Apple's PowerBook Duo line will make the jump to RISC next spring. However, this leap will be its last.
The final Duos, code-named AJ, are expected to ship next May and will feature few major changes other than a PowerPC 603+ processor, sources said. Apple will most likely use the 100-MHz 603+, which is expected to be available next spring. With the faster chip, the Duos will reportedly perform almost as fast as a Power Mac 8100/80.
Sources said the new line will have two displays: an 8.4-inch active-matrix color screen and a 9.5-inch dual-scan color display, both with 640-by-480-pixel resolution. The screens will be identical to those in the 280c and 520c, respectively.
Apple won't offer an active-matrix gray-scale screen because of aggressive OEM pricing on dual-scan displays and good customer acceptance of the color screens (see MacWEEK, Aug. 15, Page 14).
The new Duos will have an internal 500-Mbyte IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) hard drive but will still support SCSI disk mode. This will let the Duo act as a SCSI drive on another Mac, even though its drive is not a SCSI device. The new Duos will also work with existing docks that have SCSI ports, sources said.
The AJ line will reportedly use standard Duo memory. The subnotebooks will also support RAM modules up to 56 Mbytes, which, with the 8 Mbytes soldered to the logic board, will expand the machines to 64 Mbytes of RAM.
The new Duos will have the same Express Modem slot as current models, sources said. The AJ line will not include three key features of the PowerBook 500s: PCMCIA, built-in Ethernet or the trackpad.
AJ will come with a Type III nickel-metal-hydride battery, the same used in the 280c; it will provide up to four hours of use. Upgrades to AJ's logic board will be available for all Duos, sources said.
"I think there will be a lot of people upset [if Apple kills the Duos]," said Larry Moon, vice president of Di-No Computers Inc., a reseller in Pasadena, Calif. While the Duos haven't been big sellers for his company, Moon noted that the subnotebooks do have a loyal following.
"I'm not surprised," said Scott Harris, sales manager at Infostar, a dealer in Mount Kisco, N.Y. He said that since the 500 series debuted he gets few requests for Duos. "I don't think [the Duos] ever reached [sales] expectations."
While AJ represents the end of the line for Duos, Apple has not given up on dockable portables, sources said. The company is reportedly working on several concepts for a next-generation docking subnotebook.
"There are a lot of people who have invested in the Duo and its accessories," said Ted Julian, a market analyst at International Data Corp. in Framingham, Mass. "Apple doesn't want to leave these people behind." Julian added that if Apple built all-in-one notebooks that can also dock, the company would be following a trend recently started in the Intel-standard world (see MacWEEK, Aug. 1, Page 18).
"Was it a problem to move the original PowerBook series to the 500 line? No, because [the 500 series] is a superior design," said Pieter Hartsook, editor of The Hartsook Letter, an industry newsletter in Alameda, Calif. "Hopefully that will be the case with [any replacement machines]."
Apple declined to comment.
MacWEEK 08.22.94
News Page 1
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
News: Apple focusing license plans on world markets
By Andrew Gore, MacWEEK staff and Daniel Farber, PC Week staff
Wrestling with what has long been the most controversial and contentious issue at Apple, the company will at last announce its plans to license the Mac operating system at Fall/Comdex '94 in November. However, sources said that Mac licensing will neither be as all-encompassing nor happen as quickly as some would like.
The first wave of Mac clones won't hit the market until the second half of 1995, sources said. When those machines arrive, they will be sold primarily outside the United States and will ship from vendors that have a strong presence in their countries but aren't necessarily household names in the United States.
Topping the list of prospective licensees are Vobis Microcomputer AG, which will build Mac clones for German-speaking countries, and Ing. C. Olivetti & Co. SpA, which will make Macs for Italy and the Spanish-speaking world. Other possible licensees are Toshiba Corp., Fujitsu Ltd., Pioneer Electronic Corp., GoldStar Technology Inc., Tatung Co. of America Inc. and Motorola Inc.
The licensees will reportedly build Mac compatibles similar to the PCI-based Power Macs due from Apple next year, though some clone makers may also build 68040-based Macs for some emerging markets.
Most Power Mac clones will use 66- to 100-MHz PowerPC 601 chips. In addition to the Mac OS, some will reportedly run Windows NT for the Power Mac, Processor-Independent NetWare, PowerOpen, AIX and Solaris.
In terms of manufacturing, sources said licensees would have only limited ability to customize Apple's designs. Clones will come in a variety of new forms but probably won't differ greatly from their Apple siblings' feature set -- at least not while running the Mac OS, which is hardware-dependent. Sources said licensees will build their own systems, buying parts from Apple-authorized vendors.
Although the details on how OS licenses will be limited haven't been finalized, sources said, clone makers won't necessarily be restricted from selling in the United States. In one likely scenario, licensees would have access only to a foreign-language version of the OS, which has limited appeal in English-speaking countries.
"This is a divide-and-conquer approach to growing market share," said a source familiar with Apple's plans. By licensing to vendors strong in markets where Apple is weak, the company hopes to boost its share of those markets, sources said. Also, Apple won't have to expend resources selling in those countries.
According to sources, Apple is still contending with three issues as it finalizes plans. First, the company has no experience with licensing and must take time to build an internal support and operations infrastructure that can handle multiple licensees. Second, Apple must develop credibility with those licensees while reassuring its current channel partners that licensing is not going to endanger their business.
Third and most important, sources said, Apple doesn't want to risk its own revenue stream. If this initial effort is successful, the company will expand licensing in 1997.
"Fundamentally, Mac buyers want choices. That way they can play one vendor against another," said Dan Ness Jr., microsystems research director at Computer Intelligence InfoCorp of San Diego. "However, for any company to try and come against Microsoft [Corp.] now would require massive resources. By focusing on markets where Microsoft is weak, Apple can increase their market share and offer unique competencies."
Apple declined to comment.
MacWEEK 08.22.94
News Page 1
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
News: PCI details: Bus due next spring
By David Morgenstern
Apple this month laid out to developers its plans for the Mac's future expansion bus. The discussions detailed PCI bus implementation on PowerPC-based servers and desktop Macs.
Sources said Apple will release models based on PCI, or Peripheral Component Interconnect, instead of NuBus next spring, contrary to published reports predicting a November release.
PCI, developed by Intel Corp., is a bus standard gaining acceptance in the computer industry. The standard is now under the direction of the PCI Special Interest Group, a 225-member consortium, including PowerPC allies IBM Corp. and Apple.
Performance
PCI's maximum theoretical data transfer rate is 132 Mbytes per second. Actual performance is generally much less, however, depending on CPU memory caching, interactions among cards and the quality of each system vendor's bus implementation. Because most hardware and software architectures cannot handle such high data throughput, there has been little reason for PCI card vendors to stretch the limits.
Apple is developing its PCI technology in-house, and its bus will be optimized for its Power Mac architecture, according to an Apple spokesman, and would outperform PC-based versions. One card developer who attended a recent PCI demonstration at Apple was disappointed in the performance and said data transfer on the bus was in the range of 40 Mbytes per second.
"That is respectable speed for a first-generation product, but it will improve as the PPC matures," said Ed Garcia, senior systems engineer at Fremont, Calif.-based Cirrus Logic Inc., a leading PCI graphics chip maker.
Apple declined to comment on performance figures but said that PCI cards would provide at least twice the throughput of NuBus cards.
Compatibility
The slots will support 5-volt cards running at 33 MHz, which is the most common PC configuration. Apple and IBM reportedly are pushing for greater support of a 3.3-volt option found in Revision 2.0 of the PCI specification.
Users will not simply drop any PCI card into a Mac. All PCI cards require a card-based ROM boot driver that instructs the computer on how to use that device (See MacWEEK, Jan. 24, Page 1). Most cards use a generic Intel-compatible BIOS-type ROM, which may require hardware configuration via DIP switches.
Cards for the Mac will need a different boot driver compliant with Open Firmware, a cross-platform PCI ROM standard. Just as with NuBus, Open Firmware simplifies the installation of cards and will improve hardware transition to new Apple-supported system architectures, such as the microkernel-based Mac OS and PowerOpen.
Initial Macintosh drivers will be based on 680x0 code. New system software running on future Macintoshes will allow the use of native PCI drivers that can be loaded from a card's ROM, Mac ROM or software extension. Currently, portions of Power Mac system-level I/O management run in emulation, and entirely native drivers would suffer from time-consuming mode switching between emulated and native code.
Higher speeds
PCI is quick, but not fast enough for the real-time performance needs of digital video. Sources said PCI Macs will include a second-generation digital audio-video interface, such as those in AV models.
According to sources within the PCI Special Interest Group, Apple and IBM recently proposed a 66-MHz addition to the PCI standard. The double-speed specification would be compatible only with PowerPC-based systems and would require more exact engineering in cards and computers, sources said.
"The approval [of 66 MHz] is as much political as technical," said a Special Interest Group member, who predicted that without modification the initiative will not pass a vote of the Intel-dominated group. "It's extra work and requires much more stringent timing. [Intel-based developers] have nothing to gain."
MacWEEK 08.22.94
News Page 1
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
News: QuickMail 3.0 posts minimal gains
By Stephen Howard
It took CE Software Inc. nearly three years to ship a major upgrade to QuickMail. After testing the client released last week, we wonder why such small improvements to the leading Mac e-mail package took so long. But better late than never.
Version 3.0 adds several welcome features to the mail client, including automated rules, searching and spell checking. The package also includes 3.0 versions of QM Server, QM Administrator and NameServer, but their benefits are not apparent.
The new client is not backward-compatible with Version 2.5.x or earlier servers but does work with Version 2.6 or later ones -- something the manuals do not make clear. Conveniently, older clients work with the new server.
Upgrades from QuickMail 2.2.3 or later are $12 per user; upgrades from earlier versions are $15 each. Those who bought QuickMail after June 13 can upgrade free.
The highlight of Version 3.0 is MailManager, a set of controls for acting on incoming or filed mail.
MailManager's rules are pretty minimal. Users can set the software to scan for specific words in the sender field, recipient list, subject and main text of messages, as well as for the date sent and priority. When all criteria are satisfied, MailManager can forward mail with boilerplate text, and file, delete or print the message.
These rules are simple to set up and will be understood by most users, though combinations can become complex.
MailManager is slow, taking a few seconds to scan each message. During this scan, a modal dialog box prevents access to the rest of QuickMail. The program can be pushed into the background; but, for anyone with a heavy daily dose of e-mail, the price of automation is an annoying series of interruptions.
MailManager rules are stored locally, so they don't work unless QuickMail is on the LAN and open. For this reason, and for better security in general, CE added a Lock Account feature, which keeps the program open and responding to mail but otherwise prevents access.
CE also squashed a security bug in this upgrade. The software now requires a password to see filed mail even if the client is disconnected from the LAN. Before, if a network log-on failed, filed mail was available to anyone.
Search and spell
QuickMail 3.0 adds a fair spelling checker, but the feature is not interactive. The user must remember to check each message before sending it off. An option to correct mail after the user clicked Send would be better.
