Cupertino, Calif. - Following through on its promise to introduce a steadier stream of Macintosh hardware upgrades, Apple late next month will debut new versions of the Mac LC, the Personal LaserWriter NT and LS printers, and the AppleCD SC Plus CD-ROM drive.
>Mac LC II.
As previously reported (see MacWEEK, Jan. 20), Apple will replace the 68020-based Mac LC with a 16-MHz 68030 version of the company's lowest-cost color system.
The new model reportedly will include an '030 processor direct slot that is compatible with cards designed for the original LC's '020 Direct Slot.
In other respects, the new model will be essentially identical to its '020 predecessor and will run only marginally faster, sources said. It will have two SIMM (single in-line memory module) slots for RAM and will still be limited to a maximum of 10 Mbytes of physical RAM. The '030 processor, however, will enable users to take advantage of virtual memory.
The LC II originally was designed to include a socket for a floating-point coprocessor, but the socket was recently eliminated after compatibility problems cropped up during product testing, sources said.
When configured with 256 Kbytes of video RAM, the new LC will support eight-bit color on Apple's 12-inch color monitor; with 512 Kbytes of VRAM, it will deliver eight-bit color on a 13-inch display.
Apple will offer two LC II configurations, one with a 40-Mbyte internal hard drive and 256 Kbytes of VRAM and one with an 80-Mbyte hard drive and 512 Kbytes of VRAM. Both configurations will include 4 Mbytes of RAM soldered to the board. A microphone will be bundled with both.
Prices are expected to be the same as for current LC systems: $1,699 for the 4/40 and $2,049 for the 4/80 units.
A logic board upgrade will be available to current LC owners, but not before May, and pricing has not been set, according to sources.
>Personal LaserWriter NTR.
Users in search of a faster, cheaper LaserWriter will soon find their quest fulfilled when Apple ships its first RISC (reduced instruction set computing) printer.
The new printer reportedly prints at least three times faster than the Personal LaserWriter NT, which it will replace. The new model is expected to be priced at $2,299, $300 less than the NT.
The NTR will come equipped with an Advanced Micro Devices 29005 RISC processor, a 4-page-per-minute Canon LX print engine, 3 Mbytes of RAM and PostScript Level 2 (see MacWEEK, Nov. 19, 1991). It will come with 64 built-in PostScript and TrueType fonts and Centronics parallel, LocalTalk and RS-232 serial ports, all of which are active simultaneously.
The NTR's paper tray will hold 70 sheets. A 250-page paper tray, included with the NT, will be optional with the new model.
A $1,000 logic-board upgrade will be available for owners of the Personal LaserWriter NT and SC, sources said.
>Personal LaserWriter LS.
Apple's lowest-cost laser printer will remain in the lineup, but with changes that double the speed of the current model, according to sources.
Because the speed increase is due primarily to the bundling of new print drivers introduced last month along with additional TrueType fonts, LS owners who have received the updated software need not feel slighted.
The list price of the new LS also will be lowered $100 to $1,199, sources said.
>AppleCD SC Plus.
An update to the $799 AppleCD SC Plus also will debut next month, sources said.
Although there are some minor cosmetic changes to the 5.25- inch CD-ROM drive, the drive's performance and price reportedly won't change.
The new model reportedly will cost Ap-ple a little less to manufacture, but the company does not currently plan to pass the savings on to customers, according to sources.
Apple reportedly plans to add a high-speed 3.5-inch CD-ROM drive to its lineup later this year, and some observers have speculated that the drive to be introduced this month may have a short life expectancy.
(MacWEEK, February 24, 1992) (c) Copyright 1992 Coastal Associates L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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With upgrade in the Works, Microsoft aims to hold lead
Version 3.0 features new look, more color
By Henry Norr
Redmond, Wash. - With its long domination of the Mac integrated software market now under serious challenge from a spate of newcomers, Microsoft Corp. is preparing to strike back with a major upgrade to Microsoft Works.
