Cupertino, Calif. - The Newton personal digital assistant slated to ship this summer will offer only a limited subset of the communications capabilities required to fulfill Apple's PDA vision.
The device, a note taker expected to cost less than $1,000, will support point-to-point infrared and implement AppleTalk on its serial port. But it won't offer such futuristic connectivity features as wireless networking and collaboration.
"It would be absolutely terrific to have wireless LANs, but the infrastructure isn't there," said Burt Cummings, director of marketing for Apple's Personal Interactive Electronics division.
The first Newton won't even come with a built-in modem. Instead, Cummings said, a modem could be attached to the serial port, or a PCMCIA card modem could be plugged into the first Newton's single slot.
In fact, Cummings said, the PCMCIA slot would be the primary way to add features to early PDAs.
While Newton may not be able to send data over the airwaves, it will be able to plug into a Mac network to access a printer or act as a front end to a database, Cummings said. It will also be able to transmit data over its infrared link to another Newton. Although Apple won't offer its own desktop infrared receiver, it would be possible for a third party to build a Mac connector.
Apple will begin seeding customers with Newtons this month. A development environment that combines scripting with a forms maker will follow shortly after, Cummings said.
PIE is expected to make several significant announcements at the CeBIT '93 trade show in Hanover, Germany, later this month. The division will disclose that it has licensed Newton technology to other developers besides Sharp Electronics Corp., which is building the first device.
PIE also may show an 8-by-10-inch Newton slate prototype. The slate design is not expected to ship this year, sources said.
PIE also will introduce its first device, a $500 portable CD-ROM drive expected to ship in May. The dual-speed, multisession Photo CD drive is reportedly being built by Philips N.V. of the Netherlands, not by Sony Corp., which manufactures the dual-speed drives used in desktop Macs.
The portable drive will come with an infrared remote control and will offer NTSC and PAL (European) video-out for playing Photo CD images directly on a television. It also will be able to connect to a Mac through its SCSI port and will have stereo audio-out for playing audio CDs, sources said.
Later this year, PIE is expected to ship two more devices: a CD-ROM-
based multimedia player that utilizes ScriptX, a multimedia scripting language under development at Kaleida Labs Inc., and a portable device for playing HyperCard stacks.
The ScriptX player, due this fall, will sport a 640-by-400-pixel LCD touchscreen with 100-dpi resolution, a PCMCIA slot, a SCSI interface, a serial port and an infrared receiver for an optional keyboard. The 3-
pound PDA will reportedly run on four AA batteries.
The division will announce its strategy for publishing multimedia and Newton content this spring. According to sources, the company plans to offer a combination of titles licensed from other developers and titles created by Apple.
MacWEEK 03.08.93
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News: QuickDraw GX to take shot at PostScript
Apple technologies to arm low-cost lasers
By Matthew Rothenberg, Robert Hess and Neil McManus
Cupertino, Calif. - Apple is preparing technology that harnesses the power of QuickDraw GX to replace PostScript on a future generation of low-cost printers.
Reportedly due next year, the software and hardware will turn QuickDraw GX, the upgrade to Apple's screen-imaging model, into a full-fledged page-description language.
The new technology reportedly will comprise:
> QIF. QuickDraw Interchange Format will let Macs convert PostScript output from applications such as Adobe Illustrator into resolution-
independent QuickDraw GX code.
QuickDraw GX replaces the current QuickDraw architecture with an object-
oriented model, making it easier for developers to build graphics applications with PostScript-like capabilities, such as rotating, scaling, skewing and adding transparency to images (see MacWEEK, Sept. 28, 1992).
> QSP. QuickDraw Streaming Protocol will speed the transfer of QuickDraw code to an output device via a fast new serial port.
> High-performance port. QSP will take advantage of Apple's new high-
performance serial port, scheduled to make its debut on the forthcoming digital signal processor-equipped Macs, code-named Cyclone and Tempest (see MacWEEK, May 25, 1992, and Feb. 22). The new port reportedly will be able to handle several standards, including ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network), LocalTalk and an Apple proprietary 19.2-Kbps modem protocol.
