March 2004 Archived News

Apple wins Best of Show at Bio-IT World (Posted 3/31/2004 at 4:45 PM)
Apple won a best of show award at Bio-IT World for its Apple Workgroup Cluster for Bioinformatics is a high-performance computing (HPC) cluster based on the Xserve G5, aimed at providing a turnkey solution for scientists who have little or no IT support.

A Better Finder Launcher 1.2 (Posted 3/31/2004 at 10:49 AM)
A Better Finder Launcher adds the ability to index and launch folders, as well as applications and documents. It also improves the user interface and keyboard navigation.

ZipCodes FM 2004 (Posted 3/31/2004 at 10:38 AM)
ZipCodes FM has been updated with the 2004 zip codes information.

MetadataMagic 2.0 (Posted 3/31/2004 at 10:37 AM)
MetadataMagic is an upgrade to the tool for FileMaker solution analysis. Building on experience in researching migration issues and in developing documentation for FileMaker, Inc. on migration to FileMaker Pro 7, they have created a set of features which optimize the process of converting a solution and deploying it successfully in FileMaker Pro 7.

D.B. Cooper 1.0 (Posted 3/30/2004 at 2:23 PM)
D.B. Cooper is a new utility to allow you to browse the contents of the "secret" directories contained on Mac OS X restore CD's and DVD's. You can extract the hidden images, including AppleWorks, iDVD, Quicken, etc. without having to use Apple's software restore software.

Snard 2.0 (Posted 3/30/2004 at 9:52 AM)
Snard is a launcher program that can be used as a system menu, dock menu or hot key activated popup menu. Version 2 adds new features.

WinSwitch 1.0 (Posted 3/30/2004 at 9:50 AM)
WinSwitch is freeware that changes the users menu from a name to an icon to save space in the menu bar.

Folding@Home (Posted 3/30/2004 at 9:41 AM)
Folding@Home is a distributed computing project from Standford University which studies protein folding, misfolding, aggregation, and related diseases.

aMac Adds Intra-oral Camera Support (Posted 3/29/2004 at 12:18 PM)
KTI recently added support for intra-oral cameras, such as the OraCam, to its aMac digital radiography solution.

BBEdit 7.1.3 (Posted 3/29/2004 at 12:16 PM)
BBEdit has been updated and includes a large number of bug fixes and additions.

Bush Calls For Broadband For All By 2007 (Posted 3/29/2004 at 12:14 PM)
U.S. President George W. Bush called for universal and affordable access to broadband Internet service by 2007, saying that the technology would speed the flow of information and spark innovation.

QuickBooks 6.0 R2 (Posted 3/29/2004 at 12:10 PM)
QuickBooks has been updated and the updater is available for download.

Bluetooth Better on Mac (Posted 3/29/2004 at 12:07 PM)
A PC World article that states in "A head-to-head comparison of Bluetooth on Windows and the Mac shows that there's something to the Mac mystique."

FmPro Migrator 1.86 Enterprise Edition (Posted 3/29/2004 at 10:52 AM)
FmPro Migrator 1.86 Enterprise Edition will provide automated FileMaker to FileMaker 7 database table consolidations.

iSkin eVo iPod Protector (Posted 3/29/2004 at 10:50 AM)
the iSkin eVo now sports a completely redesigned rotary RevoClip that"s made of a lightweight, non-shattering polymer that provides a secure connection between the iPod and its user.

Panther Cache Cleaner 2.3 (Posted 3/25/2004 at 9:46 PM)
Panther Cache Cleaner adds the ability to scan preference files for inactivity and corruption, the ability to enable or disable the crashreporter daemon and more.

Pixadex 1.5.1 (Posted 3/25/2004 at 12:42 PM)
Pixadex has been updated and is available for download.

FileMaker Business Tracker (Posted 3/25/2004 at 12:33 PM)
FileMaker Business Tracker is being offered for free and is recommended that developers analyze the new FileMaker Pro 7 functionality built into it, including: multiple tables per file; script parameters; color calculations; and alternate row shading in portals.

