Gazing ahead, it’s all one-piece new iMacs, which are mostly unknown and untouched. Looking over your shoulder, a mountain of eMacs awaits your next purchase. How about a two-for-one deal? (Info on both is handy at http://www.store.apple.com).

Let’s do the math. Basic eMacs cost $800 each. Add AppleCare service plans and shipping or tax and the price is a cool thousand bucks per computer. Throw in extra memory and your grand total for two shiny new eMacs cruises into the $2200 range. That’s a lot of money, but you’re getting a lot of computer(s).

What’s up, Nemo, you ask. Is that Arizona sun finally frying your bald head into incoherence? Perhaps, but let’s work through our “10.3 reasons” list.

REASON ONE = DOUBLE EXPOSURE. One eMac (E1) lives on the Internet and the other (E2) never goes online. E2 has no exposure to spam, viruses, or invasions of any online variety. E2 is a workhorse, or a gamer, or a dedicated Photoshop station, or whatever you decide, but it’s always ready to deliver speed and performance in a non-net way.

REASON TWO = SECURE ARCHIVING. Apple’s FireWire target disk mode is handy to transfer important files from one computer to another quickly and efficiently. You can go either direction, but first make sure that nothing being transferred onto E2 has any viral infections. Complete or partial archives and/or backups are conveniently located at the adjacent eMac, be it E1 or E2.

REASON THREE = FLEXIBLE RESOLUTIONS. As your eyes age you’ll appreciate eMac’s ability to display resolutions including my old favorite, 800 x 600, up to full screen capacity 1280 x 960 when needed to view two pages side by side. Many people still prefer CRT over LCD, for glass’s smoother presentation.

REASON FOUR = PHYSICAL SECURITY. Have you attempted to play tennis, or jump off a high dive, while carrying an eMac? The computer weighs a ton, and no sensible person would carry it more than twenty feet except under duress.

REASON FIVE = SPLENDID DESIGN. The eMac’s contoured blob shape is soothing feng shui on the eyes and nerves. New Apple keyboard and mouse are top of class for ergonomic and design qualities. Round speakers provide acceptable sound.

REASON SIX = SPEED AND PERFORMANCE. Current 1.25GHz G4 processors are f-i-n-a-l-l-y up to snuff for most of us, especially when you consider the typical home or small office Macintosher. With total 512MB memory, eMac/1.25 is darn fast, and with 768MB-to-1GB of RAM an eMac is a screamer in most situations. Full specs are at: http://www.apple.com/emac/specs.html.

REASON SEVEN = SOFTWARE. It’s built-in, including mighty AppleWorks 6, still one of the best applications of all time. All your iApps are ready to burst into action on both E1 and E2.

REASON EIGHT = UPGRADES. If SuperDrive(s) or Bluetooth or AirPort are your cuppatea, toss in a few more c-notes and load up those eMacs.

REASON NINE = FREEBIES AND BARGAINS. Scout online or local retailers for sales, refurbs, giveaways, and other promotional discounts. Dealers need to move those eMacs, and they’ll grin like October pumpkins when they learn you’re buying two at once. Ask for deals and they will appear.

REASON TEN = ROCKNROLL. Apple’s accessory swivel stand is a swinger and an elevator, providing eMac with the ability to twist and shout while it tilts and rotates.

REASON 0.1 = NETWORKING. If desired, you can have both eMacs on the same local or broadband wired or wireless network.

REASON 0.2 = MULTIMEDIA. Play a movie or download some iTunes on E1 while you’re experimenting with Photoshop filters on E2.

REASON 0.3 = ENVY. When people walk into your office or computer room they will say “Wow! You have two of those new white computers.” They will be impressed, and jealous.

It all adds up to 10.3 reasons why you need to buy two new eMacs today. Send me a digital photo of your setup once they’re in place.

But wait, there’s more. If you choose to add extra memory to your new eMacs instead of having an Apple tech perform the upgrades, get tooled before you get unscrewed. The single screw holding the memory bay shut is extremely small and tightly embedded. Go to a hardware store (tools, not computers) and buy a good-quality screwdriver, size specified in your eMac manual. Otherwise you’ll be stewing. Trust me on this one. But once the trap door is open, memory insertion is not difficult.

VidLit

Thoughts on the website VidLit and interview with site creator Liz Dubelman.

To best view VidLit a broadband connection, and the latest version of Flash is recommended.

"Daddy, read me a story." When I was a little girl, the very best thing that could happen in my life was for my daddy to take me on his lap, open a Little Golden Book, and read a story to me. He was a master at giving voice to the different characters. I could follow the simple pictures in the accompanying book or close my eyes and let the tale, as daddy read it, create the pictures in my own mind’s eye.

The next thrill came when I realized I could read the words myself. A Tree Is Nice by Janet May Udry, (winner of the 1957 Caldecott Medal) was the first book I read all by myself. "I can read!" I told my daddy. Then I read the story to him. I was four-and-a-half years old. My little brain did not realize what consequence this bit of independence would bring; less time in the place of honor of my daddy’s lap. So daddy’s lap made way for my next younger sibling, then the next and the next, because now I could read all by myself.

Last week at work, taking a quick break between invoicing customers and returning phone calls, I clicked on Craziest, (3.5MB Flash) a link I found at one of the sites I check on a daily basis.

As the above page was loading I thought to myself, "Hello, what’s this?" I knew instinctively this was something different, something I’d not seen before on the now almost predictable internet. The notice at the bottom of the screen that was loading said Total Running Time: 8:06. "Ruthie!" I yelled to my office mate across the hall, "I’m going to be busy for the next eight minutes!" I closed my office door and turned up the sound. Liz Dubelman’s voice entered my life and through the magic of the internet and the creativity of a small group of people I’d never met, I felt like it was forty-six years earlier and I had climbed into the comfort of my daddy’s lap again.

The world turned off, the work turned off, and eight minutes stretched into forty-five as I perused the VidLit website before I reluctantly returned to work. I knew I had to tell as many people as I could about this place for several reasons that I couldn’t quite put my finger on right then. I sent the Craziest link to a friend in Salt Lake City who replied after viewing it, "I have a smile on my face now. What a great story… I don’t even care if it’s true or not. (I did half way through when the girl said she had over 1000 notebooks.) Thanks for the link. I needed something un-dull." Yes, that was it.

I needed something un-dull (and I don’t care if that is not a word. It fits.) I needed something beyond the pale, something that isn’t war or government deception or campaign smear tactics. Something that isn’t games or anime or cartoons. I needed this website, just like I needed to climb into my daddy’s lap so many years ago to have him read me a story.

I sent an email to Liz Dubelman, the inspiration behind the VidLit website. I restrained myself from asking, "Liz, would you read me ANOTHER story?" Instead I acted like the grown-up I wasn’t feeling much like at that particular moment and asked her if she would consent to an email interview about VidLit, explaining that I wanted to write about her site for MyMac.com. Liz graciously replied, "Thank you so much for your email. I would love to answer questions for a column or a blog or just because you want to know." I thank Liz for taking time from her schedule to answer the following questions.

MyMac: When and how did you come up with the concept for VidLit?
Dubelman: "I had this idea one day while listening to This American Life. I thought that word, sound and music are good but adding pictures could be better. I wanted to have it done in Flash because it’s vector-based (coordinates tell object where to go) rather than video because I needed to be able to distribute it and the Internet seemed perfect."

MyMac: How long did it take you to get the website going from then?
Dubelman: "It took us 6 weeks to get the site up."

MyMac: How long has VidLit been up and running as a website?
Dubelman: "We launched 9/13/04 although we put up a direct link to How I Paid For College by Marc Acito on 9/7/04 because the book was going on sale and the publisher, the very savvy Broadway Books, had asked us to do a VidLit for it."

MyMac: How long does it take to make a VidLit from start to website publication?
Dubelman: "It takes 2 weeks from the time the voice is recorded."

MyMac: Are you going to solicit stories for VidLit?
Dubelman: "Yes, we would like to take submission for not only from writers but, artists, musicians, sound designers, and Flash programmers. We would love to throw a selected group together (like making a film) and have them collaborate on something. We want to have an Intranet area for that type of collaboration and we can (lightly) oversee it. We’re working on a submissions page. I like the one on OneStory.com so you can check the status of your submission online. I want to copy that format where people can check the status of their submissions online."

MyMac: I once heard cartoonist Lynda Barry in an interview on our local PBS radio station. She coined the word "autobiofictionography", or embellished factual stories, for her character Marlys. Your story "Craziest" begs the question. Do you draw on personal experience when you are writing?
Dubelman: "I think I must have that women somewhere in me but I never shot anyone and I’m not a very good scrabble player. I do have a crazy aunt who is a tournament scrabble player. I’ve written a series of short stories about people who have gone a bit too far in their thinking for their own good. The next one of mine we’re doing, I think, is about a kleptomaniac."

MyMac: Who or what inspires you creatively?
Dubelman: "Everything. I carry a notebook with me everywhere."

MyMac: Eight minutes was just right for my attention span for the internet. Did you take time into consideration when formulating this concept?
Dubelman: "I thought "Craziest" was going to be 6 minutes but now I know that a double space 12-point type page is a 2-minute VidLit. I also know now 8 minutes is the limit of the attention span of the average Internet users."

MyMac: This question is for the gear heads in the audience. Can you tell us what software and hardware you use to make the VidLits?
Dubelman: Software Macromedia Flash MX Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Professional Adobe Photoshop CS Apple Final Cut Pro Digidesign ProTools Steinberg Cubase SX Ableton Live Hardware Apple Computers, 17" PowerBook, G4 and G5 Towers. PMC/Bryston Audio system Universal Audio UAD-1 Plug-ins Waves Plug-ins Virtual instruments from Arturia, G-Force, Korg, Native Instruments, Propellorhead, Spectrasonics, Steinberg

MyMac: What kind of feedback are you getting? Are you ready for fame, fortune and high-bandwidth costs?
Dubelman: "We are so ready for fame and fortune! We’ve had Total Visits: 36953, and about 100 pieces of fan mail. All the email has been great except one that said, "YOU ARE RETARDED!" I deleted that one. I have the use of a free server for the moment. I dear friend of mine, with server space, is getting married and I’m catering his wedding as a thank you for the server space."

