macaddict may06: future of mac, iweb tips, imovie, apple's pages, garageband podcast, mac...

117MAY 2006

A B E T T E R M A C H I N E . A B E T T E R M A ¬ A Z I N E .

REVIEWED: MacBook Pro iPod Hi-Fi iWork ’06 iPod Hi-Fi iWork ’06

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06 CONTENTSa better machine. a better magazine.

May 200606

BACKUP BACKUPYou don’t have to put all your apps on your bootable backup drive, but be sure to include your disk-repair utilities—that way, you can fi x your ailing drive without excessive CD swapping. From “Back It Up,” p24.

PLUG IT INThe fi rst step to take when troubleshooting is so easy, you may not even think to try it: Make sure the power cord and any necessary cables are properly connected. From Ask Us, p60.

THE 0.01 DIFFERENCE Unless you want to get crabby over bugs in Apple’s iLife ’06, run Software Update before you get crafty in iWeb or the other iApps. From “Bend iWeb to Your Will,” p65.

DO FEED THE ANIMALSYou can use Zoo Tycoon 2’s fi rst-person mode to give your virtual payroll a break—just assume the role of a zookeeper, and get down and dirty. From Games, p57.

QUICK TIPSFROM THIS MONTH’S ISSUE

49

09 Editors’ PageWe have seen the not-too-distant future, and it’s called Intel Core Microarchitecture.

10 Get InfoMeet the latest Mac to get Intel-ifi ed: the Mac mini. Plus, the next phase in Apple’s takeover of your living room, and a snapshot of the dozens of digicams unveiled at this year’s Photo Marketing Association trade show.

35 Reviews54 Digital FM Radio & FM Transmitter for iPod

iPod FM transmitter and receiver46 EasyShare-One camera40 Evolt E-500 camera52 iKey Portable USB Recorder audio recorder53 iPod Hi-Fi iPod speaker stand38 iWork ’06 productivity-software suite36 MacBook Pro notebook Mac55 Maxelerate external hard drive55 MiniMax external hard drive54 Officejet K550 business inkjet printer42 Painter Essentials 3 painting software51 Pixma MP950 multifunction printer49 PowerLite 76c projector50 Sorenson Squeeze 4.1 media-compression suite44 Swift Publisher page-layout app54 Thin laptop bag48 Wave Editor audio-editing software

57 Games57 Black and White 2 tips and tricks59 ButtKicker Gamer audio-transducer review59 Games Go Universal Intel-Mac update59 The Movies coming soon57 The Sims 2 University expansion-pack review58 Zoo Tycoon 2 simulation-game review

78 Log Out

78 LettersThis month, readers chime in with strong opinions on the Intel switch, concern over the recent Mac virus scare, and well-wishes for MacAddict ’s visibly ailing mascot, Max.

79 ContestWow us with your caption-writing prowess, and you could win a new JBL On Time iPod clock radio.

80 Shut DownForget about the Oompa-Loompa virus; here’s the real Mac malware you need to watch out for.

40

36

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Every month we review a boatload of products. And, yeah, we’re the experts and all that, but your opinion matters, too—so that’s why this month’s Disc includes demos and trials of some of the apps we’ve reviewed, including BeLight Software’s Swift Publisher (reviewed on p41) and Audiofi le Engineering’s Wave Editor (p48). Bonus: The Disc also contains a trial of the just-released Corel Painter IX.5 and 84 more killer apps!

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08 CONTENTSa better machine. a better magazine.

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the disc

UPGRADEIf you don’t receive the Disc with your copy of MacAddict, you might want to consider upgrading. Each monthly Disc contains cool demos, useful shareware and freeware, and an assortment of multimedia goodies. To get 12 issues of MacAddict that include this value-packed Disc with your subscription (prorated if necessary) for just $1 more per issue, call 888-771-6222—the operator will take care of everything.

EDITORIAL EDITOR IN CHIEF Rik MyslewskiMANAGING EDITOR Sean MolloyFEATURES EDITOR Jake WidmanHOW-TO EDITOR Niko CoucouvanisREVIEWS EDITOR Roman LoyolaWEB MONKEY Nick MuerdterEPONYMEDITOR MaxCONTRIBUTING EDITORS David Biedny, Joseph O. Holmes, Helmut Kobler, Cathy Lu, Steven Parke, Ian Sammis, Deborah Shadovitz, Andrew Tokuda, Michelle Victoria, Buz Zoller

ARTART DIRECTOR Mark RosenthalASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Peter MarshutzGROUP CREATIVE DIRECTOR Dan FitzpatrickPHOTOGRAPHER Mark MadeoCONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER Samantha Berg

BUSINESSPUBLISHER Bernie Lanigan, 646-723-5405SOUTHWESTERN ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Dave Lynn, 949-360-4443EASTERN ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Anthony Danzi, 646-723-5453NORTHWESTERN ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Stacey Levy, 925-964-1205EASTERN ACCOUNT EXECUTIVELarry Presser, 646-723-5459NATIONAL SALES MANAGER, ENTERTAINMENTIsaac Ugay, 562-983-8018MARKETING DIRECTOR Cassandra MagzamenMARKETING COORDINATOR Michael BasilioADVERTISING COORDINATOR Jose Urrutia, 415-656-8313

PRODUCTIONPRODUCTION DIRECTOR Richard LesovoyPRODUCTION COORDINATOR Ryan Meith

CIRCULATIONCIRCULATION DIRECTOR Peter KellyNEWSSTAND MARKETING MANAGER Bill SheweyBILLING AND RENEWAL MANAGER Betsy WongNEWSSTAND COORDINATOR Alex GuzmanFULFILLMENT MANAGER Peggy MoresDIRECT-MAIL MANAGER Stephanie BlakeDIRECT MARKETING SPECIALIST Janet Amistoso

FUTURE US, INC.4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080www.futureus-inc.comPRESIDENT Jonathan Simpson-BintVICE PRESIDENT/CFO Tom ValentinoVICE PRESIDENT/CIRCULATION Holly KlingelGENERAL COUNSEL Charles SchugPUBLISHING DIRECTOR/GAMES Simon WhitcombePUBLISHING DIRECTOR/MUSIC & TECH Steve AaronPUBLISHING DIRECTOR/BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Dave BarrowEDITORIAL DIRECTOR/TECHNOLOGY Jon PhillipsEDITORIAL DIRECTOR/MUSIC Brad TolinskiDIRECTOR OF CENTRAL SERVICES Nancy DurlesterPRODUCTION DIRECTOR Richie Lesovoy

Future US, Inc. is part of Future PLCFuture produces carefully targeted special-interest magazines for people who share a passion. We aim to satisfy that passion by creating titles offering value for money, reliable information, smart buying advice and which are

a pleasure to read. Today we publish more than 150 magazines in the US, UK, France and Italy. Over 100 international editions of our magazines are also published in 30 other countries across the world.Future plc is a public company quoted on the London Stock Exchange (symbol: FUTR).

FUTURE PLC30 Monmouth St., Bath, Avon, BA1 2BW, Englandwww.futureplc.comTel +44 1225 442244NON-EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN: Roger ParryCHIEF EXECUTIVE: Greg InghamGROUP FINANCE DIRECTOR: John BowmanTel +44 1225 442244 www.futureplc.comREPRINTS: For reprints, contact Ryan Derfl er, Reprint Operations Specialist, 717.399.1900 ext. 167 or email: [email protected] QUERIES: Please email mcdcustserv@cdsfulfi llment.com or call customer service toll-free at 888-771-6222.

May 200608

AUDIO & MUSICBackstage trialDaily Guitar Jam Widget freewareFretPet X 1.0.2 sharewareiFill demoiPod.iTunes 3.1.3 demoMenuet 1.0.2 trialTera 3.1 demoWave Editor 1.1.5 trial

DEVELOPMENTREALbasic 2006 Release 1 demo

FUN & GAMES3D Bridge Deluxe demoAlien Abduction demoAntigen freewareBlackjack Card Counter 3 demoDownfall 2.5.7 trialEnigmo 2 demoGem Shop demoKid Mystic demopluzzle freewareProfessor Fizzwizzle demoToySight Gold 1.1.2 demo

GRAPHICS & MULTIMEDIACorel Painter IX.5 trialEazyDraw 1.9.0f public betaEazyDraw 1.9.1 demoFootlights 2 freewareiScreensaver Designer 3.4 trialiView MediaPro 3.0.2 trialKnotsBag Pro 1.5.5 sharewareMPEG Streamclip 1.5.1 freewareSproing 2.0.1 freewareSwift Publisher 1.2 demo

INTERFACEThemePark 3 demo

INTERNET & COMMUNICATIONAdvanced Link Manager 2 trialbrowseback 1.0.2 trialBumper Car 2 demoCamino freewareCaptain FTP 4.4.5 trialDashCast freewareGoogle Sitemap Automator 1.1 trialiTwist n’ Go trialOmniWeb 5.1.3 trialpagesender 3.5.4 trialPictoGrab 1.1 trialSeaMonkey freewareSimon 2.1.1 trialSnak 5.1 sharewareSpamSweep 1.2 sharewarewKiosk 4.5 demoXyle scope 1.1.6 trial

PRODUCTIVITYHigh Priority 1.11 trialiClock 3 sharewareKeyCue 2.0.1 trialLiquid Ledger 1.5.1 trialNoteBook 2.3.3 demoOD4Contact 2.6.5 demoOmniGraffl e 4.1.1 trialOmniOutliner 3.5 trialTaskTime 4.1.2 trialTextWrangler 2.1.1 freewareTinyBooks 3.0.5 trialxTime Project 3.5 demo

UTILITIESBatChmod 1.37 freewareChronoSync 3.2 demo

CopyRoms 0.2 freewareDéjà Vu 3.2 trialDiskTracker 2.3.3 (Classic) sharewareDiskTracker 2.3.3 (OS X) sharewareFont Pilot 2.1 trialiKey 2.2 sharewareImpression 3 trialIOXperts Webcam Driver 1.1 trialKMremoteControl 1.52 trialMac Pilot 2.0.3 trialMacVCD X trialMini vMac 2.7.1 freewareMorse Mania 3.2 sharewareName Those Files sharewareNuFile 1.8 donationwarePicture Rescue 1.1 demoPower Manager 3.2 demoSafe Terminal 0.3 freewareSuperDuper 2 trialTechRestore Demo Video TidyUp 1.0.9 sharewareUndercover 1.5 demoUSB Overdrive 10.4.5 sharewareWorld Clock Deluxe 4.3 sharewareXPostFacto 4 freeware

SPONSORSEazyDraw 1.9.0f public betaEazyDraw 1.9.1 demoiFill demoNoteBook 2.3.3 demoOmniGraffl e 4.1.1 trialOmniOutliner 3.5 trialOmniWeb 5.1.3 trialTechRestore Demo VideoXPostFacto 4 freeware

Corel Painter IX.5trialTurn your photos into painterly works of art with this natural-media app.

EnigmodemoBored with shoot-’em-up games? Then try out this unique, gorgeous mind-bender.

Bumper CardemoThe Web can be a wild place—protect your kids from smut with this fun browser.

09EDITORS’ PAGE

Tucked away in a top-secret room during March’s Intel Developer Forum, I had my fi rst hands-on demo of the fi rst desktop microprocessor to be based on Intel’s new Core Microarchitecture—a radically speedy approach to chip design. Currently code-named Conroe, this dual-core chip will almost certainly power the machines that Apple will introduce later this year to replace the current Power Mac G5 line.

Although the performance data I saw compared Conroe to Intel’s existing top-of-the-line processor, the Pentium D, and not to the PowerPC G5, the new chip’s power was readily apparent. Bottom line: Expect impressive machines to emerge from the Apple/Intel partnership. Also, prepare for even more-impressive machines to appear in the future—for example, when Intel ships its quad-core desktop chip, code-named Kentsfi eld, in the fi rst half of next year.

Oh, and to clear up any confusion that might come from an unfortunate Intel naming decision: The Core Duo chip that powers Apple’s current iMacs, MacBook Pros, and high-end Mac mini (the low-end Mac mini has a single-core Core Solo) is not based on Intel’s zippy new Core Microarchitecture—the current Duos are fi ne chips in their own right, but they don’t benefi t from all the internal gee-whizzery in the upcoming chips. When I asked an Intelian about this naming untidiness, he shrugged and said, “Marketing.”

In other news: If you’re one of the vast majority of our readers who receive our monthly Disc, you’ll notice a couple of changes this month. For one, we’ve retired the Disc Tour interface. It was getting a bit long in the tooth and becoming increasingly unstable in its dotage. Plus, it was simply taking up too much room—room that we can now fi ll with more apps, games, and utilities than ever.

Also, we now indicate whether each app on the Disc is Universal (able to run natively on Intel-based Macs), and we’ve added a new Media folder in which you’ll fi nd a monthly collection of videos, tunes, podcasts, and more. (Yeah, it’s a bit sparse this inaugural month, but we’ve got big plans…) Finally, you’ll notice more places for the friendly folks who keep us afl oat to announce their wares. You’ve got rent to pay, right? So do we.

Enjoy,

Speed Thrills

We’ll solve all your ’Pod problems and teach it tricks you didn’t know it could do, then take you on a tour of San Francisco as we show you how to make a home video your friends will actually want to watch. Our Field Guide will spell out the problem-solving steps to take when faced with common technical glitches. We’ll then show you how to use the slick new features in Photoshop Elements 4, how to use iWeb effi ciently without hosting your site on .Mac, and how to set up a NAS (network attached storage) system to access your fi les from home or abroad. We’ll also put the new Intel Mac minis to the test and look at Autodesk’s Combustion 4, NEC’s slick MultiSync 20WMGX2 display, Olive’s Musica, and more.

comingsoon:june2006Here’s what our editors are preparing for the next issue of MacAddict.

STAFF RANTSQ. When will a Mac fi nally be fast enough for you?

Roman Loyola RED-EYE REMOVERWhen will a Mac fi nally be fast enough for you?When stuff happens instantaneously. No time for fl ashy window effects or progress bars. Select an option and BAM! Done.

Sean Molloy TACHOPHOBEWhen will a Mac fi nally be fast enough for you?Unfortunately, I probably won’t know until it’s too late.

Niko Coucouvanis SPUD RAZORWhen will a Mac fi nally be fast enough for you?As soon as it can cut thousands of julienne fries in seconds, I’ll eat my Ginsu—in that nasty seppuku fall-on-it style. Ouch!

Jake Widman TIME-SENSITIVE MATERIALWhen will a Mac fi nally be fast enough for you?When I don’t even know it’s there—when my fi rst response to that question is, “What Mac?”

Peter Marshutz STRESSED OUTWhen will a Mac fi nally be fast enough for you?Fast enough? Macs will fi nally be fast enough when they can change a diaper and take care of two toddlers.

Mark Rosenthal MR. COFFEELESSWhen will a Mac fi nally be fast enough for you?When will they be fast enough? They’re too fast already! Gone are the days when I could apply Photoshop’s Ripple fi lter to a 10MB image fi le and then run out for a cup of coffee

while my Mac churned away. Now there are no excuses for breaks—just work, work, work.

Max VELOCIMACTORWhen will a Mac fi nally be fast enough for you?When I can instantaneously perform a complex Photoshop Action while ray-tracing a complex 3D animation in real time while engaged in an 10-way iChat video conference

while playing multiplayer Doom 3 at a frame rate of over 300 in a seamlessly resizable window, then I might be satisfi ed. Maybe.

09May 2006

10 May 2006

the news of the month in bite-size chunks

10

The invitation to Apple’s latest new-stuff unveiling promised “fun new products.” And while the new products—Intel-based

Mac minis, the iPod Hi-Fi, and leather iPod cases—aren’t exactly barrels-of-monkeys-level fun, they’re interesting enough. The intro of the Mac mini leaves only the Power Mac and the iBook lines left to be Intel-ified, and the iPod Hi-Fi brings the iPod one step closer to the center of your home entertainment hub.

Mac mini. Except for a new set of rear ports and an IR port located next to the disc slot, the physical look and feel of the Mac mini hasn’t changed—that’s good. But a lot has changed inside. The $599 1.5GHz Mac mini features an Intel Core Solo processor, which has a single-processor core. The Core Duo found in the $799 1.66GHz Mac mini has—you guessed it—two cores, essentially the equivalent of two processors in a single chip. Intel touts both the Core Solo and Core Duo as ideal

Apple sets its sights on your home entertainment center with its new Intel-based Mac mini and iPod Hi-Fi speaker stand.

THAT’SENTERTAINMENT!

for notebook computers. Considering the tight quarters inside the Mac mini, these chips are a perfect fit.

Both Mac minis come standard with 512MB of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (expandable to 2GB), an Intel GMA graphics processor that uses 64MB of memory (shared with the mini’s main memory), Gigabit Ethernet, built-in Airport Extreme, Bluetooth 2.0, four USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 400 port, one optical/analog audio-in port, one optical/analog audio-out port, a DVI-out port for a display (VGA adapter included) or TV (composite/S-Video adapter sold separately for $19), and an infrared Apple Remote to use with Front Row. The 1.5GHz Mac mini comes with a 5,400-rpm 60GB SATA hard drive and a combo drive, while the 1.66GHz Mac mini has an 80GB hard drive and 8X SuperDrive with double-layer support.

The Mac minis also come with Front Row, Apple’s elegant, easy-to-

use interface for accessing your music, videos, DVDs, and photos. Front Row now allows you to access shared media from other Macs over a wireless or Wi-Fi network using Bonjour. For example, if you set iTunes to share your music over a network (iTunes > Preferences > Sharing), you

Make room on the Intel bandwagon—the Mac mini is now along for the ride.

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11May 2006

11GET INFO

4PORTABLE PROJECTORXD80U$1,995www.mitsubishi-presentations.comAvailable: NowWeighing less than three pounds, this portable XGA (1024 by 768 pixels) projector is rated at 1,500 ANSI lumens and has a dual color mode to optimize color for business presentations or video.

Creative tools that match your creativity.

4PRETTY PICTURES

Studio Artist 3.5$379www.synthetik.comAvailable: NowThis app combines painting and drawing tools with image processing, video effects, and a Paint Synthesizer that claims to be able to enlarge images without visual artifacts.

4TICKLING VIRTUAL IVORIESProKeys 88sx$449.95www.m-audio.comAvailable: NowThis light (17-pound) 88-note keyboard features semi-weighted action, seven piano-sound sets, and a USB MIDI interface and controller for recording and playback.

Wanted: big screen for this lil’ projector.

88 keys you can carry.

NEW STUFF

THAT’SENTERTAINMENT!

can access those shared songs from another Mac through Front Row’s Shared Music menu. You can also access shared videos from iTunes and shared photos from iPhoto. In the demo we saw, there wasn’t any noticeable performance lag when accessing shared content wirelessly—but the demo involved a Mac mini and a MacBook Pro that were about 20 feet apart, without any obstacles between them. When we get our Mac mini in for an exhaustive review, we’ll see how Front Row performs with Macs in separate rooms or even on different floors.

iPod Hi-Fi. Everyone else is getting in on the iPod speaker-stand market, so why not Apple? The difference here is that instead of simply providing a means to play your iPod’s music, Apple is looking to “redefine the home stereo system,” according to Apple’s press release. During the iPod Hi-Fi’s introduction, Steve Jobs said that as a self-proclaimed audiophile, he’s considering replacing his home stereo with an iPod Hi-Fi. (Hey Steve, feel free to dump your old home stereo at 4000 Shoreline Ct. in South San Francisco, CA. Send it to Max’s attention.)

Measuring 17 by 6.6 by 6.9 inches and weighing 16.7 pounds (with batteries), the $349 iPod Hi-Fi has a pair of 3.1-inch midrange drivers and a 5.12-inch woofer—no dedicated tweeters, folks. The power supply is built into the unit, so there’s no separate power brick to hog counter space or wedge behind your entertainment center. You can also

power the iPod Hi-Fi with six D batteries. The dock connector comes with adapters so you can fit any dockable iPod, and iPod shuffles can connect through a rear audio-in port. The audio-in port can also be used with AirPort Express so you can play music from your Mac in one room on the iPod Hi-Fi in another.

What’s missing: video connectors and USB or FireWire to sync to your Mac.

