Cover 7.02 / February 2001 ATPM Volume 7, Number 2 About This Particular Macintosh:About the personal computing experience™ ATPM 7.02 / February 2001 1 Cover Cover Art Robert Madill Copyright © 2001 by Grant Osborne1 Belinda Wagner We need new cover art each month. Write to us!2 Contributors Editorial Staff Lee Bennett Publisher/Editor-in-Chief Michael Tsai Eric Blair Managing Editor Daniel Chvatik Daniel Chvatik Associate Editor/Reviews Paul Fatula Paul Fatula Copy Editors Raena Armitage Richard Fowell Johann Campbell Matthew Glidden Ellyn Ritterskamp Edward Goss Brooke Smith Tom Iov ino Ron Stewart Robert Paul Leitao Adam Zaner Jamie McCornack Vacant Mobius Publicity Manager Christopher Turner David Ozab Vacant David Ross Webmaster Michael Tsai Gregory Tetrault Assistant Webmaster Lee Bennett Christopher Turner Beta Testers The Staff Evan Trent Macintosh users like you Contributing Editors Subscriptions At Large Robert Paul Leitao Sign up for free subscriptions using the Games Vacant Web form3 or by e-mail4. Graphics Grant Osborne How To Vacant Where to Find ATPM Interviews Vacant Online and downloadable issues are avid Ozab Music D available at http://www.atpm.com. Networking Matthew Glidden Opinion Tom Iovino ATPM is a product of ATPM, Inc. Mike Shields © 1995–2000, All Rights Reserved Vacant ISSN: 1093-2909 Reviews Eric Blair Jamie McCornack The Tools Gregory Tetrault Acrobat Evan Trent AppleScript Vacant BBEdit Shareware Vacant FileMaker Pro Technic a l Evan Trent FrameMaker+SGML Artwork & Design iCab ImageReady Graphics Director Grant Osborne Interarchy Graphic Design Consultant Jamal Ghandour LetterRip Pro Layout and Design Michael Tsai MacPerl Cartoonist Vacant Mailsmith Blue Apple Icon Designs Mark Robinson Mesh Other Art RD Novo ShrinkWrap StuffIt Editors Emeritus RD Novo 1. [email protected] 3. http://www.atpm.com/subscribe/ 2. [email protected] 4. [email protected] ATPM 7.02 / February 2001 2 Cover The Fonts Cheltenham Frutiger Isla Bella Marydale Minion Reprints Articles and original art cannot be reproduced without the express permission of ATPM, unless otherwise noted. You may, however, print copies of ATPM provided that it is not modified in any way. Authors may be contacted through ATPM’s editorial staff, or at their e-mail addresses, when provided. Legal Stuff About This Particular Macintosh may be uploaded to any online area or BBS, so long as the file remains intact and unaltered, but all other rights are reserved. All information contained in this issue is correct to the best of our knowledge. The opinions expressed in ATPM are not necessarily those of this particular Macintosh. Product and company names and logos may be registered trademarks of their respective companies. Thank you for reading this far, and we hope that the rest of the magazine is more interesting than this. Thanks for reading ATPM. ATPM 7.02 / February 2001 3 Cover Sponsors Sponsors About This Particular Macintosh is free, and we intend to keep it that way. Our editors and staff are volunteers with “real” jobs who believe in the Macintosh way of computing. We don’t make a profit, nor do we plan to. As such, we rely on advertisers to help us pay for our Web site and other expenses. We would like to thank our exclusive sponsor, Small Dog Electronics, for its generous support of ATPM, the Macintosh, and all things cool. Sponsorship does not imply endorsement, and endorsement does not imply sponsorship. Thank you for your support. You can help support ATPM by buying from online retailers using the following links: Amazon.com1, MacConnection2, MacMall3, MacZone4, and Outpost.com5. 1. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/aboutthisparticu 2. http://service.bfast.com/bfast/click/mid9452939?siteid=13311227&bfpage=machom epage 3. http://www.commission- junction.com/track/track.dll?AID=53427&PID=297078&URL=http%3A%2F%2 Fwww%2Emacmall%2Ecom%2Fmacaffiliate 4. http://service.bfast.com/bfast/click?bfmid=1942029&siteid=26240435&bfpage=mac _zone 5. http://www.linksynergy.com/fs- bin/stat?id=N00D3BtDeo0&offerid=2161&type=3 ATPM 7.02 / February 2001 4 Sponsors Welcome Welcome Welcome to the February issue of ATPM. Issue 7.02 contains Apples, Kids, & Attitude: Martians in the Manholes8 the following articles, reviews, and features. Before we In his final installment of AKA, Robert Paul Leitao discerns introduce them, though, here’s a short look at major Mac fact from fiction in life, on TV, and in the PC industry. news items from January: “Since the introduction of the Apple II, rumors Mac News and prognostications of Apple’s imminent demise Apple’s recent analyst meeting1 shed some light on the have filled the papers, the airwaves and now the company’s financial situation and future strategy, including Internet. Whether the figurative “Martians in the the intention to offer SuperDrives on iMacs in 2002. Analyst