Works 3.0, which sources said is currently slated to ship by early summer, will bring a new look, a separate Draw module and a hostof other enhancements to the package, especially its word processing, database and communications modules. But, judging from a prototype examined by MacWEEK, the new release will still lack the easy in-tegration of multiple data types in a single document, a feature that distinguishes such competitors as Claris Corp.'s ClarisWorks and MacVONK USA's HandiWorks.
The new Microsoft Works retains the modular design of previous releases, with separate file types for word processing, database, spreadsheet and charting, communications, and now, drawing documents.
>Word processing.
Enhancements to Works' word processing module include support for footnotes and endnotes; direct import and export of files in several popular formats, via translators that can be selected from the Open and Save As dialogs; multiline headers and footers; a Word Count command; a faster spelling checker that can use custom dictionaries; and a built-in thesaurus. Formatting options will be more accessible: The ruler now includes alignment and line-spacing icons, while font, size and style can be selected from a floating palette.
>Database.
Works database files now can include up to 16 custom forms for viewing and printing data; previous versions allowed only one form in each database file. Users can move at any time into Design view to create or edit forms. Like previous releases, Works 3.0 also will offer a spreadsheet- style list view.
>Spreadsheet.
In addition to more cell-formatting options, the spreadsheet module will offer several charting improvements. Creating a chart is now much simpler; charts can be generated right on the worksheet and linked to the underlying data for automatic updating, and a new Touch-Up command lets users modify every component of a chart with the program's drawing tools.
>Communications.
Works 3.0's communications module is based on Apple's Macintosh Communications Toolbox. It will come with a drop-in tool that supports the Kermit file transfer protocol, an auto-log-in function, and a status bar that tracks the cost and duration of on-line sessions.
>Drawing.
In Works 2.0, drawing tools were available only in a special layer over the word processing and spreadsheet modules. Now an expanded graphics tool palette is also available in the spreadsheet module, as well as in the new separate drawing module. New features include support for 256 colors, compared with eight in Version 2.0; rotation in one-degree increments; and simplified column linking. The package, according to sources, reportedly will provide extensive support for interapplication communications, using both Apple and Microsoft technologies.
Pricing for Works 3.0 is not available, and Microsoft declined to comment on the new version. Microsoft last summer cut the price of Works 2.0 by $50 to $249.
Microsoft Corp. is at 1 Microsoft Way, Redmond, Wash. 98052. Phone (206) 882-8080; fax (206) 883-8101.
(MacWEEK, February 24, 1992) (c) Copyright 1992 Coastal Associates L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Consistent color on the horizon
Matching scheme due from Apple
By Carolyn Said and Neil McManus
Boston - A utopia of consistent color and interchangeable documents is just over the horizon, according to speakers at Seybold Seminars 92 here last week. But users will have to wait at least until the end of the year to see whether this promised land lives up to its promises.
>Color.
Apple will take a leadership role to enable device- independent color on the Mac, according to Gerald Murch, Apple director of imaging systems.
The company's scheme, to be delivered this year as a System 7 extension, will have three parts: a built-in Color Matching System (CMS), which third-party systems can override; a Color Systems Manager, which will link components such as color profiles for devices; and Color Matching Utilities that will convert between color spaces, the various models for defining color.
The company will use CIE XYZ, a standard created in 1931, as its method for defining each color, and the Apple 13-inch RGB (red, green, blue) monitor as the source profile for display color, Murch said. Adobe Systems Inc. has also adopted the CIE XYZ as the touchstone for PostScript Level 2 device- independent color.
Hardware companies will need to characterize their devices, whose profiles will be included in device drivers. This will allow developers to offer program features such as printer- specific color previews, which let users determine whether their printer supports the on-screen colors. Existing applications reportedly will work with the Apple scheme without modification.
" We will provide a base level color-matching facility that works on every Mac," Murch said. High-end users will be able to customize the Apple color scheme with third-party CMSes or calibration facilities.
Several other companies also reported progress on color solutions. Eastman Kodak Co. and Electronics for Imaging Inc. showed their color-management systems. Light Source Computer Images Inc. reported plans for a color version of Ofoto, its scanning and image processing software, by year- end. Tektronix Inc. revealed it will add a color-preview function to its PostScript Level 2 color printers using its TekColor PS color management system.
