New and Noteworthy: Apple drops Mac mini test drive offer; 14" iBook review; more

Apple drops Mac mini test drive offer ZDNet reports that Apple has dropped a 30-day trial offer for its Mac Mini after less than 12 hours. "The promotion--'Mac Mini Test Drive'--offered a 30-day money-back guarantee, and was available only through Apple's online store. It was launched on Wednesday in the U.S., but by Thursday morning U.K. time Apple's site no longer showed the promotion. Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the promotion." More.

14" iBook review ComputerWorld has a review of Apple's latest revision 14" iBook G4. "And while I know that iBooks are designed largely as consumer machines, I do have some quibbles about the screen and keyboard. In short, they don't measure up to the hardware used in Apple's PowerBooks. Call me spoiled, but as far as I'm concerned, there's no better laptop keyboard than the one used in all three PowerBook models. And while the screen on the 12-in. PowerBook is nothing special (it's essentially the same one used in the 12-i. iBook), the widescreen LCDs used in the 15- and 17-inch PowerBooks are bright and vivid." More.

Avid debuts new Adrenaline and Avid Xpress Pro Releases Avid Technology, has announced the availability of the Media Composer Adrenaline 1.8 and Avid Xpress Pro 4.8 editing solutions, optimized for Mac OS X Tiger. The new Media Composer Adrenaline and Avid Xpress Pro systems include bundled tools that tap the Core Image units of the Mac OS. The new releases include Noise Industries Factory Tools, which tap the Mac OS X's Core Image units, to provide over 80 real-time effects. Groups of Core Image units can be combined to create Quartz Compositions, highly stylized visual effects, filters, and transitions. More.

Previously on MacFixIt:

• Adobe CS2 (Photoshop, InDesign) performance problems
• Safari 2.0.1 (1.3.1 for Mac OS X 10.3.9) [#3] Slow/incomplete page loading; Solutions/Post-update procedure

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