TidBITS#629/06-May-02
=====================

  At Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference today, Steve Jobs
  previewed Jaguar, the next major revision to Mac OS X. It might
  make you want to pounce on Apple's new OS, as we've done with our
  reporting in TidBITS. Also, we pass on some potentially useful
  opportunities for small companies at Macworld Expo 2002 in New
  York. In the news, we cover Default Folder 1.5, ConceptDraw
  Presenter, icWord 2.1, and how international users can get
  Adam's iPhoto book.

Topics:
    MailBITS/06-May-02
    Opportunities for Small Fry at Macworld Expo
    Mac OS X: The Curse of the New
    Jaguar: Mac OS X Prepares to Pounce

<http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-629.html>
<ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/issues/2002/TidBITS#629_06-May-02.etx>

Copyright 2002 TidBITS Electronic Publishing. All rights reserved.
   Information: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Comments: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
   ---------------------------------------------------------------

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MailBITS/06-May-02
------------------

**Default Folder X 1.5 Mixes with Cocoa** -- St. Clair Software
  has released Default Folder X 1.5, its invaluable enhancement for
  Mac OS X Open and Save dialogs. Along with a few bug fixes, this
  version adds the previously missing compatibility with Cocoa
  applications and works with Bare Bones Software's Super Get Info
  to display information about files. Default Folder 1.5 also works
  with an upcoming release of Keyboard Maestro to use key commands
  when switching folders in file dialogs. Default Folder X 1.5 is a
  free update to users of previous versions; it's a 1.7 MB download.
  [JLC]

<http://www.stclairsoft.com/DefaultFolderX/>
<http://www.barebones.com/products/supergetinfo.html>
<http://www.keyboardmaestro.com/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06718>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06805>


**ConceptDraw Presenter Takes On PowerPoint** -- CS Odessa has
  released ConceptDraw Presenter 1.0, the latest product derived
  from their powerful diagramming software (see "Make the Connection
  with ConceptDraw" in TidBITS-553_). ConceptDraw Presenter competes
  directly with Microsoft PowerPoint - it enables you to create
  presentations with text, graphics, and sounds, plus transitions
  between slides. You can display presentations directly within
  ConceptDraw Presenter or export to PowerPoint format, HTML, PDF,
  Macromedia Flash, or several graphic formats. ConceptDraw
  Presenter can also open PowerPoint presentations as well as
  ConceptDraw diagrams. Although this initial version of ConceptDraw
  Presenter has some rough edges, it appears to offer a credible
  alternative to PowerPoint for those who don't already own
  Microsoft Office. ConceptDraw Presenter is available for both
  Macintosh (Mac OS 8.6 through Mac OS X) and Windows for $200;
  owners of other ConceptDraw products can buy it for $120, and
  academic users pay $85. A demo version that can't save is
  available as a 10.3 MB download. [ACE]

<http://www.conceptdraw.com/presenter/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06179>
<http://www.conceptdraw.com/download/>


**icWord & icExcel View Office Documents in Mac OS X** -- Panergy
  Ltd. has released icWord 2.1, a Mac OS X-compatible version of its
  useful Microsoft Word and AppleWorks document viewer for those who
  don't own Word or AppleWorks (see "icWord Reads and Prints Word
  Documents" in TidBITS-543_). Although icWord doesn't allow editing
  of documents, you can read them and save them to text, RTF, or
  AppleWorks format. The main change from icWord 2.0 is Mac OS X
  support, although Panergy also improved graphics handling, text
  export, and keyboard shortcuts. In terms of Mac OS X support,
  icWord 2.1 joins the company's icExcel 1.1, which enables users
  to view, print, and convert Microsoft Excel and AppleWorks
  spreadsheets. Both utilities cost $20 and are available as a
  bundle for $30; upgrades from icWord 2.0 are free, as are 30-day
  trial versions of both programs. [ACE]

<http://www.icword.com/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06074>
<http://www.icexcel.com/>


**iPhoto Book Available Internationally** -- I was surprised and
  distressed to discover that Amazon wouldn't let international
  buyers of my iPhoto for Mac OS X: Visual QuickStart Guide book
  download the electronic version in advance of receiving the paper
  version. (See "New Book Documents iPhoto Features and Quirks" in
  TidBITS-625_.) I've been working with Peachpit to figure out some
  way around this problem, and I think I've found one. It's not
  ideal, but it should work. Go to the book's page in the Peachpit
  catalog and work through the process of buying the book. When
  you're done, Peachpit will send you email with the information
  you need to download the book, and you'll of course receive
  the paper version of the next edition.

