TidBITS#802/24-Oct-05
Geoff Duncan
=====================
This week marks the second anniversary of our Take Control
project, so we celebrate with a 50 percent-off sale and a look
at how we've done. In Apple news, Geoff Duncan covers Apple's
new PowerBook and Power Mac G5 models, and Jeff Carlson gives an
overview of Aperture. Glenn Fleishman stays wireless with looks
at Salling Clicker 3.0 and the back-room battles surrounding the
next wireless standard: 802.11n. We also include brief bits on
preventing hard drive sleep, encoding video for the iPod, and
the slow demise of the eMac.
Topics:
MailBITS/24-Oct-05
Apple Revs PowerBooks, Intros Quad-Core Power Mac G5
Aperture Opens Up RAW for Photographers
Salling Clicker 3.0 Adds Windows, Network Sharing, Wi-Fi
Support
Faster, Wi-Fi! Kill, Kill (the Competition)!
Take Control's Second Anniversary (and 50% Off Sale!)
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/24-Oct-05
<http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-802.html>
<ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/issues/2005/TidBITS#802_24-Oct-05.etx>
Copyright 2005 TidBITS: Reuse governed by Creative Commons license
<http://www.tidbits.com/terms/> Contact: <edi...@tidbits.com>
---------------------------------------------------------------
This issue of TidBITS sponsored in part by:
* READERS LIKE YOU! Support TidBITS with a contribution today! <----- NEW!
<http://www.tidbits.com/about/support/contributors.html>
Special thanks this week to Michael Weyman, Duane De Vries,
Hearts of Space Inc., and Marvin Tubbs for their kind support!
* SMALL DOG ELECTRONICS: 70 more specials to come! <----------------- NEW!
In honor of our 10th Anniversary - 10 specials
each day until 10/31. Visit often! Enter to win!
Visit: <http://www.smalldog.com/> 800-511-MACS
* FETCH SOFTWORKS: Fetch 5 is now available, with SFTP, Bonjour, <--- NEW!
StuffIt, Unicode, Dock progress, AppleScript, and a simplified
interface optimized for Mac OS X (including Tiger)!
Download your free trial version! <http://fetchsoftworks.com/>
* Dr. Bott, LLC: Swim with the Phish ... blasting in your ears. <--- NEW!
The H2O Audio products let you interface your iPod in an
aqua environment, if you catch my drift. Waterproof cases
for iPod and iPod mini. <http://www.drbott.com/>
* Web Crossing, Inc: Site Crossing brings Web Crossing power to
your small biz, family or club. Build a core site or bolt onto
a current one for discussions, blogs, chat, polls, calendars,
podcasts, and more. <http://www.sitecrossing.com/tb-305>
* Bare Bones Software's BBEdit for $99 -- Oktoberfest special! <----- NEW!
BBEdit cross-upgrades on sale (save $100) October only. Get
serious power tools like HTML markup, glossaries, automation,
file groups, previews & much more. <http://www.barebones.com/>
* Circus Ponies NoteBook: Never lose anything again. NoteBook <------ NEW!
keeps your digital life organized. Take notes, clip content,
share information. Find anything instantly with automatic
index pages. Free 30-day demo! <http://www.circusponies.com/>
* Rumpus 4: Internet file transfers done right. <-------------------- NEW!
Set up a complete FTP and Web file server in 7 minutes.
Visit: <http://www.maxum.com/Rumpus/>
* StuffIt Deluxe 10 from Allume Systems supports Automator,
compresses JPEGs up to 30%, enables Spotlight to search in
archives, can make self-extracting archives, and more!
Upgrade for only $29.99! <http://www.stuffit.com/mac/deluxe/>
---------------------------------------------------------------
MailBITS/24-Oct-05
------------------
**Preventing Second Drive Sleepiness** -- A while back I wanted
some more disk space in my Power Mac G4, but I didn't want to buy
a new boot drive to replace the 80 GB drive I've been using for a
while. I had a 60 GB drive sitting around, so I installed that in
a spare drive bay in the Power Mac. All has been well and good,
with one exception: the second drive was constantly spinning down
and causing delays whenever Mac OS X decided to spin up the drive,
which was frequently, even though the drive sees only sporadic
use. My first stop was the Energy Saver preference pane, where
I confirmed that I had deselected the "Put hard disk(s) to sleep
when possible" checkbox. But that clearly wasn't working. Next
stop, Google, where my search turned up a Web site called The
X Lab, associated with an ebook called "Troubleshooting Mac OS X."
