What's New - Mar 20, 2002

By: James Reynolds - Revised: 2006-07-03 devin

Introduction

What's new for the Mac in the previous month:

General issues, workarounds and fixes
New Software and hardware
Software and hardware updates/patches

The information on this page is gathered from a variety of sources, mostly MacFixIt, and some from MacEvangelist daily newsletter, MacInTouch, and AppleInsider. We thank them all for their work.

New Apple Software

Apple AirPort Admin Utility for Windows 1.0

Apple AirPort Driver Update 2.0.2 (Mac OS 9)

Apple AirPort Driver Update 2.0.2 (Mac OS X)

Apple DVD Player Update PowerBook G4 1.0 provides a fix needed for PowerBook G4 systems that feature either a 550 MHz or 667 MHz G4 Processor.

Apple Final Cut Pro 3.0.1. It fixes a couple of bugs where FCP would "unexpectedly quit."

Apple Java 1.3.1 update 1 (Mac OS X)

Apple Mac OS X v10.1.3 (build 5Q45) via the Software Update mechanism. This release delivers enhancements that improve the reliability of Mac OS X applications, important security features, and support for a variety of new "Digital Hub" peripheral devices.

Apple Mac OS X Server 10.1.3

Apple QuickTime Streaming Server 4.0 is a new version of this streaming media server. It "provides a number of new product enhancements and addresses several issues" including native hinted MPEG-4 streaming.

Apple Remote Desktop 1.0. It "enables users, teachers and administrators to remotely manage other Mac desktops anywhere on a local network, AirPort wireless network or across the Internet." Admin tool Mac OS X, client Mac OS 8.1+

Apple WebObjects 5.1, is available on an upgrade CD from the Apple store (or via download for ADC Select and Premier members). Changes in 5.1 include Enterprise Java Beans support, LDAP access via JNDO, better documentation, and more.

NVIDIA Driver Update 2.6 (v. 1.0) Also read this.

New Third Party Software

Adobe Illustrator 10.0.1 addresses several performance issues and speeds up launch time, copy and paste functions, opening and saving files as well as scrolling, panning, and zooming. Files with large amounts of text also open and close faster. The performance enhancements are especially evident on Mac OS with Epson printers. It also fixes a problem saving files to Windows NT based servers. [OS 9 & OS X]

Carbon Copy Cloner 1.1 is a cloning utility developed with AppleScript Studio. The purpose of CCC is to assist you in copying your entire Mac OS X installation from one partition to another as easily as possible.

Corel GRAPHICS SUITE 10.0.1. It has improvements in overall stability and performance. Additional development for Asian language support and various OS X and OS 8.6 improvements will also enhance the user experience.

Cleaner 5 5.1.1 is a streaming media authoring tool.

CyberGauge 4.0 is a utility for monitoring your Internet bandwidth information, with email and pager alerts for both non-responsive devices and for interface traffic thresholds. The new version runs in Mac OS X.

Dantz Retrospect 4.3 driver update 2.5 is a plug-in extension for Retrospect 4.3 or Retrospect Express 4.3. It updates Retrospect or Retrospect Express to support new drives, fix bugs, and work around problems.Ê

DAVE 3.1p2 for Mac OS X. It fixes a problem with occasional kernel panics due to a conflict between DAVE 3.1 and NetBarrier X. The patch also fixes several other causes of kernel panics, including ones that may occur when deleting folders or importing mp3 files.

DMG Tool 2.5.5 can be used to quickly create compressed disk images. Updated to work with AppleScript 1.8.2.

DragThing 4.2.1 is an application dock designed to tidy up the icons littering your desktop. This version works around a problem in CarbonLib 1.5 that was causing long pauses when switching between applications. Works in OS 9 and OS X.

Drive 10 1.0.4 is a disk repair and maintenance tool. This version adds hardware compatibility to recent Macs, a progress bar for status, improvements to the volume structure routines, and the ability to repair and rebuild a volume without requiring a restart.

Eudora Internet Mail Server 3.1.1 is out. It fixes a crashing bug when quitting EIMS Admin, a crashing bug on systems without the Appearance manager, and a number of cosmetic bugs.

Extension Overload 5.9.6 adds additional info and items to this Extension, control panel, CSM and CMM information tool.

File Buddy X 7.0fc1 is an update to this extensive desktop and file/folder editing tool. For example, new in this OS X version: An Accessed column has been added to the file list window to display the last accessed date.

