Cupertino, Calif. -- It has been observed that today's Power Macs are really 680x0 machines with RISC chips grafted on. But in the first quarter of next year, Apple will introduce a new line of computers that even critics will have to agree are Power Macs from top to bottom.
The five Macs Apple will introduce are code-named TNT, Tsunami, Nitro, Catalyst and Alchemy. The five will be differentiated by the speed of their PowerPC 601 processors, the number of PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) slots they offer, their built-in video support and their industrial design. Sources said Apple has not determined the processor speeds.
TNT and Tsunami are the high-end members of the group. Each will come in a case slightly larger than the current Power Mac 8100. They are expected to use the same speed CPU and have six PCI slots.
TNT will act as the highest-performance Mac desktop for all but the most graphics-intensive needs, including database servers and scientific modeling. Tsunami, which will serve as Apple's graphics workstation, will not have built-in video, instead offering it via PCI.
Nitro is intended to replace the Power Mac 8100. Like the 8100, it will have three expansion slots and three internal bays, sources said.
Catalyst will serve the markets of the Power Mac 6100 and 7100. Its case will reportedly resemble the 7100, as will its three expansion slots and storage bay options.
Alchemy will be the entry point for PCI on the Mac, based around an LC logic board with a single PCI slot. Sources said Apple will offer a variety of Macs based on the Alchemy board in a number of different enclosures.
Upgrades from existing Power Macs to Nitro and Catalyst are expected, but Apple will probably not offer upgrades to TNT and Tsunami.
Sources said Apple is using a variety of techniques to keep costs down on all five machines, including less-sturdy plastics and internal hard drive connections based on IDE instead of SCSI technology. All five machines will feature Apple's new high-speed bus architecture that includes, among other things, a SCSI bus that is routed through the PCI bus for the greatest possible throughput.
Apple declined to comment.
The next generation
TNT
6 PCI slots, highest performance
Tsunami
6 PCI slots, no built-in video, high performance
Nitro
3 PCI slots, replaces Power Mac 8100
Catalyst
3 PCI slots, replaces Power Mac 6100/7100
Alchemy
1 PCI slot, adaptable to multiple designs
MacWEEK 06.13.94
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News: Apple builds better 680x0 emulator
By Robert Hess and Andrew Gore
Cupertino, Calif. -- If necessity is the mother of invention, then serendipity must be its father.
While working on a new 680x0 emulator to address performance problems with PowerPC 603-based Power Macs, Apple has reportedly developed software that, when running on a 601, leaves the current emulator in the dust.
Unfortunately, this has left the company with a dilemma: how to introduce the new emulator without interfering with the slow-moving development of native Power Mac software and killing Quadra sales.
However, the opportunity to squeeze out extra performance could not be overlooked. The company has reportedly employed complex emulation techniques and improved caching algorithms to increase the 601 emulator's speed.
The new emulator runs at twice the speed of its predecessor and, coupled with the 60-MHz PowerPC 601 processor, performs as fast as a 33-MHz 68040 Quadra. Sources said that, with 120-MHz 601 chips on the way, it might be possible to achieve emulation speeds close to a 60-MHz 601 running native software.
The first test of the new emulator has reportedly been completed and it is now in the quality-assurance process. It could be ready for release in a matter of months.
Despite the obvious appeal of the new software, a number of issues stand in the way of its debut. Foremost, Apple knows that a faster emulator will make Quadras less appealing to buyers. Unsold inventories of some 680x0-based Macs are still high, sources said.
Apple is also in the enviable position of having a bug-free product in its current emulator. "The industry is raving about what a good job Apple has done with compatibility surrounding the transition [to Power Macs], and [Apple] doesn't want to foul that up by rushing to market with an emulator that hasn't undergone incredibly thorough testing," one source said.
On the other hand, Power Mac sales have slowed considerably; one reason raised for the slowdown is the rate at which native Power Mac software has been released. If 680x0 emulation were to double in performance, buyers might consider the absence of native applications less of an issue.
This could address the sales problem in the short term, sources said. However, having a large selection of native applications will be critical because native performance will still outstrip emulated performance on the same chip.
Sources said Apple is still evaluating these factors in an effort to determine a release date for the double-speed emulator. Apple will most likely introduce it in the first quarter of 1995, at which time the company will also debut several new PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect)-equipped Power Macs, the first PowerPC-based PowerBooks and new system software designed to support them.
Because the current emulator is built into the Power Mac's ROMs, the new emulator will have to be installed as a ROM patch in those systems, sources said.
Apple declined to comment.
MacWEEK 06.13.94
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News: One in three sites have taken to RISC
By MacWEEK Research staff
Although they were introduced just three months ago and despite reports of slow sales (see MacWEEK, June 6, Page 1), Power Macintoshes are already installed in three out of 10 MacWEEK sites.
Power Macs' presence will continue to expand rapidly -- two-thirds of MacWEEK sites plan to buy the new machines in the next three months. Sites that are already using the RISC-based Macintoshes highly rate their performance. These are the highlights of MacWEEK's latest QuickPoll that charts the Power Mac's course about 60 days after the launch.
Twenty-nine percent of the sites surveyed have purchased a Power Mac model since March 14. The 6100 is the most widely purchased model (18 percent), closely followed by the 7100 and 8100 (13 and 14 percent, respectively). In addition, four percent of sites purchased Power Macintosh upgrade boards; in other words, one-third of the sites (31 percent) adopted the PowerPC platform by purchasing computers or upgrade boards.
During the same three-month period, six in 10 sites (61 percent) continued buying Macintosh 680x0-based computers, with Quadras (46 percent) topping the list; most popular are the 33-MHz and faster models.
Configurations
The typical Power Mac purchases among the sites surveyed exceed the base configuration, particularly for the 6100 models. More than half (56 percent) of sites with Power Mac 6100s generally purchased them with 16 Mbytes of RAM or more. The same 16 Mbytes of RAM was the norm for sites purchasing 7100 and 8100 models, although many sites purchased 7100s (20 percent) and 8100s (42 percent) with more than 16 Mbytes of RAM.
The most common hard drive installed on Power Mac 6100s was 250 Mbytes (70 percent of sites). Forty-three percent of the sites purchased Power Mac 7100s with 500-Mbyte drives or more; an impressive 74 percent of sites had the 8100 model with large hard drives. About three-quarters of sites (between 75 percent and 80 percent, depending on model) purchased some Power Macs with CD-ROM drives installed.
About two in every five sites purchased Power Macintoshes with Insignia Solutions Inc.'s SoftWindows installed (between 37 percent and 42 percent, depending on model).
Just less than one in five sites (between 16 and 19 percent depending on model) purchased Power Macs for use as file servers.
Model evaluations
Overall, subscribers regard their Power Macs highly: a majority (at least 65 percent of respondents) rated them as either excellent or good (on a four-point rating scale) on key product capabilities, except for Windows emulation.
In the excellent category, Power Mac 8100s and 7100s outrated 6100 models on their overall performance (68 percent and 57 percent vs. 44 percent). On the other hand, the Power Mac 6100 rated more highly on Mac software compatibility than did the 7100 and 8100 models (53 percent vs. 30 percent and 36 percent).
There was little difference among Power Mac models on ratings for their ease of use and built-in networking features (about six in 10 rated each excellent), value for the money and speed (five in 10 rated each excellent). Just less than half considered each model excellent on durability. However, very few considered the Power Mac models excellent on Windows emulation (about one in 10 rated each excellent).
More plans for Power Macs
In the next three months, two-thirds of sites (67 percent) are planning a Power Mac purchase, with the Power Mac 6100 and 7100 models topping the list (35 percent and 34 percent, respectively).
During the same time span, we may see for the first time Power Mac purchases exceeding those of Quadras. Six in 10 sites (59 percent) plan to purchase 680x0-based Macs, primarily Quadras (32 percent).
A substantial one-third of the sites (33 percent) plan to buy Power Mac upgrades and are split between logic boards (24 percent) and processor direct slot boards (21 percent). Those considering PDS boards are considering buying them from Apple (67 percent) or DayStar Digital Inc. (64 percent).
In total, seven in 10 sites (71 percent) plan to purchase Power Macs or Power Mac upgrade boards in the next three months.
Lack of native a hold-up
About one site in every four has not purchased any Power Macs and is not planning to purchase any of the new machines in the next three months. One major reason is the lack of native-mode software. A typical respondent said: "Without the native-mode software, there is no improvement in speed. It negates the whole purpose of the upgrade."
Buyers also want to wait for hardware and software bugs to be worked out, and some buyers said they feel that certain Quadra models, such as the 950 and the 660AV, are better deals at the moment.
Budget constraints were also cited: Either there were no funds available, or the respondent was at the end of the current fiscal cycle and had to wait for the new budget.
