superguide! - Amazon Web Services
Transcription
superguide! - Amazon Web Services
RUN WINDOWS SOFTWARE — WITHOUT WINDOWS! 121 SEPT 2006 A B E T T E R M A C H I N E . A B E T T E R M A ¬ A Z I N E . MOBILE MAC SUPERGUIDE! 59must-have accessories, hand-picked by our experts! ■ STORAGE ■ SPEAKERS ■ CASES ■ BATTERIES … AND A WHOLE LOT MORE REVIEWED: PLUS: ALL THE ROAD WARRIOR TIPS & TRICKS YOU NEED TO KEEP YOUR ’BOOK AT ITS BEST! B Final Cut Express HD B QuarkXPress 7 B Motorola SLVR iTunes phone …and 14 more 10! B Build a Disaster- MACADDICT TURNS RELIVE 10 YEARS OF MAC ADDICTION— FROM FIGHTING BACK TO CELEBRATING VICTORY HOW TO: Recovery Drive B Maintain Your Mac with Automator B Make a Talking-Head Video SEPTEMBER2006 04 NO.121•VOLUME11•ISSUE9 a better machine. a better magazine. features 18 Freedom! These ’Books are made for totin’, so we’ve packed 10 pages with all the gear, tips, and tricks you’ll need when it’s time to hit the road with your Mac. by Niko Coucouvanis, Roman Loyola, and Rik Myslewski ��������������������������������������������������� ���� ����� ���� � � � � ���� ��������� ���������� ������ ������ ��� ������� ������ ������ ��� ����������������� ������������������� �������������������������������� �������������������� ��������������������� ������������������ ������������ ������������� ��������� ��������� ������������������������ � ������������������������ � ������������������������ � ����������������������������� ��������������� 31 It’s Party Time! This month marks MacAddict’s 10th birthday. Join us as we take a look back at one helluva decade, from Apple’s antics to our mag’s own brilliance—and blunders. by Rik Myslewski 36 Automating Automator This month’s Field Guide on using Automator will get your workflows flowing by helping you speed up repetitive tasks. by Niko Coucouvanis how to 60 Ask Us Know how to move your email messages from .Mac to Gmail? Use Unix commands to kill ’em all (processes, that is)? Turn your MacBook into a lightsaber? No? Well, start reading! 62 Make a Talking Head With an iSight, a $20 app called Noodle Flix, and your Mac, you can turn yourself into a talking head…you know, like Max Headroom or Jerry Harrison. by Niko Coucouvanis 66 Maintain Your Mac with Automator Keep your Mac happy and healthy by using Automator in concert with apps like Terminal and iCal to schedule regular maintenance. by Niko Coucouvanis 04 September 2006 68 Make a Universal Disaster Disk Whether your Mac is PowerPC- or Intel-based, we’ll show you how to prepare for Armageddon with a FireWire disaster disk. by Niko Coucouvanis 70 Sex Up Your Movie Soundtracks GarageBand 3 isn’t just for the garage—it’s also the perfect app for adding new soundtracks to all your favorite flicks. by Niko Coucouvanis ������� � ���������������������� � ������������������������ � ��������������������������� ���������������������������� � 06 CONTENTS a better machine. a better magazine. �� 09 Editors’ Page 49 A birthday toast to us, to you, and to 10 years of headlines with varying degrees of wackiness. 10 Get Info 39 Reviews Two new technologies let you run Windows apps on your Mac without all the push-ups of Boot Camp, and the education iMac signals the end of CRT-based Apple machines. We also show you a photo site that recognizes faces, a high-tech toilet-paper holder, and the largest, most full-featured iPod dock ever. 48 53 DRX-820UL/T external DVD burner 48 EOS 30D SLR camera 42 Final Cut Express HD video-editing software 52 Graphire 6x8 Bluetooth pen and tablet 46 HiFi-Link for iPod iPod dock 46 HomeDock iPod dock 46 iDuo iPod dock 45 iLuv i552 iPod boom box 46 iPod Dock with Remote iPod dock 45 iThunder iPod boom box 49 iWoofer iPod speaker 43 Liquid Ledger personal finance software 44 Photosmart R927 point-and-shoot camera 40 Quark XPress 7 page-layout software 50 SLVR mobile phone 46 Stereo Dock iPod dock 46 TuneSync for iPod iPod dock 55 50 42 44 55 Games 55 Aspyr’s New Storefront game news 55 Battlefield 1942: Clan MacAddict game news 57 Call of Duty 2 game review 56 Heroes of Might and Magic V tips and tricks 56 Sudden Motion Sensor game news 55 World of Warcraft game news QUICK TIPS 78 Log Out 78 Letters Our readers get creative, we solve the mystery of the missing text, and Google won’t help you find Hell…but Yahoo will. 79 Contest Here’s your chance to win a hard drive that’s even more stylish than Rik’s Mini Cooper—the 250GB LaCie Brick ($129.99, www.lacie.com). 80 Shut Down Because laughter is the medicine that never expires (unlike Prozac), here are four of our favorite Shut Down pages from issues past. FROM THIS MONTH’S ISSUE BEYOND 100 To get around the 100-song limit on iTunes-equipped phones, use an audio-editing app to place one song after the other, creating one long song. Export or save the song, and then load it on your phone. From Reviews, p50. 06 September 2006 HOT OR COLD The weather can affect how your digital camera operates. Your image quality can change if your camera is a bit too warm or too cool. Avoid leaving your camera in places where the temperature can get extreme. From Reviews, p44. BELLY UP Your Finder window’s Sidebar isn’t just for breakfast anymore; any location you put in the lower half of the Sidebar gets automatically added to the Favorites list in Open and Save dialogs. From Ask Us, p60. MIND YOUR PLIST If your favorite application gives you fits, it could have a bad plist file, which stores application settings and preferences. Try creating a new plist file for that app. From Get Info, p16. 08 CONTENTS a better machine. a better magazine. ��� �� ��� � � �� ��� �� � �� �� ��� ��� � ��� � �� ��������������������� ����� ������� ����� � ���� � ����� ��� ��� �� �� � ��� �� �� � �� ��� ����������������� ����� ��� iClock 3.0.4 demo Jiggler 1.3 freeware LaunchBar 4.1.1 trial MountWatcher 1.3.8 demo Name Those Files 2.1 demo On Air 1.1 trial PopCopy 2.2 trial Proxi 1.1 demo RapidoWrite 2.0.1 freeware Screen Mimic 1.5 demo SlingShot 2.0 trial SuperDuper 2.1.2 trial TechRestore demo video Telekinesis 1.0 trial Veenix Font Tools 5.1 for OS 10.2+ demo Veenix Font Tools 5.1 for OS 10.4 demo SPONSORS Edirol R-09 demo video iFill 1.1.0 demo iStockphoto Sampler media OmniGraffle 4.1.1 trial OmniOutliner 3.6 trial OmniWeb 5.1.3 trial Proxi 1.1 demo Sound Studio 3.0.4 demo TechRestore demo video Staff Video: Jedi Showdown With the help of MacSaber 1.0 (in the Disc’s Fun & Games folder) and two Sudden Motion Sensor–equipped MacBooks, MacAddict editors Niko Coucouvanis and Roman Loyola battle for the right to ride shotgun with MacAddict Managing Editor Susie Ochs. If you don’t receive the Disc with your copy of MacAddict, you might want to consider upgrading. Each monthly Disc contains cool demos, useful shareware and freeware, and an assortment of multimedia goodies. To get 12 issues of MacAddict that include this value-packed Disc with your subscription (prorated if necessary) for just $1 more per issue, call 888-771-6222—the operator will take care of everything. 08 September 2006 ���� ������� ����� ���� UPGRADE movies. � ��� ChatFX 1.2.1 demo �� �� � INTERNET & COMMUNICATION Amendment 0.5 demo AppZapper 1.6 shareware HoudahSpot 1.2.1 demo BUSINESS ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Stacey Levy, 925-964-1205 SOUTHWESTERN ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Dave Lynn, 949-360-4443 ����������������� Check out our how-to on EASTERN ADVERTISING DIRECTOR ������������������������ Anthony Danzi, 646-723-5453 page 62 and learn how ��������������������� EASTERN ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE to use Noodle �����������Larry Presser, 646-723-5459 NATIONAL SALES MANAGER, ENTERTAINMENT Flix to create ������ Isaac Ugay, 562-983-8018 your own MARKETING DIRECTOR Cassandra Magzamen MARKETING COORDINATOR Michael Basilio talking-head ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Jose Urrutia, 415-656-8313 demo �� � �� ��� � ClearDock 1.4 demo FruitMenu 3.6 shareware Menu Master 1.4 demo OmniDazzle 1.0 demo Remote Buddy 1.0 preview UTILITIES Noodle Flix ��������� ��� �� � ��� INTERFACE AddressX 1.3 trial Advanced Link Manager 2.3 trial Disk Order 2.3 Panther Edition trial Disk Order 2.3 Universal Edition trial Dossier 2.2 trial MConvert 6.2 shareware OmniGraffle 4.1.1 trial OmniOutliner 3.6 demo TextExpander 1.3.1 demo TextWrangler 2.1.3 freeware ART ���� ART DIRECTOR Mark Rosenthal ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Peter Marshutz GROUP CREATIVE DIRECTOR Dan Fitzpatrick PHOTOGRAPHER Mark Madeo CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER Samantha Berg � �� �� �� ��� ��� AVmixer Pro 1.1 trial ComicBookLover 1.0 shareware ImageBuddy 3.4.0 shareware iStockphoto Sampler media Lightbox 1.0.2 trial Noodle Flix 1.2.1 demo Noodle Flix Steve Jobs freeware Noodle Flix Tutorial freeware PRODUCTIVITY ��������� �������������������������� ������ ���� ���� ��� ���� ��� �� � GRAPHICS & MULTIMEDIA Edirol R-09 demo video iStockphoto Sampler media Staff Video: Jedi Showdown TechRestore demo video EDITORIAL EDITOR IN CHIEF Rik Myslewski MANAGING EDITOR Susie Ochs HOW-TO EDITOR Niko Coucouvanis REVIEWS EDITOR Roman Loyola INTERN Elliot Smith INTERN Brian Moore WEB MONKEY Nick Muerdter EPONYMEDITOR Max CONTRIBUTING EDITORS David Biedny, Joseph O. Holmes, Helmut Kobler, Cathy Lu, Steven Parke, Ian Sammis, Deborah Shadovitz, Andrew Tokuda, Michelle Victoria, Buz Zoller ��� ��� Acky’s XP Breakout demo Ashalii 1.4 trial Burst 1.2 demo Cars: The Video Game demo Downfall 2.6 trial MacSaber 1.0 freeware Sudoku 1.0 demo MEDIA �� �� �� ��� � ��� FUN & GAMES iGet 2.1 demo Interarchy 8.1 trial Jon’s Phone Tool shareware MegaDialer 1.0 trial OmniWeb 5.1.3 trial Yummy FTP 1.5.1 shareware ��� � � ��� Revolution Studio provides you with all the tools you need to build fantasticlooking applications in no time. Revolution Studio 2.7.2 demo �� ��� ��� �� �� � ��� �� �� �� � Take Lightning McQueen for a spin in this fastpaced racing game based on the movie from Disney and Pixar. DEVELOPMENT �� ��������������������������� �������������������������� ������������������������� ���������������������������� Revolution Studio demo Audiocorder 4.8.0 trial CoverScout 2.0 demo CUBE 2.1 demo Edirol R-09 demo video iFill 1.1.0 demo Lounge Lizard Session demo SFX Machine Pro 1.01 demo SFX Machine RT 1.0.6 demo SndSampler 5.4 shareware Sonicfire Pro 4.1.1 demo Sound Studio 3.0.4 demo ��� ���� �� � ���� ��� ��� � �� ��� �� ������� ����� ���������� ��������� Cars: The Video Game demo AUDIO & MUSIC ������ �������������� � �� �� �� You asked for more games (Survey Says, p78)—we heard and we obeyed. This month’s star is Cars: The Video Game, and we’ve also included a halfdozen more time-wasters for your edification and enjoyment. Oh, and there are 61 additional apps, demos, and more that share Disc space with this month’s Fun & Games selections. Enjoy them all. � ������ ���� ��� � �� the disc � ��� ��� ��� ��� PRODUCTION PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Richard Lesovoy PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Ryan Meith CIRCULATION CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Peter Kelly NEWSSTAND MARKETING MANAGER Bill Shewey BILLING AND RENEWAL MANAGER Betsy Wong NEWSSTAND COORDINATOR Alex Guzman FULFILLMENT MANAGER Peggy Mores DIRECT-MAIL MANAGER Stephanie Blake DIRECT MARKETING SPECIALIST Janet Amistoso FUTURE US, INC. 4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080 www.futureus-inc.com PRESIDENT Jonathan Simpson-Bint VICE PRESIDENT/CFO Tom Valentino VICE PRESIDENT/CIRCULATION Holly Klingel GENERAL COUNSEL Charles Schug PUBLISHING DIRECTOR/GAMES Simon Whitcombe PUBLISHING DIRECTOR/MUSIC & TECH Steve Aaron PUBLISHING DIRECTOR/BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Dave Barrow EDITORIAL DIRECTOR/TECHNOLOGY Jon Phillips EDITORIAL DIRECTOR/MUSIC Brad Tolinski DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL SERVICES Nancy Durlester PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Richie Lesovoy Future US, Inc. is part of Future plc. Future produces carefully targeted special-interest magazines, Web sites, and events for people who share a passion. We aim to satisfy that passion by creating titles offering value for money, reliable information, smart buying advice, and which are a pleasure to read. Today we publish more than 150 magazines, 65 Web sites, and a growing number of events in the US, UK, France, and Italy. Over 100 international editions of our magazines are also published in 30 other countries across the world. Future plc is a public company quoted on the London Stock Exchange (symbol: FUTR). FUTURE PLC 30 Monmouth St., Bath, Avon, BA1 2BW, England www.futureplc.com Tel +44 1225 442244 NON-EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN Roger Parry CHIEF EXECUTIVE Stevie Spring GROUP FINANCE DIRECTOR John Bowman Tel +44 1225 442244 www.futureplc.com REPRINTS: For reprints, contact Ryan Derfler, Reprint Operations Specialist, 717-399-1900 ext. 167 or email: futurenetworkusa@reprintbuyer.com SUBSCRIPTION QUERIES: Please email mcdcustserv@cdsfulfillment .com or call customer service toll-free at 888-771-6222. EDITORS’ PAGE Cool Stuff to Read! Ten years is a long time for a magazine to remain successful. Sure, some heavyweights have been around seemingly forever— Harper’s, 156 years; Time, 83; Sports Illustrated, 52—but most mags burn brightly only briefly, then quickly fade away. This month, MacAddict turns 10. Why such a long life? Well, the main reason, of course, is you—our devoted readers and paymasters. For 10 years you’ve read our humble rag, then fired off your suggestions, critiques, and criticisms to letters@macaddict.com. Thanks for holding our collective feet to the fire. But I’d also like to congratulate all the MacAddict staffers who’ve contributed their expertise, talents, and sublime snarkiness over the years. Sure, we take the Mac seriously, but we’ve always tried not to take ourselves too seriously. Life’s too short to be stodgy. One measure of our carefully cultivated MacAddictude are those haikusized headlines on our covers. What other magazine, for example, would announce an article on Jaguar with “Faster, Pussycat, Kill, Kill!” (Feb/03)? How about an article about Steve Jobs’s return to Apple called “Insanely Great or Greatly Insane?” (Oct/97). Then there was the introduction of the iPod: “World’s Greatest MP3 Player or $400 Paperweight?” (Jan/02). In February 2005, we gave you a sneak peek at Doom 3 and suggested that you “Vacation in Hell!”—which was originally “Go to Hell!” but we chickened out at the last moment. An editorial about unwanted email was heralded with “Spam, Anger, Spam, Sex, Spam, Spam, Money & Spam” (Jul/02). We showed you how to make “Fake IDs: Cheap, Easy, and Illegal” (Feb/99), to “Learn Exactly What to Do After You Say, ‘Oh, $%#&@!’” (Jan/05), and introduced you to “The Least Impressive iPod Cases You’ll Ever See” (Jan/03). A few headlines might best be lumped into the “Huh?” category, such as “100% Windows NT–Free!” (Mar/98), “Special Report: Apple’s New Thang” (Mar/99), “Don’t Get Scrooged” (Dec/02), and “Burn, PC, Burn!” (Oct/02). Lastly, in February 1998 we wrapped up our cover with a line that— although screamingly obvious—neatly summarizes our editorial mission: “Lots of Other Cool Stuff to Read, Too!” We hope we’ve supplied you with a lot of cool stuff to read over the years—and we’re going to keep doing so. Enjoy, 09 STAFF RANTS Q. What’s your top MacAddict memory? Niko Coucouvanis DREMEL-TOOL MASTER What’s your top MacAddict memory? As MacAddict’s longest-term staffer, I’ve got stories guaranteed to shock and amaze. But after so many years of cathode-ray abuse, I can’t remember anything prior to today’s lunch—but what an awesome BLT that was. Unforgettable, even. Susie Ochs THE POPE OF CHILI TOWN What’s your top MacAddict memory? I’ve only been here 32 workdays at press time, but I can tell you that it’s even more fun than you think it’d be. My favorite memories so far are the giggle-filled meetings to brainstorm Shut Down and the Staff Video, and the ceremonious nicknaming of our newest intern Brian, aka “Mini-Rik.” Elliot Smith HOTSHOT DIRECTOR NOUVEAU What’s your top MacAddict memory? Directing this month’s epic “Niko-versus-Roman-MacBookPro-lightsaber-fight-for-shotgun-next-to-Susie-which-waswon-by-me” Staff Video, shot on location with a script to die for, acting rivaling that of the Hollywood elite, and an action sequence that redefines the art of war. All I can say is, “I’d like to thank the Academy...” Roman Loyola REVISIONIST HISTORIAN What’s your top MacAddict memory? MacAddict’s founding editor, Cheryl England, actually offered me a job when she started the magazine 10 years ago. I turned her down, because at the time I didn’t think I was ready for such responsibility. But I’m here now! Peter Marshutz LAUGHING AT WORK What’s your top MacAddict memory? My favorite MacAddict moment has to be Niko riding down the streets of San Francisco on a G3 tower with wheels. Or was it when Niko put himself inside a nano? Or when he powered his iPod with a car battery? Mark Rosenthal KEEPAWN ROWLIN What’s your top MacAddict memory? I agree with Peter: It was definitely the time Niko rode his G3 all over San Francisco for our Staff Video. Funny thing was, people thought it was a joke. But that’s actually how Niko gets around. Really. Brian Moore SHORT-TERM MEMORY What’s your top MacAddict memory? Although I’ve just arrived at the golden gates of MacAddict, there will most definitely be a memory lodged in my brain for years to come: meeting the amazing Niko Coucouvanis. Hey, I’d like to see you forget a person who, when introduced to you, lunged at you with a power tool! Max ANGER-MANAGEMENT GRADUATE What’s your top MacAddict memory? comingsoon:october2006 Back in August 2002, I responded to a cranky letter to the editor with an uplifted digitus medius, aka The Bird. Maybe not my finest hour—but thoroughly satisfying. Here’s what our editors are preparing for the next issue of MacAddict. Steve Jobs will demo Mac OS X 10.5, Leopard, a couple of days before we’re scheduled to ship our October issue, so if our heads don’t explode we’ll bring you a first look at the next big cat (and anything else Steve may announce—hint, hint, hint). We’ll also dive deep into iWeb, plus explain a plethora of musical terms. Then we’ll show you how to make an iPod case out of a book, create a font out of your own handwriting, tap Preview’s hidden powers, and use Keynote to create the best what-I-did-this-summer presentation ever. Finally, we’ll review Apple’s Shake 4.1 video-effects software, Nova Development’s Print Explosion Deluxe 3.0, Palm’s Treo 700p PDA and mobile phone, and a whole lot more. September 2006 09 10 the news of the month in bite-size chunks WINDOWS SOFTWARE ON YOUR MAC? YES YOU CAN! Parallels (left) lets you run Windows XP within Mac OS X, while CrossOver Mac lets you use Windows apps without having Windows XP on your Mac. T wo new technologies offer more in-depth integration of Windows: Parallels Desktop for Mac ($79.99, www.parallels.com) and CodeWeavers’ CrossOver Mac ($59.95, www.codeweavers.com). PARALLELS Intel’s Virtualization Technology (aka VT) lets your run virtual-machine software such as Parallels, which lets you run any x86compatible operating system within Mac OS X. For example, you can install Windows XP Home, and it will run in a separate window within Mac OS X (Apple’s Boot Camp only lets you boot into either Mac OS X or Windows XP). 10 September 2006 Parallels works only on Intel-based Macs, and it doesn’t have to emulate a x86 processor, which Virtual PC does. Running Windows XP using Parallels is dramatically faster than running Windows XP using Virtual PC. CROSSOVER CrossOver Mac promises to let you run Windows applications just like you do Mac applications, with no need to launch Windows at all. CrossOver Mac is based on the opensource Wine technology (www.winehq .org), which has been used on Linux to run Windows software. With CrossOver Mac, a version of Wine will provide a translation layer between the Windows application and the system. CodeWeavers says that the software will be available in late July or early August. Since Wine is open-source software, the company is relying on the developer community to help the software evolve. FUTURE BOOT CAMP Boot Camp will be a feature of Mac OS 10.5, codenamed Leopard, and in a recent report, an Apple rep said that Leopard will only support dual booting, not virtualization. The line between Mac and Windows software is blurring, and the evolution of virtualization could change the software landscape. Soon you may be able to shop for apps without needing to look for Mac-specific offerings.—Roman Loyola 11 GET INFO NEW STUFF NEW STUFF STUDENTS GET AN iBREAK T he $899 17-inch education iMac has a 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo processor, 512MB of memory (expandable to 2GB), a 7,200 rpm 80GB Serial ATA hard drive, built-in AirPort Extreme, and a built-in iSight. To reach the $400 price difference between the education iMac and the entry-level iMac of the same size, compromises had to be made. The education iMac has a Combo drive, so you can only burn CDs, not DVDs. It also uses the Intel GMA 950 video chipset, which uses a 64MB chunk of main memory rather than dedicated video RAM. That means mediocre performance when playing games. Sadly, after just a week of making the education iMac available to individual college students and faculty, and K-12 and homeschool teachers, Apple has restricted it to institutional purchases only, so students should inquire at their oncampus computing stores. —Michelle Victoria The eMac lost its freshman 15. Total: $2,434.78 4PORTABLE PROJECTOR PowerLite S4 Big screen, will travel. $699 www.epson.com Available: Now This portable projector uses three LCDs to project color images. It features a brightness rating of 1,800 ANSI lumens, 800-by-600-pixel native resolution, and a weight of 5.7 pounds. 4RAZZLE DAZZLE OmniDazzle $14.95 www.omnigroup.com Available: Now ON THE DISC OmniDazzle 1.0 demo OmniDazzle adds visual effects to your screen to spice up demos and presentations. Your cursor can spread pixie dust, highlight text, zoom, create a spotlight, make a trail of footprints, and more. $1,499.99 $429.99 Tiffen Steadicam JR Lite (www .steadicam.com) Sony Handycam HDR-HC3 HD camera (www .sonystyle.com) SHAKE $HAKEUP A pple’s high-end video compositing and effects software, Shake, not only was recently upgraded to version 4.1, but also had its price drastically reduced—the Mac version is now $499, down from $2,999 (the Linux version remains a whopping $4,999). Owners of Shake 4 can get the 4.1 crossgrade for $49. If you’ve been saving up for Shake, you now find yourself with some serious extra bucks. Here’s how you can put that extra $2,500 toward your next film project and still have enough left over for a case or two of frosty beverages. —Roman Loyola Ready for your close-up? 4’PODDY TRAINED $129.90 10 caps from CafePress.com bearing your movie’s logo ($12.99 each) iCarta $250 Catering (The crew’s gotta eat!) Finally, a place to park your ’Pod when you’re sitting on the throne. This white wonder has four speakers, and even charges your iPod while it’s docked. $39.95 Sunpak Compact Monopod (www .tocad.com) $149.95 www.atechflash.com Available: Now $84.95 Sony HD DVC DVM-63HD6KIT tape (six pack) This is not a comment on your musical taste. September 2006 11 v 12 GET INFO the news of the month in bite-size chunks A DROOLWORTHY Sexy Stuff We Can’t Wait to Get Our Mitts On r e t n e tC n e m in a t r e t AEn ot om ) n rlab.c e b a m , le cu w w.cu rive tur ntab m to 50, w d 9 oo , t r 0 c d 1 e n $ ir fer, a sad hi n e ( o a c o h a w o M s sub t al u nd od, bu p, an 8-inch b’s So our iP b er L a y m m r a u o t c f t Cu es. -wa o ck glass a 20 0 as a d eight layer, only h d p n a D C ine isc s of w fi ve - d bot tle 2 1 e r s to Ball of SoundD Intempo’s iDS-02 (£139.95, or $255 at press time, www.intempo-digital.co.uk) has a pair of 7.5-watt speakers and a 15-watt subwoofer. Available in black or white, it also acts as an iPod dock so you can sync and charge your ’Pod. IMAGE COURTESY OF INTEMPO IMAGE COURTESY OF CUCUMBERLAB 12 September 2006 14 GET INFO the news of the month in bite-size chunks SHAREWARE PICK OF THE MONTH Lip Service 1.1.2 www.sonicamigos.com $20 L ip Service is a virtual tape recorder that captures audio in MOV, AIFF, WAV, or MP3 formats and includes timestamping and playlist management. Although it’s easy enough to just launch the app and hit the spacebar to start and stop recordings, you should first take a step back and set up Lip Service properly.