GraphicConverter 4.3 includes support for video grabber cards, lossless JPEG rotation will now correct the EXIF entries, JPEG save can now swap the APP markers, set desktop pattern works now on Mac OS X, FTP upload is now present in the context menu of the browser, scroll to click support has been added to MacOS X, and much more.

HTTP BenchMark 1.3.3 is an easy-to-use tool for checking a web server's bandwidth from the client side. It also allows you to compare several web hosting providers in order to know which one has the best bandwidth. This release adds a number of small feature enhancements.

iCab 2.7.1 is a bug-fix update to this Web browser. This release fixes issues with Hotlist items being lost because of empty folders, plus a couple of crashing bugs.

iDraw 1.0 is a powerful, yet easy to use, illustration and animation program for Mac OS X.

InterMapper 3.6 monitors servers and networks with pings, SNMP and custom probes. This release adds InterMapper Remote support, background images for Maps, response time measurements, and more.

InterMapper Remote 1.0 from Dartware LLC provides a remote view on a network. Working in conjunction with InterMapper, it allows you to see the real-time status of your routers, switches, servers, and other networking equipment from a remote location.

Joe's Filters for Final Cut Pro 3.0 is a set of new tools and faster effects for FCP. New in this update: Joe's Channel Blur, Joe's De-Interlacer, Joe's Diffuser, Joe's Field Blender, Joe's Flexi-Smear, Joe's Levels - Sampled Color, Joe's Noise - Levels, Joe's Noise - Saturation, Joe's Soft Ellipse, Joe's Soft Shapes, Joe's Time Bender, and Joe's Y/C Corrector.

Kerberos for Macintosh 4.0 is a major release of Kerberos for Macintosh which expands and improves native support for Mac OS X as well as including the new UI elements for Classic Mac OS introduced in KfM 3.5. Kerberos for Macintosh is a Kerberos authentication system for Mac OS. It provides Kerberos v4 and Kerberos v5 protocols, GSSAPI, a graphical Login interface and accompanying API for acquiring Kerberos tickets, an in-memory ticket cache and KClient compatibility.

Mozilla 0.9.9.

MacGhostView 2.5.5 is a general purpose PostScript and PDF preview utility. This update is now based on ghostscript 7.04. and only Carbon versions of the programs are distributed.

Netopia netOctopus 3.6.4 is a network admin tool to manage and update networks. No word on what is new in this update.

Opera X 5.0b4 is an update to this web browser. New features include support for QuickTime, scroll wheel mouse, as well as various bug fixes.

PasswordMaster 1.5.2 is a serial number, registration number, and password storage tool that features 448-bit encryption. This is a bug fix release that adds several minor interface enhancements.

PrefsOverload 4.1 is a tool for managing the Preferences folder.

PrintToPDF 2.4.1 creates simple PDF files from any application (Mac OS 9). This release adds a new preference to turn off the encoding change for the euro sign (which is a workaround for fixing other issues), and the Maximum Resolution preference menu now lists 150 and 1200 in addition to the previous choices.

RetroLog is a free software solution to let Dantz Inc's Retrospect backup software work in conjunction with Kick-off! and Rebound! crash recovery tools.

Sniffles 2.1 is a free Mac OS X network traffic monitor and packet capture program. This version adds additional packet details in the tab view, new network traffic graphs, support for additional packet types, and several interface changes.

TinkerTool 2.11 adds functionality and options to many OS X features. This release includes an automatic installer, several new languages, several new Finder tweaks, and bug fixes.

Tri-BACKUP 3.06 is a backup utility for Mac OS X. New features in version 3.06: faster backups; easier creation of Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server bootable copies; it works with Disc Burner to backup your files on CDs; can back up files to iDisk; Menus reorganized under Mac OS X; Search function allowing to find files on hard disks added; Information window added (displays owner, group and permissions); more.

TechTool Pro 3.0.6 updater offers a suite of disk troubleshooting and repair utilities. It also offers virus detection/repair and software conflict detection. This release updates its conflict/virus/repair libraries and fixes a few bugs.

TechTool Lite 3.0.2 is also out. It adds support up to Mac OS 9.2.2 and fixes issues reported with File Lab.

Toast Titanium/Spin Doctor 5.1.2r2 is an update to this CD/DVD burning software. It fixes the previously noted bug where the Toast serial number was not saved permanently in some cases. It also now supports DVD+RW recorder mechanisms by Ricoh, Sony, Philips, and Hewlett-Packard. Also updates the Mac OS X version.

