MacWEEK articles from June 1997

MacWEEK archives from June 1997

Licensing conflict rages. (Apple, Macintosh clone vendors negotiate) (Company Business and Marketing)
June 2, 1997... Apple and Macintosh clone makers have made considerable progress in negotiations over future Mac OS licensing terms, but the parties remain far apart over central issues, according to participants, and some licensees say their patience is wearing...

UMAX ups cache flow. (UMAX Technologies' CacheDoubler memory controller)(Product Announcement)
June 2, 1997... UMAX Computer Corp. will take a new tack toward performance enhancements this month with the introduction of a new memory architecture. At PC Expo in New York later this month, the company will boost the processor bus speeds of its entry-level...

Fargo speeds its low-cost dye-sub printer. (Fargo Electronics' PrimeraPro Elite Color Printer)(Product Announcement)
June 2, 1997... Fargo Electronics Inc. this week will pick up the pace of low-cost continuous-tone output with a new version of its PrimeraPro printer. Aimed at digital photographers, the $2,195 PrimeraPro Elite Color Printer is about three times faster than...

mTropolis scales multimedia heights. (mFactory 2.0 multimedia authoring software) (Software Review)(Evaluation)
June 2, 1997... On the heels of Macromedia Inc.'s release of the impressive Director 6, mFactory Inc. is preparing the first major upgrade to mTropolis, a product many consider Director's only serious competitor. While its changes are not as sweeping as those in...

AIM to fire back at Intel with MMX-style chips. (Apple/IBM/Motorola's VMX Video and Multimedia Extensions) (Company Business and Marketing)
June 2, 1997... Aiming to counter Intel Corp.'s MMX assault on the multimedia market, the PowerPC partners are planning their own set of multimedia extensions to their architecture, sources said. Slated for inclusion by late 1998, the routines will accelerate...

Hot List: clones.(Directory)
June 2, 1997... Call it the Common Hardware Reference Platform (CHRP) or call it the PowerPC Platform. The nomenclature all comes down to Mac OS clones. Looking for Web pages on the subject? Here are some sites about Mac cloners and licensing: * Apple Mac OS...

NetObjects Fusion binds with BBEdit. (NetObjects Inc's Fusion for Macintosh 2.0 Web authoring tool integrates Bare Bones Software Inc's program editor)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 2, 1997... NetObjects Inc. last week shipped Version 2.0 of NetObjects Fusion for the Mac, its Web-site creation tool, and announced an alliance with Bare Bones Software Inc. Version 2.0 of Fusion rolls in BBEdit Lite 4.01, a slimmed-down version of Bare...

Anniversary Macs ready for orders. (Apple's Twentieth Anniversary Mac PowerPC-based system)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 2, 1997... Apple last week began taking orders for its Twentieth Anniversary Mac, a highly stylized system based on a PowerPC 603e chip running at 250 MHz (see 12.16.96, Page 1). The computer, expected to cost about $7,500 when it ships in July, will...

U.S. Robotics offers x2 modem upgrade. (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
June 2, 1997... U.S. Robotics last week said it will offer free upgrades to owners of its 56-Kbps modems when the technology's standard is completed in 1998 by the International Telecommunications Union. U.S. Robotics' 56-Kbps technology, dubbed x2, competes...

Some afterthoughts on WWDC, Rhapsody as the dust settles. (The Second Decade) (Company Business and Marketing)(Editorial)
June 2, 1997... First, a correction. Using numbers provided by Apple PR, I reported here two weeks ago that attendance at the recent Apple Worldwide Developers Conference was "fewer than 1,800," or "only about half that of recent years." Guerrino De Luca,...

Power finally ships 250-MHz PowerTower. (Power Computing Corp's PowerTower Pro 250 604e-based system)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 2, 1997... Power Computing Corp. last week released its PowerTower Pro 250, based on a 250-MHz PowerPC 604e processor. The system was introduced at January's Macworld Expo in San Francisco and was slated to ship in February. The $4,495 base system comes...

