News Archive for 04/04/27

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Apple releases Panther Russian localization

04/27, 7:55pm

Panther Russian localizati

Apple has released the Russian localization for Mac OS X 10.3. The update is currently compatible with Mac OS X 10.3.2 only. Further details of the release are not available.

Mapping Toolbox 2 offers mapping for MATLAB

04/27, 6:50pm

Mapping Toolbox 2

The MathWorks today released Mapping Toolbox 2, a MATLAB toolbox that enables users to access geospatial data, build and manipulate map displays, and analyze geospatial data within MATLAB. It offers access to a broader range of geospatial data, including standard GIS formats, georeferenced imagery, terrain data, specific data products and simple ad-hoc data files . In addition, it includes new 2-D and 3-D map display tools and a new interactive map viewer that allows users to create and modify maps without relying on command line functions. Pricing starts at $900.

Forums: PowerBook, iBook order status; future iPods..

04/27, 5:45pm

Forums: order status, more

Topics of discussion on the MacNN forums today include: the recent IDC report indicating a decrease in Apple's 2003 market share; order statuses for new PowerBook G4 purchases; quiet replacement hard drive options for classic iMacs and similar machines; shipping status for new iBook orders; speculation and discussion about future fourth generation iPod features.

Tech: Yahoo/Google; 'Net tax ban; PS2...

04/27, 4:40pm

Tech: Yahoo/Google

Evening tech news: The Yahoo's CEO sees "plenty of room" for both companies to thrive, he tells reporters at a conference Tuesday; after months of unproductive negotiations, U.S. senators resumed battle Monday over a bill banning taxes on Internet service providers; Sony may be forced to cut the price on its PlayStation 2 video game console as soon as the coming weeks or risk being outsold in the U.S. market by rival Microsoft Corp. , analysts said on Tuesday.

Asset Trustee 6.6 gains software compliance reporting

04/27, 3:00pm

FileWave Asset Trustee 6.6

FileWave today announced the release of its cross-platform software and hardware Asset Inventory system, Asset Trustee 6.6. The software supports Mac OS 9/X as well as Windows 98/XP, giving IT staff the ability to gather and report detailed hardware, software and configuration information for laptops, desktops and servers on the major desktop computing platforms. Asset Trustee offers an automated agent installed on each computer in the enterprise, which reports information to the Asset Trustee PostOffice, a TCP/IP based server that automatically imports data and generates reports. Pricing is based on the number of clients.

MCE ships 4X DVD-R/+RW/RAM 'SuperDrive' for PB, Cube

04/27, 2:55pm

MCE ships 4x \'SuperDrive\'

MCE Technologies today began shipping its 4X DVD-Recordable slot-loading internal drive upgrade for the PowerBook G4 and Power Mac G4 Cube. The dual-drive records to both DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW media. In addition to reading and writing to standard DVD-R (4x/12x), DVD+R/RW (2.4x/2.4x/12x) and CD-R/RW media (24x24x24x), it reads and writes to 4.7GB and 9.4GB double-sided DVD-RAM media (2x). It is compatible with all PowerBook G4s (12", 15", and 17"). It is $280 for PowerBook G4 or Cube systems currently with a CD-R/RW drive, CD-R/RW-DVD-ROM combo drive, or DVD-R drive and $330 for those systems currently with a DVD-ROM- or CD-ROM-only drive.

Digital Anarchy debuts 3D Layer plugin for AE, FCP

04/27, 2:25pm

3D Layer for AE, FCP

Digital Anarchy has introduced 3D Layer 1.0, a new video effects plugin that creates a three-dimensional layer with visible 'thickness'. It supports After Effects, Combustion, or Final Cut Pro: "Its raytracing render engine creates beautiful reflections, refractions, and renders. Your 3D Layer can be bent, warped, punched through, texture mapped, and of course animated. This plug-in is what you've been waiting for since After Effects added 3D." The plugin is $180 and requires After Effects 5.0 or later. It runs on Mac OS 9/X.

Belkin to ship Digital Camera Link for iPod on May 1

04/27, 2:15pm

Belkin Digital Camera Link

Belkin today announced that it will begin shipping the new Belkin Digital Camera Link for iPod (with dock connectors) on May 1st in North America. The iPod accessory, first noted a few weeks ago, works with mass-storage DCF-format and PTP-compliant digital cameras via a standard USB cable. It has a LED to indicate power and data-transfer status, conveniently stows the cable inside the unit when not in use, and works on 2 AA batteries (included). It is not compatible with the iPod mini. Belkin's Media Card Reader ($110) for iPod supports CompactFlash (Type 1 and 2), SmartMedia, Secure Digital (SD), Memory Stick, and MultiMediaCard (MMC) cards.

