" NewTek has announced that they are offering a special price for Final Cut Pro users on LightWave 3D, the industry-standard 3D modeling, animation and rendering program. Named the "Best 3D Animation Software for 2001" by Macworld magazine editors, and awarded the "Freakin' Awesome" award by MacAddict magazine, LightWave [7] is THE software to add to your toolset for 3D graphics.

The software is available for only US$1495, a full one thousand dollars off the suggested retail price! Take advantage of this offer (available for a limited time only) to add professional 3D graphics to your Final Cut projects.

Want to find out what LightWave 3D is capable of? Just visit www.lightwave3d.com. From there, click on the Projects link to find a comprehensive list of films, music videos, television shows, commercials, games, and more, in which LightWave 3D has allowed artists and directors to realize their visions. Click on the Gallery link to see examples from users from all over the world, and all different levels of expertise. Click on the Community section to read profiles of LightWave 3D users and projects around the globe.

Finally, don't forget to click on the LightWave Special button to view the details on the LightWave 3D special for Final Cut Pro users!"

I don't know how long this offer is valid, so it may expire at any time.

" Hello, I just sent the following message to Norton about their beta of Norton Utilities for OS X. You might want to pass along this information to your readers...

I have recently taken the Norton Utilities for OS X beta for a "test drive." So far I am extremely disappointed in it. The Deletion Tracking daemon (a root process known as DTdaemon) suddenly began stealing every available amount of idle time on my system, often upwards of 80-90% of CPU time according to Process Viewer and Top. This process was unkillable; if I logged in as Root and killed the thread DTdaemon, my system would simply hang on the spinning wheel and never recover. I could also not shut down my system! It would simply stay stuck on the spinning wheel forever -- I literally had to pull the power plug out of my Quicksilver 733 to shut it down. In my opinion they should remove the NU X beta immediately until this very serious problem is resolved!

The way to solve the problem is to go to the directory Library at the root level of your OS X startup drive and delete the folder with the Dtdaemon.plist. If you run NU again it may reinstall this plist, but I certainly don't plan on tempting fate once again.
Thanks,
Mike"

I've not tried the Beta for OS X personally (I use their OS 9 version) but even a screensavers TV show episode recently commented on the fact there has been some bad reports on the beta for OS X.

" realMYST® for the Mac REACHES BETA! PRE-ORDER SPECIAL ANNOUNCED

Dallas, Texas - February 8, 2002 - MacPlay, a subsidiary of United Developers, announced today that the Mac conversion of Ubi SoftÌs realMYST®, the highly anticipated realtime 3D adventure, has reached beta and is scheduled to begin shipping to retail in early March.

realMYST uses a state-of-the-art real-time 3D graphics engine to present Myst® as it was originally intended: a tale of mystery and intrigue, set in an immersive, dynamic world. Wide-open game play allows players to walk and look anywhere they choose in real-time with 360 degrees of freedom. Witness extraordinary 3D effects as day changes into night and weather changes from brilliant sun to dreary rain, creating an entirely new game experience.

To promote the upcoming release of realMYST, MacPlay is allowing customers to preorder realMYST for the Mac at the introductory price of $29.99 directly from the companyÌs website at www.macplay.com. Customers within the U.S. will receive free shipping and handling, while a minimal charge of $20 will be applied to all international customers.

ICEWIND DALE(tm) REACHES BETA! PRE-ORDER SPECIAL ANNOUNCED

MacPlay announced today that Icewind Dale(tm) has reached beta and is scheduled to begin shipping to retail in early March. In the spirit of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons® adventure Tomb of Horrors, Icewind Dale is a classic dungeon crawl incorporating the award-winning gameplay elements from Baldur's Gate, offering players a chance to hone their combat skills while exploring the enormous caverns and dungeons beneath the Forgotten Realms® campaign setting.

Using the award-winning BioWare Infinity Engine(tm) developed by BioWare for Baldur's Gate, players create a party of adventurers in the frigid north to combat monstrous cyclops and frost giants that dwarf the player characters as they search for an evil lying deep within the Spine of the World. Icewind Dale offers high-level character advancement in this adaptation of the AD&D® rules under license from Wizards of the Coast. Complete information on Icewind Dale can be found at www.macplay.com.

