Boston - Elation and dread were the first reactions to Apple's Open Collaboration Environment among consultants who saw the forthcoming operating system extensions and mail-enabled Finder demonstrated here last week.
Users will have to wait until October, when Apple reportedly plans to ship OCE, before trying the new mail, security and directories tools the system software provides. But consultants who attended the 8th International Consultants Conference in Boston said the OCE was a very impressive innovation to the Mac interface.
Most agreed, however, that OCE presents "as many dangers as benefits," according to Gary Connor of Direct Line Technologies Inc. of Modesto, Calif.
"[OCE] makes a quantum leap forward in the way people work, giving them access to more information transparently," said Larry Barcot, a consultant with Escape of Costa Mesa, Calif.
In the OCE environment, Mailbox provides a single interface for incoming mail messages and documents, while Directories deliver a list of all devices connected to the network. Users can exchange network and remote dial-up address information by trading Directories files called Business Cards. Additionally, files can be mailed to other users automatically by dragging and dropping them on Business Cards.
Some consultants, however, said the proliferation of new icons in the OCE-based Finder could foul the intuitive Mac interface. In addition to the Trash, hard drive and alias icons, OCE has Mailbox, Directories and Business Card icons.
"I can see a desktop tangled with icons," said Bill Wakefield, a consultant with San Francisco-based Allied Support Corp. "That could become cumbersome at some point."
The group agreed that Apple's new mail interface is a big step forward. The application is currently called Letter and will ship with the OCE to provide a front end for the new Finder's mail engine.
"Normally, Apple leaves it to a third party to do a program, but this time mail is built into the Finder," said Leon Ablon of Ablon Associates in New York.
The downside to OCE's mail capabilities could come when problems arise, Direct Line's Connor said. "When I have to rely on support for mail from Apple, I'm in trouble."
The big win for corporate users is in OCE's encryption and authentication features, which allow users to sign a message with a digital signature, as well as scramble the contents.
"Encryption is absolutely required," Barcot said of his Fortune 1000 clientele. "As networks go worldwide, information must be encrypted. Otherwise, my clients wouldn't touch it."
The cost for more memory (OCE will probably require 8 Mbytes of RAM to support multiple applications) and additional network traffic generated by OCE could cause users some headaches.
"The bottom line is: There are great ideas [in OCE], but they are expensive," Connor said. "For corporate IS, network traffic is important. Most of my clients use 65 percent of their networks' bandwidth now. And for small LANs where 2-Mbyte Macs are typical, giving up the ability to run multiple applications is a very dear cost."
The success of OCE will rely on Apple pushing for a standard for mail and interapplication communications, the consultants said. The company must set standards for Apple events that can handle very complex OCE interactions.
"When we can send a purchase order [from an OCE-aware application] to any accounting program regardless of what it is, then the corporate users will be interested," Wakefield said.
MacWEEK 04/27/92
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OneScanner, Ofoto make conversion to color in the fall
By Matthew Rothenberg
Cupertino, Calif. - Apple is eyeing a September release of a 24-bit-color version of its OneScanner that will take advantage of the company's upcoming color-management technology, sources said.
The scanner, scheduled to debut at Seybold San Francisco, will be bundled with a color update to Light Source Inc.'s Ofoto scanning software for an undetermined price, sources said. Apple declined to comment on the reports.
The new flatbed scanner will use device-independent color- management technology Apple has been discussing for several months (see MacWEEK, Feb. 24). The technology, due this year as a System 7 extension, will come with a built-in color- matching system; a Color Systems Manager that will link color profiles of Apple and third-party peripheral devices; and utilities that will translate third parties' varied models for defining color.
The scanner will capture 8.5-by-11-inch color, gray-scale or monochrome images at resolutions ranging from 72 to 300 dpi. It reportedly will be able to scan a color image at full size and resolution in 15 seconds, and it will provide automatic gamma correction.
A color scanner is "long overdue from Apple," said Kristy Holch, analyst with BIS Strategic Decisions of Norwell, Mass. "My guess is Apple will come out with a very solid, easy-to- use product." Holch said that Apple will face stiff competition, however, if it challenges Hewlett-Packard Co. by selling its color scanner for platforms other than the Mac.
Apple this month shipped Windows versions of the current OneScanner and Ofoto software (see MacWEEK, March 23).
In addition, Light Source, based in Greenbrae, Calif., is preparing a color version of Ofoto for the scanner. The current version of Ofoto, bundled with the $1,399 Apple OneScanner and sold separately for $395, automatically optimizes gray- scale scans for the user's output device. Light Source has not decided on the price and availability of a retail version of the color program, sources said.
The color version of Ofoto reportedly will feature:
> Color controls, including calibration; color-to-gray-scale conversion; conversion of RGB (red, green, blue) data to CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) TIFF images; and automatic detection of color or black-and-white originals. Although other color features have not been determined, the new program also might include tone controls for highlights and shadows. The software will use a color-space model based on Light Source's own technology instead of CIE (Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage) standards.
> Background image processing.
> Other image controls, including image-enhancement technology that will sharpen scans to an effective resolution of 600 dpi.
> QuickTime image compression using the JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) standard.
> Encapsulated PostScript support.
> Compatibility with the current Apple OneScanner as well as the new color model.
