MW2005--Hands-On Report 3, Walkin' the Expo Floor

This is our final report of the best of the things that we got to see and try during the Macworld Expo 2005 in San Francisco--see Reports 1 and 2. Because of the compressed space, we were able to pass by every booth as we walked the show floor for one and a half days. Unfortunately, we were unable to stop at every booth that appeared to have something new that might intrigue us and our readers. It would take three days solid to do that. However, we did see a lot of great Mac stufff and were able to stop at and check out about 70 per cent that appeared to fit our interest criteria. Here is our third and final report.

Sonance showed us their newest version of iPort with supporft for iPod photo and with expanded control capability. The iPort (not the serial port made by Griffin Technology for the first iMac) is an in-wall-mounted docking station for the 4G click-wheel iPods, including the iPod photo and iPod mini. It is made from polished ABS plastic and looked modernistic and attractive to us. The iPort provides video output from iPod photo, as well as audio output, to display photos and slide shows on TVs as well as to play music over home entertainment systems. The enhanced remote control allows one to control almost all of the iPod functions with the additional NaviPod receiver. The iPort has a DC power supply that charges an iPod when docked. The iPort sells for $598 and will be available with video output in February.

Corriente Networks demoed their new Wi-Fi network security software, Elektron. It provides RADIUS services to make wireless networks of small businesses more secure. Elektron, thus, allows small businesses to have the same high security as large enterprise businesses with:

• Authentication--Lets network administrators control who is able to access the network on a person-by-person basis.
  
• Encryption--Prevents eavesdropping of network communications while data is in transit, even from other legitimate users.
  
• Logging--Shows who is trying to access the network, and when.

Elektron software installs on any Mac on the network to serve as a RADIUS authentication server. It installs easily using the Mac OS X installer. A Setup Assistant walks one through the configuration process which appeared to be very simple and straight forward to us. The AirPort Express or Extreme Base Station is then set for WPA Enterprise security rather than WEP or WPA Personal. When a Mac tries to connect wirelessly, a simple dialog box prompt for a username and password is presented. If it is the first time, the certificate sent by the Elektron RADIUS server must be authenticated by accepting the certificate.

Elektron looked simple enough to us and we look forward to trying it out on our global headquarters AirPort Extreme network. Elektron is available now for $299.99 and runs on and supports both Mac OS X and Windows XP clients. Most RADIUS solutions cost thousabnds of dollars and do not run on Mac OS X. A 30-day demo version is also available for a free trial.

Griffin Technology showed us a host of new electronic accessories and devices: XpressStand, SmartDeck, AirClick, BlueTrip, FireWave, RocketFM, TuneJuice, Dock800 and Lapel Mic. Griffin Technology has been making really cool accessories for the Mac since their iPort serial port for the original iMac--we have a bunch. The XpressStand is a $25 dock with power cord for Apple's AirPort Express. The $25 SmartDeck Intelligent Cassette Adapter, our favorite this year, allows users to control their iPod using the built in controls of their cassette player. AirClick and AirClickUSB are $40 radio frequency remote controllers for the iPod, iPod mini and a Mac. BlueTrip is a $149 wireless transmitter and receiver for broadcasting CD-quality audio from an iPod to a home stereo. FireWave is a $100 FireWire accessory that brings 5.1 Surround Sound to any FireWire-enabled Mac. RocketFM is a $40 wireless solution for broadcasting Mac audio applications to any FM radio. TuneJuice is a $20 battery backup for the iPod and iPod mini that uses a single 9-volt battery to provide up to 8 hours of additional power to any dockable iPod. Dock800 is a $15 FireWire 800 cable (rather than FireWire 400) to attach your iPod to a Mac's FireWire 800 port. Lapel Mic is a $15 multipurpose lapel microphone offering quality stereo audio input for recording interviews, lectures and other events--with an iPod equipped with the Griffin iTalk voice recorder it instantly becomes a mobile recording unit. It is shipping now and the others will ship in the first or second quarter of 2005.

ATI displayed its brand new Radeon X800 XT Mac Edition graphics card that is not shipping just yet. Early reviews of pre-production units show that the X800 XT is a bit faster than the Nvidia GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL graphics card for 3D gaming. The Nvidia card is an Apple OEM card made expressly for Apple's new 30" Cinema Display. It can run two of the 30" displays while the ATI card can run just one plus any other monitor. As we have noted before, the X800 is a "regular" size graphics card while the Nvidia is huge, taking up the full length of the AGP/PCI slot bay in a Power Mac G5. The X800 only takes up the AGP slot while the Nvidia also cover the adjacent PCI slot. As such, the ATI X800 exhausts heat back forward into the Power Mac while the Nvidia pushes the heated air towards a vent out the back. We used the ATI Radeon X800 XT to play Halo and the speed and visual experience is just outstanding. The reviews show that the Radeon X800 handles heavy FSAA and Anisotropic filtering much faster than the Nvidia card. The ATI representative told Macs Only! that their Radeon X800 XT Mac Edition would go out to their distribution channel this coming week. We look forward to getting our hands on a production unit of this $499 gem.

The Gaming Area was at the far west end of the Moscone Center's South Hall. Four game publisher's had booths: Feral Interactive, Freeverse, Aspyr and MacSoft. There were also a few smaller game manufacturers sprinkled among the Power Macs set up for demoing. The game competition area consisted of 16 Power Mac G5s with 30" Apple Cinema Displays. The game demonstration area consisted of 24 Power Mac G5s with 20" Apple Cinema Displays and 12 20" iMac G5s, 36 computers in all for demoing. Surprisingly, during our short visits to the area, one could readily get to a Power Mac or iMac to try out a game. But, unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to do so for the many games on display. The games set up for display on the Power Mac G5s are: Star Wars KOTOR, MTX Mototrax, Command and Conquer Generals, Command and Conquer Generals Xero Hour, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, True Crime Streets of LA, Homeworld 2, Call of Duty United Offensive, ShineBug, GameHouse Games, Gooball, Robin Hood, Railroad Tycoon 3, Macintosh Board Game Trio: Monopoly, Scrabble & Risk 2, Atari Arcade Classics: Pong, Centipede & Breakout, Rise of Nations Gold Edition, Ford Racing 2, Redline Racing, Disney Presents Pixar Film's The Incredibles, X-Plane FA/18: OIF, World of Warcraft (2 Power Mac stations), Myst iV: Revolution and Dark Horizons: Lore. Those set up on the iMac G5s are: I Spy Spook Mansion: I Spy Fantasy, SpongeBob SquarePants Rockin' Rabbit Learning System, Kid Pix Deluxe 3X: ClueFinder, Dr. Seuss ABC Thinkin' Things, Dora the Explorer and Blues Clues, Disney Presents Pixar Film's The Incredibles: When Danger Calls, Preschool/Kindergarten, Jump Start, Mia's Adventure Series Didi and Ditto, Learn to Play Chess 2, Airburst Extreme and Chessmaster 9000.

That wraps up our reports from the Macworld Expo 2005 show floor. There was so much to see and we wish we had enough time to spend some with each of the 280 (IDG's number) vendors. Maybe next year.... [Bill Fox]