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 - 09/08/Y2K X-box; speakers; Psion; Sony Trail; Paris Protest; Filemaker for Palm; Amazon . X-Box According to the London Register, Microsoft has spotted a new way to make its game machine sale and thereforre is re-engineering its X-box specifications. to give the games box digital VCR functionality. Therefore Tivo and ReplayTV get a formable competitor. For the full story see: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/2/12970.html . Speakers Need speakers to match your iMac flavor? Check out this site sent to me by Mark Tarletz http://www.pelestore.com/macspeak.html . Psion According to The London Register, Psion who makes handheld PDA has announced that it has updated its MacConnect software for synchronization with the Mac and includes USB connections. The PC version has been upgraded 4 times since the Mac one. It is good to see another comapy recognize that Mac is Back. . Sony/Connectix to have trail in Spring. The Trial date is to be in March 2001. This off and on law suit should be settled next year almost a year after Playstation 2 ships and almost makes the question obsolete. . Jobs Protest A group of Mac users from the U.K. is planning on staging a protest at the keynote speech at MacWorld Paris. It seems they are upset about Apple's crack down on rumor sites, the moving of Expo support from the U.K to Paris and the fact that Apple is no longer producing a U.K. specific operating system. You can read more at: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,38607,00.html . Filemaker for Palm Insanely Great Mac is reporting that Filemaker Inc. has announced support of the Palm OS. It will allow users to transfer and synchronize data between databases on Windows, Mac OS and Palm OS systesm. Good going FM, I suppose this came out of the Newton support that was promised but never completed. More at: http://www.insanely-great.com/news/00/9/07-filemaker.html . Amazon Well, a company that really doesn't need any more unfavorable publicity has done it again. First they announced a new privacy policy that most people say means less privacy and then it is disclosed by the London Register that they charge their regular customers more than the first timer. (This is apparently true only on DVD at this time). And you thought cookies were innocent. While the official response was that pricing is always fluctuating and that the user probably hit a test, the Register seemed to think the response was "rubbish". They did a test using the following and got cheaper prices than without following these instructions. (More at: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/13069.html) Guide to cheap Amazon DVDs Don't worry if you're a regular customer, follow this guide to get the higher discounts (hence lower prices). NB. This will only work if you have a dial-up account or dynamic IP address. * Before you go onto Amazon's site, switch off all cookies. This is done on Explorer by going to Internet Options, Security. Then either set it high or click Custom Level and click Disable on the cookies section. On Navigator, go to Edit, Preferences, Advanced (down the bottom in the panel), Disable (cookies). In the Security panel, selecting Clear History will also remove any tie-in with the Amazon site previously. * Delete any Amazon cookies in your Temporary Internet Files folder. Easiest way of doing this is to go to the Start menu, select Find and then search for any files called "Amazon". Any with the notepad symbol are likely to be cookies. Delete them. * Hang up on your ISP connection (or reboot). * Go to Amazon, select what you want, get it in the shopping basket and THEN log in into your customer account. And switch your cookies back on. Good Luck - or the other option: deal with another site. . Quote of the Week: "I believe in the Bluetooth fairy. But you have to be careful. Some people are thinking we could be talking to satellites and embedding computers in clothing. The killer application is simply replacing cords." - Galen Schreck, an analyst at Forrester Research discussing the promise of Bluetooth technology. (Detroit Free Press, 8/31/00) 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. 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. Worth and TUMS (the Tulsa Users of Macintosh Society) doing newsletter articles and the monthly CD-ROM Update. Post a lead Rumor Manager should follow up on. Subscribe to Rumors@lists.user-groups.net rumors-on@lists.user-groups.net for more information go to: http://www.user-groups.net/ugcommunity/subscribe.html UG Network Channel _ / _ NEWS _ / _ UG Library _ / _ UG Bookshelf Article Reprints -- User Group Network Affiliates may reprint articles as long as full credit is given. Other Non-profit or non-commercial publications should contact us. The UGNN cannot guarantee accuracy or timeliness of articles. 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