News Archive for 01/06/07

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Summoner reaches golden master

06/07, 7:50pm

Summoner reaches golden master

Summoner, Volition's 3D role-playing game that originally shipped with the launch of Sony's Playstation 2, has reached golden master on the Mac and will ship in two to three weeks, according to Inside Mac Games. The game will not ship with Mac OS X compatibility, but Volition plans to release an updated Carbon version shortly following the release of the game.

SuperGIF 1.5 makes GIFs smaller

06/07, 7:40pm

SuperGIF 1.5 makes GIFs smaller

Boxtop Software's SuperGIF 1.5, a $30 graphics tool that "effortlessly makes all your GIF images and animations smaller," is now more than three times faster than earlier versions and has been Carbonized for native use on Mac OS X.

Tech: NetZero and Juno Online merge ...

06/07, 7:30pm

Tech: NetZero and Juno Online merge ...

Evening tech news: 3Com has issued an earnings warning for its fourth quarter and has announced plans to discontinue its cable and DSL modem business; Handspring warned after the close of today's trading that fourth-quarter sales will check in between $60 and $65 million, roughly half the $121.3 million it told shareholders to expect in early May; and NetZero and Juno Online have agreed to merge into a new company, United Online, that will continue to offer free services under the NetZero brand and move its paid services under the Juno name.

New trial version of FILTERiT4

06/07, 7:05pm

New trial version of FILTERiT4

CValley, Inc. has released a new trial version of its Adobe Illustrator plug-in, FILTERiT4, which keeps some features active even after the trial period has expired. The plug-in allows users to add a number of unique effects to Illustrator documents.

"You Don't Know Jack" moves to TV

06/07, 6:45pm

"You Don't Know Jack" moves to TV

ABC will premiere game show "You Don't Know Jack" on Wednesday, June 20 with back-to-back shows from 8 to 9 p.m. The show will then air on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. The quiz show, hosted by Paul Reubens ("Pee-Wee's Big Adventure", "Blow") in character as Troy Stevens, is a television adaptation of the popular trivia game series for the Mac and PC from Jellyvision and Berkeley Systems.

InterMapper 3.5b6 fixes bugs in network tool

06/07, 6:30pm

InterMapper 3.5b6 fixes bugs in network tool

InterMapper 3.5b6 is a maintenance release of the popular network monitoring tool for Classic and Mac OS X. In addition, a draft manual is now available in both HTML and PDF. [Classic: 2.0 MB; Carbon: 1.6 MB]

AP loves Apple's new iBook

06/07, 5:25pm

AP loves Apple's new iBook

The Associated Press has posted a glowing review of Apple's new iBook, praising its stylish design and competitive pricing, and comparing it several times to PC desktops and laptops. "I ripped several CDs and surfed the Internet at the same time. Unlike my 733 MHz Pentium III desktop PC, the iBook with its 500 MHz PowerPC processor managed to create MP3 files without popping and clicking noises."

PhotoSite TimeSaviour 1.0: Photo galleries

06/07, 5:15pm

PhotoSite TimeSaviour 1.0: Photo galleries

PhotoSite TimeSaviour 1.0 is a freeware utility that takes a folder of images and transforms them into a web page, complete with thumbnails and HTML files.

FlexWare Accounting continues operation

06/07, 3:45pm

FlexWare Accounting continues operation

FlexWare International has contacted MacNN with information that the company is not going out of business or discontinuing FlexWare Accounting, as reported yesterday. The company is relocating its Northern California operations to its Avenue of the Stars location in West Los Angeles and plans on migrating FlexWare Accounting to Mac OS X.

TiBag: PowerBook G4, iBook carrying case

06/07, 3:35pm

TiBag: PowerBook G4, iBook carrying case

TiBag is a new $38 carrying case for Apple's PowerBook G4 and Dual USB iBook. The 11" x 14.5" x 6" TiBag is constructed with super-durable 600 Denier Polyester and features 7 organizer compartments, 3 pen pockets, a detachable cellular phone pocket, velcro and zipper seals, and an adjustable velcro shoulder strap.

Napster hires new General Counsel

06/07, 3:20pm

Napster hires new General Counsel

Music-swapping service Napster has hired Jonathan Schwartz as its general counsel, who will manage the company's ongoing legal affairs for its new membership-based service. Schwartz joins Napster from the U.S. Justice Department in Washington, D.C. where he most recently served as the Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General, serving as a senior legal and policy advisor to the Attorney General and helping manage a $21 billion agency with over 125,000 employees.

Que! LS-240 SuperDrive now shipping

06/07, 2:25pm

Que! LS-240 SuperDrive now shipping

QPS is now shipping its Que! LS-240 SuperDisk external drive, the latest-generation of its removable USB storage solution. The $180 drive, which supports 240 MB disks and the technology for reformatting 3.5 inch 1.44MB disks to store up to 32 MB, is also backwards compatible with both conventional floppies and LS120MB disks.