<http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/sbbod.html>
The X Lab site explained that the Energy Saver preference pane
was really just a graphical front end to the Unix pmset command.
If you select the "Put hard disk(s) to sleep when possible"
checkbox, Energy Saver essentially issues the pmset command with
the "disksleep 10" (Tiger) or "spindown 10" (Panther) option,
where 10 means to spin down the drive after 10 minutes. But as
we've seen, leaving that checkbox deselected doesn't work either.
What's going on? It turns out that to force the Mac to honor
the "Put hard disk(s) to sleep when possible" checkbox being
deselected, you must also set the "Put the computer to sleep
when it is inactive for" slider to "Never." Only then will Energy
Saver issue the pmset command with either the "disksleep 0"
(Tiger) or "spindown 0" (Panther) option. If you want the best
of both worlds - your Mac going to sleep after some amount of
idle time and secondary disks not spinning down - you could
create an AppleScript script or iKey shortcut that issued the
appropriate pmset command at startup. Doing so is left as an
exercise to the reader. [ACE]
**Encoding Video for iPod** -- Since the release of the new video-
enabled iPod, a few noteworthy articles have appeared about
getting video content onto the device. iLounge looks at the
options for encoding video for the new video iPod: "iPod-Ready
Videos? Not So Fast, and Not So Clear." QuickTime 7.0.3 adds
an export option to QuickTime (and therefore, to applications
such as iMovie) to encode video for iPod, but you don't get to
customize its settings. Jeremy Horowitz performed a bunch of
tests to see how long it takes to encode, and what the quality
of the results was. Also, Jonathan Seff at Playlist shares his
experiences encoding content, including ripping DVDs using
HandBrake. I watched a few movies on a weekend train trip
from Seattle to Portland and back, and found the experience
surprisingly good. [JLC]
<http://ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/
ipod-ready-videos-not-so-fast-and-not-so-clear/>
<http://playlistmag.com/weblogs/ipodblog/2005/10/videoipodlessons/index.php>
**eMac Fades Away** -- Sources have confirmed that the eMac,
Apple's inexpensive all-in-one Mac with a CRT-based screen,
is no longer available for individual sale, although educational
institutions can still buy the model. It's likely that Apple felt
little need to carry on with the eMac line with the Mac mini
taking over as the least expensive Mac for individuals and the
iMac G5 holding up the all-in-one end of the line. Although
it's hard to see Apple keeping the eMac available to educational
institutions indefinitely, it does meet a specific need there -
schools are less likely to want to use difficult-to-secure Mac
minis in public labs, and the iMac is quite a bit pricier than
the eMac. [ACE]
**DealBITS Drawing: MaxProtect II Winner** -- Congratulations to
Paul Perry of sympatico.ca, whose entry was chosen randomly from
452 valid entries in last week's DealBITS drawing and who received
a MaxProtect II PowerBook case, worth $49/$59/$69, depending on
size. Even if you didn't win, you can still save 10 percent on the
MaxProtect II through 02-Nov-05 by entering "DealBits003" in the
Additional Comments field when ordering; MaxUpgrades tells us that
the discount will not show on order confirmations, but will be
accounted for in the amount billed. Keep an eye out for future
DealBITS drawings! [ACE]
<http://www.maxupgrades.com/istore/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&
Product_ID=137>
<http://www.tidbits.com/dealbits/maxprotect/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08285>
Apple Revs PowerBooks, Intros Quad-Core Power Mac G5
----------------------------------------------------
by Geoff Duncan <ge...@tidbits.com>
At a special press event in New York last week, Apple rolled out
new revisions to its professional line of PowerBook computers and
unveiled new high-end quad-processor Power Mac G5 systems.
