Macworld articles from August 2004

Macworld archives from August 2004

Hardware everywhere.(From the Editor's Desk)(Product/Service Evaluation)
August 1, 2004... The Internet has changed everyone's view of what timeliness really means. In the old days, Macworld would be on top of things if new Apple products appeared in these pages within a few weeks of their release. In 2004, even a week's delay means...

Fresh perspectives.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Our May 2004 issue made reader Chuck Provancher "want to run out and buy all 450 products you rated. But where can I purchase the refrigerator-size iPod mini depicted on the cover? And will it preserve Meat Loaf songs longer than a normal-size...

Super Geniuses.(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2004... RICK NEWELL # I enjoyed "Geniuses behind Bars" (From the Editor's Desk, May 2004). I was a lifetime PC user until December 2002. My Toshiba Infinia was on its last legs, and I was looking for a new PC. While shopping at the Kenwood Towne...

Not-so-super geniuses.(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2004... JESSE LEO # Maybe it was just bad luck on my part. Or maybe visiting on a weekend (when the store is mobbed) was a mistake. But both of my visits to the SoHo Apple Store left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Don't get me wrong--the store...

Pepsi promo fizzles.(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2004... BOB HAENN # I am a Pepsi drinker and an iTunes purchaser, so I rejoiced at the announcement of the iTunes promotion ("A Little Soda-Drinking Music, Please," Mac Beat, May 2004). Unfortunately, Apple and Pepsi have ignored Philadelphia and...

Missing the big picture.(Feedback)(iPhoto )(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... JEDEDIAH LEACHMAN # Adam C. Engst's iPhoto 4 article ("iLife '04: How Does It Stack Up?" May 2004) seemed to acknowledge that iPhoto was more successful as a marketing trinket for Apple than as a serious photo manager. He wrote that it...

Snapz Pro not a snap.(Screen capture software)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... JOHN FAIRWEATHER # I was very surprised by Dan Frakes's perfect OUTSTANDING rating for Snapz Pro X 2.0 (Mac Gems, May 2004). It's a great utility and I use it often, but it's awkward, has an obtrusive interface, and limits file-save...

Synchronizing swimmingly.(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2004... TOM MAY # Christopher Breen's instructions on how to sync a single iPod with the iTunes libraries on different Macs was a godsend ("Focus on the iPod," May 2004). My 17-inch iMac has an irritating habit of hanging during the iPod syncing...

Missing the music.(Feedback)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... JIM FELBAB * I was stunned that "Banding Together" (Mac Beat, May 2004) omitted the best GarageBand support site out there, www.macidol.com. This site has among the highest number of tunes hosted, the nicest music management, and even a...

All fixed up.(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2004... MARK W. CLARK # I have an iBook with a logic board problem that made the LCD panel fail. My iBook was almost a year out of warranty and Apple repaired it and paid the shipping both ways. I didn't have to pay a cent out of pocket. Apple...

In support of Scripts.(Feedback)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... BILL WARREN # While I don't necessarily refute any of the points made in Franklin N. Tessler's review of PDFpen (FLAWED 1/2; April 2004), it didn't mention what I consider the utility's indispensable feature--great AppleScriptability. I...

Defending Dragon Burn.(Feedback)
August 1, 2004... DAVID YAO (EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, NEWTECH INFOSYSTEMS) # We take issue with some of the points Christopher Breen made in his Dragon Burn review (UNACCEPTABLE 1/2; May 2004), specifically his statement that multisession burning with...

Corrections.(Correction Notice)
August 1, 2004... "Out of Frame" (Mac Beat, June 2004) had an incorrect date for when Adobe will stop offering technical support for FrameMaker. Adobe plans to offer technical support through April 2005. In our Adobe PageMaker Plug-in Pack review (June...

As storage capacity for Web-based e-mail expands, so do choices: web mail supersizes.(Mac Beat)
August 1, 2004... These days, Web-based e-mail services are like opinions--they're everywhere. Almost every other Web site seems to offer one. It's easy to see why Web mail has become so popular, even with users who already have an ISP. Web mail lets you read...

Gmail lifts Mac limit.(Mac Beat)(Google plans to add support for more web browsers)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... It's easy to understand why Gmail has stirred up a lot of buzz, even though the Google-backed Web mail service was still a beta at press time. With a full gigabyte of storage space, Gmail users can turn their Gmail accounts into remote file...

