at the Inn In hindsight, few people could question the wisdom of the decision to shut down Mac OS licensing last year. Apple’s recov- ery over the last 12 months has largely been because Apple has consolidated the ing it for- ly and in Mac platform and is now mo’ ward again, both technolog' terms of Apple’s bottom line. But when licensing ended, Apple made a promise to Macintosh customers —that while the end of licensing was crit- ical to Apple’s survival, the Macintosh installed base would not be asked to s fice all the benefits the cloners provided just so that Apple could live on. To Apple’s credit, it has mostly lived up to that bar- gain, giving Mac customers better, expensive products than even those ava able in the heyday of Mac cloning. Except in one critical area—the six-PCl-slot Mac. Right now, the only way to get slots in a G3 Mac is to stick a G3-proc: sor upgrade card in an older, lot Power Mac or clone. While this solution might be OK for now, in the long run users won't be willing to con- tinue recycling old machines just to get expansion slots: especially if Mac OS X will run only on new G3 systems, which Apple has said is a pos- sibility. They'll want a new Mac, and making due with three slots or buying an add-on external expansion chassis is not going to be enough. All Apple has to do to re- connect with these users is de- liver a box with more than three slots. It makes sense—after all, users want it and are willing to pay for it. By delivering such a machine, Apple will make them happy while making a nice prof it on those high-margin, high-end systems. But if Apple doesn’t address this pressing need, and soon, the company may find that its customers are no longer content to play games. Then the separa- tion between Apple and the Mac’s power users may just become permanent. m If you mail visionthing@macworld.com, you lL join the lucky fezw who are only one degree of separation removed from Andrew Gore. www.macworld.com September 1998 25 Some people think that Norton Utilities for Macintosh is the most advanced troubleshooting utility in the world. Not quite. TechTool Pro 2 checks more aspects of your Macintosh However, just because TechTool Pro is the most advanced than any other utility available. Besides repairing and — Macintosh troubleshooting utility available doesn't mean recovering damaged drives (including those with the new i cult to use. In fact, we've added an easy-to- HFS+ formad, you can also test all those other critical e that makes checking and fixing your Macintosh rts of your system that our famous competitor ignores snap. For the advanced our expert mode allows like RAM, CPU, floppy driv ‘“anners, modems, internet you to control and configure TechTool Pro in almost any connections, CD-ROM drives and much, much more. way you wish, TechTool Pro 2: Because you've got better things to do with your time than waste it on a broken computer. MicroMat Inc, > L) > ; a www.micromat.com Fix different’ ©1998 Microstat Computer System, Inc. All rights reserved. Tech'Tool is 21 ved tademark and Fix Different ss a tn suk of MicroMat Computer 8 io Norton isa trademark of Symantec, In Choose 45 at www.macworld.com/getinfo SEPTEMBER 1998 APPLE CEO EXPECTS iMAC SALES TO BOOST MARKET GROWTH by Stephen Beale pple is back on its feet and ready to ride the iMac to a bigger share of the comput- er market. That was the message delivered by Apple CEO Steve Jobs as he made a surprise live appearance July 8 during the keynote session at Macworld Expo New York. While there were no dra- matic announcements to equal last year’s Microsoft deal, Jobs still had plenty of good news for Mac loyalists. Citing developers’ renewed interest in the Mac, he noted that since the iMac’s May 6 introduction, vendors have announced 177 Mac applica- tions (see “Developers Bullish on Apple,” in this section). These include many comput- er games, as well as Universal Serial Bus peripherals (see “Vendors Line Up with USB Peripherals,” in this section) whose development was prompted by Apple's switch to USB for the iMac. Hot Sellers Apple expects massive shipments of iMacs to bolster its position in the edu- cation market and also, Jobs hopes, to drive consumer pur- chases. Although an estimated 10 million consumers cur- rently use Macs, many of these machines are older models ripe for upgrading. The company’s new G3 PowerBooks appear to be hot sellers; so much so that Apple is struggling to fill orders. This —along with Jobs's expecta- tion of a third consecutive quarterly profit, to be reported July 15—is likely to cause Jobs Touts Apple Comeback in Expo Keynote more smiles on Wall Street. Jobs also revealed some additional product plans: When the iMac ships August 15, ic will include a 56-Kbps modem, not the 33.6-Kbps version originally planned—a clear response to earlier objections of Mac pun- dits to the initial choice. * For the PowerBook G3, Apple will offer a DVD-ROM drive, whose software features parental controls and an on- screen remote. For his demo, Jobs played a brief scene from The Wizard of Oz, saying that this is “the coolest way to watch movies on airplanes.” * Apple plans to ship Mac OS X Server—essentially the Rhapsody OS—later this year. Beta versions of Mac OS X will be available in early 1999, with the official release of the continues www.macworld.com September 1998 27 N BEST of SHOW] Macworld ONCE AGAIN, MACWORLD'S editors have selected the hottest new products introduced at Macworld Expo, To be eligible, the