$MaUsENext MeetingFebruary 25th

February 1998

Online Banking

Mac to PC and Back

Mac Expo News

$

EXECUTIVE CONTACT LIST

Please feel free to contact any of the following individuals if you have com-ments or questions relating to Macintosh Users East or Macintosh com-puting in general.

PRESIDENT

Bruce Cameron (905) 983-9205 Orono

e-mail: bcameron@lisnet.net

TREASURER/MEMBERSHIP CHAIRMAN

Doug Kettle (905) 683-3214 Ajax

LIBRARIAN

Mary McCarthy

BBS ADMINISTRATOR

Jim Foster (905) 432-0921 Courtice

Compuserve ID: 76366,566

MaUsE BBS - THE SOURCE

Courtice (905) 404-6603 33,600bps

(905) 404-9874 14,400bps

SPECIAL EVENTS

Chris Greaves (705) 887-2508 Fenelon Falls

e-mail: cgreaves@peterboro.net

EXEC-AT-LARGE

John Field (905) 885-8718 Port Hope

Bus: (905) 644-4736 Oshawa

Fax/Data: (905) 885-8618

PUBLICITY CHAIRMAN

Mark Fenton

MaUsE MESSAGE LINE

(905) 433-0777

DOUBLE CLICK

DOUBLE CLICK EDIT OR

Neil Oates (905) 623-7222 Bowmanville

e-mail: neptune@osha.igs.net

PRINTING & DISTRIBUTION

Doug Kettle (905) 683-3214 Ajax

ADVERTISING SALES

Tom White (905) 655-3201 Brooklyn

ADVERTISING

Full Page 81/2 x 11 $40.00Half Page 7 x 41/2 $25.00Quarter Page 33/8 x 41/2 $15.00Business Card 31/2 x 2 $10.00Inserts Max. 81/2 x 11 $50.00

From the Editor

The Double Click comes to you latethis month because I have beencatching up on sleep after spendingall of last weekend at the Mac Expoin Toronto. This year there was agreater ‘Mac’ presence and I believethat many of the PC folk attendingComputer Fest took notice ofApple’s technology and may haveeven learned a thing or two aboutthe platform. I was manning the‘Mac Help Desk’ all weekend andcouldn’t get over the amount ofquestions regarding the new G3Power Macintosh line – I guess thenew campaign is working. (see page 5 for details)

Neil Oates

Contents

Banking with your Mac pg3

PC and Mac Relations pg3

Equipment Sale pg3

Mac Expo ‘98 pg4

Thoughts on Macs pg5

PII Can’t Keep Up pg5

CD-R Review pg6

MaUsE Mailing Address

Macintosh Users East419 King Street WestOshawa Centre P.O.P.O. Box # 30530Oshawa, OntarioL1J 8L8

Online Banking Feature

Learn about the next banking rev-olution! Never again stand in linewaiting to see your account bal-ances on a busy Friday afternoon!

Use your Macintosh to pay bills,make transfers, check youraccount balances in the comfort ofyour home. Look at your cash flow(or lack of) anytime. Internetbanking is available 24 hrs a day, 7day a week.

David Chaudhari from mbanxToronto will present an overviewof Internet banking in consumerlanguage at the next MaUsE gener-al meeting Feb.25th.

mbanx.com

Online Auction is Suffering

This is just a reminder that there isan Online Auction forum on TheSource. Club members are encour-aged to check it out each month,after all, you never know what mightpop up. Last month I was the high-est bidder on the Premiere issue ofMacworld – I picked it up for $10.

Don’t let Jim’s hard work go towaste, log on and check out theauction.

MaUsE Sells Out!

Beginning immediately, MaUsE isable to offer to its members only,some terrific deals on usedMacintosh equipment.The items for sale are used, but

have been refurbished by the mem-bers of the MaUsE EquipmentProgram. Proceeds from sales will

be used to purchase parts and com-ponents which are needed to finishrefurbishing other Macintosh sys-tems which we will be donating toschools and other non-profit orga-nizations and/or individuals. So themoney you spend purchasing anyof these items will not only result ina good deal for YOU but will beused for a worthy cause. TheMaUsE Equipment Program recent-ly achieved a milestone when 9complete Macintosh IIcx systemswere delivered to a local HighSchool to begin a new life, so weknow that this program does work!

