News Archive for 04/06/25

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IBM PowerTune techology to help manage power in G5

06/25, 8:55pm

IBM PowerTune for G5

IBM says that its "PowerTune" technology can be used to manage power consumption in the G5 processor, according to eWEEK. The new "PowerTune"-enabled processor could allow the G5 to be used in Apple laptops (not expected before the end of the year) and maybe used in a rumored version of the G5-iMac: "IBM's design goal with PowerTune is to balance performance and power consumption. In addition, because the "leakage current"–the amount of power that trickles away and is wasted–is significantly higher at finer process technologies, such as used for the 970FX, IBM developed PowerTune. The new design is more efficient than the older PowerPC 750FX, part of the G4 family of processors. For example, PowerTune-savvy chip can be asked to drop down to a half or a quarter the rated frequency, or even down into a 'deep nap' state where the chip can run at 1/64 of the rated frequency."

Briefly: STM Glove, Squabble tourny, PowerSchool,...

06/25, 7:25pm

STM Glove, Squabble tourny

In Brief: We've posted a review of STM Glove notebook case available for Apple's PowerBooks and iBooks; Freeverse to is hosting an online tournament for Squabble 1.02, its new game of word making (and is offering several prizes). Apple's PowerSchool will be demonstrating its Web-based student information system in the 4D vendor booth at the WWDC Exhibit Fair next week; Inside Mac Games today announced that it has begun shipping its second DVD issue of the MacGames DVD, a popular subscription service featuring Macintosh game demos, shareware, updates, add-ons, trailers, cheaters, etc.; MacZealots.com has added a tutorial on installing WordPress, the personal publishing software, on Mac OS X.

Apps: textSOAP, Konfabulator, SmartScore, Feral games

06/25, 7:10pm

textSOAP, Konfabulator

textSOAP 4 ($25) updates the text utility for Mac OS X 10.3 (or later) to clean email and long documents. Version 4 offers support for styled text, a new user interface, a new Cocoa-based text editor, MS Word document handling, a new custom cleaner editor, contextual menu support, plugin management, suppport for Entourage X and AppleWorks, improved Mac OS X services, and more. [3.2MB]
Site Studio ($30) is web design program that offers a single window interface to intuitively create an entire site based on a theme. Plugins include an image gallery, a blog, a WYSIWYG editor, an HTML editor, an external file tool, and a hyperlink tool. It features 20 included themes, supports drag & dorp reordering of pages, offers one-click FTP and .Mac uploading, and other features. [2.3MB]
Konfabulator 1.7 ($25) updates the system utility with Konsposé, a hotkey that brings all your running Widgets forward, separating them from the rest of your desktop environment. Version 1.7 also features international text support, a Danish translation, and more. Konfabulator utilizes XML/JavaScript-based Widgets that can include AppleScript, Unix calls, and other system/Internet functions. [4.2MB]
SmartScore Pro 3.2 updates Musitek's music score printing application that allows users to scan printed music into an editable and playable form within seconds. Version 3.2 now recognizes smaller staves in scores with variable staff heights, fixes several problems with Playback Console, improves CD burning and the Image Ediitor, improves display of callouts on tools/palettes/icons, and more. Pricing starts at $100. [form]
FmPro Migrator 2.08EE ($100) has been updated with support for Oracle 10g databases on MacOS X and other platforms. Enhancements have also been made for PostgreSQL migrations, including the migration of large JPEG images and the generation of Perl CGI scripts for migrated FileMaker databases. This graphical application generates migration scripts, Perl CGI scripts and documentation. [2.4MB]
LogOutScreenSaver 2.03 ($10), a screen saver module, has updated with a new feature and several bug fixes. It adds the ability to change the systems screen saver activation time from within the L.O.S.S Controller application. The screen saver preference file is now also exported when you use the Export feature. [form]
Apimac Clean Text 3.4 is text utility for converting, encoding and replacing attributes from a text, setting it up for pasting or printing. Version 3.4, a free update, resolves issues with printing, regular expression search/replace, capitalization filters, etc. as well as adds a keyboard shortcut, improves tab browsing, and more. [Classic, OSX]
Feral Interactive has updated XIII 1.01, allowing non-English users to play the general soundtrack (when their localized version is not present) and also allows users switch languages in the 'Advanced' tab of the 'XIII Options' dialog. Total Immersion Racing 1.0.2 fixes a sound handling bug that could cause the game to freeze for many seconds before continuing with stuttering sound. [XIII, TIR]

