Mac Expert 1995 Winter/Mac Expert - Winter 95.iso/Les fichiers/Tidbits/TidBits 101 à 200/TidBITS#138_17-Aug-92.txt

Text File | 1995-06-19 | 28.1 KB | 578 lines | [TEXT/ttxt]

TidBITS#138/17-Aug-92
=====================

 Check out the hottest hardware and software from Macworld Boston,
   ShareVision's $1500 video-conferencing system and Gryphon's $149
   image morphing program, Morph. Eric Schlegel shares more
   information on WorldScript, and we look at what's coming to the
   PowerBook line this fall, along with a quick peek at the best
   PowerBook gadgets from Macworld and the second part of Mark
   Anbinder's piece on System 7.1 technologies.

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Topics:
    MailBITS/17-Aug-92
    New PowerBooks
    ShareVision
    Morph
    Apple Futures II
    Portable Toys
    WorldScript Clarifications
    Reviews/17-Aug-92

[Archived as /info-mac/digest/tb/tidbits-138.etx; 29K]


MailBITS/17-Aug-92
------------------
  Mark H. Anbinder passes on this tidbit. Apparently Claris has
  released a maintenance upgrade to MacWrite II to fix a bug that
  caused the program to crash when spell-checking a document under
  32-bit addressing while running on systems with 16 MB of RAM or
  more during a full moon. The release, version 1.1v3 includes
  several physical changes. It comes with only two original disks,
  at least in part because Claris removed several of the XTND
  translators. MacWrite II now includes translators only for
  MacPaint, PICT, MacWrite 5.0, Microsoft Word 4.0, WordPerfect PC
  4.2, and RTF. If you want others, you can order them for $10 from
  Claris Customer Relations. In addition, Claris combined several of
  the smaller manuals into a single User's Guide. I presume you can
  get the new release directly from Claris (and hopefully for free)
  if you have run into this bug. Otherwise don't bother.

    Claris -- 800/3-CLARIS -- 408/987-7000
      408/987-7440 (fax) -- [e-mail]

  Information from:
    Mark H. Anbinder -- [e-mail]


New PowerBooks
--------------
  I've been remiss in not reporting this information more promptly,
  but caution has its uses. Apple introduced the PowerBook 145 at
  Macworld as expected, and equally as expected, it sports two
  features over the old 140 - a 25 MHz 68030 and a lower list price,
  both of which should endear it to users now that Apple has it
  slotted to become the low-end PowerBook. Look for greatly reduced
  prices on the PowerBook 100s at dealers since Apple dropped it
  from the official price lists. The PowerBook 100 has no surfeit of
  power, but the sales success at Price Club shows that people do
  have interest in such a PowerBook, but only at a sub-$1000 price.
  Personally I'd like to see the 100 stick around at prices well
  under $1000 and with the clear recognition that it trades muscle
  for price. A $700 PowerBook 100 would sell well, although I wonder
  if Apple might want to open that price bracket for the upcoming
  Newton devices.


Snazzy PowerBooks
  In any case, on October 19th the new PowerBooks will either look
  like the current PowerBooks or will be part of a docking system,
  as requested by those using the PowerBook as a primary machine.
  The additions to the standard line will include the PowerBook 160
  and 180, both of which will support up to 14 MB of RAM, have LCD
  screens that can display 16 shades of grey (backlit supertwist for
  the 160 and active matrix for the 180), and debut a video-out port
  that can do 8-bit color on a 13" screen (160) or a 16" screen
  (180). Both will connect to desktop Macs as SCSI hard disks, as
  could the 100. Otherwise, the 160 will share specs with the 145,
  and the 180 will feature the same features as the to-be-
  discontinued 170, though with the addition of a 33 MHz 68030.

