News Archive for 05/04/06

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CherryOS Mac emulator for PC goes open-source?

04/06, 8:15pm

CherryOS update

The recently launched CherryOS emulator for running a Mac environment on a PC will be released as open-source software, according to a note on the product's website. The project has been accused of stealing code from PearPC, a PowerPC architecture emuator released as an open-source project last year. Although PearPC was last updated in September 2004, CherryOS developer Maui X-Stream was accused of taking the code --with some very strong evidence--and repackaging it as commercial software. The software was recently put on hold, after several reports ran solicitions on behalf of PearPC for help with legal representation. A note on the Mac emulator CherryOS website now reads "Due to Overwhelming Demand. Cherry Open Source Project. Launches 5.1.2005." The software was put on-hold yesterday and is no longer listed on the developer's website.

ScreenTime releases mProjector 1.1

04/06, 6:50pm

mProjector 1.1 for OS X

ScreenTime Media today announced mProjector 1.1 for Mac OS X. mProjector converts Macromedia Flash MX files into powerful, full-featured Mac applications or standalone windowless widgets. mProjector enables Flash designers and programmers to quickly create Mac applications with menus, file system access, internet connectivity, and much more -with a simple click. Applications can use standard Mac OS X windows, or play “windowless” in frames of any shape. Version 1.1 improves performance, with a redesigned memory manager and new APIs including AppleScript Interactive, Auto Email and Doc Launch. mProjector is $200 and includes an unlimited distribution license for applications it creates. Upgrades to version 1.1 are free and a demo is available online.

Spiderweb ships Geneforge 3 fantasy epic game title

04/06, 6:25pm

Geneforge 3 fantasy epic

Spiderweb Software today began shipping Geneforge 3, its newest fantasy role-playing-game (RPG) with a science fiction twist. In Geneforge 3, users can "explore strange, hostile lands, choose which side you will fight for, and, as always, make your own horde of completely obedient mutant monsters. You have been chosen. You are one of the precious few who will be allowed to become a Shaper. You will be given the power to create life and mold it to serve your own needs. The whole world fears and respects the Shapers. Your secrets are many, and your power is absolute. But then, the disaster happened. Your school was attacked and destroyed." Geneforge 3 features a large, open storyline. It is available for $25 (or for $32 with a hint book). It runs on Mac OS 8/9/X.

Goldman ups estimates, cautions against upside

04/06, 2:45pm

Goldman ups AAPL estimates

Goldman Sachs today reiterated an "in-line" rating on Apple, saying it expects the company to beat consensus estimates for the fiscal second quarter. Although the firm says that the success of the iPod, the Mac mini and the PowerBook professional notebook will help its current quarter, Goldman believes that "much of the good news is already discounted into Apple stock, and that a positive earnings release 'might merely enable the stock to retrace its recent sell-off.' Goldman said Apple shares will need a greater catalyst to move higher, 'one which we are unable to foresee,'" according to Forbes. The research firm raised its second-quarter and 2005 earnings-per-share estimates to 27 cents and $1.19, respectively, from 24 cents and $1.12. Goldman also raised the fiscal 2006 and 2007 earnings-per-share estimates to $1.34 and $1.54, respectively.

UStec integrates Mac mini into home networking

04/06, 2:20pm

Mac mini in home network

UStec has announced support for Apple's Mac mini its home networking solutions. The company provides homeowners with the wiring infrastructure they need to distribute and connect video, data, and voice signals for home entertainment, home networking, and home security and automation. The new Mac mini-friendly holster allows users to easily integrate Apple's newest Mac into any of UStec's custom home networks. Users can easily turn the Mac mini into a server for the entire home, sharing and centralizing all of your digital media. "Once in place, it can utilize our commercial grade 10/100 Ethernet Switch/Router and 350Mhz rated tecWire and tecPorts, bringing you security, reliability and quality of service unseen in wireless networks."