Cloners rail against Apple's certification stance. (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
June 2, 1997... For years Apple has insisted that the Common Hardware Reference Platform would eventually give its licensees freedom to develop their own hardware innovations under the Mac OS, but now that CHRP hardware and system software are almost ready, the...

Apple ships Chinese kit upgrade. (Chinese Language Kit 1.2 operating system enhancement)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 2, 1997... Apple shipped a revision to its Chinese Language Kit in the last week of May. The update, Version 1.2, features an improved installation process on PCI Macs. Apple said previous releases required additional steps to install the software on PCI...

Letters.(Letter to the Editor)
June 2, 1997... Respect QuickTime The story about Apple's demonstration of QuickTime Interactive during the recent Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (05.26.97, Page 1) touted a possible release date of mid-1998. The middle of 1998? I thought HyperCard...

StockWatch 05.29.97. (News Briefs)(Brief Article)
June 2, 1997... 05.29.97 weekly close change Apple 16.63 0.00 MacWEEK Composite* 129.89 3.56 NASDAQ 1403.04 30.45 Adaptec ...

Macromedia ships Director 6 studio. (multimedia authoring software)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 2, 1997... Macromedia Inc. last week shipped Director 6 Multimedia Studio. New features in the $999 cross-platform suite include streaming Shockwave animations, Internet and CD-ROM authoring tools, a new object-based interface, and additional sprite...

Panasonic weighs in with digital camera. (CoolShot KXL-600A, KXL-601A)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 2, 1997... Petite models start at $399 Panasonic Computer Peripheral Co. is the latest electronics manufacturer to toss its lens cap into the digital camera ring. In May the company announced its CoolShot line of lightweight, low-cost cameras. Both...

ECRM extends its imagesetter line. (Mako 3600, 3650, 4600, 4650)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 2, 1997... ECRM Inc. last week shipped an extensible line of imagesetters that the company said offers new upgrade paths for in-house publishers and prepress operations. Promising more speed and greater flexibility than ECRM's current KnockOut...

XTensions get down to business. (MC Research's PriceIt, Azalea's UPC-EAN 1.5, Sunrise' Asian Environment for Macintosh QuarkXPress plug-ins)(Product Announcement)
June 2, 1997... New plug-ins from three vendors promise to increase the productivity of QuarkXPress users. MC Research Ltd., Azalea Software Inc. and Sunrise Global Company Ltd. are working on QuarkXTensions that cover a range of business tasks: * MC...

ITC unlocks font library, preps faces. (International Typeface Corp's Fontek Display LIbrary)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 2, 1997... International Typeface Corp. this week is scheduled to release ITC on Display, an unlocked CD containing the company's entire ITC Fontek Display Library. ITC said the $2,999 disc will represent the first time the company has offered its...

Apple's ColorSync technology takes a bit of tuning. (Out of Gamut) (Product Information)(Column)
June 2, 1997... Judging by my recent e-mail, I may have left the impression that I find Apple's ColorSync color-management technology less than useful. In truth, I rely on it every day. ColorSync's problems are largely ones of user expectation, education and...

Vellum upgrade due to surface. (Ashlar's drafting tool)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
June 2, 1997... Ashlar Inc. this month plans to ship a new edition of its Vellum drafting tool that adds surfacing and rendering capabilities. Version 3.0, priced at $2,995, will construct surfaces on wireframe models automatically, taking into account holes...

Camps revamped. (Microworks Corp's Camps 3.0 MIDI-sequencing package)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 2, 1997... Microworks Corp. this month is scheduled to post a major upgrade to its Camps MIDI-sequencing package. The company said Version 3.0 will feature a number of new compositional and educational tools. Version 3.0, priced at $323, will include...

Codecs squeeze into video market. (multimedia codecs) (Technology Information)
June 2, 1997... For multimedia developers, it is cost, compatibility and compression ratios that will determine which compressor-decompressor and applications are best for a particular job. "The most important consideration when compressing is determining...

ViewSonic set to enter projector field. (PJ800 LCD projector)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 2, 1997... Monitor maker ViewSonic Corp. this month will enter a new corner of the presentation market with the first model in a series of LCD projectors. The PJ800, which weighs 21.6 pounds and measures 16.6 by 6.4 by 11.8 inches, costs $6,995; Mac...

