-JULY 2000-
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DSound Releases Mac VST Version of Stomp'n FX Filters
JULY 31 —Windows audio software developer DSound has brought over one of its effects sets to the Macintosh. Stomp'n FX Volume 1 is a collection of pedal emulators (with interfaces to match) consisting of Chorus, Flanger, Autowah, Compressor, Noise Gate and EQ.

Panopticum Ships FX 1.0 for After Effects
JULY 31—Panopticum today announced it's shipping Panopticum FX 1.0, a set of plugins for After Effects on the Mac. It includes filters from four previously released sets of plugins, including Fire 2.5, which was just released itself last week. The new package includes AnimaText 1.1, a tool for creating text effects; Fire 2.5, which creates combustion effects; Lens Pro 2, a set of tools for creating lens effects; and Tools 1.1, which includes eight filters.

Brief: Toshiba Offers Rebate on 3 Megapixel Camera
JULY 31—Toshiba today announced that it's offering a $100 mail-in rebate on its PDR-M70 digital camera. The camera, which has a 3 megapixel resolution, will now sell for $799 with the rebate. It includes a built-in speaker and microphone for recording and playing back up to 60 minutes of digital audio. It also has an AVI function for capturing up to five minutes of video at 15 frames per second with audio on the SmartMedia card. It also comes with USB connectivity. For more information, visit http://www.toshiba.com. —Dave Nagel
Aurora Capture Cards Bundled with Organic FX
JULY 28—Aurora Video Systems has started bundling Pixelan's Organic FX with its Igniter Mac-only video capture board. In addition, Aurora's Fuse board will be bundled with Organic FX Lite. Organic FX is a set of more than 250 fluids, bursts, erosions, ruptures, climatics, vapors, strokes, washes and live textures that visually evolve during the effect. Organic FX are derived from natural forms, rather than algorithms, a process that's supposed to create more natural effects. OrganicFX Lite includes 50 of the Organic FX effects.

Echo Fire Adds Digital Voodoo Support
JULY 28—Synthetic Aperture has added new input device support and several other enhancements to its Echo Fire 1.1 software, a package for displaying After Effects and Photoshop documents on an NTSC monitor. New device support includes Digital Voodoo D1 Desktop, Aurora Fuse and Igniter and Media 100 systems. The Digital Voodoo D1 Desktop card (which we'll be reviewing in the next month or so) offers direct output to both a computer monitor and an NTSC monitor with extended desktop functionality. In other words, the NTSC monitor acts as a second desktop, allowing users to work in programs like Photoshop in NTSC.

 
FilmLogic Plugs in to Final Cut Pro
JULY 27—Focal Point Software today announced the latest beta build of its FilmLogic 3.0 software. The new version, 3.0b1, now supports Final Cut Pro, while previous versions supported only Media 100 and Adobe Premiere. FilmLogic is a software application designed for filmmakers who are shooting 35 mm or 16 mm film and want to edit electronically while finishing on film, working with non-linear editing systems to track all the elements that go into the making of the final film. A bit like an extended electronic codebook, it follows the relationship between the original camera negative, the transferred video tapes and the captured clips in the editing system.

Appian Promises Mac AGX Dual-Monitor Cards by Year's End
JULY 26—Appian Graphics, a manufacturer of multiple-display graphics cards, today announced that it's started manufacturing its own graphics chip—the Appian AGX, a high-end graphics processor with support for multiple monitors running at 1,600 x 1,200 at 75 Hz each, all on a single chip. The company earlier this year entered the Mac multiple-display graphics market with the Jeronimo 2000 Mac. And, as it turns out, they plan to follow it up with cards powered by the AGX for the Mac this year.

Cinema 4D XL Gets Free Update to 6.1
JULY 26—Maxon Computer has announced a new update to Cinema 4D XL, its high-end 3D modeling, rendering and animation package. The new version is immediately available for free download to registered users (with addenda to documentation). Maxon's calling 6.1 a major update to Cinema 4D XL 6, which was introduced three months ago. New features include a different plugin architecture (along with a new software development kit), new interface schemes and improved use of camera tracking data.

Review/First Look: Voodoo5 5500
JULY 26—As I was on my way to my last scheduled interview at Macworld, I was mentally composing the lead paragraph of my show wrap-up story, and it was going to go something like this: "While many companies offered interesting products, all of them combined were overshadowed by Apple's announcements of standard multiprocessing CPUs, the G4 Cube and a new mouse." That's what I was thinking, anyway, until I saw the pictures coming from the two new display cards from 3dfx Interactive, the Voodoo 5 4500 and 5500. I've been doing Mac graphics professionally for more than a decade, most of that in video, and I have to tell you, I've never seen anything like this before.

