New and Noteworthy: WiebeTech offers FireWire 800 PCI Host Card; Apple grabs "Extraordinary" soundtrack; more

WiebeTech offers FireWire 800 PCI Host Card WiebeTech has introduced the Fire800 Host, its first FireWire 800 PCI host card, featuring three FireWire 800 ports and US$ 50 price when purchased with an enclosure, and a US$ 80 price when purchased separately. The Fire800 Host includes a 33-MHz/64-bit and 33-MHz/32-bit selectable PCI interface (If you insert the PCI Card to a 33-Mhz/32-bit slot, the transfer data rate will be reduced to 1394a/Firewire400 speeds.) The new card requires Mac OS X 10.2.6, dashing hopes of some Mac OS 9 users who had been anticipating a compatible IEEE 1394b card. More.

Apple grabs "Extraordinary" soundtrack Apple Computer said it has nabbed the exclusive U.S. rights to distribute the soundtrack to 20th Century Fox's "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen." Apple is selling the album for $9.99 as an online download, with no physical CDs being made for the U.S. market. The soundtrack includes a score by composer Trevor Jones and features performances by the London Symphony Orchestra and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. More.

Another one bites the dust Apple is squashing the competition, and sending them packing. Online music distributor Ecast Inc. has closed its downloadable music operations, saying it couldn't afford to spend the marketing dollars needed to compete with Apple Computer Inc. and other suppliers of songs online. More.

BookEndz now PowerBook G4 12" compatible The popular BookEndz port adapter is now available for the 12" PowerBook G4. The dock allows for all of the peripheral devices normally connected to the side of the PowerBook - Power, Ethernet, Modem, FireWire, USB, Audio In, Audio Out to be plugged into the back of the dock, and remain plugged in, independent of the computer. The dock also converts RGB to VGA. More.

Panther "not cheap An Australian IT author laments about Apple's charging policy for Panther and other Mac OS X releases in the past couple of yeears. "In Australia the company will charge AUD$ 229 for Panther, which is due a bit over one year after the introduction of the previous version, dubbed Jaguar, last August. Jaguar also cost AUD$ 229, so Mac users who want to keep up with the latest software will have paid more than AUD$ 450 in just over a year. Apple also charged for the original Mac OS X (Cheetah) and update 10.1 (Puma) - so some users have forked out more than AUD$ 900 to keep their Macs up to date." More.

Charismac offers integrated OS 9, OS X SAN Charismac has released a version of their reliable Storage Area Networking (SAN) software FibreShare today that works with Mac OS X. The volume management software package allows multiple users to share between OS 9 and OS X and have shared read and write access to Fibre Channel storage. More.

Speedpass enabled Timex watch The new Speedpass enabled Timex Watch allows you to pay for items at 8,100 Exxon and Mobil stations nationwide, 440 McDonald's restaurants in Chicago and Northwest Indiana, and 4 Stop and Shop Supermarkets in the Boston area. The watches are all in the US$ 50 range. More.

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