Macworld articles from September 2003

Macworld archives from September 2003

Powerful developments.(From The Editor's Desk)(Editorial)
September 1, 2003... WHENEVER STEVE JOBS TAKES THE STAGE, EXPECTATIONS run high. Apple's rock-star CEO commands the attention of not only the Mac faithful but also the world's technology and business press. And with few exceptions, Jobs has delivered the goods with...

It takes two.(Feedback)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... For every action in our June 2003 issue, there was an equal and opposite reaction from our readers. David Blatner may have focused on QuarkXPress 6.0, but some readers couldn't help but turn their attention to Adobe InDesign. Our coverage of...

XPress yourself.(Feedback)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... ERIKA HEGGIE I realize that David Blatner's intention in "Quark Enters the Land of OS X" (June 2003) was not to compare QuarkXPress 6.0 with Adobe InDesign 2.0. But I couldn't help but note a few inimitable InDesign-only features that...

X factors.(Feedback)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... I read "Evolution Endgame" (Mac Beat, June 2003) with great interest. We have a real estate-appraisal business and have used all kinds of Macs since the platform's inception back in 1984. We're still using OS 9.2 and haven't made the transition...

Music for a song?(Feedback)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... KEN ALAN Apple's online Music Store ("Apple Carries a Tune," Mac Beat, June 2003) is a great idea spoiled by the continued notion that consumers will accept crippled, copy-protected content. For the same per-track price as at Apple's...

Going to extremes.(Feedback)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... TOM MAZE Congrats to Glenn Fleishman on the informative "Extreme Revolution" (June 2003). One question: The article states that an 802.11b client joining an Extreme network "can slow down the traffic for everyone." Does everything slow...

A discreet mention.(Feedback)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... Christopher Breen failed to mention that Discreet Cleaner 6.0 cannot compress files into Real format in OS X (Reviews, June 2003). This isn't Discreet's fault; Real Networks has failed to deliver OS X tools for encoding Real content....

Pocketful of trouble.(Feedback)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... I guess any software that doesn't actually kill the user gets two mice. In the case of PocketMac Pro 2.0 (June 2003), the (**1/2) rating is at least two mice too high. PocketMac not only managed to mess up the synchronization function of my...

Credit where it's due.(Feedback)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... You attributed to film director Ken Burns the technique of panning and zooming across a still photo (Mac 911, June 2003). This technique was pioneered by Donald B. Hyatt, who, beginning in the 1950s, produced dozens of NBC television...

Raw disclosure.(Feedback)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... I have the highest regard for Bruce Fraser, his expertise, and his knowledge. His review of the Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw plug-in (June 2003) seems objective and fair. But it is improper to present him as an independent reviewer of the product...

Rotate debate.(Feedback)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... KEN BECK While it's true that one can rotate an image by hundredths of a degree in Photoshop, as you told reader Peter Samuel (Feedback, June 2003), this function is not available for line-art bitmap images, only for gray-scale or color...

Corrections.(Feedback)(Correction Notice)
September 1, 2003... David Weiss's response to a question from reader Joel Snyder (Feedback, June 2003) recommended the wrong small scanner as a replacement for the Windows-only Strobe Pro. The response should have recommended the Canon LiDE 30. We used the...

Lights, camera, chat: with iChat AV, videoconferencing is just a mouse click away.(Macbeat: what's new what's in the pipeline what's hot)
September 1, 2003... The forthcoming Panther update to OS X (see "Take a Peek at Panther," page 68) may boast 100 new features, but if you want to experience almost all of them firsthand, you'll have to wait until OS X 10.3 ships later this year. However, one...

Philip Michaels, Jason Snell on iChat AV.(Editors Face Off)(Editorial)
September 1, 2003... For all of Apple's recent announcements--the G5, Panther--this is the one that's going to have the most immediate impact on how I use my Mac. It really goes beyond e-mail and the phone, because the feedback is instantaneous and visual. ...

Event still hacking away: with Panther in the wings, MacHack conference looks to the future.(Mac Beat)
September 1, 2003... The annual MacHack conference in Dearborn, Michigan, has always been the perfect In Between event. Its structure falls somewhere between a big, formal tech conference and a casual get-together for Mac developers. It also takes place in June,...