OmniGraffle 3.1 (Posted 3/25/2004 at 11:22 AM)
OmniGraffle has been updated with Panther compatibility is available for download.

VISE X 1.2 (Posted 3/24/2004 at 10:06 AM)
VISE X features a separate code base from Installer VISE 8.3, which allows MindVision to include new features specific to Mac OS X and drop code written to support Mac OS 9 and earlier.

Kids GoGoGo 8.1 (Posted 3/24/2004 at 10:01 AM)
Kids GoGoGo has been updated and is available for download.

Xgrid Preview 2 (Posted 3/24/2004 at 9:59 AM)
Xgrid Preview 2 adds a command-line tool for submitting and monitoring jobs from the command line and support for the Message Passing Interface for tightly-coupled computations.

MacSpeech Releases ScriptPak for Now Software (Posted 3/24/2004 at 9:47 AM)
The ScriptPak for Now Software contain over 250 commands that allow you to manipulate almost all of the functions in Now Software's Now Contact and Now Up-To-Date programs using only the user's voice.

Activator Plug-in 1.4 for FileMaker 7 and 6 (Posted 3/24/2004 at 9:45 AM)
Activator Plug-in 1.4 for FileMaker 7 and 6 is a tool for triggering scripts across the network, even over the Internet.

iChat AV v2.1 (Posted 3/23/2004 at 2:50 PM)
iChat AV v2.1 adds support for video conferencing with the new AOL Instant Messenger 5.5 for Microsoft Windows.

IPSecuritas 2.0 (Posted 3/23/2004 at 2:30 PM)
IPSecuritas lets you easily setup IPSec VPN connections to another host or network over the Internet, while securing your data by encryption and authentication.

Shrook 2.0 (Posted 3/23/2004 at 2:29 PM)
Shrook 2.0 is now final and available for download. The update to the RSS newsreader includes many advanced features.

Apple Shipping Xserve G5 (Posted 3/23/2004 at 2:27 PM)
Apple announced it has begun shipping its Xserve G5 to customers. With unparalleled performance and manageability, Xserve G5 delivers over 30 gigaflops of processing power per system - about 60 percent more than the PowerPC G4-based Xserve - in a 1U rack-mount enclosure.

iPhoto 4.0.1 (Posted 3/22/2004 at 3:57 PM)
iPhoto 4.0.1 includes many organizational and stability enhancements. Performance has also been increased throughout the application, giving you faster importing, smoother image viewing and easier Rendezvous photo sharing. This version of iPhoto also features improved thumbnail images in your photo library. To take advantage of this, your thumbnails must be upgraded, which may take a while, depending on the number of photos in your library.

MacCVSClient 1.8.1 (Posted 3/22/2004 at 11:35 AM)
MacCVSClient is a free multithreaded CVS client with Mac OS look and feel. It shows your sandbox in an intuitive hierarchical list view so that you are aware of every file's status anytime.

Collaba 2 (Posted 3/22/2004 at 11:33 AM)
Collaba includes telecollaboration tools such as evolved e-mail, forums, multimedia chat, personal and shared agendas, digital portfolio, interaction to file servers, compliance will Internet standards, technological bridges and SSO mechanisms.

EntiCal 1.0 (Posted 3/19/2004 at 1:46 PM)
EntiCal will transfer your Entourage data to iCal.

XTension 5.0 (Posted 3/19/2004 at 10:56 AM)
XTension allows you to control household appliances such as lamps, motion detectors, heating and air conditioning systems, security systems, and more through X-10 devices hooked up to them. The new version supports Mac OS X.

iCan 3.0 (Posted 3/19/2004 at 10:54 AM)
iCan is a trashcan for OS X which sits on the desktop. It's interactive - it appears empty when it's empty, and full when it's full, just like the one in OS 9.

Web Dumper 2.0 (Posted 3/19/2004 at 10:53 AM)
Web Dumper automatically downloads HTML documents along with their embedded pictures, sounds, movies and so on while it screens them to look for any enclosed links to other documents.