MyMac: How many people are involved in VidLit? Is there anything special that drew you together as a group to make the VidLit stories and website?
Dubelman: "Right now it’s just Paca Thomas and me. He’s an award-winning sound designer. I wanted him to teach me how to record the sound. My brother and sister-in-law had left me all this sound recording equipment when they sold their apartment, bought an RV and went on the road with their band. Paca had a better idea. He got VidLit right away (although at the time I was calling it Apparent Fiction) and fueled with enthusiasm he said he could take my script and bring the whole thing to fruition."

MyMac: Do you and Paca have ‘real’ jobs? Or is VidLit your primary focus right now?
Dubelman: "VidLit is my primary focus right now (well, that and raising my daughter). Paca has a real job but he would love to just do this fulltime."

MyMac: What is in the wings for VidLit?
Dubelman: "We’re doing a joint project with WGBH. We’re VidLiting a poem that originally aired on Morning Stories. Also, we produced a radio story for them that will air on NPR but is not a VidLit. We’re doing another VidLIt for Broadway Books for an author, Betrice Berry. And I’m doing another one of my stories called: Missing Ingredient."

MyMac: What is your long range goal for VidLit?
Dubelman: "We want to have kiosks in bookstores and coffee houses."

MyMac: Any other comments, something you would like to say about VidLit that I didn’t think to ask?
Dubelman: "We’re also working on KidVidLits. We’re VidLiting the first chapter of kids’ chapter books in an effort to get them interested enough to read the book."

Thanks to Liz Dubelman and her very creative and inspiring website VidLit. The only downside I see to this website is the broadband requirement, which limits those on dial-up accounts. Over the past five years I’ve ended many a column with the sentence, "Isn’t the ‘net cool?" Liz Dubelman’s vision to bring together individuals of various disciplines from all over the world to create VidLits is one of the most exciting concepts I’ve heard in a long time, and I wish her and future VidLitters much success in their endeavors. Isn’t the ‘net getting cooler?

In May of 1997, Apple Computer Inc. released a dream machine, the 20th Anniversary Macintosh. The name, however, was a bit of a misnomer. 1997 was not a celebration of twenty years of the Macintosh, but rather the twenty-year anniversary of Apple Computers. Apple was formed in 1977, and to celebrate, Apple released a machine with a machine with a $7,500 price tag. Ouch!

The machine, while impressive for its day, is not even capable of running Mac OS X today. However, it still holds a special place for true Mac aficionados, including this writer! (On a side note, I have been chasing them on eBay for the past two years, trying to pick up a working model on the cheap. So far, no such luck.)

What did the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh (TAM from here on out) sport that made it so noteworthy? First, it was an all-in-one machine built around a 250Mhz 603e PPC Motorola microprocessor, and a 12.1” LCD flat screen monitor, typically found in the PowerBooks of the day. What’s more, it shipped with a great sounding speaker system (two speakers and a bass unit) made specifically for Apple from Bose.

The real twenty-year anniversary of the Macintosh, however, came this year, 2004. The original Mac (now known as the 128k Mac, of which I actually own two! Anyone with a TAM wanna trade?) was released in 1984. There was no special edition Macintosh created to celebrate the passage of this monumental achievement. Or was there?

I don’t think it any real surprise that the all-new, all-in-one iMac was released in 2004. Hailed as a first of its kind, the all-in-one iMac sports a complete computer system built around a G5 IBM microprocessor, with a flat-panel 17” or 20” screen.

The similarities of the new iMac and the 1997 TAM are surprisingly overlooked by most tech writers, so let’s take a look at these two systems, side by side, and see if we can glean any significance therein.

First, Apple made great strides to create a form-factor that had a very small footprint on your desktop.

As you can see in this picture, the keyboard on the TAM is actually more like a PowerBook keyboard, with a trackpad and all. In fact, it would probably be fair to say that the TAM is a PowerBook standing up, but with the guts of the fastest PowerMac of its day. It also sported a TV Tuner, meaning you could watch your favorite television show on your TAM,

The iMac G5, on the other hand, takes even less space on the desktop, with only its metal stand touching. The iMac keyboard is a standard Apple OEM, the same that ships with the PowerMac G5.

This side by side comparison shows just how similar the TAM and iMac G5 really are, and yet how different. On both units, there is a lot of plastic real estate underneath the screen. On the iMac that is where much of the actual computer is located, while on the TAM that space is given over to the CD-ROM and control buttons. Note how there are NO buttons visible on the front of the iMac. Even the power button is located on the back of the iMac. There are also no headphone jack, USB port, or any other features on the front of the iMac. Everything is in back. The TAM has all the cables running behind it as well.

Apple has taken great steps to eliminate a CD-ROM drawer on the new iMac, opting for the same type of solution found on their portable line of computers. With the iMac, you simply slide the CD (or DVD) into the side-mounted slot on the right side of the unit. Without actually having seen one yet up close and personal, I would imagine that this would be a pain. Once you’ve gotten used to the placement, it should be no problem. But for the first few months, every time you need to insert a disc, you’ll have to peek around the side of the machine to get it lined up and inserted.

I much rather prefer the more futuristic and high-tech look the TAM sports. A tray simply folds down, and you pop your CD right in. A very elegant arrangement, in my opinion.

It would really be unfair to compare technical specifications between a brand-new iMac and a seven-year-old PowerMac. They are simply too far apart tech-wise to do so. Technology has advanced so much in the past seven years, from ports (USB, FireWire, etc…) to processors, to operating systems.

It is worth pointing out, however, just how much more real screen space you get on the new wide-screen format monitors. Hopefully, the days of square monitor screens are over!

All in all, I think that the new iMac G5, bearing a similar form factor to the TAM, could easily be called REAL 20th Anniversary Macintosh. My only wish is that it came in black, silver, or brushed metal!

It takes a lot of get our Editor, Russ Walkowich, fired up. Back in October of 1996, Apple managed to do just that! The word had come down: it seemed Apple was leaving the pre-Power PC Macs behind, unsupported! And guess who was none-too-happy about it? Read it here!

The first Apple iTunes Music Store opened in
April 2003 and only serviced the United States,
but was followed in June 2004 by three European
stores, one each for France, Germany, and the United
Kingdom. The iTunes Music Store catalogue has grown
from 200,000 songs to one with over a million, primarily
because music publishers have learned to trust the
safeguards Apple has created to prevent widespread
copying of music bought from the iTunes Music Store,
protecting their copyright and expanding their sources
of income. According to Apple, the iTunes Music
Store commands a 70%
share of the legal music download
market.
This places it far ahead of similar services
offered by companies such as Real and Napster. No
small part of Apple’s success with the iTunes
Music Store has been its integration with the easy
to use iTunes music playing software and the best-selling
iPod MP3 player, by far the best device of its type
on the market.

But there is a fly in the ointment: the three
European iTunes Music Stores don’t all sell
the same songs at the same price. At the French
and German stores, each song costs €0.99,
while the British music store sells the same songs
for £0.79. Okay, the numbers looks the same,
but the units are different, and there’s the
rub: in American terms, the French and German price
is $1.19, while the British price is $1.40. Why
is this a big deal? Because Apple have used technology
that locks British purchasers from using the French
and German stores, something that contravenes a
basic principle of a common European market.

The European Common Market

Most Americans have no idea what the European
Union is and still largely think of Europe as a
continent made up of lots of little countries. Put
at its simplest level, the European Union binds
together the member nations into something approaching
a single, federal state. One of the core attributes
of the European Union is that it should behave as
a single market as far as its citizens are concerned.
This ‘common market’ evolved during
the late 1960s and has steadily become more accessible
with the introduction of cheaper transportation,
better communications, electronic banking, and above
all the Internet.

Naturally this doesn’t matter for many things,
like grocery shopping, which are usually done near
home, wherever that might be. But for things that
are expensive in one place, the savings made by
buying outside your immediate area can easily offset
the expense of a trip to another European Member
state. Where you live doesn’t matter, and
nor does where you bank account is. If you have
a credit card, you can use it to make purchases
in Pounds or Euros without any fuss, and it is easy
enough to make a banker’s draught in whatever
currency you want if you prefer to pay that way.

The classic example of this is cars, which can
vary by thousands of dollars from one country to
the next. Volkswagen has
recently been fined €90 million for preventing
Germans and Austrians from buying cars from countries
like Italy where prices are lower. The result of
legal action like this has been a persistent convergence
in car prices, especially in the ‘Euro Zone’,
that part of the European Union that uses the Euro.
It is now common for people to buy cars, wine, food,
even homes, in one country even if they live or
work in another.

The UK iTunes Music Store

This brings us to the UK iTunes Music Store, which
charges significantly more than the other two European
Union iTunes Music Stores. Apple justify this by
saying that the "underlying economic model
in each country has an impact on how we price our
track downloads ” according to the BBC.
What this means is that Apple charges what they
think the market will bear.

The question is whether Apple is allowed to do
this. European Union regulations are hideously complex,
but the Consumers Association, the leading British
consumers’ pressure group, believe that Apple
is breaking European Union law here. They say that
Apple needs
to equalize prices between the three
European iTunes Music Stores.
The basic gist of their argument is that while Apple
are free to charge what they want for their songs
in the UK, under European Union law they cannot
prevent British shoppers from going to France or
Germany to buy those songs if they want to. But
that is exactly what they have done. Apple has created
a system that prevents British consumers from purchasing
songs from the French and German iTunes Music Stores
because they need to be resident in that country
and have a credit card issued to you there. However
you look at it, this goes against the spirit of
the European Union as a single common market.

