Hot Mac News

[Panag]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
Just posting in the Mac forums to stick it to Provost Harrison. Carry on.

hi ,

, care to explain that a bit more

have a nice day

[Lawrence of Arabia]

1.21 is the latest mac patch? Isn't that a couple of months old?

[Panag]

Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia
1.21 is the latest mac patch? Isn't that a couple of months old?

hi ,


yes it is , but some people could not find it , .....

others where confused since some-one put like a beta path our something a couple weeks ago

have a nice day

[FlameFlash]

drools... Especially liked the article at the top... many thanks panag

[Panag]

Originally posted by FlameFlash
drools... Especially liked the article at the top... many thanks panag

hi ,

thanks

please feel free to post hot MAC news in here guys

its about time we show the world that mac myth to the bin , and delete it for ever , ...... well at least on this site

have a nice MAC day ( insert mac smilie here )

[Panag]

Current Westlake Projects

Updated January 2, 2003
(items in red are newest)

Project
Current Status*
Mac OS 8.x/9.x Mac OS X Mac Publisher

Rune: Halls of Valhalla
Available Here!
Yes No Mercenary Studios

Civilization III
In Stores!
Yes Yes MacSoft

Civilization III Game Editor
Final Candidate
No Yes MacSoft

Spider-Man™
In Stores!
Yes Yes Aspyr Media

Unreal Tournament OS X
Preview 3
Yes Yes MacSoft

ST:V - Elite Force Expansion Pack
Available Here!
Yes Yes Aspyr Media

Max Payne
In Stores!
Yes Yes MacSoft

Harry Potter™ and the Sorcerer's Stone™
In Stores!
Yes Yes Aspyr Media

Return To Castle Wolfenstein
In Stores!
Yes Yes Aspyr Media

The Sims Hot Date
In Stores!
Yes Yes Aspyr Media

Star Wars® Galactic Battlegrounds™
In Stores!
Yes Yes Aspyr Media

Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault
In Stores!
Yes Yes Aspyr Media

Star Wars® Jedi Knight® II: Jedi Outcast™
In Stores!
Yes Yes Aspyr Media

The Sims Vacation
In Stores!
Yes Yes Aspyr Media

EverQuest®
Alpha
No Yes SOE
The Chosen One
Beta
Yes Yes ???
Dungeon Siege
Alpha
Undecided Yes Destineer/Bold

Halo: Combat Evolved
Early Development
Undecided Yes Destineer/Bold

NASCAR® Racing 2002 Season
In Stores!
No Yes Aspyr Media

Star Wars® Galactic Battlegrounds™ Clone Campaigns™
Available Here!
Yes Yes Aspyr Media

The Sims Unleashed
Gold Master
Yes Yes Aspyr Media

Harry Potter™ and the Chamber of Secrets™
Beta
Yes Yes Aspyr Media

(Projects in italics are generally code-names for unannounced games).

* - What do all these status items mean? Here's a quick key:

Early Development- A project that has just started. Early work is being done on getting low level foundation code up and running on the Mac, trying to get data files to load properly, graphics routines to draw something, etc.

Prototype- Between Early Development and First Playable, the prototype stage is far enough along to have some interface drawing and most data files loading, but not far enough to actually play.

First Playable- The point when a game has enough code up and running that you can actually play it. Many features are probably still not working, possibly including sound & music, networking, optimzations, Mac interface, save games, some 3D hardware support, etc.

Alpha- More of the game working than first playable- usually sound works, early networking code, some 3D hardware support,, and save games. Still pretty buggy, and a few features not working fully.

Beta- All game code is converted and running on the Mac, and all features of the game are implemented. This is when we start tracking and fixing bugs, and have our testers play the game extensively to find any new bugs.

Gold Master- The final CD for a game is delivered to the publisher. Usually the game will then hit the stores within 2 to 3 weeks.


Other Info:

Mac OS 8.x/9.x- The software will run under Mac OS 8.x as well as Mac OS 9.x. Most Westlake games try to support Mac OS 8.6 or later. Check the game's box or visit the Publisher's web site for exact specifications.

