News Archive for 02/07/01

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LOTR: Two Towers trailer online

07/01, 9:05pm

LOTR: Two Towers trailer online

Apple has posted an exclusive QuickTime trailer of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers on its QuickTime Web site. The movie will debut in theaters on December 18, 2002.

Mac development of Timeslips discontinued

07/01, 7:50pm

Mac development of Timeslips discontinued

Timeslips told customers today that it would cut support for the Macintosh version of its software, effective August 30. Current owners of the Mac version of Timeslips can upgrade to version 11 for Windows at a discounted price of $140, for a limited time. "In our continued effort to focus our Windows product and how it can best serve our customers, we have made the difficult decision to phase out Timeslips for Macintosh from our product offerings."

Check All TCP Services 1.0 monitors domains

07/01, 7:15pm

Check All TCP Services 1.0 monitors domains

Singlestep is distributing Peter Lewis's Check All TCP Services 1.0 application, which monitors/applies policies/actions for SMTP, POP, HTML, and FTP functions on any two domains. The $100 (per year) application displays control and status alerts in a unified visual control panel. It is built with VNOS, a developer tool that visuallly build intent-oriented applications to monitor, manage, control or interoperate any collection of networkable devices and applications. A 30-day trial is available. [registration required for download]

eWeek: Apple gets plug-and-play right

07/01, 7:05pm

eWeek: Apple gets plug-and-play right

Peter Coffee of eWeek says "For Plug-and-Play, I Pick the Apple," in a recent column that analyzes the plug-and-play implementation on various platforms. "Then there was Mac OS X, where things just worked the way they should. Period." Mr. Coffee describes the difficulties in setting up software for devices on the Windows platform; contrasted to Apple's fool-proof FireWire and USB implementations.

Apple Stores coming to Troy, Wauwatosa

07/01, 6:55pm

Apple Stores coming to Troy, Wauwatosa

Apple is planning to open a second retail Apple Store in Michigan, according to MacNN reader Mark Daniel. The retail store is being constructed in the Somerset Mall in Troy, MI and is listed in the mall directory. Apple is also planning to open a retail store in the Mayfair Mall in Wauwatosa, WI, which is expected to open by September 2002, according to another reader.

Tech: 1 billion PCs; broadband competition...

07/01, 5:55pm

Tech: 1 billion PCs; broadband competition...

Evening tech news: The number of personal computers shipped in the last 25 years has reached 1 billion, according to a report by Gartner Dataquest, which also indicates units shipped could reach 2 billion by 2008; a consumer group said today that proposed U.S. government policies could harm competition in the broadband Internet market; Microsoft aims to attract Java developers to its .Net software strategy, with the final version of Visual J#.Net.

Canopus intros ADVC-1394 DV capture device

07/01, 5:05pm

Canopus intros ADVC-1394 DV capture device

Canopus today unveiled the ADVC-1394, an OHCI analog and DV capture solution for the Macintosh. The $250 device provides "unparalleled" picture quality from video imported from a DV camcorder. Compatible with Adobe Premiere, Final Cut Pro and iMovie, the ADVC-1394 includes support for Canopus' DV codec technology and compatibility with most FireWire cameras.

DNS Security hole does not affect Macs

07/01, 3:45pm

DNS Security hole does not affect Macs

Apple has responded to the CERT Advisory CA-2002-19 noted here over the weekend, which described a security hole in BIND- and BSD- DNS libraries: "Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server are not vulnerable to the issue described in this notice."

pearCalc updated to include more functions

07/01, 3:40pm

pearCalc updated to include more functions

pearCalc 0.5 a free utility that functions as a calculator, application launcher and "text replacement tool" for Mac OS X. The calculator mode offers basic mathematical operations, in addition to being parenthesis-aware. This version adds support for email and Web launching via the input field; supports "text replacement in any editor;" and has an auto-complete function.

Apple's new program with Bioinformatics.org

07/01, 3:30pm

Apple's new program with Bioinformatics.org

Apple has become the charter member of a program launched by open-source advocacy-group Bioinformatics.org that aims at linking open-source developers with bioinformatics hardware and software vendors, according to GenomeWeb. "Apple's new Co-Lab program hopes to nurture industry involvement either by co-locating software projects at its SourceForge-based Open Lab project or by hosting and sharing those projects with developers at vendor sites via the web...Apple has agreed to make a dual G4 server available to members of Bioinformatics.org through the program."

Rendezvous networking protocol in Jaguar

07/01, 12:45pm

Rendezvous networking protocol in Jaguar

Jared White has posted an article detailing the features and importance of the Rendezvous networking protocol that will be shipping with "Jaguar", the next major release of Mac OS X: "I believe Rendezvous will profoundly affect the way people use their Macs in a networked setting."

