Third Party Software Topic

On November 28, 2007 Intel Corporation announced an upgrade to the company's software tools suite for Apple's Mac OS X operating system.  The new 10.1 version of Intel C++ Compiler and Intel Fortran Compiler, as well as the Intel Threading Building Blocks, Intel Math Kernel Libraries and Intel Performance Primitives, are now optimized for Mac OS X Leopard version 10.5 and the Xcode 3.0 development environment launched in October 2007.

Just announced the Parallels Christmas Special Exclusive Offers.  Owners of Intel-based Macs will want to give these specials serious consideration if they plan to run both Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows.

On Monday November 12, 2007 VMware announced the release of VMware Fusion 1.1, an update to the VMware Fusion desktop virtualization software for Intel-based Macs.

In a May 3, 2007 blog post, Philipp Lohmann of Sun Microsystems states that Sun engineering will add it's support to the ongoing Mac/Aqua porting effort currently underway for OpenOffice.

Microsoft today released Messenger for Mac 6.0, Microsoft's instant messaging software for Mac OS X.  The release marks the first Universal Binary application for Mac OS X from Mirosoft.

Pre Photokina 2006. Adobe today released Lightroom beta 4, the latest revision to the free public beta version of its professional image editing software.  Adobe has now changed the name of Lighroom to Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.  The new name clearly demonstrates that Adobe is positioning Lightroom as a complement to Adobe Photoshop.

Adobe has released an update to it's Camera Raw plug-in that allows Adobe Photoshop CS2 to read Raw images for today's digital cameras that support the format.  The important news of the day is that Adobe for the first time, has released a Universal Binary for any of its products.  Both updates are available as free downloads.

Let's face it, Mac users have historically been accustomed to the back burner when it comes to hardware and software.  This is especially true for today's current wireless broadband providers such as Verizon Wireless and Sprint in the United States.  Yes, the two carriers do offer cards for Mac users but the selection and options are not at par with PC users.  This problem was elevated after Apple released the MacBook Pro portable.

Google has released Google Notifier - formerly Gmail Notifier. This new notifier includes alerts for Google Calendar events.  Google provides the following catch phrase for the application, "Check your email and events without opening your browser".  Google Notifier requires at a minimum, Mac OS X version  OS 10.4.

Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit (MBU) has released an update for Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac that upgrades the software to version 11.2.6.  Microsoft states:

Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit (MBU) has released an update for Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac that upgrades the software to version 11.2.4.  Microsoft states that the update addresses vulnerabilities and fixes issues with PowerPoint 2004 and Entourage 2004.

Google released an updated version of Gmail Notifier, an application that notfies you when new mail has arrived in your Gmail account. The new OS X version is now a Universal Binary that runs natively on Intel or PowerPC Macs. Check out the Google Blog to see the details.

Software from Flip4Mac™ makes it possible to run  Windows Media® files in Quicktime.  The software allows you to play Windows Media files (.wma and .wmv) directly in Apple's QuickTime Player and view Windows Media® content on the Internet in your browser.  The software can be downloaded directly from Microsoft.