Virtual PC 5.0.2 is an update to this PC emulator to run Windows software. The most significant new features affect Mac OS X performance. For example: There is now improved performance of Virtual PC in Mac OS X with background applications. [OS 9 & OS X]

Web Crossing 4.1 is Internet/intranet server software that offers online conferencing solutions, full e-mail services, calendar services, web application programming, and more. This version is at least twice as fast as version 4.0 and includes new e-mail and search functionality, enhanced server-side JavaScript, multidomain web serving support, and much more.

WebSTAR V 5.1r2 is the latest version of this server software. Among what's new: Integrated 4D WebSTAR Rewrite plug-in for powerful URL redirect and URL management; FastCGI, the high-performance gateway interface, now included.

Yahoo! Messenger 1.1 is am instant message client. No word on what has changed in this release.

Yellow Dog Linux 2.1 is the PowerPC version of this operating system. It features the ability to triple-boot between this OS, 9, and X. It also adds sleep support to most hardware, bug fixes, and more.

Software Notes

Adobe Photoshop 7.0, native on Mac OS X, includes a few new tools: Healing Brush (touches up damaged images), File Browser, a new painting engine, Pattern Maker, Liquify, web tools, and more. Photoshop 7 will ship in the second quarter of 2002. Upgrade price $149.

Hardware News

Foveon plans to begin shipping a new type of digital image sensor that is the first to match or surpass the photographic capabilities of 35-millimeter film. Read more.

Apple has released the details on its TiBook Combo drive upgrade program, which ends April 30th. Read more.

Trans Intl. sells a 60 GB 5400 rpm hard drive for Apple PowerBooks. This drive uses fluid dynamic bearing spindle motor technology for a quieter operation. Read more.

800 MHz, 933 MHz, and Dual 1-GHz Power Mac G4

15 gigaflops (15 billion floating point operations per second). Adobe Photoshop is 72 percent faster than a 2-GHz Pentium 4-based PC. DVD video encoding 300 percent faster than a 2-GHz Pentium 4-based PC.

All models have:

Dual monitor support
Support for up to 1.5GB of PC133 SDRAM
Five slots, including four open 64 bit 33 MHz PCI slots and an 4x AGP slot for graphics
Two 400-Mbps FireWire(R) ports and four 12-Mbps USB ports
10/100/1000BASE-T Ethernet built-in on the motherboard
Three 3.5-inch hard disk drive expansion bays with one pre-installed 7200 rpm Ultra ATA hard drive up to 80GB

Included 3rd party software:

Ambrosia Software Snapz Pro X
Caffeine Software PixelNhance 1.5
Code Line Communications Art Directors Toolkit for X
Lemke Software GraphicConverter 4.1
Omni Group's OmniGraffle and OmniOutliner
James Thompson PCalc
FileMaker Pro Trial 5.5
Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0
Earthlink 2.5
Internet Explorer 5.1
Smith Micro FAXstf X Preview
Apple Developer Tools X

The dual 1-GHz Power Mac G4, $2,699 includes:

256K on-chip level 2 cache and 2MB of DDR SDRAM L3 cache per processor
512MB of PC133 SDRAM memory
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX graphics card and 64MB DDR SDRAM in 4x AGP slot (the Titanium card is a custom built option--and a pricy one)
80GB Ultra ATA/66 hard disk drive
SuperDrive combination CD-RW/DVD-R optical drive

The 933 MHz Power Mac G4, $2,069 includes:

256K on-chip level 2 cache and 2MB of DDR SDRAM L3 cache
256MB of PC133 SDRAM memory
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX graphics card with 64MB DDR SDRAM in 4x AGP slot
60GB Ultra ATA/66 7200 rpm hard disk drive
SuperDrive combination CD-RW/DVD-R optical drive

The 800 MHz Power Mac G4, $1,439 includes:

256K on-chip level 2 cache
256MB of PC133 SDRAM memory
ATI Radeon 7500 with 32MB DDR SDRAM in 4x AGP slot
40GB Ultra ATA/66 7200 rpm hard disk drive
CD-RW optical drive

The Power Mac G4 is available in build-to-order configurations through The Apple Store. Options include a DVD-ROM/CD-RW Combo drive, up to 1.5GB of SDRAM, up to 72GB Ultra160 SCSI drives, AirPort Base Station and AirPort Card, Harman Kardon iSub and SoundSticks, and Apple Pro Speakers. Standard 4.7GB DVD-R blank discs are available from The Apple Store in five-packs. For a list of compatible DVD players, visit www.apple.com/dvd/compatibility.

The 733MHz is still available, but for education only.

Overclock your 1 GHz Dual Processor to 1.2 GHz. This operation is not for the faint-hearted though, it involves changing the position of resistors on the daughtercard. Read more.

