News Archive for 03/06/03

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FileMaker Conference 'Early-Bird' prices

06/03, 8:20pm

FileMaker Conference 'Early-Bird' prices

Attendees registering for the annual FileMaker Developer Conference will save $200 with 'early-bird' pricing until June 30, 2003, FileMaker announced today. FileMaker Developer Conference 2003 is set for Aug. 24-27 at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort in Phoenix, AZ. After June 30, the regular conference fee of $1,200 will apply. Expected to attract more than 1,000 corporate and independent database developers, consultants and trainers from more than 25 countries, the conference will "empower participants with the expertise to create and deploy easy-to-use yet powerful FileMaker workgroup solutions."

Anark Studio 2 brings Mac OS X support

06/03, 6:25pm

Anark Studio 2 brings Mac OS X support

Anark today released Anark Studio 2, the newest version of its multimedia authoring software that offers integration of 3D, video, images, audio and interactivity, It features a new cross platform Anark Player, and Anark Client, Anark Studio allows users to create for both Mac OS X and Windows, with applications such as CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, self-contained screensavers, Web, and now video. Version 2 features an upgraded timeline, Mac OS X support, screensaver export, projector export, better rendering, and video export. Upgrades to the $1000 application are $150. A 15-day trial is available.

Apple woos independent music labels

06/03, 6:20pm

Apple woos independent music labels

Apple is "reaching out to independent labels in hopes of offering the broadest, deepest catalog of downloadable music," according to MTV News: " Apple has invited hundreds of indie label representatives to a private presentation on Thursday at the computer giant's Cupertino, California, campus to discuss hopping onboard and adding their content to the more than 200,000 songs already available through the service. Senior iTunes music store staffers will show the label reps how the store runs and they'll perform some hands-on demos, though it is unclear whether Apple boss Steve Jobs will attend."

KB: network issues; printer glitch...

06/03, 6:15pm

KB: network issues; printer glitch...

Apple's support Knowledge Base examines the following issues today: Your computer may connect to the base station but not to the Internet or local network when using a PPPoE DSL or cable modem service; you may see a "communication error" alert message when using an Epson Stylus Photo 1280 printer connected to the USB port of an AirPort Extreme Base Station; two users connected to the server via different protocols may be able to modify the same file simultaneously; you may see an email message about "returned mail" when you try to send an email to a Mac.com email address.

Apps: TrainingLog, Sidekick, Labels X, ...

06/03, 6:05pm

Apps: TrainingLog, Sidekick, Labels X, ...

Intuit has released a Windows-to-Mac Quickbooks data file conversion program. The converter requires the Mac OS X application to be downloaded and also the trial Windows version of Quickbooks Pro 2003. [Download - form]
OTAG has released TrainingLog, its athletic training tracking program for Mac OS 9/X. It allows multi- and single-sport athletes to track time, distance and speed statistics from a given session. It is priced at $30. [Download - Classic, OS X]
Unsanity today updated its Labels X add-on, to address a number of bugs. Labels X brings file and folder labeling features to Mac OS X. Changes in this version include a 'New Label' option in the Finder's File menu to quickly set labels on selected files; new shortcuts to set labels; a label command-line tool; labels information in Open and Save dialogs; and more. Labels X is priced at $10. [Download - 1.3MB]
dmg software today released Sidekick 1.1, an update to the Mac OS X menu bar item that interacts with AppleWorks 6. Version 1.1 allows you to adjust the number of recent items displayed, automatically remove recent items after a specified number of days, customize the menu to remove icons for Classic AppleWorks, and start a search of Britannica.com from an AppleWorks document. Sidekick can be purchased for $10. [Download - 194KB]
Address Book 5.2.4 for Mac OS 9/X is latest release of Apimac's $25 Internet-ready telephone and address application. Version 5.2.4 is a maintenance release that corrects some reported bugs: valid Web addresses are better handled now; the 'go to registration page' button at the Old Code Warning window is fully functional; and file names with diacritical characters are correctly displayed at the Import dialog. [Download - Classic, OS X]
Neon Software has released LANsurveyor 7.1, its application for the Mac that helps network administrators and IT Managers "visualize their networks, solve network problems and protect their networks from software audit risks." Versuion 7.1 is a free update for LANsurveyor 7.0 customers as well as Xserve Edition customers who receive LANsurveyor as part of the ongoing Apple Xserve bundle. [Download - see options]

