Apple today updated its popular iBook line of portables with faster PowerPC G3 processors running at up to 800 MHz and the ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 graphics. Weighing as little as 4.9 pounds, the iBook now starts at only $999 (US), making it more affordable than ever.

Griffin Tech. recently released version 1.5 (OS 9 & X) of Powermate.
Powermate is a multimedia, assignable controller usable with any application. It can be set to any keyboard shortcut and can, for example, be used to initiate recording on the fly or as a very convinient jog.
USB based, Powermate will act like the remote you need when the keyboard is far from hand.

Cycling 74 have released a free runtime engine for 3rd party Pluggo plug-ins. See the Cycling74 download pages for more details. This will allow non-Pluggo owners to use plug-ins that have been developed by 3rd parties. The original Pluggo, with all 74 + Cycling74 plugs, is still a commercial product but hats-off to Cycling 74 for helping to bring the magic of Pluggo to a wider audience. For some free plugs to get you started, check out www.postsomnia.com and www.wildfrontear.co.uk

We all know that plugins (virtual instruments for example) are CPU hog and can quickly take all the processor's ressources. Plugzilla is a rack mount (2-U) audio processor that will allow you to run VST plugins with the power of two DSPs and the features of two independant machines (Dual stereo, 4 channels at 96KHz, 24 bits balanced XLR analog I/O and SPDIF standard).

Elemental Audio Systems announced today the availability of AudioUnit versions of its complete line of plug-ins. This release makes Firium, Eqium, and Inspector three of the first commercially available plug-ins to support the new Mac OS X system level audio plug-in format. The AudioUnit versions can be used in Emagic Logic, the first OS X compatible sequencer to support AudioUnits, and other audio applications that support the new standard.