Aki Mahjong 1.0.1 (Posted 3/18/2004 at 8:31 AM)
Aki Mahjong, the Mahjong Solitaire game, has been updated.

mail.it (Posted 3/18/2004 at 8:30 AM)
mail.it as well as some other Dacons FileMaker Plugins have been updated to work with FileMaker 7.

BugOff 1.0 (Posted 3/18/2004 at 8:21 AM)
BugOff provides a graphical front-end for the gdb debugger available on the Mac OS X Developer Tools CD, to provide Mac debugging for Palm applications.

ShapeShifter 1.2 (Posted 3/18/2004 at 8:18 AM)
ShapeShifter lets you change the overall appearance of your Mac using 'themes'. We're not talking about just desktop backgrounds and icons here, we're talking about everything - the look of windows, menus, apps, buttons, absolutely everything.

Microsoft Office 2004 Preview (Posted 3/17/2004 at 4:10 PM)
Microsoft has posted a multimedia preview of the upcoming Office 2004 for Mac.

You Control 1.1 (Posted 3/17/2004 at 4:06 PM)
You Control is a collection of 15 powerful, yet flexible menu utilities that allow you to create custom menus that extend the functionality and usability of your Macintosh.

Opera 7.50 Preview 3 (Posted 3/17/2004 at 3:59 PM)
Opera 7.50 Preview 3 is now available and includes integration of Opera's Presto rendering engine, which it says sports major speed improvements, improved standards support, and bidirectional text display.

Apple Spoken Interface (Posted 3/17/2004 at 3:51 PM)
The Universal Access capabilities of Mac OS X are being enhanced with a spoken interface that provides a new way, through speech, audible cues, and keyboard navigation, to access the Macintosh.

KeepAnEye 1.5 (Posted 3/17/2004 at 10:54 AM)
KeepAnEye is a multipurpose monitoring and notification utility which helps you to stay informed efficiently. This release introduces a major update of the notification architecture. The actions which are performed during the notifications are now handled by dedicated plug-ins, much like the observers. Moreover, it is now possible to assign any number of actions of any kind to each observer event.

A Better Finder Rename 6.2.5 (Posted 3/17/2004 at 8:45 AM)
A Better Finder Rename makes changes to the way renames are performed to provide better compatiblity with remote file systems and to preserve file comments.

GraphicConverter 5.0.1 (Posted 3/16/2004 at 9:16 AM)
GraphicConverter has been updated to address a bug in version 5.

Mac OS X 10.3.3 Server Update (Posted 3/16/2004 at 9:06 AM)
The 10.3.3 Server Update delivers enhanced functionality and improved reliability for Mac OS X Server v10.3 and is recommended for all systems. Key enhancements include:

* improved reliability of AFP, SMB/CIFS and NFS file services
* enhanced Server Admin, Workgroup Manager and Network Image Utility applications
* improved Open Directory authentication performance, Active Directory integration and Kerberos support
* updated QuickTime streaming and broadcast services for compatibility with 3G phones
* added support for background rebuilding of RAID mirrors, and network VLAN tagging
* updated to Samba version 3.0.2 and MySQL version 4.0.18
* improved PostScript and USB printing
* additional support for FireWire and USB devices
* improved compatibility for third party applications and devices
* previous standalone security updates

Mac OS X 10.3.3 Update (Posted 3/16/2004 at 8:59 AM)
The 10.3.3 Update delivers enhanced functionality and improved reliability for Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther" and is recommended for all users. Key enhancements include:

* network volumes are now available in the Finder sidebar and Desktop for convenient access
* improved file sharing and directory services for Mac (AFP), UNIX (NFS) and PC (SMB/CIFS) networks
* improved PostScript and USB printing
* updated Disk Utility, DVD Player, Image Capture, Mail and Safari applications
* additional support for FireWire and USB devices
* improved compatibility for third party applications
* previous standalone security updates and Bluetooth Update 1.5

iTunes Music Store Reaches 50 Million Songs (Posted 3/15/2004 at 9:02 AM)
iTunes Music Store has now sold over 50 Million Songs. This is half way to its goal to sell 100 Million Songs by the end of this year.

