MacImports.com

January 2005 News Archive

Return to Macs Only!'s Current News Page.
Copyright 2005 by Bill Fox All rights reserved.
Last Updated: Jan. 31, 2005

Note: Use "Find" under your browser's "Edit" or "Search" Menu to search each month's archive.

Older Archives: December | November | October | September | August | July |


[1/31]
Bury the Megabyte Myth, a 1.25 GHz Mac mini with 512MB RAM--How Fast Is It? Isn't 256MB RAM enough for the Mac mini? We think so, of course, for the Mac mini's intended market but why are so many saying/writing that it's not? Usually, the first thing out of their mouth when getting to the cons of the Mac mini is that the RAM needs to be upgraded from 256MB. None other than Bob "Dr. Mac" Levitus, the famous Mac Guru, said so in his segment on last week's The Mac Night Owl LIVE internet radio show (listen to it here). And Macworld Magazine, the icon of Mac media, wrote in the con list of their review, "Doesn’t come with enough memory...." We even read a piece that claimed that using the Mac mini was no fun after switching back from 512MB to 256MB RAM. Finally, we got a few emails from readers following our initial 1.25GHz Mac mini speed test suggesting that we test our Mac mini with 512MB RAM to confirm our conclusions drawn from our earlier test of an upgraded G4 Cube. Okay, so we have done so and then some. Can we help bury the RAM megabyte myth?

We ordered a 512MB PC2700 DDR 333MHz RAM module on line and received it Friday. Unfortunately, the price of PC2700 DDR RAM jumped up in the past week from the recent mid-$60's so our module cost $84, plus $8.62 overnight delivery by DHL. We actually received a faster 512MB PC3200 DDR 400MHz module so perhaps a shortage of the slower PC2700 RAM may explain the recent price increase. To install the RAM in our Mac mini, we had to "crack" open its case again with our 4" putty knife. Thankfully, the second time we opened our Mac mini was much easier than the first.

Here are the results using our standard suite of speed tests using both "canned benchmarks" and "real world" tests. (see our speed test FAQ):

Mac mini Speed Tests (average scores or secs) at 256 and 512MB of PC3200 DDR RAM*
Test Mac mini
Mac mini
Benchmarks:
w/256MB
w/512MB
Altivec Fractal 1.1.3 (GFLOPS)
4.5
4.3
Cinebench 2003 - Rendering
113
113
- OpenGL Hardware Lighting
441
433
Let1kWindowsBloom 1.0 (sec)
34
34
Xbench 1.1.3 - CPU
152
150
- Threading
111
109
- Memory
129
125
- Quartz Graphics
161
158
- OpenGL Graphics
111
108
- User Interface Graphics
208
206
- Hard Disk
57
58
"Real World" Tests:
Startup (sec)
50
50
Shutdown (sec)
19
14
Launch Classic Mode (sec)
13
14
Dup. 700 MB Folder 3600 Files (sec)
94
99
Scroll 142p Acrobat Reader File (sec)
25
25
Encode MP3 in iTunes 4.7 (sec)
53
53
Export QT Movie in iMovie 4.0.1 (sec)
46
45
Quake III Arena 1.32 (frames/sec)
89
88

*Faster = higher scores and lower seconds. Average of 3 tests.

The results are virtually identical within normal statistical variation for our Mac mini using 256MB or 512MB of RAM. There is no evidence that the performance of the 1.25GHz Mac mini is in anyway impaired at 256MB of RAM.

However, two weeks ago we devised an additional test that would show more clearly the effects, if any, of different amounts of RAM. Our RAM test using Xbench and open applications is adequate to demonstrate the utility of adding RAM for general use but we decided to kick it up a notch to be more convincing. We added concurrent QuickTime Streaming of Steve Job's Macworld Expo keynote address and iTunes playing Beethoven's Sixth to the five open applications. Of couse, we also had the test application Xbench and Activity Monitor open to examine RAM usage.

Here is a table of RAM usage at 256MB and 512MB without the applications open (No Apps--white column), with them open (Apps--yellow column) and with QuickTime streaming and iTunes playing (Apps+--orange column):

Mac mini RAM Usage With and Without Apps Open
256MB
512MB
RAM Allocation
No Apps
Apps
Apps+
No Apps
Apps
Apps+
Wired
37
42
42
49
54
57
Active
97
138
140
80
165
240
Inactive
48
69
70
47
175
153
Subtotal Used
183
249
252
176
394
462
Free
73
7
4
336
118
62
Total
256
256
256
512
512
512

At 256MB, there is a small change in the amount fo RAM assigned by Mac OS X to all categories when receiving QuickTime streaming and with iTunes playing (compare the orange vs yellow columns). The free RAM drops from the already small 7MB to 4MB. With 512MB, the RAM use allocation by category is substantially increased when receiving QuickTime streaming and iTunes is playing a song. Does this affect the performance of the 1.25GHz Mac mini? More importantly, does using 512MB ameliorate any of the performance hits?

Here are the speed test results with no applications open, five applications open and with QuickTime streaming and iTunes playing:

Xbench 1.1.3 Scores With and Without Apps Open*
256MB RAM
512MB RAM
Xbench Test
No Apps
Apps
Apps+
No Apps
Apps
Apps+
CPU
152
142
103
150
143
114
Thread
111
104
72
109
101
76
Memory
129
123
93
125
123
94
Quartz Graphics
161
157
103
158
156
104
OpenGL Graphics
111
103
64
108
102
64
User Interface
208
191
107
206
194
111
*Average of 3 runs.

If one compares the Xbench scores with no applications open (white columns) with those for the five additionals apps open (yellow columns), there is a perfomance hit of 8 per cent or less, mostly less, whether using 256MB or 512MB of RAM. Opening a QuickTime stream plus playing a song on iTunes (orange columns) results in a further and significant performance hit that totals up to 49 per cent for the Mac mini using 256MB of RAM. However, the salient conclusion from comparing between yellow columns and between orange columns is that the additional 256MB RAM in the 512MB RAM module does not ameliorate the Xbench performance hit, at least not appreciably and certainly not to the point where it justifies an investment in the 512MB RAM module.

Do our tests throw conventional wisdom--more RAM is better--on its ear? Well, not exactly. For some, more RAM is still always better. It would be easy to construct a test that would clearly justify the expense of additional RAM. For example, loading a very large graphics file into Adobe Photoshop and then applying numerous filters to the image might even justify the near $200 expense of a 1GB RAM module for the Mac mini. But graphics professionals are not the target market for the Mac mini and such a test would be misleading to the people in Apple's Mac mini target market--entry-level or highly price-conscious users.

There was a day not too long ago when the convention "more RAM is better" applied to most people using Macs. Classic Mac OS required one to specifically allocate RAM to each application and RAM was very expensive so most people had too little RAM. It also applied in the early days of Mac OS X when new Macs came with a mere 64MB of RAM. But times have changed and convention has not yet caught up. With Mac OS X, 256MB of RAM in a low-end consumer Mac is more than adequate.

The RAM megabyte myth needs to be buried alongside the megahertz myth.


[1/31]
Apple Posted Mac mini Service & Support Web Page: Apple posted a specific Mac mini Service & Support web page. There are ten articles on learning about the Mac mini and 6 articles on troubleshooting plus other helpful links. [Dana Baggett]


[1/28]
Apple Released iMovie HD 5.0.1 Updater for the iMovie application of iLife '05 application suite. According to the read me file:

iMovie HD 5.0.1 addresses issues related to video and audio synchronization for DV projects and other minor issues.

We installed the update on our copy of iMovie HD from the iLife '05 suite with no difficulty. We had not encountered any difficulties with iMovie HD but, then, we hadn't used it much either. [Bill Fox]


[1/28]
Bob "Dr. Mac" Levitus to Open "DoctorMac Direct" Soon: Last night on Gene Steinberg's The Mac Night Owl LIVE internet radio show, Bob Levitus discussed his upcoming troubleshooting service called "DoctorMac Direct." The troubleshooting service will cover anything and everything Mac, including third party applications. He has tapped Ted Landau, author of numerous Mac troubleshooting books and founder of the MacFixit.com web site, to manage the new service. The service will use email, phone and web communication. The fee will be $30 per 15 minutes. That's less than Apple charges and DoctorMac Direct's service will cover third party items plus Ted Landau will ensure that top expertise is available. [Bill Fox]


[1/28]
Review--Apple Motion 1.0: We do not work with video enough to provide a useful review but that is not true of DigitalProducer.com. Here is their summary:

Motion is an amazing integration of Apple’s G5 technology and intelligent software that brings real-time interactivity to the process of creating complex motion graphics. This kind of control was previously unthinkable without a pile of dedicated hardware.

The favorable full review is on this web page. [Dana Baggett]


[1/27]
Tonight on the Mac Night Owl LIVE--Bill Fox, Dr. Mac and Christopher Breen: This week Hosts Gene and Grayson Steinberg discuss the state of the Mac with Bob "Dr. Mac" LeVitus and Mac 911 columnist Christopher Breen. You'll also learn all about the performance of the Mac mini with Bill Fox, editor and publisher of Macs Only! Yes, that's us. Tune in at 6-8pm PST (9-11pm EST) for a great internet radio show. [Bill Fox]


[1/27]
Apple Pro Tip of the Week--Force Quitting from the Dock: If an application hangs or otherwise quits functioning in Mac OS X, one can just force it to quit and relaunch without causing problems for Mac OS X or any other application running. This is a major improvement of Mac OS X of prior versions of the Mac OS. There are many ways of force quitting but the easiest is to simply control-click on the application's dock icon. A dialog box will pop up and then press the Option key so that the "Quit" command changes to "Force Quit." More details are on this Apple Pro web page. [Dana Baggett]


[1/27]
Pitt Prof Chooses Xserve G5 for Genetics Cluster Computer: Univerity of Pittsburgh Assistant Professor Dr. Michael Barmada evaluated the solutions offered by Dell, SGI, IBM and Cray but chose the Xserve G5 for its ease of management and the ease of porting UNIX applications to run on it. "[T]he added benefits that we can reap," he stated "[are] the Xserve’s vectorization and G5processor’s vector and 64-bit capabilities." Dr. Barmada's work is profiled on this Apple science web page. [Dana Baggett]


[1/27]
Apple Revised the Offerings from Two Hot Deals Retailers:

MacZone has fantastic prices on essential Mac products, including LaCie's Porsche Design 160GB External FireWire Hard Drive, MacAlly Professional Monice Cancelling Headset for iPod, Triton Sound Bite Portable USB Speaker System, Kensington PocketHub Mini Compact 4-Port USB Travel Hub, Targus Citygear Miami Messenger Notebook Case, Nikon CoolPix 4200 Digital Camera with Tripod and Case and much more.

Publishing Perfection has great deals on a variety of design and print products for your Mac, including Corel Painter IX, Corel Knockout 2, Andromeda Artistic Screening Tools, Alien Skin Eye Candy 5: Nature, Wacom Graphire 3 6x8 Graphics Tablet, Discreet Cleaner 6, Adobe Acrobat 7 Professional Upgrade, and much more.

[Bill Fox]


[1/26]
Brief Hands-On Report--Apple Security Update 2005-001 for Mac OS X 10.3.7 and 10.2.8, Client and Server: Late yesterday afternoon Apple released Security Update 2005-001. Note that Apple has changed the naming convention for security updates from a complete exact date to a year-serial number.

The new update delivers a number of security enhancements and is recommended for all Macintosh users. For detailed information on this Update, please visit this Apple web page. This update includes the following components:

at commands

Available for: Mac OS X v10.3.7, Mac OS X Server v10.3.7
CVE-ID: CAN-2005-0125
Impact: Updates the "at" commands to address a local privilege escalation vulnerability
Description: The "at" family of commands did not properly drop privileges. This could allow a local user to remove files not owned by them, run programs with added privileges, or read the contents of normally unreadable files. This update patches the commands at, atrm, batch, atq, and atrun. Credit to kf_lists[at]digitalmunition[dot]com for reporting this issue.

ColorSync

Available for: Mac OS X v10.3.7, Mac OS X Server v10.3.7, Mac OS X v10.2.8, Mac OS X Server v10.2.8
CVE-ID: CAN-2005-0126
Impact: Malformed ICC color profiles could overwrite the program heap resulting in arbitrary code execution. Description: An out-of-specification or improperly embedded ICC color profile could overwrite the program heap and allow arbitrary code execution. There are no known exploits for this issue. With this update, ColorSync will reject incorrectly-formed ICC color profiles.

libxml2

Available for: Mac OS X v10.3.7, Mac OS X Server v10.3.7
CVE-ID: CAN-2004-0989
Impact: The libxml2 library contains unsafe code that may be exploited in applications linked against it.
Description: This update fixes several functions in the libxml2 library that have been identified as unsafe due to potentially exploitable buffer overflows.

Mail

Available for: Mac OS X v10.3.7 Client, Mac OS X Server v10.3.7
CVE-ID: CAN-2005-0127
Impact: Email messages sent from a single machine can be identified
Description: A GUUID containing an identifier associated with the ethernet networking hardware was used in the construction an RFC-822 required Message-ID header. Mail now hides this information by computing the Message-ID using a cryptographic hash of the GUUID concatenated with data from /dev/random. Credit to Carl Purvis for reporting this issue.

PHP

Available for: Mac OS X v10.3.7, Mac OS X Server v10.3.7, Mac OS X v10.2.8, Mac OS X Server v10.2.8
CVE-ID: CAN-2003-0860, CAN-2003-0863, CAN-2004-0594, CAN-2004-0595, CAN-2004-1018, CAN-2004-1019, CAN-2004-1020, CAN-2004-1063, CAN-2004-1064, CAN-2004-1065
Impact: Multiple vulnerabilities in PHP including remote denial of service and execution of arbitrary code
Description: PHP is updated to version 4.3.10 to address several issues. The PHP release announcement for version 4.3.10 is located here.

Safari

Available for: Mac OS X v10.3.7, Mac OS X Server v10.3.7, Mac OS X v10.2.8, Mac OS X Server v10.2.8
CVE-ID: CAN-2004-1314
Impact: When Safari's "Block Pop-Up Windows" feature is not enabled, a malicious pop-up window could appear as being from a trusted site
Description: If the "Block Pop-Up Windows" feature is enabled, then this issue does not occur. If the "Block Pop-Up Windows" feature is not enabled, a user can be misled about the content of a Pop-up window if they used an untrusted link to navigate to a site they wanted to view. This update corrects the issue regardless of the "Block Pop-Up Windows" setting. Credit to Secunia Research for reporting this issue.

SquirrelMail

Available for: Mac OS X Server 10.3.7
CVE-ID: CAN-2004-1036
Impact: SquirrelMail is updated to address a cross-site scripting vulnerability
Description: A cross-site scripting vulnerability in SquirrelMail allowed email messages to contain content that would be rendered by a users web browser. SquirrelMail is updated to address this issue. Further details are available from the SquirrelMail web site.

We were able to update most of our Macs using the System Preferences software update pane with no problems. This included our new Mac mini that we updated using Apple Remote Desktop. However, two of our Macs, a G4 Cube and a 12" PowerBook G4, could not be updated that way. We got a "could not expand and verify" error message. We repaired permissions but to no avail so we downloaded the appropriate updater from this Apple support web page. The update installed with no further drama. So far we have no operating problems on any Mac since installing the update. [Dana Baggett & Bill Fox]


[1/26]
Game Developers Conference Design Track Highlights: GDC 2005 is coming soon, March 7-11, to San Francisco's Moscone Center West. Creating compelling, immersive games requires understanding, visualizing, demonstrating, and tuning the interactions of an ever-increasing number of game tools and systems. While game designers need to understand and exploit the possibilities of new technologies such as realistic physics, facial expressions, and lighting techniques, they must also continue to master the traditional disciplines of drama, gameplay, and psychology. The Game Design Track explores the challenges and ramifications of the interaction between new technologies and established techniques.

