REALbasic 2.1 Available -- REAL Software has released REALbasic 2.1, an update to its popular BASIC-derived programming environment for the Macintosh. (See "REALbasic 2.0 Gets Real" in TidBITS-493 for an overview of version 2.0.) The latest update provides extensive improvements for compiling REALbasic projects for Windows, improves both performance and database access, and fixes a number of bugs

FileMaker Developer 5 Ships -- FileMaker Inc. has released FileMaker Developer 5, a collection of tools, utilities, and documentation enabling the creation of stand-alone databases and customized Web publishing solutions

ACI US Changes Name to 4D -- ACI US, the publishers and distributors of the 4th Dimension database environment and product line, have changed the company name to 4D, Inc

Poll Preview: TidBITS is Ten! This week marks TidBITS's tenth anniversary of publication, so we're curious: in what year did you start reading TidBITS? Are you one of the several hundred people who signed up last week (if so, welcome aboard!) or have you been tuning in since TidBITS was distributed as HyperCard stacks back in 1990 and 1991? Vote now on our home page, after which you'll see how long everyone else has been reading

Poll Results: A People Divided -- In our poll last week we asked people to describe how they divide their time between Macs and PCs - if they divide their time at all

I admit it: I'm an AppleScript junkie. I've been wary of macro programs and similar automation products since I got my first Macintosh. The more I learned about Mac programming, the more I realized how many low-level patches macro programs had to use, and the more they scared me

Netscape 6 Preview -- Netscape Communications has released a preview version of Netscape 6, its forthcoming Internet application suite based in part on the open source Mozilla project - though we recommend it only for the most adventurous of Web users

Apple Computer has released a free Mac OS 9.0.4 which claims to offer enhanced USB and FireWire support, provide improved networking and power management, plus improve video, graphics, and audio functionality

Microsoft Violated Anti-Trust Laws -- U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson has ruled that Microsoft Corporation violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act by using its position in the Web browser market to "the detriment of competitors." The judge also found that Microsoft could be liable under state anti-competition laws

FileMaker 5.0v3 Update Available -- After an earlier abortive release, FileMaker, Inc. has released Macintosh updaters for FileMaker Pro 5.0v3 that can be applied to Worldwide English or Japanese versions of either FileMaker Pro 5.0v1 or 5.0v2 (See "FileMaker Pro 5 Released to Controversy" in TidBITS-499 for an overview of FileMaker Pro 5's features and functionality.) A new feature in FileMaker 5.0v3 enables a user to open the Define Fields dialog box for a database hosted on FileMaker Pro Server so long as no other guests are connected

Aladdin Acquires Trexar -- Aladdin Systems has announced its acquisition of Trexar Technologies, makers of specialized Mac OS Internet utilities MacTuner (for finding and connecting to Internet-enabled radio and television stations around the world), MacHeadlines (a desktop news ticker), and the long-popular WeatherTracker (which presents weather and forecast information for cities around the world)

On 14-Mar-2000, King County Superior Court Judge Palmer Robinson ruled Washington State's 1998 anti-spam legislation unconstitutional under the interstate commerce clause of the U.S

Sleep Memory Extension Blocks Laptop Bug -- Apple's new Sleep Memory Extension helps protect iBook and PowerBook (FireWire) computers from data loss or corruption when using the "Preserve memory contents on sleep" feature under low memory situations (see "iBook, PowerBook Data Loss Problem Noted" in TidBITS-521)

A little over a year ago in TidBITS-467, I wrote about some historical and technical reasons why text on Web pages can be illegibly small when viewed on a Macintosh - especially pages designed by and for Windows users. The principles and problems outlined in that article are as true today as they were then, but new Internet standards and a new generation of Web browsers are beginning to offer possible solutions to both Web users and Web authors

FaceSpan 3.5 Available -- Digital Technology International has released FaceSpan 3.5, the latest version of its interface builder for AppleScript and other OSA languages

Poll Results: Ad-ing It Up -- Last week's release of Eudora 4.3 prompted us to ask what TidBITS readers thought about the option of applications displaying advertisements in exchange for enabling commercially available features

Poll Preview: Color Me Pretty -- Apple last week expanded the color palette of its iBook line to include a graphite-themed consumer laptop (see below), re-opening the topic of Apple's often-brash color selections for its computing products

Apple Posts $183 Million Profit -- Apple Computer posted a $183 million profit for its first fiscal quarter of 2000. Apple's unit shipments were up 46 percent compared to the same quarter a year ago: Apple sold nearly 1.4 million systems during the quarter (including 700,000 iMacs and 235,000 iBooks) and 51 percent of those sales were to international customers

FileMaker Pro 5 Unlimited Ships -- FileMaker Inc. has shipped the English language version of its $1,000 FileMaker Pro 5 Unlimited, which removes FileMaker Pro 5.0's little-loved licensing restrictions and ten-Internet-users-in-twelve-hours limit, and adds the FileMaker Web Server Connector, a Java servlet that permits databases published via FileMaker Pro 5 Unlimited to be served via popular high-end Web servers like StarNine's WebSTAR, Apple's AppleShare IP, Apache, and Microsoft's IIS

Ballmer is Microsoft's New CEO -- TidBITS doesn't usually cover executive shifts at companies other than Apple, but we should note Bill Gates promoted Steve Ballmer to Microsoft's CEO position last week