Focus: The Future of Form•Z—Seven Questions with Founder Chris Yessios
JULY 26—Last month Auto•des•sys, headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, announced a major change in in the way it will market Form•Z, the company's flagship product and the modeler that helped make desktop 3D a commercial reality back at the time of its launch in 1991. Now, of course, rendering applications ship with increasingly powerful modelers of their own, all wrapped up in a tight, integrated package. On the other hand, Form•Z continues to challenge other developers with innovative new features that keep the program at the vanguard of modeling and making Form•Z an integral part of many a desktop artist's repertoire of tools.

Formac Brings 3Dlabs Graphics Chips to the Mac with New ProFormance Board
JULY 25—3Dlabs and Formac, two graphics card manufacturers, have been working quietly to bring R3 graphics processors over to the Mac platform. The product of their collaboration is the new ProFormance 4 board, a graphics card that uses GLINT Gamma G2 (geometry processor) and dual 128-bit GLINT R3 processors. The new 256-bit card has 64 MB of onboard memory and can power two monitors from a single AGP port. The card accelerates 100 percent of OpenGL geometry and lighting in hardware. This is the first card on the Mac to offer this feature.

 
Mac Swift3D Set for September Launch
JULY 25—Following months of anticipation, Electric Rain today finally announced a Macintosh port of its Swift3D software, but users will still have to wait until September to get their hands on it. Swift3D is a piece of software that allows users to create and work with vector 3D objects that can be animated and placed into Flash files.

Flash To Get Major Overhaul in Version 5
JULY 24—Macromedia says it's giving Flash a major overhaul, including a whole new interface, for the new version due out in September, with a Flash 5 player scheduled for an August release. The company says the new interface in Flash is the first implementation of a standard interface that will appear in all Macromedia authoring products. Tools will also be consistent across all of Macromedia's authoring line (including a new Bezier pen tool), as will menu organization and keyboard shortcuts. (Flash 5 will also have customizable shortcuts.)

Curious Labs Sets Fourth Quarter for Relaunch of Poser
JULY 24—Curious Labs says it will ship version 4.0.3 of Poser beginning in the fourth quarter. Curious Labs was cofounded by some of the original developers of Poser from Fractal Design and MetaCreations, which began unloading its catalog of software titles earlier this year in favor of pursuing Web technologies.

Boris FX Announces Boris RED2
JULY 24—Boris FX today announced Boris RED2, a resolution-independent 3D compositing and title-effects plug-in suite for nonlinear editing systems on the Mac. Boris RED2 adds such new features as export to Macromedia Flash, rotoscoping and vector-animated paint tools, bringing resolution-independent vector graphics and Web distribution to NLE systems.

The Foundry Ships Tinderbox 1 for AE
JULY 24—The Foundry, a software developer based in London, has started shipping Tinderbox 1, a set of 20 filters for Adobe After Effects. It includes blurs, effects and tools for working with mattes, including one called T_Dilate, which allows compositors to grow or erode matte edges at the subpixel level. The company says it designed the package for speed and consistency to to aid in workflow, and, to this end, the filters share a common interface, with 11 major parameters shared across all 20 plugins.

DV Companion for Final Cut Pro Updated
JULY 21—This week's Macworld saw the release of the latest version of "The DV Companion—The Intelligent Assistant for Final Cut Pro." Updated to include the latest features in Apple's most recent release of Final Cut Pro, the Companion includes some new features.

Main Event Launches Scripter Personal Edition
JULY 21—One of the most powerful and unique features of the Mac OS is one that many people don't take advantage of: scripting. Users don't know that it's there, and others think it's over their heads. Main Event Software is hoping to change that with the release today of Scripter Personal Edition, a scaled back version of their flagship product aimed at beginning and intermediate scripters, who want an authoring tool to write AppleScripts but who do not need a full-featured development environment.

Emagic Ships Logic Audio Platinum 4.5
JULY 21—Emagic is making a big upgrade to Logic Audio Platinum available for download from its Web site. The new Mac (and Windows) Logic Audio Platinum 4.5 lets users work in all currently available Surround formats, according to Emagic. A dedicated Surround Panner has been integrated to facilitate the movement of the sound source in space.

Panopticum Updates Fire Filter for AE
JULY 21—Panopticum has released Fire 2.5 for Mac, a plugin for Adobe After Effects and AE-compatible editors and compositors like Apple's Final Cut Pro. Panopticum Fire 2.5 is designed to create a variety of combustion effects, from candle flames to large fires. The plugin is a single module containing several different effects sets.

