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-MAY 2000-
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| Beatnik
Releases Mixman Studio Mac As Online Download MAY 31—Beatnik has started offering its Mixman Studio Mac digital audio recording and remixing software as an online download. The new online version, Mixman Studio DL, offers much of the same functionality as the boxed version but sells for $19.95.  |
| Media
100 Bundles DVD Fusion SL with MediaPress Suite MAY 30—Media 100 has teamed up with Sonic Solutions to add Sonic's DVD Fusion SL authoring software to its MediaPress Suite and MediaPress Suite SDI DVD authoring systems. The new systems are available for Macintosh only.
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| Corel
Ships KnockOut 1.5 MAY 30—Corel Corp. today announced the availability of KnockOut 1.5 for Macintosh. The new version of this masking application includes a new loupe zoom to magnify selections and the ability to verify mask accuracy by changing the underlying color or inserting another image. |
| Bitheadz
Launches Retro AS-1 Patch Exchange Site MAY 30—BitHeadz has officially launched its Patch Post forum, which allows users to swap Retro AS-1 patches. The BitHeadz FTP server allows users to access these patches through their Web browser using the name "bitheadz2" and the password "wacom." |
| Destiny
Releases Clipstream 2, Demos Java-Based Streaming Video MAY 26—Destiny Media Technologies has released version 2.0 of its Clipstream software for Macintosh. Clipstream allows users to stream audio on the Web through a Java-based application that loads files almost instantly and with high-quality results.
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| 3dfx
Delays Voodoo5 Shipment MAY 25—3dfx Interactive says it will delay shipment of its Voodoo5 5500 AGP cards. In a released statement, 3dfx said, "The company is taking this action to ensure that it meets its own high standards for product quality. The company discovered that the Voodoo5 may be experiencing field failure rates at very low levels in certain configurations."
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| Microtek
Ships New 2,400 x 1,200, 42-Bit Scanner MAY 25—Microtek has started shipping a new family of desktop scanners. The ScanMaker 4700 and ScanMaker X12USL offer 2,400 x 1,200 DPI optical resolutions and full 42-bit color depth in and out. The 4700 comes with a USB connection and software for Macintosh, and the 4700 X12USL includes a SCSI-2 connector. |
| 3dfx
Ships Voodoo5 5500 AGP Card MAY 23—3dfx Interactive announced late yesterday that its new Voodoo5 5500 AGP video cards have begun shipping to resellers and should hit retailer shelves and consumer doorsteps by this Friday. The new cards offer dual VSA-100 (Voodoo Scalable Architecture) processors with the T-Buffer digital cinematic effects engine and 64 MB of total graphics memory. |
| Adobe
Ships LiveMotion 1.0 MAY 22—Adobe today released the full retail version of LiveMotion and says it plans to launch Adobe Web Collection 2.0, which will include LiveMotion 1.0, as soon as GoLive 5 and Illustrator 9 start shipping. LiveMotion is a Flash-like tool that allows developers to create interactive elements on their Web sites and includes an Adobe After Effects-inspired timeline for animation. This timeline allows users to independently animate attributes, such as position, opacity, rotation, scale, skew and color, among other elements. |
| Lexmark
Ships Sub-$2,000 Color Laser MAY 22—Lexmark today announced a new color laser printer. The Optra C710 becomes the first 1,200 x 1,200 DPI color laser priced below $2,000. The Optra C710 delivers 16 pages per minute in black and white and 3 PPM in color. It includes automatic color adjustment technology that identifies graphical elements on a page and automatically adjusts itself to the appropriate settings. |
| EFI
Rolls Out Fiery for Epson 7000, 9000
Printers MAY 22—Electronics for Imaging (EFI) has come out with a Fiery X2 controller for the Epson Stylus Pro 7000 and 9000 series of wide-format printers. The server includes NetWise, which supports simultaneous auto-sensing and auto-switching for TCP/IP, IPX/SPX and AppleTalk, among other protocols. |
| BitHeadz
Ships Retro AS-1 2.0, Unity DS-1 2.0 MAY 18—BitHeadz has begun shipping Retro AS-1 2.0 and Unity DS-1 2.0. Retro is a software virtual analog synthesizer that works with or without MIDI equipment to reproduce the sounds of synthesizers past. Unity is a real-time digital sampler. Both versions are available for Mac OS, with support for Windows on the way. Both software suites are optimized for the G4 Velocity Engine. Both also gain DirectConnect support for integration with Digidesign's ProTools.