Docking your fifth-generation iPod or iPod nano in the iPod Hi-Fi gives you access to a new Speakers menu with three settings: Treble Boost, Normal, and Bass Boost. You can also display full-screen album art and set the backlight to remain on while docked (the iPod charges while docked).

Apple demonstrated the iPod Hi-Fi’s sound quality at its Cupertino facility, but we were able to get our hands on an actual iPod Hi-Fi just before we went to press—after you’re finished reading this article, flip to page 53 for the full review.

What we didn’t see. Were you expecting a touchscreen iPod video, widescreen iBooks, a Mac-based digital video recorder, or some other dream product? Then you were probably let down by the announcements—many analysts and members of the media sure were. So what should you look for next? In August, Apple is hosting its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), where you can—at minimum—expect a peek at Leopard, the next version of Mac OS X. That event might also mark the introduction of the Intel-based replacements for the current Power Mac G5 line. It’s almost certain that they won’t use the Intel Core Duo processor; instead, they’ll likely harness the power of an entirely new 64-bit dual-core processor code-named Conroe—it was clear at the Intel Developer Forum in March that progress on that chip is coming along nicely.—Roman Loyola

The iPod Hi-Fi comes with an Apple Remote so you can navigate through

your iPod’s controls.

$99 for one of these leather iPod cases? With other leather cases that are just as nice for half the price, you’re paying a premium for the Apple and iPod logos.

12 May 2006

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GET INFOthe news of the month in bite-size chunks12 GET INFOthe news of the month in bite-size chunksGET INFOthe news of the month in bite-size chunks

Sound Panel CKensington’s SX 2000 Speakers for iPod ($159.99, http://us.kensington.com) measure 16.2 by 7.2 by 3.9 inches, are compatible with any iPod with a dock connector, and feature NXT SurfaceSound to enhance the audio playing from both the front and back.

DROOLWORTHYSexy Stuff We Can’t Wait to Get Our Mitts On

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• SeaMonkey (free, on the Disc, www.mozilla.org) is an Internet suite that includes a Web browser, email client, WYSIWYG Web-page composer, and IRC chat client. For Web developers, Sea Monkey includes mozilla.org’s DOM inspector and JavaScript-debugging tools.

• Shiira (free, http://hmdt-web.net/shiira/en) is a Web browser that uses the KHTML rendering engine provided by Apple’s Web Kit—the same rendering engine that Safari uses.

• App4Mac’s wKiosk ($69, on the Disc, www.app4mac

.com) is a Web browser built with the Safari engine and designed for public-access terminals and kiosks. wKiosk can restrict access to Web sites, system settings, and apps.

• PictoGrab 1.1 ($14.95, on the Disc, www.radicalbreeze.com) can download pictures from any Web site or photocast to a folder on your Mac.

• VisiStat 3 ($14.95 per month, www.visistat.com) is a Web-site traffi c-reporting service. It dynamically captures visitor activity, search-engine keyword usage, geographical location, click path, and more.

• Dejal Systems’ Simon 2.1.1 ($29.95 to $195, on the Disc, www.dejal.com) is a Web-site-monitoring tool that checks sites for changes or failures. It notifi es you via email, sound, speech, or HTML reports.

• Snak 5.1 ($25, on the Disc, www.snak.com) is an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client that lets you join discussions in IRC channels online.—Michelle Victoria

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PictoGrab, SeaMonkey, Simon, Snak, wKiosk

Mini Keyboard CThe Optimus mini (price TBD, www.artlebedev.com) is a three-key keyboard that works with your standard keyboard. Each programmable key features a 0.79-by-0.79-inch square OLED panel that displays the key’s function. Each OLED supports 96-by-96-pixel resolution, fi ve-frames-per-second animation, and 262,000 colors. A Mac-compatible version is coming Real Soon Now.

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SeaMonkey: better than brine shrimp.

13GET INFO

13May 2006

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The Cult of iPod

Like his book The Cult of Mac ($39.95, www

.nostarch.com), Leander Kahney’s The Cult of iPod ($24.95, www .nostarch.com) takes a look at how a single device has become the object of devotion (or perhaps obsession) for many. The book covers everything from the original concept and humble beginnings to the signature silhouette ads and the booming iPod-accessory market. The Cult of iPod’s impressive images and compelling info do an excellent job conveying how influential the iPod is. If you love your ’Pod, you’ll love this book.—RL

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Something to read while you’re rockin’ to your ’Pod.

Das Blau’s The Versa ($59.99, www.dasblau

.com) is a case made for a fifth-generation iPod. Its exterior is made of leather, and the fabric inside features flashy colors and patterns. The belt loop can also be used with the protective flap to prop your iPod up on your desk. Eight different designs are available.—MV

iPOD CASE OF THE MONTH

SUBMIT YOUR CASE Whether your iPod case is a custom-made one-off or mass produced, you can submit it for Case-of-the-Month consideration—just send it to iPod Case of the Month, MacAddict, 4000 Shoreline Ct., Ste. 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080. Please note that we cannot return cases.

Encase your ’Pod in color.

APPLE NIXES FINAL CUT À LA CARTEApple’s Final Cut Pro 5, Soundtrack

Pro, Motion 2, and DVD Studio Pro 4 are no longer available as separate apps—you can now only purchase them together in the Final Cut Studio suite ($1,299, www.apple.com). Apple has special upgrade pricing if you already have certain pieces of the set. If you own Final Cut Pro 5, the upgrade to the full suite costs $99. If you own standalone

copies of Final Cut Pro 4, Final Cut HD, Motion 2, Soundtrack Pro, or DVD Studio Pro 4, you can upgrade to the Studio suite for $199.—RL

You can’t break up this gang of four.

DELETE OLD VERSIONS OF APPS

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Bug of the Month

Having remnant, unused versions of apps on your hard drive can cause a plethora of problems, the main one being that your documents can open

using the wrong version of an app. For example, if you still have the test-drive version of Microsoft Word 2004 and you’ve since purchased and installed a full copy of Office 2004, the test-drive Word may still launch when you double-click a Word document. Here’s how to get rid of defunct apps. DELETE APPS If you get rid of an old version of an app you no longer use, Mac OS X will automatically switch to the remaining app by default. You can uninstall an app by simply dragging its icon into the Trash. For a more thorough removal that also wipes out any associated files that may be strewn across your hard drive, use a utility such as AppZapper ($12.95, http://appzapper.com) or Yank ($19.95, www.matterform.com/welcome.html).ARCHIVE AND INSTALL REMNANTS Duplicate apps can also be left over from an Archive And Install process; these can cause problems in current versions of apps. To delete old copies of apps left over from an Archive And Install:1 Open the Previous System folder at the root level of your hard drive.2 Delete the Applications folder therein.3 Reapply the most-recent Mac OS X combo updater available from Apple’s

Download Web site (www.apple.com/support/downloads).RCDEFAULTAPP Still having problems? Try RCDefaultApp (free, www.rubicode .com) to specify which app should open files with a certain extension.

Honorable Mention goes to 11-year-old Chris Laples of Libertyville, IL for his iPod mini case made out of duct tape. Awesome, Chris!

14 May 2006

14 GET INFOthe news of the month in bite-size chunks PBGET INFO

SHAREWARE PICK OF THE MONTHSaft http://haoli.dnsalias.com/saft $12

Saft is a Safari plug-in that adds a new Sidebar that can contain RSS

feeds, URLs, and scripts. Saft comes with several premade Sidebar items, but you can add your own RSS feed to the Sidebar using TextEdit.—Andrew Tokuda

The Saft installation disk image contains premade Sidebar items. Go into the /Sidebar/Apple folder, Control-click Apple_hotnews.plugin, and select Show Package Contents. Open Info.plist in TextEdit (/Applications/TextEdit).

2 Create a new document in TextEdit and select Format > Make Plain Text. Copy the code from Info.plist, and paste it into the blank document. Close Info.plist.

3 Go to your favorite Web site’s RSS feed (the URL should have .rss or .xml at the tail). Replace Apple Hot News in the text document with the title of your new feed. Replace Apple’s URL in the text document with the new feed’s URL.

4 Save the fi le and name it Info.plist. Create a folder and give it an appropriate name. Drag your newly created Info.plist fi le into the folder, and then add .plugin to the folder’s name. This will turn it into a package that looks like a generic document instead of a folder.

Drag the package into the /User/Application Support/Saft/Sidebar folder. In Safari, choose View > Show Sidebar, and your RSS feed will appear on the left.

PMA FOCUS: NEW CAMERAS GALORE

E very February, photographers everywhere fl ock to the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) trade show to check out the latest cameras and other new photography equipment. Here’s the lowdown on some of the newest releases.

Canon announced 22(!) new products, including the EOS 30D Digital SLR ($1,399, www.usa.canon.com), which features an 8.2-megapixel CMOS sensor. The PowerShot S3 IS ($499.99) is a 6-megapixel camera with an image-stabilized 12x optical zoom. The PowerShot SD700 IS Digital ELPH ($499.99) has a 4x-optical-zoom lens with Optical Image Stabilization. The 6-megapixel PowerShot A700 ($349.99) has 6x optical zoom, 6-megapixel resolution, and 22 shooting modes. The 4-megapixel PowerShot A530 ($229.99) has 4x optical zoom and a 1.8-inch LCD screen.

Nikon unveiled seven new cameras. The Coolpix L4 ($149.95, www.nikonusa.com) is a 4-megapixel point-and-shoot with built-in red-eye fi x, 3x optical zoom, and more. The 6-megapixel Coolpix S6 ($449.95) has Wi-Fi for wireless fi le transfers. The CoolPix P4 ($399.95) is an 8.1-megapixel camera with 3.5x optical zoom and Vibration Reduction. The 105mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor ($1,035) is a macro lens equipped with Nikon’s Silent Wave Motor and Vibration Reduction systems.

Kodak’s new cameras included the EasyShare Z612 ($399, www.kodak.com), a 6-megapixel camera with 12x optical zoom. The compact 6.1-megapixel EasyShare V603 ($299) has a 2.5-inch LCD and 3x optical zoom. The 5-megapixel EasyShare C533 ($199) has a 3x optical zoom and 1.8-inch LCD.

Pentax showed its new 6-megapixel Optio T10 ($349.99, www.pentaximaging.com), which has a 3-inch LCD within its tiny 3.7-by-2.3-by-0.8-inch body. Samsung has partnered with Pentax to release the GX-1L (price TBD, www.samsungcamerausa.com), a digital SLR that has features similar to Pentax’s *ist DL: 6-megapixel resolution, a Pentax K-AF lens mount, a 2.5-inch LCD, a fi ve-point wide-area Auto Focus system, and more.

Other notable cameras at the show included Sony’s 8-megapixel Cyber-shot DSC-W100 ($350, www.sonystyle.com), Casio’s 8.1-megapixel Exilim Zoom EX-Z850 ($399.99, www.casio.com), and Panasonic’s Lumix DMC-L1 (price TBD, www.panasonic.com) digital SLR.

There were a couple of noteworthy software announcements, as well. Adobe released Photoshop Elements 4 for Mac ($89, www.adobe.com), which now has Magic Selection Brush and Magic Extractor tools to quickly separate an object from its background, a new Correct Color For Skin Tones function, and more. Apple released Aperture 1.1 ($499, www.apple.com) which features improved RAW processing, a new color meter, performance enhancements, and more. The 1.1 upgrade for current Aperture owners will be free.—MV and RL

Panasonic’s new digital SLR shares some of the same components as Olympus’s Evolt E-330.

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Your Mac,Your Future,and...

B E Y O N D

May 200616

What’s on tap for you and your Mac next year? In five years? Ten? Twenty? Come with us on a trip into the future.By Jake Widman and the editors of MacAddict Illustrations by Doug Ross Read on B

May 2006 17

PREDICTING THE FUTURE IS A CRAPSHOOT. Sure, the near future is reasonably predictable-Intel-based replacements for the iBook and Power Mac are a virtual certainty-but projecting beyond that requires a lot of research and a fair bit of dot-connecting. So that’s what we did in order to bring you our best prognostications of what’s coming down the pike in your digital life. Be forewarned, however. Although the future is indeed bright, there’ll be some bumps along the road. Also be forewarned that our predictions are just that: predictions. Read on with saltshaker in hand.

Your Mac, Your Future, and B E Y O N D

+iBOOK REDUX Within the next few months, the successor to the iBook will be released. It will be called the MacBook (non-Pro), will be based on either the Intel Core Duo or Core Solo chips, and will have the same widescreen display format of the MacBook Pro, iMac, and all of Apple’s current displays.

+POWER MAC REBORN Later this year, Apple will release the next generation of its pro-level Macs—and they won’t be called Power Macs. They’ll be based on a dual-core processor now code-named Conroe, though Intel’s marketing department will change that—S’more Duo, anyone? Conroe, which has already been demoed by Intel, is powered by Intel’s next-generation processor architecture; a single-core version using the same architecture will also be available. Due to Conroe’s improved power-handling capabilities, there’s a strong possibility that these pro-level Macs will be smaller and quieter than the current Power Mac G5s. Soon after the pro-level Macs are released, the mobile version of Conroe (code-named Merom) will appear in ’Books.

+SIMULTANEOUS OPERATING SYSTEMS If Apple chooses to implement Intel’s Virtualization Technology, next year you’ll be able to boot Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux simultaneously but separately and switch OSes at will. When Windows crashes, you won’t have to reboot Mac OS X or Linux—they’ll just keep humming along on their own. Will Apple unlock this capability? Flip a coin: Heads, they will; tails, they won’t.

+MULTIPLE STORAGE OPTIONS In a few years (or sooner), you’ll be able to choose between two types of storage for your ’Book: hard drives or flash drives—or both. Though flash-drive capacities will increase and their costs will sink, they’ll still be less capacious and more expensive than hard drives.

+TRUE VOICE CONTROL Within five years, your Mac’s processor power will rise to such a level that true, real-time natural-language voice control and transcription will become a reality. Added bonus: Real-time translation and transcription from, say, English to Chinese will also be possible. Within 10 years, your Mac’s voice-command capabilities will improve even further when your Mac’s iSight camera can read your lips.

Just don’t let it watch you and your coworkers discussing plans to shut it down.

+MASSIVE OPTICAL DRIVES In a year or three, your Mac will have a Blu-ray optical drive as standard equipment—and we do mean standard, not optional (Steve Jobs is a hard-core HD-video fan, and Blu-ray will make HD playback and recording possible). Blu-ray capacities are already at 25GB and will rise to 200GB in a few years; speed will triple, as well.

+SPECIALIZED CHIPS In the next five years, microprocessors and their supporting chips will be more and more often designed for specific purposes. For example, server CPUs that handle transaction processing won’t include higher-order mathematics elements such as floating-point units, and processors designed for compact mobile devices will have the functions of their supporting chips included on the microprocessor itself.

+MEGAPOWERFUL PROCESSORS In 10 years, microprocessors will have dozens or even hundreds of specialized cores. Applications will be coded to take advantage of the massively parallel capabilities of these chips, resulting in such now-unthinkable feats as real-time ray tracing (see “Content Creation,” p21).

+G’BYE, CIRCUITRY It will take a decade or more, but eventually logic boards and their intricate traces and circuitry will disappear when chips communicate with one another using proximity communication, a technology in which on-chip transmitters send signals to receivers on other chips, thus enabling more-complex and higher-speed communication among chips.

The MacThere are plenty of changes coming—and they’re all for the better.

May 200618

+WIRELESS VIDEO Sometime next year, you’ll see a video version of AirTunes with a video-capable AirPort Express—we’re already partway there with the Front Row–equipped, Bonjour-capable Mac mini and the iPod AV Connection Kit.

+CARS ’N’ TVS More and more cars will be sold with iPod connectivity built in. In a few years, you’ll see TVs with built-

in “iPod docks” that enable direct full-screen playback.

+SATELLITE RADIO Within two years, Griffin will offer a Radio Shark with satellite-radio capability. Within 10 years, satellite-radio receivers will be built into every Mac.

+BYE-BYE BLOCKBUSTER Within five years, DVD rental stores will be on their way out. Instead, you’ll either take your iPods to the video store and pay to have movies downloaded to them, or log onto your video-store account and download movies to your TV-connected Mac minis or their media-oriented offspring. Each download will include some form of rights protection that makes the video expire after a

+POCKET-SIZE MACS By 10 years out, Apple will leverage the hosted-app model (see “Software,” p21). With your apps, docs, and email stored online, your Mac itself will need only enough space for minimal system and .Mac-connection software. Match an iPod nano–sized Mac with a roll-up display (like Samsung’s plastic-enclosed LCD prototype) and a folding keyboard, and your Mac will fit in your jacket pocket.

+NUBBIN MAC In 25 years, your encrypted data, photos, videos, tunes, OS, and apps will all live in a tab small enough to carry on your keychain. You’ll insert it into your Mac, phone, camera, or whatever, or wirelessly connect to a keyboard, display, and sound system. The tab will also connect to the Internet wirelessly so you can back it up, make purchases (it’ll automatically access your bank info), or share your digital stuff.

TOUCH Apple patent number 20,060,026,536, applied for in January 2005, covers “gestures for touch-sensitive input devices” and lists Apple design guru Jonathan Ive as one of its inventors. Apple says the touch-sensitive system could apply to such UI elements as virtual volume knobs, scroll wheels, and keyboards. So are we talking about the much-rumored “real” video iPod with a bigger screen? An Apple wireless tablet computer? A digital book reader? We’d place our bets on an improved video iPod.VOICE ACTIVATION Patent number 20,050,015,254, filed in July 2003, is for a server-based media-management system that includes voice-activated navigation. The new system, coupled with the touch-sensitive screen, could indicate a next generation of wireless iPods with the ability to download updatable menus beyond those that come prepackaged with the unit. The voice activation could make them more convenient to use while driving or jogging.MOBILE ME Last January, we found out about Apple’s new trademark/service-mark application for “Mobile Me,” filed under three separate numbers: 78,785,943; 78,785,950; and 78,785,959. This mark covers a broad range of technologies and services, including portable devices such as digital audio

players, digital video players, handheld computers, personal digital assistants, pagers, electronic organizers, electronic notepads, and a whole lot more. The patent is vague enough that it could encompass a variety of new devices, including an Apple-branded smartphone.VIDEO AND VoIP Apple could use the iPod’s success to make VoIP (Voice over IP)

telephony successful and give Apple a huge communications user base. Two Apple patents (7,003,590 and 7,003,260) deal with, respectively, an automatic ID-allocation technique for use in applications for AV/C (audio/video control) devices, and database programs for handheld devices. An AV/C device consists of a control unit and one or more subunits that perform the controlled functions, such as camcorders and TVs. Apple is at least eyeing some sort of device that would interact with these devices, and a good bet would be on the aforementioned video iPod or a true media-center Mac.

The database patent involves techniques for providing access to databases from handheld devices. If said databases included contact info, we could see an iPod phone that does VoIP. Whether it looks like an iPod with a microphone and speaker, or like the iTunes-capable phones from Motorola—well, only time will tell.—Dennis Sellers

PATENT PENDING Reading the Numbered Tea LeavesWe know that more Intel Macs and new variations

of the iPod are coming, but exactly what shape they’ll take—and what else Apple may have in the pipeline—may be discerned from several recent patents Jobs & Co. have filed. Or maybe not. But

heck, we’re going to try anyway.

Home EntertainmentYes, Virginia, there were once only three TV channels, and music came on vinyl.

▲

May 2006 19

+THE END OF VIRUSES Within five years, viruses will be few and far between. Microsoft and Apple, possibly with help from the government, will come up with a combination of antiviral utilities and security patches that’ll keep Macs and PCs reasonably safe, and most virus writers will get bored and go back to trying to take over computers at banks and the Pentagon.

+DATA TAPPING Within 10 years, someone will come up with a way to release code-based “antibodies” over the Internet that will identify and destroy the few viruses that make it through the aforementioned antiviral measures before they ever reach your Mac. Of course, that means they’ll have to tap into and inspect data packets—which means the government will likely control the technology.

+TRUSTED COMPUTING Neither of the previous two predictions might matter, however, since Intel-based Macs will soon be able to support trusted computing, a technology that can—among other things—allow a computer to refuse to run software it doesn’t authorize, such as a virus. Unfortunately, this also opens the door to the (unlikely, we hope) possibility that your Mac could also refuse to run any software it doesn’t like—such as non-

Apple software, or at least software not vetted and licensed by Apple. Such software would be sold with a “Runs for Sure!” sticker on the box.