Why Did They Do This?

Greed may be part of it, but since Apple barely
makes a profit on the iTunes Music Stores, but rather
uses it to sell iPods,
there has to be more to it than that. They may simply
be ignorant of the dynamics of the European Union
and the single market, though that seems unlikely.
In fact, it is much more probably the blame isn’t
to be found at Cupertino, but in the offices of
the music publishers.

About two-thirds of the cost of each download
goes straight to the music publisher, and they unquestionably
have the most to gain from charging the British
consumers more than their neighbours in France and
Germany. Their track record is pretty poor in this
regard, with the prices of DVDs and CDs being significantly
higher in the UK than in continental Europe. Partly,
this is complicated by the fact that distribution
rights for individual artists vary from one country
to another, even within the European Union (though
how long this chaotic state of affairs can last
can be debated). But the UK is also an intrinsically
expensive country to live in, and so it is much
easier for the record companies to hike up the prices
on CDs and DVDs, which are fundamentally inexpensive
items, and hope to get away with it. In Britain
this phenomenon even has a name, the “rip-off
Britain”.

What Happens Next?

The Consumers Association have made their appeal
to the Office of Fair Trading, the branch of the
British government that oversees commerce, and in
due course pronouncement will be made. If they deem
Apple to have a case to answer, then this could
lead to a comparable legal tussle similar to that
mentioned earlier with Volkswagen. If Apple loses,
then the prices will have to come down, if not,
then British consumers will have to put up or shut
up.

If Apple does get away with this, it could easily
work out to be a Pyrrhic victory. The iTunes Music
Store does have competitors, and if they lower their
prices sufficiently, these could easily out-compete
Apple. The UK is not an Apple stronghold, and enjoys
a Mac-using market share significantly smaller than
that in the US. For example, while Apple dominates
the school and university market in America, it
is very weak in comparable markets in the UK. The
reason for this is price: Apple computers are significantly
more expensive in the UK than in the US, and cash
strapped schools tend to buy with a view to keeping
costs down rather than ease of use. Take the new
G5 iMac, which costs around $1400 dollars including
sales tax in the US, but nearer $1700 including
VAT in the UK. (Oddly, some of these machines are
actually assembled in Europe, so import duties aren’t
fully to blame here.)

It wouldn’t take much for Apple to wind
up in a similar situation with the iTunes Music
Store. Once the novelty has worn off, and lower
cost alternatives become better developed, then
there is no reason to expect the very largely Windows-using
British public to choose those services rather than
Apple’s. This would be a terrible shame if,
as I suspect, it is the music publishers and not
Apple who are really to blame. While Steve Jobs
sometimes seems to have learned how to ride the
music industry tiger, British consumers may be right
to wonder where that tiger is carrying him off to.

It has been years since I last wrote about Shareware here at MyMac.com. That is unfortunate, because one of the main reasons I started MyMac almost a decade ago was to inform people about Shareware programs worth downloading. Of course, things change, and I don’t download very much Shareware (or Freeware, the more cost effective cousin to Shareware) any longer, but there are a few programs out there I have downloaded and paid for which I think you may enjoy.

First up, iTunesCool. This is an AppleScript for (duh!) iTunes. What does it do? It will retrieve cover art (artwork) of your iTunes music for you from the internet. It will also export said artwork, delete artwork, and export your iTunes library to HTML. It works well, costs a whopping $6.00 (Which you can pay via PayPal, which I love to use for this type of purpose) and is updated often enough to quash the occasional bug. You can download and try it by visiting iTunesCool creator Sandme Studio at http://www.sandme.info

The next Shareware program has been around forever, but I still find users who have a need to open graphics but do not know about this program. Hard to believe, yes, but there are always new Mac users, and others who simply overlooked this gem.

The program is Graphic Converter by Lemke Software GMBH. How long have I been using this software? Well, I was writing about it as far back as 1996, using it before then, and the program has followed me to each and every computer I have used thereafter.

Graphic Converter will allow you to open and convert about 175 graphic formats. Folks, Adobe Photoshop cannot do that! It does slideshows, batch conversions, has a built-in file browser, image manipulation, import and export, and so much more I could spend the next ten pages writing about it.

This program almost does it all. Moreover, it is updated almost as quickly as the season’s change, so you can bet it is stable and robust. And best of all, it is only $30.00! Check out http://www.lemkesoft.de/en/ for more information and to download and try it out.

Lastly, I have found a handy utility that allows me to record video from my iSight and use the resulting video (with audio!) in iMovie. The (FREE!) utility program is called GCam, from MacMice.com. It is a very simple to use program. You can start, pause, and stop recording video from your iSight or other Firewire enabled digital camcorder. I found this a neat (FREE!) utility that I have used on a number of occasions. If you have the need, take a look at GCam at http://www.macmice.com/gcam.html! Did I mention that it is free?

If you have any Shareware (or Freeware) programs you think I should take a look at, please email me or leave some comments below. Hopefully, I can keep up writing a Shareware feature as time goes on. If enough people contribute, I will include your emails and suggestions in future articles.

Is That Toast Burning?
Toast Titanium 6 With JAM.
Company: Roxio
(Winner of the 2004 Macworld Best of Show awards)
Price: $169.95 retail
Upgrade from Toast 6 Titanium: $89.95
JAM 6 Only: $89.95

Years ago, if you said Macintosh and Toast in the same breath, I would think of Berkeley Systems Flying Toasters screen savers.

Today, when I hear someone say Toast, I think of only one product, Toast Titanium from Roxio. And if you into creating CD’s and DVD’s, you need Toast with JAM, an improvement over an already great product.

I have been a long time Toast user and continue to use Toast 6 now on my 17” PowerBook with its built in CD/DVD burner. Toast 6 (w/ Jam, which I will cover below), continues Roxio’s improvements from version 5, with improved interface design, better video capabilities, and a new network feature allowing one to burn a project from a computer without a disc burner on a system that has one over the net. I originally thought this was a stupid feature, but when I needed to burn files from an old G3 tower to a DVD, I was amazed at just how well this idea works. And it works a whole lot better than the built in burning either in the Finder or iTunes.

Toast 6 Titanium:

VIDEO

Toast 6 adds much easier burning for video over previous versions. With the inclusion of an MPEG-2 video/audio encoder, in addition to VideoCD (VCD) which Toast 5 could do, you can now also burn Super Video CD (SVCD) and DVDs. If QuickTime can play the video, you can have Toast convert (trasncode) it into MPEG-2 and burn it to one of several format discs. Toast even includes a way to add a menu driven user interface to these discs, making them much more “consumer player” friendly as well, especially if you have multiple videos on one disc.

Also note that a new update on the Roxio web site now supports multiple layer format discs, so menus might be even more important given the new capacity of almost 9 GB!

My only complaint with creating DVD video is just how long it actually takes to do this encoding. Unless you have a dual G5, you will need to start your encoding project and go away for several hours or more to encode, NOT counting the additional time needed to actually burn and verify the disc. Especially missing here was an indicator of how much time remaining there was in this process.

I would also like to see better DVD menu capabilities. In addition to Toast, I occasionally use Nero on the PC. I would love to see Toast add features similar to Nero’s DVD creation abilities, including the ability to add video buttons and backgrounds in the disc’s menus.

I was also disappointed that I did not have better control over the video encoding quality, being limited to only two settings. I was also disappointed that the actual encoding rates being used are not displayed anywhere, since this is such basic stuff.

For those looking for a way to get video off their DV camcorder and onto a DVD or CD, Toast 6 now includes a direct to disc feature called Play & Burn. Plug in your camera via a firewire connection, and transfer your video directly to any format disc that Toast and your burner support. I have stacks of DV tapes from vacations and such, and this was a great way to free up the tapes without having to sit in front of the editor for a long time. Now, of course, I have a stack of DVDs, but they are smaller and cheaper!

AUDIO

Not much as really changed in the audio area, and one can still make Audio CDs and MP-3 discs. You can now also make a “mixed mode CD” as well.

The audio capabilities allow a user selectable delay between tracks, and Toast displays the track time and total time used as you add files to the disc.

CD Spin Doctor 2 is an updated version of an included application to allow you to digitize your analog music (tapes, records, etc.) It reduces analog nose such as pops and clicks, and includes some filters to enhance the sound.

Toast 6 also includes a Universal Audio Converter that lets you create audio CDs from a number of different sources, including WAV, AIFF, MP-3, ACC, or any iTunes track.

But if you are really into some great audio features, you need to add JAM. See below.

BUTTER MELTING INTERFACE

Toast 6 has improved their interface with some new features, including a more Macintosh like tab interface system for the 4 basic functions: Data, Audio, Video, and Copy. Gone is the “Other” category from version 5, which was basically the video tab anyway. Drag and drop is still supported well, so burning is really as easy as dragging your files into toast and pressing burn.

Choosing between a DVD or CD as the target has also become easier. Simply click on the small button above the record button to toggle between the two choices. A small button above and to the left of the file list pops open a slider drawer along the left window edge with BASIC and ADVANCED options for the current selected setting. A small question mark at the top right brings up help if you get confused. (If you are really confused, the 100+ page “Getting Started” guide is a great aid to understanding this program.) Lastly, at the bottom is a LARGE record/abort button surrounded along the top left by a visual indicator of how much space is used on the disc. To the left of this is an indication of the drive currently selected.

I also really like the small button to the right of the drive name. If you have multiple drives, or if your drive was disconnected (like a firewire drive) simply click this to rescan or select another drive. This is also the place you would select a network drive. Note that these options are also available after you press burn, in the first dialog that pops up.

However, I have a number of complaints on this new interface as well. For one, Roxio is inconsistent with the use of buttons and controls. While most of the buttons and controls respond and highlight when you roll over them, some do not, and many highlight differently. It is also not obvious you are supposed to click some of them. The DVD/CD switch button is a prime example of a button that does not respond like the other in the window, so switching from a DVD to a CD was not so obvious. This button should highlight like the others when you cross it. And the recorder selector is the only green button, while most others are blue.