Macworld Brief: XLR8 Announces FireWire PCI Card
JULY 21—XLR8 announced that it will soon ship its new MACh Fire PCI card, its first entry into FireWire products. It includes three FireWire ports and comes bundles with VideoShop 4.5, QuickTime Pro 4.1 and a FireWire cable. It should be available in August for $99. For more information, visit http://www.xlr8.com. —Dave Nagel

Macworld Brief: Media Cleaner Gets 2x Boost from New G4s
JULY 21—Terran Interactive says its Media Cleaner Pro video compression software is fully compliant with the new dual-processor G4s from Apple, receiving speeds up to twice as fast than on single-processor models. The company says the software is not actually optimized for the new systems, but future versions will be. Media Cleaner Pro encodes QuickTime, RealSystem, Windows Media, MP3 and others. It sells for $499. Terran also says that its Media 100 systems are compatible with the new G4s as well. For more information, visit http://www.terran.com. —Dave Nagel
Macworld Brief: Sonnet To Ship FireWire/USB Combo Card
JULY 21—Sonnet Technologies says it will begin shipping a new combination FireWire and USB PCI card this summer. The card, called Tango, comes with two external USB ports and three FireWire ports, two external and one internal. Each FireWire port has a data transfer rate of 400 megabits per second and can support up to 63 FireWire devices. The USB port, which is USB 1.1 compliant, has a data transfer rate of 12 megabits per second and supports up to 127 USB devices. The card is expected to ship in late August for $139.95. For more information, visit http://www.sonnettech.com. —Dave Nagel
Sony To Speed Spressa FireWire CD-RW
JULY 20—Sony announced today two new models in its Spressa line of CD-RW drives. The two models, one FireWire, the other an internal ATAPI, support 12x maximum write, 8x maximum rewrite, and 32x maximum playback. The 8x rewrite speed is twice the Spressa's previous speed. Sony says that at 8x a CD can be rewritten in about nine minutes.

Macworld Brief: Macromedia Launches UltraDev Exchange
JULY 20—Macromedia yesterday launched the Macromedia Exchange for Dreamweaver UltraDev, a new site for the product's developer community. The site includes discussion threads, receive e-mail updates and rate and review the extensions. The site is modeled after the Macromedia Exchange for Dreamweaver site, which launched in April and, to date, has distributed more than 250,000 extensions to more than 100,000 registered developers. Both sites are part of the Macromedia Membership Center, a centralized location for Macromedia customer interests and information. Because Macromedia UltraDev is built on the core architecture of Dreamweaver, any extensions written for Dreamweaver will also extend the functionality of Dreamweaver UltraDev. The new UltraDev Exchange can be found at http://www.macromedia.com/exchange/ultradev. —Dave Nagel
Macworld Brief: Discreet Ships Combustion
JULY 20—Discreet today announced it has started shipping combustion, a visual effects package for the Macintosh that combines the features of its Paint and Effect applications, as well as a load of new features—keying, motion tracking, color correction, vector-based nondestructive paint animation, true 3D compositing, network rendering, and support for Adobe Photoshop and After Effects plugins. It offers a unified paint, animation and 3D-compositing environment for graphics and visual effects creation. Digital artists and animators can paint or use composites directly in 3D Studio Max (available on the PC only), create textures and background plates or post-process scenes in Combustion using 3D Studio Max's Rich Pixel Format (RPF) file format interchange. Effects created in combustion are available directly within the edit bins or timelines for immediate effects to editing integration. Combustion is available for a list price of $3,495. For more information, visit http://www.discreet.com. —Dave Nagel
Macworld Brief: ATI Announces Mac Radeon Boards
JULY 20—ATI Technologies today announced the Radeon Mac Edition graphics add-in board. It will be the first Mac ATI board to feature 32 MB of Double Data Rate (DDR) memory. It also features ATI's RAGE Theater chip, with S-video and Composite video support for display on a conventional TV set. Games, animations and architectural renderings can be displayed on large-screen TVs. In addition to TV-out, RADEON Mac Edition also supports more types of displays than any competing product, support which includes Apple, VGA and DVI for digital flat panels, according to ATI. It provides full-screen playback of QuickTime and MPEG-1 video through the Radeon GPU's four-tap filtering architecture. Video images are displayed with full frame rates, and characters move realistically, ATI promises. Other features include: OpenGL support; twin cache architecture; superscalar rendering; specular highlights; perspectively correct texture mapping; spherical, dual paraboloid and cubic environment mapping; fog effects; texture lighting; video textures; reflections; shadows; spotlights; LOD biasing; and texture morphing. ATI says the AGP and PCI versions will ship in September. They will sell for $279. For more information, visit http://www.ati.com. —Dave Nagel
First Look: Media 100 i, Part 1
JULY 20—I have to confess just a little bit of nervousness when I approached Media 100 i for a hands-on session with its product manager Caren Anhder. I'd raised my own expectations pretty high, and stuck my neck out a little further than I was used to on behalf of a product that wasn't even shipping.

Newer Announces First CPU Upgrade for PowerBook G3s
JULY 20—Here I was thinking that my trusty 1999 PowerBook G3/400 was close enough to state of the art performance, when I find out that the speed demons at Newer have come up with something even faster: a 466 MHz upgrade, the world's first for G3 PowerBooks.

VR Toolbox Ships Latest VR Worx
JULY 20—QuickTime VR movies are easy to play with, and anything but easy to create. VR Toolbox has been producing a variety of tools to make the task less burdensome and, at Macworld, began shipping the latest version of its integration of those products, VR Worx. "I can say unequivocally that there is no better way to create QuickTime VR movies with any other application, on any platform."