Here are some of the Game Design Track highlights:

  • Normalcy and Displacement Map, Sitting in a Tree (Matthias Worch)
  • Raising the Bar on In-Game Animation (Jeremy Cantor)
  • The Road to Victory: Procedural Modeling for EA Sports NASCAR Thunder (Wesley Grandmont III)
  • Game Design Atoms: Can Game Designs Be Diagrammed? (Raph Koster)
  • Storytelling Across Genres: BioWare's Perspective (Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk)

Registration for GDC 2005 is open now. [Bill Fox]


[1/25]
Update 6--Sp@mX, the Road to Near Zero Spam: We are using Sp@mX from HSC to try to reduce the 4000+ spam messages that we received weekly prior to using it. Our initial review of Sp@mX v3.0.5 appeared on December 13th and we have issued weekly progress reports since then ( 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5). The $20 Sp@mX automatically processes spam messages and provides reports to the adminstrators of servers that handled the spam on its way to you with a request to block its originator. It relies on them to follow through. In addition, Sp@mX can be configured to send copies of your spam to the FTC and DoJ. We completed Week 6 last Friday and here are the results:

Weekly Results from Using Sp@mX
Week of Use # Spam Processed Abuse Reports Failed Deliveries
6
1246
218
206
5
1385
304
855
4
1352
213
137
3
1145
101
54
2
1640
213
75
1
2523
191
75
0
4000+
n/a
n/a

Our spam load during week 6 declined over 100 from the previous 2 weeks. But for the past four weeks it seems that we have reached some kind of a plateau, averaging 1282 with a range of 1145-1385.

What could be causing this plateau in the road to near zero spam? Well one thing is inattention (or worse) from too many mail server administrators. We note that most of our spam now generates server abuse addresses in Eastern Europe, Korea and China, also where most of our failed deliveries are from, i.e. many of the abuse mail addresses in those countries lead to blocked or full mailboxes. It seems that one way to quickly reduce our spam further is to block/delete all email handled by servers from those countries at our host's email server since we never get any legitimate email from people in those countries anyway.

Sp@mX is up to version 3.2.6 as of this report. The interface has continued to improve as has its functionality. Recent versions have included a script to export spam from BareBones' Mailsmith 2 in a format that Sp@mX can use, adding more convenience for Mac users.

Our spam dropped precipituously during the first three weeks of using Sp@mX, a two-thirds reduction in our spam from the level from before we began using Sp@mX. We think this is an outstanding achievement. At least the FTC and California DoJ got another 1246 spam message examples from us last week. But because we are on a four-week plateau, we will issue our next report when the amount of spam makes a significant change from the average over the past four weeks. [Bill Fox--Disclaimer: HSC is now an advertiser on Macs Only!]


[1/25]
Apple Pro Stories Updated: In the past week Apple has updated several of its Pro pages with examples of people successfully using Macintosh hardware and/or software:

Design--Jacob Colie

Video--Harold Moss

Video--Bob Arnot

[Dana Baggett]


[1/24]
Apple's New 1.25GHz Mac mini--How Fast Is It? On Saturday we bought a base 1.25 GHz Mac mini at the Fashion Valley Apple Store in San Diego when the store opened. We didn't buy it because it's a speed demon, but because of what it can do for the remarkable price of $499. Apple intends the Mac mini to be an ideal starter Mac for cost-conscious PC switchers, and it is, but many Mac minis will find their way into homes and offices of Mac users as well--like ours, for example.

While those in Saturday morning's line at the Fashion Valley Apple Store were mostly looking for an iPod shuffle, there were many Mac mini buyers as well. Apple will be happy to know that every Mac mini buyer in line close to us, all well under the age of 30, intended to buy a Mac mini to replace their Windows PC. We got a few questions of concern from them about the Mac mini's speed and RAM compliment. Most planned to buy the $599 1.42 GHz model--the MHz myth lives on. Of course, we think the Mac mini (either model) is plenty fast for the normal computing jobs that they planned to tackle. We also advised them not worry about the base 256MB RAM. It is likely that they will find that 256MB works just fine based on our test of last week.

Our 1.25GHz Mac mini came in the now famous small box with a gray handle along with a small white plastic power brick and a DVI to VGA video adapter. Also included was a small gray box with a system restore/bundled software/hardware test DVD, a Mac OS 9 install DVD, an iLife '05 DVD, a 105-page user guide and the usual white Apple logo stickers, software proof-of-purchase coupons, software license and one-year limited warranty.

We hooked it up to our ethernet network and 17" display with a DVI to ADC adapter and then plugged it into the power brick. We plugged our D-Link Bluetooth module and USB mouse into USB ports on the display and pushed the power button. The only setup glitch we encountered was that our Bluetooth Apple Wireless Keyboard was not recognized initially so we had to use a wired USB keyboard for setup. After the setup it worked fine.

We had to install iLife '05 and Mac OS 9 from their DVDs. We also had to download and install a number of recent software updates. While we didn't mind all this extra "work" it is probably not the best experience for a switcher. Finally, we installed Apple Remote Desktop Client, M$ Office 2004 and our test suite applications.

So how fast is it? We subjected our 1.25GHz Mac mini to most of our usual speed tests. We compared the results with those from our original 2000-vintage 450MHz Power Mac G4 Cube, stock except for the 704MB of RAM, and our 2004-vintage dual 2.5GHz Power Mac G5--all running Mac OS X 10.3.7. Here are the specifications of the three computers:

Specs of the $499 Mac mini, G4 Cube and Power Mac G5
Feature
$499 Mac mini
Stock G4 Cube
Power Mac G5
CPU Speed
1.25GHz
450MHz
Dual 2.5GHz
L2 Cache
512KB
1MB
2x512KB
System Bus
167Hz
100Hz
1.25GHz
RAM
256MB
704MB
1.5GB
Graphics
Radeon 9200, 32MB
Radeon 128 Pro, 16MB
Nvidia 6800U, 256MB
Hard Disk
40GB, 4200RPM
20GB, 5400RPM
160GB, 7200

Our speed tests consist of several canned benchmark applications and several so-called "real world" tests. They are all easy to do on your own computer--see our Speed FAQ for details. Here are the results:

Mac mini Speed Tests (average scores or secs)*
Test Mac mini
G4 Cube
PM G5
Benchmarks:
Altivec Fractal 1.1.3 (GFLOPS)
4.5
1.5
12.7
Cinebench 2003 - Rendering
113
49
644
- OpenGL Hardware Lighting
441
91
1579
Let1kWindowsBloom 1.0 (sec)
34
53
11
Xbench 1.1.3 - CPU
152
54
243
- Threading
111
42
260
- Memory
129
76
335
- Quartz Graphics
161
73
342
- OpenGL Graphics
111
81
178
- User Interface Graphics
208
104
410
- Hard Disk
57
52
108
"Real World" Tests:
Startup (sec)
50
54
38
Shutdown (sec)
19
15
9
Launch Classic Mode (sec)
13
26
9
Dup. 700 MB Folder 3600 Files (sec)
94
153
56
Scroll 142p Acrobat Reader File (sec)
25
55
12
Encode MP3 in iTunes 4.7 (sec)
53
119
54
Export QT Movie in iMovie 4.0.1 (sec)
46
34
19
Quake III Arena 1.32 (frames/sec)
89
34
407

*Faster = higher scores and lower seconds.

For the most part the Mac mini's performance falls comfortably in between that of the older G4 Cube and the latest Power Mac G5. The hard drive is on the slow side as expected since it is a PowerBook hard drive and the Mac mini's time to shutdown and to export a QuickTime movie in Full Quality DV are longer than expected. Each of the three trials of those two tests were consistent so we have no explanation. The good news is that the graphics results, including those for the 3D game Quake III Arena, are surprisingly better than we expected.

RAM. What about the 256MB of RAM? Curiously, ours came with a PC3200 DDR 400MHz RAM module rather than the slower 333MHz PC2700 DDR RAM which is the Mac mini's specification. Last week we tested whether 256MB RAM was sufficient for most uses with Mac OS X 10.3.7 in an upgraded G4 Cube. Basically, we ran Xbench with no other applications open except it and Activity Monitor and then we re-ran Xbench after opening five RAM-sucking applications: Safari, Apple Mail, iTunes, M$ Word and M$ Excel. Opening the applications resulted in a minor performance hit but increasing RAM to 512MB and 1GB did not ameliorate the performance hit by much at best.

We re-ran the tests with and without apps on our Mac mini. The first table below shows that opening the five additional applications uses up all of the free RAM except for 7MB.

Mac mini RAM Utilization With and Without Apps Open
256MB
RAM Allocation
No Apps
Apps
Wired
37
42
Active
97
138
Inactive
48
69
Subtotal Used
183
249
Free
73
7
Total
256
256

The second table below shows the results without the applications open and with them open. We also included the results from a 1.42 GHz Mac mini posted on this web page.

Xbench 1.1.3 Scores With and Without Apps Open*
$499 Mac mini
$599 Mac mini
Test
No Apps
Apps
No Apps
CPU
152
142
171
Thread
111
104
126
Memory
129
123
139
Quartz Graphics
161
157
145
OpenGL Graphics
111
103
122
User Interface
208
191
201
Disk
57
56
55
Print Time (sec)
31
31
n/a
*Average of 3 runs for $499 Mac mini.

Like in our upgraded G4 Cube test, opening the five applications to use up almost all of the available free RAM caused a minor performance hit, no greater than 8 per cent and mostly less. We did not have PC2700 DDR RAM modules in 512MB or 1GB sizes to confirm our G4 Cube results on the Mac mini but we are confident that they would. Besides an amelioration of a minor effect would also be minor. In addition, we tried printing a 5-page document (yellow row in the table above) and there was no difference in time to print the document. Our view is that Mac OS X's excellent RAM management capabilities will provide acceptable performance with Mac mini's base 256MB RAM for the uses that most people will make of their computers. The RAM myth should be buried with the MHz myth.

Upgrading. If you are not too faint of heart, the Mac mini's case can be opened with a very thin 1.5" putty knife, Apple's official tool--believe it or not. A QuickTime video clip showing the use of a putty knife to crack open the Mac mini's case is available from Smash's web site. In addition, he posted access to what appears to be an Apple PDF file of the Mac mini service manual that confirms the putty knife is Apple's official opener tool. It also shows that a user can not easily add AirPort Extreme or Bluetooth since the so-called mezzanine board and antennas are not in the Mac mini.

We opened our Mac mini with a 4" putty knife because that appeared to be the width needed to press simultaneously all of the clips on one side. Still, it was not as easy as it looks. We suggest sliding the end of a small wooden dowel in the space between the top case and the ports block to hold the first side up while working on the second side. That way the edges of the aluminum top won't get scarred. We have an extra AirPort Extreme card and had hoped to install it. We confirmed that there is no mezzanine board or antenna inside a base Mac mini. So, if you want AirPort Extreme, be sure to order it CTO from the online Apple Store. It can be installed later by an Apple authorized service tech but it will include the Bluetooth module as well and cost more than $129. An alternative is to use a non-Apple USB Wi-Fi product. More RAM can be added easily after purchase if you open the case. Bluetooth capability can be added inexpensively as an external USB module.

Summary. The Mac mini is an outstanding entry level computer. Even in base form, it certainly performs well enough to do all of the usual tasks done by most people on a computer and then some. It's design is also oustanding from industrial and artistic perspectives. In the "then some" category, our Mac mini sits on top of our large screen TV but that is for another article. [Bill Fox]


[1/24]
MacTracker v3.0.1 with Mac mini and iPod shuffle Specs is Out: Mactracker 3.0.1 is available via MacUpdate. It provides detailed information on every Apple Macintosh ever made plus information on Apple monitors, printers, scanners, digital cameras, Newtons and versions of the Mac OS. What's new in Version 3.0.1:

• Adds latest Apple hardware
• iApp-style user interface
• Ability to search most of the database
• Ability to attach files and Internet addresses to Resources tab
• Adds 64 x 64 model icons
• Adds Metric (SI) weight and dimension values
• Mactracker for iPod installed integrated (Mac OS X release)

[Dana Baggett]


[1/22]
Gettin' Our Mac mini, iLife '05 and iWork at the Apple Store this Morning--with Photos: When we finally looked at the Mac mini on Apple's online store in the days following Steve Jobs' keynote address at Macworld 2005, the time to ship was listed at 3-4 weeks. We ordered a 512MB iPod shuffle that said 1-2 weeks but decided not to risk being the last Mac web site to get a Mac mini--we resolved to get in line early and buy one at the Fashion Valley Apple Store in San Diego on their announced availability date, today. We decided to do the same for iWork and iLife '05, the latter coming with the Mac mini. It may have been a mistake since our iPod shuffle arrived in a few days instead of 1-2 weeks and many reported receiving their Mac mini ordered through Apple's online store on Thursday. Anyway...

We arrived at the Fashion Valley Apple Store at 8:15 a.m PST. While the normal opening time is 10 a.m., we got a tip from a store staffer that they were going to open an hour earlier today when we called earlier in the week to confirm that they would actually have some Mac minis for sale. There was a short line when we arrived, only 8 people waiting and most were there to get an iPod shuffle. Rene Lopez was the first in line. He told Macs Only! that he had arrived at 5:45 a.m. and that the second person had arrived about 6 a.m. Rene was there to get two iPod shuffles, a 512MB model and a 1GB model. While we were talking to him, the line doubled and we could see a lot more people coming down the mall. By the time the store opened at 9 a.m. there were more than 50 people in line, maybe as many as 100 or so.

At a few minutes before 9 a.m. several store staffers came out and went down the line writing orders so merchandise could be organized for quicker checkouts. Apparently they only had a few $99 512MB iPod shuffles. A person just in front of me, about #15 in line, got the last one. He had planned to get a 1GB model but after discussing the iPod shuffle with us, he decided to save $50 and get the smaller model. Like us, he has all of his music on his computer and 5-6 hours of music carried around on an iPod is more than enough before re-docking and loading on different songs. We hope he doesn't regret it later. We were happy that, as #17 in line, a base $499 Mac mini was still available.

At 9 a.m., they let all of us who successfully placed an order inside and the checkout line stretched from the front of the store back to the theater. We had hoped that the Apple Store Genius could install an Apple AirPort Extreme card in our Mac mini but the store was not doing accessory installations on the spot today. We took our Mac mini (with an iLife '05 disc inside) and iWork software home, stopping on the way only at Home Depot for a set of unofficial Mac mini opening tools. [Bill Fox]


[1/22]
Apple Revised the offerings from Five Hot Deals Retailers:

AudioMIDI has fantastic deals on a wide range of audio products for your Mac, including Native Instruments' NI Komplete Care 2005 LTO Pre-Launch Offer, M-Audio Ozonic Integrated Audio/MIDI Keyboard Controller, Harmann Neuron VS, pHATfactory 001, iDrum/GarageBand Jam Pack Combo, and much more.

Office Depot has fantastic deals on essential products for your Mac, including Kodak's EasyShare CX7430 Digital Camera, Canon Ultra-Compact Elura 50MC Digital Camcorder, Microtek 710S 17" LCD Flat Panel Display, H&R Block TaxCut Premium 2004 for Mac, Adobe Photoshop CS Upgrade, Kensington Optical Pocketmouse Pro with Retractable Cord, and much more.

Tech Depot has exclusive Hot Deals on great products for your Mac, including Belkin's TuneCast II FM Transmitter, Battery Technology High Capacity External Battery for iPod (with dock connector), Speck iPod Skins 3 Color Pack, Keyspan USB Mini 4-Port USB Hub, SimpleTech Bonzai Express 1GB USB Flash Drive, MacAlly USB Mini Graphics Tablet, and much more.

O'Reilly has exclusively Hot Deals discounts for many of it's most popular Mac titles, including iPhoto 4: The Missing Manual, Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Panther Ed., Modding Mac OS X, Revolution in the Valley, Photo Retouching with Photoshop: A Designer's Notebook, and much more.