Also, the new indicator that displays the used and free space on the disc I also find mostly useless. Unlike older versions, which had a long bar that turned red to clearly indicated you were over the maximum for that disc, this one simply goes to the full point and stops changing, regardless of the number of files you continue to add. You do not know you have gone over the limit or really by how much with this indicator. At the least, this bar should turn red when you go over the capacity of the target disc. Also missing from that display is the amount of space you have filled on the disc, which use to be right next to the bar indicator in previous versions. This info is still available, but has moved into the file window where you add files, so it was not so obvious at first. I would like to see them bring back the old indicator style as it told you a lot more info all in one place. And it must have been good, Nero copied it into their program!

Lastly, while a large RED record button is OK for starting the burning process, turning the button blue while the burning is in process did not make sense to me. Especially because pressing it aborts the current burn. Somehow, pressing a blue button should not do something that can ruin your data, especially since many of the other controls are blue in their normal state as well.

Lastly, this version is badly missing progress indicators. Since many things can take a long time, especially encoding and burning DVDs, an indicator of progress AND time remaining in that process would be great additions. Strangely enough, on occasion, the time remaining does appear, but I am not sure why and when. Unfortunately, this time remaining indicator is often way off the real time. For example, when trying to burn a 4X DVD the other day, it told me 12:42 (12 minutes, 42 seconds) to burn remained. 5 minutes later it said 10:57. I was expecting to see the seconds indicator count down by seconds. They did count down, but very slowly. I can only assume my disk was not burning at 4X, but the program should have noted this and adjusted the time remaining just like the Finder does on a file copy.

DATA

Toast 6 adds some interesting data features as well, including the ability to “Toast-It” from the Desktop. As part of the contextual menus in the finder, you can now select an item and burn it directly to disc without any “pre-flight” steps in Toast. Personally, I am not sure I would ever use this feature, and often selecting it did nothing for too many different reasons. And when it does not work, it does not tell you why, it simply does nothing.

Data features also include 128-bit encryption and password protection, and compression to gain 50% more space on the target disc (the claim.) In my tests, compressing data files, which included no audio or video got nowhere near 50% comression.

Toast also includes a program called Deja-Vu, which will automate Toast 6 Titanium to backup your data, and can even use the built in security to protect that data on the backup.

PHOTOS

Toast 6 also includes features for supporting photo discs. With a small application called “Motion Pictures”, you can turn your still photos into a media display with pan, zoom, cross fades, and soundtracks, much like iPhoto displays them, but now on a DVD or CD. In fact, there is support to drag photos directly from iPhoto into Toast and create VCD, SVCD, or DVDs of slide show photos.

BURNT TOAST

For creating discs, Toast continues to support a wide range of CD and DVD burners, both internal and external, including USB and Firewire models. (I wanted to test support for a SCSI drive, but my SCSI card stopped working.) With “ToastAnywhere”, Toast will use Rendezvous to discover burners on shared machines on the local network, or you can even burn to an external IP address where you may know a shared drive lives. One word of caution here: Given that Toast needs to move a lot of data without delay to burn a disc successfully, trying to burn across a wireless network, or even across the internet may be less than successful most of the time. If the data is late, the burning disc becomes a coaster. This feature is best kept to wired, local connections to avoid problems. Besides, who is going to install the next blank disc for you if you try to burn at home from the office?

PUT SOME JAM ON THAT TOAST!

So if Toast does all this, why do I need Jam?

If you are into making music CDs, or adding music to your videos, Jam offers additional features above what Toast can do. JAM adds 4 components that basically turn Toast into a powerful production, creation burner suite of tools.

First off, JAM 6 allows you to create “DJ-style” mixes and professional quality CD masters. And with JAM, you can burn directly without using Toast.

JAM adds native support for very high quality files, up to 192 kHz at 64 bit audio. JAM also adds the ability to do enhanced cross fades as well, with individual fades in and out, and the ability to adjust the gain of each track separately. In addition, you can auto-normalize the gain, trim track data, insert, edit, or delete index points, enter sub-code info, and print track sheets.

With Jam, you can also create DVD’s with Dolby Digital Sound. You can also fit over 2 hours of video on a DVD without a serious reduction in quality, and get frame accurate audio synchronization.

Jam also lets you create even better music DVDs, which are playable on standard DVD players. This is NOT DVD-Audio disc, which would require a special player, but rather a standard DVD that should play on almost any player. Imagine a DVD with over 36 hours of music on it. Forget hooking up you iPOD to your stereo, simply take your iTunes music library into JAM and create a 36 hour-long music DVD. But even better than using an iPod, JAM creates on the DVD on-screen menus so that navigating all the songs on that DVD is simple and easy. Even more cool, if you put all the track info (tags) into iTunes, and you have also added album cover art for your music, JAM will create a DVD that will display both the art and track info on the TV screen while the DVD plays the music. Get that from an iPOD!

JAM also includes Peak Express 4 software, the same product included in Apple’s FinalCut Pro to edit and enhance music files and sound tracks into home videos.

THE BOTTOM LINE

This is one of the most feature packed CD/DVD burning software available anywhere. While it still has a few improvements it could use, what software does not. And not one of these “problems” makes this program unusable in anyway, just occasionally annoying, which one can easily learn to ignore. If you have a CD or a DVD burner on your Mac, you need to own Toast. And if you want the coolest audio features seen anywhere on any machine for a CD or DVD burner, Toast with JAM is a must.

MyMac rating: a SOLID 5 out of 5. I would not be without it on my machine.

9/11/2001 Retrospect: Another Day, and Another Day, and Another Day in Paradise

Tim’s story of 9/11 made me recall my days around that time as well. Given that we are all remembering that day, I would like to tell of my experience of the time around 9/11, a not so ordinary tale. And mine was very different from Tim’s, because I did not know of the disaster until LONG after it happened, and then it effected my wife and I in a number of strange ways for many days…

My wife and I were in Maui, Hawaii on vacation the week leading up to 9/11/2001. We were scheduled to fly out the afternoon of the 11th on a United flight back to San Francisco. Being on vacation, we did not turn on the TV set or listen to the radio the whole time we were there. It was Hawaii after all, and we did things outside.

After waking up late on the morning of the 11th and eating breakfast by the ocean, we were finally outside and on the beach by 10 AM Hawaii time for a morning walk. Something was not quite right that morning, but I could not put my finger on it. There were definitely less people on the beach than usual. I also did notice a strange calm and quiet in the air. The condo we rented in Kehei, Maui (or is it Kihei?) was right on the beech, quite a ways away from the big hotels (on purpose), but was in the path of planes landing or taking off at Maui airport. And I did, mostly subconsciously, noticed a lack of planes while we walked, and also a lack of tourist helicopters and small planes too. It was strange, but nothing that alarmed me, I chalked it up to the time of day and nothing else. After all, I was very relaxed after 10 days in Hawaii, who cares if the planed took a break?

We finally went inside, cleaned up the condo and ourselves, packed our bags, and headed out the door for the airport, now about 1 PM. As we were taking our luggage to the car, someone stopped us and asked us where we were going?

“To the airport, we have a 4 PM flight to SF today. We are going home,” we answered.

“I think not,” was the solemn answer, nothing more. After a strange silence on both parts, we asked him what he meant by this.

“Maybe you should take your bags back into the condo and turn on the TV. I do not think you will be leaving for a while,” he commented as he walked away. I recall the strange pit in my stomach as he told me this, and the quiet in the air came crashing back to me. Something is seriously wrong here!

“Have you noticed that nothing has been flying all morning?” I said to my wife. “No jets, no helicopters, no small planes, nothing! It is also very quiet on the beach today too.” I suspected that maybe we were in for a very bad tropical storm like the one that leveled several large hotels in years past. My mind was racing, but I had no clue what to expect.

We went back to the condo and turned on the TV. The replays of the planes hitting the building over and over were all that they were showing. I believe we stared at the screen in shock for a good 30 minutes before either of us moved. I finally grabbed the phone and called United. Busy! I tried every 5 minutes for the next few hours, busy! That has never happened!

Connecting my computer and going to United’s web site, it simply said, “All flights canceled.” We continued to try and call United for some time, and finally got into the holding cue. Well, now we wait. And wait we did, well over an hour for a real person to take the call.

This is when it hits you: Unlike being in some other part of the mainland US where a bus, car, truck or train could eventually get you home, we were stuck on a very small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with NO way home. The island suddenly became very small! This is also when you mind starts to worry about the strangest things like, what will we do for food since it is mostly all flown in? The island got even smaller.

Finally I got through to United. Did I mention that my wife and I flew to Hawaii on free “mileage award” tickets? The woman at United said that everything today and tomorrow was canceled, but there were two “award seats” left on Thursday’s flight, and booked us. We were also instructed to call back Thursday morning. “Excuse me. What do you mean “award seats?” She reminded us that we flew in on an award ticket, so we had to fly out on the same ticket in an available aware seat, and with all the flight shuffling going on, we were told we might not be able to get an “award seat” out of Maui for at least two to three weeks!!! Suffice it to say, I panicked, and lost it at the same time! After 30 minutes of arguing, we were told we could purchase tickets, which at last minute prices were well over $2000 per ticket per person one way!!! Now I really lost it. Many supervisors later, and after being reminded by everyone I talked to that United lost people today and I should be more understanding, I was told that “… they would make this work for us and please call back Thursday morning” and then they hung up. If you thought I was stressed before, imagine how I felt now. But wait, more issues to solve…

We then called the Condo manager to tell him we would not be leaving as planned. We were told, “yes, you will!” When I asked why, he told me that another party was “…flying in today to rent it for 2 weeks.” Hello? When I reminded him that no planes would be arriving for some time, he finally agreed to let us stay if we paid full price. We discovered later that day that most hotels were offering ? price on all rooms for stuck people. We called back and asked for half price on the condo and the man just laughed! A real patriot that person, but, we at least had our room secured. As for the car, the rental people cut us a deal to keep it as long as necessary, since they did not need it anyway. That was cool.

