Macworld articles from November 2003

Macworld archives from November 2003

Coping with change.(From the Editor's Desk)(Editorial)
November 1, 2003... IN THE WORLD OF COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY, CHANGE CAN occur at stunning speeds. For example, this January Steve Jobs announced that 2003 was the "Year of the Notebook," a declaration that was partially an admission that Apple wouldn't have any new...

The sound of one hand clapping.(Feedback)(readers favorite issues)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Macworld's readers are a hands-on bunch when it comes to their favorite hardware--and response to August's "The Do-It-Yourself Mac" was generally a solid two thumbs up. But other readers point fingers at Apple's Safari Web browser and our...

High praise.(Feedback)(readers view)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... BOB SIMON # It's all your fault, really. My computer savvy is only middle-of-the-road, but when I read Christopher Breen's "Soup Up Your PowerBook" (Secrets, January 2003) and learned how easy it would be to replace the 6GB hard drive in...

Faint praise.(Feedback)(Macworld reader's view)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... BOB MARKETOS * Every year, I think about not renewing my Macworld subscription because most issues are uninteresting to me, and because I can find most content on the Web. But as with my relationship to the game of golf, it's that one shot...

Working on networking.(Feedback)(Linksys Group Inc. products)
November 1, 2003... MARK LOOPER # I have one comment and one question about "The Do-It-Yourself Mac" (August 2003). First, under "Better Burning," it reads: "Mac OS X doesn't support DVD-RW." But following a tip I read on the Web, I've found that I can use OS...

Free to be dissatisfied.(defect in Macromedia Inc. product)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... SHELLY RAMOUTAR # Your Macromedia FreeHand MX review (July 2003) left a lot to be desired. Free-Hand is for the most part a print-production tool, and that area of the program was ignored completely. The Bezigon tool, which is touted as...

Left behind on Safari.(Apple Safari 1.0 released)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... PETER KEENE # Am I the only one who's somewhat bemused by the hurrahs surrounding the release of Apple's Safari 1.0? Yes, it is pretty quick at downloading certain Web pages. Problem is, I then have to flash up Microsoft Internet Explorer...

Apples and maple leaves.(Feedback)(Apple Computer Inc. iTunes Music Store)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... ROB GUTHRIE # I was pretty excited when Apple started offering individual song purchases for 99 cents through the iTunes Music Store. Searching through the library, I found the songs I wanted to purchase, attempted to make a payment, and...

Corrections.(Correction Notice)
November 1, 2003... In our review of FontDoctor 5.5 (September 2003), we printed an incorrect telephone number. The correct number is 800/583-2917. OmniGraffle 3.0.1 Professional (Reviews, September 2003) is compatible only with OS X. In "Speaking of the...

New Creative Suite unites multiple apps with improved integration: Adobe puts it together.(new product)
November 1, 2003... Artists and other creative professionals who rely on multiple applications from Adobe (800/833-6687, www.adobe.com) should be interested in the software giant's latest release. Adobe Creative Suite brings most of the company's principal...

New suite, new look.(Adobe Systems Inc. is changing the design of its products)
November 1, 2003... Adobe's updated apps have changed quite a bit under the hood, but they're also radically different on the outside. Old, familiar images such as the Photoshop eye logo and Illustrator's take on Botticelli's The Birth of Venus--as familiar to...

Apple gives 15-inch PowerBook an aluminum look, updates other models: PowerBooks show their metal.(Mac Beat)(Apple Computers introduces its Notebook PowerBook G4)
November 1, 2003... The Power Mac G5 may have just arrived (see Reviews, page 26), but Apple isn't ready to declare the Year of the Notebook over just yet. And it's no wonder--consumers have snapped up Apple laptops. For the three-month period that ended on June...

Hardware beat.(Mac Beat)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Displays Three flat-panel monitors from Planar Systems (866/475-2627, www.planar.com): The PQ150 ($339) is a 15-inch display with a 1,024-by-768-pixel native resolution. The PQ170 ($509) is a 17-inch model with 1,280-by-1,024-pixel...

Web sites help iChat AV users add to their buddy lists: strangers with iChat.(Mac Beat)(Apple Computers introduces iChat AV a download beta software version to add buddies list)
November 1, 2003... When Apple introduced iChat AV, you were among the first to download the beta software and shell out $149 for the iSight camera. Now, you've got everything you need to enjoy the new video-chatting capabilities in Apple's messaging...

