News Archive for 02/12/06

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KB: laptop sleep issues; iPhoto credits

12/06, 5:05pm

KB: laptop sleep issues; iPhoto credits

Knowledge Base roundup: If certain applications are open, there may be a delay of up to 30 seconds before a PowerBook or iBook goes to sleep after its cover is closed; the field in the 1-Click "Order Prints" window under iPhoto may show fewer print credits than you have (if you have a 100-print credit or more, you will only see the final two digits); Apple has published a direct download link and details of the recent Mac OS 9-only Power Mac SuperDrive Update; the Mac OS X 10.2.2 Finder on certain Power Mac G3 computers may fail to open if such a system is started in verbose mode.

Column: Nomad Zen pricing threatens iPod

12/06, 4:45pm

Column: Nomad Zen pricing threatens iPod

A CNN Technology article favors Creative's Nomad Jukebox Zen over Apple's iPod, because of an attractive pricing scheme. "The Zen's silver case doesn't have the milky white hipness of Apple's iPod jukebox. And this unit is bulkier than an iPod [...] but the $299 price after a $50 mail-in rebate is about $200 less than a [20GB] iPod." Both units include 20GB hard disks, but the Zen is not Mac-compatible, has stronger copy-protection, and some say sports a less-intuitive user interface. The Nomad Zen debuted in October. Update: Interestingly, Time Magazine has ranked the iPod as the best "expensive" MP3 player, and credited the Zen as the best moderately-priced player.

Online Apple Store reaches major milestone

12/06, 4:35pm

Online Apple Store reaches major milestone

Apple today announced that its online store had its millionth unique customer this week. The Apple Store makes it easy to customize and purchase Mac-related software and hardware. Apple offers several international online stores, and a host of handy shopping features, including "1-Click" purchasing.

Apps: Photologist, Still Life, Snood, ...

12/06, 4:30pm

Apps: Photologist, Still Life, Snood, ...

Added: Dejal Systems today released Simon 1.0, a powerful new Mac OS X "site monitor." This application checks user-specified Web and/or FTP sites at a desired frequency, and indicates when they change or become unavailable. "Basic" pricing begins at $30, while "enterprise" pricing is $200. [1.7MB]
Photologist 1.1 is a $20 shareware photo management application for Mac OS X. The latest release adds QuickTime-based slideshow movies with 100 transition effects, printable layout templates, a screen capture utility, and a contact sheet generator as well as other improvements. [2.7MB]
Granted Software's Still Life 1.2 gians PAL DV export, new French- and German- versions, and other enhancements. Still Life allows you to pan and zoom any number of pictures, and export the result as a QuickTime movie or DV stream. [372KB]
HTTP Client Deux v1.1.1 is a maintenance update to Sky Technologies' 4D component for managing HTTP and HTTPS requests. Version 1.1.1 addresses issues with plug-in conflicts within 4D. HTTP Client Deux provides many automation and management functions for use in writing HTTP request and response processing code. [877KB]
The second beta release of Snood for Mac OS X has been released. Snood is a $15 "non-confrontational" puzzle game for Macintosh, Windows and Palm. [2.1MB]

ADS debuts three new FireWire products

12/06, 12:20pm

ADS debuts three new FireWire products

ADS Technologies will demonstrate three new PYRO 1394/FireWire products at DV Expo West, Los Angeles

PYRO DV RaidRT is a hardware-based FireWire-based, four-bay RAID enclosure (which accommodates Ultra ATA 100 hard drives) with internal dual-channel RAID controllers and also includes 64 MB SDRAM for cache memory. It supports RAID level 0, 1, 0+1, 3 or 5; the drives are hot swappable and one drive can also be used as a hot spare. It is due later this month for $1500.
PYRO A/V Link is a Firewire-based universal video capture device designed for both analog and digital video. It can capture analog video through RCA, S-VHS or Component Video to DV video format and output to DV or analog tape. It also enables users to connect analog and digital devices without a computer. It is also due later this month for $250.
The ultra-portable PYRO DV DRIVE enables videographers to capture digital video files directly from their DV camcorder to its hard drive via a FireWire connection. It features a 20GB hard drive and a built-in lithium ion rechargeable battery enclosed in a sleek silver and charcoal grey case about the size of a PDA. It can be charged through the FireWire bus or through the included power supply. The $600 drive includes a six pin-to-four pin FireWire cable, six pin-to-six pin FireWire cable, power supply, and leather carrying case. It is expected to ship later this month.