Two new dock utils: Ugly Duckling, Dock-It

07/01, 12:40pm

Two new dock utils: Ugly Duckling, Dock-It

BKeeney Software has released Ugly Dockling 1.0, a $15 shareware "dock organizer reminiscent of the Favorites menu in OS 9 and earlier. A simple contextual menu in the Finder adds applications, documents, folders and even drives to the Ugly Dockling menu." Meanwhile, the $15 Dock-It v1.0, a multifunctional launcher and Finder enhancer, includes the ability to create multiple docks. [UD, OSX]

direct 1.01: OS X app for dialing numbers

07/01, 12:30pm

direct 1.01: OS X app for dialing numbers

direct 1.01 is a simple and convenient telephone dialer that can dial numbers from a user's personal Mac OS X address book or from a central LDAP address directory. It ships with a dynamic search function that presents all search resultsin a list. It also supports the OS X service menu as well as the Dock for integration with other applications. The company also develops TeamCall MacClient, which provides telephony integration under Mac OS 8-10 for AppleScript and AppleEvent-enabled software e.g. FileMaker Pro, Microsoft Outlook Express or Palm Desktop. TeamCall Server including 10 client licenses is 600 Euro.

Contour Design spins off new A-V company

07/01, 12:30pm

Contour Design spins off new A-V company

Contour Design today launched Contour A/V Solutions, a spin-off company that will focus on the design and development of multimedia editing devices such as ShuttlePRO Multimedia Jog & Shuttle controller: "Our emergence as a separate, privately held company is due in part to the tremendous opportunities we see in the audio, video and medical marketplaces."

Trial of ePhoto visual search util posted

07/01, 12:25pm

Trial of ePhoto visual search util posted

eVision today released 30-day free download of its Java-based, cross platform software application for viewing, storing, and sharing photos: ePhoto 2.0. It also offers the ability to visually search the images or video frames based on any combination of color, object, shape and texture. The $20 application also extracts, analyzes, and indexes key frames from digital video to make them completely searchable.

Acgi dispatcher 1.1: cgi apps in AppleScript

07/01, 10:40am

Acgi dispatcher 1.1: cgi apps in AppleScript

James Sentman's Acgi dispatcher 1.1 allows "you to write cgi programs in AppleScript that can be run with the Apache web server that is built in to Mac OS X. Version 1.1 of enables you to send any response type, not just an http "OK" message. You can now send errors, or redirects....All events to scripts are now handled asynchronously giving you better performance under load and when running multiple scripts at the same time." it is $15 for a home/educational license and $35 for a commercial license.

Time Palette 5.1: world time, mapping tool

07/01, 10:35am

Time Palette 5.1: world time, mapping tool

Trygve Inda's Time Palette 5.1 adds the ability to export monthly almanac data, a revised political map, and a new Atlas city database with updated time zone data to the world time and mapping tool. The $30 utility offers world time, alarms, international call scheduling, an almanac, distance calculator and worldwide weather.

Pepper 4.05 editor has new text rendering

07/01, 10:20am

Pepper 4.05 editor has new text rendering

Pepper 4.0.5, Martin Hekkelman's cross-platform text editor, adds optional ways to render text, an improved File Info dialog, fixes bugs in the Python and JavaScript parsers, mlpe for OS X (to redirect stdin to a new document), and other fixes: "The Mac version now has three optional ways to render text. One uses ATSUI, the next Classic QuickDraw and third there is FreeType. ATSUI is dreadfully slow and many have complained about this so I had to come up with unorthodox ways to speed up text rendering."

Apple begins new rebate promotion

07/01, 10:10am

Apple begins new rebate promotion

Apple's new Check the Savings promotion offers discounts on periphals, productivity software, utilities, graphic software, and games with the purchase of Mac or OS X between July 1 and October 15, 2002. All 20 deals are available via mail-in rebates, including MYOB AccountEdge 2 ($75 off), Roxio Toast 5 Titanium ($20), IBM ViaVoice ($50), Adobe GoLive 6.0 ($200), CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 11 ($50), Microsoft Office v. X ($100), Office v. X upgrade ($50), and Connectix Virtual PC 5 ($40).

New tool for translating FCP to Avid systems

07/01, 9:55am

New tool for translating FCP to Avid systems

Automatic Sequence Export Pro from Automatic Duck offers the ability to translate sequences from Final Cut Pro to Avid Symphony and Media Composer editing systems. It translates multilayer sequences including metadata into a single file also provides support for dissolves, motion effects, log notes, nested sequences and sub clips. The $400 application is available as part of the $600 ACI FCP Pro Suite, which includes a plug-in set to export a Final Cut Pro timeline into either Avid editing systems or Adobe After Effects. It also introduced Automatic Composition Import DV, an Avid Xpress DV-only version of its OMF importer for After Effects. The $300 After Effects plugin offers the ability to export and import Express DV timelines. [updated]

HRM Reader beta downloads health data

07/01, 9:50am

HRM Reader beta downloads health data

OTAG has released a beta of HRM Reader beta, "the first" Mac OS X and OS 9 application for use with Polar Heart Rate Monitors. It allows users to download data from the popular Polar range of Heart Rate Monitors and to analyse & display the heart rate and speed data in various forms. It is available for Classic (with an OS X version "coming soon") and only supports Polar XTrainer Plus or Accurex II with Interface Plus (PE4000).