Affrus 1.0 (Posted 3/15/2004 at 8:38 AM)
Affrus is an integrated Perl editing and debugging environment for Mac OS X that wraps Perl in a standard, familiar, and intuitive user interface.

GraphicConverter 5.0 (Posted 3/15/2004 at 8:36 AM)
GraphicConverter has been updated and has a number of changes.

SpamStopper 1.5 (Posted 3/15/2004 at 8:15 AM)
SpamStopper is a web designer"s utility that will help keep email address harvesting spambots from grabbing email addresses from your website.

StatusMonitors 1.0 (Posted 3/15/2004 at 8:14 AM)
StatusMonitors monitors weather, files, folders, volumes, CPU, network traffic and more.

24U FM Template 2.0.1 (Posted 3/15/2004 at 8:11 AM)
24U FM Template is a template project for developing FileMaker Pro external function plug-ins using the Metrowerks CodeWarrior integrated development environment.

DiscBlaze 3.0.6, RadicalSqueeze 1.1 and RadicalPhoto 1.1.6 (Posted 3/15/2004 at 8:10 AM)
RadicalBreeze has released updates to three of their applications: DiscBlaze, RadicalSqueeze and RadicalPhoto.

Apple Operating Systems History (Posted 3/12/2004 at 4:34 PM)
A history of the operating systems developed by Apple (and others) from the original Apple I through Mac OS X 10.3.

Safari Wars V : The Internet Strikes Back (Posted 3/12/2004 at 11:52 AM)
Safari Wars V : The Internet Strikes Back is the second article in a series that discusses how the Finder changed since the Internet, where is it headed, how does its development compare with others and how does this relate to Safari.

Nanosaur II: Hatchling Discount (Posted 3/12/2004 at 11:47 AM)
Nanosaur II: Hatchling has been discounted by 25% for .Mac members through May 19, 2004.

VPN Tracker 2.2.6 (Posted 3/12/2004 at 11:44 AM)
VPN Tracker provides secure networking, by encrypting all insecure Internet, company or AirPort connections for Mac OS X 10.2 and 10.3. It enables secure sharing of files, emails and databases.

NetShred X 3.3 (Posted 3/12/2004 at 11:43 AM)
NetShred X is a software utility that securely deletes files you created when using the Internet. Each time it is run, NetShred X shreds web browser cache, browser history files, dowload logs, email trash, and junk mail.

CipherDisk 2.0 (Posted 3/11/2004 at 10:01 AM)
CipherDisk now includes support for disk images, CD/DVD burning capability, and a new and streamlined interface.

Artlandia SymmetryWorks 3 (Posted 3/11/2004 at 10:00 AM)
Artlandia SymmetryWorks is an Adobe Illustrator plug-in for creating surface patterns, designs, and art. The new version supports both vector and raster objects.

Conexus To Distribute Mariner's Products (Posted 3/11/2004 at 9:59 AM)
Conexus has signed an agreement to distribute Mariner's word processing and spreadsheet applications to the Australian and New Zealand markets.

A Better Finder Launcher 1.1 (Posted 3/11/2004 at 9:58 AM)
A Better Finder Launcher introduces many new features including the ability to index and launch documents as well as applications.

FileMaker 7 (Posted 3/9/2004 at 10:14 AM)
FileMaker 7 is the most significant new version of FileMaker Pro ever, with breakthroughs in ease-of-use, customizability and developer productivity. The new version was announced today and is available for purchase.

Captain FTP 3.2 (Posted 3/9/2004 at 9:56 AM)
Captain FTP now provides the user with the ability to enter commands via the command line, and a helpful progress bar visible in the dock when Captain FTP windows are minimized. Captain FTP has increased functionality from the addition of new connection methods for proxy/firewall server logins, and by adding extra columns for domain and IP addresses for Rendezvous.

MacSpeech ScriptPak for Safari 1.2 (Posted 3/9/2004 at 12:25 AM)
MacSpeech ScriptPak for Safari adds voice commands for controlling virtually every aspect of Safari, including navigating links, making text larger or smaller, managing bookmarks, and much more.

