RELEASED –Removable disks from Iomega (888/446-6342, www.iomega.com ): The Peerless drive system, which includes a base station and disks in 5GB, 10GB, and 20GB capacities, is roughly the size and shape of a PDA. It offers up to ten times the performance of CD-RW, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW drives. The drive, with interface module, sells for $249, while Peerless disks will sell for $129, $159, and $199. It will ship in mid-2001. –A cross-platform networking application from Connectix (800/950-5880, www.connectix.com ): DoubleTalk lets Mac users link up to Windows networks without PC-networking knowledge. DoubleTalk sells for $99. –A combination hard drive and removable-media drive from QPS (800/559-4777, www.qps-inc.com ): The Que D2 Dual is available with a built-in LS120/LS240 SuperDisk or a 640MB MO drive. Users can access the hard drive and removable-media drive through a single FireWire cable. It’s priced at $499 for the LS120/LS240 configuration and at $599 for the MO combination. –A suite of products from Casady & Greene (831/484-9228, www.casadyg.com ): MacCare Unit features seven utilities, including Conflict Catcher 8, Chaos Master, Copy Agent, DiskWarrior, PlusOptimizer, Net Barrier, and Virus Barrier. It sells for $130.
UPDATED –Mac OS from Apple (800/692-7753, www.apple.com ): Mac OS 9.1 adds a Startup Disk control panel, a new process manager to speed up switching between applications, and new looks for both the General Controls and Sound Control panels. The update is free to Mac OS 9 users. –InDesign by Adobe (800/833-6687, www.adobe.com ): InDesign 1.5.2 adds non-PostScript printing capabilities and integrates more tightly with standard prepress applications including Artwork Systems ArtPro, ScenicSoft Preps, and TrapWise, as well as hardware from Agfa, CreoScitex, Heidelberg, Harlequin, HP, and Xerox. The downloadable update is available free to existing InDesign users.
OS X NEWS –An updated PIM for OS X from Power On Software (800/344-9160, www.poweronsoftware.com ): Now Up-To-Date & Contact 4.0 for OS X adds an Aqua-like interface and new features. The $100 software will be available once OS X ships. –Graphics-tablet support for OS X from Wacom Technology (800/922-6613, www.wacom.com ): The maker of the PL400 and PL500 LCD pen tablets will release free drivers once OS X ships. –A Carbonized version of FastTrack Schedule from AEC Software (800/346-9413, www.aecsoft.com ): An OS X-ready version of the project-management software will ship after OS X’s public release. –A suite of OS X tools from Stone Design (505/345-4800, www.stone.com ): Stone Super 7 Suite applications offer layout, Web publishing, photo-management, time-tracking, PDF-conversion, file-compression, and Web animation tools. It will sell for $499 through March 1 (list price, $1,295).