TidBITS#697/15-Sep-03
=====================
iMovie expert Jeff Carlson offers advice on how to get the most
from iMovie 3, including workarounds for a few of iMovie's most
annoying problems. Adam chimes in with a comparison of a pair of
wireless gateways from Asante and Linksys. In the news, we report
on the Apple Corps trademark suit against Apple Computer, Adam's
upcoming speaking engagements, and the releases of a Panorama V
preview, PageSender 3.1, PowerMail 4.2 and iView MediaPro 2.0.
Topics:
MailBITS/15-Sep-03
Comparing Asante and Linksys Gateways
iMovie 3 Tips and Gotchas
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/15-Sep-03
<http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-697.html>
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MailBITS/15-Sep-03
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**Hey Jobs, Don't Make It Bad!** Apple Corps, Ltd., the management
company formed by the Beatles in 1968 and now jointly owned by
Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono, and the estate of George
Harrison, reportedly filed suit in a British court on 04-Jul-03,
once again accusing Apple Computer of trademark infringement.
According to reports from Reuters, Associated Press, and the BBC,
and confirmed by MacCentral, Apple Corps objects to the use of the
name "Apple," and the Apple logo in conjunction with downloading
prerecorded music from the Internet via the iTunes Music Store.
<http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2003/09/12/statements/>
<http://www.thebeatles.com/>
<http://www.apple.com/music/store/>
Since Apple Computer was founded in the late 1970s - and named in
direct homage to the Beatles - Apple Corps has repeatedly taken
Apple Computer to court over infringements on its trademark of the
Apple name. These suits have resulted in monetary settlements
to Apple Corps and agreements as to how Apple Computer may use
the Apple name - essentially that Apple Computer could not publish
music or produce music-related products. The most recent agreement
(related to QuickTime, multimedia, and audio capabilities)
purportedly gave Apple Computer wide-ranging privileges to use
the trademark, but it seems the emergence of the Internet and the
unveiling of the iTunes Music Store have once again crossed a line
with Apple Corps. (It's worth noting that Apple Corps has not made
Beatles tracks available to iTunes Music Store or any other online
music service.) [GD]
**iView MediaPro 2.0 Manages More Assets** -- iView Multimedia has
released iView MediaPro 2.0, a major upgrade to the company's
powerful digital asset management program. New features include
more editing capabilities (beyond the free iPhoto, but not to the
level of Adobe Photoshop Elements), performance improvements and
support for larger catalogs, additional control over cataloged
images in the file system, PDF output of image collections,
advanced slideshows customizable down to the individual image
level, enhanced HTML export, and more. iView MediaPro's new
capabilities are powerful and welcome; unfortunately, the program
still suffers from interface awkwardnesses that obscure its full
power for those accustomed to the simplicity of programs like
iPhoto. It's also no longer cheap, at $160, with upgrades from
version 1.5 available for $88. For those looking for a less
expensive image cataloging program that outperforms only that
aspect of iPhoto, iView Media 1.2 lacks iView MediaPro's more
advanced features, but costs only $30. Lastly, for viewing and
playing slideshows of existing catalogs, there's now the free
iView Catalog Reader. Time-limited trial versions of both iView
MediaPro and iView Media are available. [ACE]
<http://www.iview-multimedia.com/products/>
**PageSender 3.1 Adds Fax Scheduling** -- Don't want to wait for
Panther's fax capabilities, or worse, wait only to find out they
aren't what you need? Check out Smile Software's PageSender 3.1,
an update to the company's Mac OS X fax software that integrates
into Print dialogs. PageSender 3.1 adds scheduled and deferred
faxing, manual sending, multiple local area codes and ten-digit
dialing support, and more. PageSender requires Mac OS X 10.1.3
or later, and costs $30. A free 30-day demo is available. [ACE]
<http://www.smilesoftware.com/pagesender.html>
**Panorama V Goes Native** -- ProVUE Development has released a
public preview of the Mac OS X-native version V of its flagship
database program, Panorama, last reviewed in "Seeing the Light
with Panorama" in TidBITS-606_. (This marks the end of an era
on my computer; the only remaining program I regularly start
up Classic for is Adobe FrameMaker, which will probably never