product had to make its public debut at Macworld Expo New York. We also had to see the product in action, although software evaluations were often based on beta versions. iMac Apple (408/996-1010, www .apple.com) announced its sleek fnew consumer Mac several months ago but saved the offi- cial rollout for Macworld Expo. Few products at any Expo have generated as much excitement. RAM Douster 8 This $45 memory-management utility from Connectix (415/571- 5100, www.connectix.com) has a new interface, is faster, and Is more flexible in allocating mem- ory resources, Plus it's optimized to run Microsoft Office 98, Conrtict Catcher 8 Upgraded to support Mac OS 8.1, Casady & Greene's (408/ 484-9228, www.casadyg.com) popular $100 system utility adds improved file display and back- tracking during conflict tests. It also simplifies system updates by letting you merge a newly in- stalled “clean" System Folder with an existing System Folder. QX-Tools 4 This $150 package of handy QuarkxXTensions from Extensis (503/274-2020, www.extensis .com) adds several enhancements. to QuarkxPress, including object styles and the ability to import Microsoft Word tables, Microsoft Excel charts, and POF files. Font Reserve 2.0 The latest version of the Dia- mondSoft (415/381-3303, www fontreserve.com) font-manage- ment utility offers faster perfor- BEST PRODUCTS Macwortp Expo New York 1998 mance than its predecessor and supports AppleScript for work- flow automation, The $100 package also lets you print type specimens sorted by type foundry and other criteria. WesPAINTER 3 This upgrade from Totally Hip Software (604/685-6525, www .totallyhip.com) offers a full set of painting and Web animation features for just $99. MacLink PLus 10 The $99 file-conversion utility from DataViz (203/268-0030, www.dataviz.com) offers a new stand-alone application that lets you preview the contents of a file before you convert it. The software also decodes e-mail attachments—including .zip files —and features translators for Microsoft Word 98 and Excel 98, PALMPILOT SOFTWARE Thanks to improved MacPac 2 software (based on Claris Orga- nizer) from Palm Computing (650/237-6000, www.palmpilot .com), Mac users are no longer: second-class citizens when using. a Palm II! or PalmPilot organizer. 1x3D Roap Rocker This $349 CardBus-based graph- ics accelerator from iXMicro (408/369-8282, www.ixmicro ,com) lets a pint-size PowerBook drive a big-screen monitor. 28 September 1998 MACWORLD high-end operating system set for some time after midyear, More Consumer Deals Ben Waldman, head of Microsoft's offer a $100 rebate to con- sumers who purchase an iMac along with Microsoft Office 98. He also demonstrated Microsoft Internet lorer 4.01, which exhibits faster performance and a few new features. You can now link to frequently visited Web sites by entering the first few letters of the URL; if multiple Web sites match your entry, a pop- up menu lets you choose the correct one, Search-engine rate screen, simplifying navi- gation among found files. Also boosting Apple’ con- sumer focus was Disney Online president Richard Wolpert’ announcement of a Mae version of Disney Blast Online (www.disneyblast.com/ mac), a commercial Web site for children ages 3 to 12. After offering a free beta for an unspecified time, Disney will charge $5.95 per month or $39.95 per year. Vendors Line Up with USB Peripherals iMAC SPURS MOVE TO HIGH-SPEED INTERFACE by Macworld Staff s Apple prepares to ship its much antici- pated iMac, a host of vendors has an- nounced plans to introduce products that sup- port the iMac's Universal Ser- ial Bus (USB) interface. Some of these products are USB peripherals, while others are PCI cards and external hubs that allow current Ma USB devices. » ADS Technologies (562/ 926-1928, www.adstec m) plans to ship three USB prod- ucts: a $49.95 PCI card adapt- er for desktop Macs, an $89 adapter for PowerBooks, and an $89 external hub that adds four USB ports to your Mac. Alps Electric (408/432- 6000, www.alpsusa.com) is showing the Alps MD-1300 Photographic-Quality Color Printer, a USB device that produces 8-by-10-inch dye- sublimation prints, Estimated street price is $549. * Creative Solutions (410/ 766-4079, www.creative- solutions-inc.com) has intro- duced a $79 PCI card with two USB connectors. *Tomega (801/778-1000, www.iomega.com) plans a USB version of the Zip drive, while Imation (888/466-3456, www.imation.com) has an- nounced a USB version of its SuperDisk drive (see “Does the Floppy Have a Future?” in this section). Newer ‘Technology (316/ 943-0222, www-.newertech com) plans to offer several USB products, including an adapter, two floppy drives— one with two serial ports and one without—a PCI card that allows PCI Power ‘s to use red ports (see Are Bullish on tion). ackard (619/ p.com) has “Developers Apple,” in thi ewlett-| 487-4100, ww announced a $69 USB kit that lets you use its DeskJet 670 and 690 ink-jet printers with the iMac. * Kodak (716/724-4000, www.kodak.com) has intro- ed two USB digital cam- as a $169 USB video camera, the DVC232. g Does the Floppy Have a Future? NEW FORMATS SEEK TO REPLACE 1.44MB DISKS by Henry Bortman re floppies dead? You might think so, judging from Apple’s consumer-targeted iMac, which will ship sans floppy drive. Apple fig- ures that multimedia files are growing too large to fit on a single 1.44MB disk, and backing up a 4GB hard drive onto low-capacity floppies can be an exercise in absurdi- ty (you'd need just under 3,000 disks to complete