Virtual Mirror Introduces Vector Studio
JULY 20—Macworld marks the debut of Virtual Mirror's Vector Studio, a suite of plugins for Adobe Illustrator. Compatible with versions 8 and 9 of Illustrator, Vector Studio is available for both Macintosh and Windows. I spoke with Michael Perani, Virtual Mirror's Vice President of Product Development about what he was hoping to accomplish with Vector Studio. "All of us at Virtual Mirror are artists," he said, "so naturally our product development flows directly from the kinds of tasks we want to do better."

Macworld Brief: Club Mac Offers Rebates on New Systems
JULY 19—Well, the new line of G4s, Cubes and iMacs has been around for less than a day, and already at least one online reseller is offering rebates on the new systems. Club Mac is giving purchasers $200 off the dual G4 500 ($3,299), $100 off the dual 450 ($2,399), $100 off the single-processor G4 400 ($1,499), $100 off the G4 Cube 450 ($1,699), $15 off the 350 MHz iMac ($785), $20 off the iMac 400 MHz ($979), $50 off the 450 MHz iMac ($1,249) and $60 off the 500 MHz iMac ($1,439). For more information, visit http://www.clubmac.com/emailframe.html.

More Details on the New Pro Keyboard and Buttonless Mouse
JULY 19—Earlier today we reported on Apple's new pro keyboard and optical mouse. Both announcements came as a great relief to users stuck with Apple's small keyboard and hockey puck mouse—and, worse yet, few third-party options that worked the way they were supposed to. In fact, the mouse actually received more of an ovation at Steve Jobs's keynote address this morning at the Macworld Expo than any other announcement of the day.

More Details on the New Dual-Processor G4s
JULY 19—Earlier today we reported on Apple's new dual-processing G4s Cube, which will, as of today, replace the single-chip 450 MHz and 500 MHz G4 desktops. The new models were announced at the Macworld Expo during Steve Jobs's keynote address, which began at 6 a.m. PDT. The new models tip the scale of the price/performance ratio back toward the midrange. Users had previously questioned the value of spending $800 more for a mid-range G4 that offered few benefits over the low-end model. The new dual-processing models are not only priced the same as previous single-processor models, but the also include extra features (beyond the extra chip): gigabit Ethernet; 1 MB backside cache per processor, for a total of 2 MB; and much bigger hard disks.

More Details on the G4 Cube
JULY 19—Earlier today we reported on Apple's new G4 Cube, a desktop computer housed in an 8" cubical case. The new model was announced at the Macworld Expo during Steve Jobs's keynote address, which began at 6 a.m. PDT. Here are some more details on the Cube based on a separate release from Apple. (We mistakenly reported earlier that the Cube would, like its non-Cube desktop counterparts, ship with gigabit Ethernet. It actually comes with 10/100Base-T, according to Apple's release.)

Macsense Adds to FireWire Offerings
JULY 19—Macsense Connectivity announced three new FireWire products products today: the Macsense FireWire PCI Adapter, FireWire CardBus Card and FireWire Repeater. The Macsense FireWire PCI Adapter allows Mac and PC users to link any FireWire-compatible peripheral for a transfer rate of up to 400 Mbps. It supports hot swapping of FireWire peripherals.

Newer First To Fix G4 Problems with Six-Slot Power Macs
JULY 19—Newer Technology announced today that they have identified and corrected a major problem with several symptoms on older Mac systems. The problem occurs between G4 CPU upgrades and six-slot Power Macs (9500 and 9600) and six-slot clones (Daystar Genesis and Power Computing PowerTower Pro). The problem relates to an "illegal bus condition" triggered by the dual PCI bridges in the 9500 and 9600.

Maxon Launches Education Program for Cinema 4D XL
JULY 19—Maxon Computer today announced a new educational program that provides software and services, including a community Web site, instructional resources and reduced pricing for educators, students and administrators. This includes all education levels.

Analysis: You Had To Be There
JULY 19—It's hard to overstate the excitement in New York's Jacob Javits Convention Center when Steve Jobs made the announcement, perhaps the most eagerly anticipated news since the introduction of the Macintosh G4. A new mouse. Oh yeah, and something about dual processors, gigabit Ethernet and bigger hard drives for the same price.

Jobs Keynote: Dual-Processor G4s Take Over Desktop Line; New Desktops, Cubes, iMacs, Displays, Keyboard, Mouse
JULY 19—Steve Jobs delivered his keynote this morning at the Macworld Expo in New York to a packed, cheering crowd. He announced a whole line of new hardware, including new dual-processor G4 desktops, a new G4 "Cube" and revamped iMacs. He also announced three new displays, a new keyboard and the long-rumored buttonless mouse, as well as a new version of iMovie.

MicroNet Announces New SANcube Array
JULY 19—MicroNet Technology today announced new configurations of its SANcube, a line of FireWire SAN (storage area network) devices. The new 450 GB, four-user SANcube provides 450 GB of online storage and delivers up to 33 MB per second data throughput. Two new dual-channel SANcube Xstream arrays, in 270 GB and 450 GB capacities, provide faster throughput by striping data across two FireWire busses to achieve up to 65 MB per second reads and 35 MB per second writes.