Bluetooth-based mouse and keyboard connect to Macs wirelessly, reducing cable clutter: Apple cuts the cord.(Mac Beat)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... The way Apple sees it, AirPort and Bluetooth wireless technologies are complements, not competitors. The former is for wirelessly connecting your Mac to a network; the latter wirelessly connects your peripherals to your Mac. And just as Apple...

Imaging beat.(Mac Beat)(Imaging Software and Hardware product informations)
November 1, 2003... Hardware Cameras A 4-megapixel camera from Canon (800/652-2666, www.usa.canon.com): The PowerShot A80 ($499) features a 3X optical zoom and supports PictBridge, a multivendor standard for direct printing. Three digital cameras...

Encryption software gets more powerful, less obtrusive: PGP makes privacy universal.(Mac Beat)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... For years, computer users concerned about keeping communication private have used Pretty Good Privacy, or PGP (VERY GOOD 1/2; April 2003), to encrypt their e-mail messages. But despite PGP's integration with e-mail programs, most users don't...

Popular EOS Rebel goes digital--and arrives for less than $1,000: Canon's Rebel yell.(Mac Beat)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... That old saying about weather in the Midwest--if you don't like it, just wait a few minutes, and it'll change--might as well apply to the digital-camera market. Don't care for the current selection? Just wait a few months, and things are bound...

Emulation options dwindle: VPC DOA?(Mac Beat)(Power Mac 6.1 Macantosh Personal Computers and emulation software incompatbility)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... The Power Mac G5 may feature a more powerful processor and faster overall performance than previous Apple desktops did, but that won't help Virtual PC run any faster on the new machines. The emulation software from Microsoft (800/642-7676,...

What's hot: a quick look at the world of Macs.(Mac Beat)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... 1. Blaster and Sobig viruses cause hassles, havoc for Windows users. Mac users respond to the outbreak by yawning and then buying themselves another track off the iTunes Music Store. 2. AOL Time Warner decides to drop the AOL from its name....

Multimedia beat.(Mac Beat)(MP23player ,Mobile audio and burning, music and plugin software product information)
November 1, 2003... Hardware Audio A mobile audio interface from M-Audio (800/969-6434, www.m-audio.com): The Transit ($130) is a pocket-size device that provides analog and digital audio input and output, including support for AC3 and DTS passthrough....

Input-device beat.(Mac Beat)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Hardware Mice A Bluetooth-enabled mouse from Belkin (800/223-5546, www.belkin.com): The Bluetooth Wireless Optical Mouse ($80) is a four-button scroll-wheel mouse that works with Macs running OS X 10.2.6 and later. It comes with a...

Productivity beat.(Mac Beat)(Intelli Innovations)(Mariner Software)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Software Presentation IntelliPrompter 1.0, from Intelli Innovations (919/468-0340, www.intellisw.com): This teleprompting software displays text automatically on a screen or projector. IntelliPrompter Personal ($80) features...

Storage beat.(Mac Beat)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Hardware Hard Drives USB-FireWire external drives from Akumen (512/467-2808, www.akumen.com): The Ascent XHD 800 features FireWire 800, FireWire 400, and USB 2.0 connectivity. It's available with an 80GB ($229), 120GB ($249), 200GB...

Apple boosts iMac's processor speed to 1.25GHz, iPod's capacity to 40GB: faster iMacs, bigger iPods.(Apple Computer Inc.)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... While most of the buzz around Macs these days involves the Power Mac G5, Apple (800/692-7753, www.apple.com) is making sure the other end of its desktop line stays up-to-speed. It has updated its flat-panel iMacs to include faster processors,...

Power Mac G5s: as promised, G5s leave their predecessors in the dust.(Reviews)
November 1, 2003... The long wait for the Power Mac G5s is finally over, and the verdict is in: just as Steve Jobs promised, the next-generation desktops deliver the big performance boost that professional Mac users have hungered for, with growing impatience, for...

Contribute 2.0: web-page editor balances simplicity and sophisticated controls.(Reviews)(Macintosh speaks about Contribute a web page editor software which updates pages and is more superior to other softwares)
November 1, 2003... Keeping a Web site fresh and its content up-to-date can be a Sisyphean task. While creating and editing Web pages isn't rocket science, it's just difficult enough that many people have to turn to experts--a company Webmaster, for example--to...

