News Archive for 03/07/17

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IOGEAR showcases trigger-style wireless mouse

07/17, 5:55pm

IOGEAR showcases trigger-style wireless mouse

Earlier this month, IOGEAR debuted its trigger-style wireless mouse with an integrated laser pointer, offering presenters the freedom to control their presentations from anywhere in the boardroom, classroom or in the field. The next-generation Phaser Mouse, now with a USB compatible receiver, enables presenters to highlight material or direct audiences to specific points in a presentation with its built-in laser pointer. The handheld RF (Radio Frequency) mouse allows users to walk around the room (up to 50ft away) and does not require users to point the mouse directly at the computer.

Harmony Remote offers support for Mac OS X

07/17, 5:30pm

Harmony Remote offers support for Mac OS X

Intrigue Technologies is showcasing Mac support for its Harmony Remote Control, its internet powered universal remote control. It offers control of all of your home entertainment components with a single button and also offers free TV listings on its LCD screen. The remote ships with a new activity-based paradigm for controlling devices: "All other universal remote controls offer device-by-device control, whereas the Harmony Remote provides activity-based control. All you need to do is select an activity on the LCD screen such as 'Watch Television' or 'Play a Video' and the Harmony Remote sends all the commands to your entertainment devices to set them up perfectly for that activity."

Apps: iChatUSBCam, MonitorTest, WebKiosk...

07/17, 5:30pm

Apps: iChatUSBCam, MonitorTest, WebKiosk...

iChatUSBCam b2 enables owners of older USB video cameras and older G3 Macs to use iChat AV. It patches iChat AV so that most QuickTime video sources work for video conferencing and also allow for video conferencing on G3 systems which fall below Apple's minimum requirements (600MHz G3). [Download - see instructions]
MonitorTest 2.0 is a troubleshooting/tuning application for Mac OS X that enables users to adjust precisely the color on or more monitors. Special test patterns give assistance when trying to match the color appearance of all available monitors. Version 2.0 adds a new GUI, test patterns, and help system. [Download - 1.0MB]
iPod Access 2.0 is an application for transferring songs from your iPod to Mac. Version 2.0 includes: instantaneous song listing; all data for AAC files is shown correctly; song navigation by Artist/Album title; full backups achieved with one button push; and iPods are now automatically recognized. [Download - 1.1MB]
WebKiosk 1.3 is a free Kiosk manager based on Apple's WebKit framework. Users can lock a system with a password, turning it into a Web terminal for public access and also block or allow certain websites or websites containing specific words and/or restrict the access to specific domains. [Download - 64KB]
Temperature Monitor is a free Mac OS X application that displays the current processor temperature of selected Macs (those equipped with temperature sensors). The temperature can be displayed in a variety of formats and styles. [Download - 247KB]
Anomaly Industries has released BatteryStatsX, a utility that displays detailed information about your computer battery. The program only runs on PowerBooks or iBooks with Mac OS X and works by using the shell command 'ioreg.' ioreg provides information about various parts of the computer. [Download - 17KB]
Launch Items is an easy-to-use contextual menu plug-in that allows the user to launch customized applications or open documents with customized applications. Users can add any applications to the menu of Launch Items; it supports drag & drop, drag to change position of menu items, among others. Registration is $15. [Download - 1.0MB]
iChat Enhancer 1.5 is a module designed to work with Unsanity's Application Enhancer framework. It allows you to set the number of lines in iChat's message composition box, and to send instant messages that contain carriage returns without having them "swallowed" by iChat. [Download - 1.5MB]

Xhifi debuts Xducer 2.1 speaker system

07/17, 5:00pm

Xhifi debuts Xducer 2.1 speaker system

Xhifi has introduced its Xducer 2.1, a multimedia loudspeaker system that uses high-end technology from both JVC Japan and Xhifi. The three-piece system has a sleek cylindrical silhouette and a European cherry finish expressly selected for its acoustical properties. The Xducer 2.1 subwoofer offes 50 watts of power and a custom Class D digital amplifier for the speakers, while the two satellite speakers offer a cutting-edge ultra-high bandwidth 360° driver that delivers sound to over 50kHz, which the company says is twice that of typical loudspeakers. The $800 system is available with a $100 discount for a limited time.