The Globe: new iPod not necessarily better

06/03, 6:00pm

The Globe: new iPod not necessarily better

Michael Prager of The Boston Globe notes that the new iPods are not necessarily better than the older generation models: "The 15GB iPod introduced April 28 with a couple of cousins, one bigger and one smaller, is impressive.... I would probably want to run out and get myself one, if not for one thing: I have a 10GB model from the line's first generation, and it's better. After 10 days testing an Apple Corp. loaner, I can only vouch for the first half of that American ideal, 'new and improved.'" Meanwhile, AnandTech has a comprehensive review of the new iPod with photos of the inside of the new MP3 player and many other details.

Apple releases iMovie 3.03 update

06/03, 5:40pm

Apple releases iMovie 3.03 update

Apple today released iMovie 3.03, which "provides improved performance and stability, especially on G3 processor Macs, for rendering, audio, and the Ken Burns Effect. Refinements to the Ken Burns Effect allow greater control over pan and zoom of digital images, and make it easier to crop digital stills. QuickTime 6.3 is required for improvements to audio sync and audio integrity." [update-12MB, full-82MB]

Mac OS X Security webcast, case study

06/03, 5:10pm

Mac OS X Security webcast, case study

A Mac OS X Client Security webcast will take place June 17th at 10:00 a.m. PT (1:00 p.m. ET). It will focus on the security of Mac OS X clients in a lab environment. "You will learn about the security features implemented in the OS as well as ways to take advantage of them in your computing lab," according to the organizer. An overview of the core security features will be followed by an implementation case study from the University of Utah.

Price protection on PowerBooks from Apple

06/03, 4:20pm

Price protection on PowerBooks from Apple

Following Apple's recent $200 price drop on 12" PowerBooks and $200-300 price drops on 15" PowerBooks (noted yesterday), a MacNN reader points to Apple's price protection policies for users who purchased 12" or 15" PowerBooks from the Apple online store within the last 10 days.

Apple music foray may provoke lawsuit

06/03, 3:05pm

Apple music foray may provoke lawsuit

Fox News reports that Apple's recent foray into the music industry may provoke yet another lawsuit by Apple Corps, Ltd., the holding for The Beatles music group: "Apple Computer's Steve Jobs was such a Beatle fan that he named his company after the record label.But the Beatles, who are notoriously protective of their rights and quite litigious, weren't so happy with Jobs. In 1981 they made him sign something agreeing never to go into the music business in order to keep a name they had trademarked. But then in the mid-1980s, Apple Computer started producing music files and software. It had to pony up $26 million when the Beatles sued, and again promised not to go into any more music businesses."

Mark/Space debuts Missing Sync for Pocket PC

06/03, 3:00pm

Mark/Space debuts Missing Sync for Pocket PC

Mark/Space today announced first third party iSync conduit offering support for iCal and Address Book synchronization with the upcoming release of Missing Sync for Pocket PC. Missing Sync for Pocket PC enables Mac users to connect and synchronize information between a Pocket PC handheld and a Mac running Mac OS X and iSync 1.1: "Missing Sync for Pocket PC is the only product that integrates your Pocket PC handheld with iTunes and iPhoto, as well as synchronizes calendar items, to do items and contacts with the iCal and Address Book applications. From within iTunes your handheld and memory cards show up as an MP3 player, where you can add and remove audio files by simply dragging and dropping. From within iPhoto you can export and resize photos for optimal viewing on a Pocket PC handheld."

4D releases WebSTAR V v5.3 update

06/03, 12:20pm

4D releases WebSTAR V v5.3 update

4D, Inc. today began shipping 4D WebSTAR V v5.3, including updated 4D WebMail Pro with support for iCal, improved search indexing technology, more flexible security, and more. The new 4D WebSTAR V v5.3 is an update to the 4D WebSTAR V Server Suite, which includes a high-performance Web server, Email server, 4D WebMail interface, FTP server, WebDAV server and search engine. The new Security Plug-in in version 5.3 combines configurable authentication and Allow/Deny realm protections. It is a free update to the $400 application.

