TidBITS#491/02-Aug-99 ===================== Tired of reading a press release and then having no idea what the product does? Do you develop software and wish the industry press covered it better? Guest author Matt Deatherage covers the seven deadly sins of product releases. Also this week, we highlight notable exhibitors from Macworld Expo in New York City, and bring you info on Apple's Font Manager Update 1.0 for Mac OS 8.6, Eudora Pro's retail availability, and an update to Alsoft's DiskWarrior. Topics: MailBITS/02-Aug-99 Macworld NY 1999 Superlatives The Seven Deadly Product Release Sins Copyright 1999 TidBITS Electronic Publishing. All rights reserved. Information: Comments: --------------------------------------------------------------- This issue of TidBITS sponsored in part by: * APS Technologies -- 800/443-4199 -- -- How do you back up your APS hard disks? Try APS tape, removable, magneto-optical, and CD-R drives! * WinStar Northwest Nexus. Visit us at . 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SHARING KIT has EVERYTHING you need to set up a cross- platform 10 Mbps Ethernet network for sharing a single Internet connection. * WEB BROWSERS SUCK! Check out MacTuner and WeatherTracker for <---- NEW! Internet-enabled programs with real Macintosh interfaces! Live TV and radio programs and constantly updated weather info. Visit Trexar Technologies' MacAlive: * For a limited time sign up to win a FREE iMac when you preview Microsoft Outlook Express 5.0 and Internet Explorer 5.0 -- powerful email and Web browsing especially for the Mac OS! Enter to win now! --------------------------------------------------------------- MailBITS/02-Aug-99 ------------------ **Font Manager Update 1.0** -- Apple recommends all users of Mac OS 8.6 download and install Font Manager Update 1.0 to fix corrupted font resources and prevent possible future corruption. The Font Manager Update extension prevents corruption of FOND resources within some applications or fonts, and fixes a problem with the character heights of Apple's Japanese and Traditional Chinese fonts. The included Font First Aid utility repairs already damaged resources. Make backup copies of any files that need repairing, however, since some programs may not work properly if their resources have been changed. The update is a 312K download. [JLC] **DiskWarrior 1.0.4 Update Improves Reporting** -- Alsoft has released DiskWarrior 1.0.4, an update to its disk repair tool that focuses on correcting directory damage. (See "Fighting Corruption with Alsoft's DiskWarrior" in TidBITS-486_.) Version 1.0.4 lists all files that were recovered from a volume and can save the report to the recovered volume in case no other writable disks are available. DiskWarrior now places recovered items in a Rescued Items folder for testing and verification; once you've confirmed an item is intact, the Finder's Put Away command returns it to its original location. DiskWarrior owners can download a free 561K updater; otherwise, owners can purchase the latest bootable DiskWarrior CD-ROM from Alsoft for $13 (plus $5 shipping). [GD] **Qualcomm Ships Eudora Pro 4.2.1 Boxes and Demo** -- When we wrote about Eudora Pro 4.2.1 (see "Eudora Pro Continues to Deliver" in TidBITS-488_ and TidBITS-489_), only the updater for existing owners of Eudora Pro 4.0 was available. Qualcomm has now released both the full commercial package of Eudora Pro 4.2.1 and a 30-day time-limited demo version (7.7 MB download). The full commercial package includes both the Macintosh and Windows versions of Eudora and costs $50 (a $10 rebate is currently available) plus an additional $20 if you want a printed version of Eudora's online documentation. If you want to try the demo and you're using a previous version of Eudora, Qualcomm recommends first backing up your Eudora Folder because Eudora Pro 4.2 changes some file and folder locations, making reversion complex. Eudora Pro 4.2.1 requires a 68020 Macintosh or better with at least System 7.1 and 900K of free RAM. [ACE] Macworld NY 1999 Superlatives ----------------------------- by TidBITS Staff In 1992, our long-time contributing editor Mark Anbinder suggested a post-Macworld article of "superlatives" - products, companies, booths, events, or anything else that struck us as intriguing. Since then, we've published a superlatives article after almost every Macworld Expo; it's illuminating to look back to see what we thought was worth mentioning. This year, we almost cancelled this superlatives article because Apple's iBook consumer portable and AirPort wireless networking dominated the Expo. TidBITS readers at the show said the same thing - many products were of a high quality, but didn't knock your socks off because of the hubbub surrounding Apple. Nonetheless, Macworld sported many worthy exhibitors we haven't yet mentioned, and the following items caught our eyes. **Most Amazing Graphics Application** -- I'm not a graphics professional, but I was stunned by Synthetik Software's new $295 Studio Artist. It's hard to describe, since it can "simulate natural art materials," "automatically paint and draw based on intelligent visual perception modules," and "autopaint or rotoscope QuickTime video frame by frame automatically." I'm also intrigued by its capability to "warp, stretch, and mutilate images in real-time." Studio Artist's demo at the Macworld Town Meeting had everyone's jaw firmly ensconced on the floor. Don't rely on my poor description, though: download a free 8.2 MB demo. [ACE] **Best T-Shirts** -- Tchotchkes were almost non-existent at this year's Expo, but Cyrusoft International, makers of the Mulberry IMAP email program, came through with a t-shirt that neatly summarized existence: "Email is my life." Apple also won points for a shirt playing off the classic "I New York" phrase, replacing the heart with a red Apple logo. [ACE] **Best Bargain** -- 999software.com is an online software discounter and clearinghouse. We're used to seeing such deep discounts at trade shows, but these folks do it all year long, online. All of their software titles cost $9.99, plus shipping. Their catalog leans heavily toward software for kids and last year's games, but they have some relatively new items, and some gems like StuffIt Deluxe 4.5. We were curious about upgrade policies for such purchases, but Aladdin assured us these copies of StuffIt Deluxe were as eligible for upgrades as any others. [MHA] **Best USB Product** -- Dozens of vendors were showing off USB- related gizmos, but Entrega blew us away with their $150 Mac USB Dock, a one-stop solution for users of USB-only Macs who mourn the absence of SCSI and serial ports. The Entrega Mac USB Dock builds upon the company's USB-to-SCSI and serial converters, offering two USB ports, an 8-pin serial port, and a Mac-standard DB-25 SCSI port. The Mac USB Dock should ship this month. [MHA] **Rethinking CDs** -- If you've been frustrated using a networked CD-ROM jukebox for sharing CD-ROMs in an office, check out LaCie's NetBox, a stand-alone 10/100Base-T network appliance that stores up to 54 650 MB CD-ROMs (or more smaller CD-ROMs) on an internal 36 GB hard disk. Just insert a CD into the NetBox and it transfers an image of the CD to the hard disk for network access. NetBox offers access times about 15 times faster than a jukebox, holds more CDs, and has no fragile robotic arms, all for about $2,000. You can add additional CD-ROM and DVD drives, as well as more hard disks. The only downside is that the NetBox may not be able to create valid disk images of copy-protected CD-ROMs. LaCie also showed their $1,040 Dupli-121 CD duplicator - put a CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive and a blank CD in the CD-R drive, and the Dupli-121 makes an exact copy. Although the Dupli-121 is a SCSI device and includes software so you can use it a CD-ROM drive and as a CD-R drive, you can also disconnect it entirely for speedy stand-alone duplication - duplicating a full CD takes only nine minutes. If you need to duplicate many CDs quickly and can't afford to tie up a Mac, take a look at the Dupli-121. [ACE] **Help for Orphans** -- The PowerPC revolution happened years ago, and folks with older computers are finding they can no longer run current software. Sonnet Technologies has come to the rescue with the $300 Presto PPC, a processor upgrade card for the wide range of 68040-based desktop Macs, including the Quadra and Centris lines, plus selected Performa 400, 500, and 600 series machines. Impressively, these accelerated computers are even compatible with Mac OS 8.5.1 and may support newer operating systems. The Presto PPC carries a 100 MHz 601 processor, which just squeaks these machines into the PowerPC category. [MHA] **Least Visible Mail Server** -- Frustrated by retrieving your office's email over a slow Internet connection or from your ISP's overloaded mail server? RockFord Systems MailProxy is a email server designed to deal with intermittent connections. Using MailProxy, email moves to and from your email client at the speed of your local network, not the speed of your Internet connection, which saves time as you use your primary Macintosh. MailProxy does require a Mac with a static IP address, which isn't true of most dialup modem Internet connections, but which can apply to many ISDN, DSL, and cable modem connections. MailProxy will cost $300 when it becomes available this month; you can download a 1.0 MB demo now. [ACE] **Smallest Firewall** -- The growing availability of high-speed permanent Internet connections to the home via DSL or cable modems means individuals need to think more about personal network security than ever before. But firewalls are generally expensive and difficult to configure (see Chris Pepper's "What's a Firewall, and Why Should You Care?" in TidBITS-468_). Now there's NetBarrier, a personal firewall from Intego that's inexpensive ($75, through 30-Sep-99, then $150) and easy to set up. If you have a single Mac with a permanent Internet connection, check out NetBarrier for protection from a wide variety of Internet attacks. [ACE] **Next PIM to Check Out** -- We've used Now Up-to-Date and Now Contact for years; although the products were just picked up by Power On Software, they languished at Now, then Qualcomm, and their extensions aren't particularly compatible