Mini'app'les Newsletter — August 2000

AppleWorks SIG Washburn Library 5244 Lyndale Ave S, Mpls John Hunkins, Jr., 651-457-8949 Board of Directors mini'app'les members welcome. Byerty's 7171 France Ave. S., Edina = Lisa Huston Computerized Investing CANCELLED Denis Diekhott, 612-920-2437 Microsoft Word SIG 2850 Metro Drive Rm 124, Bloomington Tom Ostertag, D 612-951-5520 E al 651-488-9979 Macintosh Main MacWorld Report Southdale Library 7oth & York, Edina Gary Eckhardt, 952-944-5446 Club Picnic Minnehaha Falls Park Apple ll/ GS SIG New Brighton Family Ctr | 400 10th S1.N.W. New Brighton Tom Gates, 612-789-6981 Photoshop-Digital Imaging Washburn Library 5244 Lyndale Ave S. Mpls, Gary Eckhardt, 952-944-5446 Macintosh Consultants SIG Embers 7525 Wayzata Blvd St. Louls Park Bob Demeules, 612-559-1124. Quicken SIG 2850 Metro Drive, Rm 124 Bloomington Dale Strand, 612-835-5872 Fourth Dimension SIG 8200 Humbolt Ave South 2nd Fir. Conference Rm. Bloomington David Ringsmuth, 612-853-3024 Macintosh / Programming SIG Washbum Library 5244 Lyndale Avenue S, Mpls Andre Benassi, 763-502-0187 FileMaker Pro SIG Partners, Suite 5 1410 Energy Park Drive, St Paul Steve Wilmes, 651- 458-1513 Macintosh Novice SIG Merriam Park Library Marshall & Fairview, St Paul Richard Becker, 612-870-0659 Meet Your iMac / Mac SIG Merriam Park Library Marshall & Fairview, St Paul Brian Bantz, 612-956-9814 G miniapp! The Minnesota Apple Computer Users’ Group, Inc. P.O. Box 796, Hopkins, MN 55343 Board of Directors: President Vice President Secretary Treasurer Marketing Director Publications Director SIG Director Past President Membership Mac Software Apple Il Lisa Huston macgal84@aol.com Denis Diekhoff 612-920-2437 diek @mac.com Andre’ Benassi 763-502-0187 abenassi@mac.com Don Walz 651-426-5602 John Pruski 952-938-2818 jobhnpruski@aol.com Bert Persson 612-861-9578 bpersson @isd.net Bruce Thompson 612-546-1088 bthompson@macconnect.com Erik Knopp Bryan Lienke Owen Aaland Introduction — This is the Newsletter of mini“app‘les, the Minnesota Apple Computer Users’ Group, Inc., a Minnesota non-profit club. The whole newsletter is copyrighted © by mini‘app‘les. Articles may be repro- duced in other non-profit User Groups’ publications except where specifically copyrighted by the author. (Permission to reproduce these articles must be given by the author.) Please include the source when reprinting. Questions — Please direct questions to an appropriate board member. Users with technical questions should tefer to the Members Helping Members section. Dealers — mini’app’‘les does not endorse specifical- lyfic dealers. The club promotes distribution of information which may help members identify best buys and ser- vice. The club itself does not participate in bulk pur- chases of media, software, hardware and publications. Members may organize such activities on behalf of other members. Advertisers — For information, see Newsletter Ad Rates box within this issue. Newsletter Contributions — Please send contributions directly to our Post Office, Box 796, Hopkins, MN 55343 or upload them to our BBS at 952-595-9404. Deadline for material for the next newsletter is the 1st of the month. An article will be printed when space permits and, if in the opinion of the Newsletter Editor or Manager, it constitutes material suitable for publication. Editor/Publisher: Tom Ostertag 651-488-9979 Newsletter Layout: John Pruski 952-938-2818, Bert Persson 612-861-9578 mini‘app‘les BBS — 952-595-9404, (co-located on Twin City Interlink BBS), 24 brs, Settings: 8-1-0.Call in with FirstClass® Client software or any text-based terminal program. mini‘app les Voice Mail — 651-229-6952 mini‘app‘les WWW site: http://www.miniapples.org The mini‘app Tes Newsletter is an independent publication not affiliated, sponsored, or sanctioned by Apple Computer, Inc. or any other computer manufacturer. The opinions, statements, positions, and views herein are those of the author(s) or editor and are not intended to represent the opinions, statements, positions, or views of Apple Computer Inc., or any other computer manufacturer. Instead of placing a trademark symbol at every occurrence of a trade-marked name, we state that we are using the names only in an editorial manner, to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. mini’app’les Newsletter August, 2000 CHANGE OF | | ADDRESS Moving? Going to be away from home and leaving a for- | warding address with the Post Office? Please send us a Change of Address when you are informing others. By using | a moment of your time and a few cents to drop us a card, you save the club some money and you get your newsletter delivered promptly to your new address. If you don’t inform us, the Post Office puts your newsletter in the trash (they don’t forward third class mail) and charges the club for informing us of your new address. Change of Address should be sent to the club’s mailing address: mini‘app'les, Attn: Membership Director, Box 796, Hopkins, MN 55343. FOR RENT: BRILLIANT PRESENTATIONS Proxima On Cali Rental Program. For @ the Multimedia Projector You Need. ‘When You Need It. + Local carvice and For moro information reqardingt ‘Computer Projection Systems— LCD, Data oF Video Projectors Complets Conference and Tralning Rooms Printers + Labeling * Signage Systems: All AV Equipment—Sales * Service « Rentals PLEASE CALL ats, TIER! t < ROR cH a) ‘00 University Ave. $.E. Mioneapolis, MN 55414-9852 612-331-5500 « 1-800-993-7337 (Ask lor Extension 254) Table of Contents September. 2000 Previe Members Helping Members. Mini’app’les Annual Picnic in Minnehaha Park.. Apple Macs Still In Much Demand. Smallest 1GB PCMCIA drive coming to Macs Mac OS X may energize PDF....... MacPopUp 2.0 improves user list, mote... Sony challenges Apple iTools with ImageStation..... AntiVirus Software: The bottom line....... The History of Bungie Software. oD me NN DH HH bw Bungie CEO discusses Microsoft acquisition... Microsoft acquires game developer Bungie Software ....... Ode to the Clean Install Excite Joins Free Mac ISP Crowd Microsoft Office 2001 Preview........ IBM's RAM-Doubling A Mac Potential Gates retains Forbes richest man title... Macintosh unveils a powerful little cube New iMacs Offer New Colors, More Configurations... For Sale by Members ...... Photogenetics 2.0 ‘More Intuitive’ ....... Mini’app’les at the Uptown Art Fair... September 2000 Preview Here is the tentative calendar of our Special Interest Group (SIG) meetings for September 2000. Please pencil these events on your calendar. As always, when doubtful of a SIG date, time, or location, confirm with one of the following: * Our BBS, the Calendar Folder in the Conferences Folder * Our Voice Mail Telephone number: 651-229-6952 © The cognizant SIG Leader Saturday September 2 Board of Directors meeting Wednesday September 6 AppleWorks nee ClarisWorks SIG Monday September 11 Apple II / GS Main SIG Wednesday September 13 Microsoft Word SIG Thursday September 14 Macintosh Main SIG Monday September 18 Fourth Dimension SIG Wednesday September 20 PhotoShop / Digital Imaging SIG Thursday September 21 Macintosh Consultants Thursday September 21 Quicken SIG Monday September 25 Macintosh Novice SIG Monday September 25 Meet Your iMac / Mac SIG Wednesday September 27 Macintosh Programming SIG Thursday September 28 FileMaker Pro SIG3 mini’app’les Newsletter 3 August, 2000 Members Helping Members Need Help? Have a question the manual doesn’t answer? Members Helping Members is a group of volunteers who have generously agreed to help. They are just a phone (or an e-mail) away. Please call only during the appropri- late times, if you are a member, and own the software in question. Apple Il / IIGS Software & Hardware 1, 5, 8, 14 1. Les Anderson 651-735-3953 DEW ClarisDraw 2 2. Mike Carlson 218-387-2257 D AppleWorks / Clarisworks 7,8,9 3. Eric Jacobson 651-645-6264 D FileMaker Pro 4, Nick Ludwig 612-593-7410 DEW FirstClass 5. Tom Ostertag 651-488-9979 EW HyperCard 11 6. Ardie Predweshny 612-823-6713 DEW MacWrite Pro 7. Owen Strand 612-427-2868 D Microsoft Excel 2,5,6 8. Bruce Thompson 612-546-1088 EW Microsoft Word 5 9. Pam Lienke 651-457-6026 EW MYOB 6 10. Tom Lufkin 651-698-6523 EW PhotoShop 3,13 11. Ben Stallings 612-870-4584 DEW Quicken 2,6 12. Rodney O. Lain 651-452-5821 EW QuickBooks and QuickBooks Pro 6 13. Gary Eckhardt 952-944-5446 EW Mac OS 7 8 14 Michael Cumings-Steen 651-644-8653 DEW Mac OS 8 WordPerfect 4 D: Days, generally 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Cross-Platform File Transfer 5,14 E: Evenings, generally 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Networks 11 W: Weekends, generally 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. New Users 10,11 PowerBooks 11 Classic Macs 11 Power PC 601 Power Macs iMacs 12 Please call at reasonable hours, and ask if it is a convenient time for them. By the way, many of these volunteers ican also be contacted on our BBS. We appreciate your cooperation. If you would like to be a Members Helping Member volunteer, please send an e-mail message to John Pruski on four BBS, or call him at 952-938-2818, with your name, telephone number, contact hours, and the software or hard- ware areas you are willing to help others. Newsletter Ad Rates 1/12 page ....... 2.25" Width x 2.5" Height........ $5 Outside back cover . 7-1/2" Width x 7-1/2" Height .. $50 1/6 page.......... 2.5" Width x 5" Height........$10 Inside back cover .... 7-1/2" Width x 10" Height ... $60 1/3 page... . 2.5" Width x 10" Helght Vert or 5.5 H. . $20 All ads must be prepatd and submitted on 1/2 page...... 7.5" Width x 5" Height (save 5%)....$30 electronic media. Ads of $20 and under must run for 2/3 page...... 5" Width x 10" Height (save 7%).... $40 a minimum of three months. Mail inquiries to: PO Box 796, Hopkins, MN, 55343 Il page... 7-1/2" Wi * Hel 15%)... a , Hopkins, MN, lial /2" Width x 10° Height (save 15%).. $60 "be one inquiries to: John Pruski, 952-938-2818 mini’app’les Newsletter 4 August, 2000 Mini’app’les Annual Picnic in Minnehaha Park Submitted by Bert Persson This year the mini’app’les annual picnic will be held on the second Saturday (8/12) of August starting at 11:00 A.M. in Minnehaha Park. In order to make it easier for more people to attend this event we decided to hold our annual picnic on a Saturday. Not only will it be more conve- nient having the picnic on a Saturday, but we will also provide something to keep your tummy happy. Now what does that mean? You guessed it, hot dogs, corn on the cob, chips beans and a beverage, will be provid- ed by the club. Apple Macs Still In Much Demand ITWeb (Johannesburg) June 12, 2000 Johannesburg - The demand for Apple Macs in South Africa continues as the rationalised computer manu- facturer battles to supply its local channel. Despite the continued lack of stock, Apple Systems Centre (Pretoria), one of the largest Apple resellers in the greater Pretoria area, anticipates that it will have a 20% increase in sales for the year ended February 2001 in comparison to the previous year. Pat Botha, financial director of Apple Systems Centre (Pretoria), says that despite two short weeks in April, she anticipates “bullish monthly sales What should you bring to the picnic? >, Since the club will pro- our members are request- ed to i bring a dessert to share. Cs In previous years our tradition has been to bring a chocolate dessert, but whatever tasty items you think will be enjoyed by your fellow mem- bers will certainly be appreciated. By the time our picnic rolls around we hope the Minnesota mon- soon season will be over so we can enjoy a sunny and mosquito free pic- nic. I should also mention to our new members that this is an excellent opportunity to get to know other members of our club and everyone is encouraged to bring their family and | for this more subdued selling period”. “We have only now started filling new orders again, after catching up with our back orders in April. Although the stock shortage problem is not as acute as it was during the third and fourth quarters of last year, we are still experiencing difficulties,” she says. “We could