News Archive for 02/03/11

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Exabyte lowers pricing on VXA-1 tape drives

03/11, 10:40pm

Exabyte lowers pricing on VXA-1 tape drives

Exabyte today announced a price reduction of more than 20% on all VXA-1 tape drives and VXAtape cartridges, attempting to accelerate VXA technology acceptance in the DDS replacement market (after DDS (DAT) technology manufactures said they would not develop the next-generation DDS product, the DDS-5). Excabyte's internal VXA tape drive is now $700 and VXAtape cartridges range from $27 to $67.

PiePants 0.99: PPTP client with encryption

03/11, 10:30pm

PiePants 0.99: PPTP client with encryption

PiePants 0.99, Rob Newberry's PPTP client for OS X, supports a single PPTP connection between a Mac and a PPTP server and supports encrypted connections for compatibility with PPTP VPNs.

Goliath 0.9 creates, edits Websites

03/11, 10:25pm

Goliath 0.9 creates, edits Websites

Tom Bednarz has released Goliath 0.9, an update to his freeware application that creates and edits websites using WebDAV to make changes to the files stored on web servers: "It exposes functionality similar to that found in the Windows version of Internet Explorer 5 plus many other features that are unique to the Mac." Version 0.9 includes support for Mac resource forks,improved perferences, and better interoperability with WebSTAR V, Apple iDisk folders, and Intranets.com. [Classic, Carbon]

DVD Fest 2002 draws large campus crowd

03/11, 8:55pm

DVD Fest 2002 draws large campus crowd

Saturday evening, Reed Martin hosted the Carleton College DVD Fest 2002 Premiere Night. The event was held at one of 'top five' liberal arts colleges in the United States. The Carleton hall was filled with 700 people -- 125 more than its capacity; the attendees represented over one third of the entire college. The event -- similar to the iMovie event at Emory University -- involved over 70% of all residence hall floors submitting films editing on Macs loaned by Apple and using finances and resources provided by Apple. Winning videos will be posted online later tonight.

Myster PR 3.1 released

03/11, 8:25pm

Myster PR 3.1 released

Myster v3.1 is a cross-platform file sharing utility similar to Napster or the Gnutella protocol. Myster allows users to share media files with other users on the Myster Network. According to the developer, the peer-to-peer application builds on the offerings of other protocols. [Classic, Carbon]

BaseMaster v1.0 converts numbers in OSX

03/11, 7:05pm

BaseMaster v1.0 converts numbers in OSX

BaseMaster v1.0 is a Mac OS 9/X application that can convert between decimal, hexadecimal, octal, binary, vinkadecimal and text. BaseMaster features dynamic conversion using a series of entry fields. [Classic, Carbon]

k-BUILDER brings MacOS X native KIOSK support

03/11, 5:15pm

k-BUILDER brings MacOS X native KIOSK support

1st KIOSK has announced the release of k-BUILDER, the only native Mac OS X interactive application development tool written specifically for kiosk projects. It allows the development of simple or complicated interactive kiosks as well as managing images and video for dynamic digital signs. Added in the new version are Aqua interface enhancements, Quicktime, ColorSync, and TrueType compatibilities, and support for numerous USB devices. [site not updated]

Freeware AE 5.5 plug-ins adds OS X support

03/11, 4:40pm

Freeware AE 5.5 plug-ins adds OS X support

Sebastian Mecklenburg has updated his freeware After Effects plug-ins to allow compatibility with After Effects 5.5 under Mac OS X and Mac OS 9. Several plug-ins are included in the bundle, such as Looper, Talker, Switcher, and Raybeam.

Formac LCD monitor improves color correctness

03/11, 4:35pm

Formac LCD monitor improves color correctness

Today, Formac, Pantone and ColorVision have announced a special promotion that bundles the Spyder monitor calibrator with the Formac gallery 1740, the worlds first color-accurate flat panel display. The bundle provides improved color accuracy on an LCD monitor that rivals CRT monitors.

IPNetSentry 1.3.5 fixes registration bug

03/11, 3:30pm

IPNetSentry 1.3.5 fixes registration bug

IPNetSentry v1.3.5 is an update to the $35 security application that stops hackers, intruders, and Code Red-type worms from breaching Macintosh systems. The update fixes a small bug in the registration form which prevented the fields from being displayed.