with current versions of the Mac OS. In the meantime, I plan to check out the $60 Chronos Consultant. The only missing feature I want is a client/server architecture (currently, if you take a PowerBook off your network, you must take a copy of the Consultant file with you and throw it away when you return). The forthcoming Office Consultant will enable you to work off the network and have changes synchronized when you reconnect. It's worth a look, particularly if you need multiple user network access and PalmPilot synchronization. A free 2.8 MB demo is available. [ACE] **About Time** -- Graphic designers sometimes complain that they can't draw on their screens, seeing their artwork take shape beneath their fingers. Graphics tablets are a good halfway solution, replacing the mouse for finer control, and touch screens have been good only for information kiosks. Enter Wacom's PL-300 and PL-400 Display Tablets, which combine a graphics tablet and with a flat-screen LCD panel. Someone should have done this sooner, but flat-screen displays of any useful size have only recently dropped to a reasonable price point. Wacom's Display Tablets start at about $1,800, which is a lot of money, but reasonable when you consider the prices of similar flat-screen displays (such as Apple's Studio Display 15) and existing high- quality graphics tablets. It might seem odd to draw on a horizontal (or tilted) monitor, but the sharp, bright displays and superior pen drawing technology will make these products winners. [MHA] The Seven Deadly Product Release Sins ------------------------------------- by Matt Deatherage Although Apple's hardware and software often garner most of the attention at each Macworld Expo, the event is also used by most Macintosh developers to announce new or updated products. Unfortunately, a surprisingly large number of companies stumble when sending out news of their product releases. Time and again these well-meaning vendors make it difficult for news journals like TidBITS to cover their releases, which has the effect of keeping the news from potential customers. I bring this up now because I've been preparing for the return of MDJ, a daily journal for serious Macintosh users. MDJ started in 1996 and went on hiatus in July, 1997; we started MWJ in the interim and will continue to publish it once MDJ returns. We have several improvements in mind for MDJ, but one thing I want to bring back is complete coverage of the Macintosh product announcements we find each day. MDJ, unlike any other journal, devoted at least one paragraph to each new product or update released since the prior issue. Now I find that level of coverage impossible to sustain. Part of it is the price of success. Apple's comeback has brought developers to the Mac in droves, and we often receive 40 to 60 product announcements per day. MWJ's recent Macworld Expo wrap-up issue covered more than 300 new products or updates, and I expect we missed a few. To report on them all, even briefly, I need to cover the basics in every announcement: * What does the product do? * How much does it cost? * What is new in this version, if it's an update or upgrade? * Where do I go for more information or to download an updater? This is basic information you'd expect all publishers would include in press releases. Yet they don't: more than half the announcements we cover don't include all of this information, and some don't include any of it. Like the folks who can't seem to put together a decent ReadMe file, developers often fail miserably at announcing and describing their products. So, if you develop Macintosh products, I've created a list of the seven deadly sins of product releases, any of which can prevent your product from getting the attention you might like. There are so many online Macintosh press outlets now that you'll probably get some coverage no matter what you say, but you should never pass up an opportunity to distribute accurate information to your audience. Monthly print publications have limited space, so failing to make your product's news clear may keep it out of those magazines, and no one in the industry press can spend hours sifting through publicity materials looking for hidden pearls. **One: Not Announcing Anything** -- Most developers realize that the first step to finding customers is letting the world know about their product. But you would be shocked to hear how many products never take that first step. A full-blown press release through Business Wire may cost as much as $500, but there are inexpensive alternatives for getting the word out. MDJ has a special email address for announcements; so do TidBITS and most other electronic media outlets. Sending an announcement by email won't cost much, if anything. The bottom line is that your customers need to know about your products, the trade press needs to write about your products, so you should announce them. A good rule of thumb: if it's not important enough to announce, it's not important enough to release. **Two: No Web Site Information** -- Some developers announce a product and point people to their Web site, then fail to publish any product information