Ian & Stuart's Australian Mac 1993 September/September 93.iso/Community/Media/US Magazine Index/MacWEEK 1992/MacWEEK 9⁄21⁄92

Text File | 1992-12-28 | 64KB | 1,311 lines

MacWEEK 9/21/92
-----------------------
 News: Docking stations for PowerBook Duos

 By Andrew Gore

Cupertino, Calif. - The new line of laptops Apple plans to introduce next month
will be the lightest Macs ever made, but buyers will need to add a docking
device to get the connectivity and expandability standard on previous Macs.

As previously reported, Apple is expected to unveil two four-pound PowerBooks on
Oct. 19 (see MacWEEK, Aug. 10). The Duo 210, powered by a 25-MHz 68030, is
likely to list for about $2,500, while the Duo 230, with a 33-MHz '030 will
retail for about $2,900, sources said.

The Duos themselves have only two ports, a serial port and an RJ-11 port for
connecting an internal modem to phone lines. But behind a door on the back of
both units is what makes the Duos unique: a wide edge connector for docks
offering additional expansion and communications options.

Apple is expected to offer two docking solutions:

>Duo Dock. The Duo Dock, a desktop unit about the size of a IIsi, is a
front-loading enclosure that uses a motorized track to draw the Duo inside, open
its rear door and connect to its bus.

The dock features two NuBus slots, a math-coprocessor socket, an integrated
SuperDrive, room for an optional internal hard drive and a full array of ports.
Video circuitry built into the unit supports up to eight-bit color on a 16-inch
display. With an additional 512 Kbytes of video RAM, the Duo Dock can display up
to 16-bit color on a 16-inch monitor. A key switch keeps the docked notebook
secure, while an eject button returns it to daylight.

The Duo Dock should retail for about $1,200, sources said.

>Duo MiniDock. For customers who want expansion without the Duo Dock's bulk and
expense, Apple reportedly will offer an alternative called the Duo MiniDock.

The smaller dock, while lacking its larger sibling's NuBus slots, internal drive
and floppy drive, offers a standard array of Mac ports, plus an HDI-20 port for
connecting the same external SuperDrive used by the PowerBook 100. In addition,
it includes video circuitry capable of eight-bit color on screens up to 16
inches in size.

The MiniDock will list for about $600, sources said.

Sources said Apple also is developing a lower-cost adapter that will let
dockless Duos connect to external floppy drive. Third-party vendors also are
expected to offer competitive expansion products.

The Duos will be the first PowerBooks to break the 8-Mbyte memory barrier: Users
will be able to install up to 24 Mbytes of RAM. Base configurations reportedly
will have 4 Mbytes of memory plus an 80-Mbyte hard drive. The machines will come
with a 9-inch, backlit supertwist screen capable of displaying 16 shades of
gray.

MacWEEK 09.21.92

News Page 1

(c) Copyright 1992 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material
may not be reproduced in any form without permission.


-----------------------
 News: Microsoft to revamp Word for version 5.1

 Mac upgrade on par with Windows version

 By Andrew Gore

Redmond, Wash. - The aging grande dame of Mac word processing is in for a face
lift, and it is one that will go more than skin-deep.

Microsoft Word 5.1, an upgrade slated to ship by year-end, will bring more
changes to the program than the version number might suggest, sources said. In
features and interface, the new release will bring the $495 Mac program up to
par with Microsoft Corp.'s popular Word for Windows 2.0, while adding several
Mac-specific enhancements

In keeping with the company's recent emphasis on usability, Version 5.1 will add
a customizable toolbar offering one-click access to key features. The update
also will include a variety of new capabilities, including a charting module, a
built-in address book, an envelope- printing facility, text annotation and
several features aimed at PowerBook users.

>Toolbar. Like Word for Windows, Mac Word 5.1 will provide a 3-D icon bar that
can be placed either across the top of the screen or down the left or right
sides. Clicking on the icons gives users an alternative to the maze of menus and
dialog boxes they now must navigate to access the program's power: Any Word
command can be attached to a toolbar button through the Preferences dialog. The
package reportedly will ship with a selection of more than 100 color and
black-and-white icons but no icon editor.

Word will scale the toolbar to the size of the display automatically: It
provides toolbars in 9-, 12-, 13- and larger-than-13-inch lengths. The larger
the screen, the greater the number of buttons available.

Although the Word toolbar resembles Excel's, Word 5.1 will allow only one such
bar, and it cannot be torn off and moved around; Excel 4.0 allows multiple,
movable toolbars.

>Charting. One of two new buttons in the Word ribbon - the double row of
formatting buttons above the ruler in Word document windows - activates a new
application called Microsoft Graph, which can generate 2-D or 3-D area, bar,
column, line, pie, scatter or combination charts from data entered in a
miniature spreadsheet. Because the graphing program is linked to Word via
Microsoft's OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) protocol, double-clicking on a
chart recalls Graph, making it easy for users to edit the chart.

>Improved tables. The other new button on the document ribbon generates tables
automatically. Users can set the number of rows and columns in a new table by
clicking on the button and dragging a miniature image of a table to the desired
size. If the data has already been entered in tab- or comma-delimited form,
selecting it and clicking the tables button generates an appropriately sized
table automatically.

>PowerBook options. Version 5.1 promises some relief to notebook users
frustrated with the amount of disk space Word can consume - up to 6 Mbytes for a
full installation of Version 5.0 - or the program's fondness for spinning up the
laptop's hard disk, wasting precious battery power.

The Word 5.1 installer will offer a special PowerBook configuration that takes
up only a little more than 2 Mbytes on disk. It also turns off automatic
repagination, reducing Word's need to access the drive.

In addition, sources said, the program will display a battery-power indicator in
the ribbon when running on PowerBooks.

>Addresses. A button on the new toolbar will print address information onto an
envelope automatically in a format preselected by the user from among 11
standard options. Users also can store addresses for use with the envelope
feature in a new built-in minidatabase with two fields, one for free-form data
and the other for a single sorting key. Sources said the address book can
neither import nor export address information; all data must be entered manually
or copied from the Clipboard.

Other enhancements include a button on the toolbar that adds bullets or
paragraph numbering to any block of selected text, a command that automatically
generates drop caps, and a new command that lets users insert text annotations
within documents. The program's spelling checker has been improved, and the Find
File feature now will let users specify a folder to be searched.

The ability to play QuickTime movies from a document, a feature that required a
plug-in module in Version 5.0, will be built into 5.1.

Sources said Version 5.1 will be the last upgrade to Word before Microsoft ships
a ground-up rewrite, based on a new engine that will be common to Mac and
Windows versions, sometime next year.

MacWEEK 09.21.92

News Page 1

(c) Copyright 1992 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material
may not be reproduced in any form without permission.


-----------------------
 News: Apple sells direct to big accounts

 By Jon Swartz and Lisa Picarille

Cupertino, Calif. - Apple last week disclosed new details about its
fast-changing distribution strategy, including plans to sell systems directly to
its largest corporate customers and offer selected hardware and software through
a mail-order catalog.