  I find the new PowerBook Duo design more intriguing, because the
  base machine will weigh about four pounds, support up to 24 MB of
  RAM, have a 9" 640 x 480 backlit supertwist LCD screen, and use
  either a 33 MHz (the 230) or 25 MHz 68030 (the 210). Apple will
  have two types of docks, the Duo Dock and the Duo MiniDock,
  available separately depending on your most common usage. For use
  on the desktop, Apple will have the Duo Dock, which will include
  two NuBus slots, an extra hard drive, a floppy drive, an 8-bit
  video-out port for use with monitors up to 16", and the usual
  ports. Those using the PowerBook Duo primarily on the road will
  prefer the one pound Duo MiniDock, which will provide only the
  standard ports and the same video-out capabilities. We don't know
  how Apple will distribute the PowerBook Duos in terms of price and
  bundles with the two docks, so stay tuned.

  The Duos feature an interesting security feature that may or may
  not be of use to you. Both docks can lock the PowerBook to the
  dock, which makes it easy to use a third party security kit from
  Kensington, Security Concepts, or the like to secure the
  combination to your desk. The drawback I see is that I doubt you
  will be able to use a locking device with the PowerBook while on
  the road because it would interfere with the floppy-drive-like
  mechanism that the dock uses to suck the PowerBook Duo in and lock
  it down. One final new feature on the 210 and 230 - Apple recessed
  the trackball area, which should make it even easier to use. I'm
  drooling already, but do keep in mind the cardinal rule of
  computers: If you need the computer today, buy it today because
  today's model will be cheaper and faster in six months no matter
  what.

  I'm still trying to figure out Apple's new strategy with the IIvi
  and IIvx and the entire Performa line, so I'll try to talk about
  that next week after I've had some peace and quiet to think.

  Information from:
    Pythaeus

  Related articles:
    MacWEEK -- 10-Aug-92, Vol. 6, #29, pg. 1


ShareVision
-----------
  One of the coolest demos at Macworld didn't appear on the floor,
  but was shown at Apple's System Software Showcase at the Boston
  Computer Museum. ShareVision Technology showed an unnamed video-
  conferencing system for the rest of us, one which we'll call
  ShareVision as well for simplicity's sake. ShareVision consists
  primarily of a pair of NuBus cards, one containing the guts of a
  v.32bis modem, and the other doing compression, which is necessary
  for video-conferencing. ShareVision sets itself apart from the
  competition in two ways. First, it runs over normal phone lines,
  unlike a competing (and much less impressive) video-conferencing
  system from Northern Telecom. Second, it will cost about $1500 for
  a complete system consisting of the two boards, video camera, and
  software.

  I played with ShareVision briefly and talked to a video engineer
  in California while watching him on my screen and modifying an
  Excel spreadsheet with him. Not only does ShareVision use v.32bis
  modems over normal phone lines, but the phone line used for the
  demo supposedly had bad line noise, which dropped the effective
  speed from 14,400 bps to 9,600 bps. The two small pictures (I
  could see myself as well the guy I was talking to) shook and
  reminded me of a mediocre QuickTime movie, and the audio quality
  sounded like computer-synthesized speech when one of us moved on
  screen a lot, but let's face it, simultaneous color video, audio,
  and data transfer over normal phone lines for $1500 qualifies as
  way cool.

  The data transfer capabilities especially intrigued me because
  they're done right, via Apple events, rather than through tiddly
  little pseudo-application modules like some other groupware
  programs use. So instead of using some dumb draw program that
  makes the original MacDraw look powerful, you could in theory use
  something like Canvas, although I don't know if Canvas supports
  the required events. The demonstration application of choice was
  Excel 4.0, one of the most fully-wired programs available. The
  engineer in California and I could both open and work on the same
  file, changing data and watching charts redraw. Impressive! We
  have no fully Apple-event aware word processors as yet, although
  I, of course, have high hopes for Nisus XS. ShareVision also
  sports a shared collaboration area, but I can't remember what few
  tools it offered.

  From the sound of it, ShareVision Technology has done the hardware
  right as well. Numerous technologies go into a product like
  ShareVision, all of which have other uses which ShareVision will
  provide. The v.32bis modem will double as a standard data modem
  and will include group 3 fax capabilities. The video camera will
  allow you to capture motion video and still images, and the
  microphone will help you digitize sound. ShareVision will use a
  special microphone from Norris Communications called the Ear Phone
  which combines a speaker and microphone into a tiny unit that fits
  in your ear. More on that in a future issue. I feel it is
  important to utilize all this technology in multiple ways, as
  ShareVision proposes, because doing so will significantly reduce
  the real-world cost of the system.

