Year: 2002

Handspring today cut prices on its monochrome Visor handhelds. The 16MB Visor Pro is now US$199 ($30 less), the thin 8MB Visor Edge is $169 ($30 less), and the 8MB Visor Platinum and Neo are both $149 ($20 less). As noted by c|net, Handspring had 14.5 weeks of inventory on hand on April 1, up from 11.3 weeks a month ago and 9.6 weeks in the prior year. The company has seen its market share eroded by strong sales of Palm and Sony handhelds.

Apple’s Hot News page notes that Anthony Burokas uses Macs and Final Cut Pro to help create “Flavors of America,” a cooking show appearing on PBS. The article takes a look at how Anthony uses his Macs to edit the originally shot film into the final product. There is even a link to a video where you can see him in action.

CADintosh 4.2, a 2D-CAD application for technical and architectural drawings has been released, as noted by VersionTracker. Version 4.2 offers improved printing, long file name support, improved DXF import and export, and several bug fixes and other internal changes. CADintosh is US$32 shareware.

Bertelsmann has acquired Napster for US$8 million, according to c|net, ensuring the company’s sustainability for the near future. On Tuesday, Napster Chief Executive Konrad Hilbers resigned after Napster’s board rejected an offer to be bought out by Bertelsmann. Hilbers, as well as creator Shawn Fanning who also resigned at that time, will both remain with the company.

Microsoft has quietly changed the preferences for all of its Hotmail users so that they opt-in to letting Microsoft share their email address and other information with other companies, as reported by the Eastside Journal (and noted by Slashdot). Hotmail users can change this setting, which presumably paves the way for additional unsolicited email, by editing their Personal Profile on the Options page.