Methodology
The MacWEEK Power Mac QuickPoll was conducted by telephone among 400 MacWEEK sites selected on an nth-name random basis from MacWEEK recipients in the 48 contiguous states. Two hundred interviews were completed, achieving a response rate of 52 percent, excluding all who were unreachable by phone. Six additional interviews were completed to achieve minimal reportable bases on those with Power Mac 7100 and 8100 computers. Fieldwork was conducted between May 18 and 24. CMR Marketing Research Inc., an independent market research firm in New York, was responsible for all survey details.
MacWEEK 06.13.94
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News: PIE may fall under cost-cutting knife
By MacWEEK staff
Apple's Personal Interactive Electronics division, home of the Newton, is reportedly bracing for a major restructuring.
Sources said that anywhere from 25 percent to 40 percent of PIE will be redeployed within Apple.
PIE's moves reportedly arise from lackluster sales of the Newton MessagePad, which have failed to match up with Apple's high expectations.
Company officials confirmed the division is considering a number of ways to cut costs, including layoffs. "We are going to have to make some hard decisions real soon," said Shane Robison, PIE vice president of engineering.
"What we are trying to do is not have this so driven by numbers that we make the wrong decisions. Joe [Graziano, PIE's current general manager] has been really good at trying to understand the business and the technology. He wants to make sure we know that the business model is going forward and that we will have what we need to support that before we just start whacking things."
Graziano is Apple's chief financial officer, but he took over management of PIE after the firing of Gaston Bastiaens in April. Graziano is now expected to remain at that post indefinitely.
Robison, who is considered PIE's second in command after Graziano, said in an interview last month that Apple is making no attempt to find a permanent replacement for Bastiaens. Many thought Graziano would serve only on an interim basis.
In addition, Robison said he considers the company's publicly proclaimed goal of having PIE become profitable by the end of Apple's fiscal year, ending Sept. 30, to be "somewhat unrealistic." He declined to predict when the division would turn a profit.
One industry analyst said that keeping Apple's top financial officer in charge of PIE makes sense. Gerry Purdy, editor of Mobile Letter, a newsletter based here, said that until PIE's financial house is in order, it will be difficult to hire someone, from inside or outside the company, to take over the division. "I don't think they are giving up on hiring someone," he said. "I consider it just an action deferred."
After Bastiaens left, Apple executives said that they planned to focus the division more on Newton by canceling all non-Newton PIE projects or moving them to other Apple divisions.
One PIE project whose usefulness some analysts have questioned is StarCore, a group focused on publishing and distributing Newton titles. But Robison defended the group, saying that StarCore's real purpose is to help small developers who don't have the resources to publish software titles on their own. "StarCore is still very much a part of the Newton plan," he said.
In the future, PIE plans to work harder to make Newton technology and tools more available to licensees and developers, Robison said. For instance, some developers have complained that NewtonScript, the Newton's high-level interpretive language, doesn't let them create high-performance applications. "We are addressing those issues with compiler technologies that will be coming out soon, and with further opening of the tools," Robison said.
While Apple is professing its allegiance to Newton, a number of sources close to Apple told MacWEEK that the company is looking for a buyer of the Newton technology. Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. of Tokyo has been frequently mentioned as a purchaser.
A PIE spokeswoman said Newton remains the division's core technology, and Apple has no intention of selling it.
Eric Lach contributed to this report.
MacWEEK 06.13.94
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News: CE to strengthen QuickMail client in 3.0
By Nathalie Welch
West Des Moines, Iowa -- CE Software Inc. is preparing a major upgrade to its QuickMail client for AppleTalk that adds much-requested mailbox-management tools, such as automated message handling and full-text searches.
According to the company, QuickMail 3.0 for Mac and Windows will ship Aug. 15. Although Version 3.0 of the QuickMail server software will be included, the server upgrade is made up of generally available bug fixes to Version 2.6, CE said.
According to sources, CE will follow up with a major revision of its server, dubbed Version 3.5, by the end of the year. The new server will enhance services for remote QuickMail users and add new mail-management features for administrators. CE declined to comment on the server upgrade.
Unlike the current Mac client, which is a desk accessory, QuickMail 3.0 will run as an application under System 7. New searching, mail-management and spell-checking functions are listed under a Tools menu; Spell and Search buttons also appear in the main mail screen. A new MailManager automates replying, forwarding, filing, printing and deleting. MailManager will let users define how they want a message handled based on sender, subject, priority, recipient, date or text contained within the body of the message. The QuickMail application must be open to perform automated functions. Users can also password-protect the software, which appears on screen as a small locked icon, the company said.
To help users keep track of their memos, QuickMail 3.0 can search personal folders to locate filed E-mail by sender, subject, body text, priority and date. Found messages appear in a window where users can browse but not edit; a double-click opens the original message.
QuickMail 3.0 makes it easier to copy addresses from an incoming message into any address book. The update's other enhancements include spell checking, using dictionaries licensed from InoSoft; the ability to print listings of address books; and larger capacity for personal folders, which now hold 250 filed messages instead of 100.
Synchronization of QuickMail 3.0 directories, in addition to address translation and document conversion, will ship later this year, as the fruit of an arrangement between CE Software and Boston Software Works Inc. of Boston. The first such product, InterOffice for QuickMail MHS, will ship next month for $4,500.
According to sources, the Version 3.5 server upgrade will include a telecommunications component that can reside on a Mac separate from the QuickMail server. The dial-in software reportedly will not be based on the Macintosh Communications Toolbox and will be capable of supporting multiple simultaneous modem connections.
Sources also said that Version 3.5 of the server will give managers the ability to force updates to client address books, including both Main and personal directories. Archive and purge facilities will be added to administrators' arsenals as well, letting them define criteria for when E-mail stored on the server should be archived to other media and deleted.
Support for the X.400 Application Program Interface Association's Common Mail Call 2.0 will be added to allow communications with other E-mail systems, sources said.
QuickMail 3.0 will start at $649 for the server software plus Mac and Windows clients, the same price as Version 2.6. Customers who purchase QuickMail 2.6 after June 13 can upgrade free to Version 3.0, otherwise, upgrades are $12 per user.
CE Software Inc. is at P.O. Box 65580, 1801 Industrial Circle, West Des Moines, Iowa 50265. Phone (515) 221-1801; fax (515) 221-1806.
MacWEEK 06.13.94
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News: Apple to ship 630-series Macs in July
By James Staten
Cupertino, Calif. -- Apple's latest round of 68040-based desktop machines will debut next month with miniature expansion slots designed for specific solutions.
Sources said the new models, dubbed the 630 series, will be priced at less than $2,000; use a 33-MHz 68LC040 chip; and ship in the Performa, Quadra and LC lines.
The Quadra version will come with 4 Mbytes of RAM, a 250- or 350-Mbyte hard drive, and an optional AppleCD 300i Plus CD-ROM player, sources said. The machines have four expansion slots, each designed to take a specific type of card (see MacWEEK, March 21, Page 1).
The four slots include an LC processor direct slot. A communications slot identical to the one found in the LC 575 will accommodate Apple's $99 LC Ethernet cards or a new 14.4-bps internal fax modem based on the Apple Express Modem architecture. A video slot accommodates the Apple Multimedia Video System, a video-input card that supports NTSC, PAL (European) and SECAM (French) video signals. Another slot accepts a cable-ready television tuner card similar to Mac TV (see MacWEEK, Oct. 18, 1993, Page 3).
To keep prices low, Apple has removed several features found in the LC 500-series machines. The 630s include only one Apple Desktop Bus port, one mono sound-in port, and one 72-pin SIMM socket, supporting up to 36 Mbytes. The machines feature 1 Mbyte of nonexpandable video RAM, providing 16-bit color on 15-inch displays at 640-by-480-pixel resolution and eight-bit color at 800-by-600-pixel resolution on 15-inch displays, as well as an eight-bit sound chip (16-bit stereo playback is provided through the CD-ROM drive). According to sources, all the machines can be upgraded to PowerPC technology.
Along with the new 630s will come a new, lower-cost keyboard modeled after those sold with Intel-standard clones, sources said. It will feature the same keyboard layout as the current Apple Extended Keyboard II but will have a permanently attached 2-meter ADB cable. Sources priced the keyboard at less than $100.
The education market's 630 machine will be called the LC 636. It will come in two configurations: one with 4 Mbytes of RAM and a 250-Mbyte hard drive, priced at $1,272, and one with 8 Mbytes of RAM, a 250-Mbyte hard drive and a CD-ROM, for $1,545.
The consumer line will feature six configurations from which dealers will be allowed to carry two, sources said. The models, numbered from 630 to 638, will feature between 4 and 8 Mbytes of RAM, internal CD-ROM drives and 250-Mbyte hard drives. Sources also said that some Performa models will come with the Apple Multimedia Video System installed.
Apple declined to comment.
MacWEEK 06.13.94
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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: Corel bringing apps to Power Mac
By Kirsten L. Parkinson
Ottawa -- While users of 680x0-based Macs won't see CorelDraw on their desktops any time soon, Corel Corp. will soon begin porting the popular graphics package to the Power Mac platform.