>Document interchange.
The ability to move documents among platforms and applications came to the forefront, with major players asserting the superiority of their approaches.
Adobe Systems Inc.'s Carousel, Interleaf Inc.'s WorldView and Microsoft Corp.'s embedded TrueType fonts are all coming this year, the companies said. In addition, Type Solutions Inc. introduced a program that lets a TrueType font mimic the metrics of another font, offering a limited measure of document portability on the Macintosh.
Users said they could clearly see the benefits of systems that would allow them to exchange electronic documents, bypassing paper except when desired.
" We have a warehouse full of Cooperative Extension publications," said Richard Howland-Bolton, publications computing manager at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. " Most people only need a page or two of information from them. If we could store them electronically, search them and distribute them on any platform, that would be wonderful. It could be a real money-saver for us."
>Graphics hardware.
Linotype-Hell Co. previewed its Linotronic 170 and 190 imagesetters, which offer 2,590-dpi PostScript-compatible output through a customized True- Image interpreter. Quantel Inc. demonstrated its upcoming $150,000 graphics system that lets users manipulate large TIFF images in real time and link them to their Macintosh layouts (see MacWEEK, Feb. 17). CYMaK Technologies and RasterOps Corp. showed NuBus boards that let users edit CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) images on screen.
(MacWEEK, February 24, 1992) (c) Copyright 1992 Coastal Associates L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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Apple set to change channel course
By Andrew Gore
Cupertino, Calif. - Aiming to give the Mac more visibility in both niche and mass markets, Apple is on the verge of major changes in its distribution strategy.
The company this week is expected to announce that it has authorized three leading distributors to sell Macs to value- added resellers. And the company could begin selling Mac Classics, bundled with software, through consumer- electronics stores as early as this summer, sources said.
>Vertical VARs.
Apple has authorized Ingram Micro Inc. of Santa Ana, Calif., Merisel Inc. of El Segundo, Calif., and Tech Data Corp. of Clearwater, Fla., to supply Mac hardware to low- and medium-volume resellers that specialize in vertical markets such as legal or desktop publishing systems.
The three distributors, which previously were not authorized to sell any Mac systems, will be allowed to sell the entire Mac product line. Apple is counting on them to recruit more vertical-market resellers to the Mac camp, but the company will retain final veto over the authorization of new VARs.
Previous to the deals being announced this week, companies authorized to distribute Macs to resellers could do so only if the reseller was already Apple-authorized. Further, the reseller had to become a franchisee of the distributor.
Apple has had little success recruiting VARs, most of which base their solutions on MS-DOS clones. So far, Apple USA has managed to sign up fewer than 150 VARs as dealers, according to sources.
Apple's hope is that the distributors, which already do business with thousands of MS-DOS VARs, will be able to get these companies to move their solutions over to the Mac, sources said.
In addition, Apple reportedly hopes to cut costs by relying on the distributors to provide centralized purchasing and delivery and to establish their own VAR financing and support programs.
The three distributors are expected to begin delivering Macs this summer, sources said. VARs that currently buy direct from Apple, as well as VARs that buy Macs from authorized Apple dealers, will be allowed to join the new distributor- based VAR program. Some direct VARs will continue to purchase from Apple, but most will reportedly be encouraged to move their business to one of these distributors.
>Consumer Mac.
Apple is evaluating the pros and cons of allowing the three distributors to represent the Macs it plans to market through consumer electronics channels.
Apple expects to shift the Mac Classic from its general product line to consumer-electronics outlets such as Circuit City or possibly mass marketers such as Sears, sources said. The machines reportedly will be marketed with bundled application software
Apple regards the Classic bundles as a test of these mass- market channels with which it has no experience. The company hopes to bring a handheld personal organizer into the the mass market by year-end, with a QuickTime movie player to follow next year.
Apple also has planned new desktop Macs with built-in 3.5- inch CD-ROM drives for this year, sources said. Some configurations of these multimedia Macs would also be sold through consumer channels.