  ShareVision impressed me equally as much because of the price and
  the hardware requirements. $1500 will get you a video-conferencing
  system when it ships, supposedly sometime this fall. Until now,
  video-conferencing has been too expensive for use except by
  wealthy businesses. With ShareVision, small businesses and some
  individuals could avoid expensive and unpleasant travel.
  Considering travel costs, a ShareVision setup ($3000 total because
  you obviously need two) could easily pay for itself within a few
  months, assuming of course that the replaced travel could get by
  without the undeniable handshake value of meeting someone in
  person. Multiple offices in the same city might find more use for
  ShareVision than more widely separated offices because of free
  phone calls and the shared work environment that would obviate the
  need for lots of 20 minute drives in traffic. Just think of the
  use in telecommuting!

  If ShareVision ships this fall at $1500 as promised and works even
  as well as I saw in Boston, I suspect that it will sell slowly for
  a short while until it catches on, and then sell like hotcakes.
  Perhaps we will soon all have ShareVision numbers on our business
  cards along with fax numbers.

    ShareVision -- 408/428-0330 -- 408/428-9871 (fax)
      [e-mail]
    Norris Communications -- 619/679-1504 -- 619/486-3471 (fax)
      [e-mail]


Morph
-----
  The response from almost everyone when I asked what they found to
  be cool at the show was one word - Morph. In many ways, Morph,
  from Gryphon Software, is similar to ShareVision because it
  provides a sophisticated capability, image morphing in this case,
  at an incredibly low price.

  Most people probably don't know what morphing is, but many of you
  have seen it in "Terminator II" when the newer model of the
  Terminator changed from the silvery humanoid form to mimic a
  police officer or whatnot. Basically, you take two images, and
  morph one into the other. Some of the demos that Gryphon showed at
  Macworld included a politically-ironic clip of Bush morphing into
  Bill Clinton and then into Ross Perot, along with a clip that
  showed a cat yawning and gradually morphing into a tiger roaring.

  Murph Sewall said on the Info-Mac list that previously such
  special effects were done with something like a $15,000 Silicon
  Graphics workstation and a $3000 piece of specialized software. Of
  course, to achieve the quality necessary for movies or even
  broadcast video, you would probably still need that kind of power,
  but for more standard uses, Morph will do just fine for $149.
  Gryphon's show special of $89 definitely took the cake as far as
  most popular program, and every time I stopped by, the line of
  people waiting to plunk down their plastic money clogged the
  cramped Macworld aisle!

  Without damping the obvious and thoroughly amazing way-cool value
  of Morph, it took me a bit to think of some relatively practical
  uses for the program. Keep in mind that because Morph must create
  lots of intermediate scenes between two pictures, I suspect it
  seriously hogs processor power and disk space, particularly when
  you're working with large color images. That said, the best real-
  world use I could think of falls in the presentation category -
  before and after pictures. Many people commonly use such pictures
  to demonstrate how well a project went, and what could be snazzier
  than a QuickTime movie of the shabby old house morphing into the
  trim new house. Some friends back in Ithaca would love to see that
  instead of the simple side-by-side photographs they use now. I
  hate to throw any water on Morph until I've had a chance to play
  with it personally, and I hope to do so in the future. Until then,
  suffice it to say that Morph stole the show in Boston.

    Gryphon Software -- 619/454-6836 -- 619/454-5329 (fax)
      [e-mail]

  Information from:
    Murph Sewall -- [e-mail]


Apple Futures II
----------------
  by Mark H. Anbinder, Contributing Editor

  [continued from TidBITS#137/10-Aug-92]


OCE
  One of the most-discussed technologies in the works is Apple's
  Open Collaboration Environment, or OCE. Apple intends this engine,
  which has also been known as AppleMail, to provide developers with
  a core set of routines for Mac-to-Mac and user-to-user
  communications. Rather than competing with existing LAN-based mail
  vendors, as has been suggested, Apple is enabling these vendors to
  concentrate on the differentiating aspects of their products (such
  as features and frills) and leave the transport mechanism to
  Apple. This parallels Apple's introduction of the Communications
  Toolbox (CTB), which allowed developers to skip the drudgery of
  developing communications software and concentrate on expanding
  the envelope.

