News: Voodoo4 for Mac Ships
OCTOBER 31—3dfx has started shipping the Voodoo4 4500 PCI graphics accelerator card for Macintosh. The Voodoo4 4500 features a single VSA-100 processor and 32 MB of graphics memory. The VSA-100 (Voodoo Scalable Architecture) incorporates 3D features like 32-bit RGBA rendering, 24-bit depth-buffer (Z and W), 8-bit stencil rendering, FXT1 texture compression support, 32-bit textures, 2,048 x 2,048 texture size support, advanced texture and color combine capabilities and the native support of Macintosh data formats. Read More

News: Umax Gives Away Photoshop 6 with High-End Scanners
OCTOBER 31—Umax has started bundling the full version of Adobe Photoshop 6 with several of its high-end scanners. Umax had previously offered Photoshop 5.5 with some of its scanners. Those who purchase one of those bundle deals between Aug. 28 and Jan. 31 will be eligible for a free upgrade to Photoshop 6. New Umax models in the PowerLook series will be bundled with Photoshop 6 immediately. Read More

News: TripleD Releases Shaders for Electric Image
OCTOBER 31—TripleD Tools has released a set of six shaders for Electric Image. The set, called aEdge, all affect shape edges in one way or another. Read More

News: Sonnet Upgrades 7200s
OCTOBER 30—Sonnet Technologies today announced new upgrades for Power Mac 7200 machines. The two new upgrade cards join a previously announced 7200 Crescendo upgrade from Sonnet. The old 7200s previously had no upgrade options. Read More

News: Sapphire Ships Custom Shapes for Photoshop 6
OCTOBER 30—Sapphire Innovations today started shipping Custom Shapes Vol. 1, a set of shapes for Adobe Photoshop 6. The pack includes more than 800 custom vector shapes, such as patterns, polygons, starbursts, frames and twirls, as well as other formats. Read More

News: Alien Skin Releases Eye Candy 4000
OCTOBER 25—Alien Skin has released Eye Candy 4000, an update to Eye Candy 3, adding five new filters to the Photoshop plugin package. Read More

News: Media 100 i Ships
OCTOBER 25—Media 100 today announced it's shipping all four models of its Media 100i 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. Read More

News: Macromedia To Ship Flash 5 Generator Studio Next Month
OCTOBER 25—Macromedia today announced Flash 5 Generator Studio, a suite of tools for automating Web sites that use a Flash front end. The studio combines the authoring capabilities of Macromedia Flash 5 with the content delivery of Macromedia Generator 2 Developer Edition. Generator resides on a server and does not run under Mac OS. Read More

News: Mac LightWave 6.5 Beta Arrives
OCTOBER 23—NewTek this weekend released the beta version of LightWave 6.5 for Mac. Unlike the Windows version, which can only be downloaded by members of Public Beta Force, the Mac version is open to all users who call in to customer service. Read More

News: Adobe Updates LiveMotion
OCTOBER 23—Adobe has posted a free update to LiveMotion on its site for register users. LiveMotion is Adobe's tool for creating Flash animations for the Web, as well as supporting a number of other formats, including JPEG and SVG. The updated version, 1.02, includes several enhancements, though these do not include the ability to import QuickTime movies or MP3s. Read More

News: Easy Sounds Takes Pro 52 'Electrix'
OCTOBER 19—Easy Sounds has released Electrix, a set of 64 new sounds for the Pro-52 software synth. The sound set was created by Peter Krischker and contains sequencer sounds, pads, sweeps, effects, basses and lead sounds. Electrix supports new features of the Pro-52 like echo, chorus and flanging effects and the unison mode. For users still working with the Pro-Five, the sounds also come as a file in Pro-Five format. Also included are Easy Edit pages for Logic and Cubase and 32 demo sequences. Read More

News: ConceptDraw gets Update to 1.55
OCTOBER 19—Computer Systems Odessa has released an update to its Macintosh drafting, illustration and design tool, ConceptDraw. The new version, 1.55, includes Text Auto Expand mode, enhanced printing, new library objects (including some designed specifically for OS X) and better data exchange with Adobe Illustrator. Read More

News: Total Training Releases Illustrator Series
OCTOBER 19—Total Training Inc. today announced the release of a new training course for Adobe Illustrator. Total Illustrator will be available for NTSC and PAL video formats and includes 10 VHS video tapes consisting of over 18 hours of content. It will ship with an accompanying CD-ROM containing graphic files used by host Deke McClelland in each lesson. Read More

