Today's News On One Page

June 22nd, 2000

[4:20 PM] Apple Stock Watch: Profit Taking Dominates, Brings AAPL Down by Wes George After climbing 1,000 points in 30 days, the Nasdaq rested. Next Tuesday and Wednesday is the all important Federal Open Market Committee meeting which could be a Caesar's thumb up or down on the bulls wrestling with the bears in the markets below. Meanwhile, Microsoft brazenly waltzed out a scheme to dominate the Internet in ten years or less. Apple's stock valiantly retained most of its recent gains. The almost doubled trading volume in AAPL is due to the stock split yesterday which doubled the number of shares outstanding adding much needed liquidity to the stock. One Stock Watch reader e-mailed the Mac Observer to point out that the number of shares available on the market (liquidity) influences the investment decisions of large institutional funds. Even if a large investor admires a company's prospects if the liquidity is low they may choose to invest elsewhere, since low liquidity makes it difficult to buy and sell large blocks discreetly. Apple gave back 1 7/8 or 3.37% to close at 53 3/4 on strong volume, even with the split taken into account, of 8.2 million shares. The Nasdaq slid 127 points (-3.13%) to closed at the day's low of 3936 on volume of 1.6 billion shares. The Nasdaq, up 33% since May 24, is overdue a rest. The recently rebounding tech sectors -- biotech, chip and Internet stocks led the way down today. The Dow fell 121 points (-1.16%) to close at the low for the month of 10376 on volume of over 1 billion shares. Many of the big cyclical and industrial stocks, such as Caterpillar (CAT) are trading at, or near, 52-week lows. The S&P 500 dropped 26.95 points (-1.82%) to close at 1452.18. The Mac Observer Stock Watch Virtual Portfolio gave back some gains along with the markets. In Apple related businesses: Akamai slid 7 11/16 to 107 11/16, after yesterday's 21 point surge on news that Bears and Stearns put a price target of $175 on the stock. Adobe lost 7 5/16 to close at 121 1/2. Earthlink fell 23/32 to close at 15 1/4. Motorola dumped 1 5/16 to close at 33 1/2. IBM shed 2 15/16 to 111 9/16. Apple's competitors: Hewlett Packard lost 3/4 to close at 118 3/4. Gateway was up 1 1/8 to close at 61 bucks. Compaq gained 7/16 to close at 28 1/2. Intel unveiled its entry into the Internet appliance market. A Forbes' article describes the device called Dot.Station: "The countertop device, which includes a built-in telephone, will be the first mass-market consumer product to carry the Intel brand. Until now, the giant chipmaker has only dabbled with digital video and home-networking devices, content for the most part with having 'Intel Inside' stickers on a majority of the world's personal computers." The most notable things about Intel's new Web device is that it runs a Linux operating system and is available only through service contracts with your Internet service provider. Intel shed 4 1/8 to close at 134 7/8. Handspring (HAND), a handheld computer business started by the inventors of the Palm Pilot, had a strong initial public offering yesterday, ending the day up 35%. But today the stock suffered profit taking, down 1 5/8 to close at 25 5/16. Microsoft announced a "universal canvas" for all PC users. Bill Gates imagines a future where the browser is the OS and software is stored on servers for rent by the minute. Every idea, every word, every note of copyrightable material will be charged to your online account. Cha-ching! Welcome to the information economy and thank you for shopping the Microsoft way. Shares of Microsoft were down 7/8 at 79 13/16. For full quotes on all the companies mentioned in this article, we have assembled this set of quotes at Yahoo! for your reference. We also have many of these same quotes reported live (20 minute delay) on our home page. For other stories regarding Apple's stock activity, visit our Apple Stock Watch Special Report. Apple

[3:00 PM] FTP? I Don't Need No Stinking FTP! by Staff Webb Toys Software has released a new HTTP based file transfer application, HTTP. The tool allows users to download files, and give the handy option of downloading directly into RAM, thus allowing the application to work on a locked disk. According to Webb Toys: HTTP 1.1 gives SuperCard powerful web download capabilities. Version 1.1 adds: Better compliance with newer servers, and is up to twice as fast as other http implementations, due to a highly optimized tcp engine. It can now download data directly into RAM, without hitting the hard drive at all, which means it can work from a locked volume, such as a CD. It can also download files and data directly to a file, faster than any other http implmentation for a scripting language, and up to 75% faster than some other methods. It now supports URLs up to 4,096 characters in length, so you can now submit data via GET requests much easier. HTTP is available for free. You can find more information at the Webb Toys web site. Webb Toys