CorelDraw combines several stand-alone applications, including CorelDraw, CorelChart, Corel Ventura, and Corel Photo-Paint. According to Corel's director of publishing software, Eid Eid, the company will first release a Power Mac version of Photo-Paint, a photo-retouching and image-editing program, followed by the other CorelDraw components.
"Since the Power Mac started, we have felt this is a platform that we cannot ignore because it is a very serious platform for desktop publishers," Eid said. "Since we have rewritten Photo-Paint from the ground up [for CorelDraw 5 for Windows], it made a very good candidate."
Eid said Corel, based here, is evaluating conversion tools and third-party developers who can help Corel port the software. He estimated that converting Photo-Paint will take about four months, allowing the company to release the application by the end of the year.
While Eid said that the CorelDraw drawing application will probably be the second program Corel releases for Power Mac, he declined to comment on availability or price.
Corel had planned to release a 680x0-based version of CorelDraw that would support QuickDraw GX but put the project on hold because of internal factors and Apple's delays in delivering GX, Eid said. In-stead, the company is developing a business-graphics program for 680x0-based Macs and expects to release it later this year, he said.
MacWEEK 06.13.94
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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: 15-inch monitor to join Apple multi-res series
By Cate C. Corcoran
Cupertino, Calif. -- Apple reportedly is planning to add to the low end of its recently launched line of multiple-resolution monitors with a new 15-inch display.
The Apple Multiple Scan 15, which sources said is scheduled to be announced July 18, features a 15-inch flat-square Hitachi tube with an Invar shadow mask and a dot pitch of 0.28mm. The monitor's ApplePrice reportedly will be $479.
Like Apple's earlier Multiple Scan monitors, the Multiple Scan 15 lets users change resolutions on the fly. The forthcoming monitor's resolution settings will range from 640 by 480 pixels to 1,024 by 768 pixels.
The monitor will feature stereo speakers, a headphone jack and a tilt-and-swivel base.
According to sources, the new monitor will comply with extremely low- and very low-frequency emission standards described by Energy Star and MPR II. Apple reportedly will offer an anti-glare option.
Apple shipped its Multiple Scan 20 and 17 models in March and April, respectively (see MacWEEK, April 11, Page 4).
Apple declined to comment.
MacWEEK 06.13.94
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News: New Micropolis drives target video
By David Morgenstern
Chatsworth, Calif. -- Micropolis Corp. last week delivered a pair of new high-performance hard drives aimed at digital video production.
The $5,455 Scorpio 1991AV is a 5.25-inch Fast SCSI-2 drive with a 9.1-Gbyte capacity. The 1991AV has an average seek time of 13 milliseconds. The drive has uninterrupted and maximum sustained data transfer rates of 4.3 and 6.4 Mbytes per second, respectively. According to Micropolis, the uninterrupted sustained rate is the highest speed that can be attained without dropping frames in video applications.
The Taurus 4110AV is a 1-Gbyte drive that costs $1,255. The Fast SCSI-2, 3.5-inch drive offers an average seek time of 8.5 milliseconds. Its uninterrupted and maximum sustained data transfer rates are 2.9 and 4.3 Mbytes per second, respectively.
The drives incorporate the company's advanced thermal-calibration technology, which provides higher uninterrupted data transfer rates by performing thermal recalibration during idle periods. The mechanisms also use multisegmented, read-ahead caching to improve performance.
The mechanisms support user installation of software upgrades for controller firmware. The drives come with five-year warranties.
The 1- and 9.1-Gbyte drives are available in Micropolis' Microdisk AV modular storage system enclosures for $1,695 and $5,995, respectively.
Micropolis Corp. is at 21211 Nordhoff St., Chatsworth, Calif. 91311. Phone (818) 709-3300 or (800) 395-3748; fax (818) 709-3396.
MacWEEK 06.13.94
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News: General Magic halts stock offering
Mountain View, Calif. -- General Magic Inc.'s initial public offering has reportedly vanished into thin air, at least for now.
The company, which develops software that lets personal communicators send data and fax messages via wireless networks or phone lines, has postponed by several months a stock offering originally planned for mid-May. The IPO was expected to fetch $36 million to $45 million (see MacWEEK, April 4, Page 34).
Sources at the company, based here, said General Magic decided to scuttle the offering because of the tardiness of its software and a soft IPO market.
The 4-year-old company had planned to finish its Magic Cap and TeleScript software last year but found the undertaking more difficult than it expected. The technology may not be ready until next year, according to sources.
General Magic declined to comment on the IPO delay.
MacWEEK 06.13.94
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News: HP, Intel pair off on RISC futures
By David Morgenstern
Santa Clara, Calif. -- The risky game of high-performance computing last week gained a new tag team of players. Intel Corp., here, and Hewlett-Packard Co. of Palo Alto, Calif., announced an intention to form a joint development effort to create a new RISC processor. The companies expect the as-yet-unnamed chip to be available by 1997 or 1998.
The new 64-bit RISC chip will run software operating on Intel's x86 and Pentium processors, as well as HP's Precision Architecture workstations. No details were provided on compatibility issues, but the companies said that current and future programs would run without modifications or performance penalties.
Industry analysts said that the move was good for both parties, giving HP access to efficient high-volume chip production and providing Intel with a more powerful and more scalable architecture.
"Intel saw that HP, [Digital Equipment Corp.] and the PowerPC [consortium of Apple, Motorola Inc. and IBM Corp.] have something better, so it just had to bite the RISC bullet," said analyst Kim Brown at Dataquest, a market research company in San Jose, Calif.
"This puts an incredible pressure on Apple to license the Mac OS and to comply with the [PowerPC Reference Platform]," Brown said. "Apple will kill the PowerPC if it simply holds on to the current user base. [The consortium] has a good window of opportunity, but the clock is ticking."
IBM PowerPC spokesman Steven Malkiewicz said, "This move affirms our view that RISC is the current and future architecture of choice."
HP and Intel said they hope to iron out unresolved details in July. The project then must pass a 60-day antitrust review by the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department.
MacWEEK 06.13.94
News Page 76
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Gateways: Directory sync apps coming for Mac mail
By Nathalie Welch
San Francisco -- Mac E-mail managers' calls for directory assistance are being answered by several vendors' new LAN gateway and integration services.
> US West Advanced Communications Services. The Interact Message Switching Service, a subscription-based E-mail integration system launched last month, gives LAN E-mail users unique addresses on a central server in Minneapolis. Customers' LAN-based mail systems poll the server at predefined times to retrieve stored messages.
Supported packages include the Mac and Windows versions of Microsoft Mail, Lotus Development Corp.'s cc:Mail, CE Software Inc.'s QuickMail and Da Vinci Systems Corp.'s eMAIL.
Pricing includes setup fees of $50 per LAN mail server and up to $7 per user; monthly fees are $75 per LAN server. Remote users are charged $25 for setup and $15 a month. Transaction fees for LAN and remote users range between 2 cents and 15 cents per kilobyte. Long-distance charges also apply.
> Hitachi Computer Products (America) Inc. Mosaic Works Agent@QuickMail for Macintosh, a "directory propagation agent" that works with Hitachi's SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)-based Mosaic Works Directory Server, will ship next month. The agent sends changes noted in QuickMail NameServer databases to a Mosaic server, where they are consolidated and used to update the other E-mail systems.
Hitachi already offers agents for Novell's Message Handling Service (MHS), cc:Mail, Microsoft Mail for PC Networks, and SMTP-compliant E-mail systems. Agent@QuickMail requires an SMTP gateway.
Agent@QuickMail for Macintosh is $995 per NameServer, the same price as all its other agents; the Mosaic Works Directory Server, which resides on a Sun workstation, starts at $2,495.
> Boston Software Works Inc. Next month the company will deliver InterOffice for QuickMail MHS, a gateway developed and marketed with CE Software. The gateway links MHS systems to the InterOffice Message Exchange, the server-based component that provides mail transfer, address translation, directory synchronization and document conversion for several supported E-mail systems. According to CE and Boston Software Works, the gateways will connect any MHS-based E-mail packages.
Gateways, called "access units," are available for cc:Mail, Microsoft Mail, Novell MHS, Banyan Systems Inc.'s Intelligent Messaging, SMTP-based Unix mail, Hewlett-Packard Co.'s OpenMail, Digital Equipment Corp.'s All-In-One, IBM Corp.'s OfficeVision/VM and PROFS, MCI Mail, and X.400-based systems.
LAN E-mail access units, including QuickMail MHS, are each $4,500; midrange solutions are typically priced at $12,500; and the OfficeVision/VM gateway is $24,500.
US West Advanced Communications Services is at 111 Washington Ave. S., Room 622, Minneapolis, Minn. 55401. Phone (612) 672-8520 or (800) 672-8520; fax (612) 672-8537.
