Cupertino, Calif. - Apple will release in October two new Duos and a 68040 version of the popular Mac LC III, sources said.
The new Duo 250 and 270 and '040 LC, which are slated to debut Oct. 25, will hardly represent a quantum leap forward for either desktop Mac or PowerBook lines. But they should help Apple maintain LC momentum and might boost sagging Duo sales, sources said.
> New Duos. With an eye on rescuing the Duo from sales obscurity, sources said Apple will increase functionality, but not price, when two new Duos roll out this fall.
Both models will build on the Duo 230's 33-MHz 68030 foundation. The biggest change will be to their screens. The Duo 250 will offer four-bit gray scale and the Duo 270 will sport eight-bit, active-matrix color.
Sources said Apple is moving to a 9-inch, 640-by-480-pixel display in the new Duo models. However, the company will implement an improved power manager for the Duo's nickel-hydride batteries to handle the greater power draw from the new screens.
Average battery life for the color Duo is expected to hover around an hour and a half, roughly double the life of the active-matrix color PowerBook 180c. The gray-scale Duo 250 will enjoy battery life comparable to current Duo models, sources said.
Both the active-matrix gray-scale and color Duos will be offered with a more-than-200-Mbyte hard disk option, sources said. The color model will also come with an FPU (floating-point unit) and will reportedly support up to 36 Mbytes of RAM. Unfortunately, a 32-Mbyte RAM upgrade card is likely to cost more than the 270 itself. Also, the new Duos still can't be docked while asleep, making it necessary to clear a RAM disk by shutting down.
To make room for its new screen, the top half of the color Duo's clamshell will have to be one-third thicker. As a result, it will not fit into the existing Duo Dock. Apple will offer Duo Dock owners a new dock lid to accommodate the fatter Duo, sources said. The thicker case and color screen will reportedly increase the weight of the color Duo to just less than 5 pounds.
The 270 will come in three configurations, sources said. A 4/160 will list for about $3,500, a 4/240 will be about $4,000, and a 12/240 with Express Modem will be about $4,600. An Ethernet-equipped Duo Dock with a 270-size opening has been delayed until January, sources said.
> LC more. The '030 LC III will sire an '040 successor, sources said. Sometimes called the LC IV, the new LC will be identical to the LC III in most respects except for its 25-MHz 68LC040 processor.
Because the lower-cost 68LC040 does not include an integrated FPU, the new LC, much like previous models, will require an upgrade to utilize a math coprocessor. While previous LCs have achieved this through a chip embedded in a processor direct slot card, users will be able to upgrade the new LC by having their dealers pop out the 68LC040 and replace it with a fully equipped 68040.
The '040 LC is expected to be priced slightly above current LC III models with a 4/80 configuration going for less than $2,000, sources said. The 25-MHz LC III will remain in the product lineup.
Apple declined to comment.
MacWEEK 08.16.93
News Page 1
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
News: Mac OS to make move to third-party PowerPCs
By Lisa Picarille
Cupertino, Calif. - After almost a decade of keeping the Macintosh operating system proprietary, Apple now hopes to license its OS to other companies developing PowerPC machines, sources said.
David Nagel, general manager of the newly formed AppleSoft division, is reportedly out peddling System 7 to hardware vendors in hopes of interesting them in developing PowerPC-based computers that would run System 7 and Mac applications.
Until now, Apple has said that other vendors will be able to run Mac software only within an emulation window under the PowerOpen Unix environment.
Apple's goal, sources said, is to encourage adoption of the PowerPC and to increase its revenues by licensing its system software.
Most observers speculated that makers of low-cost clones would be the most likely potential licensees.
"Compaq is in bed with Microsoft and Intel, and Compaq is likely to feel repercussion from them [if it licensed Apple's system software]," said one source. "Dell is a more logical choice and also a little more of a maverick. Gateway 2000 is even more likely."
IBM is not planning to include native System 7 support in any of its PowerPC offerings, sources said.
End users had mixed reactions - ranging from Apple brand loyalty to cautious enthusiasm - about purchasing non-Apple PowerPCs with System 7.
"We're really comfortable with the Apple brand name," said Paula Warfield, a systems analyst at Hambrecht & Quist, a San Francisco investment banking firm with more than 300 Macs. H&Q, which underwrote Apple's initial public offering, recently upgraded 200 of its Mac II models to Centris machines. "We have a close relationship with Apple. By sticking with them, we would be making a statement about our confidence in their products."
Jeff Van Skyhawk, manager of Information Technology Assessment for Bose Corp., a Framingham, Mass.-based electronics company with about 1,500 Macs and 200 Intel systems, was slightly more open to a change. "We are not too big on purchasing clones," he said. "We expect Apple [PowerPCs] to be price-competitive."
But, he added, "If someone could offer a PowerPC that has the connectivity of a workstation and behaves like a Mac, we would give it very serious consideration."
Jack Kobzeff, a software consultant for Pasadena, Calif.-based Jet Propulsion Laboratory, an aerospace company with more than 6,000 Macs and 18,000 IBM PCs and compatibles, said, "Price would really be a factor in going with another vendor; otherwise there is not a really good reason to go with someone other than Apple."
Others agreed that price as well as compatibility could sway their purchasing decisions.
"Apple intends to introduce its PowerPC at slightly under $2,000. That leaves lots of room for others in the market," said Mike Bailey, a systems integrator in the Missiles Division at Lockheed Missiles & Space Co. in Sunnyvale, Calif., which has 6,000 Macs and about the same number of DOS and Windows machines. "I see no problem for a company to introduce a PowerPC at around $1,300. I would consider buying it if it were guaranteed to run the Mac OS. It would have to meet some kind of hardware standard, so that I knew it would be compatible with the Mac OS."
Managers who have been reluctant to commit to the Mac because it's been available from only a single source expressed guarded interest in the reported licensing plan.
"Right now we are not comfortable with having to buy Macs only from Apple," said Jim Audo, director of employee development for Deerfield, Ill.-based Walgreens, a chain of 1,800 drugstores. The company, which has more than 4,000 PC systems, recently purchased its first 150 Macs. "We have a multiple vendor philosophy to ensure price-performance competitiveness, and if there is more than one vendor supplying the Mac OS, we might be more interested," he said.
"If we have to upgrade our Intel-based machines, and there is Mac software that meets our needs, and PowerPC Macs are comparably priced, we would definitely consider a change," said Audo.
Users, as well as analysts, said Apple needs to enlist other vendors to produce PowerPC machines to help establish it as a standard.
Bailey said, "There is no way Apple will produce a low-cost enough platform by itself to stimulate the market. It can't produce enough machines on its own to stimulate market growth."
However, some industry observers question how many PowerPC systems makers will want to license System 7.
"In the old days the Mac carried a huge premium and being able to buy clone (cheaper) hardware to run it would have been a boon," said one financial analyst. "But now the irony is that as Apple gets ready to license the Mac OS, the reasons that any third party would want it are less obvious."
Others agreed. "It behooves Apple to license it because they have nothing to lose, but it doesn't really behoove anyone to be a licensee," said another analyst.
MacWEEK 08.16.93
News Page 1
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
News: PB 165 offers speed-up, ARA client, demos
By Robert Hess
Cupertino, Calif. - Apple this week will debut its PowerBook 165, which will include a new software bundle that features the AppleTalk Remote Access client.
The PowerBook 165, which will replace the 160, kicks up the clock speed to 33 MHz from 25 MHz, resulting in a 30 percent performance increase. Otherwise, the 165 is functionally identical to the 160.
Apple will offer three configurations: a model with 4 Mbytes of RAM and an 80 Mbyte hard disk for $1,969, a 4/160 unit for $2,329, and a 4/160 with Express Modem for $2,579.
All three will come with the PowerBook Software Solutions and Sampler, a 10-Mbyte collection of productivity and communications software.
The package includes:
> AppleTalk Remote Access (ARA) Client 1.0. As previously reported (see MacWEEK, May 3), Apple has separated the client and server portions of ARA 1.0; the 165 will be bundled with the client only. Sources said the ARA client will also come with the October PowerBooks and other future models.
The ARA client lets a PowerBook access remote networks and Macs via modem but does not let it answer incoming calls from other ARA clients. Version 1.0 of the client is compatible with existing ARA 1.0 servers as well as the upcoming ARA Version 2.0.
> AppleLink: PowerBook Edition. In an effort to attract more users to its global on-line service, Apple is including the AppleLink client software in the Solutions package.
PowerBook 165 buyers won't have to pay the standard $70 registration fee and will receive reduced rates. After calling Apple On-Line Services to establish an account, Solutions owners will have access to AppleLink services and electronic mail 24 hours a day for $14.95 per hour at 2,400 bps and $24.95 for 9,600 bps - dramatically lower than current prices. Otherwise, AppleLink service will be the same as for users paying full price.