> System 7 features, including Apple events and publish and subscribe.
Ofoto's intelligent color scanning will fill a gap in color desktop publishing, according to Tony Bove, editor of Bove & Rhodes Inside Report on Desktop Publishing and Multimedia in Gualala, Calif. "Ofoto is the selling point right now for the OneScanner," Bove said. "Since it does the work to prepare an image for an output device, it's extremely powerful."
MacWEEK 04/27/92
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Usability gets priority in Excel 4.0
By Rick LePage
Although it commands a 90 percent share of the Mac spreadsheet market, Microsoft Corp. continues to approach the field like an underdog with someone else to catch.
Only a year has passed since the release of Excel 3.0, which was hailed by both the company and users as a major advance (see MacWEEK, April 30, 1991). But last month Microsoft announced Version 4.0, promising even more enhancements than in the last upgrade.
As was the case with Version 3.0, Microsoft is trumpeting increased usability and functionality as the chief improvements in the new release, and our look at a beta copy bears out that claim.
The sheer scope of new and modified features in Excel 4.0 is numbing: more than 140 new command functions, additional 3-D chart types, drag-and-drop cell operations, a suite of document-management features, multiple Toolbars, an automatic formatting function for tables, aids that help you step through the chart creation process, and much more.
Microsoft has deftly maneuvered around the issue of how to add features without increasing complexity by redesigning dialog boxes and restructuring operations. The Paste Function dialog, for instance, now displays a list of function categories on the left; selecting an item in the list displays the Excel functions of that type on the right. This process makes it much easier to access the proper function, without having to wade through the full list of more than 200 choices.
The look of Excel 4.0 is slightly different from previous versions. The main thing that will jump out at experienced users is a small "handle" attached to the lower left corner of the active cell range. This handle has two purposes: to drag ranges around a worksheet and to use the new Autofill feature, which makes it possible to automatically create a series of numbers or dates for a selected range of cells on the basis of the contents of already existing cells. For example, if three cells contained the numbers 1, 3 and 5, Autofill would add 7, 9 and 11 to a range. The feature can even handle series that contain text information, recognizing Q1 as "Quarter 1," for example.
Autofill is a simplified subset of the Series command found in previous versions of Excel. You may still need that command, which remains available, for some purposes, but Autofill should be able to handle most series created by most users.
Drag-and-drop operations allow you to copy or move groups of cells quickly, without the Cut, Copy and Paste commands. The feature works so intuitively, we wonder why it hasn't been implemented before.
>Bellying up to the Toolbars.
Microsoft has planted many spreadsheet-creation and formatting aids throughout Excel 4.0. The most important of them are the new Toolbars and the Workbook feature, which allows you to manage Excel multiple documents easily and quickly.
Excel 4.0's Toolbars build upon Version 3.0's lone anchored Toolbar by adding multiple palettes that can be extensively modified to suit the needs of individual users. New Toolbars can be created very quickly and can incorporate almost any menu command or operation that Excel can perform. Toolbar buttons also can include macros.
Workbooks go beyond Excel 3.0's Workspace feature, which allowed you to open multiple documents with one operation. Workbooks actually bind multiple files into a single Excel document, with a table of contents that makes it easy to navigate from file to file. If you want an Excel file to remain available for use with other worksheets, you can save it outside the Workbook, but you will still be able to use, enter and modify data from it as if it were a bound file.
>Two sharp wizards.
Excel also offers a Chart Wizard feature that walks you through chart creation, from the selection of data to the application of formatting elements.
A similar Crosstab Wizard facilitates building crosstabs from an Excel database.
The breadth of new features precludes us from dealing with them all in any depth, but some are worth mentioning in passing. For ex-ample, it is now easy to copy and paste cell formats. You also can zoom in and out on a worksheet, altering the magnification level. And Version 4.0 includes a spelling checker - an addition that strikes us as odd, but one that a Microsoft representative told us was among those most requested by users.
The new release continues Microsoft's policy of maintaining cross-platform compatibility with Excel for Windows. Version 4.0 of that product, which recently shipped, provides the same feature set as the new Mac version, and files created with the two programs are binary-compatible.
>Summing up.
What is most surprising about Excel 4.0 is not so much what is in the product, but the competitive perspective it reflects. Instead of sitting back and enjoying its dominant share of the spreadsheet market, the company continues to press its advantage against challengers such as Lotus Development Corp.'s 1-2-3 for the Macintosh and Claris Corp.'s Resolve. And Microsoft seems committed to making Excel the leader in usability, not just feature lists and sales charts. To judge by the upcoming upgrade, competitors who hope to loosen Excel's grip have their work cut out for them.
Excel 4.0 is scheduled to ship sometime in May for $495. Upgrades are free to users who purchased Version 3.0 after Feb. 1 and $99 for other users.
Microsoft Corp. is at 1 Microsoft Way, Redmond, Wash. 98052- 6399. Phone (206) 882-8080; fax (206) 936-7329.
Microsoft packs more punch in update
By Rick LePage
While Microsoft Excel 4.0's usability enhancements are likely to grab most of the attention, many new worksheet features and functions have been added as well. Among them:
> New chart types, including radar and stock charts, and true 3-D surface and wireframe charts.
> The Scenario Manager, which helps quickly perform complicated "what-if" changes to a spreadsheet model.