DiscBlaze 3.0.5 (Posted 3/8/2004 at 7:16 PM)
DiscBlaze has a free update to their popular CD/DVD burning burning utility for MacOS X which includes bug fixes and UI improvements.

Schedula Professional 11.6v1 (Posted 3/8/2004 at 7:15 PM)
Schedula Professional is a powerful enterprise scheduler for businesses and organizations that use FileMaker Pro 6.

CandyBar 1.6.3 (Posted 3/6/2004 at 10:28 PM)
CandyBar has been updated and is qualified for Mac OS X 10.3.3.

Brushfire 2 (Posted 3/5/2004 at 10:19 AM)
Brushfire 2 is a substantial upgrade to the FileMaker Pro analysis package that adds comprehensive field, layout, relationship, and dependency analysis reports to its suite of script analysis capabilities.

iSkin mini (Posted 3/4/2004 at 10:54 AM)
iSkin mini is designed to offer all-round surface protection and ergonomic design without sacrificing the look, size or functionality of the iPod Mini.

Apple Discusses Business Strategy (Posted 3/4/2004 at 10:16 AM)
Apple CFO Fred Anderson and Corporate Controller Peter Oppenheimer, recently spoke to investors and analysts at the Morgan Stanley Semiconductor & System Conference.

Microsoft Office 2004 First Look (Posted 3/4/2004 at 10:08 AM)
MacCentral has a Microsoft Office 2004 first look which gives a sneak peak at the new features.

TimeSlice 2.7.3 (Posted 3/4/2004 at 10:05 AM)
TimeSlice has been updated and is available for download.

LinSpot 1.0 (Posted 3/3/2004 at 1:38 PM)
LinSpot is free and simple software to sell your Wireless Internet Access. LinSpot uses an innovative combination of different technologies to turn your Wireless Internet into a paid-for Internet Access Point and let YOU benefit from it.

NetSuite 9.5 (Posted 3/3/2004 at 10:50 AM)
NetSuite automates business processes from lead generation to sales orders, product shipment to customer service, complete with integrated order management. It's a Web-based, hosted solution that runs on multiple platforms including the Mac.

OmniWeb 5 Beta 3 (Posted 3/3/2004 at 10:46 AM)
OmniWeb Beta introduces the ability to import the Safari bookmarks file as a read/write bookmarks collection meaning you can edit the Safari bookmark file in OmniWeb.

Advanced Web Ranking 2.5 (Posted 3/3/2004 at 10:32 AM)
Advanced Web Ranking helps check your web site position on all major search engines and the new version features new and improved search engine selection.

iDVD 4.0.1 Update (Posted 3/2/2004 at 1:49 PM)
Apple has released an update to iDVD 4 that is available through Software Update.

AirPort 3.3.1 Update (Posted 3/2/2004 at 1:36 PM)
The AirPort 3.3.1 Update improves the reliability of AirPort connections when changing network locations. The update is recommended for all users with an AirPort Extreme and AirPort enabled computer or an AirPort Extreme base station.

MacSpeech ScriptPak for Quicken 2004 (Posted 3/1/2004 at 5:02 PM)
MacSpeech ScriptPak for Quicken 2004 adds over 100 voice commands for controlling virtually every aspect of the 2004 edition of Intuit's popular Quicken program.

Media 100 to become unit of Optibase (Posted 3/1/2004 at 9:14 AM)
Media 100 is selling substantially all its assets to Optibase Ltd. as part of a prepackaged bankruptcy.

iNotePad 2.0p5 (Posted 3/1/2004 at 9:12 AM)
iNotePad can store styled text notes with pictures, save them, print them and even export them to your iPod.

Proteus 3.0.6 (Posted 3/1/2004 at 9:09 AM)
lets you easily manage your multiple instant messaging accounts in an environment that bleeds OS X.

MacGPS Pro 5.0.0 (Posted 3/1/2004 at 9:07 AM)
MacGPS Pro works with Garmin and Magellan GPS receivers for transferring Waypoints, Routes, Tracklogs, and GPS satellite Almanacs.