Ramjet has super low prices on RAM upgrades for your Mac, including 2GB DDR Kit for Power Mac G5, 512MB DDR DIMM for Power Mac G4, 512MB PC-2700 for Aluminum PowerBook G4, 512MB Module for Titanium PowerBook G4, 1GB DDR Kit for iMac G4, and much more.

[Bill Fox]


[1/21]
Apple iLife '05 and iPod Shuffle Online Orders Arriving: We received our iPod Shuffle on Monday 1/17. It was ordered from the Apple Store on the evening of Wednesday 1/12. Look for a review shortly.

Reader Joe Sacco received his iLife '05 order yesterday:

Rather interesting...I ordered iLife 05 from Apple store (with their free shipping) and it just arrived by FedEx, two days before it was supposed to arrive!

[Bill Fox]


[1/21]
The Apple Developer Connection Published "Configuring and Running X11 Applications on Mac OS X": X11 is a widely used graphical user interface on UNIX, and on a Macintosh computer, X11 is compatible, fast, and fully integrated with Mac OS X. This means that many existing X11 applications from the UNIX world are available to use for free—but you need to know the "secret handshake" in order to get started. This new Apple article intructs one on how to set up X11 on Mac OS X, and download and install open source applications like OpenOffice and Fink. [Bill Fox]


[1/21]
Apple iPod Portable Amp--The Simpl Acoustics A1: Do you want better sound out of youe iPod, sound that only an amp can provide? Well Simpl Acoustics makes one called the A1 for $149 which clips on the back of an iPod with a 12-hr rechargeable battery. It has the same glossy white color as the iPod. Here is an AP review which claims outstanding sound from an A1-equipped iPod. [Dana Baggett]


[1/21]
Giga Designs Announced Dual 1.6GHz G4 CPU and VRM for G4 Cube: Giga Designs announced a new VRM (Voltage Regulation Module) and dual G4 processor upgrades will be available for the Power Mac G4 Cube next month with a three year limited warranty.

The Cube VRM supports Giga Designs multi-voltage power sharing architecture. It can also be used in Power Mac Cubes with Giga Designs and other manufacturers 7455 based G4 processor upgrades and/or upgraded graphics and hard disc drives. The VRM is included with all Giga Designs Dual processor Cube upgrades and is also sold separately. The VRM is the weakpoint in the G4 Cube so we are glad to see one being offered. It will sell for $99.

The G-celerator Cube 7A series dual processor upgrade uses the latest G4 (7447A) processors available from Freescale (formerly Motorola). Each processor has a 512KB on chip L2 cache running at the full processor speed. The CPU is rated at 1.42GHz but guaranteed to run at 1.6GHz. The dual 1.6 GHz G4 CPU with VRM will sell for $749. [Bill Fox]


[1/21]
O'Reilly Released "QuickTime for Java: A Developer's Notebook": Java has been a huge success in many fields--distributed enterprise applications, mobile phones, web applications--but, according to Chris Adamson, author of "QuickTime for Java: A Developer's Notebook" (O'Reilly, $29.95), one field in which Java has clearly flopped is media. From the first sound API, javax.sound, through the various releases of Java Media Framework (JMF), developers have been regularly disappointed in attempts to support media programming in Java. Enter Apple's QuickTime, or more specifically, QuickTime for Java. QTJ is a powerful multimedia toolkit adding audio, video, or interaction playback and creation to applications. But, one shortcoming of QTJ is that getting started with it can be challenging. In terms of class-count, it's nearly as large as Java 1.1, and the included JavaDocs are somewhat lacking.


[1/20]
ThinkSecret.com's Nick Ciarelli Gets Free Lawyer: Nick Ciarelli (aka Nick dePlume) is the 19-year-old Harvard student whose company owns the web site ThinkSecret.com sued by Apple Computer for illegally soliciting and publishing the companiy's trade secrets. Yesterday, Terry Gross of Gross and Belsky, a San Francisco law firm, became the defendant's lawyer at no cost according to this Forbes article. Mr. Ciarelli has claimed that neither his company that owns ThinkSecret.com nor he has sufficient funds to hire a lawyer to defend the company in Santa Clara County, CA, where Apple filed the suit. Technically, it's Mr. Ciarelli's company that has been sued and not Mr. Ciarelli personally. Apple seeks to discover the alleged illegal sources, to prevent Think Secret from continuing to publish it's trade secrets and unspecified compensation for damages. It is possible should Apple prevail that almost any compensation would put Mr. Ciarelli's company out of business, since it doesn't have enough cash even to hire a lawyer, and give title of its assets, including the domain name ThinkSecret.com, to Apple. Mr. Gross plans to file a motion to toss out the case based on the US Constitution's First Amendment protection of freedom of speech. Apple's suit is based on the Uniform Trade Secrets Act adopted by 44 states including California. [Dana Baggett]



[1/20]
Aspyr 2005 Game Report--What's Coming: Aspyr is expecting to make quite a few early 2005 releases, including: Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour, DOOM 3 and True Crime: Streets of L.A. Last week at Macworld Expo 2005, Aspyr announced that the new games under development for the Mac are: Black Hawk Down: Team Sabre, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 2005 and Star Wars: Battlefront. These games are expected to hit the shelves in the "...next few months."

We're waiting for DOOM 3. Fortunately for many Mac users, Aspyr announced that G4's will be officially supported in DOOM 3, but the minimum processor speed will still remain the same as the PC--1.5 GHz. DOOM 3 will push CPU and graphics technology to the limits so Mac gamers with G5's will have the best opportunity to experience it at its richest. [Bill Fox]


[1/20]
Some Apple Stores Have Free Game Night: According to Aspyr, several Apple stores are hosting a free Game Night every Friday from 7-9 p.m. One can experience the latest and greatest games for the Mac. Apple Stores that offer free Game Night include: Barton Creek (Austin, TX, featuring Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour on January 21st), The Grove (LA, CA), and the Third Street Promenade (Santa Monica, CA). Check with your local Apple Store. [Bill Fox]


[1/20]
Apple Pro Tip of the Week--Make Compressed (.zip) Files with One Click: Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther) has the ability to create compressed (.zip) files to include with emails with just one click of the mouse. Just Control-click on the file and choose "Create Archive of...." No other software is needed. There are also other ways so here are the details. [Dana Baggett]


[1/20]
Apple Revised the Offerings from Four Hot Deals Retailers:

MacConnection has fantastic prices on essential Mac products, including a FREE Hewlett Packard DeskJet 3650 with the purchase of any Apple CPU, Macromedia Studio MX 2004, JBL OnStage iPod Docking Speaker System, Altec Lansing iMmini iPod mini Audio System, Microsoft Virtual PC 7 for Mac with Windows XP Pro, Nikon D70 Digital SLR Camera with Lens and $100 mail-in rebate, and much more.

J&R has great prices on top quality Mac products, including Aspyr Media's Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Stealth Action Defined, Brother MFC-210C Color Flatbed Multi Function Device with $30 mail-in rebate, Canon XL-2 MiniDV Digital Camcorder, Hercules DJ Console/Controller for Mac, MacAlly IceMini USB Optical Mouse, Midiman Audiophile 2496 MIDI Digital Recording Interface, and much more.

ClubMac has great deals on essential Mac products, including Belkin's Pink Leather Pouch for iPod mini, Altec Lansing Gt5051 4 Speaker 5.1 Surround Sound System, Freeverse Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood, Belkin Tunebase for iPod mini, Sony External Dual-Layer DVD±RW Drive, Aspyr Media Call of Duty: United Offensive Expansion Pack, Adobe Acrobat 7, Roxio Popcorn for Mac with $10 mail-in rebate, and much more.

Apple's Clearance Section of Hot Deals, dedicated entirely to end-of-life and clearance Mac and Mac OS X products from all of your favorite retailers, boasts some newly added offers, including Smart Media's 128MB Secure Digital Card, Dr. Bott ExtendAir Direct WiFi Wireless Antenna, Epson L-410 Digital Camera, Nikon D-100 Digital SLR Camera, and much more.

[Bill Fox]


[1/20]
Justice Department Scores Criminal Convictions for Illegal P2P File Sharing: Two members of the file-sharing group Underground Network were convicted yesterday of copyright infringement that could result in 5 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, restitution and forfeiture of all illegally obtained material and the equipment used to copy it according to this InternetNews.com article. The two actually pleaded guilty. They owned hubs that provided copies of movies, games, songs and software worth millions of dollars through the sharing of such files through the hubs. [Dana Baggett]


[1/19]
See Cool Animations of Titan in Apple QuickTime Video: VendorNation posted the two most recent flight animations of the surface of Titan. Further information on the INAF scientific web sites can be visited as well from the Vendornation web site. They are selling the VistaPro Renderer, which only runs on Windows, but the QuickTime clips are cool. [Bill Fox]


[1/19]
Wireless Internet (Wi-Fi) is Rapidly Taking Over the Globe--Free Auto-updating Directory: There are some 50,000 Wi-Fi hotspots according to this Yahoo News article. London leads the globe for cities with over 1100. The US leads among countries and California leads among states, but the number one US city, New York, is third with the top California city, San Francisco, a mere ninth among cities worldwide. The article got its data from Jiwire, a great resource for finding Wi-Fi hotspots. Jiwire has a free auto-updating Wi-Fi directory that can be downloaded and carried on a PowerBook or iBook (registration required). The directory is updated when connected to the internet. We used it to find 18 free hotspots in San Diego, CA. [Dana Baggett]


[1/19]
Firefox Continues to Chip Away at Internet Explorer's Lead: Firefox, the Mozilla Project's standalone open source web browser, reached nearly a 5 per cent share in past month according to this Yahoo News article. Internet Explorer still accounts for 90 per cent of web browsers but that's down 3 per cent since October when Firefox 1.0 was released in final. [Dana Baggett]


[1/18]
Apple's New Mac mini--Is 256MB of RAM Enough? Our Pre Hands-On Trials: Early in the life of Mac OS X, Apple was providing a meagre 64MB of RAM with many of its Macs, RAM was expensive and people were grousing. So we conducted a study of how much RAM was needed to run Mac OS X smoothly. We found that the sweet spot for general Mac use was 256MB, i.e. the benefits from increasing RAM dropped off precipitously using over 256MB. Of course, that was early in the development of Mac OS X, G4 CPU speed was stalled at 500MHz and RAM was more expensive than today. Does our conclusion still apply today?

Many long-time Mac users are now used to using more than 256MB of RAM and the real power users are pushing installed RAM well past 2GB. The speed of processing large image files is nearly directly related to the amount of RAM. But most Mac users from among the 14 million using Mac OS X don't process huge images. All of today's consumer Macs come with 256MB, as do the low end of the PowerBooks and Power Macs, and the top end PowerBooks and Power Macs come with just 512MB.

The base consumer $499 Mac mini and upscale $599 model also come with 256MB. So what is all the grousing about? It is partly because Apple made the Mac mini difficult to get open to upgrade RAM or anything else for that matter. This is a smart move by Apple because the margin on the base Mac mini has to be really thin. People fiddling inside will surely result in more repair returns and help suck the thin profit out of the Mac mini. In addition, it provides an opportunity for resellers to get a bit more out of a sale for those wanting more RAM.

Why do people want more RAM? Well, some are just plain used to it. Then, there are some who see the Mac mini as a cheap alternative to an iMac G5 or Power Mac G5 for work that should be done on an iMac G5 or Power Mac G5. Really? C'mon, give us a break.

The Mac mini is an inexpensive base Mac that runs Mac OS X and it is intended for general low end users, especially Wintel users. Apple has clearly gone through great pains to ensure that it does not compete with an iMac G5 or Power Mac G5. But this does not mean that the Mac mini might not fit some niches of current Mac users. We see several and plan to get a base $499 Mac mini as soon as they are out.

We can't really answer the question of whether we need more RAM or not without actually having a Mac mini in hand. But we can use a Mac that is roughly similar in specs and see how it performs as guidance. So we used our upgraded 1.4GHz G4 Cube as a proxy to try 256MB, 512MB and 1GB of RAM. Here is a chart comparing the two:

Specs of the $599 Mac mini and Our G4 Cube
Feature
$599 Mac mini
Upgraded G4 Cube
CPU Speed
1.42GHz
1.4GHz
L3 Cache
0
2MB
System Bus
167Hz
100Hz
Graphics
Radeon 9200, 32MB
GeForce 2, 32MB
Hard Disk
80GB, 4200RPM
80GB, 7200RPM

The upgraded G4 Cube has a faster hard drive and L3 cache but otherwise the $599 Mac mini has a slight speed advantage.

We used Xbench 1.1.3 to test the speed the G4 Cube with Mac OS X 10.3.7 and 256MB, 512MB and 1GB of RAM. We tested it with no other applications open and with a RAM-sucking set of applications open: Safari, Apple Mail, iTunes, Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. Someone was able to run Xbench on a $599 Mac mini with 1 GB RAM at Macworld and posted the results. Here are the results as compared with the posted $599 Mac mini results:

RAM Utilization at Different Amounts of Installed RAM
256MB
512MB
1GB
RAM Allocation
No Apps
Apps
No Apps
Apps
No Apps
Apps
Wired
38
47
50
60
67
75
Active
97
134
81
137
81
122
Inactive
56
70
52
180
51
166
Subtotal Used
192
250
183
377
200
364
Free
64
6
329
135
824
660
Total
256
256
512
512
1024
1024

We opened enough applications to just use up the available RAM at 256MB. There is only 6MB of free RAM with 256MB of RAM and all applications, including Xbench and Activity monitor. The average user will likely not have all of them open at any given time.

Xbench 1.1.3 Scores*
256MB
512MB
1GB
$599 Mac mini
Test
No Apps
Apps
No Apps
Apps
No Apps
Apps
No Apps
CPU
167
153
167
156
167
160
171
Thread
119
115
121
117
120
115
126
Memory
99
101
102
101
103
101
139
Quartz Graphics
148
145
153
152
150
148
145
OpenGL Graphics
125
117
128
119
124
119
122
User Interface
227
203
229
212
225
211
201
Disk
87
85
87
88
88
88
55

*Average of 3 runs.

First of all, the Xbench scores for the tests without open applications (green columns) are virtually identical among the three installed RAM levels for the Cube. They are also similar to those of the $599 Mac mini, except for the Memory test due to the Mac mini's faster RAM and System Bus. The three tests at 256MB that show the most effect of saturating memory with open applications (comparing the green and red columns) are CPU (-8%), OpenGL Graphics (-6%) and User Interface (-11%), noted in yellow in the first column. These effects are still fairly small and may not be statistically significant.

The question is, are the effects significantly ameliorated by adding more RAM? The CPU and OpenGL effects are slightly ameliorated. For the largest effect, User Interface, the 11% gap is reduced to 6-7%, not worth the cost of adding additional RAM in our opinion.

From these tests, we conclude that it is unlikely that the base Mac mini would need more that 256MMB of RAM for most low-end general computer users. We will see directly when we get our base Mac mini--stay tuned.

[Bill Fox]


[1/18]
Apple .Mac Servers Down for Maintenance on Saturday, January 22nd at 10 p.m.: In case you didn't receive the message and have a .Mac account, here is a copy of the notice that we received:

Dear .Mac Member,

.Mac services will be unavailable due to scheduled maintenance from Saturday, Jan. 22nd at 10 p.m. until Sunday, Jan. 23rd at 6 a.m. (PST). Included in this outage are all web-based services and iDisk. New iChat sessions will be temporarily unavailable during the beginning of this maintenance period. Email access from a client application, however, will not be affected. We regret any inconvenience this causes and appreciate your support as we continue to enhance our service. You can review system status on the .Mac support page at http://www.apple.com/support/dotmac/.

Warm regards,

The .Mac Team

[Bill Fox]


[1/18]
Apple Revised the Offerings from One Hot Deals Retailer:

Publishing Perfection has great deals on a variety of design and print products for your Mac, including Corel Painter IX, Jenka Dielines, Discreet Cleaner 6, Adobe Acrobat 7 Professional Upgrade, Curious Labs Shade 7 Designer LE, RedRock Software DeltaGraph, MatchLight 3.0 Pro, Human Software Xfile, and much more.

