Mac Product Watch
Miss shooting big floating rocks? Good news: Mac game publishing house MacSoft has announced that it will bring the 3-D space shooter Asteroids to the Mac by April. This is a remake of the classic black-and-white arcade game, complete with black holes and those pesky rocks that just have to be done away with.
RealCADD is a new, consumer-level CAD program designed to be as easy to use as MacDraw, but with professional-quality features. It is available as shareware for $59.
Deneba has updated its perpetual-sidekick graphics program Canvas to Version 7.0.1 (and you thought Apple was the only company doing "zero-point" updates). The new version includes auto-updating, improved HTML export, global adjustment of transparency masks and an option to run at Windows-standard 96 pixels per inch.
Cheapskates who didn't want to shell out for a second modem line have always liked Vicomsoft's SurfDoubler, which allowed two Macs to share one Internet connection. The company has released Version 6.6 of the utility, which adds native support for DSL connections using the Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet. An optional Connection Teaming feature does just the opposite, combining multiple connections for more bandwidth to one computer. SurfDoubler costs $29.
Coda Music Technology announced the release of its Allegro 2000 music-annotation software for MIDI users. New features include a redesigned interface, automatic music spacing, scrolling playback in page view, smart shapes and support for importing Musitek MIDI Scan files directly into the application. Allegro 2000 comes in at $200. Owners of previous versions of Allegro can upgrade for $70 and receive a jazz font for free.
Some of us have enough problems walking through a 3-D world, let alone creating one. If modeling is your thing, however, Maxon Computer GmbH's preview of its Cinema 4D XL 3-D creation application should be of interest. The upcoming Version 6, shipping in early April for $2,195, will feature deformable regions; hyperNurbs, metaballs and metasplines; a new lighting system; motion sequencing; and more. A demo version is available; the company has not revealed specifics about an update to its consumer-level packages, Cinema 4D SE and Cinema 4D GO.
Orange Micro Inc., previously known for its PC-on-a-card products, has peeled the muslin from its new and mellifluously named Grappler + SCSI/Serial PCI card. This $99 card, which features two serial ports and a Fast SCSI-2 port on one PCI card, is designed to give blue-and-white G3 and G4 owners access to legacy peripherals.
If you've somehow run out of USB connections on your G3 or G4, Keyspan has released a $39, four-port USB hub that can support up to 127 devices at full power. That's a lot of digital cameras, MP3 players, scanners and assorted digital whatnots.
The freeware NetCD utility has been upped to Version 2.0. It can still deliver extensive information about whatever CD you're playing, but it now gains a console interface that you can apply "skin" to, as well as support for multiple drives and digital audio formats such as QuickTime and MP3.
Software Perspectives announced an update to its file-type editing utility Morphile. Version 1.6 features a new pop-up menu for frequently accessed settings and a "Favorites" button. Upgrades from Version 1.0 cost $5.
New in Apple's (aapl) Tech Info Library: a handy guide to display adapters, complete with full-color pictures. If you're awash in cables, old computers and monitors, this could be your ticket out.
Looking for an alternative to the brushed-metal QuickTime player? Leptonics Systems released its $25 MediaCue QuickTime player and utility. It not only plays QuickTime media but also can catalogue movies into previewable collections which, in turn, can be transformed into a stand-alone, distributable kiosk application.
SmartDisk Corp., which previously focused on storage technologies, has retooled its product lineup and new offers FlashTrax, an adapter that will allow you to use digital flash memory cards in your car cassette player or boom box. No price or availability has been set.
Sony Electronics Inc. (sne) may call it "iLink," but we all know it's FireWire behind at least one of the consumer electronics company's new CD-RW drives. In addition to the Spressa i.LINK external drive, the line includes external and internal SCSI versions and a PC-only internal extended IDE version. All four support 10x recording speeds, which allow users to burn a 650MB CD in 7 minutes. Prices range from $249 to $379.
Kingston Technology announced that it has added Mac OS 9 driver support to its Fast EtheRx WOL 10/100TX PCI adapters. The required hardware is available immediately for $26.
