Apple adds shine, accuracy to images with OS 8.5 upgrade

Few things annoy me as much as computer buyers who whine about the pace at which hardware technology advances. If only I had a dollar for every time I have heard 'I might as well wait. That machine will be obsolete in six months!' In six months, you no longer will have the biggest phallic symbol on the block, but your machine will not be obsolete.

Actually, the best thing about computers is that not only will they not be obsolete in six months, but unlike any other piece of equipment you are likely to buy - from stereos to cars to air-conditioners - computers will work better and do more 18 months down the road.

Why? Software upgrades! Being a Mac man, there is nothing I love more than an operating system upgrade. Toys, toys, toys! Apple's latest upgrade, OS 8.5, has quite a few neat features, several of which will help you print more efficiently and print colour more accurately.

One of its biggest new features is increased networking speeds. OpenTransport has been extensively overhauled and Apple claims file transfers are faster than Windows 95 or Windows NT.

Faster networking speed means faster printing speeds as well. I made several test prints using a document made in ClarisWorks 4.0 with a mixture of text and PICT and Postscript graphics, using Apple's LaserWriter 8 driver and a laser printer connected via a 10Base-T network.

Using System 8.1, printing the document took 76 seconds. Under OS 8.5, the document popped out in 40 seconds.