[Bill Fox]


[1/17]
New Pricing of Apple Software and Accessories Beginning to Emerge:

  • iLife '05 which includes iTunes 4.7.1, iPhoto 5, iMovie HD, iDVD 5, and GarageBand 2.0 is $79 as announced during Steve Jobs' Macworld keynote address. However, there are three new twists:

    • iLife '05 Up-to-Date for $20--Macs bought after 1/11/05 until 3/18/05 that do not include iLife '05. Claims must be postmarked or faxed by 3/18/05.
    • iLife '05 Family Pack for $99--5 licenses for in-home use only.
    • iMovie HD alone for $10--This was posted on MacMinute claiming it was "buried in Apple's web site" but we couldn't find the page to confirm it.

  • Apple Keyboards and Mice--USB wired for $29 each (down from $49) and wireless for $59 each (down from $69) or as a set with the Mac mini for $99. See the Apple Store.

We hope that the MacMinute report of a standalone iMovie HD for $10 bears out and that it extends to other components of iLife '05, especially iPhoto5. We mostly use iPhoto 5 and we are sure that is true of many people. However, we'd be really surprised to see the components sold for less than $19-25. [Bill Fox]


[1/17]
Hands On Report--Sp@mX, the Road to Near Zero Spam at Week 5: Are we there yet? Not just yet. While we have seen our weekly volume of spam messages drop precipitously while using Sp@mX, we forgot to reconfigure Sp@mX for our hotel at Macworld during week 5 resulting in no further progress and many delivery failure notices in return.

It has been 5 weeks since we began a trial of Sp@mX, now up three more updates to v3.2.2, by Hendrickson Software Components (hsc). We bought it for $19.95 with a money-back gurarantee to see if it could significantly reduce our 4000+ weekly spam messgages. We have double filtered our spam but it's not 100% accurate and, therefore, we had to follow a highly time-consuming daily activity. We also occasionally missed and lost an important email.

Sp@mX is not a filtering application. It automatically reports spam to the various server administrators that handled the spam on its way to us. Sp@mX also allows us to send copies to the FTC and the California Dept. of Justice. It relies on server administrators to take action to block our spam based on the reports. We really like Sp@mx's proactive fight-back approach. Here is our initial review of v3.0.2. The developer, Jeff Hendrickson, has continuously improved the product such that now, at v3.2.2, it automatically parses Apple Mail and Eudora Mail files and has a much better Mac OS X user interface.

We provided a progress report at the end of weeks one, two, three and four of our Sp@mX trial. How did we do during week five? Here is a table showing the number of spam messages we received and processed each week:

Spam messages per week while using Sp@mX
Week of Trial
Before
1
2
3
4
5
4000+
2523
1640
1145
1352
1385

After a continuous week to week decline in spam through week 3 that resulted in at least a 71 per cent reduction, we saw an increase during week four of 18 per cent and another small increase during week five of 2 percent. We still have over 65 per cent less spam that before we started using Sp@mX.

We occasionally get back automated reponses to Sp@mX reports from server administrators. Here is a table showing the number of abuse reports we received back each week:

Abuse reports per week while using Sp@mX
Week of Trial
Before
1
2
3
4
5
0
191
213
101
213
304

The number is up despite our email configuration errors. Are we getting a better class of spam?

We also get Returned Mail error messages in response to Sp@mX reports. Here is a table showing the number of failed delivery responses:

Failed report deliveries per week while using Sp@mX
Week of Trial
Before
1
2
3
4
5
0
75
75
54
137
855

We received 855 delivery failure notifications, a huge number for one week. We received only 54 in total up to last week and only 7 this past weekend.

Our spam load is not yet "near zero" but the huge difference has saved us an enormous amount of time and angst. HSC has a money-back guarantee on its $20 Sp@mX if it does not drive spam to near zero. But we are not going to pack it in yet. We are going to give the latest version another week to see if it can diminish our email further.

Jeff Hedrickson, Sp@mX's developer, wrote that he is continuing to improve it. On his agenda this week are:

  • Check for fake URLs in message body;
  • Validate email addresses before send; and
  • Possibly an Apple Script to automate Sp@mX's use with SpamSieve.

[Bill Fox--Disclaimer: HSC is now an advertiser on Macs Only!]


[1/17]
New Alsoft DiskWarrior CD Booting iMac G5 and Power Mac G5 is Available: Alsoft has announced a newly available DiskWarrior CD:

Note: As of 01/07/2005, DiskWarrior CD (revision 36) is now shipping to start up a Power Mac G5 with the new 30" Cinema Display. Additionally, the current CD will now start up an iMac G5 with an Apple wireless keyboard and mouse.

[Dana Baggett]


[1/17]
Dantz Released New Retrospect 6.0 Driver Update (RDU) v6.1.102: The version 6.1.102 driver for Retrospect 6.0 for Macintosh can be dowloaded from this Dantz web page. [Dana Baggett]


[1/17]
TurboTax (Mac) 2004 Updates are Available from within the application or as a download from this Intuit web page. The updates are partucularly important if you are an early filer. [Dana Baggett]


[1/17]
Apple Pro Tip of the Week--The Hidden Dock Preferences Shortcut: The Dock's preferences can be accessed from the System Preferences application, from under the Apple menu and by control-clicking on the dividing line in the Dock. See the Apple Pro Tip here. [Dana Baggett]


[1/15]
MW2005--Hands-On Report 3, Walkin' the Expo Floor: This is our final report of the best of the things that we got to see and try during the Macworld Expo 2005 in San Francisco--see Reports 1 and 2. Because of the compressed space, we were able to pass by every booth as we walked the show floor for one and a half days. Unfortunately, we were unable to stop at every booth that appeared to have something new that might intrigue us and our readers. It would take three days solid to do that. However, we did see a lot of great Mac stufff and were able to stop at and check out about 70 per cent that appeared to fit our interest criteria. Here is our third and final report.

Sonance showed us their newest version of iPort with supporft for iPod photo and with expanded control capability. The iPort (not the serial port made by Griffin Technology for the first iMac) is an in-wall-mounted docking station for the 4G click-wheel iPods, including the iPod photo and iPod mini. It is made from polished ABS plastic and looked modernistic and attractive to us. The iPort provides video output from iPod photo, as well as audio output, to display photos and slide shows on TVs as well as to play music over home entertainment systems. The enhanced remote control allows one to control almost all of the iPod functions with the additional NaviPod receiver. The iPort has a DC power supply that charges an iPod when docked. The iPort sells for $598 and will be available with video output in February.

Corriente Networks demoed their new Wi-Fi network security software, Elektron. It provides RADIUS services to make wireless networks of small businesses more secure. Elektron, thus, allows small businesses to have the same high security as large enterprise businesses with:

  • Authentication--Lets network administrators control who is able to access the network on a person-by-person basis.
  • Encryption--Prevents eavesdropping of network communications while data is in transit, even from other legitimate users.
  • Logging--Shows who is trying to access the network, and when.

Elektron software installs on any Mac on the network to serve as a RADIUS authentication server. It installs easily using the Mac OS X installer. A Setup Assistant walks one through the configuration process which appeared to be very simple and straight forward to us. The AirPort Express or Extreme Base Station is then set for WPA Enterprise security rather than WEP or WPA Personal. When a Mac tries to connect wirelessly, a simple dialog box prompt for a username and password is presented. If it is the first time, the certificate sent by the Elektron RADIUS server must be authenticated by accepting the certificate.

Elektron looked simple enough to us and we look forward to trying it out on our global headquarters AirPort Extreme network. Elektron is available now for $299.99 and runs on and supports both Mac OS X and Windows XP clients. Most RADIUS solutions cost thousabnds of dollars and do not run on Mac OS X. A 30-day demo version is also available for a free trial.

Griffin Technology showed us a host of new electronic accessories and devices: XpressStand, SmartDeck, AirClick, BlueTrip, FireWave, RocketFM, TuneJuice, Dock800 and Lapel Mic. Griffin Technology has been making really cool accessories for the Mac since their iPort serial port for the original iMac--we have a bunch. The XpressStand is a $25 dock with power cord for Apple's AirPort Express. The $25 SmartDeck Intelligent Cassette Adapter, our favorite this year, allows users to control their iPod using the built in controls of their cassette player. AirClick and AirClickUSB are $40 radio frequency remote controllers for the iPod, iPod mini and a Mac. BlueTrip is a $149 wireless transmitter and receiver for broadcasting CD-quality audio from an iPod to a home stereo. FireWave is a $100 FireWire accessory that brings 5.1 Surround Sound to any FireWire-enabled Mac. RocketFM is a $40 wireless solution for broadcasting Mac audio applications to any FM radio. TuneJuice is a $20 battery backup for the iPod and iPod mini that uses a single 9-volt battery to provide up to 8 hours of additional power to any dockable iPod. Dock800 is a $15 FireWire 800 cable (rather than FireWire 400) to attach your iPod to a Mac's FireWire 800 port. Lapel Mic is a $15 multipurpose lapel microphone offering quality stereo audio input for recording interviews, lectures and other events--with an iPod equipped with the Griffin iTalk voice recorder it instantly becomes a mobile recording unit. It is shipping now and the others will ship in the first or second quarter of 2005.

ATI displayed its brand new Radeon X800 XT Mac Edition graphics card that is not shipping just yet. Early reviews of pre-production units show that the X800 XT is a bit faster than the Nvidia GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL graphics card for 3D gaming. The Nvidia card is an Apple OEM card made expressly for Apple's new 30" Cinema Display. It can run two of the 30" displays while the ATI card can run just one plus any other monitor. As we have noted before, the X800 is a "regular" size graphics card while the Nvidia is huge, taking up the full length of the AGP/PCI slot bay in a Power Mac G5. The X800 only takes up the AGP slot while the Nvidia also cover the adjacent PCI slot. As such, the ATI X800 exhausts heat back forward into the Power Mac while the Nvidia pushes the heated air towards a vent out the back. We used the ATI Radeon X800 XT to play Halo and the speed and visual experience is just outstanding. The reviews show that the Radeon X800 handles heavy FSAA and Anisotropic filtering much faster than the Nvidia card. The ATI representative told Macs Only! that their Radeon X800 XT Mac Edition would go out to their distribution channel this coming week. We look forward to getting our hands on a production unit of this $499 gem.

The Gaming Area was at the far west end of the Moscone Center's South Hall. Four game publisher's had booths: Feral Interactive, Freeverse, Aspyr and MacSoft. There were also a few smaller game manufacturers sprinkled among the Power Macs set up for demoing. The game competition area consisted of 16 Power Mac G5s with 30" Apple Cinema Displays. The game demonstration area consisted of 24 Power Mac G5s with 20" Apple Cinema Displays and 12 20" iMac G5s, 36 computers in all for demoing. Surprisingly, during our short visits to the area, one could readily get to a Power Mac or iMac to try out a game. But, unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to do so for the many games on display. The games set up for display on the Power Mac G5s are: Star Wars KOTOR, MTX Mototrax, Command and Conquer Generals, Command and Conquer Generals Xero Hour, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, True Crime Streets of LA, Homeworld 2, Call of Duty United Offensive, ShineBug, GameHouse Games, Gooball, Robin Hood, Railroad Tycoon 3, Macintosh Board Game Trio: Monopoly, Scrabble & Risk 2, Atari Arcade Classics: Pong, Centipede & Breakout, Rise of Nations Gold Edition, Ford Racing 2, Redline Racing, Disney Presents Pixar Film's The Incredibles, X-Plane FA/18: OIF, World of Warcraft (2 Power Mac stations), Myst iV: Revolution and Dark Horizons: Lore. Those set up on the iMac G5s are: I Spy Spook Mansion: I Spy Fantasy, SpongeBob SquarePants Rockin' Rabbit Learning System, Kid Pix Deluxe 3X: ClueFinder, Dr. Seuss ABC Thinkin' Things, Dora the Explorer and Blues Clues, Disney Presents Pixar Film's The Incredibles: When Danger Calls, Preschool/Kindergarten, Jump Start, Mia's Adventure Series Didi and Ditto, Learn to Play Chess 2, Airburst Extreme and Chessmaster 9000.

That wraps up our reports from the Macworld Expo 2005 show floor. There was so much to see and we wish we had enough time to spend some with each of the 280 (IDG's number) vendors. Maybe next year.... [Bill Fox]


[1/15]
MW2005--Macworld Best of Show Awards, Our Take: Friday Macworld Magazine announced its Best of Show Awards for Macworld Expo SF 2005. The products are: iPod Shuffle, Mac mini, ATI Radeon X800 Mac Edition, TextWrangler 2.0, Solio, Elektron, SmartDeck, Close Combat: First to Fight, Transmit 3, Popcorn, naviPlay and the Phaser EX7750. See this MacCentral web page for details. Macworld Magazine and MacCentral are owned by IDG, the Macworld Expo producer.

We don't think anyone would disagree with the first two items--we certainly don't. We also give very high marks to the ATI Radeon X800, Griffin SmartDeck, Elektron and MacPlay's Close Combat: First to Fight as the best, respectively, graphics card, iPod accessory, Wi-Fi software and new 3D game--although MacPlay's game is not out yet, but neither is the Mac mini. If Doom 3 had been there, we probably would have picked it based on pre-release reviews alone. We would also highlight Micromat's DiskStudio as a software utility, LANDesk as network software, SMART Board as the best educational technology, NewSoft's Presto! BizCard Reader 5 as a business productivity solution (hardware and software combined), Apple's Pages as a productivity application and PocketMac for Blackbird 3.0 for as PDA software. [Bill Fox]


[1/15]
PS--Our $99 512MB iPod Shuffle is On its Way From Apple. It is coming from Apple's Elk Grove, CA, facility upstate from our global HQ. We should get it today or, more likely, Monday. Look for our hands-on review of the iPod Shuffle. We were an early adopter of the original iPod and owner of just about each succeeding iPod generation, including the mini. We also plan to pick up a base $499 Mac mini and iWork when they come out next Saturday for further hands-on experience and review. [Bill Fox]


[1/14]
MW2005--Hands-On Show Floor Report 2: Today, we continue our report with the second in a three-part series on the new things we saw and tried at Macworld Expo 2005 in San Francisco.

In yesterday's report we provided our impressions on the size and attendance of Macworld 2005 and, wouldn't you know it, IDG subsequently issued a press release on the topic. While the final, audited attendance numbers will not be out for about two months, IDG expects attendance to be higher than the 32,409 that attended Macworld SF 2004. They also noted that the number of vendors renting space was up from 260 to 280 and that they rented more square footage in total than last year despite being housed in just the South Hall this year.

We should have noted that this year's reporter last attended Macworld SF 2003 so the impressions posted yesterday were relative to 2003 and earlier, not 2004. Brian Nakamoto, who has also attended previous Macworld SF shows, reported for us on Macworld SF 2004. He noted that Macworld SF 2004 was a smaller show than previous ones. Still, we sure appreciated the shorter walk to visit all of the show floor vendors as did many attendees surveyed by IDG. The vendors also liked the increased traffic brought by situating all exhibits in the South Hall. Macworld 2005 is an excellent, exciting show regardless of its size relative to prior years.

Now on to the show floor for our second and penultimate report....

LANDesk demoed its Management Suite 8 for us. Management Suite 8 appears to be an IT Department's dream-come-true software for checking on, updating and controlling client computers on a company network. The server core of Management Suite 8 runs only on Microsoft Windows Server 2000 and 2003 but it works with Mac clients as well as Windows, Unix and Linux clients. An application is installed on each client, including Macs, and it maintains its own inventory of software on the client computer, not relying on System Profiler or any other system component for security reasons. The server side can ask for a report at any given time, install updates centrally and keep selected software from running on any client computer...and more. LANDesk has 8-9 years experince on the Mac, largely in the LDAP server area, according to the company representative. If there is a significant customer move to Unix or Mac OS X Server, LANDesk plans to develop the server core to run on those platforms but for now it remains a Windows 200/2003 product. The company also makes Security Suite 8 and Patch Manager 8.

