News Archive for 04/02/03

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Apps: LCD Clock, eliminate borders, JBoss, RemoteCapt

02/03, 11:55pm

Apps: LCD Clock, JBoss...

LCD Clock 1.0.3 is a freeware utility for Mac OS X that places a digital clock in the Dock and on the Desktop. The clock has the appearance of an LCD display much like that of an alarm clock. Details of the latest maintenance release were not published. [Download - 707KB]
eliminate borders is a free iMovie plug-in that slightly zooms a video clip, pushing the edges off screen. Often converting analog video footage to digital creates artifacts or bad pixels in the border, which can be eliminated using the plug-in. [Download - 230KB]
Apple has released JBoss Update 1.0, an update to the java application server for OS X. The update allows JBoss and Tomcat to take advantage of Java 1.4.2, and function correctly under that version. [Download - 10.7MB]
RemoteCapture 1.3 is an update to the utility to display a live image of your desktop to anyone via a Web interface. Version 1.3 adds PNG support. RemoteCapture is free, although donations are accepted. [Download - 204KB]
iTunesSaver 2.0.0 is a basic screensaver that displays he artwork (if available) and track information of the current iTunes track. Version 2.0.0 offers text wrapping on long lines, a fixed positioning for text, and font selection. iTunesSaver is free, but donations are appreciated. [Download - 84KB]
SETI Menu 6.0 provides a graphical interface to the SETI@home command line client. Instead of launching the client from the command line, this free application puts a menu at the right of the menu bar from which to control the client. Details of version 6.0 were not published. [Download - 234KB]
EnVideo is simple application that allows viewing videos of high-end visualizations over the Internet or intranet. It uses compact "evo" files created in EnSight for cross-platform distribution. evo files are smaller than AVI files and about the same size as MPEGs, but are "much better quality" than either formats for the intended purpose. [Download - form]

MacWireless lowers pricing, ships new products

02/03, 8:00pm

MacWireless pricing

MacWireless today announced new lower pricing for its wireless presentation products: the WiJector, now $300, offers Office users the freedom of wireless during their presentations by connecting the WiJector to a projector/monitor's VGA port and use it to connect to a WiFi-enabled computer. Aditionally, the Laser Pointer/Mouse -- an RF remote that works from up to 40 feet away, offering a laser pointer and full mouse control -- now costs $70. The company also announced that its PowerLine Network Adapter ($80) is now shipping. The MacWireless Powerline Network Adapter allows users to route a network through the power lines in a home or office.

Forums: G5 failure; theme contest; 10.3.3-10.4; ...

02/03, 6:30pm

Forums: theme contest...

Readers of the MacNN forums today discuss a number of topics, including: one member's unfortunate experience with hardware failure and their dual-2.0 GHz Power Mac G5; issues delaying the release of the Mac OS X 10.3.3 maintenance update; speculation about the next major update to Mac OS X, presumably version 10.4; fitting the new Apple iPod in-ear headphones; a contest for the best Mac OS X theme.

Tech: Yahoo! music bid, Sony invests in IBM, ATI chip

02/03, 4:50pm

Yahoo! music bid, Sony/IBM

Afternoon tech: Yahoo is the latest player exploring ways to develop a music download service as arch-rivals Microsoft and America Online place bigger bets on digital song sales; Sony will invest $325 million in IBM Corp.'s upstate New York semiconductor plant and work with Big Blue to produce tiny new chips for next-generation computer systems and consumer electronics (after Microsoft said it would use three G5s in the next-generation Xbox); and ATI today debuted the Mobility Radeon 9700 with new low-k technology for the fastest mobile performance and longest battery life.

ADHOC: expanded version of popular MacHack conference

02/03, 3:55pm

ADHOC replaces MacHack

ADHOC (The Advanced Developers Hands On Conference) is a revamped version of the MacHack developer conference, offering an expanded focus with sessions on Mac OS X technologies (Cocoa, Quartz, and Carbon) as well as cross-platform Apple technologies (Rendezvous), open-source technologies (PHP, Perl, Tcl, Apache), and other related tools and technologies (smart phones, new languages, etc.). ADHOC is issuing a call for speakers on subjects ranging "from innovations in BSD, where Darwin has its roots, to how to make OpenGL do amazing things." It runs from July 21-24 in Dearborn, MI. A $100 discount on registration ($525) is available through end of February.

Pepsi plays new iTunes ad on radio

02/03, 3:30pm

Pepsi-iTunes ad on radio

New Pepsi iTunes ads are showing up in more places than this year's Superbowl commercial. Pepsi is reportedly running advertisements for the iTunes music service on national radio. The ad has a teenager being pulled over by the police. "The policeman accuses him of looking like a 'downloader.' He then questions the empty bottles of Pepsi and the iPod sitting in the car. Then the 'I Fought The Law' song comes on, and the announcer announces the Pepsi iTunes giveaway," according a MacNN reader. He also notes that the iTunes song promo is being featured on some fountain drinks.

