Puppy Suite
A “Cut to the Chase Review”

BY PETER M. FINE

Editorial

President’s PDA

Computer
Connections

REVIEW –
Two for the Internet
Fetch 4.0
PageSpinner 4.5

REVIEW –
The Mac OS X
Conversion Kit:
9 to 10 Side by Side

REVIEW –
Puppy Suite

REVIEW –
ARCHOS Jukebox
Studio 5GB

REVIEW –
Olympus C-720
Ultra Zoom
Digital Camera

Macworld
Creative Pro
Expo NY

Member Photos
from Macworld

Qaptain Qwerty’s
Qorner

From My Keyboard

Volunteer
for Express!

Give Your Computer the Finger!

This may be the one time you can give your computer the finger when everything is working properly because you are using Puppy Suite, the "digital" recognition access system for your Mac.

Puppy Suite is an OSX only software product combined with a hardware product, made by Sony that recognizes fingerprints and then lets you access your computer. The software interface replaces the normal log in window.

You have your choice of either just fingerprint verification or normal password access or for even more security, verification needing BOTH a fingerprint and a password. One can also adjust sensitivity during a training session that lets you select the finger or multiple fingers to use as options during recognition. The failure rate of not being recognized can be minimized tremendously by proper sensitivity adjustment.

Reportedly, it is virtually impossible to fool this technology BUT one can get around the software by booting off of a FireWire drive or an OSX Install CD. There are ways to stop the CD use by securing the computer's open firmware with a password but that is not ideal either.

To be fair this would be the case with just a password as well so it is better to look at this system of verification as a replacement for giving someone a password which can then be shared with others. Fingers are much less easy to share. :-)

This release version of the software is not perfect as you need to know that you must hit the TAB key in order to enter your user name but this is a minor detail and the package worked as advertised right from the start. I also would prefer to have on by Default, the option to use either a finger or a password in case something is not set up correctly instead of the finger only setting.

Bottom Line: It works as advertised and the Cool factor is definitely there as well.

DETAILS: Pacific Software Publishing developed product software but now it is being sold by Sony. Needs USB, MacOS 10.2 or later (works fine in 10.2.6) and 256MB RAM.

List price was $199 but generally discounted for under $150.00

http://puppysuite.pspinc.com