News Archive for 03/09/12

Choose an article from the archive listing on this page or refine your selection using the controls in the gray box below.

Details emerge on Apple Corps lawsuit

09/12, 5:05pm

Details emerge on Apple Corps lawsuit

Apple Corps has provided a few more details on its lawsuit against Apple Computer, which we noted yesterday, while Apple says that the companies "have differing interpretations" of the original agreement signed over a decade ago: " 'Specifically, (the) complaint is made over the use by Apple Computer of the word 'Apple' and apple logos in conjunction with its new application for downloading pre-recorded music from the Internet.' Apple Corps first tussled with Apple Computer over trademark issues in 1989, claiming that the computer company was illegally using the band's name and logo to sell music-related products, such as digital music software. Apple Computer settled the case for $27 million and an agreement that generally precluded Apple Computer from entering the music business," according to CNET News.com.

Macromedia updates FreeHand MX 11.01

09/12, 4:10pm

Macromedia updates FreeHand MX 11.01

As anticipated earlier this week, Macromedia has posted its FreeHand MX 11.01 update, which it says "contains fixes for issues identified since the release of FreeHand MX (version 11) and includes product activation." The update requires Mac OS X 10.2.6. Users will need their serial number and Macromedia membership informtion (free). Update: While Macromedia's Web site will accept FreeHandMX serial numbers, it will not accept StudioMX Serial numbers. Macromedia customer service is closed until Monday. [form]

Forums: G5 news; PB speculation; more...

09/12, 3:40pm

Forums: G5 news; PB speculation; more...

MacNN Forums users today discuss the following: benchmarks comparing the single-1.8GHz Power Mac G5 to the dual-1.4GHz Power Mac G4; the expected ship date for Power Mac G5 dual-2GHz orders; speculation about Apple's PowerBook-related announcements at the upcoming Apple Expo in Paris, France; G5 memory management under Mac OS X 10.2.7 and OS X 10.3 "Panther;"and a preview of a new "Water" interface theme for Mac OS X. Be sure to explore the rest of the MacNN Forums to take part in the hundreds of active discussions each day.

Apple exec. to keynote EDTECH

09/12, 3:00pm

Apple exec. to keynote EDTECH

Dr. Barry Adams, director of strategic alliances at Apple will keynote North Carolina State University's EDTECH conference in Raleigh, NC at the Jane S. McKimmon Center on September 25 at 9:30 a.m.

Tech: BMG anticopy CDs; hacker investigation

09/12, 2:40pm

Tech: BMG anticopy CDs; hacker investigation

Afternoon tech news: For the first time in the United States, BMG Music will release a music CD loaded with anticopying protection, which includes computer-ready files that can be transferred to a PC, a Macintosh computer and to many MP3 players; in the murky underworld of computer crime, investigators rarely uncover a "smoking gun" as they did in the Jeffrey Lee Parson case; some observers say the music industry's lawsuit campaign could spark a consumer backlash spurred by discontent music fans, already angry over soaring CD prices and the shrinking number of retailers offering varied music titles.

Power Mac G5 units arrive in Australia

09/12, 12:35pm

Power Mac G5 units arrive in Australia

Apple resellers around the country are celebrating the G5 arrival with a small supply of 1.6GHz and 1.8GHz Power Mac G5s arriving as well as pending launch of the new 40GB iPod, which is scheduled to hit Australian stores in two weeks, according to ARNnet: "Managing director of Apple Centre Taylor Square, Ben Morgan said his store was receiving a slow trickle of 1.6GHz and 1.8GHz stock but he expected that supply would free up over the next two months."

Wired: Ex-Apple employee slams company

09/12, 12:25pm

Wired: Ex-Apple employee slams company

Wired News reports: "On the eve of a big reunion of Apple employees, a former Apple marketing director is blasting his former co-workers for failing to make the company a success. In an open letter to the Apple Computer History Weblog, former marketing director Michael Mace calls his ex-colleagues 'the Keystone Kops of computing.' He accuses them of 'group stupidity' and says the company was destroyed by a 'diseased and dysfunctional culture. Apple Computer as a whole was a massive failure,' he writes in a post titled 'Who Killed Apple Computer?'"

Apps:Movie Archive, WebDesign, AudioX...

09/12, 12:10pm

Apps:Movie Archive, WebDesign, AudioX...

