What's New - Feb 19, 2003

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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

New Apple Software

Apple CHUD Tools 2.5.3 Computer Hardware Understanding Development. The new release fixes an installer package problem with the CPU menu.

Apple Final Cut Express 1.0.1 is a digital video editing tool. The new release has improved performance and stability

Apple iLife applications let you do fun, creative things with your pictures, music and movies and then you share your joy with family and friends every which way.

• Apple iDVD 3.0 lets users create DVDs on their Macs
• Apple iMovie 3.0.1 is the easiest way to import, edit, and share your movies. iMovie 3 works with iTunes, iPhoto, and iDVD, and makes it easier to create movies with your own music, photos and video. Available via Software Update.
• Apple iPhoto 2.0 is the easy-to-use, all-in-one application for importing, organizing, editing and sharing digital photos. Available via Software Update.
  

Apple Mac OS X 10.2.4 Update delivers enhanced functionality and improved reliability for the following applications, services and technologies: Address Book, Classic compatibility, Finder, FireWire, Graphics, OpenGL, and Sherlock. Available via Software Update

Apple Safari 0.8.2. improves compatibility with popular web sites, displays web pages and Flash content more quickly, adds XML support, increases standards conformance and improves stability. Available via Software Update

Apple X11 0.2.1 is a complete X window system to run X11 apps. In the new release, the installer now defaults to replacing /etc/X11, to use quartz-wm instead of twm. This is the only change since v0.2.

New Third Party Software

(Updates are assumed to be for Mac OS X, not much is being updated for Mac OS 9 nowadays...)

AliasMenu X 3.0 adds customized menus to the menu bar. Each menu extra has a corresponding folder and the menu automatically reflects the folder's content.

Adobe Photoshop 7.0.x AltiVecCore enhances the reliability of Adobe Photoshop 7.0.x software running on a Mac OS X system that uses the G4 processor.

Adobe Ignore EXIF Color Space plug-in will instruct Photoshop Elements to ignore the color space specified in EXIF metadata. In this mode, Photoshop Elements will ignore the EXIF color space.

CronniX 2.0 is a Cron GUI, allows scheduled execution of Apple and shell scripts. The new release has improved, dialog based task creation, as well as task comments.

Data Backup X 1.0.1 is a backup utility. The latest release has new trigger functions - Permanent and Mount Action triggers.

Data Recycler X 1.0.1 is a tool to recover files that have been deleted. In the new release, the E.W.S. has been optimized to reduce CPU utilization.

DockExtender 3.0B7 adds menus to dock and menu bar to reduce clutter. In the new release, moving items within the Menu Configuration view no longer hangs or puts items in the incorrect location. The new version also fixes problems for users installing DockExtender for the first time.

Eudora X 5.2.1b2 is a popular e-mail client. The new release fixes a problem with relative images in mail from IE.

Eskape MyTV XTC 1.1 is a driver/operation software for MyTV/fm/TV2GO/fm/Capture II/Video. The new release has an installer update - previously it was not installing the app on some systems.

File Buddy 7.5b9 is an extensive desktop and file/folder editing and task tool. The new version incorporates some minor performance and reliability enhancements.

Freehand MX includes the streamlined Macromedia MX interface, new productivity tools and panels, improved Mac OS X performance, and increased integration with Macromedia Flash MX.

GrabbyWindow X 2.0.8 is a floating file browser for graphics pros. In the new version, creating previews for TIFF and GIF files improved.

GraphicConverter X 4.5.4 is a tool to view, edit, convert most graphic file formats. In the new release, a bug in script menu is fixed, and a possible crash in the preferences under classic Mac OS is fixed.

Interarchy 6.1 is a file transfer, server/network info tool (re-post). The new release is a re-post with new download link for those that had trouble initially.

InterMapper X 4.0.1 monitors servers, networks and AirPorts. The new version implements drill-down in web-served maps.

InterMapper Remote 4.0.1b3 provides a remote view on network's health. In version 4.0 you can edit maps in conjunction with InterMapper, configure the InterMapper server, and allow you to see the real-time status of your routers, switches, servers, and other networking equipment from a remote location.

JellyfiSSH 2.1 is an SSH/Telnet login helper and bookmark utility. The new release has custom strings, Japanese support, Spanish support.

MacTelnet 3.0a29 is a preview of the terminal-based local/remote shell. The new release fixes a crash on terminal bell unless visual bell preference is enabled.