LaCie Ships 12x FireWire CD Burner
JULY 19—LaCie has started shipping a new FireWire 12x 4x 32x CD-RW drive called FireBooster. LaCie says the drive is the fastest FireWire writer available and that it's been designed for portability between FireWire-equipped Macs.

Channel Storm Creates Software-Only Solution For Real-Time Streaming
JULY 19—Live martial arts demonstrations from the Macworld show floor every half hour will herald the announcement of LiveChannel, the first and only software-only solution for producing and broadcasting live media.

VST Announces New FireWire Drives, Internal RAID
JULY 19—SmartDisk has announced new versions of its full-height VST FireWire hard drives, featuring increased capacities, greater performance and lower prices. The new products include the full-height series of VST FireWire hard drives in 20 GB, 30 GB, 45 GB and 75 GB capacities, an increase in size from previous versions, which had a maximum capacity of 37 GB. Performance of the new drives has improved from 16 MB per second to 24 MB per second.

Macworld Brief: VST Announces New FireWire Drives
JULY 19—SmartDisk has announced new versions of its full-height VST FireWire hard drives, featuring increased capacities, greater performance and lower prices. The new products include the full-height series of VST FireWire hard drives in 20 GB, 30 GB, 45 GB and 75 GB capacities, an increase in size from previous versions, which had a maximum capacity of 37 GB. Performance of the new drives has improved from 16 MB per second to 24 MB per second. All four models use IBM's 7200 RPM 75 GXP DeskStar series of hard drive mechanisms. They are compatible with all FireWire-equipped Macintosh computers. They're also compatible with VST FireRAID Software, which allows users to create larger high-performance volumes using RAID levels 0 (striping) and 1 (mirroring). The 20 GB FireWire drive costs $499.95; The 30 GB drive costs $599.95; the 45 GB drive costs $699.95; and the 75 GB drive goes for $1,099.95. All the new drives are available now. Now For more information, visit http://www.vsttech.com.
Steinberg Releases Three New Cubase VST 5.0 Apps for Mac
JULY 19—Steinberg North America has announced three new products in the Cubase VST 5.0 series for the Macintosh. The Cubase VST 5.0 Series boasts a complete graphic makeover with new features like analog warmth with Magneto technology and 32-bit recording, output and mixdown in the top of line, Cubase VST/32. The Cubase 5.0 series is optimized for Power Mac G4 with Velocity Engine.

More on Apple's Financials
JULY 18—Apple took no questions from members of the press today at its financial results conference call and chose to remain tight-lipped about tomorrow's product announcements, despite leaks from two of its vendors already. Earlier today Apple revealed that it had brought in a profit of $200 million for the quarter ended July 1 on revenues of $1.825 billion. The company now has $3.8 billion in cash and short-term investments.

Apple Profits $200 Million
JULY 18—Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2000 third quarter ending July 1, 2000. For the quarter, the Company posted a net profit of $200 million, or $.55 per diluted share. These results compare to a net profit of $203 million, or $.60 per diluted share, achieved in the year-ago quarter.

Macworld Brief: Fujitsu To Ship Magneto-Optical Drive Tomorrow
JULY 18—Fujitsu today announced today that its launching a new line of magneto-optical drives. The new DynaMO SF series includes the DynaMO 1300SF, a 1.3 GB external SCSI MO drive, and the DynaMO 640SF, a 640 MB external SCSI MO drive. The DynaMO SF series will be available beginning July 19 and will be on display at the Macworld Expo in New York July 19 through 21 at booth No. 142. The new SF drives boast a data transfer rate of up to 5.92 MB per second and access times of 23 ms, owing to enhancements in cache algorithm. The new series outperforms previous models by about 30 percent on the 1.3 GB model and 15 percent on the 640 MB model. Dust resistance has doubled, according to the company. It also supports Ultra SCSI interface of 20 MB per second. For more information, visit http://www.fujitsu.co.jp/hypertext/aboutmo/en/.

New Fuji Camera Captures Stills, Video and Audio
JULY 18—Fuji Photo Film USA has announced a forthcoming digital still camera that also plays back MP3 files and records up to 80 seconds of AVI video. According to Fuji, the 40i features the same Super CCD image sensor found in the FinePix 4700 Zoom digital camera. The 4700's resolution is 2,400 x 1,800 pixels. Fuji didn't say whether the 40i had the same resolution or not.

Wacom Debuts 24-Bit LCD Pressure-Sensitive Tablet
JULY 18—Wacom yesterday announced a new digital LCD pen-tablet system, the PL500, which it will demonstrate Wednesday at the Macworld Expo in New York. The new tablet offers 24-bit color on a 15" active matrix LCD screen. Wacom says the new model is 24 percent larger and 66 percent brighter than its predecessor.