+EVERYTHING ENCRYPTED In a year or three, you’ll have the build-to-order option to equip your Mac with a hard drive that automatically encrypts all your data in real time, greatly improving the security of all your personal stuff—a boon especially to MacBook owners who might lose their precious ’Books or (gasp!) have them stolen. After this development, further security will be provided by your laptop’s built-in iSight camera, which will scan either the blood-vessel patterns on your retinas or flecks on your irises to find out whether you are, indeed, your ’Book’s owner.

couple of days—although you’ll probably be able to extend the duration by going online.

+THE BIG SCREEN In addition to downloading movies, you’ll also be able to choose from an explosion of indie and public-domain films, downloadable via BitTorrent-type technology. iMovie HD and Macs that can handle streaming HD video will make widescreen moviemaking as easy as blogging and podcasting—with similar results (see “Content Creation,” p21).

+THE APPLE CHANNEL Within five years, Apple will provide exclusive video content—TV shows and movies available only via the iTunes Music Store or some other download service. You’ll also be able to subscribe to a download-only TV network.

+FOLLOW THE MONEY That all sounds great, right? Well, we’ll also bet that within 10 years, crafty marketers will figure out how to make money by ruining your experience unless you pay. How’d you like to see pop-up ads in the middle of a movie?


APPLE “I feel Apple will continue to grow in the mainstream-computer market. I seriously doubt it will pass 25 to 30 percent. But investing in Apple stock feels pretty solid. I’m also curious about upcoming acquisitions. I don’t see anyone acquiring Apple, but I see the possibility that Apple’s growth could come by acquiring others. The result could be more functions built into the Mac, and that will make it even more attractive.”iPODS “My feeling is that iPods will continue to dominate the digital-music-player market for at least the next three years. I do see a potential problem if Apple tries to cram too many functions into the device. I feel Apple would be wise to keep simple, less-complex versions in the product lineup as well.”MACS “I feel there is a huge shift coming within the next five years or so that will reconfigure how we use our computers. It

could be that we access software in a very different way—maybe like we’ll log onto an account and use it that way. In any case, it’ll make the difference between operating systems far less relevant than it is now—it’s not even clear how they’d differentiate themselves.”STEVE JOBS “I anticipated a couple of years ago that Steve Jobs was looking to resign, and I don’t see him staying as CEO beyond next year. The question is: Who will replace him? I feel there’s definitely some scouting going on, but a solid

candidate hasn’t emerged yet. My feeling is that someone else from the early days—from outside Apple, but not outside the computer industry—might surface in a stronger role. I also think that [Oracle CEO] Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs will get involved in some kind of collaboration, but not one involving Apple directly.”

A PSYCHIC’S INTUITION

We geeks at MacAddict may be experts in technology, but not necessarily in divining the future—that’s

why we contacted Barbara Courtney, a professional psychic (aka “intuitive

consultant”) who happens to live a few miles up the freeway from Apple’s digs in Cupertino, CA. Courtney offered

her insights into the fortunes of Apple, the Mac, and Steve Jobs.

SecurityThe balancing act between security and privacy will continue.

why we contacted Barbara Courtney, a professional psychic (aka “intuitive

consultant”) who happens to live a few miles up the freeway from Apple’s digs in Cupertino, CA. Courtney offered

May 200620

+VIRTUAL CONCERTS Within five years, far-flung musicians will be jamming together in real time over the Interweb, with video capabilities so they can see each other. Using iSight cameras, iChat, and real-time iMovie, they’ll be able to composite themselves together into the image of a band; audience members will be able to log on and watch and listen to the performance.

+HOME HIGH-DEF Within five to 10 years, you’ll be able to broadcast high-definition video from your own consumer-level Mac, which will have enough processing power to host high-quality video streaming—especially since by that time we should be up to video codec H.274 (or should we say MPEG-4 Part 15?).

+REAL-TIME RAY TRACING Ten years from now, your Mac will be able to render ray-traced animations in real time. Ray tracing is a way of creating 3D scenes that look realistic, with objects that reflect and cast shadows on one another. It’s also a tremendously processor-intensive process: Today, a single ray-traced

frame of a movie such as The Incredibles takes hours to render. The ability to produce fully realized 3D scenes without waiting for rendering will take gaming and other forms of digital entertainment to new heights of realism.

+ONLY THE STRONG WILL SURVIVE Fortunately, with all this new content, we look forward to a quality shakeout over the next five or 10 years. When punk came along in the late seventies, everybody with a garage started a band, but a decade later, only a handful of those bands had “made it.” Same thing: Blogs and podcasts won’t go away, but the offerings will be whittled down to a top tier with broad appeal (which doesn’t necessarily equate with “quality”)—and you’ll almost certainly have to pay for them somehow.

+UP AGAINST EXCEL iWork will get a spreadsheet module, but maybe not as early as next year. Microsoft has promised to keep developing Office for the Mac for five more years, so Apple has that much time to make sure that iCalc (a name Apple trademarked in May 2005) is thoroughly Excel compatible—which it had better be, or it’ll have no chance of surviving.

+DRAWING AND DATA Other new iApps will include iDraw, a basic vector-based drawing program, and iData, a basic database app. iDraw will resemble the drawing module in AppleWorks, with the added ability to automatically regularize sketched shapes—turn a quickly hand-drawn oval into a perfect circle, for example—as well as perform basic 2D animation. iData will be stuffed with templates for tasks such as organizing recipes and managing household finances. It’ll be based on the metaphor of a stack of index cards, but will have some relational capabilities—you’ll be able to, for example, search for all your debit-card payments at Costco. A possible alternate name: iPerCard.

+FAREWELL, SOFTWARE Within five years, it’ll be possible to work without actually owning any software. iLife and iWork will be available as hosted applications on .Mac, so you’ll be able to work on your iDisk-stored documents from any Mac

anywhere just by logging on. When you get to your account, you’ll be presented with something like the media browser in Pages or iMovie HD: You’ll choose a project to work on rather than an app to work in, and the required app will load automatically. Once that’s up and running, you’ll be able to do “doc-casting” to let other people subscribe to your documents—.Mac will become a space not just for storage and broadcasting, but also for collaboration.

+OPENDOC REVIVED OpenDoc was Apple’s 1992-to-1997 effort to make it possible to work on compound documents by loading sets of tools appropriate to their different components—for example, by using a spreadsheet utility as a component inside a word-processing document. A .Mac-hosted iLife could use the same sort of approach, which could make it possible for Apple to implement a micropayment-based, pay-by-the-operation system. Need Gaussian Blur on that photo in your Pages document? That’ll be 99 cents, please.

ContentCreationAndy Warhol was right—in the future, we’ll all get our 15 minutes of fame.

SoftwareSoftware will continue to improve—but it may not be on your Mac.

GAMES Alas, the future doesn’t look bright for Mac gaming. Games on computers—both Macs and PCs—are losing ground to consoles, with the exception of massively multiplayer online RPGs such as Blizzard’s World of Warcraft and other niche genres. We hope we’re wrong, but there’s no reason to think that the Mac’s slice of this shrinking pie will increase.

May 2006 21


+VOICE ’PODS Within five years, you’ll be able to control your iPod with verbal input. “Playlist: Newly Added. Shuffle. Play.”

+WIRELESS ’PODS The iPod will soon be wireless, allowing you to download songs directly from the iTunes Music Store or stream them over Wi-Fi. It also means we’ll all be able to share all our music, all the time. The RIAA will lobby Congress to institute a tax on iPods to pay for what it will call “lost revenue,” even though music sales will be at an all-time high.

+GAMING ’PODS Within five years, the iTunes Music Store will offer video games. Some you’ll be able to download and play directly through your iPod (with an optional controller or via the iPod’s potential

touchscreen technology, à la the Nintendo DS); others you’ll be able to stream to your video-game consoles. (Hey, you can already play music from your ’Pod through your Xbox 360—all three of you that have managed to find one.) You’ll also be able to rent games on your iPod the same way you’ll rent movies (see “Home Entertainment,” p19).

+VORACIOUS ’PODS It took the iTunes Music Store three years to sell its first billion songs. You can expect it to move the next billion by the end of next year.

Max wakes up two hours past the time he’s scheduled to be at work, grumbling before

he’s even out of bed. The iMac that controls his apartment was supposed to arouse him—what happened? A quick check of the wall screen reveals the problem: The company that publishes the alarm app allowed its Apple-licensing certificate to expire. The iMac’s trusted-computing circuitry discovered this fact last night during its regular check-in with Apple and automatically disabled the wake-up app.

Cursing fluidly and imaginatively, Max tries to call his boss from his company cell phone, but everyone’s in a meeting, and their voice-synthesized autobounceback messages tell him he can’t reach them until after lunch. He then tries to email his boss’s BlackBerry, but his e-stamp account is empty. (Email was changed to a pay-per-message system in late 2008. The change was touted as a spam-fighting measure, but the enormous revenue quickly corrupted the two remaining telcos that control broadband Internet access. Unfortunately, spammers can afford all the e-stamps they need—the telcos provide great bulk-mailing rate plans—so Max’s inbox fills with daily offers for genetically modified organic Viagra; condo loans at the low, low APR of 23.5 percent; and—yes, it still exists—Nigerian advance-fee spam. But we digress…) Max pulls on his coat, jumps into his syn-fuel, self-guided Hyundai, and tells its guidance computer to take him to the office.

Arriving at work, he finds a security guard with a pink slip waiting by the blast-hardened gate. Max forgot that his company tracks his cell phone via location-monitoring software at the corporate headquarters; when the computer registered that he was still at home two hours after his shift started, his

employment was automatically terminated.

On his way to the unemployment office, he stops by a coffee shop to check the balance of his investment account. After paying the $20 fee for an hour of Wi-Fi access (free public hotspots were banned in 2010—homeland security, y’know), he’s dismayed to discover that the Web site for his bank won’t load. The bank, you see, failed to pay the local ISP for permission to transmit over its network. MallWartCo’s site

loads fine, though—not that Max can afford to buy anything.Finally, seeking relaxation, Max goes to the park. A few hours

of listening to his iPod while embraced by Mother Nature never fails to cheer him up—too bad his iPod’s location-tracking RFID (radio-frequency identification) chip denies it permission to play. Even though he’s listening through his wireless earbuds, the iPod requires that Max purchase a temporary public license before it will play in any location other than his apartment—the location-licensing scheme was introduced by the RIAA as a way to discourage podjacking.

When Max overrides the restriction with a hack downloaded from the Internet—a Venezuelan site, since Google ensures that U.S. sites are tightly policed—the iPod automatically notifies the police of his Digital Millennium Copyright Act violation. Max is arrested moments later. As the police lead him away, Max thinks back to his first computer—an Apple IIe for which he wrote his own software—and weeps. What he doesn’t know, however, is that an alert underground blogger has reported his plight to millions of MacAddict readers, who are already preparing for the obligatory (and illegal) protest march.—Johnathon Williams

MAX IN DYSTOPIAVILLE

It’s Tuesday, 2031, and technology has brought some changes that are less than welcome.

PersonalEntertainmentThe iPod revolution has just begun—prepare for the always-on explosion.

May 200622

+WINDOWS? HA! Apple won’t adopt the Windows operating system. Ever. (Don’t laugh; some pontificatory pundit types are suggesting that it should.)

+CAN YOU HEAR MAC NOW? Within five years, you’ll be able to buy an Apple-branded cell phone—with iTunes built in, natch—and use it on an Apple-branded phone network. Apple won’t build its own network, but rather act as an MVNO (mobile virtual network operator), along the lines of

Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile, by subleasing frequencies to resell to customers interested in an Apple-quality cell-phone experience.

+MACS ARE HERE TO STAY Apple won’t stop making Macs, at least not within the next dozen years or more; the company is more likely to start making something entirely new than to abandon computing hardware. Also, pro-level

Apple-produced computers—no matter what they’re called—will continue to dominate high-end content creation.

+IMITATION IS THE SINCEREST Next year, Apple will come out with an ad that doesn’t look like someone else’s ad or music video.

+NO COMMENT When asked about the future, Apple spokesfolks will continue to decline to comment.

AppleThe fabled Cupertino Fruit Company will continue to thrive and expand.

Jake Widman and the MacAddict staff have seen the future, and it works—that is, when it’s not just a spinning multicolored beach ball. Dennis Sellers is the founder of Macsimum News (www.macsimumnews.com), an online newspaper about all things Mac. After researching “Max in Dystopiaville,”

Johnathon Williams fears the future.

TheInternetThink mobility. Think ubiquity. Think intrusive marketing schemes.

+iWEB GROWS UP Next year’s release of iWeb will allow forums and comments on blogs.

+MAKE YOUR OWN ONLINE STORE Apple will continue to raise .Mac’s bandwidth and storage-space limits while tying its capabilities more and more tightly to the iLife apps. Within five years, you’ll be able to get an ecommerce version of iWeb that’ll let you host your own stores on .Mac; whether Apple will take a cut from each .Mac-based sale is anybody’s guess.

+WIRELESS ACCESS EVERYWHERE Five years from now, you’ll be able to find an Interweb connection of some sort anywhere you go. Wireless Internet-access technologies such

as WiMAX and EVDO will enable providers to blanket even rural areas with wireless coverage, so as long as you’ve got a properly-equipped Mac, cell phone, or other device, you’ll always be on the info grid.

+UNFAIR ADVANTAGE Within five years, ISPs will merge into only a handful of major

players, and they’ll begin to offer “tiered access” service. Under this scheme, big corporate customers such as Wal-Mart, for example, could pay your ISP to make sure that Wal-Mart Online packets speed to your Mac without any of the delays that will afflict access to small fish such as Rik’s eSausage eShack. Solution? Independent ISPs. Problem? What independent ISPs?

+MOBILE TELEMARKETING Within 10 years, Google will tie together Google Earth with its telephone-number-lookup system and newly acquired access to cell-phone data and location information to let you find anyone, anywhere, anytime—as long as they have a cell phone. Businesses will leverage this technology to call your phone when you’re near their locations and play an audio or video ad.

+NO SUBSCRIPTIONS The iTMS will not go to the subscription model—not in the next five years, anyway. Current popular releases are just too reliable a cash cow. But within five years, iTMS will have multi-tier pricing, with the latest hits costing more than 99 cents. Unfortunately, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the old stuff will cost less than 99 cents.

+OKAY, SOME SUBSCRIPTIONS On second thought: The iTMS may offer subscription channels that serve as samplers for certain musical genres. We could see subscribing to a local-band channel to find out which bands were worth checking out, or a classical music channel to listen—just once— to every possible interpretation of Mahler’s Kindertotenleider.

May 2006 23

May 200624

BACK IT UP!

By John Rizzo

Backing up is like going to the gym to lose weight: Unless you have a strategy for

doing it regularly, it just won’t be effective. Over the next few pages, we’re going to

give you that strategy—three strategies, in fact. First we’ll show you a bare-bones,

easy backup that ensures you copy all the data that you can’t live without. After that, we have

a disaster-recovery strategy designed to get you up and running immediately after a major

problem. Finally, we detail a plan for archiving material that isn’t going to change, such as

photos, old work projects, and music.

No more excuses. Take these steps, and start living a healthier Mac lifestyle.

■ You know you should.■ You know you’ll feel better when you do.■ Here’s how to protect your precious fi les from

the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune.

ON THEDISC

Déjà Vu, iPod.iTunes, SuperDuper

May 2006 25

BACK IT UP!

■ You know you should.■ You know you’ll feel better when you do.■ Here’s how to protect your precious fi les from

the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune.

Strategy 1:THE BARE MINIMUMIf you’re just too busy to back up the “right” way, at least make time to back up what’s important.

C onventional wisdom has it that you should back up everything, every day, onto three sets of media—two onsite and a third offsite, preferably in a safety deposit box at the bottom of an unused mine shaft. While this strategy makes sense for

some, it’s overkill for most—and similar to what happens when you’re told to work out for an hour every day, you’ll just end up doing no backup at all.

Here, we defy orthodoxy and offer an alternative that doesn’t require a lot of storage space or time. You can use just about any media you have at hand, including online storage, external drives, and optical discs. The idea of the Bare Minimum backup is to back up only fi les that you’re using and changing on a regular basis. First, here’s what you don’t need to back up, and why:

■ MAC OS X You can reinstall this from your Mac OS X Install disc if you need to recover from disaster.

■ APPS THAT CAME WITH THE MAC You can also use the Install disc that came with your Mac to reinstall all of these apps at once.

■ APPS THAT CAME ON A CD OR DVD You’ll reinstall these one at a time if you need to.

■ APPS FOR WHICH YOU STILL HAVE THE INSTALLER Ditto. (See “Archive Your Static Data,” p27.)

In addition to these items, there are some fi les and folders that you don’t need to back up every day because they don’t change that often. An occasional archiving of these will work fi ne, as explained in the “Archive Your Static Data” section (p27).

▲

May 200626

What you do need to back up is trickier. Of course you want to back up your data files, usually located in your Documents folder—but a lot of what you want to back up is secreted away in places you’d never think to look. Here are the key folders that change regularly and should be included in the minimum backup:

■ EMAIL MESSAGES /user name/Library/Mail for Apple Mail; /user name/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2004 Identities/Main Identity for Entourage

■ iCAL CALENDAR /user name/Library/Application Support/iCal in Tiger; /user name/Library/Calendars in Mac OS 10.3.9 and earlier

■ ADDRESS BOOK CONTACTS /user name/Library/Application Support/AddressBook

■ SAFARI BOOKMARKS /user name/Library/Safari/Bookmarks.plist

■ KEYCHAIN PASSWORDS /user name/Library/Keychains

Strategy 2:THE BOOTABLE-BACKUP SAFETY NETWhen everything goes wrong, use this method to get back on your feet in an instant.

Now that we’ve just shown you how not to back up your entire hard disk, we’re going to tell you why you might want to. Two words: disaster recovery. When

your hard drive goes south and refuses to return, nothing beats having a bootable external hard drive to start your Mac back up. Having one lets you immediately get back to business, checking your email and using your files. A bootable backup drive also makes it easier to try fixing your sick drive, because you can use multiple disk-repair utilities such as Alsoft’s DiskWarrior ($79.95, www.alsoft.com) or file-recovery utilities such as

A RAID array—acronymified from either “redundant array of inexpensive disks”

or “redundant array of independent drives”—is often portrayed as an alternative to backup. In some ways it is, but in some important ways it isn’t.

Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger) supports three ways to use multiple disks in a RAID array, configurable through Disk Utility: striped, concatenated, and mirror. (Obviously, you need to have multiple drives connected to your Mac to do this.) Striped breaks files into multiple segments and

puts them on all the drives, making the read/write process faster; concatenated tells the Mac to treat all the drives as though they were a single volume. Mirror RAID is the type considered an alternative to backup: As you save files, they’re placed onto two drives simultaneously, leaving you with an always-up-to-date extra bootable drive. If one hard drive fails, you can keep running the Mac with the other. When you replace the dead drive, the mirror RAID is regenerated automatically. In this way, mirror RAID is superior to a daily backup

in its protection against hardware drive failures.

So what’s the problem? Most hard-drive errors aren’t caused by hardware failure, but by corruption of data in the drive directory. When this happens, the RAID software can copy the bad data to both drives, spreading the problem to your “backup.” Now you have a dead Mac and a nonworking backup.

The lesson here is that running a RAID is good insurance against downtime for certain problems, but it’s no guarantee against data loss.

Apple’s Backup provides you with a set of predefined backup options, but it also lets you create your own.

You’ve probably noticed that all of these folders are in the Library folder inside your home (user name) folder. To make things simple, you could back up your entire /user name/Library folder, though it contains files that you don’t really need to back up, which drastically increases the space needed.

To copy these folders and files, you could simply drag them to your backup medium—but that’s something you won’t want to do every day. You’re better off using software that will back up these folders automatically. One of the best utilities for the Bare Minimum backup is Apple’s own Backup, which you can get when you subscribe to Apple’s .Mac service—even if you just sign up for the free 60-day trial (download it from your /iDisk/Software/Apple Software folder). The appeal is that you don’t actually need to know the locations of the email, calendar, and other key folders—all you need to do is select these and other items from Backup’s list of preconfigured backup scenarios. (For more on using Backup, see “Back That Mac Up,” Mar/06, p63.) Other backup utilities will also work but take more effort to set up and reconfigure. (See “A Backup-Software Sampler,” p28.)

