News Archive for 03/10/04

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Tech: Warez criminals, fuel cells delayed..

10/04, 2:55pm

Tech: Warez criminals, fuel cells delayed..

Tech news: Four men pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement as participants in the "warez scene."; Toshiba is showing off the latest version of its fuel cell for portable devices, but problems with the new technology have delayed its introduction until 2005; HP is offering users of rival Sun's Solaris $25,000 in free services and equipment as an incentive to switch to Linux-based HP systems; and New OpenSSL patches, already included in Mac OS X 10.2.8, have been released to fix three holes in the open-source software.

cmiStudios offers DVD tutorials on Shake

10/04, 4:00am

cmiStudios offers DVD tutorials on Shake

cmiStudios is offering three different DVD tutorials on Shake, Apple's compositing and effects solution for film and HD. The tutorials are 90 minutes in length and are designed for new, intermediate, and advanced users of Shake. Each is $50. The new and intermediate tutorials are available now, while Advanced Shake is due in mid-October. All are available with free international shipping. All three are available for $130. The company has also posted a free tutorial on Smoking Text.

Apps: MSX ScriptPack, BusinessMind, Xupport..

10/04, 2:30am

Apps: MSX ScriptPack, BusinessMind, Xupport..

MacSpeech has released ScriptPak for Microsoft Word X, which adds over 150 spoken commands to the company's flagship speech recognition product iListen. The Microsoft Word X ScriptPak includes commands that allow the user to control most of Word's functions with voice commands. It is $20.
DCIT has released BusinessMind for Jewelers 3.10, an update to its SQL-based business software suite featuring dozens of new reporting, POS, and inventory management features, and ease-of-use improvements. The new version is available as separate products for jewelry Retailers, Wholesalers, and Manufacturers.
Xupport 1.3.7 ($20) adds several new functions to the utility that offers a GUI for dozens of system functions. It adds a browser for using commands (using the 'man' unix engine), new delete and burn functions for Mac OS 9, and new preferences to change window transparencies, check for updates on launch, and enable audio effects. [387KB]
MacChampion has released Scenario 1.0, a $10 shareware script launching utility which allows the user to trigger AppleScripts when certain events occur (log-in/log-out, sleep/wake, idle/stop idel, hot keys). It works as a Preference Pane for Mac OS X (10.2 and up). [1.7MB]
Lightsoft has released Kairos 2.10, a $20 shareware that records the weather conditions for up to 3 locations and graphs the data. Kairos can be programmed with alerts that can send out emails and run scripts when triggered and also can speak the weather and display current conditions in the dock. [2.1MB]
Geo-Calc 1.2 ($10) is a geometry calculator which computes the area, perimeter, sides, angles and the height of common 2D figures such as Ellipses, Rectangles, Triangles, Trapeziums, Parallelograms and Polygons, and the volume, surface, and sides of 3D figures such as Prisms, Cylinders, Cones, Pyramids and Spheres. [747KB]
SubRosaSoft DesktopEarth 1.3 downloads real time global cloud maps, then superimposes them on the map of your choice (political, geographic, elevation etc...) and sets it as your desktop picture. [3.4MB]

Apple closes two retail stores for remodeling

10/04, 2:00am

Apple closes two retail stores for remodeling

Apple's Mall of America Apple Store in Bloomington, MN will be closed for nearly a month for remodeling: "From October 6 to November 11 at 6 p.m., our doors will be closed for remodeling. During this time, we’ll be making a few improvements, including a larger theater, to make your Apple Store experience better than ever." The Mall of America location was the fourth Apple retail store to open in the U.S on August 11, 2001. Another reader notes that the Tysons Corner store in McLean, VA will also be closed from October 13 through November 17.

Mac OS X 10.2.8 updates available on the Web

10/04, 12:55am

Mac OS X 10.2.8 updates available on the Web

Apple's Security Team has announced that the re-released Mac OS X 10.2.8 Update (Build 6R73) contains the same security enhancements as the first update, including previously undescribed enhancements for recently revealed OpenSSL announcements: "Fixes CAN-2003-0543, CAN-2003-0544, CAN-2003-0545 to address potential issues in certain ASN.1 structures and in certificate verification code. To deliver the update in a rapid and reliable manner, only the patches for the CVE IDs listed above were applied, and not the entire latest OpenSSL library." Apple has also posted all six updates on the Web...