MacTech News

Feb 04

RunRev to bring Revolution to mobile platforms

RunRev says it will bring its Revolution product line to mobile platforms this year. revMobile is a brand new product that will support the iPhone, iPad, Windows Mobile and Maemo platforms initially. revMobile will be compatible with other members of the Rev product family and uses the company's revTalk programming language. A modern descendant of natural-language technologies such as Apple's HyperCard, Rev enables software construction for everyone, according to RunRev CEO Kevin Miller. With revMobile, developers will be able to develop and deploy to mobile platforms using a single code base, while being able to take advantage of native features on each device, he adds. Additionally it will be possible to reuse code across Windows, Mac OS and Linux desktops, popular Web browsers and on Web servers. revMobile will create standalone applications for each target platform. Due to current requirements iPhone/iPad apps must be submitted compiled and submitted to the Apple App Store for...

Feb 04

Atlona opens the Mini DisplayPort to DVI-D based g

Atlona Technologies (http://www.atlona.com), makers of the DP200, a HDCP and DPCP compliant DVI to Mini DisplayPort converter, has introduced the Dual Link DVI to MDP converter DP400. It's designed to bring the DVI to MDP gap and convert DVI dual link video signals to MDP. The DP400 will on sale next month. It's available for pre-order at a manufacturer's suggested retail price of US$199.According to the folks at Atlona, the DP400 lends itself to photo and video editing software used on Mac Pros such as Final Cut and Photoshop, due to its ability to render a true pixel to pixel image on MDP displays. DVI based Mac users can optimize work their work space to utilize their Cinema Displays as their preview monitor, utilizing the new capabilities of display to its fullest. The DP400, is powered by a USB seven-inch pigtail connected to the unit itself. The unit also features a DVI-D 7 inch pigtail allowing users to connect to DVI based computers and laptops. The DP400 is...

Feb 03

K4 Cross-Media Publishing Platform 6 Version 6 ava

Managing Editor Inc. (http://www.maned.com) has announced the immediate availability of version 6 of the vjoon K4 Cross-Media Publishing Platform. It's the latest version of the editorial management system integrating Adobe InDesign and InCopy. Version 6.0 offers increased support for cross-media input and output, a task-based workflow model, more options for remote users and enhanced flexibility in the system's behind-the-scenes architecture. K4 is a multi-tier solution that supports Oracle, Microsoft SQL and MySQL database platforms and runs on Mac OS X, Windows, Linux and SUN Solaris operating systems. The K4 Cross-Media Publishing Platform Version 6 is now available from MEI. All K4 customers on active maintenance agreements are eligible to receive a free upgrade.

Feb 02

OWC offers memory upgrades for Mac Pro 8-core mode

Other World Computing (OWC) has announced 64GB 1066MHz DDR3 ECC Memory Upgrade Kit for Mac Pro 8-Core Pro models. The memory upgrade kits for Mac Pro 8-Core models offer more configuration options and savings over factory memory upgrades, according to the folks at OWC. The two 8GB module-based OWC upgrades -- 48GB (6 x 8GB) and 64GB (8 x 8GB) -- offer a maximum performance configuration for Mac Pro 8-Core machines not available from the factory. In addition to the savings offered by OWC Upgrades, Mac Pro users also retain their original factory memory modules that can either be set aside for future use or be sent to OWC for a cash back trade-in of up to US$25 per Apple factory 2GB memory module. OWC offers a guide to select and order OWC Memory Upgrade Kits for Mac Pro models. You can find it here: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Mac-Pro-Memory

Feb 02

iPhone development class to add iPad development t

About Objects (http://www.aboutobjects.com) will be offering a revamped version of its most popular iPhone development training course that will include coverage of Apple's new iPad. While the version of the iPhone SDK required for iPad development (3.2 beta) is currently under a non-disclosure agreement, Apple has indicated that the agreement will no longer be in force when the iPad ships, which, according to Apple, will be in late March. About Objects's five-day, hands-on course, entitled "Introduction to iPhone and iPad Development," will be offered initially at the Hilton Garden Inn in Cupertino, California, April 26-30, and then in Reston, Virginia in late May. The new course will take the place of the current "iPhone Programming Workshop" in the About Objects curriculum. About Objects will also offer a new bundled course pairing "Introduction to iPhone and iPad Development" with the existing, two-day "Objective-C for Beginners" course. The bundle, entitled "iPhone and iPad...

