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Sweet deal on upgrade to Universal version of Final Cut Studio
Apple is offering a deal on the Universal version of Final Cut Studio that could save you big bucks. If you have a standalone version of either Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack Pro, Motion, or DVD Studio Pro, you can exchange your disk and a relatively small amount of cash for the Universal version of the complete Final Cut Studio package.Final Cut Studio includes all four of those professional apps--a package that would normally run you $1299. If, for example, you have Final Cut Pro 4 or HD (4.5), you can upgrade to the whole Studio for $199. If you have Final Cut Pro 5 you can upgrade for just $99. The magnitude of those discounts puts Final Cut Studio in the ballpark for some of us who were making due with one of the apps, but had not considered purchasing the expensive Studio package.The deal varies depending on which standalone app or package you already own (or can get your hands on). You can find all the permutations here at the Apple site. If you're not sure if your version is included in the promotion, check the fine print on the appropriate upgrade form, which you can download from the same page. For example, the fine print on the Final Cut 4 / HD form seems to say that you can participate in the promotion even if your FCP 4 or FCP HD standalone disk is an academic version or an upgrade disk. There are also crossgrades from Logic Pro 7, Logic Pro Express, and Final Cut Studio Pro, but this promotion does not cover Final Cut Express or Shake.You may have have shied away from these expensive professional apps in the past, but if you're interested in joining the podcast / vodcast craze this promotion may be your ticket. The catch is that you have to send in your old disk. Now if you could just remember where you stashed it.
MacGourmet goes universal
MacGourmet, the recipe manager that behaves much like iTunes and iPhoto, has gone universal with version 1.2 (version 1.2 also includes a variety of bug fixes). We took a look at MacGourmet back in August. It's terrifically handy, and lets you organize your recipes and ingredients, generate shopping lists, rate recipes, create smartlists and more. You can even generate relationships between wines you've tried and dishes they compliment. MacGourmet 1.2 requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later and is priced at US$24.95 for the Download Edition and US$29.95 for the CD Edition. This is a free upgrade for registered users.
Macjournal goes universal
Macjournal, the popular note taking and organizational tool, has gone universal with the release of version 3.3. I have a friend who works as a teacher and uses Macjournal religiously to keep track of students, meetings with parents, etc. It really is pretty handy. Changes in version 3.3 include: Universal support for the new Intel-based Macs (as well as the existing PowerPC machines). When the drawer has focus, choosing "Stats" from the View menu will get stats for whatever is selected only. Fixed problem with the journals drawer (sometimes preventing it from opening only on Jaguar). There are several other bug fixes. Macjournal requires 10.2.7 or 10.2 with Safari installed, and features a three-tiered pricing system: The boxed edition is $29.95US, the download is $24.92US and a family five pack is $99.95US.
Doom 3 Goes Universal
Aspyr Media has updated Doom to version 3.1.3A, which provides a Universal Binary for those running a new Intel Mac. It also provides better performance for PPC Macs with ATI video cards.Doom 3 is the third major game to be released as a Universal Binary in the last few weeks, following Unreal Tournament 2004 and World of Warcraft.
Emulate Windows with Q
I just downloaded and installed Q on my iMac Core Duo. I tried importing my Windows 2000 Virtual PC 7 image from an old backup disk, and it imported, but keeps crashing at startup. However, this discussion over at Accelerate Your Macintosh has me hopeful that Q just may be the future of free Windows emulation on the Mac. According to the Q site, "Run Windows, Linux and a lot more Systems on your Mac. Q is a feature packed cocoa port of QEMU: Switch fast between guest PCs. Save and restart guest PCs at any stage. Easily exchange Files between Host and Guest. Q makes use of OS X most advanced technologies like openGL and coreaudio to accelerate your experience with your guest PC."This program is still in development, but they have a Universal Binary. Later on today, when I have some free hours (ha!), I think I'll try to build an image from scratch and install XP. I'll report back after the weekend with my findings.