> A global macro sheet that automatically opens when Excel is launched.
> More than 140 new functions that address advanced engineering, statistical and scientific topics.
> Performance enhancements in the Solver function.
> A Report Manager that allows users to print specialized reports from different sections of a worksheet without having to print each section separately.
MacWEEK 04/27/92
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Silicon Graphics eyes QuickTime, Mac imaging
By Carolyn Said
Mountain View, Calif. - Silicon Graphics Inc., the leading player in the graphics workstation market, is eyeing Apple's high-end customers and might have enlisted help from an unlikely ally: Apple itself.
SGI, based here, is negotiating with Apple to license the Mac's QuickTime multimedia system software, sources said. SGI reportedly also might license the new imaging engine Apple is developing as a high-end complement to QuickDraw (see MacWEEK, March 9).
The Apple software would give SGI an entr in pitching its Indigo workstations as an alternative to the Mac Quadras for multimedia production and desktop publishing, analysts said.
"The Indigo is targeting the space on a desktop that would be occupied by a high-end Macintosh," said Ken Anderson, publisher of the Anderson Report, a Simi Valley, Calif., newsletter on the computer-graphics and workstation industries. Indigo, which shipped in the third quarter of 1991, is SGI's low-end workstation.
Despite some possible erosion of its high-end sales, the deal also could benefit Apple in several ways.
"Even if SGI is a threat in terms of CPU sales, it's an overwhelming advantage for Apple to have QuickTime on that platform," said Tony Bove, editor of Bove & Rhodes Inside Report on Desktop Publishing and Multimedia in Gualala, Calif. "SGI has a whole universe of Hollywood-oriented users. Making QuickTime work in that environment can only be good for Apple."
Adoption of QuickTime by SGI machines, which were used to create the special effects for the Oscar-winning "Terminator 2," would legitimize it as a standard, observers said.
Although neither company would comment on the possible deal, an Apple spokeswoman affirmed: "Apple's intentions with QuickTime are to make the technology a cross-platform standard. We are actively speaking with many companies."
SGI reportedly will develop a bi-directional QuickTime technology for its workstations that can both play QuickTime movies created on the Mac and create QuickTime movies to be played on a Mac.
"SGI would make an excellent development platform for content to be played on Macs or SGI machines," Bove said. "Multimedia producers will salivate at the power of an Indigo."
The possible licensing agreement, as well as developments such as the Quorum Software Systems Inc. products that let Mac applications run on Unix platforms illustrate the an increasing blurring of the division between personal computers and workstations, observers said.
"The line that once separated PCs and workstations has become a very broad dim gray smudge," said David Peltz, editor and publisher of the Macintosh Engineering & Scientific Report in Chatsworth, Calif.
"This gives Mac users tremendous freedom of choice," said a Mac developer. "People who are power-hungry would have something to move to immediately, since Apple won't ship its RISC (reduced instruction set computing) workstations for a couple of years."
Nevertheless, Indigo is not likely to make an appreciable dent in Apple's sales, analysts said. "SGI would be ecstatic if it sold as many Indigos in a year as Apple cranks out Quadras in a month," Peltz said.
SGI holds about 6 percent of the Unix market, according to Dataquest Inc. of San Jose, Calif. The company posted income of $33 million on revenues of $550 million for its 1991 fiscal year, and last week reported a fourfold increase in earnings for the quarter ended March 31.
The SGI deal also could serve as a Trojan horse bearing Apple's technology to Microsoft Corp.'s and Advanced Computing Environment's next-generation platforms, observers said. Windows NT and the ACE consortium's specifications both support Mips as well as Intel processors. In March, SGI announced plans to acquire Mips Computer Systems Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., maker of the chip at the heart of SGI workstations.
MacWEEK 04/27/92
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Mac managers look beyond Apple for file-server options
By Louise Fickel
Cupertino, Calif. - Managers responsible for keeping growing Macintosh networks up to speed are increasingly looking beyond Apple for file server solutions.
AppleShare, Apple's own Mac-based server software, still dominates the market, in terms of numbers of servers installed. But even after the recent release of Version 3.0, IS managers said the software still lacks the performance, security and cross-platform capabilities companywide networks demand, and many sites are moving to Intel-based alternatives.
"[While] we prefer AppleShare for administration, we needed to go to [Novell Inc.'s] NetWare for performance," said Sam Atwater, vice president of operations at Mac's Place Inc., a mail-order vendor in Redmond, Wash. "AppleShare will slowly degrade when 20 users are requesting data simultaneously, but NetWare has a nice, even response," he said.
Atwater said his company was willing to accept the administrative hassles associated with NetWare in exchange for its performance. "Putting a new user on NetWare is a horrendous task, but it works," he said.
"We're getting NetWare within the next three weeks because the two most important things for multi-user databases are performance and security," said Larry Kostmayer, software engineer at Stanford Business Systems in Culver City, Calif.
For many users, the need to easily integrate Mac workgroups into large heterogeneous networks is the most compelling reason to bring a non-Mac server on board.
"Heterogeneous connectivity is especially important for us," said Erik Nelson, director of information-resources management at the University of California at San Diego, "Our AppleShare servers aren't used as [document] servers."
Nelson uses three NetWare servers for file sharing and two AppleShare servers for launching Mac applications only.