Music player keeps adding PDA functions: iPod--or PDA?(Mac Beat)(personal digital assistant )(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Apple's iPod built its following as a music player. And while Apple routinely scoffs at most iPod-PDA comparisons, a closer look at that device in your pocket reveals that the iPod already does a very passable PDA imitation. [ILLUSTRATION...

Hardware beat.(Mac Beat)(meshed briefs)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... E232 and E232t, from Lexmark (www.lexmark.com): Monochrome desktop laser printers print 22 pages per minute (E232, $199; E232t, $299). E330, E332n, and E332tn, from Lexmark (www.lexmark.com): Laser printers print 27 pages per minute (E330,...

Storage beat.(new products briefs)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... d2 DVD[+ or -]RW Double Layer Drive, from LaCie (www.lacie.com): External double-layer drive can burn DVD[+ or -]R media at up to 8X speed ($239). DuoGB800, from WiebeTech (www.wiebetech.com): External hard-disk enclosure with FireWire 800...

Software hacks expand music player's power: iPod geek chic.(Mac Beat)(Illustration)
August 1, 2004... With its sealed case and spartan interface, the iPod wouldn't seem to be an inviting target for software hacks. Yet that's exactly what the portable music player has become: geeks the world over are putting a personal stamp on their iPods while...

Apple updates Power Macs but misses 3GHz mark: 3 isn't G5's charm.(Apple Computer Inc.)
August 1, 2004... Steve Jobs made big news at Apple's 2003 Worldwide Developers Conference when he unveiled the dual-2GHz Power Mac G5. But the Apple CEO grabbed even more headlines at the same event with another product announcement--that Apple would release a...

Miniature Base Station supports audio streaming: AirPort Expresses itself.(Mac Beat)
August 1, 2004... Measuring 4 by 3 by 1 inches and weighing less than 7 ounces, the new AirPort Express bears a striking resemblance to a power brick. But instead of charging your PowerBook, this latest piece of Apple hardware is designed to fire up your...

Quarkvista XTension adds image-editing features: fixing Quark's image.(Mac Beat)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Here's a pop quiz for all the print designers out there: a client hands you a CD full of problem images. For some of those images, you tweak the color balance and apply sharpening; for others, you adjust the contrast and blur the background....

New approach to upgrade pricing: offer of a lifetime.(Mac Beat)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Anyone who's ever bought software knows the drill: you pay for a product up front and whenever there's a major upgrade, you reach into your wallet again. But a growing number of developers are challenging this conventional approach to selling...

Creative beat.(Mac Beat)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Animation Master 2004, from Hash (www.hash.com): Updated animation package features interface, modeling, decaling, rendering, and choreography improvements ($299; upgrade, $99). Intaglio 2.0, from Purgatory Design (www.purgatorydesign.com):...

Game beat.(Virtual Programming )(video games)(Astoundit Software)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, from Aspyr Media (www.aspyr.com): TV show-based game for OS X 10.2 and later puts players in the shoes of crime-scene investigators ($30). Harry Potter Deluxe Edition, from Aspyr Media (www.aspyr.com):...

Word 2004: upgrade streamlines program but can confuse users.(Microsoft Office 2004)
August 1, 2004... Microsoft Word has always represented a struggle between two aspects at odds: a clean, simple interface and a teeming mass of undiscovered features--some of them treasures, and others that are just plain clunky. This year's incarnation,...

Excel 2004: venerable spreadsheet program evolves nicely.(Microsoft Office 2004)
August 1, 2004... For those whose data analysis needs are anything but simple, Microsoft Excel is a mainstay. Though AppleWorks and ComGrafix's RagTime both have spreadsheet modules, Excel has the rich feature set and Windows compatibility that number-crunchers...

PowerPoint 2004: presentation application gets its strongest upgrade in years.(Microsoft Office 2004)
August 1, 2004... Apart from adopting the Aqua interface and a handful of other new features, PowerPoint X didn't sport many compelling changes when it debuted over two years ago (VERY GOOD; February 2002). In the meantime, Apple surprised us by releasing...

