News Archive for 03/04/24

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Apple Store break-in

04/24, 11:45pm

Apple Store break-in

Larry Wheeler of Memphis, TN writes: "WHBQ, Channel 13 Memphis, reported that Apple Store, Saddle Creek was broken into, early this morning. They showed surveillance video of a vehicle smashing through the glass doors, and the "bandits" made off with several laptops and digital cameras. The store was closed for repairs today. They mentioned no arrests."

Analysts question Jobs' compensation

04/24, 9:40pm

Analysts question Jobs' compensation

Gordon Anderson of CNN/Money writes "Apple CEO Steve Jobs couldn't have been happy when recent headlines trumpeted his revised compensation package as the latest innovation in corporate excess.... It's the latest trend in CEO compensation: swapping out-of-the-money options for restricted stock. In effect, what Jobs and scores of other corporate officers have done is to accept the bird-in-hand virtues of direct stock ownership over the more ephemeral prospects of option grants."

Forums: Power Supply; SuperDrive; cell phones

04/24, 6:50pm

Forums: Power Supply; SuperDrive; cell phones

MacNN Forums roundup: Readers continue to discuss Apple's Power Supply Exchange Program; a poll attempts to determine which SuperDrive firmware respective PowerBooks models are shipped with; readers discuss the most popular cellular phones among Mac users.

Jobs 'ducks questions on music strategy'

04/24, 6:30pm

Jobs 'ducks questions on music strategy'

Steve Jobs declined to comment on its forthcoming online music service and its reported talks to buy Vivendi's Universal Music label at the computer maker's annual shareholder meeting on Thursday, according Reuters: "There have been a lot of rumors in the last few weeks. Many of them are not true and some of them are true."

Updated MacNN XML, RSS feeds, other services

04/24, 5:30pm

Updated MacNN XML, RSS feeds, other services

We've updated our MacNN XML and MacNN RSS feeds to latest RSS 2.0 standard as well as included a publish time for each story. Other services we offer include MacNN Slim (for older browsers and slower connections), Avantgo, MacNN Mobile for PDAs, MacNN Headlines, and a JavaScript Headline feed for incorporation into other websites. We are currently developing a WAP version. Please email other suggestion or comments to us directly.

http://www.macnn.com/macnn.xml http://www.macnn.com/macnn.rss (with descriptions)

Tech: Windows Server 2003; Iraq; Linux

04/24, 5:15pm

Tech: Windows Server 2003; Iraq; Linux

Evening tech news: Microsoft hopes to rival UNIX server dominance with the release of its Windows Server 2003; Iraq is shaping up to be a "rare opportunity" for U.S. technology companies to build a digital infrastructure; "Linux is rapidly graduating from a small cult to a mainstream religious movement."

Apps: Boswell, ProjectHQ, izi-Applicant...

04/24, 4:00pm

Apps: Boswell, ProjectHQ, izi-Applicant...

Screen Movie Recorder 1.0 offers the ability to record movies of what happens on your screen. it can be set to automatically start at launch, can record the full screen or selected portions, and offers a user-customizable frame-per-second setting. The OS X utility is $10 for personal use and $20 for commercial use. [838KB]
AppendNote 1.0 is a Mac OS X system service which takes selected text (in any service-supporting application) and saves it to a text file on your hard drive. The text will be saved to a plain-text file named 'Notes.txt' in your home directory. Both the file name and the note storage file format can be customized. The OS X-only utility is free. [53KB]
Boswell 3.1 is a $100 application that flexibly archives, organizes, manipulates, and retrieves text: " original writings, e-mail, instant messages, web clippings, research, and class notes among others. When they are "Boswellized" they become items that can be automatically cross referenced among thousands of categories, grouped, sorted, and searched in very powerful ways." [2.9MB]
ProjectHQ 1.2 is designed to manage project resources. Version 1.2 adds a Projects menu, has better export functions, an improves searching.. The $12 shareware also offers access to Web tools (dictionary, thesaurus, grammar help, etc.) and integrated Sherlock functionality. [1.8MB]
3D Nature has announced its new landscape rendering technology, World Construction Set 6, according to Architosh. It offers tools for transparent water, real volumetric clouds and atmospheres; bump mapping for surface details; a new network render controller; and new support for JPEG, PNG, TIFF, AVI, and QuickTime files as well as OBJ support, LightWorks support and other 3D formats. It is $1000.
izi-Applicant 1.0 manages the job application review process. Users can input lists of requirements, create simple checklists for each job and score applicants. It offers mail merge templates, personalized email generation, application material tracking/storage, and other functions. The FileMaker-based application is $245.