The new search features let users find words in the body text of filed messages. Advanced options flag messages based on sender, recipient and priority. Search has more options than most users will need, but it lacks a basic one: It cannot search unfiled messages stored on the QuickMail server. The last big addition to 3.0 is the capability to add a sender's address from an incoming e-mail message into a local address book. This good idea is buried in QuickMail's interface: It takes at least six clicks to get to it.
QuickMail 3.0 requires 1 Mbyte of RAM in addition to the memory needed for the QuickInit and optional QM Menu extensions. The upgrade also allows 254 filed messages per folder, up from 100.
Conclusions
Updating a few servers takes less time than installing software on multiple client Macs, but no wise LAN manager alters servers except when necessary. Therefore, if a company has not installed Version 2.6.x servers, there's a large onus on the new client to prove its features are worth it.
In this light, we're inclined to discount the benefits of the searching, security and spell-checking features; they're not vital. So we turn to the upgrade's imperfect e-mail rules, which don't justify a systemwide upgrade of pre-2.6 QuickMail sites. These companies should consider an upgrade for reliability reasons, but if an older setup works, Version 3.0 is not good enough to upset the apple cart.
For the rest of the QuickMail world, Version 3.0, while no barn burner, is a no-brainer. Managers can hand out upgrades at their discretion, mixing new clients with old. However, we don't recommend switching every user to QuickMail 3.0 because the new features won't warrant the hassle for most users, and we expect Version 3.5 -- with real server enhancements -- to ship by the end of the year (see MacWEEK, June 13, Page 1).
CE Software Inc. of West Des Moines, Iowa, can be reached at (515) 221-1801 or (800) 523-7638; fax (515) 221-1806.
MacWEEK 08.22.94
News Page 1
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
News: DayStar delivers color management
By Cate C. Corcoran
A cooperative effort by DayStar Digital Inc. and Eastman Kodak Co. to put a simple Macintosh interface on the Kodak Color Management System paid off last week when DayStar shipped ColorMatch, its $219 color-correction application.
ColorMatch is a software product for Adobe Photoshop and QuarkXPress aimed at maintaining consistent color quality when printing to multiple devices. Based on the KCMS color-transformation engine in the $11,700 PCS-100 hardware- and software-based color-management system from Kodak of Rochester, N.Y., ColorMatch corrects color in image files using Kodak's device profiles for printers and scanners.
"I save my files as ColorMatch TIFFs, and they are so rock-solid I could sing," said beta user Gene Dwiggins of dMax, a digital photo-service company in Providence, R.I. "It is a little slow, but that is nothing compared to the agony of trying to calibrate [in Photoshop] to the variety of output sources my clients want."
ColorMatch features:
> Monitor calibration. Transforming input files for accurate display on the monitor, the ColorSet application accepts monitor profiles or data from DayStar's recently released $599 Colorimeter 24.
"It makes a big difference in my work because the monitor calibration is great," said Andrew Rodney, owner of Digital Dog, a digital photography studio in Santa Fe, N.M. "With ColorMatch, you know what you are getting. If it looks too light, I know it is going to print too light."
> Photoshop plug-in. In Photoshop, ColorMatch's transformations can be applied at several stages: as a Photo CD image is acquired, while an image is on the screen for manipulation, as an image is printed and as it is saved into a ColorMatch TIFF format.
> QuarkXTension. XPress users can import ColorMatch TIFF files created with Photoshop, preview the files and print them.
"ColorMatch is the only product I've used that gives me 24-bit previews," said David Sallak, systems specialist at Dartnell Corp., a business publisher in Chicago. "After calibrating to my selections, my 24-bit preview is going to be pretty accurate, so I can proof on screen and save time."
The software ships in Power Mac and 680x0 versions with more than 20 device profiles, including all Kodak devices. Additional profiles are available from Kodak for $99 to $995.
DayStar said that contrary to a previous report (see MacWEEK, Aug. 8, Page 20), it is not considering selling the rights to ColorMatch.
DayStar Digital Inc. of Flowery Branch, Ga., is at (404) 967-2077 or (800) 972-8711; fax (404) 967-3018.
MacWEEK 08.22.94
News Page 1
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
News: Microsoft defends Mac record
Executive to rumor mongers: Give it up
By Mark Hall and Jon Swartz
Redmond, Wash. -- Frustrated by persistent reports that Microsoft Corp. has consciously hobbled its Macintosh application development, company executives last week lashed out at critics who claim it is conspiring to hurt Apple.
"It's ludicrous to believe we'd do anything but build the best software," said Roger Heinen, Microsoft senior vice president, developer division. "If we don't, it opens the door to a competitor to come in and take our market. There's no conspiracy. Give it up."
Pete Higgins, Microsoft senior vice president, desktop applications division, said: "I look at the Mac business as an independent business, which is growing at the same rate as the Intel platform. But we make more money per Mac than Intel machine, including operating system revenues." He said that looking at the business from purely a margin perspective, he'd like the Mac portion to grow faster, even at the expense of Windows.
During Microsoft's past fiscal year, Higgins said, the Mac application business was "crappy. We had no upgrades or new products."
Now, Higgins said, the company has joined forces with Apple and launched a co-marketing program. The goal is to increase the penetration of the Microsoft Office suite on Power Macs in business.
Microsoft CEO Bill Gates said that while the two companies have cooperated on similar programs before, this is the first in recent history.
Apple Executive Vice President Ian Diery said both companies "recognize that Microsoft Office on Power Macintosh is a winning combination for customers."
A recent Dataquest Inc. report reveals that Claris Corp. picked up market share against Microsoft, in large part because of ClarisWorks bundles on Performas.
But Gates said he expects new Mac software releases to bolster that side of Microsoft's business by 40 percent in its 1995 fiscal year, which ends next June. According to the company, the 680x0 version of Microsoft Office suite and Power Mac version of Excel are in production and should be available by mid-September; Word and PowerPoint for RISC-based Macs should be on dealer shelves in October.
Despite earlier reports that Microsoft would deliver a cross-platform development environment for Mac programmers this summer, Heinen said, "We have to see if we can make money on a production version that was originally built for in-house development."
As for Visual Basic as a stand-alone development environment -- once thought to be a future option for Mac developers -- Gates said, "We're being pretty vague about what we're doing about that."
Gates said no company has produced more titles for Power Macs or taken better advantage of Mac technology than his. "But if every two or three months we don't come out and say, 'We love the Mac,' people say, 'Hey, I wonder if they love the Mac.' "
MacWEEK 08.22.94
News Page 3
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
News: To our readers
MacWEEK will not publish Aug. 29. Please look for our next issue Sept. 5.
MacWEEK 08.22.94
News Page 3
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
News: MicroNet launches Raven Pro series
By David Morgenstern
MicroNet Technology Inc. this month introduced the Raven Professional family of hard drive and array packages at Macworld Expo in Boston. The new line includes a RAID system that the company said supports a sustained data transfer rate of 18 Mbytes per second.
Raven Professional systems use either a Raven*Pro Fast and Wide SCSI-2 NuBus card or a processor direct slot board; both are based on technology from Conley Corp. MicroNet said it has acquired all rights to the cards and is discussing OEM relationships with a number of vendors, including Radius Inc.
Single-drive Raven Pro systems are based on Seagate Fast and Wide SCSI-2 mechanisms and have formatted capacities from 1.8 Gbytes to 8.67 Gbytes. The systems are priced from $4,540 to $7,240.
According to MicroNet, the 1.8-Gbyte system has a sustained reading data transfer rate of 8.2 Mbytes per second using the PDS board and 4.6 Mbytes per second with the NuBus. The drive incorporates a parallel-head technology that offers higher data transfer rates than comparable single-actuator mechanisms (see MacWEEK, May 23, Page 99).
Raven Pro RAID, or redundant array of inexpensive disks, systems, which comprise a pair of drives and a Raven*Pro card, range in capacity from 3.6 Gbytes to 17.3 Gbytes and cost $8,595 to $13,750.
The 3.6-Gbyte array offers sustained reading data transfer rates of 18 Mbytes per second with a PDS card and 14 Mbytes with a NuBus one. The system has an average access time of 4 milliseconds.
All Raven Pro single-drive and array systems come with driver software developed by Conley. The driver software supports RAID levels 0 and 1, which provide data striping and mirroring capabilities. The driver stripes arrays of two to six drives.
MicroNet Technology Inc. of Irvine, Calif., can be reached at (714) 453-6000; fax (714) 453-6001.
MacWEEK 08.22.94
News Page 4
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
News: MPI upgrades Micro Planner packs
X-Pert, Manager track more projects
By James Staten
Executives can now oversee worker performance and efficiency across even more projects with new versions of Micro Planning International Inc.'s project managers, which the company shipped this month.
Micro Planner X-Pert 2.2 is designed for use at upper management levels when consolidating and managing multiple projects; Micro Planner Manager 1.2 is for use at the project level, the company said.
Both products use a Project Desktop, which resembles the Mac desktop, as a work space for managing multiple projects or subprojects, generating reports, and creating charts. The programs provide four types of resource analysis, allowing managers to model numerous alternative scenarios. Users can also merge multiple project files into one master file; managers then can treat all the projects as if they were one large project.
The upgraded products now support up to 15,000 operations, 100 subprojects and unlimited interfaces among projects. The X-Pert package supports 500 calendars and resources, while the Manager handles 250 calendars and resources.
Users can now specify how differing resources and calendar definitions should be reconciled for merged projects.
Both products now export data as tab-delimited text for sharing with other applications.
X-Pert handles multiproject cost analysis using calculated earned values and now supports 12-month cost schedules, which are required by government facilities.
Milestones in X-Pert now show percent completed, actual completion dates, total work hours planned and actual work hours spent.
Micro Planner X-Pert 2.2 is priced at $1,995; upgrades are $495 each. Micro Planner Manager 1.2 costs $695; upgrades are $149 each. Users who have MPI's $395 annual support program may upgrade free.
Multiplatform versions of both products were announced for Microsoft Windows as well as workstations from Sun Microsystems Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Silicon Graphics Inc.
Micro Planning International Inc. of Denver can be reached at (303) 757-2216; fax (303) 757-2047.
MacWEEK 08.22.94
News Page 4
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
News: Conference charts future of compact discs
CD-ROM drives sell mostly to homes
By David Morgenstern
The near- and longer-term futures of CD technology and its markets were forecast by analysts and a major developer at Dataquest Inc.'s StorageTrack '94 conference held this summer in Monterey, Calif.
Patty Chang, principal analyst for computer storage with Dataquest, based in San Jose, Calif., said CD-ROM and other compact-disc technologies have benefited from the high volume of consumer audio CD products. According to Dataquest, 40 million audio CD players were sold last year, while computer CD-ROM drives had an installed base of 8.8 million units. The figures for other CD models included 1.2 million Sega game drives, 300,000 CD-I drives, 120,000 3DO devices, 25,000 Photo CD players and 11,500 CD-Recordable systems.
