News Archive for 01/05/01

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AirPort 1.3.1 available on Web, changes noted

05/01, 8:35pm

AirPort 1.3.1 available on Web, changes noted

Apple has posted AirPort 1.3.1 (as well as the English International version), after first making it available via the Software Update Control Panel yesterday. The updated software brings the ability to add a network name and WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) to Computer-to-Computer mode as well as scripting functionality (along with sample AppleScripts to switch network setups for location and user-specific settings). It also adds access point density adjustments to tune performance in environments with several base stations close to each other.

Opera PR2 expiration looms

05/01, 7:10pm

Opera PR2 expiration looms

Opera PR3 replaces the Preview 2 of the alternative browser for the Mac, which expires tonight. [updated]

Stuffit Deluxe 6.0 in German

05/01, 7:05pm

Stuffit Deluxe 6.0 in German

Aladdin Systems has released a German version of Stuffit Deluxe 6.0, the company's popular file compression/decompression utility for Mac and Mac OS X. The software features the company's ArchiveSearch and ReturnReceipt technology, which notifies an e-mail sender when the recipient has unstuffed the attached archive.

Mint Audio 1.0PR1 released

05/01, 6:15pm

Mint Audio 1.0PR1 released

Mint Audio 1.0 Preview Release 1 is the initial public release of Unsanity's lightweight MP3 and audio player for Mac and Mac OS X. Mint Audio features a "non-obstructive interface," skin support, playback for over 30 audio formats, automatic cross-fading, and a hierarchal playlist.

Button Builder 2.0 aids in web design

05/01, 6:10pm

Button Builder 2.0 aids in web design

RealMac Software has released Button Builder 2.0, a new version of its $10 Carbonized application for creating "cool buttons" for web site and multimedia projects. Button Builder 2.0 features 26 new buttons, full control of text and shadows, an improved button plug-in system, and more.

Eastman Kodak buys Ofoto.com

05/01, 5:55pm

Eastman Kodak buys Ofoto.com

Eastman Kodak has purchased online digital photography company Ofoto.com for an undisclosed amount. Apple, among other high profile companies, has invested millions in Ofoto.com, and some believed that Apple would incorporate technology from the company into a new multimedia application. Eastman Kodak will retain Ofoto's current management team and operate the company as a wholly-owned subsidiary.

VueScan 7.0.16 expands scanner support

05/01, 5:45pm

VueScan 7.0.16 expands scanner support

VueScan 7.0.16—a scanning utility that performs batch scanning, color balancing, and cropping adjustments—adds improved color correction on some scanners, support for frame offset and APS adapter on LS-40/LS-4000, support for the HP 5200C and support for older 3-pass Microtek scanners.

Diablo II: Lord of Destruction highlights

05/01, 5:40pm

Diablo II: Lord of Destruction highlights

Blizzard Entertainment has recently been showcasing some of the new elements that will be included in Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, the expansion set to its award-winning action/role-playing game Diablo II. Some of the new features include weapon swapping, charms, runes, rune sets, enhanced hirelings, jewels, and crafted items. The game is expected to be released this summer for the Mac.

2001 iBook: A closer look

05/01, 4:00pm

2001 iBook: A closer look

We have posted a feature on the all-new iBook that takes a closer look at its features and form factor.

Apple posts OS X 10.02 update, iTunes 1.1.1

05/01, 3:20pm

Apple posts OS X 10.02 update, iTunes 1.1.1

Apple has released the Mac OS X 10.0.2 update (Build 4P12) [15.3MB] as well as iTunes 1.1.1 for Mac OS X. Mac OS X 10.0.2 adds support for CD burning, a new version of ftpd and overall improved application stability. The new international version of iTunes requires Mac OS X 10.0.2 for CD burning and full screen visuals. Both updates are also available from the Software Update panel in Mac OS X.