<http://www.apple.com/powerbook/>
<http://www.apple.com/powermac/>
**More Pixels** -- First up, Apple refreshed the 15-inch and
17-inch members of its PowerBook line, adding larger displays,
increasing battery life, and making DVD-burning SuperDrives
standard across the entire PowerBook line. The 15-inch PowerBook
now features a 1440 by 960 pixel screen resolution (slightly
larger than the previous 17-inch model), while the giant 17-inch
"lunch tray" PowerBook now offers a 1680 by 1050 pixel display,
the same number of pixels as Apple's 20-inch flat-panel Cinema
Display. Apple says the new machines offer up to 22 percent
longer battery life (up to 5.5 hours), include speedy 5400 rpm
hard drives (with 7200 rpm drives available as build-to-order
options), ship with a minimum of 512 MB of RAM, feature optical
audio input and output, and come with built-in support for Apple's
mammoth 30-inch Cinema HD display. (Because, naturally, the first
thing you want to do with a portable computer is hook it up to
an enormous, non-portable screen! Am I wrong?)
Both systems feature 1.67 GHz PowerPC G4 processors, DVI and
S-video output (adaptable to VGA and composite), 8x SuperDrives,
Gigabit Ethernet, AirPort Extreme (802.11g) and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
wireless networking, a built-in V.92 56 Kbps modem, illuminated
keyboards, FireWire 400 and 800 ports (one each), two USB 2.0
ports, and a Type I/II PC Card slot.
The new PowerBooks are available now, with prices starting at
$2,000 for the 15-inch model and $2,500 for the 17-inch model.
Apple's 12-inch PowerBook is also available starting at $1,500,
although its specs remain largely unchanged (save for an 8x
SuperDrive and a 5400 rpm hard drive now being standard).
**Core Values** -- Apple also unveiled a revision to its Power Mac
G5 line of professional-level desktop computers, rolling in PCI
Express expansion slots, pro-level graphics controllers, and a
high-end option with two dual-core PowerPC G5 processors running
at 2.5 GHz for a total of eight floating point units, four AltiVec
units (which Apple has always dubbed "Velocity Engines"), four
1 MB L2 caches, and a total processing capability in the
neighborhood of 76 gigaflops.
It's not quite accurate to call the new high-end Power Mac G5 a
"quad-processor" system: like its dual-CPU predecessors, it still
contains only two CPU chips, but the difference is that those
CPUs each contain two processor cores, rather than one. Similarly,
the mid-range Power Mac G5 system is no longer a dual-processor
system, but a dual-core system, containing one dual-core G5 chip
running at 2.3 GHz.
<http://www.apple.com/powermac/dualcore.html>
The new Power Mac G5 systems also feature a new architecture which
supports up to 16 GB of RAM, 1 TB of internal Serial ATA hard disk
storage, PCI Express expansion slots (two four-lane and one eight-
lane) designed for high performance expansion hardware like
graphics cards, DSP audio processing, and FibreChannel storage.
Apple's also offering four professional level graphics options
for the Power Mac line, including the new Nvidia Quadro FX 4500,
that company's fastest workstation video card, which can support
dual 30-inch displays. The Power Mac G5 systems also feature 16x
SuperDrives, one FireWire 800 port, two FireWire 400 ports, four
USB 2.0 ports, two USB 1.1 ports (on the keyboard), two internal
disk bays (one available), dual Gigabit Ethernet, optical audio
input and output, analog line-level audio input, and optional
AirPort Extreme (802.11g) and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR wireless
networking. They come with an Apple Keyboard and a Mighty Mouse;
the Apple Mouse is no longer available separately or with any Mac.
<http://www.apple.com/powermac/graphics.html>
Power Mac G5 prices start at $2,000 for a 2 GHz dual-core G5
system and run up to $3,300 for a 2.5 GHz quad-core system, with
numerous build-to-order options available. Dual-core G5 systems
are available immediately, and Apple says quad-core systems
should be shipping by mid-November.
Aperture Opens Up RAW for Photographers
---------------------------------------
by Jeff Carlson <je...@tidbits.com>
At a press conference in New York last week (which coincided with
PhotoPlus Expo), Apple announced Aperture, a new professional
application geared toward photographers shooting and working with
digital photos in RAW format. Aperture aims to concentrate all of
the activities pro photographers need - capture, correction, and
output - in one application. The software is available for pre-
order now at $500, and is expected to ship in November.
<http://www.photoplusexpo.com/>
<http://www.apple.com/aperture/>
Aperture's focus is on the RAW format, the unprocessed digital
information captured by higher-end digital cameras (most consumer-
level cameras capture an image and save it to a memory card in
JPEG format, which applies lossy compression); Aperture also
supports other common image formats such as JPEG and TIFF. It can
copy photos directly from the memory card, enabling you to preview
the shots before extracting them - a feature I've long wanted
to see in iPhoto. It also grabs the EXIF metadata tags.