Benchmarks: macspeedzone. stonekeep. newsfactor. theregister (this benchmark is without the Altivec and 2nd CPU-in other words, it is an anti-Mac benchmark).

Retail News

Apple Computer will no longer sell its Macs at Circuit City. Read more - Read more.

Apple Reports First Quarter Profit of $38 Million. This is quite good, considering the overall ill health of the tech sector. Additionally, Apple noted that advance sales of the new iMac were huge, with numbers that have not been seen since the release of the original iMac. The only down note was that revenue was slightly lower than expected.

Issues

MacFixIt has gone commercial. Searching the archives now requires a subscription. The daily news is still free.

Dantz, makers of Retrospect, has posted a FAQ explaining the details of its fee structure for technical support. Note that the Web site remains free, the fees are only changed when seeking help from a technician. Read more.

If a disc burn is interrupted, Disk Utility allows you to recover disk space that was reserved for temporary files. Read more.

This tech note on Real.com describes a potential security vulnerability with RealPlayer on the Mac. Read more.

ExpressRAID/ProTools/VMS Volumes are incompatible with Alsoft's DiskWarrior. DiskWarrior reports that there are problems with the disk and the OS reports errors when disks are unmounted/remounted. This problem does not happen with Apple's formatter or SoftRaid.

Expander 6.5.1 problem with .gz files? Older versions (4.5, 5.5, 6.0) will properly expand files.

Stay away from software from VX2 Corporation (like Audio Galaxy). They install spyware. Windows problem for now...

Mac OS 9.2.1 appears to be the last OS that can be used as the System Folder on a rescue zip disk.

There is a patch that fixes Citrix Mac client and Mac OS 9.2.2 that causes the server to crash when the Mac client accesses their local hard drive Read more.

Some external devices (especially if they have their own power supply and don't have a grounded plug) put too much voltage through the FireWire port, causing FireWire ports to fry on the CPU or external device such as DV Cameras (speakers were the culprit in one instance).

Handout/webpage exclusive

An Apple Discussions Board thread discusses what appears to be a significant problem where an Internet connection gets lost until your restart the AirPort base Station. It affects both graphite and white Base Stations. Read more.

There appears to be a 'bad' batch of blank DVD media out there. The troublesome media has ONE bar code sticker on the outside of the package, and the media itself has a barely readable stamped number on the inner ring.

DAVE 3.1 interferes with Mac OS 10.1.3 update Several users have reported various conflicts with DAVE 3.1 and the update.

IN some cases the lamp in Apple's flat-panel monitors fail within a year or so of use. In such cases, Apple did the needed repair for free.

A reader reports that a loose power connection on the flat-panel iMac is at least one cause of the machine's failure to boot, and may be one of the reasons Apple has been having trouble shipping iMacs in quantity. Another cited reason is the lack of LCD's in production. Read more.

A University of Maryland professor and his graduate student have apparently uncovered serious weaknesses in the next-generation Wireless Fidelity security protocol known as 802.1x. Read more.

Kernel panic in flat panel iMacs out of the box: Fix? Reinstall OS X

Sound Manager related errors during startup may be traced to a corrupt LaserWriter driver.

Installing Final Cut Pro 3 atop Final Cut 1.2 deletes Ethernet extensions?

Software Update temporarily downloaded incorrect version of CarbonLib? Read more.

In MacOS 9.x, if you do a reverse DNS lookup of 206.207.151.40, the machine will crash.

If you have a problem where Eudora quits on launch with a Type 3 error, you may need to update QuickTime. Read more.

Using Norton Disk Doctor on a disk connected to a FireWire hub may trigger freeze.

Some iBooks and TiG4's power light stays green (the light where the power cables plugs in), even if it is charged all the way. It is a power adapter problem, and Apple will replace the adapter (probably a good idea to replace it because it gets a bit hot).

Batteries do not recharge on PowerBook G3 with Mac OS 9.2.2 when the display brightness is all the way up. Zapping the PRAM, trashing the PRAM preferences, and trashing System preferences as well as System Resources also sometimes help.

Sonnet G3/500 PCI and G3/500 L2 Sonnet upgrades actually had 466MHz marked IBM G3 processors and the Sonnet G3/450MHZ PCI had a 333MHz marked IBM G3 processor. Read more - Read more.

A security bug in Netscape (pre 6.2.1) and Mozilla (pre .9.7) browsers could allow a malicious web site operator to access cookies on users' computers. Read more.

