News Archive for 05/04/27

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Halo effect to change balance of desktop sales

04/27, 6:30pm

ML on Mac desktops

Following the release of new Power Mac models, investment firm Merrill Lynch remains optimistic about Apple's future, as the release of Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" nears. Power Mac G5 updates are "in time for Tiger," with shipping times of 1-2 business days. The new desktops give "more bang for the buck" and come "standard with dual-display support, which is key for the professional market." Merrill Lynch also points out that "new Apple users will opt for lower cost machines," and "iMacs and eMacs due for a refresh" to "take advantage of the Tiger OS hype" in the tech community. "There is now solid evidence of the halo effect, so the company wants to strike while the iron is hot."

Developers update more applications for Tiger

04/27, 6:25pm

More Tiger updates

Several more developers have released more updated applications for Tiger. Bicartel's RadioLover 1.3 enables you to record MP3 radio streams as separate songs, with support for iTunes Radio Tuner, Shoutcast-compatible radio streams, and MP3, M3U, and EXTM3U radio stream playlists. Its iRecordMusic 1.4 ($25) enables you to record Internet music, sports and news for listening on your iPod, PDA, mobile or computer. Presenta's iGetter 2.3 ($25) download manager is optimized for Tiger and Safari 2.0, improves multiple simultaneous downloads, adds support for Firefox cookies, offers a site cache, and more. DEVONtechnologies has udpdated DEVONthink 1.9.3 ($40, advanced office organizer), DEVONagent 1.7 ($35, enhanced internet search) and DEVONnote 1.7 ($20 light-weight note-taking), makes them compatible with Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" and adds many productivity enhancements. Salling Clicker 2.2.1 ($20) brings Tiger compatibility and more phone support to the the utility that turns a mobile phone or PDA into an advanced two-way remote control.

Apple releases SuperDrive Firmware Update

04/27, 6:10pm

SuperDrive Firmware Update

Apple today released its SuperDrive Firmware Update, which delivers updated SuperDrive firmware to improve reliability when accessing DVD and CD media. It is designed for the Power Mac G5 (both 'June 2004' and 'Late 2004' models) as well as the eMac (with USB 2.0 ports). The 2MB download is available via the web or the Mac OS X Software Update system preference.

Rogue Amoeba updates audio/sound utilities for Tiger

04/27, 6:05pm

Rogue Amoeba updates

Rogue Amoeba has released updates to its entire line of applications to provide Mac OS X Tiger compatibility as well as new features. Detour 1.5.3 ($12) lets you control where audio from all your programs is going--either to the speakers, headphones, or neither. Nicecast 1.7.3 ($40), a broadcast utility that can create an Internet station or play your iTunes library over the Internet, adds new Silence Generator audio input device and the new Application Mixer plugin. Audio Hijack 2.1.1 ($32), a basic audio recording application, improves RealPlayer compatibility and fixes other bugs. Airfoil 1.0.5 ($25) brings drag and drop support, Dock menu items, a "Start Transmit At Launch" preference, and improved connectivity to its utility that you to send any audio to the AirPort Express. Finally, Memory Cell 2.01 (free), which displays the RAM for each application in the menubar, also brings Tiger compatibility. [Detour, Nicecast, Audio Hijack, AirFoil, Memory Cell]

Panic updates CandyBar, Transmit, Unison for Tiger

04/27, 3:55pm

CandyBar, Transmit

Panic today released a trio of software updates, offering both Tiger compatibility and many fixes and improvements. CandyBar 2.5, a system icon changer, is now ready for Tiger. In addition to full Tiger support for changing all system icons, there are also new Tiger-specific icons ("Smart Folder" and "Burnable Folder"), a totally re-written and much improved auto-update system, and the addition of the 'Public iDisk' icon. Transmit 3.1, a FTP SFTP and WebDAV client, offers improved compatibility with Tiger, an entirely new and Safari-like Queue window for managing all queued transfers, a new "Merge" choice when transferring existing folders, improved SFTP transfer speeds, support for HTTP proxies, and much more. Unison 1.6.1 is a maintenance update to the Usenet news-reader that brings Tiger support and many small improvements.

Briefly: Top CEOs, Power Mac drops modem, ...

04/27, 3:40pm

Jobs among top CEOs

In brief: Forbes ranks Apple CEO Steve Jobs 17th among the 189 chief executives in its performance versus pay scorecard (Steve Jobs is also among the choices on Forbes's poll for best chief executive), ... Formac today announced a price drop of its popular Gallery 2010 Xtreme to $800, ... Apple has dropped the standard modem from its Power Mac G5 line (it is now a $30 option).... Digital Thought Software today announced a free version of its popular fxAnimate stop frame animation plug-in for iMovie (source code included).

Apps: NewsMac Pro, Curio, burnitagainsam, ...

04/27, 2:45pm

NewsMac Pro, Curio, ...

NewsMac Pro 1.0 ($25) is a new RSS aggregator with support for podcasting, atom, smart folders, headline searching, iPod and Palm headline synchronization. It includes nearly 900 built-in news channels, both channel and news headline searching (including the ability to find similar headlines), iPod sync, stylish themes using CSS, and easy migration from NetNewsWire and NewsFire. [Download - 2.4MB]
Curio 2.3 K-12 Edition ($65) is a new version of the application for brainstorming and idea management; the K-12 Edition now features a new Restriction Preference panel which offers more control for administrators, including modifying Dossier questions and adding Sleuth sites. It also features a 200 phrase fully-customizable profanity filter, and more. Curio is also available in Professional ($130), Home ($80), and Basic ($40) editions. [Download - 6.1MB]
burnitagainsam 2.0 ($25) allows you to "add files to a CDR" (i.e., burn linked multisession CDRs where all files are shown in a single CDR icon). The new version includes an updated UI, the ability to hide previous sessions, and automatic incremental updating, automatically detecting what files have changed and only adding those to the CDR. [Download - 748KB]
A Better Finder Select 3.5 ($10) adds the ability to select only files that are digital camera pictures containing EXIF information. The contextual menu plugin allows power users to filter file selections based on a range of criteria, offering interactive and automatic modes, powerful search features, persistent settings, and more. [Download - 1.9MB]
Safari Bookmark Exporter 1.1 (free) helps users export Safari bookmarks to the latest versions of Camino/Chimera, Mozilla, Firefox, Netscape, IE, iCab, and Opera. Version 1.1 adds support for the beta version of Opera 8, as well as an option to export bookmarks to the XBEL bookmark format, to export to multiple browsers at once, and automatically overwrite previous bookmark files. [Download --152KB]
iRemember ($80) is an upcoming scrapbook utility for Mac OS X. The company, currently requesting beta testers for its final release in June, says that the application will include the ability to create borders, backgrounds, and frames; drag & drop integration with iPhoto; a selection tools for cropping photos, text and clip art, and more.

Now Up-to-Date for Tiger coming in June

04/27, 2:25pm

Now Up-to-Date for Tiger

Now Up-to-Date and Contact 5.0 is in the final stage of beta testing and will be available by June. The update adds support for Mac OS X 10.4. The current shipping version, 4.5.3, is not Tiger-compatible. "We recommend that customers who rely on Now Up-to-Date and Contact wait until version 5 has been released before installing Tiger." Now Up-to-Date and Contact version 5 includes many new features, including team scheduling with the new Schedule View, the new Now Server Manager, an enhanced look and feel, and "literally hundreds of updates and improvements." The developer is "working on subsequent versions," which will add many Tiger-specific features, such as Dashboard Widgets for QuickDay and QuickContact, Spotlight support, and full support for Sync Services. These features will be provided free of charge to those that purchase or upgrade to version 5 and will be available later this year. Version 5 upgrades from version 4.x will be available for $50. The full version will costs $130 for new customers.

CopyCatX 2.5 improves performance, expands support

04/27, 2:20pm

CopyCatX 2.5 released

SubRosaSoft.com today released CopyCatX 2.5, bringing improved performance, cloning to disk image, OS 10.4 Tiger compatibility, and additional support for devices. In addition to drive-to-drive clone, CopyCatX now allows users to clone devices to disk images as well as now can clone devices such as iPods, Tivos, Windows, and Linux disks. "A huge upgrade in speed of copying a Mac OS volume has been made." Explained Marko Kostyrko, CEO of SubRosaSoft.com. "An in-house benchmark shows CopyCatX to be the fastest back-up and cloning utility available." The $50 utility is available on a bootable CD-ROM supporting machines ranging from first generation iMacs to the latest PowerBooks (electronic delivery includes a $10 discount).

Vicomsoft InterGate v9 monitors internet connections

04/27, 2:10pm

Vicomsoft InterGate v9

Vicomsoft has released InterGate v9, an update to its high-performance software solution designed to provide complete management and control of an organizations Internet connectivity. Version 9 offers improved user authentication with support for LDAP (Windows/Mac OS X servers), web-based user logins, improved firewall functionality, access control lists (including DMZ functionality), and extended usage reporting (by user, address, protocol, etc.). The software includes options for secure firewall, content filtering, network management, email management/SPAM control, Internet usage reporting and web caching. A five-user license starts at $100 with RapidCache ($40), SurfMaster ($40), SurfControl ($100), SpamBolt ($400), and SuperIntendent ($200) options available.

Ensign announces POS*IM update, future plans

04/27, 1:40pm

POS IM update

Ensign Systems today announced that it will ship POS•IM Diamond 4.0 on May 16th. POS•IM, Point of Sale and Inventory Management software for retailers, utilizes the innovation in Mac OS X 10.4 to deliver a complete revised interface and many powerful new features. One major usability improvement is the ability to navigate between POS•IM modules, such as Sales and Inventory, with one application launcher and a navigation bar. The new look for POS•IM Diamond 4.0 has been fine-tuned to be complementary to the appearance of Apple's core Mac OS X applications. This summer, Ensign plans to release an update to POS•IM, incorporating both Dashboard and Automator. POS•IM will offer the following Widgets: Margin Calculator, Sales at a Glance, Automated Advanced Help, and Instant Supplies.