Once within Aperture, the images remain in RAW format, where
you can apply correction using tools such as white balance,
color shifting, red-eye removal, and more. The editing is non-
destructive, so you can always revert back to the original.
Clever photo-friendly features such as a light table arrangement
(where you can view numerous photos in a large work space) and
a loupe feature (which shows you a magnified circle to view
selections of an image without zooming the entire photo) should
appeal to photographers. Aperture also features extensive support
for grouping and collecting images in albums and smart albums
using IPTC metadata tags, as well as tools to compare multiple
photos against one another. Other nice features include a built-in
backup system for archiving photos, Web and book publishing that
offers flexibility well beyond what iPhoto includes, and Photoshop
compatibility.
Speaking of Photoshop, Apple isn't positioning Aperture as a
"Photoshop killer," just as Motion isn't an After Effects killer.
Rather, its strengths appear to be offering a workflow for pro
photographers in one attractive package, instead of a mashup of
Photoshop plus assorted plug-ins that deal with specific image
adjustments (see Charles Maurer's article series, "Through the
Digital Lens," starting in TidBITS-748_ for examples of this sort
of thing). The question will be whether photographers, who have
probably already invested in Photoshop, will be willing to cough
up another $500 for Aperture.
<http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbser=1261>
Salling Clicker 3.0 Adds Windows, Network Sharing, Wi-Fi Support
----------------------------------------------------------------
by Glenn Fleishman <gl...@tidbits.com>
Salling Software's latest releases extend its remote-control
software across all kinds of technology. The original Salling
Clicker let you use a cellular phone to control a Mac via
Bluetooth. Now, you can control multiple computers across a
network, use Wi-Fi on Palms and other Wi-Fi-equipped handhelds,
and run Salling Clicker under Windows.
The $24 software, a free upgrade for existing users, is
preconfigured with scripts for programs that beg for remote
control options, such as Apple's iTunes, iPhoto, and Keynote,
and third party applications like NetNewsWire Pro, Squeezebox's
SlimServer, and VLC Media Player.
Salling Clicker is extensible through its guided creation of
AppleScript scripts or through user-written scripts. A Phone
Events tab lets you trigger scripts based on activity like the
phone ringing, or a device coming into proximity so that it forms
a Bluetooth connection. Some people set up their events so that
when they leave their computer, Salling Clicker pauses music,
stops checking email, and sets iChat status to Away.
Network support is new, and it enables a remote handset or
handheld and one Bluetooth or Wi-Fi-enabled Mac to control
multiple computers on a network (this feature works only on
the Mac for now).
Version 3.0 requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later, and supports 90
different makes and models of cell phones, handhelds, and similar
devices. It's a 4.3 MB download.
Faster, Wi-Fi! Kill, Kill (the Competition)!
--------------------------------------------
by Glenn Fleishman <gl...@tidbits.com>
Apple has signed on as part of a broad alliance to push a new
proposal for faster Wi-Fi. The group, called the Enhanced Wireless
Consortium (EWC), comprises 27 companies, and was formed outside
the standards process that has been working on next-next-
generation Wi-Fi for several years.
<http://www.enhancedwirelessconsortium.org/>
The IEEE standards group handles wireless local area networks
in its 802.11 Working Group. Within that group, there's a Task
Group N, the members of which have been working on efforts that
have coalesced into two competing proposals for what's called
802.11n. The goal of 802.11n is increased bandwidth - up to a
theoretical 600 Mbps. This 600 Mbps standard would also have
much higher real-world throughput, too: plain vanilla 802.11g
delivers maybe 25 Mbps of its 54 Mbps rated speed. With a 600 Mbps
standard, it's possible that we could see 400 Mbps or even more
in actual use.
The two competing proposals have stalled in Task Group N.
Technically, they're rather close, but in terms of how voting
happens, neither side can achieve the 75-percent supermajority
necessary to take a proposal into its final stage of development.
The IEEE voting procedure is typical among standards groups in
that members vote as individuals and only receive voting rights
after attending several meetings. The meetings take place all over
the world every two months, which puts a large financial strain
on attendees without company backing.
