Macworld articles from January 2005

Macworld archives from January 2005

Ready or not?(technology timing)(Editorial)
January 1, 2005... Steve Jobs once famously said that his life's goal was to change the world, not just to sell products. But changing the world with technology is a tricky business: yes, you need the engineering know-how to make a product so impressive that it...

Reply to all.(about AirPort Express, Click Wheel iPod)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... We put two of Apple's hottest new products--the AirPort Express and the Click Wheel iPod--on the cover, and what do readers want to talk about? E-mail clients, of course. Macworld readers exhibit the same loyalty to their e-mail clients (as...

Mail about E-mail.(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... ANDREW LAURENCE # The "E-mail Survival Guide" neglects to mention a critical point in Eudora's favor: manual filters, executed by a key command. While automatic filters can cause mail to slip your attention, manual filters are perfect for...

Konfabulations.(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... SEAN ROSE # In "Developer Two-Step" (Mac Beat, October 2004), the author points out--correctly, I think--that many OS features (such as a TCP/IP stack) are natural evolutions; they become part of the OS out of necessity. But the article...

Acrobat, begone!(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... LYNN JENKINS # I have one thing to say about your tip for banishing Acrobat from Microsoft Office ("7 PDF Power Moves," Working Mac, October 2004): Yaboo! I spent an hour one day trying to figure out how to get rid of that irritating (and...

Sharp-eyed readers.(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... BILL WILCOX # You did a nice job with the October cover photo. There it is in all its glory, an Apple iPod playing "Revolution" by the Beatles. Given the litigious relationship between Apple Computer and Apple Records, was this your way of...

FileMaker's flaw.(FileMaker Pro 7)(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... MICHAEL YOUNG # FileMaker Pro 7 (OUTSTANDING; Reviews, October 2004) continues the long line of good FileMaker Pro products, but it's still missing one simple feature that users have been requesting for years, something William Porter even...

Corrections.(Correction Notice)
January 1, 2005... In our review of Apple's Xserve RAID (October 2004), we incorrectly reported the drives it uses. It uses high-capacity Ultra ATA drives. In our review of digital camcorders (November 2004), we incorrectly described a lighting feature of...

Creative drive: FileMaker fires on all cylinders for creative professionals.(Advertising Supplement)(Advertisement)
January 1, 2005... Ask creative professionals the one thing they'd like to have more of, and the answer will likely be "more time to be creative." They want to be liberated from administrative chores and overhead, like tracking their hours and fussing with...

Companies switching to OS X-only development: So long, OS 9.
January 1, 2005... With the release of Mac OS X 10.4--the fifth major incarnation of Apple's Unix-based OS--on the horizon, it's safe to say that OS X's time has long since arrived. But despite Apple's best efforts to move users to its modern operating system,...

Adobe Acrobat 7.0.(new portable document software)
January 1, 2005... Over the past several years, Adobe's Portable Document Format--also known as PDF--has taken off on the Web, in professional printing, and in business. PDF has even become the native file format of OS X. Although there are other applications for...

Apple introduces new color, U2 iPods: splashy sound.(Apple Computer Inc.)
January 1, 2005... Apple took the wraps off of its color-screen iPod photo at a special music event featuring U2's Bono and Edge. What was half of U2 doing there? Apple also introduced the iPod U2 Special Edition, a version of Apple's 20GB player clad in black...

New Jam Packs hit the shelves.(new products from Apple Computer Inc.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... At the same time Apple released GarageBand as part of iLife '04, the company came out with Jam Pack, which provided additional loops, instruments, presets, and guitar amps for use with GarageBand. Now, a year later, Apple has added two new...

Productivity beat.(Brief Article)(Buyers Guide)
January 1, 2005... MouseAnywhere, from MacSpeech (www.macspeech.com): ScriptPak for iListen voice-recognition software lets users control many Mac functions with verbal commands ($20). AccountEdge 2005, from MYOB (www.myob.com/us): Small-business accounting...

Education beat.(new reference books)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... eReference, from Houghton Mifflin (www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com): Interactive dictionary and thesaurus features full text of the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, fourth edition, and Roget's II: The New Thesaurus ($35). ...

Looking back on the Mac in 2024: 20 more years.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... The Mac has come a long way, baby. In 20 years, we've seen speeds soar from 8MHz to 2.5GHz, the invention of FireWire, the transition to OS X, and much more. But what does the future hold? Let's look ahead 20 years and see what we might be...

Service Pack squashes some bugs, creates others: Office 2004 moves ahead?(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... In October, Microsoft released an update to the Office 2004 suite. This update addressed many glitches, and it has earned positive feedback from most users. Unfortunately, it also seems to have introduced a few problems, and it doesn't address...