[2:00 PM] Digital Camera/Camcorder Users Have New Help Resource by Staff So you have an iMac DV, a state of the art digital camcorder, and you have no idea what to do with them. Eric Prentice has you covered. The new DigiCam List is a mailing list to discuss tips and techniques, and perhaps even boast about your latest movie creation. According to Mr. Prentice: The DigiCam List is a forum for discussion of digital cameras of all kinds including still and video cameras. Conversations centered aroundpurchase advice, support, use, and general discussion of all types of digital cameras is welcome. DigiCam List joins the other lists hosted at themacintoshguy.com including G4, iBook, MacGames, MacUSB, MacFireWire, and Duo/2400 List. You can find more information at the The Macintosh Guy web site. The Macintosh Guy

[12:30 PM] Apple Offers iMac DV Camera Bundle In Advance Of MACWORLD by Michael Munger Apple has announced a special promotion featuring an iMac and a Canon ZR10 digital video camcorder. The theme for the sale is "Make your own summer movie," and includes a Canon ZR10 DV camera which connects to the iMac DV via the FireWire port. According to Apple: Buy an iMac DV and the Canon ZR10 digital video camcorder through the Apple Store and save $200. The iMovie software included with the iMac DV gives you what you need to produce high-quality, crystal-clear digital movies with soundtracks and titles. Catch the special moments of family vacations, graduations, weddings and other memorable events with the Canon ZR10 camcorder, then use the iMac DV and iMovie to edit, add sound effects and titles to your Summer Movies. Shoot, direct, edit, arrange the seating and sell tickets. You can also send your Summer Movies by email to family and friends, publish them using iTools and iDisk or save them to VHS tape to share the experience. Apple sells an iMac and Canon camcorder with a US$200 saving. The promotion is available with a US$200 saving if you buy before July 9. You can find more information about it at Apple's site. The Mac Observer Spin: While not exactly a fire sale, we can hope that a promotion ending barely a week before MACWORLD New York might hint of changes to the company's lineup. That's in keeping with previous efforts from the company to reduce inventory. This could be particularly important for the iMac as sales of the computer have slowed in recent months. Whether or not Apple will be introducing a new iMac at MACWORLD, this is a good bundle deal. We have long called for Apple to bring more options to the Apple Store, and this is great one. Apple

[Column] Computing With Bifocals - Odds, Ends, & Important Stuff

[12:00 PM] AutoTextTyper Types Text Automatically by Staff Chaotic Software has updated their time saving utility, AutoTextTyper. Version 2.3 includes added support for macros. AutoTextTyper allows you to save commonly used strings of text, and then easily insert them anywhere from a contextual menu. According to Chaotic Software: Description for those unfamiliar with AutoTextTyper: AutoTextTyper is a contextual menu plugin that lets you quickly and easily add commonly used text, such as email addresses, web sites, postal addresses, company names, form letters, and more, to a list of items in a contextual menu. You can also have the current date and/or time typed. You can then select any of those items from the menu and have them automatically typed into any application that supports contextual menus. You can also associate a key combination (a Hot Key) with a macro and use that Hot Key to invoke the macro. AutoTextTyper is available as shareware for US$10. You can find more information at the Chaotic Software web site. Chaotic Software