<http://www.peachpit.com/books/catalog/12165.html>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06787>

  Here are the problems, and I apologize in advance for not being
  able to figure out any better way to offer international ordering
  in the time available. First, the book costs $16 instead of the
  $14 at Amazon. Second, when you get to the actual order form,
  ignore the comment about ordering from an international office
  (they may not know about the book's PDF version) and enter your
  country in the Special field. Third, international shipping is
  a rather high $14 and can take a long time. One of the problems
  with trying new distribution approaches is that you realize just
  how much trial-and-error has gone into the traditional methods;
  hopefully we'll have this working more smoothly for future
  efforts. [ACE]


Opportunities for Small Fry at Macworld Expo
--------------------------------------------
  by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

  Our periodic examinations of how a Macworld Expo represents the
  state of the Macintosh industry usually involve analyzing the
  number of attendees and their mood, the number of exhibitors,
  and the range of products shown. For the upcoming Macworld Expo
  in New York City 17-Jul-02 through 19-Jul-02, two recent events
  could help improve these last two parts of the show.

<http://www.macworldexpo.com/>


**Under One Tent** -- Often the companies with the most
  interesting products are small firms that can't afford booths,
  given the astronomical costs of exhibiting at Macworld Expo. These
  companies, when they come at all, often end up with a station in a
  special-interest pavilion. Station space is less of an outlay than
  a full booth, the company doesn't have to buy booth furniture, and
  there's almost no setup. Plus, pavilions group companies in the
  same industry, providing opportunities for making contacts and
  improving the likelihood of attracting interested attendees.

  That the's theory, anyway, and it has worked well for the
  developer-oriented MacTech Central pavilion for the last eight
  years. That pavilion, run by MacTech Magazine's parent company
  Xplain Corporation, expanded to include small Internet companies
  when MacTech subsumed the Internet-centric NeTProfessional
  magazine. Other pavilions haven't been as successful, and at this
  year's Macworld Expo in San Francisco, MacTech Central was larger
  than all the other pavilions put together.

  Now however, IDG World Expo, organizers of Macworld Expo, has
  handed over the task of managing all the pavilions to Xplain.
  (A few areas like gaming, the music and audio theatre, and Apple's
  business solutions area remain unaffected by this move.) For
  Macworld Expo 2002 in New York, Xplain will be adding a number
  of new pavilions that focus on a variety of markets.

  Station packages start at $3,000. If you're a small company
  interested in exhibiting at Macworld Expo, visit the Web page
  below for details and reservation information.

<http://www.xplain.com/pavilions/mwny2002/>


**Consumer Feeding Frenzy** -- To a small company, $3,000 is still
  a lot of money, especially once you add the costs of travel, food,
  and lodging. Many companies offset the costs of exhibiting with
  product sales - companies like Aladdin, Peachpit Press, Connectix,
  and Power On Software all sell a lot of their products at the
  show. That's been difficult for small companies though, since
  either they don't command enough presence, lack the staff and
  resources to handle on-site sales, or are in a pavilion, where
  the focus is on demonstrations, so sales aren't allowed.

  This year IDG World Expo has named DevDepot as producer of the
  official store of Macworld Expo. Thus, any exhibitor - even those
  in the pavilions - will be able to sell through DevDepot, which
  has long maintained a presence on the Macworld Expo show floor
  with a 45-foot-long tractor trailer-based warehouse. Although
  companies that can sell on their own may clear more profit per
  sale when doing so, having a single, coherent place where
  attendees can buy hardware, software, or accessories is highly
  worthwhile. Though it may not seem so, it does cost a company
  money to make a sale, and working with resellers does increase
  sales volume. Any company interested in selling through DevDepot
  should contact them at <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> for
  details.

<http://www.devdepot.com/>


**Proving Grounds** -- My introduction to our Top Mac OS X
  Utilities series about how Apple values tiny utility developers
  over all others was intentionally sarcastic, but it is important
  for the industry to nurture smaller companies. It may not happen
  in every case or quickly, but some small companies do grow to
  become stalwarts of the industry. Quite a number of firms have
  moved from MacTech Central to the main show floor at Macworld
  over the years. If Xplain taking over the pavilion organization
  duties and DevDepot providing a sales outlet for all exhibitors
  can encourage the growth of more small Macintosh companies, we
  all benefit.

