News Archive for 01/11/14

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Programmer steps down from fink project

11/14, 10:30pm

Programmer steps down from fink project

MacNN reader Christopher Howard writes about the resignation of Christoph Pfisterer from the fink project, in part due to problems with MacGIMP, OpenOSX, forked.net and Tenon: "This is a huge blow to the MacOS X community. It shows how Mac users as a whole do not understand the OpenSource way of computing. The fink project was created and maintained as a service to the Darwin community. Unfortunately many Mac users picked up this program without an understanding of the command line, the basics of a UNIX system, and GPL requirements." The project, however, is expected to continue, as many have noted that it has gained momentum over the past few months. [updated]

Color Pal plugin for Adobe After Effects

11/14, 10:10pm

Color Pal plugin for Adobe After Effects

Electric Fish has released Color Pal for Adobe After Effects, which provides a floating palette for quick access to a user-configurable set of colors. The $20 plugin can be used with any standard eyedropper in After Effects (e.g. composition background color, all color effect controls, solid color). A 7-day trial version is available online.

Movie Magic Screenwriter 2000 for OS X

11/14, 10:05pm

Movie Magic Screenwriter 2000 for OS X

Eric Johnson writes "Movie Magic Screenwriter 2000, just came out with an upgrade to allow OSX compatibility. It’s a free download from within the program. I have a strong feeling that many OSX users will jump ship, or at least try their product... Many professionals (you’ll see their roster on the website) already have switched..." Version 4.5 is a free update to registered users of v4.0. (Final Draft, another popular screen writing software, has yet to announce OS X compatibility.)

MacPlay to ship Sacrifice on December 7th

11/14, 4:05pm

MacPlay to ship Sacrifice on December 7th

MacPlay today announced that Sacrifice will beginning shipping on December 7th. The company says the game "combines elements of genres as diverse as role-playing, strategy, and action, with a fast-paced system of resource management and spell-casting." The game will be available for both Mac OS 9 and OS X, according to an Apple game feature.

IntelliMerge 1.3: dynamic email merge app

11/14, 3:10pm

IntelliMerge 1.3: dynamic email merge app

IntelliMerge 1.3, an update to the dynamic e-mail merge software, adds faster database operations under OS X, a revised interface for many dialog boxes, and a new separate Classic version. [Classic, Carbon]

Liquid Ledger 1.0: Cocoa-native finance app

11/14, 2:55pm

Liquid Ledger 1.0: Cocoa-native finance app

Liquid Ledger 1.0 is a new personal finance package for OS X. The Cocoa-native application can manage bank accounts, track income and expenses and supports multiple currency transactions and employs a double-entry accounting engine, offering consumers a complete and reliable system for managing their financial activity. It is due in January 2002 for $40.

iScreensaver Designer 2.01 uses QT movies

11/14, 2:50pm

iScreensaver Designer 2.01 uses QT movies

iScreensaver Designer 2.01 is a maintenance release to the cross-platform screensaver editor that will convert any QuickTime-compatible movie (including MPEG, MooV, AVI, and Macromedia Flash files) into a self-contained screensaver. Licensing starts at $195; a free demo is available.

Seagull Video Player 1.0 has playlist options

11/14, 2:40pm

Seagull Video Player 1.0 has playlist options

Trinfinity Software has released Seagull Video Player 1.0, which offers video playlist and plackback features. It offers full screen feature as well as automatic size adjustment for smaller size videos, and various playback options. [Classic, Carbon]

Verbatim introduces new 32x CD-R media

11/14, 2:30pm

Verbatim introduces new 32x CD-R media

Verbatim today announced new 32x DataLifePlus CD-R discs, which use its "Super Azoä" recording dye, which the company claims is "more stable than most recording dyes and is the least affected by ultraviolet light." For improved reflectivity and maximum read/write performance, the discs' silver reflective layer is safeguarded with a dual-protective layer." The new 80-min media will begin shipping in December.

Mediafour iPod software for Windows

11/14, 2:05pm

Mediafour iPod software for Windows

Mediafour says it will soon release an XPod software package that will make the iPod work with Windows Me, 98, 95, NT 4.0, 2000 and XP.