New Apple printers reportedly will include a port that can act as a standard or high-speed serial interface; they also will include at least a 1-Mbyte memory buffer. For most jobs, sources said, printing QuickDraw GX files using QSP and the new port will be six to eight times faster than standard PostScript output with conventional networked printers.
Apple reportedly will deliver several new output devices that provide the QuickDraw GX page-description language and eliminate the added cost of licensing PostScript. A 600-dpi version of the company's 5-page-per-
minute LaserWriter Select 300 personal laser printer is expected to ship in a QuickDraw configuration for less than $1,500.
Apple also plans to deliver a QuickDraw-based personal laser printer built around a 4-ppm, 300-dpi Canon engine for as little as $700. Hewlett-Packard Co., based in Palo Alto, Calif., reportedly will ship the same engine in a PCL 5-only configuration for a comparable price.
HP is eager to license the new QuickDraw GX technology from Apple, its long-standing rival in the Mac printer market, according to sources. HP declined to comment on the reports.
QuickDraw GX, due later this year, will include a "smart" font format that lets fonts accommodate up to 65,000 different characters. It will support unlimited numbers of style variations, kerning tables, and contextual substitution tables for ligatures and fractions. QuickDraw GX will have line-layout functions that will let users distort editable text as a graphic.
In addition to TrueType fonts, PostScript Type 1 and multiple-master fonts will be able to take advantage of these effects if they are programmed to support the QuickDraw GX font data structure.
Adobe Systems Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., is programming its Type 1 font collection to take advantage of QuickDraw GX, said Dan Mills, Adobe manager of typography. In fact, a QuickDraw GX-ready version of Adobe's Tekton font will be bundled with QuickDraw GX. "Type 1 and TrueType fonts will be treated as equal citizens under QuickDraw GX," Mills said.
According to Ajit Kapoor, president of Intelligent Solutions of Boston, "Apple's ultimate goal is to make [itself] totally independent from Adobe.
"It's safe to conjecture that Apple will continue to support PostScript while at the same time building a Mac-only environment," Kapoor said. "There's going to be interoperability among all printer languages. QuickDraw GX is no different from PostScript; it's just a matter of converting from one kind of silicon to the other."
MacWEEK 03.08.93
News Page 1
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News: Symantec execs face felony rap
By Mitch Ratcliffe
Santa Cruz, Calif. - Symantec Corp. CEO Gordon Eubanks last week was indicted on 11 felony counts for conspiracy and theft of trade secrets from rival language and applications developer Borland International Inc.
A state grand jury here handed down indictments against Eubanks, 46, and Eugene Wang, 35, a former Borland executive who joined Symantec last September (see MacWEEK, Sept. 21, 1992). Wang is charged with 21 felonies for allegedly misusing Borland computers and joining in a conspiracy with Eubanks. They were arraigned last Friday and released on their own recognizance. If convicted, each faces up to six years in jail and fines of up to $210,000.
The case began last fall when Scotts Valley, Calif.-based Borland found what it said were stolen documents in undeleted electronic-mail messages left to Eubanks in Wang's corporate MCI Mail mailbox after he abruptly quit to join Symantec, based in Cupertino, Calif.
The Santa Cruz County district attorney's office has been conducting a criminal investigation of the Symantec executives since Sept. 1, 1992, the day Wang joined Symantec. Two days later, Borland filed a civil lawsuit against Eubanks and Wang. The complaints claim Wang stole trade secrets from Borland, including long-term business plans and forthcoming products.
Trade-secret disputes are not uncommon in Silicon Valley, but they are usually handled in civil - not criminal - court, said Jeffrey Kingston, a computer law attorney for Probeck, Phleger & Harrison in San Francisco. "This is definitely a precedent-setting case," he said.
"This case is a significant first because of the kind of evidence and issues presented," said Santa Cruz County District Attorney Art Danner at a press conference last week. "What's at stake is the definition of the law regarding the use of trade secrets and an employer's computers."
Danner declined to comment on the evidence against Eubanks and Wang. He said some of the evidence and part of the trial may be presented in closed court to protect Borland secrets.
He did say the case hinges on a California law designed to prevent employees from accessing their companies' computers, without authorization, to steal information.
