News Archive for 01/02/08

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ADC Members to receive OS X for free

02/08, 9:55pm

ADC Members to receive OS X for free

An Apple developer writes that all ADC members are due copy of OS X when it ships on March 24 as well as pre-release GM copy: "I just got my February Mailout. With it was a letter saying that all paid members of the ADC are getting a copy of OSX for free. They said it was going to mail on 24 March. In addition, they are promising at least one Pre-GM seeding in an e-mail I received last night. I suppose I can't say anymore without breaching my NDA (mind you, I don't know anything more...)"

WildPackets adds Mac networking courses

02/08, 8:30pm

WildPackets adds Mac networking courses

WildPackets Academy, formerly known as AG Group, will add two new courses in Q2 2001 to its existing four courses on network analysis training and the Network Analysis Expert (NAX) Certification Program. The WP-106 "Wireless Network Protocol Analysis" course will cover detailed protocol behavior and troubleshooting methods for wireless implementations while the WP-105 "AppleShare IP and Mac OS/X Protocol Analysis Methods" course will teach internal Apple protocol operations.

VueScan 6.7 offers improved cleaning

02/08, 8:25pm

VueScan 6.7 offers improved cleaning

VueScan 6.7 is a new version of the utility for film scanners that offers improved cleaning, decreased ScanWit scan time, the ability to run the program without a SCSI adapter and other bug fixes and improvements.

SIIA settles in piracy case

02/08, 8:15pm

SIIA settles in piracy case

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) has announced that a settlement has been reached in a software piracy case filed on the behalf of Adobe, Alias|Wavefront and Macromedia against Julian Kish of Chicago, IL. The settlement includes a confidential payment for the unlawful distribution of software, a letter of public apology and an order not to infringe copyright in the future. The settlement comes on the heels of an SIIA sting operation to crack down on pirates that have been data-mining e-mail addresses from bidders on popular auction sites. (A recently published SIAA white paper, available in PDF format, explains to consumers how to recognize pirates offering illegal software for sale.)

Cleaner 5 v5.0.2 adds support for DP Macs

02/08, 7:35pm

Cleaner 5 v5.0.2 adds support for DP Macs

Terran Interactive has released Cleaner 5 v5.0.2, an update to its streaming media authoring tool that is specifically designed for users who are having difficulty creating MPEG-1 files compatible with Adaptec Toast and users running Cleaner 5 on dual-processor Power Macs.

Tech: Next generation of robotic toys

02/08, 7:30pm

Tech: Next generation of robotic toys

Evening tech news: 12 million people surfed the Net using high speed Internet access in December, according to Neilsen/NetRatings, which is up 148 percent over the year-ago period; handheld computers such as Palms and Handspring Visors are becoming a valued tool for doctors that are put to work in all phases of health care; Dell has cut back its temporary work force dramatically with layoffs of permanent workers expected in the near future; and a new generation of robotic toys made their debut at the American International Toy Fair which will tell jokes, sing round-robin with their robotic friends and plug itself in for a recharge when its batteries are running low.

Smith Micro reports revenue growth of 66%

02/08, 6:50pm

Smith Micro reports revenue growth of 66%

Smith Micro Software reported its fifth consecutive quarter of revenue growth, with net revenues for the quarter ended Dec. 31, of $4.1 million, an increase of 66 percent from the same quarter last year. Macintosh revenue for the company increased from $1.4 million in 1999 to $1.6 million in 2000.

Digital Media, PrintStaff offer GATF-approved

02/08, 6:45pm

Digital Media, PrintStaff offer GATF-approved

Digital Media Inc. and PrintStaff have partnered to launch a new co-branded Web site. Users can take GATF-approved testing, assessment and training processes for their specific skill sets either online or at the testing center at PrintStaff in Boston. Those who take the DMI tests will be automatically moved to the top of the Availibility List or "A-List."

Guy Kawasaki keynotes CCVF

02/08, 6:40pm

Guy Kawasaki keynotes CCVF

Garage.com CEO and an Apple Fellow Guy Kawasaki will deliver the keynote address May 17, in Santa Barbara at the Central Coast Venture Forum. The all-day conference unites emerging growth companies in four California counties with venture investors from around the country.

Radeon excels in 32-bit

02/08, 6:15pm

Radeon excels in 32-bit

Performance testing of the Radeon 32MB DDR graphics card on a PC has revealed that it has 3D performance equal or superior to the 32MB DDR GeForce 2 at 32-bit settings, according to [h]ard/ocp. Reader Graham Fair says, "This bodes well for the state of performance of graphics on the Mac - now with MacOS, and even more so when OSX ships. Also, the test system was a 1 GHz Pentium 3 with PC133 RAM, so current PowerMac G4 hardware with AltiVec optimization may give even the Intel hardware setup a run for its money."