There appears to be some extra sensitivity to USB port related conflicts on the new 1 GHz G4s. A bad batch of RAM would cause a grey screen problem when USB hubs were connected at startup. Apple swapped out the RAM and all is well.

IDE drives larger than 128 GB require an ATA 133 bus. Since external FireWire drives use IDE drives with an adapter, the adapter MUST be ATA 133 for drives larger than 128 GB.

Micros*

Microsoft is using language in the proposed licensing agreement to gain more favorable terms with computer manufacturers than before. Read more.

Recently Microsoft changed the section on Windows XP Professional in its Product Use Rights (PUR) www.microsoft.com/licensing/resources to allow them to check the version and components that are being utilized and provide upgrades or fixes. Read more.

Microsoft's .NET developer tools contains a feature designed to prevent hacker attacks that may actually leave systems vulnerable. Vulnerability discovered a week after a lavish unveiling event. Read more.

Microsoft stopped product development for a month to conduct security education and a review of products. Read more.

Microsoft's version of Windows Media Player that ships with Windows XP creates a list of the digital songs and movies each computer user has played. It downloads information about songs and movies from a Web site, AND sends an identifier number unique to each user on the computer. Read more.

Microsoft lawsuit updates:

Kodak, AOL Time Warner, and SBC Communications are lobbying for a chance to convince U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly the deal is bad for Americans and the industry.

Nobel Prize winners argue that the judge should reject the agreement.

Be Inc., makers of BeOS sues Microsoft Read more.

Netscape sues Microsoft. Read more.

Sun sues Microsoft again. Read more.

Handout/webpage exclusive:

Excel v. X documents with headers and footers do not open in Excel 98

Mac OS X: Microsoft Office Network Security updater patch may update copies in the .trash.

Hotmail security issue Security researchers have discovered a vulnerability in Microsoft's Hotmail service that allows hackers to bypass security questions that users must answer before resetting their passwords. Read more.

Cool Stuff

Apple Knowledge Base content overhauled. "Knowledge Base 3.0.2." There are dozens of new documents with basic help information on Mac OS X, iPhoto, iTunes, iPod, iMovie, AppleScript and more.

Get Final Cut Pro realtime effects to work on slower Macs. Read more.

AppleScript and Timbuktu were used to recover a stolen iMac. Read more.

WWDC 2002 May 6-10 in San Jose, CA Student Scholarship available (must sign up as a student ADC member--costs $99).

Summit in the Rockies QuickTime VR Conference, 3 days of hands-on sessions, May 14-16, 2002 in Boulder, Colorado. Read more.

Vervante is the new provider of hard copy versions of selected Apple Developer documentation. (Apple documentation is no longer available from Fatbrain.com)

ADC'S Internet Developer site has published a new article on CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). Read more.

Apple Wins 2002 Technical GRAMMY Award for its outstanding technical contributions to the music industry and recording field. Read more - Read more.

The new iMac comes to life in these two short films created by Pixar Animation Studios. Read more.

Slashdot adds Mac coverage Slashdot, the longtime "News for Nerds" Web site that tends to distill giant quantities of 'nix-related information, has opened an Apple section. Read more.

Handout/webpage exclusive

A penguin's-eye look at Apple's OS X By Doc Searls and Brent Simmons. It states: "Where OS X will succeed is in the one category where Linux has struggled for popularity (if not functionality) from the start: on the desktop." More. Read more.

"Copytalk is a glorified dictation service. From any phone, you dial Copytalk's toll-free number. At the tone, you dictate, for example, an e-mail message. Between 3 and 20 minutes later, the message you dictated is sent on its merry way across the Internet (with or without your review, at your option), looking exactly as if it came from your desktop PC." Read more.

Media portrayal of Apple and Macs on cloud 9:

ZDnet's Anchor Desk writer, David Coursey, is giving his Windows machine for a month to work exclusively on a new Mac. Read more.
IT managers are keeping their companies PC-centric to protect their job Read more.
Fox Sport's "trip to the mall" with basketball stars Shaquille O'Neal, Sumaki Walker and Jelani McCoy. View the segment. Read more.
How schools are tricked into using PCs--when Macs are better. Read more.
Has anyone noticed the amount of Macs seen on TV? Read more.

Humor

Joy of Tech:

Megahertz Myth
Give your teacher an Apple
First Contact
gMac
Cats that hate LCD's
iPod
Apple Geniuses
Photoshop X
More Star Trek stuff
MUG's
HP luvs Compaq

Fox Trot

Volume Purchase

Richard will discuss this.

Mac OS X Deployment