[11:00 AM] MacLotto Preparing To Give Stuff Away...Lots Of Stuff by Staff While nobody has heard a peep regarding the FreeMac.com promotion, another free Mac based site is getting ready to open their doors. MacLotto.com will provide users an opportunity to win a plethora of Mac goods, from iMacs to iBooks, and more. According to MacLotto: MacLotto.com is now accepting pre-registrations for the MacLotto Sweepstakes! MacLotto.com is a fantastic new service that is sure to excite the Mac community by bringing free Mac sweepstakes to the web! MacLotto.com offers daily free sweepstakes! Prizes include iMac DVs, iBooks, hardware, software, and other prizes. With fun sweepstakes, Instant Win Days, and other promotions, MacLotto.com is sure to be a daily stop for many users and winners. Thanks to advertising, MacLotto.com offers all of the sweepstakes 100% free! Registration is free and open in advance. It's quick and simple, and user privacy is protected and important. With the grand opening right around the corner, MacLotto.com invites all Mac users to take advantage of this early registration and be ready for the fun and excitement of the daily MacLotto Sweepstakes! The first drawing and official opening of the site is scheduled for June 27th. You can find more information at the MacLotto web site. MacLotto

[10:00 AM] Mac Music Helps You Rock With New VST Plug-ins by Staff Mac Music has made available 2 new audio plug-ins from Bam de Jong from SmartElectronix. Cyanid Variable and SupaPhaser Extreme help extend the functionality of VST. According to Mac Music: Cyanide Variable This plug in offers spline distortion, with switchable pre and post filter. Use it to spice up anything. Features: Variable spline waveshaping distortion. Pre and post filters, LP or HP. Pre and post gain. Vile colors :) SupaPhaser Extreme This phaser effect comes with a maximum of 23 phaser stages. The phaser can be controlled by an LFO or by the envelope of the incoming sound. Features: 3 to 23 (yes, 23) stages phaser with feedback. Phaser operation is controled by a mixture of LFO and envelope follower, both configurable. Enhanced stereo effect. Pre-phaser distort or saturate. Post-phaser gain. Note: If you know other developpers who make musical applications for the Mac, tell them to contact us at web@macmusic.org We'll host theirs softwares or files on macmusic.org for free. The plug ins are freeware and work with all VST compatible applications. You can find more information about them at Mac Music's site. Mac Music

[9:00 AM] OS X Like File Viewing Available Now by Staff Greg Landweber has announced Greg's Browser 2.7. It lets you navigate your way through the files on your hard disk, giving a compact multi-pane view of your folder hierarchy. According to Greg Landweber: Greg's Browser was originally based on the NeXT OS directory browser, which is the same model that Apple will be using for the multiple column view in Mac OS X. Version 2.7 now lets you edit file type and creator codes by clicking the file kind at the bottom of the Browser window or by pressing <command>-<return>. It also adds an option for live window resizing in the Browser Preferences box. (Note that live resizing is extremely processor intensive and works well only on very fast machines.) In addition, this version takes full advantage of the StuffIt Engine from Aladdin Systems, letting you directly manipulate the contents of StuffIt 5 archives. There are several other minor changes, including improvements to the file info displayed at the bottom of the Browser window and support for Appearance sound effects under Mac OS 8.5 or later. Greg's Browser is US$20 shareware and you can find more information about it at Greg Landweber's site. Greg's Shareware

[6:00 AM] New Search Utility Trumps Sherlock by Staff Webb Toys Software has released a new dynamic search utility, Krytton. Krytton allows text files that frequently change to be easily searched, and avoids having to use Sherlock's Indexing feature. Also receiving an update is Webb Toys RecordToDisk utility for direct sound recording to mounted volumes. According to Webb Toys: Krytton 1.0 is a powerful, freeware, easy-to-use text PowerPC-Only file searching tool. In cases where text files may change from day to day or hour to hour, the use of an search tool like Sherlock that relies on indexing is not always convenient, and the speed benefits of pre-indexing searches is outweighed by the amount of time it takes to make the index! One of the best features of Krytton is that you can save both search and results sets and search through either, allowing you to dig deeper and deeper until you find what you want, when you want. Krytton features the unique ability to save all results from multiple searches into one single search set, making it easy to create a master index of all of your important documents. Krytton takes advantage of MacOS Drag and Drop. This means that a simple drag and drop of files or a folder onto a Krytton window will create an immediate link between your new search set and your file. RecordToDisk is a SuperCard 3.6.1 plug-in that gives you the ability to record audio directly to the hard drive, bypassing Apple's annoying 'Record Sound' dialog box. This version fixes several memory related problems. Krytton 1.0 and RecordToDisk are both freeware. You can find more information at the Webb Toys web site. Webb Toys