FPS Realism in World War II Online

02/08, 6:06pm

FPS Realism in World War II Online

World War II Online HQ has posted bits and pieces of information on the first-person mode of World War II Online, the persistent online war combat game which includes combat on ground, air and water. The information reinforces the lengths to which the developers are going to provide realism in the game...

Q3:A Eternal Arena 3.8 Released

02/08, 5:58pm

Q3:A Eternal Arena 3.8 Released

Eternal 3.8 is a new version of the mod for Quake III: Arena that combines a variety of features from other mods. The new version brings with it the return of the flamethrower, the ability to completely customize the attributes of each weapon, a new "Hunted gamemode and more.

Apple CarbonLib 1.2.5f3 prerelease posted

02/08, 4:55pm

Apple CarbonLib 1.2.5f3 prerelease posted

Apple has posted the latest prerelease version of the CarbonLib 1.2.5 SDK for Mac OS for all Apple Developer Connection members. This SDK provides all the files needed to begin Carbon development. CarbonLib 1.2.5 supports Mac OS 8.6 and greater.

Window Monkey 1.3.1 has bug fixes

02/08, 4:50pm

Window Monkey 1.3.1 has bug fixes

Tiger Technologies has released Window Monkey 1.3.1, a $20 shareware program that adds customizable background patterns to Finder windows and gives users a handy window navigation menu. It fixes a problem when using PopChar with Mac OS 9.1, fixes a conflict with recent versions of GraphicConverter, and adds new options and patterns.

Q3Colors 1.0 Released

02/08, 4:09pm

Q3Colors 1.0 Released

Q3Colors 1.0 is the initial release of a mod for Quake III: Arena that gives players colors that determine which players can be killed. Colors are changed throughout the game at random intervals, which means that each player will have some time as both the hunter and the hunted.

Macworld Expo Tokyo coverage begins

02/08, 3:50pm

Macworld Expo Tokyo coverage begins

Our Macworld Expo Tokyo coverage begins with four pre-expo reports with information regarding Tokyo, for those attending the Expo. As we noted back in October, Apple CEO Steve Jobs will present the keynote on February 22 at 10 AM local time (February 21, 8 PM EST).

Ubi Soft acquires Blue Byte

02/08, 3:46pm

Ubi Soft acquires Blue Byte

Ubi Soft Entertainment today announced the acquisition of German video game firm Blue Byte Software. The acquisition will not affect any Blue Byte games currently in development, according to Ubi Soft Corporate Communications Manager Cassie Vogel, including Dragon's Lair 3D, an adventure game being developed by Dragonstone Software for the Mac and PC.

Mac Oni in Europe

02/08, 2:38pm

Mac Oni in Europe

Feral Interactive, a UK-based Mac publisher which has released titles such as Sim Theme Park for the Mac, has announced that it has acquired the rights to publish Oni for the Mac in Europe and Australia, according to IMG. The company will be publishing French, German, Spanish and Italian versions of the game and will post more information on its web site on Valentine's Day, February 14.

Oni Comic Issue #0

02/08, 2:28pm

Oni Comic Issue #0

Dark Horse Comics, which teamed up with Rockstar Games to create a comic series based on Bungie's third-person 3D action game Oni, has posted the entire issue #0 online. The issue was bundled with several video game magazines and is not available elsewhere.

GC: Railroad Tycoon II

02/08, 1:30pm

GC: Railroad Tycoon II

We have added Railroad Tycoon II, the building/strategy game from PopTop Software, to our Game Center.

Games: Neverwinter Nights Update, more

02/08, 12:30pm

Games: Neverwinter Nights Update, more

games.macnn.com has posted information on the upcoming beta test sign-up for a massively multiplayer online role-playing game for the Mac and an update on the development of Bioware's unique role-playing game, Neverwinter Nights.

MPLAY 1.6 offers MP3 mixing and conversions

02/08, 12:25pm

MPLAY 1.6 offers MP3 mixing and conversions

MPLAY 1.6 is a $10 shareware multimedia player for the Macintosh that supports a wide range of media formats that can be used as an MP3 mixer, an audio/midi player, a videoplayer and an image viewer (with support for automated fullscreen slideshows) and includes playlist features, a built-in ID3-tag Editor, and several free tools for MP3-to-AIFF and MP3-to-WAV conversion.