The next day, Wednesday, we were so in shock we could hardly tear ourselves away from the TV. Besides grocery shopping, we did very little. We decided to go see a movie that evening to get our minds off the horror on TV, and Rat Race was playing near-by. We hoped something funny would occupy our minds, but alas we were one of only 6 people in the theatre that evening, a sad reminder of the recent events. And the restaurant we went to after that was empty too, and that was very strange for Hawaii!

Thursday morning, we called United. Sorry, all flights were still grounded, so we were again canceled. They booked us again on a Friday afternoon flight; “…call tomorrow morning”, they told us.

OK, now by this point, many of you are saying, “Oh, poor babies, stuck in Hawaii, how sad for you!” in that sappy, sarcastic way one might expect from someone not stuck in Hawaii. Well, it was actually a sad place to be. First off, we, like many others, were at or near the end of our holiday time, and had spent all the money we budgeted for this trip already. Staying more days just meant spending more money we did not account for, and Hawaii is not cheap. Those who arrived recently started budgeting money early, not knowing how long they would have to stay. Many shops closed early or completely, as very few tourists “stuck” on the island were buying anything they did not really need, again not knowing how long they would be here. We also were running out of prescription medications, as we only brought enough for 12 days. I am asthmatic, and that was NOT an option for me (I now carry an extra 2 weeks when I travel!) And even though there was a drug store of the same chain where we buy our meds, Hawaii does not allow refills from another state, and will not accept a phone prescription from out of state either. The pharmacists suggested we have our doctor FedEx us a new prescription, then fell silent when he realized that FedEx would not work right now. Lucky for us, we found a way to make this work after many calls to doctors and supervisors, but this too just added to the stress, and as you can imagine, was also very expensive since our insurance did not cover “extra” medication as it had not been 30 days since we refilled last time. (Did I mention that I HATE insurance companies?) And lastly, as I said, there was no way off the island without a plane. One cruise ship, leaving in about 3 months was an alternative, but at nearly $10,000 a person…OK, there was no way off the island without a plane! At this time, we felt very stuck, in a rather expensive place, with no way at all to go home. Believe me, it was not such a paradise when you know you cannot leave, and the island seems rather small when there is no place else to go. I fully understand “island fever” and how it can happen. So much for 10 days relaxing in Hawaii removing all our stress! We had stress!

Thursday we decided to turn off the TV and try and enjoy the island, since we were stuck here. We went to the hotel next door, which looked like a ghost town, and rented sea kayaks. “How many people are out today?” I asked. “You are the ONLY people to do this today”, the person told us. For our 1-hour rental, we were given 4 hours. That was at least fun, even if we were alone in the water! Hawaii had basically shut down. Stores were closed, tourist attractions shut, and people were basically depressed, staying in their rooms or at home watching the TV. This was not a fun place to be stuck at this time, but we made the best of it.

Friday morning we were once again told we were canceled, and booked now on a Sunday afternoon, the first available flight now. Oh well, we have two more days now; lets try and have fun. So, we took the car and spent them touring places on the island we had never seen before, and did all we could do to keep our minds busy and off the issues. It was not easy. I called my office and they laughed at me being “stuck” in Hawaii, and of course gave me a bad time about it. Turns out my boss was stuck in Japan, so I felt lucky all of a sudden! They were cool about it, and gave me “paid time off”, so that helped greatly with the stress level.

Come Sunday morning, I call United again. Our flight is confirmed, and we should be able to fly as planes are going to be allowed to fly out of Hawaii today. But the woman on the phone is asking us to NOT take the flight. Seems they can only get us to LA and not SF, and we would arrive in LA to late in the day for a flight to the Bay Area. And, it seems, LA airport has a 4-hour check in procedure that they were trying to help us avoid. In addition, United could not find us a room or car in LA, and we would not be allowed to stay in the airport, so they said this was a bad thing for us! So now we have to decide, stay in Hawaii and hope to catch a later plane soon, or at least get to the west coast and worry about what to do when we get there. Could this get any more stressful?

About 10 minutes later we received a call back from United (that surprised me as well! and were offered a Sunday night flight, arriving LA Monday morning at 6 AM, plenty of time to find “a flight” to the SF Bay Area they said. We took it. Check in at the airport was a two to three hour ordeal, and we were told we were getting on one of the first 5 commercial planes to fly that day, the first day that flights started leaving Hawaii! Ok, now the stress is back! Strangely enough though, the ordeal was getting through the ticket line, not security. Seems Hawaii ALWAYS x-rays all luggage anyway to stop people from taking fruit out of the state, so looking for “other” things in the baggage was trivial for them. Hawaii also has two screening areas you must pass through, so their security was considered very good for the time.

Well, to make a long story longer, the flight from Maui to LA was flawless, but packed, not an empty seat on the plane. We were thanked over and over by pilot and crew for trusting United to fly us safely home, and heard many times how they had lost crew and friends as well. Many, like us, were happy to finally be heading home almost week after being “stranded” in Hawaii. I slept, something I never seem to be able to do on planes.

We arrived in LA around 6 AM to an almost empty airport, which was strange. First or second flying day after 9/11, I would expect the place to be packed. We walked the “few blocks” to our scheduled connecting flight, a United Shuttle to San Francisco, and there was nobody waiting. Strange again. After 30 minutes, we boarded with maybe 10 to 15 others. Even more strange. The flight left almost immediately with all of about 20 people on board, and again they thanked us over and over for trusting them and flying United. With so many people stuck all over the country, I was amazed that this flight had only 12 people on it. Obviously people did not trust flying, and it was obvious here. Yet, it was a fast, uneventful flight, and we were finally home. What amazed me most about the plane trip was that flying on one of the first day possible days after the disaster was easier than flying today! That I do not get that.

Long and short of it, we were happy to finally be home and “safe”, almost a week late, but home at last. But every September 11th, I not only recall the terrible tragedy that occurred, but I recall being stuck on a small island in the Pacific for a week, and realize just how much worse things could have been had the disaster been more wide spread. As a country, we were lucky it was not worse.

It was a sad day; one we will all remember as our parents’ generation remembers Pearl Harbor. I often wonder if the world will ever return to “normal”, what ever that may be now, or have we just seen the tip of the iceberg? My wife and I talk about going back to Hawaii again later this year, first time since the event. And yes, it does cause us both to stop and think about the last trip, and wonder just how much extra “stuff” we will both pack this time!

Of the many mental pictures that remain of the vicious attack on the World Trade Center, one has stood out for me. It was of a young woman, six months pregnant, who was desperately searching for her husband with a wedding photo. His office was located on the upper floors of the South Tower. The personal tragedy that these innocent victims experienced and the strength and moral courage they exhibited will stay with me always.

Read the full article here.

My day 9/11/01

It was three years ago, and I was an Information Technology Manager for a good company. My wife, Julie, was also working there at the time, as she was between jobs and had agreed to help out the company by filling in for the pregnant receptionist.

Four or five of us went outside for a smoke break in the morning. At this point, it was just like every other day, nothing remarkable. As was the custom, we either bitched about our jobs while hitting the cancer sticks, or making jokes about other people. Occasionally, we would get into politics, but I don’t remember now what the topic of conversation was that morning.

After riding the elevator back up to our floor to get back to work, reeking of cigarettes I am sure, another co-worker, Stan, approached me and asked if I could watch news on one of the many computers in my large cubicle. Sure, I said, no problem. QuickTime had video channels built-in, one of which was live BBC. I asked him why, and he said, “My wife just called, said there was an accident, and some plane had crashed into the World Trade Center.”

So it was in my office, with ten people clustered around my desk, that we watched the burning building pour smoke over the New York skyline. At this point, only one plane had hit, and the announcers were speaking as if it were an accident. I remember saying that there was no way a small Cessna aircraft could have caused that much damage, and that it could only have been a large 747-type of plane. The BBC news people did not have any answers yet, but the drama was contagious.

Then we all watched as the second plane hit, and we knew. This was no accident; this was an act of war. This was a terrorist strike.

We quickly set up the television up front, by the front door, so we all had a better view. The only channel we could get via the antenna was the local ABC affiliate, which by now was live on the air, the horrible events of the day unfolding before us. It was not long before every one in the office was standing there, watching the television. No work was being done.

It was hypnotic, and everyone was glued to the images. Someone decided they needed another smoke, so a few of us moved away from the burning images on the television to get a quick nicotine fix and try to make sense of what was going on.

On the elevator coming back up, we learned that the Pentagon had also been hit, as well as a rumor that the Department of Justice in Washington was also on fire.

Back in front of the television, the events unfolded, as it did for everyone in America, and the world, that day.

I remember someone saying how strong those buildings must be to have stood up to an aircraft. I was thinking along the line of how the would repair those buildings, what an enormous task it would be. I remember wondering how the NY Fire Department could possibly put out the fires that high up, and how the people in the top floors had to be trapped there. How long would they be trapped? Would they evacuate via helicopter? And was that a person, the shape that just jumped out one of the top windows? Oh my god! How bad must it be for people to jump from that height, certain death? What must it be like up there? And how could it get any worse?

Then the first of the buildings fell, to the stunned silence of all my co-workers. Silence. I don’t think anyone heard a word coming from the television at that point. I was stunned, shaky, and confused. There were tears on many a face, as people looked around at each other, though no one spoke.

When the second building came down, it was painful, though not unexpected. How many lives had we just watched prematurely extinguished? We would not imagine.

It was the first time I actually felt my soul hurt.

It was decided by the smokers a few hours later that we were indeed at war, and someone would pay. Someone would pay dearly for this. Revenge had overtaken grief, then the emotions swung the other way, and the grief would return. How many children, like ours, were waiting at home for their parents to return, never to see them again? My wife and I wondered how we would explain this to our children, only two then, six and seven years old?

