Power Computing Corp. has said the two words  
everyone who loves the MacOS  wants to hear:
Fast. Cheap.

The PowerTower line,  the first family of systems 
based on the 180 MHz and 166 MHz PowerPC 604 
processor announced by IBM, is, obviously, fast.

The PowerCenter models, starting at less than  $2,000 
(US), are inexpensive. The processor speeds in the line are 150 MHz, 132 MHz and 120MHz.

Both product lines were unveiled April 29, 1996.

The PowerTower 180 and PowerTower 166 are the first Mac-compatible systems with clock rates above 150 MHz.  Base configurations include 16MB of RAM, a 2 gigabyte AV hard drive, 512K Level 2 cache, 2MB VRAM, 4x CD-ROM, Mac 15-pin and SVGA video connectors, 3 PCI expansion slots, built-in Ethernet (AAUI and 10BaseT), extended keyboard and mouse,  and  bundled software.

The  PowerCenter 150, 132 and 120  have three PCI expansion slots, 256K Level 2 Cache, onboard VRAM, 4x CD-ROM, Mac 15-pin and SVGA video connectors, 3 PCI expansion slots, built-in Ethernet (AAUI and 10 BaseT), extended keyboard and mouse and bundled software.

The bundled software, a $1,200 value, includes: ClarisWorks 4.0v4, Nisus Writer 4.1, Intuit's Quicken SE, Now Up-to-Date 3.5, Now Contact 3.5, Now Utilities 6.0, Connectix Speed Doubler (with PowerTower systems only), Grolier's Multimedia Encyclopedia, Launch, The Animals! 2.0, U.S. Atlas, World Atlas, 250 Bitstream Type 1 and Type 2 fonts, FWB Hard Disk Tool Kit PE, FWB CD-ROM Tool Kit, America Online (trial), and Compuserve (trial). The base configurations of the new lines follows:

Power Computer Co.'s home page is at: http://www.powercc.com  

— Elizabeth Martin

  
DayStar Digital has introduced two new members 
of its Genesis MP family of multiprocessing Mac OS 
based workstations and dropped the prices on two 
others.

The Genesis MP,  designed for high-end  media 
publishers, is priced between $6,999 and $9,999 
(US). The price of the Genesis MP 528 has been cut 
$3,500 and the Genesis MP 600 has dropped $4,430 (US).

Expected to ship in May, the Genesis MP 300 works like DayStar's high-end systems, but cost less. It operates up to 75 percent faster than a Power Mac 9500/132. 

Genesis MP 300 is a full six PCI slot system with the same expansion features as the  four processor Genesis MP 528 and 600 workstations. The Genesis MP family, including the new Genesis MP 300, is the only Mac OS system with a chassis that supports nine drive bays and four PowerPC processors. 

The following is the configuration and suggested price (US) for the Genesis MP Systems with Multiple PowerPC 604 processors:

DayStar's home page is at: http://daystar.com/  
— Elizabeth Martin 

 
  
Connectix, makers of RAM Doubler and Speed Doubler, 
have come up with the long awaited Color QuickCam.

Color QuickCam can take pictures in millions of colors at 
640 x 480 pixel resolution. It has a manually adjustable 
focus lens with a range from less than 1-inch to infinity and 
is optimized for indoor lighting.

To aid video conferencing over the net, Connectix developed new VIDEC (TM) (Video Digitally Enhanced Compression; patent pending) technology.

The Color QuickCam will come with a $30 direct rebate through July 31, 1996, which should bring the street price to below $199 US.

— Alex Narvey

  
The king of disk image utilities, ShrinkWrap, has come out with 
its first new release version since July 1995.

ShrinkWrap 2.0.1 offers a slew of improvements. The utility is 
now PowerPC native (in a FAT binary app) and includes the capabilities 
of ImageWrap, which means it can deal not only with floppy disk images but most removable cartridge and hard drive volumes.

ShrinkWrap's features and uses are too numerous to name. Suffice it to say that once you've used disk images to install software once you will never go back to feeding floppies again.

Get your own copy of ShrinkWrap at: http://www.halcyon.com/shrinkwrap/  
— Alex Narvey

  
New Sportster products by U.S. Robotics promote 
the small office into the big  leagues by providing   
full-duplex speakerphone and professional office 
message center capability for the Macintosh.