Alchemedia of San Francisco on Monday announced a Mac version of Clever Content Viewer, a free browser plug-in for viewing digital graphics created with its image-protection system. Clever Content, which runs on Windows NT and Solaris systems, prevents copying, printing or screen capturing of protected images.
Although the Mac leads in FireWire implementation, it's lagged in support for Fibre Channel, a high-speed connectivity standard becoming popular on high-end PC systems. JNI Corp., however, has announced that its new dual-port FibreStar PCI-to-Fibre Channel host bus adapters for servers and storage systems will be available for the Mac OS as well as Windows 2000, Windows NT, Solaris, Linux and Novell systems. The company said the products are available in volume and that pricing will depend on order volume.
Germans who liebe their Macs can relax a bit: Aladdin Systems Inc. announced that the German version of its StuffIt Deluxe 5.5 compression utility is now available. Especially important is the new version's Mac OS 9 compatibility; another new feature is support for creating .zip and self-extracting .exe files for Windows. According to Aladdin, the street price for the full, German version of StuffIt Deluxe 5.5 is $80, with upgrades costing $20.
Lazy Mountain Software has released ClipDoubler 1.0, a clipboard-enhancement utility that enables multiple Mac clipboards.
For all you remote-administration people (and you
know who you are), Netopia Inc.'s release of Timbuktu Pro 2000 should be good news. This new flavor
of the venerable Timbuktu line offers cross-platform, Internet-based
communication and control for both Windows and Mac OS systems. The Pro 2000
package also adds better network integration and security; a new Find File
feature built into Pro 2000's exchange; an Internet locator; and LDAP
support. Price depends on volume, ranging from $50 to $95 per license.
DragonOne Software released Version 5.0 of its
$20 shareware 9Tuner utility for adding functionality and tweaking the
appearance of the Mac OS. 9Tuner can add keyboard shortcuts for System
function such as emptying the Trash, alter icons and change your Mac's
startup splash screen.
James Sentman's Whistle Blower
server monitoring tool reached Version 1.0. The $90 application can check
your servers and, if they aren't responding, send e-mail or a page, launch
an AppleScript or perform a restart via attached hardware.
It's high times for hard drives, it seems. Maxtor announced its DiamondMax 60 and DiamondMax VL30 IDE hard disks. The former will come in 45GB and 60GB capacities, with the latter slotted for 15GB and 30GB. Both should be available in April. Not to be outdone, IBM Corp. (ibm) has unveiled its Deskstar 75GXP hard drive, which will hold a whopping 75GB of MP3s and pictures of your cat.
NewWave Technologies has announced that Ultera Systems will distribute NewWave's new DVD-R MultiMaster DVD mastering system, which allows one host to control the duplication of 12 DVD simultaneously. Although it's early for the holiday season, now you can give all your friends a Matrix DVD!
New in Apple's Tech Info Library: information on "intermittent" crashes on startup on the latest PowerBook models and no startup from external keyboards with iBooks.
Now hear this: RealNetworks this week released (finally) the final version of its RealPlayer 7 streaming media player for the Mac. This is weeks after the PC version settled into its final form. The basic player is free for download; a $30 Plus version adds improved audio and video as well as a pre-set play list of more than 150 channels.
It was only last year that megapixel digital cameras were the talk of the town; now 2-megapixel cameras are reaching the consumer market. Case in point: Hewlett-Packard Co.'s new HP PhotoSmart C500. This USB-enabled camera features 3x optical and 2x digital zoom, a 2-inch diagonal LCD panel, a 16MB Compact Flash memory card, video cables, and a battery recharger, all for $699.
TechWorks Inc. released the first of its 6GB and 12GB PowerHD FireWire and USB external hard drives. Both flavors are lightweight and hot-pluggable and range in price from $390 for the 6GB USB model to $540 for the 12GB FireWire version.
