News Archive for 01/02/21

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Forums: Macworld Tokyo announcements

02/21, 11:55pm

Forums: Macworld Tokyo announcements

Our forums are tracking reader response to tonight's announcements, including thoughts on the GeForce3, Apple's abandonment of DVD drives, Cube price cut, and new iMac designs.

Macworld Tokyo Photo Galleries

02/21, 11:55pm

Macworld Tokyo Photo Galleries

We have posted three pre-show Macworld Tokyo Photo galleries.

iMovie 2.03 now available online

02/21, 11:10pm

iMovie 2.03 now available online

As anticipated earlier today, Apple has posted iMovie 2.03, an update to version 2.0 of its consumer movie editing software. An English-International updater is also available online.

CarbonLib 1.2.5 available via Software Update

02/21, 11:10pm

CarbonLib 1.2.5 available via Software Update

Greg Palmer notes that CarbonLib 1.2.5, previously available via the Apple Developer CarbonLib SDK, is now available to users via the Mac OS 9 Software Update Control Planel.

Keynote summary: new iMacs, Cubes; iTunes 1.1

02/21, 10:55pm

Keynote summary: new iMacs, Cubes; iTunes 1.1

In his keynote at Macworld Tokyo, Steve Jobs made several new announcements in addition to recapping announcements made at Macworld San Francisco (more details are coming and note are available on our live coverage page).

1. nVidia's GeForce 3 graphics chip will be available for the Mac first beginning in late March. It will be available as a BTO option at the Apple Store and at resellers for $600.
2. Three new iMac models with 400-, 500-, and 600-MHz G3 processors priced at $899, $1199, and $1499. The top two models ship with CD-RWs, while the low-end ships with a CD-ROM. All models all now include video out and FireWire. Apple also added new "Flower Power" and Blue Dalmation colors, while keeping only the Indigo and Graphite colors.
3. The Titanium PowerBook was introduced in Japan.
4. The price on the 450-MHz Cube dropped to $1299, while a new 450-MHz model with a CD-RW (128MB/20GB)was added for $1599.
5. Apple dropped the price on its 22" Cinema Display to $2999.
6. iTunes 1.1, now available, supports over 25 third-party CD-RW drives for burning from iTunes.
7. Apple's iTools services, which are still down, are now available in Japanese.

MacNN Macworld Tokyo Keynote Coverage

02/21, 7:00pm

MacNN Macworld Tokyo Keynote Coverage

MacNN will be covering the Macworld Expo Toyko keynote live tonight featuring Apple CEO Steve Jobs. The keynote begins at 8:00 pm EST (5:00 pm PST, 10:00 am JST).

GAS: Trade Wars First Look

02/21, 6:55pm

GAS: Trade Wars First Look

Gamer's Alliance Strategy has published the first details and screenshots of Trade Wars: Dark Millenium, a massively multiplayer real-time strategy game for the Mac, PC, Linux and console platforms.

Games: Mac games among AIAS Award Nominees

02/21, 6:45pm

Games: Mac games among AIAS Award Nominees

games.macnn.com has published an article detailing the Mac games that are among those nominated for the 4th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards. In addition, the site has an update on the Mac version of Escape from Monkey Island. [updated]

iTools currently down

02/21, 6:40pm

iTools currently down

Several MacNN readers note that Apple's iTools are down "for scheduled maintenance" just 90 minutes prior to the Macworld Expo Tokyo keynote.

Tech Tool Pro 3.0.3 enhances utility

02/21, 6:15pm

Tech Tool Pro 3.0.3 enhances utility

Micromat has made available TechTool Pro 3.0.3, which adds compatibility for the latest Power Mac G4 and PowerBook G4 systems as well as improving the utility's disk repair and diagnostic capabilities.

January 2001 Top-Selling Mac Games

02/21, 6:00pm

January 2001 Top-Selling Mac Games

PC Data's list of top-selling Mac games for January 2001 is topped by The Sims and The Sims: Livin' Large from Aspyr Media. SimCity 3000, Driver and Sim Theme Park round out the top five while titles from Infogrames-owned MacSoft, including tactical combat game Rogue Spear which came in at number seven, complete the top ten.

AIAS Awards Nominees

02/21, 5:45pm

AIAS Awards Nominees

The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences today announced the nominees for its 4th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, and we highlight the games currently or soon to be available for the Mac.

Discribe special pricing extended

02/21, 5:30pm

Discribe special pricing extended

Charismac has extended its special pricing for Discribe 4.0, its CD mastering solution, through March 9. Upgrades and competitive upgrades are available for $30, a savings of $10, while new customers and purchase the software for $75, a savings of $25. A five-burn demo is also available.

