Slashdot Mirror

gsfprez writes "Apparently, demanding future DRM installations isn't just for Windows anymore. Roxio has added a very Microsoft-esque paragraph to the Toast 5.1.4 upgrade. In part, if you install it, you 'may affect your ability to copy, display and/or play Secure Content through the Software or other applications that utilize the Software.' I'm sorry, but this is a big reason why I'm sticking with Apple, but looking for new CD/DVD burning software..." Let me know when you find it.

Pauly asks: "I'm going to do something I've never done: I'm buying a Mac. I'm a long-time UNIX developer and user for whom the prospect of trading a noisy, heat-spewing workstation or two in favor of a civilized Mac is irresistible. I'm quite used to making x86/*NIX hardware decisions. However, I'm finding myself stumped as I look at the G4/OS X options."

"As attractive as the (i|e)Macs are, I'm pretty certain I'll be getting a G4 tower to re-use my subtantial dual-monitor investment. Specifically, for my needs as a developer and power-user, I wonder:

• Are modern G4 towers quieter and/or cooler than comparable x86 workstations?
• Is it wiser to spend money on memory or megahertz?
• Is it best to buy everything directly from Apple, or just a minimum to be fleshed out with cheaper, after-market add-ons?
• What's the best video option for dual-head on Jaguar?
• Does OS X make SMP worth the investment?
• Is the SCSI performance gain great enough to be worth the investment over IDE?"

A few people have pointed out that Apple has put a trailer online for The Two Towers, so if you have broadband and the ability to play video in Apple's favorite format, you can check it out. I'm 0 for 2, so I guess I'll wait. Besides, its only a half a year away ;)

dirkmuon asks: "The streaming video shootout on Network Computing and the subsequent Slashdot discussion touched upon the process of creating and streaming live content on Linux. The article mentioned one method that required $1000 worth of hardware, not including the camera or the Windows 2000 box. Has anyone devised a simple, specific mix of Linux software and hardware for serving up a live video feed, particularly a method that costs less than $1000? RealSystem Producer Basic and Server Basic with a capture card would cost less, obviously, but are there other solutions? For example, is there a Linux way to broadcast *live* video with the Darwin Streaming Server?" This topic was discussed over a year ago, and the answers weren't very encouraging: Real is expensive; Darwin is great but you can't watch the movies in Linux; and Microsoft Media for Linux is vaporware (and likely to stay that way). Has that year improved the outlook?

Warlock7 writes "Apple has made the 1.8.3 version of AppleScript available. You can get the update through Software Update." It's available for both Mac OS and Mac OS X, though, as usual, a detailed list of changes is hard to find, though some are in the accompanying About AppleScript file. It appears they've fixed bugs with coercing Unicode text (now I can fetch and use text from iTunes via Apple events), and Apple says it provides increased stability of scripts, and runs applications created with the latest version of AppleScript Studio.

Justen writes "Nielsen is expected to release a new set of ratings for media players on July 1. Apple lobbied the firm to use new methods to form usage statistics. The new methods are expected to dramatically increase the reported market share of QuickTime. Nielsen says it doesn't reflect a dramatic jump in actual installations, just a more accurate picture of what's been there all along. The article also mentions the new beta of QuickTime 6 and its support for MPEG-4, ahead of Real and Microsoft."

Jooly Rodney writes "No, not the operating system, the sci-fi novel by Stanislaw Lem, long considered to be a classic of the genre. Apple's movie trailer site features a teaser trailer, and IMDb has George Clooney and Natascha McElhone as the leads Kelvin and Rheya."

AnamanFan writes "Apple has quietly posted updates for CarbonLib 1.6 and Authoring Support 1.1.9 for Mac OS 9. Apple states in the release notes that there is a benifit for Classic users for Mac OS X for the CarbonLib update. The Authoring Support adds more compatability with iTunes. Right now, the update is not (yet) avaiable via Software Update but only via the above links." They are available via Software Update now. And -- bonus! -- there's an AirPort 2.0.4 update which allows dialing into the base station remotely, compatibility with PPTP and IPSec Windows clients, and multiple connections to port-mapped services. I don't see AirPort 2.0.4 in Software Update for Mac OS X, but I do see something there called Networking Update, improving network connections with sleep. Update: 06/22 22:32 GMT by P : AirPort 2.0.4 for Mac OS X is available, but you apparently need to install the Networking Update first.

