Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com

Poker Mac Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full Tilt Poker Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you.

Mac Musings

Trends at Macworld

2000.07.26 - Dan Knight - Tip Jar

Trends at Macworld

July 26, 2000 - Dan Knight

There were a lot of unique items at Macworld Expo, but also some types of products available from several sources.

Optical Mice

Perhaps the biggest trend is toward optical mice. Apple's new Pro Mouse is optical, as is the popular Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer. I won't even pretend to list all the companies with optical mice, but they included Contour Design, Macally,

Apple had the most clever mouse design of the show, one which should go down in computer history as a conceptual breakthrough. The Apple Pro Mouse doesn't have a button; the mouse is a button. That is, there is no specific part of the mouse that you have to push to click. Instead, pushing anywhere on the front (cable) end of the mouse gives you the click. It's a concept that only works with the single-button mouse Apple still prefers. It's brilliant.

Compact Mice

Nearly as common as optical mice were compact mice designed for the road warrior. Apple's certainly qualifies, although most compact mice were even smaller. Almost all of the compact mice used optical technology, and my favorite was the Contour Designs mini-mouse, which comes with a compact case to hold the mouse and USB cable in your laptop's case.

Enhanced Keyboards

Apple led the charge with their new Pro Keyboard, which replaces the old USB keyboard and gives users all the keys of the old 105-key Apple Extended Keyboard. Better yet, the Pro Keyboard is color neutral, so you can add it to any USB Mac without worrying about color. Best of all, the Pro Keyboard is more compact than the other USB extended keyboards on the market.

With the Pro Keyboard, Apple has created a very different market for keyboard makers - it's no longer sufficient to provide an extended keyboard, since that comes standard with all new desktop Macs. Instead we're starting to see "media" keyboards with extra programmable keys to launch files, switch programs, etc.

More Accelerators

We saw the first accelerators for the Power Book G3 models, as well as a 400 MHz G3 upgrade for the PB 1400 from Sonnet. There's even a G4 upgrade, although I'd think twice about battery life before putting one of those in a laptop.

AirPort

Farallon made a big deal about their Skyline card, which is an AirPort-compatible PC Card. I would have loved one for the PowerBook I had with me, but nobody was selling them. I believe it was also Farallon who is working on a combination AirPort-compatible base station and ethernet hub.

FireWire

I can't even think to count the number of FireWire drives, scanners, and other devices shown at the Expo. Intel may be pushing USB 2.0, but FireWire is firmly established.

Final Thoughts

If the Cube is for the executive market, will there be an executive (i.e., thin and light) PowerBook, too? A lot of road warriors would sure love a smaller, lighter Mac laptop for writing in the field.

What's up with the single-processor G4/400 - all the other Power Macs now have two processors. My guess: Apple needs to unload 400 MHz machines.

Why did Apple start the Cube at 450 MHz? I'd imagine a Cube/400 would cost several hundred dollars less than the Power Mac G4/400. Of course, it Apple is trying to unload G4/400s, they wouldn't want to undercut it with a 400 MHz Cube.

For that matter, why not a G3-based Cube? I'm sure one with CD-ROM instead of DVD could sell for as little as the basic $799 iMac. As a Mac user and information systems manager, I know that a 350-400 MHz G3 is plenty of power for most users.

I'm definitely going to have AirPort access for the next Expo. I also need to arrive a day earlier and leave a day later - and maybe add some time for site seeing.

Dan Knight has been using Macs since 1986, sold Macs for several years, supported them for many more years, and has been publishing Low End Mac since April 1997. If you find Dan's articles helpful, please consider making a donation to his tip jar.

Recent Mac Musings

Links for the Day

Recent Content on Low End Mac

Recent Deals

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2009 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
  LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
  Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
  Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
  PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
  Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.

Custom Search

Amazon.com

Navigation

Used Mac Dealers
Apple History
Video Cards
Email Lists

Favorite Sites

MacSurfer
MacMinute
MacInTouch
MyAppleMenu
InfoMac
Macs Only!
The Mac Observer
Accelerate Your Mac
RetroMacCast
PB Central
MacWindows
The Vintage Mac
   Museum
DealMac
DealsOnTheWeb
Mac2Sell
ramseeker
Mac Driver Museum
JAG's House
System 6 Heaven
System 7 Today
the pickle's Low-End
   Mac FAQ
Abandonware
   Petition
Mac vs. PC Info

Affiliates

The Apple Store
Mac Connection
B&H
MacMall
TechRestore
ExperCom
Crucial Memory
batteries.com

Advertise

All of our advertising is handled by BackBeat Media. For price quotes and advertising information, please contact at BackBeat Media (646-546-5194). This number is for advertising only.

Open Link

Problems viewing this page with Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6? It works fine in other browsers, including IE 7. We recommend Firefox for those using Windows, as it is standards based and more secure than IE 6 (and earlier). More LEM visitors use Firefox than any other browser.