there for press and potential customers. Amazingly, this often affects the biggest developers, possibly because they have large Web sites where making changes might involve layers of bureaucracy and coordination between different departments. But making sure your Web site is updated is important - if a potential customer sees a product announcement, either via a press release or in a publication, and can't find more information on your Web site, you've lost a sale. Everyone who's built a Web page knows that a good one takes more than twenty minutes to throw together, so plan your Web site updates as part of your product release process. Don't think you can do it a few days later: by then your product is no longer hot news, and most publications won't print information twice because you left something out the first time. The days when such tactics were crafty ways to get more press are long gone. These days, such tactics merely irritate journalists, which never helps your coverage. Your Web site should also include an up-to-date archive of all your press releases. Publications work on varying schedules, and to ensure optimal coverage, you need to have information available both immediately and a week or month later for print magazine articles and in-depth reviews. **Three: Not Describing the Product** -- Have you ever visited the Web site for a hot new product and still had no idea what the product did? Some people might feel that way your product. I've noted two related sins of omission in product descriptions. The first is buzzword hell, a spiritual location reserved for companies that throw jargon around instead of providing a clear and concise description of what the product does. The goal of your announcement should be primarily to inform, and only secondarily to impress. Your product should do all the impressing. The second sin of omission is one of familiarity. Don't assume everyone already knows what your product does. Provide clear descriptions of your product's purpose and functions that are understandable to people who have never heard of your product - even if it's been around for 15 years. Creators of highly technical or specialized products may argue that they must speak the language of their target market, and that's true - announcements for a product like Mathematica shouldn't leave out details of new advanced mathematical capabilities. However, the announcement shouldn't assume everyone knows Mathematica is "a system for doing mathematics by computer." After all, the strongest brand names are not always descriptive. Think Q-Tips, Coca-Cola, and Macintosh: if you'd never heard of them, would you know that they were cotton swabs, a soft drink, and a computer? You need to strike a balance between describing changes and describing the product itself. **Four: Not Describing Changes** -- Many developers include great overall product descriptions but seem to think the words "release notes" are an ancient Sanskrit infertility curse. It doesn't matter how minor you think a release is: you must include release notes with a product update, even if it only fixes one bug. Release notes don't require mind-numbing detail. Every product release includes minor and obscure bug fixes that are difficult to describe in user-level documentation. But if a bug affects more than a couple of users, you should describe the bug in the update itself _and_ on your Web pages - you waste everyone's time and bandwidth when you force users to download a huge update to find out what it fixes. By publishing quality release notes, the press will be able to tell your customers why they should care about the update, customers will know whether the update applies to them, and users who previously gave up on your product might try it again. Hardware developers are, to me, an enigma wrapped in a mystery. With the explosion of USB and FireWire devices (plus the now- standard PCI cards), new drivers are released literally every day - and almost none of them have any release notes. Lack of information never produces good upgrade decisions - you can't make users upgrade, and they won't waste their time downloading a 2 MB archive unless they know it will fix a problem. And if you don't describe your updates in release notes, your technical support staff will have to do so on the phone, which costs you money. **Five: Not Revealing the Price** -- You're probably laughing, but this sin is rampant and especially distressing to reporters, who must include pricing information in most stories. Don't think that failing to publish a price helps in any way. If you can't look someone in the eye and explain why your product is worth every penny, you've set the wrong price. You need to lower the price until you can justify it, or enhance either the product or your knowledge of how people use it until you can justify your price. Pricing software or hardware based on what you need to earn, rather than its worth to your customers, will get you in trouble every time. Commercial developers who distribute products through resellers might hesitate to mention a price because pricing may vary by vendor; developers don't want to undercut local