SUPER CD! PLAY THE BEST GAMES FOR FREE! WIN Macworld MORE NEWS, MORE REVIEWS Office FEBRUARY 2001 2001 MACWORLD GAME HALL OF FAME • 2-PAGE SCREENS • 3D SCANS NORTON 6.0 • PHOTOSHOP TEXT

Macworldwww.macworld.co.uk Games! Our fave entertainment titles, and what’s coming next! Super-size your screen 14 monster monitors tested, from £489 How to scan 3D objects Take your images to a new dimension Norton Utilities 6.0 Mac system saver reviewed Warp Photoshop text Three simple steps to complex effects read me first Simon Jary USB and FireWire are far more important editor-in-chief than a couple of hundred extra megahertz registering on your Mac’s beige dashboard

Upgrade your mentality

he sad news that brave Mac-upgrade maker That Apple logo is multicoloured, which should Newer Technology has ceased trading wasn’t alert you to the fact that my Power Mac is decidedly entirely unexpected. There’s little point upgrad- beige – and not one of those blue-&-white models that T ing your Mac’s processor nowadays, despite the were released when Steve Jobs let Apple designer proliferation of long-lasting older models. Don’t get me Jonathan Ive out of his polycarbonate cage. The beige wrong – if you own a pre-G3 Mac, you desperately need doesn’t bother me. My home office is cream and to upgrade. But the upgrade you really need is to a new brown, so it fits in rather nicely. Only the silver Hewlett- computer, not a faster processor. Packard DeskJet printer attracts the eye. If you’ve got a Power Mac 7100, I salute you. If The colour inkjet is silver because it’s a lot younger you’ve got a 6100, I’ll take my hat off and eat it for you than my Power Mac. Today’s generation of computer (the hat not the gravestone-sized original Power Mac). peripherals require a USB connection. And here’s where If your Mac doesn’t even have a PowerPC chip in it, upgrading does start to make sense. Sticking a 450MHz you’re nuts. Running a Mac with one of Motorola’s old G4 chip into a 300MHz beige Power Mac might make 680x0 processors makes you the equivalent to those me feel better, but it still leaves me bereft of the mod- Japanese soldiers still holed up on a Pacific island ern connections that most peripherals demand. I’d get believing the Second World War is still taking place. the rush of an immediate performance boost. But that “Sticking a Apple is happy to take another month’s pay cheque new USB/FireWire-equipped Power Mac is still a whole from you to let you buy a new Mac. But it’s a lot less lot more today-compatible than my ADB/SCSI oldster. 450MHz G4 chipper about you spending a fraction of that on one of The performance boost from adding to a G3’s into a beige those tempting G3/G4 upgrade cards that slot into megahertz is negligible compared to the loss you suffer your old Mac’s motherboard as easily as adding new by not being able to update your printer or scanner, add Power Mac RAM. But, aside from issuing false warnings about how a digital-camera card reader, or start making iMovies. might make me Mac OS 8 and above won’t work in Macs running The advances made by printer manufacturers are far upgraded chips, Apple was powerless to see companies more noticeable than even the difference between a feel better, but such as Newer, Sonnet and XLR8 grab that computer- 300MHz G3 and a 450MHz G4. A 7600 sporting a G4 is it still leaves upgrade cash from under its particularly put-out nose. quite a different computer when it comes to speed. But Processor upgrade cards offer us all the opportunity without a USB connection, your ageing inkjet won’t do me bereft to stay at least close to the cutting edge. But getting justice to your Photoshop files. of modern there was always a tough decision – as upgrade cards While processor upgrades were almost always too were never cheap enough to persuade us all to join the expensive to bother with, cards that add USB or connections.” movement. The phrase “For just a few hundred pounds FireWire ports are casually affordable. I added more, I could buy a whole new Mac”came crashing into Keyspan’s £29 two-port USB card to bring my beige our consciousness every time we eyed up those mouth- Mac up to date. £29! If you don’t want to buy a gleam- watering chip-upgrade ads. ing new Mac, you should certainly consider adding one This is more true today than it’s ever been. On of these connection upgrades. January 1, Apple slashed the price of its 400MHz Power Upgrade makers will reap rewards with multipro- Mac G4 to just £899 (ex. VAT). A 400MHz G4 upgrade cessing. I’m not suggesting you should plug a couple of card costs a little over a third of that, but doesn’t come G4s into a Power Mac 8600 – that would be like strap- with USB, FireWire, giant hard drive, RAM, keyboard or ping a jet engine to a paper plane. But it certainly will mouse. Newer’s innovative G3 and G4 iMaxpowr cards be worth doing so to all those Blueberry G3s and also rocketed an iMac’s performance, but there aren’t Graphite G4s. As we have pointed out in recent issues many iMac owners who need such power. Even the of Macworld, multiprocessing will be compulsory when original iMac’s 233MHz G3 is fast enough for the we finally make the move to Apple’s next-generation majority of users. operating system, Mac OS X – but not really before I’ve nothing against processor upgrades. A year and then. Multiprocessing upgrades were all the rage at a half ago, my home computer was a 200MHz 603e- this January’s Macworld Expo in San Francisco. based Power Computing PowerBase Macintosh clone Newer’s slogan was “Sometimes Newer is better souped-up with a 233MHz G3-chip Newer upgrade than new”. If the company had managed to hold on in card. I then inherited one of Macworld’s old 300MHz G3 time to sell multiprocessing cards to modern single- Power Macs – not a giant leap in terms of performance, chip Mac owners, this may have been true. But when it but it did at least have an Apple on the front and the came to 7100, 7500, and 8600 Power Macs, new rather processor it was born to run with. than Newer was always the better option. MW

4 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 FEBRUARY 2001 Contents COVER STORIES

74 Games Hall of Fame 2000 was a blistering year for Mac games, and our ever-growing Hall of Fame has some impressive new additions, including The Sims, Scrabble, Diablo II, Deus Ex and Baldur’s Gate.

81 Test Centre We compare and rate the latest 21-inch monitors.

93 Create graphics: 13 99 48 scanning Cover CD Create graphics Norton Utilities How to scan 3D Top demos include Learn how to use Version 6.0 of the objects and get F.A.K.K.2 3D action- Photoshop 6.0’s industry-standard stunning results. game and Fireworks 4 text-handling fix-it utility tested Web-image software. capability. and rated.

page 6

Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 5 CONTACT Macworld www.macworld.co.uk FEBRUARY 2001 Contents Editor-in-Chief Simon Jary [email protected] Deputy Editor David Fanning [email protected] NEWS CREATE REVIEWS News Editor Jonathan Evans [email protected] News Reporter Dominique Fidéle Hot Macs to burn CDs Macs [email protected] 18 talk with PCs QuickTime 5 Managing Editor Sean Ashcroft 50 [email protected] drops Aqua interface Cube upgrades Chief Sub-Editor Woody Phillips FireWire faces USB tidal wave Graphics- [email protected] card take over Palm’s future Editorial Co-ordinator Seth Havens Top PC games for Mac Pentium 4 [email protected] Art Editor James Walker problems Macworld Expo Business news [email protected] Art Director Mandie Johnson 48-49 Norton Utilities 6.0 [email protected] PRODUCT NEWS How to: storage Secrets Managing Editor/Online Gillian Thompson 105 109 49 Norton AntiVirus 7.0 [email protected] Adding hard-disk storage Lost for words? Let the Net Assistant Online Editor Vittoria Momento capacity is easy. take the strain. 50-52 Photoshop 6 for Dummies [email protected] Wet and wild Mac-only racer 37 LaCie stores Expo Photoshop 6 Bible CD Editor Vic Lennard goodies Epson ships SoHo US Editor Andrew Gore Adobe Photoshop 6.0 for projectors ViewSonic’s CRT Contributing editors David Pogue, Deke McClelland, Capacity crown FEATURE range Winter monitor roll-out Photographers David Read, Franklin Tessler, LaCie’s 75GB FireWire hard drive boasts the “world’s largest” Bruce Fraser, Christopher Breen, 52 MacSoft Mac Kids Pack capacity of any drive on the market. Matthew Bath, Jake Sargent, 54-55 Colorperfexion Peter Cohen, Stephen Beale,. COMPETITIONS 56 DeskJet 990Cxi Group Advertising Manager Mustafa Mustafa [email protected] LaCie DVD-RAM 9.4GB Deputy Advertising Manager Dean Payn [email protected] Display Sales Executive Eamon McHugh 56 [email protected] Classified Sales Executive Paul Hodges 113 Q&A Mac OS X [email protected] 89 Classified Sales Executive Alex Cheesman Handy Mac tips and reader’s The new Mac operating [email protected] questions answered. system is Unix in disguise. Production Manager Sharon Bird [email protected] Awards 2001 WIN! Umax scanner Deputy Production Manager Richard Bailey 111 102 57 Championship Manager [email protected] Win digital-photo Worth an amazing £4,700. Production Assistant (Ads) Nikki Basten solutions from Hewlett- EVERY MONTH 2000/2001 Packard worth £1,500! [email protected] 58 MacWasher 2.1 Marketing Manager Jo Brown [email protected] Reader Offers 61 AirShuttle Circulation Manager Jim Birch 98 [email protected] BUYER’S GUIDE Discounts on IDG Books. USB SoftGSM Marketing Co-ordinator Kelly Crowley 62 MacAdministrator 2.0 [email protected] Subscriptions Marketing Assistant Sam French 100 FileMaker Mobile [email protected] 119 119-123 Buying a Mac Macworld’s advice Get Adobe Photoshop 6.0 for readers buying a G4 Cube, Power Mac for Photographers free 65 PL500 LCD Pen Tablet System G4, iMac, or an iBook or PowerBook. Includes UK’s only Publisher Guy Eaton when you order Macworld! Kick-off! [email protected] benchmark scores updated every month. Letters Macworld is a publication of IDG 10 Internet directory It’s a Macs world Sound-off on 131 Communications, 99 Gray’s Inn Road, 125-137 Star Ratings A full listing of our acclaimed Domain-name registration, 65 London WC1X 8UT. Tel: 020 7831 9252. product reviews and group tests for the previous G4 Cube Apple schools plea Sales fax: 020 7405 0262 Macworld (UK) is an independent journal not affiliated with hosting and support. Apple Computer. Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, and Macintosh are registered trademarks 12 months, with feature index and detailed buying of Apple Computer. All contents © IDG 2001, except articles adapted from advice. David Fanning Macworld US, or from MacWEEK © Mac Publishing LLC. ISSN 1356-9503 45 Career moves I used to defend BT 135 Colour Origination: Lumis Colour Printed by St Ives (Plymouth). Covers and Training printed by Hubbards (Sheffield) on paper produced in sustainable forests. 138-139 UK Reseller Guide Apple UK’s authorized – not any more Macworld editorial domestic Internet access courtesy of Direct Connection Mac-skill courses and resellers listed. (0800 072 0000, www.dircon.net). jobs. Stock photography courtesy of Cadmium (www.cadmium.com) Michael Prochak MACWORLD SUBSCRIPTIONS: 01858 435 304 A subscription to Macworld 47 It’s time we were able 66 BIAS Peak includes 12 issues, 12 CDs and FREE gift (see page 100). Subscribe by Direct 141 Shopping Advice on buying from mail-order David Pogue Debit for just £39.66 UK (Europe £88.97; RoW, £113.98). By Post: Macworld companies. And 24 pages of dealer ads. to vote using the Internet. 162 Theme Park World Subscriptions, FREEPOST (WC4336), Leicester, LE87 4DE. Fax: 01858 434 Hobbling DV-in-out digital 958 Phone: 01858 435 304, Web: www.macworld.co.uk/subs/subs.cfm camcorders is lunacy 69 Virtual PC 4

6 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 7 cc: Macworld letters cc: Macworld letters

Your Star Letter wins a copy of Office: 2001, worth £480 cut-price Macs to schools then We reward the best reader letter with a copy of Microsoft’s Office: 2001 for Mac. This integrated package includes it would give birth to an army enhanced versions of the market-leading Word, Excel and PowerPoint programs, as well as the new Entourage – a of converts who will go on to Sims-patch plea personal-information manager and email client. buy them in later life. Such an Write to Letters, Macworld, 99 Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1X 8UT. investment would surely reap I enjoyed your round-up of funny The Sims Or email [email protected]. rich rewards for Apple. customizers on the Letters pages in the January Tom Morris issue of Macworld. But where can I find these patches, and other information on this great Subject: Culture shock Mac game? I’ve just read a back-issue of Star Letter: It’s a Macs world the Times Doors magazine ■ There’s an official Web site dedicated (October 22, page 55), in which to Aspyr Media’s The Sims game at or the past 15 years I have been working with there is an article by David http://thesims.ea.com/us/. You’ll find game computers and IT including Apricot, Wang, IBM, Hewson entitled “A worm in the downloads, editing and customization F clones, Unix and Mac – and consider myself Apple”. In it, Hewson damns the tools, and demos. There’s a chat room something of an expert. A year ago, my husband’s best Mac platform. He even cites the and exchange, where you’ll find a growing friend and his wife asked me what sort of computer they old Wintel misnomer about PCs collection of families – including albums, should buy. They’d never owned one before and wanted to being faster than Macs because houses and a whole population of Sims, Subject: G4 sounds bad be online before their first grandchild was born. I told them they have more MHz, and says all created by fellow players. There’s also Having read about the G4 all about the iMac – its ease and flexibility of use, and even took them to “no companies bother to write a list of fans’ unofficial sites – including Cube on your Web site in July, see one in action. But what did they do? They opted for a PC-scanner-inkjet software for the Macintosh 15 from the UK. I rushed to pre-order one, and, solution because platform any more”. How so- in August, was among the first – and this is the best bit – a male friend from their golf course told them called journalists can trot-out to receive one. My PC-owning of-the-art computer – yet PCs were best because of their “internal CD-RW drives”. such ill-research garbage in a friends were wowed by the it doesn’t perform even I have since had to visit this couple to help them learn how to browse national newspaper amazes me. even if this thinking different distribution is faster, thanks that bad. The majority of Mac Cube and particularly by iMovie this basic function of the Web, use their word processor and cope with jerky mouse movements. Tim Jarman is nothing more than the snob to CD and Internet postings. fans are long-time users and – and how easy it is to use. a £600 bundled-PC. The PC has no software to speak of. I have to bite my lip not to say “I told value of good-looking machines. Are we being ripped off, like are used to the Mac OS, so But I can’t show-off the Alex Prout you so.” Still, what do I know? I’m only a girlie. Subject: Read me first Mark Scott we are when buying audio CDs? Windows is bound to seem Cube’s potential, because I’m MW Try MacAlly’s iVoice USB Ann Farr I read with interest Simon Ray Lancefield clumsy. However, I know unable to record a commentary microphone (£49.95 ex VAT; Jary’s Read Me First column, Subject: read me first from listening to my PC friends over my iMovie. Neither can Macintosh Accessory Centre, “Supermarket sweet” in While well argued, Simon Jary’s Subject: Boarder dispute that the reverse is also true. I show them my groovy voice- 0191 296 1500) has trademarked the generic Enquiries to Apple Customer January’s Macworld. All I can say January column missed the So Michael Prochak (“French Caleb Towers recognition password. Most “polo” because it is the name Services bring no comfort nor is I hope Apple never follows his point of Apple’s marketing nickers”, January Macworld) frustratingly, though, I can’t Subject: Web-domain mare of one of its aftershaves. The hope. I’ve since learned that advice to go down the PC route strategy. Apple is not PC World. believes the Web is “touted as a Subject: Browser beaten use an Internet phone or do I am a Web-site designer and advice of my solicitor is to there are 35 other Macintosh and take its advertizing Although giving more boarderless [sic] frontier”. Does I installed the Netscape 6 Web Web-video conferencing. Why? recently created a site for my deregister the name, because users awaiting the same part. downmarket. information in its ads might be that mean it is not possible to browser from last month’s cover Because I can’t get any sound wife’s equestrian company, and of the expense I would incur My Mac is not even four The reason people buy Macs a good idea, aiming its publicity find hotel accommodation or CD, and immediately wished I into my Cube. in March registered a number by fighting the case. years old, so why are all parts is because of their style. Macs at the average punter in the bed and breakfasts on it? hadn’t. How can you offer such The problem is that the Cube of equestrian-related domain The Britishness in me makes not available off the shelf? will never be as big as PCs but street will do Apple no good Tony Watson buggy software to your loyal not only lacks a microphone, names to point at her main me want to fight my corner, And why is Apple seemingly by marketing them to a middle- in the long run. Apple readers. It’s been nothing but also a microphone socket. name, one of which was but what we really need is for oblivious to the hardship that class audience, at least Apple is not the Big Breakfast of Subject: Dock dismay but trouble, and I’m even I ditched my old SVGA monitor www.po-lo.com. a concerted media campaign having an unusable computer can tap into a market that computers, it’s the Newsnight – Having read again for the considering switching and stumped-up for a new Recently, I received a letter to rectify this unfair situation. entails? wants to Think Different – and long may it stay that way. umpteenth time that the to Internet Explorer – a move 15-inch LCD Apple Studio from a firm of New York lawyers Keith Collingridge Willie McIntyre Steve, keep the ads slick. new Dock is just like the to Microsoft I thought I’d never Display – hoping this would acting on behalf of Ralph Adam Fraser Windows Taskbar, isn’t it fairer have to make. Please explain cure my problem. Alas, still Lauren, accusing me of being a Subject: Nominated driver Subject: Get ‘em young, Apple Mac watch to say that the new Dock is yourselves. no microphone. cyber-squatter and demanding I’ve forgotten how many times I am 15 years old and a new Subject: The price is wrong just like the Apple Launcher? Rachel Grieve I’ve searched high and low that I deregister www.po-lo.com I’ve printed from my Epson ink- Macintosh user. I bought my I recently came across a It operates much more like MW The version of Netscape 6 that for a USB microphone but can’t name within 14 days or “face jet and then tried to connect iMac a few days ago, and am software and hardware invoice Launcher than a Taskbar. we included on the January find one. I’ve spent nearly action that could lead to fines to the Web – only for my Mac already a convert. from 1994 and ended up not John Allan Macworld CD was the company’s £2,500 on a so-called state- up to $100,000”. The company to freeze. But hurrah! Epson has Unfortunately, my school knowing whether to laugh finished version. We held off putting finally produced a printer driver doesn’t see things the same or cry at the changes in Subject: Hurrah for Windows earlier “Preview” versions on the that does not clash with Apple way. The advantages of a Mac price. Hardware prices are Am I the only Macintosh user November and December 2000 CDs Remote Access. I’ve just over PCs is even lost on our a staggering 175.5 per cent who actually likes Microsoft because we found them so buggy downloaded it for my Epson technology and electronics- cheaper than they were, yet the Windows? I own a powerful ourselves. Many readers requested 2001… and all that ink-jet and, joy, it works. design department. I’ve been technology is infinitely better. AMD 500MHz PC, running that we put the so-called “finished” Philip Tyler able to improve my Web site Why then does software cost Windows 98. However, earlier version of Netscape on our CD. We 1 Napster releases a Mac version of its MP3-sharing software. Expect the (www.big-b.co.uk) ten-fold since much the same? Although this year I bought a Blueberry did point out inside the magazine that subsequent lawsuit to lag six months behind its Windows counterpart. Subject: Spare-parts misery buying my iMac. Logo design much-improved, surely there 350MHz iMac, because I wanted we found even this version “prone to 2 Steve Jobs vows to have speedier CPUs in 2001. “510MHz or bust!” the My 5400 Mac has been out of for one has been speeded-up are also many millions more easy Internet access, and my crashes”. For now, we recommend cocky CEO declares. service for months. It’s awaiting by software such as AppleWorks users around the world, which PC doesn’t have a modem. IE5 (also on our CD) for Web 3 Hackers break into Microsoft’s corporate network. After poking around the a spare part that has been out and Flash for Mac. Even should have kept the cost-per- While I agree that Mac OS is browsing. Microsoft’s products company’s secret files, the hackers added insult to injury by fixing dozens of of stock at Apple for more than Microsoft software is good Spotted a Mac in a weird place? unit down. Production costs much better than Windows, I for the Mac platform are rarely a bugs in the Windows 2000 source code. three months. on a Mac. If Apple was to sell Send us the evidence. have also dropped and don’t believe that Windows isn’t let-down.

10 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 For the information as it happens visit Macworld Online Daily News (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the day For the information as it happens visit Macworld Online Daily News (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the day Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 11 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 Cover CD This month’s cover CD features four stonking game demos plus 30-day trials of Macromedia Fireworks 4 and Extensis Preflight Pro 2, plus all the latest demos, utilities, shareware and updaters. Vic Lennard leads on… MAIN ITEMS

Theme Park World demo In Theme Park World you get to create and operate the most exciting, attractive and feature-packed amusement parks your imagination can conjure up. Pretty soon, you’ll be in charge of a living, breathing and ever-growing world of your own. The demo is a cut down version with only one of the four park themes, and you can only play in Instant Action mode. Many rides, sideshows, shops and features are missing as is the background music and online functionality.

WaterRace demo WaterRace is an offshore racing game with unique characters, levels and boats, each having their own technical characteristics. Mastering the different boats and levels is a real challenge. The demo is limited to a single level with three boats. Heavy Metal Practice level and network F.A.K.K.2 demo game are disabled. Requires Take on the role of a G3 with at least 6MB F.A.K.K.2 in this cutting- VRAM, and Mac OS 8.5. edge 3D-action game. Demo contains four levels, five weapons and six enemies. Requires a G3/ Rage Pro or better, 64MB RAM and Mac OS 8.6.

Championship Manager demo Preflight Pro 2.1.2 trial Fireworks 4 trial Championship Manager is Prevent wasted film, time and pre-press Create, edit and animate Web an enhanced 2000/2001 labour with Extensis Preflight Pro 2.1.2. graphics using a complete set of season version of the Inspect multiple files based on customizable bitmap and vector tools. Use configurable realistic soccer management output-profiles. Automation features include export controls to optimize your images, simulation game. The Watch Folders, creating Acrobat PDFs, running give them advanced interactivity, and demo allows for play to the AppleScripts, and Imation OPEN support. export them into Dreamweaver and other half-season mark. Needs a Supports all major desktop publishing and HTML-xediting environments. Launch and 120MHz PowerMac, Mac imaging applications. edit the graphics from inside Dreamweaver OS 8.0, and 32MB RAM. Trial is fully functional for 30 days. or Flash. Full 30-day trial. page 14

For the information as it happens visit Macworld Online Daily News (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the day Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 13 Cover CD FEBRUARY 2001

Before you start working your way through the software on our CD, INSTALL go to the System Utilities folder and make sure you install the following:

■ Acrobat Reader+Search 4 ■ StuffIt & RealPlayer ■ System tools & ATM Lite ■ QuickTime 4.1.2 Install this version to be able to read many Versions 5.5 and 6.0 of StuffIt Expander and DropStuff The CD also carries the latest version of InternetConfig, Some programs require QuickTime 4.1.2. This can be of the on-screen manuals. are included as is the installer for RealPlayer 8. UnZip 5.32 and ATM Lite 4.6.1 (required for Suitcase 9). downloaded from www.apple.com/quicktime/download.

INSIDE MACWORLD

Desktop Magician 2.0 Phrazer 1.0 WebShocker 2.2 GraphicConverter 4.0.1 Save/restore your complete Loop-based music Comprehensive Web- Excellent graphic file desktop environment, composition tool. Loops animation production tool. format converter and including icons, windows, are automatically tempo- Integrated, streamlined manipulator. Many new applications, documents, mapped and pitch stretched environment that allows features. Shareware. servers and monitor so that everything stays you to create, maintain settings. Shareware. synchronized. Demo. and preview animations. Trial version. CD CATALOGUE KeyStrokes 2.0.1 Reason 1.0 Provides a fully functional Classic music studio Courtesy of Mark Pirri’s superb DiskTracker on-screen keyboard that rack – samplers, analogue plus… program, Macworld brings you a searchable you can use to type with synths, mixers, drum iView Multimedia 3.8.4 catalogue of all our CDs from 1997 to the mouse anywhere machines, effects, and LiveSlideShow Plus demo 2001 – over 202,000 files! This will you would use a normal a realtime multi-track OneApp Slide Show 5.6.5 grow month by month to allow you keyboard. Shareware. sequencer. Demo. Peak 2.53 demos to find any file you want, without wearing out your CD-ROM drive. The latest version of DiskTracker (2.0.3) is also included – don’t forget to SERIOUS SOFTWARE includes register if you find our library useful.

VSE Web Site Turbo 4.0 Pal-it! 1.1 Ranges Plug-in demo VSE Web Site Turbo is a tool StepUp Pal-it! is a FileMaker The powerful Ranges Plug-in that strips unnecessary data Pro developer tool. It gives the for FileMaker Pro uses a starting from HTML documents, resulting in size developer the ability to create floating date and an ending date to generate a reductions averaging from 20 to 50 per cent palette windows for FileMaker solutions. range of values between those two dates. based on content. It also optimizes JPEG The palettes contain graphics that when The Ranges plug-in will generate number and GIF images so that your Web pages pressed, execute a script in FileMaker files. ranges as well allowing developers to add load as fast as possible. The faster your Pal-it! also includes a built-in calendar dynamic range-based features to their Web site is displayed, the better will be palette window that enables a user FileMaker Pro solutions. visitors’ impression of your Web site, to quickly enter dates into a FileMaker Features include the generation of company and product. database field. The palette windows ‘float’ dynamic on-screen data, financial or The unregistered demo version is fully above all FileMaker windows and can be otherwise; the use of ranges in conjunction functional, but mixes up the text on the moved on the screen by the end user. with Go To Related Records for quick report optimized version of your Web pages so The package includes a number of generation; integration of the included that you cannot publish them on your demonstration files including ‘navigate’, Calendar Solution into new or existing files; Web server. Of course, original Web pages ‘control’ and ‘find’. Licence required for the ability to purchase a single licence and remain unchanged. commercial solution distribution. use it in an unlimited number of solutions. page 16

14 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 For the information as it happens visit Macworld Online Daily News (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the day FAULTY COVER CD-ROM? •If your cover disc is broken and you want a replacement CD, please contact Kelly Crowley, on 020 7831 9252, or email to [email protected]. •If your cover CD doesn’t seem to work as it should, please check you have read all the instructions on the cover disc pages carefully first. If it still doesn’t work, then please email Cover CD FEBRUARY 2001 Woody Phillips at [email protected]. GAMES WORLD DEMOS & GAMES

Vanessa Chess Bridge Baron 11 demo QuickShot Deluxe 2.03 Other demos this month include 20th Recognized by bridge experts Test your reflexes, hand-eye Century Aerial Joust (Tactical Air Combat as the best computer bridge co-ordination, and decision- Simulator) and the classic Puzzle Madness. game available. Beginners and experienced making skills. QuickShot Deluxe 2 provides This month’s Top 10 Shareware Games again players alike can improve their bridge game a police-style simulation where threatening offer variety. Arcaders will enjoy Droids 1.3, by practising their skills against an always- bad guys appear from behind cover. You a great new version of the classic, and Space willing opponent. If two or more people must respond with accurately placed shots Debris 2.2, an asteroids-style game. There’s also want to play, Bridge Baron can be set up that dispose of the bad guys, making critical the latest versions of MacSnake and NetTower. to accommodate two, three or four human ‘shoot or don’t shoot’ decisions. Some of For those who like playing board games, players – practise your partnership under- the people that appear are innocent the evergreen David’s BackGammon 3.9.2 is standings or compete against one another. bystanders – recognize them or accept joined by Vanessa Chess 2.0.1, one of the best Bridge Baron consists of seven programs the consequences! chess games around. And Hakoiri-Musume 0.22, in one: Play Bridge, Bridge Tournaments, Breakable items that shatter and break a Japanese puzzler similar to King of Parking, Bridge Match, Conventions, Challenges, when struck have been added, as well as will keep you busy for ages! Deal Library, and Deal Generator. bullet impact sounds that vary depending Card gamers will definitely hit Klondike The demo allows you to play 24 deals, upon the type of object shot. There’s even 7.6.2 and there’s even a couple of word try the graphical interface and look at the a replay feature at the end of each level! puzzle creators with Word Search 2.8.1 available options. Demo is limited to one standard level. and WordsCrosser 1.3.5. ALSO ON THE CD DON’T MISS…

COMMS & INTERNET INFO Sound Byte 1.8.3 ■ Cool Extras 12 applications including: SoundApp 2.7.3 Fortune Cookie 2.1 – DupliMizer 1.6.3 Virtual Composer 2.6.8 The return of the non- HTML OptimizerPro 1.9.1 crumbly Mac version PageSpinner 3.0.2 UTILITIES by popular demand! 11 categories comprising SunClock 1.2.2 Forest 1.3 – EDUCATION almost 60 useful tools for SwitchRes 2.4.3 Enjoy soothing nature Italian Words & Phrases 1.0 1984 OnLine issue 30 your Mac including: Thermograph 1.1.1 sounds – listen and relax… Nuku 1.2.2 ATPM 6.12 ABF Rename 3.4 txt2pdf 4.2 plus two other items and AddressBook 4.2.5 Znippetizer 1.2.3 ■ Mac ISPs FONTS eight developers’ utilities Clipboard Edit Internet access offers from Four items including: File Type Jig UPDATERS Abel gratis, AppleOnline and LineOne. FontCat1.3 MATHS & SCIENCE FinderPop 1.92 This month’s dedicated SmoothType 2.2.2 ImagePath XTension updaters folder includes ■ Netscape/Internet Explorer Mac Explorer 1.7 60MB of patches to Complete packages for Netscape 6 and IE 5. GRAPHICS MI Convert 2.6.2 bring many popular Palm Synch-n-Quit applications bang ■ Plus… PandoCalendar 5.5.6 up-to-date, including: … many thanks to Simon Youngjohns for our CD icons. Nine programs including: Pepper 3.5.2 Authorware 5.2 Packager earthbrowser 1.3.5 QuickFinance 3.1 Charts Pro 1.5.1 Graphing Calculator 1.2 Quick Text 3.0 Cleaner 5.0.1 Seven items including: The Atomic Mac 4.5.0 Set Bleed XTension Corel KnockOut 1.5.1 SHAREWARE BackgroundWarper 2.0 Hermstedt ISDN CD 11-2 Shareware is a distribution method, not a type of software. It PanoTools 2.2 SCREENSAVERS MacLinkPlusTrans 12.002 makes fitting your needs easier, as you can try before you buy. QuickMovie 1.2 Matrix Screensaver 2.0.1 Norton AntiVirus 5-7 (12/00) Shareware has the ultimate money-back guarantee – if you Pluggo 2.1 don’t use the product, you don’t pay for it. If you try a Shareware ICONS & UTILITIES SOUND & MUSIC Strata 3D 3.0.2 program and continue using it, you are expected to register. Three items including: 12 programs including: Virex (12/00) Support shareware authors so that they continue to provide iControl 1.2 ChordBook 2.3 StevePerfect 4.6.1 VirusBarrier Updater 1.1 high-quality programs for the Mac.