AnamanFan writes "Apple has quietly posted updates for CarbonLib 1.6 and Authoring Support 1.1.9 for Mac OS 9. Apple states in the release notes that there is a benifit for Classic users for Mac OS X for the CarbonLib update. The Authoring Support adds more compatability with iTunes. Right now, the update is not (yet) avaiable via Software Update but only via the above links." They are available via Software Update now. And -- bonus! -- there's an AirPort 2.0.4 update which allows dialing into the base station remotely, compatibility with PPTP and IPSec Windows clients, and multiple connections to port-mapped services. I don't see AirPort 2.0.4 in Software Update for Mac OS X, but I do see something there called Networking Update, improving network connections with sleep. Update: 06/22 22:32 GMT by P : AirPort 2.0.4 for Mac OS X is available, but you apparently need to install the Networking Update first.

AnamanFan writes "Apple has quietly posted updates for CarbonLib 1.6 and Authoring Support 1.1.9 for Mac OS 9. Apple states in the release notes that there is a benifit for Classic users for Mac OS X for the CarbonLib update. The Authoring Support adds more compatability with iTunes. Right now, the update is not (yet) avaiable via Software Update but only via the above links." They are available via Software Update now. And -- bonus! -- there's an AirPort 2.0.4 update which allows dialing into the base station remotely, compatibility with PPTP and IPSec Windows clients, and multiple connections to port-mapped services. I don't see AirPort 2.0.4 in Software Update for Mac OS X, but I do see something there called Networking Update, improving network connections with sleep. Update: 06/22 22:32 GMT by P : AirPort 2.0.4 for Mac OS X is available, but you apparently need to install the Networking Update first.

Staring at Nothing writes "In this ABC News story famed Hollywood director Steven Spielberg voices some concerns over the current state of privacy and paranoia in a post-9/11 world. Some of Spielberg's recent movies, like AI and Minority Report have brought us haunting views of the future, but the present may be just as scary. He mentions software being developed to monitor "abnormal behavior" and concerns about originality being misconstrued as dangerous behavior." The story has some minor plot spoilers about Minority Report.

Pivot writes: "With the release of Xine v0.9.11a, it is now possible to play back Quicktime movies encoded with the Sorenson SVQ1 encoding natively. There are still some minor issues with sound, and still no support for SVQ3 encoding, but overall this is a major achievement. Downloads are at xine.sf.net. I wonder what apple will do about this." Note: you may have to cut and paste that "movies" link into a new tab or browser.

Torulf would like to start an ongoing discussion on books that anyone in the IT field would benefit in having in their library: "Here's a topic that might generate some interesting discussions. I'm a student trying to get general knowledge of the IT business. The question here is about what is regarded 'basic knowledge' and where to find it. As we all know (I hope), a lot of knowledge can really only be learned through experience. In many cases, however, a read through the theory will save you a lot of time. As books are also easier to look up than experience, below is a suggestion of a reading list that might give a decent general knowledge in the field. Please fill out the gaps with what you think is required knowledge for anyone working in the industry. Mostly this is about a general overview of the different areas of the IT industry, but if you have suggestions of good material for becoming an expert in some particular field, by all means, share your knowledge." Torulf has compiled a fairly long list of books, below, however your own suggestions are always welcome.

"To start off the discussion, here are a few suggestions as to likely candidates. The books are linked to Amazon since they can provide a fairly quick and complete description of the books online.

Programming:
Learning a few languages certainly won't hurt. Here are some suggestions:

• The C programming language
• The C++ programming language
• Programming Perl
• Programming Python
• A Book about Java
• A Book on SQL
• A Book about Functional languages (LISP, ML, etc.)

Design:
For any non-trivial task, it is suggested that you design before you code.

• Design Patterns
• UML Distilled

User Interfaces:
A lot of programmers are more than clueless in this area. These at least won't hurt:

• Designing Visual Interfaces
• Usability Engineering
• POET

Graphics:
Some general knowledge about graphics.

• Real-Time Rendering
• Computer Graphics

Business/Management:
Here's something about management and financing. I don't really know about a good reference for marketing applied to the IT industry. This is the area where the average geek is even more ignorant than concerning UI.

• High Tech Start Up
• The Mythical Man Month
• Code Complete

Security:
Alright, this list should be a lot longer.

• Security Engineering

Misc.
And last some stuff that didn't fit in any of the categories above.