Quake 3 Universal Binary
When Id open sourced the Quake 3 source code awhile back, developers began immediately port it to operating systems and processors that weren't previously supported. Recently, Sqonk Online has released a port of the Quake 3 application to Universal Binary, meaning it'll run natively on the new Intel Macs. Note that this isn't the full game with all the resource files, but just the compiled Quake 3.app executable. In order to get Quake 3 running, you'll need to install the game first (from retail CD) and then just replace the executable app with the Universal Binary version, or let it sit alongside the old executable.A few things: One, I have not tested this yet as I'm still awaiting my Intel iMac to arrive, but this is the method I've used to run other recompiled binaries (for instance, the Marathon port to Mac OS X) and it's worked fine. Two, please be kind to the developer's bandwidth and don't download the executable unless you're truly keen on using it. Remember, this is not the entire game, only the executable.
Path Finder goes universal
Path Finder, everyone's favorite Mac file browser on steroids, went universal today with the release of version 4.02. Other changes include: A new crash reporter Plugged memory leaks (yay) Fixed an issue where you could accidentally arrow into the preview column and not get out Transparency and float state now saved for text editor and image editor window Version 4.02 is a free update for registered users. A full license costs $34.95 and upgrades to version 4 cost $17.95 (although, if you bought Path Finder 3 after Sept. 29th, 2004, you can upgrade to the current version for free).
WoW Universal Binary FAST on iMac Core Duo
In case you didn't see my post yesterday over at WoW Insider, I just wanted to point out over here that, yes, indeed: yesterday's Universal Binary patch for World of Warcraft means the game runs nice and fast on my iMac Core Duo.On a 1.83Ghz Core Duo with 2GBs of RAM and 128MB of VRAM, I'm seeing 50-60 frames per second in unpopulated areas with the graphics set to the defaults. If I ramp all the graphics up, I'm still seeing 40-45 frames per second in these areas. If I enter something like a battleground where there's lots of action going on, I'm seeing about 30-40 frames per second with the graphics set to the defaults and 18-28 frames per second with the graphics pushed to their limit. Keep in mind that 24 frames per second is a stop-motion animated film, and regular full motion video is normally 29.97 frames per second.Overall, I'm ecstatic. Finally! A Mac gaming machine that actually plays games! Dear Game Developers: the time to code for Mac is now!
Camino goes universal
Camino gets the distinction of being the first non-Apple browser to go universal. I just downloaded the latest nightly build (1.0rc1) as I'm addicted to this browser. It's very fast and nice looking to boot (but you knew that already). Check it out.
WoW Universal Binary for Mac is FAST
This is much better. After this morning's patch, the new, universal binary version of WoW running on my 17-inch iMac Core Duo is very speedy. I'm seeing between 50 and 60 frames per second consistently. That's on a 1.83Ghz Core Duo with 2GBs of RAM and 128MB of VRAM. Who says a Mac isn't a gaming machine? ps—I'm in the Royal Quarter of the UC on Akama if anyone wants to come sign the charter.
Unreal Tournament 2004 goes universal
Ryan Gordon, who converted Unreal Tournament 2004, has written the universal update for UT 04 that you can download here (it's a 199MB bitrottent file). According to MacSoft general manager Al Schilling, UT 04 is twice as fast on an Intel Mac that it was on its older G5 siblings.Now go get it. w00t!Update: Post edited for accuracy. I don't play Unreal in any of its incarnations, so forgive my ignorance.
Transmit goes universal
Transmit, Panic's great FTP client, has been updated to version 3.5. This release is a universal binary, and other changes include: The ability to edit any remote file, in any application Improved synchronization The ability to create your own droplets You can read the full change log here. I use Transmit all the time and really love it (iDisk is way faster via Transmit than OS X's Finder). Transmit requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later and is priced at $29.95US.
Pixadex goes universal
One of my all-time favorite pieces of shareware, The Iconfactory's Pixadex, has gone universal with the release of version 2.0.2. Pixadex lets your store, sort and search your desktop icon collection with ease. Create smart collections, export to a variety of file formats and more. Check out our review of Pixadex 2.0 from last October for more info.A single license costs $18.95US ($9.95US for registered users of Pixadex 1.0). Pixadex requires Mac OS 10.2 or greater (10.4 or greater for Spotlight integration). Version 2.0.2 is free for registered users.