OS X: Toon Boom Studio Beta released

06/07, 2:05pm

OS X: Toon Boom Studio Beta released

osx.macnn.com reports on the public beta release of Toon Boom Studio for Mac OS X, an advanced drawing, inking, painting, and compositing tool for Web animation, and PowerFile's support for the new operating system. [updated]

PowerFile announces support for Mac OS X

06/07, 2:00pm

PowerFile announces support for Mac OS X

PowerFile today became the first optical storage jukebox company to announce support for Mac OS X. PowerFile will provide support for its products—including its FireWire 200-disc DVD/CD jukebox—for Mac OS X in Fall 2001.

Netatalk project seeks technical help

06/07, 1:50pm

Netatalk project seeks technical help

The Netatalk project, which publishes an open source AppleShare fileserver for Linux/Unix/OS X that provides AFP services in many popular network appliances, is seeking expertise to work around a QuarkXPress save bug that has affected and been dealt with on some other server platforms. Any individuals who can help with any technical details about the problem are urged to contact the project.

HealthEngage Asthma for Classic, Mac OS X

06/07, 1:25pm

HealthEngage Asthma for Classic, Mac OS X

FireLogic, Inc. has released HealthEngage Asthma for Classic and Mac OS X, $60 software that allows asthma sufferers to collect, store, and chart vital health information, which can aid in the treatment of the chronic illness when presented to the users' physician.

Apple tops Dell with educational win

06/07, 12:50pm

Apple tops Dell with educational win

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that the Quaker Valley School District has tentatively selected Apple over Dell as its first choice as hardware supplier. The district was one of three in Pennsylvania to receive a $2 million state grant to become a model for technology in education. All of the district's nearly 1,600 students will receive a new iBook, while every teacher will receive a PowerBook G4. School libraries will be equipped with Power Mac G4 Cubes, and Apple staff will be on hand during the first few weeks of the next school year to help implement the system. The teachers' laptops will be supplied for free by Apple, while the usual $5 million cost for the package was cut by more than half in order to seal the contract.

Lasso Summit 2001 to focus on Lasso 5

06/07, 11:50am

Lasso Summit 2001 to focus on Lasso 5

Lasso Summit 2001, scheduled for August 10-11 at Disney's Boardwalk Inn in Orlando, Florida, will focus on the new Lasso 5 product line, which was announced earlier this week.

AP: Online Music Revolution May be Over

06/07, 11:35am

AP: Online Music Revolution May be Over

The Associated Press asserts the "Online Music Revolution May be Over," as the major record labels have waited for sites such as MP3.com and Napster to lose strength and either acquire or enter into strategic alliances with the companies. Napster has dropped ninety percent in file sharing from February to May as users flock to alternative services, such as Gnutella. Users accustomed to the former Napster, where copyrighted music was freely traded between all users, are growing highly skeptical of new services being pushed by the record labels (MusicNet, set to launch this summer), which may make the process of obtaining music more difficult, more costly, and much more restrictive.

Apple VP to speak at streaming media conf.

06/07, 11:20am

Apple VP to speak at streaming media conf.

Phil Schiller, Apple's VP of Worldwide Product Marketing, will be among the keynote speakers at the Streaming Media West 2001 Conference at the Long Beach Convention Center in California on June 20-22. At the event, Streaming Media, Inc. will release findings from its second research report, "Enterprise Streaming — Return on Investment," which shows that spending on enterprise streaming is significantly higher than previously reported by analysts.

5400 rpm 48 GB HD for PowerBook G3/G4s

06/07, 11:05am

5400 rpm 48 GB HD for PowerBook G3/G4s

Trans Intl. is now shipping a 2.5-inch 48 GB 5400 rpm ATA-5 hard drive for PowerBook G3/G4s and PC notebooks. At 241 Mbit/sec, the $550 drive provides "the fastest possible data transfer rate an internal 2.5 inch drive can deliver." The drive replaces the traditional ball bearing design with a fluid dynamic bearing spindle motor technology, which significantly reduces noise. Trans Intl. provides instructions for installing the high-capacity drive into all PowerBook G3s and the PowerBook G4.

ITN uses Macs for UK election coverage

06/07, 10:50am

ITN uses Macs for UK election coverage

ITN is using iMacs and G4s to manage its general election coverage, including editing of polling-day feeds from camera crews around the UK, integration of clips into its election-day broadcasts (via a data tickertape), and preparation of data for ITN's 24-hour TV news channel and its radio-news broadcasts.

Maya for Mac due in September

06/07, 10:45am

Maya for Mac due in September

After the departure of key personnel at Alias|Wavefront, the company says it is on track to deliver Maya for the Mac by September and the departures were part of a downsizing caused by the softening economy.

Roundup: New Apple VP, Alias|Wavefront...

06/07, 10:40am

Roundup: New Apple VP, Alias|Wavefront...

Apple yesterday announced that John Brandon will join the company as VP of the America and Asia Pacific. We also noted a Mac version of :CRQ software, an exodus at AliasWavefront, and media reviews of Final Cut Pro 2.0. Other software updates included Aladdin's Spring Cleaning 4.0, DICOM Import 1.3, BetterCalc 3.4, and FunnelWeb 4.03.