In fact, the indictment reads like a network administrator's user-
activity log. Each alleged theft and delivery of stolen information is identified as having occurred at a specific minute of the day.
Shari Steele, a staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation in Washington, D.C., said Eubanks' and Wang's attorneys may file an invasion of privacy lawsuit against Borland and the district attorney's office for their confiscation of Wang's E-mail messages. The federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act and California law prevent reading of messages sent over public E-mail systems, such as MCI. Borland CEO Phillipe Kahn has said his company was justified in doing so, since it owned and paid for Wang's MCI account.
"We're confident that anything that was seized was seized legally," Danner said. He would not comment specifically on Wang's right to privacy under the ECPA.
The actual definition of a trade secret may also come into play. Eubanks' attorney, Allen Ruby of the San Jose, Calif.-based law firm of Morgan, Ruby, Schofield, Franich and Fredkin, hinted that even if it is proved that messages were passed between his client and Wang, he will challenge the assertion that they included trade secrets. California's law prohibits the exchange of technical and scientific information, but not business secrets. A second major issue will be the motion by Borland and the district attorney's office to seal most of the evidence in the criminal case.
Ruby said the sealing of the evidence threatens his ability to defend Eubanks and the court's ability to try the case fairly. "The role of Borland in all of this is something that will be developed in open court," he said.
The case also further clouds Symantec's financial future. The company has lost $10 million the past two quarters, a result of what analysts call haphazard growth via acquisition. Now, Eubanks and Wang may not be allowed to travel on business, Danner said.
Eubanks last week steadfastly said the charges will not force him or Wang to leave Symantec. "I don't like to be a test case to find out what the law is," he said. "It hasn't helped my reputation, but the key issue is [that] I'm innocent."
But Danner took a hard-line stance at the press conference last week. "This is not some type of academic exercise; this is a serious legal case," he said.
Jon Swartz contributed to this report.
MacWEEK 03.08.93
News Page 1
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News: NetWare 4 not Mac-ready
By April Streeter
Washington - NetWare 4.0 will take center stage this week at Interop 93 Spring here, but Macintosh client improvements will be left waiting in the wings.
The major upgrade to Novell Inc.'s network operating system is the company's first pass at distributed directory services and adds the capability to create 1,000-user networks, among other improvements; it is due to ship by the end of the month. Although it isn't expected until June, users will get a peek this week at NetWare for Macintosh 4.0, an upgrade that will clear up a long-standing quirk and offer a few new features.
With NetWare for Mac 4.0, administrators need no longer worry that Mac files stored on NetWare servers will have inaccurate modification dates. This aberration, which changed the time stamps of files copied to NetWare volumes, has existed since the first Mac NLM (NetWare Loadable Module).
NetWare for Macintosh 4.0 also will allow network managers to restrict server access for individual Mac nodes based on the static addresses in Ethernet and token-ring network hardware. Previous versions could not restrict access for specific AppleTalk nodes.
New caching features will give Mac clients speedier access to CD-ROMs attached to NetWare servers, and a new data-migration option will move infrequently used files to slower backup media attached to the server, based on administrators' settings.
Since time stamping and static addressing will be available to NetWare for Macintosh 3.x users in an upgrade scheduled for this summer, some managers said they can afford to wait until Version 4.0 has proved stable before switching.
"If the question is 'Will we upgrade,' the answer is 'Yes, but not yet,' " said Martin Gutteridge, senior consultant at KPMG Peat Marwick in Hamilton, Bermuda. KPMG's mostly Mac sites around the United States use NetWare servers. "The size of our individual sites is not large enough to warrant 4.0 right away, but when we look at the future functionality, it's attractive."
In the long term, Novell, based in Provo, Utah, said it has two approaches to strengthening the ties between NetWare and the Mac. In one effort, the company will support new Apple protocols, such as the AppleTalk Update-based Routing Protocol and the upcoming AOCE (Apple Open Collaboration Environment). Future gateway software from Novell will let Macs access NetWare 4.0 directories and AOCE directories in the same way.
Meanwhile, Novell is working to integrate NetWare with the Mac client environment. To that end, the company next month will ship the MacIPX protocol stack. Once MacIPX is available, an application programming interface will be published to let developers build IPX (Internetwork Packet Exchange)-based services for the Mac.
