Today's News On One Page
December 9th, 1999
[5:00 PM] WebStar Gets Log Analyzer, Mac OS 9 Compatibility, & More by Staff StarNine Technologies, Inc. has updated the popular WebSTAR Server Suite to version 4.1. The new version includes enhanced search capabilities and included Funnel Web 3.6 for improved log report features. The new version is also fully compatible with OS 9. According to StarNine:
WebSTAR Server Suite 4.1 is available for US$599. Registered users of version 4.0 may upgrade for free. There are also educational discounts available. You can visit the StarNine Technologies web site for more information. |
[5:00 PM] Name That Movie Or I'll Go AlphaNatix On You! by Staff Monkey Byte Development has released two new puzzle modules for the word challenge game, AlphaNatix. Joining the Urban Legends module are the Cult Movies and Wild Kingdom mods. According to Monkey Byte:
For a limited time, all three AlphaNatix games are available for US$34.95 as an electronic version, and US$39.95 for the CD version. You can find more information at the Monkey Byte Development web site. |
[5:00 PM] Washington Apple Pi Holding A Big Shindig This Weekend by Staff If you are in Capital Region of the United States, and are looking for that last minutes holiday gift for the Mac lover on your list, then remember that the Washington Apple Pi computer show is going to be held this Saturday, December 11th, from 9am - 2pm at the Northern Virgina Community College in Annandale, VA. The show will be one of the largest East Coast events of the year. For more information, contact the Washington Apple Pi user group or visit their web site. |
[5:00 PM] Mac OS 9.0 Mods: We're Not Talking Vespas & Parkas Here by Staff Jonathan Jacobs has released a set of OS 9 "mods" which change some of the functionality of your computer at the system resource level. By using Apple's Res Edit (NOT recommended by The Mac Observer unless you know what you are doing or are very brave) to add functionality to menus, change the name of the trash can, help maximize screen realesate, and a host of others. According to Mr. Jacob:
There is no information page, but you can download the OS 9 mods if you would like to give them a try. |
[5:00 PM] Reminder Program Updated by Staff Frank Reiff has updated theMacintosh usage reminder program, MacBreakZ!, to version 2.0b1. MacBreakZ! reminds users when it is time to tear themselves away from their machines for a much need rest period. According to Mr. Reiff:
MacBreakZ! is available for US$10. For more information, please visit the MacBreakZ! web site. |
Volatile profit taking on the Nasdaq couldn't stop VA Linux Systems, the IPO du jour, from setting a new first day performance record by soaring more than 700%. The broader tech markets didn't fair so well. Nervous investors refused to commit before tomorrow's producer price index report, a key economic indicator that may give the market a clue which way the Fed will go with interest rates. Moreover, the general consensus that the Nasdaq is way over bought has many investors believing a correction is finally at hand. Apple continued its steep sell-off, down 4 13/16 or 4.37% to close at 105 1/4 on heavy volume, after shedding 7 3/4 or 6.58% yesterday. The Dow rallied 66 points (0.60%) to close at 11134. Ominously, the Transport index continued its downtrend in spite of the strong Dow performance. The Nasdaq eked out a gain of 6.61 points, after being down as much as 71, to close at 3592.69 with 1.75 billion shares traded. It was the heaviest volume day in Nasdaq history, the second in a row. The S&P 500 lost 4.23 points (04.23%) to close at 1408.11. The bellwether 30-year Treasury bond gained 4/32 to close at 98 23/32, the yield dropped to 6.21% from 6.23% on Wednesday. In Apple related businesses volatility was the norm. Adobe gave back 2 1/4 to end at 65 1/2. Macromedia lost 3 5/8 to close at 82 3/8. Symantec was down 3 3/4 to close at 59 15/16. Apple's Power PC partners, IBM and Motorola both sold off today. IBM climbed to 122 1/8 early in the day as they went into a meeting with analysts. John Joyce, IBM's CFO, said that he expects sales to be weak due to a Y2K lock down among large corporate accounts. IBM ended the session down 4 5/16 to close at 113 9/16. Motorola gain 1/16 to close at 130. Apple's competitors ended the day mixed, Gateway came off it's recent lows, up 1 9/16 to close at 67 3/8. Dell, Compaq and Intel continued to downtrend. Hewlett Packard beat the trend to close up 3/4 at 110 9/16. The Linux craze continued. Corel (CORL) soared 10 15/16 to close at 39 1/4. Corel is marketing a version of the Linux operating system. Redhat was up 15 to close at 286 1/4. Andover.Net (ANDN) climbed 14 to 77 1/2 after their IPO yesterday. Andover.Net Hosts a number of open source software web sites. VA Linux Systems (LNUX) offered 4.4 million shares at $30 per share and quickly soared to 330 before settling at 250 up 220 dollars or 733% for the day. 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.