BitHeadz Announces Loop-Based Compositor, Arranger for Mac
JULY 18—BitHeadz says it will ship a new loop-based composition and arrangement suite for the Macintosh. Phrazer, as the company calls it, is expected to ship in the fourth quarter. BitHeadz says it will accomplish on the Mac what Sonic Foundry's ACID has done on the PC. Says BitHeadz CEO Steve O'Connell: "Now any Mac user can quickly match up different loops using standard digital audio files, Phrazer native files or even ACID files imported from the PC platform."

Macworld Brief: Keyspan Ships FireWire Cards with QuickTime Pro
JULY 18—Keyspan is now shipping its new FireWire cards. The cards, which include a FireWire cable and video editing software, include one for notebooks with a CardBus slot and one for PCI Macs. The PCI version can be configured for three external slots or two external and one internal connection. The notebook version sells for $139; the PCI version sells for $89. Both cards are bundled with QuickTime Pro for Mac and Windows. For more information, visit http://www.keyspan.com.
Macworld Brief: LaCie Announces New Pocket Drives
JULY 18—LaCie today announced some new Pocket Drives that offer both USB and FireWire connectivity. The Pocket Drives are available in 6 GB, 18 GB and 32 GB capacities. They measure 3.5" x 5.75" and weigh less than a pound—about the same as an internal hard drive. When the drive is connected to a FireWire interface, performance is more than 11 MB per second. When the USB interface is used, the LaCie hard drives deliver a sustained performance of up to 750 KB per second. The LaCie Pocket Drives will run $399 for the 6 GB hard drive, $749 for the 18 GB drive and $1,299 for the 32 GB drive. For more information, visit http://www.lacie.com.
Macworld Brief: Canon To Announce New Scanners
JULY 17—Canon says it will announce four new scanners at the Macworld show in New York this week at an invitation-only press dinner, which will be streamed live at http://www.ccsi.canon.com/webcast. The event will start streaming July 18 at 7:55 p.m. EDT. Online viewers can register for a chance to be one of 25 winners of one of the new Canon scanners being announced that night.
Synthetik Releases Free Major Upgrade to Studio Artist
JULY 17—Synthetik Software this week will release Studio Artist 1.5, the long-awaited update to the Mac-only graphics program. The upgrade will be free to registered users of previous versions of the software. The new version offers editable keyframe timeline animation for all of the features available in Studio Artist.

Macworld Brief: Met@box Ships 2 MB Cache G4 Processor Upgrades
JULY 17—Met@box Corporation is now shipping joeCARD G4 processor upgrade cards with 2 MB of backside cache for the Mac platform that can provide more than a 20 percent performance benefit over similar processors with only 1 MB of backside cache, according to the company. You can see the 2 MB cards in action at the Macworld trade show in NYC at booth No. 872. The 2 MB cards for PCI Macs and Mac clones are in stock now; 2 MB upgrades for ZIF models will be shipping in early August. Initially the 2 MB cards will be available in speeds of 400 MHz and 450 MHz, with a 500 MHz version to soon follow. For more information, visit http://www.metaboxusa.com.

Macworld Brief: Imation To Demonstrate 20 GB FireWire Drive
JULY 17—Imation Corp. today unveiled its new Imation Travan FireWire 20 GB Drive. The new drive will be demonstrated at the Macworld show at booth No. 1601. The drive is slated for availability in fourth quarter 2000 for $499. It delivers up to 120 MB per minute (16 megabits per second) transfer rate. It's bundled with Dantz Retrospect Desktop Backup. It also works with Imation's Travan 20 GB Cartridges, available for $33.99. For more information, visit http://www.imation.com.

Epson Reduces Scanner Prices
JULY 17—Epson today announced it would be cutting prices on four of its desktop scanners in its Perfection line. The Perfection 610 is now $129. The Perfection 636U is now $149. The 1200U is $199. And the 1200U Photo is now $299. The Epson Perfection 1200 series products are geared toward photo enthusiasts and entry-level graphic artists.

Umax Offers 42-Bit FireWire Scanner with PCI Card
JULY 17—Umax has announced two new scanners in its Astra line. The company's positioning the new Astra 6400 as the first FireWire scanners targeted toward consumers, although it does have a transparency option. The company also announced the Astra 6450, which comes with a built-in transparency unit.

Channel Storm To Demo Software-Only Streaming
JULY 14—Channel Storm will demonstrate a live streaming solution at next week's Macworld Expo in New Your (July 19 through 21, booth No. 1713). Unlike most other streaming options, however, this one is software-only: Just a DV-equipped Mac and QuickTime are required.

Pixologic To Debut ZBrush 2D/3D Paint Application for Mac
JULY 13—Pixologic says it will debut ZBrush for the Macintosh platform at this year's Macworld Expo in New York (July 19 through 21). ZBrush, previously available only for Windows systems since its debut this last December, is a painting application with a 3D-like rendering engine. It works with tools common to paint applications but also includes rendering capabilities.