Internet beat.(Mac Beat)
September 1, 2003... Software Browser Safari 1.0, from Apple Computer (800/692-7753, www.apple.com): The OS X-only browser was released just in time to become the default Web browser on all forthcoming Apple computers. The browser can synchronize...

Creative beat.(Mac Beat)
September 1, 2003... Software Animation Animo 5.0, from Cambridge Animation Systems (www.cambridgeanimation.com): The 2-D-animation software adds support for different languages, the ability to include meta information in files, better scanner support,...

Apple's independent streak: Indie record labels could come to iTunes Music Store.(Mac Beat)
September 1, 2003... Look for a Sleater-Kinney single or an Ani DiFranco album at the iTunes Music Store, and suddenly 200,000 songs seems a little skimpy. While Apple's online music service features offerings from the five major music companies, independent record...

Extreme compatibility: with 802.11g finalized, apple releases airport update.(Mac Beat)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Apple's AirPort Extreme already offers high speeds and backward compatibility with older AirPort networks. Now the wireless-networking technology boasts another important feature--standards compliance. Introduced in January 2003, AirPort...

Imaging beat.(Mac Beat)
September 1, 2003... Hardware Cameras A 3.2-megapixel camera from Canon (800/652-2666, www.usa.canon.com): The PowerShot SD100 ($499)--the latest addition to Canon's Digital Elph line--has a 2x optical zoom and stores images on a 16MB Secure Digital (SD)...

Education beat.(Mac Beat)
September 1, 2003... Software Data Management Aabel 1.5, from Gigawiz (www.gigawiz.com): The update to the data-analysis and graphing application for OS X adds 35 new chart types in 19 categories (commercial, $349; academic, $249; upgrade, free). ...

iMovie--scene 3, take 3: update offers fixes for bugs bedeviling video-editing app.(Mac Beat)
September 1, 2003... If maintenance upgrades were sequels, iMovie 3 would be a trilogy by now. Before most users could even get their hands on the version that shipped with the iLife suite, Apple rolled out iMovie 3.0.1. While that version received high marks for...

More effects with fewer steps: Adobe looks to bolster performance in after effects update.(Mac Beat)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Stunning visual effects may have quite an impact on viewers, but they have a greater impact on their creators in terms of workload. Adobe (800/833-6687, www.adobe.com) hopes to address this dilemma with After Effects 6.0, by speeding up the...

Toasters take wing: after dark is back--and it has plenty of company.(Mac Beat)
September 1, 2003... During the 1990s, when toasters flew across desktops from California to Calcutta, the sun never set on the screen-saver empire of After Dark. But after a decade of dominance on Mac displays, Berkeley Systems' parent company, Sierra On-Line,...

Write stuff.(Pro File / Q&A With Jerzy Lewak)(Interview)
September 1, 2003... Microsoft Word may be the 800-pound gorilla of the Mac word processing market, but Nisus Software's Nisus Writer--which debuted in 1989---has long offered an alternative, particularly for users who want more text-processing power or better...

Seeds of growth: Apple Stores on the rise: Apple's retail initiative is more than two years old--and more than 60 stores strong.(Mac Beat)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... All two-year-olds should have this kind of growth spurt. Apple opened its first brick-and-mortar retail stores in McLean, Virginia, and Glendale', California, in May 2001. A little more than two years later, Apple Stores have sprouted up across...

No HTML experience? No problem. Contribute brings easy web content updating to the Mac.(Mac Beat)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... With the release, last December, of Macromedia Contribute (800/ 470-7211, www.macromedia.com), even people who speak no HTML whatsoever have been able to change Webpage content--unless they happened to be working on Macs. Initially a...

What's hot: a quick look at the world of Macs.(Mac Beat)
September 1, 2003... 1. iChat AV adds video-conferencing capabilities to instant messaging. Look for workplaces around the country to adapt strict "No more pants-less iChats" policies for work-at-home employees. 2. Microsoft plans to end work on Internet...

Remote possibilities: RF-based controls keep you in command of your presentation.(Mac Beat)
September 1, 2003... With Apple's Keynote now competing against Microsoft PowerPoint, Mac users looking for software to create and organize presentations have another option. But that software selection is nothing compared with the choices they have in terms of...

Productivity beat.(Mac Beat)
September 1, 2003... Software Database iList Studio 1.2, from Lakewood Studios (905/892-9973, www.lakewoodstudios.com): This single-user relational database software manages text, number, URL, file path, and image data. The application runs on OS 9 and OS...