—Andrew Tokuda When you launch Lip Service, you start in the Booth. If it’s your first time, click the Collection button; this is where you organize your playlists. Click the Playlist pop-up and choose Edit Playlists; here you can add, delete, or edit playlists. 2 Let’s create a playlist called Rants by typing that into the Playlist Title field and clicking Add; close the list when you’re done. 3 Next, go to the Session area by clicking the Session button. Choose MP3 as the Recording Format to keep the file size small. For the When Recording Stops option, choose Add To Collection. Choose your new Rants playlist as the place to store the files. Keep the File Name option set to Automatic (date/time) to timestamp your files. FAMILIAR FACES 5 When you go back to the Booth to record your audio, the file will be properly named, tagged, and stored. To locate the files on your hard drive, click one of the files and choose Show In Finder. iPOD CASE OF THE MONTH R iya (www.riya.com) may at first seem like yet another photo-sharing site to compete with the likes of Flickr (www.flickr.com), PhotoBucket (www.photobucket.com), SmugMug (www.smugmug.com), and others, but what makes Riya unique is that it has the ability to search photos using what it calls facial recognition. Riya automatically finds the faces in a photo, and then you attach a tag to that face. Riya then “learns” the face and can match it and its tag appropriately in other photos. Riya’s photo-upload software 4 Next, click the Tags button and enter the MP3 file’s ID3 tags. Speck’s Canvas Sport ($34.95, www.speckproducts.com) reminds us of good ol’-fashioned Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars—the only thing the missing is the trademark All-Star ankle patch.—Michelle Victoria For Riya, looks are everything. requires Mac OS 10.4 or later, and the company admits on its Web site that Intel-based Macs will run the software much faster than PowerPC-based Macs.—Roman Loyola Chuck Taylor, eat your heart out. CALLING ALL HOT MODS M acMod (www.macmod.com) is looking for Mac case-mod entries for its annual Great MacMod Challenge contest. What’s a case mod? It’s when you customize a computer case in a way that reflects your personality. We’re talking some serious handiwork—on MacMod’s Web site, you can see pics of several Mac 14 September 2006 mods, including a G4 tower with a clear case, a Mac in an antique wooden box, and more. MacMod is accepting entries for its contest through the month of August. Your mod must be Mac related, and you must document how you actually performed your magic. Find complete rules and entry information at www.macmod .com.—Roman Loyola SUBMIT YOUR CASE Whether your iPod case is a custom-made one-off or mass produced, you can submit it for Case of the Month consideration—just send it to iPod Case of the Month, MacAddict, 4000 Shoreline Ct., Ste. 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080. Please note that we cannot return cases. 16 GET INFO the news of the month in bite-size chunks Bug of the Month >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> WHAT TO DO WHEN PLIST FILES GO AWRY If your favorite application keeps crashing, fails to load, or freezes your Mac, the problem could lie within your plist files. Property list (plist) files store specific application settings and preferences, and are usually found in either the /Library/ Preferences directory in the root directory of your hard drive, or in the Library/ Preferences directory in your user name folder. Plist files are named according to their host application; for example, TextEdit’s plist file is named com.apple .TextEdit.plist. (The beginning part of the name, “com.apple,” indicates the vendor that created the application, insuring that no two plist files will have the exact same name.) If you have a problematic application, you may have a corrupt plist file. Here’s what you can do. START ANEW Remove the application’s plist files. The next time you launch that app, new plist files will be created with default application settings. Presumably, a new file will no longer have the corrupted data of the original file, thereby eliminating the problem. CHECK FOR INTRUDING APPS In some instances, more than one application may be writing to a plist file. For example, Safari’s plist file is often used by Apple’s Mail. If you are experiencing repeated corruption of the com.apple.Safari.plist file or another plist file, investigate the other applications that could be writing to the file. To do this, navigate to the plist file you want to inspect, select its icon, and press Command-I on your keyboard. Next, launch some of your routine applications and check to see if the Get Info window closes—this tells you that the app you just launched is using that plist file. Reinstall—or consider replacing—the offending application. 16 September 2006 STOR AGE ou either think bloggers are transforming journalism or you think they’re just proof that everyone has an opinion. Our favorite blogs tend to deal less with rumormongering (not that there’s anything wrong with that) and more with wellwritten, thoughtful, and informative articles. Here are a few.—Michelle Victoria • CULT OF MAC http://blog wired.com/cultofmac Wired’s Leander Kahney and Pete Mortensen cover Apple and the Mac community. • DARING FIREBALL www.daringfireball.net John Gruber’s blog focuses on Apple technology and features enlightening essays that tackle hot issues. • O’REILLY MAC DEVCENTER BLOG www.macdevcenter.com Run by the smart folks who publish those helpful tech books. • ROUGHLYDRAFTED MAGAZINE www.roughlydrafted.com Daniel Eran’s blog covers Apple, technology, motorcycles, Cult of Mac: and San Francisco. One of our favorite blogs. What’sNew Y • Western Digital’s My Book Pro Edition ($219.99 to $349.99, www .westerndigital. com) is an external drive built for easy backups. The drive includes EMC Retrospect Express backup software, and FireWire 800, FireWire 400, and USB 2.0 connectors. • FirmTek’s SeriTek/1SM2 PC Card ($89.95, www.firmtek .com) is a 32-bit Type II CardBus host adapter that adds a pair of eSATA ports to your PowerBook. • MicroNet’s Platinum RAID Pro My Book Pro Edition ($1,759 to $5,049, www.micronet has blue LEDs .com) is an that indicate its remaining capacity. external five-bay RAID array. It has FireWire 800, USB 2.0, and eSATA connectors and comes bundled with cables and a two-port SATA PCI host adapter card. • Newer Technology’s USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter ($24.95, www.newertech .com) can be used to connect bare hard drive mechanisms or media drives with ATA or SATA connectors to the USB port on your Mac. • Samsung’s 400GB SpinPoint T133 HD400LJ ($195, www.samsung.com) is a 7,200 rpm SATA hard drive featuring an average seek time of 8.9 milliseconds, Samsung’s NoiseGuard and SilentSeek noise-reduction technologies, and an optional 16MB cache. • SoftRAID 3.5 ($149 CD, $129 download, www.softraid.com) is advanced RAID software. The new version is a Universal app that adds support for removable SATA drives and more. • WiebeTech’s SATADock v4 ($229.95, www.wiebetech.com) connects bare SATA drive mechanisms to your Mac via FireWire 800 or USB.—Michelle Victoria >>>>>>>> IT’S A BLOG, BLOG, BLOG, BLOG WORLD We’ve got all the accessories, tips, and tricks you need to assemble the perfect travel pack for your mobile Mac. 18 September 2006 by Niko Coucouvanis, Roman Loyola, and Rik Myslewski N o ’Book is an island. Sure, your MacBook, PowerBook, or iBook is a perfectly serviceable computing partner in and of itself—but to get the most out of it, equip it with one or more of the hundreds of add-ons available from the hordes of product providers vying for your accessorizing cash. ■ Equip your traveling companion with decent portable speakers or headphones for relaxing on the road. ■ You’re not going to just tuck your ’Book into your armpit, so a sturdy, comfortable case is a must. ■ When you simply need to transfer files to another Mac or PC, a pocket-size portable drive is a godsend. ■ You back up regularly, right? Right? Then you need a backup drive. ■ Trackpads are fine for on-the-go use, but hook up a mouse for desk work. In the next 10 pages we recommend our favorite ’Book buddies in these and other categories, plus give you tips on battery use, security matters, ergonomics, and more. Read on to discover how to best doll up your portable pal and ensure that it serves you well as you travel the highways and byways of your business, educational, or creative life. September 2006 19 MACADDICT RECOMMENDS Business Traveler $3,237.82 You’re the unsung American hero—you, that is, and your trusty MacBook Pro. 7 8 5 2 6 4 9 3 1 1 15-inch MacBook Pro $2,499 (2.16GHz) Apple 408-996-1010, www.apple.com You could get by with just a MacBook, but the Pro gives you a bigger display, higher resolution, faster graphics, an expansion slot, and a backlit keyboard for those late-night flights home. 2 Mercury On-TheGo FW 800+USB 2.0 $209.99 (100GB, 5,400 rpm, 8MB cache) Other World Computing 800-275-4576, www.macsales.com 20 Backing up is even more important on the road; this fast, lightweight drive will take care of business. 3 USB 2.0 Pocket Hard Drive $99.99 (5GB) Seagate 831-438-6550, www.seagate.com When all you need to do is to transfer files to a client’s PC, pop this portable drive into your pocket. 4 JBL On Tour Plus $129.95 JBL 516-255-4525, www.jbl.com Stuck in a town with lousy radio stations? Relax in your hotel room to your own tunes. September 2006 5 2-Port FireWire800 Professional ExpressCard/34 $89.95 NitroAV 512-467-2808, www.nitroav.com You’re always in a rush, so use this card to add FireWire 800 speed to your backup chores. 6 Bluetooth Optical Mini Mouse $69.95 Iogear 866-946-4327, www.iogear.com A trackpad’s OK for traytable use, but in your hotel room an optical mouse is a welcome relief. 7 Power Ready Notebook Case with Rollers $89.99 (1,800 cubic inches) American Power Conversion 877-272-2722, www.apc.com Not only does it roll like a good case should, but it holds APC’s backup batteries and in-case cabling. 8 Apple USB Modem $49 Apple 408-996-1010, www.apple.com Broadband access hasn’t yet made it to the Podunk Motel 6; pack a USB modem just in case. COMING SOON 9 XV620 EV-DO ExpressCard/34 Price TBD Novatel Wireless 858-812-3400, www.novatelwireless.com Your cell-phone provider will soon offer a wireless EV-DO broadband card for your MacBook Pro. Play It Safe The data on your traveling ’Book may be worth more than your ’Book itself. Protect both. PHYSICAL SECURITY Simply put, the mantra of notebook antitheft protection is “Don’t be stupid.” If you simply must leave your ’Book in a hotel room or crack house, use a cable lock attached to its Kensington Security Slot. If you have reason to be especially paranoid (cf. crack house, above), augment the lock with a motion-sensitive alarm—Targus’ Defcon 1 Ultra Notebook Computer Security System ($49.99, www. targus.com) has been our favorite for years. And if you can convince us of a situation in which it’s wise to leave your thousand-plus-dollar baby unattended on a coffee-shop table, we’re all ears. The Kensington MicroSaver DS is the toughest notebook lock we’ve found. VIRTUAL SECURITY Wireless networking may be the proverbial cat’s PJs, but lurking under its surface is a black hole of security threats. Follow these guidelines and you’ll enjoy safe surfing at your local unsecured Wi-Fi hotspot. ■ SAVE RISKY WORK FOR HOME Hackers can steal your login information as it wafts through the ether, long before it reaches your bank’s secure server. Conduct your online bill-paying over your WAPprotected home wireless network, not while sipping a Venti Caffè Misto Breve at your favorite ’Bucks. ■ KNOW THY NETWORK Bored hackers hang out in the vicinity of known open networks with a laptop that’s running server software; by mimicking legitimate networks in the area, these creeps sit and wait for your ’Book to automatically join their phony network. Once you’re on their bogus network, the hacker’s machine tries to trick yours into logging on to bogus online banking services. Actually, we’ve never seen this succeed in the wild—yet—but it’s conceivable. Oops…did we just give some asshat a good idea? ■ BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES Turn off any extraneous networking services; do you really need to enable FTP access and file sharing while you’re drinking coffee and browsing Entertainment Weekly’s Web site? Launch System Preferences, open the Sharing pane, make sure all the boxes are unchecked under both the Services and Firewall tabs, and turn on the firewall under the Firewall tab. Bonus: You’ll also save battery power. ■ GO INTO QUARANTINE MODE The safest Mac is a disconnected Mac. If you don’t need to be on the Web, turn AirPort off—Bluetooth as well if you’re not using it. Your battery will thank you. 1 On its wheels or on your back, this case can carry a heavy load. 2 A notebook case? A traveling desk? How about both? 3 A case where less is indeed more. 4 Backpack or messenger bag—this case goes both ways. 5 That’s Kevlar, the stuff bulletproof vests are made from. The Targus Defcon 1 alarm redefines “OMG that’s loud!” A Case, Just in Case Whatever your style, we’ve got the case for you. The whole notion of a notebook is that you can take it with you—but you run the risk of dings, dents, and drops. Take care of your ’Book with a good case, and your ’Book will take care of you. Pacific Design’s Action II Rolling Backpack XL ( 1 $69.99, www.pacificdesign.com) can hold a 17-inch ’Book, a hard drive or two, all your cables, and more. And if it’s too heavy to hoist on your back after you’ve packed it, just pull out the telescoping arm and roll it—it has wheels. Shaun Jackson Design’s BackOffice ( 2 $149.95 and $179.95, www.sjdesign.com) isn’t just a case. When opened, it folds out to become an instant desk organizer. You never have to remove your ’Book from the BackOffice—it’ll give you that cozy “at the office” feeling almost anywhere. Use IDEE’s MagiSoft’s Skinbook ( 3 $24.99, www.ideetechnology.com) when all you need is a cushiony cover to protect your notebook from minor shocks. You could even use this polyurethane sleeve to protect your ’Book while it’s in another bag. If your AirPort signal is weak or drops out entirely, Timbuk2’s Outtawhack (4 $100, www try turning Interference Robustness on—or off. Sometime on helps, sometime off does. Whatever… .timbuk2.com) has the popular To find out more about AirPort interference, go messenger-bag styling, but it also has straps so you can wear it like a backpack. to www.apple.com/support, and search for 58543 to find Apple’s helpful document “AirPort: Potential The exterior is made of ballistic nylon, sources of interference.” and the interior has a corduroy-lined section for your ’Book. Interference Robustness Chrome’s Shuttle (5 $115, www can be the secret to .chromebags.com) is made with ballistics getting—and staying— nylon, Kevlar, or carbon fiber. Each bag can online. hold a ’Book, a cable or two, your power Go Robust—or Not September 2006 21 MACADDICT RECOMMENDS Student $1,509.92 Ah, the life of the starving student: ramen, thrift shops, and a MacBook. 2 6 4 1 3 5 1 MacBook $1,199 (1.83GHz, 1GB RAM) Apple 408-996-1010, www.apple.com Save a few precious bucks and get the 1.83GHz model—it’s more than adequate for writing papers and doing Web research if you upgrade to 1GB of RAM. Use its CD-R drive for backups. 2 1GB Gizmo! Overdrive $45.99 Crucial Technology 800-336-8915, www.crucial.com 22 September 2006 One gigabyte is enough to haul data from the lab, or tunes to a party—it’ll hold about 250 songs. It’s tiny, works great, has a wind-up USB cord, and is cheap enough for any student’s budget. 3 XT1 $99.95 Altec Lansing 866-570-5702, www.alteclansing.com 5 Laptop Messenger $90 Timbuk2 800-865-2513, www.timbuk2.com 4 PocketMouse Mini $19.99 Kensington 800-235-6708, www.kensington.com 6 MicroSaver DS Notebook Lock $54.99 Kensington Sure, you can find a ton of speakers for under a hundred bucks, but your ears deserve quality. Sure, style’s important, but so are padding, comfort, and ruggedness— and this bag’s got ’em all. 800-235-6708, www.kensington.com All your dormies are as honest as the day is long, right? Keep them that way with a cable lock. COMING SOON MacSkinz for MacBook Price TBD MacSkinz www.macskinz.com As soon as MacSkinz works out some production kinks, expect colorful, protective MacBook covers. Ergonomics 101 Like any traveling companion, a ’Book can be, at times, a pain in the neck. ■ ON THE GO When you’re beating the bricks, don’t be a fashion victim. An over-theshoulder laptop bag can be a classy style statement, but it can also strain your back and fund your chiropractor’s next boat payment. Get a good backpack instead—it’s OK; you’re already secure in your fashionability, right? You can find rugged, notebookready backpacks from RadTech (www.radtech.us), Brenthaven (www.brenthaven.com), and others. ■ ON YOUR LAP Excessive heat and male-sterilization issues aside, using a laptop as the name suggests—on your lap—can involve excessive hunching, slouching, and subsequent vertebral pain. Raise your ’Book off your lap with a Lapinator ($24.95, www.lapinator .com) or a Rain Design iLap ($49.90 to $69.90, www.raindesigninc.com) and experience improved comfort in your thighs and neck. ■ ON YOUR DESK If you frequently work at home, use a full-size keyboard and mouse plus an Apple Cinema Display—your MacBook Pro can handle even a 30-incher. Just plug everything in, close your ’Book’s lid, and the external display will fire right up. If you can’t swing a stand-alone display, at least use a stand to get your ’Book’s display up to a safe, comfortable level. Griffin’s inexpensive iCurve ($39.99, www.griffintechnology.com) The LX is nearly perfect, and Ergotron’s mongo LX Desk Mount Notebook Arm Desk Mount ($179, www.ergotron.com) is perfect—just make sure to use an external Notebook Arm gets your ’Book keyboard and mouse with either. The 11-ounce Lapinator keeps your ’Book from scorching your thighs. The iLap is killer-cool but 1.7 pounds, so you may not want to lug it around. The iCurve: so simple, yet so effective. to eye level. Portable Audio Whether you prefer speakers, headphones, or earbuds, we’ve got you covered. Internal speakers have improved every ’Book generation—at least until the weak-sounding MacBook was released. But nothing beats a set of external speakers. And then there are the times when you just want to keep your Mac’s audio to yourself. Here are a few speakers and earphones to check out: When you whip out Think Outside’s Boomtube H2O1 ( 1 $250, www.thinkoutside.com), ignore your friends’ smart-alecky references to explosive devices. In reality, this speaker set can fill a room with boomin’ sound—and it looks impressive, too. Logitech’s mm28 ( 2 $59.99, www.logitech.com) won’t shake a room, but its stereo flat-panel technology makes it highly portable, and it works well for that small crowd of five or six people huddled around your ’Book watching your latest iMovie creation. Logitech also offers the V20 Notebook Speakers 6 These earbuds fit snugly even during exercise. 1 The Boomtube H2O1 is definitely not all wet. 3 Play 2 Slim, sexy, and stereo. ( 3 $79.99), which draw power from your Mac’s USB port so you don’t need a separate power adapter. XtremeMac’s FS1 High Definition Earphones (4 $149.95, www.xtrememac.com) produce rich sound, and you can customize the fit with one of six supplied earphone covers. Sometimes you’ll need to block out ambient noise in a dorm, on a plane, or in a crowded coffee shop, so check out Bose’s QuietComfort 3 (5 $349, www.bose.com). They’re pricey, but they’re some of the best noise-canceling headphones around, featuring full-spectrum noise reduction, mobile phone connectivity, and a rechargeable battery. If you prefer discreetlooking earbuds over headphones, Shure’s E2c Sound Isolating Earphones (6 $109, www.shure.com) have an in-ear design that helps block out unwanted noise, and top-notch sound quality. and power these babies over USB. 4 Six earphone covers ensure a good fit. 5 These ’phones fold flat for easy transport. September 2006 23 MACADDICT RECOMMENDS Creative Pro $9,047.72 Take your MacBook Pro and these traveling companions to wherever the action is. 10 4 8 2 7 1 9 3 5 11 24 September 2006 6 1 17-inch MacBook Pro $3,099 (2GB RAM) Apple 408-996-1010, www.apple.com For not much more than a 15-inch MacBook Pro, you get a 17-inch display, a FireWire 800 port, and a lot more oomph. Pop $300 for 2GB of RAM and choose the 7,200 rpm 100GB drive. 2 Rugged All-Terrain Hard Drive $349.99 (100GB, 7,200 rpm) LaCie 503-844-4500, www.lacie.com When you’re shooting and editing on location, you need a backup drive that can take a beating. 3 SilverSATA V 3,750GB RAID $4,324.95 WiebeTech 866-744-8722, www.wiebetech.com This 3.75TB SATA RAID array is fast and rugged, and comes equipped with a handle for on-the-go use. 4 Skwarim $199.99 (60GB) LaCie 503-844-4500, www.lacie.com Sometimes you simply need to carry work to a client’s office—this cutie will impress ’em as well. 5 StudioPro 3 Monitors $129.95 M-Audio 866-657-6434, www.m-audio.com Pro studio monitors are essential for audio editing, and these are compact enough to be portable. 6 SeriTek/2SM2-E $119.95 FirmTek 510-675-9800, www.firmtek.com This eSATA ExpressCard connects your RAID to your notebook. Speed is good. So is convenience. 7 Professional Series 3.0 Keyboard for Final Cut Pro with NeoLite $189.95 Bella 818-563-9500, www.bella-usa.com Editing in Final Cut Pro? This color-keyed and jog-wheel-equipped keyboard is your new assistant. 8 MX1000 Laser Cordless Mouse $79.95 Logitech 800-231-7717, www.logitech.com Precision edits require precision cursor control, and mice don’t get more precise than this Mickey. 9 Empire Builder with Absolute Shoulder Strap $225 Tom Bihn 800-729-9607, www.tombihn.com Rugged bag: $150. Sturdy notebook sleeve: $50. Extra-comfy strap: $25. Peace of mind: priceless. NuLOOQ Professional Series $149.99 Logitech 800-231-7717, www.logitech.com Enjoy quick two-finger control over image navigation, creative controls, and adjustment options. LX Desk Mount Notebook Arm $179 Ergotron 800-888-8458, www.ergotron.com Save your precious spine: Lift your display to eye level with this industrial-strength articulating arm. COMING SOON 17-inch BookEndz Dock for MacBook Pro $299.95 BookEndz 888-622-1199, www.bookendzdocks.com Later this year, BookEndz will ship its hasslesaving dock for the 17-inch MacBook Pro. Get one. Battery Preservation & Replacement Without a healthy battery, your ’Book is merely a lovely piece of high-tech sculpture. Any notebook computer, including Apple’s mighty MacBook Pro, has a crippling Achilles heel: its battery. That said, following some common-sense rules can keep your ’Book’s battery— and your productivity—at maximum efficiency. ■ DON’T EXPECT ETERNAL POWER Remember that batteries almost never meet their claimed four to five hours maximum run-time—unless you put your ’Book to sleep. Keep in mind that battery weakness is not an Apple-specific problem. Other computer makers—even some specialized battery-replacement vendors—often overstate their batteries’ capabilities when the batteries are used for actual work. ■ CONSULT THE ORACLE Visit www.apple.com/batteries for the party line on the proper care and feeding of your ’Book and its battery—or just crib our notes: • When you first bring a MacBook home, plug it in and top off the battery charge. • As time goes on, drain and charge the battery at least once per month to keep it properly exercised. • If you, like Fred Savage’s Crumbs, go on hiatus for six months or more, give your battery a 50 percent charge and store it at room temperature. ■ READ ITS VITAL STATS Check the state of your battery in System Profile. Select About This Mac from the Apple Menu and click More Info; click Power in the System Profile’s Hardware list, and eyeball your battery’s vital stats, including its full-charge capacity, remaining capacity, and cycle count— the number of times it’s been drained and charged. The more cycles it’s been through, the shorter its per-charge life. Our brand-new MacBook’s ■ BE PARSIMONIOUS Your ’Book’s battery life is limited—don’t battery is in great shape. waste it on nonessentials. If you’re not using AirPort, Bluetooth, or keyboard backlighting, turn them off via their respective menu bar icons or system preferences panes. Crank down your ’Book’s volume as well. And don’t be afraid to shut down your ’Book for your transoceanic flight; extended sleep will still drain your battery, albeit slowly. ■ KEEP IT IN SHAPE Batteries are like MacAddict editors: They all would benefit from some exercise. Unfortunately, neither batteries nor editors get enough. To the aid of the former come Keep your battery chargers/conditioners such as Newer batteries Technology’s Intelligent Battery Charging charged Station ($149.95, www.newertech.com), and in tipwhich can both charge batteries and put top condition them through reconditioning exercises to with an external help extend their lives. If only we editors charging station, could be regenerated by simply sitting in a such as this recharging cradle for a few restful hours… one from Newer ■ THROW MONEY AT THE PROBLEM One good thing about battery Technology. problems is that you can always solve them the oldfashioned way: with cold, hard cash. Someday you’ll have to replace your battery—unless you retire your ’Book to an AC-only desktop existence. Knowing that death is inevitable, you might as well invest in a second battery now—you’ll also enjoy the convenience of doubling your battery life. Apple sells them ($129, www.apple.com), as do third-party vendors such as Other World Computing ($99.95 and up, www.macsales.com) and iFixit ($99.95 and up, www.ifixit.com). Can you think of a reason other than frugality not to have an extra battery, such as these from Newer Technology? Neither can we. September 2006 25 Mobile Mice Trackpads are, at best, a necessary evil. 1 Never buy mouse batteries again. Nothing beats the control you get with a mouse. When on the road, you don’t have to lug a full-sized desktop mouse with you—plenty of mini-mice designed specifically for travelers are available. Here are three of the best. RadTech’s BT500 Rechargeable Mobile Mouse (1 $59.95, www.radtech.us) and Iogear’s Bluetooth Optical Mini Mouse (2 $69.95, www .iogear.com) both can converse with your ’Book’s built-in Bluetooth. If your ’Book is an older, non-Bluetooth model but you still want wireless convenience, check out Logitech’s V450 Laser Cordless Mouse (3 $49.99, www.logitech.com), which comes with a USB receiver that fits inside the mouse for compact storage. 