News Archive for 04/01/30

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Extensis releases Font Reserve 3.1.3 update

01/30, 6:45pm

Font Reserve 3.1.3

Extensis has released Font Reserve 3.1.3, a maintenance update to its font management utility. It provides a single point of access to all fonts on your computer. "Font Reserve's rich feature set is cool enough for designers, strong enough for IT professionals, and fast enough for the most demanding production managers." Details of the latest update were not published. Font Reserve costs $100.

Gigawiz releases Aabel 1.5.5 with OpenGL, QuickDraw

01/30, 6:10pm

Aabel 1.5.5 released

Gigawiz today announced the release of Aabel 1.5.5 for Mac OS X, an update to the $350 data analysis and charting application. This update introduces a unique graphic switch for switching between Quartz (for forward compatibility) and QuickDraw (to allow exporting in PICT format), while still using OpenGL for dynamic drawing of 3-D graphs. It provides full PDF support for import, export, and clipboard; has added 15 new chart types in 5 categories; allows two levels of preferences for chart customizing; provides an extended date format; allows generating and storing histogram bin data, and exporting data from selected scatter chart points.

Apple releases Final Cut Express 2.02 update

01/30, 5:55pm

Final Cut Express 2.02

Apple has released Final Cut Express 2.02, an update to its video editing package with advanced editing, compositing, and real-time effects for full-featured DV editing. It includes fixes and improvements, including changes to the UI and window displays, documentation, and user preferences. This update also fixes known issues with audio and video syncing over FireWire, Timeline editing functionality, and capturing long clips.

Olympus introduces mobile VP-1 Data Projector

01/30, 2:50pm

Mobile VP-1 Data Projector

Olympus earlier this month introduced the VP-1 Data Projector, the first-ever projector from Olympus. The new 1,000-lumen projector weighs 2.4 pounds, which the company says "is one of the smallest and lightest projectors of its kind in the world." The project offers a 1:1.2 Zoom Olympus Zuiko Digital, a contrast ratio of 2000:1, S-XGA (1024x768) resolution, and Picture-in-Picture technology in a small form facto--nearly the size of a daily planner (1.85" H x 7.1" W x 6.4" D). The VP-1 will be available in the US in March 2004 for $2,500.

Seattle Post-Intelliger looks at Microsoft's MacBU

01/30, 2:50pm

Microsoft\'s MacBU

The Seattle-Post Intelligencer offers a look at the MacBU, which it says is "one of the closest things to neutral ground in a computer world divided into technological factions. The Mac BU, as it's known, makes Microsoft software for Apple computers, bridging the gulf between the companies' operating systems and linking their respective followers in the process. It may be the only place at Microsoft where someone can be spotted wearing an 'I Don't Do Windows' shirt. And nowhere else would a Microsoft employee, recounting a speech where he captivated a crowd, liken himself to Apple's Steve Jobs, rather than to Microsoft's Bill Gates."

Gateway makes bid for rival eMachines

01/30, 2:25pm

Gateway to buy eMachines

Gateway plans to acquire rival eMachines in a bid to regain its footing in the PC game and broaden the distribution of its Gateway-branded consumer electronics devices at retail, reports CNET News.com. The company plans to purchase privately held eMachines for $30 million in cash and 50 million shares of its stock (the total value of the deal would be approximately $234.5 million). Under the agreement, Wayne Inouye, eMachines' CEO, would become CEO of Gateway, and Roderick Sherwood would remain as Gateway's chief financial officer. Waitt, Gateway's founder, would remain as chairman of the board.

Column: should Apple buy Pixar?

01/30, 2:20pm

Apple & Pixar

CNN/Money columnist Paul R. La Monica asks, now that Pixar and Walt Disney have gone their separate ways, does it make sense for Apple to buy Pixar?" Both companies are run by Steve Jobs, and, with its success in online music, Apple is beginning to look "more and more like a content company." Independent media researcher Dennis McAlpine says "It's an interesting idea [...] The basis of Pixar's success is computer animation and Jobs is trying to get more into music and entertainment." Pixar's market value, as of Thursday's market close, was $3.6 billion.

Apple offers free Epson printer with any Mac purchase

01/30, 2:15pm

Better together promo

Apple's Better together promo offers a new Epson Stylus C84 for free or up to $99 on select Epson printers with the purchase of any Mac between January 30, 2004 and March 27, 2004. The promo is available at participating Apple Authorized Resellers and requires users to submit a mail-in rebate.

Training/Workshops: Servoy BV; Techie Tours

01/30, 11:05am

Servoy BV; Techie Tours

Servoy BV announced today it will be offering training classes for its namesake development and deployment environment. The two day class (held in London, England) will provide attendees with a thorough understanding of the application development and deployment process. Early-bird registration is $1000. Techie Tours announced today a Digital Photography and Macintosh Basics Workshop with John Tenny June 6-12. John is the technology mentor for five American universities, consultant to Intel, and adviser to several online learning projects.