Apps: iBatt, Tinderbox, BBiferno, Overflow, WAP Map

04/27, 2:05pm

iBatt, Tinderbox, Biferno

iBatt 1.0 ($15) is a full-featured PowerBook battery monitor and diagnostic tool, reporting total capacity as well as voltage. A graphing window provides a flexible data view, allowing you to view trends over a period of up to one month, while the statistical view displays the capacity, charge, voltage, and state. The application allows to compare data (via the Internet) to averages collected from other users. [412KB]
Tinderbox 2.2 ($145) updates Eastgate's personal content management system that allows users to build relationships by arranging notes, organizing them with shape and color and inking them together. It features 'smart' technology to automatically scan notes to search for patterns and build relationships as well as advanced search functions. It runs on Mac OS 9/X. [4.5MB]
BBiferno 1.0 (free) is a BBEdit plugin that helps peed up your HTML/Biferno editing. It performs syntax coloring of Biferno code and HTML tags populates the functions/methods popup menu; offers contextual documentation of code via the Web; and a glossary contains that contains all of the Biferno methods, properties, constants and errors sorted by class. [Classic, OSX]
Overflow 1.0 ($10) is a new application launcher designed to save space on the dock, while "keeping applications and documents easily accessible. Overflow offers a clean and completely customizable interface... Overflow comes to the rescue by giving simple 2-click access to any file." [73KB]
WAP Map 1.0 ($100) "is a wireless network mapping tool. It can be used to develop a map of your wireless access point coverage." Users can also import a floorplan, place where the access point is, then start placing surveypoints to determine the best location for each access point. [1.3MB]
Pict Attributes XT ($30) is a new XTension for QuarkXPress 6 (and Mac OS X 10.2 or later). It "remembers" the attributes of a picture box when you perform a "Get Picture" and restores the picture’s scale, offset, rotation, skew, runaround and "flip." The XTension can be used to substitute high-resolution images for lowresolution ones without losing the vital parameters.

You Control: Fonts 1.0 helps organize your font menu

04/27, 1:20pm

You Control: Fonts 1.0

You Software today announced You Control: Fonts 1.0, a software utility that lets you create a WYSIWYG font menu in Mac OS X. Built upon the You Control custom menu utility, it can create a custom font menu that makes it easier to find your fonts by displaying fonts in their own typeface, grouping them into their proper font families and reducing the size of your font menu. Users can see all of the fonts currently enabled or activated as well as an optional waterfall preview. It will be available in May 2004 for a special price of $10 ($30 regular pricing) through June 2004.

Sagan offers pre-release of Metro 6.2 recording app

04/27, 12:00pm

Pre-release of Metro 6.2

Sagan Technology has released a pre-release of Metro 6.2, an update to its recording application for Mac OS X. Version 6.2, available as $15 upgrade until the final version is released, brings dozens of enhancements and many bug fixes. Metro SE now supports 8 audio tracks and 8 effect plug-ins or 2 soft-synths, while Metro LX now supports 16 audio tracks and 16 effect plug-ins or 4 soft-synths. Version 6.2 also brings Propellerheads ReWire support, acting a mixer application only (i.e. Master). It also brings an improved graphics editor to support soft-synth, effect plug-ins and presets directly, auto tempo detection, contextual menu support, and better support for NI plugins and VST 2.0.

Rampell updates SureType 2.0 productivity tool

04/27, 11:30am

SureType 2.0

Rampell Software has released SureType 2.0 for Mac OS X 10.2 (or later), which allows users to define text shortcuts that insert frequently typed text, and open websites and applications: "[It] is similar to Microsoft Word's AutoCorrect feature, but is much more powerful and works from any application. Not only can SureType insert frequently used text items and speed up your typing, like TypeIt4Me, but it can also put your favorite files, folders, and applications at your fingertips." SureType ($20) ships with more than 30 shortcuts preconfigured, uses a customizable hotkey, and is optionally available via system-wide menu.

New plugins for Useful Things, Assistant for Adobe AE

04/27, 11:25am

UT, UA for AE plugins

4th Party today announced new plugins for Profound Effects' Useful Things (UT) and Useful Assistants (UA), its third-party tools for Adobe After Effects (AE). The plugins include Color Sampler (an animated, multi-point color sampler), Effervescence (generates moving streams of particles); Filigree (complex repetitions of shapes along any After Effects path), Sprite Generator (paths filled with controllable gradients), Matrix Displacer (3D displacement of Matrices), and Wireframe (Things-based wireframe renderer). They will ship in second quarter of 2004, will cost between $15 and $25 each, and require Adobe AE and Profound's UT or UA.