NewSoft demoed its new Presto! BizCard Reader 5 and software and its new Presto! PhotoDisc software. BizCard Reader 5 is a $129 USB business card reader and database manager. It draws its power from the USB port so no AC/DC wallwort is needed. We placed a business card in the reader and it zipped through quickly. BizCard Reader produced an image of the card and entered the data from it into a database. With one click, the data was also added to the Mac OS X Address Book. It can also easily sync with PDAs, Entourage, Now Contact and FileMaker Pro. Bizcard Reader has gone through 5 version cycles on Windows and is now coming to the Mac. The final product should be out in late February. We were quite impressed with the Presto! Bizcard Reader 5 and look forward to its availability for the Mac.

PhotoDisc is very much like iPhoto and iDVD and but it works with internal and external DVD burners. With PhotoDisc you can make slide shows from images and video clips, add music from iTunes, text or record narration and then burn them as DVDs, SV CDs and VCDs. It has templates, transitions and does MPEG2 as well. PhotoDisc supports a broad range of standard media formats including: CD-R/RW, DVD-/+R, DVD-/+RW, and the new double layer DVD+R format. Presto! PhotoDisc worked very simply and intuitively. It will cost $49.95 and be out for the Mac in late January to early February.

Micromat demoed its new DiskStudio, an extremely simple utility application for non-destructively creating additional partitions on a hard drive. It does this by formatting the unused space on a hard drive without disturbing the existing data. DiskStudio can also delete partitions previously created by it, erase and reformat existing partitions in a number of standard formats and completely erase and repartition an entire hard disk. The uses among many are to install a new copy of Mac OS X, but keep the original copy intact, install a completely different operating system, such as Mac OS 9, on a new partition, create a partition to hold special projects, such as audio or video files, create a partition to hold scratch space for programs such as Adobe Photoshop, etc. DiskStudio will cost $50 (show pre-order special of $35) and will be available in February.

Sonnet Technology had all of its new CPU upgrades available at show special prices. We were especially interested in the new Encore ST 1.7GHz G4 CPU upgrade for the G4 Cube. They had them in stock for $460.83 at the show. The kit includes a quiet fan and requires a firmware upgrade using Mac OS 9.2 because it uses the Freescale (formerly Motorola) 7447A G4 CPU.

We will have a lot more in the final report tomorrow. [Bill Fox]


[1/14]
First Out--Mac mini Protective Case from Tom Bihn: Yes, there is already in the works a protective case for the Mac mini. Tom Bihn the designer, manufacturer and retailer of laptop bags has created a new design specifically for the Mac mini, the 6.5" x 6.5" x 2" computer debuted by Apple at MacWorld on January 11, 2005. The Mac mini, a product that is revolutionary in its simplicity and accessibility, deserves a complementary case, the eM2. The eM2 case protects the Mac mini from scrapes, scratches, drops and dings with a .25" thick enclosure of closed-cell foam that cushions all sides of the computer. It features a splash-proof zipper and a handle for easy carrying.

The eM2 fits the Mac mini like a glove, does not add significant bulk to the slender computer, and can easily fit inside any of our backpacks, messenger bags, briefcases and sling bags. In production now and available for pre-order with a ship date of mid-February 2005, the eM2 will be delivered just in time to protect your new Mac mini. The eM2 retails for $40.00.

We think Tom Bihn cases are really tops. We have an Empire Builder bag and Braincell case in which we tote our 17" PowerBook G4. In 16 months they have logged tens of thousands of miles across the country and throughout the world and show no signs of wear or tear. Here is our 2003 review. [Bill Fox]


[1/14]
Apple Lawsuit Target ThinkSecret.com Owner/Publisher Revealed in this Harvard Crimson article. Using the pen name Nick dePlume, Nick Ciarelli has published Think Secret for 6 years, since the age of 13. He is now a 19 year old Harvard undergraduate student and an editor on the staff of the Crimson. Think Secret has posted "rumors" of pending Apple products before they are released, including fairly specific details on the $499 Mac mini that Apple announced this week at Macworld 2005. Apple has sued him for revealing Apple's trade secrets as a violation of California's Uniform Trade Secrets Act and for illegally enticing Apple employees to break their non-disclosure agreements. Apple also asked for an injunction to prevent future releases. We are sure that Apple would like to find who the leaker(s) is (are) if, in fact, they exist.

The Crimson article stated that Mr. Ciarelli claims to have used nothing more than normal information gathering practices for the journalism profession and professed to not have, and can not afford, an attorney to defend him in California where the suit was filed. The Crimson also wrote that a case management conference is slated for May 3rd. [Bill Fox]


[1/13]
MW2005--Hands-On Show Floor Report 1: Almost as much fun as the keynote address is walking the Macworld Expo show floor to see and chat about the new hardware, accessories and software available for the Mac. This is not to say that the conferences at Macworld are anything less than outstanding because they aren't, its just that we come to Macworld primarily to see and report on all the new things. If seminars and lectures are your thing, then by all means the conference sessions at Macworld are tops.

We received an overwhelming number of press releases and invitations to demos, more so than any other Macworld that we have attended. This shows that Macdom is alive and healthy but made us use triage to decide on whom to visit and report on. Unfortunately, due to other commitments we only had two days to see things this year rather than three or four.

To our surprise, the Macworld Expo show floor is pretty much confined to San Francisco's Moscone Conference Center's South building for 2005. In previous years, it filled up much of both the North and South buildings. It doen't seem like there are fewer vendors, over 230 are listed in the show guide. There are just much fewer mega and very large booths. The ubiquitous regular-size booths seem to have shrunk some and the stand-up booth area is terribly crowded together. There are no open areas to congregate and relax on the show floor this year.

The crowds have been good for the first two days, especially Tuesday when the keynote was given. The show floor is certainly very crowded but not as crowded as one might expect from the degree of floor space and aisle space compression. This could be a total misimpression on our part or maybe there's a huge increase in those attending conferences and special events. We'll have to wait and see what IDG says officially about attendance but even if smaller, in our view it is certainly a success for Apple Computer and its Mac fans.

Now on to what we saw and occasionally operated....

The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus was parked inside at the east end of the hall. Every so often a great band, starting with the Spin Doctors, would strike up live and could be heard over the din of people talking for almost half of the hall. We already reported on the Lennon Bus. Right next to it taking up much of the remaining space of aisles 300 and 400 was a large guitar accessories sales booth, a new item spawned by Apple's increasing focus on and success in the digital music world. In fact there were many more music item vendors than in the past which seemed to mostly consist of speaker and non-music digital audio manufacturers. We offer this as a general comment since we are not in anyway knowledgeable about the music business and didn't frequent any of the music booths this year.

There were also a few cars on the show floor. Mercedes Benz had two that were there ostensibly to show off their new iPod adapters but, hey, they are MBs. One of them was the terrific new black SLK350. We forgot to look for the iPod adapter when we finally got to the car. The MB person was saying something about it but we were not hearing them--sorry. More cars will join BMW this year in having built in iPod adapters. Clarion, the radio manufacturer, had a car to demo its product as did MacMice, the Mac accessory reseller.

Okay, let's get serious now....

Intuit gave us a hands-on demo of their new QuickBooks: Pro 2005 for Mac that came out just last November. We are a Quicken 2004 user for our business but were really impressed with QuickBooks as a real business software package. Intuit believes that the primary users of QuickBooks are small businesses in the 1-6 person range and that includes us.

QuickBooks appears to be very easy to set up and the invoicing function is terrific. It's data can be output in QuickBooks for Windows format so one can send it to an accountant that's not Mac literate. It also imports the Windows format. There is a new cost by job report that allows one to follow up on all reimbursable costs not yet billed to a given job or client. Also new is the ability to export a future check cutting reminder to iCal. One can backup to disk, a .Mac iDisk or to a Windows file. Intuit maintains a pro advisor network of accountants trained in QuickBooks with a locater on QuickBooks.com.

The only con that we saw with QuickBooks is that it can not interact online with your bank accounts. But, I was told that Intuit is working on that feature. Of course, Quicken does interact with banks and QuickBooks imports Quicken data so that may be an interim workaround to stay in the Intuit environment.

QuickBooks: Pro 2005 for Mac is $299, $199 upgrade.

Small Tree Communications provides high performance networking solutions like InfiniBand used in the now famous Virginia Tech cluster supercomputer constructed from 1,100 Power Mac G5 (now Xserve G5) computers. More exactly, Small Tree provides Mac OS X InfiniBand software with high performance and low latency in Infiniband hardware its president, Corky Seeber, told us. He also told us that what's new is that Small Tree has partnered with InfiniCom Systems to deliver the industry's first complete suite of InfiniBand products to the Mac market. Small Tree also announced the first ever multiport fiber optic ethernet adapters for the Mac as part of their strategy to bring the world's top performance to the Mac. We wish Small Tree well in their quest.

Adobe invited us to attend an NDA-covered presentation on potential future products. We are a heavy user of several Adobe products so we attended the very interesting 2-hour session. We got really hyped over what we saw and heard but, unfortunately, we can't say more than that at this time due to the NDA. Don't you just hate that as much as we do? Stay tuned...er, can we write that? Hmm, let's see....

Information Appliance Associates, a "neighbor" of Macs Only! since we moved to San Diego, showed us their PocketMac for Blackberry 3.0 software. It syncs data on your Mac running Mac OS X 10.3.x with most Blackberry devices via serial or USB, The data it syncs are contacts, calendar, tasks and notes from Entourage, Address Book, Now Contact, DayLite, iCal, Now-Up-To-Date and Stickies. Tim Goggin demoed it for us and PocketMac is easy to set up and use and quick to work. If you are a Mac user and have a Blackberry, you will want to look into PocketMac for only $29.95. There's a Macworld special of $10 off until January 17 using coupon code MW05.

SMART Technologies Inc. showed us several superb technologies for teaching and brainstorming ideas consisting of hardware and software. Michelle Maingat demoed them for us. The hardware is the SMART Board overlay for flat panel displays, the rear projection SMART Board and the Sympodium. The first enables a large flat panel display as a touch screen that controls your computer, allows writing in digital ink and saves work in a number of formats. Coupled with their SMART Ideas software, the SMART Board makes a great electronic brainstorming device. The rear projection SMART Board is also a touch screen that controls your Mac but it is designed for educators. It is kind of a digital chalkboard but much more with SMART's applications software. Finally, the Sympodium ID250 is an interactive pen display that controls your Mac. It can be hooked up to a projector to display the action and results on a large screen. This excellent technology does not come cheap. The Sympodium runs some $2,250, the flat-panel SMART Board is about $4,000 for a 50" overlay and the rear projection SMART Board runs to $12,000.

IOGear had several new devices on display. The cool 3.5" Tri-Select ION Drive allows anyone to set up three sets of backups (i.e. different sets of files) and has three buttons to start any of the three. The Tri-Select ION comes with FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 ports as a stand alone enclosure or with drives of 160GB to 500GB capacity. The 200GB model sells for a reasonable $239. IOGear also had two DVI KVM boxes, one with two DVI ports for two computers to share one monitor and one with four DVI ports for four computers. The DVI KVM boxes will come out shortly with the 2-port one selling for around $300.

That's it for our first report. Much remains and we will file our second report tomorrow. [Bill Fox]


[1/13]
Apple's Financials Skyrocket in Q1 2005 Report--$3.5 Billion in Revenue with a Profit of $295 Million: Yesterday, Apple reported the best financial quarter ever in the history of the company in many ways. The earnings of $3.49 billion (up 74% from $2.01 billion in Q1 2004) and net profit of $295 million (up 468% from 63 million in Q1 2004) for the first quarter of the 2005 fiscal year were the highest for any quarter in the history of the company. The gross margin was up to 28.5 per cent from 26.7 per cent. International sales stood at 41 per cent of total. The earnings of $0.70 per share blew away last Friday's Thomson First Call's analysts consensus estimate of $0.48 and the more recently increased consensus estimate of $0.55. Apple's cash account and short term investments now stand at a very robust $6.5 billion.

Apple shipped an incredible 1,046,000 Macs and 4,580,000 iPods from October 1 through December 31, 2004, a 26 per cent increase in Macs and a 525 per cent increase in iPods over the first quarter of the previous year. Here are the results by Mac category:

Unit Sales in 1,000's
Mac
Q1 '05
Q1 '04
% Change
iMac/eMac
456
227
101
iBook
271
201
35
PowerMac/Xserve
167
206
-19
PowerBook
152
195
-22
Mac Subtotal
1046
829
26
iPod
4580
733
525

The "consumer" Mac sales improved substantially, especially the iMac G5/eMac line. During the keynote address, Steve jobs stated that during the first quarter of FY2005 the iMac G5 became the best selling Mac in the company's history. The sales of "professional" Macs declined as their power and features essentially stagnated during the last year.

The sales for all regions were up and all but Japan were up significantly in excesss of 20 per cent. Apple Store retail sales were up to $561 million as compared with $273 million in the same quarter a year ago, a 105 per cent improvement.

Apple's stock price rose to a near company high of $74 per share in after hours trading, according to this Reuters article, [Dana Baggett] beating last Friday's after hours high of $70.70 and Wednesday's close of $65.46.

The conference call following the release of the financial report was unusual in that nothing else of much substance was mentioned according to summary reports on several web sites including MacNN. [Bill Fox]


[1/13]
Apple Revised the Offerings from a Hot Deals Retailer:

MacZone has fantastic prices on essential Mac products, including LaCie's Porsche Design 160GB External FireWire Hard Drive, Triton Sound Bite Portable USB Speaker System, Intuit TurboTax Deluxe for 2004 with $10 mail-in rebate, Belkin 6-inch Y Splitter Mini Stereo Plug for iPod, Edge DiskGO! FM Transmitter with $10 mail-in rebate, Belkin Digital Camera Link for iPod with Dock Connector, JBL Creature II 3-piece Powered Speaker System, and much more.

[Bill Fox]


[1/13]
TextWrangler 2.0 is Now Free from Bare Bones Software: TextWrangler has been the smaller, cheaper ($50) and excellent cousin of BBEdit, Bare Bone Software's outstanding comprehensive word processor. Another way to look at TextWrangler is that is has been an upgraded replacement for the free BBEdit Lite word processor. Now Bare Bones Software is offering TextWrangler 2.0 for free as a download and don't be fooled by the registration requirement, it is really free. [Bill Fox]


[1/12]
MW2005--Steve Jobs Keynote, Our Post Talk Take and Hands-On Report: Well, there you go. Two of the principal hardware rumors (Mac Mini and iPod Shuffle) and two of the principal software rumors (iLife '05 and iWork) turned out to the true. Among the principal hardware rumors, only the breakout box failed to make an appearance. With all the focus on music, we're surprised about the latter but maybe it will show up at a special Apple Event in the near future. What Steve Jobs did reveal in great new stuff was almost too much anyway. Here is the QuickTime Streaming rebroadcast of the keynote address.

Apple did not get as carried away with the Mac Mini and the flash memory iPod Shuffle as we had suggested they might yesterday morning. In fact, Apple made a clear break from past thinking by producing two new devices that are aimed right at the heart of commodity land rather than at its upper crust. We think this is truly significant and it obviously caught us utterly but pleasantly by surprise (see yesterday's pre-keynote commentary). We hope this bold move pans out. Because of Apple's design genius, we expect that it will.

Let's look at them one by one (images courtesy of Apple).

The Mac Mini is our clear favorite. It looks absolutely terrific in person. The Mac Mini is 6.5x6.5x2 inches with rounded vertical corners and weighs less than 3 pounds. It has a white plastic top and backside with ports and a brushed aluminum edge, the latter broken is only in the front by the narrow slit for inserting a CD or DVD disk and a tiny LED at lower right--very, very nice. The Mac Mini has a small white power brick that is similar to but smaller than those that come with Apple's latest aluminum monitors.