<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06763>


Mac OS X: The Curse of the New
------------------------------
  by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

  As you have no doubt noticed, we have been increasing the amount
  of Mac OS X-specific content in TidBITS. Although there are good
  reasons for this change, it can create some tension, since many
  users continue to rely on earlier versions of the Mac OS. A few
  people have expressed concern at our trend toward more Mac OS X
  content; until now we've stuck to private replies, but I want to
  make our reasoning public.

  Before I get to that, though, how many people really are using
  Mac OS X? Matt Deatherage, the publisher of MDJ and MWJ, did some
  calculating based on numbers that came out of Apple's recent
  quarterly results. Apple has shipped about 3 million Macs with Mac
  OS X pre-installed so far, and as of last quarter had shipped 1
  million boxed copies of Mac OS X. Based on those numbers and some
  extrapolation, Matt estimates there are about 4.2 million copies
  of Mac OS X out there, of which he can imagine only about half -
  or 2.1 million - in regular use. When you compare that number with
  Apple's standard customer base claim of 25 to 30 million Macs
  (many of which can't even run Mac OS X, to be fair), you see that
  fewer than 10 percent of Macs out there are likely to be running
  Mac OS X. Of course, now that Mac OS X is the default operating
  system on all new Macs, that percentage will climb fast - Matt
  estimates that within a year it could be as high as 50 percent,
  perhaps higher if you consider only Macs that are capable of
  running Mac OS X.

<http://www.macjournals.com/>

  I suspect TidBITS readers tend to adopt new technologies earlier
  than many users, so it's likely that our readership has switched
  to Mac OS X in greater numbers than would otherwise be expected.
  But let's not restrict ourselves to speculation - we're running a
  poll this week on our home page that asks what percentage of time
  your primarily Mac spends booted iinto Mac OS X. Please
  participate in the poll so we can learn two things: how many
  people have switched to Mac OS X at all, and how completely those
  who have switched are using it. For instance, Geoff Duncan and I
  both switched our primary Macs to Mac OS X recently, but he still
  spends heaps of time in Mac OS 9 to do professional audio work,
  whereas I haven't left Mac OS X since installing.

<http://www.tidbits.com/>


**Why It Doesn't Matter** -- Unfortunately, no matter what these
  numbers show, the painful truth is that Apple has ensured we
  don't have much choice in our Macintosh coverage. Think about
  the kind of articles that appear in TidBITS for a moment. If
  we're reviewing software, writing updates about software we've
  previously reviewed, or even covering events at a Macintosh
  event, we're basically stuck with writing about Mac OS X-
  specific topics.

  That's because Mac OS X topics are all the news that's fit to
  print - they're happening all around us, whether we like it or
  not. Apple has made it crystal clear to developers that Mac OS 9
  is a dead-end (going so far as to hold a mock funeral for Mac OS 9
  during the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote), so almost all
  are spending their efforts either on carbonizing their existing
  applications (usually instead of adding new features) or writing
  new applications for Mac OS X. Combine all that Mac OS X product
  news with the fact that it's easy to be interested in the new
  world of Mac OS X, rather than the familiar Mac OS 9 desktop where
  there are no surprises, good or bad, and you understand the trend
  toward ever more Mac OS X coverage.

  We're not alone in this - every other major Macintosh publication
  has struggled with the same dilemma, and all those with which I'm
  familiar have made the same decision. Mac OS X is the future, and
  technical publications can't live in the past. In some respects,
  we have it even worse than most, since we seldom, if ever, revisit
  topics that we feel we've covered sufficiently in the past. That's
  what our article database is for, and although it's occasionally
  tempting to republish an older article that people could still
  benefit from, it feels like cheating.


**What To Do?** Although we're happy to listen to feedback from
  TidBITS Talk, here's our current thinking. We will continue to
  cover products and events specific to Mac OS X, and the frequency
  of coverage is likely to increase. However, we plan to focus our
  coverage toward topics related to switching to Mac OS X - with the
  recent releases of Retrospect 5.0 and Photoshop 7.0, two of the
  last remaining barriers to adoption for many people have fallen
  (QuarkXPress remains the most heavily used productivity
  application that runs only in Classic mode). For instance, our
  series on Mac OS X utilities is intended to help people migrate
  from Mac OS 9, and I'm working on an article laying out a series
  of preparations that can significantly ease the pain of upgrading.
  As time goes on, of course, Mac OS X coverage will cease to be
  distinct from general Macintosh coverage.

