Today's News On One Page
September 17th, 1999
The Week's Top Stories For Week Ending 9/17/99 |
[4:15 PM] Lates Software Updates: RoadRunner Client, Virtual PC, a new Virex Beta and More! All these software updates and more are listed, detailed, and constantly updated at The Mac Observer's Version Master! Go see for yourself at http://www.macobserver.com/versionmaster/. |
[1:45 PM] Apple Stock Watch: Up And Down Trading Sees Apple Close Slightly Higher
In a day of trading that saw Apple go up and down repeatedly, Apple managed to finish out the day with a slight gain. Today was a "Triple Witching" session in which contracts on stock options, index options, and index futures all expire. Despite or because of this (depending on who you ask), general market pressure was upward in nature. Apple closed at 76 15/16, a gain of 1/8 or 0.16%. Volume was light with 2,475,700 shares trading hands. Mac related companies also did well with Motorola, Macromedia, Symantec, and Adobe all closing higher. Adobe continued to reap the benefits of a record quarter and an announced 2-for-1 stock split. PC companies showed mixed results with Dell, Microsoft, Intel, and Gateway 2000 closing higher. IBM, Compaq, and Hewlett-Packard all closed down. The Dow and the Nasdaq both recovered territory lost in yesterdays sell-off. The Dow closed at 10803.63, a gain of 66.17, while the Nasdaq closed at 2869.62, up 62.90. For full quotes for all the companies mentioned in this article, we have assembled this set of quotes at Yahoo! We also have these 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. |
[2:00 PM] New Plug-in Allows PDF Output Straight From BBEdit
Kas Thomas has released a free plugin for BBEdit that allows users to output PDF documents directly from BBEdit. BBEdit is a powerful and popular text editing package for the Mac. According to M. Thomas:
PDF-Blit is a free product. As of press time, we were unable to access the product's web site at http://www.acroforms.com, though this could be routing troubles at Time Warner's network. The Mac Observer Spin: This will likely be a very powerful tool for many Mac users who need to make PDF files. Commercial apps that will export files as PDF documents tend toward the expensive side. At the same time, BBEdit has legions of dedicated users who swear by it all day long. Combine free PDF software with that kind of installed user base, and you wind up with lots of users. |
[1:45 PM] New Freeware SuperCard Developer Tool Released
DevHQ.com has released announced the relased of a new SuperCard developer tool that allows the use of non-standard windows for SuperCard apps. According to Chilton Webb of DevHQ:
Widget is freeware. You can find more information on the Widget as well as SuperCard and WetWare at DevHQ. |
[2:50 PM] MAC-O-RAMA Offers Sale On iMac Voodoo Card
MAC-O-RAMA has announced a new price on the iMac Game Wizard for Rev A and Rev B iMacs (the ones with the Mezzanine port). According to MAC-O-RAMA.
This is the only way to add Voodoo to your iMac and the company that makes these cards is out of business, so it's best to hurry if you want one. |
[2:45 PM] Snap-To-Desktop Utility Updated With A Pro Version
AuctionMac.com Software has released a new version of SnapTop called SnapTop Pro. The Pro version includes features that give it a higher performance than SnapTop. According to AuctionMac.com Software:
SnapTop Pro is priced at US $8.99 and is shareware. The company offers a 10 day demo. You can find more information and download links at the company's web site. |
[11:30 AM] Direct From France - Apple Expo Day Two: The Cinema Display And Adobe by Philippe Bogdan Another day in Paradise :-) It's amazing how many companies are demonstrating their software and hardware at the Apple Expo. There are over 200 companies at this year's Expo, a very high number. Everything from the fairly big Castelwood booth where they are demonstrating their ORB drive (which looks like a good option to the Iomega Jazz Drive but may well arrive too late as DVD Ram drives are showing up in a few booths... too bad because it's cheap at 230 Euros, and the specs look good too) to the small but really friendly Casady & Greene booth where they are presenting SoundJam MP! The biggest booths belong to the French Mac retailers. Most of these companies are mail order companies, some don't even have a real storefront, but their special offers during the Expo are attracting thousands of customers at their stands all day long. The main attraction seems still to be the iBook and the Apple Cinema Screen. You can't get your hand on one of them without having to wait in long lines behind others trying them! The Apple Cinema Screen looks so incredibly good! If only Apple could come out with a 17 inch mode with an affordable price tag! In my opinion, it really is the best screen I've ever looked at and it seems to be more convenient to use too. Today's main conference today was the Adobe conference. This conference was centered around a presentation of their new InDesign software. Most of the people at the conference were Xpress using publishing professionals (only 2 were using PageMaker). as in the US, Quark Xpress is THE publishing software in France, but many users haven't upgraded to version 4 because of Quark's costly upgrade policy. The presentation itself was well done by a French demonstrator and showed InDesign's major features and the seamless integration with Illustrator using PDF. InDesign's strong point may well be in the area of typography. InDesign includes tools that make possible what has been almost impossible to do in typography since the advent of Desktop Publishing software. These tools will allow users to do some things that were only possible with traditional machines that were the norm 20 years ago. Also relating to InDesign was another conference, hosted by the French magazine SVM Mac, that dealt with the impact that Adobe's aggressive pricing structure for InDesign will have on publishing professionals. Unfortunately Quark declined an invitation to be part of the panel at this conference... Too confident or too scared? The consensus among the attendees seemed to be a sort of "wait and see" attitude, at least until the end of December when Adobe special offer on InDesign end. InDesign and Acrobat PDF could bring an important revolution to the publishing world in Europe where Quark Xpress has long reigned as king. According to Adobe France, most Quark Xtensions developers are now also working on designing InDesign plugins. Another Adobe announcement centered around the beta plugins that put the Mac version of Acrobat 4 on an even level with the Windows version. Adobe said that these plugins are on Adobe's web site now for a free download. The Mac Observer Spin: Despite the impressive reaction to Adobe from Apple Expo attendees, it seems that not everything is well with Apple. The major French newspaper "Le Monde" wrote in the September 15th issue:
What do you have to do to impress we French? :-) Philippe Bogdan lives and work in France. His exclusive coverage of The Apple Expo comes direct from Paris. |
[10:40 AM] Reliable FireWire Backup Hits Market With FireWire DAT
The good people at MacTell have released a product that Blue & White and G4 owners will no doubt be glad to hear about. The company has announced the FirePower FireDrive DAT, a FireWire Digital Audio Tape drive. According to MacTell:
MacTell tells us that they re shipping the product now. The FireDrive DAT is priced at US$849, though it is expected to be priced at US$799 on the street. You can find more information on the drive at the company's web site. The Mac Observer Spin: Another important FireWire product shipping! Tape backup is considered vital by many Mac users, especially in the business market, and this product helps fill that void. |
[Updated 10:30 AM] MacOS News Around The Web |
[8:45 AM] Addonics Releases USB CD-RW For iMac
Addonics Technologies has released a new USB CD-RW portable device aimed at laptops and iMac owners. The new device is very small and referred to as a Pocket device by the company. According to Addonics:
Addonics is including the excellent Adaptec Toast CD mastering software package with the Mac version. The retail price is set at US$529 for this version. The company has not yet added information for the new product to their web site. |