RAID = BACKUP?

May 2006 27

Prosoft’s Data Rescue II ($99, www.prosofteng.com) without restarting your Mac—otherwise, you’ll have to restart with each utility’s CD or DVD each time you try a different repair utility. Finally, if you do need to recreate your hard drive, your backup software will reinstall all of your software, settings, and files in one step—there’ll be no need to run multiple installers.

To create a bootable backup drive, you’ll need software that copies the thousands of invisible files the Mac requires to start up—you won’t get these files by dragging and dropping. Some utilities that do a good job are Déjà Vu, BounceBack, and SuperDuper (see “A Backup-Software Sampler,” p28). Alternately, some external drives, such as those in the Maxtor OneTouch line ($149.95 to $899.95, www.maxtor.com), come with backup software that can create a bootable drive.

Your first full-disk backup can take up your lunch hour—or even your entire afternoon—but subsequent backups will be much shorter. That’s because most backup utilities back up incrementally, copying only files that are new or have changed since the last backup.

If you’re using an older external drive as your backup, it may have a smaller capacity than your modern Mac’s internal drive. To make sure you don’t run into trouble, choose software that lets you exclude specific folders from being backed up to your bootable drive. Some space-hogging items you might want to leave out include your music, photos, and movies (assuming you’ve archived them as described in the next section), the Caches folder (/user name/Library/Caches), and applications for which you still have the CDs. Do not, however, exclude your hard-drive repair utilities; you’ll want to have these on your backup drive in case of an emergency.

Strategy 3:ARCHIVE YOUR STATIC DATASome data only needs to be backed up once. Make sure you do it right the first time.

A rchiving to optical discs (recordable DVDs and CDs) is a great strategy for data that doesn’t change and that you might want to keep for awhile. Movies, music, and

photos are good candidates for archiving. Optical media not only lasts longer than hard-drive storage, but it’s hella cheaper, too. The downside is the relatively small size of each disc: An iMovie file can easily be too big to fit on a single DVD, and even a nano-sized iTunes library would occupy multiple CDs.

Backing up in a business environment can be crucial to preserving the bottom line—it’s not an option. But businesses often need to back

up multiple Macs at the same time. The easiest way to do this is to simply back up files from each Mac on the network to an ordinary file-server volume mounted on every Mac. Many of the backup utilities that you’d use on an individual Mac, including Déjà Vu, BounceBack, and Retrospect, can also back up to a mounted file server.

Larger businesses, on the other hand, may choose to back up to a dedicated backup server. Each one of the users’ Macs runs a backup client to transfer files to the server, and then the server itself gets backed up. The advantage to a dedicated backup server is that it gives better performance than using a file server, and users don’t have to mount a drive on their Macs. Backup servers also usually include administration software that enables an IT staff to configure all of the Macs from one place. Backup servers often allow both Mac and Windows PCs to back up to the same server, and they generally work with various types of media, including tape.

Industrial-strength backup services such as BakBone (www.bakbone.com) and ADIC (www.adic.com) can run on multiple backup servers, and they can service hundreds of users’ computers and file servers. They provide features such as backing up several different types of files at different times, backing up to remote sites, and backing up to tape libraries. These big-boy backup systems mean business—and save businesses.

CMS’s schedulable BounceBack provides detailed info of its progress while backing up.

BUSINESS BACKUP

Déjà Vu can back up a whole disk or selected folders according to the schedule you choose.

Until new storage technologies become widely available (such as Blu-ray, introduced this year, which can store up to 25GB on single-layer media—but currently costs $1,000 for a drive and 20 bucks for a disc), use backup software that can spread files across multiple discs. Roxio’s Toast 7 Titanium ( Jan/06, p44), for example, has this ability.

May 200628

As with the other strategies we’ve detailed, you need to know what to archive. Here’s a short list:

■ SOFTWARE PURCHASED BY DOWNLOAD Back up the installer (disk image or compressed archive) if you still have it; otherwise, back up the software itself.

■ COMPLETED PROJECTS You can figure this one out.■ MOVIES /user name/Movies■ PHOTOS /user name/Pictures/iPhoto Library■ MUSIC That’s a more complicated task. Read on.

When it comes to music, the very least you should archive is what you’ve purchased from the iTunes Music Store or otherwise downloaded from the Internet. Apple’s Backup allows you to back up purchased music to discs or your .Mac account. You can also use iTunes to burn your Purchased Music playlist to disc.

However you back up your music, be sure to include the /Users/Shared folder in your archive. This folder contains invisible information that holds your iTunes Music Store authorization data—without it, you might not be able to play your purchased songs. Also consider including your playlists, located in files called iTunes Music Library.xml and iTunes Library, from your /user name/Music/iTunes folder (unless you’ve moved your whole iTunes folder somewhere else—to an external drive, for instance—in which case they’re in the new folder location).

John Rizzo backed up his Mac 217 times while writing Mac mini Mods and Hacks for Dummies (John Wiley & Sons, 2006).

APPLICATION PROS CONS IDEAL USES

Backup■ Apple■ www.mac.com■ $99 per year

(as part of .Mac subscription)

Backs up to .Mac, hard drives, and optical disks. You don’t need to know locations of key files and folders.

You must subscribe to Apple’s .Mac service or sign up for a 60-day free trial. Cannot create bootable drive.

Backing up settings, iCal, Address Book, and songs purchased from the iTunes Music Store.

BounceBack■ CMS Products■ www.cmsproducts

.com■ $79

Creates bootable backup drive. Automatically launches when you plug in backup drive. Easy exclusion of folders. Can schedule different folders for different media.

The backup and restore functions are in separate applications.

Scheduled backup of entire or partial bootable hard disks to one or more destinations. Scheduling both backup and archiving.

Carbon Copy Cloner■ Mike Bombich■ www.bombich.com ■ $5 or more

(donationware)

Creates bootable drive. Dirt cheap.

Cannot back up to CDs or DVDs. No way to exclude folders. Complex user interface. No tech support.

Scheduled backup of entire hard drive to a bootable external drive.

Déjà Vu■ Propaganda

Productions ■ www.propagandaprod

.com, on the Disc■ $25, or free with

Roxio Toast

Creates bootable drive. Simple to use. Free if you have Roxio’s Toast.

You can select individual folders, but you can’t exclude folders if entire drive is selected.

Scheduled backup of selected folders or an entire hard drive to a bootable external drive.

Retrospect■ EMC Insignia■ www.emcinsignia.com■ $129

Lets you customize and configure every conceivable aspect of a backup.

Complex interface. Backing up multiple Macs over a network.

SuperDuper■ Shirt Pocket Software■ www.shirt-pocket.com,

on the Disc■ $28

More advanced options than Carbon Copy Cloner.

No way to exclude folders.

Scheduled backup of an entire hard drive to a bootable external drive.

The purchased-music-only archive approach leaves you with all of your music CDs to reimport if you need to restore your hard drive. It would be easier to archive all of your iTunes music (/user name/Music/iTunes), though that may require multiple DVDs. Another storage option is your iPod, of course, if it’s big enough to hold all of your music. The problem is that Apple gives you no way to restore the music and playlists from your iPod to your Mac. You’ll need to turn to one of the many shareware utilities that can do that, such as PodWorks ($8, www.scifihifi.com/podworks), iPod.iTunes ($35, on the Disc, www.crispsofties.com), or iPod Access ($14.99, www .findleydesigns.com).

THE MULTIPRONGED APPROACH

You’ve probably guessed by now that the best strategy is to use a bit of each of the techniques we’ve described. Create an archive of your space-hogging static data on

optical discs. Back up regularly to a bootable backup drive. If you subscribe to .Mac, use it to upload automatic daily backups of your application settings, iCal calendar, and Address Book contacts. This gives you two copies of some of your most valuable data.

Storage in the unused mineshaft is optional.

A BACKUP-SOFTWARE SAMPLERThere’s a lot of backup software out there, and most of it is very good at doing some things while not so super at doing other tasks. This list should give you a good idea of the range of utilities you can find.

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Left Right

Left Right

May 200632

The moment you venture into the world of digital video editing, you’ll be bombarded by swarms of terms that come from film, tape-based video editing, and even still-image work. Here’s a quick look at some of the language you should know as you get

started with iMovie HD or embark on any other video-crafting voyage.

Shooting LingoCOVERAGE “Extra” footage shot to ensure that at least some video is available for all possible scenes. Coverage shots

may feature scenery, long shots of events, or other material that can be used during editing to “cover” scene changes, audio-only sequences, or other elements that lack specific content.

DEPTH A measure of how much of your scene, from foreground to background, will be in focus. A shallow depth of OF FIELD field is good for highlighting particular subjects by keeping them in sharp focus while the background blurs.

FRAMES Individual video images that comprise a clip (see below). NTSC video—the U.S. standard—is composed of 29.97 frames per second (fps).

HEADROOM The area above a subject’s head in a shot. To take an effective shot of a person, leave plenty of headroom.

PAN/TILT Rotation of a camera along an axis. A pan shot, usually done with the camera mounted on a tripod, moves smoothly from side to side to capture a landscape or to follow motion. A tilt shot moves up and down.

SHOT LIST The written description of the shots needed for a video project, usually prepared in advance of shooting. Shot lists ensure that you have all of the footage you need when you begin editing.

TIMECODE Notation indicating the position of video footage in time (hours, minutes, and seconds) and number of frames. Camcorders create timecode, and you can use it to identify your position within a recording once you import it into a video-editing app such as iMovie HD.

Editing LingoASPECT RATIO The shape of a video frame, expressed by the ratio of its width to its height. Standard television uses a 4:3

aspect ratio, while widescreen and HDTV uses a 16:9 ratio.

CLIP A portion (often a complete scene) of a video project. Clips can be combined, edited, or split to create larger or smaller segments of video. You can insert transitions and video effects between clips.

CODEC An algorithm that compresses and decompresses video. To play digital video, apps such as QuickTime Player or RealPlayer must have access to a codec that is compatible with the video’s compression format.

DROPOUT Missing audio or video. Dropouts occur during playback, either because the original video is flawed, or because the playback device (your old, low-RAM Mac, for example) can’t process video information fast enough to display it in real time.

EDL Edit Decision List. Notes and descriptions of scenes to be edited or cut. A proper EDL should specify the time at which important scenes and potential edits occur. Editors use the EDL to place scenes in their final running order.

Field Guide to VIDEO-EDITING TERMS

Vital Video VerbiageBy Shelly Brisbin

Component video is split into three separate signals: one for luminance (roughly equivalent to brightness) and two for chrominance (color information). Component signals travel directly to a monitor or TV via three separate cables and connectors. Composite video, on the other hand, has been compressed so that only one cable (and one jack) is required—the yellow one in the red/white/yellow setup that most TVs, VCRs, and DVD players use. Component video provides higher quality than composite video.

Component video (left) sends video via three cables, while composite (right) uses only a single, usually yellow, cable.

Component Video vs. Composite VideoComponent

Composite

+ = Interlaced

Rule ofthirds

Component

Composite

+ = Interlaced

Rule ofthirds

Component

Composite

+ = Interlaced

Rule ofthirds

Component

Composite

+ = Interlaced

Rule ofthirds

May 2006 33

IN POINT/ The point at which a segment begins (in) or ends (out). You can use iMovie bookmarks to create in and out OUT POINT points that remind you where edits should occur, or you can use timecode to note an in/out point’s position.

INSERT Editing feature that adds new footage between existing clips. iMovie uses insert editing: Dragging a new clip EDITING into the timeline moves the following clip to the right.

JOG To step slowly through video footage. The term comes from the mechanical jog dial used by pro videotape-editing equipment. In iMovie, you can jog one or 10 frames at a time.

LOSSY Refers to a video-compression format that sacrifi ces some of the information in the footage in order to generate smaller fi les. Most video formats you’ll run into, such as MPEG-4 and QuickTime, are lossy.

NATURAL Audio recorded by your DV camera as you shoot. Use the audio as is, enhance it with iMovie’s audio effects, or SOUND replace it with a music or voiceover track.

NONLINEAR The ability to cut and paste clips at will to any location within a video project, as opposed to linear editing, EDITING in which video editors copy footage in sequence from one tape to another. Old-school fi lm editing is also nonlinear, because it involves physically cutting and splicing fi lm.

REAL-TIME Live, full-quality preview of a video clip, including effects or transitions that have been added and rendered.PREVIEW

RENDER To apply video and audio effects, transitions, titles, and other such items to a video project. Once rendered, effects will be seen (or heard) when you play the movie in iMovie.

ROUGH CUT A quick edit or arrangement of clips intended to roughly approximate the fi nal project. Organizing your clips on the iMovie HD timeline will give you an idea of the fi nal movie’s length and can help you choose effects and transitions.

SCRUB To move through video footage in iMovie or another video-editing app by dragging the playhead. Manually scrubbing through video lets you skim its contents.

STORYBOARD A series of drawings that shows the intended sequence of a video project. In digital-video-editing software, the timeline (see below) is often called the storyboard.

TIMELINE An area in the iMovie HD or other video-editing-software interface containing video clips, transitions, effects, titles, still images, and audio—all the elements that will be part of the fi nished project.

Interlaced video creates complete video frames by overlapping two video fi elds. The camera shoots two exposures per frame, the fi rst including all odd scan lines (one fi eld), the second containing the even-numbered lines (the second fi eld). When played back, all of the odd lines are drawn fi rst, then all of the even lines. Standard (NTSC and PAL) TVs use interlaced video. Progressive video draws all the lines in order, making one complete frame in a single pass. Digital TVs and computer monitors use progressive video.

Interlaced video (above) draws an image in alternate scan lines. Progressive video draws a whole image in one pass, which can reduce the appearance of fl icker.

Interlaced Video vs. Progressive Video

Rule of ThirdsIf you’re looking for a good way to position a subject for a pleasing composition, try this: Mentally divide your fi eld of view into a three-by-three grid, and place your subject at one of the imaginary intersections inside—a third of the way down and a third of the way in from the right side, for example.

Place your main subject at one

of the third-of-the-way dots for a pleasing composition.

Shelly Brisbin has been known to holler “That’s a wrap!” as she exits family gatherings with bags full of DV tapes.

+ =

Not only does Epson’s PowerLite 76c (pictured) look cool, it’s also light and portable. Other cool-looking products this month include a pair of Mac mini–styled hard drives, a stylish business printer, and Apple’s own MacBook Pro. Next month, look for reviews of Olive’s Musica, GroupSmarts’ MemoryMiner, WiebeTech’s SilverSATA II, and more.

54 Digital FM Radio & FM Transmitter for iPod iPod FM transmitter and receiver46 EasyShare-One camera40 Evolt E-500 camera52 iKey Portable USB Recorder audio recorder53 iPod Hi-Fi iPod speaker stand38 iWork ’06 productivity-software suite36 MacBook Pro notebook Mac55 Maxelerate external hard drive55 MiniMax external hard drive54 Officejet K550 business inkjet printer42 Painter Essentials 3 painting software51 Pixma MP950 multifunction printer49 PowerLite 76c projector50 Sorenson Squeeze 4.1 media-compression suite44 Swift Publisher page-layout app54 Thin laptop bag48 Wave Editor audio-editing software

Games57 Black and White 2 tips and tricks59 ButtKicker Gamer audio-transducer review59 Games Go Universal Intel-Mac update59 The Movies coming soon57 The Sims 2 University expansion-pack review58 Zoo Tycoon 2 simulation-game review

We’d spend our own hard-earned money on this product.

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May 2006 35

You’ll be impressed.

You’ll be satisfied.

You’ll be disappointed.

You’ll be pissed off.

RATIN¬S

You’ll be blown away.

REVIEWS 35

better living through smarter shopping

Universal application that runs natively on both PowerPC and Intel Macs.

36 REVIEWSbetter living through smarter shopping

May 200636

PowerBook owners have been aching for a signifi cant speed upgrade for

quite some time now. With the new 2GHz and 2.16GHz MacBook Pros, that big leap in speed is fi nally here—for the most part.

The details. Apple offers the 2.16GHz processor as an optional $300 upgrade to the standard 2GHz MacBook Pro. Both ’Books come standard with a 100GB 5,400-rpm Serial ATA hard drive; the 2.16GHz MacBook Pro we tested had a 7,200-rpm 100GB drive—a $100 option. Aside from these options, both ’Books that we tested had the same standard specs: 2MB shared L2 cache; 667MHz frontside bus; 1GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (upgradable to 2GB); Gigabit Ethernet; and built-in AirPort Extreme, Bluetooth 2.0, and iSight.

Measuring 14.1 by 1 by 9.6 inches and weighing 5.6 pounds, both MacBook Pros have a 15.4-inch LCD with a native resolution of 1,440 by 900 pixels and a zippy 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics card with dual-link support. Other than the iSight camera atop the LCD, the ports (which we’ll get to in a minute), and the MacBook Pro logo, the MacBook Pro looks like a PowerBook G4.

On the MacBook Pro’s left side, you’ll fi nd a Kensington cable-lock slot, USB 2.0 port, FireWire 400 port, Gigabit Ethernet connector, and DVI connector for an external display. On its right side, there’s an ExpressCard/34 slot, combined optical digital-output/headphone jack, combined optical digital audio-input jack, another USB 2.0 port, and the MagSafe power-adapter port.

Speaking of the power adapter, it’s a newly redesigned one that takes its cue from, of all things, the power ports on fondue pots. It connects magnetically to the MacBook Pro, and all it takes is a slight tug to disconnect it. This scheme helps prevent the MacBook Pro from fl ying off your table at a coffee shop

when someone balancing six lattes accidentally trips over your power cable. If your MacBook Pro does happen to drop, however, its Sudden Motion Sensor quickly parks the hard drive’s head to prevent damage. Unfortunately, the adapter disconnects rather easily—it often fell off as we simply nudged the MacBook Pro around our desk. It’s a rather minor fl aw, unless you happen to be using the MacBook Pro without a battery (and when do you ever do that?). Unfortunately, the adapter’s power brick is about 1.5 times wider and 0.25 inches taller than the PowerBook G4’s.

Many key features that we loved in the PowerBook are still here in the MacBook Pro, including the scrolling trackpad (which lets you drag two fi ngers on the pad to perform screen scrolls), illuminated keyboard, and slot-loading SuperDrive. (Though double-layer DVD burning would be nice, we’re fi ne

with the MacBook Pro’s single-layer burning.) Things you might miss: There’s no FireWire 800 port, modem, or S-Video-out connector as there was on the PowerBook—think of these as “third-party opportunities” for the ExpressCard/34 slot or USB port. Things you’ll welcome: Front Row, Apple’s media interface that you use with the included Apple Remote control, and Photo Booth, Apple’s slap-happy photo-effects app that works with the iSight.

Testing. To gauge the MacBook Pro’s speed, we ran a battery of tests using both Intel-native software and apps that require Rosetta, Apple’s PowerPC-to-Intel code translator. For reference, we ran the same tests on a 17-inch 1.67GHz PowerBook G4 ( Jan/06, p26), which has the same processor and video subsystem as the 15-inch PowerBook G4. All of the ’Books had 1GB of RAM, and—except for our battery test—we

2GHz and 2.16GHz MacBook ProsFAST (IN MOST CASES) NOTEBOOK MACS

The future of the PowerBook is here, and it’s called the MacBook Pro.

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SoftRAID is a trademark of SoftRAID LLCMac and the Mac logo are trademarks of

Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S.and other countries.

No matter what happens to your data, you’re back to work IMMEDIATELY with SoftRAID 3

If your hard disk fails…You keep working from the healthy disks in your Mirror volume.

If your data is stolen or destroyed…Plug in your archived SoftRAID disk, start up, and you are good to go.

What wouldyou do if....

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May 200638

iWork ’06, the latest version of Apple’s productivity suite, may deceive you.

A quick look could make you think that not much has changed. But a deeper examination reveals many new features that long-term users have wanted and several longstanding—and annoying—bugs that have fi nally been squashed. Overall, it’s a good buy if you’re just getting on board with iWork, but if you already own iWork ’05, read on to see if this year’s version has enough improvements for you.

