Creators of NetNewsWire and Spring Win First Round of Awards In O'Reilly Contest

Round One of the Mac OS X Innovators Contest wrapped up with the announcement of the winners at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference on April 24. Brent Simmons's NetNewsWire (http://ranchero.com/netnewswire) and Robb Beal's Spring (http://www.usercreations.com/spring/) were chosen from a field of over 100 entries. Simmons and Beal's applications were installed on all the computers in the conference's ADC sponsored Rendezvous Lounge so conference attendees could experience them first-hand.

"We had a reception for Brent and Robb Thursday night at ETech, with Apple Developer Connection providing some excellent food and drinks," said Derrick Story, Mac DevCenter managing editor. "What a blast! At one point I looked over and saw Brent jawing with a group of developers while Rob was demoing Spring for conference attendees. I'm already looking forward to OSCON and our Mac OS X conference."

Winner NetNewsWire is a popular RSS news reader for Mac OS X that fetches and displays news from thousands of different web sites via an intuitive user interface that builds on the elegance and power of Mac OS X. The full version includes a weblog editor, Internet scrapbook, advanced search functionality, and is AppleScriptable.

Runner-up Spring is a unique, web-inspired desktop for the Mac OS X platform. Users work with canvases and icons (called Spring Objects) to retrieve and manage information, and to communicate with others. Wildly
innovative yet easy to use, Spring exemplifies the creative possibilities inherent in Mac OS X.

CodeTeck Studios Announces New Version of Safe Shred

Like the name implies SafeShred is a small program to help you shred documents.
Best product of it's class, SafeShred up dated version is now 2.1.4
As always locate it with at: versiontracker.com

New Version of Watson

What's new in version 1.7.1 :
Fix problem clicking on "relative" links from HTML views, especially noticeable in SiteSearch.
Add "Clear Searches" menu to remove history of search terms. New preferences for setting the number of searches remembered in the search "combo boxes"; new preference for these fields to auto-complete. Amazon, Epicurious, PriceGrabber, Movies now all can drag from their preview images into Spring (1.3 and up), the desktop, etc. Minor updates and fixes to PriceGrabber, Epicurious, eBay, Translation, Phone, Weather, Movies.
As always for a safe and quick download go to: versiontracker.com

Product Description:
A time-saving "Swiss Army Knife" program that packs over twenty time-saving, productivity-enhancing interfaces to the most important web content and services.

Mac OS X Innovators Contest Open for Entries

O'Reilly & Associates is accepting entries for RoundTwo of the Mac OS X Innovators Contest. The contest, sponsored by Apple Developer Connection (ADC), seeks innovative Mac OS X applications,plug-ins, user interface widgets, or other creative original software.Entries are judged on ease of use, adherence to the Mac OS X Human
Interface Guidelines, use of Mac OS X technologies, and last, but definitely not least, innovation.

First prize, worth nearly $5000, is an ADC Premier membership, a full pass to the O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference in Santa Clara, CA (October27-30, 2003), and a one-year subscription to O'Reilly's premium online book service, Safari. Entries must be submitted to http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/developer/entry.html by June 16,2003. The Round Two winners will be announced at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention in Portland, Oregon, July 7-11, 2003.

Apple announces Steve Jobs keynote WWDC on June 23

Apple today announced that Steve Jobs will kick off its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote on Monday, June 23, 2003, beginning at 10:00 a.m. (PDT) at San Francisco's Moscone West.

Read a Special coverage of the event in The [Digital][Dispatch] June Issue
Free Subscription: thedr2@mac.com

Apple Stock up by 11%....could it be iTunes Music Store Related?

News that Apple's iTunes Music Store had done brisk business in its first week sent Apple's share price soaring toward the end of the trading day on Wall Street, bringing it to its highest levels since November. Up 11% for the day, Apple Stock closed at just over $16 per share. The 52-week high for Apple Stock is 25.88, so Apple has a long way to go to reach that, but I would imagine that the iTunes Music Store could have a positive effect on their quarterly report due at the end of next month.

