New and Noteworthy: The future of DVD quality - produced by 600 G5s; Price, restrictions listed as iTunes turn-offs; more

The future of DVD quality - produced by 600 G5s The New York Times has a report on a 600 Mac setup that may revolutionize the quality of DVDs. "Mr. Lowry, who has worked for decades at enhancing video imagery, is responsible for some of the best-looking DVD restorations in recent years, including transfers of 'Casablanca,' 'Singin' in the Rain' and 'Once Upon a Time in the West.' What he is doing will make a DVD look nearly as sharp and detailed as a 35-millimeter film print. It will produce images with six times the resolution of today's high-definition television sets. In video quality, it could turn home theater into a true rival of the neighborhood cineplex. Walk into the suites of Lowry Digital, the company that Mr. Lowry started six years ago, and the first sight that strikes you is the computer bank - rack after rack of Macintosh G5 computers, 600 of them, holding a combined memory of 2,400 gigabytes." More.

Price, restrictions listed as iTunes turn-offs A Washington Post article lists iPod-relegation and pricing structure as the iTunes Music Store's main problems. "A flock of competitors, including stores from Roxio, RealNetworks and Wal-Mart, have followed Apple without catching up -- not in ease, not in elegance and not in numbers of downloads. But the iTunes Music Store's success hides a couple of unsettling trends. One is pricing -- a lot of albums now exceed the store's customary $9.99 price, and a few even exceed their cost as CDs in a store. The other is compatibility -- though a variety of consumer-electronics devices could be made compatible with iTunes music files, the only one Apple permits is its own iPod digital-music player." More.

Proliferation of spyware A Reuters piece keeps an eye on the growing "Spyware" threat. "Programs that hide in users' computers and secretly monitor their activities are emerging as the next high-tech plague, experts say. Spyware can sap computing power, crash machines and bury users under a blizzard of unwanted ads. It can capture passwords, credit-card numbers and other sensitive data."

There are already a few spyware removal tools for Mac OS X, including Aladdin Internet Cleanup.

Previously on MacFixIt:

• Disappearing hard disk space
• More e-mail problems with Virex 7.5b1, earlier versions
• Odds and Ends: Directory printouts in the Finder; Date and Time errors

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