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From: David.Anderson@CMU-CS-G.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Mac Review
Message-ID: <15932@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 31-Jan-84 00:24:00 EST
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.15932
Posted: Tue Jan 31 00:24:00 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 3-Feb-84 02:48:07 EST
Lines: 100

CMU announced today a super price for the MacIntosh:  $1050 for students
and employees.  I went to a dealer to check it out, and here are some
facts and some observations.

FACTS

The basic Mac has these features and sells for $2495 retail:

	o 68000 at just under 8 MHz
	o 128K ram, 64K rom
	o 9 inch 512 x 342 b/w screen
	o built-in 400K 3.5 inch floppy + port for an external drive
	o rs232 port (both serial ports have 9-pin connectors)
	o rs422 port (up to nearly 1M bps)
	o 4 voice audio, sampled at 22 kHz
	o built-in speaker + audio port in back
	o clock/calendar with battery backup
	o detached keyboard
	o optical one-button mouse
	o MacWrite and MacPaint software
	o 9.7 x 10.9 x 13.5 inches, about 18 pounds (w/ recessed handle)
	o no fan or expansion slots

The ROM has some nice features, such as a built-in alarm clock,
calculator, and other system utilities.

These options will be available in the near future (perhaps some are
available now):

	o a cute padded carrying case
	o Imagewriter Printer (uses the rs232 port)
	o 300 baud or 300/1200 baud smart modems (use the rs422 port)
	o external disk drive
	o numeric keypad
	o security kit (for locking your Mac to your desk)

OBSERVATIONS (mixed with facts)

At the discounted price, this is a fantastic machine.  I was able to
sit and play with one for about an hour and a half (amazingly enough,
there were very people there to check it out).  I was particularly
impressed by the speed -- the MacIntosh is a good bit faster than the
Lisa, and it definitely shows in some of the graphics.  The software
available seems to be very well thought out and easy to learn and to
use.  My major complaint about the hardware is that the screen is kind
of small (9 inch) and the resolution only just adequate for these
applications.  The keyboard felt nice, but seemed perhaps just a wee
bit cramped -- AND THERE IS NO CONTROL KEY.  There are 3 keys that the
hardware can use as "shift" keys, but none of them is in the right
place for a control key (they put the CAPS LOCK key there).

Another serious problem is the lack of software.  About 100 companies
have had Macs to use for some time now, and their software should be
out very soon.  At least it had better be.  The brochure acts as though
some of the following programs are already available(*), while the
others are currently being developed:

	from Apple:

		MacWrite (*)
		MacPaint (*) (these are standard)
		a font editor (*) (my dealer had this, it may be standard)
		MacDraw
		MacProject (*)
		MacTerminal (*)
		Classcal programming development system (shown in brochure)

	from MicroSoft:
	
		Multiplan (shown in brochure)
		Chart (shown in brochure)
		File
		Word

	others:
		Lotus 1-2-3
		PFS: filer

MacWrite is very nice, but can only be used to create documents up to
about 6 pages in length.  Serious work will demand something better.
It is easy to clip figures from MacPaint and put them into documents,
and a wide variety of fonts (about 10), sizes (9 to 72 points) and
styles (italic, bold, underline, outline, shadow) can be used.  They
are shown properly on the screen (although switching fonts incurs a
noticeable disk access), and anything you can create can be printed on
the new Imagewriter printer.  The sample printout I saw looked very
nice.  The screen can handle about 24x80 with the smallest fonts, but
when I played with some of the larger sizes I felt like I wasn't seeing
too much on the screen (perhaps 8-10 lines).

There are many other impressive features, but I'll leave it here.  This
is much more computer than the Apple ][ or the PCjr, but I am
uncomfortable comparing it to the IBM-PC and other "serious"?
micro-computers (the impossibility of adding a hard disk would seem to
eliminate a Unix clone, for instance).  Expandability to 512K with 256K
chips is apparently a possibility, but I've heard no details.  The
MacIntosh may revolutionize the industry, but at $2495 with little
software we're left waiting for more.

--david