Whatever the excuse, our last issue was plagued by error daemons. Unlike our more staid, paper-based counterparts, when we make a mistake, we admit it freely and explain the problem

CE's popular electronic mail package will see some significant enhancements when version 2.5 ships this summer. Perhaps the most important change, at least for those of us who must deal with non-AppleTalk networks, is support for AppleTalk Filing Protocol (AFP) compatible networks, such as Novell Netware, 3Com's 3+ Open, Microsoft's LAN Manager, DEC's PCSA, and Banyan VINES

Back in November, we claimed that Apple was going to come out with a cheap ink-jet printer this spring, and it's looking more and more like we were right (in this business you have to take these minor victories where you can get them)

by Ken Hancock -- [email protected] -- khancock on AOL With all the recent hubbub regarding the various file compressors, I thought it was well past time for a review and comparison of the leaders: StuffIt, Compactor (now Compact Pro), and DiskDoubler. Before I begin, let's lay down the foundation used for the timing tests: All tests were done on a Macintosh SE/30 with 8 MB memory, running 6.0.7 under Finder on a Wren IV drive

Best Compression - Binaries % saved %/min efficiency StuffIt Deluxe 2.0 "Best Guess" 42.3 7.11 Compactor 41.94% 13.90 StuffIt Classic 1.6 "Best Guess" 41.94% 5.67 DiskDoubler 3.1 "Method B" 35.34% 11.91 Best Compression - Graphics % saved %/min efficiency Compactor 55.66% 11.80 StuffIt Deluxe 2.0 "Best Guess" 55.10% 8.59 StuffIt Classic 1.6 "Best Guess" 54.33% 7.12 DiskDoubler 3.1 "Method B" 51.09% 19.52 Best Compression - Text % saved %/min efficiency Compactor 53.98% 87.54 StuffIt Deluxe 2.0 "Best Guess" 52.59% 24.85 StuffIt Classic 1.6 "Best Guess" 52.15% 27.94 DiskDoubler 3.1 "Method A" 51.41% 140.2

Best Efficiency - Binaries %/min efficiency % saved DiskDoubler 3.1 "Method A" 18.21 25.19% StuffIt Deluxe 2.0 "Faster" 14.62 13.89% Compactor 13.90 41.94% DiskDoubler 3.1 "Method B" 11.91 35.34% Best Efficiency - Graphics %/min efficiency % saved DiskDoubler 3.1 "Method A" 39.15 47.63% StuffIt Deluxe 2.0 "Faster" 34.95 33.20% StuffIt Classic 1.6 "Fast" 28.34 49.13% StuffIt 1.5.1 "Try both" 25.51 48.47% Best Efficiency - Text %/min efficiency % saved DiskDoubler 3.1 "Method A" 140.21 51.41% Compactor 87.54 53.98% DiskDoubler 3.1 "Method B" 83.22 48.54% DiskDoubler 3.1 "Smallest" 71.74

At least a few people out there want to decompress files for some strange reason and might be interested in how fast the various compression programs do this

Compactor, a relatively recent introduction into the compression world from Bill Goodman, takes the simple approach: easy, fast, and compact. In all of the trials, Compactor files were never more than 1% larger than StuffIt Deluxe's "Better"/"Best Guess" modes, but anywhere from 25% to 400% faster

I've been a big fan of StuffIt ever since Raymond Lau released it way back when. Before that, PackIt was the standard, and it didn't take long before everyone noticed that StuffIt was faster and better

DiskDoubler was the biggest surprise for me, probably because I was least familiar with it. When I ran the "Text" test on it, all I could say was "Wow." No wonder Apple decided that a site-license for it would be a good thing

The common denominator remains the old StuffIt 1.5.1 format, since all of the compression programs can expand 1.5.1 files (this is why we included a StuffIt 1.5.1 file in the decompression tests)

This item snuck in just a few minutes before our deadline. Apple announced today that a new, backlit version of the Macintosh Portable is available to order

Back in October, we mentioned that Apple was talking to the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) about opening up part of the radio spectrum and creating a new class of data communications,

Mitch Kapor's ON Technology gave up its grandiose idea of totally altering the look and feel of personal computing and instead came out with ON Location, a program that indexes hard disks for easy searching and retrieval of files

I'm not a terrific typist, although my typing speed has probably increased by at least 15 words per minutes since I've been writing TidBITS. Still, every now and then a mistake appears that I'm sure I'm not responsible for