To promote the upcoming release of Icewind Dale, MacPlay is allowing customers to preorder the product at the introductory price of $49.99 directly from the companyís website at www.macplay.com. Customers within the U.S. will receive free shipping and handling, while a minimal charge of $20 will be applied to all international customers. Current customers of Baldurís Gateô II: Shadows of Amn(tm), as well as any customer who has previously purchased from MacPlayís online store, will receive an additional $10.00 discount under the companyís Customer Loyalty Program, located at:
https://preorder.macplay.com/icewinddale.php?promocode=FBR0202 "

Date Submitted: 2/7/2002
Rating (1 to 10): 8
Manufacturer/Model: Sonnet Harmoni iMac Upgrade
Rated Speed (CPU/Cache MHz): G3 500/500
Max Speed (CPU/Cache MHz): (not adjustable)
Cache Size: 256 KB [on-chip L2 cache running at full CPU speed-Mike]
Mac Type: iMac rev.B; 233 MHz
Comments:
The installation from power-down, to the dining room table, and back to power-up was completed in 20 minutes. If you've ever installed memory in both slots on your iMac, you'll have no problem with the HARMONi G3 installation. Read through the instructions once before you get started. I didn't find any surprises once I began the CPU transplant. My initial raction is a positive one -- I just haven't had a chance to try out the FireWire port, yet.
John H.

I asked that he post an update or send me an email when he tries the firewire ports with hard drives or CDRWs. (I doubt it is bootable, since the early iMacs are based on the chipsets before even the B&W G3, which is not bootable from FW drives, but just wondering how well the firewire works for CDRWs or copies of large files/folders with thousand of files).
If any other readers install a Sonnet Harmoni upgrade, please post an report in the database. (Please use it for several days in apps, etc. before posting a review, and if possible try the Firewire ports.)

" Griffin Technology, Inc. has released version 1.1 of the iMate driver for OS X today for their popular iMate USB to ADB adapter. Compatible with OS X 10.1 and higher, the new driver supports all currently available ADB devices that offer Mac OS X compatibility. One example would include the Kensington Mouseworks driver for OS X.

"Our customers desperately want to use their favorite ADB trackballs and their original Apple Extended ADB keyboards with their new Mac and OS X. We have not only made that possible, we have opened up the door for other manufacturers to bring OS X compatibility to their ADB tablets, mice and other customer favorites." said Andrew Green, VP Marketing for Griffin Technologies.

Also today, Griffin Technology announced the availability of gPort Driver version 1.1 for OS X. This update adds full OS X 10.1 or higher support to their line of serial adaptors for the G4, G3 Blue & White G3 and Cube computers. The gPort Serial Port Adapter continues to be the ultimate solution for using serial port based MIDI interfaces, digital cameras, PDA docking stations and serial printers.

Both driver[s] are available for download at:
http://www.griffintechnology.com/ftp/index.html.

" We've released a second revision to the Toast Titanium 5.1.2 updater. It fixes the following two urgent issues:

- The update aborted during install of the Toast Video CD QuickTime component in certain cases.

- The updater improperly deleted the previous version in some cases without installing the new version.

The new updater can be downloaded at:
http://www.roxio.com/toastosx/download.jhtml

I sincerely apologize to our users for the inconvenience these defects have caused. "

I had run the original 5.1.2 updater under OS 9.2 without any errors Wednesday night and asked if I should run the revised updater again and got this reply.

"Hi Mike,
Yes, I'd rerun this update under X, the updater will install a new Video CD encoder.
The updater doesn't contain any new software, though. Just changes to the install logic. "

Multi-Format Card Reader Reports
• USB Acomdata Multi-Format Memory Card Reader used w/G4 Cube (OS X)
  (no OS X 10.1.2 support noted)
• USB Dazzle 6-in-1 multi card reader used w/iMac G4 (OS X)
  (Dazzle listed under "other" brands)
  
  DVD-R DVD Recorder Reports
• IDE Pioneer DVR-A03 in G4/AGP (OS X)
  
  DVD-ROM Drive Reports
• IDE Matshita 2x [no model# listed] in Beige G3 (OS 9.2)
  
  IDE CDRW Drive Reports
• Freecom 4 x 4 x 32 (Acer mechanism) in B&W G3 (OS X)
  (no iTunes support. Freecom listed under "other" brands)
• LG GCE-8240B (24x10x40) in G4/AGP 2001 (OS 9.1)
  (listed under "other" brands. See FAQ for iTunes support files.)
• NEC NR-7900A 24x/10x/40x in Beige G3 (OS 9.1)
  (listed under "other" brands)
• Yamaha CRW2100E (16x/10x/40x) in B&W G3 (OS 9)
• Yamaha CRW-2200E 20x/10/x40x in Beige G3 (OS 8.6)
  (problems noted)
  