Dantz offers PowerBook G4 firmware updates

07/17, 4:40pm

Dantz offers PowerBook G4 firmware updates

Dantz today released PowerBook optical drive firmware updates that "allow certain older MKE PowerBook G4 Combo (CD-RW/DVD-ROM) Drives and SuperDrives (DVD-R/CD-RW) to be supported by Retrospect. Most PowerBook G4s shipped by Apple after January 2003 already have MKE optical drives with firmware that is supported by Retrospect. This update applies only to customers with earlier versions of the PowerBook G4. Earlier this week we noted the Retrospect 5.1 update and company recently released a Mac Client update to address a security flaw noted here earlier this month.

Apple Store Burlingame to open July 26th

07/17, 3:55pm

Apple Store Burlingame to open July 26th

Apple today announced that it will open its newest retail store, Apple Store Burlingame, on Saturday, July 26 at 10 am. The Apple Store is located on the corner of Burlingame Avenue and Park Road next to Peet's Coffee in Burlingame, CA. Apple will be giving away 10 iSight cameras to luckly winners and free t-shirts to the first 1000 people to visit the store as well as holding ongoing presentations and workshops.

O'Reilly releases Digital Video Pocket Guide

07/17, 3:50pm

O'Reilly releases Digital Video Pocket Guide

The new "Digital Video Pocket Guide" (O'Reilly, $15) by Derrick Story is a complete guide to shooting the type of videos "you've always aspired to" -- from understanding digital video technology and selecting the right camera for your needs to mastering good video technique. Recent advances in video technology have lowered the price barrier to producing professional quality video. But as author Derrick Story explains, "The price of admission may have changed, but the approach to creating great-looking video remains virtually the same."

Cumulus Office Suite catalogs files

07/17, 2:05pm

Cumulus Office Suite catalogs files

Cumulus Office Suite ($100) lets users catalog and manage Office Documents from Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. When cataloging, Office Suite captures all text contained in the documents, including the main text itself, header information or foot notes, slide text and slide notes. In addition, it captures information such as author, date and version contained in Microsoft Office Compound Documents. If users have installed PowerPoint on the cataloging machine, this Option will catalog single slides of an entire presentation and create thumbnails and previews.

TDK ships Indi DVD Multiformat burner

07/17, 1:30pm

TDK ships Indi DVD Multiformat burner

TDK is shipping its external Indi DVD Multiformat burner (model DED+440), which offers support for DVD+R/+RW, DVD-R/-RW and CD-R/RW media as well as support for 4x DVD+R and DVD-R recording. The drive combines a 4x/2x/12x DVD-RW burner with a 16x/10x/40x CD-RW mechanism (with 2.4x write speeds for DVD+RW) along with a 2MB buffer. It also offers both FireWire and USB 2.0 connectivity. The optical drive includes Roxio Toast Lite for burning CDs and DVDs. The external Indi DVD Multiformat is currently available for $340. In addition to the new external Indi DVD Multiformat, TDK offers a 4x internal Indi DVD Multiformat Burner (Model AID+440) and a 4x internal Indi DVD +R/+RW burner (Model AID+420N).

eZedia showcases eZediaMX 3.1 at CreativePro

07/17, 1:10pm

eZedia showcases eZediaMX 3.1 at CreativePro

eZedia is showcasing its newly-released eZediaMX 3.1 at the Macworld CreativePro Conference and Expo this week. The beta version of eZediaMX 3.1 is available to all registered eZediaMX 3.0 users. The two major new feature additions to eZediaMX 3.1 are eZediaMX Composite and the Key Point Editor. eZediaMX is easy-to-use multimedia authoring and editing software for creating digital portfolios, dynamic presentations, multimedia slide shows, animations, and interactive CD-ROMs.