2 When Iogear says “mini,” it means mini. 3 Hiding inside: a mini USB RF receiver. Hard Drives to Go Even if all you use it for is backup, a portable hard drive is a must-have add-on. 400 only, or USB 2.0 only; the FireWire 800 models include an 800-to-400 adapter cable. LaCie’s 80GB to 120GB Rugged All-Terrain Hard Drives (4 $139.99 to $349.99, www.lacie.com) and Plextor’s Shockproof Portable Hard Drives (5 $169 and $260, www.plextor.com) have rubber bumpers along the edges of their cases to soften the blow from that inevitable drop when you’re far from home. SmartDisk’s FireLite XPress (6 $199 and $299, www .smartdisk.com) has an LCD that lists the files on the drive, how much capacity you have left, and other disk stats. Seagate’s USB 2.0 Pocket Hard Drive (7 $84.99 to $99.99, www.seagate .com) doesn’t have a fancy-schmancy LCD, and it has only a USB 2.0 port, but sometimes you just want a simple, sturdy drive that Just Works. Apple’s ’Books are powerful enough to handle video editing, audio production, photo processing, and a lot more—and that means the large files that you create will quickly eat up your ’Book’s internal hard drive space, prompting you to invest in a portable hard drive to store your precious data. Also, even ferocious road warriors should be cautious enough to back up their work while on the trail. WiebeTech’s ComboGB (1 $238.95 to $511.95, www .wiebetech.com) and LaCie’s Little Big Disk (2 $369 to $799, www.lacie.com) have FireWire 800, FireWire 400, and USB 2.0 connections, so you’re never left disconnected. Other World Computing’s compact Mercury On-The-Go hard drives (3 $124.99 to $349.99, www.macsales.com) are available with FireWire 800 and USB 2.0, FireWire 400 and USB 2.0, FireWire Portable hard drives come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and styles, but they all perform the same two critical tasks: expanding your storage capacity and backing up your ’Book’s priceless files. 4 2 3 1 7 5 6 26 September 2006 Small-Capacity Storage Mobile convenience comes in small packages. When you need to move a small number of files, burning a CD can be overkill, and you may not always be near an Internet connection to use email or FTP. That’s when USB flash drives come in handy—most are small enough to fit in the change pocket of your Levi’s. Crucial’s Gizmo! Overdrive (1 $30.99 to $82.99, www.crucial.com) promises throughput of 13MB per second, so you won’t be kept waiting long while your files copy. If you’re thinking of carrying your drive with you at all times, make it Swiss+Tech’s Micro-Pro 9-in-1 with USB Flash Drive (2 $34.99 to $129.99, www.swisstechtools.com), which includes a small set of pliers, two screwdrivers, wire cutters and strippers, and more. Is a couple of gigs too small for you? Kanguru’s Flash Drive Max (3 $749.95 to $2,799.95, www.kanguru.com) comes in spacious capacities ranging from 16GB to 64GB—if you can afford them. Pocket hard drives such as Western Digital’s 6GB Passport Pocket Drive (4 5 $99.99, www.westerndigital 2 .com), Iomega’s 4GB or 6GB Micro Mini (5$109.95 and $149.95, www.iomega.com), 6 3 and PNY’s 8GB MaxFile Attaché (6 $149.99, www.pny.com) offer more capacity and a cheaper price per megabyte. 4 1 ExpressCard Tricks The ExpressCard/34 expansion slot on the MacBook Pro isn’t merely a replacement for the PC Card slot on earlier PowerBooks; it’s one seriously speedy upgrade to that old receptacle. While PC Card technology was limited to 132MB-persecond throughput, an ExpressCard communicates with your MacBook Pro’s internal PCI Express bus at 250MB per second. ExpressCards come in two flavors: ExpressCard/34, a 34mmwide version that fits in your MacBook Pro’s expansion slot, and ExpressCard/54 (we’ll let you guess how wide that one is). As we went to press, ExpressCard/34 offerings for the MacBook Pro were limited, but expect more to appear soon. ■ FIREWIRE 800 We were disappointed when the 15-inch MacBook pro lacked a FireWire 800 port. The folks at NitroAV must have felt our pain, seeing as how they’re now offering the 2-Port FireWire800 Professional ExpressCard/34 ($89.95, www.nitroav.com). ■ EXTERNAL SATA Drives that connect to your Mac over external SATA (eSATA) are the wave of the future. In fact, speedy setups from WiebeTech (www.wiebetech.com), LaCie (www.lacie.com), Other World Computing (www .macsales.com), and others already take advantage of eSATA’s performance. Unfortunately, they require a PCI-Express host card to be installed in a Power Mac G5, since current Power Macs don’t have eSATA ports. Neither do MacBook Pros—that is, unless you equip yours with FirmTek’s two-port SeriTek/ 2SM2-E eSATA ExpressCard ($119.95, www.firmtek.com), which can achieve transfer rates of up to 3 gigabits per second per port. ■ EV-DO A convoluted acronym for Evolution-Data Only, EV-DO technology is a third-generation CDMA cell phone technology that allows for downlink speeds of up to 3.1 megabits per second—theoretically, that is; the average rate you’ll experience in the real world will most likely be between 300 and 600 kilobits per second. Still, for a wireless modem, that ain’t too shabby. EV-DO ExpressCards should appear on your cellphone service provider’s shelves by the time you read this; one contender is the Novatel Wireless XV620 (price TBD, www .novatelwireless.com). Add FireWire 800 to your 15-inch MacBook Pro with this card from NitroAV. Coming soon to a MacBook Pro near you: a broadband wireless ExpressCard modem from Novatel Wireless. September 2006 27 MacAddict editors Niko Coucouvanis, Roman Loyola, and Rik Myslewski would dearly love to be mobile, but they’re tethered to their %$#@ing desks. Stuff your MacBook Pro’s speedy expansion slot with productivity enhancers. ����������������������������������������� Left � � � �� �� �� ��� � �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ���������������������������������� ����������������������� Left Right ����������������� ���������� �������� ���������� ������������������������� � �� ���������������������������������� �������� � ������������������������������������������������ ����������������������������������������������� ���������������������������� ���������������������������� ���������������������������������� ������������������������������������� ��������������������������������� ������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������������������� ���� �� � ��������� �������������������������� ��������������������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������� �������������������������������� Right MacAddict IT’S PARTY TIME! This month marks MacAddict’s 10th birthday. Join us for a breeze through birthdays past—and marvel at how times have changed. by Rik Myslewski I t was 1996. The Republicans nominated Bob Dole. The Bulls won the NBA finals. Janet Jackson became the highest-paid musician ever. Dolly became the first cloned mammal. Mel Gibson’s Braveheart won the Academy Award. Apple was on the ropes. MacAddict was born. It’s now 2006. Bob Dole became a Viagra shill. The Bulls play .500 ball. Janet Jackson’s wardrobe derailed her career. Dolly morphed into mutton. Mel’s career hit the skids. Apple is booming. So is MacAddict. Here’s how we did—are doing—it. ������� �������� �������������������������������������������������������� ���� ���� ���� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � ������ ��� ��������������������������� ��������������������������� ■������������������������������� ■����������������������������������� ■�������������������������������� ■�������������������������������� ■����������������������������� ������������������� �������������������������� �������������������� ������������� ������� � ��������������������� ����������������������� � ����������������������� ���������������� � ����������������������������������� � ��������������� � ���������������������������������� �������������� ����������������������������������������������� ���� ���� ���� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � ���� ������� ����������� ��� ����� �� ���������� �������������� ���������� ��� ���� � ����������� � ���������������� � �������������������������������������������� ������������������������ ������������ ���������������������� ���������������������� ���������������� ������������������������� ��������� �������������������������������� � ������������������������ � ������������������������� � ���������������������������� ������� � ������������������������ � ���������������������� � ��������������������� ������������������� September 2006 31 IT’S PARTY TIME! 1996 Aggressive Optimism The first issue of MacAddict proudly declared that the Mac’s future was bright. However, right below that confident proclamation on the premiere issue’s cover was an admission that, perhaps, not everyone agreed. It said, “Your faith in the world’s best computer is about to be restored.” That restoration was MacAddict’s first charter, supported by articles such as “Stand by Your Mac: 25 Reasons Why the Mac is Better Than a PC.” Reason number 20 was “Wintel machines are easy prey to infection,” which stated, “More than 8,000 viruses exist for the PC, with 100 to 200 bugs introduced each month.” That warning was far more correct than we could have imagined at the time—as of June 2006, virus-utility publisher McAfee claimed that “More than 180,000 threats exist today.” We also beat the pro-Apple drum with “Just What the Doctor Ordered,” which detailed “35 good deeds for which we can thank Dr. Gilbert Amelio,” who was then Apple’s new CEO. Among them were aggressively licensing the Mac OS (Steve Jobs canceled that effort the next year) and his Sep/97 Sep/96 Sep/98 commitment to the OpenDoc software-component framework and Cyberdog, Apple’s OpenDoc-based Web browser (most of the OpenDoc team was laid off in March of 1997). On the plus side, we did laud Gil for increasing the Mac’s minimum RAM to a massive 12MB. Gil wasn’t the only OpenDoc fan. In an article entitled “OpenDoc Rocks” we gushed, “OpenDoc may indeed be the beginning of a revolution.” We were a bit more on the mark, however, about Apple’s soon-to-be-forgotten gaming hardware, Pippin, declaring that “our BS detector is beeping.” Products reviewed included the Power Computing PowerTower 180, which ran at “a whopping” 180MHz. Our verdict: “This is screaming-fast, kick-ass raw PowerPC power at its best.” Its price tag when equipped with 16MB of RAM and a 2GB hard drive was an ass-kicking $4,195. Other prices in that issue: $929 for a 4.3GB Quantum Atlas drive from LaCie and $559 for a 64MB RAM DIMM from Other World Computing. 1997 On the Defensive At the age of 1, MacAddict was celebrating its Best Overall Magazine award from the erstwhile Computer Press Organization (which represented “the media that cover computer technology”), beating out Business Week, among others. But if times were good at MacAddict, they were doubleplus-ungood at Apple—so bad, in fact, that we devoted the bulk of our first-anniversary issue to Both you and providing our readers with ammunition, as our cover Woz looked shouted, to “Fight Back!” Six articles carried the younger in 1997. jolly overall title of “Fight or Perish!” and began with the following lighthearted badinage: “We’ve had enough. We’re tired of Apple being carelessly labeled as lagging, failing, or dying. We’re tired of people maligning our Sep/99 Macintoshes. We’re sick of the slams, digs, and taunts directed at us by know-nothing PC hacks. It will stop. Now. We will not surrender to the ‘inevitable’ or passively pray for the health of our platform. No, it’s time for revolution.” This defensiveness was understandable. In “The Gilbert Amelio Saga,” we listed 10 things the recently resigned Dr. Amelio would be remembered for, including “a long, rambling speech at Mac Expo [that] left the press angry, consumers frustrated, and developers confused.” We also reminded readers that “Apple’s stock was at an all-time low when he resigned.” One bit of good news: That $559 64MB DIMM in our premiere issue had sunk to $259. One odd piece of neither good nor bad news: We asked readers, “If you were stranded on a desert island with an Apple cofounder, which Steve would you want?” Woz beat Jobs 58 to 41 percent. 1998 Hanging In There Gone the way of the Pippin. 32 September 2006 Gone the way of Dr. Gil. Sep/00 On May 7, 1998, the iMac was unveiled and Apple’s skid began to slow. However, that Bondi Blue babe didn’t ship until August 15—which might account for some of the defensiveness in our second-birthday issue. Sep/0 IT’S PARTY TIME! In mid-1998 there was serious discussion among otherwise intelligent people that the Mac was losing its grip on the graphic-design industry. MacAddict editors weren’t buying it. In a 10-page report, we asked the thenburning question, “Does [Windows] NT really have what it takes to kill the Mac once and for all?” After interviewing over a dozen publishing pros, we came up with the answer: nope. As we now It was only a 15-incher know, we were right. and cost two grand, but Stuffed into an overview of the then- you wanted an Apple upcoming Mac OS 8.5 (aka Allegro) Studio Display. You was a sneak peak at Mac OS X; earlier wanted it bad. in the mag there was an explanation of why the Mac OS would skip directly from Mac OS 8 to Mac OS X, which stated, “Even if Apple wanted to go with 9 instead of X as its operating-system name, it can’t. Developed by Microware System Corporation…OS-9 runs on the 68000 family of microprocessors…on Intel386-and-higher and PowerPC processors…[and on] certain Amigas, Ataris, Macs, and other modems in the dust—cable modems and DSL are finally here.” Finally, in our review of Final Cut Pro 1.0 we said, “You may need to think hard before choosing Final Cut Pro over time-tested [Adobe] Premiere.” Ah, well—two out of three ain’t bad. That 64MB DIMM, by the way, had crept back up to $99— remember those infuriating RAM-chip price fluctuations? 2000 Turning the Corner Our fourth birthday brought a new MacAddictude. Our cover story, “The New Face of Mac Advocacy,” began, “It’s not just about survival anymore,” and declared that “Steve Jobs and his crew of turnaround wizards came to power and changed everything.” Whew. We hadn’t abandoned boosterism, however. We continued to explain how to further the Mac’s cause, Y’see, the hicks are including tips on how to “promote supposed to be Windows your ideas about which platform users. The guy in the tight is best and why.” We also had pants is you. Oh, never mind. ��������������������������������������������������� ���� ����� ���� � � � � ���� ���� ����� ���� ���� ������ ���� ����� �� ������� ������ ������ ��� ����������������� ������������������� �������������������������������� �������������������� ��������������������� ������������������ ������������ ������������� ��������� ��������� ������������������������ � ������������������������ � ������������������������ ��������������� � ����������������������������� Sep/01 Sep/02 Sep/03 computer platforms.” We were wrong; Mac OS 9 was fine. Oh, and that 64MB DIMM from Other World Computing? It was down to $65. 1999 Confident, Not Cocky MacAddict’s third birthday was celebrated quietly in our pages, with only a small timeline detailing our history up to that point. On the same page that timeline began, however, was a telling indicator of how much had changed. An article entitled “Think… Uh, Dissimilar” discussed how PC makers were trying to ride the iMac’s coattails; it began by saying, “The iMac has smacked PC industrial design like the comet that killed the dinosaurs,” and ended with a comfortable, “Apple is the leader in this market.” Armed with this newfound confidence, we continued to predict the future. In “I Want My MP3” we wrote, “The music industry loathes it. Music artists embrace it. Music fans want it. Love it or hate it, MP3 is here to stay as digital music takes a huge step into mainstream No, this isn’t an early entertainment.” In “Net iMac; it’s an E-Power Speed” we advised, Wintel clone. Sad, “Leave your 56-Kbps isn’t it? Sep/04 ������� � ���������������������� � ������������������������ � ��������������������������� ���������������������������� � Sep/05 some advice for Apple, including “Release Multiprocessing G4s,” which it did; “Build a Killer Server,” which was served up by the Xserve; and “Include an iMac Upgrade Slot,” for which we’re still waiting. We were also confident enough to publish “Hold Your Nose: Integrate Your Macs and PCs and Deal with the Windows World”—and to illustrate it with possibly the leastattractive art in the history of computer journalism. Just as hubris was starting to get the best of us, we published one of our top goof-ups ever: an almost entirely empty chart that was intended to tell you how to maintain your Mac but instead reminded you that even your favorite magazine can make mongo misteaks. 2001 Halftime Show In honor of our fifth birthday we revealed our choices for “The Best and Worst of Everything Mac,” described on our cover as ranging “from the insanely great to the simply insane.” The Best Expo Moment went to the introduction of the multicolored iMacs, although that moment has since been superseded by the brouhaha at the introduction of the Hostess Snowball–esque iMac G4. Best Commercial honors went to “1984”—a nobrainer, but you gotta admit that the more-recent-though-neverSeptember 2006 33 IT’S PARTY TIME! Quiz: “Which three execution units are part of the Vector Arithmetic Logic Unit in the [G5’s] Pentium 4–spanking AltiVec implementation? a) VPU, VCIU, VFPU; b) VSIU, VCIU, VFPU; c) VPU, VSIU, VFPU; d) VPU, VFPU, VACLU; e) VENI, VIDI, VICI.” Perhaps we should have added “f) Who cares?” (The answer, by the way, is b—but you knew that.) broadcast Ellen Feiss “switcher” ad was an aesthetic triumph. We also awarded our own selves some bests and worsts, including Worst Cover for our Feb/98 issue. That, however, is an honor that now must be shared—nay, owned exclusively—by a dynamic duo of dreck: Dec/01 and Jan/02. 2002 Relaxing into Maturity When we turned 6, MacAddict was confident because Apple was confident. In “It’s Alive!” we detailed the announcement of Mac OS 10.2, Jaguar, by writing, “At this summer’s Mac Expo, Apple made it crystal clear that no recession, stock-market downturn, computer-industry implosion, or mind-scorching New York weather from hell was going to cramp its style.” We also introduced the MacAddict Quiz, which was to have a four-year run. One unintentionally prescient question: “What does the i in iMac stand for: a) Interactive, b) Internet, c) Injured, d) Intelligent, e) Intel.” 2003 Riding the Wave In the MacAddict Quiz, everyone aspired to the lofty title of Terminal Geek. The confidence we were all feeling when the Power Mac G5 was introduced was exemplified by the quote from Steve Jobs that we featured on the cover of our seventh-birthday issue: “We’ve caught up with the PC—and passed them.” Never mind his shaky pronoun/antecedent agreement; he was right. We weren’t alone in that confidence. When we interviewed an IT manager for our top news story, “Developers Speak Out: Apple’s WWDC Keynote Sparks Passionate Reactions,” about whether he considered the new Power Mac G5 to be expensive, he said, “No, s**t no, not for that kind of power.” Perhaps we did get a bit carried away when discussing the recently released iChat AV videoconferencing feature—we wrote “If the Baby Bells were merely nervous before, they should be running around in circles screaming right about now.” It’s been three years, and we’ve yet to hear any screaming. Also, maybe we let confidence mar our The case that inspired no end better judgment when we of cheese grater included the following jokes—including question in the second annual MacAddict our own. 34 September 2006 �� �� ��������� ���������������������� ���������������������� �� ������ ������ ��������� Ah, what a comfortable year. We brought you ������� �� ������ ��� news of Tiger and predicted that it would “revolutionize the way you use your Mac”—not a prediction that took one heck of a lot of perspicacity. Apple was cruising, and so was ������ ���� MacAddict. We introduced two new elements ���� ���� �� ������ that stuck—Bug of the Month and What’s New—and one that didn’t: Expert User. Apple introduced the most droolworthy of its recent No, that’s not a products, the $3,299 30-inch Apple Cinema HD runway pretty boy, Display (you can now pick one up for a bargain- that’s Kyle LeBoeuf, basement $2,499). our IT department’s Our eighth-birthday issue also saw a review Mac guru. of a digital camera with what may be the dumbest product name of all time: the *ist D. And finally, our Geek Life parody of a GQ magazine cover indulged in one of the worst puns we’ve inflicted upon you in years: “So Sexy It Hertz!” ���� ���� ������������������������ �� ��� ���� �������� � ���� ���� �������� � ���� � ��� � �� ������ ���������� ������������ ������� � ����� � ������������ ����������� ������������ ������������� ���������������� ��������� ��� ������ ��������� �� ��� ������ ������������������������ Our sublimely suckreligious Dec/01 and Jan/02 covers (right) easily out-sucked our fifth-anniversary winner for most-suckian suckfest, the seriously suckalicious Feb/98 cover (left). 