HOT: LATEST 333MHz iMACS TESTED MACWORLD MORE NEWS, MORE REVIEWS JUNE 1999 CO NSUMER IMAGING: 99 • QUICKTIME 4 iMACS • AWARDS MAC YOUR PRINTERS & SCANNERS • MUSIC ON Macworldwww.macworld.co.uk TOP Home help QuickTime 4 unleashed! Affordable! Printers & scanners tested for iMacs and everyone Mac Maestro How to be a pop star New thin PowerBook Apple shows off skinny portable JUNE 1999 £4.99 CONSUMER IMAGING SPECIAL! Printers and scanners for your USB iMacs and Power Macs read me first Simon Jary, editor-in-chief ou %&*&ing £@stards. I bought an Apple disappointed newcomers must be after slashing out on the latest high tech. with floppy and nobody, I mean nobody, And there’s another ten problems that could occur while you’re installing Y knows how to use the sonuvabitch… your software.The solutions are pretty straightforward, if a trifle daunting: I really feel ‘ripped off’.Everybody talks about “If that doesn’t work, you may need to reinitilize the hard disk”.Gulp. this great manual in the sky that is coming out You get the same bundle with the new Power Macs, but Apple has soon??? $&*%! $&*%! $&*%! I need this comput- substituted the six pics with a whopping 62-page book of setting-up stuff. er now in my business, not next year. %&*@ you. I This hot-read is what Hale & Pace would call a stonker.The line drawings are hope your dog dies.” clearer than any previously attempted – you can actually see the exact slots Some Mr Angry sent Apple this nasty note in 1979. (To protect sensitive where each card, DIMM or disk must go. If Ikea had any pride, they’d hire this readers, I have changed some of the profanity to standard sweary symbols artist immediately. Most computer manuals share the flat-pack’s love affair – so I’m afraid this wasn’t the first-ever use of the atmark [@] in relation to with crude, badly copied line drawings that look like they’ve been smuggled computing.) out of enemy territory hidden in a place where the sun don’t shine. And Useful computer manuals are about as rare as decent British movies. there’s always an extra slot, button or screw sketched in to confuse the hell That is, there haven’t been any. Apple’s how-to books actually used to be out of us. Stop being so Swedish. about as good as they came, but they were still pretty bad. Apple was in So when I said that it was Steve Jobs who has banished the technical fact the first home-computer company to supply colour publications – manual, I meant to thank him.We don’t need 300-page tomes that show too and employ a modicum of wit in the instructions. It was Steve Jobs who little and make matter worse. Apple’s slim Setting Up Your Power Macintosh demanded generous, professional-looking technical manuals way back in the G3 is spot on, and presumably fairly cheap to produce. late 1970s. And, I guess, Steve Jobs who has practically banned them today. If you don’t know anything about computers – and this crowd is a In the early 1980s, the manual for the Apple III started thus: prime target for the iMac – you really should hire an expert, talk to a “We will assume you already know how to use a computer…” knowledgeable friend or buy a book (Try David Pogue’s iMac For Dummies; Fast-forward to 1999.The ‘manual’ that comes with the iMac is thinner £14.99 to Macworld subscribers – see page 120). than a floppy disk – I refer confused new readers to the history books or You don’t get free driving lessons when you buy a car, or a copy of Windows PCs for more details on the floppy. In fact, it’s slimmer than a CD! TV Quick when you pick up that new VCR. Experienced computer users There’s six colour photos showing a new user’s hand plugging in his shouldn’t be forced to subsidize novices, but they do deserve a quick tour keyboard and mouse, and then switching his iMac on.That is it. of new layouts and procedures. And Apple has found an almost perfect Well, almost.There is also a stray sheet of paper reminding you that the compromise. power cord must be “firmly” inserted into the power socket. And some safety It doesn’t tell you that if you install the public beta of QuickTime 4, tips and instructions on how to replace the battery. Oh, and there’s a User’s with Virtual Memory turned on, your copy of Adobe TypeReunion 1.2 Guide, even thinner than the Welcome document.These instructions literally won’t work and your Mac suddenly can‘t cope with opening more than a tell you to read the instructions. Installing software? Read the instructions, couple of apps. It doesn’t preview Epson’s forthcoming, stylish, translucent it says. Need help? This pamphlet directs you to the Help menu.Want more USB printer. And