Mactracker X 2.0 provides detailed info on every Apple Mac ever made. The new release adds Motorola, PowerComputing, and UMAX clones.

Macaroni 1.3.3 is a tool for automated OS X system maintenance. The new release fixes minor user-interface bugs that would sometimes prevent the latest results from being displayed.

Micromat Drive 10 1.1.4 is a disk repair and maintenance tool. The new version fixes reported 0 bytes issue for Volume Content size.

Mozilla 1.3b is Mozilla.org's next generation Web browser. The new release has image auto sizing allows a user to toggle between full-sized images and images sized to fit the browser window.

OmniWeb 4.2 beta 1 is a popular web browser. The new release has a 'Zoomed Editor' for entering large amounts of text into forms lets you enter the text in a separate window that you can resize to see as much or as little of text as you'd like.

OpenOffice Launcher for Apple X11 2.0 replaces the XDarwin launcher. This version adds support for Apple X11 0.2.

PrefsOverload 5.2 is a tool for managing the Preferences folder. In the new release you can set PrefsOverload preferences automatically using presets to match your user skills.

Rosetta 1.6 decodes most archive formats and rejoins binary files.

TelnetLauncher 2.2.2 is a launcher for OS X's built-in Telnet and SSH clients. In the new release a shortcut window can be opened by simply clicking the TelnetLauncher icon in the dock.

Tex-Edit Plus X 4.5b2 is a versatile text editor. The latest release has a new "Print One Copy All" menu command quickly prints all open documents.

Trash It! 2.7 is an AppleScript that force-empties stubborn Trash items. The new version checks for BSD Subsystem on launch.

Ugly Dockling 1.2 helps organize the Dock using simple Finder commands. The new version adds the ability for users to add their own graphics to the dock tile for Classic Running and Classic Stopped status.

Timbuktu Pro 6.0.3 is a remote control, file transfer and collaboration tool. This release fixes an issue with the Host Relauncher that may have resulted in the following symptoms: Excessive CPU consumption by the Host Relauncher process.

USB Overdrive X 10.2.1 is a universal driver for any USB mouse or trackball. There was a problem with USB UPS devices that's now been fixed.

Xupport 1.2.6 is a tool for optimizing, sharing, backup, hidden options, swap file, security. The new version has empty and burn (shredder) Trash folders of any volume.

Software Notes

Apple is offering Keynote & iLife for $14.95 to all of its education customers (faculty-only). The limited-time offer is good through March 31, 2003. Read more.

Steve Dagley (Netscape Communications) quashed rumors that Chimera would be dropping tabbed browsing. He states that "...Chimera includes tabbed browsing today and will continue to in the future. Tabbed browsing is one of the most popular features in Chimera and there are no plans to remove it."

CNET reports that Apple has quietly extended an overture to the Unix community, with the release of X11 which makes it easier for Unix applications to run on the Mac operating system. Read more.

Macromedia has announced a subscription plan for keeping users up to date with the MX product line called Macromedia DevNet. Pro service will cost $1,499 per year, essential service will cost $299 a year. Read more.

Forbes has published a show-down between PowerPoint and Keynote. Read more.

Opera has released a new version of Opera 7 after it accused Microsoft of sending the browser a faulty style sheet preventing it from properly resolving MSN.com. The "revised" browser intentionally turns Microsoft's MSN Web site into gibberish. Inspired by the Muppets' Swedish Chef, "The 'Bork Edition' of Opera 7 is designed to make a point about how browsers and Web sites should work together. Read more.

Apple's decision to enter the Mac browser market may be forcing Opera out. Read more.

Microsoft has announced that it will be bringing Exchange functionality to the Entourage e-mail client, a move that has answered prayers for many Mac users in corporate PC environments. Read more.

Up to this point, only Macs with built in FireWire ports could boot from FireWire drives. XPostFacto 3.0 lets users boot from aftermarket installed FireWire PCI. The new release will also incorporate OS X Cache control and automatically provide support to activate the L2 and/or L3 cache for all (or most all) of the various G3 and G4 upgrades.

In promo letters to users Quark indicates that Xpress 6.0 - with full Mac OS X compatibility - may be right around the corner. The new Xpress features reorganized some menus, more useful commands in the context menus, enhanced undo features, and full-resolution preview of on-screen images. Read more.

Hardware News

Xserve - Upgrades

• Dual 1.33 GHz PowerPC G4 processors
• Up to 2GB of 333 MHz Double Data Rate (DDR) memoryTwo 64-bit 66MHz PCI slots
• Dual Gigabit EthernetFireWire 800Four independent ATA/133 drive bays that hold up to 720GB of hot-plug storage
• Configurations starting at $ 2,799 (US).
  