the job). Reasonably priced alter- natives, such as Iomega’s Zip drive, better fit the needs of today’s users. Furthermore, the argument goes, as more people become networked, either on LANs or over the Internet, they'll have less need for removable disks. Alive and Kicking Never- theless, analysts at Disk/ Trend, which monitors the storage industry, believe the floppy’s future is assured for years to come. They note that word processing still accounts for 75 to 80 percent of the work done on personal com- puters—and that’s not likely to change soon, For text doc- uments, floppies work well as an exchange medium. According to Disk/Trend’s research, only 5 to 10 per- cent of the CPUs currently being sold ship with high- capacity removable-media drives, The analysis also notes that while about 9° million high-capacity disks were sold last year, customers purchased 95 million floppy disks. Still, no one doubts that the 1.44MB 3.5-inch floppy eventually will be phased out. But what will replace it? Three technologies are vying for the honor: Iomega’s (801/ 778-1000, www.iomega.com) Zip, Imation’s (888/466-3456, www.imation.com) LS-120, and Sony’s (800/222-7669, www.sony.com) HiFD. All three drives sell (or are expected to sell) in the $100- to-$250 range. Their accom- panying disks can be had for (or are expected to be avail- able for) about 10 cents per megabyte. Each has unique advantages and disadvantages. Get Zipped To hear Iomega tell it, the contest is already over, and Zip has won. With 13 million Zip drives sold, and every major PC ven- dor (including Apple) offering an internal Zip drive as an option, Iomega has a credible case. Zip can also lay claim to SuperDisk Is one of three technolo gles vying to replace the floppy. being the accepted medium of exchange at service bureaus. An informal poll of a half dozen prepress houses in the San Francisco area yielded consistent responses: 80 to 90 percent of all jobs come in on Zip cartridges, regardless of whether the customers are Mac or PC users. Zip’s major drawback: it’s not — backward-compatible with existing floppy disks, so you're likely to need both a Zip and a floppy drive to handle all your removable- storage needs. And no matter how inexpensive Zips be- come, two drives cost more than one, SuperDisk Designed jointly by Imation, Compaq, Panasonic, and O.R. Technol- ogy, LS-120 drives (also known as SuperDisk drives) have a major advantage over Zips: they can read and write to standard floppy disks as well as SuperDisk diskettes. However, this advantage has yet to be turned into a solid win for the LS-120. The drives—slower and more expensive than Zip drives— are offered as an option by only a handful of PC vendors. No U.S. vendor has yet taken the leap of offering SuperDisk as standard desktop equip- ment in place of a floppy- disk drive. For Macintosh users, the picture is even weaker. Only one company, Winstation Systems (509/ 765-7759, www.winstation .com), offers a Mac-compati- ble SCSI version of the drive. However, Imation and Pana- sonic are working on a Uni- versal Serial Bus version of the SuperDisk drive that should be available when the iMac ships in August. Sony's Dark Horse The dark horse in this race is HiFD. Designed by Sony, with help from Fujifilm on the media, HiFD drives will support existing 1.44MB flop- pies and 200MB HiFD disks. Sony claims the new drive will offer a sustained transfer rate of 3.6MB per second, more than seven times the speed of an LS-120. Originally slated to ap- pear this spring, HiFD now is not expected to be available until the end of 1998. How- ever, the first crop of HiFD drives will be available only with a parallel-port or ATAPI interface for PCs. Sony won’t say when a SCSI model will come to market. Which drive will win out? Zip has a commanding lead, but its lack of backward com- patibility could undermine its advantage. In the Mac mar- ket, removable-storage stan- dards are often set by local service bureaus, but ultimate- ly PC vendors will be the ones who determine the new stor- age standard for the industry. With HiFD not yet available, and with some serious price- jockeying certain to occur once it is, this is one race whose outcome is simply too early to call. Developers Are Bullish on Apple OS X, G3, IMAC GIVE VENDORS NEW HOPE by Cathy Abes frer some lean times, developers are finally voicing — optimism about the Mac plat- form. Pointing to such promising trends as the G3 processor, the consumer iMac, and Mac OS X, many see the Mac figuring promi- nently in their future product strategies, Bryan Lamkin, vice presi- dent of Adobe Systems’ graph- ics products division, says that Apple is “doing the right things to serve the needs of professional publishing and digital-content creators,” Adobe's prime market. He applauds Apple's new OS strat- egy, which makes it easier for developers to migrate to the next-generation Mac OS X. Also bullish on Apple is MetaCreations’ Frank Casano- www.macworld.com September 1998 29 va, vice president of product management and design. A nine-year Apple veteran, Casanova thinks the company is more focused now than it ever was during his tenure and is “doing better than it has in the last five years.” Developer Focus Many vendors sense Apple's renewed interest in developers’ con- cerns. Norm Meyrowitz, pres- ident of Macromedia Products, previously saw Apple as focused inward, competing with itself, whereas now the focus is where it should be—on developers and customers. Macromedia