EXmedic 1.0 medical practice app for Mac OS X

07/17, 1:10pm

EXmedic 1.0 medical practice app for Mac OS X

EXmedic 1.0, formerly Medical Billing Circle, has been released for Mac OS X: "The software is now not only the best and by far and most automated billing product on the market, but became a fully fledged medical practice marketing, management and analysis system as well. We felt that the product name should change to reflect all of this, starting with the introduction of this new version." The company says that the interface has been completely redesigned and many new technologies have been embraced, although details were note provided. Pricing starts at $1,500 for a standalone program that includes the 4D engine or $960 per workstation (requires the 4D engine).

Apple posts $19M profit, call highlights

07/17, 1:00pm

Apple posts $19M profit, call highlights

Apple yesterday posted a quarterly profit of $19 million on increased revenues of $1.55 billion, its highest revenue in more than two years. We posted highlights from the 3rd quarter conference call, which took place yesterday evening.

Marathon introduces articulating display arm

07/17, 12:35pm

Marathon introduces articulating display arm

Marathon Computer has unveiled the PixArm articulating arm mount. The PixArm is specially engineered to carry the weight of Apple's Cinema Display. PixArm attaches to Marathon's existing wallmount brackets to allow one-handed adjustment of multiple angles and rotation. You can use PixArm to adjust a monitor either lower or higher than the height afforded by the display's built-in easel stand, to suit your preference. The PixArm and Marathon adapter for Cinema/Studio displays is $375.

Badia releases BigPicture 2.0 update

07/17, 11:30am

Badia releases BigPicture 2.0 update

Badia Software has release BigPicture 2.0 for QuarkXPress. With this release, BigPicture becomes "the first" commercial XTension available for QuarkXPress 6.0 and Mac OS X. BigPicture makes managing graphics and links easy, providing detailed image information and an array of tools for working with external image links. BigPicture 2.0 now sports a completely redesigned user interface. Pictures can still be viewed in the standard list view, now sortable by any attribute, or in the new thumbnail view. Version 2.0 is priced at $90; upgrades are $40.

MacSoft announces Neverwinter ship date

07/17, 11:25am

MacSoft announces Neverwinter ship date

Destineer’s MacSoft unit announced today that Neverwinter Nights for Mac will ship from MacSoft’s facilities on July 30 and be available at US retailers the first week of August. Select European retailers will have the product shortly thereafter. "The most complete software adaptation ever" of the classic pen-and-paper Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, Neverwinter Nights is a best-selling PC game created by BioWare.

Alias|Wavefront simplifies corporate identity

07/17, 11:10am

Alias|Wavefront simplifies corporate identity

Alias|Wavefront announced today -- its 20th anniversary -- the launch of a corporate identity change from Alias|Wavefront to Alias. "The name Alias signifies the rich heritage of the company and provides a simple yet powerful name that is well known throughout the 3D industry and beyond." Alias Research was founded in 1983, in Toronto, Canada, with Wavefront Technologies launching one year later in Santa Barbara, California. In the mid-90’s, the two companies were acquired and merged under Silicon Graphics as Alias|Wavefront.

Virtix revamps 'Zoom and Pan'

07/17, 10:35am

Virtix revamps 'Zoom and Pan'

Virtix today announced the immediate availability of Zoom and Pan 3.0 for iMovie. Version 3 is an update that allows Zoom and Pan to work with iMovie 2 and 3, and Mac OS 9 and OS X. Previous versions worked only with iMovie 2. Virtix Zoom and Pan 3.0 allows you to specify an XY position, a magnification factor and an angle parameter at the beginning and end of the clip. This means you can move across, zoom into and rotate an image at the same time. Zoom and Pan uses sub-pixel interpolation, which "eliminates the jitter that you can sometimes see with techniques that require exact pixel values." Registration is $35; it is free to version 2.0 owners.

OKI demos Rendezvous support at Expo

07/17, 8:45am

OKI demos Rendezvous support at Expo

Oki Data Americas (Booth 846) has announced that its plans to support Rendezvous, the zero configuration network connection technology from Apple. Oki Data will demonstrate a digital color printer with Rendezvous at Macworld CreativePro Expo: "Working over standard connection technologies (including Ethernet and 802.11b wireless), Rendezvous creates an instant network of computers and devices, with effortless connection and easy file sharing from anywhere. Rendezvous also allows devices to be added and removed from networks without configuration." (Yesterday we noted Oki Data's new OKI C9500dxn Pro Studio Edition digital color printer.)

