News Archive for 04/06/03

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Apple updates AirPort Extreme 3.4.2 software

06/03, 10:00pm

AirPort Extreme 3.4.2

Apple has released AirPort Extreme 3.4.2, which it says provides "improved AirPort Extreme wireless networking software and is recommended for all customers with an AirPort Extreme enabled computer." Specifically, it adds "enhanced networking reliability during certain memory intensive operations." The 752KB update is available via the Software Update in Mac OS X.

Apple to open Santa Rosa, CA store in September

06/03, 6:45pm

Apple Store in Santa Rosa

Following our note about an upcoming Apple Store in Santa Rosa, The Press Democrat notes that the 1,500-sq foot retail location in Santa Rosa Plaza is targetted to open in September 2004: "According to Romero and one industry analyst, the move signals a departure from Apple's 78 existing retail branches, which are located primarily in densely populated metropolitan hubs...'It would represent a foray into a much smaller market' than San Jose's Valley Fair mall and other high-traffic Bay Area shopping centers, said Tim Bajarin, a Silicon Valley analyst with Creative Strategies."

Tech: Hotmail glitch; Spyware Control Act; ...

06/03, 5:50pm

Tech: Hotmail glitch...

Evening tech news: A system glitch destroyed emails, photos, and other correspondence stored in an active Hotmail users' home directory; CNN has published an article on Utah's recently enacted legislation addressing certain types of "spyware" -- its Spyware Control Act; McDonald's and Sony on Thursday teamed up to give away free music downloads, as the fast-food company looks beyond its long-standing partnership with Walt Disney and goes after young adults.

Briefly: Miglia sale, USB drives review, PMFUG

06/03, 3:00pm

Miglia sale, PMFUG...

In Brief: Miglia Technology today announced a summer sale that extends through July 15th, offering a $20 mail in rebate on Directors Cut Take 2 and $50 mail in rebate on the MediaBank HS-R; Ars Technica has posted a review of 8 USB 2.0 Hi-speed Flash drives, testing them on both PCs and Macs; The Portland Mac Filmmakers' User Group will discuss an assortment of techniques that transform digital video to look and feel like traditional film at this month's meeting on June 28th; MightyData today announced its training schedule for the new Professional Training Foundation Series II for FileMaker 7, which includes four one-day classes with three modules per class.

Google's Gmail officially supports Safari web browser

06/03, 2:15pm

Gmail supports Safari

Several readers note that Google's Gmail, the forthcoming email service currently in beta, today added Safari 1.2.1 to its official list of supported browsers, which also include Microsoft IE 5.5, Netscape 7.1, Mozilla 1.4, and Mozilla Firefox 0.8. Mac browsers such as Camino and Opera are not still not supported, but the company says that "We hope to expand this list in the near future and announce new platforms as they become available. In the meantime, you can install one of the supported browsers from the links above." Update: Readers using Safari 1.2.2 are continuing to have some compatibility issues.

Apps: SwitchXS, WebDesign, NetShade, PhotoGia, ...

06/03, 12:15pm

SwitchXS, WebDesign

SwitchXS 1.5 ($250) provides virtually complete access to Mac OS X and all standard Mac applications for people who can only use one or more switches. It adds speech-cueing, provides new functions for moving the cursor, fully customizable key repeat, customizable settings for controlling scanning and mouse movement, and support for multiple monitor setups. [1.5MB]
WebDesign 2.5 ($30) updates the web-authoring package offering a drag & drop interface, a feature-rich text editor, site manager, built-in FTP, and support for HTML, XHTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript, ASP and more. It offers an improved UI, new icons, extensive preview options (including PHP), better intradocument navigation, and integrated help. [Classic, OSX]
NetShade 1.2.2 ($25) adds a French localization to the Internet security tool which makes your Web presence anonymous and secure by routing your Internet requests through a third-party proxy server. Users have the ability to manually enable/disable proxies, filter proxy servers used, and can enable NetShade on specific network ports. [1.1MB]
PhotoGia ($200) is a set of Actions for Adobe Photoshop designed to quickly and easily complete dozens of commands to "enhance photographs to professional levels." It can automate repetitive actions through batch photo processing and also offers genre-based actions for different photo types. Introductory pricing of $100 is available through July 15.
KeepAnEye 1.6.2 ($12) is a monitoring application for Mac OS X 10.2 (or later) that can track RSS feeds, eBay auctions, pictures, web pages, software updates, disk usage, IP addresse, and more through a flexible plugin architecture. It adds keyboard shortcuts and updates several plugins with better feedback, more info, and more. [3.5MB]
BottomFeeder 3.5 (free) updates the news aggregator client (RSS and Atom) written in VisualWorks Smalltalk. It offers both 2- and 3-pane modes, subscriptions to an unlimited number of feeds, support for HTTPS and authentication, plugins (blogging, IRC, MSN Messenger contacts), import/export in common OPML format, and more. [1.4MB]
iBlog 1.3.7 ($20) is a desktop application for publishing weblogs (via .Mac, WebDAV, AFP, FTP). It can also generate RSS/XML files, subscribe to other feeds, filter feeds based on keywords, create multiple categories, and more. It adds support for Moblogging, file sharing entries, chaining/linking, and improved .Mac publishing. [3.8MB]
Function Prototyper 1.3 (free) can generate PHP and JavaScript function prototypes for any number of open BBEdit documents. Users can select a folder, and generate the prototypes by scanning all the documents within the folder. It offers formatting functions such as upper/lower case, multiline file headers, etc. [200KB]

