News: Panopticum Updates Rich Typing for Mac
DECEMBER 26—Panopticum has released version 1.2 of its Rich Typing plugin for Adobe After Effects. Rich Typing 1.2 includes three filters for transforming text, and using text to create ASCII-like graphics from images. These include Rich Typing, Digitalizer and Morphing. Read More

News: Native Offers New Sounds for Reaktor, Dynamo
DECEMBER 26—Digital audio developer Native Instruments has released two new synthesizers for its Reaktor and Dynamo products for the Mac (and Windows). The two new "sounds" include Junatik and Dynamo, both available as free downloads from Native's Web site. Read More

News: Mac FilmLogic Gets Update
DECEMBER 26—Focal Point Software has posted the latest build of its FilmLogic 3.0 software. The new version, 3.0b5, offers batch reverse telecine, 24 FPS Edit Decision List (EDL) Matchback and improved EDL conversion, according to Focal Point. Read More

News: Human Software Releases MagicTrack for Mac
DECEMBER 26—Human Software, a developer of graphics applications and plugins for a number of image editing programs, has started offering discounts of 20 percent or more on a number of its products. All ofd the company's plugins for Photoshop, PhotoPaint, Illustrator and Freehand are on sale, as well as some standalone applications. We won't list them all here, but here are some examples of reduced pricing. Read More

News: Total Training Offers Deals to Creative Mac Readers
DECEMBER 22—Total Training, the company that provides Creative Mac with our video tutorials that you've all been viewing for some time now, is offering a special deal to Creative Mac readers. Those who order any Total Training video training product and mention Creative Mac will receive 25 percent off the purchase. Read More

News: PowerParticles Pro 2.0 Ships
DECEMBER 21—TripleD Tools has started shipping the full version of PowerParticles Pro 2.0 particle system for Electric Image. The new version includes an OpenGL preview that lets parameter changes be viewed as they're made. Previews in Electric Image can be viewed either as emitted objects, tokens, points or direction arrows. Previews can also be set to display a percentage of emitted objects you want to see. For example, you can achieve faster previews by viewing only 10 percent of the particles emitted, while still being able to determine position, direction, etc. Read More

News: Sonic Desktop's Soundtrack Software To Be Bundled with Premiere 6
DECEMBER 19—Sonic Desktop Software today announced a bundling agreement with Adobe to bundle Sonic's SmartSound Quicktracks software with Premiere 6. SmartSound Quicktracks is a Premiere plugin offering custom-length, royalty-free soundtracks. The software allows video editors, multimedia authors and Web site creators to author music and audio for their projects. Read More

News: LaserSoft Imaging Releases Silverfast SE
DECEMBER 19—LaserSoft Imaging will be releasing new versions of its SilverFast digital imaging software to be called SilverFast SE and SilverFast DC-SE. The new "lite" versions are designed for imaging in the lower end of the scanner and digital camera market. Read More

News: Poser Pro Pack Coming in January
DECEMBER 19—Curious Labs has set a mid-January release date for the Poser Pro Pack, an expansion of the 3D character modeling and animation package Poser. Curious Labs is the company founded last year by the original developers of Poser, who acquired the software from Metacreations when that company sold off its graphics business. Read More

News: Andromeda Launches eArt Services
DECEMBER 19—Andromeda Software, known chiefly for its Photoshop plugins, such as Techtures, Three-D Luxe and others, has launched a new service for distributing "fine art" for use by graphic designers. The new online service, called "eArt Services," offers collections of works (sketches and paintings) tailored for use for digital media design work. Read More

News: 3dfx Engineers Migrating to Nvidia
DECEMBER 18—Last week PC graphics card maker Nvidia announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire certain graphics related assets of 3dfx Interactive, the maker of Voodoo graphics cards. 3dfx had just this year released its first Macintosh graphics cards, the Voodoo4 4400 and Voodoo5 5500 PCI cards. The company recently called off plans to write Macintosh drivers for the AGP version of the Voodoo5. Read More

News: Nvidia To Buy 3dfx
DECEMBER 15—PC graphics card maker Nvidia today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire certain graphics related assets of 3dfx Interactive, the maker of Voodoo graphics cards. 3dfx had just this year released its first Macintosh graphics cards, the Voodoo4 4400 and Voodoo5 5500 PCI cards. The company recently called off plans to write Macintosh drivers for the AGP version of the Voodoo5. Read More

News: Portent Brings Real Content to Adobe GoLive
DECEMBER 15—Portent Interactive has released a beta version of the RealSystem Extension for Adobe GoLive 5.0. The extension allows designers and developers to embed the RealPlayer in their Web pages without working in the HTML source. The tool also allows point-and-click configuration of the RealPlayer control panel, custom graphical buttons and player mode. Read More