be ported to Mac OS X.) Panorama V also sports a more three-
dimensional look, live searching (similar to iTunes), and many
significant improvements to the programming interface. The final
release must wait upon completion of the Windows version, but
in the meantime the preview is working fine. It may be downloaded
and used for free; the only restriction is that until you pay
for the program, saving a database with more than 250 records
is inconvenient. [MAN]
<http://www.provue.com/Documents/PanoramaV/Introduction.html>
<http://www.provue.com/Downloads/Panorama5Download.html>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06641>
**PowerMail 4.2 Improves Speed, Searching** -- CTM Development has
released PowerMail 4.2 , the latest version of their email client
(see "Migrating to New Climes with PowerMail" in TidBITS-530_
for a review of PowerMail 3.0). New in PowerMail 4.2 is CTM's
high-speed FoxTrot searching technology, which reportedly offers
speeds 300 to 500 percent faster than the previous Sherlock-based
searching PowerMail used. PowerMail 4.2 also boasts other
performance increases in launching and drawing large lists,
enhanced filtering that can filter on message content, searching
on cached IMAP information, and more. Upgrades are free for
registered PowerMail 4.x users; they cost $30 for users of
PowerMail 3.x, or $50 for new customers. A 30-day demo is
available as a 5.0 MB download. [ACE]
<http://www.ctmdev.com/powermail4.shtml>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05930>
<http://www.ctmdev.com/download.shtml>
**Adam Speaking at Kansas City MacCORE** -- On Wednesday,
September 17th, at 7:00 PM, I'll be speaking about wireless
networking (and any other Mac-related topics we have time for)
at the monthly meeting of the Kansas City MacCORE Macintosh
users group. If you're in the area, come and say hello! [ACE]
<http://www.maccore.org/>
**Adam Keynoting O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference** -- This appearance
is a bit further out at the end of October, but since you'll need
time for travel and hotel plans, I thought I'd also mention that
I'm giving a keynote address titled "Panther Report Card" at the
second O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference (see "Mac OS X Report Card:
October 2002" in TidBITS-650_ for last year's grades). The
conference runs from 27-Oct-03 through 30-Oct-03 in Santa Clara,
CA. My keynote takes place on Wednesday, October 29th at 8:45 AM,
with Andy Ihnatko on next at 9:30 AM to give a tour of 10 years
of Macintosh hardware, software, and the things PR people do to
promote said products. TidBITS Contributing Editor Matt Neuburg
will be presenting "AppleScript Everywhere" at 10:45 AM on
Thursday, October 30th. Many of the other sessions look extremely
interesting as well, such as Gordon Meyer's "Living the Digital
Hub: Your House and Mac OS X," Matthew Barger's "Give your iBook
a REST," and Cliff Skolnick's "Advanced Mac OS X Wireless Tips
and Tricks." [ACE]
<http://conferences.oreillynet.com/macosx2003/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06954>
Comparing Asante and Linksys Gateways
-------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
My first wireless gateway was a graphite AirPort Base Station that
served us admirably when we lived in Seattle, but when we moved to
Ithaca, its coverage area couldn't quite reach Tonya's office, and
because my cable modem had to plug into its single Ethernet port,
it could provide only wireless coverage. So, I cannibalized the
Lucent WaveLAN card from it to turn my PowerBook G3 into the
gateway for my long-range wireless Internet connection. I then
replaced it with a Linksys Wireless Access Point Router with
4-Port Switch (model BEFW11S4), which has a pair of small antennas
that provided better wireless coverage, and its built-in 10/100
Mbps 4-port switch helped connect the wired and wireless parts
of my network. Despite annoyances like a lack of AppleTalk support
and having to apply firmware updates from my little-used PC, the
Linksys BEFW11S4 has worked well.
<http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?prid=540>
Not long ago, however, Asante sent me their 802.11b-based
FriendlyNET FR1004AL wireless gateway, which provides basically
the same feature set as the Linksys BEFW11S4 (wireless access
point, Internet sharing, DHCP service, 4-port 10/100 Mbps switch,
etc.). But the Asante FR1004AL also supports AppleTalk, can have
its firmware updated from a Macintosh, and has a parallel port
for sharing a printer. Might this be a better choice for a Mac
user who doesn't want an AirPort or AirPort Extreme Base Station?