Entourage 2004: e-mail enhancements and project organization tool make for a worthy upgrade.(Microsoft Office 2004)(Product/Service Evaluation)
August 1, 2004... If dealing with a flood of e-mail messages and the many details of your life seem to be getting harder every day, you may be craving a powerful tool to help you keep your head above water. Entourage 2004 tries to fulfill that role by becoming...

Midrange flatbed scanners: advanced models generate good, not spectacular, images.(Reviews)
August 1, 2004... If you're willing to fork over more than $200 for a scanner--for breathing new life into tired, old photos or for scanning slides or negatives--you're likely looking for the exceptional image quality, speed, and flexibility associated with a...

IPNetMonitorX 1.4: network-management app adds power to OS X's free tools.(Reviews)
August 1, 2004... Sustainable Softworks' IPNetMonitorX 1.4 is an all-purpose tool for troubleshooting network connections. Built primarily for network administrators and power users, it provides a wealth of information about how your computer connects to the...

ArtMatic Voyager 1.1: Bryce-like landscape generation returns to the Mac.(Reviews)
August 1, 2004... U & I's landscape-generation application, ArtMatic Voyager 1.1.2, nearly caused me to miss my deadline. No, not because the program is difficult to understand or control--a child could create breathtaking photo-realistic vistas with it. Voyager...

Mercury Ti SuperDrive 4X: PowerBook upgrade adds internal CD/DVD burning capacity.(Reviews)
August 1, 2004... If you bought a PowerBook G4 that was released prior to November 2002, you probably envy the built-in burning capabilities of the current crop of PowerBooks. With Other World Computing's (OWC's) internal Mercury Ti SuperDrive 4X, you can set...

LaCie USB Pocket Floppy 4X: speedy upgrade for obsolete technology.(Reviews)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Since Apple killed the floppy, have you found yourself living with zombies? Your PC friends keep sending you floppy disks, and you still have old backups you should transfer to another medium. The LaCie USB Pocket Floppy 4X is a sleek, portable...

PocketMac Pro 3.3: software supplies Mac functionality to your PDA.(Reviews)
August 1, 2004... Last year, we reviewed PocketMac Pro 2.0 (FLAWED 1/2; June 2003), the first application that allowed PDAs running Microsoft's Windows-only PocketPC OS to interact with Macs. It didn't make a great impression. Installing and configuring the...

Cascading Style Sheet editors: Style Master 3.5 and CSSEdit 1.6 take the drudgery out of CSS coding.(Reviews)
August 1, 2004... Thanks to Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)--a formatting language for controlling the display of HTML--the Web is becoming a more beautiful place. CSS can make drab Web pages sparkle with color, imagery, complex layouts, and creative typographic...

Word Menu 2.2: entertaining, useful lexicon program makes good sense.(Reviews)
August 1, 2004... If you work with the English language--as a writer, an educator, or a student, for example--you'll find myriad ways to use Write Brothers' Word Menu 2.2, a program that is part dictionary and part thesaurus. Word Menu may prove to be...

Final Draft 7: scriptwriting package lacks polish.(Reviews)
August 1, 2004... It can safely be argued that Final Draft is the industry-standard application for script writers. But while Final Draft 7 adds a few nice features to the program's repertoire, this buggy new version doesn't live up to its predecessors' good...

ProofMaster Adesso: utility delivers easy, accurate color proofing.
August 1, 2004... PerfectProof's $499 ProofMaster Adesso is billed as a digital-proofing RIP (raster image processor). And while it does simplify in-house color proofing for designers and photographers, ProofMaster Adesso is more like a superior ink-jet printer...

The Game Room.(Reviews)(Computer game)(Product/Service Evaluation)
August 1, 2004... The Command & Conquer series helped define the real-time strategy (RTS) genre. But despite continued success on the PC, the series hasn't appeared on the Mac since its initial release more than six years ago. Now Aspyr has brought the game back...

Mac Gems.(Reviews)(Ergonis Software gmbh)(St. Clair Software)(Ronin no Sakurakai Softronics)(Product/Service Evaluation)
August 1, 2004... Mac applications have long used keyboard shortcuts ([??]-C to copy, for example) to make it easier to perform common actions. However, learning those shortcuts can be frustrating--you have to search the current application's menus to find the...