Creative beat.(new animation software)(Brief Article)(Buyers Guide)
January 1, 2005... Carrara 4, from Eovia (www.eovia.com): 3-D-rendering, -modeling, and -animation tool features new terrain and sky modules, texture and lighting controls, and improved rendering (Standard, $299; upgrade, $199; Pro, $579; upgrade, $189). ...

Internet beat.(new web authoring software)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Captain FTP 3.5, from Xnet Communications (http://captainftp.xdsnet.de): File Transfer Protocol client features enhanced Apple-Script support and an overhauled Transfer Manager interface ($25; upgrade, free from version 3.X). eyeBeam, from...

Updated portables see speed bumps, other improvements: Apple introduces new iBooks.(MAC BEAT)
January 1, 2005... While Mac users anxiously await news of a G5 PowerBook, Apple made some improvements to its other line of portables. The consumer-level iBooks got faster processors and built-in AirPort Extreme wireless networking, as well a price drop at the...

Macs help sky captain save the day: world of today.(Darin Hollings)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... When visual-effects artist Darin Hollings--a veteran in the film industry with over a decade of experience using Unix-based SGI and Linuxbased PC workstations--first met director Kerry Conran, Hollings says, "he handed me a 15-inch PowerBook as...

Additional themes make projects look better: why do it all yourself?(multimedia asset management software)(Illustration)
January 1, 2005... Apple's DVD Studio Pro, iDVD, and Keynote come with templates--or themes--that make assembling a professional-looking movie or presentation much easier. But if you use those themes all the time, all your work will start looking the...

Multimedia beat.(multimedia authoring software)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Digital Performer 4.5, from MOTU (www.motu.com): Upgrade to audio-editing software features Beat Detection engine, plug-in latency compensation, and the MasterWorks EQ plug-in (contact MOTU for pricing; upgrades start at $149). MegaSeg...

Storage beat.(Fast DVD Copy 3, LaCie Ethernet Disk, P-2000 Multimedia Storage Viewer)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Fast DVD Copy 3, from Velan Software (www.fastdvdcopy.com): Archival software for copying DVD videos to blank DVD-RW discs adds support for PlayStation 2 discs ($100; upgrade, free). LaCie Ethernet Disk, from LaCie (www.lacie.com):...

6- and 7-megapixel digital cameras: big pictures emerge from small packages.(REVIEWS)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Between the burgeoning field of sub-5-megapixel pocket cameras and the ranks of 8-megapixel-plus prosumer models is a growing group of 6- and 7-megapixel cameras that don't seem to know what they want to be. Some pose as compact...

Motion 1.0: long-awaited newcomer combines simple interface with nearly real-time performance.(REVIEWS)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... With its promise of real-time compositing, color correction, and a drag-and-drop interface--not to mention its $299 price--few programs have been as eagerly anticipated as Apple's Motion 1.0. Video editors and motion-graphics pros wondered if...

Roku SoundBridge M1000 and M2000: stylish digital music players, large and small.(REVIEWS)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Music fans who've converted an audio library into digital files for use on an iPod or a computer may also be searching for a way to replace the CD player in their home stereo systems. Bridging the gap between a hard drive and a stereo, music...

Virtual PC 7: underwhelming upgrade is perkier and friendlier.(REVIEWS)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... When Microsoft took over development of Virtual PC, after buying Connectix at the beginning of 2003, it promised Mac users a reason to celebrate. With Microsoft's intimate knowledge of Windows, the company suggested, we could expect a better,...

MovieWorks Deluxe 6.0: multifaceted multimedia-authoring package makes you an interactive auteur--without blowing away your budget.(REVIEWS)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Thomas Edison gazes stoically from the front of Interactive Solutions' MovieWorks Deluxe 6.0.2 software box. Although the great inventor wasn't known for writing code, he would probably have approved of this multimedia-authoring package....

FrameForge 3D Studio: 3-D application creates elegant video and film storyboards.(REVIEWS)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... FrameForge 3D Studio is an affordable, easy way to create and manage high-quality storyboards--an essential part of any video or film project. While using 3-D software for storyboarding and previsualization is becoming standard practice, the...

Silo 1.3: impressive, low-cost 3-D modeler hits the scene.(REVIEWS)(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Nevercenter's Silo 1.3 is the latest subdivision-surface (sub-d) modeler to come to OS X, and at $109, it's one of the best 3-D-software bargains in years. Sub-d modeling allows artists to model complex, smoothly blended surfaces. The...

BounceBack Professional: automatically make regular backups of your Mac.(REVIEWS)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... If you want to make regular backups of your entire computer, and want a program that'll take care of it for you, BounceBack Professional might be exactly what you need. It's designed to make full, automatic backups of your entire hard disk to...