Grade-book software: five OS X-ready programs for teachers get assorted marks.(Reviews)(MicroGrade Pro 3.6 new electronic grade book applications which increases speed and maintains efficiency)
November 1, 2003... If you're a teacher who's wanted to throw away a paper grade book, now is a good time. Once you switch to a grade-book application, you won't have to do the math to determine your students' grades, and you can generate reports and class...

Safari 1.0: faster, sleeker Web browser best for the Mac.(Reviews)(SAfari web browser speed and download capacity compared to other)
November 1, 2003... At the start of 2003, you could download at least seven different Web browsers for Mac OS X, and most of them performed admirably in everyday use (see "Battle of the Browsers," December 2002). In mid-2003, Apple released the first version of...

Mailsmith 2.0: confusing interface is a flaw in an improved e-mail manager.(Reviews)
November 1, 2003... Contrary to what the folks cavorting in cargo-pants commercials might say, no single style is going to appeal to everyone. The fact that there are so many e-mail clients competing with Apple's free Mail app doesn't necessarily mean that Mail...

This month in printers.(Reviews)
November 1, 2003... Even if you have a printer and a scanner, you probably still look for a copy machine when you need to duplicate a few pages. If you often need to make copies, you should consider a multifunction printer (MFP). It costs more than a scanner and a...

Sonicfire Pro 3: music-scoring application brings ease of use to the table.(Reviews)
November 1, 2003... All moviemakers want soundtracks that match films perfectly. SmartSound's Sonicfire Pro 3 is centered on prebuilt, though somewhat customizable, score libraries that you can scale to meet your timeline needs exactly. And like soundtracks made...

Visual Thesaurus 2.0: reference program no match for paper counterpart.(Reviews)
November 1, 2003... I adore a thorough thesaurus. As a professional wordsmith, I turn to mine dozens of times a week. So when Plumb Design asserted that it had found a better way for me to find the elusive perfect word, I was intrigued. And the mesmerizing Visual...

MasterWriter: songwriting utility makes it easy to create perfect lyrics.(Reviews)
November 1, 2003... Anyone who's written more than a couple of songs knows that there are times when inspiration flows effortlessly and times when you have to hammer a lyric into shape one grudging word at a time. MasterWriter, a utility designed in 4D's 4th...

After Dark X + Fish.(Reviews in Brief)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... X UNACCEPTABLE 1/2; Infinisys, e_info@infinisys.co.jp, http://en.infinisys.co.jp; $10 I'll never forget how absolutely cool After Dark was back in my Mac II days. We Mac users played with those modules for hours, tweaking silly...

CinemaLift.(Lcdarms )(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... GOOD; Innovative Office Products, 800/524-2744, www.lcdarms.com; $369 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Positioning your LCD monitor at a comfortable height can be a delicate process. I've jury-rigged a stack of risers to get my 17-inch Apple...

CintiqPartner.(Reviews in Brief)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... 9X VERY GOOD; Wacom, 800/922-6613, www.wacom.com; $200 For digital painters and graphic artists, Cintiq interactive displays, from Wacom, are among the best input tools there are. These LCDs have built-in pressure-sensitive tablet...

EasyShare 3.0.(Reviews in Brief)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... 9X GOOD 1/2; Kodak, 800/235-6325, www.kodak.com; free EasyShare 3.0, from Kodak, is an alternative to Apple's iPhoto. The program is quite good and provides many of the same features as Apple's photo-library application, but EasyShare...

Inspiration 7.5.(Reviews in Brief)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... 9X VERY GOOD 1/2; Inspiration Software, 800/877-4292, www.inspiration.com; $69; upgrade from version 7, free Launch Inspiration, and you'll think of dozens of ways to put the diagramming application to good use. The last version...

KeyStrokes 3.(Reviews in Brief)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... 9X GOOD; Niemeijer Consult, info@assistiveware.com, www.assistiveware.com; $250 KeyStrokes 3 is an on-screen keyboard for people with disabilities. Using KeyStrokes and a mouse, trackball, head mouse, or other mouse emulator, you can...

Live 2.1.(Reviews in Brief)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... 9X VERY GOOD 1/2; Ableton (distributed by M-Audio), 800/969-6434, www.ableton.com; $399 Ableton's Live (VERY GOOD 1/2; July 2003), the Mac's foremost audio sequencer, just got better. Live 2.1 has added multichannel audio-input...

MacMaid 2.1.(Reviews in Brief)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... X GOOD; Realmac Software, info@realmacsoftware.com, www.realmacsoftware.com; $10 Upon first learning about MacMaid 2.1, I jumped for joy: the little utility purports to use rules you set to automatically clean your Desktop or any...

