User group Newsletter Editors: Utilize this content in your newsletter -- PLEASE ... reference The User Group Network _ / _ UG Network Channel _ / _ NEWS_/ _ Info Manager Shareware Manager is coming: YUM! Show us the shareware! The Info Manager is looking for your rumors and tidbits... give him a post! ...or subscribe... see subscription notes below Info Manager - 8/11/Y2K Mac2Phone; Visiosonic; NeXT cube; Rocket Man? **** I recently saw this conversation in the Evangelist mailing list: >Does anyone know of a free Mac to Phone or free telephony >service for Macintosh? The response: Really-Easy.com http://www.reallyeasy.com/ http://www.really-easy.com/pert/pert.cgi?index=1 I-Link http://199.172.8.27/weblink/Default2.asp Both are very, very unreliable. Internet Phone is a commercial Internet phone program for the Mac. There is a free demo that works for 2 weeks: http://www.vocaltec.com/consumer/products/iphone_mac/web/mac.htm Anyone know of any more? **** Visiosonic Visiosonic announced a new advertising and sponsor based MP3 download system. This system would get revenue for the artists. My prediction is that the studios still won't support it as they could be by passed by the system. Full story: http://www.internetnews.com/streaming-news/article/0,2171,8161_428211,00.html **** NeXT Want a look back at the way things were when the NeXT cube was introduced. The San Jose Mercury News has pointed out that http://www.flyonthemac.com/index.cgi?view_issue=25 will do just that. And yet Apple is being sued because of their new Cube. Guess this could generate almost as much press as the sock puppets. **** Rocket Man? The Mercury News also turned me on to an individual flying device. Called SoloTrek XFV, which is a flying machine that you step on, strap on, and fly. This ultra-compact aircraft lets you takeoff vertically, dash to your destination, then land literally anywhere. Using ordinary 87-octane gasoline, The web site says it can hover for up to 3 hours, reach speeds of up to 70 knots, and traverse distances of up to 150 nautical miles. Sounds dangerous to me and perhaps a little to much of the Jetson era. But then it does look safer than the Jetsons back pack rockets. See: http://www.millenniumjet.com/mjet/index1.html **** Hacking the spammer Clickz network has an interesting story about how a person who got tired of getting spam hacked into the spammers computer. He even got a file that was a picture of the spammer in the shower and put it on a web site. I think I agree with the writer that this would be carrying ant-spam techniques to far. But it is an interesting read: <http://www.clickz.com/cgi-bin/gt/article.html?article=2186> **** Xtrem unveils 1.2GHz Mac I wasn't' going to mention this one as it would appear to me to be a hoax. But London's Register took it serious. "A little-known Swedish start-up is claiming to have crashed the 1 GHz barrier ahead of Apple and by using only a single PowerPC. Xtrem's claims its XtremMac G4 is based on a single PowerPC 7400 chip operating at 1.2 GHZ. Essentially, the machine appears to be a rgular, off the shelp PowerMac Gr mobo processor, memory, PCI cards and peripherals slotted into a new case and overclicked threefold." So if you want to see the machine look at: http://www.xtrem.com For the Register story see: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/1/12445.html **** MP3 Thanks to the Napster lawsuit, we are all hearing about MP3. For a list of MP3 players for all platforms see: http://www.mpeg.org/MPEG/MPEG-audio-player.html **** Newtek MacWeek is demonstrating its support of MacOS X at Siggraph 2000 by showing version 6 of its LightWave product. (3D Modeling, rendering and animation software). They are showing it on a dual processor G4 as well as on a network of 13 G4 Macs that are sharing the rendering duties. Full story complete with photo at: http://macweek.zdnet.com/2000/07/23/0727newtek.html (Thanks MacProNews for sending me to the story). **** Quote of the Week: "The longer the major labels take to come up with an alternative, the longer the next generation will be familiar with the idea of 'Music should be free.' So, in a way, the industry has brought it on themselves." -- Steve Curry, spokesman for Redwood City, Calif.-based eMusic. (via InfoWorld) pau **** Don't forget ... the Info Manager invites you to use all or part of his column in your user group newsletter. Please let him know, and if possible send an electronic copy for the old scrapbook. Any suggestions for topics and reports of rumors are always welcome. Please me know. Thanks The Info Manager is a veteran of the UGN (AOL User Groups Forum) and User Group Network. 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