Hitachi Computer Products (America) Inc. is at 3101 Tasman Drive, Santa Clara, Calif. 95054. Phone (408) 986-9770 or (800) 448-2244; fax (408) 986-0449.
Boston Software Works Inc. is at 177 Milk St., Boston, Mass. 02109. Phone (617) 482-9898; fax (617) 542-7956.
MacWEEK 06.13.94
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Gateways: ON, Beyond: Mergers' minor toll on E-mail
By Nathalie Welch
After a flurry of recent E-mail and scheduling acquisitions, it looks like more business as usual for Macintosh sites as the consolidated companies outline product strategies that abandon nothing.
ON Technology Corp. of Cambridge, Mass., last month acquired Da Vinci Systems Corp. of Raleigh, N.C, for an undisclosed sum. The deal was made possible by the participation of Novell Inc., ON founder Mitch Kapor and several venture capitalists, who invested $8.5 million in ON Technology.
Da Vinci's Mac products include Da Vinci eMAIL for the Macintosh, a client that runs over Novell's Message Handling Service (MHS). But the company's strength lies in the DOS and Windows market, where it also sells CaLANdar, a scheduling package it licenses from Microsystems Software Inc. of Framingham, Mass.
In its stable, ON Technology has Notework, an E-mail package for DOS and Windows clients, and Meeting Maker XP, its flagship network scheduler for DOS, Windows and Mac. The two companies' product lines overlap in E-mail and scheduling, but they insist their development plans will not change.
"We will be keeping the Da Vinci line intact. We are not going to [make] obsolete any of its products," said Zyg Furmaniuk, senior product manager at ON Technology. "We did not buy Da Vinci so we could gain CaLANdar's installed base for Meeting Maker. We did it so we could strengthen our market position on the DOS and Windows side."
Microsystems Software developed a Macintosh client for CaLANdar that was not licensed to Da Vinci or bought by ON Technology. Beyond Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., also licensed CaLANdar, including the Macintosh version, and is working on integrating the scheduling product with its E-mail client software.
Furmaniuk said that the purchase of Da Vinci's eMAIL will enable ON Technology to give Notework users a migration path to a more powerful messaging system and that both E-mail lines will continue.
In another purchase, Banyan Systems Inc. of Westboro, Mass., acquired Beyond earlier this year. Prior to the purchase, Beyond shipped PowerRules for PowerTalk, an add-on to AppleMail that provides conditional mail-sorting rules.
The company is also working on Beyond Mail 2.0 for the Macintosh, an MHS and Intelligent Messaging client not yet in beta but expected by the end of the year. Beyond Mail 2.0 is already shipping in an MHS version for DOS and Windows, and an upgrade is due by midyear that will support Intelligent Messaging on Intel-standard machines.
"Customers will continue to see us providing a full Beyond Mail product that can live on an increasing array of open transports," said Eugene H. Lee, vice president of product planning at Beyond.
Banyan offers its own Mac E-mail client for Intelligent Messaging. Last year Banyan announced that its Intelligent Messaging engine would be upgraded to support MAPI (Messaging Application Programming Interface) and PowerTalk clients.
"Banyan is likely to continue to provide the existing Mac client [to Intelligent Messaging], but most people will probably want to switch to our more fully featured [Beyond Mail] client," Lee said.
MacWEEK 06.13.94
Gateways Page 8
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Gateways: Mail systems under fire
Survey finds many users are dissatisfied
By Stephen Howard
Los Altos, Calif. -- An independent survey of Mac E-mail administrators indicates widespread dissatisfaction with current products and big changes afoot in the makeup of the installed base.
Market researchers Indigo Systems of San Francisco and Collaborative Marketing, based here, last week released "1994 -- The Year of Change for Macintosh Mail Users," a study based on responses from about 50 E-mail managers at business, government and higher education sites of various sizes.
The respondents were drawn from multiple sources, so their answers are not necessarily representative of all Mac E-mail managers. But John Katsaros, Collaborative's president, pointed out that together the managers polled control more than 100,000 Mac mailboxes, making their responses significant, particularly for large sites.
The central finding of the survey is that half the managers of LAN-based Mac E-mail systems are somewhat or very dissatisfied with their software. Thirty percent are similarly dissatisfied with E-mail gateways in place.
About one-third of the managers predict that they will switch vendors for E-mail and gateways in the next two years. The survey creators predicted that the eventual defections will be more widespread, with nearly three-quarters of managers dropping their current E-mail packages over the next five years. Two-thirds of gateways owners will convert to new vendors as well, the companies said.
The high cost of moving to a new messaging system is less of a deterrent than might be expected because of changes in the industry, said Tim Fredel, president of Indigo. "Vendors are revamping their strategies and forcing users to switch [in order to upgrade]. These users are up for grabs," Fredel said.
The survey says Apple will be the major beneficiary of these changes, once the company ships the PowerTalk-equipped System 7.5 in August and bundles it with new Macs. An estimated 30 percent of 7.5 users will use PowerTalk as their primary E-mail system, up from 5 percent today, the survey predicts. This will create an installed base of 3.3 million PowerTalk users by the end of 1996.
Such a migration to PowerTalk would reshape the Mac E-mail market. The survey predicts that in 1996 PowerTalk's installed base will be nearly double that of the current market leader, QuickMail from CE Software Inc. Another change will come from the rising popularity of the Eudora, a Mac client to SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) servers available in free and commercial versions from Qualcomm Inc. The survey prognosticates an installed base of nearly 2 million mailboxes for both versions by the end of 1996.
The full survey costs $4,500. Several E-mail vendors, including Apple, Lotus Development Corp. and Hitachi Computer Products (America) Inc., agreed to purchase the survey while it was still in its planning stages.
Collaborative Marketing is at 1 First St., Los Altos, Calif. 94022. Phone (415) 949-3256; fax (415) 948-6172.
MacWEEK 06.13.94
Gateways Page 8
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Mobile: Fat RAM puts squeeze on modems
Tight fit in PB 500s with some modules
By James Staten
San Francisco -- PowerBook 500 users who need add-on RAM should take a close look at the memory modules they purchase before installing them. Some cards may impede the installation of, or make electrical contact with, an internal modem card.
Lifetime Memory Products Inc. said some 16- and 32-Mbyte modules that use fatter dynamic RAM chips on the bottom of the card could dip down into the space reserved for an internal modem. The offending chips are SOJ (soldered on J-bend leads) DRAM that are 3.66mm thick -- 2.16mm thicker than the space allotted for memory cards in Apple's 500-series PowerBook specifications.
In contrast, TSOP (thin small-outline package) DRAM chips, which measure 1.2mm thick, are well within Apple's specifications.
Tim Greco, vice president of operations for King Memory & Peripherals Inc. of Irvine, Calif., which uses the SOJ chips in some of its boards, said his company's products do not cause this problem.
"Most of the boards with SOJs should fit and not bother the modem, as long as they are built and installed correctly," Greco said. King's modules are built by machine, he said, and it is hand-made cards that generally have excess solder, which could cause a problem.
He also pointed to improperly installed memory modules as a possible cause. Inside the 500s are two plastic brackets opposite the RAM module socket. Most memory modules should be mounted in these brackets, or they may hang down into the modem's area.
Greco added that using SOJ chips is necessary since supplies of the preferred TSOP chips are short. Lifetime Memory Products Inc. and Newer Technology Inc. said they use only TSOP chips.
MacWEEK 06.13.94
Mobile Computing Page 14
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Mobile: Apple clocks new marketing tactic
By Robert Hess
In addition to new technologies such as the trackpad and full-sized keyboard, Apple's new 500-series PowerBooks also introduce something a bit less technological: a new marketing ploy.
In an effort to counter years of advertising by vendors of Intel-standard PC portables, Apple is now promoting its new PowerBooks' "clock-doubled" performance ratings, which indicate the speeds at which the CPU operates internally as well as with the rest of the computer system.
With this labeling method, the PowerBook 540 is said to have a 66/33-MHz 68040 processor. This does not mean it runs twice as fast as a Quadra 650, which is still advertised as running at 33 MHz; the two machines' processors run at the same clock rates.
Charlie Tritschler, Apple's PowerBook product manager, said the change in strategy is the best way to respond to the PC industry's technique of using clock-doubled ratings on computers, especially portables.
"In fact," Tritschler said, "some of the industry is claiming that their computers run at the internal clock rate. So now, instead of saying '66/33', they're just saying '66'.
"It's unfair, as customers evaluate computers of each platform, for us to use different performance measuring systems," Tritschler said. "Customers are wrongly concluding that an Intel-based portable is twice as fast as a PowerBook. We've actually seen customers confused by that."
According to Apple, while the PowerBooks' 68LC040 and Intel's 486DX2 implement slightly different forms of clock doubling, the 68040's more-sophisticated on-chip cache makes it better able to take advantage of clock doubling, giving it a slight edge in performance at the same speeds.