manholes” were IBM, Microsoft, concerns about responses2 were mixed. MHz speeds, software availability, market share, Mac OS X will be released on March 24, and Apple will or even product price, Apple Computer has likely honor purchases of the OS X Public Beta using survived and in most years the company has restricted coupons3. thrived. Bad fiction can never mirror reality.” Poll Beyond the Barline: A Tale of Two Trade Shows9 Last month’s reader poll4 asked for your favorite MP3 player. David Ozab shares his opinions on iTunes, Yamaha’s mLan, 47% preferred SounJam MP, and 24% preferred Audion. Apple’s music strategy, and the latest NAMM show. QuickTime Player collected 8%, and the remainder of the votes were divided among MacAST, SoundApp, and other “The promise to start a desktop music revolution players. comes sixteen years too late. Instead, Apple should Our internal staff poll showed a similar division: one third do everything in its power to support the SoundJam, one third Audion, and one third other players. continued third-party development of hardware Note that the poll was started before iTunes5 was introduced, and software that centers around their computers so it does not include that choice. in order to keep the support from musicians that This month we want to know where you bought your they still enjoy. In part, this means continued current Mac. Go cast your vote6! support of PCI-based solutions through the G4 desktop. The addition of a fourth PCI slot was an Columns important step, but it also needs the continued advocacy of FireWire and the encouragement of 7 Apple Cider: A Matter of Trust third party developers, Yamaha in particular, to Tom Iovino explains the reasons why people may be afraid to transform products from vaporware to hardware.” shop online and why their fears may be exaggerated. About This Particular Web Site10 “The lessons I learned that day in Maryland are This month, Paul Fatula uncovered the following Web sites: the ones that cause quite a few people to shy away Isys Information Architects Inc. (user interface praise and from shopping on the Internet. How do you know blunders), MobiusCo (abstract desktop pictures), Patrick that someone won’t overcharge you when you Combs’ Good Thinking Site (amazing story about a make a purchase on the Internet? And just how $95,093.35 junk mail check), Privacy.Org (updates on secure is your information? Can someone charge Internet privacy), Spammimic (encodes messages as spam ;- on your credit card?” )). 1. http://www.macnn.com/feature.php?id=196 2. http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/tech/hardware/1287256.html 3. http://www.macnn.com/news.php?id=2973 4. http://www.atpm.com/polls/ 5. http://www.atpm.com/7.02/itunes.shtml 8. http://www.atpm.com/7.02/aka.shtml 6. http://www.atpm.com/index.shtml#poll 9. http://www.atpm.com/7.02/barline.shtml 7. http://www.atpm.com/7.02/cider.shtml 10. http://www.atpm.com/7.02/atpw.shtml ATPM 7.02 / February 2001 5 Welcome How To: iMovie Transition Tricks1 Driver4 Jamie McCornack explains two transition tricks for iMovie Matthew Glidden reviews Driver, the newest car racing game and iMovie 2, in particular “Slow Motion” and “Beam Things from MacSoft. Up.” “You assume the role of an ex-race driver turned “Let’s say, for example, you want your cat to policeman who goes deep undercover to infiltrate materialize from thin air. I don’t know why, maybe organized crime syndicates across the country. you’re doing a documentary on quantum physics, You turn in your gun and badge for the keys to a but let’s say that’s what you want to do. Aim your 70s muscle car and the chance to build a camcorder at a comfy chair and turn it to Record. reputation for fast wheels and cool nerves among Now take your unsuspecting kitty, and being sure the law-breaking elite. The game features a wide to keep yourself out of the picture, toss it onto the variety of missions, most of which are courier- or chair.” chase-oriented, following location or time objectives in a race around realistically-modeled How To: Playing Compressed Sound on a Home Stereo2 US cities while avoiding police pursuit.” Evan Trent explains the use of audio file formats for the use on CDs. Final Jam Pro5 In this mini-review, Christopher Turner introduces us to his “In my opinion it makes more sense to just burn favorite SoundJam MP Skin, whose interface is reminiscent out the MP3s directly to an audio CD using Toast of the Final Cut Pro look. 4.x. This will result in a CD that is playable on a home stereo, and the sound quality will be no “The interface is simple and uncluttered. The worse than the MP3 source file, although you will uppermost left button closes not only the not be able to fit as many songs on the CD as if you interface, but the application, which is standard converted and compressed the AIFF files across all SoundJam skins.