> Software Sampler. This package includes demonstration versions of commercial software, including: Aldus Corp.'s TouchBase Pro, Portfolio Software Inc.'s Dynodex 3.0, Attain Corp. Inc.'s In Control 2.0, Now Software Inc.'s Up-to-Date, Pastel Development Corp.'s DayMaker 2.0 and Strategic Mapping Inc.'s Local Expert, as well as Electronic Books from The Voyager Company.
Customers who require technical support or wish to purchase the full version of any product in the Sampler will be directed to call the software's developer. Companies contacted by MacWEEK said they will not offer discounts to Sampler owners who want to purchase the full version of a product.
Apple said it will monitor customer reaction to the bundle and might include the Sampler with future PowerBook models.
MacWEEK 08.16.93
News Page 1
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
News: Skepticism greets Apple CD plan
By Kirsten L. Parkinson and Jon Swartz
San Francisco - Apple's plan to spin out third-party applications and its own software on CD-ROM may be around the corner, but developers say they aren't sold on the idea.
The program, called Software Solutions, will put encrypted versions of software from Apple and third parties on CD-ROM (see MacWEEK, April 19). The disc reportedly will be available through Apple's mail-order catalog and will be bundled with Apple CD-ROM drives and CD-ROM-equipped CPUs. Users will be able to try demo copies of software before calling an Apple hot line to buy decryption codes.
But developers said they are concerned with several parts of the plan: the low royalties; the possibility that CD sales could cut into their profits; and the documentation, which must be in Apple's DocViewer format.
"[Software Solutions] was set up by people who didn't look at it from a software company's point of view," said one developer who chose not to participate. "I asked them why they were doing it, and they launched into a discussion of Apple's margins. They want to pad Apple's pocket at the expense of developers."
While a release date apparently has not been set, the disc reportedly will be included with CD-ROM-equipped Mac models starting in October.
At least a dozen companies - including Symantec Corp., ON Technology Inc., Central Point Software Inc., Aladdin Systems Inc., Attain Corp., Pastel Development Corp., Advanced Software Inc. and T/Maker Co. - have reportedly signed on for the project.
"We are pleased with the arrangement, particularly given the fact that Apple is handling distribution and fulfillment," said Zyg Furmaniuk, ON director of marketing. "They're handling the legwork of getting it out to the customer for us."
On the other hand, a number of other companies approached by Apple about the program, including WordPerfect Corp., Aldus Corp.'s Consumer Division and Now Software Inc., reportedly declined to take part. A spokeswoman for Microsoft Corp. said her company will "absolutely not" put its applications on the first Software Solutions disc. Even Claris Corp., Apple's own applications-software division, reportedly is balking at the low royalties it would receive.
Even developers who are participating in the plan expressed concern about its financial details. "I have a lot of friends in the developer community, and we got together and talked about it," said one participating vendor. "Everyone was wondering, 'How much?' Apple offered 20 percent to everyone." Developers usually receive 50 percent to 55 percent of a software package's selling price.
"They really held our feet to the flame and took a typical arrogant Apple approach. We weren't happy but ended up signing on anyway because we felt our competitors would be on there and we didn't have a lot of choice," the vendor said.
Sources said Apple plans to offer a "spiffs" on Software Solutions sales to the dealer from which the customer originally bought the CD-ROM system. Operators taking software orders will reportedly ask buyers for the name of the reseller from which the Mac or CD-ROM drive was originally purchased.
That might make the Apple plan less attractive to resellers than a competing CD-ROM distribution program to be launched next month by Ingram Micro Inc. (see MacWEEK, Aug. 9). Under the Ingram program, called CD Access, each disc will be encoded with the name of the dealer that distributes it, and the reseller will automatically receive royalties of 10 percent to 15 percent on any software ever sold from that disc. Ingram has already reeled in at least 61 software publishers, which will receive their usual royalties for each program sold.
"Ingram Micro's a real reseller," said Jeff Tarter, editor of Soft*Letter in Watertown, Mass. "The software publisher doesn't lose financially by selling software through the Ingram CD scheme. Only Apple is offering these outrageously low royalties."
Apple's disc may also compete with a forthcoming CD from Merisel Inc. and Softbank Corp. In October, they will release Softbank On-Hold, a CD with 50 Microsoft Windows titles; in 1994, they will ship a Mac CD software compilation.
MacWEEK 08.16.93
News Page 1
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
News: Developers ponder future of AV Macs' DSP
By Mitch Ratcliffe and Neil McManus
San Francisco - Apple says its new AV technologies "redefine the boundaries of personal computing," but the digital signal processor that makes these innovative features possible in the Centris 660AV and Quadra 840AV won't be built into upcoming PowerPC-based Macs.
Instead, the company intends to rely on the power of its new RISC processor to handle such AV features as speech recognition and digital telephony without help from a coprocessor. But some developers said Apple's plan leaves them in a quandary - and could leave buyers of future Macs short of the horsepower required for multimedia and high-bandwidth communications applications.
The AV Macs depend on an AT&T 3210 digital signal processor (DSP) for two of their most compelling features: the PlainTalk voice-recognition and speech-synthesis system and the GeoPort telecommunications architecture, which lets the Mac function as a fax modem and answering machine.
But Apple had only a handful of DSP-based third-party applications to show off at the Macworld Expo rollout of the AV Macs, even though it had spent more than a year evangelizing developers.
Part of the problem, some developers said, is that they can't justify the investment DSP programming would require because, within months, they'll have to replace their 3210 code with calls to the PowerPC chip. And some developers who are supporting the 3210 questioned whether future Macs that rely on the PowerPC alone will deliver adequate performance for AV functions.
Mike Kane, vice president of marketing at Spectral Innovations Inc. in San Jose, Calif., said PowerPC Macs would benefit from the addition of a DSP, no matter how powerful the RISC CPUs become.
"Capturing 16-bit audio is a very high priority in processing time," Kane said. "With video you can lose data because your eyes blink, but losing data with audio is jarring because your ears never blink."
As evidence of the benefits of digital signal processing, Kane pointed to Apple's demonstrations of PowerPC, where a Gaussian Blur applied to a 3 Mbyte file took 25 seconds. Spectral's digital signal processing card executes the same effect in nine seconds.
"If people get addicted to the DSP handling the modem, speech and audio in real time, they're probably going to expect that these tasks will continue to be processed independently," said Stacy Williams, a spokeswoman for Radius Inc., also in San Jose, which uses two 3210 DSPs in the PhotoBooster, its Adobe Photoshop accelerator card. "Applications like speech [recognition] and telephony require continuous processing. If you buffer these tasks on a RISC processor, you'll lose data."
Foreground performance may degrade when the CPU tries to handle DSP functions in the background, according to Prabhat K. Dubey, director of processors for AT&T Microelectronics of Allentown, Pa., which designs and manufactures the 3210 digital signal processing chip.
"RISC and CISC [CPUs] can do the job, but DSP is the only way to handle the immense data-feed rates associated with communications and speech recognition," Dubey said.
The advantage of omitting the DSP and implementing AV functions on the PowerPC is simple: reduced system cost. "By doing all this work [audio, video and telephony] on the main CPU, you get it virtually for free," said Linley Gwennap, senior editor of the Sebastopol, Calif.-based Microprocessor Report newsletter.
"You'll always have more power with a DSP, but the question is whether you can get acceptable performance out of a RISC chip. And the answer is yes," Gwennap said.
Apple sources acknowledged that implementing AV technologies on the CPU could hinder performance of other applications on Macs based on the first PowerPC, the 601. But they said that the impact will be slight and that later Macs with higher-powered versions of the RISC chip, starting with the PowerPC 604 in late 1994, will have power to burn.
In addition, sources noted, users who need the added power of the DSP will be able to turn to third parties for add-on cards. Spectral currently offers a 3210-based NuBus card, which is already compatible with the Apple Real-Time Architecture, the operating system Apple developed for its digital signal processing implementation. Officials said they expect the board will be compatible with the first PowerPC Macs, which will use the NuBus for their expansion slots, and that they could adapt it for use in future PowerPC-Mac models that will use the PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus. Sources said Radius is also planning to provide DSP acceleration for PowerPC Macs.
MacWEEK 08.16.93
News Page 1
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
News: Apple releases free utilities, patches
By Robert Hess
Cupertino, Calif. - Apple has released a slew of free utilities for fine-tuning operating system and hardware performance.
> System Enablers Collection 1.0. This package contains all system enablers currently available except System Enabler 088, the enabler for the new AV Macs. Enablers are system extensions that support specific Macintosh models.
While the Collection is not the long-sought "universal enabler," a single floppy that can start all Macintoshes, it does provide an easy way to install all enablers to a single System folder that can start any Macintosh.