president and CEO Rob Burgess recalls that when Apple CEO Steve Jobs recently visited Macromedia headquarters to meet with sutives, the staff gave him a nding ovation. Jobs joked perhaps it had been a while since they'd last seen an Apple executive. iMac Spurs Product Plans Roger Kasten, Newer ‘Tech- nology’s chief technical officer, is enthusiastic about Mac OS X as well as Mac OS 8.7, both due in 1999, The latter, he , Will include most of the functionality of Mac OS X, but unlike Mac OS X, it will run on older Ma Kasten also believes the iMac will make Apple “the dri- ving force in the USB market.” Newer plans to offer a Univer- sal Serial Bus converter sup- porting serial-port printers and modems, a USB floppy drive with two serial ports, and a USB hub with seven pow- ered ports, Heartened by Apple's revi- talized consumer _ strategy, Terry Kunysz, president of Casady & Greene, says his company is “getting back in the game market” and is plan- ning to launch several new products early next year. He says he is looking at other potential products the compa- ny “wouldn't have even consid- ered six months ago.” [ News Graphics Products Refocused VENDORS SHIFT TOWARD WEB-SAVVY SOFTWARE by Cathy Abes s they gaze upon an increasingly competi- tive landscape, Adobe Systems (408/536- 6000, www.adobe .com), Macromedia (415/252- 2000, www.macromedia.com), and MetaCreations (805/566- 6200, www.metacreations .com)—the three largest ven- dors of graphics software for the Mac—are redefining their product lines to match the needs of a changing, and more demanding, audience. A Stronger Lineup For MetaCreations, this means consolidating a wide range of products that originated in var- ious pre-merger companies. Frank Casanova, vice president of product management and design, says the company will focus on fewer but bigger prod- ucts rather than a slew of small- er ones. However, the company to develop new product 6 even as major brands, such the Painter family, continue to evolve, Casanova says that MetaCreations is also repur- posing some products, such a KPT Show, which is evolving from a slide-show program for consumers into a business pre- sentation tool, Also moving ahead is the company’s 3-D line. Poser 3, the latest version of the com- pany’s 3-D_ figure-animation tool, provides a ct with improved light, and movement con- The $199 package also lets you import motion-cap- ture data, and it offers real- time 3-D previews. “Web-Centric" Strat! Macromedi y strategy, ac- cording to president and CEO Rob Burgess, is to transform itself into a “Web- centric” company whose busi- ness will become about 80 percent Web-related within the next few years, Director 6.5, a recent up- date to the company’s multi- media-authoring program, adds new Web-related features, such as the ability to export Java applets and to prepare movies for Java playback (see Reviews, in this issue). The update also includes Aftershock 2 (to pre- pare Director files for playback via browsers) and supports Macromedia Flash. Burgess estimates that about 30 percent of Director users are producing Web content, a number he expects to grow rapidly. Macromedia is also ship- ping Flash 3, a new version of its Web animation tool that adds vector and bitmap trans- parency, sprite animation, and shape morphing. This mer, the Flash player will be built into Netscape tor, so Web surfers won't have More Cameras for Your Mac A MONTH PASSING BY WITHOUT A DIGITAL- camera announcement—that would certainly be news! Instead, Sony (800/222-7669, www ssony.com), Kodak (800/235-6325, www -kodak.com), Toshiba (800/550-8674, www.toshiba.com), and Agfa (508/658- 5600, www.agfacom) have all joined the ranks of vendors with new cameras, =o) 30 September 1998 MACWORLD Sony's $599 MVC-FD51 and $799 MVC- FD71 (pictured) both store images on a floppy disk. Thanks to extra memory in the cameras, you can even use the internal drive to make disk copies, Both cameras offer 640-by-480 resolu- tlon; the MVC-FD71 also fe: zoom. Kodak's latest, the DC220 and DC260, feature Universal Serial Bus interfaces for easy lures a 10% optical connection to the iMac. The $1,100 DC220 fea- ad tures a 2x optical zoom and 1,152-by-864-pixel resolution; the $1,300 DC260 offers a 3: and 1,536-by-1,024 resolution. Agfa's $900 ePhoto 1680 features a 3x zoom optical zoom and 1,280-by-960-pixel resolution, Toshiba's $700 PDR-M1 offers 1,280-by-1,024-pixel resolution and a 2x optical zoom. Meanwhile, Olympus (516/844-5000, www.olympus.com) has dropped the price of its popular D600L camera from $1,300 to $1,000.—MAcWORLD STAFF “How | fit several Baby Grands, an enormous mass of aural chop suey, and the entire London Zoo into a A. INCH SQUARE.” Mark Tinley, Sound Designer, Duran Duran BECAUSE IT'S YOUR STUFF. High-speed performance teader Backward compatible with Jaz” 168 disks The choice of industry professionals New lower drive price. 