"Any technology that has a consumer touch to it will draw the computer market," Chang said. "The high degree of leveraging is funding the continuing research in optical applications [for CD technology]."
Improved desktop-imaging capabilities, the widespread use of Microsoft Windows and the low price of drives are aiding the growth of the CD-ROM market, Chang said. She said she saw further growth for CD-I and CD-Recordable drives but not for Photo CD players.
Dataquest predicted that 75 percent of drives will be sold in home-based systems. Chang said double-speed mechanisms will be the mainstream product for 1994, while triple-speed drives will have only limited appeal to end users. She said quadruple-speed drives will gain popularity when personal computer vendors improve quadruple-speed support for sound cards.
Chang said quadruple-speed drives will hold the line on CD-ROM performance for the next couple of years. Users will not pay for the extra costs of incremental performance gains found in sextuple-speed mechanisms, she said. Instead, the market will wait for the 1995 introduction of high-speed CD-Erasable drives, which offer some of the features of magneto-optical mechanisms in a CD form.
Representatives of Philips Consumer Electronics Co. of Knoxville, Tenn., laid out a different migration path for CD-ROM technology. The company said a group of optical manufacturers is creating a high-definition CD (HDCD) standard. Drive mechanisms using the technology are expected in 1996.
In addition to CD-ROM data products and interactive multimedia titles, Philips said it believes HDCD will replace tape as a vehicle for motion-picture videos. The new discs can be produced with current injection-mold production methods.
The new standard will support HDCD-format discs with a capacity of 3.3 Gbytes, as well as a 6.7-Gbyte format that uses a semitransparent double-layered media developed by 3M.
A single-sided HDCD disc will store up to 135 minutes of MPEG-2 high-definition digital video. Audio and subtitle portions of the standard have not been finalized, but a Philips representative said it will hold multiple 16-bit audio and subtitle tracks. CD-I discs offer 72 minutes of NTSC video.
Philips said HDCD drive mechanisms will have an average data transfer rate of 2 to 4 Mbytes per second. The drives will also support current CD-ROM-format discs.
Jacques Heemskerk, product manager at Philips' research department, showed a prototype HDCD movie player with a data transfer rate of 3 Mbytes per second. The device used an optical mechanism with a 0.635-micron light source and displayed a 1,920-by-1,035-pixel image without visible artifacts.
Many technologies are competing to be the everyday delivery method for multimedia content.
Recently in Japan, a consortium of about 50 VCR makers, chip vendors and computer companies, including Apple, drafted a digital-VCR standard for tape cassettes (see MacWEEK, April 25, Page 24).
The new tape standard supports a data transfer rate of 3.12 Mbytes per second. It stores 11.5 Gbytes of data and 4.5 hours of video on a cassette.
MacWEEK 08.22.94
News Page 6
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
News: Transoft, Stalker ship network SCSI tools
By Nathalie Welch
Transoft Corp. this month updated its SCSI-Net hub for faster performance and simpler administration, while Stalker Software Inc. shipped software that lets Mac users share SCSI devices over AppleTalk.
Transoft's $14,000 SCSI-Net III hub connects up to six Mac users and lets them share data stored on up to seven SCSI devices.
SCSI-Net III provides fast access to data on shared volumes that are used in the same way as local drives. A basic configuration provides six differential-SCSI host ports, each capable of connecting Macs up to 80 feet away. It also includes one single-ended local port to connect the chain of shared SCSI devices. The earlier version offered only four differential ports and three single-ended ports.
According to Transoft, SCSI-Net III offers new support for Fast and Wide SCSI-2 to provide sustained data transfer rates of more than 4 Mbytes per second. The earlier version provided sustained transfer rates of 2 Mbytes per second via Wide SCSI-2. The sustained transfer rate for LocalTalk is about 22 Kbps, the company said.
SCSI-Net Administrator 2.0 is included in the upgrade. Features include a simpler process for locking and unlocking volumes and the capability to select volumes to be loaded on each user's Mac.
SCSI-Net II owners can trade in the system for a $4,000 rebate on SCSI-Net III or buy the new administration software for $2,000.
Stalker's $89 SCSI-Share is a control panel that lets Mac users share SCSI devices -- such as scanners, printers, and magnetic-tape and CD-ROM drives -- over AppleTalk networks. The software lets users assign network names and passwords to SCSI devices connected to their Macs. Users can also create virtual SCSI ports with icons representing SCSI devices connected to other Macs on the network.
SCSI-Share runs in the background and arbitrates concurrent requests to the same device. The software interacts with devices at the SCSI Manager level, so it can work with any number of device drivers, the company said.
Stalker Software Inc. of Larkspur, Calif., can be reached at (800) 262-4722; phone or fax (415) 927-1026; sales@stalker.com.
Transoft Corp. of Santa Barbara, Calif., can be reached at (805) 565-5200; fax (805) 565-5208.
MacWEEK 08.22.94
News Page 6
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Qualcomm Inc. expects a September release for Eudora 2.1, a free upgrade to its commercial SMTP e-mail client. The new version offers an improved interface, better performance, password security and features for mobile users.
According to Qualcomm, the new version is twice as fast on both Power Macs and 680x0-based Macs for local mail-management tasks, such as sorting mail lists and finding text.
Eudora's mailbox now includes column labels for date, priority, status, sender and size; clicking a label sorts the list. Mail can also be assigned and sorted by one of eight colors. Messages can be dragged and dropped between mailboxes.
The upgrade works with Kerberos IV authentication for e-mail passwords through the K_Client extension developed at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Kerberos lets network administrators give users single-password access to multiple managed services.
Version 2.1 also lets users set the number of days mail will be held on the server. Currently, mail is either held indefinitely or removed immediately after retrieval. The new delayed deletion feature lets mobile users get a message from a desktop Mac and later from a portable without having to manually delete the file. The software is also compatible with the Unique Identification List command in Post Office Protocol 3, which, if available on the server, can boost performance of this feature.
Users running over slow dial-up links now can set a size threshold for mail, so that only the first portion of a large message is sent. After reading the fragment, the user can retrieve the rest.
Qualcomm said it will also upgrade Eudora's freeware version. Eudora 1.4.4 will have a number of features from the commercial package, including improved Apple-events support and a streamlined configuration interface, Qualcomm said. Version 1.4.4 will be available from Internet FTP (File Transfer Protocol) sites.
The Eudora 2.1 updater will be available by FTP from ftp.qualcomm.com.
Qualcomm Inc. of San Diego, Calif., is at (619) 587-1121 or (800) 238-3672; fax (619) 452-9096; eudora-sales@qualcomm.com.
MacWEEK 08.22.94
Gateways Page 10
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Gateways: IETF plans next Internet Protocol
IPng autoconfigures end-user addresses
By Robert Hess
Last month, the first steps were taken in redesigning the Internet to better accommodate its explosive growth and make it more secure. The Internet Engineering Task Force, the body that steers the rambling, global network's core technologies, proposed plans for upgrading the protocols on which it is based.
The IETF said it has formulated a feature set for Internet Protocol -- Next Generation, or IPng. The new communications technology is designed to provide an evolutionary path for current TCP/IP and IP users, as well as revolutionary changes in the number of users allowed and what those users can do.
IPng will use 16-byte addresses, so, theoretically, up to 1 trillion (1012) networks and 1 quadrillion (1015) machines could be supported. This would end the concern that surfaced in 1991 when it was revealed that the existing four-byte address format would soon be exhausted.
IPng will allow a serverless autoconfiguration mode patterned after AppleTalk's dynamic node addressing. Under this scheme, a user could connect to an IP-based network and begin using it immediately, without having to contact LAN managers to obtain local configuration details. The existing centrally administered, server-based configuration will continue to work as well, the IETF said.
Today, the responsibility for network security is generally placed on the shoulders of application programmers. Concerns over the ease with which IP networks can be tapped to obtain users' passwords and personal data have surfaced recently, especially as on-line services, such as those from CompuServe Inc. and America Online Inc., have allowed log-ons via the Internet.
The protocol update will have mechanisms for implementing better security. With IPng, the framework for authentication and encryption will be laid out at the packet level. However, according to the IETF, "deploying a global Internet security architecture must await resolution of larger policy issues beyond the scope of providing sufficient technology within IPng."
An IPng working group was created to shepherd the proposal through the process of writing specifications and submitting documents for final approval. Users should see the first results of the working group's efforts by the end of 1995.
The IPng decision-making body within the IETF comprises representatives of education, government and industry worldwide, including Microsoft Corp., Cisco Systems Inc., Nippon Telephone and Telegraph, AT&T Corp., Novell Inc. and Lotus Development Corp. The group has been meeting since July 1993 to hammer out IPng's feature set.
Alexis Rosen, president of Internet provider Public Access Networks Corp. of New York, which operates the Panix service, said he thinks the effects of IPng will not be felt for some time.
"First, the big-time router manufacturers will operate test networks based on IPng," Rosen said. Then it will go regional, and, in about four or five years, I'd expect large parts of the backbone to use it, with gateways for users of the current protocols."
Rosen said the security issues IPng looks to resolve are still better handled at the application level. "You can get good security now if you're clever enough, and I'm not convinced [that] doing it at the datagram level is the way to go," he said.
Garry Hornbuckle, Apple product line manager for communications products and technologies, said that he is impressed with the IETF's work. "It's clear from this document that they have focused on the important issues, like migration," he said. "If they can deliver a technology that meets all their criteria, it will be a very good thing for the industry."
MacWEEK 08.22.94
Gateways Page 10
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Gateways: Delrina moves fax pack onto Duos, AV Macs
New alternative to Apple's Express Fax
By Nathalie Welch
Delrina Corp.'s recently updated fax package offers compatibility with Apple's updated Express Modem software for PowerBook Duos and AV Macs.
Available now, Version 1.5.1 of Delrina Fax PRO for Macintosh is $129; upgrades are free. The package works with Class 1 and Class 2 fax modems, as well as the Apple GeoPort Adapter used by AV Macs and Apple's Duo Express Modem.
Delrina's fax update succeeds Global Village Communication Inc.'s GlobalFax Duo software, which was discontinued last month, as the only alternative to Apple's Express Fax package for Duos, Delrina said. To use the Delrina fax upgrade with Express Modem 1.5.x software, customers must first download a software patch, which is available from on-line services.
New to Fax PRO 1.5.1 are a smarter installer and direct importing of phone books from STF Technologies Inc.'s FaxSTF 2.x products.
Delrina exchanged the Apple Installer used in previous versions in favor of technology from Aladdin Systems Inc. In addition to automatic modem configuration, the new installer can place extensions from other fax programs into a folder to reduce conflicts.
"The new installer portion makes it much easier on the novice user because you don't have to remember where all the components go," said Neil Kaforey, an emergency-room physician in Akron, Ohio, who beta tested the program. "You just click and it's ready to use."
The package also automatically regains control of the modem port after a data communication session to answer the phone and receive incoming faxes while unattended. In addition, the FastFax application has been improved, Delrina said, to enable one-step faxing of multiple files from different applications by dragging and dropping.