If phrases such as "complete black generation" and "six-channel profiling" call up images of printing presses rather than political hot-button issues, you'll be interested in Monaco Systems' announcement of Version 3.0 of its MonacoPROFILER ICC profiling application. This Mac-only color-matching and device-profiling tool can include up to six channels in its profiles, with Pantone Hexachrome and other hi-fi ink sets. It's not for the amateur, and its $4,250 price tag reflects that fact.
It's a busy week for Adobe Systems Inc. (adbe) First the company updated InDesign, its "Quark-killer" page-layout application, to Version 1.5. The company said the revision adds 70 new features, including text on a path, an eyedropper tool, a plug-in manager, a free-transform tool, a pencil tool and vertical justification. Most important to print professionals, though, will be the inclusion of built-in trapping capabilities, which Version 1.0 was roundly criticized for lacking. New users will have to shell out $699; those upgrading will only take a $99 hit.
Also straight out of Adobe: Version 6.0 of FrameMaker and FrameMaker + SGML, the company's long-document applications. Both gain "enhanced Web support" with XML output and compatibility with Acrobat (Adobe's Portable Document Format application) and GoLive, its Web-production tool, as well as increased book-creation capabilities. As the name suggests, FrameMaker + SGML 6.0 also supports SGML, a specialized markup language. Adobe said both new versions can be used to produce Web, CD-ROM and print materials. Both should be available in the spring, according to the company. Pricing will be $799 for the plain-Jane FrameMaker and $1,449 for the "+" version.
If motion is more your emotion, Digital Origin Inc.'s (dodv) upgrade to its EditDV desktop video editor is good news. (It wasn't long ago that professional video editors seemed like an endangered species on the Mac platform.) New to Version 2.0 is support for third-party plug-ins, export to streaming Web formats, increased compatibility with DV cameras and better luma keying. Also, EditDV 2.0 hooks into QuickTime Effects, enabling it to work with a whole new (and popular) set of cross-platform effects. The application comes bundled with Digital Origin's RotoDV and PhotoDV, Pixelan Software's SpiceRack Pro Lite, and Terran Interactive's Media Cleaner EZ 4.0, as well as a Digital Origin FireWire card and cable. Just add a camera and something to point it at. The package, which the company said will ship "within the next 60 days," will cost $799. Upgrades will be $99; those who bought EditDV 1.0 after Feb. 5 can upgrade for free. A "software-only" version (for those who already own a FireWire-enabled Mac) will go for $599.
Got a Mac, want Linux, but can't deal with partitioning your hard drive? Connectix Corp. announced it is shipping its Virtual PC with Red Hat Linux. One common complaint about Linux is its difficult configuration process; Connectix said its product is as easy to install as any application. Its street price is $100.
New Tech Info Library articles from Apple Computer Corp. (aapl) focus on taking a screenshot in Mac OS 9, dimmed options in Mac OS 9's General Controls panel and temporary items not deleted at startup in Mac OS 9.
Belkin Components announced plans to add at least seven new Universal Serial Bus products to its line within the next year. First up in April are the USB-based PS/2 and ADB adapter (if you want to use your old keyboards with an iMac). Anticipated later are SCSI and IrDA adapters; video and audio capture products; a 56K modem; and Bluetooth and HPNA connectors.
Apple has issued a new entry in its Tech Info Library that addresses a potential bug that can cause data loss when users of its iBooks and FireWire-equipped PowerBooks activate the "Preserve memory contents on sleep" option in the Energy Saver control panel. "In rare circumstances when available memory is low, putting an iBook or PowerBook (FireWire) to sleep with this feature enabled can cause some critical file system data to get overwritten," the tech note reads. "This will result in a flashing question mark the next time the computer is started up." Apple said it has unearthed a software culprit and plans to offer a fix by the end of the month.
In other notes, Apple points out that Version 1.2 of its Final Cut Pro video-editing application " is not yet certified to run on an iMac DV, due to an extensions conflict which can cause an intermittent hang."