  OCE offers a suite of services that include personal mailbox
  management, message and file transport, directory services,
  addressing, and digital signatures. As a result, electronic mail
  packages such as QuickMail, and even application software such as
  Microsoft Excel or Aladdin's StuffIt Deluxe, can take advantage of
  centralized services that allow users to exchange files and
  messages.

  OCE includes a variety of interface extensions as well. Each user
  has a mailbox, and can set up desktop icons that point to other
  users' mailboxes. Because OCE integrates a wide variety of
  transport mechanisms, a user need have only one mailbox regardless
  of the number of communications services he or she uses. For
  example, an average Mac communications addict might have Internet,
  AppleLink, CompuServe, and QuickMail messages all available within
  a single mailbox.

  For that same email junkie, OCE provides centralized directory
  services that permit user searches across a variety of mail
  systems and addressing schemes. Once a user has been found, his or
  her addressing information can be stored locally as a "business
  card" that could contain useful info such as telephone number, fax
  number, and spouse's favorite color.

  Security is of increasing concern, and while there is still little
  agreement industry-wide on the best approach, Apple provides a
  digital signature mechanism within OCE. Essentially, users who
  want to ensure that no tampering occurs can digitally "sign" a
  message or file. When the recipient opens the message with the
  password used by the sender, the software can confirm that the
  message has not been modified. This is different from encryption,
  which prevents access, in that it only indicates that nothing has
  been changed along the way by someone without the proper password.


AppleScript
  Put simply, AppleScript is Apple's "programming language for the
  rest of us." Any action that a user can perform can also be
  scripted, whether it's a menu selection, a program launch, or a
  simple mouse click. What's more, AppleScript offers a "watch-me"
  feature, much like that in MicroPhone II, that creates a script
  for the user by noting his or her actions. Combined with Apple
  events, Apple's inter-application communication technology,
  AppleScript should allow users unprecedented control over
  automating their computers.

  Many applications offer scripting in one form or another,
  including HyperCard, existing versions of StuffIt Deluxe, and
  Dantz's premiere backup utility, Retrospect. What's new here is
  that Apple has provided a centralized mechanism that should allow
  users to script many of their tasks with a single language, as
  well as permit collaboration among programs for complex tasks.


Third Parties
  Several companies were on hand, putting Apple's forthcoming System
  Software technologies to good use, and here are some of the ones
  that stood out.

  Aladdin seemed to have things well in hand for the System Software
  Revolution Showcase. Their flagship product, StuffIt Deluxe, will
  offer OCE messaging and file exchange, as well as a full
  implementation of AppleScript. While StuffIt has offered scripting
  for a long time, this upcoming version will permit far more
  interaction with other applications. Aladdin's demonstrations
  showed that an AppleScript-aware StuffIt will  interact fluidly
  with the Finder, among other programs. StuffIt Deluxe 3.0, which
  shipped just before the show, is fully compatible with
  AppleScript's recording mode, so you could turn on recording and
  then have AppleScript create a script for you based on your
  actions in StuffIt. Very impressive! The OCE implementation is as
  seamless as you could hope, with a pop-up addressing pane at the
  top of each StuffIt archive's window. It's out of the way if
  you're not going to use it (and presumably not there at all if you
  don't use OCE) but it's ready to go if you want to send the
  archive to someone else.

  CE Software showed not only an OCE-aware version of QuickMail, an
  obvious use of the technology, but also an AppleScript-capable
  QuicKeys. This popular macro program, which has allowed users to
  string together events for a long time, will now be even more
  versatile when it comes to manipulating events and working with
  other applications.