Astound 3.0 makes a dynamic presenter. (Astound Inc's presentation graphics software) (Software Review)(Evaluation)
June 2, 1997... New 3-D charts, Web integration are part of the upgrade. Released a year and a half after Version 2.0, Astound 3.0 focuses primarily on Web integration, 3-D charting and file-format compatibility with its competitors. The $269 PowerPC-native...

Acuris mixes pair of 3-D model kits. (Mad Scientist Collection, 3d AcuWorlds Models) (Product Information)(Brief Article)
June 2, 1997... Designers looking for new ways to populate their 3-D worlds can look to two new royalty-free 3-D model collections from Acuris Inc. The first, the $149 Mad Scientist Collection, comes with more than 350 models of furniture; tools; weapons; and...

Artbeats fires off new QuickTime clips. (Artbeats Software Inc's ReelFire, ReelExplosions)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 2, 1997... Adding fire or explosions to video or multimedia projects can add a lot of excitement, but videotaping your own conflagrations can get messy. Enter ReelFire and ReelExplosions, two new CD-ROMs of QuickTime movies from Artbeats Software Inc....

AppleShare IP 5.0 due to hit this week Offers LAN, Net servers. (Claris Corp's network software)(Product Announcement)
June 2, 1997... Apple expects to expand its server software offerings this week with the release of AppleShare IP 5.0. First announced in January, AppleShare IP 5.0 (ASIP) comprises AppleShare, FTP, Web, e-mail and print servers (see 01.06.97, Page ). The...

Lasso 2.0 gains Java hooks. (Blue World Communications Inc's Web database software for Claris FileMaker)(Product Announcement)
June 2, 1997... Blue World Communications Inc. added Java to its Claris FileMaker-Web connectivity tool with the May release of a beta version of Lasso 2.0. Version 2.0, scheduled to ship early this summer, will allow developers to use Java to create front...

iChat talks up free iPage messaging software. (Internet paging software)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 2, 1997... iChat Inc. in May debuted a beta of iPage, the company's Internet paging software. The free iPage software lets users send and receive messages over the Internet; it displays notices on desktops much like America Online's instant messaging...

Phantom 2.0 a quick, capable Web indexer. (Maxum Development Corp's Web site management tool) (Software Review)(Evaluation)
June 2, 1997... Phantom 2.0.1 4 (Very good) With all the public search engines available on the Internet, the need for a general-purpose server-side search tool is not immediately apparent. But there are times when Web administrators need to index just their...

Rename fixes HTML files. (Parker and Associates' Rename! site management utility)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
June 2, 1997... Parker and Associates hopes to prevent Web-site snags with HTML Rename!, software that fixes a site's file names and URLs so they transfer successfully between operating systems and servers. The company in May boosted the $20 shareware to Version...

PGP heads for Macs with Version 5.0 Beta encrypts, digitally signs. (Pretty Good Privacy Inc's PGP for Personal Privacy for Macintosh 5.0 encryption software)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 2, 1997... Pretty Good Privacy Inc. in May made a move to the Mac with the beta release of PGP for Personal Privacy Version 5.0. PGP for Personal Privacy is an offshoot of the company's PGPmail program, which is aimed at corporate customers and is not...

Insider automates software updates Client grabs new versions. (Insider Software Inc's Insider Updates service) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
June 2, 1997... Insider Software Inc. is trying to make it easier to keep software current with its Insider Updates service. Insider Updates, rolled out in May, is a service that automatically downloads updaters for applications on a user's hard drive, the...

Videx code reader goes Pro. (Videx Inc's LaserLite Pro bar-code reader)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 2, 1997... Videx Inc. in May shipped a Pro version of its LaserLite bar-code reader with a built-in keypad and more memory. Although it has double the RAM of its predecessor and the new keypad, the palm-size reader is the same price: $1,195. The Pro...

Indie Budget handles accounting for films. (Autumn Software's film budgeting utility)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 2, 1997... Autumn Software in May reached out to the independent filmmaking community with the release of Indie Budget. The $37 shareware application is aimed at the financial aspect of film, offering three levels of budgeting processes. A top-level sheet...