  Firewire CDRW Drive Reports
• Lacie 32x/10x/40x used w/PowerBook G4 (OS X)
  (noted using modified drivers noted in the FAQ's CDROM/CDR section)
• Sony CRX1600L/A2 12x8x32 used w/iMac slot loading (OS 9.2)
• Teac 24X10X40 CD-W524E in FW Case used w/iMac slot loading (OS 9.1)
  (using ituneshelper, which requires Toast 5)
  
  IDE Hard Drive Reports
• IBM 120GXP 120GB in G4/AGP (OS X)
  (see illustrated HD install guide here)
• Western Digital WD800BB 80GB in iMac slot loading (OS 9.2)
  
  Firewire Hard Drive Reports
• IBM 120GXP 120GB in FW case used w/PowerBook G4 OS X)
• Lacie STUDIO-IF-HD-706105 40GB used w/B&W G3 (OS 8.6)
• Western Digital 80GB in Firewire Case used w/PowerBook G4 (OS X)
  (see the Firewire articles page for case kit build guides.)

You can find full owner reports by searching the database by drive/brand/interface/mac models (the latest reports are shown first in searches).
For guides to installing CD/CDRW/DVD drives or Hard drives in many mac models, see the IDE Articles page. The Firewire articles page also has guides on case kits, installing drives, etc.
If you've added a IDE, SCSI, Firewire or USB hard drive, CDRW, tape drive, etc. make sure you add a report to the database. [If you post an updated entry - make sure you use the same name, etc. as you did before so I can find your past entry. Thanks.]

• Powerlogix G3/400 in 9500/200 (rated 8)
• Sonnet Harmoni G3/500 in iMac (rated 8)
• Sonnet G3/400 in Starmax 4000/200 MT (rated 1)
• XLR8 CarrierZIF w/Apple G3/266 ZIF in Power Center Pro 180 (rated 8)
• XLR8 G4/500 in B&W G3 (rated 10)
• B&W G3/300 OC report
• Beige G3/300 OC report

(Warning - Overclocking may not be reliable and could lead to hardware failure or corrupted data.) You can find the full reports by searching the database selecting the indicated Mac model and upgrade card brand/type. If you've upgraded the CPU on your Mac, please post an entry in the database. Search the database for entries from most every upgradable Mac model *before* you buy. (Searchable by mac model/upgrade brand). For detailed reviews with performance tests and install tips, see the CPU Upgrades page.)

Software Updates:
(See above for link to rev 2 of Toast 5.1.2 installer)
OS X related
• MS Office Network Security Updater
• Lotus Notes/Domino 6 Preview 1
• iPhoto Library Manager
• FileType
• SuperSocket 2.1
• Project Backer 1.0.1
• HideOrShowPreviousLogin
• Locator 0.6.9

Mac/PowerPC Related News:
(Note: Rehashing of press releases, repeated news, etc. not listed)

• Apple short-circuits Circuit City deal (cnet)
• Apple talks Real, not Nothing Real (the register)
• MS anti-piracy feature trips up Office for Mac (the register)
  [See Software Updates listing above for patch]
• Apple creeps toward MPEG-4 (cnet)
• The un-vision: What Steve Jobs WON'T do at Apple (zdnet)
• Apple Design Awards OS X-only (macworld uk)
• Using Microsoft Outlook or Exchange? (microsoft)
• EEMBC Publishes Benchmark Scores for Motorola PowerPC Processor (eembc.org)
• Apollo Fires Up Chips Chief (macworld uk)
• Apple Releases Apple/Genentech BLAST, Significantly Accelerating Protein And DNA Searches for the Biomedical Community (prnewswire)
• New iMac takes us back to the future (nzherald)
• iPhoto Scripts and Plug-ins (orielly)
• Apple Teacher Institure 2002 (apple)
• Quark reveals more OS X details (macuser uk)
• Apple*s QuickTime Surpasses RealNetworks* RealPlayer (apple)
• No Dumb Questions (apple)
• Alien Skin Software Announces Splat! (alien skin)

Misc Hardware Related:
• FireWire Portable Hard Drives (transintl)
• gHub - White (drbott)

Gaming News:
• Urban Terror 2.4 [Quake 3 total conversion mod that works with Macs] (silicon ice)
• Black & White Mac Ships

Other Net News:
• Companies fear costly MPEG-4 licenses (cnet)
• NY Challenges McAfee Covenants (yahoo)
• So farewell then, 3dfx.com (the register)

• 1 year ago today
• 2 years ago today
• 3 years ago today