Eventually, Novell plans on Macs logging onto the NetWare network rather than an individual server and getting the same set of NetWare 4.0 services as DOS or Windows clients without needing a special NLM. For this to work, future "browser" software may replace the Chooser for client access to NetWare, said Steve Nelson, a general manager for Novell's NetWare client group.
Nelson said the native Mac and AOCE support are slated to be ready in the first quarter of 1994.
MacWEEK 03.08.93
News Page 1
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News: Servers speed to CeBIT debut
Cards top NetWare in benchmark tests
By Mitch Ratcliffe
San Francisco - Apple's upcoming server system will deliver more than three times the performance of a standard Quadra 950, according to an Apple-commissioned benchmark report obtained by MacWEEK.
The company reportedly will roll out a family of products called the Apple Workgroup Servers on March 25 at the CeBIT '93 show in Hanover, Germany. The servers, which are based on existing 68040-based Macs, are slated to ship about a month later, sources said.
Designed to provide file and print services and database support, the server family will include three bundles for workgroups of varying sizes: a Quadra 950 with a high-performance I/O card and a Unix-based version of AppleShare, Apple's file server software; a Quadra 800 with AppleShare 4.0, a separate new version running under System 7; and a Centris 610 with AppleShare 4.0.
> Workgroup Server 95. The top-of-the-line system is based on a Quadra 950 and a processor direct slot card offering direct memory access, dual NCR 53C96 SCSI controllers and up to 512 Kbytes of cache memory. It will ship with A/UX and the new Unix AppleShare.
The Workgroup Server 95 accelerates performance by up to 350 percent compared with a stock Quadra 950 running AppleShare 3.0.1, according to the benchmark report. The data shows that the server was not significantly slower with 50 users accessing data simultaneously than with 10.
The report also compares the Quadra 950-based system with several competing server solutions: a Compaq Computer Corp. system with a 50-MHz 486 running Novell Inc.'s NetWare and NetWare for Macintosh software and SPARCstation 2 and SPARCstation 10 Unix systems from Sun Microsystems Inc. running AFP (AppleTalk Filing Protocol)-compatible server software. The results show that the Apple product matched or outperformed the NetWare and Sun systems in most areas, although the SPARCstation 10 proved slightly faster at reading and writing large files.
"When additional factors, such as ease of use and cost of ownership are taken into consideration, we feel the case for the new Apple server is close to unbeatable for all but the very largest and most data-intensive networks," the report states.
Apple is expected to offer the server PDS card in a bundle with A/UX and AppleShare Pro to current Quadra 900 and 950 users.
> Workgroup Server 80. Intended for medium-size workgroups, the Quadra 800-based bundle will include AppleShare 4.0, a new version of Apple's System 7-based file and print server software. The Quadra 800 package will not include the PDS server card, which will not be necessary in AppleShare 4.0 servers.
> Workgroup Server 60. AppleShare 4.0 will also ship in a bundle with a Centris 610. Apple reportedly told analysts last week that the Workgroup Server 60 is designed for workgroups of fewer than 20 users.
Pricing for the new server systems was not available.
Leonard Heymann contributed to this report.
MacWEEK 03.08.93
News Page 1
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Gateways: AURP bogged down in AppleTalk Network Forum
By April Streeter
Washington - This week's Interop 93 Spring conference would be the logical place for router makers to talk about support for Apple's new AURP protocol. Instead, Apple and vendors once again will meet behind closed doors to debate AURP's merits.
After three years of development, Apple last month released the AppleTalk Update-based Routing Protocol (AURP), which provides tunneling features and chatter-reducing routing table update techniques needed in large AppleTalk networks. However, a competing tunneling protocol, code-
named Dr. Pepper, provided momentum for a group of vendors that now hesitate to join in waving the AURP flag.
You're a pepper. In response to the Dr. Pepper coalition, Apple pledged at its January introduction of the Apple Internet Router 3.0 to put the AURP protocol under the scrutiny of the new industry group, the AppleTalk Network Forum.