Canon Announces Pocket-Sized MiniDV Camcorders
JULY 13—Canon has announced a new MiniDV camcorder that it will ship in October. The new model, the Elura 2MC, is a a pocket-sized hybrid digital video camcorder with features like still, motion and multimedia image capture. The Elura 2MC measures 1 7/8" x 4 1/8" x 3 3/8". It weighs slightly more than one pound with a battery and tape.

Native Instruments Reinvents the Tonewheel
JULY 12—Native Instruments will be releasing a new tonewheel organ synthesizer for the Macintosh within the next month or so. The B4 is a VST-compatible B3 and rotating speaker emulator that the company says produces sound "virtually indistinguishable from the original hardware."

Trimedia PencilMan Brings Tablet Support to Retas!Pro
JULY 12—Trimedia Inc. has announced PencilMan, the newest addition to the RETAS!Pro family, which allows animators to hand draw their animation directly into the system with a pressure sensitive tablet, creating a truly paperless animation production system.

Viking Releases 1 GB PC Cards for Kodak DCS Cameras
JULY 11—Viking Components has released a new line of PC Cards for Kodak DCS cameras. Viking is now shipping Kodak Professional DCS-compatible Type II PC Cards in capacities ranging from 1 GB down to 16 MB. Each Kodak Professional DCS digital camera model has two PC Card slots, enabling a maximum digital image storage capacity of 2 GB when using the Viking 1 GB Type II PC Card.

ATI To Announce Mac Radeon Card at Macworld
JULY 11—ATI released a statement today disputing a claim by another online Mac publication that it's losing Apple's business to competitors.

Analysis: What the Media 100 i Means to Video Editing
JULY 11—Parsing press releases is one of the most difficult things we do here in the digital press. News breaks fast on products that aren't shipping yet, in an industry whose nature is undergoing fundamental changes. The challenge is to share exciting news without succumbing to hype and without losing our sense of direction. Media 100's announcement today of their new Media 100 i product line, while bearing some of the marks of traditional marketing enthusiasm, actually understates some of its most dramatic implications for its current and future uses. They've gone well past addressing the challenges posed by Avid at the top of their market and Final Cut Pro and others at the bottom. I believe that Media 100 i delivers the future, years ahead of schedule.

Media 100i: Production Goes Online
JULY 11—Media 100 today announced a significant new tool for streaming content on the Web. The system, Media 100i, is a complete editing suite tailored for the Web that provides tools not only for video production and compression, but for interactivity as well.

Medea Ships 600 GB Subsystem with 135 MB/Sec. Transfers
JULY 10—Medea Corp. today announced the new VideoRack RTX, a high-performance, hardware-based RAID 0 disk array designed for professional digital content creators. The 19" rack mount VideoRack RTX subsystems are available in four- and eight-drive, single-channel, and eight-drive, dual-channel Ultra2 SCSI configurations with storage capacities up to 600 GB per rack.

Canto Ships Cumulus Filter for Kodak DCS Cameras
JULY 10—Canto has released a new piece of software that imports metadata from Kodak DCS cameras. The Cumulus "Filter for Kodak DCS Cameras" is an option for the Cumulus media asset management suite from Canto. It allows users to automatically catalog all camera settings and other metadata together with the image—including all camera settings and voice annotations.

Mac Voodoo5 Preorder Starts
JULY 10—3dfx says it's now accepting orders for the Voodoo5 5500 PCI graphics accelerator for the Mac. The company has also announced that the card will offer a DVI port alongside the analog port to power flat-panel digital monitors. The Voodoo5 5500 includes 64 MB video memory, full-scene hardware antialiasing and a fill rate of 667 megapixels per second. It supports resolutions up to 2,048 x 1,536 with an 85 Hz refresh rate at 32 bits.

Agfa Arcus 1200 Includes Two Transparency Adapters
JULY 10—Agfa today introduced the Arcus 1200, the latest addition to its line of Arcus desktop flatbed scanners. The 36-bit scanner offers 1,200 x 2,400 DPI resolution and two transparency adapters for multiple formats.

Canvas 7.0.2 Free Update Includes 120 New Features
JULY 7—Deneba's offering a free updater for Canvas 7. The new version, Canvas 7.0.2, offers 120 new features, according to the company. Users can update the software through the program's autoupdate feature or from Deneba's Web site. The update is limited to registered owners of Canvas 7.

AVerMedia Introduces High-Resolution Mac to TV Converter
JULY 6—AVerMedia Technologies says its new iAVerKey 300 DV Mac to TV scan converter is on its way to retailers and should be available for purchase within the next few days. According to the company, this high-resolution (1,280 x 1,024) scan converter is optimized to work with the iMac DV and Power Mac G3 and G4 computers.

ADS To Ship PCMCIA FireWire Card for Older G3 PowerBooks
JULY 6—ADS Technologies has announced the Pyro 1394 Port for Notebooks, a PCMCIA CardBus card designed to FireWire-enable older Mac G3 notebooks. The OHCI-compliant CardBus features hot swapping connectivity and data throughput rates of 400 Mbit per second.

