There are a bunch of features that I haven't mentioned yet that many people will find extremely helpful. I don't much use them, but that doesn't imply that they aren't good
One of the wonderful things about networks is that they allow a lot of people to create a lot of information and share it with everyone else. One of the bad things about networks is that with so much information on the network, it often becomes almost impossible to back it all up in a coherent fashion
The manual that comes with Retrospect is quite well done, and offers in-depth discussions of all of the features provided. The manual works through each main process (backup, archive, restore, and retrieve) so that you can be up and running with basic usage quickly
Retrospect is not perfect, although Dantz did a good job of making the program extremely stable. One weak spot is the Retro.Prep file that Retrospect creates in your System Folder to keep track of scripts and selections and the like
As far as the company goes, most of the news is highly positive. I and all other registered users received version 1.3 free without asking for it before System 7 was released
Stephan Bublava writes, "I think I have found the hidden feature of HyperCard 2.1 (regarding report printing): Just choose "Print Report..." from the File menu with the option key down
Yay! I finally upgraded to System 7 golden a few days ago. I'd been messing around with one of the beta versions for a while, but that ended when I destroyed my hard disk briefly trying to recover some space from a partition using a version of Silverlining that didn't support System 7 disks
Videoconferencing is one of those nice ideas that has never much caught on because it's so pricey. However, with the terrorist scare during the Gulf unpleasantness, lots of executive types suddenly didn't feel too much like flying, evidently placing a fairly high price on their lives since they turned to videoconferencing in droves
Apple's Compatibility Checker erroneously claimed that John Norstad's incredibly popular virus checking utility, Disinfectant, was up to version 2.5. However, Norstad, ever the nice guy, decided to give Disinfectant a small update to make Apple feel better, so now we have a real Disinfectant 2.5
A large number of people on the nets have reported that the shareware utility MaxAppleZoom has died, although others have yet to notice any ill effects
This is embarrassing. After I wrote a nice article about the Help! application from Teknosys, I discovered that I misspelled the company's name consistently throughout the article
DiskDoubler 3.7 is now shipping to registered users. This version provides System 7 compatibility (including balloon help) and a few additional new features that should increase its popularity
Color printers are neat but still saddled with major problems. For me at least, the main problems are price, quality, and speed. Two companies, Tektronix and Dataproducts, should be addressing these problems soon with some plain-paper color printers that use solid wax transfer
With the exception of printers, Apple's peripherals usually elicit snickers among those who have an idea of what computer equipment should cost. The best examples of this were the Apple modems (which have been dropped) and the Apple hard drives, which are now being dropped from the price lists The only Apple external drive that will remain is the 80 MB one, and that's probably because A/UX comes on it
Or maybe that title should be "Apple Sees Blue." Either way, the result is the same. Apple and IBM have been sneaking off into the broom closet to make deals recently