>National accounts. Apple USA President Robert Puette said in a telephone news
conference that the company will begin direct sales to about 1,000 companies,
each with 1,000 or more employees.

Although Apple has had a national-accounts sales team for years, it directed
orders from those accounts to dealers. The arrangement reportedly was
unsatisfactory to some key potential customers.

"Apple finally is taking responsibility for the sales and for the clients," said
Pieter Hartsook, editor of The Hartsook Letter in Alameda, Calif. "They have
lost out on too many deals to the direct sales teams of DEC, IBM and Sun
[Microsystems Inc.]."

But some customers said Apple's new channel strategy won't affect their
purchasing plans. "Apple has approached us a number of times trying to get us to
go direct, but our procurement department has determined that we will only go
through local dealers," said Jack Kobzeff, a software consultant for Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Puette said Apple expects the majority of its corporate sales still will involve
dealers.

An internal memo circulated this summer by an Apple executive outlined plans to
focus efforts to penetrate the corporate market primarily on a relatively small
number of major "house accounts." According to the document, these large
customers will generate a steady revenue flow that will support a renewed
assault on the small and medium-size business market, where Windows has yet to
penetrate and Apple "has a clear shot at winning near-term."

>Mail order. Apple said it will send out the first edition of The Apple Catalog
to some 1.1 million customers next month and update it quarterly thereafter.

The only computer included, at least initially, will be the PowerBook 145, but
the catalog will list a variety of Apple software, peripherals, accessories and
supplies. All Apple products will be offered at suggested retail prices.

In addition, the catalog will include selected third-party products. In the
initial edition, Aldus Corp., Claris Corp. and Kensington Microsystems Inc. will
be the only other vendors represented.

Customers will be able to place orders by mail, fax or a toll-free phone number
operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Overnight delivery will be free on
products weighing less than 20 pounds. All products will be covered by a 30-day
money-back guarantee and standard warranties, and customers buying Apple
hardware will be entitled to a year of toll-free phone support.

Some analysts questioned the outlook for Apple's direct-sales venture unless it
makes its pricing more aggressive.

"[Apple] needs to figure out that catalog prices have to be equal to street
prices," said Doug Kass, principal analyst for The Viewpoint Group, an Aptos,
Calif., market research company. "Apple is late to the mail-order market, and
it's already crowded."

Puette also said Apple might allow authorized dealers to sell Performas next
year but only if they stop carrying other Macs. Currently, the new line is
available only through mass-merchandise outlets.

MacWEEK 09.21.92

News Page 1

(c) Copyright 1992 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material
may not be reproduced in any form without permission.


-----------------------
 News: Adobe loosens PostScript jam

 PixelBurst chip to speed processing

 By Neil McManus

San Francisco - Adobe Systems Inc. is aiming to eliminate a major pre- press
bottleneck with PixelBurst, a coprocessor that dramatically speeds PostScript
processing for imagesetters.

The coprocessor reportedly will let high-speed printers output pages with text
and graphics at engine speeds as high as 100 pages per minute. Imagesetters will
run at marking engine speed, even when outputting large screened images.

To be announced at the Seybold San Francisco show this week, the Adobe- designed
coprocessor will be manufactured by RasterOps Corp. of Santa Clara, Calif., and
released to Adobe OEMs by early next year.

PixelBurst will work with Adobe's upcoming Level 2 CPSI (Configurable PostScript
Software Interpreter), a software RIP (raster image processor) running on 68040,
SPARC and Intel 486 machines. CPSI Level 2 will offer increased speed, a
device-independent color scheme, improved halftoning, built-in Adobe Type
Manager font rendering and data compression.

According to Adobe documents reviewed by MacWEEK, a four-color separation
letter-size continuous-tone image took 62 seconds to process on an imagesetter
using CPSI Level 2 with PixelBurst compared with 14 minutes and 46 seconds to
process using CPSI Level 1 without PixelBurst.

In another Adobe test, a black-and-white newspaper page with halftones took 24
seconds to process using CPSI Level 2 with PixelBurst compared with one minute
and 41 seconds using CPSI Level 1 without PixelBurst.

"This is a big deal for high-end publishing," said Craig Cline, associate editor
of the Seybold Reports in Malibu, Calif. "The main barrier keeping PostScript
from taking over all aspects of publishing has been the performance of high-end
imagesetters. This eliminates that barrier.

"One of the mantras in the newspaper industry has been, 'a page a minute with
everything in it.' This coprocessor promises do that," he said.

In addition to simple fills and image copying functions, PixelBurst performs
image masks, pattern cell fills and screening of scanned photos. PixelBurst
renders screened images at rates of up to 100 million pixels per second.

PixelBurst can be programmed to eliminate banding in color or gray-scale blends
or fountains. It does this by randomly diffusing errors in each output pixel.
Although this method would require heavy computation on a standard processor,
PixelBurst saves time by performing error diffusion in parallel with the
screening process.

High-end users likely will welcome the speed boosts of PixelBurst. "I want one,"
said Chuck Surprise, general manager of Central Graphics Inc., a San Diego
service bureau. "Anything with that kind of speed you have to consider a serious
contender for heavy use. It doesn't matter what it costs."

Adobe declined to comment.

MacWEEK 09.21.92

News Page 1

(c) Copyright 1992 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material
may not be reproduced in any form without permission.


-----------------------
 News: DTP products blitz Seybold

 By MacWEEK staff

San Francisco - Pre-press isn't just for high-end users anymore, and publishing
isn't just on paper.

The products to debut at this week's Seybold San Francisco conference will show
specialized tasks, such as color management, going mainstream, while publishing
itself broadens to encompass multimedia and a host of other digital
technologies.

"The desktop publishing revolution is not yet completed," said conference
organizer Jonathan Seybold, president of Seybold Seminars in Malibu, Calif. "The
entire [publishing] process is being subsumed into a larger common digital
technology that is changing the landscape for us all."

The four-day show will feature 250 vendors exhibiting products that include
printers at all points in the price and color spectrum, processors that push the
speed envelope and products that support Eastman Kodak Co.'s Photo CD
technology.

>Processors. Adobe Systems Inc. will take the wraps off PixelBurst, the
coprocessor it will co-produce with RasterOps Corp. for faster rasterization of
PostScript images. Torque Systems Inc. will introduce the RipServer, an open
multiprocessor system for integrating software RIPs (raster image processors).

RasterOps also will introduce a RISC board that speeds Photoshop filters and
JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) compression and decompression. Radius
Inc. will debut DSP Booster, a daughtercard for its Radius Rocket 68040
accelerators to speed sound, graphics and math functions.

>Color control. In the quest for perfecting high-resolution color output,
Electronics for Imaging Inc. has a wide array of announcements. EfiColor, its
color-management system, pops up all over the place, with support from
QuarkXPress and new SuperMac printers, as well as device drivers from EFI. EFI
also is proposing its Metric Color Tag specification as a new industry standard
for color interchange.