USA Today looks at online music services

04/24, 12:50pm

USA Today looks at online music services

USA Today reports on the pending announcement of Apple's online music service, noting that existing pay music services have fewer than 300,000 customers and Real Networks' recent acquisition of Listen.com: "Though Apple declined to comment before the announcement, those who have used the new service say it's as easy as buying a book on Amazon.com. Recommendations based on listeners' preferences are plentiful; the system seamlessly interplays with Apple's free iTunes jukebox software and with the iPod."

Microsoft debuts new mouse, keyboard products

04/24, 12:45pm

Microsoft debuts new mouse, keyboard products

Microsoft today unveiled four new special edition mouse and keyboard products. The Wireless Optical Desktop Special Edition ($85) "delivers six feet worth of wireless freedom with a gleaming white and chrome-accented mouse, keyboard and shared receiver." The Wireless Optical Mouse Special Edition ($45) features a shining white finish, features an ambidextrous design and a wider scroll wheel. Microsoft's MultiMedia Keyboard Special Edition ($45) has a matte black finish, offers one-touch multimedia controls and time-saving Hot Keys. Finally, the Optical Mouse Special Edition ($35) with a matte black finish offers ambidextrous comfort and a wider scroll wheel. All are available now except the Optical Mouse SE, which is due in May.

Maya 5 available to select customers

04/24, 12:00pm

Maya 5 available to select customers

Alias|Wavefront today annnounced the availability of Maya 5, the latest version of its 3D software package which was introduced at NAB 2003 earlier this month. The upgrade is available now for annual maitenance customers, while Maya 5 for new and upgrading customers will begin shipping on May 1, 2003. Maya 5 includes enhancements in areas such as character animation, dynamics and polygonal modeling as well as improved data exchange, including support for Macromedia Flash (SWF), DWG, DXF, Adobe Illustrator (AI), Encapsulated PostScript (EPS), Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), IGES, OpenFlight, StudioTools and OBJ (MTL). Other new features are listed on the Website. Maya Complete is $2,000 and includes modeling, rendering, animation, dynamics, Maya Artisan, Maya Paint Effects, mental ray for Maya and Maya Embedded Language (MEL).

Audio application crashes noted by Apple

04/24, 10:20am

Audio application crashes noted by Apple

Apple says that "an audio application may unexpectedly quit when you disconnect or turn off a USB- or FireWire-based audio device. "Audio applications" include applications that access the USB or FireWire audio device, including iTunes, Final Cut Pro, and the Sound pane of System Preferences." The solution offered is to "quit all applications that can access the audio device before disconnecting it or turning it off."

Apps: AudioX, SlipStream Data, DropDMG...

04/24, 10:00am

Apps: AudioX, SlipStream Data, DropDMG...

Studio Boss 3.6.4 uses a FileMaker Pro data engine to manage projects, clients, activities, expenses, and invoices. Studio Boss users can also track their time using a Palm-compatible PDA and create customized reports. The latest version of Studio Boss includes the ability to email an invoice, several new forms, an updated manual, and a new auto-backup feature to protect data. It is available for $40 through April. [Classic, OSX]
JediKnight 2.1 is an update to the full-featured, Cocoa-based and Aqua-compliant IRC client. It supports multiple server connections, file transfer, window transparency, rules-based message filtering, text-to-speech, and more. The application is $20 "donationware". [4.3MB]
SlipStream today announced Version 3 of its Internet acceleration software, SlipStream Data. The new version provides compression for email, as well as tighter integration with both Microsoft Explorer and Netscape web browsers and a new Mac OS X client for for web browsing as well as new reporting features for ISPs and overall speed improvements. This version is available for testing immediately and will be generally available in early May of 2003.
Realmac Software today announced AudioX 3, a $20 sound recording application that can record sound from any input source under Mac OS X, including a built-in microphone, USB microphone, FireWire video camera or via the audio-in port. It offers AIFF export, speed control of song playback, the ability to add/export notes, new toolbar icons, iTunes-like file management, and other enhancements. [2.0MB]
Ellipsis has released Safari Bookmark Exporter 1.0, a freeware utility designed to export Safari bookmarks. It supports export to OmniWeb, Camino/Chimera, Mozilla, Netscape, and Internet Explorer browsers. [212KB]
DropDMG 2.1 is a utility to create ".dmg", ".img", and ".smi" disk images under Mac OS X. It can encrypt images and encode them with GZip, BZip2, or MacBinary and can also create images with rich-text license agreements. It adds support for Internet-enabled disk images, simplified preferences, an improved UI, and other changes. It is a free update to the $10 application. [830KB]

Apple to broadcast April 28th event

04/24, 9:45am

Apple to broadcast April 28th event

Apple today announced it would offer a satellite broadcast of the April 28th special event, which promised announcements that would be "music to your ears." Apple said the presentation will be available via satellite at the following coordinates on Monday, April 28th at 1:00 p.m. EDT: