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2 FREE BOOKS! OFFICE 2001 TIPS & PHOTOSHOP 6.0 Macworld MORE NEWS, MORE REVIEWS J ANUARY 2001 ANUARY DIGITAL CAMCORDERS • DREAMWEAVER 4 • iMOVIE TIPS • NEW-LOOK MAC BUYERS’ GUIDE • OS 4 • iMOVIE TIPS NEW-LOOK CAMCORDERS • DREAMWEAVER DIGITAL X WIN £5,000 High-end Macworldwww.macworld.co.uk scanner! Mac magic Digital video made easy Best camcorders tested + Expert iMovie tips Buying a Mac All-new Buyers’ Guide! Mouse trap Optical input tested Dreamweaver 4 Reviewed Mac OS X explained read me first Simon Jary Apple needs to think different itself, and editor-in-chief sacrifice some of its adverts’ slickness to address real issues for real people. Supermarket sweet efore Steve Jobs returned to the company in Walk into any Dixons or Currys high-street store, 1997 there were hardly ever any Apple adverts and you’ll see row upon row of Windows PCs. A year or on the telly. Now, you can’t turn on Ally McBeal so ago, there were iMacs too – but the staff knew so B or Frasier without catching cameras smooching little about the Mac OS that they didn’t even try to sell round an iMac like teenage boys round a Jennifer Lopez them. Apple has made some grand promises to rectify calendar. And when it’s not the Indigo iMac with Elvis’ this situation through training programmes and Blue Suede Shoes playing in the background, it’s Jeff reward schemes, but what the company really needs to Goldblum extolling the virtues of iMovie or telling us do is get more Macs out there in front of people. A how easy it is to connect a Mac to the Internet. chain of Apple shops is an expensive but long-term The ads are classy, slick and heart-warming to all of solution to its shrinking market share. us who already own Macs. The casting is aspirational in The iMac is a real alternative to the Windows PC. a Hollywood-type of way. The music is voguishly retro – Starting at just £649 (including VAT), it’s cheaper than even a million cheeseburgers couldn’t stop Elvis being any similarly featured rival PC. It’s better designed and cool. And the slots Apple has chosen to air its ads in are built, easier to learn, simpler to use, and nicer looking usually around smart, urbane television shows: C4 than anything on offer in Dixons, Time or PC World. “Apple is like comedy seems to be the favoured strand. Both Gateway and PC World use their TV adverts to Microsoft’s hardware partners are forever on our show off their store-based customer care. This intelli- Frasier Crane: screens. Generally, the standard is low and aimed at gent marketing allays one of the greatest fears that so snobbish the lowest common denominator. computer novices have about buying a computer – Which is exactly where Apple should be aiming a lot technical inability. Apple’s early iMac ads were also sen- that it’s actually more of its TV-ad spend if it wants to seriously increase sibly aimed at such fears – namely, the novice’s terror scared of the its market share. Those Time Computer ads that of setting-up, installing and using something with so behave like DIY superstore commercials do actually many cables, plugs and funny bits. people it looks make Blind Date viewers go out and buy computers. Jeff’s smooth tones were reassuring – so much so down on” The same goes for those revolting Tiny Computer ads that the iMac quickly became a best-seller. In the new with the giant Mickey Mouse arm that cuddles com- iMovie ad, Jeff shows us how easy it is to make digital puter novices who have laid out a pretty penny on a movies. It’s not the most exciting of ads, but it does bundle of PC goods so beige that it looks like they’ve point out one of the iMac’s many practical applications. installed a sand pit in their living room. And what’s The Indigo and Ruby iMac TV ads are as pretty as with the staff at PC World who enjoy nothing better Jonathan Ive’s colourful plastics. If Apple raises its pro- than stamping their feet on the floor so hard that the file among the non-Frasier Cranes of this world, I’d put whole shop sinks into the ground? money on people eyeing up and remembering Apple’s They all make me retch, and I often feel like I’m computers more than Gateway or Dell’s dull boxes. watching people being abused into buying cheapo PCs Not for years has Apple had such a great opportunity that have all the robustness of an Airfix tri-plane model to sell more of its computers to new users. The Internet and all the design-savvy of the worst council-estate is so pervasive – on