Macworld articles from January 2004

Macworld archives from January 2004

Dollars and sense.(Editorial)
January 1, 2004... WHEN YOU GET RIGHT DOWN TO IT, MACWORLD IS ABOUT Mac products. We report the news about current and upcoming Mac software and hardware, review those products once they're released, and provide you with tips and other advice on how to use them....

Everything in its place.(Feedback)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Feedback is an archive of Mac-related musings that may not fit anywhere else in the magazine. And here at Macworld, we do try to find a place for everything. So it's fitting that this month we include responses to October's "Tame Your Brain"...

Unfit to print?(Feedback)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... ELIZABETH SHARPE * I'm greatly disappointed with your review of the Hewlett-Packard Design-Jet 120nr (GOOD 1/2; October 2003). It's well researched and points out real problems, but it lacks a vital piece of information: the $335 Adobe...

Honorable but not mentioned.(Feedback)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... ERIC H. DURBROW, PH.D. * In your October 2003 issue, you reviewed organizational tools such as OmniOutliner and NoteTaker ("Tame Your Brain"). You made a serious omission: Circus Ponies' NoteBook. Although similar to NoteTaker, NoteBook...

Cold steel.(Feedback)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... PATRICK CONLIN * Thank you, Andy. "Monsters of Metal" (Ihnatko, October 2003) hit the nail on the head. As a lifelong Mac fan, I tolerate iTunes and its metal windows--a couple of times a week. But Safari or any app that's constantly in...

This way, that way.(Feedback)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... DENNIS B. SWANEY * Under step 1 of "Make Your Mac Faster" (Secrets, October 2003), Anton Linecker says that even if you're running OS X, you have to boot up in OS 9 to launch Apple System Profiler (ASP) and find your firmware version....

The whole picture.(Feedback)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... SUE KRIEGSMAN AND LEE MANDELL * We applaud you for your recent article on digital images ("Hot Shots," October 2003). We were happy to see a brief mention of metadata and archival issues, but long-term preservation goes beyond simply...

Lab's labour's lost.(Feedback)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... JOHN ALBRIGHT * More than 5,000 independent photo and imaging labs around the country can print from any digital file and produce an archival print that's higher in quality, lower in cost, and less time-consuming for the customer than a...

On the wrong track.(Feedback)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... KEITH BARNHART * As a musician, I appreciate Apple's plea that the public not steal music. However, with its introduction of Soundtrack, which boasts license-free loops and lets amateurs create broadcast-quality music, I wonder where...

Road rage.(Feedback)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... JON CAMMARATA * In Peter Cohen's review of SpyHunter (The Game Room, October 2003), there was a glaring omission on the part of Aspyr that Peter failed to mention. Aspyr took a console game and ported it to the Mac, and that's great. But...

Corrections.(Correction Notice)
January 1, 2004... "Canon's Rebel Yell" (November 2003) included incorrect information about the lenses the Canon EOS Digital Rebel supports. It supports Canon's EF-series lenses, including the high-end L-series. In our review of G4 upgrade cards (October...

Here's what you can expect from the iTunes Music Store's new features: changes in store.(Mac Beat)
January 1, 2004... Apple doesn't release software for Windows users every day, so it's understandable that the fall launch of iTunes for Windows (see "Windows in Tune," Mac Beat, December 2003) overshadowed the company's other musical maneuvers. But Apple has had...

The story behind Apple's "1984" TV commercial: Big Brother at 20.(Mac Beat)
January 1, 2004... Twenty years ago, Apple's "1984" ad featured a heroine smashing an image of Big Brother--and introducing the brand-new Mac. The ad was a huge success for Apple and is still remembered fondly by Mac enthusiasts today. ********** Yet...

Changes abound in OS X Server 10.3 update: Panther shows its server side.(Mac Beat)
January 1, 2004... The Panther OS X update grabbed all the attention, but it's only one of the operating-system overhauls introduced by Apple recently. The company also released Mac OS X Server 10.3 (www.apple.com/server/macosx/)--dubbed Panther Server--which...

From Macworld Lab: Panther purrs along.(Mac Beat)
January 1, 2004... Panther's 150 new features and enhancements have overshadowed talk of any performance boost from the OS X update. But make no mistake--Mac users with a need for speed will find plenty to love about OS X 10.3. Macworld Lab compared the...

Mac-compatible satellite broadband service arrives: Direcway to the net.(Mac Beat)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Until very recently, Mac users out in the boonies who wanted high-speed access to the Internet had two options: move or buy a PC to use a Windows-only satellite broadband system. Some Mac users might not be able to say which option is worse....