Xserve RAID - New

• The first 3U rack storage system with up to 2.5TB storage capacity.
• Fourteen independent ATA/100 drive channels
• Dual independent RAID controllersUp to 1GB controller cache memory provide fully-redundant storage.
• Dual 2Gb Fibre Channel host interface delivers performance of up to 400 MB/s
• The 2.5 TB Xserve RAID is priced at $ 10,999.
  

Power Mac G4 - Processor speed upgrades & lower prices.

• 1GHz PowerPC G4 - 1MB DDR SRAM per processor, 256MB PC2100 266MHz DDR SDRAM, 60GB Ultra ATA/100 Hard Drive, Combo (DVD-ROM/CD-RW), NVIDIA GeForce4 MX with 64MB DDR SDRAM. Suggested retail price of $ 1,499 (US),
• Dual 1.25GHz PowerPC G4 - 1MB DDR SRAM per processor, 256MB PC2700 333MHz DDR SDRAM, 80GB Ultra ATA/100 Hard Drive, Combo (DVD-ROM/CD-RW), ATI Radeon 9000 Pro with 64MB DDR SDRAM. Suggested retail price of $ 1,999 (US)
• Dual 1.42GHz PowerPC G4 - 2MB DDR SRAM per processor, 512MB PC2700 333MHz DDR SDRAM, 120GB Ultra ATA/100 Hard Drive, SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW), ATI Radeon 9000 Pro with 64MB DDR SDRAM. Suggested retail price of $2,699 (US)
• Note: These systems also feature FireWire 800 and have internal support for 54Mbps AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth wireless networking but there are no SCSI built-to-order options.
  

iMacs - Model number reduced to two as well as lower prices.

• 17" 1GHz PowerPC G4, 256MB of PC2100 (266MHz) DDR SDRAM, 80GB Ultra ATA/100 Hard Drive, 4X SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW), NVIDIA GeForce4 MX with 64 MB of DDR SDRAM, Internal support for AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth. Suggested retail price of $ 1,799 (US)
• 15" 800MHz PowerPC G4, 256MB of SDRAM, 60GB Ultra ATA/66 Hard Drive, 32X Combo (DVD-ROM/CD-RW), NVIDIA GeForce2 MX with 32 MB of DDR SDRAM. Suggested retail price of $ 1,299 (US)
• Note: These systems do not feature FireWire 800 confirming Apple's restriction of this connectivity to professional settings.
  

eMacs - Model number reduced to two as well as lower prices.

• 800MHz PowerPC G4, 256MB RAM, 60GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive, SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW), 17-inch (16-inch viewable) flat CRT, NVIDIA GeForce2 MX with 32 MB of DDR SDRAM. Suggested retail price of $ 1,299 (US)
• 700MHz PowerPC G4, 128MB RAM, 40GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive, Combo drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW), 17-inch flat CRT, NVIDIA GeForce2 MX with 32 MB of DDR SDRAM.Suggested retail price of $ 999 (US)
• Note: These systems do not feature FireWire 800, AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth wireless networking.
  

LCD Displays

• 23" Cinema HD Display
  1920-by-1200 pixel resolution, new lower price $ 1,999 (US).
• 20.1" Cinema Display
  1680-by-1050 pixel resolution, less than two inches thick, priced at $ 1,299 (US). This is the first display to require Mac OS X 10.2.x. Brightness control and certain resolutions settings are not supported under OS 9.x.
• 17" Studio Display
  1280-by-1024 pixels, new lower price $ 699 (US).

Retail News

According to a San Francisco Gate article, some Mac dealers are not too happy about Apple's decision to boost the presence of its own retail outlets - often at the expense of independent vendors. Read more.

CNET reports that Dell is adopting Apple's longstanding store-within-a-store model in addition to phasing out the floppy drive on its Dimension Desktops. Read more.

The New York Times reports that a Microsoft proposed settlement for a class-action lawsuit filed against it could result in the donation of hundreds of millions of dollars of Microsoft software to needy schools throughout California and pose a very real threat to Apple's education sales.

Issues

There is a minor security bug in Mac OS X's screen saver password functionality. If you have Energy Saver set to put your monitor to sleep before than the screen saver is to appear, the previous state of your display - complete with all open windows - is shown for a brief period before the screen saver dialog box prompting for a password appears.