sell more if stock was readily available.” Botha attributes the improvement in stock supplies to the fact that Siltek was recently appointed as an Apple | distributor. “Siltek’s appointment has | definitely improved stock flow.” | She says there are currently con- siderable demands for the newly launched Apple range, which includes the new PowerBook laptops, the DV H | vide food and drink, | | | | | friends. | range of i-Macs and the graphite i- The Picnic Pavilion in Minnehaha Park, is located on the northwest corner by Hiawatha Ave. and Minnehaha Pkw E. Parking is available by the Picnic Pavilion, but for the frugal street parking is only a block away. Since tables and grills by the Pavilion are only available on a first come first serve basis it is important that we come early to get our tables. Hope to see you all by the Picnic Pavilion at 11:00 A.M on Saturday, August 12, 2000. Book. “The Apple products offer signifi- cant price-performance benefits that are hard to match. This includes, for instance, the ability for users to plug their video cameras directly into the new Apples, allowing them to both view and edit their home or business movies on the machine.” Copyright (c) 2000 ITWeb. Distributed via Africa News Online (www.africanews.org). For information about the content or for permission to redistribute, publish or use for broadcast, contact the publisher. Smallest 1GB PCMCIA drive coming to Mac by Brad Gibson, bgibson@maccentral.com June 23, 2000, 8:00 am ET IBM Corp. will start shipping the world’s smallest hard disk drive in 512MB and 1GB sizes for use on desk- top and portable PCs, including Macintoshes, next month, the compa- ny has announced. The drive, known as the Microdrive, is five millimeters thick, | smaller than a matchbook and weighs | less than an ounce. The actual drive | | mechanism is one inch in diameter. —_ | i A direct competitor to small solid | state flash memory, the Microdrive is | | primarily for customers looking for _| | portability and higher capacity stor- age. When compared to Type 1 flash memory, the Microdrive can hold up to 1,000 high-resolution photographs, | a thousand 200-page novels or nearly 18 hours of high-quality digital audio music. “It’s immediate use would pri- marily be in the storage of digital photography and standard computer files,” John Osterhout, Worldwide Marketing Director for IBM’s Storage Technology Division, told MacCentral. “But as digital video, dig- ital music, electronic books, smart mini’app’les Newsletter 5 August, 2000 phones and electronic wallets become more prevalent, the Microdrive will find new found acceptance in these other arenas.” Although consumers find flash memory the primary storage device on digital cameras at present, Osterhout said more and more manu- facturers are building in compatibility for the Microdrive including Eastman Kodak, Fuji, Minolta, Nikon, Sanyo, Canon and many others. In existence for over a year, the Microdrive has evolved in a number of ways making it a more competitive alternative to flash memory. “We've been able to make some dramatic advancements in our Microdrive technology over the past year,” Osterhout said. “We've been able to make a 30 percent improve- ment in the speed and reduce the amount of power consumption by 15 percent.” The two new capacity Microdrives will have a sustained data tate of 4.2Mbps and a S50 percent improvement in shock rating from 1,000 G to 1,500 G when the drive is turned off or not in use. Introduced last year in a smaller 340Mb size, the new, larger capacity drives will retail for $399 for the 512MB drive and $499 for the 1GB drive. The 340MB drive will be priced at $299. The drives will come with a PCMCIA adapter for use in laptop PCs. IBM will begin shipping limited quantities of the new drive to original equipment manufacturers in July. Retail release is scheduled for September. Selected retailers will begin selling the drives directly to consumers and IBM will sell the 1GB Microdrive through its e-commerce Web site as well. As for the future, Osterhout thinks smaller will become bigger and better. “What we've seen in the recent past is a doubling of capacity in all of our hard drives about every 12 to 18 months,” Osterhout said. “I won't go Mac OS X may energize PDF by Dennis Sellers, dsellers@maccentral.com June 22, 2000, 7:00 am ET Mac OS X, Apple's in-the-works operating system, may “propel PDF (Portable Document Format) into new teaches of the market,” according toa ZDNet article. PDF is the open de facto standard for electronic document distribution worldwide. It's a universal file format that preserves all of the fonts, format- ting, colors, and graphics of any source document, regardless of the application and platform used to cre- ate it. . As we've reported many times, Apple has adopted PDF as the default file format for storing graphics in the next generation operating system. Even though it's not fully clear how Apple will implement PDF, ZDNet says this is a “bold and potentially very intelligent move for the market leader in publishing and graphic arts.” Apple does intend to provide basic PDF capabilities built on the published specifications of the PDF 1.2 file format and the company counts on third-party developers to extend this architecture to cover verti- cal market segments, says the article. Based on PDF, the 2D graphics system of Mac OS X — called Quartz — delivers on-the-fly rendering, anti- aliasing and compositing of PostScript graphics. Apple says that, thanks to Quartz, graphic elements that were sharp before will now be “dramatical- ly” sharper — even when you greatly increase their size. You can see the power of Quartz in X’s Aqua interface. Taking advan- tage of Quartz’s compositing engine, Aqua creates translucent controls and menus, and gives the system visual depth with drop shadows around the edges of windows. Plus, Apple has built in sup- out on a limb and predict we can triple capacity, but I think the tech- nology will allow us, if the market is there, to double capacity in two years.” Osterhout also feels the need for smaller and more portable high capacity drives will grow as smaller electronics devices demand more stor- age. “Users files, what ever they might be, will need to be stored locally because you're going to expect con- tinuous play,” Osterhout said. “Networks are still not necessarily reli- able for continuous play and I don’t think they will be for some time. As a result, local storage is still going to be very important. How big we can get capacity will play a big role in the suc- cess of these smaller hard drives.” the file format. “And this is without taking in account PDF/X, a graphic arts-specific, standardized version developed by the Committee for Graphic Arts Technical Standards (CGATS)," says ZDNet. “The main aim of PDF/X is to focus PDF on the needs of the print world, to ensure trouble-free output of PDF files.” port for PDF, which will let you embed and manipulate PDF data (and even Save to PDF) with any Mac OS X application. And Apple says that since this capability is available to all Mac OS X applica- tions, Mac developers have a whole new palette of creative tools. ZDNet also attempts to explain the differences between the various “flavors” of PDF. For instance, the latest version of Adobe's Acrobat uses PDF 1.3; the previous (and still widely used) version used the 1.2 definition of Macintosh™ Consulting Individual & Group Training Computer Problem Assistance Mike Carlson (218) 387-2257 (Grand Marais, MN) mhcnve @boreal.org FileMaker® Solutions Alliance Member minl’app’les Newsletter 6 August, 2000 MacPopUp 2.0 improves user list, more Staff Report, email@maccentral.com June 20, 2000, 12:00 pm ET MacPopUp, a program that lets Mac users exchange instant messages with other users on any local area net- work (LAN), has been updated by Kanex Group. With MacPopUp, you can send and receive messages from different operating systems such as the Mac OS, Windows 95/98/NT/2000, Windows for Workgroups, Linux and other UNIX OSes. The new MacPopUp 2.0 contains several new and enhanced features, including: Improved User List. “We have dramatically improved the function that automatically locates recipients available on the network,” says Paul Pen of Kanex. “Now you can see not only computers, which you can exchange messages with, but also MacPopUp determines the messenger type of the available users. In other words, if it is MacPopUp for Mac, MacPopUp for Windows or any other compatible client. The application also checks if a user is in an on-line or off-line mode.” Guaranteed Message Delivery. After sending a message, MacPopUp 2.0 checks if a recipient received the message. The MacPopUp application displays a warning if the message was not delivered or if no confirmation was received. If the warning isn’t dis- played, then the message was success- fully delivered. Additionally, the MacPopUp application can automati- cally resend messages if a recipient is currently off-line. Auto-Save Received Messages. Now even if a failure occurs or if your computer power is down, all messages you have received are saved. “Also, we have fixed some insignificant bugs and improved com- patibility with the Windows version of the MacPopUp application,” says Pen. Mac requirements are any Mac with 1 MB of free RAM, Mac OS ver- sion 7 or later (full Mac OS 9 compati- bility), OpenTransport, and a local area network with TCP/IP service. MacPopUp 2.0 for Mac and Windows is available from http://www.macpop- up.com. A single user license has a sug- gested retail price of US$2S. There are discounts for multi-user licenses, site license orders, and educational insti- tutions inquiries. All current users of MacPopUp can upgrade to version 2.0 for free. Sony challenges Apple iTools with ImageStation by Brad Gibson, bgibson@maccentral.com June 28, 2000, 12:30 pm ET Submitted by Bryan Lienke Sony Corp. on Tuesday launched an online video-sharing Web site as a direct challenge to services such as Apple's iTools with free membership, unlimited storage of digital photos and free storage of up to 15 minutes of video. Sony's ImageStation Web site allows users to store digital pictures and create online albums, share pic- tures with others, store digital video clips, order prints and send cus- tomized photo gifts, e-mail picture or video greeting cards, participate in online workshops and view public photo albums of other members. Sony’‘s launch of its online service is another example of large computer and electronics companies realizing they need to offer a total solution to customers other than just selling them a physical product. In addition, services like ImageStation will provide a way for the computers, handheld devices and cameras to come together and share content. Consumer elec- tronics companies, such as Sony, are hoping they can woo customers to sites such as ImageStation as a direct extension of its video devices. “Sony is hoping that if consumers buy a Sony video product, they will think of them first when they go on the Web,” David Moore, an indepen- dent consumer electronics market analyst based in Miami, told MacCentral. There are a few smaller sites already on the Web that offer some photo-sharing services. Apple's iTools offer some of the same features of ImageStation, primarily in the form of iDisk, Apple's personal Internet server and iCards, its free e-mail postcard service. “ImageStation is a direct chal- lenge to Apple's iTools. There is no doubt about that,” Moore said. “As you look at ImageStation, you get the impression it’s better organized and has a different direction of how multi- media should come together and be presented. Apple's approach was more as offering independent tools and not as a ‘video store’.” But as Apple focuses more and more on Macs as a consumer video solution, Moore thinks the company could easily take the ImageStation approach and launch a more “video- savvy” Web site. “There is little doubt in my mind Apple will look at this site carefully and think seriously about offering a whole new iTools solution that is