Sources say Apple will incorporate this naming convention into other '040-based Macs later this year, while Power Macs will not be changed.
MacWEEK 06.13.94
Mobile Computing Page 14
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Mobile: Supra ships PCMCIA modem
By James Staten
Vancouver, Wash. -- Once Apple ships its PCMCIA card cage for the 500-series PowerBooks next month, users will be able to swap some peripheral cards between the PowerBook and Newton. One such device available now is a fax modem from Supra Corp.
The SupraCOMcard 144, priced at $349.95, is a Type II PCMCIA modem based on Rockwell International Corp.'s 144ACL chip set. It supports industry-standard protocols, including V.32bis, V.17, V.29, V.27ter, V.42, MNP levels 2 through 4 and MNP Level 10. The COMcard uses the extended Hayes AT-command set.
The card also supports Group 3 fax and Class 1 and Class 2 data transmission software, although no Mac or Newton fax applications are currently included with the card.
Power for the COMcard is drawn from the PowerBook or Newton battery directly through the PCMCIA connector. The device features an internal Data Access Arrangement (DAA) to arbitrate the digital-to-analog signal conversion. An external jack adapter, included with the modem, is required to connect to RJ-11 or international phone cables. In contrast, the Apple Fax Modem Card, made by Salt Lake City-based Megahertz Corp., uses an integrated pop-up connector called the XJack instead of an external adapter (see MacWEEK, Nov. 15, 1993, Page 14).
Two user configurations and four phone numbers can be stored on internal flash memory; the flash memory can also be used to store modem driver software upgrades.
Supra said Version 1.3 of the Newton operating system is required and that "all efforts are being made" to ensure compatibility with the 500-series PowerBooks.
The SupraCOMcard 144 is covered by a five-year warranty.
Supra Corp. is at 501 S.E. Columbia Shores Blvd., Suite 700, Vancouver, Wash. 98661. Phone (206) 905-1401 or (800) 727-8772; fax (206) 905-1400.
MacWEEK 06.13.94
Mobile Computing Page 14
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
GA: HSC ships KPT Bryce, Kai's Power Tools 2.1
By Carolyn Said
Santa Monica, Calif. -- Mystical islands off Sri Lanka, mountains of the Southwest and the seventh moon of Jupiter are among the natural and supernatural 3-D landscapes users can create with KPT Bryce, according to HSC Software.
The new 3-D rendering program offers dozens of preset skies and terrains to help users, even novices, create photorealistic landscapes. Advanced users can control aspects such as surface contours, bumpiness, translucency, reflectivity, color, alpha channels, humidity and cloud attributes. Bryce also includes a module to turn landscapes into screen savers.
"I can composite a photographic image in a Bryce landscape and have it react in a natural 3-D fashion, casting shadows and showing reflections," said beta-user Pieter Lessing, a photographer in Los Angeles. "It eliminates a lot of the tedious work one would have to do in Photoshop." Bryce-generated skies "are extremely photorealistic," he said. "With outdoor shoots you don't have control over the sky; now I have the ability to generate any type of sky, and no one would know it's computer-generated."
KPT Bryce, named after Bryce Canyon in Utah, is $199. Users of Kai's Power Tools can buy it for $99 from dealers or $89.95 from HSC.
HSC last week also released Version 2.1 of Kai's Power Tools, its collection of Photoshop filters, with versions for Power Macs and 680x0-based Macs in one box. HSC said the Power Mac version offers three- to eightfold speed increases in non-native versions.
Version 2.1 adds four new filters: Vortex Tiler, which creates multiple copies of a selected area and tiles them into a vortex; Gaussian Glow and Gaussian Electrify, which blur smoothly in darker and lighter areas of an image, respectively; and Gaussian Weave, which blurs an image twice, once horizontally and once vertically, and blends the two.
KPT 2.1 ships with Color It!, MicroFrontier Inc.'s $149.95 image-editing application that supports Photoshop plug-ins. Upgrades are $29.95 or free to users who purchased the package after May 23.
HSC Software is at 1661 Lincoln Blvd., Suite 101, Santa Monica, Calif. 90404. Phone (310) 392-8441; fax (310) 392-6015.
MacWEEK 06.13.94
GA Page 16
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
GA: Xerox turns up heat with color laser
By David Morgenstern
Rochester, N.Y. -- Xerox Corp.'s Office Document Systems Division will heat up the desktop color laser printer market this week when it introduces the Xerox 4900 Color Laser Printer.
Providing 1,200-by-300-dpi resolution on plain paper, the 4900 is the latest in Xerox's MajestiK line of color copiers and printers. It is slated to ship in July and will be priced at $8,495.
The printer is based on the same Hitachi engine used in QMS Inc.'s ColorScript 1000, and it outputs CMYK color or monochrome black in a single pass. Xerox said the 4900 can print at 3 pages per minute in full-color mode, 6 ppm in two-color mode and 12 ppm in black-and-white mode.
Based on a 25-MHz RISC processor, the 4900 ships with 12 Mbytes of RAM and can be upgraded to a maximum of 48 Mbytes. The printer can automatically switch among Adobe PostScript Level 2, HP PCL 5 and HP-GL/2. It also supports Apple's ColorSync color matching, with Pantone support expected for a summer release.
The 4900 comes standard with simultaneously active LocalTalk, Centronics parallel and RS-232C serial interfaces. An optional Ethernet card costs $649, and TCP/IP support is expected in the fourth quarter.
The new color laser incorporates Xerox's Quad-dot frequency-modulation screening technology, which the company said eliminates color moire artifacts.
"There will be many challenges for Xerox with the printer. It is its first product in the channel that is not being offered direct," said Marco Boer, printer market analyst at International Data Corp. based in Framingham, Mass. "But the timing is great. Coming out before [Hewlett-Packard Co.] and with such a killer price, Xerox can make a significant penetration into HP's markets."
HP this fall will reportedly introduce a pair of color laser printers priced at less than $9,000. The printers are said to output 400-dpi color and 800-dpi monochrome black at speeds of 2 ppm and 10 ppm, respectively (see MacWEEK, May 16, Page 1).
QMS, previously the sole vendor of desktop color laser printers, recently dropped the price of its 300-dpi ColorScript 1000 printer to $9,999, from $12,499.
Xerox Corp.'s Office Document Systems Division is at 80 Linden Oaks, Rochester, N.Y. 14625. Phone (800) 275-9376, Ext. WT4900; fax (800) 532-9979.
MacWEEK 06.13.94
GA Page 16
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
BusinessWatch: IS managers slam Apple sales pitch
'Apple doesn't know how to fight IS war'
By Jon Swartz
Dallas -- MacIS members convene here this week for their biannual summit, where, traditionally, they compile a top 10 wish list of what they'd like Apple and other vendors to do.
Last week, IS managers at several major companies offered their opinions about Apple's corporate sales pitch -- and it wasn't pretty.
Mac advocates said selling Apple equipment into their predominantly DOS shops is a frustrating task. "Bonehead stunts like [ASPN] have made it more difficult for [Mac proponents] to prevail against the entrenched MIS PC-mentality bureaucracy," said an MIS manager at Pacific Bell in San Francisco.
Apple Solution Professionals Network, offered by Apple USA, asks corporate sites to pay $850 annually in membership fees for product and marketing information, business development plans and technology briefings. "This borders on old-fashioned snake-oil tactics," another Mac manager said. "It's ludicrous and demeaning."
At the same time, sources at several large sites -- including Exxon Corp. of Irving, Texas, and GE Aircraft Engines, a division of Fairfield, Conn.-based General Electric Co. -- said they have suspended Mac purchases because of steep equipment and conversion costs and a lack of native Power Mac applications.
Just two years ago, GEAE was one of the top sites in MacWEEK's poll of the 200 largest Macintosh installations in the United States.
Then there's the case of an IS manager for a major airline, a dogged Apple supporter who pioneered the installation of a 900-Mac network at his company. After championing the Mac for more than a decade, he now is on the verge of becoming a full-time Pentium user.
His decision didn't come overnight. It came after several incidents with Apple sales representatives that "unequivocally show they are arrogant and stupid" about corporate America, he said.
"[Apple] gave up on us; we didn't give up on it," said the IS manager, who asked not to be identified. He said that when he requested a loaner PowerBook for a vertical application he was spearheading last year, Apple balked, insisting he buy the machine himself. Meanwhile, a handful of companies that make Intel-standard computers provided without hesitation $35,000 worth of portable equipment for unlimited use.
The IS manager wasn't through trying to pitch Macs to corporate brass, though. But when he approached Apple about using Newtons for the same project, he said Apple officials ignored him, and the handheld device lacked the memory necessary for the application. The contract, which calls for the purchase of 1,500 devices, has still not been awarded. One thing is certain, though: Apple is out of the running, he said.
Corporate users said that until Apple demonstrates it understands the needs and politics of MIS departments, it will continue to struggle selling into corporate accounts.