Dr. Pepper developers, who along with Apple are the founding members of the ANF, applauded Apple's move. However, there is also a general consensus that the creation of the ANF slowed the process of delivering a standard, be it AURP, Dr. Pepper or something else, to users.
Pepper pops AURP. "I think they (the ANF) need to stop whining, get it together and just choose something," said Chuck Shotton, assistant director of academic computing at the University of Texas in Houston's Health Science Center. Shotton, an AURP beta tester, said he thinks neither Apple's protocol nor Dr. Pepper will succeed as a "general-
purpose wide-area AppleTalk," but rather one will become a standardized tunneling method.
Cooperation breeds slowdown. Garry Hornbuckle, Apple AppleTalk evangelist and ANF treasurer, conceded the ANF has created a logjam over AURP support. "People have the idea that the ANF is going to straighten everything out and are taking a wait-and-see approach before they commit resources to implementing AURP," he said. "That's the approach we [at Apple] are taking to implementing the Dr. Pepper specification, so I imagine it's the attitude people on both sides of the fence are also taking."
The ANF has elected a chairman, Jay Batson, director of product marketing at Cambridge, Mass.-based Cayman Systems Inc. Jonathan Wenocur, software engineer at Westboro, Mass.-based Shiva Corp., has been tapped to be the group's president. They will meet with Hornbuckle here this week. The first meeting open to users is scheduled for the Mactivity '93 conference during June in San Jose, Calif.
MacWEEK 03.08.93
Gateways Page 16
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GA: TelevEyes outputs Mac graphics for video
Digital Vision also plans scan converter
By Neil McManus
Dedham, Mass. - Digital Vision Inc. now is shipping a video encoder that lets users output Mac graphics and presentations to televisions, camcorders and VCRs.
The company also is preparing a scan converter that offers high-end video production features, such as genlock, flicker control, and over- and under-scan control.
> TelevEyes. Available now for $299.95, this external box intercepts Mac video and outputs composite or S-video signals to NTSC devices.
TelevEyes works with most Mac video cards that offer 640-by-480-pixel resolution, but it's not compatible with the video capabilities built into such Macs as the IIsi, IIci and LC, the company said.
Digital Vision's device comes with a hue-control dial and a switch that lets users toggle between their Mac monitor and video output.
> TelevEyes/Pro. Due to ship in June for $699.95, this scan converter box will offer genlock capabilities, essential in synchronizing two video signals. This feature will let users overlay titles or graphics onto live video via a selectable color key.
TelevEyes/Pro also will contain a vertical-line filter system that smooths outgoing images for flicker-free output of single-pixel lines.
The Pro version also will let users output Mac graphics with a black border (under-scan) or fill an entire video screen (over-scan).
Digital Vision Inc. is at 270 Bridge St., Dedham, Mass. 02026. Phone (617) 329-5400; fax (617) 329-6286.
MacWEEK 03.08.93
GA Page 32
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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BusinessWatch: Apple Seed program to plant software
By Raines Cohen
Austin, Texas - Sunset Direct next month is expected to announce a free program for Mac software developers that promises to put evaluation units of their products in the hands of volume buyers.
Under the Apple Seed program, participating U.S. vendors would contribute 35 not-for-resale copies of their products, which Sunset would pass along to Apple's domestic field-sales offices. Apple salespeople would then evaluate the products and show them to sites that are considering purchasing Macs.
Sunset is working with Apple on a promotion for the program, said Sunset President Doug Monahan.
Sunset Direct, a marketing co-op of Mac and IBM PC-and-compatible developers, was formed here last year. It has more than 100 hardware and software vendor members, including Radius Inc. and DayStar Digital Inc.
Sunset contacts potential Mac volume buyers, including customers who receive Macs for evaluation through Apple's U.S. field-sales offices. The company sends buyers a survey to determine the size of their potential purchase and their areas of interest. It then collates the results and sends leads to its members, which ship evaluation copies of products directly to the potential buyer.
Buyers can specify the dealer and representative they want to buy from, and Sunset forwards that information to resellers.
Monahan said that because Sunset is funded equally by its members and receives no commissions, it promotes all products equally.
Sunset Direct is at 6010 Balcones Drive, Suite 150, Austin, Texas 78731. Phone (512) 458-9270; fax (512) 458-9279.