video-focused,” Moore said. “It would be very easy for them to simply re- package iTools with a different focus and some features that video users need.” Sony has teamed up with a num- ber of companies to make the ImageStation Web site work. Zing Network Inc., will provide photo-shar- ing expertise, photo-sharing site Ofoto Inc. will offer photo-processing services and Vingage Corp., will pro- vide the servers to manage the video. The ImageStation partners will share revenue from the site, which will come from advertisers and cus- tomers who order photo and digital video prints. ImageStation’s partners are work- ing on better ways to make the digital photo-sharing process easier by mak- ing the transfer process between the Web and Sony digital cameras more streamlined. In addition, Sony is presently working on technology that will make digital cameras able to wire- lessly beam photos directly to the ImageStation Web site. mini’app’les Newsletter 7 August, 2000 AntiVirus Software: The bottom line Posted by MacFixit, June 19, 2000 Submitted by Bryan Lienke To no one's surprise, the two clas- sic antivirus utilities for the Mac, Virex and Norton AntiVirus (NAV), were the overwhelming favorites in our Reader's Recommend AntiVirus Software QuickTopic. Among the over seventy responses posted, all but a handful centered on these two vener- able programs, with Virex edging ahead of Norton slightly. Agax (free- ware) and Sophos Anti-Virus trailed behind, picking up only a handful of comments, Virex was the favorite of many users primarily due to its clean inter- face. Most users who chose it praised the program’s unobtrusiveness, espe- cially when compared to Norton. Chapman wrote: “I've used Norton, Virex, Sophos, Disinfectant, Agax and a couple of other freeware de-wormers and the like somewhat interchange- ably for years...in general, I find Virex to be less obtrusive,” A tidal wave of comments said much the same thing. Pete Curtner summed it up best: “I have Virex deployed on over 40 Macs, from. 6100s to G4s. [Version] 6.1 still has some issues with Quark XPress 4.1, especially regarding fonts, but other- wise it remains the best anti-virus software on the Mac. As others have posted, it is low-profile, stable, and fast.” Virex is not perfect, however. A number of users have had trouble downloading virus definition updates from the Network Associates cumber- some Web site, preferring instead to grab them from Version Tracker. One user, who still recommended the pro- gram, pointed out that it has a ten- dency to be slow to cancel a scan, and will sometimes begin scanning files before they are completely down- loaded, causing an erroneous “dam- aged file” alert. Norton AntiVirus users were slightly less in number, but equally enthusiastic in their praise. One user wrote, “I have never had a problem with it. Version 6.01 seems rock-solid with OS 9.0.4." Users were split over The History of Bungie Software by Peter Cohen, pcohen@macgaming.com June 19, 2000, 10:45 am ET Submitted by Bryan Lienke For many Mac gamers out there, Bungie Software has stood as a figure- head in the Mac game business. The company has been making Mac games for most of the last decade, and their titles are often held up as some of the all-time classics for the plat- form. To get a better understanding of what Bungie is and why the compa- ny’s acquisition by Microsoft (see sep- arate story) has evoked such a strong emotional reaction from many Mac gamers, we've assembled a brief histo- ty of the company for your review. Bungie president Alexander Seropian first created his company back in the spring of 1991, working out of his apartment. Bungie's first product was a tank combat game called Operation Desert Storm. Although the tank game has been rel- egated to obscurity by the mists of time, Bungie's next effort would form a partnership that has continued to this day. Bungie’s second game was Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete. An action-adventure game featuring colorful graphics and multiplayer capabilities, Minotaur was the first game developed by Jason Jones —a programmer who would ultimately have a huge effect on Bungie's future. Jones would later create the Marathon and Myth series, as well as Bungie's forthcoming third person 3D action game, Halo, A little more than a year later, Bungie Software released another game that would prove to become a legend — Pathways Into Darkness, a first-person 3D action game. Building on the popularity of the then-novel first-person-shooter genre, Pathways Into Darkness was one of the first games for the Macintosh to feature innovations like panning stereo sound and texture-mapped graphics. In Pathways, you assumed the role of an adventurer who had to descend into the bowels of an ancient pyramid to save the planet from hordes of invading alien forces. Pathways Into Darkness laid the groundwork for Bungie's next work, which would ulti- mately become a legend in the annals of Mac gaming. how much they liked the LiveUpdate feature, which enables the program to retrieve new virus definitions auto- matically via the Net. Comments were also mixed about NAV's speed. Some users thought it was speedy, while others did not. NAV has never been a speed demon, especially the previous version, which may account for some of the negative comments. It does seem clear, howev- er, that most users perceive NAV to be a bulkier, less streamlined application compared to Virex. Sophos Anti-Virus was praised for its ability to automatically load a new set of virus definitions from a local network server. Another user com- mented that Sophos “does a good job of catching all the macro viruses that spread from our PCs.” A couple of users recommended Agax, although one cautioned that it does not catch some of the older virus variants, especially those that target 68K Macs. While preparing this article we noted that Agax’s Web site had not been updated in over 6 months. Ayear and a half after Pathway Into Darkness’s release, during the holiday season of 1994, Bungie Software would release one of the games it’s best known for: Marathon — an innovative first person shooter that featured a detailed storyline, high-resolution graphics and network multiplayer capabilities. It's hard to imagine now with the plethora of realistic 3D action games on the mar- ket, but at the time of Marathon’s release, the game featured the ability to move in 3 dimensions, which made it really innovative — many 3D games were still trapped in a 2D envi- ronment, with the ability to move for- wards and backwards, but rarely up or down. Marathon introduced an engine that provided a real 3D physics model. Marathon would spur a whole industry of enterprising pro- grammers to develop their own mods and improvements, too. Bungie would spent the next two years capitalizing on the Marathon phenomenon. Throughout 1995 and 1996, the company released sequels to the original Marathon — Marathon 2: Durandal followed first. The game mini’app’les Newsletter 8 August, 2000 built on the success of the first Marathon by continuing the game's intricate story line. It was also the first game in Bungie's arsenal to be ported to Windows. The following year Bungie Software produced Marathon: Infinity, which, for the first time, made Bungie's own editing tools available for public use. 1996 was also the year that Bungie tried — unfortunately, with only marginal success — to act as a publisher for other developers’ prod- ucts. Bungie published a side-scrolling action game called Abuse; the game was originally created by now-defunct game developer Crack Dot Com. Bungie also took one of Bugdom maker Pangea Software's products under its wing, publishing the QuickDraw 3D-based fighting game Weekend Warrior. 1997 was the year that Bungie set up a satellite office in San Jose, California called Bungie West. Since then, that team has been working on a game that many Mac and PC gamers have been awaiting with anticipation: Oni. Oni is a third-person action game that focuses on close-range combat. Stylistically inspired by Japanese animé, Oni features a purple- haired female protagonist named Konoko. The game has gone through some conceptual changes since its first inception — there will be no multiplayer version in the final telease, for example — but it’s still on many gamers’ wish lists. During the 1997 holiday season, Bungie brought the world Myth: The Fallen Lords. As with Marathon, Myth: The Fallen Lords breathed new life into an existing genre of games — in this case, the realtime strategy (RTS) game. While many RTS titles focused on resource management, unit creation and some of the other mundane aspects of strategy gaming, Myth focused purely on troop con- trol. Myth incorporated Bungie's now- trademark in-depth story line and high quality production values to cre- ate an experience that would be laud- ed by reviewers and gamers alike. Bungie followed up their enor- Mous success with Myth: The Fallen Lords by producing its sequel the fol- lowing year, Myth II: Soulblighter. Sporting a reworked engine and a plethora of improvements, Myth II would prove to be an enormous suc- cess as well. With multiplayer capabil- ities in both games through Bungie's own free proprietary online service, Bungie.net, both games became favorites of online gamers. Like the Marathon series before it, Myth and Myth II would spawn an entire industry of enterprising mod developers. Using available editing tools, hordes of hobbyists, enthusi- asts, and serious developers would create their own map files for the Myth games — many would also cre- ate total conversion packages that included new units, maps and sound effects. Myth conversion packs con- tinue to be a popular diversion today, with many new packs coming into creation week in and week out. Bungie Software's most recent product announcement happened barely more than a year ago. First shown to print media journalists behind closed doors at E3 Expo in Los Angeles in May of 1999 and later debuted to the world by creator Jason Jones at the Macworld Expo New York keynote address that July, Bungie Software's magnum opus is Halo, a groundbreaking 3D action game. Bungie's demonstrations of the Halo engine technology show that the game features a stunning 3D physics engine and 3D graphics rendering; it also appears to have the same in- depth story line that Bungie's previ- ‘ous releases are known for. The game's release date has not yet been scheduled, but it is confirmed for Mac and PC, and Bungie's comments fol- lowing their Microsoft acquisition suggest that they will also produce a version to run on Microsoft's forth- coming game console, Xbox. What's made Bungie so popular with Mac gamers is that the company has remained loyal to the Mac. For almost half of its existence, the com- pany has been a Mac-only developer. Even following Bungie‘s successful foray into the world of PC game pub- lishing, Bungie has consistently offered its software simultaneously for Mac OS and Windows. Oni, which becomes a Take Two Interactive Software property following the Microsoft acquisition but will contin- ue to be developed by Bungie until it's done, is also planned as a simultane- ous release for Mac and Windows, with PlayStation 2 to follow. Mac gamers are fervently hoping that Bungie's acquisition by Microsoft won't mean the death of Macintosh game development at the company, and if Jason Jones’ early comments are any indication, Bungie will be left to make its own decision about Mac support for future titles. Regardless, Bungie Software has already left an indelible mark on the game industry for Mac and PC users alike. Bungie CEO discusses Microsoft acquisition by Peter Cohen, pcohen@macgaming.com June 20, 2000, 6:00 am ET Submitted by Bryan Lienke Game developer Bungie Software founder and CEO Alexander Seropian spoke with MacGaming.com at length on Monday afternoon regarding his company’s acquisition at the hands of Microsoft (see separate story). Seropian explained from his perspec- tive what the acquisition means not only for the future of Bungie but the future