16 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 For the information as it happens visit Macworld Online Daily News (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the day Macworld News Apple to build CD-RW drives Hot Macs to burn CDs

pple is to bundle rewritable “Apple completely missed the boat by not CD drives with select A Macintosh models. This news providing CD-RW drives with its Macs. We emerged during a December conference call (see Business News, blew this. It will be fixed soon." page34), in which a contrite Apple – Steve Jobs, Apple CEO CEO Steve Jobs discussed Apple’s falling hardware sales. Personal computer sales have slumped worldwide for all manufacturers boat by not providing CD-RW drives built-in DVD-RAM writeable drive, but (as well as software giant Microsoft), with its Macs”, he said. “Apple ships cannot write to CD-R (recordable) or although media attention seems none. We just blew this. It will be CD-RW (rewritable) media; on top of focused on Apple. fixed soon.” this, DVD-RAM can’t be read by many Apple’s results have also been Most Macs ship with DVD drives. Most PC manufacturers, depressed by slower-than-expected read-only CD drives, by contrast, offer read-only sales of its G4 Cube and a badly though high-end DVD as standard and CD-RW timed reorganization of its education models ship with as a mid-range or high-end sales team in the US. DVD drives. The option. During the conference call, Jobs dual-processor “CD-ROM is being discussed another potential sales Power Mac G4 succeeded by recordable loser: “Apple completely missed the 500 includes a CD, rather than DVD in the DoubleTalk lets Macs talk with PCs

t a packed Macworld Expo in San Francisco, A Connectix seized its chance to demonstrate DoubleTalk, a completely new networking solution. This is Connectix’s first foray into the cross-platform networking solutions market – which it now shares with Thursby Software, who’s Dave (www.thursby.com) allows peer-to- peer sharing between PCs and Macs. DoubleTalk lets Macintosh users access Windows networks, enabling them to use Windows-based PostScript printers and exchange files painlessly with Windows PCs. It’s a cross- platform network communications program – a panel of the Chooser (see above). Windows Server Message Block (SMB) client for Mac OS. PostScript printers are also accessible here. Once configured, hard drives, file servers, Side by side and printers all appear on the desktop in exactly The application has been developed as an easy- the same way that Macs and Mac-compatible to-use, easy-to-configure solution. It uses known printers do. This makes it easy to navigate the Macintosh tools and techniques to provide access network from the Mac; no Windows knowledge system requirements include a PowerPC, to network resources and services. It’s capable is required. Mac OS 8.1 or later, and 24MB of RAM. of accessing Windows file-servers, and individual DoubleTalk is compatible with all versions Connectix also confirmed that it is working Windows workstations for peer-to-peer file of Windows, so any PC network is accessible. closely with Apple to produce a version of Virtual sharing, and will access Windows-only PostScript The networking solution is slated to cost $99. PC 4 carbonized for Mac OS X. The company does printers. All Windows network services are Connectix claims DoubleTalk is capable not plan on bringing the contentious Virtual Game accessible through the Chooser. of providing more print-queue information than Station PlayStation emulator to Mac OS X, as Once the application is installed and is available in the Mac OS. demand doesn’t justify the port. configured, and the Mac is logged-on to the According to the company, DoubleTalk’s built- ■ Thursby Software demonstrated a Mac OS X network, all DoubleTalk’s interactions are handled in print-management mechanism is faster than version of its popular Dave file-share software at through the Chooser. Windows Domains and Apple’s own. Macworld Expo in San Francisco. Dave for Mac Workgroups appear in the AppleTalk Zones panel Connectix promises that DoubleTalk users will OS X is expected to be available within 90 days of the Chooser. Individual servers and shared enjoy faster laser-printing throughput when the of Apple's formal release of the new operating volumes also appear in the ‘Select a file server’ program is installed. DoubleTalk’s minimum system. MW

18 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 For the information as it happens visit Macworld Online Daily News (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the day into next Macs

short term,” said Ray Freeman, ATAPI DVD-RAM drive costs about facilitator of the Optical Storage £500, and a 9.4GB disc without a Technology Association: “That’s cartridge costs about £30, down where Apple went off track. The market from near £55 this time last year. was not ready for DVD-recordable.” Manufacturers, including Compaq, Freeman suggests that rather have already put DVD-RAM on than offer CD-RW as a replacement FireWire-enabled systems; they also for DVD-ROM, “what makes more offer CD-RW drives as options. Unlike sense is to offer a combination CD-R media – which requires special DVD/CD-RW drive that keeps software such as Adaptec Toast Apple’s (read-only) DVD capabilities to record CDs – DVD-RAM media and offers CD writing capabilities. just shows up on the desktop. However, the next clear step is DVD DVD+RW, a DVD recordable recordable and CD-RW in one device.” format backed by Sony, Philips Electronics and Ricoh, is ROM is wrong, rewrite backward-compatible with all According to reports, Apple is previous CD and DVD standards, investigating all of these options. One but the format has languished model reportedly under consideration, for three years Pioneer’s forthcoming DVR-A03, and no products writes to CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R and are shipping. DVD-RW media. Media will cost It is not around £34 for DVD-R disks and £19 expected to £25 for DVD-RW disks. Pioneer’s to reach drive will sell for less than £1,000 and 4.7GB per is expected to ship to manufacturers side until in January and to consumers in April, mid-2001. said Pioneer DVD marketing manager DVD/CD-RW Mike Mickes. “Pioneer has had combination drives, interest from a variety of OEM available now, combine inexpensive customers,” he added. Mickes would DVD-ROM and CD-RW mechanisms. not reveal if Apple was one of these. Although they cannot write to DVD Both CD-R and CD-RW drives have media, Apple would likely be able become more popular as costs for the to support the technology with a mechanisms and media have fallen. minimum of software development. They are especially popular for Some users have transplanted ATA recording audio CDs. IDC analysts DVD/CD-RW drives from PCs to estimate that sales of CD-R and CD- Macs, using them with Apple’s RW drives will soon overtake those of CD/DVD driver. MW CD-ROM devices. David Read

DVD disparity A caveat exists – recordable DVD technology is still in its early stages, with multiple, and often incompatible Mac prices cut by up to £700 formats including DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM and DVD/CD-RW s its Christmas rebates finished, Apple slashed retail prices on selected vying for success. A professional models. Apple has cut the price of the single-processor Power Mac The DVD-RAM drive in Apple’s G4 from £1,149 to just £899. The 450MHz G4 Cube also falls below the magic £1,000 Power Mac G4 500, manufactured by barrier, cut from £1,249 to £999. PowerBooks and dual-processor Power Macs are Panasonic, is ideally suited for video also now considerably cheaper than last year. The consumer iMac and iBook prices production “because of its ease of remain untouched. use and superior data quality,” said The 450MHz dual-processor G4 Power Mac (with 128MB of RAM and 30GB hard Panasonic spokesman Andy Marken. drive) is now £200 cheaper at £1,399. The 500MHz DP G4 (256MB RAM, 40GB hard However, the drive can write only to drive) has had its price cut by £700 to £1,799. Server versions of the G4 Power Macs DVD-RAM media, not CD-R, CD-RW were also reduced in cost. The entry-level 400MHz PowerBook, which previously cost or any other writeable DVD flavour. £1,699, was made £300 cheaper. The 500MHz PowerBook also saw a £300 price Compounding this, many DVD drives reduction, now costing £1,599. All prices exclude VAT. The price cuts preceeded can’t read DVD-RAM, though the Apple’s new-Mac announcements at Macworld Expo (www.macworld.co.uk/sf2001). problem is being resolved as new ■ Apple is also offering UK customers a substantial discount (nearly £1,000) on DVD drives come to market. Any the Adobe Design Collection, which includes Illustrator 9.0, Photoshop 6.0, InDesign 12x-or-faster DVD drive can read 1.5 and Acrobat 4.0. Any customer purchasing a Power Macintosh G4, G4 Cube or DVD-RAM, Marken said. PowerBook before March 31 can buy the Adobe Design Collection for £499 – a saving The latest generation of DVD-RAM of £920 when compared to buying all four products separately. The offer applies to sales from the Apple eliminated the disc cartridge, and Store and participating Apple Authorized Resellers, and must be bought at the same time as the computer. increased capacity from 2.6GB to The Education deal is even better at just £279, when purchased with a Mac. MW 4.7GB of data on each side. A retail

Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 19 Macworld News Apple multimedia and Connectix emulator updated

QuickTime 5 Preview 2 Virtual PC 4 gets drops Aqua elements Windows on Mac

QT5 Preview 1: OS X controls QT5 Preview 2: OS 9 controls

pple has posted version 2 of its QuickTime 5 Public Preview onnectix has released a new Windows can also be resized for A multimedia standard, this time for both Macs and Windows version of its Windows emulator the first time. PCs. While there aren’t many new features in QT5 PP2, Apple has C for the Mac, Virtual PC 4. Other interface improvements listened to user feedback by removing the controversial Mac OS X The program, which can be used include scrollable windows, and elements from the OS 9 version to access Windows networks and support for three-button and scroll Users had voiced their annoyance that the amber minimize run PC applications on the Mac, now mice. Help has also been improved, button doesn’t work in Mac OS 9. The Red Close control and supports the drag-&-dropping of text with Virtual PC 4 – including a Virtual Green Maximize buttons did work – as they will in the forthcoming and data between Mac and Windows Disk Assistant, Setup Assistant and revamped operating system, OS X. The removal of QT5’s Mac OS X- operating systems. The upgraded a more interactive Help menu. like “traffic-light” buttons reflects a decision on Apple’s part to application features significant Network support has also been maintain a consistent “look-&-feel” across its OS 9 products. performance improvements, and boosted. The emulator offers full The traffic lights will likely return when Mac OS X is released a refined user interface, according ethernet support, so Macintosh – the “minimize” button will then send the Player to the Dock. to Connectix. users running Virtual PC 4 can Preview 2 includes support for media skins, making it possible Virtual PC 4 integrates Velocity access PC network protocols to access for QuickTime developers to distribute heavily customized interfaces. Engine support for G4 Power Macs. servers, printers and PCs. Supported And despite losing the traffic-lights, the interface has been made Additional memory (up to 512MB of protocols include: Novell NetWare sleeker, with the Player featuring an easy-to-use Favorites feature. RAM) can be allocated to the Windows (IPX), Microsoft Networking (NetBEUI), The Mac flavour of QuickTime Preview 2 also supports automated operating system inside Virtual PC, Microsoft Remote Access Services content creation, making use of QuickTime’s AppleScript support. without quitting the application. (RAS), and Microsoft Virtual Private It offers improved MPEG-1 and SHOUTcast support with an improved The Windows disk-image appears Networks (VPN). DV codec for faster rendering. The SHOUTcast support lets QuickTime as a virtual hard disk on the Mac hard music fans playback MP3 audio files from the SHOUTcast site. drive. Hunger for disk space has been Windows of opportunity The second version has been optimized to provide the best eased, with Virtual PC 4 only using Two versions of Virtual PC 4.0 possible streaming experience when combined with QuickTime what disk space it requires, rather (Computers Unlimited, 020 8358 5857) Streaming Server 3. QT5 Preview 2 replaces older versions of than a preset amount. This enables are currently available; a £75 upgrade QuickTime. Download it from www.apple.com/quicktime/preview. MW a number of different Windows version, and one with Windows 98 operating systems to be run on pre-installed (£159). PCDOS and the Mac’s desktop – limited by the Windows Me versions are promised amount of RAM available to the Mac. soon, with supporting updates for Connectix has developed a new, other operating systems (including modular system called Virtual PC OS Linux) also in the pipeline. Packs. New operating systems can be Connectix is also ready for the added simply by copying the relevant release of Mac OS X, promising to emulator to the Mac’s hard drive. release Virtual PC for Mac OS X shortly You can drag items from the Mac after the final version of Apple’s QT5 Preview 2: for Windows Finder to the window of any open operating system ships. operating system and vice versa. Review of Virtual PC 4, page 69

20 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 For the information as it happens visit Macworld Online Daily News (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the day Tiny Mac not as unupgradeable as first thought Macworld News Cube minds the gap

ne of the criticisms of Apple’s to develop a single upgrade that G4 Cube is its lack of upgrade works in desktop G4 and Cube Opotential. However, though models. This would widen the market Apple won’t discuss it, the Cube, like and make a Cube upgrade more any Mac, can be upgraded, and Mac feasible, said Jack Kolk, general vendors said they could offer CPU and manager of XLR8. video-card add-ons for the G4 Cube Seppala agreed that it may if there proved to be sufficient market be possible to offer upgrades that demand. The hurdles have more to support both Cube and desktop do with economics than technology. G4s – even with multiple processors. At least for now, vendors would “We will be looking at the Cube in have to make special versions of their one to two years based upon the upgrade products that fit inside the state of the technology then,” he Cube, and would thus have to justify said. However, he warned that heat the extra expense of supporting an or power-consumption issues could Apple model that accounts for a tiny be barriers to such a universal design. percentage of the overall Mac market. “It is too early to tell now,” he said. See page 24 for upgrades announced One obstacle to such a “universal at San Francisco’s Macworld Expo. upgrade” would be the different heat The Cube includes most of the sinks used in the Cube and desktop adapted standard off-the-shelf components G4 systems. “Given the special to fit in found in current desktop G4s. thermal requirements in the G4 Cube, a smaller However, these parts have been deftly it is probably best to have a form space. adapted to the Cube’s smaller space, factor that uses (the built-in) heat As with and in doing so, Apple has deviated sink,” said Chris Cooksey, director CPU upgrades, from the design standards defined for of engineering at XLR8. the issues boil down these components. For example, the to economics more Cube has a standard ATA connector Video upgrades than any technical for the hard drive, but only one hard The Cube shipped with a special challenges. drive can be connected because of the version of ATI’s Rage 128 graphics A manufacturer could easily Cube’s space considerations. controller that plugs into its AGP offer a video card for the Cube, but slot. Buyers now have the option of may not see much profit potential CPU upgrades substituting ATI’s more-powerful because of the limited market. Office 2001 The Cube’s CPU sits on a Radeon as a £70 build-to-order (BTO) However, the situation could change daughtercard that plugs into the option from Apple. “All of our Cube if vendors build cards that work Manager motherboard through the same Radeons are sold exclusively to in desktop G4s and the Cube. connector used in current desktop Apple,” said Deanna Perkins, public “Certainly, when we go to design G4s. Because it’s an industry-standard relations specialist for ATI. Apple, a next-generation graphics card, connector that first saw use in PC at least for now, won’t offer the we will design a form factor that laptops, it’s readily available to Radeon as an aftermarket option accommodates as many Mac models upgrade vendors. And the Cube’s CPU for customers who’ve already bought as possible,” Perkins said. daughtercard doesn’t use proprietary the Cube. Apple ROMs, making it easier still to The retail version of the Radeon Memory and storage design compatible CPU upgrades. card includes a TV-out (composite CPU and video-card upgrades may “We don’t see any technical and S-Video) port and DVI connector; lie in the Cube’s near future, but even icrosoft has barriers to upgrading the Cube,” said the BTO version lacks TV-out and now, you can easily boost the petite Mreleased a free Karl Seppala, director of marketing at replaces DVI with the Apple Desktop Mac’s memory and disk storage. By utility for Microsoft Sonnet. “The most likely ‘gotcha’ is Connector (ADC), which combines default, the Cube ships with 64MB Office 2001 users. Office going to be the physical size.” video, USB and power in one plug. to 256MB of pre-installed RAM. The Manager 1.0 adds an However, he noted that there’s The BTO version for the Cube is Cube’s three DIMM sockets can each icon to the screen’s top currently no reason to offer CPU about a quarter-inch shorter than the accept PC100 SDRAM DIMMs up to menu bar. From here, upgrades for the Cube because it standard version, and has a different 512MB, accommodating total users can launch any sports the fastest G4 processors metal bracket to fit the Cube’s form memory of 1.5GB. These are the same of Office’s apps (Word, available. Sonnet generally offers factor. DIMMs used in Apple’s other recent Excel, PowerPoint and an upgrade when it can double a Like other new Macs, the Cube Macs. Adding memory can often Entourage), as well as Mac’s performance for less than employs a variation of the standard provide a bigger performance boost Internet Explorer. Any $500 (about £350), he said. Another AGP connector, using a small black than a faster CPU. other application can be barrier is the relatively small number pin-block at the front of the connector Higher-capacity replacements for added to the drop-down of Cubes that have been sold. to provide extra power for the ADC. the Cube’s internal 20GB ATA drive are menu for quick launching Working in the Cube’s favour is its However, standard AGP cards can still readily available. Users can also opt access. technical similarity to the desktop G4, plug into the modified connector, for an external FireWire hard drive. www.microsoft.com/mac which makes it theoretically possible though they would still need to be David Read and Peter Cohen MW

For the information as it happens visit Macworld Online Daily News (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the day Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 23 Macworld News Software companies start big native-application roll-out OS X big news in San Francisco

pple played at home this company’s assault on the potential of month with the Macworld what the Web can do, demonstrating A Conference and Expo a series of technologies the company (www.macworldexpo.com) held in San has in development. In the opposite Francisco, close to the company’s corner, Adobe demonstrated all its Cupertino HQ. The annual event took products, including Premiere 6.0, place at the Moscone Centre, January GoLive 5.0, Photoshop 6.0 and OS X date ’set’ 9-12. It kicked off with a keynote InDesign, at the show. speech from Apple CEO Steve Jobs, and broke attendance records, the X-po goes native organizers claim. Over 85,000 visitors Corel took a stall at Expo enjoyed busy stands, seminars and to showcase its Mac products, workshops from nearly 500 sporting a number of updates exhibitors. to current products in its range, Griffin Technologies caused Software announcements were including a hybrid, PC/Mac version a sensation with the first upgrade central for Apple during this year’s of Painter 6.1. Corel also launched designed specifically for the Power event. In its recently released financial CorelDraw 10 for the Mac, Mac G4 Cube. CubePort is a card that report to the US Securities and which will be Mac OS X native. replaces the internal modem with a Exchange Commission, Apple The Canadian company single serial port. admitted that Mac OS X needs third- demonstrated new versions of Since the CubePort connects party developers to ‘carbonize’ their the applications purchased from directly to the Cube’s motherboard via

s Macworld goes to applications in order to encourage MetaCreations last year, including the internal modem slot, it offers Cube ANIMATION OF DARKSIDE © COURTESY Apress, reports claim that adoption of its next-generation Corel Bryce and Corel KnockOut owners a quick-and-easy way to link Apple has set February 24, operating system. Carbonized running on OS X. up with a variety of printers and MIDI (see page 56), DeskJet 640 and HP Lightwave takes 3D to Mac OS X 2001 as the release date for versions of programs will run faster Corel will announce its new devices. The product is compatible with Color LaserJet 4550N. Its digital Newtek demonstrated a Mac OS X-compatible preview version of its 3D modeller the full version of Mac OS X, on OS X, as well as benefiting from corporate strategy this month; all Mac serial devices, as long as the cameras also took a bow, with Mac Lightwave 6.5. This version is fully optimized for the PowerPC G4 processor’s built-in its next-generation operating its more modern features. and this open demonstration peripheral’s software is compatible with drivers freshly released for some Velocity Engine, as well as QuickTime and OpenGL. The upgrade adds character- system. Attendees heard a keynote of Mac support ends speculation the Mac OS. models. HP’s Mac-compatible camera animation tools and improved rendering to Lightwave’s powerful suite of 3D modelling Coincidentally, February speech from Kevin Browne, general that the company would cease Griffin also demonstrated FailSafe, range now includes the 315/315xi, tools. 24 is the birthday of both manager of Microsoft’s Mac Business development for the platform. its server-restart device for desktop G4 the 618/618xi, 912/912xi and Above left: Hewlett-Packard’s PhotoSmart C618 digital camera. Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Unit, who announced a series Dantz has now carbonized Power Macs. FailSafe connects to the Photosmart series of cameras. Left: HP’s LaserJet 3200 Macworld editor-in-chief, of new Microsoft initiatives (see Retrospect, its flagship back-up modem slot, and will restart a crashed LaCie took the wraps off its Simon Jary. It is also the www.macworld.co.uk/sf2001), but application, and previewed it for server. The product can force a restart photon18blue LCD 18-inch, flat-panel final day of Macworld disappointed Mac gamers with the Expo crowd. Dantz promises no matter how hard the crash, claims monitor, and demonstrated its SCSI Expo/Tokyo. no news on Microsoft’s New York to ship the carbonized Retrospect Griffin. It will also monitor user-selected and FireWire CD-RW 16x10x40x Apple’s official line promise to port its games titles when Mac OS X is released. applications for crashes. drives (see product news). Its entire before the event is that to the Mac. Active Concepts demonstrated The $35 iMic USB audio adaptor family of FireWire-based 9.4GB DVD- Mac OS X will ship in At another keynote, Macromedia Funnel Web, its award-winning (pictured above) from Griffin was also RAM solutions (see page 56) and “early 2001”. CEO Rob Burgess discussed the site traffic-analysis and business- on show. Shipping now in the US, this its TX12000 Ultra 160 RAID Tower also demonstrated its recently It is claimed that intelligence software, optimized includes audio-in and -output facilities system were also unveiled, along with announced Graffiti resolution- Mac OS X has passed the to run on Mac OS X. and hosts a switch to select either its newly announced FireWire/USB- independent, 2D/3D title effects ‘feature complete’ stage Asanté recently released line-level or Mic-level input devices. connectable PocketDrive CDRW, and and animation plug-in application of development – all that Mac OS X Beta drivers for three Non-USB microphones will work with FireWire external hard drives. for video editing. remains is bug-removal and popular products, including its the iMic. Dazzle Multimedia showed its Alien Skin Software showed its Eye optimization. An update to AsantéFast 10/100 PCI card, it’s Hollywood DV-Bridge, which enables Candy 4000 product – a collection of OS X, code-named “Orient”, GigaNIX Gigabit Ethernet Adaptor Macintosh users to capture older 23 filters for Photoshop, ImageReady, is reported to be released 1000 BaseT and the GigaNIC 1064SX X and Toast 5.0 analogue video content, mix it with Fireworks or Canvas. These filters within three to 12 months PCI card. Adaptec showed its PowerDomain DV video, and edit and output it in include chrome, smoke, fire and wood of OS X version 1.0’s release. 29160 SCSI card (left). Its subsidiary either DV or analogue formats. This effects for image creation and editing. Fast, big and hot GBs As part of a “massive” company Roxio showed its upgraded product has been designed to simplify EMedia announced its eMedia promotion, Apple is industry-standard CD-burning the task of moving video content Bass Method guitar teaching CD- CE launched its Xcaret Pro 99 expansion-bay hard drives at reportedly considering Odessa’s Expo files application Toast 5.0 for the first time. between camcorders, VCRs and Macs. ROM, the newest addition to its series M Macworld Expo. The drives add between 6GB and 30GB of offering free OS X updates Odessa Systems announced and demonstrated Hewlett-Packard booked a 40-x- The DV Bridge is a FireWire device, of guitar-teaching products. The Bass disk space to FireWire-enabled PowerBooks, and cost between £125 to those who purchase ConceptDraw for Mac OS X. This a cross 50-foot booth just beside the hall and will cost $299 on its release Method CD features some tracks from and £605. Xcaret Pro 99 drives require no software drivers and draw Macs at Expo or after. Plans platform, technical and business drawing and entrance. It showed a dozen products in the US later this year. its Guitar Method series, so student power from the host PowerBook. All configurations of the drive will to load OS X as the default illustration application. The Mac OS X version to the public for the first time, and guitarists and bass guitarists can jam respond to “Sleep” and “Spin Down” commands. OS on Apple’s professional- will be available as a free upgrade for all announced the HP LaserJet 3200M, FX-po treats together. The drives are hot-pluggable, and MCE claims they are level systems are also being registered owners of ConceptDraw. The its business-level professional colour Smaller vendors took exhibition space Macworld Expo, San Francisco “high-performance devices” that are “faster than your internal considered, according to application will cost £99, and is also available printer. HP demonstrated all its recent to showcase their solutions. Boris FX 2001 show news is also be available hard drive”. All ship with a one-year warranty. MW anonymous sources. MW online (www.conceptdraw.com). printers, including the DeskJet 990Cxi showed off Boris FX and Boris RED for at www.macworld.co.uk/sf2001. Mac Accessory Centre, 0191 296 1500 Apple’s Final Cut Pro. The company Jonny Evans MW

24 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 Macworld Expo daily news, galleries and reviews at www.macworld.co.uk/sf2001, updated throughout the day Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 25 Macworld News Volume of high-speed devices favours Intel standard FireWire faces USB tidal wave

pple may use USB to drive high-bandwidth devices,” such as film becomes part of the standard PC input devices, printers and scanners or DV camcorders. chip set and the devices become A other peripherals, but for faster FireWire advocates also point to more popular, “we will launch hardware connections, it favours its other benefits, such as its ability to a USB 2.0 film scanner,” he said. own FireWire (IEEE 1394) technology operate without the presence of a Kodak is taking a “wait-and-see” over USB 2.0, the high-speed computer, and forthcoming revisions approach, said Craig McGowan, successor to the current USB 1.1 that will increase speed to 800 Mbps, product manager for software standard. Nevertheless, interviews and then to 1,600 Mbps. development at Kodak Digital & with peripheral manufacturers Applied Imaging. USB 1.1 has worked Dr iMac suggest that Apple may have no Numbers count well in Kodak’s still digital cameras, choice but to offer USB 2.0 in its USB 2.0’s big advantage, HP’s Beeman he said. As for USB 2.0, “we’re not sure Mac systems. said, is that it enables development of what the need is right now,” he said. “We think it would be surprising if high-speed peripherals at a low cost. One factor behind Kodak’s Apple didn’t adopt it at some point,” USB devices already vastly outnumber ambivalence, McGowan said, is said Ed Beeman, product line architect FireWire products, and he said it’s Apple’s lack of support for USB 2.0. in Hewlett-Packard’s Digital Imaging relatively easy for vendors to modify “If going to USB 2.0 means we’ll lose division. With many PC vendors USB 1.1 devices to support the new our Mac customers for a negligible jumping on the USB 2.0 bandwagon, standard. Macs with the appropriate gain in the Windows market, we have “there’s a lot of momentum to carry drivers will be able to use USB 2.0 to consider that carefully,” he said. it forward,” he said. peripherals, but only at USB 1.1’s “We clearly value our Mac customers.” he University of Like other vendors, Beeman 12-Mbps throughput. One solution, according to T Northumbria is issuing expects to see a big wave of USB 2.0 One company that’s aggressively McGowan, would be to incorporate Jonathan Ive, Apple’s peripherals in the second half of 2001. promoting USB 2.0 on the Mac is both high-speed standards into a London-born iMac designer, The first to appear will be hard drives, Orange Micro, which demonstrated single camera. However, Iomega’s with an Honorary Doctorate he said, because they are easily several such products at the recent Redford believes that manufacturers of Civil Law. adapted to the new interface and Fall Comdex 2000 trade show. will find this option too costly. Ive, 33, is vice-president stand to get a big performance Beeman believes that Orange Micro’s of industrial design at benefit from USB 2.0’s higher strong advocacy for USB 2.0 might Speed selections Apple, and graduated from bandwidth. motivate Apple to take a closer look Chuck Westfall, manager of technical Northumbria in 1989. He “Scanners will follow shortly,” at the technology. information for Canon, believes that gained a First Class (Hons) he said, “then other kinds of HP Minolta is betting on a big push Apple will be putting its “head in the degree in Design for products.” HP plans to offer USB 2.0 for USB 2.0 in 2002, said Mickey sand” if it chooses to support FireWire Industry from Newcastle printers, even though output devices Iwata, who works in its digital exclusively for high-speed hardware Polytechnic, Northumbria’s tend to be limited by engine speed photography division in Japan. “We connections. “It has the option to go predecessor. Ive achieved more than other factors. assume USB 2.0-ready PCs will either way if it feels like it,” he said. his fame with the award- Epson also sees summer or become main sales items in One area where USB 2.0 is unlikely winning design of Apple’s autumn 2001 as the coming-out Christmas 2001 at the earliest,” he to have an impact is input devices. revolutionary iMac in 1998. party for USB 2.0, said Robert said. Even then, he expects the new For example, Wacom’s graphics In May 1999 Vogue Ozankan, Epson’s product manager interface to appear only in higher-end tablets, which use serial and USB 1.1 described the iMac as “one for graphic arts and corporate machines. So the company may offer interfaces, “already deliver more data of spring’s hottest fashion scanners. “We’ll be there with a USB 2.0-compliant digital camera in to the computer than software can statements”. Over two USB 2.0 products,” he said. spring 2002 at the earliest, he said. keep up with,” said Wacom marketing million iMacs were sold in However, he observed that High-speed interfaces are more director Scott Rawlings. the first year of production FireWire currently offers better important for scanners than digital Epson’s Ozankan noted that with – when it collected various sustained throughput than USB 2.0, cameras, he said, noting that some USB 2.0 devices about a year away, awards, including a Gold even though its top speed is 400 customers have “commented” on the there is still plenty of time for Apple award from the Industrial megabits/second (Mbps) compared slow USB 1.1 connection in Minolta’s to rethink its position. “I don’t think Designers Society and with the latter’s 480 Mbps. “It’s not Dimage Scan Dual II film scanner. The it’s anything Mac people have to ‘Object of the Year’ by the maximum speed you can hit at company is considering FireWire worry about right now,” he said. The Face. once,” he said. “The sustained because it’s already established as a “Just something to keep their eye on.” throughput of FireWire is better for high-speed connection. When USB 2.0 Joe LiPetri MW

26 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 For the information as it happens visit Macworld Online Daily News (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the day Macworld News Apple’s ATI partnership may soon be challenged Macworld News Graphics card Palm’s future in hand

alm laid out its vision for handheld computing and announced several important technology plans and relationships at PalmSource 2000, its annual conference for shark soup P hardware and software developers. Palm OS-based handheld computers can sync personal information with Macs and Windows PCs and download Internet pages. The 3,000 developers, who make hardware add-ons, software and services for Palm handhelds, got a preview of forthcoming technologies, including a new version of the Voodoo hexed Palm operating system and a new slot for add-ons that will soon be standard on Palm products. Palm executives said planned moves to a new processor family and to higher- resolution screens will not occur until next year. PalmSource attendees took home a beta version of Palm OS 4.0, the next edition of as 3dfx sells the handheld’s operating system. Improvements include richer colour, integrated support for telephony, and enhanced security. Palm OS 4.0 is designed to enable rich, Palm OS-based telephony. Palm handhelds will be able to access most of the world’s major wireless networks, including CDPD, CDMA, GSM, GPRS, PDC, and Mobitex. out to Nvidia The platform is supported by several leaders in mobile phones, including Nokia, Apple’s design backed Motorola, and Kyocera. In addition to these vendors, Palm CEO Carl Yankowski announced raphics-accelerator giant 3dfx Interactive is to sell The race for graphics supremacy claims first victim that Samsung was the latest licensee. Samsung is developing a new Palm OS-based BT lays claim most of its assets to long-time competitor Nvidia in Graphics accelerators, such as 3dfx’s Voodoo card, make 3D-based games smartphone for release in the first half of this year. G a cash/stock deal worth $107.4 million. This decision (MacSoft’s Driver shown here) really motor. to Web links has been forced on the company after several unsuccessful Palm connects to ARM quarters. A 3dfx spokesperson explained that “high Yankowski announced that Palm is taking its personal-information manager (PIM) to the ritish Telecom has inventory expenses, decreasing margins and slowing into our own. The 3dfx brand could play a role; and we can Internet, leveraging the acquisition of AnyDay.com, and creating the MyPalm portal. The Bcommenced legal demand have done irreparable harm to 3dfx”. call Voodoo our own,” he added. portal includes wireless email, online calendar synchronization, browsing, Web searching, action against US ISP The 3dfx sale is the first sign of a general shake-up “We expect that Nvidia will continue the legacy and a rich array of online content and services, all sized for the handheld’s screen. Existing Prodigy Communications, in the graphics-card market. Industry rumour has it that that 3dfx began in 1994,” said 3dfx CEO, Alex Leupp. email solutions will be extended to include message notification, and instant messaging. alleging copyright Nvidia may already be contracted to supply graphics “The combination of the two will result in even greater PC Palm handhelds will also be enabled as passkeys and eventually as electronic wallets. infringement on one of the accelerators for Apple in future PowerBooks, in place graphics leadership.” Possible uses include repositories for a driver’s licence, passport and credit cards. World Wide Web’s most of ATI’s Rage 128 Pro. Stiff competition and price wars with companies such Bill Maggs, Palm’s chief technical officer confirmed plans to adopt a uniform slot for common features. BT Nvidia will take all 3dfx’s graphics-related assets, as ATI and Nvidia have taken their toll on 3dfx, which has expansion cards in all future models. claims to own the patent patents, pending patents, trademarks, chip inventory, seen large computer manufacturers switch alliances to Palm will also adopt a uniform base connector so that all future models will be able to for hyperlinks – the and brand names, including the best-selling Voodoo brand. competitors. Apple uses ATI solutions exclusively. 3dfx lost use the same cradles, cables and external hardware modules. technology that allows Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang revealed $55.9 million in its third quarter of 2000, and its revenues Maggs also announced that future Palm handhelds will run on an ARM processor, users to click on embedded that one of Nvidia’s primary interests in the deal was to have fallen by 63 per cent since 1999. delivering faster performance than today’s Motorola Dragonball processor – allowing the recent IDC report confirms that the trend among PC links in text or objects in attract 3dfx’s engineering staff. He expects the 3dfx The acquisition leaves a vacuum in the Mac graphics devices to handle advanced applications, such as video conferencing. ARM-based Palms A manufacturers to differentiate their products with order to jump to different purchase will help Nvidia get its products to market sooner marketplace, at least for now. Nvidia’s technological won’t be ship to users, however, until 2002, when the company also plans to release unique design features continues. The report’s findings were pages or Web sites. and accelerate Nvidia’s entry into new markets. competence remains untested in the Mac arena. So far, version 5.0 of the Palm OS. The processor design was developed by Cambridge-based ARM based on information gleaned from focus groups and surveys BT is seeking none of Nvidia’s manufacturing partners have issued a Holding – of which Apple, until recently, held a significant stake. evaluating reactions to design innovation. “appropriate reparations”. Gigapixel grab Mac-friendly graphics card. Additional PalmSource conferences will be held in Europe and Asia Pacific this year. MW One crucial factor revealed by the report is the “This lawsuit is a Last year 3dfx acquired Gigapixel, a developer of tile-based Nvidia is interested in the Macintosh. Its GeForce2 MX, importance of colour and size to the success of PC sales. blatant and shameless 3D-graphics rendering technology. Huang confirmed that a mainstream consumer-oriented graphics chip released Distinctive exterior case shapes with design textures, attempt by BT to capitalize Nvidia is interested in the technologies developed by last year, is the first product developed by Nvidia with Mac surface finishes and colours establish brand image. on the initiative and Gigapixel, which boost the performance of high-end support built in. Since then, the company has also rolled Ex-Apple boss’ advice Apple caused a sensation in PC design when it launched success of the pioneers of graphics processors without substantially increasing RAM out the GeForce2 Go – its first mobile chipset which also its revolutionary iMac in 1998. This design ethic gave the the Net,” said Dan Iannotti, requirements or chip complexity. Many graphics processing offers Mac support. to Steve Jobs: merge company the confidence to launch the world’s first coffee- legal counsel for Prodigy. chips are more complex than the CPU’s in today’s Macs table computer, the Power Macintosh G4 Cube. BT claims its Hidden – and RAM is one of the largest costs for manufacturers. PC NV ne-time Apple product marketing, Phil Schiller went on “As demonstrated by the success of Apple’s iMac, users Page patent (filed in the US While many details of the deal remain unresolved, Huang promises Nvidia will make new product O CEO, John the record last May to put paid to rumours seem receptive to new desktop PC designs,” says Roger Kay, in 1976) gives the company Huang suggests it’s possible Macintosh users will announcements this year, including a new, high-end Sculley (left) believes of the company working on a handheld IDC’s manager of desktop PC research. Apple’s cutting-edge intellectual property rights eventually see Voodoo-branded cards featuring Nvidia’s graphics processor called NV20. Macintosh users are left Apple’s future could device: “We are focused on the personal designs have forced the personal-computer market to to the hyperlink technology. own graphics technology. Huang said that 3dfx’s Voodoo to play the waiting game, watching to see if a Mac-friendly be secured through a tactical merger with computer space, not the handheld space, consider the shape, design and colour of computers. “We realised the value brand engenders great loyalty, especially among gamers. Nvidia licensee will launch a new, perhaps Voodoo-branded another technology company. and that’s that. There’s nothing going on.” “Desktop PCs designed for the consumer market will of this one patent three He hopes to boost Voodoo’s market penetration in retail, graphics card for them. Interviewed last month, Sculley told Sculley – the man who effectively need to pack a punch, while those for the corporate world years ago and have been raising it from 40 to 60 per cent. Specific details of how This wait could be short. As Macworld went to press, the ON24 Web site: “Apple should look sacked Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs back will need to be understated and elegant,” Kay says. reviewing which was the the technology will be integrated remain to be determined. rumours reported that Nvidia may already be contracted seriously at merging with a company like in 1985 – also voiced great respect for Jobs “Buyers now realize that a desktop PC may be defined best way forward,” said BT Steve Lapinsky, a senior vice president at 3dfx, to supply graphics accelerators for future PowerBooks. 3Com, which has a much more network- (now returned as Apple CEO) and his recent more broadly than before. Consumers appear to be open to spokesman Simon Gordon. confirmed that the company will dissolve its graphics- Visit www.macworld.co.uk/sf2001 for the latest updates centric understanding of the world”. accomplishments: “If you combined Steve’s buying sometimes vastly different kinds of desktop designs,” There are over two card business, though existing products will be supported and announcements from Macworld Expo, San Francisco, He praised 3Com’s wireless products, extraordinary insight into industrial design explained Kay. He believes design is key to a product’s rise billion pages on the Web, through the warranty periods, he says. as Apple’s PowerBook plans will not be announced until particularly the Palm handhelds, Palm OS and marketing with the network-centric or fall: “We are at the start of major changes in desktop-PC each carries up to 100 Nvidia will incorporate 3dfx’s technology, patents, and January 9 at the earliest. MW and Internet radio solution Kerbango. know-how of 3Com, you might find a great design,” Kay says. “It’s critical that vendors understand hyperlinks. MW brands, Huang said. “We could just wrap the technology Tom Mainelli, Brad Gibson, Peter Cohen Apple’s vice president of worldwide future for them both”. MW user preferences to plan winning products.” MW Dennis Sellers

