Cupertino, Calif. -- QuickTime will move to the big screen this summer with a new Mac version that offers full-screen playback, MPEG and MIDI support, and hooks to interactive television.
Apple next month will seed developers with beta versions of QuickTime 2.0, which is due to ship to users by midyear. Features include:
> Better playback. Changes to the QuickTime data pipe will reportedly improve movie playback about twofold without hardware acceleration. This will let a 320-by-240-pixel movie play on a Mac LC 475 at 30 frames per second; a 640-by-480 movie will play at half the frame rate.
Version 2.0's performance increase will apply to all QuickTime compressor-decompressors.
> MPEG support. Users looking for better-than-VHS quality will be able to add MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) playback boards, such as Radius Inc.'s upcoming ReelMagic card. Sources said RasterOps Corp. is also preparing an MPEG playback board, due later this year.
MPEG squeezes up to 1 hour, 14 minutes of full-screen, full-motion video and synchronized CD-quality audio onto a CD-ROM. QuickTime 2.0 will open the Mac to more than 40 movie and game titles currently available for ReelMagic and Philips CD-I devices.
"Most people who play MPEG titles will want to connect their Macs to a TV," said Richard Doherty, director of Envisioneering, a consumer electronics newsletter based in Seaford, N.Y. "I'm not going to say to my family, 'Hey, let's get some popcorn and sit around the 14-inch computer screen.'"
> Interactive Television. QuickTime 2.0 will include new device protocols that will play back movies across networks. Combined with MPEG, this feature will let users set up networkwide training programs. It also vaults Apple into the interactive television arena.
Oracle Corp. of Redwood Shores, Calif., this week will demonstrate its Oracle Media Server working with a Macintosh-based interactive television box developed by Apple. This new Apple box reportedly uses QuickTime 2.0, which Apple said it hopes to license to other manufacturers of set-top interactive television devices.
> Music Track. This new track will let users compose and edit music and play it on the Mac's internal sound hardware or on external MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) devices.
Unlike sampled audio, which is storage-intensive, the QuickTime Music Track and MIDI contain only the instructions of a performance and not the actual audio, which results in smaller file sizes.
Apple software will emulate more than 10 instruments, including guitar, bass, piano and drums. Users will be able to import existing MIDI scores into QuickTime movies.
"The music track will let users completely reorchestrate music in software, changing instruments, changing tempos, changing the key," said Christopher Yavelow, president of YAV Digital Music, based in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
> Timecode. QuickTime 2.0 will include built-in support for 60-field-per-second video production boards and will feature a timecode track. Developers will be able to choose among a variety of timecode schemes, including SMPTE.
"Without SMPTE, there's no natural way for QuickTime to sync sound with video," said Duane Maxwell, chief technical officer at Gryphon Software Corp. of San Diego.
QuickTime 2.0 features
> Bigger, faster movies
> MPEG support with add-on hardware
> Interactive television support
> Music track with MIDI compatibility
> Built-in timecode
MacWEEK 02.14.94
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(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
News: MessagePad beefs up RAM, recognition
By Raines Cohen
Cupertino, Calif. -- Apple's next Newton may look like the MessagePad, but several enhancements, including improved handwriting recognition, will reportedly make using the device a much better experience.
The Newton MessagePad follow-up, code-named Lindy, is expected to ship next month and is roughly the same size as the MessagePad. It includes a single PCMCIA slot and has a point-to-point infrared port. It also has the same six icons on the permanent menu at the bottom of the screen, according to sources.
The most notable change in the new version of the Newton operating system is the addition of deferred handwriting recognition. Lindy users will be able to write in digital ink and save the task of translating ink to text for later. This will allow them to take notes at full speed without giving up recognition.
According to sources, other improvements, such as larger memory space for recognition, will make handwriting recognition a much improved experience for most users.
Both the existing MessagePad and Lindy are handheld and black, but there will be no confusing the two in a side-by-side comparison: Lindy is about an inch taller, a little narrower, tapered in the middle, and the Type II PCMCIA slot is mounted on the side, sources said.
Apple reportedly changed the shape after market research determined that many users found the system too wide to comfortably hold in the palms of their hands.
The stylus, too, has changed to fit users' hands. It is reportedly round and telescopes for easy storage inside a spring-loaded niche in the upper-right corner of the case.
Some of Lindy's elements, such as a folding cover to protect the front of the unit, were reportedly borrowed from early MessagePad prototypes. When in use, the cover folds behind the unit and snaps onto the back, out of the way.
Even though Lindy itself is taller, the screen is four pixels shorter than the MessagePad's. Apple reportedly has chastised some developers because their applications are based on the size of a MessagePad screen. When run on Lindy, those applications draw the status bar below the bottom of the display.
The battery compartment has been redesigned to accommodate four AA batteries, laying flat side by side, instead of the MessagePad's four stacked AAA batteries, sources said. Because AA batteries store more power, Lindy reportedly has significantly longer battery life. Additionally, the lithium backup battery is now locked in place by a bracket. Users no longer have to fiddle with a switch when changing the batteries.
Sources said that Lindy will be the first Newton to have an optional stand into which users can drop the unit for quick recharge. The charger reportedly works only with nickel-cadmium power packs and recharges batteries in about four hours.
Lindy will reportedly come with 1 Mbyte of RAM. Current MessagePads come with 640 Kbytes; about 160 Kbytes are set aside for storage. With Lindy's 1 Mbyte of RAM, user work space is nearly tripled.
Other software enhancements will likely be included in Lindy's new ROMs. Apple is expected to offer MessagePad owners the opportunity to upgrade to the Lindy ROMs for a nominal fee. Apple will reportedly be the only player in the personal digital assistant market to offer users an inexpensive upgrade path.
As previously reported (see MacWEEK, Nov. 29, 1993, Page 1), Lindy will be manufactured in Taipei, Taiwan by Inventec Corp. Lindy is expected to be followed in September by another Inventec-built Newton, a two-PCMCIA-slot slate code-named Bic.
Apple declined to comment.
MacWEEK 02.14.94
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(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
News: Apple, Insignia bundle PPC, SoftWindows
By Robert Hess
Cupertino, Calif. -- It's unlikely anyone paying attention to the PowerPC hubbub lately hasn't heard Apple and Insignia Solutions Inc. tout the virtues of PowerPC-based Macintoshes with SoftWindows software. Positioned as the cross-platform Rosetta stone, the companies claim that users will get a fast Mac and a reasonably quick Microsoft Windows machine in one box.
In a joint statement, Apple and Insignia last week said that SoftWindows would be bundled with "select configurations" of next month's PowerPC-based Macs. While the companies would not outline specific configurations or prices, sources said Apple will offer versions of all three PowerPC-based Mac models that will include 16 Mbytes of RAM and SoftWindows preinstalled on the hard disk.
While pricing is still being debated, Apple is considering "very aggressive pricing. The difference in price between a basic configuration and one set up to run SoftWindows is a couple of hundred bucks -- less than the price of RAM alone," according to one source.
Pieter Hartsook, editor of The Hartsook Letter based in Alameda, Calif., said: "That looks like a good deal to me. Quite frankly, with that kind of pricing, if I were out buying a PowerPC system I would opt for having SoftWindows just because there's some software around that I might want to run that's only available on Windows."
According to Frank Cohen, Insignia's director of marketing, Insignia will provide SoftWindows technical support, and both SoftWindows manuals and Microsoft Windows 3.1 manuals will be included with the bundles.
Cohen said: "Insignia's testing of SoftWindows on PowerPC-based Macs showed performance ranging from a 25-MHz 386SX on the low-end model to a 25-MHz 486SX on the high-end model. Each application is different, though. For example, because of the Mac's handling of graphics, some aspects, such as scrolling, are even faster."