• Modern Operating Systems
• Computer Networks
• A few operating systems
• A book about markup languages, ie HTML, XML, DHTML, etc
• A book about Algorithms and Data Structures in general
• At least some basic knowledge about Hardware
• Wireless systems seem to be growing. It might pay off to learn something about Symbian, J2ME etc."

Now that's a start to a comprehensive IT Library if I've ever seen one. How do you all feel about this list (if not the specific selections, then at least the material being covered)? If you were to make changes or additions, what would they be?

ace writes "Apple has released the source to JavaScriptCore, a JavaScript framework based on KDE's kjs JavaScript engine. 'JavaScriptCore is a private API which may be used by future Mac OS X applications such as Sherlock, and is provided as Open Source as part of our partnership with the KDE community. JavaScriptCore will be used by Sherlock in an upcoming OS release, and possibly by other Apple software in the future. Apple chose kjs as the basis of its JavaScript technology for its simple and efficient code.'"

rlthomps-1 asks: "I've been thinking about reformatting my Mac's hard drive in UFS, since I've seen the option on the install screen. I was looking for advantages of the Unix file system since it sounds like it would have better performance over HFS+. After viewing this Apple kbase article I wasn't so sure. A test system at work won't install software correctly because the drive name is stuck as '/' among other problems. Why would Apple include the UFS option if it offers such reduced functionality, and is anyone out there using it for non-server applications? What for? Are there advantages to UFS on the desktop Mac OS?"

JHromadka writes "Apple has setup a special website with real users explaining why they switched from the PC to the Mac. There's a full compliment of commercials, Mac OS X reviews, the works. Now we know why they didn't renew that agreement with Microsoft. :)" I like the commercials, they're funny, though probably not so much intentionally. Apparently the commercials begin airing this week.

maxphunk writes "So you can boot anyone's Mac using a CD or (for newer machines) mount the hard drive using target disk mode. Therefore, your machine isn't secure, right? Stock, yes; otherwise, no. Apple has a neato utility described here that eliminates this problem and more, using Open Firmware Password Protection. I have installed it on my iBook (late 2001) and I am definitely pleased with the results." It requires Mac OS X 10.1 or greater, and prevents things like starting up in single user mode, verbose mode, resetting PRAM, and more.

maxphunk writes "So you can boot anyone's Mac using a CD or (for newer machines) mount the hard drive using target disk mode. Therefore, your machine isn't secure, right? Stock, yes; otherwise, no. Apple has a neato utility described here that eliminates this problem and more, using Open Firmware Password Protection. I have installed it on my iBook (late 2001) and I am definitely pleased with the results." It requires Mac OS X 10.1 or greater, and prevents things like starting up in single user mode, verbose mode, resetting PRAM, and more.

pinqkandi writes "Apple released the cool and cheap eMac a few weeks ago -- but for educational purposes only. Today, they announced that it is now available to everyone, for only $1099, making it the cheapest G4 Mac ever. I'll buy one." I won't, but I am glad people who want to buy it, can. It's a nice little machine. I guess Apple doesn't see it cutting into iMac G4 sales, but I wonder if iMac G3 sales (starting at $800) will suffer.

pinqkandi writes "Apple released the cool and cheap eMac a few weeks ago -- but for educational purposes only. Today, they announced that it is now available to everyone, for only $1099, making it the cheapest G4 Mac ever. I'll buy one." I won't, but I am glad people who want to buy it, can. It's a nice little machine. I guess Apple doesn't see it cutting into iMac G4 sales, but I wonder if iMac G3 sales (starting at $800) will suffer.

pinqkandi writes "Apple released the cool and cheap eMac a few weeks ago -- but for educational purposes only. Today, they announced that it is now available to everyone, for only $1099, making it the cheapest G4 Mac ever. I'll buy one." I won't, but I am glad people who want to buy it, can. It's a nice little machine. I guess Apple doesn't see it cutting into iMac G4 sales, but I wonder if iMac G3 sales (starting at $800) will suffer.

pinqkandi writes "Apple released the cool and cheap eMac a few weeks ago -- but for educational purposes only. Today, they announced that it is now available to everyone, for only $1099, making it the cheapest G4 Mac ever. I'll buy one." I won't, but I am glad people who want to buy it, can. It's a nice little machine. I guess Apple doesn't see it cutting into iMac G4 sales, but I wonder if iMac G3 sales (starting at $800) will suffer.

krugdm writes "Apple has announced that a public beta of QuickTime 6 is now available. MPEG-4 support is there, as well as support for other technologies, such as JPEG2000, and Flash 5. The beta expires in October. An interesting in the FAQ's says that, '... because QuickTime 6 will include royalty-bearing technologies, a new QuickTime Pro key will be required to unlock pro functionality in the final release.'" It is available for Mac OS, Mac OS X, and Windows, and supports AAC audio too. I also wonder why MPEG-4 is ".mp4". ".mp3" isn't for MPEG-3, after all. Flummery!

