Business

Mac Product Watch

10/30/00 - 11/10/00

Written by Daniel Turner, Contributor Nov. 2, 2000 at 4:00 p.m. PT

Please, please stop the "i-puns" now! Case in point: Epson America Inc. uses the word "iMazing" to describe its new Stylus Color 777i color inkjet printer. The $99 peripheral can handle up to 8 pages per minute in black and white or 6 ppm in color at a resolution of 2,880 dots per inch. iMac users can color-coordinate with plastic lids in Ruby, Sage, Graphite and purple that are priced at $9.95 each.

Developers awake! Apple has posted the Mac OS USB DDK 1.4.6f12, yet another not-final release of the developer's kit for writing USB drivers. This build fixes a few bugs here and there.

Connectix Corp. has released RAM Doubler 9.0.1, an update to the utility for increasing the efficiency of physical RAM. This release fixes an incompatibility with Microsoft's new Office 2001.

Power On Software Inc.'s Action Menus 1.02 fixes compatibility issues between the menu-customization utility and Mac OS 8.1 and earlier.

Fetch 4.0b2 is an early beta of the next version of the seminal FTP application; this version is for Mac OS X only and adds new features such as mirroring, remote editing and server-to-server transfers.

ATI Big biz database maker Oracle Corp. (and the fiefdom of Steve Jobs' buddy Larry Ellison) has announced certification of a Mac client for its Oracle E-Business Suite, a set of Web-based and Java-based applications. As such, it simply requires compliance with proper Java standards; Oracle is recommending Mac OS 9.0.4 with Macintosh Runtime for Java 2.2.3 and promising Mac OS X support in 2001.

It sounds like a version of some 1970s swinger's play kit, but Maxon Computer's BodyPaint 3D is a new application for painting high-quality textures on 3-D objects in real time. It's based on and works with Maxon's Cinema 4D XL modeling application, and it supports Photoshop, TIFF, BMP, PICT, JPEG, and QuickTime formats, among others. It's expected to ship in November for $595.

Wacom Technology has announced its Graphire Power Suite, a $99 package that bundles the company's cordless mouse and pressure-sensitive pen with six applications including Adobe Photoshop 5.0 LE and Corel's Painter Classic. What's more, the set comes in stylish colors such as Ruby, Sage, and Snow.

ACD Systems International Inc. has released ACDSee 1.5 beta, an early Mac version of the digital-image-management software popular on the PC side of the world. The final version is expected some time in December.

MK Consulting's Eudora2FMP 1.5 is an updated version of the $10 utility for archiving Eudora mailboxes to FileMaker Pro or other databases. This version offers speed improvements, bug fixes, and better compatibility.

The awkwardly named .mail.it 1.0b1 from Dacons is a $59 tool to do sort of the opposite: add e-mail functionality to FileMaker Pro, complete with support for the dreaded HTML mail.

Asar has released Hogwasher 2.5, adding contextual menu support, more filtering options, bug fixes, and more to the newsgroup reader. Normally $49, Hogwasher 2.5 is available for $35 until Nov. 30.

Bubble Pop Software's FindStuff 1.0 is a free contextual menu plug-in that adds some limited Sherlock search capabilities to the Mac OS contextual menu.

ATI Technologies Inc. has released (finally, some would say) Radeon/Rage 128 Driver 1.00, which allows Diablo II players to use OpenGL or RAVE rendering on their Rage 128 cards. However, Mac OS 8.6 users should think twice: This driver has been certified only for Mac OS 9 and later.

Extension Overload 5.5 is the latest update to the collection of information about the Mac OS extensions, control panels and assorted whatnots populating your system.

Pine Hill Products has updated CreativePage 2.2.1, its $25 Web-design software, adding an FTP client, syntax coloring, support for HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.0, and more.

You've got to love something called Son of Weather Grok, which Stimpsoft Inc. has recently released to supplant its Weather Grok. The Son can work with saved "station files" and open multiple windows for the weather-monitoring utility, which gathers information straight from NOAA.

Unreal Tournament v436 brings the first-person shooter to parity with the PC version, as well as fixing a few Mac-specific bugs.