The current version of SoftWindows emulates an Intel 80286. Insignia has said that despite this, performance is far better than the typical 286. A version of SoftWindows written to emulate a 486 is slated to be released this fall, which will make it possible to run applications that search for the presence of the newer chip.
MacWEEK 02.14.94
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(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
News: AppleShare utility tracks file moves
By Stephen Howard
San Francisco -- Server Tracker, a new AppleShare utility shipping this week, lets server security hounds follow the trail of user actions. The program from Santorini Consulting & Design Inc. is the first logger of file activity for AppleShare.
"I can use this to say that so-and-so deleted a file at such-and-such time," said Warren Strand, MIS and data processing manager at Microwave Applications Group of Santa Maria, Calif. "I don't need that information right away; I need it for a check later."
Server Tracker, which starts at $95 per server, comprises an application and an AppleShare extension that both run on the server. The extension creates a tab-delimited Microsoft Excel text file containing information on which files and folders were opened, created, deleted, renamed, copied or moved. Internal changes to files, network names of guest users and copies from the server to a client are not recorded, although the company said its other utilities can capture this data. The Server Tracker application graphically lists the more recent entries in the activity history. The program works with AppleShare 3.0, 4.0 and the A/UX-based AppleShare Pro.
Network operating systems, such as Novell Inc.'s NetWare 4.0, Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT Advanced Server and some multi-user implementations of Unix, have had file-tracking security for years. The lack of rich security options is one of the most often criticized characteristics of AppleShare.
"Administrators can go to a deeper level in security" with file-activity logging, said Jodi Mardesich, an analyst with The Burton Group here. But she downplayed the importance of the audit trail in choosing a server platform: "It's not one of those critical things."
Server Tracker is the latest in a string of AppleShare administrative add-ons and alternatives that have appeared over the past year. Sonic Systems Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., has shipped two versions of Server Sentry, and Santorini released its Server Tools suite as well as Server Manager, which is now sold by Technology Works Inc. of Austin, Texas. None of these other programs logs file accesses, and none of the companies currently plans to add the feature.
"We looked at doing this in Server Sentry 1.0 and found that it was really slowing down the server," said Sudhakar Ravi, vice president of engineering at Sonic. "I don't think users will stand for a slowdown on any server, especially a Mac server."
Santorini President Philip Zarboulas said his tests show that Tracker's logging process does not hamper a server because the software waits until the server is not busy before writing to the text file.
"I didn't really see any performance change," said beta-tester Strand, who benchmarked AppleShare 3 with and without the utility.
Server Tracker requires a minimum of 400 Kbytes of RAM, although allocating 800 Kbytes or more allows the application to display several thousand of the latest events. Server Tracker costs $495 for a 10-server license, and a single-server version is being added this week to Santorini's Server Tools suite, which remains at $195 (see MacWEEK, Nov. 15, 1993, Page 20).
Santorini Consulting & Design Inc. is at 2147 Union Street, Upper Level, San Francisco, Calif. 94123. Phone (415) 563-7157; fax (415) 563-0332.
MacWEEK 02.14.94
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(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
News: Managers ponder PowerPC potential
Plan to test systems before buying in bulk
By Kirsten L. Parkinson and Carolyn Said
San Francisco -- Apple's new PowerPC-based machines may not take the Mac world by storm, at least initially, according to network administrators who said they will move cautiously on implementing the new models.
Despite Apple's assurances of full compatibility with 680x0 Macs and applications, all the managers interviewed for this story want to see -- and test -- compatibility for themselves before purchasing large quantities of the new machines.
"We'll buy a couple [of PowerPC Macs] and bring them in as pilots to test with our applications and network," said Charles Baird, project manager at Hughes Information Technologies Co. in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Even sites that have already been seeded with prerelease PowerPC Macs said they'll phase in the new CPUs slowly. Jim Matthews, senior programmer for the technical services department at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., said his department will initially purchase three or four PowerPC Macs and add more as old machines need replacing.
Overall, managers are confident that the shift will be relatively smooth. "Even though I'm sure there will be a few teething pains initially, I don't think they'll be earth-shaking," said Blake Sobiloff, network manager in the psychology department at the University of Maryland in College Park. "Managers would be wise, however, to only buy a few PowerPC machines for their power users first and let these folks deal with the brunt of the problems, if any."
Once administrators allocate PowerPC machines to their high-end users, they said they will pass along those users' 680x0 machines to employees with older Macs.
Managers said their initial caution for PowerPC Mac deployment stems primarily from budget, software and compatibility concerns. "[Departments] won't be opening the floodgates; it will be a natural progression," said Harry Moore, a buyer for the University of California at Berkeley. "Obviously, the way the state budget is right now, we're not going to offload all our current systems and bring on PowerPC. I see an integration of them into the Mac family."
Lack of key software in native mode will prevent some users from buying during the PowerPC Macs' first few months.
Must-have applications include Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, Aldus PageMaker and FreeHand, and Microsoft Word and Excel. All of these applications will eventually be offered in native versions, but developers have not committed to availability at the rollout.
"I'm most interested in processor-intensive applications such as Photoshop, Excel and (Claris Corp.'s) FileMaker," said Igor Livshits, research programmer at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications in Champaign, Ill.
Managers plan various strategies for trying out the new machines. Some simply want to run the PowerPC Macs in their environment; others have specific test routines.
Barton Malow Co., a construction management company in Southfield, Mich., plans to treat an entire department as a separate testbed. "The marketing department will be our model upgrade," said Mac manager Paul Twigg.
Twigg said he'll buy a couple of machines for imaging and graphics users, then upgrade the rest of the department, "probably half and half between new PowerPC machines and PowerPC upgrade boards."
While managers said they won't make larger PowerPC Mac purchases right away, they do plan to gradually phase in PowerPC machines throughout their organizations.
Dartmouth's Matthews said: "The way I'd like to see [the transition] is that we stop buying 68040 Macs above the Quadra 605 or LC 475. Those higher-end machines account for about one-third of the machines on campus, so I would anticipate that they would go to PowerPC fairly quickly."
MacWEEK 02.14.94
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(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Review: AppleSearch 1.0 offers easy access
By Dale Coleman
If you doubt whether the information age has actually arrived, one look at the unmanageable number of documents archived somewhere on your network will probably convince you. AppleSearch is the first product designed specifically to help network users find and retrieve the documents they need quickly and intuitively.
AppleSearch is a client-server application that lets up to 50 networked users search and retrieve documents on an AppleShare network server. AppleSearch finds and prioritizes documents based on search criteria and lets you view them on screen or retrieve them to a local drive. The AppleSearch Server software and a five-pack of AppleSearch Client software lists for $1,799. Additional 10-packs of client software cost $499.
To set up an AppleSearch server, you need a 68040-based Macintosh with at least 8 Mbytes of RAM if you're running it alongside AppleShare 3.0, 12 Mbytes with AppleShare 4.0, or 16 Mbytes with AppleShare Pro. You must have AppleTalk and an AppleTalk-compatible network connection (LocalTalk, EtherTalk, TokenTalk or Apple Remote Access).
Index first
All documents must be indexed by AppleSearch before they can be searched. The initial document indexing is a machine-intensive task, requiring about one hour per 15 Mbytes of data. Administrators will also have to schedule periodic maintenance indexing as new documents are added to the server.
During the indexing process, you'll need at least twice (preferably two and a half to three times) as much free disk space on the server as the text of the information you'll be indexing. The final size of the index, however, is much smaller. For example, 112 Mbytes of text-data generated about a 20-Mbyte index.
