News Archive for 00/05/02

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AOL clarifies stance on Mac platform

05/02, 8:57pm

AOL clarifies stance on Mac platform

Following our story yesterday regarding AOL's stance on the Mac platform and its commitment, several readers wrote in disputing it as per the company's actions during the past years.

MacNN.com Interview: Irving Kwong, MSFT

05/02, 8:53pm

MacNN.com Interview: Irving Kwong, MSFT

Irving Kwong, Product Manager for Microsoft's Mac Business Unit, took the time to answer a handful of questions regarding Internet Explorer 5, including the status of the Media Player, the decision to use a 16-point font size as default, and the inclusion of the 'What's Related' feature.

Clinton administration "fixes" GPS

05/02, 8:44pm

Clinton administration "fixes" GPS

At midnight last night, the Unites States disabled its intentional degradation of GPS signals available to the public. Known as Selective Availability (SA), the degradation feature was put in place to protect US military and government interests, but with changing times President Clinton and his cabinet "realized that worldwide transportation safety, scientific, and commercial interests could best be served by discontinuation of SA." This means that civilian users of GPS will be able to pinpoint locations up to ten times more accurately.

AppleShare IP Web update posted

05/02, 6:48pm

AppleShare IP Web update posted

Apple has posted an AppleShare IP Web & File 6.3.2 updater that fixes a potential security issue with the Web server versions of AppleShare IP 6.1 and later. "When an invalid request is made to the Web server by a client computer, the Web server can return an extra 32 kb of data."

AppleWorks updated posted by Apple

05/02, 6:43pm

AppleWorks updated posted by Apple

Apple has posted AppleWorks 6.0.3, an update to the company's popular application suite. The update addresses a number of performance, compatibility, and stability issues with AppleWorks 6.0. Also, contrary to its version number, this is the first update to AppleWorks 6.

Sega Genesis emulator for Mac updated

05/02, 6:41pm

Sega Genesis emulator for Mac updated

Generator/Mac OS 0.15 is a Sega Genesis emulator for Mac and a port of the Unix version. The new release address a number of bugs and improves emulation.

Real Player gains users, QT, WMP both lose

05/02, 5:41pm

Real Player gains users, QT, WMP both lose

RealNetworks announced that its RealPlayer software was used by more than 29 million users in March, more than Microsoft's Windows Media Player and Apple's QuickTime combined (both of which lost market share). The company also announced that its software has become the fourth most popular application, besting other popular titles such as America Online and Office.

Microsoft, I-Jam team for Media Player device

05/02, 5:38pm

Microsoft, I-Jam team for Media Player device

Microsoft today announced that it has teamed up with I-Jam to produce Win-Jam, a portable player that reads Windows Media Player files exclusively. Similar to MP3 players, Win-Jam represents the first product of its kind. Additionally, Microsoft released a test version of Windows Media Player 7, after demonstrating the product at Internet World last month, which can download and stream audio and video.

Apple TIL on printing problem workaround

05/02, 5:36pm

Apple TIL on printing problem workaround

Apple says that turning on virtual memory when printing to a LaserWriter 300 or LaserWriter 350 from a 300 MHz Power Mac G3 should solve printing problems encountered by users (printing errors, blank page, vertically compressed text, etc.). Richard Bottiglieri offers another solution for users not wishing to turn on Virtual Memory:

Another workaround is to use a little piece of software called the "G3 Throttle". It's a $10 (shareware) control strip module that controls the rate of instructions fed to the CPU. I installed it on my Mac, rebooted, and it worked great! Now, I just slow down the CPU whenever I want to print, and then set it back to normal when the printing is finished. Of course, I wish that Apple would rewrite the driver to fix this problem. Until then, this is a better alternative to turning on VM, and well worth the $10 shareware fee.

Sony releases next-gen digital camera

05/02, 2:36pm

Sony releases next-gen digital camera

Sony Electronics has introduced the Cyber-shot DSC-F505V, the second-generation Cyber-Shot digital camera that features a 2.6 megapixel resolution and a 3.3 megapixel CCD. The camera is also the first to feature Sony's new interpolation technology, dubbed Super Resolution Converter, which takes large images and interpolates them prior to applying JPEG compression, thereby producing a higher quality image than traditional interpolation techniques. Other features include 12-bit A/D conversion, a high-quality TIFF mode, USB transfer capabilities; and in-camera image resizing options. The unit will ship in June for $900 and will include an 8 MB memory stick.