Apple ships Xserve, releases benchmarks

07/01, 9:30am

Apple ships Xserve, releases benchmarks

Apple today announced that is has begun shipping Xserve, its new rack-mount server, and tht it has received orders for over 4,000 Xserve servers since its introduction in May. Apple also released "industry standard performance tests," which show that Xserve outperforms more expensive, similarly configured server offerings (from Dell, IBM, and Sun) in web serving, disk performance and running the mission-critical Biotech application BLAST. (MacNN noted that the Xserve began shipping late last week to customers.)

NewsHunter 2.0: Usenet newsgroup reader

07/01, 9:25am

NewsHunter 2.0: Usenet newsgroup reader

NewsHunter 2.0 adds a number of new features to the $50 Usenet newsgroup download application from Parker Software. Improvements include a much improved interface, threaded decoding and assembly of files, automatic folder creation, integration of Archer multimedia viewer technology, "self-healing" folders, improved file management, newsgroup synchronization, and support for SuffIt Expander and yEnc decoding. A special $25 discount ends today.

RedLightRunner sells Apple collectibles

07/01, 8:55am

RedLightRunner sells Apple collectibles

RedLightRunner today added 100 new rare Apple collectibles, including a rare 1970's era Apple Dealer Display Sign, early 1980's six-color Apple logo shoes, and several vintage briefcases and bags. Additionally, through volume buying, RedLightRunner is now able to offer their lowest prices ever on several items, including Apple pens, stickers, and folders.

Apple Store down for updates

07/01, 8:30am

Apple Store down for updates

Several readers note that Apple's Website went down last night for "updates" and currently has a note "We'll be back soon." posted at its Website.

MPEG2Splitter 1.4.1 supports OS X 10.1.5

07/01, 8:30am

MPEG2Splitter 1.4.1 supports OS X 10.1.5

JAW software has added OS X 10.1.5 compatibility to MPEG2Splitter 1.4.1, its $16 shareware for MPEG-2 movies that splits MPEG-2 files into smaller user-defined segments "from any size source (even over the usual 2GB limit). This comes in handy when you need to re-encode video using programs unable to manage files bigger than 2Gb, or just to split encoding tasks."

MailArmor 1.1 adds SpamCop integration

07/01, 8:20am

MailArmor 1.1 adds SpamCop integration

MailArmor 1.1 is an update to the Java-based application that helps reduce 'spam' (unsolicited mail) by deleting messages at the server-level (before downloading). MailArmor now allows you to send reports to SpamCop with a single click of a button as well as automatically checks each email against SpamCop's databases. Version 1.1 also adds a wizard/assistant to create new accounts, automatic deletion of messages at a user-specified spam-rating, improved performance, and other enhancements. It is free for personal use. [Classic, OSX]

Apple buys Emagic music production company

07/01, 8:10am

Apple buys Emagic music production company

Apple today announced it has acquired Emagic, a leading provider of professional software solutions for computer-based music production: Emagic's flagship product, Logic, is actively used by over 200,000 musicians around the world. Apple says that Emagic will operate as a wholly owned division of Apple. "Emagic has set the industry standard for professional music creation and production," said Sina Tamaddon, Apple's senior vice president of Applications. "We're very excited to have the Emagic team join Apple and create more amazing products for musicians." Mac-based products account for over 65 percent of Emagic's current revenues. Emagic's Windows-based product offerings will be discontinued on September 30, 2002.

Button Builder extreme: Web buttons

07/01, 2:55am

Button Builder extreme: Web buttons

Button Builder extreme 3.0 is a utility made with REALbasic that automates the process of building Web rollover buttons. In addition to building three-state buttons, Button Builder extreme offers many sizing templates to help start projects. Button Builder extreme sells for $20 as shareware; includes support for most image formats; and utilizes a plug-in system that allows users to add custom buttons.

Canon debuts new GL2 DV camcorder

07/01, 2:15am

Canon debuts new GL2 DV camcorder

Canon has unveiled its GL2 digital video (DV) camera. The stylish camcorder offers full 1.7-megapixel video quality -- delivered by a three-CCD (charge-coupled device) configuration -- which yields "outstanding picture quality, highly accurate color reproduction and [..] no color noise." The camera features FireWire connectivity; includes several exposure modes; features audio and picture adjustments; and offers various aspect ratios.

SerialStorage organizes serials, passwords

07/01, 1:55am

SerialStorage organizes serials, passwords

ArcaneWare has released SerialStorage 1.0, a shareware utility used for the secure storage and easy retrieval of serial numbers and account passwords. The $10 Classic and Mac OS X-compatible application offers full multi-user functionality, in order to provide security and flexibility in a workplace setting. [Classic, Carbon]

iDVD Backdrops Vol 1 released

07/01, 1:50am

iDVD Backdrops Vol 1 released

iDVD Backdrops volume 1 is a $15 set of backgrounds for use with Apple's iDVD authoring suite. The backdrops fall into ten themes, which include nature and technology. Volume 1 is available immediately; a second volume will be available in late summer.