Movie Archive ($50) enables you to capture, compress, browse, and organize a multi-tape video library. Users can control the camera directly from the software, automatically scan for scenes in the captured video, add notes and other info for each tape/scene. It requires Mac OS X 10.2 or later and a DV camera connected via FireWire. [427KB]
Rage Software's WebDesign 2.3 is an update to the $40 web-authoring package that offers a built-in Site Manager as well as an FTP client and support for HTML, XHTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript, ASP and more. Version 2.3 includes an improved spell checker, offers better control over the creator of saved files, and improves regular expression searching. [Classic, OSX]
JunXion 1.0 ($30) is a Mac OS X data routing application that allows the connection of any USB game controller and defines, in an easy user interface, the translation of each key or joystick action into a specific MIDI event. The resulting MIDI data is then available to any audio/music software that runs on that Mac or can be send to external MIDI interfaces. [982KB]
Realmac Softare's $20 shareware AudioX 3.2 enables recording from any input source, including a built-in microphone, USB microphone, FireWire video camera or the audio-in port. Version 3.2 adds a skip feature to the notes window and an export to mail function (along with other enhancements). [2.2MB]
CG Invoicer 1.6 is an update to the Mac application that creates a database of invoices, customers, and products or services with both tracking and reporting functions. It adds a free field notes area, custom HTML-based invoices via email, and the ability to create a new invoice by pulling information from a previous invoice. [Classic, OSX]

MacEnthusiasts Celebrates 10 Year Anniversary

09/12, 11:50am

MacEnthusiasts Celebrates 10 Year Anniversary

MacEnthusiasts, a Mac dealer in Los Angeles is celebrating its 10-year anniversary this month. As part of the celebration a storewide sale will run until September 27th. This month also sees MacEnthusiasts debuting a new and bigger rental department, while continuing to offer the same "great service and sales that they have built their reputation on." "After receiving tremendous support from the Mac community for the last decade, we have decided to give something back. The prices on new Macs are at our cost while everything else is being reduced by up to 20%," owner Mark Greenblatt said.

Aurora Pipe leverages FCP's RT Extreme

09/12, 11:50am

Aurora Pipe leverages FCP's RT Extreme

Aurora Video Systems has released its new Aurora Pipe video capture and editing card designed specifically to "take advantage of Apple's RT Extreme capabilities while utilizing all of Final Cut Pro's real-time effects. Integrating seamlessly with Final Cut Pro and After Effects, Aurora Pipe provides a low-cost, easy-to-use solution for offline editors working with uncompressed applications that do not require the power of hardware-accelerated real-time effects." The $800 card offers composite and S-video I/O and 16 bit, 48 kHz, dual-channel RCA unbalanced audio as well as support real-time previews with Adobe After Effects.

X-Builder: multimedia authoring tool for OS X

09/12, 11:40am

X-Builder: multimedia authoring tool for OS X

X-Builder is an authoring tool specially designed for creating multimedia projects and applications for Mac OS X. It offers a powerful, intuitive multimedia authoring environment with the ability to save royalty-free projects as standalone applications: "X-Builder distinguishes itself from other authoring systems with its modern, simple and intuitive project development environment...Using a single menu command or function key shortcut you can instantly switch between run mode and X-Builder's development environment; no compilation required." Registration is $50 with upgrades from iBuild only $20.

Apps: DVDxDV, QuickReach, Macabinet...

09/12, 9:35am

Apps: DVDxDV, QuickReach, Macabinet...

DVDxDV 1.061 updates the software that extracts video from DVD. It adds the ability to extract DVDs with MPEG audio, a format used by many PC-based DVD authoring programs: "Unlike other software, DVDxDV contains everything you need to start extracting video from a unencrypted DVD." [525KB]
Microfinch's QuickReach 1.0 is a $14 Mac OS X utility for launching Finder items easily and quickly. It can create a single alias for a group of files/folders and/or applications. [348KB]
Macabinet 1.3.6 ($10) adds support for Text Clippings, file renaming, executing compiled AppleScripts through a contextual menu, custom interface options, and a new fade style ("Fade"). The Macabinet desktop utility stores commonly used text, documents and other items in "hideaway cabinent". [1.2MB]
Sillysoft has released version 3.2 of Lux ($15), its Risk-like game of universal domination. Version 3.2 offers better stability and a new Battle of Europe map as well as Panther compatibility. [3.4MB]
MaBaSoft has released Euro Assistant Pro 2.6.1, its $15 currency converter for both European and non-European users. Euro Assistant Pro updates exchange rates over the Internet; logs, prints, saves and exports conversions; imports and automatically converts series of amounts; and calculates and converts the result of algebraic expressions. [Classic, OSX]