2GB cartridges as low as $99.95) | Mark Tinley has heard it all. And recorded it, As the sound designer for | Duran Duran, he’s constantly searching for, creating, and recording interesting, often bizarre sounds for the band From shrieking peacocks to a mishmash of electronic ambient noise, Mark safely stores it all on new 268 Jaz disks, His incredibly portable Jaz drive ~ ives him the ability to transport, edit, mix, and share even the largest sound files from wherever he may be. Because when you deal with sounds as big as all outdoors, you need space, big space, And that’s exactly what he gets with his Jaz 268, The Super-Fast, Extremely Vast Professional Storage Drive® Get your Jaz 2GB drive through your local reseller and visit our Web site at: wwwelomega.com to download a plug-in to view Flash graphics. Flash Genera- tor, a server-based tool that generates multimedia objects on the fly, allowing constant updating of Web images, will ship this fall. Macromedia its new softw: ng Web graphics. Macromedia turns its company is phasi er products, such as xRes and Extreme 3D, and has sold the digital-video technology in its never-released Final Cut soft- ware to Apple. Macromedia has also discontinued Free- Hand Studio and is now sell- ing FreeHand 8 separately. Adobe Stays Focused Meanwhile, Adobe continues rengthen its software arsenal with new versions of Photoshop and Premiere; the latter received a complete overhaul to make it competi- tive with professional-level systems, Recognizing the growing dominance of the Web, Adobe has also intro- duced ImageReady, a com- petitor to Macromedia's Fire- Works, and is promoting its PGML format as a Web stan- dard for vector graphics “XML Drives Web Graphics Proposal,” News, July 1998). [ News A Flurry of Laser Printers MONOCHROME AND COLOR MODELS BOOST QUALITY AND SPEED by Macworld Staff here may be a dearth of ink-jet printers for the Mac right now (see “Apple Shifts Imaging Strategy,” News, August 1998), but laser printers are a different story. In recent months, a host of vendors have unveiled mono- chrome or color laser print- ers that work with your Mac—although you may need extra hardware to make the connection. In Black and White NIEC’s (408/433-1200, www.nec.com) monochrome SuperScript 870 (pictured), the successor to the popular SuperScript 860, features 600-dpi resolu- tion, 8-pages-per-minute print speed, and an improved paper-handling mechanism, all for $349. However, Mac users will need to add a $249 ompUSA to Get Computer City Ethernet kit. The printer uses Adobe’s PrintGear technolo- gy but can be upgraded to support Adobe PostScript 3, If yon need the extra speed of a network printer, the $1,400, 600-dpi FS- 3700+ from Kyocera (800/ 232-6797, www.kyocera.com) bla: along at 18 ppm. uipped with a Post- ipt Level 2. inter- preter, it uses Kyocera’s bs technology to liance on con- sumables; the company consumables than a half- cent per page. Living Color For users with more colorful printing needs, the new 600-dpi Color Page- Works EX from Minolta (201/ 512-5800, www.minolta.com) features 3-ppm print speed (12 ppm in color) and sup- ports PostScript 3. The print- er sells for roughly $4,000; Mac users will also need to purchase an Ethernet option. ‘Tally (425/251-5524, www stallycom) has unveiled two network color laser printers, the $3,695 T8104 and $5,299 SpectraStar CL 4/16. The ‘T8104, aimed at general busi- ness applications, features 600-dpi resolution and prints le 8 color pages per minute. The CL 4/16, aimed at graphics professionals, offers 2,400-by- 600-dpi resolution, manual duplexing, and support for booklet printing and elec- tronic collation, It ships with 80MB of RAM versus 24MB for the T8104. Both printers support PostScript Level 2. NEC's SuperScript 870 laser printer offers 600-dpl resolution. If speed is a priority, con- sider the $6,000 Optra Color 1200 from Lexmark (606/232- 2000, — www,lexmark.com), which uses a new printing mechanism to produce 12 color pages per minute. The 600-dpi printer handles media up to 11.7 by 17.0 inches and supports PostScript Level 2. Lexmark’s $3,000 Optra SC 1275, also new, offers 600-dpi resolution and 3-ppm color output. Both printers require an additional $99 network adapter to work with the Mac. 32 MAC USERS COULD EVENTUALLY HAVE new places to buy hardware and software thanks to CompUSA’s recent announce- ment that it will acquire Computer City, the 100-store retail chain currently owned by Tandy. CompUSA, presently the only national computer dealer that sells Mac products, operates Apple stores within each of its 160 outlets. Safe Assumption? Although the company has not announced specific plans for converting the Computer City locations, “the assumption would be" that most will become CompUSA outlets September 1998 MACWORLD with their own Apple stores, says Carol Elfstrom, CompUSA’s director of corpo- rate communications. CompUSA disclosed the $275 million acquisition June 22 and said it expected the deal to be completed within 90 days. Apple and CompUSA announced the Apple “stores within stores” in November 1997, Three months later, Apple anointed CompUSA its primary national retailer and said it would phase out sales in other major chains, including Computer City. Dealer Crackdown The CompUSA deal comes at a time when Apple is getting tough with its other dealers. In May, Apple canceled contracts with nearly one-third of its U.S. dealer network, citing those “who do not offer value-added solutions and who are not advocates of Apple products.” The com- pany has also launched a crackdown on gray marketers—unauthorized Mac resellers who often sell the machines at discount. Apple has identified 24 suspect- ed gray marketers and has threatened to cancel the contracts of any authorized dealers who sell Macs to the targeted outlets.—MACWORLD STAFF Imagine impressing your audience with big sereen multimedia presentations res editing in Photoshop® with no waiting the fun of playing the coolest, effortless | With an ATT graphies accelerator, Choose 256 ai Improve your graphics instantly with ATT. rowereoey YOU'll be blown away when you see how adding a graphics accelerator dramatically upgrades the graphics on your Mac. 