Winds of Change

written by Charles DeVore

from Mouse Tracks November 2002

While in the real world 2.1 million users jump ship due to the cost of .Mac, Apple reports that 180,000 members have coughed up the $49 to $99 for a year's worth of .Mac. Be aware that every Apple dealer has been told to shove this purchase down your throat. Several PMUG members report that vendors are telling buyers this is a must buy. My guess is that Apple will need to offer better pricing and some type of dial-up access to its clients if they plan to stay in the game and not go the way of eWorld.

All of Apple's current push seems to look a lot like Microsoft marketing. We have iCal and iSync all hooked up to .Mac. Apple is even putting other programs on the .Mac servers to get people to sign up for the service. I tend not to like being tied to a vendor for a yearly fee. It makes me feel like I'm renting rather than purchasing products. Licensing fees on software are bad enough; but not even having a copy of the product makes people lose track of what they purchased and when. So what happens when .Mac goes down and you can't get your email or sync your PDA?

Apple's new feature iCal is released and seems to work OK but it is not as easy to use for many of us as Now Up-to-Date. However, for a free product, it's not too bad. There is at least one web site that is hosting iCal(endars)–its address is http://www.icalshare.com. At the current time uploads are free and there is a growing directory of events: sports, sci-fi cons, space shuttle launch dates and more. It is yet to be seen if posters will update their iCal(s) or let them die of old data by forgetting about them once they are uploaded.

iSync is coming but is really beta software. Many testers (users) are reporting lots of bugs. Hopefully Apple will get this sorted out shortly. The idea and the product are very timely for a company that wants to be your digital hub. iSync allows System 10.2.1 and above to synchronize data between your Bluetooth phone, iPod, Palm, .Mac address book and iCal.

Speaking of beta releases, all users need to understand just what a beta release is. "Beta" means that the product may work in most areas, however it may also crash your computer, corrupt your data, or do other evil things to your computer. "Alpha" software is even more dangerous and almost guaranteed to crash your computer. So you really do need to give some thought to it before installing this type of software. Questions you should ask yourself are: 1. Can you afford to spend the time rebuilding your system and replacing data if you do crash? 2. Do you have a current back up of your data? 3. Do you have a spare machine you can run it on rather than your main computer? If the answer to any of these questions is no you may want to let someone else beta test the product. I know that I write about using beta software or doing beta testing. It sounds fun, and you get to try products before other people get to try them, but I use a test machine for these products. All I have to do is wipe the drive and start over. Keep that in mind when beta software crosses your path.

Hardware notes
The bottom of the line G4 iMac has dropped from $1399 to $1299. Nice to see things going down rather than up. OK Apple, now let's do that on the towers and the G4 PowerBooks.

Apple has released a modem updater to fix a problem with lost dialup and System X. This is meant to resolve a rare issue in which some built-in modems cannot dial out. You may see the message "Internet Connect could not open the communications device."

Effected products are: Mac OS X 10.2 to 10.2.1 iBook (Late 2001) iBook (14.1 LCD) iBook (16 VRAM) iBook (14.1 LCD 16 VRAM) PowerBook G4 (Gigabit Ethernet) PowerBook G4 (DVI) iMac (Flat Panel) iMac (Flat Panel 17) eMac PowerMac G4's: Dual 1GHz, Dual 1.5 GHz (Mirrored Drive Doors) PowerBook G3 Series: 233, 250, 292 MHz (Wallstreet)

Don't you just love how Apple identifies their products that may need an update. I mean everyone should know they bought a late 2001 iBook right?

Spam again
More and more spam is coming to a computer near you. The more people talk about rules, the more the spammers increase their output. As I said the last time: do not respond to these people. All you're doing is telling them they have a good address and then they can sell it to thousands of other spammers. The more pressure the USA puts on its Internet providers, the more the spammers have to deal with third world countries. This is where the problem starts to get sticky. Your local provider gets a report from John/Jane Doe that someone in China spammed them. The provider puts up a block against the IP address of the spammer. Problem solved, right? Wrong! Most likely the spammer has moved on to another IP address and everyone trying to get mail from that old IP address in China is now blocked. The people in the US now have to go to their provider and ask what the problem is and see if the provider will unblock the IP address for that site. If you have a small provider they will work with you to try and resolve the problem however if you have a large provider like AOL or Earthlink you will find no one really cares if you get mail or not from the IP address that sent some spam. Sometimes you just want to scream.

Protect your investment
Software serial number–where are yours? No, not the software, the serial numbers. Each time you buy a product that has a book write the serial number in the book. Then write the serial number in a notebook with all your other serial numbers. This is a case of having serial numbers in many places is a good thing. If possible, copy your CD ROMs and put them away. Only use the copies when re-installing your software. That way the real ones can't get lost or scratched. (Note some CDs cannot be copied.) I place all of mine in CD ROM notebooks, this keeps all the versions together. Do not give away your old software that you have upgraded, many software packages require you to reinsert the CD from the old version in order to install the new version. Needless to say, the software companies are not thrilled about sending you another copy of the old software, and in fact most won't. Software and their serial numbers are like money. Treat them the same as money and you can't go wrong.

Replacing older or downloaded software is starting to raise an interesting legal question. If, as the software companies claim, you are only paying for a license to run the software, then they have to replace it. On the other hand if they refuse to replace it, they are basically admitting that the software is a physical product, subject to a different set of laws, and the license is meaningless. They can't have it both ways. –Bill Trent (MT Editor)

From the Apple Knowledge base
Not all QuickTime Pro registration keys will enable the pro features of QuickTime 5.
* QuickTime 3 Pro keys do not enable QuickTime 5 Pro features.
* QuickTime 4 Pro keys purchased before 2000-10-12 do not enable QuickTime 5 Pro features.
* QuickTime 4 Pro keys purchased after 2000-10-12 will enable QuickTime 5 Pro features, as will QuickTime 5 Pro keys purchased after 2000-10-12.

If you purchased a QuickTime Pro key before this date, you must purchase a new key to enable QuickTime 5 Pro features. New keys may be purchased from The Apple Store http://www.apple.com/store .

QuickTime 6 Pro
QuickTime 6 replaces earlier versions of QuickTime. A QuickTime 6 Pro key is required to unlock Pro features of QuickTime 6. If you wish to use a QuickTime 4 or 5 Pro key, you need to use an earlier version of QuickTime, which you can download from the Apple Support Web site. So if you aren't getting the extra features you expect, you are most likely in need of a new QT key from Apple. You did write down when you bought your key, right?

Macworld Planning Time
Macworld Expo is coming up fast! Get your plane tickets and hotel reservations ASAP. Janet and I have been going to Macworld for over 10 years. It is really our vacation and a time to find out what other Mac users think is the newest and greatest thing. You never know who you will meet there–famous people or 20 PMUG members. The fun parts are getting to see the new offerings from vendors or new products in action. When you get tired there is almost always a User Group lounge to kick back and rest your feet. This is also a great place to meet other user group members and talk. So if you go be sure and wear a PMUG T-shirt (or MacCamp T-shirt). PS: have a good time and watch out for the cab drivers!

Games
Many of the PC gamers are beginning to complain about how few games are coming out for their platform. Seems things like Xbox and PlayStation 2 have taken over and that's what the game companies are writing for. So now they have a taste of what Mac users felt like for many years. If you have seen the price many of those games sell for, you understand why gaming companies are going that way. The titles cost $50 apiece with little or no discount. Where computer games start to drop in price after the first big push, the gaming stations stay up there in cost. Plus, there is less pirating of this software due to the hardware copy protection.

You can reach me at charles@cdevsol.com.

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