OrgChart Navigator 1.0 aims to simplify charting. (IT Design USA's business management utility)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 2, 1997... IT Design USA is trying to make it simpler for employees to find out who is in charge of what with the recent release of OrgChart Navigator 1.0. OrgChart Navigator can automatically generate a graphic representation of a company from data...

To be best of breed, Apple will need a place to show off. (The Mac Manager) (Company Business and Marketing)(Column)
June 2, 1997... "Best of breed." Apple CEO Gilbert Amelio spoke about this concept at the recent Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. The theme was echoed throughout that week of hard-core technical presentations. And the "Only Apple" ads emphasize it yet...

ClockWork in sync with Newton, Mac. (Century Software's scheduling application)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 2, 1997... Century Software recently unveiled a pre-release version of a new scheduling application for the Mac OS and Newton platforms. ClockWork, set to ship in July for about $40, includes voice-annotation capability, text-to-speech support and...

Apple offers more Yellow Box details. (Rhapsody operating system) (Product Development)
June 2, 1997... Apple recently filled in more specifics about how users will interact with the Rhapsody OS and clarified which CPUs will run the initial developer's release. Apple said the Yellow Box - the portion of Rhapsody that will contain advanced...

APS launches ShortStack RAID. (APS Technologies Inc's failsafe storage device)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
June 2, 1997... APS Technologies Inc. this month shipped a new RAID bundle for desktop Macs. On the clone front, the company lowered prices on its M*Power desktop machines. The APS ShortStack RAID, controlled by APS' PowerTools RAID software, can be...

Xinet to introduce TCP/IP to K-AShare. (Unix AppleTalk server)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 2, 1997... Xinet Inc. will tap features of the newly shipping AppleShare IP 5.0 in a revision of K-AShare, the company's AppleTalk server for Unix. Scheduled to ship this month, K-AShare Version 9 will use the TCP/IP file transfer capabilities in Version...

Newer adds 16-bit video to PB 1400c. (Newer Technology's VIEWpowr 1400/16 video board for PowerBook notebook computer)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 2, 1997... Newer Technology in May shipped a new video-out option for the PowerBook 1400c. The VIEWpowr 1400/16 card, equipped with 1 Mbyte of video RAM, provides either dual-video or video-mirroring functions for the notebook. Newer said the device...

Adaptec slathers Toast with audio functions. (Toast 3.5 CD-mastering software)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 2, 1997... Adaptec Inc. last week released the first upgrade to its Toast CD-mastering application since it acquired the program from Astarte GmbH in March (see 03.03.97, Page 3). Toast 3.5 retains the CD-mastering capabilities of its predecessors and...

Lifetime offers PB 2400c RAM. (Lifetime Memory Products Inc's memory upgrades) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
June 2, 1997... Lifetime Memory Products Inc. in May offered RAM upgrades for the latest PowerBook, trimmed RAM prices for the PowerBook 3400c and released Level 2 cache for desktop machines. For the new PowerBook 2400c (see 05.12.97, Page 1), Lifetime...

Metrowerks posts loss. (Company Financial Information)(Brief Article)
June 2, 1997... Metrowerks Inc. announced a net loss of $5.9 million for its 1997 fiscal third quarter ended April 30. The loss was on revenue of $3.6 million for the Austin, Texas, tools vendor. For the corresponding 1996 fiscal quarter, the company lost...

Spam Part 2: updates, techniques for fighting back. (MacInTouch) (Technology Tutorial)(Column)(Tutorial)
June 2, 1997... My April column about unsolicited commercial e-mail, or "spam" (see 04.21.97, Page 41), barely touched the surface of this Internet maelstrom. Alaska Sen. Frank Murkowski recently introduced a bill in Congress to label e-mail advertising and...

Swimming the channel. (Mac the Knife) (Humor)
June 2, 1997... Existential question of the week: What makes Mac the Knife such a relentless muckraker? The engine driving this utensil's lifelong love of snoopery has sparked hot debate among Mac-savvy philosophers. Freudians ascribe his thirst for dirt to...