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| Piranha
Tries Out New Data Compression for Rich Media MAY 18—Piranha Inc. is testing out a new new method for compressing rich media for the Web. According to the company, Piranha Net is a lossy digital compression technology that enables browsers to download content-rich Web pages in a fraction of the file size of JPEG, GIF or PNG. Piranha says the plugin allows graphics-intensive Web pages to load faster and animated files to load faster and play smoother.
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| Apple
Demos Multiprocessing G4 at WWDC MAY 17—A multiprocessor Mac G4 is in the works, and Apple showed it to developers behind closed doors at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) yesterday. In a private "technology demo," a dual-processor G4 was shown running a developer's release of Mac OS X. According to sources, the multiprocessor machine was compared side by side with a single processor Mac G4, and the dual-processor prototype ran more than twice as fast as the single-processor G4 system.
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| Hitachi
Ships 19" Monitor with 0.22 MM Dot Pitch MAY 17—Hitachi has begun shipping a new 19" CRT monitor, the CM771, which offers the same depth as a 17" monitor—about 17.7". The new monitor offers a 0.22 mm horizontal and a 0.14 mm vertical dot pitch and a 1,600 x 1,200 pixel resolution at 75 Hz. |
| LaCie
Shows Off Forthcoming DVD-RAM FireWire Drive MAY 17—LaCie showed off a forthcoming DVD-RAM drive at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference today. The drive supports the 4.7 GB DVD format and comes equipped with FireWire connectivity. The LaCie DVD-RAM drive will read from discs currently accepted by CD-ROM, CD audio, CD-R, CD-RW and video CD drives, as well as DVD-R, DVD-ROM and DVD video drives. |
| Canon
Intros New Tiny SLR Digital Camera MAY 17—Canon today introduced two new digital cameras, the smallest in its lineup of 2 and 3 megapixel products. The EOS D30 is a 3 megapixel single-lens reflex digital camera measuring 5.9" x 4.2" x 3" and weighing in at 1.6 lbs. It uses a new large-area CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) imaging sensor for producing color prints up to 11" x 14". It accommodates all Canon EF lenses plus a wide range of EOS system accessories.
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| Farallon
Ships SkyLINE Wireles Card MAY 16—Farallon Corp. has started shipping an upgraded version of its SkyLINE wireless card for notebooks. The new card supports speeds of 11 megabits per second, up from 2 Mbps in the previous version. Farallon is offering discounted pricing for those who purchased the 2 Mbps version. |
| Adaptec
Releases Toast Deluxe 4.1 MAY 16—Adaptec has released version 4.1 of Toast Deluxe, a CD recording and rewriting application. The new version supports FireWire CD recorders natively, bringing the maximum writing speed up to 12x. It also speeds up the conversion of MP3 files to standard audio CD format with improved sound quality, according to Adaptec. |
| Corel,
Borland Call Off Merger May 16—Corel Corp. and Inprise/Borland have called off plans to merge. Corel earlier this year acquired several Mac applications from MetaCreations and had also said that, if the Borland merger were to fall through, it would run out of cash in 90 days. Corel declined to elaborate on their current cash position, but, now that the merger has actually been called off, the company is changing its story, saying that it now has the opportunity to seek new sources of financing and implement a cost-saving plan.