"Apple obviously doesn't know how to fight the IS war," the airline official said. "It's fine for Apple to foster this myth of blue jeans and T-shirts, but when it comes to corporate America, they need to learn to conform. They haven't."
While most corporate users contacted criticized Apple, some IS managers said the company has frequently visited their sites and responded promptly to their demands. The University of Chicago, for example, said it intends to continue buying large quantities of Macs.
MacWEEK 06.13.94
BusinessWatch Page 22
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
BusinessWatch: CD software distribution scaled back
By Kirsten L. Parkinson
Santa Ana, Calif. -- Despite the hype, 1994 will not be the year of the CD-ROM, at least not as far as distributors of applications on disc are concerned.
Sales of software from Apple's Software Dispatch, Ingram Micro Inc.'s CD Access and Multiple Zones International Inc.'s Instant Access have been disappointing, observers said, leading Ingram to discontinue its disc and Apple to refocus its program.
Ingram, based here, recently put its CD Access product, originally released last fall, on hiatus. In a letter sent to developers participating in the project, Ingram said: "As sales results continue to become available, Ingram Micro will proceed by analyzing the market potential for the development of future discs. In the interim, CD Access will suspend its program until conclusive data has been compiled."
Apple has canceled plans for future CDs of third-party products and will instead concentrate on discs containing Apple software, said Jonathan Fader, Software Dispatch marketing manager. The business unit will also be folded into AppleSoft. "One of the shifts we're making is placing the investment we've made in Software Dispatch as a marketing tool for our own product," he said.
Meanwhile, Redmond, Wash.-based Multiple Zones, parent company of mail-order outfit Mac Zone, said it is taking a wait-and-see attitude toward the CD-distribution market.
David Barrow, Multiple Zones' vice president of merchandising, said the Instant Access product had an unlocking rate of about 5 percent. "It has not been a huge success, nor a failure -- just mediocre," he said.
The biggest downfall of these projects, observers said, has been ease of use. "It is simply not more convenient to browse a CD-ROM than to flip the pages of a mail-order catalog," one developer said. "Until they overcome that hurdle in ease of use, they're fighting an uphill battle."
MacWEEK 06.13.94
BusinessWatch Page 22
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
BusinessWatch: Justice to question Microsoft execs
By Jon Swartz
Washington -- The Justice Department's paper chase of Microsoft Corp. forged ahead last week amid reports that the department's 10-month antitrust investigation is heating up.
While federal authorities sift through more than 1 million pages of internal Microsoft records, sources here said the government is ready to begin taking depositions from executives of the world's largest software company.
The sworn testimony is expected to shed more light on the scores of antitrust violations alleged by dozens of rivals against Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft. The investigation is likely to continue for several more months, a Justice official said.
WordPerfect Corp. of Orem, Utah, among others, claims that Microsoft's nondisclosure agreements are unfairly restrictive, particularly those involving its forthcoming Chicago operating system.
Other software developers are hoping that a Justice Department lawsuit will determine that some of Microsoft's business practices are unfair, such as the volume discount it offers personal computer makers that effectively penalizes them for buying operating programs from Microsoft rivals.
A Microsoft spokeswoman said the company continues to cooperate with federal authorities. The investigation, which started with the Federal Trade Commission, is now in its fourth year.
MacWEEK 06.13.94
BusinessWatch Page 22
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Review: First Things First Pro 1.1 widens focus
Time manager integrates outline and calendar views
By Ross Scott Rubin
When First Things First debuted in 1991, its most distinguishing characteristic was a small floating clock that could appear over any window and be dragged anywhere on the screen.
The floating clock, however, is little more than a detail in the new First Things First Proactive 1.1, a more robust, multi-user counterpart to Visionary Software Inc.'s time-management utility. Billed as "more than just a PIM," the $99 program includes an integrated project outliner for organizing your tasks, multiple calendar views, and file-sharing and Apple-events support.
FTF Pro requires System 7 and at least 4 Mbytes of RAM.
Scheduled maintenance
FTF Pro includes virtually every important feature of modern calendaring packages.
The "Proactive" part of the moniker refers to a new outliner that lets you set up, organize and browse projects without having to immediately fill in specific scheduling details. The outliner supports custom type styles and bullets for different levels and even lets you focus in on a particular level, temporarily isolating it at the top of an outline.
Once you've outlined your tasks, you can simply drag and drop items to a calendar view to schedule them. The calendar includes year, month, week, day and user-definable multiday views. You can also enter items directly on the calendar, and they will automatically appear in the outliner.
One glaring omission in the calendar is a traditional week view that divides the window into seven stacked panels. Choosing Week View simply shows the multiday view preset to seven days. In addition, items in monthly views do not wrap, and you cannot dress up certain days with graphics or icons. Although you can create banners and stretch their width and height, the text within a banner will not wrap.
Items can be scheduled or unscheduled and can repeat and carry forward. Changes made to a repeating item can affect one, all or only future occurrences of that event. You can create reminders that will alert you of an item before or at a scheduled time. You can attach both sounds and files to items, which can be played or opened from an outline, calendar view or the Reminder dialog.
You can assign items to categories to help differentiate your tasks. Although FTF Pro lets you display only certain categories or groups of categories in a calendar view, you cannot assign font and type attributes to particular categories and groups. Furthermore, although you can apply attributes on a character-by-character basis to either calendar or outline text, the calendar cannot display different font sizes.
FTF Pro's Tools palette has six icons that let you switch between views, create new items, mark items as done, set up links, go to a day or print. Flexible printing options let you print to five different paper organizer formats.
Tricks and treats
FTF Pro has some clever tricks up its sleeve. Our favorite new twist for event scheduling is Item Stationery, a template with preset attributes for items that you schedule often. For example, you can define a lunch meeting to always occur from noon to 1 p.m., or a weekly meeting to automatically repeat each week. You cannot, however, duplicate an item by holding down a modifier key as you drag it to another date.
FTF Pro uses Microsoft Word-style drop-down lists to let you quickly enter information via the keyboard. The spacious, easy-to-understand Item dialog box is forgiving about time-entry formats. Quick Reschedule lets you postpone events without having to open the daily agenda, and Hold Reminders spares your officemates from loud reminders when you're away. A smart Project Deadline feature has shades of project-management packages.
While the calendar does not offer a "see-through" capability to see the last few days of a previous month or the first few days of the next one, we liked its miniature depictions of the previous and next month, which let you quickly navigate to specific days. However, in a substantially reduced window the depictions are so small that they're impossible to use.
Linking and sharing
FTF Pro's file linking is hard to grasp, although it's easy to use once you set it up. To share items and reminders across a network, you create link hierarchies of FTF files into a master file. Linked files can reside on the same hard disk, or they can reside on a remote volume as long as the volume has file-sharing privileges enabled. Users can set privileges for viewing and editing linked files in an AppleShare-like window.
You can create custom import and export templates for exchanging data with other PIMs, or you can exchange outlines with popular word processors via XTND support. Using Apple events, FTF Pro can look up records in a database from Claris Corp.'s FileMaker Pro. Visionary said this feature will be available with other databases and contact managers in a future release.
Documentation and support
Visionary has included a 275-page User's Guide and a Quick Start Guide; the latter's tiny typeface encourages squinting. FTF Pro also features on-line documentation through Apple's DocViewer utility. When contacted by phone, the technical-support staff answered questions politely and thoroughly.
Conclusions
For users considering a new time-management program, FTF Pro is an ambitious effort with some thoughtful scheduling perks, multi-user support and a good integrated outliner that can help users organize their tasks. But a few interface weaknesses and lack of contact-manager links make it a less mature alternative to some of the older-generation personal information managers, such as Now Software Inc.'s $99 Now Up-to-Date, Aldus Consumer Division's $79.99 DateBook Pro and Attain Corp.'s $129.95 In Control.
Because Visionary plans to continue selling and upgrading the original single-user First Things First as a separate product, current users who value the original's compactness and efficiency should wait for the upgrade to that product before deciding which path to take.
Visionary Software Inc. is at 1820 S.W. Vermont, Suite A, Portland, Ore. 97219-1945. Phone (503) 246-6200; fax (503) 452-1198.
MacWEEK 06.13.94
Reviews Page 32
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Review: Graphisoft's ArchiCAD 4.5 a model update
Draws on new tools, Power Mac speed
By Timothy E. Johnson
ArchiCAD 4.5 from Graphisoft U.S. Inc. is one of the first CAD programs to take advantage of the Power Mac's speed while adding dozens of new features to the product. The $4,450 package is an accurate, integrated 2-D/3-D CAD system aimed at architects.
Current ArchiCAD users will have mixed reactions to the new version. The good news is that the new features -- such as multiple light sources, better camera management, vectorial shadow casting and improved curve tools -- are welcome responses to users' wish lists. The bad news is that one of Graphisoft's promised additions, 3-D graphical editing of sections or elevations, didn't make it into this version.