Mac/Toast Hybrid CD-Driver 1.0

02/08, 12:25pm

Mac/Toast Hybrid CD-Driver 1.0

Jason Greene notes a new Mac/Toast Hybrid CD-Driver 1.0 that allows you (1) have only one driver installed for both your Apple CD-ROM drive and your Toast-compatible CD-R drive and (2) record Mac CD-ROMs from which you can boot in your Apple CD-ROM as well as your Toast-compatible CD-R drive.

Mac Shadowbane Testing

02/08, 12:14pm

Mac Shadowbane Testing

Crossroads of Shadowbane has posted a log from a recent chat with Wolfpack Studios, developer of massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Shadowbane, following the company's announcement that it had begun phase 1 of its beta test. Notably, the test only included PC users, but Wolfpack representatives that Mac users will be included in the near future. "We'll be making another beta signup announcement for Mac players very soon."

Server Sentinal 2.0: server monitor updated

02/08, 12:10pm

Server Sentinal 2.0: server monitor updated

Intelli Innovations today released Server Sentinel 2.0, a "major" upgrade to its $30 server monitoring and notification application that features a new, rewritten engine for checking server uptime and other service status. Version 2.0 has the ability to create multiple failure and multiple notification events, includes a built-in HTTP and TCP/IP error database for reference, a built-in TCP client for testing, and failure verification. A demo version is available online. [product link added]

RPG Vault: Summoner Elements

02/08, 12:01pm

RPG Vault: Summoner Elements

RPG Vault's latest Summoner Elements of the Week include the Red Minotaur equipped with a large double-ended battle axe, The Devastator and The Lagaros Longsword. "Known for its great slashing abilities, the Blade Tur Hassen is the ancestral blade to the Lords of Logaros."

PowerBook G4 delays: BTO, European delivery

02/08, 11:55am

PowerBook G4 delays: BTO, European delivery

One day after we reported limited retail availability (and delays to mail order resellers), readers are (again) reporting delays of their Titanium PowerBook G4s, including BTO orders placed on January 9th and delivery of the PowerBook G4 in Europe....

MSNBC: "AOL should harvest Apple"

02/08, 11:50am

MSNBC: "AOL should harvest Apple"

Elliot Zaret of MSNBC writes that AOL should harvest Apple, which it says would be a good fit for the media giant: "The biggest thing AOL needs that it doesn’t have is a media player to call its own. And Apple has perhaps the best one out there in QuickTime."

Release 4 of FutureBASIC^3 environment

02/08, 11:50am

Release 4 of FutureBASIC^3 environment

Pix & Mix have announced Release 4 of FutureBASIC^3, which offers performance enhancements and improvements in floating point operations and other operations in Statz Software's BASIC programming environment. Release 4 also introduces two new tools to assist programmers in analysing code, to seek out and smooth out bottlenecks, and so tighten the final object code. FB^3 is sold as an annual subscription for 202 euros (new) or 140 euros (renewal), which includes Technical Support, access to online resources and regular updates throughout the year. US, French, Italian and German versions are available on the CD.

NWN: Dec./Jan. Update

02/08, 11:47am

NWN: Dec./Jan. Update

Bioware's Trent Oster, Producer on Neverwinter Nights, has provided an update on the status of the 3D role-playing game in the areas of programming, design and art. "It's hard to fathom the sheer volume of content we have already created for Neverwinter," says Oster. "One of our artists has created no fewer than 1,720 different in-game weapon icons, all by himself."

IGN: John MacQueen Interview

02/08, 11:41am

IGN: John MacQueen Interview

pc.ign.com has published an interview with the founder and COO of Cornered Rat Software, John MacQueen, on the company's upcoming massively multiplayer online war combat game, World War II Online. MacQueen explains how players would have to carefully coordinate the takeover of a city...

GS: Jason Scott Interview

02/08, 11:40am

GS: Jason Scott Interview

Volition's Jason Scott, scriptwriter on 3D role-playing game Summoner, is the subject of an interview in part one of GameSpot's feature on the game. Scott admits that an early decision by him to include a large amount of Non-Player Characters (NPCs) turned out to be a major pain over the life of the project. "...the task of tracking hundreds of NPCs through dozens of script tables turned out to be a nightmare," says Scott. "The overall effect was successful and unlike anything seen before in an RPG, but I'm never going there again."