USB Twin Serial adapter drivers upgraded

05/02, 1:41pm

USB Twin Serial adapter drivers upgraded

Keyspan has posted version 1.6 of the drivers for its USB Twin-Serial adapter. There's no mention as to the changes in this version.

Apple #2 in hardware vendor website hits

05/02, 1:37pm

Apple #2 in hardware vendor website hits

PC Data's list of top 10 hardware sites looks much the same for the week ended April 29 as it did the week before: Compaq.com is No. 1, with 1.8 percent of the market; Apple.com is No. 2, with 1.5 percent of the market; and Dell.com is No. 3.

New MP3-driven alarm clock updated

05/02, 1:36pm

New MP3-driven alarm clock updated

The MP3 Alarm Clock 1.3 allows users to set up to 14 different alarms that will play a selected audio file when triggered. New features in this version include a customizable snooze time and a progressive increase in volume feature.

AppleSource MP3 updated

05/02, 1:33pm

AppleSource MP3 updated

AppleSource MP3 2.1b5 is the latest version of the simple, Mac OS-like MP3 player. The free application features full playlist support, among other features.

Personable.com allows Macs to run Win apps

05/02, 12:46pm

Personable.com allows Macs to run Win apps

Personable.com, an application service provider, has added Macintosh browser support, so Mac users can run Windows applications without emulators. There is no charge to open an individual account, and accounts are activated instantly. [site not updated]

FLY 2K! disks corrupt

05/02, 12:43pm

FLY 2K! disks corrupt

Sources at Terminal Reality have confirmed that a major error occurred in the duplication process of FLY! 2K for the Mac. All reports indicate that all Mac copies on store shelves contain incorrectly formatted CDs, according to MGL.

Yesterday's news @ MacNN.com

05/02, 12:40pm

Yesterday's news @ MacNN.com

Yesterday we reported that Apple does not plan on filing suit against FishPC over its translucent computer, and AOL's commitment to the Mac. Other notable items included a possible new Apple commercial and price cuts to Sonnet's G3 upgrades.

Yada Software 2000 released

05/02, 12:37pm

Yada Software 2000 released

Yada Software 2000 is a suite of industry tips, knowledge base information, contracts and forms from 20 industries. The suite uses Macromedia Flash, Apple Quick Time and Borland. Programs include business management, investing, education, real estate, personal finance and legal.

SCM releases USB-SCSI converter for DVD-RAM

05/02, 10:40am

SCM releases USB-SCSI converter for DVD-RAM

SCM's USB-to-SCSI Intelligent Cable supports Panasonic's 5.2GB DVD-RAM drive, providing "true plug-and-play" with the ability to connect and mount the drive without having to shut down or reboot the system. The SCM USB-to-SCSI protocol converter allows users to support up to seven SCSI devices on a single USB port and offers 900 KB/s burst transfer rate or up to 750 KB/s sustained transfer rate. [updated]

Password generator released

05/02, 10:29am

Password generator released

Key Cutter 1.0 is a freeware stand alone version of the password generator that creates randomly generated passwords to match user-specified criteria.

Apple TIL sheds light on printing problem

05/02, 10:27am

Apple TIL sheds light on printing problem

Apple says that turning on virtual memory when printing to a LaserWriter 300 or LaserWriter 350 from a 300 MHz Power Mac G3 should solve printing problems encountered by users (printing errors, blank page, vertically compressed text, etc.).

FLY! 2K Mac version ships with Windows vers.

05/02, 10:24am

FLY! 2K Mac version ships with Windows vers.

Kevin Murphy, an Apple representative at CompUSA, was unpacking boxes recently, and he noticed that copies of the Macintosh version of Terminal Reality's FLY! 2K were packed with he PC version. "Nice to see this stuff coming out at the same time now."

