News Archive for 03/12/19

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Forbes publishes Q&A session on Apple

12/19, 7:30pm

Forbes publishes Apple Q&A

Forbes has published the transcript from an online questions and answers session with Forbes technology correspondent Arik Hesseldahl on the "past, present and future of Apple's Macintosh computer." Hesseldahl says, " I think Apple has long recognized that it's never going to beat Microsoft and the Wintel combination, but there are still people who want a high-quality computing alternative [...] It does a lot of the things that a Wintel box can do, it just does them with a certain flair that a certain kind of person appreciates and is willing to pay for and use to the exclusion of more conventional computing products."

Former Apple employee indicted for fraud

12/19, 6:05pm

Apple ex-employee indicted

Marci O'Kelly, a former employee of Apple, was indicted this week by a federal grand jury on charges that she defrauded her former employer, and engaged in interstate shipment of stolen property, as reported by The San Jose Business Journal. According to grand jury, when Ms. O'Kelly was a graphics design budget coordinator for Apple in 2002 and 2003, During that time, she ordered approximately $120,000 of digital photography equipment from vendors on Apple's account without authorization, then resold the equipment for her personal benefit on eBay.

Apple launches new science education site

12/19, 5:25pm

Apple Edu. Science site

A new Apple Web site that showcases the company's involvement in science and education went live today, according to the company. The site features Virginia Tech's Power Mac G5 cluster supercomputer very prominently, which is ranked third most powerful in the world. "For 25 years, Apple has provided powerful tools to enable scientific discovery," the company boasts, "With the world’s first 64-bit desktop computer, robust cluster, and storage solutions, and thousands of scientific applications, scientists everywhere are moving to Mac — and with good reason."

Wal-Mart music service works on Macs?

12/19, 2:55pm

Wal-Mart music service

A MacNN reader notes that Wal-Mart's recently launched 88-cent music service is compatible with Macs, despite warnings to the contrary on the company's website: "As an Apple user for many years I've learned to ignore (especially on the internet) any download that says "For Windows only; will not work on Apple Macintosh Computers.' Wal-Mart's new music service states the same. So I did what I always do if I'm interested, I downloaded the test song onto my old Mac and low and behold it played perfectly. Not that I would buy from Walmart-just tired of seeing that quote."

New white paper for AEC CAD market for Macs

12/19, 2:35pm

AEC CAD market for Macs

Cyon Research today announced a white paper that examines the AEC CAD market for Macintosh users based on the results of a survey conducted to determine the demand for AutoCAD on the Mac. Prepared in association with Architosh, the paper can be purchased for $200 (with a $100 discount for subscribers to A-E-C Automation Newsletter): "It addresses not only the need for and prospect of an OS X AutoCAD, but also the question of what CAD is available for Mac-using architectural professionals. Recommended for AEC practitioners who are committed to, or considering, the Macintosh for use in their practice."

REAL launches REAL World 2004 user conference

12/19, 2:20pm

REAL World 2004

REAL Software today announced REAL World 2004, its new REALbasic User Conference, which will be held March 24-26, 2004 in Austin, Texas. The conference agenda is geared toward the large and growing community of REALbasic experts and novices and will include a keynote by REAL founder Geoff Perlman, two full days of sessions, presentations by REAL Software experts, and announcement of the winners of the REALbasic Design Awards (formerly known as the "Cubies"). Accommodations are $100 per night, while the conference pass is $400.

Native Instruments releases Kompakt for Mac OS X

12/19, 1:00pm

Kompakt for Mac OS X

Native Instruments has released an update to Kompakt, which brings the powerful sampler to Mac OS X. It now fully supports the modern technologies and interfaces of OS X, including AudioUnits, RTAS, VST and standalone operation with CoreMIDI and CoreAudio. Kompakt ships with a comprehensive library and can import the most common sample formats. It is immediately available to all registered users as a free download.

Artly There releases Compositor 2.6 with new filters

12/19, 11:25am

Compositor 2.6

Artly There Software has released Compositor 2.6, an update to its full featured image editing and image to art application, offering 165 filters and channel effects, complete painting and editing tools, the ability to save/replay filter actions, slide show functions, a 'Quick Palette' for storing commonly used actions, and other advanced functions. Version 2.6 adds Motion Blur, Twirl, Ripple Waves, Spheroid, and Spherize Distort Filters as well as two new painting tools, Motion Brush and Media Brush. The $35 application runs on Mac OS X only.

QuickMix 1.1 offers multitrack video editing

12/19, 11:20am

QuickMix 1.1 released

Smiley Happy Software's QuickMix 1.1 is a $20 video-editing application that specializes in multi-track movies. Tracks can be viewed and edited independently of each other and can be temporarily combined to be previewed or exported as a movie file. It can edit any QuickTime file, allows users to specify track offsets, can speed up/slow down video clips, can combine and split tracks, and offers unlimited undo/redo. Version 1.1 adds full Panther compatibility, full-screen playback, looping options, and trim and playback rate options. It requires Mac OS X 10.2 and QuickTime 6.

Tech: RealNetworks sues MS, Wal-Mart music, spam...