Developers unleash Tiger-ready apps

04/27, 11:50am

Tiger-ready apps

Several Mac software developers have updated their applications for Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger." Midnight Mage Software today released RollCall Directory 1.3, an update to the $15 print utility for the Mac OS X Address Book adds support for new of Tiger features such as Smart Groups and expanded address book fields. biOpen 1.6.1 is a maintenance update to the sequence analysis and structure visualization tool that adds support for Tiger, as well as the ability to zoom on a selection in the linear view. Mariner Software has released MacJournal 3.1 ($25), an update to the popular journaling application that adds Tiger and .Mac support. Glucose today announced WeatherPop Advance 2.0.6 ($8), now fully compatible with Tiger. A handful of new apps were released yesterday, including StickyBrain 3.4.1 and Cocktail 3.6 Tiger Edition.

Briefly: LA FCP, Soundtrack Pro debut, iSale, ...

04/27, 10:20am

LA FCP debut

In Brief: The Los Angeles Final Cut Pro User Group is hosting the “LA Debut of Final Cut Pro 5 and Soundtrack Pro” at the Entertainment Technology Center (Pacific Theater) in Hollywood.... Karen Sperling announced today that she has completed updating her "Artistry Painting for Photographers" tutorials for Corel Painter IX.... dinc has released a new free Special Edition Six Pack Fontset, available only until Saturday April 30th.... Aspyr Media announced this morning iSale, an eBay helper utility for Mac users, is now available for pre-order.

Reviewed: Logic Pro 7, Popcorn, more...

04/27, 9:50am

Logic Pro 7 reviewed

MacNN has reviewed Apple's Logic Pro 7 audio application. Despite a "steep learning curve" for new users, Logic 7 is the "most powerful Audio Development program on the market." We've also published a review of Popcorn from Roxio, an application that helps users make high quality copies of personal DVD discs. Lastly, we have posted a review of Macally's Retractable Firewire Combo Kit. This sturdy cable and protected case "cuts down the amount of gear needed to tote."

Adobe Creative Suite 2 now shipping

04/27, 9:20am

Adobe CS2 ships

Adobe this morning reported that Creative Suite 2, which includes new versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and GoLive, is now shipping. The recently released Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional is also included. Adobe Creative Suite 2 includes the enhanced Version Cue CS2 and introduces Adobe Bridge, which provides a dashboard into projects and direct access to the new Adobe Stock Photos service and a Help Center link to Adobe Expert Support. Creative Suite 2 includes advanced mobile authoring capabilities, creating and making content readily available for the Web and handheld devices. The "Standard" version sells for $900 , while the "Premium" edition costs $1200. Customers first began receiving copies of the new Creative Suite last week.

REAL offers Spotlight plugin for REALbasic developers

04/27, 9:20am

REALbasic Spotlight plugin

REAL Software today announced the availability of a REALbasic plugin for Spotlight, the new desktop search technology built into Mac OS X Tiger. The plugin provides Spotlight with the ability to rapidly search REALbasic source code. "Offering a Spotlight plugin for REALbasic is a perfect example of our commitment to supporting the platform-specific technologies that our customers demand," stated Geoff Perlman, president and CEO of REAL Software. The Spotlight plugin for REALbasic requires no changes to an existing REALbasic installation and is freely available on the company's website.

Apple reduces prices on Cinema Displays

04/27, 8:50am

Display pricing cut

Apple today reduced prices on its widescreen flat panel Cinema Displays. The company cut prices on its 20-inch model to $800 as well as its 23-inch HD model to $1,500. In addition, Apple's new dual-processor 2.7GHz G5 desktops and 1.67GHz 17-inch PowerBooks now feature built-in support to directly drive Apple's 30-inch Cinema HD Display, which is available for $3,000. Power Mac G5 build-to-order options for the Cinema Display line include the NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL with 256MB, for dual 30-inch display support, for an additional $350 as well as a standalone kit for $600.

Apple upgrades Power Mac G5 desktop line

04/27, 8:35am

New Power Mac G5s

Apple today refreshed its Power Mac G5 desktop line, featuring dual G5 processors running up to 2.7GHz and including Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger". The new desktops, which first appeared on Amazon.com yesterday, offer higher performance graphics options with more memory and built-in support for Apple's 30-inch Cinema HD Display on the 2.7GHz model. The new line also includes larger hard drives, a faster 16X SuperDrive with double-layer support and 512MB of memory in each model. The new dual-processor models will be available this week from the Apple Store, Apple retail stores, and other authorized retailers for $2,000 (dual-2GHz), $2,500 (dual-2.3GHz), and $3,000 (dual-2.7GHz). Apple also said it would continue to sell its single-processor 1.8GHz Power Mac G5 for $1,500.