Tuesday, December 17, 2002
Top Stories
Apple Strikes Major Blow In Streaming Media Market; Lands Quick
The importance of Apple's win cannot be overestimated considering the enormous size of the cell phone market, the desire for compatibility that content providers will want when they develop videos to deliver on both PCs and cell phones, the impact that DoCoMo's backing of an open standard will have on the world's cell phone makers and service providers and the resulting influence the decision will have in the PC streaming market. DoCoMo is not just saying MPEG-4 is good, it's betting its 3G future on it.
FileMaker Key To Beggars Banquet
The UK's biggest independent record company is using FileMaker database technology to keep track of its artists and music, at what it claims is a fraction of the cost of high-end databases.
News
Cut To The Chase
Final Cut Pro breaks into the big leagues with "Cold Mountain" and editor Walter Murch.
New QuickTime Movies Preach Jaguar's Benefits
New movies posted to Apple's Web site help illustrate Jaguar's benefits in whimsical and entertaining ways.
Apple Acknowledges App/Memory Problem On Some G4 Macs
Apple Confirms Plans To Webcast MWSF Keynote
If you can't make it to Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco next month, fear not. As is customary, Apple today confirmed plans to Webcast the keynote live from its Web site using QuickTime.
Desktop Video Production Set To Take Off
Desktop digital video production is set to take off, like how desktop publishing did in the mid-1980s.
New Software May Restore Erased Photos
Called Image Rescue, it tries to restore erased JPEG, TIFF and RAW formatted photos from Lexar's USB-Enabled CompactFlash cards.
Review
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon
Combining stealth, quick reflexes, group leadership, over-average artificial intelligence, great attention to detail, and tactical gameplay that's second to none, the designers over at Red Storm have managed to create a game that is engaging and enticing for gamers of every kind.
Apple Notebooks Get Better And Cheaper
BBEdit 7.0
BBEdit 7.0 is good example of how to make something better without bloating it.
The Wireless Networking Starter Kit
I think Glenn and I did a good job of including all the information anyone short of a wireless network engineer would want. From what I'm seeing, wireless networking is in certain ways where the Internet was back in 1993.
FastTrack Schedule 8.0: Project-Management Program Moves To OS X And Continues To Make Scheduling A Breeze
FastTrack Schedule 8 is a hard-to-find fusion of simplicity and power. Its graphical timelines are perfect for beginning project managers. And its new features, which can automate more-complex scheduling tasks and enable data exchange with Microsoft Project, make it an ideal choice for project-management pros.
Quicken 2003: Financial Powerhouse Rests On Its Laurels
Quicken is fairly priced for new users and remains a very good product, but new versions have too few compelling new features to justify yearly upgrades.
Switching To The Mac Doesn't Have To Be Difficult
One of the biggest problems with Mac OS X has always been the difficulty of moving important settings, email, personal information manager (PIM) data, and certain types of documents from the PC to the Macintosh. I've struggled with this problem for more than a year. But two new software products have addressed these concerns.
Sidetrack
WATCH MY IMOVIE : Has the word "iMovie" become a generic term to mean a souped-up home movie, as suggested in this article? Good news for Apple, bad news for the lawyers.
EARLY WARNING SYSTEM : There will be little updates to this web site this coming Friday, as I'll be off to a mini-vacation.
MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP MEDIA CENTER EDITION PC : Whew! Imagine your Newton running Apple Macintosh OS 7 Personal Digital Assistance Edition Operating System...
Nevertheless, Andy Ihnatko likes the Media Center PC, and love it for what it could become.
On the other hand, he does have this to say: "For all its flash, Media Center is just an app running under Windows, and trying to create a Windows app that never fritzes or freezes is like trying to create a French cheese that doesn't stink."
Maybe there is a market Apple can start to think about.
Wintel
.NET My Services. Gone But Not Forgotten?
.NET My Services, Microsoft Corp's high-profile set of XML web services postponed eight months ago, seems to have dropped off the company's 2003 roadmap.
Microsoft Unveils Entertainment Software
Microsoft will announce on Tuesday availability of new personal entertainment software for Windows XP, featuring fresh tools for handling music, movies and photos on the PC.
'Lintel' Turns Up The Heat
Whether or not Microsoft Corp. ends up porting its software to Linux, as a research company suggested last week, the battle between Windows and Linux on Intel Corp.- compatible hardware could have at least one positive effect: lower prices for Windows software, users said.