Keep in mind that all items areused, but we will provide a 30-daymoney-back guarantee on anythingyou purchase. After that, you’re onyour own but that’s part of the rea-son for the super low prices!! Manyof these older systems would makeideal “second” systems for homeuse or as a way to get your relativesor colleagues started in Macintoshcomputing.The best way to get full details on

these items is to log onto our clubBBS, “The Source”, where a newconference called “Equipment Sale”has just opened in the Club Newsarea.

For those members who do notutilize the BBS, you can call the clubMessage Line at 433-0777 and leavea message if you wish to make apurchase or if you have any com-ments, questions, or concerns.

Following is the initial list of itemsfor sale. More items will probably beadded in the near future, which isanother reason why accessing theBBS is the best way to keep abreastof developments:

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Computer Systems: Complete with13” Apple Colour Monitor,Extended Keyboard, Mouse, and allcables. Can be reconfigured to suityour specific requirements, withappropriate adjustments to sellingprice.

Macintosh LC System: 10 MegsRAM; 80 Meg Hard Drive - $225.00Macintosh IIsi System: 17 MegsRAM; 80 Meg Hard Drive - $325.00Macintosh Quadra 700 System: 8Megs RAM; 80 Meg Hard Drive -$400.00Macintosh Quadra 950 System: 64Megs RAM; 1.3 Gig Hard Drive -$900.00Apple PowerBooks: Various 170,180, 180c models to be announcedsoon.

Other Items:MicroNet 330 Meg External HardDrive: $80.00Apple Twin Page (21”)Monochrome Monitor: $180.00Apple 21” Colour Display(Monitor): $500.00Apple 16” Colour Display (Monitor)$350.00

Writer’s Wanted

I would like to encourage clubmembers to participate in the con-struction of Double Click. In addi-tion to being the Editor, I also takeon the role of Head Writer. Thismonth you will notice an articlewritten by my mother, DonnaOates. This is an example of thekind of writing that I am asking for,it doesn’t need to be elaborate to beinteresting.

Mac Expo ‘98

I worked at the “Mac Help” desk atComputerFest on Saturday butmanaged to pry myself loose longenough to take in a bit of BernardBecker’s presentation regardingcurrent and almost here Appledevelopments. A few points Irecall:

• Apple Canada is STILL sayingthat they want to bring the inter-net Apple Store to Canadian con-sumers, but they are having acomplicated time with languageissues as well as the complicatedfederal/provincial sales taxeswhich exist across the variousprovinces and territories. Onlyquick solution would be to dis-band Apple Canada and run thewhole show out of Cupertino,which doesn’t seem likely.

• Apple is prioritizing their market-ing efforts at specific segments.The largest of these is the con-sumer market in the U.S., andthat’s what has led to things likethe Internet Apple Store and theStore Within a Store initiative withCompUSA in the ‘States. Bernardindicated that the next largest“market segment” is the Educationmarket in the U.S. MoreMacintoshes are sold to theEducation market alone in the U.S.than to all market segments herein Canada. So while Canada is animportant market overall, it maybe a little while before we seeCanada being targeted the way

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segments in the U.S. have been todate.

• Having said that, Bernard saysthat Apple Canada DOES plan toimplement the Store Within a Storeconcept in Canada, although hecouldn’t or wouldn’t say exactlywhen. He did indicate that, at thesame time that Apple partneredwith CompUSA in America, theyactually approached a number ofother “chains” and asked them toSTOP selling Macintoshes becausethe way in which they were doingit was actually creating negativeexposure for both Apple and thechain.

