#1 The planets in the greater Mac universe must be aligned.

Admittedly, members of the ATPM staff are not astrologers or astronomers. When we here someone say that Mercury is rising, we tend to think it’s getting warmer outside. But one thing we did here at Macworld Expo is that the number of new Mac OS X applications now reaches beyond the horizons. Please see the Mac OS X applications page to view all the star-studded software available for Apple’s new operating system. That’s proof to us that developers throughout the Mac universe are aligned to support our platform of choice.

This meets or exceeds the established Yowza! criteria!

#2 There have to be recent announcements of cool, new Macintosh products.

What can we say about Apple’s new iMac that hasn’t already been written? Not much. But for those who have concerns the styling of Apple’s new iMac is too new or futuristic, we’d like to put your mind to rest. It’s a design that’s been around for years. How do we know? Simple. Do you remember the Macintosh Cube? Many critics claimed that it had an uncanny resemblance to the NeXT Cube, designed by Steve Jobs’s other computer company years before Apple bought it.

When one critic called the new iMac the Apple iLamp, we got to thinking. The new iMac does have an uncanny resemble to the characters in a short film produced by Steve Jobs’s other company, Pixar Animation. Don’t believe us? Take a look for yourself. Don’t even try and tell us the characters in this short film aren’t early iMac prototypes.

It’s refreshing to know Steve Jobs is looking to the past when he reaches for the future. Now, if we could only get him to turn his gaze to Apple’s pre-1996 market share numbers.

The new iMac and its 150,000 pre-orders are evidence that the criteria for Yowza! factor two has also been met!

#3 The stock has to be on the move in a decidedly upward direction.

Apple closed the month of January with a share price just shy of $25.00 per share. The closing price on January 31st was the highest closing price for Apple’s stock in six months.

Since Apple released its earnings report for the first fiscal quarter of 2002, the stock price has been gradually moving north. In brief, the numbers for the quarter ended in late December are as follows:

• For the first fiscal quarter of 2002, Apple posted net earnings of $38 million or $.11 per share, in sharp contrast to losses or anemic earnings reported by most of the company’s competitors.

• Apple shipped 746,000 Macs during the three-month period that was marked by great uncertainty in the PC business.

• For the three-month period ending in March (traditionally Apple’s slowest quarter), Apple executives have publicly stated they expect sales to rise sequentially to $1.5 billion from $1.38 billion in the December period.

• Gross margins for the December-ending quarter were 30.7%. In contrast, Dell’s gross margins hover somewhere under 19%. Apple’s gross margins are the envy of the industry.

• Apple ended calendar year 2001 with almost $4.4 billion in cash.

• Apple is slowly gaining market share. The company announced that 40% of Mac buyers at the new Apple Stores are new to the Mac platform.

All this good news meets or exceeds the established criteria for Yowza! factor three!

#4 The first three criteria to declare an official Yowza! issue must be happening at the same time.

What more could someone want all at one time? Ok, so we may have to wait a little while for the G5s. The new dual-processor one-GHz G4 should keep even the most speed-hungry Mac users happy until summer.

Quickly reviewing the facts, we declare the February 2002 issue of About This Particular Macintosh the first official Yowza! issue of the new century and the new millennium.

What do you think? Please read our latest issue from front to back. Yowza! or no Yowza!, please enjoy each of our columns, reviews and commentaries. We take great pride in bringing you the latest news, views, and reviews in an easy-to-read monthly magazine.

Yowza!

Apple Cider: Spam I Am

Back from battling the flu, Tom Iovino wraps his hands around spam in this month’s Cider. Oh, by the way, why is Tom so popular, and who keeps sending those 1,500 e-mails?

Beyond the Barline: Expos, From a Distance

David Ozab offers up a mixed bag this month: yet another opinion on the new iMac, the keynote you didn’t see, and some new OS X software demonstrated at NAMM.

Hollywood: Normally

Mike Shields gives his take on iPhoto, the new iMac, and other notables from Macworld Expo, and laments that his Mac can’t handle OS X.

About This Particular Web Site

In this month’s ATPW, Paul Fatula takes a look at flying cars as well as the dust mites they might kick up. There’s a site full of forums for digital video enthusiasts, and another with information for AppleScripters. It wraps up with a site worth of disclaimers.

Networking: Mac and PC Networking Overview

Matthew Glidden gives an overview of the hardware needed to set up a mixed network of Macs and PCs, as well as the software that’s available for sharing files and printers.

Networking: Mac File Sharing

Matthew Glidden explains how to set up File Sharing in the classic Mac OS, and how to access shared volumes from the Chooser and the Network Browser.

How To: What Do Your CD-ROMs Tell About You?

If you burn and distribute CD-ROMs to other Macintosh users, they may be able to learn a surprising amount about your software, your Web surfing, and your downloaded files. How can this happen? How can you prevent it? Read Gregory Tetrault’s article and find out.

Desktop Pictures: “Oregon” and “A Collection of Scottish Pictures”

David Ozab shares some pictures taken by his girlfriend, Julia Harris, during a recent trip to the Central Oregon coast.

Reviews: FileMaker Server 5.5

Paul Fatula reviews FileMaker Server 5.5 for OS X, finding that while it hosts databases just fine, its complete lack of a user interface, lack of AppleScriptability, and unreliable scheduling feature seriously mar the program, even compared to older versions, or this version on Mac OS 8.6-9.x.

Reviews: Jeopardy! 2nd Edition

MacSoft’s Jeopardy! received a “Very Nice” rating last year. Will the second edition improve on this? Gregory Tetrault reviews this edition and makes the call.

Reviews: OmniDictionary 2.0.1

Eric Blair review OmniDictionary, which gives you the benefits of a bound dictionary but saves you the pain of paper cuts.

Reviews: ScanCalc 1.7.1

ScanCalc just might be a utility any scanner operator or digital photo editor would want to keep handy—but get out the can of Raid® first.

Reviews: Virtual PC 5.0

Connectix released version 5 less than one year after version 4. The big change is that VPC 5 runs under both OS 9 and OS X. But there’s bad news, too. So read Gregory Tetrault’s review to find out whether VPC 5 is the right purchase or upgrade for you.

Reviews: Wheel of Fortune, 2nd Edition

Brooke Smith reviews Wheel of Fortune, 2nd Edition, which features 2,500 new puzzles and other goodies, but also some lackluster video clips. How does the game stack up to the hangman competition?