Once the core application for CD-ROM authoring (remember when that was the wave of the future?), Macromedia's Director has become increasingly marginalized by the move to Web-based content creation. With the release of Director 8, however, Macromedia is increasing the venerable app's Web usefulness, adding scaling capabilities for interactive Shockwave animation, better publishing for Web use, improved Property Inspector and other interface elements, and inclusion of Multiuser Server 2. Of course, if you still want to make an interactive CD-ROM, it's good for that, too.
Loki Entertainment Software, beloved by the Linux community for its ports of popular games, has announced the start of the "multi-company" OpenAL 3D-audio project. This endeavor follows the open-source model pioneered by Linux and aims to create a cross-platform library of 3D-audio APIs similar to the 3D-video OpenGL API suite. Interested parties can download the free source code at the OpenAL Web site.
Lucky owners of the new, FireWire PowerBooks should peruse Apple's latest Tech Info Library article on the professional-strength laptops. There's info on topics from selecting a startup disk, sleeping systems, modem troubles and more.
In a step that can only bode well for the future of Mac gaming, Numerical Design Ltd. announced a new release of its NetImmerse 3D game engine for Macs, PCs and PlayStation2 consoles. NetImmerse seems to support all the cutting-edge buzzwords in current 3D game design (curved surfaces, continuous level of detail and character skinning). The Mac version is also Carbon-compliant, supports AltiVec and will run native in the Mac OS X environment. (There's currently OpenGL support in Mac OS X, so nobody knows how the OS will run all those nice visual effects.) Although many top game design houses "roll their own" game engines, those opting to use NetImmerse could see greatly reduced barriers to developing for or porting to the Mac.
Aladdin Systems Inc. also hopes to make developers' lives easier with Version 5.5 of its StuffIt Engine Software Developer Kit (SDK). Aladdin said developers can use the tool to add support for compressed .sit and self-extracting .sea file formats in their applications. New to Version 5.5 is Mac OS 9 compatibility; support for Zip, BZip and Windows self-extracting formats; and improved compression.
If you know whether your Grape iMac is Burgundy or Merlot, you might be interested in Wine Software's WineBook. It's a $35 shareware application made in REALBasic that helps organize wine collections by region, appellation and other criteria, complete with tasting notes. In addition, it comes in English, French and German versions. ÀAÀ votre santé!.
Sometimes the twain do meet: Digimarc and the TWAIN Working Group announced the release of the Macintosh TWAIN Data Source Manager Version 1.7. The
updated Mac interface to the industry standard for scanning and image
acquisition is fully compatible with earlier versions and offers all the
features of the current TWAIN standard for Windows. It is free for download
at the TWAIN Working Group's Web site. If you use a scanner or a digital camera, this is something to grab right away.
Games for the Mac? Si, si. PopTop Software has pulled the jungle-green tarp off its plans to bring Tropico, its Latin America-themed nation-building sim,
to the platform. The game will enable you to build structures; manage
industries (including tourism); weave political intrigue; and even
skim a few million to your private Swiss bank account. ¡Viva la
revolución!
Your Mac never crashes, of course, but backing up is still a good idea ... just in case. If tape is your medium, Ecrix Corp. on Tuesday released the first of its 6GB VXA-1 tape drives in SCSI and LVD configurations; a FireWire version is expected later this year. All versions are bundled with Dantz Development Corp.'s Retrospect Desktop backup utility and share the same industrial design inspired by the Power Mac G4. The SCSI version will set you back $1,199; the company said other configurations will start at $899.
Adobe Systems Inc. (adbe) on Monday rolled out a public beta version of LiveMotion, a new software tool for creating graphics in a variety of formats, including Macromedia Inc.'s Flash as well as GIF, JPEG, PNG and Adobe Photoshop. Adobe unveiled LiveMotion -- dubbed a "Flash killer" by some industry observers -- for Macs and Windows systems at February's Seybold Seminars Boston/Publishing. The beta software is available for download from Adobe's Web site; the company said the final version of the software will ship in the second quarter for about $400.
