Brand: MacNews

A patent granted to Apple in 1995 is causing a commotion among developers of the open-source PNG graphics format, reports The Register. At dispute is a patent that covers ‘alpha blending’, a frequently used technique for blending two images together that the PNG format supports. Developers participating in the PNG project are asking Apple to freely license the technology, a request that Apple has yet to respond to.

Macromedia today issued a press release plugging its Macromedia Exchange developer community for Dreamweaver. Developers are “streamlining nearly every aspect of authoring Web content and applications using Dreamweaver,” Macromedia said. Dozens of Dreamweaver Extensions are available from the Macromedia Exchange site, with more than 7.3 million downloads since the site was started.

The Institute of Electrial and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has tentatively approved the 802.11g wireless networking protocol. Similar to 802.11b (AirPort), 802.11g operates at the same 2.4GHz frequency—allowing for backwards compatibility with 802.11b products—while boosting transfer speeds from 11Mbps to 54Mbps. 802.11g products are expected to arrive within about a year.

Microsoft today announced the release of Office v.X, the Mac OS X version of the company’s productivity suite. Office v.X is available for US$499; owners of Office 98 or 2001 can upgrade for $299. Office v.X is comprised of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage—individual programs can be purchased for $399 ($149 upgrade).

ResExcellence and unmarked software are offering a weeklong giveaway for textSOAP, a tool for helping you clean up email and Web text. Unmarked software is looking for suggestions for feature enhancements in future versions. Full details are available on the contest page.