Apple wins two Gold, Silver, Bronze in 2004 IDEA

06/25, 2:10pm

2004 IDEA winners

Apple today took home two Gold, one Silver, and one Bronze award in the 2004 Industrial Design Excellence Awards (IDEA), which were publicly announced today and will be published in the July 5th edition of Businessweek--expected to be available June 25th. Overall, there were 130 winners in 12 different categories in the competition sponsored by the Industrial Designers Society of America and BusinessWeek. Apple's Power Mac G5 ('Computer Equipment') and iPod mini ('Consumer Product') were Gold winners, while the iSight took a 'Silver' award ('Business & Industrial Products'), and the Apple Wireless Keyboard won a 'Bronze" ('Computer Equipment').

Briefly: HP printer drivers, HIToolbox, PPTP problems

06/25, 1:40pm

HP printer drivers

In Brief: Architosh reports that HP has updated its large-format Mac OS X printer drivers for the DesignJet 500, DesignJet 500ps and DesignJet 800; The Apple Developer Connection has a look the Human Interface Toolbox, which provides user interface elements (controls) for application developers to use in their programs; Apple says that some ISP PPTP login attempts may fail when using Mac OS X 10.3; users may not choose to use two different computers with a single iPod; and Mac OS X 10.3's multisession burns are not available in all applications.

"Secrecy" keeping Apple from success in corporate IT

06/25, 1:35pm

Apple in Corporate IT

Apple's secrecy and haughty attitude may be preventing its own success in the corporate IT world, according to a Computerworld column: "But yammering reporters and analysts aren't the only ones to blame for a lack of IT-related coverage of Apple. Fingers must also be pointed at 1 Infinity Loop, the company's Cupertino, California, headquarters. Like its pretentious address, Apple's haughty attitude simply annoys people...Certainly, the IT media's indifference to Apple has hurt the company's standing with CIOs. But Apple's obsession with secrecy has diminished it and IT's technology options even more."

StockIcons.com adds new icons sets, EPS collection

06/25, 1:00pm

Iconfactory icon sets

On the one-year anniversary of Stockicons.com, The Iconfactory has released three new products for developers and designers. Harmony: Database Add-On ($180) is an extension of the original Harmony stock icon set and now extends into the realm of databases with icons covering such specialized concepts as tables, scripts, records, and many others. It contains 52 unique icons in multiple sizes and formats. A new stock icon collection named Cricket ($350) features a subtle color palette, line weights and unique angles designed to create "a suite of icons that is organic and fresh." In addition, the Cricket EPS collection ($250) is also available as scalable EPS files for use in large format, print and web applications.

Adium 0.61 restores Yahoo! connectivity, more

06/25, 12:50pm

Adium 0.61

The Adium team has updated Adium 0.61, its free multi-service instant messaging client for Mac OS X. Adium supports all the major instant messaging services -- AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Jabber, Yahoo Japan, Novell Groupwise, and Gadu-Gadu -- with an attractive, customizable interface. The latest version restores Yahoo! connectivity, adds support for MSN and Yahoo! Buddy Icons as well as MSN File Transfer, and offers major reliability and performance improvements. Update: Fire 1.03, another multiprotocol IM client, also restores connectivity, after Yahoo! attempted to block third-party clients earlier this week. [Adium, Fire]

Griffin releases iTrip Software 2.0

06/25, 12:30pm

iTrip Software 2.0

Griffin Technology today announced the iTrip Software 2.0, its free software for the iTrip FM transmitter that installs all available US frequencies on and iPod or iPod mini. Users can then change the broadcast frequency of their iTrip or iTrip mini directly from their iPod. This new software improves the installation experience and adds 87.7 as an available frequency to US iTrip owners. The new iTrip Software Version 2 is available immediately for download.

Forums: WWDC; switcher; Bluetooth Treo; AIM client...

06/25, 12:00pm

WWDC talk, Switcher story

Topics of discussion on the MacNN forums today include: ongoing speculation and rumors surrounding Apple's upcoming World Wide Developers Conference; the story of a Windows-to-Mac "Switcher"; comparing a new iBook to a similar offering from Dell; rumors of a Bluetooth-based PalmOne Treo device coming this fall; members' success in bringing new users to the Mac platform; alternative IM clients for the AOL Instant Messenger service; a utility that enables Windows games to run on Linux.