Because indexing tends to bog down the server, administrators must figure out when and how often to conduct indexing updates. You'll want to schedule indexing frequently enough so that new documents are available as soon as possible but at the least disruptive times, such as late at night.
From the user's perspective, AppleSearch could hardly be easier or more intuitive to use. You simply select the server volume you wish to search from within the AppleSearch Client application and then define a search, called a Reporter.
You can access most common kinds of business documents with AppleSearch, including word processing, spreadsheet and page-layout documents, provided that an XTND translator for the document's original application is available on the server.
AppleSearch strips all formatting and graphics and generates text-only documents. The server application includes Apple's XTND engine and DataViz Inc.'s MacLinkPlus/AppleSearch translators for most, but not all, popular formats. For example, translators for Aldus PageMaker 4.0 and MacVONK Canada's Ragtime 3.1 are supplied, but a QuarkXPress translator is not. Additional third-party XTND-compatible translators are supported.
Good reporting
Creating a Reporter is a simple, two-step process. First, you open a new Reporter window and specify the information sources on the server to be searched. Information sources can be any shared folder of documents on the server or a locally mounted volume. Second, you enter your search request and specify search options. You can specify searches using plain English or Boolean operators. When you use any of the eight Boolean operators (including AND, OR, NOT, and the wild cards "?" and "*"), standard left-to-right evaluation rules apply.
Three Search Option fields let you further define your search criteria: Maximum Returns lets you specify the maximum number of documents (up to 99) to return from the search.
After Date lets you specify the date from which AppleSearch should begin searching. Minimum Rank lets you specify the minimum "relevance rank" of documents to retrieve. AppleSearch's search engine, which is based on Personal Library Software Inc.'s Callable Personal Librarian, uses a ranking scheme of from one to five stars to rate documents based on their relevance to your search criteria. The engine uses a sophisticated algorithm that determines factors such as how often a search word appears in a document to make intelligent guesses as to which documents will be most useful to you.
All but the most novice users should be able to fashion meaningful Reporters after just a few minutes with the documentation. You can save individual Reporters for repeated use, and you can easily share Reporters with other users by using the Import and Export Reporter feature.
After you click on Start Search, AppleSearch quickly reports back the number of returned documents. We found that searches took just a few seconds, even when logged on remotely with Apple Remote Access. You can then view a list of all the documents either by ranking (the default), date or name. To view the text of a document, you simply double-click on its name, and the text appears in a new window. You can then either save the text to a local volume or retrieve the original document.
You can schedule Reporters to run at specified intervals and then get a report of all matches since the Reporter was last examined. This is a powerful feature. For example, you might create a Reporter that regularly checks the files retrieved from a news or financial service and then creates a daily listing of documents relevant to your work. Updates appear in an easy-to-read, newspaperlike format.
We installed AppleSearch at the MacWEEK office and indexed the complete text of all issues of MacWEEK since September 1992 -- 112 Mbytes of data. We've tried to gain control and acceptable access to this data before, but nothing we tried came close to the intuitiveness, responsiveness and overall usefulness of AppleSearch.
Documentation and support
The documentation, which includes a separate administrator guide and user guide, is among the best available for any Mac software product. Concepts are clearly explained and illustrated with understandable charts. Subjects that require greater explanation, such as defining Reporter search criteria, are introduced where appropriate and explained in depth in their own chapters.
Developers who purchase the $299 AppleSearch Client Developer's Kit will also receive a manual that covers how to create a client interface to an AppleSearch server and a manual that discusses how to write software that reads and writes AppleSearch-compatible updates.
Conclusions
The ultimate success of AppleSearch will depend to some degree on how well Apple markets the product. Although some skeptics are complaining that the initial investment in software is too great, we think this is unfounded. As has been noted on-line and elsewhere, to gain similar functionality from a Unix server and TCP/IP network also requires a substantial investment but sacrifices the elegance of the AppleSearch interface.
Finally, with the imminent arrival of fast PowerPC-based Macs, it does not seem untoward to wish for a personal, single-user version of AppleSearch to help us find our way in our personal embarrassment of documents. Perhaps both the personal version and the current Client could be integrated into the Finder, giving the Finder a functionality worthy of its name at last.
Overall, however, it's hard to imagine a business -- even a very small one -- that wouldn't benefit from the easy, quick, automated access to all its important documents that AppleSearch provides.
MacWEEK 02.14.94
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(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
News: Apple cuts Quadra prices, adds rebates
By James Staten
Cupertino, Calif. -- Hoping to spur sales between now and the time of the PowerPC Macintosh introduction, Apple last week continued to cut prices, this time on the high end of its Quadra line, and announced rebates on select models.
The ApplePrices of the Quadra 650, 660AV, 800, 840AV and 950 were cut 7 percent to 18 percent. The deepest cut comes on the 660AV with 8 Mbytes of RAM and a 230-Mbyte hard drive, now with an ApplePrice of $1,879, down from $2,289.
In addition, a mail-in rebate of $150 was announced for buyers who purchase a new Quadra 605 or 650 with an Apple printer between now and March 31.
The rebate on the Quadra 605 applies to its purchase in combination with any current LaserWriter or StyleWriter II. The Quadra 650 rebate applies to its purchase along with any LaserWriter.
According to sources, these cuts and incentives were originally scheduled to coincide with the introduction of PowerPC Mac but have been moved up to boost sales now.
"[Lower prices] make [the current high-end Macs] that much more attractive to us," said Brian Comnes, manager of the information center at DHL Inc. in Redwood City, Calif.
However, dealers said the rebate would have little effect on sales. "It's usually the first-time buyers who purchase a printer with their Mac," said a Texas dealer. "But $150 isn't going to sway anyone who's undecided."
A West Coast dealer said: "It's not enough. People still want to know what the upgrade price [to PowerPC] will be before they will buy."
The latest round of cuts follows reported dealer reductions earlier this month on PowerBooks and the Quadra 660AV (see MacWEEK, Feb. 7, Page 1).
In related news, Apple this week is expected to ship the DOS Compatible Card for the Quadra 610 (see MacWEEK, Nov. 29, Page 3) and logic board upgrades for the Quadra 610 and 800 that upgrade those machines to the Quadra 660AV and 840AV, respectively.
New ApplePrices for Quadras
Model Old price New price
Quadra 650 8/230 $2,399 $2,129
Quadra 660AV 8/230 $2,289 $1,879
Quadra 800 8/230 $2,739 $2,439
Quadra 840AV 8/230 $3,619 $3,199
Quadra 950 8/230 $4,089 $3,679
MacWEEK 02.14.94
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(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
News: On-line efforts aim to halt Clipper
By Roger Karraker
Washington -- Civil-liberties leaders and privacy groups denounced the Clinton administration and organized on-line petition drives last week after the White House said it will promote use of the Clipper chip encryption scheme.
The Clipper chip, designed by the National Security Agency, delivers hardware-based encryption but contains a trap door that would allow government agencies to monitor data and voice communications by obtaining a court order when they suspect criminal activity.
Under the White House's Feb. 4 go-ahead for Clipper, all communication with government agencies, including tax filings and health-care records, would require Clipper encryption.
"The administration knows it can't ban alternatives outright; that would cause a political firestorm," said Mike Godwin, staff counsel at the Electronic Frontier Foundation here. "But it's aiming to marginalize the mass market for alternative crypto-technology by making sure that the whole government -- and everyone who talks to the government -- adopts this standard."
Both EFF and Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility announced aggressive electronic petition and letter-writing campaigns to dissuade the White House and Congress from exclusive deployment of Clipper.
Virtually all computer companies have opposed the Clipper chip proposal.