Feb 02

Excel Software releases LicenseSupport 1.0 for Mac

Excel Software (http://www.excelsoftware.com) has introduced LicenseSupport 1.0 for customer support on Mac OS X and Windows Systems. Software vendors can use LicenseSupport to manage customer licenses for protected applications and documents. A support person can provide an activation code, reset a license, block an activated license before issuing a refund or change the number of allowed activations for a serial number. LicenseSupport works directly with an application or document protected by QuickLicense, QuickLicense Server, DocProtect or AppProtect. LicenseSupport also connects by Internet to the Safe Activation server. This task-oriented tool prompts the customer support person for the required information and generates a license code to support a customer by phone or email. LicenseSupport stores customer records, maintains an historical log of support activities, provides integrated email support and presents a secure log-in process, according to the folks at Excel Software....

Feb 02

Excel Software releases AppProtect 1.0 for Mac, Windows

Excel Software (http://www.excelsoftware.com") has released AppProtect 1.0 for protecting Mac and Windows software. It purportedly applies protection to a compiled application in minutes without programming. AppProtect is a new product in Excel Software's extensive line of software and document protection and license management tools for Mac OS X and Windows computers. It can be used standalone or in conjunction with the Safe Activation or WebActivation web server for automated license activation. A software vendor opens the AppProtect window, selects the desired options and clicks a button to generate a protected application. The vendor's application is wrapped with an activation process that presents a dialog to the customer on first launch. Once activated, the software will run on that computer without user interaction, but application files can't be copied and used on any other computer. The vendor can choose an activation process that either presents an Enter Password or Enter...

Feb 02

Wacom introduces Intuos 4 Wireless pen tablet

Wacom (http://www.wacom.com) has announced the Intuos 4 Wireless 4 professional pen tablet, which features Bluetooth technology. Designed for home, office, classroom or remote-meeting use, the Intuos4 Wireless provides mobility and freedom when working with Bluetooth-enabled desktop or laptop computers, says Don Varga, senior product manager for Wacom's line of professional branded products. The Intuos4 Wireless features USB charging directly from the computer. The Grip Pen that comes with the Intuos4 Wireless features Wacom's proprietary Tip Sensor technology, offering users near-zero (one gram) starting pressure for the most sensitive Intuos pen tablet performance to-date, Varga adds. It has 2048 levels of pressure, doubling the resolution of the pen's pressure curve. The Grip Pen also features a pressure-sensitive eraser and two customizable side switches that can be set for commands such as double- click and right-click. Available in a single size (medium) only, the Intuos4...

Feb 02

Winter Wolves releases The Flower Shop for Mac OS X

Winter Wolves has released The Flower Shop (http://www.winterwolves.com/theflowershop.htm), an US$19.99 dating and farming simulation for Mac OS X 10.4 and higher. Windows and Linux versions are also available. Here's how the game is described: "The Flower Shop akes place in Fairbrook, a small farming community in northern California. Steve is a college freshman with relationship troubles. His girlfriend just dumped him, and his father is angry at him for his poor grades. As punishment, Steve is sent to work on his uncle's farm for the summer in the hope that he'll learn self discipline. Although he initially resents the idea of spending a summer toiling away in a small town away from his home, he soon makes friends with many of the people in the community of Fairbrook. Among his new friends are three charming girls each with her own hopes and dreams. Will one of these relationships bloom into romance, will Steve make up with his girlfriend, or will this summer leave him alone?...

