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July 24, 1999
News
- Mac lovers
rejoice! The highlight of this week’s computers news was
unquestionably the MacWorld Expo show in New York and, more
specifically, the amazingly cool new iBook notebook computer. The
iBook, which will carry a suggested retail price of $1,599 when it
becomes available in September, looks kind of like a smashed iMac and
features its desktop sibling’s curvy lines and translucent plastic
body. Interestingly, however, the 6.7 pound iBook will only be
available in the tangerine and blueberry “flavors” as Apple likes
to call them. The machine features a 300 MHz G3 processor with 512K of
backside cache—called L2 cache in the PC world—connected to a 66
MHz system bus, 32 MB of RAM, 3.2 GB hard drive, 24x CD-ROM, 12.1”
active matrix display and, of course, no floppy drive. The iBook also
lacks PC Card slots, a video out and any kind of sound input: neither
a microphone nor a line input is available (although a built-in mono
speaker and stereo line-out are available). On the other hand, the
unit features an ATI RAGE graphics chip with 4 MB of SDRAM and AGP 2x
support, 56K modem, 10/100Base-T Ethernet connection and a single USB
port. More importantly, the iBook also incorporates a built-in
wireless data antennae and in conjunction with an optional $99 Airport
card lets you create a speedy (11 Mbps) wireless network with other
Airport-equipped iBooks or any other computers supporting the IEEE
802.11 DSSS (Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum) standard used by the
iBook/AirPort combination. In addition, if you pop for the $299
AirPort base station, which incorporates both a 56K modem and an
Ethernet port for connecting to existing high-speed cable modem, DSL
or satellite connections, you can even surf the Internet wirelessly
with the iBook. You have to stay within 150 feet of the base station,
but because they’re radio-based they can pass through walls and
other solid objects, and the base unit can handle about 10 iBooks,
which is ideal for a classroom environment.
- In a
related announcement, Farallon debuted a new SkyLine PC Card wireless
data card for existing Apple G3 Powerbooks and PC notebooks. The $299
card, which is due out at the end of August, fits into the PC Card
slot of the Powerbooks and supports the same IEEE 802 DSSS standard,
although at the slower 2 Mbps rate. Part of the reason for the large
price difference is that the card needs to incorporate an antennae
into a tiny package, whereas the Apple AirPort card can use the
antennae built into the iBook.
- Other
important announcements that came out of MacWorld include news of an
upgraded version of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Outlook
Express for the Macintosh. Version 5.0 of each should finally bring
Mac users up to equivalent functionality with their Windows
counterparts, providing things such as an enhanced History feature in
IE 5.0 and an improved interface and e-mail filtering options in
Outlook Express 5.0. Unfortunately, neither of the Mac versions will
be ready until the fall. In other business software news, Lotus
announced that they will be releasing a Mac version of their Notes
Release 5 e-mail/groupware software. Mac consumers should be happy to
hear that Intuit will finally update Quicken for the Mac. Quicken
Deluxe 2000 will be available in early September for $59.95 with a $20
rebate for existing customers. IBM also announced that they will be
bringing their ViaVoice voice recognition software to the Mac. They
will now be joining Dragon Systems, who had previously announced a Mac
version of Naturally Speaking. Finally, Symantec announced both Norton
AntiVirus 6.0 and Norton Utilities 5.0—available for $69.95 and
$99.95 respectively—which should also be available in early
September.
- The Palm
division of 3Com this week unveiled a new low-cost version of their
popular Pilot handheld electronic organizer. The Palm IIIe, priced at
$229, features the same shape, basic features and the high-quality
screen of the Palm IIIx, but includes only 2 MB of memory.
- Casio
debuted three new digital cameras this past week: the QV-5500SX, the
QV-2000UXand the QV-8000SX, all of which are expected to range from
$599 to $799. The low-end 5500SX features 1.3 Megapixel resolution and
stores its images in HTML and related formats. As a result, it’s
easy to read the format of the image files. The QV-8000SX also
features a 1.3 million pixel CCD, but ups the ante with a feature
called Photo Loader that lets you transfer images between the camera
and a PC (or Mac) via onboard USB connections or with a CompactFlash
memory card. Finally, the QV-2000UX goes one step further by offering
two megapixel resolution.
- Here’s
an interesting one. This past week Microsoft added an instant
messaging capability called MSN Messenger to the MSN online service.
Initially, it worked fine with AOL members who use he popular Buddy
List feature. AOL then began to “block” MSN users from
communicating directly with AOL buddy lists, which are one of the more
popular parts of the service. MSN then turned around a posted a
“fix” to their site which re-enabled the ability for MSN users to
communicate directly with AOL users.
- Looking to
share a home Internet connection? If so, you may want to check out the
latest version of Artisoft’s i.Share software. Version 3.5 of the
proxy server software adds a proxy-caching function that can speed up
web browsing by storing recently accessed pages on the computer
running the program. In addition, like other proxy servers, i.Share
lets multiple PCs share a single Internet connection. Price for the
program is $129 for a three-user version.
- In other
upgrade news, Play announced an upgrade to version 1.1 of their
Windows add-on product Gizmos 98. Version 1.1 fixes some compatibility
issues with Windows 98 Second Edition and provides new features to the
Performer presentation package and Picture Explorer image viewer. You
can download the upgrade for free via the Play web site at
www.play.com.
- Finally,
here’s a good freebie. PictureWorks has announced the release of
MediaCenter 1.1, a free web-based digital image tool that works in
conjunction with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. The application is
part browser-based and part web-based, but requires a free account
with PictureWorks’ web site. The new version provides easy access to
web sites that utilize pictures, including eBay and others. Additional
capabilities now included with 1.1 are expanded multimedia file
support and the ability to directly support removable drives.
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