Here in Canada, Bernard statedthat Apple will use Computer CityCanada as the selected chain, eventhough Computer City has beenone of the U.S. chains asked tostop selling Macs. From what Ihave seen, this is a good decisionfor Canada. Computer City, in myview, already does the best job onMacs, but with the addition of theStore Within a Store approach, itcould be MUCH better. InCompUSA stores, computer saleswere averaging something like 3%Mac out of total sales before theStore Within a Store program wentinto effect and they are now seeing14% of total sales being Mac.

• The G3’s Macs are a terrific hit.Apple cannot keep up with thedemand, so it is unlikely that we

will see prices fall by very much. Ina few months, a new generation ofG3’s will be out which will havesome additional features like theability to house over 700 Megs ofRAM, with 2D/3D acceleratorcards, etc. I suppose this mightlead to slightly lower prices on anyof the first generation G3’s still ininventory, but a sharp consumerwould have to act quickly becauseI don’t think inventory levels arevery high.

• Apple is VERY proud ofQuickTIme 3.0, and rightly so. Ihave been running the beta ver-sion for over a month and it isnoticeably smoother and betterthan earlier versions. Bernard saysthat, in a few months, there will bea retail CD-ROM version of System8.1 available and that it willinclude the final version ofQuickTime 3.0. In fact, I took itthat the main reason they have notyet produced a shrink-wrappedtotal version of 8.1 is because theywant QuickTime 3.0 to be part ofthe box.

As usual, Bernard did a great job ofrepresenting the Apple contingentin the midst of the sea of Inteljunkies. His presentation was easi-ly the highlight of the show, next tothe very few “Mac Help” questionsthat I was actually able to answer!!

Jim Foster

Pentium II Slow as Snail

CUPERTINO, California—Feb. 5,1998—Apple Computer, Inc. yes-terday launched a new 30-second

televi-sioncommer-cial thathigh-lights thesuperiorspeed ofApple’s

Macintosh G3 computer systems.The “snail” commercial states thatMacintosh computers based onthe new PowerPC G3 chip are upto twice as fast as computersbased on Intel’s Pentium II chip,based on BYTEMARK tests inde-pendently developed by industry-trusted BYTE magazine.

“Our Macintosh G3 computers areup to twice as fast as Intel PentiumII-based computers, and we wantthe world to know,” said SteveJobs, Apple’s interim CEO. “Sales ofour Macintosh G3 computers haveexceeded our expectations so far,and we want to build on thatmomentum.”

The advertising campaign isexpected to run for several weeks,and will also feature print.

The campaign builds on the origi-nal “Think different” brand cam-paignandcon-tinuesthesuc-cess-fulnewcollaboration of work by Apple andTBWA Chiat/Day. Their previouscollaboration produced manyaward winning ads, including theCLIO winner “1984” ad which has

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been voted the best ad of all timeby advertising professionals.

Thoughts on Macs

I consider myself very lucky to livein a house with two computer lit-erate men. They have encouragedme to dive right in and use ourMac to keep in touch via e-mail, toresearch any and everything thatinterests me on the internet, to getinvolved and join interest groupson the net, and finally to start touse our scanner. It is a wonderfulpiece of technology that allows meto reprint things just the same as aphotocopier, to enter data or pho-tos into the computer so I can playabout with them, and even to usescanned images to create my owndesigns. We have relatives in England and

the States and being able to “talk”with them by way of e-mail is terrific. It is so much quicker andsatisfying to drop them a note andhave a reply in a day (sometimeshours) afterwards.

I know there is so much more tolearn about computers, and Idoubt that I will ever be as com-puter literate as my family, but Ilove the speed, convenience, andcreative ability of my Macintosh.

I would encourage all of youthat may think it is too complicat-ed, or too intimidating, to getsomeone to help you learn toexplore the fun of using comput-ers. There is no doubt that com-puters are here to stay and I sayThank Goodness!!

Donna Oates

note: Donna uses a Power Mac 7200/75and a Umax Astra 600 Scanner

ISO Adopts Quicktime 3.0

CUPERTINO, California--Feb. 11,1998--Apple Computer Inc., IBM,

Netscape Corp., Oracle Corp.,Silicon Graphics Inc. and SunMicrosystems Inc. todayannounced that the InternationalStandards Organization (ISO) hasadopted the companies' joint pro-posal to use Apple's QuickTimeFile Format as the starting pointfor the development of a unifieddigital media storage format forthe MPEG-4 specification.

