News Archive for 01/01/31

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Intego VirusBarrier 1.5.1 adds OS 9.1 support

01/31, 6:36pm

Intego VirusBarrier 1.5.1 adds OS 9.1 support

Intego's antivirus utility VirusBarrier 1.5.1 brings Mac OS 9.1 compatibility, improved Turbo mode, and adds detection/eradication of 45 new viruses.

International AppleShare IP 9.04 update

01/31, 6:08pm

International AppleShare IP 9.04 update

Apple has posted the English-International version of AppleShare IP / 9.0.4 Update, which improves compatability with AppleShare IP 6.3.1 and Macintosh Manager 1.3 running on Mac OS 9.0.4. (The North American-English version was made available in mid-December.)

Financial analyst meeting broadcast today

01/31, 5:30pm

Financial analyst meeting broadcast today

Apple's financial analyst meeting began with CEO Steve Jobs' recap of Apple's recent Macworld Expo announcements.

Review of new low-end Power Macs

01/31, 5:02pm

Review of new low-end Power Macs

CNN has reposted a positive Macworld review of the new line of (low-end) Power Macs, saying "We tested the two less-expensive models -- the 466MHz ($1,699) and the 533MHz ($2,199) -- and we are pleased to report that in nearly every respect, these are finer and more capable Macs than their predecessors."

Aladdin ships Spanish Spring Cleaning 3.5

01/31, 5:01pm

Aladdin ships Spanish Spring Cleaning 3.5

Aladdin Systems has begun shipping Spring Cleaning 3.5 Spanish version, a $50 uninstaller with 13 cleaning utilities for Macintosh, from its Spanish partner, Evinter. This version adds iClean desktop tool, which rids hard drives of unwanted Internet-related clutter; and speeds up searches

CSM Maker 1.1: make control strip modules

01/31, 4:55pm

CSM Maker 1.1: make control strip modules

Rage Software has posted CSM Maker 1.1, a free application for creating control strip modules out of any file. This version adds drag-and-drop capability, adds a confirmation message when the CSM is created and fixes a few bugs.

All Oni unveiled

01/31, 3:41pm

All Oni unveiled

All Oni is a new fan site for the newly released action game from Bungie Studios, Oni. The site offers news, articles, forums and information on the game itself including story, characters, combat, weapons and items.

MacNN Review: Charts Pro 1.5

01/31, 3:30pm

MacNN Review: Charts Pro 1.5

We have posted a review of Charts Pro 1.5, Adrenaline Software's application for quickly creating 2D and 3D charts.

Action Vault: Red Faction Preview

01/31, 3:20pm

Action Vault: Red Faction Preview

Action Vault has published a preview of Red Faction after getting a first-hand look at Volition's unique first-person shooter coming to the Mac, PC and Playstation 2 this summer. "At least one weapon, the rail gun, will allow for infrared sighting. Alan Lawrance demonstrated how it can shoot through walls and other barriers, making it deadly to opponents even though they are not in plain view. As another offensive option, there are also riot shields that can be used for bashing."

Mac-O-Rama Moving Sale

01/31, 3:16pm

Mac-O-Rama Moving Sale

Mac-O-Rama is preparing to move to Nevada and is clearing out inventory on its Mac games and hardware including Madden NFL 2000 for $19, Baldur's Gate for $18 and an ATI Radeon Mac Edition AGP graphics card for $229.

Maxon releases demo of Cinema 3D for OS X

01/31, 2:33pm

Maxon releases demo of Cinema 3D for OS X

Scott Nichol notes that 3D application developer Maxon has released an preview of its integrated demo of Cinema 4D XL/BodyPaint for OSX. The demo includes both Cinema 4D, a fully integrated 3D-modeling, animation and rendering package and BodyPaint 3D, its 3D painting application for creating high-quality, detailed textures.

Apple II floppy back software updated

01/31, 2:26pm

Apple II floppy back software updated

][2Mac v2.1b1 brings compatibility with the Keyspan USB-serial and better Mac OS X support to the suite of of 3 applications that allow you to backup and restore Apple-][ floppies to/from a Mac.