Shared improvements. iWork includes Keynote 3, Apple’s answer to Microsoft’s PowerPoint presentation app, and Pages 2, the amalgamated word processor and page-layout app. Being parts of a suite, Keynote and Pages have similar interfaces, and some new features appear in both. For example, while iWork still lacks a full spreadsheet app, both Keynote and Pages add the ability to do simple calculations within tables—you can apply six common functions (Sum, Average, Min, Max, Count, and Product) to table contents. You can also (at last!) sort items in your tables.

Working with graphics has been improved. A new iPhoto-style adjustment palette lets you improve the brightness, contrast, sharpness, and other attributes of your images. A handy Auto Levels button allows you to fi x digital-camera images with one click (most of the time). There are also now more built-in shapes, including stars and polygons (with variable numbers of points and sides), and Bezier curves have been added as drawing objects. You won’t be able to completely eliminate other graphic apps when preparing images for slides or pages, but many touch-up tasks can now be accomplished right in iWork. The ability to use any graphic shape as a nondestructive image mask is a great improvement—it’s now much easier to show just the parts of images you need.

iWork ’06 also includes several new 3D charts, which (as you would expect) are fl ashy and gorgeous, but of dubious real-world value compared to 2D charts. There’s also a new scatter chart type.

If you’ve ever needed to submit your documents for approval, you’ll like the

new Comments feature, which allows reviewers to post yellow sticky notes on your slides or pages. Of course, comments don’t appear during presentations, and you can choose to show or hide them when printing from Pages. If you export a Pages document to Word, comments are preserved—a big plus.

Keynote improvements. Apple has added seven attractive new presentation themes, including some in sizes appropriate for HD projection (but who does

that besides Steve Jobs?). You’ll also fi nd a handful of new slide transitions, including a nice Refl ection effect that pulls back to reveal the slide against a refl ecting black fl oor, then pans and zooms to the next slide.

Some long-standing feature requests have been addressed, such as the ability to have multiple text boxes containing bulleted text on a single slide; you can even use bulleted text in table cells and other objects. You can also scale grouped objects—that is, you can create a set of objects, group them, and then resize the whole set.

Finally catching up to PowerPoint, Keynote has a new slide-sorting feature called Light Table, which allows you to drag thumbnails of your slides to rearrange their order. Unfortunately, the thumbnail size is fi xed, so if you have many slides, you may need to squint to tell which slide is which. Light Table really needs an iPhoto-esque magnifi cation slider.

Keynote handles QuickTime movies better thanks to the addition of onscreen (or keyboard) controls during playback,

iWork ’06EVOLVING PRODUCTIVITY-SOFTWARE SUITE

Both Keynote and Pages share a new translucent window that allows you to adjust the color, contrast, and other attributes of imported images, often with just a few clicks.

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May 200640

The eight-megapixel Olympus Evolt E-500 is a comfortable and

reasonably light digital SLR camera with high-quality lenses that produce equally high-quality images, making it a top contender in its class.

The E-500’s rubberized, slip-proof grip is perfectly sized—your nose has a nice resting place when you hold the camera to your eye. The camera remains rock-steady when rotated to shoot vertical images, and the tack-sharp Zuiko 14mm-to-45mm (28mm-to-90mm equivalent on a 35mm camera) f/3.5-to-f/5.6 digital lens has smooth-as-silk zooming.

The E-500’s nice 2.5-inch LCD viewing screen makes it easy to view images and compare them side by side. The LCD also doubles as a status monitor, and the interface icons are easy for older eyes to read. You can pack plenty of ammo when you shoot, since there are two memory-card slots: a CompactFlash slot and an Olympus xD-Picture Card slot.

Views. Be prepared for a slight tunnel effect when previewing pictures in the viewfi nder—you’ll feel a bit as if you’re looking through a tube—but even four-eyed photographers can view the full image without the edges disappearing. For a bigger viewfi nder image, just slip off the eyecup and replace it with an optional magnifying one ($49). Sequential shooting could be improved; you can only take four pictures at a time at a rate of 2.5 frames per second. You can still continue shooting normally while the buffer clears and then shoot another high-speed sequence, but four frames isn’t enough, especially when shooting action scenes.

Shot-to-shot time is as fast as you can press the shutter release, and shutter

lag (the time from when you press the release to the actual exposure) is virtually nil. Shutter-speed choices range from 1/4000 of a second to 8 minutes, and ISOs range from 100 to 1,600. The E-500 can shoot at several megapixel resolutions, and formats include JPEG, TIFF, RAW, and RAW+JPEG. The automatic sensor cleaner uses ultrasonic vibration to remove loose dust particles from the CCD each time you power up, so black specks won’t appear on your image.

There are fi ve scene settings on the mode dial: Portrait, Landscape, Macro, Sports, and Night Scene And Portrait. If you turn the dial to Scene, you can scroll through these choices plus ten more, each with descriptions and image examples displayed on the LCD monitor. You can also set the E-500 to Auto or Program and let it do most of the thinking for you. When you’re ready to perform manual adjustments, Aperture priority, Shutter priority, and Manual exposure are at your command.

At low ISO settings, the E-500’s picture quality is extraordinary, but when we pushed the ISO over 400, images tended to become noisy. At ISO

400, we were able to roll out 12-by-15-inch images on our Epson 2200 printer that showed great detail in both shadows and highlights, perfect color, and no noticeable noise. The camera’s TV mode also yielded great output on a video projector that threw a four-by-fi ve-foot image on a screen.

The bottom line. If you haven’t accumulated a bunch of lenses that dictate buying another

brand, the E-500 has all the features you’ll ever need, plus some that its competitors don’t have. The E-500 is a quality camera.—Arthur Bleich

COMPANY: OlympusCONTACT: 888-553-4448, www.olympus.com

PRICE: $799.99 (with 14mm-to-45mm lens), $899.99 (with 14mm-to-45mm and 40mm-to-150mm lenses)REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS 10.2 or later

GOOD NEWS: Comfortable. Fast shot-to-shot times. Excellent lens quality. Accurate flesh tones.BAD NEWS: Slightly small viewfinder. Memory card not included. Sequential shooting speed could be faster.

Evolt E-500IMPRESSIVE DIGITAL SLR CAMERA

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May 200642

Painter IX ( Feb/05, p38) is the best painting app we’ve seen,

but it may be intimidating for the casual graphic artist or dabbling amateur. For the rest of us, Corel offers the affordable Painter Essentials 3, an approachable painting app that’s easy to use, yet potent enough for when you’re ready to get serious.

Corel injects Painter Essentials with many of the higher-end customizing features found in Painter IX, just in smaller numbers and variations. The app includes a total of 18 different brush types (Artists’ Oils, Crayons, Digital Watercolors, Pattern Pens, Tinting, and more) and multiple ways to modify brush behavior and surface textures. And while most pro Painter IX users work with a pen-and-tablet input device, Corel made sure that Essentials works well with a mouse—though if you do decide to get serious, you’ll fi nd that a pen and tablet give you far greater control.

Essentials’ new Photo Painting palettes let you convert a photo into a painting without breaking a sweat,

since Essentials essentially does it for you. Creating a photo painting takes three steps: First, you use the Underpainting palette to prep your image. Then, you select a Cloner brush type (there are 12 to choose from) and

use the Autopainting palette to select the Brush Stroke, Pressure, Brush Size, Randomness (how the strokes are applied), and other painting attributes. After you’ve applied the Autopainting

functions, you use the Restoration palette to bring back some of the detail from your original image. It’s almost as simple as paint by numbers—you don’t even have to don a smock—but be prepared for a bit of experimenting to get your desired results. Once you’re fi nished, you can use your images for printed cards, a wall display, a Web gallery, or simply as your screen saver. You can also add

borders using the included Pattern Pens or Image Hose.

For the artistically impaired, Essentials’ online tutorials are helpful, and the installation disc includes well-done videos from lynda.com that show you how to use Essentials’ tools. There’s also a Quick Guide palette that gives further instruction on Essentials’ advanced abilities, and the installation disc contains GeeGuides—animated training shorts aimed at kids.

Other new features: a Quick Clone tool, an Eraser tool, a Rubber Stamp tool, the ability to hide or display layers with a click and drag, and more.

Our one major problem with Essentials: There are only fi ve levels of undo. Sure, fi ve may be enough for most of us, but many modern apps let you undo an unlimited number of steps. It would’ve been nice if this one did, too, especially when you get particularly carried away with your creations.

The bottom line. Whether you’re looking for an easy way to achieve the appearance of a painting or just looking to play around, Painter Essentials 3 is a great place to start. It’s a serious app that harnesses a small part of Painter IX’s power. It can grow with your abilities.—Steven Parke and Roman Loyola

COMPANY: CorelCONTACT: 800-772-6735, www.corel.comPRICE: $99

REQUIREMENTS: G3, Mac OS 10.2.8 or later, 256MB RAM, 150MB disk space, 1,024-by-768-pixel or higher display resolution

GOOD NEWS: Easy to use. Cool Photo Painting features make painting fun.BAD NEWS: Limited undo.

The new Photo Painting palettes help convert your photos into painterly works of art.

Create fancy borders with Essentials’ Pattern Pens or Image Hose.

Painter Essentials 3PICTURESQUE PAINTING SOFTWARE


May 200644

Even if you’ve spent lots of time with InDesign or QuarkXPress, you’ll

be impressed with Swift Publisher, a consumer-level word-processing and page-layout app. It combines an intuitive interface, a limited but versatile feature set, and gobs of templates and clip art.

Swift Publisher has much in common with Apple’s Pages, which comes with the Keynote presentation app in iWork ’06 ( , p38). Pages is defi nitely stronger than Swift Publisher in some areas; for example, Pages includes chart-making capabilities, tables, tables of contents, footnotes, bookmarks, hyperlinks, and character styles, and it lets you export Word, HTML, RTF, and Plain Text fi les. Then again, iWork costs more than twice as much as Swift Publisher, and it doesn’t include any clip art or nearly as many templates.

To create a publication, you can use any of several dozen templates that

are included with the app, or you can start with a blank document. There are

several template categories—including Cards, Catalogs, Certifi cates, Flyers, Letterheads & Fax, Menus, Newsletters, and Posters—and you can create your own custom templates. Each category includes several predesigned layouts with placeholder text, placeholder graphics, and text and paragraph styles; there are also blank layouts with standard dimensions.

Page maker. A Swift Publisher publication consists of text rectangles, graphics, and lines, so building a page is much like building a page with any page-layout app—you add objects to a page, and then you modify them. Swift Publisher includes a staggeringly large library of clip art—over 23,000 images—though the quality varies. Some graphics are quite good, but many are bitmaps that are ill-suited for high-resolution output (though perfectly adequate for your inkjet or laser printer). You can also display your iPhoto library in the clip-art panel, or you can choose a folder of graphics to display. A keyword search lets you hunt through the built-in

clip-art library or the Internet. You can also import graphic fi les, including native Photoshop (PSD) and Illustrator (AI) fi les.

While Swift Publisher’s feature set isn’t nearly as broad as its high-end cousins, it matches up quite well in many key areas. For example, typographic features include line spacing (leading), space before paragraphs, standard alignments (left, centered, right, and justifi ed), hyphenation, kerning, baseline shift, drop shadows, OpenType support, and text and paragraph styles. You can also crop, scale, fl ip, tile, and colorize any graphic.

Before you start thinking that Swift Publisher is a high-end contender, consider a few of its limitations: It has no support for color separations, color trapping, or Pantone colors. While you can add, delete, and move pages, there aren’t any master pages, per se (each document page has its own background). There’s also no automatic page numbering, no table-of-contents generation, and no indexing feature.

The minimal documentation reads like a poor translation. A typical example: “The ‘Object causes wrap’ chechbox [sic] enables/disables the selected object wrapping by text. When wrap is enables [sic], you can select type of wrapping.” Fortunately, the interface is quite intuitive.

The bottom line. Swift Publisher doesn’t have nearly as many word-processing features as Microsoft Word (thankfully), nor does it have as many typographic, page-layout, long-document, or printing features as high-end page-layout apps. Then again, Swift Publisher isn’t aimed at high-end publishers. It’s more for schools, students, nonprofi ts, churches, and small businesses that want to produce nice-looking color publications in small quantities, but don’t need an expensive, industrial-strength app.—John Cruise

COMPANY: BeLight SoftwareCONTACT: +380 48 738-08-49, www.belightsoft.comPRICE: $39.95 (retail), $34.95 (download)

REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS 10.3 or later

GOOD NEWS: Versatile feature set. Easy to use. Lots of templates and clip art. Reasonably priced.BAD NEWS: Doesn’t compare favorably to Pages in some areas. Few features for long documents. Documentation needs work.

Apple could take a page from Swift Publisher for its own document-creation app, Pages.

Swift PublisherLIKABLE CONSUMER-LEVEL PAGE-LAYOUT APP

ON THEDISC

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May 200646

If your Mac can go wireless, why not your camera? Kodak’s EasyShare-One

uses Wi-Fi to transfer your images to your Mac or an online photo-sharing service—you’re no longer tethered to your Mac.

To transfer photos to an online photo-sharing service such as Flickr (www.fl ickr.com) or Kodak’s EasyShare Gallery (www.kodakgallery.com), you simply need access to a Wi-Fi hotspot. We took the EasyShare-One to a coffee shop and, using the shop’s free Wi-Fi hotspot, transmitted images to our online photo-sharing service (the camera sends the images via email). Over the course of several visits (we love nonfat, double-shot, half-caf, no-foam lattes), we weren’t surprised to fi nd that transmission times varied depending on the size of the fi le sent and the amount of network traffi c. If you’re concerned about security, the camera offers different levels of encryption.

While you can’t make Wi-Fi transfers using iPhoto, you can send pictures to your Mac using the bundled EasyShare software: Just connect the camera to your network, select your pictures,

select Share, and then select Transfer on the camera. Simple, and no cable to fuss with.

Stylus screen. The EasyShare-One has a three-inch touchscreen LCD for framing shots and navigating options using a stylus (housed on the right edge of the camera body), though we found the stylus to be uncomfortable in big hands. The LCD has an articulated mount like the kind found on a video camera—very helpful when shooting from different levels. The EasyShare-One doesn’t have an optical viewfi nder, but the LCD has excellent color fi delity

and image quality; it’s one of the best LCDs we’ve seen on a camera.

The EasyShare-One’s photos showed good sharpness and shadow detail, and the built-in electronic

fl ash does a great job indoors. Several pictures

taken in poorly lit rooms showed all the detail we could hope for. One caution: The fl ash can burn out detail if you’re too close, as it did with our close-ups of fl owers.

One thing gave us pause: The EasyShare-One offers none of the usual Fine, Normal, Best, or other JPEG compression options. Instead, the EasyShare-One increases or decreases the image’s pixel count. The camera is equipped with a four-megapixel imager; use the built-in 256MB of memory, for example, with the camera set at four megapixels, and you can store 150 images. Want more images? You have to reduce the pixel count (your options are 3.5, 2.1, and 1.1 megapixels) or swap in a new SD card. Which setting should you choose? For posting to the Web, you can use lower settings. Read “Maximum Output” (left) for more advice on choosing the right setting for printing.

One minor niggle: The center of your framed image in the LCD doesn’t match with the center of the shot photo—you have to compensate as you frame your shots. On the other hand, the Autofocus framing brackets move, collapse, or increase in size within the display based on what the camera perceives as your focus point—very helpful.

The bottom line. The EasyShare-One makes it easy to shoot nice photos, easy to transfer them to your Mac, and easy to share them. It’s easy to like the EasyShare-One.—Rick Oldano

COMPANY: KodakCONTACT: 800-235-6325, www.kodak.comPRICE: $599.95

REQUIREMENTS: G3, Mac OS 10.3 or later, 128MB RAM, 200MB disk space, Wi-Fi (to receive wireless transmissions)

GOOD NEWS: Wi-Fi transmissions work well. Excellent LCD. Good image quality and color fidelity.BAD NEWS: Lack of JPEG options. Can’t use iPhoto with Wi-Fi transfers. Stylus may be too small for big hands.

The EasyShare-One’s Wi-Fi lets you keep the cables where they belong—in the box.

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May 200648

An audio editor should provide an intuitive interface for manipulating

and processing waveforms. Audiofi le Engineering’s Wave Editor takes an innovative approach to working with audio fi les, but its context-dependent interface takes some getting used to.

Wave Editor uses Edit Blocks—movable audio regions that can be cut, copied, pasted, truncated, expanded, shifted forward and backward, turned on and off, and even processed without affecting the original fi le. In a traditional audio editor, waveform editing is a permanent deal, but with Edit Blocks, you can delete all but a sliver of the original audio and restore the entire waveform by simply expanding the Edit Block in which the audio resides. Plus, the audio can be saved as Wave Editor fi les with edits intact, unlike other audio apps that only save generic sound fi les.

For sound designers, this is a welcome feature; with all your edits intact inside a

Wave Editor fi le, it’s easier to go back and make changes to a sound. Without those edits, you’d have to start all over again from the original sound fi le (assuming you didn’t save over it) to make a nonlinear change.

You can also create fades between Edit Blocks, handy for mastering CD playlists. The easiest and most interactive way to create fades is to hold down a modifi er key and drag the corner of an Edit Block. For example, by holding down Shift and dragging the upper-right corner, you create a fade-out. By holding down Shift-Command and dragging the same corner, you create a cross-fade. You can also make fades numerically in the Edit List if you’re looking for precise control (or if you haven’t memorized the modifi er keys).

Wave Editor also has a Layers feature that works like Photoshop’s layers—you can stack sounds nondestructively to create a composite sound. It’s unique and pretty darn neat, but it treads into multitrack waters; for the most part,

what you can do in Wave Editor’s Layers can be done more logically in a GarageBand-esque app. Like Photoshop’s composite modes, layers can affect each other through one of four modes: Add, Subtract, Duck, and Ring. It’s questionable how useful these modes are, however—on the whole, the Layers feature ends up being a less elegant means of accomplishing what multitrack apps can do more easily.

Hide and seek. In its attempt to provide the cleanest possible interface, Wave Editor

hides some of its key features behind Contextual Menus and relies too much on modifi er keys for performing tasks—and it’s not always clear where to Control-click to bring up Contextual Menus. The ability to view Edit Blocks—one of the app’s most unique features—isn’t an option in the menu bar, nor is there a button to turn them on and off. You must either use the Splice command or Control-click an empty area just above the waveform, which brings up a Contextual Menu containing the Edits option. There’s a fi ne line between clean and hidden.

The bottom line. Audiofi le Engineering’s Wave Editor offers a useful and unique method for editing audio fi les. However, while the developer’s intention was to create a clean and context-based interface, the end result requires a good deal of hunting and pecking. If you’re looking for new ways to edit audio fi les, Wave Editor is worth a look—just be ready to put in some prep time.—Andrew Tokuda

Wave EditorINNOVATIVE AND INTRICATE AUDIO-EDITING SOFTWARE

COMPANY: Audiofile EngineeringCONTACT: www.audiofile-engineering.comPRICE: $250


GOOD NEWS: Edit Blocks and Layers are new paradigms for audio editing. Creative method for implementing audio fades.BAD NEWS: Relies heavily on modifier keys and Contextual Menus. Simple tasks aren’t in the menu.

Wave Editor offers unique and useful features—but they’re not that apparent without some digging around.

ON THEDISC

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May 200650

Although Squeeze is primarily a video compressor, it does a decent job with MP3 fi les and does wonders for Flash fi les.

Sorenson Squeeze 4.1 is the latest video cruncher du jour, and while it

generally does a nice job compressing output, there are a few things it could handle a tad better.

Squeeze’s clean, uncluttered interface presents most of the app’s core capabilities. The app supports an incredibly robust variety of video formats for output, with all the digital-video

biggies represented: QuickTime, MPEG of all fl avors, Real Media, and Windows Media Video, though the latter requires a third-party plug-in called Flip4Mac ($99 for standard-def video, $179 for HD video, www.fl ip4mac.com). The main

interface lists these video formats in the left column, and clicking the disclosure triangle next to each reveals a list of format templates for different target bandwidths, sizes, compression ratios,

and more. Although primarily oriented toward video compression, Squeeze also does a decent job with MP3 fi les and does wonders with Macromedia Flash animation fi les.