For the record.(Correction Notice)
June 2, 1997... The Stock Watch chart in the May issues listed incorrect stock prices for Electronics for Imaging Inc. The correct prices begin with this issue.

Visioneer cuts staff after string of losses. (Company Operations)(Brief Article)
June 2, 1997... Visioneer Inc. recently cleared the ranks of its top-management team and laid off about 25 percent of its staff. The Fremont, Calif.-based scanner manufacturer has failed to turn a profit for the past five quarters. In May the company...

G3 chip to power PBs: Kanga portable due by year-end. (Apple PowerBook subnotebooks Kanga, Wall Street based on third-generation PowerPC CPU codenamed Arthur) (Product Development)
June 9, 1997... As Apple's latest entry in the subnotebook class waits at the starting line (see Beta Test below), sources said the company is on track with two new PowerBooks, code-named Kanga and Wall Street. The pair reportedly will be based on the first...

Quark extends Immedia with plug-in architecture. (Immedia 1.5 multimedia authoring software module for QuarkXPress)(Product Announcement)
June 9, 1997... Quark Inc. later this year will shore up its multimedia efforts with an extensible rewrite to QuarkImmedia, the company's multimedia-authoring software module for QuarkXPress. According to Quark, Immedia 1.5 will be the first version of the...

Emulator turns heads: Virtual PC beta draws user raves. (Connectix Corp's terminal emulation software) (Product Development)
June 9, 1997... While the Mac community eagerly awaits next week's release of Connectix Corp.'s Virtual PC, beta users are having a blast running Windows, OS/2 and OpenStep on their Macs. Announced in April, the San Mateo, Calif.-based Connectix said the...

Farallon to add scripting hooks to Timbuktu 4. (Farallon Communications Inc's remote-access software for Webmasters) (Product Development)
June 9, 1997... Farallon Communications Inc. is reportedly preparing to target Webmasters with a forthcoming revision of its remote-access software, Timbuktu Pro. The revised software from Alameda, Calif.-based Farallon is expected to gain extensive scripting...

Petite PB 2400c has plenty of punch. (Apple's PowerBook 2400c subnotebook) (Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
June 9, 1997... The PowerBook 2400c is still more than a month away from U.S. shores, but this pint-size wonder is already generating a lot of interest from long-suffering Mac users looking for a fast and truly portable subnotebook. It's not a perfect box, but...

DayStar denies buyout rumor. (DayStar Digital Inc) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
June 9, 1997... DayStar Digital Inc. last week denied an online rumor that it is going out of business. The story had said the company was seeking a buyout from Power Computing Corp. of Round Rock, Texas. "We're not going away," said Gary Dailey, director of...

Heidelberg preps LinoColor 5.0. (Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG's LinoColor 5.0 color management system)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 9, 1997... Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG last week unveiled an upgrade to its LinoColor color-management system at Imprinta 97 in Dusseldorf, Germany. Heidelberg, based in Heidelberg, Germany, also rolled out a new platemaker and an upgrade to its Delta...

Apple trims staff in Singapore. (Company Operations)(Brief Article)
June 9, 1997... Apple last week said it will cut up to 30 percent of the staff at its Singapore manufacturing plant when it signs an outsourcing agreement next month. The company is courting third-party manufacturers of printed circuit boards in an attempt to...

Hot List: Photo CD. (Kodak's image format)(Directory)
June 9, 1997... As the popularity of Photo CD continues to rise, Webmasters and prepress mavens alike are learning to love Eastman Kodak Co.'s image format. Besides providing a medium for commercial distribution of images, the flexible standard is finding its...

Updates on ongoing struggles: Installing OpenStep, NASA Macs. (The Second Decade) (Product Support)(Editorial)
June 9, 1997... I had hoped to write this week about my impressions of the "Prelude to Rhapsody" version of OpenStep for Intel. Unfortunately, after more than 30 hours' effort over 10 days, I'm unable to get it running, despite generous assistance from Aris...