News: Jobs: Faster G4s Coming in Next 6 Months
OCTOBER 18—Apple today said it plans to see another disappointing (albeit profitable) quarter before it starts getting back on track in January. CFO Fred Anderson said in a conference call with investors that the company will see a "slight profit" in the quarter ending in December. Apple's revenues for the quarter ended Sept. 30 came in at $170 million, far shorter than earlier predictions. Read More

News: Kodak Offers Trade-in Program for Film Scanner
OCTOBER 18—Kodak Professional has started offering upgrade and crossgrade programs for the purchase of its relatively new RFS 3570 Plus Film Scanner. The deal lets users of certain older Kodak film scanners, as well as film scanners from other manufacturers, trade in their equipment for rebates of up to $1,500. Read More

News: Fuji Ships FinePix 4900
OCTOBER 17—Fuji Photo Film announced today that it has begun shipping the FinePix 4900 ZOOM, a digital camera with numerous manual controls, in addition to point and shoot functionality. It offers a new, cylindrical design and two shutter-release buttons for shooting either horizontally or vertically. Users can adjust 13 steps of aperture, adjust shutter speeds, focus and manage white balance manually. Read More

News: Coda and Net4Music Offer Free Finale
OCTOBER 17—Coda Music Technology and Net4Music today announced the introduction of Finale NotePad, a free downloadable version of Coda's Finale audio software, also available on CD-ROM for $19.95. The application, available for Macintosh and Windows, allows musicians to engrave simple music and do interactive editing of their own sheet music in digital format. Read More

News: Pinnacle Ships SD Version of CinéWave
OCTOBER 17—Pinnacle Systems today started shipping the standard-definition version of its CinéWave uncompressed video capture and editing system. The high-definition version, originally shown at the NAB convention in April, is slated for a November release. Both versions offer numerous output options, including DVD and streaming files. The SD version comes with Apple's Final Cut Pro; Pinnacle's own Commotion Pro; Hollywood FX Silver; the Targa Ciné engine; and the Pro Analog Breakout Box. The SD system runs $7,495. Read More

News: Pixels 3D Goes Free
OCTOBER 13—Pixels Animation Studios yesterday announced they're making their modeling, animation and rendering package, Pixels 3D 3.6, free for the public. The hope, of course, is that users will upgrade to higher-end or more recent products after experiencing 3.6. The free, downloadable version is not limited in any way, and it's available for the Macintosh only. Read More

News: Medea Drops RAID Prices
OCTOBER 12—Medea Corp. yesterday announced a slew of price reductions on its VideoRaid and AudioRaid disk arrays. VideoRaid SCSI arrays offer 20 and 40 MB per second sustained data transfer rates and storage capacities up to 160 GB. VideoRaid RT sustains a data transfer rate of 65 MB per second and is available in capacities up to 450 GB. VideoRack RTX disk arrays offer sustained data transfer rates up to 135 MB per second and storage capacities to 600 GB per rack. AudioRaid and AudioRack SCSI support up to 128 tracks of 24-bit/96 KHz audio. Read More

News: Rhizomatic Releases Absynth Software Synthesizer
OCTOBER 12—Rhizomatic Software has released Absynth 1.01 for Macintosh (and only Macintosh). The program is a real-time MIDI-controlled software synthesizer that supports 64-voice polyphony with support for six oscillators per voice. It also supports up to four filter modules per voice with a choice of eight filter types. Read More

News: BoxTop Ships ProJPEG 5
OCTOBER 12—BoxTop Software today released version 5.0 of ProJPEG for Macintosh, its plugin for optimizing JPEG files in Photoshop and other applications that accept Photoshop filters. The new version includes support for advanced actions in Photoshop, including automated scripting and batch processing of images. Read More

News: QuickTime 5 Gets Boost from Developers
OCTOBER 11—Normally we here at Creative Mac avoid stories about companies supporting this or that technology. But since the release of the QuickTime 5 public preview yesterday, a number of companies have stepped forward not just with support for the technology, but also with enhancements. Since QuickTime is so fundamental the the way Mac creatives work, we thought we'd give you a quick rundown on some of the players and how they're bringing an enhanced multimedia experience to the Mac. Read More

