Cool Mac Gear

Windows folks have consistently gotten a lot more bundled software with new PC boxes than Apple has supplied with Macs, especially “professional” machines. And of course, some Linux distros ship with literally thousands of bundled applications.

Apple is finally addressing this issue, by sweetening the bundle of included applications for the new Power Mac machines, with some really great and useful applications.

The new bundled suite includes:

• iPhoto , Apple’s latest multimedia software innovation, which fulfills the promise of the digital camera by creating the perfect environment for working with digital images.

• iMovie 2 - the latest version of the software that has turned many Mac users into digital storytellers. Compatible with most popular DV camcorders, iMovie lets you import pristine digital audio and video through either one of your Power Mac G4’s 400Mbps FireWire ports.

• iDVD 2 gives you the tools you need to author your own DVD-Video discs. iDVD 2 is simple enough to be used without any prior knowledge of DVD technology, and yet it’s powerful enough to enable you to create gorgeous DVDs. With iDVD 2, assembling the content of your DVDs is as simple as dragging and dropping QuickTime files into the interface.

• iTunes Apple’s digital jukebox, among the most successful music applications of all time. iTunes makes it easy to create and manage your digital music collection.

• Mac OS X - the advantage of next-generation hardware running on a next-generation operating system. And since Mac OS X harnesses the awesome power of the PowerPC G4 with Velocity Engine, you’ll also enjoy such decisive advantages as symmetric multiprocessing, preemptive multitasking, protected memory and standards-based networking.

• Art Directors Toolkit - a major time-saver that helps you get the information you’re looking for quickly and easily. This stand-alone application is packed with features that let you do everything from viewing every possible character in a font, to identifying the point size of an 1/8” Helvetica “M,” and capturing the actual color of a pixel on your screen, to converting points to picas, and more.

• PixelNhance - a real-time image enhancement application from Caffeine Software. PixelNhance lets you quickly and easily determine the best image adjustment settings for your digital images. Your image appears in a unique split-screen window with the original settings on one side, and the settings that you are currently have in the Controls window on the other. PixelNhance lets you enhance brightness and contrast, color saturation, tone saturation, sharpness and noise reduction. You can horizontally, vertically, or diagonally move, as well as rotate, the dividing bar that separates the two regions. And as you adjust the settings in the Controls window, the effects are immediately visible on the image.

• Snapz Pro X may well be the niftiest screen capture solution for the Mac — and it even lets you record movies. You can use Snapz Pro X to make your training video, complete with your own narration, without worrying about large file sizes or slow connections. Snapz Pro X supports saving screen images as .bmp, .pict, .gif, .jpg, .png, .tiff, .pdf and Photoshop files, and also records animated or action sequences as a QuickTime movie. With Snapz Pro X, you’ll never again have to tell people about how cool a game is or how to use a particular program — you can simply take a picture or movie of it and let them see it with their own eyes.

• GraphicConverter is the Mac OS X version of Torsten Lemke’s veteran shareware tool that lets you import images from over 100 graphic file formats — and export to dozens of graphic file formats. GraphicConverter offers both advanced and basic image manipulation features, batch conversions, and AppleScript support.

• OmniGraffle enables you to draw perfect diagrams, family trees, flow charts, org charts and layouts. You can use OmniGraffle to plan plotlines for a story or movie, create an overview of an organization, show the evolution of species, or illustrate the disseminaton of information. If you want to organize your thoughts and your projects graphically, OmniGraffle is the tool for you.

• OmniOutliner is a great tool for outlining and organizing your thoughts, maintaining multiple to-do lists, and tracking items like the books or DVD movies in your personal library.

• PCalc 2 is a full-featured scientific calculator with support for hexadecimal, octal and binary calculations, and that also includes a Reverse Polish Notation (RPN) mode.

• FileMaker Pro Trial is a 30-day trial version of the database tool that lets you do everything from managing projects to keeping track of customers. Want to compile a mailing list of prospects and segment them by profession, geography or income? You want FileMaker Pro software.

• Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0, the latest version of the industry-standard software that lets you convert any document to a Portable Document Format (PDF) file. With Acrobat Reader 5.0, anyone can open your document across a wide range of hardware and software configurations, and it will look exactly as you intended it to look — with layout, fonts, links and images intact.

• FAXstf X - as yet a dubious blessing, but FAXstf in theory lets you send faxes directly from your Power Mac G4, from any Mac OS X document-based application, including Microsoft Office v.X and Acrobat Reader. And FAXstf X fully supports the 56K internal modem that comes with your Power Mac G4, so you don’t need any additional hardware or software to start using it to send and receive faxes.

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 5, another dubious blessing, with features such as the Auction Manager, Internet Scrapbook, Search Assistant, and Show Related Links (it lets you find web pages related to the one you’re looking at, without having to perform a separate search). My advice: get iCab, or OmniWeb, or Mozilla or Netscape6, or Opera.

• EarthLink Total Access, the Internet access software that ships with your Power Mac G4, comes with a 30-day free trial offer. Unlimited Internet access, chats and instant messaging, and Mac-friendly tech support.

• Mac OS X Mail is a robust application that lets you send and receive email. You can drag and drop pictures, sounds and movies into your email, and use colors, fonts and formatting commands to enhance the look of your message. Mail works with your Internet preferences and the Mac OS X Address Book application. Moving to Mac OS X Mail is quick and easy — it even lets you import mail and address books from other email applications, including Entourage, Outlook Express, Claris eMailer, Netscape and Eudora. However, Mail is another bundled app. thet I find underwhelming. My preference is for SweetMail (the most bug-free OS X email app in my experience), Nisus Email, or Eudora.

However, it’s great that Apple is bundling more useful stuff with the Power macs. But where’s AppleWorks? Are they scared of annoying Microsoft?

Charles W. Moore

Cool Mac Gear