DragThing 5.2 adds extensive support for clippings

06/03, 10:55am

DragThing 5.2

TLA Systems has released DragThing 5.2, an update to the popular dock application for Mac OS that adds extensive support for clippings -- "anything you can copy and paste or drag, you can now keep in your docks as a new kind of clipping item. Unlike the Finder, DragThing will automatically create thumbnail preview icons for picture clippings." Users can shorten/edit clippings and assign hotkeys to copy/insert them to the clipboard. Version 5.2 also adds hot keys for switching between windows using the Window Dock, new Simplified Chinese and Danish language support, a new icon, and more. The $30 utility runs on Mac OS X 10.2 or later.

New Adobe plugin improves Photoshop CS previews

06/03, 10:45am

Adobe Adjusted Refresh

Adobe's Adjusted Refresh plug-in helps increase preview performance in Adobe Photoshop CS, but saysit may affect performance on some machines, according to the company: "The Adjusted Refresh plug-in addresses the time it takes to visually preview some filter updates in Photoshop CS. This plug-in reduces the size of the Photoshop image tiles. This causes the display to redraw in smaller pieces, reducing the time it takes to see the updated preview. The Adjusted Refresh plug-in will also reduce the initial scratch disk usage after you launch Photoshop. Note that overall performance may be reduced for users with multiple processors or more than 1GB of RAM."

ConceptDraw 5.2 brings full Visio, XML support

06/03, 10:30am

ConceptDraw 5.2

CS Odessa today released ConceptDraw 5.2, a new version of its flowcharting and diagramming application for Mac OS X. Version 5.2, available as a free update, features improved and enhanced XML for Visio import with full support for well-formed Visio XML documents as well as usual performance improvements and bug fixes. ConceptDraw enables users to create pro-quality charts and diagrams in a variety of fields including project management; software design and development; database design; and more. It is available in Standard (for businesses) and Professional (for IT, technical users, etc.) versions, which are priced at $150 and $300, respectively.

Alias offers SketchBook Pro 1.1 for Mac OS X

06/03, 10:25am

SketchBook Pro 1.1

Alias today announced a Mac OS X version of its pen-driven sketching and annotation software, Alias SketchBook Pro 1.1. Users can create conceptual ideation sketches and production artwork when used with a Wacom or other tablet. It features Marking menus for easy access tools, a full range of color-based tools (pens, pencils, markerts, brushes, etc.), dozens of effects (transparency, roundness, slant, etc.), non-destructive layers, screen capture, email integration, and management/presentation features. An electronic version ($180) is available now, while a CD version ($200) is due in July.

Apps: iLiner, SoundFont Synth, iPrint, DataWerkz, ...

06/03, 8:50am

iLiner, SoundFont Synth...

iLiner 2.0 ($30) is an outline processor designed for Mac OS X 10.2 (or later); it sports auto summarization of text into an outline, import and export of outlines to OPML (Outline Mark-up Language), Unicode and RTF formats and the dragging of collapsed outlines into other applications with all formatting retained. Upgrades are $20. [4.7MB]
SoundFont Synth 1.0 ($15) is an Audio Unit component plug-in designed to make the synthesis of natural instruments using Sound Fonts, available to GarageBand and other Audio Unit hosts. It utilizes Apple's DLS synthesizer engine to produce high quality sounds and industry standard SoundFont files (.sf2). [264KB]
iPrint 1.5 ($15) adds a new, universal keyboard shortcut to Mac OS X, offering users the ability to instantly print multiple non-contiguous text selections within any application. It improves compatibility with Mac OS X 10.3 Panther, supports more applications, and offers other optimizations. [1.2MB]
DataWerkz 1.2 ($100) is GUI-based application for working with databases such as MySQL and PostreSQL. Version 1.2 adds a table summary feature, improved support for MySQL's 'auto_increment' fields, improved PostgreSQL support, and the ability to export SQL statements. It runs on Mac OS X 10.3 or later. [1.8MB]
Big Bang Chess 1.1 (free) updates the "casual" gaming application from Freeverse Software that offers complete integration with Mac OS X technologies such as iChat, iTunes, Mail.app (and other email clients), and Rendezvous networking. It also features "visually stunning" OpenGL-based graphics. [10MB]
XeTeX 0.8 includes preliminary support for OpenType font features in "the typesetting system based on a merger of the venerable TeX system with Unicode and Mac OS X font technologies." It requires Mac OS X 10.3. [6MB]
MultiMode OSX 4.7 offers decoding and transmition of different modes of non-voice communication often heard on shortwave and ham radio, including Morse Code, RTTY, etc. Version 4.7 adds Improvements to RTTY demodulation and to FAX synchronization. Standard ($90) and Lite ($30) are available. [full, lite]