> Macintosh Hardware System Update 2.0. This collection of System 7.1 patches, new extensions and bug fixes is designed to improve performance of several Mac models (see MacWEEK, July 26).
> Macintosh Software Utility 1.0. This collection comprises HD SC Setup Version 7.2 (the same version included with the Macintosh Hardware System Update 2.0), which offers increased flexibility when formatting large Apple hard drives; Disk First Aid 7.2 (a newer version than the one available with the Hardware System Update), which repairs damaged hard drives and sports a new interface; and MacCheck 1.0.4, a utility that tests Macintoshes for common problems and generates support-oriented reports.
> Dark Star. In an effort to increase compliance with government recommendations for computer power consumption, Apple has released Dark Star, a package that contains Energy Saver, a control panel that darkens a monitor while it is inactive and reduces the monitor's power consumption.
Energy Saver gives users the option of setting a monitor to go into low-power mode after the computer has been idle for a specified period of time. It requires System 7.1 and works only with monitors using the video support built into the Macintosh Quadra, Centris or LC III machines.
All the utilities are available on AppleLink and other on-line services, as well as the public Apple FTP (File Transfer Protocol) server.
MacWEEK 08.16.93
News Page 3
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
News: PowerPlates extend PB charges
Trio of batteries uses ThinLine technology
By Henry Norr
Cincinnati - A start-up company with the unlikely name of Technoggin Inc. this month became the latest vendor to offer relief to PowerBook users frustrated by their notebooks' short battery life.
The company introduced a trio of external, rechargeable power systems for all-in-one PowerBooks, including the PowerBook 100. The three products, all scheduled to ship by early next month, are designed to be used in conjunction with a standard PowerBook battery. Each offers a different set of trade-offs between longevity on the one hand and weight and cost on the other.
> PowerPlate 5x, aimed particularly at users of the power-hungry 165c and 180c color notebooks, offers four or five times the battery life of a standard internal battery alone. It will list for $299.95.
The battery, packaged in plastics that match the color and footprint of the all-in-one PowerBooks, attaches to the bottom of the computer via a Velcro fastening system. Altogether, it adds 4 pounds to the weight of the PowerBook and about an inch to its height. Three LEDs on the front of the battery case show the battery's charging status at a glance.
> PowerPlate 3x can keep a PowerBook running two and a half to three times as long as an internal battery alone, according to Technoggin. Also designed to attach to the bottom of the PowerBook, the 3x resembles the 5x model but costs $60 less - $239.95 - weighs only 2.5 pounds and measures only 0.6 inches high.
> PowerPlate Mini 3 also extends battery life 2.5 to three times, but it costs only $169.95. Rather than attaching to the bottom of the PowerBook, the Mini 3 is designed to stay in the traveling user's carrying case or briefcase; it comes with a 4-foot power cord. The unit, which resembles the ThinPak batteries released last month by VST Inc., weighs 1.7 pounds and measures 0.4 by 5.6 by 9.4 inches. The front of the case has a single LED status indicator.
Like the VST ThinPak and the batteries shipped with one of IBM Corp.'s latest ThinkPad models, the PowerPlates all use ThinLine, a new battery technology developed by Portable Energy Products Inc. of Scotts Valley, Calif. Because the company's batteries are lead-acid, they are not subject to the memory effect that can afflict nickel-cadmium cells, such as those that come with the all-in-one PowerBooks.
All three PowerPlates can be charged with the standard Apple AC adapter. They are covered by a 30-day money-back guarantee; the electronics are covered by a one-year limited warranty, while the batteries themselves have a six-month limited warranty.
Technoggin Inc. is at 1018 Delta Ave., Cincinnati, Ohio 45208. Phone (513) 321-1777 or (800) 305-7936; fax (513) 321-2348.
MacWEEK 08.16.93
News Page 4
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
News: FWB ships new drives, cuts prices
Lineup includes DAT, Wide SCSI-2, RAID
By Kirsten L. Parkinson
San Francisco - FWB Inc. this month will ship a slew of new storage and SCSI options, including a JackHammer upgrade that supports Apple's SCSI Manager 4.3.
The company also cut prices on its existing models by up to 29 percent.
> JackHammer 3.02. FWB's upgrade of its NuBus-based SCSI-2 RISC accelerator board supports SCSI Manager 4.3 capabilities, including asynchronous I/O, disconnect-reconnect and direct memory access. While the new AV Macs have these features built in, the $999 JackHammer allows users of other Macs to take advantage of these enhancements, FWB said.
Version 3.02 is also compatible with FWB's disk arrays and allows a number of scanners, including the Apple OneScanner, Apple Color OneScanner and Microtek 600ZS, to be connected to a Mac via the card.
Purchasers of FWB drives can buy the JackHammer for $799. Current users can receive the software upgrade free from on-line services or for $15 from FWB.
> Hard Disk ToolKit 1.5. The latest version of the company's $199 SCSI utility software also adds SCSI Manager 4.3 support, allowing owners of AV Macs to take advantage of the machines' built-in SCSI Manager capabilities.
Current users of the full ToolKit or the Personal Edition can upgrade for $29. Owners of peripherals from PLI, MicroNet Technology Inc. and La Cie Ltd. can buy Version 1.5 for $99. The package is bundled with FWB hard drives and optical systems.
> Fast SCSI-2 drives. The hammer2100FMF offers a capacity of 2.1 Gbytes and a 10-millisecond average seek time. Based on a 3.5-inch Digital Equipment Corp. mechanism, it has a sustained data transfer rate of 4 Mbytes per second when coupled with a NuBus adapter card. An external model lists for $3,489, while the internal drive is $3,199.
The hammer2050FMF, based on a 3.5-inch Seagate Barracuda mechanism, has a spindle speed of 7,200 rpm and an average seek time of 8 milliseconds. The 2.1-Gbyte drive provides a sustained data transfer rate of 5.7 Mbytes per second. The external configuration is $4,789; an internal model is $4,469.
> Wide SCSI-2 drive. The 2.8-Gbyte hammer2800FMF-Wide is bundled with the company's JackHammer card, allowing it to achieve a burst transfer rate of up to 20 Mbytes per second and a sustained rate of 5.6 Mbytes per second, FWB said.
Based on a 5.25-inch Seagate mechanism, the drive has an average seek time of 10 milliseconds. An external model costs $6,449, and an internal configuration for the Quadra 900 and 950 costs $6,219.
> Disk array. Combining two 2.1-Gbyte, 3.5-inch Digital mechanisms, the SledgeHammer4200FMF supports RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) levels 0 and 1.
Level 0 provides striping, allowing the system to achieve seek times as fast as 5 milliseconds and a sustained data transfer rate of 7.6 Mbytes per second. Level 1 creates a copy of data through mirroring.
Internal systems for the Quadra 900 and 950 and the Apple Workgroup Server 95 are $6,599; the external array lists for $6,849. An A/UX version of the Hard Disk ToolKit for the AWS 95 is available separately for $495 (see MacWEEK, June 28).
> DAT drive. FWB's DDS-2 digital audio tape drive, the hammerDAT16G, offers a maximum compressed capacity of 16 Gbytes on a 120-meter tape. Based on a WangDAT mechanism, the drive offers seek times of 20 to 30 seconds and a sustained data transfer rate of 733 Kbytes per second.
The hammerDAT16G will ship with Dantz Development Corp.'s Retrospect Remote 2.0 and FWB's HammerBackup software. The external version lists for $2,249 ($2,059 without Retrospect Remote); the internal drive for the Quadra 900 and 950 is $2,099 ($1,899 without Retrospect Remote).
> Magneto-optical drive. FWB this month will also ship its $4,799 1.3-Gbyte magneto-optical drive (see MacWEEK, June 7).
> Price cuts. FWB slashed prices on its hard drives, disk arrays, optical systems, tape drives and PowerBook models.
For example, the external 2-Gbyte hammer2000FMF now lists for $3,989, down from $5,599, while the hammerDisk 1000/4, a 1-Gbyte magneto-optical drive dropped by $770 to $4,129.
FWB Inc. is at 2040 Polk St., Suite 215, San Francisco, Calif. 94109. Phone (415) 474-8055; fax (415) 775-2125.
MacWEEK 08.16.93
News Page 6
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
News: Local data-access for global travelers
Ingenuity and resolve help global travelers set up road offices and link to their home base.
By Jeff Ubois
Global travelers who need access to their data and electronic mail back home face a bewildering array of choices for how to connect.
There's no universal solution, so Mac managers around the world have adopted a number of methods, including simply placing direct-dial international calls, using third-party network services and riding back home on their company's global wide-area networks.
"It is kind of a black art; no one seems to know the international phone systems that well," said Mark Davis, director of check product marketing for American Express Travel Related Services Inc. of New York.