Ryan writes "Apple recently published an article on using CVS with Mac OS X. 'This article covers some of the most commonly used features of CVS, with emphasis on using CVS with static and interpreted web files (HTML, PHP, Perl, etc).'" It's a decent article, a good primer on how to get started, and it's nice that Mac OS X comes with a CVS server. Personally, I really dig maccvs for my CVS client, and there are plenty of other clients for Mac OS out there too.

MaxVlast writes in that the The 1394 Trade Association has adopted the FireWire trademark, logo and symbol as a brand identity for the IEEE 1394 connection standard in a "no-fee license agreement" between 1394ta and Apple. Apple has also granted 1394ta the right to sub-license the FireWire Trademark for use on products, packaging and promotion of the standard.

opaquewhite writes "In the recent 'Apple Introduces Xserve' video, an audience member asks two questions, the first regarding Apple's plans for licensing WebObjects, and the second a slam on Apple -- and a poorly aimed one, considering it focuses on slamming Apple's choice several years ago to license AIX for some of their early server offerings. Steve's response while the man is answering his question had me rolling on the floor practically in tears. To see it for yourself, take a look at the video and skip ahead to about 01:28:30 and watch from there. At 01:29:02, Steve makes a familiar gesture to push up his glasses -- glasses which by any account needed no adjustment. A video capture is available."

AnamanFan writes "A new version of OmniWeb 4.1 Public beta 7 has been released by The Omni Group. It is available for download for English only (3.3MB) and Internationalized (6.5MB) versions; read the release notes for more information. This is one of the popular web browsers for Mac OS X, and one of the few that are not direct ports from other systems. The must be doing something right for getting two Apple Design Awards for 2001!"

zaren writes "Apple Computer has kicked off a trade-in program that apparently is covering all of Europe (I first heard about it on apple.ru, but there's now a link at euro.apple.com as well). Apple is accepting any Power Mac (from the 6100s on up) for a credit towards the purchse of a new G4 tower. Seems like they're a) pushing for more people to upgrade to Mac OS X, and b) pushing to clear out their G4 inventory before MacWorld New York." It looks like it is not any Power Mac, but old ones (I don't see iMacs listed). Still, I wish they would do the program in the US.

hysterion writes "Just came across the nice Unix Porting Guide (pdf) posted by Apple earlier this month. Topics include NetInfo, using Project Builder with gnumake, autoconf, XFree86, Tcl/Tk, Qt ... it is a bit short on scripting languages, and they speak as if KDE were already ported, but other than that I found it an informative read." They also didn't mention fink, and they put "Unix" in all caps. However, they were honest about the shell scripting limitations of AppleScript, although they didn't mention that AppleScript -- especially via osascript -- is pretty buggy in Mac OS X right now (this is my annoyance of the week, so allow me to indulge myself).

hysterion writes "Just came across the nice Unix Porting Guide (pdf) posted by Apple earlier this month. Topics include NetInfo, using Project Builder with gnumake, autoconf, XFree86, Tcl/Tk, Qt ... it is a bit short on scripting languages, and they speak as if KDE were already ported, but other than that I found it an informative read." They also didn't mention fink, and they put "Unix" in all caps. However, they were honest about the shell scripting limitations of AppleScript, although they didn't mention that AppleScript -- especially via osascript -- is pretty buggy in Mac OS X right now (this is my annoyance of the week, so allow me to indulge myself).

hysterion writes "Just came across the nice Unix Porting Guide (pdf) posted by Apple earlier this month. Topics include NetInfo, using Project Builder with gnumake, autoconf, XFree86, Tcl/Tk, Qt ... it is a bit short on scripting languages, and they speak as if KDE were already ported, but other than that I found it an informative read." They also didn't mention fink, and they put "Unix" in all caps. However, they were honest about the shell scripting limitations of AppleScript, although they didn't mention that AppleScript -- especially via osascript -- is pretty buggy in Mac OS X right now (this is my annoyance of the week, so allow me to indulge myself).

