New & Noteworthy: PCs and DVD/CD-RW drives; Netscape 6; PowerBook 4 review in Fortune; FrameMaker; Apple challenges Stardo

Netscape 6.01 is an update to this well-known web browser. The original 6.0 version met with a tepid response from users (like many others, we still prefer 4.7). Based on initial comments from users on VersionTracker, this update is not much of an improvement.

PCs now come with DVD/CD-RW drives A CNET article reports: "Sony is the latest PC manufacturer in the past two weeks to add a combination drive to its notebook lineup. Toshiba recently made a DVD/CD-RW drive available as an option on several of its notebooks, and Compaq Computer has a similar drive on its Presario 1800 series." Unlike Apple's SuperDrive, the these drives are limited to read-only for DVDs. Still, the drives give the Wintel machines an edge when compared against the CD-RW drives shipping with Apple's lower tier Power Mac G4 models or the DVD-ROM drive shipping with the PowerBook G4. (Thanks, Monty Solomon.)

PowerBook G4 "most impressive" Peter Lewis, in a review posted on Fortune's web site, writes: "I think the new PowerBook G4 Titanium is the most impressive notebook computer ever." He also speaks favorably of the new Power Mac G4s and iTunes. His only lament is that all of these great products have not translated into great financial news for Apple. On the subject of the SuperDrive (see item above), he notes: "Apple's SuperDrive is actually a Pioneer recordable CD/DVD drive that Compaq was first to embrace, for its Presario 7000 line of home computers, and it will be a race to see whether Compaq or Apple gets it to market first."

Apple challenges Stardock A ZDNet article covers Apple's legal challenge to Stardock Corp's DesktopX, a graphical user interface-customization tool for Windows, and its Web site features a gallery of freely distributed, user-contributed interfaces, including a number of skins inspired by the Aqua look of Mac OS X. [See also this Register article.]

FrameMaker alive and well Adobe informs us: "Contrary to reports that have appeared in the Robert X. Cringley column in InfoWorld, Adobe is completely committed to developing and supporting the FrameMaker product. Currently, the FrameMaker engineering and product management teams are busy working on the next major release of the product, including developing new features based on customer feedback. FrameMaker engineering is actively searching for new recruits."

Symantec legal challenge? A CNET article notes that Symantec "notified rivals that it owns a pair of patents covering its method for updating virus software and definitions incrementally." Whether this signals an impending legal challenge or not is still unclear.

MacHack announces a very special keynote panel MacHack 2001 (held in June in Dearborn, MI) has just announced its keynote speakers for the 2001 conference. It will feature 3 speakers in a panel titled "The Ultimate Macintosh Engineering Reunion." The trio consists of: (1) Andy Hertzfeld, a member of the original Macintosh team, he designed and implemented a large fraction of the original Macintosh system software, including the User Interface Toolbox. He also wrote Switcher, the first "multi-Finder" application for the Mac. (2) Guy "Bud" Tribble, the manager of the original Macintosh Software team. (3) Caroline Rose, the author of most of the first three volumes of Inside Macintosh.

MacFixIt Reports updated We have made some minor updates to Troubleshooting Virtual PC 4.0 and Troubleshooting iTunes (including a possible conflict with Lexmark printer software).