UMAX Technologies Inc. announced its Mac-compatible, "one size fits all" PowerLook 2100XL scanner, which shoehorns a 12-by-17-inch scanning area into a box with an 18-by-24-inch footprint. The 2100XL features an optional transparency adapter that can hold up to 32 35mm slides and includes UMAX's Moving Mirror Technology, which keeps the scanner's CCD array stationary to enhance scanning accuracy. The PowerLook 2100XL comes in four configurations ranging from $2,699 for a Photo/Prepress bundle to the $1,699 Duo Design bundle, which foregoes the transparency adapter.
Shooting for the business and education markets, JVC Professional Products Co. on Monday released two new LCD projectors: the 1,300 ANSI lumen LX-D1020 and the 1,100 ANSI lumen LX-D1010. The former boasts native XGA support, can project on screens ranging from 23 to 300 inches (diagonal), weighs 13 pounds and costs $9,499. The $7,495 LX-D1010 offers many of the same features and weighs in at 7 pounds.
The FireWire market continues to expand. Sony Electronics has taken the wraps off the DCR-VX2000 Digital Video Handycam camcorder, which offers IEEE 1394 support in the form of Sony's iLink as well as a three-chip CCD array and digital-photography capability with Sony's Memory Sticks serving as storage format. Sony has said the DCR-VX2000 should be available in May for about $3,000.
Procom Technology Inc. (PRCM) has added Mac support to its DataFORCE CD/DVD-ROM network attached storage (NAS) servers. The company cited "Apple's resurgence and the widespread support for Apple technology in the education market" as reasons for its newfound Mac appreciation. (Procom didn't offer word on support for HFS+, the extended file format used in the latest Mac OS versions.)
Macromedia Inc. (macr) on Friday delivered FreeHand 9, the upgrade to its vector-based illustration package that the company unveiled at February's Seybold Seminars Boston/Publishing.
The new version, which is available for Macs and Windows systems, features easy export of files in Flash format for use on the Web, integrated HTML publishing features, a new Perspective Grid view for creating 3D scenes, and visual management of multipage documents. FreeHand 9 costs $399. Flash 4 FreeHand 9 Studio, a package that includes both applications, is priced at $499. Current FreeHand owners can upgrade to FreeHand 9 for $149, and owners of either FreeHand or Flash can purchase the Studio package for $199.
After a three-year hiatus, Hewlett-Packard Co. re-entered the Mac scanner market this week when it shipped the ScanJet 5300C, a $299, 1,200-dpi flatbed device with Universal Serial Bus and parallel interfaces. The 36-bit-color scanner, which is compatible with Mac OS 8.5 or later, comes with a variety of Mac software. While Mac users don't yet have access to the device's built-in fax capability or optional 5-by-5-inch transparency adapter, the company told MacCentral.com that these features will be implemented for Mac users in the coming months.
Eizo Nanao Technologies Inc. on Thursday began shipping the FlexScan L661 and L680, a pair of 18.1-inch flat-panel displays that feature a native resolution of 1,280 by 1,024 pixels at a refresh rate of 75 Hz. The FlexScan L661 -- priced at $3,129 and $3,329, respectively, in beige and black -- affords maximum vertical and horizontal viewing angles of 140 degrees. The FlexScan L680 -- $3,699 and $3,799, respectively, in beige and black -- offers 170-degree vertical and horizontal viewing angles. Both new monitors can be connected directly to the Mac via optional cables.
WigWam Multimedia's iCab Facelift is freeware that lets users modify the icons, pictures and cursors in Version 1.8 or later of iCab, a free public pre-release of iCab Co.'s Mac Web browser.
Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL)on Wednesday rolled out WebObjects 4.5, the company's software for developing and deploying Internet applications. The upgrade features integrated support for Extended Markup Language; built-in application-profiling tools that let WebObjects applications dynamically monitor execution environments; a back-end LDAP adapter; and Direct to Java Client, technology that automates the creation of Java clients for accessing Web databases. WebObjects costs $1,499 per seat for the developer edition. End-user site licenses range from $7,500 to $50,000 per server.
