Will Apple survive? - includes discussion on Macintosh gift software

Home Office Computing, Dec, 1993 by David Hallerman

The news at Apple Computer over the past few months has been more sour than sweet. Whether it's been stories about the company laying off thousands of employees--a current plague in corporate America-or reports of the huge price drop in Apple's stock because of lowered earnings, they've all been enough to make an Apple owner nervous. If you own a Mac computer or are looking to buy one, many questions come to mind, but the most notable is: Will Apple Computer stay in business? I mean, who wants to put money down on a doomed company or an orphan computer?

Actually, if you've been watching Apple for years, like I have been, many of today's tales feel like old news. Back in the mid-l980s--when the Apple II line was dying, the Macintosh was a graphic youngster, and IBM-compatible PCs running DOS were making huge inroads into the computer market-- Apple appeared to be poised on the edge of disaster. That period was not too long after the founding Steves (Jobs and Wozniak) had brought in John Sculley to run the show.

What Sculley realized back then is still true today: The simplicity of the Mac gives it a special niche in computing, and that niche continues to hold strong even against its Windows competition. Despite the graphical improvements in PCs, no computer is easier to run than a Mac. That's why, say, the continued growth of the Performa line that sells through mass-market stores bodes well for Apple's health. Or take the new digital signal processor line of AV Macs, which herald future paths of computing with their broadcast-quality video-they also widen the Mac's niche. While Apple's labled profit margin (once higher than almost all other high-tech companies) is down, there are still big bucks to be made by expanding the Mac franchise to the rest of us. In addition, further cost and performance improvements such as the forthcoming PowerPC Macs will also help Apple augment its customer base.

Yes, Apple has been in better shape, but no, it's not about to disappear or even shrink to a pitiable size. The same unique qualifies that drew you to the Mac in the first place will continue to keep the company alive and surviving.

HOLIDAY FUN STUFF

Well, the news ain't all bad--there's still a lot of fun software out there for us Mac mavens.

Designed for diversion. When it comes to fun, no software sports a more appropriate moniker than Now Fun/from Now Software. This, however, is fun not for just anyone but for folks who think it's a blast to personalize their Macs' sound, colors, and cursors. F'rinstance, using FunColors, you need not be a tech head to change the color palette for your Mac's environment--all windows, menus bars, scroll bars, and so on--to your choice of among 16.7 million colors. My top pick of the five modules might be the sound-file-packed FunSounds; it lets me assign any sound effect to such standard Mac events as shut down, emptying the trash, or ejecting a disk. The three other nifty modules include a screen saver, custom cursors, and individual pictures for your desktop. The cost for all this fun is $69; contact Now Software at (503) 274-2800 or (800) 237-3611.

Words galore. Well, maybe good things simply come in big packages nowadays, because you'll need about 13MB of hard-disk acreage (and 15MB free space for installation) to hold the American Heritage Dictionary, an online reference guide ($60). But if you or your family ever uses the English language, the space is a great investment. Besides the 190,000 complete definitions, which come from Houghton Mifflin's dictionary of the same name, the software includes a thesaurus and an anagram builder. But what makes this program stand out from what's available in hard cover are two key features: One, you can double-click on any word in any definition to jump to its definition--cool!--and two, you can search for words based on multiple criteria. For instance, I asked the software to hunt for all words that contain the words "love" and "red" in their definitions. It called up five words, including "brave," "heart," and "warmth." If you want to learn more, call Star Press/WordStar International at (415) 382-8000 or (800) 227-5609.

Time is not awasting. As an end-of-year gift for friends, family, or yourself, a calendar is often a smart idea. But a customized calendar, with junior's birthday noted instead of William Shakespeare' s, can be even smarter. CalendarMaker from CE Software is the best way I know to create calendar printouts of nearly any kind--monthly, daily, weekly, or annual; with graphics or without; in color or black and white; with banners for special occasions (vacation in Aruba) or icons to highlight a specific day. To find out more about version 4.0 ($60), contact CE Software at (515) 221-1801 or (800) 523-7638.

Senior editor DAVID HALLERMAN has been watching Apple--and their computers--for more than 10 years.