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TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 01-Sep-08

  • Final Cut Express 4.0.1 from Apple resolves a permissions issue where projects would not open if they contained media not properly owned by the user. The update also adds easy setups for ingesting AVCHD footage as well as 720p25 HDV. A pair of Apple Intermediate Codec sequence presets have also been renamed to more accurately reflect the resolution of the footage. The update is available only via Software Update at publication time. (Free)
  • VMware Fusion 2 Release Candidate 1 from VMware includes a 12-month subscription to McAfee VirusScan Plus to protect Windows against viruses, supports seven languages, improves the user interface surrounding snapshots, and fixes a number of bugs. One subtle new feature of interest to Web developers using Fusion to test Web sites in Windows: Windows XP normally exposes only the default Web browser as a valid HTTP application, preventing other installed Web browsers from appearing. Fusion 2.0 RC1 now works around this, enabling Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Opera in Windows to be advertised as HTTP
    applications, which in turn lets BBEdit find these applications in its HTML Preview preferences and use them for previewing HTML documents. (Free until final release, 247 MB)
  • Apple ProRes QuickTime Decoder 1.0 enables users to play Apple ProRes files through QuickTime. Apple describes ProRes as “a visually lossless format that provides uncompressed HD quality at SD data rates. It is an excellent choice for mastering and can easily be transcoded to distribution formats like H.264. With new support for playback on both Mac and Windows computers, Apple ProRes can also be used for review and approval of Final Cut Studio sequences.” (Free, 396K)
  • Coda 1.5 from Panic is a highly significant update to the single-window Web authoring tool. The most notable new features include support for the Subversion version control system, the capability to search for text across multiple files, custom Web books for your favorite online reference pages, and improvements to the text clipping feature. Support for AppleScript has been expanded, a “Reverse Publish” feature downloads remote items, and tabs now indicate whether files are local or remote. There are numerous other changes and bug fixes in the program; be sure to read the release notes. ($99 new, free update, 19.9 MB)
  • RapidWeaver 4.1.1 from Realmac Software beefs up the WYSIWYG HTML authoring tool with support for Leopard’s Quick Look feature, an automatic resizing option for dragged-in images, and easier publishing of Web sites to MobileMe. There are a number of other bug fixes and minor improvements. RapidWeaver 4.x requires Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. ($79 new, free update for 3.6 and 4.0 users, 33 MB)

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