3M Corp. will introduce new desktop color-proofing software for its Rainbow
dye-sublimation printer. Agfa will show new color-management software as well as
its new AccuSet family of imagesetters, an assortment of hardware and software
RIPs and an application that turns a Mac into a print server.

>Printers. Printers, a Seybold staple, will come in all sizes and kinds.
Dataproducts Corp. will ship Jolt PS, its Adobe PostScript Level 2 solid-ink
color printer. SuperMac Technology will show letter- and tabloid-size
ProofPositive dye-sublimation color printers. Seiko Instruments USA Inc. will
show the Personal ColorPoint PSE, a RISC- based, PostScript-compatible color
thermal-transfer printer. Pipeline Associates Inc. will demonstrate its new
PowerPage PostScript Level 2 interpreter running in a RISC-based color
thermal-wax printer from General Parametrics Corp. NewGen Systems Corp., Birmy
Graphics Corp., CalComp, QMS Inc. and Xante Corp will show 600-dpi laser
printers based on Canon U.S.A. Inc.'s BX engine.

At the higher end, CalComp's Printer Division will preview large-format
electrostatic color printers using Print Bridge, Pipeline's Level 2 RIP running
in Quintar's RISC-based controller.

Xerox Corp. will show a $43,500, 7.5-ppm color laser printer and a series of
high-speed PostScript printers, including the $190,500, 90-ppm DocuPrint 390 and
the $155,000 DocuPrint 350-HC, which prints 50 ppm with RGB (red, green, blue)
highlight color.

ColorAge Inc. (formerly Custom Applications Inc.) and EFI will announce new
servers to turn color copiers into color printers.

>Managing media. Interleaf Inc. will show RDM (Relational Document Management),
a workgroup document management solution that runs on Macs, DOS and Unix
machines. Aldus Corp. will unveil Fetch, its image- archiving software, and
Nikon will show ImageAccess, another archive management application.

>Graphics software. Quark Inc. will unveil QuarkXPress 3.2, with a bevy of new
features, including EFI's EfiColor as an XTension, and Multi-Ad Services Inc.
will show Version 3.5 of its Multi-Ad Creator.

Adobe will debut Dimension, its vector 3-D graphic utility and Ray Dream Inc.
will show addDepth, which adds depth and perspective to PostScript images or
Type 1 type. Equilibrium will unveil deBabelizer, a Mac program that translates
graphics files from DOS, Windows, Silicon Graphics, Sun and Commodore Amiga
computers automatically.

Management Graphics Inc. will show software for creating color look-up tables
for its high-end continuous-tone image recorders, and Island Graphics Corp. will
debut a customizable color trapping program.

>Graphics hardware. Digital photography is developing into a real alternative to
film. Leaf Systems Inc. officially will ship its camera, which joins offerings
from a number of other vendors. UMAX Technologies Inc. will introduce a $1,995
24-bit-color flatbed scanner with 800-dpi resolution. Wacom Technology Corp.
will show a graphics tablet that gives users speeds equaling those of
serial-port tablets, but via Apple's Desktop Bus port.

Mirus Industries Corp. will show a new 5,000-line-resolution desktop film
recorder, the Galleria, that can output color PostScript images to 35mm slides.

MacWEEK 09.21.92

News Page 1

(c) Copyright 1992 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material
may not be reproduced in any form without permission.


-----------------------
 Special Report: Dye-sublimation printers making impression

 With dropping costs and high-quality output, new dye-sub printers are making
continuous-tone color available to more users.

 By Bob Weibel

Getting color Macintosh artwork from screen to paper can be a hassle and a
disappointment. But thanks to the bevy of dye-sublimation-based continuous-tone
printers hitting the market this year, it's quickly becoming satisfying and
affordable.

Dye-sublimation printers now sell in the $10,000 to $25,000 price range, once
the going price range for thermal-wax transfer printers and a fraction of the
original cost of the first dye-sublimation printers from Du Pont Printing and
Publishing.

Although dye-sublimation printers still are more expensive than color
thermal-wax transfer printers, experts say color quality and detail is many
times better.

Color to dye for. The color quality of dye-sublimation printers approaches that
of photo-film prints because dye-sublimation printers can blend primary color
dyes to produce any one of 16 million colors at each single printed pixel,
producing a true continuous-tone image.

In contrast, thermal-wax transfer printers can create only the illusion of
continuous tone, relying on halftone patterns of cyan, yellow, magenta and black
dots. This technique produces coarser-looking images, similar to those of color
newspaper comic strips.

Using a printer for presentations is an even stronger reason to look at
dye-sublimation printers. Does your technical chart or schematic have a lot of
fine color detail? Is the competition wowing your clients with superior-looking
presentations or ad display and packaging mock-ups from dye-sublimation
printers?

If you answer yes, it's time to start shopping for one of your own or look for a
service bureau that has one.

Proof's in the PostScript. If you plan to print full-page color proofs or comps
(combining color images, graphics and type), look for a dye- sublimation printer
featuring convenient, well-integrated PostScript processing.

RasterOps Corp.'s CorrectPrint 300, for example, has built-in PostScript
compatibility and hooks to a Mac via LocalTalk or EtherTalk. In that regard,
it's a very Mac-oriented product from the ground up, typical of newer products
on the market, including Tektronix Inc.'s Phaser IISD and GCC Technologies
Inc.'s soon-to-ship ColorTone. The printable image area on these printers is
typically 8.1 by 8.6 inches on letter-size paper or 8.1 by 11 inches on
legal-size paper.

For Allan Johnson, partner with the Johnson Group marketing communications
company that primarily works with medical device and pharmaceutical businesses
in St. Paul, Minn., PostScript was the key point to getting the CorrectPrint.
"The CorrectPrint 300 is the first affordable dye-sublimation that handles
PostScript cleanly," Johnson said. "Some other vendors of affordable
dye-sublimations bundle clunky software-based PostScript RIPs (raster image
processors). They sort of backed into PostScript, and it shows."

Johnson uses the CorrectPrint 300 for final proofs when time or budget doesn't
allow for Chromalin or MatchPrint proofs, though not for jobs employing process
color separation of continuous-tone color scans.

"Calibration with outside service bureaus is still a tricky issue," Johnson
said. He said you can't adjust the CorrectPrint 300's color calibration, making
calibration with an outside imagesetter - a tough proposition in itself - even
less likely.

3M's deluxe Rainbow Desktop Color Proofing System is a dye-sublimation system
designed to provide the same proof accuracy provided by 3M's MatchPrint proofs
for standard web offset, commercial sheet-fed or newsprint printing
environments.

The Rainbow system consists of a Mac IIfx or Quadra to run the software- based
processor, an Adobe Systems Inc.-licensed PostScript Level 1 software RIP, and a
jumbo-size dye-sublimation printer with an image area of up to 11.8 by 17.2
inches.