Delrina Corp. of San Jose, Calif., can be reached at (408) 363-2345; fax (408) 363-2340.
MacWEEK 08.22.94
Gateways Page 10
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Mobile: Control Strip embraced, enhanced
Third parties release a slew of modules
By Robert Hess
It's rare that an AppleSoft utility gets broad and almost immediate adoption as well as universal kudos from developers and users alike. Yet Apple's Control Strip PowerBook utility package has already spawned a host of add-on modules released by both professionals and hobbyists.
"It is a nice, contained way to present easily accessible controls for things like sound volume, file sharing, monitor bit depth and the like," said Troy Gaul of Redmond, Wash., who has developed several modules. "They don't get in your way when you don't want to use them, but they're there when you need them."
Roughly two dozen Control Strip modules have been released through on-line services and the Internet. In addition to many variations on clocks and volume controls, some of the more innovative modules include:
> Program List, by Mice & Men of Reykjavik, Iceland, shows all currently running applications. The user may switch to any application by clicking its icon or open documents by dragging and dropping. The shareware module is $10.
> Audio Strip, a freeware module by Glenn R. Howes of Madison, Wis., puts the controls of an audio CD player in the strip. Individual modules are included for play, stop, eject, volume and pause/continue; another module offers all controls at once.
> Control Strip Terminator, another piece of freeware by Skidperfect Software Inc. of Carlisle, Mass., can force all programs to quit, including the Finder, as well as shut down and restart a PowerBook.
> Control Panels Strip, also by Skidperfect, lists and can open installed control panels. The freeware module can be used as a basic extensions manager, moving files in and out of the Control Panels folder.
> Free RAM, by Christopher Owen of New Haven, Conn., shows the memory available in the active program, as well as the available disk space of mounted volumes. The shareware module is $10.
> InterSLIP, a freeware module by Gaul, shows the current state of Serial Line Internet Protocol connections. It can also initiate and sever connections made by Intercon Systems Corp.'s InterSLIP extension.
> A perpetual calendar module is on Apple's developer CD-ROM; it includes the source code to help aspiring module authors.
Shareware authors are not the only ones jumping on the Control Strip bandwagon. Developer Billy Steinberg recently released PBStrip, a module that mirrors much of the functionality of the PBTools menu. Unlike the menu, which can display only a single indicator, PBStrip offers several, showing battery power and processor speed, as well as the status of AppleTalk, Ethernet, modems and hard disks. The $99.95 PBTools 2.0, which includes PBStrip, is published by VST Power Systems Inc. of Concord, Mass.
Developers said that while Apple deserves praise for Control Strip, the company has fallen down in three areas. First, it placed the technical documentation on how to write modules in the PowerBook 500 Developer Notes -- developer notes normally describe hardware-related details. Also, this documentation was not available to most developers until this month, well after the release of Control Strip.
In addition, the header file needed to develop modules wasn't available until recently, forcing programmers such as Gaul, Robert Mah of New York, Paul Cunningham of Tampa, Fla., and Christopher Owen to reverse-engineer their own and offer them to other developers.
Finally, Control Strip has been intentionally prevented from running on a desktop Mac. Sources said Apple could not complete desktop Mac quality assurance before the release of the PowerBook 500 line, so the company limited the extension to PowerBooks.
Cunningham said he is disappointed to see Apple restrict the market for Control Strip. "It solves so many interface design problems by allowing status indicators and controls, which used to clutter the menu bar, to be placed in a single and convenient Apple-approved location."
Two utilities are available that remedy this limitation. The freeware Control Strip Patcher from Mah modifies the extension so it can load on desktop Macs. And Mice & Men's $20 Desktop Strip does the same jobs as Control Strip and can use the same modules but works on all Macs. Unlike Apple's utility, Desktop Strip can create multiple strips; it also expands the Control Strip API to offer developers greater control over the extension's behavior.
Major on-line services offer a selection of shareware and freeware Control Strip modules, as does a module repository on the Internet at matrix29.schapiro.dorm.columbia.edu.
Users should be aware that Control Strip modules are extensions and, like some extensions, can cause conflicts or system crashes.
Control Strip modules on-line
To try out some of the Control Strip modules mentioned in this story, go to the MacWEEK software libraries in ZiffNet/Mac on eWorld or CompuServe and look for the Control Strip companion collection that was uploaded this week.
MacWEEK 08.22.94
Mobile Computing Page 14
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Mobile: Farcast sends news to users' e-mailboxes
By David Morgenstern
Late-breaking news can now make an early edition in your e-mailbox with Farcast Inc.'s Internet information delivery service.
Farcast last month debuted its information databases, which consist of stories from news wire services, stock quotes and weather service reports. In September, the company will add a library of corporate profiles and municipal phone books. The service maintains a 30-day archive of all data.
Farcast sends information in e-mail messages over the Internet and does not require special client software. To search databases, users send e-mail requests to Farcast's server; the search engine supports Boolean operators.
"I have picked up on a lot of events and product announcements [from news feeds] I would have missed, relying just on print trade press," said Maj. Brad Bigelow, chief of MIS engineering at the U.S. Air Force Joint Information Technology Group in Fairfax, Va.
He also accesses Farcast through RadioMail Corp.'s wireless e-mail gateway. "[Wireless offers] not just real-time e-mail anywhere, but real-time news anywhere," he said.
Similar to some of the intelligent agent capabilities promised by Telescript from Mountain View, Calif.-based General Magic Inc., Farcast uses "droids," the service's name for agents, that process incoming news reports and deliver them to subscribers. Users can set droid search criteria and delivery options so that messages can be sent immediately, held until a specific time or sent between certain times.
The company has more than 50 preset droids that cover news by industry-specific subjects, including biotechnology, computers and finance. Users can also configure 15 personal droids. Unlike some other services, there is no additional cost for receiving stock quotes.
"There's no doubt by using [Internet] e-mail, they have a very large market," said Internet analyst Lisa Thorell of Dataquest Inc. in San Jose, Calif.
Farcast's monthly rate is $39.95; six-month and one-year subscription plans cost $29.95 and $24.95 per month, respectively.
Farcast Inc. of Menlo Park, Calif., is at fax (415) 327-5603; info@farcast.com.
MacWEEK 08.22.94
Mobile Computing Page 14
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
GA: VivaPress to take on DTP titans
App includes tools for graphics creation
By Cate C. Corcoran
Hoping to elbow its way into the desktop publishing software market dominated by DTP giants QuarkXPress and Aldus PageMaker, Interpress Technologies Inc. next week will ship VivaPress Professional, a page-layout program that emphasizes graphics manipulation.
Priced at $895, VivaPress Professional 1.5, a revised and upgraded U.S. version of an application previously available in Germany, is slated to ship in native Power Mac and 680x0-based versions Sept. 1. But wresting market share from XPress and PageMaker is an ambitious undertaking no vendor has yet accomplished.
With image-creation and -manipulation functions as well as a context-sensitive user interface, VivaPress Professional is aimed at users who would otherwise work with XPress and a high-end illustration program, such as Aldus FreeHand. Features include:
> A context-sensitive interface that changes available tools and commands to match the type of element selected.
"The autosensing of items is good for productivity," said beta user Taz Tally, director of the Pica Communication Technical Resource Center of Charlotte, N.C.
> Filters that let users open files from popular drawing applications from within VivaPress Pro. When the product ships next month, filters for FreeHand, Adobe Illustrator and CorelDraw! will be included.
> Style sheets for graphics objects and text in one context-sensitive menu that displays only the styles applicable to the selected item type.
"The integration of character style sheets without an extension is a great feature," Tally said.
> Scaling of images to fit graphics boxes or of boxes to fit graphics.
> Rotate, mirror, duplicate and split commands for graphics.
> Object-type switching from text box to graphics element and vice versa.
> Alias capabilities that let any object be aliased rather than copied, letting users make simultaneous changes to all aliases of one image and save disk space.
> Customizable drop caps as well as flexible spacing, tabs, indents and hyphenation.
> Pre-press functions, including imposition, trapping, overprinting and knockouts.
> Automatic footnoting and indexing.
Kathleen Tinkle, editor of MacPrePress, a newsletter in Westport, Conn., said a new entrant in the DTP arena would be welcome. "I think the press is making a bit of a fuss over [VivaPress Professional] because we would love to have something sock it to Quark," she said.
But she added that VivaPress may not be the application to shake up the status quo. "[Interpress] needs to clean up the access, the dialogs, the whole interface," she said. "I think Mac users are to the point where we don't want to learn a new interface."
Interpress Technologies Inc. of New York can be reached at (212) 245-2700; fax (212) 245-2784.
MacWEEK 08.22.94
GA Page 18
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
GA: Canto adds new features, searches to Cumulus 2.0
By Matthew Rothenberg
Canto Software Inc. this month rolled out new versions of Cumulus, its client-server multimedia database.
Cumulus 2.0 is available in high- and low-end versions, dubbed PowerPro and PowerLite.
Like its predecessor, Cumulus 1.2, Cumulus 2.0 includes software for Power Macs as well as 680x0-based models. The software catalogs and retrieves Mac graphics files on networked volumes and saves a thumbnail preview of and information about each file. It lets users customize search criteria and locate files that have been renamed, moved within a volume or stored on a removable device.
Version 2.0 lets users organize keywords hierarchically and move hierarchical keyword structures among Cumulus databases. Users search for specific words or categories via these custom hierarchies and determine how specific a search they wish to make, Canto said.
The upgrade supports multiple Boolean search lines, so users can create and save searches that are based on several criteria. Search dialogs now include drop-down menus for every field. Version 2.0 also adds support for searches based on path name, file size and the name of the person who created a catalog.
The software supports the interapplication Drag and Drop feature of Apple's System 7.5. In addition, Cumulus PowerPro 2.0 lets users automate any task via AppleScript, which ships with the new high-end package. Cumulus PowerPro 2.0 can automatically generate scripts based on users' actions, the company said.
Cumulus PowerPro 2.0 costs $1,495 for a five-user version and $995 for each additional five users.
Canto's Cumulus PowerLite 2.0, a $199 single-user version of the database, does not include AppleScript support and limits databases to 50,000 records each.
Upgrades from earlier versions of Cumulus or from Cumulus PowerLite Pro 2.0 to Cumulus PowerPro 2.0 are $249, plus $69 per client.
In other news, Canto announced Power Mac-native PowerPro and PowerLite versions of Cirrus, the company's scan-enhancement software. Cirrus PowerPro 2.1 costs $495; Cirrus PowerLite 2.1, which lacks the other version's support for Apple's ColorSync extension or AppleScript, costs $199. Upgrades from Cirrus 2.0 to Cirrus PowerPro 2.1 are $99 each.
Canto Software Inc. of San Francisco is at (415) 431-6871 or (800) 332-2686; fax (415) 861-6827; canto@applelink.apple.com.
MacWEEK 08.22.94
GA Page 18
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
BusinessWatch: Compaq, Apple shipments up in '94
Figures for first half exceed predictions
By Jon Swartz
Much to the relief of Apple and other hardware manufacturers, personal computer shipments in the United States were up despite predictions of a second-quarter downturn.