2004 Enjoying Prosperity �� �������������� ������������������� ����������������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������������ �������������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������ 2005 Preparing for Change While Apple was busily preparing for the �� switch to Intel processors, we were trying to calm Mac addicts who worried that their beloved Mac would lose its soul when it lost its PowerPC heart. An editorial reminded readers that they should “expect Apple to continue producing cutting-edge machines for both consumers and pros.” We also provided a “Field Guide to Intel Buzzwords” to introduce you to terms you never needed to know before. Perhaps most important, however, And you thought was the fact that by putting an image of the switch to Intel Scarlett Johansson in The Island on our was providing all cover, we completed our movie-curse hatthat unprecedented trick by condemning that movie to failure, power. as we had also done to The Hulk (Jul/03) and Van Helsing (Jun/04) previously. Do not—we repeat, not—allow us to contact the publicist of Snakes on a Plane. ��������� ����������������������������������������� ����� ��������� ������������������������������������ �������������������������������������� ������������������������������������ ������������������������������������������������������������������������������ �������������������������������������� �������������������������������������� ���������������������������� �� �������������� ������������������������ 2006 And Here We Are And now we are 10. The issue that you’re holding in your hands continues the MacAddict tradition—well, the latest version of it, anyway. We’ve changed a lot since issue number one, and we’ll change a lot more between now and issue 1,000. We hope you’ll remain aboard. Sometimes the ride’s bumpy and sometimes it’s smooth—but, knowing Apple, it’ll remain interesting. Rik Myslewski has been MacAddict’s editor-in-chief for half of its life and 9 percent of his. He’s been a Mac journalist for nearly a third of his life and 3.4 times as long as he’s been editor-in-chief of MacAddict. He likes numbers. Field Guide to HOME ENTERTAINMENT TERMS Automating Automator by Niko Coucouvanis A utomator, Mac OS X’s LEGO block–style programming/scripting environment, specializes in automating repetitive tasks such as resizing and renaming photos, archiving files to disc, sending email messages to specific individuals in your Address Book on their respective birthdays, and much more. Workflow Area Run/Stop Drag Actions here to build a Workflow. Test a Workflow during development. Settings Result Some Actions you get to configure, some you don’t. What type of file this Action will spit out. Input Options Some Actions provide Options, which typically require input from you at run-time. Run/Stop Status Library Check out Actions here (pun intended—you grab them from the neighboring list, and they’re yours to keep). Although Automator is a powerful tool, it does have its limitations—but there are workarounds. Sometimes. The Good: You can create an Automator Workflow that performs all of the examples we mentioned above with little or no input from you. The Bad: You build Workflows from specific Automator Actions (Open iCal, for example), but creating new Actions requires actual programming—AppleScript at least, or C++ if you’re so inclined. The Ugly: If there’s no prefab Action to perform the specific task that you really, really want to automate, you’ll spend days trying to make it work anyway because Automator is so Actions Ahoy Some Actions work at the system level, performing tasks such as taking screenshots and speaking text, but most are application-specific and hardwired to accept a specific Input (such as a folder full of files, an iCal event, or an iPhoto album) and pass on a specific Result (usually it’s the same 36 What type of file you need to feed into this Action. If they don’t match, the work won’t flow. September 2006 Check the status down here. Log When your Workflow goes awry, select View > Show Log to see what went wrong. damn seductive. The Secret Weapon: AppleScript. Not only is AppleScript easier to learn than programming Actions from scratch, but you can find loads of AppleScripts out there to grab and modify for your needs. The corollary secret weapon is the Run Script Action; if you’re not up to AppleScripting a new Action from scratch, you can add your own AppleScripts (shell scripts, too) to a prefab Action. Given the mountains of free AppleScripts available and the fact that many apps are AppleScriptrecordable, you might be able to cobble something together with little or no practical AppleScript knowledge. type as the Input, but not always) to the next Action in the Workflow. You can even get some prefab Actions that control Automator itself—try wrapping your head around that Zen riddle, then proceed to page 66, where we show you how to use Automator-controlling Actions. Workflow 101 Three rights may make a left, but it only takes two Actions to make a Workflow—but not just any two Actions. If an Action’s Output doesn’t match the next Action’s Input, the work stops flowing. Workflows take many forms—well, three, anyway: WORKFLOW This is for Workflows in development, or ones that you want to alter slightly before running them. Double-click a Workflow to open it in Automator, where you can tweak the Actions if you like, or simply press Run to initiate the Workflow. APPLICATION Select Application for a stand-alone Workflow. Double-click the icon, or drop the files you want to process onto it, and the rest, like magic, just happens. PLUG-IN You can turn some Workflows into plug-ins for the Finder, Folder Actions, iCal, Image Capture, and other Automator Tip You can reorder the Actions in your Workflow, but dragging them is difficult; click the step number in the Action’s upper-left corner to access a pop-up menu that’ll let you reorder them. Dragging Actions can be a drag—telling them where to go is easier. apps. Plug-ins are extra slick because the host app triggers the Workflow based on the app’s own automating features. For example, Folder Actions lets you initiate the Workflow whenever a specified folder changes in any way; Finder plug-ins appear in the contextual menu for quick right-click or Control-click access. I Want More! The Actions and sample Workflows provided with Mac OS 10.4 are a good start, but here’s where to find waaay more: Apple > Mac OS X > Automator www.apple.com/macosx/features/automator Apple’s main Automator site is a great place to start, providing an overview of the technology, a thorough tutorial, practical examples, and links to Web sites and books that can help you learn more. Apple > Mac OS X Downloads > Automator Actions www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/automator Apple hosts more than 150 downloadable Actions—and the list keeps growing. Apple > Tiger Developer Overview Series > Working with Automator http://developer.apple.com/macosx/automator.html If you’re brave, go here to download juicy prefab Actions such as Build Xcode Project and Convert CVS To SQL. If you’re savvy—or want to become so—this page also contains an Automator-programming primer and sample code to get you started. Apple > Automator Programming Guide http://developer.apple.com/documentation/ AppleApplications/Conceptual/AutomatorConcepts/ index.html Otto the Automator bot makes MacAddict How-To Editor Niko Coucouvanis feel inadequate. Now that we’ve got you interested, download the PDF version of the Automator Programming Guide—116 pages of geeky goodness. Automator.us www.automator.us Between the end-user-oriented information on Apple.com and the supergenius stuff on Apple’s Developer Connection, Automator.us provides a thorough overview of the technology, example Workflows, downloadable Actions, and a developer page with links to tutorials, resources, Action templates, and more. Automator World www.automatorworld.com This excellent site provides a community clearinghouse for user-submitted Actions and Workflows, plus a killer Hints & Tips section and Automator-related news. MacScripter www.automatoractions.com MacScripter.net’s Automator site provides a categorical collection of yet more free Actions. Well, maybe not more— we found many, if not most, of the same Actions at each of the above sites. September 2006 37 RATIN¬S You’ll be blown away. You’ll be impressed. You’ll be satisfied. You’ll be disappointed. You’ll be pissed off. REVIEWS 39 better living through smarter shopping Rain Design’s iWoofer (pictured) isn’t just an iPod speaker stand; it’s also a FM radio. Read our review to find out if it’s worthy of your ’Pod. Next month, we’ll have reviews of Apple’s Shake 4.1, Logitech’s NuLOOQ navigator input device, Mariner Software’s MacJournal 4 journaling software, Palm’s Treo 700p PDA and mobile phone, and a lot more. 53 DRX-820UL/T external DVD burner 48 EOS 30D SLR camera 42 Final Cut Express HD video-editing software 52 Graphire 6x8 Bluetooth pen and tablet 46 HiFi-Link for iPod iPod dock 46 HomeDock iPod dock 46 iDuo iPod dock 45 iLuv i552 iPod boom box 46 iPod Dock with Remote iPod dock 45 iThunder iPod boom box 49 iWoofer iPod speaker 43 Liquid Ledger personal finance software 44 Photosmart R927 point-and-shoot camera 40 Quark XPress 7 page-layout software 50 SLVR mobile phone 46 Stereo Dock iPod dock 46 TuneSync for iPod iPod dock Games 55 Aspyr’s New Storefront game news 55 Battlefield 1942: Clan MacAddict game news 57 Call of Duty 2 game review 56 Heroes of Might and Magic V tips and tricks 56 Sudden Motion Sensor game news 55 World of Warcraft PHOTOGRAPH BY SAMANTHA BERG game news We’d spend our own hard-earned money on this product. Universal application that runs natively on both PowerPC and Intel Macs. September 2006 39 40 REVIEWS better living through smarter shopping QuarkXPress 7 BAR-RAISING PAGE-LAYOUT SOFTWARE A dobe’s InDesign has been pummeling QuarkXPress with a superior feature set and aggressive pricing. But with QuarkXPress 7, Quark has landed a solid counterpunch directly on the chin of its adversary. Quark has released an update to its flagship page-layout app that has several useful new features and many improvements to old features, and raises the bar in the battle for pagelayout supremacy. QuarkXPress 7 closes the features gap with InDesign and, in some cases, includes options unique to QuarkXPress. The abilities to make objects translucent (opacity control) and to apply soft drop shadows to text and objects are among the most appealing InDesign features that previous versions of QuarkXPress lacked. QuarkXPress 7 has not only implemented both of these features, but has embellished them with options that aren’t available in InDesign. For example, you can control the opacity of anything that has color applied to it—box backgrounds, pictures, frames, and even individual characters. When creating drop shadows, you can opt to synchronize the angle of all drop shadows in a spread, to specify a scale and a skew (slant) value, and to wrap text around a shadow. While we’re on the topic of transparency features, it’s worth noting that unlike InDesign, QuarkXPress 7 does not let you apply blending modes to items. Although QuarkXPress 7 doesn’t include much in the way of new typographic features, it now has full support for OpenType fonts (previously, you could access only 256 characters within an OpenType font). Also new is the Glyphs palette, which lets you choose a font and displays all of its character forms or subsets of characters; you can also save favorites. Typographic improvements include the option to apply ligatures as character attributes, plus cross-platform ligature support. The ability to share specified areas, called Composition Zones, within a layout among multiple users is one of the most touted new features in QuarkXPress 7. Think of a Composition Zone as a picture box whose picture is a QuarkXPress layout. Composition Zones open up interesting workflow possibilities; for example, an art director could use them The Measurements palette offers significant improvements. 40 September 2006 to assign different sections of a magazine to several layout artists. While the art director works on the master layout, the layout artists can simultaneously work on their sections. Whenever a layout artist saves a Composition Zone, it is immediately updated in the master layout. Unfortunately, when you create a Composition Zone, the resulting QuarkXPress file doesn’t include a page picture, which means that the layout artist who works on it can’t see QuarkXPress the surrounding page. 7 finally While it’s a relatively supports simple concept, soft drop the implications of shadows. Composition Zones are huge, and implementing Composition Zones into a workflow is not trivial. For example, a Composition Zone could contain a layout that, in turn, includes a Composition Zone that contains another layout with an EPS graphic created elsewhere, which uses several fonts and spot colors, and so on and so on. In such a scenario, file management could become a nightmare. For workgroups, Composition Zones offer tantalizing possibilities, but we’re not convinced this feature will have the impact that some are predicting. Job Jackets are QuarkXPress 7’s answer to the Preflight feature in InDesign. A Job Jacket is an XML file that contains detailed information about a project’s anatomy, including such data as colors, style sheets, color management settings, print settings, page size, page count, contact information, and so on. A Job Jacket surrounds a QuarkXPress file with information used by the various people who interact with the file, from art directors and layout artists on the front end to prepress personnel on the back end. Unlike preflighting, which usually occurs at the end of the design process, a Job Jacket can be implemented when a project begins, helping ensure ������� �� ������� ���������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������� �������������������������������� ���������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������ ������������������������������������������ ������������������������������������ ������������������������������������ �������������������������������� �������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������� ��������������������������������� ��������������������������������������� ������������������������������������� ������������������������������������� �������������� �������������� ��������������������������������� ����������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������ ������������������������������������������ ������������������������������� �������������������������������������� ������������������������������������ ������������������������������������ ����������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������� ������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������ ��������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������ �������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������ ������������������������������������ ��������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������� ����������������������������������� ����������������������������������� �������������������������������������� ������������ ���������������������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������� ����������������������������������� ��������������������������������������� �������������������������������� �������������������������������� ������������������������������������������ ������������������������������������������ ����������������������������������� ������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������� ������������������������������� ������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������� ��������������������������������� ���������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������ ������������������������������������������������ ������������������������������������������ ������������������������������������������ ��������������������������������� ���������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������� ����������������������������������� ����������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������� �������������������������������� �������������������������������������� ����������������������������������� ����������������������������������� ������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������� ������������������������������ �������������������������������������� ������������������������������������ ������������������������������������ ��������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������� �������������������������������� ��������������������������������������� �������������������������������������� �������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������� ������������������������������� ������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������ ������������������������������������������ ��������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������� �������������������������������� ��������������������������������������� ������������������������������������� ������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������� ���������������������������������� ����������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������� ������������������������������ ������������������������������ ������������������������������������ �������������������������������������������� ��������������������� ��������������������� ���������������������������������������������������������� ������������������������������ �������������������������������������� ���������� ������������������� ������� ������������������� �������������� �������������������������� ������������������������ �������� ������������� ������������������������� G4 Now ng! pi Ship ���������������������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������������������� �������������������������� ������������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������� �������� ������������������������������������������������������ ������������������������������������������������������ ������������������������������������������������������������ ������������������������������������������������������������ New Higher Resolution PowerBook G4 Docking Station G4 PowerBook New Higher Resolution Docking Station MacBo o and Ma k Pro cBo Coming ok Soon! �� 42 REVIEWS better living through smarter shopping Final Cut Express HD 3.5 POWERFUL, AFFORDABLE VIDEO EDITOR but not so much if you stick to cuts-only editing. Express HD’s two sidekick apps are improved, too. LiveType 2 now includes a set of vector-based fonts that you can cleanly scale to any resolution, along with some 70 new animated objects, 15 new textures, and 60 text effects. Soundtrack 1.5 can automatically apply crossfades between clips, and easily record multitake sessions like voice-over or automated dialogue replacement work. There’s also a new interface that lets you rearrange tabs and resize your movie window. When working with Final Cut Express HD’s motion effects or filters, you can go way beyond cuts-only editing. The one thing that Express HD still lacks is a projectarchive feature. When you need to free rotation, position, crop values, and inal Cut Express HD now joins the up some hard drive space, there’s no opacity of clips as they play. If you’ve legion of other Apple apps that way to consolidate and archive your always wanted to create projects with have made the transition to Universal project to keep only the video that your lots of MTV-style flash, there’s nothing app-hood, so it can run natively on edit uses. If you ever want to go back stopping you now. Intel-based Macs and take advantage and reedit a finished project, you need Express HD also improves on its of all the speed gains those Macs offer. to keep all of its raw footage on your real-time previews of effects, which But beyond going Universal, Express HD main drive or a backup drive (a waste of now let you composite multiple clips 3.5 has some other fine upgrades under drive space) or dump the footage and together and also apply effects filters its hood. then recapture it from your original DV and motion effects without having to Express HD’s effects and compositing or HDV tapes (a hassle). We’ve cited render them first. Express HD has had capabilities have taken a big step this clumsy approach each time we’ve real-time capabilities since version forward thanks to the arrival of true reviewed Final Cut Express over the 2.0, but you had to manually set your editable keyframes. As always, Express years, and it seemed OK given the app’s real-time image quality (high and HD gives you tons of video- and low price. But now that other consumerlow) and framerate (full, half, quarter) audio-effects filters to work with, but oriented editors are offering a projectdepending on the number of effects previous versions only let you apply archive feature, Express could use one and layers you were trying to preview in one effect value to a media clip and as well. real time. Now you can simply choose didn’t let you change that value over The bottom line. Media management the Dynamic RT option, and Express time. For example, you couldn’t apply aside, Express HD is an amazing app. It will automatically throttle those imagea stylish blur to a clip and then change can handle pretty much everything that quality and framerate settings back the amount of blur as the clip played. most DV or HDV moviemakers need, and and forth depending on the complexity Express HD’s new keyframes now let since it uses the same interface as Final of the video playing at that moment. you precisely control when and how Cut Pro, it’s a great stepping-stone to Basically, Dynamic RT makes each to change filter settings over time. The Apple’s Final Cut Pro 5. For $299 ($99 shot look as good as possible as you new keyframe system also makes it to upgrade), Express continues to be a review your project—you’ll appreciate much easier to create motion effects, phenomenal deal.