That's sufficient print area for a full two-page spread with bleed. 3M's
color-control software provides the preset color targets mentioned above, and in
addition, the latest version of the software lets you tweak those adjustments.

Rick Schunk, co-owner of G.S. Graphics in New Hope, Minn., near Minneapolis,
praises the Rainbow. "3M's done a very good job on this product," he said. "When
we run a Rainbow proof, it's extremely close to a MatchPrint proof pulled from
the final separation film."

For printing scanned or bit-mapped images, PostScript isn't required. Hence many
dye-sublimation printers come with Adobe Photoshop plug-ins and Chooser-level
drivers for printing images.

Photographers welcome. According to Andrew Rodney, principle of Andrew Rodney
Photography in Los Angeles, dye-sublimation printers are becoming the preferred
tool for proofing scanned photographs and bit-mapped computer-generated art.

Rodney, who uses a Mac Quadra and Photoshop to digitally retouch his commercial
photography, said he believes that printing directly from his machine to a
dye-sublimation printer often will yield a better-looking print than one from
silver-based film, with better shadow and highlight detail.

The new XLT 7720 from Eastman Kodak Co. and the venerable XL 7700, found in many
color service bureaus, are popular with electronic-imaging pros.

"The Kodak prints are gorgeous; they knock your socks off," said Ron Whitfield,
CEO of Chartmaster, a color design and service bureau in San Francisco. "In the
past, Ilford and Cibachrome photo processes have been our color standard for
color prints and color overheads, but dye- sublimation printing is cheaper [than
film] and still has the quality our customers expect."

Dye-sublimation transparencies for overhead projection are definitely superior
to the film overheads Chartmaster had used, Whitfield said. "That's because
photo-film transparencies are composed of three separate film layers that are
too thick to project well from an overhead projector," he said.

XL 7700 color control is important to Kris Capraro, film recording engineer for
the Interplanetary Mission project at the Pasadena Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

"We're able to adjust the color, and it stays where we put it," Capraro said.
"We also like the feel of the Kodak Ektatherm media, which is very much like a
photographic print."

That's important to Capraro because the images are handled quite a bit during
their evaluation at JPL. And since the dyes impregnate the media,
dye-sublimation color can't rub or flake off as can happen with wax- transfer
prints.

Image size. If you're printing color pages, packaging or other jobs that bleed
color off the edge of the page, pay close attention to a dye- sublimation
printer's maximum image size, not just the media size. A letter-size page with a
full bleed needs an image size larger than 8.5 by 11 inches. If this is what you
need, letter/legal-size printers such as the CorrectPrint 300 won't cut it.

If it's big you need, Du Pont Printing and Publishing is holding a clearance
sale on its large-format 4CAST. According to the company, the $38,000 model now
sells for $15,000 for refurbished units that carry the standard new unit
warranty and include an Adobe PostScript Level 2 software-based Mac 1.4 RIP
Adobe PostScript interface. Image area for 4CAST's 18.75-by-12.5-inch print
media is 11.9 by 17.3 inches, and 11.9 by 12.3 inches for the 12.5-by-13.75-inch
media.

Another large-format option is JVC Information Product Co. of America's new
300-dpi SP2200, which has a print area of 10.22 by 13.62 inches. It includes 48
Mbytes of RAM, a Photoshop plug-in driver and a Freedom of Press Professional
PostScript-compatible RIP from Custom Applications Inc.

However, with letter-size dye-sublimation media costing about $4 a page, that
can be too much of a good thing if you need only a small-size proof.

This less-is-more factor isn't lost on David Pina, principle of David Pina
Designs of Burbank, Calif., who uses Nikon Inc.'s 203-dpi CP-3000 (with a
maximum 5-by-6.3-inch image size) to create proofs and storyboards of his
Mac-designed video graphics for broadcast television and film clients.

"A lot of people might think the 5-by-7-inch image size is small, but for us,
it's perfect for storyboarding," Pina said. He also praises Nikon's Mac
color-calibration software for the CP-3000 printer.

"When we send a CP-3000 image to clients, they know exactly what these colors
will look like on video because we can make the printer colors match the video
screen," he said.

Subjective color. Since color quality is subjective and nebulous, and every
vendor claims to have the best, when comparing dye-sublimation printer models
you should focus first on sample prints not just printer specifications.

All things being equal, experts recommend that you go with the one that looks
best to you. From the specs alone you might assume that a 300-dpi model prints
sharper pictures than 200-dpi machines, but it isn't necessarily so. Most
experts we spoke with said that 300 dpi becomes important only if your images
include text.

Given the plummeting prices of dye-sublimation printers, continuous-tone
printing is finally an affordable option. While it's true that dye- sublimation
printers are more expensive to own and operate, consider that PostScript
thermal-wax transfer printers broke the $5,000 price point this year: Will
dye-sublimations eventually go that low? With stiff competition and new demand,
anything can happen.

MacWEEK 09.21.92

Special Report Page 44

(c) Copyright 1992 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material
may not be reproduced in any form without permission.


-----------------------
 ProductWatch: Speeding up with QuickDraw accelerators

 The most recent batch of QuickDraw accelerators helps managers save time and
money.

 By Eric J. Adams

It's a sobering equation that many Mac users have plenty of time to contemplate:
Screen-redraw rates slow down considerably as users make the switch to larger
monitors and more colors. These frequent delays can put a serious kink in your
productivity.

The problem is legendary among graphic artists, but it's also a predicament for
business users and developers taking advantage of large- screen color.

The solution is a QuickDraw video accelerator, available from companies such as
SuperMac Technology, E-Machines Inc., RasterOps Corp. and Radius Inc. Along with
a number of screen-management features, these accelerator boards offer speed
enhancements of five to six times over unaccelerated QuickDraw.

Boards are available for eight- to 24-bit color for virtually every monitor size
up to two-page displays.

Why QuickDraw slows down. Every time you scroll or redraw a screen, the Mac's
CPU must process each pixel individually, which is not a problem with one-bit
monochrome monitors.

But as soon as you step up to eight-, 16- or 24-bit color and upgrade to a
larger monitor, you greatly increase the number of pixels and the memory needed
to define the pixels.

A two-page display running 24-bit color, for example, has nearly 10 times the
number of pixels as a 13-inch, eight-bit display. The pixel overload is too much
for QuickDraw and the Mac CPU to handle quickly.

Unlike Apple's approach with its Macintosh Display Card 8*24 GC, which
moderately speeds up every QuickDraw command, other QuickDraw accelerator-board
vendors use proprietary algorithms and application- specific integrated circuits
(ASICs) to greatly speed up frequently used QuickDraw commands such as scroll,
draw and fill.

However, processing speed is only one QuickDraw bottleneck. The second is the
narrow NuBus, over which massive amounts of image data must travel. QuickDraw
accelerators overcome the NuBus squeeze by sending the image data directly to
the monitor, bypassing the NuBus altogether; only the initial QuickDraw commands
pass over the NuBus.

