New & Noteworthy: new iMacs close up; analysts on Apple; Revolution Public Beta; faster modem hardware; more

New iMacs more impressive in person? MacWEEK's Stephen Beale reports that the new iMacs look much better close up than they appear in photos. He writes, "Viewing the photos, it's easy to see why some people are using descriptions like 'retro' and 'psychedelic,' but the designs appear more elegant and contemporary in person."

Flowers, spots, and a price bump Despite the addition of CD-RW drives, faster processors, and a price cut for the Cube, this CNet article says that some analysts are not tickled pink over Apple's latest offerings of flower-laden cases and a higher price for the entry-level iMac.

Revolution Public Beta 1.0 The Revolution development system allows users to create applications which run on MacOS, Windows, Linux, and popular UNIX systems. (Support for MacOS X is planned.) According to the developer, Revolution has features in common with Visual Basic and C, as well as authoring systems such as Macromedia Director or iShell, but it is arguably most similar to scripting tools such as Apple’s HyperCard.

V.92 modems on the horizon V.92 modems, which support faster upload and slightly faster download speeds, along with standardized data/voice call-waiting and faster training times, are almost here. See the Washington Post or CNet for more.

Update: Actually, as reported by several readers, some V.92 modems are already available. For example, check this Zoom page and Global Village page.

New life for an older PowerBook hard drive The current issue of Tidbits contains an article on turning a leftover PowerBook hard drive into a secondary drive that fits a 1998 or 1999 and 2000 PowerBook G3 expansion bay.

This weekend at the QuickTime movie trailer park New choices include "The Mexican", "Along Came a Spider", "Sweet November," and "Down to Earth."