Apps: WeatherHawk, MailMate, Overflow, Emailchemy...

06/25, 10:20am

WeatherHawk, MailMate...

WeatherHawk is a "personal weather station" composed of weather monitoring meteorological instruments with data loggers to store measurements. It combines high reliability sensors, powerful spread spectrum radios, and Virtual Weather Station software to "create a family of easy-to-use weather stations."
MailMate 1.0 ($20) is a handy Mac OS X application for viewing, searching and printing Mail messages. Users cam view email correspondence sent to or from a particular person in the Address Book by clicking on that person's name. [Download - 445KB]
Overflow 1.1 adds a movable window and fixes several minor bugs in the utility from Stunt Software. Overflow is a $10 Mac OS X Dock space-saver. [Download - 74KB]
Emailchemy 1.5.7 ($25) reads email files from the proprietary formats of the most popular email applications and converts them to standard formats that any application can use. Version 1.5.7 is a maintenance release that adds: a Entourage converter, support for cached IMAP messages, the option to exclude non-standard headers, and more. [Download - 463KB]
MultiMode 4.8.0 is a $90 application that allows your Mac to decode and transmit several different modes of non-voice communication often heard on shortwave and ham radio. The new version includes improved RTTY demodulation, better FAX synchronization, bug fixes, and other new features. [Download - 900KB]
WebBuilder 1.5 ($40) is an integrated environment to administer all aspects of a local or remote MySQL database server. Users can select any aspect of a server in a tree-like view. All possible actions for the selected object are easily accessible through the action bar. [Download - 2.1MB]

Mossberg: iLife beats its closest Windows competitor

06/25, 8:05am

Mossberg: iLife wins

Technology columnist Walter Mossberg says that Apple's iLife beats its closest Windows competitor [registration] in a review of Roxio's Easy Media Creator 7, in which he notes Roxio's suite has a few more features: "Overall, I found Media Creator to be significantly inferior to the Apple suite. It's harder to use, less consistent in the way it works, less well integrated, and it fails to display the same delicate balance between power and simplicity that is the real strength of the Apple software." [free version here]

Briefly: EFF vs. copyright, FWB bundle, iLife wins

06/25, 7:50am

EFF rallys Apple users

In Brief: Looking to rally support against a new anti-copyright act in Congress, the EFF has drawn up a mock complaint that says Apple, iPod, Toshiba, and CNET may be potential targets of lawsuits under the proposed law; FWB has announced that it will bundle DiskJockey hardware copying tool (at lowered price of $280) with SubRosaSoft’s DiskJockeyExpander at no extra cost; Captain FTP is offering a 40% discount on registration of its ftp client for Mac OS X (temporarily $15) through July 25th (use coupon '40d941233308e'); and Yahoo! CFO Susan Decker has joined Pixar's board of directors.

BW: Accounting changes could affect Apple's stock

06/25, 2:15am

AAPL stock overpriced?

One analyst says that Apple could face problems, reduced earnings, and a falling stock price when the Fair Accounting Standards Board (FASB) Rule 123, which would force companies to expense stock options, kicks in, according to BusinessWeek: "Most analysts on the Street say they've already priced the cost of options into the Apple equation. And Apple does calculate those costs in a footnote of its earning reports. But its options exposure is high compared to other tech companies, Meyer claims. If stock options had been treated as a cost on the balance sheet, Apple's earnings would have fallen 69%, from 46 cents per share to 14 cents per share."

Band-in-a-Box Pro v12 now available for Mac OS X

06/25, 1:25am

Band-in-a-Box Pro v12

Band-in-a-Box Pro v12 is a new version of the music composition tool for Mac OS X described as an "intelligent automatic accompaniment program for your multimedia computer." It includes features for notation, lyrics, melody tracks, harmonization, and a programmable StyleMaker as well as "Soloist", which generates professional quality solos over any chord progression, and "Melodist", which can create songs from scratch with chords, melodies, intros, solos, and a title. It features a new 32-bit PPC engine, odd-time signatures, support for more Soloists (up to 1,024), more options for "Count-in", new "low root harmony", "Strauss-in-a-Box" and "De-Strauss", mono/stereo options, and more. Pricing is $88 (Pro) or $250 (MegaPAK) with a free Bonus 9-PAK through July 31st. Upgrades are $50 and $100, respectively.