Dejal discontinues Classic apps, posts free versions

02/03, 2:30pm

Dejal posts Classic apps

Dejal Systems today announced that all of its legacy Classic products are now available free of charge. The company also said that all of its products for Mac OS 9 and earlier (except for QuickEncrypt) have been discontinued: "We are concentrating our efforts on Mac OS X products nowadays. But we know that a number of users still haven't made the leap to Mac OS X for one reason or another, and still find these products useful. So it seemed the right thing to do to give them away to the Mac community." Dejal offers many different sound, text, and system utilities for Classic.

Forrester: Apple's iTunes to win UK music battle

02/03, 2:25pm

itunes wins in europe

Research firm Forrester says that iTunes will win the European music download battle, according to e-consultancy.com. The new report on the European music download scene says that "portals will take an early lead, Coca-Cola will fizz, but most consumer goods firms' [music services] will fall flat, and iTunes will bite back". Apple's ease of use, seamless linking with the iPod, and enormous brand traction will see it overtake Napster and many of the smaller services in Europe in the longer term, she argues.

Techworld notes that G5 Case Mod is a hoax

02/03, 2:25pm

G5 Mod is a joke, hoax

Techworld.Com reports the G5 Case Mod (noted here last week) is a hoax: "The G5 case shown on the website was given to the author empty (though somebody must have removed its innards one supposes) and he simply filled it with PC workings and then photographed his own working G5 with the side of the case off. Concocting a far-fetched anecdote around the wheeze and sending it off to a website was probably not the best move however. In a matter of two days he claims to have received 1,300 messages of contempt, disgust and incomprehension."

The Iconfactory releases Smoothicons Volume 8

02/03, 12:25pm

Smoothicons Volume 8

The Iconfactory has released a net icon set in its Smoothicon series of freeware icons: Smoothicons Volume 8: "Volume 8 expands on Corey's last release of application icons with even more popular apps. Volume 8 offers smooth versions of Apple's Keynote and Garageband apps as well as Microsoft Office, Panic and even The Iconfactory's own suite of application icons." It is available for the Mac, PC or as a Pixadex iContainer. Meanwhile, Unsanity has posted its ShapeShifter Theme Contest submissions, allowing users to view and vote for their favorite Mac OS X theme.

Apple, resellers fight over customers in Australia

02/03, 12:15pm

Apple, resellers clash

Apple is angering resellers/partners with its direct sales strategy to enterprise customers in Australia, according to ARN: "One reseller claimed the vendor had poached $250,000 worth of its accounts in the last 12 months. Apple signalled its push towards direct enterprise business when it realigned its channel development team into a customer-facing professional services team, last year. Some resellers claim that the vendor’s push to get its business development team in front of customers is coming at a cost to partners."

NY Post: "Apple's ad, offerings 'out of tune'"

02/03, 12:15pm

iPod ad, iTMS out of sync

The New York Post reports that Apple's latest iPod TV commercials feature music not (yet?) available at the iTunes Music Store: "The latest commercials for the iPod digital-music player feature the song "Channel Surfing," by a DJ named Feature Cast. They are arresting spots, with black silhouettes of dancers with white iPods against vibrant fuchsia backgrounds. The song is upbeat and catchy."

Apps: Mailsmith, Ridge, QT Playlist Maker, wKiosk...

