Today's News On One Page
December 1st, 1999
[4:45 PM] Macromedia's CourseBuilder Makes Building Online Courses Easier by Staff Macromedia announced a new product designed to make designing online courses easy. The new product is called CourseBuilder and works with Dreamweaver 3. Dreamweaver is Macromedia's popular HTML layout editor. According to Macromedia:
You can find more information on the product at Macromedia's web site. CourseBuilder is priced at US$199 and the company is offering a bundle with DreamWeaver for US$499. |
[4:30 PM] SysQuake: Science, Not Gamers by Staff Calerga has announced an update to SysQuake, bringing the scientific software to version 1.1. SysQuake is designed to help users work in Math, Physics, and engineering. The new version brings performance enhancements and other improvements to the software.
You can find more information and download links for the product at the company's web site. Pricing for the product if offered in Francs, but Calerga is offering a free demo. The update is free to registered owners. |
For the first time in history Apple ends the trading session above the psychologically significant century mark, as some technology stocks staged a come back after yesterday's profit taking. After flirting all week with the $100 level Apple advanced strongly, soaring 5 3/16 or 5.30% to close at 103 1/16 on a volume of 5.5 million shares traded. The Dow moved ahead 120 points (1.11%) to close at 10998 on a volume of 874 million shares traded. Oil service stocks, HMOs, apparel makers and electronic firms led the way higher. The Nasdaq gained 17.55 points (0.53%) to end the session at 3353.71. Volume was, as usual, heavy at 1.4 billions shares traded. The Internet and the semiconductor sectors gained. Even after the Nasdaq's 2.5% sell-off yesterday, its largest one day retracement since October 15th, the Nasdaq was up 16% for November with 15 new record high closings for the month. Average volume of shares traded in November increased to 1.3 billion, up 25% from October, while NYSE volume declined slightly. The S&P 500 recovered 8.81 points today (0.63%) to close at 1397.72. This was helped, in part, by the addition of Yahoo! to the Index. Yahoo! rose 10 1/8 to close at 228 7/8. 30-year Treasury bond was down 4/32 to close at 97 21/32, the yield rose to 6.30% from 6.29% yesterday. Key to the bond market moving forward is the November employment numbers to be released on Friday. The National Association of Purchasing Management (NAPM) Index for November declined to 56.2. Analysts had forecast 58.0, while last month's NAPM came in at 56.6. This measure of US manufacturing strength indicates that the economy may not be overheating after all and caused a small rally in bonds which lost steam late in the day. It wasn't a good day for Apple related stocks. Gravity caught up with Akamai today, down 19 3/8 points to 217 5/8. While Adobe lost 2 1/8, after yesterday's 2 7/8 lost, to end 66 9/16. Macromedia got clobbered again, down 4 dollars after yesterday's trouncing of minus 3 5/8, to close at 61 3/4. Symantec lost 2 1/2 to close at 44 3/16. Apple's Power PC partners were both up , IBM gained 11/16 to close at 103 3/4, while Motorola gained a fraction to end at 116 15/16. Apple's competitors ended mixed. Gateway was down another 1 5/8, after losing 2 3/4 in yesterday's sell off, to close at 74 3/4. Microsoft continued to climb, up 2 9/64 to 93 3/16, on hopes of a settlement with the DOJ. Compaq, Dell and Hewlett Packard also ended in positive territory. But Intel lost 3/8 to close at 76 5/16. 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.
[4:15 PM] Apple Stock Watch: Apple Finally Does It, Closes Over 100 For The First Time
by Wes George
[3:30 PM] Dell, Gateway: Finally, A PC Maker Designs Different (With Pics) by Staff Gateway and Dell have both introduced new machines that depart from traditional PC form factors. Dell has introduced a new PC called the webpc (lower case) while Gateway has a new product called the Profile 2. Both of these computers follow similar design paths, but what is truly interesting is that neither follow the path of the iMac.
Both models follow a stylized base with a flat panel monitor and are effectively all-in-one designs. The webpc is priced at US$2349. Dell has set up a nice Flash presentation that includes a 360 degree view of the webpc. The Profile 2 is priced at US$1999. The picture of the Profile 2 we have included in this article is the best one we could fin on Gateway's site. The Mac Observer Spin: Some Mac journalists have expressed negative feelings on the design of the webpc. Indeed, the company offers a less expensive model with a CRT that is unbelievably ugly. However, the model with the flat panel display is at least different from typical PC fare we have seen in the last 18 months. The Gateway Profile 2 is nothing short of sexy looking, especially when viewed from profile which Gateway's TV commercials for the product do. On the other hand, Gateway's CRT-based al-in-one is also fundamentally unpleasant looking. Apple defenders should not confuse their (our) love for the Mac with a hatred of all things PC. In the case of these two products, the PC world has actually delivered a legitimate offering. It has been more than 18 months since Apple first introduced the iMac, and 15 months since the product actually shipped. Gateway and Dell deserve kudos for finally introducing a truly different form factor that does not borrow from the iMac. What is perhaps the most interesting is that the price points on these systems is well above even then midrange Power Mac G4, let alone the consumer priced iMac. In our opinion, even the iMac will not get much competition from these new PCs. Instead, more mindless Suits and upwardly mobile executive lemmings will be the ones to flock to these beasts. With Apple surely planning a flat panel all-in-one for the next 18 months, it will be interesting to see how they approach the subject now that they have beaten to market. And lest it need to be said, neither of these products holds a candle to Apple's offerings. What do you think? Talk back at The Mac Observer Forums. |
[2:45 PM] Running Windows On Your Mac (With VPC) Just Got Better by Staff The good people at AuctionMac Software have announced an upgrade to their excellent utility, VPC Helper. Virtual PC is a product from Connectix that emulates a Pentium system and allows you to run Windows on your Mac. VPC Helper works to make that process more efficient and works directly with Virtual PC itself. The new version includes performance increases. According to AuctionMac Software:
You can find more information on the product at the company's web site. The update is free to registered owners, while the full version is priced at US$8.99. |
[1:30 PM] Meta Tag Manager Updated by Staff YAV Interactive has released a new version of their utility Meta TAg Manager. Meta Tag Manager does just what it sounds like, it helps you manage your Meta Tags in HTML documents. The new version brings Mac OS 9 compatibilities and other improvements. According to YAV Interactive:
You can find more information on the product at the company's web site. |
[11:30 AM] Holiday Gift Suggestion Of The Day: Make That Mac Gamer Happy! by Staff We are providing a Holiday Gift Suggestion of the Day for Mac users looking for the perfect gift for their loved one. For those not celebrating any holidays, treat yourself. :-) Today, we tackle the tough issue of finding a gift for the Mac gamer in your life. For other Gift Suggestions, check out the Full List.
If you have a Gift Suggestion we should post, tell us about it! |
[8:30 AM] Descent 3 For Mac Shipping! by Staff Mac game fans can rejoice as the latest version of the Descent Empire is now shipping. Graphsim has announced that Descent 3 is now shipping and expects the title to be available in retail locations as early as this week. According to Graphsim:
You can find more information on Descent 3 at the company's web site. The title is priced at US$45. |
[8:30 AM] MusicMath Updated, French Version Introduced by Staff Laurent Colson has released a new version of Music Math. Music Math is a product that assists with music composition, transposition, and many other mathematical aspects of music. The new version, 2.2, adds new features and other enhancements, as well as a French version. According to Laurent Colson:
You can find more information and download links for the product at the company's web site. MusicMath is freeware. |