Mac Product Watch (6/12 to 6/16)

Apple Computer Inc. (aapl) has made available the Video Extension 1.0, which restores the ability to access all available resolutions on NuBus-based and non-PCI PowerBooks with built-in video and video cards.

Smith Micro Software has released FAXstf 6, the latest version of the fax-it-over-your-modem software. It's a free update for users of the Pro version of FAXstf 5.x, and it fixes various bugs.

Teng Chou Ming and Peter Harman have completed Extension Overload 5.1, their extensive collection of data on more than 3,000 extensions and control panels that might reside within your system. The $20 shareware also allows users to turn on and off individual items.

Murray Yar IT has released Multiple Users Actions, an extension that connects AppleScripts to Mac OS 9's Multiple Users feature, so that scripts can be launched automatically when individual users log in or out. It's $10 for an individual user license.

If you're wondering what's going on with the open-source Netscape project, Mozilla.org has released the Milestone 16 (M16) build of the nest-generation browser. New to this build is an AutoComplete for both URLs and mail-news addressing, a UI for writing message filters, a subscribe dialog for news, and other features. Be aware -- this is not a completed project. Other than that, enjoy.

It must be projector season. Epson America Inc. has announced its 8100i and 8150i LCD projectors boasting a brightness of 3,000 ANSI lumens and a weight of less than 20 pounds. The 8100i, which will be available in August for $15,999, has a 400:1 contrast ratio and native 1,024-by-768-pixel VGA resolution. The 8150i adds the EasyMP.net PC card-based data storage feature, which eliminates the need for the projectors to be attached to a computer. It will be available some time later in 2000, at an as yet undetermined price.

Optoma Technology Inc. has increased its line of EzPro sub-five-pound, digital light processor (DLP) projectors. The EzPro 710, 718 and 715 all sport VGA resolution at 800 to 1,000 ANSI lumens, with the 718 and 715 boasting 1.3:1 zoom lenses. The EzPro 705 has a native 800-by-600-pixel SVGA resolution. The EzPro 710 is available now for $4,995; the others will ship in the late summer.

Eastman Kodak Co. has released its V600 and V600 Zoom digital projectors aimed at the small office or classroom. They both weigh less than eight pounds, feature 800-by-600-pixel resolution at 1,000 ANSI lumens and are rated at up to 4,000 hours of lamp life. As you might guess, the Zoom model adds a zoom feature for up to 1.3x magnification. The V600 is $2,300. The Zoom model, $2,600.

Toshiba's sleek TLP-82 projector supports native 1,024-by-768-pixel true XGA resolution, 1,000 ANSI lumens of brightness and a manual zoom. It's $6,495.

The German company Helios Software GmbH is shipping EtherShare 2.6, its network routing and administration software. The new version boasts Unix-based AppleTalk networking, including AppleShare IP and printer-spooling support.

ACI US Inc. has released the Version 6.5.6 update for its 4th Dimension relational database. The company says this maintenance release is a vital one.

Blizzard Entertainment has a Version 1.08 update for Diablo, its popular dungeon-crawler game. The fix improves performance in some areas and corrects some glitches in Internet multiplaying. Note well: This doesn't mean that Mac Diablo II is ready yet.

Belkin Components has shipped its QuadraPort four-port Universal Serial Port card for PCI interfaces. The $50 card, which fits in a free PCI (peripheral component interconnect) slot of any Mac running Mac OS 8.5 or later, provides a full 12Mbps of throughput for each port.

Need to waste more time? Pangaea Software has re-released it 1993 arcade-style game Firefall as $10 shareware. And the grand dame of antiproductivity applications, Klondike, has been updated to Version 7.6; it's $10 shareware and will now run on anything from a Mac Plus with System 6.x to Mac OS X.

Craig Richards Design has released the free Envirolyzer 1.0, a Perl-based utility that analyzes your server environment and reports results directly into your Web browser.

How much was that pizza? Econ Software's $15 Euro Convert 2.0 converts any currency to euros. Though it's based on a fixed rate (not automatically updated), the user can set and change rates with new info.

Foolish stunk! (This looks fun!) Andrew Trevorrow's Anagrams 1.6. This version of the $15 shareware gains an improved results list and a Grep-like word-search feature.

Apple has posted AirPort 1.2, which offers improved performance and stability for the wireless networking technology. New to Version 1.2 is the ability to create closed networks for privacy.

Also up from Apple is USB Printer Sharing 1.0 software for sharing a Universal Serial Bus-based printer among multiple computers on a TCP/IP or AirPort network. It requires Mac OS 9 or later; Mac OS 9.0.4 is recommended.