How can they afford it? Volume! Digidesign (also known as the audio division of Avid Technology Inc.) is giving away free a special version of Pro Tools, the company's audio recording, editing, and mixing software. The gratis version is identical to the full, commercial Pro Tools LE 5.0.1 but with a limit on the number of tracks and inputs. For those who can't handle a 40MB download, the free version is also available on a CD-ROM for $9.95.

Extensis' PhotoTools 3.0.6 adds Photoshop 6 compatibility to the $149.95 set of plug-ins for the image-editing application.

Yenco.com has released Finance 4.0, a new version of the company's $20 personal-finance program. New to Version 4.0 is an auto-save feature; new number-formatting code; new interface icons; an Apple Help viewer; numerous bug fixes as well as performance improvements.

J-Gar has let loose its (his?) UBB Writer 2.0 tool for adding style and functionality to posts on Ultimate Bulletin Board systems. And it's free!

Three-2-One Interaktive's ID3X 1.0 is a free editor for changing the ID3 tags in MP3 music files for any good or nefarious purpose.

Black Cats Systems has updated The Atomic Mac 4.5, its extensive periodic table and more. Version 4.5 adds a Table of Nuclides with info on over 1,600 isotopes. No, Kryptonite still isn't on there. Registration is $25, with site licenses available.

Lemke Software has released GraphicConverter 4.0, a significant upgrade to the venerable shareware graphics viewing, editing, and converting application. Version 4.0 of the $35 tool includes support for a slew of new file formats, better AppleScript support, improvements to the slide show feature, and a number of bug fixes.

InforMax Inc. has introduced Vector NTI Suite Version 5.3 for the Mac, adding to the platform's viability in biological research. This version of the Vector NTI Suite of genomic and proteonic research applications adds the ContigExpress sequencing project-management utility and a Mac-specific manual.

Helix Technologies has announced Helix 5.0. This eponymous relational-database management application adds TCP/IP support as well as improved speed through Ramjet RAM usage, HTML output, and more. The $150 price also includes Helix RADE for development, Helix Server, Helix Client, a runtime license for the Helix Engine, and assorted utilities.

Chaotic Software's MacArmyKnife 2.3.1 is an update to the $20 multipurpose utility for troubleshooting and modifying the Mac OS. This version adds a Big Clock window ("because you just never know when you might need a big clock"), a File Attribute Editor, an ASCII Table, and all-around improvements to compatibility and stability.

Interface Viewer 1.0 from Creative Box is a $5 utility for previewing Finder and Kaleidoscope themes without having to load them.

Hyperbolic Software has released DoubletScan 3.2.0, an update to the $25 utility for finding and duplicating selected files on multiple hard disks as backups. Version 3.2.0 adds a Custom Search option as well as a few interface tweaks and bug fixes.

Power-Scripts has announced Script Tool Box 1.0, a $10 extension to Apple's own Script Editor for writing Apple Scripts.

FontBuddy 2.0.2 is a bug-fix release of Vincent Jalby's $20 font-viewing utility.

It's here: Apple has put forth Software Update 1.2, a new version of the utility for automatically updating Apple's own software on your Mac. New to Version 1.2 is support for more compact software-compression schemes.

Orange Micro Inc. has released its iBOT FireWire desktop video camera. Taking advantage of the high-speed interface, the camera can transmit up to 30 frames per second for video conferencing, waving hi to Mom or flashing unsuspecting CU-SeeMe members. The basic version goes for $119 and includes videoconferencing software; the $149 "pro" version adds movie-making and photo-editing software as well as a headset microphone.

Jack Jansen's MacPython 2.0 is a port of Guido van Rossum's Python high-level object-oriented programming language.

CTM Development has updated PowerMail 3.0.6, its $49 e-mail client. New to this version are some minor enhancements and bug fixes. There is also a version for the Mac OS X public beta.

Sonny Software has released Bookends Plus 6.0.1, a revision to the reference-management and bibliography software. Version 6.0.1 adds the ability to display styles and fonts in the Bookends Clipboard window as well as font customization in the Term Lists and Hits Window.