The administration's edict also calls for non-Clipper encryption schemes to be classified as "munitions" and subject to export controls. "People [overseas] aren't going to buy our products if the U.S. government has the security keys," said Jim Burger, Apple director of government law. "This creates an opportunity for foreign companies to eat our lunch."
MacWEEK 02.14.94
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(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
News: AppleScript going for a wider audience
By Kristi Coale
Apple is just beginning to deliver the real goods on AppleScript.
The system-level scripting language intended to spawn corporate in-house development wasn't available until the AppleScript Scripter's Kit shipped in December. The kit provides tools, such as windows, menus and other interface elements, to simplify custom integration of functions and data between applications.
The effect of waiting to release an in-house developer version of AppleScript has been twofold. On one hand, Apple has had the past year to gather support from nearly 100 third-party developers in the form of applications that work with the technology.
On the other hand, AppleScript either went unnoticed by many corporate developers or was perceived as being difficult to learn and use. "Not very many people are using AppleScript yet -- the first version was a faceless application that nonprogrammers thought they couldn't get their hands on," said Dan Shafer, president of Shafer and Associates, a software development consultancy in Redwood City, Calif.
Those in-house developers who have been using AppleScript so far are people with considerable programming experience. Project leader Mike Compton has C and LISP experience under his belt and chooses from several such tools to build his applications for Recom Technologies Inc., a contractor for the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif.
Compton said AppleScript was the perfect substitute for a keyboard macro program he had used to move live data from an expert system into a forms package as part of an electronic purchase-request scheme. In the old setup each computer needed both the expert system and the forms package. AppleScript allowed Compton to put a single copy of the expert system on the network server with a script working through AOCE (Apple Open Collaboration Environment) to bring data into the forms package on each end user's machine. "It's all one step from the user's point of view," Compton said.
Reaching a broader base
Apple said it hopes AppleScript will have a wider audience beyond developers such as Compton. "You don't necessarily need programming experience to use AppleScript, but it does call for some sophistication," said Chuck Piercy, product marketing manager for AppleScript. "If you understand that you have multiple applications to do things for you and that these applications are talking to each other, then you understand a lot." But this wider audience is slow in coming, partly because Apple itself has not gotten the word on AppleScript out quickly to its major corporate users.
Tony de Young, president of ARTLab, a San Francisco marketing consulting company, said Apple's support has been limited. "Apple handed us AppleScript and asked us to find some application for it in catalog publishing," he said.
The result was a system that tied together photos and graphics in Imspace Systems Corp.'s Kudo ImageBrowser with textual data in Claris Corp.'s FileMaker Pro and fed this information into a QuarkXPress file to automate catalog publishing. "What was taking 30 people six weeks to do now takes a handful of people a few days to produce," de Young said. "Apple has been foolishly not aggressive in promoting AppleScript."
Piercy agreed that Apple has been lax in pushing AppleScript into corporate circles, but, he said, the company is still learning. "In the transition from being a hardware company to a software company, things like [promoting AppleScript] are getting overlooked."
Apple is banking on the idea that when AppleScript does get the promotion it needs, it will sell. "It is a competitive advantage that isn't going to go away," Piercy said.
Lesson to be learned
Several pieces are available to make the Mac a viable in-house development platform, including the Open Scripting Architecture and several compatible scripting tools, such as UserLand Frontier and AppleScript; and OpenDoc is on the horizon.
But a bigger part of this is promotion, a lesson Apple could learn from rival Microsoft Corp. Microsoft's Visual BASIC for Windows is the most popular tool in DOS shops for in-house development, Shafer said.
MacWEEK 02.14.94
News Page 5
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Gateways: LAN management tide rolling in
Former Trik apps ship from Symantec
By Stephen Howard
San Francisco -- A wave of network-management tools is rising to wash over the Mac LAN market. This month and next, updates and new applications will ship from several companies.
> NetDistributor Pro 2.0, shipping now from Symantec Corp., adds conditional controls and the ability to create self-installing packages to the software-distribution program. The new If-Then-Else options vary installations based on existing client software. Version 2.0 can also move and rename client files rather than overwrite them, and keep a history of past and pending updates. NetDistributor Pro starts at $235 for a 10-user license; upgrades are $173 for 50 users and $243 for 100.
> Installer Pro, Symantec's similar LAN updater that works from scripts intended for Apple's Installer utility, also shipped. Although users can launch Apple's Installer program from a server, Symantec's Pro software allows administrators to install system software and other programs onto other people's machines.
Installer Pro lets managers create self-installing packages that contain all needed files or that log on to an AppleShare server to download them. The program tracks scheduled installations and provides administrators with password controls that restrict the power to update. Installer Pro ranges from $235 for 10 users to $2,100 for 100. Owners of NetDistributor Pro can buy the program at slightly more than half price.
Both NetDistributor and Installer Pro were acquired from Trik Inc. of Woburn, Mass., in November.
> GraceLAN Network Manager 3.1, available by the end of this month from Technology Works Inc., will be able to control and update Datawatch Corp.'s Virex 5.1, which is expected to ship next month. The combination will let LAN managers specify when client workstations are scanned for viruses and record the results.
Version 3.1 will also create a report that shows only the changes in client hardware and software since a previous scan. The update will permit the addition of custom icons to the topology map and user-defined names to the device list. GraceLAN Network Manager costs $795 for an unlimited number of users; upgrades from Version 3.0 are free.
Virex 5.1 scans for viruses more than 50 times faster than Version 4.0, Datawatch said. The Virex package will include its own administrative application that can initiate scans from across the network. Virex is $699.95 for 10 users and $1,600 for 50.
> GraceLAN Server Manager 3.0, which Technology Works plans to release next month, will control the cache settings in AppleShare 4 and Pro from across the network, among other features. The update will support new means of alarm notification: When Version 3.0 detects a problem on the server, it will be able to send a message via PowerTalk, launch an AppleScript script, run Dantz Development Corp.'s Retrospect or speak a warning via Apple's PlainTalk extension.
Version 3.0 will be able to change server settings on a schedule. For instance, Guest access could be disabled after 7 p.m., and a local application or script could be launched at 3 a.m. The update will also generate user and group disk usage reports by server and by server volume. Server Manager ranges from $395 per server to $995 for a 10-server license. Upgrades will be $99 for one server, $179 for five and $249 for 10.
> GraceLAN Asset Manager 2.0, another Technology Works March release, will move from being a stand-alone database to a client-server one based on ACI US Inc.'s 4D Server. The company said the upgrade will improve data exchange with Network Manager to track compliance with software licenses on client machines. An upgrade price has not been set.
Symantec Corp. is at 10201 Torre Ave., Cupertino, Calif. 95014-2132. Phone (408) 253-9600; fax (408) 252-4694.
Technology Works Inc. is at 4030 Braker Lane W., Suite 350, Austin, Texas 78759-5319. Phone (512) 794-8533 or (800) 759-9614; fax (512) 794-8520.
Datawatch Corp. is at P.O. 1384, Research Triangle Park, N.C. 27709. Phone (919) 549-0711; fax (919) 549-0065.
MacWEEK 02.14.94
Gateways Page 12
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Gateways: AOL suffers as business grows
By Robert Hess
Like the on-line services industry as a whole, America Online Inc. saw accelerated growth last year -- and users felt the growing pains.
As the information superhighway has taken hold of the public's attention, computer users are taking a greater interest in on-line services, sometimes called the superhighway's "on ramps." In 1993, Vienna, Va.-based AOL experienced an explosion of new users and was unable to keep running smoothly. As a result, it has been forced to ration access and postpone new services.