The ports in the back are all industry standard. Across the botom at right are the power, 10/100 ethernet, 56K modem, DVI graphics, two USB 2.0, FireWire 400 and sound out (headphone) ports. A DVI to VGA adapter for older or cheaper monitors is included. Across the top are the power button, heat exhaust grill and Kensington lock slot. No mouse, keyboard or monitor is included.

The base internals are a 1.25GHz G4 CPU with 512K on-chip L2 cache and a 167MHz bus, 40GB Ultra ATA hard drive, 256MB PC2700 DDR SRAM, ATI Radeon 9200 graphics, combo optical drive, Bluetooth slot, AirPort Express slot and a speaker.

The included software is: Mac OS X 10.3, Mail, iChat AV, Safari, Sherlock, Address Book, QuickTime, iSync, iCal, iLife ‘05 (includes iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD and GarageBand), AppleWorks, Quicken 2005 for Mac, Nanosaur 2, Marble Blast Gold and Apple Hardware Test.

All of the above costs a really neat $499.

The optional build-to-order internals are a 1.42GHz G4 CPU ($100 includes 80GB drive also), 80GB hard drive alone ($50), up to 1GB RAM ($75 for 512MB and a whopping $425 for 1GB), SuperDrive ($100), Bluetooth module ($50) and AirPort Express card ($79). There is also AppleCare at $149, very high for a $499 item.

Like options on a new car or house, they can cause the total price to really skyrocket. The Mac Mini is not user serviceable according to its Apple web page and several Apple employees at Macworld. That doesn't mean that you can't buy cheaper parts and install them yourself, it just means that doing so will void your warranty. And, like an iPod, the Mac Mini is relatively difficult to open, requiring a special tool. An Apple Store Genius or Apple Authorized reseller or repair center may be able to install cheaper parts, especially RAM (1GB at $425 is ridiculous), without voiding the warranty. An external USB Bluetooth module can be obtained for far less than $50 but it uses one precious USB port. But if anyone needs to upgrade the base Mac Mini's features in any significant way, it probably makes a lot of sense to look closely at a $799 eMac, a $999 iBook or a $1299 iMac.

Remember that the Mac Mini is marketed for the user of a cheap PC as a replacement for the ugly, low quality, poor performing, virus/spyware clogged CPU box or as an easy to use and safer adjunct for email, iPod/iTunes music and even photos. The base $499 model is right down their alley.

We think the base Mac Mini will make a great PC replacement. With the included applications, the base Mac Mini seems to work every bit as well as our 1.5GHz 17" PowerBook G4 according to our subjective hands-on testing at Apple's Macworld Expo booth. It wasn't very warm either, certainly not like our PowerbBook gets. We could feel a slight discharge of warm air out the back grill and, with the din of the show floor, we couldn't hear a sound coming from it unless we held the grill up to our ear. It really needs to be tested in a reasonably quiet place but we think it will be pretty darn quiet.

As for a Mac user, the base Mac Mini makes a great replacement for an older Mac, especially one that has a USB keyboard and mouse. A lot of iMacs and Power Mac G3s and early Power Mac G4s fall into this category. An older Power Mac would just need a USB keyboard and mouse in addition to the base Mac Mini and those can be inexpensive or even found for free. We don't see much of a need for anyone to hold onto an old Mac any longer.

The Mac Mini also makes a great home or office digital hub or server as an addition to other Macs with just a few additional parts like a $19 DVI to TV video adapter, a $50 Bluetooth module, a $79 AirPort Express card, a $59 Apple wireless keyboard and a $59 Apple wireless mouse. One could even skimp a bit and use a cheaper USB external Bluetooth module and non-Apple wireless keyboard and mouse.

The iPod Shuffle is designed to be marketed very similarly to the Mac Mini, i.e. right at the heart of the flash digital music market, not at its upper crust like the iPod Mini as Steve Jobs explained in this year's keynote and when they were announced last year. Although we haven't quite seen it that way, the market data shown before and after the iPod Mini release appear to support Steve Jobs' contention.

While maybe a "commodity" product starting at $99, the iPod Shuffle exhibits the genius in Apple's engineers and designers. We looked them over at Apple's booth. They are a little larger (3.3x0.98") than a regular pack of gum but much thinner (0.33") and lighter (0.78oz). There is no screen since it's business is to play a song playlist, either in straight through or in shuffle mode. Well, it can also serve as a USB thumb drive if not filled with songs.

The small wheel-like control mechanism on the front is similar to the original iPod's except, of course, there is no scroll wheel. The center button is for play and pause with the visual aid of an LED, the left and right are for backup and advance and the top and bottom are for increase and decrease volume. There's a slider on the back that is the on-off control plus it selects straight play or shuffle modes. The back also has a battery test button and LED that shows green with a full charge and turns to yellow and red as the battery runs down.

The iPod shuffle has a claimed 12-hour battery and is charged by plugging it into a computer's USB 2.0 port after removing its cap connected to a lanyard.

There are two models, the 512MB model that will hold about 120 songs for $99 and the 1GB model that will hold about 240 songs. The flash memory card is not removeable in either model.

There are also $29 Apple accessories: a sport case, an AC adapter, a dock, an armband and a battery extender. Only the latter was not available for inspection at Apple's booth. Then there's AppleCare for $59, very high for a $99 item.

The sound they produce seemed to be of equal quality to the iPod Mini and iPod, at least through the same ear buds and with the din of the show floor. One needs to try one in a quiet place to really see if the quality is the same.

We stopped by the San Francisco Apple Store on the way back to our hotel to get one and compare it with our iPod Mini since the iPod Shufffle is shipping and Steve Jobs noted that he "heard" they we available "up the street" during his keynote address. The staff said they had a good supply of only the $99 512MB model but a huge line formed right after the keynote address and they were sold out by the afternoon. Hundreds, maybe thousands, were sold but no one at the store would confirm even a ballpark a number. We'll try again today to see if they have a new supply.

The iPod Shuffle may replace our iPod Mini. Even though we have nearly 300 songs, our main playlist is only 85 songs, enough for a cross country flight. The iPod Shuffle is so small and light, we really can take it virtually everywhere.

Starting at $99, we think Apple will easily significantly increase its already fantastic growth rate of iPod sales.

We briefly used the software in iWork '05 (Keynote 2.0 and Pages 1.0) on a 14" iBook G4 and iLife '05 (iTunes 4.7.1, iPhoto 5.0, iMovie HD 5.0, iDVD 5.0 and GarageBand 2.0) on a 14" iBook G4 and a base Mac Mini. The only really new software is iWork's Pages 1.0. Most of the rest have significant upgrades. iTunes was the current v4.7.1, updated yesterday for the iPod Shuffle features.

Pages appears to be a killer word processor in the way that Keynote is a killer presentation application but more so. Actually, Pages is a combination of a simple but feature rich counterpart to Microsoft Word and a simple but feature rich counterpart to layout applications like Quark Express or PageMaker or InDesign.

There are over 40 templates ranging in complexity from a simple thank you card, to a letter (personal or business) to a quiz to a term paper to a multi-page brochure to a white paper report to a complete research paper, all with images, charts, column layouts etc. While it lacks the complex flexibility of Word, Quark, PageMaker or InDesign, Pages has all the salient features to produce the full range of professional paper documents. It imports AppleWorks documents and imports and exports Word documents.

We used Pages for quite some time despite people urging us to hurry up. The templates are masterfully done and easy to use. They are no blank spaces with arcane commands to master to fill in. They are basically a done (but dummy) product that is edited by the user in a simple and intuitive way.

IWork with Pages and Keynote 2.0 is a terrific start at a new and incredible productivity suite. As of yet, there is no spreadsheet application. FileMaker Pro is a database application that could easily be adapted to the productivity suite as a Filemaker Express. iWork is officially called iWork '05 so we expect that it will get updated and augmented regularly as has the iLife suite of applications.

Check here for details on the significant iLife '05 application upgrades.

There were no further speed bumps of the professional computer lines and, yes, there was no PowerBook G5 that we all crave. Those will come in due time as advances in manufacturing technology permits over the succeeding months. But when taken altogether, Macworld 2005 is a huge step forward for Apple with terrific new products and application upgrades in the consumer arena. It is one of the best Macworlds for new and improved Apple products that we have attended over the years. [Bill Fox]


[1/12]
Apple iTunes 4.7.1 for iPod Shuffle and Security Enhancement is Out and available for download via the Software Update system preference pane and from this Apple web page. The Read Me file states that:

iTunes 4.7.1 includes support for iPod shuffle and other performance improvements.

iTunes 4.7.1 also delivers the following security enhancement:

CVE-ID: CAN-2005-0043

Impact: Malicious playlists can cause iTunes to crash and could
execute arbitrary code

Description: iTunes supports several common playlist formats.
iTunes 4.7.1 fixes a buffer overflow in the parsing of m3u and pls
playlist files that could allow earlier versions of iTunes to crash
and execute arbitrary code. Credit to Sean de Regge
(seanderegge[at]hotmail.com) for discovering this issue, and to
iDEFENSE Labs for reporting it to us.

Since the new iPod Shuffle was available as of yesterday, this iTunes update is essential. [Bill Fox]


[1/11]
MW2005--Keynote LIVE! Here are our notes that we typed in and posted as Steve Jobs spoke. We revised them subsequently for spelling, grammar and technical accuracy.

11:05a--John Mayer, guitarist, came on stage and played to end of keynote.

10:56a--iPod

  • sold 4.5 million iPods in the holiday quarter 2004 vs 733,000 in 2003 holiday quarter
  • iPods in cars--MB, Nissan Volvo and Scion join BMW with built in adapters. In Europe, Alpha Romeo and Ferrari.
  • iPod Mini worked in taking large part of flash player market share.
  • New iPod Shuffle
    • white, under 1 oz, size of a pack of gum, no screen but LEDs, 12hr rechargeable battery. USB 2.0 connector
    • has mechanical control wheel for play, advance, backup, increase volume and decrease volume
    • autofill, iTunes fills it autommatically
    • 512MB 120 songs $99
    • 1GB 240 songs $149
    • shipping today
    • apple accessories: arm band, battery extender, AC adapter and dock for $29

iTunes on Motorola cell phones this Spring.

10:37a--Mac Mini available January 22.

  • Tiny, not much bigger than a CD but 2" thick; no monitor. keyboard or mouse..
  • Combo optical drive and standard ports. 256MB RAM, upgradable to 1GB.
  • hooks up to almost any industry standard device.
  • Mac OS X 10.3 and iLife '05
  • $499 with 1.25 GHz G4 $599 with faster 1.42GHz G4.

10:32a--iWork is a successor to AppleWorks. Built from ground up to work with Mac OS X. $79, Jan. 22 out.

  • Keynote 2, animated text, animation, new themes. Flash and PDF
  • Pages--word processing with an incredible sense of style. Integrated with iLife. 40 Apple designed templates. Showed brochure, newsletter, recipe, etc. Compatible with word. Demoed it.

10:25a--More iLife '05

  • All apps work seamlessly together. Priced at $79. Out in 10 days, January 22.

10:18a--More iLife '05

  • Welcomed Sony President, Kunitake Ando, on stage and made a movie of him with Sony's new Prosumer $3500 HDV camera. Agreed with Steve that 2005 is year of HD video in the home.
  • iDVD--15 new themes, supports all DVD formats. Demoed it.
  • GarageBand--added orchestral instruments jampack. Up to 8 track recording simultaneously, real time music notation that are editable, make your own loops, fun vocal tranformer, etc. Demoed it.

10:00a--iLife '05 with almost every app upgraded.

  • iPhoto simpler than before. Supports RAW format. Added editing features and all work on jpeg and RAW files. New slide show features. New boook designs and features. Demoed iPhoto slide shows and books, 4 different sizes.
  • iMovie HD faster, MPEG4 video, more transitions and features like Magic Movie that does everything for you and edits high definition video.

2005 is year of high definition video. Introduced Final Cut Express HD. Integrates iMove and Motion. $299, $99 upgrade from Final Cut Express, out in February.

9:41a--More Tiger Features:

  • Dashboard--Showed lots of cool new widgets: stock market, translator, flight finder, drink recipes, weather, eBay, etc.
  • iChat--10 simultaneous audio, 4 people video with new H264 CODEC. Demoed it full screen.

9:32a--Tiger features:

  • Spotlight--incredible new search tool will be built into OS. Instantly updates, no need to update. Apps will have it built in automatically. Demoed it. Spotlight is in the Finder and System Preferences and other apps.
  • Mail--major upgrade. Can search across all mailboxes with Spotlight. Has slide show button for images. Hit it and get a slideshow of images in Mail that can be imported directly to iPhoto instantly. Smart mailboxes. Set one up with a title, like soccer and automatically all emails with soccer in it are there.
  • QuickTime 7--complete MPEG4 compliance. New compression CODEC H264 that's amazing. Scalable from cell phones to HDTV.

Mac OS X 10.4 is due out in first half of year, nothing new. Over 200 new features.

Mac OS X Panther successful, over 14 million Mac OS X users.

New G5 iMac getting great reviews. Most popular Mac we made during the last quarter.

Now 101 Apple Stores with a million visitors a month. Will be opening more stores in England after the new one in London is the second grossing Apple Store in the world.

9:11a--Steve Jobs takes the stage. First Macworld with HD video projection. He proceeded with an update.

8:45a--We arrived at 8a and we were directed to the "media room" with large screen TVs. Now we see why there is no live webcast. The much of the media and other overflow will be watching the keynote on large screen TV. At least there is a good Wi-Fi connection. The keynote will be webcast tonight at 6p PST.


[1/11]
Commentary--Today's Macworld Expo 2005 Keynote by Steve Jobs, Our Pre-talk Take: First, we confess that we have no knowledge of what Steve Jobs will say during his keynote address later this morning beginning at 9am PST. We have only read about the rumors and Apple's reaction and non-reaction to them. The principal rumors with some credence, in our opinion, are: (1) a less expensive, smaller-than-mini iPod with flash memory, (2) a breakout box and (3) a $500 "headless iMac."

We think a super-mini iPod with flash memory instead of a micro hard drive has a good chance of being true because of the success of the iPod Mini, the lower price of 1GB flash RAM chips and the chance for Apple to grab a huge share of the high end of the flash player market segment simply by extending of its design and iTunes Music Store into that segment. If so, we think it would not be a cheap iPod but probably have a relatively premium price.

As background, we are not a typical iPod user because we are a Mac user. We are also atypical, we think, because we have no more than 300 digital songs either ripped from our CDs or from a paid or free download from the iTunes Music Store. We were not a digital music fan until the original 5GB iPod came out. We could also use it as a bootable external hard drive and, besides, it was made by Apple. We were hooked. We later replaced it with a 10GB model and then with an overkill 30GB model. The latter was a smoother/lighter design but we didn't like its touch-sensitive control buttons as much as the original's controls and bootability became an issue with Mac OS X 10.2.x. Then the Mini arrived. We instantly knew it was perfect and bought a silver one on Apple's release day. It holds all of our songs and all of our critical data plus it is small and light and the design of the controls is perfect. As we use it, there is even room to spare on its drive.

If Apple were to release an even smaller-than-mini iPod with removeable 1GB flash memory cards, a similar design and the same controls we would jump at it in a New York minute. It would hold all of our principal songs and we would store our data on a second card. So we are definitely biased toward wanting to see Apple produce one. If Apple does, we would expect the iPod Mini to go slightly upscale at the same $249 price point and Apple to release the flash iPod in a range of $179-199. Too high you say? That's what the pundits said about the iPod Mini's price of $249--they were dead wrong.

