Brand: MacNews

As the State of Maine continues to struggle to reach an agreement on a proposal to outfit seventh- and eighth-graders with iBooks, one state Senator has proposed cutting the program in half and outfitting only seventh graders with the laptops, according to the Lewiston Sun Journal. The savings, about US$12.5 million, would be used to restore education and social service cuts, as the state faces a $250 million budget deficit this year.

Bare Bones Software has released Super Get Info1.0.6, a new version of its “Show Info” replacement for Mac OS X.Version 1.0.6 adds a new contextual menu plug-in, called “Bare Bones OpenWith,” which provides users the ability to open files with the applicationof their choice via a contextual menu. In addition, the new version addsdisplay of the total size of files, data and resource fork sizes, Type andCreator Favorites pop-up menus in the Info panel, and other refinements andbug fixes. Super Get Info costs US$20.

AppMac Software has released mSecure 1.0, a control panel for Mac OS 8/9 designed to secure Macs used in public places by disabling such commands as shutdown and force quit, and eKiosk 2.2, an updated version of its AppleScript-based Internet kiosk software. mSecure sells for US$29, while eKiosk sells for $99.

Googie Drives today released more information on its forthcoming Googie FireWire and USB 2.0 hard drives, which will ship in capacities from 40GB to 160GB. Additionally, the company announced a new line of interface cards: USB 2.0 PCI, FireWire, and FireWire CardBus for laptops. Pricing and availability for the Googie products is not yet available.

NVIDIA today officially introduced its line of GeForce4 graphics processors, comprised of the high-end GeForce4 Ti, consumer-targeted GeForce4 MX, and GeForce4 Go for laptops.