3D Conference Expo Information

05/02, 10:20am

3D Conference Expo Information

At the 3D Conference & Expo May 7 to 11 in the Santa Clara Convention Center, there will be more than 60 classes and more than 40 companies exhibiting their products, including Discreet, NewTek and Maxon. Discreet will be demonstrating combustion* for the Mac and PC. NewTek has begun shipping LightWave [6] animation software for the Macintosh and will be demonstrating it at the show. Maxon will showcase its CINEMA 4D XL v.6 for Windows and Macintosh, which also began shipping recently.

Club Photo now includes new service

05/02, 10:19am

Club Photo now includes new service

Club Photo's services now include Pick Your Photo. Film is developed in house, scanned at high resolution and made available for preview and print ordering. The preview feature is also integrated with the photo-sharing community. The Pick Your Photo service costs $1 per roll of film. Club Photo's free software works with Windows, Apple and Palm platforms.

Hot forum topics at MacNN.com

05/02, 10:18am

Hot forum topics at MacNN.com

In today's Forums area, readers have questions about where to learn how to program Macintoshes, where to get parts for G4s and beige G3 power supply; and problems with an Epson Perfection 1200 scanner driver, Descent 3 on an iBook, a Pismo with a DVD issue and frames and scrolling in IE 5.

Entrust introduces new security/privacy prod

05/02, 10:17am

Entrust introduces new security/privacy prod

Entrust Technologies has introduced Entrust/TruePass, a "zero-footprint" Web-security and privacy product. It is a multiplatform, standards-based system that is transparent to users and protects confidential data while in transit on Web servers. It does not rely on a browser plug-in or ActiveX controls for security operations. Entrust/TruePass, due in June, will immediately support Netscape Communicator 4.0 on the Macintosh and will support Internet Explorer in the third quarter.

RAM Disk application gets update

05/02, 10:16am

RAM Disk application gets update

ramBunctious 1.5 is an update to the $25 RAM disk application that allows users to customize RAM disks for speed, security, safety, and versatility. Multiple RAM disks can be mounted at the same time, and each uses application memory, meaning they can surrender the RAM when quit. The update improves performance and adds color "LED" indicators showing disk accesses.

New PageSpinner CSS tool hits market

05/02, 10:15am

New PageSpinner CSS tool hits market

Optima Systems released StyleSpinner, a free Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) tool for PageSpinner. The company has also launched SpinnerWorld, a resource center for PageSpinner users that provides information about PageSpinner and related Web spinning software, resources, tips and news.

Launcher replacement hits 2.0

05/02, 7:15am

Launcher replacement hits 2.0

X-Launch 2.0 is an update to the free alternative to Apple's Launcher. The new version adds a handful of new features, including the ability to add up to 11 categories.

Westlake updates popular game Unreal Tourney

05/02, 7:12am

Westlake updates popular game Unreal Tourney

Westlake Interactive has posted Unreal Tournament Mac 413, an update for the full retail version of the game that fixes HTTP skin/map downloading, improves server stability, includes some RAVE tweaks, and fixes a variety of smaller bugs.

WPDFD takes on new Mac broswer design problem

05/02, 7:11am

WPDFD takes on new Mac broswer design problem

The May 2000 issue of Web Page Design for Designers tackles the design issues that are arising as a result of Internet Explorer 5.0 and Netscape 6.0, especially for designers using Macs.

Metallica and Dr Dre to take on Napster

05/02, 7:10am

Metallica and Dr Dre to take on Napster

Rock group Metallica, who late last month filed suit against Napster, three universities, and students alleging copyright infringement, announced that it collected the names of more than 350,000 users this past weekend who were distributing the band's music illegally. While individuals will not be named in a lawsuit, the band will present the list to Napster, whose policy is to ban users who are specifically identified as copyright violaters. High-profile rapper Dr. Dre has also filed a suit that leaves slots open for naming students, and is expected to take a similar approach.

Excite@Home sues PacBell over ads

05/02, 7:09am

Excite@Home sues PacBell over ads

Cable modem provider Excite@home is threatening to file suit against Pacific Bell if the company does not withdraw its humorous pro-DSL television ads. The four ads tell stories of a fictional neighborhood gone bad because of the cable modem speed fluctuations that take place as more people use the shared line. Excite@home claims that the ads are misrepresenting its cable modem service; Pacific Bell maintains that cable modems are still a shared technology and that therefore the ads are accurate.