FileMaker updates Meetings 2.0, Tasks 2.0 for FM 7

04/27, 11:10am

Meetings 2.0, Tasks 2.0

FileMaker today announced new versions of its office applications, FileMaker Meetings 2.0 and FileMaker Tasks 2.0. The updates to its meetings management and tasks management software is designed to improve individual and team productivity as well as compatibility with FileMaker Pro 7. FileMaker also announced a special, limited time discount, offering both for $100 (a savings of $40). Current users of FileMaker Meetings 1.0 or FileMaker Tasks 1.0 can upgrade free.

Mireth's iVCD 2.0 creates (Super) Video CDs

04/27, 11:00am

iVCD 2.0 for Mac OS X

Mireth Technology has released iVCD 2.0, an update to its $30 software that can easily make Video CDs and Super Video CDs. Version 2.0 adds Video CD Playlists and Menus for authoring Video CDs, a new TV Safe Border, Kiosk mode for creating VCDs that play continously; a new "Lighten" video effect, one-step Video CD creation, improved performance, and support for more CD-RW drives with Apple Disk Recording APIs (requires Mac OS X 10.3). iVCD can be used to author Video CDs (MPEG-1), Super Video CDs (MPEG-2), XVCDs or XSVCDs and supports both NTSC and PAL output formats.

Apple New Zealand store launches, runs Microsoft app

04/27, 8:50am

Apple New Zealand store

Apple's New Zealand online store is up and running on a Microsoft IIS server rather than Apple's own Mac OS X, according to Computerworld: "The new site, which launched on Monday, sells direct to the public and is similar in look and feel to the other Apple online stores around the world, however it is run by Renaissance, the local Apple distributor. Head of Renaissance's Apple division Paul Johnston says he is aware of the incongruity....'It uses SQL Server in the back end and the pages are written in ASP. If we wanted to change that over at a later date to PHP, which Apple uses, there's no problem with that whatsoever.'"

Adobe Camera RAW 2.2 adds support for more cameras

04/27, 8:35am

Adobe Camera RAW 2.2

Adobe has posted its Camera RAW 2.2 update which adds support for Canon (PowerShot Pro1, EOS-1D MARK II), Nikon (D70, Coolpix 8700), Olympus (C-8080), Sigma (SD9, SD10), Contax N Digital, Kodak (DCS Pro 14nx, DCS Pro SLR/n), and Minolta (DiMAGE A2) cameras. It requires Adobe CS for Mac OS X. The Adobe Photoshop camera raw functionality provides fast and easy access within Photoshop software to the proprietary "raw" image formats produced by professional and midrange digital cameras. This new version of the Camera Raw plug-in replaces the original Camera Raw plug-in that was installed with Photoshop CS as well as the 2.1 update. [1.5MB]

Greenworks updates Xfrog 4.1 for Cinema 4D

04/27, 8:25am

Xfrog 4.1 for Cinema 4D

Greenworks Organic-software today released Xfrog 4.1, an update to its organic modeling and animation tool for Cinema 4D. Version 4.1 offers new controls for shaping branches more naturally, general modeling enhancements, up to 10x faster screen redraw, support for import of Xfrog models into Cinema 4D as polygon models, and revamed XfrongPlants Basic library. It is a free update to the $330 application (and requires Cinema 4D 8.1).

WinTel 1.2.1 for Mac OS X offers improved performance

04/27, 8:20am

WinTel 1.2.1 for Mac OS X

OpenOSX has released WinTel 1.2.1 ($25), its prepackaged solution for configuring and utilizing the included optimized open-source "Bochs" software, which enables x86/Pentium-based operating systems on on Macs running Mac OS X 10.2 or later. it features "hand-built" binaries that run 25% faster than standard binaries (with both G4 and G5 optimizations), according to the company. It also brings support for an internal modem, the ability to save settings, and limited support for virtual Network Interface Cards (NIC), "Sound Blaster"-compatible card, USB, and 32-bit color SVGA Video. WinTel features a customizable single-click installer with separate disk images of 10 ready-to-use, popular open source x86 operating systems pre-installed, including RedHat Linux, FreeDos and FreeBSD.

IOGEAR debuts enables wireless printing via Bluetooth

04/27, 7:15am

IOGEAR Bluetooth devices

IOGEAR has introduced a new Bluetooth devices, which allow users to share one printer and print from multiple devices. The Bluetooth USB Print Adapter ($70) is a palm-sized, single-port device that allows users to send print jobs wirelessly from a Bluetooth-enabled computer to any USB-enabled printer. The compact Combo Print Adapter ($200) allows a Bluetooth-enabled computer or PDA to send print jobs to a USB or parallel printer anywhere in the office. The product has an access range of up to 330 feet, longer than the length of a football field.