According to Dataquest Inc.'s estimates of PCs shipped during the first half of 1994, Apple moved 875,000 units, compared with 872,000 in the same period a year ago. Dataquest credited strong PowerBook sales for the increase.
Apple, Packard Bell Inc. and Gateway 2000 Inc. helped lead the surge, in which total shipments rose 21 percent, to 8.1 million from 6.7 million last year.
But Compaq Computer Corp. was the big winner in the PC derby. The Houston-based company's unit shipments soared 62 percent, to 1.1 million from 665,000 in the same six-month period a year ago, and its share of the PC market jumped nearly 4 percent.
The company reacted by reducing prices on most of its machines by as much as 22 percent. Although other vendors are expected to reduce prices on their machines, none are likely to match Compaq's cuts.
Riding unusually strong unit shipments, Compaq supplanted Apple as the leader in market share, with 13.4 percent. Despite an increase in shipments, Apple's share of the PC market declined -- to 10.8 percent from 13 percent last year.
On the flip side, IBM Corp. lost market share on lower unit shipments. The Armonk, N.Y.-based company's piece of the PC pie was 7.9 percent, compared with 12.2 percent a year ago. Unit sales, meanwhile, slipped 22 percent, to 638,000 from 818,000.
Big Blue's numbers were more in line with analysts' predictions of a weak quarter because of financial problems at Gateway 2000, CompUSA Inc. and other major players. But consumers have gobbled up PCs in record numbers this year, according to Dataquest.
"The summer slowdown never happened," said Robert Corpuz, an analyst at San Jose, Calif.-based Dataquest. "It goes to show that there still is a large opportunity for [PC sales] growth, especially in the consumer market."
Corpuz predicted that PC shipments would improve through the end of the year.
MacWEEK 08.22.94
BusinessWatch Page 24
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
BusinessWatch: Hayes puts Smartcom on block
By Robin Meyerowitz
Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc. last week announced a major restructuring in which the company put its Mac telecommunications software up for sale and eliminated about 75 jobs.
Dennis Hayes, president of the Norcross, Ga.-based company, said it is looking for a vendor interested in buying and developing its Smartcom II software for the Mac.
Hayes said the company decided to sell Smartcom II so it can focus on a single computing platform for application software and eschew cross-platform development, which was spreading its R&D resources thin. "The market reality is that Windows is the biggest player," he said. "We had to focus our resources on what we can do best."
In addition, industry observers said that although Smartcom II sales remain strong, it faces increasing competition.
Lisa Pelgrim, telecommunications analyst at Dataquest Inc. of San Jose, Calif., said Global Village Communications Inc. and U.S. Robotics Inc. also offer popular modems with Mac software.
About 75 jobs, or 7.5 percent of Hayes' 1,000-person work force worldwide, will be cut as a result of the reorganization, Hayes said. The cuts will come from operations in Atlanta, San Francisco and Waterloo, Ontario. Hayes also plans to sell its LANstep operating system, which is produced in Waterloo.
Hayes said the company is being restructured into four divisions: PC modems, software and LAN connectivity products, system products, and WAN access products.
MacWEEK 08.22.94
BusinessWatch Page 24
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Editorial: Learning from forecasting mistakes
Apple Chief Financial Officer Joe Graziano told MacWEEK that the company has improved its product-forecasting techniques. Increased efficiency in this area will mean you should get the right products in your hands when you want them.
Admittedly more an art than a science, predicting product popularity is one of Apple's poorest areas of management. Just last week, the company pulled the gray-scale PowerBook 540s from manufacturing because the optimistic forecast failed to match customers' needs. At the same time, dealers are still howling because Apple cannot deliver enough of its color 540c models to satisfy demand.
On the Quadra side, before the introduction of the 630 line, many users and dealers had griped that Apple abandoned too many of the 68040 systems too quickly in favor of Power Macs. One can argue whether Apple should have handled the transition to Power Macs quickly or gradually, but the faster turn that Apple took meant disappointing some buyers and losing some sales.
Apple claims to be getting closer to customer desires before ramping up production for a new Mac model. Users give the company's market researchers feedback on features, functions and price. Supposedly Apple marketers relay the information back to engineering and manufacturing to affect the ultimate product design and its projected demand.
As with all companies, Apple has previously made claims about getting in touch with customer requirements. This time Apple says it means it. Of course.
Sincerity aside, what will contribute most to Apple's improved forecasting is its new distributed final assembly system and more modular products like the 630 line. By building final product configurations in the United States, Europe and Japan from subassemblies built elsewhere, it will keep its costs low and be able to react faster to customer needs.
Modularity ultimately means buyers will configure their own desktop machines, obviating the need for historically dubious market research. These two substantive changes make Apple less likely to repeat past forecasting mistakes.
MacWEEK 08.22.94
Editorial Page 28
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Second Decade: OpenDoc spells doom for Comm Toolbox
By Henry Norr
As Apple steps up efforts to persuade developers to adopt its newest component-software model, OpenDoc, its first major modular architecture has finally come into its own: Virtually every third-party telecommunications developer provides at least some support for the Macintosh Communications Toolbox.
Many older programs use only the Connection Manager, the portion of the Comm Toolbox that has a standard interface for setting basic communications parameters; but others have been rewritten to use the Comm Toolbox's File Transfer Manager and Terminal Manager. Several recent entrants, including Digital Communications Associates' Crosstalk, Aladdin Systems Inc.'s SITcomm and Mark/Space Softworks' Communicate -- not to mention the communications modules in all recent multifunction "works" packages -- were built entirely around the Comm Toolbox.
As of this month, the granddaddy of Mac communications software, The FreeSoft Co.'s White Knight, has come around. Even Apple itself, which has been curiously lukewarm about the Comm Toolbox, has finally delivered a Comm Toolbox-based product, the Newton Connection Kit.
All in all, it is odd for the company to decide to phase out support for the Comm Toolbox. But that's what it is doing.
An understandable decision
According to developers in and out of Apple, there's good reason to be dissatisfied with the Comm Toolbox. They say its programming interfaces are difficult to work with, the documentation is abysmal, the sample code raises more questions than it answers and (barring heroic efforts) performance is mediocre. Architecturally, the absence of any facility for layering or using several tools simultaneously is a fundamental flaw. Worst of all, the Comm Toolbox apparently isn't easily adaptable to the Power Mac, the upcoming microkernel and other enhancements planned for the operating system.
Some developers say these problems could be fixed if Apple focused on them. But it has decided to concentrate on its more modern communications framework, Open Transport, which is due late this year and will support serial and network connections.
Mediocre grades
Given the magnitude of the Comm Toolbox's problems and the pressures on Apple's resources, I'm not about to argue with the company's decision; time marches on, and no technology is sacred. But under the circumstances it's incumbent on Apple to do everything possible to ease the transition for developers and users who have invested in the Comm Toolbox, and on this score the outlook is mixed.
On the positive side, the company has promised to fix all Comm Toolbox bugs and introduce a streamlined licensing program so developers can continue to use the Comm Toolbox within their own applications. In addition, Apple will provide a wrapper to enable Comm Toolbox connection tools to work under Open Transport.
Currently, however, the company has no plans to support Comm Toolbox file transfer and terminal-emulation tools under Open Transport. That's a big mistake. Apple shouldn't be in the business of rendering software obsolete, least of all in the increasingly critical area of telecommunications.
Henry Norr, editor emeritus of MacWEEK, welcomes feedback in the MacWEEK forums on CompuServe or eWorld or at henry_norr@macweek.ziff.com.
MacWEEK 08.22.94
Second Decade Page 28
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
MacWEEK Insider: Mac's death greatly exaggerated
By Andy Gore
Columnists like to see how much mail their opinions generate. Feeds our egos. Makes our editors happy. But the recent spate of Mac obituaries in PC trade journals are really over the top.
Let's look at some facts: According to Dataquest Inc., the Mac was the No. 2-selling computer in the United States -- more than 875,000 units -- for the first half of '94. Hardly the vital signs of a terminal case. IBM Corp., on the other hand, sold 638,000 Intel-standard PCs and was No. 4, trailing former tier-two clone maker Packard Bell. Why not do a "premortem" on Big Blue?
The premortem crack refers specifically to the Berst Mode column in last week's PC Week, titled "A terminal Macintosh earns a premortem." Jesse Berst's position on Apple's inevitable descent into Amiga-like obscurity is only the latest example of published tirades against the Mac.
Of course, Berst is a Windows analyst, so his position on the viability of the Mac platform isn't surprising. However, I'm troubled by Gordon Eubanks' quote in that column predicting the Mac's relegation to vertical markets and, ultimately, seeing Apple bought out. This from the CEO of Symantec Corp., a company that a few weeks ago at Macworld Expo was telling buyers it is committed to the Mac.
Funny we didn't see quotes from chief Mac assassin Bill Gates; we all know how much he hates the Mac.
Sarcasm aside, I could cite several trends to refute these negative points of view: strong quarterly results and a successful transition to RISC come to mind.
As to the threat of Windows 4.0, no matter how big a leap forward Chicago may be for the PC world, at best it only brings Windows up to par with the current Mac operating system. And let's remember that by the time Chicago ships, Apple will be only a few months away from shipping the first stage of a major overhaul of the Mac OS.
Berst points to a drop in developer support for the Mac as a prime motivator in its demise. If you read BusinessWatch in this week's issue, you'll see evidence to support his position.
I think that if long-established developers are leaving the Mac market, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Established developers benefit from maintaining the status quo and are unlikely to make the Power Mac as successful as it can be.
It's more than just prevailing wisdom that innovation comes from small companies that have nothing to lose. If the big guys are taking their eyes off the ball, that only means the little guys are going to get their chance to fill the resulting vacuum. An opportunity they'd be unlikely to get in the crowded, expensive, but wonderful Windows market.
Andrew Gore is senior editor at MacWEEK. He welcomes feedback at andygore@applelink.apple.com; agore@eworld.com and 72511,224@compuserve.com.
MacWEEK 08.22.94
MacWEEK Insider Page 3
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Review: FileMaker Pro Server speeds network databases
By Jonathan A. Oski
Claris Corp.'s FileMaker Pro has long reigned as the premiere flat-file database management application for the Macintosh and, more recently, for Windows as well. In its original incarnation, it was a single-user program; later, multi-user support was added. Now, with FileMaker Pro Server, Claris has brought the first database server application for a flat-file database to the Mac.
The $1,499 package addresses performance limitations of the current multi-user model of FileMaker Pro by employing a client-server architecture. It also takes advantage of Apple's Power Mac technology and high-performance SCSI Manager 4.3.
FileMaker Pro Server is aimed at workgroups or larger groups that need faster access to FileMaker Pro data across a network. It can support up to 100 concurrent Mac and Windows users accessing up to 16 separate FileMaker Pro databases. The current release supports only AppleTalk network access; an NLM (NetWare Loadable Module) version is planned for release later this year.