You can open fi les in Sorenson Squeeze or have the app watch a designated folder on the desktop. You can also capture video directly into Squeeze, a welcome addition for

video production. Squeeze’s decent processing fi lter can help you tweak the contrast, brightness, and gamma of your video, and it also offers white and black restore, video-noise reduction, and deinterlacing. Unfortunately, there are no sharpening or color-enhancement fi lters, both of which are crucial for video sweetening. You can, however, preview fi lter effects in a split-screen mode in the main preview area, a welcome goodie. The only option for audio is a Normalize command (which fi xes stray levels), but Squeeze offers nothing by way of equalization, dithering, or noise reduction—noticeable omissions.

Processing pickles. Squeeze performed decently on a dual 2GHz Power Mac G5, and it even did its mojo as a background task without a major performance hit (as long as whatever we were doing in the foreground wasn’t a processor hog, such as 3D or video rendering). One major processing gripe: There’s no meaningful status indicator outside of a simple progress bar. We’re

spoiled by the rather extensive status display found in Autodesk Cleaner ($549, http://usa.autodesk.com). The online help is browser based (there’s no printed manual), and shockingly, there’s no way to search the online help by keywords—simply unforgivable.

Another quirk is a holdover from the app’s Windows origins. When we tried to import movies without a .mov suffi x, Squeeze simply refused to recognize them. We’re used to this kind of silliness in Windows, but it’s inexcusable on a Mac.

Another nuisance is that you can’t specify a separate target folder for primary output fi les—processed video automatically saves in the same folder as the source video, and while there’s a command to allow output fi les to be sent to another folder, you’ll end up with twice as many fi les as you actually want. As if to make up for this annoyance, there’s an option to automatically put copies of processed fi les on a remote FTP server—a great feature.

The bottom line. Sorenson Squeeze has the potential to be a successor to Media Cleaner Pro—if Sorenson cleans up its quirks.—David Biedny

Sorenson Squeeze 4.1BUDDING MEDIA-COMPRESSION SUITE

COMPANY: Sorenson MediaCONTACT: 801-313-8150, www.sorensonmedia.comPRICE: $449

REQUIREMENTS: G4, Mac OS 10.2 or later, 128MB RAM, 90MB disk space, QuickTime 6.5.1 or later

GOOD NEWS: Excellent video-format support. Background processing. Advanced FTP capabilities.BAD NEWS: File-extension wackiness. Incomplete progress-status indicator. Weak documentation.

Sorenson Squeeze features a clean, uncluttered interface for making movies of just about any fl avor you can imagine.

51REVIEWS

May 2006 51

While most multifunction printers have business users in mind,

Canon’s Pixma MP950 focuses on the needs of photo enthusiasts—hey, photographers need desk space, too. The MP950 packs the power of a digital photo studio, with all the features you expect for capturing, viewing, editing, and printing stunning images.

The Pixma MP950 rides Canon’s wave of sleek industrial design. At 18.5 by 16.5 by 10 inches, the Pixma MP950 is sizable, but it still takes up less space than a printer and scanner sitting side by side on your desk. The Pixma MP950 connects to your Mac via USB (cable not included—cheapskates), or you can print directly from your PictBridge-compatible digital camera. There are also card slots for your CompactFlash card, Microdrive, SmartMedia card, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, SD card, and MultiMediaCard (MMC). The built-in IrDA (Infrared Data Association) port can be used to print from IrDA devices, but only when printing JPEGs smaller than 3MB. A Bluetooth adapter is available for $79.99.

The Pixma MP950 uses seven ink cartridges: photo cyan, photo magenta, pigment black, black, cyan, magenta, and yellow. Replacement ink cartridges cost $14.25 ($16.25 for pigment black) through Canon’s Web site. The MP950 can handle media sizes ranging from 2.13 by 3.39 inches (the size of a credit card) to 8.5 by 14 (legal). Like its Pixma siblings, the MP950 can print double-sided photos in 4-by-6-inch, 5-by-7-inch, and 8.5-by-11-inch sizes, so you can create picture-packed photo albums with nothing more than a binder cover and your prints. To get you started, the

MP950 comes packed with a 5-by-7-inch album binder and 10

sheets of double-sided media.Scan. The Pixma MP950

includes a fi lm guide mount for capturing slides and negatives with optical resolutions of up to 3,200 by 6,400 dpi. In our tests, scans of negatives produced images far better than the original 4-by-6-inch lab prints made from the same negatives. And while the Pixma MP950 isn’t what you’d call “speedy,” there’s

something inherently pleasing about going straight from scanning

an image to producing a full-color 4-by-6-inch print without bothering with your Mac. We produced (scanned and printed at the same time) consistently impressive copies of 4-by-6-inch snapshots at a rate of just under 50 seconds per copy.

Print. When it comes to printing via PictBridge or directly from memory cards, the Pixma MP950 is even better than Canon’s standalone Pixma iP4200 photo printer ( Dec/05, p56). Its 3.6-inch LCD display lets you take a good look at your shots, eliminate red-eye, adjust lighting, and tweak the sharpness in your shots before you commit them to paper.

Enamored as we were with the MP950’s photo mojo, it’s the printer’s clean, friendly menu interface that really knocked us out. From the moment we tapped the power button and snapped in the ink cartridges, the Pixma MP950 never left us wondering what we should do next. Press Copy, Scan, or Photo/Film, and the Pixma MP950 walks you through the task. It wouldn’t be any easier if the printer grew hands and changed its own paper. (Though we’d still love to see that—get to work on it, will ya, Canon?)

The bottom line. The MP950 makes other do-it-all printers look like crude stone tools. We’ll clear off a place on our desk for it.—Robert Strohmeyer

COMPANY: CanonCONTACT: 800-828-4040, www.canon.comPRICE: $399.99

REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS 10.2.4 or later

GOOD NEWS: Beautiful one-step photocopying with scanning and printing thrown in.BAD NEWS: Large. Doesn’t include USB cable.

Pixma MP950PHOTO-CENTRIC MULTIFUNCTION PRINTER

TIP

FLIP THE SWITCHDon’t turn off your inkjet printer

by simply fl ipping the switch on

your power strip—use the printer’s

power switch instead. Most inkjet

printers run a routine to protect

their print heads before they

turn themselves off. Cutting the

power at the power strip prevents

the printer from performing this

important task.

Handles photos like a champ.


iKey Portable USB RecorderLIMITED PORTABLE AUDIO RECORDER

The iKey is a portable consumer-level audio interface designed for

recording audio to any USB-based storage device, including your iPod. The idea of capturing compressed MP3 or uncompressed WAV to a tiny, inexpensive USB fl ash drive is great, but the iKey falls short in a couple of key areas.

To use the iKey, you connect it to a USB storage device via the iKey’s single USB port. The iKey’s stereo RCA inputs accept a line-level audio signal that you can adjust using the iKey’s input-volume wheel. Using the Sel button, you choose a fi le format (MP3 at 128, 192, or 256 Kbps, or 16-bit 44.1KHz uncompressed WAV); the Rec button starts and stops recording.

When you use an iPod with a USB connector as the storage device, the recordings are immediately available for listening. Snazzy as that might be, the downside is that you can’t easily transfer the audio fi les from the iPod to your Mac. The manual suggests a method involving Mac OS X’s Terminal, but it’s a hassle—

you’ll need to dig up a special utility or tricky workaround.

One glaring omission is the ability to hear what you’re recording, as the iKey has no audio output—not even a headphone jack. Your only feedback is a single LED that remains unlit when the audio level is optimal.

Given the iKey’s portability (and the recent boom in podcasting), a microphone input would have bolstered the iKey’s usefulness immensely. As it stands, you’ll need to buy additional equipment if the audio source isn’t coming from or going through some line-level output device.

The bottom line. The iKey is a good idea, but it misses the mark in terms of practicality.—Andrew Tokuda

COMPANY: iKey-AudioCONTACT: 732-738-9003, www.ikey-audio.comPRICE: $229.99

REQUIREMENTS: USB storage device or iPod with USB connectivity

GOOD NEWS: Great concept.BAD NEWS: No audio output. Poor monitoring capabilities. No microphone input. iPod recording is more a novelty than practical.

A good idea that deserves better execution.

Orbino Luxury Cases

The World’s Finest iPod Case.By Orbino: a collection of very special cases crafted entirely by hand in Italy for perfect form and functionality. Features:• Patented spring-loaded polished

metal belt clip and desk stand• Premium Italian leathers• Hand-stitched in Italy• Durashield screen and clickwheel

protector• Connector access• Available models: video-capable

iPod, iPod nano, and iPod shuffl ewww.orbino.com

Case-mate Leather Case

Protect Your Music with a Premium Form-Fit Leather Case by Case-mate.Buttery-soft Napa leather surrounds our impact-resistant plastic shell. An ultra-soft felt interior secures your iPod. Each Case-mate case comes with a full-face screen protector and fully removable belt clip.www.case-mate.net866-689-3432

Advertisement

iPod Showcase

iPod Mounting Solutions

Taking your music with you is even easier with ProClip!ProClip mounting solutions are the best way to mount your iPod in your vehicle. The mount clips on in seconds without interior damage. For details on ProClip mounting solutions for your iPod as well as your other devices, visit:www.proclipusa.com800-296-3212

53REVIEWS

DecalGirl iPod Gear

Protect and Personalize Your iPod. DecalGirl’s adhesive-backed vinyl skins allow you to both protect and personalize your iPod with hundreds of hot designs, and they remove without leaving any nasty goo. Now offering crystal-clear screen protectors for even more protection! Save 10% using the code MACADD.www.decalgirl.com/ma866-841-0922

PodsPlus Aluminum Case

Protect your iPod from scratches and bumps.Made of aircraft-grade aluminum with interior neoprene lining, this high-quality case is strong and lightweight. The iPod screen is fully protected. A removable swivel belt clip is included.www.podsplus.com

Advertisement

iPod Showcase

Elite Audio Gear

6i Isolator Earphones deliver detail, balance, comfort, and value. The in-ear secure fi t reduces background noise so you can listen at safe levels. Hear crisp, clear music inside your head. Great for travel and working out. Available online or at Apple Stores and other retail locations worldwide.www.etymotic.com

iPod Hi-FiNICE-ENOUGH iPOD SPEAKER STAND

If you want a good-sounding iPod speaker system, you can spend as little

as $149.99 for the Logitech mm50 (www.logitech.com) or as much as $399.99 for the Klipsch iFi (www.klipsch.com). The iPod Hi-Fi (see “That’s Entertainment!”, p10), nestles into the upper end of that range at $349. Its sound quality goes a long way toward justifying its price tag, but we can’t help wishing for more from the company that invented the iPod itself.

In our testing, the Hi-Fi sounded best on pop music with a vocal bent; it delivered a warmth and presence that suited the intimacy of the vocals. The same held true for classical guitar and string quartets. On the latter, the Hi-Fi’s impressive bass—for its size—provided a satisfying bottom end. The bass gave

juuust enough boom to our rap selections that we thought about wiring the Hi-Fi into the trunk of our car.

Performance was nice enough, if less impressive, when it came to other musical styles. The staccato horns and pizzicato strings in orchestral works, for example, were more crisply reproduced by the Klipsch iGroove ($279.99) we had set up next to the Hi-Fi. And despite Apple’s marketing hype to the contrary, there’s no way the Hi-Fi can replace a decent home stereo—size and separation do matter, and both Frank Zappa and Franz Liszt suffer when crammed into a 6.6-by-17-by-6.9-inch box.

We’re disappointed with the Hi-Fi’s iPod integration. The Hi-Fi comes with an Apple Remote, but it only controls playback and volume—you can’t use it to navigate the iPod’s menus. There’s also no video-out port and no way to connect the Hi-Fi to your Mac for sync.

The bottom line. The Hi-Fi’s sound quality is good enough to earn it our Great rating, but we can’t help thinking about how Awesome it could be with either a lower price or some innovative iPod-oriented features.—Jake Widman

COMPANY: AppleCONTACT: 800-692-7753 or 408-996-1010, www.apple.comPRICE: $349

REQUIREMENTS: iPod GOOD NEWS: Sounds good for its size. No power brick.BAD NEWS: Pricey. No extra features or functions.

The Hi-Fi looks cool without its black-mesh covering.

PHO

TOG

RAPH CO

UR

TESY OF APPLE


The name of Pinder’s notebook bag says it all: Thin. There’s not a whole lot to it, but that’s not a bad thing. Sometimes

you don’t want to have to hunt through a complex gathering of packets, straps, latches, and zippers—

sometimes you just want a bag.The Thin is made of water-

repellent nylon (there are seven different colors to choose from), and it has one side pocket for your ’Book’s cables and stuff. The bag has a quarter-inch of padding, enough to keep your ’Book safe without adding too much bulk. In fact, the lack of bulk makes the Thin an ideal ’Book cover if you pack it into a bigger case during long trips.

The bottom line. We like Pinder’s simple, svelte Thin for storing or toting our ’Books.—Michelle Victoria

ThinBASIC NOTEBOOK BAG

COMPANY: Pinder BagsCONTACT: 818-773-8259, www.pinderbags.com

GOOD NEWS: Simple, no-frills bag. Available in seven different colors.BAD NEWS: You might find it too simple.

PRICE: $49REQUIREMENTS: PowerBook, iBook, or MacBook Pro

The perfect bag for going incognito in the jungle.

May 200654

Offi cejet Pro K550SPEEDY BUSINESS INKJET PRINTER

One thing you can say about the Offi cejet Pro K550: It’s fast. And this

is a business inkjet printer we’re talking about; the K550 is a viable alternative to a color laser if speed is a priority in your small-business workspace.

The K550 connects to your Mac via USB and has a 250-sheet media tray. Ink comes in separate cyan, magenta, yellow ($17.16 each), and black ($22.86) cartridges; you also need to install a pair of print heads. The helpful bundled HP Printer Utility software can tell you ink levels, run diagnostics, clean and calibrate print heads, and more.

Speed is the K550’s strong suit. A 50-page Word document printed (in Normal mode) at a rate of 11 pages per minute

(ppm)—not as fast as the 16-ppm rating, but acceptable. An Excel chart and spreadsheet printed at close to 4 ppm, and a 15-page full-color PowerPoint presentation printed at just under 5 ppm—good speed for an inkjet printer.

Charts, graphs, and text look great, even on plain paper. Don’t rely on the K550 for top-notch photos, however—its color fi delity doesn’t match that of a photo inkjet that uses more ink colors. One important note: After printing our 15-page PowerPoint presentation once in Normal mode, we ran out of cyan ink. Our test presentation is a bit heavy on cyan-based colors, but to run out of cyan after a single print run is a concern.

(For reference, the black ink was at 51 percent after printing 250 pages in Word; yellow and magenta were both at 76 percent after our PowerPoint test).

The bottom line. If you want the speed of a color laser printer at a more affordable up-front cost, the K550 can fi t the bill—just have plenty of ink cartridges on hand.—Roman Loyola

COMPANY: Hewlett-PackardCONTACT: 800-752-0900, www.hp.comPRICE: $199


GOOD NEWS: Fast. Good business-graphics image quality.BAD NEWS: Noisy. Consumes ink quickly. Unimpressive photo quality.

Kensington’s latest iPod gadget beams your iPod’s tunes to your FM radio—and it can tune in to your daily Terry Gross fi x, too.

Push-button tuning and four presets let you transmit your iPod’s music to the whole FM band (88.1MHz to 107.9MHz), so it’s easy to fi nd an available frequency. However, moving the unit usually results in static—ditto for FM-radio reception. We tuned in to our local NPR station, took a walk, and were intermittently distracted by static. Also, the device doesn’t feel secure in the iPod’s dock connector.

The bottom line. Apple’s iPod Radio Remote ( Apr/06, p52) gets cleaner FM reception—but it can’t transmit your tunes to a radio.—Niko Coucouvanis

Digital FM Radio & FM Transmitter for iPodSTATIC-PRONE iPOD FM TRANSMITTER AND RECEIVER

GOOD NEWS: Two devices in one. BAD NEWS: Prone to static. Doesn’t connect tightly enough with iPod.

Give and receive.

Just like a muscle car—fast and noisy.

COMPANY: KensingtonCONTACT: 650-572-2700, www.kensington.com

PRICE: $79.99REQUIREMENTS: iPod with dock connector

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but as with most versions of The Sims, performance in these public areas is slouchy. In fact, load times felt very long in general, even on our dual 2GHz Power Mac G5. Also, there are some time-sync mismatches between your Sims and the environment—they don’t affect gameplay, but they do make you go, “Huh?”

The bottom line. University adds an entertaining new dimension to The Sims 2, and it’s super-fun when you fi rst start playing. After four “years,” however, the game starts to feel repetitive.—Cathy Lu

57because you play as hard as you work

The Sims 2 University expansion lets you take your Sim through

four Sims-years of college, attending classes, doing assignments, and taking exams, all while making new friends, adjusting to dorm life, and (if you wish) rushing a Greek house—but by the time graduation day rolls around, this school has become a bit of a grind.

As with The Sims 2, you need to keep your Aspiration meter high by doing certain tasks, such as meeting someone new or buying a tree (yes, buying a tree). You build up your class-performance meter—which determines your grade—by doing assignments, writing term papers, and keeping up your skill levels. Do well, and you’ll earn money in the form of grants. Blow off homework, and you’ll have to repeat the semester. When you graduate, you move back to the normal Sims neighborhood and start your career.

While University still has Aspiration points, which let you buy cool stuff such as a counterfeit-money machine, the expansion introduces fun Infl uence points, which give you power over other Sims, persuading them to do things like pull pranks or clean up the house.

Campus life includes hanging out in the student lounge or going shopping—

GAMES

We’re geeks, so writing our semester term paper is top priority.

TIPS & TRICKS

Black and White 2

May 2006 57

SOLIDRATED

GOOD NEWS: Lots of new college-themed items. Fun new Influence system.BAD NEWS: Performance can still be poky. Game feels repetitive by the end.

COMPANY: Aspyr, 512-708-8100, www.aspyr.comPRICE: $34.99REQUIREMENTS: 1.25GHz G4, Mac OS 10.3.9 or later, 256MB RAM, 2GB disk space, 32MB Radeon 9000 or GeForce FX5200 or better, full version of The Sims 2

The Sims 2 UniversityLACKLUSTER EXPANSION PACK

“Give me the Man in the Yellow Hat! Now!”

Feral Interactive (www.feralinteractive.com) plans to bring Black and White 2 to the Mac this spring—but we’ve got tips today! In this god-game sequel, common sense is your best weapon, no matter whom you align with. Taking the good path? Care for your pet and your people. On the highway to hell? Have your pet unload its bowels on the populace. Whatever road you choose, these tips will help.

■ Use the hand-force skill to stop an enemy’s earthquake miracle.■ If your enemy attacks with catapults, catch the rocks and

keep them for yourself, or toss them back.■ Near the town where you began in the fourth land, look for a

path that leads down the hill. Find the hermit in the cave, and throw him as far as you can. The further you throw him, the more tribute you’ll receive.—Matt Osborn

59GAMES58 GAMESbecause you play as hard as you work

May 200658

The latest version of Zoo Tycoon has new play modes, enhanced

environment-editing tools, more park objects, and more animals to choose from—all great additions that boost replay value and challenge you to build bigger and better zoos.

As in the original, your goal in Zoo Tycoon 2 is to build the ultimate zoo, stocking a diverse collection of animals while managing buildings, fi nances, and maintenance. You also need to fi nd ways to keep your guests happy, because happy guests fi ll your pockets with cash.

Thanks to its three game modes, you’ll fi nd multiple ways to enjoy Zoo Tycoon 2. Campaign mode offers different scenarios: Revive a neglected zoo, for example, or take in abused

animals and nurse them back to health. In Challenge mode, you start from scratch with a limited amount of money and resources, and are rewarded with additional resources as your zoo’s popularity grows. Lastly, in Freeform mode, you’re granted unlimited funds to run your zoo as you like—your only goals are those you set for yourself.