DR: Summoner Media

01/31, 1:42pm

DR: Summoner Media

Daily Radar has posted new media from the PC version of Summoner including five movies and two dozen screenshots of the 3D role-playing game in action. The movies show scenes from the game including an encounter with a sewer Golem and summoning a samurai.

OpenGL Mac DoomLegacy 0.9.2

01/31, 1:33pm

OpenGL Mac DoomLegacy 0.9.2

OpenGL Mac DoomLegacy 0.9.2 is the newest version of the revitalized hardware-accelerated version of Doom II. The most recent additions to the game are an increase of the maximum frames per second from 35 to 70, MP3 support via Quicktime, improved mouse support and more. The author is looking for someone with a dual monitor setup to confirm that the game works properly in such an environment.

Economist: Explosion of wireless LANs

01/31, 1:22pm

Economist: Explosion of wireless LANs

The Economist, writing about the explosion of 802.11b wireless Internet, notes deployment of wireless LANs in airports, hotel lobbies, sports stadiums, suburban neighborhoods, and even local Starbucks coffee shops, where Microsoft has joined forces to deliver access over the next two years. (Over the weekend, we noted 802.11b wireless access in airplanes, regional wireless ISP access in the SF Bay, and Toshiba's sales push for wireless LANs.)

Arenagames: Master of Orion III Interview

01/31, 1:21pm

Arenagames: Master of Orion III Interview

Arenagames has published an interview with Quicksilver Software's Alan Emrich, co-designer and writer on Master of Orion III for the Mac and PC. Emrich comments on what is currently playable in the game with its release still in the far distance at Q1 2002. "We've got several screens working," says Emrich. "Technologies can be researched, populations grow and spread out across the cosmos, basic industries are generating output... stuff like that. The art department has "arted" out a few pieces here and there that have been integrated. Typical pre-alpha stuff that you'd see in a software laboratory while they're stitching Frankenstein together."

Invisible Finder 1.0 for invisible files

01/31, 1:00pm

Invisible Finder 1.0 for invisible files

Rage Software's Invisible Finder 1.0 is a $15 utility to find, manage and organize your invisible files.

Oni Strategy Guide Chapter 02

01/31, 1:00pm

Oni Strategy Guide Chapter 02

We have posted the second part of our Oni Strategy Guide, providing step-by-step instructions for completing Chapter 02: Engines of Evil - Manufacturing Plant. The guide includes more than 50 screenshots to aid the reader along; a printer-friendly version is also available.

Custer's Corner: Oni Week

01/31, 12:57pm

Custer's Corner: Oni Week

In celebration of this week's release of Oni, Custer's Corner will be featuring new desktops for the third-person 3D action game all week long. The first two desktop pictures have already been posted: "Konoko" and "Big Guns Big Fun".

Games: Oni Guide Part 2, Diablo II 1.05

01/31, 12:55pm

Games: Oni Guide Part 2, Diablo II 1.05

games.macnn.com has posted the second part of its Oni Strategy Guide, providing step-by-step instruction for completing Chapter 02: Engines of Evil - Manufacturing Plant; in addition, the site has information on the release of a 1.05 patch for Diablo II.

Update on Q3:A; OS 9.1, Altivec and OS X

01/31, 12:54pm

Update on Q3:A; OS 9.1, Altivec and OS X

id Software's Graeme Devine has updated his .plan with an update on the Mac version of the Quake III: Arena 1.27 point release. Devine notes that a new build will be released once he clears up issues with OS 9.1, and that the Altivec-enhanced version of Quake III: Arena is running phenomenally. Metrowerks is currently running a new version of its compiler through Quality Assurance testing; among other things, the new version fixes a problem preventing the Altivec code in Quake III: Arena from building correctly. Finally, the Mac OS X version of Quake III: Arena will be released along with the next release of the Mac build.