Research shows Macs dominate design

07/17, 8:35am

Research shows Macs dominate design

IDG World Expo and TrendWatch Graphic Arts today announced results of their Spring 2003 study of the creative markets. The research showed that business conditions continued to show slight improvement for nearly all survey respondents in the Spring 2003 survey and that "the Mac is clearly the operating system of choice for design and production firms, with 82% of all respondents naming the Mac as their primary OS. However, adoption of Mac OS X remains slow; only 17% of those polled have upgraded their systems to the new OS." The study also noted that the Mac is not quite as popular among internet design and development firms, where only 22% use the Mac OS as their primary operating system.

Apps: ThemePark, Web Confidential, SpiroMaker

07/17, 8:30am

Apps: ThemePark, Web Confidential, SpiroMaker

Geekspiff has released ThemePark 1.0.1 ($20 shareware), which can be used to create or modify the way Mac OS X looks, as well as to change the appearance of individual applications. Theme Preview now previews all elements properly and modifying a boot panel now works properly. It also adds support for PNG files. [2.7MB]
Web Confidential 3.6 adds support for printing and adds an iTunes-like list view to Alco Blom's easy-to-use program for managing user IDs, passwords, registration numbers, and other info. The $20 shareware for Mac OS 9/X also allows you to automatically fill in Web forms with user ID and password fields. [3.3MB]
The electronic structure applicaiton Gaussian 03 is used by scientists for research in established and emerging areas of chemical interest: "[it] predicts the energies, molecular structures, and vibrational frequencies of molecular systems, along with numerous molecular properties derived from these basic computation types." It is $750 for a single-machine academic license.
Timed Screenshot 1.0 is a background utility for monitoring what happens on a computer by saving screenshots to a folder at user-defined intervals. The Mac OS X freeware also includes the source code. [810KB]
Human Software has released SpiroMaker, a $25 Photoshop plugin for Mac OS 9/X for creating spirographs (Trochoids) within Photoshop 5.5/6/7 or Elements. Users can collect as Paths, Selection, or Layers; combine spirographs for stunning effects; adjust the Base Circle, Turn circle and position to create effects; and a configure FXPak style or FXPak style and twirl.
Perforce Software has released a free Mac OS X version of its Perforce Visual Client, which provides a graphical interface to the Perforce SCM system, which offers version control, workspace management, atomic change transactions and a branching model to develop and maintain multiple codelines across multiple operating systems. [4.0MB]

MCE ships 24x internal CD-R/RW drive for iMac

07/17, 8:05am

MCE ships 24x internal CD-R/RW drive for iMac

MCE Technologies today released a 24x internal CD-R/RW drive for the original iMac (233, 266, and 333MHz, Rev. A-D). Each MCE 24x CD-R/RW drive for iMac includes software for burning audio and data CDs, is compatible with iTunes and Finder Burning, and includes a detailed installation guide. Each drive includes a complete set of iMac-colored eject button overlays which the user can apply to match the color of their iMac. The $180 user-installable drive is now shipping.

USA Today touts iChat AV video conferencing

07/17, 1:40am

USA Today touts iChat AV video conferencing

USA Today columnist Edward Baig gives iChat AV 3.5 stars (out of four), saying that "it blows away the competition," including MSN Messenger 6, which he said had choppy video, a "baffling" interface, and required 'a lot' more effort. "As befits Apple's pedigree, iChat AV is easy, graceful and an eye-opener. Apple's marketers refer to the program as video conferencing for 'the rest of us,' only the 'rest of us' need a top-flight Macintosh."