QuarkXPress 6.0: more than OS X-native, industry-standard publishing software gives designers more flexibility.(Product/Service Evaluation)
September 1, 2003... Yes, while we've been waiting (and waiting), Quark has actually been doing something. The fruit of this labor is QuarkXPress 6.0--finally a Mac OS X-native XPress. In fact, it runs only on OS X 10.2 and higher. This move should let designers at...

Acrobat 6.0 Standard: PDF app becomes the workgroup's new best friend.(Product/Service Evaluation)
September 1, 2003... When Adobe Acrobat debuted 10 years ago, it seemed unlikely that Adobe would reach one of the company's goals: creating paperless offices and PDF-only publishing workflows everywhere. Acrobat needed more and better-designed tools for group...

Acrobat 6.0 Professional: the rainbow's end for prepress pros lets technical pros down.(Product/Service Evaluation)
September 1, 2003... With all the features of the Standard version and then some, Acrobat 6.0 Professional is a dream come true for graphic artists and prepress pros. But it may leave its secondary market, engineers and architects, stranded by the side of the road....

Final Cut Pro 4: massive upgrade brings a new wave of impressive features.(Product/Service Evaluation)
September 1, 2003... Why simply upgrade a program when you can supersize it? That was clearly Apple's thinking when the company upgraded its flagship video-editing application, adding features collected during a two-year technological shopping spree. Final Cut Pro...

250GB FireWire 800 drives: external FireWire 800 devices useful for moving large files fast.(Product/Service Evaluation)
September 1, 2003... When we tested the first Macs with FireWire 800 ports (Reviews, May 2003), we were hard put to find. any peripherals to plug in to them. That's not the case now: the number of available FireWire 800-equipped products has increased steadily, and...

FTP clients: seven OS X programs help you push your files around the Internet.(Product/Service Evaluation)
September 1, 2003... If you've ever watched an e-mail application choke on a 4MB attachment, you know that sometimes you need an alternative to directly sending or receiving files. And if you've ever e-mailed a crucial file that never arrived at its destination,...

Xserve: newest version of the Xserve features less noise, more power for demanding workloads.(Product/Service Evaluation)
September 1, 2003... It's no wonder that people were impressed when Apple's first decent attempt at server-class hardware appeared last year. After all, the company's engineers had done a good job of packing a flexible and powerful dual-CPU workhorse into a 1U...

2.52TB Xserve RAID: server storage option scores on price, performance.(Product/Service Evaluation)
September 1, 2003... Apple enters the server storage scene with an impressive 2GB Fibre Channel solution that's ideal for data-intensive work, from video-editing and -render farms to 24-hour on-call data storage. Our 2.52-terabyte Xserve RAID delivered data rates...

AirPort Extreme antennas: Dr. Bott's ExtendAir Omni and ExtendAir Direct help your wireless network go the distance.(Product/Service Evaluation)
September 1, 2003... Apple's AirPort Base Stations can liberate you from the shackles of Ethernet cable, but sadly, their range often doesn't extend as far as most people can throw a stone. In my average wood-frame house, my AirPort Extreme reception drops to...

ImageModeler 3.5: innovative tool makes 3-D models from photographs.(Product/Service Evaluation)
September 1, 2003... Three-dimensional modeling lets design professionals bring their creations to life. But what if your creation already exists in real space? Then you can use Realviz's ImageModeler 3.5--a photo-realistic 3-D modeling program now available on the...

OmniGraffle 3.0 Professional: spiffy design tools help you create gorgeous diagrams.(Product/Service Evaluation)
September 1, 2003... Each update to The Omni Group's OmniGraffle improves the chart-drawing application by leaps and bounds. And the recently released OmniGraffle 3.0.1 Professional is the picture of a specialty program hitting its stride. (OmniGraffle has also...

Tinderbox 1.2: multipurpose app sparks, stores, and shares ideas.(Product/Service Evaluation)
September 1, 2003... Decades before the Web, visionary thinkers imagined information organized with hyperlinks, pathways, hierarchies, and keywords so people could easily share and organize their ideas. Now Eastgate Systems brings this vision to life, with...