FileMaker Pro Server includes server and client software. The server, which is intended to run by itself on a dedicated computer, acts only as a host to FileMaker clients and does not have an interface for creating or modifying databases. Although it can run on any 68020-based Mac running System 7 or later, Claris recommends a Power Mac or Quadra AV. Since performance is largely dictated by disk access, you should use a disk that supports asynchronous disk I/O.
The client application is FileMaker Pro 2.1 v3, which has been optimized for network data access. Mac and Windows versions are included. While you can access the server database with FileMaker Pro 2.0 or 2.1, Claris recommends that you upgrade to Version 2.1 v3 for best performance. (Registered users of FileMaker Pro 2.0 or later can upgrade free via many on-line services or for $13 by calling Claris Customer Assistance at (408) 727-8227.)
Installing FileMaker Pro Server could not be easier. Using the single installer disk, we were able to set up the server and open databases in less than 10 minutes. Server installation creates an alias for the server application in the Mac's Startup Items folder, so the program is automatically started when the server Macintosh is turned on or restarted.
Management
One of the nice features of FileMaker Pro Server is that you can manage it either directly at the server or from any networked workstation using the FileMaker Pro application. The management features, while not very extensive, let you view a list of open databases and connected guests; open additional databases; limit guests to 25, 50 or 100 users; close open files; and disconnect some or all users.
You can enable or disable remote administrative access, depending on your preferences. Remote administrative access can also be protected by password to prevent unauthorized management access to the server. Finally, you can specify a name for the server other than the Mac's system name.
Though not required, we recommend that you also install the FileMaker Pro client application on the server. At times, we had to use this application to repair damaged files and set files for multi-user access. We would rather be able to perform these functions with the server application, but this was a minor inconvenience.
If you quit and relaunch the server application, it doesn't remember which files you last opened. To have the server start up automatically with your databases open, you can place aliases, or the actual data files, in the same folder as the FileMaker Pro Server application.
Database backup is one of our outstanding concerns. If you use a product such as Dantz Development Corp.'s Retrospect to back up your server remotely, you must figure out how to close your data files prior to the backup because data files that are backed up while open will need to be repaired if they are restored. Claris recommends using a utility such as CE Software Inc.'s QuicKeys, or UserLand Frontier with AppleScript, to automate closing and opening database files. While this is certainly feasible, it might be a technical stretch for some network or database administrators. We hope Claris adds a scheduled shutdown mechanism to a future version of the server application.
Performance
One of the most compelling reasons to switch to FileMaker Pro Server is increased performance and simultaneous database access. Depending on the operation, we noticed a 40 percent to 400 percent difference in response times when compared with the built-in multi-user features of the client application.
For our tests, we installed the server on a Power Macintosh 6100/60 with 16 Mbytes of RAM and a Quadra 650 with 24 Mbytes of RAM; both machines had the latest release of System 7.1 installed. We compared the performance of the server on each platform to that of the nonserver version on the Quadra 650. Our tests consisted of finding, editing, importing, exporting and sorting records in a 1,000- and a 3,000-record database. Sorting exhibited the least noticeable performance improvement on the server; importing showed the most dramatic gains.
In some instances, the Power Macintosh bettered the 68040-based platform but, overall, our tests did not find a clear performance winner between platforms. Claris attributes this to the lack of a native Power Macintosh file system in the current incarnation of the Macintosh operating system. In either case, the results exceeded those of the nonserver configuration by a substantial margin.
Documentation and support
The FileMaker Pro Server Administrator's Guide is easy to follow and covers all the basic operations, from installation to managing the server. It also discusses server tuning, which is helpful to those who can take advantage of additional RAM and disks in their server.
Technical support quickly answered all of our questions and also suggested ways to optimally configure the product. We applaud Claris for training its staff before the release of a new product.
Conclusions
FileMaker Pro Server is a natural choice for any organization with widespread deployment of FileMaker Pro. It follows the FileMaker Pro ease-of-use legacy to a T. Its performance advantages should provide a quick pay back to those who have been crippled by FileMaker Pro's performance limitations in the past.
However, sites desiring cross-platform access to their data files are currently limited to AppleTalk-only support, and NetWare (IPX) is the only additional protocol scheduled to be supported any time soon. This leaves users in other cross-platform environments (such as LAN Manager/Windows NT Advanced Server, Vines and LAN Server) without an immediate reason to upgrade.
Despite a few shortcomings, we were impressed with FileMaker Pro Server. It delivers a solid performance improvement for AppleTalk-based FileMaker Pro users. Organizations looking for a streamlined solution for sharing flat-file databases over a network would be wise to consider this product.
Claris Corp. of Santa Clara, Calif., can be reached at (408) 987-7000 or (800) 544-8554; fax (800) 800-8954.
An overview of FileMaker Pro Server, in QuickTime movie format, is available from the MacWEEK Forum on CompuServe (go macweek) and from MacWEEK Online on eWorld (shortcut: macweek).
MacWEEK 08.22.94
Reviews Page 1
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Review: Premiere 4.0 neatly eclipses predecessor
Stronger editing features and Power Mac support take stage
By Ben Long
The curtain has risen on Premiere 4.0, the latest version of Adobe System Inc.'s QuickTime-based video editor, and it looks like a bona fide hit.
Premiere 3 was a powerful program capable of professional-quality video production. With Version 4, Adobe has added a slew of features, including Ripple and Rolling edits, a new Trimming window, better previewing, and Power Macintosh support. These additions, along with some interface changes and refinements, make the $795 program not only more powerful but also more comfortable to use.
To run Premiere 4, you need at least a 68020 Mac, 4 Mbytes of RAM (6 Mbytes for Power Macs), System 7.0 and QuickTime 1.6.1. Premiere 4 ships with QuickTime 2.0. Adobe recommends 16 Mbytes of RAM for full-screen video.
Getting started
As in Version 3, video in Premiere 4 is edited by importing clips into a Project window. Clips can be QuickTime movies; PICT or PICS files; Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop files; or sound files in snd, AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format), SoundEdit, QuickTime or SoundDesigner II format.
Once the clips are imported, you drag them onto tracks in the Construction window to create a movie. The Construction window -- Premiere's main window -- sports a time ruler across the top that progresses from left to right. Below the time ruler are tracks for arranging video and audio. Clips are played in order from left to right, while tracks are layered from top to bottom. Premiere 4 supports as many as 99 audio and 99 video tracks.
A Transition track lets you specify a transition from one clip to another. For example, a Transition might create a blend or wipe from track A to track B. Video tracks 3 through 99 are "S," or Superimposition, tracks; video in these tracks can be made to blend with underlying tracks through a process called keying. Premiere supports many kinds of keys, including chroma key, in which a particular color is defined as transparent, and alpha-channel keying, in which a clip's alpha channel is rendered transparent.
As with Premiere 3, you can set a clip's In and Out points (the points that define the region of the clip to be used) by dragging the clip's left and right edges within the Construction window. You can also set In and Out points by using the In and Out buttons in the Clip window or by using the In and Out tools.
Under construction
Premiere 4 adds enhancements to the Construction window's interface. While you can still access the Selection (arrow), In and Out point, Razor, Hand, and Zoom tools at the bottom of the window, a new pop-up tool palette contains some of Premiere 4's most useful new features: the Ripple and Rolling edit tools. In Premiere 3, you couldn't stretch a clip's Out point without first moving all the adjacent clips further down the time line. The Ripple Edit tool lets you adjust a clip's Out point while automatically moving all of the clips (in every track) down the time line.
The companion to the Ripple Edit tool is the Rolling Edit tool, which lets you lengthen a clip while shortening (or overlaying) the adjacent clip.
Ripple 'n' roll
Considering the amount of mousing around that they save, the Ripple and Rolling edit tools alone are worth the price of an upgrade. But Premiere 4 offers much more. The new Auto Insert feature lets you drag a clip from the Project window and drop it between two existing clips in the Construction window. Premiere automatically shifts the rest of the movie to accommodate the newly placed clip.
Similarly, the new Ripple delete feature lets you delete a clip while automatically moving the rest of the movie to fill the space. Other automatic editing features include a Replace command, which automatically replaces a section of a movie with the same number of frames from another movie, and an Overlay command, which automatically overlays an existing clip with a new clip.
All the trimmings
Premiere's new Trimming window lets you easily view and change a particular edit point. After you select an edit point in the Construction window, the Trimming window displays both of the frames that border that edit point. Several controls let you perform ripple and rolling edits around that point: A Jog control lets you perform ripple edits, and when you place the cursor over a frame it turns into the Rolling Edit tool. Simple push buttons also let you perform ripple and rolling edits in particular increments. For example, you can set the buttons to move the edit point forward or backward five frames at a time.
For further control, the Trimming window can display a particular number of preceding and succeeding frames. This way, you can see exactly what is happening a few frames before your edit point so you can see how much to trim.
With the Trimming window, new editing tools and commands, and existing In and Out point controls, Premiere now offers at least four ways to define and change edit points. Along with providing varying degrees of control, these editing tools let different users work in different ways. Those who prefer viewing their movie as a time line will find many tools to help them edit, while those who prefer a more traditional approach can use the Clip window. The Clip window's In and Out buttons give it an interface that feels very much like a real edit controller.
Temporal effects
Premiere is still rife with effects and transitions, but Photoshop-style effects filters can now be changed over time. Filter controls include Start and End buttons, which let you select different filter settings for the beginning and end of the affected clip. Premiere will automatically interpolate the intervening settings.
As with Version 3, you can add filters, such as the supplied Echo and Gain Control, to an audio track to perform digital effects or audio enhancements.
Coming attractions
Once you've begun editing, you'll need to preview your edits and effects. As with Premiere 3, the Preview command compiles your clips, effects and transitions and shows you a finished product in the Preview window. And, like before, this can take a while, especially if you have defined a lot of transparency and filters.
Version 3 partially dealt with this problem with the Scrub tool. By clicking at a particular location in the time ruler, the program renders a single frame and displays it in the Preview window, giving you a quick glimpse of your effects.
Version 4 adds yet another previewing option: the Controller palette. Identical to the VCR-like transport controls in the Clip window, the Controller palette lets you instantly play your movie in the Preview window. However, any effects, filters and transitions that have not yet been compiled through the Preview command will be shown as an "X" superimposed over your video. This instant "cuts-only" preview is fine for checking out the timing and cutting of your project.
Pro enhancements
Broadcast video professionals will welcome a wealth of improvements in Premiere 4, including support for 29.97-frame-per-second movies. (Normal U.S. TV signals are 29.97 fps. Premiere 3 supported only 30 fps, causing timecode discrepancies in some cases.)
The program has many new batch-capture features for users with computer-controllable tape decks. Batch Capture eases the process of capturing a lot of video. It lets you capture all of your video at a small, manageable resolution, edit the small files and then have the computer automatically recapture the segments at full resolution.
Premiere's edit-decision list (EDL) capabilities have also been improved. EDLs now contain two lists per construction window, one each for the A and B rolls. Support for multiple audio channels is also included.