28 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 For the information as it happens visit Macworld Online Daily News (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the day Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 29 Macworld News Make-or-break session at Digital Solutions show

Learn PDF or ‘lose Pay per QT page view et’s say that rock concert everyone’s been raving about your job’ gamble L becomes available online. You go to the Web to watch it through your QuickTime 5 Player. After a few minutes, his year’s Digital Solutions show takes place from the show stops. Pay a fee, and you can see the rest. January 30 to February 1 at London’s Olympia. Apple Welcome to the world of on-demand QuickTime content, T will use the event to showcase its next-generation brought to you by SealedMedia (www.sealedmedia.com). operating system, by staging Mac OS X briefings and The company makes downloadable digital-rights-management demos throughout the three days. software that lets Web publishers sell their online content to The show, in its second year, concentrates on credit card-carrying surfers. And its product will be available convergent publishing media – embracing design, as a plug-in for QuickTime 5. print, Internet and creative publishing solutions. “Web sites will run a movie for ten minutes and then they’ll scramble it,” says Alan Mutter, president and CEO Ad for it of SealedMedia. A key will be digital-workflow standards, organizers have “If you like it and get hooked, you can buy it and watch it.” revealed. This follows the high level of interest shown in a The plug-in lets you buy content on a view-only or a session planned by the Acrobat Users Forum (AUF), called permanent basis. “You download it once, and it’s permanently “PDF Includes Advertising”. The organizers are extending plugged into your QuickTime Player,” Mutter says. similar invitations to other groups involved in developing Adelia Cellini digital solutions for print. The meeting aims to kick-start the establishment of common digital-workflow standards for publishing and production to replace the current practices in those invest in skills for the future,” said Digital Solutions events industries. director Russell Peacock. The PDF advertising session will discuss common “The tragedy is that all of this is easily preventable digital-workflow standards for publishing and production through investment in the workforce. It’s no coincidence to replace the existing “unsatisfactory” practices. that the London Institute is running a conference The session will debate pass4press, a set of digital alongside the show, addressing the impact of digital advertising-transfer standards developed by the Periodical delivery on careers in creative, publishing and print Publishers Association (PPA), the trade association sectors,” he added. of UK magazines and business-to-business media The pass4press standards have been tested by a (www.ppa.co.uk). These standards have been developed number of publishing houses and their suppliers, including to improve digital-workflow practices, from digital- Emap, IPC, BBC Worldwide, Conde Nast and The National file transfer to proofing involved in digital advertising. Magazine Company. Will Pollard of the AUF said: “The PPA has just Alongside Apple, the show will be host to industry announced pass4press as a standard for digital advertising. heavyweights, Adobe and Quark. Adobe will demonstrate Other groups have made announcements and the AUF Premiere 6.0 and Photoshop 6.0. Quark will demonstrate has decided to support such initiatives. The time is right QuarkWrapture and Digital Media Solutions (DMS), for everyone to get together and drive digital workflow and sponsor a series of asset-management seminars. forward.” Macworld will also host a stand at the show. Tickets for the show are free on the first day, as are PDF or P45? pre-registered tickets; otherwise there’s a charge of £10 The organizers of Digital Solutions warn that ignorance per person. Admission to the seminars is free if places of digital-workflow practices will drive up to 40 per cent are booked in advance. Attendees are limited to three of current print, production and creative businesses into seminars apiece. insolvency within the next four years: Digital Solutions attracted 5,670 visitors last year. “These companies will go out of business. People will Peacock said: “Last year we expected 5,000 visitors, and be unemployed, and, through lack of the right training, got 5,600. This year we expect an audience of up to 9,000.” will become unemployable. For free entry and information updates, pre-register “Most of these businesses will be print-based, purely online at www.digitalsolutions2001.com.

PHOTO BY GORDON STUDER VISION; ILLUSTRATION OF DIGITAL COURTESY IMAGE because the print sector as a whole seems reluctant to Digital Solutions, 01923 690 682

30 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 For the information as it happens visit Macworld Online Daily News (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the day Explosive entertainment blitz for Macs Macworld News Top PC games for Mac

eral Interactive is to port two Headrillaz. Each make and model more titles to the Mac: F1 of car appears completely unique; F Championship Season 2000 a Ferrari stands apart clearly from and Enemy Engaged. Feral hopes to a McLaren, for instance. release Mac versions of the titles in Enemy Engaged is the leading April 2001. helicopter-combat simulation for PCs. Both titles were originally It has quickly acquired an excellent developed by Electronic Arts. F1 reputation among PC gamers, who Championship Season 2000 has praise its compelling, realistic won critical acclaim – influential PC helicopter behaviours, excellent games-review site Gamespot.com graphics and immersive game play. calls it “one of the most detailed Gamespot awarded the title 9.0 and visually spectacular Formula One points, saying: “The game sets a racing games available for the PC.” higher standard for how immersive The game features varying a flight sim can be, while avoiding weather conditions and a driving- becoming mired in the technical school mode. Its soundtrack hosts minutiae of combat aviation.” Chopper attack! (above) music from Fear Factory and www.feral.co.uk Phewiiiieeeeh-thuk-kapooow!!! This enemy has been engaged, married, divorced and buried courtesy of Feral’s Mac port of the lauded whirlybird-weapon game.

And they’re off (left) Put the champagne on ice, and join Michael Schumaker and Jenson Button on the fastest race circuits of the world in F1 Championship Season 2000. Hasbro joins MacSoft co.

ame-publishing giant, G Infogrames Entertainment has acquired Hasbro Interactive in a $100 million buy-out. France-based Infogrames’ subsidiaries include MacSoft, the popular publisher of Mac games and software, and Humongous Entertainment, which publishes Mac titles for kids. The deal has three principal elements. Infogrames takes control of Hasbro’s catalogue of titles, including the Microprose and Atari brands. Mac Hexen 2 The company also gains the right to publish games based on current and future Hasbro properties, including Monopoly, Scrabble (see page team of Mac programmers 76) and Risk (pictured here). Infogrames has also acquired Games.com, A has ported Hexen 2 to the Mac. an online gaming portal set to launch in early 2001. The only snag is you have to have MacSoft announced a 13-title licensing deal with Hasbro at a copy of the PC original to run it. Macworld Expo, New York in July 2000. MacSoft has already bought Three programmers (Brad Oliver, Mac conversions of Hasbro games, such as Risk II, Wheel of Fortune Frank Condello and Frank Caldwell) and Jeopardy, with several more releases scheduled soon. created a Mac-specific version Bruno Bonnell, chairman and CEO of Infogrames, said: “Securing of Hexen 2 based on OpenGL. access to Hasbro’s long list of properties fits our long-term publishing The 3D fantasy slice-’em-up game was originally developed for the PC strategy to become the leader in family entertainment.” by Raven Software, but has never been released for the Mac. It’s a fantasy- Titles available under terms of this deal include Microprose’s oriented romp, in which players choose from several character classes as Civilization series, Falcon and Atari titles – including Missile Command they struggle to defeat the Serpent rider Eidolon and his minions. The game’s and the historic Pong, which pioneered the video game revolution. combat is based on the original Quake engine. Infogrames may also develop and publish games based on Hasbro’s Several different versions of the game are available for download, and cult Dungeons & Dragons game. Macworld will be carrying a three-level demo on next month’s cover CD. When launched, Games.com will enable visitors to play over 30 A full version of the game is also available, as is a version that lets Macintosh games online, including Monopoly and Scrabble; in addition, visitors users play the game’s expansion pack, The Portal of Praevus. But both of will find news, information, tips and hints. MW these require the full PC game’s data files in order to function. MW Peter Cohen Macworld game Hall of Fame, page 74

For the information as it happens visit www.macworld.co.uk, updated throughout the day Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 33 Macworld News Business news for the Macintosh world

New-launch Apple warns of tough 2001

pple has published its report (Form 10-K) for the Business financial year ended September 30, 2000. The A company must publish the report within 90 days briefs of financial year-end under laws administrated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The report ■ Newer Technology, a reveals details of the challenges facing the company, major manufacturer of Mac- and of Apple’s future strategy. Apple also issued a profit processor upgrades, has warning in December – it will return its first financial loss ceased trading and is to file in three years for the first fiscal quarter of 2001. for bankruptcy. Pioneering Due to slower-than-expected sales in October and Newer was the first to ship November 2000, Apple expects to return a net loss, G4 upgrades for 7300-9600 excluding investment gains, of around $225 million, on still, is not accepted by Apple’s customers, then this could Power Macs, and G3 revenue of around $1 billion. This latest revenue estimate seriously affect Apple’s business, the report says. upgrades for the 6100, 7100 is $600 million short of the revenues Apple forecast on The financial team warns of a “significant sequential & 8100s. The company was October 18 on the release of its fourth-quarter results. decline” in quarterly sales during the first quarter of fiscal also first to ship iMac G3 and On the “megahertz gap” the SEC report reads: 2001. It expects first-quarter net sales to fall to $1 billion, G4 upgrades. On the portable “The company has been informed by its suppliers that as the company faces reduced demand, and pays out side, Newer shipped the first faster microprocessors will be available in sufficient rebates to its customers. Memory Cards for the Mac quantity beginning in the first half of 2001. However, no “For all of 2001, the company anticipates net sales will laptops, and the first colour assurance can be given that such faster microprocessors decline compared to 2000, falling to about $6.0-6.5 billion. PowerBook screen upgrade. will actually be available, or be available in sufficient The company expects it will be profitable during each of Former Newer VP Roger quantities. The inability of the company to obtain faster the last three-quarters of 2001”. Kasten is proud of the microprocessors in sufficient quantities during 2001 Regarding Mac OS X and other – unannounced company’s achievements: may have an adverse impact on the company’s results.” – new product launches, the report warns: “The success “Through it all we adhered Apple’s report discusses the risk of launching Mac OS X. of new product introductions is dependent on a number of to one simple premise: If the release is delayed, lacks third-party support or, worse factors, including market acceptance, the company’s ability design and build products to manage the risks associated with product transitions, so that we would be happy the availability of application software for new products, if we bought them.” the effective management of inventory levels in line with ■ Macromedia offshoot Adobe switches heads anticipated product demand, the availability of products Shockwave.com and dobe has named Bruce Chizen as CEO. in appropriate quantities to meet anticipated demand, AtomFilms have inked A Former CEO John Warnock will take the new and the risk that new products may have quality or other a merger deal that post of chief technology officer. The company defects in the early stages of introduction.” the companies expect has also returned record revenues – up 25 per will create the world’s cent from last year. In the fourth quarter of 2000 PC price war leading next-generation it pulled in $355.2 million, compared to $281.8 The company predicts a price war in the PC industry, as entertainment company. million the same time in 1999. The company has manufacturers aggressively reduce prices to stimulate ■ MetaCreations has increased its revenue for six consecutive quarters. hardware sales, and warns against the negative effects of changed its name, and will In fiscal year 2000, Adobe achieved revenues fluctuating exchange rates – particularly on manufacturers now be known as Viewpoint. of $1,266 billion, compared to $1,015 billion in trying to slash margins in a depressed market. ■ Microsoft has issued a 1999. The company had a net income of $287.8 Despite this, operating income totalled $522 million profits warning – it expects million during the year. – a 31 per cent rise against 1999’s figures. The company to yield revenues of $6.4-6.55 Warnock said: “This has been a phenomenal increased its net sales – compared to 1999 – by 30 per million – 5 to 6 per cent year. Based on every measure, Adobe today is in cent, enjoying a 32 per cent rise in Mac unit sales. Sales lower than predicted. the best position in its history, and much of that reached $7.983 billion on quantities of 4.55 million Macs. ■ UK lobbyists Privacy success is due to Bruce’s leadership. The company shifted 2.2 million iMacs in 2000, up International and US “With this in mind, the time is right for me 400,000 units or 22 per cent over sales in 1999. It sold data-protection groups EPIC to turn the CEO position over to him,” Warnock 545,000 iBooks – earning $809 million from them. iMac and Junkbusters are suing added. MW and iBook sales combined accounted for 60 per cent of unit Amazon for contravening sales in 2000. Apple sold 1.3 million Power Macs, a 3 per UK data-protection laws. cent climb year-on-year. 383,000 PowerBooks left Apple’s ■ PC Data revealed figures warehouses. In Europe, net sales revenues increased 38 per that showed PC sales cent during 2000, driven by a 53 per cent increase in Mac declined 12-15 per cent in unit sales in the territory. This rise, however, was eclipsed November, compared with by the 57 per cent increase in net sale revenues in the the same month last year. Japanese market, where unit sales increased 39 per cent. ■ Sharp and semiconductor Research and development expenses totalled $380 maker Mosel Vitelic are to million, up 21 per cent from 1999 – advertising expenses form a company to design, also rose $73 million, reaching $281 million in 2000. manufacture and market LCD The company closed the year with $4.027 billion driver chips – essential in Bruce Chizen, Adobe CEO John Warnock, Adobe CTO in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments; LCD monitor production. a 25 per cent increase ($801 million) over 1999. MW

34 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 For the information as it happens visit Macworld Online Daily News (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the day news talk The truth has finally caught up with Intel, By John Welch as its brand-new processor shows up MHz ratings for the sham that they are.

Pentium 4 problems

or some time now, the Macintosh community This is a minor annoyance for me, since I save money has been in a state over the lack of clock-speed by buying new machines rather than using CPU improvements in the PowerPC G4. It generally upgrades, but for a home user, it’s another expense F goes like this: “We know the G4 is faster than to consider. Second, the Pentium 4 dissipates a lot of the Pentium III, but it looks bad, and besides, what power: 55 watts, compared with a maximum of six happens when the Pentium 4 comes out and is watts for the latest version of Motorola’s G4. As a running at 1.4GHz or faster?” result, the heat sinks are big enough that Intel is Intel has finally released the Pentium 4, and so far, specifying motherboard attachments so they don’t the results have been disappointing. Unless you’re damage the chips, which has happened with some running Quake III or have the two pieces of software of the larger heat sinks on the Athlons. This means that have been rewritten for the Pentium 4’s SIMD new motherboards, and new cases for most. So the extensions, you’ll see almost no improvement over a upgrade path to a Pentium 4 is essentially a new Pentium III. This is great news for AMD, as the Athlon computer. is easily beating the Pentium 4 at similar clock speeds. But this is even better news for Apple and The noise factor Motorola. If you read the reviews, the reasons why But here’s another heat-related issue: Noise. Due to the Pentium 4 offers no real reason to upgrade can be the fans needed to cool most Pentium IIIs and “People laid squarely at Intel’s “clock speed is all” philosophy. Athlons, the systems generate something like 55 to are tired Aside from some SIMD enhancements – Intel’s 60 decibels (dB), similar to heavy traffic noise. Multiply AltiVec-like extensions—the Pentium 4 improvements that by the number of computers in an area with of spending are only in the area of allowing for faster clock speeds. cubicles. This is not a minor point – some of these money every And Intel’s SIMD implementation appears inferior boxes sound like DC-3s taking off. In contrast, the to Motorola’s, perhaps due to the latter’s extensive Cube, iMac and even a G4 tower are much quieter, six months experience as a maker of digital signal-processing almost silent. Even the fan on the G4 tower’s power for speed chips. As with AltiVec, you won’t see a performance supply is quiet compared to the three or so fans in a improvement unless the application is specifically Pentium III box. A constant 60dB noise level for eight gains that recoded for the SIMD units. hours a day, every day, is not a good way to work, don’t show What Intel did was double the pipeline size and and with the Pentium 4, it won’t get any better. (An add some execution-caching steps and other interesting ad campaign: “The Cube, because it won’t up in daily use” improvements related to clock speed. This is all make you deaf.”) neat, but it relies on much-faster clock speeds, For the first time, rigid focus on clock speed and proprietary RAMBUS memory to work. is burning Intel. Will the Pentium IV flop? Hardly, Even in many tests where the Pentium 4 beats the because Intel is too pervasive for that. But people Pentium III or Athlon, the difference is 5 per cent or are finally saying, “Why do I need this?” They are tired less at the same clock speed. This is not the amazing of spending money every six months for speed gains performance boost that the Pentium 4 is supposed that don’t show up in daily use. to have. Now Intel says that we’ll see a speed increase I type my articles in BBEdit on a 400MHz when the Pentium 4 hits 2GHz. But I would have PowerBook G3. I’ve done a couple on a 500MHz G4 hoped that doubling the clock speed actually gave at work. Other than BBEdit’s slightly improved launch you something. speed, I’m not working any faster at 500MHz than I am at 400MHz. I won’t ever type fast enough to The Pentium trade-off bog down a modern processor. What do you pay for when you put clock speed over Does Motorola need to get the G4 running everything else? Remember that engineering is faster? Certainly. Mac users as a group hammer their a balancing act, and there’s a cost for every gain. machines harder than typical Wintel users. But I am The trick is to have enough gain to outweigh the more impressed with “faster” done correctly, and as costs. Has Intel done this? By many real-world part of an overall improvement, rather than a goal measures, the answer is “No.” unto itself. There is much more to a computer than First, Intel’s Pentium 4 has different power clock speed, and this truth has finally caught up with requirements, which necessitate new power supplies. Intel. I hope the naysayers are watching. MW

For the information as it happens visit Macworld Online Daily News (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the day Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 35 See ‘Macworld’ – inside ‘Serious Software’ – on this month’s cover CD Product News

Low-end scanner ships Agfa has announced its £99 Snapscan e25 USB scanner. It has a resolution of 600-x-1,200dpi, 42-bit colour, and offers three on- body programmable control-buttons. The buttons can scan an image and send it directly to the printer, send images by email, and launch Agfa’s ScanWise software for manual control of scan settings. It has interchangeable colour handles – blueberry, tangerine and graphite – and comes with Optical Character Recognition software and Corel Print Office Wet and wild 2000. Agfa, 020 8231 4903

Legacy connections Adaptec announced the PowerDomain 29160 SCSI Mac-only racer card at Macworld Expo, San Francisco,2001. It offers a data- transfer speed of 160MB/second, rench Touch has announced scenarios, lighting effects, animations supports up to 15 devices, and WaterRace, its Mac-only speed-boat and ambient sounds. is aimed at data and graphics F racing game. It’s the first high-speed, The boats handle differently, professionals. No UK price was arcade-style offshore-racing game for the depending on the water depth, available at press time. platform and features unique characters, wind direction and strength, and Adaptec has also taken levels, and ships – each with different other weather conditions. the wraps off its FireConnect attributes. The title supports all current Mac 4300. This is a PCI- WaterRace has nine levels, three 3D video cards. It has been built to run based, 3-port FireWire difficulty settings, nine craft and nine on any Macintosh with a G3 processor adaptor for PCs and animated 3D characters. The game is running Mac OS 8.5 or later, and needs Macs. FireConnect network-ready for up to eight players 6MB VRAM but only 14MB memory. 4300 will be available over a local area network (LAN) on WaterRace was developed using soon, and is expected TCP/IP. Macs and SGI workstations. Un-PC to cost £60. It offers data- Each computer-controlled boat is French Touch is negotiating UK French Touch’s WaterRacer is transfer speeds of up to guided by its own artificial-intelligence distribution, but the game is available Mac-only, and features “advanced 400Mbits per second, and (AI) engine, allowing each vessel to act direct from the company. It costs $34 artificial intelligence” for realistic can support two-way transfers. differently. plus $5 shipping and handling. racing. Computer 2000, 01256 463 344 WaterRace features detailed 3D French Touch, www.waterrace.com Animated Web app WebShocker 2.2 can create, maintain and preview Web animations. It will produce GIF, Eizo slims display Java and QuickTime animations, and offers Eizo has released the first of its SlimEdge series 80mm, as well as dual Digital Visual Interface- a selection of painting of LCD monitors, the FlexScan L675. Designed Integrated (DVI-I) inputs. Hue, gain, saturation and retouching tools. It with small spaces in mind, the monitor is thin and colour-temperature controls are included, can also import QuickTime and has a small footprint, yet boasts an 18.1- and the monitor has a 160-degree viewing movies, AVI files and MPEG inch viewable area (1,280-x-1,024 pixels). angle. files. WebShocker is compatible The monitor also includes a five- It also operates as a USB hub, with one with Mac OS X Public Beta, level, adjustable image-smoothing function. upstream and four downstream ports. The and costs $49. The monitor has an adjustable-height FlexScan L675 costs £1,999. Recosoft, www.recosoft.com stand with a vertical-movement range of Eizo, 01483719500 continues page 38

For the information as it happens visit Macworld Online Daily News (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the day (All prices exclude VAT) Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 37 Product News Product News

Trannie scanner ships Fresh out Apple updates Polaroid has launched the Apple has released Image Source has released its 100-CD Epson ships SoHo SprintScan 45 Ultra multi-format iMovie 2 audio clips, So Fresh collection. It offers images from digital film scanner. an iBook (FireWire) a broad collection of themes, including The device can adventure and expeditions (illustrated), battery update, and scan 35mm, colourful fruits, families at home and Mac OS Runtime for 4-x-5-inch wild landscapes. The collection is included portable projectors Java (MRJ), version and 6-x-7cm in the So Fresh image catalogue, which 2.2.3. film and has a also offers a CD browser with low-res The audio clips consist of 2,500dpi resolution. thumbnails of images from each theme. pson has released a quartet of portable projectors for the small and home 11 music tracks and 14 sound- The scanner has a 3.8 optical CDs 1-70 of the collection cost £249; office (SoHo) and corporate markets – the EMP-715, EMP-5600, 7600 and effect collections that vary from density. Additional features CDs 71-100 cost £349. 7700 models. The EMP-715 is for SoHo professionals and offers 1,200 tribal to techno. Image Source, www.imagesource.com, E include automatic dust-and- ANSI lumens brightness. The £4,799 projector also features a PCMCIA card The International-English or 0800 037 3928 scratch-removal. Bundled slot – for cards carrying image data, including JPEG and 24-bit bitmap image Mac OS iBook (FireWire) Battery with PolaColor, Insight Pro and files. Update corrects problems PhotoPerfect Master software, The EMP-715 supports VGA (Video Graphics Array) and SXGA (Super in recharging the battery in the SprintScan 45 Ultra scanner Extended Graphics Array) signals, and has adjustable screen-size and some FireWire-equipped iBooks. costs £2,950. electronic zoom-controls. A speaker is built-in, and the device can be Last month, Apple released Polaroid, 01582 632 021 controlled remotely. This portable projector weighs 2.7kg (6lbs), has a lamp the IE Mac OS Runtime for LaCie stores life of 1,000 hours, and a contrast ratio of 400:1. It can project from 26-300 Heavyweight lightweights Java (MRJ), version 2.2.3. Nero burns CDs inches, and offers keystone correction. Epson’s latest portable projectors This update is important as it Ahead Software has announced The EMP-5600 is a 2,200 ANSI lumens SVGA (Super Video – including the EMP-5600 is certified for use with Oracle the launch of NeroMAX, a £41 Graphics Array) projector – and brother to the EMP-7600, (above), the EMP-7600 (below) applications and offers software solution for creating Expo goodies a 2,200-ANSI-lumens XGA (Extended Graphics Array) and the EMP-7700 (left) – are performance improvements and copying CDs. Available now, projector. The projectors feature keystone correction aimed at the corporate and and bug fixes. the software enables users to and carry two computer inputs. They support all SoHo markets. Apple does not permit record CD formats such as ISO acworld Expo, San Francisco, video formats, according to Epson. The EMP-7600 third parties to carry its data and mixed-mode data, saw LaCie launch its 75GB includes a high-aperture LCD panel, so light updates on cover CDs or offer which is both audio and video. M FireWire hard-drive, a output can be increased. The projectors them for download. Macworld CDs burnt to ISO can be read 16x10x40x CD-RW, and demonstrate cost £4,899 and £6,499 respectively. offers links to the latest updates by almost any operating system. a “palm-sized” PocketDrive CD-RW. `The £7,799 EMP-7700 is Epson’s at www.macworld.co.uk/updates. Other features include Disc The company claims the 75GB top-of-the range projector. It enjoys all the features of the EMP-5600 and Rescue, which recovers FireWire hard drive has the industry’s EMP-7600, but has a brightness of 3,000 ANSI lumens. The XGA projector is Third-party updates incorrectly loaded CD-R discs. highest capacity. It’s hot-pluggable and capable of supporting signals from VGA to UXGA (Ultra Extended Graphics Macromedia Authorware 5.2 Computer Connections, 01432 704 700 mounts automatically when connected. connected Array) resolutions. It supports analogue, digital-video and worldwide-video This allows Authorware The £499 drive offers an access time to. It can be daisy- input signals. It offers Keystone correction, and can project from 22-300 inches. applications developed Desktop magic of 9ms (milliseconds) and two FireWire chained with other Epson, 0800 220 546 in Windows to be Straight Ahead Software has Pocket power connections. It does not require an FireWire products, and has delivered to the released Desktop Magician The LaCie PocketDrive (below) external power-supply. two FireWire slots on board. Mac. It includes a 2.0, a utility to save is USB compatible, and comes The PocketDrive CD-RW is USB- It can take its power from a Mac or local runtime-player desktop environments with either 4x4x24 or 8x4x24 and FireWire-compatible, and measures through its own power supply. Each and browser plug-in. It – including icon speeds. The company’s 75GB 158-x-152mm. Two varieties will be unit ships with one rewritable and one Sony CD drive teed-up also updates the authoring locations, applications, FireWire hard drive (right) has available: the 4x4x24x is now shipping, recordable CD. Software includes Toast 3.8. environment and makes the open documents, the “world’s largest” capacity. and costs £299; and The LaCie CD-RW 16x10x40x comes Sony Computer Peripherals and Enhancements housed in a silver-grey case, and application more stable. mounted servers and the 8x4x32x in two varieties – FireWire (£339) and Europe (SCPEE) has launched a new external comes with a wide-ranging collection Charts Pro 1.5.1 more. The update has a host ships in SCSI (£299). At optimal speed, it can CD-RW FireWire drive. Sony calls FireWire of software – including Adaptec Toast, Version 1.5.1 adds an animation of new features. A single-user February and burn an entire 650MB CD in four I-Link. The CRX1600L-RP is a platform- Dantz Retrospect Express, SonicWorx, engine to Adrenaline Charts Pro license is $20. will cost £339. minutes. It offers an 8MB buffer, which independent CD-RW kit. It can record Arcsoft VideoImpression, Photobase and 1.5. Animations will export to Straight Ahead Software, The drive is helps maintain a continuous data-stream, at 12x, and rewrite at 8x on both LiquidPlayer. It costs £297, and ships with QuickTime, PowerPoint or www.cruzers.com/~straightahead hot-pluggable, and and protects against buffer underun. Macintosh and Windows computers. a CD marker-pen. Director. The product now can recognizes which I/O it is LaCie, 020 7872 8000 It reads at up to 32x. The drive is Sony (SCPEE), 01932 816 660 integrates with Adobe Photoshop, Cross-platform files supports layers and is optimized The Mac OS X version of for the G4 processor’s Velocity Dave fileshare software Pixologic makes 3D Mac move Engine. was demoed No glass for Microtek scanner Cleaner 5.0.1 at Macworld Pixologic has released ZBrush version 1.1 and import, and environmental settings, This updates Terran Interactive’s Expo in San for the Mac – a digital-imaging solution that such as Fog and Mist. It can rework imported Microtek is shipping the ScanMaker 8700, which offers USB and FireWire video-to-Web solution, fixing Francisco. Dave creates 2D and 3D images. The application images, and build images from scratch. Version connections. The £681 scanner features Emulsion Direct Imaging Technology some bugs, and adding the allows Macs to allows lighting, texture and shadow effects 1.1 features bug fixes and enhanced tool-sets. (EDIT) – allowing transparencies to be scanned without glass. The 8700 ability to automatically mount disks being to be altered, materials (stone, wood, water) It requires a G3 processor, 128MB RAM and is a 42-bit scanner with a resolution of up to 1,200-x-2,400 dpi. determine between interlaced- shared by Windows to be changed and objects stretched and a monitor resolution of 1,024-x-768 pixels. Bundled software includes Adobe Photoshop LE, Adobe or progressive-scan video. 95, 98, NT, and Windows 2000 resized. Multiple effects and transformations ZBrush costs $585. The 1.1 upgrade is free Acrobat Reader and Abby FineReader OCR (Optical Character The company recommends systems. It costs £106. can be applied simultaneously. to registered users. Recognition). the update to all Cleaner 5.0 Thursby software, 020 7731 7930 The application supports 2D and 3D export Pixologic, www.pixologic.com Microtek, 01908 317 797 users.