Computer City closes stores

02/21, 4:45pm

Computer City closes stores

Future Shop has announced that it will be closing down all five Computer City locations in Canada, after they failed to turn the stores around following their acquisition in Nov. 1998. Future Shop shut down its US operations a year ago, primarily due to lack of profitability which can be attributed to poor customer service. Future Shop's Canadian stores will be unaffected by this latest move. [updated]

Power On offers Action Utilities for $1

02/21, 4:30pm

Power On offers Action Utilities for $1

Power On Software is currently offering customers who purchase Rewind ($90) or Now Up-To-Date Contact ($90) a copy of Action Utilities for just $1. Action Utilities, which regularly costs $80, includes Action Files, Menus, WYSIWYG, and GoMac. Speical MacNN reader pricing on selected titles from Power On Software, including $10 off Rewind, $30 off ACTION Utilities, and and $30 off Disk Lock, expires Monday.

Kaleidoscope 2.3.1 squashes bugs

02/21, 4:00pm

Kaleidoscope 2.3.1 squashes bugs

Kaleidoscope 2.3.1 resolves several issues with the $20 shareware user interface utility, including problems with the menu bar clock under Mac OS 9.1, extended menu borders under Mac OS 8.1, and potential crashes when printing. [full install (1.8 MB), 2.3 updater (200 KB)]

Escape from Monkey Island update

02/21, 4:00pm

Escape from Monkey Island update

Westlake Interactive's Jesse Spears today told games.macnn.com that the company is very close to completing Escape from Monkey Island for the Mac with the third beta release being distributed to beta testers earlier this week. As announced today, Escape from Monkey Island has been nominated for several interactive achievement awards including Art Direction, Original Musical Composition and PC Action/Adventure Game of the Year.

Roundup: Tropico Q&A and more

02/21, 3:30pm

Roundup: Tropico Q&A and more

Yesterday id Software's Graeme Devine noted that he plans to release the latest Mac build of Quake III: Arena 1.27 later this week, Playnet's Chris "Mo" Sherland provided a status update on the development of World War II Online and MacPlay released version 1.1.2 of SiN Gold for the Mac. We published a brief Q&A with PopTop Software President Phil Steinmeyer on the company's upcoming building/strategy game, Tropico.

Trade Wars: Dark Millenium for Mac

02/21, 2:05pm

Trade Wars: Dark Millenium for Mac

Realm Interactive has announced a new massively multiplayer real-time strategy game set in a vast universe composed of thousands of players, Trade Wars: Dark Millenium. The game is based on the original Trade Wars, a turn-based strategy game popular on many early bulletin board systems (BBS). The game is expected to be released on the PC in the second half of 2001 with Mac, Linux and console versions following shortly thereafter...

BlueLight.com modifies free ISP terms

02/21, 1:15pm

BlueLight.com modifies free ISP terms

Kmart's BlueLight free Internet service, the last Mac-compatible nationwide provider of free Internet access, has announced that it will begin limiting free access to just 12 hours per month. Users can also opt to purchase a premium account for $10 per month that includes 100 hours of access. In December, BlueLight hinted that such changes to its free ISP service would arrive in February. Last week, Juno, a pioneer in free Internet service, admitted that the business model was dead and that the company was open to acquisition offers.

Details of "new Napster" emerge

02/21, 12:45pm

Details of "new Napster" emerge

As we noted yesterday, Napster has offered record labels $1 billion over five years in return for keeping the service alive. Furthermore, the company revealed details of its future business model, including a two-tiered service that would include a basic membership for $3-$5 per month with a restricted number of file transfers, and a premium membership for $6-$10 per month with an unlimited number of transfers. Expected to launch this summer, the "new Napster" would be billed as a promotional tool, limiting the bitrate of its restricted MP3s to 128 Kbps and forcing users to pay extra if they wish to burn those files to CD or MP3 players. It's unclear how this service will be implemented or if the current Napster will continue to exist, as CEO Hank Barry last month insisted it would.

White leaving games industry

02/21, 12:35pm

White leaving games industry

RPG Vault has learned that Ion Storm's Bob White, a member of the design team on Ion Storm's award-winning action/role-playing/adventure game Deus Ex, is leaving the game industry to work at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the Non-proliferation and International Security division. "It has little to do with Ion or others in the industry," says White, "but just a general dissatisfaction with what I do for a living."

Total Training for Adobe Photoshop 6 released

02/21, 12:30pm

Total Training for Adobe Photoshop 6 released

Total Training Inc. has released Total Training for Adobe Photoshop 6, a series of instructional videos presented by Photoshop guru Deke McClelland. The instructional videos are available in three series, with each consisting of four tapes and a CD for $100, or can be purchased altogether for $250. Both NTSC and PAL formats are available.

Console: UT on Dreamcast

02/21, 12:25pm

Console: UT on Dreamcast

Afternoon console news: NVIDIA's contributions to Microsoft's X-Box are vast, numerous and poised to provide the real power behind the upcoming console system; Australians shouldn't be expecting a price drop on the Dreamcast console despite heavy price reductions for residents of North America after the announcement was made that the console will cease production in March; and after its successful launch on the Playstation 2, Unreal Tournament's launch on the Dreamcast is highly anticipated due to its support for playing with up to eight players online.

Design Doc Interview

02/21, 11:55am

Design Doc Interview

Tolstiy's Place has published an interview with Ion Storm's Harvey "Witchboy" Smith, Lead Designer on Deus Ex who discusses the team's process for managing a game's design document...