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| New
QuickTime Due Out This Summer MAY 15—Apple says it will release the next version of QuickTime this summer. The company says cross-platform support for MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, Flash 4 for Web animation and an enhanced QuickTime VR playback. The new VR playback will include unlimited spherical views of virtual-reality scenes. |
| Alias|Wavefront
To Release Maya for Mac OS X MAY 15—Alias|Wavefront has formally announced plans to bring its 3D animation and visual effects softwareÑMayaÑto the Macintosh platform. What's more, the company previewed it today at the Worldwide Developers Conference running on Mac OS X. Few details were available as of press time. |
| Kodak
Enhances Professional Camera MAY 15—Kodak today announced that it will ship an enhanced version of its 620 digital camera. The new 620x supports ISO settings ranging from 400 to 6400. The new model also provides improved image quality over the previous model. Like the DCS 620 camera, the DCS 620x is built on the Nikon F5 platform, but it uses a new CCD and color filter array to allow for better color at higher ISO settings. |
| OS
X Beta To Replace OS X Release This Summer
MAY 15—Apple has revised its anticipated release date for Mac OS X to early 2001. The software was expected to ship this summer. Instead, an OS X beta will be released to the public this summer. It will run on all G3 and G4 systems, according to Apple. Apple provided no explanation for the delay. However, Steve Jobs says the system software will be tweaked to include more tradtional Macintosh user interface features. |
| ALAP
Brings ShadowCaster to Adobe InDesign MAY 15—A Lowly Apprentice Productions (ALAP) has brought its ShadowCaster plugin to Adobe InDesign. ShadowCaster 1.0 allows users to create shadows and shadow effects from objects in an InDesign document, automatically generating high-resolution TIFFs behind a selected object. |
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Apple
Releases Multimedia Update |
| Epson
Takes Wide-Format Printing to the Next Level May 15—Epson is kicking off this year's DRUPA conference in Germany with a new line of large-format professional printers—the Stylus Pro 7500 and 9500. We had a chance to see some of the results prior to release, and they were impressive—large-format printing on a variety of media with the kind of quality we've come to expect from high-resolution inkjets.
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Digital Media Online
Relaunches Millimeter.com |
| HP
To Ship Full Mac Version of Photoshop with $899 ScanJet May 12—  Hewlett-Packard
Co. is expanding its support for peripherals on the Macintosh. The
company today introduced drivers and a software suite that lets Mac
users connect to the ScanJet 63xx series of pro scanners—the
fastest scanners in HP's lineup. What's more, the top-end scanner
in the series, the 6390, is being bundled with a full version of Adobe
Photoshop 5.5—all for $899. The scanners offer 1,200 DPI optical
resolution, unlimited interpolated resolution and 36-bit color depth.
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| Swissonic
Ships New Firmware and ASIO Driver for USB Mixer MAY 11—  Swissonic
is now shipping updated firmware for its Studio and Studio D USB-based
audio mixers. According to the company, the new firmware provides
compatibility with Mac OS 9, which was incomplete when the mixers
were introduced earlier this year. The company has also posted a new
ASIO driver for the Macintosh on its Web site. The new driver fixes
problems found in Apple's own USB drivers released prior to the 9.0.4
system update.
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Fiery
X2-W Server Comes to Xerox Wide-Format Printers May
11—Electronics for Imaging (EFI) and Xerox have announced a new
Fiery server for the Xerox Xpress 36 and Xpress 54 wide-format printers.
The Fiery X2-W brings EFI's Command WorkStation to the wide-format
market for the first time. This allows users to control a group of
Fiery-driven printers, copiers and wide-format devices simultaneously
from a single workstation.
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LightWave [6] in
Short Supply |
| Midiman
To Ship New Audio Products for Mac This Month May 9—Midiman will ship two new audio products for the Mac this month. The MIDISport 4x4 is a multi-port MIDI interface for USB-equipped Macs and Windows-based PCs. It features four in and four out ports (64 x 64 MIDI channels) and MIDI indicator lights for each port and ships with OMS software for Mac OS 8.6 or later. It's self-powered and includes a 6' USB cable.