Animal urges. Tend to the basic needs of your animals and guests (they’ll clue you into their pressing needs with emoticons that pop up over their heads), and you’ll do just fi ne. Mistreat your animals and guests (animals will die if they don’t get food and drink), and you’ll hurt your zoo’s rating. Animals need large, roomy areas that look and feel like their natural habitats. You create these habitats—or biomes in Zoo Tycoon parlance—with the biome brush and habitat-editor tool, which let you generate arctic, desert, forest, and tundra terrains with just a few strokes. You then add animals by clicking creatures at the bottom of the animal panel and then clicking where you want them placed. Guests enjoy tidy surroundings, spacious walkways, and quick access to exhibits, food, and restrooms. Guests also like observing a wide variety of well-kept, happy animals,

GREATRATED

GOOD NEWS: Simple-to-use editing tools. Fun first-person mode.BAD NEWS: Simplistic graphics.

COMPANY: MacSoft, 763-231-8000, www.macsoftgames.comPRICE: $39.99REQUIREMENTS: 800MHz G4, Mac OS 10.2.8 or later, 256MB RAM, 32MB VRAM

Zoo Tycoon 2EXPANSIVE SIMULATION GAME

Don’t feed the animals—but blowing bubbles at them is OK.

and they swoon over fountains, statues, and other eye candy.

You can hire a staff to keep your zoo running smoothly. Zookeepers feed, clean up after, and tend to your animals if they happen to fall ill. Maintenance workers keep your grounds clean, much to the pleasure of your guests. Educators teach your guests about the animals in your park. All these roles are vital to the success of your zoo, but make sure you don’t overdo it—a large staff

means a large payroll, which can quickly eat up huge chunks of revenue.

Up close. Zoo Tycoon 2 adds a new fi rst-person perspective, which offers a nice change of pace from the omniscient view. In this mode, you can go on photo-safari challenges to take photos of animals in action. You can also assume the role of a zookeeper or guest to get down and dirty with the animals and grounds yourself (and give your payroll a break at the same time) or just mingle with the guests and enjoy the exhibits fi rsthand.

While the 3D graphics in Zoo Tycoon 2 are simplistic by today’s standards, we still enjoyed the sights. We didn’t run into any technical glitches, but we do strongly recommend a system that’s beefi er than the stated minimum requirements to avoid sluggishness.

The bottom line. Zoo Tycoon 2 offers a great way learn the ins and outs of running a zoo—while having lots of fun at the same time.—Gil Loyola

Create new animal homes with a few clicks of the biome brush and habitat-editor tool.

59GAMES

The ButtKicker Gamer clamps onto any chair with a center post and

uses low-frequency sound to shake your seat. The setup requires you to string a cable from your chair to the included Gamer Amplifi er, a hefty 13-by-3.6-by-9.3-inch control box that connects between your Mac’s audio port and the ButtKicker Gamer. If you like to roll around in your chair, consider yourself warned: The cable can get in the way.

We played a few games, including Doom 3 and Unreal Tournament 2004, and listened to a few songs, including the Beastie Boys’ “Shake Your Rump” and Peaches and Herb’s “Shake Your Groove Thing.” Have you ever been at the movies and had the person behind you kick the back of your seat? That’s what a song’s ButtKicker-enhanced bass line feels like, except against your bootie instead of your spine. Low, rumbling game noises result in a consistent vibration—and we found that a 100Hz tone creates a sensation that could serve as an effective enema alternative. Unfortunately, the ButtKicker made our cheapo offi ce chair rattle annoyingly.

The bottom line. The ButtKicker Gamer adds a new dimension to your gaming or music experience, but it’s a novelty you can live without.—Roman Loyola

SO-SORATED

GOOD NEWS: Shakes your seat like there’s no tomorrow.BAD NEWS: Cable tethers your chair.

COMPANY: The Guitammer Company, 888-676-2828, www.thebuttkicker.comPRICE: $169.95REQUIREMENTS: Available audio-out port, chair with center post, good bowel control

COMING SOON

The Mac Picture ShowIn The Movies, you shepherd a blossoming movie studio from the twenties to the modern day, building the studio piece by piece; hiring actors, staff members, and fi lm crews; and researching technology for special effects—but The Movies takes a step beyond the usual “tycoon” games by allowing you to produce and direct your own movies. There’s a main campaign, a sandbox mode for just playing around, and a separate app called Movie Maker that gives you even more creative control

over your fi lms. Will you make the next blockbuster or the next Ishtar? Only pleasing the populous (Peter Molyneux pun intended) turns a profi t.—MO

COMPANY: Feral Interactive, www.feralinteractive.com AVAILABLE: Summer 2006 ■ PRICE: TBD

THE MOVIES

Made to shake your rump.

ButtKicker GamerRUMBLIN’ AUDIO TRANSDUCER

INTEL MAC UPDATE

Games Go UniversalGot a glittering new Intel-based Mac? Want to squeeze all the performance possible out of it? If you run your old games through Rosetta, you’re only getting a trickle of what your framerate could be. Many games are getting the Universal Application treatment, including Unreal Tournament 2004, Postal 2, Doom 3, and Zoo Tycoon 2 (because grazing Zebras via Rosetta just makes them irritable), while new games such as The Movies and Quake 4 will be Universal right out of the gate. The gaming community is even getting into the Universal act—the guys at Sqonk Online (www.sqonk.com.au) have created a Universal version of Quake III.—MO

I’m ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille!

May 2006 59

“Whatchoo talkin’ ’bout, Willis? Postal 2 is Universal!”

60

August 200552

SANITY SAVERWhere can I get more screen savers for Mac OS X?As you may know, screen savers aren’t as important as they used to be, but eye candy never goes out of style. The mighty ResExcellence (www.resexcellence.com/screensavers.shtml) still has the coolest selection, as well as a thorough tutorial on creating your own screen savers.

FIREWIRE REKINDLINGMy Mac’s FireWire ports are acting awfully weird. Is there a reset button or something?

because inquiring minds have the right to be inspired

When FireWire gets fl aky, you can indeed reset it. Shut down your Mac, and unplug its power cord and any attached FireWire devices. After about 10 minutes, reconnect the power cord and restart your Mac. Once it’s running, cross your fi ngers and plug in one of your FireWire devices.

SAY MAC, GOT THE TIME?Can I set my Mac to tell me the time?Launch System Preferences > Date & Time, click the Clock tab, and check the box labeled Announce The Time. You can then choose the frequency of

BLUE MOUSEMy Apple Wireless Mouse got all squirrelly when I upgraded to Mac OS 10.4.4. What gives?There are two possible reasons for this, both involving Bluetooth fi rmware. If you use the D-Link DBT-120 USB Bluetooth Adapter that Apple sells ($39.95, www.apple.com), you might need Bluetooth Firmware Updater 1.2—go to www.apple.com/support/downloads and search for bluetooth fi rmware 1.2. If you use a different adapter or your Mac’s built-in Bluetooth, you probably need to update the mouse’s fi rmware—which you can’t do from Mac OS 10.4. To update your mouse, you’ll have to pair it with a Mac running Mac OS 10.3.x and apply the update from that Mac. Get the details at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301282.

CAM QUICKENERMy Logitech QuickCam Orbit worked fi ne until I upgraded to Mac OS 10.3. Now it doesn’t work. Logitech claims that it won’t work with Mac OS 10.3 or later—do I have any options?

You sure do. IOXperts Webcam Driver ($19.95, on the Disc, www.ioxperts.com/products/webcamx.html) supports your Orbit, as well many other “unsupported” Webcams. This software lets you use your Webcam with iChat, QuickTime, and most apps that can access a Webcam.

To make sure your camera works with it, download the free demo, or fi nd it on this month’s Disc.

PRINTINGBack in the good old days, I could gang-print a number of documents at once from the Finder. Can’t I do that in Mac OS X?It’s still possible if you create a Desktop Printer and drag your fi les onto its icon.

Open Printer Setup Utility (/Applications/Utilities) and highlight your printer in the printer list. Then select Printers > Create Desktop

Printer, and save it to your desktop. Now you can print many documents at once by just dragging them onto the Desktop Printer’s icon on—where else?—your desktop.

MAC PLUS REVIVALRemember that Mac Plus–era game NFL Challenge? I still have a copy—can I play it on my new Mac with Mac OS X?Ah, abandonware. Gone, but for the memories—or is it? We found NFL

Challenge at the awesome Macintosh Garden site (http://mac.the-underdogs.org), but the game is so old it won’t even run in Mac OS X’s Classic environment. Emulation to the rescue! All you need is the Mac Plus emulator Mini vMac (free, on the Disc, http://minivmac.sourceforge.net), a bootable system-disk image, and a ROM fi le from an actual Macintosh Plus. Apple provides the system-disk image for free at its Older Software Downloads page (www.info.apple.com/support/oldersoftwarelist.html), but you’ll have to extract the Mac Plus’s ROM fi le yourself with CopyRoms (free, on the Disc, http://minivmac.sourceforge.net/extras/copyroms.html). String these pieces together (instructions are included

with CopyRoms), and you can run all of your old favorites from the System 6 days.

FUN WITH FONTSHow do I disable Font Book and install Extensis Suitcase as my font manager instead?Mac OS X’s Font Book is a decent font-management tool, but it’s not a full-blown font manager—Suitcase (or the new Suitcase Fusion) is. All Font Book does is help install and uninstall fonts, create collections and libraries of fonts, and

CORNY CORNERI have a window that I can’t resize in the Finder because the resizer corner extends way down off my screen. Help!This is a job for the oft-overlooked window-zooming green widget at the top left of the window. This resets your window to its original size and position.

May 200660

ON THEDISC

Mini vMac, CopyRoms

ON THEDISC

IOXperts Webcam Driver

Vive la Desktop Printer!

New Mac, old app.

HOW TO

May 2006 61

HOW TO 61No whining—anyone can do this!

It’ll take some effort, but you can do it.

This stuff’s for the pros.

DIFFICULTYRATINGS

announcements, the voice that reads the time, and even the rate of speech.

THE ARTIST’S CONUNDRUMNow that I use a Mac, I’m supposed to be all artsy—but how am I supposed to draw with a freakin’ mouse?We recommend you buy a drawing tablet. Wacom sells them for as little as $99.95—though you could also get their top LCD-based one for $3,000.

Submit technical questions or helpful tips directly

via email ([email protected]) or c/o MacAddict, 4000 Shoreline Ct., Ste. 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080.

our favorite being Name Those Files ($12.50, on the Disc, http://homepage.mac.com/jonn8/ntf), which—like every other bulk renamer we’ve found—eats any Spotlight comments you’ve added to

the fi les. Unlike most of the others, however, it leaves your image fi les’ EXIF metadata intact.

MMM, PIEI’ve got no time for math. Is there a way to see how full my hard drive is?Activity Monitor (/Applications/Utilities) provides a lovely graphical view of your hard drive’s fullness. Launch Activity Monitor and then click the Disk Usage tab at the bottom of the window.

troubleshoot duplicate or corrupt fonts—all the font fi nagling most of us ever need. Font Book leaves your fonts in their regular installed locations; a true font manager such as Suitcase actually stores them and activates the fonts you need when you need them. We could go on for days about the proper care and feeding of fonts, but suffi ce it to say that Font Book and Suitcase work fi ne together. Don’t worry about uninstalling Font Book.

WHAT’S WITH THE “?”?My old iMac displays a fl ashing question mark for a few seconds every time I turn it on—then it goes away and the iMac boots up fi ne. Wassup?Sounds like you’ve got some startup-disk confusion. Open the Startup Disk control panel (Mac OS 9) or System Preferences > Startup Disk (OS X), and check to see if your main drive is selected as the startup drive. If it is, and your Mac still throws you the question mark, you probably have a dead PRAM battery. This internal battery remembers what disk to start up from as well as other stuff such as the date and time. Any Apple service technician can replace this battery for you for a nominal fee, but if you’re daring, you can change it yourself. Apple lists all battery numbers on its Batteries and Part Numbers page

(http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86181).

SAY MY NAME, B(I)ATCHI have a zillion digicam picture fi les that I want to rename. Is there a way to change their names all at once?Your Mac should be able to do this on its own by now—it’s been, what, 22 years?—but it still can’t. Shareware to the rescue! There are several utilities that can help you rename lots of fi les,

Ralph after six cups of coffee.

Font Book is handy, but it doesn’t do much that you can’t do manually.

ON THEDISC

Name Those Files

UNIX UNIVERSITY

Buz Zoller is a graphic designer living in Florida. He has been a devoted Mac

user for over 10 years and has worked for both Apple and Power Computing.

FUNIX!You guys are always “maintenance this” and “utility that” when you talk about Unix. Isn’t there any fun to be had via the command line (other than playing those god-awful “games”)?Power Unix users live by the command line, typically doing geeky, utilitarian tasks such as monitoring, maintaining, and administrating a system and its users. All of that administration is undeniably important, but sometimes you just gotta dance! To that end, you can play MP3 fi les and get your groove on right from the Unix command line; all you need is a command-line MP3 player, such as madplay. But before you can run madplay, you need to do a bit of legwork fi rst: First,

install Apple’s Developer Tools and X11 from your Mac OS 10.3 or 10.4 install discs. Then, download and install Fink (free, http://fi nk.sourceforge.net). Once you’re all Finked up, open the Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal). Type fi nk install madplay and press Return to download and install the player. (If it doesn’t work, you may need to update Fink by typing fi nk selfupdate and pressing Return.) The Terminal will prompt you when it’s done. When you’re ready to rock, type madplay and then the path to your MP3 fi le (or just drag a folder full of MP3s into the Terminal window), and press Return. Who’s geeky now?

If you squint your eyes real hard, this blob of text looks just like iTunes’ eye candy.

And you shall know us by the trail of renamed fi les.

Is the hard drive two-fi fths empty or three-fi fths full?

May 200662

62 HOW TOpodcast like a pro 63HOW TO

Podcast Like a Proby Niko Coucouvanis

1 Enter the Podcasting StudioLaunching GarageBand presents you with some options for making a new project. Select New Podcast Episode,

and give your project a name in the dialog that follows. The new podcasting project comes preloaded with a Podcast Track, Male Voice and Female Voice tracks, and tracks for Jingles and Radio Sounds. If you’re creating a one-person show and you’re in a hurry, just click either of the voice tracks, click the red Record button, and have at it. When you’re done speaking, click Record again to stop.

GarageBand 3’s Podcasting Studio makes it easier than ever to crank out a righteously professional-sounding podcast, complete with sound effects, atmospheric background music, snappy intro and outro jingles—even chapters, artwork, and Web links. With this awesome power at your disposal, it’d be a crime to make a boring, plain-Blaine podcast—here’s how to avoid that.

DUCKING CONTROLS Twiddle the arrows to set which tracks cause others to duck in volume.

LOOP LIBRARY Click the eye icon to load your loops.

TRACK EDITOR Flips into Chapter Manager mode when the Podcast Track is present.

ART-ANNOTATED CHAPTER MARKERS Spice up your audio podcast.

PODCAST TRACK Manage an enhanced podcast’s artwork and Web links here.

Mac OS 10.3.9 or later

GarageBand 3 ($79, part of iLife ’06, www.apple.com)

Microphone (optional)

WHAT YOU NEED

Start with a New Podcast Episode—starting a regular project and adding a Podcast Track later isn’t the same.

MUSICAL TYPING Play your Mac’s keyboard like a piano.

MEDIA BROWSER All of your other iLife stuff is right here.

62 HOW TOpodcast like a pro 63HOW TO

May 2006 63

3 Add Effects on the Fly

4 Master Musical Typing

At least half the fun of podcasting comes from adding all the rockin’ radio-style jingles, zany zingers, and stupid

sound effects. Of course, you’ll want way more of them than you can cram in while recording the live vocal track(s)—and that’s where post-production comes in. To pepper your podcast with wackiness, highlight the Jingles track, and if your loops aren’t loaded, click the eye icon to open the Loop Browser; then press the podcast icon to load the Jingles, Stingers, and Sound Effects. For the standard talk-radio format, drop matching Jingles at the beginning and end of the show, before and after any commercial breaks (hey, it could happen), and anywhere else you need a little pause in the action. The real fun is in the Stingers and Sound Effects; insert sound effects at will by dragging them into position on the Jingles track or another Software Instrument track (click the plus-sign icon to add another).

2 Record It in iChatIf you’re making a one-person podcast, proceed to the next step. In this step, you’ll record an iChat

conversation to spice up your podcast with a compelling guest interview. Or you can use it for some private blackmail fodder—whatever suits your fancy. To record the chat, simply set up GarageBand as in the previous step, but before pressing Record, fi re up iChat and initiate a chat with your victim—er, guest—by double-clicking the phone or camera icon by his or her name in your Buddy List. Alternately, you can highlight the person’s name on your Buddy List and select Buddies > Invite To Audio Chat. And FYI, you can’t record a chat initiated by someone else—this trick only works if you initiate the chat. Once your chatee accepts the chat (and you disclose that you’re recording the conversation),

If you’re quick on your feet, you can play GarageBand’s sound effects while recording your monologue or iChat

interview. A piano-style USB keyboard makes this easier, but you can use GarageBand’s onscreen keyboard and tickle the ivories with your mouse. Select Window > Keyboard and click the Radio Sounds track to highlight it, which also activates the keyboard. Plink around until you fi nd the sounds you want. To load a different sound-effect kit, double-click the track title in the Track List to open the Track Info window (or choose Track > Show Track Info). Keeping Sound Effects highlighted in the left-side list, switch to Applause And Laughter, Comedy Noises,

You can play Sound Effects by poking around on GarageBand’s onscreen keyboard, but tickling the ivories

with your mouse is annoying—so use your Mac’s keyboard instead. Select Window > Musical Typing, and highlight the Radio Sounds track or another Software Instrument track. Click the eye icon, navigate to a sound effect or loop you want to use, and drag it from the loop drawer onto the key you want to assign it in the Musical Typing window—sweet! You can assign your own sounds to every key on the board—and cooler yet, if your interview is rife with choice sound-bite fodder, you can isolate a segment by loading its clip into the Track Editor (double-click the clip) or simply highlighting the clip and selecting Edit > Split

Proper Post-Production

5

You can have all kinds of fun with podcast sound effects.

You could spend days tweaking your sound effects here.

or Radio Sounds to load podcast-appropriate sounds. When you’re ready to really dig in, click the Details triangle and use its check boxes and pull-down menus to create some truly bizarre sounds via the onscreen keyboard.

This is GarageBand’s way of saying “Quiet on the set!”

Not only can you type via the QWERTY keyboard, you can assign it your own sounds.

a couple of times. Drag the segment directly from the timeline to any key in the Musical Typing window.

TIP

RAISE THE BARIf your podcast has a perfect fade-out ending, GarageBand might cut off the tail end. To prevent fadeus interruptus, click the Cycle Region button to activate the orange Cycle bar in the timeline, and then click and drag the end of the Cycle bar out a few measures past the end of the project.

press GarageBand’s Record button; GarageBand will alert you that it’s detected an audio chat and confi rm that you’d like to record. When you’re done, click the Record button again; if the playhead keeps moving, press Play to stop it.

64 HOW TOpodcast like a pro

May 200664

6 Don’t Forget to Duck

Niko Coucouvanis isn’t a regular podcaster, but he’s having a gas with GarageBand’s new noisemakers.

NO iLIFE? NO PROBLEM!GarageBand is the easiest way to crank out a killer podcast, but 79 bucks is 79 bucks. These Web sites offer tools, tips, and even online hosting for your podcasting pursuits—and the basic services are free with registration.GARAGEBAND.COM’S Podcast Studio (www.garageband.com/podcast) seems like it’s wearing a target for Apple’s lawyers.PODOMATIC (www.podomatic.com) provides a selection of canned George W. Bush answers for your fake-interview pleasure.ODEO.COM (www.odeo.com) can pipe your podcast directly to the iTunes Music Store’s Podcast directory.CLICKCASTER (www.clickcaster.com), currently a free beta, promotes your own on-demand radio show.

Mixing spoken content with sound effects requires ducking—dropping the volume of the background to

ensure the important stuff gets heard. How low you duck your background music is up to you, but we can tell you how to set it: If you started GarageBand with a new podcast or movie-score project, you’ll see the ducking controls on each audio track—otherwise, select Control > Ducking. Click the up arrow on lead tracks and the down arrow on tracks you want to duck out of the way. The track-volume slider only controls the track’s regular volume; to fi ne-tune your ducking, open the Track Info pane (press Command-I or select Track > Show Track Info) and select Master Track. Find the Ducking Amount slider near the bottom of the window, and slide it up toward 100 to increase the amount of ducking—remember, the higher you set the ducking, the quieter the sound effects get when you talk.