12/19, 11:05am

Real sues MS, online music

Early morning tech: RealNetworks Inc. has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft Corp., alleging that MIcrosoft has illegally used its power as a monopoly to control the digital media market; Wal-Mart Stores Inc. launched a bare-bones Web site Thursday to test its new 88-cents-per-song online music service; Microsoft and New York's attorney general filed several lawsuits against a New York-based spamming ring allegedly responsible for sending billions of illegal and deceptive e-mail messages.

Team MacNN surpasses 1M in Folding@Home project

12/19, 11:00am

Team MacNN Milestone

In the last few days, Team MacNN has surpassed the 1 million point barrier in the Folding@Home distributed computing project: "Now that we have passed this important milestone, our sights are set on loftier targets. Join us in our quest, and make it your own goal to reach the elusive top 10 ranking on the team. To join, simply download the Folding@Home client and install it with the team ID of 16. If you have any questions, visit our forum."

Dell stops stelling iPod 'permanently'

12/19, 10:55am

Dell stop selling iPod

The Austin American-Statesman reports that Dell Inc. stopped reselling Apple's iPods in mid-November, about two weeks after the company launched its own competing MP3 player and says it has no plans to resume sales of the No. 1 MP3 player. The article notes that both Apple and Dell declined to explain why the two companies scrapped their reselling agreement, however, it speculates that Apple's pricing policies may have conflicted with Dell aggressive discounting and promotions.

NewsFactor: Hidden Costs of Mac Ownership

12/19, 9:15am

Hidden Costs of Macs

NewsFactor's The Hidden Costs of Mac Ownership talk about Apple's annual OS licensing policy, the need for Microsoft Office, lack of professional support, availability of Mac-compatible products, and other considerations when looking at the cost of owning a Mac vs. a PC: "Apple's tiny market share is not a reflection on the quality of its OS, , experts agree. But its niche market share -- currently about three percent -- means that Mac users exist in a small minority group. This itself causes extra burdens."

Steve Jobs among Winners of 2003

12/19, 9:10am

Jobs among 2003 Winners

Steve Jobs is among CBS MarketWatch's Winners of 2003: "At a time when legit music downloads were catching on about as quickly as, well, Apple computers, Steve Jobs came along and did it right with ITunes. Still, the most successful online music-seller isn't profitable, but its intent has always been to drive sales of IPod music players. With nearly 20 million songs sold since its April launch, not only has the cult of Apple concept has also sent competitors like Dell and Microsoft scurrying to get their own music services up and running."

Apps: Transmit, DisplayConfigX, DockFun!, MegaSeg...

12/19, 9:05am

Transmit, DockFun!

Panic has released Transmit 2.6.2, an update to its $25 FTP/SFTP client for Mac OS X. It fixes a bug under Panther, adds PageSpinner support as an external editor, and addresses other minor issues. [1.2MB]
DisplayConfigX 0.87 is a tool to configure resolutions matching the monitor. It adds new resolutions to the system configuration and tunes the refresh rates to the monitors abilities. The $12 shareware can be used for free with limited resolutions. [option-click]
John MacDonnell has updated his DockFun! 4.1 ($20) application. It now includes a restyled Dockpit, few bug fixes and a Xmas promotion, offering a free version of Cunning Fox ($10 system process viewer) with every purchase of DockFun!, which allows users to have multiple dock configurations. [DF, CF]
MegaSeg 2.7.1 updates the $200 professional DJ mixing and radio automation software, fixing Unicode compatibility issues, adding better support fo the Contour ShuttlePro controller, and allowing Playlist Event lists to be edited and reordered by drag-n-drop. [Classic, OSX]
Symantec has released Norton AntiVirus X 9.01 via the Live Update function of the application. The latest version brings full Panther compatibility and other (uknown) enhancements. The company has also released the latest December Norton Anti-Virus definitions.
mpc2aiff 1.1 is a front-end interface for the command-line utility mppdec, which will decode mpc files (musepack's mpeg plus; other supported extensions are "mpp" or "mp+") to aif format. [120KB]

Glucose WeatherPop 2.0 preview adds screensaver

12/19, 8:45am

WeatherPop 2.0 preview

Glucose has released WeatherPop 2.0 Preview, an update to its desktop weather utility. It now includes a new screensaver, called WeatherPop Sky, which will "create a virtual reality-like landscape of what it looks like to be outside. Depending on the time of day, cloud cover, and current precipitation, WeatherPop Sky can portray a beautiful sunrise or the most treacherous winter snowstorm." The final version of the $8 shareware is due in February 2004 with new weather alerts and other enhancements.

MyKeynoteThemes offers Nativity theme Set for Keynote

12/19, 8:40am

Nativity theme Set

MyKeynoteThemes has released the Nativity theme Set. Part of The Twelve Themes of Christmas, it provides unique backgrounds, frames and photos to help tell the story behind the real meaning of Christmas. Three regal themes of the Three Kings, with velvet presented in red, green and blue bordered by silk cords, a simpler theme representing the Shepherds with plainer cloth and simpler borders, and the Oxen theme of animal hide and rope. It also includes many specially made semi-transparent photos of the three wise men, shepherds, Mary and Joseph and the Baby jesus. It is available for $25.