News Archive for 02/10/02

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Asante ships 'Xwing' AeroLAN AL1511

10/02, 11:55pm

Asante ships 'Xwing' AeroLAN AL1511

Asante Technologies began shipping its FriendlyNET AeroLAN AL1511 wireless PCMCIA card today. The unique 'Xwing' design of the device lets the user independently-position the adapter's two antennas, to maximize signal strength and minimize interference and noise.

ALAP enhances XPert Tools vol. 1 & 2

10/02, 11:55pm

ALAP enhances XPert Tools vol. 1 & 2

ALAP ("A lowly Apprentice Production") today announced the release of a major update to its XPert Tools Volume 1 & 2 XTensions for QuarkXPress. XPert Tools Pro combines the most popular features from the previous two sets. Countless revisions have been made to the following components: XPert Guides, FindChange, ItemStyles, Align, Scale, Layers, TextLink, PageSets, Paste, Pilot, ItemMarks, ImageInfo, Print, BoxTools, Toolbars and Type. XPert Tools Pro is currently available for 'Classic' versions of the Mac OS only. It sells for approximately $180; upgrade pricing is also offered.

Tony Hawk, Slater, DJ Qbert appear in new ads

10/02, 10:05pm

Tony Hawk, Slater, DJ Qbert appear in new ads

Apple has posted three new celebrity 'Switch' ads on its Web site. Television ads featuring professional skateboarder Tony Hawk, pro surfer Kelly Slater and 'scratch DJ' DJ Qbert are now available for viewing online. The advertisements started appearing on TV in recent days, according to some readers. Update: Apple has posted two more Switch ads: Gianni Jacklone, an IT director, and small business owner Richard Ziskin.

Freeverse rolls out updated games

10/02, 9:15pm

Freeverse rolls out updated games

Continuing its 'Mac Card Game Week,' Freeverse Software today released an updated version of Classic Cribbage -- its rendition of the popular card game -- and 3D Euchre Deluxe -- the latest version of its popular Euchre game. Both games sell for $20 apiece; demo versions are available for new users.

Older versions of Stuffit Expander vulnerable

10/02, 7:55pm

Older versions of Stuffit Expander vulnerable

ZIP archives containing files with large filenames can cause a buffer overflow when extracted with Stuffit Expander 6.5.2 and earlier, according to research by Rapid7. Stuffit Expander 7.0 does not contain this vulnerability, explains developer Aladdin Systems. Version 7.0 is a free download for Mac OS 9/X users.

BusinessWeek: Jaguar Does Windows

10/02, 7:20pm

BusinessWeek: Jaguar Does Windows

Mac OS X 10.2 brings seamless cross-platform networking to the Macintosh platform, explains BusinessWeek editor Stephen Wildstrom. Before the $130 upgrade became available, sharing files between a Mac and a PC was a tedious task, requiring third-party software to avoid the use of removable media or e-mail. Wildstrom also praises Apple for its relatively low multi-user pricing: $200 for a five-computer family pack, compared to pricing of $100 per computer for Windows XP Home Edition upgrades.

Outlook Express 5.06 fixes security bugs

10/02, 5:30pm

Outlook Express 5.06 fixes security bugs

Microsoft has posted Outlook Express 5.0.6, an update to its free email client/news reader for Mac OS 9. Version 5.06 includes support for MSN Web mail accounts and resolves all security vulnerabilities, including those that might have caused Outlook Express to stop responding or caused a memory problem that compromised the security of the computer as well as a security vulnerability that can enable an attacker who had a valid security certificate to issue an invalid subordinate certificate that would appear to be valid.

Apple, Sorenson settle lawsuits

10/02, 4:50pm

Apple, Sorenson settle lawsuits

Apple and Sorenson today announced the settlement of a pending federal court lawsuit that had been brought by Apple in April, 2002. The settlement provides for the dismissal of all claims and counterclaims, altough neither company has provided details on the settlement. Apple sued Sorenson in April 2002 claiming breach of contract with the release of Soreson Spark, which it said used technology that was restricted to QuickTime. Sorenson responded with a counterclaim in July using a memo sent from Steve Jobs as evidence that Apple did not have exclusive rights to the compression technology.