Duke renews iPod program with focus on courses

04/06, 2:00pm

Duke iPod program

Duke University today announced that it will continue its iPods for students program, following a preliminary review of its year-long effort to incorporate iPods into its curriculum. The program, however, will continue in a more targeted manner and the university says it will also explore other educational applications of multimedia technologies. The university’s Center for Instructional Technology (CIT) will coordinate the use and distribution of iPods to students who enroll in a course whose proposed use of iPods is coordinated through CIT. Students who receive an iPod through the program will own the device and be expected to retain it for future use in any other Duke classes using iPods, according to the university.

iPod leads in high school marketshare, mindshare

04/06, 11:30am

iPod leads among teens

Apple's iPod continues to lead in both marketshare and mindshare, according to a new analyst report released today. Analyst Piper Jaffray said that results of a new survey of 11 U.S. high schools showed that the digital audio market is growing among the 14-18 year-old demographic and that the iPod remains significantly ahead of the competition. Despite a gaining market penetration over the last 2-3 quarters, the Spring 2005 survey showed that a significantly higher portion of teens expect to buy a music device over the next year, when compared to a similar survey last Fall. While iPod ownership increased among those surveyed, the percentage of students looking to buy an iPod decreased by five points to 70 percent; however, overall iPod demand increased as more teens were expecting to purchase new players, according to the report.

Near-Time Current combines Internet, desktop apps

04/06, 10:40am

Near-Time ships Current

Near-Time today released Near-Time Current for Mac OS X, which combines a text editor, bookmark manager, Web clipping software, outliner, newsreader, and blogging software into a single Internet-enabled application for the desktop. Following a successful three-month early access program, the company has made several improvements to the software: Current can now serve as a user's default text editor (offering advanced features such as version management), offers improved/advanced RSS management for news and Weblog feeds, and features a new Home Page for portal-style, contextual content navigation. It also features a built-in browser, full text search, support for multiple file types (movies, photos, html, MP3 files, etc.), and more. Single-user license are $50.

Briefly: iPhoto 5, sharing music, Napster upbeat

04/06, 10:20am

iPhoto 5, sharing music

In Brief: O'Reilly has released iPhoto 5: Missing Manual, which offers a crash course on digital photography and then explores every aspect of iPhoto 5."... Sharing music via iTunes or other application can create bonds as well as cause confusion in the workplace, according to researchers at one university.... Napster yesterday raised its quarterly revenue forecast for the second time in about a month, citing a big jump in subscribers and stronger-than-expected sales of music downloads.... Google has enhanced its Google Maps and Google Local services with satellite and aerial images, letting users view digital snapshots of an area.... Apple has posted a slew of RSS feeds from its support area, offering subject-oriented feeds of the latest information on hardware, software, and technology.

Apple offers info on Logic Pro 7.1 upgrade

04/06, 10:10am

Logic Pro 7.1 upgrade

The Apple Store has posted information on the forthcoming Logic Pro 7.1 upgrade. The $20 Logic Pro Update Kit for Apple's music creation and audio production suite is due in 2-3 weeks withf ull native plug-in delay compensation, expanded Apple Loops integration, new Bass Amp and hybrid synthesizer plug-ins, easy re-ordering of plug-ins, and more: Apple says that it brings over 70 new key commands, provides greater facility for creating and managing Apple Loops, offers a convenient new method for re-ordering Channel Strip plug-in configurations, includes 5 new plug-ins (e.g., Bass Amp and two hybrid synthesizers), brings significant performance improvements, has better stability, and offers an updated version of Waveburner. Update: An updated version of Logic Express 7.1 is also available for pre-order from the Apple Store.

Apps: StreamWatcher, LiveDictionary, iPhoto Buddy...

04/06, 10:00am

StreamWatcher 1.0

StreamWatcher 1.0 ($15) is a sophisticated network monitoring utility for Mac OS X 10.3, which can view all network traffic at a glance. Users can summarize all traffic on their network to get an overall picture of activity or can use StreamWatcher's live search to dig deaper and see statistics for individual protocols, computers, or connections. [Classic, 477KB]
LiveDictionary 1.1.3 ($25) is a Safari extension that adds fast, convenient dictionary lookups to the web. Once installed, it becomes a transparent part of Safari; point to a word with the mouse cursor, and its definition or translation appears in a popup window. It offers a wide array of dictionaries for technical terms, general language, and bilingual usage. Version 1.1.3 adds a Korean-English dictionary and other changes. [11MB]
iPhoto Buddy 1.2b (donationware) is a small utility that allows you to use more than one photo Library with Apple's iPhoto as well as with its companion programs, iMovie and iDVD. New features include support for iLife '05, user-selected scalable Library thumbnail images, password-protected Libraries, and numerous performance/stability improvements. [4.4MB]
Ch ODBC Package 4.0 (free) for unixODBC and iODBC is now available as an open-source download. Ch is an embeddable C interpreter for scripting, 2D/3D plotting, and numerical computing. The new release contains the source code for Ch binding to unixODBC and iODBC libraries. Ch SDK is included in the distribution of Ch Standard Edition and Ch Professioal Edition.
DAQ Plot 9.9.1 now features realtime multi-channel spectral analysis and data acquisition through Ethernet in addition to USB cabling. DAQ Plot measures voltages from sensors and presents them in an intuitive strip chart format to determine natural frequencies, resonant peaks, decay curves, harmonics, frequency content and more.
Kids GoGoGo 9.0 ($30) is a new version of the internet filtering program for adult-related content. Version 9.0 has been completely rewritten for better filtering, supports any web browser, offers notification emails, protects system preferences, and more. Users can also save the browser history, record the screen, restrict access by time, and disable unwanted applications. Upgrades are $20. [3.5MB]