Architosh: Microspot X-RIP now available

03/11, 3:30pm

Architosh: Microspot X-RIP now available

Architosh reports that Microspot has released Microspot X-RIP, a professional Mac OS X printer driver that provides near photographic output on a wide range of large format printers.

Buttonless mouse with left, right clicks

03/11, 3:30pm

Buttonless mouse with left, right clicks

Fuji Sartono writes about Apple-styled mouse he sighted in a Singapore Electronics store: "I was at a local computer store, in Singapore, when I found a mouse that is PERFECT for Macs .. It has a clear glass design with white base (similar to the new white Apple Pro Mouse), it has USB connection & optical technology, a 'buttonless' left click AND right click, and an ultra cool illuminated blue light scroll mouse." Aaron Burk has alerted us that the Yahoo! Store offers the mouse in both a blue and black version. [updated]

MaxBulk Mailer 2.5 fixes bugs, improves GUI

03/11, 3:15pm

MaxBulk Mailer 2.5 fixes bugs, improves GUI

MaxBulk Mailer v2.5, a full featured mail-merge and bulk mailer for Mac OS 9 & X, has been released from Maxprog. The free upgrade increases delivery performance up to 7 times, improves reports, adds better user features and fixes bugs. [Classic, Carbon]

Kartolina 1.0 creates greeting cards

03/11, 2:45pm

Kartolina 1.0 creates greeting cards

Kartolina 1.0 is a $25 tool for creating personal greeting cards from digital video and photos. A free trial is available online. [Classic, Carbon]

mDialog 1.0: new internet chat utility

03/11, 2:35pm

mDialog 1.0: new internet chat utility

AppMac software's mDialog 1.0 is a client/server system that offers instant messaging over a LAN or the Internet. The client is free, while server licensing starts at $30 for 10 users.

LaunchBar 3.2: keyboard-based launcher

03/11, 2:30pm

LaunchBar 3.2: keyboard-based launcher

LaunchBar 3.2 is the latest version of Objective Software's popular utilty that allows users to access applications, URLs, and documents by typing part of the item name. It improves performance, offers improved Drag & Drop functions, and new preferences. Personal licenses are $20, while business licenses are $40.

CopyPaste-X 1.2: clipboard enhancement util

03/11, 2:30pm

CopyPaste-X 1.2: clipboard enhancement util

ScriptSoftware has released CopyPaste-X 1.2, an update to the popular utilty that brings several enhancements to the standard clipboard, including multiple clipboards, save-through-restart functions, and other enhancements. Version 1.2 offers up to 200 clips in the Clip Recorder, adjustable memory usage for the Clip Recorder, and clipset compatiblity with the Classic version of the utility.

Apple, LucasFilm deliver new StarWars trailer

03/11, 2:20pm

Apple, LucasFilm deliver new StarWars trailer

Apple and Lucasfilm have partnered to deliver a new StarWars Episode II: Attack of the Clones movie trailer titled "Clone Wars." The largest version requires QuickTime Pro 5 to be installed. [alternate link]

Snard v1.0a2: system menu, dock launcher

03/11, 2:20pm

Snard v1.0a2: system menu, dock launcher

Gideon Softworks has released Snard v1.0a2, system menu- and/or dock-based. laucher application for OS X. It can open applications as the administrator and create worksets to organize desktop environments.

sunShield 0.96b controlls built-in FireWall

03/11, 2:15pm

sunShield 0.96b controlls built-in FireWall

sunShield 0.96b is an update to the preferences pane for controlling OS X's built-in FireWall features. It features a new interface for 800x600 displays, displays hotsnames in the rules table, and is now available as a package (for improved installation).

Lutris EAS 4.1.1 preview: J2EE environment

03/11, 1:45pm

Lutris EAS 4.1.1 preview: J2EE environment

Lutris EAS 4.1.1 preview, a cross-platform Java Services environment, offers support for the Java Services Architecture, Web Services capabilities, enterprise quality clustering and reliability and wireless and voice presentation capabilities. It has native support for all the major wireless and voice XML standards, including HTML, WML, SMS, J2ME(TM), i-mode's CHTML and XHTML as well as VoiceXML from the W3C and includes a full MVC/2 style presentation framework as well as an XML engine.