Defi ne your duck: You specify how low the background sounds duck to avoid the vocals.

7 Enhance Your ’CastNow that you’ve got the audio portion of your podcast squared away, click the Podcast Track to

add enhancements such as chapter markers, Web links, and episode artwork. Remember, if you recorded an iChat AV interview, all of the participants’ chat icons (or iSight snapshots) get automatically added to the Podcast Track each time the participants speak.

In Podcast mode, GarageBand’s Track Editor magically sprouts a Chapter Marker manager; click the Media Browser icon to load your iPhoto library. Drag a photo from the Media Browser directly into the timeline or Chapter Marker manager,

You can even embed Web links into your podcast—so where’s that wireless Web-browsing iPod?

8 Stop, Drop, and Crop

Who says that size doesn’t matter?

Shrinking photos you want to use as podcast art down to iPod-friendly postage-stamp size doesn’t require

launching iPhoto. Just double-click any piece of artwork in the Track Editor (including the Episode Artwork and Podcast Preview images) to load that image into GarageBand’s Artwork Editor; use the slider to scale the image, and then drag the image to adjust what appears in the visible center of the crop frame.

or click the Add Marker button and drag in your artwork later. Click the placeholder text fi elds (Add Title Here, URL Title, URL) to add chapter titles and Web links. You can later rearrange the order of the Chapter Markers by dragging the regions (each Chapter Marker designates the beginning of a new region) around in the timeline, or by altering the numerical value in the Time column. Don’t try dragging Chapter Markers around in the Track Editor—that only moves the art, not the marker itself. And don’t forget to drag an image into the Episode Artwork pane—this is the equivalent of album-cover art, so make sure it looks good.

Say “No” to the Nav Bar1 Squat on Your HomePage Page2

Mask Like a Superhero3 Take Back the Templates4

A good navigation scheme is crucial on a busy Web site—

but sometimes you want to put up secret, unlinked, under-development pages without links to other parts of your site. Select the page you want to hide in iWeb’s Site Organizer, and click the Inspector icon. Now click the Inspector’s Page icon, and remove the checkmark in the box labeled Include Page In Navigation Menu.

iWeb adds a nav bar to every page, but you can make it stop.

To automatically redirect folks from your .Mac account’s HomePage to your new iWeb page, fi rst mount your

iDisk (in the Finder, choose Go > iDisk > My iDisk). Fire up TextWrangler (free, on the Disc, www.barebones.com) and open index.html in your /iDisk/Sites folder. Find the redirect tag: <meta http-equiv=”refresh” content=”0;url= http://homepage.mac.com/your member name/your page name.html”> and change the URL to http://web.mac.com/your member name/iWeb/. Save and close the document.

.Mac’s HomePage is tricky—but it’s no match for your human smarts.

You can’t make a custom-shaped image mask, but you can set any shape’s background to an image.

Click a placeholder image on your page to select it (or drag in an image from the Media Browser), and press the

Mask button in the lower toolbar (or press Command-Shift-M) to enable the mask-editing mode. A translucent rectangle will appear, framing the central part of the image while masking the edges. Click anywhere on the image and drag to reposition the image behind the mask. Now hover the cursor over the edge of

the masked area until the cursor changes from a hand to an arrow, and click once to select the mask. Click and drag the resizing handles (the little squares) to resize the mask, or click and drag anywhere else on the mask to reposition it. If you want to edit the mask later, double-click the image.

To modify iWeb’s stubborn template elements directly, quit iWeb, Control-click the iWeb icon (/Applications

/iWeb), select Show Package Contents, and navigate to /Contents/Resources/English.lproj/Templates/About Me. Control-click the Baby About Me.webtemplate fi le, and select Show Package Contents. Open any of the JPEGs inside to inspect their pixel dimensions, and replace them with your own JPEGs of the same dimensions. Use this method to change any of the templates’ main images and buttons—even some page-trim elements. If you want to tweak the templates further, you’ll need to hack the index.xml.gz fi le—just be sure to make a backup of it fi rst.

Modifying iWeb templates isn’t impossible if you’re sneaky.

SITEORGANIZERLists all of your sites and pages.

BLOG ENTRIESCreate and manage blog entries here.

MEDIA BROWSERKeeps the rest of iLife within reach.

INSPECTOR WINDOWLets you tweak almost anything.

Click the edge of a mask to activate the inner squares to resize, drag, or rotate the mask.

Lets you tweak almost anything.

Click the edge of a mask to activate the inner squares to resize, drag, or

Use the outer squares of a mask to resize or drag the image.

ON THEDISC

TextWrangler

65HOW TO

May 2005 65

Mac OS 10.3.9 or later

iWeb 1.0.1 ($79, part of iLife ’06, www.apple.com)

TextWrangler (free, on the Disc, www.barebones.com)

WHAT YOU NEED

iWeb isn’t a tool for snooty Web pros who can recite the XHTML 2.0 spec backward—it’s for the proverbial “rest

of us.” But even the most unwashed of the Web masses deserve better; here are some tricks to make iWeb more fun.

Bend iWeb to Your Willby Niko Coucouvanis

Niko Coucouvanis rem

embers w

hen WYS

IWYG

meant “w

hat you steal is w

hat you get” (at least regarding HTM

L code).

66 HOW TOprettify a page with Pages

May 200666

Prettify a Page with Pagesby Niko Coucouvanis

Pages 2 ($79, part of iWork ’06, www.apple.com)

WHAT YOU NEED

the shape and image remain editable, so mind which object is selected—and yes, you can Shift-click to select and edit both simultaneously.

1 Pretty as a PictureFirst, jazz up your page a bit by adding an image inside a starburst shape and fl owing the surrounding text

gracefully around it. Click the Objects icon in Pages’ toolbar, and scroll down to the shape you desire—use the blue handles to resize the shape. Click the Media icon in Pages’ toolbar to load the Media browser; select iPhoto from the pull-down menu, and drag an image into the shape—again, use the blue corner handles to resize the image.

Now click the Inspector icon in Pages’ toolbar. Click the Inspector’s Text icon to manipulate the text formatting; click the Wrap icon to determine how text fl ows around the shape; and click the Graphic icon to meddle with the Fill, Stroke (border), Shadow, Refl ection, and Opacity of the shape and image. Both

Pages’ cache of graphical tricks and good-looking templates helps you look your very best.

Now that computers rule the world, word processing—what the senior set might remember as “typing”—is an essential part of modern life. Corollary: Microsoft Word is inevitable. Refutation: Apple has released

Pages 2. Follow along as we dig into Pages’ niftier (and mildly advanced) tricks to prove that you can live a Wordless existence—and a downright enjoyable (not to mention attractive) one at that.

VIEW MENU Quickly toggle visual aids such as the Styles and Pages Drawers, rulers, comments, and more.

TOOLBAR Control-click and select Customize Toolbar to put any of Pages’ commands in the toolbar.

PAGES BUTTON Save page layouts (Format > Advanced > Capture Pages), and then insert them with this.

Save page layouts (Format > Advanced > Capture Pages), and then

STYLE BUTTONQuickly access your Paragraph Styles.

STYLE BUTTONQuickly access your Paragraph

OBJECTS BUTTONInsert Text, Shape, Table, or Chart objects.

Option-click an Inspector icon to spawn that Inspector in a new window.

STYLES DRAWER Highlight text, and click to apply Paragraph, Character, or List Styles.

This translucent, exploded 3D pie chart is a master-page object.

This shape contains multiple shadow and reflection effects. You can decide whether and how text wraps around it.

Craft your own math-defying table.

INSPECTOR Summon the contextual Inspector to tweak settings for any item, object, or the whole document.

Pages Drawers, rulers, comments, and more.

COLLABORATION Leave comments for other users reading your document.

67HOW TO

May 2006 67Niko Coucouvanis takes back all the bad things he said about Pages when version 1.0 came out. Well, most of the bad things he said.

3 Master Thy Pages

4 Do the Math

2 Charts Gone Wild!

To create your own personalized-form-letter factory, start by prepping your Address Book (/Applications/Address

Book). Make sure all of the contacts you want to spam have the First Name field (or whatever field you want to merge data from) filled in. In Pages, type the first line of your form letter: Dear Butthead. Highlight Butthead and click the Inspector’s Link icon to access the Link Inspector, and then click the Merge tab. Click the box labeled Enable As An Address Book Field, click the Recipient Field radio button, and pick your poison from the Type and Field pull-down menus. To add recipients’ first names, select Name and First. Repeat the process for other fields you’d like to merge in. To pipe in the data, open Address Book and drag in a contact’s card. When you’re ready for some big-league spamming, create a Group in Address Book, and drag in the whole enchilada—Pages will ask if you’d like to send the merged letters directly to your printer or create a new Pages document with each recipient’s personalized letter in its own section of the document. Your call.

Select Insert > Chart (or click the Objects icon in Pages’ toolbar and select Chart). Now click the chart-looking

icon in the Inspector to bring up the Chart controls.Now add your own data; click the Edit Data button to open the

Chart Data Editor. Once you get all of your data in place, the real fun begins. Click the Chart Type button on the Chart Inspector, and pick a different type—we dig the 3D pie chart. Each chart type has its own stylistic controls, such as lighting and depth for the 3D charts; formatting of labels, axes, numbers, data points; and more. You can even explode the pie charts—whee, exploding pie!

This chart doesn’t actually convey any information, but damn, it looks good.

To make your chart appear on every page, drag the object to where you’d like it to appear, and select Format >

Advanced > Move Object To Section Master. If that option is grayed out, put a paragraph break (press the Return key) immediately before the object on the page. Select Format > Advanced > Make Master Objects Selectable, and click the chart to select it. Now click the Inspector’s Graphic icon and use the Opacity slider at the bottom to fade the chart. You can apply the same technique to text, images, shape objects—anything that you can put on a page.

You can still select and tweak objects after adding them to the master page.

Color-coding makes the Table and Formula Editor toolssurprisingly easy to work with.

If charts are Pages’ eye candy, then Tables are its braininess. Insert a Table by selecting Insert > Table (duh)

or by clicking the toolbar’s Objects icon and selecting Table. Next, click the Inspector’s Table icon. Use the Table section to set the number of rows and columns and their sizes, and then click the Numbers tab for the real fun.

Click any table cell and type some data. Once you’ve got some data entered, you can assign mathematical formulae to cells (typically to the last cell in a column or row) to process the data from other cells: Just click a cell to highlight it, and pick a formula from the pull-down menu. Too limiting? Select Formula Editor and string together your own formula: Click the function button to insert an operator, and then click on other cells in the table to add them to the equation.

Spam Your Whole Address Book

5

Where shall I send your merge, sir?

Nothing screams indifference like a carefully personalized form letter.

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LETTERS

vv t

78

May 200678

OFF COLORI noticed in your “Microsoft Offi ce Tricks” story (Mar/06, p28) that Max was green! Poor guy. I just wanted to make sure that he’s better now and let him know how much of a trooper he is for going to the photo shoot so sick—that’s dedication. I know there’s no one like that in the Windows world.—sinclair_tm via the MacAddict.com forums

Smiling on the outside; dying on the inside.

A word of advice: If you buy a chicken-salad sandwich at the Microsoft cafeteria and find yourself thinking it looks a bit bluish, it’s probably not because of the funky lighting.—Max

THE END OF THE AFFAIRI have had a love affair with the Mac since 1986—but now, an Intel chip is going in a Mac. How can this be? I can see the new Apple commercial now: A young

female athlete is being chased as she hurls a sledgehammer into a giant screen—only this time, the hammer is sucked into the image. The dictator starts to laugh sardonically as the Thought Police arrest the athlete and take her away. Steve Jobs has gone over to the Dark Side.—Doug RobbTake a deep breath, Doug, and repeat after me. “It’s just a chip. It’s just a chip. It’s just a chip.” There, feel better?—Max

THE END OF THE AFFAIR, PART III was a little disappointed in your last survey (see “Survey Says,” below). You didn’t offer the option for never.—M. J. Pete

AW, SHUCKSI read your commentary online at www.macaddict.com every day. I think you’re pithy and smart, and your take on the day’s events and news is top-notch in its subtlety and style. Thanks for making my day, and for giving me something to look forward to at lunch time.—Michael GarnerAw, thanks Michael—though I do hope you really meant “pithy,” and you don’t merely have a lisp. By the way, the next time you’re on our site, check out www.macaddict

.com/hotlist, the new home of our Hot List product recommendifi er.—Max

iSALE FOR SALE?Your review of iSale ( Mar/06, p50) says it’s the only eBay app for the Mac. Well, not only is it not the only eBay app for the Mac, it’s not even the best eBay app for the Mac. GarageSale (www.iwascoding.com) is far better and only costs $24.99. How much did iSale pay you for the review?—Dave WilsoniSale was outbid in the fi nal minute by one Josephine Mungespittle of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, who purchased our review for $17.50 (plus

shipping and handling). All kidding aside, when we said iSale was the only eBay app for the Mac, we erred, which is apparently human—but we still like iSale.—Max

BIRD BRAINMy sister’s bird Jedi always feels the force when she is using her iMac. She is, however, a hunt-and-peck typist.—Paula Paradis

Looking to offl oad your editorial integrity? Try GarageSale.

M-A-E T-H-A F-O-R-S B-E-E W-I-T-H Y-O-O.

BUILD-IN ERRORPlug your server into a KVM switch, and your G5 will give you an interesting error. I’m not quite sure where your “build-in” keyboard actually is, but Apple may want to check its grammar and hardware defi nitions.—Chris BuckleOh, Apple—you could learn a thing or two from MacAddict, where we never accidentally misspell words!—Max

WHEN DO YOU PLAN TO BUY AN INTEL-BASED MAC?

tell us how you really feel

Survey SaysHere are the results of our January 2006 survey. Check out www.macaddict.com each month for a new online poll.

12% I’m waiting until my favorite apps run natively on Intel chips.

41% I’m in no rush—my current Mac is just fi ne.

20% I’m pulling out my checkbook as soon as my budget allows.

7% I’m waiting until the Intel-based Power Macs come out later this year.

20% I plan to buy one sometime this year.

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Hey, wait, isn’t that my tux?

CONTESTANT INFORMATION Full Name:

Address:

City: State:

Zip:

Email or telephone:

Congratulations to Mathew

Kaufman, whose cleverness won him a Fujitsu ScanSnap ($495, http://scansnap.fujitsu.com), and a special honorable historical mention to the dozens of you who riffed on “Four cores and seven years (or, in a few cases, beers) ago…”

Winner!

vv t

May 2006 79

Harman Multimedia’s new JBL On Time ($299.95, www.jbl.com) not only looks great; its JBL Phoenix and Ridge transducers assure that it sounds great, too. Use its clock radio to wake up, or plug in your ’Pod for more music choices—you can even hook it up to your Mac to sync your tunes through the JBL On Time’s charging dock. Want it? Just write the best caption to the photo below, and it’s yours. Only one entry per contestant.

79

MOOT, MEET FOUTHOn page 78 of the Mar/06 issue, there’s a pie chart labeled “What’s your biggest worry about Apple’s switch to Intel processors?” One of the worries reads, “21%: Current apps will run dog-slow in Rossetta.” On the next page is a reference to Roseanne Rosannadanna. I submit it should read Rosseanne Rossannadanna. Consistency. Smile.—Curt ScottAss I jusst ssaid, Misster Sscott, we never accidentally misssspell wordss. We alwayss do it on purposse.—Max

UPGRADE UPROARI switched to a Mac three years ago and never looked back, but Apple’s software-upgrade policy stinks. In January 2006, I purchased iLife ’05. Two weeks later, iLife ’06 came out, so I called Apple to fi nd out how much it would cost me to

upgrade, and I discovered that Apple doesn’t offer an upgrade price like most other software companies do. My advice: If Apple wants PC types to keep migrating to Macs, consider offering a reduced upgrade price. PC folks are accustomed to this courtesy.—Len Fedullo

MIGHT AS WELL FACE ITI was reading your Mar/06 issue and enjoying the iDate review (Shut Down, p80). I noticed on the “Sensation Intense” package the text “L337 H4XORS H4V3 S4L3 S3X!” That’s Leet for “ELITE HACKERS HAVE SALE SEX!” Is this intentional? Or are you L337 M4C H4X0RS over there playing a joke on us?—Adam McClellanNo joke, Adam. These days, everyone’s preaching about safe sex—that’s why we here at MacAddict have decided to focus on how freakin’ expensive is it.—Max

QUARANTINEIs what I’m hearing true? Has the fi rst OS X virus really been discovered?—L. MurphyWell, that depends on how you defi ne virus, but two pieces of malware—malicious software—showed up in mid-February. The fi rst was Leap-A (or Oompa-Loompa, which we fi nd far cuter), which was actually a trojan horse; trojans pretend to be something they’re not (an image fi le, in this case) and require you to actively unleash them yourself. The second was OSX.Inqtana.A, a worm; unlike trojans, worms can replicate

themselves—in this case through your Mac’s Bluetooth connection. But Apple closed that Bluetooth loophole in a June 2005 software update, so if you’ve stayed on top of Software Update’s security-related releases, you should be just fi ne.—Max

“I think I’m going to spring for the Granny Smith upgrade.”

They’re coming to get you.

Send email entries to: [email protected] with the subject: JBL Contest (Don’t forget to include your address information!)Send snail-mail entries to: JBL Contest, MacAddict magazine, 4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080.Deadline for entry: May 31, 2006. Contest results will appear in our Sep/06 issue.

Contest Rules The judges will be MacAddict editors and will base their decision on 33 percent humor, 33 percent originality, and 33 percent creativity. All entries must be received no later than May 31, 2006, with the winner announced around September 2006. By entering this contest, you agree that Future US, Inc. may use your name, likeness, and Web site for promotional purposes without further payment. All prizes will be awarded, and no minimum number of entries is required. If two or more people enter identical winning captions, the entry received fi rst will be awarded the contest prize. Prizes won by minors will be awarded to their parents or legal guardians. Future US, Inc. is not responsible for damages or expenses the winners might incur as a result of this contest or the receipt of a prize, and winners are responsible for income taxes based on the value of the prize received. A list of winners may also be obtained by sending a stamped, self-addressed envelope to Future US, Inc. c/o MacAddict Contest, 4000 Shoreline Court - Suite 400, South San Francisco CA 94080. This contest is limited to residents of the United States. No purchase necessary, void in Arizona, Maryland, Vermont, Puerto Rico, and where prohibited by law.

Entry Form

WIN!

WRITE TO US!Mac Addict, 4000 Shoreline Court, Ste. 400,South San Francisco, CA 94080 or letters@macaddict .com

FOR CD PROBLEMS: go to www.futureus-inc.com

FOR SUBSCRIPTION QUERIES: call (toll-free) 888-771-6222

Volume 11, Issue 5MacAddict (ISSN 1088-548X) is published 12 times a year by Future US, Inc., 4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080. Periodicals Postage Paid at South San Francisco, CA, and at additional mailing offices. Newsstand distribution is handled by Curtis Circulation Co. Basic subscription rates: one year (12 issues + 12 CD-ROMs) U.S. $39.90, Canada $43.95, U.S. prepaid funds only. Canadian price includes postage and GST 128220688. IPM 0962392. Outside the U.S. and Canada, price is $53.95, U.S. prepaid funds only. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to MacAddict, P.O. Box 5126, Harlan, IA 51593-0626. Future US, Inc. also publishes Maximum PC, PC Gamer, Official Xbox Magazine, PSM, Guitar World, Guitar One, Guitar World Acoustic, Bass Guitar, Guitar Legends, Future Music, Future Snowboarding, Snowboard Journal, Snowboard Trade News, Skateboard Trade News, and Scrapbook Answers. Entire contents copyright 2006, Future US, Inc.. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited. Future US, Inc. is not affiliated with the companies or products covered in MacAddict. Ride-Along enclosure in the following edition(s): A3, B, B1, B2, B3. PRODUCED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Publications Mail Agreement #40043631. Returns: 4960-2 Walker Road, Windsor ON N9A 6J3

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