News Archive for 04/03/08

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Thursby: AD Commander and ADmitMac 1.1.1

03/08, 8:50pm

ADmitMac 1.1.1, more

Thursby Software has made available its new "AD Commander" technology for customer review and inputs. AD Commander is designed for administrators responsible for maintaining Active Directory user accounts. Thursby also announced ADmitMac v1.1.1 -- a free update to its $120 software for connecting a Mac to a Microsoft network -- is now available for purchase. Changes since version 1.1 include: numerous enhancements in handling Distributed File Systems; the ability to display more than 5000 users in a domain when setting ownership and permissions for a share; capability to connect to numbered accounts while using the "Send LM & NTLM response;" and the ability to share with a Linux SMB client.

MyTunes disappearance due to computer failure

03/08, 6:25pm

MyTunes disappearance

Last year, a program called "MyTunes" appeared online, allowing networked users of Apple's iTunes digital jukebox software to download songs from each other. Now, as some predicted, the popular software has all but vanished from the Net, and its programmer's sites have gone dark. But this time, it's not the doing of an angry record industry or a conflict-averse Apple. Trinity College sophomore Bill Zeller, who wrote the program in less than two weeks of off-time coding last year, says he simply lost the source code in a catastrophic computer crash. "I was about to release the second version, when I lost everything," Zeller said.

Tech: EU anti-piracy legislation; PayPal; ...

03/08, 5:35pm

EU anti-piracy directive

As an intellectual property rights directive heads into the European Parliament to fight piracy, citizens groups are calling for amendments to limit its scope; Scientific-Atlanta on Wednesday said it is planning to develop television set-top boxes with high-performance video games capabilities, which could compete with game consoles such as Nintendo's GameCube and Sony's PlayStation 2; online payment service PayPal has agreed to pay $150,000 to settle charges that it misled customers who expected refunds when purchases went awry, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said.

Columnist: Apple 'really stands out in marketing'

03/08, 4:50pm

Apple marketing

TechNewsWorld columnist Rob Enderle has published his thoughts on Apple's business strategy as a whole. "Where Apple really stands out is in marketing," he says "the company simply seems to understand what will get people excited about its products, and then it executes on that vision." However, Dell, which leads the PC market, "has learned one thing that Apple hasn't, and that is to choose powerful partners to leverage." Enderle observes that "Apple doesn't live by the version-three rule [...] Apple often gets it in one try."

A look at the companies behind Apple's iPod

03/08, 1:35pm

Apple\'s iPod partners

Electronic Design Chain last summer published an in-depth look at the iPod and the companies with which Apple has partnered to design and manufacture the MP3 player, including Sony, Wolfson, Toshiba, Texas Instruments and Linear Technology: "It turns out that much of the underlying iPod design was performed by outside companies. The Cupertino folk haven't given up on their heritage of design excellence—they're just bowing to some inevitable directions in consumer electronics by borrowing from established experts linked together for what may be the first design chain for the iPod." Meanwhile, BBC News reports that Digital players in general and the iPod in particular are having a dramatic effect on the way people behave.

FileMaker 7 features new relational architecture

03/08, 1:30pm

FileMaker 7 due this week

FileMaker on Tuesday plans to introduce the FileMaker Pro 7, an upgraded version of the company’s workgroup database featuring a new relational architecture and an expansion of data capacity to 8TB as well as improved security, according to Infoworld: "Version 7 features storage of binary files or documents such as Microsoft Access, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word. The Relationships Graph function provides a visual map of the database and allows users to depict and modify relationships via a click-and-drag tool. Version 7’s relational model enables files to contain more than the one-table limit of the previous version."

Apps: Krypt, Cyberduck, Safari utils, KnowledgeTank..

03/08, 12:20pm

Krypt, Cyberduck, Safari..

Krypt 1.0 (free) is a new file encryption/decryption utility that employs the RC4 encryption algorithm. The software also combines whole resource forks of Mac files into a single data fork, allowing the encrypted file to be transferred through and to Windows systems without getting corrupted. [1.9MB]
Cyberduck 2.2 (free) is an open-source SFTP (SSH Secure File Transfer) and FTP browser licenced under the GPL. It supports multiple connections, drag & drop, a transfer queue, simple bookmark management, and support for Keychain and Rendezvous. [2.4MB]
XPostFacto 3.0a14 (free) allows Mac OS X to be installed on older, unsupported Power Mac systems. The latest alpha fixes a problem with updating the XPF extensions when doing an install. XPostFacto 3.0 includes limited support for Panther on Power Mac 7300-9600 systems (and clones) and all but the original PowerBook G3. [1.2MB]
Safari Aquafier 4.1 (free) adds improved Safari 1.2 support to the utility for replacing the brushed metal appearance of Safari with the Aqua theme. Safari Debugger 2.8 (free) allows users to easily enable and disable Safari's debug menu. [SA, SD]
KnowledgeTank 1.0 is an information management software that helps you keep track of URLs, files, projects, recipies, books, DVDs, CDs, sourcecode, etc. It supports category- and date-based organization, user templates, personal journaling and advanced search. The $30 software runs on Mac OS X 10.3 or later. [530KB]
Calendar Snap is a free pop-up calendar for any FileMaker Pro file: "Click a date in this active pop-up calendar, and the date will be transferred to any date field in your FileMaker database. Integrates with any FileMaker solution in seconds." It runs on FileMaker 5/6. [21KB]
MacSword 1.0 is an open-source application for for the research and study of God and the bible. It is developed specifically for Mac OS X, and supports several different translations and commentaries. It offers improved printing support, a new toolbar, speed improvements, and pop-access to other translations. [2.4MB]
Calillona 1.6 is an update to TruSoft's Sherlock channel to search Amazon's USA, U.K, German, and Japanese catalog. It provides a Spanish localization, improved support for HTML rendering, etc. It is freeware and runs on Mac OS X 10.2 or later.