The six companies now look for-ward to collaborating with othercompanies and industry bodies tofurther refine the specification andQuickTime file format--ensuringthat MPEG-4 quickly gains marketacceptance.

"MPEG's decision to utilize theQuickTime file format for theMPEG-4 specification has hugebenefits for users and the indus-try", said Ralph Rogers, PrincipalAnalyst for Multimedia atDataquest, San Jose. "This strategywill leverage the broad adoption ofQuickTime in the professionalmedia space, speed the creation ofMPEG-4 tools and content whileproviding a common target forindustry adoption."

The six companies' co-authoredthe QuickTime File Format pro-posal in response to a Call ForProposals issued by MPEG basedon stringent technical examina-tion against a broad range ofrequirements. The companies'proposal recommendedQuickTime's file format as thesuperior technology choicebecause of its ability to streamacross different network protocols,its support for all forms of digitalmedia and its extremely flexiblecapabilities as a file format.Additionally, QuickTime's file for-mat has a strong following amongcreative professionals, with a widebreadth of available developmenttools and cross-platform support.The QuickTime file format is acomponent of the QuickTimearchitecture.

MaUsE Meeting Location

About Double Click

Double Click is produced monthly, where pos-sible, by and for members of Macintosh UsersEast (MaUsE), an Apple Macintosh ComputerUsers’ Group Serving the Durham Region &environs, for the purposes stated in its consti-tution. There is no charge for this publication.Articles published in Double Click may bereproduced for non-commercial purposes byother Macintosh User Groups or interestedparties without prior permission. Any otherreproduction of any part of this newsletterrequires the written permission of theauthors(s).

©Macintosh is a trademark of Apple Canada.Other products mentioned in this newsletterare assumed to be trademarks of their manufacturers/distributors.

Hi Val CD Recording Systemby Neil Oates

Earlier this month a friend ofmine, let us call him Joe, bought aCD recording system for his PC.He chose a Hi Val drive fromComputer City which sold foraround $530. The drive includedan ISA SCSI card – for a PC, oneblank CD-R, a SCSI ribbon,mounting screws, a manual and aCD-ROM featuring Adaptec’s EZCD Creator and Toast 3.5 – for theMac.

The drive is an internal modeland uses a JVC mechanism. Itsports a massive 1mb buffer andwrites at 2x speed while reading at6x speed.

So...after installation, Joe wasexcited about the prospect ofburning his own CD’s on hisPentium II workstation (64mb RAM,4 gig Ultra Wide SCSI, 233mhz PII, etc.)

After ruining 3 CD’s in the first 2days, he decided to let me have acrack at it with my Mac.

Two weeks later, I’ve successfully‘burned’ close to 15 CD’s. I can’tattribute this entirely to the supe-riority of my computer however.The people at Adaptec must becommended on their Toast soft-ware for the Mac. The programallows you to customize your CD-ROM creation with incredible flex-ibility. Here’s a list of the types ofCD’s that Toast can write:

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Mac HFS, Video CD, ISO 9660 (withsupport for long Win 95 filenames),Audio, Mac/ISO Hybrid, EnhancedMusic CD, and CD-I.

CD-R’s are becoming a viableoption for those seeking inexpen-sive backups and mass storage.Although the media isn’t reusable,some stores sell blank CD-R’s foras little as $2 a piece. A blank CD-Rwill fit 650mb of data, or 74 min-utes of audio. I highly recommendthe Hi Val drive and Adaptec’sToast software, unless you plan onburning with a Pentium II – justkidding. Be aware that fast harddrives are needed as well as lots ofRAM, I’ve got 96mb. Writing CD’s isnot something that the averagehome computer can do, so be sureto check with a knowledgeablesalesperson before buying a drive. for more info on CD-R software, check out

Adaptec’s website – http://www.adaptec.com