Making Nets With Mac-nificent Ease
The Age
Monday April 21, 1997
NO COMPANY worth its salt today can be without an intranet to handle in logical fashion the tidal waves of information with which we all now have to deal. And, if you want an intranet, the easiest way to set one up is to use an Apple Macintosh. That's the message being spread around the country now by Apple Australia's restructured and rejuvenated national marketing teams.
The show, called Easy Rider (remember, we're taking you on to the information superhighway) was in Melbourne last Tuesday and is in Sydney today (Tuesday) playing to selected senior business executives. Also, (keep remembering, this time the film, Easy Rider with Peter Fonda), attendees have the chance to win a Harley Davidson, complete with Apple logo.
The Easy Rider roadshow is the first of a series Apple has in the pipeline to lead its new, much more aggressive salesmanship in Australia. Apple now sees itself as a sharp niche player in several areas but particularly in business intranet and Internet solutions.
The roadshow has so far played to more than 1000 executives in three state capitals, about 70 per cent of them non-Apple users. All of those to whom I spoke in Melbourne knew they had to set up an intranet for their company. Some had them, but wanted to see if Apple could help them with improvements and cost-cutting. Some were aiming at an Internet presence but worried about cost.
They had heard that most of the world's Web authoring is done on Apple machines. At Easy Rider they saw how it was done by companies such as Optus, Phillips Fox, the nationwide legal firm and the Queensland Police.
The general idea Apple is pushing is that, with Macintosh hardware and software, you don't need to hire a rocket scientist to establish and maintain a good intranet or Web site. Some of the software, like WebStar and Myrmidon, is now so good that almost all the real work is handled automatically by the computer.
Also, says Apple, intranets and the Net itself are platform-neutral. A company may be up to its armpits in Windows/IBM machinery, but Macintosh Internet authoring solutions will fit into the network with the greatest of ease, said Marcher.
Apple backed up the show with a Web site for the Acme Fruit and Nut Company, (www.acmefruit.apple.com.au) some instructional handbooks and two CD-ROMs, one of which showed how the Web site was built and the other of authoring hardware and software.
Point the way
PointCast, the online screensaver that brings news and other information to your screen when you're not actually hitting the keys, is now available for the Macintosh.
Inevitably, the content is all American, but it is none the less informative and it's free.
If you have a Power Macintosh you may download the software from www.pointcast.com/download/dwnmac.html and follow the installation instructions. If you have a 68K Mac, you'll have to wait a little bit longer. PointCast says it should be on the Web before June.
The Mac version of PointCast offers eight new channels, including CNN, Wired , New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe , Miami Herald , the Mercury News site and Health.
Take a letter, Mac
A new version of Dragon Power-Secretary, a speed recognition dictation solution for the Macintosh operating system, has just been released in the US.
The new version, dubbed 2.0.7, is now compatible with most Macs and PowerBooks and is said to deliver improved recognition accuracy at lower prices. PowerSecretary is based on DragonDictate, the Windows software which has been on the market for some time, and comes in three editions. The Power edition is designed to work with any standard Macintosh application, has a 60,000 word active vocabulary and a 120,000 word integrated dictionary.
The Personal editions are designed to be used with single applications such as WordPerfect, ClarisWorks, FilemakerPro or MS Word and the MED edition is specifically for doctors, nurses and others in the healthcare business.
Version 2.0.7, apparently very much improved over earlier releases, is due on to the Australian market this week.
© 1997 The Age