What to look for. "Choosing the right board starts with understanding your
application requirements," said Steve Griggs, systems coordinator for Norfolk,
Va.-based Southern Corp. Griggs has developed graphical user interfaces for the
railroad company's Sybase database-management system.

"We needed color, but not 24-bit color, so we've standardized on eight- bit
color running on 16- and 19-inch monitors," Griggs said.

The company recently purchased 150 E-Machines monitors and eight-bit ColorLink
accelerator boards.

"We could have gone with faster boards, but this is all the performance we
need," Griggs said.

Decelerating prices. Not surprisingly, QuickDraw accelerators compete on two
fronts: price and performance. SuperMac, with its Thunder line, said it has the
fastest boards, a claim substantiated by independent performance tests.

Radius, RasterOps and E-Machines said they have the best price/performance ratio
and feature sets, while E-Machines offers the least-expensive two-page board,
the $1,299 Futura LX.

The price-conscious will be happy to know that the QuickDraw accelerator price
war is at full steam. In July, Radius introduced its new PrecisionColor 24XK, an
accelerated 24-bit card for $999, while SuperMac chopped nearly $1,500 off its
top-of-the-line Thunder/24 card.

At the same time, E-Machines unveiled its ColorLink SX/T and SX/2 boards for
$789. These cards combine 24-bit color at resolutions up to 832 by 644 pixels
with 10BASE T and thin Ethernet (10BASE 2) capabilities, respectively.

Acceleration in the real world. At the major New York publishing house Penguin
U.S.A., designers are using RasterOps accelerators while they pump out covers,
jackets, promotional materials and catalogs for 1,200 to 1,500 new books a year.

The company moved to Macs a year ago, but six months later decided to equip its
machines with QuickDraw accelerator cards after hitting the redraw wall.

"I can't measure our performance increase in dollars saved, but [the RasterOps
boards] have increased the speed that we can get artwork done and approved,"
said Tom Oborski, vice president of production systems and operations at
Penguin.

"We meet once a week with editors to review cover comps," Oborski said. "If an
editor asks us to swap type or change a color on a comp, we can send a runner
out and get it done usually before the end of the meeting, saving us a week of
production time."

Oborski said he's not afraid to pay top dollar for high-performance boards.
"Quite honestly, it's easier to justify a $3,000 board than a new $6,000
Macintosh," he said.

For Mack Tilling, director of operations for the Gordon Bierch Brewing Company
Inc., a restaurant chain and small regional brewing company based in Palo Alto,
Calif., the Radius PrecisionColor 24X has been a major help when working with
large budgets and business plans.

"Almost every one of our managers is spending time on huge spreadsheets,"
Tilling said. "Even with our two-page monitors we are doing scrolls, deleting
rows or columns, all of which causes the screen to redraw." According to
Tilling, the Radius board has helped speed up things for both the management and
graphics-production staff.

Matching card and monitor. All the major vendors have a complete line of
eight-bit and 24-bit-color boards for monitors ranging in size from 13 inches to
21 inches (two-page monitors). Since not all boards work with all monitors, it's
imperative to check for compatibility before buying.

Individual vendors also have premium and low-cost models in each category.
RasterOps, for example, balances its low-cost Paint-Board 24 with its ProColor
32 for high-end graphics and production houses.

Beyond speed. Speed is but one advantage of QuickDraw accelerators. Most of the
current-model boards also offer a number of screen-management features.

Among the most useful, according to users, is the extended virtual desktop for
working with images and documents larger than your display size.

"I use [AutoDesk Inc.'s] AutoCAD, and it takes two redraws to get from screen to
screen - it's awful," said Charles Wagner, design group leader at NASA
Ames-Dryden at Edwards Air Force Base in North Edwards, Calif., who uses
E-Machines' Futura LX. "The virtual desktop definitely lets you move around the
screen far faster than doing redraws."

Beyond the virtual desktop is GWorld (graphics world), a set of QuickDraw
routines that let applications build and manipulate off-screen images. Although
several high-end boards have sockets to accommodate GWorld RAM, as of yet only a
few applications, such as SuperMac's PixelPaint Professional, Time Arts Inc.'s
Oasis and Adobe Premiere, take advantage of these routines.

Most boards also feature hardware-based pan and zoom. Unlike software- based
zooming, these boards offer nearly instantaneous magnification. According to
RasterOps, the ProColor 32 can zoom up to 16 times the original image size.

The big picture. While QuickDraw accelerator boards can increase productivity
greatly, prospective buyers should do a test run before investing.

According to users, the best comparison would be to try out the cards using
their specific application and files.

"I've found that the speed of the cards depends on the applications used,"
Tilling said.

Still, for users like Tilling the QuickDraw acceleration is worth the price of
the hardware. "[Slow screen redraw] is something that you can live with until
you worked on a faster system," he said. "It's like a fax machine; once you have
one, you can't live without it."


 Product Info

 Apple
 Macintosh Display Card 8*24 GC: $1,499
 20525 Mariani Ave., Cupertino, Calif. 95014
 Phone [phone]; fax [phone]

 E-Machines Inc.
 Futura LX: $1,299; Futura MX: $999; Futura SX: $599; ColorLink SX/T: $789;
ColorLink SX/2: $789
 9305 S.W. Gemini Drive, Beaverton, Ore. 97005
 Phone [phone] or [phone]; fax [phone]

 Radius Inc.
 PrecisionColor 24X: $1,999; PrecisionColor 24XK: $999; PrecisionColor 24XP:
$599
 1710 Fortune Drive, San Jose, Calif. 95131
 Phone [phone] or [phone]; fax [phone]

 RasterOps Corp.
 24XLi: $2,499; 24MX: $1,499; ProColor 32: $3,999; PaintBoard 24: $1,999;
PaintBoard Li: $999
 2500 Walsh Ave., Santa Clara, Calif. 95051
 Phone [phone] or [phone]; fax [phone]

 SuperMac Technology
 Thunder/24: $2,999; Spectrum PDQ Plus: $1,999; Spectrum/24 III: $999
 485 Potrero Ave., Sunnyvale, Calif. 94086
 Phone [phone] or [phone]; fax [phone]

ProductWatch Page 67

MacWEEK 09.21.92

(c) Copyright 1992 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material
may not be reproduced in any form without permission.


-----------------------
 Review: Head-to-head equation processing

 Expressionist, MathType offer surprisingly different approaches to getting out
mathematical equations on the Mac.

 By Jeremy John Ahouse

Editing equations requires a different set of rules than editing words;
mathematical equations grow in two dimensions rather than along straight lines
like normal text. While most word processors offer superscript and subscript
functions, there are many situations in mathematics that require more.