Like the rest of the nation and world, we were glued to the television that night, and the next day. After three days, however, we had decided to turn off the news, take the kids out and try and have some fun. Life, of course, had to go on. And no one who wants to remain even slightly sane can grieve for too long.

And life went on.

Three years later, today, we remember the tragic events of 9/11/01. We remember the lives lost, the great sadness, and the way the world changed for all time in one day.

A few days ago Joe Carson weighed in with his
first
impressions of the new iMac. Joe is as demanding
and ornery a consumer as you would hope to meet,
and for any product to be get a thumbs up from him
is no small achievement. The iMac looks good, and
clearly fits in neatly with the iPod and the new
Apple displays; it’s hard to imagine that Apple
won’t be updating the look of the PowerBooks and
G5 PowerMacs as well. But though it looks good,
I’m not sure that the new iMac is perfect, and in
some ways it is as compromised as the original Bondi
Blue iMac.

So, before we all get carried away on the new
product bandwagon, let’s just take a quick reality
check.

1. It’s comes with very little memory

Apple ships all three G5 iMac models with 256
MB of RAM. While this is adequate for word processing
and surfing the Internet, for gaming and graphic
design you are realistically going to need 1 GB
or more. The cheapest way to do this is to put two
512 MB RAM modules in its two RAM slots, and if
you do that as a build to order at the Apple Store,
that’ll set you back an extra $225. If you want
to keep one of those slots free, and use a single
1 GB RAM module for now, and maybe get some more
later, the price at the Apple Store rises a whopping
$525. Need to go the whole hog and fill the memory
slots completely? Expanding the memory of the iMac
to its full 2 GB potential adds no less than $1125
to the Apple Store price.

2. The hard drives are small

The base and middle specification iMacs come with
80 GB drives, and the top end model with one twice
that size. Make no mistake, modern operating systems
and applications are prodigious hard drive hogs,
and just installing Mac OS X and a few big programs
can easily use up 20 GB of disk space. Games are
especially bad in this regard, with many requiring
a gigabyte of space (for example SimCity 4 and Diablo
2). The full iLife suite including GarageBand needs
more the 4 GB, Virtual PC will takr another 2 MB,
Microsoft Office is upwards of 500 MB; it soon adds
up. Once you start creating videos using iDVD, then
the demands for empty disk space to store and edit
the video files runs into several gigabytes a throw.
So an 80 GB hard disk is definitely on the small
size, roughly comparable to what PowerBooks were
equipped with two years ago.

3. The wireless keyboard and mouse aren’t
standard

Almost all the advertising Apple have released
for the iMac show it either without a keyboard and
mouse, or with the wireless Bluetooth ones. Certainly,
the G5 iMac can use these wireless devices, and
any other Bluetooth gizmo such as a cellphone, but
not without upgrading your iMac with a $50 Bluetooth
adapter. By the adapter along with the wireless
mouse and keyboard, and you can add $99 to your
Apple Store price.

4. Airport isn’t built in

No question, Apple popularised wireless networking,
and they are still ahead of the game when it comes
to giving users the tools to set up wireless networks
and configure laptops and desktops to use them.
But the iMac doesn’t have the Airport reception
card built in. If you want your iMac to connect
to your wireless network, you can add another $79
for the Airport Extreme card.

5. The video card is middling in performance

The 64 MB video card that comes in all three iMac
models is comparable to those in the base PowerMac
machines and hardly classes as leading edge. Serious
gamers will be looking for 128 MB cards, and of
course the video card of the iMac is non-upgradeable.
This isn’t to say the iMac isn’t a games machine,
but don’t expect it to keep up with the development
of games over the next couple of years.

6. The base models lacks a DVD writer

For a machine aimed at home users with the iLife
package (after all, iLife’04 is included), the lack
of a DVD writer on the base model renders it somewhat
flawed as far as home movie makers are concerned.
Sure, it has a CD writer, and it plays DVDs just
fine, but anyone using iDVD with a digital camcorder
is going to miss DVD writing capability. A FireWire
DVD writer can be added of course, at the cost of
another $100 to $250, with DVD-RWs costing rather
more than more basic DVD-R models.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that to really shine, the new
G5 iMac needs a lot of upgrades, and all this racks
up. Let’s take the base model, upgrade it’s memory
to 1 GB spread across both memory slots, take the
hard disk to an adequate but not generous 160 GB,
and buy the Airport card and the Bluetooth adapter,
mouse, and keyboard package. From a fairly competitive
$1299 our total has leapt up to a much more serious
$1802. This still leaves us with the slower processor
(1.6 GHz) and bus (533 MHz), a mediocre video card,
and no SuperDrive.

Power users looking towards the top end model
don’t see a story that is very much prettier. Max
out the RAM to 2 GB and double the hard disk capacity
to 250 GB, add the Airport card and the wireless
mouse and keyboard, and the Apple Store price is
a whopping $3302. For that you can get the best
part of a far more upgradeable G5 PowerMac and monitor.
Even the base model G5 PowerMac, at $1999, includes
dual 1.6 GHz processors on a bus almost twice as
fast as the base model iMac, as well as coming with
a SuperDrive as standard. The other specifications,
like memory, hard disk, and video card are similar,
and it also lacks Bluetooth and wireless connectivity
out of the box. But with large LCD displays going
for less than $500, the price differential between
the G5 iMac and the PowerMac lines is not nearly
as clear cut as it might seem at first glance.

Even the base model is considerably above the
sub $1000 price point that characterised the original
iMac line. Over the years, the iMacs have evolved
from low-cost, low-spec, home user machines into
mid-priced machines pitched at affluent home users
and business wanting something balanced between
power and price. Apple has to be very careful here,
the handsome but compromised G4 Cube exemplifies
the potentials and the risks to this, and it would
a shame if the G5 iMac had the same fate. My own
guess is the G5 iMac will be a success, but not
a stellar one. It’s pricey, somewhat limited, and
not really optimised at any one thing. Certainly
worth considering, but do your sums carefully.

This comparison is tricky, but fun, because each of the five new Garage Band books being examined is well-researched and written, but they are very different from one another. We recently gave our highest rating to Apple Training Series — Garage Band: Create and Record Music on a Mac, so these latest entries have serious competition in our “best for you” appraisal.

We’ll concentrate on comparing the authors’ units on recording real instruments and voices, because that’s what I understand best.

I suggest you glance through all the following reviews before heading to your favorite online or local bookseller. Here are the contenders, entered in descending order, by retail price:

MacAddict Guide to Making Music with GarageBand
by Jay Shaffer and Gary Rosenzweig
Que Publishing

ISBN 0-7897-3226-2, 255 pages large format
$24.99 US, $35.99 CN

Book Bytes applauds this new series by MacAddict and Que. Pages are large size with attractive blue borders and textual accents. Screen shots are big and bold and plentiful at roughly one per page. Every lesson is clearly numbered into specific steps that your Aunt Mildred could follow. Tutorials are bursting with tips that enhance the primary material.

In ten hefty chapters, the authors take readers through “what to expect” from Garage Band all the way into basic or intermediate features and beyond. Want to “create and save real instruments?” See Chapter Eight. “Track Editing Real Instruments” is in Chapter Six. “Advanced Techniques” are in Chapter Ten.

Between glossary and detailed index come nine (count ‘em) appendices dealing with the Garage Band built-in effects, Jam Pack, and keyboard shortcuts; MIDI instruments list, implementation chart, and drum key map; online resources; and my favorite, a fourteen page nutsnbolts bonus unit on “Configuring Your Studio,” which is probably worth the entire cost of this book.

My hands are trembling as I read MacAddict Guide to Making Music with GarageBand. I have a house to paint before rain comes this week, meaning I can’t drop everything and use this resourceful companion and create some groovy tunes. Over thirty pages are devoted to working with real instruments and vocals. Our top score of 5 out of 5 goes to this exceptional new book.

Garage Band for Dummies: Turn your Mac into a digital recording studio
by Bob “Dr. Mac” LeVitus

ISBN 0-7645-7323-3, 316 pages
$21.99 US, $31.99 CN, £14.99 UK

Bob told Book Bytes he considers this one to be his best book ever, which is not a claim to sneeze at, given his track record. Forget the Dummies distraction, because Garage Band for Dummies is geared to anyone who is smart enough to take the plunge with Apple’s terrific new music creation application.

Tips, itemized lessons, sidebars, and screenshots make the physical book visually alive, in the best that Dummies format can offer. What distinguishes LeVitus from other authors is how he thrusts himself into his text, giving readers a sense of an ongoing conversation with “Dr. Mac.”

By Chapter Seven, nearly halfway through the text, “Recording Vocals and Acoustic Instruments” have followed such content as “Mix That Sucka” and “Listening with Headphones (Without Messing Up the Take).” Humor is interspersed with a lifetime of musical and Macintosh advice, and Book Bytes approves.

“There’s a lot to cover, so let’s rock” begins our 18-page chapter under the microscope, and much of what precedes this unit is called into play. New gems include a mantra for recording levels:

Lots of green, it’s sweet and clean;
Too much red, your track is dead.

Bob’s persona is wild and wacky, but loaded with quality info. Strongest chapter is number four: “Introducing Multitrack Recording with Garage Band,” a basic course in itself. For readers who appreciate this Dummies/LeVitus combo, our rating of 4 out of 5 will get them rocking around the clock.

BONUS: If you like rock music, you can listen to Garage Band songs by LeVitus at this link

Garage Band for Mac OS X Visual QuickStart Guide
by Victor Gavenda
Peachpit Press

ISBN 0-321-27281-1, 263 pages
$19.99 US, $28.99 CN, £14.99 UK

Victor is good! He breaks down every aspect of Garage Band into tiny incremental lessons, using the greyscale Visual QuickStart format for maximum clarity. Screenshots are abundant, as are countless detailed explanations and sequential tutorials.