Virginia Tech builds G5 supercomputer cluster: power users.(Mac Beat)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... A dual-processor Power Mac G5 is pretty fast. But 1,100 dual-processor G5s connected in one computer cluster? That's really fast--fast enough to make Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University's 1, 100-node G5 cluster the third-fastest...

Hardware beat.(Mac Beat)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... CanoScan 3200F, from Canon (www.canon.com): Color image scanner can scan 35mm slides, 35mm negatives, photos, and documents ($130). Epson Stylus Pro 4000, from Epson (www.epson.com): 17-inch-wide desktop printer targets professional users...

Internet beat.(Ilesa Software )(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... AOL Communicator for Mac OS X, from America Online (www.aol.com): Application provides separate access to e-mail, instant messaging, and address-book data (free for AOL members). CuteFTP Mac, from GlobalScape (www.globalscape.com):...

G5, iMac get updates: Apple supersizes desktop Macs.(Mac Beat)
January 1, 2004... Whoever said less is more isn't designing hardware for Apple right now. The company just added a 20-inch flat-panel monitor to its iMac line that threatens to dwarf the 15- and 17-inch models. Apple also released a new dual-processor 1.8GHz...

Productivity beat.(Computer Systems Odessa )
January 1, 2004... ConceptDraw V, from Computer Systems Odessa (www.concept draw.com/en): Flowcharting and diagramming application adds built-in scripting language (Standard: $149; upgrade, $79; Professional: $349; upgrade, $99). FileMaker Tasks, from...

Storage beat.(Mac Beat)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... DesktopGB+800, from WiebeTech (www.wiebetech.com): Hard drive with dual Fire-Wire 800 and single USB 2.0 interfaces ranges in capacity from 80GB to 300GB ($240 to $580). Disk Jockey, from Diskology (www.diskology.com): Hard-disk copy and...

Dreamweaver MX 2004.(Studio MX 2004)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2004... Dreamweaver has become an indispensable part of any Web-site developer's tool kit, and Dreamweaver MX 2004 is the latest incarnation of Macromedia's powerful Web-site--development tool. Each version of the program has seen added features to...

Flash MX 2004.(Studio MX 2004)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2004... Flash may have started out as a vector-animation tool, but thanks to Macromedia's steady improvement of its authoring program and its Flash Player, the application has moved closer to being an application-development tool. Since Flash can now...

Fireworks MX 2004.(Studio MX 2004)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2004... Macromedia's Fireworks is the established standard application for creating and optimizing graphics for the Web. The company has given it an overhaul as part of the Studio MX 2004 release, but we were curious as to how much Macromedia would...

Nisus Writer Express: powerful word processor starts fresh in OS X with unsatisfying results.(Studio MX 2004)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2004... Few applications have been able to overcome Microsoft's word processing juggernaut, but Nisus Writer has maintained a respectable following in a field littered with also-rans. Nisus Writer Express marks Nisus's entry into the world of OS...

Digital Performer 4.1: simply put, new version of music-production program rocks on OS X.(Reviews)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2004... MOTU's Digital Performer 4.1, the second upgrade to the OS X-only music-production app, is a robust, attractive piece of software that finally follows through on the company's promise of support for Apple's Audio Units plug-in technology. It...

Eudora 6.0: e-mail favorite gets built-in spam filtering but still shows its age.(Reviews)(QUALCOMM Inc.)
January 1, 2004... More than ten years ago, Qualcomm's Eudora was one of the first programs to put a Mac interface on Internet e-mail. Eudora has continued to grow as e-mail has gone from a curiosity to a necessity. It has more power-user features than any other...

Cleaning utilities: Spring Cleaning 6.0 and Internet Cleanup 1.0 are hampered by overzealous decluttering efforts.(Reviews)(Aladdin Systems Inc.)
January 1, 2004... Browser cache files, duplicate documents, and unneeded programs waste space, and Spring Cleaning 6.0 and Internet Cleanup 1.0, both from Aladdin Systems, offer ways to sort through your files and toss the trash. Spring Cleaning can find and...

This month in digital cameras.(Product/Service Evaluation)(Buyers Guide)
January 1, 2004... It's nice to see some camera manufacturers trying new things these days. While many camera makers are just putting higher-resolution CCDs into tired camera bodies, Fuji is attacking a more important problem: photo quality. The new SuperCCD SR...

17-inch iMac G4/1.25GHz.(Reviews in Brief)(Apple Computer Inc.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... VERY GOOD 1/2; Apple Computer, 800/692-7763, www.apple.com; $1,799 Apple's latest 17-inch iMac looks like its predecessor but sports numerous improvements. In addition to giving it a 250MHz bump in processor speed, Apple has increased the...

