MacEdition Pro News : April 18, 2003
by MacEdition Staff (feedback)
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Just keeping everything on track
A memo to me
Ever have one of those insanely great ideas just float in and out of your brain? Ever think that if you had some way to record it, you could parley that stream of consciousness in the money making widget you thought it might be?
Well, if that’s you, or you need some way to record really quick reminders to yourself MacSpeech has something you may want to make note of.
The company is offering a transcription bundle built around their iListen software and an Olympus DS-2000 digital voice recorder.
Downloading speech files to your Mac is quick and easy with the included USB Cable. For additional ease-of-use, the SmartMedia card can be removed and its contents downloaded to your Mac using a number of SmartMedia download devices. Adding iListen to the mix, gives a complete solution for Direct Speech Dictation, Voice Command & Control and Transcription.
The iListen/Olympus bundle also includes the Griffin iMic and a microphone headset for a US$299 sticker. The caveat on the deal is the Olympus recorder is a refurbished unit.
A brand spanking new variant of the Mac compatible recorder is available on its own with a retail sticker of US$250. Although, the bundled software that comes with the unit only allows for playback.
Money, money, money....
If you’ve got enough of it that you need to track where it is, then you best be downloading the latest version of iCash from the Max Programming site.
The $25 shareware title now features QIF import – so you can be rid of that WinTrash thing called Quicken – and you can create accounts with a starting balance and create a separate startup capital account for that entrepreneurial idea of yours.
iCash is an easy-to-use, full featured and multipurpose Personal Finance Manager tool for Macintosh intended to help you control all kinds of money issues. iCash can serve several small accounting needs for either private users, or clubs, associations, self-employed, small businesses or simply to be used at home, making keeping track of incomes, expenses and Bank transactions a snap. With a few clicks you can begin creating accounts and making transactions in minutes.
iCash is now available in six languages. The update expands the types of cash transaction one can record, adds new menu displays and fixes a handful of minor bugs.
When you gotta shine...
Epson rolled out two higher-end projectors which give users the ability to crank out over 5,000 lumens while being networkable to make maintenance a tad easier for the folks in the Information services department.
(Your run-of-the-mill garden-variety projector usually cranks out about 1,200 lumens.)
“The digital projector market continues to evolve in many ways and networking is playing a larger role for businesses these days,” said Jodi Maugham, product manager, Epson. “These two projectors address that trend, giving IT administrators the flexibility and control they need to effectively manage projectors from a variety of locations, along with powerful display technology that will add dramatic visual impact to any presentation.”
Epson’s browser-based projector management tool gives the user the ability to check the projector’s power status, lamp hours and turn the projector either on or off. The projectors will also issue an email in respect to unit temperature, the fan or the lamp should any of those components begin to reach critical mass.
The PowerLite 8300i cranks out 5,200 lumens in a luggable 25 pound (~13 kilo) package and has a suggested retail sticker of US$9,999. The 7800p is a 12-pound (~5 kilo) package that cranks out 3,500 lumens with a suggested price tag of US$4,899. Both units are slated to ship late this month.
Both models use the RJ-45 connector for network access and have your stand VGA, BNC, and S-Video connectors. The models are also equipped with a DVI input and will support an attached USB mouse. Separate monitor and video outs – as well as a remote control – come standard with both models.
What’s this button do?
Now that the latest version of Safari has hit your hard drive, what’s a Web-surfin’ wonder to do except look for a way to make the blazing browser faster?
The folks at YazSoft have tweaked their accelerated download engine to work with the new version of Safari. The utility already supports most other major browsers on Mac OS X.
Anybody interested in giving their download speeds a kick in the pants can grab the trial version of the $20 program from the YazSoft site.
One of our customers suggests...
CocoaTech has reworked PathFinder, the company’s Finder enhancement, giving the program a number of new features and open sourced the program’s code in the hopes that other developers will build plugins for the utility to expand its usefulness.
Most of the recent improvements to the program were driven by user comments to the company’s Web site.
Since the release of version 2.1, we have received hundreds of emails filled with great commentary and feedback, and we are very proud to announce future releases of Path Finder will be including many of these great suggestions. We have also redesigned our website to better accommodate you in keeping track of development progress and to continuously provide us with valuable feedback.
The Cocoa frameworks used to create Path Finder, and source code used to write Path Finder plugins are now open source and ready for immediate download. These plugins will allow other Developers to write their own plugins in order to extend the power and functionality of Path Finder.
New additions in the latest release include the ability to view a document a raw text in addition to Hex code when the Finder can’t locate the original program that created the document. New scaling options for font and icon sizes have been added, made the Hex view, get info and graphic convertor tools plugin to the program and resolved compatibility problems with Labels X, Candy Bar and DragThing.
A 21-day trial of PathFinder is available from the CocoaTech site and the program costs US$34 to register.
Web pages made easy
Aram Kudurhian update his HTML Creator, giving users the ability to dynamically edit their page attributes and preview pages in any of the seven major browsers available for Mac OS X.
HTML Creator is a Web design program that allows the user to select any the of the 50 assistants to automate the HTML coding process. The program also contains more advanced features like JavaScripts, CSS support, Frameset Tools and Server Side Includes.
The new version is available as a 30-day trial and costs US$15 to register.
Looking for old ProNews segments? Check out our index at http://old.macedition.com/news/. Do you have news releases or tidbits of interest to the Macintosh professional? Send them to pronewsnotes@macedition.com.