Cover ATPM About This Particular Macintosh™ 6.05: About the personal computing experience™ Volume 6, Number 5 May 1, 2000 Sign up for free subscriptions at: http://www.atpm.com/subscribe or send email to: [email protected] ATPM 6.05 ←→1 Cover Cover Art Copyright © 2000 Grant Osborne [email protected] We need new cover art every month! Write to us! Contributors Lee Bennett Eric Blair Daniel Chvatik Paul Fatula Scott Feldstein Matthew Glidden Edward Goss Tom Iov ino Robert Paul Leitao Grant Osborne David Ozab Mike Shields Brooke Smith David Spencer Gregory Tetrault Michael Tsai Christopher Turner Macintosh users like you Please write for ATPM! Check out the FAQ. Editorial Staff Publisher/Editor-in-Chief - Michael Tsai Managing Editor - Daniel Chvatik Associate Editor/Reviews - Paul Fatula Associate Editor/Shareware Reviews - William Lovett Copy Editors - Raena Armitage ATPM 6.05 ←→2 Cover Johann Campbell Paul Fatula Brooke Smith Adam J. Zaner Va c a nt Publicity Managers - Christopher Turner Va c a nt Contributing Editor/Welcome - Robert Paul Leitao Contributing Editors/Opinion - Tom Iovino Scott Feldstein Contributing Editors/Reviews - Eric Blair Evan Trent Va c a nt Contributing Editor/How To’s & Reviews - Jamie McCornack Contributing Editor/Trivia - Edward Goss Contibuting Editor/Music - David Ozab Contributing Editor/Networking - Matthew Glidden Contributing Editor/Web - David Spencer Contributing Editor/Games - Va c a nt Help Jedi - Christopher Turner Hollywood Guy - Mike Shields Webmaster - Michael Tsai Assistant Webmaster - A. Lee Bennett Interviews Managers - Va c a nt List Mom - Michael Tsai Beta Testers - The Staff Artwork & Design Graphics Director - Grant Osborne Graphic Design Consultant - Jamal Ghandour Layout and Design - Michael Tsai Cartoonist - Michael Morgan Section Headers - Jamal Ghandour Blue Apple Icon Designs - Marc Robinson Other Art - RD Novo ATPM 6.05 ←→3 Cover Editors Emeritus RD Novo Robert Madill Belinda Wagner The Tools Acrobat Anarchie AppleScript BBEdit Cameraid eDOC Creator FileMaker Pro FrameMaker Frontier ImageReady LetterRip Pro MacPerl Mailsmith Photoshop Player Snapz Pro ShrinkWrap StuffIt The Fonts Cheltenham Gill Sans Isla Bella Marydale Minion ATPM 6.05 ←→4 Cover Where to Find ATPM Online and downloadable issues are available at the ATPM Web site: http://www.atpm.com http://www.macupdate.com http://www.shareware.com The CD-ROMs Accompanying: MacFan, Macintosh Magazine & Internet, Macworld UK, Inside Mac Games Any others? Let us know! ATPM is a product of ATPM, Inc. © 1995–2000, All Rights Reserved ISSN: 1093-2909 Reprints Articles and original art cannot be reproduced without the express permission of ATPM, unless otherwise noted. You may, however, print copies of ATPM provided that it is not mod- ified in any way. Authors may be contacted through ATPM’s editorial staff, or at their email addresses, when provided. The Legal Stuff About This Particular Macintosh may be uploaded to any online area or BBS, so long as the file remains intact and unaltered, but all other rights are reserved. All information contained in this issue is correct to the best of our knowledge. The opinions expressed in ATPM are not necessarily those of this particular Macintosh. Product and company names and logos may be registered trademarks of their respective companies. Thank you for reading this far, and we hope that the rest of the magazine is more interesting than this. Thanks for reading ATPM. ATPM 6.05 ←→5 Cover Sponsors Sponsors About This Particular Macintosh is free, and we intend to keep it that way. Our editors and staff are volunteers with “real” jobs who believe in the Macintosh way of computing. We don’t make a profit, nor do we plan to. As such, we rely on advertisers to help us pay for our Web site and other expenses. We would like to thank our exclusive sponsor, Small Dog Electronics, for its generous sup- port of ATPM, the Macintosh, and all things cool. Sponsorship does not imply endorsement, and endorsement does not imply sponsorship. Thank you for your support. http://www.smalldog.com You can help support ATPM by: 1 • Buying books, music, or movies through this link to Amazon.com. 2 • Buying Mac hardware or software through this link to MacConnection. 3 • Buying Mac hardware or software through this link to Outpost.com. Please consider advertising here to support ATPM. Contact [email protected] for more information. 1. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/aboutthisparticu 2. http://service.bfast.com/bfast/click/mid9452939?siteid=13311227&bfpage=machomepage 3. http://www.