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Ideal for working in resolutions above 1152x870 up to 1920x1080. ‘y To find out more about how you can upgrade your graphics with { ATI check out our website at www.atitech.com/macwo. v.macworld.com/getinfo / —< 600 x 600 dpi resolution 12 pages per minute 1 year Platinum Exchange Warranty Maximum Print Area 8.5" x 14" Letter, legal, A4, envelope 250 sheet Universal Tray PostScript Level 2 compatible, PCL 5 80 PostScript fonts, 15 PCL fonts 8 MB RAM expandable to 64 MB EtherTalk, TCP/IP Ethernet» (10 BaseT) Bi-directional Parallel, Local Talke, RS422 2nd Paper Feeder* Add $299 (Includes 500 sheet Universal Tray) Extra 8 MB Memory Add $49 Platinum Exchange Warranty Program: Additional Year Add $99 Two Additional Years Add $150 Three Additional Years Add $213 $999 Business Lease $35 Month/36 month lease 1200 x 1200 dpi resolution 12 pages per minute 1 year Platinum Exchange Warranty Maximum Print Area 8.5" x 14" letter, legal, A4, envelope 250 sheet Universal Tray PostScript® Level 2 compatible, PCL 5 80 PostScript fonts, 15 PCL fonts 16 MB RAM expandable to 64 MB EtherTalk, TCP/IP Ethernet (10 Basel, 10 Base2), Netware® Bi-directional Parallel, Local Talke, RS422 2nd Paper Feeder* Add $299 {includes 500 sheot Universal Tray) Extra 8 MB Memory Add $49 Platinum Exchange Warranty Program: Additional Year Add $129 Two Additional Years Add $194 Three Additional Years Add $ 275 $1299 Business Lease $45 Month/36 month lease ie 600 x 600 dpi resolution 8 pages per minute 1 year Platinum Exchange Warranty Maximum Print Area 11" x 17" Ledger, letter, legal, A3, A4, envelope 250 sheet Universal Tray PostScript? Level 2 compatible, PCL 5 80 PostScript fonts, 15 PCL fonts 8 MB RAM expandable to 64 MB EtherTalk, TCP/IP Ethernet (10 BaseT, 10 Base2) Parallel, Local Talke, RS422 2nd Paper Feeder* (Includes 250 sheet Universal Tray) add $31 9 (Includes 500 sheet Universal Tray) Ac 419 Extra 8 MB Memory Add $49 Platinum Exchange Warranty Program: Additional Year Add $159 Two Additional Years Add $ 239 Three Additional Years Add $ 339 $1599 Business Lease $56 Month/36 month lease “The Elite 12/600, Elio 1212, Ete XL 608 LC, and Eli XL. 1208 suppert one akdtional paper feeder. The Bite X1 20/600 and Elite XL 20/800 support two eddiionel poperheders. GCC Elite 1212 GCC Elite 20/800 Elite XL 608 LC A logos contribution to the printing process is modest. It just sits there and congratulates itself. The question is, how much are you willing to pay for this service? We're GCC Technologies, and our printers go head-to-head against some of the most famous names in the business. Which creates a buying opportunity for those who understand a basic principle of free enterprise: When you aren't better known, you'd better be better at something else. Such as printing. GCC printers turn out vivid halftones, poster-sized graphics, printshop-quality text, and perform various other noteworthy feats noted below. But these aren't the only rewards for people willing to look beyond the nameplate. GCC printers are sold direct, eliminating many prosperous middlemen and lowering the cost. We're also compassionate hand-holders. We offer free technical support, not just on business days, but Saturdays too--throughout the one-year warranty period. And if during ‘hot period you have a problem our support people can’t solve, our Platinum Exchange Program guarantees you a replacement printer by the next business day. All GCC printers come with a thirty-day, money-back guarantee Uy, as well. For complete details, call the 800 number below. And for the record, yes, our printers come with logos too. Its just that you don’t have to pay extra for them. visit our web site .— GCC . TECHNOLOGIES THEY'RE BIGGER. WE'RE HUNGRIER. =| / 1200 x 1200 dpi resolution 20 pages per minute 1 year Platinum Exchange Warranty Maximum Print Area 11.69" x 20" Ledger, letter, legal, A3, A4, envelope 500 sheet Universal Tray PostScript? Level 2 compatible, PCL 5 285 Post Script fonts, 15 PCL fonts 24 MB RAM expandable to 64 MB EtherTalk, TCP/IP Ethernet? (10 BaseT, 10 Base2), Netware® Parallel, Local Talke, RS422 2nd Paper Feeder* {Includes 250 sheet Universal Tray) Add $1 9 {Includes 500 sheet Universal Tray) A\ 419 Extra 8 MB Memory Add $49 Platinum Exchange Warranty Program: Additional Year Add $259 Two Additional Years Add $388 Three Additional Years Add $551 $2599 Business Lease $91 Month/36 month lease GCC Tchrolgin in. oginred woderark of GCC Technologies, he. Elie 12/600, Ete 1212, Elie XL 608 C, fit X 1208, ElaeX1 20/600, end Elite ML 20/800 ore todemarks cf GCC Techncogies, Ie 600 x 600 dpi resolution 20 pages per minute 1 year Platinum Exchange Warranty Maximum Print Area 12.75" x 35.25" Ledger, letter, legal, A3, Ad, envelope 500 sheet Universal Tray PostScripte Level 2 compatible, PCL 5 285 PostScript fonts, 15 PCL fonts 16 MB RAM expandable to 64 MB EtherTalk, TCP/IP Ethernet® (10 BaseT, AAUI), Netware® Bi-directional Parallel, Local Talke, RS422 2nd or 3rd Paper Feeder” Add $ 299 {Includes 500 sheet Universal Tray) Extra 8 MB Memory Add $49 Platinum Exchange Warranty Program: Additional Year Add $179 Two Additional Years Add $ 269 Three Additional Years Add $ 381 $1799 Business Lease $63 Month/36 month lease Al other trademarks oF rogatered odamerks cre hademork cl her respocive companies = Choose 43 at