OS X Utilities Updates: iDVD 2; Perfboard; more

Apple iDVD 2.0 has been released. It is Apple's DVD authoring tool included with new G4 DVD-R Macs. Among other things, the new version now works with Mac OS X 10.1. It also now allows up to 90 minutes of video on each disc. (See also Apple page on iDVD 2.)

Perfboard 1.2 (formerly Dashboard) provides an extensive readout of system performance data for Mac OS X. Areas monitored include CPU load metrics, memory statistics, network bandwidth, and disk I/O operations. The new version now uses auto-scaling for the network input/output displays. The metrics are displayed in bytes/second if less than 1024 and kbytes/second if 1024 or greater. Note: To avoid potential confusion with a prior similarly named application, Dashboard is now named Perfboard.

Tex-Edit Plus X 4.1.3b3 is a scriptable, styled text editor that fills the gap between Apple's bare-bones SimpleText and a full-featured word processor. Command clicking of URL now works properly.

Synk X 4.0 is a backup and synchronization program. It now requires OS X 10.1 and no longer has problems copying files over the network to an OS 9 client.

HotApp 0.8.a lets you assign any hot key to activate/run an OS X application. It now has support for any key combination to activate an application, including function keys (F1, F2... up to F12).

And... Also check today's main page for utilities that work both in OS 9 and OS X, including Synk X, piDock, isaBook, HipFlics, and more.