SpamSieve goes universal
Today, SpamSieve has been updated to version 2.4.1. For the uninitiated, SpamSieve is a customizable spam filtering application for Mac email clients, including Mail, Mailsmith, Entourage, PowerMail, and Eudora. As the title suggests, this version is a universal binary. Other changes in version 2.4.1 included: Various changes have been made to the application's HTML parser to improve accuracy. Filtering of messages containing attachments has been improved Added Apple Mail settings to control whether messages trained as spam are marked as read and/or left on the server. Better at finding notification sounds that are built into mail clients. You can purchase a single license of SpamSieve for $25US, and it requires Mac OS X 10.2.8 or later (10.3.5 or later recommended).
iTheater: One week to go
Don't be sad, Damien, you can have your Mac media center after all! The folks working on the open source iTheater media project have promised that, come hell or high water, iTheater will be released on January 31, which is a week from today. Last week, they announced that the current beta is a universal binary, which is good news for all of you lucky enough to have Intel equipped Macs.My Powerbook and I are really looking forward to this release. See you in a week!
Nanosaur II v.2.0 for Mactels available
Pangea Software made a universaly binary version of Nanosaur II available as a public beta back in October, and this week the official, non-beta version 2.0 has been released. This version requires at least Mac OS 10.4, but will run on both PowerPC Macs and MacIntels (though Pangea urges those with PowerPC Macs to stick with version 1.1). Pangea also announced their plans to update their other games soon, as well as release a new title.
Cocktail 3.7 adds Intel compatibility
The popular utility Cocktail has been updated to version 3.7 today. This version adds updated Automator support and improves compatibility with Intel-based Macs and Mac OS 10.4.4. The rollout of all of these new universal binaries is giving me déjà vu. It feels like the transition from OS 9 to OS X all over again. This is a free update for registered users. A single user license is $14.95US. Cocktail 3.6.5 requires Mac OS X or Mac OS X Server 10.4 (or later). Cocktail 3.5.4 (Panther Edition) requires Mac OS X or Mac OS X Server 10.3 - 10.3.9, and Cocktail 3.5 (Jaguar Edition) requires Mac OS X or Mac OS X Server 10.2 - 10.2.8.
Blizzard says Universal Binary for WoW by late January
We all know that Apple announced the release of the first Macs to use Intel chips. To get full speed and compatibility out of applications that run in Mac OS X on Intel-based Macs, programs need to be recompiled to run natively on the Intel processors. Apple's coding tools allow for a program to be coded as a "universal" application which means that the "universal binary" will contain executable code for both architectures in one package, and then will run the PPC code on the PPC processor or the Intel code on the Intel processor, depending on which is in your Mac.Blizzard has said in this forum post to expect the universal binary of World of Warcraft for the Mac by the end of January, probably in patch v1.9.3. This is really amazing! Even if this date slips by a few weeks, it won't be too bad since most people won't even get an Intel Mac until February. Go Blizzard, you guys rock!Now, we just need some specs in a few weeks comparing WoW on a Revision C iMac G5 and WoW on a new Intel iMac.
Universal version of Mac WoW in a few weeks!
This is simply incredible news for those of us playing WoW on a Mac. Yesterday, Apple announced the release of the first Macs to use Intel chips. To get full speed and compatibility out of applications that run in Mac OS X on Intel-based Macs, programs need to be recompiled to run natively on the Intel processors. Apple's coding tools allow for a program to be coded as a "universal" application which means that the "universal binary" will contain executable code for both architectures in one package, and then will run the PPC code on the PPC processor or the Intel code on the Intel processor, depending on which is in your Mac.Blizzard has said in this forum post to expect the universal binary of World of Warcraft for the Mac by the end of January, probably in patch v1.9.3. This is really amazing! Even if this date slips by a few weeks, it won't be too bad since most people won't even get an Intel Mac until February. Go Blizzard, you guys rock! Now, just fix the crazy login times. :D
Omnigroup releases free Intel updates
Hot on the heels of yesterday's announcements, The Omnigroup has released free universal binary updates for registered users of the majority of their applications, including OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, OmniDiskSweeper, OmniObjectMeter and OmniDictionary. These will all run natively on the new Intel-based iMac and the MacBook Pro. Grab your copies now for that sweet new MacBook Pro you just ordered.