[6:00 AM] The Sun Is Out, And MAC-O-RAMA Is Smiling by Staff In celebration of the sun making its way through the coulds, MAC-O-RAMA is holding a can't miss summer sale. Make sure you are stocked up on games to entertain yourself when the weather does turn bad again. According to MAC-O-RAMA: The sun decided to shine (briefly) in Washington and MAC-O-RAMA is having a party! To help fill the void between barbeques and badminton games, we whipped up some fun contests and some red-hot deals! Check 'em out: Global Village 56k USB Modem $54 Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation $36 Fallout $29 F/A-18 Korea Gold $29 Norton AntiVirus 6.0 $30 Painter 6 (with $200 rebate!) $399 Backyard Baseball 2001 $19.99 Disney's Dinosaur Activity Center $29.99 Don't miss your chance to win fabulous prizes just for visiting MAC-O-RAMA! That's right... We are giving cool stuff away every single day. Plus, while you are here... Take advantage of our daily manufacturer specials, like free shipping and incredible discounts. Be sure to stop by for the following events: MACWORLD DAY (6/21): Win a one year subscription to THE Mac magazine. ATI DAY (6/22): Win a $50 MAC-O-RAMA gift certificate good towards any ATI product! PREOLIS DAY (6/23): Win a free copy of Stories from the Story Bag: Maylo and the Leopard. Plus, order any Preolis product this week and receive a 10% discount on your entire order! You can find more information at the MAC-O-RAMA web site. MAC-O-RAMA

[6:00 AM] The Ultimate Way To Conquer The World by Staff Blue Byte Software has released a new version of the economic strategy game, Settlers. Settlers 3: The Ultimate Collection inlcudes several game play add-ons, including the Quest of the Amazons Expansion CD. According to Blue Byte Software: Blue Byte Software has announced that The Settler's III: The Ultimate Collection is now available through the Blue Byte Direct online store. With the Ultimate Collection, Blue Byte presents an extremely sophisticated combination of economic simulation and strategy games for newcomers, fans and collectors. The Settlers III: Ultimate Collection includes the full version of the strategy-filled economic simulation The Settlers III, The Settlers III Mission CD and Quest of the Amazons Expansion CD. In addition, the Ultimate Collection offers additional maps, strategic mission support and previously unpublished elements. Blue Byte will also be offering the first-ever set of four collectible figures based on the characters from this economic simulation game. The initial figurines to be released will come from The Settlers III and feature all four races, including Romans, Egyptians, Asians and Amazons. Settler's III: The Ultimate Collection is available for US$24.95. You can find more information at the Blue Byte Software web site. Blue Byte Software

[6:00 AM] Registration Code? Is that a "0" Or A "O"? by Staff DXoft has updated Hardware And Software Tracker to version 3.6. This FileMaker Pro based application allows users to easily record vital information for their computer related products, like registration codes, serial numbers, and company information. DXoft has also announced that version 4.0 is on the way, which will include a runtime version of FileMaker. According to DXoft: Main changes in version 3.6: Software & Hardware Tracker now informs you when it finds records with IDs longer than 60 characters so that you can try to shorten them. Added fields to let Software & Hardware Tracker 3.6 find long IDs. Fixed several buttons which didn't invoke the correct scripts. Fixed a field in the Purchase Tracker, the type of which had been switched to "time" by mistake. Fixed two fields in the Company Tracker which didn't call upon the right relationships. Fixed two "Omit" scripts so that they really omit all the records they are supposed to. Added a few more fields to help version 4 import version 3.6 records directly. It means you must upgrade to version 3.6 (3.5 lacks a few important fields) to be able to restore your records into the upcoming version 4 automatically. Software & Hardware Tracker is a collection of FileMaker Pro 3.0/4.0 relational database which will help you collect, store and organize useful information (such as registration codes, serial numbers, product notes, etc.) about all your computer products (hardware and software). Relying on the standard Internet Config system, Software & Hardware Tracker is perfectly integrated with your other Internet software. It also keeps track of all your contact information for software and hardware developers, distributors and places of purchase, turning it into a powerful contact and Internet bookmark manager. Software and Hardware Tracker is available for US$15. You can find more information at the DXoft web site. DXoft