According to the New York-based Electronic Mail & Micro Systems newsletter, CompuServe added 300,000 mailboxes last year, a 25 percent increase. AOL reported a growth rate of 142 percent, to a total of 531,000 subscribers, in the same time period. The smaller service added more than 70,000 users in January alone. Analysts and AOL predicted a total of 1 million users by fall.
Steve Case, AOL president and CEO, admits his company was caught off-guard, which caused "periodic problems in terms of service quality."
"The root of the problem is fairly simple: Demand has been exceeding supply," he said.
In response, AOL has reduced the number of people permitted on the system during peak hours. Because of this, users have found that log-ons occasionally halt just before completion, requiring them to call back later. Case said the only alternative is slower performance systemwide.
In addition, the company said that several new features it announced last year have been put on hold indefinitely. Among those features are gateways to the Internet intended to provide access to news groups, which were due last month, and database searches, planned for this month. New AOL software that supports 9,600-bps access was announced last year, but now the company resolutely refuses to set a rollout date.
Case said that the Internet services could be brought on-line almost immediately, but AOL is waiting to get its performance problems behind it. "There's a perception with our users that we need to take care of the performance problems before we start introducing new services," he said.
Case said the company is installing new software designed to handle more customers. In addition, AOL is "rearchitecting the system to support Internet-related demand."
To cushion the impact of dissatisfied users, Case posted explanatory messages addressed to all AOL members. "We hope what will linger in our customers' minds when this is all behind us is our reputation as a company that has been straightforward," Case said.
MacWEEK 02.14.94
Gateways Page 12
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Mobile: Blackbird to have dual-scan display
Passive-matrix boasts less power, better color
By Blake Roberts
When the Blackbird models -- the PowerBook 520, 520c, 540 and 540c -- arrive this April, they will sport 9.5-inch displays ranging from supertwist gray scale to color active matrix. But it's the 520c's passive-matrix, dual-scan color display that will interest users looking for speed and clarity without the premium of active-matrix color.
What about the 520c?
Apple has always used dual-scan technology in its monochrome and gray-scale passive-matrix PowerBooks. However, because of technological and manufacturing limitations, the 165c was produced with a single-scan color display. And, although color was the most requested new PowerBook feature when the 165c shipped, the single-scan display's sluggish response and poor viewing angle resulted in weak sales.
The dual-scan, passive-matrix display in the 520c changes that with only a modest increase in cost. It is more responsive than a single-scan display because the screen is electrically divided into upper and lower regions, cutting in half the distance each scan must cover. The 520c's dual-scan display also allows users to set higher contrast settings, enhancing clarity and avoiding crosstalk.
How passive-matrix works
Passive-matrix technology uses a grid of tiny wires to apply an electrical field to the liquid crystals trapped between two layers of glass. The top layer contains wires that run vertically down the screen, while wires on the bottom layer run horizontally; at each point where the wires meet there is a pixel.
To energize a liquid crystal pixel, current is applied to a specific row and column. This addressing technique is called multiplexing, which uses a relatively small number of transistors to control a large number of pixels and is key to the lower cost of passive-matrix screens. In contrast, active-matrix screens have a transistor for every pixel and, as a result, contain hundreds of thousands of transistors per screen.
Unlike conventional desktop monitors, liquid crystal displays do not emit light; they either block it or let it pass through.
What the liquid crystal does to the light is determined by its electrical state. When there is no charge, liquid crystals orient themselves in a twisted state, blocking light. However, with a charge, the crystals tend to orient themselves along the lines of the current. By sandwiching the liquid crystals between two polarizing filters that are set off at an angle, electrical current untwists the liquid crystals, allowing light to pass through.
Passive-matrix problems
There are several problems inherent with passive-matrix displays. For example, as the contrast level of a passive-matrix screen is turned up, the display's readability is enhanced. However, depending on how much contrast is increased, a phenomenon known as crosstalk can occur.
When too much signal is being passed across the screen, the wires in the grid tend to bleed current to adjacent liquid crystals. Crosstalk washes out the display, forcing users to lower the contrast setting to less-than-optimal conditions.
Other problems with passive-matrix technology include the inherent sluggishness of multiplexing, which averages 400 milliseconds to turn pixels on or off. Active-matrix screens average a refresh rate of only 80 milliseconds.
A passive-matrix display has a limited field of view and must be oriented directly in front of the user for images to be clearly visible. Ghosting and submarining are also common visual artifacts; the cursor either disappears or leaves a trail as it moves, unable to keep up with the trackball.
According to sources, the 520c display was designed using a new liquid crystal material that helps improve the screen's contrast. Additionally, Apple has modified the screen drivers and refined the manufacturing process. These improvements contribute to the screen's 300-millisecond response time and reduce ghosting.
Not only is the 520c's screen visibly superior to the 165c, it also draws significantly less power. Because liquid crystals do not emit light, a backlight system is used in all PowerBooks. Earlier color PowerBooks used two bulbs. The PowerBook 520c uses a single bulb and, as a result, draws one half the power of its predecessors.
MacWEEK 02.14.94
Mobile Computing Page 18
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Mobile: Apexx connects PC laptops to AppleTalk
By Raines Cohen
Boise, Idaho -- While Windows-based notebooks are often less expensive than comparably equipped PowerBooks, they lack a key feature: built-in networking.
Apexx Technology Inc. aims to fill that gap next month when it ships adapters that plug into the parallel port of IBM PCs and compatibles and provide a LocalTalk connection.
The product includes a driver that works with Farallon Computing Inc.'s PhoneNET PC software. Farallon's software adds the AppleTalk protocol stack to PCs along with utilities for AppleShare server access and AppleTalk printing. Some PC software packages, such as Claris Corp.'s FileMaker Pro, also include the software.
"I put the adapter on a Toshiba laptop and used it to move files around," said Garrett Quackenbush, president of Q.E. Systems, a custom database developer in Niwot, Colo. "It's definitely easier to install than [internal AppleTalk] cards."
The adapter can draw power from either an included AC adapter or a PC's keyboard port. An optional $89 splitter lets users simultaneously connect other parallel-port devices such as a printer. On systems with multiple parallel ports, the software automatically senses to which port the adapter is connected.
The PCTalk adapter will be sold by itself for $199, or in a bundle with Farallon's Timbuktu for Windows and PhoneNET PC software for $399. Both configurations include diagnostic software to verify link integrity.
The PCTalk adapter comes with a one-year warranty; Apexx offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Apexx Technology Inc. is at 506 S. 11th St., Boise, Idaho 83702. Phone (208) 336-9400 or (800) 767-4858; fax (208) 336-9445.
MacWEEK 02.14.94
Mobile Computing Page 18
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Mobile: ORA adapter connects PBs to cel phones
By Raines Cohen
Chatsworth, Calif. -- ORA Electronics this week started shipping its cellular-telephone adapter kits, including one that works with Motorola flip phones.
Cellular/Data Link, priced at $249.95, consists of two parts: a computer-to-cellular controller with an RJ-11 phone jack and a detachable cellular-phone interface cable. To connect the controller to different model cellular phones, users need only change the interface cable. Additional cables are $69.95 each.
Cellular/Data Link kits are available to connect to some AT&T, DiamondTel, Kenwood, Mitsubishi, NEC, OKI, Panasonic and Pioneer cellular phones. There is also a kit that works with the Motorola flip phones, one of the most popular -- and difficult to interface -- cellular phones on the market.
The Cellular/Data Link is powered by a 9-volt battery, measures 4 by 2.5 by 1.125 inches and weighs 3.6 ounces (not including the cable).
ORA also sells a variety of cellular-phone add-ons, including battery chargers, auto-adapters and antennas. ORA offers a three-year warranty on all of its products. The company said it will pay warranty repair charges for any cellular phone denied warranty service by the manufacturer because a user attached an ORA device.