The next do-it-yourself Mac: maximize your hardware--from installing a SuperDrive to building a music server.(Cover Story)
August 1, 2004... YOU BOUGHT an early Titanium PowerBook and then kicked yourself when the next model shipped with a SuperDrive. You're pining for a digital photo frame, but you don't have $1,500 to spare. You want to digitize and store your massive music...

Savvy Mac shoppers square off to outfit the perfect home office.(Macworld's $6000 Challenge)
August 1, 2004... EVERY SERIOUS MAC USER IMAGINES IT AT SOME point--the perfect Mac setup. Visions of a workspace equipped with the most powerful hardware and most elegant software available dance through our heads: a dual-processor G5, maybe two; a printer...

Online banking made easy.(Working Mac)(Personal finance software)
August 1, 2004... Intuit's Quicken is terrific for finding how much you really spent on clothes, lattes, and computer equipment last year, and it lets you back up your records with a few mouse clicks. But you're missing out if you use it only as a paper...

Create your own music video.(Digital Hub)(Desktop video software)
August 1, 2004... The right music can convey the mood of an event in a way that photos and movie clips alone can't. iMovie 4 is particularly well suited to creating music-driven montages. Unlike iPhoto, iMovie lets you fully control a slide show's timing,...

Illustration in three dimensions.(Create)(Rob Magiera)
August 1, 2004... Rob Magiera, the founder and principal of Noumena Digital (www.studionoumena.com), was trained as a traditional painter, but he embraced digital illustration in 1986. He saw in digital techniques the potential for constant, immediate revisions....

Put a case on it.(new MP3 player accessories)(Buyers Guide)
August 1, 2004... Your iPod deserves some respect, doesn't it? Of course, you'll also want to protect it from drops, scratches, and other commuters. We searched out the coolest cases for the iPod mini (this page) and the full-size, original iPod (following...

Hasta la Vista, Aqua.(Geek Factor)(Desktop Environment)
August 1, 2004... Mac OS X and Unix both have, at their cores, a command line. And just as Apple placed the glossy Aqua user interface atop OS X, open-source programmers have designed the K Desktop Environment (KDE) to give Unix a useful windowed interface. But...

Mac OS X hints.(Apple Computer Inc. products)
August 1, 2004... Discover how to find all of Word's keyboard shortcuts, speak selected text in any application, easily jump to any folder in Terminal via the Finder's sidebar, put iTunes' new arrows to a different use, and adjust Word's zoom using a scroll...

Mac 911.(Apple Computer Inc. Apple USA Div. iMovie product)
August 1, 2004... Just as you might be surprised to learn that a cappuccino maker can double as a steam cleaner, you may be astonished by the underconsidered capabilities of the Mac and its applications. This month's Mac 911 examines the lesser-known aptitudes...

PodFreq.(Hot Stuff)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... It's easy to understand why FM transmitters have become the accessory of choice for iPod users on the go--these attachments allow you to play you iPod library over your car radio. Trouble is, too many FM transmitters make it sound as though...

You Control.(Hot Stuff)(You Software Inc.)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Power tweakers who live to create custom menus have found their dream tool in You Software's You Control (VERY GOOD; April 2004). The $70 utility features modules for building menus to display news feeds from your favorite Web sites,...

Beauty, unfiltered.(Hot Stuff)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Kevin Ames's new book Adobe Photoshop CS: The Art of Photographing Women (Wiley, 2004) shows us just how those physically flawless women in magazines got that way--not through plastic surgery or endless trips to the gym, but through extreme...

What's hot: a quick look at the world of Macs.(Hot Stuff)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... 1 Apple creates new Hardware and iPod divisions. Steve Jobs settled on Hardware and iPod divisions after considering an organizational split between "shirts" and "skins." 2 The iTunes Music Store wins two Webby Awards. And the honors keep...

Mac spotting.(Hot Stuff)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Sorry, Mac haters--those aren't real vultures circling over this iPod billboard on the Marina Freeway in Los Angeles. Instead, the simulated scavengers are part of an advertisement for cable TV's Animal Planet on the opposite side of the...

Network play on Halo.(Hot Stuff)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Playing games against computer opponents can be fun, but taking on flesh-and-blood people is simply better. And no game in recent memory offers as big a kick when played on a network as MacSoft's $50 Halo (OUTSTANDING; February 2004), which...