<http://www.asante.com/products/routers/FR1004AL/>
**AppleTalk Support** -- Although I would have appreciated
AppleTalk support when we first moved, since I had a LaserWriter
Select 360 laser printer along with a number of Mac OS 9 machines
still using AppleTalk for file sharing, it doesn't particularly
matter to me any more. All the Macs on our network now run
Mac OS X, so all file sharing is done via TCP/IP and discovered
via Rendezvous. The LaserWriter isn't an issue either, since
I simply set our Mac OS X-based internal file server, which is
always on, to share the printer for the rest of the Macs, as I
discussed in "Printer Sharing and Print Spooling in Mac OS X"
in TidBITS-673_.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07129>
So the Asante FR1004AL's support for AppleTalk, though admirable,
isn't actually useful for me any more. Those with older machines
or printers around would likely appreciate it.
**Mac-based Firmware Updates** -- Having to fuss with a PC or
Virtual PC to update the firmware on the Linksys BEFW11S4 has
been annoying. But even more annoying was the fact that the Asante
FR1004AL basically didn't work at all for me until I updated its
firmware. It had trouble picking up a DHCP-assigned IP address
from my cable modem provider, and I spent hours troubleshooting
it. I might have wasted less time, but the Asante Web site's
interface for listing downloads was sufficiently poorly done
that my searches came up empty, and I assumed I had the current
firmware. That assumption proved wrong, once I talked with a tech
support engineer, and he told me how to make the site reveal the
firmware update download. It turned out to be a good thing I spoke
with him, also, since I would have used Safari to download the
firmware update, and he said that likely would have failed, and
instead recommended I use Internet Explorer.
In the end, I'm glad I was able to use the Mac to download the
firmware update, but thanks to Asante's badly designed site and
insufficient information about current Macintosh browsers, I spent
way more time updating the firmware than I ever did with the
Linksys BEFW11S4, even with having to use a PC.
**Printer Sharing** -- The Asante FR1004AL includes a port not
found on the Linksys BEFW11S4 - a DB-25 parallel port. Macintosh
users generally aren't familiar with such ports, but they have
long been a mainstay in the PC world, with USB replacing them in
some cases recently. Many printers have parallel ports, and you
can connect them to the Asante FR1004AL and share them with other
computers on your network. Unfortunately, there's a catch. For
such a shared printer to be accessible to Macs, the printer must
be a PostScript printer - inexpensive inkjets need not apply.
(It's possible that using Thursby Software's Dave would enable a
Mac to print to such a shared printer, but I haven't tested that.)
<http://www.thursby.com/products/dave.html>
Theoretically, I could connect my LaserWriter Select 360 to the
Asante FR1004AL, but since I already have a workable solution with
Asante's FriendlyNET Ethernet to LocalTalk Bridge, and since I'd
rather not position the LaserWriter within close proximity of the
Asante FR1004AL (which must live in our bedroom closet), there's
not much point. As with the AppleTalk support, this printer
sharing feature could be quite useful for those who haven't
already worked around similar problems.
**Other Factors** -- So if I was buying a new wireless gateway
today, would I buy the Asante FR1004AL over the Linksys BEFW11S4?
Even if the Asante FR1004AL's main features proved relatively moot
for me, there are a few other minor points to consider.
* Signal strength. Using MacStumbler, I compared the strength of
the signal received by my iBook at a number of different locations
throughout the house. The Asante FR1004AL provided slightly better
signal strength at all locations, which was quite welcome.
<http://www.macstumbler.com/>
* Roaming. One capability that I had thought was standardized -
creating a roaming network - doesn't seem to be supported by the
Asante FR1004AL. In theory, you can attach two wireless access
points to the same Ethernet network, give them the same name,
assign them different channels, and roam between them without
having to change any settings on a laptop. This didn't work
for me when I tried it with the Asante FR1004AL and the Linksys
BEFW11S4, and I was told by Asante that roaming wasn't supported.
Bummer, since creating roaming networks is the best way to extend
the range of a wireless network if you have Ethernet in the
appropriate locations.
* Uplink port. The Linksys BEFW11S4 has an uplink port for
connecting to other hubs or switches, although you can't use it
and the normal Ethernet port next to it at the same time. More
conveniently, the Asante FR1004AL can use any of its ports as an
uplink port, and it senses the need to switch to an uplink port
automatically.
* Interface. Both gateways use a Web-based interface, and I found
both a little flaky to reload pages on occasion. The Asante
FR004AL's interface is easier to use, but almost any change
requires that you restart the gateway. Even though that's easily
done from the Web interface, it's an annoying extra step that's
not necessary for most changes on the Linksys BEFW11S4.