radioio launches MPEG-4 internet radio

12/06, 12:15pm

radioio launches MPEG-4 internet radio

radioio, an Internet-only radio station, has partnered with Limelight Networks and Apple to launch a new Internet radio station based on MPEG-4 using a combination of QuickTime Broadcaster, QuickTime Streaming Server 4 and the QuickTime 6 MPEG-4 codec" "We believe strongly that MPEG-4 will very soon become the industry standard for webcasting. It is already becoming the industry standard for the delivery of audio and video via cellular in much of Europe and most of Asia."

BW: Apple stock yet to join recent tech rally

12/06, 12:00pm

BW: Apple stock yet to join recent tech rally

Business Week says that Apple stock may be on the verge of climbing given analyst predictions of its sales numbers, overall 2003 earnings, and increased traffic at Apple Stores.

Apps: SuperDrive update, Virtual Composer...

12/06, 11:55am

Apps: SuperDrive update, Virtual Composer...

Apple has posted a Mac OS 9 version of its PowerMac SuperDrive Update for Mac OS 9, which addresses an incompatibility with 4x DVD-R and 2x DVD-RW media and also enables users to eject audio CDs that are copy-protected or have mastering errors. [2.5MB]
Virtual Composer 3.5 is a graphical multichannel musical compiler, sequencer and analyzer for the Macintosh, designed for perfect execution of complex polyphonic music using QuickTime's Musical Instruments Architecture. The $50 shareware for Mac OS 9 adds export of Binary Documents as either AIFF or MIDI, the ability to edit the internal disassembled code that's passed to QuickTime's tune player, new templates, and import of System 7 sound files.
Adobe's Premier 6.5 Mac Capture update fixes a problem that causes slow refresh during capture. [153KB]

Apple updates DVD Studio Pro 1.5.2

12/06, 11:15am

Apple updates DVD Studio Pro 1.5.2

Apple's DVD Studio Pro 1.5.2 (for Mac OS X only) addresses issues with setting dual layer break points on DVD-9 projects and flagging of Dolby Digital 5.1 streams: "DVD Studio Pro 1.5.2 has been qualified for use with QuickTime 6 and Mac OS X v10.2. Users running earlier versions of Mac OS X should continue to use QuickTime 5.x." Upgrades to the $1000 professional are $200.

Marketcircle updates DayLite 1.2.1 biz app

12/06, 11:10am

Marketcircle updates DayLite 1.2.1 biz app

Marketcircle has released DayLite 1.2.1, adding a Data Converter for converting Personal files to a Business database, a new Business Installer and the ability to export any selected records from your list view to the pasteboard or to a text file in tab delimited format. A single-user license of the sales and contact management tool is $150 (upgrades from the personal edition are $60).

Apago updates PDF optimization tools

12/06, 11:00am

Apago updates PDF optimization tools

Apago has released a free update to its PDF optimization tools, PDFshrink and PDFshrink Lite. Version 2.1 features several new optimization techniques and user interface improvements. PDFshrink Lite users now have the choice to enable or disable image resolution downsampling and the removal of the standard 14 fonts. [Full, Lite]

Apps: NetShred, iChat emoticons, ImageBuddy

12/06, 9:55am

Apps: NetShred, iChat emoticons, ImageBuddy

Mireth Technology has released a Mac OS X version of NetShred, its $20 privacy utility. NetShred X 3.0.1 for Macintosh shreds web browser cache, browser history files, email trash, IE download cache and Apple junk mail. It runs automatically when you quit from your browser or email application. Upgrades are $10. [1.1MB=]
More Smileys for iChat 0.9 adds emoticons (i.e., the MSN Icons) to Apple's iChat utility. [937KB]
Kepmad Systems released ImageBuddy 2.7.1, an update to to its $17 printing utility. It adds support for side by side image compare and transparent text water marking. [Classic, OSX]