Administrators also cite AppleShare's lack of fault-tolerance features, such as disk duplexing and automated server backup, as reasons for switching.
Many users in search of such features have adopted NetWare as Novell's Mac support has improved. The company, the dominant force in IBM PC and compatible networking, made the Macintosh a nearly equal partner with last year's release of NetWare 3.11 and NetWare for Macintosh 3.01, and last month it signaled its growing interest in the Macintosh server market by acquiring International Business Systems Inc., the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based developer of the DataClub software virtual servers.
Other PC networking leaders are following Novell's lead. Banyan Systems Inc. added Mac support to its Vines system in February, and this month Tucson, Ariz.-based Artisoft Inc. entered the Mac market with a gateway, developed by Miramar Systems Inc., for its LANtastic peer-to-peer PC server.
Apple officials acknowledged the challenge. "Users are asking for more speed and more security," said Scott Petry, who until recently was AppleShare product manager. The company reportedly is developing a dedicated server that will use A/UX as its primary operating system (see MacWEEK, April 6).
According to one source at Apple, the company would be pleased if it sells only 10,000 of such servers because "that means we sell 500,000 Macs."
Apple's server, however, won't come in time for users who already have migrated to one of the growing list of network operating systems that now support the Macintosh.
Better server hardware from Apple "won't turn the tide in favor of AppleShare here," said Dan Kohner, manager of network services at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. "We've made a huge investment in NetWare, and there's no indication that [a new Apple server] would make AppleShare better than NetWare.
"I would rather that Apple sell file server resources on Intel- based platforms [that allow] migration to RISC (reduced instruction set computing)-based systems," said another corporate user.
MacWEEK 04/27/92
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(MacWEEK, April 27, 1992) (c) Copyright 1992 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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CE opens QM engine to developers
API will give apps mail capabilities
By Nathalie Welch
West Des Moines, Iowa - A new application programming interface from CE Software Inc. will let third-party developers use the company's QuickMail server to add messaging capabilities to their applications.
Called QuickMessenger, the API is available now for $125. When built into an application, it will allow users to mail documents to QuickMail clients directly from a menu within the program, without launching a separate mail utility. It will not, however, provide mail-receive capabilities to third-party applications,
The API provides calls that other applications can use not only to send messages and files but also to set message priorities; access address books and groups; obtain lists of MailCenters, gateways and zones; and establish connections with QuickMail servers. HyperCard and ACIUS 4th Dimension external commands (XCMDs) also are included. Application developers also can integrate Apple events with QuickMessenger calls in their software, according to CE.
QuickMessenger requires Version 2.5 or later of the QuickMail server.
Several third-party developers announced support for QuickMessenger:
> MDG Computer Services of Arlington Heights, Ill., said it will use the QuickMessenger API in Version 1.6 of its QM Log Translator, due by the end of May for $179. The customized 4th Dimension database, which summarizes all logs sent to the QuickMail custodian from a mail server, will be able to send QuickMail messages to users who exceed preset storage levels on the QuickMail server.
> Cypress Research Corp. of Sunnyvale, Calif., this month will ship PhonePro, a $950 graphical telephone scripting environment with QuickMessenger capabilities. PhonePro will be able to answer incoming calls, record voice mail and send a sound document containing the voice message as a QuickMail enclosure directly to users' desktops.
CE Software Inc. is at 1801 Industrial Circle, West Des Moines, Iowa 50265. Phone (515) 224-1995; fax (515) 224- 4534.
MacWEEK 04/27/92
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(MacWEEK, April 27, 1992) (c) Copyright 1992 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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Director 3.1 to embrace QuickTime
Upgrade to improve Lingo, score, help
By Neil McManus
San Francisco - The much-anticipated wedding of MacroMind Director and QuickTime will take place in late May when Macromedia Inc. releases Version 3.1 of its multimedia authoring program.
MacroMind Director 3.1, priced at $1,195, will embrace Apple's multimedia extension with features for importing, editing, playing and exporting QuickTime movies. Director 3.1 users will be able to composite movies, overlay text and graphics, interactively control movies through the program's Lingo scripting language, and attach buttons to parts of movies.
"When Version 3.1 comes out, there's going to be a mad rush to incorporate QuickTime movies into Director presentations, but once the novelty wears off, people will start using QuickTime where it adds value," said beta-tester Jim Collins, creative director of CK Media, an interactive multimedia developer here.
Other features of Version 3.1 include a simplified score, extended Lingo control over memory management and expanded Object Sensitive Help. In addition, a new QuickTime-savvy version of the $195 Macro-Mind Accelerator will be bundled with the program.
Upgrades to Version 3.1, including a new manual and the revised Accelerator, cost $149 for 3.0 users and are free to users who purchased 3.0 after March 10.
Macromedia is also offering a Deluxe CD-ROM Edition, available for $249 for registered 3.0 users. This disc includes the full upgrade, as well as a library of Lingo scripts, samples of Director-produced games and titles, elements of Macromedia's ClipMedia collection, and a database of tips.
Macromedia Inc. (formerly MacroMind-Paracomp Inc.) is at 600 Townsend St., San Francisco, Calif. 94103. Phone (415) 442- 0200; fax (415) 442-0190.