Correct+Apply Color.(Reviews in Brief)(Asiva)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... 9X GOOD 1/2; Asiva, 512/732-2886, www.asiva.com; $49 Adobe Photoshop includes a number of color-correction and -replacement tools, but invariably there comes a day when you just can't get any of them to do exactly what you want....

Sharpen+Soften.(Reviews in Brief)(Asiva)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... 9X GOOD 1/2; Asiva, 512/732-2886, www.asiva.com; $69 As this plug-in's name suggests, Asiva's Sharpen+Soften for Adobe Photoshop adds sharpening and blurring facilities to Adobe's existing Sharpen and Blur filters. But while...

FireVue FireWire/IDE SMART Hot-Swap Drive System.(Reviews in Brief)(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2004... VERY GOOD; Granite Digital, 510/471-6442, www.granite digital.com; $279 The FireVue FireWire/IDE SMART Hot-Swap Drive System is a versatile drive enclosure that can do a lot more than turn your IDE drive into a zippy external Fire-Wire 400...

IceCAD.(Reviews in Brief)(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2004... GOOD; Macally, 626-214-2770, www.macally.com; $49 The Macally iceCAD is probably the tiniest pressure-sensitive graphics tablet you'll ever see. Measuring roughly 4.0 by 4.5 inches, with an active drawing area of 2.25 by 3.0 inches, the...

SBook5.(Reviews in Brief)(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2004... VERY GOOD 1/2; Simson Garfinkel, www.sbook5.com; free SBook5 is a lightning-fast, freeform address-book database that's destined to replace any other address book you use. The beauty lies in the database itself. Unlike other apps, which...

Backup hard drives: CMS ABSplus and Maxtor OneTouch offer easy backup and extra storage.(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2004... You know you need to back up your files, so it's in your best interest to find a way to make that task as easy as possible. A Fire Wire hard drive with special capabilities--such as CMS Products' ABSplus or Maxtor's OneTouch--may be the answer....

Mathematica 5: significant speed improvements make math app the last word in numbers.(Reviews)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2004... Mathematica 5 is a major upgrade to a landmark application for engineers, scientists, and other people who work with complex math. It has many new functions, but more important is that most older functions run much faster than they did in...

Macworld's 2003 game hall of fame.(The Game Room)(Computer games)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2004... ONCE AGAIN, IT'S TIME TO ROLL OUT THE RED CARPET AT THE Macworld Game Hall of Fame and honor the year's best pulse-quickening, mind-tingling games. For those of you who haven't made the pilgrimage to these hallowed halls, the Game Hall of Fame...

Searching and seeking.(Mac Gems)(Computer accessories)(Desktop utilities)(Search engines)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2004... I ADMIT IT: I'M ALL ABOUT CONVENIENCE AND EFFICIENCY. I like things to be as easy and as trouble-free as possible (that's why I use a Mac, right?). In my line of work I do a lot of Web searching, and I get impatient with the whole "switch to...

Savvy computer shopping.(Shop Smart)(Buyers Guide)(Cover Story)
January 1, 2004... When, Where, and How to Get the Best Mac Deals They say that money can't buy happiness--but we think "they" probably live off of extravagant trust funds. If you ask us, saving money feels pretty darn good. And the ugly dent that keeping up...

Savvy peripheral shopping.(Shop Smart)(Buyers Guide)
January 1, 2004... Seeking to save dough on computer peripherals? The following tips will help you shop for printers (and their consumables), media, cables, and adapters. THE REAL PRICE OF PRINTERS After the keyboard, mouse, and monitor, the first device...

Software for less.(Shop Smart)(Buyers Guide)
January 1, 2004... Thanks to a thriving developer community, there are thousands of topnotch OS X applications and utilities that can help you work smarter, customize your system, or perform tasks that are otherwise impossible--all for a fraction of what you'd...

Savvy software shopping.(Shop Smart)(Buyers Guide)
January 1, 2004... You can save money on the programs that make your Mac a worthwhile helpmate. For our favorite low-cost and free applications, see "Software for Less." SOFTWARE STRATEGIES If you must have the latest and greatest version of a program,...

Hands on: flow from word to XPress.(Secrets)
January 1, 2004... "WORDS, WORDS, WORDS," MUTTERED HAMLET IN FRUStration. But at least he didn't have to deal with getting all those words out of Microsoft Word and into a page-layout program. Word-processing and page-layout applications don't always play...

Working Mac: iChat questions answered.(Secrets)
January 1, 2004... MOVE OVER, DICK TRACY. ALTHOUGH IT MAY BE A WHILE before most of us get our hands on a two-way wrist TV, the latest in instantmessaging technology can get Mac users awfully close. Text-based instant messaging (LM) has long allowed people to...

