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Roxio is expected to announce Toast 9 Titanium. The most exciting new feature for Mac users with Blu-ray burners is the ability to burn AVCHD based Blu-ray video discs. The discs are not playable on a Mac, but they can be played in consumer Blu-ray players.
Other new features include TV streaming, combining multiple video DVD’s onto a single disc, and audio fingerprinting.
Source: MacWorld
MacWorld has a first look at Office 2008 before it’s January 15 release.
Flip4Mac, the Mac Windows Media player and encoder suite, has been updated to version 2.2. The newest update adds increased Leopard compatibility, and better streaming. Intel Mac encoding performance has been increased, and support for Microsoft Silverlight applications has been added.
Download here.
MacWorld has posted a review of Roxio’s video compression utility, Popcorn. Giving it 4 and a half mice, MacWorld states that it has a “Easy-to-use interface; time-saving features; multiple conversion options; batch support; includes disc labeling software; TiVo support,” but may not be worth it if you are familiar with the numerous free options out there, such as Handbrake.
I’ve always liked Roxio’s Mac products. They are easy to use, pleasing on the eye, and usually, reasonably priced. Popcorn is $50. For the price of a couple of shareware utilities, Popcorn is a very tasty piece of software.
Sources: Macworld, Roxio
MacNN is reporting that Office 2008 is nearing gold status, as the Microsoft Mac Business Unit has released a final preview on the Mac Office website. Office 2008 for Mac is scheduled for release at MacWorld 2008.
Office 2008 for Mac requires an Intel, G5, or G4 computer rated at 500MHz or faster, with Mac OS X 10.4.9 or later. For an in-depth look at Office 2008’s key features, see our first and second glimpses into what Microsoft has released thus far.
The core suite ($400) includes Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage with Exchange support. Office Special Media Edition ($500) combines Office 2008 applications with the Microsoft Expression Media digital asset management system. The education version provides the basics of Office 2008 and three user licenses for use by consumers and students but does not include connectivity to an Exchange Server or support for automated workflows.
- Office 2008 Website
- MacNN Preview of Office 2008
Source: MacNN
This update, which AOL claims was “developed by Mac users, for Mac users,” features increased application speed, tabbed organization, integration with AIM (AOL’s instant messaging client), and the ability to customize elements of the application, such as the toolbar.
Seems Leopard users with Palm devices are having their own set of issues. According to MacUser and an Apple discussion thread, changes in Address Book and iCal formats may be causing syncing to fail. Palm may be working on an updated version of HotSync, but no one knows if there is a definite release date.
Source: MacUser
Prosoft’s Data Rescue II has been updated for Leopard compatibility. This popular data recovery tool for Mac OS X offers a bootable CD to assist in file recovery. Data Rescue II focuses in recovering data, not repairing the hard drive. I have used this program in the past as a last resort tool for pulling important data off of drives that I have no choice but to reformat. It’s definitely saved me in a few instances.
The full version is $99, and is available for download or purchase on CD.
Google has announced support for it’s Google Gadgets under MacOS X. Users will be able to install Gadgets into their Dashboards alongside existing Widgets. This now opens up Mac users to hundreds of Gadgets that were not accessable under MacOS X.
Gadgets can also be added to existing websites via copy-and-paste HTML code.
Mozilla has released version 2.0.0.10 of it’s popular web browser for multiple platforms, including MacOS X. A number of security updates were addressed, including “Referer-spoofing via window.location race condition”, “Memory corruption vulnerabilities (rv:1.8.1.10)”, and “URI scheme XSS hazard.”
The update is available for download now.
Source: Mozilla