Intel, Broadcom (Apple's Wi-Fi supplier), Atheros, and Marvell,
which sell most Wi-Fi chips worldwide, quietly built their
own synthesis of the two proposals - the Enhanced Wireless
Consortium - even while an IEEE group with broader membership
tried to hammer out a joint solution by the November 2005
meeting. This splinter group circulated its proposal to Task
Group N members and convinced 23 of them to sign on, including
the largest consumer Wi-Fi firms: Apple, Buffalo, D-Link,
Linksys, and NetGear. Only Belkin is missing from that list.
The ostensible purpose of this end run around the standard process
is to cut several months off the time necessary to reach a
supermajority-approved proposal. Companies left out, including
the pioneer of multiple-antenna technology Airgo, are furious.
Nokia and Motorola declined to join the EWC, stating that the
EWC approach doesn't have the tools necessary to put 802.11n
into cellular handsets and preserve battery life.
Apple's involvement in the EWC is good news for Mac users who
like to be on the cutting edge. Apple was one of the first
companies to introduce the 802.11g standard as AirPort Extreme
in January 2003, and could be an early adopter of 802.11n. Based
on user experiences, Apple jumped the gun a little with 802.11g;
hopefully the transition to 802.11n will be smoother.
Task Group N could finish its work by early 2007, but if the
direction in the EWC proposal is set in stone shortly, new chips
that will interoperate among hardware from EWC members might
appear by mid-2006. The EWC says that if the IEEE doesn't adopt
its proposal, members may finalize their standard and release
equipment based upon it without the IEEE blessing.
Take Control's Second Anniversary (and 50% Off Sale!)
-----------------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <a...@tidbits.com>
As of today, the Take Control publishing project that Tonya and
I started in 2003 marks its second year. We've come a long way
from our first copy of Joe Kissell's "Take Control of Upgrading
to Panther," and since we've been tracking Take Control's progress
here in TidBITS all along, I want to share what we've accomplished
and give you a sense of where we're going. But first, to celebrate
the anniversary, we're having a week-long, 50 percent-off sale on
every one of our ebooks. Just use coupon code CPN51024TC2 when
placing an order to cut your grand total in half (the link below
automatically enters the coupon for you; also note that you can
have only one coupon per order).
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/?14@@!pt=TB802&cp=CPN51024TC2>
**Cold Hard Numbers** -- For our second year, we stayed roughly on
par with the number of ebooks we published and sold. We released
13 new titles and 19 updates, a few of which were minor, though
many others offered significant amounts of new and improved
information. That's one more new title than our first year,
and one fewer update, though with so many more total titles in
our library, the number of necessary updates was quite reduced,
largely through better editing and production procedures. We sold
nearly 24,000 copies in our first year, and our second year
has seen about 31,000 copies sold, which is about a 30 percent
increase. For those doing the math, that's a total of about
55,000 copies, and while that's across 25 titles, we're pleased.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07864>
No individual ebook this year matched the 6,500 copies we sold of
"Take Control of Upgrading to Panther," although "Take Control of
Upgrading to Tiger" has broken the 4,500 mark, "Take Control of
Customizing Tiger" is nearing 4,300, and "Take Control of Mac OS X
Backups" is approaching 3,800. Of our most recent titles, we have
seen particularly strong early interest in "Take Control of Your
Wi-Fi Security" and the just-released "Take Control of Permissions
in Mac OS X."
Although our ebooks see a sales spike at release, like print
books, they continue to sell over time, and because they're
electronic, we're happy to keep them available as long as people
want them; we have plenty of room in our virtual warehouses
and can maintain a one-to-one inventory ratio at all times.
Interestingly, August 2005 was the first month that a particular
ebook (not counting translations) didn't sell any copies: both
"Take Control of Sharing Files in Panther" and "Take Control of
Users & Accounts in Panther" struck out in August, but rebounded
to sell a few copies in September and October.
Honestly, we wanted to publish more books this year, but the
massive push to have four books ready at the exact minute Apple
released Tiger (tweaked appropriately for different time zones
around the world, even) took a huge amount of time and energy
in the early part of the year, and recovering from that effort
took a while as well. Plus, as anyone who has written a book
knows, even shorter titles like ours can take longer than
expected if life intervenes, as it is wont to do.
Although our Tiger ebooks certainly sold well, they didn't match
up to their equivalent Panther editions for a variety of reasons.
Most notably, because of the long delay for Tiger, there was a
lot more information available about it right away, both on the
Internet and in print, increasing the competition for attention.