(MacWEEK, February 24, 1992) (c) Copyright 1992 Coastal Associates L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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Extensions to put PS-like imaging onto Mac screen
By Henry Norr
Cupertino, Calif. - The Mac's current imaging model can't directly display on screen many of the effects that PostScript makes possible, but a suite of system extensions due from Apple over the next two years should change that.
Currently code-named El Kabong, the project is reportedly designed both to simplify the development of applications that put sophisticated graphics on screen and to bridge the gap between QuickDraw, Apple's proprietary graphics engine, and PostScript, the page-description language used for most Mac graphics output.
The project involves replacement of many of the display routines provided by the Mac Toolbox. One key module is designed, simply put, to bring the benefits of Adobe Systems Inc.'s Display PostScript to the Mac screen, but without requiring PostScript programming.
The new code will, for example, provide routines for dashed lines, binding text to a path, moving an object along a path and automatically adding special effects such as shadowing, sources said.
Programs such as Adobe Illustrator, Aldus FreeHand and Deneba Software's Canvas, among others, already deliver many of these capabilities, but application developers have had to write most of the required code themselves. By providing Toolbox support for such options, the Apple project will dramatically reduce the burden on developers.
Users, in turn, should benefit in several ways. The selection of graphics applications should become wider, more powerful and possibly less expensive.
Interchanging documents between applications will be smoother and easier, and screen display and printed output will be much more consistent.
One example cited by developers familiar with the project was an application that lets users send an image of an airplane flying across the screen, casting a realistic-looking shadow on the landscape below. With the current Macintosh imaging model, such an option would demand major efforts on the part of the application developer; on a Mac running the new Apple software, much of the required code could be replaced by a few Toolbox calls.
Some of the new imaging software is currently slated for release by the end of the year, in conjunction with Apple's new printer architecture, according to sources (see MacWEEK, Feb. 10).
But several developers said they would not be surprised if the release date slipped into 1993. A further extension currently scheduled for 1993 will provide Toolbox support for 3-D imaging, sources said.
The new routines will take the form of extensions that users simply can drop into their System folders. Applications will need to be rewritten to take advantage of the new functions, but older software should continue to run without modification.
(MacWEEK, February 24, 1992) (c) Copyright 1992 Coastal Associates L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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Trojan horse carries new MBDF A virus
By Henry Norr
Morgantown, W.Va. - While the MS-DOS world tries to stem the spread of the Michelangelo virus, a new Mac Trojan horse and virus were discovered last week.
The virus, called MBDF A, is hidden in Tetricycle, a game that appeared on bulletin boards last week bearing a "Death Row Software" copyright. The program installs the virus into itself; the infection then spreads into the System file and other applications, according to Jeff Shulman, author of Shulman Software Co.'s shareware Virus Detective.
Shulman, part of a team of Mac virus-fighters responding to the new problem, said the virus does not destroy data, but some infected applications might not work properly.
MBDF A intentionally circumvents current virus-detection software. Shulman last week updated his program to find MBDF A and Tetricycle. Virus Detective 5.0 users can add the following search string themselves: Resource MBDF & ID=0 & WData A9ABA146*4446#4A9A0 ; For finding MBDF A. Updates to other virus-detection programs are expected soon.
(MacWEEK, February 24, 1992) (c) Copyright 1992 Coastal Associates L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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Apple launches repair programs for product glitches
By Henry Norr
Cupertino, Calif. - Apple reportedly will launch a new series of repair programs next week to deal with recently discovered glitches in some of its monitors, mice and PowerBook trackballs.
The new programs, which will let users have the affected products repaired or replaced free of charge even if their warranties have expired, will cover defects in the the following products, according to Apple documents:
>AppleColor High-Resolution RGB Monitor.
A defective high- voltage capacitor in certain displays manufactured between March 1990 and July 22, 1991, can cause the Mac as well as the monitor to shut down unexpectedly. The affected monitors reportedly have serial numbers in the following ranges: 7000001 through 7101012, 5378111 through 5624450 and 9000001 through 9029500.