it certainly will not test every important piece of hardware info? Go to the online Help Center, says the four-pager. and software that becomes available for the Mac. But that’s why you buy The biggest booklet (46 pages!) is the Troubleshooting Handbook. Macworld every month, isn‘t it? Apparently, there are exactly a dozen things that can go wrong with your 1: Buy a new Power Mac. Mac. For example, a CD might jam in the drive. Cue, Apple‘s classic line- 2: Get the great guide. COVER PHOTOGRAPHY BY MIKE LAYE PHOTOGRAPHY COVER drawing of a confident hand sticking a bent paper-clip in a pin-hole – how 3: Subscribe to Macworld. Or you dog dies… contents June 1999 MW 75 82 92 111 117 50 Palm V 116 competition WIN 10 prizes up for grabs 68 Consumer printers regulars I Macworld has it covered media You’ve got the iMac or a new Power Mac, 8 How to contact Macworld 50 Palm V; Palm IIIx 61 Action GoMac 2.0 111 create workflow you may even still own an old Performa – Who’s who,and who’s won what 51 Palm MacPac 2 PC MacLAN 7.2 here’s our tests on the best sub-£500 print- Repetitive tasks 52 MetaCreations Bryce 4 62 BrainForest Professional ers,from colour ink-jets to mono lasers. Let AppleScript take the strain. 108-109 Macworld subscriptions 53 UPGRADE CARDS: QuickDNS Pro 2.2 75 Consumer 117 create graphics Unbelievable value! Get a free copy of Art reviews XLR8 466MHz G3 vs 65 NEW USB PERIPHERALS: scanners Real paint effects Dabbler or Soap when you subscribe! Newer MaxPowr 466MHz G3 Epson Stylus Color 740i Remember when scanners cost more than Non-digital Photoshop filters. features your yearly Poll Tax? Breathe easy,because 120-121 Reader offers 54 Apple iMac 333MHz Keyspan USB Serial Adaptor today a decent scanner could cost less than 139 secrets Callas pdfOutput Pro TEAC floppy drive a big night out.We test sub-£300 scanners. 164 Career Moves On location 55 Quark XTensions: uDrive USB floppy drive Job vacancies.Get the right job here. 68 82 Audio action Location Manager is a powerful Five newcomers to XPress Mouse-Trak evolution tool – and simple,too. The Mac has always been the best personal opinions 56 Alsoft DiskWarrior 11 This month’s cover CD I 143 Buyers’Guide we lead, others follow computer for making music.These days, secrets 140 q&a Mac system advice;Vision thing;Macworld Reseller Callas FontIncluder 2 49 first contact with the right tools,it’s all you need to get Thinking thin on to Top of the Pops. Stickies fingered Guide;Star Ratings;plus a full year’s index 59 ImageAXS Pro 4.0 Plus other tricks and shortcuts. 51 prochak Chronos Consultant 2.5.3 The fighting continues… 92 Awards 165 Macworld Shopping 53 desktop critic I in-depth stories I incisiveness I exclusive tests Stat’s life The winners and runners up in the 1999 Consumer advice and mail-order ads 242 worlock Macworld Awards.Find out who won,and 16-17 QuickTime 4 unleashed! 22 Adobe InDesign plug-ins Face off why we love ’em in this nine-page special. 18-19 DV push: Final Cut Pro 37-42 PRODUCT NEWS news 4 Macworld JUNE 1999 Macworld JUNE 1999 5 Contacts who... @ Editor-in-Chief Simon Jary [email protected] Macworld Executive Editor/News Michael Burns [email protected] Executive Editor/Features David Fanning [email protected] The ultimate reference guide and news Executive Editor/Reviews Lynn Dartnell [email protected] source for the Macintosh market. Production Editor Sean Ashcroft [email protected] Reporter Louise Banbury [email protected] Subscribe Staff Writer Andrew Hinkinson [email protected] Art Director Mandie Johnson [email protected] Deputy Art Editor James Walker [email protected] Designer David Grant [email protected] Managing Editor/Online Gillian Robertson [email protected] CD Editor Vic Lennard US Editor Andrew Gore Contributing editors Peter Worlock, David Pogue, Deke McClelland, Lon Poole, Michael Prochak, Ian Winter, Simon Eccles, Joseph Schorr, Franklin Tessler, Bruce Fraser, Christopher Breen, David Biedny, Matthew Bath Group Ad Manager Anne Ridyard [email protected] Advertising Manager Mustafa Mustafa [email protected] Display Sales Executive Dean Payn [email protected] Classified Sales Co-ordinator Matthew Bennett [email protected] Classified Sales Executives James Poulson, Sarah Maher Production Manager Sharon Bird [email protected] Deputy Production Manager Richard Bailey [email protected] Find out how you can get either Production Assistant Sam French [email protected] Marketing/Circulation M’ger Sarah Bagnall [email protected] MetaCreations Art Dabbler or Marketing Executive Jo Brown [email protected] Soap FREE when you subscribe to Macworld – see pages 108-109.