Mac OS X- The software will run "natively" under Mac OS X. Ie, it will not be necessary to play the game in Classic mode, and the software will take advantage of many of OS X's unique features. Most newer Westlake games try to support Mac OS X 10.1 or later. Check the game's box or visit the Publisher's web site for exact specifications.


hi ,

and to say some people gave up on it , ....

have a nice day

[Lawrence of Arabia]

MAC world SF is starting soon. I wonder what Steve jobs is gonna unveil.

[Gatekeeper]

I've heard rumors of a 19-inch iMac with a possible boost in memory and processor speeds ...

[Panag]

Originally posted by Gatekeeper
I've heard rumors of a 19-inch iMac with a possible boost in memory and processor speeds ...

hi ,

, wait and see in a couple days , ....

otherwise it shall be maybe september before we hear anything at all , ....

have a nice MAC day

[Panag]

hi ,

a story from a satisfied customer ;

have a nice MAC day


Vent Thomas has a long history and happy history with Macintosh in Katoomba, Australia. Learn about his Web design business at www.ivent.com.au.

I bought my first Mac, an SE, in 1988. I then started a corporate event production company, where we designed and produced exhibitions, special events and product launches. The SE ran our accounts, produced our proposals and ground plans of events, ran sound effects at events and made vinyl cut signage. We then bought a IISi. We designed and produced exhibition stands for several clients exhibiting at MacWorld Expos in Australia, and used SuperCard on the IISi to produce full screen multimedia presentations projected onto a 12' x 9' screen for our clients' product launches, including some big-name PCs.

Years later, I worked with a local Mac dealership where a client of ours was organizing an expedition to take two blind men to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. We lent them an iBook so they could produce live updates for their Web site during the trek. This involved hooking a satellite phone up to the iBook. The satellite phone techs told me that it was unlikely to work on a Mac and usually takes an extraordinary amount of "fiddling" to get it to work on a PC. We set the whole shebang up in 15 minutes, much to the surprise of the satellite techs. Now, I run a Web design business using a TiBook, iBook & AirPort

[Panag]

MACWORLD 2003

hi ,

MACWORLD 2003 , from january the 6th until the 10th in San Francisco , more info at www.macworldexpo.com , enjoy the site :thumbs-up:

have a nice day


Welcome
Paul Kent
Conference Chairperson
Macworld Conference & Expo



Dear Macintosh Enthusiast,

Macworld Conference & Expo/San Francisco 2003 will represent yet another milestone for the Macintosh community. With the release of Mac OS X 10.2 (a.k.a. "Jaguar") and its myriad impressive new features, Apple adds another chapter to the incredible story of its next generation operating system. This year's conference offers more than 120 educational offerings to help you become more productive with your Macintosh. There's a lot to tell you about, so let's get to it!

The week begins with our one-day Workshops and two-day Power Tools Conferences. These intensive courses take you deeper inside the most popular Macintosh products and technologies than any other training program available. Take advantage of in-depth education on Photoshop, FileMaker, Final Cut Pro, Dreamweaver and more in a lecture-based format. Immerse yourself in one of these courses and you'll emerge a more informed user.

Our Macworld/Pro Conference offers an expanded curriculum for network and corporate IT professionals. San Francisco marks the first time we've explored deploying OS X Server in-depth, with nine conference sessions covering servers and services. The Pro Conference also offers specialty sessions for creative professionals looking for advanced discussions about color management, digital video production and digital asset management. Taken together, these 45 Pro Conference sessions represent the most complete collection of expert-level discussions available to people who earn their living using a Macintosh.

The Macworld/Users Conference - the absolute best value available for Mac computer owners looking for training - offers 63 sessions to help you do more with your Macintosh. We offer a wide range of sessions that take you INSIDE Jaguar and reveal ways to leverage its the powerful address book, improved email client, Internet searching, handwriting recognition and zero-configuration networking features. Suggested curriculums will soon be available. For example, the Creative Juice Factory curriculum boasts the world's top Mac creative tool experts presenting their work and offering tips and tricks that will make you more productive. We also offer a complete curriculum for musicians who want to use their Macs to create masterpieces. There's also a host of courses on troubleshooting, new technology, small business and education, all taught by experts in their fields.