News: Andromeda Offers Bundle Deals on Photoshop Plugins
OCTOBER 11—Andromeda has started offering bundle deals on its filters for Adobe Photoshop. For a limited time, any two filters will cost $99. Depending on configuration, the bundle saves anywhere from $44 to $99. Read More

News: Microsoft Debuts Media Player 7 Beta for Mac
OCTOBER 11—Just one day after the release of Apple's QuickTime 5 preview release, Microsoft has unveiled the beta version of Windows Media Player 7 for Mac. According to Microsoft, the new player offers Mac users improved functionality, Windows Media 7 audio and video playback and MP3 playback. Read More

News: Apple Offers QuickTime 5 Preview
OCTOBER 10—Apple today released a public beta of QuickTime 5. The new version offers several enhancements over version 4, but does not include all of the features that will be available in the full release, scheduled for some time in 2001. Read More

News: Mac Swift 3D for Flash Ships
OCTOBER 9—Electric Rain today announced the release of Swift 3D 1.0 for Macintosh. Swift 3D is a stand-alone application designed to create vector-based 3D imagery for applications like Macromedia Flash and Adobe LiveMotion. Read More

News: Electric Image Offers Discount on EIAS 2.9
OCTOBER 9—Electric Image has started offering EIAS 2.9 for $995. The company says the special price is available from now until the release of EI:Universe, which is expected at the end of November. When Universe is released, the upgrade from EIAS 2.9 will be $495, according to EI. (The special price will apply to same-platform or cross-platform upgrades.) Read More

News: Vision Releases Archive System for QuarkDMS
OCTOBER 9—Vision GmbH and Quark today announced the release of the QuarkDMS Archive module, an XTensions module for Quark Digital Media System. The QuarkDMS Archive module, developed jointly by Quark and Vision, provides near-line archival storage for digital media elements such as text, graphics and other documents. Read More

News: Adobe Ships InCopy
Adobe today announced the launch of InCopy, an editorial application built on Adobe InDesign. Adobe InCopy, designed specifically for writers, editors and copy-fitters working in newspaper and magazine publishing environments, provides a way for editors to track changes, collaborate with designers and fit copy. InCopy provides a combination change-tracking tool that promotes collaboration without forcing a particular workflow. It shares the same text composition engine as InDesign, so it can fit copy within a layout. In addition, InCopy creates text by using the typographical features of InDesign, such as multi-line composer, optical kerning and margin alignment. It also supports multiple levels of undo and redo. Read More

News: Yamaha To Ship 40x FireWire Audio Rippers
OCTOBER 9—Yamaha last week announced a new series of CD-RW drives—the LightSpeed CRW2100 series—that offer 40x audio ripping capabilities. The drives will start shipping in the middle of this month, with a FireWire model planned for release in December. Read More

News: Cleaner 5 Ships
OCTOBER 5—The successor to Terran Interactive's Media Cleaner Pro, Cleaner 5, started shipping today. The new version of the video and audio encoding and compression software allows designers to embed interactive instructions directly into streaming media content. It allows for capturing, authoring, encoding and publishing of video files to the Web (or other destinations). Read More

News: NEC To Ship 20.1" LCD
OCTOBER 5—NEC says it will ship a new 20.1" LCD monitor this month that includes a VGA and DVI-I connector. The dual-connector arrangement allows older VGA cards to run the digital screen, called the MultiSync LCD2010X, which can also accept analog and digital signals through the DVI-I connector. This is the third monitor in NEC's line to use this technology, called Ambix, which NEC says is not hindered by the loss of signals in digital to analog conversions. Read More

News: Unity DS-1 Gets Dual-Processor Support
OCTOBER 4—BitHeadz has released version 2.1 of Unity DS-1, its digital sampler for Mac. The new version offers support for dual processors in the new G4 lineup. This support includes a doubling of the maximum number of voices and the use of the second CPU for background operations for overall speedier performance. The new version bumps Unity's polyphony up to 256 stereo voices. Read More

News: YARC Releases Mac RIPs for Epson 7500, 9500
OCTOBER 3—YARC Systems has released its Macintosh-based Xtreme Postscript RIPs for Epson Stylus Pro 7500 and 9500 printers. The new systems include a proprietary USB to parallel connector for hooking the Mac up to the Stylus Pro printers. YARC says it took some time to tweak its six-color management system to work with he new Archival inks used by the 7500 and 9500 but that the systems are now working as well as they do on Epson's dye-based inks. Read More