We now have two new upgrades in the specialized area of processing equations on
the Mac: Prescience Corp.'s $199.95 Expressionist 3.0 and Design Science Inc.'s
$199 MathType 3.0, a scaled-down version of which is packaged with Microsoft
Word 5.0. Both programs take surprisingly different approaches to the problem of
getting quality output of mathematical equations on the Mac.

The tweakmeister. Expressionist's strength in previous versions was letting
users make fine adjustments to the output of equations. These features have been
enhanced, and obvious care has been taken to increase the output quality on
various printers.

Palette-driven programs often err on the side of many tiny icons. Expressionist
has nicely designed palette icons that are bigger than those found in its
previous versions or in MathType. There are odd icons (such as the yin-yang
Change icon) and unnecessary icons (such as for copy, paste, cut and undo
operations), but overall, Expressionist's interface is clean and manages to stay
out of the way.

Editing in Expressionist is straightforward and intuitive. The editor makes good
assumptions about your work. If you select an expression, for example, and then
choose a set of square brackets from the palette, Expressionist assumes you want
to surround the selection with the brackets. If you have nothing selected, then
you get a blank set of braces with question marks between them.

Equation editors must grapple with the notion of nested expressions.
Expressionist communicates this notion of levels with a handsome interface of
shadowed boxes, called the Guide mode, in which the insertion bar is scaled to
the height of the current level. This mode can be toggled off, and then the
expression looks the way it will when printed.

Unlike MathType, Expressionist allows you to make multiple selections by
Shift-clicking various subexpressions. Once you make a multiple selection,
typing and adding symbols is applied to each selection. This is a very useful
feature if you are working with arrays that contain common elements.

Expressionist gives you the ability to tweak almost every parameter of an
expression. This is accomplished in two ways: by context-sensitive dialogs that
let you change brackets or integral signs, for example, or by dragging parts of
an expression to almost anywhere in the equation with the Tweak tool. The real
problem with this approach is that you need to print things to really see what
you get, so you might find yourself tweaking and printing and tweaking again.

Expressionist also includes a handy feature that lets you build trees for use in
presenting hierarchical information. This works easily and allows you to edit
structures that would take much longer in a standard drawing or painting
program.

Do it for me. MathType takes a very different approach: It doesn't emphasize the
tweaking of equations; rather, it tries to make entering equations as painless
as possible.

We found most of MathType's methods very effective. For example, when you type a
function that MathType knows (such as "sin"), it will automatically use plain
text, while it renders a typical variable ("x") in italics, following the
conventions used in most mathematics typesetting.

MathType also automatically inserts thin spaces between variables. At any point
you can change the format to Text style (as opposed to Math style) and type as
you would in any word processor.

MathType requires a special keyboard combination (Command key plus clicking on
the symbol) when you want to apply brackets or other composite symbols to parts
of the equation you already have typed.

The composite structures in MathType are called templates. You can have up to 10
nested templates in MathType, while Expressionist has a much higher upper limit
for nested expressions.

In MathType it is best to work on the equation from the outermost structure to
the innermost, adding all of the structural elements (brackets, integral signs,
fractions, square roots) to build the template before you add the characters
themselves. This is less natural, and we preferred the editing logic used in
Expressionist. MathType also does not allow multiple selection of different
parts of the equation.

MathType deals with multiple levels of mathematical equations with a cursor that
not only blinks to the right of the character string being edited but also
underneath the relevant part of the equation. This looks odd at first, but it
clearly indicates what part of the equation is under consideration.

It is not possible to make as fine adjustments in MathType as it is in
Expressionist. But we found MathType repeatedly anticipating needs that we had
in preparing typical equations, so the tweaking wasn't necessary.

The palettes. Both programs make extensive use of palettes that put most of the
elements you need within easy clicking reach. The palette approach works well in
this setting because there are so many elements that must be chosen from to
create an equation, and almost none of them maps readily to the standard QWERTY
keyboard.

Expressionist's palette is resizable but not in the normal sense: Nothing is
rescaled to fit when the palette is resized; rather, the palette simply is
widened to show more hidden buttons and can be made even wider than all the
buttons without snapping back. This is an odd interface device that we hope will
not spread to other programs.

The MathType environment is a large window that has its palette attached to it.
This takes up unnecessary room when multiple equations are open.

Expressionist's palette can be reconfigured, and buttons can be added and taken
away in almost any combination. MathType's palette changes only when new macros
are added.

Both programs let you see an enlarged view of the equation. Expressionist
toggles between a standard and large mode (about 200 percent). MathType allows
you to choose among 100 percent, 200 percent and 400 percent representations.

Alignment and rulers. Both programs support a ruler that allows the arbitrary
placement of left and right tabs, an important feature for aligning multilined
equations. We preferred MathType's rulers, especially the special "." and "="
tabs.

Aligning the equations in your word processor is a more complicated issue. Most
word processors allow in-line equations, but they don't all allow you to change
the baseline of the pasted equation. Word 5.0 does, and both programs claim that
Word recognizes their auto-alignment information, but we found that MathType's
alignment was consistently better than Expressionist's, although you can easily
adjust the baseline inside Word.

Macros. MathType supports macros on an expanded Macro bar, on which any
frequently used equation or part of an equation can be placed. The macro editor
allows you to edit an equation the same way the regular program does.

Deciding which macro to edit is a little clumsy (the cell to be edited is
referenced by number, not the trusted point and click), but since macros usually
are edited infrequently, this isn't a problem. Once the macro is made, it shows
up on the palette. If the macro is large, a scrunched-up, illegible version is
shown on the palette. Most of our macros were simple, and we found that even the
illegible version of the macro was reminiscent enough to be useful.

Expressionist also supports macros and allows you to add an icon to the
Expressionist palette to represent your macro. Once a macro is defined, you can
pick it from a scrolling list for inclusion on the editing palette after you
create an icon that represents it in the program's bit-map icon editor.

This is clumsy, but again, it isn't necessary to change macros every day. Since
you draw your own iconic representation, you won't have the problem of an
illegible macro representation, but you might be challenged to invent a useful
icon for the macro.

Having complete power over the palette allows you complete customizability, but
we found this to be overkill and confusing for a utility program.

WYSIWYG and printing. Overall, we preferred the printing from Expressionist over
MathType, although output from both is acceptable and choosing between their
styles is a matter of personal preference (see examples at right). On the screen
this wasn't the case. Both programs have better renditions in their respective
editors, although Word had more problems rendering Expressionist equations than
it did rendering MathType equations. This may be because of the close working
relationship between Word and MathType. It also is probably because of the
differences in imaging models for the screen and printers on the Mac.

Installation and fonts. Both packages offer simple installation. You install
MathType by running an installation application that makes several changes to
the fonts in the System folder and adds itself as the default equation editor to
Word if that application is on your hard disk. Expressionist does not require an
installer; it ships as an application (or desk accessory for System 6 users),
with a Word Command file for adding the EGO (Edit Graphic Objects) Apple event
to Word 5.0, and a special folder for users of the TeX math-typesetting
language.

