Tech News | 28 Mar 2008 | Listen   | Print  |

TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 31-Mar-08

by TidBITS Staff

• Apple TV 2.0.1 was released last week and... well, Apple doesn't say what it does. The only way to know it exists is to go to Settings > General > Update Software on an Apple TV. A new Genres submenu now appears under My Movies, and we'll assume that bug fixes have been applied. (Free.)
• Mac Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.3 "fixes several issues to improve the stability of the Mac Pro (Early 2008)." TidBITS reader Jack Hayes tells us that the update appears to fix an annoying problem that would cause a Mac Pro to restart when awakened from sleep. (Free, 1.76 MB)
• Firmware Restoration CD 1.5 enables users of the Mac Pro (Early 2008) to restore the firmware of the machine after an interrupted or unsuccessful update. Previous versions of this CD work with other Mac models. You will have to download this disk image and burn it to CD to be able to use it. (Free, 2.5 MB)
• Moneydance 2008 from Reilly Technologies is a major update to the company's personal finance program, often listed as a primary competitor to Intuit's Quicken. Notable changes include improved matching for downloaded transactions, a zoom-able home page graph for quickly exploring income and expenses, over/under budget highlighting, a pop-up calendar for choosing dates, and a new capital gains report, along with numerous bug fixes and minor enhancements. Moneydance may be the only Macintosh application other than Quicken that does transaction download and online bill payment using the standard online banking protocol OFX. ($39.99 new, $19.99 upgrade, 5.2 MB)
• Freeway 5 from Softpress Systems adds numerous significant features to the company's Web design software, including the capability to create CSS-based menus, personalized templates for Blogger, a suite of Google Actions to add Google content to sites, a set of Scriptaculous Actions for dynamic effects, accessibility options, sliced background images, background effects, nested HTML lists, iPhoto import, color labeling, and more. Pro and Express versions are both available; Softpress provides a comparison document. ($249 Pro/$149 Express new, $99 Pro/$49 Express upgrade)
• AirPort Extreme Update 2008-001 for Tiger improves the reliability of AirPort connections on Intel-based Macs running Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. (Free, 1.3 MB)
• Security Update 2008-002 v1.1 replaces Security Update 2008-002 v1.0 and will be installed by Software Update for Mac OS X 10.5.2 users who have not yet installed v1.0 and for Mac OS X 10.5.2 users who have Aperture 2.0 and who already installed Security Update 2008-002 v1.0. The new release fixes problems with the Printer Settings button in Aperture 2.0 under Mac OS X 10.5.2. No other applications or versions of Mac OS X are affected. (Free, 50 MB)
• Plugin Manager 1.7.3 from Apple fixes unspecified reliability problems in all of Apple's professional applications, including Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Express, Aperture, and Logic Express. (Free, 864K)
• iPod Reset Utility 1.0.3 for Mac from Apple restores the first and second generation iPod shuffle models to factory settings when iTunes is unable to do so. (Free, 3.6 MB)
• MailTags 2.2 from Indev Software adds Leopard support to this popular Mail add-on, which enables users to tag messages with Spotlight-searchable keywords, categories, due dates, and more. The new version supports all the data types in Mail version 3, including RSS articles, notes, and to-do items. It also features a new modular architecture that will allow for future features to be added by way of drop-in Extras; an Extras SDK for third parties is in the works. ($29.95 new, free upgrade, 4 MB)
• SOHO Organizer 7.0 from Chronos is a major upgrade to the company's long standing calendaring and contact management application for individuals and workgroups. New in 7.0 are recurring tasks, display of tasks in calendar views, date and alphabet bars for quickly filtering events and contacts, the capability to print calendars from all calendar views, automatic age calculations for birthdays and anniversaries, and support for creating and printing CD/DVD labels. ($99.99 new, $49.99 upgrade, 67 MB)
• SOHO Notes 7.0 from Chronos adds a number of features to the note manager for individuals and networked workgroups. Most interesting among the new features is the capability to attach an unlimited number of tasks to notes and to embed tasks within notes. Other improvements include a details sidebar for editing note attributes, importing of data into forms, the addition of a comments field for each note, and improved printing. ($39.99 new, $25 upgrade, 32 MB)

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