ArchiCAD requires a math coprocessor, System 7.1 and at least 12 Mbytes of RAM. Both the Power Macintosh and 680x0-based Macintosh versions of the program ship in the same box.
3-D conventions
You build 3-D models in ArchiCAD by drawing building components in the Floor Plan Worksheet window, which, when empty, resembles a sheet of drafting paper. The Floor Plan is a 2-D view, but you can define some 3-D relations here; in fact, it's the only 3-D editable window in the program. ArchiCAD requires you to enter the third dimension -- such as the elevation of a stock window -- through a dialog box; your results appear in the vector-based 3D Window and in the rendering window. This means you often have to draw a facade element in the Floor Plan window and rotate it into position -- much like a barn-raising, where walls are first fabricated on the floor and then tilted vertically.
Despite this glaring drawback, ArchiCAD is surprisingly easy to use because the tools do so much of the 3-D work.
The Roof tool is a good example: It uses your typed-in pitch angle to soar the roof through space from your gutter line. A few additional clicks will show where your roof intersects other roofs in the Floor Plan, and -- the icing on the cake -- you can trim all your walls against the underside of your roof with one more mouse click. The same tool punches polygonal-shape holes in any roof.
New goodies
Graphisoft programmers must be very close to achieving 3-D editing in ArchiCAD's Section view because they have added a new Section/Elevation tool for pulling staggered sections directly off the floor plan. (Previously, you drew your section lines in a small dialog box that showed a thumbnail version of your plan.)
ArchiCAD uses the central 3-D model to calculate the sections and shows the results in separate windows that have all the usual navigation, magnification and measuring tools. You can use any of the 2-D tools to annotate your projection, but the 3-D tools are grayed out -- for now.
Navigation is much easier. ArchiCAD finally has scroll bars and more-accessible Zoom and Pan tools. There is also a new QuickView palette, which lets you move to named views in your plan either by clicking on a name or by clicking in an area of interest shown on a miniature plan view.
Other new tools include a Camera tool to accurately place cameras in the Floor Plan and a Continuous Curve tool to draw a series of tangential arcs of any radius. You can transform the resulting curve into a wall, roof or slab. The program still needs a Bezier tool for easy curve editing, however.
The Camera tool will also describe Bezier-based animation paths for walk-throughs and flybys. Previously, you had to position cameras with a dialog box. ArchiCAD will turn your animation paths into fully rendered QuickTime movies.
CAD becomes particularly valuable when you can use it for snappy presentations, and ArchiCAD has added presentation features not available in any other package. For instance, you can define any axonometric projection (a three-quarter view that usually shows at least two dimensions as true lengths) for the 3D Window and your renderings. You do this by shearing a 3-D house icon with the mouse in the Parallel Projection Settings dialog until you get the desired projection angles or by typing in the angles and the ratios.
ArchiCAD has moved hatching (vector fills) into 3-D. You can assign a pattern, such as bricks or shingles, to any material. Other material attributes include color, transmittance and shininess.
You can scale and rotate the hatch and then apply the material to one or both sides of your building components. The 3-D hatches show up in the shaded version of the 3D Window but, unfortunately, not in the raster-based rendering window.
The 3D Window also shows shadows cast by a simulated sun. Since the 3D Window displays polygons as geometric entities, you can call on ArchiCAD to calculate the areas of the shadows in the Floor Plan or Elevation views for dealing with zoning ordinances.
Graphisoft has added a variety of shadow-casting light sources to use in the rendering window. You can define soft- or hard-edge pools of light emanating from conical, point or parallel sources. The spotlights work well as fill lighting for preventing similar surfaces from getting lost in the shadows.
Power Mac performance
Our tests showed good speed enhancements in the Power Mac version of ArchiCAD. However, one of the program's new features cancels the renderer's speed gains: Put a couple of spotlights in your rendering and you can expect to get the results after a good night's sleep if you're rendering a five- or six-story building at high resolution. Graphisoft said it is working on a speed-up.
Connectivity
ArchiCAD supports most of the popular rendering programs. The program feeds native file formats to Atlantis (Graphisoft's separate ray tracer), as well as Pixar's RenderMan and Strata Inc.'s StudioPro, and you can save to an AutoCAD-optimized DXF (Drawing Interchange File) format as well as generic DXF. DXF transfers work in 2-D and 3-D and in both directions.
The DXF translators have much better block handling. AutoCAD blocks are accurately translated into ArchiCAD library parts, or symbols, which behave like instances (linked copies to a master drawing). Our tests on a real architectural project showed the DXF and StudioPro translators worked flawlessly. We also determined that ArchiCAD is accurate to more than six decimal places.
Some support for workgroups has been added to ArchiCAD. The new Merge command adds model segments to an existing file. The command sorts out the incoming data and places it on the proper story layer while adjusting floor-to-floor heights.
Documentation and support
ArchiCAD's reference guide covers the program's interface, tools and menus, and some examples for using specific functions are scattered throughout the manual. But the documentation is oddly organized, and the lack of a tutorial makes it difficult for new users to get up to speed easily. First-time buyers receive one year of free technical support.
Conclusions
ArchiCAD 4.5's new features have greatly enhanced this fully integrated CAD program. Yet modeling in ArchiCAD sometimes feels as if you're flying blind. Drawing 3-D objects directly in the Floor Plan is definitely the fastest way to construct a building, but the lack of instantaneous 3-D feedback and editing usually causes too many trips to the 3D Window and adjustments to the camera just to check out the details. The new Section/Elevation tool reduces this problem somewhat by giving you cropped Section or Elevation views at any magnification.
Nevertheless, we still find that ArchiCAD's sophisticated tools make it the best program for enclosing space and for making production drawings from 3-D models.
Graphisoft U.S. Inc. is at 400 Oyster Point Blvd., Suite 429, South San Francisco, Calif. 94080. Phone (415) 737-8665 or (800) 344-3468; fax (415) 871-5481.
MacWEEK 06.13.94
Reviews Page 32
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Review: DriveCD 1.03 speeds up CD-ROM access
By Jeffrey Sullivan
Casa Blanca Works Inc. has extended its line of disk drivers to the silver platter with the release of DriveCD, a universal CD-ROM driver that uses built-in caching to speed CD-ROM access times.
The $79.95 utility has two main components: DriveCD, a 175-Kbyte control panel, and AudioCD, a 143-Kbyte audio CD player application. You place the control panel and support files into the System folder; you can put the AudioCD application anywhere on your hard disk.
The package also includes Version 5.0 of Apple's CD-ROM support files for Photo CD and ISO 9660 discs. (Apple recently released Version 5.01, which improves compatibility; Casa Blanca Works said it will include this version in an upcoming DriveCD maintenance release.)
DriveCD supports dozens of CD-ROM drives from virtually all drive manufacturers. The DriveCD driver uses Apple's SCSI Manager 4.3 and implements the SCSI-2 standard.
Cache as cache can
DriveCD uses a proprietary two-level cache to boost CD-ROM driver performance. The cache sets aside a portion of your Macintosh's RAM to hold data you frequently access on the CD-ROM. A second read-ahead cache attempts to predict the data you will want next from the CD-ROM; it reads that data into a buffer.
DriveCD works in the background, constantly monitoring and adapting to the specific kinds of CD-ROMs you use and the way you use them. You can set the cache to any size, and you can also disable Apple's system cache on a drive-by-drive basis to eliminate the redundant caching of data.
The Cache Control window lets you configure cache usage (you can have different settings for each CD-ROM drive attached to your Mac) and evaluate the performance boost gained from current settings. In our informal testing, we found DriveCD's caches to impart a performance speedup of anywhere from 0 percent (for read-once, streaming data such as QuickTime movies) to 618 percent (for repeatedly accessed data, such as text indices, or hierarchical data, such as Finder folders).
AudioCD application
The AudioCD application is a capable audio CD player. It supports all the typical features: It can skip tracks or sections of music; set the CD player's output volume; display elapsed or remaining time for a track or disc; and play, pause and eject CDs.
AudioCD also has two features missing from the AppleCD audio player: the capability to start playing a CD automatically when it's inserted, and keyboard control of CD playback. On the flip side, AudioCD doesn't display track and disc names, although Casa Blanca Works said this is planned for a future version.
Conclusions
Improved CD-ROM performance, simple and solid capabilities, and the set-and-forget caches make DriveCD appealing for anyone looking for better performance from CD-ROM drives.
Competitive upgrades for owners of other CD-ROM drivers are available for $30.
Casa Blanca Works Inc. is at 148 Bon Air Center, Greenbrae, Calif. 94904. Phone (415) 461-2227; fax (415) 461-2249.
MacWEEK 06.13.94
Reviews Page 32
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
ProductWatch: Mail-order companies manage with Macs
Mail order presents unusual challenges when it comes to managing money and business records.