  StarNine Technologies' Directory Services product, which has
  already been shipping to provide centralized directory services
  for users of more than one email product, will be enhanced to
  include OCE directory support. For now, it's impressive enough
  that StarNine has managed to create a directory server that shows
  both QuickMail and Microsoft Mail users.


Portable Toys
-------------
  Among the more noticeable Macworld products were a number of
  goodies that will only interest the 300,000-odd people who have
  splurged on a PowerBook. Let's face, the little beasties are
  extremely cool, incredibly useful, and cute as the dickens (not
  that I suspect Charles Dickens was particularly cute). Perhaps the
  most telling piece of evidence in favor of the PowerBooks being
  here to stay was a recent PC WEEK article comparing various
  laptops at PC Expo. A bunch of corporate buyers used, compared,
  and rated all these laptops, and surprise, the PowerBook 170
  easily outdistanced all the PC-clone machines. Of course these
  corporate buyers didn't like this conclusion because they can't
  standardize on the 170 since it doesn't run DOS in native mode,
  but I thought that was just desserts for Macintosh corporate
  buyers having to put up with DOS on the only decent laptops in the
  past.


SolarPOWER
  Microtech International's solar panel definitely rated coolest
  among the PowerBook accessories. It will list for $189 and simply
  attaches on top of the screen, facing up toward the sun. It plugs
  into the power port and also the microphone port, the power port
  for obvious reasons and the microphone port to provide feedback on
  the best position. You cannot really charge your battery with the
  solar panel, and Microtech primarily claims that it extends
  battery life, but frankly, it looks durable, is easy to use,
  requires little care and no feeding, and is relatively easy to
  carry since it's the same approximate form factor as the PowerBook
  and weighs only a few pounds. It definitely falls into the yuppie
  toy category while at the same time providing a useful service,
  although it won't run a cellular phone or make espresso. Actually
  SolarPOWER provides two useful services, because if you are
  working in bright sunlight, it doubles as a shade for the screen
  so that it doesn't wash out and become hard to read.

  I may sound a bit flip, but I truly think SolarPOWER qualifies as
  a great idea. Apparently the United Nations has sponsored a few
  scattered projects to develop solar panels for powering computers,
  primarily for workers in Africa, where they reportedly have plenty
  of sun. Needless to say, the UN finds Microtech's solar panel
  interesting because it will be mass produced and inexpensive, not
  to mention useful for areas with minimal or flaky power and lots
  of sun. Heck, it would even serve quite well in supposedly-rainy
  Seattle, where we're supposedly having the worst drought in 40
  years.

    Microtech International -- 800/626-4276 -- 203/468-6223
      203/467-1856 (fax) -- [e-mail]


PowerBook pads
  I can't say a lot about these pads because I only tried them
  briefly. Silicon Sports will soon release a two-pad set of palm
  pads for the PowerBooks. These pads fit inside the PowerBook when
  you close it, and cushion the heel of your hand when you rest it
  on the PowerBook's hand rests. I suspect they will also absorb the
  small amount of perspiration that can accumulate if you leave your
  hands on the hard PowerBook surface. Overall, that implies to me
  that these pads, which of course come in all the bright Silicon
  Sports colors for the fashion-conscious PowerBook user, will make
  using the PowerBooks just a little more comfortable. The only
  drawback I see comes if you want to remove them since they attach
  with a sticky adhesive. Call Silicon Sports for shipping date and
  pricing information on the pads.

    Silicon Sports -- 800/243-2972 -- 415/327-7900
      415/327-7962 (fax)


Bigger Batteries
  A small company called Battery Technology Inc. (BTI) showed an
  improved battery for the PowerBook 140 and 170 that provides
  between 25% and 66% more battery life. To BTI's credit, they make
  the 25% claim, whereas a study that supposedly came from an
  independent testing lab claimed that in typical usage, the BTI
  batteries, which cost $89 each, would provide 66% more time. The
  BTI folks at the booth said that they performed this feat of
  electrical legerdemain by simply increasing the size of the
  battery slightly and still having it fit in the PowerBook slot.
  BTI showed some engineering hindsight in several ways as well.
  First, they created a hard plastic snap-off cover for the battery
  contacts to prevent short circuits and possible fires. Second, and
  slightly more impressively, they designed a different locking
  mechanism to keep the battery in the PowerBook without being
  easily damaged in transport. Worth a look if you need another
  battery.