We are not in the audio business so we have no idea why Apple needs to provide a so-called breakout box for hooking up musical instruments to a computer. We haven't even really used GarageBand yet but we know that breakout boxes exist. Would Apple's be aimed at existing professionals or budding professionals? We do know that people in the audio business are a major segment of professionals that use Macs and maybe they really need one that is easy to use with Apple's software and PowerBooks. We were impressed with audio via PowerBooks during our tour of the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus (see below). There is also the lawsuit against certain Mac web sites for revealing information about a possible Apple breakout box so maybe this one is true as well. If it is, we look forward to seeing what Apple has produced.

Finally, there is the so-called $500 "headless iMac." We already commented when the rumor broke (once again) that it seemed more reasonable to us than in the past and that we would definitely like to see one. It seemed reasonable because if Apple tied it to the iPod as an extension of the iPod, that Windows users who have bought iPods (the large majority of iPod owners) might just switch or at least become bi-OS users. We also commented that Apple should "think different" about the server paradigm for the home market and come up with a consumer Mac server that was engineered for digital home things. Then, Apple sued another web site over the "headless iMac" rumor, putting a greater air of possibility out there. Finally, HP released a new digital media device at the International Consumer Electronics Show last week. The latter got us thinking again about the "headless iMac" because of the Apple-HP partnership on iPods. So we think (and we are positively biased, of course) there is a good chance that if the"headless iMac" rumor is true, then rather than a computer it may well be an intelligent digital media device that runs on Mac OS X and handles internet, digital audio, digital video and digital TV, even HDTV. For $500...?!?...well...uh...we'll see in a few hours.

Steve Jobs' keynote address from 9-11am PST will not be webcast in real time this year according to this MacCentral article. We will try to post brief notes as it happens and we will definitely post a summary from the Macworld press room right afterwards so tune in again later today for the real poop.

If Apple produces any or none of these rumored items, it will be a great Macworld Expo. Surely Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4) has more completed features by now that will be shown and there are zillions of press releases about many new and exciting products. [Bill Fox]


[1/11]
Apple Revised the Offerings from Three Hot Deals Retailers:

The Apple Store has updated it's selection of quality Apple Certified reconditioned products. New money-saving deals include iMac G5 17" 1.8GHz with SuperDrive for only $1,299, iMac G5 20" 1.8GHz with SuperDrive for only $1,699, and much more. But, hurry as supplies are limited. You can also find current Sale Products, Promos and Rebates on Apple hardware and software, as well as third-party accessories in the Special Deals section of the Apple Store. All details available under the "Special Deals" tile.

B&H Photo and Video has fantastic prices of superb products for your Mac, including Canon's Rebel 6.3MP Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm EF-S Lens, Casio Exilim EX-S100 3.2MP Digital Camera, Konica Minolta DiMAGE A200 8.0MP 7x Zoom Digital SLR Camera, Belkin Leather Holster for iPod with Dock Connector, DigiEffects Fantazm Special Effects for After Effects, Hewlett Packard DesignJet 130 Photo Quality Large Format Printer, and much more.

CDW|MacWarehouse has great deals on cool Mac products, including Epson's Stylus Photo R320 Photo Quality Color Printer, Monster iCarPlay FM Transmitter for iPod with Dock Connector, Adobe Acrobat Pro 7, Nikon CoolPix 8700 8.0MP Digital SLR Camera, Alsoft DiskWarrior 3, Corel Painter IX, El Gato EyeTV 500, Kingston Data Traveler Elite USB Flash Drive, LaCie 500GB Big Disk External FireWire Hard Drive, and much more.

[Bill Fox]


[1/11]
MW2005--The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus: Last evening we, along with a group of media members, were treated to a preshow visit with the band Spin Doctor and the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus, a moblie digital media studio. The Bus is named after the Beatle John Lennon and it is outfitted to produce digital music with virtual instruments, to edit audio, to edit video and to produce DVDs. The Lennon Bus visits high schools and other institutions across the country where they take videos, produce a song and produce a DVD of the video and audio tracks in a contest that educates young people on the recording business. Here is it's schedule through April.

The Lennon Bus is set up in a corner of the exhibit hall and bands will play there during the day, the first up being the Spin Doctors. A new USB vitual guitar, i.e. it produces sound through software on a PowerBook from its USB connection, the iGuitar was demonstrated along with Roland virtual "drums". The virtual drums were also hooked up via USB to a PowerBook and both PowerBooks played back through large loud speakers. The latentcy, according to Patrick Cummings of Brian Moore Guitars, is down to 0.6 milliseconds as opposed to 3 milliseconds in a traditional midi-instrument. [Bill Fox]


[1/10]
Hands On Report--Sp@mX, the Road to Near Zero Spam at Week 4: Are we there yet? While we have seen our weekly volume of spam messages drop precipitously, a post holiday surge by spammers resulted in a modest relapse during week 4.

Four weeks ago we began a trial of Sp@mX, now at v3.1.9, by Hendrickson Software Components (hsc). We bought it for $19.95 with a monry-back gurarantee to see if it could significantly reduce our 4000+ weekly spam messgages. We have double filtered our spam but it's not 100% accurate and, therefore, we had to follow a highly time-consuming daily activity. We also occasionally missed and lost an important email.

Sp@mX is not a filtering application. It automatically reports spam to the various server administrators that handled the spam on its way to us. Sp@mX also allows us to send copies to the FTC and the California Dept. of Justice. It relies on server administrators to take action to block our spam based on the reports. We really like Sp@mx's proactive fight-back approach. Here is our initial review of v3.0.2. The developer, Jeff Hendrickson, has continuously improved the product such that now, at v3.1.9, it automatically parses Apple Mail and Eudora Mail files and has a much better Mac OS X user interface.

We provided a progress report at the end of week one of our Sp@mX trial, a second report at the end of week two and a third report at the end of week three. How did we do during week four? Here is a table showing the number of spam messages we received and processed each week:

Spam messages per week while using Sp@mX
Week of Trial
Before
1
2
3
4
4000+
2523
1640
1145
1352

After a continuous week to week decline in spam that resulted in at least a 71 per cent reduction, we saw an increase during week four of 18 per cent. However, the holidays probably played some role in the pattern and our guess is that there was a post-holiday surge by spammers during week four.

We get back reponses to Sp@mX reports of our spam from server administrators. Here is a table showing the number of abuse reports we received back each week:

Abuse reports per week while using Sp@mX
Week of Trial
Before
1
2
3
4
0
191
213
101
213

The pattern appears to confirm an effect of the holidays, although server responses are thought to be automatic. The percentage rate of responses, i.e. responses per spam message, has improved from 7.6 to 15.8 per cent in four weeks, a doubling. The rate during the holidays, week three, was significantly lower than week two or week four, with week four being the highest.

We also get Returned Mail error messages in response to Sp@mX reports. Here is a table showing the number of failed delivery responses:

Failed report deliveries per week while using Sp@mX
Week of Trial
Before
1
2
3
4
0
75
75
54
137

Like the abuse reports, there was a dip during the holidays, i.e. week three. The number for week four has nearly doubled the reports of weeks one and two. This may, at least in part, be due to improvements made in Sp@mX during week four that result in more comprehensive spam reporting.

As we stated in our review, our spam problem is not typical of an average user. We have three primary business email addresses that at one time were all posted openly, unprotected, on our web site They were obviously harvested by spambots and are probably on every spammer list traded or sold daily. Despite the modest retrenchment during week four of our use of Sp@mX, we are still very happy that our spam messages have declined from over 600 per day to under 200 per day.

Our spam load is not yet "near zero" but the huge difference has saved us an enormous amount of time and angst. In addition, we have configured Sp@mX for just our one main business address, bill(at)macsonly(dot)com. If it gets to under 100 without further effort beyond using Sp@mX, we will be completely satisfied. Then, we will assess whether we should attack the two contributing email addresses directly.

We also use six other email addresses that we have never posted to the internet and that collectively draw less than 100 spam per week, still a nuisance to be addressed eventually. We get no spam at all from our .Mac or Earthlink or non-business Macsonly addresses--absolutely none--and we do use them. Curiously, the highest spam producer of the six comes from our email address assigned to us by our cable internet company, one that we have never even used. Obviously, some @#$%^&*! at Cox Communications is selling their subscriber list to spammers or Cox was hacked for them. Our Cox address is too unusual for the volume of spam we get with it to be the result of random selection by spammers.

HSC has a money-back guarantee on its $20 Sp@mX if it does not drive spam to near zero. So there appears to be nothing to lose in trying it out on an unacceptable spam problem. If everyone reported their spam to mail server administrators, the FTC and state agencies, perhaps the appreciation for its sheer volume and its cost would sink in and the problem would be seriously addressed. [Bill Fox--Disclaimer: HSC started this week as an advertiser on Macs Only!]


[1/10]
Apple's Stock Broke $69 Friday on Analyst's Upgraded Q1 Financial Expectations: Apple will report on its first quarter financial data on Wednesday, January 12th, during Macworld Expo week. The average analyst expectation from Thomson First Call's survey on Apple's first quarter financial rearnings is 48 cents per share according to this CIO Today article. But increased expectations posted by one analyst from 47 to 50 cents per share buoyed Apple's stock price at last Friday's close. The expectations in turn are buoyed by very strong iPod sales. Look for Apple to beat whatever the financial expectation is as it usually does, at least in the past 5 years. [Dana Baggett]


[1/10]
Having a Problem Launching StuffIt Expander? Here's the Fix: On Saturday our copy of StuffIt Expander v9.0.1 began hanging when we downloaded something that needed to be decoded. It would take seemingly forever to open if it did at all. The problem is that it is hanging on launch due to a failed check over the internet for a new version. Perhaps something is wrong with Allume Systems' server. The solution is to disable your internet connection, launch StuffIt Expander and in its last preference pane uncheck "Allow Version Checking." [Bill Fox]


[1/8]
Another Review--ATI's New Radeon X800 Graphics Card is reviewed on this Accelerate Your Mac! web page. Mike Breeden posted a more comprehensive review of the latest and greatest graphics card from ATI than provided on Bare Feats earlier this week. Mike also used a pre-production card since they will not be shipping until mid January. but he came to the same concllusion as did Rob-ART Morgan, i.e. he prefers the ATI X800 card over the competing Nvidia 6800 Ultra or GT cards based on price, performance and features (especially the ATI Displays utility application). We will do our own review on a production unit that we have used for no less than a week per our usual protocol. [Bill Fox]


[1/8]
Apple Revised the Offerings from Three Hot Deals Retailers:

MacMall has fantastic prices on essential Mac products, including 3G Technology's Gem 726A 17" LCD Flat Panel Display with $80 mail-in rebate, Sony CyberShot DSC-T1 Digital Camera, Lexar Media JumpDrive 1GB USB 2.0 Portable Flash Drive, Speck Products 4G iPod Skins (3-Pack Bundle), Tatung 30" Widescreen LCD HDTV Display, Canon PowerShot A95 Digital Camera, and much more.

CompUSA has money saving deals on a bevy of Mac products, including Epson Stylus Photo R300 Color Inkjet Printer with $30 mail-in rebate, Canon EOS Rebel Digital Camera with $100 mail-in rebate, Iomega Zip 250MB External USB Drive with $30 mail-in rebate, Sony HX93 19" LCD Flat Panel Display with $100 mail-in rebate, H&R Block TaxCut Premium 2004 with $10 mail-in rebate, and much more.

O'Reilly has exclusively Hot Deals discounts for many of it's most popular Mac titles, including Modding Mac OS X, iPod & iTunes: The Missing Manual, 2nd Edition, Adobe Photoshop CS - One on One, Mac OS X Power Hound, and much more.

[Bill Fox]


[1/8]
Battlefield 1942 Updater v1.6.1C is Out from Aspyr and available for download via MacUpdate.com. It updates Battlefild 1942 and the two expansion packs.The update adds stability to the game running on Mac OS X 10.2.8. [Bill Fox]


[1/7]
HSC Released Much Improved Sp@mX v3.1.1 Client and v2.3.5 Server for Mac OS X: Sp@mX v3.1.1, free to registered owners, now automatically parses Apple Mail and Eudora email messages saved as a bloc file to the spam folder without the need for Randy Padawer's Email Text File Splitter application and its associated extra steps. The new user interface is a substantial improvement and Sp@mX now has a custom rather than a generic Mac OS X Finder icon.

Here are the details of some of the main version enhancements:

  • Added support for finding/reporting embedded URLs in the body of an email message. This should be an invaluable tool against 'phishing' (spammers attempting to gain access to your credit card information and/or pins), in addition to making the reporting more comprehensive and effective.
  • This version of Sp@mX uses a new processing algorithm to do it's spam lookups. It should be FAR more inclusive, reporting ALL of the resources (including relays) used to deliver a spam email.
  • This version includes automated support for Macintosh Apple Mail, and Macintosh Eudora. Apple Mail and Eudora users will use the same method to 'save' their email to a single file in their Sp@mX folder. Start Sp@mX, this single file will be listed. Click 'All', or 'Selected', and Sp@mX will automatically parse the single file produced into separate files, and process them. Please remember to update your Sp@mX email client settings to take advantage of this feature. Support for other Macintosh Email clients will be developed as requested.
  • This version has a configurable SMTP port (the default is port 25).
  • This version has a configuration setting to automatically delete files after processing them.
  • Added support for Wide Character (Unicode) email messages. If Sp@mX does not detect any IP addresses in the message, it will automatically try to convert the message from Unicode to ANSI text and reattempt parsing the message. I think this will increase the number of spam emails processed for Macintosh users that regularly receive emails in Wide Character format.
  • The user inteface has been simplified.
  • The Macintosh version has a cool icon.
  • The memory request has been bumped up in the Macintosh version to improve functionality on Mac OS 9, and OS 8.

Sp@mX v3.1.1 is somewhat slower than previous versions. The developer, Jeff Hendrickson, explains:

"This version does a very thorough job checking each email before submitting each abuse complaint, and the complaints are much more comprehensive. That's why it appears to process each message more slowly. The relay reporting is back in (after each relay is thoroughly checked), and it also will trace and report spamvertized domains in the email body, and give the user an anti-phishing capability. I'm sure this combination will make Sp@mX even more effective."

We are using Sp@mX to get rid of 600+ spam messages per day. See our review and usage reports at weeks 1, 2 and 3. [Bill Fox]


[1/7]
Micromat Announced DiskStudio, a Mac OS X Disk Re-partitioning Utility: Micromat Incorporated, makers of the TechTool Pro disk repair utility for Macintosh, have announced a new hard disk utility titled DiskStudio. The company states that DiskStudio allows Macintosh users to change their hard disk partitioning scheme without the need to reinitialize and erase their hard disk. This means that users can now easily alter the way information is stored on their hard disks as their needs change over time. It will be available in February.

DiskStudio sounds like another great Mac app and we look forward to seeing it in action next week at Macworld 2005. We have used Micromat's utilities from the free TechTool through TechTool Pro 4.x. Over the years, we have found Micromat to be one of the best Mac application developers. [Bill Fox]


[1/7]
CompUSA Announced New Pro Pack Service Packages: Customers can choose a Pro Pack Service for wireless networking installation, Internet security, connection and set-up of digital products and computers, and computer performance upgrades and maintenance packages that can be installed at the customer's home or office. According to George Coll, VP of Technology Services for CompUSA, what sets CompUSA apart from other retailers offering similar services is the high level of service at such a great price. "Our strength is technology support, allowing CompUSA to deliver the high-demand time-saving technical services our customers expect and need, at a compelling price under $100." Customers who purchase any Pro Pack Services package can schedule appointments at the store, on the web or through a toll free number. For more information about service packages or other technical service offerings, go to this CompUSA web page. [Bill Fox]


[1/7]
Apple Contest--Get Aboard the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus Coming to an Apple Store Near You in the next three months. You may get behind the scenes at a real recording session and video shoot on the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus, a roving, state-of-the-art recording and multimedia studio. You can also check out cutting-edge music and video editing software and equipment from Apple, the same tools that the pros use. Just enter the contest--you may be a winner and get invited aboard. Ennter by completing an entry form at an Apple Store offering the contest. See this Apple web page for participating stores and further details. [Dana Baggett]


[1/6]
From the Dark Side: Bill Gates Praises Apple in a News.com interview before his keynote address to the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. He said:

"[Apple] is a company that's had three hits, and that's very impressive. There are a lot of companies that don't have three hits. And in the same way that Macintosh helped get people exposed to the graphical user interface, the iPod is doing a great job getting people to think about digital music."