MWA: Mumbo Jumbo Interview

02/21, 11:50am

MWA: Mumbo Jumbo Interview

Mythwolfage.com has published the second part of its interview with Mumbo Jumbo's Craig Goodman (Santa's Head), Paul Callender (fisj), and Richard Cowgill (iggy popped) on Myth III: The Wolf Age. "Imagine seeing 50 such characters on screen at once over open rolling terrain," says Cowgill. "And you can zoom up to a unit or terrain object and see increasing detail at any distance. Grass waves, tree branches bend, and units move totally smoothly."

Jeff Smith on The Mac Show

02/21, 11:45am

Jeff Smith on The Mac Show

Gathering of Developers PR Director Jeff Smith will be a guest tonight on The Mac Show, a weekly radio show broadcast live using streaming Quicktime. The show, which begins at 9:00 pm EST (6:00 pm PST), will also give away a G.O.D. Games Mac Pack complete with all of the company's titles for the Mac including Oni, Heavy Metal: FAKK2, Rune and more.

Madsonline announces PowerBook G4 products

02/21, 10:55am

Madsonline announces PowerBook G4 products

Madsonline has announced its PowerBook G4 line of power products, consisting of the G4 Micro Adapter, which is similar to the G3 Micro Adapter but with a smaller plug to accommodate the G4; the G4 Auto/Air adapter, which is also similar to the G3 version; and the G3 to G4 "Generation Gap" adapter, which allows power adapters from the PowerBook 1400 to the PowerBook G3 to function with the PowerBook G4. Pricing and availability for these products will be announced in March. Additionally, the company introduced the G4 Saver, a $58 1/4" neoprene sleave with nylon handles for protecting the PowerBook G4 from marks and scratches during light transport. The G4 Saver is available now. [updated]

Macworld Expo Tokyo begins at 8 PM EST

02/21, 10:30am

Macworld Expo Tokyo begins at 8 PM EST

Apple CEO Steve Jobs will kick off Macworld Expo Tokyo with his keynote at 8 PM EST this evening (10 AM JST). As noted yesterday, the keynote will not be Webcast live, but will be available for viewing as a video-on-demand archive at a later time. MacNN will bring you complete coverage of the keynote and showfloor.

Yesterday: G4/667 ship, Opera, Napster, more

02/21, 10:00am

Yesterday: G4/667 ship, Opera, Napster, more

Yesterday we noted that G4/667 systems have begun shipping, following Apple's G4/733 shipping announcement two days ago; tomorrow's release of Opera 5.0 Technical Preview 1, as well as a feature on the alternative browser; Apple's warning that some CD-RW drives in new G4 systems cannot write at speeds faster than 4x; Napster's $1 billion bid to keep the service alive; and the release of Virtual PC 4 Windows 2000.

CE Software posts first quarter loss

02/21, 9:30am

CE Software posts first quarter loss

CE Software, creators of QuicKeys and QuickMail, reported a first quarter loss of $186,000 on revenues of $494,000, down from the year-ago quarter that saw a net loss of $52,000 on revenues of $916,000. The company blamed declining sales of QuickMail for the reduced earnings, and announced that it is working on several new products that will be presented to shareholders at its annual meeting on Mar. 23.

MacDesktops: 14 new pictures in past week

02/21, 8:00am

MacDesktops: 14 new pictures in past week

In the past week MacDesktops has posted 14 new desktop pictures, including: Oh so fast... (PowerBook G4), Opal Creek (Landscapes - Nature), and Seattle, Washington (Landscapes - Urban). Two new pictures are posted daily.

MacHack announces third keynote speaker

02/21, 8:00am

MacHack announces third keynote speaker

MacHack has announced the addition of a third keynote speaker for its 2001 conference, Bruce Horn, who was responsible for the design an implementation of the original Mac Finder, Resource manager, clipboard, and other underlying features of the Mac OS. Horn will join Andy Hertzfeld and Guy "Bud" Tribble for the keynote, two other members of the original Macintosh development team. MacHack 2001 takes place June 21, 2001 in Dearborn, MI and runs for 72 hours non-stop.

MGI Forms Processor WebStar plug-in posted

02/21, 8:00am

MGI Forms Processor WebStar plug-in posted

PagePlanet Software has posted MGI Forms Processor, a WebStar plug-in that enables forms-to-email functions. The plug-in can validate the syntax of an email address, includes mgiPGP encryption, and other features. The $100 software is compatible with both Mac and Windows.

Tech: Motorola acquires Blue Wave, more...

02/21, 8:00am

Tech: Motorola acquires Blue Wave, more...

Early morning tech news: Motorola will acquire Blue Wave Systems, a maker of high performance digital signal processor (DSP) solutions; growth in PocketPC sales grew in January while Palm/Handspring sales fell; and Sony, Sega, and Namco have created an alliance where Sony will develop methods to distribute game content over fiber-optic cables to arcades run by Sega and Namco.