Oddlabs ships Tribal Trouble game title for Mac OS X

04/06, 8:50am

Tribal Trouble RTS game

Oddlabs has released Tribal Trouble, a new fast-pased 3D realtime strategy game title for Mac OS X. Tribal Trouble features massive battles as vikings and savage natives clash on a group of tropical islands: "Once upon a time, a gang of viking raiders got so drunk celebrating their latest successful pillaging trip, that they got lost on the high sea and ended up stranding on a small group of tropical islands. Here they chose to stay for a while, much to the annoyance of the local natives....our job is to lead your somewhat clueless kinsmen (be it vikings or natives) to new discoveries and victories as the tribal clashes rage across the islands. The tropical paradise is only large enough for one tribe!" A demo of the $25 title is available online.

NI debuts Synthetic Drums 2, Guitar Combos

04/06, 8:40am

NI at Musikmesse 2005

At Musikmesse 2005, Native Instruments today announced Synthetic Drums 2, a "massive" new collection of cutting-edge drum and percussion sounds, created in cooperation with more than twenty of the world’s most innovative electronic music producers and sound designers. The company also announced that Electronic Instruments 2 XT, an extended version of its instrument collection, is now available in stores worldwide as well as announced Guitar Combos, a series of three charismatic amp emulations that combine studio-grade sound quality with maximum ease of use. As noted earlier today, the company also debuted Reaktor 5, an update to its next-generation modular sound design studio.

Tunewear debuts Icewear shuffle case for iPod shuffle

04/06, 8:10am

Icewear shuffle case

Tunewear today announced a new high-density transparent silicone case, the ICEWEAR shuffle case for the iPod shuffle. It users the same silicone found in diving masks which allows for both scratch protection and a clear view of the iPod's original form. The company says that any ink or pen marks can be removed with the swipe of a hand and that the case can be washed (using soap and water). The ICEWEAR shuffle enables access to all ports, features shock absorbing ribs on each sides, and includes two cap covers--one for the regular USB cap and the other for the USB cap with the lanyard--as well as a removable ball-bearing style chain to prevent users from misplacing the USB cap or lanyard. It will ship at the end of May for $20.

NI launches Reaktor 5 with new core technology layer

04/06, 8:05am

NI launches Reaktor 5

Native Instruments today launched Reaktor 5, its next-generation modular sound design studio that fuses synthesis, sampling and effects. The latest version introduces the new "Reaktor Core Technology", which expands the scope of Reaktor-based instrument design. "With a massive instrument library, powerful new routing options, vastly expanded panel design options, a revised user interface and a host of other improvements, the new version of Reaktor is more than ever an unlimited creative resource." It brings new core technology, a new interface, new custom display options for instruments, new instruments, and more. It will ship in May for $580.

Apple Store Japan now available to mobile users

04/06, 7:40am

\'Mobile\' Apple Store Japan

Apple yesterday launched a version of its Apple Store Japan for mobile phone users. As first noted by AppleInsider yesterday, the company has created a special site that is available to owners of most handsets sold by NTT DoCoMo and KDDI's Au unit. Both mobile carriers account for about 82 percent of all wireless Internet subscribers in Japan, according to web reports. The services offers users the ability to purchase iPods, Mac minis, and iPod accessories and may later be expanded to more items. Mobile users can exclusively access the service at http://applestore-mobile.jp, while others (including Mac desktop clients) will see a list of compatible handsets.