—Helmut Kobler it if you’re doing effects-heavy work, where you might change the scale, F COMPANY: Apple CONTACT: 800-692-7753, www.apple.com PRICE: $299, $99 (upgrade) 42 REQUIREMENTS: 500MHz (1GHz for HDV) G4 or faster, Mac OS 10.4.6, 512MB RAM (1GB for HDV), Quartz Extreme–compatible graphics subsystem or Intel integrated graphics processor September 2006 GOOD NEWS: Editable keyframes allow advanced effects and compositing. Smoother real-time previews of effects. Same great pro tools, same low price. BAD NEWS: No way to consolidate and archive projects. �������������� ������������������� ���������������������� ���������������������������������� � ���������������������������������� ���������������������������������� ����������������������������������� ����������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������� ����������������������������������� �������������������������������������� �������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������ �������������������������������������� �������������������������������������� �������������� ��������������� ���������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������� ���������������������������� ������������������������������������� ������������������������������������� �������������������������������� ����������������������������������� ����������������������������������� �������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������� ����������������������������������� ����������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������� ����������������������������������� �������������������������������������� �������������������������������������� �������������������������������� ����� ����������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������� �������������������������������������� ������������������������������������ ������������������������������������ ����������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������� ������������������������������������ ������������������������������������� ������������������������������������� ����������������������������������� ���������������� ���������������� ���������� ���������� ��������������� ��������������� ����������������� ����������������� ������������� ������������� ���������������� ���������������� �������������� �������������� ����������������� ����������������� ������������������ ������������������ �������������� �������������� ������������������ ������������������ ��������������� ��������������� ����������������� ����������������� �������������� �������������� ������������������ ������������������ ������������������ ������������������ ���������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������� �������������� ��������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������� ���������������� ���������������������������������� ���������������������� ���������������������� �������������������� ����������������������������������������� �������������������������������� �������������������������������� ���������������� ���������� ����������������������������� ������������������������������������� ������������������������������������� ������������������ �������������������������������������� ��������������������������������� ��������������������������������� ����������������� �������������������������������������� ����������������������������������� ����������������������������������� ��������������� ���������������������������������� �������������������������������� �������������������������������� ����������������� ������� ������������������������������� ���������������������������������� ���������������������������������� ������������ ���������������������������������� ��������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������� ������������������ �������������������������������������� �������������������������������������� �������������������������������������� ������������������ �������������������������������������� ������������������������ ������������������������ ���������������� ������������������������������������ ������������������������������������ ���������������� ���������������������������������� ������������������������������������ ������������������������������������ ����������������� �������������������������������������� �������������������������������������� �������������������������������������� ������������������� ��������������������������������������� ������������������������������������� ������������������������������������� �������������� ���������������������������������� ���������������� ����������������� ������������������� ��������������� ������� �������������� ������������������ ������������ ������������� ��������������� ��������������� �������������������� ��������������� ���������������� ���� ������������������������������������������������ �������������������������� ���������������������������������������� ����������������������� ���������� �������������������� ������������������������������������������������ ���������������������������������������� ���������� ������������������������������������������ ������������������������������������������������������������������ ������������������������ ���������������������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������������������������������������� ��������������� 44 REVIEWS better living through smarter shopping This little camera boasts a lot of features. Photosmart R927 AFFORDABLE, IMPRESSIVE CAMERA H COMPANY: HP CONTACT: 800-752-0900, www.hp.com PRICE: $399.99 good stuff, although the paltry amount of built-in memory won’t get you very far, especially if you’re going to take lots of high-resolution shots. Buy the roomiest SD or MMC card you can afford so you can house plenty of pics and video. We have mixed feelings about the included dock, although it does make simple work of downloading images and charging your camera. Connect it to your Mac via USB, drop the R927 in, and there you go. Unfortunately, you can’t connect the R927 to your Mac without the dock, so that means you’ll have one extra thing to tote around on those extended trips. Also, the dock has no video-out port to allow you to view slide shows and video HOT PICS TIP P’s Photosmart R927 8.2-megapixel point-and-shoot camera takes great-looking photos and has helpful built-in imaging tools. You may not even need your Mac—the R927 is like having a camera and a photo lab in a single funto-use, pocket-sized package. The handsome R927 has a sleek, chic, brushed metallic body. Weighing 8 ounces and measuring 2.44 by 3.78 by 1 inches, it’s lightweight and a nice and comfy size. The buttons are intuitively placed for easy reach on the camera’s top and back—you’ll get familiar with their functions in a snap. The camera’s biggest draw may be its huge 3-inch LCD that’s brilliantly colored and easily viewable from just about any angle (HP boasts up to 170 degrees). We found the display to be a total pleasure for the eyes, even in bright daylight (thanks mostly to its antireflective coating), and didn’t miss having an optical viewfinder. The R927 has a 3x optical zoom lens, 32MB of internal memory, a SD/MMC card slot, a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, and PictBridge printer support. It’s all REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS 10.2.8 or later, USB 1 44 September 2006 Unusually hot or cold outside? Temperature can affect a camera’s sensor, degrading image quality if your camera is too warm or too cool. Avoid leaving your camera in places where temps can get extreme, such as on the dash of your AMC Gremlin1 on a sunny day, out in the open during your trek through Antarctica2, or near the mouth of Mount Nyiragongo3. 2 3 on a TV, meaning you’ll have to drop more cash for the optional Premium Camera Dock ($79.99) if you want that feature. Stellar software. The R927’s best asset is its software. Its Image Advice feature can tell you exactly what is wrong with a pic and gives you helpful tips to minimize funky stuff from happening in your next shot. For example, we used it to analyze a noisy picture, and Image Advice came up with the diagnosis that the camera was too hot when the picture was taken. That was spot-on for us, as our photo was indeed taken on an extremely hot day (HP says the R927’s operating range is 32 to 122 degrees Fahrenheit). For touching up photos or just adding some flair, you can use the R927’s Design Gallery. Here, you can instantly remove red-eye, create fancy borders, modify color, and apply artistic filters— there’s even a slimming filter that will make people look a bit thinner, which can be handy around the holidays. Many of these functions can also be performed on your Mac using HP’s Photosmart Edit software, but we wouldn’t rely on it or the camera as a total replacement for a more robust editing app such as Adobe Photoshop Elements. Image quality is quite good for a camera of this class. Colors are vibrant and accurate, and details are sharp. Barrel distortion at the wide end of zoom isn’t overwhelming, and noise was kept to a minimum in well-lit compositions but was more noticeable in low light—the R927 did much better with noise than Canon’s PowerShot S80 ( Aug/06, p46). HP includes its Adaptive Lighting technology to help brighten things up in low-light situations. It’s not a perfect solution— pics can become very noisy if it’s turned up high—but you can always set the camera to automatically take shots with the feature both off and on so you can see what works best for your situation. The bottom line. The HP R927 ranks high with us as a good all-around camera that’s easy to use, has convenient editing features, and produces great-quality images.—Gil Loyola GOOD NEWS: Good image quality. Helpful Image Advice feature. BAD NEWS: Needs the dock to connect to your Mac. Built in 1970, AMC’s Gremlin was America’s first subcompact car. Antarctica hosted the coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth (-129 degrees Fahrenheit). Nyiragongo is a volcano located near Lake Kivu, which is on the border of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. ���������������� ���������������������� ������������� ������������������������� � ����������������� ������������������������������ ����������������������������������� �������������������������������� �������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������� ������������������������������������ ������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������� ���������������������������������� ����������������������������������� �������������������������������������� ������������������������������� ����������������������������������� ����������������������������������� ��������������� �������������������������������������� ������������������� ������������������������������������� ����������������������������������� ����������������� ������������������������������������ ������������������������������ ��������������� ������������������������������������ �������������������������������� �������������������� ���������������������������������������� ������������������������������������� ������������������� ���������������������������������������� ������������������������������������ �������������������������������������� ������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������ ���������������������������������� ��������������������� ������������������������������������ ���������������������������������������� ������������ ���������������� ������������������� ��������������� ������������� ����������������� ����������������� �������������� ������������ �������� ����������� ���������� ������������� ������������� ������������ ������������� �������������� ����������������� ����������������� �������������������� ��������������� ������������������ �������������� ���������������� ������������ ��� ����������������� ����������������������������������� �������������������������������������� ������������������������������������ ��������������������������������������� ����������������������������������� ������������������������������� ����������������������������������� �������������������������������������� ����������������������������������� ������������������������������ �������������������������������� ������������������������������������� ������������������������������������ �������������������������������������� ������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������ ���������������������������������� ��������������������� ������������������������������������ ���������������������������������������� ����������������������������������� �������������������������������� ������������������������������ ��������������������������������� ������������������������������ ��������������������������������� ���������������������������������� �������������������������������� ������������������������������ ����������������������������������� ���������������������������������� ���������������������������������� ����������������������������������������� ������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������ ������������������������������������������ ��������������������������������������� ������������������������������������� ������������������������������������� ����������������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������������������� � � �������������������������������� �������������������������� �������������������������� ��������� �������� ������������� �������������� ������������������������ ��������������������������� ��������� ��������� ���������������� ��������� ��������� ��������� �������������� �������������� ������������� ����������� ������������������ ����������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������� ��������������������� ��������� ��������������������� ��������������� �������������� �������������� ��������������� ������������������� ������������������������� ����������������������������� ���������������������������� �������� ��������� ��������� ��������� �������������� ����������� �������������� ������������������� ����������������������������� ��������������������������������������� ��������� ��������������������� ��������������� 46 REVIEWS better living through smarter shopping iPod Docks PRACTICAL ’POD DOCKS O ne of the inevitable issues with connecting an iPod to your Mac or home audio system is the oh-so-inelegant look of it lying next to your components with its tentacles of cables splayed out. Fortunately, the iPod economy has spawned iPod docks that give you a place to put your ’Pod, keeping its cables neat. The six docks we reviewed share some basic functions. They all allow you to stand your iPod straight up, they can all charge your ’Pod, and last but not least, each has the ability to play music out of the dock and into an external powered speaker or a stereo. However, the similarities stop there; prices vary widely, and each dock has unique twists in its features and appearance. Some of these docks come with remote controls, but these remotes don’t offer expanded capabilities. All the remotes tested use infrared (IR) instead of radio frequency (RF) transmissions, which means that you need to have line-of-sight access in order to operate them.—Alan Graham Kensington Stereo Dock $79.99 Atech Flash Technology iDuo $59.95 The nice thing about the Stereo Dock is that not only does its construction feel solid, but its form factor is relatively small also. You can use the accompanying IR remote to control basic iPod functions, including play, pause, volume up and down, and track skipping. The remote is a nice size and is backlit. While the Stereo Dock has all the basics, it doesn’t support video out—it has only audio out. It also doesn’t support USB. The Stereo Dock is for anyone who wants a clean and simple dock for their home stereo but doesn’t need sync support or video playback. The iDuo is a hybrid iPod dock and mediacard reader—it supports CompactFlash Types I and 2, MagicGate Memory Stick, MD, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, MMC, SD, SM, and xD. It can save a bit of desk space, but it uses two of your Mac’s USB ports, one for the iPod and one for the media reader. You’ll end up needing to buy a USB hub to replace the lost ports, which means you’re not saving as much desk space as you originally thought. The iDuo does have photo support through an S-Video port and also has an audio jack in the back, but you have to buy the S-Video and audio cables separately; a USB cable is included. SOLID Xitel HiFi-Link for iPod $79.95 The HiFi-Link has a remote and supports video and photos, but in a smaller form factor than DLO’s HomeDock. The sound quality is excellent, and on the back of the unit you’ll find a TruBass knob that adds additional bass depth to the music. If you like your bass, you should know that TruBass works well, especially with self-powered speakers. The remote supports basic iPod functionality, but it fails to add support for shuffle, repeat, and most importantly, basic volume control—if the dock is connected to a stereo, you can use the stereo’s remote to control the volume. The HiFi-Link lacks USB support. GREAT 46 September 2006 SO-SO Marware iPod Dock with Remote $49.95 If you’re just looking for a cheap way to get music and video out of your iPod dock, perhaps the best overall value is Marware’s iPod Dock with Remote. For a nickel under $50, you get an IR remote, a USB cable, an AV cable, the dock, and an AC adapter. Unfortunately, while the dock supports S-Video, it doesn’t come with an S-Video cable. Every time you dock your iPod, a little blue light glows lovingly from the front of the dock. GREAT ������� �������������������� ����������� ������������� ������������������������ �������������������������� ������������� �������������� ������������� ������������� ���������������������� ���������������������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������������������������������� ����������������������� ��������������������� ���������������������� �������������������� ������������������� ������������������� ���������������������� ��������������������� ����������������������������� ������������������������������������������������������������ ����������������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������������������ ������������������������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������������������ ������ ����� ��������������������� ���������� ����������������� �������������������� ���� ��������������� ����������������� �������������������� ����� ������������ ����������������� ����������������� ������������������� ����������������� �������������������� ���� ���������������� ����������������� ����������������� ���� �������������� ����������������� ������������������� �� 48 REVIEWS better living through smarter shopping Well worth the pain it may cause to your credit card. EOS 30D SUPERIOR DIGITAL SLR CAMERA Y ou’ve heard the old adage before and have undoubtedly seen it in the pages of MacAddict: You get what you pay for. The EOS 30D is priced toward the high end for a prosumer digital SLR camera, but it lives up to all the artistic demands you have as a photographer. While there aren’t many differences between the EOS 30D and its predecessor, the EOS 20D ( Mar/05, p35), the most notable change is the LCD on the back of the camera: The EOS 20D has a 1.8-inch LCD with 118,000 pixels; the EOS 30D has a 2.5inch LCD with 230,000 pixels. The larger LCD is a vast improvement for reviewing your photos, because when you enlarge a photo in the LCD to check for proper COMPANY: Canon CONTACT: 800-652-2666, www.canon.com PRICE: $1,399 (body only), $1,499 (with lens) 48 September 2006 focus, you can see more of the image. The EOS 30D has 8.2 million pixels on a CMOS imager measuring 22.5 by 15 millimeters—when you use any of Canon’s EF series of lenses, you will gain a 1.6x multiplier on that lens’s focal length. You can also use Canon’s EF-S series of lenses with no multiplier effect. The camera’s body has separate mounting indicators on the lens mount for each series of lenses. While the EOS 30D has a hot shoe to mount an external electronic flash, the camera also comes with a flash built in to the top of the camera’s viewfinder; when you pop it open, it stands high above the camera. We found the built-in flash to be more than adequate for any REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS 10.2 or later, USB number of typical situations, but you can still use a different flash if the situation calls for it. During a series of events we photographed, we found that the camera did not require a battery recharge, even after it had captured 500 images. The EOS 30D has a basic ISO range of 100 to 1,600, expandable to 3,200, in 1/3-stop increments. To test the ISO, we took shots of a middle-school stage play; the lighting was what you might expect for a school play—good for viewing the young thespians but challenging for shooting photos. We increased the ISO from the nominal 100 to 800, a three-stop increase, and we were impressed with the images. If you think you’ll need to capture images in low light, the EOS 30D should be more than up to the task. Overall, the EOS 30D gave us the image quality we expect from a high-end prosumer digital SLR camera—all the images we shot exhibited good color fidelity, and they sharpened up nicely in our favorite image manipulation apps. And when we set the camera to save using the best-quality JPEG level (there are six different save formats, including RAW, and files are saved to CompactFlash cards), we saw little to no evidence of JPEG artifacts. Since the EOS 30D is PictBridge-compatible, it can also print images directly to a printer via USB; you control the print settings through the camera’s LCD. There’s also a videoout port (cable included) for connecting the EOS 30D to a TV and viewing the images on a big screen. The bottom line. If you can afford the EOS 30D, buy it. If you need to save for it, then be patient—eating ramen for a month to save up the extra cash is worth it. You won’t be disappointed with the EOS 30D.—Rick Oldano GOOD NEWS: Great image quality and color fidelity. BAD NEWS: A little pricey. ���� ������� �� ������� ������� ����������������������������� ������������������������������������ � �������������������������������� �������������������������������� �������������������������� �������������������������� ����������������������� ������������������������������� ��������������������������� ��������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ��������������������������������� �������������������������� ������������������������� ��������������������������������������������������� ��������������������������� ���������������������������������������� ����������������������������� ����������������������������� ������������������� ������������������� ��������������������� ������������������������������������ �������������������������� ����������������������� ����������������������� �������������������������� ����������������������������� ����������������������������������������� �������������������������� ����������������������� ����������������������� �������������������������� ���������������������������� ����������������������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� �������������������� �������������������� ������������������������ ������������������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������ ������������������ ��������������������������� ��������������������������������������� �������������������������� �������������������������� ���������������������� ���������������������� ������������������������� �������������������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ��������������������� ��������������������� �������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������� ���������������������� ���������������������� �������������������������� ���������������������������� ������������������������������������������� ������������������� ������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������� ��������������������������������������� ����������������������������� ����������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������������������� ������������������������������� ������������������ ������������������ ������������������������� �������������������������������������� ��������������� ��������������� �������������������������� ��������������������� ��������������������� �������������������������� ����������������������� ������������������������������������ ��������������������������������� ��������������������������������� ����������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������� ������������������������ ������������������������������������� ���������������������������������� ���������������������������������� �������������������������������������� �������������������������������������� ����������������������������� ����������������������������������������� �������������������������������������� �������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������� �������������������������� ������������������������������������ �������������������������������������� �������������������������������������� �������������������������������������� �������������������������������������� ������������������������ �������������������������������������� ������������ ������������ ����������������������������� ����������������������������� ������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������� ��������� ����������� ������� �������������������� ���������������������������� ����������������������� ������������� ��������������������� ����������� ������������������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������������� ���������������������������� ��������������������������������� ��������������������������������� ������������� ����������������������������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������������������������� �������������� �������������� �� 50 REVIEWS better living through smarter shopping SLVR iTUNES-CAPABLE MOBILE PHONE M COMPANY: Motorola/Cingular CONTACT: 866-246-4852, www.motorola.com, www.cingularsleek.com 50 a VGA camera that takes pictures at 640-by-480-pixel resolution—which is on the low end of today’s camera phones but still adequate for quick snapshots. There’s also a Bluetooth 1.2 connection, so you can use iSync to wirelessly transfer iCal events and Address Book contacts from your Mac to the phone (though street addresses won’t carry over, and neither will all-day events). Battery life is about six hours for talk time and four hours for music playing, and you can recharge the SLVR by plugging it into your Mac. At $199, the SLVR isn’t cheap, especially when you also have to sign a two-year contract with Cingular (the only vendor currently offering it). Here’s a perspective: Many mobile phone companies now give away Motorola’s popular RAZR (a sleek phone, though not as sleek as the SLVR), and that $199 can buy you a 2GB iPod nano. The bottom line. If you like the idea of combining a phone and an iPod into one easy-to-carry gadget, the SLVR is a solid choice.