of Bungie's products, its corpo- tate culture and its employees. Seropian also commented on the Most pressing question many Mac gamers have — the future of the com- pany’s flagship title, Halo. “It's very flattering that there are a lot of people that really care about us,” said Seropian, referring to the copious and often heated commen- tary this morning’s announcement provoked. “I don’t think anyone expects that the games we make will become bad. If anything, with access to the resources we'll have, our games will get better.” Bungie's founder also hopes the people who have been fans of his company’s products in the past will continue to have an open mind about what Bungie has planned for the future. “If they have any respect for us, they owe it to themselves to think that we know what we're doing,” said Seropian. “The most important thing to understand is that Bungie is still the same people. We're still going to have a weird sense of humor and all that stuff we're known for. The differ- ence is that we don’t have to worry about paying the rent and we have access to a huge infrastructure that we didn't have before.” Seropian indicates that Bungie is moving part and parcel to Microsoft's mini’app’les Newsletter 9 August, 2000 corporate campus in Redmond, Washington. A facility is being built for Bungie presently, and Seropian says that the Bungie team should be taking up residence in their new home in mid July. There are a few casualties, however — for personal or professional reasons, several members of Bungie's staff elected not to come along, including one high-profile Bungie employee whose name many long-time readers may recognize — Peter Tamte, executive vice president of publishing. Tamte is the former Apple exec who also founded Mac game publisher MacSoft. He joined Bungie last year. MacGaming.com spoke briefly to Tamte on Monday afternoon — Tamte said he's very enthusiastic about Bungie's future with Microsoft, and indicated that he was offered excellent opportunities within the new corporate structure. Tamte said that he and his family ultimately decided to stay in the Midwest, where he hails from originally. He also said that he’s looking forward to whatever he does next, though he says that he’s not exactly sure what that is yet (game publishers, get in touch with him quick, before someone snatches him up). Tamte suggested that he hopes to stay in the realm of digital entertainment, however. When asked about how Bungie's move to Redmond will affect its cor- porate culture, Seropian says that it’s business as usual. “I think the impor- tant thing to our fans and to us is that the Bungie way continues. What we're all about is the games, and around that, encapsulating it, there's the company’s personality. I don’t see that changing as we go forward.” Seropian downplays rumors that Bungie cut its deal with Microsoft because the company was running out of funding. “There's been a lot of speculation about money and about our financial condition — that we were running out of cash. That's what we did our Take-Two deal for,” said Seropian, referring to Take-Two Interactive Software's 19.9 percent ownership in Bungie. Take-Two turned over its ownership stake in Bungie to Microsoft as part of the deal. In return, Take-Two gains Bungie's Myth game series, Oni and distribution rights to two as-yet-unan- nounced titles based on the same technology as Halo. “We were already funded through Halo’s completion,” Seropian added. “This was the realization that the market is changing, and we had to make some difficult decisions farther down the road. It’s better to make those decisions now.” Seropian cites the ability to get into Xbox development early as prime motivation to make this deal with Microsoft now rather than later. As part of Microsoft, Bungie's program- mers can be a formative influence on how the game console is crafted, and Bungie Software believes Xbox will dominate the next generation of video game consoles. “That's the rea- son we're moving out to Redmond. It's so Jason Jones, Halo’s project lead] can work with the team that's developing the Xbox.” Will the change in ownership of Oni affect Bungie's involvement in the project at all? No way, says Seropian, “Oni is still a Bungie prod- uct,” he said. The third-person combat game is now in the hands of Take-Two Interactive, and is still on track fora fall release. Oni will be published for the PC and Mac this October by Take- Two subsidiary Gathering of Developers, with the PlayStation 2 version to follow shortly thereafter under the Rockstar Games brand. Seropian said that the Bungie West team — the development studio in San Jose, California that is working on Oni — will complete the title in their current surroundings. Once Oni is done, Bungie West will pack their bags and join the rest of the team in their new digs in Redmond, Washington. Pressed repeatedly for details about Halo's future on the Mac, Seropian stayed silent, reiterating comments he made in a letter to fans posted on Bungie's Web site. Is there any reassurance he can offer Mac gamers who have been pining for the game since they first saw it a year ago, when Jason Jones demonstrated Halo on a Mac during the Macworld Expo keynote address? “The team that’s making Halo is still comprised of the same people that have been working on it all along,” said Seropian. “None of that has changed. It’s still our choice about what platforms Halo will support, and we simply haven't yet made a final decision on that.” Seropian understands that his non-answer may be unsettling to Mac gamers who are clamoring for a con- crete assurance about Halo’s future on the Mac, but says that the current information will have to do, at least for now. Seropian insists that Microsoft isn’t exercising any undue influence on Bungie’s business prac- tices or technical decisions. Microsoft is very conscious of who Bungie is and what makes them unique, says Seropian, and is intent on making sure that Bungie keeps that identity. “I'm not a programmer anymore — I'm a businessman. Why the hell would Microsoft want me?” he asked. “That's why I’m going to Redmond. I'm going to protect what Bungie has, and to build a group there that has the same spirit as it has here.” Microsoft acquires game developer Bungie Software by Peter Cohen, pcohen@macgaming.com June 19, 2000, 8:00 am ET Submitted by Bryan Lienke Today Microsoft Corp confirmed tumors that had been in circulation for weeks — the company has acquired veteran game developer Bungie Software, makers of the Myth and Marathon series, as well as the forthcoming games Oni and Halo. As part of the acquisition, Microsoft will gain exclusive publishing and distrib- ution rights to Halo, a third-person 3D action game presently in develop- ment at Bungie. Take Two Interactive Software, a computer and video game console game publishing company which had 19.9 percent ownership in Bungie Software, announced that it has sold its interest in Bungie to Microsoft, in teturn for the acquisition of select Bungie properties including the Myth series and Oni, as well. Oni is a forth- coming game in development for Mac, PC and PlayStation 2. Take Two gets not only the titles that are cur- tently in distribution but access to all the underlying technologies, as well. Take Two also gains the rights to cre- ate two new games based on the Halo engine, as well. mini’app’les Newsletter 10 August, 2000 According to Microsoft's press release, Bungie's development staff will remain “an independent develop- ment studio within the Microsoft Game Division.” Microsoft also indi- cates — as expected — that Bungie will focus its efforts on the creation of games for Microsoft's forthcoming video game console, the Xbox. Bungie will move its headquarters from Chicago, Illinois to Redmond, Washington, home of Microsoft. The offices of Bungie West, where Oni is being developed, will stay in place in San Jose, California until Oni ships. Bungie's free proprietary multiplayer service for its games, Bungie.net, will remain online and active as well. Bungie CEO Alexander Seropian suggests that this is a good marriage for both parties. “This is an opportu- nity to combine the strength of two outstanding software companies: Bungie's talent for creating great games and Microsoft's strength in dis- tribution. Microsoft will provide us with the resources and infrastructure we need to continue to build great games and make them available on a worldwide scale. We are also looking forward to helping define the Xbox platform, which may soon be the world’s premier game console.” In an interview with game site Daily Radar, Bungie officers Jason Jones, Alexander Seropian and Peter Ode to the Clean Install Submitted by Dave Huntin Peck Gather around children. Ifll tell you a tale. Hold on tight, but donit shake with fright. For if using a Mac, youfll avoid a Windows plight. :-) Your Mac is crashing on a regular basis. Something is wrong, but youfve not been able to isolate the problem. Moving down a long list, youfve tried a variety of troubleshooting tech- niques. From rebuilding the desktop, zapping the PRAM, checking for extension conflicts, replacing suspect preference files, reinstalling programs, and replacing the finder. (If youfre too new to have tried all of this, later in the article I describe some of these techniques.) No luck. The problem is still there. Now itfs cursing time? Hold on big fella or pretty gall Itfs a matter of perspective. Instead of curs- ing, how about thanking your luck stars? It could be worse. A lot worse. For instead of working on a Mac, you could be faced with the almost insur- mountable problem of system corrup- tion on a Windows computer. Not shaking yet? Imagine reinstalling every program on your computer. I sense a tremor! Yes, lfm a Mac aficionado. But my preference for the Mac is based on experience. Not tons of Windows experience, about a yearfs worth. lim not here to bash Windows but to make some realistic comparisons. Yes, Windows is the number one operat- ing system out there. But I refrain from calling it the most popular cause I canft find anyone who will say something good about it. Really! So far, anytime Ifve talked to a PC tech- nician and make a comparison favor- able to the Mac; no one has ever countered with an I-love-Windows statement. Usually I hear a Windows negative comment. One good thing about Windows, its tech support feeds a lot of families! As live become more familiar with the Windows Operating System (Windows 95/98), Iive become more enamored with my Macintosh. I trust my Mac, have confidence in it, and Teserve my most important computer tasks for it. I canft guarantee what would happen to you, but within a couple of months of using a Windows box, I found myself reformatting my hard drive and reinstalling Windows from scratch with the help of a tech- nician. I was not doing anything exotic when the problem arose. The iGo Backi utility that was supposed to take the hard drive back to an earlier time failed to solve the problem. Many calls were made to my computer makerfs technical support. The first technician I spoke with about this problem had me turn off the start-up items and check a Windows utility called Watson. When that did not work, I was shocked when he was ready to reinstall Windows98 and reformat my hard drive to boot. WOH! I was not ready for this. So I decided to call another time and let someone else help me. A friend of mine, who has worked in Windows PC repair for a couple of years has summed this technicianfs attitude up nicely. iHow the hell can you trou- bleshoot thousands of files scattered Tamte are careful to downplay sugges- tions that Bungie's acquisition will result in the company’s departure from the Mac game market — a mar- ket which has been the company's mainstay since its founding in 1991. Jones says that Bungie's decision to support specific platforms remains in its own control. Microsoft's acquisition of Bungie is part of the company’s recent efforts to gain control of leading game devel- opers. In 1999 Microsoft acquired FASA Interactive Technologies