The repair program, officially called the 13" RGB High Voltage Capacitor Repair Extension Program, provides for free replacement of failed capacitors until March 15, 1993.
Users who have already paid authorized Apple service providers for out-of-warranty repairs to correct the problem are eligible for reimbursement if they submit documentation by Aug. 15 to Apple Computer Inc., Attention: High Voltage Capacitor Reimbursement, P.O. Box 17214, Denver, Colo. 80217. For further information, call (303) 297-2321.
>Mice.
A litter of Apple mice manufactured in Taiwan between October and December 1990 is susceptible to a defect that makes pressing the mouse button have no effect. The affected devices have 11-digit serial numbers between LT043xxxxxx and LT051xxxxxx, inclusive. The program offers free replacement through March 23, 1994.
The new problem is separate from one reported last June, which causes cursor-movement failure in certain low-power mice (see MacWEEK, June 18, 1991).
>PowerBook trackballs.
An electrical problem in some PowerBook 140 and 170 units can temporarily disable third- party devices attached to the notebooks' Apple Desktop Bus. Apple has modified the trackball to eliminate the problem. Affected users are entitled to free replacement of the trackball. Since all PowerBooks are still under warranty, Apple has not instituted a repair extension program.
(MacWEEK, February 24, 1992) (c) Copyright 1992 Coastal Associates L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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Microsoft-Apple battle building toward climax
Expert testimony key to pretrial motions
By Jon Swartz
San Francisco - Apple and Microsoft Corp. last week filed a strange brew of claims and counterclaims in what likely will be the final motions before the 4-year-old copyright- infringement lawsuit goes to trial.
As the much-publicized suit inches toward a summer trial date, the testimony of several expert witnesses stands out:
>Apple produced Robert Hall, a finance professor at Stanford University, who set Apple damages at $4.37 billion (see MacWEEK, Feb. 17).
>Microsoft quoted James Foley, a professor in the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology and an expert on user interfaces, who claims Windows and the Mac are "very different."
>Both companies cited John Sculley in their briefs. Microsoft produced comments by the Apple CEO published in more than one computer publication that Windows enhanced Mac sales by bringing graphical user interfaces to a larger audience.
William Neukom, Microsoft vice president of law and corporate affairs, asserts Hall included "nearly every PC sale of the past two years" to come up with his $4.37 billion figure.
"Mr. Hall must have been John Sculley's roommate at prep school. It is a flawed estimate," said Jesse Berst, publisher of Windows Watcher newsletter in Redmond, Wash.
Studies from two prominent computer market research companies support Hall's claims, however. Included in Apple's motions is a study by International Data Corp. of Framingham, Mass., that shows Windows 3.0 prevented 16 percent of U.S. corporate sites from purchasing Macintosh products.
The Software Publishers Association in Washington, D.C., recently estimated Windows 3.0 application sales have reached $1.27 billion since its 1990 debut.
While industry observers are split on the magnitude of damages, computer systems buyers at Fortune 1,000 companies remained unaffected by the 4-year-old suit.
Mark Kienzle, an account executive at American Airlines in Buffalo, N.Y., said Apple's latest salvo has "no influence whatsoever" on his buying decisions.
"We're not going to ditch IBM or compatible systems just for the Mac," Kienzle said. "I think Macs are great, but IBM compatibles are faster and cheaper - with or without Windows."
Nonetheless, G. Gervaise Davis III, a copyright expert and partner in the Monterey, Calif., law firm of Davis & Schroeder, said the ability to prove damages - admittedly a "hairy burden" - is all that stands between Apple and a fat settlement.
He said Apple has a " good chance" of winning the suit and collecting about $1 billion in damages.
Most copyright attorneys agree damages to Microsoft would be limited by a pre-existing agreement in which the Redmond, Wash., company licensed some of the Macintosh's interface elements from Apple (see MacWEEK, Jan. 27).
In 1989, a federal judge threw out all but 10 of 189 Apple claims citing similarities between the Mac and Windows 2.0.3.
