Macworld Expo: Walking the floor: Day 1: Dantz; Connectix; Alsoft; Creo; FileMaker; Roxio

Random notes from Day 1 of Macworld Expo:

Overall Every Expo, we take an unofficial estimate of the Expo's vital signs: How are the crowds? How many exhibitors are there? How much of the floor space is filled? How many new products are being announced and how exciting are they?

For this year, it seems almost certain that the number of exhibitors and the amount of floor space they consume is significantly down. The North Hall in particular has less overflow of "major vendors" than in previous years - and even part of the South Hall was partitioned off and not in use. Crowds remained strong. The start of the day seemed a bit quiet, but we had to remember that normally the opening day would get the spill over from the Keynote (which was yesterday of course).

One good sign: This is the first Expo where almost everything new that is being shown is for OS X. Even the Games Pavilion featured mainly games that run in OS X.

Dantz As it happened, the very first booth we stopped at was the Dantz booth. They were showing (and giving away copies of) a preview edition of Restrospect 5.0 for OS X (as we reported yesterday). It should be released before the end of this quarter. With this version, you will be able to restore a full bootable volume from a regular (non-root) login of OS X. You will also be able to replace files, even invisible Unix files, on an individual basis on the current startup volume. However, you will not be able to use this to downgrade to a previous OS version, as OS X itself will apparently block this.

Connectix At the Connectix booth, we asked about the Virtual PC for OS X performance degradation issue (mentioned in an item on today's OS X page). They confirmed it, adding that they are working with Apple to get this fixed. As it was explained to us, it will require an update to the OS that will allow Virtual PC to preempt the normal "rules" of preemptive multitasking - so that VPC can be assured of getting the CPU time it needs. Looks like VPC has confronted one of the disadvantages of a feature that is otherwise an improvement over how OS 9 works.

Alsoft Alsoft was showing a new OS X version of DiskWarrior. It is scheduled to ship before the end of this quarter. It does everything that the OS 9 version can do (including repairing OS 9 as well as OS X volumes), but it runs in OS X. It also adds new features to check on the integrity of your hard drive (if it reports problems, it means you should back up your date and replace your drive before it dies!).

Using DiskWarrior to fix hard links and make a volume bootable Alsoft also told us of a "hidden" benefit of DiskWarrior (even the current OS 9 version). If you try to make a duplicate of an OS X volume to a blank partition, it does not work. There are actually a couple of problems to overcome. You cannot do this from the Finder in OS 9, because it will not copy certain long file names correctly. You cannot do this from OS X's Finder, because it will not copy the essential Unix files. One possible solution is to use a utility, such as TinkerTool, to make all invisible files visible, and then copy from the Finder. We are not sure this will work, but it may. The problem is that, even if this works to copy all files (and even if you can use TinkerTool to make the normally invisible files invisible again), you still won't be able to boot from the volume because all the "hard links" are now incorrect. Here (finally!) is where DiskWarrior comes in: It will fix these hard links and make the volume bootable. Alsoft confirms, in a case where they used an AppleScript to copy all files from one volume to another, that using DiskWarrior allowed the volume to boot.

As with all OS X repair utilities, DiskWarrior cannot make repairs to the current OS X startup drive. To fix this volume, you will need to startup from the DiskWarrior CD - or another OS X volume. This prompted us to ask: Doesn't this present a problem for when Apple makes a minor update to the OS that then requires a minor update to DiskWarrior? In order for users to be able to use the new DiskWarrior, they will almost certainly want a new CD with the update on it - making a free Web download not nearly as viable a distribution method. The short answer to this question was "Yes, it's a problem." Of course, as we said, it is true for competing utilities as well.

Apple! Are you listening? What is needed to solve this startup/CD dilemma, we unilaterally decided, is a new utility (it would probably have to come from Apple; perhaps it could be incorporated into Disk Copy) that would work like this:

1. The utility first sets up to make a disk image of a bootable CD. The image will contain the needed software to be bootable, extracting the files from the version of OS X installed on your drive, and making modifications as needed.
2. You will then be told how much unused space is left on the disc. Within this restriction, you can select any self-contained (e.g., all needed files must be in its package) application to be added to the CD.
3. You then insert a blank CD into your CD-RW drive and click Burn. The utility then creates a bootable CD from the image with your selected applications on it. Plus, it creates a simple interface that launches on boot to allow you to select among the applications installed (much how the Installer application on the OS X CD can access Disk Utility from a menu).

This would at last allow users to create bootable repair CDs on their own.

Creo This new (to the Expo anyway) was showing an exciting new OS X-only application that is scheduled to ship at Macworld Expo in July. It's called Six Degrees. It's hard to describe exactly what it does, but we'll give it a try: it is constantly working in the background building and recording relationships among your files. So for example, if a friend (we'll call her Sally) mails you a jpeg as an email attachment, it will store this relationship. Suppose you move the file from the email attachment field and place it in a folder in your Documents folder. Now suppose that weeks later you want to see that file but can't remember where you stored it. You don't even recall its name. All you can remember is that Sally sent it to you. You can launch Six Degrees, type in Sally, and it will show all files that are related to Sally. From the list, you will likely recognize the file you are looking for.

FileMaker We got a chance to look at the forthcoming 2.0 version of FileMaker Mobile. This program, which essentially transfers a FM database to a Palm, is much improved from its 1.0 predecessor. In particular, you can now manipulate and edit the data on the Palm, as well as from FM on the Mac. You can move and resize columns, lock the first column, sort records and add, delete or modify existing records. A HotSync via the Palm Software will update and sync the files appropriately. And it works in OS X!

Roxio Roxio had several new products announced and/or on display. First, they announced the immediate availability of a Toast Titanium 5.1 updater for OS X. It's free for all Toast 5 users. It appears to bring it up to the feature level of the OS 9 version. You can now burn audio and MP3 CDs, with control over gaps between songs, convert iMovies into video CDs and more.

Coming soon, will be free OS X updaters for other applications in the Toast suite, such as CD Spin Doctor and Discus. A full CD with all updates will be available for a "nominal fee." Finally, Roxio was showing Toast with Jam, that adds more pro features to Toast. It will be released in March, in both OS 9 and OS X versions.

OS X books Peachpit was showing off new OS X books, including Mac OS X Advanced and the 8th edition of The Macintosh Bible (which includes OS X coverage). O'Reilly was featuring David Pogue's Mac OS X: The Missing Manual.