Rackmount Mac enters clone race. (Marathon Computer Inc's RackMac line) (Product Development)(Brief Article)
June 9, 1997... Cloner newcomer Marathon Computer Inc. will enter the CPU race in July with several rackmounted Mac OS machines. Aimed at the server and multimedia-authoring markets, the company's RackMac models will be based on Tanzania licensing design...

RAM vendors prep PB memory. (Newer Technology, Peripheral Enhancements Corp develop RAM modules for PowerBook 2400c) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
June 9, 1997... Two RAM vendors are prepping memory upgrades for the forthcoming PowerBook 2400c. Newer Technology Inc. said that by the end of the month it will offer 8-, 16-, 32- and 64-Mbyte modules that cost $85, $146, $338 and $646, respectively....

StockWatch 06.05.97.(Directory)
June 9, 1997... 06.05.97 weekly close change Apple 16.69 0.06 NASDAQ 1390.05 -12.99 MacWEEK Composite* 125.44 -4.45 Adaptec 32.88 -6.13 Adobe 42.44...

Letters.(Letter to the Editor)
June 9, 1997... Let licensees bloom As a die-hard Mac user, I am astounded by Apple's insistence on sticking to its certification guns (06.02.97, Page 1). Sure I want the Mac to blow Wintel away, but how many more blunders can Apple make? The cloners have...

Agfa revs FotoLook. (FotoLook 3.0 scanner driver, FotoTune/ColorTune color management software)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 9, 1997... Agfa recently shipped Version 3.0 of its FotoLook scanner driver and is readying a new version of its FotoTune color-management software, which has been renamed ColorTune. The FotoLook 3.0 scanner driver has undergone a thorough overhaul, the...

Polaroid develops midrange recorder. (ProPalette 7000 desktop film recorder)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 9, 1997... Polaroid Corp. last week delivered a midrange member of its film-recorder line. Polaroid said that the $7,995 ProPalette 7000's high-resolution 7-inch CRT and custom optics generate sharper images than other film recorders in the same price...

Vendors prep imagesetters, RIP servers. (PrePress Solutions' PantherPro/62 imagesetter, Ultre's UltreRIP 4.1 rastor image processor, Printware Inc's PlateStream platesetter)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 9, 1997... Prepress vendors are prepping new output devices, RIP servers and upgrades. * PrePress Solutions Inc. this month will release a new imagesetter in its PantherPro line as well as its first Adobe PostScript 3 RIP. The $79,995 PantherPro/62...

Photoshop plug-ins do 3-D, seps, vectors. (Plastic Thought's QuickSpace for QuickDraw 3D, Alaras' Mixxer 2.0 CMYK manipulator, The Human Software Company's OttoPaths vector tool plug-ins for Adobe Systems' image processing software)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 9, 1997... A summer crop of plug-ins has followed Adobe Systems Inc.'s introduction of Photoshop 4.0. Vendors, including Plastic Thought Inc., Alaras Corp. and The Human Software Company Inc., have extended Photoshop's range with 3-D, color-separation and...

MiniCAD 7.0 rises above pack. (Diehl Graphsoft Inc's graphics software) (Software Review)(Evaluation)
June 9, 1997... MiniCAD 7.0 4 (Very good) MiniCAD 7.0 is Diehl Graphsoft Inc.'s answer to the midpriced competition that recently outgunned it in the 2-D CAD features war. Accordingly, you'll find many important new 2-D features but few 3-D additions and even...

Apps sew up virtual reality. (Live Picture's PhotoVista, PictureWorks Technology Inc's Spin Panorama image utilities for concatenating panoramic photos)(Product Announcement)
June 9, 1997... The panoramic image appears to be expanding into the consumer digital photo market, as two low-cost image-stitching tools come into view. Meanwhile, sources said that Apple is at work on a professional-level QuickTime VR stitching tool that...

LightWork adds rendering options. (LightWork Design Ltd's LightWorks 3.0 3D graphics software)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 9, 1997... Addressing 3-D vendors' yen for the ideal balance of rendering quality and speed, LightWork Design Ltd. in May released an upgrade to LightWorks, the company's OEM rendering technology. Version 3.0 features four distinct rendering modules that...