www.macworld.com/getinfo 800 x 800 dpi resolution 20 pages per minute 1 year Platinum Exchange Warranty Maximum Print Area 12.75" x 35.25" Ledger, letter, legal, A3, A4, envelope 500 sheet Universal Tray PostScript# Level 2 compatible, PCL 5 285 PostScript fonts, 15 PCL fonts 24 MB RAM expandable to 64 MB EtherTalk, TCP/IP Ethernet (10 BaseT, AAU), Netware® Bi-directional Parallel, Local Talk», RS422 2nd or 3rd Paper Feeder* Add $ 299 (Includes 500 sheet Universal Tray) Extra 8 MB Memory Add $49 Platinum Exchange Warranty Program: Additional Year Add $199 Two Additional Years Add $ 299 Three Additional Years Add $ 424 $1999 Business Lease $70 Month/36 month lease Keycode BOWE Back-to-School Guide Freddi Fish 3 FURTHER ADVENTURES WITH A FAVORITE FISH Freddi Fish is back and ready for more underwater adventure in Freddi Fish 3: The Case of the Stolen Conch Shell ($64; $29.99 list price), the third install- ment of the popular series from Humongous Ente tainment (425/486-9258, www.humongous.com). ‘This time, Freddi and his little green friend, Norman, must locate a missing conch shell, which the towns-fish need to launch the Founders’ Day Festival. Fred- Unele Brenny is the guardian of the shell and gets divs thrown in jail when it comes up missing. Your 3-to-8-year- old’s job is to find the miss- ing shell pieces and then res- cue Uncle Brenny and start the fest outstanding graphics and ease of use that have been the hallmarks of the seri Unfortunately, it also suffers from the same abbreviated playing time: you'll get little more than an hour of quality com- puter time with your youngster. For- tunately, some sections let your child spend as long as she likes recording music or drawing underwater creatures. Our four-year-old liked it, and she thinks your child will, too.—pHitie AND LAUREN DYER Jump Start Fifth Grade HEAD-START PACKAGE AIMS TOO HIGH Tr sounds great on paper: a series of educational pro- grams that help kids through the transitions between grades while providing a welcome diversion from the dog days of summer. Unfortunately, Jump Start Fifth Grade (9%; $19.99 direct price), from Knowledge Adventure (310/793-0600, www adventure.com), is more likely to frustrate your soon-to-be fifth-grader than fill him with anticipation for the upcoming school year. Playing the part ofa kid detective, you try to save your city from the evil Dr. X, ayillain set on blowing up all the f tories and power plants, Clues hide all over the place, but they require solving math, science, history, geog- raphy, and language puzzle September 1998 MACWORLD many of these puzzles are simply too difficult for the intended group, using inappropriately advanced vocabulary and concepts. The program's poor inter- face requires kids to remember unfamiliar words they discover in on a to fill in a puzzle that is wo or three screens away. My son and some of his friends were unable to get through the program without con- stant adult help. The mediocre animation and sound- track aren't likely to keep a kid’s interest. In fact, Jump Start Adventures elicited a show-stopping assessment: “Boring.”—TOM NEGRINO AND SEAN SMITH Kid Pix Studio Deluxe ARTISTIC FUN FOR KIDS AND PARENTS ‘This year’s model of the long-running Kid Pix series, fon Broderbund Software (415/382-4400, www .broderbund.com), won't disappoint your budding artist. Kid Pix Studio Deluxe ($949; $29.99 com- pany’s estimated price) provides megabytes of clip media that make it easy and fun for kids 3 to 12 years old to start creating art. New features include a text- Kid Pix Studio Deluxe to-speech capability that reads back text in English or Spanish; editable text in your artwork; and the ability to import and export your pictures in a vari- ety of graphic formats. In addition to the main Kid Pix module, Moopies and the Stampimator animate clip art, stamps, and original drawing. Wacky TV adds special effects to video clips; Digital Puppets offer keyboard-controlled animated characters. A Slide Show feature lets your pint-size Picassos play back their dazzling creations with sound, transition and other special effects. And Kid Pix Studio Deluxe’s appeal isn’t limited to the young; Dad was politely requested more than once to go play on his own computer.—TOM NEGRINO AND SEAN SMITH TIME TO SHOP FOR BINDER PAPER, CRAYONS, AND THE NEWEST EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE Slam Dunk Typing Voice-recognition software may make typing obsolete by the time your ten-year-old is ready to enter the work- force, but you never know. With that in mind, Slam Dunk ‘Typing (#947; $24.95 list price), from Creative Wonders (617/761-3000, www.creativewonde! spices up a dry topic by combining the educational value of a typing tutor with the fast-moving action of a bas- ketball game. Using an entertaining yet instructior arcade-style interface, Slam Dunk feature ferent drills and ten teach keyboarding techniques, empha- sizing speed and accuracy. The Horse drill is especially fun: you type words to bounce the ball off the cheerleaders, the sports reporter, the hot dog vendor, and_ other arena fixtures before it goes into the hoop. In Heads Up, you type words to destroy balls dropping from the ‘The graphics are old- shioned, and some of the drills are too slow and tedious to be engaging, but overall Slam Dunk is a winner. And who knows, for your kids, showing off their typing skills may be a cool party trick in the next century.