Pixels, Total Impact To Bring Multiprocessing Renderer to Mac
JULY 5—Pixels Animation Studios, maker of Pixels3D, says it's working with Total Impact to support multiprocessing rendering with Pixels' software on the Mac. Total Impact currently sells multiprocessor G3 (yes, G3) and G4 boards with up to four processors per PCI card.

Boris FX Releases Boris RED 1.5
JULY 5—Boris FX is now shipping version 1.5 of Boris RED, a 3D compositing and title effects plug-in suite for nonlinear editing systems on the Macintosh. The new version provides support for a wider range of host systems, including Apple's Final Cut Pro, In:Sync Speed Razor and FAST silver.

Pinnacle Systems Ships Commotion Pro & DV
JUNE 29—Pinnacle Systems today announced that it's finally shipping version 3.0 of Commotion, an effects and compositing application for digital video. (Commotion was originally developed by Puffin Designs, which was acquired by Pinnacle earlier this year.)

Panopticum Releases Mac Filter Sets for After Effects, Photoshop
JUNE 29—Panopticum has released two new sets of plugins the Mac platform—one for Adobe Photoshop, the other for Adobe After Effects. Plugin Galaxy is set of 20 plugins for Photoshop that produce more than 120 basic effects.

GRM Offers Eight Plugins for Macintosh Digi 001 Systems
JUNE 28—GRM (Groupe de Recherches Musicales de l'Institut National de l'Audiovisuel) has shipped a set of eight new RTAS plugins for Pro Tools LE systems—GRM Tools. The plugins allow composers and sound designers to create new timbres with up to 128 delay lines; move sounds through space....

Digidesign Offers PCI Expansion Chassis for Pro Tools
JUNE 28—Digidesign has started shipping a new seven-slot chassis for Macintosh Pro Tools digital audio systems. Enabling users to add up to seven supported Digidesign PCI cards for Pro Tools|24 and Pro Tools|Mix, the expansion chassis requires no extra software and works with the blue and white G3 or any G4.

CreamWare Ships Pulsar 2.01
JUNE 28—CreamWare has announced version 2.01 of its Pulsar DSP system for Macintosh. The new version can be used with CreamWare's Pulsar and Pulsar II audio systems. The new version includes Macintosh support for the STS-3000 and STS-4000 sampler plugins.

Emagic Ships Polyphonic Sampler for Macintosh
JUNE 27—Emagic has started shipping the EXS24 (Emagic Xtreme Sampler 24 Bit), a professional polyphonic software sampler for Macintosh (and Windows). The EXS24 runs under Logic Audio and MicroLogic AV from Version 4.0 upwards and is Emagic's second foray into virtual instrument development.

Princeton Offers Dual Analog/Digital Flat-Panel Display
JUNE 27—Princeton Graphics Systems is shipping a new flat-panel display that offers dual analog and digital interfaces. The SENergy 850 is an 18.1" LCD monitor that includes a broad range of features not usually found in desktop LCD displays.

Eizo Releases Five New LCDs
JUNE 27—Eizo Nanao Technologies has announced five new Mac-compatible LCD displays. They range in size from 15" to 19.6". The additions include three new 15" flat panels (the FlexScan L330, Digital L351, Digital Hybrid L371) one new 18.1" LCD (the Hybrid FlexScan L671) and the new 19.6" FlexScan L771. All these new LCD displays were designed with the new Eizo Gray bezel and will be available in black as well.

Digital Origin Offers EditDV Unplugged, Media Cleaner EZ for Free
JUNE 27—Mac users are only beneficiaries by David Nagel Executive Producer It's Christmas already, and, apparently, Mac users have been very good this year. Digital Origin today announced it's giving away Mac-only versions of its Media Cleaner EZ and EditDV Unplugged video editing and compression tools. Both are "lite" versions of more full-featured programs, but neither carried a particularly lite price until now. Prior to this offering, Media Cleaner EZ sold for $99, and EditDV unplugged sold for $149.

Andromeda LensDoc Ships
 JUNE 26—Andromeda Software has started shipping a new Photoshop filter called LensDoc. The filter is designed to correct distortions, such as barreling and pincushioning image distortions, produced by zoom and wide-angle lenses. It also provides correction for perspective and rotation.

HP Ships 42-Bit Mac USB Scanner
JUNE 26—Hewlett-Packard Co. has announced a new scanner in its Macintosh line. The ScanJet 5370C offers 1,200 DPI optical scanning with 42-bit color depth. It includes USB connectivity and the ability to scan and upload images to the Web. The Scanner also includes a transparency adapter that supports 35 mm slides and negatives and 5" x 5" transparencies.

HEADLINES FROM JUNE 2000

HEADLINES FROM MAY 2000

HEADLINES FROM APRIL 2000

HEADLINES FROM MARCH 2000

HEADLINES FROM FEBRUARY 2000

Tuesday, February 06, 2001 16:34:31

Tuesday, February 06, 2001 16:34:31