News: Quark, Spin Bring Print to Web Solution to XPress
DECEMBER 15——Quark and Spin Solutions have announced a relationship to provide solutions designed to diminish the cost structures, complexity and time associated with delivering print content online. The new Index software from Spin will allow companies to deploy QuarkXPress content to the Web and manage their Web sites more effectively. Read More

News: Amadeus II 3.0 Released
DECEMBER 13—Martin Hairer today announced the release of Amadeus II 3.0, its disk-based, visual waveform audio file editing and analyzing application for the Mac. Amadeus II includes capabilities like live audio recording, digitizing tapes and records, sampling from an external source and editing and analyzing MP3, AIFF, QuickTime and WAVE files. Read More

News: ConceptDraw Gets Update to 1.58
DECEMBER 12—Computer Systems Odessa today released ConceptDraw 1.58 for the Macintosh, the latest version of the flowcharting and diagramming software package. The update is free to registered users of ConceptDraw 1.55. Read More

News: Adobe Says Premiere 6 Coming in First Quarter
DECEMBER 11—Adobe today announced the impending release of Premiere 6.0 within the first three months of 2001. The new version will be aimed not only at traditional digital video professionals, but also those who publish video on the Web. It will support QuickTIme, Windows Media and Real. And it will offer a "publish for Web" option that will include Web markers for interactivity. (So far it's unclear as to whether this feature is akin to Media 100i's interactive features. They did say it can be used to launch HTML pages in time with a video presentation.) It will also be tweaked to provide "seamless integration" with Adobe's GoLive Web publishing system, as well as After Effects and Photoshop. Read More

News: LightWave 6.5 Preview Comes to OS X
DECEMBER 8—NewTek's LightWave 6.5 Preview for OS X hgas now been released. It's available for free for registered users of LightWave 6.x and can be downloaded from Creative Mac's mirror site at http://www.creativemac.com/downloads/downloads.htm. The announcement was made earlier today. Read More

News: Macromedia Releases UltraDev Fireworks Studio
DECEMBER 8—Macromedia today announced the release of Dreamweaver UltraDev 4 Fireworks 4 Studio. The Studio is a Web application development solution comprising the new Macromedia Dreamweaver UltraDev 4 and Fireworks 4 software, allowing for the authoring of server-side applications and graphics creation. Both the Studio and standalone versions of the products are available for download and purchase immediately from macromedia's site. Read More

News: LightWave 6.5 Coming to OS X
DECEMBER 8—Chuck Baker, NewTek's director of customer service and support, told us that the company will release a preview of LightWave 6.5 for OS X today. Read More

News: Apple Releases QuickTime 5 Preview 2
DECEMBER 7—Apple has released the second version of its QuickTime 5 Public Preview, this time adding in support for customized skins and AppleScript, as well as compatibility with Windows. As of this writing (9:40 a.m. PST), the download site was not working properly. The error is expected to be fixed today. Read More

News: Emagic Ships Audiowerk8 Surround Kit
DECEMBER 7—Emagic has released a new surround mixing kit called Audiowerk8 The kit includes the Audiowerk8 PCI sound card and a customized version of Logic Audio—Logic Surround—for professional surround production. The kit supports all current surround formats, according to Emagic. Read More

News: Apple Promises Faster Macs, OS X, CD-RWs
DECEMBER 6—Apple CEO Steve Jobs told financial analysts today he expects to ship faster Macs in the coming months, as well as the full release of OS X in "early 2001," reiterating a message delivered to analysts months ago. He also said he expects Apple to start shipping machines with CD-RW drives, admitting "Apple completely missed the boat" on CD-RWs. He declined to add more details to plans for future products. Read More

News: Prerelease Version of PowerParticles Pro 2.0 Available Now
DECEMBER 5—TripleD Tools today announced the prerelease version of its PowerParticles Pro 2.0 particle system for Electric Image. The new version includes an OpenGL preview that lets parameter changes be viewed as they're made. Previews in Electric Image can be viewed either as emitted objects, tokens, points or direction arrows. Previews can also be set to display a percentage of emitted objects you want to see. For example, you can achieve faster previews by viewing only 10 percent of the particles emitted, while still being able to determine position, direction, etc. Read More

News: Pixologic ZBrush Coming Jan. 9
DECEMBER 5—Pixologic today announced it will be unveiling of ZBrush version 1.1 for the Macintosh Jan. 9. This will be the first full release for the Mac. A demo version has been available on Pixologic's Web site for some time now. Read More

News: MCE Announces Ruggedized Redesign Hard Drives for PowerBooks
DECEMBER 4—MCE PowerBook Products has started shipping newly redesigned Xcarét Pro 99 Expansion Bay Hard Drives in 10 GB, 20 GB, and 30 GB models. The Xcarét Pro 99 Expansion Bay Hard Drives are designed for the currently shipping PowerBook (FireWire) 500 MHz and 400 MHz models, as well as the PowerBook G3 Series 1999 (Bronze Keyboard) 400 MHz and 333 MHz models. Read More