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=N00D3BtDeo0&offerid=2161&type=3 ATPM 6.05 ←→6 Sponsors Welcome Welcome Welcome to the May issue of About This Particular Macintosh! We’re excited about this month’s Worldwide Developers Conference and the forthcoming release of Mac OS X. We believe OS X will change Mac computing in the way that Windows 95 changed the Windows world. We’re eager to watch Apple’s changes to their venerable operating system unfold. Read more about the new state of Mac computing in our latest issue of Audacious Tidbits and Puckish Musings. Wither Microsoft? The judge’s finding of fact in the government’s antitrust case against Microsoft is having an effect on the way Microsoft does business and the competitive environment in which the company conducts its business. While it’s not illegal for a monopoly to naturally develop, it is illegal for a company to use its monopoly power to thwart competition and stymie inno- vation. Judge Jackson has ruled that Microsoft used its monopoly power in an illegal way. In late April the Justice Department and 17 of the 19 states that brought the anti-trust suit against Microsoft proposed to the courts that the company be divided into two separate entities; one would have ownership rights to the Windows operating systems and the other would receive ownership of the application software division and almost all of Microsoft's other products. Under the plan company executives could only own stock in one of the companies, and the two entities could not rejoin their efforts for a period of ten years. Ultimately it may not be direct action by the government to breakup or “hog tie” the com- pany that will have the biggest effect on the way Microsoft does business. We believe the free market is a far more potent force. The judge’s findings open the door for companies who have been injured by Microsoft’s illegal behavior to seek redress and compensation without having to prove that Microsoft has operated a monopoly in an illegal manner. Although we don’t like lawsuits as a remedy to problems, holding Microsoft accountable for its actions may change the company’s overly aggressive style of doing business. ATPM 6.05 ←→7 Welcome Emboldened by the government’s victory, competitors will find it easier to bring new prod- ucts to market and compete with Microsoft in the marketplace of new ideas. Windows may remain the predominant desktop operating system for some time. But the government’s anti-trust victory will hasten the day that the Windows OS takes its rightful place in the technology era as just one of many products that helped shape the way we live, learn, and work. We Beat the Street Last month Apple Computer released its earnings report for the 1st calendar quarter of 2000 (the company’s second fiscal quarter). Wall Street’s consensus estimate was that the com- pany would have net earnings of $0.81 per share. Once again Apple has pleasantly surprised Wall Street’s analysts. Apple’s results are as follows: • For the quarter, Apple reported a net profit of $233 million, or $1.28 per diluted share. • Excluding a one-time after-tax gain of $73 from the sale of 1.5 million shares of ARM Holdings plc., Apple’s net profit was $160 million ($0.88 per share), an increase of 72% from the year ago quarter. • During the quarter (which ended April 1, 2000) Apple sold 1,043,000 Macs, a gain of 26% over the prior year period. • Gross margins were 28.2%, topping the 26.3% a year ago. This was due large part to healthy sales of PowerBooks and G4s. • About 20% of Apple’s revenue came from Web-based, Apple Store sales. • Apple ended the quarter with $3.6 billion in cash and cash equivalents. • The company announced a 2-for-1 stock split, the first split since 1987. How ’bout an Upgrade? We’d love an upgrade card for our older Macs, but we’re talking about an upgrade of a differ- ent kind. What has kept Apple’s share price from reaching its full potential isn’t lack of faith in Apple’s near term performance, but rather, lack of confidence about the company’s long- ATPM 6.05 ←→8 Welcome term plans. The iMac by all accounts has been a phenomenal success. But industry pundits wonder what will sustain the company’s sales and earnings in the future. Flush with cash and rising market share, Apple should perform over the long-term at least as well as its PC hardware competitors. Last quarter’s stellar sales of PowerBooks and pro-level G4 mini-tow- ers should put to rest concerns Apple is a one product company. The rollout of Mac OS X and the company’s plans to win back professional customers provide an excellent road map for future success. We’re not asking Wall Street for special treatment—just an acknowledg- ment by analysts, rating agencies, and institutional investors that Apple Computer is here to stay. It’s time for more brokerage firms and rating agencies to re-evaluate their lackluster forecasts for Apple’s long-term growth.