MacWEEK 03.08.93
BusinessWatch Page 40
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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Review: Painter upgrade offers new stroke of genius
Fractal's 'natural-media' painting program adds many features and refinements.
By Philip Bishop
Fractal Design Corp.'s Painter, a show-stopping "natural-media" 24-bit-
color painting program, has overcome nearly all of its earlier limitations with Version 2.0. The new edition has more than 70 new features, including more flexible color palettes, type support, a bank of image-editing tools, stunning new painting tools and a refined interface.
The program's retail price has risen from $349 to $399.
Painter achieves best results when teamed with a pressure-sensitive drawing tablet, such as those available from Wacom Technology Corp., CalComp Inc. and Kurta Corp. These tablets are not required to use the product, however.
Finger paints. Painter 2.0 has almost a dozen enhancements that make it easier to use. Brush Variants, Paper Textures and Brush Looks palettes now tear off and can be placed anywhere on your screen for easy access. (Brush Looks, a new feature of Painter 2.0, is a visual catalog of Brush Variants.) Palettes in Version 2.0 also can be hidden or closed to give you more working room.
An important enhancement to the program is a preview window in many dialog boxes, such as Apply Surface Texture, that shows the results of filters, special effects and other techniques on an image before you apply the effect.
One enhancement we particularly like is being able to work in full-
screen mode. Using this feature, your work area is no longer a floating window but fills the entire screen. With palettes hidden and a couple of selected torn-off tools placed around the edges, there are fewer distractions and a much keener connection between you and your work.
Brisk Friskets. Fractal's Frisket masking technology has matured a great deal in Painter 2.0. The most important changes are that you now can edit Friskets, and you can use type and imported Encapsulated PostScript outlines as Friskets.
You have a choice between free-form and straight-edged Friskets (in earlier versions only free-form masks were available).
The simplest way to edit a Frisket is to use the Frisket Knife Tool and, holding down the Command or Command-Option keys, draw the new Frisket line that you want to add or subtract. This is a natural editing method, particularly for artists used to holding a brush or stylus. Designers accustomed to the Bezier editing tools in Aldus FreeHand or Adobe Illustrator, however, might find Painter's Frisket-editing methods harder to use.
For artists using multiple applications, you now can import EPS art as Friskets (through the Palette Library function). Painter ships with a library of predefined Friskets, such as stars and geometric shapes. You also can import images from Fractal's ColorStudio and Adobe Photoshop and retain their mask layer as a Frisket.
You also can overlap two Friskets and then choose to have them treated as a single outline or as subtractive (one shape taking a bite out of the other). These actions can be performed with keyboard controls or by clicking on new buttons added to the Frisket palette. With other keyboard controls, you also can create Friskets with holes in them. With Painter 2.0's new Pointer Tool it's a snap to move, resize, rotate and copy Friskets.
The Magic Wand tool can be waved over a range of colors to mask all matching colors.
Painting type. One of our biggest gripes with Painter 1.0 was its lack of type support. In Version 2.0, you can use type as Friskets. To access this feature, you must first import a Type 1 or TrueType font through a dialog box, a process that isn't as easy as simply pulling down a font menu. The letters you type in the work area appear as a Frisket and can be manipulated with Painter's tools. Unlike Sketcher, Painter's gray-
scale sibling, aligning type is possible using a new, editable grid function. You also can move, squash and stretch individual characters of a word. While the type support is very good, Fractal needs to boost it with more controls (such as automatic alignment and kerning).
In general, the new masking tools are much improved. Our primary complaint is that you cannot undo changes. Since much of Painter's power is derived from Friskets, this is an unforgivable omission.
Pleasant production. Fractal has responded to the demands of production artists by adding a wealth of other image-processing tools and support for Photoshop plug-ins. Under the new Effects menu, you will find common image-editing features such as resize, equalize, highpass, posterize, sharpen, soften, motion blur, scale, distort, and flip horizontal and vertical. The program now can print color separations to any PostScript device and can produce color separations with good control over separation parameters, such as dot gain and screen settings.
Recording artist. Painter can record single brush strokes and even entire painting sessions. Options let you replay brush strokes in multiple locations with different colors to create patterns, for example.
