Brand: MacNews

Most of us remember playing Maelstrom all those years ago — much to the chagrin of our partners and friends. Ambrosia Software has announced that Sam Lantinga has coded the popular game to run native on Mac OS X. While not officially supported by Ambrosia, the game is free and even offers some new features, like network play.

Canon today introduced the Optura100 MC Digital Camcorder, which can also take 1.3 megapixel still shots, functioning as a digital camera. The Optura100 is the first digital camera to boast this capability. Other features of the camera include a 10x optical zoom, 200x digital zoom, and extended recording mode, which allows four hours of footage to be captured to an 80 minute tape. The Optura100 MC will ship in September for US$1,899.

Phil Schiller, Apple Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, will be delivering the opening keynote at Seybold Seminars in San Francisco, according to MacCentral. Seybold Seminars runs from September 24-28. Meanwhile, Apple CEO Steve Jobs is expected to deliver the keynote AppleExpo, which takes place in Paris September 26-28, although as of yet there has been no official announcement.

Apple shipped just 28,570 Macs in France last quarter, as its market share in the region declined from 3.7 percent last year to 2.7 percent, according to French-speaking site MacGeneration. The consumer market was especially weak, contributing to much of the decline, while the professional market remained solid. Apple ranks ninth in sales in the country among PC makers.

Twenty percent of America Online’s 23.5 million subscribers received the service for free in June, making AOL the world’s largest free ISP. NetZero, one of the few remaining free ISPs, has 3.4 million subscribers compared to AOL’s 4.6 million.