    BTI -- 800/982-8284 -- 213/725-3517 -- 213/726-3897 (fax)


Colorizing the PowerBook
  In the unattainable new product category, Newer Technology has an
  8-bit, active-matrix, color replacement screen for the PowerBook
  140, 145, and 170. I say unattainable because it will set you back
  about $5500. Given the new lower PowerBook prices, I'm not sure
  many people could justify spending so much no matter how beautiful
  the toasters look in color.

  If you don't want to replace your screen, but still want to drop
  $5500, you can get an external color LCD, also active matrix, from
  Envisio, the folks who make an internal display adapter for the
  68030 PowerBooks. I presume that Envisio gets their color LCD
  screens from the same source as Newer since they were equally
  gorgeous, perhaps even nicer than a CRT due to absolutely flat
  display and incredibly rich colors. Worth checking out for the
  independently wealthy. The rest of us should sit tight for a bit.

    Newer Technology -- 800/678-3726 -- 316/685-4904
      316/685-9368 (fax)
    Envisio -- 612/339-1008 -- 612/339-1369 (fax)


WorldScript Clarifications
--------------------------
  by Eric Schlegel -- [e-mail]

  I wanted to clear up some misinformation in the recent article on
  WorldScript that claims that WorldScript depends on QuickDraw GX;
  this is not true. WorldScript is a built-in part of System 7.1 out
  of the box, and it doesn't need GX to run.

  Actually, many people seem to be confused about exactly what
  WorldScript is. WorldScript won't really let you do anything that
  you couldn't already do in System 7.0. In System 7.0 it's easy to
  install multiple scripts, including right-to-left scripts, into
  the same System file, and with proper use by the application of
  Script Manager routines the application can display left-to-right
  and right-to-left text in the same line. This does not require
  WorldScript, just proper use of the Script Manager, which has been
  part of the system software since System 4.1. You could do all
  this fancy stuff before System 7, but it was harder to get
  multiple script systems installed since you couldn't just drag-
  and-drop the script files into the System Folder.

  (Alas, Microsoft applications still don't use the Script Manager
  very much, but I'm working on that... Maybe some day.)

  The difference between System 7.0 and WorldScript is that in 7.0,
  Apple wrote every different script system from scratch, and each
  script system had its own code to display text, measure text, find
  word breaks, etc. WorldScript defines some new resource types that
  are generic enough to support all script systems, and it provides
  two INITs that can interpret those tables and provide support for
  every script system. So with WorldScript, you can (just as under
  System 7.0) have multiple script systems installed, but they'll
  take up less memory and be more consistent because there's only
  one piece of code implementing all the script systems instead of a
  different piece of code for each script.

  The one big user-visible innovation of WorldScript is that it
  includes support for double-byte character sets as used by
  Japanese, Chinese, and Korean, so that for the first time you'll
  be able to use these scripts on a System 7 Mac. There were no
  Japanese, Chinese, or Korean scripts for System 7.0, although
  there were System 6 versions for these scripts.

  TidBITS was correct in saying that the current double-byte
  character sets used by Apple are not Unicode. Apple has been using
  the standard (pre-Unicode) Japanese, Chinese, and Korean double-
  byte character sets for several years now, and that does not
  change in 7.1. I suspect it will be a while before Apple switches
  over to Unicode - if nothing else, it takes a long time to design
  fonts that have 20-30,000 characters in them! My understanding is
  that TrueType GX is very knowledgeable about Unicode internally,
  however, so once GX comes out we will probably see a lot more
  support for Unicode from Apple.


Reviews/17-Aug-92
-----------------

* MacWEEK -- 10-Aug-92, Vol. 6, #29
    MacTools Deluxe 2.0 -- pg. 51
    Aldus PressWise 1.0 -- pg. 51
    AXiON Switch -- pg. 56
    MacroMind Director 3.1 -- pg. 57


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