Today's News On One Page
November 17th, 1999
[5:30 PM] Injection Pro Updated With Mac OS 9 Compatibility by Staff Glucose Development Corporation has released a new version of Injection Pro, bringing the META tag generator to version 2.2.1. The new version brings improved performance and other enhancements. According to Glucose Development Corporation:
The update is free to registered owners and Glucose Development Corporation is offering a free demo. The full version is priced at US$55. You can find more information at the company's web site. |
The stock markets turned negative after recently bounding to new highs on the Nasdaq and S&P 500. Wall Street is relieved to see the market take a break and regroup after reaching a strongly overbought condition yesterday. Most analysts see further advances coming soon. The only dark cloud on the horizon is the price of crude oil which hit a 9-year high today clobbering the transports and instigating higher bond yields. Higher yields draws money off the stock market and into bonds. The Dow lost 49 points (0.45%) to close at 10883. Volume was strong with 950 millions shares traded. The financials were weak, while the oil stocks boomed. The Nasdaq pulled back 26 points (0.79%) to end the session at 3269. Today was the heaviest volume day in stock market history on the Nasdaq with 1.6 billion shares traded. The S&P 500 lost 9.14 (0.64%) to close at 1410.69. The 30 year bond was down 29/32 to close at 99 31/32, the yield rose to 6.12%. The Commerce Department said the Consumer Price Index rose 0.2% in October and the core CPI rate rose 0.2%. Both numbers met the expectations of economists. Housing starts were up only slightly at 0.1%, but applications for building permits showed signs of renewed strength in the spring, jumping 5.2% last month. Apple was up most of the day, but ended down 15/16 to close at 90 1/4 with a continuation of the less than average volume trend we have seen the last few days. Hewlett Packard (HWP) announced 4th quarter earnings after the bell that were in line with analysts' expectations of $0.73 per share. HWP rose 1 5/16 to close at 77 7/16. Applied Materials (AMAT) also beat earnings this afternoon with actual earnings of $0.75 per share, $0.02 better than expected. It was a good day for Apple related stocks, Akamai, Arm Holdings, Macromedia and Symantec ended higher, while Adobe showed signs of profit taking, down 1 9/16 to 75. Apple's Power PC partners, IBM and Motorola went different directions. IBM closed down 1 5/8 to 93, while Motorola rose 1 3/16 to 119, on the news that demand for it cell phone components is too strong to meet. Compaq rose 1 5/8 to end at 23 3/8, after announcing a high performance supercomputer that boasts multi- TeraFLOP power. Oracle leapt 6 3/4 to close at 71 1/4. Yesterday Oracle's CFO Jeff Henley predicted that 2nd quarter revenue could be strongly higher because of renewed e-business software purchases after Y2K. Dell, Microsoft, Intel, and Gateway all closed lower. 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. The Mac Observer Spin: Go figure, the Fed raises rates and stocks close at all time highs. Analysts have speculated that many traders were just relieved that the rate hike was no longer an unknown issue.
[5:00 PM] The Apple Stock Watch: Rest and Test Day on Wall Street, Apple Closed Down
by Wes George
[3:30 PM] MP3 Portable Player Goes Elite by Staff ADS Technologies has released a new portable MP3 player called the Elite MP3. The Elite MP3 is cross platform compatible and features 192 MB of expandable RAM. The device will also allow users to make their own voice recordings. According to ADS Technologies:
The company has not yet announced pricing or a shipping date. We did confirm with the company that any USB equipped Power Mac would work, though their press release originally quoted only an iMac. The company also told The Mac Observer that the Elite MP3 does indeed require Mac OS 8.6 and above and will not work with Mac OS 8.5 or Mac OS 8.5.1. The Mac Observer Spin: Another cool MP3 product coming to the Mac. It's great to see companies paying attention to the Mac market, and this product in particular looks fairly sexy. The portable MP3 market is gaining critical mass at a rapid pace. Unlike the initial MP3 storm itself, the Mac is right in the think of things with the portable players. |
[3:00 PM] Rantic Labs Goes On A FireWire Rampage, Mactell Product Line Not Involved by Staff The story of Rantic Labs has taken a twist from our originally reported story that they would be acquiring the FirePower product line from MacTell. The company has announced a new FireWire product line called Rampage. The Rampage line includes hard drives, DAT drives, MO drives, two ORB devices, and two CD/RW drives. According to Rantic Labs:
Interestingly enough, this announcement comes at the same time that a story about MacTell and Rantic Labs ran in the Austin American Statesman:
Mr. Stocker was not available for comment. As of now, the company is no longer advertising the FirePower product line and is instead advertising the Rampage product line. We contacted Shaun Mohle, CTO of Rantic Labs, and former Mactell employee, who told us that the company is no longer selling the FirePower line. According to Mr. Mohle:
There is no information on what may be happening to MacTell orders and products that were open when the company closed its doors. Mactell stockholders and customers have been discussing this in our Forums. The Mac Observer Spin: We are not sure what happened to the arrangements between Mactell and Rantic Labs, though we are certain that our information that Rantic Labs would be using the FirePower line was accurate at the time. At some point, a breakdown in the agreements between Rantic Labs and Mactell must have occurred, though we do not know why. One thing is certain; The more FireWire devices on the market, the better for Apple and PowerMac G3/G4 owners. |