hysterion writes "Just came across the nice Unix Porting Guide (pdf) posted by Apple earlier this month. Topics include NetInfo, using Project Builder with gnumake, autoconf, XFree86, Tcl/Tk, Qt ... it is a bit short on scripting languages, and they speak as if KDE were already ported, but other than that I found it an informative read." They also didn't mention fink, and they put "Unix" in all caps. However, they were honest about the shell scripting limitations of AppleScript, although they didn't mention that AppleScript -- especially via osascript -- is pretty buggy in Mac OS X right now (this is my annoyance of the week, so allow me to indulge myself).

micq writes "After the PowerBook was updated with a faster processor at the end of April, the iBook was sure to follow. Apple announced today that the popular iBook line has been updated, upping it to a 700MHz G3. It's good to see they're still keeping the 12.1" models, which are of the few remaining small screen, ultra-portables..." They've also improved the video card to an ATI Mobility Radeon. Prices range from $1500 to $1800 for the 700MHz model (12" and 14"), and there's a 12"/600MHz model for $1200.

red5 writes "Apple has posted a video (QuickTime only, of course) of the Xserve introduction."

2nd Post! writes "MacCentral is reporting the announcement of 1U Apple rackmount hardware. The Xserve, despite its cheesy name, seems quite powerful: dual G4/1GHz with 4MB DDR L3 cache, up to 2GB DDR (yes!) SDRAM, 4 ATA drive bays (up to 480GB), 2 Gb Ethernet ports, 2 64/66 PCI slots (one of which may be taken up by one Gb Ethernet card), and, of course, FireWire. Pricing starts at $2,999 for a single 60GB disk and 256MB RAM." Yahoo! has posted the press release; Doc Searls is writing about Jobs' speech. Update: 05/14 18:14 GMT by M : Apple's page about the Xserve is now live.

Eugenia writes: "Over a month ago it was reported that a developer had forked the Athe(na) operating system and ported its GUI on top of Linux, without the use of XFree86. This combined OS, called Cosmoe, would support Linux, AtheOS, BeOS and even Macintosh's Carbon APIs (without the use of GNUStep - his port of Carbon is wrapped around the Be API). OSNews today features an interview with the architect of the combined OS, Bill Hayden, where a lot of things are explained about his plans for Cosmoe."

AnamanFan writes "Apple has released an update to the iPod with: 'audio playback and user interface improvements, equalization presets, shuffle by album, track scrubbing, Contacts, and additional languages: Korean, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese.' Size is 2.1MB and is available by Software Update or at the iPod download page."

AnamanFan writes "Apple has released an update to the iPod with: 'audio playback and user interface improvements, equalization presets, shuffle by album, track scrubbing, Contacts, and additional languages: Korean, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese.' Size is 2.1MB and is available by Software Update or at the iPod download page."

AnamanFan writes "Apple has released an update to the iPod with: 'audio playback and user interface improvements, equalization presets, shuffle by album, track scrubbing, Contacts, and additional languages: Korean, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese.' Size is 2.1MB and is available by Software Update or at the iPod download page."

Frogbeater writes "Apple keeps on keeping on with the anti-copy protection crowd by using their technical info database as a platform for denouncing the artists who are getting on the bandwagon." I like this line from the technote: You may be unable to eject certain copy-protected audio discs, which resemble Compact Discs (CD) but technically are not. Indeed.

Arkham writes "Tim O'Reilly gave a speech at WWDC called 'Watching the Alpha Geeks: Mac OS X and the next big thing', in which he suggested that Apple is doing the right things to be a big success. Specifically, Apple should continue to 1) adhere to standards, 2) keep things small and modular, and 3) document as you go -- man pages and RFCs. Anyone who has used Mac OS X can see that Apple is trying hard to be a good open-source citizen (for example, the new zero-config Rendezvous technology). The question is, at what point will these efforts pay off (more users, and thus more money)?" What is this "money" you speak of?

