They finally did it! While watching the Drew Carry show on February 5th, I was overjoyed to see Apple’s latest television ad. By now I'm sure you have all either seen the ad yourself or read about it on-line, but for those who haven't, here's a brief description:
 
A snail carrying an Intel Pentium II processor
on its back slowly slimes its way across
the screen to the accompaniment of slow,
drippy music. Then we hear the voice-over:
“Some people think the Pentium II is the
fastest processor in the world. Not quite.
The chip inside every new Power Macintosh G3
is up to twice as fast”. This is followed by the Apple logo, and then the “Think Different” slogan.
Bravo, Apple! I'm so happy to see this kind of “Let’s get ‘em!” attitude! Bringing back Chit/Daily was a brilliant move, and it will be these types of commercials that will bring back former customers, reel in new ones, and keep the faithful proud! I've been harping about the lack of great advertising from Apple for years now, but it appears Apple has finally found a way to shut me up!
(Tim)
No More Claris...
The big news at the start of February was that Apple was closing its Claris Corporation down and bringing it in-house. In turn, a new Apple-owned company was being formed from its ashes and assets and would be named FileMaker, Inc.
When I first learned of this, I was taken aback a little. I have no real opinion on it (there's a first!) but a few things did come to mind. My first concern was that FileMaker Pro would continue to be supported with future development. With FileMaker Inc., that seems to be a given. However, I was distressed to learn that Apple had first shopped FileMaker Pro around a bit in an effort to sell it. Apparently both Oracle and Microsoft were approached with the idea. Fortunately, neither company was interested enough to entertain the offer.
For those who have never used FileMaker Pro, you should know that it's a great program and the second best selling database program after Microsoft's Excel, and has a devoted following (I'm one of them). In my humble opinion, it would have been a grave mistake for Apple to let go of FileMaker. I'm glad to see it will survive under the care of its original developer company.
(Tim)
What about ClarisWorks?
With Claris Corporation gone, will ClarisWorks continue to be developed? From early looks at Microsoft’s latest Office update (Office 98 for Macintosh) I think many Mac users will very soon be buying this product in droves. (Early prediction: Office ‘98 will be the best selling Mac program this year) Does ClarisWorks have any hope of competing? If so, will they keep the ClarisWorks name, or will Apple use a long abandoned name... Appleworks?
My own opinion is that if Apple is going to keep developing ClarisWorks, it should change the name to something that better reflects its new position within the Apple company.
(Tim)
Online Army Knife Update
Back in November, 1997 (#31), I reviewed Online Army Knife version 1.3, an outstanding spelling checker. I just wanted to let you know that Randy Brandt, co-developer of OAK, has let me know that the latest version, OAK 1.4, will be available mid-March. You can check out the latest info on JEM Software at <www.jemsoftware.com>.