PhotoPress 1.0 helps print digital photos

11/14, 10:35am

PhotoPress 1.0 helps print digital photos

PhotoPress 1.0 is a new $25 utility from Electric Fisih for printing digital photos. It includes support for drag & drop, several layout options, management of duplicates and various sizes, cropping functions, and native support for OS X. A 30-day trial is available.

OS X SCSI CD-RW Helper fixes bug

11/14, 10:00am

OS X SCSI CD-RW Helper fixes bug

Mac OS X SCSI CD-RW Helper, from El Gato Software, improves OS X compatibility with some SCSI-based CD-RW mechanisms: "[it] fixes a minor bug in Apple's driver for devices that support the MMC standard (Multi Media Command set). Virtually all CD-RW drives shipped in the last three years support some flavor of the MMC standard." It is available as an unsupported, freeware kernel extension and requires Roxio's toast, as Apple's DiscBurner and iTunes products do not support SCSI drives.

Screensavers use breve simulation engine

11/14, 9:55am

Screensavers use breve simulation engine

Jon Klein has released two screensavers based on the breve simulation engine, including breveWalker 1.3, in which a physically simulated creature learns to walk; and breveSwarm 1.3, the first public release, a screensaver featuring objects flocking in a 3D world.

New Word, Excel viewers/converters

11/14, 9:50am

New Word, Excel viewers/converters

Panergy today released icWord 2.0, its $20 utility that can convert Word documents to AppleWorks, RTF or text files for easy export into popular design programs as well as view Word documents. It also released icExcel 1.0, a $30 utility that can view, export and print Excel files without using Microsoft Excel. Both utilities offer WYSIWYG functionality and supports the opening, viewing, and printing of files in all European and Asian languages with the original formatting preserved. Free 30-day demos are available for each application.

Tech: Palm buys Be, AOL leads IM wars....

11/14, 9:50am

Tech: Palm buys Be, AOL leads IM wars....

Morning tech news: Palm yesterday announced the completion of its acquisition of substantially all of the intellectual property and other technology assets of Be, Inc. for $11 million in Palm stock and that it has hired several key members of Be's engineering team; office workers are spending double the amount of the time on instant messaging, according to a Jupiter Media Metrix report that also notes that AOL is the leading brand at both home and work, but Yahoo and Microsoft were "aggressively increasing their reach and total usage minutes;" and Yahoo! will start allowing advertisers to pay to be listed in results generated by the site's search engine.

Magellan 3.0: email client gets new interface

11/14, 9:40am

Magellan 3.0: email client gets new interface

MAKI Enterprise has posted a "major" update to its email client, Magellan 3.0, which brings a "complete overhaul" of the user interface, new independent spam filter routines, and other enhancements. A 20-day trial is available online.

Netscape 4.79 posted quietly

11/14, 9:40am

Netscape 4.79 posted quietly

Readers report the release of Netscape 4.79, an update to the older generation of its popular browser. The Website has no mention of the new version or the changes.

Apple nomininated for 3 BETT Awards

11/14, 9:35am

Apple nomininated for 3 BETT Awards

Apple has been nominated for three BETT Awards, including nominations for its iBook wireless mobile classroom and its iDVD software. The awards are part of the annual education conference held in London from January 9-12, according to Macworld UK.

New USB storage device offers fingerprint ID

11/14, 2:10am

New USB storage device offers fingerprint ID

M-Systems is showcasing its DiskOnKey devices that use fingerprint biometrics in its USB-based personal storage product.

Now Up-to-Date 4.1 offers native OS X app

11/14, 2:00am

Now Up-to-Date 4.1 offers native OS X app

Power On Software has released Now Up-to-Date & Contact 4.1, an OS X native version of the company's popular personal information manager. It is a free update to registered v4.01 users.

Macs used in previsualization of feature film

11/14, 1:50am

Macs used in previsualization of feature film

Macs were used the previsualization production phase of the feature film, "The One," in which Jet Li "stops bullets, transcends time and gravity, and gives himself a real thrashing." Animation and modelling was done using 3D applications such as Poser and Lightwave as well as Apple's QuickTime and Final Cut Pro.

Shareware alarm clock released by Koingo

11/14, 1:45am

Shareware alarm clock released by Koingo

Koingo Software's $16 shareware Alarm Clock 4.15 allows users to set single event, reoccuring, and count down alarms. [Classic, Carbon]