The two programs deal with fonts in very different ways. MathType adds a new
font to your System file when you install it. This includes bit- mapped,
TrueType and PostScript Type 1 versions of the MT Extra font. In addition to
this font, a 7-point bit map of Times and many sizes of italics Times also are
added.

Finally, Design Science has its own TrueType version of Symbol that replaces the
one that ships with the Mac. The main result of this is that all of your
applications have a new and, outside of MathType, useless font. This is mostly
just an annoyance on your own system, but the more serious problem is that the
computer you print from must have this font installed.

This problem is improved by the common presence of Microsoft Word in service
bureaus. Since a simpler version of MathType is included in that product, any
computer that has had the full installation of Word 5.0 should have MT Extra
installed.

Still, you may want to carry this font with you when you print on an unfamiliar
printer.

Expressionist treads a bit more softly and does not require a special font for
characters that are not included in Symbol, Helvetica or Times. Rather, some of
these characters are rendered directly in Expressionist as composites.

Both companies recommend the purchase of Adobe Systems Inc.'s Mathematical Pi
font. This font includes six typefaces that contain an additional 690
mathematical characters.

MathType includes a coupon for 30 percent off the price of Mathematical Pi ($193
with the coupon). Both programs offer all the standard mathematical symbols as
they ship (Expressionist has a few more here than MathType), but you might want
to widen your scope with additional specialty fonts.

Working with word processors. Much of the excitement of Apple's push for Apple
events in System 7, as well as Microsoft Corp.'s OLE (Object Linking and
Embedding) was about the smooth cooperation between programs.

MathType, via OLE, and Expressionist, via the new EGO Apple event, offer users a
sense of what small utility programs can add when they "feel" integrated with
another application. Once an equation is created and pasted into a word
processor (currently only Word works with these programs), double-clicking on
the equation opens the equation in its editor.

MathType installs directly into Word 5.0 as the default equation editor.
Expressionist requires that the EGO for Word command file be added to the Word
Commands folder.

Prescience claims that new versions of Nisus Software Inc.'s Nisus, WordPerfect
Corp.'s WordPerfect, and T/Maker Co.'s WriteNow will implement EGO. Design
Science said it expects that the standard being pushed by OLE also will be
adopted by other vendors.

Both packages claim to work (via standard cut and paste) with existing word
processors. The key here is that in-line equations require baselines to be
adjustable.

Word, Nisus, WordPerfect and WriteNow have this capability. Other programs, such
as Claris Corp.'s ClarisWorks, do not.

Note that if you have adjusted the baseline of an equation that came from
Expressionist, subsequent editing will lose the adjustment. With MathType this
is not a problem, and any baseline adjustments are retained when you edit the
expression.

Other formats. Both packages support exporting equations into the TeX standard.
TeX is used throughout academic typesetting and has become famous for its
wonderful handling of equations.

Both programs allow you to execute a special paste that puts the TeX codes into
the Clipboard. A subsequent paste then will paste the TeX codes into your
editor.

The first few lines of the TeX representation include comments that
Expressionist and MathType use to reimport the equation. These comments are
ignored by TeX but are required to reimport the equations to the equation
editors.

Neither of these packages can import raw TeX, so the ability to reimport
equations that they have created seems of limited utility.

Expressionist also will export to Amstex, eqn and LaTEX formats; Microsoft
Word's equation codes; and PostScript. MathType exports to only TeX and its
native format.

Documentation. Both programs come with easy-to-use manuals. We found the
Expressionist manual very clear and well-organized. It walks you through the
construction of several typical equations, which makes using the program very
easy from the start.

Expressionist allows you to accomplish the same thing in many ways, so these
tutorials were very helpful. Nearly half the Expressionist manual is dedicated
to a good reference chapter, called the Encyclopedia, that lists every element
of the program. This makes up for the brief index.

The MathType documentation also is clear, but it could benefit from
Expressionist's gallery of examples and step-by-step instructions. MathType is
straightforward to use, however, and most of the interface is accessible via the
palette, so long explanations of all the features are not necessary.

Conclusions. MathType and Expressionist are capable programs, and the ideal
equation editor lies somewhere between them. Each program could learn from the
strengths of its counterpart.

We were very pleased with the printed output of Expressionist and its capability
to change so many parameters of an equation. We also appreciated Expressionist's
addition of a tree-making feature. Expressionist supports more export formats
and allows you to nest a greater number of equations than MathType.

MathType's reliance on a nonstandard font makes it less flexible for printing,
but for many users the font will be a plus. We liked the ease with which
equations are entered into MathType, however, and found the rulers and layout
features of this package easier to use.

And, finally, MathType's equations rendered more accurately on the screen when
imported to word processors than Expressionist's did.


 Score Card

 Math equation editors

Expressionist and MathType are the main mathematical-expression editing
utilities for the Mac. Each is far superior than trying to arrange the equations
yourself in a drawing program, but each could learn from the other's strengths.

>Expressionist from Prescience Corp. excels in the fine-tuning of equations and
has a smooth, stylish editing environment. We appreciated Expressionist's
addition of a tree-making feature. Its manual contains a good tutorial and many
examples. Expressionist is designed to get the most out of various printers, and
we preferred the quality of its printed output to that of MathType.

>MathType from Design Science Inc. anticipates most of your needs and emphasizes
the quick entry of equations. We found its rulers and layout features easier to
use. Unlike Expressionist, MathType requires the use of a special font for
printing. MathType equations rendered on- screen more accurately than
Expressionist equations when imported to word processors.

                           Expressionist   MathType Overall value
***             ***
 Version tested            3.0             3.0
 Price                     $199.95*        $199**
 Performance               ***             ***
 Ease of use               ***             ****
 Features                  ****            ***
 Documentation/support     ***             ***
 *Upgrade from earlier versions of Expressionist, $49.95; lab pack (one complete
package with manual plus nine extra copies), $500; site license (100 or more
copies without documentation), $35 per copy.
 **Upgrade from Equation Editor in Microsoft Word 5.0, $89; upgrade from earlier
versions of MathType, $49; competitive sidegrade, $49; academic discount, $149;
60 percent discount for site license of 12 or more sites.


 System 7 Compatibility

                            Expressionist   MathType
 Balloon help               Yes             Yes
 TrueType                   Yes             Yes
 Publish and subscribe      No              No
 Apple events               Yes             Yes
 32-bit addressing*         Yes             Yes
 *According to vendor.


 Product Info

 Design Science Inc.
 MathType 3.0: $199
 4028 Broadway, Long Beach, Calif. 90803
 Phone [phone] or [phone]; fax [phone]

 Prescience Corp.
 Expressionist 3.0: $199.95
 939 Howard St., San Francisco, Calif. 94103
 Phone [phone]; fax [phone]

Reviews Page 55

MacWEEK 09.21.92

(c) Copyright 1992 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material
may not be reproduced in any form without permission.