MacWEEK 04/27/92
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Review: 3.5-inch optical drives spinning up to speed
New technology needs to mature
By Ric Ford
Despite their similarity to larger 5.25-inch magneto-optical drives, the new 3.5-inch magneto-opticals represent leading- edge technology at the moment.
New drive manufacturers are entering the market rapidly; existing manufacturers are making engineering changes to their products; ROMs are going through revision after revision as technical glitches are worked out; and programmers are churning out new driver software constantly, in an attempt to pull all the pieces together.
If you're looking for a guaranteed, stable storage medium, you may want to consider a more mature technology, such as digital audio tape or 5.25-inch optical drives, or simply wait several months while the micro-opticals settle down.
If you do not mind placing your data close to the technological edge, some of the current micro-opticals do work, and they offer striking advantages in price, performance and convenience compared with other storage systems.
We evaluated four 3.5-inch magneto-optical drives: the Micro- Optical from La Cie Ltd., based on a Panasonic mechanism; and three Sony-based products: the Infinity Optical 3.5" from PLI, the MO-128 from MicroNet Technology Inc. and Pinnacle Micro Inc.'s REO-130S. (We also examined, but did not review, a prototype drive from Microtech International Inc. that is based on an unreleased IBM mechanism.)
All four drives fall in the same price range. La Cie's is sold direct, at $1,699, and the other three list for slightly less than $2,000, which should translate to a similar street price.
>Hardware basics.
At a glance, the 3.5-inch magneto-optical cartridges look just like 3.5-inch floppy disks, except that they are twice as thick. Formatted capacity (as seen in the Finder) is slightly less than 120 Mbytes, and only one side of the cartridge is used.
The drive mechanisms are similar in size to floppy drives but longer, with a built-in, small-diameter fan at the back for cooling. La Cie's Micro-Optical is a little quieter than the Sony-based units, and its Panasonic mechanism uses a squirrel-cage fan, rather than a rotary one.
All the products incorporate an additional fan in the case, providing a two-stage cooling system. The systems sound a little like a higher-pitched version of the original Macintosh II, which may be somewhat annoying in a quiet environment.
MicroNet's MO-128 and PLI's Infinity drive are zero-footprint designs. La Cie's Micro-Optical and Pinnacle's REO-130S are compact designs that may be positioned either vertically or horizontally.
All drives except La Cie's have standard SCSI connectors and convenient address selectors. To set the SCSI address on the La Cie Micro-Optical, you have to consult the manual to decode DIP switch settings. La Cie's non-standard, 25-pin connections also are a disadvantage, particularly with the PowerBooks and with the Mac IIfx's termination needs.
The PLI drive has internal termination, switchable via 18 DIP switches on the back. As it ships, termination is turned on, and it must be disabled for connection to a Mac IIfx. La Cie's drive also has internal termination, switchable via a single DIP switch, but it is off by default.
Both PLI and La Cie drives lack power-on indicators, but all drives have access lights.
We noticed that both PLI and Pinnacle drives lacked Federal Communications Commission ID numbers, while La Cie and MicroNet had them.
>Software and verification.
The Sony-based units differ mostly in software and packaging design, and La Cie's Panasonic mechanism is similar to the Sony units. (MicroNet plans to add a Panasonic-base drive to its product line at some point.)
One of the most important software considerations is support for write verification, an option that causes the drive to read data from the cartridge after writing it and verify that it has been written correctly.
Write verification reduces write performance; when it's on, writing data takes three passes (erase, write and verify) instead of two (erase and write).
MicroNet is the only vendor in the group that provided control over write verification in a special menu item in the company's formatting program. MicroNet recommends that verification be used except in special cases where data integrity is not important.
La Cie's Silverlining software automatically provides write verification on the Panasonic drive.
A Pinnacle representative said the company's testing showed that verification was unnecessary with properly certified media, and the Pinnacle formatter turns off write verification.
PLI representatives claimed that its driver did write verification, but our tests showed conclusively that it does not. They eventually admitted that the driver might not be doing verification and said that they would add an option for user control of the parameter in a future software release.
We also tested cartridges formatted with Hard Disk ToolKit from FWB Inc. These cartridges worked in all four drives, and Hard Disk ToolKit provides control over write verification.
Pinnacle's formatter provides no option for creating multiple disk partitions on a cartridge. The other formatters (including Hard Disk ToolKit) can partition cartridges, and all except PLI's offer optional password protection of partitions.
>The reliability question.
There is no substitute for the real- world experience of thousands of users, but we did test basic performance and reliability during the review period.
Three of the units performed without serious problems, but our tests turned up a disturbing bug in PLI's Infinity Optical 3.5" drive, which was later confirmed by the company. It wrote corrupted data to cartridges with no warning or error messages of any kind.
We discovered the problem only by using the verification function in Dantz Development Corp's. Retrospect backup application. After backing up about 115 Mbytes of data to a PLI cartridge, Retrospect would find several files on the cartridge that did not match the original data.
When we called people at PLI, they first sent a new beta version of the formatter, which did not even perform basic functions successfully. In subsequent testing, we isolated the problem to the PLI drive itself, eliminating the cartridge, ROM and software as potential causes.
As the review was being completed, PLI sent us a new version of the product, model 59101 (the original was model 59100). The newer model apparently differed only in the placement of the SCSI connectors on the back panel and the version of the ROM, but the drive wrote data in our simple test successfully, even with the original software and cartridge.