[1:00 PM] Our Tour Of the Apple Canada Software Tour by Oliver Dueck On November 9, we had the pleasure of attending the Apple Canada Software Tour, in Fredericton, New Brunswick. The event took place at the Wu Conference Centre, located on the University of New Brunswick campus. The presentation was given by Pierre Mason, a senior systems engineer with Apple Canada. While the audience of sixty or so was not exactly huge, they appeared to be interested and attentive. There were only a handful of students; most seemed to be professors or local business people. The facilities employed were excellent; the projector and speaker system made the presentation all the more enjoyable. Mr. Mason began by describing the new line of Power Mac G4 systems. Clips were shown from Steve Jobs' introduction of the product, and impressive benchmarks were presented that put the Pentium III processor to shame. Next on the agenda was the new line of iMacs, and new features such as the addition of DVD and FireWire were touted. The demonstration of iMovie (included with the iMac DV and iMac DV Special Edition) was very impressive. Mr. Mason simply dragged and dropped video clips, sound effects, and movies into the timeline, and then easily added various transitions and text, resulting in a high-quality QuickTime movie. This package is amazingly easy to use, and the output was excellent. Also demonstrated was AppleShare 6.3, the latest incarnation of Apple's venerable server software package. Mr. Mason showed us how easy it is to administer the latest version, either via the admin software or remotely through the web. It was also stressed that AppleShare offers file sharing via TCP/IP, and features seamless integration with Windows NT client machines. After a short break, the presentation continued with a thorough demonstration of Mac OS 9's new features, such as FontSync, Sherlock 2, Multiple Users, voice print passwords, and AppleScript over TCP/IP. Despite reports of customer problems with OS 9, the demonstration went off without a hitch, and the audience seemed very impressed by the new OS. The Mac Observer Spin: We were somewhat disappointed that the iBook and PowerBook lines were hardly mentioned; it would also have been nice to actually see a Power Mac G4 in action. However, we can't complain too loudly, as it was called a Software Tour. Unfortunately, FinalCut Pro and Mac OS X Server were also ignored; a demonstration of these products, or even a mere mention, would have been appreciated. Nonetheless, the presentation was quite impressive. It is good to see Apple putting effort into events such as this one, as it is a great way to show current and potential customers the latest products. So if a similar event takes place in your area, we advise you to check it out! |
[Column] Computing With Bifocals - Update: The Septuagenarian Computer Novice And His iMac |
[9:00 AM] Whether You Like Weather Or Not by Staff Trexar Technologies has updated the desktop weather forecast application, WeatherTracker, to version 3.0.4. WeatherTracker allows you to have a constant, dynamic weather report on your desktop. The new version includes bug fixes and performance enhancements. According to Trexar Technologies:
WeatherTracker is available as shareware for US$29.95. You can find more information at the Trexar Technologies web site. |
[9:00 AM] Sweeping Up Your Dirty Text Just Got Easier by Staff Blue Line Studios has released the final version of their text manipulating software, TextBroom. TextBroom 1.2.3 allows users to "cleanup" text files by searching for, and replacing, annoying strings of text. According to Blue Line Studios:
TextBroom is available as shareware for US$15, and a time limited demonstration version is available from the Blue Line Studios. For more information, you can visit the Blue Line Studios web site. |
[9:00 AM] New Title Optimizes Your Mac For Any Emulator (VPC, Virtual Game Station, MacMAME, Etc.) by Staff AuctionMac Software has released ResourceFree 1.1. ResourceFree helps simplify the task of optimizing your system for use with resource demanding applications such as games and emulator packages. According to AuctionMac:
ResourceFree is available as shareware for US$12.95. You can find more information at the AuctionMac web site. |
[8:00 AM] Horror Of Horrors, Stephen King Title Coming To The Mac by Staff Blue Byte Software today released more information on the upcoming entertainment release from horror author Stephen King, F13. The product falls somewhere between a game and a utility, but certainly is generating significant interest. According to Blue Byte:
F13 is expected to ship in January, and will be available for US$29.95. Customers who reserve an advanced copy at the Frightware web site will also receive a special mouse pad with their order. F13 is expected to be a simultaneous Mac/PC release. You can find more information at the Frightware web site. |
[8:30 AM] The List, The List, The List Is On Fire by Staff Macnologist.com has recently added a comical new feature simply known as "The List". The List is open for everybody to view and modify, and can be an excellent way of truly getting to the bottom of what Mac users think. According to Macnologist.com:
To experience The List for yourself, head over to the Macnologist.com web site. |