Smart Sharing by Spymac

"Spymac [www.spymac.com] has already found a way to take the new features of iTunes 4 to new heights. Today they opened up a new section on their site entitled Spymac Music [spymac.com], which is a database of shared iTunes libraries. Anyone who wants can submit their music library to be shared. Currently it sports a search engine capable of searching title, album and artist, but they say more is to come in the future."

eMac Finally Upgraded

Apple today accounced upgrades to its eMac line of computers. Starting at $799 (USD), the new eMacs offer speeds of up to 1GHz, internal support for AirPort Extreme, and up to an 80GB hard drive.

Apple Release OS X 10.2.6


Apple today released OS X 10.2.6. The update includes better reliability as well as addtional features, including enhancements to the graphics layer, the Address Book, USB hub compatability, printing, and more.
OS X 10.2.6 is available now through via Software Update in your System Preferences.

Panic and The Iconfactory Announce Candy Bar 1.5.2. update

No major changes this time around, but this new version is fully qualified for Mac OS X 10.2.6. So, if you've already jumped on the software update gravy train, you should update your CandyBar!
Use versiontracker to link to it: www.versiontracker.com

Griffin Technology released PowerWave "Swiss Army Knife For Sound"

The PowerWave USB Audio Interface & Desktop Amplifier is a powerful and extremely flexible computer audio tool. With it you can record any mic or line input into your computer. Record your entire album collection to make CDs or MP3s. Hook-up a mic and musical instrument and turn your computer into a recording studio.

But the PowerWave is also an integrated desktop amplifier. Use it to connect any set of home speakers to your computer. PowerWave makes a great compact amp for your MP3 player. It even enables the use of Apple Pro Speakers™ with any USB enabled computer.Flexible input, exceptional output, and amplifier power in one beautiful device, the PowerWave.

With PowerWave, you can: • Archive records and tapes to make MP3s or CDs • Record instruments or voice into your computer • Connect and power any set of home stereo speakers • Attach Apple Pro Speakers™ to any computer
• Use as a standalone amplifier for iPod/MP3 player • Zero latency monitoring for multitrack recording • High quality RCA stereo inputs and outputs

Read all about it in the [Digital][Dispatch] issue # 21
Free Subscription : thedr2@mac.com

PeopleSoft to Support Apple's Safari Browser

PeopleSoft announced at its Leadership Summit this week that it will certify Apple's open-source
Safari Web browser for its Web-based apps and that all of its apps will run on Linux starting at
the end of the year.

Mere Mortal Software Announce the (Free) up date to Safe Place 1.1.

Great little app that let you secure in one place all your password, credit cards numbers, ect.

Here's what's new:
[Feature] You can now change an item's category after the record has been saved.
[Feature] The master password is now required to print password information.
[Feature] You can now import and export passwords.
[Feature] Sheet alerts are now used, making the application less modal.
[Feature] Added a Safe Place installer. The Safe Place application is now installed in the Applications folder, and the Safe Place.data file is installed in the Library folder: "/Library/Application Support/Safe Place/Safe Place.data"
[Bug Fix] Unregisted copies of the application will now continue to work properly after the 30 day trial period.
Get your free Demo at : http://www.mere-mortal-software.com/files/SafePlace.dmg

Read all about Safe Place in the new [Digital][Dispatch] Jaguar Must Have Summer Special schedule to be released next week. For a Free subscription: thedr2@mac.com

Protect your Apple Pro Keyboard with the iSkin™ ProTouch

ackNOWLEDGE today announced the iSkin
ProTouch. A new and innovative way to protect your Apple computer’s keyboard
against damage. The iSkin ProTouch is a durable, made-to-fit silicone skin
that sits above the Apple Pro Keyboard protecting it against dust, dirt,
finger oils and spills that lead to wear, damage or malfunction.

Unofficial confirmation from Apple employee regarding recording

I received an unofficial confirmation from an Apple employee tonight (while purchasing my 30GB!) that an adapter with a line-in for recording would be available "in a few months." Source (iPoding)