2+ GHz in IBM PowerPC roadmap

05/01, 2:50pm

2+ GHz in IBM PowerPC roadmap

Graham Fair notes that IBM has unveiled its updated PowerPC roadmap that includes some surprising plans for the chip's future: "Included in the roadmap are targets for 2 GHz PowerPC chips, scaling to 0.1 Micron and beyond, but most interestingly... an announced SIMD unit. That indicates IBM may be licensing AltiVec from Motorola after all, or designing their own unit. Such an announcement bodes well for Apple; either Apple will have two AltiVec suppliers, and IBM with significantly more advanced fab technology than Motorola, or Apple will have an alternative SIMD unit to AltiVec, possibly with different capabilities or better performance."

Apple announces new iBook, OS X update

05/01, 1:50pm

Apple announces new iBook, OS X update

At this morning's media event, Apple made several announcements:

• New iBooks with a new form factor; all feature 500 MHz PowerPC G3s and are priced at $1,299 (CD), $1,499 (DVD), $1,599 (CD-RW), and $1,799 (DVD/CD-RW)
• Apple is the leader in education laptop sales and education wireless
• Apple has shipped more than 500,000 AirPort cards and base stations in total
• Apple has secured a deal to sell 23,000 new iBooks to Henrico County Public Schools in Richmond, VA—the largest educational laptop order in history
• A Mac OS X update is due later today that will add support for CD burning and other improvements

Thoth 1.2.0 improves OS X newsreader

05/01, 1:15pm

Thoth 1.2.0 improves OS X newsreader

Thoth 1.2.0 is a new version of the Carbonized $25 shareware newsreader from the creator of YA-NewsWatcher. The new version includes support for multiple servers, support for extended format news URLs, LaunchServices support under OS X, thread navigation shortcut keys, support for long filenames under OS X, and additional improvements and bug fixes.

American McGee's Alice pre-orders

05/01, 1:10pm

American McGee's Alice pre-orders

Aspyr Media today began accepting pre-orders for American McGee's Alice, the third-person 3D action-adventure game that takes advantage of the Quake III engine. Pre-orders for the game, which will be Carbonized for use on Mac OS X and is expected to be released later this month, are $50 and come with Prima's Official Strategy Guide for free.

Analog 5.0 gets OS X-friendly

05/01, 12:35pm

Analog 5.0 gets OS X-friendly

Analog 5.0, the free web server log analysis tool from Stephen Turner, is now Carbonized for native use on Mac OS X. Other additions to the new version include pie charts, support for compressed Zip files, twelve new reports, and other minor changes and improvements.

Sony unveils second-generation Clie

05/01, 12:15pm

Sony unveils second-generation Clie

Sony today introduced its second-generation Clie handheld, the PEG-N710C. The device represents the first Palm OS-based handheld to feature a 320x320 color screen and an integrated MP3 player, complete with headphones and an in-line remote controller. The new Clie features 8MB of internal memory as well as an 8MB Memory Stick for use with the built-in Memory Stick slot. The device will ship in June for "less than $500." Sony's Clie lacks Mac support out of the box, however, and requires the purchase of a $30 "Mac Pack" for compatibility.

Hotline 1.8.5 waiting in the wings

05/01, 9:45am

Hotline 1.8.5 waiting in the wings

Hotline Communications is getting ready to launch Hotline 1.8.5, according to a Web page on the company's site. With version 1.8.5, Hotline will offer a banner-less version of the software for $13 that also comes with an enhanced toolbar. Improvements over version 1.8.4, which will be found in both the free and paid versions of the software, include confirmation quit/disconnect notices, recoverable private messages, and bug fixes.

IBM unveils 'carbon' processor technology

05/01, 9:30am

IBM unveils 'carbon' processor technology

IBM has unveiled a new processor manufacturing process using carbon nanotubes that could significantly enhance the speed of processors, including the PowerPC.