MetaTools and Fractal finalize deal. (Fractal Design Corp, MetaTools merge to form MetaCreations Corp) (Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
June 9, 1997... Mac graphics heavyweights MetaTools Inc. and Fractal Design Corp. completed their merger in late May after gaining a vote of support from shareholders. Meanwhile, the company filled in more details on future directions of its animation, 3-D...

Credo spawns Life Forms 2.1. (Credo Interactive Inc's figure modeling software)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 9, 1997... Animators who need to add character to their 3-D creations can soon turn to Version 2.1 of Credo Interactive Inc.'s $299 Life Forms. Due to ship next week, the upgrade will include new import and export plug-ins, including several for data...

Iomega sounding out audio with RecordIt tool. (digital audio recording application for mobile and business users)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 9, 1997... Iomega Corp. last week broke free from its place in the storage shed with a digital audio recording application aimed at business and mobile users. RecordIt, scheduled for release this summer, will be positioned as an accessory to Iomega's Zip...

Porting After Effects to Windows NT helps Mac users. (Key Frame)(Column)(Product Announcement)
June 9, 1997... It's the same old story: A Mac stalwart application crosses the platform divide to Windows. In the case of Adobe After Effects, however, it may have a happy ending for users on both platforms. Clearly, Adobe Systems Inc.'s decision to move...

Dynamic HTML due in Globetrotter 2.0. (Akimbo Systems Inc's Web authoring software) (Product Development)(Brief Article)
June 9, 1997... Akimbo Systems Inc. will let users take advantage of dynamic HTML when it ships a revision to its Web-publishing tool in July. Version 2.0 of Globetrotter will be among the first Macintosh Web-page editors to support dynamic HTML, or DHTML, the...

Newest HTML editors fall short. (Web design professionals favor first-generation tools) (Internet/Web/Online Service Information)
June 9, 1997... The newest generation of HTML editors seems, on the surface, like another grand advance in Web tools. However, appearances are deceiving, and all the flash doesn't conceal quirky products. As a result, the second generation of graphical Web...

NetObjects Fusion binds with BBEdit. (Web authoring software integrates with Bare Bones Software's program editor)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 9, 1997... NetObjects Inc. in May pressed ahead with Fusion, its site-based Web-authoring software, and announced a tie-in with Bare Bones Software Inc. More than 100 new features have been added to NetObjects Fusion 2.0, the company said. Most features...

Purity offers WebSentinel public beta. (Internet server security software)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 9, 1997... Purity Software Inc. in May invited Webmasters to take its security tool out for a test drive with the public beta release of WebSentinel. The software will work as a plug-in for StarNine WebStar and extend that server's Realms security...

Claris Emailer keeps getting better with age. (Emailer 2.0) (Software Review)(Evaluation)
June 9, 1997... Version 2 faster, more flexible, but missing standards Emailer 2.0 4 (Very good) With Emailer 1.0 Claris Corp. delivered a tool that could send and receive mail through multiple online services and act as a primary Internet e-mail client for...

Worlds apart: Apple, NeXT mentalities clash. (Working the Net) (Company Operations)(Column)
June 9, 1997... "They just don't get it." How many times have we heard those words? Typically, the speakers might be women talking about men, Mac users on Windows users, or even cats complaining about dogs. But this time the quote comes from a frustrated...

Power Knowledge surveys customers. (Power Knowledge Software LLC's PowerTab 1.1 statistical software for market research)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 9, 1997... Businesses wanting to learn more about their customers can turn to new survey software from Power Knowledge Software LLC. The $199 PowerTab 1.1 is designed to let users with little or no statistical experience create and interpret surveys, the...

Kodak releases image analyzer 1D app handles DNA, RNA. (Kodak Scientific Imaging Sytems' Kodak Digital Science ID Image Analysis 2.0)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 9, 1997... Kodak Scientific Imaging Systems in May released Version 2.0 of its Kodak Digital Science 1D Image Analysis software for processing DNA, RNA, and protein electrophoresis gels and blots. The 1D package performs a range of analyses on gel and...