TV ads, billboards and telly shows – tower block. But these ads really do work. that even die-hard luddites are feeling left behind. The They work on levels that the Apple commercials iMac is a proven killer attraction for such customers, wouldn’t dream of stooping to. I get the impression and Apple has built on its class by adding even more that Apple doesn’t want Surprise Surprise viewers to go appealing free features, such as iMovie and iTools. anywhere near it – in case their low-rent values some- There’s no point spending millions on TV ads if peo- how taint the company’s gleaming brand qualities. ple can’t go out and actually buy your products. The Apple is just like the main character in its ad-supported majority of AppleCentres are too hidden away for the Frasier sitcom: so snobbish that it’s actually scared of Blind Date crowd to seek out. Apple shops on the high- the people it looks down on. street would make a massive difference. For Apple to Apple’s rumoured plans to create its own chain of significantly improve market share, it must be pre- shops to promote and sell its products on the high pared to fight it out with Time and Tiny. And if that street (see News, page 18) are good news for us all. means its commercials being less slick and more Even today’s resellers should welcome the news: it will schlock, then so be it. It’s time to woo those people who certainly increase the Mac’s visibility to the shop-crazy don’t think different – and to do that Apple itself must general public. take that catchy slogan to heart. MW 4 Macworld JANUARY 2001 DECEMBER 2000 Contents COVER STORIES 70 Digital Camcorders From home-movie makers to broadcast pros, more people than ever are using their Macs in tandem with digital camcorders to craft fantastic footage. Discover which is the right DV camcorder for your needs. 87 Create: iMovie Optimize iMovies for the media of your choice. 65 New mice Check out the 117 83 48 alternatives Buyers’ guide Mac OS X Dreamweaver 4 to Apple’s Pro Mouse. Expanded and We walk you Macromedia’s updated – your through Mac OS content-creation Mac choices X’s file-directory update is food for made easy. structure. thought for Adobe. page 6 Macworld JANUARY 2001 5 CONTACT Macworld www.macworld.co.uk JANUARY 2000 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 Apple in retail-stores move [email protected] 18 Premiere 6.0’s Web feat Mac Managing Editor Sean Ashcroft 53 [email protected] video wows show crowd Oracle business Chief Sub-Editor Woody Phillips boost for Apple Top PC games port [email protected] to Mac Chips down for Motorola? Editorial Co-ordinator Seth Havens QuarkXPress 5.0 nearing completion [email protected] Comdex gives glimpse of future Apple 48-50 Dreamweaver 4 Art Editor James Walker [email protected] and IT-industry business news 50 Dreamweaver UltraDev 4 Art Director Mandie Johnson [email protected] Create: Digital How to: 53-54 Fireworks 4 Managing Editor/Online Gillian Thompson 95 99 [email protected] PRODUCT NEWS Photography Mac OS X 54 G-Riser; G-Rack Assistant Online Editor Vittoria Momento Easy steps to removing Customize the Mac OS X 56 Netscape 6 [email protected] backrounds using Public Beta so it acts more 57 GCC Elite 21 CD Editor Vic Lennard Netscape 6 OnStream’s Photoshop’s Mask layer. like OS 9. US Editor Andrew Gore 37 FireWire hard drive Opular Charts Contributing editors David Pogue, Deke McClelland, Samsung flat panels Microtek entry- David Read, Franklin Tessler, level scanners Poser 4.03 3D modelling 58 Native Instruments B4 Bruce Fraser, Christopher Breen, Tag ships multimedia trio Oki mono- FEATURE MyTV Matthew Bath, Jake Sargent, printer family Peter Cohen, Stephen Beale,. 54 Group Advertising Manager Mustafa Mustafa [email protected] Wide view 77 Deputy Advertising Manager Dean Payn The SyncMaster [email protected] 240T can display PC passport Sales Executive Eamon McHugh widescreen Making your Secrets Q&A [email protected] 107 95 images. Samsung Mac work with Get AirPort working Classified Sales Executive Paul Hodges Tips on uninstalling claims it has a Windows. with Mac OS X beta. Microsoft Office 2001, [email protected] 160-degree view- and spam-busting in Production Manager Sharon Bird ing angle. [email protected] Outlook Express. Deputy Production Manager Richard Bailey [email protected] EVERY MONTH Production Assistant Niki Basten COMPETITIONS [email protected] Marketing Manager Jo Brown Michael Prochak 59 TC|Works Spark XL [email protected] 47 French nickers.