This Story Posted:
January 18th
7:39 AM/CST

 
 

[7: 39 AM]
John Braun's Belated MacWorld Expo SF Picks
John Braun has compiled his list of MacWorld Expo hot picks. John caught a nasty bug immediately after his plane trip back to New Jersey from San Francisco, but he is healed now and has his list ready for you. Some are old and some are brand new, but (mostly) all are things that are important additions to the Mac community.

Big Gig

This award goes to both Apple and Asanté. Apple, for announcing the availability of a gigabit-equipped G3 around March 1999, and Asanté, for their gigabit switches and network card, available Q1 1999. This, combined with server products like AppleShare IP 6.1 and the upcoming Mac OS X Server, will help Mac users become more productive (or play network games faster) than ever.

Big Brother is Watching

You need a UNIX workstation or NT box to do serious network analysis, right? Wrong! EtherPeek for Macintosh from AG Group will tell you everything, and I mean everything, about what is happening on your Ethernet network. Not just for Mac-specific packet types, but for popular PC and UNIX types as well. An excellent tool for both network administrators and nosy users. A 4.0 release, slated for late Q1 1999, promises even more history, analysis and reporting features. Be sure to check out their other fine Macintosh network tools.

The Big, Flat Picture

SGI demonstrated their 1600SW Flat Panel Monitor. With 1600 x 1024 pixels, 17.3 inch diagonal screen, 110 dpi dot pitch, and the ability to play back 30 fps video, this is one of the most impressive flat panel displays available, if you can afford it. The suggested retail price for the display and adapter is $2,795.

Honorable mention goes to the Apple Studio Display, which offers 1024 x 768 pixels and 15.1 " diagonal screen, priced at $1,099. With more offerings and prices dropping, we'll be rid of those heavy, bulky tube monitors in no time.

Three Is Not Enough

The new G3 and processor upgrade boards have fulfilled our need for speed. But we're still limited to 3 PCI slots for expansion. For those in areas such as media production and scientific applications, this is just not enough. Enter SBS Technologies, which offers both 7-slot and 13-slot PCI expansion units.

Coolest Business Card

Among the stack of business cards that were collected, the most humorous was from Brian Gansemer of MindVision Software, whose title is listed as Really Great Guy.

Groovy, Baby!

Another tip of the hat to the folks at MindVision. They were promoting their new free decompression utility called MindExpander, complete with psychedelic packaging on the free CD, the staff wearing colorful tie-dye shirts, and an iBeetle raffle. These are the folks that also make the well-known Installer VISE software installer builder.

If you picked up the MindExpander Preview CD at the show, be sure to check out the hilarious We Think Different movie. They didn't really launch a gerbil in a rocket, did they?

Serious Development

Ready to do some serious development on the Mac? Sure, the compilers are out there, but what about support tools like configuration management and bug tracking for those large projects? Both VOODOO and the upcoming VOODOO Server from Uni Software Plus offer configuration management services for large projects where "sneakernet" just won't cut it. And for keeping track of the bugs that are bound to rear their ugly little heads, BugLink Solo and the cross-platform BugLink from The PandaWave will do the trick.

Talk To Your Toys

For scientific and engineering applications, the good folks at National Instruments offer a complete line of Mac products for data acquisition, image acquisition, motion control and instrument control.