EccentricAnomaly writes "Apple has announced the winners of this year's Apple Design Awards. And the winners are: Best New Mac OS X Product: Toon Boom; Most Innovative Mac OS X Product: Watson; Best Mac OS X User Experience and Best Mac OS X Technology Adoption: OmniGraffle; Best Mac OS X Open Source port: TeXShop; and Best Mac OS X Student Product: MacJournal." The last one appears to be down, due to "excessive bandwidth consumption." Maybe the Apple Design Awards people should've gotten together with the Apple iTools HomePage people.

xWeston writes "Apple accidentally released this online about a week ago, but now this is the official deal. iPhoto 1.1.1 is released! Apparently some of the new features are being able to adjust brightness, contrast, set as the desktop pattern, and my personal favorite. 'Email photos via mail.' I'm not too sure how emailing through the normal mail works but I'll give it a try." I also like that exporting QuickTime includes fades and music, so it looks just like the slide show.

Eugenia Loli writes "MacCentral has the up-to-the-minute updates on the Apple WorldWide Developer Conference. The first big news is that Apple drops Mac OS 9. 'It's time to drop OS 9,' Steve Jobs said. 'We can do things in X that we just can't do in 9... a hundred percent of what we're doing is X only. [...] Mac OS 9 isn't dead for our customers, but it is for developers. Today we say goodbye to Mac OS 9 for all future development,' said Jobs." We all expected this to happen sooner or later, more sooner than later. There's been no new Apple development for Mac OS 9 in some time; only maintenance updates. But I won't stop Mac OS 9 development. You can't stop me! Muahahahaha! Update: 05/06 18:31 GMT by P : More news from WWDC continues to roll in. Eugenia Loli writes "Probably the really big news is with Jaguar, the codename for Mac OS X 10.2. There is handwriting recognition technology that will be recognized by any application that uses text. Apple also introduced Quartz Extreme, which takes the compositing engine in Quartz, and accelerates it in graphics cards, and combines 2D, 3D and video in one hardware pipeline via OpenGL. 'Everything on the screen is being drawn in hardware by OpenGL.' It requires AGP 2x and 32MB of video RAM. It is not possible on older graphics cards like RAGE 128 cards, said Jobs -- that means it'll work on newer iMacs and eMacs, but not on older machines, he emphasized. Jobs said this puts Apple two years ahead of 'the other guys.'"

Update: 05/06 18:46 GMT by P : An anonymous user writes: "Apple is releasing Mac OS X Rackmount Servers. Also releasing AIM-compatible messaging called iChat; you can create buddy lists of anyone on the local network, and you can use your mac.com username to log in to it."

ZigMonty writes "Apple has updated their Kernel Programming docs (May 1st). They are a lot more substantial now (read: they say something other than 'don't')."

bootc writes "Last week we heard the news that Jordan Hubbard was leaving the FreeBSD Core Team. I received an email about the new OpenDarwin.org web site and had a look around, just to find that our friend Jordan was member of the OpenDarwin Core Team!" Apple has consolidated its Open Source web site, including Darwin, under its developer site, while the Internet Software Consortium is hosting the independent OpenDarwin.org, which will develop OpenDarwin with the developer community and collaborate with Apple to merge OpenDarwin technologies into Darwin and Mac OS X.

KeelSpawn writes in that Yahoo! has a story about the upcoming WWDC in San Jose, May 6-10. Apple will offer attendees the chance to "be the first to explore the powerful new capabilities of the next major release of Mac OS X," with over 100 technical sessions, including those on Darwin, changes in Carbon and Cocoa, and more than 25 sessions on Java and WebObjects. The WWDC Steve Jobs keynote begins May 6 at 1 p.m. Eastern, while the Mac OS X keynote begins at 5 p.m. Eastern.

destructo666 writes "April 2002 Developer Tools now available to ADC online members. Membership is required, but it is free. This release includes a GM AppleScript Studio 1.1, plus beta versions of Project Builder 2.0 and gcc-3 Compiler." Must. Go. Play.

Fubar writes "Longtime TidBITS publisher Adam C. Engst recently wrote a book about Apple's iPhoto software. Faced with the standard publishing-to-market delays that would only leave a month or so before the next version of iPhoto is released, Engst worked out a deal with Amazon that folks can download the book for $13 now, and receive a free dead-tree version once the book is updated to reflect the changes in the new version of iPhoto. This is the first 'book upgrade' I've ever heard of."

Martin Kallisti writes "Apple has released new PowerBook models whose improvements include faster processors (up to 800MHz), better resolution, 1MB of L3 cache and 32MB of video memory. Also, a new computer looking much like the old iMacs, called the eMac, has seen the light of day. It's primarily targeted at the education market, and boasts a 700MHz G4 processor and a flat 17" monitor. " As Troc pointed out in another submission, the eMac will be available only to profs/teachers, students and higher education institutions.