Mac Info

Mac Magazines Internet Magazines Bookstores Retailers

Mac Magazines:

Discouraged by the number of magazines out there for the PC world. Don't be, there are lots of good mags for us Mac types. Here are but a few gems that I have found useful over the past few months:

• MacAddict magazine - definitely worth every penny of the fairly high cover price. Currently $8.99 ($10.34 tax inc.) MacAddict comes with a great CD each month. Each issue is filled with useful articles, reviews, how-tos and just plain fun stuff. The disk comes with shareware, updates, lots of demos and a cool interface. The interface requires a hefty 16 megs of real ram to work fully, but you can access the programs from the disk regardless of your memory limits Availability: Quite good in Saint John, Fredericton and Moncton - most newsstands carry it .

• MacUser magazine - good magazine, decent price, overall good value here. Currently $4.99 ($5.92 tax inc.) MacUser provides good hardware and software review, some good how-tos, and is generally on top of current developments about Apple and the Mac industry. Some articles are definitely written for more advanced users and there is plenty of coverage for the professional multi-media publishing types. Often comes with handy inserts like March 1997's game guide. Availability: Quite good in S.J., F'ton, Moncton - nearly all magazine racks.

• Macworld magazine - not bad, little more pricey than MacUser and I find it a little more technical than the two mags above. Good coverage of technical issues and the sponser of major trade shows in Boston and San Francisco (with cool internet coverage). Availability: Same as above.

Well that's it for my magazine reviews for now. There are others available but I haven't had much opportunity to look at them because of the price...many are imports from Britain. If you're interested check out Coles in Brunswick Square (Saint John), Reid's Newsstand (Moncton) or Bolden's in Fredericton Mall.

Internet Magazines:

Coming Soon

Bookstores

OK, its tougher to get excited about the bookstore choices in NB but we'll do our best:

• Coles - Brunswick Square, SJ - Far and away the best choice that I've seen. Good selection of Mac how-to books, specialty programming books (Photoshop, Quark XPress) and great choices for HTML, Java and the internet. Staff seems tolerant of browsers.

• Coles - Other NB locations - Some good, some bad. Look for Moncton and Fredericton stores to offer broader selections. All these stores can order in titles for you if you know what you want.

• Westminster Books - King St, Fredericton - Very little if any Mac specific, good selection of programming books for HTML and Java. Some software (of the joint Mac/PC) variety. Kid's titles and encyclopedia.

Retailers

• Applebys' Photography - Germain St, SJ - Not bad. Good hardware selection including machines and perepherals. Some software but not much turnover and prices aren't great. Staff are helpful and will order in what you want. Really the only place in SJ.

• Future Shop - Champlain Place, Moncton - Not bad but getting worse. When I first went here two years ago there was a good selection, but I guess the market isn't great and the Mac section seems to be getting smaller. I suspect the staff aren't as knowledgeable as other places.

• Mensa Computers - York St, Fredericton and Mountain Rd, Moncton - Mac Specialists. Best choice for knowledge but not great retail outlets for selection (based on Fredericton) Still need to review the Moncton store. At one time these two were the Apple authorized dealers, I don't know if that is still true.

• Interactive Computers - Queen St, Fredericton - This is where I bought my beloved Mac. Not bad hardware selection, no software to speak of, one guy makes up their Mac staff but he seems to know his stuff. Plus they offered me a decent deal.

Give me a call if there are others you know of : kduff@nbnet.nb.ca