Team MacNN takes No. 2 in Ubero Project

03/11, 1:40pm

Team MacNN takes No. 2 in Ubero Project

Team MacNN yesterday captured the No. 2 rank in the Ubero project, which currently performs genetic matching alignment algorithms that look for similar amino acid strings in various organisms (a non-profit effort for the University of California, Irvine's Institute for Genomics and Bioinformatics). Readers are invited to join our distributed computing battles.

Reader: Macs at the Ideal Home Show

03/11, 12:45pm

Reader: Macs at the Ideal Home Show

Matt Whiting provided a brief report from Ideal Home Show in London, UK, where he says Macs were generating a lot of interest.

App Switcher 0.9.0: freeware app switcher

03/11, 12:45pm

App Switcher 0.9.0: freeware app switcher

Michael Ash's App Switcher 0.9.0 is a freeware program switcher in "the vein of Windows' task switcher, or Proteron's LiteSwitch for MacOS 9."

Using SoundFont technology with QT5

03/11, 12:45pm

Using SoundFont technology with QT5

A MacNN reader notes a tutorial on Using SoundFont Technology with QuickTime 5, a sample format developed by E-MU / ENSONIQ that is now being actively promoted as an open standard."

Game-Arena developing free MMORPG

03/11, 12:40pm

Game-Arena developing free MMORPG

Game-Arena is currently developing a free MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) that works on the Mac OS 9 and OS X 10: "It is a full 3D MMORPG such as that of Acherons Call and Everquest but on a much wider scale...We are currently entering a Beta Phase and are looking for testers...The game is going to be free for download and a small $4 to $5 monthly fee will be used after the game goes retail. There will also be a free 1 month Trial period offered to all Beta Testers and anyone else that signs up for an account after the game goes retail."

PocketBackup 1.0b1 offers 3-step backups

03/11, 12:35pm

PocketBackup 1.0b1 offers 3-step backups

PocketBackup 1.0b1 is an "easy to use, reliable, and affordable personal backup system." It offers the ability to save backups to Mac standard disk images (dmg) or burned to standard CDs and also records/tracks previously made backups. Encryption and scheduling features are expected in future betas of the $20 application. A 30-day trial is available.

Mail Watcher II v2.6: monitors emai accounts

03/11, 12:30pm

Mail Watcher II v2.6: monitors emai accounts

Malia Software's Mail Watcher II v2.6 monitors multiple mailboxes for new email and lets you read, delete or compose a message. It now supports more text encoding and InternetConfig under OS X as well as has other enhancements.

Klangfarben Player 3.61: real-time animation

03/11, 12:20pm

Klangfarben Player 3.61: real-time animation

Klangfarben Player 3.61 is an update to the real-time animation software, offering support for 8-, 16- and 32-bit color processing; split screen functions for 2*2 and 3*3 screens; several new transfer modes for blending between image layers, chromakeying and movie rotation; graphic engine improvements; new filters, and other enhancements. It supports QuickTime movie formats as well as live video sources.

XMonitor 1.4.1: real-time system monitoring

03/11, 12:15pm

XMonitor 1.4.1: real-time system monitoring

The real-time system and email monitoring application, XMonitor 1.4.1, allows you to easily monitor your disk, cpu, ram and network usage, PPP status, IP address, Email, and more.

FPU tests show Pentium faster than PowerPC

03/11, 11:25am

FPU tests show Pentium faster than PowerPC

German magazine's C't's floating point unit tests (as part of the SPEC CPU2000 processor benchmarks) showed that the PowerPC G4 was up to four times slower than the fastest Pentiums: "The G4 scored between 147 and 187 on the floating point tests, while the Pentium III scored 297. Today's Pentium 4's double that figure, and as a result, today's PCs are four times as fast as Apple's professional line in some situations." The Register, noting that the were not AltiVec-optimized (and used an older compiler), also writes about "serialization" problems with OS X code inherited from NeXT OS.

Music notation app Sibelius 2 supports OS X,

03/11, 11:15am

Music notation app Sibelius 2 supports OS X,

The Sibelius Group is now shippping Sibelius 2, a new OS X-compatible version of its $600 music notation software program. Version 2 includes Arrange, a function that enables the use of artificial intelligence to arrange and orchestrate music automatically. It also features faster music input, improved playback, and support for color graphics. Upgrades are $200. It also is shipping PhotoScore Professional 2, an OS X-compatible version of the optical music recognition software ($200) developed by Neuratron that allows users to scan printed music into Sibelius 2 software.