Feb 01

Canto Cumulus now available in Spanish

Canto (http://www.canto.com) has announced that the Cumulus Native Client has been localized for Spanish speaking users. Joining localized editions currently available for English, German, French, Japanese and Korean, the Spanish edition enables Canto to offer a native language Cumulus interface to users in Spain, Mexico, South America and other regions the company considers important for its continued growth. Leveraging the diversity of its worldwide partner network, Canto worked with Spanish longtime partner Microgestió on the localization, according to Canto CEO Ulrich Knocke. The Spanish edition of Cumulus is available at no additional charge to all customers on software maintenance agreements.

Feb 01

Winter Wolves releases The Flower Shop for Mac OS

Winter Wolves has released The Flower Shop (http://www.winterwolves.com/theflowershop.htm), an US$19.99 dating and farming simulation for Mac OS X 10.4 and higher. Windows and Linux versions are also available. Here's how the game is described: "The Flower Shop akes place in Fairbrook, a small farming community in northern California. Steve is a college freshman with relationship troubles. His girlfriend just dumped him, and his father is angry at him for his poor grades. As punishment, Steve is sent to work on his uncle's farm for the summer in the hope that he'll learn self discipline. Although he initially resents the idea of spending a summer toiling away in a small town away from his home, he soon makes friends with many of the people in the community of Fairbrook. Among his new friends are three charming girls each with her own hopes and dreams. Will one of these relationships bloom into romance, will Steve make up with his girlfriend, or will this summer leave him alone?...

Feb 01

QuickerTek releases nCard for MacBooks, MacBook Pr

QuickerTek has released the US$89.95 nCard (http://www.quickertek.com/products/nCard_2010.php) for use with a MacBook, MacBook Pro or Mac mini with any wireless network. The company says that users of the new nCard can expect wireless speeds "that are the absolute fastest the wireless network can manage." To boost performance even further, this card can be upgraded with an external antenna. That means even more distance from the wireless access point. The nCard offers compatibility with all Apple AirPort Base Stations, as well as Linksys, Belkin and virtually all other wireless network hardware, including the "draft N" equipment. This new nCard installs into the internal AirPort card slot. The installation itself is no more complex than upgrading memory, according to the folks at QuickerTek. It's compatible with: all 2006-2009 models (white and black, no unibody) of MacBooks; all 2006-2008 (15, 17-inch models, no unibody) of MacBook Pros; and 06-early 2009 (no G4s, not most current...

Feb 01

ProSecure unveils new gateway security appliance

ProSecure, the specialized network security brand by NetGear, has unveiled the ProSecure UTM5, a gateway security appliance designed to extend enterprise-class Unified Threat Management (UTM) technology to any small business, home networks for telecommuters, and small branch offices around five users in size. Distributed via NetGear's channel partner program, the ProSecure UTM5 appliances come with simple subscription options without any per-user licensing. The UTM5 enables small companies to protect themselves using an array of defenses including firewall, SSL and IPSec VPN, URL filtering, network antivirus, and antispam, but in a very small, easy-to-use form factor and with a corresponding price point, according to Jason Leung, NetGear's senior product line manager for SMB security. IT departments can also use the UTM5 to protect the home networks of telecommuters, as these remote employees often share connections with other endpoints that may not be as secure as a corporate laptop...

Feb 01

2X unites application, desktop virtualization with thin client...

2X Software has released version 8 of its 2X ApplicationServer and 2X VirtualDesktopServer products. The new version not only includes the ability to publish applications and virtual desktops, but also allows the management of user thin client configurations from within the application console. This creates an all-in-one application for remote publishing and device management, according to Nikolaos Makris, CEO of 2X Software. The new release will further reduce IT administration hassles, by allowing centralized control of both device groups and published resources, he adds. 2X VirtualDesktopServer v. 8 publishes any Windows application or virtual desktop to remote devices, including thin clients and Mac, Windows and Linux systems, without the need to install applications or desktops to local machines. The 2X VirtualDesktopServer also serves as a connection broker for the Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware ESX, Parallels Containers and Windows Terminal Server virtualization platforms. Makris...

