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Apple Unveils iTools for Mac Fans Only

Site offers Web storage, e-mail, utilities; and Jobs shows OS X.

Michael Gowan, PC World

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Apple Computer is clearly planted in the Internet age, announcing a new suite of Web-based tools at Macworld Expo Monday--but the iTools goodies are only for the Mac faithful.

Demonstrated in a keynote address by Steve Jobs, chief executive officer, the Internet tools are available at Apple's Web site and feature a set of Web-based services and applications. They include Web-based storage, e-mail, and utilities, but you can only use them if you run the latest version of the Mac operating system, Mac OS 9.

Jobs also introduced an update to that operating system, due to ship later this year. Mac OS X has a new interface and several functions that resemble Microsoft Windows.

Web-Based and Mac-Friendly

The iTools suite is composed of four functions: iDisk, Mac.com, KidSafe, and HomePage. Handy for Mac users who work on multiple machines, iDisk gives you 20MB of space on Apple's servers, accessible via the Internet. You can drag and drop files directly from the iDisk icon on your desktop.

Mac.com offers Mac users an @mac.com e-mail address, and works with common e-mail clients. KidSafe, a different style of filtering software, lets users access Web sites only if they are in a database of 50,000 child-friendly sites. Finally, HomePage helps you build Web sites from templates, using pictures and movies you store in your iDisk space. Alas, you can only use these features if you're running Mac OS 9--Windows users need not apply.

The Apple site does offer two new features for all computer users, regardless of platform. The iReview section has star-ranked reviews of Web sites, and the iCard section is Apple's answer to Bluemountain.com: free electronic greeting cards and postcards. The online cards boast better graphics than most, and actually appear in an e-mail message, instead of requiring recipients to go to a particular URL to read the card.

Next Stop: OS X

In the first public showing of Mac OS X, Jobs showed "Aqua," the redesigned user interface. Its new features include semi-transparent pull-down menus, 3D buttons that pulse, and windows that open and close with a graphical, twisting "genie" effect. The updated Finder, the Mac OS's file navigation system, has shortcut buttons to often-accessed folders and drives. It replaces an open window with the next one you open, similar to Windows 98.

With its BSD Unix underpinnings, the new OS supports preemptive multitasking and protected memory--two key aspects of modern operating systems lacking in previous versions of the Mac OS. Windows 98 already supports protected memory, and Windows 2000 will add preemptive multitasking.

Apple will slowly roll out the new OS. A final beta is scheduled this spring. Apple will sell copies this summer, but won't ship Macs pre-loaded with OS X until January 2001. Mac OS X will run only on G3 and G4 computers. No pricing was available.

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