and Access Software, makers of MechWarrior 4 and Links LS 2001 respectively. around the hard drive? From a techni- cian standpoint itis easier and faster to start from scratchit With every call to Tech support, some System adjustments seemed to fix the problem, but the problem always came back on subsequent starts. After about five calls to tech support and no relief in sight, I was ready to reformat and reinstall. Luckily I donft do all that much with my PC so reinstalling programs is not that big of a deal. As a Mac person, you may be asking yourself why a reformat of the hard drive? A reformat wipes the hard drive clean and all data is lost. Please keep reading. The reformat of my hard drive and reinstall of Windows was a real eye opener. Installing Windows itself was not a big deal, but what the tech- nician had me do in DOS before the install was well beyond my expertise. With all the cryptic DOS commands, it was my impression that itis above the technical level of your average Windows user. Maybe you havenit heard, but DOS is alive and well sneaking about in the WindowsOS. It takes a special occasion to see DOS in all its glory. The technician sounded stressed as he directed me. I hada Windows 98 book and the Microsoft booklet that accompanies the Windows CD-ROM and there was absolutely no way that I could have accomplished this without the tech directing mel He started by debugging my hard drive? I didn't have a clue. I tried taking notes but it was a lost cause. But in the end, I had anew Windows System and had to reinstall all of my programs. Thatfs my a mini’app’les Newsletter 11 August, 2000 Windows story. In contrast, Ifve reformatted sev- eral Mac drives over the years. Itis an easy, almost no-brainer operation. For some perspective from a Windows expert, live got a thick Windows 98 book called iDan Gookin Teaches Windows 983, published by Que. On page 613 he says never to upgrade your operating system! Now that says something about Windows! In fact Mr. Gookin says, iUpgrading an operating system means that youfre putting all your software at risk. After all if the stuff works now, why fix it? Windows 98 is ok, but if youfre happy with Windows 95, donit upgrade! When Windows 2000 comes along, donft bother with it eltherli Notice the exclamation points in the quoted text! As a Mac user who has upgraded his way through seven versions of the MacOS, without a major mishap, I feel good about my preferred platform. Now that youfve heard about Windows at itis worst, letfs talk Macintosh. System corruption on the Mac can be a pain in the butt to novices, but itis not a catastrophe. Ifd like to stress that Ifve never had a bad experience conducting a Clean Install. For a novice, the Clean Install on the Mac may seem like a big deal. This is where you completely replace the old System folder with a new one. But once you know about the significant parts of the MacOS, itfs not compli- cated and probably will take 1-2 hours of your time. Most importantly itis doable. Your hard drive does not have to be formatted. You wontt loose any data and should retain full functional- ity of your programs. On Windows, if your not backed up, itfs a start from scratch effort. And with Windows, when restoring from a backup, your Not getting a brand new System, but a saved copy of the System which may have itis own problems. One other thing, through the Macfs Extension Manager or better yet Conflict Catcher, you have a lot of control and troubleshooting capabilities at your finger tips that a Windows user can only dream of. Please let me repeat. If not backed up, Windows System corruption means reinstalling everything on your computer. Ifve been told by Windows technicians that installing the Windows OS over an old version is not recommended. (Thatfs also true when upgrading your Mac to a new OS number.) Anything else and your taking a chance. But again, on the Mac, your not loosing the functionali- ty of all your programs or facing data lose. Why such a difference between Mac and Windows? Ifm no computer wiz, but one basic major difference that stands out is how the two platforms keep track of their system and software compo- nents. You may have heard of the Registry. Window uses this text file to keep track of its components and pro- grams. The Registry acts like a huge Preference file. If the Registry dies, Windows dies. If you have a serious backup, the situation can be salvaged. I mean a disk image of your entire hard drive must be stored somewhere, or youfll most likely be starting from scratch. Thatfs the preferred method, not just a copy of your System, but the entire hard drive. Windows is picky. With thousands of file scat- tered all over the hard drive it all fits together like a giant puzzle. And when something falls out of place, the Windows user is in trouble. Windows deals with the problem of corruption in the Registry by automatically mak- ing a copy of Registry every time you start up, keeping S copies. But not all problems are Registry based. I donft think mine was. Because of this struc- ture, when Windows is reinstalled, youfve also created a brand new, but dumb registry that has no clue where programs are located. Since the pro- grams no longer work, they all have to be reinstalled. Why not start with a clean slate and reformat your drive too? Thatfs the Windows way. In stark contrast to Windows, the genius of the MacOS is revealed by itfs Finder and Desktop Files. They keep track of everything. And most impor- tantly, they are updated on the fly and can be rebuilt (updated) at any- time, without complications! The MacOS is friendly, flexible, and forgiv- ing. The clean install on the Mac can be accomplished in about an hour while retaining full functionality of all your precious programs. And you should never have to reformat your hard drive for a MacOS problem. If youfre not familiar, take a look in the System folder that sits on your hard drive. Therefs a lot of stuff in there and most of it is clearly marked. Yes, the MacOS is everything in the System Folder but you should think of its primary components as the follow- ing folders: Extensions Folder, Control Panel folder, Preference fold- er, Fonts folder, the Finder, and another folder called the System. These components are used by the MacOS and in many cases enable functionality to your installed pro- grams. When a program is installed to the hard drive, depending on the type of program, components may be placed into the System folder. Usually itis an extension, a control panel, or a preference file. The preference file holds customized settings for your Mac programs. Unlike the Windowis Registry, preference files on the Mac are easy to work with. You can throw one away and itis no problem. The next time you start that program, a new Preference file will be created automatically. Personal settings and possibly the serial number will have to be entered. Removing a program on the Mac is usually as simple as trashing the program folder, an asso- ciated extension, control panel, and preference file. Thatfs it. I mentioned trouble shooting a while back. When your MacOS craps out on you, the iclean installi is the last resort to correct the problem. The MacOS has several simple trou- bleshooting errands that can be tried to isolate a problem. Check for an extension conflict by starting your Mac holding down the shift key. Your Mac will start up with all itfs extensions turned off. If the problem goes away, itis an exten- sion thatfs causing the problem. If you need to have one or two exten- sions active to produce the problem (such as needing the CD-ROM drive to function) use Extension Manager or Conflict Catcher to make up a trou- bleshooting extension set. If you can get your Mac running with a mini- mum extension set, then the problem is most likely extension related. If you have Conflict Catcher your life just got much easier because it will run an extension conflict test for you. If youfre using Extension Manager, you must manually conduct a conflict test. To zero-in on an offending extension, itfs a fairly sim- ple, but time consuming process. Disable half of the extensions, restart and see if the problem has gone away. If not, swap out the other half of the extensions. Once the group of offend- mini’app’les Newsletter 12 August, 2000 ing extensions has been located, make note of them. In this group, the offender resides. With the offending group active, the problem should be active. Disable half of the active extensions, restart and see if the prob- lem goes away. If not try Disabling the other half. Each configuration change requires a restart. The idea is to cut the offending group in half each time, restart and check if the problem is there or not. Eventually youtll be down to the offending extension. Disable it! If you really need this extension, youill have to check for updates and possibly talk to Apple (1-800-500-7078) or the parent company if itis application related. Another advantage of Conflict Catcher is that it will check for multi- ple conflicts. If the problem is not an extension conflict, a couple of more suggestions. Sometimes, corruption will occur in the preference file for a program. Itis very easy to toss a preference file into the trash and restart the program and see if the problem has gone away. Donit worry, the program will create a new preference file when it starts, but youill have to reenter custom setting and maybe a serial number. And if you donft empty the trash, you can always put the original preference file back into the preference folder. Other possibilities are to toss the finder pref- erence (located in the preference fold- er) and restart, zap the PRAM (hold down Shift/Option/P/R keys on start), and rebuild the desktop (hold down Option/Open Apple keys on start). Again make your life easier by down- loading the free utility Tech Tool v1.2.1 by Micromat. It makes zapping PRAM and rebuilding the desktop eas- ier. Find it at http://www.micromat.com/down- loads/index_downloads.html. A great troubleshooting resource is the book Sad Mac, Bombs, and Other Disaster by Ted Landau, pub- lished by Peachpit Press. The Macintosh Bible by Peachpit Press also has a lot of good info! When all else fails, the Clean Install is the last choice. Fortunately itis not hard to do. But I base this statement on premise that the user has some basic Mac familiarity. If you donft know the basics, find a good Mac book or a good Mac friend. As the iMac becomes very popular, lim seeing lots of Mac and iMac books at the store. The Apple Ile was my first computer. A Mac Performa was my second. The Mac is simple enough that you can get a good book and fig- ure it out. I never felt the need to take a class. Thatis why I chuckle when family members tell me they need to go to school to learn Windows. Fortunately these days, more family members are using iMacs. When installing the MacOS there are two ways to go. You can install the MacOS on top of the old version or do a iClean Installi. Based on my experience, I wonft say you canit install the MacOS on top of an old version, but if your having serious sys- tem problems or upgrading to a new MacOS version number like going from 8.x to 9.x, | recommend going the Clean Install route. The Clean Install on the Macintosh sets aside the original System folder (renaming it Previous System Folder) and replaces it with a new clean System folder. To perform a Clean Install, first boot from the MacOS CD by placing the MacOS CD in the CD-ROM drive and hold down the iCi button while starting. You know youfve got the CD when it starts running a lot and Mac icons appear all over your desktop. One hitch is that you may not have enough space on your hard drive for both copies of the Systems folders. If space is limited on the hard drive in question and you have multiple dri- ves, the old System folder can be copied to a different drive to preserve the data. If necessary for space, trash the old System folder on the install hard drive (after you backed it up). Simply launch the MacOS installer. Somewhere early in the process, an