It’s that time of year again! ‘Tis the season…to fight your way through crowded malls, listening to the shrill screams of cranky children and trying to find the perfect gifts for all your loved ones. MacSense’s first annual 'Santa’s 7' gift guide can help you minimize the trips to suburban war zones (a.k.a. the shopping malls) and helps you choose just the right gift for the Mac user on your Christmas list!

Each of the seven outstanding products listed below are highly recommended by Santa (and the MacSense staff) and carry two ratings: one for the utility of the item (UI), and the other indicating how fun the product is (FI). Both ratings operate on a five-point scale, so the higher the UI or FI rating, the more useful or fun the product is. 

Santa's 7: (listed in order of ascending price)

1. Berkeley After Dark Screen Savers. $30 US. ($45 Cdn.). UI: 3. FI: 3.

Sure to be hot sellers this Christmas are Berkeley’s latest additions to its screen saver collection: After Dark 3.0, The Simpsons, The X-Men and Star Trek: The Next Generation (please see review, this issue of MacSense). Though the Energy-Star compliancey of most new Macintoshes preclude the necessity of screen savers, they’re still one of the most fun and mindless diversions you can buy for the Macintosh. Watch Homer and Flanders mow the lawn, Wolverine slash up your desktop, and Picard explore the unknown.

2. Marathon, $40 US. ($60 Cdn) from Bungie Software. UI: 0. FI: 5.

Finally! A DOOM-alike game for the Macintosh that rivals the sheer action, intensity and quality of its DOS-based competitor! The game places you aboard the massive colony spacecraft ‘Marathon’, where you must stop the onslaught of hundreds of alien creatures who have overrun the ship. The game allows for head-to-head play with eight networked players, offers stereo surround sound and requires two things that DOOM and DOOM II do not: strategy, and a fast Macintosh! Marathon is fat-binary (it is accelerated for the Power Macintosh, but will also work on older Macs), and requires a 256 color monitor and 8 megabytes of memory. MacSense recommends a 25MHz 68040 processor or greater.

3. Star Trek: The Next Generation Interactive Technical Manual. CD-ROM. $45 US. ($70 Cdn.) from Simon and Schuster Interactive. UI: 0. FI: 4.

This interactive tour-de-force is the premiere product to use Apple’s new QuickTime VR technology, allowing you to explore various rooms of the Enterprise 1701-D at your leisure, experiencing 360-degree user-controllable views from a multitude of areas (please see review in this issue of MacSense). A must have for any Star Trek lover and Mac user with at least a 20 MHz 68040 processor, 256 color monitor and a CD-ROM.

4. System 7.5. $99 US. ($145 Cdn.) from Apple.  UI: 4. FI: 3.

Apple latest update to its Macintosh operating system offers a little for everybody: for the novice Mac user, there’s AppleGuide, an interactive online help system. For the Mac guru, there’s QuickTime 2.0 and over fifty useful Finder enhancements, including drag-and-drop, a new Notepad and Scrapbook, Stickies on screen post-it notes and a new Desktop Patterns control panel. For the professional, there’s PC Exchange, Macintosh EasyOpen, PowerTalk and QuickDraw GX. Keep the Mac user on your list up-to-date with the latest Mac OS! (For a detailed review of System 7.5, please see ‘Hands On: System 7.5’ parts one and two, in MacSense October and MacSense November.)

5. High-speed data/fax modem. From $140 US. ($190 Cdn.) UI: 5. FI: 5.

Chances are if you’re reading this issue of MacSense, you downloaded it from an online service. As you are well aware, a high-speed modem allows you to connect your Mac to the world, accessing large files and documents at an efficient rate. If the Mac user on your list doesn’t have a modem or is still plodding along at 2400 baud, you might think about getting them up to speed. MacSense specifically recommends Global Village’s Teleport Gold II 14.4k data/fax modem (prices as above). The Global Village fax software has been repeatedly acclaimed for its ease of use and advanced feature set. Like previous Global Village modems, the Teleport Gold II features sturdy construction and an aesthetically pleasing chassis design. 

6. RAM. $160 US. ($235 Cdn.) for a 4 MB (megabyte) SIMM, $340 US. ($500 Cdn.) for an 8 MB SIMM. UI: 5. FI: 2. (It will enhance fun if it allows you to play more games!) 

If you’re reading this issue of MacSense on a 4 MB Macintosh system, you already know why purchasing extra RAM is a great gift. An average installation of System 7.5 eats up 2.5 MB of that 4 MB, leaving you only 1.5 MB to use for your applications. This is barely enough memory to use ClarisWorks! With software such as Adobe Photoshop and Aldus Freehand requiring at least 4 MB of RAM to run respectably, buying extra RAM for the Mac user on your list is a Christmas gift they will cherish...each time they open up Marathon or Myst!

7. The Apple Multimedia Kit. $485 US ($525 Cdn.) from Apple. UI: 5 FI: 5.

If you’ve got the cash to spend and the Mac enthusiast on your Christmas list doesn’t have a CD-ROM drive, you should consider initiating them into the world of multimedia. The Apple Multimedia Kit includes the double-speed Apple CD300 Plus external CD-ROM drive, the high-quality AppleDesign Powered Speakers II, Apple Headphones and a collection of CD-ROMs to get the user started. The kit hooks up easily to any desktop Macintosh (to connect to PowerBook you must purchase a different SCSI cable), and MacSense recommends at least an 25MHz 68030, 256-color Macintosh system (i.e., the LC III). If you’ve got any cash left over, run out and buy Myst or the Star Trek: The Next Generation Interactive Technical Manual, to show the Mac user on your list the power of CD-ROM!

 

Wish List Results

In our last issue, we asked our readers to send us e-mail detailing the items on their Macintosh Christmas wish lists. Below are the top ten wished for items:

10. A color printer, whether it be inkjet or color laser
9.   A scanner, preferably color
8.   A larger hard drive
7.   A high-speed modem
6.   Apple’s System 7.5
5.   A fast CD-ROM drive
4.   A Power Macintosh system, of any kind
3.   The Star Trek: The Next Generation Interactive Technical Manual on CD-ROM
2.   More RAM

And the #1 most-requested item on people’s Macintosh Christmas wish lists is:

                                        MARATHON, from Bungie Software.

 

We hope our Santa’s 7 top gift ideas have helped you narrow the search for the perfect gift for the Mac user in your life...or maybe, the perfect gift for yourself!

Tell us about the Mac-related items you receive for Christmas, and if they are  everything you’ve dreamed they would be. Send e-mail to MacSenseEd.@eWorld.com (simply MacSense Ed. if you’re a eWorld subscriber), and title your letter “Christmas Gifts”. We look forward to hearing from you!

           We at MacSense would like to take this opportunity to wish 
                  all of our readers a very safe and Happy Holiday! 

                Please, if you drink this holiday season, don't drive. 
                     You could lose much more than your license.