Thin is in: Sony Electronics Inc. has introduced the N50 LCD display, an ultra-thin, 15-inch-diagonal monitor that supports resolutions of up to 1,024 by 768 pixels at a 75Hz refresh rate. The monitor itself is half-an-inch thin, complete with base-mounted stereo speakers; a separate "media engine" unit handles the digital video inputs and also serves as a switch box so two computers can share this sleek, black beauty. And it's only ("only" being a relative term) $1,499.

The Belgian company Image Recognition Integrated Services (IRIS) has announced that it has signed a deal with Navarre Corp. to distribute its line of multilingual optical character recognition (OCR) software and hardware devices in the United States. IRIS's Readiris 6.0 works with flatbed scanners, recognizes 56 languages and supports both color and gray-scale images. The IRISPen II Executive is a hand-held OCR device for inputting printed text; a USB version will be available this summer. Finally, Cardiris scans and organizes business card information into a searchable database. No pricing information is currently available.

Can't wait for Aqua? Jerome Foucher has released his $7 shareware A-Dock 2.0, a utility that adds a Dock-like bar to the bottom of a Mac OS screen. However, Foucher's implementation offers functionality not found in the current pre-beta version of Mac OS X: You can drag and drop documents onto applications in the A-Dock to open them; you can drag an application to the A-Dock to place an alias to it there; and it's more compact and cleaner-looking than the next-generation Dock.

Extensis has fired the next volley in the font-management war with the release of Suitcase 9. This latest version of the font utility provides a single dialog box from which to turn fonts and custom font sets on and off; it also offers four font preview modes. Each box of Suitcase 9 comes with a copy of Suitcase 9 Server and three server connections for group font management. The company said it will offer a Windows version of Suitcase 9 by July, making the application a cross-platform option for workgroups. The street price for Suitcase 9 is $100; upgrades from previous versions are $50 each, and "cross-grades" from competing products such as DiamondSoft Font Reserve and Adobe ATM Deluxe are $60. (Ironically, Adobe is an investor in Extensis.)

UMAX Technologies Inc. has released its Astra 3400 consumer and SOHO scanner. The Universal Serial Bus-based flatbed 3400, which should retail for less than $100, supports 42-bit color scans at 600 by 1,200 dpi and includes "single-button" operation, with options for scanning, copying, creating e-mail attachments and optical character resolution. Bundled with the 3400 are Adobe's PhotoDeluxe Home Edition, Caere OmniPage LE OCR software and NewSoft Presto! PageManager.

Games, games, games. Aspyr Media has announced that it has shipped Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation. It's the latest installment of the popular exploration game starring the pneumatic (and polygonal) character Lara Croft. And isn't that all you need to know?

While some say pinball is dying, the Dutch development group Lost Boys Media Lab has created Roll 'm Up, a pinball game for Mac, BeOS, Linux and all the myriad flavors of Windows. It's free as a demonstration of the group's cross-platform development environment Lost Platform.

Back in the commercial world, Simon & Schuster Interactive has released Star Trek Starship Creator: Warp 2, the sequel to the tepidly received first game in which players cobbled together vehicles from the TV series, staffed them and did little else. The new version adds the ability to import digital photos for creating custom Starfleet officers; a mission editor; new ship classes; import of characters and ships into the upcoming (and colonated title) combat game Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Dominion Wars. Warp 2 will retail for an estimated street price of $30.

Drop that Outlook Express! CTM Development has updated PowerMail to Version 3.0.2. The new version of the $49 e-mail client incorporates bug fixes and improved features to the application's searchable e-mail engine.

IK Multimedia has on deck GrooveMaker 2.0, a new version of the $80 dance music mixer. Version 2.0 can import and export new audio formats, including MP3, and offers real-time performance controls.

QuantumSoft has released the final version of its 3DPlotterGL, the OpenGL-based 3D-rendering plug-in for the company's pro Fit analysis and plotting application. The plug-in is free, but pointless without the pro Fit application, which is $95 for a single-user version. (A trial version is also available.)

Canon Software hopes to entice Microsoft Office users with its OfficeReady Family Essentials, a $30 package of pre-designed templates and other enhancements for Word, Excel and other components of Office.

Pygmy Softwyr has released Mercuri 1.0, a peer-to-peer instant-messaging system. It's $17; a 30-day free trial version is available.

Stone Table Software has revamped Z-Write 1.1, a new version of the word processor designed for creative writers. Version 1.1 adds hypertext, selection insertion, import and other new features; the HTML export, Section Tools, text conversion and other features have been enhanced. Upgrades are free; the full version is $20.

Shareware gods Greg Landweber and Arlo Rose have produced the updated Kaleidoscope 2.2.3; the new version of the popular Mac OS customization utility adds compatibility with Mac OS 9, fixes other bugs and conflicts.