Option button or a choice will appear for the Clean Install. Older MacOS installers may not offer the iClean Installi choice. Look under any iop- tionsi or icustomize optionsi choices that are presented. Please note that if youfve trashed the old System folder, a clean install will automatically be performed. If youfve got the old System folder sitting on the hard drive, it will install over the old System unless you select iClean Installi. Another option would be to boot off the MacOS CD. Then go to the System folder on the hard drive and rename it iPrevious System. Folderi. Then launch the MacOS installer. Youfll get your clean install and the old System folder contents will not be touched. After the new System is installed, testart the Mac. You can look into the new System folder and see what the Mac runs on without any of the 3rd. party stuff that will soon clutter up the landscape. To restore the functionality of any program that relies on an exten- sion or control panel, go to the Previous System Folder. Look through the following folders: exten- sion folder, control panel folder, and preference folder for its related items. If using Extension Manager or Conflict Catcher, don{t forget about the extensions (disabled) and control panel (disabled) folders. To make things simpler, I usually combine the contents of the extensions folder and the extensions (disabled) folder. Same with the control panel and control panel (disabled) folders. Preference files are important cause in most cases you wonit have to reenter serial numbers. Also look on the top level of the Previous System folder for any associated files or fold- ers. For example if youfre a ClarisWorks (AppleWorks) user, there is a prominent Claris folder sitting in the System folder. These items can be selected and dumped into their respective folders in the new System. I suggest that you gather up all the files you want to put into the new System folder, highlight them, and use the Label function to color them. After the files are highlighted, go to the iFilei pull down menu, select iLabeli, and select a color. This makes them standout so if later, you want to change your mind and go back toa virgin System folder they will be easy to ID and remove. Thatfs about it. Thatis enough! If you have trouble with any particular program, not the problem that caused you to do a clean install, but getting the program to run properly because itfs missing an extension or control panel, you can always reinstall that particular program. But my experi- ence is that this is the exception and not the rule. Good luck and happy Clean Installing! mini’app’les Newsletter 13 August, 2000 Excite Joins Free Mac ISP Crowd by Brad Gibson, bgibson@maccen- tral.com and Dennis Sellers, dsellers@maccentral.com June 23, 2000, 11:30 am ET Submitted by Bryan Lienke Excite@Home has become the lat- est Internet portal company to add free Internet access for Macintosh users through the 1stUp.com access network. Dubbed FreeLane, the free dial-up ISP service requires Mac users to keep a small, dockable navigation bar on thelr monitors for the duration of their online session in return for free access, Excite says that you can use the browser of your choice, and put the FreeLane Navigation Bar where you desire, The service is part of a growing network of free online services from 1stUp.com, a private label Internet provider. 1stUp.com debuted its free access through AltaVista and Lycos on June 5, promising then that its net- work of affiliated companies offering its free service would grow dramatical- ly in the coming months. Customers will be able to access their accounts through 1stUp.com’s network of over 4,000 access numbers covering 95 percent of the US and Canada. Excite@Home recommends Mac users must have Mac OS 8.0 and high- Microsoft Office 2001 Preview by Dennis Sellers, dsellers@maccen- tral.com June 15, 2000, 7:00 am ET Submitted by Bryan Lienke Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit (MacBU) plans to release its next version of Office for the Mac, dubbed Microsoft Office 2001 Macintosh Edition, in the second half of the year. The new suite will introduce new features and tools designed to simplify difficult tasks in Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2001, according to Irving Kwong, product manager for the MacBU. Kwong says that the goal of Office 2001 is to continue to innovate while targeting the everyday needs of Mac customers with Mac-first features and compatibility with Office for Windows, The revamp will also be designed to simplify difficult tasks, complete projects faster and easier, and simplify the applications them- selves. Microsoft is working to redesign Office 2001 features to mirror the ways in which people are using Word, Excel and PowerPoint to accomplish everyday tasks. Both new and pre- existing features are now simpler, more intuitive and less cumbersome, Kwong says. Project Gallery Customer research has shown. that getting started and completing a project quickly can often be the most challenging part of a project, accord- ing to Kwong. Enter the Project Gallery, which is akin to the Starting Points feature of Apple Works 6. The task-based Project Gallery provides a common starting point for each of the Office 2001 applications, helping people to find the right docu- ment or template to match their needs before deciding which applica- tion to use, says Kwong. The Project Gallery, a Mac first Office feature, provides a central point to access new customizable tem- plates and wizards for any of the Office applications, allowing people to browse document samples such as business cards, greeting cards or cal- endars. Projects are organized in cate- gory folders. Once selected, category folders expand to reveal large preview icons. “The Project Gallery will be the starting point in Office,” he says. “When you launch Office, it’s the first thing you'll see. Our goal is for people to be able to focus on tasks they want to complete and not on what applica- tion they need to use. Often people know what they want to do, maybe create an invoice, but don’t know what the best application is to do it. Using the Project Gallery, you can click and open a template, such as an invoice template, for something you need to do, and the appropriate appli- cation — in this case Excel — will automatically launch.” The Project Gallery is also cus- tomizable. You can enable or disen- gage it in the different Office compo- nents: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. er to access the service, but also states on its requirements page that “The Free Access software will not work correctly on versions 8.5 and 8.5.1.” The company recommends users upgrade to at least Mac OS 8.6. Excite@Home also recommends the service only be used on Power Mac systems only with at least 32MB of RAM, running Internet Explorer 4.0 or Netscape 4.0 or higher. Mac OS X isn’t supported “at this time” (though, of course, the final version isn’t due until early 2001). You can keep an eye on the FreeLane Web site for updates. Since getting started and complet- ing a project quickly is often one of the most difficult parts of completing a project, Office 2001 addresses this problem by including color-rich and completely customizable templates in the Project Gallery, Kwong says. These templates help users to quickly start and complete professional looking documents such as catalogs, photo albums, newsletters and greeting cards. “We had templates in Office 98, but not a lot and they weren't cus- tomizable,"” Kwong says. “In Office 2001, there are 400 very colorful and customizable templates.” Why an emphasis on color? He says that the number one hardware item folks buy for an iMac is an inkjet printer. Plus, lots of users own digital cameras and scanners so high-quality color extras are expected in a product suite, Kwong adds. Newly designed wizards make it easy to customize a template by pro- viding the flexibility to change the theme and color of the template to offer a truly personalized project, says Kwong. Once a template is chosen, the wizard walks a user through a number of common fields. “In most of the templates, a wiz- ard will let you quickly populate the template with your personal info and update it on the fly,” says Kwong. Toolbars in applications are often cluttered and overly complex, making frequently used commands and fea- tures difficult to find and access. Customer feedback has highlighted a mini’app’les Newsletter 14 August, 2000 the need to simplify user interfaces while providing easy and quick access to the right set of tools for completing projects. Office 2001 applications are designed to be simpler and easier to use, thereby increasing personal pro- ductivity, according to Kwong. Formatting Palette A new context-sensitive Formatting Palette is another Mac first feature. Common tasks are simplified, such as the formatting of text, images and documents. As a user works on different parts of a document, the Formatting Palette adapts and shows appropriate tools for the job. Words, tables, lists, pictures and the overall document can all be manipulated in a way that allows people to work faster and more efficiently, without search- ing for commands on toolbars and drop-down menus, says Kwong. “The Formatting Palette is designed to simplify things while bringing a lot of functionality to Office,” he says. “The palette adapts to what you're doing to provide the tight tools for the right job.” For example, Word 2001 now only includes a single-row toolbar by default, The formatting toolbar from Word 98 is consolidated onto the Formatting Palette, which can be moved anywhere on the screen and docked wherever a user prefers. Image Effects The popularity of digital cameras, color inkjet printers and graphic-rich Web pages has increased the demand for rich documents that include color- ful graphics and pictures. Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2001 feature built-in tools for importing and editing images in Office 2001 documents. People will now be able to import images into Office 2001 directly from a scanner or digital camera that sup- ports the TWAIN interface, without having to run a separate application. Image editing tools are available to correct and enhance pictures easily, including essential tools such as “red- eye” reduction, scratch removal, auto- matic color correction and image rotation. The new graphics capabilities of Office 2001 even include Picture Effects filters that, with the click of a button, change the entire look of an image. For example, the user can make a photograph look as if it were sketched in charcoal or even appear mosaic, says Kwong. Managing Lists in Excel Managing simple lists in Excel and conducting mail merges in Word are two of the most common tasks people use Microsoft Office to com- plete. Yet these tasks are difficult and cumbersome, since the right set of features for the tasks are hard to find and use. Excel 2001 features revolu- tionary List Tools for managing lists, and Word 2001 includes the Data Merge Manager, which simplifies the process for conducting a mail merge into a single easy-to-use feature. List Tools During research with customers, the Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit (MacBU) discovered that almost 60 percent of user spreadsheets are simple lists, such as CD collections, inventories and customer lists. Excel 2001 offers new List Tools to simplify the chore of managing such lists, says Irving Kwong, product marketing manger for the MacBU. Common problems in handling lists include sorting, filtering, formatting, printing and summarizing data. “As you're creating a list in Excel, the List Tools feature anticipates what you're doing and offers to turn what you're creating into a ‘list object.’ If you agree, individual cells are no longer treated as individual cells, but as lines of info.” In other words, Excel 2001 antici- pates the intent to create a list and automatically offers to convert the relevant cells into a manageable, sortable list. A common problem with using lists is that headers are not per- sistent as a list is scrolled on a moni- tor or printed. Excel 2001 addresses this problem by keeping list headers at the top of the screen or page as a user scrolls through the document or prints a multiple page list. “In the past working on a list and doing things like sorting a column might end up with your items rearranged list and your info ruined,” Kwong says. “Now people can do things easily without the risk of data loss or corruption.” Other common tasks like insert- ing a new column or moving a com- plete row are no longer difficult or frustrating, he says. Excel 2001 List Tools attaches individual cells to the corresponding list row and offers a floating palette of List Tools, which provide the means for easier manage- ment of lists, according to Kwong. A new Total Row command adds a new tow at the end of a list, which pro- vides the functionality to calculate such information as the sum or aver- age of the data in a particular row; eliminating the need to run a separate feature. Data Merge Manager One of the most difficult tasks to accomplish in Word has been com- pleting a Mail Merge, yet it is also one of the most valuable and widely used features. Word 2001 introduces yet another Mac-first and Mac-only fea- ture, the Data Merge Manager, which simplifies the process of using data to conduct a mass communication, regardless of whether it is a mailing or in e-mail. “We looked at the number of steps taken and them into consolidat- ed into a single window,” Kwong says. “Applications are much less model in Office 2001 and the way to do things is much less model.” He says the Mail Merge concept has been completely rethought and te-implemented. The concept former- ly known as Mail Merge is now called Data Merge in order to reflect the shift to an easier, less complex process, he says. Instead of requiring users to change the way they work to conduct a mass communication, the new Data Merge Manager allows users to work as they normally would, according to Kwong. For example, a user can con- duct a Data Merge between a newslet- ter created in Word 2001 and infor- mation for the mailing stored in the new e-mail and personal information manager's Address Book. Completing a data merge for this example can take as few as 10 mouse clicks, compared with over SO clicks in previous versions of Microsoft Word, Kwong says. A user needs only to drag and drop the Address Book into the Data Merge Manager, which then completes the merge. You can even preview a data merge before implementing it in this new feature. mini’app’les Newsletter 15 August, 2000 PowerPoint Creating brilliant presentations is important to people; yet many don’t have the time to learn a new applica- tion or work to make projects look professional, says Irving Kwong. “With PowerPoint 2001, we want users to be able to create brilliant pre- sentations fast,” he says. New features like the Tri-pane View will help people quickly create brilliant presentations, he adds. Support for rich media in PowerPoint 2001 enables people to easily add eye- catching QuickTime Transitions between slides. And, with the popu- larity of rich media, PowerPoint 2001 introduces PowerPoint Movies, a Mac- first and Mac-only feature that allows people to save and share PowerPoint presentations as QuickTime Movies. Tri-Pane View Microsoft has received feedback from customers that they want to be able to work more seamlessly with the various views in PowerPoint Macintosh Edition. In usability tests, they also found that many novice users only work in Slide view and never find the other views, says Kwong. PowerPoint 2001's new Tri-Pane View allows users to combine the Slide, Outline and Notes views. One combined view of information makes it easy for users to perform tasks like adding new slides, editing text within a slide, entering notes while creating a presentation and navigating while editing, says Kwong. “And when you change text in the Outline view, it updates on the fly in the Slide view,” he adds. QuickTime Transitions PowerPoint 2001 provides sup- port for key Apple technology like QuickTime. Users who have QuickTime installed on their Macintosh will be able to choose from hundreds of QuickTime transitions — including cross fades, explosions, dis- solves — to make some “really nice, flowing” presentations, says Kwong. PowerPoint Movies The new PowerPoint Movie fea- ture allows people to save their pre- sentations as QuickTime Movies and share them with anyone who has the QuickTime player installed. Anyone with the QuickTime player installed can view a PowerPoint Movie, regard- less of whether they are using a Macintosh or have PowerPoint 2001. Professional users will be able to deliver multimedia-rich slide shows with graphics, sound and exciting slide transitions to wide audiences of people, while customers at home can insert PowerPoint movies into their home videos and take advantage of capabilities such as voice narration, background music, transitions and animations, says Kwong. The PowerPoint Movie feature also includes the flexibility to fine- tune a presentation with options for display size, transitions, use of an MP3 file as a soundtrack, etc. PowerPoint Movies can be shared and edited between PowerPoint 2001 users — they're “round trippable” says Kwong — since a movie can simply be IBM’s RAM-Doubling A Mac Potential by Brad Gibson, bgibson@maccentral.com June 28, 2000, 7:00 am ET Submitted by Bryan Lienke A new technique from IBM Corp. that effectively doubles the amount of memory in a computer, could revolu- tionize the PC industry and be a part of everything from desktops and handheld devices — including Macs —in the not too distant future. Called IBM Memory eXpansion Technology (MX7), it is initially designed for Intel-based PC servers, such as IBM's Netfinity line. Eventually, MXT will be adapted for personal computers and handheld devices in possibly less than a few years. IBM's MXT technology is nothing like the software based products — like RAM Doubler — that Mac users are utilizing today. This technology is 10,000 times faster than software- based memory compression and because of its speed and need for less physical memory, the possibilities of its use in small, handheld devices is tremendous. “Basically what we have is soft- ware code which compresses the data reopened in PowerPoint 2001 to edit the individual slides. And you can apply advanced set- tings to PowerPoint movies. You can specify the visual size, apply MP3 “soundtracks” to run during a movie, and more. “A PowerPoint movie can be quite dynamic,” Kwong says. In planning the upcoming ver- sion of Office, Kwong says the Mac BU realized that several things were important: compatibility (seamless Office for Windows file sharing is a must), integration (sharing content between Office applications should be better), Mac-likeness (47 percent of users feel a more Mac-like interface and behavior is a compelling enough motivator for upgrading from Office 98, according to a MacBU study), and simplicity (currently starting and completing projects is too difficult). With these goals in mind the MacBU came up a product strategy with the goal of: * Creating products for Mac customers’ specific needs that help solve real world, everyday problems * Expanding the focus to include small business, consumer, education, while continuing to serve current customers * Provide Mac-first and Mac- only innovations * — Offer full interoperability with Windows products * — Release Mac products on their own timeline * Continue the commitment to Mac OS X in main memory,” Ellen Yoffa, Director of IBM’s Personal and Scalable Systems Research, told MacCentral. “This algorithm is burned into a chip that is on the memory controller which sits between the actually memory and the PC main processor.” MXT is totally transparent to the applications running on the PC and is done essentially with no negative affect to the central processors job. There is also an associated L3 software cache that compensates for the time it takes to encode and decode the data to better speed up access, Yoffa said. ESE SETS mini’app’les Newsletter 16 August, 2000 “PC makers wanting to use the MXT technology would have to modi- fy approximately 100 lines of code in their operating system to take advan- tage of the technology,” said Jim Gargan, Director of Netfinity Marketing at IBM. The cost-savings potential of such a technology is huge. A typical Internet service provider who needs large amounts of server and process- ing power could potentially save mil- lions of dollars in memory. “One of the customers we went to recently and demonstrated the MXT technolo- gy ended up talking about whether they should buy half as much memo- ty and use the savings to buy more systems, or should they use the same amount of memory and double the load on each server. This solution offers customers numerous options they have never had,” Gargan said. ServerWorks Corp., a California- based maker of chips for Intel-based servers, will license the technology from IBM and make it available to other server manufacturers. Yoffa said that over time, the technology would be licensed to companies to use in their devices, such as the Macintosh. Although Apple has not signed on to use the technology, there is lit- tle doubt Apple will be among many PC manufacturers that will look at MXT as it determines its potential in a number of Macintosh products. “Certaintly there is nothing that precludes this technology from being used with any processor on the mar- ket. It's simply is in the details of the implementation,” Yoffa said. IBM would not say if the technol- ogy had already been demonstrated to Gates retains Forbes richest man title Staff Report, email@maccentral.com June 16, 2000, 7:00 am ET Submitted by Bryan Lienke Despite a year of ups and downs, Bill Gates has remained on top of Forbes! world’s richest man list with $60.00 Billion. Although Gates has once again grabbed the title his for- tune has been sliced by a third in the past year according to Forbes. Larry Ellison, Oracle founder, took second place with $47.00 Billion. Many speculated earlier this year that Ellison would take over the title as world’s richest man. Microsoft stock dropped due to the DOJ court battle, bringing Gates’ net worth down. Ellison's stock in Oracle rose 500 per- cent in the past year bringing his net worth up, but not enough to take the title. Macintosh unveils a powerful little cube From Inside The Cube by Andrew Gore (IDG).net What could be simpler than a clear plastic cube the size of a tissue box with a single cable to the display, a single cable to the wall socket and a single one to the Internet connection of your choice? But hidden G4 Cube doesn't have a single analog circuit in it, except for the power sup- ply. Instead, it relies on USB, FireWire and the breakthough Apple Display Connector to connect with a host of peripherals, including the Harman Kardon-designed audiophile speakers included with the machine. Apple or not, but it did admit the company is in its early stages of dis- cussions with many companies in the industry. Apple would not comment on the company’s interest in the IBM Memory eXpansion Technology. As for the future, IBM feels the potential for MXT technology as an industry standard will continue to grow. “As the cost of silicon continues to go down and the speed of RAM improves, a case for the MXT technol- ogy is going to become more and more compelling,” Gargan comment- ed. According to Forbes, The U.S. boasted 308 billionaires in 2000, totaling $1 trillion in wealth. Rounding out the top 5 were Edward Buffett, $28.00 Billion; Paul Allen, $28.00 Billion and several people tied for the fifth position. This makes the Cube both the simplest of computers and the most powerful: By leaving behind its analog legacy, the Cube is a product that should first and foremost appeal to Mac users who've longed for the power of a G4, but have hesitated to embrace the complexity (not to men- tion the expense) of the G4 beneath this deceptively simple design is a