The three hits he mentioned are the Apple II, Macintosh and iPod. [Dana Baggett]


[1/6]
Apple's iTunes Music Store Songs Coming to Motorola Cell Phones according to this AP article from the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. [Dana Baggett]


[1/6]
Apple Revised the Offerings from Two Hot Deals Retailers:

J&R has great prices on top quality Mac products, including Riverdeep's Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing 16, Aspyr Media CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Blizzard Diablo II Battle Chest, H&R Block TaxCut Premium 2004 with $10 mail-in rebate, Brother MFC-8440 Laser Flatbed Multifunction Center, Creative Labs iTrigue 3200 2.1 Channel Computer Video Game Speaker System, Kensington Wireless Optical Desktop, and much more.

Publishing Perfection has great deals on a variety of design and print products for your Mac, including Canto Cumulus 6, Curious Labs Shade 7 Designer LE, RedBlock Software DeltaGraph, MatchLight 3.0 Pro, Human Software Xfile, QuarkXPress 6.0, Eovia Amapi Designer 7, Comnet FoldUP! 3D, AutoFX DreamSuite Bundle, and much more.

[Bill Fox]


[1/6]
Have a Pioneer Car Stereo? Hook Up an iPod with New $140 Adapter: At the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Apple and Pioneer jointly announced that Pioneer's new adapter will fit the IP-Bus of over 3 million of their recently sold car stereos and use advanced features like their Easy Equalizer and Bit Media Expander according to Pioneer's press release. The iPod's battery is charged when connected. The CD-IB100 adapter will be available in March. [Bill Fox]


[1/6]
Canon Introduced New CanoScan LiDE 500F Scanner: At the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Canon introduced its new CanoScan LiDE 500F scanner. As the flagship model in Canon's slim-line family of LiDE scanners, its innovative 3-way design allows it to be positioned on the desktop in any of three different ways. The CanoScan LiDE 500F scanner offers the additional convenience of 35mm film scanning, both positives and negatives. It requires only one cable for both computer connectivity via USB and for power, which saves space and reduces wire clutter in the work area. The USB 2.0 Hi-Speed interface delivers preview scans in approximately nine seconds by using fast transfer rates of up to 480 Mbps. With an optical 2400x4800 dpi resolution, the LiDE 500F Color Image Scanner offers the highest resolution of Canon's LiDE series of scanners. Single-pass scanning technology and 48-bit color depth provide both fast and detailed scans with smooth gradation and more than 281 trillion possible colors. The CanoScan LiDE 500F scanner works with Mac OS X 10.2.x and 10.3.x and will be available this month for $130. [Bill Fox]


[1/6]
New Graphics King? ATI Released Radeon X800 XT for Power Mac G5: The other shoe dropped yesterday in the graphics card race with ATI's release of its Radeon X800 XT Mac Edition. It is ATI's answer to the Nvidia 6800 series (Ultra and GT) graphics cards released in November which drive Apple's new 30" Cinema Display and have offered the fastest graphics available for the Mac, at least until now.

According to ATI's specs, the X800 has 256MB of GDDR3 RAM, dual 400 MHz DACs, 6 parallel vertex processing engines and 16 parallel pixel pipelines, all similar to the NV6800 cards. The major differences are that the X800 has one dual DVI port and one Apple ADC port while the NV6800 has two dual DVI ports and can therefore drive two 30" Cinema Displays simultaneously. The ATI X800 is much smaller and thinner, using only the 8x AGP slot, while the NV6800's use two slots, the AGP slot and cover a PCIX slot as well. We have reviewed the NV6800 Ultra in our dual 2.5GHz Power Mac G5 driving a 30" Cinema Display.

Rob-ART Morgan's Bare Feats yesterday posted a comparo using Unreal Tournament 2004, Halo, Quake III Arena and Motion that shows the ATI X800 to be faster at a certain resolution than the NV6800 Ultra in the 3D games, especially Halo with 4X FSAA enabled, but slower in Motion. Bare Feats also has a chart that says that the X800 has 475MHz core (or engine) clock speed vs 400MHz for the NV6800 Ultra and that may account for some of the difference.

The ATI X800 sells for $499 while the NV6800 Ultra sells for $599 and the NV6800 GT sells for $499. If you do not have two 30" Cinema Displays, have an older Cinema Display with an ADC connector or mainly play 3D games, the ATI X800 appears to be the better value. We plan to run our own tests in the near future. [Bill Fox]


[1/5]
Nominations Open for the 5th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards: The nominations are open for the Game Developers Choice Awards. They honor games and developers that are truly worthy of recognition from the industry. Recipients are chosen by game creators who know what it takes to make great games. In order to nominate, one must be registered with the IGDA (i.e., a FREE user account or a paid membership). There are no fees or costs associated with making nominations. The nomination period ends on Friday, January 14, 2005. Submit your nominations on this IDGA web page. [Bill Fox]

The Choice Awards ceremony will be held at the Game Developers Conference on Wednesday, March 9th at the Moscone West Convention Center. All registered GDC attendees are welcome. [Bill Fox]


[1/5]
PowerBooks Required at Berklee College of Music: Boston's famed music school handed out PowerBooks to the incomiing class last October. Now PowerBooks are required at Berklee College of Music. Why? Here's the explanation:

“We have found that students who have experience working on the Macintosh platform at Berklee are better prepared when they enter the music profession, where the Macintosh platform and the same software used in our coursework are prevalent and vital tools.”

Read more details on this Apple web page for education. [Dana Baggett]


[1/5]
TinyBooks v2.0.7 is Out --Family & Small Business Accounting for Macintosh: Ken Winograd's latest release of TinyBooks improves the ease of data entry in the Amount Field of the "Enter New Expense Dialog" and adds other minor changes. [Bill Fox]


[1/5]
Free Envision Web Show of the Week--Masterpieces from the Louvre: Open Door Networks just announced that they are sponsoring the Digital Art Contest and Gallery at Macworld Expo next week. So this week's Web Show of the Week features the best of the best in art, i.e. masterpieces from the Louvre's collection. Please be sure to check out Envision in both the Digital Art Gallery and Open Door's booth at the expo (#649) January 11-14--look for some major announcements. The Envision Web Show of the Week can be downloaded from the Show of the Week web site. Previous Shows of the Week are available in the Show of the Week archive. [Bill Fox]


[1/4]
Apple Upgrades G5 Servers, Releases Xsan Storage System and Reduces Cinema Display Prices: The Xserve G5 1U rack optimized server now has dual 64-bit 2.3 GHz PowerPC G5 processors with over 35 gigaflops of processing power per system and the industry’s fastest front side 1U server system bus, running at up to 1.15 GHz, providing up to 9.2 GBps of bandwidth per processor. The Xserve G5 comes with up to three 400GB drives, achieving a groundbreaking 1.2TB of hot-plug storage. Configurations start at $2,999.

Apple's Xsan is a high performance, enterprise class Storage Area Network (SAN) file system. It is priced at the industry’s most aggressive price point of $999 per client and per server. Xsan combines breakthrough performance with Apple’s legendary ease of use for customers who require scalable, high-speed access to centralized shared data for storage consolidation and workflow in video post production, data center, broadcast and high performance computing environments.

The new prices for Apple's aluminum flat-panel Cinema Displays are $999 for the 20", $1,799 for the 23" and $2,999 for the 30" models. [Bill Fox]


[1/4]
The Apple Developer Connection Published New Article "Faster, Easier Product Development: Delicious Library Takes Advantage of Cocoa Bindings:" Delicious Library is an exciting new application that takes advantage of many of the best features of Mac OS X. And the company, Delicious Monster, is a very small team that was able to create this stunning and very successful product in a few short months. How did they do it? One tool they used widely is Cocoa bindings, the Apple technologies that let you synchronize variables so everything works properly with very little code. Read this article to learn more about Delicious Library and how Cocoa Bindings helped make it all possible. For complete details, visit this Apple web page.


[1/4]
Free Apple Online Seminar Listing: Apple provides numerous free online seminars/tutorials. These online events are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from any computer with internet access. They are designed to be no more than 30 minutes in length and offer a wide variety of resources and information for your review. Topics cover solutions using Apple and partner products and technologies.

A Blueprint for Tiered Storage--Steve Duplessie, recognized independent expert on storage technology, discusses the practicalities of tiered storage & set-up of a solution that works.

Biotech is in our DNA--Michael Athanas, Ph.D., of The BioTeam will show how to install a fully provisioned informatics cluster on one or more Xserve servers using iNquiry.

Break Through the Barriers to Digital Photography Success--Digital photography provides exciting ways to deliver new content and gain greater control over the finished product, while saving time and money.

Color Management for Your Digital Workflow--This free online seminar helps demystify color management and gives you the knowledge you need to incorporate it into your workflow.

Color Management for Your Digital Workflow--This free online seminar helps demystify color management and gives you the knowledge you need to incorporate it into your workflow.

Color Management: From Input to Edit and Print with Mac OS X Panther & ColorSync--Join Steve Upton, industry consultant on color, as he gives you an overview of color management from displays to applications and output.

Computational Clusters for Bioinformatics--Elizabeth Kerr, Ph.D., Director of Science and Technology Markets at Apple, moderates this informative webcast discussion of the Apple Workgroup Cluster.

Desktop Management Made Easy with Apple Remote Desktop 2--Join Apple Product Mgr Nader Nafissi to learn why Apple's new, easy to use desktop management software is the essential tool for any Mac system administrator.

Developers win with Mac OS X - Reap the rewards--Built on a rock-solid UNIX core and standards-based technologies, Mac OS X is hailed as the world's most advanced operating system.

Getting Started with High Performance Computing--On-demand rebroadcast of the Dec 16, 2004 webcast discussion of the high-level concepts of high performance computing, issues & obstacles, and more.

Guitarists and the Mac: A Conversation with Pat Metheny--Join Pat Metheny in this free online seminar and learn how the Mac can help you take your music to the next level.

Improve Your Presentation Skills--Watch this free online seminar and find out how to improve your presentation skills.

Information Lifecycle Management--Steve Kenniston, an Enterprise Storage Group analyst will offer insights as to how to manage vast amounts of data while keeping your overhead low.

Keynote: Presentations that Meet your Creative Standards--Take this free online seminar and find out how Keynote allows you to create superior presentations you would expect from a professional creative tool.

Mobile Field Editing with Journalist Dr. Bob Arnot--Join Dr. Bob Arnot to learn how the Mac can help you become a more successful storyteller and videographer by editing video on-the-go using tools from Apple.

Optimize Your Creative Workgroups with Mac OS X Server, Xserve, and Xserve RAID--Join Brent Haley, Apple senior marketing manager for design and print, and learn how you can remove barriers to creativity while streamlining mundane IT tasks.

Perfect Color Starts Here. With Apple Cinema Displays--Join the Apple Cinema Displays product manager to learn how adding an Apple display to your creative system can boost your color-viewing experience.

Unwire Your Business--Take this free online seminar and find out how Apple's wireless and mobile solutions let you take your computing environment with you wherever you go.

We have looked at numerous Apple online seminars and they are all very well done. [Bill Fox]


[1/4]
Open Door Networks Sponsoring Macworld Art Contest/Gallery: Open Door Networks, developers of Envision, announced that it will sponsor the Macworld Conference and Expo Digital Art Contest and Gallery in San Francisco January 11-14. Open Door will be highlighting Envision in both the Digital Art Gallery (booth #543) and its booth (#649) at the show. Envision enables a new form of modern art by using the pictures, photos and images from the World Wide Web to create an innovative fusion of art, entertainment and information. The Macworld Digital Art Contest and Gallery has been a fixture at Macworld for the past seven years, highlighting Mac-created art from a large number of up-and-coming artists. Judges for the contest include Apple founder Steve Wozniak and legendary artist Peter Max. [Bill Fox]


[1/4]
BusinessWeek Picks Steve Jobs Among Top Performing Managers in 2004 according to this BusinessWeek Online article. The Apple and Pixar CEO was cited as:

"...he has become as famous for his love of good design as for a stubborn insistence on doing things his way. Both traits helped Apple flourish in 2004. Roaring sales of Apple's breakthrough iPod music player -- plus an expected $250 million in U.S. box-office sales for his separate company Pixar Animation Studios' [...] latest hit, The Incredibles -- show Jobs still knows how to cater to consumers."

We certainly agree. [Dana Baggett]


[1/3]
Hands-On Report--Killing Spam with Sp@mX at Week 3: Our spam problem had become overwhelming, over 600 spam messages per day that occasionally surpassed twice that. We had been tackling it with our web host's server level filter, Spam Assassin, that marks spam as JUNK before we download it and with Apple Mail's Junk filter. If we could just delete the result, we would still have the problem while traveling of having to download all that spam through a slow dial up connection. But we can't even delete the filtered spam because Spam Assassin and Apple Mail occasionally make mistakes and filter out mail we want, like 5 or so per day. So we have had to manually scan through 600+ spam messages before deleting them, a very time-consuming process and not 100 per cent accurate either.

Three weeks ago we began a trial of Sp@mX, now at v3.0.7 by hsc. It's a $20 application that automatically, more or less, reports spam to the server admins that handled the spam on the way with copies to the FTC and the California Dept. of Justice. It relies on server admins to take action to block the spam based on the reports. Here is our review.

We provided a progress report at the end of week one of our use of Sp@mX and a second report at the end of week 2. In the first week our spam messages had decreased from over 600 per day to an average of 360 per day, a remarkable 40 plus per cent reduction. During week two of our trial we processed a total of 1,640 spam messages or 234 per day for a 35 per cent reduction below the week one rate.

In week 3 we processed 1,145 spam messages or 164 per day for another 30 per cent reduction.

During week 3 we received 101 server acknowledgements of our abuse reports on 1,145 spam messages processed. This compares with 191 on 2,523 in week 1 and 213 on 1,640 in week 2.

We still get lots of Mail Return Errors, 54 during week 3. We got 75 each of the first two weeks.

Sp@mX still seems to be working as advertised. Our spam messages have been reduced by 40+, 35 and 30 per cent in the three weeks that we have been using it. Our spam message load has gone from over 4000 per week down to 1145, a significant reduction if not zero. We have processed 5308 spam messages and seem to be headed towards zero but the rate of decrease is slowing some. Next week we'll post the results for the fourth and final week of this trial. [Bill Fox]


[1/3]
New Music Trend--Releasing Records Straight to Apple's iTunes Music Store: Marc Cohn of "Walking in Memphis" fame is recording a new album live in Cleveland and then releasing it directly on iTunes according to this The Plain Dealer article. Apparently, the latest trend is for artists to record their songs then lease them to record companies. Cohn's latest album may not even show up in the music store, just on Apple's iTunes. [Dana Baggett]


[1/3]
From the Dark Side--Californians Must File Claims Against Microsoft By Friday, January 8th, in the M$ anti-trust settlement with the State of California according to this eWeek article. So far only 620,000 claims have been filed. It would be a shame for M$ to get most of the claims money back. If you reside in California and bought a Microsoft product used in CA from 2/18/95 to 12/15/01, file here, it's simple. [Brian Nakamoto]

[Back to top of page]

[Go to the December Archive]

[Return to Macs Only!'s Current News]


ADs

Click On Images

Mac Products Guide
New Arrivals
New and updated products added to the Guide.

Hot Deals
Great prices on hot selling Mac products from your favorite Macintosh resellers.

Special Offers
Promotions and offers direct from Macintosh developers and magazines.

Software
Browse the software section for over 17,000 Macintosh applications and software titles.

Hardware
Over 4,000 peripherals and accessories such as cameras, printers, scanners, keyboards, mice and more.

Advertising Info