News: HP Extends Digital Camera Line
OCTOBER 3—Hewlett Packard says it will ship two new lower-end digital cameras this month. The PhotoSmart 315, with a 2.1 megapixel resolution, comes in at $299. The 1.3 megapixel PhotoSmart 215 comes in at $199, making it the lowest-priced 1.3 megapixel camera on the market. Read More

News: Cult Effects Gets Bundled with After Effects
OCTOBER 2—Adobe has started including Cycore's Cult Effects 1.5 with full purchases of the Adobe After Effects Production Bundle. Cult Effects normally costs $399 by itself and will not be offered in upgrade or educational versions of the Production Bundle. Read More

News: Epson Updates Perfection Line of Scanners
OCTOBER 2—Epson has launched six new scanners in its line of Perfection flatbeds. Included in the lineup are three Perfection 1640SU models, each with 42-bit color and 1,600 x 3,200 DPI hardware resolutions. They start at $299. Read More

News: Adobe Updates After Effects
SEPTEMBER 28—Adobe today released a free update to its flagship compositing and effects package, After Effects. The update works for both Standard and Production Bundle versions, although none of the Production Bundle's specific elements are updated. After Effects 4.1.1 incorporates several bug fixes and performance enhancements, as well as support for Photoshop 6 files. Read More

News: Macromedia Fires Back at Adobe
SEPTEMBER 28—Adobe and Macromedia have entered round 2 of their bout to find out whose technologies infringe upon whose patents. Last month Adobe charged that Macromedia was infringing on Adobe's interface by using tabbed elements in its palettes. Now Macromedia says both Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Premiere violate some of Macromedia's patents. Read More

News: Kodak Reduces Price of PalmPix, Adds Mac Software
SEPTEMBER 27—Kodak says it will reduce the price of its PalmPix digital camera and add Macintosh software to the package beginning Sept. 29. The $149 PalmPix is designed to work with a handheld device. It allows users to take pictures and transfer them to their desktop through the device's HotSync cradle. Pictures are viewed on the Palm handheld's LCD screen as grayscale images and Palm IIIc's LCD as color images. Pictures are stored as standard JPEG or PICT files for Macintosh users. They can be accessed as full-color, 640 x 480 pictures. Read More

News: Agfa Unveils 1.3 Megapixel Camera for $229
SEPTEMBER 26—Agfa today unveiled two new models in its line of ePhoto digital cameras, shifting the price point down on the low end while bringing the resolution up. The lowest-rez camera, the ePhoto CL20, is a 640 x 480 camera that interpolates up to 1,280 x 960 using Agfa's PhotoGenie technology (which has appeared in other Agfa cameras, such as the ePhoto 780c). The other camera, the CL34, brings the hardware (true) resolution up to 1.3 megapixels. Read More

News: Viewsonic Ships New Flat Panels
SEPTEMBER 26—Viewsonic has started shipping two new flat-panel monitors, the first two to use the company's SuperClear MVA LCD technology. The new screen technology combines high-contrast imaging with multi-domain vertical alignment, improved response time and wider viewing angles. Viewsonic has also developed a new liquid crystal panel technology, 3X-LCD, which increases video response up to three times faster than existing LCD technology, according to the company. Read More

News: Maya Paint Effects Plugin for After Effects Ships
SEPTEMBER 25—Alias|Wavefront seems to be taking a shying to the Mac these days. Earlier this year the company announced plans to bring its flagship Maya 3D application to OS X, and now the company has actually released Maya Paint Effects for OS 9. Paint Effects is a plugin for Adobe After Effects 4.1 that allows artists to generate organic and painterly effects directly within the compositing environment. Read More

News: Beatnik Ships Editor 2.0
SEPTEMBER 25—Beatnik, the company founded by Thomas Dolby Robertson back in 1996, has announced the latest version of its flagship digital audio editor. Beatnik Editor 2.0, a Mac and Windows tool for creating interactive music content in Beatnik's Rich Music Format (RMF), has a new analog-looking interface and adds support for dragging and dropping MP3 files directly from the desktop. Read More

HEADLINES FROM SEPTEMBER 2000

HEADLINES FROM AUGUST 2000

HEADLINES FROM JULY 2000

HEADLINES FROM JUNE 2000

HEADLINES FROM MAY 2000

HEADLINES FROM APRIL 2000

HEADLINES FROM MARCH 2000

HEADLINES FROM FEBRUARY 2000