Apple’s next-generation operating system, formally unveiled at Macworld Expo, provides the modern OS features Mac users have long clamored for, along with a slick new graphical user interface (see feature in this issue).
Canon BJC-85Canon (800/652-2666, www.canon.ccsi.com) thinks small with this portable ink-jet printer, which is barely larger than a tissue box (see news story elsewhere in this section).
Canon PowerShot S20Canon (800/652-2666, www.canon.ccsi.com) has announced the first three-megapixel digital camera for the Macintosh. Based on the same compact design as the PowerShot S10, the S20 captures images at 2,048 by 1,536 pixels (see news story elsewhere in this section).
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! PlatinumCreative Labs (408/428-6600, www.creative.com) marks its entry into the Mac market with its PCI audio card, which is wildly popular in the PC market. In addition to offering MIDI connections and surround-sound, the card frees your Mac CPU from audio-processing tasks.
IBM (800/772-2227, www.ibm.com/software/speech) wins the race with DragonSystems to deliver the first continuous-speech-recognition software for the Mac. It sells for $90 and is available now.
Macromedia Dreamweaver 3/FireWorks 3Macromedia (415/252-2000, www.macromedia.com) updates its Web authoring software programs by improving integration with other leading graphics software, including Adobe Photoshop.
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0Microsoft (425/882-8080, www.microsoft.com) has added numerous usability enhancements to the default Mac Web browser, including improved rendering of HTML pages, new search capabilities, and a Scrapbook feature that makes it easy to store search results (see lead news story).
Micronet SancubeThis FireWire-based storage network from Micronet (949/453-6100, www.micronet.com) offers up to 220GB of online hard drive capacity with a maximum throughput of 30MB per second — all for a fraction of the cost of a fibre-channel storage network.
Zaxwerks InvigoratorThis Adobe After Effects plug-in from Zaxwerks (800/549-0250, www.zaxwerks.com) lets you create 3-D models, with sophisticated lighting effects, from within the host program, an impressive accomplishment considering that After Effects wasn’t designed with 3-D in mind.
Go to: Macworld Expo Central