Also, Panther was a much more significant upgrade from Jaguar than
Tiger was from Panther, so it's entirely likely that many people
simply didn't feel the need for extra documentation. Since so many
people had read the Panther editions, it's entirely possible that
they felt sufficiently empowered to tackle Tiger without updated
help from our authors. And finally, Tiger lacked the showstopper
bugs (like FireWire hard drive erasures and RAM incompatibility)
that caused later adopters to approach the Panther upgrade with
more trepidation and desire for assistance.
One last nod to numerology. The Take Control team decided to
support the hurricane relief effort by donating 10 percent of
our proceeds for the month of September to the American Red Cross
Hurricane Relief Fund. Thanks to sales of two new titles published
that month, the total donation came to $1,865. It may be the
merest drop among the hundreds of billions that will eventually
be required, but every bit helps, and unlike with taxes, the
ability to specify where the funds should be used helps us feel
that we're making a difference.
**New Tools** -- Figuring out which titles will sell is tricky
work, and we've guessed both right and wrong (though we're happy
with the content in all of our books). We've also heard lots
of suggestions, but for topics that are outside our areas of
expertise, we've had trouble evaluating how popular an ebook
might be. So I've created a Suggestion page where you can vote
for titles that have already been proposed and suggest additional
topics. The main thing that's unusual about this survey is that
we ask that you vote for a hypothetical title only if you would
buy it - please do not vote for a title just because you think
it would be a good idea. Too many "I think it's a good idea,
but I wouldn't buy it myself" votes could result in a huge waste
of time for an author and editor. We'll also send you email should
we publish a title for which you've voted. There aren't many
titles to vote on right now, but I'll add new topics as they
come in, so it's worth checking out the page every so often
to see what's new. Thanks for helping us publish ebooks on
the topics you want to read about!
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/suggest.html>
If your organization is interested in a custom version of an
ebook, or in a site license (for instance, to all our Tiger ebooks
if you're deploying Tiger across hundreds of desktops), be sure to
contact us. We did a pair of manuals in the last year, and we have
an ebook in progress that was commissioned by a large Mac-using
company that wanted custom documentation written, edited, and
produced by professionals.
Fairly early on, we put a Help a Friend button on the cover of
each book as a way readers could easily tell their friends and
colleagues about an ebook they found helpful. It seemed like a
great idea at the time, especially since we sweetened the deal
with a 10 percent off coupon for both parties. But it didn't work
particularly well - only about 100 orders used the coupon, and
we've received way more enthusiastic email messages than that.
In trying to figure out why the Help a Friend button hadn't worked
better, I asked for opinions on TidBITS Talk and was told that
my technique was lousy: I'd set it up via a Web form, and people
didn't like using Web forms to send email, nor did they like
putting their friends' email addresses into Web forms, and that
assumed that they even remembered their friends' email addresses
without an email address book.
So I went back to the drawing board and figured out a way for most
people (it's browser-dependent) to have the Help a Friend button
automatically generate a draft message in the user's email program
with the relevant URL and coupon information. For people using
older or incompatible browsers, the previous method still works.
So, if you find our ebooks useful, we'd appreciate any referrals
you can send our way. And, to make it worthwhile for you to click
that Help a Friend button this week, the referral coupon is also
good for 50 percent off instead of the usual 10 percent off.
**Looking Backward and Forward** -- When I look back at our goals
for 2005, I see mixed success. Our partnership with Peachpit Press
hasn't brought as many new readers to the fold as we would have
liked, largely due to the difficulty of selling print-based
computer books. Other avenues for reselling also haven't made
significant impacts - for instance, we listed some of our ebooks
on Amazon, but only a handful sold, perhaps because they're
difficult to find when browsing, or because they need some
favorable reviews in their descriptions. Listing some of our
titles with Google Print has been entirely ineffective so far -
not a single order has come from someone searching Google Print
and finding the answer in one of our ebooks. Only a few affiliates
have sold more than a couple of books, probably since most don't
have large audiences.
<http://print.google.com/>
<http://affiliates.eSellerate.net/>
On the bright side, our relationship with our friends at Small Dog
Electronics has been fairly successful, and nearly 200 Macintosh
user groups have joined our user group program to receive free
review copies and discounts. Overall, though, we've learned that
we should concentrate most of our efforts on direct sales, which
is the most profitable approach anyway. It's possible that direct
sales are best for electronic goods in general, and our low prices
(which don't leave much margin for resellers) probably don't help
either.