Travelers need to equip themselves with phone plugs, electric adapters and modems suitable for the countries they plan to visit.
"The phone systems are so different in the Far East and Europe that you have to carry an arsenal of different connections, including alligator clips and bare wire," said Jim Richey, vice president of marketing and sales for Pharmacia Biosensor of Piscataway, N.J. "I carry a kit from Farallon [Computing Inc. of Alameda, Calif.] that includes a screwdriver, knife and different cables, which has saved my life in different hotel rooms."
With the right service and equipment, getting on-line can be a breeze. And the payoff - easy, cheap, time-zone-busting communications with the home base - makes it all worthwhile.
Communications choice
Finding the right communications service is a matter of making trade-offs based on the kinds of applications to be supported, where the calls will come from, how long travelers spend in any one place and how much traffic is expected.
For example, simple exchange of E-mail might be best accomplished via a commercial on-line service, while full AppleTalk Remote Access (ARA) connection will require international phone calls. In addition, options vary from country to country: Making a direct call from Moscow is far more difficult and expensive than making one from Helsinki, Finland.
Travelers who plan to spend a lot of time in one country or return to the same places regularly may be able to save money by setting up accounts with local telecommunications services, while people who travel to many places on short visits may be better off using a calling card or an on-line service with local access numbers in target countries.
Davis noted that although the calling-card option allows easy charge-back to business units, using ARA's dial-back feature lets people take advantage of lower business telephone rates for calls originating in the United States. "If we have someone in Turkey for two weeks, it's very easy to set up the call-back protocols," he said.
Richey uses CE Software Inc.'s QuickMail Remote 2.5.1 to dial in to servers in the United Kingdom and Germany that are bridged back to the United States. For him, the costs of data communications are simply lumped in with voice traffic and account for about 20 percent of a $600 monthly phone bill. "The cost of the phone bill is not even a consideration to me - it's just peanuts compared with the value," he said.
Managers who work for multinational companies may find it easiest to have users call home from branch offices. "We have leased lines all over the world," said Mark McNew, a senior systems analyst at Conoco Inc. of Houston. "Normally, people dial in from the remote Conoco office to our Shiva LAN Rovers here in the United States, but the call goes over the private network."
ARA is easier and more economical because data travels over voice lines. "We currently use Microsoft Mail for PC networks, and for it to work for the Mac client, we need ARA," McNew said.
For users who will be spending a lot of time in one or two countries, it may be worth checking out local services, particularly the packet-switching services offered by the local telephone authorities (Postal Telephone and Telegraph, or PTTs). These services allow connection back to packet-switching systems and network-connected host computers in the United States for less than the cost of a direct-dial call.
Commercial services
Many of the major on-line services offer international coverage and local access numbers in cities around the world.
AppleLink is available via a local call in 52 countries: Users can look up on-line the access number for the cities they plan to visit, then change the number in their Connect box. Access costs may be higher than in the United States, but they are generally less than an international call.
MCI Mail's Global Access service provides access to U.S.-based MCI Mail accounts for 50 cents a minute from most European, Asian and South American countries. On MCI Mail, type "help phones international" for more information on this service. MCI Mail also maintains a list of the local PTTs and packet-switching services in most countries, accessible with the View International Access command.
CompuServe has expanded the CompuServe Packet Network to provide local service in 15 countries. Those access numbers can be found by logging onto CompuServe and typing "Go Phones."
Another approach is to sign on with a global packet-switching service that has local access numbers around the world, such as British Telecommunications plc's BT Tymnet, which has a U.S. office in San Jose, Calif., or U.S. Sprint Communications Co.'s SprintNet (Telenet) in Reston, Va. Via these packet-switching services, it's possible to reach many commercial on-line vendors and private networks in the United States.
Tools of the trade
Business cards and a PowerBook are only half the story - it takes more than that to fully outfit an international road warrior.
Steve Birgfeld, manager of customer services at Booz-Allen & Hamilton Inc. of Bethesda, Md., equips travelers with a variety of phone-plug and electrical adapters. "We have a travel kit people can check out when they take a trip," Birgfeld said. "It's good for every European country and all our Asian sites."
Phone lines overseas tend to have more snap, crackle and pop, which results in dropped connections; garbage characters; and, sometimes, slower operating speeds. But high-quality modems, particularly those using the MNP 5 or V.42bis error-correction protocols, can help.
"Don't compromise on your modem; phone lines are not good worldwide, and so you need modems that can handle poor lines," Birgfeld said. "MNP 5 is important, particularly where phone lines are of poor quality."
With international calls typically costing $1 to $5 a minute, high-speed modems quickly pay for themselves. "We are predominantly using 9.6-Kbps modems now, but we are working toward 14.4 Kbps," Birgfeld said.
Terminal software can make a difference, too. On the upside, a few packages offer MNP 5 emulation, useful with older modems that don't have it. On the downside, some packages can't handle the long strings needed for international dialing.
Finally, it's worth thinking about power requirements. Although the PowerBook transformers can handle different voltages, plug adapters are a necessity, and carrying a small surge protector is probably a good idea.
Travelers' travails
International travel can introduce other complications, as well.
"Our biggest problem isn't international access, but maintenance," Birgfeld said. "If you can find an authorized Apple dealer, you have a good chance of being saved, but still it may take a week or two to get something fixed."
Overseas maintenance may involve extra paperwork, paying for the repair upfront and getting a reimbursement from Apple. "You may want to just ship a replacement out overnight," Birgfeld said. Service problems can be eased by carrying receipts and other proofs of purchase, which may also come in handy when clearing customs in some countries.
Sometimes it's not the Apple equipment that fails. "We have fried a modem or two in mysterious circumstances," Davis said. Unfortunately, replacement parts overseas tend to be considerably more expensive than in the United States.
Hotel PBXes can cause strange problems, too. Richey said he had problems in Japan with a PBX that provided an intermittent tone for a dial tone - which his modem stubbornly interpreted as a busy signal. "That was a real show stopper," Richey said.
Davis found a work-around for that problem with some drivers on CompuServe and America Online for the Global Village Communication modems. The drivers allow the modems to dial and detect carrier tones without first detecting a dial tone.
Other times, phone systems don't recognize the standard Dual Tone Multi Frequency "touch" tones made by most modems and instead require pulse dialing. Or they just don't work at all, in which case it may be necessary to dial manually and use the Hayes ATD or ATO command when the modem on the other end answers. Or it may be necessary to even give up and send a fax.
Extreme situations
In the end, it's really ingenuity and determination as much as anything else that make international communications happen.
Capt. Gordon Murray, chief of computer services at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., helped build a PowerBook-based telemedicine system that has saved lives and limbs in Mogadishu, Somalia, and Zagreb, Croatia - places where phone service is minimal or nonexistent.
Medical personnel photograph wounds using a digital camera; the photos are dumped to a PowerBook 180 via a SCSI connection and processed in Adobe Photoshop. They are then transmitted at 9.6 Kbps using Farallon's Timbuktu and a satellite transceiver over the Inmarsat satellite to experts in Germany and at Walter Reed for diagnosis.
"We bought everything off the shelf; the whole system was fielded in just six weeks," Murray said. "We went with the Mac because software was available for it."
Although a typical image may cost $50 to $60 to transmit, Murray said the system has more than paid for itself by eliminating the need for multiple medical evacuations.
MacWEEK 08.16.93
News Page 14
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Gateways: Vendors readying 28.8-Kbps modems
By Nathalie Welch
San Francisco - Macintosh modem makers are poised to launch by the end of the year a new class of devices capable of transferring data at 28.8 Kbps.
Eager to satisfy market demand for modems that transfer files at speeds above 14.4 Kbps, vendors such as Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc., Telebit Corp. and Supra Corp. are working on new modems based on the unfinished V.Fast standard. Because the specification is incomplete, early adopters will require upgrades.
The Rapporteur Group of the International Telecommunications Union-Telecommunications Standards Sector (formerly the Consultative Committee International Telegraph and Telephone) Study Group 14 expects to publish the final V.Fast standard in January and approve it by June, said Richard Stuart, chairman of the Rapporteur Group and vice president of Gaithersburg, Md.-based Peril Datacomm Networks Inc. Stuart expects the first true V.Fast devices to come to market by March.
Besides offering 28.8 Kbps, V.Fast incorporates features such as line probing and multidimensional trellis coding to ensure fast transmissions.
As an interim step to V.Fast, last month Rockwell International Corp., in conjunction with Hayes, announced its V.Fast-Class fax-data modem chip sets, which will support data rates up to 28.8 Kbps. According to a Rockwell spokesman, the chips are forward-compatible and incorporate all the significant technology advances planned for the final V.Fast standard.