Pixadex 1.5 adds 25 new features to icon utility

03/08, 12:05pm

Pixadex 1.5

Panic and The Iconfactory have released Pixadex 1.5 for Mac OS X, which lets users collect, organize, sort and search thousands of icons quickly and easily. Version 1.5 includes over 25 new features and improvements, including the ability to arrange icons in collections manually or via attributes,; support for user-specified locations for Pixadex's icon library; the ability to import, store, search and re-export any Windows based .ico icon files; support for customizing individual volume (HD) icons; and others. It is available for $19.

MeidaBin 4.0 Asset Manager ships with Mac OS X Client

03/08, 10:20am

MediaBin 4.0 released

Interwoven today announced MediaBin Asset Server 4.0, its high-end digital asset management solution. The software is at the core of the company's new Marketing Content Management Solutions Suite, also announced today. The new version "connects multiple servers, both inside and outside of an organization, to help manage all marketing content locally, while providing centralized, global access for employees and business partners." Version 4.0 also features a new Syndication Manager, a Mac OS X Client, and more.

Apps: NewsMac, Print Window, MaxiBidder, AddressX

03/08, 9:00am

Apps: NewsMac, AddressX

• NewsMac 3.0 (free, donation-ware) is an RSS news reader that features both Palm PDA and iPod headline synchronization support, Feed Finder for quickly adding new RSS feeds, and over 120 built-in channels.


• Print Window 3.0 Beta is a public beta of the forthcoming upgrade to the file-listing generation utility. Print Window restores the original Mac OS' Finder functionality that bears its namesake and adds many new features. Version 3.0 includes both a free Standard version as well as a $15 Advanced version. Other new features include the ability to sort file listings according to a variety of criteria, change the font size, and print file listings as CD or DVD covers.


• MaxiBidder 1.9 ($10) is an application for "sniping" eBay auctions by automatically placing a bid for an item as the auction ends. Version 1.9 includes Canadian and Australian Support as well as several fixes and smaller improvements.


• Easy Fractal 3.10 ($20) calculates fractals (Mandelbrot Sets and Julia Sets) in real time. The new version includes an extended fractal editor with 6 different escape conditions and fine structure function for three-dimensional looking fractals, 11 different iteration functions with freely selectable parameters, and a new color palette editor with many new functions.


• WebPics 2.6.3 ($16) is an application for creating online galleries from your photo collections. The software requires no knowledge of HTML and allows users to enter captions, specify font and color parameters, automatically create thumbnails, and more. The new version improves support for Mac OS X 10.3 and includes other enhancements.


• AddressX 1.1 ($25) imports the contacts from the Global Address List (GAL) of a Microsoft Exchange server directly into the Mac OS X Address Book. Version 1.1 adds support for very large Global Address Lists, compatibility with NTLM, Kerberos, and Negotiate authentication schemes; and incremental updates that preserve group membership.

Xserve G5 delayed; Apple aims to ship this month

03/08, 8:15am

Xserve G5 delayed

Citing higher than expected demand, Apple has confirmed to Macworld UK that delivery of Xserve G5 systems has been delayed. "We're working hard to start shipping the new Xserve systems in March 2004, not by the end of February as originally announced," Apple told the publication. Rumor sites meanwhile have attributed the Xserve delay to cooling issues; Apple has not responded to that claim. New Xserve G5 orders placed at the Apple Store aren't expected to ship until mid-late April.

Virgin Digital to enter online music business

03/08, 7:25am

Virgin\'s online music biz

Virgin Digital, part of the Virgin Group, today announced plans to enter the online music store business. The company is developing its own jukebox software and will offer both individual song purchases as well as a subscription model. The store will use Microsoft's WMA format and is expected to launch by the end of August. "We're not afraid not to be first movers in this space. We think that if we time it right, it will be the second movers who win," Zack Zalon, president of Virgin Digital said in a statement.

ExtremeTech: Apple entertainment PC?

03/08, 1:50am

Apple entertainment PC

Dave Salvator of ExtremeTech suggest Apple should consider developing an Entertainment/"living room" PC. Few manufacturers have succeeded with such devices [see: weekend tech news], but Salvator feels Apple could make such a product work. "Another upside here is that an HTPC Mac could be a kind of umbrella for Apple's iLife software suite, letting you access your photos, movies, and music in the comfort of your living room," Salvator says, "Apple has another intangible going for it: cachet. Home theater aficionados pride themselves on having top-flight equipment, often from lesser-known high-end gear makers."

Tech: Sears pulls PCs; EntertainmentPC; more...

03/08, 1:40am

Tech: EntertainmentPC

Weekend tech news: Sears will remove computers and film cameras from its store shelves in the third quarter to make room for TVs, DVDs and other consumer electronics devices; a new Microsoft gadget records your life wherever you go, snapping hundreds of photos along the way; a new device that Intel calls the Entertainment PC is designed to connect directly to the television -- a new stab at a concept abandoned by other manufacturers in past years.