A different glitch afflicted the MicroNet formatter, but there was a simple work-around for it. After formatting a cartridge, the program showed that write verification was in use, when it actually had been disabled. Switching verification off and on again restored the proper operating mode. MicroNet said that an update to the formatter fixes the problem.
Reliability is clearly an important consideration for storage devices like these, and we have several questions that will be answered only with time, as larger numbers of the products are sold and vendors gain more experience with them: Will dust buildup be a problem? Will drives go out of alignment? Will low-quality media lose data? Will drives work correctly in high-temperature environments?
La Cie's documentation recommends cleaning the drive lens at least once a month with a special cleaning cartridge, but none of the other vendors mentions this issue, and we have not seen cleaning cartridges either advertised or demonstrated.
>Performance and support.
Performance of 3.5-inch magneto- optical drives is mixed. Reading data is fairly fast. The typical read transfer rate of about 600 Kbytes per second competes effectively with SyQuest cartridges and lower-range hard disks. Access times are in the range of 60 milliseconds, which is slow compared with today's typical Mac hard drives.
Performance for writing data is substantially worse than for reading. Although most 3.5-inch magneto-optical drives spin at 3,000 rpm - about the same speed as a hard disk - writes take two or three passes and are consequently two or three times slower -about 0.2 to 0.3 Mbytes per second.
All the Sony drives performed identically, and the Panasonic drive was very similar in performance. In our real-world test of duplicating a file, turning off write verification boosted performance about 20 percent. Overall, these drives performed a little better than the fastest 5.25-inch magneto-optical drives we have tested and two to three times slower than a fast hard disk.
All the products come with a one-year warranty, a SCSI cable and an external terminator where necessary. All vendors except Pinnacle supply one cartridge with the drive, and all vendors claim compatibility with the Mac Quadra. All except MicroNet offer a toll-free phone number.
None of the documentation that accompanied the drives was impressive, and it contributed to our overall impression that these products have some maturing to do.
>Conclusions.
We expect 3.5-inch magneto-optical drives to continue changing and improving rapidly over the next few months. If you wait before buying, your patience may be rewarded by more-reliable operation and lower prices.
If you find the combination of storage qualities, price and performance already irresistible, there are some small but important distinctions among these products. Price differences, however, are minor.
We would avoid PLI's defective model 59100, although this model may work on some Macintoshes. Model 59101 seems to work better, but we would insist on a test period and a return guarantee before buying it.
We also hesitate to recommend a PLI or Pinnacle drive that does not support write verification, although you could buy a different formatter, such as Hard Disk ToolKit, which does offer this option.
La Cie's cartridge interchange problems awkward SCSI ID selection and non-standard connectors are balanced by its convenient size, relatively low noise level and solid performance. La Cie's Silverlining software is powerful, but its interface can be confusing. The compatibility issues should be resolved with a future software upgrade.
Aside from the write-verification glitch, MicroNet's MO-128 performed well during the test period. Two reports of problems on ZiffNet/Mac with MicroNet drives raise some concerns about long-term reliability, but MicroNet's product does not appear to be any less reliable than the others.
In an area as new and dynamic as this one, many technical issues and changes are churning beneath the surface. The products have a lot of appeal, but bear in mind past experiences with new technologies when buying.
Cartridge compatibility a concern when you mix and match MOs
By Ric Ford
Because of the volatile nature of the new 3.5-inch magneto-optical technology, there are several issues that remain to be worked out.
Some cartridges, for instance, did not show up easily on the Mac desktop. Pinnacle Micro Inc.'s cartridge, like a floppy disk, would be ejected at start-up unless it contained a valid System folder. La Cie Ltd.'s cartridges would show up only if a special extension was placed in the System folder. At various times during the test period, we had problems with other cartridges not appearing consistently on the desktop at start- up.
Cartridge interchange. When we tested cartridge interchange between products in the review, we encountered some problems moving data between drives that used different types of mechanisms internally.
Cartridges formatted with La Cie's Silverlining, for example, produced crashes, freezes, read and write errors, and it gave us the infamous dialog, "This is not a Macintosh disk - Eject or Initialize?" when we tried to use them on other vendors' drives.
When we tried to mount a Pinnacle cartridge on the La Cie drive, it would not show up on the desktop, even after we tried to force it with a volume-mounting utility.
(A Microtech International Inc. OR120 drive, based on a prototype IBM mechanism, read from and wrote to other vendors' cartridges fine, but the cartridges were unusable and unrecoverable when they were reinserted into their native drives. Hopefully this will not be the case with the final IBM mechanisms, but the problems we had point to still further compatibility questions as the 3.5-inch technology matures.)
Swapping cartridges among Sony-based drives proved little problem, although we often had to use a utility to mount the cartridge on the desktop after start-up.
Finally, we tested a cartridge formatted with Hard Disk ToolKit 1.1, a sophisticated disk utility from FWB Inc. This cartridge worked successfully with all four of our drives. The software provides control over write-verification settings and offers the option of creating encrypted partitions on the cartridge.
Managing disk driver software with cartridge drives like this is a tricky matter. The only completely safe option is to match a single vendor's formatting program, cartridge and drive for all operations.