Console developers shift focus to Mac games

06/03, 8:10am

New Mac gaming company

Strange Flavour Ltd today announced it would transiting from console game development to focus on developing new Mac-only games and games related software, after its founders worked on several major titles including Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone, Alien Resurection, and the upcoming Catwoman . The founders have already created a few Mac games, such as Bushfire, Airburst and ToySight. Strange Flavour also said it is currently working on Airburst Extreme, a follow-up to Airburst. It has partnered with Freeverse Software publish their games internationally and its games will be available in Apple Stores as well as most major Macintosh games retailers.

Apple "needs better communication" on security front

06/03, 8:00am

Apple security issues

Apple "needs to communicate better" on security issues, after it failed to respond to a security vulnerability reported by one user, down-played the seriousness of another, and issued an incomplete patch for the multiple URI exploits noted earlier this month: "Although the tech industry has guidelines that call for researchers to notify vendors of threats and then wait at least 30 days before going public, Schiller said Apple uses its own process to decide when to issue a patch, a process that takes into account Apple's assessment of the threat posed by the vulnerability....[Also] critics have called on Apple to offer more detailed information on its Web site..." [updated]

MacWay debuts external FireWire 800 400GB drive

06/03, 7:50am

FW 400GB \"AluICE\"

MacWay today announced the AluICE 400GB, its large capacity FireWire 800 drive that combines Hitachi's Deskstar 3.5" 7K400 7200rpm 8MB buffer 400GB hard drive with a triple interface (standard FireWire, FireWire 800, and USB 2.0) and a compact all-aluminum case design that matches Apple Power Mac G5. The fanless, vertical design uses "advanced passive cooling" and offers a small desktop footprint. It ships with FireWire, FireWire 800, and USB 2.0 cables as well as Mediafour's MacDrive 5.0 and Intego Personal Backup X software with support for scheduled backups, bootable cloning, etc. The drive is available in a FireWire-only model or a triple interface with capacities starting at 80GB (200€). The 400GB version will ship in mid-June for 500€.

Omikron Basic 8.0 runs natively on Mac OS X

06/03, 7:30am

Omikron Basic 8.0

Berkhan Software today releaesd Omikron Basic 8.0, its BASIC programming environment for developing applications without internal knowledge of the Mac operating system. It features a high-performance compiler/debugger, generates fast and compact PowerPC code, and supports modular programming with procedures and functions, recursive programming with local/global variables, and indirect addressing. Version 8 runs as a native application under Mac OS X and also offers more Mac OS X functions. It is available as a free demo (up to 75 program lines), $53 Lite version (up to 5000 lines of code), and a $107 Pro version (supporting up to 65,000 lines of code).

Apple offers more to .Mac members, upgrades support

06/03, 7:20am

.Mac free stuff, upgrades

Apple has added more exclusive benefits to its paid .Mac Web services, including a free download of the chapter on iDisk and an exclusive 20 percent discount off the $20 cover price of O'Reilly Media's new, comprehensive book to .Mac called Inside .Mac. Apple also noted that its .Mac support is "now fully integrated into Apple's online support site, with features including FAQs, community discussion boards, and convenient email-based support." It also added new .Mac tutorials on iLife, Keynote, Panther, and other .Mac tools. Apple will also be offering free demonstrations of .Mac at CompUSA demo days on June 12, 19, and 26th.

In Brief: Pro Video Seminar, BlogSnaps, BSD Hacks

06/03, 1:15am

In Brief: Video Seminar...

In Brief: On Thursday, June 17th Apple's Bill Foster will be on hand to demo new video technologies at the MacForce and PMFUG free Pro Video Seminar; BlogSnaps.com is a new "moblogging" service that lets iBlog users create blog entries using their cell phone, camera phone, PDA, or email; "BSD Hacks" (O'Reilly, $25), by Dru Lavigne and a contributing team, offers a unique set of practical tips, tricks, and tools for administrators and power users of BSD systems.