MakeMusic releases Finale NotePad 2004 for Mac OS X

04/27, 7:00am

Finale NotePad 2004

MakeMusic this week released Finale NotePad 2004, an update to its free introductory notation software that lets you create, play, print and post your music. It brings Mac OS X support with an Aqua interface, and PDF creation support as well as adds Human Playback, enhancements to its 'Simple Entry' mode, lyric improvements, and support for opening any same- or previous-version file from the Finale Family. It is available for free or for $20 on CD (not yet available). Finale NotePad Plus 2004 ($25) adds the ability to save as, import and export MIDI files.

Easy Barcode Pen designed to quickly read barcodes

04/27, 6:45am

Easy Barcode Pen

Easy Barcode today introduced the Easy Barcode Pen ($256), a pen-shapped scanner designed to read barcodes into any desktop application, including FileMaker Pro, QuickBooks, and Microsoft Excel. The Easy Barcode Pen features instant, driverless, plug-and-play operation and offers advanced customization options with the included setup booklet. It includes support for over 15 barcode symbologies, international keyboard support with built-in key mappings, and customizable audible scan indicators, which are built-in to the device's casing.

Apps: NetRestore, Bedlam, Haxial Organizer, BitPlayer

04/27, 3:00am

NetRestore, Bedlam

NetRestore 1.5 is a open-source software deployment solution built on Apple's Software Restore technology; it can restore a master disk image to a computer's hard disk while that disk image is hosted locally or on a network (AFP or HTTP). NetRestore can also be used in conjunction with NetBoot to fully automate the deployment across multiple machines. [1.9MB]
Bedlam 2 v1.1 ($15) updates the fast action, arcade-style game with forty-five levels of game play: "As you blast away at the invading forces, your ship moves along the bottom of the screen while you try to avoid a barrage of enemy firepower, collisions with attacking ships and the occasional chunk of floating space debris." It now runs on Mac OS X abd has improved gameplay. [Classic, OSX]
OD4 contact 1.0 ($20) is a Cocoa-based contact mangaement application. It offers Rendezvous-based sharing, linked tasks management, an integrated map search tool, unlimited groups and sub-groups, labels for quicker sorting, a dedicated print management plugin, iPod synchronization, and realtime sync with Mac OS X's Address Book. [1.9MB]
Haxial Organizer ($20) offers encrypted personal databases, reminders, calendar, and world time conversion. Users can create customizable databases for storing any textual information, customize the appearance of the application, and other features. [413KB]
AE Monitor 1.6 ($30) allows Mac OS X developers to capture, analyze, and recreate Apple Events. Users can create source code to replicate the event from their applications. REALbasic, Perl, Tcl, and other development environments are supported. Version 1.6 offers a new data browser, a custom AEGizmo String plugin, improved Perl support, and more. [2.8MB]
GarageRemote 1.0d1 is a free Preference Panel that allows the control of GaragBand's transport functions (play/stop/record etc.) from MIDI keyboards or other controllers that have programmable buttons. It runs on Mac OS X 10.3 or later. [200KB]
BitPlayer 1.2 is a movie player that provides numerous options for viewing, organizing, and exporting QuickTime-compatible movies. Users can catalog movies in multiple customizable playlists, view full screen movies, and easily convert movies into other formats. [2.5MB]
NewsYouCanUse 2.2 is a small application that provides continuously updated newsfeeds right in your menubar. It features an online directory of 260+ feed, drag & drop of RSS feeds, optional sound alerts, etc. It runs on Mac OS X 10.3 or later. [268KB]
Snard v2.2 ($10) provides many of the functionalities of Mac OS 9's Apple and Application menus; It can be used as a system menu, from the dock or as a hot key activated popup menu. This version brings several enhancements, including a simplified Snard Configuration screen and support for a new URL object. [menu, dock]

MacSpeech announces new ScriptPaks

04/27, 1:20am

MacSpeech ScriptPaks

MacSpeech has announced the release of its Mariner Write and Mariner Calc ScriptPaks. The new ScriptPaks add almost 200 voice commands each that control virtually every aspect of Mariner Write or Mariner Calc. The ScriptPaks are priced at $20 each, or both for $30, and are available immediately. ScriptPaks work with MacSpeech's flagship product, iListen, whose TalkAnywhere technology allows users to dictate anywhere they would normally type.