AutoEye 2.0 enhances photos

03/11, 9:40am

AutoEye 2.0 enhances photos

auto fx software has released AutoEye 2.0, an update to its application for improving digital images by rebuilding color detail, sharpness and image vibrancy: "AutoEye does not use standard curves and histograms to adjust images on a global basis within the RGB or CMYK color space. AutoEye's unique methods result in image enhancements that are easier to attain and yield a higher quality result." Upgrades to the $130 plugin for Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, and Corel Photo Paint are $80. It also works as a standa alone application.

SynthX 1.2 software synthesizer updated

03/11, 9:30am

SynthX 1.2 software synthesizer updated

SynthX 1.2 addreses file-selection on OS 9, progress-bar dialogs on OS X, and improves Mac OS 9 startup times in Georg Boenn's $35 shareware application for synthesizing and processing soundfiles (AIFF and WAVE). It features digital filtering, convolution, frequency shifting, spatialization, granulization, gravity-synthesis and many other modules.

Confessions: Linux-to-OS X conversion

03/11, 9:25am

Confessions: Linux-to-OS X conversion

John Hummel has written an article about his conversion from Linux to OS X: "After 2.5 years of Linux, I've finally found joy in a Unix operating system. And I found it when I purchased a Macintosh - the first one I have ever owned." A follow-up to some reader responses has some "explanations, clarifications, and cool tips in general."

Quick Rename 2.3 exports to XML

03/11, 9:20am

Quick Rename 2.3 exports to XML

The $30 shareware utility Quick Rename 2.3 offers advanced file-renaming functions, including batch processing, auto-incrementing, and other features. Version 2.3 supports OS X long filenames, exports to XML, has a new Reverse Case option, and fixes a few bugs. [Classic, Carbon]

Swift 3D LW exports to US Animation

03/11, 9:10am

Swift 3D LW exports to US Animation

Electric Rain has released a special edition of its Swift 3D plug-in line, which includes Swift 3D LW. It offers NewTek LightWave 3D users the ability to export scenes to a format that imports natively into USAnimation. It can also create Flash (SWF), Illustrator, EPS and SVG format-files. The $1000 plugin works with LightWave 3D 6.5.

Extension Overload v5.9.6: extensions data

03/11, 8:55am

Extension Overload v5.9.6: extensions data

Teng Chou Ming has released Extension Overload v5.9.6, a shareware database that offers information on nearly 5700 extensions, control panels, CSMs, and CMMs. It also provides management (activation/deactivation) of the system folder components.

PrintToPDF 2.4 adds new linking functions

03/11, 8:50am

PrintToPDF 2.4 adds new linking functions

PrintToPDF 2.4, a $20 shareware printer driver that creates PDF files, now includes a new Link Maker (which can launch another PDF file), betters supports Japanese vertical writing, and addresses compatibility issues with FileMaker Pro.

Classic Toggler 1.3 manages Classic

03/11, 8:50am

Classic Toggler 1.3 manages Classic

Northern Softworks' Classic Toggler 1.3 is a shareware ($7) Classic environment utility that provides a convenient means to launch, quit, and manage the Classic environment. It offers convenient access to OS 9-only applications, desktop/preference management, and other functions. Version 1.3 includes the ability to correctly move files dropped on the application to the appropriate place in the Mac OS 9 system folder.

Haxial WorldClock 1.10 displays world times

03/11, 8:45am

Haxial WorldClock 1.10 displays world times

Haxial WorldClock 1.10, a $10 shareware utility for displaying times in various time zones around the world., includes new skins, a larger database of cities, and other minor improvements/bug fixes.

Chinese Rewriter X : Chinese translation a

03/11, 8:40am

Chinese Rewriter X : Chinese translation a

Tang Yi-jie has released a final version of Chinese Rewriter X v.1, a freeware utility which converts texts between Traditional and Simplified Chinese and also translates the lexical differences between Chinese and Taiwanese Mandarin, coverting Simplified Chinese characters to Traditional Chinese ones according to context.