* Network services. For the most part, they're the same, but the
Asante FR1004AL has a built-in dynamic DNS client, which could be
a welcome aid in running a Web server on an account with a dynamic
IP address. On the other side of the fence, the Linksys BEFW11S4
offers an option to allow VPN software to work through it; I can't
find anything similar in the Asante FR1004AL's interface, though
perhaps it's just the default setting.
* Cost. Neither gateway is expensive, though the Linksys BEFW11S4
costs about $70 on the street, whereas the Asante FR1004AL is a
bit more at $90.
**Go with Mac Support** -- As you can probably tell, testing the
Asante FR1004AL in place of the Linksys BEFW11S4 hasn't exactly
rocked my world. Everything works more or less the way it used
to, and I've already found solutions to the problems the Asante
FR1004AL addresses with special features. But despite the more
expensive price, I'm still going to recommend that you consider
the Asante FR1004AL if you're looking for an 802.11b-based access
point, for one simple reason: Asante knows about the Mac. Linksys
is at best ignorant about Macs, and even when their equipment
works well with Macs (as it usually does), you'll have a harder
time talking with a support person who will have a clue about
any Mac-related issues.
Of course, at this point in time, the question is whether you
should buy an 802.11b-based wireless gateway over one that
supports 802.11g, since the newer 802.11g-based gateways offer
faster speeds for Macs with AirPort Extreme cards, full backwards
compatibility with older 802.11b gear, and only slightly higher
prices. On the other hand, you would also need to buy new wireless
network cards (where possible; see "AirPort 3.1 Supports Third
Party 802.11g PC Cards" in TidBITS-687_) to take advantage of
802.11g's speed, and it may not help if you're just using your
wireless network to share an Internet connection, since even
802.11b's 11 Mbps is faster than most Internet connections. I'm
also not sure if any non-Apple 802.11g wireless gateways currently
support AppleTalk (though I'm sure Asante is working on an 802.11g
update to the FR1044AL).
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07256>
In end, I hope this article gave you some insight into how
you might compare wireless gateways in the future, even after
these particular models are no longer available. There are often
multiple ways to skin the proverbial cat, and depending on your
situation, a particular wireless gateway may be just what you
need.
PayBITS: Do you have a better idea of how to evaluate a wireless
gateway after reading Adam's article? Say thanks via PayBITS!
<https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=ace%40tidbits.com>
Read more about PayBITS: <http://www.tidbits.com/paybits/>
iMovie 3 Tips and Gotchas
-------------------------
by Jeff Carlson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
iMovie has become something of an odd duck in the Macintosh world.
When Apple first introduced iMovie in 1999, the notion of easily
editing digital video on a consumer Mac wasn't an easy sell. At
the time, we described iMovie as "a consumer version of Apple's
Final Cut Pro video editing software, which Apple apparently hopes
will reveal a market for consumer video editing it has been trying
to find for more than three years." (To our surprise, many readers
expressed much interest in video editing then, via both TidBITS
Talk and a poll we ran that week.)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05591>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=814>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05622>
Since then, iMovie has been a huge success for Apple, cited as
much for its ease of use as for its capabilities as a video editor
(even four years later, no Windows product has matched iMovie's
features and ease of use). Although iMovie never displaced Final
Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere in professional circles, it has provided
a new outlet for expression to amateur filmmakers, vacationers,
hobbyists, and school kids.
iMovie also helped give rise to Apple's digital hub strategy,
which was especially evident in the release of iMovie 3 as
part of the iLife suite of applications at last year's Macworld
Expo in San Francisco (see "Apple Software Spices Up iLife" in
TidBITS-662_). iMovie 3 imports music from iTunes 4 and images
from iPhoto 2 with ease, and offers a direct route for turning
movies into DVDs through iDVD 3.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07040>
So why do I say that iMovie is now an odd duck?
Unlike most Apple software - or, in fact, most software in
general - iMovie took a lurch backward in terms of performance
with version 3. This quickly became apparent as I began work
on my most recent book for Peachpit Press, iMovie 3 for Mac OS X:
Visual QuickStart Guide. Although the program introduced a number
of welcome new features, performance was sluggish, the program
crashed for no reason, and exporting data was problematic (see
"iMovie, Take 3" in TidBITS-665_). iMovie 3 had become the new
Word 6 (for those who remember that giant step backwards).
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321193970/tidbitselectro00/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07059>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=01884>
Then again, it may not be that bad. It must be noted that some
people report having no problems with the program at all. I salute
those lucky souls, because for me and untold others with whom I've
corresponded, iMovie 3 has been unexpectedly troublesome.