(MacWEEK, February 24, 1992) (c) Copyright 1992 Coastal Associates L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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Review: Spigot taps into QuickTime wave
SuperMac's VideoSpigot provides QuickTime video capture at a low price.
By Ric Ford
Macintosh products for digitizing still images from video have been available for years, but SuperMac Technology's VideoSpigot is the first product designed expressly for capturing QuickTime movies from video. It is aimed straight at a multimedia market that already has proved itself hungry for products. In its first week, more than $1 million worth of VideoSpigots were sold, according to the company. For a product at the forefront of the new digital-video movement, VideoSpigot is remarkably inexpensive. The NuBus version is $599, and versions for the Mac IIsi and LC (using processor direct slots) are $499 each. Until March 31, Adobe Systems Inc.'s Premiere, a very good QuickTime editor (see MacWEEK, Jan. 27), is bundled free with VideoSpigot.
SuperMac also packages the VideoSpigot with the company's Spectrum/8*24 PDQ display card, calling the bundle VideoSpigot Pro. The NuBus version lists for $1,599, and a version for the IIsi is $1,499. (The IIsi version uses a SuperMac " zero-slot adapter" to support the two cards on the IIsi's single slot.)
Finally, a bundle with sound-recording hardware has been announced for availability in the second quarter at a $300 premium over the other package prices. This VideoSpigot and Sound package includes MacroMind-Paracomp Inc.'s MacRecorder Sound System Pro, which is the familiar MacRecorder hardware, formerly from Farallon Computing Inc., with a new sound recording and editing application.
>Recording.
VideoSpigot supports both the American video standard, NTSC (National Television System Committee), and PAL (a European video standard).
The 4-watt NuBus card is cleanly designed and manufactured. It has a single connector on the back panel: an RCA jack for composite video input. There is no S-video connection.
Included with the hardware are two floppy disks, which contain Apple's QuickTime extension; a VideoSpigot Extension file; and ScreenPlay, the application that records and plays back digital movies.
ScreenPlay's interface is easy to use, and the program serves as a control center for all operations. In ScreenPlay's recording window, buttons start and stop recording, a grow box sets the image size for captures, and a cropping tool helps eliminate undesirable artifacts at the edges of the picture.
Preferences available from menus set compression parameters for saved files and an optional maximum frame rate. Hue and saturation are controlled by sliders, but there is no control over brightness or contrast.
Option-clicking on the record button captures video to RAM for more speed at the expense of maximum recording time.
Movies can be captured only at one of three sizes for NTSC: 160 by 120, 240 by 180 or 320 by 240 pixels. After capture, the movie can be saved at any size, smaller or larger than the original. (For PAL, capture size is limited to 192 by 144 or 388 by 288 pixels.)
While ScreenPlay is recording, its window shows tiny gray-scale images and statistics about the frame rate.
Unfortunately, there is no way to display movie statistics in ScreenPlay once the movie has been recorded; a comprehensive Get Info menu item would be a welcome improvement.
Once the recording is complete, it appears in a new playback window, where you set in and out points, play back the movie, and step through individual frames. The movie is saved either in SuperMac's own raw VideoSpigot file format or saved as a standard QuickTime movie that is compatible with other applications, using any QuickTime compression option. (The effects of compression options may be previewed before saving.)
In addition to VideoSpigot and ScreenPlay, you will need an editing application. ScreenPlay does not provide even the basic cut, copy and paste operations of Apple's Simple Player application. It does, however, open up existing QuickTime movies and let you save them using your choice of compressor/ decompressors (codecs).
>Stills and sounds.
Still images are grabbed simply by clicking in the recording window and dragging the image to create a new window for the still. The still may be saved as a PICT file.
Unlike typical frame-grabbers, VideoSpigot cannot capture a full-frame (640-by-480 pixel) picture on the fly. Half-frame and smaller stills are no problem, but you need a stable, unmoving image to capture a large picture. The VideoSpigot actually samples four fields of video (about one-fifteenth of a second) and averages them together to create the full-frame image. As a result, resolution is less than that of a true frame-grabber.
