Macintosh enhancement pioneer Newer Technology has announced it is ceasing operations; today was the last day of work for the bulk of Newer's employees, and a shareholder meeting 08-Jan-01 will determine whether the company will file for bankruptcy protection

St. Clair Software has released Default Folder 3.0.9, fixing bugs and improving compatibility in the utility for enhancing Open and Save dialog boxes (see "Tools We Use: Default Folder" in TidBITS 475)

You may have thought Norton Utilities was a bundle of utility programs, but with Norton SystemWorks and Norton Internet Security, Symantec has gone one more step in bundling. Norton SystemWorks 1.0 puts the emphasis on hard disks with Norton Utilities 6.0, Norton AntiVirus 7.0, Dantz Development's Retrospect Express 4.0.3 backup utility, and Aladdin Systems' Spring Cleaning 3.5 uninstaller

Bare Bones Software has released BBEdit 6.0.2, a minor revision to its popular text editor, programming tool, and Web authoring tool. (See "BBEdit 6.0 Improves Powerful Text Editing" in TidBITS 547.) Version 6.0.2 includes enhancements to BBEdit's SourceServer (Projector) features and scripting interface which better enable to check in, check out, and cancel modifications to documents maintained by version control systems

Less than two months after the company's acquisition of the ListSTAR mailing list server from 4D, MCF Software has released ListSTAR 2.1, which marks the return (and updating) of ListSTAR/POP

Stairways Software has released Interarchy 4.0, the latest version of the widely used Internet helper application formerly known as Anarchie. Interarchy 4.0 doesn't boast any new major features (though version 3.8 offered several by incorporating a customizable interface builder, a TCP network traffic watcher, and numerous "friendly" daemons from Stairways's earlier software offerings)

Welcome to our 2000 Holiday Gift issue, which is brimming with great gift ideas from TidBITS readers via TidBITS Talk. Most are related to the Mac, as you might expect, but Macintosh users have wide-ranging interests, so we've also included a number of ideas that fit into the category of "For the Macintosh-Minded." Other categories are Hardware, Software, Games, and Miscellaneous, plus additional digital camera recommendations from Arthur Bleich

Lift Your 'Book -- Several readers recommended products that make using a PowerBook or iBook easier. To keep your lap from getting scorched, Shawn King uses the Podium CoolPad from RoadTools

In TidBITS-559, I highlighted my three favorite digital cameras I've used extensively in the two-to-four megapixel range. The cameras listed below are culled from many other digital cameras I've personally used, reviewed, and liked over the last year

A Stylus Gift -- Robin recommends Wacom input tablets not only for artists but also for people with repetitive strain injuries. "Although it is a great tool for graphics, it's also a great alternative for a mouse

Cro-Mag Rally -- List Kreme wrote in part to warn people away from Risk II because of its "horrible and thoughtless" interface. Far more attractive, however, was Cro-Mag Rally, which he felt looked like a lot of fun

Build It, and They Will Beep -- David Huston is after our own hearts in recommending software which enables users to make their Macs do that they want

Freedom of the CafePress -- Although it's a tad too late to get TidBITS t-shirts from CafePress.com delivered before Christmas, you can probably still get one delivered in time for sartorial splendor at Macworld Expo in San Francisco

With its update to Virtual PC 4.0, Connectix continues to improve the company's popular Pentium emulation software in compelling ways. Most important are the performance increases, of course, which reportedly can as much as double Virtual PC 4.0's speed over the previous version, though the trade-off is that Virtual PC now requires a PowerPC G3- or G4-based Mac (including Macs with upgrade cards; Virtual PC 3.0 remains available for older Power Macs)

My last article talked about the various accouterments you'll need for a digital camera, and it should have given you some ideas that you'll find useful when researching which camera is perfect for your needs