Scott Sheppard takes a lighthearted look at what's new and exciting in the world of the Macintosh computer in this one-hour weekly radio show. From the digital hub to the den of the Panther operating system, Scott is always on top of what is happening in the world of Macintosh and has his finger on the pulse of the industry. With a tasty serving of news, reviews, information, and interviews, Inside Mac is all Mac, all the time, and one of the unique tech shows on radio today.

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Inside Mac - November 1st 2003

Listen / Download the November 1st, 2003 Show

Lydia Varmazis - Senior Product Manager - Adobe Illustrator CS

Lydia Varmazis is a senior product manager for the Creative Professional Business Unit at Adobe Systems and is tasked with developing products and business strategies for the Draw and Illustration market segment. With over 15 years of electronic publishing experience, Varmazis held several sales support management and print production positions in the industry prior to joining Adobe. During her six-year tenure at Adobe, Varmazis has worked in product management for several software applications including Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Illustrator, and Print Production OEM Technologies

Adobe Illustrator CS Features 3D Effects, Refined Typography and Lightning Performance

Expanded Print Capabilities and Enhanced Adobe PDF Support Round Out Major Upgrade to Industry Standard Vector Graphics Software

-- Adobe Systems Incorporated, the leader in network publishing, today announced Adobe Illustrator CS, a major upgrade to the industry standard for vector graphics for print, the Web, and other media. Available as a key component of the Adobe Creative Suite (also announced today) or as a stand-alone software application, Adobe Illustrator CS includes powerful new design tools, enhanced Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) support, new print capabilities and wholesale performance improvements that speed up everyday tasks and take advantage of advances in hardware and operating systems.

"As the 'go to' application for graphics and illustration, Adobe Illustrator CS plays a critical role in the all-new Adobe Creative Suite," said Jim Heeger, senior vice president of Creative Professional Products at Adobe. "From its rich feature set and reliable production tools, to its advanced integration with other Adobe products, Adobe Illustrator CS is more efficient in creating and producing compelling graphics, whether you are designing a Web site or producing a stunning design for print."

New Creative Options

Adobe Illustrator CS introduces innovative features including support for 3D Effects and the new Scribble Effect. The 3D Effects in Illustrator CS makes it easy to add 3D elements to any project by transforming type or any object into a 3D shape and providing unique design options, including Extrude, Bevel, Revolve and Artwork Mapping. Adobe Illustrator CS also includes the new live Scribble Effect, which gives a loose hand-drawn look to any image.

"With Illustrator CS, we can work more creatively than ever by incorporating design elements such as live 3D and raster effects," said Darren Neely, graphic systems analyst, GEAR For Sports, Inc. "At the same time, Illustrator CS will increase our efficiency. Performance is faster, integration with other Adobe tools is tighter than ever, and we can more easily set up, customize, and reuse our designs."

Essential Text Design Tools

A new unicode-based Type technology in Illustrator CS makes the product more powerful, more intuitive and more flexible than previous versions. Numerous text enhancements, headlined by the new OpenType palette, provide professional typography features, such as alternate glyph replacement, swash characters and small type. Paragraph and character styles help format text to keep a consistent look throughout a document, while Automatic Ligatures and Smart Quotes set standard typographical treatment throughout a document to ensure a professional appearance. Illustrator CS also includes the Adobe Every-line Composer, a unique composition technology shared with Adobe Photoshop CS which allows text to be edited across applications.

New Efficient Workflows

Adobe Illustrator CS provides options that allow users to move Illustrator content into other components of the Adobe Creative Suite, including Adobe InDesign CS and Adobe Photoshop CS, with ease. A new printing interface ensures fast, reliable printed results. Enhanced Adobe PDF support and advanced integration with Adobe Acrobat 6.0 ensures Illustrator CS will support PDF 1.5, including PDF layers. An innovative Save for Microsoft Office feature allows users to quickly export professional graphics into Microsoft-authored documents.

Illustrator CS delivers wholesale performance improvements: printing; displaying large files; managing files with multiple layers; and saving and exporting artwork in native, print and web file formats are significantly faster than previous versions. Additionally, Illustrator CS takes advantage of technology advances on both the Windows and Macintosh platforms, including optimizations for Apple's new PowerMac G5 systems.