—MICHAEL GOWAN ill levels desi fte Success Builder: Math Library FUN WITH NUMBERS Grown-ups may not believe it, but a lot of kids think math is fun, Success Builder: Math Library (866%; $39.95 company’s estimated price), from ‘The rning Company (617/494-5700, www.learning- co.com), includes six CDs (Math Review, Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, Trigonometry lus), giving you /ots of math. for people 14 and up, but e will have fun with the Math Review CD. has § to 12 different chapters, each with up to 7 dif- ferent topics. There's nothing too fancy, just a short description of each topic and then some prob- lems with links to examples. Some examples aren't explained very well, and the program doesn’t offer a pop-up calculator or a way to work out prob- lems without having to use a pencil and paper. Overall, though, using Success Builder: Math Library is a great way for kids as well as adults to learn or relearn math, study for tests, or just play around.—Rik AND CAREY MYSLEWSKI "Am equation of the form Leak arity eta teaes Success Builder: Math Library LanguageNow FLEXIBLE POLYGLOT TUTOR (9686; $49.95 list price), ge (603/465-2230, www language-learning s offer a long list of German, Italian, Lati , and Swedis program lets you learn at your own pace LanguageNow completely immerses you in your target language, letting you read stories, vocabulary, and conversation while a movie or slide show plays alongside scrolling text. If total immersion prov frustrating, same-page English translations and grammar lessons can help out. Once you've studied, you can test your comprehension with four gam including a crossword puzzle and a fill-in-the-blanks test. Alas, many lessons don’t offer sufficient visual information, some of the pictures don’t match up, continues The Lang from Transparent I .transparent.com), is a supe package. Not only does the s languages—Dutch, French, — 7 rs 10 en et Forsue det Retirs ‘ils ccmer con 58 Hee Pies ‘ADRIANA. Win the Pista Ge Cape! a SG Coe [3d gersen singilar erent Ionre LanguageNow www.macworld.com September 1998 37 as and a so-so interface hides some excellent content. But overall, LanguageNow offers a highly cus tomizable, effective way to learn new language ‘lls. NANCY PETERSON Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego? HISTORY GAME LACKS DETAILS ‘That intrepid thief Carmen Sandiego swaps her nor- mal focus, geography, for matters more temporal, in a new attempt to make history lessons fun. Where in ‘Time Is Carmen Sandiego? ($$%; $34.95 list price), from Broderbund Software (415/382-4400, www -broderbund.com), features Carmen and her band of thieves traveling through time, stealing pre- cious artifacts. You track them down, solving puzzles and interacting with famous figures from different time periods along the way. The game co a wide array of topi from ancient Egypt to modern Asia, the American colonies up to the space race. Jewels of information pop up along the way—did you know. that the first novel was written in Japan? ‘The Chronopedia summarizes each historical period and provides the best opportunity for true learning. But the game only skims the sur- face of most cultures, concentrat- ing on a few select ni ‘This approach may entice the younger members of the recommended audience {ages 9 and up), but it offers little stimulation for any- one who has more than a basic knowledge of world history,—MICHAEL GOWAN Ultimate College Money Guide SCHOLARSHIP-SEARCH TOOL FALLS SHORT ‘The Ultimate College Money Guide (§#%; $34.95 list price), from CollegeView (800/927-8439, www .collegeview.com), bills itself as an essential cool for people looking to finance their higher education. Unfortunately, poor implementation and a lack of insightful information limit its usefulness. The guide provides a database of more than 3,000 private, pub- lic, and school-specific scholarships. You can find ones for which you qualify by using search criteria ranging from state of residence to interests and hob- bies. Once a match has been found, the program offers a scholarship summary and lets you draft a pre- formatted letter to request more information. Sam- ple queries, however, had me questioning the effi- Seplember 1998 MACWORLD ‘detaed information on thousands cholanip opportunities Decovee the types a Stranded at alleges that tere you. ‘Learn al you noed to know about the Tinanetal td process, accuracy of the search engine; the pro- 5 specific advice about individual scholar- ships, such as tips on applying. Although scholarships nd discontinued regularly, the guide doesn’t include the ability to dynamically update the database to keep the information current. The non-Mac-standard interface can be confusing for even an experienced user, although help files can walk you through most of the features. Despite its lofty ambitions, this program is uscful only to students who are looking for a starting point in their search for finan ALAN CHAN are created Zap SCIENTIFIC ADVENTURES IN FUN Zap (969; $29.95 com, estimated price), from Edmark (425/556-8400, www.edmark.com), features three characters—Riff, Surge, and Blaze—who teach kids ages 8 to 12 about sound, light, and electricity. In Riff’s SoundWave Studio, you learn how sound works, hut you won't stay there long because Riff is a bit obnoxious. In the ElectroLoft, Surge helps you fix circuits and work with teries, wires, lightbulbs switches, and other electrical components. In the Laser Lab—the most fun module— Blaze shows you how to use mirrors, and filters to bounce laser light around. Each section o