How this came about isn't clear, and Apple is characteristically
mum on the subject. However, I've read reports that a big factor
was an Apple mandate to rewrite iMovie as a Cocoa application,
versus existing in Carbon as was the case with iMovie 2 (for that
reason, iMovie 3 will run only under Mac OS X, whereas iMovie 2
works under both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X). Another reason could be
iMovie 3's greater reliance on QuickTime; as QuickTime improves,
so does iMovie, which was evident when iMovie 3.0.3 and QuickTime
6.3 were released together in June with dramatically improved
performance.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07208>
<http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n120187>
<http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/>
That said, iMovie 3 isn't a lost cause. The latest updates
above improve performance and fix many of the program's initial
shortcomings. Since we haven't written much about iMovie 3
specifically in TidBITS, I want to cover some tips about a few
of the new features and point out some areas where the program
still needs work so that those who are using iMovie 3 won't be
tripped up.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07208>
**Working with iDVD** -- As part of the iLife integration, iMovie
makes it easy to create an iDVD project of the movie you've built.
You can also set up chapter markers in iMovie that the viewers of
your DVD can jump to without fast-forwarding through every frame
of your movie. The chapter markers are pretty rudimentary: move
iMovie's playhead to the location where you want to start a
chapter, switch to the DVD pane, and click the Add Chapter button.
It would be nice to be able to edit a marker should you decide
that the chapter should begin at a different location on the
timeline, but instead you must delete the marker and create a
new one. Once chapters are set, simply click the Create iDVD
Project button, which launches iDVD 3 and assembles the project.
But what if you don't own iDVD 3? Perhaps you chose not to pay for
the iLife upgrade (since iDVD 3 was the only iLife application not
available as a free download), or perhaps you're using iMovie on a
Mac that doesn't include a SuperDrive. In iMovie 2, you could save
your movie using a "For iDVD" option in the Export dialog box, but
choosing the same option in iMovie 3 results in a polite message
that says you need iDVD 3. Fortunately, you can still export your
movie in a format that iDVD 2 will read. In the Export dialog box,
choose To QuickTime from the Export pop-up menu, and then choose
Full Quality DV from the Formats pop-up menu. You can then import
that QuickTime movie into iDVD 2, though you lose any chapter
markers you may have set up.
Speaking of iDVD 3, remember that you can now run it on machines
that don't include a SuperDrive by applying the iDVD 3.0.1 update
(see "Using iDVD 3.0.1 on Non-SuperDrive Macs" in TidBITS-690_).
When I wrote that short article, I said it wasn't possible to
install iDVD 3 from the iLife discs because the installer checks
to make sure your Mac has a SuperDrive installed. It turns out
that I didn't dig far enough. If you have an iDVD 3 installation
disc (which is a DVD, not a CD, so you at least need a media drive
that can read a DVD), follow these steps sent to TidBITS Talk and
linked below.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07287>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkmsg=18476>
**QuickTime Reference Movie** -- Astute video editors may have
noticed an extra file in each iMovie project folder. In addition
to the project file itself and the Media folder where video and
audio clips are stored, iMovie 3 creates a QuickTime reference
movie that reflects the state of the timeline at the last saved
state. The file itself isn't very large because, like the iMovie
project file, it contains only pointers to which sections of the
media files are in use, as well as which titles, transitions, and
effects have been applied.
The reference file becomes useful when you want to preview your
movie outside of iMovie, such as in QuickTime Player or other
third party viewers. It's also a quick way of adding a movie to
an existing iDVD project. That's because using the Create iDVD
Project button in iMovie 3 causes a new iDVD project to be
created. If you instead drag this reference movie into iDVD, it
creates a new folder in the project containing the movie and all
of its chapter markers. This approach also retains the Play Movie
option in iDVD, which can play the movie from start to finish
while still retaining the chapters.
**Audio Export Gotchas** -- Unfortunately, the audio quality in
exported iMovie movies remains one of the program's most annoying
problems. Users report audible pops and sections where audio and
video get out of sync.
