Napster (Finally) Releases Mac Client -- Napster, the controversial peer-to-peer music sharing service currently being sued by major recording industry players for promoting piracy, has released its first beta client software for the Macintosh. If the software walks and talks like Blackhole Media's Macster, one of the most popular third party Napster clients for the Mac, don't be surprised: Napster recently purchased Macster and has now blessed it as its official Mac client. Napster plans to keep the same team of developers working on it. The client allows users who register with the Napster service to download MP3 files from other members of the Napster community, as well as optionally share a local stash of files with that community and participate in real-time chats. The Napster 1.0b1 client is a 1.3 MB download and requires a PowerPC-based machine running at least Mac OS 8.1 (with CarbonLib 1.4 and Internet Config); Napster plans to release support for non-English languages shortly. [GD]

<http://www.napster.com/mac/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/06056>