Digital Voodoo ships D1 64RT PCI card

10/02, 3:30pm

Digital Voodoo ships D1 64RT PCI card

Digital Voodoo is now shipping the D1 64RT uncompressed 10-bit SDI 64-bit PCI card. The card will support enhanced capabilities, such as multi-stream RealTime (RT) video, 5 different dissolves, color correction and a programmable interface for future updates. "It is designed specifically for editors who want to capture and output uncompressed 10-bit SD-SDI video with real-time effects and 6 channels of AES/EBU digital audio." Featuring NTSC (525) and PAL (625) television standards, the D1 64RT is compatible with most popular editing and compositing applications, including Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere, After Effects and Photoshop for both Mac OS 9 & X. The PCI card is priced at $3,500.

Data Rescue 10.0.3 adds Jaguar compatibility

10/02, 3:05pm

Data Rescue 10.0.3 adds Jaguar compatibility

Prosoft Engineering's Data Rescue Data Recovery Utility 10.0.3 recovers hidden or missing files and folders from hard drives that can no longer be mounted in Mac OS X. Instead of repairing the disk, the utility allows users to recover entire disks safely and leave the original disk untouched. Data Rescue requires a good working volume to save the recovered files, either internal HD, external HD, removable media device such as Zip, Magnetic Optical or network volume. It also stores large files over multiple media, i.e., several Zip cartridges. The update brings Mac OS X 10.2 compatibility. A demo is available; the full price is $90.

SkinnyServer 2.0: PDF server for OS X

10/02, 2:55pm

SkinnyServer 2.0: PDF server for OS X

SkinnyServer 2.0 is an automated PDF Server for Mac OS X. The update addresses three major prepress industry problems, reducing the size of EPS image files for page layout (with bundled SkinnyEPS plug-in), simplifying PDF creation and automating the production of PDF files. New features include 100% non-proprietary output files, higher quality image files with Photoshop plug-ins and more. The price has been reduced to $4,000.

Summary 2.3: Web server log analysis tool

10/02, 2:25pm

Summary 2.3: Web server log analysis tool

Summary 2.3 is an update to the Web server log analysis tool. Version 2.3 adds Country by GeoIP and Region by GeoIP reports and now supports the GeoIP database from MaxMind, which determines the countries visitors are from based on their numeric IP addresses. Summary includes the "free" version of the database. It also adds "Interesting Referring Domains" report and corresponding items in the Overview, allowing it to detect/display patterns of hits which are "interesting." The Mac OS 9 & X application is $60.

HEURIS and eMotion Studios to provide HDTV

10/02, 2:15pm

HEURIS and eMotion Studios to provide HDTV

HEURIS, developer of MPEG Power Professional, has announced a new partnership with eMotion Studios. eMotion Studios will use HEURIS' MPEG Power Professional-DTV HD to provide HDTV encoding services to customers for insertion in educational and HD commerce applications. HD encoding services are currently available from eMotion studios for a price of $120 per finished minute.

Roxio officially announces Toast Titanium 5.2

10/02, 1:25pm

Roxio officially announces Toast Titanium 5.2

Roxio today officially announced that Toast 5.2 Titanium is now shipping worldwide to retailers and said that it would post free Toast 5.2 updater on its Website (as noted by MacNN last week). Version 5.2 adds support for Macintosh OS 10.2 and for writing CD-Text, giving consumers the ability to add disc name and track titles to recorded discs for display on CD-Text enabled players. The upgrade also enables burning at speeds up to 52x, and improves the color, contrast and encoding performance on VideoCDs. The full version is available for $100. (Updater available as of 1:30PM EST.)