The Sportster Voice product line includes an external V.34 
fax/modem for Macintosh computers with  the 33.6 Kbps V.34 speed enhancement, which increases V.34's top speed from 28.8 Kbps and boosts throughput at lower speeds.  The Macintosh version integrates the capabilities of a high-speed modem, fax machine, full-duplex speakerphone and digital answering machine into a single, compact device.

Sportster Voice products provide the full fax and data capabilities of a Sportster modem in addition to personal voice mail with multiple mailboxes, remote voice message and fax retrieval capabilities, caller ID, and a full-duplex speakerphone. Fax on demand is not available on the Macintosh version.

The buyer also gets an Internet Connection Kit and a U.S. Robotics Connections CD-ROM, which includes everything needed  to use the modem and  access the Internet. 

The Macintosh version includes Megaphone screen-based telephone software from Cypress Research, Software Ventures' Internet Valet, and a free 15-day trial with PSI Net.

List price for the Sportster Voice external model for the Macintosh is $279 (US).

The USR web site is at: http://www.usr.com  
— Elizabeth Martin

  
Symantec Corp. has shipped Suitcase 3.0, "the must-have utility 
for managing and organizing fonts."  But some users think the train 
left the station too soon and are complaining that the update won't 
allow functions that  earlier versions did.

A flurry of correspondence found on America Online supports the assertion that many users are unhappy with the upgrade and Stephen Zeffren, sysop for Symantec Macintosh Products, has been busy suggesting reconfigurations.

MacSense checked out the content of the company's AOL technical support forum and here is some of what we found:

A user who wanted to return to an earlier version and wondered if he could get his money back, complained that  Suitcase "3.0 seems to overcomplicate the issue of font management. I miss pressing command T for temporary fonts for instance. This is the area I need fixed. I output jobs to film and therefore have to use the temporary feature a lot. As it is now it seems that when I close the temporary set they are still there. I have to go in and delete temporary fonts. What happened to (forget at close)?"

The software seems to work on some computers and not on others.  One person who posted a note on the AOL forum said, "my 9500 is running all my fonts with no problem. The answer: ATM 3.9 and Suitcase 3."  He said, however, that it took months to get things working.

Another user fairly happy with the upgrade installed Suitcase 3.0 on his Quadra 800 with no problems. "I am currently running System 7.5.3 and regularly use the most recent versions of PageMaker, Illustrator, Painter, FileMaker, Word, Excel, Netscape, and America Online without problems. I  have approximately 2,000 different font families organized into about 30 sets. The only grumps about Suitcase 3.0 I have are that the lack of a "reunification" feature for font menus and the somewhat slow refresh of the font set information. I recently installed TypeTamer as a replacement for Now WYSIWYG menus and find it does a great job of font menu management. Now if only Suitcase and TypeTamer could be tightly integrated. Then you would have the perfect font management system."

However, another user wrote: "Loaded 3.0 upgrade. Now Quark, Illustrator, Photoshop, AOL, etc.  will not start as long as the suitcase extension is on. I get a message that program will not load due to "type 1 error". I have rebuilt desktop, renamed extension, reloaded 3.0 (both easy and custom install). Using extension manager, I turned off all extensions except Suitcase and restarted. Same problem, so it cannot be a conflict with another extension.  I am on a Mac llci with 20MB ram and 500MB hard drive." 

Sysop Zeffren suggested  a clean system install and deleting, and reinstalling any font management program. "Corruption in those programs can cause this type of problem with Suitcase."

Another AOL correspondent complained that "whenever I go to Suitcase 3.0 and close a font and then go back to Quark I freeze and have to restart. The old Suitcase 2.1.4 had no problem closing fonts, how come the NEW and supposed IMPROVED Suitcase 3.0 has more bug and problems than the past versions?"

According to Symantec, version 3.0 has new features:

 Completely redesigned drag-and-drop interface. The ability to link fonts to specific applications. Automatic font conflict resolution. QuickDraw GX, AppleScript and AppleGuide support complete Power Macintosh native technology.

Symantec Corp. says merchants must stand behind  a 60-day money-back guarantee. Customer service at (800) 441-7234 will help those who purchased direct from the company.  

Suitcase 3.0 sells for $69.95-$79.75 US. Registered Suitcase 2.x users can upgrade directly through Symantec for $39.95. Registered users may receive a $30 rebate if they  purchase the new version at a store. (In Canada all purchasers —even those who buy from Symantec directly—must pay full price and then claim the rebate later with their proof of purchase)

Symantec's web site is at http://www.usr.com. 

— Elizabeth Martin