Canon EOS 10D: new digital SLR offers pro-quality features at a consumer price.(Product/Service Evaluation)
September 1, 2003... For photographers who demand the flexibility of interchangeable lenses and the comfort and features of a traditional SLR camera body, switching to a digital camera is a very expensive proposition. But with the new EOS 10D, Canon finally brings...

iLife Voice Solution X.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
September 1, 2003... *** 1/2; MacSpeech, 816/373-4506, www.macspeech.com; $25 Why fool with menus and buttons when you could just tell your Mac what to do? That's the idea behind MacSpeech's iLife Voice Solution ScriptPaks, premade scripts that enhance the...

Accordance 5.5c 9X.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
September 1, 2003... **** 1/2; OakTree Software, 877/339-5855, www.oaksoft .com; introductory level, $59; standard level, $139 OakTree Software's Accordance 5.5c lets you perform a wide variety of information-rich searches of biblical materials. Although...

FontDoctor 5.5 9X.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
September 1, 2003... **** 1/2; Morrison SoftDesign, 800/538-2917, www .morrisons0ftdesign.com; $70 If you have a large collection of fonts that sometimes causes trouble, a house call from Morrison Soft-Design's FontDoctor 5.5.1 can cure what ails you. This...

Marine Aquarium 2.0 9X.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
September 1, 2003... ****; Prolific Publishing (distributed by Encore), 310/ 768-1800, www.encoresoftware.com; $20; upgrade, $6 After I loaded Prolific Publishing's Marine Aquarium 2.0 on my computer, my LCD looked almost as if someone had transformed it into a...

Macworld's top 5.(Hot Products)
September 1, 2003... Macworld's TOP 5 1 **** Third-generation iPods ($299 to $499) and iTunes 4 (free), from Apple Computer (www.apple.com): The combination of these two products makes us want to sing. Buy music with iTunes 4 and play it on the go on a new...

Bring out the big guns.(The Game Room)
September 1, 2003... FOR MAC GAMERS, THE REALITY OF WAITING MONTHS--OR even years--for popular Windows titles to appear on their machines is nothing new. But when the game in question is Unreal Tournament 2003, the biggest, baddest first-person shooter to emerge on...

The next generation: Apple's Power Mac G5 goes where no Mac has gone before.
September 1, 2003... FOUR YEARS. That's how long Mac users have been staring at the fold-down door and the set of easy-to-grip plastic handles that enclose Apple's Power Mac G4. The outside of the machine hasn't changed much since its debut, in September 1999. And...

Take a peek at panther: see what apple's latest OS can do for you.
September 1, 2003... In Apple's animal kingdom, Mac OS X has evolved from Cheetah (10.0) to Puma (10.1) to Jaguar (10.2). The next sharp-toothed release (10.3), dubbed Panther, is due by the end of this year. Panther's many additions and enhancements include a...

BBEdit version control.(Web Publishing)
September 1, 2003... If you're a Web developer, even minor errors--a simple typo in your code, for example--can create major problems. But you can easily track down and reverse such mistakes by setting up version-control software. This powerful tool records all...

FreeHand type design.(Graphics)
September 1, 2003... Aside from professional illustrators, most people use vector graphics programs such as Macromedia FreeHand for small projects--for example, to create a styled headline or a quick logo treatment for a client. With the release of FreeHand MX...

Excel chart art.(Productivity)
September 1, 2003... Microsoft Excel X may be a champ with numbers, but when it comes to displaying numerical information graphically, Excel's standard chart formats don't pack a lot of punch. But this doesn't have to be the case. In just a few minutes, you can...

Defining moment.(MAC 911)
September 1, 2003... Catalog the component parts of the human body, and you'll find items whose occupation is unclear--the spleen, baby toe, and uvula come to mind. So, too, does Mac OS X contain elements with functions that aren't easily defined. With that in...

High fidelity.
September 1, 2003... THE iTUNES MUSIC STORE MAY INDEED BE CHANGING THE way we think about music. After all, I saw an Apple press release boasting about the store's 20,000th sale of Duran Duran's "Hungry like the Wolf," and it seemed to have a factual-ish sort...

A dose of variety. (Mac Gems).
September 1, 2003... ONE OF THE THINGS I LOVE ABOUT USING MAC OS X IS THE amazingly wide variety of software. This relatively young operating system can run programs written for OS 9, OS 9 programs updated for OS X, OS X-only programs, Unix applications (either in...