The high-speed devices under development by Supra and Hayes are based on the Rockwell V.Fast-Class chip, while Telebit will use its own digital signal processor and software approach.
"The V.Fast standard is close enough to consensus that we were able to provide enough flexibility and horsepower to accommodate the final specification without using the Rockwell chip," said Dave Colt, Telebit director of product marketing.
The details of upgrading "prestandard" modems to be compliant with the final V.Fast standard are unclear. Telebit said that it will offer software upgrades downloadable to flash memory. A Hayes spokesman did not rule out the possibility of asking customers to return their units for board swaps.
In addition to upgrade issues, the new class of 28.8-Kbps modems, with promised data rates of up to 115.2 Kbps through V.42bis compression, far exceed the Mac's serial-port throughput maximum of 57.6 Kbps. Although most data transferred by high-speed modems do not benefit from V.42bis' maximum possible compression, most vendors contacted offered no solutions to increasing the throughput of the Mac serial port.
MacWEEK 08.16.93
Gateways Page 16
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Gateways: Hubs to deliver 10 and 100 Mbps
Grand Junction readies FastSwitch
By April Streeter
Union City, Calif. - Grand Junction Networks Inc. last week revealed plans to sell switching hubs that can deliver 10 Mbps of bandwidth to Ethernet Macs and 100 Mbps to specially connected servers.
Grand Junction, originator of one of the two 100 Mbps - or Fast Ethernet - proposals recently approved by the Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers, next month plans to ship a 24-port, $6,250 hub called the FastSwitch 10, which uses normal 10BASE T Ethernet on each independently active, switched port. The company said that by the end of the year it will incorporate its 100BASE X Fast Ethernet standard into a $7,250 version of the FastSwitch, called the 10/100.
100BASE X increases Ethernet throughput via a speedier signaling method and decreased distance between node and hub. The FastSwitch 10/100 will have 24 10-Mbps ports and two ports that provide 100 Mbps of bandwidth to any server or connected computer that uses the company's $399 FastNIC 100 adapter card over shielded twisted-pair wiring. An additional bridged 10-Mbps port can be used to connect another client or as a link to the corporate network.
The FastNIC card will be available for IBM PCs and compatibles in the fourth quarter. The company said it is developing a Mac NuBus card but declined to set a ship date.
The plan to combine 10BASE T and 100BASE X ports in the FastSwitch grew out of Grand Junction's finding that many network managers want to preserve their investment in 10BASE T while relieving bandwidth bottlenecks that typically occur when multiple Ethernet clients attempt to access a server.
FastSwitch lets network managers choose among three modes of packet switching: FastForward begins packet delivery as soon as a destination node is located, FragmentFree is slower but provides basic error correction, and Store-and-Forward takes more of a performance hit but maximizes packet error checking.
FastSwitch 10/100 includes a 3-Mbyte packet buffer for times when more than 10 of the hub's nodes try to access the 100-Mbps server.
Versions of FastSwitch for unshielded twisted-pair and fiber-based networks are due next year.
Grand Junction Networks Inc. is at 3101 Whipple Road, Union City, Calif. 94587. Phone (510) 487-5985; fax (510) 487-7652.
MacWEEK 08.16.93
Gateways Page 16
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
GA: Mac multimedia tools at Siggraph
Focus on animation, virtual-reality exhibits
By Connie Guglielmo
Anaheim, Calif. - Mac multimedia tools made a strong showing at the Siggraph '93 computer graphics show here this month.
The Apple booth featured the company's MessagePad personal digital assistant as well as Racer X, prototype 3-D acceleration hardware from its Advanced Technology Group (see MacWEEK, Aug. 9). Meanwhile, third-party Mac developers displayed new and forthcoming products, including:
> StrataVirtual 3d, a modeling application from Strata Inc. of St. George, Utah, that will let users navigate photo-realistic 3-D animations in real time. The company said the package will ship this fall, probably for less than $500.
> ShowPlace 2.0, picture-composition software shipping this month for $695 from Pixar of Richmond, Calif. The upgrade includes an application that lets users edit Looks, surface appearances that can be applied to 3-D images (see MacWEEK, May 31).
> The Animation Stand 3.0, an upcoming version of the $3,000 painting and animation system from Irvine, Calif.-based Linker Systems Inc. Version 3.0 has new editing tools, including image cropping, resolution boosting, and hard- and soft-edge alpha-mask generation.
> Promation, a professional-level version of Will Vinton's Playmation 3-D character-animation system due this fall from Hash Inc. of Burbank, Calif. The company said pricing for Promation has not been set.
> Isaac Asimov's The Ultimate Robot, a $79.95 CD-ROM from New York-based Byron Preiss Multimedia Co. Inc. The disc, which is slated to ship in October, contains science-fiction author Asimov's robot fiction, as well as software for creating animated robots.
Show goers also got a look at a variety of Mac-based interactive exhibits. The Matsudo Time Zone, interactive software developed by Tokyo-based CyberNetwork Co. Ltd., lets users explore the history of Matsudo City, a suburb of Tokyo.
The Automatic Confession Machine: A Catholic Turing Test is a HyperCard-based religious kiosk developed by Gregory Garvey of Montreal that lets users confess their sins by pointing and clicking.
MacWEEK 08.16.93
GA Page 20
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
GA: DayStar brings KEPS color management to Macs
By Connie Guglielmo
Flowery Branch, Ga. - DayStar Digital Inc. this month took the color plunge with a variety of products featuring new color-management capabilities.
The products are based on KEPS Precision Color Management System (KCMS) from KEPS of Billerica, Mass. They can take advantage of a new KCMS acceleration upgrade for DayStar's Charger digital signal processor-based image-acceleration boards. New products include:
> ColorMatch, $239 entry-level package slated to ship next month. ColorMatch includes the KCMS processor, profiles for color devices and a CD-ROM containing additional device profiles, as well as an Adobe Photoshop plug-in for color correction and previews. ColorMatch Pro, an as-yet-unpriced version, will give users more control over color correction parameters.
> Colorimeter 8, an eight-bit colorimeter due next month at $699. The device, which comes with DayStar's ColorMatch Calibration software, attaches to the screen to measure luminance, phosphor chromaticity and gamma response.
> Charger CMS Acceleration, a hardware-and-software upgrade for DayStar's Charger, Charger Quick, Charger Plus and Charger PFS boards that is scheduled to ship this week for $469. DayStar said the upgrade accelerates KCMS color transforms by as much as five times.
DayStar Digital Inc. is at 5556 Atlanta Highway, Flowery Branch, Ga. 30542. Phone (404) 967-2077 or (800) 962-2077; fax (404) 967-3018.
MacWEEK 08.16.93
GA Page 20
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
BusinessWatch: IDS to put hold on Mac purchases
American Express unit opts for OS/2
By Jon Swartz
Minneapolis - In what is becoming an old story, another major corporation has decided to scale back its Mac purchases.
But this time, there may be a happy ending for Apple.
IDS Financial Services Inc., a subsidiary of American Express Co., last month issued a directive to its 4,500 employees here, informing them the company is standardizing its client-server system to OS/2 and is jettisoning some 1,200 Macs and 3,000 Windows-based machines over the next two years.
"We thought it was crucial to standardize on an object-oriented system - not a multiple platform of object- and non-object-oriented systems," said Pat McIlvenna, IDS director of technology transfer and a member of the 15-person panel that made the decision.
However, McIlvenna stressed that the agreement does not rule out future Apple purchases at IDS. In fact, she said, IDS hopes to eventually use Taligent Inc.'s Pink operating system, due in 1995, as a foundation for its distributed network systems, and that the finance company is "extremely interested" in the forthcoming PowerPC.
In addition, a representative for New York-based American Express said the $25 billion company decided earlier this year to retain its multiplatform network, which includes several thousand Macs nationwide.
Still, IDS' decision has left many Mac users here perplexed. Ironically, IDS' decision comes in the midst of a Macintosh buying spree at the financial services company. Last year, IDS' installed base of Macs increased 30 percent, to 1,200 machines. IDS has used Macs for four years.
"A lot of people don't understand [the decision]," said one IDS employee. "Converting to Windows 3.1 on DOS 5.0 would have been OK, but OS/2 2.1? That has people shaking their heads."
IDS is the fourth major company this year to halt or slash its Mac purchases. General Motors Corp. of Detroit; Boeing Commercial Airplane Group of Renton, Wash.; and Westinghouse Savannah River of Aikens, S.C., all issued companywide orders aimed at discontinuing Mac purchases and standardizing on IBM PC and compatible-based technology and Windows.
An Apple spokeswoman countered that the company had won several large contracts this year, including pacts with Monsanto Co. of St. Louis; Martin Marietta Corp. of Bethesda, Md.; and Avis of Garden City, N.J. (see MacWEEK, May 24).