Some high-quality VCRs are stable enough for full-frame captures in pause mode, but the VideoSpigot might have problems with the signal of some consumer VCRs in pause mode, creating unwanted distortion effects such as water- colors or Venetian blinds.
If your Mac has a sound input port or an external digitizer, such as the MacRecorder, ScreenPlay can capture sound simultaneously with video in the digital movie.
ScreenPlay offers no control over the audio recording parameters, and it digitizes at 22 kHz in mono. There is no preview of audio; ScreenPlay is silent until it plays back a movie that has been captured with audio.
>Performance.
The VideoSpigot lacks any specialized compression hardware, so it is incapable of capturing full-size, full-motion video. Such products cost about $10,000. An effective design gives the VideoSpigot surprisingly good performance at its smaller image sizes, however.
Unlike typical frame-grabbers, which treat color as RGB (red, green, blue) information, the VideoSpigot digitizes video using a YUV (luminance and color component difference signals) approach. According to SuperMac, this results in equivalent color resolution with less data overhead.
On a Macintosh IIfx, the speed was excellent - up to a full- motion 30 frames per second at the small window size. The capture rates stayed high even at the largest size and even when capturing to disk. In the worst case, capturing a large image plus audio to an 80-Mbyte hard disk, we still got almost 10 fps.
The VideoSpigot lost some performance running on a plain Mac II, but it still maintained more than 10 fps at the small window size, dropping to 5 fps for the worst case.
These rates are several times faster than what we have seen in the past while testing QuickTime with standard frame-grabbers. The difference makes more multimedia applications practical.
In contrast to effortless captures, saving a raw VideoSpigot file as a standard QuickTime movie can take several minutes, even for small movies (less than 10 Mbytes), because the data is compressed.
>Compatibility, bugs and support.
We encountered a few minor problems while testing the VideoSpigot, but none were particularly serious. In source tapes that had bright highlights, small black blotches occasionally appeared in the highlights after digitizing. SuperMac is investigating the problem. Audio played back within ScreenPlay sometimes " hiccuped" as the Mac tried to process too much data. These glitches were typically eliminated in subsequent processing by Premiere or other QuickTime applications. We also encountered some synchronization glitches, where video and audio were not captured in precise alignment, and speech did not quite match up with a speaker's lip movements. Premiere also can compensate for this problem.
SuperMac offers a five-year warranty on the hardware. The company provides customer support by phone and through many on-line services. It also maintains its own bulletin board system.
The VideoSpigot User's Manual is thorough and clear, and it includes a worthwhile introduction to the technology and history of digital video.
>Conclusions.
If you need a product to capture still images from moving video, VideoSpigot might not be the best choice. In our testing, the ColorBoard 364 from RasterOps Corp. of Santa Clara, Calif., with its S-video input, performed significantly better than the VideoSpigot for full-screen frame grabs.
Similar frame-grabbers are selling in the same price range as the VideoSpigot.
For capturing QuickTime movies, however, VideoSpigot is miles ahead of any other product we have tested. It is fast, easy to use, and remarkably inexpensive, with only a few minor blemishes remaining for SuperMac to polish.
If you are exploring QuickTime digital video on a budget, we unhesitatingly recommend buying a VideoSpigot bundled with Premiere.
If, for some reason, you wait until Premiere is no longer included, the VideoSpigot alone still will be worth its price, and its upcoming, new codec will add substantially to its value.
Score Card
Overall value Very good
Performance Excellent
Features Good
Installation/configuration Very good
Compatibility Good
Documentation/support Excellent
List price $599*
*VideoSpigot NuBus: $599; $499 for LC or IIsi version. Add $300 for bundle with sound digitizer and $1,000 for VideoSpigot Probundle (which includes the Spectrum/8 24 PDQ display card).
ON BALANCE
The VideoSpigot is a very good product for digitizing QuickTime movies from NTSC and PAL video sources. The Spigot is not as well-suited to capturing stills, but SuperMac's software, documentation, support and warranty are all user- friendly. If you are interested in QuickTime digital video on a budget, this is an essential tool. The price of the product is a bargain, and the introductory bundle (with Adobe Premiere) raises the Spigot's overall value to excellent.