He writes in the first person using a somewhat dry persona, so readers don’t get distracted by unnecessary fluff while learning a ton of new material from scratch. Being himself Peachpit Press’s senior technical editor, you can be assured everything in Garage Band for Mac OS X Visual QuickStart Guide was tested thoroughly prior to publication.

The structure in this book has users gradually becoming more familiar with making Garage Band music as the chapters evolve in an easy-does-it series of steps. Our test chapter, “Recording Real Instruments,” comes near the halfway point, in fifteen-page Chapter Six.

By far the strongest section in Garage Band for Mac OS X Visual QuickStart Guide is placed near the rear of the book, with jumbo chapters covering “Advanced Editing with the Track Editor” and “Applying Effects.” When time permits I want to tap into Victor’s vault of venerable wisdom to explore these two in depth.

Book Bytes is comfortable awarding a rating of 4 out of 5 to this title, suggesting that technically-minded musicians will be its optimum owners.

Garage Band: The Missing Manual
by David Pogue
O’Reilly / Pogue Press

ISBN 0-567-00695-0, 253 pages plus dedicated web site
$19.95 US, $28.95 CN

Pogue is loopy regarding loops, and after an introductory section on “Setting Up the Garage” he swings straight into a 20-page chapter on loopism. His grey infobars are especially valuable, including “More Loops Than You Bargained For” and “The Case of the Lost Loops,” a frequently asked question.

David then systematically addresses each Garage Band component, complete with screenshots and itemized instructions, from basic through advanced. He knows his topic thoroughly, and will satisfy many serious users, be they musicians or wannabees. This author is an accomplished music maker who understands our software and hardware needs before we do.

Book Bytes applauds a brief troubleshooting chapter plus appendices containing a complete list of Garage Band menu items plus keyboard shortcuts. Why is this such a rare inclusion, we ask.

Our test unit on recording live audio comes with fourteen pages in Chapter Six. Pogue provides detailed directions that will take a little while to master but are worth the effort. Throughout the text, his writing is consistently snappy and easy to comprehend. Book Bytes is comfortable giving Garage Band: The Missing Manual our 5 out of 5 highest rating for readers who are prepared to study, practice, and hold all calls while their musical skills are improving.

Take Control of Making Music with Garage Band
by Jeff Tolbert
TidBITS Electronic Publishing

68 page PDF file
$5 digital download (that price is not a misprint)

The Take Control series of PDF digital ebooks provides exceptional value and optimized approach for onscreen and printed content. Blue hyperlinks are used to take readers wherever they desire in a dynamic process. Notes and Tips assist newcomers to music creation software (and to music itself), and colorful examples from Garage Band give new meaning and zest to the term screen shots.

If you attended or watched Steve Jobs’ intro to Garage Band at last January’s Macworld keynote address (is it still available online?) you’ll soon get a feeling for the basics of music creation. Tolbert takes you deeper, and even old rocknrollers such as I will benefit from studying the pearls of music theory wisdom he inserts among the tutorials.

Where the other books being reviewed do many things well, Take Control of Making Music with Garage Band does one thing brilliantly. For five bucks you’ll get many $$$ more in value from embracing the author’s method of song construction and modification, not to mention joy from hearing your brilliant tunes emerge and mature.

Digital ebooks are not for everyone, so sample the Take Control series before you buy. Wait a minute! Am I nuts? How can you possibly go wrong when obtaining time-tested content for a pittance?

Book Bytes won’t attempt to evaluate using real instruments, because Take Control of Making Music with Garage Band stays with software instruments. That’s no complaint, because everyone who goes through the process of using the tutorials and links in this ebook will agree that it deserves our rating of 4 out of 5, with price and quality of presentation getting highest marks.

Looking ahead, Adam Engst tells Book Bytes we’re on the right track (excuse the pun) when considering vocals and instruments in our evaluation, because:

It’s also the topic of "Take Control of Recording Music with GarageBand" which Jeff Tolbert is working on right now. The entire point of these ebooks is to stay focused, so while of course we wanted to cover real instruments, it made sense to do that in a separate book.

The Original earPod™
Company: AudioOutfitters, LLC
Price: $11.99
http://www.audio-outfitters.com

Every iPod user who actually carries the iPod around in his/her pocket knows that the earbuds’ cable is a hassle. You have to stow it in some way that keeps it from flopping around in your pocket, or it tangles and ties knows in itself. Not the kind of thing you want to be dealing with when you step onto the treadmill at the gym.

Many third-party earbuds come with a winder/case. It opens like a clamshell, you put the buds into a space in the center, close the case, and then you crank the wheel built into the case and the cable winds up on a drum. I’ve been using a Sony version of this for years. It’s not perfect — no provision for shortening the cable in use, or for stowing the remote control — but it works for me.

The earPod is an attempt to improve on this kind of winder-case. For starters, you don’t crank the case because there’s no case around the drum — the drum is the case, and you use your god-given fingers to wind the cable on it. This is much simpler and more rugged, though slightly bulkier.

There is a cover to open, though, as you can see in the photos. It swings aside on a pivot at one edge. Now it gets tricky. It took me the longest time to unlatch the lid, because there’s a trick, which is not mentioned on the instruction sheet. You have to squeeze the lid from the point where the swivel is, toward the opposite side where the latch is. And the positions of the swivel and the latch are marked by indentations in the plastic. Identical indentations! The whole thing is an unfair IQ test — not the kind of thing I want to be dealing with as I step off the treadmill after a grueling workout.

Well, you manage to get the lid open, and you see the central chamber where you’re supposed to put the earbuds. But it’s just barely big enough I couldn’t get the lid closed with my iPod buds inside, until I took off the yucky little foam covers, and still the lid had to strain against the pivot. AudioOutfitters claims to have tested this gadget with various in-ear phones, including Apple’s. Since these are bulkier than my standard Apple buds, I’d like to see how it’s done.

Before you close the lid, though, you lead the cable out through one of several slots in the wall of the chamber. Then when you close it, it’s easy to wrap the cable around the drum. And when it’s all wrapped up, guess what? You are supposed to open the lid again, lead the cable back through a slot into the chamber, and fit the plug into the chamber along with the earbuds! I found this just barely possible with a good deal of concentration; the trick, not mentioned on the instruction sheet, is that the tip of the plug has to stick out through one of the other slots.

The instruction sheet describes various tricks for shortening the free length of cable, and I’m sure they work. I didn’t try to follow those instructions in detail, and I’ll tell you why: The entire instruction sheet has been reduced down to where the photos are about a half-inch square and the effective size of the text is maybe four points or less. It was barely possible for me to read by taking off my glasses, holding it six inches from my nose, and squinting. To be perfectly honest, this instruction sheet put me in a negative frame of mind as soon as I laid eyes on it, and maybe that’s why I’m being so hard on the product. But I swear I’m telling you all the good things, and not exaggerating the drawbacks.

For example: the earPod does deal with the problem of the remote control: on either side, there’s a place that fits the clip on the remote. There are additional slots on the edge of the earPod to hold the remote’s own cable.

And there’s a well-designed, rugged belt clip, which you can remove pretty easily but will not come off accidentally.

But overall, I’m afraid I can’t see how this product is an improvement on the old-fashioned winder-case — which you can get by buying a set of $9.99 earbuds and throwing them away.

When Apple introduces a new product people are going to complain and their number one complaint is going to be cost. Like heat flowing from a hotter body to a colder one the whining is inevitable. Of course this time it seems particularly bad, it feels as though my computer is parked behind a constantly revving 747. The best way to whine is with your dollars: if you think it is too expensive then don’t buy one. Well that’s not good enough, you gotta bitch right?

Of course you do and the number one gripe is why does a $1,500 computer include such a crappy graphics card? A fine argument, I’m down with you cause, you know, iLife relies heavily on the GPU.. What? It doesn’t? In that case I definitely agree because you need a 9800 or better to run Motion, and…What? If you’re a Motion user you’re a G5 owner? Well of course you need that super awesome video card for games… Now just shut your whining pie hole for half a second. If you’re really into games don’t you have a PC you built yourself. Or an Xbox? Geeze the gaming specs for video cards change so fast that unless you have a spring-loaded AGP slot you can’t keep up. So keep the game grievances to yourself. I know similarly priced all in one PC’s have way better graphics card, just look at the Sony VAIO W. The Sony features a high-end integrated graphics chip that uses your system memory. Sure the VIAO costs way more but.. What’s that? Integrated video sucks? Well never mind then.

Most of the people whining are folks who know a little something about computers. These folks should also realize that most computer users know nothing about computers, and they like it that way. At least that was my hypothesis. I decided to test it out at Atlanta Bread Company this afternoon. My plan? Ask ten people what video card their computer had and see just how many people care. My first subject was tapping away on a Toshiba of some sort. In between bites of his ABC special I asked him: "Hey what kind of video does that thing have?" The answer: Windows Media Player. I inquired further but the guy became increasingly confused and management started looking at me. I decided that was enough embarrassment for one lunch and extrapolated the data to the following conclusion: If you care about it you’re in the minority. Not that it’s not important, it is just not important to most people so it’s not a huge deal for the folks likely to be buying an iMac.

People who say the iMac is an incredible value always pull out this chestnut: Well you get a G5 and a 20" inch monitor for $1999 a 20" an Apple monitor costs $1299 alone so you’re getting a G5 for only $700. These people are best avoided, they possess the mental agility of the four-year that cries when you hold your thumb between your two most foremost fingers and exclaim: "Got your nose". Sure it’s an incredibly realistic illusion but come on, do you really think Apple is selling those monitors at cost? The stand-alone monitor also features one supremely valuable aspect the iMac monitor lacks: When the computer craps out you can keep the freaking monitor.

