Do your eyes glaze over when you hear about MacBinary, AppleDouble, and Base64? Read on for a comprehensive look at common Macintosh file formats. Also in this issue, Mark Anbinder relays details of Adobe’s announcement of PageMill 3.0 for the Mac, and, in the news, Quark bids for Adobe, Farallon introduces a solution for iMacs and StyleWriters, the Norton Utilities 4.0 beta eats RAIDs, and new software releases include AppleShare IP 6.0, MacLinkPlus Deluxe 10, and Virtual PC 2.1.
No Issue Labor Day -- In the continuing administrative saga, our planned server move last week was delayed by the just-resolved US West strike, so the move will happen in the future
Adobe Rejects Quark Buyout Offer -- Last week Quark, Inc. made public its desire to purchase Adobe Systems, Inc. for an undisclosed sum. The privately held Quark made an offer to Adobe management, although Adobe claims that Quark did not make a bona fide offer, but sent only "unsolicited letters." [I wonder if that counts as spam? -Adam] Adobe refused Quark's advances, and Quark is now hoping to open a new dialog with Adobe or pursue the possibility of a hostile takeover
Apple Releases AppleShare IP 6.0 -- Apple has released AppleShare IP 6.0, the latest version of the company's integrated server software. AppleShare IP 6.0 improves performance and adds major new features, including support for Windows clients using the Server Message Block protocol (SMB), IMAP4 support combined with Sherlock server-side searching technology, printing capabilities over TCP/IP, and support for third-party plug-ins
MacLinkPlus Deluxe 10 Ships -- It may no longer be bundled with the Mac OS, but MacLinkPlus hasn't disappeared. DataViz has now released MacLinkPlus Deluxe 10.0, the latest version of the venerable file translation utility
Of iMacs and StyleWriters -- Last week's "iMac Connection Guide" (see TidBITS-444) will require updates, and the first comes from Farallon, who introduced the EtherMac iPrint Adapter SL
Connectix Updates Virtual PC to 2.1 -- Connectix Corporation last week released an updater to Virtual PC, adding a handful of features and fixing minor bugs and compatibility issues
You Beta Be AfRAID of Norton -- Mark James has identified a severe incompatibility between the public beta of Norton Utilities 4.0 for the Macintosh and volumes formatted with SoftRAID, the RAID software currently bundled with Apple servers
A little over a month ago in "Closing the Book on Visual Page" in TidBITS-439, Adam speculated that Adobe's PageMill for Macintosh had quietly faded away, since there had been no sign Adobe would offer a companion to PageMill 3.0 for Windows
Last week's article in TidBITS-444 about the need for developers to support MacBinary III brought in a lot of email from people confused about various Macintosh file formats that appear on the Internet