Novell Inc. (novl) on Wednesday announced that it will bring NetWare 5 file and print services to the Mac later this year. While the company has not yet specified pricing, it said Novell will handle support related to file and print services for NetWare 5, while Novell Development Partner Prosoft Engineering will continue to handle customer support for the Mac client. "The Macintosh is a strategic platform for Novell, and we are anxious to allow our Macintosh customers the ability to access their NetWare 5.x servers over an IP-only network right out of the box," Dave Shirk, Novell senior vice president of product management, said in a statement. "By providing NetWare 5 file and print connectivity to the Macintosh, we are furthering our goal of supporting networked environments for the enterprise and small businesses."
Squamish Media Group Inc. has rounded out its set of QuickTime VR production tools with the release of NodeSaVR, a $99 application aimed at processing multinode VR sequences for the Web. The software saves each node in a QTVR file as a single-node movie and converts all link hotspots into URL hotspots, speeding download times. NodeSaVR also outputs HTML files from templates, enabling producers to load all nodes into a single Web page or create an HTML file specific to each node, the company said. Users can also generate HTML files for each hotspot in each node and preserve the hotspot link views from the original multinode.
Caere Corp. (caer) on Tuesday unveiled a revamp of its ImageAXS line of media asset-management software for Macs and Windows systems. The company introduced Version 4.1 of ImageAXS and ImageAXS Professional, its $49.95 consumer and $199.95 packages. It also introduced ImageAXS CD Authoring Kit, a $499.95 package that lets users publish a searchable visual multimedia database on CD and distribute an unlimited number of Mac and Windows CDs that include a license- and royalty-free read-only version of ImageAXS. Caere acquired the ImageAXS line from Digital Arts & Sciences in fall 1999.
MacCentral.com reports that America Online Inc. (AOL) has sent out a call for Mac beta testers of America Online 5.0. According to MacCentral.com's Dennis Sellers, users who have taken the company up on its offer report that features in the pre-release Mac version mirror their opposite number for Windows and offer a more-stable built-in browser than earlier revs of the client.
Inside Out Networks is prepping a new adapter that forges a connection between Universal Serial Bus ports and wireless LANs that tap the IEEE 802.11b standard, including Apple's AirPort networking technology. The "="" class="c-regularLink" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">Waveport, which Inside Out unveiled at CeBIT in Hannover, Germany, is slated to ship by early in the third quarter for an as-yet-undisclosed price. Inside Out President and CEO Stephen Popovich told ZDNet News that Waveport is aimed at providing wireless network capability to a range of Macs and PCs -- including the latest Easy PC models -- that rely on USB for expansion.
As it gears up for a summer release of Mac OS X, Apple (AAPL) is busy providing additional software tools to developers interested in creating apps for the new client OS. The company on Monday posted the "="" class="c-regularLink" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">Mac OS X Developer Preview Kernel Extension Development Kit, which that company said includes the initial I/O driver development kit for the new operating system. The software developer kit is now available for free download by subscribers to the Apple Developer Connection.
Recosoft of Osaka, Japan, has released "="" class="c-regularLink" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">Version 2.0 of WebShocker, the company's Web-animation package. According to the company, WebShocker 2.0 provides more than 200 new features, including enhanced image-editing tools, additional export and import options, and a new set of transitional effects. New users can download WebShocker 2.0 for $39.95; upgrades are $29.95 each.
The Unicode Consortium on Tuesday announced the release of the "="" class="c-regularLink" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">Unicode Standard Version 3.0; the new version of the character-coding system supports 49,194 characters, including 31 percent more ideographs for Japanese, Chinese and Korean. Unicode comprises the default text representation in Extended Markup Language and will represent a cornerstone of Mac OS X's text-rendering and printing features.
"="" class="c-regularLink" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">USB Overdrive 1.3 is an upgrade to Alessandro Levi Montalcini's $20 Mac shareware driver for Universal Serial peripherals such as joysticks and gamepads. According to the author, Version 1.3 nails all compatibility problems with Mac OS 9 and InputSprockets, adds an accelerated-scrolling option for mouse wheels, and features an absolute cursor-movement mode for joysticks and gamepads that improves control over flight-simulator games.