Live 4: leading real-time music environment adds long-awaited MIDI support, virtual instruments, and production enhancements.(REVIEWS)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... When it comes to real-time music creation, Ableton's Live is in a category all its own. Live performs many of the functions of digital audio workstations such as Apple's Logic and Digidesign's Pro Tools--but in real time. Instead of recording...

IRIS Business Card Reader II: pint-size scanner deals with your cards.(REVIEWS)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Flipping through stacks of business cards to find a phone number can get boring fast. The obvious solution isn't terribly attractive: tedious typing of information into your address book or contact manager. The IRIS Business Card Reader II...

Wacom Intuos3: new tablet interface helps you operate without a keyboard.(REVIEWS)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Whether you're a painter, a digital photographer, or just a computer user who needs a mouse alternative, a pressure-sensitive drawing tablet can be an indispensable tool. Wacom has long been the market leader in such devices, thanks to its...

Epson Stylus Photo R800: a new twist on Epson's UltraChrome ink.(REVIEWS)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2005... Epson's Stylus Photo R800 ink-jet printer features a new version of the company's popular UltraChrome ink, which uses red and blue in place of light magenta and light cyan to increase the gamut, or range, of color that it can reproduce. ...

Midrange flatbed scanner.(Scanners)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... VERY GOOD CanoScan 9900F ($400), from Canon (www.canon.com) Inexpensive for its class, this flatbed scanner has 3,200-ppi optical resolution, produces all-around good image quality, and includes hassle-free software (August 2004)....

8-megapixel digital camera.(Digital Cameras)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... VERY GOOD C-8080 Wide Zoom ($999), from Olympus (www.olympusamerica.com) Good photo quality, durable design, and in-camera image editing, among other nice traits, make this camera an excellent choice if you need to make very large prints...

Color laser printer, $1,000 range.(Printers)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... VERY GOOD 1/2 C510n ($1,019), from Lexmark (www.lexmark.com) The Lexmark C510n provides very good image quality at a low cost per page. Generous RAM and preinstalled toner just add to the package (June 2004). find.macworld.com/0084 ...

Portable for general consumers.(Macs)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... VERY GOOD 1/2 12-inch iBook G4/1GHz ($1,099), from Apple Computer (www.apple.com) This diminutive Mac's combination of performance, features, and affordability makes it a winner. You can pack it with up to 1.25GB of RAM and add an AirPort...

Portable mac for pros.(power book from Apple Computer Inc.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... VERY GOOD 1/2 12-inch PowerBook G4/1.33GHz with SuperDrive ($1,799), from Apple Computer (www.apple.com) Our favorite out of the four we reviewed, the 12-inch PowerBook G4 packs a lot of power into a compact and elegant case (July 2004)....

Minidv camcorder.(Camcorders from Canon)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... VERY GOOD 1/2 Optura 40 ($999), from Canon (www.canon.com) The Optura 40 produces excellent video and respectable stills, sports professional features such as a true 16:9 mode, smooths the effects of a shaky grip, and is easy to use...

Consumer desktop.(NEW: MACS)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... VERY GOOD 1/2 20-inch iMac G5/1.8GHz ($1,899), from Apple (www.apple.com) Elegant, all-in-one design melds a speedy G5-based system--complete with a 160MB hard drive and a SuperDrive--with a big, bright LCD screen. Our only complaint: Not...

CanoScan 8400F.(Hardware Products We Tested This Month)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... VERY GOOD CanoScan 8400F ($150), from Canon (www.canonusa.com) The 8400F has limited film and transparency support but is a great all-around scanner with some high-end features and a low-end price. find.macworld.com/0187 [ILLUSTRATION...

CanoScan 9950F.(Hardware Products We Tested This Month)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... VERY GOOD 1/2 CanoScan 9950F ($400), from Canon (www.canonusa.com) This CanoScan raises the bar for midrange scanners by offering high optical resolution, improved scan quality, and more-intuitive software controls. find.macworld.com/0188...

VP912b.(Hardware Products We Tested This Month)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... VERY GOOD VP912b ($700), from Viewsonic (www.viewsonic.com) An eye-catching shiny screen, bright colors, and easy-to-read text make this 19-inch digital LCD a great all-around display. find.macworld.com/0189 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

LL-T19D1-H.(Hardware Products We Tested This Month)(from Sharp Corp.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... GOOD 1/2 LL-T19D1-H ($649), from Sharp (www.sharpsystems.com) It won't win any beauty contests, but this 19-inch digital LCD offers solid on-screen performance with legible text and accurate colors. find.macworld.com/0190 [ILLUSTRATION...