Digital Film Lab/ReTimer Bundle for video

07/17, 1:30am

Digital Film Lab/ReTimer Bundle for video

The new Digital Film Lab/ReTimer Bundle offers tools to "make video look like film." It uses the new Digital Film Lab (DFL) to create the look of film and the ReTimer SD/HD to adjust the speed of footage to create a more film-like quality. The Digital Film Lab plugin can create blurs, film grain, and optical effects, while the full ReTimer package can give video the speed of film. The DFL plugin can simulate a variety of film looks, popular glass camera filters, specialized lenses and optical lab processes with either 8- or 16-bits per channel processing. The bundle runs under After Effects, Final Cut Pro, and Combustion; it is $500 for the SD version and $800 for the HD version.

Harman Multimedia debuts JBL Duet speakers

07/17, 12:55am

Harman Multimedia debuts JBL Duet speakers

Harman Multimedia has also introduced its JBL Duet speaker system, a two-channel audio solution that offers 12 watts of total power. It employs the latest in Phoenix Tangential Strain Relief (TSR) technology for extra bass with lower distortion and Harman Multimedia's SlipStream port design for "unwanted noise". It is due in mid-August for $60 in either white or silver. (Yesterday we also noted the release of JBL Encounter 5.1/2.1 speaker systems.)

Apps: JPEG 2000, SignalSuite, TeXShop...

07/17, 12:35am

Apps: JPEG 2000, SignalSuite, TeXShop...

Monkeybread Software has released JPEG 2000 Dropper v1.1, a freeware utility to convert any picture file to a JPEG 2000 picture file. It adds a new drag & drop window, and offers better support for Unicode file names. It requires Mac OS X with QuickTime 6 installed. [784KB]
Benjamin Faber's SignalSuite 1.0 is a realtime audio signal generator that can produce white noise, pink noise, or any of several periodic signals. The $25 shareware for Mac OS X also offers the ability to select any audio output device, supports several wave types (Triangle, Sawtooth, Square), and offers independent amplitude adjustment, fine and coarse frequency controls, and pan. [348KB]
Mail Forward 2.0 for Apple Mac OS X offers email forwarding application for AOL, Hotmail, MSN, and Yahoo web mail accounts as well as standard POP mail accounts. It is available for $15 as well as a 30-day free trial. Version 2.0 includes the ability to forward America Online (AOL) web mail accounts. [1.3MB]
forty-two v1.6.1 is a freeware utility for "convert a DVD into either an AVI movie, a folder of ready to burn bin/cues for VCDs and SVCDs or a ready to burn .iso DVD disk image." Version 1.6 offers DVD Folder processing, Autobitrate calculation for (1 CD) mode, new multithreading code for improved encoding time and an inline MPG video previewer with QuickTime MPEG2. Forty-Two DVD-VX Plus 1.06 offers more features. [Std, Plus]
TeXShop 1.3 is a freeware Cocoa-based TeX previewer for Jaguar that uses "pdftex" and "pdflatex" to typeset. TeXShop also uses TeXLive and teTeX, standard distributions of Tex programs for Unix machines. The distributions include tex, latex, dvips, tex fonts, cyrillic fonts, and virtually all other programs and supporting files commonly used in the TeX world. [1.8MB]
Badia's Quark XTension, BigPicture 2.0, offers instant access to detailed image information, customizable views, a convenient built-in search engine and a relink engine, as well as link and edit tools and both list and thumbnail views in QuarkXPress from 4.1/5.x/6.0x. Upgrades to the $90 are $40.

Mac port of America's Army 1.7 now available

07/17, 12:20am

Mac port of America's Army 1.7 now available

The new Mac version of the military simulation America's Army 1.7, anticipated earlier this month, "gives Mac gamers a taste of what’s to come This fall Special Forces will debut, allowing gamers to experience new roles, including Medical Sergeant, Weapons Sergeant, Engineer Sergeant, Communications Sergeant, and Intelligence Sergeant. When America's Army: Special Forces is fully-deployed by the winter of 2003, gameplay will culminate with missions that span the capabilities of a Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) to include combat search and rescue (CSAR, to be debuted at E3), direct action, surveillance and reconnaissance, and unconventional warfare." The $6 software requires a 700MHz G4 processor (minimum).