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38 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 For the information as it happens visit Macworld Online Daily News (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the day (All prices exclude VAT) For the information as it happens visit Macworld Online Daily News (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the day (All prices exclude VAT) Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 39 Product News

ViewSonic’s CDs & books Biblical epic IDG’s Photoshop 6.0 Bible for Macintosh is a complete guide to the image- CRT range manipulation application, with sections guiding learners iewSonic has released its P220f flicker-free resolution of 1,280-x- through photo and GS815 flat-screen CRT 1,024 pixels at 89Hz, and a retouching, V displays. The P220f has a 22-inch maximum resolution of 1,600-x-1,200 image screen – with a 20-inch viewable area – pixels at 77Hz. Flat base manipulation, and uses ViewSonic’s proprietary The GS815 – part of the Graphics The flat-screen 22-inch P220f and advanced PerfectFlat technology that deflects Series displays – is a 21-inch screen, (above) and 21-inch GS815 (left) special-effects. It comes light away from the user and with a 0.21mm horizontal dot-pitch. have redesigned bases that with a CD-ROM containing yields a flat, distortion- The monitor offers a maximum flicker- incorporate an optional USB hub. plug-ins, artwork and four free image, with free resolution of 1,920-x-1,440 pixels bonus chapters. The book minimal glare, at 80Hz, and costs £606. costs £30. All on-sale IDG titles according to Both screens use digital OnView are available at up to 30 per ViewSonic. controls for display settings. The base cent off direct from Macworld The £579 design of both monitors has been either online (www.macworld.co.uk/ screen uses a redesigned to accommodate a USB readeroffers) or by calling 0.25-0.27mm hub, which is an optional extra. 020 7831 9252. variable Both displays are backed by a aperture-grille three-year Express Exchange warranty. Net game-guide pitch and offers a ViewSonic, 01293 643 900 The Good Web Guide to Games is packed with facts about online game sites. The book features the essential sites for free online games, and lists e-zines to use for online Canon’s bright light reviews. The Good Web Guide to Music includes Web-tool Canon has launched the LV-5100 LCD projector. The £2,400 projector has been developed to reviews, hardware and offer high-brightness resolutions, and comes equipped with the capacity to link up to, and software advice and a project images from, most DVD players and games consoles. Web-site guide. The It is equipped with a 120W lamp that delivers a brightness of 700 ANSI lumens. It can Bright spot books cost £4.99 each. handle Super Video Graphics Array (SVGA, 800-x-600-pixels) resolutions, and is equipped with Canon’s LV-5100 supports SVGA The Good Web Guide, 020 7261 9382 a series of inputs for high-quality video, DVD and personal computer-image sources. It operates resolutions, and is designed for at a low 39dBA noise level, and features include digital keystone correction. The device also offers use with videos, computers and The Web in rough Hybrid Gamma Correction, which combines analogue and digital gamma-correction for better DVD players. Rough Guides has released colour control. the sixth edition of the Canon, 0800 616 417 Rough Guide to the Internet. Chapters range from getting connected, Fujitsu gives MO for your money to building a Web site. Other Fujitsu has launched its family Each model is supplied as a sections discuss of Magneto-Optical (MO) complete kit that includes the online shopping removable-storage drives, the drive, software, interface cable and music, and DynaMO 1300SF and 640SF. and one MO data cartridge. includes an MP3 They come in capacities of The SF series is also read/write guide. The pocket-sized book 1.3GB and 640MB respectively, compatible with ISO 3.5-inch MO is packed with information and offer better performance media with capacities of 640MB, to help with travel. It costs £6. and durability than the previous 540MB, 230MB and 128MB. The The Rough Guide to Shopping SD/SE series. The 1.3GB models DynaMO 1300SF will read/write Online costs £6 and is have also had their prices cut. to 1.3GB GIGMO standard The MO discs have designed to guide Web The 1300SF-SCSI drive offers media. been designed to withstand shoppers through the best a maximum data-transfer rate The 640SF drive costs £187, extremes of heat and cold. sites, with information about of 5.9MB per second and a while the 1300SF costs £221 Additional media costs £13 security, auctions and buying 23ms seek time. The drives are for the SCSI model and £231 (1.3GB) and £7 (640MB). abroad. available in both USB and SCSI. for the USB model. Fujitsu, 020 8286 5139 Rough Guides, 020 7556 5000

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For the information as it happens visit Macworld Online Daily News (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the day (All prices exclude VAT) Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 41 Product News

Music propelled on Propellerhead has released Winter Reason, its music system. It features samplers, analogue synths, mixers, step-time drum machines, effects monitor and a real-time multitrack sequencer. The £299 application is styled with the look-&-feel of a classic studio rack. It can hook-up to MIDI keyboards, so roll-out all the settings and effects can Monitor magic be controlled straight from the The VG175 (above) and VP150m keyboard. (below) use ViewSonic’s iewSonic has expanded both screen, and measures 2.6-inches in depth. Propellerhead, www.propellerheads.se SuperClear technology to improve its View Panel LCD range and With a resolution of 1,024-x-768 pixels, image quality. The 510L (above, V its Nokia Display range to include the 510L has a contrast ratio of 350:1, Virtual keyboard right) – which has a 15-inch the VP150m, VG175 and the Nokia 510L supporting 16.7 million colours. Niemeijer Consulting viewable screen – and the 710c and 710C. Both the VP150m and VG175 The Nokia 710C is a 17-inch CRT has released KeyStrokes (below, right) are part of the LCD displays use SuperClear and 3X-LCD monitor, and also has a resolution of 2.0.1, its software- company’s Nokia range. image-enhancing technology. SuperClear 1,024-x-768 pixels at a 85Hz refresh-rate. based solution improves colour and image quality, and The display features a microphone that lets users 3X-LCD technology increases video and two integrated 5W speakers. The write using a mouse- response-time making both screens 710C supports voice recognition through controlled, on-screen ideal for gaming, DVD and streamed an external microphone. The Nokia 510L keyboard. KeyStrokes video, according to ViewSonic. costs £649 while the 710C costs £199. can create multiple dictionaries The £799 VP150m is capable of See this month’s Test Centre for more for different languages and receiving both analogue and DVI- monitor details. topics, and record commonly compatible (Digital Video Interactive) View Sonic, 01293 643 900 used phrases. It costs $49. inputs. The monitor has an XGA (Extended Niemeijer Consulting, www.niemconsult.com Graphics Array) resolution of 1,024-x-768 pixels. The display has a contrast ratio of Video data-transfer 300:1. Coriogen Eclipse has been The £1,299 VG175 features a 17.4- released by Vine Micro. inch screen, and comes with two analogue This unit will place computer- ports – allowing it to be connected to two generated data or graphics devices. The display also features a 160- on video footage, whether degree viewing angle, has a resolution it’s pre- of 1,280-x-1,024 pixels and a 400:1 recorded contrast ratio. video The Nokia 510L and 710C are part of or real- ViewSonic’s Nokia Display Products Range. time video The Nokia 510L has a 15-inch viewable from a VCR camera. The £306 Coriogen Eclipse can be attached to a laptop, desktop, any camera with Maths app adds up S-Video output, or any piece of equipment with a standard Mathematica 4.1 from Wolfram Research been improved, and the program can now copy- video input. Europe is a serious upgrade to the company’s &-paste formulae into Web browsers. Vine Micros, 01843 873 311 technical-computing solution. Mathematica 4.1 can import/export between a The application won a nine-star rating in the number of new file-formats, including Excel. CDs packed in October 1999 issue of Macworld, and was The application was developed to help Duraweld has launched praised for its “number-crunching”, speed and technical professionals solve large data sets and its Compupack binders for features. Reviewer, Charles Seiter, said: “It’s the complex calculations, and to help them storing and indexing CDs, best program I’ve seen in ten years of reviewing communicate technical content over the CD-Rs and DVDs. The technical software”. Internet. The J/Link 1.1 support means that Java binders have a polypropylene This flexible application will analyse and developers can use Mathematica in their online exterior with sleeves for calculate all manner of complex, and not-so- applications, and also enables Mathematica to keeping discs scratch free. complex, mathematical problems. Results can make use of all the functionality of available Prices range from £3.60 Boffin’s bonus be delivered in mathematical, diagrammatic or Java applications. to £35. Mathematica, from Wolfman table forms. Mathematica costs £1,190 for a commercial Compupack, www.compupack.co.uk, Research, was developed for New features include speed improvements licence. A student edition of Mathematica 4.1 or 0800 0852 693 architects, academics and when calculating statistics, and Java integration will be released in early 2001. mathematicians. with J/Link 1.1. Differential-equation solving has Wolfram Research UK, 01993 883 400

42 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 For the information as it happens visit Macworld Online Daily News (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the day (All prices exclude VAT) David Fanning I often defended BT when people slagged it – but now I know it sucks

BT and the beast

’ve always been one to support the put-upon I was assured there was absolutely no need. – and this sympathy even extends to mega The next day, the ISDN was turned off and the corporations that should be able to look after normal line turned on. The only problem was that, I themselves. Microsoft, for example, is a company because no engineer had been called, the ISDN box that I’m always sticking up for because, whatever its was still connected and – bewildered by the analogue crimes on the PC platform, it makes good software for signals being fed to it – refused to work. By noon I was the Mac. The other mega corporation that often finds red-faced, bouncing around BT’s voicemail system like itself at the receiving end of abuse is BT. Again, I’ve Theseus in the minotaur’s labyrinth. Eventually, I got often defended it – until now, that is. In the past few through to someone to whom I attempted to explain weeks I’ve discovered just what misery BT actually my situation. It was an uphill struggle but, after about wreaks. 30 minutes – 25 of which I spent on hold – the My voyage of misery all started innocently enough, woman claimed to understand my plight. She “I got my as I contacted BT to see about getting myself a high- then transferred me to the ISDN department. speed ADSL connection. My first inkling that all was The ISDN guy immediately understood where phone not as it should be was when BT took an eternity to the installation had gone wrong. He explained that reconnected figure-out which was the right department for me the customer service people aren’t specialized in to speak to. They offered me a free trial of business- ISDN and would have little chance of understanding after six days, speed 500kps ADSL for a year. I’ve been using 128kps the problem. It transpired that I am alone in ever but there was ISDN for some time, but this kind of offer is not to be asking to be downgraded from ISDN, and that the sneezed at. So without hesitation, I signed up for BT’s procedure was a first for BT. no apology or VIP ADSL scheme. To my relief, he informed me that an engineer explanation” Up to this point, the BT folk were as polite and had been booked to do the necessary work – a full helpful as can be, but there was a problem looming. five days later. The problems started when BT informed me it would Over the next four days I spent a total of five hours need to downgrade my line from ISDN to a standard on the phone to BT, most of which was spent listening phone line. Right now, BT’s engineers aren’t trained to to one of the two most painful pieces of hold-music in switch straight from ISDN to ADSL. They have to start Christendom. I was lied to, fobbed off, told “facts” that from scratch. were patently untrue and generally treated like ignorant scum. More annoying than this, was that Belly-up the people who were feeding me this garbage were No problem, I thought. Considering I’m about entirely pleasant and reasonable. Each took turns to get free high bandwidth for a year, I could always to sympathize and console me, while telling me that downgrade to a regular line before getting upgraded everything would soon be solved – and that they to ADSL. However, the VIP-scheme people told me would call me back to make sure. that they couldn’t guarantee that the ADSL line Eventually, I got my phone reconnected after would work. A set back, but not too worrying – six days. There was no apology and no explanation. after all, it’s going to be free for a year. They even tried to stiff me on the considerable It was now that things began going belly-up compensation I was owed. This was the most because, up to this point, I had been dealing with traumatic experience I’ve ever experienced at the BT’s PR people. Now, though, I was a regular punter hands of a utility. I dread to think what will happen – and was placed in the hands of its customer service when I take the next step towards ADSL. people. The moral to this tale, I realized, is that some The first call was to get my line changed from companies are unpopular because they are bad at ISDN to a normal line, which went smoothly enough. what they do. BT is in this number. The company A helpful and polite guy said the line would be should spend some of its obscene income on charm switched from ISDN at eight o’clock in the morning. school for its engineers and technical training for its I did wonder why an engineer wasn’t needed, but, customer-service staff. Did I say I’d defended BT? No after consulting a senior BT customer service bod, more. BT sucks. MW

Read more Macworld opinions online (www.macworld.co.uk), and join in the debate. Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 45 Michael Prochak The US election fiasco is the best argument possible for Internet voting

Vote of confidence

s Hunter S Thompson says, the humour of the are dependent on new technology for keeping in campaign trail is relentlessly cruel and brutal. touch with people and gathering information, and Across the pond, it looks like the joke is over that, within four to five years, about 10 million will A and the Bush victory, although bringing a depend on new technology for shopping, and 14 ruddy glow to the shiny pate of William Hague, million for banking. Some 53 per cent of those signals a dyslexic downhill run into hardship, surveyed said they were dependent on their PCs. disappointment and a queasy sense of betrayal. Although the report also states that new The fact that Gore actually won the popular technology is central to British life, there are still vote and still lost the election could be construed by around 29 million adults who do not use a PC and some to be a nail in the eye for democracy. And there’s a further 9 million that say they never will. Nearly been no shortage of smugness here on the part of 18 million people have a PC or laptop for personal patronizing political pundits that take great joy in use, but as many as 61 per cent of them use it only pushing the pap that our system is so much better. for stuff like word processing. But, according to a They get away with it for the most part because, Mr Harris (Egg’s chief executive), the future is looking broadly speaking, our humpbacked electorate hasn’t good for Internet companies. On average, Internet “Whether the got a clue how our system works, doesn’t care that we users spend nearly four hours a week online at home. Americans have no written constitution or bill of rights and aren’t This Christmas, there was a major blitz on selling even aware that their so-called ‘secret ballots’ are Internet TV into the home, and despite the obvious deserve a nothing of the sort. limitations and micky-mouse technology, a lot of dunce like I read somewhere that, in the US, many people people are still buying WAP phones. So, with over half were so unsure whether they were voting for Bush or the population already online, and a lot more on the Bush depends Gore because of poor ballot design. The rumour that way via TV and mobile phones, maybe online voting on how the they were knocked-up in some dank back-room at should be looked at more seriously. Microsoft is, of course, totally unsubstantiated. But Networking and infrastructure is no problem. votes fall and this does serve to underline the oft-neglected fact Security, if the banks and financial institutions can be whether the that design is important, and a skill of which sexless believed, isn’t a serious issue. Vote counts could be civil-service scumbags are incapable. more accurate, impartial and practically immediate, system works” The real issue here is that we’re now in the 21st and parties wouldn’t have to worry about getting Century and, for the most part, still casting our votes people to the polls when the weather is crap, because on little scraps of paper that are then counted by a they’d never have to leave their homes. Considering range of morons with any number of hidden agendas. that less than half the population ever votes anyway, So why can’t we devise a direct method where each we could get the whole thing up-and-running now, and every vote is registered and actually counts? and probably be no worse off. And if everyone could According to a report entitled Embracing vote with that degree of immediacy, we’d have Technology, produced by online bank Egg and referendums that worked the way referendums research company Mori, more than half of Britain’s were intended – to reflect the will of the people. adult population will be using the Internet regularly Thomas Jefferson once said that people get within six months. Around 15m people now have the sort of government they deserve. Whether the Internet access at home and the forecast is that this Americans deserve a dunce like Bush, or we deserve will increase to 23m by mid-2001. In the next four a dunce like Hague or Blair next time around depends to five years about 12 million people say they would on how the votes fall and whether the system works. feel comfortable banking on the Net, and a similar Giving individuals direct control of the voting system number can envisage buying a mortgage or insurance probably scares the pants off most politicians. But online. So, is voting more important than shopping? would it really be that much worse than the systems Our dependence on new-technology products we’ve got now? As the French poet Paul Valery put it, is also growing, and the report says that 14 million “Politics is the art of preventing people from taking sad individuals believe they cannot live without their part in affairs which properly concern them.” The mobile phone. It also reveals that 28 per cent feel they Internet could start to change all that. MW

Read more Macworld opinions online (www.macworld.co.uk), and join in the debate. Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 47 Macworld Rating Macworld reviews ★★★★★/9.0-10.0 = OUTSTANDING ★★★★/7.0-8.9 = VERY GOOD ★★★/5.0-6.9 = GOOD ★★/3.0-4.9 = FLAWED ★/0-2.9 = UNACCEPTABLE

using this component. Personally, with FileSaver to resurrect drives Thorough system-health checker I’ve used Speed Disk in its various that have crashed or have even been incarnations for several years now, accidentally reinitialized. Hierarchical Norton Utilities 6.0 and the operation has always recovery in UnErase now lets you restore Publisher: Symantec www.symantec.com successfully optimized my drives folders – as well as the files in them – Distributor: Computers Unlimited (020 8358 5857) without any damage whatsoever. Also, to simplify data recovery. You can even Pros: Bootable CD-ROM; updates via Internet; can run repairs remember there’s an option to optimize use these components with external or from start-up disk; undo feature in Disk Doctor; FireWire support. your directories, which can generally internal floppy-drives, Zip or Jaz drives. Cons: It’s so thorough that it almost always finds a problem, so provide a greater performance boost Although new FireWire support allows can make you paranoid. than just rearranging files. you to run Norton Utilities on attached Minimum specs: PowerPC; Mac OS 8.1 or later; Internet connection Another thing to look out for here FireWire drives and devices, when you required for LiveUpdate. Price: £68 (excluding VAT) is driver-level security software. Because start from the Norton CD, your FireWire Star Rating: ★★★★★/9.0 some copy-protected software makes drive might not be recognized, and you use of hidden files that might be could be prompted to initialize or eject moved during Speed Disk optimization, it. However, if you start from your f you’ve used a Mac for any length you may need to uninstall certain internal drive with Norton installed, of time, you’re probably already applications before optimization and you can examine the external devices. Ifamiliar with Norton Utilities. Speedy defrag then re-install them later to ensure that Norton Utilities 6.0 also includes Originally introduced on the Mac back It’s easy to defragment your hard drive to cut down non-contiguous files that lead to longer files remain in their expected locations. LiveUpdate to help keep your program Macworld’s buying advice Update downloads in 1989, this package has consistently seek times. Or, in English, use Speed Disk to tidy up messy hard drives to make them faster. If you do the full install, FileSaver files current via online access. LiveUpdate Norton Utilities is a seasoned veteran, LiveUpdate will automatically provided a selection of powerful utilities constantly records vital disk-directory lets you know if your files are up-to-date and it’s saved my bacon on more than check, via the Internet, for that complement, and often surpass, information while you’re working. If you by displaying version numbers and status, one occasion. The new version is updates to Norton Utilities. those included by Apple. Version 6.0 choose, you’ll still have to restart directories during its scan, it’s possible accidentally delete a file, UnErase can and you can also check the program file powerful, easy to use, and probably offers some small improvements to the your system since many components that a repair might cause an unwanted examine the directory and help you and virus definitions in the application’s one of the few applications for a familiar tool-set for routine disk repair, will be activated only after this. Also, result. The Undo Repairs command recover your data. If you’ve got some About box – accessible from the Apple Mac that would qualify as essential. disk optimization and data recovery. Plus be sure to eject the Norton Utilities gives you an additional safety net – serious damage, Volume Recover works menu. Michael Prochak Norton triumph there’s a sizeable range of new features, CD-ROM before you restart, since the should anything unexpected occur Every tool you need for a healthy such as custom optimization profiles in CD is bootable, which is particularly during a disk repair – by returning and speedy hard drive, plus some Speed Disk – which can be used for useful if your system is really screwed your hard disk to the state it was in that can easily be configured through safety nets for lost or dumped digital video, MP3 files and other up and you can’t boot from the hard before Disk Doctor was run. The great Virus protection and peace of mind the application. A SafeZone is a folder files. specialized purposes – and FireWire drive. But, you might find that some thing about Disk Doctor is that it checks where files are scanned automatically device-level support catering for systems will boot from it if it’s still in every area of your hard drive and locates when they are copied or moved to that a broader range of evolving user the drive whether you want it to or problems that need immediate attention, Norton AntiVirus 7.0 location. By default, the Desktop is a safe demands. not. The manual strongly recommends as well as file problems that could cause Publisher: Symantec www.symantec.com zone, and the Downloads folder specified that you run Norton Disk Doctor from the problems in the future. All found Distributor: Computers Unlimited in the Internet control panel can also be (020 8358 5857) Untouched Unerase CD before installing, so you’re sure your problems are displayed as problem alerts; selected as a SafeZone with one click. Pros: Powerful, competent, virus protection. Like all previous versions, installation start-up disk is healthy before you install you decide what to fix and what to leave Cons: Not many viruses to protect against. AntiVirus will alert you of any is very straightforward, and, in most the full program. A lot of users don’t even alone. Min specs: PowerPC; Mac OS 8.1 or later; suspicious activity before it takes cases, you should simply choose Easy bother to install the whole program, but CD-ROM drive. place and offers comprehensive features Install – which installs all necessary simply run the tools from the CD to repair Drive defrag Price: £51 (excluding VAT) for scanning, repairing, and detecting components. You do have the choice of or optimize their drives. Since I work with many audio files, Star Rating: ★★★/6.9 viruses. New features in version 7.0 a Custom Install if you feel that you want As mentioned earlier, Norton Disk I tend to use Speed Disk quite a lot. include automatic scanning of email Gone but not forgotten to select particular components and not Doctor is the most commonly used Over time, files stored on your drive attachments during downloading, If you have ever emptied others. Some users, for example, tend to component of the package – it can may occupy non-contiguous sections lthough still a good idea, simplified preferences that allow your Trash shortly before you use this program for the Disk Doctor and check for defective media, partition-table of the drive, increasing access time. Norton’s new version of AntiVirus you to change multiple settings with remembered you threw the wrong Speed Disk tools, and may not want to damage, directory damage, and problems SpeedDisk is particularly useful for A 7.0 represents a relatively small a single click, the ability to update virus viruses that PC users do, and whenever a Viral alert thing away, you will appreciate bother with functions such as Unerase. with individual files. The defective-media defragmenting files on your drive step up from last year’s 6.0. Considering definitions without restarting the virus appears, good Mac samaritans have AntiVirus 7.0 shields Macs from UnErase. However, whichever installation you check is handy, but takes time since it and reorganizing them so they occupy the activity on the Macintosh virus scene program, and the ability to turn always been there with a free utility to the, relatively, few viruses that has to scan your entire hard drive. A more efficient, contiguous portions – or lack thereof – compared to the AutoProtect on from the Control Strip. check and repair your drive. affect them. The utility allows the media check of a 8.5GB drive can take of the drive. rampant plague affecting our PC AntiVirus 7.0 uses LiveUpdate for level of protection to be set – from nearly 30 minutes. Unless you have A Check Disk option will graphically brethren, that shouldn’t be all that quick-and-easy program updates online, Macworld’s buying advice none to full. a very old drive on the brink of failure, display your file layout, and colourfully surprising. AntiVirus 7.0 has more or less and the latest version provides http and There are more new features in AntiVirus you won’t want to run this check every calculate the degree of fragmentation. reached the level where refining features, proxy support for LiveUpdate. 7.0 than there are in Norton Utilities 6.0, time. If you only want to diagnose the You can choose from several different and not necessarily adding them, is AntiVirus 7.0 is obviously a and I’m sure this is one of those disk, or if you want to disable specific optimization profiles – such as General adequate for the Mac community. competent product that’s easy to set up programs that is good to have if you’re tests, you can do so from the Norton Disk Use, Multimedia, Software Development, Essentially, this program does and easy to use. The only question that paranoid. But whether or not you need Doctor Preferences dialog box. For most CD-ROM Mastering and Recently Used exactly what it says on the tin. AntiVirus remains is whether or not you should it, or can justify spending money on it, users, doing a regular scan of partition Files. There are also options to verify finds and eliminates a wide range of bother to buy it or not. I know people has to be a matter of personal choice. tables and directory structure will prevent the media, directories and data before viruses – including macro-viruses, which who’ve had six to ten years of serious If you spend a lot of time downloading most mishaps. But if you have a drive the optimization. This is strongly tend to be the most common types Mac use and have never witnessed or stuff from the Net, then maybe it’s that you think is seriously damaged, recommended, since optimizing a found lurking on Mac systems. These experienced a virus. And that includes better to be safe then sorry. However, you can go to the Preferences menu damaged drive can make your drive are often spread via Microsoft Office files people managing networks of over 400 given the Mac’s track-record with and enable all checks. inaccessible. Just to be safe, transferred between PCs and Macs. Macs. The reality is, Mac users don’t viruses, I probably wouldn’t bother. Because Norton Disk Doctor repairs always make a full back-up before Norton AntiVirus features SafeZones come close to facing the number of Michael Prochak

48 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 Search Macworld’s Reviews database online (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the month Search Macworld’s Reviews database online (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the month Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 49 Macworld reviews

eke McClelland’s Photoshop 6 McClelland’s knowledge of Photoshop Photoshop manuals for Dummies is, in his own is beyond reproach, and even a cursory D words, for people “who don’t glance through the Bible is likely to Photoshop 6 want to make Photoshop their life”, introduce all but high-level users to for Dummies but do want to grasp the fundamentals features they didn’t know existed. of image editing and manipulation. Author: Deke McClelland Accordingly, the book begins by working Photoshop for Photographers Publisher: IDG Books its way through even basic tools like Despite its title, Martin Evening’s From: Macworld Hand, Zoom and the Navigator palette, Photoshop 6.0 for Photographers is really (020 7831 9252) and graduating onto topics such as a Photoshop book for all of us. Evening’s www.macworld.co.uk/ readeroffers selection techniques, layers and filters, brief is to teach photographers the basic Pros: Easy to follow; clearly retouching, and selection techniques. and advanced skills of digitally- laid out; useful explanations The learning curve is steep, but manipulated imaging. His book of general graphics theory. McClelland isn’t afraid to spell out is a diligent and evenly-weighted Cons: Style can be irritating; even the obvious. He throws in plenty walkthrough of all the issues in the chapter on Web graphics of analogies along the way to help capture-manipulate-output sequence. poorly explained; not enough Photoshop newbies understand the the way up to a well-covered section on Despite the inevitable bias towards colour pages. principles behind the tools. Analogy, in Web graphics and another on printing. photographic applications, there’s Price: £18.99. Available to fact, is both the strength and weakness of The Bible sets out to live up to its a lot in here that’s valuable for the Macworld subscribers for £11.30. Dummies: sometimes it works, sometimes ambitious title. It contains everything general Photoshop user. Star Rating: ★★★★/7.7 it doesn’t. from the finer points of splash screen Evening starts from the very basics, “Imagine you’re the victim of a know-how – hitting ⌘ while choosing with excellent in-depth advice on digital terrifying scientific experiment that has About Photoshop displays the beta capture (including scanning, digital Photoshop 6 left you 1mm tall,” is how McClelland version’s Venus in Furs screen – to the cameras and Photo CD), working Bible begins an explanation of pixels in Chapter more arcane reaches of colour theory through how to configure Photoshop Author: Deke McClelland 4, finishing with: “What does this little (the chapter on colour management (advice on improving performance, Publisher: IDG Books trip down sci-fi lane have to do with goes a long way towards demystifying memory allocations, PCI cards and video From: Macworld Photoshop?” I’m glad he asked, because this much-misunderstood subject). display), colour management (this chapter (020 7831 9252) I wasn’t sure either. The style – full of There’s something of use here for is far and away the best I’ve ever read on www.macworld.co.uk/ jocular, sometimes-patronizing asides every Photoshop user. And where the the subject) and file output and proofing readeroffers – is occasionally wearing, but on the Adobe manuals simply concentrate on (for press, fine art printing, inkjet, soft Pros: Comprehensive; lots of whole does a reasonable job of leavening explaining how Photoshop handles proofing, and even image database useful tips; good explanations a convoluted subject without baffling or matters such as colour mapping and management). His coverage of of theory behind image scaring the novice Photoshop user. tonal curves, the Bible gives the reader Photoshop’s functionality is no less manipulation. Cons: Style can be irritating; What is excellent about Dummies is the essential background to the science thorough. He starts with an introductory not enough colour pages; the trouble McClelland takes to explain and theory behind those topics. There chapter on the Photoshop workspace, occasional lack of depth some of the more complex principles are areas that are occasionally skated covering all the tools and photographer- on specific tools. behind Photoshop’s working methods. over: picking a couple of thorny issues at essential functions, such as the Extract Price: £29.99. Available to His sections on resolution, colour random (trapping to compensate for press command and the Art History brush, Macworld subscribers for management and colour correction dot gain; how to print a duotone as spot and works on through chapters on file £19.80. are enlightening even for a seasoned separations) I found no more information formats, image adjustments, colour ★★★★ Star Rating: /8.7 Photoshop user. But the chapter on in the Bible than the coy vagueness into adjustments, image repair, montage Web graphics – on the face of it a good which the Photoshop 6.0 manual retreats. techniques, black-&-white and colour Adobe idea – departs from the usual principle But then again, the Bible is a general effects, layer effects and filters. Evening Photoshop of “s-p-e-l-l-i-t-o-u-t”, bandying terms book, and perhaps it’s a necessary evil also devotes a lot of space to efficient such as colour palette, matte, bit to occasionally sacrifice depth in favour working practice, including a long list of 6.0 for depth and colour profile around without of breadth. shortcuts – some of which aren’t in the Photographers enough explanation. It’s also questionable The Bible suffers from the same lack manual – and good advice on preference how far a novice user will understand of colour pages as does Dummies (two settings. ImageReady, not so essential Author: Martin Evening principles of colour correction via a 16-page sections), and, in this advanced- for photographers, is relegated to an Publisher: Focal Press (01865 888 180) book printed in black-&-white: the 16- level book, that’s a more serious criticism. www.focalpress.com page colour plate section in the middle It’s also expensive – £30 is a lot for an Pros: Good consideration of just isn’t enough. All that said, though, adhesive-bound paperback whose binding all issues in image- there’s no other book that I can think of quality isn’t going to hold its 940 pages manipulation sequence; in- – certainly not the Adobe tutorial – that in place for long. And, despite the fact depth coverage; CD contains does such a fine job of getting Photoshop that this is indisputably a book for step-through tutorials. users from baffled incomprehension to professionals, McClelland still can’t Cons: Too wide-ranging for some users. nodding acquaintance in under 500 lay off the clownery. This is our man in Price: £24.99 (Free with a pages. defence of his (indefensible) preference 12-month subscription to for the term “object oriented” to describe Macworld, see page 100). Photoshop 6 Bible Photoshop’s vector tools: “My preference Star Rating: ★★★★★/9.5 Like Dummies, McClelland’s Photoshop 6 suggests an air of romance, as in, ‘One Bible (with its own CD of artwork and day, I’m going to shake off the dust of images referred to in the text) starts from this three-horse town and pursue a life the basics. There are chapters on painting of romantic adventure in the Object and editing, filling, retouching, restoring, Orient!’” Read too much of this inanity paths, masks, filtering, layers and text, all at your peril. But for all the fetid humour, page 52

50 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 Search Macworld’s Reviews database online (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the month Macworld reviews

Appendix, although coverage is again likely to disappoint some users who just reasonably thorough. The CD contains want to know what key to press in a ten tutorials on subjects such as masking given set of circumstances. and montaging, and an interactive demonstration of Photoshop 6.0’s filters. Macworld’s buying advice If there is a complaint about If you’re new to Photoshop, throw out Photographers, it’s the fact that it’s your Adobe tutorial and use Dummies not solely a Photoshop book: we’re on instead – but equip your frontal lobes Chapter 6 (of 16) before Evening gets with a jocularity filter first. The Bible will around to looking at the intricacies of answer most questions for most people – Photoshop itself. Although there’s an it’s worth having if you’re rich. Digital excellent case for arguing that to use photographers should buy Photographers Photoshop to its best advantage, it’s even if they have to pawn their analogue necessary to know about what comes SLRs to get it; other Photoshop users will before and after the manipulation stage, also find it useful. the wide-ranging coverage of this book is Karen Charlesworth

escribed as “Four Great Kids Freaky kids games Games in One”, the Mac Kids D Pack basically does what it says on the box. Candy Land Adventure, Mr MacSoft Mac Potato Head Saves Veggie Valley, Play- Kids Pack Doh Creations and Playskool Puzzles Publisher: MacSoft are positioned as educational tools that www.wizworks.com/macsoft allow kids of four and upwards to learn Distributor: Softline and play simultaneously. (01883 745 111) Sounds like a parent’s dream, but do Pros: Mr Potato Head; fun they cut it with the offspring? Jon-Luca for kids; engaging in parts. and Lolly, aged six and four respectively, Cons: Odourless Play-Doh; limited appeal. comprise the crack squad who put the Min specs: A 68030 Mac; Mac Kids Pack to the test – along with 25MHz or faster; System 7; a little parental guidance and support, 8MB RAM; 2x CD-ROM. of course. Price: £20 (including VAT) A sweet tooth is a prerequisite for ★★★ Star Rating: /6.8 Candy Land Adventure, where sickly pinks Simpering girlie meet psychedelic purples in a visual soup One of four games in Mac Kids fun Pack, Candy Land Adventure is full of pinks. However, Mr Potato reminiscent of Bonnie Langford, Gianni Head and Play-Doh (to a lesser extent) make up for this – although there’s still room for adventures Versace and last night’s dinner. Of course, in cross-dressing. as I’m in the age bracket of 32 and upwards, perhaps this isn’t relevant in kid-land, but Jon-Luca certainly thought Mr Potato Head who stars in Toy Story, clothes to, quite frankly, rather disgusting it was a bit girly. this was much better game. It effect. But they were happy, and even A fairly long intro sequence sets represented a far more creative and better, quiet for a whole half hour. They the scene, and it seems all is not well engaging challenge than Candy Land, also played well together, spurring each in Candy Land. King Kandy has been and Jon-Luca and Lolly were completely other on to push the boundaries of taste. kidnapped by Lord Licorice, and we have absorbed. And, finally, to Playskool Puzzles. This to rescue him. It’s a long job that entails The game features interesting is simple stuff, and it’s good as far as it travelling through six magical lands, characters and amusing tasks such as goes. Both kids had no problems solving picking up candy and meeting some cross-dressing Mr Potato Head and jigsaw puzzles and connecting the dots, rather sweet characters. turning him into a simpering girl. This but it was probably a bit too basic for Both kids (and, er, myself) had halted the game for some time while a them. After solving a puzzle once, they problems navigating – it’s not a rather uncomfortable discussion was held wouldn’t bother again. My major problem particularly intuitive interface and on the difference between boys and girls, with Playskool Puzzles is that I can’t see almost every move requires a return but not for long as the kids were anxious the point of playing games like this on to the instruction book. Lolly certainly to see what happened next. a Mac. The kids would have more fun couldn’t play this on her own, and therein The animation is slick, the interface playing with a real jigsaw puzzle. As lies a major problem because, if an adult absorbing, and the storyline becomes for the four-and-up age guide, a two is required to supervise, the game really irrelevant as the sheer level of interaction year-old could crack this one. needs to be a bit more engaging. is enough. Top marks from all of us. Overall, there’s a lack of direction Play-Doh is one of the best inventions Macworld’s buying advice that prolongs the game, which also, ever, but sadly it doesn’t do it for me on The pack is saved from being a “used eventually, exposes its lack of substance. a computer. It just doesn’t smell right. once only” by the capers of Senor Potato Jon-Luca and Lolly got bored quickly, Jon-Luca and Lolly didn’t agree, however, Head. Other than that it’s all a bit thin. thankfully – because I was starting and this game went down a treat. There are much better ways to spend to feel very sick. They invented different characters, rainy days. Despite not being exactly the created new hairstyles and designed Jon Carney

52 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 Search Macworld’s Reviews database online (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the month Macworld reviews Macworld reviews

Accurate, plug-&-play colour-management solution International colour organizations Colorperfexion here are two key international conditions. It processed the in workflow scenarios, and they CIELAB is needed by CMSs Publisher: Colorperfexion (00 45 4636 1691) www.colorperfexion.com T bodies devoted to the results and published a family of are more commonly referred to as because RGB and CMYK values Pros: WYSIWYG colour accuracy from monitor to printed page; plug-&-playable. understanding and management of mathematical colorimetric values. scanner, monitor and printer profiles. (see “Colour spaces explained”) do Cons: Some bugginess in Adobe Photoshop 5.0 and QuarkXPress 4.0. colour: the Commission International In 1993 Apple and seven other A CMS as described by the ICC not represent the human experience Minimum specs: Mac OS 8; Photoshop 5. de l’Éclairage (CIE) and the leading IT companies – including is a method by which the colour of colour. Therefore, to keep colour Price: Single-user licence, £575; five-user licence, £2,013 (excluding VAT) International Color Consortium (ICC). Agfa, Microsoft and Sun – founded characteristics of all input and output consistent, we must change the Star Rating: ★★★★★/9.4 CIE was founded in the 1920s to the ICC. Its aim was to create devices are related to a common RGB or CMYK values as they go promote international co-operation vendor-neutral, cross-platform reference. At the core of all CMSs from device to device. Doing this and exchange of information among colour-management systems (CMS). – including Apple’s ColorSync and requires a way of specifying colour he need for colour management Ink different member countries on all matters The ICC has produced colour Microsoft’s Windows ICM 2 – is unambiguously, without reference is like sea-borne raw sewage: you Colorperfexion's CMYK profiles contain specially tailored colour-separation information. Above are concerning the art and science of profiles to ensure that image colours CIELAB, which is also the basic to the vagaries of the device in T only think about it when it smacks the black channels – showing undercolour removal (UCR) – for a newspaper profile (left) and an lighting. In the 1930s, it set out to remain correct during every step of colour-model in Adobe PostScript question. This is the role of the you in the face – and then you end up offset profile (right). The newspaper channel is darker, because a lot of black is used to replace the establish colorimetric models that digitization – from capture, to display, (level 2 and level 3). reference colour-space, often caught between two stools. grays in the C, M and Y channels. This is because newsprint is extremely absorbent, and high UCR describe colours purely in terms of to output – and that different systems CIELAB is a colour system called the profile connection space Colour-management options tend to reduces the amount of ink used. The image on the right is lighter, because it is embedded with the how they are perceived by people: can display them correctly. that was adopted by CIE in 1976. (PCS). CIELAB is commonly used involve complex stand-alone applications, CPX offset profile used on Macworld. Because Macworld is printed on less-absorbent coated paper, by hue, saturation and luminancy. The ICC has defined seven classes It is based on the discovery that, as a PCS because, unlike device- prohibitively priced profiles or labour- it can take more ink – meaning a lower level of UCR. To achieve this, it conducted of reference profile: input; display; somewhere between the optical nerve specific RGB and CMYK colour intensive spectrophotometers. a huge number of experiments, output; device-link; colour-space and the brain, retinal colour-stimuli spaces, it represents colour in What Colorperfexion (CPX) promises, in which it asked human subjects conversion: named colour; and are translated into distinctions absolute terms. For this reason though, is plug-&-play WYSIWYG colour their weakest link – and this is usually spectrum, and are displayed and to match colours under rigorously abstract. It is the first three that between light and dark (L), red and CIELAB is known as a device- Magenta accuracy from monitor to printed page, the monitor. The same image on the lightened in very different ways. controlled lighting and viewing concern the management of colour green (A), and blue and yellow (B). independent colour space. for just £575. That’s a promise not same make of monitor in the same On a monitor, one lightens colours to be sniffed at. office can look wildly different from by adding light; yet on paper, this is CPX consists of an RGB profile for screen to screen. Sensibly, CPX makes done by subtracting ink. This difference on-screen soft-proofing, seven specially this its starting point. Armed with the accounts for most post-press let-downs. is for the paper stock used to print your Another boon with CPX is that it though, I learned all this only after Cyan tailored CMYK profiles, a reference image reference print and identical RGB file, Because of this, CPX’s CMYK profiles newspaper, magazine, poster or calendar. doesn’t matter if external artwork is sending a third of the magazine off and a reference print. you can calibrate a monitor using the are tailored for specific print-job Then consult the CMYK-profiles overviews embedded with wildly different colour with the CPX profiles embedded in Adobe Gamma control panel. This requirements. There are three newsprint in the CPX manual and select accordingly. profiles – because what you see on- XPress, instead of Photoshop. Standard colour generates an ICC profile for the screen. profiles, three offset profiles, and one for For Macworld, the correct CMYK screen is still what you’ll get in print. By all means colour-preview pages Yellow Like the most reliable colour-management As with all monitor calibrations, Gravure (used for huge print runs, where preference was Offset B. This profile is This is because the CPX profiles show in XPress (by selecting the CPX profiles Spaced-out solutions, CPX is built on ICC technology it’s advisable to view the reference images are etched on the print cylinder). designed for use with a coated paper- you how an image will print on your in the Colour Preferences dialog box), The CMY (above) and RGB colour (See “International colour organizations”), image from within a daylight box. These CMYK profiles make allowances stock of between 110-170g, a total ink paper stock, whatever its embedded but make sure you uncheck Colour spaces (below) are mathematical which has made it possible to standardize This neutralizes shifting light-conditions for dot-gain (how readily ink soaks into coverage of 335 per cent, and a dot profiles. For example, in this issue Management Active before sending representations of colour, where colour spaces (See “Colour spaces caused by time of day and desk position. the paper) and total ink coverage (the gain of between 8-12 per cent. of Macworld, we received an image pages. This gives you the WYSIWYG In profile all colours are located on a three- explained”) across a digital workflow. Every serious graphics environment total ink saturation of a print job). In The profiles also carry information from a freelancer that came in with a accuracy without the risks. The Colorperfexion CMYK colour dimensional axis represented in CPX profiles are incorporated into the should have one. They cost about £400. newsprint, dot-gain is high, because about colour separations in both UCR SWOPcoated CMYK profile. SWOPcoated In the end, of course, colour profiles give excellent results when cube-form. workflow using Apple’s ColorSync, But CPX comes into its own with paper quality is poor. But for offset jobs (undercolour removal) and GCR (grey- is the default US colour profile, and management is fine and dandy – but poor CMYK images are adjusted in tandem with the colour-profile its CMYK profiles. In theory, any colour- that use coated paper, it’s much lower. component replacement). UCR involves contains about 4 per cent more magenta any system can come a cropper once using Auto in Curves. Compare preferences of applications such as management system, such as ColorSync, Conversely, ink coverage in newsprint is the replacement of some of the CMY than the Euroscale profile used over here, your plates are sitting on the Heidelberg. the result of the bottom picture Adobe’s Photoshop, Illustrator and should allow you to accurately display lower, but for offset jobs it’s much higher. component of neutral colours with an and which gives less saturated skin tones. If the person operating the press has with the middle picture – which InDesign. At present, there are problems on-screen what you can expect to see in To select the correct CMYK equivalent density of black, to reduce Photoshop and Illustrator are the a stinking hangover, then pages may look were both Auto-converted from with QuarkXPress – but more of that later. print. However, RGB and CMYK colours preference, call your printer and ask ink usage and improve reproduction. natural homes for CPX profiles. This crap whatever you do. And of course, on the same terrible picture (above). Digital workflows are only as good as are at opposite ends of the colour what the dot gain and total-ink coverage GCR performs a similar function, but is because they are bespoke graphics most magazines – including Macworld The bottom pic was converted works in colours as well as neutrals programs and are driven by powerful – the colour accuracy of ads takes with CPX’s Offset B profile to replace CMY with black. colour-engines. You select the CPX colour presidence over editorial. Most of selected, but the middle picture profiles in these apps’ colour preference our ads are supplied as film, containing was corrected with the Euroscale Colour spaces explained Baptism of fire dialog boxes, and that’s about it. who knows what profiles. If the printer Coated CMYK profile selected. But does it work? The only way to test Unfortunately, as with all colour- decides to tweak-up the magenta on ll colour profiles are defined by example, scanners read the amounts space used to represent on-screen primary colours and red, green, CPX was to use it on last month’s issue management solutions, CPX is hamstrung an ad to improve it, then the colour A colour-space. A colour space is of red, green, and blue light reflected documents that will end up in print. and blue as secondary colours. of Macworld, compare the printed pages by the disharmony between the Mac OS consistency on editorial pages will suffer. a model of up to four dimensions that from an image and then convert those RGB colours are also known In theory, the blacK shouldn’t be against their onscreen equivalents – and and the leading software houses. Unless CPX becomes the print-industry represents colour in terms of intensity amounts into digital values. Computer as luminous, or additive, colours. This needed, because an equal mix of pray. I’m happy to report that the RGB We experienced a problem with standard, there’s little you can do about values. They also specify how colour displays receive the digital values and is because black is displayed on a TV C, M and Y gives black. However, pages and the printed versions were CPX in Photoshop 5.0, where CMYK this. information is represented. convert them back into red, green, or computer screen by removing all when printed, the result is closer as close in colour as damn it. TIFFs refused to open. This, says CPX, The largest colour space is that and blue light. three sources of colour, while white to dark brown. I also ran a similar test using the is due to a clash with Mac OS 9.0.4. Macworld’s buying advice perceived by the human eye. This The RGB colour space is usually is displayed by adding maximum The CMYK colour space is previous issue of Macworld, which was The suggested fix is to upgrade to Colour management can make your head has been formalized in several ways represented on a three-dimensional amounts of all three colours. subtractive – if you start with output – as all earlier issues were – using Photoshop 5.5 or 6.0. ache and eyes water – especially when by CIE (See “Colour organizations”). axis in the form of a cube. Colours But because the range of RGB white and subtract all colours generic RGB and Euroscale Coated CMYK. So, what about XPress? It’s bad cost is mentioned. However, CPX comes About half the size of this colour are defined in terms of three colours is so vast, many of them are equally, you get black. Here, there was little resemblance practice to use the XPress colour-engine as close to the Holy Grail of WYSIWIYG space is the RGB space. Any colour co-ordinates, giving them a specific not achievable in print as process CMYK colours are also called between screen image and printed page. for any colour-management system. This as I’ve seen. Using paper-stock-based expressed in RGB space is a mixture location within the cube. colours – and this is where the reflective, because the inks filter Yet, when I selected the CPX RGB and is because it’s a layout tool, and its colour profiles makes perfect sense in theory – of three primary colours: red, green, Understanding the RGB colour CMYK colour space comes in. light as it is reflected off the paper, CMYK colour profiles for the same pages engine is feeble compared to that in and practice. All this for £575? You can’t and blue. All digital workflows make space is important to printing, The CMYK colour space consists allowing only certain wavelengths they transformed before my eyes into Photoshop. CPX is still in the testing really go wrong. use of the RGB colour space. For because it is the native digital colour- of Cyan, Magenta and Yellow, as of light to reach your eyes. reflections of their printed counterparts. phase with QuarkXPress. To my horror, Sean Ashcroft

54 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 Search Macworld’s Reviews database online (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the month Search Macworld’s Reviews database online (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the month Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 55 Macworld reviews

ewlett-Packard has been rolling alignment automatically, Excellent colour-printer out its new range of printers for another bonus. H the past year. The 990Cxi is the Something that’s top-of-the-range inkjet from HPs not important to DeskJet 990Cxi consumer range. It includes just about many people is the Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard every Epson-challenging feature that ability to print on (08705 474 474) HP has in its armoury – from automatic both sides of a www.hp.com/uk Pros: Auto paper-type setting; paper-type detection, to wireless printing piece of paper auto duplex; auto print-head from cameras and PDAs. And, the (duplex). However, alignment; terrific quality; 990Cxi’s image quality is impressive. HP has included fast and quiet. The look of the 990Cxi is much the it for those that Cons: No silver version; an same as the rest of the range, though need it. A3 version would be nice. there is no special silver model, like Another Min specs: USB. there is with 930Cxi Macintosh Edition. feature that HP has Price: £249 (including VAT) The 990Cxi is bigger than the 930Cxi added to the 990Cxi is Star Rating: ★★★★★/9.2 due to larger paper tray and duplex unit. the ability to print via infrared However, it doesn’t make much difference connections. Again this isn’t going to be excellent. It doesn’t just print high-quality to the desk space needed. exciting for a lot of users, but for anybody images, it makes it easy for everyone It has a number of features that who owns a PDA or an infrared equipped to do so. It does this with a combination make it better than its smaller sibling digital camera it might be. For example, of great driver software and intelligent and give the Epson designers something by loading a print driver on to your Palm hardware. The end result is close to to think about. or Handspring, you can print out Epson’s best – in fact in a Bush-Gore The first, and my favourite, feature addresses or pictures without even type of way, it’s a close call. Although is the automatic paper-type detection. touching your printer. print quality is evenly matched, the Figuring out the right type of paper to The speed of the printer is mostly ease of use gives HP the edge. use for different levels of print quality determined by the kind of file it’s given can be a nightmare – the 990Cxi takes to print. The printer’s default resolution Macworld’s buying advice all this away from the user. It has an is 600dpi, which doesn’t sound much If you are looking for an A4 colour-inkjet optical detector that looks at the paper – but the quality is just as good as the printer, you won’t go far wrong with the and tells the printer driver which type 2,400dpi prints it’s capable of. This is 990Cxi. If you weigh up the features and is present. This even works with non- down to HP’s PhotoRET technology, the print quality, it’s a compelling buy. HP papers. which uses layering and other tricks The Epson range is also capable of The other bugbear of owning a colour to improve quality without slowing equally high-quality output, but for a inkjet is aligning the heads. To make sure the printing down. novice the HP offers better usability. Even you get the best colour, you sometimes Quality is always the main selling old hands will love not needing to select need to align print heads by printing a point of a printer, and in the past Epson paper types, print resolutions and all the series of test prints and telling the printer has always won this battle. Not this time, other settings required by most printers. which is best. The 990Cxi can do its own though. The print quality of the 990Cxi is David Fanning

VD-RAM arrived on the scene had already got used to the original Macs shipping with a 10GB hard drive is FireWire DVD back-up a couple of years ago – slap-bang name. Then came the flavours. back up. Floppies are long gone, and you D in the middle of a lot of confusion DVD-ROM, the read only format, is fairly would need a stack of them. Even Zip 250 about DVD standards. Now that DVD- straightforward – it’s like a CD-ROM on disks are not up to the job of backing up DVD-RAM Video is taking off in the UK, this may steroids. Then there were the recordable anymore. Using CDs to back up is a fairly 9.4GB serve to confuse things even more. DVD standards – though “standard” is a cheap way of doing it, and Jaz 2GB is Manufacturer: LaCie The first DVD-RAM drive back then bit of a misnomer when it comes to DVD. convenient and quick – though expensive. (020 7872 8000) was from LaCie. Now the format has Add to that DVD-Audio and DVD-WORMs There is the option of using large-format www.lacie.co.uk doubled in capacity, and LaCie is again and you can see the mishmash of options. optical drives, which are also expensive Pros: Huge storage; easy to the first to bring it to the Mac. The but faster than the DVD-RAM. The access; versatile enough to read any CD media. already roomy 4.7GB standard now What it is new large format DVD-RAM is the Cons: It can read, but not weighs in at 9.4GB per disk, though So for the record, DVD-RAM is cheapest and most convenient play DVD-Video. that includes both sides of the disk. a recordable-storage format for data. way to back up your hard drive. Min specs: FireWire. It also uses the FireWire interface It will read most DVD discs and CDs, Price: £629; 9.4GB disk £39. for fast and simple connection. but you will not be able play DVD-Video Macworld’s buying advice (Both prices exclude VAT.) The whole range of DVD products is from an external DVD-RAM drive. This There is a huge choice for removable ★★★★ Star Rating: /8.0 bewildering. Originally DVD meant digital- is because the Apple DVD player doesn’t storage, but most are suited to moving video disc. This would have been fine, recognize the DVD-RAM if it isn’t Apple’s files between computers, rather than as except somebody had the bright own. What DVD-RAM does do is hold back up. Often the only realistic way to idea of using the disc for huge amounts of data, making it ideal handle backup for machines with such data. It was duly for backing-up data. A 9.4GB disc huge drives is to use tape drives. renamed stores data on both sides, so it needs However, tape drives are slow and digital- to be flipped over manually. The only difficult to use in comparison with versatile thing stopping drives being built with DVD-RAM. DVD-RAM has reached a disc, even read-write abilities for both sides of point where it’s indispensable for both though the disc is price. personal and network back-ups. most people The problem with even the lower end David Fanning

56 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 Search Macworld’s Reviews database online (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the month Macworld reviews

In-depth football sim

Championship Manager 2000/2001 Publisher: Feral Interactive www.feral.co.uk Distributor: Gauntlet (01908 575 600) Pros: Breathtaking attention to detail; engrossing. Cons: Inadequate manual; time drags between games. Min specs: Mac OS 8.0; 32MB RAM. Price: £24.99 (including VAT) Star Rating: ★★★★/8.9

hampionship Manager 2000/2001 is a foray into world football of C such encyclopaedic proportions Data day that it’s guaranteed to leave John Motson With 50,000 real-life fact files – on everyone from Ronaldo to Wayne Dyer of Montserrat (above) adjusting his pants in over-excitement. – your squad can always be bolstered by bargain buys. CM 00/01 is not a major reworking of last year’s 99/00 version – because there wasn’t much that needed doing. beyond question, and 00/01’s improved wring some results from my squad of What this update does offer is more Transfers functionality means you can journeymen and hungry youngsters. of the same. There are now ten extra scour any team anywhere for bargain As if this isn’t tough enough, you also leagues, including those based in buys. After hours of scouting, I was now face a baying media pack – including Wales, Ireland, and Australia. You able to add to my squad at Wycombe hacks from football Web sites. But watch can also manage a team in each of the Wanderers without the chairman running your mouth – as one word out of place 26 leagues simultaneously – but if you to the press with messages of “support”. can mean headlines that irk fan and do, don’t expect to see your loved ones For example, Wayne Dyer – a 22-year-old player alike. This is a nice touch. again. Donning the sheepskin coat at just ex-Stevenage midfielder playing for On the pitch, gameplay is better, with one club is challenge enough, because to Montserrat – was a snip at £25,000. more-detailed match commentary. During be a successful gaffer, you have to be a Thing is, when his pay demands spiralled, crunch clashes, things can get really master of tactics, psychology, finances I had to let him go. It’s this attention tense. However, the game could do with and diplomacy. CM 00/01 is as close as to detail that makes CM so involving. a real-life Motty to replace the Stephen you’ll get to football management, bar Before a ball is even booted in anger, Hawkins drone of whichever Mac OS taking up a seat in the dug-out. there’s the pre-season preparation to voice you have selected. As well as extra leagues, there are consider. Off the pitch, CM 00/01 is more There are other niggles, too. One is Stiff competition now more than 50,000 players, coaches controllable than ever, because you can the PDF-only manual – which explains A new feature in CM 00/01 is the and managers – all researched with now interact with the bootroom boys. what everything does, but without saying complete range of world, domestic Gestapo-like thoroughness. A special To help with team selection, go to the where anything is. Because the interface and international competitions. Data Editor – available online from Feral physio, coach and assistant manager for is unintuitive, this will doom newcomers Interactive – allows users to edit the up-to-the-minute reports on any player. to hours of familiarization before donning database to keep it up-to-date. It’s now You can also relieve your assistant of his the tracksuit. The delay between games also possible to play random leagues reserve-squad duties, as well as promote is also frustrating, with screens of peopled with computer-generated players. reserve team players to the senior squad. meaningless results keeping you The game’s comprehensiveness is Player profiles are much more from the action. detailed, providing a breakdown of their skill at all aspects of the game, as well Macworld’s buying advice as ratings on how fit and happy they For £24.99 you wouldn’t expect a football- Catch the coach are. This is invaluable when making team management game to spank a donkey’s Detailed reports from your and tactics decisions from game to game. arse with a banjo. Not only does it spank backroom staff are available in If, for example, your opposition is playing said rear, but 00/01 leaves the mule CM 00/01, helping with team with attacking wing backs, you can braying in pain. selection and tactics – and choose two wide men with big engines Sean Ashcroft you can give players any and an extra yard of space in their heads. nickname you please. Likewise, if the game looks like it’ll be a midfield tussle, then turn to the player profiles to shore-up your centre with a couple of piano carriers. There’s no doubting that picking up pots is more difficult in CM 00/01 – Round-up unless you start with the top Premiership CM 00/01 also acts as a football library, with sides. It was only after much man- an in-depth account of every nation’s football management, transfer wheeler-dealing history. and tactical tinkering that I managed to

Search Macworld’s Reviews database online (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the month Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 57 Macworld reviews

here has been an incredible amount Browse anonymously of coverage in the media over the T past year concerning personal- information security on the Internet. MacWasher Not only were there concerns about 2.1 privacy, but also how secure personal Publisher: Webroot Software details are during day-to-day use of a www.webroot.com computer. WebRoots’ MacWasher is Pros: Quick; easy-to-use; just one of several tools that cleans offers peace of mind. out files that can compromise privacy. Cons: Interface is amateurish; The first security issue is the safety more in-depth information of your personal details while using the could be added on files to be washed. Internet or other network. The second Min specs: Mac OS 8 arises if you share a workstation Identity crises or later. with someone else in your company. It’s useful to be able to keep some cookies, Price: $29.95; a free 30-day MacWasher will seek out and delete – especially cookies that store the User ID and trial is available from the or overwrite – potentially dangerous files. password for Web sites that require one time company’s Web site. registration. Although keeping these will still ★★★★ Star Rating: /7.2 Cached files allow others to log on under your identity. Every time you log on to a Web page, Data disaster your browser gathers lots of tiny files Installing MacWasher is quick and Be careful when you set up a custom wash, as that are hidden on your computer. simple, and there is also an Uninstall this tool is intended for advanced users – it’s Examples of these are cookies option. The user interface could be easy to delete files you actually need. and cached files. Not only can these files prettier, but it’s easy to understand. clog up a computer, but they can also Before washing a Mac for the first wash cycle, which is a more streamlined reveal which Web sites you’ve visited. time, it’s advisable to go through all the option than a normal wash. Be warned, There’re some instances, especially at options available so you keep the cookies it’s easy to forget to keep cookies. work, when this sort of info can be you need for logging into your favourite Accidentally clearing cookies from your discovered, tracked and possibly abused sites. If you’ve never cleaned out your browser can mean re-registering with by others. For example, anyone who uses cookies before, you may find that there sites that require a user ID and password. online-banking facilities should be aware are loads of files to scroll through. It Setting MacWasher to automatically that checking an account online via a would be useful if this cleaning feature clear your cache is a good idea. This is shared computer can be pretty dicey – offered more information about each because you then know for certain Wash when you like especially if you forget to log out of the washable file as you select it. You must that you are receiving the very latest Each wash option is accessible site properly, or don’t clear your browser make the decision on whether to keep information from a server, and that from the main panel. You can set cache. This can leave the door wide open the cookie, or wash it off your Mac your browser isn’t “lying” by displaying when the AutoWash should occur for someone else to get back into your completely. Fortunately, you can simulate out-of-date content. A browser’s cache – for example at Startup and private account. Most online-banking a wash before launching the real thing. works by storing graphics and pages on Shutdown, or by time period. sites provide full instructions on how You can simulate a wash before the hard drive, and therefore speeding to avoid any unwanted access, but performing the real thing. A simulated up Web browsing as there’s no need to MacWasher offers a fast and thorough wash runs through the process of repeatedly download the same data again route to avoiding any nasty surprises washing without actually deleting and again. However, as with the History in your next statement. any files, letting you configure the setup log in Explorer, this storing of sites can There are quite a few utilities beforehand. MacWasher also tells you allow others to track your Web use. that take the tedium out of rummaging how many files have been deleted, and around for files, but MacWasher offers how much disk space has been recovered. Macworld’s buying advice more than just the ability to flush out MacWasher can also “bleach” files, If you’re worried about privacy, or just these files manually every so often. which means it overwrites the file a set want to avoid possible embarrassment Webroot claims MacWasher is a unique number of times with random characters. at work, then MacWasher is a good Internet-privacy tool, with more features This prevents the file from being buy – if only to put your mind at rest. Tri-cycle than any other Web or file cleaner on recovered by a different application. MacWasher will certainly save you the The MacWasher cycle is fast, and the market, and it supports all the latest The preferences in MacWasher can trouble of trawling through, possibly, the progress bar shows exactly browsers. It will clean up the browser be set to either automatically wash all hundreds of different files in different what stage the cleaning has got cache, your recent-documents files, the files it recommends, or schedule it applications and deleting them to. A Simulation option is also recent applications, temporary-files to AutoWash at a certain time of day. You individually every day. available. folder, trash, AOL tracks and history. can also choose to build your own custom Gillian Thompson

58 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 Search Macworld’s Reviews database online (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the month Macworld reviews

have ISDN, nor, secondly, is it meant to This is a problem because it misses Wireless ISDN hack be taken apart and rebuilt by German out on really fast 128K performance. It engineers. However, that is exactly what looks like Hermstedt may add a second has happened. Owners of the current channel to future models, so this might AirShuttle AirPort can buy the upgrade to AirShuttle, be a temporary limitation. It may not Manufacturer: Hermstedt which is fitted by Hermstedt engineers. affect everybody though, because (020 7421 1500) This obviously leaves your Apple warranty using both channels costs twice as www.hermstedt.co.uk in tatters, but Hermstedt takes up the much. Shuttle launch Pros: This is the only solution for wireless ISDN. slack and offers a full warranty covering Hermsted’s AirShuttle has been Cons: The second channel version both the AirPort and the AirShuttle. Macworld’s buying advice over a year in the planning. It’s a is not available just yet. The AirShuttle is an unusual product, I have been using ISDN at home for hardware hack that makes Apple’s Min specs: AirPort base station basically a hardware hack that adds to a couple of years now, and, a recent AirPort ISDN capable. It also and an AirPort Card; ISDN line. the ability of an Apple product. This is temporary downgrade to a modem supports the AirPort compatible Price: £149 to upgrade an existing bound to make people nervous, but if was a frightening reminder of how Orinoco base station from Lucent. AirPort; £333 for a upgraded anybody knows ISDN, it’s Hermstedt. slow the Internet can be. If you Airport. (Both prices exclude VAT) There is no need to buy an AirPort to have a Cube – or perhaps an iBook Star Rating: ★★★★/7.5 send it to Hermstedt for the upgrade, – in your minimalist home, an AirPort as there are upgraded Airports available is a must-have item. But if the luxury hen Apple announced its too. of being wireless is important to AirPort wireless-networking Using the AirShuttle is as invisible you, surely a fast W products, the crowd, at 1999’s and seamless as the original AirPort. connection is equally New York Macworld Expo went wild. Getting onto the Internet is as simple important. It’s With one exception, a person who I as before, and the modem speed is a hack, but one happened to be sitting near. It was Andy drastically improved. The original 56K made for public Eakins, the head of Hermstedt UK. His modem can manage only 50K at best, consumption. concern was that the AirPort had ethernet and is often reduced to somewhere Hermstedt takes and modem connections, but no provision between 40 and 50K. ISDN, however, all the risk associated for ISDN. He immediately vowed to fix offers 64K every time with connection with turbo-charging this, and I thought no more about it. taking under five seconds. This may hardware. This After almost a year and a half of not sound like much of an improvement, makes it easier for gestation, the AirShuttle was born. It took but the difference is noticeable. the average Joe to so long for several reasons. The first issue Unlike many ISDN adaptors, the get in on the action. was the fact the AirPort isn’t designed to AirShuttle has a only single channel. David Fanning

provide the phone. I used a Nokia 7110e and costly, process, but it’s possible Portable-to-mobile phone solution for the testing, but SoftGSM also to visit any site on the Net. Emails tend supports phones from Ericsson, Siemens to be small data packets, so sending and Motorola. Different manufacturers and receiving these is reasonably quick. USB SoftGSM use different connection ports on their Two features available to users Manufacturer:: SoftGSM mobiles, so it’s essential to ensure that of the Windows versions of SoftGSM (01959 578 311) www.softgsm.com the correct kit for the correct brand and remain unavailable for the Mac. These Pros: Easy to set up; gets mobile users model of phone are ordered when are the Phone Book and SMS (Short online. purchasing SoftGSM. Message Service) features – but SoftGSM Cons: Set up can be confused by different The next hurdle is your GSM network has promised to place installers on its mobile operators treatment of data traffic supplier. I used Orange for this test. I Web site for these services. The Phone on their networks. had to contact the company and request Book will let you access and edit the Min specs: USB; Mac OS 9.0 or later. a SIM update for my phone to make it data held on the phone using a Mac. Price: £85 (excluding VAT). data-capable. Without the update the Star Rating: ★★★★/7.2 connection will be terminated as soon Macworld’s buying advice as the network realizes your making The product does what it sets out to wedish IT company Micro a data call. It’s worth contacting do, and is an excellent solution if you Systemation has developed your network supplier before you spend a lot of time travelling and need S SoftGSM, a software-based buy to confirm it supports data traffic. a way to maintain contact with work Soft way out GSM (Global System for Mobile After instalation, you must adjust and home. The ability to send text SoftGSM allows portable Macs communication) solution that connects settings in the Modem Control Panel messages and alter the contents of the to connect to the Internet using Macs to the Web using mobile phones. – select SoftGSM as both the Modem phonebook will prove useful, but as it’s a mobile phone – though speeds With SoftGSM it’s possible to browse and as the Connect By method here. unavailable now we can’t be test this. are slow. the Internet, and send and receive emails Now all you need do is open up Set-up is fairly cut-and-dried, using a USB connection and any Remote Access, hit connect and you’ll and if you are a portable compatible mobile phone. It’s also a be online in seconds. Mac-wielding, mobile welcome solution for iBook users, like Expect maximum speeds of 9,600bps, phone-savvy person, myself – who have USB and ethernet as this is the ceiling for mobile data traffic and you need to get ports, but lack any kind of mobile in the UK – though some higher-speed online anywhere, connection. services are available (at a price) from this is a good The package contains the SoftGSM some operators, for example, Orange. solution. software installer and a cable – you Web browsing at this speed is a slow, Jonny Evans