The week ends with our Hands-on MacLabs series - small, focused, HANDS-ON courses to help you apply the tips and techniques you've seen throughout the week. Each Hands-on MacLab is limited to a few dozen attendees to provide the utmost personal attention to each user. I recommend registering for these courses early to reserve your spot.

For 19 years, Macworld Conference & Expo has been the trusted meeting place for the Mac community. Our conference agenda offers the most complete and comprehensive set of training offerings available to Macintosh users at all levels. I invite you to join us in the City by the Bay this January for an amazing week of education.

Sincerely,




Paul Kent
Conference Chairperson
Macworld Conference & Expo



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


About Paul Kent:

Paul Kent
President, Mactivity, Inc.

Conference Chairperson, Paul Kent is a sixteen-year veteran of the Mac industry. In addition to developing the conference agendas for Macworld Conference & Expo, his company, Mactivity, has produced many of the technology industry's most innovative and influential conferences including the Mactivity, Mactivity/Web and Mactivity/CEO conference series, Interop Dot Com, Voice on the Net, Java Business Expo, The Internet Security Conference and QuickTime Live! When he's not designing conferences, Paul can be found playing rock and roll or ice hockey around Los Gatos, California where he lives with his wife and three daughters.

[Panag]

Try a Mac , you might like the taste , ....

hi ,

intresting story ;

have a nice day

Not forbidden fruit: Try a Mac; you may find a taste is all it takes

By Charles Bermant
Special to The Seattle Times

Every two years or so, PC users follow a common ritual. The old machine has lost its luster, and no longer has the power required to do their job or make them feel happy about being in front of the computer in the first place.

So they call up the guys at their favorite mail-order company or trot off to the local PC emporium and plop down a couple grand on the same-old-same-old-only-more-so.

It doesn't have to be this way. At the beginning of each cycle we bemoan this rut, and hear a voice in the back of our heads, as if Yoda took on a job in Cupertino as director of sales and marketing. "There is another, and its name is Macintosh."

With the advent of OS X Jaguar, a major rewrite of the Mac operating system released this past fall, Apple is seriously setting its sites on the massive PC user base. It has sponsored a marvelous switch advertising campaign, with celebrities and normal people alike saluting the machine's humanity.

But how much difference do ads make, really? People still talk about the original Macintosh ad during the 1984 Super Bowl, but how many of those actually went out and bought one as a result?

The truth is, computing products must address the needs of the "installed base," those already using the machines. If not for the installed base, the rate of innovation would be much faster.

From Apple's standpoint, the reason to switch is simple: People are looking to integrate disparate digital devices in a way that doesn't require multiple conflict-causing drivers. Apple can accomplish this through control. It manufactures the hardware. Oversees the software. Co-develops the applications. Runs technical support.

So, not only does everything work together, a customer with questions needs only one point of contact for questions; without the rampant finger pointing that invades the PC universe.

For some time, upgrading PC users with an open mind have considered switching to the Mac at one point or another. Maybe they saw one at a friend's house and noticed the clean lines of the machine and its interface. Maybe there is a piece of software on the Mac that does not yet have a PC counterpart. Or more likely, maybe Windows' eccentricities are driving them nuts, and they feel the computer should adapt to them rather than the other way around.

But the impulse — like the urge to get an impractical car or join the Peace Corps — soon passes. It's too disrupting. There is already an investment that we need to protect. Everyone at the office uses a PC, and there are better uses of your time than dealing with two different computing environments.

Considering the alternative


That is, until today. Windows users grumble about each upgrade and then accept it, calling it an improvement because it "crashes less." Many people no longer find this a good enough reason to buy yet another Windows machine, especially when an iMac costs about the same, looks and feels a lot better and provides a welcome jump start of your mundane computing life.

There are indications that the switch campaign is working. Since Apple opened its first retail store in May 2001, there are about 50 nationwide (Washington state is in line to get one, in Bellevue, next summer) and the retail presence has increased. Meant as a way to raise consumer awareness, the stores took in $100 million in its most recent quarter, up from $63 million the previous quarter. Forty percent of customers are said to be new to the Mac.

To support the migration, Apple established a switch page www.apple.com/switch. It's half promotion and half helpful hits, thankfully devoid of the "I told you so" ethnocentrism that has made Apple users famously obnoxious. Apple reports 1.6 million visitors to the site, with 40 percent coming from Windows machines.