Native premiere
Premiere 4 is 100 percent native, as are its filters and transitions. Like most native applications, performance is two to four times faster than on a Quadra 800. This, combined with the speed increases of QuickTime 2, produces a performance increase that is a joy to behold.
Previewing at small frame sizes is now so much faster that it's painless to compile complex previews involving multiple filters, transitions and multilayered transparencies. Users who compress their final movies with Cinepak compression will find a substantial speed increase that may free them from having to compress their creations overnight.
Now the bad news
If you use Premiere to edit full-frame, full-motion video that will ultimately be recorded to tape, you'll find yourself in something of a quandary. For full-motion video, the Quadra 840AV still has the fastest bus and delivers the best performance when digitizing full-screen video. However, it has no processor direct slot for adding a PowerPC board. Consequently, you won't get the PowerPC speed increases of Premiere 4.
Radius Inc. says its VideoVision board delivers satisfactory performance on a Power Mac 8100 but still recommends the 840AV for best results. Therefore, if possible, you may want to use one machine for digitizing and another for editing. You will, of course, also need a high-speed, high-capacity hard drive. Here, too, you should check the compatibility of your drive with Power Macs.
Documentation and support
Premiere 4 ships with two CDs. The first contains Premiere, QuickTime 2 and an interactive presentation that describes the program's new features. (The presentation is helpful because the manual doesn't have a section on new features.) The second disc contains a QuickTime movie, "Sixth Sense," by videographer John Sanborn. While this was also part of Premiere 3, the movie and its tips and techniques file are still a good way to learn Premiere.
The Premiere manual is comprehensive, well-organized and easy to read. Technical support was congenial and helpful.
Conclusions
Like Photoshop, Premiere is simple enough for novices but mighty enough for a professional editing suite. Many of Premiere's features may be luxuries you'll never use, but therein lies one of the program's strengths: Its interface is robust enough that you can edit the way you're comfortable editing. While other programs may make specialized procedures easier, Premiere gives the most power to the most users.
If you produce videos either for the digital domain or for output to tape, Premiere 4 will make your life easier. We highly recommend it.
Adobe Systems Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., can be reached at (415) 961-4400; fax (415) 961-3769.
MacWEEK 08.22.94
Reviews Page 33
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Review: Microsoft Works 4.0 improves integration
Wizards, OLE 2 hookups help app compete with ClarisWorks
By Dale Coleman
A little competition is a good thing. Microsoft Corp. not only popularized the concept of integrated applications on the Macintosh with Microsoft Works 1.0, but it also dominated the field until the appearance of Claris Corp.'s ClarisWorks. ("Works" has since become the generic term for this class of software.) Integrated-software users -- primarily home, education and small-business users -- then abandoned Microsoft Works and flocked to the more powerful ClarisWorks.
Now, with Works 4.0, Microsoft has released a viable alternative to ClarisWorks that, while not perfect, offers a similar degree of integration among its tools. With a suggested retail price of $99, the program features enhanced database, word processing and drawing modules, along with a number of extremely useful features not found in any similar product.
Everything has its price, though, and Version 4's new productivity and efficiency features are no exception. The full installation consumes a whopping 16 Mbytes of disk space, and even the minimum installation requires 5 Mbytes. The minimum system requirements are System 7.0, a 68020-based Mac and 4 Mbytes of RAM. You need an additional 1 Mbyte of RAM to use WordArt and the Equation Editor and 4 Mbytes more to access the Microsoft Encarta or Microsoft Bookshelf CD-ROM reference products. The suggested memory allocation is 2 Mbytes. (By comparison, ClarisWorks' suggested RAM allocation is 950 Kbytes.) If you deal with large documents, you'll need to allocate even more RAM because the program becomes quite sluggish in low-memory situations.
Taken in context
Microsoft's OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) 2.0 and Apple's OpenDoc technologies point to the day when we'll concentrate on our documents rather than on the tools we use to create them. Works 4 is a step toward that goal, providing in-context editing of different document elements. For example, from within a document in Works' word processor, you can now use the spreadsheet tool to create a spreadsheet object. When the object is selected, the spreadsheet environment -- complete with the appropriate menus, tool bar and tool palette -- becomes available.
In-context editing is accomplished with the powerful but slow OLE 2, so users with other OLE-compliant applications can integrate objects from those applications, and vice versa, with Works 4. The program also has built-in file translators for Microsoft Word and Excel, making it a natural act to switch among these products. (Microsoft's data shows that half the installed base of Works users also use Word, which can be interpreted either as evidence of the excellence of Microsoft's word processor or lack of the same in Works 3's word processing environment.)
Simple wizardry
Microsoft has concentrated on making the most common tasks more intuitive in Works 4. The program includes the standard suite of document templates but also includes interactive agents called WorksWizards, which you can use to create newsletters, certificates, presentations, greeting cards and invitations. By responding to a few simple dialogs, you can quickly create a custom template for one of these documents.
The newsletter template lets you choose from several general styles and page lengths and even gives you the option of leaving space on the first page for a mailing label. Unless you're an experienced page designer, you'll probably find the layout generated by the newsletter WorksWizard more attractive than anything you could create without it. And, even if you're an expert, you won't find a faster way to generate a layout.
Other new features also succeed at helping you work more efficiently and produce more-attractive results. With the new calendar and address book, for example, you can manage your personal schedule and contact list blissfully unaware of all but the most rudimentary database concepts. But if your database needs are more demanding, Works' database environment provides a rich set of tools and includes features, such as the new ReportCreator, to help you quickly generate sophisticated reports. Also well-implemented are new endnotes, a very intuitive table creator and an equation editor.
Works 4 comes bundled with several items to help the infrequent user spend even less time at the Mac. The included 35 clip-art files are supplemented for a limited time with 3G Graphics Inc.'s Images with Impact Lite, a set of 75 color and black-and-white EPS clip-art files you can use to spice up newsletters, slide presentations and database reports. A basic set of TrueType fonts gives you design options not possible with the tired old fonts you get with your Mac.
The program also includes tool-bar integration with Encarta and Bookshelf, so you can access information from either without having to leave Works. At Macworld Expo in Boston this month, Microsoft sweetened the pot even further by announcing the Microsoft Works 4 Multimedia Edition & Bookshelf for the same $99 suggested retail price as Works 4. Available in October, the Multimedia Edition bundles the program and Microsoft Bookshelf along with more than 1,100 clip-art files and 10 QuickTime movies.
Although it's a major improvement over Version 3, Works 4 still lacks some features found in ClarisWorks, such as style sheets and an outliner. Also missing is support for publish and subscribe, but we think OLE 2 is a much more useful technology.
Some features are imperfectly implemented. The program's drawing module has been improved, but it's still a bit lacking. There's support for Adobe Photoshop plug-ins, but the program supports only eight-bit color. The word processor, which has thankfully been redone from the ground up, still opens a separate window for editing headers and footers. These and similar design miscues are not serious, but they are annoying.
Documentation and support
The nearly 700-page manual, which reflects the concentration on the novice and casual user, is well-indexed and provides many pointers to related information. It's among the best of its class. There is no charge for technical support, although it is a toll call.
Conclusions
ClarisWorks raised the bar for integrated software on the Mac, primarily by letting us concentrate on the document at hand rather than the location of the necessary tools. After missing the mark with Works 3, Microsoft has at last hit upon a credible response with Works 4. By using its own OLE technology to achieve that end, it has also enabled Works to be integrated with other OLE applications, including the nearly ubiquitous Microsoft Office suite of products.
And if the product's new capabilities aren't convincing enough evidence that Microsoft intends to fight to reclaim its lost share of the integrated software market, the aggressive $99 suggested retail price is. To the benefit of all, Microsoft's response to a little competition has produced very good results.
Microsoft Corp. of Redmond, Wash., can be reached at (206) 882-8080; fax (206) 936-7329.
MacWEEK 08.22.94
Reviews Page 35
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Review: Jabra EarPhone offers easy listening
By Jeffrey Sullivan
Many alternatives to the Information Age's most vexing nuisance -- the telephone -- have been proposed, but seldom has there been an offering as innovative as Jabra Corp.'s EarPhone.
The $169 package includes an EarPhone microphone and speaker along with the Jabra Power Dialer utility and supporting software. The EarPhone can be used with any Power Macintosh or AV Mac with an Apple GeoPort Adapter.
Jabra the EarPhone
The EarPhone is a streamlined, half-ounce unit containing a speaker and a unidirectional microphone. It sits in your ear, held in place by either a foam cushion or an ergonomic rubber ear mold. You can also use a plastic loop that surrounds your ear to secure the EarPhone. A 6-foot cord runs from the EarPhone to the rear of your Mac, where it plugs into the microphone and speaker jacks.
The sound quality of the EarPhone takes a little getting used to; there's a subtle echo that sound engineers may notice but, for most users, it's only a slightly different sound from a phone.
Despite its size and location in the ear, the EarPhone's microphone is not a bone-conduction microphone. Because human speech has high-frequency requirements, Jabra uses a standard microphone with proprietary noise- and echo-cancellation software to improve its fidelity and filter out environmental sound. EarPhone with PlainTalk gives you the added bonus of improved accuracy in speech recognition, partly because of the proprietary software and partly because the microphone stays in the same position relative to your mouth, no matter how you turn your head.
Software is driving force
The EarPhone is a great replacement for the phone, but what makes it interesting is the software that drives it. Jabra uses Apple's Macintosh Telephony Architecture to provide device-independent telephony support. Jabra Power Dialer is the application-level tool that accesses the architecture to place phone calls through the GeoPort Adapter.
The Power Dialer can hold 20 phone numbers. You dial a number by clicking a quick-dial button or via PlainTalk speech recognition by saying "Computer, call Jabra" or whatever phrase you prefer. (The phrases for dialing and answering are configurable.) You can also dial any number from the keyboard.
The Power Dialer can also be used as a dialing device by telephony-aware applications. To configure such an application to use the EarPhone, choose Apple Events as the dialing method and Power Dialer as the recipient, then dial the phone number as usual for the program.
We tested the EarPhone with Aldus Corp.'s TouchBase Pro 4.0 and Portfolio Software Inc.'s Dynodex 3.5. Support from Chena Corp., Symantec Corp., ACI US Inc. and other major developers is either available or planned.
Problems
The EarPhone has some kinks to work out. Most significantly, we had intermittent audio problems with the EarPhone when running several common emulated programs (including Adobe Type Manager and Now Software Inc.'s Now Compress) with Power Mac virtual memory enabled. According to Jabra, the interrupts used to drive EarPhone audio can be blocked by virtual memory during some CPU-intensive periods, such as heavy mode switches between emulated and native-mode code processing.
We also experienced occasional crashes when using speech recognition to initiate a phone call with the Jabra Power Dialer. It isn't clear whether this was a GeoPort, PlainTalk speech recognition or Jabra problem. Jabra is dedicated to addressing all of these problems and is examining work-arounds and fixes.