PDFshrink 3.0.(Reviews in Brief)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... X VERY GOOD; Apago, 770/619-1884, www.apago.com; $35 When it comes to PDF files, one size doesn't fit all, especially if you want to use those files on the Web. But Apago's PDFshrink 3.0.1 can help make those files smaller by letting...

Reality is for losers.(The Game Room)
November 1, 2003... GET OUT THE CAFFEINE AND SAY GOOD-BYE TO THE REAL world--assuming, of course, that you've ever been well acquainted with it. EverQuest, one of the most popular and most widely discussed entries in the MMORPG genre (for the uninitiated, that's...

Helping hands.(Mac Gems)
November 1, 2003... I'M A BIG FAN OF MAC OS X, BUT I ADMIT THAT THERE ARE a few things I miss about OS 9. The Internet control panel, for one, let you customize helper applications--the utilities and apps that process URLs and files you're likely to encounter on...

Focus on home technology.(Special Editorial Supplement)
November 1, 2003... SO YOU'RE A CARD-CARRYING MEMBER OF THE twenty-first century, but what have you got to show for it? No personal robot, no flying car, no jet pack--even your superpowered Mac is still stuck in its old routines, sequestered in the home office...

Laptop nation: Apple's portables are everywhere. Here's how to get the most out of yours.(Cover Story)
November 1, 2003... The days when a portable computer served as a poor substitute for a desktop computer are long gone. PowerBooks and iBooks abound--and for good reason. These laptops not only make for stylish traveling companions, but also have features that...

Adobe changes everything: an exclusive look at the new versions of Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, and GoLive.
November 1, 2003... Adobe is making a bold move. The company has radically reworked its four major applications: GoLive, Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop. The fruit of its labor is the OS X-only Adobe Creative Suite (800/272-3623, www.adobe.com), which...

Working Mac: 8 ways to speed up Office.(Secrets)
November 1, 2003... NOT EVERYONE HAS A G5 MAC WITH 2GB OF RAM. IF YOU USE Microsoft Office v. X on a slower computer, such as an iMac or an iBook, you may find yourself twiddling your thumbs from time to time. But there are ways to make Office's applications move...

Digital Hub: more bang for your burn.(Secrets)
November 1, 2003... iTUNES, iPHOTO, AND iDVD ALL OFFER BURNING FEATURES. In most cases, using them is as easy as clicking on a button. But to get the most out of these burning tools, you'll need to look beneath the surface. Whether you're burning an audio CD that...

Create: powerhouse plug-ins.(Secrets)
November 1, 2003... MAYBE THERE WAS ONCE A GOLDEN AGE WHEN GRAPHIC designers could spend hours, or even days, modifying an image in search of just the right effect. Today's creative professionals need to produce high-quality images in less time and on smaller...

Mobile Mac: have iPod, will travel.(Secrets)
November 1, 2003... WE WERE LEAVING SAN FRANCISCO FOR OUR ANNUAL TRIP to Las Vegas, where we would tour the strip, go to an all-night buffet, and see shows that Broadway wouldn't know what to do with. Las Vegas is approximately 570 miles from San Francisco--or,...

Geek Factor: scripting FileMaker and iCal.(Secrets)
November 1, 2003... FILEMAKER PRO IS EASY TO USE AND SUPREMELY SCRIPT-able via AppleScript; it lets you design databases that do almost anything, including interact with data in other programs. This sample project is a case in point. With it, you can track a...

Help desk: Mac OS X hints.(Secrets)
November 1, 2003... THIS MONTH, LEARN SHORTCUTS, HINTS, AND UNIX TIPS for deleting iTunes playlists, building quick image galleries, turning off Mail's junk-mail sounds, changing Terminal's calendar language, installing system updates remotely, blocking access to...

Help desk: Mac 911.(Secrets)
November 1, 2003... IF YOU'RE VEXED BY MENU-BAR ITEMS THAT WON'T GO away and the hard-drive space annexed by unnecessary language files, this month's Mac 911 is for you. Join me as I detail handy methods for removing extraneous items. I also address syncing e-mail...

The month's coolest developments.(Hot Stuff)
November 1, 2003... 1 Logitech MX700 Cordless New mice don't usually get more than an "eh" out of us. But this mouse isn't just cordless--it's rechargeable, and it has lots of buttons in just the right places (www.logitech.com). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...