Pricing and Availability

Adobe Illustrator CS for Mac OS X 10.2.4 and is expected to be available in the fourth (calendar) quarter of 2003 to customers in the United States and Canada through Adobe Authorized Resellers and the Adobe Store at http://www.adobe.com/store. Estimated street price for the full version will be US$499 for all platforms. Registered users of any version of Adobe Illustrator can upgrade to Illustrator CS for only US$169. Users of CorelDraw or Macromedia FreeHand can purchase Adobe Illustrator CS for the Adobe Store price of US$349. For more detailed information about new features and upgrade policies for Adobe Illustrator CS, please visit:

About Adobe Systems Incorporated

Founded in 1982, Adobe Systems Incorporated (www.adobe.com), the leader in network publishing, offers a comprehensive line of software for enterprise and creative professional customers. Its products enable customers to create, manage and deliver visually rich, compelling and reliable content. Based in San Jose, Calif., Adobe is one of the world's largest software companies.

Boinx Software's iRecordNow 1.0
Turn your iSight into a digital camcorder. Slick UI, easy to use, and fun for making digital movies with Apple's iSight camera. This little, useful application is priced right at $14.95.
http://www.irecordnow.com/

Y-E Data's USB 2X Floppy Drive
For all educators and folks that need to transferring files (specially if not connected to a network). This floppy drive is twice the speed of conventional ones.
http://www.yedata.com

Belkin's Voice Recorder for iPod
Need to transcribe a note on the go with your iPod? Copy recordings to your G5 or PowerBook for storage, editing, or sending to others via e-mail. This Voice Recorder also works as a travel alarm clock.
http://www.belkin.com

Scott Sheppard - Executive Producer / Host

Scott Sheppard is the founder and editor of the popular Macintosh Web Site, http://www.OSXFAQ.com He is also a monthly Contributing Editor to Macworld UK magazine and produces a daily audio broadcast of Mac news and information on Inside Mac Radio.

Scott Sheppard previously hosted the Inside Mac Show broadcast by CNET radio.

Scott has been using Apple computers for more than 25 years, as well as spending many years as a Wintel user, giving him the unique perspective of having spent a lot of time on both sides of the computer fence.

Sam Levin - Co Host & Senior Mac Technologist

Sam Co-Founded the Stanford Mac Users' Group in 1985, and has worked with leading Macintosh developers on business development, licensing, and strategic market development. Sam Directed licensing initiatives for leading entertainment companies such as Virgin Interactive, Broderbund, and Mattel.

Sam has worked with numerous Mac companies such as: Aladdin, Apple, Broderbund, Connectix, IBM Multimedia, IXLA, Jiiva, Keyspan, Microsoft, MYOB, Meilenstein, Fathom Pictures, LandWare, Mattel, Nova Development, Totally Hip Software, Y-E Data and more.

Christian Pickman - Producer

Christian Pickman is the producer of Inside Mac and he brings 5 years of radio experience to the show. He is the guy you talk to when you call in, so be nice to him !!!!

Greg Douglas - Director of Network Operations

Gregory Douglas has fifteen years of experience in the radio, television and computer- related areas. He was the Director of Network Operations for Personal Achievement Radio, which included responsibilities for the production, operation and distribution of the "PAR" format. As the primary individual in charge of the on-air sound for "PAR", Mr. Douglas interacted with the motivational authors, Nightingale-Conant, ABC Radio Networks, PAR O & O's and affiliates and the broadcast talent. He pioneered the transition to digital for the flagship PAR studios. In addition, Mr. Douglas was M.I.S. Manager for Douglas Broadcasting Inc. where he was responsible for the traffic and business computer functions as well as the computer networking of DBI/PAR radio outlets.

Previously, he was the General Manager of DBI's Seattle operation and Station Manager at WBPS-AM in Boston. Also, Mr. Douglas has been involved in almost all areas of broadcasting, including traffic, business, engineering, production and sales.