machine that will change the way you think of what a computer -- or a TV, ora video game, or a home stereo -- can be, ALSO Apple's fall colors At his Macworld Expo keynote Wednesday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs launched the world's first fully digital device that can simultaneously create, distribute and playback all forms of content. The Power Mac tower. As Apple likes to say, it offers the simplicity of the iMac - - which with today's product line update is not so simple anymore - combined with the perfor- mance of the Power Mac G4. Inside The Cube MORE COMPUTING INTELLI- GENCE IDG.net home page MacWorld Online home page Visit IDG.net's Macworld Expo Channel Microsoft, Apple join in Gidde A Saiunooy games company mini’app’les Newsletter 17 August, 2000 Apple: Think different, win different Reviews & in-depth info at IDG.net E-BusinessWorld TechInformer Questions about computers? Let 1DG.net's editors help you Subscribe to IDG.net's free daily newsletters Search IDG.net in 12 languages News Radio Fusion audio primers Computerworld Minute The new Power Mac, due in early August, looks nothing like anything you've seen before in a computer, except perhaps from a little-known developer called NeXT. But unlike its large black-cased progenitor, the Cube is small, measur- ing 9.8 inches by 7.7 inches by 7.7 inches (and weighing 14 pounds), hardly bigger than the DVD drive it comes with (the cube has a top-load- ing slot that makes it look more like a high-tech toaster than a computer). There is a large radiating vent on the top of the box that dissipates the con- siderable heat generated by the 450- MHz G4 processor it comes with; there is no fan in the Cube. On the back of the machine you'll find its surprisingly limited array of ports: two 12Mbps USB ports, two 400Mbps FireWire ports, the ADC port, a VGA port, 10/100BASET Ethernet connec- tor and a modem port. There are no slots inside the Cube except for the dedicated AGP 2x slot that holds the ATI RAGE 128 Pro graphics card, two PC100 DIMM slots and an AirPort slot. The ATI card includes 16MB of SDRAM for screen resolution of up to 1920-by-1200 pixels at 32 bits per pixel. There are no PCI slots, no audio in or out ports, none of the regalia normally associated with a computer. Sound, for example, is completely dig- ital -- the Cube comes with two USB- based Harman Kardon speakers and digital amplifier which offer the only access for analog technology, a head- phone jack.Like the original iMac, the Cube is offered in only one retail con- figuration: 450-MHz processor, an anemic 64Mb of RAM, a 20GB Ultra ATA/66 drive with a relatively slow spindle speed of 5400 rpm. There will be build-to-order options including RAM expansion up to the maximum of 1.5 GB, 7200 rpm drives of up to 40GB and 1000BASET Ethernet. Like all Macs, the Cube comes with the new Apple Pro keyboard and optical mouse, The Desktop, Redefined Seeing the Cube for the first time is an experience that no recitation of the specs can possibly describe. Almost totally smooth except for the ports and vent, the Cube could almost pass as a paperweight on most users' desks, But because of its excellent dig- ital audio capabilities, ability to play DVD-quality movies either off of DVDdiscs or by using QuickTime streaming via a high-speed connec- tion to the Internet, the Cube is just as likely to end up in the home enter- tainment center. Combine it with an array of third-party USB-based periph- erals, and you could easily see the Cube becoming the tiny translucent center of a audio/video/web surfing/game-playing system to make the most hard-core digital conver- gence naysayer fall to his knees and beg forgiveness. Take, for example, the brilliant siplicity of the new Apple Display Connector. Based on the DVi standard, this Apple proprietary port carries both analog and digital video signals, USB and power so that a mon- itor need not have anything but this single cable connected to it provided, of course, that the monitor sports an ADC. Apple will be the first to offer a full line of digital displays with the ADC, all of which also include pow- ered USB hubs for connecting key- boards, speakers, or the new Philips USB microphone. (The Cube doesn't even offer a cheesy built-in analog mic like the iMac.) It does, however, come bundled with iMovie 2.0 and a FireWire camcorder cable. And then there's the price: The single configuration of the Cube should attract a lot of users who have been waiting to join the G4 revolu- tion, but have either found the price, form factor or complexity of the Power Mac G4 to be a deal-breaker. Whether you think the Power Mac G4 Cube looks like a toaster or a tissue box, the combination of price, power, digital technology and set-top box simplicity sure makes it look like a revolution New iMacs Offer New Colors, More Configurations Apple's Fall Colors By Jason Snell CNN.COM News Like a fashion house unveiling its Fall line-up in Milan, Apple unveils new iMacs with a flourish that goes beyond simply boosting processor speed, RAM, and hard-disk specs. The latest revision of the iMac isn't a huge boost as far as those cold hardware specifications are concerned -- a processor speed increase here, a price drop there. But there's still a lot to talk about, because the iMac is as much about style as substance, and these new models sport a series of striking new shades -- Indigo (blue), Ruby (red), Sage (green), and Snow (white) -- to go with their upgraded options. Four in One When it first came on the scene two years ago -- and isn't it hard to believe it's only been two years? the iMac was a one-of-a-kind machine. It came in any color you liked, as long as that color was Bondi. Over the months, Apple has added to your options, launching five new iMac colors, the iMac DV configuration, and even a Graphite iMac Special Edition. Today's iMac line-up is the most com- plicated yet, with four configurations in five new colors, meaning you could buy eight brand-new iMacs and never get the same one twice. The Basic iMac Sitting at the low-price ($799), least-loaded end of the iMac line is the new base iMac, available only in Indigo. Other than the color, this new iMac is little changed from its $999 predecessor: it's got that same 3S0MHz G3 processor and 64MB of RAM. The hard drive is slightly upgraded, from 6GB to 7GB. There's still no video-out on this model, no AirPort compatibility, and no FireWire; but by not offering those features, this iMac is the cheapest new Mac ever released. Cheap DV The new iMac DV models - available in Ruby as well as Indigo are lower-priced than their predecessors, but with the same 400MHz G3 proces- sor and 10GB hard drive. In addition to the faster processor, the DV model differs from the cheaper iMac in its two FireWire ports, video-out port, and Airport slot. One item on past mini’app’les Newsletter 18 August, 2000 iMac DV models has beenremoved this new model, presumably for cost savings: there is no DVD drive. Instead this new DV editing iMac offers a CD-ROM drive as its only removeable media. If you want to buy a computer that can play DVD movies, be careful when you buy an iMac DV -- if it's one of these new models, you'll be out of luck. So Many iMacs One step above the iMac DV is a new iMac configuration, one whose name suggests that the simplicity of the iMac experience doesn't extend to the way Apple has chosen to name them. It's the iMac DV+. Plus Processor Naming quibbles aside, the iMac DV+ is the logical next step in the new iMac DV line-up. Available in Ruby, Indigo, and Sage, the iMac DV+ offers everything the iMac DV does, and more. Powered by a 450MHz G3 processor, the iMac DV+ is faster than any previous iMac model. It also sports a 20GB hard drive -- twice as big as the iMac DV ~ a major boost if you're an iMovie aficionado with huge digital video files filling your hard drive. Its base RAM configura- tion, 64MB, are the same as the lower- end model, and it offers the same dual FireWire ports. However the iMac DV+ includes the DVD drive missing from the iMac DV. King iMac The original iMac DV Special Edition wasn't all that special, when you think about it. Sure, it had the classy Graphite color scheme, a slightly bigger (13GB) hard drive, and 128MB of RAM. But it also had the same 400MHz processor as the regular iMac DV. With this new round of iMacs, however, Apple's really put the "special" in the iMac DV SE. It starts with the colors. Now the iMac DV Special Edition comes in two unique colors: the original Graphite is still there, making it a good match with Apple's burgeoning Power Mac G4 line. But there's a new twist, too -- Snow, a frosty white shade that makes this new model the most distinctive iMac around (and the model most likely to be seen on the set of the next Star Trek movie). But inside that dis- tinctive shell is where the Special Edition really gets special. Powered by a 500MHz G3 processor, it's the fastest iMac ever made. It's got 128MB of RAM and a 30GB hard drive, making it a powerful desktop-moviemaking workstation. The other iMac niceties are still there, of course: FireWire, USB, video out, AirPort, theworks. Little Touchess The launch of the original iMac also marked the introduction of the tiny keyboard and hockey-puck mouse Apple has shipped with all the desk- top Macs it's unveiled since. Loved by some but decried loudly by most, this pair of input devices has finally heard its death knell. In a surprise move, Apple's not bringing the new Apple Pro Keyboard and Apple Pro Mouse only to the professional end of its product line. All the new iMac models will ship with these new input devices, as well. Fans of Apple's teeny input devices, you may begin the mourning process. iMovie Sequel The release of the iMac DV also marked the release of iMovie, Apple's video- editing software. But while most would agree iMovie excelled at ease of use, the software was alsoextremely limited in terms of useful transitions, titling features, audio-editing func- tionality... even the number of clips you could easily manage. Now it's time for the sequel. These new iMac DV models ship with iMovie 2.0, an updated version that should address many of the frustrations of iMovie users. And anyone who has bought a DV camcorder only to discover that it doesn't come with a FireWire cable should appreciate one of Apple's other small touches: all the new iMac DV models come with a FireWire cam- corder cable. The Last Word With the exception of the minor improvements in the iMac DV+ and the big boost given to the iMac DV Special Edition, this round of iMacs isn't that technologically far-removed from the previous version. But by changing the color scheme, Apple has proven again that the iMac's appeal comes from its looks and its price tag, not its spec sheet. And, of course, its ease-of-set-up and use, but apparently not from the ease of model differenti- ation. Once they've navigated the dif- ferences between the four iMac mod- els, savvy iMac buyers will recognize the power hiding underneath the plastic in the iMac DV+ and iMac Special Edition. The rest of the world will simply admire Apple's latest fash- ion show. Apple's new iMacs iMac iMac DV iMac DV+ iMac DV Special Edition Color Indigo Indigo,Ruby Indigo,Ruby, Sage Graphite, Snow Price $799 $999 $1299 $1499 Processor (G3) 3S50MHz 400MHz 450MHz SOOMHz Memory 64MB 64MB 64MB 128MB Optical drive CD-ROM CD-ROM DVD-ROM DVD-ROM FireWire No Two ports Two ports Two ports Hard drive 7GB 10GB 20GB 30GB Video out No Yes Yes Yes AirPort support No Yes Yes Yes a a min?’app’les Newsletter 19 August, 2000 What’s New From Apple? Find Out From First Tech First Tech Computer is the largest Apple Specialist in the Midwest. We have all the latest information on Apple® products new and old. We also offer a whole lot more. First Tech is dedicated to providing you with a total solu- tion. From accessories, software and peripherals to service, support and training, you can count on us to help insure that you get the most from your computer system. 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