ORA Electronics, a division of Alliance Research Corp., is at 9410 Owensmouth Ave., P.O. Box 4029, Chatsworth, Calif. 91313. Phone (818) 772-2700; fax (818) 718-8626.
MacWEEK 02.14.94
Mobile Computing Page 18
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
GA: Aldus to join Mac video market
Company to debut Hitchcock editing app
By Neil McManus
Seattle -- Users who suspect Mac-based video editing is just a fad might take notice of the latest entrant in this market: desktop publishing pioneer Aldus Corp.
Aldus this spring will debut a program that lets users edit video nonlinearly on the Mac and output it directly to tape. The program, slated to retail for less than $2,000, can also save edit-decision lists (EDLs) for final tape assembly on high-end video decks.
Aldus acquired the technology, currently called Hitchcock, from the defunct Digital F/X Inc. (see MacWEEK, Feb. 7, Page 36). Hitchcock is designed to capture, play and output 30-frame-per-second video and stereo audio using digital video boards from companies such as Radius Inc., SuperMac Technology Inc. and RasterOps Corp.
Hitchcock includes a batch-digitizing feature that lets users grab and edit video segments at low resolution and automatically recapture and render the final production at high resolution. The system comes with a cable that uses the Mac's serial port to control RS-422-based video decks and input timecode.
The editing program lets users split audio and video tracks, lock edit points for trimming, and apply customizable transitions such as circle and diagonal wipes.
In the program's Timeline view, users can cut and paste select tracks and control audio levels. Editing changes can ripple by default. Media-management features include search capabilities and a control window that lets users step through source logs.
Hitchcock exports CMX, Grass Valley Group and Sony EDLs. It also outputs QuickTime, and Aldus said it may support QuickTime input by the time it ships. The company said it is considering adding an export-to-Hitchcock feature to CoSA After Effects, its high-end video-effects program.
In the Digital F/X acquisition, Aldus also purchased the rights to TitleSoft, a PostScript title generator that runs on the Mac. Aldus said that later this year it will release TitleSoft and a lower-end version of Hitchcock that will control consumer decks.
Aldus Corp. is at 411 First Ave. S., Seattle, Wash. 98104-2871. Phone (206) 622-5500; fax (206) 343-3360.
MacWEEK 02.14.94
GA Page 24
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
GA: Zoom 4.0 & Atlantis Render imported
By Carolyn Said
South San Francisco, Calif. -- Fleshing out its 3-D offerings, Graphisoft U.S. Inc. has imported two European products: Zoom for modeling and rendering, and Atlantis Render for ray tracing.
> Zoom 4.0, available now for $1,495, uses a system of up to 128 user-defined working planes, each with its own snap grid. Modeling features include Boolean operations, mesh surfaces, splines and dozens of 3-D tools, Graphisoft said.
The program offers real-world material simulation, texture mapping and up to 128 light sources. Designers can use eight levels of rendering -- up to Phong shading -- with anti-aliasing, texture mapping and shadow casting. Zoom can generate QuickTime movies of flythroughs, as well as open and play QuickTime movies.
Files can be exported in RIB (RenderMan Interface Bytestream), PICT, text, Atlantis and DXF (Drawing Interchange File) formats and imported in DXF, text and PICT. Zoom files can also be read by Graphisoft's CAD program, ArchiCAD, the company said.
"We use Zoom for a lot of complex shapes," said Bennett Reed, an architect with corporate identity company Zintzmeyer & Lux in New York. "We create shapes, such as a medallion with rounded edges, in Zoom and bring them into ArchiCAD with the colors intact."
Reed said he appreciates Zoom's use of multiple windows that lets him see an image simultaneously in plan, tertiary-elevations and perspective views as he is working on it.
> Atlantis Render, slated to ship next month for $795, offers fast ray tracing, procedural shading and texture mapping, Graphisoft said. The package includes Atlantis Vision, a scene builder like Pixar's Showplace.
Atlantis includes a real-time preview window, allowing users to preview their scenes in ray-trace mode. Its interface obviates the need to learn the underlying complexities of 3-D, Graphisoft said. For example, users can simply drag and drop shaders into a scene and can just click to perform 3-D texture mapping.
Atlantis Render calculates fully ray-traced images at sizes of up to 10,000 by 10,000 pixels. It reads 3-D DXF and RIB files.
Zoom requires 8 Mbytes of RAM, and Atlantis Render requires 20 Mbytes; both require a math coprocessor.
The programs were developed by Abvent SA of Paris. Zoom is widely used in Europe for large-scale product design, Graphisoft said.
Graphisoft said it will deliver native-PowerPC versions of Zoom and Atlantis Render soon after the PowerPC Macs ship.
Graphisoft U.S. Inc. is at 400 Oyster Point Blvd., Suite 429, South San Francisco, Calif. 94080. Phone (415) 737-8665; fax (415) 871-5481.
MacWEEK 02.14.94
GA Page 24
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
BusinessWatch: Patent questions plague industry
Compton's debate prompts hearings
By Gigi Bisson
San Jose, Calif. -- When Compton's New Media rolled out its sweeping patent on multimedia technology last fall, it peeked into a Pandora's box of questions about what constitutes intellectual property.
Now that box has been thrown wide open with Patent and Trademark Office Commissioner Bruce Lehman's plans to re-examine the patent and his initiation of a series of public hearings on the issue.
More than 50 industry officials, including representatives from Apple, Microsoft Corp., Adobe Systems Inc. and Time Warner Inc., converged here this month to testify both for and against broad, nontechnical multimedia software patents.
After heated and emotional testimony, participants concluded that the method of issuing patents is shrouded in secrecy and must become a more open process.
"The examiner, who is not privy to the history, the prior art, nor the perspective of what is obvious from what is unique, has no chance to make an informed judgment," said D. Joseph Clark, CEO of Videodiscovery Inc., a multimedia publisher based in Seattle.
Developers now are fearful they will be sued for using a technology covered by patents of which they are unaware. For example, in January 1993, eight multimedia publishers, including Videodiscovery, were notified that they could be infringing on Optical Data Corp.'s patents covering interactive technology in the classroom.
The patents did not cover a specific technology but an "instructional methodology": the interaction between teacher, class and video device.
"Among this group there was uniform disbelief and anger that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office would have the audacity to provide anyone with a patent on what I would call the 'Socratic method,' " Clark said.
The problem of violating patents is so acute that American International Group is offering patent infringement insurance for multimedia products. However, it deals only with patents that developers don't realize they have infringed. "This is a good reason, along with the threat of triple damages for willful infringement, to avoid reading patents entirely," said Tom Lopez, president of the Interactive Multimedia Association.
With multimedia developers, television and cable broadcasters, and wireless networking companies helping the White House to create the information superhighway, the stakes have never been higher.
"It's one thing to patent a unique, original and specific implementation of multimedia data-searching technology, but quite another to lay claim to the whole technology itself," said David Kline, co-author of a forthcoming book on the information highway. "It's like CompuServe trying to patent the very notion of an on-line service."
MacWEEK 02.14.94
BusinessWatch Page 32
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
BusinessWatch: Digital offers Service-in-a-Box
By Kirsten L. Parkinson
Maynard, Mass. -- Hoping to tap into the exploding home and small-business market, Digital Equipment Corp. last month unveiled a low-cost package that provides toll-free technical support for more than 450 Macintosh, Microsoft Windows and DOS software products.
The company, based here, will offer the $144 Service-in-a-Box directly and through dealers and mass retailers. It includes a membership card, information about on-line bulletin board systems, a directory of Digital service centers and a $25 coupon for those centers.
The membership card provides users with a year of 24-hour, toll-free technical support on such Mac products as ACI US Inc.'s 4th Dimension, Adobe Illustrator, Microsoft Word, Claris Corp.'s FileMaker Pro and Aldus PageMaker.
Digital marketing consultant Chris Sutter said that Service-in-a-Box is aimed at the growing consumer market, where many users are looking for a single support source.
"One of the problems Digital has is that people don't recognize it as a multivendor service provider," Sutter said. "[Digital] has been offering support on these products for six years. Service-in-a-Box is an opportunity to reach the sheer number of customers that [the consumer market] represents."
Through April 30, Service-in-a-Box is available directly from Digital for an introductory price of $99. The company said it is evaluating options for extending support after the 12-month period expires.
The company will continue to offer annual service contracts for corporate computer sites.
For more information, contact Digital Equipment Corp. at (800) 722-9332.
MacWEEK 02.14.94
BusinessWatch Page 32
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Review: Ray Dream Designer 3.0 lowers 3-D cost
Illustration tool update smooths interface, features new tools
By Sean Wagstaff
Ray Dream Designer 3.0 from Ray Dream Inc. is the first full-featured 3-D illustration software to offer powerful modeling and realistic rendering for less than $500. The new version sports a revamped interface that comes with a wealth of new modeling, texture-mapping and rendering features.
Designer's $349 list price is less than half the cost of comparable software, such as Specular International Ltd.'s Infini-D and Strata Inc.'s StrataVision 3d. Other 3-D programs, including Specular's $149 Logomotion and Pixar's $299 Typestry, have entered the fray in the $99-to-$300 range, but Designer is the first to incorporate sophisticated spline modeling, texture mapping, ray tracing, hierarchical object grouping, multiple cameras and other features typical of thousand-dollar 3-D software.
Integrated interface
Designer 2 had distinctly separate modes for modeling and scene building. In the modeling mode you drew two or more profiles in different windows, which were merged into a 3-D shape. Version 3 greatly improves this wait-and-see approach. Designer 3 retains its three-wall workspace, letting you build and assemble models in the same environment. You no longer have to switch between separate modeling and scene-building applications.
When you drag an icon of a free-form object onto the Perspective window, you invoke Designer's spline-based modeling mode. This uses outlines of the model, projected onto the walls and floor, to define a shape. You can mold most shapes in predictable ways by manipulating the outline's Bezier curves. For complex, irregular shapes, such as a fish's body, you can modify an object's Envelope -- a web of spline projections that lets you specify asymmetrical bulges and dips in a shape.
As in Version 2, Designer offers a quick-shaded preview of your work, but even on our Quadra 950 with 64 Mbytes of RAM, we disabled this feature except when we really needed it.
The good, the bad and the clunky
The number of useful new features in Designer 3 is amazing, given the $99 upgrade price. For instance, the improved Perspective window lets you set your preferences to default to points, inches or centimeters, which will carry over into Designer's 3-D space. A new timesaving feature lets you save objects in libraries and drag and drop them into a composition. You can also import Aldus FreeHand or Adobe Illustrator outlines directly into the modeler. Finally, there is very good typographic control for extruding fonts, although Designer cannot scroll below more than a screen-height list of fonts in your menu.
One feature that works -- but strikes us as ungainly -- is the way Designer assumes that you will know ahead of time the size of the image you plan to create. You have to set the rendering size in the Artwork Settings dialog under the Render menu then choose Show Production Frame from the current window's menu. This will give you a frame that shows what part of that window will be rendered. You move your camera around using the Camera Settings dialog until you reach the desired composition within this frame.
Similarly, in the Artwork Settings dialog, you can directly change a dimension, but you cannot specify an increase percentage or a default image size -- common requirements for illustrators.
Wizards and other magic
Perhaps more significant for beginning 3-D users is Designer's new Modeling Wizard. This is a series of hierarchical picture menus that contain different classes and examples of shapes, such as Lathe, Pipeline, Extrude and Skin. Based on your input, the Wizard builds 3-D objects. For example, if you choose an Extrude object, then a star shape, a dialog will prompt you to enter the star's height, width and depth, and then it will build the shape into your scene. You can double-click this shape to open it in the spline modeler for modifications.
The Modeling Wizard alleviates the need to remember step-by-step procedures for creating different types of shapes, and it's a boon to novice illustrators. This feature, combined with Designer's large clip-model library, means most illustrations can be quickly assembled.
Of course, every illustration calls for different textures and visual effects, and this is Designer's coup. Designer lets you place a texture map directly onto an object's surface by drawing on it. Working in Better Preview mode (which is just barely fast enough to be usable) you simply drag a circle, rectangle or irregular polygon onto the surface. As you draw, the shape you're creating automatically conforms to the contours of the solid, then fills in with the selected texture. This feature completely changes the creation process to something far more interactive and visual than 3-D usually offers. It's easy, for example, to place a detailed texture precisely onto a matching surface.
Another texture-mapping tool lets you actually paint onto a 3-D surface. This relies on a circular "brush" that is dragged across the surface; its path is automatically filled in with the selected texture. While this tool is powerful, we found it painfully slow to use: Brush strokes have to proceed at a crawl for Designer to keep up. We also experienced a bug where the paint cursor failed to correspond to the actual path of the paint brush. Restarting Designer was the only way we found to fix this problem.
We had a number of seemingly random crashes and screen-redraw problems with Designer (Version 3.0.1 running in System 7.1), even with all extensions disabled. Ray Dream's technical support said ours was the only report of these problems and could offer no explanation. Increasing the default memory allocation from 5 Mbytes to 12 Mbytes or more reduced the number of crashes, but they were too common to be written off as flukes and occurred on several different Macs. The company said it is working to identify the bugs and will soon offer a fix.
Textures and rendering
Designer's texture-creation tools are outstanding. You can import bit maps in a variety of formats, including PICT, Adobe Photoshop 2.0 and 2.5, QuickTime, DXF (Drawing Interchange File) and Photo CD. You can also combine multiple textures with multiple effects, such as bump mapping and reflectivity.
Designer's ray tracing is of average speed, but rendering results are very rich and bright. One complaint, however, is that specular highlights are always white, regardless of the color of light sources or nature of the surface. A nice feature is the Estimate Time button, which generates either an estimate of rendering time or lets you render at the best possible resolution in a given time.
Designer lets you save in many common formats, including PICT, TIFF, JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group), Photoshop 2.0 and 2.5, and DXF. Ray Dream's G-Buffer lets you save information, such as object depth, in separate channels along with the rendering. This could be used to paint layers of clouds into a rendering or to apply Photoshop filters to different objects, for example. Designer also lets you render directly in CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black).
Documentation and support
Designer's manual is minimal and contains a number of errors and omissions, including several references to features that were either never implemented or disabled prior to the product's release. In addition, many complex features are covered only in passing detail.
Technical support is available from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific time via toll call, fax or on-line support.
Conclusions
Ray Dream Designer 3 is a great improvement in 3-D design for nontechnical users. Its new features make it easier to use than other 3-D programs, and it offers the power to create complex, realistic renderings. While the manual is incomplete and error-laden, Ray Dream has created a powerful 3-D program that can be used without much help from the documentation. If the company improves Designer's manual and addresses the program's bugs, we think it will be a very good value. As it stands, Designer is still a good buy for many illustrators.
Ray Dream Inc. is at 1804 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View, Calif. 94043. Phone (415) 960-0768; fax (415) 960-1198.
MacWEEK 02.14.94
Reviews Page 41
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
ProductWatch: OptiMem, RAM Doubler stretch memory
Changing the way the system allocates RAM can be an economical solution to upgrading your machine.
By James Staten
High RAM prices, older Macs that have reached memory limits and PowerBook upgrade limitations have forced managers to consider alternatives to replacing older machines. Two new software utilities, OptiMem ($129) from Jump Development Group of Pittsburgh and RAM Doubler ($99) from Connectix Corp. of San Mateo, Calif., claim to resolve these problems by changing the way the system allocates existing RAM.
Memory matters
Macintosh memory is allocated by the system in a linear fashion. It loads the system heap -- used by system extensions, control panels and the system software -- first at the bottom of the RAM pool, and it loads the Finder next at the top of the pool. As applications are launched, the system allocates memory partitions from the remaining pool below the Finder.
This creates problems that both these memory-optimization utilities attempt to combat.
The first is inefficient memory allocation. As an application is launched, it requests from the system enough memory to perform its functions. This allocation is documented in each application's Get Info box and can be modified by the user. By default, many applications request far more memory than they need for launching, opening files and add-on functions.
The second problem is memory fragmentation. To launch any program, the system must allocate memory as a contiguous block. In the illustration at right, if the user were to quit Microsoft Excel, the largest contiguous block would be only 200 Kbytes, despite free memory totaling 2,248 Kbytes, since the RAM is allocated in fragments.
A third problem, inherent to the Mac but not caused by the system's design, is called the memory effect. It is best described as an error that occurs when a program crashes or is forced to quit. Often when this happens, the memory allocated to the culprit program is not released as free memory.
RAM resolutions
According to Jump, OptiMem fixes memory problems by divvying memory more efficiently, giving each application only as much memory as it needs to get up and running. It then pools all unused RAM.
RAM Doubler promises to double your system's memory by taking over all free memory at start-up, telling the system it has twice as much, and then allocating it to applications as requested and as memory frees up. Opened applications receive the amount of memory they request. RAM Doubler makes extra memory available by freeing memory that is no longer in use, such as that used during start-up or to launch an application.
When the amount of free memory becomes small, RAM Doubler compresses memory assigned to the least recently used functions, usually inactive but open applications. On a Mac with limited RAM (between 4 and 6 Mbytes) that is using most of its memory, compression can affect performance. In this case, RAM Doubler will access about 400 Kbytes on the hard disk for memory paging (the same technique used in virtual memory).
Limitations
While promising more exhaustive use of existing memory, neither product allows a user to open an application or file requiring more RAM than is physically there. Their benefit is in letting users open more applications.
Neither program resolves memory fragmentation. OptiMem diminishes this problem since it shrinks each program's memory partition. RAM Doubler does the same simply by making it less likely you will reach your memory limit. Neither approach has a remedy for the memory effect.
An additional problem is caused by OptiMem. Because this program adjusts memory partitions for launched applications, it often allocates less memory than is needed. To compensate for this, users can turn off OptiMem for certain programs.
Do memory-optimization utilities offer a reliable alternative to buying RAM?
Gregg Deuchar, an end-user support technician for GTE Government Systems in Mountain View, Calif., said yes. "We have a lot of SE and Mac II [models] at our site that can't hold any additional RAM," Deuchar said. "These [utilities] might give us the opportunity to hold off on a hardware upgrade for a year. That can be worth a lot to us."
Adam Engst, editor of TidBITS, a weekly on-line news service based in Redmond, Wash., said: "For people like me, it's worthwhile. RAM Doubler costs $50 [on the street] to up my RAM from 20 Mbytes to 40 Mbytes, but another 20 Mbytes of SIMMs would have probably run $750 or so."
PowerBook users could benefit the most from memory optimizers. Mark H. Anbinder, technical support coordinator for BAKA Computers Inc. of Ithaca, N.Y., said, "These [utilities] are a great solution for PowerBooks, since virtual memory drains batteries quickly, and memory upgrades cost a fortune."
Tim Yancy, information systems manager for Southern California Edison in Rosemead, Calif., said many large organizations shy away from system enhancers such as OptiMem and RAM Doubler because of the possible support problems they can cause.
"[Non-Apple] system extensions are often the source of any technical problems we have," Yancy said. "We try to keep our users from installing anything that could cause a crash or network problem."
Another downside for some is the performance degradation these utilities bring. "The benefits it brought me are really only temporary; I noticed a significant performance slowdown." said Dick Dinkelspiel, an attorney in San Rafael, Calif., who has been using RAM Doubler on his Mac IIsi with 5 Mbytes of RAM. "It's really a poor man's RAM upgrade. For better performance, you should really buy more RAM."
MacWEEK 02.14.94
ProductWatch Page 49
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Mac the Knife: Can a settlement be the reward?
Who would have imagined just four short months ago that the marriage of John Sculley and Spectrum Technologies Inc. would have come to this? Neither the sordid affairs surrounding the U.S. Olympic figure skating team or the mounting tension to see if Roger Clinton will get to the altar before the birth of his child can hold a candle to the spectacle of the litigious termination of a relationship that few fully understood in the first place.
While Sculley's termination by Apple's board of directors was handled with the highest regard for standards of decorum and taste (if not candor), Sculley and Spectrum President Peter Caserta have aired their soiled strife with little regard for anything save, possibly, one-upmanship. It's difficult to determine at this point who is right and who is wrong. But it's clear that, if you measure by the traditional yardstick, Caserta's $300 million suit is much, much larger than Sculley's mere $10 million suit. Still, the Knife is skeptical. Have we heard the real reason Sculley decided to gather up his marbles and exit the playground? With the stakes this high, shouldn't matters of accounting and fact be verified prior to the signing of the employment agreement? Perhaps we'll have to wait for the book, "The Settlement is the Reward."
Spindler did it
With Sculley back in the news again, it's only appropriate to remember that he's now long gone from Apple, and his only legacy may be the number of projects he left to be axed by Michael H. for the overall good of the company. This week's reminder of how flamboyant things might have been was submitted by well-placed sources who claim that the Pomona project, that family of smart designer Macs, has been given the Spindler treatment and is history.
On the other hand, consultants past and present have reported receiving postal mail from Apple recently. The purpose of the mailings is to alert them of the opportunity to hear Apple engineers speak about the true meaning of PowerPC-based Macs. This doesn't mean that Apple is reviving the consultants program that it killed a couple of years ago, only that mailing lists sometimes have a longer shelf life than the programs that spawned them.
Corel call
You may remember that the Mac version of Corel Draw has had a long and convoluted history. First it was going to take maximum advantage of QuickDraw GX, then it was going to be released without even a nod to GX. This was the plan that seems most plausible, given that QuickDraw GX is yet to be released. Now the Knife hears that the entire Corel Draw Mac project has been killed, apparently because management decided that it isn't worth the effort. Although Corel representatives at first claimed that Mac development of some sort was continuing apace, the Knife was unable to get anyone to deny that Corel Draw Mac will never be.
No ready access
On the other hand, it's hard to remember the last time Microsoft killed a project as far along as Corel Draw. The Knife has been hearing for months that Mr. Gate's minions have been working on a native PowerPC-Mac version of Microsoft Access.
But an examination of the arrested state of development of Access 2.0 on the Windows side indicates that the project might be missing in action when the suite of native-mode PowerPC-based Mac applications from Microsoft is released. If bugs are delaying the PC version, we can assume that a Mac version will be similarly delayed, if only for the sake of appearances. And if you're in the business of intimidating competition with unreleased products, appearances are everything.
If you've got an insider tip that the Knife can use, he's got your MacWEEK mug right here. Find out at (415) 243-3544, fax (415) 243-3650, Internet (mac_the_knife@macweek.ziff.com), AppleLink (MacWEEK) or CompuServe/ZiffNet/Mac.
MacWEEK 02.14.94
Mac the Knife Page 86
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