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QPS
Ships Que! Fire CD-RW with FireWire Controller MAY
9—QPS Inc. today started shipping a new FireWire-based CD-RW
drive. The Que! Fire offers 8x write, 4x rewrite and 32x read speeds
and can be connected to any Mac or PC that can support FireWire. The
drive includes a 2 MB buffer, and it ships with a FireWire controller
card that provides three hot-swappable FireWire ports. |
| Digidesign
PostConform 2.0 Gains ProTools|24 Support
May 8—Digidesign has started shipping PostConform 2.0, and update to its Mac-only autoconforming software. The update brings compatibility with Pro Tools|24 and Pro Tools |24 MIX systems. PostConform is a standalone application that supports Pro Tools 4.x and 5.x session file formats and HFS and HFS+ disk formats. |
| Epson
Announces PhotoPC 3000z Digital Camera MAY 8—Epson has announced the latest addition to its PhotoPC line of digital cameras. The new PhotoPC 3000z sports a resolution of 2,140 x 1,560 pixels (3.34 megapixels) with interpolation up to 2,544 x 1,904 (4.84 megapixels) with Epson's HyPict technology. It comes with a 16 MB CompactFlash card and can handle cards up to 200 MB.
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| Ricoh
Adds Network Printing to Aficio 850 MAY 8—Ricoh has updated it flagship digital imaging system, the Aficio 850, with network printing capabilities. In addition to the new controller, the 850 will also be offered in two new configurations, including a Fiery network solution and a MicroPress configuration. MicroPress is a short-run, on demand digital imaging system or production printing of monochrome documents. A single MicroPress can drive up to 12 Aficio 850 machines. |
| Evergreen
Ships Combo FireWire/USB Card MAY 8—Evergreen Technologies today started shipping a PCI card that offers both FireWire and USB ports. The fireLINE ComboCard is equipped with three external IEEE 1394 ports, two external USB ports and one internal IEEE 1394 connector. It can connect up to 63 different IEEE 1394 devices at a time. |
| Toshiba
Ships 3.37 Megapixels Camera with AVI Capture MAY 5—Toshiba today announced that they're shipping a new 3.37 megapixel digital zoom camera. The Toshiba PDR-M70 includes an all-glass aspheric lens system (f=7.0 mm to 21 mm, or 35 mm to 105 mm in 35 mm conversion) with macro; 3x optical zoom and 2x digital zoom; 52 mm threads for optional filters and lenses; an extra-large aperture of F=2.0 to 2.5; 12 Mbps download speeds via its USB port.... |
| Storagenow
reduces prices on LVD/Fubre RAID Arrays MAY 4—Storagenow.com has begun offering promotional pricing on its LVD and Fibre Channel RAID arrays. The MAST 9500 LVD and Fibre Channel RAID arrays deliver up to 100 MB per second, eight to 24 disk drives, hot plug component maintenance, embedded JAVA based management with Ethernet attachment and Mac and Windows connectivity. |
| Addonics
Ships External Floppy for Mac MAY 4—Addonics Technologies has released a new external floppy drive for the Mac that reads and writes 3.5" 1.44 MB floppy disks and ultra high-density 144 MB media. The Mobile UltraFloppy connects to the Mac through the USB port, with a FireWire version set to ship later. It measures 8" x 4.9" x 1.3" inches and weighs 23 ounces. |
| Iomega
Adds FireWire Support to Zip MAY 3—Iomega has introduced an adapter for its 250 MB drives that allows their ATAPI connectors to be linked to a Macintosh via FireWire. The adapter not only provides connectivity for the Macintosh, but it also speeds up the data transfer rate of the Zip device from 0.9 MB per second to 2 MB per second. The adapter also eliminates the need for an external power supply. |
| NuSpectra
Ships Mac-Only Web Streaming Suite MAY 2—NuSpectra Multimedia has begun shipping version 5.0 of its SiteCam and SiteZAP Web streaming suites. The Mac-only systems have gained real-time audio streaming capabilities in their latest release. SiteCam 5.0 includes an integrated Web server that can serve up pages featuring live audio and video streams, live video snapshots and time-lapse QuickTime movies and archived images. |