EZQuest ships new, high-speed FireWire drives

05/01, 9:20am

EZQuest ships new, high-speed FireWire drives

EZQuest is shipping its Cobra+ Firewire Hard Drives, offering a 7,200rpm drive mechanism with burst transfer rates of up to 38MB/sec and sustained rates of 34MB/sec. It is available for $250 (20GB), $300 (40GB), $360 (60GB) and $500 (75GB). All drives are shipping with a "Pro-Mar" exterior, internal auto switching power supply, 6" Firewire cable, the EZQuest EZ Start Up Kit, Intech's Speed Tools Format/Raid software and a 3 year warranty.

May Virus Definitions for Virex, VirusBarrier

05/01, 9:20am

May Virus Definitions for Virex, VirusBarrier

May Virus definitions have been posted for Virex [2.0] and VirusBarrier [477KB], but have not surfaced for Symantec's NAV (see ftp site).

PowerLogix offers rebate on iForce G3 upgrade

05/01, 9:09am

PowerLogix offers rebate on iForce G3 upgrade

PowerLogix today annnounced a $50 rebate on the purchase of its iForce G3/400MHz upgrade ($280) for Rev A-D iMacs. The promotion runs through the end of May.

OS X: 'sudo' buffer-overflow, OmniWeb 4.0rc

05/01, 9:00am

OS X: 'sudo' buffer-overflow, OmniWeb 4.0rc

osx.macnn.com has a workaround for a buffer-security problem with root access on OS X as well as notes on the release of OmniWeb 4.0rc1 (and other announcements as well).

Toast 5 to support new DVD-RAM/DVD-R drive

05/01, 9:00am

Toast 5 to support new DVD-RAM/DVD-R drive

Roxio has announced that Toast 5 will support Panasonic's new DVD-RAM/DVD-R combo drive when it ships later this quarter. The drive is expected to sell for under $1,000.

Apple press event begins at 10 am PDT

05/01, 9:00am

Apple press event begins at 10 am PDT

Today's invitation-only Apple press event begins at 10 AM PT at Apple's Town Hall in Cupertino, where Apple is expected to make new announcements. Macworld UK speculates that Education will be a major focus, noting that Apple may outline its strategy of where the recent acquisition of PowerSchool fits into the picture, and developments regarding the Apple Learning Series (ALS) suite of software. Other speculation has centered around the possibility of an Apple Retail Store announcement or a revised "Ti-style" iBook.

Patch for 'sudo' buffer-overflow error

05/01, 9:00am

Patch for 'sudo' buffer-overflow error

Scott Anguish has posted an installer (as well as command-line upgrade instructions) for addressing a buffer-overflow error with Apple's command line 'sudo' command, which is "used for authenticating as root without needing to actually enable the root account...Note that it doesn't use Apple's Installer.app. I've written my own (to be released shortly)."

QuickTime Live! set for October 8-11

05/01, 9:00am

QuickTime Live! set for October 8-11

Apple's annual QuickTime Live! conference will take place October 8-11 this year at the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel in California. The event is billed as the premier conference for QuickTime professionals and is usually accompanied by several Apple/QuickTime announcements, such as the introduction of QuickTime 5 at least year's conference.

Roundup: new Apple VP, QT 5, AirPort 1.3.1

05/01, 8:55am

Roundup: new Apple VP, QT 5, AirPort 1.3.1

Yesterday we noted Apple's new VP of Developer Relations, 1.5 million downloads of QuickTime 5, availability of AirPort 1.3.1 via the Software Update Control Panel, HP's wireless print server, new Lexmark printers, Fortune's look at Steve Jobs, and Adobe's certification of video capture cards for Premiere 6.0. Other recent important updates include VST FireWire 2.3.1, Apple's Carbon 1.3.1 SDK, DiskLock 4.6.5, Palm Desktop 2.6.3, Interarchy 4.1, and OmniWeb 4.0rc1 (on osx.macnn.com).

DVIator connects ADC monitors to DVI Macs

05/01, 8:55am

DVIator connects ADC monitors to DVI Macs

Dr. Bott today announced the DVIator for ADC, which connects Apple's ADC-based flat-panel displays to any computer with a compatible DVI video signal as well as allows the use of multiple ADC displays on ADC G4s. The $150 device is due in May.