CNN includes PB G4 in Technogadgets roundup

02/08, 10:20am

CNN includes PB G4 in Technogadgets roundup

CNN's latest Technogadgets roundup includes the PowerBook G4: "that widescreen does more than just let you view two browser windows side-by-side. It also delivers DVD motion pictures in a widescreen format. Fire this thing up on the next plane you're on and you can forget the in-flight movie. Heck, you can entertain the whole cabin." An included poll asks which one you would want to take on your next flight.

DealNN: 19" CRT for $300, USB CD-RW for $180

02/08, 10:20am

DealNN: 19" CRT for $300, USB CD-RW for $180

Today's bargains at DealNN include a 19-inch Samsung SyncMaster 955DF monitor for $300, Power On's Rewind software for $80 and Iomega 4x4x6x USB CD-RW for $180.

Round up: Netscape 6.01, QT Preview 3

02/08, 10:15am

Round up: Netscape 6.01, QT Preview 3

Yesterday we noted the release of Netscape 6.01, closures of Mac shops in Boston and Northern Ireland, QuickTime Preview 3 seed to developers, a special $100 pre-order for OS X and a review of Intego's NetBarrier 2.0. Other updates include Aladdin's DragStrip 3.7.2, NameCleaner 2.1, and EasyFractal 2.0.

Roundup: Marathon Rubicon and more

02/08, 10:00am

Roundup: Marathon Rubicon and more

Yesterday DAMN Gamer released new Mac mods for Rogue Spear and Rainbow Six, new details emerged from the development team working on Myth III: The Wolf Age and a massive new scenario for Marathon Infinity was announced, Marathon Rubicon.

SuSE Linux operations staff gets cut

02/08, 9:25am

SuSE Linux operations staff gets cut

SuSE's US operation today laid off roughly three-fourths of its staff, paring the unit down to a skeleton crew of 12. (The PowerPC version of SuSE Linux 7.1 was scheduled to be released in March.)

CD Folder Partitioner 1.04 segments files

02/08, 9:20am

CD Folder Partitioner 1.04 segments files

Tri-Edre has posted CD Folder Partitioner 1.04, a $20 utility that automatically reorganizes large folders' contents into smaller pieces for copying onto CD-Rs and Zips. This version adds the ability to segment big files into multiple files, offers a stand-alone segmenting feature and adds a stand-alone regrouping feature. It is available in English and French.

RedHawk demoes Video Pics stand-alone

02/08, 9:05am

RedHawk demoes Video Pics stand-alone

RedHawk Vision will demonstrate a stand-alone developmental Macintosh version of Video Pics during the Photo Marketing Association 2001 Conference and Trade Show, Feb. 11 to 14. This product will allow for extraction and production of 35mm-quality photographs from digital video sources without relying on a third-party software.

Textissimo 3.0: Photoshop text plug-in

02/08, 8:40am

Textissimo 3.0: Photoshop text plug-in

HumanSoftware is now shipping Textissimo 3.0, which brings a new interface, larger previews, and unlimited zoom to its $130 special effects plug-in for Photoshop 3.0-compatible applications. It allows users to apply special effects on Photoshop's alpha channel and directly manipulate outline paths or text (TrueType fonts). Version 3.0 also adds has more than 750 effects and the ability to tune many parameters of each to create a new plug-in. A 25% discount is available being offered as part of an "introductory offer."

Tech: Nvidia mobile chips, unified IM...

02/08, 8:30am

Tech: Nvidia mobile chips, unified IM...

Morning tech news: Nvidia is slated to launch two additional models to its GeForce2Go mobile graphics line next week: the 100 and 200 models with "smaller parts," unchanged peak wattage (2.8), but with less memory than ATI's Mobility Radeon chip; Yahoo and Microsoft are part of a number of the IMUnified group of companies that will soon use a unified IM protocol in their instant messaging services to pull market share away from AOL; and Intel's open-source security library for peer-to-peer applications includes support for digital certificates, peer authentication, secure storage, public key encryption, digital signatures, and symmetric key encryption.

MacHack 2001: Keynote announced

02/08, 8:25am

MacHack 2001: Keynote announced

MacHack: The Annual Conference for Leading Edge Developers, scheduled for June 21-23, 2001, has announced its keynote panel, made up of some of Apple's original team members...

PictureIQ releases PhotoTools 2.0

02/08, 8:20am

PictureIQ releases PhotoTools 2.0

PictureIQ Corp. has released PhotoTools 2.0, server-based photo-editing and creativity tool suite that includes user-controlled "freeform" cropping, one-click cropping to industry-standard print-aspect ratios and an enhanced red-eye removal option. There is a demo available.