stores or force them to match direct pricing. There's a solution: the time-honored "retail price." By publishing a clearly identified retail price, commercial developers can clue in both customers and the press that the product will typically cost less than that amount. Developers can also speak in terms of a "street price," and people will understand this means the product can be found for about that price at most retailers. The main page for your product's Web site should either clearly mention the price, or link to a page that has the price. Don't hide it, and don't make people chase after it. **Six: Too Many Releases** -- Remember when there was no Internet? News of major new releases was spread by advertising and editorial coverage in print magazines, and sometimes by direct mail. Campaigns were carefully planned to maximize the appeal of the new product. The Web changed all that. If you find a bug and fix it, you can post a new version on your Web site at any time, drop a note to various daily publications, and have your update on tens of thousands of systems in a couple of days. This is a definite improvement, making it easier to release frequent updates. However, just because you can doesn't mean you should. There are excellent programs that commit none of the first five sins but have multiple new releases per week. I've watched a certain network game go from version 1.5.2 to version 1.8.4 in a month and a day - sixteen releases in thirty-two days. This short-changes everyone. Not even your most dedicated customers want to download a new version of your product three times a week. What's more, you cease to be news: releasing new versions too quickly overloads the information industry upon which you rely to spread word of the changes. **Seven: No Product, Just Hype** -- Sometimes developers distribute flamboyant releases implying a product is available, but when users (and the press) get to the product's Web page they find tiny text indicating the product will be available "this fall" or at some point in the future. Congratulations: the goodwill and genuine interest garnered by your announcement has turned to irritation and suspicion. If your product is guaranteed to be available when someone receives your announcement, clearly say so in your release and detail where to find the product. If you're announcing that your product _will_be_ available in the future, clearly say so and state when users can expect to download and/or purchase your product. Don't use seasonal phrases like "this fall" which only apply to one hemisphere. Failing to distinguish between a product release and a product announcement can be disastrous: potential customers will distrust you, and the industry press will treat your future releases with skepticism. **Improving the World, One Product at a Time** -- Ralph Waldo Emerson knew about releasing software. "A foolish consistency," he wrote, "is the hobgoblin of little minds." In truth, little here is carved in stone. For instance, your product may need frequent public updates because of its special nature: failing to give the level of service your customers need because some writer thinks you're publishing too many updates is not a winning trade-off. If you disagree with any of these suggestions and you can back up your viewpoint with solid reasoning, then you're right by definition. Only you know your business. Don't cling doggedly to dogma when your business or customers demand flexibility. Avoiding these sins may sound like a lot of work. Don't despair. The time you invest up front will make things easier on your customers and on the members of the press, who help unite you with those customers. And it's not as hard as it looks. Don't forget - people want to use your products. That's why you spent so much time creating them. Don't lose your audience at the last minute by hiding information they need: what your product does, how much it costs, where to get more information, and what's new. Tell people what they need to know the first time: you won't have to answer the same questions repeatedly, and potential customers can evaluate your product, instead of searching for other solutions because they couldn't tell whether your product would fill their needs. That alone should be enough reason to ditch bad release habits. [Matt Deatherage is a former Apple Developer Technical Support engineer who has published articles in magazines like develop and MacAddict. He is the CEO of GCSF, Incorporated, publisher of MWJ, the Weekly Journal for Serious Macintosh Users. He is busily preparing for the return of the daily journal MDJ, plus other surprises. You can learn more about MWJ and check out a free three-issue trial subscription below.] $$ 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. This file is formatted as setext. For more information send email to . A file will be returned shortly. For information: how to subscribe, where to find back issues, and more, email . TidBITS ISSN 1090-7017. Send comments and editorial submissions to: Back issues available at: And: Full text searching available at: -------------------------------------------------------------------