Search Macworld’s Reviews database online (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the month Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 61 Macworld reviews

t isn’t only educational settings Mac-admin app that are suitable for MacAdministrator; Ibusiness users can use it as a tool to stamp out both software piracy and extra Mac curricular activities. The level of security Administrator is entirely customizable, and varies from giving users free range to a complete 2.0 lock down of all activities. You can Publisher: Hi-Resolution (01892 891 291) specify what applications can and Administrative assistant www.hi-resolution.com can’t run, where you can save files, MacAdministrator’s icons make setting user limits – such as which applications can be opened and Pros: Complete control over and when people can use the system. when – a straightforward task. The app could save IT professionals hours of time. most aspects of the Mac; This all sounds impossibly control over printing with complicated to set up, but it turned be. There’s also control over folders, so compatibility is becoming essential. print credits; TCP/IP out to be relatively simple. Each user, the users can be allowed access to their MacAdministrator is also capable compatibility. or groups of users, are assigned different own folders and the desktop folder, but of controlling, restricting or logging Cons: Could be improved privileges. When they start up a machine restricted from the system folder. most aspects of Mac use. It isn’t so by adding some MP3 and log in, these privileges are checked Access to external devices, such as much a complex program, as a big specific controls. Min specs: System 7.5.3; against files held on a file server. If for printers, can be restricted. New to version program. The number of options are an AFP or AFP/IP compliant any reason the fileserver isn’t available, 2.0 is the ability to give users print legion, and an administrator has the server (for instance, any then a default set of privileges is held credits. This means users can print, choice of getting right down to the nitty Mac or file server capable of locally. Assuming the user successfully but must limit their pages to a certain gritty, or controlling options in groups. hosting a Mac volume); Open connects to the server in the normal number. You can also limit the number This application can save administrators Transport; AppleShare 3.7.2. way, the set-up of the machine takes only of copies of a print. For example, a limit hours of work. Price: MacAdministrator seconds. Then the user is free to use any of three copies should be fine for most Configuration Manager £295, of the facilities MacAdministrator has legitimate uses, but printing party Macworld’s buying advice. 1-9 Client licence £52.50 per been told to allow. It’s possible to disable invitations would be impractical. Different MacAdministrator is currently the best machine, gradually dropping to £21.95 per machine for software loaded on a machine without credit usage can be applied to different and only option for IT people to keep over 1,000 licences. (All deleting it. Only users with the correct printers. This means a mono printer can tabs on school or university computers. prices exclude VAT.) privileges would be able to use the be set to use a single credit, and a colour However, it has just as many uses in Star Rating: ★★★★/8.8 software. The same goes for Control printer could be set to use two or three the business world. It’s the only reliable Panels, they can be individually locked, credits per page, to reflect the extra cost. solution for keeping computer users on though disabled Control Panels are made Another new feature of version 2.0 the straight and narrow. It’s part of an invisible. is the ability to use TCP/IP. This both IT managers job to do everything possible Copying files is a little more difficult speeds network activity, and makes to prevent software piracy, and this is an to restrict, but MacAdministrator can MacAdministrator better for use in cross- excellent tool to assist that aim. Any restrict individual file types being copied. platform environments. Some educational company that is serious about software So an essay written in Word can be establishments are even trying to phase policy needs this software. copied, but the Word application can’t out AppleTalk altogether so TCP/IP David Fanning

ileMaker 5 Pro is well respected coloured front-end, don’t expect to FileMaker for Palm OS in the business world. It’s see this on the handheld – records are F renowned for its ease of use, displayed as a list of fields, reminiscent interface versatility and the choice of the Palm OS’s own Address Book. FileMaker it offers in creating un-intimidating These appear with the defined field-name Mobile front-ends. rather than the label that shows in the Publisher: FileMaker If your business depends on a normal front-end, which can be confusing (0845 603 9100) FileMaker database, perhaps to track if the database has several duplicated www.filemaker.co.uk sales, being able to arm salesman in the fields. The order in which you select Pros: Fully compatible field with the company’s most valuable fields is the order they’ll appear in – with FileMaker Pro 5; can be globally searched info is surely appealing. And now, there’s though this can be reorganized within using the Palm OS Find utility. FileMaker’s Mobile to do just that. the Settings dialogue, as long as the Cons: Only 20 fields are The Mobile application – which only list doesn’t extend beyond the bottom allowed; must be used works with Macs that have FileMaker of the viewing area. String and number with FileMaker Pro 5. Pro 5 installed – allows you to perform fields less than 2K are portable to the Min specs: Mac OS 8.1; basic database operations on the files PDA – any field larger than this and the 32MB system RAM; FileMaker that you have transferred onto the PDA, entire record will not be transferred. Macworld’s buying advice Pro 5.0.3; Palm Desktop 2.5, which occurs during normal HotSync. The usefulness of the Mobile If you already depend on FileMaker Pro, Palm OS 3.1. Configuring the files to transfer is straight companion seems limited. Inventories and there is a database with only 20 Price: £39.95 (excluding VAT) Star Rating: ★★★★/7.4 forward, but you can’t just dump an entire of products, logs of transactions, sales useful fields you’d like to carry with you, database onto the Visor. histories, etc, would be fine as long then the Mobile companion will do the Special settings must be specified for as each was no longer than 19 fields job. However, it’s best suited to databases each file you wish to transfer. Each field –you have to save one field at least built specifically for FileMaker Mobile. that you want has to be selected – you for a record ID of some form. These If this is the case, then FileMaker Mobile are limited to 20 fields per record – and limitations are compounded by the does the best it can with the restrictions the configuration governs the appearance dependence on FileMaker Pro with of the Palm OS. of the records on your PDA. If you have a its own failings. Seth Havens

62 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 Search Macworld’s Reviews database online (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the month Macworld reviews

such as the £159 VoodooMac 4500 (3dfx, LCD graphics-pad 01753 502 800, www.3dfx.com). Priced at £2,190, the PL500 requires a hefty bank PL500 LCD Pen account. Wacom also offers the £1,899 PL400, which has a 13.3-inch screen. Tablet System The PL500 is larger than Wacom’s Publisher: Wacom www.wacom.com other LCD tablets, and it offers a better Distributor: Computers Unlimited (020 8358 5858) image – it’s the first of Wacom’s PL line Pros: Innovative design allows drawing to offer a 24-bit LCD, for millions of on screen; beautiful LCD; pen has two colours. It’s also brighter than previous programmable buttons and an eraser. models, and it has better contrast. Cons: Expensive; most Macs will need Drawing on the PL500 takes some a third-party graphics card. getting used to. Because the tablet Min specs: Graphics card; USB. surface is a fraction of an inch above the Price: £2,190 (excluding VAT) LCD screen, the tip of your stylus doesn’t Star Rating: ★★★★/7.0 actually touch the on-screen image. Simply put, it feels a little odd. If

f you’re a graphic artist who’s fed up you expect using the PL500 to be like KEVIN CANDLAND with the mouse, and who’s never quite drawing on paper, you’ll be disappointed. Igot the hang of using a pen tablet, The PL500 ships with a standard choose to include one of its Intuos pens, Electric canvas take a look at Wacom’s new PL500 – a Wacom pen that supports 256 levels of which support 1,024 levels of pressure The PL500 is an LCD monitor 15-inch LCD that you can draw or paint pressure – the more levels of pressure a and a host of other features. with an embedded tablet. on with a pressure-sensitive stylus. It’s pen can sense, the smoother the curves unique, but it’s expensive for what it is. and gradations between shades of grey it Macworld’s buying advice The PL500 is only about 2-inches can produce. A rocker switch by the nib The PL500 might seem to be a bit of a thick and weighs a mere 10lbs (4.5kg). has two programmable buttons for quickly luxury, since drawing and painting with a It uses USB for the graphics-tablet issuing commands, such as Save. regular Wacom tablet is relatively easy, functions and DVI for the display – so it The pen can also simulate a pencil, and most high-end tablets ship with works only with certain G4 Power Macs. since it has an eraser on the end. You can more-sensitive pens. But, if you need an The newest Macs that sport Apple’s new opt to set the eraser as a brush or any intuitive, easy-to-use interface for a kiosk ADC connection are not compatible other tool, and just like the pen tip, the or presentation, the PL500 might be well without a third-party card. For most eraser is pressure sensitive. It’s a little worth its price. Macs, it requires a digital video card, curious though, that Wacom didn’t Ben Long

The package consists of hardware, For example, email servers can fall Automatic restarter a Kick-off! power cable with a USB victim to hopeful spammers that leave connection, and software to control it. connections open for days to bounce The Kick-off! power cable connects to emails to their prey. Often the only way Kick-off! the power input of the Mac; the original to break these connections is to restart Publisher: Sophisticated Circuits power cable plugs into the back of that. the machine, though this is inconvenient www.sophisticatedcircuits.com The USB cable plugs into your USB port, during work hours. Kick-off! can schedule Distributor: Alta Technology (020 7622 6606) and that controls the restart function. restarts to happen overnight, Pros: Peace of mind. The software is a Control Panel keeping the server free Cons: Inadequate logging. and couldn’t be simpler to use. The first of spammers without Min specs: USB. panel gives options to monitor for system inconveniencing the Price: £179 (excluding VAT) crashes. If the system doesn’t respond legitimate users. Star Rating: ★★★★/7.8 for a set amount of time – anything from There’s a limit 1 minute to 60 minutes – the system will to how many ometimes Macs crash. It’s a fact restart. In case of a crash while starting, retries Kick-off! of life, and there isn’t much you Kick-off! will allow a set amount of time will attempt – the S can do about it. With luck Mac to complete the restart. If after that time maximum is five. Call OS X will reduce crashes, but they’ll the system is still not responding, Kick- me a pessimist, but I still happen. They’re a pain, but when off! will restart the machine again. ‘d have it try more than it’s a server that crashes, it can be even Sometimes, an application will that. Also, the logging worse. It could mean a Web site is crash without bringing the whole system feature is not quite as detailed down, or a remote access is disconnected down. In this case, Kick-off! will attempt as it should be. It doesn’t log restarts – conceivably until somebody gets back to restart the application. If that doesn’t or shutdowns initiated by the user, to the office. This can be damaging to work, then it will initiate a restart of which would be handy to know. Also, it a companies reputation – and bank the machine. When the machine has doesn’t keep a log if restart attempts fail. Night shift balance. restarted, Kick-off! can then boot Kick-off! will automatically restart Sophisticated Circuits now has a any applications that were running Macworld’s buying advice a server when it crashes, saving widget that can act as a night watchman, when it shut down. This is great for If you need a machine that’s on 24 any midnight dashes to the office. making sure that a server never hangs when a server is running a number hours-a-day, I recommend this product. It can also set an email server to indefinitely. It looks if everything is of apps. It can save a midnight trip to the office restart every evening, preventing running correctly, and, if it isn’t, it will Sometimes a machine needs to restart a computer. spammers from bouncing emails restart the machine so that it will be. restarting just to reset connections. David Fanning off it.

Search Macworld’s Reviews database online (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the month Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 65 Macworld reviews

IAS Peak is an advanced audio- Digital-audio editor application designed to provide B professional tools for editing BIAS Peak and processing digital audio. Peak Publisher: BIAS www.bias-inc.com makes a superb addition to multitrack- Pros: Multiple undos audio applications, such as Digidesign’s allow actions to be undone Pro Tools. It also offers advanced sampler- sequentially, while Edits support, and works directly with many lets actions be undone popular MIDI sampling keyboards and from a history list. rack-mount samplers. Cons: When I accidentally You can create audio CDs directly inserted a mono TDM plug-in from a Peak Playlist using Adaptec on a stereo track, Peak Toast – which is bundled with Peak crashed. Min specs: PowerPC; 64MB – or create full Red Book standard Peak performance RAM; Sound Manager version reference CDs using Adaptec Jam BIAS Peak works with advanced TDM plug-ins, such as the Megaverb’s, shown here, 3.3 or later; System 7.6.1 or or Digidesign MasterList CD software. for creating reverbs. later; QuickTime PowerPlug. You can also use Peak ‘s RealAudio, Price: £549 (including VAT) Shockwave Audio Encoder, and MP3 a major format. Peak also supports Adobe you hover the mouse over any particular Star Rating: ★★★★/8.2 encoding to prepare audio for streaming Premiere-compatible plug-ins, but these icon, and you can choose which selection over the Internet. are losing ground as a format for audio of commands you want to have on the Other packages, such as Pro Tools or and music. The TDM edition of Peak toolbar. Technical enhancements include Logic Audio, are optimized for multitrack supports Digidesign TDM and AudioSuite support for a wider range of third-party operation along with MIDI sequencing, plug-ins, providing access to the wide SCSI cards and samplers, the addition of while Peak is optimized for stereo or range of high-end plug-ins developed dithering capabilities, improvements to mono operations. So you do your for Pro Tools systems. the Guess Tempo feature, the metering, multitrack work in one of these other To achieve certain effects, you may and so forth. packages, mix down to stereo, and need to combine two or more plug-ins. do your final editing and processing You can insert up to five VST or TDM Macworld’s buying advice in Peak prior to burning to CD. Peak plug-ins to process audio, and you can The only real competition for Peak is is also useful for working on mono or use both VST and TDM plug-ins at the TC|Works Spark. Peak has been around stereo files at stages during the multi- same time. It’s even possible to add an a year or two longer, although Spark is tracking process. For example, Peak AudioSuite and a Premiere plug-in as catching up fast and has some unique offers sophisticated tools for looping, well – for ultimate plug-in flexibility. features. The improved user-interface in including Loop Surfer, Loop Tuner, and Peak’s user-interface has been Peak 2.5 gives this package the edge for Clear signal Guess Tempo. given a makeover, and is better for it. I me when it comes to serious professional There is a wide range of signal- The big news is the support for VST- particularly liked the snazzy new toolbar. work. processing commands in Peak. compatible plug-ins, which are becoming Here, the tools reveal their purpose when Mike Collins

ce cream dribbling down their lips without (much) of a safety net. The game Pleasure-park sim queuing for the park’s latest attraction includes an advisor, but like every trainee I– recently developed by the best manager, you know that you know best. scientists available – the kids were It gets deep, and for that reason the PC Theme Park ready for the last ride. This was the version has already sold more than a World big one. million copies. Publisher: Feral Interactive Theme Park World is like a stay-at- You can take the kind of interest in www.feral.co.uk home microcosm of what managing your punters most marketing types dream Distributor: Softline the Millennium Dome might be like – of, click on them and see what they are (01372 726 333) if people went there. As a simulation feeling. You can do the same with staff, www.softline.co.uk Pros: Obsessive, demanding, it’s at once entertaining and annoying. rides, and stalls. Everything is adjustable involving. Just when you think you have that as you push the Park toward perfection. Cons: Obsessive, demanding, subtle little entertainment mix, an Like Sim City or The Sims, this game is involving – never play this attraction breaks down, and, like ice Death trap capable of taking over all your free time. before going to meet friends. in a hot tub, the magic melts. If you want to, Theme Park World lets you skimp Min specs: Mac OS 8.5 or Despite appearances, it’s not easy on the rides – rollercoasters don’t just look Macworld’s buying advice later; 266MHz PowerPC G3; being the ringmaster of a fantasy circus. dangerous. It’s a challenging game, ideal for those 64MB RAM; 150MB hard-disk Rubbish builds up; fashions and seasons with so little to do that domestic chores space. change. Who wants to ride the Big Dipper perfection, I found myself drilling deeper seem like an excellent idea. It’s online Price: £35 (including VAT) Star Rating: ★★★★/7.8 in a thunderstorm? You’ve got to plan and deeper into the micro-management features – the ability to chat and publish ahead. You need to keep looking forward, screens. The death of the Aztec Ride parks online – give this game a chance invest in research, and maintain the shock creates a queue – send in the of developing a huge Internet-based of the new. entertainers and get some security there. community. Theme Park World should Like every sim game I’ve ever played, As God games go, this tiny slice of carry a health warning – you’ll spend the interface is easy, first time – but reality takes as much energy as you want more time entertaining the park’s visitors never trust a first impression. Every to give it. Like all the best obsessions, than your friends, lovers, family or decision you make leads to another. Theme Park World offers layer after layer children. As an armchair Svengali, approaching of micro-controls. So many decisions – Jonny Evans

66 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 Search Macworld’s Reviews database online (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the month Macworld reviews

Pentium-PC emulator Virtual PC 4 Publisher: Connectix www.connectix.com Pros: Expandable hard-disk image; support for up to 512MB RAM. Cons: No Win 98 OS disc. Min specs: 50MB RAM; Power Macintosh G3 or G4; Mac OS 8.5 or later (USB support requires Mac OS 9.0.4); 1GB hard-disk space; CD-ROM drive. Price: £159 (excluding VAT) Star Rating: ★★★★/8.8

f you’re a creative professional working in a mixed platform I environment, chances are you’ve had to occasionally use a Windows PC. Often Windows is the only way to view email attachments, access certain Internet Service Providers, and take advantage Connection cross-over of other Windows-only office packages With Connectix’s Virtual PC 4, you can access Windows only networks – such as Novell Netware and – such as Microsoft Access. Microsoft Networking – using its built-in networking features. Using Virtual PC 4, Connectix’s latest release of their flagship emulation software, it’s possible Applications such as Microsoft Access To get the most out of Virtual PC, to run a wide selection of Windows databases run faster, and when using you’ll need a high-spec machine with software and hardware with speed memory and CPU intensive applications plenty of memory – at least 128MB and stability, all on a Mac. This gives – such as Web servers and middleware – running Mac OS 9.0.4. One other the best of both worlds at a fraction apps – on an iMac DV with 384MB feature to note is the enhanced support of the cost of any hardware-based RAM and Mac OS 9.04, Virtual PC 4 for the Velocity Engine, providing even Windows solution. is surprisingly fast and stable. better performance on G4s when running Among the newly added features graphics and multimedia applications. Pentium standard is the expandability of the Windows Virtual PC has been around since disk-image. When you create a PC Macworld’s buying advice late 1997, and was one of the first hard drive and you’re using Mac OS 9, Using Virtual PC 4, Mac creative Windows PC emulators for the Macintosh the drive expands as needed (up to professionals can test HTML pages, to support all the hardware functions 127GB), and best of all, it uses only hybrid CD-ROM disk images, access of a standard MMX Pentium-based PC. the space it actually requires. Windows only ISPs, view Windows It achieves this by making a PowerPC Yet another feature is the ability email attachments, connect to pretend to be a Pentium. to run multiple PC operating systems – Microsoft networks and more. Virtual PC boasts features such as provided you have the installation disks Virtual PC 4’s low memory the ability to transparently use Windows- to install them alongside the pre-installed requirement, familiar Macintosh interface, networking protocols with full ethernet and pre-configured Win 98. It supports new features, and improved speed and Speedier performance support – including Novell NetWare (IPX), anything from Red Hat Linux to Windows stability make it an ideal solution for The launching of Windows, TCP/IP, Microsoft Networking (NETBUI), NT/2000 – Windows 2000 server will run, Mac users wishing to take advantage opening of folders and browsing and Microsoft Remote Access Service but is not recommended. These systems of Windows applications and features the Web using the shared IP (RAS). Also, users can enjoy full drag- are viewed as familiar Mac thumbnails at an affordable price. are a lot more responsive than in &-drop support of text and graphics and can be toggled between. Johan Lopes previous versions of Virtual PC. between the two platforms, and take advantage of hot-swappable USB Restart rethink devices that don’t yet have Macintosh Another clever time-saving feature is drivers. the ability to pause, shutdown or restart While the previous version of Virtual these virtual machines without restarting PC supported a maximum memory the host operating system. allocation of up to 128MB RAM, the Virtual PC 4 doesn’t include a latest release supports up to 512MB Windows 98 installation disc. This could RAM, enough for most requirements. prove a bit problematic, and will almost Combined with major improvements certainly annoy first time Windows users. made to the core CPU emulator, and The disc is required anytime you want the all-new multimedia features, to update the installed system-software Connectix claims this latest release is where it requires changes made to the twice as fast as the previous versions. PC’s database of drivers. In my case, Launching windows, opening folders I needed a new networking service, and browsing the Web using the shared which was not part of the pre-configured IP are now a lot more responsive. Windows 98.

Search Macworld’s Reviews database online (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the month Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 69 ALL OF E H FA M M A E G

G A E M M E FA HALL OF

If 2000 was fun, 2001’s going to be better. By Andy Ihnatko and Christopher Breen

eeper and deeper stretch the marbled hallways and galleries of the Macworld Game Hall of Fame. With the new year come throngs of people to gaze upon the gaming D industry’s past and current glories. The school kids here on field trips seek only basic amusement and a change from the daily drudgery of class. The students are little better – take that young man in the Foo Fighters T-shirt examining the Zork Trilogy diorama, for instance: he stands in front of one of the most influential immersive realities in the history of the genre. But I can tell by his posture that he’s just desperately trying to come up with a thesis project and to avoid flunking out of his degree. Of course, such people are a valued source of sustaining revenue, but we don’t operate the Hall for them. We do it for the Cub Scout who gets separated from his troop because he can’t tear himself away from the Galaxian fresco, which puts him in mind of the Duke Nukem historical re-enactment he earlier saw staged in the atrium. Some games we hoped to see this year – games that have been bowling people over in beta form – are missing. We are as proud of 2000’s inductees as we are of any others. But with little exception, the 2000 games’ accomplishments were evolutionary ones: great games made greater, or familiar ideas with modern execution. However, 2001 promises to shake things up: revolution is coming (see “Next year’s contenders” for details). page 76

74 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 75 Just gimme a very basic premise: Your ship skates in two dimensions around the screen. Shoot asteroids and other Best upcoming gaming hardware: Radeon ships. Die when you are shot or collide with something. I like the mechanisms for play to be so simple that it’s chiefly Andy: We knew that this a question of how fast I can route signals from my brain award would go to a graphics stem to my fingers, without getting them hung up in the card. What was tough was tar pits of my cerebrum. getting around to a decision: Chris: If only MacSoft had found a way to import the we just hadn’t allotted enough hilarious sound effects from Ambrosia’s wonderful homage time for running naked to Asteroids, Maelstrom… through the parking lot What’s cool: It’s like the Foo Fighters covering a Police song from the laughing. We couldn’t believe early eighties. There’s nostalgia, sure, but enough modern credibility we’d lived long enough – to make it fly. through ATI’s long dare-we-say Who it’s for: Parents who want to be beat their nine-year-old kids at monopoly on the category something. – to finally see a choice of Triple word score From: MacSoft, www.wizardworks.com/macsoft/ manufacturers. At last, 3dfx What’s an eight-letter word for family fun? S-C-R-A-B-B-L-E ! Softline, 01883 745 111. – a Windows Godzilla – has Price: £29.99 (inc. VAT) stepped into the Mac fray. See News for more on 3dfx. adversary, “mini-games” to hone your wordplay, and the Best hack-&-Slash Game So why are we giving the honors to ATI’s new Radeon card? The Radeon ability to dabble at Scrabble with others over a LAN or the Diablo II (which should be shipping by the time you read this) will be more influential, Internet. ★★★/6.4 with the usual blessings from Apple. And thanks to ATI’s long relationship with If you’re seeking a great gift for someone with a new Chris: Because we engrave the Game Hall of Fame the Mac, the card will be far more integrated. In game play, 3dfx’s new Voodoo Meddle in every detail Best Simulation game iMac, look no further than Scrabble. statuettes in bulk, it would be helpful if Blizzard, makers of 5 card kicks any body part you care to name, but ultimately it’s a PC product The Sims will prepare you for the The Sims Andy: It’s easy to laugh at the idea of applying graphics, Diablo II, released a new Mac game each year. Then we with Mac drivers – it doesn’t work with Apple’s DVD player. day when you have an adult ★★★★★/9.2 sound, and animation to a board game as static as Scrabble could save a few pounds by ordering an extra ten awards Chris: Had the PCI Voodoo 5 produced the same smoking frame-rates on the daughter. Andy: The phone rings at 9:30 a.m. The only people who – at least in Monopoly you can go “vroom-vroom!” when and scrawling “Blizzard” and an upcoming year across the Mac as it does on PCs, Voodoo would be in. It didn’t. phone me at that ungodly hour are dental assistants you move the little car around the board – but this Scrabble bottom of each, and be done with it. Blizzard’s games are reminding me of an appointment or friends at work whose takes play to another level. that good. What’s cool: Greater graphics power today means better game play today and intensely insane computers are acting naughty. I pick up and I hear, “Andy! What’s cool: A great-looking Scrabble simulation that even the most game play in a few months, when it’s fully exploited. ALL OF It’s John! I got a crisis here! I finished my Three’s Company seasoned wordsmith will find difficult to beat. Who it’s for: Anyone interested in playing something more exciting than Scrabble. E H FA M M Sims house, and just as I finally got Jack Tripper a restaurant Who it’s for: Scrabble and traditional-games enthusiasts. From: ATI Technologies, www.ati.com; 01628 477 788. A E G job, my Mac froze up on me! What do I do?” From: MacSoft, www.wizworks.com/macsoft; Price: $279; UK price to be announced. I am tempted to say “Get a real life instead of a Simmed Softline, 01883 745 111.

G one,” but instead I advise him that if the mouse still works, Price: £29.99 (inc. VAT) A E M M he should just wait it out. Ignoring John’s excited Best Shoot-’Em-Up Game E FA HALL OF blabbering about creating a house for the Ropers next, I Best Arcade Game Deus Ex hang up and go back to sleep. Asteroids ★★★★/8.5 It’s real life, only fake. Control the life of a semi- ★★★★/7.2 Andy: Man alive, there are a lot of walk-around-a-3D- autonomous Simmed human – how he or she lives, Andy: What could possibly be superlative about a new environment-and-shoot- socializes, eats, works, plays, and everything else – with edition of a Reagan-era game? things games out there. But success or failure metered by your Sim’s overall happiness Well, sure, it’s been kicked up with Y2K sensibilities. when Deus Ex shipped, it and sense of self-worth. It’s finally out for the Mac and While the original was a model of vector-based was a sign that the glut was infecting player after player. minimalism, this one has an audio track, fully rendered officially over, that from this Chris: Count me among the infected whose Sim leads a far scenes between levels, and 3D animation. point onward developers more fascinating and productive life than his creator. But it’s still Asteroids – which is to say, though they’ve were not invited to ship a What’s cool: Indifferently wielding the power to control the basic expanded the game play with more-sophisticated higher The devil made me do it product unless they were happiness of another human. levels, they haven’t ruined the chimplike simplicity that’s Mow down the forces of darkness in Blizzard’s Diablo II. It’s fun bashing willing to do something Who it’s for: Folks being “Simmed” by their bosses. the hallmark of any great arcade game. dragons, and Diablo II is simple, addictive and glorious to look at. new with this category. Reviewed: October 2000 I don’t want problem-solving, characters that I’m meant Deus Ex looks like other From: Aspyr Media, www.aspyr.com; Softline, 01883 745 111. to truly feel for, or the same old Highly Experimental games, but beneath the Price: £39.99 (inc. VAT) Powerful Weapons whose origins are shrouded in mystery. Alas, it takes the company more than a year to give birth surface it’s more like reality. to games as remarkable as Diablo II. This third-person- You work with a team and Best Traditional Game perspective game combines many of the best elements of you learn as you go. For one, Scrabble traditional role-playing, adventure, and hack-&-slash you wouldn’t just pick up a ★★★★/7.8 games. As with other Blizzard titles, Diablo II is a visual and weapon and instantly know how to work it or be a crack Feel better about ultraviolence Chris: Many years ago, within the pages of The Macintosh aural treat, with dramatic lighting and environmental shot with it. In Deus Ex, experience counts; but if Violating humanity’s highest law Bible Guide to Games (Peachpit Press, 1996), I made the effects and an evocative sound track. You’ll appreciate that experience isn’t doing it for you, modifying the weapon needn’t turn you into an animal. bold pronouncement that Brian Sheppard’s Maven was the Diablo II is so easy on the eyes and ears; with the ability to might work. Here there are choices: some folks like to shoot, Aspyr Media’s Deus Ex adds best Scrabble simulation available on the Mac. My mistake. choose between five different protagonists and challenge shoot, shoot. Others see a guard toting a shoulder- intellect to injury. I should have suggested that Maven was the best Diablo’s hellish minions across four vast realms, you can mounted Patriot missile and think, What the heck, let’s just Scrabble simulation available on any computer platform. If easily get lost in the game for weeks on end. sneak around him and say we killed him. Either might work. not, why would Hasbro Entertainment incorporate Mr Andy: Yeah, it’s like Dungeons & Dragons, only targeted at You have to shoot, but you have to think and learn and Sheppard’s Maven engine into its own outstanding version people who actually like to have fun. The original left me a work with the other people in the scenario. What a concept. of the traditional word game? bit cold, but Diablo II has me hooked. Before, you just had to look at the protagonist’s cleavage. Now, that version of Scrabble has been brought to the What’s cool: Addictive hack-&-slash adventure. Chris: As much as I enjoy beautifully rendered shooting Macintosh by MacSoft, and it’s a winner. All the elements Who it’s for: The barbarian within us all. galleries such as Quake III and Unreal Tournament, it is you’d expect from Scrabble on a Mac are here: the Reviewed: October 2000 refreshing to exercise both mind and trigger finger in a 3D crosshatched board, the salmon-pink Double Word Score Blow up everything From: Blizzard Entertainment, www.blizzard.com; 01752 206 010 shooter. squares, seating for as many as four players (comprising Asteroids is just as you remember it, except the colours aren’t Price: £39.99 (inc. VAT) page 78 both computer and human opponents), a cagey computer hallucinatory

