In this issue, we report on a new version of RealAudio and an MPEG extension for QuickTime 2.5. We also welcome a new sponsor and go in depth with a review and comparison of Eudora Pro and Eudora Light. Adam follows up on last week’s article about soft-power Macs, and Matt Neuburg rounds out the issue with a thoughtful essay about the state of automation on today’s Macs, complete with a comparison of macro programs we’ve reviewed over the past several issues.
A Woof of Welcome -- We'd like to welcome our newest sponsor, Small Dog Electronics. Those of you who used to read DealBITS will remember Small Dog for its frequent deals on an eclectic mix of new and refurbished hardware and software
RealAudio 3.0 -- Progressive Networks has released Real Audio Player and Real Audio Player Plus 3.0. The RealAudio Player is free for individual use, and provides improved audio quality and stereo streamed audio over 28.8 Kbps modems, while the $30 commercial Player Plus features improved playback via buffering (even on slow or flaky connections) and a "record" mode for offline listening
Beta MPEG for QuickTime 2.5 -- Back in TidBITS-338 we noted that software-only MPEG support wasn't included in QuickTime 2.5, but Apple has released a beta extension to QuickTime that provides software-only MPEG support on Power Macs
My story in TidBITS-356 about problems with soft-power Macs restarting after power failures resulted in tons of messages, and what seemed like a clear-cut issue clouded over fast
Amid the frantic innovation, premature releases, and scrambling for profits spawned by today's Internet software market, it's remarkable that any software can be sufficiently solid, fundamental, and established to be a classic, let alone a necessity, and even more remarkable that it should be given away for free
TidBITS not long ago discussed three macro programs: QuicKeys (beginning in TidBITS-347), OneClick (in TidBITS-350), and KeyQuencer (in TidBITS-351.) Consideration of these has led me to some reflections on the state of the Mac