Airport 2.1.1 available via Software Update

10/02, 1:20pm

Airport 2.1.1 available via Software Update

Apple has released AirPort 2.1.1 via Software Update under Mac OS X. It includes the latest firmware (4.0.7) for the snow (dual-Ethernet) base station, and adds a new checkbox in the AirPort tab of the AirPort Admin Utility that allows the base station administrator to enable or disable configuration of the base station over the WAN port. Also, when enabling Internet Sharing over Airport (Software Base Station), a quoted or hex-escaped password can be entered, which provides compatibility with Windows or other wireless clients that require an Equivalent Network Password.

New Professionals Choice program announced

10/02, 1:15pm

New Professionals Choice program announced

R/com Networks has announced the new Professional's Choice program in their Mac OS X Developer's track of classes (virtual seminars and courses). The full track of classes includes 10 classes with two new titles, 12 original applications with sample code, step by step instructions on how to build Mac OS X applications and audio lectures that include advice from Apple engineers. The price is $800, and students that are Apple Developer Connection members can receive 25% or 50% off the retail price.

Also announced is two new titles, Advanced Coding for Java and Mac OS X and The New Mac OS X Developer's Seminar. Advanced Coding for Java and Mac OS X will be available on October 15th and continues where the introductory Java coding class ended, covering topics such as Swing and integrating other object-oriented programming elements into Java applications. The New Mac OS X Developer's Seminar is an overview of the development opportunities and languages available in Mac OS X.

IDELIX offers OS X support in SDKs

10/02, 11:55am

IDELIX offers OS X support in SDKs

IDELIX Software today released a public beta of its Display Technology (PDT) Software Development Kit, PDK 2.1b, and the PDT 3d SDK beta featuring platform support for Mac OS X and "PDT 3d", a new application of PDT that extends "detail-in-context" viewing functionality to three dimensional models. The PTD 3d SDK introduces new classes supporting PDT 3d lenses for viewing and interacting with 3D models and large complex assemblies by viewing "occluded" data using a PDT 3d lens that can be positioned along any plane in the 3D data set (versus existing occlusion reduction tools such as rotation, cutting planes, transparency, or information filtering). The open APII supports OpenGL as well as PDT Image Warper for hardware-independent rendering of images.

Addonics announces SCSI solutions

10/02, 11:20am

Addonics announces SCSI solutions

Addonics has announced a pair of SCSI solutions, which convert common ATAPI devices and IDE hard drives to high-speed SCSI devices on all Windows, Macintosh, and Linux-based computers: the IDE-SCSI converter ($100) for hard drives and the ATAPI-SCSI converter ($110) for ATAPI-based CDRW, DVD-R/RW, DVD-ROM or CD-ROMs. The company has also announced a high-performance single-channel Ultra160 SCSI PCI host controller ($170) with 160MB/sec. data throughput.

Eudora, Canon, other updates posted

10/02, 11:10am

Eudora, Canon, other updates posted

Several applications, utilities, and printer drivers have been update recently, including Eudora, Canon printing drivers, public betas of CrushFTP and TextSpresso, HBTimer, Virex October definitions, and EarthDesk. [updated]

• John McGruer's CalcPad 1.02 fixes a few bugs in the $10 shareware "word processor” and evaluator for mathematical expressions. [662KB]


• EarthDesk 1.2.2, Trygve Inda's $20 world-time and mapping tool, replaces the desktop picture with real-time maps showing proper sun and moon illumination over the earth (in various projections, including a globe and traditional Mercator map). [3.4MB]


• Network Associates has posted the latest virus definitions files for Virex. [V6, V7]


• Qualcomm's Eudora 5.2b10 is the latest beta of the popular email client for both Classic and Mac OS X. [Classic, OSX]


• Canon has posted Jaguar-compatible drivers for its i320, i550, and i850 inkjet printers.