[4:00 PM] Apple Stock Watch: Anxiety Rules as Wall Street Smacks Apple
by Wes George
[1:30 PM] Develop Chat Rooms With Director by Staff Macromedia has released a new version of their Shockwave development tool, Shockwave Multiuser Server 2. Shockwave Multiuser 2 allows developers to develop multiuser online applications like chat rooms. The new version includes many improvements and other new features. According to Macromedia:
You can find more information at Macromedia's web site. The product is priced at US$929.95 from Outpost.com. Upgrade pricing is also available. For owners of Director 7 Internet Studio, an update can be downloaded from Macromedia. |
[12:15 PM] Adobe Introduces GoLive Database Hooks by Staff Adobe has announced new modules for GoLive, their web development solution. The company has announced Adobe GoLive Dynamic Link for ASP and has announced future support of other database solutions as well. Adobe GoLive Dynamic Link for ASP allows users to directly interface with Active Server Pages, a Microsoft technology, thereby keeping HTML development to one application. According to Adobe:
Beta versions of Adobe GoLive Dynamic Link for ASP can be downloaded by registered owners of GoLive 4.x directly from Adobe's web site. The company says that the version that works with JavaServer Pages will be released in the spring. You can find more information at the company's web site. The Mac Observer Spin: This is an exciting development for those into web database development. The downside is that Active Server Pages are a poor solution for web database deployment. However, Microsoft always does an excellent job in making it easy for developers, especially developers like Adobe, to develop for their products first. This is something that Apple should take note of. |
[11:45 AM] ViaVoice Speech Recognition Here At Last! by Staff A new day has dawned for the Mac as IBM is releasing ViaVoice for the Mac. ViaVoice is IBM's continuous speech recognition software that was demo'd at MACWORLD New York in July. The package is priced for consumers and includes a noise reducing microphone. According to IBM:
IBM says the product should be available in stores this week. ViaVoice is priced at US$89.95. You can find more information on the product at the company's web site. The Mac Observer Spin: Speech Recognition is one area where the Mac has had nowhere near as many options as Windows users had. DragonSpeech has long dominated the market and paid little attention to the Mac market until earlier this year. ViaVoice offers serious competition to their market lead, and our guess is that IBM will sell quite a few copies of this product to Mac users. Voice-recognition will play a big part in the future of computing. While we have not yet reached the point where we can carry on converstations with our computers, that day gets closer all the time. ViaVoice for the Mac is a big step forward to that end. |
[Review] StuffIt Deluxe 5.5, A Smooth Upgrade
by Michael Munger
[8:00 AM] Microsoft Once Again Demonstrates Its Ability To "Innovate" by Staff Microsoft shows their innovation yet again with some announcements surrounding their new streaming media and digital video efforts. According to a C-Net article, Microsoft has stumbled upon the incredibly innovative concept of giving their upcoming Media Player update a brushed-steel interface. Even more innovative, Bill Gates, Microsoft's Chairman, announced the company would be including consumer oriented digital video editing software in Windows 2000. According to C-Net:
More information on Microsoft's Innovation can be found at the Freedom To Innovate web site. Thanks to Mike S. for directing us to this article. The Mac Observer Spin: Miserable Sods. This is another fine example of Microsoft aping the truly innovative technology companies of the world. While we have not seen the new interface for the Media Player, it certainly sounds like the interface Apple uses with the QuickTime Player and Sherlock 2. Microsoft's consumer video effort also sounds a lot like iMovie that Apple includes with the iMac DV and iMac DV Special Edition. Microsoft can scream til' they are blue in the face that they have to retain the "freedom to innovate," but it doesn't change the fact that they have created almost nothing of their own. Microsoft would be on more truthful footing if they were trying to protect their right to include technology and ideas found in other companies' products. Certainly they have the right to develop their own consumer video editing software, they should simply spare us the farce of claiming they are innovating while doing so. |
[8:00 AM] Aladdin Moves One Step Closer To Cross-Platform Compression Ubiquity by Staff Aladdin Systems has announced a new product which moves a long way towards cross-platform compression defacto standards. The company has announced DropZip for Windows which allows Windows users to use either the Zip compression format or the Stuffit compression format. Zip is the dominant compression format for Windows while Stuffit has long been the favorite on the Mac side. According to Aladdin:
You can find more information on DropZip at the company's web site. DropZip is priced at US$20. Owners of DropStuff for Windows or Mac can purchase the product for US$10. The company offers a 30-day free trial. The Mac Observer Spin: This is important for Mac users and Windows users alike. For many years, it was difficult for Windows users and Mac users to share compressed files. Utilities like ZipIt eventually appeared for the Mac that made it possible to open Zip files on a Mac, and Aladdin eventually brought both Stuffit and Stuffit Expander to Windows. Aladdin then added the ability to decompress Zip files in Stuffit Expander and the ability to make Zip files with Stuffit Deluxe. DropZip completes the last piece of the puzzle by allowing Windows users to create either Zip or Stuffit files with one utility. All these products combined basically eliminate most of the hassles associated cross-platform file sharing. |