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Sonnet Drops G3 Upgrade Prices MAY 1—Sonnet Technologies is lowering the prices on all of its G3 processor upgrades, some by as much as 20 percent. The Crescendo PCI upgrades now range in price from $179.95 to $299.95. |
| Xerox
Introduces Phaser 750, Drops Price on 740 MAY 1—Xerox's recent acquisition of Tektronix has produced a new model in the Phaser line of color laser printers. The new Phaser 750 does not replace the 740, but Xerox has dropped the price of the 740 to an estimated retail of $1,495. |
| Agfa
Reduces Price of SnapScan 1236u MAY 1—Agfa has lowered the price of its 1236u USB scanner to $179. The scanner features an optical resolution of 600 x 1,200 PPI, which can be interpolated to 9600, and 36-bit color depth. The single-pass scanner offers a scanning area of 8.5" x 11.7" and can accommodate an optional transparency unit. (The automatic document feeder option is available only for PCs.) |
| Lexmark
Announces First Mac Inkjet, 2,400 DPI Printer for Less Than $200 MAY 1—Lexmark today announced an addition to its Z line of inkjet printers—the Z52 Color Jetprinter, which offers 2,400 x 1,200 DPI printing for less than $200. The Z52 can print at this resolution on any paper type, according to Lexmark. This is the first in Lexmark's Z series to offer Mac compatibility. This one includes both parallel and USB ports. It also offers prints speeds of 15 PPM in black and seven PPM in color. |
| Fuji
Ships 4.32 Megapixel Camera for $799 MAY 1—Fuji Photo Film USA has introduced a new digital camera to its lineup, the FinePix 4700 Zoom. The new 4700 offers 4.32 megapixel resolution. Its the first camera in Fuji's line to use a new Super CCD, which uses 2.4 million sensors, fewer than previous Fuji cameras, which the company says helps to produce a better image. The camera also offers a 3x aspherical optical zoom lens; equivalent ISO sensitivities of 200, 400 and 800; pop-up flash; USB port; five programmed exposure modes; and the ability to capture 80 seconds of continuous AVI video with sound on its bundled 16 MB SmartMedia card. |
| Quick
Flashes for May 1 MAY 1—Ramseeker, a RAM price tracking service, is offering a 128 MB RAM giveaway here. Download Graphic Converter 3.8.2 here. |
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Apple Offers Free iMovie Download for PowerBook, G4 Owners APRIL 28—Apple today announced it will offer its consumer video editing application, iMovie, as a free download to G4 and PowerBook owners. IMovie comes preinstalled on iMac DV and iMac DV Special Edition models. The software allows users to capture video through a DV camcorder via the FireWire ports on the Macintosh. Movies are then stored as QuickTime files and can be placed back onto a DV camcorder for viewing on a television. |
| Ricoh
Enhances Digital Imaging Systems APRIL 27—Ricoh has updated its line of Aficio digital imaging systems with the introduction of the Aficio 350e and 450e—both enhanced versions of existing 350 and 450 models. The new versions sport base configurations of 20 MB RAM, 4 GB hard disk space and 600 DPI scanning resolution. The new systems also add network scanning capabilities and faxing from the desktop over a network. |
| TrueSAN
Unveils 7 Terabyte Network Storage System APRIL 27—TrueSAN Networks unveiled its new 7000FC storage-area network device. The fibre channel 7000FC is based on an Open SAN Framework and TrueFibre technology and offers support for Macintosh, Unix (various flavors) and a number of other clients. Storage capacity starts at 200 GB and can be expanded to 7 terabytes. SAN connectivity begins at eight nodes, expandable to hundreds of nodes per storage network. |
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