SuperMac Technology is at 485 Potrero Ave., Sunnyvale, Calif. 94086. Phone (408) 245-2202 or (800) 334-3005; fax (408) 735-7250.
(MacWEEK, February 24, 1992) (c) Copyright 1992 Coastal Associates L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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Knife: The hardware side of Apple
It was a week in which we were consumed with the politics of sports and the sport of politics. Any way you cut it, following either the Olympics or the New Hampshire primary meant hanging out in the frosty cold. For the Knife, busy as always keeping track of things Mac, there was precious little time to devote either to attempts to win the Olympic gold or to grab the political brass ring.
Instead of communal grolles or bad small-town diner coffee, the Knife made do with the odd Calistoga or occasional Yoohoo in the course of the daily sleuthing. Even the political embarrassment of a sitting president lacked the immediacy of the Knife's discovery of a new Mac under development, one that is slated to replace the IIci and IIsi.
According to the Knife's sources, this new Mac will be housed in a plastic case very similar to the current IIci. Apple is depending on a 33-MHz 68030 to drive it. Other features include the requisite three slots and on-board video, plus FPU and cache card slot. In keeping with Apple's increasingly aggressive marketing, a 4/80 configuration of the Mac is targeted to cost less than $3,000. Announcement of this evolutionary machine is not expected for about a year.
At less than $3,000 Apple will probably move a lot of these boxes, but this isn't the high-volume multimedia Mac designed for the masses. For them, Apple is planning a machine roughly equivalent in most respects to the current IIsi, but including a CD-ROM and most likely offered in a 4/40 minimum configuration. The target retail pricing for this first mass- market multimedia machine in a probable series of multimedia Macs is about $2,000. While some will say $2,000 is too expensive, you really can't have a multimedia machine without backing it up with some hardware muscle.
>Off the dock.
It's beginning to look as if those of you waiting for Apple to release a desktop-dockable version of the PowerBook had better get used to waiting. Sources tell the Knife that there is a very good possibility that the announcement, originally scheduled for August or September, has been postponed. Perhaps someone at Apple did some market research and discovered that while it seems like a good idea, few companies are actually making any money at it.
Market research undoubtedly would show Apple that selling color laptop computers is a more lucrative endeavor. That would explain rumors of a November introduction of a pumped up '030-based portable driving a color active-matrix screen.
>Teen-age wasteland.
You can never be too rich or too thin, and you also never can have a Mac that's fast enough. On that assumption Apple is toying with several designs for the next round of Quadras. The common feature in each of the designs is a 33-MHz '040 processor. After that things get a little strange. For example, one design includes multiprocessor capabilities. Whichever design wins out, look for an introduction later this year.
>High-level delay.
Developers are beginning to get a little antsy about Apple's delay in delivering a Level 2 PostScript printer driver. Sources close to the delay say the real culprit is Adobe, which is doing the actual work. According to these reports, Adobe is keeping extremely tight control over the project, to the point of politely refusing Apple's generous offer to send over a couple of minivans filled with software engineers to help out.
The selection of IBM's Guglielmi to head Taligent indicates that the joint venture is moving right along. Although things are a lot quieter on the Kaleida front, there's no real reason to expect any delays there, either. But just in case, both IBM and Apple are rumored to already have started independent development on the KaleidaScript media technology just in case the joint effort slips. Of course, the main purpose for the project is to develop standards, and two independently developed standards are really no standard at all.
The Olympics are already fading into history, but it's beginning to look as if we'll have a herd of moderately adept politicians around to entertain us for many months to come. Of course, nothing is more entertaining than a MacWEEK mug, which, if you have a tip, can be obtained from the Knife at (415) 243-3500, fax (415) 243-3650, MCI (MactheKnife), AppleLink (MacWEEK) and CompuServe/ZiffNet/Mac.
(MacWEEK, February 24, 1992) (c) Copyright 1992 Coastal Associates L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