—Helmut Kobler You have to hold the SLVR to fully appreciate its svelte size—just make sure you can deal with its small, membranestyle keypad. swap one batch of music for another, then this isn’t the phone for you. But if you’re a more casual listener, you can probably live with the SLVR’s slow transfer speeds and will still enjoy over six hours of music within the 100-song cap. The SLVR has the sexiest form factor we’ve ever seen in a phone. It’s the size of a small candy bar—only .45 inches thick and 3.5 ounces—so you can stick it in your pants or shirt pocket and forget it’s there. And despite its size, the SLVR includes some handy extras, such as PRICE: $199 with two-year Cingular contract or extension REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS 10.3.6 or later, iTunes 4.9 or later, USB September 2006 TIP otorola’s new SLVR is one of two phones on the planet that can play copy-protected tracks bought from the iTunes Music Store. The other phone that can do so is Motorola’s ROKR, and let’s just say that the ROKR didn’t exactly rock our world ( Dec/05, p40). The SLVR is an improvement—its tiny form factor and lower price make it a better deal. But it still has some of the ROKR’s annoying limitations. As a music player, the SLVR works very much like the ROKR—which is both a blessing and a curse. On the bright side, the SLVR integrates with your Mac and its iTunes software as easily as any iPod. To get started, connect the phone to your Mac with the supplied USB cable, and it will automatically show up in iTunes’ Source list. Then drag individual tracks or playlists over to the phone manually, or use iTunes’ Autofill feature to fill it up with a click. You can listen to your tunes by pressing the SLVR’s iTunes button, which is always available from the phone’s main menu; the SLVR responds by loading up its Apple-licensed iTunes player, which features easy, iPod-esque menus that you can navigate using the phone’s directional arrow keys (having the iPod’s clickwheel would be nice, but we didn’t miss it too much). Your tunes play through the included stereo headphones, which roughly equal iPod earbuds in quality. You can also play music through a small mono speaker, and Motorola includes an adapter for attaching standard headphones, car stereo adapters, or external speakers. Limits. The SLVR only stores 100 songs on its 512MB memory card—even if there’s room for more, 100 songs is all you get. Your Mac can only transfer songs to the SLVR via a slow USB 1.1 connection, so filling the phone with fresh music can take a full hour or more. Clearly, if you like having a big music collection at the ready, or if you regularly PUSH THE LIMIT You can get around the SLVR’s 100song limit, but your music has to be in an unprotected format, such as MP3. Using an audio-editing app (you can use iMovie HD), place your songs one after the other—you’re essentially creating one very long song. In iMovie HD, you line up one song after the other in the timeline, then export the song using File > Export > Expert Settings > Share > Sound to AIFF or Sound to Wave. Then import the song into iTunes, convert it to MP3 (iTunes is set to encode in AAC by default; change the encoder to MP3 using iTunes > Preferences > Advanced > Importing > Import Using), and load it to your phone. The drawback is that the Next Song and Previous Song functions are rendered useless because those controls switch between song files. GOOD NEWS: Easy, iPod-like integration with iTunes. Plays tracks from the iTunes Music Store. Supersleek form factor. Syncs with Address Book and iCal. BAD NEWS: 100-song limit. Slow music transfers. Pricey. The fastest way to learn a language. Guaranteed. ™ Finally, a different approach that has millions of people talking. Using the award-winning Dynamic Immersion™ method, our interactive software teaches without translation, memorization or grammar drills. Combining thousands of real-life images and the voices of native speakers in a step-by-step immersion process, our programs successfully replicate the experience of learning your first language. Guaranteed to teach faster and easier than any other language product or your money back. No questions asked. French German Chinese English (US or UK) Italian Tagalog Russian Spanish (Latin America or Spain) Japanese Vietnamese Indonesian Portuguese Award-winning software successfully used by U.S. State Department diplomats, Fortune 500® executives and millions of people worldwide. Step-by-step immersion instruction in all key language skills: Farsi Thai Korean Hindi Greek Arabic Hebrew Turkish Danish Swahili Polish Welsh Each fully interactive course includes: • CD-ROM curriculum with 20 activities in each of 92 lessons • Previews, comprehensive exercises and testing for each lesson • Automated tutorials that “learn” where you need extra help • Curriculum Text and 45-page User’s Guide Listening - Rosetta Stone uses native speakers and everyday language to develop your understanding of the spoken language naturally and easily. SAVE 10% Reading - Text exercises develop your reading skills by linking written language to real-life objects, actions and ideas. Speaking - Speech-recognition feature records, diagrams and compares your voice to the native speaker’s, grading your pronunciation. Writing - Practice writing the language you are learning with the program to guide you. Simply write what you hear, then the program carefully checks your work and lets you correct any mistakes. Dutch Latin Pashto Swedish Level 1 Program Regularly $195.00 Level 2 Program Regularly $225.00 Level 1 & 2 Regularly $329.00 BEST VALUE! Your Price $175.50 Your Price $202.50 Your Price $296.10 Personal Edition. Solutions for organizations also available. “...your program is the absolute best, bar none. I am shocked at how quickly I learn.” - Michael Murphy Texas, USA “Stupendous...the juxtaposition of text,sound and picture was masterful. The quality of both sound and graphics was first rate.” - The Boston Globe Call today or buy online for a 10% discount. RosettaStone.com/mas096 1-800-399-6162 Use promotional code mas096 when ordering. 52 REVIEWS better living through smarter shopping Graphire 6x8 Bluetooth WIRELESS PEN, TABLET, AND MOUSE I f you’ve only been using a mouse with your Mac, it may take a while to get used to a pen and tablet such as the Graphire 6x8 Bluetooth. Fortunately, the Graphire eventually becomes an extension of your own hand; not only is it handy for use with your graphics applications, but it’s versatile enough to use as a general input device. Because this Graphire tablet is wireless (it uses a rechargeable battery), you have more flexibility when it comes to moving it to a comfortable position for more precise control over the pen— there’s no cable to tether you down. When you use the pen in an application such as Photoshop, you can use the pressure sensitivity of the Wacom tablet to apply lighter and stronger effects COMPANY: Wacom CONTACT: 800-922-9348, www.wacom.com PRICE: $249.95 simply by changing the pressure applied by the tip of the pen onto the surface of the tablet. In certain paint applications the Wacom tablet can even sense and interpret the tilt of your pen for special effects. It takes practice to achieve the proper amount of touch, but it’s not hard to learn. The Graphire tablet includes two programmable ExpressKeys for convenient mouse clicks and keyboard shortcuts. You also get a two-button mouse that’s fully programmable and includes a scroll wheel for easy document and Web page navigation. Wacom even includes a nice software REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS 10.2.8 or later, Bluetooth Photoshop’s best friend. bundle; you get Adobe Photoshop Elements 3, Corel Painter Essentials 2, (not the latest versions of Photoshop Elements and Painter Essentials, but still good stuff) and Nik Color Efex Pro 2 GE, a set of image-effects filters you can use with Photoshop Elements (or, if you have it, with Photoshop 5.5 or later). The bottom line. This tetherless tablet is a must-have tool for image editors and graphic artists.—George Mann GOOD NEWS: Completely wireless. Good software bundle. BAD NEWS: Pricey. iPod Showcase Banshee Listening Station The only 5.0 surround system in a single listening station. Shatter the perceived limitations of audio for your iPod with a massive 50 watts of peak output power. The Banshee’s patented technology produces ultracrisp midranges with deep and powerful bass. Available at RadioShack, select Circuit City stores, Discovery Channel Stores, and Chicago-area Abt Electronics locations. www.BansheeAudio.com 312-474-6108 iPod Repair Everyone drops their iPod now and again, but if it breaks, what do you do? iPodCopy is a Mac/PC The professionals iPodMods application that at lets you .com havemusic a solution you.iPod. We retrieve fromfor your offer free diagnostic testing and Use iPodCopy to extract your music havevideos what itfrom takesyour to fiiPod x every iPod and straight problem. Get your iPoduseful juicedif up back to iTunes. Really and tuned all upyour with media the realoniPod you loose your experts. computer following a reformat. www.iPodMods.com www.wideanglesoftware.com/ 888-763-6637 ipodcopy/ Advertisement iPod Mounting Solutions Taking your music with you is even easier with ProClip! ProClip mounting solutions are the best way to mount your iPod in your vehicle. The mount clips on in seconds without interior damage. For details on ProClip mounting solutions for your iPod as well as your other devices, visit: www.proclipusa.com 800-296-3212 REVIEWS DRX-820UL/T SPEEDY EXTERNAL DVD BURNER S tuck with the single-layer DVD burner that came with your Mac and you want to put more than 4.7GB of data on a DVD? Stuck with a Combo drive and you can’t even burn a DVD? Sony’s DRX820UL/T is an ideal upgrade—it not only burns dual-layer DVDs, but also offers a speed increase over your old internal SuperDrive or Combo drive. The DRX-820UL/T supports a wide range of disc formats: CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD±R, double-layer DVD+R, and dual-layer DVD-R. It comes with USB 2.0 and FireWire 400 connectors, and it even bundles FireWire 400 and USB cables (yay!). The drive also comes with Roxio Toast 6 Lite—a nice application, although it’s a version behind the latest COMPANY: Sony CONTACT: 800-352-7669, www.sonystyle.com PRICE: $159.99 one available. To test the speed of the DRX-820UL/T, we timed how long it took to burn data to certain discs, using FireWire 400 on a dual 2GHz PowerMac G4 with a SuperDrive capable of burning single-layer DVDs. Across the board (when applicable), the DRX-820UL/T was faster than the SuperDrive. When burning a 2GB digital video file to DVD-R, DVD+R, and DVD-RW, the DRX-820UL/T was 10 percent, 36 percent, and 15 percent faster, respectively. When burning 340MB worth of photos to a CD-R, the DRX-820UL/T was 30 percent faster than the SuperDrive. It took 45 minutes to REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS 9.2 or later for FireWire 400, Mac OS 10.2 or later for USB 2.0 Upgrade your Combo drive now. burn 6GB worth of digital video files onto a double-layer DVD+R disc. If there’s one reason to knock this speedy drive, it’s the noise. When you insert a disc, you’ll endure a considerable amount of fan noise. The drive eventually quiets down, though, to unnoticeable levels. The bottom line. At this price, there’s no reason why you need to stick with your old SuperDrive or Combo drive. —Roman Loyola GOOD NEWS: Excellent burning speeds. BAD NEWS: Noisy at times. iPod Showcase Elite Audio Gear iPod Music Liberator Icuiti iWear Liberate your music. 6i Isolator Earphones deliver detail, balance, comfort, and value. The in-ear secure fit reduces background noise so you can listen at safe levels. Hear crisp, clear music inside your head. Great for travel and working out. Available online or at Apple Stores and other retail locations worldwide. The iPod Music Liberator allows you to copy music, videos, playlists, and ratings from your iPod to your computer, a key feature missing from iTunes. With the iPod Music Liberator you can recover music from your iPod if your computer crashes, make a backup of your music, and move music to another authorized computer. If you have an iPod, you need the Music Liberator. zeleksoftware.com/liberator.htm See the big picture with Icuiti’s iWear. iWear is a personal big-screen display that will transform your small 2-inch screen into a large, private 35-inch home theater. It attaches to and draws power from the iPod’s bottom dock connector and is worn like a pair of sunglasses. www.icuiti.com www.etymotic.com Advertisement August May2006 2006 53 Home Entertainment Center Premier External Storage Solution USB/FireWire Port Expansion Hub From Only $79.95 & Total Portability Up to 750GB! Maximize your mini On the Job Cinema Display not included. Complements All Computers Apple Mac m ini no t inclu SALE 500GB SPECIAL $299.00 V2 Own the Future 500MB Copy Test* Stock Drive 44.67 seconds Extra Ports! Serving the Computer Universe since 1988 Visit macsales.com/storage 800.275.4576 *Test performed with 250GB miniStack solution. Similar results with 80GB to 750GB models ™ ded. miniStack™ 29.33 seconds macsales.com/storage The NewerTech miniStack™ V2 now with both rear and side FireWire and USB Hub ports. Now up to 750GB! Home Entertainment, Audio/Video, Backup, Bootable Data Storage, Music, Graphics, Performance RAID, & More! Storage Capacities from 80GB to 750GB. Check out our full line of external storage solutions plus much more at macsales.com Cinema Display and Mac mini are trademarks of Apple Computer Inc. MA_09_06 Other World Computing, Newer Technology, a part of New Concepts Development Corp., 1004 Courtaulds Dr., Woodstock, IL 60098 Prices, specifications, and availability are subject to change without notice. Items returned within 30 days may be subject to a restocking fee. No return will be accepted without Return Merchandise Authorization number. ma_0906_1pger.indd 1 7/6/06 1:26:11 PM GAMES 55 because you play as hard as you work GAME NEWS Meet You on the Battlefield So you play Battlefield 1942 online and you’re looking for a real challenge? Clan MacAddict (our unofficial gaming clan) has set up their own dedicated BF1942 server with no mods or maps to preload. Everybody meets on Sunday at 9 p.m. EST. Check out bf.clanmacaddict.com for rules, widgets, and details.—Matt Osborn “That’ll teach ya! Never bump me from a flight!” G A M E N E WS G A M E N E WS WOW Server Switch Tired of waiting to access your World of Warcraft server? Want to join a friend on another server, but don’t want to spend hours leveling up a new character? Blizzard now lets you transfer your World of Warcraft character to a new server for $25. Some restrictions: The realms you want to transfer between must be eligible, guild leaders cannot transfer without relinquishing their role, there’s a limit to the amount of gold you can bring, and more. There’s also a six-month restriction on that character changing servers again.—MO Aspyr’s New Storefront This October, Aspyr (www.aspyr.com) will release a Mac gaming service along the lines of the iTunes Music Store or Valve’s Steam application for Windows. This app—still unnamed at press time—will work like Aspyr’s free utility, GameAgent, which checks your Mac for system requirements while allowing digital downloads of game purchases. The new service will let you buy major titles and casual, solitaire-type games from one central location.—MO “We’ve had it with this server! We’re outta here!” “I can’t wait for Aspyr’s new service. No more smarmy salespeople!” September 2006 55 �� ����� ������������������������������������ � � � ��� � �� � � � ��� � ��� � � � �� ���������������� ����������� �������������������������������� ����������������������������� ����������������������������������� ��������������������������������� ����������������������������� ������������������������������ ����������������������������� ��������������������������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������������ ■� ������������������������� ��������������������������� ���������������������������� ��������������������������� ������������� ■� ��������������������������� ������������������������������ ����������������������������� �������������������������� ■� �������������������������� ������������������������ ����������������������������� ������������������������ ����������������������������� ������������������������������ ■� ��������������������� ��������������������������� ������������������������ �������������������� �������������� ■� ����������������������� ��������������������������� ����������������������������� ������������������������������ ��������������������������� ��������������������������� ��������������������� �������������������������� �������������������������� ������������������� �������������� ����������� ���������������������������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������������������������ ������������������������������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������������������� ����������� 57 GAMES Call of Duty 2 FIRST-PERSON-SHOOTER TOUR DE FORCE T he original Call of Duty ( Sep/04, p52) blasted its way out of the trenches of other WWII first-person shooters and Medal of Honor clones. Call of Duty 2 follows the same triedand-true formula as its predecessor but pushes the envelope further with sharper graphics (though slowdowns do occur), new gameplay concepts and mission structures, more historical background, a progressive single-player campaign, and an addicting multiplayer mode. To veteran COD players, COD2 won’t be revolutionary, but it will feel like putting on a freshly pressed version of your old fatigues. Just as in the original game, COD2’s single-player mode lets you play out three main campaigns against the Nazis. You strap on the boots of Russian soldiers defending home, British commandos holding down forces in Africa, and Americans kicking butt through Europe (including D-Day). With 27 missions, there’s plenty of content to keep you sweating, from run-and-gun and sniper missions to tank combat. In an attempt to break out of linear gameplay, the game doesn’t force you to play each scripted mission in a prescribed order. As you charge into battle for the first time, you’ll notice that there isn’t a health indicator. COD2 tosses out the old, save-up-health-packs style of gameplay for a Halo-like regenerative healing style. If you get hurt severely enough, you’ll hear your heart beat and The bad guys will never know what hit ’em. see the edges of the screen turn red. All you have to do is find cover, and as long as you don’t get hit again you’ll feel fine in about five seconds. With this new health system, you won’t spend time hoarding health packs, and the new enemy artificial intelligence will still be a challenge. Also, the new ability to jump and climb over structures such as walls and rubble improves the realism factor. COD2 shines even brighter in multiplayer mode. Classic multiplayer game modes such as death match, team death match, and capture the flag are here, along with the new Headquarters and Search and Destroy modes. In Headquarters, you establish a base while also trying to overtake your opponent’s base. If you die, you can’t respawn until your team destroys the enemy’s base. Search and Destroy requires “Anyone here a team to destroy an know a Private objective while the Ryan?” other defends it, but this usually turns into last man standing. Unfortunately, you can’t use tanks in multiplayer games. Multiplayer features 13 well-balanced maps, voice-over-IP chat for smack talking, support for 32 players per server, and, best of all, an in-game online server client and automatic server moddownload feature—that is, if the game you’re playing online requires a game modification and you don’t have it, the mod is automatically downloaded to your Mac and added to your game, without the need for restarting. You’ll be turning those PC players’ fatigue pants brown in no time. The bottom line. Whether or not you played the original Call of Duty, COD2 is a must-have for any first-person-shooter enthusiast.—Matt Osborn COMPANY: Aspyr CONTACT: 512-708-8100, www.aspyr.com PRICE: $49.99 REQUIREMENTS: 1.8GHz G5 or Intel processor, Mac OS 10.3.9 or later, 512MB RAM, 64MB ATI Radeon 9600 or nVidia GeForce FX 5200 or later, 4GB disk space, broadband Internet or LAN for multiplayer GOOD NEWS: Better graphics and bigger explosions. Smarter AI. Improved multiplayer features. BAD NEWS: No vehicles in multiplayer. Generative healing might turn off hardcore fans. RATED AWESOME September 2006 57 Left ��������������������� ������������������������������������������������ ��������������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������ ����������������������������� �� ����������������������������������� �� ��������������������������� �� �������������������������� �� �������������������������� �� ��������������������� ���������������������� �� ������ ������������������������������������� ������������������������������������ �������������������������������������������� � � �� ������ ���������������������������� ����������������������������������������� � � �� ������ ������������������������������ ����������������������������������������� � � �� ������ ������������������������������ ������������������������������������������������������� ������ ������������������������������������������������������ ������� ���������������������������������������������������� ������� ��������������������������������������������������� ������� ���������������������������������������������������� ������� ��������������������������������������������������� ������� ����� �������� �� ��� ������ � � �� ������ ������ � ����������� � ������ ����������� ������������������������������������ ���������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������ ��������������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������� ������ � ������ � ������ � ���������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������ ����������������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������������� ����� ����� � ����� � ����� � ����� � ����� � � � ������ � � ������������� ����������� � ������ � � � � ������������������������������������ ����������������������������������� ����������������������������������� �������� � �������� � �������� � ��������������������������� � � ������ �������������������������������� ����������������������������� � � ������ �������������������������������� ����������������������������� � � ������ �������������������������������� � ����������������������������������������� � �������������������������������������������������� ������� ����������������������������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������������������������� ������ ������ ���������������������������������� ����������������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������� � ����� �������� �� ��� ������ � � �������������������������������� � � �� ������ ������������������������������ ����������������������������� � � �� ������ ������������������������������ �������������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������� ���� � � ������������������������������ �������� � �������� � � ����� �������� �� ��� ������ � � �� � �������������������������������� � � � �� ������ ����� ��������������� �� �������� ����������������������������������� � � � �� ������ ����� ��������������� �� �������� ��������������������������������� � � � �� ������ ����� ��������������� �� �������� ����� �������� �� ���������� � � � ������ ������ � ������ � ������ � � �� � �� � � �� �� �� �� ���������������������������������������� ������������ ������������������������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������������������������� � ��������������������������������������������� ������ ����������������������������������������������� ������� ����������������������������������������������� ������� ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Left ��� ���� ���� ����� ���� Right � � �� ��� � ���������������������������������� ������������������������������������� ������������������������������������� �������������������������������������� ������� ���� �� ���� � ����������������� ������������������������������� �������� �� ���� � ����� ����������������� �� �� � ��������������������������� � ������� �� ���� � ����� ����������������� ��������� �������� �� ���� � ����� ����� �� ������ ����������� � � ����������� ���� ��� ��� �������������������������������������� �� �� �� ���������������������������������������������������������� ����� ��������������������������������������������������������� ����� ��������������������������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������������������� ����� �� � � � � �� �� �� � � ��� ��� ������ ��� ��� � �������� ���� ����������� ������������������������������������������� �������� ��������������������������� �������� ��������������������������� �������� ��������������������������� �������� ��������������������������� ������ � ������ � ������ � ������ � ������ � ���������������� �������������������� ������� ��� ���� � ����� ����������������� ����������������������������� ����������������������������� �������� �������������������� �������� �������������������� �������� �������������������� �������� �������������������� ������ ������ � ������ � ������ � ������ � ������ � � ����� � ��� ���� � ����� ��������� ������������� ������������ ����������������� �������������������������� � �������������������������������������������������� �������� �� ���� � ����� ����������� ����������������������������������������� � � � �� ���� ��������������������������� ����������������������������������������� � � � �� ���� ��������������������������� �� ������� ����� ���������������������������������������� � ���������������������������� ��������������� ������������������ ����������������������� ��� �������� �� �� ������ � � � � ����������������� ����������������� ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Right ������������������������������������� ������� �� ��� � ���� ����������������� 60 because inquiring minds have the right to be inspired MIDI MADNESS Last month you suggested downgrading to an older version of iTunes to regain MIDI-import support—but you didn’t say where to get it. How rude. No, we sure didn’t—sorreeeee. But in the interim, we discovered OldApps.com and its Old Versions Of iTunes page (www.oldapps.com/download_iTunes_ mac.php). But the plot thickens! OldApps seems to provide every version of iTunes back to 1.0 except for the coveted 6.0.1. Plan C: Open your MIDI files in GarageBand and select Share > Send To iTunes for an AIFF file, or select Share > Export Song To Disk to create an M4A MPEG-4 file. WHICH DISK UTILITY? I use Disk Utility’s Repair Permissions feature a lot. But when repairing my startup drive, is it better to do that from the Mac OS X install disc or after having started up from my main hard drive? Repairing permissions uses specific package-receipt files that Disk Utility finds on the drive from which you started up, so it’s best to repair permissions This is why you shouldn’t delete the packages in /Library/Receipts. after you’ve started up from your main hard drive. If you can’t start up from the main hard drive, start up from the install disc, select Utilities > Disk Utility, and click Repair Permissions. Now start up from your regular hard drive and repair permissions again. In case you forgot, Disk Utility is in /Applications/Utilities— select your hard drive from the list on the left, click First Aid, and then click Repair Disk Permissions. mount the drive before sending iPhoto off looking for it. Duh. Moving your iTunes Music folder is nearly as easy. Launch iTunes (/Applications/ iTunes) and select iTunes > Preferences > Advanced > General; check the box labeled Keep iTunes Music Folder Organized and then click the Change button. In the Change Music Folder Location dialog, navigate to the new music folder (click New Folder if you haven’t already created one) and click Choose. Click OK to exit iTunes’ Preferences and select Advanced > Consolidate Library to copy everything into the new folder. Finally, delete the old iTunes Music Folder (in user name/ Music), but don’t delete the enclosing iTunes folder or the iTunes Library file. iLIFE TO GO Can I offload my iPhoto and iTunes collections onto an external hard drive to free up space on my iBook? You sure can, and it requires no heavy lifting. To transplant your photos, quit iPhoto and then drag your iPhoto Library (user name/Pictures/iPhoto Library) to an external drive or wherever you’d like. The next time you launch it, iPhoto will display a warning that it can’t find a library in the usual spot; click Choose Library and navigate to your library’s new home—obviously, if that home is on an external drive, Betcha didn’t know you can store your iTunes Library on an iPod. DITCHING .MAC I want to switch from my $100/year .Mac account to my free Gmail account—how do I move the messages that are stored on the server? .net/blog/2006/05/26/macsaber-10released). This gem rocks our world by creating realistic lightsaber sound effects in response to the motion sensor inside the MacBook, MacBook Pro, and many modern PowerBooks. ONE MORE THING SNAP BACK, JACK I’ve read all the specs, but I still need one more reason to upgrade to a MacBook—wha’cha got? One word, my ON THE friend: MacSaber DISC (free, on the Disc or MacSaber 1.0 http://isnoop What’s up with the little curvy arrow on the right side of the iTunes status window thingy? That’s actually a snapback icon— recognize it from Safari’s URL bar? Click it to bring the currently playing song to the top of your browser window. Bonus: 52 60 August 20052006 September Get back, Loretta! Apple calls that status window thingy the iTunes Display Area. DIFFICULTY RATINGS No whining— anyone can do this! It’ll take some effort, but you can do it. This stuff’s for the pros. 61 HOW TO UNIX UNIVERSITY SUSPENDED ANIMATION Ack! I just started a massive render project that’s hogging all of my CPU power, but I need a quick Quake 4 fix. Isn’t there some stupid Unix trick that can suspend the render and then pick up where it left off later? hog is choking your Mac, launch the Heck yeah, there is a Unix trick for Terminal (/Applications/Utilities), and that—it’s actually a variant of our favorite at the prompt type killall -STOP command, kill, the Slayer of Processes. GarageBand and press Return (if your If you use kill unmodified, the process target process has a space in its name, you’re killing dies an immediate, type a forward slash before it, thuswise: unceremonious death. Another downside killall -STOP iMovie\ HD). The flag to kill is that you have to provide the process ID number (PID) for the process you want rubbed out. PIDs are easy enough to find by opening Activity Monitor (/Applications/ Utilities), finding the target app under Process Name, and jotting down the corresponding PID number from the next column—or, for you Terminal lovers, by using the top command. But that’s way too much legwork. The killall command is similar to kill but lets you do the killing by name rather than by PID. So while GarageBand, Final Cut Pro, or another processor Killall can also bring processes back to life. Mac OS X’s Mail app makes this migration easy, but it requires a bit of busywork. First set up POP accounts in Mail for both your .Mac account and your Gmail account (Mail > Preferences > Accounts, then follow the prompts; click Help > Mail Help for, um, help). Then log in to your Gmail account (www.gmail .com) and click the Settings link at the top of the page. On the resulting page, click Forwarding and POP, and then, under POP Download, click either of the Enable POP choices (to get all of your mail, new and old, or just messages that come in from this point forward). Now click the Help link at the upper-right corner of the screen; on the resulting page click POP Access, and then, on the next resulting page, click Configuring Your Email Client: Apple Mail. Follow the directions to add iDVD to the Save As text field is for; click it to morph the truncated Save dialog into fully navigable Finder-esque window. Bonus: The short list shows any directory that you add to Finder windows’ Sidebar, so you can easily add some of your favorite dumping grounds to the short list. iDVD 6’s Media Browser is cool, but I want to use pictures that aren’t in my iPhoto Library. Can I get them into the Media Browser without importing them into iPhoto? You sure can. Assemble the photos you want in a folder and drag the folder into iDVD’s Media Browser—just make sure you click the Photos tab first. SAVE When I save a document, some apps let me save anywhere on the Mac, but some only offer a list of places to save it. What gives? That’s what the spiffy little blue arrow next It’s probably best not to save directly to the Trash—but you could. (-STOP) tells killall how to kill the process (kill uses many of the same flags as killall); you’ve got a choice of stop, abrt (abort), term (terminate), and others. To kill an app outright, leave out the flag (killall GarageBand, for example) to use the default, term, killing GarageBand and your partially rendered project. But you smartly used the -STOP flag, so when you’re ready to put the Mac back into hard labor, use the continue flag, thusly: enter killall -CONT GarageBand and press Return. As usual, you’ll find more info in the manual pages; in the Terminal, type man killall or man kill and press Return. If your Terminal hackery tends to fall flat, check Terminal > Preferences to make sure you haven’t changed your default shell; killall works as expected in the default bash shell, but some prankster may have changed your default to the tsch shell, which doesn’t support killall. Even when it’s still on a server, mail is easy to migrate. Gmail to your Mail app (especially the bits about server ports). Now you can drag selected messages from the .Mac mailbox into the Gmail mailbox, or go big and create a rule (Mail > Preferences > Rules) to resend messages addressed to you@mac.com to you@gmail.com. Click OK, and then select Message > Apply Rules to make the move. Simple? Quite. Tedious? Sorta. MacAddict’s how-to editor, Niko Coucouvanis, heartily thanks Buz Zoller for so ably wielding the Ask Us Sword of Knowledge ™ for the past five years. Submit technical questions or helpful tips directly via email (askus@macaddict.com) or c/o MacAddict, 4000 Shoreline Ct., Ste. 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080. September 2006 61 62 HOW TO create a talking head Create a Talking Head by Niko Coucouvanis WHAT YOU NEED Mac OS 10.3 or later ($129, www.apple.com) Noodle Flix ($20, www.sonicamigos.com) Photoshop Elements 4 ($80, www.adobe.com) Mac with a built-in iSight (or a stand-alone iSight or digital camera) F or a mere $20, Noodle Flix combines your Mac’s speakable voices with graphical actors and any text you feed it to make awesome talking-head movies for use in podcasts or other video projects. ON THE Since Noodle Flix itself is trés simple to figure DISC Noodle Flix 1.2.1, Noodle out and use, we’ll teach you how to make Flix Tutorial, Steve Jobs and Tracy actors your own actor out of photos of yourself. 1 Need talent for your podcast, iMovie video, or other hijinks? We hear Steve Jobs works cheap! Get the Goods You need a lot of stuff for this project, so get it together first: the Noodle Flix software ($20, on the Disc or www.sonicamigos.com); the tutorial and special-edition Steve Jobs actor (created specially for this project by independent 3D-character builder Gregg Seastone—thanks, Gregg!), which are both on the Disc; and a graphics app capable of saving PNG files with alpha transparency—we used Photoshop Elements 4.0 ($80, www.adobe.com). If you don’t have a Mac with a built-in iSight and Photo Booth, you’ll also need a stand-alone iSight, or a camera, a tripod, and maybe a friend if you’ve got one handy. This is what a Noodle Flix actor looks like on the inside. 2 Practice Makes Perfect An actor is simply a series of 10 nearly identical still images, each with a differently shaped mouth. Study the frames from one of the sample actors to help you figure out how to shape your mouth for each different frame. If you’re big on realism or method acting, use the chart to the right (culled from the Noodle Flix tutorial on this month’s Disc) to see which phoneme shape you need to make for each frame. Practice for a while—trust us, you’ll need all of your mental mojo to get 10 otherwise identical portrait shots. If you don’t have Photo Booth, see “Plight of the Photo Booth–less,” p64, and meet us back at step 4. FAKE IT IF YOU CAN’T MAKE IT If you’re more of a twitchy pixel pusher than a steady-headed photo model, you can easily hack your features from the different photos onto copies of one photo. Just pick your favorite shot and make a gang of copies (Command-D in the Finder); open one copy and one of the originals side by 62 September 2006 FILE NAME PHONEME 7999.png M, B, or P 8000.png C, D, G, K, S, TH, Y, or Z 8001.png E (as in “feet”) 8002.png AH (as in “Ahhh!”) 8003.png O (as in “flow”) 8004.png OO (as in “food”) 8005.png L 8006.png F or V 9000.png Default face (saying nothing) 90002.png Default face with blink (saying nothing) side in Photoshop Elements and use the Lasso tool to draw a selection around the mouth in one photo and then Copy (Command-C) and Paste (Command-V) it onto a new layer in the other photo. Now select the Move tool and drag the pasted mouth into position, using the Eraser tool to trim the edges. Phew—now repeat the process for all eight photos. 64 HOW TO create a talking head 3 Say Cheese Sit in front of a smooth, solid-color background that clashes well with you and your shirt—you’ll want to clip yourself out later. Launch Photo Booth (/Applications) and smile for the camera. Check your preview and get yourself right; just remember to look at the lens when you click the shutter button. We cheated by keeping the sample actor’s portraits open on our Mac’s Desktop for reference. Lather, rinse, and repeat for each phoneme, and do them in the order listed for smoother filerenaming later. Note that if you delete photos from Photo Booth’s photo shelf, the remaining photos’ numbers update to keep order—but the files themselves (in user name/Pictures/Photo Booth) don’t, so if you need to reshoot one, it may be easier to reshoot the whole series. Your call. 4 Knock Yourself Out Open one of your headshots in Photoshop Elements and use the Magic Wand to select and delete the background—adjust the Tolerance setting in the Tool Options bar if you need to tweak the tool’s aggressiveness. With the Magic Wand still active, Select All (Command-A) and Option-click in the blank background area to select only your portrait; select Layer > New > Layer Via Cut to move yourself to a new, transparent layer. Now click on the Background layer in the Layers Palette and click the little trash can icon to delete it. Perform any color correction or filter freak-out you desire and select File > Save As. Choose PNG from the Format pull-down menu and name the file according to the file names listed in step 2; save the file in a folder called Faces inside another folder called Me.actor. Open the remaining photos and repeat the process. 5 See how the numbers don’t match up? That’ll complicate things later. The blue highlight indicates which layer is active. Get Your Skit Together Finally, your actor is complete; you’ve saved the 80-by80-pixel PNG for your character’s icon inside the Me.actor file and dropped the folder into /Library/Application Support/ Noodle Flix/Actors/ as instructed in the tutorial. Launch Noodle Flix, select System Installed from the Actors pull-down menu, and select your actor. Use the respective tabs to pick a voice and a background, and proceed to the Script area. Type in what you want to say, keeping in mind that crafty punctuation and spelling can help your Mac’s built-in voices speak better. If you plan to recite War and Peace or to animate a full-length Steve Jobs keynote speech, do it in shorter segments and then string them together in iMovie or QuickTime Pro. You might need a Xanax after hearing Zarvox do a full keynote address. PLIGHT OF THE PHOTO BOOTH–LESS If your Mac lacks a built-in iSight and Photo Booth, you can make do by perching your digital camera on a tripod and using its flip-around LCD screen and remote control. Park yourself in front of a smooth, solid-color background, set the camera to capture at 640-by-480-pixel resolution, and frame yourself to fill about one-third of the screen to mimic Photo Booth’s output. Or you can always just have a friend shoot you. If you have an iSight that’s not built in but is set up to work with iChat AV, choose iChat > Video > Video Preview and frame yourself correctly in the preview window. Press Command- 64 September 2006 Shift-4, then the spacebar; place the camera icon over the window and click to capture that window. Double-click the resulting Picture number file to open it in Preview, then select File > Grab > Selection. Drag the crosshair over just the image that you want to capture; when you release your mouse, Preview will save the selection in a file named Snapshot followed by a date and time stamp. Select that file, choose File > Save As, choose PNG in the Format pull-down menu, and uncheck the Alpha checkbox. Name it as indicated in step 2 and click Save. Repeat for the rest of your required images. Writing this article convinced Niko Coucouvanis to get a shave and a haircut—but it was closer to a double sawbuck than two bits. ������������ ��������������������������� ������������������������������� ��������������������� ������������������� ��������������������� ��������������������� �������������� ������������ �������������������������������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������� ������������������������ ��������������������� 66 HOW TO maintain your Mac with Automator Maintain Your Mac with Automator by Niko Coucouvanis WHAT YOU NEED ILLUSTRATION BY SUSAN SYNARSKI Mac OS X 10.4.2 ($129, www.apple.com) R ather than dwelling on Automator’s limited ability to control other applications, we’ll explore its inner beauty: Actions that control Automator itself and let you feed custom AppleScript and Unix commands directly into a Workflow. (If you’re already lost, go back to page 36 and read “Automating Automator.”) 2 Power, I Need More Power! There’s no Terminal entry in Automator’s Library of app-specific Actions, but you can use the Terminal’s language to greatly extend Automator’s power. Select Automator in the Library and drag the Run Shell Script Action into the Workflow area. Now you can add virtually any Unix command to the Action—just type or paste it in place of the default cat command. Separate multiple commands with a line break (press Return), and if you’ve got a favorite scripting environment (Perl, Python, bash, tcsh, and so on), pick it from the pull-down menu. We used a simple rsync command to backup our user name/Documents folder to a new folder on the desktop called LatestBackup by typing rsync -a -y ~/Documents ~/Desktop/LastestBackup. The problem with Unix commands is that the extrapowerful ones only work if you’re running naked as the root user (a Very Bad Idea) or if you follow the command up with an admin password—which Automator can’t do directly. Say we want to automate Mac OS X’s Unix-based periodic weekly system maintenance routines, which rotate logs, flush caches, and do other dirty-sounding things; by default, the routines automatically run in the wee hours, so if you shut down your Mac every evening they might never run. So we’ll wrap the Unix command and our admin password into a snippet of AppleScript. Drag the Run AppleScript Action into a new Workflow and type or paste your script in place of the placeholder text. We used: do shell script “sudo periodic weekly” password “admin password” with administrator privileges. Automator keeps its most useful Actions close to home. Powerful as it is, the Run Shell Script Action hits the wall when you need authentication. 3 What Just Happened? Automator doesn’t always tell you why your Workflow failed, but you do have a few places to look for help. The Run AppleScript Action has its own script debugger—click the hammer to run it; an alert will pop up telling you what’s wrong. To check on your Run Shell Script Action, use Automator’s Run button to activate the Workflow and then select View > Show Log for basic info such as whether it’s still running, has completed successfully, or choked on an error. If that’s not enough, open /Applications/Utilities/Console to check the system logs to find out if your Workflow was stymied by incorrect file permissions, bad syntax, or whatever. When testing Workflows, keep an eye on Automator’s status wedge— some Workflows Drop the hammer to debug AppleScripts; if that doesn’t help, it’s time to dig into log files. take a long time to complete. 66 September 2006 4 Think Outside the Automator By tapping the power of other applications, we can pry some good use out of Automator. iCal’s events are the best place to set up time- or date-based Workflows. Just click the New Event plus sign on an iCal calendar, and in the Event Info window set any repeating frequency options you desire: every Monday at noon, at 3:00 p.m. on the fifth of each month, or every day at 4:20—or all three if you’re making separate Workflows for all three periodic maintenance commands (Weekly, Monthly, and Daily); then click the pop-up labeled Alarm, select Open File, and navigate to a saved Workflow. With help from other apps such as iCal, Automator can get more automatic. MacAddict How-To Editor Niko Coucouvanis wishes Automator was a bit more idiot friendly. 1 Ring the Shell’s Bells 68 HOW TO make a universal disaster disk Make a Universal Disaster Disk by Niko Coucouvanis WHAT YOU NEED Mac OS X 10.4.4 or later ($129, www.apple.com) An external FireWire hard drive Both Intel- and PowerPC-powered Macs A s Apple transitions the Mac from PowerPC to Intel processors, your bootable FireWire disaster disk is becoming obsolete. Out of the box, Intel-based Macs can only boot from external drives connected via USB 2.0, not FireWire. Future releases of the Mac OS might cure this FireWire foible, but why wait? Here’s how to set up a FireWire disaster disk that goes both ways. A good disaster disk contains a bootable OS, your favorite disk utilities, and enough free space to back up important files that might otherwise die along with your Mac’s failing hard drive. If you plan on installing both IntelMac and PowerPC-Mac versions of OS X, use a drive of at least 10GB—though bigger is always better—and know that this bootability tango is going to erase all the data on it. Whatever size hard drive you get, make sure it can connect to your Mac via FireWire. 3 2 Intel Macs claim that they can’t start from FireWire disks—but we know better. Map It Out Open Disk Utility (/Applications/Utilities) and highlight the external disk in the left-side list—make sure you highlight the drive itself rather than one of its volumes. Click the Partition tab and select Two Partitions (or more) from the Volume Scheme pull-down menu; then click Options, select Apple Partition Map, and click OK. Finally, click Partition to erase and reformat the drive into at least two volumes—one for your PowerPC-based system and one for the Intel version. Whose Disk Is It, Anyway? Attach your FireWire disk to your Mac, select it on the Desktop, and press Command-I (or select File > Get Info). At the bottom of the Get Info window, under Ownership and Permissions, click the Details triangle. If the little gold lock icon is closed, click it and enter your administrator password. Select System from the Owner pulldown menu and Admin from the Group menu, and make sure the box labeled Ignore Ownership On This Volume is not checked. Do this Get Info tango before you repartition the disk. 4 Installation Station Install Mac OS X via FireWire to the PowerPC partition, then attach the disk via FireWire (or USB) to an Intelpowered Mac. As we write this, the Mac OS X (for Intel) Installer balks at external drives, so you need to copy the system from a running Intel-powered Mac. Launch Disk Utility and click the Restore tab. Drag the Intel-powered Mac’s hard drive icon from the left-side list to the Source field, drag the FireWire disk’s Intel-partition icon to the Destination field, and click Restore. Now attach your disaster disk to either type of Mac and start up while holding the Option key to access the boot-drive selector. This entire operation relies on setting the right type of partition map. Tip: Copy your system over before filling it up with apps and files. 68 September 2006 Niko Coucouvanis panicked his kernel nine times while writing this article. 1 Determine Your Needs In transitionary times, a versatile disaster disk is A Good Thing. 70 HOW TO sex up your movie soundtracks Sex Up Your Movie Soundtracks by Niko Coucouvanis WHAT YOU NEED Mac OS X 10.4 ($129, www.apple.com) GarageBand 3 ($79 with iLife ’06, www.apple.com) A movie that needs some sound improvement W 1 Strange but true: Dark Side of the Moon perfectly matches The Wizard of Oz. Set the Stage Launch GarageBand and select New Movie Score from the New Project dialog; GarageBand sets you up with a blank project with an empty Video Track and the onboard Media Browser stocked with clips from your Movies folder and your iTunes collection. Drag the movie you want to score from the Media Browser (or the Finder) into the empty Video Track. If the movie file includes an audio track, GarageBand will extract the audio to its own track, where you can edit its volume, add effects, or mute it entirely. Remember, you can use commercial content all you want for personal edification projects. 