MacTech Blog

Jan 31

Windows 7 on the iPad? There's an App for That

Citrix says its Citrix Receiver will be ready for the iPad. InternetNews.com has a story on a new app by Citrix that allows you to use Windows on the iPad -- not by actually running it on the iPad, but by allowing you to use Windows running on a Citrix Server. "The Citrix Receiver software is free and already available for Citrix customers with an iPhone, since a Citrix Xen virtualization back-end is required to make this all work. Essentially the iPad becomes a thin client displaying Windows 7 running on a server." http://www.internetnews.com/software/article.php/3861861/

Jan 27

A4, BINGO!

Apple has announced the iPad, in case you hadn't noticed. The biggest "WHAT" I had was the announcing of the A4 chip. Apple has most likely taken the technology they acquired in their purchase of PA Semiconductors and produced their own chips. Does this mean that the future of the iPhone may be Power-PC as well? While it's likely that the computers (desktop/laptops) will remain on Intel chips, as running Windows on a Mac is partially what has driven the Mac sales, what about other projects? Is Apple completing the circle and moving back to Power PC chips for non-computer devices? Has the student become the master and soon Apple's chips will be competing against IBM's? Most likely not. But with Apple building their own chips, it could mean we start seeing other devices that can do things that used to be impossible.

Jan 26

On the eve of the "Tablet"

There's much ado this week over Apple's "Tablet" announcement tomorrow. It's particularly interesting that more people know about this announcement than they do that President Obama is doing the annual "State of the Union" address the same day. There's no doubt that we'll see some surprises. I'll put my stake in the ground and say that I believe the tablet will be: Name: iPad 10", just one size 2 versions: one with 3G wireless, one with WiFi only (or one version with optional 3G plan) iPhone OS derivative, but with the ability to switch apps (a la Expose) No home button Price to start at $599 Content master: eBooks, movies, tv shows, web browsing, etc... New model for newspaper and magazine publishers (via iTunes -- do we get to rename it yet?) Sharable by multiple people in the household I'm hoping to see a virtual keyboard with tactile feedback -- but it's a pretty tall order. I'm sure that I'll be wrong on some of these things ... but that's...

Jan 14

January 27th event to hold new MacBook Pros

Sources confirmed to MacMod that a MacBook Pro update will be rolled out on January 27th. While this isn't as flashy as the tablet, the MBP's are due for an update. This is not to say that the upcoming event won't have a tablet release, but it will more likely be the "one more thing" after Steve shows off the next MacBook Pro. The question that comes to my mind is what features of the yet un-released tablet will be in the new MacBook Pros? Will Apple hold off on updating the MBP's with some of the "new" technology in a tablet until the tablet has been able to be tested (like they did with the MacBook Air's battery that eventually came over to the MBP's). Also, if the technology is shared between the MBP's and iTablet (for lack of official name), does that mean that the tablet will be capable of more than an iPhone on steroids? These aren't answers, but rather questions that I wait to see answered in two weeks.

Jan 01

Nokia's lawsuit has a lot of "ifs" and "buts"...

Nokia has been at battle with Apple for a while now, and a few days before the ball dropped on 2010 they counter-sued Apple (after Apple counter-sued them). Where's all of this law suit happiness going? How many counter-suits will there be? Well, according to Nokia's own press release (here) I'm not sure if they think they have a leg to stand on. Taken from Nokia's own press release, "It should be noted that certain statements herein which are not historical facts..." which they then go on to list 9 items including their ability to grow their business (c), their ability to develop products (b), and expectations on markets (e & f). While this might just be legalize, it does offer lots of back peddling space for Nokia. The sad part is that this legal section of their press release is 856 words, while the actual press release about the lawsuit is only 172 words. But here is the kicker (for me at least). In part of this legal BS that Nokia is now spewing one of their "risks" are...

Dec 29

The utlimate iMac for your desk

The Mac Mini's case is small and compact, able to fit in almost anything. Even an iMac DV. But with all of that extra space, what would you do? Klaus Diebel, a life long modder, decided to make his a bass booming coffee maker. Why not? Now Klaus has the iMac CS for sale (each a custom job) for about 400 euros, plus the iMac case and optional Mini. Take a look at Klaus' site (kiwidee.com) for more info on the iMac CS and his other mods (G4 Power Tower & the iMac RMS, aka mailbox).