76 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 77 Best Racing Simulation Star Wars: Episode 1 Racer Next year’s contenders ★★★★★/9.2 Chris: With any luck, this will mark the last year we fling the garland for the Best Racing Simulation award at a game based on a non-existent mode of transportation. Don’t get me wrong, Star Wars: Episode 1 Racer – with its careening pod racers, varied tracks, and imaginative opponents—is worthy of induction to the Hall. It’s just that I’d like to see more bona fide, at-least-two-wheels-on-the-ground, skedaddle-your-fuel-starved-tail-into-the-pits auto-racing games come to the Mac. That said, Racer offers nearly everything a racing- simulation fan could desire. The game includes 25 distinct tracks scattered across eight different worlds, outrageous Use the G-force speeds that often exceed 400mph, outstanding graphics, Rib-crushing speeds and outlandish vehicles characterize LucasArts Star and three modes of play. In Tournament Play you tackle the Wars Episode 1 Racer. courses in succession. In Free Play you can race on any course you’ve unlocked in Tournament Play. And in the adventure. But the interface and rules are approachable networked Multiplayer Mode you race against up to eight enough that players entering the game’s Forgotten Realms players on a LAN. Myst again for the first time won’t feel as if they’d been suddenly Whether you’re a Star Wars fan or not, if you have a need Myst III: Exile will feature the kind of breathtaking graphics found in its predecessors. plunked down in Irkutsk without a phrasebook or a taste for for speed, Pod Racer delivers the goods. Quality quests omul. Andy: What’s wrong with fantasy vehicles? When I want egular visitors to the Hall know that many of the games we’d proposed as Role-playing games return to the What’s cool: Freedom of choice and the fact that every decision Baldur’s Gate is good, but not perfect. Missing from the reality, I’ve got the M1, and my Dukes of Hazzard sound R candidates for this year’s awards have yet to see the light of day – Oni and Mac with Baldur’s Gate, inspired matters. game as we go to press is network play and an update to track. Still, here’s to many new racing sims next year. Halo from Bungie (www.bungie.com) and Tribes 2 from Sierra (www.sierra.com) are by Advanced Dungeons & Who it’s for: Shooters who want to think more, and thinkers who squash its most obnoxious bugs. What’s cool: Fast and furious racing action in a year largely devoid of among the most sorely missed. If these games are released in 2001, their names Dragons. want to shoot more. Andy: Well, to me, role-playing games take already dull and racing of any kind. may yet adorn display cases created in their honour. Reviewed: October 2000. Demo available on October 2000 highly technical games and remove the possibility for social Who it’s for: Racing fans and Star Wars devotees. Pedal to the metal However, those long-awaited titles aren’t the only reason Macworld’s cover CD. interaction. If it were my kid, I’d rather he spent his time Reviewed: March 2000. Demo available on April 2000 Macworld’s to keep an eye peeled. If all goes according to plan, 2001 will be the year From: Aspyr Media, www.aspyr.com; Softline, 01883 745 111. trying to become a rock drummer. cover CD. Macintosh racing games finally come into their own. With any luck, the budding Price: £39.99 (inc. VAT) What’s cool: The finest RPG to hit the Mac in years. From: LucasArts, www.lucasarts.com; no official UK distribution but Jeff Gordon in your family could unwrap four racing games next holiday season: Who it’s for: AD&D fans and those who enjoy computer questing. available via select Web sites, such as www.macgold.co.uk/mac/. Aspyr Media’s Need For Speed: Porsche Unleashed; MacSoft’s Driver; Pangea’s ALL OF E H FA Best Adventure Game Reviewed: December 2000 Price: £36.99 (inc. VAT & shipping). (www.pangeasoft.net) Cro-Mag Rally; and Terminal Reality’s (www.terminalreality.com) M M A E Baldur’s Gate From: Graphic Simulations, www.graphsim.com 4x4 Evolution – the latter two available from www.macgold.co.uk. Those who prefer G ★★★★/7.2 Softline, 01883 745 111. air travel can look forward to United Developers’ (www.uniteddevelopers.com) release

G Chris: Just when we thought Advanced Dungeons & Price: £44.99 (inc. VAT) of ParSoft’s World War II combat flight simulation, Fighter Squadron: The A E M M Dragons-style role playing games would never again grace Screamin’ Demons Over Europe. E FA HALL OF a Mac’s hard drive, Graphic Simulations brings to the Mac Best Flight Simulation The eyes have it Fans of third-person-perspective action games one of the most popular elves-spells-and-magic adventure Fly 2K (think Tomb Raider) will welcome Ritual Entertainment’s (www.ritual.com) games found on the PC: Baldur’s Gate. ★★★★/8.4 Heavy Metal F.A.K.K. 2. The game, featuring heroine Julie Strain, is built Baldur’s Gate remains faithful enough to the old pen- Andy: Why is Fly 2K the year’s Best Flight Simulation? It’s on the Quake III engine and is sure to be a visual treat. There’s a playable and-paper Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) games just more flight-simmy than its predecessor. Sim jocks will demo on this month’s CD. of yore to earn the grudging respect of traditional players. understand the significance of that development. Speaking of which, there may be no more-visually compelling game Go up-diddley-up-up Still, it’s not so choked with gothic arcana that it’s likely to Terminal Reality hit it out of the park with its initial available in 2001 than Mattel Interactive’s (www.myst3.com) Myst III: Exile. As with Fly 2K’s small-aircraft sim is so turn off the uninitiated. You’ll find the requisite jumble of release, but now the sim has a certain obsessive- Cyan’s Myst and Riven before it, Myst III: Exile features lush graphics and sound. realistic, up-and-coming rock races (including human, elf, gnome, dwarf, halfling, and compulsive quality that endears. You’ve got a working But Myst III will provide a more immersive, 360-degree view of each scene. It’s groups are advised not to play it. half-elf), classes, spells, and quests in this expansive cockpit radio that lets you talk to other pilots in real time, the first version not created by Cyan’s Rand and Robyn Miller. via network. The instrumentation has also been vastly upgraded, allowing realistic simming of fly-by-instrument – which you’ll need, thanks to the new engine providing realistic weather and cover conditions. Spaceward Ho! of a typical Civilization franchise, it’s a more refined and Why do people stick with flight sims? Particularly those Explore, colonize, and dominate another world in Aspyr’s Alpha Centauri. flexible game than its predecessors. For example, if you’d that lack the fun of cannons and missiles? Easy: to feed the rather not micromanage every move in the game, you can fantasy that when a hysterical flight attendant asks if there Best World-Building Simulation prioritize and delegate tasks to governors, who then are any passengers on board who know how to fly, they can Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri automatically do your bidding. push aside the ones with actual flight experience and bring ★★★★/8.9 Alpha Centauri is a terrific game, but if it doesn’t satisfy that sucker in. With Fly’s new upgrades, this sim moves into Chris: Sid Meier is to world-building simulations what Ray your desire for domination, you have some options. You can the realm of credible flight training. Kroc (www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/991227/kroc.htm ) was to buy Aspyr’s $20 Alien Crossfire add-on pack from its Web Chris: Fly 2K is a wonderful flight-simulation game, but I artery-clogging fast-food outlets. The creator of the site. (Softline had no prices at press time). can’t help wishing that Terminal Reality would market an Civilization franchise is either behind or has indirectly Andy: It’s actually the first such game I ever got into AMRAAM/Unguided Ordnance add-on. influenced the design of dozens of these explore-colonize- playing. I respected the others but was put off by the long What’s cool: Detail, detail, detail. You’re not playing… you’re really build-and-bend-your-neighbours-to-your-will games. time it took to get spun up for the game. I think Alpha training. Alpha Centauri, this year’s winner for best world- Centauri puts you in the mood for destroying your fellow Who it’s for: Air wonks who are thrilled by staring at dials for 98 builder, is the sequel to Meier’s Civilization II. In this game, man over mineral rights with little fuss. minutes. the colonists who left their terrestrial home at the What’s cool: Civilization in space! From: Terminal Reality, www.terminalreality.com; Take 2, 01753 85 conclusion of Civ II have arrived on an alien planet. During Who it’s for: Those with an unquenchable spirit of Manifest Destiny. 4444. No official UK distribution but available via select Web sites, the journey the erstwhile earthlings have split into seven Reviewed: June 2000. Demo available on April 2000 Macworld’s such as www.macgold.co.uk/mac/. groups with differing ideologies. Your job is to lead the cover CD. Price: £34.99 (inc. VAT & shipping). exploration and domination of your newfound home. From: Aspyr Media, www.aspyr.com; Softline, 01883 745 111. While Alpha Centauri maintains many of the elements Price: £39.99 (inc. VAT) MW

78 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 79 test centre:21-inch monitors page 82 FEBRUARY 2001 81 Macworld The measurement of dot pitch while ago, I was at I was while ago, house a friend’s his “huge” showing off while he was monitor – all 17 inches of it. Everyone Dot pitch Bigger is not but of course, better, always if Choosing a monitor can be tough, screen to measure ways many are There eep the high-end graphics and video people eep the high-end graphics ou’ve the space, a large screen – even a – even screen the space, a large ou’ve oom can save your desktop from clutter. Just clutter. desktop from your oom can save elates to the distance between the dots that elates A atmarvelled and it its size me that reminded most non-Mac people don’t the excuse have or wallet monitor. a big-screen to own a to have likely more users are Macintosh tend to use because they bigger screen that applications graphics greatly are estate. desktop real enhanced by the extra we look atHere, choices for the available monitors. super-sized y view your how you cheap one – will improve are developers though software work. Even palettes and floating to keep trying hard elbow- to a minimum, a little extra windows r is not a big screen having enough to always k work for producing though. If you’re happy, will look the colours need to be sure you print, this end, some of the To intended. you the way colour-calibration have we tested screens is less critical If colour or hardware. software of plenty are there do, to the kind of work you some offering around, screens bargain surprisingly good quality. can’tespecially if you in action see a screen which is the case when buying buy, you before how much consider When you by mail-order. time most of us spend looking at a computer your researching easy to see why it’s screen, is worthwhile.purchase butquality, statistics of the screen many worthless. are quoted by manufacturers r is, The trouble image. up the screen make with at two types of screen are there least of measuring dot ways three Whatever pitch. always manufacturers the type of screen, dotmeasure pitch in the most to that way flattering technology.

All prices in this feature exclude VAT at 17.5 per cent at exclude VAT All prices in this feature

PHOTOGRAPHY: MIKE LAYE MIKE PHOTOGRAPHY: By David Fanning and Seth Havens and Seth Fanning By David Big monitors tested and rated. Big monitors tested Primal screens Primal design

Barco Reference Calibrator V Eizo T962 Formac ProNitron 21/800 Hansol 2100A Iiyama VisionMaster Pro 510 LG Studioworks 221U The Barco has as close to a perfect The Eizo T962 is a run-of-the-mill screen, The ProNitron, although no beauty, is This is one of the most affordable Iiyama uses a great flat-tube for this You’d be forgiven for thinking that any image as anybody can reasonably despite its vertically and horizontally flat compact and functional. The screen is screens on test, yet its design is better monitor, so it’s a shame the rest of the 21-inch monitor costing under £500 expect. It has its own custom hardware- screen. There’s a single button to control truly flat, but does not quite offer a full than many more expensive models, package is less appealing. The three- must be a dud. But the 221U holds its calibrator, and can change every aspect all aspects of image quality, which does 20-inch viewable area. It performs well giving equal attention to usability and button controls are simple, but own in the key areas. Its controls are of quality in 25 different sectors of the keep it neat-looking but is awkward to on contrast and black-depth, and its appearance. Image quality, though, lost navigation is clumsy, and the case is as easy to use and the screen-image sharp screen. It looks pretty cool, too. One use. Fortunately, there is another button luminosity is on a par with the best. it marks for fuzziness. But if you’re on a grey and boxy as monitors come. and bright – and it can handle a criticism is the price. At a smidgen for automatic set-up. The specs are Gradients displayed beautifully smoothly budget and want a screen just to play Following some minor adjustments, resolution of 1,600-x-1,200 pixels at a buying advice under £4,000 this screen will never be a sound but the problem is price; you can – but this may be the result of its games on, this will do fine. However, for though, image quality became pretty respectable 90Hz. For £100 less than the big seller. It is only for the absolute buy a better monitor for the same disappointing convergence, which drags anything else it’s worth paying the extra good. So tube apart, this monitor is already bargain Samsung, it’s an ideal perfectionist. money, or a comparable one for less. down the ProNitron’s score. £90 for the Samsung. average on every count. choice for those on a tight budget.

Company Barco Company Eizo Company Formac Company Hansol Company Iiyama Company LG Electronics Price £3,995 Price £879 Price £669 Price £499 Price £645 Price £489 Screen size 21 inches Screen size 21 inches Screen size 21 inches Screen size 21 inches Screen size 22 inches Screen size 21 inches Viewable size 20 inches Viewable size 19.6 inches Viewable size 19.8 inches Viewable size 20 inches Viewable size 20 inches Viewable size 20 inches Optimum timing 1,600-x-1,200 pixels at 85Hz Optimum timing 1,600-x-1,200 pixels at 85Hz Optimum timing 1,600-x-1,280 pixels at 85Hz Optimum timing 1,600-x-1,200 pixels at 85Hz Optimum timing 1,600 x 1,200 pixels Optimum timing 1,600-x-1,200 pixels at 90Hz Screen type Shadow mask Screen type Trinitron; flat Screen type Aperture grille; flat Shadow mask at 85Hz Screen type Shadow mask specs Calibration Hardware as standard Calibration None Calibration None Screen type None Screen type Aperture grill; flat Calibration None Contact TypeMaker Contact ProDisplay Contact Formac Calibration Hansol Calibration None Contact LG Electronics Telephone 0121 604 1234 Telephone 01483 719 500 Telephone 020 8533 4040 Contact 01252 360 400 Contact Iiyama Telephone 0870 607 5544 URL www.typemaker.co.uk URL www.eizo.co.uk URL www.formac.co.uk Telephone www.hansol.co.uk Telephone 01438 745 482 URL www.lgelectronics.co.uk URL URL www.iiyama.co.uk

❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 6 Image quality ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 10 Image quality ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 8 Image quality ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 8 Image quality ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 6 Image quality ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 6 Image quality ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 6 Design/usability ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 8 Design/usability ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 6 Design/usability ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 8 Design/usability ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 9 Design/usability ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 6 Design/usability ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 6 Value for money ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 7 Value for money ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 6 Value for money ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 7 Value for money Value for money ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 9 Value for money ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 7 score ★★★★/7.2 Star Rating ★★★★/8.7 Star Rating ★★★★/7.1 Star Rating ★★★★/7.8 Star Rating Star Rating ★★★/6.7 Star Rating ★★★/6.1

Measuring dot pitch – or stripe pitch, as it tightly held vertical wires to separate the Refresh rate and resolution These are be able to do it at a 1,024-x-768-pixel Product scores is called if it’s an aperture-grille screen – is beam. Because the wires are thinner than better – but not definitive – measures of resolution. Individual bar-chart quality scores run from done in different ways, so comparing results the shadow mask, more light can get quality shown in the specs as optimum Higher resolutions mean the monitor has 0-10, and reflect specific aspects of is like comparing apples and bananas. The through. timing. Refresh rate refers to the number of to work harder to refresh, because there are performance. Star Rating is an overall score, numbers quoted become irrelevant. In this The difference between more or less light times the screen is redrawn every second. more lines to draw on the screen. To make encapsulating these individual scores, plus round-up we’ve elected not to quote dot or getting though is important for picture Faster refresh rates give less visible flicker. things simple, we’ve quoted the highest all other factors likely to influence your stripe pitch, as it serves only to confuse. quality. Part of the construction process This makes the screen easier to view for long suggested resolution and refresh rate. This choice of purchase. Shadow mask and aperture grille These are involves tinting the glass, to make the screen periods. It has been suggested that screens tends to be around 1,600-x-1,200 pixels for the two classes of screen technology. The appear black when no light is directed at it. with lower refresh rates can cause the resolution and around 85Hz for the shadow-mask screen is made up of circular This is how black areas in images are headaches and eye strain. A refresh rate of refresh rate. If you run the screen at a lower dots, while the aperture grille – also known rendered on screen. The more light that 85Hz is fine, and anything greater is a resolution, the refresh rate can often be set as Trinitron – uses tiny vertical oblongs. makes it to the screen, then the darker the bonus. Lower refresh rates are still useable, higher. Being able to set high resolutions is Monitors work by shooting cathode rays that tint can be made. Because aperture-grille but 75Hz and less can appear flickery. something of a mixed blessing when using a light up the phosphors painted on the inside monitors are brighter, such screens also have Refresh rate is set by the graphics card. A Mac. While high-resolution screens give you of the glass tube. To define individual pixels, darker blacks and a greater spread of monitor may be capable of 120Hz, but will a larger desktop, your desktop icons are the ray needs to be directed through either a contrast. However, this doesn’t make reach this only if the video card can output rendered minute to the point of being shadow mask or an aperture grille. A shadow aperture-grille screens better than shadow at that rate. Maximum refresh-rate is also illegible. The same happens to text in Mac mask is a sheet with a honeycomb of holes masks, because it depends what you want linked to resolution settings. If a monitor menus. A resolution of 1,280-x-1,024 pixels punched through it. An aperture grille uses from your monitor. can handle a 120Hz refresh rate, it may only page 84

82 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 Search Macworld’s Reviews database online (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the month. Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 83 design

Maxdata Belinea 10 80 80 Mitsubishi DiamondPro 2045u NEC FP1370 Nokia 445 Pro Sony MultiScan G500 ViewSonic P220F This Belinea offers high specs at a The Diamond Pro range uses a special On paper, the NEC is impressive. It This beige box is a wallflower to look at, This sleek monitor is hindered by the This is a budget screen and fared well budget price, but this model does fall kind of aperture-grille screen called boasts a potential resolution of 1,920-x- but its screen is truly flat, and capable of sheer idiocy of its controls. The on- in our tests. It’s no beauty but does down on design. However, once you get DiamondTron. Mitsubishi claims this is 1,440 pixels at 85Hz and a vertically and 1,600-x-1,200-pixel resolution – features screen controls offer little in the way of boast a balanced set of features, and, the hang of the controls they do offer an advance on the Trinitron aperture- horizontally flat screen. The reality is you can normally expect only of pro- enhanced features, while the hidden although it doesn’t excel in any areas, detailed control over most aspects of grille from Sony. Previous Mitsubishi disappointing, though. Its image was level displays. The Nokia further comes “inverted-mushroom” control knob neither does it fail. Its controls are the image. The screen is flat, which cuts models that we’ve looked at have been washed-out and lacked depth. We into its own through its easy-to-use makes navigating menus hideously sophisticated, including a colour-purity glare, and its resolution capabilities much more impressive than the 2045u. improved this with considerable controls, that allow for sections of the difficult. In fairness, however, the G500 adjustment for each corner of the buying advice mean that it will also be practically The extra sharpness of image that the tweaking but for £699, customers have screen to be independently fine-tuned. has a truly impressive image, possibly screen. The problem for ViewSonic is flicker-free at most resolutions. It’s a DiamondTron promises was not the right to expect a reasonable image This is something that should add the sharpest on test – performing well the Samsung is better on all counts – triumph of quality, rather than design. apparent. right out of the box. significantly to its lifespan. on colour and luminosity. yet costs just £6 more.

Company Maxdata Company Mitsubishi Company NEC Company Nokia Company Sony Company ViewSonic Price £577 Price £719 Price £699 Price £728 Price £775 Price £579 Screen size 22 inches Screen size 22 inches Screen size 22 inches Screen size 21 inches Screen size 21 inches Screen size 22 inches Viewable size 20 inches Viewable size 20 inches Viewable size 20 inches Viewable size 19.8 inches Viewable size 19.8 inches Viewable size 20 inches Optimum timing 1,600-x-1,200 pixels Optimum timing 1,600-x-1,200 pixels Optimum timing 1,920-x-1,440 pixels at 85Hz Optimum timing 1,600-x-1,200 pixels Optimum timing 1,600-x-1,200 pixels Optimum timing 1,600-x-1,20 pixels at 85Hz at 95Hz Aperture grill; flat at 85Hz at 85Hz at 77Hz specs Screen type Aperture grill; flat Screen type DiamondTron; flat Screen type None Screen type Aperture grille; flat Screen type Trinitron; flat Screen type Aperture grille; flat Calibration None Calibration None Calibration NEC/Mitsubishi Calibration None Calibration None Calibration None Contact Maxdata Contact NEC/Mitsubishi Contact 020 7202 6300 Contact Viewsonic Contact Sony Contact ViewSonic Telephone 01344 788 910 Telephone 020 7202 6300 Telephone www.necmonitors.com Telephone 0800 833 648 Telephone 0990 424 424 Telephone 0800 833 648 URL www.maxdata.co.uk URL www.mitsubishi-monitors.com URL URL www.viewsonic.com/uk URL www.sony.co.uk URL www.viewsonic.com/uk

❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 5 Image quality ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 8 Image quality ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 4 Image quality ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 7 Image quality ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 8 Image quality ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 9 Image quality ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 6 Design/usability ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 7 Design/usability ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 6 Design/usability ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 5 Design/usability ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 8 Design/usability ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 4 Design/usability ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 6 Value for money ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 8 Value for money ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 5 Value for money Value for money ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 8 Value for money ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 6 Value for money ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 6 score ★★★/5.7 Star Rating ★★★★/7.8 Star Rating ★★★/5.3 Star Rating Star Rating ★★★★/8.0 Star Rating ★★★★/7.1 Star Rating ★★★/6.2

is about the highest that will maintain this compromises ease of control. The Eizo models tested have calibration hardware Barco’s top monitor. At a whisker under legible text. If your eyesight is not so hot, FlexScan makes this mistake, sporting a either included or as an option. £4,000 you’d expect it to be good – and it is. though, 1,024-x-768 pixels might be more single rocker-button that is difficult to use. The LaCie Electron 22 can be controlled The main reason the Calibrator 5 is so suitable. Sony takes this approach one step further, by by the LaCie Blue Eye calibrator. This greatly expensive is that it comes with a custom hiding the single button on its G500 on the simplifies the process, because – instead of calibrator. The calibrator hardware is Screen control underside of the front panel. This made it relying on judging colours by eye – it’s taken measured against a master calibrator in the When you take delivery of a monitor it the most difficult model to adjust. care of by a CCD sensor. You simply stick the Barco factory in Belgium. This master should be primed with factory settings, and Blue Eye to the centre of the screen and let calibrator, Barco claims, is one of the most these should be close to optimum. If Colour issues the software do its work. Using the Blue Eye accurate colour-measurement device in adjustments are needed, these should be for If you’re serious about colour, you need some calibrator will ensure that your LaCie existence. Whatever variation the master minor things like contrast and brightness, sort of calibration. Luckily, these days Apple monitor is well adjusted and consistent. This calibrator detects in the calibrators it tests,it not radical tweaking of pincushion settings provides a calibration tool as part of its will be good enough for 99 per cent of users, will compensate for. Each monitor and or trapezium adjustments. Monitors Control Panel. This is great for but if you need more accuracy you need to calibrator has a serial number, to make sure The controls should also be easy to making sure your screen image is at least in spend more. the calibrator is used only with the screen it understand and reach – something some the ball park when it comes to accuracy. Two Barco is a name synonymous with the was calibrated for. This produces an image as This round-up of super-size monitors models failed at. The ideal monitor should be models include software called Colorific, pinnacle of quality – and expense. In close to perfect as technology will allow – omits flat-panel LCD displays. See our both sleek yet fully featured. which does much the same job. previous years, we’ve left out Barco monitors certainly far closer that the human eye is group test of flat panels in the July 2000 There’s little point in a monitor having a For grown-up monitor calibration, you on price grounds, but this year we’ve capable of achieving. issue of Macworld, as well as our reviews single control button to simplify its look if need a hardware calibrator. Two of the included one. The Reference Calibrator V is page 86 of Apple’s latest LCDs in September 2000.

84 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 Search Macworld’s Reviews database online (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the month. All prices in table ex VAT (at 17.5 per cent) unless otherwise stated Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 85 The ability to use a monitor as an on- screen “soft“ proofing device can cut the amount of money you spend on expensive editors’ choice Cromalin colour proofs. Where Barco-levels of on-screen accuracy are not so crucial is with Web design. After all, there’s little point in spending so much money on colour where the end result will appear on any number of cheap, uncalibrated 14-inch PC monitors. Some people maintain that on-screen RGB proofing can’t accurately display something that’s going to be printed in CMYK, but it’s worth remembering that neither do Cromalin proofs accurately show what the final result will be like – unless your final output is to photographic paper. Much of Samsung SyncMaster 1100p + LaCie Electron 22 Blue II the look of a printed image is defined by The first thing to impress us about the This is the only monitor to offer serious paper stock. Glossy Cromalin prints will SyncMaster was the inclusion of professional features for under £1,000. never accurately show what a newsprint Colorific calibration software. Since this It’s big on calibration too, with uigavc specs buying advice image will look like. On-screen proofing isn’t depends on the user’s judgement it Colorific software available with all LaCie that different. does not offer the accuracy of a monitors. LaCie, though, tells us that One surprising thing about the Barco is it hardware calibrator – such as the LaCie most of its customers still rely on the lacks a flat screen. This is because is uses BlueEye – yet it is still an invaluable tool. Monitor control-panel calibration in Mac shadow-mask technology, rather than The casing of the 1100p + is elegant OS. LaCie also offers the £400 Blue Eye aperture grille. The technologies both have and curvy. The controls are discreet, hardware calibrator, which links directly their strengths and weaknesses. located on a pop-out drawer with seven to the Electron 22 via USB and adjusts Barco uses shadow-mask technology buttons, offering easy, intuitive the display’s internal settings with because it gives greater accuracy of colour, navigation through the on-screen scientific precision. While £400 for Blue which is what its customers value above all menus. The functionality of the controls Eye may seem steep, at least LaCie isn’t else. Manufacturers that use aperture-grille is extensive, beaten only by the Barco’s bundling it as standard, which would technology do so because it allows them to military-grade precision. However, the bump the price up for everyone – produce vertically and horizontally flat Samsung interface is leagues ahead in including those for whom absolute screens. The great advantage of a flat terms of usability. colour-precision isn’t critical. CRTscreen is there is virtually no reflection. The default settings produce a crisp, Unsurprisingly, the Electron 22 Blue In recent years, the difference in screen- high-contrast image, and colour is gives excellent image quality. Out-of-the- curve between the two classes of monitor vibrant and smooth across the full box contrast and sharpness are spot-on, has closed radically. However, with the gamut. With the fine-tuning capabilities while colour is vivid. Black-depth rivals exception of the Barco, I'd say the flatter available through the controls and the the Barco Calibrator range and screens and better contrast offered by calibration software, a good picture can convergence is perfect. The 1,800-x- aperture-grille monitors outweighs the be improved even further. 1,350-pixel resolution is also impressive. colour advantage of shadow masks. Unfortunately, the SyncMaster LaCie pays attention to detail, and the doesn’t have a truly flat screen, which 22 Blue’s matte-blue casing, combined Macworld’s buying advice would add the perfect touch. Although with the large, tailor-made hood and Choosing the right monitor depends not the best display, quality is certainly truly flat screen, all help reduce glare primarily on two things: budget and use. If it high enough for professional use. and reflection. It’s just a shame that the is to be used for soft-proofing work that’ll Combined with the tasteful design, on-screen controls are so fiddly to end up in print then you should seriously relevant features and superior navigate. Still, with such a superior consider buying a screen that comes with a functionality, it will serve all but the image and features at this price, you hardware calibrator. Only two of the screens most demanding users. can’t complain. tested offer hardware calibration: the LaCie and the Barco. Both both do fantastic jobs, Company Samsung Company LaCie but the extra £3,000 you’ll spend on a Barco Price £589 Price £799 will buy you only a ten per cent Screen size 21 inches Screen size 22 inches improvement in image quality. All but the Viewable size 20 inches Viewable size 20 inches highest of the high-end user will find LaCie’s Optimum timing 1,600-x-1,200 pixels Optimum timing 1,800-x-1,350 pixels at 85Hz Electron 22 – and its Blue Eye calibrator – at 85Hz Aperture grille; flat more than adequate. Screen type Shadow mask Screen type Colorific; LaCie Blue Eye For lower-end users the news is good, Calibration Colorific Calibration (optional) because quality is high across the board – Contact Samsung LaCie but one monitor does stand out: the Telephone 0800 521 652 Contact 020 7872 8000 Samsung SyncMaster 1100p + offers URL www.samsungelectronics.co.uk Telephone www.lacie.co.uk excellent features and out-of-the-box URL performance. Though it doesn’t have a ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 9 perfectly flat screen, its £589 price tag level- Image quality ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 8 Image quality ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 8 pegs it with the LaCie for striking the right Design/usability ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 9 Design/usability ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 9 score balance of features and value. MW Value for money ❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚ 9 Value for money ★★★★/8.8 ★★★★ next month: 17- and 19-inch screens Star Rating /8.8 Star Rating

86 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 Search Macworld’s Reviews database online (www.macworld.co.uk), updated throughout the month Inside Mac OS X

It’s going to take some solid practice getting used to the new ways of Mac OS X – out now as a public beta, and due in finished form early this year. Macworld’s monthly series is here to help. Mac OS X = Unix Behind the candy-coated shell, OS X provides all the power of Unix, with few compromises.

If you wanted to define the far ends of the computer usability spectrum, you could do a lot worse than planting Mac OS at one end and Unix at the other. For the whole of its existence, the Macintosh operating system has been a prime example of consistency and graceful design. And for the whole of its existence, the Unix operating system has been, um, not. Ugly where the Mac is beautiful, industrial where the Mac is personal, the domain of hard-core geeks where the Mac is the computer for the rest of us, Unix has managed to gain its position in the industry simply by being incredibly powerful. A lumbering dump truck to the Mac’s zippy roadster, Unix is the pug-ugly workhorse that delivers more Web pages, routes more mail, and gets more done than any other computer operating system in existence. And Mac OS X is so interesting because it is Unix – or, rather, one of the many Unix variants – through and through. Strip away the colourful candy shell, and any number of bearded, suspendered old-school Unix hackers would feel right at home inside the confines of Mac OS X. In fact, if you ignore the graphical user interface strengths of a high-end, modern operating Shell shock (GUI) entirely and limit your interaction with the system: true multitasking, true memory protection, From within Mac OS X Beta, operating system to an 80-x-25-character text symmetric multi-processing. But also waiting you get to the shell via the window, you’d be hard-pressed to identify Mac OS X beneath the surface are hundreds of obscure, Terminal app, located in as anything other than a true-blue FreeBSD (Berkeley handy command-line utilities and Internet-based the Utilities folder of your Software Distribution) release, on which OS X is based. services that Unix programmers have come to expect. Applications folder. POSIX-compliant, networked, and multi-user-capable, Both Emacs and Vi – two text editors beloved by Mac OS X can match Unix feature-for-feature and the Unix crowd and guaranteed to make any foible-for-foible. Macintosh user cringe – are present in the beta release. Obtuse and life-saving scripting languages Code mode Perl and AWK also put in appearances. The whole You know there’s revolution in the air when the bestiary of two-letter Unix commands rear their following can be typed into an operating system obfuscatory little heads, too (cp, mv, rm, ls, ln, df, built in Cupertino and execute flawlessly: wc, bc, ps, su, and on and on and on) along with their longer, but no less confusingly named brethren: dig @138.195.138.195 goret.org. axfr | grep ‘^c....*A’ | sort | grep, tail, gzip, stty, cat, more, chown, ping, and cut -b5-36 | perl -e ‘while(<>){print pack(“H32”,$_)}’ | gzip -d on and on and on. Mac OS X’s Unix heritage is also obvious from the services it can provide to other machines, via TCP/IP. Put that in your GUI and smoke it. The beta comes complete with Apache, the Unix- Most users, of course, will never come in contact spawned Web server that runs over half the sites on with the bare metal of the underlying Unix layer the Web. It has an NFS server and a DNS server and an in Mac OS X. Most programmers won’t even come FTP server and an SSH server and more good old Unix in contact with it. Mac OS X has all the now-familiar demons than you can shake a stick at. And most of continues page 90

More information on Mac OS X at Macworld Online (www.macworld.co.uk/osx) Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 89 them are controlled by the Unix-standard /etc/rc distributions) ship with a complete set of free tools and /etc/inetd.conf configuration files. for building software: C and C++ compilers, linkers, From within Mac OS X Beta, you get to the shell debuggers, profilers, make, the whole lot of publicly via the Terminal app, located in the Utilities folder available GNU software. And while the arrival of the of your Applications folder. GNU tool set – the mainstay of Unix development – is inevitable, it’s a shame that Apple didn’t see fit Un-Unix Mac to include it in the Mac OS X beta. In fact, from the command-line, there are only a few A true example of the power of Mac OS X would ways to tell that OS X isn’t a normal FreeBSD release: have been to allow users to download and compile ■ Ask the OS itself. The Unix command “uname -s” any of the thousands of BSD-compatible programs will tell you the operating system your machine is available on the Internet right out of the box. currently running, and under Mac OS X it returns Apple has taken an enormous risk by abandoning “Darwin,” Apple’s name for the non-GUI, non- the 15 years of development it invested in the original graphical core of the code. Mac operating system, but judging from the Mac OS X ■ The prevalence of uppercase filenames. Classic beta, that gamble has paid off. Unix environments, and the people who use them, The Mac can now run with the big boys, supporting typically try to avoid extra keystrokes – “remove” the attractive and elegant interface the machine becomes “rm” – but Mac OS X retains the Macintosh’s has always offered with a rock-solid Unix foundation. enthusiasm for correctly capitalized files. Home Literally millions of lines of code, comprising some directories, for instance, are stored in /Users instead of the most powerful server-side applications ever of the more traditional /users or /home. Unix-native written, are suddenly Mac-compatible. directories retain their classic lowercase status (/etc, The tools that were used to write those MORE MACWORLD /tmp, /dev), but everything else gets its formatting applications, and the operating system features FEATURES ON MAC OS X: from the Mac side of the family. they rely on, are also available. Opposites or not, Macworld, November 2000: This doesn’t change the functionality of the Unix and the Mac OS make an enormously interesting Beta Survival Guide operating system at all, but it can look odd to the combination, sure to strengthen both communities. Macworld, December 2000: Unix-attuned mind. What do you get when you weld a sports car New menus ■ The lack of GNU development tools. All open- to a dumper truck? It’s obvious: you get the best Macworld, January 2001: source Unixen (FreeBSD and its brothers OpenBSD of both worlds. MW New directories and NetBSD, and their second cousins, the Linux Greg Knauss

Mac OS X Public Beta diary 1: First steps

Macworld’s Brett Larson has made a vow: First problem there’s not a slowdown to be found. This is nice. All Mac OS X, all the time. The first problem I’ve run into is with the Mail The only problem I’m noticing, though, is when ’m not being forced to do this. I volunteered application that’s included with the system. I move a window in Classic, the window outline Ito run the Mac OS X beta on my work I wanted to use it to decrease my need to go moves right away, but it doesn’t redraw for a computer to perform my daily routines. I can’t into Classic mode, but after I set it up to get second or so. It’s not so bad, but a few times escape and go into Mac OS 9 for this or that. my mail, it locked up my whole system. I’ve tried the slowdown has lead to wrongly directed Nope. If I need an OS 9 application, I’ve got it twice now, and it keeps doing the same thing. mouse clicks that bring up other applications to use Classic. So here I am. The only way out is to bring down the whole or close other windows. The first day is going OK. The longest part of machine. Eudora works fine in Classic, so for The boot time seems to be shorter now. the installation process was backing up my data now I’ll stick with it. When I come in and turn on my machine, it’s beforehand. Of course, good computer users I like having a command line in my operating up and running before I’m back with my cup know to backup their data before installing a system. Finally, all those UNIX system-admin of coffee. Before, in OS 9, my machine would beta version of any OS, especially OS X. I think classes I took will come in handy! So far, I’ve still be loading extensions even after I returned I’ve lost enough data in my time know to do this. used the command line to kill a few processes with my coffee. And this is a beta, so I can only The installation was the fastest I’ve seen that were out of control. That is one sweet imagine booting up will be faster in the final for any OS, taking all of 20 minutes, including feature. version. configuring the machine. And the whole process When Classic boots up, the whole machine was easy; the software asks some questions, slows down until it’s finished. It doesn’t NEXT: Brett’s and you give it answers. I say, it was easier take long, but it would be nice if a version experiences to install OS X than it was to install OS 9. of Classic was available with a very limited set with Classic I’m running OS X on a PowerBook G3 (Bronze of extensions in order to speed the process up. and Aqua Keyboard) that has 128MB of physical RAM, though I’d like to have a little more. I hooked up Wake up! an external monitor, keyboard, and IntelliMouse, The new sleep function rules. It literally woke and they all work just fine. I heard there are up my PowerBook from sleep mode in about issues with using two monitors in an OS X a second. Nice! My external monitor, however, environment, but I’ve noticed none so far. took a long time to power back up. The Battery As of now, I have SoundJam playing my tunes monitor in OS X is also sweet – it looks like an without a problem. (We’ll get into the problems actual battery that changes colour as it drains. with the Apple MP3 player at a later date.) With only 128MB of RAM, this PowerBook I’m also writing this very document in sure keeps up. I currently have ten applications Microsoft Word 98 inside Classic. open, one of which is Microsoft Word, and

90 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 More information on Mac OS X at Macworld Online (www.macworld.co.uk/osx) create: graphics

Backgrounds for thick items Many objects are too thick to fit beneath a scanner lid, and scanning 1 with the lid up produces a dark background behind 3D-object the primary object. You can remove this background in an image-editing program – or you can prevent the problem by covering objects with paper, cloth, or board.