Other drawbacks of the EarPhone are not, strictly speaking, Jabra's fault. Because the EarPhone requires a GeoPort Adapter, you're likely to abandon any other modem you have (unless your printer port is unoccupied). The GeoPort Express Modem has its own set of trade-offs that have been discussed at length in MacWEEK, most recently in David Ramsey's column (see MacWEEK, July 18, Page 42, and July 11, Page 36). Also, the EarPhone uses the speaker port, so if you want to play audio CDs through CD-ROM drives, you'll spend a lot of time switching input sources in the Sound control panel.
Documentation and support
The EarPhone documentation is brief -- perhaps a bit too brief for users who encounter software installation problems, but otherwise appropriate for the elegance of the product. Jabra's toll-free technical support staff was easy to reach and highly responsive. At one point, we were transferred to the vice president of research and development for the answer to a tricky question.
Conclusions
Despite some glitches and drawbacks, the EarPhone is a remarkable combination of hardware and software. The hands-free telephone is superior to speakerphone and headset solutions for privacy and comfort, and the Power Dialer software and telephony architecture support allow greater flexibility and convenience than other modem, speaker and hardware dialers.
If you spend most of your day in front of your Mac with a telephone pressed to your ear, give the EarPhone a listen.
Jabra EarPhone is also bundled with a GeoPort Adapter for $249.
Jabra Corp. of San Diego, Calif., can be reached at (619) 622-0764 or (800) 327-2230; fax (619) 622-0353.
MacWEEK 08.22.94
Reviews Page 37
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
ProductWatch: Charting software gets message across
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but when it comes to showing mathematical relationships, a chart can be worth much more.
By Larry Stevens
Try explaining the significance of a list of numeric data using any number of words and you'll put your audience to sleep before you enlighten them. Although you need numbers to analyze business activities, a graphical format is the best way to summarize the analysis.
"When you're talking to upper management, everything has to be summarized, and nothing summarizes better than a chart," said Albert C. Mieczakowski, production planner at Sikorsky Aircraft, a Division of United Technologies, in Stratford, Conn. Mieczakowski uses DeltaGraph Pro, a charting program from DeltaPoint Inc., not only to summarize financial data for executives but also to portray production goals for supervisors. "Numbers are for those who do the initial analytic work and who need extremely fine detail," he said. "Charts are best for everyone else."
Mac users who need dedicated, general-purpose charting should look to either DeltaGraph Pro or Computer Associates International Inc.'s CA-Cricket Graph III for Macintosh.
Mieczakowski chose DeltaGraph Pro -- a powerful, yet difficult stand-alone package -- because he needed "something that can do everything." When he is called on to present financial information to upper management, such as expenditures by project, Mieczakowski may create high-quality 3-D charts. On the other hand, if he wants to display projected shortages of components to help the purchasing departments order parts on a just-in-time basis, he needs charts that may be low in aesthetics but high in detail and readability.
DeltaGraph Pro has an extensive choice of chart types. The product also blurs the line between charting and presentation applications by offering such features as Master Layouts, an outliner and a slide sorter.
Mieczakowski also uses Microsoft Excel. While Excel 5.0 has nearly the same number of charts as DeltaGraph, it lacks DeltaGraph's presentation capabilities and such useful features as the Chart Advisor, which helps users select the best chart for the type of data. For that reason, Mieczakowski uses Excel for charting only when he has to create a macro to automatically and regularly calculate purchasing figures for each department.
Charting a course
DeltaGraph Pro is for the professional or sophisticated amateur. CA-Cricket Graph III is for those who need a quick and easy way to create simple charts.
CA-Cricket Graph III, which is less expensive than DeltaGraph Pro, is also easier to learn, and it lets you save graphs in CA-Cricket Presents or CA-Cricket Draw formats. But it lacks many charts, which are available in DeltaGraph Pro, including true 3-D charts; it has fewer features for sprucing up charts, and it has no features for organizing presentations.
Despite these disadvantages, Daniel Abbas, a partner at Visual International Inc., a New York-based presentation consulting company, said that many of his clients use CA-Cricket Presents because 75 percent to 80 percent of business charts are basic bar or line charts. He said that in his experience, it takes at least 30 percent more time to learn to use a program such as Aldus Persuasion or DeltaGraph Pro than CA-Cricket Graph III.
Aldus Persuasion for the Macintosh and Microsoft PowerPoint have long been considered the two most powerful presentation products. The latest releases of Persuasion and PowerPoint have charting modules that are stand-alone applications -- although they are not sold separately. Aldus Chart 1.0 and Microsoft Graph 5.0 (which is part of PowerPoint 3.0 and Microsoft Excel 5.0, announced at Macworld Expo this month) have about the same number of chart types as DeltaGraph Pro. However, they don't have the Chart Advisor, and neither PowerPoint nor Persuasion has as strong a data sheet as DeltaGraph Pro does.
Stuart Edamura, graphics technology analyst at Chevron Corp. in San Ramon, Calif., is responsible for helping Chevron employees create presentations. His clients send their ideas to him in forms as various as scraps of paper and presentation application files. He is willing and able to work with any software the clients want, but when it's up to him, he uses Aldus Persuasion 95 percent of the time. "It doesn't have as many charting bells and whistles as DeltaGraph, but for general presentation plus charting, it's excellent," he said.
Presentation toolbox
Astound for the Mac from Gold Disk Inc. is a presentation package aimed at creating multimedia presentations. Accordingly, the majority of its users create on-screen presentations rather than 35mm slides. Astound is a presentation package with a graphing module that can easily animate charts. Every chart in Astound has a default animation, and you can also easily customize animations. For example, you can create a 3-D bar chart in which each bar first appears by rotating out from the top of the screen and hitting the horizontal chart axis with a bounce.
ClarisImpact from Claris Corp. is not limited to providing data charts. It includes six other chart types: calendars, flowcharts, organizational charts, outlines, tables and time lines. Its data-charting capability is limited because it offers only eight data chart types.
ClarisImpact's integrated approach has allowed Randy Willard to ditch three or four other drawing and charting applications and replace them with ClarisImpact. As the production support manager at US West Marketing Resources Group Inc. in Denver, Willard used ClarisImpact to create a process-flow diagram that documents the locations of data that go into the company's Yellow Pages. He also used it to diagram his company's internal networks.
"Now I have [the functionality] in one package; it saves a lot of cutting and pasting and worrying about which images can be transferred into which packages," Willard said.
While ClarisImpact combines many special-purpose charting features, there is still a need for stand-alone special-purpose programs that do one job well.
OrgPlus for Macintosh from Banner Blue Software Inc. can create hierarchical organizational charts. The advantage of OrgPlus over standard drawing programs is that it automatically draws and arranges the boxes on the screen. If you make a change to one part of the chart, the program will automatically redraw the entire organizational structure.
TopDown Flowcharter from Kaetron Software Inc. also lets you create organizational charts, but while it doesn't automatically arrange boxes, it provides more-general flow-chart functions. Mike Graetz, manager in the manufacturing and engineering department at 3M in St. Paul, Minn., uses TopDown to assist in his company's re-engineering efforts. He and others in his 80-person department use it for process-flow control in manufacturing and to create organizational procedures.
The most important part of TopDown for Graetz is its ability to toggle between displaying a general overview and showing detail.
When attempting to create streamlined procedures, Graetz first uses TopDown to document current procedures. "Often when the managers see [on the page] how complex the procedures are, they're suddenly motivated to simplify them," he said.
Idea generation
Dan Brake is director of human resources planning at Detroit Edison Co., an electric utility. As his industry goes through deregulation over the next few years, the company will want to offer new products and services. Part of his responsibility is to generate and evaluate new ideas. He said Inspiration Software Inc.'s Inspiration 4.0 is easier to use than an outliner "because it lets ideas flow more naturally." He said he likes having the ability to flip back and forth between the outliner and a graphics view. But the most important advantage is that at the end, "I have a diagram of the idea that I can disseminate throughout the company," he said.
MacWEEK 08.22.94
ProductWatch Page 39
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Mac the Knife: We're all bozos on this bus
Here's a tip for those of you who are already lost in dreams of delicious Labor Day diversions far from the demands of the real world: The holiday doesn't begin for a few more days, so get back to work.
The Knife's willingness to dispense unsolicited advice is perhaps rooted in his realization that in today's supercompetitive economy, the margin of error has nearly vanished (the ongoing recession in Japan notwithstanding). Make just one or two blunders on the job and you suddenly begin to understand the meaning of this three-strikes business with new found clarity.
For the second time in a row, we find the Knife dragged up on charges of misrepresenting an item. According to Apple, about the only accurate portion of the account of Mr. Nagel's sabbatical is that he is indeed on sabbatical. Since experience shows that PR departments are driven only by the pursuit of truth, the Knife is once again forced to eat his words (words that sometimes don't keep so well in the warmer months).
Time to wait
Not being inclined to say anything about unreleased product (except when some higher purpose is to be served), Apple declined to comment on reports that the suite of PCI Macs will arrive even later than thought. Sources say that rather than in May, these essential new Macs won't debut until next summer, probably at Macworld Expo in Boston.
The NuBus-to-PCI transition is a major step in the process of breaking the chains that bind the Mac to the carrion technology of the early 1980s. In addition to the theoretical opening of the Mac to the PCI card commodity market, the performance advantage of a bus capable of keeping pace with current and upcoming PPC offerings is an important part of Apple's strategy to keep that pesky buzzard that lurks just over the horizon at bay.
Terminate or stay ready
There's life in the old bird yet. At least that's Apple's official line this week in response to last week's story regarding the demise of the PowerBook 540. This despite confirmation from the PR department (see above) that production had indeed ceased. Until the dust settles in Cupertino, here are a couple of theories as to why the 540 is dead, if it turns out that it is.
First, Apple is (or was) dependent on Japan's Hosiden for the 540's active-matrix gray-scale display. Hosiden is allegedly the planet's sole volume manufacturer of this screen. So when Hosiden informed Apple that it was scaling back production because of weak demand, Apple chose the easy option.
Second, Apple's own bug-tracking database, a most interesting compilation of outstanding bugs, indicates that bug fixes for the 540 and the 540c have been frozen for months. Sources claim that this is highly unusual for a product still in production. And the 540c is still in production, though that would be hard to prove by availability data. This implies that even if a few 540 machines are still being rolled out the factory door, these Blackbirds represent the end of a very short life cycle.
In a name
CompuServe caught a few of its subscribers completely by surprise recently by informing them that they have been selected to participate in a study of the viability of personalized e-mail addresses. Lest you fear that all this change is happening too fast, rest assured that the new ID will only supplement the fun and convenient numeric ID that has become a CompuServe trademark.
When rumor-mongering is made a felony, you'll have to earn your MacWEEK mugs on the sly in the yard at San Quentin. Until then, the Knife's still open for business at (415) 243-3544, fax (415) 243-3650, AppleLink (MacWEEK), Internet (mac_the_knife@macweek.ziff.com), or CompuServe/ZiffNet/Mac.
MacWEEK 08.22.94
Mac the Knife Page 82
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