02/03, 11:40am

Mailsmith, Ridge

Bare Bones has released Mailsmith 2.1.1, the latest version of its email client for Mac OS X. Version 2.1.1 is a free maintenance release to fix reported issues and add minor enhancements and refinements. The full version is $100, which includes a corresponding license for SpamSieve. [15MB]
QT Playlist Maker 2.04 ($25) for Mac OS X and Windows creates QuickTime movies that are playlists, providing the unique ability to organize QuickTime audio and video clips to play in sequence, while providing a drop-down menu to navigate between clips. It also includes looping, full screen playback (QuickTime Player only), save-disabling the playlist, support for GarageBand songs, and more. [4.0MB]
Ridge 2.1 ($10) can meter and restrict the amount of data that can be uploaded and downloaded from the Internet, offering a feature to alert users when that limit has been reached. Version 2.1 includes a new floating window option, better compatibility with Mac OS X 10.1-10.3, and improved registration. [522KB]
wKiosk Browser 3.1.1 updates the fullscreen web browser for internet or intranet kiosks in public spaces. It brings compatibility with Safari 1.2's HTML engine, new options for popup management, HTTPs support, and ability to disable command-control-eject shortcut. It is $100 and only runs on Mac OS X 10.3. [2.5MB]
Inventive's iClip 2.7 ($20) is a multiple clipboard/scrapbook application designed to improve user efficiency and productivity for various computing tasks. It adds the ability to scroll through clipping bins, adjustable window transparency, support for pasting multi-line text to several clipping bins, and simplified workflow. [2.9MB]
Eudora Internet Mail Server (EIMS) 3.2.3 updates the popular Internet mail server. It fixes errors with SMTP and Mail.app as well as support unicode in NTLM authentication. It runs on Mac OS 7/8/9 or Mac OS X 10.3 only. EIMS Light ($200) supports a single domain, has no IMAP server, directory server (LDAP and Ph), AppleEvent/AppleScript and Incoming Mail folder support.
SearchX 1.0 can search search engine available on the web, allowing users to add new search places, change the look of the window using skins, adjust the transparency of the search window, and more. SearchX comes with 28 different search places, including web site search, news search and image search places. It runs on Mac OS X 10.2. [option-click]
Laze E 1.0 is a "fast reliable session burning solution" that can create ISO, Joliet and HFS+ discs as well as audio CDs. Laze E can Erase CDRW discs via the dock. It is $15 shareware for Mac OS X 10.3. [4.1MB]

AXIO offers hardshell backpacks for carrying laptops

02/03, 10:40am

AXIO hardshell backpacks

AXIO By Harodesign has announced its official launch with the introduction of a series of hardshell backpacks aimed at users with active lifestyles. Called "Hardpacks," AXIO offers a rugged, yet stylish hardshell outer construction that carries and protects PowerBooks/iBooks, iPods, PDAs, cell phones, cameras and other digital/electronic devices. The Hardpack series features four different models with different interior and exterior features and colors to suit a variety of users (Chicane, Fuse, Tekno, and Urban).

Apple No. 2 in "high-impact" brands (behind Google)

02/03, 8:40am

Apple No. 2 brand

Apple took second place in Interbrand's Brandchannel ranking of high-impact brands behind Google, but ahead of BMW's Mini (up from 11th last year). Interbrand, which conducted its poll of over 4,000 users via its brandchannel.com website, used a single criterion on which brands were ranked: "impact," which could be positive or negative. Coca-Cola, Samsung, Ikea, Nokia, Nike, Sony, and Starbucks rounded out the top 10 brands in the survey.

Pinnacle qualifies ADTX L Series RAID system

02/03, 7:40am

ADTX L Series RAID system

Advanced Technology announced that Pinnacle Systems has qualified its ADTX L Series RAID system for use with CinéWave. This RAID system offers storage up to 3.75TB (terabyte) and combines a 2GB Fibre Channel interface with the Serial ATA (SATA) technology and ADTX-specific features for demanding video applications. L Series RAID solutions are available in two versions for high-end video: the High Performance single RAID controller model and the High Performance dual active/active RAID controller model.

Lava Software ships PC-Mac PasswordVault 2.0

02/03, 7:25am

PC-Mac PasswordVault 2.0

Lava Software is now shipping PC-Mac PasswordVault Lite v2.0, which securely stores website access information, Internet banking data and software registration details on a Mac or Windows machine. It adds import/export of service data (for easy backup, printing or transfer to another computer), a fast lockout button, a web address button, service categories, five additional skins, a compact global floating window interface, and sorted services within categories. The free Lite Edition supports up to 10 services, while the Standard Edition ($15) supports any number of services. [Classic, OSX]

SmartBook 1.01 adds Smart Groups to Address Book

02/03, 7:20am

SmartBook 1.01

PommSoft has released SmartBook 1.01, which brings Smart Groups to the Apple Address Book: "Smart Groups are to the Address Book what Smart Playlists are to iTunes. They allow you to have groups that update automatically according to a set of rules you can setup with SmartBook." The donationware runs on Mac OS X 10.3 or later. Future versions are expected to include a plugin architecture and more interactions with other clients (IM, email, etc.).

Ambrosia updates Snapz Pro X 2.0 capture utility

02/03, 7:10am

Snapz Pro X 2.0

Ambrosia Software today released Snapz Pro X 2.0, an update to its screen/video capture application. Version 2.0 features faster video capture, audio capture, a "completely redesigned interface" and "Live" previews of all screenshots, which allows you to change border styles, scaling, cropping, and other settings on the fly. Snapz Pro X supports saving screenshots as .bmp, .pict, .gif, .jpg, .png, .tiff, .pdf, or Photoshop files, with precise control over image compression and can also add borders, generate automatic thumbnails, overlay watermarks/copyright notices, etc. It is $70 with upgrades from v1.0 priced at $20.