-----------------------
 BusinessWatch: Apple gives dealers price break

 Cuts let resellers meet Performa challenge

 By Jon Swartz

Cupertino, Calif. - Apple belatedly fired its latest salvo in the 5- month-old
PC price war last week with across-the-board price cuts for dealers on
68030-based Mac models and Quadra 700. Users reportedly can expect corresponding
cuts in list prices next month.

The computer maker shaved dealer costs 10 percent to 25 percent (see chart).

For example, the Mac IIci 5/80, which retails for $3,999, is available to
dealers for $2,175 - a 25 percent reduction from $2,879. The Mac LC II 4/40,
with a retail price of $1,699, now costs dealers $1,041, down 18 percent from
$1,274.

The reductions are expected to filter down to users immediately.

"It helps us remain competitive pricewise, especially with Performas now
available only through [mass market] stores like Sears," said Jerry Hanlon,
manager of Bitznbytes Computer Center Inc. in Concord, N.H. "Apple had to do
something to protect its dealers."

The new prices, sources said, are designed to allow dealers to sell standard Mac
CPUs for less than what mass merchandisers will charge for comparable Performa
packages, which include bundled software and at-home service.

The Performas, priced from $1,250 to $2,500, will be sold through 11 major
consumer outlets, electronics chains and office-product superstores.

Apple declined to comment.

Industry observers said the reductions are Apple's response to the current price
war among vendors of IBM PCs and compatibles.

IBM Corp., Dell Computer Corp., Compaq Computer Corp. and others have dropped
their prices 20 percent to 40 percent this summer alone, forcing Apple to match
cuts to hold onto market share.

"[Apple is] finally more in line with the competition," said Kimball Brown, an
analyst for International Data Corp. in Mountain View, Calif.

Joe Nagy, chief of facilities engineering for the U.S. Mint in Denver, said:
"This might sway some Windows users who didn't have a choice before because of
Apple's steep prices [to look at the Mac]."


 Joining the PC price fray

                       Retail   Old dealer   New dealer
 Model                 Price    price        price        % cut
 Mac Classic II 5/80   $1,699   $1,075       $906            16
 Mac LC II 4/40        $1,699   $1,274       $1,041          18
 Mac LC II 4/80        $1,849   $1,387       $1,133          18
 Mac IIsi 3/40         $2,499   $1,799       $1,383          23
 Mac IIsi 5/80         $2,999   $2,159       $1,599          26
 Mac IIci 5/80         $3,999   $2,879       $2,175          25
 Mac IIci 5/230        $4,599   $3,311       $2,471          25
 Quadra 700 4/80       $5,199   $3,587       $3,206          11
 Source: Dealers.


 Rating the computer makers

Apple fared well but still trailed several competing personal computer makers in
terms of reliability, service and support, according to a recent poll of the
nation's 500 largest corporate computer sites. The following results, based on a
scale of zero to 10, are part of a forthcoming 40-page report from Reliability
Ratings, a Needham, Mass., market research company.

 Company                Reliability   Service   Support   Overall
 Dell Computer Corp.    8.96          8.63      8.09      8.77
 Compaq Computer Corp.  8.95          8.00      7.71      8.45
 Apple                  8.58          8.06      7.72      8.14
 IBM Corp.              8.54          8.01      7.99      7.89
 Source: Reliability Ratings.

MacWEEK 09.21.92

BusinessWatch Page 36

(c) Copyright 1992 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material
may not be reproduced in any form without permission.


-----------------------
 Mac the Knife: New Macs share housing costs

It was definitely one of the more interesting weeks of the season thus far. For
a while it looked as if the Price Club once again would be pressed into duty as
the world's dumping ground for products of questionable consumer acceptance. You
know the kind of product - PowerBook 100s, British pounds, Italian lira and the
like.

Then just as it began to look as if the Europeans were going to cope
successfully with their monetary crisis, Silicon Valley executives started
endorsing presidential candidates. John Sculley and Hewlett- Packard CEO John
Young jumped fence to endorse the Democratic ticket, while HP board Chairman
David Packard remained squarely in favor of the president and the party of
change.

And the Knife had more things than currency crises, politics and PowerBook Duos
piled high on his plate last week, although unearthing Apple's deepest, darkest
Duo specs is always fun. With the details of this fall's offerings out of the
way, it's time to turn his attention toward the first quarter of next year, when
Apple is slated to introduce a trio of 68040-based Macs.

Based on information revealed to the Knife, form will be at least as important
as substance. For instance, one way to differentiate among the new models is by
the case. (Another instance of "By their housing ye shall know them.") The
midrange 25-MHz model will share the metal housing Apple will be using in the
upcoming Mac IIvx. The "littlest '040," as it is commonly known by the
grammatically impaired, will arrive in the more traditional pizza box enclosure
popularized by the Mac LC. For those more interested in old-fashioned 68030 LCs,
remember that a 25-MHz '030 LC should debut at about the same time.

Smells like 7.1. As previously reported, System 7.1 is scheduled to arrive on
Oct. 19. Sources familiar with the statistics tell the Knife that while Version
7.0 arrived with a whopping 1,400 "open" bugs, the project engineers are quite
proud of the mere "few hundred" boo-boos cataloged so far in Version 7.1.

Simultaneous with the 7.1 announcement, Apple is planning to formally introduce
OCE, AppleScript and QuickDraw GX. Perhaps at the introduction Apple will
explain why it is introducing but not shipping these three products, which the
company has been showing since March to anyone who would take the time to look.

Old hands in the Mac operating system upgrade game will note with interest that
this time out Apple won't allow user groups, on-line services or dealers to give
away the system software. Of course, the company announced similar restrictions
for Version 7.0 but later relented. This time around, however, the Knife
suspects that Apple's resolve is solid.

Up the printer ante. While Apple has been preparing to subject us to a blizzard
of new Mac models, Hewlett-Packard has been busy perfecting the new LaserJet IV,
which the Knife's sources say will arrive in October.

The printer will be based on the Canon BX print engine, which can do 8 pages per
minute at a crisp 600 dpi. TrueType will be built-in, with PostScript and
AppleTalk as available options. In short, the specifications blow Apple's
LaserWriter IIg into the weeds. But don't forget that there's a LaserWriter
using the same Canon BX engine on the way.

In France they ... . Not every European spent last week monitoring which
nation's currency the European Community's monetary committee would devalue
next. Some attended Apple Expo in Paris, where they got to watch Apple's Michael
Spindler give an eye-popping technology demonstration of Rosebud, AppleUs new
information-filtering agent software.

Your politics are not taken into account when it comes to earning a MacWEEK mug.
The Knife is interested only in your insider tips. You can find the Knife at
[phone], fax [phone], MCI (MactheKnife), AppleLink (MacWEEK) and
CompuServe/ZiffNet/Mac.

MacWEEK 09.21.92

Mac the Knife Page 126

(c) Copyright 1992 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material
may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
-----------------------