  Until then, however, we also intend to try including information
  in every issue that will be of interest to those not yet running
  Mac OS X. That content might take the form of articles unrelated
  to the Mac, but sometimes it might be more subtle, such as the way
  I noted that several of the Mac OS X utilities I covered last week
  were also available for Mac OS 9. It's not worth a separate
  article to make such a small point, but don't assume that just
  because an article seems to cover Mac OS X that there's nothing
  of interest to those who haven't switched.

  One thing you won't read is complaining about the transition to
  Mac OS X. It's been hard, and it will remain difficult for some
  time to come. But the time to complain is over - Apple has been
  crystal clear about how Mac OS X is the future for several years
  now, and complaining now will change nothing. Constructive
  criticism may help, however, and where there are appropriate
  criticisms to be made, we'll reserve the right to make them so
  long as we can simultaneously offer potential solutions.


Jaguar: Mac OS X Prepares to Pounce
-----------------------------------
  by TidBITS Staff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

  At the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) today, Apple CEO
  Steve Jobs previewed the next major release of Mac OS X, codenamed
  "Jaguar," due for release in "late summer," which we would
  interpret to mean the end of August. Along with a number of
  Mac- only features that we'll cover below, Jaguar will build in
  the latest versions of the Unix operating system and tools that
  lie under Mac OS X. Some of those tools, such as the GCC 3
  compiler, could help developers provide improved performance,
  and others, like the next generation Internet protocols IPv6
  and IPSec, will help Mac OS X be a first-class Internet citizen.
  Those changes, though welcome, are unlikely to affect users as
  much as the higher profile improvements Jobs outlined. One
  caveat - we're not developers and Apple didn't provide a
  webcast of the keynote, so we've had to piece details together
  from a variety of sources. More details will undoubtedly become
  known as WWDC continues.

<http://www.apple.com/macosx/newversion/>
<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2002/may/06jaguar.html>
<http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/0205/06.wwdckeynote.php>


**iChat** -- Adding to Apple's iApp stable, Jobs announced that
  instant messaging software called iChat would be built into
  Jaguar. iChat will be compatible with AOL Instant Messenger (AIM),
  marking the first time AOL has allowed any company to work with
  AIM. That hasn't stopped a variety of companies from reverse-
  engineering AIM support, and with Mac OS X users added to AIM's
  150 million user party, AIM compatibility will become even more
  attractive. You won't need an AOL or AIM account to use iChat -
  it will work with your iTools username and will reportedly also
  let you create buddy lists of local network users as well. Apple
  plans to integrate iChat with the enhanced Mail and Address Book
  so you can see the online status of people in your buddy list
  and turn email exchanges into real time chats. iChat's interface
  is simple - it uses "dialogue bubbles" to present instant messages
  in a "graphically conversational manner." And you thought balloon
  help was dead.

<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2002/may/06ichat.html>

  As much as we're not fans of instant messaging, iChat will
  probably be a hit by virtue of being bundled with Mac OS X. Chat
  applications haven't evolved much from their inception years
  ago, so we're hoping that iChat does more than offer a pretty
  Aqua interface. Our wish list? An auto-correct option that
  ensures words are spelled correctly coupled with an auto-
  expansion function that turns the common abbreviations like
  "cul8r" into the actual words of "See you later." So what
  if we're old-fashioned?


**Mail** -- Apple's bundled Mail client has thus far failed to
  measure up to any well-known email clients. Judging from the WWDC
  keynote, though, the next version of Mail will provide more
  competition via filters with multiple criteria, automatic saving
  of message drafts when you quit, better handling of multiple
  accounts, searching across mailboxes, color highlighting, security
  features, support for virtual private networks, and support for
  QuickTime.

