User group Newsletter Editors: Utilize this content in your newsletter -- PLEASE ... reference The User Group Network _ / _ UG Network Channel _ / _ NEWS_/ _ Info Manager The Info Manager is looking for your rumors and tidbits... give him a post! ...or subscribe... see subscription notes below Info Manager - 04/07/Y2K iMove; Dragon bought; Acta; Massachusetts Bans Computer Dumping; Home Networking; Netscape; SoundJam **** Stand-alone version of iMovie? According to Go2Mac Apple is about ready to release a stand-alone version of iMovie. No word on system requirements. The catch is that it initially will be available to educational purchasers only. But soon you won't be required to purchase an iMac DV to get it. (Just be a teacher or a student). More info http://www.go2mac.com/displaynews.cfm?newsid=5990 **** L&H Buys Dragon Lernout & Hauspie to Get Dragon for $587 Million according to an article in the 3/28 issue of the Wall Street Journal. L&H is a Dutch company that produces speech recognition software. It also recently purchased Dictaphone. Dragon has about 48% of the US speech recognition market with L&H second at about 36%. IBM follows with about 15%. I wonder if this will have any effect on plans to produce software for MacOS X. **** Once loved "ACTA" Outliner could make a come back I went to http://www.a-sharp.com/ to read more about King of Dragon Pass, a new Mac game that I read about in Dr. Mac's Houston Chronicle column. (He liked it.) While there, I found out that they are now the repository of Acta. Acta was a very popular outliner for the Mac done several years ago. It was a competitor to More. When Word introduced its built-in outliner, the others gave up the game. But they are still pretty useful. A-Sharp is monitoring distribution to see if it should be updated. So go pick up a copy yourself. http://www.go2mac.com/displaynews.cfm?newsid=5990 **** Massachusetts Bans Computer Dumping The Associated Press has reported that Massachusetts has a new law banning people from throwing out electronic gadgets into the city trash. People will have to take items like computers, monitors and TV sets to special drop off sites. Those sites will determine if the device can be refurbished or must be sent to recycling. The real point is that CRTs can contain as much as 8 pounds of lead. That of course could seep into the ground water and every where water is becoming a precious resource. So while computers have helped stop some of the air pollution by replacing smoke stack industries. They are still polluting in other ways. Everyone can applaud Massachusetts now. **** Home Networking on the Up-swing Cahners In-Stat Gjroup is reporting that home networking is taking off. In the fourth quarter of 1999, sales reached $48 million. The 11 Mbps speeds is what really kicked it off. 3Com is in the 10 Mbps phoneline networking area with a 37.4 percent unit market share in the quarter. Surprisingly, Apple's Airport had 38.8% of the wireless market. They finished slightly behind market leader Proxim. With the emergence of always on Internet connection I predict we will be seeing even more home networks. **** Netscape movs to v6.0 As I write this on Wednesday, April 05 Steve Case is getting ready to announce Netscape Communicator 6at Internet World. It is going to be a lot smaller than previous versions, because you will only download the parts you need. Netscape is skipping version 5 in order to make it at least appear that it is ahead of MS Internet Explorer which is at version 5. Isn't marketing wonderful. 6.0 was completely redone from the ground up to remove outdated code. Therefore it should work faster. Of course while announce, it is still a beta product. And word is that it is still pretty buggy. So you might want to wait a bit yet. BTW - Steve Jobs was the original keynote speaker. In fact canceled MacWorld UK in order to attend and then later back out of it too. Guess Mr. Case was lucky to be able to make this announcement at such a good forum. **** SoundJam Gets Better... downloads free Casady & Greene have released never versions of SoundJam (Plus and Free). The Free version can be downloaded from their web site. It provides playback for MP3, AIFF and WAV formats as well as the ability to sample for 14 days the complete product SoundJam Plus. SoundJam Plus is a player AND encoder with all of the capabilities of the original plus support for the G4's Velocity Engine, the ability to record from sound input, a karaoke mode and more. The update is free to owners of SoundJam MP 1.0. For more information, visit <http://www.soundjam.com> **** Quote of the Week: "People who never get carried away should be." -----Malcolm Forbes An extra one: "We have reached the limits of what is possible with computers" - John van Neuman, 1949 **** Web site of the Week: If you are a Mac user and have been around the web for any time at all, you have probably heard of VersionTracker. This is THE site to visit when updating your system. It lists updates to everything for the Mac. You can search for a particular product and see if there has been an update for it. (Shareware, Freeware, Commercial, Update or Upgrade - they have all bases covered.) Additionally when there is a System update that requires other software to be updated, then they will list what software needs to be updated. There are links either to the actual file or to the web site that has the update. I think it is indispensable for the Mac. pau **** Don't forget Any suggestions for topics and reports of rumors are always welcome. Please me know at the address below. Thanks ... the Info Manager invites you to use all or part of his column in your user group newsletter. Please let him know at rumormangr@aol.com and if possible send an electronic copy for the old scrapbook. Subscribe to Rumors@lists.user-groups.net DIGEST VERSION: rumors-digest@lists.user-groups.net (recommended) rumors-on@lists.user-groups.net for more information go to: http://www.user-groups.net/ugcommunity/subscribe.html The Info Manager is a veteran of the UGN (AOL User Groups Forum) and User Group Network. He's been a supporter and volunteer on many, many UGNet and User Group Academy projects. As a long time user group member, he's served as volunteer from Honolulu to Boston and many points in between. Currently working with the Apple Corp of Dallas, the Dallas Mac Pack, Cowtown MUG of Ft. 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