The Record Session command is extremely powerful: You can create a painting and replay all of the strokes using a variety of Papers and other settings. Or you can create a painting at screen resolution, which greatly speeds Painter's responsiveness, and then play it back at high resolution for final output.
The Brush Stroke Designer palette lets you preview a Brush Variant much like a scratch pad. You can record a stroke and then play it back on the canvas with the playback controls. You can click on the canvas to play single strokes or use Auto Playback to lay down strokes until you click to stop.
Effective effects. Painter made its name translating natural media to a digital palette, and Version 2.0 adds even more goodies.
One of the most exciting features added to Painter 2.0 is Apply Lighting. This lets you do "2.5-D" rendering by placing one or more light sources of any color, intensity and direction in your image. This creates the effect of hanging your painting in a gallery (or smoky bar) and shining lights on it.
Many other new special effects also are offered: Glass Distortion faithfully reproduces the effect of viewing an image as if through a dark glass - or in many other possible lights. Marbling mimics Florentine marblers who create decorative papers by dragging a rake through layers of liquid ink. Fractal provides an abundance of controls to customize these effects.
You cannot preview a marbling effect, and Painter has no mechanism to abort an effect that might take much longer to produce than anticipated - not an uncommon occurrence. This inability to stop filter operations is true of other Painter processes and caused us to wait as much as 30 minutes for an effect we wanted only to try out. In addition, there is no indication of how long a process will take. Fractal is aware of this problem and plans to address it.
Luscious liquids. Painter has several new brushes (including two optimized for painting white on a black background). An Impressionist Brush has been added to the Artists palette, and four new brushes in the Eraser category darken an image by degree.
The nine new Liquid Brushes mimic oil-painting effects. They work best when used in combination with other effects, such as when cloning an image. All of these brushes smear more than they paint. Distorto moves paint around without adding color. Smeary Bristles smears the color you choose in the Color Palette (this Variant is paper-grain sensitive, meaning the texture of the paper grain will show through). Thick Oil oozes across the screen like a lazy snake. The effects you can create are striking, and as always with Painter, very realistic.
Four new watercolor brushes have been added to 2.0, as well as a new capability to make watercolors diffuse by varying degrees. One of the new brushes, Broad Water Brush, paints a wide stroke showing brush bristles. You can apply this new multiple-bristle effect to other brushes through controls added to the Brush Behavior palette.
Cleaning up. Painter would greatly benefit from more levels of Undo (including at least one for working with Friskets). We also would like to be able to step through (and skip steps) when playing back a recorded session. The program also needs a way to quickly copy and paste an object.
Painter 2.0's documentation is generally thorough, although it is painfully short on tutorials. It is also short in some technical details, including the fact that virtual memory turns Painter 2.0 into a snail, even on a Quadra 900. Fractal plans to provide both tutorials and performance tips in a separate volume titled Painter 2.0 Companion, which will be shipped free to all users who return their registration cards.
For users who bought Painter before Nov. 1, 1992, the upgrade is $79; those who purchased it more recently receive it free.
Conclusions. Painter was truly an innovative product when it first shipped. Version 2.0 is easier to use and adds a complement of good image-editing and production tools, as well as a bucket of rich new features. It should satisfy the production demands of many professional artists. The new Liquid media hold faithfully to the standards that defined the first version. Text support, although needing a better interface, gets the job done.
While we still have some gripes, most notably the lack of Undo and no abort capabilities during long operations, Fractal has responded quickly and gracefully to the needs of production artists. Painter 2.0 is a product that verges on excellence; with a few tweaks, it can reach that top level.
Fractal Design Corp. is at 335 Spreckels Drive, Suite F, Aptos, Calif. 95003. Phone (408) 688-8800; fax (408) 688-8836.
Score Card: Painter
Fractal Design Corp.
Version tested: 2.0
List price: $399*
Overall value 4
Painter, Fractal Design Corp.'s 24-bit-color painting program, is still a show stopper with rich tools and textures, and it is now more useful in the working world. The update has more than 70 new features, including a bank of image-editing tools; more stunning painting tools; a refined production-oriented interface; and support for type, Encapsulated PostScript outlines and Photoshop plug-ins. While Fractal has fixed most of the major problems, the program lacks Undo capabilities in Friskets, and many time-consuming operations cannot be aborted. With a few adjustments, Painter 2.0 will become a truly excellent product.