One suggestion is to make sure your audio source is recorded at
16-bit audio instead of 12-bit. With 12-bit audio capture, the
camcorder records audio in two separate stereo channels, which
leaves room on the tape to go in and record more audio if
necessary. 16-bit capture grabs audio at a higher quality level
and leaves no room for more recording. However, since you're
editing footage in iMovie instead of on the camera, the only
benefit to using 12-bit audio is that it takes up less hard
drive space when you import it; also, iMovie doesn't recognize
separate audio channels the way other video editing software
(such as Final Cut Express) does. If your footage is currently
in 12-bit audio, export it from iMovie back to a blank MiniDV
tape in your camcorder set to 16-bit audio, then re-import it
into iMovie.
<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61636>
Another suggestion sounds a bit more dubious, but seems to work.
If, after exporting, audio fades aren't working, or if clips you
had marked silent are still audible (which happened to me on one
DVD project), the fix seems to be to have one clip selected in
the timeline when you export your movie.
For clips whose audio has slipped out of sync, try extracting the
video clip's audio to a separate track (select the clip and choose
Extract Audio from the Advanced menu). Make sure the audio track
is locked to the video track by positioning the playhead within
the two clips and choosing Lock Audio Clip at Playhead from the
Advanced menu.
**Performance Issues** -- Perhaps the most sporadic issue with
iMovie 3 is general performance. Although iMovie 3.0.3 greatly
improved performance, I still see stuttering audio and video,
and occasional sluggish response when selecting clips or switching
between the different effects panes. One general recommendation
is to reduce the size of iMovie's window (now that the program
doesn't cannibalize the entire screen, as in iMovie 1 and 2).
Also, remove any third-party iMovie plug-ins to see if that helps.
Since iMovie (and Mac OS X) love to consume memory, quit other
running applications, and consider installing more RAM if your
budget permits (see dealram for current RAM prices).
<http://dealram.com/>
**Sticking with iMovie 2** -- If the performance of iMovie 3 is
unacceptable, and if you upgraded from iMovie 2, you can use it
to open projects created in iMovie 3 as long as you don't mind
abandoning iMovie 3's new features. If you haven't yet upgraded
to iMovie 3, be sure to make a copy of iMovie 2 to ensure that the
version 3 installer doesn't overwrite it. Or, if you have a set of
your Mac's Software Restore discs that include iMovie 2, you can
use a utility such as Pacifist to extract the iMovie 2-specific
installer.
<http://www.charlessoft.com/>
No doubt I haven't covered some problems you may be facing with
iMovie; Apple's support discussion boards are filled with people
reporting unexpected crashes, for example, that appear to be
sporadic or difficult to reproduce. Although frustrating, these
types of issues can be solved only by Apple's engineers. Given
the company's high-profile push for iLife and the digital hub
lifestyle, it's hopefully only a matter of time before Apple works
out these issues. Nonetheless, I strongly recommend letting Apple
know what you're running into by going to the feedback Web page
listed below or by choosing Provide iMovie Feedback from the
iMovie menu. Apple employees have assured us that these feedback
reports are read, and enough of them can encourage an executive to
reapportion development budgets to address the reported problems.
<http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx/iMovie>
<http://www.apple.com/feedback/imovie.html>
PayBITS: Did you learn something new or work around a bug in
iMovie 3? Consider sending a few bucks to Jeff via PayBITS!
<https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=jeff%40necoffee.com>
Read more about PayBITS: <http://www.tidbits.com/paybits/>
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/15-Sep-03
------------------------------------
by TidBITS Staff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
**Eudora 6 comments** -- Eudora 6's new spam-catching capabilities
generated lots of questions and answers, as did problems with
Eudora's extremely helpful way of opening Web pages in the
background when their URLs are Command-clicked. (40 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2059>
**Extending networks with WDS** -- Glenn Fleishman's article about
the WDS compatibility between AirPort Extreme Base Stations and
Buffalo's WLA-G54 prompted discussion about how wired network
segments were handled under WDS-bridged networks. (3 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2061>
**.Mac a year later** -- It's been a year, and TidBITS Talk
participants are trading notes on whether or not they'll be
paying Apple for another year of .Mac service. (10 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2062>
**Safari faster without cache** -- Safari is a fast Web browser,
but could it be even faster if you turn off its caching of Web
pages? (4 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2065>
**SideTrack trackpad driver** -- Previous discussion of scrolling
techniques had Nik Gerber moaning about how the Mac lacked custom
trackpad drivers that would let you scroll using special portions
of the trackpad. He mentioned this to Alex Harper, author of
uControl, and a short while later, Alex released a public beta of
SideTrack, providing extra trackpad functionality. Check it out!
(1 message)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2066>
$$
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