Our back end publishing process has also become significantly
smoother, as we've learned more about PDF and assembled a toolkit
of essential utilities. Tonya and I now rely on Flow, from Near-
Time Systems, for the collaborative writing and editing process
for all our PR materials (we're also using it more and more for
TidBITS articles). BBEdit 8.2, with its tabbed editing, makes
updating all the necessary Web pages as smooth as possible.
PDF Enhancer from Apago and PDF Sages has become a key tool
for compressing and optimizing PDFs, often shrinking them by
90 percent and more from their original size. And SmileOnMyMac's
PDFpen Pro, particularly aided by a little AppleScript script
written by Greg Scown of SmileOnMyMac, reduces the amount of
time it takes me to create a sample of an ebook to a fraction
of the time I spent in Acrobat Professional. And in general,
I've distilled the overall process of setting up a new ebook
in eSellerate to a science - it's not instantaneous, but it's
about as fast as I can imagine given all the details in play.
<http://www.near-time.com/PRODUCTS/flow/>
<http://www.barebones.com/>
<http://www.apago.com/products.html>
<http://www.smileonmymac.com/PDFpen/>
Thanks to the increased ease of publishing, we're hoping to
again up our title count next year, and to expand from our core
Macintosh focus to more general topics that will still interest
existing readers. After all, there's nothing wrong with doing new
stuff, but it's also important to stick with what you do well,
and to support one's early adopters. All that said, producing
high quality content is hard work, and no matter how streamlined
or automated our process is, at the end of the day, a smart
person has to sit down and transfer his or her knowledge into
the structure of an ebook, and a talented editor has to help
make that knowledge understandable and enjoyable to read.
And that's where I'd like to close - with a hearty thanks for the
ever-growing Take Control team who have created - and shared in -
our success: authors Joe Kissell, Glenn Fleishman, Matt Neuburg,
Kirk McElhearn, Jeff Tolbert, Tom Negrino, Larry Chen, Steve
Sande, and Brian Tanaka, editors Caroline Rose, Jeff Carlson,
Don Sellers, and Lea Galanter, and of course my co-publisher
Tonya Engst. We have quite a few more authors in various stages
of completion, so I'm confident that we'll be presenting all sorts
of interesting ebooks in the next year. Thanks for your support!
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/24-Oct-05
------------------------------------
by TidBITS Staff <edi...@tidbits.com>
The first link for each thread description points to the
traditional TidBITS Talk interface; the second link points to
the same discussion on our Web Crossing server, which provides
a different look and which may be faster.
**Internal Drive Reports Failing SMART Tests** -- When Disk
Utility reports a hard drive's SMART (Self-Monitoring Analysis and
Reporting Technology) status as failing, is it time to retire the
drive, or can it still be used? (11 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2748>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/597/>
**New video-capable iPod** -- Apple has been careful to note that
the new iPod is a music player that also plays video, leading
to a discussion of the company's marketing. (5 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2749>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/598/>
**Multi-service IM clients** -- Readers look at programs that can
communicate to all of the major instant-messaging services, versus
having to run separate programs for each service. (2 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2752>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/601/>
**Apple's update barrage** -- Apple updated nearly all of its
product line in the last month. What can we look forward to
seeing at Macworld Expo in January? (6 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2753>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/602/>
**AirPort Extreme power adapter** -- This vital piece of hardware
disappeared during a reader's move, so where can he find a
replacement? (2 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2754>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/603/>
**AirPort Internet sharing problem** -- A reader needs advice on
setting up his Macs so that his Power Mac at work can act as a
wireless base station for his laptop. (3 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2757>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/606/>
$$
Non-profit, non-commercial publications may reprint articles if
full credit is given. Others please contact us. We don't guarantee
accuracy of articles. Caveat lector. Publication, product, and
company names may be registered trademarks of their companies.
For information: how to subscribe, where to find back issues,
and more, see <http://www.tidbits.com/>. TidBITS ISSN 1090-7017.
Send comments and editorial submissions to: <edi...@tidbits.com>
Back issues available at: <http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/>
And: <ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/issues/>
Full text searching available at: <http://www.tidbits.com/search/>
-------------------------------------------------------------------