Performance 4
Features 5
Ease of use 4
Documentation/support 3
* Upgrade from Version 1.0, $79; free if purchased after Nov. 1, 1992.
System 7 Compatibility: Painter 2.0
Balloon help No
TrueType Yes
Publish and subscribe Yes
Apple events Yes
32-bit addressing* Yes
*According to vendor.
MacWEEK 03.08.93
Reviews Page 47
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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Mac the Knife: The gray side of selling Macs
Tastes great, less filling. Raise taxes, cut spending. New Macs, no deliveries. All of these examples have one thing in common (in addition to perpetuating the myth that verbs are optional). Each serves to hide a complex reality.
We'll leave the easy issues of alcoholic beverages and government budgets for other columnists. We'll deal with yet another facet of the dynamics of why you often can't get the Mac you want when you want it.
On the surface, it all seems so simple. Apple develops a hot new Mac, ramps up production, takes orders from anxious dealers, then announces its latest to a grateful market, which bellies up to the register with cash or equivalent in hand. This is sometimes called the fairy-tale scenario.
The reality scenario is that dealers are so squeezed by the twin forces of customer demand for discounts and Apple's shallow margins that many have to move inventory to the gray market after only two or three weeks. And that, dear reader, is why your local gray-market advertiser seems to have more scarce inventory available than your favorite authorized dealer.
Everything will be better. That's one you've just gotta believe. And in fact, many of the shortages that have plagued would-be purchasers have eased up dramatically in the past few weeks. Of course, Apple has many new products in the pipeline that could easily throw us back to the bad old days of supply malaise if production can't be tooled up fast enough. Interest in the Cyclone, the darling of the multimedia crowd, is building already. The Knife reports that Apple is considering offering upgrades for Centris 610s and Quadra 800s to Cyclone level, just as it currently offers upgrades from the IIvx to the Centris 650.
Those who whine every time Apple introduces a new Mac with a better price/performance ratio than the one they just bought can consider this an advance warning.
Yugo Mac. An exclusively high-end strategy serves no company, and Apple is no exception. For those who insist on spending the smallest amount possible on a new computer and still having genuine Mac ROMs inside, Apple is readying a supercheap Mac for introduction this summer, well in time for the Christmas selling season. No effort will be spared to lower the production cost of this model. Sources claim there's an excellent chance that this will be the first Mac ever with a manual floppy disk eject button, a feature that will surely shave entire cents off the bottom line.
Other neat features will be support for a VGA monitor, 2 Mbytes of RAM standard and the absence of a SCSI port. All this fancy technology will be driven by a 16-MHz '030. Think of it as a stripped LC II.
Just call me. Duo owners may have thought that their problems were over when Apple finally began shipping the Express Modems, but things have taken a decidedly unpleasant turn. The first version of the required software needed a fast upgrade, as most Express users quickly discovered.
Since Apple had no tracking mechanism in place, it has been up to the customers to contact tech support to inquire about the update. You can imagine the surprise of some of them when the otherwise helpful Apple tech-support person informed them that the patch was available for downloading on AppleLink. Now, electronic distribution of software patches is usually a good idea, but this method poses a bit of a problem for those whose modem isn't functional. Apple's false start with the Express Modem should help ease the introduction of the third-party alternative that's expected to ship shortly.
Traveler's advisory: Those of you who missed the private PowerPC Mac demonstration at last month's Macworld Expo in Tokyo may get a second chance if Apple follows through with plans to show it this week at the PowerOpen Association gathering in Boston.
You don't absolutely need a modem to get a MacWEEK mug, but it couldn't hurt. If you have both the functional means and the proper currency, call the Knife at (415) 243-3544, fax (415) 243-3650, MCI (MactheKnife), Internet (mac_the_knife@macweek.ziff.com),. AppleLink (MacWEEK) and CompuServe/ZiffNet/Mac.
MacWEEK 03.08.93
Mac the Knife Page 122
(c) Copyright 1993 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