The game room.(REVIEWS)(Buyers Guide)
January 1, 2005... Cyan's Myst is a game that truly defined its genre. Laden with brain-busting puzzles and beautiful scenery, this graphical adventure was the best-selling game of its day. A decade later, the fourth installment of Myst has been released....

Mac Gems.(REVIEWS)
January 1, 2005... Although the ability to take unlimited photos allows digital photographers to make sure they get the best shots possible, it also has a draw-back: at some point, you have to weed through the 63 pictures of your niece's first dance recital to...

Picture your perfect camera: zoom in on the features you need and a model you'll love to use.(Buyers Guide)(Cover Story)
January 1, 2005... When you bought your digital camera a couple of years ago, it was a marvel of engineering. Then the next generation came out. And the next. Now your revolutionary camera feels more like an antique. But with so many choices on the shelves, how...

From tape to CD: bring your old recordings into the digital future.
January 1, 2005... You know those old cassette tapes you have lying around the house--compilations of favorite songs from a bygone era, family get-togethers recorded with a battery-powered portable, and audio letters swapped with a faraway friend? They aren't...

7 FileMaker power moves.(FileMaker Pro 7 features)
January 1, 2005... FileMaker Pro 7 has quickly become a boon and a bane for FileMaker aficionados, users, and developers--a boon because of its hundreds of new features, and a bane because even the most-experienced developers are finding that they are once again...

Image editing beyond iPhoto.(a new software from Apple Computer Inc.)
January 1, 2005... Apple's iPhoto is great for organizing and sharing photos. But as a digital darkroom, it's seriously lacking. It can't bring out details hidden in shadows, for example, or remove the pole that seems to sprout from a friend's head. When you're...

Recover lost photographs.
January 1, 2005... A few years ago, the mother of a buddy of mine was approaching her 100th birthday. She didn't get out much anymore, but she'd been to the hairdresser and had her hair Cool Whipped to perfection in preparation for her birthday party. I...

Extend your wireless reach.(MOBILE MAC)
January 1, 2005... With each step from your home office to your living room, you watch the signal-strength bars on your laptop drop. Then, as you step onto your deck, the signal is abruptly lost altogether. It's the heartbreak of AirPort. Apple's AirPort...

Find anything with grep.(using the grep command)
January 1, 2005... It's fast, it's powerful, and its very name suggests that it does something technical: grep. With this workhorse of the command line, you can quickly find text hidden in your files. Understanding grep is the first step in joining the guild of...

Mac OS X Hints.(HELP DESK)
January 1, 2005... Check Web-page designs in browser windows of various sizes, move the Dock out of the way, avoid a destructive feature in the Find window, scroll through directories in Cocoa apps' file dialog boxes, colorize your Finder's sidebar, disable...

Mac 911.(HELP DESK)
January 1, 2005... This month's Mac 911 is missing--but not because I took a monthlong vacation. Instead, I answer questions regarding missing support for scroll wheels, missing iTunes playlists, the missing link between a Bluetooth phone and iSync, missing...

Nettunes and AirTunes.(Our Favorite New Stuff)(Apple's AirPort Express)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... One of the best features of Apple's AirPort Express is its ability to stream music wirelessly to remote speakers using AirTunes. The one drawback? You can't control playback from your stereo as you can with products like Slim Devices'...

Flickr.(Our Favorite New Stuff)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Imagine a blog-friendly iPhoto with social-networking capabilities thrown in, and you've got Flickr, a free service that lets you easily store, organize, and share photos online. Upload photos from your Mac; organize, annotate, and add metadata...

Pixma iP5000.(Our Favorite New Stuff)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... When it comes to ink-jet printing, size is everything--drop size, that is. So Canon's $200 Pixma iP5000 is a big deal. It's the industry's first ink-jet to put down 1-picoliter drops--half the size of what the competition offers. The...

iPod.(Our Favorite New Stuff)(iDockCover, from Westshore Craftworks)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Nowadays, iPod accessories may be more plentiful than spandex-clad hair bands were in the eighties, but the iDockCover, from Westshore Craftworks, may be the first add-on made just for the dock. Hand-crafted from flame maple, walnut, and...

What's hot.(Our Favorite New Stuff)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... 1 Microsoft's Steve Ballmer says "The most common format of music on the iPod is 'stolen.'" Ballmer added, "Having lifted interface ideas from Apple for years, I know a thing or two about stealing." 2 Apple adds a single-processor Power...

PodGourmet Vegan Edition.(Enrique Quintero Design)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... Animal-loving foodies, take heart--add Enrique Quintero Design's $5 PodGourmet Vegan Edition to your iPod, and you've got access to 277 animal-free dishes that'll give your cooking more "bam" than Emeril. The software includes recipes for tasty...