• CrushFTP 3.0b26 is an update to Ben Spink's Java-based ftp server, bringing the ability to disconnect users under OS X, SSL security, sound support for any event, and more descriptive error messages. Pricing for the application starts at $25 for 10 concurrent users. [Classic, OSX]


• Hog Bay Software has released HBTimer 1.5.1, a Mac OS X-based application for simple timing tasks. Version 1.5 of the $5 shareware adds Jaguar support and also adds the option to check for future updates on the web. [116KB]


• Taylor Design's TextSpresso 2.0b4 text cleaner brings printing and full TextSpresso feature support to Mac OS X users. The shareware, bundled with "hundreds" of filters for common tasks (clean E-mails, sort lines, extract URLs, and convert Mac/PC files) is available for a special price of $20 during the beta period. [1.4MB]

NI Pro-53 virtual analog synth gets features

10/02, 11:00am

NI Pro-53 virtual analog synth gets features

Native Instruments today released Pro-53, an update to its $200 virtual analog synth that brings newly redesigned oscillators, a high-Pass filter mode, an invertible filter envelope, a key repeat function, an integrated MIDI controller editor, compatibility with the standard MIDI Sysex and VST Microtuning formats, better handling of Prophet-5 Sysex import, and 64 new sounds.

Twin Cities to feature Mac Expo

10/02, 11:00am

Twin Cities to feature Mac Expo

The Macintosh Solutions Expo, sponsored by Apple Specialist First Tech, will feature exhibits products and solutions from Apple and over 25 technology partners such as Adobe, Epson, Xerox, Asante, and MYOB. The free event will take place at Radisson Hotel South in Bloomington, MN on Tuesday October 8, 2002. Apple's Vice President of Internet Services, Eddy Cue, will kick-off the event with a 9:00 a.m. presentation. Users can also attend one of 20 free seminars available throughout the day. ( takes place tomorrow in Seattle, WA at the Washington State Convention & Trade Center..)

WeatherPop 1.6 downloads weather info

10/02, 8:55am

WeatherPop 1.6 downloads weather info

WeatherPop 1.6, an update to the utility that downloads weather info to your desktop/menubar, adds the abiltiy to manage locations, adds a new data source, stores favorite locations, and has additional stability. The freeware supports up to 3 cities in the US, while the $8 shareware version has more color icons as well as forecasting abilities. [WP, WPA]

Tech: Dell revenue upped, Sony laptops...

10/02, 8:50am

Tech: Dell revenue upped, Sony laptops...

Morning tech news: Dell yesterday increased its revenue forecast for the current quarter based partly on strong sales of servers and storage systems, saying it now expects revenue for the quarter ended Nov. 1 to reach $9.1 billion, a 22 percent gain from the same period last year. Unlike Intel, AMD and Microsoft, Apple is standing firm against including DRM piracy tools in Macs; and Sony yesterday unveiled the first laptops with DVD-R/W drives using Toshiba's 1X DVD-R/RW drive.

Apple posts iPod Updater 1.2.1

10/02, 7:55am

Apple posts iPod Updater 1.2.1

Apple's iPod Updater 1.2.1 fixes a problem with the battery icon, allowing to correctly indicates a full charge.

PC-Mac-Net FileShare v2.1 increases security

10/02, 7:50am

PC-Mac-Net FileShare v2.1 increases security

Lava Software is now shipping PC-Mac-Net FileShare v2.1, its application for transferring files easily and securely between Macs and Windows PCs. It now supports files larger than 2GB, a 'Ping' button to test network connectivity, an increase in encryption strength to 896-bits, an improved dynamic help system and optimized network scanning. Lava Software is also currently offering two licenses for the price of one ($25). A free limited demo is available online. [Classic, OSX]

Quitling 2.1.1 adds Jaguar support

10/02, 7:45am

Quitling 2.1.1 adds Jaguar support

Catchy Software's Quitling 2.1.1, now compatible with Jaguar, adds a built-in application launcher (available as as a global pop-up window), a customizable popup and global actions, and other user interface enhancements to the $10 shareware utility.

ImageBuddy 2.5 adds lossless JPEG rotation

10/02, 7:40am

ImageBuddy 2.5 adds lossless JPEG rotation

Kepmad Systems released ImageBuddy 2.5, an update to its photo printing program that offers simple photo-editing features along with the ability to custom contact sheets. It adds support for lossless JPEG rotation, support for JPEG 2000 images and improved OSX integration from iPhoto. The $17 utility is available for both Classic and Mac OS X. [Classic, OSX]