When Screen Effects is in operation and prompting for a password, the Dock and certain key system functions, can be accessed even though they not visible. Once Full Keyboard Access has been enabled, users can launch/quit apps, reboot the system, and log off the current user. If the current user has admin privileges, it is even possible to change the settings for the startup volume through system preferences. Unauthorized access can be minimized by using custom shortcuts for full keyboard access and uncommon key-combinations.

on Powerbook G3 Lombards with exactly 8 MB of VRAM. Other users report getting the message when they attempt to play a pre-built or PowerPoint translated presentation on first-generation Titanium PowerBooks. One solution is to switch the color depth to "Thousands of Colors". Apple recommends archiving and re-installing Mac OS X 10.2.x.

iMovie 3.0's 1024x768 minimum video resolution requirement bars it from running on "clam-shell" iBooks - including original iBook (Blueberry, Tangerine, or Graphite) and the iBook FireWire (Indigo, Key Lime, and Graphite.)

When installing OmniPage Pro X under Mac OS X 10.2.x, the installation process ends when it is almost complete. There are two solutions. Startup in Mac OS 9 to install OmniPage Pro, or dig into the InstallerMaker archives and launch the "OmniPage Pro X English" file using the "Open with Classic" option in the Get Info dialog box.

USB compact flash devices are generally "plug and play" devices under Mac OS X. A growing number of users have been reporting consistent file corruption problems when using USB flash media formatted with HFS+ (Mac OS Extended).

eMac "raster shift" screen defect has been traced to a single component, the IVAD cable. Replacement of the 5" multicolored cable is fairly straightforward but attempting the procedure yourself could void your Apple warranty.

Some CRT iMacs, after startup, will power down after a few seconds without activating the display. The LED goes from orange to green and immediately shuts down. There appear to be four primary issues that cause this problem: A faulty flyback transformer; A faulty analog board; Outdated firmware; Accumulated dust. One workaround involves connecting an external display to the iMac's internal video out port. Users can then try updating the firmware.

Final Cut Pro 3.0.4 disables "Synch Adjust" functionality. Synch Adjust allows Final Cut Pro to keep unlocked digital audio (such as that generated by the Canon XL-1) synchronized with the video. Quicktime 6.1 appears to be the cause. It should also be noted that this issue only affects owners of Canon cameras

American Power Conversion Corporation (APC) is voluntarily recalling about 900,000 back-up power supply devices. These devices are primarily used to protect computers in case of a power failure. The power supply device can fail, causing the unit to overheat, which may pose a fire hazard to consumers. Read more.

Safari, Chimera, and Dreamweaver MX are reported to be unable to locate files necessary files when used as a Preview browser for Adobe's GoLive and Bare Bones' BBEdit. A simple solution for Safari is to dragging the GoLive project from the site window onto Safari's Dock icon.

Mac OS X in Brief

For those with subscriptions, MacFixit Has started to compile lists of issues that users have encountered while using the latest software updates from Apple including: Mac OS X 10.2.4, Final Cut Pro 3.0.4, iLife 1.0 apps, Safari 1.0 Beta, Keynote 1.0, and Airport Extreme.

David Coursey's new book, Mac OS X for Windows users - A Switcher's Guide, has gone on sale. Read more.

Mac OS X 10.2.x is the recipient of InfoWorld's Technology of the Year award stating that it "...combines much of what's best about Mac OS, Windows, and Unix..." and that it "...will give Windows the best fight it's ever had." Read more.

MacFixIt reports that a Sun Microsystems representative has indicated to them that if Microsoft were to cease production of Office for the Mac, they would be more inclined to deliver a OS X-native version its StarOffice suite. StarOffice is based on the OpenOffice.org open-source project, which is currently working toward a native Mac OS X port with full Aqua interface functionality and expects to release it some time in the second quarter of 2004.

A PlanetPDF article points out that Mac OS X 10.2.4 has a variety of new PDF Workflow options, including enhanced use of Applescript. Read more.

General News

The Computer and Communications Industry Association, which includes companies like Oracle, Sun and Yahoo, has filed several new complaints against Microsoft with the EU. Read more.

Apple has re-stated that it will not attend a Macworld Expo in Boston in 2004. Read more.

Wired News reports that a college student was indicted on Thursday on charges he placed software on dozens of computers that allowed him to secretly monitor what people were typing, and then stole around $2,000 using information he gleaned. Read more.