  Most interesting, though, is the promise of a spam filter that
  works on the semantic content of spam. Apple must be extremely
  careful in how Mail identifies spam, since false positives could
  prove highly damaging to the business reputations of companies
  whose legitimate mail was incorrectly identified. We had
  significant problems with Outlook Express's Junk Mail Filter
  marking TidBITS as spam when it first shipped - despite the fact
  that TidBITS has always been an opt-in mailing list, a number of
  readers reported us as spammers based solely on Outlook Express's
  say-so. If that judgement were to come from Apple's default email
  client, especially given that it will be used heavily by novices,
  it could be utterly disastrous to companies like us that rely on
  email communications.

<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05647>


**Address Book** -- Backing up iChat and Mail is a new Address
  Book. The main change to Address Book is that any application can
  now access its system-wide database of contact information. It
  supports vCards and reportedly will also offer LDAP (Lightweight
  Directory Access Protocol) searching. Plus, it's tied into Apple's
  forthcoming Bluetooth support, so you can exchange vCards with
  PDAs and cell phones. It's unclear if other applications will be
  able to use Address Book to work with databases containing other
  sorts of information; also unclear is if the database engine
  underlying Address Book offers sufficient performance and
  robustness to be used in such a way. We've been agitating for a
  system-level database since 1996 (see "The Database Returns" in
  TidBITS-341_); it would be nice to see Apple finally provide such
  a service.

<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=00906>


**Finder Improvements** -- Fans of Mac OS 9's spring-loaded
  folders will be happy to see the feature return to Mac OS X,
  enabling you to click and hold on a folder to view its contents
  and drill down into other nested folders. Also new in Finder
  windows is instant searching via a Toolbar Search field into which
  you can enter file names or text in a document; the results are
  displayed in the Finder window. It promises to be much better
  than today's glacial searches via Sherlock.

  The Finder will also receive performance boosts from multi-
  threading and from Quartz Extreme, an enhanced version of the
  Quartz rendering engine that's responsible for drawing graphics.
  Quartz Extreme offloads graphics processing to a supported video
  card, freeing up the Mac's main processor(s) for application-
  specific tasks. Graphics-intensive programs like 3D games and
  video utilities will see performance improvements, as will the
  drawing of Finder interface elements such as drop shadows and
  transparent windows. However, the key phrase here is "supported
  video card," which includes the Nvidia GeForce2 MX, GeForce3,
  GeForce4 Ti, GeForce4, or GeForce4 MX, as well as any ATI AGP
  Radeon card - and preferably cards with at least 32 MB of VRAM.
  So, essentially, only the newest Macs (other than the iBook)
  will be able to take advantage of Quartz Extreme, no doubt an
  effort by Apple to stimulate hardware sales when Jaguar is
  released.


**Sherlock 3** -- Although we primarily use Sherlock to find
  files, Apple has always pushed it as a way to find Internet
  information such as news headlines or phone numbers. Those
  features have never impressed us, in part because Sherlock has
  always been a jumping-off point, displaying results that load
  into a Web browser when clicked. Sherlock 3, however, will be
  able to display properly formatted results in its own window,
  turning Apple's online sleuth into what looks like a clone of
  Karelia's excellent Watson, although Watson offers more tools
  than appear in Apple's screenshot of Sherlock 3.

<http://www.karelia.com/watson/?src=_tb>


**Handwriting Recognition** -- One of the more intriguing
  announcements was support for handwriting recognition, referred
  to as Ink on Apple's Web site. Reports from the conference claimed
  that handwriting is recognized by any application that accepts
  text, including Unix programs such as Terminal. However, Apple's
  Jaguar page notes that Ink works in Mail and TextEdit, with an
  additional program called InkPad used to copy and paste written
  text into programs that don't support Ink. An input tablet is
  reportedly necessary, though we suppose a finger on a PowerBook
  or iBook trackpad might work as well.

  Ink will no doubt ignite a new round of speculation about a Mac
  OS-based handheld device, which we'll believe when we see it. In
  the meantime, adding this type of low-level support provides
  developers with an alternative to keyboard-based input. We can
  imagine graphics programs supporting Ink for adding text to
  illustrations, or educational programs relying on it to help
  children learn to write. However, it's important to remember
  that handwriting recognition has never caught on with most
  computer users, not to mention the fact that tablets remain
  uncommon input devices.