■ Lay a large sheet of bright-white paper or poster board over the object to produce an image with a light background scanning (A). planning A

Use your scanner to capture 3D objects. By Janet Ashford

Scanners are designed for scanning flat pieces of paper, but don’t let that stop you from experimenting with 3D ■ If the resulting background looks uneven (B), try creating objects. As long as you observe a few common-sense a three-sided temporary lid out of white foam-core board (C). precautions, you can scan anything lightweight enough Make your cover just tall enough to fit over the object – the to rest on your scanner’s glass. Take a look around your closer to the scanner glass the better – and wide enough to house, your backyard, or your street – interesting straddle your scanner. This type of lid works best for objects objects abound, both natural and manufactured. no taller than 3 inches. While it’s easy to find scannable material once you start looking, 3D items can pose some challenges. For B C instance, handling light and shadow gets a little tricky when you have to leave your scanner lid open. And, setting something wet or crumbly on your expensive machine could be risky. Here are practical tips for scanning just about anything, including the oversize, the shiny, the translucent, and even the messy.

■ You can brighten a scan’s background (D) by shining a lamp between the scanner and your custom lid, aiming at the white board’s surface.

D

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Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 93 Light for transparent objects Transparent or Colour editing for metallic objects Silver translucent objects may appear dark in your image, spoons, gold necklaces, shiny new wrenches, and 2 especially if the scanner lid is up during the scan. 3 even glittery trout can reflect the light that scanners Add a white background or a light source to lighten emit, creating a rainbow effect. You can get rid both the object and its background. of these highlights in Photoshop by desaturating your scan and then adding colour to your image.

■ Flat, transparent objects – pieces of stained glass, translucent tissue paper, or gel designs – will scan well if you place a bright-white background on top of them before scanning. If still more illumination is needed, try shining a light through a piece of tracing paper placed on top of the object. Original scans, including colour distortion.

■ Open the ■ For a larger item, such as a wine glass, Hue/Saturation a background may not reflect enough light; dialog box you’ll get an image that’s dark and lacking (Image-Adjust- detail. Try aiming a light source horizontally Hue/Saturation) across the object – a tensor lamp or and set the an aluminium shop light works well. Put Saturation slider the light as close to the object as you can, (A) all the way but be sure to keep the light bulb out of A to the left to the scan area to avoid distortion. remove the colour. The scan will look like a black-&-white photo. For objects made of stainless steel, this greyscale version may look truest to the original.

■ Scans of silver or gold items will look best if you add back some colour. Select the Colorize option to restore colour to the greyscale image; then adjust the sliders to find a colour ■ Incandescent light sources can cast a reddish colour on a you like. Try golds, yellows, or ochres (yellowy reds) for gold glass object. To correct this, open the scan in Adobe Photoshop, objects (B), and blues for silver objects (C). go to the Hue/Saturation dialog box, and move the sliders until the colour is in a more natural-looking blue range. B

C

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94 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 Sections for large objects Items that are larger Protection from messy objects than your scanner’s image area – your old trumpet Take care when scanning wet items 4 from high school, a bouquet of flowers, or the 5 (such as a pear slice) or dusty ones catch of the day – can be scanned in pieces and (such as pinecones). Have cleaning reassembled in an image-editing program. supplies handy to make sure that your scanner’s works don’t get damaged and that future scans will be free of spots and dust. ■ First, scan the oversize object in sections. Be sure A to orient the object the same way for each scan, so the direction of the light matches in your final image.

■ Save each scan separately. You may wish to get rid of any unwanted background colour before proceeding.

■ Open your first scan in Photoshop, and increase the canvas size to accommodate the entire object – plus a little A manoeuvring room.

■ Open the second scan, and use the Move tool to ■ To protect your scanner from moisture, cover click and drag the image the scanner glass with a piece of clear acetate (A). from one document to the other (A). Then position ■ If items you want to scan are dusty or chaffy, the second image so that clean them first: rinse a dusty leaf and let it dry, it overlaps the first exactly. or shake popcorn in a sifter to remove small bits. You may have to rotate the After scanning, clean the glass promptly. image a little to make it match. ■ Supplies to keep near your scanner include a soft cloth, window-cleaning solution, paper towels, and a TIP Setting the Layer opacity pressurized-air can – check your local camera shop. to less than 100 per cent (B) will allow you to see both layers at the same time.

■ Use the Marquee or another tool to select and delete most of the duplicated B image on the second scan, leaving only a small amount of overlap.

■ Repeat these steps for any remaining sections of your image. If necessary, use the smudge tool to blend the edges.

96 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 create: graphics

■ Open a raster image, then click on the image A 1 with the Type tool to enter text directly on top of the Cast type image. Highlight the text with the Type tool and format it in the Character Photoshop 6 comes with much-improved and Paragraph palettes (A). text-handling. By Ralph Berger

Compared with Illustrator 9, Photoshop 6 has both limitations and advantages when creating type on a curve and combining it with raster images. Unlike Illustrator, Photoshop 6 doesn’t allow you to bind text to an existing path, but its simple-to-use warping B function lets you make complex shape-envelopes that would take many steps to create in Illustrator. C

■ In the Layers palette, double-click on the text- shape layer name to open the Layer Style dialog 3 box. Select the Bevel And Emboss check box (A). Choose Emboss from the Style menu (B); click ■ With the type highlighted, click on the on OK. To emboss with no fill, click on Blending Create Warped Text button (B) to envelop Options (upper left) and choose either Multiply the type in a shape (C). or Darken from the Blend Mode list.

■ In the Warp Text dialog box, select the Arc warping B style (A). To tweak the resulting distortion envelope, 2 move the Bend slider (B) to control the shape’s twist and the Horizontal Distortion (C) and Vertical Distortion (D) sliders to give perspective. A

■ To ensure that the shapes print as object- oriented vectors and not as pixels, go to File: Print Options. Choose A Show More Options at the bottom of the dialog B box, and make certain C the Include Vector Data D option is also selected. Your final image will now output from E ■ To fine-tune the distortions, convert the type to Photoshop with hard- a vector shape. Select the layer with the Move tool, edged shapes. then go to Layer: Type and choose Convert To Shape. Select the same layer with the Move tool and go to Edit: Free Transform. Hold down the ⌘ key while draging any handle on the selection border to alter the border until the letterforms follow the contour you need For more information on Adobe Photoshop 6.0, check out (E). Press the return key to Macworld’s extensive reviews library www.macworld.co.uk/reviews apply the changes.

Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 99 How to: Storage

Remove the original drive To install a new hard drive, all you have to do is add it 1 to the carrier that houses your original drive. Aim for a But first you must remove the carrier from your Mac. hard drive double-up B

Add a second hard drive – all it takes E is a screwdriver and five minutes. A By Joseph Schorr C D

Remember when a gigabyte seemed like an obscenely huge amount of hard-drive space? That was before the days of digital-video editing, 3D animation, and CD-quality audio production – tasks that can burn through gigabytes in no time. Given today’s data-intensive tasks, even the 12GB hard drives in some of the first-generation G3s and G4s seem puny. Fortunately, it’s easy to add another hard drive to these Macs, giving you plenty of additional storage. Installing a second internal drive on your Mac may seem like more trouble than simply plugging in an external FireWire or USB drive, but consider the advantages: internal drives cost less than ■ After you’ve unplugged your Power Mac, open its case their external counterparts, you won’t have to make room using the latch on the side panel. Ground yourself by touching for another peripheral on your already crowded desktop, and the metal on the PCI port covers (A) or the power supply box you won’t have to untangle any additional cords and cables. (B). Once you’ve done this, don’t go walking around the room Yes, installing an internal drive will mean poking your fingers in your socks (static); stay put until you’re done. inside your Mac’s case, but relax – with Apple’s more-recent case designs, this is a pretty painless process. Adding a second ATA drive ■ Unplug the ATA (C) and power cables (D) from the internal of 20, 40, or more gigabytes, as described in the steps that follow, drive. The ATA ribbon cable should detach easily. The power should take only a few minutes. cable – the one with four wires – may offer resistance. Pull it firmly, but don’t yank it. If necessary, use needle-nose pliers to grab the rectangular plug and pull it from the drive.

■ Remove the drive carrier (E), which in most Power Mac G3s and G4s is situated in the third drive-bay – closest to the rear of the computer, on the floor of the case. Unscrew the single Philips (crosshead) screw from the front of the carrier and lift the carrier out.

page 106

Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 105 Configure a new drive Configuring a new Hook it up Next is the simple matter of screwing Initialize new drive Unless your drive came from drive requires moving or removing jumpers – the two hard drives into the drive bay and plugging the store preformatted for the Mac, you won’t see the 2 small square pieces of plastic – from the side 4 the appropriate cables into your original drive and 5 drive on your desktop when you start up the computer. panel of the drive. The exact configuration the newly installed one. You must initialize it so that your Mac can recognize it. depends on how you’ll use the drive, the type of drive, and the type of Mac into which you’re installing the drive. ■ Most drives come with their own utility software for formatting a new hard drive, but you can also ■ First, locate the small array of tiny pins on the side panel format a drive with the Drive Setup software that of your drive, between the ATA and power jacks. Some of came with your G3 or G4. If you can’t find Drive Setup the pins may already be connected to one another by one on your system, you’ll find it on the system software or more jumpers (A). CD that came with your Mac.

■ Specific configuration instructions come with hard drives A ■ Launch Drive Setup. You’ll see your new drive listed – and may even be printed on the drive. For example, using A as “not initialized” in the Drive Setup window. Simply your drive as a primary drive in your system may require click on the Initialize button to format the drive as a a jumper on the first pair of pins only. Using the drive as Mac disk. Initializing the disk takes only a few seconds. a secondary drive may mean removing all the jumpers. F B As soon as the process is done, your new disk will mount, ready for you to fill. And you will fill it – ■ You can use a sewing needle or a pair of small needle- sooner than you think. nose pliers to pop off unneeded jumpers. Once the jumpers are properly set, you’re ready to install the drive.

■ Slide the whole drive carrier into the computer case, lowering the back of the carrier in first (A). Two metal tabs on the bottom of the carrier line up with slots in the bottom of the computer chassis. Slide the tabs into the slots, and then lower the front Attach the new drive Your next task is to screw of the drive carrier into place. Attach it to the chassis using the new drive to the carrier you removed in Step 1. the Philips screw you removed earlier. 3 The new drive should be locked into place just above the original hard drive. ■ You must reattach the ATA and power cables to both drives. The ATA ribbon cable has two plugs (B), one for each drive. Align each plug with a drive and attach them to the corresponding ATA ports. ■ Slip the new drive into the upper portion of the carrier Do the same with the power cables. Push all the cables on firmly. so that it piggybacks on the original drive. On the sides of A Close the case, plug in your Mac, and start it up. the drive, you’ll see four screw holes that correspond to four holes (A) in the carrier itself. Use the screws that came with your drive to attach the drive to the carrier through these holes.

■ When you’re done, the new drive will be attached above the original drive. It’s normal for the tabs on the drive carrier to bend inward as you’re tightening the screws, but make sure not to overdo it.

TIP Be sure that when you buy a drive, you specify that you’ll be adding it to your system as a secondary drive and that you’ll need the extra screws to attach it to the carrier. Otherwise, you might not get them with the drive.

The new hard drive, in place and plugged in.

106 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 107 Secrets

Words are all we have Lost for words? Let the Internet take the strain. By Vic Lennard

ntil recently, the more time you spent online, the more it cost. While totally U free ISPs may have failed to deliver generally, with select ISPs, you can stay online 24 hours a day, seven days a week for just £40 per month. So what can you do with all that free online time? Once you’ve finished playing games and downloading dodgy music files, you’re likely to realise that this aspect of the Internet could be highly useful for work. Enter DICT, or the Dictionary Server Protocol, a TCP-based query/response protocol that allows a client to access dictionary definitions from a set of natural language dictionary databases. Initially defined by The Internet Society in October 1997, the client can be a page on a Web site or a stand-alone program,

continues page 110

New English dictionary (right) Dict.org, host to the various DICT databases, allows for searches online, rather than via a client. Mac clients

MacDICT 1.4.2 Navdeep Bains’ client software has been around for a couple of years and is the most sophisticated of its kind on the Mac. Updated regularly, it even includes a Control Strip Module (CSM) for easy access and nice touches like a clipboard text grabber. Supports DICT and Non- Match of the day DICT databases either internally ... as can NetDICT, which also has a useful or through a user’s Web browser. ‘match strategy’ option.

NetDICT 2.0 NetDICT 2.0 is the updated version of the same author’s Net DICTionary. Supporting only DICT My definition databases, Steve Muncy’s client MacDICT can search through all available DICT includes a useful matching strategy. databases and show the results...

Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 109 Specialist search

MacDICT supports a number of other databases internally including, The Koran, an on-line medical dictionary and the Dictionary of Cell & Molecular Biology. In addition, it also allows you to search a number of databases whose results require a Web browser including: ■ Academic Press Dictionary of Science & Technology. The largest scientific dictionary ever compiled in English – over 130,000 terms are defined. ■ Bartlett’s Quotations. John Bartlett’s classic collection of passages, phrases and proverbs traced to their sources in ancient useful of the lot - Roget’s II: The New and modern literature. Thesaurus contains 35,000 synonyms. DICT-abase ■ Internet Movie Database. Movie related ■ Encyclopedia.com; InfoPlease MacDICT can search a large number of information compiled by Internet Movie Almanacs, Dictionary & Encyclopedia; non-DICT-based databases and display Database Ltd (IMDb). Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy; the results via your Web browser. ■ Roget’s Thesaurus. Probably the most WebMD; and Let’s Find Out (for kids).

many of which exist on The DICT databases almost every computer ■ Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary platform, including the Mac. (1913, updated 1997). Hosted by the University Clients all work in the of Chicago. 185,399 main words. same, simple manner; type ■ WordNet, an on-line lexical reference system with in a word, select a database English nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs organized to search, and go. Via a into synonym sets. Hosted by Princeton University. log-in to dict.org, results 121,967 main words. appear automatically. ■ The US Gazetteer (1990). Original data provided MacDICT goes a step further by the US Census Bureau. 52,994 main words. by supporting a number of ■ The Jargon File. A public domain lexicon of hacker non-DICT based Internet jargon, edited by Eric Raymond. 2,335 main words. databases either internally ■ The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing. or through your Web A searchable dictionary of anything to do with browser. computing. Hosted by Imperial College Department Literally dozens of such of Computing, UK. 13,232 main words. Roger Roget (above) databases exist, including various versions ■ The Elements Database. A freely-distributed Thesaurus.com offers direct access to an online version of Roget’s Thesaurus. It is even possible to database of elemental information, edited by Jay of Roget’s Thesaurus. download an entire DICT database and link the Kominek. 131 main words. client to that database on your local computer ■ Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897). Based on Pick of the shelf (below) rather than through an Internet link. the third edition of MG Easton’s Illustrated Bible Everything but the kitchen sink – bartleby.com lets you What are the advantages over the paper- Dictionary. Hosted by Christian Classics Ethereal search a huge number of reference works. based varieties? For starters, you can probably Library. 3,968 main words. look up a definition faster ■ Hitchcock’s Bible Names Dictionary. Derived from through a client Hitchcock’s New and Complete Analysis of the Holy than by fingering your way Bible, published in the late 1800s. Hosted by Christian through a dictionary. Second, Classics Ethereal Library. 2,619 main words. multiple dictionaries can ■ The Devil’s Dictionary. Written around end of the be searched simultaneously, 19th century by Ambrose Beirce. An oft-quoted and something we humans can’t satirical work. 997 main words. do with a pile of reference ■ CIA World Factbook (1995). Only partially books! The only disadvantage available. is that most of the DICT databases are US English – but many of the Web- based ones aren’t. For instance, www.bartleby.com hosts a huge number of searchable reference works including Oxford Shakespeare, The Cambridge History of English and American Literature and three versions of Roget’s Thesaurus. MW

110 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 Q&A/tips Q&A/tips

• G4 slowdown • Mac OS X workarounds • iMovie pops Q&A/tips Handy Mac tips and readers’ questions answered. By Christopher Breen

Motionless mouse

If you notice that your slot-loading iMac or Power Mac G4 (AGP and TIP Gigabit Ethernet) slows down when the mouse isn’t moving, Apple suggests that you turn off the “Allow processor cycling” option in the Energy Saver control panel. To do so, open this control panel, click the Advanced Settings button, uncheck “Allow processor cycling”, and close the control panel.

Carbon crashes

Any application that requires Apple’s CarbonLib extension (AppleWorks TIP and StuffIt Expander 6.0, for example) will crash with a Type 3 or Type 10 error if the Internet Config Extension is missing from the System Folder’s Extensions folder.

Weather watching

It’s easy to lose yourself while Mouse slow-down working at your Mac – lose yourself Top replies To stop a slot-loading iMac or Power Mac G4 slowing down TIP so completely, in fact, that you fail when the mouse isn’t moving see “Motionless mouse”. to notice whether it’s fair or foul outside. Now that Microsoft has effectively If you’d rather not go to the window to replaced its Outlook Express email determine the meteorological state of your TIP client with Office 2001’s Entourage surrounds, you’re a perfect candidate for John personal-information manager, the email landscape Schilling’s Son of Weather Grok, a free program looks familiar, but a little different for many Mac that provides you with a complete weather report messagers. – including temperature, sky conditions, humidity, For instance, when replying to messages in wind speed, barometric pressure, and visibility. Entourage, your reply automatically falls below Of course Son of Weather Grok can provide you the originator’s message. In the UK, we’re used with weather information far away from your place to the reply going above the original message. of residence, so it’s a great resource for travelers. It means the person you reply to can see your You can find it http://www.macdownload.com. message straight away, and not have to read his or her own – now multi-coloured – original iTools and firewalls message first. To reply at the top of the email, first go to If you attempt to use iTools from the Mail and News command from the Preference behind a firewall, you’re likely to menu item under the menubar’s Edit pull-down. TIP run into problems. iTools operates Select “Include entire message in reply”, “Reply on TCP port 548, and if your firewall blocks to messages in the format in which they were outbound traffic to this port, no iTools for you. sent”, Under Mail Attribution, select “Prefix my If you’d like to use iTools, free this port, as iDisk replies…” and “Prefix my reply with short header- won’t work through an HTTP or SOCKS proxy. page 115

Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 113 style attribution lines”. Now your reply and Style-sheet shocker signature should appear, as in OE5, right at the start of your email. If everytime you import Microsoft Ann Davies Word files into QuarkXPress TIP unwanted Word style sheets are Graphics card gripe imported too, the answer is simple. When you import the file, the Get Text dialog box has two If you’ve purchased your Power greyed-out options at the bottom. As soon as you Mac G4 from the Apple Store and click (once) on the document you want, the options TIP configured it with an extra ATI turn live. Uncheck the Import Style Sheets option Rage 128 PCI card, you’ll notice that the Mac’s and the style sheets are ignored. XPress will also fan stays on even when you’ve put the Mac to remember to ignore them in the future. sleep. The reason for this is that the ATI card is incapable of entering a state termed “low-power mode”. If the sound of this fan is driving you crazy, your only option is to shut the Mac down rather than put it to sleep,

Desert Island tips

Here are my five Desert Island Applications that I just could TIP not do without. Conflict Catcher 8 from Casady & Greene (www.casadyg.com) Most startup crashes can Translation plea be attributed to extension conflicts and there‘s no utility on earth – not even Apple’s Extensions I would be most grateful if you or any Manager – that handles such conflicts as of your team know of a software package elegantly as Conflict Catcher. Q that can convert text of one language Disk Warrior from Alsoft (www.alsoft.com) into another, either Web-based or scanned Disk Warrior is a diagnostic/repair utility that fixes text. Especially English to French. low-level corruption better than any other utility Michael Hunt on the market. While Symantec’s Norton Utilities and Micromat’s TechTool Pro are more versatile Try the Translation service at utilities than Disk Warrior, they don’t deal with http://world.altavista.com, which includes really nasty hard-disk problems as well. A options for English to French, German, Retrospect, from Dantz (www.dantz.com). Spanish and Russian. If you don’t backup your data you’re living in a fool’s paradise – your hard drive will eventually iMovie pop stop give up the ghost. Snapz Pro from Ambrosia I was interested to read, in the (www.ambrosiasw.com). You may not need this December 2000 issue of Macworld, utility, but I certainly do. In my line of work, I take TIP about the “sound pop” which a lot of screenshots and QuickTime captures. Snapz happens in a Paste over at Playhead operation. Pro is a terrific utility for doing both. I noticed this while editing and found a good Snapz Action Utilities, from Power On Software workaround. The “pop” happens when the section (www.poweronsw.com). This suite includes Action of audio from the original video clip is dropped Files – which enhances Open and Save dialog boxes down to the Audio-1 line, and is replaced on the in significant ways – and Action GoMac, a Audio-Video line by the audio from the video you wonderful launching utility. have pasted in. A simple work round is to Extract Audio from Unwanted Photoshop files the entire video clip that you are pasting into. A “junk” of video can then be removed and replaced Some Photoshop 6.0 users have by the clip that would have been Pasted in. They noticed that their hard-disk space both need to be exactly the same length. The audio TIP seems to rapidly disappear – even from the new clip can then be deleted, eliminating when there don’t appear to be enough files on the the pop. drive to justify the dearth of space. This problem Chris Buchanan has been linked to temporarily files that the Mac OS fails to delete. Thankfully, there’s a way to clear Classic restart up this problem – Scott Crick’s free Eradicator 1.6. It provides a list of temporarily files found in the Those running Mac OS X Public Beta invisible Temporary Items and Cleanup At Startup may find that, after logging in and folders, and allows you to delete them. Eradicator TIP out of this new Mac OS, performance not only finds the Photoshop files, but temporary decreases. Apple reports that this decrease is due to Essential app files created by other applications such as Microsoft use of the Classic environment over a number of Ambosia’s Snapz Pro – along with Conflict Catcher, Disk Word. You can find your copy at sessions. Apple’s solution to this problem is to Warrior, Retrospect and Snapz Action Utilities – is on www.swssoftware.com/products/ simply restart your Mac. However, if the Mac takes Christopher Breen’s list of apps he can’t do without. eradicator.html. page 116

Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 115 a performance hit when the QuickTime browsing Classic environment is repeatedly run, it might make sense to leave If you happen to have your browser the “Start up Classic on login open and would like to take a peek to this computer” option in the TIP at a QuickTime movie file sitting on Classic preference unchecked. your desktop, there’s no need to launch QuickTime Movie Player. Just drag-&-drop the movie into Printer problems your browser window. The QuickTime plug-in – if installed – will play the movie from within your If your Mac alerts browser. you every time you TIP choose to manually feed a piece of paper into your printer, there are two ways to Feeding time switch off this warning. The See “Printer problems” to avoid alerts everytime you feed first way is to click the printer’s desktop icon and paper into your printer manually. uncheck the Show Manual Feed Alert by selecting it from the Printing menu. The second way is to launch PrintMonitor (found in your Extensions folder), select Preferences from the File menu, and click the “Give no notification” option.

OS X and iDisk

If you’re running Mac OS X, you can’t connect to your iDisk in the Classic TIP environment. Instead, launch the version of Internet Explorer 5 that ships with OS X Public Beta and mount your iDisk from there. Once the iDisk is mounted, you can access the iDisk from Classic applications.

Modem enabler

If you want your PowerBook 3400 or PowerBook G3’s ethernet port to TIP function as Jobs intended, you must have the PowerBook 3400 Modem extension or PowerBook G3 Series Modem extensions installed and enabled.

Last chance for ResEdit

For reasons best know to Apple, ResEdit, Apple’s famous resource- TIP editing tool has disappeared from Apple’s Software Updates page. If you’d like to QuickTime explosion grab a copy before it’s spirited away, try this See “QuickTime browsing” for tips on using Apple’s URL: http://hotfiles.zdnet.com/cgi-bin/texis/ media player with Microsoft Internet Explorer, or swlib/hotfiles/info.html?fcode=MC132 72&b Netscape Navigator. =mac. Classic iTools iMovie crashes If you’re having trouble getting Apple’s iDisk to run Outlook Express shortcuts in Mac OS X’s Classic environment, see OS X and iDisk. iMovie will crash if you disable To move to the next unread message the Control Strip extension – in Outlook Express and Entourage, TIP either through Extensions Manager TIP press Control-]. To read the previous and Conflict Catcher, or by manually moving this unread message, use Control-[. If you simply want to extension from the System Folder’s Extensions traipse to the next message – unread or not – press folder. To avoid this crash, and disable the Control ⌘-]. As you might have guessed, you can move to Strip, open the Control Strip control panel and turn the previous message by typing ⌘-[. Control Strip off.

Macworld’s deputy editor David Fanning and contributing editor Christopher Breen answer readers’ questions and select reader-submitted tips for this column. Send your question or tip (include your address and phone number) to David Fanning, Q&A, Macworld, 99 Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1X 8UT. You can also send email, marked Q&A in the subject line, to [email protected]. We pay £25 for each tip published here. We cannot make personal replies, so please do not include a stamped-addressed envelope.

116 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 Hobbling DV-in and -out digital David Pogue camcorders is the height of lunacy

DAVID POGUE is the author of iMac for Dummies (IDG Books Worldwide, 1998) and the Great Macintosh Easter Egg Hunt (Berkely Books 1998). He also wrote Macs for Dummies, fifth edition, updated for Mac OS 8, The Weird Wide Web (IDG Books Worldwide, 1997) and The Microsloth Joke Book (Berkeley, 1997). His most recent books are Mac OS 9: The Missing Manual and iMovie: The Missing Manual (both Pogue Press, 2000). Euro DV divvies

ast October, I flew to Austria – birthplace of expensive DV-in and -out digital camcorder costs Mozart, Freud, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. £750). I was one of four US instructors brought to So there I was, hours before show time, trying to L a boarding school in Salzburg to present an explain a moronic predicament to 30 unhappy faces: intensive four-day arts workshop. My art form: drama. that even though we’d been able to send our video I’d spent ten years conducting musicals in New York, to the Mac for editing, we couldn’t now return it to so I thought I’d be in good shape. Unfortunately, the camcorder for playback. The law designed to only a handful of my students had ever seen even protect corporate profits ended up suffocating the a musical, let alone a play. In fact, this multinational creativity of a group of young moviemakers. group had only one dramatic cultural reference in We wound up hooking up the projector to the common: American movies. I smacked my forehead PowerBook’s video-out jack and playing the movies – doh! Suddenly I knew exactly how to get 30 kids in iMovie 2’s Full Screen mode. The audience cheered excited about acting, character, and structure. We’d and roared with laughter, but inside I was bumming make movies – so it was iMovie to the rescue! out. As any iMovie jock can tell you, playing DV movies We borrowed three DV camcorders and the dean’s straight off the Mac’s hard drive involves an FireWire PowerBook, which we loaded up with a copy unfortunate trade-off: you have to choose between of iMovie 2 that we bought and downloaded from a clear-but-jerky picture or a smooth-but-blurry one. Apple’s Web site. After offering a full-day classroom Only transferring the movie back to your camcorder session about lighting, sound, and camcorder unlocks the pristine DV footage you really have. technique, I set the kids loose. Each group of ten In his book Code (Basic Books, 2000), Lawrence kids had three days to write, direct, film, and edit Lessig writes that software code is often a more a five-minute movie. effective behaviour control than legal code. That’s The results were outstanding – and screamingly exactly the issue here. Electronically speaking, all funny. (My favourite: Young Arnold Schwarzenegger. European DV camcorders are capable of recording The star was a hilarious kid from Russia who’s about incoming video; the lock that nEUters them is only as macho as Woody Allen. You get the idea). We stayed in the software. It didn’t take long for Europeans to up all night editing. On the day the movies were to be figure out how to defeat it. Web sites explain how shown, however, we ran into a snag: we couldn’t to dis-disable FireWire recording using a special output the finished films back to tape, to show at the remote control; video shops in many European closing presentation for students, parents, and faculty. cities will perform this surgery for a fee. To understand how we wound-up in this mess, you Fear of piracy led to the hobbling of MP3 players may need a strange lesson in very recent European and high-definition TV, and surely other gadgets will history. When it became clear that DV camcorders present the same issue. But why? The arguments are could make copies of copies with no quality loss, the the same ones we heard when VCRs first appeared. European movie-industry reasoned that, soon enough, “Oh, no! No one will go to the cinema anymore!” piracy would run rampant – and no one would buy In fact, just the opposite occurred. movies anymore. For our story, there was a happy ending. In the Under pressure from the movie industry, most weeks following the arts workshop, the Austrian European governments enacted a peculiar law: If a school found a guy with a Sony DV camcorder he’d camcorder has video-input capabilities, it’s classified had un-nEUtered at a shop in Vienna. But overall, as a recording device, and it’s subject to additional the practice of nEUtering camcorders in Europe is a tax. Camcorder manufacturers, in an attempt to keep failure, aimed at preventing a problem that may not their consumer lines inexpensive, responded by even exist. Let’s take the lesson: when lobbyists and removing the digital-input feature from their pliant bureaucrats drive gadget-makers to cripple consumer DV camcorders. These models have been, their wares, they’re firing clumsy bullets at a as the Internet punsters say, “nEUtered.” (The least phantom enemy. MW

162 Macworld FEBRUARY 2001 Read more Macworld opinions online (www.macworld.co.uk), and join in the debate.