Roundup: New Radeon driver, more

01/31, 12:51pm

Roundup: New Radeon driver, more

Yesterday ATI Technologies released version 1.11 of the Radeon/Rage 128 Driver, Oni Shots released a Save Game Editor for Bungie's third-person 3D action game and a new version of the popular arcade emulator was released, MacMAME 0.37b11a. We published the results of last week's poll on neglected genres and began a new one on video cards.

Diablo II 1.05 Released

01/31, 12:19pm

Diablo II 1.05 Released

Blizzard Entertainment has released Diablo II 1.05, a patch for its popular role-playing/action hybrid for the Mac and PC. The patch includes many major and minor bug fixes, improvements and balance changes; a full list of changes is available in our forums. The patch is currently only available by logging in to Battle.net within the game.

NVIDIA on The Mac Show

01/31, 12:01pm

NVIDIA on The Mac Show

NVIDIA PR Manager Jim Black, formerly a Games Partnership Manager with Apple, will make a guest appearance on tonight's The Mac Show, a weekly Internet radio show broadcasted in Quicktime, to talk about the company's new OEM partership with Apple and the GeForce2 MX. The show begins at 9 p.m. EST (6 p.m. PST) and runs for two hours.

Apple Store DVD delivery, DVD-R media

01/31, 11:52am

Apple Store DVD delivery, DVD-R media

Caleb Levesque notes that the Apple Store has pushed back delivery of BTO machines with DVD drives to mid-February (from late January). Other readers note the disappearance of DVD-R media from the Apple Store as well.

Mac OS X Pre-order news

01/31, 11:39am

Mac OS X Pre-order news

MacNN sources indicate that many resellers should begin officially taking orders for Mac OS X tomorrow. While some will be guaranteeing delivery on Saturday, March 24 (launch date), others expect to tie in the operating system's release with other promotions. Mac OS X will ship for the Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish languages simultaneously for $130.

Tech: Intel XScale processor, IBM on Linux

01/31, 11:00am

Tech: Intel XScale processor, IBM on Linux

Aternoon tech news: Intel is preparing samples of its XScale processor, as well as prototypes of the type of handheld devices, flat-panel screens and keyboards in which the chip can be used; IBM is planning to spend another $300 million on Linux--in addition to the $1 billion it has already earmarked for Linux development; and Lucent's new spin-off company will focus on producing holographic memory, which stores data throughout a material as well as on its surface.

Follow-up: AirPort, ATI drives, PC firsts

01/31, 10:53am

Follow-up: AirPort, ATI drives, PC firsts

We received many follow-up responses and reader comments on yesterday's articles, including AirPort Base Station failures, ATI's new Radeon/Rage 128 v1.1.1 driver, PC 'firsts' by Apple, state of Java on Mac OS X, cancellation of Apple's Product seminars, and info on Apple's SuperDrive, DVD Studio Pro, and iDVD.

Apple 'reorgs' Service department

01/31, 10:45am

Apple 'reorgs' Service department

MacNN sources report that Apple has substantially reorganized its service departments with layoffs coming in Service Provider support and other support departments, although the details are unclear.

New PowerBook roller case

01/31, 10:38am

New PowerBook roller case

Willow Design's $250 Inter-urban Laptop Roller Case is designed "for multi-day travellers able to pack light, or the daily commuter with too much to carry. The Inter-urban Roller fits the Powerbook with its own separate slipcase, and personal items in a covered lower level compartment. The new roller case also features a unique second bag system designed to stretch the amount you can legally and safely carry as on-board luggage."

Curious Labs releases Poser Pro Pack

01/31, 10:05am

Curious Labs releases Poser Pro Pack

Curious Labs, which last year purchased Poser from MetaCreations, has released the Poser Pro Pack, a $150 collection of plug-ins for Poser 4 that add several new features to the 3D character modeling/animation tool, including Flash export support, 3D Studio Max and Lightwave support, Web-ready characters and animations, and several other enhancements.

