Review, death of Fire

In brief: MacNN has reviewed Montage from Mariner Software, developers of the Fire multi-protocol instant messaging client for Mac OS X have announced that there will be no further versions available, and BitTorrent has opened its own video download store to challenge rivals such as Apple by using its own distributed download technology. Montage ($140) is a screenplay program that surrounds a story, providing a gallery of templates, while an iTunes-like sidebar lists scripts as well as scenes and characters. The software acts as a database mechanism with support for a story effort, including research and to-do lists. Further Montage features include script automation, database functionality, and native Intel Mac support.

Fire era comes to an end

Fire developers are suggesting that Fire users turn to Adium for their enhanced instant messaging needs, citing a loss of developers coupled with the fact that all but one of Fire's IM libraries is no longer in active development as reasons for the decision to end Fire's development. Additionally, two of Fire's developers have joined the Adium team and have written a transition path enabling Adium 1.0 users to import Fire accounts, away messages, groups, buddies, and logs.

BitTorrent video store

BitTorrent's launch of the BitTorrent Entertainment Network today stands to raise the stakes for digital video content vendors such as Apple by keeping downloads fast while sharing some of the bandwidth burden. The company says pricing and accessibility vary based on content, with movies available only for rent from $4 for new titles to $3 for older releases. TV shows are available as permanent downloads for $2 each, and movie rentals expire 24 hours after the movie is played or after a 30 day time period.

by MacNN Staff