The switch isn't absolute. It's not like buying a car, where you jump into a new Taurus and leave your Corolla behind. The best way to switch is to run both machines side by side for a while, delegating the best tasks to each one. This won't work as well if the PC is on its last legs or outright dead.

One switcher's view


ZDNet's Anchor Desk columnist David Coursey is a former PC partisan who now divides his computing tasks between the PC and the Mac. He does digital photography, video and a majority of writing on the Mac, but product testing and mail on the PC (this because the Mac still has trouble interfacing with some virtual private networks and firewalls). It's also hard to get a Pocket PC and a Mac to work together, he said.

Coursey, who is writing a book about the switch, finds himself gravitating toward the Mac. "I know it isn't going to break, or have some bizarre problem like Windows," he said.

Analyst Tim Bajarin has used both a PC and a Mac for some time. "I've had a Mac since 1984, and have consistently used it for all the creative things that I do," said Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, based in Campbell, Calif. "I do all my photos on the Mac, I don't even try them on the PC. The Mac is the best platform for creativity, while I tend to use the PC for more 'productive' things."

These categories aren't mutually exclusive. Microsoft Office for the Mac is close to the PC version in terms of features, and is a lot better looking. The FileMaker database and FastTrack project manager round out the application family. And on the PC, there is a plethora of unique photo and video programs, many without Mac counterparts.

A major player in the PC-to-Mac stakes is Bellevue's own Detto Technologies, which sells a $60 hardware/software package called Move2Mac. You first load it on the PC, then the Mac, then connect the two machines with a supplied USB cable.

Move2Mac is the very example of modern software ingenuity, where everything works as it's supposed to. Documents and pictures are moved to their corresponding folders, so you don't have to thrash around looking for certain files. Mail files are just a little trickier. It requires three different conversions to move from Microsoft Outlook to Entourage, the corresponding Mac Office mail application.

While Move2Mac is a good solution for detail-oriented users, some will take the opportunity to jettison many older files. People who operate in both environments will know which files are on what machine — and may want to operate their Mac on a clean slate.

On the other hand, those who are making a full conversion and retiring their PC will love this program for the five times they are allowed to use it (the program, unfortunately, does not act as a network between environments).

'Windowslike'


David Beglinger, a Boonville, Calif., artist who is a Move2Mac customer, lauds the program's ease of use but has found the process daunting.

"When I started with the Mac I had no idea what an 'alias' was," Beglinger said. "After looking around for a while I found out it was pretty much the same as a shortcut. It also took me a long time to figure out how to move a window."

If the Mac is "Windowslike," Beglinger found enough inconsistencies to be confusing.

"I don't understand why Jaguar's developers didn't take a hard look at Windows, and just use the things that work well," he said. "After all, Windows has been stealing stuff from the Mac for years."

This underscores the fact that not everyone is switching for the same reasons. Beglinger just wants something that works well, doesn't crash and is easy to use. He is destined, for now, to not find this with either the PC or the Mac.

The purpose of switching, however, is to improve upon but not necessarily duplicate the PC environment. If you love Windows, there's no reason to move in the first place.

"We don't want to be like Windows," said Greg Joswiak Apple's vice president of hardware product marketing. "We want to do everything better. We are intent on creating the greatest computers and the best computing experience in the world. And we are the only ones who can say that with a straight face."

Charles Bermant, who writes the weekly Inbox column in Personal Technology, is a longtime PC user who is going through the Mac switch — at least for now.



Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Nice article. Thanks panag. That Move2Mac sounds like a nice piece of equipment.

[Panag]

Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia
Nice article. Thanks panag. That Move2Mac sounds like a nice piece of equipment.

hi ,

well at last someone came up with it , now those poor Mac users who have to go to the trouble each day of working on a pc get at last a good solid solution , ....

, ZD net mentions in the above article about problem with VPN and firewalls , what Mac did they use , .... , no problems on this side (!)

have a nice MAC day

[Lawrence of Arabia]

I use NetBarrier as a firewall. I sometimes have problems hosting multiplayer FPS on gameranger. BUt since I dont play FPS anymore, I dont care.