When you start mixing and matching different vendors' cartridges, incompatibilities between software, ROM versions and hardware have the potential to create serious problems. It is important to understand when drivers are loaded into the Mac's memory and how they are assigned as cartridges are swapped in and out.
Ultimate compatibility. Another issue is cartridge compatibility over time. Pinnacle was one of the first companies to ship a 3.5-inch optical drive, the original REO- 130, based on a mechanism from Mass Optical Storage Technologies Inc., a subsidiary of Nakamichi Peripherals Corp. (see MacWEEK, March 19, 1991).
This drive used different formatting standards from today's drives, but Pinnacle offers both a firmware upgrade and a cartridge conversion utility for customers who need to update cartridges for compatibility with more recent drives.
We did not test variation in media quality for the review, but its potential effects on data reliability and cartridge interchange are also important.
Some drives may work with media that generates errors in other drives, and media quality may be as important with micro-optical drives as with traditional floppies if you care about your data.
Score Card: 3.5-inch magneto-optical drives
La Cie MicroNet PLI Infinity Pinnacle
Micro- MO-128 Optical 3.5" REO-130S
Categories Optical
Overall value Good Good Below average Average
Performance Good Good Below average Good
Features Good Good Average Average
Installation/
configuration Average Good Good Good
Ease of use Average Good Good Average
Documentation/
support Average Average Average Average
List price $1,699* $1,995 $1,999 $1,999**
*Sold directly only.
**Does not include cartridge.
On Balance
New 3.5-inch magneto-optical drives offer an attractive combination of large storage capacity, compact size and reasonable price, but our testing indicated a lack of maturity in the products, although this should improve over the course of the year as ROMs, driver software and hardware stabilize.
> La Cie Ltd.'s Micro-Optical, the only product using a Panasonic mechanism, performed quietly and reliably, but its Silverlining-formatted cartridges did not work on the Sony drives. A software update should fix the problem, and Silverlining offers a powerful set of features.
> MicroNet Technology Inc.'s MO-128, based on a Sony mechanism, performed well and offers control over write verification. A bug in the formatting software disabled verification, while indicating erroneously that it was enabled, but MicroNet says the latest software fixes the bug.
> The Sony-based Infinity Optical 3.5" Model 59100 from PLI wrote corrupted data to cartridges during performance testing, without any indication of trouble. The Model 59101, a newer version with a small configuration change, arrived as this review went to press and seemed to work better. PLI's current software lacks support for write verification.
> Pinnacle Micro Inc.'s REO-130S, the third Sony-based product, performed well during testing, and it is packaged in a compact, attractive case, but Pinnacle's software also lacks support for write verification.
When we formatted cartridges with Hard Disk ToolKit from FWB Inc., they worked on all four drives. Hard Disk ToolKit offers control over write verification, along with many other features and is a worthwhile investment for anyone taking the plunge into the current crop of 3.5-inch magneto-optical drives.
Product Info
La Cie Ltd.
Micro-Optical: $1,699 (direct only, with cartridge)
19552 S.W. 90th Court, Tualatin, Ore. 97062
Phone (503) 691-0771 or (800) 999-0143
Fax (503) 691-5590
MicroNet Technology Inc.
MO-128: $1,995 (with cartridge)
20 Mason, Irvine, Calif. 92718
Phone (714) 837-6033
Fax (714) 837-1164
PLI Infinity Optical 3.5" 59100: $1,999 (with cartridge)
47421 Bayside Parkway, Fremont, Calif. 94538
Phone (510) 657-2211 or (800) 288-8754
Fax (510) 683-9713
Pinnacle Micro Inc.
REO-130S: $1,999 (no cartridge)
19 Technology
Irvine, Calif. 92718
Phone (714) 727-3300 or (800) 553-7070
Fax (714) 727-1913
MacWEEK 04/27/92
Reviews Page 42
(MacWEEK, April 27, 1992) (c) Copyright 1992 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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Apple shifts legal focus to target clone makers
By Jon Swartz
Cupertino, Calif. - In the wake of the legal decision that gutted its copyright infringement suit against Microsoft Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co., Apple's legal department may be shifting its sights to clone makers.
Sources close to Apple say the company is exploring a number of options, including intellectual property lawsuits, to quash or capitalize on the development efforts of companies attempting to clone Apple's machines or run Mac software on other platforms.
Apple spokeswoman Cindy McCaffrey said the computer maker does not think it is possible to produce a clone of the Mac without violating Apple copyrights, and it will "continue to defend aggressively our intellectual property in the future."
> Hardware.
A likely target for a suit is NuTek Computers Inc., a Cupertino, Calif.-based company that claims to have developed technologies that allow OEMs to create Mac- compatible computers without violating Apple patents and copyrights.
NuTek relies on Mac-compatible ROM it said was written from scratch. In addition, Mac applications running on NuTek's hardware will be displayed with the Open Software Foundation's Motif user interface instead of the Mac interface.
G. Gervaise Davis III, the Monterey, Calif., copyright attorney who serves as NuTek's general counsel, said NuTek's technology was developed in the "most rigorous cleanroom environment," using only public documents and records.
That hasn't stopped Apple's legal department from sending a formal letter to NuTek warning of possible copyright violations. Davis refused to provide details, but one source said Apple will "slap a suit on [NuTek] as soon as its system ships. Apple thinks it will cannibalize low-end Mac sales."