The 1394 Trade Association announced today that its annual Developers' Conference will be held at the Tokyo headquarters of Apple Computer.

In a symbolic move that may reveal Steve Jobs' lack of confidence in non-Intel processing platforms, Pixar is replacing servers from Sun in its render farm with eight new blade servers from Racksaver. In all, the blade system contains 1,024 Intel 2.8GHz Xeon processors, and it runs the open-source Linux operating system. Read more.

Wired News profiles Konfabulator, a JavaScript runtime application for Mac OS X that runs little custom programs called Widgets. The program was designed by the authors of the popular interface customization tool, Kaleidoscope. Read more.

Wired News reports that Steve Wozniak is moving out of his multimillion-dollar home -- a fun house he built for his kids -- because it's in the middle of a wireless black spot. His new house has "a replica castle -- inside the house. It also boasts a volcano, a cave in the backyard and a bedroom covered in thousands of LEDs that flash luminescent patterns across the ceiling and walls." Read more.

Apple will use the 2003 Worldwide Developers Conference to boost its emerging Xserve presence. Other tracks of interest include Enterprise IT, Apple Developer Tools, QuickTime, Application Frameworks, Core OS, Hardware, Graphics and Imaging. Read more.

Apple is offering the WWDC Getting Started Bundle providing interested developers with: WWDC 2003 ticket, an ADC Select membership, an ADC Select hardware discount, and more, for $2,195(US). If you're already an ADC Select member, enter your Apple ID and password to purchase the special "WWDC 2003 Select Renewal Bundle" for US $ 1695. Read more.

Apple is offering ADC Student Members scholarships to attend this year's Worldwide Developer Conference. Winners of a student scholarship receive a free student e-Ticket to the conference. To put that in perspective, the regular attendee price is a cool US $1,595. Read more.

A Mac service technician presents a true, twisted, and amazing tale of the oven-baked PowerBook. A woman come in to an authorized reseller to see if she could get her PowerBook G4 Ti repaired after it had literally been baked in an oven for 20 minutes. The top of the screen was a little brown and warped, the screen was all cracked, and there was not a single key on the keyboard. After being told that the screen alone would cost at least $1000, the woman decided to leave the machine with the reseller for discard. Before they tossed it in the trash, they decided to try and power it and it worked. Read more.

Cool Stuff

Marathon Computer, makers of Mac rackmount solutions, has introduced the Vert-X, a vertical, floor-stand alternative to rackmounting the Xserve for $40(US). Read more.

CompuCable has debuted the FireCable, a universal power adapter for any bus-powered FireWire device. It works by 'injecting' DC current into the power pins of a standard 6-pin FireWire connector, without having to use any vendor specific DC connectors. It costs $24.95(US). Read more.

Initio has announced that the INIC-1430 IEEE 1394 ("FireWire") bridge chip fully, and economically supports the latest high-capacity (160GB) ATA-6 disk drives from leading manufacturers such as Maxtor, Seagate and Western Digital Read more.

iMac Troll Touch has announced the availability of a touchscreen for the 17" LCD iMac for $879(US). Integrations are done at the company's factory in Valencia, California. Read more.

CyberCooler Notebook Pad is cooling pad for notebook PC with 3 built in fans for easy thermal heat dissipation. powered by AC or USB cost is $45(US). Read more.

Motorola has announced the Motorola A760, the first handset combining a Linux Operating System (OS) and Java, with full multimedia PDA functionality. Read more.

Humor

Joy of Tech

• Easy Rider
• Cloning Gone Wrong
• Classic Booting
• Homeland Insecurity

Events

Photoshop World

• Location: Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA
• Date: February 19-21, 2002
• Type: Conference
• Fee: Click here for registration information.
• Topics: Click here for information on workshops, sessions, and attractions.
  

NAB 2003: The World's Largest Electronic Media Show

• Location: Las Vegas, NV
• Date: Conference (April 5 - 10); Exhibits (April 7 - 10)
• Type: Conference and Expo
• Fee: Click here for registration information.
• Topics: Click here for information on conferences. Click here for information on exhibits.
  

Integrating Mac OS X on Campus

• Location: University of Utah - Salt Lake City, UT
• Date & Time: May 1, 2003; 9:00AM - 4:00 PM (MST)
• Type: Seminar
• Click here for additional information.
  

Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2003

• Location: San Jose, CA
• Date: May 19-23, 2003
• Type: Conference
• Fee: Click here for registration information.
• Topics: Click here for information on technology tracks.