News: Electric Image Sets Pricing for Universe 3D
DECEMBER 4—Electric Image today announced complete pricing plans for its upcoming Universe 3D animation system, which the company says will be one of the most significant upgrades in EI's history. The full version of Universe will be available for $1,995, and upgrade prices for current customers will range from $295 to $495. Read More

News: Extensis Offers Free Upgrades
DECEMBER 4—Extensis has released updates to its plugins for Adobe Photoshop. The new versions have been updated to offer compatibility with Photoshop 6.0. The free upgrades can be downloaded by registered customers from the Extensis Web site. Read More

News: YARC Releases Mac RIPs for HP
DECEMBER 4—YARC Systems today released its first Macintosh Ethernet Postscript RIP for the Hewlett Packard DesignJet series of wide-format printers. Based on version 3.0 of YARC's Xtreme software RIPs, the new Ethernet transport supports all DesignJets with an HP JetDirect interface. (JetDirect printers do not natively support printing from the Macintosh.) Read More

News: Emagic Releases SoundDiver 3.0
DECEMBER 1—German audio developer Emagic has released version 3.0 of its universal MIDI device editor and librarian, SoundDiver. The new version gets an overall interface redesign and new key commands, as well as a few new features. It's also boosted the number of supported devices to 512. Read More

News: MOTU Ships FreeStyle 2.31
DECEMBER 1—Mark of the Unicorn has started shipping FreeStyle 2.31, its notation, sequencing and system-exclusive recording and editing suite. According to MOTU, this latest version brings feature parity between Power Mac/68 K Mac and all Windows operating systems from 95 on up. Read More

News: Native Updates B4, Reaktor, Dynamo
NOVEMBER 29— Native Instruments has posted updates to a number of its Mac audio titles, including B4, Reaktor and Dynamo. An update of Pro-52 is also forthcoming. Read More

News: Mac LightWave 6.5 Out Now
NOVEMBER 28—NewTek has now made the 6.5 update to LightWave available as a download from its Web site. The update is free to all registered users of LightWave 6. The update includes several components, including an improved manual in the form of a PDF addendum. Check below for download information. Read More

News: Credo Offers Deal on Life Forms Studio
NOVEMBER 28—Credo Interactive has launched a new deal on Life Forms Studio 3.9. From now until Dec. 22, the studio, regularly priced at $495, is being offered for $299. Life Forms is a character animation package deisgned to integrate with 3D applications like LightWave, Electric Image, Cinema 4D XL and others. It also works with Poser from Curious Labs. Read More

News: Mac LightWave 6.5 Out Today
NOVEMBER 28—NewTek says it's releasing LightWave 6.5 today, available for download (if you can get through to their Web site) a little later today. The update is free to all registered users of LightWave 6. Read More

News: Macromedia Ships Dreamweaver 4, Fireworks 4
NOVEMBER 27—Macromedia today announced the immediate availability of Dreamweaver 4, its HTML authoring suite, and Fireworks 4, its image editing and Web graphics application. According to Macromedia, Dreamweaver 4 and Fireworks 4 unify code authoring, layout and graphics creation. Both the Studio and standalone versions are now available. Read More

News: Propellerhead Readies Reason
NOVEMBER 27—Propellerhead Software says it's gearing up for the first shipments of its Reason, a music system for Macintosh. Reason looks like a classic studio rack, packed with samplers, analog synths, mixers, step time drum machines, effects and a real-time multitrack sequencer. All of Reason«s 16 devices have the look and feel of actual hardware, and users can access as many devices as the CPU will allow. Read More

News: Audio Ease Releases First 5.1 Surround Panner for MOTU
NOVEMBER 27—Audio Ease today announced Peter Pan, the first 5.1 surround panner for Mark of the Unicorn's Digital Performer and AudioDesk. The Mac-only software allows users to position sounds by dragging around a red ball in a round arena. (See image below.) Center and rear speaker outputs are routed to busses via pop-up selectors. A sub woofer channel can be separated from the input signal with an adjustable low-pass filter. Read More

News: Creative Mac Launches Digital Media Designer
NOVEMBER 27—Over the last few weeks, we here at Creative Mac have been busy working on a brand new site for those of you in the design and publishing fields—Digital Media Designer. Like Creative Mac, it's heavily focused on tools, including news about new products, guides to existing products, reviews and tutorials. It's also be heavily focused on the Macintosh platform, though it will also offer Linux, Irix and Windows news for those who work on multiple platforms. Read More

News: WoodWing Updates InDesign Plugins
NOVEMBER 27—WoodWing Software has released updates to three of its plugins for Adobe InDesign, including its beta XML export plugin. The updates fix bugs and also add to documentation. Read More

Tuesday, February 06, 2001 13:06:39