Dec 28

How to Enable Google Chrome Extensions on Mac

Google's Chrome Web browser has been increasing in popularity in the past year, with some reports claiming it now has roughly the same market share as Safari (a little over 4 percent). One feature that's noticeably absent from the Mac version is support for extensions, which Google says is coming "soon." Thankfully, the software hacking community has found several fixes for this problem. Read on for more details. The easiest thing to do is to install a simple bookmarklet that, when clicked, instantly enables the Install button on the current page. Just select "Bookmark This Page..." from the Bookmarks menu, click on the Edit... button, and then name the bookmark something like Enable Install Button and paste the following code into the URL text box: javascript:(function()%20%7B%20d%20=%20document;%20x%20=%20d.getElementById('cx-page');%20x.className%20=%20x.className.replace(/cx-cannot-install/,'');%20x%20=%20d.getElementById('cx-install-link');%20%20x.setAttribute('href','https://...

Dec 01

Interview with Will Urbina, OSX Xbox Pro Creator

We recently told you about the OS Xbox Pro, an amazing mod that started with an Xbox and ended with an awesome triple-booting Hackintosh. Last week we were privileged to have Will Urbina, the maker of the OS Xbox Pro, on the podcast for an interview. To hear the episode, subscribe to MacMod:LIVE via iTunes or RSS, or just download the MP3.

Nov 26

MacTech Ultimate Black Friday Offer: FREE!

We've all come to expect great Black Friday offers. This year, as MacTech has again had its best year since the dot com days, we want to give back ... and give you the ultimate Black Friday offer. FREE. No strings attached ... free. For the first 100 people to respond, you will get a free six month subscription to MacTech Magazine. Not in the first 100? No worries, we'll get you a free copy of MacTech delivered to your door. Supplies are limited, and ends Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 at 11:59pm. So act now—don't wait. Go to: http://www.mactech.com/offers/2009-UltimateBlackFriday.php

Nov 25

OS Xbox Pro

Will U. Design has a new mod out that features OS X (as well as Linux and W7). Will isn't a Mac guy, but he soon realized that the people he wanted to work for were (video editing with Final Cut Pro). He couldn't make himself walk into an Apple store, so he made himself a Hackintosh. The thing that gets me is that the new Microsoft stores mimic the Apple stores so much! Anyways, back to the story. Since Will is so anti-Mac he wanted to make his Hackintosh with an homage to his Microsoft roots, so he grabbed an XBox and went to work. Lots of work later (and an EFI-X dongle) he was able to get a triple boot system, the OS XBox Pro. Reminds me of the XBox G4 from 2008's Mac Mod Challenge. (photos from willudesign.com) System Specs Intel Core2 Q9550sGeForce 9800MTDual 500GB HD (RAID 0)160GB Boot Drive300W TFX Micro PSU Have fun working on OS X Will. Lots of images and build info at willudesign.com P.S. If you like it, you can vote for it on Intel's Core i7 Custom Challenge.

Reviews and Kool Tools

Real World Review: Chairs, The Other Essential Tool

It's often overlooked, but one of the most essential tools that a tech can have is their chair. Geeks spend long hours in front of a computer, and the chair is make or break for your workstation, your ergonomics, and in... Read more »

Kool Tools: Nutrition Products

There's more to life than tech and computing. There's also food designed to help keep us using our tech and computing. At least that's the take of Brain Toniq (http://braintoniq.com) and GamerGrub (http://www.gamergrub.... Read more »

Kool Toolz: BookEndz

Laptops are great, but those who use them as their primary computer probably connect them to an external monitor, printer and other devices when they're at home or at the office. That can mean lots of peripheral... Read more »

Kool Toolz: Catching Up with Screen Capturing

There are lots of screen capture apps available for the Mac, but these four stand out in the crows. TechSmith Corp.'s Camtasia for Mac as screen-recording, or screencasting, software. Voila, an image capturing,... Read more »