Sleep Monitor 1.0 logs power changes

05/01, 8:55am

Sleep Monitor 1.0 logs power changes

DssW has released Sleep Monitor 1.0, a scriptable application designed to monitor and log changes in the power state of your Mac, including "start-ups, shut downs, wake ups, sleep, doze, low power warnings, low power emergency sleep, low power emergency shut down, revoked sleep, processor cycling, start up timer, wake up timer and idle time settings."

Tech: AT&T raises cable prices, XP delays...

05/01, 8:30am

Tech: AT&T raises cable prices, XP delays...

Morning tech news: AT&T will raise the cost of its cable Internet service by $6 per month effective June 1; Analysts say Microsoft may miss its Summer launch date for Windows XP, possibly postponing the operating system until later this year or even next year; Earthlink has added satellite broadband to its services, but without Mac support; and Dell, which layed off 1,700 people in February, may lay off 3,000-5,000 more according to analysts.

Licensing dongle provides OS X support

05/01, 2:25am

Licensing dongle provides OS X support

Rainbow Technologies announced OS X support for the company's Sentinel Eve3 software security solution, which provides software application security for OS X applications via an USB security key.

MultiEcart 1.1: international ecommerce app

05/01, 2:15am

MultiEcart 1.1: international ecommerce app

MultEcart 1.1 is a multilingual ecommerce solution/ Web Server that does not require the use of Unicode: "This key feature overcomes the inherent shortcoming of Unicode based solutions, by allowing merchants to seamlessly import and export information between MultEcart and their existing localized POS system." It supports Simplified and Traditional Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean and Thai. Support for Italian, Portuguese and Spanish is due by June 1, 2001.

AutoCat 3.0: catalog, track, organize files

05/01, 2:10am

AutoCat 3.0: catalog, track, organize files

Kebawe's AutoCat 3.0 is a $15 drag & drop application that can catalog any mounted or networked volume and track/organize files by type.

Xicons: two new sets of OS X icons

05/01, 2:00am

Xicons: two new sets of OS X icons

Xicons has resumed regular posting with two new sets of icons for Mac OS X: Coral Reef and MM App Folders.

UpdateAgent X offers Classic, Carbon updates

05/01, 2:00am

UpdateAgent X offers Classic, Carbon updates

Insider Software today announced the release of UpdateAgent X, a new version of its software updating service for OS X. The service currently only provides updates to both Classic and Carbon applications, however, a free update with support for Cocoa applications will made to registered in the future, according to the press releaes. A free version updates system software for Mac OS 8/9 and OS X, while the $50 commercial version searches for and download updates for third-party applications.

LinuxPPC leader steps down

05/01, 1:45am

LinuxPPC leader steps down

LinuxPPC's Jason Haas today announced that he is stepping down from his position at the company, ending his leadership role in the development of the Linux platform for PowerPC-based computers: "Three or four years of trying to do as much as humanly possible will [burn you out]...The wreck I was in last year also has forced me to reevaluate a lot of things in my life. It's time for me to move on."

BW: "For Mac users, The end of innocence"

05/01, 1:40am

BW: "For Mac users, The end of innocence"

Business Week Online's "The End of Innocence" talks about how the transition to OS X leaves Mac users more prone to hackers and attacks: "OS X's heavy reliance on Unix makes Macs tempting potential targets for hackers and viruses. It's a threat Apple must do more to head off."

No plans for Carbon version of Endnote

05/01, 1:40am

No plans for Carbon version of Endnote

Noting that this is "going to be a serious issue for academics," Byron Sharp forwarded a note from ISI ResearchSoft, which says that it currently has no plans "for a native version of EndNote and OS X, however, EndNote 4 can run in the "Classic" mode of OS X. We will add your request to our suggestions database for consideration in a future release."