GameRanger adds rankings and ratings

01/30, 11:05am

New GameRanger features

GameRanger will soon introduce ladders, rankings, and ratings in the latest release of the "Premium" edition of its online gaming service. "You will be able to see how you compare to other players and experience the electrifying rivalry among friends and foes." Before being completely implemented, the feature will be publicly beta-tested to ensure compatibility and catch bugs.

MathMagic 4.2: real-time math equation editor

01/30, 10:45am

MathMagic 4.2 released

MathMagic Personal Edition 4.2 is a standalone equation editor for manipulating any mathematical expressions with an easy-to-use graphical interface and various powerful features. Support is included for countless image formats for importing symbols, multiple undos, Drag&Drop, and Sharing across Mac/Windows/QuarkXPress. The latest version of MathMagic comes with an extended trial period. The new version also offers better cross-platform support, an improved toolbar layout, and bug fixes. It costs $120.

MindFortress 1.0: new multi-media knowledge base app

01/30, 10:35am

MindFortress 1.0

Web Information Solutions has released MindFortress 1.0, a multi-media knowledge base application for the Mac OS X platform that includes 28 built-in cards that vary from Financial to Notes, Pictures, offline Web Pages, Health and Body, Identification, Internet, and Phone: "You can customize those cards and create your own with our template editor." Other features include Categorization of your cards; a favorites bar for quick access; your choice of Icon, List, or Column views; startup password, and a full search. It currently runs on Mac OS X 10.3 and is available for an introductory price of $15 ($15 off).

Apps: Intaglio, Rating Bar, BombSquad, breve

01/30, 10:30am

Intaglio, Rating Bar

Fire 0.32.i addresses some unannounced Yahoo! connection changes implmemented earlier this month in the multiprotocol peer-to-peer messaging client. It offers support for AIM, ICQ, IRC, Jabber, MSN, and Yahoo! Messenger. The freeware runs on Mac OS X 10.1 or later.[5.1MB]
PDF2Office v1.0.1 ($100) updates the PDF document convertor. It improves table support, table recognition, support for merged cells, graphics (placement, positioning, and processing), security in PDF documents (including copying/printing support), and columns/section formatting.
Version 1.8 of the Quartz drawing application Intaglio is available now. This version adds a fun new "Effects" features, new vector and bitmap operations that produce shadows, glows, 3D lighting, etc. Effects require Mac OS X 10.3 for display, and use the velocity engine in a G4 or G5 processor to increase rendering speed.
Beverage Software has released Rating Bar 1.1, an iTunes rating utility that fits in the menu bar. Version 1.1 includes a number of enhancements, including vastly improved performance, and a couple of bug fixes. [92KB]
Positive Spin Media has released BombSquad 2, a new version of the $5 shareware minesweeper game for Mac OS X. Version 2 features a resizable board, resizable cells, Apple help, improved "rules", localization support, and toher features. [283KB]
Nemesys Software has released File Synchronization 1.3 ($12), which introduces "filters" that let you exclude some files and folders from the synchronization and can now synchronize from the preview window (without another scan). Finally, multiple items can be deleted from the preview window. [2.4MB]
Pod Manager 2.2 is an $8 Shareware aimed at extracting music files from an iPod; it can be used to retrieve songs losts after reformatting a Mac hard drive, or so as to move music files from an iPod to another Mac. Version 2.2 improves support for ".m4a"/AAC files. [386KB]
breve 1.8 is a free software package which makes it easy to build 3D simulations of decentralized systems and artificial life. Version 1.8 improves shadowing, adds a new "Speed" menu that allows simulations to be slowed down (OS X only), improved documentation, new AppleScript functionality, better error reporting, and new plugin samples. [1.9MB]

Microspot Interiors 3.4, users area available online

01/30, 8:10am

Microspot Interiors 3.4

Microspot has released Microspot Interiors 3.4 for Mac OS X via electronic downlaod as well as launched a new Online Interiors Users Area (OIUA) for downloading additional materials. Interiors 3.4 is bundled with a basic set of Furniture Libraries, while the entire set can be easily downloaded from OIUA. In addition the new area offers a helpful guide with simple step-by-step instructions on how to build a room and add furniture and will include a 'Library of the Month,' featuring various types of furniture as well as completed rooms. Microspot Interiors ($116) is a 3D design application that allows users to visualize interior designs.

Ebranta launches eTuner for Mac OS X

01/30, 1:05am

eTuner for Mac OS X

Ebranta today announced it has developed a new digital signal processing (DSP) software technology that enables musicians to receive interactive pitch information while playing an instrument: eTuner, a chromatic tuner and musical pitch analysis application, displays the note closest to the pitch being played, and the amount of variance between the detected pitch and the displayed note. It is available for Mac OS X 10.2.1 or later for $35.