EZQuest ships Cobra FireWire 800/USB drive

06/03, 12:20pm

EZQuest ships Cobra FireWire 800/USB drive

EZQuest is now shipping its first FireWire 800 product, the Cobra FireWire 800/USB 2.0 external hard drive. It is housed in a light-gray, streamlined case that is fully shielded with 0.6mm metal. The drive includes a built-in universal auto-switching power supply, a cable and software. The Cobra drive is stackable and ships with Intech Hard Disk Speed Tools, a RAID level-0 striping software for Macs. It comes with a one-year warranty. Pricing is $300 for the 120GB model; $460 for the 200GB model and $590 for the 250GB model.

Apps: BlueTooth, Microspot X-RIP, Envoy...

06/03, 9:40am

Apps: BlueTooth, Microspot X-RIP, Envoy...

Apple's Bluetooth 1.2.1, available via the Software Update, provides enhanced stability and support for the following Symbian OS based mobile phones: Nokia 3650, Nokia 7650, and Sony Ericsson P800. It is recommended for use with iSync 1.1.
Microspot Ltd has released the latest version of its Mac OS X native professional large format printer driver: Microspot X-RIP 1.6 (£350) features Microspot's Pixel Expansion technology, which dramatically increases speed while lowering the RAM requirement. It also adds an enhanced error diffusion algorithm for higher quality photographic prints and support for the Encad range of printers as well as some Océ and Xerox printers.
Bains Software's Envoy 1.0 is a download manager for HTTP, FTP, and Gnutella downloads. It can resume transfers seamlessly, including those started from other programs. It also features an integrated Gnutella client, scheduling, live previews of downloads, logging, and other features. A 30-launch trial of the $18 shareware is available for Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X. [Classic, OSX]
Presenta has released iGetter 1.9.5, an update to its download utility that features support for resuming broken downloads, segmented (accelerated) downloading, queue filtering, file mirrors support, processing web page links, and scheduling. It adds new localizations for Traditional Chinese and German, contextual menu support for OmniWeb, support for Safari/Camino "cookies", and other features. The $25 shareware runs on Mac OS 8/9/X. [Classic, OSX]
F-Script 1.2.4 is a lightweight object-oriented interactive and scripting layer specifically designed for Mac OS X. Version 1.2.4 enhances the integration between F-Script and Cocoa, and comes with extended documentation F-Script is an open-source scripting environment for Mac OS X using Cocoa as its native object model. [6.6MB]
Saphire Innovations has released an update to its After Effects plugins set: Andrew's (video) effects Vol 1 v1.2 consists of 12 plugins for After Effects 5.5, including posterization, color solar effects, inverse, grayscale color effects as well as a selection of color gradient 'op' art plugins. The latest version includes a number of new color features as well as additional mask effects. The $40 shareware runs on Mac OS 9/X.

Panergy updates icWord 3.0, icExcel 2.0

06/03, 9:15am

Panergy updates icWord 3.0, icExcel 2.0

Panergy recently released icWord 3.0 ($20), which provides the ability to open and view PowerPoint presentations, offers better opening and saving capabilities with AppleWorks files, has more conversion options, and displays and saves NisusWriter files. It also offers improved viewing of RTF documents, improved font substitution, and enhanced WordArt rendering. icExcel 2.0 ($20) provides the ability to show and save spreadsheets in Excel XML format; displays Excel text boxes, Word Art, and various other elements. Version 2.0 offers improved printing with Mac OS 8.6 and 9.x, recognizes quoted text upon opening files, and has improved functionality with AppleWorks files.

Apple iSync 1.1 expands phone support

06/03, 9:05am

Apple iSync 1.1 expands phone support

Apple today released iSync 1.1, an update to its synchronization software that lets users automatically sync their contacts and calendars on their Mac with those on their cell phones, Palm OS devices and iPods. iSync 1.1 adds support for over 20 mobile phones from Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and Siemens, as well as Mac-to-Mac synchronization of Safari bookmarks for .Mac subscribers. Version 1.1 has added syncing via USB for several Motorola phones. In addition to Safari bookmark syncing, .Mac members can now access and organize their favorite websites from any Mac and with the ability to sync Mac OS X Address Book contacts, Mac.com email, iCal calendar events and To Do lists.