By Charles Rubin
Every business needs to maintain a general ledger and track payables and receivables, but in a mail-order company, capturing the order and shipping it out quickly and accurately are the main events. Since the company never deals with customers face to face, the speed and reliability of orders and shipments are key to repeat business. Because order processing and shipping are so important, many Mac-based mail-order businesses turn to programs tailored for their industry.
While order entry, invoicing and inventory control are separate in traditional accounting systems, they are combined in mail order. The person taking the order creates the invoice, packing list and mailing label at the same time and adjusts inventory levels as the order is entered. Mail-order management programs include ZIP-code tables and shipping zone codes for United Parcel Service and other carriers to help automate the creation of mailing labels or shipping manifests. These programs also produce reports that help users target promotional mailings to specific geographic areas or to customers who have ordered recently. In addition, some mail-order programs include general ledger, payables and receivables modules to create an all-in-one system.
A mail-order management system must be fast, reliable and flexible enough to change with the business, and powerful enough to support more and more users without bogging down as the business grows.
At the low end for the Mac, there is SuperMOM from National Tele-Press, which makes it easy to process orders; however, it doesn't handle general ledger or other accounting chores, and it isn't easy to customize. At the higher end, Elefunt Software's Order House or E.E.S. Companies Inc.'s POS/OE 4 Mac handle order processing and accounting functions and offer more flexibility, but they are more expensive.
Reliability and performance
Processing speed is important for any order-processing program, but it may mean other trade-offs. Dr. Harvey Parker, CEO of the ADD Warehouse Inc. in Plantation, Fla., sells literature and testing materials related to attention-deficit disorders. Parker has been using SuperMOM to handle his orders for five years. Although his business has grown to serve 65,000 customers, SuperMOM has kept up with the pace. "We've seen no degradation in processing speed," Parker said, even though his Ethernet network has grown from three to 11 Macs.
SuperMOM, however, doesn't have full accounts-payable and -receivable modules, so the company uses Best!Ware Inc.'s M.Y.O.B. to handle purchase orders and payables. Parker's accountant must integrate data between the two programs by hand.
Parker has also switched to a separate, PC-based system for UPS manifests because he doesn't like the one in SuperMOM. "SuperMOM isn't as easy to use as the stand-alone system we've got," he said. "If we use SuperMOM's UPS manifest system, every mailing label we print has to have a UPS shipper code on it. But we sometimes send things through the U.S. Postal Service, so that's a problem."
As Parker's business grows, the hassle of manually integrating data from different systems becomes a stronger motivation to rethink his accounting system. "As the company gets bigger, it would be nice to have a more integrated system."
Integrate and customize
Each business is different and changes over time, so the best way to gain accounting flexibility is to buy a program built on a standard Mac database. At the Educational Software Institute in Omaha, Neb., President Lee Myers switched from a custom DOS application to Order House, an application developed with Helix Express from Helix Technologies of Northbrook, Ill.
"The system in place was fast, but it was geared for a wholesale distributor, and I wanted something more flexible," Myers said. "When I looked at DOS products in Order House's price range, there wasn't anything comparable."
Myers' company sells education software to primary and secondary schools. With 16,000 inventory items and 25,000 customers, ESI handles orders with eight Macs on an Ethernet network. When he moved from the DOS system, Myers wanted to change his inventory-numbering scheme, and Elefunt Software handled the transition smoothly.
Elefunt has been able to tailor Order House to ESI's requirements. However, performance has bogged down as the business has grown. Elefunt Software has developed a procedure for loading the database into a RAM disk and backing up new entries as they are written, but the process is still tedious.
Every morning, the company loads its database into RAM disk on a Mac IIci configured with 128 Mbytes of RAM. "Putting a 100-Mbyte database into a RAM disk every day isn't the best way to go, but we need the RAM disk to get the speed we need," Myers said. Even so, ESI has reached a performance plateau, and Myers is shopping around for another system.
Persistence pays
Because accounting needs can be a moving target as a business expands, some of the happiest Mac-based mail-order businesses have switched programs several times before finding the right package. At Publitek Inc., a computer graphics hardware and software retailer in Menomonee Falls, Wis., President Rick Wintersberger tried crafting his own system in Claris Corp.'s FileMaker in 1987, switched to a custom Double Helix (now Helix Express) database and has now been using E.E.S.'s POS/OE 4 Mac for two years.
"We needed more power than FileMaker had, and speed was a problem with the Helix application," Wintersberger said. He also wanted integrated credit-card processing, which lets his employees send credit-card deposits directly to the bank from POS/OE on a modem-equipped Mac.
POS/OE also offers better customer tracking, said Leslie Tucker, purchasing manager at The Cutlery Shoppe Inc., in Boise, Idaho. As the company's business has grown to more than 1,500 inventory items and some 100,000 customers, Tucker needed a better handle on who was buying what, and she switched to POS/OE from a custom application in 1992.
The Cutlery Shoppe does four to six mailings of catalogs and fliers each year. "We needed a better way to select customer groups for marketing," she said. "With fliers, we might mail only to customers who have ordered a certain amount in the past year."
With 12 Macs on an Ethernet network, Tucker said POS/OE's performance was initially a little sluggish, but it improved when ACI US Inc. released its 4D Server technology last year. Now, she said, "All our users can be entering orders at once."
Another advantage to programs built on Mac databases is that users can design their own reports. "We can customize all kinds of reports with the 4th Dimension Report Writer," Wintersberger said. "We have custom reports for purchasing and sales tracking that are really like miniprograms."
Power Mac hardware and native-mode database software will solve the speed problem for more Mac-based mail-order programs, but persistence remains a key requirement in the hunt for order-processing bliss.
MacWEEK 06.13.94
ProductWatch Page 39
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Mac the Knife: Playing to win by Apple rules
Everything has its price, as the saying goes, and if you find yourself in heated competition with an opponent with more resources or with a significant size advantage, you quickly gain a keen perception of the inherent price of being ranked second. Among other things, it means you have to try harder.
That's a position that Apple executives have been all too familiar with for some time. And now that those same executives are facing a new challenge as a result of Compaq's surging sales, we may be treated to the spectacle of an even feistier Apple. Some would compare it to the fighting spirit you see in a come-from-behind win by an underdog football team. But compared to football, with its wimpy timeouts and player substitutions, rugby is probably a better metaphor.
Australian-born Ian Diery, No. 2 at Apple and No. 1 rugby fanatic in California, undoubtedly understands how this game has to be played. As evidence, consider the Knife's report of Diery's recent head-to-head discussions with Microsoft executives about the status of native PowerPC versions of the Microsoft Office suite. Given the current state of affairs, it's clear that vague promises of "sometime this summer" won't cut it.
The amount of blood spilled in that meeting may never be known, but the results of Diery's power play should be on display in August at the Macworld Expo in Boston. Word, Excel and the lesser Microsoft applications will be available then, or someone will have to answer to Diery. And, as in rugby, no substitutions will be allowed in this rematch.
The IBM play
If Microsoft manages to deliver at the expo, perhaps Apple will have at least buried its wimp image. And, with time, Apple employees will retire the now-rampant in-house rumor that Microsoft is purposely delaying native versions to strangle Apple. Of course, if it finalizes its agreement with IBM to ship System 7.5 on IBM's PowerPC Reference Platform system, Apple will be a lot less vulnerable to that kind of squeeze play.
While it's unlikely that IBM would ever sign with Apple an open-ended agreement like the one it signed with Microsoft for MS-DOS years ago, the royalty rate itself may be similar, something in the neighborhood of 2.5 percent of CPU revenue per unit shipped. If Apple is going to be signing deals to allow Mac cloning, it could hardly choose a more prestigious company to sign. Except maybe Compaq.
DayStar delay
Now, some would say that Apple has already signed its first clone manufacturer in the corporate person of DayStar Digital. Given that DayStar is licensed to put the Mac ROMs on its Power Mac accelerator boards, the argument could have some validity. Split hairs aside, however, the Knife notes that DayStar isn't making the most of its favored position. The Mac IIci version of the PowerPro 601 PowerPC upgrade board, although unannounced, was to have arrived this summer. It is now delayed until fourth quarter, or possibly even next year. Apparently DayStar has abandoned its practice of first developing cards for the IIci, then creating adapters for other models. The fact that the IIci is the single largest market for PowerPC accelerators apparently was overlooked.
Lighter than advertised
If your Blackbird is singing in the dead of night, it had better be running on AC. Early-bird purchasers have already discovered that no replacement batteries are available. As an owner whose laptop arrived with a DOA battery put it, his PowerBook is now lighter, and he can still compute for almost an hour, if he's careful ...
If you mysteriously acquired a MacWEEK mug, would it be because you had told the Knife something interesting? Would it be fair dinkum? Find out if you're a lucky tipster at (415) 243-3544, fax (415) 243-3651, Internet (mac_the_knife@macweek.ziff.com), AppleLink (MacWEEK) or CompuServe/ZiffNet/Mac.
MacWEEK 06.13.94
Mac the Knife Page 78
(c) Copyright 1994 Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
