iMac Update: November 15, 2001

We’ve opened the gates.

Now, thanks to our second-generation wireless networking solution, America Online (AOL) customers can launch into cyberspace with AirPort.¹ In fact, AirPort is the very first product of its kind to offer access to AOL via a wireless local area network.

But AOL connectivity is only the beginning of the new features built into our all-new AirPort. It also offers:

	Compatibility
	•	AirPort Card compatibility with Cisco LEAP, a security method popular in many higher education institutions
	Security
	•	Support for up to 128-bit password and data encryption
	•	Integrated firewall prevents unauthorized Internet users from accessing your private network
	•	Support for RADIUS, a protocol allowing schools and businesses to manage user access control lists from a central location
	Performance
	•	New antenna provides more uniform reception over 150-foot coverage area
	•	Two Ethernet ports—one 10BASE-T and a new 10/100BASE-T port
	•	Support for up to 50 users simultaneously

AirPort also sports a new design. Come take a look.

¹ Compatible with AOL 5.0, U.S. only.
Wireless Internet access requires AirPort Card, AirPort Base Station,and Internet access (fees may apply). Some ISPs are not currently compatible with AirPort.

Here it comes.

Hard though it may be to believe, Thanksgiving is just a week away, and in addition to posting some tempting Thanksgiving Day iCards, we just launched our 2001 Holiday Gift Guide.

We’ve been making our lists for quite some time now, checking and rechecking to make certain that we’ve compiled the best collection of gifts for the Mac enthusiast you’d like to surprise this holiday season.

Designed to make it as easy as possible for you to find the perfect gift for that digital artist, photographer, gamer, music lover, or cinematographer, the guide offers a wide assortment of software, hardware, bundles, and accessories. If they use a Mac, you’ll be able to find something perfect just for them.

Normally, you don’t want the classroom walls to move around on you. But when the classroom itself has the kind of get up and go that the Technitorium has, you make allowances—especially when its curriculum moves students the way it does.

A wireless classroom-on-wheels, the Technitorium brings “a turbo-powered dose of art and science" to 55 elementary schools in Arizona’s Mesa School District. As teacher Dale Pickering explains, students visiting the mobile classroom create "cyberholograms,” and in the process master many skills—critical thinking, logical sequencing, visual interpretation.

“We cover how the human eye perceives objects—its structure, and the way light with additive colors is mixed and created. In addition, since students are working in pairs, they learn about collaboration and sharing.” And...they have a blast.

You may have heard by now that iTunes 2—which is now available for download—includes a great 10-band equalizer with 22 presets.

But did you know that you could tell iTunes 2 to display an Equalizer column and then set equalizer preferences for each song in a playlist?

It’s true. And it's easy to do. Simply select one of your playlists to have iTunes display display all of the songs in the list. Then pull down the Edit menu and choose “View options.” Click the check box next to Equalizer and click OK.

iTunes will add an Equalizer column and add a drop-down menu in each row of your playlist, making it easy for you to assign a preset to each title in your list.

Like to learn more about iTunes 2?

If we could take you back to the fifth century, do you think you could build an empire to rival the Roman, Byzantium, or Ottoman empires?

No, we don’t have a time machine, but we do have Age of Empires II: Gold Edition. Available now for your Macintosh computer, AOE II lets you choose one of 18 civilizations—from the Aztecs to the Vikings—and gives you the chance to mold it into a mighty empire over the course of 1000 years.

But your opponents, whether human or electronic in origin, will also be hard at work amassing their own armies and resources. So you’ll need to temper brute force with diplomacy if you want to rule the world.

We wish you all a happy and healthy Thanksgiving.

Thank you for reading this issue of iMac Update.
Look for your next issue on November 29.

When Galen Wright comes in for a landing, it’s often on a park bench, a coffee house stool, or a seat at the blues club.

That’s where the creative director at Emma (an up-and-coming West Coast ad agency) often goes to clear his head, collect his thoughts, get away from office mayhem, get some serious work done. Of course, And where he depends on AirPort to keep him in touch with his network.

“At Starbucks across the street,” says Wright, “I have complete access to our own extranet. I can download TV commercials, rough edits, print ads and storyboards. We post those for client approval, so I can be talking on my cell to a client while I'm reviewing work right there in the coffee shop. It’s amazing.”

How does AirPort help Emma compete effectively? “We can be more responsive," Wright says. "AirPort helps us do that.”

We posted iTunes 2 nearly two weeks ago, and iPod began appearing on store shelves on November 10, so many of you are already discovering the new features in iTunes 2 and taking iPod — and your music collection — wherever you go.

So we thought you’d like to know that if you have any questions, we have quite a collection of articles available in our Knowledge Base.

Interested in reading about the Sound Enhancer in iTunes 2? How to take advantage of the 20 preset equalizer settings? How to share iTunes libraries between Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X? Then visit our iTunes Support page.

Or visit the iPod Support page. You’ll find the iPod FAQ, information about iPod accessories, and directions for joining an iPod discussion group.

“The latest iBook,” one reads in CNNMoney's “Best of the New” roundup, “may well be the best all-around computer Apple has ever made.”

iTunes 2, says Jim Heid, “Is the Maestro Behind iPod.” And he sings its praises—and waxes enthusiastic about iPod, too—in this discussion of the musical duo in his recent article for the Los Angeles Times.

And then there’s PC Magazine’s Troy Dreier. “Leave it to Apple,” he says, “to come out with the world’s coolest MP3 player. Flash an Apple iPod around and your friends will be begging to play with it.”

BusinessWeek Online’s Charles Haddad writes about Mac OS X, “It’s the most stable personal computer operating system I’ve ever seen. Not once in eight months of use has it crashed on me. Not once.”

“No one else has this much storage in a package this small,” writes Chris Taylor in TIME magazine. “Never has digital music been this well organized. The trackwheel on the front scrolls quickly and precisely through all your songs, arranged by title or by artist, and the display is crisp and readable. When I gave the iPod to my techno-suspicious parents, they figured out how to select and play in under a minute. Why can’t all gadgets be like that?”

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Event dates are subject to change. Some products, programs, or promotions are not available outside the U.S. Visit your local Apple site or call your local authorized Apple reseller for more information. Prices are estimated retail prices and are listed in U.S. dollars. Product specifications are subject to change.