Digital Hub: bring old photos to iPhoto.(Secrets)
January 1, 2004... YOU LOVE YOUR DIGITAL CAMERA AND THE CONVENIENCE of iPhoto. But the past haunts you. You have boxes of prints, negatives, and slides that you haven't seen in years. If you could get them into iPhoto, you could organize them into albums and...

Create: animatics in Final Cut Pro 4.(Secrets)
January 1, 2004... ANIMATICS ARE ANIMATED STORYBOARDS--USUALLY SET to music, with sound effects and temporary dialogue--that professional filmmakers, commercial agencies, and special-effects artists use to visualize the look and tempo of their projects. To create...

Mobile Mac: leave your laptop at home.(Secrets)
January 1, 2004... SAVVY BUSINESS TRAVELERS KNOW WHICH CLOTHES THEY can pack to keep their luggage light and manageable, but they should also know how to keep their electronic gear compact and easy to transport. Unless you're working in Photoshop or editing audio...

Geek factor: the power of preferences.(Secrets)(SAFARI)
January 1, 2004... SAFARI CRASHES ON LAUNCH. MAIL QUITS WHEN YOU TRY to send a message. What to do? Most savvy Mac users will delete the application's preferences file, which stores changes made to the program's default settings. This creates a new (and hopefully...

Help desk; Mac OS X Hints: display full file paths in search results, search more quickly for software updates, have some fun with Pong, make hidden apps look hidden in the Dock, see who's accessing your Mac, and more.(Secrets)
January 1, 2004... Make Hidden Apps Look Hidden The easiest way to hide an application's windows is to press [??]-H. But when you do this, the hidden application's Dock icon doesn't change--which may lead you to accidentally activate the hidden windows by...

Help desk: Mac 911.(Secrets)(Desktop video software)(HTML)(Web browsers)
January 1, 2004... ALTHOUGH THIS MONTH'S MAC 911 FAILS TO TURN STRAW into gold, water into wine, or frogs into princes, it does offer slightly less-miraculous methods for converting your old Netscape bookmarks into bookmarks for the current Netscape, turning...

Altec Lansing inMotion.(The Month's Coolest Developments)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... When this sweet speaker set for the iPod arrived, it was love at first sight. But after we'd heard the inMotion's clear sound, used its well-placed ports, and folded it up again, we knew we'd found much more than a mere infatuation. It connects...

Panther's Open and Save.(The Month's Coolest Developments)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Finally, we OS X users don't have to endure the column view when searching in the Open and Save dialog boxes. With Panther, you can choose a classic Mac OS--style list view, and Panther's handy sidebar gives you quick access to your favorite...

Grooving on Soundtrack.(The Month's Coolest Developments)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Apple's $299 Soundtrack isn't just useful. It's flat-out addictive. We used it to make a great-sounding music mix in five minutes, and gave a muddy-sounding home movie from one editor's high-school days a modern flavor (VERY GOOD 1/2; December...

FireWire Web cams.(The Month's Coolest Developments)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Apple iSight VERY GOOD 1/2; December 2003; $149 ADS Technologies Pyro 1394 VERY GOOD; December 2003; $109 Orange Micro iBot Standard GOOD 1/2; December 2003; $99 Unibrain Fire-i GOOD 1/2; December 2003; $99 ...

Epson Stylus Pro 4000.(The Month's Coolest Developments)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Photo pros will smile when they see what Epson has been developing. Scheduled to ship in January, this printer promises 17-inch-wide prints at much faster speeds than previous Epson Stylus Pro printers ($1,795; www.epson.com). ...

Konfabulator 1.5.1.(The Month's Coolest Developments)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Your city's weather, a Tetris-style game, your to-do list--Konfabulator's widgets basically let you have whatever information you want, right on your desktop ($25; www.konfabulator.com).

Recently reviewed Macs.(The Month's Coolest Developments)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... 12-inch PowerBook G4/1GHz VERY GOOD 1/2; December 2003; $1,599 to $1,799 15-inch PowerBook G4/1GHz and 1.25GHz GOOD 1/2; December 2003; $1,999 to $2,599 17-inch PowerBook G4/1.33GHz VERY GOOD 1/2; December 2003; $2,999 ...

In case you had any doubt, we're here to tell you: yes, it's true, a PowerBook can be used as an onstage musical instrument.(The Month's Coolest Developments)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... In case you had any doubt, we're here to tell you: Yes, it's true, a PowerBook can be used as an onstage musical instrument. At a recent Wilco concert, we spotted the band using a PowerBook to play cacophonous sample loops to complement their...