Apple programmers display sense of humor

01/31, 10:05am

Apple programmers display sense of humor

One MacNN reader notes that after installing the developer version QuickTime 5.0b8, a humorous QuickTime setup assistant is available: "Welcome to the QuickTime Setup Assistant. There is nothing to see here. You are looking and looking for some interesting and helpful information about what sort of things you might want to do here. But, try as you can, you run screaming because of the darkness." (Note that QuickTime 5.0b8 is only available to those developers who have the developer version of the QT updater.)

Tech: PC sales to rise, Amazon lays off...

01/31, 10:00am

Tech: PC sales to rise, Amazon lays off...

Morning tech news: Japan's PC shipments are expected to rise by 21 points during 2001; Amazon.com posted slightly better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter 2000, but said it will reduce its staff by 15 percent; and Lucent launched a new venture devoted to commercializing holographic data storage.

Roundup: Apple Design awards, ExtremeZ-IP 2.0

01/31, 9:50am

Roundup: Apple Design awards, ExtremeZ-IP 2.0

Yesterday we noted Apple product design awards, Addonic's new 8x4x24 Pocket CD-RW, Adobe's slow down warning, and Micrsoft's hiring of an Ex-Apple Exec. Other updates included Group Logic's ExtremeZ-IP 2.0 file sharing and printing software, development of the original Mac Webserver MacHTTP 2.3b1, updated Virex definitions, Carracho 1.0b1, and OS 9.1-compatible versions of BridgeIt FireWire Extension and Snitch 2.6.6.

Super Bowl champs use Macs

01/31, 8:10am

Super Bowl champs use Macs

The Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens used Apple hardware to plan game strategy, according to a Sun.spot article. "Huddled over one of the team's Macintoshes last Friday, [Trent] Dilfer asked the computer to show him every time the Giants blitzed the opposing quarterback during the playoffs. Instantly, the clips were dredged from the Ravens' vast digital archive and projected onto the wall."

ARM Holdings reports earnings

01/31, 8:10am

ARM Holdings reports earnings

Micrporcessor manufacturer ARM Holdings reported fourth quarter earnings of £10.1 million, a 53% year-over-year increase, on revenues of £29.8 million, a 58% year-over-year increase. Apple, which played a major role in forming the company in 1990, has routinely been selling its shares of ARM since the company went public in 1998. Apple, which initially owned nearly 90 million shares of ARM, stated last quarter that it still holds about 31 million shares, worth nearly $700 million based on today's market value.

SuSE Linux 7.1 PowerPC due in March

01/31, 8:05am

SuSE Linux 7.1 PowerPC due in March

SuSE Linux 7.1 for PowerPC, which features the new 2.4 kernel, will ship in March. The software will include 5 CDs, a 450 page guide, and a boot CD. SuSE Linux 7.1 for Intel begins shipping Feb. 12.

MacDesktops: 14 new photos

01/31, 8:05am

MacDesktops: 14 new photos

During the past week, MacDesktops has posted 14 pictures, including common buzzard (fauna), galaxy figure (art), Heather Graham (portraits) and intergalactic (art).

FontDoctor 4.5 now shipping

01/31, 2:45am

FontDoctor 4.5 now shipping

FontDoctor 4.5, now available from Morrison SoftDesign, adds expanded font repair routines and new font clean-up features to the $70 utility for font diagnosis and repair.

Jam 2.6.2: buffer under-run, digital audio

01/31, 2:29am

Jam 2.6.2: buffer under-run, digital audio

Roxio has posted an update to its audio authoring utility Jam 2.6.2, which includes bug fixes and adds support for "BURN-Proof" and Ricoh's "JustLink" (buffer under-run protection) technologies on compatible drives as well as Digital Audio playback under Mac OS 9.

Apple confirms Pro Keyboards ship with OS 9.1

01/31, 1:25am

Apple confirms Pro Keyboards ship with OS 9.1

Apple has updated its Apple Pro Keyboard TIL to reflect that "new keyboards ship with an OS 9.1 updater CD in the box and will not require the [OS 9.1] download," after much discussion on the issue here last week.