Brand: MacNews

Apple today announced the second generation of its AirPort technology, which adds support for America Online to the Base Station, a built-in firewall, 128-bit encryption, and support for up to 50 users. Pricing remains the same, at US$99 for the AirPort card and $299 for the Base Station. Apple has also released AirPort Software 2.0, which upgrades all AirPort cards to 128-bit encryption (Base Stations remain at 64-bit). The software can be downloaded via Software Update.

Archos has announced a number of new, Mac-compatible USB 2.0 devices, including a USB 2.0 version of its 16x10x24x MiniCDRW2; Cesar-CDRW/MPM, a compact 8x8x24x CD-RW drive that’s also available in FireWire or PCMCIA interfaces; and the MiniHD, a portable drive available in 6GB, 20GB, and 40GB capacities, also available in FireWire and PCMCIA interfaces. Pricing will be announced next month.

A Better Finder Rename 4.2 is a contextual menu plug-in that allows for fast and easy batch file name manipulations. The new versions adds the ability to place numbers in front of names, features a redesigned menu, and improved support for Mac OS X’s long file names. A Better Finder Rename sells for US$14.95.

At Comdex, Seagate and Imation yesterday reaffirmed their commitment to the Travan tape drive technology, announcing a new line of 40GB (compressed) Travan drives that are due in early 2002. Imation also announced a new line of small-format CD-RW drives and media.

TROY Wireless has introduced EtherWind, a full-featured 802.11b (AirPort) print server. EtherWind works with virtually any network operating system, provides “excellent Macintosh functionality,” and operates with HP’s JetAdmin management software. In addition, EtherWind is compatible with Apple’s AirPort and AirPort Base Station and supports printing binary PostScript jobs on printers that support the HP Tagged Binary Communications Protocol.