Apple releases QuickTime 6.3 with 3GPP

06/03, 9:05am

Apple releases QuickTime 6.3 with 3GPP

Apple today announced QuickTime 6.3, the "industry's first mainstream solution to support the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standard and to deliver a foundation for the creation, delivery and playback of rich multimedia content over wireless networks." Version 6.3 enables users to share video, audio and text on both cell phones and PDAs and offers support for the 3GPP standard, including Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) and Adaptive Multi-Rate (AMR) audio, MPEG-4 and H.263 video, 3G Text (TX3G) and native .3gp file format support. The update also includes automatic streaming transport detection, improvements to DV audio and video synchronization and enhanced support for Keynote, iMovie and iDVD. It is available now via the Web and via the Software Update. (Apple also said that QuickTime 6 surpassed 100 million downloads in less than 10 months.)

Apps: LiteSwitch X, SyncDeK, Rumpus...

06/03, 1:00am

Apps: LiteSwitch X, SyncDeK, Rumpus...

Proteron today released LiteSwitch X 2.0, a major new version of the popular application switcher for Mac OS X. Version 2.0 allows "users to exclude applications from the switcher [and] also offers more advanced options including allowing the Tilde key to move the switcher in reverse, and an option not to gray out icons of hidden applications." It is a free update to the $15 application (or bundled with MaxMenus for $30). [635KB]
SyncDeK 4.6 is an upgrade to the data replication & synchronization tool for FileMaker Pro. This new version enables developers to more easily add support for data replication in their solutions and reduces installation requirements and offers enhanced documentation plus a simplified configuration interface. Special pricing is available for SyncDeK 4.6 through June 20, 2003 ($500 off with pricing starting at $900 for a software license plus 2 single-user activation).
Maxum has updated Rumpus 3.1, its $250 FTP server for Mac OS and Mac OS X. Version 3.1 includes an updated Web File Manager, support for generic HTTP server functions, multiple host support, expiring user accounts, reserved administration connections, and IP-specific logins as well as a copy of Maxum's AppRunner utility, which can launch, monitor, and restart virtually any server application. Upgrades are free for recent purchases and $80 for others. [3.0MB]
Koingo has released its font management utility, Font Pilot 1.2, for free onits Website: "We still plan to heavily develop this application, so please send in your suggestions. Previous registrees of Font Pilot can e-mail us their old code for a complimentary code to any other Koingo Software application." [1.0MB]
CrystalFire Wormhole 1.0.2 is a new version of the single- or cross- platform file transfer utility. It includes better compatibility with older versions of Mac OS and Windows, puts the Received Files folder in a more standard location, adds progress bars and tutorial dialogs, and fixes a number of bugs. It is priced at $10 per computer until July. [1.3MB]

WiebeTech debuts new FireWire 800 enclosure

06/03, 12:40am

WiebeTech debuts new FireWire 800 enclosure

WiebeTech today introduced Fire800, its first FireWire 800 storage enclosure, featuring dual FireWire 800 ports, an additional FireWire 400 port, and a USB 2.0 port as well as fanless operation: "We've nearly doubled the performance over our legacy FireWire 400 desktop products [and] we‚ve added features and ports, reduced the physical size, improved the design, and included four different types of interface cables while maintaining compatibility with all ATA-5 and ATA-6 (high capacity) drives. This has been accomplished with only a slight cost premium over our older enclosures." A copy of Mac Drive 5 is included at no additional charge, allowing PCs to read Mac formatted volumes as if they were a native Windows format. It is available on case-only ($170), 120GB/2MB cache ($300), 120GB/8MB cache ($320), 180GB/WD ($380), 180GB/Hitachi/IBM ($400), 200GB ($450), and 250GB ($550) capacities. All models ship next week.

Sonnet drops prices on Encore/ST G4 upgrades

06/03, 12:05am

Sonnet drops prices on Encore/ST G4 upgrades

Sonnet Technologies today released a new version of its Piccolo flash drive and lowered prices on other models as well as reduced pricing on its Encore/ST G4 upgrades by up to $70.