MacWEEK 08.16.93
BusinessWatch Page 28
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
BusinessWatch: Ex-Apple K-12 dealers sell DOS PCs
By Lisa Picarille
San Francisco - Aided by K-12 resellers who were dropped by Apple in April, Compaq Computer Corp. and IBM Corp. are now making inroads in a market once dominated by Apple.
The opportunity for IBM PC and compatible vendors came last spring when Apple slashed its number of Apple Education Sales Consultants (AESCs) to 19 from about 300. The decision left hundreds of former AESCs with knowledge of the K-12 computer education market, but no Macs to sell into it. Most of them kept their education sales staff intact and began selling DOS machines.
One former AESC, who asked not to be identified, said his K-12 sales have grown more than 250 percent since he started selling DOS systems.
Analysts said Apple cannot afford to lose education sales, which made up about 30 percent, or $2.1 billion, of Apple's $7 billion revenues last year. The K-12 segment accounted for about 75 percent, or $1.6 billion, of that $2.1 billion, according to InfoCorp, a Santa Clara, Calif., market research company.
Despite the defections, Apple still has a 64 percent unit share of the K-12 market, which is estimated at more than $2.5 billion, according to Quality Education Data Inc., a Denver-based research company.
Apple estimates its own slice of the K-12 pie at about 60 percent.
But Apple's share is down from 67 percent in 1991-92, according to QED.
Apple officials said the company experienced "a dramatic increase" in sales and "gained substantial market share" for its third quarter ended June 28 - its first three months since trimming its AESC base. The company also expects a revenue boost from the Mac LC 520, a CD-ROM-equipped model sold only to education customers (see MacWEEK, June 14).
But Compaq is gaining ground with resellers. The Houston-based clone maker recently announced special education pricing, which has enticed dealers to offer Compaq machines to their K-12 customers. EduQuest, IBM's education subsidiary, is also making headway and signing up former AESCs, according to industry observers.
"DOS is a part of the market," said Sonny Cohen, a former AESC who is president of Education Express, a Highland Park, Ill.-based mail-order company that specializes in the education market. "Every time an Apple II site disappears, it's a free-for-all. Apple is not in a position to automatically get that sale."
MacWEEK 08.16.93
BusinessWatch Page 28
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Review: Quark XPresses its true colors
Faster DTP app gets EfiColor, Apple events, Windows support
By Darcy DiNucci
The release of QuarkXPress 3.2 has received a lot of attention, partly because of the hype surrounding the recent shipment of Aldus PageMaker 5.0. Unlike the latter's major retooling, the upgrade to XPress focuses on a few key areas.
The biggest news - particularly for color publishers, XPress' core users - is the inclusion of the EfiColor color-management system from Electronics For Imaging Inc. The new $895 release also adds compatibility with XPress' Windows version and robust support for Apple events. Myriad small improvements streamline and speed work.
The EfiColor gamut
The promise of EfiColor is to tie together the disparate color gamuts (the ranges of colors supported) of different input and output devices. The system draws on Device Profiles, stored in the System folder, to describe the characteristics of each device and translate among them. The idea is to make desktop color more predictable; what you see on screen and color printouts should be much closer to each other, and much closer to what you will see on press.
EfiColor is supplied as an XTension, but signs of its presence are sprinkled throughout XPress' dialog boxes and menus. Overall, it is logical and easy to use. Whenever you're dealing with the representation of color - in the Get Picture, Edit Color and Page Setup dialog boxes, for example - the XTension adds drop-down menus from which you can choose the appropriate device profile. Once you make your choices, EfiColor works in the background, transforming colors for each device.
EfiColor aims to provide accurate compositions; our experience shows it is extremely effective. You still won't be able to rely on your screen to judge color: RGB (red, green, blue) monitors will always look different than CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) printing, but assuming all the rules are followed, your CMYK printout from a dye-sublimation printer will probably closely resemble output from an offset press.
However, EfiColor XTension cannot work with colors in imported Encapsulated PostScript or Desktop Color Separation (DCS) files, unless the program that created the file also supports EfiColor. Because illustration packages currently do not, you're on your own with imported EPS. Oddly, the EfiColor XTension doesn't correct color in the color picker or in the color palette.
For EfiColor to work properly, you'll need EfiColor profiles for all your input and output devices. XPress ships with 20 profiles including one for SWOP (Specifications for Web Offset Publications)-coated output. Others are available from EFI for prices ranging from $129 to $529.
TIFF and Photo CD
The EfiColor XTension gives QuarkXPress users an extra bonus: the capability to separate color TIFF files. (Previously, XPress printed TIFFs on the black plate unless you were using the SpectreSeps XTension or Aldus PrePrint.) Once a target separation profile is chosen in the Page Setup dialog box, TIFFs can be separated along with spot colors at print time. The EfiColor profile automatically takes care of GCR (gray component replacement) and sets appropriate screen angles for the target device. This will obviate the common problem of outputting unseparated TIFFs, but doing separations at print time may tie up imagesetters.
The Photo CD XTension, also packaged with XPress 3.2, lets users import Eastman Kodak Co.'s Photo CD directly into XPress.
Windows compatibility
Until now, IBM PCs and compatibles running the Windows version of QuarkXPress could read XPress documents created on the Macintosh, but the exchange could not go the other way. Version 3.2 handles Windows-to-Mac file sharing, including nearly seamless exchange of document files, the translation of graphics formats and fonts, and the capability to save in PC-compatible EPS and DCS formats. During import, XPress will automatically translate the names of fonts into their equivalents on the other platform. Although the Windows support is very good, as with all cross-platform applications, there are the usual problems with font metrics, borders, file-naming conventions, publish and subscribe links, and other details.
Apple events
XPress' support of Apple events has important implications for automating all kinds of document processing tasks. We've seen an Apple-events script that draws data from FileMaker Pro, drops it into the right places in an XPress document and formats it in several styles using XPress' new Next Style command. Users will need to own and master either AppleScript ($199) or UserLand Frontier ($249) to make XPress work with Apple events. A runtime version of UserLand Frontier is included in the package so you can work with XPress' demo scripts.
Special effects
QuarkXPress 3.2 adds a couple of new design effects. You can skew text at any angle up to 75 degrees and flip text or pictures horizontally and vertically. Text remains fully editable after these operations. A new Force Justify command lets you automatically justify the last line of a paragraph. The Force Justify and Flip features are also available in the measurements palette.
A Cool Blends XTension, now packaged with 3.2, makes it easy to create several blend styles, including circular and diamond patterns.
Midnight XPress
Because of optimized code, XPress claims up to a 300 percent performance boost in 3.2, especially in screen redraw times. Most users, however, probably won't notice a big increase in raw application speed. With EfiColor installed there's also a noticeable slowdown when you initially launch and open files. But to give XPress its due, it's already pretty fast. In our tests on a Mac IIci, screen redraw was nimble in both 3.1 and 3.2.
If the cleaned-up code by itself doesn't improve your productivity, many of XPress' new features will. The greatest timesaver is Speed-scrolling. This greeks images while you scroll, redrawing them only when the page comes to rest. The new Style Sheet palette and the capability to drag and drop colors from the color palette will also speed your work. (These were also available as free XTensions for QuarkXPress 3.1.) And XPress' new capability to dynamically resize text as you resize its box makes short work of finding the right point size to fill a space.
New keyboard commands let you move items to the front or back, move an item forward or backward one level at a time, and select a buried object. XPress has also added support for drag-and-drop editing.
Other additions will reduce frustration as well as wasted time. Smart Quotes is finally part of the program. And with this version, you can copy pages that have text boxes that link to other pages. (You can use the Copy command or drag the pages in Thumbnails view.)
The new Collect For Output command makes it easy to package files for a service bureau. This command copies the open file and all of its associated graphics to a user-specified disk. (For legal reasons, XPress does not copy the fonts to the destination disk.) At the same time, XPress compiles a report listing everything a service bureau might need to know about the job, including the fonts and XTensions in use, the number of colors, and other details.
Nips and tucks
Quark has enhanced the QuarkXPress interface in numerous ways. We especially like the new Print Status display, which offers a status bar showing the progress of each page and graphic as it is sent to the printer. Also worth mentioning is the new capability to multiply and divide in measurement boxes. To size an object to three-fourths of its current size, for example, you would just append *0.75 to its original dimension.
There are a host of other additions. The warning box that displays the "This file uses fonts not installed in your system" message now lets you substitute an available font. When you update a missing picture in the Picture Usage dialog box, XPress can automatically update any others it finds in the same folder, and you can suppress the printout of individual pictures as well. You can save a preview image with your file, which you can use to identify the file in the Open dialog box.
Our only real complaint is the redesigned Document Layout Palette. In an effort to match the Windows and Mac versions, Quark seems to have chosen the lowest common denominator. The Trash can has been replaced with a Delete button; page numbers are now placed between the page icons, causing confusion as to which page they belong; and, worst of all, the palette no longer shows a page's assigned page number - only a sequential page number. This makes the Layout Palette all but useless for navigating through a document. Quark has already posted a number of useful free XTensions on on-line services; one of them, Go To Page, addresses this last problem.
Documentation and support
XPress' documentation is well-written and well-organized but could be a bit more in-depth. QuarkXPress users receive three months of free technical support upon registration.
Conclusions
The changes to QuarkXPress are an impressive step forward. Some of the new features, such as EfiColor and support for Apple events, are unproven in production, but Quark has demonstrated its progressiveness by adding them. Windows compatibility should bring a whole new set of users into the XPress fold. These additions, combined with the many smaller improvements, make QuarkXPress 3.2 a valuable upgrade to an impressive publishing workhorse.
Quark Inc. is at 1500 Grant St., Denver, Colo. 80203. Phone (303) 894-8888 or (800) 676-4575; fax (303) 343-2086.
MacWEEK 08.16.93
Reviews Page 34
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Review: Four-speed CD-ROM drive a Pioneer effort
Fast, but has delays under System 7
By Philip Bishop
Just when you were feeling proud of owning a double-speed CD-ROM drive, Pioneer New Technologies Inc. rolls out what it calls the world's first four-speed drive, the DRM-604X. The $1,845 jukebox-style device holds up to six CD-ROMs totaling 3 Gbytes of storage.
As we noted in our roundup of double-speed drives (see MacWEEK, June 14), until about a year ago, the maximum throughput for a CD-ROM drive was 150 Kbytes per second. As the need to process larger and more-complex chunks of data grew, manufacturers doubled the spindle speed and used a decoding chip to cope with the increased flow of information - effectively doubling the data transfer rate to 300 Kbytes per second. With the DRM-604X, Pioneer has pushed the speed envelope further by rotating the disc four times the normal speed (twice the speed of a double-speed drive), thus achieving a data transfer rate of more than 600 Kbytes per second.
At a cost of more than $1,800, the DRM-604X is not cheap, although its street price is about $1,300. By comparison, the five double-spin drives we reviewed had list prices ranging from $599 to $969.
New dimensions
The DRM-604X is a sturdily constructed box measuring 14 by 8 by 4 inches. Setup is as uncomplicated as installing any SCSI device. Termination and SCSI ID selection are conveniently accessed through a switch and a push-dial, respectively. The rear of the DRM-604X also features RCA audio jacks while the front of the drive has status lights for power, drive access, audio use and four-speed activity. Also on the front is a jack for a headphone, a volume control switch, an AC power switch and a switch to eject the CD-ROM magazine (although this last item is disabled in the Macintosh model).
The magazine is less than 1 inch thick and about as wide and as long as a CD-ROM jewel case. Inside are six trays that flip out from the side. Discs are placed in the trays, label facing down. When you insert the magazine into the DRM-604X, the discs are mounted onto the desktop as individual volumes.
Suspect software
The DRM-604X includes three small programs to control its operation. CLD Comm, a control panel, tells you which SCSI ID your DRM-604X is set to. It also lets you switch IDs by clicking on radio buttons, but this seems of little value to us because the control panel doesn't list what other SCSI devices are attached, thus making the potential for SCSI ID conflict extremely high.
CLD Access, another control panel, lists all the titles in the CD-ROM magazine and lets you mount and unmount them. A caching option sets aside up to 128 Kbytes of RAM to hold disc volume identification information. CLD Player, which plays audio CDs, works fine, but, like other CD-ROM drives, it can't display the name of the disc you are listening to.
Pioneer noted that its software doesn't work with Quadra 800s but said a fix is in the works.
Performance tests
To test the raw speed of the Pioneer DRM-604X, we performed two throughput tests by copying, via the Finder, large amounts of data from a CD-ROM to a hard disk. In the first test we copied a 71.9-Mbyte QuickTime movie from a demo of MYST, a CD-ROM from Broderbund Software Inc. In the second test we copied a 110-Mbyte folder from the Art of Ancient Egypt clip photo disc published by The Multimedia Library. The disc contained 200 Adobe Photoshop files ranging in size from 187 Kbytes to 1.4 Mbytes. For comparison, we performed the same tests on a double-speed drive, the Procom Mac-CD-MX from Procom Technology Inc.
In both tests the Pioneer was noticeably faster, although not twice as fast. It copied the QuickTime file in an average of 3 minutes, 20 seconds, compared with an average of 4 minutes, 26 seconds for the Procom. In the clip-art copy test, the Pioneer averaged 6 minutes, 28 seconds, compared with 7 minutes, 57 seconds for the Procom.
In our real-world tests, however, the DRM-604X did not fare as well. We performed the same tests on the DRM-604X as we did on the double-spin drives. These tests, which typify popular uses of multispin drives, include opening a 12.5-Mbyte color TIFF file in Adobe Photoshop, a test of QuickTime playback, and a group search-and-retrieve test that indicates how the drive performs when executing many read requests for small blocks of data. The DRM-604X has multisession support for discs created in Eastman Kodak Co.'s Photo CD format, and our performance benchmarks included tests of this format. We tested the DRM-604X on a Quadra 900.
In all tests, the DRM-604X outperformed the fastest double-spin drives - but only by a small margin.
Pioneer defended the DRM-604X, saying its performance depends on external factors such as the speed with which a Photo CD image is displayed or caching schemes built into some CD-ROMs. Further, it said the DRM-604X more fully realizes its potential on faster CPUs, such as RISC-based machines like Apple's upcoming PowerPC.
System 7 snafus
Working with 16 Mbytes of RAM in our Quadra and using System 7.1, it took us 1 minute, 17 seconds to mount a full magazine of six discs. The reason this simple operation takes so long, according to Pioneer, is a System 7 requirement to locate every document icon on every mounted volume.
During our tests, when we tried to open a folder - even one not associated with any mounted CD-ROM drive - this activity was frequently halted while trays in the DRM-604X opened and closed, apparently complying with the System 7 request to identify icons. At one point when we opened a folder, an audio CD abruptly stopped playing as the DRM-604X's trays opened and closed. These delays proved so deleterious to our work that we had to unmount all but one CD-ROM, which eliminated the disc thrashing.
Pioneer said it is working with Apple to solve this problem. In the meantime, the caching option in the CLD Access control panel can help eliminate some of the disc changing when multiple CD-ROMs are mounted. Pioneer also has another control panel in beta testing, CLD Menu, which lets you mount only a single disc if you wish.
In another System 7-jukebox quirk, discs to be shared over an AppleTalk network must be mounted before AppleShare is activated; otherwise they won't be recognized and mounted. Pioneer said AppleShare is at fault here because it has no provision for waiting more than a minute for a volume to mount.
Documentation and support
The two manuals that ship with the DRM-604X are fair; however, the System 7 problems we encountered are not discussed in either of them. Indeed, the manuals contain no discussion whatsoever about System 7 issues. In addition, technical support could not explain some of the System 7 problems we encountered.
Conclusions
While four-speed performance wasn't as breathtaking in our real-world tests as we had hoped, the DRM-604X is the fastest CD-ROM drive we've tested. As such, it can make shorter work of larger jobs and provide crucial additional performance for tasks such as QuickTime playback. The 3 Gbytes of storage the DRM-604X offers can be put to good use in settings that need access to huge volumes of data or a variety of CD-ROM titles. System 6 users should experience fairly smooth sailing, while System 7 users will have to hope for improved software.
Pioneer New Technologies Inc. (formerly Pioneer Communications of America Inc., Optical Memory Systems Division) is at 2265 E. 220th St., P.O. Box 93131, Long Beach, Calif. 90810. Phone (310) 952-2111; fax (310) 952-2990.
MacWEEK 08.16.93
Reviews Page 34
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
ProductWatch: DAT and 8mm backup systems
Managers must weigh several factors when choosing a tape backup system.
By J.B. Miles
More users looking for inexpensive, reliable archiving and backup mass-storage solutions are turning to 4mm and 8mm digital audio tape drives than ever before.
These systems can store between 1 and 5 Gbytes of uncompressed data on tapes that cost about $16 each. According to Freeman Associates, a Santa Barbara, Calif., market research company, sales of DAT units will increase from about 290,000 last year to about 845,000 annually by 1996.
The typical Mac-compatible DAT drive represented on the accompanying chart has an uncompressed per-cartridge capacity of 2 Gbytes, hardware compression, SCSI-2 compatibility, a buffer size between 512 Kbytes and 1 Mbyte, and a data transfer rate of 183 Kbytes per second. The most popular form factor for DAT drives is 3.5 inches.
DAT drives come in many configurations, however, and when choosing among systems, managers must consider several factors, including drive mechanism, value-added components, price, warranty and bundled software.
How to compare DAT drives
> Macintosh compatibility. All the products on the chart are Mac-compatible. Before you buy a drive that is not listed on the chart, make sure it has a SCSI port and is supported by a Mac backup application, such as Dantz Development Corp.'s Retrospect.
> Price. The DAT drive market is in a state of flux, and prices for this year's models are expected to fall. Vendors have begun shipping drives based on a new standard, called DDS-2 (Digital Data Storage-2), which effectively doubles DAT storage capacity and data transfer rates. Prices for DDS-2 drives, however, are listed at only a few hundred dollars more than existing DDS drives.
> Mechanism. All DAT drive mechanisms are manufactured by a few OEMs, which include Hewlett-Packard Co., Conner Peripherals Inc., GigaTrend Inc., Sony Corp. of America, WangDAT Inc. and Wangtek Inc.
Because all newer DAT mechanisms are designed to comply with the DDS standards developed by Sony and HP, there is little variation among drives. All deliver about the same data transfer rate, compression ratio, access times and read rates.
Before buying, ask for details about a drive's mechanism. Some, such as those from Sony, Conner and HP, were redesigned with computer applications in mind; others are based on modified audio DAT drives.
> Uncompressed capacity. Data-grade DAT tapes are the same size as audio-grade DAT tapes - 2 by 3 by 3⁄8 inches - and are available in three lengths: 60 meters, 90 meters and 120 meters.
Length of tape determines uncompressed storage capacity: 60-meter tapes can store up to 1.38 Gbytes; 90-meter tapes, 2 Gbytes; and 120-meter DDS-2 tapes, 4 Gbytes. A glance at the capacity column will give you an idea of what length tape a drive can handle and whether it is a DDS or DDS-2 drive.
Uncompressed storage figures above 4 Gbytes indicate an auto-switching drive that contains hardware allowing uninterrupted spooling to multiple tapes and sometimes multiple drives.
These systems provide much more storage capacity - in the case of Cambridge On-Line Storage Inc.'s 4mmL, 144 Gbytes uncompressed using four drives and a 72-tape carousel.
> SCSI-2 compatibility. Most drives listed are SCSI-2-compatible. To take advantage of SCSI-2, users must purchase a separate SCSI-2 card. The cards are available from several vendors and range in price from $700 to $1,000. SCSI-2-compatible drives work with standard SCSI, so buying a card is not required; however, users will get better performance using SCSI-2.
> Buffer size. Data buffers hold data temporarily so it continues to stream even if it overflows as a result of the drive processing data faster than the SCSI, or vice versa. Streaming ensures that the DAT drive runs continuously, which increases tape life, capacity and speed. Data buffers on DAT drives range in size from 512 Kbytes to 1 Mbyte.
> Form factor. Some 5.25-inch DAT drives are still available; however, vendors and buyers are favoring the more efficient 3.5-inch form factor.
> Warranty. Most vendors offer some type of warranty, ranging from one to three years in length. Before you purchase a DAT model, check the details of a warranty as well as the type of technical support you will receive.
> Bundled software. The majority of drives on the chart are bundled with Dantz's Retrospect or Retrospect Remote backup programs. Some vendors, such as FWB Inc., include their own backup applications. Others, such as Optima Technology Corp. and JVC Information Products Co. of America, bundle software that lets users mount a DAT tape as a hierarchical file system volume on the desktop.
Not on the chart
> Compression. All DDS boards comply with DDS-DC (Data Compression) standards for hardware compression. Although vendors will claim anywhere between 2-to-1 and 6.9-to-1 as a maximum compression ratio, the actual amount of compression achieved is directly related to the type of file being compressed. JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)-compressed images will actually increase in size when compressed with DDS-DC.
For this reason, most drives are equipped with hardware or software switches that turn off compression.
> Data transfer rate. Most DAT mechanisms support uncompressed data transfer speeds of 183 Kbytes per second, as specified by DDS. (Some claim speeds of 233 Kbytes per second using the same mechanisms.) DDS-2 drives double that speed to 366 Kbytes per second sustained data transfer rate.
> Average access times. Most DAT vendors report an average access, or seek time (the time it takes to retrieve particular data from the DAT tape), of between 20 and 30 seconds. This is faster than many other tape storage systems but much slower than access times for the average hard drive, which are measured in milliseconds.
Access times depend on several variable factors, such as tape length, size of file and speed of read-write drum. Because of this, many DAT vendors claim that average access time is meaningless as a measure of DAT drive capability.
8mm drives
A good backup alternative to 4mm DAT are 8mm drives, commonly called Exabyte drives. (Exabyte Corp. makes most 8mm drive engines.) The 8mm units have found a solid niche as backup devices for high-end network servers because they offer a slight performance edge over DATs, as well as more storage capacity.
Unlike DAT drives, most 8mm systems employ the 5.25-inch form factor, with half-height external units predominating. The two systems use quite different methods for recording information to the tape.
The 8mm tapes are adaptations from standard videotapes and generally come in 112-meter lengths. They hold between 2 and 5 Gbytes of uncompressed data. Data transfer rates for Exabyte drives are faster than those of DAT drives - an average of 500 Kbytes per second uncompressed data transfer rate compared with 366 Kbytes per second for the fastest DDS-2 DAT drive. These higher performance curves are reflected in higher prices - between $1,800 and $7,000.
MacWEEK 08.16.93
ProductWatch Page 43
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Mac the Knife: Performance breeds Performas
These small mix-ups are bound to happen from time to time, and in the clarity of hindsight it's easy to see how honest people can err. For example, those first-class American Airlines passengers winging from Chicago to San Francisco on Friday after the expo were surprised. Wouldn't you be if you saw Chairman Sculley, fresh from his public rehabilitation at the Newton intro, settle down in his executive-width seat only to whip out what looked suspiciously like a Casio B.O.S.S.?
Surely Sculley has had a personal MessagePad long enough to teach it a few tricks. Maybe it's his really inscrutable handwriting. Or maybe he meant to use his MessagePad but reached into the wrong pocket. That's probably similar to what happened to Marine Commandant Mundy last week. Rather than issue a policy barring the admission of married men and women into the Marine Corps, he meant to issue an order that all married men and women would have to learn how to spell "Shalikashvili" before taking the entrance exam.
Goings and comings
If you think there are too many Mac models, your thoughts are being echoed in Cupertino, where it matters. The Knife reports that the buying public is, in the opinion of the decision makers at Apple, simply unable to keep up. Their solution apparently is to drop the name "Centris" and fold the existing Centris models into the Quadra mix.
There's no such model confusion in the Performa lineup, if you keep the numbers straight. The first anniversary of the introduction of the consumer-channel Macs is almost upon us. It seems like an appropriate time to note that whatever else can be attributed to them, the Performas have opened up the Mac to an entirely new segment of the market. The majority of Performa buyers are buying their first Mac and, in fact, their first personal computer. This is in contrast to the major portion of other Mac sales, which are thought to be moving into the installed base.
Celebrate good times
To mark the Performa anniversary, Apple has six new configurations ready for an early autumn rollout. The processors range from a 16-MHz 68030 on the low end all the way up to a 25-MHz 68040 on the high end. All the new models have one NuBus slot, a fax modem courtesy of Global Village, built-in video, and either an 80-Mbyte or 160-Mbyte drive. Of the several models, the 460, which uses a 33-MHz '030, appears to be a faster incarnation of the beloved Mac LC III. The 475 and 476, which use a 25-MHz '040, are variations on the as-yet-unannounced LC IV.
Apple's ongoing interest in becoming a player in software distribution is also evidenced by the specs for the new Performas. Some of the models are differentiated primarily by the software bundles included. The collection Apple has assembled includes, among others, three reference works, some educational titles, Quicken and a couple of PIMs. And of particular interest to Microsoft fans (and fans of WordPerfect Corp. and Symantec Corp., for that matter) is the inclusion of ClarisWorks as the sole integrated software title.
Deep RAM massage
You knew it would start, and start soon. The apparent winner in the race to be the first developer to post a Newton software product on a commercial information service is Howard Oakley. He's claiming copyrights to two offerings: Memory Messager, which calls a garbage collection routine in Newton memory, and a cool little utility called NewtonScript Runner. Big fun.
You say "Gen. John Shalikashvili," while the Knife simply says "chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff." But if you want to shout, "Hey, that's my MacWEEK mug!" you'll have to barter with the Knife at (415) 243-3544, fax (415) 243-3650, Internet (mac_the_knife@macweek.ziff.com), AppleLink (MacWEEK) or CompuServe/ZiffNet/Mac.
MacWEEK 08.16.93
Mac the Knife Page 94
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