Tech: Handspring trade-up, Asia sales up...

06/07, 10:30am

Tech: Handspring trade-up, Asia sales up...

Morning tech news: Handspring introduced a product trade-up program (6/8-7/1), which offers $100 toward the purchase of a Visor Edge for virtually any handheld, including Apple's discontinued Newton (details due tomorrow). BlueKite, a mobile ISP, appointed former Apple executive Robin Abrams as president and CEO (she previously served as president of the Americas and VP and GM of Apple Asia); Microsoft said that consumer affluence and increased government spending would spur its Asian sales to jump 27 percent in the financial year ending June 30.

Ptah, Rosetta shareware utils get updated

06/07, 10:25am

Ptah, Rosetta shareware utils get updated

Brian Clark's Rosetta 1.2.2 adds a file mapping editor (and a new alternatve file mapping database under OS X) to the $15 shareware utility for decoding BinHex, MacBinary, MIME Base64, uuencode files; rejoining binary files; and making some movie file repairs. He has also updated Ptah 1.2.2, his $15 shareware text and image and cataloging program. [Rosetta: 267KB, Ptah: 374KB]

Toon Boom Studio beta released for OS X

06/07, 10:00am

Toon Boom Studio beta released for OS X

Toon Boom has released a public beta of Toon Boom Studio, its advanced drawing, inking, and painting and compositing tool for Web animation.

Preflight Online supports Quark Passport

06/07, 10:00am

Preflight Online supports Quark Passport

Extensis has added support for the inspection, reporting, and collection of QuarkXPress Passport documents to Preflight Online, its online preflighting service. The update also provides functionality within the French, German and Swedish versions of Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator and on localized versions of the Mac and Windows operating systems.

Sony introduces new 4.1 megapixel camera

06/07, 9:50am

Sony introduces new 4.1 megapixel camera

Sony today introduced its 4.1 megapixel Cyber-shot DSC-S85 digital camera.

New digital photoprinters from Sony

06/07, 9:45am

New digital photoprinters from Sony

Sony also today introduced two digital photo printers, which offer photo-quality printing, borderless 4" x 6" photo prints via dye sublimation in 90 seconds.

Sapphire introduce Nozzles for Painter

06/07, 9:25am

Sapphire introduce Nozzles for Painter

Sapphire Innovations' Nozzles Pack Vol 4 is a £11 collection of Nozzles For Painter/Painter Classic/Painter3D that has over 100 new nozzles and 100 brushes that come in a variety of colorful styles and shapes.

DefaultFolder 3.1.2b1: fix for Carbon apps

06/07, 9:20am

DefaultFolder 3.1.2b1: fix for Carbon apps

A new public beta version of St. Clair Software's shareware enhancement for Open and Save dialogs, Default Folder 3.1.2b1, corrects compatibility problems with Carbon applications and the AdobePS printer driver and also improves stability of Default Folder's control strip module.

eManager 1.1: Web helper utility

06/07, 6:05am

eManager 1.1: Web helper utility

AppMac's eManager 1.1 is an IE helper utility that offers web browsing in full mode screen as well as the the ability to launch related applications and send emails with an included URL. Version 1.1 is more stable with better performances.

Online petition for Mac/Win software parity

06/07, 6:00am

Online petition for Mac/Win software parity

Lee Clifton writes that he has started an online petition asking for "a bill to be proposed that will require producers of mass consumption software (i.e. business apps, games, accessory apps, etc.) to produce for both major platforms, Mac and Windows.... I have set the petition to be sent to my state's Representative, Richard Burr (NC), and I will be adding another recipient soon."

Onadime Composer 1.4: real-time multimedia

06/07, 5:50am

Onadime Composer 1.4: real-time multimedia

Onadime Composer 1.4, a real-time multimedia authoring tool, is described as a "creative toolkit that links sound, visuals, and movement using real-time drag-and-drop programming. [it] lets you create music visuals, video effects, live performances, real-time digital art and multimedia unlike any other software on the market." It has it own proprietary Onadime Visual Link Language, a real-time digital canvas, and a live-performance system and is available for $200 in a special introductory offer. A free demo is available

TrueKeys 3.6b font utility for Classic, OS X

06/07, 5:50am

TrueKeys 3.6b font utility for Classic, OS X

UniDoc System's TrueKeys 3.6b is a beta of its font conversion utility designed to handle Chinese/Japanese/Korean TrueType fonts conversion between Windows 3.1/95/98/NT and MacOS/MacOS X platforms. It also can "add the Apple Unicode encoding table to support Apple's new Unicode imaging technology to existing fonts." [Classic, Carbon]

HexEdit 1.72: open-source file editor

06/07, 5:45am

HexEdit 1.72: open-source file editor

HexEdit 1.7.2 is an update to the open-source Mac hexadecimal file editor that handles both data and resource forks. It can handle file sizes of many Gigabytes with ease, yet has memory requirements of less than a Megabyte (with color turned off). It can compare whole files for similarities or differences and will soon be able to do so for any subset within the files."