**QuickTime 6** -- Apple's Jaguar preview also included QuickTime
  6 and QuickTime Broadcaster. QuickTime remains one of Apple's
  key technologies, with QuickTime 5 for Mac and Windows being
  downloaded a few million times each week. QuickTime 6 will sport
  (yet another) new user interface and better performance of
  streaming media over limited-bandwidth connections. It will also
  enable users to view MPEG-4 video. The MPEG-4 standard is a way
  to encode audio and video for use on digital devices or for
  transmission over the Internet; it was defined nearly four years
  ago and is itself partially based on QuickTime. Like QuickTime,
  MPEG-4 can scale to a variety of devices and deliver content in
  limited bandwidth situations (like typical Internet streaming
  applications today). MPEG-4 also targets high-end digital
  television and video markets, has features for creating
  interactive applications, and offers digital rights management
  features. MPEG-4 also supports Advanced Audio Coding (also known
  as AAC - a perceptual audio encoding method from Dolby Labs which
  offers better fidelity than MP3 audio in less bandwidth). With
  QuickTime Broadcaster (combined with QuickTime Streaming Server),
  QuickTime 6 will probably make Jaguar the first platform that
  can create, stream, and view MPEG-4 video.

<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2002/may/06quicktime.html>
<http://www.aac-audio.com/>

  A complete MPEG-4 solution is nice in theory, but it's currently
  mired in licensing issues. The multimedia and video industry has
  cringed at a licensing proposal which includes a per-minute use
  fee (roughly $.02 per hour), along with fees for shipping MPEG-4
  encoders and decoders. Although Apple has essentially completed
  development of QuickTime 6, it won't ship until licensing issues
  are worked out. Including QuickTime 6 in Jaguar may indicate
  that Apple has confidence that MPEG-4 licensing issues can be
  finalized soon.

<http://www.mpegla.com/>
<http://www.m4if.org/>


**Rendezvous** -- Jaguar will also include Rendezvous, a new
  technology from Apple intended to ease administration and
  configuration of IP-based network services. Long-time Mac users
  fondly remember how easy it was to set up and configure AppleTalk
  networks: you plugged in the devices, turned them on, and they
  magically all knew about each other. Rendezvous promises to bring
  the same functionality to IP-based networks, letting devices both
  discover services available on the network and advertise services
  they offer - and it's all supposed to work over Ethernet, AirPort,
  Bluetooth, FireWire, and other networking technologies. An iBook
  with an AirPort card could automatically find a printer connected
  to the iMac upstairs; a user could set up iTunes to serve as a
  music jukebox for an entire local network. Rendezvous is based
  on a draft IETF standard called Zero Configuration Networking
  and should be most useful in small networks where network
  administration is low-key or absent; let's hope Rendezvous
  doesn't expose any security bugaboos.

<http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/zeroconf-charter.html>


**Windows Compatibility** -- On the cross-platform front, Jaguar
  improves Mac OS X's connections to Windows-centric networks. No
  longer will you have to type URLs for accessing a shared Windows
  folder via SMB - Jaguar includes SMB browsing. Plus, in news that
  probably isn't popular with the folks at Thursby Systems who work
  on DAVE, Jaguar will also let Mac OS X share files with Windows
  machines (although Apple's press release didn't mention printer
  sharing). Finally, Jaguar will offer built-in PPTP (Point-to-
  Point Tunnelling Protocol) security for virtual private network
  (VPN) uses.

<http://www.thursby.com/products/dave.html>


**Universal Access** -- Mac users with disabilities have been
  pretty much locked out of Mac OS X so far, with only Niemeijer
  Consult's KeyStrokes and Black Cat Software's Mouseki offering
  onscreen keyboards under Mac OS X. The release of Jaguar should
  improve the situation significantly, since Jaguar will offer APIs
  that let developers provide screen magnification via Quartz,
  out-loud reading of text under the cursor, access to everything
  via the keyboard, and visual notification of alerts. It's possible
  Apple will provide simple user-level utilities with Jaguar,
  but it's even more important to provide these system-level
  capabilities to the developers working on tools for Mac
  users with disabilities.

<http://www.assistiveware.com/keystrokes.html>
<http://www.blackcat-software.com/mouseki.htm>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06773>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbser=1189>


**Bated Breath** -- Jaguar promises a great deal, but with
  developers receiving a copy at WWDC, there's hope that we'll see
  not just the technology in a few months, but also a wide variety
  of applications that take advantage of these new capabilities to
  offer features never seen before. Apple will undoubtedly preview
  Jaguar again at Macworld Expo in New York in July, although there
  the demonstration should be aimed more at users than developers.
  Until then...



$$

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