3 Master Thy Markers Double-click the Video Track to load it in the Track Editor, drag the playhead to where you want a marker, and click Add Marker—we added a chapter marker to the flying monkeys sequence, ’cause everybody wants to relive their childhood nightmares. Click on the new marker’s title and type in a more fitting name. Now, to navigate through a long project, load the video track in the Track Editor and double-click any chapter’s Still Frame to jump to its position on the timeline. Use markers to find your place in a long piece—or to prep the project for iDVD. 70 September 2006 2 Work with What You Have The first order of scoring business is dealing with the clip’s original soundtrack, be it residual background noise, spoken voices from an interview, or what have you. In our example, we want to hear all the dialogue, but we can do without the Lullaby League and the Lollypop Guild. Click the extracted-audio track’s speaker icon to mute the whole track, or click the downward-pointing triangle and select Track Volume. Now drag GarageBand’s playhead to the spot on the timeline where you want to adjust the volume; click on the signal line to create handles and then drag the handle up or down to set the volume higher or lower, respectively. Use the Volume Editor to tweak the original soundtrack. 4 Trick Out Your Tracks Click the plus icon to add a new track for sound effects and follow the tips below to spice things up a bit. • Add a voice-over track: Plug in a microphone and use the red Record button to start and stop GarageBand’s recording as you speak—perfect for spicing up Glinda’s sappy dialogue. • BYO sound bites: Double-click a track to load it into the Track Editor, hover your mouse over the waveform until the cursor looks like selection crosshairs, and then click and drag to highlight a section and click inside it to turn the selection into a reusable audio loop. Now click the Details triangle in the Track Info pane and pile on the effects! Try adding a satanic reverb to Margaret Hamilton’s signature “I’ll get you, my pretty!” Don’t skimp on the gratuitous effects! Niko Coucouvanis was surprised and delighted to discover www.syncmovies.com while researching this how-to. e’ve all heard the old hippie lore that Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album makes a perfect soundtrack for the classic movie The Wizard of Oz. Ever skeptical of hippie lore, we mashed up the two classics in GarageBand 3 to see for ourselves—and to show you how easy it is to mash any music into your home movies. www.MacSales.com NEW! APPLE Storage Solutions www.MacSales.com/storage INTEL MODEL UPGRADES INCLUDING THE MACBOOK PRO Mercury Elite Pro AL Single Drive Type Capacities Base Price FW 400 + USB2 80GB to 750GB $119.99 FW 800/400 80GB to 750GB $139.99 FW 800/400 + USB2 80GB to 750GB $149.99 Quad eSATA FW 800/400 + USB2 250GB to 750GB $219.99 Up to 1.5 TB RAID Stripe FW 800/400 Serving the Computer Universe since 1988 Visit MacSales.com 800.275.4576 mory More Mer Mac te s a F = 160GB to 1.5TB Mirror FW 800/400 250GB to750GB $399.99 0+1 FW800/400 500GB to 1.5TB $679.99 Memory www.MacSales.com/memory $209.99 Bu s d! Powere On The Go MacBook Pro 15.4” & 17”, iMac Intel, & Mac mini Intel models All PowerBook G4 Models; iBook G3/G4s Models Type Capacities Base Price FW 800 + USB2 40GB to 160GB $139.99 Size Base Price Size Base Price FW 400 + USB2 40GB to 120GB $124.99 1GB Kits $99.99 256MB $26.99 FW 400 40GB to 120GB $115.99 2GB Kits $225.00 512MB $39.99 USB2 40GB to 120GB $104.99 512MB $49.99 1GB (1024MB) $109.99 1GB $112.99 2GB $219.99 ADD PORTS 750GB! PowerMac G5 and iMac G5 Models miniStack Type Capacities All PowerMac, eMac G4, and iMac G4 Size Base Price FW 400 + USB2 80GB to 750GB $124.99 512MB $45.99 USB2 80GB to 500GB $109.99 Size Base Price 1GB $87.99 256MB $24.99 1GB Matched Pair $89.99 512MB $45.99 2GB Matched Pair $175.00 Mercury Elite Pro Classic 1GB $87.99 2GB $209.99 Type Capacities Base Price $415.00 FW 800/400 + USB2 80GB to 500GB $159.99 FW 800/400 80GB to 500GB $124.99 FW 400 + USB2 80GB to 500GB $125.99 USB2 80GB to 500GB $95.99 4GB Matched Pair Internal Hard Drives www.MacSales.com/harddrives iMacs, eMacs & PowerMacs Size Base Price PowerBooks, iBooks, & Mac minis 3.5” Plug & Play 40GB to 500GB $47.99 Size Base Price 2.5” 40GB to 160GB $69.99 250GB Super Value $99.95 100GB 7200RPM NoteBook Performance $189.99 Base Price Super SuperDrives Prices www.MacSales.com/superdrives Internal & External Options for burning DVDs, Dual-Layer DVDs, & CDs Computer Type Description Base Price Software G3/G4/G5 Desktop Macs Burn DVDs at up to 16X $47.95 www.MacSales.com/osx PowerBook G4 Internal 8X with Dual Layer $119.99 iMac G5 8X with Dual Layer $129.99 Mac mini 8X DVD with Dual Layer + CDRW $119.99 G4 Cube up to 8X DVD $129.00 External FireWire/ USB2 Solutions Use with virtually any Mac or PC $99.95 Apple OS X OS X Companion Software Type Price Type Base Price OS X Tiger $119.00 iLife ‘06 $79.00 10.3 from $47.99 FileSalvage + CopyCatX $99.99 10.2 from $17.99 Drive Genius for Mac OS X $65.00 SPEC L SAVINIA GS! MA_09-06 Prices, specifications and availability are subject to change without notice. Items returned within 30 days may be subject to a restocking fee. No return will be accepted without Return Merchandise Authorization number. ma_0906_catalog.indd 1 7/6/06 1:28:48 PM MEMORY, MACS & MORE! Lifetime Warranty RAM ALL MEMORY ON SALE!!! 5300/667 - All Intel Macs 1gb 667 SoDIMM $76 4200/533 For DualCore G5 4gb Kit 2x2gb $419 2gb Kit 2x1gb $159 4200/533 Powerbook G4 Hi-Res 1gb 533 $76 3200/400 For Dual Prossesor G5 2gb Kit 2x1gb $159 1gb Kit 2x512mb 79 2700/333 Powerbook G4 1gb 533 $95 PowerMac G4 PC133 512mb $69 256mb $29 The memory market is extremely volatile. Prices are always changing. Please call or check our web site for current pricing. HARD DRIVE SPECIALS AMAZING DRIVE VALUES! Serial ATA drives for G5 750gb 7200rpm 16mb cache 500gb 7200rpm 16mb cache 250gb 7200rpm 8mb Cache $466 249 99 ATA Drives for G4 320gb 7200rpm 8mb cache 250gb 7200rpm 8mb cache 120gb 7200rpm 8mb Cache $119 89 79 Serial 2.5” for MacBookPro + Intel Mini 120gb 5400rpm 8mb cache 100gb 5400rpm 8mb Cache $179 149 2.5 ATA Drives for PwrBks/iBooks/G4 Mini 160gb 5400rpm 120gb 5400rpm 100gb 5400rpm $239 159 129 MAC TRADE-INS WELCOME! since 1994 ® 800 •873 •3726 11933 Wilshire Boulevard, West LA, CA 90025 Phone: (310) 914-3200 Fax: (310) 966-4433 University & School P.O.’s Welcome. Prices subject to change without notice. Ad code 710-6 MacSolutions.com www. .COM 800-462-2160 We’ve got all the memory solutions you need for: MacBook Pro • Power Mac PowerBook • iMac • iBook • eMac • Mac Mini Samsung memory available! 1gb 5300-667 for MacBookPro/Intel Macs 1gb 4200-533 for Dual Core G5 1gb 3200-400 for Dual Processor G5 1gb 2700-333 for PowerBook G4/iBook G4 $79 $79 $89 $99 You need ’em? We’ve got ’em! Note: Prices are subject to change. Quantities limited to stock on hand. School P.O.’s welcome. 74 SEPT/06 Mac Shop MA711 We’ve got your back. Thousands of parts and accessories for your Powerbook formerly PB FixIt. New name, same company do-it-yourself Powerbook & iBook parts free online step-by-step Fixit Guides thousands of parts and upgrades iFixit.com Adobe® Creative Suite 2 Wacom® Intuos3 6x11” Quark® QuarkXpress 6.5 Alias® Order Today! Only! $319.95 Only! $189.95 Only! $389.95 Save! 67% Design with the Best! Save! $50 Create Digital Artwork! Save! $756 Maya 7 Unlimited Save! 85% Make Amazing Projects! Become a 3D Animator! We carry thousands of industry-leading software and hardware products at huge discounts for students, teachers and schools. These special prices are ONLY for the academic community. And our prices are typically $10-$20 lower than most college bookstores! Call or visit us online today and start saving! Adobe® Acrobat Pro 7............Save 69% Photoshop CS 2.........Save 52% Dreamweaver 8.........Save 53% Studio 8 ....................Save 71% FileMaker® FileMaker Pro 8 ..................$149 Corel® Painter IX.5...........................$95 CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X3 ...$95 M-Audio® Ableton Live 5 ....................$249 Pro Tools 7 M-Powered ......$149 Microsoft® Office 2004 Student/Teacher ....$139 We carry many of the products reviewed in this magazine! Softpress Freeway 4 Pro ................$179 Kodak EasyShare One ....................$449 M-Audio Podcast Factory...............$139 Epson PowerLite 76c......................$949 Sorenson Squeeze Compression Suite..$199 Pantone huey ...................................$69 NewTek® LightWave 3D 8.5 .................$195 Sibelius® Sibelius 4.................................$239 Auralia 2.1.................................$89 Hey Parents! “You are eligible to buy for your students at home or away at school.” Give us a call anytime! 1-800-294-4035 Mac Shop SEPT/06 75 ��������������������������� ���������������������� �������������������������� ��������������� ��������������������� ��������� ������������������������������ ������������������� ����������������� � �������������� ���������������������� ����������������������������������� ������� ����� ������ ���� ��������������������������� ������ ������ ���� ��������� ������������������������������������� �������������������� ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ������������������������ Interested in advertising in the iPod Showcase? In iP C (6 lp Contact Larry Presser (646) 723 5459 lpresser@macaddict.com 76 SEPT/06 Mac Shop ������������������ MacAddict 3.5˝ X 2.3˝ DATA RECOVERY: 800-440-1904 7 great reasons to choose DriveSavers: Fast, advanced, proprietary techniques. All operating systems; Mac, Windows, OS/2, Netware and UNIX. � All storage devices including SAN, RAID and NAS systems. � Instantly retrieve recovered data with DataExpress™. � Recommended and certified by all hard drive manufacturers. � Government Contracts “Restoring Data � Featured on MacAddict,MacWorld, and Peace of Mind CNN, BBC and others. Since 1985” � � “We Can Save It!” Visit DriveSavers at www.drivesavers.com ©2006 DRIVESAVERS, INC. 400 BEL MARIN KEYS BLVD., NOVATO, CA 94949 INTL: 415-382-2000 Interested in advertising in the iPod Showcase? Contact Larry Presser (646) 723 5459 lpresser@macaddict.com Interested in advertising in the iPod Showcase? Contact Larry Presser (646) 723 5459 lpresser@macaddict.com Mac Shop SEPT/06 77 t 78 tell us how you really feel LETTERS caught that. Niko’s still trying to get up to speed on this Windows thing.—Max BLU APPLE JOHNNY MNEMONIC In the Aug/06 issue article “Entertaining Intelligence” (p35), Logan Kugler mentions that Blu-ray is backed by Sony, but doesn’t mention that, more importantly, it’s backed by Apple, which sits on the Bluray Disc Association’s board of directors.—Joel Bernosky Good call, Joel. To read about Blu-ray until you have Blu-face, check out www .blu-ray.com and www .blu-raydisc.com.—Max In the early ’70s, Omni magazine had a mnemonics contest. I recall two entries: the mnemonic for remembering the manned space missions (Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab), “Many Gentlemen Ascend Skyward,” and the one for remembering how to spell mnemonics, “Mnemonics Neatly Eliminates Man’s Only Nemesis: Insufficient Cerebral Storage.” Seems like “the parade of big-catnamed Mac OS X releases” (Jul/06, p58) begs for a similar contest, so here’s one to get it started: “Computer Perfect Just Prior To Lightning” (for Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, and Leopard).—Dave Aton How ’bout it, readers? Cease Pussyfooting, Just Push The Limit.—Max SAVING PRIVATE BENJAMIN In “Infect Your Mac with Windows XP” (Jul/06, p60) Niko wrote, “XP Professional supports multiple-core processors—XP Home doesn’t.” Wrong. XP Home does support multiple-core processors; what it doesn’t support is multiple discrete processors. This is an important distinction, as it could save Boot Campers $100.—TM Big thanks to you and the other vigilant readers who CLARIFICATION Thanks for the excellent review of our product, the invisibleSHIELD (“iPod: Beyond the Basics,” Jun/06, p18). We just wanted to Survey Says Here are the results of our June 2006 survey. Check out www.macaddict.com each month for a new online poll. The format is obviously AAC—an adorable card. My son Ben, always creative and always thinking iPod, gave me this iPod-inspired Father’s Day card this year. —James Steele make one clarification for your readers, and that is the fact that our film is NOT a 3M film. We use a different film altogether that is much higher quality. It has a higher abrasive resistance and is generally a lot tougher—just two of the reasons we offer a lifetime guarantee on all of our invisibleSHIELD products. We’re glad you like the invisibleSHIELD for the iPod Universal toothbrush required. 25% Just 17% How about some video kill it and make the mag cheaper. how-tos? 14% It needs more games! 30% It hips me to cool software that I wouldn’t have found otherwise. 8% It spares me long downloads. 6% It makes the perfect coaster �� ���� ��� September 2006 ����� 78 to keep my coffee table stain-free. ������ 239 respondents so much, and we hope your readers do, too!—Phillip J. Chipping, president and founder, ShieldZone Corporation WHAT DO YOU LIKE OR DISLIKE ABOUT MACADDICT’S MONTHLY CD, AKA THE DISC? ������� vv DUAL MINTY FRESH CORE I’ve been reading MacAddict since issue 1, but this is the first time I’ve felt compelled to write a letter. It’s amazing how pervasive dual-core processing has become; I noticed this on the bathroom shelf (it’s my roommate’s). —Floyd Fisher Don’t let Intel’s lawyers see this!—Max WRITE TO US! MacAddict, 4000 Shoreline Court, Ste. 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080 or letters@macaddict.com FOR SUBSCRIPTION QUERIES: call (toll-free) 888-771-6222 code search for just 48169 does lead you to the right location, or at least, as the kids say, hella close.—Max iMAGNET Deerfield School’s iMac doubles as a Lost and Found. Anybody recognize that watch?—Liz Bagish, Millburn Township Public Schools WIN! Win a LaCie Brick! Who says hard drives must be encased in dull grey boxes? Not the designer Ora-Ïto, who created the distinctive LaCie Brick Desktop Hard Drive. This 250GB, USB 2.0–equipped unit ($129.99, www.lacie.com) can be yours; just write the funniest, most imaginative caption for the image below. Only one entry per contestant. Entry Form AC adapter cozy sold separately. QUILTBOOK Attached, please find photos of my MacBook sleeve. There is not another one like it in the world. My mother quilted the sleeve from my design. It’s lightweight, protective, and washable. Jealous? —James Cockroft GOOGLE HELL (MICHIGAN, THAT IS) There is one, and only one, Hell city in the USA: Hell, Michigan. When I heard they were having a 6/6/06 party, I hopped on Google Maps to see how far it would be from me. What did I find? “We could not understand the location Hell, Michigan 48169.” Then I tried Yahoo! Maps, which delivered directions in 19 easy steps, concluding, “Arrive in the center of Hell, MI.” I know Google censors stuff, but how can it get away with censoring a whole effing town?!—Mike Dereniewski That’s a hell of a story, Mike. My guess is that you couldn’t find the name listed because Hell is an unincorporated community in Livingston County’s Putnam Township. A ZIP 79 FOR CD PROBLEMS: go to www.futureus-inc.com Write a caption for this picture. CONTESTANT INFORMATION Full Name: There’s the earring Susie’s been looking for… Address: HOLD THAT THOUGHT Email or telephone: Reading the Jul/06 edition of your mag, I noticed you didn’t finish a sentence in the “Insider Lingo” article on p20: “It sure drove us crazy until”...and then nothing. I spent a couple of seconds trying to figure out if you put it on the next page, or if one of the other articles on the page continued the thought, but nothing. It got me thinking—did you do it on purpose to drive us crazy? To reinforce the point maybe? Was it intentional, or just a bad edit? Or maybe you were...—Paul Barker Well, Paul, that’s an excellent question. You’re not crazy. The sentence you’re referring to was, indeed, woefully incomplete. We’d like to blame that on a printing error*, but between you and me, the real, honest, undeniable truth is that City: State: Zip: Send email entries to: contest@macaddict.com with the subject: Brick Contest (Don’t forget to include your address information!) Send snail-mail entries to: Brick Contest, MacAddict magazine, 4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080. Deadline for entry: September 30, 2006. Contest results will appear in our Jan/07 issue. Contest Rules The judges will be MacAddict editors and will base their decision on 33 percent humor, 33 percent originality, and 33 percent creativity. All entries must be received no later than September 30, 2006, with the winner announced around January 2007. By entering this contest, you agree that Future US, Inc. may use your name, likeness, and Web site for promotional purposes without further payment. All prizes will be awarded, and no minimum number of entries is required. If two or more people enter identical winning captions, the entry received first will be awarded the contest prize. Prizes won by minors will be awarded to their parents or legal guardians. Future US, Inc. is not responsible for damages or expenses the winners might incur as a result of this contest or the receipt of a prize, and winners are responsible for income taxes based on the value of the prize received. A list of winners may also be obtained by sending a stamped, self-addressed envelope to Future US, Inc. c/o MacAddict Contest, 4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080. This contest is limited to residents of the United States. No purchase necessary; void in Arizona, Maryland, Vermont, Puerto Rico, and where prohibited by law. Winner! Congratulations to Joseph T. Manning, who has definitely seen his fair share of spam over the years, and who is now the proud owner of a JBL On Time iPod speaker and clock radio system ($249.95, www.jbl.com). “Dear Mr. Myslewski, I represent wealthy Nigerian banker, Mr.…” Volume 11, Issue 9 MacAddict (ISSN 1088-548X) is published 12 times a year by Future US, Inc., 4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080. Periodicals Postage Paid at South San Francisco, CA, and at additional mailing offices. Newsstand distribution is handled by Curtis Circulation Co. Basic subscription rates: one year (12 issues + 12 CD-ROMs) U.S. $39.90, Canada $43.95, U.S. prepaid funds only. Canadian price includes postage and GST 128220688. IPM 0962392. Outside the U.S. and Canada, price is $53.95, U.S. prepaid funds only. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to MacAddict, P.O. Box 5126, Harlan, IA 51593-0626. Future US, Inc. also publishes Maximum PC, PC Gamer, Official Xbox Magazine, PSM, Guitar World, Guitar One, Guitar World Acoustic, Bass Guitar, Guitar Legends, Future Music, Future Snowboarding, Snowboard Journal, Snowboard Trade News, Revolver, and Scrapbook Answers. Entire contents copyright 2006, Future US, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited. Future US, Inc. is not affiliated with the companies or products covered in MacAddict. Ride-Along enclosure in the following edition(s): B, C, C1, C2. PRODUCED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Publications Mail Agreement #40043631. Returns: 4960-2 Walker Road, Windsor ON N9A 6J3 *Actually, the missing words are “…we figured it out.” And the error was editorial, not printerorial. September 2006 79 80 SHUT DOWN don’t let the back page hit you on the way out ��������� Shut Downers �� ��������� ���������������������������������������������� ������������������������������� ������������������������� Whether it makes you laugh or groan, whether it’s a display of brilliance or proof that humor ain’t easy, Shut Down always fills one highly important role: It keeps the last page of MacAddict from being totally blank. In the nostalgic spirit of our 10th birthday party, here are four of our favorites. ������������������������������ ������������������������������������������ ����� ���� ���� �� �������� � ����� ����������������������� ��������������������������������������������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������������������� ����������������������������� �������������������������� ������������������������� ����������������������� �������������������������� ������������������������� ������������������ ��� � ���� � �������� ������ ������������������������������������ �������������������������������������� ��������������������� ����������������������������������������� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � ����� ��� �������������������������������������������������������������������������� ������������������ ��������� ������������ ����������� ������������ ���� ������������������ �� ���������� �������� �� �������������� ��� ������� � ���� ������������������������� ����������������������� � ������� ������ �� � �������� ���������� ����� ��������������������������������� ���������� ������������������� ���������������� ������������������������������������ �������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������� ������������� ������������������������������� ����������������������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������� �� ����������������������������������������������� ���� ���� �������� ���������������������������������������� ������������������������� ���������������������������������� �������������������������������������� �������������������������������������� �������������������������������������� �� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � ���������������� ����������������������� ������������������������������� ��������������������������� ��������������������������� ���������������� ������������������������������� ����� ������������ ������������������������������������� � �������������������������������������� ����������������������������������� ������������������������������������ ���������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������� ������������� ����������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������� ������������ �� ��������������� �� ��������� ���������������������������������������������� ��������������� ������ ��������������������� ����������������������� ������������ ������������� ����������������������������������� ������������������������ ��� � ������� ��������� ������� ������ ������ ����� �� ������ ���� � ������� ��������������� ����������������� ��������������������� �������� ������������������������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������ ����������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������������� �������������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������� Oct/03 ��������� ���������������������������������������������� ������� � ����������� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � ������������������ ����������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������ ������������������������������������������ ����������������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������� ���������������� �������������������� ��������������� ��������������� ���������������� ������������ � � � iPod shoe. � � � � ������������������������������� � ������������������������������������������ ����������������������������������������� ���������������������������� ����������� � 80 ��������������������� � ���������������������������������������������� ������������������������ ���������������������������� ������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������� �������������������������������� �� �������������������������������� ����������������������������������������� ����������� ���������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������� ������������ September 2006 ��������� ������������ ������������� � ����������������������������������� ������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������ �������� ������������������� � ������������������� ����������������������������������� ����������������������������������������� ������������������������������������� Jul/04 ����������������������������� ��������������� ������ ������������������������� � �� Feb/02 ��������������������� ���������������������� ��������������������������� � � ������������������ ���������� �������� ��������������� �������������� ���������� ������������� ��������������� ����������� Feb/05 �� ���������������