Canon debuts PowerShot Digital ELPH SD10

09/12, 9:25am

Canon debuts PowerShot Digital ELPH SD10

Canon has introduced its new PowerShot Digital ELPH SD10 digital camera, which it says is the "world's smallest four megapixel camera." It weighs 3.5 ounces, measures 3.6" x 1.9" x 0.7" and features a 5.7x digital zoom. It is available in four art deco-tech colors, including lacquer ("like shine of grand piano black"), iridescent white, satin bronze patina, and a platinum silver finish. The new cameras will ship in mid-October for $450.

Photos and notes on Apple Store San Francisco

09/12, 8:45am

Photos and notes on Apple Store San Francisco

MacNN reader Gary Allen has posted photos and notes on the Apple Store San Francisco, which began construction last month near Union Square in downtown: "This site is just two blocks south of Union Sqare, the traditional center of the San Francisco's downtown district. It's one block away from the Powell Street cable car turnaround, which is a haven for tourists. Just a block in either direction is a Gap store and a CompUSA (which has Apple posters in the window!)."

Electric Rain debuts Swift 3D Xpress for OS X

09/12, 8:40am

Electric Rain debuts Swift 3D Xpress for OS X

Electric Rain has announced Swift 3D Xpress, a new 3D extension accessible directly from within the Macromedia Flash MX 2004 interface. Swift 3D Xpress allows Flash MX 2004 users to select any vector object on the stage in Flash, open it into the Xpress editing interface, customize their 3D scene by extruding, rotating, lighting and animating the vector object, and then render it out to a self-contained Movie Clip in either vector or raster form. The Mac OS X version is due soon, according to the company.

Pinnacle ships CineWave 4 for G5 systems

09/12, 8:30am

Pinnacle ships CineWave 4 for G5 systems

Pinnacle today announced CineWave 4, a powerful hardware and software combination for Final Cut Pro 4, that provides full support for the Power Mac G5. CineWave offers real-time, all-the-time online and offline editing features and also now features enhanced support for PAL video. Other new features include high-quality offline support with real-time HD and SD capture into PhotoJPEG, DV25/DV50 and CineOffline; new real-time effects and functionality; new high-precision 32-bit floating-point rendering; "film friendly" support; and improved audio support as a new TARGA Cine Codec for PC delivers cross-platform flexibility. Upgrades to the $4,000 application are $300. A free 4.01 updater offers Power Mac G5 support.

Apps: Address Book, myPhoto, Peak, FindFiles

09/12, 12:30am

Apps: Address Book, myPhoto, Peak, FindFiles

Apimac Address Book 5.4.1 updates the telephone and address application for Mac OS X. Version 5.4.1 is a maintenance release that corrects a handful of reported issues. Apimac Address Book allows users to manage addresses, phone numbers (via modem or by playing touch-tones to the phone), URLs, and e-mail addresses, quickly and easily. [Classic, OSX]
myPhoto 1.3 adds a new installer, a theme/skin support, selectable iPhoto album photos, an additional cache system for improved speed, an option to disable to disable the search engine and other features to PHP program that will generate a full-featured photo album viewable via the Web. [2.0MB]
BIAS has posted an update to its stereo audio editing, processing, and mastering application, Peak 4.01 and Peak DV 4.01. It is available to registered users. [form]
FindFilesX is a search engine for finding files or folders on your computer (or on a networked drive). It allows AppleScripts to quickly search an entire volume without using UNIX commands (grep). [456KB]
Tri-Edre has released Tri-BACKUP 3.2.2 ($50), an update to its backup application for Mac OS 8/9/X. It adds auto-launch when a volume is inserted (if actions are programmed to trigger when volumes are mounted), a new option in Incremental Backup programmed actions that allows users to save all files (not only those modified since the last backup), and a new option in Preferences allowing the copy (or not) of the owner, group and permissions of each file and folder to/from a server. [form]