NuTek, which unveiled its system last month at CeBIT '92 in Hanover, Germany, will ship beta versions of its product to more than 100 companies abroad this summer before releasing a final version in Europe and Asia by year-end. A U.S. release is slated for 1993.
> Software.
Quorum Software Systems Inc., the Menlo Park, Calif., company that recently introduced technology that enables out-of-the-box Mac applications to run on Unix workstations from IBM Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc. and Silicon Graphics Inc., reportedly is talking to Apple about licensing its technology or being acquired.
Although Quorum officials remain tight-lipped, sources said the company probably is safe from legal reprisals because its software gives Mac programs the look and feel of the Unix GUI rather than the Mac interface (see MacWEEK, Jan. 20).
One of Quorum's rivals, San Diego-based Xcelerated Systems Inc., uses X Window protocols running on a Sun workstation to emulate the functionality of the Macintosh Toolbox. Xcelerated's approach is being studied by Apple's legal team, sources said.
Xcelerated President David McMillen said he has not heard from Apple since his company began shipping its product three months ago.
Unix analysts said Apple runs the risk of alienating developers and users if it attempts to stifle Xcelerated, Abacus R&D of Albuquerque, N.M., or other developers.
"Apple should like these Unix companies as opportunities to grow in a market in which it has not performed well; not as threats," said Nina Lytton, editor of the Open Systems Advisor newsletter in Boston.
MacWEEK 04/27/92
Business Watch Page 34
(MacWEEK, April 27, 1992) (c) Copyright 1992 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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Knife: Take a walk on the high end
Lest there be any confusion, we all mostly enjoy living out here on the edge of the continent in the incomparable and exciting state of California. But the Knife, for one, is glad that he doesn't have the responsibility of running things on a day- to-day basis. Take last week, for example, when the state's well-intentioned attempt to make us feel safer by selectively pruning the prison population was foiled just a couple of days later by nature's rather rude seismic jolts to the southern portions of the state.
Ah, but a PDA (or at the very least a GameBoy) would help to distract us from our worries. There's been a lot of background noise about Apple's planned PDAs lately, especially the one that Apple is planning to show off at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago next month. But the Knife is much more interested in the high-end PDA that Apple is developing. For starters, this one will be Mac-compatible and will have an internal CD-ROM player option. That alone opens up a lot of possibilities, but when you add the ability to hook into a remote network over the radio waves, you've got a product that has a lot more potential than just a personal organizer.
Sources also tell the Knife that Apple has settled on a 40-MHz 68040 to drive the Quadra-derived dedicated server slated to be introduced next January. In addition to the SCSI-2 support that it will share with the upcoming Quadra 950, the dedicated server will sport five NuBus slots, direct memory access and up to 256 Mbytes of RAM - an impressive set of specifications. All that's needed for success of the project is for enough IS managers to take Apple seriously as an enterprise-computing hardware vendor.
>RISC futures.
Talk of ever-more-powerful incarnations of the Mac naturally leads to discussions of Apple's RISC projects. Sources report to the Knife that both the engineers and their managers with RISC Mac responsibilities are a noticeably happier bunch lately. Originally there was a great deal of trepidation about meeting the self-imposed January 1994 deadline to produce the first model. Now, however, there have been a number of significant breakthroughs. So significant, in fact, that the first-generation RISC Mac might even hit the streets in August of next year.
Of course the first RISC Mac will be just the beginning of a steady stream of ever-more-powerful and price-efficient models. The level of performance available in the first- generation machines may not displace any socks, but the engineers are known to think that the second-generation RISC Macs will well and truly scream.
>The national.
National account reps have a way of spilling the corporate beans every now and then, and Apple's reps are no different from any other company's in that respect. Often the trick is to phrase the right questions in just the right manner. The only problem is that sometimes it's a little hard to tell if they're speaking ex cathedra or if they're just blowing a little hot air.
This week's leak concerns the ever-popular PowerBooks. Seems that Apple may have recognized the obvious demand for a snappy (read non-SCSI) external video source a la Envisio Inc.'s Notebook Display Adapter/030, which plugs into the PowerBook 140 and 170 memory slots and drives a long list of big screens. If Apple decides to go ahead with a similar project of its own, the product could be out by the end of the summer and will be differentiated from the competition by the colorful Apple logo and a lower price. Plus, PowerBooks with built-in video-out are due about the same time.
>Speaking up.
While the world seems to be completely enthralled with the idea of pen as computer interface, Apple has never abandoned the idea that we would all be a lot better off if we simply bossed our electrons around verbally. What it plans is an operating system extension that would be available to any developer who chose to participate in this dubious mode of input. Reliable speech-recogniti on capability will certainly require a fair measure of hardware, probably an '040 Mac equipped with a DSP chip. Maybe next year.
Barring further temblors, the Knife will still be taking tips and distributing MacWEEK mugs at (415) 243-3500, fax (415) 243-3650, MCI (MactheKnife), AppleLink (MacWEEK) and CompuServe/ZiffNet/Mac.
MacWEEK 04/27/92
Opinion Page 106
Mac the Knife
(MacWEEK, April 27, 1992) (c) Copyright 1992 Coastal Associates, L.P. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