The next complaint is about the amount of memory. You only get 256MB of RAM and for that kind of money, we’re talking a cool two grand on the top end, you’d expect more. Wouldn’t you? True enough, heck if you were buying the VAIO W mentioned earlier you’d get twice that memory, frickin twice! For the same amount of money! Of course you’d get a substantially smaller screen (17.5") but YOU GET 512MB. So I can’t really disagree, for 2,000 you’re much better off opting for the VAIO heck you’ll save 45 dollars buy not having to add another memory chip. I don’t think the loss of 2.5" inches of unchangeable screen real estate is too much of a sacrifice.

You can’t make a computer without people complaining about the hard drive size. Seriously most people don’t think they should ever remove anything to free even the tiniest amount of space on their computer. I gotta say: most of the stuff on your computer is crap. You toss all your e-mail message from pre 2002, most of your music, nearly all your fonts and god knows how many assorted unused programs and not know they were ever gone. But that’s okay, I know people aren’t like that, they like to save everything forever. My wife has a t-shirt from high school that she earnestly believes she’ll wear someday (cause airbrushing is coming back baby!) So to the complainers whining about hard drive size I offer one word: Firewire. Yep companies make firewire hard drives that will run comfortably on the computer so when the hard drive is getting just a little tight go ahead and pony up the dough to buy a drive, then you could use it to back up all those fuzzy shots of your dogs. (Just for the record the more expensive Dell 4600C features a 40 GB drive, half of what the 17 inch iMac features). At this point I should note that the iMac is bereft of Firewire extreme ports. That is surely a major failing right? Honestly I can’t imagine when I might need a firewire extreme port as long as the iMac can comfortably transfer the video from my GL2 I’m happy. Of course you might want to use firewire to transfer extremely large files, the Mac for that is called the G5 tower.

Honestly a lot of the complaints are centered on what the new iMac isn’t: a fully featured G5 or a modular Dell. See when it comes time to compare specs people compare it to the G5 towers, when it comes to price people compare it to the cheapest Dell. That makes it tough on Apple and here Apple has to walk a careful line, make a computer too powerful and expandable it will eat into G5 tower sales AND be too expensive for the average Joe. Make a computer too crappy, and well, it will be a Dell. Much like the question: "Have you stopped beating your wife yet?" there is no easy answer for Apple but sales will tell you how close they got.

The new G5 iMac is something new in many ways. First of all, there has never been a Mac that only appears as a monitor and keyboard on your desk. This isn’t just a new Macintosh. It’s one that’s super thin and beautifully made. This will be very seductive to those prospective customers who see it for the first time.

Apple hit another home run here, folks. Don’t believe me? Look at Apple’s next quarter’s profits come December. It will be their most profitable quarter ever. Apple is going to sell tons of these new iMacs. (Wasn’t I right about the sales of those mini iPods too?)

Just listen to Phil Schiller’s part of the Keynote about the new iMac: "Just like the iPod redefined portable digital music players, the new iMac G5 redefines what users expect from a consumer desktop, …a lot of people will be wondering ‘where did the computer go?’"

I think this points up something we have been saying here on the blogs as MyMac. The new G5 iMac is meant to look like the iPod. They are both the same white plastic, and the same general shape. Apple wants the consumer customer to see the connection in their lives. Their iPod has liberated them and their music. Now the iMac can do the same thing to the rest of their computing lives.

This is the first iMac that you can fix or update yourself. Its insides are completely and quickly accessible, just like the Power Macs are. Apple claims that you can replace many of the iMac G5′s parts by yourself. The new iMac is designed to make it easy for us to install replacement parts if needed. This includes the LCD display, the power supply, the optical drive, the hard drive, the memory, the AirPort Extreme card, the modem card, the main logic board, the G5 processor, and the fans. Only Bluetooth cannot be added by a consumer, but must be added by Apple.

The new iMac G5 also has 4 built-in diagnostic LEDs on the main logic board that can help you troubleshoot your computer. One LED indicates that trickle voltage from the power supply is there. The second, that the main logic board has power from the power supply. The third LED tells you that the computer and the LCD display are communicating properly. The fourth, that the computer is not overheating. Full instructions about the LED indicator lights, which are behind the back cover of the computer. Also, the three screws on the back cover are ‘captive’ screws, so you can’t lose them.

This new G5 iMac has superior connectivity, by offering two FireWire 400 ports; three USB 2.0 ports, VGA out; S-video, composite video out, at the back right side of the monitor, and two USB 1.1 ports on the keyboard. Few computing companies offer this many and as varied ports as Apple does.

There is also a built-in Microphone on the iMac between the speakers, underneath the front of the iMac. The arm adapter on the iMac is also a VESA industry standard. That means that any VESA arm will work on the G5 iMac. An adapter kit is available from Apple for compliant arms, so the iMac can be mounted on a wall.

WHAT THE NEW iMAC DOESN’T HAVE

Several Pundits have loudly lamented the fact that the new G5 iMac does not have video recording and playing capability, nor does it have wireless capability. Their whining can be heard even way out here in the desert.

First of all, the new iMac IS wireless, because it comes with the ability to add an AirPort card and a Bluetooth connection. Neither of these additions cost that much to add, and their lack on the new iMac keeps the cost down for everyone else who doesn’t want or need wireless connectivity.

So? Did Apple miss something not giving video capability to the new iMac? If you mean can the iMac play DVDs? Sure it can, since it comes with the Combo Drive, and its excellent big screen monitor, it can play movies very well.

However, our Pundits are talking about the lack of a TV tuner in the new iMac. They are also talking about the fact that there is no portable, miniature, or mobile iMac, which would double for a Media Player. True, the new G5 iMac is not a portable Media Player.

I don’t think that Apple stumbled here at all. The new G5 iMac is a Consumer model. It is exactly what it is supposed to be. People who want to fit their Mac with a TV tuner, an external hard drive, a DVD burner, and record their own TV for archiving or later viewing will usually opt for a PowerMac. After all, they are power users, right?

A PORTABLE VIDEO MAC?

Did you know that Apple almost had the very first Media Player? If you are an Apple trivia buff, you might remember Newton’s stillborn cousin, code-named Sweet Pea, which was to be a CD-based mobile multimedia player.

So, what about an Apple Media Player in the near future? Even I was hoping for one of these. After all, Apple DID apply for and obtain a Patent for something like this, earlier this year. It was an 8" video viewer. Some (mistakenly?) thought it was going to be an Apple Tablet computer. I think the patent may well be for an Apple Media Player, and one that finally has a big enough screen to be watchable. (Most all the new MPs have lass than a 4-inch screen.) However, this doesn’t mean that Apple will market a Media Player. They already built an Apple PDA, and then canceled it, didn’t they?

Besides, after looking closely at Microsoft’s Windows Media Player with its tiny 3.7" monitor, I am beginning to understand that the technology is not quite there yet, and therefore, why an Apple Media Player is probably a ways off too.

The first problem with a Media Player is technical. The second is legal.

This is because the video that you want on your TV or VCR is recordable only via an ANALOG connection, (RCA cables). Besides the extra expense of owning the players for input and encoding, recording analog video must happen in real time’ to be useful. Its not real time, folks. At least not for any portable media player. You have to first convert the show you taped to a different format for most any media player on the market today.

Here is the real problem with using a Media Player if you want to watch TV on it.

It’s the night before you want to use your new Media Player on your commute to work the next morning.

You quickly transfer it to your Media Player, and go to work – late.

Yes, you can copy copyrighted TV shows from P2P networks and transcode them to run on the Media Player. There will always be a few people doing this. However, most people who buy a Media Player, just want to use it like a TiVo. Micro$oft would rather you buy their subscription to legally download and view (but not copy) copyrighted TV content onto your Media Player. But even that option is not set up yet, and may not be for a while. The reason for this delay is legal. This is because of possible reprisals from the DRM and the RIAA of course. Even Micro$oft is having trouble getting them to play ball here.

Since using Micro$oft’s Media Player is so clunky, is there any decent Mobile Media Player on the market now? Take a look at the Archos. It’s the best there is at the moment. However, the Archos has a dim, dark screen, and their screen is still not big enough to watch comfortably. It still cost a lot to own, and it still is a pain to record anything off of the TV.

PCs are the missing link in recording TV. Apple knows this. It’s only going to work when it’s all digital, all the way through the process. The current business of transferring analog signals to digital, and then again to a third format is just awkward and clumsy.

Yeah, the RIAA doesn’t want this, but the FCC does, and they have mandated that new TVs will be digital.. There is still the DRM facing Apple, but they did pretty well appeasing all the players with their iTunes store and the configuration of their iPods. I think Apple will do the same with a Media Player once it all comes together digitally.

Right now, the current Media Player will never be as useful than the DVR that’s already on the market. Only a Digital Media Player, one that sits next to your cable/satellite DVR box, makes any sense in all this. It should easily and quickly digitally record a TV show just like your DVR or TiVo would do, and with the same digital quality. So far, there is no such thing.

Therefore, if and when Apple does deliver a Media Player, it will be much more functional by providing other uses besides watching TV or movies on it. I think it will be an innate part of your consumer G5 iMac and all those uber-cool Apple Media Apps. It will also be completely DIGITAL in its processes, and seamlessly and breathtakingly fast in its file transference of the media you want to watch.

Besides, think how nice a new Apple Digital Media Player will look sitting next to your new Apple High Definition Digital Wide Screen Television. Oh, wait . . . You already have that. It’s your Apple flat screen monitor!

No, the new G5 iMac is not the portable Media Player we were hoping for. Nor is it a headless, portable, miniature iMac. Nor is it two decades ahead of everything else.

The G5 iMac IS a really cool, minimal, usable, and desirable consumer Macintosh of the first order. It looks like the iPod’s big brother, and its much faster, and hundreds of dollars cheaper than the G4 iMacs. For what it is, it’s perfect.

So? When are you going to get one?

How does Apple Computer’s technical support from 1997 compare to today? Read Mick O’Neil’s article here, from seven years ago, and see how Apple did in technical support, and draw your own conclusions.