Mac Corner

Apple Offers Mac OS X Beta

Apple Computer Corp. debuted its long-awaited Mac OS X operating system, during sessions of the Apple Expo last month in Paris. The company released the new operating system in a "public beta," and also introduced a new iBook laptop computer line, featuring new colors (Indigo, Key Lime and Graphite).

Apple also announced that it will offer the Radeon graphics accelerator card as a build-to-order option on its The Apple Store, for all Power Mac G4 computers (including the new Cube.)

Available in English, French and German through The Apple Store, for a $29.95 fee, the new OS beta includes a user interface named "Aqua," and uses an open source UNIX-based foundation, called Darwin, reports the Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple. It features memory protection, multi-tasking and multiprocessing when running on the new dual-processor Power Mac G4 line, reports the company.The new iBook line offers FireWire ports and iMovie 2, Apple's digital video edging software. They feature a 366 MHz/466 MHz PowerPC G3 processor, and 10 GB IDE hard drive, among other features.

Information: Reader Response 308.

DataViz has released upgrades to Conversions Plus 6.0 for Windows and MacLinkPlus Deluxe 12.0 for Macintosh, reports the Trumbull, Conn. company.

Included in the upgrades are new translators for AppleWorks 6 and WordPerfect 9, it reports. MacLinkPlus now supports QuickTime, providing MacLink-Plus and Quick-Time users with the ability to easily view or print a variety of files. Also, AppleScript is now fully supported in MacLinkPlus Deluxe 12.0, it says, allowing Mac users to automate file conversion.

The new versions also include translators for Lotus 1-2-3 Millennium and Quattro Pro9.

Information: Reader Response 309.

JSP for Mac OS X Server has been released by Tenon Intersystems. It also announced that Tenon's iTools, an Apache Web server tool suite for the server, now includes support for Java Server Pages.Tenon's implementation of JSP is an OS X Server port of Tomcat (designed to provide open source commercial-quality Java server systems), it says.The company is based in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Information: Reader Response 310.