All seasoned Mac gamers can say is, "Woo-hoo!" MacPlay, formerly known as United Developers, has announced that it will bring the games Giants: Citizen Kabuto, Sacrifice, and Starfleet Command II: Empires at War to the Mac sometime in 2001 as a part of a licensing agreement with Interplay Inc.

Not only that, but Take Two Interactive Software Inc. has released 4x4 EVO, a four-wheeling racing game for the Mac. Now you can despoil lovely desert and other environments with no guilt.

On only a slightly less fun note, Seagate Technology Inc. has shipped the TapeStor Travan Portable USB tape-drive family, a line of portable backup products that comes in 8GB and 20GB versions.

Belkin Components has announced a four-port FireWire hub and a FireWire-to-SCSI adapter. The former is expected to ship in December at a price of $89.99; the latter, due about the same time, will cost $119.99.

WindowFinder 1.0 is a $12.95 utility for easily locating one among the myriad Finder windows on your desktop.

CE Software Inc.'s QuickMail Office 2.1 adds support for HTML messages and Mac OS 9, in addition to other features, to the e-mail application.

Bare Bones Software has updated Mailsmith 1.1.6. The $79 e-mail client gains support for SMTP authentication, a "raw" message option, and a "Resend" command.

Adobe Systems Inc. has announced its Network Publishing Initiative, which aims to provide a write-once, publish-anywhere system of software and services. Details have not been finalized, but Adobe has said that it will be based on such standards as XML, SMIL, and WML for WAP devices as well as proprietary technologies such as Adobe's PDF and SVG. In addition, the initiative will include alliances with Nokia and RealNetworks (not QuickTime, it should be noted).

Iomega Corp. has released IomegaWare 2.7.2, an update to its drivers and tools for Zip, Jaz, and other removable media. This version adds support for FireWire and the Iomega PocketZip (formerly known as Clik) drives; it also removes the CopyMachine feature.

Symantec Corp. has announced Norton Internet Security and Norton Personal Firewall. The latter, expected to be available mid-November for $69.95, is a simple-to-configure firewall for protecting Internet connections; it includes the licensed DoorStop Personal Firewall. The former is a collection of applications and utilities, including the Personal Firewall, Norton AntiVirus, and Aladdin Systems' iClean. It's also expected by mid-November and its price will be $99.95.

Viking Components has unveiled its IntelliFlash USB Memory Stick Reader, a $69.95 device that allows Macs to take advantage of the Sony-standard Memory Stick removable storage medium. It is planned to ship this month.

Blackhole Media's $10 iDo 1.0 is an inexpensive daily task manager that allows easy organization of daily to-do lists.

It's here, it makes graphics clear, get used to it -- 3dfx Interactive Inc. has announced immediate availability of the Voodoo4 4500 PCI 3D accelerator card. This less-expensive ($179.99) alternative to the company's higher-end Voodoo5 card can support up to 2,048-by-1,536-pixel resolutions with 32-bit color and contains 32MB of RAM for both 3D and 2D acceleration.

And a good reason to get the Voodoo4? How about Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K. 2, a Quake III: Arena-based shooter game released today starring an avatar of B-Queen Julie Strain. It should retail for $39.99 -- just be careful how you pronounce the title, especially to game-store employees out of Play Station 2s.

Radialogic has released CD Master, a $99.95 utility that allows the asynchronous burning of CDs. (That means you can keep using your computer while the disc records.)

SoundJam MP Plus 2.5.2 from Casady & Greene Inc. fixes a few things in the previous version of the MP3 player. The company has also released SoundJam MP Plus for Mac OS X. Knock yourself out while Napster is still free.

Allen Gainsford's free Glass II 3.0 adds a little magnifier that runs beneath your mouse.

LaCie Silverlining Pro 6.3.2 adds compatibility for the new Power Mac G4 and Cube models as well as other fixes to the hard drive partitioning and formatting utility.

It may seem like a bacon-and-ice cream combo, but OnStream Inc. has introduced its Echo FireWire tape drive. Although tape drives have traditionally been a long-term, slow-speed backup solution, the $499 Echo FireWire offers data transfer speeds of up to 2MB per second and stores up to 30GB on removable cartridges that cost $44.95 each.