TMO at MWSF - Macworld Expo Software Recap 1

by , 9:00 AM EST, January 11th, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- In an effort to consolidate the mountain of press releases that arrive with each Macworld Expo, The Mac Observer will be combining multiple software announcements into single story recaps.

Ovolab Upgrades Powerful Phlink Telephony Software

Ovolab introduced Tuesday Phlink 2.0, the latest version of its innovative and award-winning telephony software for the Mac. Phlink 2.0 "turns your Mac into a powerful answering machine and telephone information center," greeting callers with personalized greetings, playing caller-specific ringtones, and sending voice messages by email.

Version 2.0 adds a full-featured call log window, allowing users to play back and annotate calls; smart lists, which automatically display all missed calls, the last week's calls, and more; and a new 148-page manual that guides users through every aspect of using Phlink.

Phlink 2.0 is also capable of notifying users of incoming calls over the network with Rendezvous and can create custom phone trees.

Phlink 2.0 is available immediately for $149.95 (€129.95). Users of earlier versions can upgrade for $29.95. The company is showcasing the software at Macworld Expo in booth #749.

Bare Bones Software Rounds Up New Features For TextWrangler 2.0

Bare Bones Software has released TextWrangler 2.0, a major upgrade to its general purpose text editor.

Borrowing features from its bigger brother, BBEdit, TextWrangler 2.0 introduces syntax coloring and function navigation for eight new languages, along with other features such as a new Document Drawer and Navigation Bar, Shebang (#!) menu, SFTP support, enhanced multi-file search and replace, and the ability to apply Text Factories created with BBEdit 8.

At press time, Bare Bones had yet to update its Web site with information or a download link for TextWrangler 2.0, although this may have by the time you're reading this. TextWrangler 2.0 will be available as a free download. Bare Bones Software can be found at Macworld Expo in booth #849.

Sorenson Media Adds AAC Plus Audio to Sorenson Squeeze 4.1

Sorenson Media announced Tuesday Sorenson Squeeze 4.1, an update to its video encoding and compression software that is slated to ship at by the end of March.

Among the new features packed into Sorenson Squeeze 4.1 is support or AAC Plus Audio, an audio compression format providing the same audio fidelity as the AAC standard while compressing audio file sizes to half its original, uncompressed size. Also included in the release is a new optional task dialog, which allows users to send video files to multiple applications and locations on a single computer, over a network, to an FTP site, or to VitalStream on-demand video streaming services.

Users of the Sorenson Squeeze 4.1 Compression Suite for the Mac will also be able to purchase a new Telestream Flip4Mac plug-in allowing video encoding of Windows Media 9 format directly on the Mac.

"The past process of creating Windows Media files from a Mac is unwieldy and often requires Mac users to export files to a Windows PC and then encode their files into Windows Media using the Windows version of Sorenson Squeeze," Matt Cupal, vice president of strategy and business development at Sorenson Media, explained in the press release. "Now with the new plug-in option for Sorenson Squeeze 4.1, Mac users will be spared the time and hassle of working between the two platforms."

The Sorenson Squeeze 4.1 product line includes the Sorenson Squeeze 4.1 Compression Suite, Sorenson Squeeze 4.1 for Macromedia Flash MX, and Sorenson Squeeze 4.1 for MPEG-4 -- all of which will offer the new features found in Sorenson Squeeze 4.1.

Sorenson Squeeze 4.1 will be available as a free upgrade to current Sorenson Squeeze 4 customers. Squeeze 4 is currently available at three price points: $449.00 (Compression Suite), $119.00 (for Macromedia Flash MX), and $199.00 (for MPEG-4). The Windows Media plug-in for the Sorenson Squeeze 4.1 Compression Suite will be available for $179.00. Upgrade pricing is also available for current Sorenson Squeeze 3 users.

Sorenson is demonstration the software in booth #1546 at Macworld Expo.

Mariner Software Releases MacJournal 3.0

Mariner Software's MacJournal 3.0 is the latest version of the company's journaling application.

MacJournal supports a number of online blogs, including LiveJournal, Blogger, MovableType, and WordPress, employs 2D Quartz rendering to create graphically rich journals, offers password protection and AES-256 encryption, and supports multiple file formats.

New features in version 3.0 include nested journals, manual sorting of entries, Wiki links, new text clean-up options, Copy As HTML functionality, a full screen view, and more.

MacJournal 3.0 is available as a download from the company's Web site. It sells for $29.95; upgrades from earlier versions are also available. Mariner Software is demonstrating the software at Macworld Expo in booth #21410.